@database "ar310.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #3.10 -- May 17, 1995" @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1995 FS Publications All Rights Reserved // =====================================//==================================== == May 17, 1995 \\// Issue No. 3.10 == =========================================================================== @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN =========================================================================== == Main Menu == =========================================================================== @{" Editorial and Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Featured Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" News & Press Releases " link NEWS} @{" FTP Announcements " link FTP} @{" Reader Mail " link MAIL} --------------------------------- @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link ABOUT} Contact Information and Copyrights @{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Advertisements " link COMMERCIAL} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 3.10 May 17, 1995 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode =========================================================================== == The Amiga Report Staff == =========================================================================== @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == EDITOR == =========================================================================== Jason Compton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 708/741-0689 708/289-7047 @endnode @node ROBERT "Senior Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == SENIOR EDITOR == =========================================================================== Robert Niles ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- rniles@Wolfe.NET 506 W. Orchard Selah, WA 98942 FidoNet Fax ------- --- 1:3407/103 509/697-5064 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.com @endnode @node SEAN "Games Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == GAMES EDITOR == =========================================================================== Sean Caszatt ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Sean.Caszatt@f512.n2601.z1.fidonet.org @endnode @node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== == compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} == =========================================================================== What is there to say? Not enough, unfortunately. Escom has appointed a head of engineering for "Amiga Computer" (the current working name for the new Escom company that will handle the Commodore assets) in Dr. Peter Kittel, a veteran of Commodore Germany. As of now, though, the company has no chief executive, hasn't moved into a building yet, hasn't announced distribution plans for North America, South America, or Australia, and hasn't announced concrete plans for future Amiga technology. As such, there's still no "good place" to contact Escom and be heard on the Amiga issue. I do give them full credit-things have got to be hectic right now. But it is very hard on those who must sit and wait. There is something good-Dr. Kittel has agreed to do an Amiga Report IRC conference, and has offered to do a regular "questions and answers" column for us. As things are now, things certainly aren't at a standstill. I'm playing phone tag with the CEO of Viscorp, a company that just licensed the Amiga technology from Escom. Three major shows are planned for North America this year-independently organized, but you can't have everything. And we got our own listserv again. What could be better? In other news, the first issue of the Amiga Report Tech Journal is out, and was received quite well. Submissions are welcome-and encouraged. Contact Gregory Block, the editor, as editor@oubliette.com. Keep paying attention, it's bound to get more hectic before it calms down... Jason @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Commercial Products == =========================================================================== @{" Editor's Choice " link EDITORCHOICE} Jason's picks @{" Commercial Online Services " link ONLINE} Sign-Up Information --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Announce " link FTP} @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Reader Mail == =========================================================================== From: BChandley@aol.com Subject: Follow up Dear Jason, A while back I wrote you and your staff to tell you what a great job you do informing the Amiga community about news and new products for the Amiga. You continue to do a great job and all more important now that Amiga World bit the dust. The reason I am writing you this time is the concern I have with a company in which I feel produces one of the top five software products for the amiga.In March of last year I purchased Scala Info Channel and Info channel player. Since the purchase I have tried many times to get more informa tion from Scala on new releases of the Info Channel software and new product information. I have gotten absolutely nowhere with this company. It is really sad to purchase $3,000 dollars worth of software from a company and not be able to be informed of new product. A company such as Scala that creates software to keep people informed at that. Please see what you can find out from this company. Maybe you have to have a magizine to find out anything from them! Feel free to use this letter anyway you see fit. I hope anyone considering buying a product from Scala will understand they will never hear a word from them. Thanks for any help in this matter. Bruce Chandley BChandlley@aol.com -------------------------------------- From: flundin@canit.se@canit.se (Fredrik Lundin) Date: Tue May 09 15:07:05 1995 Hi Amiganoids... After reading the information from Escoms head, Manfred Schmidt, when he said they "think to integrate CD-32 in a PC". As I see it, yeah.. maybe a good idea, but is it worth it ? I always thought the CD32 was perfect for those who wanted the ability to play good CD-ROM based games, without the need to buy an expensive 'Multimedia' PC (Soundburner.. blaster and CD-ROM). 1. Most games on the CD32 are available on the PC clowns, sometimes the CD32 use more colours and much better scrolling etc, but considering that several of the PC bestsellers DO NOT exist on the CD32, a PC486 user with a 'multimedia' system, do not really need or want a CD32 card in his Amiga, unless some really really good games only come out for the CD32, and the CD32-card had a price of less ca. 99 USD. (no need for CD-ROM, powersupply, case etc.. cuts costs!) 2. One other great feature with the CD32 is the expansion box, for someone without a PC, and have bought the CD32 only for games (as described earlier above) could later buy this box, SX1 is the only one at the moment.. and that way get into computers! Not with PC or MAC, not with Windows.. but with AmigaOS! The next time he might buy something more expensive.. but he want the same system he learned his computing on, not some tricky and expensive PC. :) 3. AMIGA-card for the PC, was also mentioned, as well for the Apple Performa and Power PC. This is a much better idea! The hard thing is to convice the PC-users to buy the card though... After that, they might partially convert from Windows to AmigaOS... If someone could manage to write CyberGfx or EGS drivers to use the SVGA graphics built-in most PC's also, hmm.. could this work ? I would like to know what other people think ! Also ask yer PC and MAC 'friends', after you have shown them the AmigaOS on your Amiga.. "If you could have this, for lets say... 250-300 USD on a card, would you buy it?" @endnode @node NEWS12 "Amiga Report Listserv!" @toc NEWS After what has been entirely too much screwing around with custom scripts and a hand-maintained mailing list, Amiga Report once again has a real listserv! (And yes, we fixed the problem where the whole world could write to it. The address is listserv@itesmvf1.rzs.itesm.mx. In the body of the message, tell it- SUB AREPORT To subscribe to AREPORT UNSUB AREPORT To unsubscribe from AREPORT HELP To get general listserv commands help Notice that you will be subscribed to whatever address you write the message from-and unsubscribing works the same way. If you need to unsubscribe an account you cannot write mail from, write mail to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} for removal. Thanks to Alejandro Kurczyn for getting this service established for us. @endnode @node NEWS1 "AmigaOS Project Update" @toc NEWS UPDATE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AMIGOS PROJECT, APRIL 29th, 1995 ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES - Chris Gordon is no longer with the team, he got a job offer and had to go. He used to be the design coordinator. - Chris Yiannias will lose his connection soon, the old WWW site (far0066.urh.uiuc.edu) is obsolete and just contains a link to the new site. Also this site has been unavailable for ftp for quite some time now. - Philippe Brand is the new WWW/Net coordinator. The site has been up for quite some time now: ftp://amigos.telesys-innov.fr/pub/AmigOS http://www.telesys-innov.fr/AmigOS/AOS.html. These WWW pages are mainly kept up to date by me. A log of changes to these pages is available from the main page. - A German mirror of the WWW pages is availabe: http://ernie.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE/Amiga/AOS/AOS.html An US based mirror will be available soon. - Olaf Barthel is the new design coordinator. - Maarten ter Mors has been very busy with other things, he should be available again soon. - Version 3.0 of the memberdatabase is available at the WWW/FTP site. UPDATE INFORMATION REGARDING THE PROJECT There is a lot of confusion about the status of the project, as can be seen on the mailinglist. The votes have determined the following: - We will make a binary compatible clone of the OS, which should mean that all _properly_ written programs should run on Amiga hardware. More on this below. - Memory protection should be added where possible. It will not be required, and can be turned off. Under the existing OS it's impossible to have full protection, and only new programs specifically written for it will benefit to some extent. - Virtual memory should be supported by the OS. Again: old programs will not benefit (an external program like a new version of VMM should provide that) but new programs asking for it will get it whenever possible. - Resource tracking: only available to new programs. Having resource tracking for old programs is very likely to break them. It may be possible to 'promote' some of the existing programs though, but we'll see about that later. - Multiuser support will be added. (comparable to what muFS does, but with a little more security). Having multiple concurrent users on the same system can never be safe, but the files on the system should be rather safe this way. It is also very good for networking and multiple configurations for programs. Again it's possible to turn the multiuser support off, all programs/files will then be executed/owned by root. For a thorough discussion on the issues above, please read the IRC log. It's available at the FTP/WWW site. The OS will be able to run 'old' properly written programs on the Amiga hardware *only*. Other systems will never be able to run these programs, unless these programs are modified and recompiled. (Modifications required should be small, like the Execbase offset can't always be on address 4 on other systems). We also planned to have very strict programming guidelines to ensure compatibility between different systems. Hardware hacking is considered illegal. The current API will be retained, improvements can only be made through new interfaces in the API. New features shall not break old programs that are written properly. Programmers using old API calls that can be considered obsolete will be pushed very hard to remove these calls from their programs. WHAT ARE WE (THE COORDINATORS) WORKING ON? Busy forming a team to work on the core of the system. Hardly any design is needed for this, since it's basically copying the API and writing the underlying routines. The only real design required (and that's true for all of the OS) is the adding of new features. Ofcourse, any designs are appreciated for this, but these should fit the guidelines in this text. This core (think of something like the bootstrap, expansion.library, exec.library, dos.library and all other things required) is the base of the system. What it does is allow us to develop further on this core. The core will: - install some code that survives resets, if possible - recognize the hardware of the system running on - mount any filesystems available - access the boot-filesystem to obtain the files it needs - install available drivers - bring the system to some sort of a default hardware state supported by all platforms commonly used - start the 'real' booting of the system (execute s:startup-sequence) ADDITIONAL - The language to use is ANSI-C. *Only* code that can't be written in ANSI-C should be written in assembly. Optimizations can always be done later, it's more important to have it working first and have the code as portable as possible. - All this talk about Object-Oriented programming is very nice, but it's only possible to add an OO layer later on, otherwise the programming for the OS could only be done through some specific language like C++. OO can and will be supported through things like BOOPSI. - On the mailinglist people are talking about having intermediate code created by some sort of compiler. Upon installation this code should then get it's final compilation stage for the specific target machine. This is currently not an issue, it can always be dealt with later, and even better: Vidar Hokstad is already working on such a system. Read the SDE files available at the ftp site for more information. Vidar should have some initial testing done soon, by the way. - As soon as we're able to establish contact with Escom, we'll see about working with them on this project. Several options are available, and any or all will be considered. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AMIGOS Announce mailing list Post messages to: amigos@aobh.xs4all.nl To unsubscribe send mail to: amigosannounce-request@aobh.xs4all.nl In the message the line : delete Ideas : amigosideas@aobh.xs4all.nl Submissions : amigossubmissions@aobh.xs4all.nl Administration : amigosadmin@aobh.xs4all.nl Informationpack : amigosinfo@aobh.xs4all.nl -------------------------------------------------------------------------- @endnode @node NEWS2 "Change in USG Information" @toc NEWS Change in USG Information ------------------------- From: micke.persson@dst.ct.se (Micke Persson) Subject: USG Hi, Jason! I have a message for you from Peter Bornhall, Users Standards Group. He recently asked in USG-Net, someone to tell you this and in case you haven't got the info already, here it is; :) Peter has trouble with his internet gateway, and his email's to you just bounces back. He wanted to tell you that the address information in AR307 was changed around AR's release (bad timing), and the CORRECT address to Peter Bornhall now, is; Peter Bornhall Fido: 2:203/322.3 or 2:201/417.41 Bäck 5, Främmestad Amiga: 39:160/307.3 S-46598 NOSSEBRO SWEDEN peter.bornhall@p3.tweed.ct.se // Micke Persson, USG-Net Zone Coordinator @endnode @node NEWS3 "Escom's BBS" @toc NEWS We at Amiga Report have been provided with the information for Escom AG's BBS. +49-6252-73027 Line 1 +49-6252-73028 Line 2 +49-6252-73029 Line 3 Protocols: X-, Y-, Z-Modem, Kermit Settings: 8N1 Baud-Rate: 14400 Online: 24h @endnode @node NEWS4 "Photogenics 1.2 Update" @toc NEWS PHOTOGENICS 1.2 UPDATE Almathera is releasing on 15th May its new update of Photogenics. Photogenics 1.2 contains important new features which have been developed with the end-user's wishes in mind. We improved and added tools, options for paintmodes and better support for different file formats. The update from ealier versions to 1.2 is only available from Almathera. Photogenics 1.2 list of new features: Warper tool added: The easy-to-use warper tool allows you to distort, stretch, bend and twirl parts of your image. Printing added: One of the most frequent requests from end-users was to be able to print - Photogenics can now print to any preferences supported printer. Photogenics also supports the STUDIO II colour management system (not included) for true 24-bit colour quality printouts. CyBERgraphics 24-bit painting: Photogenics can now paint in hi-colour (15/16 bit) and true colour (24-bit) directly with any graphics card that supports the CyBERgraphics standard (eg. CyBERvision 64, Picasso II, Retina Z3, etc..). Requires CyBERgraphics drivers (not included) Transparency Gradients added: You can now apply various transparency gradients to rectangles, circles or other shapes you draw and give the direction of your transparency. Crop option added: You can now crop an image to remove unwanted borders etc... We added also for the end-user with non-AGA machines the Ham6.gio/ShowHam6.gio and the 16 Colour preview. Photogenics can now save and display standard Ham (or Ham-6)images as well as being run in a 16 colour preview. Some improvement has been made to the Previews (Photogenics uses high quality dithering to get near 24-bit quality from a 256-colour display) and the Compose mode (You can use other paintmodes inside compose to combine the two images in many different ways). You will also find new Paintmodes (colourise, gamma, mirage, jitter etc...), NewIcon support, New .GIOs (TIFF, PCX, HAM6, RETINA, ProGrab24, etc...) and many other improvements. Photogenics1.2 is better, bigger and heavier with a 150 pages manual. It retails at £59.95 and the upgrade from 1.1a to 1.2 costs only £15.00. You can purchase Photogenics 1.2 direct from Almathera, Southerton House, 92-94 Church Road, Mitcham CR4 3TD. @endnode @node NEWS5 "Ten on Ten" @toc NEWS TEN ON TEN Almathera decided that the dedicated Amiga user deserved a real big goody. For the first time in the Amiga history a complete pack of ten disks will be for sale for the price of £39.95. The Ten pack contains: Three early titles from Almathera CDPDI, CDPDII and DEMOI. PANDORA which contains ClipArt, textures, photo libraries and demos on multimedia application for POS, POI, Education and training: it is a must for any collector of PD. World Vista Atlas - now works on all Amiga CD-ROM - is an interactive atlas with maps, socio-demographic facts and audio track of speeches and music. