In reality, it won’t be the upcoming OS X 10.7 as that is too soon for my idea. Maybe when we get to 11.0?

Maybe Apple’s engineers are already working on this!

In this future version of an OS, the user no longer deals with volumes, folders, etc.

The screen is just the pretty picture behind the currently open documents which, for practical reasons, are still represented as rectangular windows. Windows for documents are still a good system… Don’t throw away something that works well.

However, there’s no “File System” visible to the user to mess around with… Instead, archived documents not currently open live in the data cloud… it’s something Apple had once before on the Newton as it so happens… I think it’s time to revive this idea.

Rather than make folders within folders within folders trying to organize documents, we merely tag them with an identity and other useful markers when saving them. Some of these markers are automatic, since a picture is always an image, a spreadsheet is always a table of data, a letter is always a block of words, etc.

However, an email, a newsletter, a memo, etc. are all essentially a textual document at their base identity, so the OS can flag any such saved item with that sort of flag for easy location later. Similarly, all vector, bitmap, or even 3D CAD type documents are essentially an image.

In addition to automatic tags, the user can also add any of their own.

Plus, all words within a document automatically become search tags for that document.

This way, when we work on a new document or edit an existing one, our only decision becomes whether to hang onto the changes or discard them.

If it was a previously saved document, why don’t we keep a revision history of that document… Storage space is becoming ridiculously cheap and so we might as well automatically hang onto all versions of a document like we do now with the Time Machine backup… However, this would be just the default way that the OS works for all files!

All files flagged for deletion are merely flagged as out of the data cloud where it comes to searches… They remain as part of the “archive” history of the OS and so one can always get back to them. No more is there an “empty trash” except when one is concerned about purging all versions of a file for security reasons, and so this becomes a special action. Normal deletions of files means just that they are flagged to be not included in searches when one is wanting to open a file.

This brings me to the retrieving of existing files.

Just as iPhoto lets you see recently added images, regardless of the names of the images, there should be many ways to access previous documents… but none that involve digging through folders yourself. If it is helpful for the OS, perhaps it keeps the hard drive organized by directories automatically based on file type and/or chronologically. The user doesn’t interact with the documents that way, however.

Rather, you either tell the OS you wish to create a NEW document, followed by what TYPE (spreadsheet, image, text, email, etc.) or you tell the OS you wish to retrieve an existing document from the data cloud. Note that the data cloud can also extend to local networks and internet shared spaces… why not!

At this point, you merely ask to “OPEN” a previous document, at which point the super-efficient searching starts. Your options include WHEN you last worked on it (today, this week, this month, this year, older), what it was (image, text, email, etc.), what title you gave the file (any portion of it), any word that might be inside the file, and finally any additional tags you might have given the file.

If that is not enough to find something, you aren’t any worse off than not remembering what folder that you buried a file in with today’s OS. Like Google search results, we see the most relevant results first, but by the time we get to the last part of the results list, we have seen everything that we could have possibly been able to open… We’re not losing access to all old documents but hopefully we weren’t so brain dead that we called all our files “Untitled 1″, “Untitled 2″, “Untitled 3″, etc.

There would be alternate searches available as we are trying to open a file… For example, looking through previous revisions only when trying to access an older incarnation of a document… or digging through the files we flagged as “deleted” since we remember getting rid of the document for some reason. We could also narrow the search to non-local to our machine but on the network (including our internet storage locations).

If it isn’t our own document but one created and available on the internet, the search start point can also let us browse for public content. There’s no reason we should be firing up a web browser application and THEN starting a search!

How we work on documents is through a basket of tools… currently applications… but we don’t bother to directly launch the programs. Rather, we begin with a new blank workspace and tell the OS what we want to do and with what tools, or we access a previous document as described above and then either use the same tool that made the file or specify an alternate and compatible tool to work on the file. A “saved” web location (known today as a bookmark) is just another type of document and we could choose to look at that internet location with several alternate tools… This is analogous to having an iPhone or iPad and having multiple ways to view internet data by picking among various “apps”. That stream of twitter tweets can be viewed with a web browser or a dedicated app in today’s IOS world, for example.

