KansasFest 95
By Andrew Roughan
Copyright (c) 1995 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
KansasFest is the working title for an annual gathering of Apple II followers in Kansas City. This year saw some new management and some new faces but the heart of the conference, namely the opportunity for enthusiasts to gather and learn more about their machine, remained as strong as ever. Last month I wrote briefly on my personal recollections, this month I have a rundown on the actual conference and the sessions which I attended.
Day 1 - Thursday July 27th
The conference opened after lunch with Ashley Carter, an Apple representative from Kansas City, talking about the latest and soon to be released machines from Apple. Unfortunately we all had to sign non-disclosure agreements otherwise I could tell you about the specifics. Apple gives similar presentations at AUG meetings so keep an eye out for them.
Following that general session were a choice of three: The Apple Rep hosting a questions and answers session about the new machines; A FireSide Chat with Joe Kohn; and Soldering "Which end is Hot?" hosted by Dave Ciotti and Doug Pendleton.
I chose to listen to Joe talk about his work and experiences with the Apple II community. Joe's love for the machine extends primarily from his love of the concept of "free software". Initially this was public domain software and more recently shareware and freeware. Joe was the Big Red Computer Club disk librarian for over two years and also wrote articles based on the gems to be found in public domain software for A+/Incider in his Shareware Solutions column. Joe's success with his writing stems from his ability to translate and explain technical jargon with easily understood English. His current publication is Shareware Solutions II, a paper based newsletter which he has published ten times in the last two years. Joe fully intends to be around for many more years to come.
The next time slot featured PDA's and PowerBooks: Portability for the Student; and Mike Westerfield talking about a new ByteWorks package: Quick Click Morph.
Mike explained that morphing is the process of changing one image into another over time. He displayed a number of morphs including one which showed the evolution of the human skull from a monkey skull. This is available on the demonstration disk which was handed out and which will soon be available in the disk library. Mike pointed out that for Quick Click Morph the images should preferably be 24bit TIFF files. These work better than images which have already been dithered such as SHR screens. Giff images don't work too well.
After dinner we were entertained by Roger Wagner presenting the keynote address. Roger told us how he first came to buy a computer over a motorcycle because he feared that he'd pour too much money into the motorcycle! Roger's early programming exploits were well received and helped establish Roger Wagner Publishing as the strong company it is today, however, Apple threatened to steam roll him three times by bringing out their own software to compete with his renumbering program, Applesoft variable cross referencing utility and his assembler. Roger finished with a great analogy by describing learning and exploring with the Apple II computer as the greatest adventure game.
The final sessions of the day were a choice between Joe Kohn discussing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly sides of the Internet; Controlling Real World Devices with Erick Wagner; and Eric Shepherd showing his latest shareware programs.
Eric Shepherd wrote a program called ShiftyList which allowed a selection of control panels, desk accessories and inits to be loaded when the shift key was held down on bootup. This program, which was originally made available on SoftDisk GS Issue 57, is used by many people. Eric has nearly finished a new version, version 2.0, which has the ability to load extensions from a file list (or 'script' if you prefer) in the order in which they appear in the list. Multiple file lists can be kept and a particular list can be selected at the time of booting. Additional tasks, such as displaying a picture, can also be placed into the file list at any point. The file list can also be used to load extensions from a disk other that the boot device. This is great news for non-hard drive owners.
Roger Wagner sponsored a twenty five pizza munch just prior to the annual bite-the-bag contest. Bite-the-bag involves lifting a paper grocery bag off the floor with your teeth while touching the floor with only a knee, hand or foot. After each round a strip is removed from the bag which increases the level of difficulty. While I thank Roger for the Pizza, please forgive me for thinking that he had none himself to improve his ability in the contest!
Day 2 - Friday July 28th
The first three sessions on Friday were Roger Wagner telling How to Use All the Multimedia Capabilities of the IIgs; Dave and Doug with their second soldering session The Flux of the Matter: How it Flows; and a demonstration of the IIgs Front End for GEnie by Richard Bennett, Tim Buchheim and J. Nathaniel Sloan.
Roger concentrated on the use of the Video Overlay card and showed various techniques with HyperStudio. The VOC can't display a picture in a window on the screen, but this functionality can be emulated by using a wide camera angle to place the subject inside the desired place and then not allowing the rest of the video to show through. Roger demonstrated context highlighting by using a translucent dark colour for most of the screen and then using full video for the area of interest. The final effect he showed was a scrolling text field which had no scrollbar, no border and was read only. With the background colour set to the video display colour, this has the effect of the rolling credits from movie trailers. Roger pointed out that the addition of a simple microphone and a mixer was all that would be needed for narration of the overlay; one application of this would be to make a training video for a software package.