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE contains the complete text of all Shakespeare's plays, poems and sonnets. A very useful reference for all students. TEAM YANKEE , the tank game recently re-released on the Amiga, has been included for the fun orientated Amigaist. If you think that is not good enough we have also three new disks that will not be published separately: The PHOTOGENICS 1.2 Demo with a library of picutres to play with. Our own compilation of Clip Art and Fonts. The Networking CD is your only bootable disc and gives you all information you need to get the maximum from your nine other CDs This CD contains comms software and information about WWW, Mosaic, Usenet, the Archie browser, AmiTCP (get on-line software), Netreck the interacive game, the World fact to complete your World Vista Atlas and much more. As with all Almathera products the Ten on Ten pack lives up to the reputation of quality and excellence for which we have become renown world-wide. We don't substitute price for quality. However, this is a limited edition pack, we are producing ONLY 3000 units. You can order your Ten on Ten pack for £39.95 from Almathera, Boundary Business Court, 92-94 Church Road, Mitcham CR4 3TD, telephone 0181-687 0040 @endnode @node NEWS6 "Delfina DSP" @toc NEWS PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO THE DELFINA DSP 1. WHAT IS DELFINA DSP? Delfina DSP is a multifeatured audio board containing a fully programmable powerful 20 MIPS Digital Signal Processor. The board is capable of 16bit stereo digitizing and multichannel playback at 50kHz. Price will be under $700, with an introductionary price for the Internetters at $400. Features: - 40 MHz Motorola DSP56002 processor * 20 MIPS * 24 bit data bus * 56 bit accumulators * Most instructions executed in one cycle - 96k/192k/384k SRAM * Dual ported (addressable from Amiga) * Zero-waitstate (25ns) - Stereo AD/DA (analog-digital-analog) converter (CS4215) * Sample frequencies upto 50 kHz * 16 or 8 bit linear, u-law or A-law audio data coding * Programmable gain and attenuation * Microphone and line level inputs * Headphone and line level outputs * On-chip anti-aliasing/smoothing filters - High-speed RS232 interface (max. 2.5Mbit/s) - Centronics interface - Zorro II interface - Fully programmable using included libraries Software: DELFINA software version 0.9 beta includes the following: - delfaudio.library * multiple 16-bit or 8-bit channels * sound digitizing * samples in PC or Amiga format * sample rates upto 48 kHz * channel panning and other effects - delfina.library * for user's own DSP software * several DSP programs can be configured as interrupts * full mastership of the card possible - delfser.device * serial.device compatible * max. 115200 bps * minimal CPU usage on Amiga - delfpar.device * parallel.device compatible * minimal CPU usage on Amiga More sofware will be released later. 2. HOW AND WHY TO CONTACT US? The board is at prototype stage, so changes can still be made according to good propositions and requirements. The libraries and applications for the card will be continuously developed even after the product has been shipped, so we will be always open for fresh ideas. We'd be glad to join the discussion about wishes for features on the Internet News. For information, reply or mail to: Teemu.Suikki@lut.fi (design, software) Jyrki.Petsalo@lut.fi (marketing) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Delfina DSP. Discover the Sound of Power. @endnode @node NEWS7 "NewTek Licenses 'HIIP'" @toc NEWS For Immediate Release NewTek, Inc. Announces Agreement with Elastic Reality "HIIP" Host Independent Imaging Protocol will be included with LightWave 3D Multi-Platform and Video Toaster System 4.0 March 18, 1995 Topeka, KS --NewTek, Inc today announced that they have licensed the Host Independent Imaging Protocol (HIIP) from Elastic Reality, Inc. for inclusion in NewTek's Emmy award winning Video Toaster and LightWave 3D products. As a result of this license, Video Toaster and LightWave 3D users will have seamless connectivity to the most important image file formats in the film, television and multimedia industries. HIIP is a single unified programmer's library which hides from view all of the complexities associated with supporting a large number of im age file formats across multiple computer platforms. Users of LightWave 3D and Video Toaster System 4.0 will benefit from HIIP's automatic file format detection which frees users from having to remember an image's format or having to adhere to a rigid file naming convention. HIIP's flexible sizing and color space conversion capabilities give NewTek customers the creative freedom to be able to always use the right image for any desired purpose. "Being available for the Silicon Graphics, Windows, Macintosh and Amiga platforms, HIIP provides a universal link between the growing number of platforms supported by LightWave 3D" said Arnie Cachelin, Director of the LightWave Plug-In group. "There was a natural fit.... Elastic Reality's HIIP code had all the right handles to easily plug in to LightWave's open architecture." continued Cachelin. HIIP's inclusion in the Toaster System 4.0 software allows Switcher, ToasterPaint and ToasterCG to make use of images in more than 20 formats including: JPEG, PICT, Alias, Wavefront, Targa, SGI, TIF and Cineon. Elastic Reality Inc., recently merged with Avid Technology, Inc., is best known for its namesake product, the multiple-award winning Elastic Reality special effects system. Widely adopted among high-end post-production users, Elastic Reality special effects have been featured in such recent productions as Forrest Gump, Stargate, Star Trek: Generations, and Tank Girl. For more information contact NewTek, Inc. customer service at 1-800-847-6111 or Elastic Reality at (608)273-6585. @endnode @node NEWS8 "Viscorp license" @toc NEWS Thanks to Michael Kraemer for pulling this clip from his local German newspaper on May 10, 1995: HEPPENHEIM/CHICAGO. The Heppenheim-based PC dealer ESCOM AG and the US firm Visual Information Services Corp intend to cooperate in the field of interactive TV. ESCOM will license the Amiga technology they bought in April. According to ESCOM it will allow the access to online services via ordinary TV connections. Viscorp can be contacted at 312-935-1010. @endnode @node NEWS9 "Video Toaster Box" @toc NEWS For Immediate Release NewTek, Inc., Announces Portable Video Toaster for Windows April 9, 1995, NAB Las Vegas NewTek Inc., today announced a portable, standalone Video Toaster for Windows NT and Windows 95. NewTek is known for developing the Emmy Award-winning Video Toaster, the product that launched the desktop video industry. The original Video Toaster established itself as the standard for desktop-based video production," said Tim Jenison, inventor of the Toaster and president of NewTek. "With the Video Toaster for Windows, we're opening our doors to millions of Windows-based video producers." The new Video Toaster utilizes NewTek's proprietary video compression technique, VTASC, for real-time recording, playback, and non-linear editing. The unit features a built-in time base corrector and utilizes off-the-shelf computer hard drives for recording video. In addition, you can work with a total of 8 tracks of 16-bit, CD-quality audio. The Video Toaster serves as both a Record Deck in the field and an A/B Roll Edit System in the studio. The original Toaster is known for its video effects, color processing, character generation, paint, and 3D graphics. It changed the face of the video industry by being the first video device to incorporate all of the major production tools in one box at an incredibly affordable price. With the standalone Toaster, NewTek has added non-linear editing, CD-quality audio, and portability to the equation. Now you can record video, capture freeze frames, add titles, design graphics, edit scenes, insert 3D animations, and put together a complete video program using a single, sensible "drag and drop" interface. Pricing for the standalone Video Toaster begins at $7995.00, and the system is expected ship in the third quarter of 1995. A professional model, which includes a built-in control module with 5.6" LCD monitor screen and front panel buttons, wil l also be available for $9995.00. Both models ship complete with the ability to run Video Toaster software when connected to any computer running Windows NT or Windows 95. In the field, the professional model can be operated entirely from its front panel LCD controls. It can even perform basic editing on the fly. The control panel with the LCD monitor was added primarily for electronic news gathering and electronic field production users, "But everyone will love it," says Jenison. "It's very sharp and clear. You can shoot and play back anywhere, anytime, without the need to be hooked up to a computer." In the field, this will allow the cameraman to control the Toaster via his camera cable. During the ride home from the shoot, the producer can review the footage on the LCD front panel button. Back at the studio, the editor can control the entire system via SCSI cable control from any Windows NT or Windows 95-based PC. "Over the last few years, we've had thousands and thousands of people beg us t o release the Video Toaster for other computer platforms," said Donetta Colboch, NewTek's Director of Marketing. "Now, the world's most popular and affordable video production system is available for the world's most widely-used personal computers. We listened to their requests, then we added a digital disk recorder and audio DSP (digital signal processing) system." The system has also been given new versatility. "You can record and play back at the same time, so it's a natural as a commercial insertion system or for the new cable-on-demand providers." Video Toaster for Windows includes the tremendously-popular graphics package LightWave 3D, a full-featured 3D animation system renowned for its easy to use interface and powerful features. The new Toaster can even function as the animation recorder for LightWave so that artists can create flying logos, animated spots, scrolling credits, and more, direct to disk, with the ability to play them back immediately. NewTek has given careful consideration to its e xisting user base. The heart of the new Video Toaster is the Flyer non-linear editing hardware. The Flyer's operating system has been completely rewritten to act as the brain of the new Toaster. At the same time it remains fully compatible with the current Flyer hardware, which will allow Video Toaster Flyer owners to convert their present Video Toaster system into the new Video Toaster easily. The new Toaster not only works with Windows NT but also with present Amiga Toaster systems. NewTek will make available a Video Toaster Bay (essentially the new Video Toaster package minus the Flyer) to current owners so they may enjoy the expanded capabilities of the portable system while retaining all of the abilities of their current system. The cost of the Video Toaster Bay for current Flyer users will be $2995.00. The professional version will be $4995.00. For more information contact NewTek Inc., customer service at 1-800-847-6111. @endnode @node NEWS10 "AmiJAM '95" @toc NEWS ========================================================================== Amijam '95, July 15-16 1995 Amiga Users of Calgary svermuelen@ragnarok.mtroyal.ab.ca ========================================================================== Only Amiga Makes it Possible The Amiga Users of Calgary are once again sponsoring Western Canada's largest Amiga show! Amijam'95 will be held Saturday July 15 and Sunday July 16, 1995 from 10am to 6pm daily, at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Campus Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, home of the Calgary Stampede. This will be the third time AMUC has funded, organized and participated in the running of this Northwest regional Amiga computer show. In the past, we have seen many attendees from all the western provinces and the northwestern United States. We have every confidence that Amijam'95 will attract even more attendees from the region. As the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede is running concurrently with Amijam'95, we hope to attract many more out-of-town visitors, by jointly advertizing Amijam'95 with the Calgary Stampede Board. Our show promotion also includes print ads in prominent Amiga magazines and heavy exposure on the Internet. Where to stay for Amijam'95 Accomodations As Amijam'95 is being held during the same week as the Calgary Stampede, hotel space in Calgary may be limited. The following hotels are near the show site (within a 10 to 20 minute ride on Calgary's Light Rail Transit System). Please tell them you are attending a conference at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). Prices are in the range of CDN$75.00 to CDN$110.00 per night for single occupancy. That's about US$55.00 to US$80.00 at current rates of exchange. Double occupancy is typically an additional $10.00 per night. Avondale Motor Inn, 1-800-917-7779 or (403) 289-1921 Comfort Inn, 1-800-228-5150 or (403) 289-2581 Econo Lodge, 1-800-424-6423 or (403) 289-2561 Royal Wayne Motor Inn, (403) 289-6651 Highlander Hotel, (403) 289-1961 Lord Nelson Motor Inn, 1-800-661-6017 or (403) 269-8262 Days Inn, 1-800-325-2525 or (403) 289-5571 Holiday Inn Express, 1-800-HOL-IDAY or (403) 289-6600 Travelodge (North), 1-800-578-7878 or (403) 289-0211 Canadian Pacific-The Palliser, 1-800-441-1414 The International, 1-800-661-8627 or (403) 265-9600 Best Western-Village Park Inn, 1-800-528-1234 or (403) 289-0241 These are all located either at the west end of downtown within a few blocks of an LRT station (SAIT is two stops up the line) or in the northwest in a concentration of motels called Motel Village (SAIT is two stops down the line) beside the football stadium. SAIT Hotel Services Worthy of separate note are SAIT's hotel services. These are run by its Hotel Management Training program. The Amijam show site is just a couple minutes stroll between buildings on the SAIT campus. The details are: CDN$19.00 per person per night, plus 5% hotel tax Rooms are two bed suites, full (daily) service is included in price To book, phone the SAIT housing office at (403) 284-8102 and ask for Linda Lampson. Contacting AMUC By mail You can write AMUC at the following address: AMUC Box 34230 #19, 1200 37th St. S.W. Calgary, Alberta, CANADA T3C 3W2 By email Or you can email AMUC at: info@amuc.mtroyal.ab.ca Private communications should be sent to an individual's address at the AMUC Express site, if in doubt you can email the Chairman: amuc_chairman@amuc.mtroyal.ab.ca