I’m not inventing something new here, as Apple had many of these things already with the Newton OS and with Spotlight but what we haven’t seen is making the entire OS work this way.

Am I foretelling the future of the Apple OS? Maybe… I think it would be the better way to interact with our data.

Your thoughts are welcome.

ACK! Some sort of American vs. Canadian confusion about what a “hamburger” means vs. what Canadians call a “double burger”… I wasn’t aware before I ordered and so found out that a “hamburger” means “double-patty burger” in the Five Guys chain. It should mention that up on the price board.

Anyway, not TOO much meat — I got through it… but not quite as tasty or juicy as the burgers that I remember from the Lick’s Hamburger chain in southern Ontario. Then there was the so-called “Regular” order of fries… How wasteful for one person as there was enough for four people. They really ought to have a “small” order available as well.

Okay, beyond that, the burger was okay — on par roughly with the taste of a Wendy’s double-patty hamburger which makes sense since both use fresh (not frozen) meat patties. The Five Guys burger was a bit drier than I would have preferred. The Lick’s chain in eastern Canada has it beat in spades for taste and juiciness. So, nothing so special that I feel a big urge to go back again. Now if there is ever a Lick’s franchise in Calgary, I’ll be a regular customer!

Fries: Way too much (I said that already)… However, they had a nice “potato-ey” flavour, although with a heavier taste than either the fries at Lick’s or the best ones of all in Canada which are from the Ye Olde French Fries truck in downtown Kenora! Those are quite different and in a whole other category.

I think the “heaviness” I felt afterwards might have been due to the fries and not the burger. I don’t know what it is about their procedure to cook them, but they seems a bit oilier than they needed to be… I’ve had the fresh fries in Kenora which don’t have the same heavy oily taste.

If I were to ever eat at Five Guys Burgers and Fries again, I’d probably just get the burger without the fries… but the burger is not a reason enough to go back for a special trip.

