@database "ar127.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.27 -- October 1, 1993" @{" Open Magazine " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." October 1, 1993 No. 1.27 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Winners Don't Use Drugs / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications All Rights Reserved A Member Of STR Publishing @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" /// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT Distribution Sites! -------------------------- Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA BBS " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" CLOUD'S CORNER BBS " link P2-1-3} ............................Bremerton, Washington @{" BIOSMATICA BBS " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10}.................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11}............................................France //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Non-FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO BBS " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING BBS " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE BBS " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS BBS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" DEAD FISH BBS " link P2-1-56} ...........................................?????? @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-57} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode Non-AmigaGuide Users: See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS. ___________________________________________________________________________ /// 10/01/93 Amiga Report 1.27 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · Dealer Directory · AR Online · AR Confidential · A.M.I.G.A. · Llamatron · The Humor Department · Wil Wheaton Tour · More WOCA Reports · St. Louis Amiga Show » Fighter Duel Pro 2 « » Jim Dionne Really DID Resign « » Aminet Hits 5000 Files! « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / DELPHI · PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" /// From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" ---------------------- Don't ya hate it when you have something to write, but nothing is coming to mind? Usually, I can think of something to put here, even if it's just a brief overview of things. Tonight I can't seem to come up with anything. I want to apologize to our Internet subscribers. Last week, the system where the mailing list was sent from was experiencing problems. The list finally went out, but a few days late. With luck, everything will be fine this week. A note on Netmail. I have been receiving quite a bit of Netmail through FidoNet lately. I wanted to let people know that the system I call for this mail is having trouble with outgoing mail (actually, it's a bug in DLG I'm told), so I have been unable to respond. A few people have been offering to write reviews for Amiga Report. I'd like to say that I invite anyone to submit material. I'm happy to accept work from anybody who cares to contribute! If you do send stuff, please send it to my Portal Email address if you're using Internet mail. But ordinary mail should go to my Delphi account. The way the two mail systems are setup make it easier to deal with larger messages on Portal. Thanks! Rob @ AR @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" /// The Amiga Report Staff Dedicated to serving you! ---------------------- Editor ====== Robert Glover Portal: Rob-G Delphi: ROB_G FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Internet: General Mail: ROB_G@Delphi.com Submissions: Rob-G@cup.portal.com Assistant and Technical Editor ============================== Robert Niles Portal: RNiles Delphi: RNILES FidoNet: 1:3407/104 (Private) Internet: rniles@imtired.itm.com Contributing Correspondents =========================== Thomas Baetzler Chad Freeman Dan Zerkle @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" /// Delphi: It's Getting Better All The Time! ------------------------------------------ Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Password: type AMIGAREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each! This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections! For more information, and details on other plans, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- · Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) · SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. · Large file databases! · SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! · Business and world news, stock reports, etc. · Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-2 "CPU Status Report" @toc "menu" /// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News ----------------- Cable TV's Big Day in Washington WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The cable television industry's attempts to roll-back rate regulation are being heard in Washington. At a US House hearing in which Democrats complained about rising rates in the face of a law passed last year to lower them, Republicans said they would try to repeal the same law. And at the US Supreme Court, four justices agreed to hear an appeal of the law's "must carry" provision lodged by Turner Broadcasting System Inc. The 1992 cable re-regulation law was passed over a veto from former Republican President George Bush and opponents, including the cable industry's trade groups, had long predicted it would result in rate increases. At a hearing before the subcommittee of Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Texas Republicans Joe Barton and Jack Fields said that is just what happened, and Barton said he would introduce legislation to repeal it. But Markey and the panel's Democrats refused to back off. They lectured interim Federal Communications Commission Chairman James Quello on the need to stop unjustified rate hikes. Quello replied that the commission is now surveying the effects of the law with the 25 largest US operators, and predicted it will find that most rates have, in fact, gone down. Quello added that the September bills are just the first step in a long process mandated by the law. Local governments which feel the new rates are out of line can challenge them, cable companies can appeal those challenges to the commission, and consumers may still get rebates on overcharges, back-dated to September 1. He also warned that if complaints prove true, the industry will again be open to the charge that it is the "monopolistic evil empire" of the telecommunications world. Meanwhile, at the Supreme Court, four justices agreed to review Turner Broadcasting System vs. FCC, a case now numbered docket 93-44. That is a challenge to the "must carry" provision of the 1992 law, under which small cable systems must reserve one-third of their channels for local broadcasters, even if they must drop popular cable programming for home shopping stations. Turner had sued against the provision claiming it violated operators' free speech rights under the First Amendment, but the challenge was rejected by an appeals' court. The "must carry" provision is tied to a "retransmission consent" provision, under which popular local stations can force payment from cable operators to carry their signals. Unless agreements were negotiated by October 6, many operators said they would stop carrying some local network affiliates. And in agreements worked out so far between networks and operators, the operators are agreeing to clear additional channels for new cable offerings created by the networks. The one exception is CBS, which has no plans to produce a cable network and recently dropped its demands that operators pay it 10 cents per home per month, at least for the next year. The result is to help networks like CNBC, owned by the NBC television network, and hurt networks like CNN, owned by Turner, because Turner does not have a network of local stations. "Retransmission consent" is the one aspect of the new law even Rep. Barton said he does not want repealed. The real irony is that technology is making all this moot, observers note. The 500-channel systems being built by major operators like Time Warner and TCI will eliminate any problems with a scarcity of channels. And the entry of local phone companies into the business, recently authorized by a US District Court in Virginia, would provide competition which would eliminate the rate regulation provisions of the 1992 act. ------------------------------ Wireless Network At 20 Mbps CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA -- Wi-LAN Inc., has announced its first products - a line of wireless Ethernet local area network (LAN) equipment that company officials claim can carry data at speeds up to 20 megabits-per-second (Mbps), or twice the speed of conventional wired Ethernet. Frederick Rogers, president of Wi-LAN, told Newsbytes the high speed is possible because of the modulation technique used. The products are based on spread-spectrum technology that transmits data using radio frequencies. The technology was developed at the University of Calgary and AGT Ltd., the telephone company serving Alberta. Wi-LAN said the fastest of its new products is the 20-Mbps Wi-LAN 902-20, which can plug directly into the Ethernet network interface card of any computer. It modulates and compresses data from the interface card and transmits it to another Wi-LAN interface. The 902-20 is due to begin shipping in January, Wi-LAN said. By March, Rogers said, the company plans to add a LAN gateway using the same technology. The gateway will attach to a wired LAN and provide communications between computers on the wired LAN and those equipped with the Wi-LAN wireless interfaces. It will also be attachable to a network server, allowing computers equipped with the company's wireless interfaces to communicate with the server by radio frequency. That will mean new stations can be added to the LAN without any wiring, the company said. The suggested retail price for the Wi-LAN 902-20 is US$1,495. ------------------------------ Computer Associates Wins Trade Secret Case ISLANDIA, NEW YORK -- A US District Court jury in Denver has awarded Computer Associates International Inc., $8.5 million in damages after concluding that Denver-based American Fundware Inc., stole trade secrets from the large software firm. The damages include $4.245 million in compensation for lost royalties and an equal amount in punitive damages. Mike McElroy, vice-president - legal at Computer Associates, said he believes it is the largest amount of punitive damages ever granted in a software trade secrets suit. The verdict shows that the courts are prepared to enforce property rights in software, McElroy said. CA sued AFW over PC Fund and Fundware, financial software programs sold by the Denver company. The court upheld CA's claim that sizeable portions of the AFW packages were copied from software that AFW licensed from Stuart P. Orr & Associates, a company CA bought in 1983. The Stuart P. Orr software was written for minicomputers from Data General Corp. PC Fund and its successor, Fundware, run on IBM and compatible personal computers. All were written in the COBOL programming language, and according to McElroy, significant portions of the source code were identical. McElroy said that after CA filed the trade secret lawsuit in 1986, AFW tried to cover up the copying of the software by changing some of the code. The jury ruled that AFW breached its 1979 contract with Stuart P. Orr and misappropriated trade secrets from Stuart P. Orr and CA. AFW no longer sells PC Fund. Computer Associates has asked for an injunction against the further sale of Fundware, McElroy said, but the jury does not have the power to grant an injunction. The judge in the case must rule on that, and has not yet done so. ------------------------------ DEC Japan Intros Beta Japanese Windows NT TOKYO, JAPAN -- Digital Equipment Corp. Japan (DEC Japan), has released a beta copy of the Japanese version of Microsoft's Windows NT. The program operates on the company's personal computers, including the AXP 150 and the DEC PC. Three kinds of Windows NT packages are offered for the Japanese market. The developer's kit is intended for programmers working on the AXP 150. The retail price is 957,000 yen ($9,570) - the same price as the original English version released in May. The program will be sold until the end of November. The upgrade kit consists of a CD-ROM, firmware, an ECU kit, and documentation. It is priced at 70,000 yen ($700). An OADG keyboard that offers compatibility with IBM's DOS/V PC costs an additional 5,000 yen ($50). A beta version of the Japanese Windows NT package for general users costs 1,604,000 