AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-07-21

Chat for 2001-07-21 14:00:00

Errol: Boy what a qquiet room. I thought there were a lot of ADAM fans.
Errol left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Rich Drushel
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to rich-c
rich-c: well, hello, Rich!
Rich Drushel: Hi Richard. I can only stay a short time today--working in the lab on a paper that's due Monday at 9:00 AM.
rich-c: even so, glad to see that you turned up
moved to room Meeting Place
Rich Drushel: We'll see if anybody else shows...
rich-c: very sorry to hear about Herman's son - didn't even know he had one
changed username to Guy B.
Rich Drushel: All I have heard is what George posted to the list.
Guy B.: Hi All!
rich-c: ah, here's Guy now
Rich Drushel: Hi Guy.
Guy B.: Heard about Herman's son. Quite a shock.
rich-c: Frances did say when I mentioned it that she knew he had been married previously
Rich Drushel: Actually, Herman has only been married once, to Zandra.
Guy B.: Didn't know that. How's the weather there? It's hot here in Chicago.
rich-c: OK, I'll not pursue that further
Rich Drushel: When I first met Herman, he had a "common law" wife, I guess you'd call it; her name was La Vernia.
rich-c: these days that's a very frequently found relationship
Rich Drushel: But she was not the mother of his son; I don't believe I ever heard her name.
rich-c: how od was his son?
rich-c: old
Rich Drushel: Rayshawn was about 25.
Guy B.: I know Herman mentioned his wife, but he nevered mentioned her name until we met her.
Rich Drushel: In fact, I think exactly 25, because when I first met Herman, his son was 15.
rich-c: ye gods! and a heart attck? not unheard of, but very rare
Guy B.: 25? Same here Rich C. Usually that happens until maybe your 40's.
rich-c: were there any complicating conditions, do you know?
Rich Drushel: Herman told me that Rayshawn had athsma very bad, and that he was a bit overweight. He had had some health problems recently.
Rich Drushel: He worked as a security guard in the Wal-Mart just up the street from my home.
Guy B.: That would contribute to a heart problem.
Rich Drushel: I saw him a few times before I knew who he was.
rich-c: yes, overweight and asthma is a bad combination
Rich Drushel: Herman said that he and Zandra had been working with him to manage his health a little better.
rich-c: oner can try, but kids go their own way
Rich Drushel: I only know this because we talked over dinner at the hotel about a week before the convention, when we went to check out the location of the electrical outlets in the meeting room.
Rich Drushel: We were just catching up, seeing as how we hadn't talked much for about 2 years.
Guy B.: That's true. I've decided to get this weight down after my blood pressure has increased. Even with medication.
Rich Drushel: But of Rayshawn's death, I know nothing other than what George posted.
Guy B.: George didn't say much. But, I bet he was shocked as well.
rich-c: I'm lucky. Once I dropped 65 lbs. in 1972, my b.p. went down to good levels
Rich Drushel: I actually asked George to clarify the spelling of his name, since I always thought it was "Rayshawn" and George wrote it as "Rashawn". We want to send a card but not mess up the spelling.
Rich Drushel: There has been no obituary in the Plain Dealer.
rich-c: right. I sent a quick condolence email last night
Rich Drushel: So I don't know if a funeral has been held yet or not.
Rich Drushel: And I'm afraid that phoning is too intrusive, since I'm not family etc.
Guy B.: I was thinking of sending one direct to him, but he maybe might be too shaky to read it.
rich-c: some foprm of message is always good, just to say his friends are standing by him
Rich Drushel: If I don't hear anything from George by Monday, I'll mail something anyway, spelling be damned.
Rich Drushel: I don't want to let it go longer than that...
rich-c: sounds reasonable to me, Rich
Rich Drushel: Of course, in the PD, obituaries are paid advertizements...so there is only about 1 page of them on any given day.
rich-c: handwrite it and fudge the letters just a little
Rich Drushel: Not like my hometown newspaper...
Guy B.: I'll send a message to George and I hope he will pass it on to Herman.
rich-c: what was your hometown, Rich?
