Howdy fellow Commodore Users!

I'd like to start with a tip of the hat to the people who volunteer at the Tradeshow computer show, this month. Thanks go to Roger Hoyer, Ike Geer, Steve Winkle, and Dave and Julie Barr for volunteering to operate the booth. We managed to get some new names again this time around, so maybe their names will be in the lights at the next computer show. Speaking of which, the next one is scheduled for April 1-2, and our club needs to decide soon, if we wish to attend this show. I for one, like to get out and mingle with the people (could it be the president in me?) to introduce new and old users alike to our club.

One item that was passed out for free at the show was a diskette for the IBM compatibles. On this disk was a program called eLoadstar. This program includes the Commodore 64 emulator called Frodo, and a sample issue of Loadstar magazine. That's right, Loadstar is releasing another publication (is a disk based magazine still called that?).

This eLoadstar showcases the best of articles from past issues of Loadstar, and brings those modern PC users back to the time when we all had the C64, the popular computer of it's day. Just as in current Loadstar disks, these will also have a collection of games, articles, and information, all on a floppy disk....or something new that Loadstar is offering: emailing the disk image to the subscribers. Check out your copy of eLoadstar by picking up a copy at this month's meeting, or downloading it from Loadstar's website at:

http://www.loadstar.com/

Use the Learn About eLOADSTAR link, and find out more about this wonderful publication.

It is with sad regret that at the end of January I ended my many years with the online Service GEnie. As I mentioned in my article a few months ago, Genie was changing it's service to a web-based service at the end of December. It would seem that they had little care for the vast collection of software that had been acquired over the years from fellow GEnie members, and that was one of the major reasons GEnie had attracted me to it all those years ago. The access of this once world-wide service is now just an ISP with very few local access numbers even in the United States of America. The feelings I had calling Customer Service was heart wrenching, but I felt I could no longer support a service that had nothing to offer to it's members. I found it humorous, however, when they offered me a $100 rebate to stay with the service. I asked the representative, how would $100 change the situation at their end? Free service would be of little benefit, if there was no content to take advantage of.

For those club members wondering if I would be gathering the files I have acquired from GEnie onto a ZIP disk for donation to our club's Library, worry no more. As soon as I gather it together in a whole collection from my scatterings of diskettes, I will do just that. The indexes of the Genie files are still being compiled. I will put the indexes on my personal webpage as I get each index finished. You can check out this listing at:

http://pages.prodigy.net/snogpitch/files.html

Make sure you make a note in your address books, I can still be contacted on my Prodigy account, and thru the club's NEW email account at Yahoo (listed below).

David Witmer Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club President

Webpage http://www.oocities.org/siliconvalley/grid/6412/

AKA Snogpitch

Hamilton, OH

snogpitch@prodigy.net

cbmusers@yahoo.com

ICQ 4989342