@database "ar404.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #4.04 -- March 14, 1996"
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  March 14, 1996              @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 4.04
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production... While the program will essentially be released by the group, it will be released as an ESC product. Who Can't Join ESC? --------------------- People who can't join ESC include :- 1) Companies which develop commerical software (ie. Microsoft, IBM, QuarterDeck, Netscape etc). 2) Current employees of those companies. 3) People without email addresses 4) People who aren't computer musicians, artists, programmers or other types of developers. So if YOU CAN'T develop you CAN'T join. How To Join ESC ---------------- To Join ESC you will need to fill out the form which will accompany this file in another message. Membership is FREE. Existing Shareware authors are asked to add the ESC logo and/or name, plus an End-User-License agreement to their application. Once an archived copy of their application is received and tested, a web page will be created and their application will be available for download via ftp. Once You've Joined ESC ----------------------- Once you've joined ESC you'll get this file, a form which will ask you for additional details, and a project creation form. The project creation for is fairly important so keep a copy handy. It is basically what you need to fill out and email to one of the co-ordinators if you want to start a new project. A newsgroup will be setup shortly to allow interaction between members, and a mailing list will also be constructed. If you have further ideas or any suggestions email :-> 9517316@ul.ie ESC will have a webserver and mail server setup shortly. (C) 1996 European Software Creators @endnode @node NEWS3 "Aminet CD 10" @toc NEWS TITLE Aminet CD 10 AUTHOR Urban D. Mueller (umueller@aminet.org) CONTENTS Aminet CD 10 contains, once more, over 1 gig of freely distributable software. The newest archive included is from January 3rd. Apart from the new software, the CD concentrates on fonts collected from various sources. The space is used as follows (after decompression): 520M of software newer than Aminet CD 9 330M of fonts, each font in several formats 170M of top downloads ... plus two special highlights: PageStream 2.2, unrestricted, with manual+upgrade deal TypeSmith 2.5 (latest), slightly restricted, with similar deal These two excellent programs give you an absolutely top of the range DTP combination. They are licensed to the buyer of the CD only, and not freely distributable. The freely distributable part is composed as follows: 650 mods, most of them new 300 utilities 300 communications programs 700 programs of other categories plus 2000 fonts in Postscript, Intellifont and bitmap format, stored in large archives but easy to preview and extract. All fonts are hinted for better appearance, and most fonts are available in all formats. ACCESS SOFTWARE Still the well known Amigaguide based user interface with extensive search facilities. Some bugs fixed. PRICES The CD can be ordered from the following addresses: (credit cards OK) Germany: Stefan Ossowski (English spoken) Tel: +49-201-788778 Fax: +49-201-798447 Email: stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de Price: DM 25 USA: Fred Fish Tel: +1-602-491-0442 Email: orders@amigalib.com Price: $19.95 Prices exclude shipping. Subscriptions are available. A complete index is found in docs/lists/Aminet-CD-10.lha Authors of software on the CD are entitled to one free CD. Send HELP FREEBIES to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu for more info. Aminet Set 1 and Aminet Set 2 are still available and give you, together with this CD and CD 9, a complete snapshot of Aminet. @endnode @node NEWS4 "Oberon System V4" @toc NEWS TITLE Oberon System V4 for Amiga VERSION 1.1 AUTHOR Stefan Ludwig, Claudio Nieder, Ralf Degner E-Mail: ludwig@inf.ethz.ch, degner@pallas.amp.uni-hannover.de S-Mail: Stefan Ludwig Institut fuer Computersysteme ETH-Zentrum CH-8092 Zuerich DESCRIPTION Oberon System V4 for Amiga (O4A) is a full implementation of ETH Zurich's Oberon System V4. Oberon is both a programming language and an operating system developed by Prof. N. Wirth and Prof. J. Gutknecht. The Oberon System in key words: - Single-process multitasking - Garbage collector - memory will be released automatically if not needed anymore - Commandos: procedures that can be called like programs - Dynamic loading: modules are loaded and linked to the system during run-time (if necessary) - Text as a built-in abstract data type (for example a Minesweeper game as a letter (like OLE and OpenDOC)) - Graphical user interface A special advantage is the very high compatibility of the systems between implementations on different computers. System V4 implementations exist for Amiga, Mac, Power Mac, Windows (NT), Linux, IBM-RS6000, Sun-Sparc, HP-Workstations, NeXt, ... You can use a program written on one implementation on any other without change. O4A is a full implementation of the Oberon System V4 with all usual programs. The system runs in its own task and therefore you can use O4A and the Amiga OS at the same time. Specific features of the Amiga implementation are its incremental heap allocation, support of the Amiga clipboard and the capability of accessing IFF files. The O4A package contains: - A full Oberon-2 compiler - Development tools (Browser, Analyzer, Disassembler) - XE, a comfortable 'editor' with layout functions - Kepler, an object-oriented 2D vector drawing program - Paint, a simple pixel-oriented paint program - A lot of additional tools (Draw, RX, AsciiCoder, ...) - Various text elements - VT100 terminal emulation - Games: Tetris and Minesweeper (with source) - Example sources and online documentation To get more information about the programming language and operating system Oberon have a look at the "Oberon and Amiga" WWW page: http://sun1.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/~nhbidegn/oa-e.html There you will find links to other Oberon information resources. NEW FEATURES - VT100 terminal emulation - Compiler improved - Many new Modules - Several bug fixes SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Amiga with OS2.0 or higher - at least an MC68020 - a minimum of 1.5 MB free memory (2.5 MB recommended) - about 3 MB disk space - FPU for floating point calculations (without FPU Oberon-NonFPU.lha is required) AVAILABILITY The Home of Oberon is the ETH Zurich. There you can find many Oberon System implementations, especially the Amiga version: ftp://ftp.inf.ethz.ch/pub/Oberon/Amiga/V1.1/ Oberon.lha (1.0 MB) - main archive Oberon-NonFPU.lha (100 KB) - to use O4A without FPU Oberon-Src.lha (600 KB) - the full source of O4A Oberon-Fonts.lha (340 KB) - additional fonts It is available in the Aminet directory dev/obero, too. PRICE It's free, but not PD. DISTRIBUTABILITY Oberon System V4 for Amiga is (C)opyright 1990-96 by Claudio Nieder, Stefan Ludwig, Ralf Degner and the Institute for Computer Systems ETH Zurich. All files in the archives are freeware. You can use it in any way you like but you must not include part of it in a commercial product. -- Ralf Degner Mail: degner@pallas.amp.uni-hannover.de WWW : http://sun1.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/~nhbidegn @endnode @node NEWS5 "JAM Merges with Em" @toc NEWS PRESS RELEASE: 29/2/1996 JUST AMIGA MONTHLY MERGES WITH EM MAGAZINE To All: Just Amiga Monthly, known as JAM, has been taken over by LH Publishing, publishers of the Amiga DTP magazine Em. The details of this takeover are as follows: Approx 3 to 4 weeks ago, Jeff Walker, founder publisher of the subscription magazine Just Amiga Monthly, (JAM), asked LH Publishing (publishers of Em magazine and run by Larry Hickmott) to take over ownership of the magazine JAM. LH Publishing have agreed. The deal made was simple. The ownership of JAM, formerly with Bookmark Publishing was to be transfered to LH Publishing in return for LH Publishing agreeing to honour the current outstanding subscriptions. It is LH Publishing`s view that the Amiga needs a subscription based magazine to publish the type of information currently ignored by the glossy magazines. Since November of 1994, LH Publishing has already been successful in building up a large customer base for its own magazine Em. By taking on Jam, that user base has doubled. The cost of the deal is simply the amount of money it will cost LH Publishing to continue honouring the outstanding subscriptions from JAM subscribers. This is expected to to fall over the long term, providing support for the magazine continues. NO money has been exchanged between Bookmark publishing and LH Publishing. The format of both the magazines Em and JAM will therefore change to cut costs while still providing a worthwhile service to the Amiga community. The magazine Em will now carry the JAM logo on the cover in respect for the subscribers of JAM. The content of the magazine will, it is expected, evolve over the next few months to reflect a balance between desktop publishing (from Em) to other more wide ranging Amiga subjects that are normally covered by JAM. The next issue of Em (number 9) (carrying the JAM logo), is due out in the next week or so and is going to press on Monday. With the taking on of JAM, LH Publishing is hoping that it can now concentrate on publishing the magazine and therefore produce the magazine on a monthly basis. All the JAM subscribers on the database given to LH Publishing (as well as Em subscribers), will be sent a copy of the next issue of EM, and in which the situation will be explained more fully. LH Publishing can only provide answers to questions about the future of JAM and Em together. It cannot answer questions about JAM previous to February of this year. The last issue of JAM was 58. Head publisher at LH Publishing, Larry Hickmott, is a former editor of JAM, prior to issue 41, and is open to suggestions and contributions from current subscribers as well as interested parties. Anyone wanting further information on JAM or Em, can email LH Publishing at: larry@em.powernet.co.uk @endnode @node NEWS6 "SoftWood Web Services" @toc NEWS Softwood, Inc. would like to announce SoftWood Web Services. As an introduction to our new service. During the month of March you can get your personal web page for as little as $5.00 per month*. This will include a number of graphics, links and information about yourself that you would like to share with all of the other web surfers out there in CYBERSPACE. If you would like to make your jump onto the Information Superhighway call SoftWood, Inc. at (602) 431-0949 or email webmaster@softwood.com. * Includes $25.00 setup fee. One year minimum. @endnode @node NEWS7 "ShapeShifter v3.4" @toc NEWS TITLE ShapeShifter VERSION 3.4 AUTHOR Christian Bauer EMail: bauec002@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de SMail: Christian Bauer, Max-Planck-Str.60, 55124 Mainz, Germany DESCRIPTION ShapeShifter is a multitasking shareware Macintosh-II emulator for the Amiga and DraCo computers. It allows to run Macintosh software concurrently to Amiga applications without hardware add-ons or modifications. Some of the emulation's features: - Color display up to 256 colors on AGA Amigas (16 colors on ECS) and up to 16.7 million colors on graphics cards - Support for one or two monitors - No MMU required, even runs on A1200 - Macintosh hard disks can be simulated in Amiga files or Amiga hard disk partitions [unregistered version has no hard disk partition support] - Can use Amiga floppy drives, serial, parallel and SCSI ports from the Mac [use of SCSI not possible in unregistered version] - Mac HD disks can be read directly with an HD floppy drive, Mac 720K disks can be used with any Amiga floppy drive. To use Mac 800K disks, you have to own CrossMAC and an original Mac drive - Multichannel sound output and parallel-port sound digitizers supported - Access to Ethernet networks - Text clipboard sharing between Mac and Amiga - File handler to access Macintosh volumes from the Workbench - Speed comparable to a real Mac with equivalent hardware The most important changes in V3.4: - The Ethernet driver has been improved and now also allows the use of MacIPX - Together with an Emplant card, using LocalTalk is possible - Forced quitting of Mac programs with Command-Shift-Escape works - Better co-operation with SCSI cards from phase 5 - ShapeShifter runs again on the DraCo SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.1, 68020 processor, 4MB of RAM, HD floppy drive recommended. A copy of a Macintosh 512K or 1MB ROM and the Macintosh system software are not included, but required. The ROM can be read off of a real Mac by using a supplied program, the system software can be bought from Apple. Note, however, that reading the ROM is only legal if you have bought the ROMs or own a real Macintosh. AVAILABILITY Aminet sites: /misc/emu/ShapeShifter.lha ftp://ftp.biologie.uni-erlangen.de/pub/shapeshifter/ShapeShifter3_4.lha Next Generation BBS, Germany (ShapeShifter support BBS) Port 1: +49-261-805012 (Zyx19.2/ISDN) Port 2: +49-261-84280 (V.FC) PRICING The requested shareware fee is DM 50,- or US$ 40. Upon registration you will receive a keyfile that enables the disabled features (SCSI and hard disk partition support). DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware (DM 50,- or US$ 40 requested) @endnode @node NEWS8 "Escom Shares Lower on Loss Announcement" @toc NEWS [From the Bloomberg Newswire, sent in by Lamar Morgan of Amiga Atlanta] Bochem, Germany, March 1st -- Escom AG shares dropped almost 18 percent after the company said its banks and shareholders will inject 100 million deutsche marks ($86 million) to help it overcome a higher-than-expected 1995 loss. The Germany computer maker and retailer said it expects a 1995 loss of 125 million marks instead of the previously forecast loss of 45 million marks. It blamed weaker prices and declining sales. Its shares, which were suspended Wednesday pending the announcement, opened today at 13.50 marks, down 2.90 marks from 16.40 marks per share when trading was suspended. "The company is operating in a weak consumer market with eroding margins and it overstretched itself in its expansion," said Patrick Shield, an analyst at Natwest Securities in London. Escom attributed the higher-than-expected losses to a fall in prices, weak sales in the fourth quarter in markets including Germany and Australia, and higher startup costs and lower sales than expected in the U.K. Escom said that of the 100 million marks of new capital, 60 million marks will come from an increase in Escom's credit line by major bank lenders. "The main shareholders have guaranteed to come up with the funds," said Bernd Wirsing, a spokesman for Escom. Escom's main shareholders are founder Manfred Schmitt, who owns 48.5 percent of the equity in advance of the capital increase; Quelle-Schickedanz AG & Co., which has 25 percent; and Seimens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, which holds 10 percent. Some 16.5 percent is owned by other investors. "The small investors will be able to buy new shares too," said Wirsing. He said it was "too early" to say how much the main shareholders would increase their stakes. Wirsing said the capital will be available "within the next few More [Y/n/=]:days." Escom's sales in 1995 were 2.35 billion marks. The company has not yet broken them down by region. @endnode @node NEWS9 "Schmitt