Rich Drushel: Not even a town, just a little unincorporated township called "Liberty". North of Youngstown, Ohio.
rich-c: yes, rural newspapers tend to give much more space to local events
Rich Drushel: "The Liberty News" and even the "Youngstown Vindicator" had what seemed like all the obituaries from everywhere around.
rich-c: but then in the sparsely populated areas, everyone knows everyone else
Rich Drushel: True.
rich-c: my folks originally settled in Russell, MB; that's where my father was born
Rich Drushel: ADAMcon time was an especially bad time for this to happen for Herman, since it was for his son that Herman got his first ADAM.
rich-c: we have been there and looked at back issues of teh Russell Banner
Rich Drushel: I am laughing at that name, as in our township there was a long-time trustee and volunteer fireman named "Russell Banner" :-)
rich-c: I guess it's a small mercy that Adamcon was over, at least, and there will be a year to the next one
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Ron
Guy B.: Hi Ron.
rich-c: hello Ron
Rich Drushel: Looks like the Mighty Mitchell has arrived.
Ron: Hi!
rich-c: which computer are you on today, Ron?
Guy B.: Which computer are you on today?
Ron: sorta materialized
Ron: iMac
Guy B.: The famous iMac.
Ron: finally figured out how to enable the JAVA on OS X
Ron: was there all along, as it turns out
rich-c: best of available options, or all is forgiven?
Rich Drushel: Ron, do you know if 68K programs still run in the OS 9.1 compatibility box?
Ron: all is forgiven. Chalk it up to ignorance by the guy on the other side of the mirror
rich-c: yes, he gibves all of us a hard time
Rich Drushel: Professional interest, as Interactive C for the robot boards is a 68K program.
Ron: Interesting question Rich. Must confess I have not tried much from the LC475 here.
rich-c: Rich, did you get my forward of the AppleII convention?
Rich Drushel: Binary only, with no recent source available...
Ron: I know that Appleworks operates wherever
Rich Drushel: Yes Richard, I got it; I will send them a suitable reply after my paper is turned in on Monday, and my lab seminar is complete.
Ron: suspect it should run under OS 9.1
rich-c: good, I think a congratulatory message from a senior group would be fun
Ron: bee right back gents - 5 min
Rich Drushel: Well, just 'cause our group is older doesn't mean that our computer of choice is; Apple IIs predate the ADAM, don't they?
rich-c: guess he's out of Diet Coke again!
(Guy B. laughs heartily)
rich-c: Apple certainly does, Apple II I think so, but not by much
Rich Drushel: I figured that it was just the excitement of talking to all of us...
(Rich Drushel groans loudly)
rich-c: given our susal Saturday attendance, you could be right
(A dog howls in the distance)
Rich Drushel: Anybody else in the offing, usually?
Rich Drushel: I hope to be better about the chats in future, at least the Wednesday ones.
rich-c: Dave Compson seems to have faded lately, and Marcel has yet to show
Rich Drushel: Today I'm just in my office, generating data plots.
Rich Drushel: Christina is certainly interested in the chats.
rich-c: yes, as the football season wears on I may be skipping a few Saturdays
Rich Drushel: She says she wants to give a session next ADAMcon, if she comes.
Guy B.: And I just got home an hour ago from shopping. Target had all Lexmark Inkjet cartridges for $26. So I got two color ones, but they were out of black. I have a raincheck for that.
rich-c: should be relatively easy; Grand Rapids isn't that far for you, though cost is always a factor
Rich Drushel: But she doesn't want to do games; she said she thought that was Elanor's territory and didn't want to step on her toes.
Rich Drushel: Cost and Joan's schedule...
rich-c: good for Christina
Guy B.: What does Christiana want to do a session on?
rich-c: but she's growing up now and may yet turn her mind to more serious issues
Rich Drushel: Joan cannot get vacation between our Memorial and Labor Days; not enough seniority.
Guy B.: Bummer.
Rich Drushel: Christina isn't sure.
rich-c: she isn't into programming or such , is she?
Guy B.: What has she worked with on the Adam?