yen ($16,040). The developer's kit is also included in the bundle. Customers of the beta versions will be provided with the finished versions at a later date, free of additional charges. With the release of the beta versions, DEC Japan has started accepting test users of the program. DEC Japan will provide the program to 200 users of the DEC PC (with a 33 megahertz 486 processor or above). The test users need pay only 6,000 yen ($60) for the disks and the manuals. DEC Japan has also begun providing support services - covering installation and consultation for the Japanese version of Windows NT - as part of its multi-vendor customer services. ------------------------------ Unix Expo - Object Technology More Than A Language NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Moving to object technology takes a lot more than just learning an object-oriented programming language, concurred participants in a roundtable discussion at Unix Expo last week. "The worst way to start is to just go out and buy a language," said Marie Lenzi, president of Cyrix Corp. and editor of Object Magazine. "Instead, what you need to do is establish an object mindset," she added, in a session called "Object-Oriented Programming for Non-C Programmers." The first area to focus on is object analysis and design, Lenzi told an audience of programmers that ranged in background from Smalltalk to Fortran and Cobol. Other areas to be considered, outside of the development language, include the object database, and the administration and management of objects. Object databases are quite a different animal from relational databases, she noted. "In object technology, an object is an object throughout analysis, design, and development. All we do is say `Persist' and the object sits itself on the disk, instead of doing the `dance of the seven veils' to get itself on and off the disk as we have to do with relational databases," she commented. People who make good candidates to become object-oriented programmers include abstract thinkers, "true engineers who really understand what's going on inside the machine," experienced script writers, and people who work well with visual tools, according to Lenzi. "I agree with Marie that you're not doing OT programming just because you're using a language that happens to be object-oriented. OT is more a way of thinking about a problem," said Randy Howie, vice president of engineering at AIT, a company that has been providing OT consulting services for the past eight years, mostly to federal agencies and large newspapers. OT is best suited to problems which call for simplification of complex data, he suggested. In one application, recently readied as a proof of concept for NASA, AIT developed an object- oriented query tool for use by scientists who needed satellite data. The problem in this situation was that satellites tend to store information on time and place in different ways, said Howie. Some satellites store the information as arcs, and some as a series of contiguous rectangles, he explained. To circumvent this problem, AIT "modeled concepts like time and location as objects that could translate a scientists' way of expressing time and location into the satellite's way of expressing time and location." Agreed Gene Bonte, vice president of product management at Object Design: "Today, objects are hot, so (you're seeing) object-oriented oleomargarine. But OT is not a universal panacea." OT has made its first strides in the engineering design market, he said. "The reason is fairly simple. The data is complex, and the data model that OT supports fits the data model for these applications very well," he maintained. OT is also making rapid progress in the telecommunications field, mainly because OT and telecommunications both share an orientation toward Unix and C/C++ programming, he added. Now that the difficulties of using OT in distributed computing are starting to be overcome, the technology is emerging in the area of business reengineering and client-server technology as well, he said. Regardless of the applications field, users should go through four sequential stages in implementing OT: figuring out whether OT will be useful, developing a pilot, creating a "first product," and finally expanding into additional products. "Otherwise, you'll get into big trouble," cautioned Bonte. ------------------------------ Merisel To Buy ComputerLand Franchise Div EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA -- Just four months after announcing the lay off of 6.5 percent of its workforce, ComputerLand has signed a letter of intent to sell its Franchise and Distribution Division to Merisel. The two companies have also announced the formation of a "strategic relationship." However, the companies say that terms and conditions have not been finalized. Once completed, the new Merisel ComputerLand subsidiary will be managed by the current president of ComputerLand's Franchise and Distribution Division, Martin Wolf. Merisel will also become the preferred supplier of software and hardware products under a volume purchase agreement to ComputerLand Corp. According to the companies, ComputerLand will then continue, under a long-term deal, to provide the new company with "purchasing, distribution, systems and other services currently supplied to ComputerLand franchisees and Datago affiliates." Definitive agreements have yet to be signed. The deal is also awaiting receipt of regulatory approvals, although it is expected to be completed before the end of 1993. Under terms of the deal, Merisel will pay up to $110 million for the US ComputerLand Franchise and Distribution division, with an initial cash payment at closing of $60 million. The purchase price gives Merisel the rights to the ComputerLand name in the US. ComputerLand says it will "temporarily retain the rights to use the name for a limited period and will eventually change its name, although it will continue to own the rights to the ComputerLand name internationally." Announcing the deal, Merisel Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael D. Pickett, said: "The proposed purchase of the ComputerLand Franchise and Distribution Division is intended to enhance Merisel's customer intimacy strategy, and provide the benefits that come from doing business with a full-line distributor focused exclusively on selling to resellers." William Y. Tauscher, Computerland's CEO and chairman, said: "This agreement will help us focus on our core business, providing products and services to corporate end-users. It also improves our cash position substantially." According to a statement issued by ComputerLand, the transaction "will greatly strengthen the balance sheet of ComputerLand, which has been thinly capitalized since the July 1992 acquisition of TRW's Customer Service Division and the acquisition of ComputerLand franchises or establishment of company-owned operations in most US major markets during the past two years." In May, Newsbytes reported that, while ComputerLand was expanding in Russia and the Baltic, it also announced plans to lay off of 6.5 percent of its work force, or about 170 workers. ------------------------------ Dell Intros Pentium-based Desktop Prototype AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Dell Computer Corporation has rolled out a Pentium-based desktop prototype PC that incorporates Intel's Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) local-bus. The system was demonstrated at the annual management conference of the Microcomputer Managers Association being held in New York. Dell's chief Technology Officer Glenn Henry says that while Dell currently offers other industry-standard local-bus technologies, the company thinks PCI is the most attractive long-term solution. Both companies say PCI offers advantages over other local-bus implementations or proprietary architecture's, including its ability to work with processors such as 486 and Pentium chips, an open standard that includes over 120 system manufacturers and I/O card suppliers. They also point out that because PCI bus devices are not directly attached to the processor bus, the processor can continue to operate while the PCI peripheral is accessing information from the system's main memory. "While many other local bus technologies only allow one peripheral to operate at a time, PCI has the advantage of allowing multiple peripherals to operate independently," Henry said. Intel says that PCI technology will enable vendors such as Dell to offer what they call "auto-configuration." That's the system's ability to automatically recognize when a PCI-compatible add-in board has been installed and will reconfigure itself to accommodate the card. Intel says that PCI is also designed to handle future design advances in the Pentium architecture. In outlining its strategy for Pentium-based systems and PCI technology, Dell said that user benefits for such systems include high performance data storage and retrieval through a PCI SCSI disk subsystem, high performance video and graphics capability through a PCI video subsystem, and easy of upgrading to future PCI expansion through flexible system designs. Dell also predicts high performance PCI local area network adapters and other communications peripherals, full motion video adapters compatible with PCI, and technology that integrates telephone technology with computers for business communications applications such as video conferencing on the desktop computer. The preceding stories are © 1993 NewsBytes. Reprinted with permission. @endnode __________________________________________________ @node P1-3 "CPU Status Report - Amiga" @toc "menu" Fighter Duel Pro 2 from Jaeger Software! FIGHTER DUEL PRO 2 OBJECTIVE: To make a fighter pilot out of you. There's a training regimen for novices, and computer-controlled aircraft with a range of skill levels against which to develop tactics. When you're ready, lock horns with a human opponent to see how you measure up. All the features of the best selling Fighter Duel Pro plus... NEW FEATURES OF FIGHTER DUEL PRO 2 · ECS and AGA compatible · The first AGA 640 x 400 Hires NON-interlaced flight simulator. · Enchanced AGA performance for the non-interlaced, 640x400 video mode on Amiga 1200 and 4000 models. Up to 35% better frame rate. · The super planes, including the German ME262 jet, the rocket-powered Komet,the TA152H version of the FW190, the ME110, the Japanese KI-84, the Russian Yak-3, the American F2G Corsair and P61 Black Widow, and arguably the best fighter of WWII, the British Mark XIV Spitfire. Nine new aircraft, 25 individually modelled and flight tested aircraft in all.. · A redesigned gunnery system that accurately plots bullet trajectories and includes a sophisticated lead-computing gunsight. · A "chat" mode that allows in-flight communication in two-player modes, plus the ability to send preset comments with a single keystroke. · Instant View keys for use in all modes with the ability to lock the view, including the rear view. · Keyboard equivalents for all aircraft functions. · Automatically detects and takes advantage of advanced processors and larger memory systems. · Fly against a 4 aircraft formation, with markedly improved aggressiveness and tracking abilities, and change the foe aircraft type without a reboot. · Aircraft are now individually colored. · New one-player modes including a tourney start against a foe, and a wingman mode where you fly wing with one foe and battle two others. · A stationary gunnery mode where you man an anti-aircraft machine gun while computer controlled aircraft attack you.. · With a two-player hookup it is now possible to battle computer-controlled foes, either as a ME110 or P61 pilot and gunner, or lead and wing formation. · A shaded sky distinguished by smoothness and color accuracy.. · War emergency power control. · Auto coordinated rudder option. · Additional types of aircraft damage, plus unlimited ammo option. · Redesigned startup user interface using point and click selections and an entirely new two-player hookup system. All new features work on both original chipset and AGA Amigas. Plus many subtle and not so subtle enchancements and refinements too numerous to list. EXPECTED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: · All Amiga models. · Kickstart 1.3 or higher. · 2 MB RAM required. 