Now the pizza at TOP Steak and Pizza House… that’s a whole other story! It definitely is worth a visit whenever I am in town!

~~~~~~~~~~~

A followup…

It has been about a decade since I last ate at a Lick’s and maybe things have gone downhill since then. The comments would suggest this. That is too bad.

I have also been back to the Five Guys at Medicine Hat since my first visit and had the small burger (single patty) and a small Coke. The burger was still “okay”, but I can make one that tastes a lot better on my own BBQ using lean ground chuck. I skipped the fries this time around because of how much they provide, rather than any issue about the flavour. I notice that unlike the U.S. outlets which I believe still stick to just COKE, they serve many beverages from the Coca-Cola company including Sprite and all the usual options.

Maybe the Lick’s chain will return to their fresh meat roots… I really did enjoy their food.

Anyway, I thought I should update my original article.

Originally, the plan was to keep the older service available until we were happy with the new site.

As it stands now, the newsgroup (an nntp server running on an old Mac — see the history post) service is offline.

Since it appears that it is possible to put links and images into messages with this WordPress site, there are some nice benefits of the move.

I see that a Google search for “Warp Six BBS” will show the new site DIRECTLY as a result on the second page. There are hits on the first page that contain a link to this site and so that is almost as good. Since my latest check using Google, I have accessed some other pages that I maintain and have linked to this site as my primary web site associated with my accounts. This may help to boost our rating in the Google Search engine. There are some old instruction pages associated with getting onto the older Warp Six newsgroup site, and these also cropped up among the Google results and so I’ve chosen to keep these pages alive. I’ve edited them significantly to reflect that this site is now the only site.

Feel free to pass the word and let others know about Warp Six BBS and that it is still going strong (well, it’s not dead yet anyway).

If you leave a comment on discussion sites, why not include a link to http://warpsixbbs.wordpress.com/ in your signature line of your posts. If there is good link-back to this site, the Google ranking will improve.

Oh, that’s how Google works, by the way… A site ranks higher as more sites link to it. Links appearing on important sites help even more!

Thank you for your indulgence as we improve this site and come back often!

This was the only one that seemed to be the easiest on the eyes and still maintained most of the same features.

Let’s give it a try for a few days, and we could leave it as the new theme or quickly go back to the old one.

I know the other theme has a lot of nostalgic feel, but I also found it a bit harsh and I also found the spacing of text lines, etc. to be too open.

It’s easy to switch themes as it doesn’t affect the content.

Things that I’ve noticed already:

1) The comment entry box is always there up at the top of the page instead of the bottom. This is nice!

2) If you LOG IN rather that making replies and new comments while logged out, the comment box is bigger and can even be enlarged. This is a bonus feature for registered users.

3) The tagline doesn’t show in this theme, but it could be put into the text on the “About” page.

4) There’s a nice dotted separation line between messages.

Anyway, give it a try and just put your comments into the General or Tech Talk areas… or send email to the Warp Six email account.

The Warp Six email account is: warpsixbbs@gmail.com

* Chronology of Warp Six, from the beginning. *

Warp Six running as an Apple II program on the Apple IIGS where it finished “the 1st generation” in 2001.

1985

June The name “Warp Six” is chosen.
July Programming begins.
Aug. Most of the machine language portion is written.
Sept. 12 Warp Six goes online with hours 8pm to 8 am, five days a week at 300 baud.
December The Great Word Processor Debate.

1986

Jan. The birth of the Padded Room.
March The Writer’s Lair makes its debut.
April Sub-forums are eliminated due to popular demand.
June 23 The hard drive accidentally erased at the store; the system has to start again with no message base, and only a few records of the user file keyed in by hand.
Sept.12 The first anniversary.