Rich Drushel: I told both her and Elanor that I expected them to be using ExperType to learn 10-fingered typing :-)
Rich Drushel: Games, mostly.
Rich Drushel: I think she typed one paper in SmartWriter once long, long ago.
rich-c: all my customers who have used Expertype speak very highly of it
Rich Drushel: Neither of the girls has shown any interest in programming.
Guy B.: I got an idea. Has Christiana played the super games? Why not have her do one on the super games.
rich-c: or even some of the third-party games
Ron: right
Rich Drushel: Our favorite Super Game, Donkey Kong, has a damaged tape.
Guy B.: Do you have a backup?
Rich Drushel: It plays 3 levels and then dies.
Rich Drushel: Nope...my Dad had made one once onto 160K disk, and I had that disk in my collection when he gave me the ADAM in 1988.
Rich Drushel: But when I went to it to retrieve the bad block, to make a new tape copy, I found that he'd reused the disk for something else.
Ron: Got Donkey Kong on Cart, but not the Super Game
rich-c: I have Super DK but have never tried to play it
Rich Drushel: And not changed the disk label.
Guy B.: I know I bought some conversion sheets from Jim Walters on how to convert all the supergames to run off disk.
Rich Drushel: DK worked fine as long as you booted it from the disk; it didn't have any hard-coded references to tape 1.
Rich Drushel: Other games apparently do.
Guy B.: I got both of them. Haven't played them in a long time.
rich-c: maybe we should ask Jim to release and post them to the mailing list
Rich Drushel: But Buck Rogers is the only other SG that I have.
Rich Drushel: Apparently there's a Super Zaxxon, but I've never played it.
Guy B.: I have that one. That's the best game that Coleco ever released.
rich-c: yes, there's a separate disc version of that, and Dragon's Lair
Rich Drushel: I think there was a Dragon's Lair in my treasure box...
Ron: a dusty and unused area of ADAM activity here
Guy B.: I still haven't conquered Dragon's Lair.
Ron: as those of you who watched me play Spy Hunter know
rich-c: not sure, but I've heard the tape Super Zaxxon is over 160K so the disc leaves something out
Rich Drushel: Hey Ron, at least you *played* Spy Hunter...
Ron: well yes.....but....
Rich Drushel: That was the whole point of the Treasure Hunt: to get people doing new things, or the old things again after a long layoff.
Ron: I had a lot of help from my friends
Guy B.: But what? Did you make it to 30,000.
Rich Drushel: Even better, ADAMite cooperation.
Ron: And it worked Rich. That was a winner for sure, that whole thing
Ron: nO sir, I failed to achieve the objective
rich-c: maybe I'll have to break out my box of carts and try a few
Rich Drushel: If I add a trailing zero to your score, do you achieve it then?
Guy B.: I remember the Addictus competition we had at one of the cons. I think it was Adamcon 3.
Rich Drushel: Remember, decisions of the judge are arbitrary and final :-)
Ron: Dale was actively working on Sunday afternoon to make sure he'd completed as many as possible
rich-c: yes, that was Frances" turf!
Rich Drushel: I'm pretty sure there was an Addictus contest at 06, as well.
Rich Drushel: I've never played it, though.
rich-c: it really is one of the better games
Rich Drushel: Frances will never forgive me for trashing her game in progress...
rich-c: in fact, we're far fonder of the Adam version than the DOS or Amiga approaches
Guy B.: We should have another one like that. But, let's make it a different game like Spyhunter.
Rich Drushel: I don't care *what* game people played, just so they played one.
Ron: exactly
Rich Drushel: Spy Hunter is one of the few that I've played enough to get any kind of score on :-)
Guy B.: I had fun playing Carnival and later played Gorf.
Rich Drushel: If I were sadistic, I would have said Space Panic...now *there's* one I could have done without.
rich-c: Carnival is the one stuck semi-permanently in our office Adam
Rich Drushel: My Dad liked that one alot, too.
Ron: Is that the one that comes up with the 'space dude' who says something like "You were an adequate oponent." ??
Ron: or a "stimulating' oponent
rich-c: of course anyone watching Frances play could have figured that out
Rich Drushel: No, that's Victory, I think (the one-eyed green guy).