Orders: Orders for AMUC CDROMs can be placed by credit card to the address: orders@amuc.mtroyal.ab.ca By phone AMUC also has a 24 hour answering machine which you can call to get the current information on SIG and other Meeting locations. The number is: (403) 244-6990 Promotion Plans for Amijam'95 AMUC's plans to promote Amijam'95 include: Mail out to potential exhibitors and presenters (at the begining of April), Construction of this WWW site, Accouncements to the various USENET and FidoNet newsgroups and some mailing lists, Direct email to key people, Advertising with AMUC CDROM sales, Promotion at various other shows in the Calgary area, Advertising in an Amiga magazine (probably Amazing Computing), Advertising in The Computer Paper, Local (Calgary area) radio coverage. These are listed in approximate order of implementation. Features of Amijam'95 What's to see and do at Amijam'95 Seminars To entertain and teach both the neophyte and seasoned Amigan. Current list of seminars: Seminars and Workshops Below is a list of current seminar and workshop topics planned for Amijam'95. More seminars and workshops will be added as speakers confirm. Connecting to the Internet The Video Toaster Using Lightwave 3D Rendering Tricks, Tips and Techniques Linear and Non-Linear Video Editing MIDI Music Inside and Out Inexpensive Colour Desktop Publishing ARexx Programming (beginner and advanced) Writing Runtime C++ Class Libraries Developing Applications with MUI Do-It-Yourself Amiga Upgrading Presenters will receive a presentation fee or credit towards the cost of their booth space. It is our intent to assemble a CDROM for the show, containing seminar notes and freely-distributable supporting materials (graphics, sounds, fonts, programs, etc.). If you are interested in presenting a seminar or workshop at Amijam'95 (even if it is already listed here), please contact the Amijam organizing committee with your ideas and equipment requirements. Send email to: amijam@amuc.mtroyal.ab.ca The number of workshops we can present will depend on the availablity of equipment for the hands-on lab. In the past this was supplied by Commodore, but we will have to find other sources this time. If you can help here please contact us. Exhibit area A hall has been booked for a trade show exhibit area. Expect to see vendors, developers, rare Amiga hardware, the Amiga museum, the Project Multimedia Demo and a trading area for used hardware and software. Games area Multiplayer games for all Amigas and a focus on CD32 and A1200 gaming. Open panel sessions General Q&A on several topics with a panel of experts. Amiga solutions CDROM Enhance your visit to Amijam with a CDROM of tips, tricks and proceedings. The CDROM will feature the first issue of the Amiga solutions database. Personal networking registry If you will help others for free or a fee, register here and a book or disk will be available to all at the end of the show. Fixit booth Amiga hardware diagnosis and repair. Registering for Amijam'95 Amijam'95 Registration Form Please print this out, fill it in and send it to AMUC. A printable PostScript version of this form will be placed online soon. Company Address: Company Name: _________________________________________ Contact Name: _________________________________________ Title: ________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________ City: _________________________________________________ Province/State: _______________________________________ Postal Code: __________________________________________ Email: ________________________________________________ Fax: __________________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________________ We intend to exhibit: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ We Wish to Reserve: First choice booth numbers: ___________________________ Second choice numbers: ________________________________ Note the first 8 feet is $250.00, each additional 8 feet is $150.00. Do you require volunteers to help man your booth? _____ Executed by (please print): ______________________________________________ Signature: _______________________________________________________________ City: ____________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________________________________________________________________ Trade Show Floor Plan for Amijam'95 Trade Show Exhibit Room Eventually there will be a map of the floor space in the Symposium Room, the main Amijam'95 show exhibit room. Seminars, workshops and other activities will be held in other rooms we have booked in the SAIT Campus Centre. Major exhibitors will be placed in the corners to draw traffic and maximize flow, as has been done in past Amijams. AMUC can provide volunteers to help man your booth. Booth Pricing The first 8 feet is $250.00, additional 8 foot segments are $150.00 each. Reduction in booth pricing, in exchange for seminar and workshop presentations or for loan of equipment for use at the show, may be negotiated. Booking Booth space reservations are on a first come, first served basis. We have some space reserved for whoever wins the Amiga bidding war (as Commodore, GVP and NewTek have exhibited at previous Amijam shows). Refunds To receive a full refund, cancellation of an application for a booth must be received by AMUC no later than June 15, 1995. After this date no refunds will be issued. AMUC's Amiga Marketplace The next CDROM of public domain and freely redistributable software (and future ones too) that AMUC publishes will contain a database of companies, organizations and individuals in the Amiga Marketplace. So if you're a: Programmer Publisher Distributer Dealer Consultant Teacher Artist Musician Video pro User Alien life form and would like to be included in our database, let us know. What we'll need from you: Some contact information that others can use to reach you, such as: Name and address Phone number FAX number Email address What general category you want to be listed under, such as: User User Group Service (repairs) Support (consulting, training) Software producer Hardware producer Dealer Distributer Manufacturer (publisher) And what you would like to say about yourself or your company. Please avoid easily dated material. What's this going to cost? A single listing of 500 bytes or less is currently free. Multiple listings (up to 5) of up to a total of 20K bytes are free with either a purchase of the current AMUC CDROM set or a pre-order of the next AMUC CDROM. If you need more space please contact AMUC directly. How to submit listings: Send listings by email to AMUC either as ASCII text (for the 500 bytes free offer) or as UUencoded LHARC archives. Or you can put them on floppy disk and mail it to AMUC. Traveling to Amijam'95 Travel Arrangements North American Amijam'95 Delegates Canadian Airlines International and their regional partners have been selected as the official carrier for the Amijam'95 Convention. Canadian Airlines' Convention Air Reservation Office will guarantee you a minimum savings of 15% off the full economy fare when you travel with them to Amijam'95. Canadian delegates will be guaranteed a savings of 35% off the full economy fares within Canada. American delegates will be guaranteed a savings of 30% off the full economy fare. Two nights' minimum stay and 7 day advance purchase is required. Cancellation and rebooking penalties apply. Advance purchase fares offer even greater savings. Should you qualify, you will be offered the lowest available fare at time of booking (certain purchase requirements apply). Please Contact: Canadian Airlines' Convention Air Office toll-free at 1-800-665-5554 and advise them you will be attending the Amijam'95 Convention, July 15-16, 1995 in Calgary. Our file registration number is 2384. When making your registrations through your local travel agent, please ensure they register your booking with Canadian Airlines Convention Air Office. Canadian Airlines' regional partners include: Air Atlantic, Inter-Canadien, Canadian Partners, Calm Air, Canadian North and Time Air. Canadian Plus members continue to earn valuable mileage points with Canada's best frequent flyer program. Transporting Show and Exhibit Material If you need to transport trade show or exhibit material, Canadian Airlines offers 25% off regular Canadian air cargo tarrifs within Canada. Coordination of cargo shipments must be organized through a local Canadian Air Cargo Office, and the registration number 2384 must be quoted to obtain the discount. For more information Canadian Airlines (http://www.cdnair.ca) Cadvision's Travel Guide (http://www.cadvision.com/guide/travel/travel.html) A last word about AMUC AMUC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of Amiga Users and the promotion of the Amiga computer. @endnode @node NEWS11 "AC '95" @toc NEWS ========================================================================== The official Info Pack on the Amiga Convention '95 ========================================================================== [From its organizers...] Please feel free to spread this file around wherver you can, as long as it is not altered. We don't want people to show up at the wrong city or during the wrong month! WHY: We are putting on the Amiga Convention '95 (AC 95) to support our favorite computer, the Amiga! We feel that for too long, the Amiga has been ignored, and now that the Amiga is owned by people who actually will support it well, we want to help them out in any way we can. We also want to get a lot of people together to have a really cool time! WHERE: A College Cafeteria in Montreal, large enough to hold over 1,000 people, not including the surrounding rooms. WHEN : August 1995 ENTRANCE COST: 7 Canadian dollars COST FOR RENTING TABLES : $100 - 1 day, $150 - 2 days, for one table of 6' by 3' and chairs. ACCESABILITY: The show is easily accesable by bus and train, as well as having lots of parking space in the vicinity for cars. COMPETITIONS: Gfx (3d) -------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Music (mod 4 track) ----------------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Intro (64k max.) ---------------- 1st place : $500 2nd place : $300 3rd place : $200 Demo (2 megs) ------------- 1st place : $1000 2nd place : $600 3rd place : $300 * Special Award ceremonies to give out a special prizes for the persons that made some amazing thing with the Amiga Computers! (to encourage some developers that are doing crazy thing with the amiga!) Dealers/Devlopers on list already! ----------------------------------- We are currently talking to the AMIGA COMPANY, owned by Escom, to get them involved with the show. It will be announced in a later announcement whether they are coming or not. RCS Managements, Montreal(Canada) maker of X-Calbur, Fusion-Forty GfxBase Eletronic, Montreal(Canada) a local stores! Eletromike, Quebec(Canada) anohter stores! Wonder Computers Montreal(Canada) also have stores in Ottawa,Toronto! the biggest Canadian Amiga retailers! PreSpect Technics Montreal(Canada) importers/dealers and also devlopers! of hardware products! Amiga Link: The online Amiga magazine! * We will have Audio/visual equipment setup for presentations of demos, programs, hardware, new products, etc. If you want to buy a table, get more information on the show, or just talk to the organizers, e-mail or N.B. ---- This is just the first announcement of AC '95. There will be soon a second announcement in Amiga Link and Amiga Report magazines with the specific dates and giving more info. Keep an eye out for it! @endnode @node NEWS13 "PC-Task Conference" @toc NEWS Amiga Report will be sponsoring an IRC conference with Chris Hames, the author of PC-Task 3.1, and Justin Deeley of Quasar Distribution Sunday, May 28, 1995 at 10:30 PM CET/4:30 PM Eastern US time (Monday, May 29, 1995 at 7:30 AM for those in the Melbourne area) Tentatively, the conference will be on channel #pctask. However, if in doubt, join channel #amiga shortly before the conference time for information on last-minute changes. @endnode @node FEATURE1 "Escom Fax" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== ESCOM FAX: ESCOM ANSWERS QUESTIONS =========================================================================== In early May, Marv Birkinbine from Maxximum Video in Boise, Idaho (US) contacted Manfred Schmitt, president and majority owner of Escom AG. The transcript of the fax follows. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1: (Marvin Birkinbine) It has been said that you plan on making 64's, 600's, 1200's. Is this true? What about CD-32's, full-motion video module, etc.? (Manfred Schmidt) CD-32 production we will also start soon. Also we think to integrate CD-32 in a PC as well as in televisions. We will also cooperate with many suppliers like Motorola and Apple for new applications. The idea is to produce an Amiga PC board which fits into Intel machines, Apple Performa and Power PC. 2: (MB) (No, not THAT MB!) Will you be setting up a U.S. distributor? Will it be CEI? If not then who? (MS) Yes! Not yet decided! We talk with all. 3: (MB) Will you make monitors? What kind? Multisync? (MS) Yes, Amiga monitors. Specifications not yet decided. 4: (MB) Will you be fixing the 1200 & 4000 so they don't require 15KHz scan? (For better picture quality.) (MS) Yes, in next generation for 1996. 5: (MB) Will you consider national advertising in the U.S.? (MS) Yes, in cooperation with distributors and dealers. 6: (MB) Maxximum Video would be a great place to have those spots produced, and the cheapest!!!!!!!! [Ed. Note: Sorry for shameless commercialism.] (MS) O.K. 7: (MB) It is said that you are looking into a Power PC chip configuration. Have you considered the PA RISC? In the U.S. an 80MHz computer is where the competition is. The PA RISC at 125 MHz would be a step ahead and it is already reverse-engineered to emulate the Motorola. (MS) We are always looking for the most powerful machines. 8: (MB) Will you be looking at continued A2000 support? (MS) We talk with [obscured] to do it. 9: (MB) Will you be including hard drives with your systems? (MS) Optional. 10: (MB) What sort of development do you see ESCOM pursuing to advance the Amiga technology? (MS) We will work with new projects, when we have defined the R&D team. We will integrate the most successful engineers from the team. We will integrate the most successful engineers from the market. 11: (MB) Will you be setting up a U.S. engineering team? (MS) Yes. 12: (MB) Will you be contacting Newtek to arrange new support for the Amiga? (MS) We have to. 13: (MB) Will you be contacting H-P to produce chipsets or a joint agreement to license them to be a clone maker? (MS) Yes. 14: (MB) Where do you see Amiga and Commodore one year from now? Two years from now? Five years from now? (MS) We will be one of the most successful multimedia companies in the world. Commodore with Amiga will be a 1 billion US$ company within three years. 15: (MB) How long do you expect it will take to bring product to market in the U.S.? (MS) September 1995. 16: (MB) Will you sell directly in the U.S.? (MS) No, through distributors only. 17: (MB) How are you going to encourage software development in the U.S.? (MS) Please wait. We have some ideas. 18: (MB) What kinds of incentives will you be able to offer the dealer? (MS) Products, products ... 