2 MB of Chip RAM or 512k of chip and 2 MB of FastRAM. Runs on stock 1200s. Increased performance and added features with more RAM and or advanced processors. · AGA mode requires an Amiga 1200 or 4000 with a monitor capable of displaying DBLNTSC or DBLPAL NOFLICKER screen modes. · Joystick: Digital or Analog. · Keyboard · Mouse or trackball · Analog rudder pedals optional All specifications are subject to change or enchancment. When FDPro 2 is ready (which is expected to be in the Fall of 1993), upgrade notices will be to registered owners. Make sure to send in your registration card now. Jaeger Software, Inc. 7800 White Cliff Terrace Rockville, MD 20855 (301)948-6862 ------------------------------ AMIGA MONITOR-TELEVISION FOR THE CREATIVE MIND Where what's new and what's hot in the world of AMIGA is news "Cable television's newest half hour of informative entertainment is devoted entirely to the world of the AMIGA." (It's About Time) WE'RE LOOKING FOR: New Software Products Amiga Entreprenuers Interesting Users New Hardware Inovations Interesting User Groups & Clubs Amiga Art Amiga Animations Amiga News & Stories TO FEATURE, REVIEW, & PUBLICIZE For Information Or Submissions, please contact the production department of: ALCHEMY MULTIMEDIA 1468 Chalgrove Drive Corona, Ca 91720 (909)737-8611 ------------------------------ DevWare Releases Home Manager Professional DevWare, Inc., the California-based direct marketer and distributor of software and videotapes for the Amiga, announced that is has released Home Manager Professional for the Amiga. Home Manager Professional is a personal information manager appropriate for both home and professional users. Consistent with DevWare's product marketing philosophy of offerng the best product values for end users, it is feature laden and lower priced than any competing products. Home Manager Professional has a List Price of only $29.95. Home Manager Professional contains the following organizing and scheduling modeles: Address Book -- all the fields needed for names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, and for notes. Appointment Calendar -- shows schedule from day to day, month to month, and year to year. Area Codes -- Half-screen listing of WORLD Area Codes and their matching, major cities. Fully searchable database by Area Code, City or Country. Contacts Database -- Keps track of all business and personal Contacts with all necessary information and history. Inventory -- Keeps track of Home and Business Inventories, and also Total Costs and Total Values. Ideal for insurance purposes. Separate module for keeping track of all computer products. NotePad -- ASCII Text Editor has search, replace, and other editing features, plus an editable Macro setup for up to 10 255-character macros and/or 20 full text file macros. Importable into any word processor. To Dos -- Keeps track of Personal and Business To Do's. Wallet -- Keeps track of all Credit Cards, Licenses, etc. Config -- Configure for: type of phone line in place, which Serial device, datafiles, location, autosave choice, iconize on startup, data and time format. All areas have: An online Alarm Clock function, online help window, extensive search capabilities, palette control function, full print features, uniform display of date and time, and much more. Home Manager Professional was developed by Itchycoo Productions. It is compatible with all existing Amigas. DevWare will market Home Manager Professional to end users and dealers in North American through its DevWare ToolChest division. DevWare, through its DevWare Video division, is an international licensor, marketer and distributor of commercial software and instructional videotapes relating to the Amiga computer and Desktop Video markets. DevWare is also a direct marketer of third-party Amiga software, hardware and public domain for the Amiga and MS-DOS markets. Lower-priced, niche software licensing and distribution is done through both DevWare Video and DevWare ToolChest division. ------------------------------ DevWare Video & Atomic Toaster Announce Merger DevWare, Inc., the California based direct marketer and distributor of software and videotapes for the Amiga, and the Atomic Toaster, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based Video Toaster Systems dealer, seminar instructor, software developer and video producer, have announced they will be joining forces to bring Video Toaster systems and related add-on products to new customers not being reached by other Video Toaster dealers. This new merger will combine the respective strenghts of Atomic Toaster and DevWare. Atomic Toaster has been designing and configuring Video Toaster systems, supporting the creative and technical needs of its customers, and conducting innovative training seminars for its corporate and university clients since late 1990. Over this period, they have learned that anyone can sell a product or a group of products, but it is how all products work together in a system that makes their customer's productions successful. This is why they came up with the Atomic Toaster Catalog, the indispensible resource and reference guide for the Video Toaster industry, produced the Audio Production For The Video Toaster instructional video, and developed the first product in The Scene Machine series, Crouton Tools. DevWare Video, launched in late 1992 as a division of DevWare, has quickly become the largest reseller of videotapes, books, and educational software for North American Amiga users, and one of the largest resellers of commercial software for animation, graphics and video purposes as well. "Our concern was how we extend our abilities and gain entry into the expanding Video Toaster industry, and be able to properly support the products we delivered to our customers," said Scott Pincus, President of DevWare. "When we learned that Atomic Toaster wanted to expand their business, it seemed like the perfect merger of our abilities." "We knew that we were probably the greatest authority on how key software and peripherals worked with the Video Toaster to become the most effective systems for customers. Questions referred to us by NewTek and attendance at our seminars were proof of that," said Harold Russell, President of Atomic Toaster. "But we didn't have the capability to profitibly expand our operations, and more importantly, handle the volume of business which would result. DevWare offered us that solution with their marketing, distribution, product purchasing, and fulfillment capabilities." As a result of the merger, DevWare will market Crouton Tools, Audio Production for the Video Toaster, the Atomic Toaster Catalog, future products in The Scene Machine Series, and other new products developed by Atomic Toaster through its DevWare Video division to end users, corporate and university customers, and dealers. Atomic Toaster will provide creative technical support, seminar training and continued development of The Scene Machine modules and other products for the Video Toaster, as well as provide technical support for other commercial software titles licensed by DevWare Video. DevWare, through its DevWare Video division, is an international licensor, marketer and distributor of commercial software and instructional videotapes relating to the Amiga computer and Desktop Video markets. Atomic Toaster, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, has more than 20 years experience in commercial video production and has been configuring Video Toaster Systems for customers since the Video Toaster was first released. Recently, they opened a California office to sell Video Toaster systems and training seminars to corporate accounts and video producers in the greater Los Angeles area. DevWare is also a direct marketer of third-party Amiga software, hardware and Public Domain for the Amiga and MS-DOS markets. Lower-priced niche software licensing and distribution is done through its DevWare Toolchest division. ------------------------------ DevWare Video Releases CocoonMorph DevWare, Inc., the California based direct marketer and distributor of software and videotapes for the Amiga, announced that it has acquired the international rights to exclusively distribute CocoonMorph from Ironworker Studios. CocoonMorph is a fast, high quality, powerful morphing system for the Amiga computer that is easy to learn and use. It includes high-end features found in more expensive systems - without a Rolls Royce price! The list price of CocoonMorph is $99.95. The group of unique features found only in CocoonMorph are: * Built-in "virtual memory" to conserve RAM * Full control over the transition rate of each pixel using alpha channel images * Automatic variable level, transparent color compositing * Ability to composite with any background being transparent * Interface displays source and destination images in color * Automatic image scaling CocoonMorph will load any IFF image, including AGA formats. You can save frames as 24-bit, HAM, HAM-8, or 16-level grayscale. It also allows editing of form and color transitions, with smooth curve fitting. CocoonMorph works on any model Amiga with at least 3 MB of RAM or more. Eight (8) MB are required to render high resolution morphs. A hard drive is required with less than 4 MB of RAM, and highly recommended otherwise. DevWare will market CocoonMorph through its DevWare Video division. Atomic Toaster, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and now working with DevWare Video as their Video Toaster sales and new product development division, will provide technical support for CocoonMorph. DevWare, through its DevWare Video division, is an international licensor, marketer and distributor of commercial software and instructional videotapes relating to the Amiga computer and Desktop Video markets. DecWare is also a direct marketer of third-party Amiga software, hardware and Public Domain for the Amiga and MS-DOS markets. Lower-priced, niche software licensing and distribution is done through its' DevWare Toolchest division. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-4 "Gateway Computer Show" @toc "menu" Gateway Computer Show -- Amiga Show in St. Louis! The Gateway Computer Show will be held on Oct. 23,1993 at the Machinist Hall at 12365 St. Charles Rock Rd. in Bridgeton, Mo. from 11:30 am to 5 pm. This will be the first "Amiga" computer show held in the midwest for many years. It is sponsored by the Gateway Amiga Club, Inc. with the support of Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation. We have a nice selection of companies coming to display their wares. We hope you will show your support for the Amiga by coming to the show.I'm sure you will enjoy it. Any questions? Call Bob at (314) 739-5181 (recorder on line) Or contact Barry Holloway - Portal: BarryH Internet: BarryH@cup.portal.com Map to Machinist Hall and surrounding area. Bridgeton is located just northwest of St. Louis. The closest major intersection to the hall is Interstate 70 and Interstate 270. St. Louis | / Airport | CypressRoad /<--St. Charles | | / Rock Road _________|_______V___________/ | | / |<-Natural|Bridge Road / _____|_________|________________/____________________ | Hwy 67 (Lindbergh) / Hwy 67 (Lindbergh) _____|________________________/___ | Fee Fee Rd. / __|______________________/____ | McKelvey Road / Shell|___________ Target / GAS |MACHINIST \ / |HALL ---> X \ X<---Rax Rest. The Gateway Computer | \ X<---Wallgreens Show is being held | \ / at MACHINISTS HALL, | Mark Twain / 12365 St Charles | Bank X / Rock Rd. There are | / restaurants in the | Knights /X Long John Silver area. Knights Inn | Inn X / & Holiday Inn are | /X Casa Gallardo nearby & indicated | / on this map. MAP | /X Jack in the Box IS NOT TO SCALE. \ Ground/X Shoneys THE TOP OF THE MAP \Round/X Taco Bells DOES NOT INDICATE \ X /X Ponderosa | NORTH, IT'S EAST X \ / | Please do do not McDonalds /____X <-Steak & Shake | park in Target lot. / I-70 Plenty of free ______/_________ I-270 _________|____ parking is available / | in front of and St. /\ | behind Machinists Charles / \ Olive Hall. Rock-->/ \ X<- Garden Rest. Road / \__________________ X<-Holiday Inn \ Penridge X Boenker-->\ Bob Evans Rest. Lane A partial list of companies that will be represented at the show is listed below. We are still working on some last minute arangements with some other companies. Heifner Communications - They will be showing the Video Toaster Cozzy and a new program called Pegger. Soft-Logik - Will be showing PageStream 3.0 as well as Art Expression and TypeSmith. Myriad Visual Adventures - Showing Video training tapes. Cedar Computer Center - Showing various HP printers. W. Schiller and Company - Showing various video related products. Lab Software - Will be selling various public domain software disks. A-Z Computers - Selling various computer and computer related products. Digital Imaging - They will put any picture you bring with you on disk on a mouse pad for you for a very reasonable price. First Light Productions - They will be showing off Auto Paint. Amiga Crossings - Will be there with there