According to a post on comp.sys.apple2, Bill Martens is back from a three year stint working for the U.S. Marine Corps and has updated the Call-A.P.P.L.E. web site and published a new issue. Welcome back, Bill!

VCF 8.0 is scheduled for this next Saturday and Sunday, November 5-6 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. See the VCF web site for complete details and schedule of events.

Willamette Apple Connection, Inc. has released its software library, as well as newsletters in PDF format, on its web site. Digitized for WAC by A.P.P.L.E., the entire public domain software library (616 disks) is available free for download. It is also available on CD-ROM from A.P.P.L.E. for $19.95, including shipping and handling.

Trailing Edge’s web site has several documents covering Apex, an Apple II operating system geared towards assembly language programmers. Apex was released in 1980. Also check out the Old Apple II Gift Catalog.

Gerard Putter has released version 4.2 of his excellent 8-bit Apple II emulator for Mac OS X, Virtual ][. Virtual ][ requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.The new version includes the following changes:

• You can now copy diskettes to and from a real Apple II using a serial cable.
• Virtual ][ can now emulate the popular No-Slot Clock.
• You can now print text to the Macintosh clipboard.
• A configured machine can now be made the default in one simple step.
• The Preferences window now has an option to open the devices drawer on either the bottom or right edge of the window. Opening on the right can be useful on small screens.
• When a USB game pad is connected, it is now automatically the preferred choice for game control.
• The printer button’s artwork now actually looks like a printer.
• Solved problems with the game Alternate Reality: The Dungeon by improving the emulation of the disk drive’s stepper motor.

The Nibble DVD set has been reduced from $129.95 to $89.95. The CD set is now $99.95.

Nibble has released Key Perfect, the program checksum utility used to verify that you correctly typed in the program listings in their magazines, as a free download. Visit the Nibble Disks section of the Nibble web site to get your copy.

Andy McFadden has announced that CiderPress v2.3.0 has been released. CiderPress is a versatile Apple II image and file archive manager for Microsoft Windows. The utility is shareware, only $9.95 USD to register and available direct from the faddenSoft web site.

Mister Jalopy writes an ode to the Apple II.

A snippet: “Woz got it. Thirty seconds after unwrapping an Apple II, you were opening the lid and connecting ribbon cables. It was respect. Apple extended respect. And Apple was respected by my rocket scientist buddies and myself. Apple extended the respect through meaningful manuals, a documented architecture and a generally awesome computer. Nothing was hidden. You could POKE and PEEK your way through the whole machine.”

Eric Rothfus has added firmware support that allows for copying disks and files to the SVD. This can be used to transfer files from your Apple II to a PC. Visit his website for more info.