Guy B.: That's Space Fury.
Ron: ah ok
Ron: shows ya what I know
Rich Drushel: Space Panic is the one with ladders and the guy with the shovel digging holes in the levels for the orange vomit bags to fall through.
Rich Drushel: Yep, you're right, Guy. I always get those names mixed up.
rich-c: back in 1980 anything with "space" in the name was COOL
Rich Drushel: And if he doesn't dig fast enough, he runs out of oxygen in his space suit.
Ron: that would get the adrenylin flowing
Rich Drushel: But the vomit-bag aliens fill in the holes.
Rich Drushel: So you have to keep digging them.
rich-c: by the way, if anyone needs copies, I have the instructions for the majority of CV games
Ron: always someone out to get ya
Rich Drushel: And sometimes you have to line up 2 or 3 of them on different levels so the alien can fall all the way down.
Guy B.: Then you have to fill the hole to get rid of it.
Rich Drushel: Yes.
Ron: Speaking, Rich Clee, of things you may or may not have.....
rich-c: ga
Ron: you wouldn't happen to have a left slot serial port would you?
Ron: or even a centre
rich-c: I have the MI dual serial card, yes
Ron: left slot?
rich-c: not sure, top of my head
Rich Drushel: I thought the MI cards were all centre.
Rich Drushel: MIB2 and 3 are, at any rate.
Ron: had one that went in the ADAMLINK MOdem slot Rich
Ron: take it from talking to folk, it was a bit of a curiosity
Rich Drushel: Hmm, that's a new one for me.
Ron: but unfortunaely it didn't survive packing in a trip to one of the cons
rich-c: if that's what Mark made, then that's it, but I'll have to do an excavation to check
Rich Drushel: Was it a Syd Carter creation? I seem to remember plans to convert an ADAMlink modem to a serial port...
Ron: anywwy, either centre or left would do Rich C. how much does it goe for?
Rich Drushel: Priceless if none in stock :-)
Ron: my Orphanware Serial Port appears to have become a casualty
rich-c: give me a minute to check, Ron
Ron: need one for the server
Ron: ok Rich C.
Ron: that's right - re priceless
Rich Drushel: If Rich has none available, I think I must have 4-5 Orphanware type serial ports lying about.
Rich Drushel: Some might have been hard-wired for ADAMserve port, but are easily restored to jumper operation.
Guy B.: Ron, you think that was why Adamserve wouldn't boot up, the serial board?
Ron: I'll swear the aDAMserve prog worked before I left here, but couldn't get it to communicate there, and since
rich-c: my inventory shows 3 in stock @ 59.95 plus shipping CDN GST included
Ron: yep Guy. it's gotta be. Because my X10 unit won't work either, and it was always ok
Ron: Ok Rich, put me down for one.... will send a m/o
Rich Drushel: Don't chuck the old one, it might be repairable.
Rich Drushel: Assuming you have one that's got the chips socketed...
Ron: was contemplating sending it back to Herman.... do you suppose that would be a good idea just now?
Guy B.: It could have a bad chip.
Ron: yes Rich D. That's it
rich-c: trust me, Ron, the stock will be around a long time
Rich Drushel: Hmm, maybe not right away.
Ron: ok
Ron: great
Rich Drushel: And it would be George who does the troubleshooting of it anyway. Or me, if George gets stuck :-)
Ron: Ok Will send to George
Ron: or yourself?
Rich Drushel: Does it say HLM-GMK on it? :-) Let George stand behind his wares :-)
Ron: There's also a null-modem adapter that Herman loaned me that managed to stray out here... must be returned
Ron: Good Point Rich. That's the RIGHT thing to do
Rich Drushel: I still owe you a RAM dump program to troubleshoot your SB1.x...so better not put anything else on my queue.
rich-c: by the way, I got a new Adam yesterday
Rich Drushel: 1.5 GHz yet?
Ron: correct. When you get a 'roundtuit'
Ron: and they are in short supply
Guy B.: Would be nice!
Ron: ha !