Amiga Crossings Newsletter. ASDG - Will have a representative there showing off some of their products. TRSL - Will be showing off Charts and Graphs Gateway Amiga Club - will be giving away free magazines and newsletters. There will be a mini theater showing the latest videos courtesy of Amiga World Magazine. This is also where the guest speakers will talk. Also if you have any used items you would like to sell we will display them at our booth for a 10% handling fee. There will also be a number of nice door prizes available. Tickets are $4.00 in advance from Plato Computers and from A-Z Computers as well as at the Gateway Amiga Club meetings on October 6th and October 20th or $5.00 at the door the day of the show. If you do not live in the St. Louis area or if you would prefer to purchase tickets by mail you may send requests to : Gateway Amiga Club, Inc. P.O. Box 811 Bridgeton, MO 63044 If you have any further questions I will be happy to try and answer them. Barry Holloway Portal: BarryH Internet: BarryH@cup.portal.com @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-5 "USR Announces V.32Terbo for Euro Users" @toc "menu" USRobotics Announces V.32Terbo 21.6 Upgrade For European Modem Owners Which modems are upgradable? ---------------------------- All external COURIER modems with a modular design with the small footprint and a 57.6 DTE rate. For internal COURIER please call USRobotics Customer Support at: Voice :+33 20 47 08 08 Fax :+33 20 05 32 40 BBS :+33 20 05 32 41 For other models, please contact: USRobotics USA Customer Service at: Voice :+1 708 982 5151 Fax :+1 708 982 0823 BBS :+1 708 982 5092 For PTT approved versions, upgrade will be offered (when applicable) as approvals are obtained in those countries. When : ----- Orders will be taken starting on September 20th. First upgrade will be shipped as from mid October What it will cost : ------------------ Price : Non EEC : 199$ (taxes excl) EEC : 1400FF (taxes incl) Sysop Price (Valid only if participated in US/EUROPEAN USR Sysop deal) Non EEC : 129$ (taxes excl) EEC : 900FF (taxes incl) Shipping by express service, add : Non EEC : 15$ EEC : 90FF If you wish to have the upgrade done in our labs, add : Non EEC : 70$ EEC : 500FF (Note : All prices include postal shipping) What are the new features : --------------------------- - V32Terbo (16.8K, 19.2K and 21.6K bps connect rates) - 115.2K bauds DTE interface speed - V.17 (14.4K bps) Fax - EIA 592 Class 2.0 fax command set - Adaptative answering (Fax/Data detection) - Dial security - V.25bis (Synchronous Autodial) - HST Cellular Also Includes : --------------- HST16.8K, V.32bis, V.32, V.23, V.42, V.42bis, EIA 578 Class1, ASL, 99$ Vfast upgrade coupon. Warranty : ---------- 2 Years on the board CAUTION : Obvious damages due to improper insertion/removal will not be covered by warranty. Order method : -------------- 1) On USRobotics Euro Tech support BBS at +33 20 05 32 41 : Download file call ORDERFRM.TXT, complete this orderform and Upload it USRobotics on the BBS in - File area : Terbo Upgrade - file format: .ODR or fax it at +33 20 05 32 40. 2) By FAX (Ask for USR special order form). IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SYSOP: If you have a modem that complies with this offer that you bought through the Sysop deal in the USA, we will need a copy of your original invoice. Payment methods : ----------------- Credit card : Visa, Eurocard, Mastercard, Carte Bleue Bank check / Money Order Eurocheque Wire transfert Villeneuve d'Ascq, September 20th, 1993 U.S. Robotics s.a. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-6 "Product announcements" @toc "menu" PERFECT-LINK BBS V1.0 ANNOUNCED TITLE Perfect-Link BBS VERSION Version 1.0 AUTHOR Alan Berney - Wild Rabbit Productions (aberney@octopuce.alphanet.ch) COMPANY Wild Rabbit Productions Avenue de France 98 1004 Lausanne SWITZERLAND Tel & Fax: ++41-(0)21-648.36.74 BBS & Fax: ++41-(0)21-648.36.74 EMail : aberney@octopuce.alphanet.ch DESCRIPTION A new "polymorphic" ANSI BBS package for the Amiga. FEATURES The main feature of this BBS software is that it is 100% online configurable. The sysop may create his own structure of menus, choosing himself the keys to press, which makes each BBS unique and "polymorphic". There is no need to compile menus. Everything is built-in, available even on terminal nodes, and very easy to use. One "novice" can start a new BBS "from scratch" in less than 1 hour. The menus are created in a tree-like structure. The SYSOP chooses the keys and links them to one of the 28 functions available. Each key has its own access level for reading and writing. Other nice features are: Multi-users, multi-nodes, 100% editable online, 10 sets of texts for multi-language support, 95% of the system texts editable, 4 sets of access levels, supports SigOps, Icons for each user, two text editors: in-line and full screen, over 160 special codes for text files, supports AREXX with many features, supports XPR libraries for file transfers, supports high speed transfers, ability to send E-Mail without logging on, ability to receive news without logging on, editable icon for each user, ability to chat from the WorkBench, ability to edit the access level & time left of the user, log-off the user, all this by clicking on the user's icon, and add some files for transfer by putting the icon of the file into the user's icon, plus most of the features BBS usually have. French version only. English version pending. Printed French user manual. Demo version without handling the serial device also available. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Any Amiga Workbench 2.04 or higher 1 Mb RAM or more suggested Hard disk recommended Hayes compatible modem (AT command set) PRICE Commercial version: $170 (CHF: 250.--) + Shipping & Handling Demo version : Shipping & Handling only DISTRIBUTABILITY Available only from: -------------------- Wild Rabbit Productions Avenue de France 98 1004 Lausanne SWITZERLAND Tel & Fax : +41-(0)21-648.36.74 BBS support: +41-(0)21-648.53.32 ------------------------------ DiskExpander V2.1 Announced TITLE DiskExpander VERSION version 2.1 AUTHOR Jaroslav Mechacek & others DESCRIPTION DiskExpander is a brandnew tool which may DOUBLE the capacity of your hard disk and your floppy disk(s). DiskExpander is a program which multiplies your "virtual" disk space. It does so by compressing each file during writing (in real time). If you access the file later for reading, the file gets decompressed at once. After installing DiskExpander, you will be able to continue your work without making any changes to your environment. Unless you change the configuration of DiskExpander you will never again have to restart it manually. DiskExpander uses the XPK standard (by Urban Dominik Mueller & others) and lets you choose the most suitable compressor, e.g. (just two of many included XPK compressing libraries): Method Packing Unpacking Packing Unpacking Compression Memory Memory Speed Speed Ratio ------------------------------------------------------------- FAST 92 KB 0 KB 426 KB/s 1048 KB/s 32.7% NUKE 192 KB 0 KB 35 KB/s 613 KB/s 45.2% (statistics from the standard XPK Benchmark System [A3000/25 with SCRAM, AmigaVision being packed]) You can use any XPK compressor library. DiskExpander doesn't even need to have the XPKMaster.library (for reasons of memory consumption). All actions of DiskExpander are fully transparent. You will notice only a very slight delay during file operations. You don't have to worry about your files. If files are already better packed (e.g. lha-packed files) DiskExpander won't pack these once more. There are also some tools in the DiskExpander package. Namely: * DEStatistics which gives you the proof how your files have been packed and which compression libraries have been used. * DevicePacker which helps you to pack or unpack entire directories, partitions or even entire hard disks/floppy disks. It can be also useful to convert files which have been packed with an obselete compression library and pack them with a more sophisticated compression library. All programs have a graphical user interface but can also get started with command lines. DiskExpander is a carefully tested program. There have been hundreds of testers worldwide. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none - ANY Amiga and Kickstart/WB (There are some libraries which may require more than 512K memory!) PRICE International (English GUI and manual) US$ 49,- Version Release date: Oktober, 1st 1993 German Version (German GUI and manual) DM 69,- Release date: available now! Dutch version (English GUI and Dutch manual) FL 89,- Release date: Oktober, 1st 1993 DISTRIBUTABILITY DiskExpander is a commercial product. You may buy it at your next dealer or order directly from Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe Gesellschaft fuer Software mbH Veronikastrasse 33 D-45131 Essen Germany eMail: stefano@schatztr.adsp.sub.org Dealer inquiries are welcome. OTHER DiskExpander is copy protected. That means you have to personalize your copy during installation. After that, the copy-protection won't disturb you! @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-1 "Assistant v1.0" @toc "menu" ASSISTANT V1.0 AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE Assistant-100.LHA VERSION Version 1.00, first public release. COMPANY R&R Software POBox 22 NL-5133 ZG Riel The Netherlands Tel: ++31-4248-2313 Fax: ++31-4248-2344 email: Ronald@ecl014.adsp.sub.org AUTHOR Ronald van Eijck. DESCRIPTION Assistant keeps track of your appointments, todolists and your addresses. It also has an option to convert between different unit systems. (f.i. Degrees Celcius to Fahrenheit or Kilogram to Ounces) NEW FEATURES Since this is the first release all features are new :-) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The program needs at least OS version 2.0. Since the programs is intended to start from your wbstartup and run in the background a system with harddisk and a little memory to spare is recommended. HOST NAME Aminet sites. ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) DIRECTORY pub/aminet/util/misc FILE NAMES Assistant-100.LHA PRICE $ 0.00 DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable copyrighted software. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-2 "CAP Demo" @toc "menu" COMBAT AIR PATROL DEMO AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE Combat Air Patrol COMPANY USA: EUROPE: Psygnosis Ltd. Psygnosis Ltd. 675 Massachusetts Ave. South Harrington Building Cambridge, MA 01239 Sefton Street, Liverpool L3 4BQ USA United Kingdom Order Line: (800)438-7794 Tel: +44 51 709 5755 Tech Support:(617)497-7794 DESCRIPTION Combat Air Patrol - Offering the excitement of a detailed flight simulator, the strategy of a war game, and the playability of an arcade shoot 'em up, all in a single package. Piloting either an F-14 Interceptor of F18 Multi-Role Attack aircraft aboard the carrier Roosevelt, you will be resposible for carrying out a number of vital missions within both Kuwait or Iraq. Targets include a wide range of artillery, infantry and supply units as well as individual bridges, aircraft, transport and helicopters. FEATURES o Fully AmigaDOS compatible - Hard Drive Installable o Pilot Both F-18 and F-14 in offensive & defensive operations o Super smooth 3D action, even on standard A500/A600 o Multi-angle & zoom views give outstanding free-flight effect o Authentic digitally sampled sound effects o Sensational fly-past camera angle o Serial link between Amigas o Pre-misson reconnaisance photography o Infra-red night attack option SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS o Any Amiga model with at least 1MB RAM. PRICE & DISTRIBUTABILITY $49.99 US Suggested Retail Price The full game is available from Amiga dealers worldwide. Combat Air Patrol can also be ordered directly from Psygnosis. Combat Air Patrol is a commercial product Copyright 1993 Psygnosis, Ltd. FREELY-DISTRIBUTABLE DEMO AVAILABLE A fully playable demo of Combat Air Patrol is currently available on ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) and will be appearing shortly on all Aminet sites. DIRECTORY AND FILE NAME systems/amiga/aminet/new/CombatAirPatrol.dms systems/amiga/aminet/game/demo/CombatAirPatrol.dms DEMO DISTRIBUTABILITY The Combat Air Patrol Demo is Copyright 1993 Psygnosis, Ltd. and may be freely distributed, provided that the contents of the archive are not modified in any way. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-3 "GNU Patch v2.1" @toc "menu" GNU PATCH V2.1 AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE GNU Patch VERSION Version 2.1 AUTHOR Amiga port by Peter Simons DESCRIPTION Patch will take a patch file containing any of the four forms of difference listing produced by the diff program and apply those differences to an original file, producing a patched version. This is a port of GNU Patch 2.1 for the Amiga and has been compiled with SAS/C 6.3, so no ixemul.library is necessary. The manual is included in NRoff-format and plain ASCII, also as the diffs to the original version. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none HOST NAME Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95). or ftp.wustl.edu:/systems/amiga/aminet/util/text/misc/PatchAmiga2.1.lha DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/text/misc/PatchAmiga2.1.lha FILE NAMES PatchAmiga2_1.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY GNU General Public License @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-4 "Home Accountant v1.1" @toc "menu" HOME ACCOUNTANT V1.1 AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE The Home Accountant (Source and Executable release.) VERSION v1.1 COMPANY Private developer. AUTHOR Vincent Platt Internet: platt@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu DESCRIPTION The Home Accountant allows one to keep track of any type of account one may use in the home. This includes checking, savings, mutual funds, and more. Along with it's record keeping features, one may use it to budget any revenue/expenses which flow through an account. One may also group accounts into what is called a transaction base to compute net worth and obtain batch printings. This release supports a new editing screen look and some other minor improvements. I've gone as far as I will with this, so I will no longer be making releases of this package. Future improvements may come through other AMOS programmers who choose to modify and redistribute the source I have included. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The Home Accountant was developed on an Amiga 500 (ECS) with 1 meg RAM. It requires the mathtrans.library included with AmigaDOS. The Home Accountant does not currently work with AGA machines without some sort of CPU downgrade (ala Degrader, etc.) To fix this bug, I have simply included the source for any future ambitious person who wants to modify the source, recompile it, etc. HOST NAME Aminet (e.g. ftp.wustl.edu) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/biz/misc FILE NAMES HomeAccountant.lha HomeAccountant.readme PRICE The Home Accountant is FreeWare. DISTRIBUTABILITY The Home Accountant may be distributed on any BBS or network. There is to be no charge for the program except for media charges which may not exceed $1.00 (American). I hereby give permission to any second party to modify the source and redistribute it for non-profit purposes. Also this new distribution must include the original text files included in this distribution. Mention must be made of me, the original author, by the second party when releasing this modified version. I hope this works to the benefit of all who use this package. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-5 "ARexxGuide Reference" @toc "menu" ARexxGuide Reference Available For FTP TITLE ARexxGuide.guide VERSION 1.0 -- First edition AUTHOR Robin Evans robin@halcyon.com r.evans6@genie.geis.com DESCRIPTION ARexxGuide is a complete ARexx reference with tutorials and examples. It is done in Commodore's AmigaGuide hypertext format, giving Amiga users one of the most extensive on-line help facilities available for REXX on any platform. A tutorial guides the new user line-by-line through the code of an ARexx program. Hypertext links in the explanations take the user back to complete descriptions of language elements and concepts. The major reference sections are: Basic Elements An explanation of important terms and concepts of the language, including tokens, expressions, and clauses. This section includes an extensive description of compound variables. Instructions Syntax and explanation, with examples, of keywords and instructions. This section includes a comprehensive explanation of the PARSE instruction. Functions Syntax and explanation, with examples, of all built-in functions and of the functions in rexxsupport.library. This section includes notes on file I/O functions. Operators Tables and explanations of operator tokens. Includes an interactive demonstration of comparison operators. Commands Syntax and explanations of the command utilities for ARexx, including RX and WaitForPort. The guide includes an index and comprehensive contents listing. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS ARexxGuide requires either AmigaGuide or Multiview. AmigaGuide is a hypertext utility distributed by Commodore and available on Fish disk 870 or by anonymous ftp from Aminet as aguide34.lha in the directory util/rexx. Multiview is a utility included with the Release 3.0 OS. ARexx is needed to run the interactive examples included with the guide, but is not otherwise required. HOST NAME Available by anonymous ftp from any Aminet site in the directory text/hyper. Check the Aminet mirror closest to you or look for it at ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/rexx FILE NAMES Download archive: ARexxGuide1_0.lha The archive contains 20 files that make up one AmigaGuide application. Several .rexx example scripts are included as well. PRICE ARexxGuide is shareware and costs $15. A printed quick-reference is available for a total shareware fee of $21. DISTRIBUTABILITY The files in the archive are copyright 1993, Robin Evans and may be distributed only in the original form. The archive may be distributed in its original form on any non-commercial media, on local and national computer networks, on Aminet distribution channels (including the Walnut Creek CD-ROM), and on the Fish Disks. Contact the author for information about other forms of commercial distribution. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-6 "MUIEmail v37.84" @toc "menu" MUIEmail v37.84 Available For FTP TITLE MUIEmail - MUI Email interface for AmigaUUCP. VERSION 37.84 AUTHOR Franz Hemmer (hemmer@hemmer.adsp.sub.org) DESCRIPTION MUIEmail offers you an easy way to email people. MUIEmail reads your AmigaUUCP alias file and presents the entries in a listview together with information about the 'real' address & comments. You are able to configure MUIEmail to be used with any mailer & editor you might be using. Full source in SAS/C is included in the archive. NEW FEATURES First release. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS MUIEmail requires MUI (Magic User Interface by Stefan Stuntz), which can be obtained from ftp servers in directory: /pub/aminet/dev/gui MUIEmail also requires at least WB 2.04 & AmigaUUCP installed on your system. HOST NAME Aminet (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu) DIRECTORY /pub/amiga/comm/mail FILE NAME MUIEmail_V37.84.lha PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archives are freely distributable in original and unmodified form. See documentation for details. MUIEmail is (c) Copyright 1993 by Franz Hemmer. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-7 "Online Weekly" @toc "menu" /// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online The lines are buzzing! --------------------------------- From Portal's AmigaZone ----------------------- .../General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/Looking for a faster modem? 16026.3.603.1 Try this one: $99 9/29/93 15:46 46/2046 Harv I ordered the LineLink 144e modem from Mac Warehouse on Tuesday this week. They told me it was out of stock and they expected a shipment in soon. This morning (Thursday) half an hour ago it was delivered to my front door. Total cost $99 for the modem plus $3 for Airborne Express overnight shipping. The modem's box was securely packed in a larger outer carton. I was shipped exactly what I ordered and received it in perfect working condition in a very timely manner. mac Warehouse's phone order takers were courteous and did not leave me on hold for long periods of time. The modem itself is a white metal box, not very fancy or pretentious looking, about 6" wide, about 8" deep, about 1.5" tall with five LEDs on the front panel. The rear has the standard RJ11 phone and line jacks, a standard RS-232 female port, a small power switch, and a hole into which one plugs the small AC power adaptor. Included is a 30 page manual, a disk with Mac terminal software, a Mac serial cable, and the AC power brick. I unplugged my old modem, used the same Amiga serial cable I've been using since 1985 to connect the modem, connected the power brick, ran Baud Bandit, dialed in and here I am. All things considered I would rate this purchase as a excellent bargain, and rate Mac Warehouse as an excellent company with whom to do business (I have absolutely no affiliation with them whatsoever and I've NEVER bought anything from them before). I don't know how long they intend to keep selling this modem for $99. At that price it represents an absolutely incredible bargain and if you've been slogging along with a 1200 or 2400bps modem waiting for the price of 14.4K modems to come down to a reasonable level, your wait is now over. Call Mac Warehouse and order one of these. They're at 1-800-255-6227. The modem's order number is BND0249. They take all major credit cards and again, Airborne overnight express is $3 additional. Again, I have NO connection with Mac Warehouse at all except I am now an extremely satisfied customer. Harv ------------------------------ From FidoNet's Amiga International Echo --------------------------------------- Area: AMIGA Date: 25 Sep 93 23:21:38 From: Jeff Grimmett (1:202/739.1) To : All Subj: Amiga Echo Disk -=Deux=- Status Report @MSGID: 1:202/739.1@FidoNet 3e737566 Well, I hear the masses clamoring for news on AmigaDisk 4, like maybe when it will finally be out... right now, I have a basic problem with it: so far, I have yet to find a suitable distribution method and player! Isn't it amazing, here we are on THE multimedia machine, and yet I'm having trouble here... Originally, I planned on using Impulse's Foundation 2.1. It had the virtue of being paid for, something dear to my heart. I put together a sample disk and started testing it out. I found out several things: 1. The player itself is over 500K! AUGH! 2. The player does NOT like 512K chip ram systems. 3. The player does NOT like A1000s. 4. The player seems to do OK with 3.0 and AGA. 5. Can't put buttons on HAM pics. Small but annoying. OK, sez I, I've been considering Scala. I borrowed it from my former roomie and found out the following: 1. Fantastic program! Well worth the $300 except... 2. To my dismay, the player requires a dongle! NO freely distributable player!!! Scratch ScalaMM. Now, I'm about to buy a copy of DeluxeVideoIII. I used to own it, it worked well, and did everything I wanted it to do on my 3000. I can get it CHEAP. It comes with a freely distributable player, and I think the transfer util is also redistributable. If so, this will make installation a snap for everyone, too. My only real worry is AGA and AmigaDOS 3.0. We'll see in a very short time. I plan on sending a sample disk to Asha and have her try it out on her friend Dawn's machine (a 1200) to see if it works. If it works, I can have disk 4 out the door in a week or less and disk 5 will be right on its tail. I plan on hatching these disks via the Sky Amiga Network for widest distribution. Now, the question remains: if DVIII doesn't work, what then? CanDo was used for the original disks, I beleive. Perhaps someone has a used copy for sale? I am NOT rich, and can't afford to buy it for just one project, which is more or less why I would buy it. The current licensing agreement for the player is a bummer, too. OR: I am willing to entertain other suggestions. Is there a PD or shareware util for coordinating such things? Remember, it MUST be 1.3 friendly! I figure around EchoDisk 10 we can drop that requirement, but for now we still have a few 1.3 holdouts, so we have to consider them. Otherwise, I'd already have a player assembled using ToolManager 2.1 :-) This is very frustrating. I have the titles, the credits, and the title screen all done. I have pics. All I need is a presentation tool. Figured everyone would appreciate a status report. Thanks for your contributions, everyone! OK, here's the info for those who don't know: ____ ____ __ __ ______ / ___) / ___) / / / / / __ ) / (_ / / / /_/ / / / ) / / ___) / / / __ / / / / / / (__ / (__ / / / / / (__/ / (_____)(_____)(_/ (_/ (______/ ______ ____ ____ __ __ ________ / __ )(_ _) / ___) / // / (_ __ _) / / ) / / / / (___ / // / / / / / / / / / / / /__ / / _ < / / / / / /__/ / _/ / ____) / / / / / _/ /_/ / /______/ (____)(_____/ /_/ /_/ (________) ______ (__ __) / / / / (_/hat's right folks, time once again to get your XapShots and digitizers out and create a photo of yourself to be distributed throughout the known universe! The idea behind the Amiga Disk is this: we have here a community of words and phrases formed by personalities that we have no way of attaching to an actual face. The Amiga Echo Disk is a collection of such 'photos' in IFF format, viewable on any Amiga throughout the land. This gives you a good idea of who you're "talking" to. The first set of EchoDisks contained a pic of Asha in her infamous bustier, Yours Truly redeaux in one fairly tame and one fairly bizarre interpretation, Orin amidst his creations, people posing with thier computers, people walking past the camera, and other more creative pics. Along with each pic were text-format bios of the person (self-authored) and some even had extra pics or sound samples (Jeff Johansen's Workbench, for instance -- out-a-sight!). The disks were distributed as a set and driven by a CanDo deck, usable on any Amiga. Now, almost a year after release, we are once again gathering together pics, sounds, and sights related to the people that form this, the AMIGA echo! WHAT TO DO Easy! Send your pics to myself or to Orin Palmer (criteria to follow along with addresses) HOW TO DO IT Preferably, pics should be in IFF format, HAM included. If you don't have a digitizer handy, a snapshot will do -- we can digitize and return these pics. IFF-24's and other high-res/high-color pic formats are acceptable, but will be reduced down to HAM. WHAT TO PUT IN IT Hey, it can be a simple pic of yourself at the family picnic, or you can get way out gonzo creative! I've seen some excellent pics that were done with the original subject and then enhanced in some way. Put yourself in an Imaginary scene, in the middle of your workbench, or your face on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body -- just have fun! Additionally, sound samples of your voice, favorite sound byte, or whatever can be integrated into the disk. Along with all this, please include a self-written bio or introduction to yourself. It doesn't have to be long, nor flashy, nor witty, just write what you feel like writing. WHO SHOULD SEND IT IN If you're reading this, you're in! Just because you're not a regular doesn't mean you don't count! Also, just because you were on the first disk collection doesn't mean you aren't welcome the second time around! Time has passed! People change! WHERE TO SEND IT IFF's and HAM pics should be sent to myself, either as a file attach to me at 1:202/739, or via Snail Mail to: Jeff Grimmett 3152 Kemper St #5 San Diego, CA 92110 24-bitters, XapShot disks, video tapes, flat pics should be sent to Orin Palmer either as a file attach to 1:202/739.10 or via US Snail to: Orin Palmer 540 Naples St. #28 Chula Vista, CA 91911 Suggestions for the Amiga Echo Disk are appreciated, as well as questions on unclear parts of the "official" AmigaDiskII blurb (what you're reading). **** All for now! @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Report Mailing List ------------------------- Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? Have you been spending more money that you want on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution Sites? If so, have we got a deal for you! If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our issues are well over that limit. Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an intact copy). All other correspondence should be directed to the editor at ROB_G@Delphi.COM. Many thanks to Bob Caron for setting this service up for us! P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks! ** 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 immediately. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-8 "WOCA Report" @toc "menu" /// World of Commodore Amiga Show Report ------------------------------------ By Dan Zerkle (zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu) Part 6, Interviews on Show Floor This is part 6 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and 12th. This section details interviews I conducted at the booths on the show floor. I will continue to post sections each night or so until I finish. READER COMMENTS First, some comments from the readers about previous sections of this report. From Yves Perrenoud (pyves@nuga.alphanet.ch) comes this comment about the sound on MPEG discs: ----------- (BEGIN QUOTE) ------------- The sound from the MPEG disks is compressed using a standard similar to the one used for the MiniDisk (ATRAC : Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding). It is based on physiological studies of the human ear (it's sensitivity varies according to frequency). ------------ (END QUOTE) -------------- He had a lot more to say about this. That was the short version. For the long version, contact him at his e-mail address. One of those "three guys" who ended up the the motel with Harv and me wrote to explain who they were: ----------- (BEGIN QUOTE) ------------- Steve Herring - Producer Anthony Fiarito - Grip Chris Hufnagel (me, chuff@ee.pdx.edu) - Grip The show we were taping is called "Cyberspace 3-D" and deals with all aspects of technology (Even Amiga). We did interviews of many people and products at the WOC. Did some taping at JPL. Did a taping at Virtual Worlds (Robotech center) and got cancelled for Foundation Imaging. The show will air in Portland, OR, Virginia (?), New York, and other places. If you need more info let me know and I'll get you the e-mail address of the producer. ------------ (END QUOTE) -------------- PORTAL COMMUNICATIONS Well, Portal didn't have a booth at WOCA. They did, however, send Harv Laser, so I'd better mention them. Portal is an online service. It has file download areas, message areas, and online chat. It offers full-blown access to Internet services such as Usenet, electronic mail, ftp, Internet relay chat, telnet, and so forth. If you are a North American without access to all these, Portal is probably the best way to get them. In addition, a large part of Portal, called the "Amiga Zone," is dedicated to Amiga users. The Amiga Zone has various important Amiga personalities online, and you can "chat" with them online. It also has a vendor area dedicated to companies that sell Amiga products. It has a large collection of Amiga files for download, including the entire Fred Fish collection. Best of all, it carries comp.sys.amiga.announce. Portal costs $19.95 per month, plus a one-time startup charge of $19.95. You can connect to it through Tymnet, Sprintnet, or the Internet (via telnet). There is no "per-minute" fee, except any fee charged by your network. If you do join Portal, mention that it is because of the Amiga Zone. ANTI GRAVITY PRODUCTS I thought that this medium-sized booth was a just a dealer, as they had stacks of products from various companies for sale. I found that they were more when Jeremy Birn saw my badge and started describing their special products. "Snap Maps" are 24-bit IFF texture maps intended to be used in 3-D rendering programs. In addition to coloring polygons, they can cut out shapes of various objects. This saves a tremendous amount of time over modeling these object completely with polygons. There are two Snap Maps packages. the "Fields and Foliage" library has grass, ivy, leafy branches, flowers, and so on. The "Materials and Fabrics" library has cloth, wicker, nets, and other man-made stuff. I saw a couple pictures generated with the Maps. They were used to generate a picture of a fern leaf. It looked pretty good. Along the 3-D line, they also offered the Humanoid Human Animation Designer. This is a kit consisting of four 3-D models of the human form: a man, muscular man, woman, and child. These models are fully articulated and can be used to generate motion such as walking, running, changing facial expressions, and the like. I was quite impressed with the demonstrations of these models. This package contains the most realistic, detailed electronic model of the human body I've ever seen. WARM AND FUZZY LOGIC Warm and Fuzzy Logic had the most controversial product at the show. This product is "LightRave." It is a hardware module that allows you to run NewTek's 3D graphics package, LightWave, without the need for NewTek's Video Toaster. LightRave adds a few features to LightWave. With it, you can render to a normal Amiga screen or to a 24-bit graphics card. There is no trouble using it in PAL mode. It can render directly to GVP's ImageFX image processing program. It is faster than rendering with a Toaster installed. It will work with any Amiga computer with enough memory. Of course, to use this, you have to find a copy of LightWave somehow. EUPHONICS One of the most interesting new products at the show was the Lightworks Graphics Synthesizer from Euphonics. This is a hardware/software combination package that is a little hard to describe. It lets you engage in what I call "performance graphics". Basically, Lightworks lets you display actively changing graphics in conjunction with music. These graphics can be patterns, pictures, or anything you want. The graphics can change in response to scripts, audio input, MIDI input, or an active user. Many of the supplied patterns are intended to be genlocked over live video. The package includes a controller box with eight sliders. These can be used to control almost any part of the display. On display was one fancy geometric pattern changing its pallate in response to audio input. Another was a graphic display indicating the bass, midrange, and treble response to more music. The package is intended for music technicians and disk jockeys. You really have to see it to understand how it works. I have only mentioned a few of the features. In the hands of a capable artist, it could have considerable potential. ADDRESSES Anti Gravity Products 456 Lincoln Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90402 PHONE: 310/393-6650 FAX : 310/576-6383 Euphonics 138 North Main Street, Suite 111 Sebastopol, CA 95472 PHONE: 800/892-3325 Portal Communications Company 20863 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 200 Cupertino, CA 95014 PHONE : 408/973-9111 MODEM : 408/725-0561 V.32BIS : 408/973-8091 SPRINTNET: c Portal Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc. 2302 Marriot Road Richmond, VA 23229 PHONE: 804/285-4304 ------------------------------ Part 7, Interviews on Show Floor This is part 7 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and 12th. This section details interviews I conducted at the booths on the show floor. I will continue to post sections each night or so until I finish. DIGITAL CREATIONS The folks at Digital creations had three new products and seemed quite proud of themselves. First and foremost, of course, was Brilliance, their paint program. This program works in all of the Amiga's graphics modes, including HAM-8. It has a wealth of features, including considerable animation abilities. Most of you have probably seen the advertising for this program, which shows a magnificent painted lagoon scene. Now that the program is shipping, Digital Creations shows the entire picture, including the fish swimming about under water. The promotional material opens up to form a big poster of this picture. Digital Creations has another genlock. This one is called the SuperGen SX. It is a high-performance tool designed to handle the more sophisticated graphics modes available on the newer Amigas. It has one slider apiece for the background and the graphics, plus a switch to quickly disable itself for when it is not needed. It has both S-Video and composite inputs and outputs. Their most interesting piece of hardware was their video slot box, available in late October. This is a mini-tower case with a 230 watt power supply containing four video slots! Once you hook it up to your Amiga, you'll be able to use up to four devices that make use of the video slot. Some video slot boards are "active." Only one of these may function at a time. The slot box will turn off all but the one you select. "Passive" boards, which just listen to the signals on the video slot, may operate at the same time as other boards. The box also holds three ISA slots (PC-AT style) with power and ground only available. Some time base corrector cards can be placed in these slots. It also has room for extra tape and disk drives, which may be connected to the power supply. It should list for about $895. VIDEOPOLIS R&D Pat Keith and his son were showing off Videopolis' new product, called the Video Palace. This is another mini-tower case, but this one holds an Opalvision card. You can use it with any Amiga, including