home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- With Valentines Day zooming up on us, thoughts
- naturally turn to romance, and what could be more
- romantic to folks like us than the tale of a
- love-match via modem?
-
- Our anecdote of terminal love comes courtesy of
- the Mac RoundTable's very own "Swampy" (D. D.
- Martin), a resident of Lake Placid, Florida who
- helps out sysop Dave Reid with Bulletin Board
- management.
-
- "My son got me started computing," Swampy
- explained. "I bought him an Atari 800 in the early
- '80s and, being the kind of mother that hates for
- her kid to know more than she does, I learned a
- little basic programming and used the computer to
- help in my business. I have an advertising
- specialty distributorship, t-shirts, coffee cups,
- pens, caps, decals, and stuff.
-
- "I've been on GEnie forever! If I remember right,
- I first logged on in January of 1985. I spent many
- long hours in the CB (now Chat Lines), and met my
- significant other, John, there in August of 1987.
- John was a golf pro, and I had run a golf shop,
- and our chat conversations led from email to
- telephone calls to dates, and by Valentine's Day
- 1988 we had joined households."
-
- At that time, John owned an IBM, but eventually
- Swampy and John settled on a matched pair of
- Centris 610s. "Christmas presents are never a
- problem in our household," says Swampy, confiding
- to us in December that she was getting her husband
- some RAM and expected Santa to leave a fax modem
- in her stocking.
-
- Swampy points out that a topic she started on the
- Mac Bulletin Board, "Refugees from Atari Meet
- Here" (Categoy 40, Topic 5) is one of the busiest
- on the board. She enjoys swapping tales of the old
- days as she helps Mac newcomers get acclimated. As
- she put it in one message, "Like Ataris, Macs are
- FUN. No law says you can't _enjoy_ your computing
- hours."
-
- Zipples and Menu Bars
-
- Thoughts of enjoying our computing hours brings us
- to the subject of silly Mac tricks. Be sure to
- save some space on your hard disk for those
- delightfully frivolous and foolish little pranks
- that provide a welcome break from the usual
- routine. In the case of zipples, save a little
- room on your menu bar as well, because that's
- where these whimsical animated icons end up. If
- you've never seen a zipple, I suggest you download
- ZIPPLE 1.8.SIT (#30712) and drop it into your
- control panel. (This control panel devi ce
- requires System 7; if you're using System 6,
- choose #29873, ZIPPLE 1.6.1.SIT instead.)
-
- Don't despair once you've exhausted the icons
- included with the initial program; there are lots
- more in the Library -- just do a keyword search on
- ZIPPLE. Better yet, use the nifty icon/animation
- editor included with the program to create your
- own zipples and upload them to the Mac Library to
- share with the rest of us.
-
- Another utterly useless application in the Library
- is FLEA CIRCUS (#23804). We can't even begin to
- describe it -- you have to see it for yourself.
-
- MacPro News
-
- The rejuvenated MacPro RoundTable extends an
- invitation to all beginning and experienced
- Macintosh programmers to drop in and check out the
- Bulletin Board, Libraries, and our regular
- Real-Time Conferences. Beginning programmers will
- appreciate the helpful advice available in
- Bulletin Board Category 3, Getting Started.
-
- All programmers will appreciate the wealth of
- Apple-supplied development material available in
- the MacPro Software Library. These resources
- include Apple Technical Notes, "develop" magazine,
- "Apple Directions" magazine, and Apple-published
- "Macintosh Sample Code and Snippers."
-
- MacPro Real-Time-Conferences are a great way to
- get advice and information from expert
- programmers. Drop in on Matt Deatherage's
- open-topic Weekly Jam Session every Monday at 9:30
- PM Eastern time, or Dave Ely's Extending the
- Macintosh every Tuesday at the same time, to learn
- the fine points of everything from AppleScripts
- and Frontier to handling details in an extension,
- control panel, component or shared library.
-