Asks for Vote of Confidence" @toc NEWS Escom CEO Schmitt Asks for Vote of Confidence After announcing higher-than-expected losses, Escom AG CEO Manfred Schmitt submitted a resignation offer to Escom's board of directors, asking for a direct vote to retain him as chief executive officer of the company. However, as related to Amiga Report by Amiga Technologies Press Officer Gilles Bourdin, the board did indeed vote to keep Schmitt on. @endnode @node NEWS10 "New Magazine -- AmigaInfo" @toc NEWS New Magazine, AmigaInfo--Details Magazine information Name: AmigaInfo Pages: 52 pages, A4 100 4-color Editor: Thomas Svenson Subscription: Provpren 3 issues SEK 85 Halvår 6 issues SEK 165 Helår 12 issues SEK 315 Address: AmigaInfo Box 63 340 36 MOHEDA Sweden Phone: +46 472-708 45 · Fax: +46 472-716 80 · BBS: +46 472-712 70 E-mail: amigainfo@dcn.se · HomePage: http://www.dcn.se/amigainfo Short info: AmigaInfo is a new printed Amiga-magazine in Sweden. It will cover most of what the Amiga can be used for, have articles about where the Amiga is used, who uses it, and so on. There will be a lot of reviews of new Amiga-products. AmigaInfo will be a useful source for the users to learn how to use the Amiga better, how to connect it to internet, exchange information with other computers and a lot more. @endnode @node NEWS11 "Cloanto Press Releases" @toc NEWS Amiga Software Announcement Udine, March 4, 1996 Personal Paint for Internet Publishing As more and more organizations and individuals publish their work on the World Wide Web, it is becoming more important to stand out with carefully thought out Web pages. Graphics play an important part in this. Poorly implemented pages annoy the users with images having wrong or missing transparency information, lack of progressive display, and huge files containing 256-color images where 16 colors could have achieved the same results. Cloanto's Personal Paint is an excellent tool for Internet publishing: professional color reduction, quantization, dithering and antialiasing algorithms yield excellent quality at resolutions, numbers of colors and file sizes which yield optimal results on the Web. Transparency and progressive display are fully supported by Personal Paint, and so are new Web formats such as PNG. Cloanto and the Amiga have years of experience where PC and Mac companies are just beginning to introduce products. Personal Paint 6.4 is included with the Amiga in the Internet Surfer pack. The GIF module for Personal Paint is available from public domain sources. Current Internet-related projects at Cloanto include new versions of Personal Paint and a Cloanto Web site. More details on these will be announced soon. Public Domain GIF Module for Personal Paint Cloanto has just released a new GIF I/O module ("personal_gif_io.library" version 5.0) for Personal Paint, with includes support and documentation for Internet features such as transparency and progressive display. The archive has been placed in the public domain, and is available through sources such as CompuServe and the Aminet. This material should be especially useful for Internet developers (as it puts Personal Paint in control of specific options of GIF89a), and users of the Amiga bundle packs (in which Personal Paint is supplied without the GIF module). On CompuServe: GO AMIGAUSER, Library 8, GIF_IO.LHA On the Aminet: gfx/conv/gif_io.lha DataTypes for the Amiga Surfer Pack Cloanto has completed development of a set of high-quality Amiga DataTypes for the GIF, JPEG, PNG and XBM formats, which are fast, system compliant, and support unusual format variants. These DataTypes incorporate years of experience acquired with Personal Paint. The DataTypes allow the Amiga Surfer pack to process more than 99.5% of the pictures on the Web. This is a higher average than comparable Mac and PC systems. The new DataTypes are included with the Amiga in the Surfer pack. Cloanto and CD-ROMs With the Personal Suite CD-ROM, Cloanto was the first company launching an Amiga CD-ROM product containing quality commercial (not freely available) software at a popular price. Initially, this was felt as a particularly risky task, given that in the Amiga community CD-ROMs are often perceived as low-quality collections of existing, free distribution software. While the Personal Suite in its metal box full of commercial software is now becoming a collector's item, Cloanto is proud to release The Kara Collection CD-ROM. With the help of the Amiga community, new CD-ROM titles are being developed. Products to be announced soon include Photo CD software. New from Cloanto: The Kara Collection CD-ROM This CD-ROM includes for the first time the complete collection of ColorFonts, AnimFonts, Starfields and Plaquegrounds, plus a full set of support tools by Kara Computer Graphics and Cloanto. This is not a compilation of public domain material. Kara fonts are used by the finest professionals on different computing platforms. They are great for pictures, animations, titling effects and presentations. The CD-ROM contains 80 Amiga ColorFonts (with effects like Brick, Glass, Chrome, Chisel, etc.), plus hundreds of alternate color palettes. All ColorFonts are also supplied in different formats used by video titling packages. The CD-ROM includes the new Cloanto ColorType software, which allows the user to apply changes to the ColorFonts (also automatically via ARexx). The Cloanto Personal Fonts Maker package and additional printer-downloadable fonts in black & white are also included. AnimFonts use animated brushes to render effects like handwriting, rotating characters, fuse-like sparkles, etc. The fonts can be used to create animations with any Amiga package supporting Anim-Brushes. The CD-ROM contains a software upgrade with Anim-Brush extensions for users of Personal Paint, plus ARexx scripts to automate the rendering process. As Kara says, "So long to the laborious task of placing individual letters... This is the way AnimFonts were meant to be!!!" The set of Starfields animations includes moving stars seen from different perspectives, plus animated space objects. The collection of Plaquegrounds contains textures and backgrounds (e.g. granite, marble, sand-stone, wood, etc.) stored in different syles and sizes (as 24-bit images and in other popular formats). Starfields and Plaquegrounds can be used alone, or as a background for the ColorFonts and AnimFonts. Cloanto has a tradition of quality packages at an affordable price. This CD-ROM contains ten years of artwork by Kara Computer Graphics, at a fraction of the price of the original, separate packages. Most of the material in The Kara Collection is being brought to the public for the first time, exclusively on this CD-ROM. For more information send E-mail to . ................................................................. . . . Cloanto Italia srl Tel +39 432 545902 . . Via G. B. Bison 24 Fax +39 432 609051 . . 33100 Udine E-mail info@cloanto.it . . Italy CompuServe 100145.15 . ................................................................. @endnode @node NEWS12 "Escom Announces Loss" @toc NEWS Escom Announced 125 Mio. DEM Loss Escom will consolidate with a 125 Mio. DEM loss for 1995 (about 86 Mio USD). This was announced by the company on last friday (3/1/96). Reasons given were the bad christmas season 1995, a weaker demand for PCs, a general fall in prices and initial losses for several acquisitions. High inventories of unsold products have been build up, which have to be depreciated now. This adds heavily to the losses. After some years of heavy growth, 1996 will become the year of consilidation, said the company. Some shareholders and banks will support Escom with 100 Mio DEM, 60 Mio. will be raised by issuing extra shares, 40 Mio. will consist of bank credits. @endnode @node NEWS13 "Amiga Dinner in Atlanta" @toc NEWS Remember the Amiga Dinner in Atlanta? Well I do...I was there! If you missed it, now you can have a taste of what you missed! Saturday March 16th at noon (eastern standard USA time), we will be showing the whole thing on the net! See and hear Dave Haynie, Jason Compton, Fred Fish, and MANY others!! So what do you need to do? -------------------------- login to any slip or slip emulation account. Get CuSeeMe. (availible on most platforms) Tune in the CU-SeeMe reflector "noel.pd.org" IP: 128.140.1.88 then sit back and enjoy! If you need help with this, send email to banquet@ttlchaos.randomc.com Cu-SeeMe client software can also be had by anonymous FTP to ttlchaos.randomc.com in the /banquet/cuseeme directory. --- The video can be purchased on VHS in NTSC or PAL formats by sending check or money order to the address below. Note that conversion to PAL and shipping to foreign countries will add a little to the price. Look at our web page for more information at http://www.mindspring.com/~amigaatl [The tape reportedly retails for $24.00] Color photographs of the Amiga celebrities can also be purchased for $2.50/ea or downloaded from the FTP site above in grayscale preview format. See the lists for more information about purchasing photographs. Amiga Atlanta, Inc. PO Box 49103 Atlanta, GA 30359-1103 Please address all email questions to banquet@ttlchaos.randomc.com Tune in and experiance part of amiga history! - Robert Hamilton ( cyber1@noel.pd.org ) - Eric Webb ( EricWebb@ttlchaos.randomc.com ) @endnode @node NEWS14 "Amiga CDROM Guide" @toc NEWS TITLE Amiga CDROM Guide VERSION 1.5 AUTHOR Anders Bakkevold. (andersb@intercom.no) DESCRIPTION Amiga CDROM Guide (ACDG) was made to help Amiga-owners to pick the right CDROM for their needs. It doesn't include commecial games or photoCD-discs, but all Amiga PD/clipart/fonts/modules collections. - It is in the Amigaguide-format. - You will find all the vital information on a CDROM, like price, contents, publisher etc. - Covers 314 CDROMs! - 145+ of the CDROMs have a review - If you're interrested in for instance raytracing, click on the keyword "Raytracing" to get a list of all CDROMs that can be assosiated with ratracing. - Other keywords: Clipart, fonts, pictures, utilities, GNU, text-files, fish etc - It's up-to-date with the latest CDROM releases. - It is completely independent All in all: 680kB of pure information! NEW FEATURES v1.5 Sixth release. Contains information about 314 CD-ROMs. - 30 CD-ROMs Added: Advanced Military Systems All Dogs Go To Heaven Aminer 10 AMUC CD 4 Animatic CD-ROM World Atlas CD32 Gamer Issue 10 CD32 Gamer Issue 6 CD32 Gamer Issue 8 CD32 Gamer Issue 9 Clipart & Fonts CD Demos & Tools 1 Desktop Publisher's Dream 2 Digital Orchestra EMC Index CD EMC Phase 4 Encounters FractalPro Image Library 1 Gamers' Delight 2 Glamour Girls Lightwave 3D Enhancer Netnews Offline 1 Nothing But GIFs AGA Octamed 6 CD Publisher's Companion Sexy Sensations Syndenis 3D-ROM Texture Heaven 2 The New Basics Electronic Cookbook XiPaint v3.2 - the ISBN field has been removed because it took too much space, and not many CDs used it. The ISBN number will now appear in the "comments" field. (Saved ~35kB!) - a lot of info added, for instance many reviews from Amiga Format - 145+ of the CDs have a review SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS You will need a program able to display Amigaguide files, like Multiview or xkpGuide. AVAILABILITY Amiga CDROM Guide is available from any Aminet site, for instance: ftp://ftp.amigalib.com/pub/aminet/docs/hyper/ACDGv15.lha You can also email me (andersb@intercom.no) and I will send you the latest version uuencoded. There is also a WWW version available here: http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/acdg/MAIN.html PRICE Amiga CDROM Guide is freeware. DISTRIBUTABILITY Amiga CDROM Guide v1.5 is copyright 1995 Anders Bakkevold. All rights reserved. You may copy it as you like, as long as no changes are made to the archive, and you don't charge more than #2.00 for the media and copying fees. @endnode @node NEWS15 "Workshop 96" @toc NEWS WORKSHOP 96 THIS IS A SECRET! DON'T TELL ANYONE! 4-7 April (Easter hollidays!) WHY BOTHER? * No sponsors, no commercializing. Unlike the some (no names mentioned) parties here in dk we're sponsorless :-) This can however be seen when looking at our grandprize. But we truly believe that the main reason to come to a party shouldn't be monetary. * Featuring the Danish internet group: AMIGOS! This group has got it own mailingserver and local sub-clubs across the country which often meet weekly. * A nice kitchen. We can make really cheap food this way! The taste is up to you.. so is the dishing. ;-) * Seperate sleeping chambers (without raves). Yep it's true. 2 wooden doors between these rooms and the partyscene. * Small, cosy, cheap, keeeewl. * 500 dkr (approx. 75 $) to win in the BEST PRODUCT Amiga Competition! GO FOR IT! This is not an impossible competition! HOW MUCH? * Entrance all 4 days : 59 kr! WHERE? * SindalBorgen Parallelvej 8 9870 Sindal, Northern Jutland. Denmark * Party-phone: 98936430. WORKSHOP '96 MERCHANDISE! * The Workshop '96 hoopy party-on T-shirt is now available. It has colorprinting on the back. * Special offer prize: 61 dkr. Remarkable quality. Guaranteed to soak sweat for a week. HOW DO I SIGN UP???? Simple. Use the form below or the phonenumber. If you want more information concerning the party you are welcome to use the phonenumber below, or email dapp@iesd.auc.dk. * Checkout : http://www.iesd.auc.dk/~dapp/workshop96 * Call (+45) 98145327, and leave your telephone #, and how many chummers you're bringing. An answering machine will serve you 24h a day. * Fill out the form! Name : E-Mail : Telephone : Address : City, Country : Computer : Comment : Order T-Shirt : (YES/NO) HOW DO I GET THERE? * Train/bus all the way from Copenhagen -> Aarhus -> Aalborg -> Sindal. * Train/bus from Frederikshavn -> Sindal. * The partyplace is approx 1 km from the trainstation - "pickups" will be available you might wanna phone : 98-936430 to get in touch with organizers. Observe! This number is only available from the 4 April - 7 April. See ya on Workshop'96. @endnode @node NEWS16 "DblScan 4000" @toc NEWS DBLSCAN 4000 DblScan 4000 upgrades the Amiga's PAL/NTSC screenmodes, unsuitable for regular VGA/SVGA/Multisync monitors, in a way that any PC's monitor is able to show them. The resulting effect is completely compatible with all Amiga programs. DblScan 4000's output is full 24 bit, so not a single bit of picture information is lost. Only the screenmodes which need upgrading are affected by the device, all other modes are fed right through with absolutely no changes. DblScan 4000 is a terrific way to get even realistic interlaced pictures and animations viewable at a large computer monitor. It shows interlaced screens exactly in the same order as a video monitor would, while reducing the flicker by preventing line drawings over the previous lines. With the aid of a graphics card with pass-through for Amiga graphics, the same monitor can be used for a very high resolution Workbench. Technical info: - Connects to Amiga 4000 video card slot - 24 bit input/output resolution - 28 MHz pixel generation - All screenmodes under 18kHz are doubled - Support for interlace (blank lines between scanlines) - Support for NTSC variable length scanlines - 14 MHz pixel input for doubled screenmodes - 28 MHz pixel input and full pass-through for undoubled screenmodes - 15pin standard VGA connector Method of operation: PLP DblScan 4000 feeds the Amiga's scanlines at doubled frequency, adding an empty line after each scanline. This results as a 15kHz-able monitor look at any monitor capable of 31kHz. Unlike a flicker