Howdy Fellow Commodore Users!

Summertime has come and gone, the kids are back to school, and another Fall (gasp!) Expo is in the history books.

The demos this year were spaced apart enough that it didn't feel like you were caught in a hurricane. In Expos past, one demo would barely end and the next demo would be starting up. It definitely gave a relaxed atmosphere for those in attendance. However, those putting on the demos seemed to have luck against them. Murphy's Law seemed to strike every demo I saw, be it software issues or hardware issues. Even my own hopes for the latest and greatest C1 demo nosedived when the processor card Jeri put in my machine failed to work.

There have been a few announcements of photos on the internet, but rather than take up space and have the chance of a typo, the easiest way to get the addresses is to visit the expo webpage at:

http://www.swrapexpo.org/past.php

As of this writing, four people have provided links to their photos, but no online report has made it yet. Scott McCoy did manage to get a mid-day report out to people who were just dying for information. Here is his letter.

Greetings all!

For those that can't be here, we have a mid-day report from the Fall Commodore Expo in Chicago!

The usual suspects have shown up, including Dale Sidebottom, Jim Brain, Greg Nacu, and of course, Jeri Ellsworth.

No sign yet of Jim Butterfield or Maurice Randall.

We've had two demos so far, one of a Remote Controlled Car that has been hooked up to a commodore with a "Vic Rel" cartridge and basic software to control it (Also software that allows you to use a commodore joystick on the commodore to control it.) We've also had a gentleman (Jack Rubin, I believe) who brought his display of original KIM hardware to share with us, including expansion equipment!

So far, I've seen a 116, a 264, a C65, and the KIM hardware alongside a C1 inside a modded PC case (It glows blue!) I'm almost half-waiting for "Hurricane Tramiel" to blow through town considering we have all this choice hardware in all one spot at one time! (Knock on Wood)

We have more demos scheduled all through the day, a healthy dealer room, a raffle yet to run, internet access (56k dialup through a linux gateway) and it's only noon!

Will post more if I get the chance!

Scott McCoy

+++

Additional demos I saw included a demo of Modem Wars over the internet, Telneting to Commodore BBS's over the internet, a network sniffer using a SX64 and an ethernet setup, a new type of interface that is expected to replace 64HDD for the newer operating systems not capable of running MS-DOS. There might have been more, but since I was running back and forth between the dealer room and the demo room, I probably missed something along the way. Greg Nacu did have on display in the dealer room, the ethernet adaptor and serial interface cards for the IDE64. As tempting as it was, I decided to put off that purchase until the software was available.

New this year, the Expo organizers decided to try televising the demos for those who were in the dealer room. It helped somewhat, but that was one of those nasty Murphy's Law bugs raising it's ugly head. They do plan to offer copies of the televised demo, but as of this writing, I have yet to see official release and cost associated with it.

The after expo dinner was held at the Red Robin. Jeri Elsworth was surprised by the staff when they started their birthday chant. Our side of the Restaurant went crazy! I think for a second the management might have been thinking a riot was about to start. Chants of Jeri, Jeri, Jeri, and unison hand claps, stopped the employees midstream while they waited for the din to at least subside just a bit.

All in all, another expo worth remembering. See you at our next meeting in the Cincinnati Public Library downtown on September 19th. Keep on Commodoring!