@database "ar314.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #3.14 -- July 30, 1995" @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1995 FS Publications All Rights Reserved // =====================================//==================================== == July 30, 1995 \\// Issue No. 3.14 == =========================================================================== @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN =========================================================================== == Main Menu == =========================================================================== @{" Editorial " link OPINION} @{" Featured Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" News & Press Releases " link NEWS} @{" FTP Announcements " link FTP} @{" Reader Mail " link MAIL} --------------------------------- @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link ABOUT} @{" Dealer Directory " link DEALER} Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Advertisements " link COMMERCIAL} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 3.14 July 30, 1995 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode =========================================================================== == The Amiga Report Staff == =========================================================================== @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == EDITOR == =========================================================================== Jason Compton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 708/741-0689 708/289-7047 @endnode @node ROBERT "Senior Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == SENIOR EDITOR == =========================================================================== Robert Niles ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- rniles@Wolfe.NET 506 W. Orchard Selah, WA 98942 FidoNet Fax ------- --- 1:3407/103 509/697-5064 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.com @endnode @node SEAN "Games Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == GAMES EDITOR == =========================================================================== Sean Caszatt ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Sean.Caszatt@f512.n2601.z1.fidonet.org @endnode @node WILLIAM "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == CONTRIBUTING EDITOR == =========================================================================== William Near ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- wnear@epix.net @endnode @node OPINION "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} == =========================================================================== It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... It seems like what should be our greatest assets are our greatest detriments. Take, for example, the horrifying distribution of AR 3.13. It totally overloaded the listserv. Some people got 80 copies, others got none. Those that DID get it who didn't have OS 3.x ran into a slight problem because we made an AmigaGuide error that only affects pre-3.0 AmigaGuide (BTW, guys, delete line 1991. It'll work then.) We're returning to the manual-script method of distribution. Hey, it's slower, but it's less hassle for readers. And then there's Amiga Technologies. What was originally cause for great rejoicing is now sending some Amiga users packing. Not everyone is pleased with the strategic decisions and marketing plans the company has laid out. Still, all hope is not lost. Amiga Technologies has shown they will listen to a mass user revolt. The force of negative energy that responded to the projected US$3500 price of the 4000T brought the company to hold a distribution conference, and the new price, reported in a dealer letter sent out by CEI, is roughly $2700. Certainly, nothing to write home about. Still uncompetitive in the home computer market. But it's an improvement. And if Amiga users can continue to join together to make good things happen-then the fight is never over. Take AmiJAM '95 and the upcoming Amiga Convention '95. Two grassroots organizations putting on shows. Of course, it would be great to have a parent company willing to organize such events, but for now, we'll live. Make no mistake, though. The clock on Amiga Technologies' borrowed time is ticking, and that time is running out rapidly. We need a bonanza. We need an event. Amiga Technologies MUST show the Amiga community, and the world, that they will be a serious player in the world of computing for the rest of this century and beyond. Everyone else is vying to make this statement. It's do or die time. Jason P.S. For those who didn't get AR 3.13 and would still like to get a hold of it, any Aminet site will carry it in the directory pub/aminet/docs/mags. If you do not have direct FTP access, there is an excellent FTP-Mail server on src.doc.ic.ac.uk. To use it, send mail to ftpmail@src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ask for HELP. (This site is also an Aminet mirror site, making it doubly convenient.) @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Commercial Products == =========================================================================== @{" Editor's Choice " link EDITORCHOICE} Jason's picks @{" Portal Information Systems " link PORTAL} A great place for Amiga users. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Announce " link FTP} @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Reader Mail == =========================================================================== RE: Magic Workbench 2.0 Review -- For all those Magic Workbench 2.0 users who would like to see the special boot screen every time the Amiga is turned on, here's how you do it: Find the line in your startup-sequence (and user-startup if you'd like) that says: RUN >NIL: C:MagicWB-Demon 4,123,123,123....; Don't remove this line! and add the word "XEN" right before all of the numbers like this: RUN >NIL: C:MagicWB-Demon XEN 4,123,123....; Don't remove this line! Special thanks to the following people for writing in to tell me how to use this feature: Jens Schipper Jens@trashcan.han.de Paul Dolk P.Dolk@id.hsholland.nl Lacroce Marisa lacroce@server.uwindsor.ca John Scotto JSCOTTO@delphi.com -- @{" Katherine Nelson " link KATIE} @endnode @node NEWS1 "Zipperware Expansion" @toc NEWS Zipperware is pleased to announce that as of July 1, 1995, Zipperware is expanding by a friendly takeover of Northwest Public Domain (NPD). We will continue providing the excellent support and service you've been getting from NPD. We would like to wish John McNab, owner of NPD, success with his new ventures now and in the future. Thank you all for your continued support of the Amiga, NPD, and Zipperware! Christopher Maland, Owner Zipperware 76 South Main Street Seattle, WA 98104 206-233-1107 206-233-9395 fax @endnode @node NEWS2 "Amiga Technologies Press Releases" @toc NEWS Amiga Technologies at the IFA fair in Berlin Bensheim, 18/07/95 >From the 26th of August to the 3rd of September 1995, Amiga Technologies, together with ESCOM and Virtual Products will be represented on its booth in hall 26.A at the "Internationale Funkausstellung" fair in Berlin. This will be the first time since the liquidation of Commodore that Amigas will officially be presented to the public on a fair. The products Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000T will be displayed in different configurations and with several applications. Amiga Technologies will be happy to house third party developpers and manufacturers on its booth. Escom will introduce the new line of Commodore Golf PCs and Virtual Products GmbH will show the i-glasses for the first time in Europe. Amiga Technologies GmbH and Virtual Products GmbH are both companies of the ESCOM group. Contact : Gilles Bourdin Amiga Technologies Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6252 709 417 -- Gilles Bourdin -- A\//T --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Amiga developper brainstorming in Heppenheim, Germany. Bensheim, 18/07/95 On the 7th of July, Amiga Technologies invited all main hardware and software development companies in Germany to a brainstroming meeting in Heppenheim. Manfred Schmitt, chairman of the board at ESCOM AG and Petro Tyschtschenko, General Manager at Amiga Technologies used the opportunity to present the new Amiga daughtercompany of ESCOM and the plans for the future to the attendance. The main discussion topics were about the development of the actual product range in the future. Amiga Technologies wants to build up tight cooperations with the most successfull development companies worldwide. "There is a high potential for development from third party and we want this people to be on our side and to work with us", says Manfred Schmitt. During the meeting, the Amiga Technologies staff and the developpers could exchange their views and plans on the future of the Amiga. The use of Amiga technology in the set-top-boxes market as well as the migration towards new generation models were also discussed topics. In August, Amiga Technologies will also hold a conference for the press, the developpers and the dealers in London. Contact : Gilles Bourdin Amiga Technologies Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6251 709 417 -- Gilles Bourdin -- A\//T --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Amiga Technologies is building up its worldwide distribution network. Bensheim, 18/07/95 After building up its operations in Germany, Amiga Technologies set up its international distribution network. The Amiga office in Philadelphia, USA, led by Ed Goff, is in charge of organizing the USA distribution. There will be a sales meeting in the USA next week where american distributors will be invited to discuss the market situation and future price policy for the USA. Petro Tyschtschenko, General Manager at Amiga Technologies GmbH will conduct that meeting. Amiga Responsibilities are located in several countries and are supplying other attached countries as follows : AMIGA Germany for Germany and Poland, led by Rolf Wiehe AMIGA Marketing Vertriebs Service Gunzostrasse 3 D - 61352 Bad Homburg Phone : +49 6172 45 99 09 Fax : +49 6172 45 95 77 AMIGA United Kingdom for UK, South Africa and India, led by Jonathan Anders N6 Bridge Avenue Maidenhead Berkshire SL 61 RR United Kingdom Phone : +44 1628 7700 25/36/41 Fax : +44 1628 7700 22 AMIGA USA for USA and Canada, led by J. Edward Goff Attorney of Law - Suite 1705 1528 Walnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102 USA Phone : +1 215 546 3400 Fax : 1 215 546 3460 AMIGA Switzerland for Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Greece, Bulgary, Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic / Slovakia, Russia, led by Willy Scheiwiller ESCOM Handels AG Z=FCrichstrasse 48 CH - 8134 ADLISWIL Phone +41 1 710 9240 Fax +41 1 710 9800 AMIGA Belgium for Belgium, Luxemburg, ed by Dirk de Wageniere Vermeeschlaan, 29 B - 25040 HOVE Phone : +32 3 454 3233 Fax : +32 3 454 0973 AMIGA Iberia for Portugal, Spain, and Africa (except south Africa), led by Joaquim Ramos Costa Apartado (PO Box) 1735 1017 Lisboa Codex Portugal Phone/Fax +351 1 41 42 732 (operative from June 20th) Other locations will be set-up for countries not mentioned above, like France. Contact : Gilles Bourdin Amiga Technologies Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6252 709 417 -- Gilles Bourdin -- A\//T --- --- --- --- --- --- --- A new Logo for the Amiga. The Amiga had its official rebirth on the 30th of May at the press conference held in Frankfurt by Amiga Technologies and ESCOM. Projects for the future concerning company identity and new casing designs were presented to the attendance. The logo from Frogdesign has finally been chosen. It is a simple and elegant symbol that will from now on accompany the Amiga and its fans. Frogdesign states about the brand : "The Amiga Wordmark evokes both a classic and elegant feel as well as modern look. Bodoni, the font selected to build upon is a classic font. Further refinements involving the manipulation and substraction of serifs and the addition of the red square create a progressive, yet elegant logo. the red square represents technology and adds energy to the logo by implying a sense of motion." Contact : Gilles Bourdin Amiga Technologies Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6252 709 417 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Amiga Technologies distribution in the USA There has recently been an announcement made by an american distributor about a price for the Amiga 4000T of 3500 USD. We would like to contradict this information as it has not come from one of our official press releases. There have been no firm distribution contracts or agreements signed yet for northern America. There has been no decision taken yet concerning the pricing of the Amiga 4000 T in the USA. There will be a sales meeting in the USA next week where all american dealers will be invited to discuss the market situation and future price policy for the USA. Petro Tyschtschenko, General Manager at Amiga Technologies GmbH will conduct that meeting. Manfred Schmitt, Chairman of the Board at ESCOM AG and Petro Tyschtschenko will thereafter take the decision for the pricing of the Amiga 4000 T in the USA. Potential Amiga dealers are welcome to send in their applications for becoming one of our distributors in Northern America. Contact : Gilles Bourdin Amiga Technologies Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6252 709 417 Regards, Gilles Bourdin Public Relations Tel +49 6252 709 195 Fax +49 6252 709 417 -- Amiga Technologies GmbH Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Germany -- @endnode @node NEWS3 "Silicon Prairie Software" @toc NEWS From: davepl@microsoft.com (David Plummer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Attn: New address/email for Silicon Prairie (HyperCache) Since it seems the "number has changed" message has expired on the old phone number, you might want to make note of the new address for Silicon Prairie Software (makers of HyperCache Pro): (We've been here almost two years, but still a lot of mail goes to our old address. So, here's the "new" one) Silicon Prairie Software N202-4771 148th Ave NE Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 556-0618 email support: hyper@iceonline.com In response to a few questions of late: Yes, we are still alive! Yes, we are still producing and supporting HyperCache. Yes, it really should be built into the operating system :-) - Dave -- The opinions expressed in this message are my own personal views and do not reflect the official views of Microsoft Corporation. HyperCache/SPS is not related to Microsoft in any tangible way. @endnode @node NEWS4 "Termite V1.10" @toc NEWS Oregon Research Termite V1.10 Upgrade Press Release July 27, 1995 Oregon Research is proud to announce a major upgrade to Termite, a modern Telecommunications package for the Amiga. Some of the new features in version 1.10 include: o Built in ZMODEM protocol hand-optimized in assembly language for speed. o Improved internal emulation. The new internal ANSI emulator is optimized, robust, and has been extensively tested with the most complex ANSI screens we could find. The new VT102 emulator is highly optimized and is ideal for use with UNIX or VMS dialup accounts. Both of the built-in emulations have mouse-based cut-and-paste functionality. o Jump scrolling. Instead of scrolling the screen one line at a time, Termite monitors incoming serial data and scrolls up multiple lines at a time, for a huge speed increase. o Multitasking review buffer. The terminal and review buffer can be used simultaneously! o Enhanced chat window. The chat window now maintains a resizable "history" which keeps track of the text you have sent. A single click on a line in the history brings it up for editing. A double click on a history line instantly resends it. o Predefined palettes. The screen settings requester now provides buttons which allow you to switch between ANSI, RIP, and Termite default color palettes with the click of a button. o Review buffer filter. Optional filtering of ANSI codes out of the review buffer. o New ARexx macro capabilities and button bar functions. o New manual and quick reference card. Termite works on all Amiga systems with 1Mb or more of memory and WorkBench 2.0 or higher. Termite 1.10 retails for $49.95 and is available now. Upgrades for registered users to Termite 1.10 is US $10.00 for a new disk and the quick reference card, or US $15.00 for a new disk, the quick reference card, and second edition manual. There is a $2 shipping charge on upgrades to covre materials and postage. (Please Note: Some copies of Termite 1.00 already have the second edition manual. Check the copyright page of your manual to make sure.) For more information or a copy of detailed product literature contact: Oregon Research 16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162 Tigard, OR 97224 Ph: (503) 620-4919 FAX: (503) 624-2940 Internet: orres@teleport.com Genie: ORA CompuServe: 71333,2655 @endnode @node FEATURE1 "AmiJAM '95 Show Report" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== AMIJAM '95 SHOW REPORT By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== In mid-July, the Amiga Users of Calgary (AMUC from now on) held the first North American Amiga show of this tumultuous year. I was fortunate enough not only to be at the show, but a part of it as well. When the show organizers contacted me, asking me to give a couple of talks, I was thrilled. I was sold when I learned they'd pay to fly me out and book my hotel stay. I got