November The push for donations; the Members’ Forum is born.
Dec. 13 The first Warp Six dinner, at The Keg.

1987

Jan. Independence! Warp Six moves home, to 24 hour operation from a new phone number, operating on a hard drive paid for by donating users.
Mar. 15 Quickscan is introduced.
April Warp Six goes 1200 baud.
May Warp Six gets its own computer, on loan.
May 16 The second Warp Six dinner takes place, at Hughie’s. August Reply by mail feature added to forums.
Sept. 12 The second anniversary.
Oct. 25 Jim Ferr announces resignation as Sysop.
Oct. The third Warp Six dinner is held at Miller’s.
Nov. 21 Ken Cohen takes over as Sysop.
Nov. Financial Post & Legal Host forum is born.
Dec. Warp Six goes 2400 baud with modem donated by Charles Martyn.

1988

(no date) Another Warp Six dinner, at Ginsberg & Wong’s.
Sep. 12 Third anniversary.
Oct. 22 Warp Six Dinner, at Miller’s.
July 24 Warp Six Picnic, cut short due to rain.
Nov. 12 Jim Ferr returns from sabbatical as Sysop.
Dec. 3 Warp Six third annual Christmas Dinner, Old Spaghetti Factory.
Dec. 4 Warp Six buys a used Hayes Smartmodem 2400.

1989

March Ken Cohen agrees to take over as sysop once again.
April 15 Several software changes are made. Members forum eliminated.
April 15 Warp Six needs a new name, and is now temporarily ‘W6′.
April 23 Ken Cohen takes over the “new” system.
Summer Warp Six Dinner – date unknown. Miller’s. Remainder of Warp Six debt written off.
Dec. 2 Jim Low takes over as sysop from Ken Cohen at new number: (416) 690-8038. Name Warp Six remains.
Dec. 23 Jim Ferr updates software to version 4.0B.

1990

Jan. 7 Warp Six dinner at Ginsberg & Wong arranged by Hamish Grant. Attended by 13.
Feb. ProFile Hard drive acts up, finally resulting in Warp Six running from two 5.25″ drives for a few days. Jim Ferr provides another ProFile.
Feb. Jim Ferr makes many revisions to software, version 4.0 Includes “Hot Keys.”
Feb. 17 Original ProFile repaired and returned to service.
May 13 Warp Six dinner at “Mr. Greek” on Danforth.
June 28 Warp Six starts running from a RAMdisk for two weeks on an Apple IIgs while sysop on holidays. Much faster operation and more reliable than using ProFile drive, but risk of everything being lost if power failure.
July 13 Warp Six returns to Apple IIe and Profiles after successful two-week unattended run from RAMdisk.
July 29 First Annual Warp Six BBQ at residence of sysop, Jim Low September Jim Ferr upgrades Warp Six software to version 5.
Sept. 14 Fifth anniversary dinner at Millers. Attended by 16.
Sept. 16 Change in Warp Six policy. Revert to non-member and Donating Member status, eliminating the loonie requirement. Non-members have read/write access to first 5 forums only.
Oct. Introduction of Forum 8 “Special Topic.” Members take turns hosting topics of their choice.
Nov. 6 Warp Six purchases Apple High Speed SCSI card at a low price from Jim Ferr, to be used with a hard drive to be purchased at a later date.
Nov-Dec Jim Ferr upgrades Warp Six BBS software to version 6.0.
Dec. 27 Warp Six switches hard drive from 5 meg ProFile to 20 meg Apple SCSI hard drive. Offered for sale to Warp Six by current sysop (Jim Low).
Dec. 30 Warp Six dinner at The Old Fish Market Restaurant, attended by 11. Organized by Johnny Yan.
Dec. 30 Warp Six purchases Apple SCSI hard drive and cable from Jim Low, after he agrees to price suggested by Ken Cohen and Jim Ferr.

1991

Jan – Mar Gulf War discussion. Heated debate. Several hundred posts, including one short period when the 99 post limit of a Forum was reached in 3 days.

Mar 18 Vote feature re-introduced. Do you want a sports forum?
Jun 16 Warp Six upgraded to version 7 by author, Jim Ferr.
Jun 29 Further upgrade to version 7.7
Jun 30 Grant Robinson takes over as sysop. Operates via remote until hardware transfer can be arranged in July.
Jul 21 Warp Six hardware is moved to the new telephone number at (416) 276-4537.
Sept 26 Accidental hard drive format erases 2 weeks worth of messages with the system being restored from a backup.
Nov 17 Another Warp Six dinner Held at Meyers Deli in Yorkville.
Dec. Warp 6 software updated to version 8.9.

1992

Jan 4 The general files section gets a much needed re-organization which includes new sub-catagories.
Feb 10 Vote section opened by Jim Ferr to determine how many people will come to the upcoming dinner.
Mar 2 Another great W6 dinner at the Old Fish Market with 13 attendees. Organized by Jim Ferr.