fixer, which combines the two buffered interlace fields, PLP DblScan 4000 shows interlaced pictures correctly with full 50/60 Hz field update. Manufacturer: Petsoff Limited Partnership (in Finland: Petsoff Ky) P.O. Box 1009 FIN-53301 LAPPEENRANTA FINLAND Jyrki.Petsalo@lut.fi @endnode @node NEWS17 "Argel Pointers 6.0" @toc NEWS ----<<<{{{[[[ ARGEL POINTERS 6.0 ]]]}}}>>>----- >>> AVAILABLITY <<< This is available for ftp at musie.phlab.missouri.edu in pub/amiga/ArgelPtrs/ArgelPtrs.lha After much contemplation, these will show up on Aminet as well (in pix/icons I think). You can also take a look at them on the WWW at http://www.missouri.edu/~c621412 (go to the amiga page there). The ftp site is accesible from the WWW (and there's a link on my web page) PLUG: Check out my Kathy Troccoli page while you're there!!! >>> LEGAL STUFF <<< These pointers are copyright 1995, 1996 by Russ "Argel" LeBar. The original paladin pointer is copyright 1994. All rights are reserved. These are eyesoreware - if you hate all of them, send me $10! :-) If any of these appear on a coverdisk, I MUST get a free copy! These may go on the Fred Fish CD-ROMs, but I still retain all my rights regarding the mouse pointers. THESE MAY NOT BE USED FOR ANY OS EXCEPT AMIGADOS!!! >>> INTRODUCTION / NOTES <<< These are hires mouse pointers (that means OS3+) with a focus on fantasy related stuff (e.g. AD&D character classes; AD&D is a TM of TSR Inc.) plus some other stuff thrown in like sci-fi (influenced somewhat by Star Wars and moderatly by the new Buck Rodgers TSR did a few years back [my experience with it was SSI's Countdown to Doomsday]) and believe it or not even some Christian related stuff! [Note that this is sort of a work of art in that some of these won't make the best pointers... :-] OS3.0 users will have to manually load these into the pointer prefs since it has a bug in it (how annoying!). Don't know if it's fixed in OS3.1 or not. ECS users must be using the new OS3 monitors (e.g. DBLNTSC) to use these pointers (I think)!!! The pointers in my new style all have the same busy pointer - an hour glass - since I couldn't come up with anything for the fighter and I wanted to work on the others. (And I'm too lazy to change this now! :-) >>> A LOT HAS CHANGED!!! <<< Well, the names have, and there's five new ones this time around. The biggest change is that the old Paladin is now an Anti-Paladin and I have a new and MUCH BETTER one now. There are also some females this time around! :-) (* = new) (* after a name means it's name was changed) (a letter after a number (e.g. 00a) means there are two color schemes) >>> FANTASY HERO POINTERS <<< o PRIEST o CLERIC - hotspot is top left diagonal part of hood. o ROGUE o BARD - hotspot is top left diagonal part of hood. o HANDLER* (Kender) - hotspot is top left part of hoopak(sp?) * THIEF - hotspot is upper dagger. Watch your back! :-) o WARRIOR * AMAZON * 00a - (red vixen :) * 00b - (blonde) o FIGHTER o 00 - (generic) o 01 - (generic) o NINJA* * PALADIN - hotspot is the top left of the cross. o RANGER o WIZARD o MAGE o 00 - hotspot is near the top left of the magic missile. * 01 - hotspot is top-left of the staff >>> FANTASY MONSTER POINTERS <<< o Anti-Paladin* - was the original paladin which I never liked o Giant Centipede - hotspot is top right tail * Hag * 00a - hotspot is top of staff * 00b - "undead" color scheme >>> SCI-FI POINTERS <<< o SWAT (lightly armed assualt warriors) o Shock (moderate armor & armed with plasma cannons) >>> CHRISTIAN POINTERS <<< o CROSS (Jesus on the cross with Mother Mary and lightning in BG) o 00 - Original colors, hotspot left part of horizontal beam o 01 - same as 00 except better(?) color scheme >>> OTHER POINTERS <<< o Hourglass (busy) - hotspot is the absolute top left. o Paladin 00a - the original one. o Paladin 00b - the original using the Paladin (New) color scheme o Paladin 01 - Better color scheme. Taken from a picture I painted (on my web page in the gallery). >>> THE FUTURE <<< YES!! I *finally* got a thief and paladin I like!!! Up next -- maybe some more DL classes (e.g. cavalier, barbarian). Any suggestions? I'd like to do some good Christian ones, but I can't think of anything, though the new (TRUE) paladin could fit the bil for the moment. >>> THANKS <<< Thanks go to James R. Godbeer for suggesting I do an AD&D character class series! Thanks also go to EA for DeluxePaint (though the bugs in DP5 kind of cancels this out) and Andy and Graham Dean for ImageStudio (WOW!!!). >>> HISTORY <<< 1.0 Aug. 1995 Ranger & Paladin (plus Others) 2.0 Aug. 1995 Added Mage and Paladin 2.1 Aug. 1995 Whoops! Fixed the "Others/" icons. 3.0 Aug. 1995 o Added a Cleric and Thief (Kender). o Colors redone to conform to the default OS scheme (transparent, medium, dark, bright). o Got rid of the icons (I use a 16 color palette so I had to redo all of them everytime I did a new distribution) and added an iff picture instead. 4.0 Sep. 1995 o Added another fighter, a ninja fighter, and a bard. o Demo picture on the WWW (see .signature) 5.0 Oct. 1995 SWAT & Shock warriors, Centipede, and The Cross (00 & 01) 6.0 Feb. 1996 Name changes, colors updated (no more black -- now it's a dark red or purple), paladin became anti-paladin and it got a new color scheme. Five new pointers! >>> THE AUTHOR <<< /---Russ-LeBar-------+------ c621412@missouri.edu ---------S()---------\ | // Dare to Dream | Creator of Argel Ptrs & Term toolstrip imagery | | \X/ A M I G A | A1200-6MB-14Mhz881-426HD -- Term beta tester | |WWW: http://www.missouri.edu/~c621412/ - Kathy Troccoli, artwork, etc.| |FTP: musie.phlab.missouri.edu in pub/amiga - (Term betas, ArgelPtrs..)| \------S()--Argel----------- Opinions are mine & thus CORRECT =) ------/ @endnode @node NEWS18 "Escom Increases Share Capital" @toc NEWS ESCOM increases share capital Bochum/Heppenheim, 7 March 1996. ESCOM AG today increased its capital with a cash outlay by DM 59,994,000. The nominal amount of the capital increase is DM 30,300,000. The new shares have been taken over by Commerzbank AG for the issue consortium and will be offered to shareholders at the earliest possible date after presentation of the 1995 annual report. the increase in capital is part of an agreement between the company, its associates and bankers by which the company acquires new ressources amounting approximatively DM 100 million. Manfred Schmitt, principal shareholder in ESCOM AG, has simultaneously transferred 16 per cent of the base capital to the BV Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of the Bayerische Vereinsbank AG, and a further 2.5 per cent of the base capital to Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG in Paderborn and Munich, whose shareholding is hereby increased to 12.5%. In so doing, Manfred Schmitt's share has been cut by nearly 30 per cent. A further major shareholder is Quelle Schickedanz AG & Co in F=FCrth, whose share at 25 per cent remains unchange= d. By this action shareholders and banks have created the right conditions to give ESCOM AG a more solid financial base and an extension of its circle of shareholders enabling it to develop its business successfully. Regards, Gilles Bourdin -- Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH Public Relations Email to: gbo@amiga.de URL: HTTP://www.amiga.de @endnode @node NEWS19 "Bandits on the Information Superhighway" @toc NEWS SEBASTOPOL, CA (14 March 1996): O'Reilly & Associates, one of the leading publishers in the computer field, has just released a new book, "Bandits on the Information Superhighway," by Daniel J. Barrett. Known in the Amiga community for his BLAZEMONGER humor series, Dan has now turned his attention to a more serious topic: Internet risks. "The online risks you hear about on the evening news, like pornography, bomb-making, and child abductions, are extremely over-hyped," said Barrett, "and most users will never be harmed by them. 'Bandits' is a practical book: a guide to street smarts on the Net. It describes how to identify and avoid common risks that any Internet user is likely to encounter, like privacy issues, 'make Money Fast' schemes, deceptive advertising, safe buying and selling in the misc.forsale newsgroups, and online trust." Other topics covered include pranks, hoaxes, electronic junk mail, spamming, the "Net pornography" scare, and Internet romance. "Bandits" also explains what to do if you get ripped off on the Net: how to locate and contact postmasters and domain administrators, and what organizations exist to help victims. The final chapter speculates on the future of Internet risks, tapping the expertise of six long-time Internet participants (including fellow Amigan Mike Meyer). "Bandits" is written for a general audience and is the third book in O'Reilly's new "What You Need To Know" series. All books in the series are designed for browsability -- just open anywhere and start reading. In addition, tips and anecdotes from experienced users are sprinkled throughout the text. (There's even a subtle BLAZEMONGER reference or two.) Bandits (246 pages, ISBN 1-56592-156-9) is priced at $17.95 (US) and available at many bookstores, or direct at 800-998-9938 or 707-829-0515. To read a free, sample chapter, visit the Bandits web site at http://www.ora.com/info/bandits/ Book reviews can be found at http://www.ora.com/item/bandits.html Questions? Email nuts@ora.com, or Dan Barrett at dbarrett@ora.com. @endnode @node FEATURE1 "AWeb Conference" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== AWeb Conference =========================================================================== [AWeb, a non-MUI HTML browser, has caused quite a stir even though it has not officially been released yet. A couple of months back, the author held an independently scheduled IRC conference to discuss the program. -Jason] Formatted Log of Conference on #AWebBrowser on the 21st January 1996 -------------------------------------------------------------------- << Formatted by Stone-D of #Amiga EFNET >> << Original Log from Steiner of #Amiga EFNET >> << Further formatted by Katherine Nelson of Amiga Report >> <-- Begin Log --> rozijn: Yvon Rozijn, author of AWeb. << #AWebBrowser >> lammy :where can we get e demo of aweb ? rozijn :lammy: in feb or march the real version from aminet DrWho :rozijn: multiple sockets in the plans somewhere rozijn :lammy: I have several betatesters already LowLigh :Thanks Dr_P: I was wondering what GFX cards will be supported for Aweb. I have an Opalvision and its does not support WB rozijn :LowLight: no GFX cards yet. Only OS compatible DR_pHuQt :rozijn: will aweb work with cybergfx? rozijn :DR_pHuQt:: if it supports OS functions DR_pHuQt :rozijn: Fionn just told me that it seems to like cybergfx already... ChrisDi :rozijn: Whats about multi-Port connect to a WWW-Site to get Images simultan? rozijn :ChrisDi: On my list. Mutaboul :Rozijn: If Aweb will get Asynchronous operation in the future (Ouff.. I really ask FUTURE question!) rozijn :Mutaboul: in the future, yes. SoldierX :what's your opinion on AmiTCP... is it too hard to setup for people who are new to comms... do you think it will ultimatly destroy the internet viability of the amiga ? rozijn :SoldierX: a simpler installer tool would be very nice, but with some decent explanation most beginners can install amitcp well Tau :rozijn, I can port AWeb to Inet225. Will you accept help? yrozijn :Tau: if there is enough demand for a Inet225 version Tau :yrozijn, I demand it ;) yrozijn :Tau: ok, maybe you can help me :-) ChrisDi :Will there be an intelligent Cachesystem for AWEb? yrozijn :ChrisDi: again, in the future. It's on my list lammy :I heard AT plans to pu Inet into there Internet paket, so it would be importent to support INET yrozijn :lammy: If that is true, then it is important, yes. Tau :yrozijn, I recommend lauching a mail reader in "send mode" for mailto: "Voodoo MAIL TO

SUBJECT " would work nicely. DR_pHuQt :tau: i bet you do :) Tau :dr, heheh. ;) DR_pHuQt :tau: a damned fine mailer, from what little I have seen, btw Tau :rozijn, any time you feel like sending the HTTP module source here, feel free ;) yrozijn :Tau: ok, the amitcp part is about 50lines lammy :when will other protocolls than http: and file be supportet ? yrozijn :lammy: I try to get ftp: and gopher: working in the first vsn lammy :and what about mailto: ? yrozijn :lammy: not in this version Tau :yr, why not use external handlers? For example, there is a HTTP: dos handler already. yrozijn :Tau: I don't know of it. Where can I find it? Tau :I don't think it is released. I don't know if the author wants everyone asking him about it, but I'll ask him to contact your, yr JamesBart :Why does AWeb have incompatabilities with Magicmenu? yrozijn :JamesBart: it did in version 0.2 fixed in later versions PhalanxJr :yrozijn: it is very simple to make a programautosense which stack is in place, look at AmIRC, AmFTP, and Voyager for example of this yrozijn :PhalanxJr: any source code available? Tau :yr, I can easily make the TCP/IP code autosense the stack. No problem. yrozijn :Tau: for *serious* questions, suggestions, only: yrozijn@xs4all.nl Tau :I'm dead serious about all of this. I want a decent IW225 web browser, and I'm ready to work for it yrozijn :Tau: ok, I'll send you the source part qnzqn :yroz: will aweb need an external proggie to play sounds like amisox, or will it use datatypes, or will there be some kind of built in sounds player? yrozijn :qn: external player, mayby datatypes in future moster :yr: How come did you decide to write a webbrowser? yrozijn :moster: I wasn't happy with amosaic/mui and the ever delayed ibrowse Scuba :I think loadable modules for VRLM, Java etc. would be great, especially for 3rd party developers. yrozijn :scuba: I think so too. Maybe in some future version I'll add support for 3rd party modules Arma :yrozijn: do you have any plans to make it a commercial product ? yrozijn :arma: first release freeware, later releases shareware. Arma :yrozijn: roughly how much will the shareware fee be please ? yrozijn :Arma: I don't know yet ThrustMe :yrozijn: Is there any chance of internal PNG support (same reason as for GIFs)? yrozijn :thrustme: what is PNG? DR_pHuQt :yroz: png is a royalty free compressed picture format, similar to gif Tau :Portable Network Graphics Tau :1-48 bit, 8 bit alpha channel, better interlacing, better compression, public domain ThrustMe :yrozijn: An image format with better compression than GIF + 24 bit + better interlacing ThrustMe :yrozijn: and no copyright/patent problems yrozijn :If there is a datatype for PNG, it's easy. Tau :there is a datatype for PNG, but you lose the interlacing/show while loading DR_pHuQt :there is a png datatype Tau :dr, the fact that it is a datatype means that it isn't possible. all of the data must be available before a datatype can start doing its work DR_pHuQt :tau: so write a better one :-) Tau :dr, maybe you misunderstood me. Because it is a datatype, it can not do show while loading. Datatypes don't do it. DR_pHuQt :tau: ah- it can only do full decodes, and not streams? Tau :dr, right ThrustMe :yrozijn: I just wanted to see it while loading yrozijn :thrustme: I don't want to rewrite gif, jpeg, png datatypes Arma :yrozijn: the speed is very good but do u have any more plans or ideas to make it any faster ? yrozijn :arma: parallel image loading, multiple windows Riffer :Does AWeb support DataTypes? yrozijn :riffer: yes Tau :riffer, makes you wonder why we would be talking about datatypes otherwise, doesn't it? DR_pHuQt :yroz: do you plan to support progressive jpeg? yrozijn :dr: what's that DR_pHuQt :yroz: netscape, and a few others show you a progressively inproving picture, as it downloads, it's a wierd kind of jpeg, in the v6 standardm afaik yrozijn :dr: not with datatypes DR_pHuQt :yroz: as tau pointed out, it can't work with datatypes.. you have to decode the stream yourself.. but I think src is easily available... it would have to be threaded, I suppose yrozijn :I leave the channel now, I'll be back later yrozijn :Tau: we speak later < yrozijn PARTS the channel > << End of Log as given to Stone-D >> [ The following were some answers to private questions: ] rozijn :Teletran: it uses datatypes rozijn :DrWho: I hate mui, that's why I started AWeb rozijn :steiner: because I want to spend my time on further developing, not on bookkeeping sw fees and sending out keyfiles and because it's just not finished rozijn :DarkMagi: in feb or march yrozijn :steiner: mailto/news not in the first version. It will be in a future version. @endnode @node FEATURE2 "Scala Conference" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Scala Conference =========================================================================== [ Recently, an independent conference was held with John Chang of Scala US. From the various fragmentary logs we received, this is what we were able to flesh out. We join this conference already in progress... ] IcePic | JohnnyC: But one could export the complete scala-scripts from | a pc to an Amiga, and it would run? JohnnyC | This means that we can take 80% of the "PC" code and transfer | it back to the Amiga. «Action» | HeadQuake note: General Instrument is a HUGE cableTV decoder | maker/seller. We have them in Sweden, at least I do. :) JohnnyC | Since many of the RTG/EGS boards are VGA chipset based, there | would be little to convert. Well, if we transfer BB back to | the Amiga, then yes. As it is now, no. BB and the current | Amiga code is too different. IcePic | JohnnyC: Since lots of cfxcards move towards cybergraphX, it | just might be an idea to go for that... JohnnyC | Correct. The wipes that we make for the PC, should work well | with Cybergraphx and other RTG/EGS cards. MrDaniel | Speaking of RTG, is there any plans of supporting CyberGraphX | in ScalaMM ### or BackBone? JohnnyC | If we get the go-ahead from ESCOM/AT, then yes, BB will be | ported back to the Amiga. More than likely, it will be for | the new PowerAmiga line and not the existing ECS or AGA machines. XT600 | icepic: Why ? then ypu must have a conversation to PAL again ? IcePic | XT600: AGA has it's speed limits, it isnt up to 1996 | standards... IcePic | JohnnyC: Is there a big difference in the wipes available for | PC/Am, since the graphics differ so much? JohnnyC | Yes, there are some things that the PC graphic system can do | that the Amiga can't and vice versa. MrDaniel | jhonnyc: Good idea. I dont think its worth spending much | more developent money/time on the old Amigas. The Amiga wont | be back for real until the PowerAmigas appear... IMHO. JohnnyC | Most importantly, moving in the Z axis. We can now do a | "real" zoom wipe and fly-ons etc. In other words, real | "scaleable" based stuff. Perty | JohnnyC: The tiles thing... How About it? JohnnyC | Oh yeah! Sorry about that Perty. Yes, the tiling thing will | be added to MM110, a maintenance version after the initial | release. JohnnyC | It will be in the authoring program for General Instrument | but not for the initial PC release. JohnnyC | Well, while we are waiting for questions, I'll tell you more | about the new wipes. We now have "Picture" wipes. That is, | you can use a 256 color image to create your own wipe! We | also have "Script" wipes, that are based on Scala's new | ScalaScript scripting language. Operations like grow, copy, | move, etc are now available to create your own cool wipes! IcePic | JohnnyC: How compatible are the PC/Am versions now? Can one | use the remote feature to control different platforms? JohnnyC | Unfortunately, there is very little compatibility between the | current Amiga code and the BackBone code used in the... PC | version. If we do port BackBone(BB) back to the Amiga | (Power), then there will be cross-platform... compatibility. IcePic | JohnnyC: Will there bo more platforms later. or is it just | x86-pc and Poweramiga? JohnnyC | Well, the good think is that BB can be used on just about any | platform. So we are looking at others to port to. As some | of you may know, some of the Scala engineers, on their own | volation, no company funds involved, have purchased BeBoxes | from Be, Inc. including Dave Haynie. Right now, they are | tinkering with them, but, who knows. :) Of course, the Mac | is another platform to port to, but its difficult to program | for. I suppose we'll have to wait until Apple allows direct | control of video hardware, in order to achieve the same | performance as the Amiga and PC version. MrDaniel | Will/does BackBone support 3D hardware? (like, for example, | gfx chips with builtin 3D, thats is getting more popular by | the day...) This could make some really nice wipes. JohnnyC | Ho! Very perceptive Daniel! Very perceptive! Indeed, we | have been exploring some of the capabilities of the 3D | chipsets on the market. All have some very promising | capabilities. But there is no standard API. If the industry | agrees to a standard (i.e. Microsoft's new 3D Primitives | API), then we can really start development in earnest. Yeah, | boy do we have some f*cking great ideas for 3D chipsets!!! Jacob | Q: Any plans for cybergraphx support? since that is pretty | much the going standard in RTG for amiga now (would be nice | for something faster than aga) JohnnyC | Jacob. Its hard to say what we will support on the current | AGA or ECS chipset. For one thing, to even begin RTG/EGS | support, AT needs to choose a standard. But as I've said | before, more than likely it will be on the PowerAmiga, since | they will probably have RTG/EGS native. IcePic | JohnnyC: Is the development of Am/680x0-Scala down now, | waiting for the Poweramiga/PPC-cards to arrive? If so, have | you contacted Phase5 to get PPC-cards? JohnnyC | Yes, for now we are at the end of the development cycle for | the Amiga products. Can't do much more, as the code is | highly optimized and difficult to... add more to. The | BackBone technology makes it much easier to add really cool | new stuff. Yes, the current Amiga code is "spaghetti code". | Any new... features would probably make it way to unstable | to function reliably. Perty | Q: Have you seen ImageVision, What did you think of it? (I | haven't seen it yet) JohnnyC | No, I haven't had the opportunity to se ImageVision. I | understand that its quiet nice. We need more multimedia | programs for the Amiga. Yes, they may be competitors, but | that is good in a way. It shows the industry that there is | still unique uses for the beloved Amiga, despite its age. | Oh, forgot to answer IcePics second question about Phase 5 | peripherals. The answer is, I don't know if we've picked up | the cards or not for development. Can't do any development | until we have development tools anyway. HeadQuake | ImageVision (I have betatested it) is delived with 1 CD full | of backgrounds, cliparts etc.. Any plans for Scala to go CD? JohnnyC | For the PC version, yes. Lots and lots of animations, | sounds, pictures, backgrounds, etc. Have nearly 400 MB of | it. All designed by Scala Studios! This includes new stuff | by Bjorn Rybakken! Babbage | What do you think of the new ppc amigas/have you seen | anything of them/what can you tell us about them, know about | future AT ppc machine gfx capabilities? and whats this about | taking over beee'a big apple mac'box? not amiga cd as well? JohnnyC | I haven't seen the specs on the PowerAmigas, so I can only | conjecture as to what the specs will be like. First, I | believe they will be CHRP/PREP compliant, so that means in | addition to the PowerAmiga OS, it will run Power WindowsNT, | Copland, Linux, etc. There has been some talk of a "legacy" | peripheral, that has the AGA chipset on a PCI card. It would | be great to run 3 or 4 of these cards on one backplane. This | would result in 4 or 5 player systems in one chassis. A very | InfoChannel platform indeed! Perty | Q: Why aren't there any usage of the sprites (specially in | AGA version), like a little clock, brushes, tripple | playfields or something? MrDaniel | Will/does BackBone support MPEG/JPEG hardware? I know that | ScalaMM supports a few MPEG cards, but what about | VLab-Motion, PAR, DB-Elite etc. ? And speaking of | ImageVision. There is a demo on Amiga Computings February | issue cover disks. I'll check if its freely distributable. JohnnyC | We've been asked that question many times Perty. :^/ All I | know is that it was a flaw in the design of the original | Amiga code. I can say that BackBone does support sprites and | brush anim type stuff. Because chunky graphics can "push | through" 8-bit palettes than the Amiga ECS/AGA chipset, its a | safe bet that we'll have to wait until PowerAmiga. JohnnyC | While we're wating for the question, I want to thank everyone | for coming. This is great! We have an EX that uses any OM-1 | (Open MPEG Consortium) compatible MPEG hardware decoder. So, | yes, it will be supported in BackBone. If there is an API | for V-Lab or PAR or whatever, when we have the BackBone Amiga | version, it would be easy to support these types of products. | Right now, its hell to make an EX for the current Amiga code. | Getting busy HQ. :) There are other EXes that we are looking | into, but as you know, they are PC products, that have the | potential for use on the PowerAmiga. Jacob | Q: any plans to make a scala -> shockwave converter? (or an | equivalent of shockwave for scala). Also, why wait for AT to | do anything? so far they're pushing very little, it's phase5 | that's actually been showing PPC and did CybergraphX. AT | can't even get a new developer kit out the door and their | inet package (which was supposed to impress us all) is a joke | (my point being if you wait for AT to do anything it'll be | too late :) JohnnyC | Very perceptive Jacob. Indeed, we've been looking at making | EXes for ShockWave, Java, etc, that run from OUR software. JohnnyC | Of course, there will be the superior ScalaScript stuff. Now | couple that with the 3D chipsets and now you're talking real | multimedia! Babbage | headquake Do you think AT are doing to little to late, and by | the time they DO get some new machines released, everyone | else will have moved on to more powerfull pastures (as its | looking like AT are trying to develop what other people are | alreaady using now) JohnnyC | This is very hard to predict. Perhaps it is Phase 5 doing | all the R&D for AT. Don't have any hard evidence to support | this statement. If they are, I'm sure our European office is | in touch with them. wavegirl | First, can you elaborate more on your plan in regards to HTML | support; and is there any chance of making a freely | distributable "player" so non-scala owners can view scripts? | (Sort of like PowerPoint has?) JohnnyC | It would be easy to add a an HTML EX to the software, | implementation would be similar to Java, but other details I | can't divuldge at the moment. Sorry. JohnnyC | Yes, of course the ScalaScript engine would be freely | distributable. Authoring is where one would have to pay | their dues. :) MrDaniel | Any plans of supporting advanced multimedia hardware, like | for example the 2GO board from Phase5? (I usually start | drooling when I'm thinking of what Scala would be able to do | with such hardware. :) ) JohnnyC | If its supported by the OS or if the is a standard API that | is available, sure I think it would be easy to implement with | the BackBone technology. Perty | Q: Is Scala PC multitasking? ;-) JohnnyC | Well, yes and no. Since it runs from MS-DOS, not Windows, | there are some limitations. One of the elements of | BackBone... MMOS (MultiMedia Multitasking Operating System) | does do multitasking and limited memory management when in | the 32-bit protected mode. This includes message handling | and priority/operation handling of the EXes, etc. However, | as soon as we have to do I/O (i.e. read or write to DOS) | multitasking is halted for that cycle, but then quickly | returns to the 32-bit, multitasking mode. Not quiet a real | OS, but close enough. ScottE | Do you plan to continue with the use of the Dongle? I've | recieved numerous comments about the unprofessionalism of the | dongle for both the Pc and Amiga versions of MM and IC. «Action» | HeadQuake comment: AT A1200/4000 Scala bundle use no dongle. JohnnyC | There will be different products tailored for different | markets, based on the same software technology. MM100 will | not, I repeat NOT have a dongle. :) However, we will have | versions that will have dongles, but only on the authoring | modules. Not the Player. In addition, these variants... | will include the ability to "encrypt" the scripts, Preventing | tampering and allowing the ability to author for CD-ROM, | product for profit, etc. InfoChannel, will have dongles, | however. Good thing is that there will be a multitude of | different products based on the same technology. This | tailoring is much more flexible and highly desirable. Price | point is there for every budget and every need. MrDaniel | Do you have a dog? :) (Just had to ask. I love dogs... :) ) JohnnyC | LOL! No, I don't have a dog, but my housemate does. Two | very loud dogs. But they are nice. Have a cat though. | Names Atilla. Big, BIG cat! Babbage | pc multitask? hee hee hee;) Any future to a WB interface | instead of a stand alone screen one? JohnnyC | Well, I don't know Babbage. I think that the unique Scala | GUI (which we call HumanTouch) is one of our products | greatest assets. Certrainly, we can make it more WB function | centric, but I doubt if we will utilize the WB intuition | gadgets or interface. Babbage | could always patch WB to all look like scalas (award winning) | interface of course =:) JohnnyC | Well, think about this, what makes Scala , Scala and makes it | different from any Amiga or PC based multimedia product? I | think the interface is a great asset. JohnnyC | Well, that's about it for tonight. HQ and I have agreed to | hold this again this Thursday at 5pm EST. Hope to see you there! JohnnyC | Thanks to everone for coming by! HeadQuake | Last question is from me: Johnny, do you use an Amiga? And | if so which one? ;-) JohnnyC | HQ, of course I use the Amiga! Have an A4000 on the right of | my PC! @endnode @node FEATURE3 "Another Trip to Be..." @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== I went, I Be'ed, I was conquered! By Ed Musgrove emusgrov@linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us =========================================================================== [Yes, I know, this isn't BReport, it's Amiga Report. But there are some neat thing happening in the third floor Be offices, and they're worth keeping in mind--if for no other reason than to keep Amiga Tech on their toes. -Jason] Yesterday I attended the Be users' group meeting in Bellingham, Washington. Two members of the Be corporate staff were on hand to give a 6 hour seminar! After the usual hassles of getting everything running and displaying on the auditorium's projector we were given a very informative set of talks about various subjects of interest to compu-holics hearts. Mark Gonzales (Marketing dude at Be) and Peter Potrebic (Software support) were both ready with a slide show (overhead