delaneyg@wnre.aecl.ca ("Comp.Binaries.Apple2 Forwarding") (07/29/90)
KFest..._THE_ report to top all reports (at least Bryan's, anyway) <grin> DISCLAIMER: Hey...I don't need no steenkin' disclaimer. I ain't as afraid as Brian Peterzeke. (Hey...he misspelled _my_ name <grin>) >>>Thursday, a little after midnight (EDT) I finally quit yackin' with HangTime in the RTC and tried to get some sleep. Not much luck, but I managed to get a few hours. >>>Thursday, 4:30 pm I start packin'...everything that needs to go gets tossed in the suitcase, everything else gets tossed outta the way on the floor (big mistake...it was still there when I got back <grin>). >>>Thursday, 5:45 pm I shove my suitcase in the back seat, and I'm on my way to the airport. Finally!!! >>>Thursday, 6:05 pm I finally get to the airport, find my departing terminal, and board. Carry on luggage only. I don't like my stuff to go to Denver. :-) My flight actually takes off on time and I'se on my way. Yea!!! >>>Thursday, 10:30 pm (CDT) Ahh...I'm finally at Avila's registration desk, after touching down at KCI about an hour earlier, and being met by a driver from QuickSilver. Since I'm his only luggage, he points out all the interesting things I could see on the way out there if it were light outside. :-) "And over there, is the baseball dome, although you can't really see it at night." I pick up my badges, GEnie-pack, and all the other goodies (plus the "Lizard with a Banana" poster). I locate the dorms, and try to get in, but I'm not quite smart enough to read the instructions on the keys. Kees Buijs (I think that was the guy...I'm terribly sorry if I got you confused) was coming along about that time and helped me in, and even pointed me to my room. Thanks, Kees! I threw my suitcase on my bed, got out my GEnie name tag, and headed for the infamous GEnie A2/A2Pro meeting. On the way there, I ran into this guy wearing a "Moof!" t-shirt...that just had to be Matt Deatherage...and it was. :-) I thought I found the room, and wandered in. Ooops! Boy was I mistaken. I had not bumbled into the A2 meeting, but instead a cross meeting sponsored by PWA (PunkWare of America), HASD (Hell's Angels and Sound Designers, BCA (Black Clothing Anonymous), WNA (Washed-up Novelists Association), and a few others, including GAUG (Geriatric Apple Users Group) plus a few more. (Sorry if I didn't offend anybody...I couldn't think up great group names for everybody) :-) I had never seen _any_ of these people before, in person, although I had seen picture of Dean, Jay, and Tom W. From their self-descriptions, it was pretty easy to figure out who the others were. :-) Chet looks a lot different than he should have, though. He didn't fit my mental picture at all. :-) >>>Friday, around midnight After the meeting, I wandered over to the DTS debugging room, and met up with the likes of Jeff Holcomb, Herb Hrrrrrrrrowal (deep guttural sound), Chris McKinsey, and maybe Tim Swihart (or did I first see him in my room?) I know I met a couple of other people, but I can't remember when I met whom, right now. :-) I wandered back over to the dorm... Aha! I finally met my would-be roommate...Nick Lenz. He and a few others (this really weird lookin' guy everybody called Zak...I still don't know who he is <grin>) were gathered 'round the computer hackin'. Some stupid project about a CDA tech note reader. It'll never see the light of day. <grin> Who else was there? I dunno...Luny dropped in, Eric Mueller brought The Lords of Acid and forced us to listen to "Sit on my Face"...everybody was offended. :-) The song was actually quite funny. Lessee...also in attendance...I believe Tim Swihart, Jeff Holcomb (I never could shake him <grin>), Bryan Pietrzak, Tony Diaz (I got a great closeup picture of a So-What button _pinned_ to his forehead), Eric Lippke (from Edmark...the touch screen people), Chip Welch, and a few more. Lane Roath stopped by and showed us some of his demos. He had this really neat psychedelic circle that hypnotized me. :-) Oh yeah, we also called up GEnie, and Eric posted a message in A2pro and drove people crazy (anyone with a pulse!!! that is <grin>). I watched Zak log on