those with no regular internal slots. On display was a 1200 showing an animation running on the Opalvision card. The case has a 200-watt power supply and can be used to hold other things, such as a hard drive. Mr. Keith said that he planned to add a lot more features to the product. The Video Palace was on sale for the show for $1200 and included the Opalvision card. Mr. Keith said that it was shipping and would be sent out within 48 hours of receiving an order. U.S. CYBERNETICS RISC technology is clearly on the way to the Amiga, and it's not going to wait for Commodore to figure out how to do it. U.S. Cybernetics was showing off their prototype processor cards carrying Inmos chips. One model uses the T805 processor for 4.3 MFLOPS performance, while the other uses the T9000, for 50 MFLOPS. The chips are designed to operate in parallel, to work in conjunction with each other and with the Amiga's main processor. With an external box, up to 40 processors may be installed. If used properly, in parallel, this will give full- blown supercomputer performance. Programs have to be especially written to take advantage of this technology. U.S. Cybernetics has a development system to let programmers write programs in Parallel C. The programs currently being ported to the system include Pegger, Vista Pro, ImageFX, TV Paint, Real 3D, and Cinemorph. I happen to have a minor in computer graphics and extensive experience in parallel processing, so this is quite interesting to me. For many applications, having multiple processors does not speed up computation much. However, ray tracing can be tremendously accellerated with good parallel processing. For instance, with well-written software, a scene that takes 2 hours to ray-trace on an Amiga 4000 could be completed in about seven minutes by a box with ten of these processors. Maybe faster. At this time, U.S. Cybernetics is not selling their RISC boards. It is only interested in talking to developers who will port software to the system. Unless you are a developer, please don't contact them yet. The low-end version should be available around the end of November. It will list for about $750. AVID PUBLICATIONS Avid Publications were giving away free copies of their Video Toaster User magazine, of course. A subcription to this will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how to produce neat stuff with NewTek's Video Toaster. In addition to the regular magazine, they are coming out with a 16-page newsletter called LightWave Pro. This is full of advice for people using NewTek's 3-D graphics animation program, LightWave. If you contact Avid, they will send you a free sample copy. I had a particularly infuriating exchange with one of the people behind the counter. She saw my press badge and properly recognized a fellow in the media: "Have you heard any big announcements?" No, why? "We've got a big scoop!" What? "If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you. You're competition." Aw, c'mon.... "No way." I was ready to chew tacks in frustration after that. I think I know what it was now, though. ADDRESSES Avid Publications 21611 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014 PHONE: 408/366-8220 FAX : 408/725-8035 Digital Creations P.O. Box 97 Folsom, CA 95763-0097 PHONE: 916/344-4825 FAX : 916/635-0475 U.S. Cybernetics DEVELOPERS ONLY (no address given) PHONE: 403/269-1090 (Ron Henry) FAX : 403/246-8478 EMAIL: John@quark.powerstar.cuc.ab.ca Videopolis R&D 107 Park Avenue, Suite 106 Santa Maria, CA 93454 PHONE: 805/925-0970 @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" /// Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users -------------------------------------- Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA or through Tymnet from anywhere in North America. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: - Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files - The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. - Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. - Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. - 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. - No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. - Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. - Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. - Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. - FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! - Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Usenet feeds into Portal many times each hour. There are 14 Amiga-specific Usenet newsgroups with hundreds of articles posted every day, including postings by Commodore personnel. Since Usenet is distributed worldwide, your questions and answers can be seen by literally hundreds of thousands of people the same day you post them. - Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. - The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. - Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. - All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. - Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) - And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 1-408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Tymnet 9600bps services is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-9 "A.M.I.G.A." @toc "menu" /// Another Moronic, Inane and Gratuitous Article --------------------------------------------- by Chad Freeman (cjfst4+@pitt.edu or cjfst4@cislabs.pitt.edu -- Internet) (cfreeman -- BIX) Did you ever feel overwhelmed by the endless stream of technical jargon and acronyms that pervade the electronics industry? Well, you're not alone. Acronyms have been around since the very first days of computers, with the ABC and the ENIAC, and programming languages with FORTRAN, T0 and COBOL, and even in companies with IBM and UNISYS. Computer scientists wonder why they're having such a hard time writing programs that don't cause major accidents. Well, its obvious, isn't it? The average computer scientist has so much brain power expended on remembering all this silly stuff that they couldn't code their way out of a paper bag! I mean, even software designed to help make better programs has an acronym, CASE! Unfortunately, unless NASA (hey, there's another one!) is planning on using the Hubble telescope to brainwash the entire planet into getting rid of all this pesky stuff, we as part of the computer nerd community must learn to live with it. Of course, we at AMIGA, in the interest of keeping our own acronym and helping you remember yours, have compiled this rather inane acronym list for you to print out and keep in your wallet, so you can finally stop worrying about the difference between SCSI and IDE... TAAL (The Amiga Acronym List) ----------------------------- I. Disk Drives OFS, FFS, DC-FFS: Oh your Feet Smell, Frank's Feet Smell, Dear Columbus, Frank's Feet Smell. DF0: Duh, i Flunked with a 0. DF1: Duh, i Flunked with a 1. DF2: Duh, i Flunked with a 2. HD0: Hey, i got a D with a 0! (In case of special services for professor) SCSI: So Can i Start to Inhale? IDE: I Didn't Exhale. (In honor of Slick Willie) II. File Formats IFF: Imploding Freshwater Fish TIFF: Terrible-smelling Imploding Freshwater Fish GIF: God-awful IBM Format PCX: Pretty Crappy X-Rated pictures FLI: Frustrated Little-boys tItillations 8SVX: HUH? RTF: Really Tacky Format MOD: Messed-up Old Data MUS: Mysterious Unused Software ASCII: Atrocious Simple-minded Code for Insidious Interpolation III. Programming FORTRAN: FORtunately there's TRANslators (into this language) COBOL: Commodore Outta Be bought out by Out Levi's (see SNOBOL) SNOBOL: Chance in hell of anyone buying Commodore (see COBOL) PL/1: Programming Language for 1st graders BASIC: Blunderers And Simpletons Implement Code (in this language) COMAL: COMe on, Another Language? LISP: Lots of Inane and Silly Parentheses REXX: Not an acronym, named after Jurassic Park. C: Cool! E: Excellent! C++: HUH? IV. Other WP: (Not supported by The Amiga Acronym List) GUI: Goofy User Interface MIPS: My I'm Pretty Sullen RTFM: Read The Four-foot thick Manual! BBS: Boring Blathering Sedation MODEM: MOre DEmoralizing Ministrations IBM: Incurable Butthead Mentality THE END (THis is the End, Exit Now Damnit!) @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-10 "InterNet via Email" @toc "menu" /// The InterNet via Email ---------------------- by Robert Niles Those of you that only have email access to the InterNet might feel a bit limited at times on what you can do. In reality, you have more options than you think. Last week we talked about how to use FTPmail, a system in which you can easily get files, even if you only have an InterNet email account. This week we'll talk about using InterNIC's WHOIS (Netfind). What is Netfind? There are various ways in which to find someone's email address. You know of a friend that has an address, but whatever it is, you have forgotten. One way is to use InterNIC's WHOIS program. InterNIC keeps a listing of users on the InterNet who have registered with NIC. InterNIC doesn't only keep a database of users on the net, it also keeps site and organization information as well. How do I use it? Quite easily! All you have to do is send a message to mailserv@rs.internic.net, and on the subject line enter: WHOIS username Where the username is the username of the person in which you want information on. Also username can be substituted with an organization name such as "itm.com". Example: To: mailserv@rs.internic.net Subject: whois rniles Additional "whois" commands can be placed within the message body, but no message body is needed to process the request. The mailserver processes email requests at least once a day and will send the information you requested to your email address. Of course the easiest way to find someone's email address is to simply call them up and ask them, but if that is not an option try the above. Next week we'll talk about how to use Archie via the internet. @endnode ------------------------------- @node P1-11 "Federal Inquiry on Privacy Programs" @toc "menu" /// Federal Inquiry on Software Examines Privacy Programs ----------------------------------------------------- By John Markoff The New York Times * Tuesday, 21 September 1993 * Business Day ------------------------------------------------------------------ SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20 - In a Government investigation with implications for free speech and privacy in the information age, a Federal grand jury in San Jose, Calif., has issued subpoenas to two software publishers selling versions of a program that protects the privacy of electronic mail and other computer data. The investigation appears to focus on whether the program has been illegally exported in violation of State Department regulations that control the sale of weapons and other technologies whose export the Government believes may compromise national security. The relevance of such regulations in the post-cold war era is the topic of growing debate in Washington, where communications and computer executives plan to testify before Congress on Wednesday. [Page C3.] The software program, known as Pretty Good Privacy, or P.G.P., was written several years ago by an independent programmer in response to Federal threats to crack down on the distribution of encryption software which is used to protect computer data by converting them into secret code. No one can read the encoded information without access to mathematical keys - one that is publicly known, a second known only to the recipient of the coded message. The program has since been freely distributed around the world, used on thousands of personal computers and work stations. Receiving the Federal subpoenas were Viacrypt, a Phoenix company that plans to sell a licensed version of P.G.P., and Austin Code Works of Austin, Tex., which is selling a version of P.G.P. for other software developers to incorporate their own programs. The grand jury subpoenas, which the companies received Sept. 9, ordered them to supply all correspondence and records related to the international distribution of P.G.P. and other information related to computer cryptography. A Customs Department official refused to comment on the case today. William P. Keane, the assistant United States attorney who signed the subpoenas, confirmed that there was a grand jury investigation, but said he could not comment. Both publishers said they had no plans to sell their products abroad. "I think they're more concerned with our intentions than what we've done," said Leonard Mikus, president of Viacrypt, which is a division of the software company Lemcom Systems Inc. of Phoenix. "They're on a fishing expedition, but