A2 News and Notes October, 2006

INDEX
* Reading Redux
* Connections, 2006-style
* A Good Time Will Be Had By All!
* Apple I in the 21st Century
* .And Were Live!
* New Digs
* A Fake Disk?
* Software News 
* Emulation News
* SignOff 


-- Remember the computer magazines Hardcore and The Computist?  Or have 
you just heard about them but never got around to reading them?  Well, 
Mike Maginnis, after getting permission from the publishers, has been busy 
scanning old issues and getting them online as .pdf files.  His newest 
additions are the Book of Softkeys, vol 1-3, available as either .pdf 
files or download-able .zip files.  Check out the offerings at:  
http://www.computist-project.net/


--  A dream of Apple II users has been to use more modern input devices on 
their Favorite Computer.  And while it's been promised or hinted at 
several times in the past few years, the current industry-standard - USB 
connectivity - hasn't yet appeared.  Glenn Jones of Uthernet Card fame has 
gotten us closer, with a prototype based on an Atari USB cartridge.  
While not ready for distribution, you can read about Glenn's progress at:  
http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Microusb/ProjUSBAppleTwo


-- Apple II users know that the yearly mecca for us all is KFest, held 
each July in Kansas City.  The folks on the KFest Committee haven't taken 
any time off from this year's festivities, and have already announced the 
keynote speaker for 2007:  Mr. David Szetela, the former Editor-In-Chief 
of Nibble Magazine.  More information can be found at:  
http://www.kfest.org


-- Even though Rich Dreher has announced that the current run of his 
popular CompactFlash for Apple II cards will probably be the last, 
development has started for a version of his card that will operate in 
original Apple I computers and the current clones available for hobbyists.  
Plans are to demonstrate the card at the Vintage Computer Fair November 
5th  and 6th.  More information can be found at:  
http://www.dreher.net/CFforAppleII


--  Users of more modern computers can catch up with Apple II happenings 
by listening to the latest edition of Ryan Suenaga's Apple II podcast, 
A2Unplugged.  While the current 'cast was delayed slightly by Hawaii's 
recent earthquake, listeners can find issue #5 at: 
http://www.a2unplugged.com/wordpress/  or available via iTunes.  We are 
also pleased to report that Ryan made it through the earthquake relatively 
unscathed.


-- Michael Mahon's NadaNet project has a new home for the sale of the 
adapters.  They can now be found at: 
http://www.garberstreet.com/Nadanet.html  Using these adapters will allow 
Apple II users to create an Apple II network using the gameport on ][+ and 
//e computers.  Information regarding NadaNet can be found at: 
http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/NadaNet.html


-- Alex Freed has posted an update of his Pseudo-Disk Project, an MMC 
interface for the Apple II.Currently, Alex has three extra prototype 
boards for sale for $100 each, and is trying to determine if the Apple II 
community has any interest in his device before he produces more.  For a 
description of the PDP, check out: 
http://mirrow.com/FPGApple/pseudodisk.html


--Software News
  
 -- Henry Corbis of GSE-Reactive has released an updated setup utility for 
the ///SHH Systeme Microdrive controller.  At issue is a problem when  
users would put their compactflash cards into a Windows machine: Windows 
could potentially corrupt the cards without the user's knowledge.  The 
software to correct this problem can be found at:  
http://reactivecomputers.gotdns.com/MicroDrive/


-- Andy McFadden has released a new version of his popular CiderPress 
program.  CiderPress v2.4.4 adds compatibility with documents set up with 
the Magic Windows format, changes some AppleSoft BASIC imports to handle 
GR2 and ONERR calls properly, as well as some bugfixes.  The progam can be 
downloaded from:  http://www.faddensoft.com/ciderpress/index.htm



--Emulation News

 -- Colin Klipsch has released a new version of 8-bit Apple II emulator, 
Catakig.  Unlike previous versions, the current one (version 2.00b2) is 
designed to only run under Mac OS X. Version 2 is also an open-source 
SourceForge project, offered under a BSD style of license. The software 
and its user guide are available for download from the SourceForge project 
page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/catakig while Catakig's main 
website is: http://catakig.sourceforge.net/


 -- Gerard Putter has updated the 8-bit Apple II emulator, Virtual ][, to 
version 5.5.  An OS X program, version 5.5 now includes such features as 
the ability to use your Macs keyboard arrow keys as a joystick device, 
as well as allowing the "enter" key on the numeric pad can now be used as 
an alternative "return" key, and an improved ThunderClock emulation.  
More information can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/


 -- Anton Treuenfels Hobby Cross Assembler also has recently been updated.  
Besides now being able to handle string arguments, the program is now 
powerful enough to implement the 6502 instruction set entirely as macros.
Though this is provided mostly as a proof-of-concept, the potential end 
user may find this of value.  More information about the program, and its 
download link can be found at: www.home.earthlink.net/~hxa



* Sign Off 
A2 News and Notes is produced with real or emulated Apple II computers 
using AppleWorks 5.1. Apple II Forever!

A2 News and Notes is (c) copyright 2006 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and 
edited by Howard Katz. All rights reserved.  Contact the editor at 
a2.tester@gmail.com

Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the copyright holder and publisher.
The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or suitability of any
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