projections) and demos running on the BeBox itself. First, a note about non-disclosure; I asked about this in regard to the info we get from the web sight and from the employees who attended the users' group. I was told we were expected to disclose all and everything--in fact, the more folks who want in on the ground floor the better, "so spread the word, nothing is secret!" is the current watchword. Julie Petersen is an Amigan of great renown. It was she who brought all the pieces together to solve the "A3000 screen sparkle" problem. She has become a very major enthusiast in the Be world. It was she who formed this users' group and was instrumental in launching this meeting with Be professionals. She gave the welcoming speech and entertained us with a few choice tidbits from here past and from her recent Be experiences. Mark gave us some interesting statistics about the computer industry in general, then tied them together to explain Be's marketing and design philosophy. One interesting factoid was that there is an installed base of 250+ million personal computers worldwide, an additional 68 million will be sold this year alone! He showed some of the "new rules" which Be is trying to operate under, the first and formost is to break the old rule which said "CPUs are expensive, no one needs more than one", Be's rule is "one is not enough!" Another (which might not seem too clear from this) is "learn from the past--the mistakes and the successes", but don't necessarily (willy-nilly) just go with the past successful solutions. There was one interesting rule, "assume the future, and build it in". Combined with "ride the industry cost curve", these might seem a bit at loggerheads, Mark was able to synthesize the two into a seemingly reasonable business and technical plan. Peter gave us a guided tour of the more interesting apps and abilities of the machine. Remember, this is a machine in it's infancy, the software was startling, considering that real software development was only just begun last year. Peter was subjected to a wide range of technical questions (some of which ended up answered by Mark who is quite capable of explaining system level hardware and software issues in complex detail--not common in a Marketing person!) Let me give you a quick overview of the hardware and software from a naive users' point of view (that's me--naive.) Some may have seen a posting which mentions that the developer's machine currently ships with no front panel (bezel), this appears to be accurate for the first few hundred machines shipped, as the case (a medium dark blue very close to the Zip drive color) seems to be an industry standard box, but the folks at Be have been working to design an attractive, functional front panel. This has resulted in the folks there trying their hand at modeling in various mediums. The result which they displayed yesterday was interesting, slightly different (though not obnoxious), and only a trial run, first attempt. The final unit will have twin LED arrays which will display each CPU's current load rate--kind of a Starwars wannabe. The software (the OS, a complete CLI-driven development system and a few home grown apps) was impressive. The OS takes all the good stuff from AmigaDOS, Windows95, and MacOS; all the bad stuff from them seems to have disappeared. As this is not only a true multi-tasking machine (like the Amiga), it is also an n-expandable multi-processor system (hardware limits not inherent in the machine seem to limit cost/price/return to about 8 PPC processors.) The current board supports only 2 603e's, but they seem to handle everything with ease. The CLI is a "bash" which I think stands for "Bourne Again SHell", but don't quote me! It looked exactly like an Amiga shell with the exception that it was a full blown app window (menus, scrollers, gadgets like iconify, help.) Help--ah yes. They have a totally rad concept on context sensitive help, the exact details of which escape me, but basically you select a "help" icon then select something on the screen (an icon, a running app, a gadget, a blank area of a window--whatever tickles your fancy). The machine then checks if it is a system resource for which help is required and if so does it's really nice thing. If not it passes the help request on to the app which has a built-in OS standard way of responding which may be used, modified or ignored. Back to the "workbench" (as we Amigans know it), I can only wax ecstatic over the desk top environment. It has only one drawback for Amiga-aware folks--it has no way of displaying multi-resolution screens simultaneously (like if you pull down the Amiga's Workbench screen to display something running behind it.) As I understand it, this is possible by using a graphics card which will do this--and at least one is available at a very high cost. So it is not so much a system problem but a cost thing--but don't quote me on this either! When you drag a window somewhere the entire window display moves and uncovered screen area is redrawn (as opposed to the Amigas drag a simulated rectangle method.) The 2 processor system is so fast it is doing all this in *software* doing constant *total* screen redraws, not just clip region fix-ups. It is so fast that even with an insane work load the process was not in the least affected. Remember, this machine has no custom ASICs (custom graphics or sound chips like our blitter/Agnus/Paula stuff.) The desk top supports the standard Amiga functions like drag and drop, clipboard, multi-select (uses the shift key or select draw boxes just like the Amiga.) The OS is completely "hot linked", any change of anything in the file structure immediately updates all references to that thing. For instance, you have your favorite paint program running and open the file requester displaying a list of file, one of which is the infamous "foo". Now, just for fun, you go to the desk top, find foo's icon, and change foo's name to the much more reasonable "bar". As this is a single screen design, the paint program's file requester was left visible off to one side, and you notice that as you change the files name it's entry in the file requester changes instantly and automatically from foo to bar. For the programmers this can even be set up so that code which opens a file will get the file even if the name has been changed! The file system is just one part of the built-in database tool. You can search the entire database of all volumes (or just one or more volume(s) or directory(s)) using very sophisticated search criteria on one or multiple fields. Any user may extend the definition of what a file is on their system. If they want file comments, they simply add a new field to the database's file record, If they want user protection they can add a field like rating, and rate the files (x rated files would not be available without a password or something.) Menus are handled about like on the Amiga--pull or drop down (did not see which) uses Amiga-key keyboard shortcuts. I did not know clone keyboards had Amiga keys, but the keyboard shortcuts were all shown as a stylized "A" + and menu entries looked just like on the Amiga. Menus stay attached to the active window, as opposed to the Amiga's way of always sticking them at the top of the screen. There was a user preference to configure everything it seemed, but they did not go into details (we only had 6 hours and could have used twice that!) Mice, gadgets, windows, icons, directories and files all will be totally comfortable to the Amiga user. The user interface is very similar to that of the Amiga (and Mac and Windows95 as well.) Currently scroll bars are not proportional, but the release being shipped with new machines has proportional scroll bars, just like we do. What they have done with system standard gadgets makes GadTools and even MUI look pale by comparison. If you don't develop software you can stop reading here and skip to the conclusion at the end. Be claims to have about 1000 registered developers in North America and about another 300 in Europe. From the traffic on comp.sys.be I would guess this to be true. They offer an astonishing deal to developers. If you have any track record at all in the electronics industry (even a tiny PD utility on an obscure platform) you may become a registered developer with all rights and privileges pertaining. The price is right--nothing! Developer support is in place and functioning well. Support is INet based by preference, though they might answer a letter. The system is almost completely POSIX compliant (some multi-processor issues need to be worked out, but they claim 99% compatibility.) They will be CHRP (or whatever it is called today) compliant when the standard is "set"--they maintain very close compatibility now, but the standard is still being changed so they will not buy in until it has a firm base. The developer's text-based material is all available for free on their web sight (www.be.com) in multiple formats (HTML, Postscript, Acrobat) and includes the "Be Book" which is like the RKMs with the exception of the Style Guide (for which they are seeking a tech writer to design and write a "style" by which we may be guided.) The functions all have very similar names to the functions in AmigaDOS which do similar things. Porting most Amiga programs will be a simple matter of running it through a spell checker with a "dictionary" composed of the function call names. (Well, it might be a tiny bit more complicated!) Executable files on the BeBox are very small. An app which opens a screen and window then prints "Hello, World!" in a program specified font compiled to 7k. On the Amiga it takes 3k. At the present, the only real support for software development is via MetroWerks CodeWarrior running on a Mac. The GUI is being ported to run natively on the BeBox, or so we were lead to believe, though some question remains about MetroWerks devotion to the cause in the eyes of a few users posting regularly. The box ships with an interesting suite of apps (but absolutely NO printer or formatted parallel output) most of which come with source. They are considering the question of library source code for developers, but currently do not supply this. All the most critical apps are in place in at least rough form (web browser, terminal, paint, programmer's text editor, etc.). Apps may be coder defined as "take over the machine, single task, no OS desk top", "multi-copy of the same code", or "fully re-entrant, and re-executable" just as with the Amiga. In conclusion, I would like to describe what they did in order to demonstrate multitasking. All the following were going at the same time, all were running at full speed, no degradation of the screen update occurred (and they claimed that if we had had an INet connection they would have had 4 sessions going at once as well.) All windows could be moved, or sized at will, doing realtime screen refreshment. Sound: Running a panel which looked like a 16 channel sound mixer, but was a midi controller, they played a long 16 instrument midi file (using a midi synthesizer, not software emulation for now.) Using the built-in CD-ROM drive they played a stock (Blues Brothers was obtained from an audience member) title via a very familiar looking CD interface. Using the built-in sound generator they played a long sound file directly off the hard drive. Video: Running the included paint/animation program they opened two examples of the same anim file (King Tut is out--Nephertiti is in) and had each rotate the image (one clockwise, one widershins.) Using a demo program which takes a bit of text then displays it in a window in various sizes and styles, while cycling through the entire directory of fonts, one font at a time, they exhibited the font rendering engine. It does all sizing and style (bold, italics, rotate, shear) change in real time, using the CPU. Two versions of a program which calculates and displays Mandlebrots were going, but they went so fast that even with major window sizes and and tiny magnification areas to re-compute they had a hard time keeping them both working as opposed to waiting for input. OS functions: Pulse (SnoopDos for the Be) was showing 300+ processes running concurrently. A CPU monitor program was running. Windows were dragged, iconified, and sized as quickly as they could go from one app to another. The file system was queried using very extensive search criteria with multiple queries going at once (again it was hard to keep this going to load the system, as these calls get a high priority, adjustable just like on the Amiga.) Even more was going on, but I could not get it all down to give any more details. No real OS intensive things like formatting or disk copying were going on, but at least one app was streaming data from HD to the sound sub-system. All this took place with only a barely perceptible slow down. @endnode @node FEATURE4 "SCSI Bus Termination" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== SCSI Bus Termination Robert Davis -- Amateur Radio K0FPC rdavis@nyx.net =========================================================================== In the Usenet newsgroup, comp.sys.amiga.hardware, there seems to be a continuing discussion about "termination of the SCSI bus" especially concerning the Amiga 3000. This article will attempt to explain SCSI bus termination. The discussion in csa.hardware will continue, no matter what. And this article will be about the type of SCSI found in Amiga computers. Newer implementations, especially differential SCSI, have not been used in host adaptors on the Amiga, so there is no reason (yet) to cover them. First of all, here is the standard way to install SCSI termination on the bus: ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | T| D |===| D |===| D |===| D |===| D |===| D |===| D |===| D |T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- In the diagram, D is any SCSI device, and T is a resistor termination pack. === is the connecting cable between the SCSI devices. One of D must be "hard drive controller" or more properly, a SCSI host adapter. Other D could be a SCSI hard drive, a SCSI CDROM drive, a SCSI document scanner, or other SCSI device for which driver software is available. In the vast majority of Amiga applications, there will be two or more (but no more than eight) of D, and there will be two and exactly two T. Attaching the various SCSI devices together are ten control lines and eight data lines. I'll use the Amiga 3000 SCSI system as an example, mostly because the A3000 is the topic of discussion most of the time in csa.hardware. Nine of the control lines and all of the data lines are tied to the Western Digital SCSI IC. The tenth control line comes from the RESET circuitry and is not controlled by or routed through the host adaptor. Each of those control and data lines is terminated at each end of the SCSI bus like this: o --> +5 volts (termination power) | \ / 220 ohm resistor \ / | o ------> one SCSI control or data line (eighteen total) | \ / 330 ohm resistor \ / | ----- --> connection to ground (or common) / / / This is not the only way to properly terminate the SCSI bus, and it is not even the best way, but it is the termination nearly always found in Amiga implementations. Now it gets exciting. The SCSI bus is more than just a bunch of wires connecting stuff together. Because of the speed at which it operates, we have to consider the bus to be a set of "transmission lines" and we must consider the "characteristic impedance" of the lines to under- stand why termination is needed. Signals