Skyhigh 16 Mad On

Welcome strangers to another glimpse into the weird and not so wonderful mind of MAD/PAdUA, in another enthralling episode of MAD ON...

This months topics include FTP sites, phoning the UK, SHOUT magazine and more!!!

FTP power

Last year, when I started University life, I gained access to FTP and WWW (even though the BASTARDS at Huddersfield University put up several obsticles in my way). With a little (a lot of) help from Antitrack and Anonym, I became an addict!

Now, I regularly transfer stuff for when I next go home (and it convert from PC to C64).

One BIG BIG problem is that someone uploads an old demo, I think it is new, and therefore spend ages downloading and converting for NOTHING!

Please, uploaders, spare some consideration and put a release date in the title!!!

There are a few FTP sites I use, the best for new stuff are definitely SCS+TRC' site and Playboy/F4CG site. The FUNET and PADUA+LOWER LEVEL+DYTEC sites have a good range of older stuff, and loads of such transfer utilities.

I'll include ALL the decent C64 related sites next month (my list is slightly inaccurate).

If anyone has a site, and wants to be included, E-Mail me on c9405616(e)pegasus.hud.ac.uk with some details. (The (e) should be replaced by an 'at' symbol)

phONEday

Here in the U.K., after the 16th April, 1995, most area codes have been altered. When dialling the U.K., you must include a 1 before the area code. Anyone who rang my house before dialled:

(dialling code) 44 *** ******

Now, you must include the 1...

(dialling code) 44 1*** ******

(I won't put my phone number in, because

a. I don't live with my parents anymore,
b. My new home has no phone (yet).
c. I wouldn't want weird people ringing me up (weirder than the ones that ring me now...)

Get the picture???

Just to make it slightly more difficult, Telecom have changed (completely) the dialling codes for five cities or towns (Leeds, Sheffield, and I forget the rest - your operator will advise you...).

SHOUT or WHISPER?

Recently, another magazine burst onto the scene. A very promising collaboration from EQUINOXE and FAIRLIGHT, SHOUT magazine was born. I liked FLT's mag Reformation (nice outfit), and I really liked EQX's mag Ingenious Brain (great outfit).

I expected something really excellent, but sadly, I am disappointed. I was going to review it this issue, along with Alpha Flight's 'Pulse-beating' RELAX mag, but I decided against that for this issue (for reasons you don't need to know).

My version of SHOUT crashed badly (disk error), so I cannot review a half working magazine... Anyway, back to SHOUT. For some reason, it looks quite similar to IB, except for worse graphics (the ones I saw anyway where well below both groups previous magazines).

The point for this article isn't to slag a rival mag off to the rest of the scene, so anyone in EQX or FLT - I'm not slagging you off! BUT, when two very decent mags join together, I'd like to have seen an outfit that reflected both mags, and not just rename IB, stick a load of poor graphics in, and increase the editorial list...

Both EQX and FLT may be thinking I'm just being a bastard to their new baby, but come on! Think DESIGN think OUTFIT! The text is there, now just show it off!

I know it is hard to design an outfit for a magazine, revolutionary designs such as Shock's proportional fonts have set a standard (will Skyhigh set a new standard for proportional upscrolling??? Haha!).

Right! Your time is up!

I'm going to have to move my C64 to my new home, all this running between Uni, my parents house and my new home is getting stressful!!!

Next month, expect another MAD ON... with the usual UK news, contemplation, condemnation and whatever I feel like writing really...

MAD/PAdUA is away...