and now he's probably wondering why he's spending so much time online. :-) Dean stopped by and chatted a while, I followed him and Eric Lippke out of the mini Hackfest. I can't remember where we lost Dean, but Eric and I had a good talk about Apple's competitors. :-) Apple has _nothing_ to worry about. <grin> MicroSlug's Windows 3.0 was among the items discussed. >>>Friday, around 3:30 am I can't remember, but I ended up in the lounge on Avila's 2nd floor, talking to lots of people that I can't remember. Afterwards, I went back to my room and found the hackfest still in full swing. I was totally gone by this time, and Jay graciously let me sleep in his room. Thanks, Jay! (That's where I was, Bryan, and anybody else whom Bryan left hanging.) >>>Friday, at some God-forsaken time in the morning (actually 7:30 am) Ich! Obviously, this less than four hours of sleep business was not all it was cracked up to be. Add to that the fact I forgot my soap and used shampoo instead... Argggh! This was not turning out to be a fun day. :-) I wandered over to Nick's room and found him still in bed. He got up, showered, and then we went by Bryan's room to make sure he was up. I think he was, but he was not a pretty sight, either. :-) Nick and I went down to breakfast and sat at the "cool" table. We were joined by Dave Lyons, Bryan, Jeff Holcomb (see! I told you I couldn't shake him!), Chris McKinsey, Jerry Kindall, and Eric Lippke. I have no idea what we talked about, but it definitely wasn't sane. And the conversation was much better than the food. >>>Friday, 9 am A bunch of us went over to the Wittfield main conference room and got ready to hear all about the IIgs System Software Update. We didn't get much info...just what the system could do for us (it was a presentation made for the World Developers Association, I believe, and was meant for a largely Apple-ignorant audience). HangTime showed up with his Winkie (spelling?) and that kept me fascinated for at least 5 minutes, watching it blink. >>>Friday, 10 am Time for "Sounds Spectacular! New Apple IIgs Sound Tools." Mark Cecys did a really fabulous job demonstrating MidiSynth and SynthLab. The sound quality is almost unbelievable. I was convinced that Apple borrowed the gear from "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and put a whole orchestra inside the IIgs case. This was one of the best demos to show off the IIgs capabilities. :-) >>>Friday, 10:28 am I snap upright after starting to nod off. Hey...it was a _great_ presentation, so it wasn't Mark's fault. :-) I'm still trying to figgur out what genius at A2-C decided to put a bunch of really tired people in a dark, warm room and leave them there for 50 minutes at a time. <grin> >>>Friday, 10:40 am (the sound session was over early) HangTime and I wandered over the Roger Wagner's "HyperStudio Stack Authoring". First, we stopped by the A2-C store and raided the back issue of Apple Assembly Lines. They had some neat stuff on display, including Cirtech's hard disk on a card. Tom Vanderpool was manning the store. (BTW...a handy tip for those going next year... HT did a really great job of distracting him while I snuck off with two of the Cirtech cards. We split the booty outside.) <grin> We got to Roger's presentation, and I got to see Roger for the first time. He had on a great power tie. I also saw Dennis Doms for the first time (he was there taping the session). Roger showed us all about the multi-media capability of HyperStack. He even demonstrated what the TV screen looked like when you let the little video electrons escape from the cables. I'm still trying to figure out where I can get the NDA he was using to copy files between folders, with ease. Roger created a couple of stacks, incorporating pictures from a video disk, into the stack. Welcome to Jupiter! Roger demo'd an XCMD that lets HyperStudio play Fantavision movies. I want this XCMD! :-) >>>Friday, 12:10 pm Lunch time! By the time I got to the cafeteria, the line was pretty long. I got in line and talked with Luny and Richard Marchiafava (Timeout-Central...look for him to be on-line, real soon, he says). I saw Jay and moved backwards in line (hey...what can I say...I even cut lines the wrong way <grin>) to give him back his room key (thanks again, Jay!). I can't really remember much else about lunch. Who did I sit with? What did I eat? If you know the answers to these questions, call 1-900-TEL-ERIC, operators standing by. >>>Friday, 12:30 pm Jane Lee, from Apple II Product Support got up and talked while we ate. She was really interesting and had lots of positive things to say about the II line. Near the end, it turned into a "complain about your local Apple Dealer" session. I joined Herb Hrrrrrrrrrrrowal (sorry...I can't help myself) near the exit after it turned into a moan and complain session. (Actually, I was just getting a more strategic position to make a mad dash for the HyperCard IIgs presentation). >>>Friday, 1:30 pm After signing a non disclosure agreement, I got this really chic hand stamp. These hand stamps were _soooo_ cool everybody was wanting to get one on their hand. Gary Phipps, Eric Schlosser, and Darin Acquistapace did a really great job demonstrating [censored]. They showed how [censored] works...they even showed how you could [censored] [censored] [censored] with relative ease, while not [censored] [censored] too much. They [censored] that [censored] [censored] operates under [censored] [censored]. Unfortunately, they still had some "no comments" to some questions, such as [censored] [censored], and possible [censored]. >>>Friday, 2:30 pm HangTime and I stayed put, and waited for the "HyperTalk IIgs and HyperCard XCMDS" presentation by Andy Stadler, John Lawler, and Darin Acquistapace. Again, it was another great exhibition. Well done, guys! Too bad I can't say anything. :-( >>>Friday, 3:30 pm Again, HT and I stayed put, and were re-joined by Dave Ely and Herb Hrrrrowal. Gary Phipps, Eric Schlosser, and Andy Stadler did the "HyperCard IIgs in Depth" presentation. Another great job. :-) The session was supposed to be over at 5 pm, but the questions lasted till more like 5:15. Originally, Hang and I were going to go heckle Chris at his "Apple IIgs Animation Secrets" panel, but since we only had 3 minutes to walk to the other building before it was over, we decided to head back to the cafeteria. >>>Friday, 5:20 pm Hang and I sat down at the main lounge right off the registration area and talked about stupid bureaucracies in action. >>>Friday, 5:27 pm We headed over for the cafeteria and made it just in time. Not 30 seconds after we got in the short line, people starting spontaneously generating out of the woodwork. The lasagna wasn't that great, but the garlic bread was pretty good. :-) Near the end of supper, Barney Stone started the Apple II Developers Association Meeting. Some questions were asked. Some questions were answered. Other stuff was said, too. (I have a really clear memory of this time frame, no doubt.) >>>Friday, 7:30 pm Ahhh! I headed back to the dorm to try to get some rest. I was really dragging by this time. I might have had my eyes closed for a grand total of 15 minutes. Nick and Bryan came in, and of course I couldn't try to sleep...I might miss out on something. :-) >>>Friday, 9:30 pm I wandered over to the computer lab, for what was supposed to be the beginning of the real HackFest. Alas, it was learned that the a/c shuts down at 1:00 am, and there was no way we could have a building with no a/c with a bunch of people in close quarters. HF was moved back to the dorm after midnight sometime. I met lots and lots of people I've never seen before. I got to meet Andy Nicholas.Kevin Thornton, Frank Majnshande, and lots of others. I also got to talk to Kees and Manny in depth about their editor/assembler combo. I saw the Apple guys working on the P8 program to drive the SCSI full page scanner. Great job, guys. I finally got to see Matt Gulick, but was never formally introduced since he always had a crowd of people around him. (I saw you, Matt...did you see me? <grin>) >>>Saturday, some unknown time (between 2 and 4 am) I watched Jay hack on his computer, along with Kevin Thornton and Brian Fitzgerald. I actually got to see Jay's awesome canyon through which you have to navigate a helicopter. Unfortunately, the