(Everyone laughs mockingly at Ron)
Ron: so ya did it huh?
rich-c: yes, wish I had a few orundtuits in stock
Rich Drushel: So what's the new ADAM?
rich-c: two tape dives, disc drive, memory expander
Rich Drushel: woo-hoo!
rich-c: all I'm assured in good working order
Ron: ya just never know where you're going to find them eh?
rich-c: even managed to squeeze it into the basement without bending the crowbar
Ron: get a bigger basement Rich
Rich Drushel: "From a little old lady from St. Catharine's who only computed with it on Sunday", eh? :-)
Ron: :)
rich-c: well, I've been surrporting the Adam community so long that if one's adrift it always seem s to end up on my doorstep
Ron: There's a branch of that operation here on the West Coast Rich
Rich Drushel: The disk drive alone, parted out, is worth the trouble...XRAM too if greater than 64K.
rich-c: I may yet end up having to rent a storage locker somewhere
Ron: right Rich D. The ones with disk drives are the goodies
Rich Drushel: It may be way too soon for this, but at some point, we need to find out how many systems Bob S. has/wants to deploy at the next ADAMcon.
rich-c: I have all sorts of Coleco drives that aren't quite working
Rich Drushel: If it weren't for my packrattedness, we wouldn't have had a session room full of ADAMs this time, as Herman and George no longer had a backlog of systems.
Ron: speaking of which..... the one Howard Pines returned to me (Mi 360k) needs a power supply. Hope Howard is still around
Ron: anybody know the pinouts on MI's 9 pin power plug???
Rich Drushel: Bleh, those MI power adapters...I should make some adapter cable that ends in a standard Molex, so people could use PC power supplies...
rich-c: no, don't think that was ever openly documented - maybe Scott G could help
Rich Drushel: Assuming that the female plug for the MI end can be found...
Ron: that would be good
Ron: I'll check with Scott
rich-c: or for that matter Geoff Oltmans is a likely candidate to know
Ron: on the back of the disk drive is a male 9 pin plug
Ron: so it's expecting a female from the power supply
Rich Drushel: The MI power supply was just some standard +/-5 and +/- 12 power supply with a weird connector.
Rich Drushel: 9-pins on the back?
Guy B.: What I would like on my Adam is a hard drive. I hope Dale follows through on those boards.
Ron: have two of his here, but they're for the MI hard drive and the 1.4 meg floppy. Not the same plug
Rich Drushel: My 3 MI's have something with them all inj-line, and a space between 2 of them.
rich-c: I might be able to find out who made it, but I have the feeling it was surplus from some outfit in Taiwan
Rich Drushel: The black external box, right Ron?
Ron: well I'm sure there's an answer somewhere
Ron: There was a power supply with that unit when I took it to AC 10. Never really expected to get it back
Rich Drushel: So is everyone recovered from ADAMcon 13 yet? I am still behind on sleep...
Ron: Told Howard there to do what he could with it
Ron: yes Rich D.. black external box
Ron: pretty much Rich D.
Ron: my head was at 32000 feet for a couple of days
rich-c: my MI drives all have five pin (plus one blank) power supply connectors
Rich Drushel: That's what I was thinking of, Rich.
rich-c: we now seem to have almost everything unpacked and stored
Ron: yes, there other two I have here are like that
Rich Drushel: My basement is still a pile of boxes...I will tackle it next month.
Ron: Rich D. Did you get any sleep at all during the 'con?
Ron: :)\
Rich Drushel: Let's see...Thursday night, 2 hours.
rich-c: huh - I still haven't opened some of the boxes I brought back from Adamcon 007
Rich Drushel: Friday night, 4 hours.
Ron: deprivation with a capital D
Rich Drushel: Saturday night, 5 hours (whoo!)
rich-c: though of course the fact that boxes make storage easy may have something to do with that
Rich Drushel: Sunday night, a whole 7 hours.
Ron: wow!
Rich Drushel: Didn't get up until 9:00 AM, and almost everyone else had gone.
rich-c: that's a xcouple more than your usual, isn't it, Rich? 8-)
Rich Drushel: hahaha
Rich Drushel: Last night was 5, tonight will be 4-5, and Sunday all bets are off until the paper is done.