April 14 Thanks to Applecare, Warp Six is operating with a brand new 20 meg SCSI hard drive.
May 17 All system menus were redone for 80 columns and to improve readability.
Jul 29 Warp Six upgraded to version 8.9.3.

1993

Jan Another successful dinner held at Millers Country Fair Restaurant.
March 23 Warp Six is the proud owner of an Apple IIGS floppy drive and ram expansion card.
March 27 The new computer is up and running with an impressive increase in speed.
April 24 Warp Six gets a new 20 Meg SCSI hard drive thanks to Applecare.
May 7 The old Warp Six Apple IIe is sold to John Jones.
May 31 Another successful Warp Six dinner is held at the Monte Carlo Italian Restaurant with nine attendees.
May The Warp Six software goes through a rash of Software upgrades with V. 2.2 being the latest and includes future opportunities for high speed modem support.
October 17 Deena Rasky becomes the new Warp 6 Sysop at (416) 469-1843.

1994

Jan 17 Warp Six moves again with new phone number: (416) 538-1628.
Jan 23 Even with Warp Six down because of the move, another dinner, this time at Omonia Restaurant. Eleven participants.
Sept. 25 Get together at Miller’s. Ten people, this time with door prizes courtesy of Apple User Connection and some extras.
Nov. 24 ATI modem 14.4 bps purchased for Warp 6. Runs ok at 9600 but not at full speed.
Dec. 4 Warp 6 dinner at Madras Durbar. More door prizes given out.

1995

Jan Version 3.0 out on public domain, Jim Ferr gets a Hayes modem to test out.
Jan 14 Warp 6 dinner at the Old Fish Market. 11 people attended. Arranged by Jim Ferr and Deena Rasky.
Feb 19 Jim Low becomes sysop again, but BBS is located at home of Frank Kucharski. New number: (416) 638-1340. First time chief sysop and hardware not at same location on a permanent basis.
Oct 23 Warp Six Dinner at Millers.

1996

Jun Warp Six computer failure. Warp Six spends $50 for replacement CPU.

1997

Sep 23 Hardware moves to Jim Low’s place with new number: 416-690-8038. Same number Warp Six had from Dec 1989 to June 1991.

1998

Nov 8 Major revisions to Forum setup to Warp Six, reducing from 9 to 5. Delete some of the stale General files.

1999

Mar 21 Warp Six dinner at Madras Durbar on Gerrard near Woodfield.

2000

Jan 1 New Chief Sysop is Robert Radford. Hardware remains at Jim Low’s place.
Apr 30 Warp Six Dinner at Miller’s Country Fare Restaurant with 9 of us present! More than regular callers.
Oct-Dec Jim Ferr looking into transfer of Warp Six to internet. Now have own Domain name: www.warpsixbbs.on.ca.

2001

Feb 4 Official “decommissioning of Warp Six hardware and shutdown of dial-up service on Apple IIgs. Current sysop Robert Radford makes “last post” in The Padded Room. One word: “Quack.” First sysop and founder, Jim Ferr, disconnects power. Celebrate “A Little Taste of Summer” barbecue at the home of Jim Low.

Feb Mark Sissons sets up Warp Six newsgroup where users continue to make posts. Jim Ferr continues to look into setting up server for www.warpsixbbs.on.ca but currently not working. Jim Low has a Warp Six message area on LOGIC BBS to be used ONLY for keeping users informed.
March 13 Jim Low offers to run Warp Six on his G4.
March 14 Mark Sissons creates a new account with Rogers to host Warp Six web site. Warp Six moves to Jim Low’s G4 after trouble keeping it running from Jim Ferr’s remote server.
March 19 Warp Six is running at warpsixbbs.homeip.net and the webpage is at http://web.mac.com/marksis/warpsixbbs/index.html.
May 17 Money Forum added to Warp Six at request of Ken Cohen.

2002

Warp Six ran on this Macintosh Centris 650 via RumorMill nntp server software and finished “the 2nd generation” in 2010.

Jan 24 Warp Six test site running with new version of RumorMill software.
Jan 25 Mark Sissons starts running Warp Six from his G4, being moved from Jim Low’s G4.
Feb 21 Attempt to run Warp Six from LOGIC BBS server attempted, but caused problems with LOGIC BBS, so quickly restored to Mark’s place and on a Quadra 650.
March 27 Power outage causes Warp Six to lose messages: restored from backup six weeks old.
May 4 Warp Six hardware moves to home of Ross Wright.

2003

Running with few problems. Occasional IP address change results in downtime of a few hours at a time. Mark Sissons left Toronto in May, but continues to assist Ross Wright, remotely.

2004

Early Aug Warp Six goes down.
Sep 23 Warp Six back up after being down for about six weeks due to several issues.

2005 to 2007