19: (MB) Will you be developing 16-bit audio for the Amiga? What about MIDI? (MS) Please wait. 20: (MB) Will you be correcting the dealer/distribution problem that Commodore made? (MS) I hope so. We will try our best. (MB) Well, that is about all I have for now. Sorry it is so boring but these are questions that a large number of my customers would like to know. [Ed. Note: and you know how boring WE are!] I will close for now and get this in the fax and send it to you. Thank you very much for taking the time to fax with me. And I hope to have a long and happy relationship with ESCOM. Please fax this back ASAP to Maxximum Video Creations Inc., 208-322-3091 in Boise, Idaho, U.S.A. As of 4-30-95 you can E-mail me at: Madmaxx@micron.net. Thank you again for your help and LONG LIVE COMMODORE/AMIGA/ESCOM!!! Very truly yours, Marvin Birkinbine 4-27-95 (MS) Please send your company profile. Best regards. Manfred Schmidt -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Courtesy of Marv Birkinbine Transcribed by Sam Johnson Madmaxx@micron.net unclesam@micron.net Editor AUSI Monitor Amiga Users of Southwest Idaho Usual disclaimers apply. @endnode @node FEATURE2 "Amigas In Education" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== ADVICE FOR ESCOM IN THE EDUCATIONAL MARKET By Lori and Ralph Vinciguerra =========================================================================== As the new owners of the Amiga technology, Escom AG, attempt to formulate a marketing plan they must consider one of the biggest market areas: education. Schools, universities, and home educators are just beginning to use computers to teach everything from literature and languages to math and science. Many educational institutions are trying to decide on which platform to purchase and what types of software are available. Many educators that we have spoken to believe that the Amiga is a very viable choice for schools. However, certain actions on the part of Escom will help inform the decision-makers that there is another choice besides PC or Mac. The suggestions which follow will help Escom foster the necessary confidence in the Amiga and its new owners. The first and most important action is to introduce the Amiga technology into schools by providing educational discounts. Loaner or free machines should be placed in schools to expose teachers and children to the Amiga. Apple has made huge inroads into the educational market because they have seen the importance of supporting the school systems. Also, children who use Amigas in school are more likely to purchase them for home use. Many schools and classrooms are starting to connect to the information highway. Leverage AmiTCP and AMosaic and produce an Amiga-based Internet-in-a-Box. Give it away FREE to schools who buy Amigas on an educational discount (check out IBM's OS/2 Warp which has internet tools bundled for an example). This will provide easy access to the Internet, connecting the user with endless Amiga resources and countless Amiga users. Along the same vein, start an Escom Amiga World Wide Web site (also gopher, mailserver, and FTP) which is both an AmiNet mirror and a source for new information, system specifications, support, Q&A, suggestions, and pointers to other Amiga resources. Get on the information superhighway! All of the other major players (Sun, Apple,SGI, HP, IBM) are out there. This will give educators an immediate contact point on the Internet and confidence in the Amiga. Direct market to home educators. A low cost, highly capable machine like the Amiga 1200 would be very effective if co-marketed with a handful of educational software packages and perhaps a magazine devoted to the topic. The Amiga Educator's List Newsletter is published quarterly and is a free resource for people with e-mail or Internet access. Vision impaired people who could benefit from the built in speech capability should be a very good market. Inform special education departments at schools and universities of the Amiga's strength in this area. Provide seminars for schools to learn how to integrate computers into their classroom. Not only would Escom benefit from the seminar fees, but the Amiga name would be remembered when the school goes to purchase machines. Advertise in magazines which target educators. There are large sections of family magazines, such as Family Life, Parents, Parenting, etc, dedicated to software. There are also trade magazines and catalogs designed specifically to sell computers and software to educators. Find out what these are and make sure that the Amiga is visible. An announcement for AC's Guide to the Amiga should be included with each new machine. Perhaps ESCOM and PiM Publications can negotiate shipping one issue of the Guide with each machine. This would provide the user with a list of a majority of the available software. It would also provide the publisher with a chance to advertise Amazing Computing. Since there is a whole section devoted to education, it would help inform teachers of the amount of available software. Make the Amiga easy to network. Many schools are networking machines from different classrooms together to avoid to management of large numbers of floppies. Apple has done an excellent job of providing networking support with the MacIntosh. The Amiga should at least come with simple networking software and the means to hook machines together. We hope that the representatives from Escom consider carefully each of these suggestions. The Amiga is now represented in at least 100 schools or school systems in the United States and Canada alone (see school list). Because it has been successful in these schools, we believe that the educational market is open to the acceptance of Amigas. Escom has the opportunity to enter this market at a critical time. We wish Escom good luck in their newly acquired business. -- Opportunity With Learning - Educational Software for the Future 460 Summer Ave. Reading, MA 01867-3819 Lori Vinciguerra - President Internet: owl@davinci.reading.MA.US @endnode @node FEATURE3 "Amigas in Education" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== AMIGAS IN EDUCATION By Lori Vinciguerra =========================================================================== The following is a list of schools with Amiga Labs. If there are more of you out there or if any of these no longer exists please let us know. We will attempt to maintain an updated list and publish it in the AEL newsletter on a regular basis. As you can see from the current list, we are interested in all levels of schooling, from K-12 to college. I have received many inputs for the list this month. I have also included the list from "Famous Amiga Uses" compiled by David Tiberio and available on Aminet. School Name Departments Alberni School District 70/Vancouver,BC Art, Media Arizona State University Education, Multimedia Atlanta College of Art/Georgia Graphics Ball State University/Indiana Video Information Banting Memorial High School/Ontario Video Toaster Bishop P.F. Reding Secondary School Video Bridgerland Literacy Program Reading California Institute of the Arts Animation, Video California State University at Fresno Media Cameron University Physics, Communications Carleton University/Ontario --- Centralia Community College TV production Charles Sturt University/Australia Image analysis, Art Colgate University Art & Art History College of St. Rose Physics, Math Capilano College/Vancouver Computer Graphics Costano School/ E. Palo Alto, CA --- Drake University/Iowa TV Emily Carr Inst. of Art & Design/Vancouver Film & Video Ferris State University/Michigan TV Fresno Community College/CA Video Information Graphic School/Belgrade, Yugoslavia Animation, Image processing Grossmont College Multimedia Institute for Biochemistry/ Austria --- Intermedia Arts/Minneapolis, Minnesota Animation, video Kent State Telecommunications Kentucky Educational Television Physics, Satelite TV Logan Middle School/Utah --- Logan High School/Utah Industrial Arts Loyalist College/Ontario TV Maarstricht University Hospital/Netherlands --- Marine Institute of Technology/Newfoundland Multimedia, Video Information Massachusetts College of Art Art Massasoit Community College/Brockton,MA Cable TV Middleton High School/Wisconsin Video Toasters Minneapolic Community College (MCC) Film & Video Modesto Junior College/California Art, Animation NY Institute of Technology Art, Animation Nicholson Catholic College/Ontario Media, Art N Adeleide School of Art Edu./Australia Art Ohio State University Art Olympia High School/WA Video Orange Coast College/Costa Mesa, CA Art, Multimedia Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine --- Reg. School #7/ Winsted, CT Math Remsen Central School/New York Word Processing Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Electronic Arts Rhode Island School of Design --- Saint Francis de Sales School for the Deaf/NY Media Sherwood Secondary School/Hamilton, ONT --- Southwest Research Institute/Texas --- Space Telescope Science Institute/Maryland Video information SUNY Albany Math SUNY Oswego Graphics SUNY Stony Brook TV Stephen Leacock Collegiate/Scarborough,ONT Multimedia, TV Studio Stevenson-Britannia School/Manitoba Elementary school Toronto K-12 School System Art, Wordprocessing Tulane University Video & Television Tulsa Junior College of Oklahoma Video University of Bergen, Norway --- University of California/Santa Barbara Video University of California/Santa Cruz --- University of Florida --- University of Georgia Fine Arts University of Maryland Film & Video University of Massachusetts/Lowell Computer Science University of Minnesota/Twin Cities Video University of North Texas Video Information, TV University of Oulu/Finland Chem.,Computing,Geophysics,Math University of South Florida Graphics University of Tampa Animation University of Toronto University of Utah Video University of Wisconsin Hospital Medical Research University of Wyoming TV Utah State University Instructional Tech, Vieo, TV Valencia Community College Physics Walton High School/Georgia --- Western Illinois University Broadcast, Weather Western State College/Colorado Art, TV Westford Academy (MA) Math -- Opportunity With Learning - Educational Software for the Future 460 Summer Ave. Reading, MA 01867-3819 Lori Vinciguerra - President Internet: owl@davinci.reading.MA.US @endnode @node FEATURE4 "Optimism Abounds at Video Toaster Expo '94" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== OPTIMISM ABOUNDS AT VIDEO TOASTER EXPO '94 Douglas J. Nakakihara djn@ix.netcom.com =========================================================================== NOTICE: This is the originally submitted text for an article that appeared in the March 6, 1995 issue (#134) of MICROTIMES magazine. (There are some slight edited differences between the published version and this one.) This article is freely-distributable as long as it remains unchanged and this notice and the copyright remain included. This article may not be re-published in any magazine, newsletter, or similar media, including those electronically distributed, without obtaining prior approval from the author. This provision does *not* apply to USENET or BBSs. Specific permission has been granted to Amiga Report. Copyright(C)1995 Douglas J. Nakakihara. The author can be reached thru Internet at djn@ix.netcom.com. MICROTIMES is published by BAM Media, Inc. 3470 Buskirk Ave. Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 (510)934-3700 MICROTIMES is available free at various distribution points (usually computer stores) throughout California. The Northern edition is over 300 pages, while the Southern edition is a little less than 200 pages. This is a multi-platform magazine, which includes Amiga coverage. About 200,000 copies are distributed each month. SUBSCRIPTIONS (13 issues): US: 4th Class $35 (allow 3-4 weeks for delivery), 1st Class $65 (allow 1-2 weeks for delivery). MEXICO & CANADA: Surface Mail $50 (allow 4 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $75 (allow 1 week for delivery). OVERSEAS: Surface Mail $50 (Allow 6-10 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $178 (Allow 1 week for delivery). SAMPLE ISSUES: $5 ($6 for overseas) to cover postage. BACK ISSUES: $6. Although, efforts have been made to ensure the above information is correct, there is no guarantee and prices are subject to change without prior notice. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Avid Media Group, publishers of "Video Toaster User" magazine, hosted the first Video Toaster Expo at the Universal City Hilton & Towers, December 14th and 15th. Held concurrently with a wide variety of Video Toaster and LightWave 3D training seminars, was an exhibit floor with over 50 third-party developers and other support companies. Over 3,000 people attended this mid-week show indicating a continued strong interest in the Amiga/Video Toaster platform. Famous Faces Expo attendees included many recognizable faces. Of course, VTU Editor-in-Chief Jim Plant and Managing Editor Doug Carey were present and very busy keeping things going. Other attendees I saw included John Gross and Taylor Kurasaki from Amblin Imaging, Tim Jennison, Donetta Colboch, Lee and Kathy Stranahan, Bob Anderson, Brad Carvey, Alan Hastings, Stuart Ferguson, and a crew of others from NewTek. A very special thanks and congratulations to VTU's Ann Pulley who was the major force in getting the show to come off as well as it did. (My apologies to the tons of others I am sure I missed or didn't recognize.) Jennison Speaks The day began with a keynote speaker address by NewTek President, Tim Jennison. He didn't offer any news about the future of the Amiga; however, Tim did have some interesting things to say about NewTek. Jennison indicated that the Flyer and LightWave are the company's future. Without being too specific, he indicated that the Flyer depends very little on the host machine (i.e., Amiga). Considering that LightWave is totally platform-independent, the conclusion is obvious. Apparently, NewTek is not as dependent on the Amiga as people might think. Flyer Finally Flies Demo Flyers supposedly started shipping in limited quantity to dealers in November. People who pre-paid to reserve a Flyer will be given the option of getting one with ".9" software. This is a pretty solid version, but not final. The final version will be a free upgrade and will supposedly ship by the time you read this. This will coincide with the 4.0 Toaster (and I'm assuming LightWave 3D) upgrade. NewTek is being very secretive about what hard drives will work. I've even heard that they may have to sell "Flyer approved" drives themselves. Apparently, hard drives differ in performance, even if they are the same model from the same manufacturer. So where's my Flyer review unit? Well, I posed that very question to NewTek marketing director Donetta Colboch. Apparently, the first batch of boards are going out to dealers and people who have actually paid for them. But, I am "on the list" and I should get one at some point. LightWave Q&A Also on the agenda for the day I attended was a "Q&A" session with LightWave programmers Alan Hastings and Stuart Ferguson. It's hard to believe that these two regular-looking guys single-handedly wrote the program that is revolutionizing computer graphics. The big news for the next version of LightWave is "plug-in technology." This allows any developer to tie external programs into LightWave as if they were part of LightWave itself. To make this feature as powerful as possible, they got input from developers already doing plug-ins for programs like PhotoShop and 3D Studio and found out what they liked and what would make things easier. Alan was very frank when he pointed out that the people doing these type of things would be able to take LightWave farther than he ever could. If there is good news in this cross-platform movement for Amiga users, it's that LightWave will remain totally compatible across platforms. If you make a scene file or object on an SGI, you can load and render them on your Amiga. Hastings and Ferguson use a single body of code as the basis for all of the versions, which should guarantee compatibility. Plug-ins unfortunately will apparently have to be platform specific. Fast Rendering Several developers showed Windows NT machines equipped with 275MHz DEC Alpha CPUs. Carrera Computers has one based on a DEC motherboard. Aspen and Flight Technologies also had DEC Alpha systems, based on Aspen motherboards. (If you are really daring, you can actually purchase an Aspen motherboard separately and piece together your own system. Personally, I think you'd be better off buying a configured system, considering price, hardware compatibiltiy headaches, and system support.) Prices hovered around $10,000, but that's for a complete system with 32 to 64MB of RAM and a 1GB hard drive. Currently, with respect to LightWave, all of these DEC Alpha-based computers are only being used as rendering engines for an Amiga running LightWave, via ScreamerNet. However, NewTek will soon be shipping a native Windows NT version of LightWave for the DEC Alpha chip, eliminating the need for an Amiga or ScreamerNet. The great thing about these speed demons is that they can function as regular PCs too! You can run 16-bit Windows programs as well as native DEC Alpha Windows NT programs. Not to be out done, DeskStation Technology announced the Raptor III. The big news about this machine is that the CPU is on a daughtercard (ala Amiga 4000) so it can be upgraded to MIPs, DEC Alpha, and PowerPC CPUs. This may minimize the fears of obsolesence; however, I have yet to see such a feature work in reality since so many other things change beside the CPU. Amiga in Motion VLab-Motion, distributed by NoahJi's, is a hot JPEG-based non- linear digital editing system for the Amiga. It has Y/C as well as composite inputs and outputs, plus an optional expansion module for digital component input/output. No TBC is required. The graphical interface allows you to create videos using cut-and-paste and drag-and- drop editing functions. Transitions are all rendered, but they were completed pretty quickly. There are also several "ADPro" like effects that can be applied to clips of video. The quality of the output is totally based on the capabilities of your Amiga. As such, a fast SCSI II interface with a very fast hard drive is highly recommended. The more data that you can pump through your machine, the better the output. 