The sessions choices which followed were Mike Westerfield with Inside Morphing; Mark Kline and Cindy Adams demonstrating AppleShare Networking; and Erick Wagner with a second session on Controlling Real World Devices.
I attended the AppleShare Networking session. Any Macintosh running System 7 can share files with an Apple IIgs. If you are considering setting up an AppleShare network with Apple IIs or you need printer sharing, you will need AppleShare Version 3. Version 4 will apparently not support booting from the network and will not support Apple IIes.
To take full advantage of networked printers with a IIgs, install Pointless and GS+ magazine's LaserBeam. LaserBeam sends a Postscript Type 1 font to a laser printer. If you use the equivalent True Type font in your documents on the IIgs, you will then get 600dpi output when printing. The IIgs can make networked life a little easier by allowing alias' of files which exist on the server to be icons on the desktop.
The after lunch choices were Tony Diaz discussing Building a Case for the IIgs; Roger discussing What's New at Roger Wagner Publishing; and Glenn Hoffman demonstrating the PowerGlide GEnie Navigator.
Roger's success through the recent past is directly attributable to the success of HyperStudio. Over the years, 35000 copies of HyperStudio have been sold! Roger's direction is HyperStudio: anywhere, anytime. I mentioned last month that HyperStudio is available on the Acorn Archimedes in England, a Macintosh version has been available for the last two years, and a PC version is almost ready for release. A pre-release version for the PC will be available for just under US$100 and free updates will be included for six months. Stacks made on the IIgs can be ported to the Macintosh and the stacks made on the Macintosh and PC can be used directly on the other machine because the file formats are compatible. Roger aims to make HyperStudio work with anything that can be attached to a computer.
I also managed to sneak into the end of Tony's talk which dealt with placing a IIgs into a tower case. He recommended that a RamFAST Rev C SCSI controller card be used because it has the 50 pin internal connector which makes it a lot easier to connect internal SCSI devices to the card.
The second time slot for the afternoon had choices between Dave and Doug demonstrating Things You Could Do For Your Computer If You Could Just See Someone Do Them Once; Eric Shepherd demonstrating ProTerm Mac; and Greg Templeman discussing the GS Lib Programming Library.
GS Lib is a library of routines which SoftDisk GS developed to make their programming easier. Since leaving SoftDisk Greg has come to an agreement to keep working on GS Lib. The currently available version is buggy and is not fully documented, however, Greg has fixed the known errors and is working on documenting more of the library routines. A new version, supporting documentation and a demo program showing examples of the routines in GS Lib will be available for distribution from GEnie. GS Lib is a collection of OMF Libraries and hence can not be used from within Merlin. Programmers who use the routines in their programs must include a used with permission statement in their about box.
Richard Bennett used the final session before the banquet dinner to discuss the imminent Seven Hills Software releases. He demonstrated the work he has done with GraphicWriter III and announced the new version of SuperConvert which has been updated to use the SecondSight VGA card and to support JPEG. Richard also discussed a new product called BabelFish. BabelFish is a translation manager which will essentially make it easier for programmers to convert files from one format into another. BabelFish will be free to users but will require a development fee from programmers.
The banquet dinner was followed by a Roast of GS+ Editor, Steve Disbrow. Steve has organised the roast of a prominent Apple II personality for the last four years and this year it was deemed to be pay-back time. Joe Wankerl, Roger Wagner and Tom Weishaar were responsible for a fine evenings entertainment.
Day 3 - Saturday July 29th
Paul Parkhurst demonstrated his facsimile software for the IIgs, which I mentioned last month, prior to a market meeting. Mike Westerfield had most of the ByteWorks range for sale; Tom Weishaar gave away the remnants of ICON including bound volumes of A2-Central; Eric Shepherd was selling a disk of his shareware programs; the Golden Orchard CD Rom was being sold; and a number of people had computers, cards and software for sale.
The afternoon was free time to say good bye to friends who had long distances to drive home. Joe Kohn and myself were treated to a drive around the sights of Kansas City by a couple of locals. The stragglers met for dinner at Jess and Jim's Steakhouse for a huge American meal and the final chance to talk into the small hours of the night.
A number of people were absent this year: Jawaid Bazyar, one of the people responsible for Sequential's Second Sight VGA card; Michael Lutinski, author of Animasia 3-D; Jim Maricondo Twilight II author and publisher of the Golden Orchard CD-ROM; and AppleWorks guru Randy Brandt all have been present in the past and could reasonably have been expected to be present especially considering their recent releases. Unfortunately, it appears as though work commitments kept them away.
The attendees all agreed that the conference was worthwhile and there was strong support voiced for the continuation of the tradition next year. If you'll be in the northern hemisphere in late July I strongly recommend that you drop in and experience the KansasFest spirit yourself.
Apple II Forever!

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