canyon isn't exactly a canyon. :-) I also got to see The Graphics Supermarket (commercial program...I forget who made it). It's a pretty neat program for making shape tables out of SHR pictures. It's even got a mouse-set delay option for executing keyboard equivalents. Interesting "feature" <grin>. I also got to see some very hip [censored] tutor programs that Jay is creating. Pretty hip! Buffalo wings are pretty tasty, too! (No, that last line is not supposed to make much sense for most people <grin>) >>>Saturday, some time after 4 am Sleep! Glorious sleep! (Again, I wandered down to "my" room, found it full of action, so retreated elsewhere) :-) Thanks again, Jay, for letting me crash in your room again. So there weren't any sheets on the bed, and I slept in my clothes 'cause I didn't want lots of my skin rubbing on the mattress buttons, I slept great. Woke up one time too many though... ick! >>>Saturday, another God-forsaken time (around 7:30 am, again) Why the #$&& am I climbing out of bed and into the shower, for another shampoo shower? Breakfast is kind of a blur, and I can't even begin to remember with whom I ate. Or what I ate. Or _if_ I ate. :-) I _do_ remember that it was raining already. What fun! >>>Saturday, 9:00 am I went to the HyperStudio XCMDs presentation by Roger Wagner and Ken Kashmarek. I sat next to Terry Baker, from Stack Central. I think I met Terry standing in line for food sometime... He's a really nice guy. Really quite the opposite of that annoying Zak. :-) Anyway, Ken talked about (get ready for this...) XCMDS! What a surprise. :-) He had enough interesting stuff to say that I was interested, even though a lot of the programming stuff was over my head. :-) >>>Saturday, 10:00 am I went back to Jay's room and logged on GEnie, and messed around with some of the neat goodies I had received so far. I tried catching up on some of my mail and unread bboard messages. I also downloaded that incredible A2/A2Pro HyperStudio demo stack. Great stuff! <grin> >>>Saturday, 11:00 am I wandered back over to the conference and met Morgan Davis and went to his "Applesoft with Fangs: Using MD-BASIC" presentation. It's a really neat program...I believe the demo is available here on GEnie. This seemed to be _the_ presentation to go to...I met up with HangTime, Chet, and Dean there. After Morgan was done, I noticed Chet was getting ready to buy a copy of MD-BASIC. Here we go! This was perfect. I wanted a copy, too. Just have Chet buy it and then take the manual to a xerox machine and copy the disk, right? Chet can be such a party-pooper at times. <grin> So I gave Morgan a bad check, instead. Gee...what a trusting guy. He didn't even want to see my fake i.d. after I offered. :-) >>>Saturday, 12:00 pm Lunch! I ate at the same table with lots of Apple notables, like me <grin>, Dean, David Szetela (II Developer Support), Roger Wagner, Ken Kashmarek, HangTime, and the other half of the table. Around 12:30 or so, David had the honor of speaking to us loonies. He is a really excellent speaker. I actually stayed awake. That's a great accomplishment. Bravo, David! :-) >>>Saturday, 1:30 pm HangTime and I headed back to the dorms and found out the SynthLab does not like to coexist with the MultiCache. We did look at lots of other Kfest goodies, though. :-) And we had a blast with Jay's hard drive and that little refrigerator magnet. :-) >>>Saturday, 3:30 pm I went to the "How to Turn Your Software into Cash" presented by Jay Wilbur, Tom Hall, Ross Lambert, Jay Jennings, and Eric Mueller. It was a neat presentation, and I learned from Ross how 8/16 calculates royalties <grin>. >>>Saturday, 4:30 pm Bummer! The conference part of the conference was basically all over. I met up with Jay and Randy Brandt (hey, dude! I sat next to Mr. AppleWorks Hacker, himself) We met up with Ross and decided to head over to the watchamacallit (it's not really a mall, because malls are anchored by department stores, and this one is anchored by a hotel). We ate a great supper (yeah, right!), talked about the moral ramifications if Randy were a psychic Jew and Jay was thinking neo-Nazi thoughts (the subject was brought