Little Bits
By Andrew Roughan
Copyright (c) 1996 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
o April 12th will see me taking off for a holiday in the land of the long white cloud. While there, I hope to visit some Apple II enthusiasts that I've exchanged email with via the internet and attend some user group meetings. I'll report on my adventures when I return!
o The notable calendar event which occurred last month was PC96. Three halls at the exhibition centre dedicated to computers and associated peripherals - my kind of place - pity about the thousands of over people sharing the space!. Apple had a presence there with a stand of roughly the same size as MacWorld last year. A number of smaller Apple third party vendors were nearby as well. Unfortunately the only Apple II at darling harbour is the astrology predictor next door in Harbourside.
Modems, internet access, and MPEG cards were the flavour of a large part of the show. Fujitsu are hoping that people will look past the Iomega Zip and Syquest EZ drives towards their $750 230MB magneto optical drive with $39 disks. The parallel version of the Connectix QuickCam has finally had an impact on the PC world now that live video is easily transmitted over the internet.
o Mike Westerfield of the ByteWorks told me recently that he finally has all the technical details he needs to get the Connectix camera working on the Apple IIgs. He just needs the time to put the required effort into it. I'm looking forward to having this gadget on my desk!
o Schools connected to the internet can give up to 500 students their own personal internet email mailbox using FrEdMail and up to 32 networked Apple IIs. Point your web browser at http://www.gsn.org/gsn/gsn.fredmail.html to find out all the details. With the State government handing out millions to connect them to the internet, schools can get more bang for the buck by keeping those Apple IIs as the student terminals and installing just a couple of machines for the higher bandwidth applications.
o Derek Taubert has a web site detailing the GSTCP project: http://www.winternet.com/~taubert/gstcp.html. The latest addition is a tantalising screenshot of a graphical web browser for the Apple IIgs! GSTCP will require GNO v2.0.6. Derek is also working on a version of PPP which will not require GNO.
o Jawaid Bazyar, the author of GNO, who worked for Sequential Systems until late last year, has blamed irreconcivable differences as the reason for the split. Jawaid was responsible for discQuest, the RamFAST and Hi-Speed SCSI card audio media control drivers, and the SecondSight and RamFAST firmware among other things. I hope Sequential can pick up the pieces, in these areas especially, otherwise we may not see any more developments in these areas.
o The makers of the Turbo IDE interface, BlueDisk floppy controller and MicroDrive IDE controller, ///SHH Systems have announced their latest product: a Transwarp GS 32k cache board. This piggy back board replaces the 8k cache board which shipped as standard from Applied Engineering. The 32k cache upgrade is the first step towards speeding up the Transwarp. The board is available in three states of assembly. The most expensive option which includes SRAMs is US$62 + US$14 shipping. Complete details, including a GIF picture of the board, are available for downloading in the [O]pen Information area of the [F]iling Cabinet from the Apple II BBS.
JLANGE@TASHA.MUC.DE
o EGO Systems have published a sixteen page catalog of their current product line which includes an editorial. It sounds like an issue of GS+ without the informative articles! :-) The catalog was mailed on February 5th to all those were subscribed to GS+ Magazine within the last year. If you would like to receive one, send your address to Steve.
Diz@genie.com
o General Electric has sold the GEnie online service to Yovelle Renaissance Corporation. The minimum monthly subscription rate was increased by the new owners which has had the effect of causing some long time GEnie users to leave. Those who remain are hoping that this policy will be reviewed. The other noticable effect of the sale is that the service is now know as "Genie" (no capital 'E').
o The Macintosh BBS now has internet email facilities and is included in your membership fee, so get connected! The club now holds an internet special interest group on the same night as the Apple IIgs main meeting. This sig would be of use to Apple II owners who want to find out more about the internet. The Apple II can be used as your 'vehicle', all you need is a modem and a terminal program. Graphical access for the Apple IIgs is under development and will hopefully be available soon.

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