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.
