You may have noticed the odd maintenance issues on A2Central.com the last week or so, with updates coming spuriously and pages having minor problems. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, KFest is a week away, and people that might have newsworthy information are withholding it for the show. Secondly, and more importantly, we’re working on a new version of the A2Central.com site, that will look more or less the same but will be much easier for us to update and maintain, and this is taking a lot of our time. Expect to see the new site debut soon! .

Our latest poll asks what your favorite Apple II word processor is. .

The AppleLinc Apple II computer club in Lincoln, Nebraska, will hold its pre-KansasFest meeting on Thursday, July 20, starting at 7:00 PM at the building of the Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church at 12th and Old Cheney in Lincoln. All Apple II enthusiasts are invited. .

Our latest poll asks what Apple II model (or emulator) you use most..

Eric Shepherd announced today that on July 28 he will begin shipping a CD-ROM and printed book bundle. The CD-ROM is called Totally SheppyWare and contains every piece of software he’s released to the general public, for Apple II, Mac OS, and BeOS computers. The book is a newly updated The Complete Guide to SheppyWare, which hasn’t been updated since 1996. The Complete Guide is printed documentation, with illustrations, for every program on the CD, and weighs in at nearly 300 pages. The bundle costs $50, and includes all shareware fees. You can preorder now at http://order.kagi.com/?QGC. More information about the software is apparently forthcoming. .

The Vintage Computer Festival, an annual event for users of computers 10 years old or older, will be held from Saturday, September 30 through Sunday, October 1, at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California. Exhibitors will be showing off vintage computers and computer products, and vendors will be selling products for vintage computers. Contests and presentations will also be available. Early-bird registration is now open, for $15 ($20 after July 15); online registration is available. For more information, visit http://www.vintage.org/2000..

Our latest poll asks how long you’ve been using an Apple II..

Ancestorworks 5 version 2.0, a genealogy program that works within AppleWorks 5.1 (and only 5.1) for the Apple II, is now available as a freeware product. Among other valuable features, ANW can import standard GEDCOM format genealogy data files. Visit http://www.geocities.com/budmannet for details and to download. .

This new update to the ProLine BBS software provides a CS update and Y2K fixes. ProLine is a popular, powerful bulletin board system package for the Apple II (//e, //c, and IIGS), and requires a modem, 80 column text, and 64K of RAM, plus a small hard disk. Read the announcement..