are sent out onto the bus by the host adapter and by the other SCSI devices millions of times per second. The system acts more like a collection of small radio transmitters connected to receivers which are very picky about the quality of the signals they receive. Once we recognize that situation, we can move to transmission line theory, which has been well understood for many years. Amateur Radio operators should be familiar with the American Radio Relay League's Antenna Book, which devotes several pages to matched and mismatched transmission lines. When signals are sent by one of the devices onto the SCSI bus, those signals must not be interfered with by other signals on the bus. The potential interference comes from a property of transmission lines. A signal sent onto an infinitely long transmission line wlll never come back to interfere with other signals on that line. But real transmission lines are never infinitely long. Each wire has two ends. And there is the reason for terminating the SCSI bus. At each physical end of the cable, we want the cable to appear to the devices attached on the SCSI bus to be infinitely long. On a real transmission line, not infinitely long, signals sent by those devices onto the cable will be "reflected" back onto the bus, and will conflict with the signals sent out anew by the devices. You may see evidence of this problem on your television screen. One result of a mismatched cable between your TV and your antenna or between your TV and your cable system is "ghosting" on the TV screen. In that situation, the reflections are visible as less strong images offset from the primary images on your TV. The way to make a short transmission line appear to be infinitely long is to terminate that line with a resistance equal to the line's characteristic impedance. That is called a "matched" transmission line. A perfectly matched line has no reflections. But perfection is hard to achieve. Not all SCSI cables are alike. The differences are slight, but they matter. Sometimes we use cables not really suited for SCSI. Any use of a 25-conductor cable disturbs the characteristic impedance of the 18 signal lines on the bus, because each line is supposed to be in a twisted pair arrangement with its own individual ground line. Sometimes the cables are not properly affixed to the connectors which plug into the various devices on the bus. Sometimes a good cable is used in conjunction with a bad cable. In almost every installation, the characteristic impedance of the SCSI bus is different from the impedance presented by the termination resistors. Another type of termination, called active termination, does much to fix this problem. But few devices with active termination are used in Amiga systems. So here are ways to cause trouble on your Amiga SCSI bus. A. Don't have termination at the physical ends of the bus. (Termination resistors must be installed and TERM POWER applied to those resistors). B. Have termination somewhere other than at the ends of the bus, (If your SCSI host adapter is not at one end of the bus, remove those termination resistors from the host adapter). C. Use cables which are not appropriate for SCSI. (Cheap RS-232 cables may have all 25 lines, but may not be physically twisted so that the line impedance is something near correct). D. Install your termination resistors the wrong way 'round. (Pin one of the resistor socket is usually marked by a square pad around the trace. Pin one of the resistor pack itself is marked by a dot or line at one end of the pack). E. Don't apply power to the termination resistors. (The IOmega ZIP drive seems not to be able to supply term power to its built in termination. Term power must come through the SCSI cable). Some Amiga owners report that their systems violate one or more of the above precepts, and everything still works OK. I say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If your SCSI system works, don't change anything. But if you are having trouble, getting the termination set correctly may solve your problems. ====================================================================== Much more information about the SCSI bus is available on the Internet. The SCSI-FAQ can be grabbed by anonymous FTP from ... ftp.wang.com: garyf/scsi/scsi-faq.part* OR rtfm.mit.edu: pub/usenet-by-group/comp.periphs.scsi/comp.periphs.scsi_FAQ_part* where the asterisk indicates the part number of the FAQ. (1 or 2). OR on the World Wide Web at: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/scsi-faq/ OR http://www.paranoia.com/~filipq/HTML/LINK/F_SCSI.html ====================================================================== @endnode @node REVIEW1 "WBStartup+: Further Notes" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== WBStartup+: Further Notes =========================================================================== [ A few words in response to the review of WBStartup+ by Katherine Nelson from the author of the program, John Hughes. ] From: John Hughes Thanks for the wonderful review on WBStartup+. I'd like to mention that the article states that it would be nice to have a boot menu type interface. There are 3 hotkeys when booting: Ctrl: Bring up the prefs before running any programs (boot menu - you could call it) Left-Alt: Interactive mode. Press Y or N for each program. Left-Shift: No programs are loaded. Ctrl and left-Alt were included in version 2.5. You made a few valid points, being: There is no way to edit the tootypes in WBStartup+ from the prefs program, and it is annoying to have to move things intothe enabled directory when installing. Both of these will be taken care of in future versions. Many other people have brought up both points, but I lack the time to really dig into it now. The latest version is 2.6 which includes a bug fix and there will be a newer version out soon which uses a library which replaces the wbstart-handler. @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Review: Files to Help You Connect Your Amiga" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Freely Redistributable Files To Help You Connect Your Amiga - 8 Disk Set Jeremy Nixon jeremyn@injersey.com =========================================================================== For a long time, I was bumming Internet access from friends. Every so often I'd get someone to let me use their computer and their account, mostly to download stuff like Amiga Report. Of course, they mostly use PC's, so I'd have to do the CrossDos thing (with all the errors) and deal with the size limits of a floppy disk. Things like hanging out and exploring were limited, and email was out. So I decided it was time to get my own connection. I faced the classic problem: no Internet service providers (at least in my area) even know what an Amiga is, let alone offer software for it, and though it's all available, you have to have Internet access to get at it. So rather than sit at someone's house seeking out what I'd need, and downloading all those huge files to floppies, I decided to try the disk set offered by Intangible Assets Manufacturing. IAM claimed to have collected everything you need to get online--and they pretty much succeeded. It should be noted that none of this software actually belongs to IAM. All they've done is collected it and packaged it onto disks, and it's all either shareware or freeware. They're charging you for the disks, their time and trouble, and the expense of getting them to you. At US$27, that's $3.375 per disk. Not unreasonable. The eight-disk set is actually nine disks, the ninth containing AMosaic 2. They probably didn't include this in the eight because of the provision on AMosaic that the disk may not be sold, only given away for free. The first problem I found with the set was the documentation--or lack thereof. IAM made no effort to prepare instructions to tie all this software together, instead relying upon the documentation provided with each individual program. Beginners, beware: it could take you some time to figure it all out. WHAT'S IN THERE This collection really does include everything you need to get started. There are several terminal emulators, a demo version of AmiTCP/IP, SLIP and PPP drivers, email and news software, MultiLink, virus checkers, web browsers (AMosaic and Lynx) and all the archiving programs you're ever likely to need. Let's run down the list. AMITCP/IP 4.0 If you want to set up a direct connection to the Internet, rather than just a shell account, you'll need this. Yes, there are other options, and yes, some people prefer AS225, but AmiTCP/IP is supported by a lot of software. Verison 4.0 is actually a demo of the commercial version, 4.1, which is rather expensive at around US$95. The demo is perfectly usable, of course, but again, beginners beware: if you want any documentation, you'll have to spring for the full commercial version, because the demo doesn't have it. (You do get a FAQ and simple instructions.) An Installer script is provided, but you have to gather all your information before you use it. During the installation, you will be asked for your domain name, the IP addresses of your ISP's domain name servers, and some other information which you don't need if your provider assigns you IP addresses dynamically, which most do. AmiTCP/IP also comes packaged with quite a few internet programs, many of which are versions ported from BSD Unix code. Most notably, you get NcFTP (a better version of FTP) and telnet. However, the documentation for these programs is sparse. Most of it consists of Unix man pages, which tend to assume a high level of knowledge on the part of the user. Beginners need not apply. PPP 1.30 If you've got a PPP connection, which is the hot thing these days, this is the other half of the equation. A shareware demo by Holger Kruse, the full registered version costs US$15, and promises better performance and more features. No Installer script is provided; you're going to have to do this one by hand. The instructions, in AmigaGuide format, lead you step-by-step through the installation process, which you perform after installing AmiTCP/IP. The driver supports earlier versions of AmiTCP/IP as well as 4.0 and the commercial 4.1. A dialer is built in: give it a script and it will call your ISP, give your login ID and password, and off you go. iNTERiNSTALL In case you can't figure out the complicated installation and setup of AmiTCP/IP and PPP, or just don't feel like it, iNTERiNSTALL is supposed to do it all for you. I say "supposed to" because the thing flat-out didn't work for me. It asked me the questions, I answered them. It installed everything, and created the necessary scripts to make it all work. But the scripts didn't work (with the exception of the PPP dialer script, which is the simplest part). The PPP documentation instructs you to make some changes to the standard AmiTCP/IP scripts for version 4.0 of AmiTCP/IP, and those changes were nowhere to be found in the scrips generated by iNTERiNSTALL--I thought that could be part of the problem. The author states in his documentation that he uses and older version of AmiTCP/IP, and that he doesn't see the point in version 4.0. I thought perhaps he didn't test it with 4.0. Things can't be that simple, though. Rob Hays, who wrote a how-to article about some of this software for the February issue of Amazing Computing, tells me he installed AmiTCP/IP and PPP with iNTERiNSTALL on his A1200, and it worked for him. Hrrumph. I was all set to trash the program, too. I ended up deleting everything and using the standard AmiTCP/IP Installer script, and installing PPP by hand. The only part of the iNTERiNSTALL installation I kept was the dial script. But the fact remains that it worked for Rob Hays, with no previous AmiTCP/IP or PPP installations on his machine. Your mileage may vary. (Thanks, Rob.) TERM 4.4 Terminal emulation. What can I say about Term? Lots of people use it, lots of people like it, it works great. Fairly decent documentation, too, unlike much of what's in this collection. VIRUS CHECKER 6.57 You probably already have at least an older version of this popular virus checker. If you don't, here it is. Having never had a virus (knock on wood) I can't say how well it works, but it's widely used and trusted. INETUTILS 1.4 A collection of email and news posting and receiving software, for those of you with direct connections. Personally, I'm more comfortable using my shell account for this stuff, but I tried them anyway in the interest of completeness. I have one word to describe the documentation: ABYSMAL. I mean, it really sucks. If you don't already know how to set up SMTP, NNTP, or POP software, don't even try it here. You'll just get frustrated. I just hope that someday, someone will put out an easy-to-use and easy-to-set-up Internet package. (A1200 Surfer?) MULTILINK 1.32 This nifty little program (actually two programs) lets you simulate a direct connection to the internet from a shell account. One half of it installs in your Unix shell, the other half on your Amiga, and hey presto, you're online. Use AMosaic, or whatever else you want. Of course, Unix shell accounts are getting harder to find these days, unfortunately, since everyone wants that PPP or SLIP so they can browse the web on their PC's without having to think too much. But a Unix shell lets you work faster and easier--no pre-downloading of Usenet news, no setup of mail software, lightning-fast web access with Lynx when you don't need all the fancy pictures, you name it. My ISP gives me both shell and PPP access, so I don't really need MultiLink, but if you have to choose one or the other, this program lets you choose the ease of a shell and still get the flexibility of a direct connection when you need one. AMOSAIC 2 Ahh, yes. It's version 2 of the most known web browser for the Amiga. I found the old version a bit prone to crashes, and hoped that the problems had been ironed out with this one. Apparently they weren't. This thing locks up on me almost as soon as I run it. Once, I got it to load two whole pages before it died. Not good. In case it's just me, here are some things you'll need to know: in order to run AMosaic 2, you'll need MUI (which is included in this set), and although it will run under OS 2.x, you'll need 3.x to get the pictures, since it uses datatypes. In case it's not just me, and the thing really doesn't work, you can probably still find the older version somewhere. That one did crash a lot, but not right away like this one. You could also wait for IBrowse to come out in some usable form, or one of the other web browsers that are due Real Soon Now. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that absolutely no documentation is supplied--not even a "how to get it to work" text file. All the docs exist on the web, meaning you have to get the program to work in order to read them. This is just plain stupid. Why, oh, why can't programmers take the time to write decent documentation? Another alternative I found is Chimera, which isn't actually finished, but it works. It runs under AmiWin, an Amiga X-Windows server, and I was able to install both AmiWin and Chimera and make them work without any tinkering whatsoever. Chimera doesn't support stuff like external viewers, but at least it runs. You'll find both at aminet/gfx/x11. AMIGA CUSEEME 2.02 Real-time video over the Internet--cool, eh? Well, maybe on a PC, or an SGI. Here's an Amiga port of CUSeeME, but like AMosaic 2, I couldn't get it to work. It crashes for me every time, before I can even try to connect to a reflector site. I have a feeling this one might expect you to have AGA, though it will load up in 32-color low-resolution. Unfortunately, this program comes with no documentation. ALYNX This is a port of Lynx, the text-based web browser that started it all. Sure, it's just text. Sure, it doesn't do much to impress the friends and neighbors. But it moves at the speed of light. When you need to find something on the web, and you don't need to waste time with glitzy pictures, Netscape backgrounds, or image maps, this is the way to go. Lynx can also connect to FTP servers, in case you don't like the command-line interface of ftp or NcFTP. RHSLIP A SLIP driver, in both 68000 and 030+ versions, in case you have a SLIP account. I don't. AS225-SLIP In case you have AS225 and a SLIP account. I don't. MULTIUSER 1.8 In case you need several users to live together in peace and harmony on your Amiga. I don't. Quite a few extra tools are included with this. NCOMM 3.0 & TERMINUS 2.0E Two alternate terminal programs, in case you hate Term. I don't. MUI 2.3 You know all about MUI already. Either you love it or you hate it. Me, I'm neutral. I have it because some programs I like need it. It's here because some programs here need it: AMosaic and ACUSeeMe. Version 3.2 of MUI is out and available, of course, so you might just want to get that one instead. But what's this I've been hearing about 3.2 crashing...? ...AND THE REST There are some other utilities included in the collection, most of which are either unusable by me because they're for SLIP or Envoy or AS225, none of which I have, or are simply of no use or interest to me and (in my opinion) to most people. I mean, come on: a program that dials up an atomic clock and sets your system clock to it? Are we being a little obsessive here? CONCLUSIONS This collection is not a one-stop easy-Internet solution. It is not Internet In A Box. It is not Netscape Navigator Personal Edition. It is not one-click-and-you're-online. It does not come with an easy-to-follow instruction manual. If you're a beginner to networking or to the Amiga, or both, it's going to take you some time to figure it all out. You might want to have a more knowledgable friend set it up for you. What it is, though, is the only source (at least for now) of everything you need in one easy-to-obtain set. It got me hooked up without having to buy anything else, except a modem. And that's really what matters, right? Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA voice: +1 610 853 4406 fax: +1 610 853 3733 info@iam.com http://www.iam.com TEST SYSTEM Amiga 500 (rev. 8a PCB) OS 3.1 & ECS CSA Derringer 030/882 2 megs chip + 16 megs fast RAM AdIDE controller w/100 meg HD Zoom 28.8k V.34 modem --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article is Copyright 1996 by Jeremy Nixon, All Rights Reserved. It may not be published anywhere except Amiga Report without specific prior permission from the author. @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Review: Creative Magic of Ron Thornton" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: The Creative Magic of Ron Thornton: Spacecraft Model Design A LightWave tutorial video By Bohus Blahut - Modern Filmmaker Bohus@xnet.com =========================================================================== Since this video tape tutorial is in two parts, this review will also be in two installments. These videos allow us to sit alongside Ron Thornton, President of Foundation Imaging. This is the Emmy award winning company that brings us sohpisticated LightWave rendered animations on TV's Babylon 5 and Hypernauts. "The Creative Magic of Ron Thornton" is a pair of two hour videos. The first deals with the LightWave construction of the spacecraft depicted on the video's cover. The second video stays almost entirely in Adobe PhotoShop and LightWave's Layout. Though Thornton is creating this spaceship using LightWave for PC and PhotoShop, his techniques apply to Amiga LightWave 3.5 and above, and I was able to emulate the PhotoShop surfacing techniques by using ImageFX 2.1a. The first video is a look into the techniques that Thornton uses to create a spaceship that is both well-detailed, and will render in a reasonable amount of time. Desktop Images' advertising calls this tape series "a video apprenticeship", which is no small claim. These tapes deliver. We follow the spaceship from a rough pencil sketch, all the way up to its finished construction. Peppered throughout his presentation is some design philosophy as to what it takes to make a ship "look right". This is one area that these tapes could improve upon. Though at the end of watching these cassettes, the average LightWave modeler will have a good looking spaceship, I'd find these tapes even more useful if there were more segments of this design philosophy for future spaceship designs. "Spacecraft Model Design" follows in the fine tradition of other Desktop Images training videos. Many Lightwave got over their 3D jitters (polygonal displacement tool purely unintentional) through DI's excellent series of Lee Stranahan training videos. The goal of that series is to take the user from zero 3D knowledge up through intermediate modeling. This series would be a good primer for the spacecraft tapes. These videos are definitely not intended for the beginner, but the intermediate modeler and experienced veteran alike will walk away with new techniques that can be applied in all aspects of 3D, be it modeling another spaceship, a logo, or any number of typical LightWave tasks. The viewer of the video is treated first to a montage of new Foundation Imaging 3D animations (not Babylon 5 material). The final segments of this animation montage are shots of the tutorial's spaceship on the move. This broad range of 3D reminds us of Thornton's professional credentials. In America, Thornton did model work on the feature films Terminator 2 and the Addams Family Movie. He bought an Amiga and Toaster, and produced a rough version of the Babylon 5 station in his bedroom in two weeks. (You can see this animation in NewTek's "Revolution" video that heralded in Video Toaster version 2.0) To the auspcious ranks of British Sci-Fi otaku, we recognize Thornton's name from the closing credits of such B.B."Aunty Beeb"C. programs such as Doctor Who, Tripods, and an Amiga Report Favorite, Blake's 7. The intriguing thing of watching this 20 year old television, is that one can spot stylistic commonalities between Thornton's work then and now. Though, when I spoke to someone at Foundation, they told me, "er... we were hoping that no one in America would remember those shows." Ron Thornton is a perfect example of the Amiga's power. An already substantially successful artist bought into the Amiga mystique, and was able to form his own significant company. A company that has changed television forever. While his studio has changed over from Amigas to PC's as speed dictates, I certainly hope that there is a warm spot in Foundation's heart for the little computer that could. After the montage, the video opens onto the Desktop Images standard "teacher at desk with computer". An interesting new angle in these tapes over others in the series is that instead of littering the background with assorted hi-tech looking scenery (i.e. TVs, lava lamps, etc.) they compose Thornton onto a rendered background. This serves to put us in constant touch with the artist's work, and serves to remind us just how good Ron Thornton and associates are. Except for occasional visits with the face of the artist, we spend most of our time looking into LightWave's modeler interface. Through the next two hours, we spend our time building a model that will look good through a number of different camera shots, while not having an unreasonable polygon count. Once done, the ship only took a few minutes per frame on my '060 DraCo with 32 megs of RAM. You could expect reasonable results from an '040 Amiga. Also, if you plan on doing a lot of 3D, the '040 is a functional minimum along with 16 megs of RAM. (We will also be trying some of these techniques using HiSoft's Cinema 4D in a future issue) The ship is built out of uncomplicated structural primitives; mostly tubes, cubes, and a metaformed shape or two. The artistry is in knowing what details are necessary to the good looks of the model and must be done in the modeling stage, and what can be left to the surfacing mode of creation. Your reviewer found the best way to get the most out of this tape is to watch it through once without being in front of the computer, much the way one will often skim a technical manual before reading it in great detail. Later, it would be advantageous to the user to move a TV/VCR to a location near the computer. Though the video is two hours in length, you shouldn't expect your construction work to take that little time. I found myself starting and stopping the VCR often so that I could take notes, or try different techniques for a certain look. I found that by treating the video like a class, and taking good notes into my 3D modeling notebook helped. (oh yes... I keep a notebook of tricks and tips, and things that I've done that are sucessful). The video has lots of good quality screen shots, but because a high resolution interface can show up rather poorly on a conventional television, you'll need to pay attention to what Thornton is saying. On a few occasions, Thornton proceeds with an operation without telling you the exact settings that he enters into numeric requesters. Due to my production schedule, I had to spread out the project over a couple of days. This didn't pose a problem, and I was able to use techniques that I'd learned along the way on other projects. (A note to Mr. Thornton: I've almost worn out the Bevel button on my computer, and my objects love you for it!) One problem I have with Thornton's technique is that he doesn't seem to build to scale. With the model exisiting in virtual (shudder) space, it's possible to build it to real man-scale. I build all of my objects to scale so that in future projects, I can use objects together in the same scene. In the tape it would be nice if Thornton mentioned why he makes the door a certain size, etc. Since his measurements are given in millimeters, I could conjecture that he is working with the units that he is most familiar with in model building. One of the best elements of this tape is its practical, yet artful approach to building this ship. Not all of us have the resources of Foundation Imaging, nor the staff of artists at our disposal. Yet with a modicum of skill, we can all create this ship. All of his detailing does have excellent reasoning behind it i.e. adding a cooling tank toward the end of the craft, adding support struts throughout the ship to give it "strength", and so on. Many of the spaceship models that I've seen created by various artists and put out in the public domain try to emulate the Thornton "mech" look, but to little avail. Often the surfacing on these objects is so poor, it looks like sheer nonsense up close. Thornton's modeling and surfacing strive to make sense and answer both to art and the practical needs of a real production studio. In the future, we'll look at the follow up video cassette: "Spacecraft Surfacing Techniques". You'll learn Thornton's techniques using the model to determine efective surfacing. He adds paneling to spaceships in places where it makes sense. While these models often look better in motion than they do in a still shot, they hold up rather well. I will be posting my completed model to the Aminet once this review is finished. Hopefully owners of these tapes will use these techniques to create a myriad of better looking objects, and not just dozens of thinly veiled variants of this ship. I heartily recommend that you purchase these tapes. The price is a bargain when compared to the cost of taking a class in 3D modeling. Yet you get much more than what's available from a class, you get a true apprenticeship with a working master of the CGI world, and that's cheap at any price. published by: Desktop Images P.O. Box 10908 Burbank CA. 91505 e-mail: comments@DesktopImages.com Web site: http://www.desktopimages.com/desktop/ order: 1.800.377.1039 $49.95 each volume (2 volumes available) @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: Aminet 10 CD-ROM" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Aminet 10 CD-ROM By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The day WILL come when I will no longer be able to come up with a clever way to introduce Aminet CD-ROM reviews. Until that day, I'm going to keep trying... Aminet. You know it, you love it, you can own it on CD-ROM. Well, the update installments every two months, plus the yearly 4-CD compilations. By my math, there are 18 different Aminet CDs out there (10 installments plus two annual 4-packs) these days. And they've got that AmigaGuide browsing interface that has pretty much become a standard. Search, configure tools for un-LHA, view, etc. Have a good time. Aminet 10's "theme" is fonts, and there are some 330 megs of font data in various (bitmap, Adobe, CG) formats. A bit disturbing is the fact that 230 megs on the CD are mods. This is considerably more than the last CD and, while mods are always nice, seeing them fill considerable bulk on an Aminet CD-ROM (when not all are new) is a little upsetting. As of late, Aminet CDs have begun including older versions of commercial sofware--in effect, "coverdisking" programs. This time around, the goodies are PageStream 2.2SE and Typesmith 2.5SE. In PageStream 2.2's case, "SE" means "no manual but you can buy that for $40 and get some fonts, too." In Typesmith's case, "SE" means "No AREXX, help, or professional-grade output but you can buy the full version for $50." Let's face it, if you're going to do some serious work with either, you'll want the manuals. But they make for interesting inclusions. By percent content, games are next in line. They're sorted into "best", "compatible", and "other", being those games which require some effort to get running. And there you have it. The other usual categories of fun stuff round out the rest of the CD, a grand total of 636 compressed megs of data. What can I say? There are other CD compilations of random and categorized files, but why not just get it from the source? If you're looking to dabble in print media, or considering taking the plunge for PageStream 3.0, you may well appreciate the added bonus. Of course, if you have an IV to Aminet, you know perfectly well you can just FTP to your heart's content. Aminet CDs are running 25 DM/ US$20 these days. Published by Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe GmbH Veronikastr. 