Re: Announcement: Contiki for the Apple2

["pilgrimer" <pilgrimer@sheppys.service>]

"Oliver Schmidt" <ol.sc@web.de> wrote in message
news:d8a0tr$k53$1@online.de...
> Hi,
>
> I'm pleased to announce the availablity of Contiki 1.2 for the Apple2.
> General informations on Contiki - a modern, Internet-enabled operating
> system and desktop environment - can be found on:
> http://www.sics.se/~adam/contiki/
>
> Contiki for the Apple2 needs an Apple2 Ethernet card for TCP/IP
> connectivity. These two cards are supported:
> - Uther (http://www.a2retrosystems.com/products.htm)
> - LANceGS (http://lancegs.a2central.com/)
>
> Contiki for the Apple2 can be downloaded from:
> http://www.a2retrosystems.com/downloads.htm
>
> Oliver

Ok.  time for the post game show:
Last night I downloaded Contiki and transferred to my GS.
 The process for this was:
Download via Safari on a OS X 10.3.9 box, then write to an HFS formatted
floppy via a external USB floppy (1.4mb;  the externals won't play with 800k
ones).  Next I sneakernet the floppy to a superdrive (1.4 Sony mech. from a
gutted Mac inside a 800k 3.5 case hooked to a superdrive card on the GS  in
slot 6).

Unshrink the 80col version ( grabbed the 40 as well but have not played with
it yet) to a Slinky in slot 1.   This machine has a LANceGS in slot 7

Run Contiki and I see a interesting menu.  uh, now what do I do....Oh Yeah
RTFM!!
Quick look at the section on the Lance and OK, there is a config file.  I go
to it and specify The LANceGS driver (question: Is this using Joachim's
specifications for the hardware level, or is this "roll your own", and if
the later, ...you figured out which chip?) instead of the Uther,  Set the
slot to 7, then set the IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS to my particular network
(I am NOT DHCP and even have all my MAC addresses specified and locked down;
the Network from Heck has grown paranoid ;)

After a save, I am back at the menu and  launch the IRC client to see if it
works.  Server and Nick options are there so I plug in a known efnet server
and my  usually IRC nick  (pilgrim`  and usually on #politics  if anyone is
ever lookin for me)  and I am IN!  IRC works great.  One comment:  buffer
size; if you are on a busy channel with a lot of activity, it runs into an
out of memory error quickly.  I am not complaining....."It is not how well
the horse can sing, it is that it can sing at all"

I toyed with the Web browser and it works.  The text only view of my own
page was nice to see...  did an ftp shuffle:  that works too.  Is there a
TELNET app?  I could not find one.

In conclusion:
This Contiki thing is in two words WAY COOL!
I in particular like the  flaming screen saver.  Nice touch ;)
This is a welcome addition to the Apple II.  We now have (I think?) at last
count 3 TCP capabilities on our old beast.  This one is very very capable
and seems quite useable.\
Well Done!


-Bart
Keeper of the Network from Heck