16-bit audio is provided by their Toccata sound board product and it supposedly will handle 256 layers of audio! New Amiga? NoahJi's announced plans to ship an AmigaOS-compatible workstation based on the Motorola 68060 called DraCo. Features include Fast SCSI II, dedicated 32-bit interfaces for Retina BLT and VLab Motion, five Zorro II slots, triple-speed CD-ROM, 4MB RAM expandable to 128MB. It will reportedly be compatible with all Amiga hardware and software that is not dependent on the Amiga custom chipset and capable of 2:1 JPEG! It should be available by mid-1995 and cost about the same as a comparably equipped A4000. Good Connections I was also quite impressed with Interworks' T-Net product. This is a distributive rendering software package that runs on the company's Ethernet-based peer-to-peer network, ENLAN-DFS. (It will also support ScreamerNet systems.) T-Net will administer rendering multiple LightWave 3D scenes among several machines. You can even identify specific frames to render. There are also provisions to adjust resolution, anti-aliasing level, raytracing options, etc. right from the interface. There is extensive real-time information about rendering activity and statistics. T-Net will even send messages to alpha-numeric pagers on rendering status and problems. It is highly configurable as to who it should page in different situations as well as back up pagers to notify. T-Net also features the ability to remotely control any of the nodes from a single Amiga. It was surprising quick, though not as fast as really being on the remote machine. Interworks was also showing their PCMCIA Ethernet adapter for the Amiga 600 and 1200. In fact, they had an A1200 as part of their demonstration T-Net rendering farm. Other Cool Stuff Alpha Paint from Innovision Technology has convinced me that you really can do nice stuff painting on a composite monitor. Using the Toaster framestore buffer for the video output, Alpha Paint provides 24-bit real-time paint tools with a powerful 12-bit alpha channel. The product's anti-aliasing, compositing, and auto-drop shadow abilities were very powerful based on the demonstration I saw. Silent Paw Productions was there touting their PAWS (Personal Amiga Workstation) kit that allows you to transplant the guts of a 1200, 3000, or 4000 to a portable computer case. The company showed a prototype housed in a clear plastic case and indicated that product will be available in April 1995. They estimate that a standard 2-hour battery will yield about 1.25 hours--remember, the Amiga was meant to be plugged into the wall and was designed to be energy efficient. ImageFX 2.0 was being shown at the Nova Design booth. This new release looks to be a major upgrade to an already powerful image processing program. One of the missing elements that has often kept me from using ImageFX was the lack of a good batch processing program. This may be a thing of the past with the included AutoFX batch processor. Some of the other new features are thumbnail images for previewing, unlimited buffers and brushes, new region controls, enhanced text handling, better compositing, more effects and image processing tools, new format support, and improved painting capabilities. A 3D digitizing system for LightWave called VertiSketch was being demonstrated by Blevins Enterprises. The Model I10, which I saw being demonstrated, has sort of a robotic-like arm with a pointer on the end. The device can triangulate the location of the tip of the pointer in 3D space. The points appear right in the LightWave Modeler display and the polygons are automatically built. It seems to be somewhat of a tedious chore, but compared to what it would take freehand, it is quicker and more accurate. All of the models being used had thread adhered to their surfaces forming a grid net. The pointer was then placed at intersecting lines on the grid. To draw an analogy from image digitizing, it reminded me of using the old three-pass DigiView setup, compared to today's video framegrabbers. If you've been looking for a multiscan monitor for your Amiga, look no further than CD Solutions' CD-1401. This 14-inch .28mm dot pitch monitor scans from 15KHz to 36KHz and can handle all of the normal Amiga modes, including Super72 and Productivity. (It does not have speakers or composite input, however.) The display is bright and crisp--it appeared to be a quality product. The company is currently working on a 20-inch version. It was very nice to see a company so excited about bringing their products to the Amiga market. Questar Productions was showing off their new terrain-modeling product World Construction Set. The main advantage of this package over existing packages, like VistaPro and Scenery Animator, is that it is not limited to a small geographic area. You can animate landscape "flybys" over the United States or even the entire planet with reasonable memory requirements. The terrain can also include things like streams, roads, grass, etc. The demo animation being run was very cool. If you are looking for a great TBC with a few extra features be sure to check out Feral's Feral Effect. This is a TBC/Synchronizer and Digital Video Effects device. It will work in concert with the Video Toaster and solve one of its biggest limitations: smooth image resizing. It's great for over-the-shoulder picture-in-picture shots. PreVue Technologies was there with their array of Amiga-video accessories, including the indispensable Sync Strainer. This device is the only way to get multiscan monitors to cooperate with a genlocked Amiga/Toaster system. If you are in need of a graphics and audio file catalog program, FOCUS GbR's graphicRECALL may fit the bill. It is basically a specialized front-end for Elastic Reality's ADPro and makes a browsable catalog of miniature versions of your images. The actual file can be viewed/played by simply double clicking on the miniature. The L.A. Video Toaster Users Group had a booth and also a mini theater, where they were showing some of its member's fine video work. There were many other exhibitors, including several retailers, and I wish I had the room to talk about them all. Suffice it to say there is still a lot of development and excitement for the Amiga/VideoToaster. Additionally, NewTek is very committed to continued support for the existing installed base. For a machine that is (temporarily) no longer in production, there is tremendous momentum here. This is good news for whomever picks up the Amiga technology, but they better hurry! Aspen Systems AVID Media Group Blevins Enterprises, Inc. (303) 431-4606 (408) 774-6770 (208) 885-3805 Carrera Computers, Inc. CD Solutions DeskStation Technology (714) 707-5051 (510) 820-5400 (913) 599-1900 Elastic Reality Flight Technologies, Inc. Feral (608) 273-6585 (816) 525-8359 (913) 831-1791 FOCUS GbR InnoVision Technology Interworks (212) 826-1240 (510) 638-0800 (909) 699-8120 L.A. VT User Group NewTek, Inc. NoahJi's (818) 552-5025 (800) 847-6111 (303) 499-1975 Nova Design PreVue Technologies Questar Productions (804) 282-5868 (800) 356-8863 (303) 659-4028 Silent Paw Productions (703) 330-7290 @endnode @node FEATURE5 "MacroSystem Development's WarpEngine" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== MACROSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT'S WARPENGINE: New Life for A3000s and Greater Speed for A4000s Douglas J. Nakakihara djn@ix.netcom.com =========================================================================== NOTICE: This is the originally submitted text for an article that appeared in the February 6, 1995 issue (#133) of MICROTIMES magazine. (There are some slight edited differences between the published version and this one.) This article is freely-distributable as long as it remains unchanged and this notice and the copyright remain included. This article may not be re-published in any magazine, newsletter, or similar media, including those electronically distributed, without obtaining prior approval from the author. This provision does *not* apply to USENET or BBSs. Specific permission has been granted to Amiga Report. Copyright(C)1995 Douglas J. Nakakihara. The author can be reached thru Internet at djn@ix.netcom.com. MICROTIMES is published by BAM Media, Inc. 3470 Buskirk Ave. Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 (510)934-3700 MICROTIMES is available free at various distribution points (usually computer stores) throughout California. The Northern edition is over 300 pages, while the Southern edition is a little less than 200 pages. This is a multi-platform magazine, which includes Amiga coverage. About 200,000 copies are distributed each month. SUBSCRIPTIONS (13 issues): US: 4th Class $35 (allow 3-4 weeks for delivery), 1st Class $65 (allow 1-2 weeks for delivery). MEXICO & CANADA: Surface Mail $50 (allow 4 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $75 (allow 1 week for delivery). OVERSEAS: Surface Mail $50 (Allow 6-10 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $178 (Allow 1 week for delivery). SAMPLE ISSUES: $5 ($6 for overseas) to cover postage. BACK ISSUES: $6. Although, efforts have been made to ensure the above information is correct, there is no guarantee and prices are subject to change without prior notice. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- MacroSystem Development is shipping accelerator boards in various configurations for both the Amiga 4000 and 3000, with built-in SCSI-2 Fast DMA controllers. The high-end versions sport 40MHz `040 CPUs, while the low-end model for the A4000 allows you to transplant your existing 25MHz `040 chip and RAM to the WarpEngine for up to a 100- percent speed increase. (Note: There is no CPU-less version for the A3000.) A4000 WarpEngines can hold up to 128MB of RAM (using 32MB SIMMs) while the A3000 versions top out at 64MB. Because the SCSI controller is mounted directly on the board, you don't have to worry about any Buster chip problems or incompatibilities like you do with Zorro III expansion card alternatives. This is besides the fact that it doesn't occupy a Zorro slot and is much faster than any expansion-bus card. Warping An A4000 The A4000 installation instructions are very good and I had the accelerator portion of the WarpEngine up and running in about one-half hour. The hardest part of the installation was removing the plastic faceplate from the case. Commodore did a nice job with the drive subassemblies (much better than on the 3000), but the faceplate is held by several snaps which are difficult to undo without breaking them. (Make sure you take the appropriate anti-static precautions when working inside your machine.) A nice thing about the A4000 WarpEngine setup is you can add RAM and change jumpers after the board is installed. To test the board I got a 32MB SIMM from H. Co. Computer Products. (incidentally, Lawrence Burkey at the company was exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable in finding the chip I needed for the WarpEngine.) The WarpEngine is optimized for 60ns RAM, although you can use 70, 80ns chips, or even move existing motherboard RAM, with a decline in performance. There are four SIMM sockets which can hold a mixture of 4, 8, 16, or 32MB SIMMs. (Note: Ignore the instruction to rotate the SIMM "towards you." You do, in fact, have to rotate it away from you.) The manual has a great suggestion to move the A4000's IDE drive to the unused space just below the floppy drive. This allowed me to put a half-height 3.5-inch 1GB drive in it's place. (Normally there is only enough room to add a low-profile (1-inch high) 3.5-inch drive in that spot.) This left the 5.25-inch drive bay open for future use. You should definitely follow the manual's advice to place the four plastic standoffs in the motherboard first, when installing the WarpEngine. I also found it helps to pinch the tips of the standoffs with a pair of pliers to make it easier to snap the board in place. A3000 Acceleration Aside for the lack of the AGA chipset, I often prefer to use my A3000 over my A4000. I give up a lot of speed, but I like the deinterlaced display and the on-board SCSI controller. Well, with MacroSystem Development's 40MHz `040-based WarpEngine for the A3000, I no longer have to give up speed. Kick Me Installing the A3000 version is a little more complex. First off, an `040 will not run in an Amiga without Kickstart ROMs. My early Amiga 3000 (circa June 1990) shipped with Kickstart stored as a file on the hard disk. As a result, I first had to install ROMs--I used 3.1 ROMs available from MacroSystem Development. The procedure is a little tricky because the existing ROMs are mounted upside down on a small daughtercard (sometimes called the "ROM Tower") that plugs into the motherboard. You have to remove this, replace the ROMs with the new ones, and plug it back in. You might have to cut through some white plastic straps too. It helps to mark the orientation of the daughtercard and ROMs with a black marker before you remove them. Total Dismantling Although the 3000's design requires you to totally dismantle the machine, it worked perfectly the first time and I was able to update all of the system files without incident. (If you are upgrading from 2.x AmigaDOS, delete all of the files in the ENVARC:sys directory. Version 3.1 apparently uses different file formats for the system preferences and it won't automatically convert them. You'll then have to reboot and reconfigure all of your system preferences, like fonts, Workbench screenmode, etc.) Warping An A3000 The WarpEngine installation instructions come in the form of a three-page addendum. The same SIMM rotation mistake as in the 4000 installation also appears here. The instructions don't say you need to, but you could anchor the WarpEngine with screws using the metal standoffs on either side of the CPU connector already on the 3000's motherboard. (At least mine had them.) Be careful though, I tightened a screw too much and broke off one metal standoff. There are a couple jumpers on the A3000 motherboard that need to be changed and a jumper clip must be placed on a pin on a CIA chip. The instructions are a little presumptuous in that you will know where pin 21 is, so for those of you that may not know (like I didn't), here's how you figure it out. The chip will have a round dimple on one end. The pin immediately to the left is pin one. Continuing counter- clockwise around the chip, you count up to 21. If you are standing in front of the case looking in, the pin is in the top-right-hand corner. The A3000 WarpEngine is basically identical to the A4000; however, as mentioned before, the maximum amount of RAM for the A3000 version is 64MB. As such, there are only two SIMM sockets, where there are four on the A4000 board. No Room To Spare There is not much room in the A3000, so make sure the WarpEngine is plugged in all the way and does not get dislodged when you re- install the drive cage. On my 3000, the floppy drive was in the right drive bay and a 1GB hard drive was in the left. The original 40MB drive was in the rear bay. I found that the floppy drive mounting bracket would press against the fan mounted on top of the `040 chip. My solution was to move the floppy to the left bay (the original factory location), remove the 40MB drive, and move the 1GB drive to the rear bay. Obviously, before doing this I had to copy all of the files from the 40MB and set up a new boot partition. The easiest way to do this is to boot up with a Workbench floppy disk and then move all of the files. You may want to drill new holes in the A3000's rear hard disk mounting plate so the hard drive can be mounted with its connectors facing forward. (Note: you'll only be able to use two screws.) This makes it easier for the SCSI ribbon cable to reach everything. Also, the WarpEngine butts right up against the socket for the A3000's expansion slot daughterboard. As such, I found it necessary to trim the bottom of the plastic insulation card that fits behind the daughterboard. Once put back together, the WarpEngine is totally hidden by the drive cage. Adding more RAM or changing jumpers requires totally disassembly again. So make sure the thing works before you piece it all together! The Art of SCSI The WarpEngine worked great with my Toshiba and Micropolis hard drives, Exabyte tape drive, and 44MB Syquest. However, I could not get