Running on the internet as a newsgroup with only a few users. Occasional downtime when power failures and IP address changes.

2008

Nov. Jim Low sets up Apple IIgs in his new home in Cobourg and plays around with old Warp Six software. Sets up offline for local use.
Dec. 3 “Warp Six Lunch.” Jim Low meets Jim Ferr (author and original sysop of Warp Six) for lunch at Harvey’s in Oshawa where Jim Ferr gives Jim Low an old Hayes modem. No cable available and Jim Low to look into finding a custom cable. Jim Ferr sends documentation to Jim Low.

2009

Jan. Jim Low asks his son-in-law to make custom cable — may be a while. Plans to set up temporary dialup Warp Six for short period for testing — no serious plans for return to dialup on a permanent basis. Warp Six down for a week caused by power failure. Still only a few callers: primarily Mark Sissons, Robert Radford, and Jim Low.

2010

Ross Wright sysop of Warp Six longer than any other sysop.
Jan Still no custom cable. Trying another friend, but may be a while, if at all. Still looking for custom cable for Warp Six to test dialup. Boot up Warp Six locally on an Apple IIgs and it works locally.  Jim thinking of holding a “Warp Six barbecue.” ;-)
The IP address keeps changing from time to time, as well as power outages in my area that made it keep changing.

Jan 9 Mark Sissons builds a WordPress blog site that is a close match for the Warp Six BBS discussion forums. Old members are invited to evaluate the site. If there is general consensus, we may begin the 3rd generation of Warp Six since its inception. First as a BBS site running on Apple II hardware and accessed via dial-up. Then as a newsgroup server running on a Centris 650 computer running an early version of the OS and the RumorMill nntp server program and then finally, as a WordPress blog site on the internet.

HARDWARE SYSOPS (where different from SYSOP):
Frank Kucharski Feb 19, 1995 – Sep 23, 1997
Jim Low Sep 23, 1997 – Feb 4, 2001
Jim Low Mar 17, 2001 – Jan 24, 2003

SYSOPS:
Jim Ferr Sep 12, 1985 – Nov 20, 1987 (author and founder) Ken Cohen Nov 21, 1987 – Nov 11, 1988
Jim Ferr Nov 12, 1988 – Apr 22, 1989
Ken Cohen Apr 23, 1989 – Dec 1, 1989
Jim Low Dec 2, 1989 – Jul 30, 1991
Grant Robinson Jul 30, 1991 – Oct 17, 1993 Deena Rasky Oct 17, 1993 – Feb 19, 1995
Jim Low Feb 19, 1995 – Jun 1, 1995
John Jones Jun 1, 1995 – Dec 31, 1999
Robert Radford Jan 1, 2000 – Feb 4, 2001
Mark Sissons Mar 2001 – May 4, 2003
Ross Wright May 4, 2003 to present

Registered users given “Editor” class access will be able to edit posts after they are created. However, this is a global ability, and so will be restricted to trusted accounts. You’d essentially be like the old “co-sysop” of the days of BBSes.

Currently, adding messages is un-moderated but this will be enabled if there is abuse at this site. Also, I’ve changed the posts to be displayed in reverse chronological order as per a suggestion of Jim Ferr. Message threading up to ten levels has also been enabled. If this is distracting, it can be turned off.

Currently up to ten messages (top level, rather than replies being included) will appear before messages get pushed to “Previous” sub-pages. This puts the entry box for new messages fairly far down the page requiring some scrolling. If this is found to be annoying, we can change to set how many top level messages appear on any page before older messages are pushed into “Previous” sub-pages.

I’ve also added an extra section called the Warp Six Blog which would be a nice place to add full POSTS such as a history of the Warp Six BBS, etc.

Jan. 11 — I’ve been tweaking a few settings and editing some titles here and there… Comments now named as “Forums” on the left side and Posts renamed as “Blogs”. This should make it more clear. Also, list of topic areas on the left side now matches the order of the navigation links along the top.

If I think of more to pass along, I’ll probably just update this message rather than creating a new post entry.

However, I think it is more than adequate to just do everything as comments. Otherwise it gets confusing.

We’re using a blog engine as a BBS in a way, and so it isn’t the traditional use.

Normally, a blog site has long boring stories posted by Authors, and then the public “comments” on those stories.

Because of how we are going to use this software, it makes more sense to just work with a long string of comments and treat them like the old posts from the days of the BBS.