During his recent visit to the United States, the Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom was chatting informally to the President.
George was curious about something, so asked John how he chose
the members of the Cabinet. John smiled and replied, "Well, I
asked each of them a riddle. For instance, I asked Norman Lamont
'If it's your father's son, but not your brother, then who is it
?'. Norman thought about this for a while, and then answered,
'It's me.'. So I gave him the job."
Now George thought this was a great idea, so later on, when John
had set off back to the U.K., he called in Dan Quayle. "Dan", he
said, "if it's your father's son, but not your brother, who is
it?".
Dan had a think, but was a bit puzzled, so he went out and asked
Norman Schwarzkopf. Ol' Stormin' Norman answered immediately,
"Well, that'll be me, Mr. Vice President sir."
Dan smiled, and returned to George.
"Well Dan?", the President asked. "Mr. President," replied Dan,
"it's Norman Schwarzkopf."
George looked up desparingly at the ceiling and sighed deeply.
"No Dan. It's Norman Lamont."
The Amazing Green Gables (courtesy of UNT)
EDITORIAL: WORDS AND PROGRAMS FROM THE LOWLANDS
by Stefan Posthuma
Ah well, another issue finished. I remember issue 5.2, the so
called 'Last Issue'. Yes, Richard and myself decided to stop
making ST NEWS due to all sorts of reasons, most of them having
to do with things like lack of time. But "the blood crawls where
it can't go" (a rather literal translation of a Dutch proverb)
and soon the first 'Undead' issue was released. Now, almost a
year and about four issues later, we are once again releasing
issues on a semi-regular basis, one even more crammed with
articles than the other.
Today the urge crept up my spine to look into making another
monochrome scroll routine, and to gather some inspiration, I had
a look at some old issues from Volume 4 when demos still thrived
in ST NEWS. Boy, we sure were on a roll back then. It's funny how
the concept of assembly programming doesn't really excite me
anymore like it used to. Is it true then? Am I becoming 'too old
for this shit'? Well, I have reached the milestone age of 25
last April and I really want this aging thing to stop right about
now. I mean what the hell happened in these 25 years anyway?
But let's not stray from the path that this editorial is to
take. A little peek into the future of ST NEWS and things in
general, plus a comment on this issue.
We dedicated this one to Metallica. Yeah, why not. I mean
Metallica has been one of the most important heavy metal bands of
the last decade or so. I think Metallica was the start of many a
heavy-metal liking that so many people have these days. I mean it
was for me. I always hated Heavy Metal until Richard forced
'...And Justice for All' down my throat. From that day on I have
been listening to this stuff on a regular basis. Fortunately, I
have kept a broad mind towards other kinds of music, and I must
admit that my very favourite music lies just below Heavy Metal,
in the somewhat darker corners. Gothic music some people call it.
But again, I have wandered from the line that has been set for
me.
So what's new? Not much really. The previous issue had a fairly
big addition, my own menu system that allows those nifty
cascades. I had quite some posivite reactions to them, so they
are here to stay. This issue has one tiny little extra, the
ability to save certain settings like the screen colors, the
music state and the screen frequency. This to make life a bit
more bearable for those who want those special colors or are very
tired of the music after hearing it seventy times already. All it
does is creating a 10-byte file called 'SETUP' in the directory
where ST NEWS was run from.
Also, some of you might have noticed a trend that is becoming
more and more eminent. The amount of computer-related articles is
very slowly getting smaller and smaller whereas the fictional
things are increasing in number. Some of you might find this
alarming, those who don't like all this fiction might be put off
by it, but we feel it's more fun to have these stories instead of
dry and business-like descriptions of technical programming. I
mean look at 7.1, I made an attempt to lighten up the GfA-menu
article by describing the lives of little hamsters. This surely
must have looked ridiculous to some if not most of the people
that read it. It's just no good fun to explain how things are
done, and the word boring comes to mind all to quickly. That's
probably why this issue doesn't have the sequel to it. Can't be
bothered really.
Add to this that Richard has taken his studies of the English
language very serious indeed, and he uses every opportunity
granted to him to expand on his writing skills, and you are in
for some serious prose for sure. Just have a look at the 'Nasty
Arthropods' story in 7.1, a little masterpiece if you ask me.
You will also see a lot of articles written by other people than
Richard and myself. These have been gathered from the multitude
of publications that drift around this world. Some of the stuff
found in these magazines (or whatever form they assume) is very
good, and most of their authors and editors give us kind
permission to reproduce their work.
I hope that these developments will contribute to a magazine
that appeals to those people with an interest in 'literature'
without becoming too serious. Of course humor is an essential
part of almost every ST NEWS article.
What else is there to tell? That the Lost Boys have now really
stopped making demos? That Tim (Manikin) has signed contracts
with a very interesting company, allowing him to write games and
even make money off them?
I also think that the active ST world is nearing its end. Almost
everything you can program has been done on this machine now, and
more and more people are switching to other computers. There is
however, another mega-party about to happen. This time in Sweden,
and the enormous distance hasn't kept many people from wanting to
attend this party. I for one was there for I went to Sweden
around that time. What will happen after this party I don't know.
Many of the programmers I know have either stopped demos and
started doing games or have entered the 'real' world of
professional programming. The business world that is. A place I
have been in for the last five years and I can't say I regret the
decision I made back then. However exciting demo programming
might be, there is so much more to computing than that. I think
every professional programmer can agree to this, and besides, it
happens to provide you with a comfortable living too.
Well, another weekend has passed. I don't think I'll get to
doing anything for the scroller I wanted to do in these two days.
I haven't done anything really, yet another thriumph for
lazyness, a passtime some people have elevated to an Art.
Signed,
Stefan Posthuma
Editor
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.