to see a lot of Canada that day, flying from Chicago to Vancouver to Kelowna to Edmonton to Calgary. But the show was more important. It was a two-day event, kicked off early Saturday morning to a lined-up crowd outside the door. Demonstrating and hawking their wares at the show were Canadian dealer chain/distributor Wonder Computers; Oregon Research, publishers of Termite and On the Ball and distributors of several UK-based Amiga products including the Squirrel PCMCIA SCSI interface; AmiTrix, an Edmonton-based Amiga engineering and product distribution company, local dealers Software Supermart and The Computer Shop, and Spots, a local Internet service provider with active Amiga support. These made up the main show floor. Two rooms, one large auditorium and a smaller, classroom environment, were used for presentations and seminars that went on during the course of the show. To fill the time, Dave Haynie, Dale Larson, and I were brought out to give a pair of presentations each. In addition, local experts on 3D rendering and Amiga programming got their day in court, and Wonder's Steve Vetzal gave an Internet presentation. For my part, I gave a couple of talks on emulation-neither of which went as well as I'd have liked, owing to difficulties in locating the right hardware combinations for the software I brought. I can't complain, though. Dave Haynie, former senior hardware engineer for Commodore, presently employed in a similar capacity at Scala, launched the auditorium speech series with a Scala-assisted talk on the history of the Amiga. Nearly two hours long, Dave kept the crowd interested non-stop, covering little-known details and potholes in the development of key hardware products, complete with a lesson on how to dodge FCC regulations. Later, Haynie unveiled a prototype motherboard for Nyx, the AAA development machine. It was one of the basis for his seminar on Amiga hardware. Dale Larson, former Commodore networking software engineer and presently el Presidente of Intangible Assets Manufacturing, gave a small-room seminar on Amiga networking (note: people had to pay to get into those small-room seminars) and an auditorium talk with a basic theme of "Fun stuff to do with an Amiga on the Internet." I made sure Amiga Report was mentioned at least twice. The show floor marched on through both days, regardless of who was talking when. Wonder sprawled across nearly a quarter of the show floor, with software piled high off the tables. Of particular note were the products they were selling as a result of their buyout of the New Horizons "B" pack of liquidation assets, most importantly DesignWorks, the structured drawing package. Wonder's sister company Lazarus Engineering had turned DesignWorks into a 1.1 version, bringing it up to full 2.x/3.x OS compliance. Also being sold and shown was PowerManager, a drive caching/screen blanking/power conservation package. A week after the show, Lazarus' head engineer, Steve Cockwell, informed me that a totally revamped DesignWorks would be hitting the shelves soon with a new manual. He also informed me that PowerManager's future was uncertain-the product was completed specifically for AmiJAM (the box sleeves were printed with the designation "Special AmiJAM Version!") and Wonder has not committed to mass-marketing the product. Oregon Research, across the hall, had its entire product line on hand for sale and display. The long-awaited Termite 1.1 was available (and I walked away with one for review). Bob Luneski, president, didn't mention any new upcoming products, but at least one, On the Ball, seems headed for something of a refit. We exchanged notes for a time, and I learned, among other things, that the rights to the Atari ST have been sold to a German company. (Oregon Resarch also distributes products for that line of computers and apparently does very well by it, particularly in dense pockets of users in the music business in California.) AmiTrix had the SCSI-TV, SCSI-570, and AmigaLink on display. AmigaLink is the floppy drive-port SANA-II compliant networking solution that AmiTrix recently got distribution rights for. SCSI-TV and SCSI-570 are original products that bring a full SCSI interface to A570 and CDTV users via the special expansion port on those units. Software Supermart brought a bunch of software and sold a ton of it. Spots was a great outlet for people who wanted to check their e-mail and were far from home. Unfortunately, I never got my turn. The Computer Shop seemed to want to sell this Toaster 2000 system really bad. I don't think they ever did, though. The AMUC crew held down the fort, trying to make sure all participants registered (to get an accurate attendance figure), keeping the speakers and presenters and table-holders happy, and raffling off donated prizes (largely sent by companies who felt guilty about not attending). AMUC also organized an All Night Hacker's Party Saturday night and a post-show banquet on Sunday. I have no idea if the all night party really went all night, but I have my doubts, since everyone looked pretty tired around midnight. The banquet was a chance to kick back, relax, and congratulate everyone for actually pulling the show off successfully. The food wasn't bad, either. What was the general mood at the show? Maybe that can best be felt through the panel discussion held at the end of the Sunday events. It consisted of Brant Coghlan of AmiTrix, Dale Larson (who held a minor coup and became the MC of the discussion), Dave Haynie, myself, and Steve Vetzal and Steve Cockwell of Wonder. "Strong concern" is the term. People are strongly concerned about the path Amiga Technologies is headed down-one with cloudy skies and uninspiring decisions. It seems clear that strong leadership with populist motivation was the sort of thing Amiga users wanted and needed, and they're not getting it, and it's making them uncomfortable. Also discussed was what the panel would like to see for future development of the Amiga line. PowerPC was a virtually unanimous choice. As Dave Haynie put it, "it will be the only RISC chip with a chance to be priced as a commodity item." Was it a successful show? Everyone has to make their own decisions on that one. AMUC wanted better attendance (it was a matter of hundreds-registered attendees numbered somewhere around 300-400). Of course, the dealers wanted better attendance for more sales, although Software Supermart was said to be "very happy" and Wonder was in a pretty good situation-with the opening of Western Canada dealerships, much of the unsold inventory went directly to the new stores. I had a great time, got to put lots of faces to what were previously just names and (rarely) voices, and even got Dave Haynie to agree to do articles for Amiga Report and Amiga Report Tech Journal. I had a great time. The Wild Side ------------- Just a collection of anecdotes and stories, largely taken from the non-AmiJAM action that weekend. Friday night: After Dale and Dave finally arrived at our hotel suite, the three of us, along with AMUC and AmiTrix members went out to Jezebel's, a local bar and grill. As the night wore on, just about everyone got worn out, save Dave, who had consumed roughly 1.5 pitchers of Warthog beer. As a hint that maybe we should leave, Dale inquired, "What, does beer keep you awake?!?!" The Karaoke Chronicles: On Saturday, many of Friday night's veterans went looking for a Karaoke bar. After some 6 different bars all over Calgary, we finally found one. Dale Larson blew a fuse on the Karaoke equipment about 1 minute into his rendition of "Wild Thing". Undaunted, he went on to restart the song, as well as sharing "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" and "Bad to the Bone" with the crowd, much to the delight of the guys with cowboy hats. Other notable performances included my Karaoke debut of "Stand", the Dale/Dave/Jason/Brant version of "Eat It", and an eventual sextet of "Addicted To Love." On Sunday, we got a bar all to ourselves for about 45 minutes before the AmiJAM banquet. This gave us more chances to look silly, including a Dale/Dave/Jason performance of "Whip It" (we had tried on Saturday night but they wouldn't let us), Dave's "Losing My Religion", and a tag-team version of "Let It Be" (Dale decided after a minute and a half that it was out of his range, so Dave took over.) Food and Drink: According to Dale Larson, el Presidente of IAM, Jezebel's serves one of the top 5 Zombie's he's ever had. I spilled beer on AMUC member and Amiga game publisher Ken Pierce, which is less exciting than it sounds. It was just a wild gesture I made where he happened to be holding his bottle. Canadian Subway shops aren't as good as those in the US. Still, it was fun seeing a bag of Doritos in both English and French. Here's looking forward to AmiJAM '96. @endnode @node FEATURE2 "Amiga Anagrams" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== TOP TEN ANAGRAMS FOR 'AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES' Kevin Hisel http://www.prairienet.org/~khisel/homepage.html =========================================================================== [ Article crossposted from comp.sys.amiga.advocacy ] [ Author was Kevin Hisel ] [ Posted on 25 Jun 1995 17:07:18 GMT ] I hope nobody takes offense at these (especially Gilles and the Good Doctor), but I simply cannot control which letters make up the subject material here! This is all in good fun! :-) 10. Gain might, cool ease. 9. Noise might ace goal! 8. Logic: gain some heat. 7. Giant loose...he magic! 6. Giant loose, cage him! 5. Gosh, aloe-meat icing! 4. Cite gang, hail moose! 3. Shame: Anti-ego logic. 2. Nice metal; gags Ohio. ...and the #1 anagram for 'Amiga Technologies': 1. Hail! Giant egos come! ---- Arrived at with just a 'little' help from 'Main Sanitary Nag' (Anagram Insanity) at URL: http://www.infobahn.com/pages/anagram.html Enjoy! @endnode @node FEATURE3 "Escom U.S. Distributor Meeting" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== RESULTS OF THE ESCOM/U.S. DISTRIBUTOR MEETING HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, PA USA ON FRIDAY JULY 21, 1995 SHANE R. MONROE smonroe@awod.com REPRESENTING DARK UNICORN PRODUCTIONS AND BETTER CONCEPTS, INC =========================================================================== NOTE: A NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT WAS ESTABLISHED AT THIS MEETING AND THEREFORE CERTAIN ITEMS CANNOT BE DISCUSSED HERE. This is Shane Monroe reporting on the conference held in Philly regarding the distribution and pricing of the Amiga computer platform in the United States. I will organize this in several parts, so if there is a part that you are not interested in you may skip over it by looking for the next header flanked by asterisks. ** WHO WAS THERE ** Those attending the conference are listed below. The number of representatives present is indicated by parenthesis. Petro Tyschtschenko (1) - Senior Vice President Escom and General Manager of Amiga Technologies. Ed Goff (1) - Attorney, more or less leading the U.S. side of Amiga Technologies. The man we have all grown to love over the last several months! ;) Jeff (1; missed his last name) - Amiga Technologies' Engineer and the only one missing a tie. Better Concepts, Inc. (3) - Hardware/Software dealer Software Hut (3) - Hardware/Software dealer Lively Computers (2) - Hardware/Software dealer Micropace (1) - Hardware/Software dealer Metropolitan Computers (1) - Hardware/Software dealer CEI (2) - Hardware/Software/Misc. Amiga dealer/distributor Centaur Development (2) - Makers of the Opalvision and the most verbose people at the table. Several companies that were invited didn't make it, according to Mr. Goff. Most of the presentation was given by Petro with commentary by Ed and Jeff. Lively & Software Hut were very quiet for the most part, while Alex Amor of CEI seemed to be the meeting referee to keep us on topic as the day went on. Micropace had quite a bit to say, as did Metropolitan. The most input came from Centaur Development who spoke a great deal of the time. Better Concepts Inc (BCI) also had a lot to say and generated a lot of comment (as well as I think a bit of hate and discontent! ;) ** WHAT WAS SAID (OVERVIEW) ** The meeting was really quite open ended, especially after lunch. The better part of the morning was taken with a very interesting overview of ESCOM as well as a round-the-table introduction of everyone present. A few jokes passed, like some of my previous comments about him when Ed introduced himself. We then discussed configuration of the new Amiga 4000T and started talking about everyone's favorite topic: price. Petro solicited a price from the attendee's and we talked a little about other Amiga 4000T related topics, as well as other machine distribution. We broke for lunch and returned to have Petro get to the meat of the meeting and give the distributors a "how do you say it? Bottom of the line?" price of the machines. We then discusses numbers of units the attendee's believed could be sold and gave input in that general topic. CEI made it VERY plain to this attendee that he was solely there for the distribution information of the A4000T and really didn't care a lot about the other topics and didn't want anyone not having some volume buying power to be involved in the remainder of the meeting. At that point, distributors interested (and capable) in signing a distributor contract made appointments to speak with Petro alone later. This is where BCI's involvement ended at the meeting. I doubt that any of the distributors that stayed after this would be even SLIGHTLY interested in discussing their end of the meeting, so this is more or less where the meeting ended. ** THE AMIGA 4000T'S FUTURE IN THE U.S. ** I will bring this topic up first, since this seems to be the question on everyone's lips. Here are the common questions and the answers that *I AM ALLOWED TO GIVE*. None of these are falsehoods, but on the other hand are as vague as I have to be to keep from breaking the NDA. 1. Will Amiga 4000T be available in the U.S. for sure? A. At this point, yes they will. I think that the major point of this meeting was to determine the very future of the machine in the U.S. Based on the response from the attendee's, I believe production will continue and machines will indeed be available. 2. When will they be available? A. The first week of September is what was said. 3. How many will be made? A. Unknown at this time. I imagine that has a lot to do with how many the distributors told Petro they could move. Petro mentioned the number 20,000. I believe that there will be a good deal ready to go by September. Pre-sales will have a lot to do with it also, I bet. 4. Will they be available to everyone or just video guru's and big companies? A. The distributors seemed to have plans to sell them to any dealer who wanted them, so companies like BCI, Software Hut, etc. should be carrying them. 5. How much!!!!????? A. The question on everyone's lips, isn't it? It is also one of the very few bits of information I cannot divulge. The bottom of the truth is this. Distributors and dealers will be determining the final costs. Everyone at the table was revealed the 'distributors price' for the A4000T (that is NOT negotiable and volume will have no impact on). Without disclosure, I can tell you that every person at the table could *very easily* live with the quoted price (and they were ALL really pissed at the $3500 tag too). That should help you a bit. The street price, in my humble opinion, will be under $3000 but I cannot be quoted. It is out of everyone but the distributor's hands. 6. Specifications??? A. Another big question. Here is the layout. A4000T with an 040 or 060 processor, 512 MB or gig drive (this changed throughout the day, so I never got it quite right - assume it is a half gig), with 6 megs of RAM. Basically, what we already knew. 7. Is the bottle-necked memory handling of the original A4000 still there? A. Unfortunately so. However, it was my impression that the 060 board would rectify that problem. 8. Who is making the 060 card? Is it a Cyberstorm? A. This was not disclosed to the group and no one asked. 9. Is it the machine we are seeing on the Internet and in the latest Amazing Computing? A. No sir. The machine that is going around in picture is what I would call an Artist's Rendition and it is NOT what the machine actually looks like. Apparently the real machine is in a converted PC tower case. The interesting thing I heard was that the turbo button normally used for the PC is now an audio cutout switch. 