this could become a landmark case that sets the limits that distinguish between electronic and conventional publishing." Battling the N.S.A. The investigation is the latest round in a growing battle in recent years between the National Security Agency and a variety of groups in this country, including high-technology companies, computer researchers and civil libertarians, over the role of coding software in protecting computer data. The N.S.A., whose role is to monitor electronic communications around the world, has consistently acted to block the adoption of new technologies that would make its mission more difficult. But the widespread availability of high-speed digital communication links and inexpensive personal computers may make it impossible to enforce technology restrictions in the future - as the widespread international dissemination of P.G.P. has already indicated. President Clinton alluded to the problems of controlling distribution of software technology in a speech last week promoting the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Nothing we do in this great capital can change the fact that factories or information can flash across the world, that people can move money around in the blink of an eye," the President said. "Nothing can change the fact that technology can be adopted, once created, by people all across the world and then rapidly adapted in new and different ways by people who have a little different take on the way that technology works." Question of Legality Government regulations, enforced by the State Department, make it illegal to export cryptographic software without a special munitions export license issued for weapons sales. Those restrictions have angered many computer industry executives who argue that encryption software is the crucial technology underlying a variety of information-age services, ranging from secure electronic mail to computerized payment of bills. Last year, a number of United States software companies, represented by the Software Publishers Association, a trade group, struck a deal with the N.S.A. permitting them to export software that contained coding functions. Those codes, however, are believed to be easily cracked by the N.S.A. The P.G.P. software under investigation is thought to defy most N.S.A. code-cracking efforts. The legitimacy of the export regulations is also disputed by legal scholars who argue that they restrict freedom of speech. "There is a First Amendment right to speak in a encrypted way," said Eben Moglen, a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University who is familiar with the case. "The right to speak P.G.P. is like the right to speak Navajo. The Government has no particular right to prevent you from speaking in a technical manner even if it is inconvenient for them to understand." Protection from Code-Breaking P.G.P. has been controversial since it was written by the programmer, Philip Zimmerman, because it uses a coding formula that many researchers believe powerful enough to protect information from even the National Security Agency's high-speed code-cracking computers. The formula was developed by three well known computer scientists: Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adelman. The preceding story was reprinted without permission, under the "Reasonable Use" interpretation of the 1976 Copyright Act. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-12 "UseNet Review - Llamatron" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Llamatron ------------------------- By Thomas Baetzler (s_walter@irav1.ira.uka.de) PRODUCT NAME Llamatron 1.0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION Llamatron is a totally spaced-out shoot'em up game in the vein of the classic William's arcade machine "Robotron" for one or two players. To quote from the accompanying ReadMe file: "Llamatron takes the Robotron idea and distorts it in a Yakly fashion, adding loads of new stuff and plenty of furry beasties in the Llamasoft style." AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: LLamasoft Address: 49, Mount Pleasant Tadley Hants RG26 6BM United Kingdom Telephone: ++44 7356 4478 SHAREWARE FEE The author requests you send in 5 Pounds Sterling (UK) or more. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE None. There are two versions of the game: one for 512 KB and one for 1 MB or more of Chip RAM. Llamatron works fine in both 68000 and 68030 mode. I was not able to test compatibility with the 68040. David Kinder reported that it works on the A1200. SOFTWARE To be able to run LLamatron on Kickstart 2.x and 3.0 systems or in 68020 or 68030 mode, you'll need the archive "fixllama.lha" from the "games/patch" directory of the Aminet ftp site. You might also need the VBR utility (included in this review) or something similar to reset the vector base register of your CPU to the start of Chip RAM. Beware: there are hacked versions of Llamatron floating about. To use the patch, you'll need the original archive which contains two loaders and two data files. You can find a suitable archive on the AB20 or AMINET_0693 CD-ROM discs, in "AB20/GAMES/ACTION". The hacked version included on Almathera's Demo CD-ROM will not work. COPY PROTECTION None. Llamatron will boot just fine off a floppy disk or load from hard disk. I was even able to compress the main game file using the XPK package, which saved me approximately 100 KB of disk space. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING My test setup includes: o Amiga 2000, ECS chipset, Kickstart 2.04, Workbench 2.1 o Commodore A2630 68030 accelerator with 4 MB of 32-bit memory o Picasso II graphics card REVIEW Jeff 'The Yak' Minter has been a household name since the golden age of home computing, back when the Commodore 64 was a hot machine. He always used to perplex players by taking a completely sane game idea and twisting it until it had become totally crazy. Llamatron fits this description quite nicely. It's the basic Robotron game, with you buzzing around trying to fend off hordes of meanies and saving your proteges in the process. But as things turn out, you're not a super-hero, but a fast spitting llama, and you're up against enemies like phone booths, cigarette papers and screaming Mandelbrot sets. The game can be played by one or two players, and one or two joysticks can be utilized in one player mode. Using one joystick, you move around spitting in your current direction, and you can lock this direction by pressing the fire button. Using both joysticks, you can play in the original Robotron mode, where one joystick controls your movements while the other directs your fire. For beginners, there is a "droid" mode in which a computer player assists you. The basic rule of the game is: "If it moves, shoot it, and if it doesn't move, it's an obstacle that must be destroyed". An exception to this rule are the various beasties waiting to be saved by you. Move close to one of them, and it'll follow you, and you'll get extra firepower for a short time. Saving the last beastie on the screen will give you a three-way firepower extra. If collecting the extra is the last thing you do in a level, it'll be awarded to you in the next level. All levels start out with you at the center of the screen, and various meanies out there to catch you. Blast all of them into oblivion, and you'll advance to the next level. Your goal is to advance to level 99 and destroy the Ozric Tentacle to get to Herd Heaven on level 100. As you progress, you'll encounter certain types of level over and over again. On the "Herd Levels", you'll have to try and save your beasties from the evil brains that turn them into yucky mutant beasts. On "Rain levels", you'll have to catch all of the floating umbrellas to stop the rain while dodging the usual set of adversaries. Do well, and you'll be rewarded much-needed extras, like super firepower, bouncing missiles, and (above all) extra lives. Difficulty in the starting levels is low, but it increases steadily. Almost everybody manages to get to level 5 once they've familiarized themselves with the control, and after a few games they're possibly up at level 10. Beyond that, it starts to get nasty, and by level 25, it's sheer murder. The graphics are well done, by Commodore 64 standards. On the Amiga, they're definitely nothing to write home about. From the first instant, you'll be able to tell that this game wasn't done by Psygnosis. But then, this doesn't matter at all, since while playing you don't have the time to look at them anyways. Zap and blast effects are plentiful, however. The sound is limited to sound effects in demo mode and while playing the game. Jeff recommends to turn it up loud! You might give it a try if you want to drive your neighbors (roommates, parents, etc.) up the wall. It's what you'd expect from a twisted brain: screams and moans and explosions, and even a bleating sheep. If you add it all up, you get a fiendishly difficult shoot'em up with average graphics and some strange sound effects. And yet, it all combines to make a very addictive game that keeps you glued to the computer until somebody arrives and demands that you stop the awful racket you're making. Maybe it's the Minter factor that makes us return to this game again and again. DOCUMENTATION The original archive contains a large "ReadMe" file written by Jeff Minter. Besides the basic game instructions, it contains Jeff's explanation of why games look the way they do, and much plain rambling. If you're into that kind of stuff, you'll surely enjoy it. The "fixllama" archive contains detailed instructions on how to apply the patch. Basically, you're just installing new loader programs. LIKES AND DISLIKES Llamatron takes over the Amiga completely, which is fundamentally evil from today's point of view. Expect to get into big trouble if you run Llamatron while other applications are writing to a disk. Highscores aren't saved, so you'll have to resort to Polaroid pictures if you want to record them for posterity. Having Llamatron run unter the OS would sure be nice, but I just can't imagine Jeff Minter writing OS compliant code. And since he's quite possibly off to program the Jaguar or the soon-to-be released Cray XMP handheld, don't expect him to rewrite Llamatron using the lowlevel.library. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS If you're interested in other interpretations of the basic "Robotron" theme, check out "Marketroid" on AmigaLibDisk (Fish Disk) 155. It's Leo Schwab's entry for the 1987 BADGE "Killer Demo" Contest, and it's still fun to watch. And yes, this runs fine on a 68030 Amiga running OS 2.04. After all those years! BUGS Llamatron doesn't open its own screen, but tries to grab the memory from the Workbench screen. If you're in PAL mode, everything is fine. If you run Llamatron from a NTSC Workbench, you can't see some of the bottom lines of the display. Using other display modes will quite possibly crash the program. I am using a special startup script that resets the VBR and switches to a standard PAL display before starting Llamatron to avoid trouble. Using a saved screenmode Prefs file, and the VBR utility, my script looks like: screenmode use palmode.prefs vbr >NIL: ? ; WARN if VBR is != 0 if warn vbr >NIL: ; toggle the VBR from Fast to Chip RAM endif ; and vice versa. This works quite nicely if no foreign windows are opened on the Workbench. Trying to switch screenmodes while there are non-Workbench windows on the Workbench screen will prohibit the display mode change, possibly resulting in a crash. The loader patches in the fixllama archives fix an incompatibility problem with Kickstart 2.0 and above. They were written by David Kinder. You can reach him on Internet as "kinder@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk", or via conventional mail: David Kinder 2 Clwtt Cottages, Bangor Rd. Gyfelia, Nr. Wrexham Clwyd, LL13 0YL UNITED KINGDOM PATCHES Here is the "vbr" patch mentioned in the review, in uuencoded format. Extract everything from the "begin" to "end" (inclusive) and use the uudecode program on UNIX or the Fish Disks to create the executable vbr program. begin 777 vbr M```#\P`````````!``````````````"4```#Z0```)1(YX"`1_H`UD*3D\DL M>``$3J[^VBA`2JP`K&820>P`7$ZN_H!![`!<3J[^C":`0_H```$3J[^8B(Z`&QG$B\`+'@`!$ZN_WPB04ZN_H8@'TYU3-\!`6%28=XO`")Z M`$0L>``$3J[^8B`?3G5A0!D;W,N;&EB0``'`I!4E`@ M3&EB2!V,SDK(&YE961E9"`A"@H``````````'H`+'@`!!(N`2D"`0`# M9@A!^@#(D\E@+DOZ`+1.KO_B#$```F8^#%`P"F0```-A.KO\<2H5F!'``3G5P!4YU2H=F&'``3G4,;@`A M`!1D"$'Z`(J3R6#22H=G'"!'D\E\`&$\(D=P`#`\!`!.KO\N0?H`J)/)8+)P M`#`\!`!R`4ZN_SHL`&8(0?H`>I/)8)J1R")&80HN!D7Z`*1@`/]^<``P/`0` M3J[]D$OZ``Q.[O_B3GIX`4YS3GMH`4YS!S8X,#$P+S(P+S,P(')E86QL>2!N M965D960A"@``!U-O6]U2$*``!60E(@