it to work with my NEC double-speed CD-ROM, and my Sony DAT drive would only work if it was turned off when booting up. I believe I could have overcome the CD-ROM problem, if I had configured it properly; however, I don't have the documentation for it. Some compatibility problems can be solved by changing the SCSI jumper settings on the WarpEngine. For example, I found I needed to use a slower setting to get my older Toshiba drive to work reliably. I also found it necessary to place a shunt on jumper JP1, so that SCSI termination was powered by the bus. An internal SCSI ribbon cable is provided with the board, but if you have external devices, you'll have to purchase an external connector. The external connector is the 50-pin SCSI-2 variety and attaches to the end of the internal ribbon. On the A4000 you mount the connector using the hole on the back of the 4000 marked "Expansion." For the 3000, you'll want the connector mounted on a backplane to fit in the expansion slot area. You also need a SCSI-2-to-50-pin-Centronics cable to connect to an external SCSI device. The WarpEngine installation disk comes with a nice utility called SCSITools and a special WarpEngine HDToolBox icon that runs the AmigaDOS HDToolBox program so that it will recognize the WarpEngine SCSI device. These programs are used for initializing and partitioning hard drives. Speed I used the "Diner-West" scene from Brad Schenck's Diner LightWave Objects Set (Terra Nova Development) to test the WarpEngine's performance. The scene includes a lot of reflective elements so it requires a lot of calculation. Resolution was set to medium with overscan. A3000 A4000 `040-40 WarpEngine* No AA 10m24s 4m31s 1m34s Low AA 35m55s 15m19s 5m22s Med. AA 54m41s 24m17s 8m39s Raytracing on: No AA 4h30m16s 1h10m33s 35m40s Low AA 22h03m59s 5h51m39s 2h55m52s Med. AA not performed 10h05m40s 5h04m37s AA=Antialiasing, h=hours, m=minutes, s=seconds A3000 and A4000 WarpEngine performance identical. The A4000 WarpEngine performed two to three times faster than a stock A4000, while the A3000 version gives a stock 3000 nearly eight times the performance! Aside from rendering time benefits, your overall system will be snappier. Directories will load quicker, icons will pop up faster, screens will display faster, etc. The WarpEngine can reportedly handle SCSI transfer rates of up to ten MB/sec. MacroSystem Development tells me they've been able to get 9MB/sec burst and 6MB/sec sustained with a Barracuda hard drive. My fastest drive was not up to that spec, but it was pushing four MB/sec sustained. According to the company, to maximize hard disk performance you can optionally set the partition block size to 4096 from the default 512. This must be done at the time you set up a partition, however. I tried this and experienced an unexpected substantial reduction in usable storage space. So if you have a lot of breathing room on your hard drive and want top speed, this may be the way to go, otherwise, stick with the default. Compatibility As far as I could tell, of the few compatibility problems I encountered, they were all related to upgrading to AmigaDOS 3.1 on my 3000. In particular, AmigaDOS 3.1 does not like some of the old, but useful, ARP commands. The WarpEngine worked just fine with all of the software I tried, as well as my VideoToaster, Retina Z2, VLab, and Perisound boards. Trade-in Policy If you've already invested in an accelerator, Zorro III memory, or Zorro III SCSI board, MacroSystem Development has a very liberal competitive trade-in policy. The following will get you an `040 WarpEngine: $600 + GVP G-Force `040, $500 + Progressive `040-28, or $950 + Fastlane, 4091 SCSI, DKB 3128, RCS X-Calibur, or 3640 (this is the A4000-040 CPU board). Coming Soon Any of the WarpEngines can be upgraded to a 40MHz `040. The WarpEngine will also be upgradable to the `060 (when it becomes available), probably in the form of a plug-in CPU module. Soon to be released is a 50MHz card for the Amiga 3000, called the ImpulsEngine, that will double the speed of a 3000 and add up to 64MB of additional RAM. The board is expected to sell, sans RAM, for under $500. Conclusion Breathe new life into your aging Amiga 3000 or put some added spunk into your Amiga 4000. Better hard disk performance, greater computing power, straight-forward installation, and solid design--you just can't go wrong with MacroSystem Development's WarpEngine. WarpEngine for the A3000: 28MHz $1150, 33MHz $1295, 40MHz $1495 WarpEngine for the A4000: 28MHz $899 (no CPU), 33MHz $1295, 40MHz $1495 SCSI-2 external connector, $49, $79 with cable MacroSystem Development, Inc. 24282 Lynwood, Suite 201 Novi, MI 48374 (810) 347-3332 H. Co. Computer Products 16812 Hale Avenue Irvine, CA 92714 (800)RAM-CHPS extension 122 @endnode @node FEATURE6 "The Amiga and Creation" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== THE AMIGA AND CREATION Steven Judd sjudd@merle.acns.nwu.edu =========================================================================== Several schools of thought on this subject have developed over the years. Much progress has been made in this area more recently, and unanswered questions remain, but an analysis of the subject is a currently maturing field of study; I shall attempt to cover the salient points of current analytical thought. Let us begin with a typical human example: - System Operation: o Multitasking OS -- Most humans have the ability to pat their head and rub their stomach simultaneously(1). Furthermore, the average human is able to multitask preemptively, as is clearly demonstrated by the fact that patting your head and rubbing your stomach causes little degradation in higher priority system tasks such as eyesight, breathing, hopping on one foot while turning in a circle, and singing "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" by The Beatles. I have personally performed this experiment, and it is easily reproducable. o Custom processors for different subsystems -- the mere act of watching shows like "Knight Rider"(2) while eating potato chips demonstrates the allocation of independent resources to such tasks as visual, audio, I/O, etc. o Limited protection: Local failures may be contained, and sometimes fixed, but illegal accesses/modifications can bring the entire system to a halt. o Auto-configuring. Put a pencil or a fork in your hands: the typical human automatically senses the hardware expansion, and uses it accordingly. Note that some hardware may be incompatible with individual systems, such as chopsticks(3), gender- specific items(4), etc. - Hardware features: o Built-in stereo sound o Standard speech capability o Easily expandable via hardware and software add-ons/upgrades. o Although individual upgrades are made, the same basic model has been used for thousands of years. o Commodore logo stamped on each unit (take a close look at your belly button sometime) So by circumstantial deduction it is pretty clear that God uses/used an Amiga for all His works. But there is evidence elsewhere as well; first, an affirmation of the binary number system: "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." Matthew 3:37 (KJB) Note also that the entire Amiga history closely parallels the various narratives on the life of Jesus, the most striking resemblance being the Amiga's death to the passion narratives. Think about it: here we have something that was far ahead of its time, at first welcomed with praise but later killed by those who originally embraced it, but even with the physical entity of Commodore destroyed the spirit is alive and well, and obvious examples of the Amiga and it's spirit are there for anyone with eyes to see. So it is immediately clear that God used/uses an Amiga for all of His various works and activities. What is not clear, and is currently the subject of much scholarly debate, is what particular kind of Amiga He uses (5) (6) (7). Now, there is further evidence of what other computers were used for what things. First, take the story of Adam and Eve. Presented with paradise, they instead embraced temptation and suffered greatly for it, and causing all subsequent generations to also suffer. And what were they tempted with? An Apple. And who tempted them with it? Understanding comes, slowly but surely. We also have the following text: Matt 16:18 "... and upon this rock I will build by church; and the Gates of hell shall not prevail against it." There is extensive literature devoted to this subject, so I will not go into it here (8). Oh yes, one more thing is clear: when God programmed the universe, He used FORTRAN (9) (10). AMIGA: God used it to create the universe: and you just thought the "Kaliedescope" demo was cool. AMIGA: The Computer For The Creative Mind; The Computer For The Creator's Mind. AMIGA: Do you want to go to Hell or do you want to use an Amiga? (Note to imaginary ESCOM people reading this message: if you want to use the above slogans, please contact me). References: (1) Weasel, Vole, et.al., "Stability Criteria for Head Patting and Tummy Rubbing", Journal of Pointless Timewasting, vol. 9 (2) Callipygian, "Michael Knight: Modern Shakespearian Metaphor", and "KITT: The New Automotive Voyeurism", unpublished. (3) Smith, et.al., "Chopsticks: Who The Hell Invented These Crazy Things?", What The Hell Is Up With This, vol. 13 Issue 5 (4) Smith, et.al., "Why The Hell Don't Men Get To Wear Bras Even Though They Have Nipples?", What The Hell Is Up With This, vol. 13, Issue 7. (5) Smegma, H.M.S., "God Uses An A1000", proceedings of comp.sys. amiga.advocacy, vol. 912 (6) Pluvial, "No he doesn't you stupid twink, He uses a 5000 with AAA", proceedings of comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, vol 3912 (7) Beelzebub, "Is Creator 1.1 available for the Mac?", proceedings of comp.sys.amiga.misc, vol. 216 (8) various, "Extensive Literature Devoted To The Subject Of Non-Amiga Computers And Their Banishing From Heaven So That I Don't Have To Go Into It Here", compiled by sjudd@nwu.edu. (9) Unknown, "FORTRAN: God's language", Apocrypha. (10) Compilation, "Emacs vs. vi -- What does God use?", OSF document No. 31415A-1 @endnode @node FEATURE7 "The State of the Amiga" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== THE STATE OF THE AMIGA Dr. Peter Kittel peterk@combo.adsp.sub.org =========================================================================== Mr. Schmitt, Boss of Escom, has authorized me to publish the state of affairs. Most important item first: I have my job, and it's the of the world-wide boss of engineering. Yes, I know, I start into a very difficult task, as successor of real celebrities. OTOH I had eleven years time at Commodore to study what is the wrong strategy and which leads to success. I will spend all effort to avoid these known errors. And now for the big picture: There will be founded a new, completely selfstanding daughter company of Escom AG. It will have own rooms at an own address in Heppenheim. It will be the headquarter of the new company, with control and coordination for the whole world. One subsidiary will exist in any case in the Netherlands, and it will do Europe-wide distribution and sales. Further country subsidiaries are not impossible. Yet there are no concrete decisions about UK, USA, and Canada in particular. The new company is yet to be founded, but this is currently in the works with great effort. The name is not yet decided, it will probably be something like "Commodore-Amiga" or "Amiga-Commodore" or the like. This company will (at least for the time coming) care exclusively for the Amiga model palette. As can be inferred from the first paragraph, there will be an engineering department, for hardware and OS software. For this there exist already promising contacts with well-known and well-reputated names. Yet there's no problem if someone feels obliged to send his resume (no email or fax, please) to Escom AG Personalabteilung Tiergartenstr. 9 D-64646 Heppenheim Germany You see, we consider ourselves an international company. Of course we only want the best ones :-). Further there will be a Support department which will do world-wide coordination, but also covers the german area. Thus most of these people should be german-speaking. The Amiga Developer Support Programm ADSP will get reactivated ASAP. About those developers currently using BIX or CIX, we have not yet decided. These people should feel free to contact me directly at this private account (no company one *yet* existing) and giving some input. In the past years there was a split among the developer community into different communication channels. Thus no direct communication of the developers among each other was possible, and for engineering this meant double work to explain the same issues once on one net and then additionally on another net. We will do everything to avoid this nonsense in future. There are big obstacles, as there are big cost differences in different regions of the earth, and simultaneously a high degree of confidentiality has to be maintained. - Enduser support will happen mostly in electronic form, via mailbox, Internet, and probably also Btx. Of course there will be also a Marketing department and what is needed in admin. All together this will be a rather slim company of ca. 50 people at first, but a further expansion is of course not impossible. It is planned to restart production of the last current model palette, probably in full scale, but no guarantee yet for this. Also of course not all models will appear at the same time again, one after the other. As Escom has an own poweful casing production, they will perhaps get a redesign of their styling, in any case for the A4000, but the hardware under the hood remains unchanged at first. First diverse contributing factories on earth have to revive their production of parts. New developments would mean additional months of waiting, before you could buy the products. That would be too big a sacrifice. The direction of the new engineering department will definitely be the port to some RISC platform. The choice of this RISC is still open. There are ecstatic advocats for at least two alternatives, PPC and HP PA RISC. Chris Ludwig gave an interesting interview about this. It will be the first task of engineering to prepare this choice of paths into the future with all possible expertise. It has been decided to be very liberal in regards of licensing in the future. So, whoever wants to build e.g. an Amiga Laptop or a set-top box, can get chips and OS! As you all see, much of this is still a letter of intent. The points which are declared as still open are *really* open, so there's no use in bombarding me with further questions. As my work load, at least now in the building phase, will be immense, I can't guarantee my presence on the net like before. But who knows me, knows that that would be most painful for me myself. So let's look forward. In the next weeks there will be press conferences to tell more and more details. Long live the Amiga and for a good cooperation. @endnode @node FEATURE8 "Dr. Peter Kittel - Autobiography" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== DR. PETER KITTEL - AUTOBIOGRAPHY =========================================================================== Dear Amiga community, following some friendly request, I try to introduce myself and show some of my background. Most people already will know much about me from my years of Usenet participation, but here comes a summary. I was born in 1951. I grew up, went to school and university in northern Germany. The university was Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, and I studied Physics starting in 1969 and finishing my doctorate in late 1983. My thesis was in solid state physics, optical properties of silver, investigation of reflection spectrum in high magnetical fields under polarization modulation and at Helium temperatures. Already as a schoolboy I got into contact with electronics, tinkering with simple detector radios and later transistor amplifiers. Computers were no issue in these 60's. Electronics became more professional at university where I did many parts of my experiments myself with the soldering iron. Ca. midway during study I first encountered computers, at first in 1970 on a Philips Electrologica X1, a "small" computer (needed only two rooms) with ca. 7 KB of storage and an Algol 60 compiler as standard environment. Later I changed to the uni's ICL mainframe, also under Algol 60. Other programming languages I learnt were Fortran IV, Dartmoor Basic, and PL/I. In 1978 I had my first encounter with the Commodore PET 2001, and it was love at first sight. On the 8 K version I did my own text system, which grew by time, and which I still