up by discussing OCR software and Cyrillic fonts <grin>), and decided to go catch Arachnophobia, the movie. >>>Saturday, between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm, lost someplace in KC Jay took us out to the middle of a desolate nowhere and told us that he had an empty gas tank. He pulled a knife out of the glove compartment and made us each cough up for some gas $$. <grin> Somehow, the subject of Randy's kids was brought up, so out came his wallet and he forced us to look at his kids and wife. Ross talked about his teaching days in Alaska and why the state forbid him to ever come back (not really...just kidding <grin>). I got to see Jay's hip bachelor pad. It was pretty strange...all the apartments surrounding Jay's had metal bars, beware of vicious dog signs, dead-bolt locks, other anti-theft devices, etc, but Jay's door had none of these. What would frighten his neighbors that wouldn't frighten Jay? <grin> >>>Saturday, 7:30 pm We finally got to the movie theatre and got seated...Randy, me, Ross, and then Jay had the aisle seat. I didn't realize that this movie was going to be about computers! It started off showing huge stacks... even showed what Messy-Dos programmers look like, and what you look like after trying to program under OS/2. :-) The programmers used a lot of exorbitant debugging routines to finally rid the movie of all the bugs. >>>Saturday, 10 pm-ish After roaming the "mall" (not really a mall...see my earlier dissertation on this subjection) with Kevin Thornton, Nate Trost, Matt Deatherage, Jay, Ross, and Randy and not finding any pizza eateries open (sheesh! KC closes down at 9:30 pm on a weekend? get real!), the four of us piled back into Jay's car and went in search of pizza. We got the Meatsa-Meatsa from Little Caesar's (substituted pineapple for peppers, and pepperoni for sausage). Ross won a free medium drink from playing a Simon says, type game for a quarter. I finished off the last of three games for him. If we had doubled our score, we could have gotten a free medium pizza instead. :-) We headed back to the dorm and ate and drank (pop) and we were merry. :-) Andy Nicholas stopped by and hacked along. >>>Saturday, rest of the night/Sunday morning I really can't remember who all stopped by Jay's room. Andy showed us a [censored] program he's been working on, complete with a [censored] driver. Jay showed us his [censored] controller program that he was writing with [censored] [censored], except it's been tabled for the time being. Everyone who saw it agreed that it _is_ very worthwhile. C'mon, Jay and you-know-who-you-are, finish it!! <grin> At some point Jay Wilbur and Tom Hall stopped by... Jay (NoMoMan) whipped up a quick skeleton of a program using Genesys. I had never seen Genesys before and it was really kinda neat. >>>Saturday, sometime between 4 am and 5 am (closer to 5 am) Sleep! Ahhhhh! >>>Sunday, 1:30 pm Dean: "How's it going there?" Me: <trying to shake cobwebs outta my head> "uh, hrrmph. grmbba grumba" Jay and Dean stopped by Wendy's on one of their rounds and brought me back some food. :-) Thanks again, guys! I went over and saw Nick and Tony. Also, Chris. He was kinda crashed in one corner of the room, on a bed. :-) I can't remember what else happened Sunday afternoon, but I know I got a great picture of a button pinned on Tony's forehead. If it comes out okay, I'll digitize it and upload it, along with others I took. :-) >>>Sunday, 4:15 pm I made my final rounds, said good-bye to everybody I could find (I guess I musta missed Bryan's waking up by a mere 15 minutes), and took my stuff to the awaiting QuickSilver car. Whew! What an exhausting, but fun, weekend! :-) >>>Sunday, 11:30 pm Ahhh...after being delayed by the Pittsburgh airport (radar malfunction, only one runway in use), I finally got back home. Let's do it again next month! <grin> Copyright 1990 by Eric Merrill All rights reserved. Note: The people and places mentioned in this synopsis may appear to be real...actually, they are all part of a huge, fragmented dream I had one night. At least, it seems more like a dream now than reality. Everything is starting to get kinda hazy. <grin>