33 D-45131 Essen Germany ++49 201 788778 phone ++49 201 798447 fax stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de @endnode @node REVIEW5 "Review: Aminet Set 2" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Aminet Set 2 By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Geeze, if you miss one Aminet CD in the series you may as well just wait it out and pick up the Aminet Set. Aminet Set 1 last year took on the mammoth task of actually putting all of the Aminet on CD-ROM. It took four of them. A year passed, and it took another four CDs just to get up to date. That's Aminet Set 2. The snapshot was taken on October 21, 1995, which means it's getting a bit old and gives you some idea just how long it took me to sit down and get this review written. Each disk is labeled (a bit confusingly) in lower-case letters, to avoid conflicting mentally with the first set, and perhaps future sets. They are broken down into roughly logical divisions of Aminet subdirectories (although the "Fun" category of demo, game, dev, disk, and hard certainly covers a lot of definitions of the word). How can I even begin to pretend it's possible to look through 2 gigs of programs and offer a verdict? The set is configured with the tried and true, more or less, AmigaGuide interface which I like a great deal for being fast and functional. Searches do go on for a while, but what would you expect? Disk a is the launch point, as it has the master index. You can copy the search utility to a hard drive for convenience, because the first disc is the only one with the global search. It also has something that sets Aminet Set 2 a bit apart from being an overwhelming compository of Amiga-only information, and that's the Project Gutenburg book texts. Nothing says we can't have a little culture. In addition to this and the new files, each disk has some Aminet Set 1 Top-10 chart material to fill out the CDs. What more can be said? Amiga Report is on the first disc since the docs directory is, so I'm relatively pleased. If you missed a couple of discs last year, or are a big believer in preserving collective wisdom, Aminet Set 2 is a very good investment at the price (roughly US$45). If you're looking for near-instantaneous access to a whole lot of Amiga software it is equally suitable. Picking up a set such as this gives you a very broad collection of Amiga files, enough to stave off mod-and-game cravings for quite some time, as well as providing a nice collection of utilities and other software. It is, after all, a year's worth of Aminet. Published by Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe Veronikastr. 33 D-45131 Essen Germany ++49 201 788778 phone ++49 201 798447 fax stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de @endnode @node REVIEW6 "Review: Digital Universe and Distant Suns" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Digital Universe and Distant Suns By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Distant Suns was the standard for "home observatory" software on the Amiga for many years. Unfortunately, it has faded into disuse and relative obscurity as of late--the biggest event since the 1994 release of V5 was the abandonment of the program by its developer (Mike Smithwick) and his publisher (VRLI) when DS5 failed to sell a single copy in the span of a month. Another publisher, Chaocity, picked up VRLI's Amiga software line and released DS5.01 (the .01 apparently accounted for the labeling change) and has promised upgrades, but none have surfaced yet. Around the time that happened, Syzygy Research and Technology of Canada released The Digital Universe. A monumental undertaking, DU ships in one (or optionally, two) lay-flat 3 ring binders on 14 (!) floppy disks. (A logical candidate for CD-ROM, but so far none has been made). On the very surface, both programs roughly do the same thing--give a "sky" or "planetarium" (configur able) view of the cosmos. You can orient yourself at a given position (Select from a list of cities, give coordinate information, or in Distant Suns, put yourself somewhere else in our solar system) and see what the view would be like. Of course, this is a 2-d representation, so you can change the direction of view as well. Both programs will identify bodies for you, and you can set the date to virtually anything you please. Check out the configuration of the heavens on your birthday or any other date in history you feel might be important to you. Identify constellations...you get the basic idea. Distant Suns, from start to finish, takes an approach very forgiving to amateurs and astronomical ignoramuses. The 128-page manual is filled with instructions on how to set up various events of note, such as observing the exchange of Plato and Neptune as most-distant planets, showing that in 4145 AD, Polaris will no longer be the "North star", and so on. The program even comes with a few preconfigured "projects" of events, just click on the "time forward" button and go. Digital Universe takes a much more comprehensive approach. The base user manual is written and printed in what appears to be TeX, with the standard TeX font that can't help but seem solemn and serious. (The XiPaint manual is the exact same way.) Copious amounts of stellar objects have been cataloged in the program, and new modules are coming monthly. At the risk of sounding superficial, I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out one very significant difference between the two programs--their interface. Distant Suns is showing its age. It was clearly designed with an ECS machine in mind, is relatively uncooperative to being mode-promoted, and has menus which, while functional, aren't very attractive. Digital Universe, straight from its opening animation, shows that things are going to be different from now on. The program's interface is based on MUI. There are those who harp, whine, and moan about MUI, but this program has done an excellent job of turning it into a serious dash of class without going overboard and making the program a pig to use. Digital Universe is also the much more illuminating and informative program. It seems that virtually every object in the sky has at least two pages worth of vital data, and quite a few have extended encyclopedic entries, complete with pictures. (Viewed through AmigaGuide, which DOES have some problems with MUI, which are supposed to get sorted out.) All this data and information, in print form, takes up over 700 pages--Syzygy knows, because for US$65 they'll sell it to you. Personally, it's a take it or leave it affair for me, because I love the hypertext integration and am so used to reading important information off a screen that I'm not set off by it. (Avid Amiga Report readers presumably feel the same way.) Even clicking on something trivial like the Sun gets very interesting very quickly. DU seems to pay a lot more attention to detail, right down to asking you the temperature in your area for better calculating refraction if you choose to view your sky with refraction accounted for. It's almost embarrasing how much time I've spent with Digital Universe, magnifying and identifying to my heart's content various objects out of the NGC, or turning every possible object on and marvelling at just how much STUFF there is out in space... Both programs will allow you to generate animations of events over time. Digital Universe supports some printing--Distant Suns lets you save the view to an IFF for later printout. There's a great big galaxy out there, so if you're going to be inside screwing around on your Amiga the least you can do is stick your head out the window, note what you see, and fire up a program to help you learn more about it. Both Digital Universe and Distant Suns can get you there--DU is a much more comprehensive program, with upgrades and updates (two upgrades are available on Syzygy's Web site, along with several new modules for new stellar objects and updates to the on-line encyclopedia), not to mention the Web site's information on new events and discoveries in the astronomical world. Distant Suns is a cheaper, more introductory setup, and may be frustrating to those who know they could be getting more from their exploration. Both programs will take advantage of an FPU (highly recommended. It's a big universe out there, and there's a lot to keep track of.), and you'll need a hard drive. Digital Universe: Demo on ftp://ftp.aminet.org/aminet/dirs/aminet/biz/demo/Dig_Universe.lha. Syzygy Research and Technology Box 75 Legal, AB T0G 1LO Canada 403-961-2213 phone sales@syz.com http://www.syz.com US$ 129.95 for Digital Universe software and manual US$ 64.95 for Digital Universe hardcopy Encyclopedia Chaocity 221 Town Center West #259 Santa Maria, CA 93454 USA 805-925-7732 voice 805-928-3128 fax @endnode @node REVIEW7 "Review: Online Library CD-ROM Volume 1" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Online Library CD-ROM Volume 1 By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Danny Amor has gotten pretty good at whipping CD-ROMs out. He's been behind da capo, World Info, the upcoming da capo 2 and co-compiled the Workbench Add On CD. Inbetween, he put together the Online Library CD-ROM. Entirely based in HTML, OL is similar in concept to World Info, which similarly only required an HTML browser to operate. The CD is broken up into a number of different categories, ranging from humor to science to Star Trek, with news, political documents, and hundreds of Project Gutenberg books in various languages thrown in. Online Library is multilingual, supporting the four "standard Amiga languages" for navigation (English, French, German, Italian) with the occasional text in a different language. The bulk of the texts are English, but some books (The Divine Comedy, for example) are only in their native language. Some may be drawn to the drinks recipe list. While I'm no legendary drinker, it's nice to know that I can check on the drink Dale Larson promises to get into me the next time we see each other. The HTML is sound without being flashy--any browser should have no trouble dealing with the output as it's all very straightforward. It would have been nice to have a browser on the CD itself ready to go, but these are relatively easy to come by. Amiga Report fans may be pleased to note that there is a licensed collection of AR on the disc, from the first issue through AR 3.05, with an inexplicable gap to 3.13 (the last issue included on the disc.) Just about any CD is going to be an eclectic collection of information, but Online Library seems to revel in it. Never before did I think I would see five translations of the Bible in the same place as a collection of RFCs. Nor did I anticipate that Amiga Report would rate the same category as The Federalist Papers or the articles of Fredrick Douglass. There are a few animations and MIDI files tossed somewhat randomly on the disc, as there is no direct way to access them through the Web browser. Configuring CDs for this sort of thing is difficult, but not impossible. Will you enjoy using Online Library? I think the best way to answer that question is this: How much do you enjoy reading Amiga Report, relative to printed publications? If you find it a hassle to read things on a computer screen, you'll still be happier with hard copy (although buying just the 19th century classics on the CD will get pretty expensive.) On the other hand, if you don't mind a bit, Online Library will be second nature to use. Approximately US$30. Published by Amiga Library Services 610 N. Alma School Rd. Suite 18 Chandler, AZ 85224-3687 USA 602-491-0442 voice 602-491-0048 fax info@amigalib.com @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts: 12-Feb-96" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 12-Feb-96 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- mui32fix.lha dev/gui 83K 1+Muimaster.library V13.687, little bu ar402.lha docs/mags 75K 0+Amiga Report 4.02, January 31, 1996 mui32usr.lha dev/gui 796K 1+MagicUserInterface V3.2, user files MCP110.lha util/cdity 395K 1+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U Play16_1.6.lha mus/play 91K 0+Plays WAV, IFF, MAUD, etc, 14 bit ou NewIconsV2.lha util/wb 400K 0+Revolutionary GUI Enhancement System Voodoo-1.209.lha comm/mail 485K 0+Premiere GUI MIME E-Mail reader for ClassPatch10b.lha util/wb 19K 0+Replaces standard GUI with other GUI lowfrag12.lha util/boot 6K 0+Prevent Memory Fragmentation! AmigaSurf.lha pix/illu 397K 0+Snapshots of Amiga Surfer HotNews.txt docs/misc 1K 1+Amiga-Scene *HOT* News (Read'n'Sprea VZ_II128.lha util/virus 166K 0+VirusZ v1.28 by Georg Hoermann SayMore.lha util/wb 12K 1+Say replacement with more options v0 xpkDMCB.lha util/pack 7K 0+Powerful data packer. 68020+, FPU, > aMiPEG05.lha gfx/show 116K 1+MPEG player with support for CyberGr SSpeed13.lha util/moni 361K 0+SysSpeed V 1.3 - THE Speedtester ..g BlocNotes36.lha util/cdity 48K 0+The unique Post-It commodity for AMI WBStartupPlus.lha util/boot 52K 1+V2.6 Expands WBStartup capabilities. Amiscape.lha pix/illu 9K 1+Preview Picture of Amiscape pckeybhack.lha hard/hack 45K 0+Plug a PC keyboard to your Amiga. | The highest rated programs during the week until 12-Feb-96 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and is a mark from 0..10 | with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but | don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8 | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- upcat13.lha biz/dbase 64K 94+A disk catalog program. AmiSlate1.4.lha comm/tcp 197K 2+Net paint & games v1.4 for AmiTCP an E-MailMosaic.lha comm/tcp 23K 9+To get & put E-Mail with Mosaic mftp1_33.lha comm/tcp 79K 2+Update for mftp1_31.lha (MUI ftp cli CNCD-Closer.lha demo/tp95 2.3M 2+Closer 1/1 *AGA* (1st Place At The D ar323.lha docs/mags 80K 5+Amiga Report 3.23, December 31, 1995 ar401.lha docs/mags 66K 3+Amiga Report 4.01, January 16, 1996 ParrotIsland.lha game/demo 761K 6+Very great adventure like Monkey Isl tritus_demo.lha game/demo 213K 9+Superb 3-player Tetris Clone JTEWorms.lha game/misc 54K 8+4 Custom Maps for Worms WhizzHD.lha game/patch 12K 1+Whizz (Amiga Tech) HD-Inst 1.2 local argus.lha game/shoot 356K 1+Vertical scrolling. Fast with great xanimwin003.lha gfx/show 34K 5+MUI based GUI for XAnim MagiC64.lha misc/emu 286K 3+The fastest C64 emulator for Amiga V sfx-bin_30.lha mus/edit 299K 2+V 3.3 Binary for 68030 sfx-bin_40m.lha mus/edit 285K 2+V 3.3 Binary for 68040+FPU SoundBox22.lha mus/misc 122K 14+Converts soundfiles and plays 14 bit viva-amiga.lha pix/imagi 300K 10+Pro-Amiga Imagine raytrace - VIVA AM Repack3_4.lha util/arc 27K 5+Update of the best ->LZX repacker, G uuxt31.lha util/arc 109K 29+The Best UUcoder with full WB suppor ToolManager21a.lha util/boot 24K 27+Small update for ToolManager 2.1 ToolManager21b.lha util/boot 490K 143+ToolManager 2.1 (Binaries and Docume ToolManager21g.lha util/boot 175K 143+ToolManager 2.1 (Anims, Brushes and ToolManager21s.lha util/boot 280K 143+ToolManager 2.1 (Source code and Pro ToolsDaemon21a.lha util/boot 87K 105+Add menus/submenus to WB menu strip BExchange12.lha util/cdity 142K 2+An exchange clone, using bgui.librar mcxp214.lha util/cdity 54K 2+MUI Preferences for MultiCX scrwiz11.lha util/cdity 68K 44+Small,configurable public screen man @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 majordomo@amigalib.com Your subject header will be ignored. In the body of the message, enter subscribe areport The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message header. 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. ** 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! ** @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.netnet.net, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, 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://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/ http://ramiga.rnet.cgi.com/~AR http://www.sci.muni.cz/ar/ http://metro.turnpike.net/P/panther/main.html http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/ http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/ http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/ http://www.bengala.saccii.net.au/ar/main.html The following AR sites also have a mailto form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site.

http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar404.guide

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08/1997