Welcome, yet again, to everyone's favourite newbie-friendly, easy-to-read-while-you're-on-the-toilet electronic zine. (Omit the lavatory section if you're not reading a hard copy ;)
It's incredible how much the computer world can change in two months. Take, for example, the Commodore 64. Many of you will fondly remember this as the machine of choice for many a home user and computer conosseur. Two months ago, the commie was firmly dead and buried. However, since our last release a pippin-esque venture, which goes by the name of Web.IT, has breathed new life into the little machine that could. Of course, no relaunch would be complete without a major restyling, and this one is no exception. Out goes the chunky beige (brown if you're really old-skool) box, taking with it the cartridge port, and in comes a sleek new look. The Web.IT has stylings that look like they have been pilferred directly from the old set of Knight-Rider; a smooth black box (complete with trackpad!) houses a machine which, like its predecessor, plugs directly into the TV set - allowing you to surf the web and play old Comodore games into the bargain. The bizarre thing about this is that with its 16 megs of Ram and copious amounts of speed, the computer could easily manage programs written for much better platforms. Like the Master System, for example. Reports that Sir Clive Sinclair is set to release a new ZX Spectrum complete with ISDN line and multitasking are apparently completely unfounded.
There have also been a lot of strange happenings afoot here at Happle tower since our last issue (at least, there have been in the metaphorical tower. The real one, being made from Lego, is proving a little hard to occupy...).
As regular readers of this zine, as well as regular users of the Hack'n'Crack server, will know, Hackmac, our illustrious publisher, has been having a spot of bother with his service provider. Basically, this all boils down to the fact that Mindspring (the ISP in question) does not like FTP servers being set up on dial-up accounts. Hotline, with it's file transfer system, apparently falls under this umbrella.
"SO?" I hear you shout. Well, without the Hack'n'Crack HL server, Happle is homeless. This means that we have no real way of attracting new readers or getting info out to regular readers who choose not to subscribe to the mailing list. What a predicament...
So what can you, the reader, do about this? Hopefully this magazine will go out to a few UG site administrators. If you fall into this category, I would beg of you to include Happle on your site, whether it be on the web, hotline, ftp, firstclass.. you get the point. This would take only a tiny amount of space and would have the added bonus of making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Back to matters close at hand, and we have a fairly small issue for you this month. For this I profusely apologise, but the mailbox isn't exactly bursting under the weight of submissions (hint, hint), and I have made it a policy not to simply rip files from other magazines, or include files that aren't expressly permitted to appear in the zine. Every file that appears in Happle#05 is either a submission or a text file that the author has allowed us to include.
Good things, though, often come in small packages (like 250k packages) and of the few articles we do have, there should be enough tidbits to keep you going for a wee while.
At this point I would like to thank PP for his generosity in allowing us to reprint his T-phile on basic unix commands, and I am assured that there are more submissions to come. Why can't you all be more like him? (err.. not that I'm being pushy or anything) If you're not techincally inclined, then at least send us some mail - we're so lonely!
Another new occurrence I'd like to draw your attention to is this month's new look. I thought it'd be kinda fun to give the issue I was editing a unique look. Like it? Too artsy-fartsy? Tell us! Happle thrives on reader input, so if you have anything to say we'll be more than happy to print it.
Finally, I'd like to say a special 'werd' to The Hotline Conspiracy (http://www.hotlineswsucks.com) who were nice enough to let me reprint their article on the win32 bug. Merci, mes copains!
OK, I'm sure you have better things to do than read my incoherent ramblings so I think it's time to draw them to a close. Next month you won't have to put up with me because Hackmac will be seizing his editor's chair back off me (good luck getting rid of the ass-groove!)