10. Why the hell is this machine costing more now than an A4000 did at the end of the Commodore reign? A. This is the answer we got over and over again. This is also the answer to the 'why are the CD32s sitting in Philly being sold for $400?' question. The parts being put together just cost that much. This is what Jeff and Ed continued to tell us (mainly BCI who just can't believe it still) about the price tag. Apparently they are going into the old Phillipean factory and pulling certain parts off the motherboards for the newer model. Price, I suspect, will go down after the first 6-12 months or so, when the ramp up costs are paid, etc. 11. Where are they being made? A. They are all being made and assembled here in the U.S. As of now, the European market is not interested in the machine and Petro says that there are no orders placed there for the A4000T. If the machine IS brought in to Europe, they will be made in U.S.A. and assembled in Europe. GENERAL INFO The feeling I got was that the entire party was mainly interested in getting A4000T's to the people who already own Amigas and want more power or for existing Amiga 4000s who need the space. The primary reason for this feeling is that there are to be ZERO dollars spent on advertising in the U.S. by ESCOM/AT. Absolutely none. This was said by Petro himself. If this doesn't scare you, it should. However, NONE of the rest of the attendees other than BCI seemed to give a single care to this lack of marketing. Jeff even said that there was no way we could possibly take on the PC market. Pretty bad when your own engineer says there is no chance. This leads me to believe that the Amiga platform in the U.S. will remain a very isolated and unrespected niche market and once the demand is filled for immediate needs, that the market here will simply die. I could be wrong but that is how I see it. All attempts by myself and BCI to improve the machine's configuration to bring it to the 90's failed. The addition of even a cheap 2x speed CD-ROM STANDARDIZED into the Amiga 4000T failed miserably. I don't understand why these guys aren't interested in entering the 90's generation. Adding the equipment as an addition later won't demonstrate a commitment to the machine's future. Again, my humble opinion. ** THE A1200 ** This meeting was directed mainly at the A4000T in U.S.A. but at the same time, we have a lot of info here for you on the A1200 as well. Again, we will put it in Q&A form. 1. Is the U.S. going to get A1200s? A. This was the most infuriating part of the conference. Ed said "There is no market in the U.S. for A1200s". Jeff and seemingly Petro seemed to agree. To this, BCI told all of them they needed to come to our offices and answer the phone for about a week and then tell us again that there is no market. This wasn't well received. In any event, there are no plans to bring this machine to the U.S. Ed assured us that if we needed machines we could get them, but the overall impression was that there is not going to be anything done with it here. Sad. 2. Are there any new specs for the A1200? A. Well, we all got to look at the new tech sheets (which was neat), but alas, there were all in German. My poor German seemed to tell me that the machine was the same configuration as before. 3. How many are to be made? A. The number of 100,000 was put out. 40,000 of which have ALREADY been sold (to whom was not revealed). Basically, it is assumed that 30,000 or so are for Germany, 30-40,000 for U.K., and 10,000 for Italy. 4. Where are they being built? A. This will likely be new news for most of you. They are being made in a factory near Bordeaux, France. The company who owns it, SELECTRON (if I understood his pronunciation) is a U.S. based company that has factories all over the world. Interesting note is that this factory also makes Silicon Graphics workstations too, as well as lots of other things from dental parts to automobile parts. The factory is handling every aspect of the A1200s including assembly, boxing, etc. etc. ESCOM has a sweet deal there, and IMHO, will not be changing anytime soon. 5. The cost? A. Not mentioned at the meeting. 6. Where will they be available and when? A. September, as the A4000T. They are planned to be in over 1200 stores throughout Europe (a breakdown was shown, but that isn't really important here). They will also be available in very popular catalogs that have everything from frying pans to electronics in them. The European market will be SATURATED with A1200s. I love it. At least the U.K. developers (you listening OCEAN and TEAM 17???) will have a good reason to stay/come back. 7. What is the word on the A1200CD unit that C= U.K. halted production on before it was released? A. Not a priority (take that however you want to; I know how *I* am taking it). There was a mostly working prototype at the end, but the lack of FMV adaptability (and other things, I suspect) stopped it from hitting the market. Don't expect to ever see it, so stop waiting and get a Squirrel and drive 3rd party. 8. What about the A1300, and 030 based A1200s, etc.? A. Not divulged at the meeting. I really doubt that they exist at this time. GENERAL INFO The A1200, IMHO, will be a landmark success with the ESCOM chain and marketing power there in Europe (they send out almost 40 MILLION what they call high-flyers to the public every year for advertising). They owned over 50% of the Pentium market for their PC based side. These guys are rocking over there and what they tell the market to buy, the market will buy. Damn shame it isn't happening over here. As for the end of the A1200 in U.S.A., get your comments and letters ready and send them to me and I will forward them to Mr. Goff. Perhaps then they will see. The attractive price tag and performance of the A1200 (especially with some RAM and a nice drive) is exceptional. This is the market I think they should break open the U.S.A. with and I told them all so. Negative. ** CD32 ** God, this is the worst part of all. Q&A time. 1. How many CD32s are we looking at getting this year? A. Absolutely none. Zilch. "No market for the CD32" either. This is both U.S. and Europe. I really like the CD32 and I will miss the development for it dearly. Even with the 70,000+ units that have been sold, I doubt that there will be much more use for it. Ed said that it isn't dead, but 'not a priority'. Figure it out. 2. So I should just throw my machine out the door? A. No, there is still the SX-1 avenue to get a basic A1200 and you can always network it to your existing Amiga (or even the new A4000T since they won't make a CD-ROM in it). I would suspect support for another 6 months at best (Dark Unicorn Productions has several projects on the way so there will be at least one developer - blatant advertising plug). I just hope more developers will take the CD-ROM route and force Amiga people to get CD-ROM drives to be competitive. You guys like Softwood and Digita need to take note. 3. What about the 'new' CD32 we were told about in 1st Quarter 1996? A. As Norman Bates' mother would say "Its ALL LIES!". According to Jeff, there is no new CD32 on the shelf, nor was there ever. The Amiga console days are PROBABLY over (read on). 4. What is all this talk about CD32s for kiosk use? A. This seems to be the only thing ESCOM is willing to admit the CD32 is good for. I believe that they will continue to make the boards for the CD32 if nothing else for this purpose. 5. Who is Viscorp and what do they have to do with the CD32? A. You can read about this company and their plans in detail in Amiga Report Issue 313. The only thing wrong with this article (sorry Jason), is that there is NO OFFICIAL licence yet. There are discussions only at this point. The basic thing is that Viscorp will be making a set top box with some very exciting features out of the CD32 box. Apparently a prototype is completed. Every developer should contact them and see what we can do to support them in this endeavor. They are likely to be the only one's successful in the U.S. with Amiga technology. [While I have not been able to test this version of the story, it was quite plainly stated as a fact by Viscorp that a license agreement was in place. I have no idea why Amiga Technologies would deny this, or why Viscorp would lie about having one, either way. -Jason] GENERAL INFO For those of you who know me well, you realize that this was the most depressing part of the meeting. The CD32 while CURRENTLY isn't up to snuff with the latest consoles had a lot of selling points. In its early days, it could have owned the market. Now...Sigh. After all, CD-I is still selling. ** Interesting Points ** Here are some very interesting tidbits I picked up from the conference. Take a peek. 1. Alex Amor told us that NewTek is no longer going to be making the Video Toaster for the Amiga once the current 140 or so are sold. This is due to lack of certain parts (you buy that crap?) and Alex said that they are working with NewTek to reverse this game plan. Until then, if you ever wanted one, you better get it now. 2. Centaur Development stated that the Video Processor/Roaster chip is DONE and ready to go, pending the results of the conference and the outlook for the future of the Amiga. ALthough they didn't say it, I believe that it will indeed ship now that there is a commitment to the A4000T's future. This should healthily assume the position of the Video Toaster in U.S. and Europe. 3. FMV seems to be a dead issue. Unless the third party developers such as CEI and the unknown U.K. company I mentioned in my previous periodicals continue development on FMV cards (looking unlikely now, eh?), FMV is an entirely dead issue. The rumored FMV Zorro compatible card of C= is also 'low priority' although a working prototype exists/existed, I doubt it will ever see the light of day. 4. Petro had the most best hotel room of all with no windows... 5. Service Management Group, the people responsible for some of the excellent service we received with the Amiga's past warranty service, will once again be handling warranty and repair service for ALL Amigas, including the new A4000T. Parts for the older machines should be available soon. That is about it. If you all have any other questions, feel free to send them to my EMail address at the top of this document. Shane Monroe, DUP/BCI @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Review: Aminet 6 CD-ROM" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: AMINET 6 CD-ROM By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== With the recent decision to move the Aminet CDs to a bimonthly (rather than quarterly) format, it's going to be difficult to keep up. Apparently, they're really doing that well, and Aminet's usage is at its highest. Great, I say. Aminet 6's "headline" items include the entire collection of demos (many, surprisingly enough, will run straight from CD, although you know those wacky demo programmers, you may not be able to exit, or if you can, you may wish you hadn't as a guru sneaks up on you and mightily crashes your system when you least expect it), 520 megs of new material, and an authorized collection of the entire Amiga Report archives up to and including AR 3.08 and the Auction issue. The familiar AmigaGuide interface is back (where would it possibly go?), again, as always, in English and German, with a quick search utility and the ability to run and view most items directly from CD with your favorite utility using the prefs feature of the CD. (Obviously, the prefs aren't saved directly to the CD, but you can save them for future reference.) The collection of mods on this CD is enough to keep you busy enough, and the "shuffle" button is a nice touch. Pity it doesn't continually shuffle, though. A word of advice-Ignore Urban's ratings of the mods. While I usually don't disagree with his choices for terrible ratings (which are fairly rare), he gives some high marks to some mediocre tunes. To each his own... The Amiga Report collection comes with something even I didn't have before this-an article search utility, which lets you search all AmigaGuide issues (1.14 onward) for a text string. I LOVE this. I'm constantly checking back issues to help people with questions I KNOW I saw answered last summer, or to find a phone number from a company I KNOW was in one of the first issues this year, or...etc. Sorry about not being able to search the earliest issues. I'm not even sure what the reasons were that made this impossible, but it's not like you're missing too much. They're nice to have around, though, if for no other reason than to see how Amiga Report has evolved. Aminet still holds a price of 25 DM, but authors of software that appears on Aminet can contact Urban Mueller for a free CD. Subscription deals are also available from Aminet CD distributors. What else can be said? Aminet continues to be the premier source for redistributable software. While nothing beats the speed of your local mirror site, it's sometimes nice to have the goods available at your convenience, limited only by the speed of your CD-ROM drive. Published by: Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe (you know, I can spell that from memory now.) Veronikastr. 33 D-45131 Essen Germany +49-201-788778 phone +49-201-798447 fax stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de North American distribution: Amiga Library Services 602-917-0917 phone/fax fnf@amigalib.com @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Review: AMUC CD-ROM Set (Volumes 2 and 3)" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: AMUC CD-ROM SET (VOLUMES 2 AND 3) By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The Amiga Users of Calgary, the organizers of the recent AmiJam conference, ran into a small problem on their AMUC Express BBS-what to do when the hard drive fills. Enter a series of CD-ROMs. Essentially, when the drive is about full, they grab an ISO 9660 image, run over to INSTAR, and whip up a CD, then clear almost the entire drive. Clever. This set brings the second and third of these volumes, dated June 1994 and October 1994. Both CDs are in the "acceptably large" range, around 600 megs of archives. It has the eclectic flavor of a BBS archive (which it is), covering just about all areas of interest, from pictures to 3D objects. The three categories of separation are "data" (pictures, 3D objects, etc), "software" (executables), and "hardware" (hardware hacks, mostly.) Most files have separate descriptions in a "descript" directory. These descriptions are accessed by the included MUIFind program, used for browsing and searching the discs. The set would make an excellent general-reference addition to a collection-since it came from a BBS, it has all of the "necessities" of Amiga existance, such as LHA and DMS and even a few emulators. The CDs are getting a bit dated, but then again, a BBS can't take Aminet head on and win anyway. The collection is a valiant effort, and the presentation is better than I've seen from some "professional" CD-ROM compilations. Sure, the compilation dates are a bit old, but it's not like the software has rotted just yet. In fact, my biggest complaint is the lack of any sort of paper insert to label the double-jewel case. The lack of a spine label actually delayed this review, because I couldn't find it when I scanned my CD-ROM rack last issue saying "Hey, did I forget anything?" I realize it kicks up the cost a bit, but it's worth it. AMUC P.O. box 34230 #19-1200 37th St. SW Calgary, Alberta T3C 3W2 Canada 403-244-6990 phone 403-686-3790 fax sales@instar.cuc.ab.ca @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Review: Amiga Analyzer" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: ADVANCED AMIGA ANALYZER By: @{" William Near " link WILLIAM} =========================================================================== HARD/SOFTWARE: Advanced Amiga Analyzer v1.11 MANUFACTURER: Wilcom Australia Ltd. DESCRIPTION: Combination hard/software diagnostic utility for all Amigas PURCHASED FROM: Software Hut 313 Henderson Drive Sharon Hill, PA 19079 (800) 93-AMIGA - orders (610) 586-5701 - info (610) 586-5706 - fax PRICE: I paid US$75.95, this includes $6 S&H. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: The Advanced Amiga Analyzer will work on any Amiga model. SYSTEM TESTED ON: Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4), ECS chip set, GForce '030 accelerator @ 50 MHz., 2 MB CHIP + 8 MB FAST memory, Quantum LPS270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional controller, Picasso II RTG board, ioExtender, Workbench 3.1 PACKAGING: The hardware, 8 page dittoed manual, and floppy disk of software all came in a bubble wrap envelope. INSTALLATION: The Analyzer hardware consists of a plastic box (5"x2.5"x1.5") with four port dongles, a joystick port pass-through and eight LEDs (parallel, video, serial and mouse). To conduct the preliminary hardware test you must first power-down your computer and attach the serial, parallel, video, and joystick port dongles (A1000 requires gender changers.) Turn the computer back on and check that all the LEDs are lit. If one or more did not light up then this indicates a problem with the corresponding port(s). If all of the LEDs lit then power-down the computer and remove the mouse and video port dongles. Reattach your mouse and monitor and power-up the computer with the supplied disk in the drive. TESTING: The Analyzer's software boots up into the Gameport tester screen. From this screen you can see a graphical representation of your mouse and joystick ports. By moving your mouse in all directions and pressing any single or combination of mouse buttons, you will see a light appear in the corresponding pin position(s). The mouse X and Y coordinates are also displayed on this screen. The same happens when moving your joystick in all directions and pressing the fire button(s). If any of the corresponding lights do not light then this indicates a problem with that specific pin on the port. By clicking on any of the graphical representations of the port pins a text box will appear indicating what this particular pin controls and what hardware to check on the Amiga for possible causes of the problem. It should be noted that the diagnostic information comes from the A2000 schematics. While other models vary, the general chips should be similar enough to allow you to troubleshoot any model Amiga. There are a series of buttons at the bottom of the main screen. By clicking on any one of these you will be taken to that testing or information screen. PARALLEL: This screen contains a graphical representation of the parallel port's 25 pins. Each pin may be clicked on to see what it controls and what hardware to check in case of malfunction. A parallel port test is also included. By clicking on the Run Test button you will initiate a parallel port test using the hardware and software of the Analyzer. The test is ended by clicking on the End Test button. Any errors that may have occurred will appear in a window with the complete explanation for what hardware to check. If the test was passed then the window will indicate this. SERIAL: This screen contains a graphical representation of the serial port's 25 pins. Each pin may be clicked on to see what it controls and what hardware to check in case of malfunction. A serial port test is also included. By clicking on the Run Test button you will initiate a serial port test using the hardware and software of the Analyzer. The test is ended by clicking on the End Test button. Any errors that may have occurred will appear in a window with the complete explanation for what hardware to check. If the test was passed then the window will indicate this. MEMORY: This screen contains two windows. One window displays all CHIP, FAST and other expansion memory that is installed on your computer. The other window displays any errors that may have occurred during testing. When you click on the Run Test button, a memory test is done on all installed memory. A display at the top of the screen shows which pass number the test is on, as well as the address block and current address of the test in progress. The test is ended by clicking on the End Test button. If no errors were found then a Test Passed requestor will appear; otherwise, the lower window will display the errors that were encountered. DISK: This screen allows you to test any of up to four floppy drives that are connected to the computer. You can initiate either a READ ONLY or a READ/WRITE test on any of the floppy drives. The READ ONLY test will only test for read errors on the inserted floppy disk(s) in the drive(s) to be tested. As each track is read from, a green box will appear with the error number encountered, if any. This test will continue until you click on the End Test button. The READ/WRITE test will check for read and write errors on the inserted floppy disk(s) in the drive(s) to be tested. Each track is tested by performing two write and read tests, and as each track is read from a green box will appear with the error number encountered, if any. This test will continue until you click on the End Test button. If you encountered any errors while testing the floppy drives then you can click on the ERRS button to see a list of seventeen possible errors. You may also check the drive alignment for any floppy drive by using the READ/WRITE test on a known good floppy drive and disk. Take the good floppy disk and insert it into the suspect drive and then run a READ ONLY test on this drive. If you encounter any errors then this drive's alignment is questionable. VIDEO: This screen contains a graphical representation of the video port's 23 pins. Each pin may be clicked on to see what it controls and what hardware to check in case of malfunction. A video port test is not available. The hardware of the Analyzer will only test the integrity of the three power pins on the video port. CONFIG: This screen will display the following information about the system being tested: * ROM version * Agnus version * Denise version * CPU * FPU * Display (NTSC or PAL) * Any expansion boards installed * All memory installed AUDIO: This screen displays four boxes on the screen (one for each of the four Amiga audio channels) which contain a musical scale. When you click on the Run Test button a scale of notes will be played through each of the four sound channels one at a time. This test will continue until you click on the End Test button. If, during the test, you don't hear some or any of the notes being played then this could indicate a problem with the hardware. MORE TO COME: This is the most annoying button on the screen! The author tells you how he's constantly trying to upgrade the hard/software. This is all well and good, but he asks that you contact him with any ideas or comments you may have -- he also neglects to give you any contact information In four different locations throughout the manual, software, and readme file. This makes it quite difficult to do. HELP: This button appears on each of the above testing and information screens. When you click on this button a window will appear which explains the current screen's testing procedure. DISLIKES: The cables that lead to the various ports could stand to be a bit longer. It is usable now, but 6 more inches of cable wouldn't hurt. The dongles for the ports could use better screws. The ones included need a flat blade screwdriver -- using the thumb screw approach would be much better (the type found on most modern cables.) I would also like to see the inclusion of an Email and/or snail mail contact address for the author. He goes out of his way in asking for suggestions and comments, but doesn't supply the needed information for submitting these suggestions and comments. SUMMARY: All in all the Advanced Amiga Analyzer is a useful tool. It can be used to analyze your current Amigas or possible purchases of used equipment. It saves you the trouble of opening up the computer to see what boards and chips are installed, as well as eliminating the fear of buying defective, used equipment. The Analyzer can track down 90% of Amiga hardware failures and suggests some very good leads on what parts of the hardware to check. If the Analyzer saves you from making one service visit or from buying one defective, used Amiga, then it's more than paid for itself. @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: Almathera Ten on Ten CD Pack" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: ALMATHERA TEN ON TEN CD PACK By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The "5-Foot 10-Pack" has become something of an eyesore in the IBM PC CD-ROM market. These monstrosities, which sell for about US$40, contain 10 CDs, usually one Doom collection, a few mostly worthless multimedia offerings, and some totally worthless CDs as filler. Occasionally, there are a couple of classics, but in general, the vinyl holders aren't worth buying. (They do sell pretty well, though.) Almathera had the same idea, but turned it around completely. Rather than the largest packaging possible, they squeezed their 10 CDs into a paperboard case roughly the size of two stacked jewel boxes, each CD with its own paperboard sleeve (which, by the way, form a nice rainbow-order pattern in the case.) They had to jack the price up a bit (it's more like US$60), but... Disc 1: Almathera Comms & Networking CD --------------------------------------- This is the "main" CD of the collection. It is the only CDTV/CD32 bootable CD, allowing the user to access the rest of the discs if they're not fortunate enough to have a CD-ROM equipped full-blown Amiga (or a CDTV or CD32 so decked out that a boot CD is unnecessary). The primary purpose is to get the user connected to something, somewhere. For modemers, Terminus is included. For local networking, Parnet and SerNet (largely for the CD32) is included, as are Envoy tools. For TCP/IP type net connections, a comprehensive installation of AmiTCP 4.0 demo is included, along with quite a few useful and fun networking programs (Grapevine IRC and Netrek, to name a couple.) The work of getting the user online is very well done, put together by Almathera's resident net geek, THP. When you're tired of talking to other computers, there are some diversions on board. The entire Blaz...uh, BLAZEMONGER collection of articles, StarWoids, and a complete Amiga Report archive up to and including the Auction issue and 3.09. An assortment of "useful" utilities, including DiskSalv, LHA, DMS, and KingCon are there for enrichment purposes. It's a good start, even if it is missing such staples of networking as Mlink and a decent FTP client. Still, just about every essential is here, and in a well presented form. Nice sendoff. Disc 2: CDPD 1 -------------- To be flat, this is an old CD-ROM, one of Almathera's first products (if not THE first), with Fred Fish discs 1-660 and about 100 MODs. Not a bad thing, per se, but nothing current enough to keep you entranced for ages. Protracker and Noiseplayer are included for MOD enjoyment, and KingFisher is on the disc to make the Fishing process less of a hassle. Disc 3: CDPD 2 -------------- This companion piece brings the Fish collection up to about 760, adds 220 disks of the Scope collection and 150 megs of archives from the now-defunct AB20 archive of Amiga software (back when Aminet was not a mighty monolith of Amiga FTP) As an interesting aside, 10 disks from JAM Magazine (Just Amiga Monthly) are included. The readme file didn't mention them...that's what made it an interesting aside. Again, not bad. There's certainly useful software to be had. But it can't replace being current. Disc 4: Demo 1 -------------- The third offering from the old archives of Almathera is what it sounds like-a big collection of demos. Most fall under the category of "single-screen" demos, rather than the multi-screen "mega-demos" that I prefer. Such is life. Good luck getting some of these to run...you know how demos can be... Aside from the collection, there are some games, a small collection of clipart, a dash of fonts, some classic animations (including works of Tobias Richter and Eric Schwartz), and a large collection of MODs. Good stuff, considering you only paid $6 for it. This is a CD worth spending some time on. I admit, I'm a sucker for animations. Disc 5: World Vista ------------------- Hey, great idea! Educational/reference software for the Amiga! It was originally a CDTV title, and has endured some minor bug-fixes to make it usable for all Amigas. (It's a good idea to disable mouse-altering clients, though, just in case.) The interface is sound and easy to navigate. The information on the countries isn't always encyclopedic in scope, but the included musical clips and digitized HAM images are a nice touch. Pity that it still has the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia... The program is OS-compliant, but its method of handling multiple screens can be a bit alarming if you try to multitask (after all, on the CDTV, they didn't think you would.) The included phrase-translation guide (that speaks the translated phrase, from a choice of a couple dozen or so) is a nice touch, as are the city maps (even if they are a bit too rare.) As a general-reference tool (providing the country still exists), this is actually a nice program. Disc 6: The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare -------------------------------------------- Let's hear it for AMOS. This was clearly the product of a company that said "CDTV? Wow, this multimedia stuff is neat. Let's get a multimedia authoring system and write some software!" The result is...well, it's ok. Yes, it IS Shakespeare's collected works, and I suppose not all of the pictures are terribly distracting. But on balance I think I'd have preferred a less gaudy presentation, as well as one that accessed more quickly (some of Shakespeare's scenes are short, and you lose the rhythm having to click, click, click...) It's nice to have. Hey, it's a lot cheaper than buying one of those Shakespeare collected works volumes. But it's decidedly CDTV-era. Get together some actor types and have a blast. Disc 7: Pandora's CD -------------------- Sorry, I just don't quite get this one. It seems to be a combination "CDTV Multimedia Sampler Disc" (something to make you feel good about having bought one) and a multimedia promo disc (i.e. something to convince people it's worth buying one). Originally published by Optonica, the disc is a combination of self-promotion for their own products and some multimedia educational and entertainment (both used loosely) features, consisting of animations with voiceovers, mostly. Check it out, then shelve it. I couldn't get the interface to work properly on the 3000. Disc 8: Team Yankee ------------------- Is it silly to have a 5.5 meg game on a CD? Well, yeah. But the story goes something like this- The floppy license to this game had already been sold, so Almathera bought the CD license. Plus, they needed to round out the ten pack. "Nine Pack of CD-ROMs" just isn't as satisfying if you think in decimal. This is a 3d (at times) multi-vehicle strategic tank battle game. To understand more, you'd really just have to see it. The manual was scanned in and included on the CD (and on Disc 1, for convenience), and can be viewed as the game plays out, since it multitasks. The game is nothing exciting, and I could think of dozens of others I'd have preferred, but hey, they didn't ask me. Consider it a nice reward for making it this far into the set. Disc 9: Almathera Photo Library CD ---------------------------------- Part pretty picture collection and part promotional vehicle for Photogenics. That's a pretty fair way to sum this up. It's about 530 megs of data, largely consisting of collected IFFs, GIFs, and JPEGs, with a small assortment of PhotoCD images (in file form) and some Photogenics-generated sample pieces, as well as a demo version of Photogenics itself. Rather interesting was the inclusion of the Ten on Ten box logo as one of the Photogenics examples. Showoffs. It's hard not to like lots of pictures. It's certainly lots of pictures. The IFFs are largely HAM-8, though, so be wary, ECS users. Disc 10: Almathera Clipart and Fonts CD ---------------------------------------- To give you a starting point for original Photogenics creations (presumably), here's 190 megs of fonts and clipart. Sure, they could have put a lot more on there, but it IS a rather large chunk of fonts (bitmapped, CompuGraphic, and Postscript) and the usual stock black and white clipart. Hey, it's got Bodoni, the font Amiga Technologies is using for their new logo. Can't complain much there. As a Whole ---------- So, let's take score. 4 hits (Comms and Networking, Demo 1, World Vista, Photo Library), 5 iffy's (CDPD 1 and 2, Shakespeare, Team Yankee, and Clipart and Fonts), and just one miss (Pandora's CD). That's really not bad at all, and of course, tastes will vary. (I challenge anybody to stare me in the eye and tell me they found Pandora's CD an unbridled success and masterpiece, though.) It's a lot of data bang for the buck. An investment in something like the Aminet Set may give you a more consistent diet, but it's 6 less CDs and a much less eclectic arrangement. Almathera's Ten on Ten has a sense of style, and the included CDs should be enough to keep you busy for a long, long while. Almathera Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD England @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts 19-Jun-95" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 19-Jun-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- VChck655.lha util/virus 123K 1+Version 6.55 of Virus_Checker. Amiga anews19.lha docs/mags 507K 0+AmyNews 19, June 1995. News magazine AtariEmulator.lha misc/emu 111K 0+Atari 1040ST Emulator (English) DCopy31.lha disk/misc 39K 0+DCopy 3, The Best PD Copier!! AirMail.lha comm/mail 95K 1+GUI internet mailer ss20p.lha misc/emu 55K 1+Update for shapeshifter (p) ixemul4100-bin.lha dev/gcc 1.4M 0+IXemul.library 41.0 NewLogo.lha pix/illu 19K 0+Should this be the new Amiga Tech. l TolleUhr13.lha util/time 89K 0+Beautyful analogous clock, v1.3 ScreenGrab.lha gfx/misc 4K 1+OS3.0 Screen grabber cybergames.lha game/misc 676K 1+Violent fighting game Escom-CEI.lha docs/misc 2K 0+ESCOM & CEI TO HOLD MEETING SOON! mui23usr.lha dev/gui 662K 24+MagicUserInterface V2.3, user files Counter.lha game/think 56K 0+Nice logical game with 100 levels + Iconian2_93.lha gfx/edit 171K 1+OS3.0 icon editor, NewIcon support. GloomDemo.lha game/demo 428K 1+Playable "Gloom"-Demo (Doom-like) SwazInfo18.lha util/wb 73K 0+Patches workbench icon information AmiTALK155.lha comm/tcp 60K 1+Misc. fixes and paste support. AmiTCP-demo-40.lha comm/tcp 738K 33+TCP/IP protocol stack EasyCalc.lha biz/misc 121K 0+A Powerfull Shareware Spreadsheet @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts 26-Jun-95" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 26-Jun-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar312.lha docs/mags 118K 0+Amiga Report 3.12, June 18, 1995 ShapeShift3_0.lha misc/emu 188K 0+Macintosh II emulator, V3.0 ZGIFDT39.16.lha util/dtype 7K 0+The FASTEST gif.datatype there is. ShapeUpd3_0b.lha misc/emu 48K 0+ShapeShifter Update V3.0b Dopus511.lha biz/patch 383K 0+Patch for Directory Opus 5.0 & 5.10 AmigaElm-v7.lha comm/mail 208K 1+Mail-Reader (UUCP/Internet), v7 (7.1 DraCoGuide.lha docs/hyper 329K 0+Info/pix about the DraCo Amiga-clone xanim8.lha gfx/show 253K 0+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/GIF Culture_Tank.lha game/2play 226K 1+Tank combat by Culture, 1-6 players Escom-CEI.lha docs/misc 2K 1+ESCOM & CEI TO HOLD MEETING SOON! windows95.jpg pix/misc 73K 1+The GENUINE Win 95 logo :) Watergirl.lha pix/art 108K 0+Amazing Picture by JCS/Neoplasia^Sec AmiTCP_sesn1.1.lha comm/tcp 8K 1+SLIP dialer,news spooler,purger (v 1 CCC.lha game/misc 415K 0+Destroy a large city with your monst AmiTCP-demo-40.lha comm/tcp 738K 34+TCP/IP protocol stack SwazInfo18b.lha util/wb 73K 1+Patches workbench icon information MWB_DOpus54.lha pix/icon 142K 0+Nice MWB Icons, & template for DOpus GoldED310.lha text/edit 869K 0+Programmer's editor with many featur PanicSociety.lha game/role 772K 0+Multilevel graphic puzzle adventure. @endnode @node CHARTS3 "Aminet