Shareware Survives the Big One

By Diana Gruber

Shareware authors, vendors and users in California and Nevada
were surprised by the two big earthquakes on the morning of June
28.  Where were you when the big one hit?

ŠBob Lancaster -- MicroLink Games, author of MLYaht, MLCrux, etc.

Bob was asleep in bed when the earthquake hit.  He immediately
jumped up and ran in to see how the kids were.  When it was
clear the kids were fine, he rushed over to check out his
computer.  The computer was fine too.  The Lancasters sustained
no damage, but a bunch of books fell off the bookshelves.

ŠMike Hobbs -- The Software Labs, vendor

Mike was asleep when the earthquake hit, and he jumped up and ran
over and stood in a doorway, which is what you are supposed to
do when an earthquake hits.  His 4 well-trained cats stood in
the doorway with him, which is what cats are supposed to do
too.  Mike's computer was in the process of doing a complicated
ray trace of a girl's face when the power went off.  Those ray
trace pictures are beautiful, but take hours to complete. 
Fortunately there was a restart command built into the ray
trace, so no work was lost, and the picture was completed when
the power came back on.

ŠTony Gentile -- Prodigy Technologies, Instant Access Menu System

Tony had yet gone to bed yet when the 5:00 am earthquake hit.
He was at his computer online to a local bulletin board,
checking out the Fidonet echo conferences.  When his house
started shaking he logged off as quickly as possible and then
sat around waiting for the earthquake to stop.  His 2 year old
brother woke up and started crying.  After that Tony went to bed
and slept until around 9:00.  The second earthquake at 8:00 am
woke him up only briefly, as he was very tired and he tried to
sleep through it.  Tony's mom has gradually become accustomed to
Tony's late working hours and unusual sleeping habits.

ŠJohn Wagner -- author of Improces

John was writing code when the earthquake started.  He
immediately switched off the computer and went in the other room
to comfort his 2 year old son Martin.  His dog, Annie, ran out
of the room with her tail between her legs.  John slept through
the second earthquake.

ŠRon Volkmar -- author of Vacation Planner

Ron was asleep in Las Vegas during both earthquakes.  The first
one woke him up and he went back to sleep.  The second one,
three hours later, woke him up again.  This time he got up and
logged onto Prodigy where there were two messages waiting for
him from his dad in California.  His dad said he felt the
earthquake and he was okay.  Ron responded with a message saying
he too felt the earthquake and he was also okay.  Then Ron read
the highlights on Prodigy about the strength of the earthquake
and where the epicenter was.

ŠDan Snapper -- beta tester for SparkWare (1st Reader) and Robocomm

The first earthquake woke up Dan and his wife Grace and their
son Matthew, all of whom ran out in the hallway and stood in
separate doorways.  Then Dan drove to his floor covering store
which has a lot of glass windows in the front to make sure
nothing had been broken.  Nothing had.

ŠViggo Jensen -- author of Landlord, a Monopoly-type board game

Viggo was sleeping when the earthquake hit.  He got up
momentarily and stood in the doorway, then went back to sleep. 
Shirley also got up momentarily, and went somewhere, but Viggo
doesn't know where she went.  Viggo didn't bother to check his
computer, and later that day watched the news for about half a
minute to confirm that indeed there had been an earthquake.  The
Jensens sustained no damage, and had a very low interest level.

ŠKevin Spence -- Author of VGAPoker

Kevin told me he was programming until 3:00 in the morning, and
slept through the whole earthquake without waking up.  Later he
admitted he wasn't programming until 3:00 in the morning, he was
playing Wolfenstein until 3:00 in the morning.

ŠUnidentified author of well-known graphics program

"My wife and I were just getting ready to make the earth move, 
when... the earth moved."

ŠRobert Vostreys -- Author of RNET

Robert lives in Stone Mountain Georgia, so he was nowhere near
the earthquake, but he has had some experience with natural
disasters.  He lives on the top of a hill, where there is one
tall pole carrying both the power line and the phone line into
his house.  This pole has been struck by lightning 3 times. 
Every time that happens it knocks out his bulletin board.  Once
he was struck by a direct hit that bounced around the room and
wiped out all his computer hardware -- fried it to a crisp.  He
replaced and repaired everything in time to be hit again 18 days
later.  In the mean time he ordered a surge suppressor with a
guarantee.  Before it arrived he was hit again.  His advice to
sysops:  get good surge suppressors, the kind with the
guarantee.  It is more expensive, because you are buying into an
insurance policy, but if you get hit, it will be worth it.

ŠMitch Harhay -- Author of the Las Vegas Bingo Club

Mitch was asleep when the 5:00 am earthquake woke him up.  He
got out of bed and went to church with his mom and his dad and
his brother.  The second earthquake hit while he was in church,
and he didn't feel it.

ŠVance Venable of the Organization of Shareware Writers and
ŠDistributors reports OSWAD is in northern California and was not
shaken.

ŠDiana Gruber -- Editor of STARgazer

The first earthquake woke me up.  I went out in the front room
and watched CNN for the next few hours.  I saw the second
earthquake on TV about 1 minute before I felt it in Las Vegas.