Ron: you did a great job of organizing Rich D.
Guy B.: I second that.
rich-c: yes, that was one memorable Adamcon
Ron: with some help from the friends
Rich Drushel: Well...I tried to make an ADAMcon that would have been fun for me had I been able to be a delegate at it.
Rich Drushel: :-)
Guy B.: And the best part was, we all had a good time.
rich-c: you did so well Pam and Russell are already making their plans for 0E
Ron: good
Rich Drushel: Hey, more $$$ for Bob's coffers :-)
rich-c: to my surprise, Russell was really taken with Dale's seminars
Ron: really enjoyed the pics and Quicktime stuff you put up Rich. Keep that Applescript listing handy eh?
Ron: have one of those cams here too
Rich Drushel: Well, next time I can bring the webcam stuff, but someone would have to provide the net.access.
Ron: shouldn't be a problem from here
Rich Drushel: If you wanted it to be live, that is.
Rich Drushel: Well, I bought a special 1-week account from my ISP to guarantee 24/7 access and a static IP address.
rich-c: yes, some ISPs are unhappy if you stay on line 24/7
Ron: when the time comes - for you to return west
Ron: don't want to get ahead of myself you understand
Rich Drushel: The CEO and I are pals, and I knew I wouldn't be a support nightmare, so he let me have it for $30.
Guy B.: My ISP is like that.
rich-c: I gotta find a way to put a/c in the Mighty Behemoth
Ron: good deal
Rich Drushel: I told him up-front I wanted to pay for it. We both knew that I could cheat off my existing account, but that it wouldn't be polite or sporting.
Ron: better to be up front on something like that Rich D
Ron: usually works better
rich-c: a little investment in your ISP's goodwill is always a prudent idea
Ron: exactly
Rich Drushel: Well, they have monitors for "port campers", so I couldn't hide it forever.
Rich Drushel: My ISP also sponsored our last Egg Hunt with free RealServer space...so I owed it to them to be honest.
Ron: the rule here is that I undertake not to move my cable modem without their permission
rich-c: yes, mine tends to "lose" the connection after four hours, though you can always reconnect
rich-c: blame it on Ma Bell, of course
Ron: imagine I can negotiate something
Guy B.: I'm going to go here. Haven't had lunch yet and I'm on Netzero. And I going to get the e-mail, plus one ever lonely dog needs to go out. So, I'll see you all on Wednesday night.
Rich Drushel: APKnet's a great ISP; the engineers are still in charge, and they're in it 'cause they like the tech, not just to please short-term shareholders.
Ron: Ok Guy. Have a good week. See ya Wed?
Rich Drushel: So long, Guy.
rich-c: see you Guy - take care
Guy B.: Bye!
Guy B. left chat session
Ron: yes....guess I should go have lunch.....might wast away to a shadow
Rich Drushel: :-)
Ron: nice day here...looks like swimming pool weather
rich-c: you know, I think I have one of the oldest ISP addresses in the Adam community
Rich Drushel: I ought to get back to work, also...I'd like to be home by 9 PM.
Rich Drushel: What is it, Rich?
Ron: and so gents....be well
Rich Drushel: Bye Roin.
Ron: aye
Rich Drushel: Or Ron.
rich-c: little local outfit, name of Tamcotec
rich-c: bye Ron, see you Wednesday
Rich Drushel: Oh yes, the Indian-sounding ones :-)
Ron: poof
Ron left chat session
rich-c: yes, it's the one Pamela picked too
rich-c: I've referred a lot of folks to them and they have all stayed - Harvey, my neighbours, various friends
Rich Drushel: Back to the slug mines...
Rich Drushel: I'll chat Wednesday, probably with one of the girls in tow.
rich-c: right, time to ring off. Glad you were here
rich-c: see you Wed then
Rich Drushel: Bye from Starbase Cleveland. Hailing frequencies closed, sir.
Rich Drushel left chat session
rich-c: 10-4
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AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-07-21
Send comments to dmwick@home.com. I am Dale Wick