Charts 2-Jul-95" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 2-Jul-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- EasyPatch078.lha util/cdity 9K 0+The Requester Patcher BMPdt402.lha util/dtype 12K 0+Bmp picture datatype v40.2 for >= OS CaBoom.lha util/boot 15K 0+Windows explode on opening/closing ixemul4101-bin.lha dev/gcc 1.6M 0+IXemul.library 41.1 VChck656.lha util/virus 126K 0+Version 6.56 of Virus_Checker. Amiga RedrawWb.lha util/cli 2K 0+A Workbench redrawer png_dt.lha util/dtype 76K 0+PNG DataType v1.0 vt-chick.lha game/think 623K 0+Cardset for REKO's Klondike AGA - VT mn_ansitest.lha comm/mebbs 3K 1+ANSI Test Door for MEBBSNet AGA_Morphy.lha pix/eric 694K 0+AGA_Morphy Anim by Eric Schwartz TBOML10s.lha docs/hyper 18K 0+The Big Old Monitor List, Monitor Sp BatMan.Anim.lha pix/eric 109K 0+Batman Anim by Eric Schwartz gif2png_0_51c.lha gfx/conv 80K 0+GIF 2 PNG converter (40% faster) (be Amijam.lha docs/anno 46K 0+Information and map to Amijam'95 Asteroids.lha pix/eric 159K 0+Asteroids Anim by Eric Schwartz io08dev.lha dev/misc 10K 0+An I/O library (Developers Only) GMC-BBS-210.lha comm/bbs 616K 0+Plug and Play BBS with Bi,X,Y,Z Mode Mars_Puppies.lha pix/eric 138K 0+Puppies from Mars Anim by Eric Schwa AmigaElm-v7157.lha comm/mail 208K 0+Mail-Reader (UUCP/Internet), v7 (7.1 DeluxePacMan.lha game/misc 166K 108+Pacman type game. V1.4 @endnode @node CHARTS4 "Aminet Charts 16-Jul-95" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 16-Jul-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar313.lha docs/mags 93K 0+Amiga Report 3.13, July 11, 1995 term-030.lha comm/term 632K 0+V4.4, MC68020/030/040/060 version VChck657.lha util/virus 127K 0+Version 6.57 of Virus_Checker. Amiga anews20.lha docs/mags 289K 1+AmyNews #20; info about new Amiga pr pgs3h2.lha biz/patch 393K 1+PageStream 2.0h Patches pgs3h1.lha biz/patch 490K 1+PageStream 2.0h Patches MagicWBStuff4.lha pix/mwb 1.0M 0+Lots of prof. MWB pix and icons 8^) DiamondCave2.0.lha game/misc 511K 1+The ultimate Boulder Dash Clone V2.0 tiff.dtype.lha util/dtype 27K 1+TIFF datatype. Converst 24bit images term-libs.lha comm/term 126K 0+V4.4, XPR and XEM libs term-doc.lha comm/term 203K 0+V4.4, AmigaGuide format and library IPDial1_6.lha comm/tcp 55K 1+SLIP dialer; stdin/out terminal prog pronet21.lha comm/net 14K 1+Amiga Network V2.1 UPDATE! NewModel.jpg pix/misc 63K 0+So, C= is dead? Here's their new mod DiamondPref1.3.lha game/misc 24K 1+Preferences for Diamond Caves V2.0 DiamondEdit1.3.lha game/misc 78K 1+Leveleditor for Diamond Caves V2.0 term-main.lha comm/term 633K 0+V4.4, Distribution for all Amigas Mipric_TEI_7.lha game/role 409K 1+REAL!!! fantasy RPG close to TSR nov DiamondSfx1.1.lha game/misc 19K 1+Use custom samples within Diamond Ca ARTv1i2A.lha docs/mags 27K 0+AR Tech Journal, Vol 1 Issue 2 in Am @endnode @node FTP1 "UMS RFC" @toc FTP TITLE UMS RFC VERSION 0.10 AUTHOR Stefan Becker E-Mail: stefanb@yello.ping.de Address: Verkehrsstrasse 11 D-44809 Bochum GERMANY DESCRIPTION UMS (Universal Message System) is a database system specialized in the handling of mail and news messages. UMS RFC is a package for UMS which allows you to receive and send mail and news messages with the following protocols: - UUCP (Unix to Unix CoPy) - NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) - POP3 (Post Office Protocol V3) - SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - AmigaOS 2.04 (V37) or better - UMS V11 or better - AmiTCP 3.0 or better (if you want to use NNTP, POP3 or SMTP) AVAILABILITY UMS RFC 0.10 is available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/ums/umsrfc0_10.lha (296092) PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, (c) 1992-95 Stefan Becker @endnode @node FTP2 "ACE/gr" @toc FTP TITLE ACE/gr (xmgr) for Amiga - graphics for exploratory data analysis VERSION 2.0 (X11 v.3.01) AUTHOR Paul Turner, Oregon Graduate Institute.(pturner@amb4.ccalmr.ogi.edu) Terje Pedersen (terjepe@hstud6.cs.uit.no) ported it to Amiga. (Oterveien 55/9017 Tromsoe/Norway) DESCRIPTION ACE/gr is a data/function plotting tool for workstations or X-terminals using X. A few of its features are: + Polynomial regression, splines, running averages, DFT/FFT, cross/auto-correlation. + Plots up to 10 graphs with 30 datasets per graph. + User-defined scaling, tick marks, labels, symbols, line styles, colors. + Batch mode for unattended plotting. + Read and write parameters used during a session. + Support through device independent graphic drivers for PostScript, and FrameMaker .mif format. NEW FEATURES Lots! Documentation in html format, you may want to use Mosaic-NoNet to wiev it. Pensharing will be used if you have os3.0+ and enough free colors on the workbench. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amigas with 68020+ and MUI 2.2+ preferably with 4mb+ A big Workbench may also be useful. (640x400 is a minimum) AVAILABILITY ACE/gr is awailable on aminet as xmgr20.lha in misc/sci. An X11 version in source form is available on public.x.org and other X11 sites. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/sci/xmgr20.lha (389O11) and ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/sci/xmgr20_docs.lha (332783) PRICE If you like a full version send US$10 (or a more resonable contribution!) to: Terje Pedersen Oterveien 55 9017 Tromsoe Norway DISTRIBUTABILITY ACE/gr is Copyright 1991-1995 Paul J Turner and the distribution of the Amiga version has been granted by the original author. ACE/GR IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THE USER ASSUMES ALL RISKS OF USING ACE/GR. THERE IS NO CLAIM OF THE MERCHANT ABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The program may not be sold/redistributed in any other way or form without the consent of the author. OTHER Version 2.2 has been available for some time, containing mostlty bugfixes. These announcements has a tencency to be seriously outdated when they get accepted so you may want to check: http://www.cs.uit.no/~kjelli/tp for some more recent info! @endnode @node FTP3 "XAnim" @toc FTP TITLE XAnim VERSION 8 (X11 version 2.69.7.8) AUTHOR Mark Podlipec (podlipec@wellfleet.com) (http://www.portal.com/~podlipec/home.html "The XAnim Home Page") Terje Pedersen (terjepe@hstud6.cs.uit.no) ported it to Amiga. (Oterveien 55/9017 Tromsoe/Norway) DESCRIPTION This is a port of the X11 animation viewer Xanim by Mark Podlipec. XAnim is a program that can display animations of various formats on systems running X11. XAnim currently supports the following animation types: + FLI/FLC animations. + IFF animations. The following features are supported: -> Compressions 3,5,7,J(movies) and l(small L). -> Color cycling during single images and anims. -> Display Modes: depth 1-8, EHB, HAM and HAM8. + GIF87a and GIF89a files. -> single and multiple images supported. -> GIF89a animation extensions supported. + GIF89a animation extension support. + a kludgy text file listing gifs and what order to show them in. + DL animations. Formats 1, 2 and most of 3. + Amiga PFX(PageFlipper Plus F/X) animations. DISABLED TEMPORARILY. + Amiga MovieSetter animations(For those Eric Schwartz fans). + Utah Raster Toolkit RLE images and anims. + AVI animations. Currently supported are ->*IBM Ultimotion (ULTI) depth 16. -> JPEG (JPEG) depth 24. -> Motion JPEG (MJPG) depth 24. -> Intergraph JPEG (IJPG) depth 24. -> Microsoft Video 1 (CRAM) depth 8 and 16. -> SuperMac Cinepak (CVID) depth 24. -> Uncompressed (RGB ) depth 8 -> Uncompressed (RGB ) depth 24 -> Run length encoded (RLE8) depth 8. -> Editable MPEG (XMPG) depth 24. + Quicktime Animations. The following features are supported: -> Uncompressed (RAW ) depth 4,8,16,24 and 24+ -> Uncompressed (RAW ) Gray depth 4 and 8. -> Apple Graphics (RLE ) depth 1,8,16 and 24. -> Apple Graphics (RLE ) GRAY depth 8. -> Apple Animation (SMC ) depth 8 and GRAY 8. -> Apple Video (RPZA) depth 16. -> SuperMac Cinepak (CVID) depth 24 and GRAY 8. -> Component Video (YUV2) depth 24. -> Photo JPEG (JPEG) depth 8 and 24. -> Supports multiple video trak's. -> Supports animations with multiple codecs. -> Supports merged and separated resource forks. + JFIF images. NOTE: use XV for single images. This is more for animation of a sequence of JPEG images. + MPEG animations. Currently only Type I Frames are displayed. Type B and Type P frames are currently ignored, but will be added in future revs. + WAV audio files may have their sound added to any animation type that doesn't already have audio, by specifying the .wav file after the animation file on the command line. Currently only the PCM audio codec is supported. + any combination of the above on the same command line. The following is a list of currently supported audio formats: AVI 8 and 16 bit RAW(PCM) mono/stereo. AVI ADPCM is supported(mono only for now). Quicktime 8 and 16 bit RAW(PCM) mono/stereo. Quicktime 8 and 16 bit TWOS(signed PCM) mono/stereo. NEW FEATURES + AVI RGB depth 24 support added. + AVI XMPG support added. This is the Editable MPEG Video + IFF Anim8 support written by Garrick Meeker. + DL animation format thrown back in and now allows it to SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amigas with 68020+ AGA or a GFX card. Currently reported to work on: Amiga 3000 with EGS Spectrum board (promoting XAnim) Amiga 3000 with Picasso II (promoting Xanim) Amiga 4000 native Amiga 4000 with EGS Spectrum board (promoting XAnim) Amiga 2000 with a Retina GFXBoard Xanim has also been mentioned to work with CyberVision. AVAILABILITY An X11 version in source form is available on public.x.org and other X11 sites. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/show/xanim8.lha PRICE Free! With a suggested contribution of $10 for the use of my X11 emulation (libX11) and my efforts at porting the program. DISTRIBUTABILITY Xanim is Copyright 1991-1995 Mark Podlipec and the distribution of the Amiga version has been granted by the original author. The program may not be sold/redistributed in any other way or form without the consent of the author. OTHER Have a look in http://www.cs.uit.no/~kjelli/tp for some on-line info! These announcements has a tencency to be seriously outdated when they get accepted so you may want to check: http://www.cs.uit.no/~kjelli/tp for some more recent info! @endnode @node FTP4 "FGP 2.36" @toc FTP TITLE FGP VERSION 2.36 AUTHOR Simon Austin DESCRIPTION Readers of the weekly motorsports magazine Autosport will know that Autosport runs a Fantasy Grand Prix for each half of the season. FGP (which is *not* an advanced version of Pretty Good Privacy) is a program which allows you to keep track of up to 100 teams competing in the Fantasy Grand Prix. Run from the CLI and using several easy to use data files, FGP calculates and records the points scored in each race. Several forms of output can then be produced, ranging from a detailed breakdown of a particular race to a table showing how much each team has scored so far. NEW FEATURES Version 2.36 is an update to version 2.24 and features: o improved output; o output for spreadsheets; o minor bug-fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS None. HOST NAME Aminet (src.doc.ic.ac.uk) AVAILABILITY ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/game/misc/fgp236.lha (82832) ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/game/misc/fgp236.readme (115) PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. Program copyright 1995 Simon Austin. -- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ "Cutting over the grass like that, \Simon Austin /\ APT Data Group Plc/ Gerhard Berger must have thought / simona@power.globalnews.com \ he was driving a lawn mower." \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ - Tom Walkinshaw on the Canadian GP @endnode @node FTP5 "Typeface" @toc FTP TITLE Typeface VERSION 1.0 AUTHOR David Kinder DESCRIPTION Typeface is an editor for Amiga bitmap fonts. Typeface's features include o Edit any font size (tested up to an 80 point font). o Change font heights, widths; go from fixed-width to proportional font; edit all parameters of any character and all parameters of the font. o Load any outline font supported by the diskfont.library interface (e.g. Postscript Type 1 via type1.library) and save as a bitmap image for faster loading. o Completely font sensitive user interface. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires AmigaOS 2.04 or greater, and bgui.library v38 or better (included in the archive). AVAILABILITY Typeface is available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/text/misc/Typeface10.lha (105341) PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Typeface is copyright 1995 David Kinder. @endnode @node FTP6 "KBTools" @toc FTP TITLE KBTools - bringing Knowledge-Based Systems to the Amiga. VERSION Prototype release. See below. AUTHOR The software is a usable product of a research project carried out at the IT Institute of the University of Salford. The main authors were Dr Andrew Basden and Alex Brown. Email: A.Brown@iti.salford.ac.uk WWW: ://www.salford.ac.uk/iti/docs/depts/iti/projects/inca/inca.html Phone: 0161-745-5292 Fax: 0161-745-8169 DESCRIPTION Knowledge-Based Systems encapsulate human knowledge to perform tasks such as diagnosis, prediction and selection. They are particularly appropriate for handling complexity and uncertainty. KBTools is a toolkit which supports the construction and maintenance of Knowledge-Based Systems. KBTools allows for full forward-chaining and backward-chaining, uncertainty, probabilistic and bayesian reasoning and provides a comprehensive set of inference procedures. The emphasis is on ease of building Knowledge Bases as Boxes and Arrows diagrams. A flexible GUI provides the interface between the Knowledge Engineer and the Boxes and Arrows representation of the Knowledge Base. The interface between the system and the end user is configurable by the knowledge engineer. We hope to bring this product to full commercial status; the software released is a prototype version only. We are placing it in the public domain for the following reasons: 1) To elicit any comments, suggestions and criticisms regarding the prototype software. 2) To allow people to develop and contribute knowledge bases or ideas for knowledge bases. 3) To contact people interested in registering as developers. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amiga OS 2.0+. 2mb+ chip memory. AVAILABILITY The software is directly available via the Internet: http://www.salford.ac.uk/docs/depts/iti/projects/inca/kbtools.lha (346375) PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY The prototype version of the software is freeware and placed in the public domain with the following provisos: 1) The software is the property of the University of Salford. 2) The source code is only available to registered developers. @endnode @node FTP7 "The Music Web" @toc FTP TITLE "The Music Web" VERSION DATE Second Edition -- June 1995 DESCRIPTION The Music Web is an extensible, interactive, graphic-diagram platform on which you can build `webs' of elements that manipulate MIDI event streams. Modules with specific functions can be `plugged together' by placing icons in a diagram and linking them to form a network; these two-dimensional, interlinked chains of elements give your creativity full rein to explore new effects. [Caveat: the name has nothing to do with the World Wide Web! It was unfortunately chosen before the latter became well-known.] Element modules in this edition include note filters and modifiers, an `Instrument' that plays 8SVX sample files, recording and playback, and a MIDI file player. Full documentation is included in the archive. You will probably be able to take best advantage of this package if you have some kind of multitimbral, multichannel MIDI setup, but it should be useful for even the simplest. In fact the supplied initial demo will play standard MIDI files through the Amiga's (four) internal sound channels, witout any attached MIDI interface at all! With more modules to come, I hope it can become one of the most flexible music environments around. Many of the current functions: MIDI IN and MIDI OUT (of course!) Loudness (reduce velocity value of a note event) Transpose (up or down by octaves and semitones) Key Filter (block or divert specified notes of the scale) Key Range (pass a specified range of notes) Msg Filter (block or divert specified types of MIDI messages) Channel Filter (block or divert specified MIDI channels) Splitter (where events are actually diverted to another path) Set Channel (of events on the path) Delay (make delayed copies of note (and other) events) Instrument (uses 8SVX IFF samples to play notes) Note Off (generates a note-off for each note-on (use with Delay)) One Note (converts all notes to the same pitch (for sound FX)) Record/Playback Read MIDI File (feeds record/playback element) Monitor (events on the MIDI stream) NEW FEATURES * Distinctive (icon) images for the various elements * Record/Playback * MIDI File playing * Other added modules SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The Music Web needs the 2.04 or later operating system; it should run in a 1MB machine. It really needs something faster than a 68000 to be useful (though it will run on one). Of course an essential requirement for most uses is a MIDI interface on the Amiga serial port. Documentation is in AmigaGuide form, so you should really have this on your system (although you *can* read it without if you have to). AUTHOR Pete Goodeve (pete@violet.berkeley.edu, pete@jwgibbs.cchem.berkeley.edu) AVAILABILITY The Music Web is available for anonymous ftp from Aminet, for example (USA main site): ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/mus/midi/MusicWeb.lha Archive size = ~350K (may be unpacked to a directory in any convenient place, or to a diskette). PRICE Shareware fee $30 US requested. DISTRIBUTABILITY The Music Web is Copyright Peter J. Goodeve 1993-5, and is Shareware. This version is freely distributable; there is also a licensed edition with extended capabilities available to those who register. @endnode @node FTP8 "InfraRexx" @toc FTP TITLE InfraRexx (and InfraJoy hardware design) VERSION 1.6a (and InfraJoy version 4.0) RELEASE DATE 14-Jun-95 AUTHORS Leon Woestenberg (leon@stack.urc.tue.nl) Jeroen Steenblik (jeroens@stack.urc.tue.nl) DESCRIPTION The InfraRexx software along with the InfraJoy hardware serve as an ARexx-Infrared interface, that adds the function of an infrared remote controller to your Amiga, and more. With this software and hardware you can: o Control external audio/video devices via ARexx commands. o Control Amiga programs via a common remote control unit. o Learn and edit new remote control infrared commands. For example you can control a moduleplayer via your compact disc player remote control unit. Or, control your video tape recorder via a graphic user interface or an ARexx script. The main features are: o Seperate editor (with learner) and ARexx host commodity. o Multitasking-friendly infrared sampling monitor, with very low system overhead during monitoring; can also be disabled. o Font-sensitive, style-compliant graphic user interface. o Supports localization under Workbench 2.1 (or better). o Uses AmigaOS 3.x functions and gadtools features if present. o Modular lowcost hardware for joystickport, with throughput. o Uses the Amiga Installer Utility to install onto (hard)disk. CHANGES o Release 1.6a differs from 1.6 by a bugfix in the schematics. o Building plans and documentation for new v4.0 hardware. o Added support for new hardware's multifrequency feature. o Added german and norwegian language catalog translations. o Improved RexxEvent; now handles multiple events in one call. o Optional MagicWB icons installable via the Installer utility. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS InfraRexx needs at least AmigaOS version 2.04, and the commodity needs RexxMast to be running in order to be useful. The software is useless without the small InfraJoy hardware add-on, off which the design and full building instructions are included. The hardware can also be ordered from one of the authors. AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/util/rexx/InfraRexx1_6a.lha (151745) PRICE Free. The optional registration fee is USD 10. The minimal required hardware costs about USD 10 if self-built. The complete hardware can be ordered for the amount of USD 28, which offers free registration and one free update. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freeware; freely distributable software and hardware design. InfraRexx Copyrights 1994-1995 by Leon Woestenberg. InfraJoy hardware design Copyrights 1994-1995 by Jeroen Steenblik and Leon Woestenberg. @endnode @node FTP9 "BLAZEMONGER" @toc FTP Dan Barrett's BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED World Wide Web pages have moved. The new address is: http://www.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/public.html (Similar to the old address, but "zoo" has changed to "www".) Please update any links to this page as soon as possible. The BLAZEMONGER pages are a freely distributable collection of Amiga-related humor. - Dan Barrett barrett@cs.umass.edu @endnode @node FTP10 "CyberShow" @toc FTP TITLE CyberShow VERSION 3.0 AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION An universal picture viewer (incl. PhotoCD) and converter for all Amigas and esp. for Cybergraphic users. This program can display pictures in many file formats (see below) directly in windows on the Workbench (default public screen) or in a window on a separate screen. If you have a suitable graphic board with Cybergraphic WB emulation installed you can even watch the pictures in full color quality (HiColor/TrueColor) on your Workbench. Without Cybergraphics the normal color restrictions (2 to 256 colors) will lead to a reduced quality, but smart pen allocation during displaying will still give surprisingly high quality with 256 colors. You can switch forward and backward between images and scroll images in their resizable windows. An automatic preloading feature will reduce waiting time to a minimum. While you watch one picture (and maybe scroll it around), the next picture will already be loaded, so that it will be there if you decide to switch... You can select down- scaled loading for viewing in reduced size. Unlike many other viewers, this viewer reduces most pictures during loading and will thus be faster for reduced size loading. Additional features include conversion to some 24Bit formats (incl. JPeg, IFF-ILBM24, Targa) and fast direct transfer to famous image processing and painting programs (ImageFX, XiPaint, ArtEffect/PicoPainter). Internally supported formats for loading: 1) IFF-ILBM (1 to 24Bit incl. HAM6/HAM8) 2) PhotoCD (Base format 768x512 or 512x768 (portrait)) 3) JPeg (color and greyscale) 4) PPM/PGM/PBM (P1&P4 b&w, P5 grey, P6 color) 5) QRT (also known as dump format by PD raytracers as POV-Ray) 6) Targa 7) PCX 8) BMP (uncompressed) 9) TIF (packbit-compr./uncompr.) 10) EGS7.x window icons 11) DEEP 12) YUV 13) VLAB raw 14) RGB 15) HHsYUVSq sequence format 16) IFF-PBM (DPII) 17) ACBM 18) FBM 19) Sun raster (uncompressed) 20) MacPaint (b&w compressed 1Bit format; datafork only) 21) HHsXRL formats The additional DataType support extends this list by many formats; DataTypes can e.g. be found on Aminet in util/DType. The DataType support is very fast, so that you can also view pictures in GIF or other formats quite fast for which Datatypes exist. NEW FEATURES New since V3.0: + OS3.1 not needed anymore for displaying with 2 to 256 colors; OS3.0 is now sufficient + configurable screenmode for use of it's own screen instead of WB (or default public screen) + Viewing directory can be changed by a menu function + Increased drawing speed on standard Amiga screens SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS3.0 (unlike previous versions OS3.1 is not needed anymore) 4MBytes FastRAM recommended Optional for TrueColor/HighColor viewing: cybergraphics.library V40 or higher and a suitable graphic board. The Cybergraphics emulation is compatible with many graphic boards (e.g. CyberVision, Piccolo, SD64, Spectrum, Picasso2, Retina-Z3, Domino) AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/board/cybershow30.lha PRICE Shareware fee upto 31st July 1995: 20DM (in europe) or 18US$ (worldwide) from 1st Aug. 1995: 30DM (in europe) or 25US$ (worldwide) DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1995 Limited demo version is freely distributable; registered users will receive a keyfile which enables all features. OTHER The freely distributable version has some restrictions (e.g. all pictures will only be displayed in greyscales) which disappear after you pay the shareware fee and receive a special personal keyfile (together with the latest version). Once registered, you can use new freely distributable versions as update with your keyfile. @endnode @node FTP11 "PoolWatch 1.03" @toc FTP TITLE PoolWatch 1.03 AUTHOR Magne Oestlyngen Strandveien 59B N-9007 TROMSOE NORWAY EMail: magneoe@stud.cs.uit.no DESCRIPTION PoolWatch is a debug tool for OS 3.0 and higher designed to watch and correct illegal allocation and freeing of memory that use the pool-functions provided in OS 3.0 and upwards. PoolWatch is necessary since Mungwall do not catch any illegal memory handling concerning pool-allocations. PoolWatch is especially useful in combination with Enforcer, Mungwall (which will watch normal allocations that use AllocMem/FreeMem), SegTracker and FindHit (included in the Enforcer archive). If SegTracker is running in the system when PoolWatch is started, PoolWatch will use the public SegTracker seglist tracking for identifying the hunk and offset into the executable doing illegal allocations. PoolWatch will patch CreatePool(), DeletePool(), AllocPooled(), and FreePooled() in exec.library. PoolWatch will use these functions but will add extra security on top of all pool-allocations. In most cases of illegal allocation/freeing, PoolWatch will report the error to the user and correct the problem (if possible). Please note that PoolWatch does not offer any memory protection if a task writes to a random addresse in memory, but will take care of most problems associated with pool allocations. NEW FEATURES Version 1.02 fixed two small bugs, and introduced three new options; NOSTACK, NOREGS and STDIO (output to stdio instead of to the serial port). Version 1.03 fixes an address error (occurred on 68000 machines), and introduces the options UPDATE and DOILLEGAL. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS Release 3 (V39+) or higher. AVAILABILITY Any AmiNet site, for example: ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/dev/debug/PoolWatch1_03.lha (10217) PRICE Free. Donations are welcome. DISTRIBUTABILITY ShareWare. Copyright (C) 1994-1995 Ultima Thule Software. @endnode @node FTP12 "FastIFXModules" @toc FTP TITLE FastIFXModules VERSION 4.1 AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION A set of loader and saver modules for the famous ImageFX-EGS and ImageFX image processing packages. The loader is designed for very fast speed and written in pure Assembler code. It also allows loading of many new file formats. Supported formats for loading: 1) IFF-ILBM (1 to 24Bit incl. HAM6/HAM8) 2) PPM/PGM/PBM (P1&P4 b&w, P5 grey, P6 color) 3) QRT (also known as dump format by PD raytracers as POV-Ray) 4) Targa 5) PCX 6) BMP (uncompressed) 7) TIF (packbit-compr./uncompr.) 8) EGS7.x window icons 9) DEEP 10) YUV 11) VLAB raw 12) RGB 13) HHsYUVSq sequence format 14) IFF-PBM (DPII) 15) ACBM 16) FBM 17) Sun raster (uncompressed) 18) MacPaint (b&w compressed 1Bit format; datafork only) 19) HHsXRL formats 20) PhotoCD (Base format 768x512 or 512x768 (portrait)) The additional DataType support extends this list by many formats; DataTypes can e.g. be found on Aminet in util/DType. NEW FEATURES New since V4.0: PhotoCD support SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.04 required, OS3.0/3.1 reccomended (needed for DataType support) ImageFX-EGS or ImageFX (commercial image processing software) AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/fastifxmodul41.lha Also available on: ftp://orion.etsu.edu/pub/egs/incoming/fastifxmodules41.lha which should later be /egs/graphics/... PRICE Shareware fee: 20DM (in europe) or 16US$ (worldwide) Special offers available for registered users of my EGS shareware applications EGSPhotoAlbum or EGS-TV (e.g. add-on price 10DM or 8US$). DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1994-1995 Limited demo version is freely distributable; registered users will receive a keyfile which enables all features. OTHER The freely distributable version loads all pictures only in greyscale. The speed and format support is the same, so you can try out if you like the speed advantages and are satisfied with the supported formats. After you have paid the shareware fee you will receive a special personal keyfile (together with the latest version). Once registered, you can use new freely distributable versions as update with your keyfile. This announcement was written and submitted by Helmut Hoffmann, the author of this software package. @endnode @node FTP13 "BlitzBlank" @toc FTP TITLE BlitzBlank VERSION 2.60 AUTHOR Thomas Boerkel E-Mail: thomas@amiga_inside2.schiele-ct.de DESCRIPTION BlitzBlank is a modular screen blanker package with the following features: - stable - fast - low cpu-time usage by the blanker task - comfortable - highly configurable - many interesting, fancy, nice modules - compatible with most graphics cards - build-in mouseblanker - nice GUI - ARexx interface - joyport monitoring - AmigaGuide docs with context-sensitive help - Installer script for easy and automatic installing - flexible random option - no burn-in if the blanker halts (because another task needs the CPU) - no crash or hang, if a nasty program opens its window on the blanker screen - adjustable mouse sensitivity - reblanking - UnInstaller for riskless testing - 39 modules: AmigaSign, ASwarm, Butterfly, Clock, Crumble, Dissolve, Electric, Execute, Fade, Flash, FlyingToaster, Fountain, Fractal, Goats, Gravity, Guru, Life, Lines, Mandel, Maze, Melt, Mosaic, Noise, PatternCycling, Plasma, Pyro, Radar, Skyline, Slideshow, Snow, Splines, Spot, StarField, Text, TicTacToe, Tiles, Tunnel, Worms, Worms2. NEW FEATURES - 10 new modules: ASwarm, FlyingToaster, Fractal, Goats, Gravity, Maze, Plasma, Skyline, StarField, TicTacToe - reblanking - BlitzBlank rewritten in C -> significantly shorter (39 KB -> 16 KB) - many bugfixes and enhancements (see history in the guide) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - AmigaOS 2.0 or better - MUI 2.3 AVAILABILITY FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/blank/BlitzBlank260.lha (656459 bytes) PRICE GIFT/CARD-ware (if the user WANTS to give something) DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. Copyright 1993-1995 by Thomas Boerkel. Copyright of some modules by their respective authors. @endnode @node FTP14 "QuickText 2.0" @toc FTP TITLE QuickText 2.0 (first commercial release) COMPANY Tahoe Software, Etc. PO Box 9236 South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158 USA (800) 939-4919 voice/fax (USA only) (916) 649-8935 voice/fax tsprague@calweb.com http://www.calweb.com/~tsprague/ AUTHOR Todd Sprague DESCRIPTION QuickText is an interactive desktop video program designed to easily develop and display almost any type of graphic screen, including titles and credits, pictures, and even animations. Other features include full ARexx support, automatic screen sequencing, on-screen timer, text and numeric variables, a recordable & replayable "doodler", and an easy-to-use point-and- click interface. A pre-commercial version of QuickText has been used for 6 years in a high-school "down-stream" computer with a simple genlock in a daily, live newscast and in taping sports events for local TV cable. It can be used in presentations, reader-boards, kiosks, and silent pager. Supports both PAL and NTSC video modes. Soon to be released, QuickText PRO will feature remote-control via modem, time-of-day slots, and tiled backdrops. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Works on any Amiga with Workbench 1.2 or higher. 1Mb RAM Recommended. AVAILABILITY Demo has links on our web page and is on Aminet: ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/biz/demo/QuickTextdemo.lha (489155) Software package is available from Tahoe Software, Etc. PRICE Demo is FREE. Software package is $59.95 US + shipping. DISTRIBUTABILITY Demo archive QuickTextdemo.lha is freely-distributable if unchanged and only reasonable media costs are charged (eg. Aminet CD, Fred Fish disks). Software package is commercial, copyrighted material, and is NOT freely-distributable. @endnode @node FTP15 "Phonebill" @toc FTP TITLE Phonebill VERSION 3.3b AUTHOR Raymond Penners E-Mail: raymondp@stack.urc.tue.nl URL: http://www.stack.urc.tue.nl/~raymondp DESCRIPTION `phonebill' is, simply said, a log file analyzer. What it basically does is scan log file(s) generated by a terminal program or a mailer, extract all information about calls you have made by using your modem, and store this in its own (short) format. After extracting the calls `phonebill' can generate various reports in which you can find information on duration and costs of the calls. Here is a small list of the main features: * Very flexible user-configurable rates, supporting exceptions for certain days and dates. * User-configurable log scanners: `phonebill' by default supports various log files, but for any log file that is not supported the user is able to create a scanner. The following is a list of log files that are already supported: * AmiTel * AutoPilot * CyberPager * DreamTerm * GMS * GPFax * ISDN Master Telephone log * JamMail * JrComm * MagiCall * MicroDot * Multifax (both v2.0 and Multifax professional) * NComm * Off-line Amiga * Plink * Term action log and Term call log * Terminus * TheAnswer * TKR-BTX * Trapdoor * Trapfax * UUCP TimeLog * XenoLink * ZeeTerm * Log files can be automatically truncated if their size exceeds the maximum size. * Generates miscellaneous reports: statistics, total costs, predicted costs ... * Context-sensitive online help. * Supports new 3.0 features (new look menus, ...). * Nice `Amiga User Interface Style Guide' conformant user interface. * Supports `traplist.library'. NEW FEATURES * Added GMS scanner. * A French catalog is now available. * Several minor enhancements and bug fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.04 or higher. AVAILABILITY Phonebill is available on Aminet, e.g.: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/misc/pbill33b.lha (243830) BULLETIN BOARDS Grafix Attack (Sysop: Kees Huizer) +31-(0)10-4745816 (28K8) +31-(0)10-4741062 (19k2 ZyXEL) +31-(0)10-4744682 (28K8) FidoNet: 2:286/407.0 AmigaNet: 39:153/201.0 NLA: 14:101/200.0 Decades BBS (Sysop: Thomas Andersson) +46-54-831561 (USR 28.8 V.Everything) FidoNet: 2:203/625.0 AmigaNet: 39:160/105.0 PRICE Shareware fee of $10 US. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archive and its contents are freely distributable. See documentation for details. The package is (C) 1993-1995 Raymond Penners @endnode @node FTP16 "BBcpuclk1.0" @toc FTP TITLE BBcpuclk1.0 - Allows some CPU upgrades to work on A2386SX VERSION Release 1.0. AUTHOR Remi Lenoir Email: DESCRIPTION BBcpuclk is a program that allows some CPU upgrades for 386SX machines to work properly with a Commodore A2386SX BridgeBoard. It has been tested with the Evergreen RevTo486 (386SX3+) upgrade and a TI486SXLC2-50 chip. FEATURES - Very short .COM program (around 60 bytes). - Launchable from the CONFIG.SYS file (with the WRAPPER.SYS program, see below). REQUIREMENTS - A Commodore A2386SX BridgeBoard. - A CPU upgrade. - WRAPPER.SYS program if used with an Evergreen upgrade (See documentation for additional infos). AVAILABILITY BBcpuclk is FREEWARE and is available from Aminet. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/emu/BBcpuclk1.0.lha PRICE It is FREE. DISTRIBUTABILITY It is FREEWARE, not public domain. BBcpuclk1.0 is (C) Copyrighted 1995 Remi Lenoir. @endnode @node FTP17 "Sgmls" @toc FTP TITLE sgmls VERSION 1.1.92 RELEASE DATE 29.06.1995 PORTER Kai Hofmann (i07m@zfn.uni-bremen.de) (http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m) DESCRIPTION Sgmls parses and validates the SGML document entity in a file and prints on the standard output a simple ASCII representation of its Element Structure Information Set. (This is the information set which a structure- controlled conforming SGML application should act upon.) Note that the document entity may be spread amongst several files; for example, the SGML declaration, document type declaration and document instance set could each be in a separate file. NEW FEATURES - including a patch for sgmldecl.c - Installer script - MagicWB icons - SGML-FAQ - md5sum checksums for the files in the archive SEE ALSO - The SGML Handbook, Charles F. Goldfarb - ISO 8879 (Standard Generalized Markup Language), International Organization for Standardization SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amiga OS2.04 or higher AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.uni-bremen.de/pub/aminet/dev/lang/sgmls.lha And all other Aminet sites. ftp://ftp.jclark.com/ Thats the original UNIX version. DISTRIBUTABILITY SGMLUG hereby grants to any user: (1) an irrevocable royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive license to use, execute, reproduce, display, perform and distribute copies of, and to prepare derivative works based upon these materials; and (2) the right to authorize others to do any of the foregoing. @endnode @node FTP18 "PGPAmiga" @toc FTP -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- TITLE Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) VERSION Version 2.6.2 (USA and Canada version) AUTHOR Original version written by Philip Zimmermann, Colin Plumb, Staale Schumacher and various contributors. Amiga port and enhancements by Peter Simons and Robert Knop. DESCRIPTION Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), from Phil's Pretty Good Software, is a high security cryptographic software application for MSDOS, Unix, VAX/VMS, Amiga and other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience. Privacy means that only those intended to receive a message can read it. Authentication means that messages that appear to be from a particular person can only have originated from that person. Convenience means that privacy and authentication are provided without the hassles of managing keys associated with conventional cryptographic software. No secure channels are needed to exchange keys between users, which makes PGP much easier to use. This is because PGP is based on a powerful new technology called "public key" cryptography. And PGP performs the public-key functions faster than most other software implementations. PGP is public key cryptography for the masses. CHANGES Please check the included README.1ST and ReadMe.amiga file for a detailed list of modifications. NOTES This version of PGP is for use in the USA and Canada only. Users outside these two countries should instead use PGP 2.6.2i, which was announced earlier on comp.sys.amiga.announce. This vesrion is based on the same source tree as PGP 2.6.2i. However, it was compiled with the RSAREF library to make it completely legal to use in the USA. The USA and international versions are functionally equivalent. A mailing list concerning PGPAmiga has been created on peti.rhein.de. To subscribe, send e-mail to PGPAmiga@peti.rhein.de with "ADD your_address" (without quotes) in the message body. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS PGP 2.6.2 works completely with Kickstart 2.0 and above. It mostly works with Kickstart 1.3, but the key generation still does not function under 1.3. (We are working on that, however.) LEGALITY This version of PGP is perfectly legal for non-commercial purposes inside the United States of America and Canada. However, before you get it, you have to agree not to export it out of these two countries. International users should use PGP 2.6.2i, released by Peter Simons (simons@peti.rhein.de). HOST NAME ftp.csn.net DIRECTORY /mpj/I_will_not_export/crypto_???????/pgp/amiga NOTICE -- this directory is a little tricky to get into because of the export controls. To get into it, first go to directory /mpj and get the file README.MPJ. If you agree to all the terms in this file, it will tell you the name of the directory which is listed as a bunch of ?'s above. This name changes frequently, so read README.MPJ right before you are planning on downloading files from the site. FILE NAMES pgp262-amiga020.lha 68020 executables and full docs pgp262-amiga000.lha 68000 executables and full docs PGP-2.6.2i.lha PGP 2.6.2i source tree rsaref-amiga.lha RSAREF 1.0 library w/ Amiga files added Users only need to get one of the first two files. If you have a 68020 or better, the 68020 version of PGP will be significantly faster than the other version on your machine. The last two files together comprise the source code necessary to build your own version of a USA and Canada legal PGP 2.6.2. DISTRIBUTABILITY PGPAmiga is freeware. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBL/TroYLHyRCGfVWJAQFXJAQAq8nIrXIenXb9d1JH7dJsoimW8R3tdq3y UZb7zQuVDdAFiJtGCiD4guqqljDI2ksfyzLZztQg1Gg2fB+ap7u1Hc6/MMgmwOU/ ZR8iwSEiNObqtjn1jBdJFB3XneaIXysJtmLckpnpeILgmTs4KCSCmYwtqyLBNUxC pHIEvIIAKH8= =0axF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- @endnode @node FTP19 "Yak 2.0" @toc FTP TITLE Yak -- multi-purpose commodity VERSION 2.0 AUTHORS Gael Marziou and Philippe Bastiani. E-mail address: Gael_Marziou@grenoble.hp.com DESCRIPTION Yak stands for "Yet Another Kommodity" (never was any good at spelling), and is a mouse/window manipulation program along the same lines as MCP, MagicCX and lets you activating screens and windows, inserting localized date. FEATURES A lot! Among them : AutoActivation of windows, extensible hotkey system (like FKey's) with a lot of different actions NEW FEATURES This is a major release of Yak, it introduces a lot of changes since Yak 1.60. Yak 2.0 main goal was to provide more flexibility, this has been achieved by a new way to handle options for hotkey actions and by adding configurability to mouse cycling. Due to this, GUI code has expanded quite a lot, so now GUI is separated from the main commodity. Beside these major changes, there were also some less important ones among which: - New option 'Activate only' for 'Cycle Windows' action. - New toggle in 'miscellaneous' window : 'Full Workbench'. - KeyActivate is now disabled while a mouse button is pressed. - Added a 'Clear' gadget to the keydef window. - New toggle in 'miscellaneous' window : 'UNIX Dirs' - New option for CycleWindows action, you can now specify a pattern on the name of the task which handle some windows. - A new tooltype for the prefs program to let you choose your own font for Yak GUI independently from the screen font. There are also other changes not listed here, browse the doc and the GUI to find them. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS release 2.04 or newer is required; Yak has been tested with OS releases through 3.1. Distribution is archived with lha so program to un-archive them is needed. Amigaguide or Multiview is required to easily read documentation. Installer is required to easily install Yak. HOST NAME Yak is available from Aminet, e.g.: ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/util/cdity/yak20.lha (181319 Kb) and on mirrors DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/cdity FILE NAME yak20.lha : main archive. PRICE There is no charge for use of this software. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive are kept intact. OTHER E-mail address for bug reports and fixes: Gael_Marziou@grenoble.hp.com @endnode @node FTP20 "Adobe Type Manager" @toc FTP Announcing Adobe Type Manager for The Amiga Beta3 (Trademark permission pending, request submitted) Description: Amiga ATM lets you use PostScript typefaces with any Amiga application that uses the Operating System to draw text. It also replaces soft styles with real ones if available, and draws characters only as needed, improving speed. Author: Executable, documentation, _ATM_ data files, and brainstorm by Gordon Fecyk (Me!) post.library, atminit.ps and atmencoding.ps by Adrian Aylward (original author of POST 1.7) FunkyFont by Radical Eye Software, included originally with POST 1.7 Requirements: Amiga with 2 MB total memory (At least 1 MB Fast RAM) System 2.04 or better (Reported to work with 3.0) Hard disk Applications that use Amiga fonts (IE: DPaint) Installation requires familiarity with Amiga Shell or CLI Options to improve performance: 68020/68881 or better math coprocessor combination Typefaces from ATM for Windows (Times, Helvetica, Symbol, Courier) Availability: comp.binaries.amiga (uuencoded archive, pending approval by moderator) E-MAIL: gordonf@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Will reply with uuencoded file) Phone me at +1-604-526-8724 (voicemail) will lettermail a disk Version: ATM Beta 3D freeware, commercial version pending Adobe's approval of trademark usage, and completion. Conditions for use: Do not distribute modified archives without my permission. Distribution via PD libraries permitted (as per previous line). Do not use modified versions of executable. Do report any bugs, incompatibilities, etc. Do send praises, remarks, complaints to me. @endnode @node FTP21 "MemMinister" @toc FTP TITLE MemMinister VERSION 1.2 [36.308 (21.5.95)] AUTHOR Marcus Ohlstrom EMail: marcus@karkis.canit.se FidoMail: 2:201/417.31 PaperMail: Marcus Ohlstrom Stopvagen 104 S-161 43 BROMMA SWEDEN DESCRIPTION MemMinister continously shows the amount of free memory, with separate fields for chip, fast and total amount of memory. For programmers, there are SNAP- and FLUSH- features. The former is used to store the current values for later comparison, and the latter is used to flush out unused libraries, devices and fonts from memory. MemMinister is small, simple and CPU-efficient! Almost everything is configurable via tooltypes, from window position to changing the information shown in the windowtitle! NEW FEATURES Almost everything is configurable via tooltypes! SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS MemMinister should run at any Amiga with at least OS 2.0 AVAILABILITY The package has been uploaded to AmiNET so it should be available from your local AmiNET provider, for example: ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/util/wb/MemMinister12.lha 25156 bytes PRICE MemMinister is freeware. DISTRIBUTABILITY MemMinister is Copyright 1994, 1995 Marcus Ohlstrom This package is released as freeware. This means you can copy and use it freely, but you may not modify anything. Every file in the package should be included unchanged! @endnode @node FTP22 "Recall 3.0" @toc FTP TITLE Recall VERSION 3.0 AUTHOR Ketil Hunn Nabbetorpveien 35B N-1632 Gamle Fredrikstad NORWAY E-Mail: Ketil.Hunn@hiMolde.no DESCRIPTION A program to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries and other important events. It is an easy-to-use, intuition-based utility for the absent- minded and it is considered to be the best reminder utility, program launcher and alarm clock fascility available for the Amiga platform. FEATURES o be reminded with requesters, alerts or practically anything that can be displayed on an Amiga-monitor o automatically start programs (CLI/WB/AREXX/BATCH) depending on the date, time or weekday o create input events at certain days/time/weekday o keep track of the remaining days/time to important events o keep track of the days/time since important events happened o be reminded every # day (e.g. every 14th day) o be reminded # days before or after the event o be reminded once a day, every time you boot, before or after a certain date, before or after a certain hour or minute o be reminded about events until you acknowledge them o be reminded on certain weekdays o display unlimited lines of text in the same requester or alert o group different events and make them appear simultaneously o keep a simple database of the birthdays of family and friends o let your Amiga keep track of how old people are by insterting the date of birth in the middle of the string where you want to display the age (I.e. the text "Adam is {years:08/05/1970} years old today" may be displayed as "Adam is 24 years old today".) o make advanced events which are displayed for example after 21:00 every 3rd day the first 7 days of every 2nd month the next 4 years o combine all of the attributes mentioned above in the same event o enter these events in an easy-to-use, totally font adaptable multi- window environment and without the need of programming-knowledge, just by entering the desired text and pressing a few buttons o localized for most languages supported by Commodore as well as some unsupported ones o well documented - over 100K of documentation! NEW FEATURES o The checker may stay resident in memory (optional) and keep on reminding you until you quit the program or turn off your machine. Will check the events every minute (idle time may be overridden).). o The checker is a commodity, and may be controlled via the Commodore's Commodities Exchange program. o Unlimited number of dates can be attached to the same event. o You can combine weekdays and date, allowing you to make events which will be shown i.e. the third Sunday in a month etc. o Major update of the calculation fields: allowing you to include both the current date, current time, calculation of days, calculation of years, current weekday and such in the SAME event! The fields can be selected and inserted from a requester. o Possibility to group only certain events, flash certain events etc. o Recursive directories, allows you to make folders of events i.e. keeping all birthday-events in a folder called Birthdays. Unlimited number of levels! o Search and replace of events. o Recall can pop up requesters on any public screen. o New powerful type of event: Input - generates input-events and hotkey-presses. o New type of event: AREXX - runs AREXX scripts directly. o Modular built. Its functionality may be extended with modules. ...and much more Various bug fixes. REQUIREMENTS OS 2.04 or higher. The programs will take advantage of Kickstart 2.1/3.0/3.1 and 68020+ processors if found. OS 2.1 or higher for localization. Harddisk is recommended for unpacking the complete distribution. AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/cdity/RecallV30.lha (242252) PRICE Shareware fee of $15 or 100 Norwegian kroner is requested. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archive may be spread through BBS, Internet, AmiNet and on Public Domain disks as long as the archive is not modified in any way. This means that you can copy it freely as long as you don't ask for a more than nominal copying fee. This fee must not be more than US $5 or 5 DM. It would be much appreciated if magazines notified me through e-mail or ordinary mail if they include Recall on a cover-disk. If you wish to include Recall on a magazine cover disk, you may do so as long as you send a complimentary copy of the magazine issue in which it appears to my home address. The entire package must be included on the disk, not just the executable. Please contact me in advance to ensure you have the latest version. If you wish to supply Recall as part of a CD-ROM compilation of freeware, you may do so as long as the disc contains at least 20 Mb of other freeware. Otherwise, contact me first please. Explicit permission is granted to distribute Recall on any CD-ROM produced by Fred Fish / Amiga Library Services, and on any officially supported Aminet compilation CD- ROM. @endnode @node FTP23 "QuickFile 3.16" @toc FTP TITLE QuickFile database version 3.16 AUTHOR Alan Wigginton Email: alanw@powerup.com.au DESCRIPTION QuickFile is a flat file database program that combines powerful features, speed and ease of use. Features include: - Multiple indexes with unique or non-unique keys - Field formats include Character, date, integer, floating point, calculation, cycle image and external. - Up to 250 characters per field and 250 fields per record. - File size is not limited to available ram - Form and list style displays and reports. - Unlimited number of views of each file. - Sort over any number of keys, ascending and descending order. - Search operators include Like, Equal, Between, Sounds Like, Not Like and Not Equal. - Fields can be added, changed, or deleted at any time. - Flexible export/import - Flexible multi-column label printing. - Multi-level report grouping and totalling - Any number of files open in re-sizable intuition windows - Online context-sensitive help with AmigaGuide - ARexx port supporting macros and commands from external programs. - Easy to use Intuition interface with font sensitivity. NEW FEATURES Adds font sensitivity and fixes some bugs. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS WB 2.04 or later. AVAILABILITY Available for downloading from Aminet ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/quickfile.lha (279K) PRICE Free You can register for updates and support for $20 Australian DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable QuickFile is copyright Alan Wigginton 1992 - 1995 @endnode @node FTP24 "RoutePlanner" @toc FTP TITLE RoutePlanner VERSION RoutePlanner 1.4 (8.7.94) AUTHOR Chris Lawrence DESCRIPTION A highway trip planner, based on Jim Butterfield's RoadRoute. Includes a graphical user interface, database editor, and a conversion utility (converts RoadRoute format files to RoutePlanner format). Enhancements to RoadRoute include "highway classifications," up to 20 intermediate destinations ("Via cities"), state line notification, abbreviated output formats, and "leg" subtotals. Includes a database with complete coverage of about 70% of the United States and basic coverage of the remainder of the U.S. and Canada. Full coverage of Canada and U.S. expected within 3-4 months. NEW FEATURES Improvements to the North America database file and documentation. Change in registration policy. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher MultiView or AmigaGuide Magic User Interface (2.2 or later) 1.5 MB minimum RAM, 2 MB or more preferred AVAILABILITY On any Aminet host, for example: ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/RoutePlanner14a.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY RoutePlanner and the RouteConv conversion utility are freely distributable, but copyrighted. RouteEdit, the database editing program is copyrighted shareware. Terms as provided in documentation included. RoutePlanner may be used for non-commercial or commercial purposes under the same terms. May be included in certain specified CD-ROM distributions without prior authorization. PRICE US $5 for RouteEdit keyfile by email US $10 for full distribution (plus a selection of my other FD/Shareware products) on disk via snail mail worldwide. @endnode @node FTP25 "DiskProtection" @toc FTP TITLE DiskProtection V1.0 AUTHOR Patrick Ohly Weechstr. 1, WG E0/1 76131 Karlsruhe Germany Tel.: +49 721 615662 eMail: patrick.ohly@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de IRC: Irish DESCRIPTION DiskProtection encrypts data totally invisible for the user while writing to disk. All blocks are encrypted, so the directories are protected, too. DiskProtection supports all exec devices, i.e. harddrive partititions, floppy disks, but not the RAM-disk. Any filesystem can be used. It features: - encryption with IDEA, FEAL, DES - (XPK-)interface for additional algorithms - configurable with easy to use preferences program - encryption can be changed anytime - resident passwords (for use with mailboxes) - access protection - GUI driven, localized - German and English documentation (ASCII, DVI, AmigaGuide) - context sensitive online help - ... SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS DiskProtection requires OS2.0 and Triton-Library 1.3. A minimum distribution is included in this archive, but you should better look out for the complete archive "util/libs/tri13usr.lha" on AmiNet: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/libs/tri13usr.lha (216157) AVAILABILITY NOT available on AmiNet due to USA export restrictions for cryptographic software. Look at the AmiNet site in Paderborn for the file "/pub/aminet/util/crypt/DiskProt10.lha": ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/util/crypt/DiskProt10.lha (319174) PRICE 20,- DM DISTRIBUTABILITY DiskProtection Š 1994,95 Patrick Ohly It's freely distributable as long as all files are distributed unchanged. DiskProtection is shareware, however the public version is not crippled in any way! @endnode @node FTP26 "fMSX Amiga 0.5" @toc FTP TITLE fMSX Amiga 0.5 AUTHOR Hans Guijt (h.guijt@inter.nl.net) Physical address: Hans Guijt Kagersingel 30 2172 XG Sassenheim The Netherlands Phone: (Holland)2522 - 17251 DESCRIPTION fMSX Amiga emulates an MSX computer on an Amiga. In its current state it will run cartridge based games (not included but available through FTP and WWW) and allow you to play around with MSX BASIC. Action speaks louder than words, and most of the action can be found in games, so I'll just list some of the available software titles: Loderunner Raid on Bungeling Bay Zaxxon Bosconian (1) Falcon (2) Eggerland Mystery Grog's revenge Guardic Knightlore Knightmare Oil's Well Payload QBert Tank Battalion Thexder (3) Twinbee Zanac Digdug (1) With speech! (2) You read that right, and it is the original version. (3) And it runs faster than the Amiga version - the mind boggles. Of course fMSX Amiga is fully multitasking, runs in an intuition screen, and has a font-sensitive user interface. NEW FEATURES Speed! fMSX Amiga now has two ways of redrawing the screen, OS-friendly and highspeed. The OS-friendly mode, which was also available in the previous version, should work with everything from OCS to graphics cards. This mode is slightly faster than before. Highspeed mode takes over the screen, and uses the coprocessors for updating the screen, resulting in a massive speed boost. In this mode multitasking is still left enabled, but the copper, blitter, and screen are constantly in use by the emulation. This mode is obviously not compatible with graphics cards. It is at all times possible to toggle between the two modes with a simple keypress. Other features include greatly enhanced sound, support for joysticks with two buttons, and lots of bugfixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required are: - Amiga OS 3.0 - 68020 processor - 400 kilobytes chip ram - 700 kilobytes other ram Recommended: - 68030 processor, at least 25MHz - Those 700 kilobytes of 'other' ram had better be fast ram! Note that fMSX Amiga does *not* require the AGA chipset. In fact, it should run on any chipset upto and including graphics cards, although this has not been tested. AVAILABILITY fMSX Amiga 0.5 is available from any aminet site, such as: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/emu/fmsx_0.5.lha (97264) PRICE fMSX Amiga 0.5 can be yours for... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! DISTRIBUTABILITY fMSX Amiga 0.5 is publically supported freeware. If you are interested in the source, and you're not afraid of function pointers and huge amounts of assembly intermixed with C, you can request it from me. @endnode @node FTP27 "ALynx 1.29" @toc FTP TITLE ALynx -- Textbased World Wide Web browser VERSION 1.29 AUTHORS Amiga port: Peter Marquardt E-mail address: wwwutz@tfh-berlin.de marquardt_p@rz-berlin.mpg.de Original Unix/VMS Lynx: Michael Grobe, Charles Rezac, Lou Montulli, Foteos Macrides, several others DESCRIPTION ALynx is the Amiga port of Unix/VMS Lynx. It's a distributed hypertext browser with full World Wide Web capabilities. It is fully textbased, runs in a CLI window or on a separate screen. Graphics/sound can be (dis)played by external viewers like MultiView. RELEASE DATE Sunday 23-Jul-95 FEATURES forms, mail, news (readonly), ftp, telnet, gopher, proxys, printing, saving, links on inline-graphics, external editors, bookmarkfiles, history, search within pages, different character sets, vi/emacs-keys, keypad navigation, numbered links, redefinable keymap, mail comment to author of page, local edit of pages, shortcut jump-to-url, debug trace-mode, toggle image links, toggle pseudo inlines, abort transfer without loosing already transfered data, several restrictions to set up for BBS support, # cache pages configurable, dump page (displayed or source for script access), etc. etc. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - AmiTCP release 3.0 or above or MLink connection to Internet or C= AS225 networking package or Interworks I-Net255 networking package - AS225 and I-Net255 installations need the extra compiled executable ALynx_AS225exe.lha. - OS release 2.04 or newer is required - Distribution is archived with lha so program to un-archive them is needed. - Amigaguide or Multiview is required to easily read documentation. There is no charge for use of this software. Donations welcome. DISTRIBUTABILITY Aminet, Meeting Pearls, ftp servers without charging for downloads. permission granted for distribution to BBS's as long as no specific charges are made for this program beyond normal BBS access or archive distribution costs and as long as the archive is left intact in it's original form. AVAILABILITY FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/comm/net/ALynx.lha (284147) ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/comm/net/ALynx_AS225exe.lha (148808) World Wide Web/WWW: http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/alynx.html http://141.14.128.2/amiga/alynx.html OTHER The latest version of ALynx is always on http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/alynx.html E-mail address for bug reports and fixes: wwwutz@tfh-berlin.de or marquardt_p@rz-berlin.mpg.de @endnode @node FTP28 "Xv 2.18" @toc FTP TITLE Xv for Amiga - Image display and manipulation program VERSION 2.18 (X11 v.3.10a) AUTHOR John Bradley Terje Pedersen (terjepe@hstud6.cs.uit.no) ported it to Amiga. (Oterveien 55/9017 Tromsoe/Norway) DESCRIPTION This is an Amiga port of the X11 program Xv by John Bradley. The xv program displays images in the GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PBM, PGM, PPM, X11 bitmap, Utah Raster Toolkit RLE, PDS/VICAR, Sun Rasterfile, BMP, PCX, IRIS RGB, XPM, Targa, PhotoCD, XWD, possibly PostScript, and PM formats on workstations and terminals running the X11 Window System. The documentation for XV is now distributed only as a PostScript file, as it has gotten enormous, and is no longer very well suited to the 'man' page format. Print a copy of the (100-ish page) manual found in docs/xvdocs.ps. If you are unable to get the manual to print on your printer, you may purchase a printed copy of the XV manual. Click on 'About XV' in the program to get further information. NEW FEATURES Added PNG support and a truckload of more fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amigas with 68020+ and MUI 2.0+ preferably with 6mb+. Manipulation on 24bit images will require a lot more memory. A big Workbench may also be useful. (640x400 is a minimum) AVAILABILITY An X11 version in source form is available on public.x.org and other X11 sites. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/xv218.lha and ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/AmigaXv_docs.lha (unchanged from previous releases) PRICE Free! With a suggested contribution of $10 for the use of my X11 emulation (libX11) and my efforts at porting the program. DISTRIBUTABILITY Xv is Copyright 1989-1995 John Bradley and the distribution of the Amiga version has been granted by the original author. The program may not be sold/redistributed in any other way or form without the consent of the author. OTHER These announcements has a tencency to be seriously outdated when they get accepted so you may want to check: http://www.cs.uit.no/~kjelli/tp for some more recent info! @endnode @node FTP29 "RO 1.04" @toc FTP TITLE RO VERSION 1.04 AUTHOR Oliver Rummeyer Hochbergstrasse 49/1 D-88213 Ravensburg Germany/Europe DESCRIPTION RO is a new Intuition-controlled, fully user-configurable file manager for OS 2.04 and newer. You can use RO to copy, move, rename or delete files, and you can perform a filetype sensitive action command (e.g. show pictures or texts, play sounds, etc with one single command button) on files via GUI. RO's mighty features will assist and help you on your daily work with your Amiga. With RO there is no need to learn those cryptic shell commands, because you have the complete power of your Amiga in one hand. Some features are: o uses MUI o very small executable o highly configurable o user configurable filetypes o supports datatypes o supports XPK, PP and ARCHandler o path name completer o more than 50 internal commands o user menu support o hotkey & hotdir support o powerful arexx port o very fast directory and file operations o appicon launches progs for defined filetypes o english, french and german documentation & catalog o supports middle mouse button NEW FEATURES - Version 1.04 (9.7.95) o Fixed some minor bugs. o Catalog files changed. o French documentation included. o Included french catalog file. o Other minor changes. o Added list cycle with middle mouse button. o Added button bank switching with middle mouse button. o New menu entry 'Spawn New'. REQUIRENTS RO requires Magic User Interface (MUI) version 2.3 or later. AVAILABILITY RO 1.04 is available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dir/RO_V104.lha (276665) PRICE Shareware fee US$ 20 or 30,- DM DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware, RO 1.04 is (c) 1994,1995 by Oliver Rummeyer -- Oliver Rummeyer oliver@rumor.rv.sub.org @endnode @node FTP30 "Xfig 4.0" @toc FTP TITLE Xfig - Facility for Interactive Generation of figures VERSION 4.0 (X11 v.3.1.3) AUTHOR Ken Yap/Brian Smith and others. Terje Pedersen (terjepe@hstud6.cs.uit.no) ported it to Amiga. (Oterveien 55/9017 Tromsoe/Norway) DESCRIPTION Xfig is a structured drawing tool that lets the user interactiely create and manipulate on objects such as lines/circles/rectangles/splines/text and other elements. Xfig can produce output in several different formats: Encapsulated PostScript, IBM-GL (HP/GL), Pic, PiCTeX, LaTeX, box, epic, eepic, eepicemu, textyl, tpic, X11 Bitmap, X11 Pixmap and gif. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Amigas with 68020+ OS3.0+ (Haven't tried 2.04 but will probably work!) and MUI 2.2+, and a big Workbench (640x400 minimum) is needed. AVAILABILITY An X11 version in source form is available on public.x.org and other X11 sites. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/xfig4.lha and ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/xfig_docs.lha PRICE If you like a full version send US$10 to: Terje Pedersen Oterveien 55 9017 Tromsoe Norway DISTRIBUTABILITY Original Copyright (c) 1985 by Supoj Sutanthavibul Parts Copyright (c) 1994 by Brian V. Smith Parts Copyright (c) 1991 by Paul King Other Copyrights may be found in various files Amiga parts Copyright (c) 1995 by Terje Pedersen Feel free do redistribute the 'aminet' version any way you like! OTHER These announcements has a tencency to be seriously outdated when they get accepted so you may want to check: http://www.cs.uit.no/~kjelli/tp for some more recent info! @endnode @node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc WHERE =========================================================================== == Amiga Report Mailing List == =========================================================================== If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in @{"UUENCODED" link UUENCODE} form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to jcompton@xnet.com, and ask very nicely. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. Having a 150k limit is highly recommended. ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ** *** The following is only for Australian readers! *** To circumvent the new pay-per-megabyte system for Australian Internet communication, Paul Reece has been kind enough to set up an AUSTRALIAN-ONLY mailing list, to save his fellow countrymen some money. You can join the list by sending mail to: majordomo@info.tas.gov.au with the single line (in body of message): subscribe ar Amiga Report will then be bounced to you. @endnode @node UUENCODE @toc MAILLIST =========================================================================== == UUDecoding Amiga Report == =========================================================================== If you receive Amiga Report from the direct mailing list, it will arrive in UUEncoded format. This format allows programs and archive files to be sent through mail by converting the binary into combinations of ASCII characters. In the message, it will basically look like a lot of trash surrounded by begin and end, followed by the size of the file. To UUDecode Amiga Report, you first need to get a UUDecoding program, such as UUxT by Asher Feldman. This program is available on Aminet in pub/aminet/arc/ Then you must download the message that it is contained in. Don't worry about message headers, the UUDecoding program will ignore them. There is a GUI interface for UUxT, which should be explained in the docs. However, the quickest method for UUDecoding the magazine is to type uuxt x ar.uu at the command prompt. You will then have to decompress the archive with lha, and you will then have Amiga Report in all of its AmigaGuide glory. If you have any questions, you can write to @{"Jason Compton" link JASON} @endnode @node AMINET "Aminet" @toc WHERE Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. Sites: ftp.cdrom.com, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.tas.gov.au, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk @endnode @node WWW "World Wide Web" @toc WHERE World Wide Web ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open one of the following URLs: http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/ http://sun1000.ci.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/ http://ramiga.cts.com/~AR The following AR site also has a mailto form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site.