sometimes use for special purposes, ported to the PC as well as the Amiga (in Basic). For the PET I also built interfaces, e.g. one to use an analogue X-Y-recorder as a digital plotter via D/A converters interfaced to the User Port of the PET, or another one to use a teletype as a printer, as needle printers were too expensive in those days. In 1982 I bought my own PET, a CBM 4032 plus floppy CBM 4040. The 4032 was the "fat" version, so I immediately upgraded it to 80 columns, or a CBM 8032. On this, I did my own text processing for my thesis, the printer was a ball typewriter, the interface again self-made to the User Port. As the typewriter was an electrical one, not electronic, the interface consisted also of one solenoid per typewriter key to press it down mechanically. It was very loud and not very reliable, but it allowed to change the print ball for mathematical symbols or normal letters. My text system of course supported this change in a very sophisticated way. With this 1 MHz computer I did also all the numbercrunching for my experiments, as our uni computer centre in those years was barely useable, with days of waiting for a single job get done. I wrote a little compiler to get a programming language similar to those of contemporary hand-held programmable calculators like the HP 25, and got involved deeply with floating point numerics, as I had to write my own square root routine, because this was the routine my calculations spent 80 % of their time in. In these uni years I got into first contacts with Commodore, which at that time had a new manufacturing facility including an engineering department in Braunschweig. When I was ready with my doctorate, I tried to get a job in Commodore engineering in their Braunschweig facility, but a colleague from the neighbour institute was some days faster. But they said they needed people in the Frankfurt german headquarter of Commodore, so I got there. In February 1984 I started in Frankfurt as member of the Support department, responsible for peripherals support, that was at that time external floppies and harddrives (3 Megabytes!), printers, plotters, graphics tablets, graphics cards for the CBMs, etc. Commodore Support at that time was devided in two sections: "PC" and "Systems". Yes, "PC" was for the *home* computers VC 20 and C64! And "Systems" was for those Big PETs, or CBMs. I always was in the Systems part of Support. Later, in 1985, I was for a short time leader of the PCompatible part of Support, as Commodore Braunschweig had developed nice compatible computers, which immediately got big market share in Germany, directly rivaling with IBM for place one for the coming years. But shortly later my talent for writing and german orthography became obvious and my main responsibility changed to documentation, i.e. german user manuals, for all computers we shipped. In mid 1985 we saw the first videos of the Amiga. It was so astounding! In March 1986 it was introduced officially in Germany. We tried to copy the marvelous show at Lincoln Center, NYC, of July 1985, in our Old Opera in Frankfurt, but did not really get it as nicely. Soon I began programming on it, mostly in AmigaBasic, but later also in C when it had to be faster or get distributed to others. The following years were filled with many .More.. Amiga and some PC manuals, many fairs like the yearly CeBIT in Hannover and other big fairs in Germany, many support calls from end users or companies, much support for other departments at Commodore, e.g. Legals in cases of Copyright infringements by cloning the 1541 OS, etc. etc. In the late 80's I began to use data communications to look into BBSes and Usenet from the company. When I got access to the comp.sys.amiga newsgroups, I knew that was for me. I read them eagerly each day as the first each morning, looking for nice info from our US people or interesting announcements of 3rd parties. What was not so nice were Amiga bashings by several people, PC or Mac advocats, where I stepped in and defended the Amiga against false accusations and other bashings. This way I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world, most of them very nice and some rather annoying. In the last years, beginning in 1993, the decline of Commodore began with permanent layoffs. So eventually our developer support colleague was gone and I had to take over. And in spring 1994, before we had our last, very successful CeBIT show, the last colleagues of Support left, including the boss, so I remained as the last supporter in Germany, being my own boss. In September 1994, the german company had to file for Konkurs (liquidation), and a Konkursverwalter (Liquidator) became the new boss. He layed us all off, but due to german laws and my long employment at Commodore, this got only valid at end of January 1995 for me. The last months were depressing, .More.. they consisted of cleaning up, throwing away much which was connected with so many memories, and preserving some data and papers that could become valid for a potential new start. In February 1995, I got unemployed and connected my Amiga which I had bought from Commodore to the net from my home, where I eagerly watched all news about the buyout of Commodore. My problem was that my news connection was rather weak, several postings were already two weeks old until they finally made it to my site. But then I read about the auction at 20th and 21st of April. And voila, on Saturday morning, the 22nd, I found in my email the Auction Report by Amiga Report, and it clearly said that Escom, a company not far from Frankfurt, had won. I instantly typed my resume and on Monday morning drove to Heppenheim and handed it in. Several days later they called back and shortly after that hired me. Best Regards, Dr. Peter Kittel // @endnode @node FEATURE9 "Amiga Magazine Survey" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== AMIGA MAGAZINE SURVEY Sergio Ruocco ruocco@dsi.unimi.it =========================================================================== In conjunction with Amiga Report Magazine, Sergio Ruocco is compiling a list of all of the Amiga magazines in the world. We are most interested in the print magazines, but if there is an online magazine you feel should be included, let us know. The idea is to have a database of worldwide support. We do NOT need listings of the magazines from the following countries: (it's easy enough to get on our own) United Kingdom Germany United States On the same token, we do not need information on the following online magazines: Guida Amiga Link Dark Unicorn Dispatch Amiga Report (well, this was sort of obvious, but...) Any others are fair game. What we're looking for is the following information: 1. Full name of the magazine 2. The publisher 3. The full address, and phone and fax numbers. 4. E-mail contact, if applicable. 5. Number of issues per year 6. Number of issues to date and the date of the premier issue 7. # of pages in a recent issue 8. Focus (games, applications, general...?) 9. Overall impression of quality in relation to other magazines (optional, but helpful) Please mail your information either to Sergio Ruocco as ruocco@dsi.unimi.it, or to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}. Thanks for the help! @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Review: Envoy 2.0" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Miscellany from the Envoy 2.0 Review =========================================================================== The Envoy 2.0 review from AR 3.08 left a few open ends and unclarified remarks. Here's a bit of cleanup. Envoy does not use TCP/IP packets, it only utilizes IP. Envoy 2.0 IS the property of IAM and was developed by IAM. Earlier versions of Envoy are licensed out to other companies, but only IAM and IAM distributors have Envoy 2.0. NetProbe, the Envoy diagnostic tool, now ships on-disk with Envoy 2.0. @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Emulation Rambler" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== EMULATION RAMBLER @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Time to do a bit of cleaning up in the world of emulation, it seems. At the top of the list is ShapeShifter, the new, shareware, software-only, color, multitasking Macintosh emulation. Aside from demanding a lot of adjectives to describe it, SS delivers an Emplant Mac-sized payload for a registration fee that's somewhere in the US$40 range. A full review is forthcoming. ShapeShifter has come under fire by Jim Drew of Utilities Unlimited (makers of the Emplant) as being partially generated from copyrighted Emplant Mac code, in addition to code from A-Max IV and Apple. Christian Bauer, the author of ShapeShifter, denies the allegations. Opinion on the issue is divided, and despite threatened legal action from Drew, none has been taken yet. ShapeShifter is available on any Aminet site, in misc/emu. And, for a refreshing change from the dog-eat-dog of Mac and PC emulation, comes a different sort of emulator... fMSX Amiga 0.4 by Marat Fayzullin, ported to the Amiga by Hans Guijt -------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone has their own reasons for using emulators. Some need the compatibility for business purposes. Some just like screwing around with software that would otherwise take up desk space for a separate computer. And then there are programs such as the Spectrum emulators and fMSX, that make machines that didn't quite have worldwide markets widely usable. The MSX machines were based on a standard that essentially required that the MSX (MicroSoft, get it?) operating system be able to run. The technology was made into machines by a number of companies, and apparently did fairly well in Japan. (The vast majority of the available software points to a Japanese market) I, for one, do not think I'll lay eyes on too many MSX machines in my days, but I know I'll always have one laying around in this form. The MSX OS has a copyright date of 1983 (so you'd better hope MicroSoft doesn't beat down your door for it), and while I don't have the machine's specs handy, it seems to have pixel resolution similar to the Spectrum, but with a greater availability of colors (16, I believe.) To run, the software requires an 020+ and OS 3.0 or above, although the author is open to consideration of support for 2.04 and above (but 68000 is out of the question, for speed reasons) The MSX supported cartridges and disks, but fMSX Amiga does not currently support disks, so cartridge images are about all that's available to you. Furthermore, only the smaller (16 and 32k) images can be used by fMSX Amiga right now-the larger MegaROMs are not supported by this version. So, why bother? Well, there are an awful lot of games available. Certainly nothing of epic proportions, but sometimes it's nice to just kick back and play a round of Konami Ping-Pong and take one's mind off of the "AAA vs. 3DRISC" question. The system is multitasking, so you can leave Ping-Pong running in case you're hit with a stress panic over AAA vs. 3DRISC after a grueling session on Usenet or IRC. This has happened to me more than once. What sort of speed do you get? Well...the author of the Amiga version claims that his 030/25 machine is just short of 100%. Based on my experiences on an 040/25 machine, I'm not so sure-then again, I've never seen a real MSX machine. I know that by playing with the included timing settings (only two sliders that can be changed while running the emulator), very nice speeds can be achieved on an 040/25. On the 030, well, I'd rather use the 040, but it is tolerable to a point. Promised for future support are MSX disks and the MSX2 specification, which I presume includes MegaROMs. I've always admitted it-I'm someone that enjoys using emulators, so fMSX is a goldmine for me. For others, who need a good reason to use them, I point to the dozens (if not hundreds) of games readily available for diversion. Some 8-bit classics are even available, including Loderunner, Raid on Bungling Bay, Pastfinder, and Thexder. It's worth a look. fMSX Amiga is available on any Aminet site, misc/emu. ROM images can be obtained via the Web at- http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/fms (Fayzullin's homepage) @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Review: QuickText 2.0" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: QUICKTEXT 2.0 BY TAHOE SOFTWARE, ETC. @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== In a "Who's Who in Amiga Products" list, you probably wouldn't find Todd Sprague and Tahoe Software recognized among the ranks of Dave Haynie of Scala and Tim Jenison of Newtek. But keep in mind that Tahoe's QuickText was only released a few months ago. QuickText 2.0, so the manual tells us, evolved out of a fairly straightforward, no-frills video text scroller program written 6 years ago for a high school TV news program. It has evolved into a presentation system in its own right-albeit one a bit rough around the edges. The working environment of QuickText revolves around layers of "screens", on which you can place IFF pictures in up to HAM6 (The author tells me HAM8 support has been added, but it's not in my version) as backgrounds, add text, change colors, etc. A background animation can be substituted for the picture. Text handling exploits all of the features of the standard Amiga font system (bold, italic, shadow, etc), but does not extend to specialized proprietary fonts. Each text block is catalogued for easy editing after the fact. Variables can be used in text blocks and updated in real-time, most useful for scoreboard displays. Screens can be added at will, with six standard wipe patterns for transitions. Each screen can have its own set of characteristics (high/low res, interlaced/non, and palette information). On-screen doodling is supported, and may be recorded for playback at a later time. A clock may be brought up on the screen and started/stopped at will. ARexx support is extensive, offering 61 commands for QuickText's more useful or repetitive features. A rather bizarre side feature is the ability to generate stereograms out of the present screen. The command box for QuickText is not unlike the system used by Brilliance, a pulled-down screen that can be dismissed with a right mouse button click. Not pretty, but effective, the option layout is logical and gets the job done. No, QuickText is no Scala MM300. There is no support for integrating sound, for starters. It does multitask, but does not seem to get along well with terminal programs (both NComm and Terminus, using any of three serial devices, cause a system crash if running concurrently with QuickText.) The interface could use some polishing as well, as the text for some buttons bleeds over the edge of the buttons themselves. At present, the program is NTSC only, although PAL support is imminent. The machine requirements other than that are bare minimum-a 512k Amiga with 1.3 will suffice, but of course is not recommended. QuickText is what it is-a program designed to work best in either a kiosk-video board environment, or as an effect and title generator combined with a genlock (hence scoreboard and clock, and text scroll options). Based on the demo disk and videotape, I have no doubts that in the right hands, QuickText can become a powerful tool for these ends-and if you bring your own soundtrack, for generating presentations as well. Tahoe offers a demo disk and short demo tape. Contact them for details, or grab the demo disk from any Aminet site, in biz/demo, as QuickTextdemo.lha. QuickText 2.0 is US$60. Tahoe Software, Etc. PO Box 9236 South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158 USA (800) 939-4919 voice (US only) (916) 649-8935 voice @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: XiPaint3.1" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: XIPAINT 3.1 BY THOMAS DORN AND HERBERT BEILSCHMIDT @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== When you add a graphics card to your system, or you want HAM manipulation less esoteric than that of Deluxe Paint, you'll need a 24-bit paint program. XiPaint 3.1, the program included with the MacroSystem Retina boards, has been ported to several (in fact, most) graphic card standards, including the still-popular EGS and the "New Big Thing", CyberGraphics. It even supports HAM6, HAM8, and an AGA 256 color mode. Pick the screen of your choice in the Prefs module, execute the program, and you're off and running. The main functions are arranged in a handful of pull-down menus as well as a convenient toolbox of buttons for the most useful paint and manipulation tools. Painting is, of course, never as simple as "painting" anymore, and such modes as smooth, shade, smooth, cycle (my favorite, you can define a color range to cycle through, use the polygon tool, and create a psychadelic delight), and work modes to alter brightness, saturation, and color degree. Layered painting is supported, and full animation support is promised soon. Not being a bona fide artist, the real question for me is-is XiPaint comfortable to use? Definitely. Everything is handled in windows that pop up as needed to set the various parameters, preferences, or settings. Defining brushes and pens is clear to understand and easy to get done. Managing multiple modes, or making subtle changes to what you're doing, is no problem as long as you remember where you put the window, which may not be a problem anyway in higher resolutions. Importing pictures is no problem, and the program uses its own thumbnail scheme for frequently-accessed pictures (if desired). Perhaps the most significant feature to XiPaint is its manual. While it still has visible traces of having been translated into English, it is very thorough, illuminating, and helpful when it comes to tutorial sections. There is also something to be said for a program with a sense of humor. It is possible to get a requester that asks you if you wish to save your current picture. Your options are "Yes", "Maybe", and "No". Selecting Maybe generates a new requester saying, "Well, what do you want to do?" -this time, limiting you to "Yes" and "No". The button in the toolbox for the Cycle preferences is an old-style (huge front wheel) bicycle. Cute. Back to the useful part, the program-stylistically, it is a clearly laid out piece of software, with almost all of its features a click or two away. ARexx support is present. Wacom tablet support is here. Almost every graphic card is supported-it even works correctly on the A2410 EGS. The software, moreso than the manual, shows signs of an incomplete English translation..."farben" and such pop up at will, and there are a number of words that were clearly a single word in German, but should have been spaced out for English...not a big deal, but something you notice after using it for a time. Virtual memory support is not built in, which is a bit of a shame for a 24-bit manipulation program, so you have either to economize your 24-bit image usage or to come up with a VM (or real memory) solution to your problems. I am satisfied with XiPaint. What I want it to do, it does. What I can't immediately figure out how to do, the manual is quick to point out. A more accomplished professional will doubtless find something incomplete about it, but then again it IS an $80 package. The heavy-duty image manipulation is left up to the likes of ImageFX, which is not nearly as strong of a paint program. At the same time, while the HAM update is not as fast as that of Photogenics, the support for high color resolutions on non-Cybergraphics machines is better. I would recommend XiPaint as a pure paint program in a full image processing suite. XiPaint is distributed by MacroSystem. Contact a MacroSystem distributor for details, or the author directly, Thomas Dorn tdorn@xipaint.co.at @endnode @node REVIEW5 "Personal Paint 6.1" @toc REVIEW ========================================================================== REVIEW: PERSONAL PAINT 6.1 BY CLOANTO @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} ========================================================================== Personal Paint V6.1 is Cloanto's latest entry into the suddenly cluttered field of paint programs and image processors. But that's really not very important. What's important is that PPaint 6.1 has the most detailed disk labels I have ever seen. The dpi and color clarity is astounding-they put a screen-capture montage on there. Great stuff. Well, that's secondary to the performance of the product itself. But it's worth mentioning. Personal Paint is a bit difficult to explain. As it stands now, it is a strange beast, a hybrid between a paint program and a flexible image processor, that neither establishes itself as an irreplaceable paint tool nor will make you junk ImageFX. In some cases, though, you can complete a project, painting and manipulating to your heart's content, without ever leaving the program. In the arena of painting, PPaint offers 256 color display out of a 24-bit palette, and allows graphics cards to be used through the display database. This gives you the flexibility of using high resolutions, but means that you lose a bit in the translation, so to speak, by not using a true 24-bit paint program. It is all a bit strange, actually, as you can view in HAM while working in the 256 colors. As far as straight painting goes, PPaint is a close cousin to DPaint, offering animation and storyboarding support, an easy-to-use sidebar of tools, an ever-present palette, and speedy, stable operation. In addition, you get built-in virtual memory and encryption, several built-in languages, and a slightly wider variety of export formats (IFF, PCX, GIF, the encrypted mode, and directly as C source code). JPEG loading is supported with the JPEG datatype (3.x alert!). Optimization also seems more logical and spelled-out. Then there is the image processing element. As you work, you can apply one of several dozen included manipulations to the image at hand, or add your own in the standard 5x5 matrix format. Of course, stereogram generation is one of the included process types... I really like the inclusion of image processing to a paint program-it seems quite natural. It provides an alternative to the "standard" way of doing things, using a pure paint program but turning to a high-end processing package for manipulation. It also runs parallel in a sense to Photogenics, combining painting and manipulation, but in a much more "orthodox" fashion than the Almathera package. PPaint does an awful lot of things pretty well. What it lacks is a shining element of greatness, something that makes it leap out at you and say "I'M the package you want!" That, I suppose, is what those pretty disks do. Personal Paint 6.1 Cloanto Italia PO Box 118 33100 Udine Italy @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts for 8-May-95" @toc FTP | The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 8-May-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar309.lha docs/mags 80K 0+Amiga Report 3.09, May 2, 1995 mlink132.lha comm/net 123K 1+Direct internet access without SLIP VChck653.lha util/virus 121K 1+Version 6.53 of Virus_Checker. Amiga Virus StarTrek_A.lha game/think 246K 0+Star Trek Stratagy/Action Game ANews17.lha docs/mags 145K 0+AmyNews #17; info on new Amiga products StarTrek_B.lha game/think 413K 0+Star Trek Stratagy/Action Game Lx_v2.0.lha util/arc 51K 0+Lx v2.0. Read *readme* file for more info Erotica_cards.lha game/think 620K 0+Cardset for Klondike Deluxe AGA (III) HAM8bob.lha dev/e 127K 37+Bouncing bob in HAM8. Src in E v3. XanimAmiBeta4.lha gfx/show 90K 0+Xanim for Amiga BETA_4. 3.x+AGA or gfxcard @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts for 15-May-95 @toc FTP | The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 15-May-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- Gloom.lha game/demo 427K 1+Magic Bytes' GLOOM - Playable Preview ar309.lha docs/mags 80K 1+Amiga Report 3.09, May 2, 1995 FontDT-1.0.lha util/dtype 19K 1+DataType for Amiga fonts AWMWB2_1.lha pix/icon 98K 1+Magic WorkBench icons V2.1 (Complete) PC2Am204.lha comm/net 22K 1+PC<->Amiga SerNet(or TWIN)-like filesys Iconian2_88.lha gfx/edit 98K 0+OS3.0 icon editor, NewIcon support. amigalink3.lha docs/mags 83K 0+An Amiga Guide Magazine on EVERYTHIN Spondulix.lha biz/misc 118K 0+Powerful Personal accounts system TurboCalc.lha biz/demo 146K 1+Powerful spreadsheet demo-version, latest FingerInfo10.lha comm/net 2K 47+Finger useful/interesting sites @endnode @node FTP1 "HTML-Heaven 1.1b" @toc FTP TITLE HTML-Heaven VERSION 1.1b AUTHOR Paul Kolenbrander Email : paul@serena.iaehv.nl Post : Turfveldenstraat 37 NL-5632 XH EINDHOVEN The NETHERLANDS DESCRIPTION HTML-Heaven is a suite of _four_ programs intended to make the creation and maintenance of WWW (HTML) pages easy. The programs in the suite interface with your favorite editor (providing it supports text insertion via ARexx) to provide you with a very comfortable environment. Now inserting HTML commands is as simple as point and click. This is the upgrade from version 1.1 with a host of exiting new features. NEW FEATURES Version 1.1a has all the features of version 1.1. Plus: * Support for two new editors. MEmacs (thanks to Ellis Pritchard) and PolyEd. * Improved script for GoldEd now supports blocks the same way that the TTX script does. Same goes for the PolyEd and SE scripts. Just mark a block and hit eg. the gadget in HTML-Heaven. * Support for character entities so you can now embed special characters like ®, æ and þ for example. * The brunt of the new NetScape extensions to the HTML language. * The documentation is now also included in HTML format. On-line browsing: http://www.iaehv.nl/users/paul/main.html SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS HTML-Heaven requires: * Workbench 2.04 or above. * ARexx (bundled with Workbench 2.04 and above.) * Around 1MB of free memory. * About 400KB of floppy or harddisk space. (installing the entire suite and all docs including the HTML versions.) AVAILABILITY - ftp://ftp.iaehv.nl/pub/users/paul/amiga/HTML-Heaven.lha - WWW - http://www.iaehv.nl/users/paul/index.html - Most Aminet sites. Examples of which are: USA: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/aminet/text/hyper/HTML-Heaven.lha EUR: ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/text/hyper/HTML-Heaven.lha PRICE The registration fee for the HTML-Heaven package still is only: - Nederland Dfl 15,- - Europe DM 15,- / Dfl 15,- - Rest of the World US$ 15.- / Dfl 20.- DISTRIBUTABILITY The unregistered version is freely distributable. The registered version and it's custom keyfile are *NOT* freely distributable. This suite of programs is copyright 1994 by Paul Kolenbrander. OTHER To encourage users to register, (I'd like to get some return for all this effort I have put into creating the suite.) the freely distributable versions does not support ToolTypes/parameters and will not supply on-line help. Furthermore a 'reminder' requester appears on exiting any of the four programs comprising the suite. The unregistered versions will also not allow more than 5 ARexx commands per session. They'll keep functioning, but ignore any further ARexx commands given by the user as it has unloaded it's ARexx Host. @endnode @node FTP2 "SpringTime 1.0" @toc FTP TITLE SpringTime VERSION 1.0 COMPANY Trecision P.O. Box 39 16035 Rapallo (GE) ITALY E-Mail: pmonte@skylink.it AUTHOR Marco Brenco DESCRIPTION SpringTime is a Public Domain, freely distributable puzzle game. In each of its 20 levels you will lead your character into a mutant 3d maze of tiles. Whenever a wall is blocking your way, you can lean against it and it will rotate by 90 degrees, allowing you to proceed on the newly created paths. Your goal is to involve a spring in a series of rotations like that, until it will bounce on the target tile. 4 kinds of special tiles will make your life harder: 1. fragile tile: dissolves after your passage. 2. "skull" tile: can only be passed on the side without the skull. 3. mobile tile: drops down with gravity. 4. teleport tile: will teleport you on a corresponding exit tile. Some levels also feature a magic cube that unrolls as you move inside it. That will create a footbridge in the space, allowing you to reach locations otherwise unaccessible. A special scheme appears every 5 levels. There every step will toggle a tile from black and white to colours. Your goal is to colour all the tiles in the scheme. Features: - 2 players option - System of password to restart from last solved level - Joystick and/or keyboard interface - Help function - Real time 3D graphics synchronised with sprites - Parallattic background scrolling SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 1.3, (PAL), 1MB RAM AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/think/SpringTime.lha ADDITIONAL INFORMATION To get the full version of Springtime with 80 levels, send US$ 10 to: Trecision P.O. Box 39 16035 Rapallo (GE) ITALY @endnode @node FTP3 "EazyBBS 2.21" @toc FTP TITLE EazyBBS (Mailbox) VERSION 2.21 AUTHOR Andreas M. Kirchwitz E-Mail: amk@zikzak.in-berlin.de DESCRIPTION EazyBBS is a Unix/Uucp-like BBS (Bulletin Board System) (aka Mailbox) with UUCP network support for multiple users on multiple ports. Multi-language support for input, output and commands. Configurable commands, online help for every command. Extremely fast VT102 emulation. Full-screen editor, full-screen input/output masks, full-screen file lister, full-screen chat and line chat. Online games (Greed, Sokoban, Global War). Z-Modem (xprzmodem.library) and X-Modem (builtin). Comfortable Batch-Download and Batch-Upload. AmiNet-like .readme files (containing file data) for upload and download. Also supports those "brain-dead" FILE_ID.DIZ files. Thread-oriented message system. Binary mails. Personal newstree for every user, automatically shows new messages and files in subscribed boards and file-areas. Checks integrity of archives and lists contents of archives (highly configurable). CRC checksums to verify correct file transfer. Handles cursor-keys. Builtin support for "Umlaute", configurable Umlaute conversion after upload and before download. Builtin pager, users can edit their personal configuration easily. Commands, filenames, boards, file-areas can be abbreviated. AmigaDOS pattern-matching for various commands. EazyBBS runs on own screen or in window (on any public screen). Fonts configurable. No wimpy GUI, no fancy gadgets... everything's done with VT102 masks (quite comfortable), perfect for remote maintenance. Configurable for any modem, ISDN board and multi I/O card. Can be started from Uucp-getty (on already established connection). Access to boards and file-areas can be restricted to certain users (Unix-like owner/group concept), every group may have one or more moderators. Optionally, all upload may be unaccessable by default, then checked by the moderators and unlocked (if okay). Very flexible import of peripherals (eg, CD-ROMs or any other devices). Certain files and directories can be excluded. Directories can be archived and transferred in one file (program configurable, size check... configurable). EazyBBS is comfortable but has no full-blown GUI. If the Workbench is your home and you even don't know how to spell the word "Shell" then EazyBBS is maybe not for you. But if you can handle a shell and if you like sophisticated software -- then you'll like EazyBBS ;) German support BBS with discussion boards, also available via UUCP. NEW FEATURES Changes since version 2.19 (summary): - File-list and file-check scripts for LZX. - Two editable scripts to pre-process batch-uploaded files. - Improved scripts for daily listing of files (for Anon-UUCP and News). - Improved support for AmigaUUCP sendmail. - Some internal changes, enhancements and bug fixes. See file "History.Txt" in archive EazyBBS-2.21.lha for complete listing of changes and new features. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.0 (or higher). Knowledge of german language since most documents are in german (don't worry, translation to english is in preparation... translators welcome ;-) AVAILABILITY FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/bbs/EazyBBS-2.21.lha (772141) UUCP/E-Mail : mail-server@cs.tu-berlin.de Send mail to the address above and put the line "send /pub/aminet/comm/bbs/EazyBBS-2.21.lha" in the body. DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware, freely distributable. Copyright by Andreas M. Kirchwitz. @endnode @node FTP4 "easyrexx.library 2.0" @toc FTP TITLE easyrexx.library VERSION 2.0 AUTHOR Ketil Hunn E-Mail: Ketil.Hunn@hiMolde.no DESCRIPTION A small and very fast shared runtime library that allows you to add an AREXX port and AREXX commands to your application without the need of programming. o Makes the parsing of AREXX messages as easy as parsing DOS prompt arguments! Uses standard DOS templates for arguments. o Easy to use tag-based functions. o Send AREXX messages to any named port. o Autodoc describing all functions in the library. o Amigaguide documentation describing programming techniques and how to use the library. o Complete with example sources. NEW FEATURES o AREXX Interface Designer. A GUI program which allows you to define the entire AREXX interface and generate C source codes which are ready to be compiled. The Designer features: - Saving/merging and loading of projects. Projects from several known products are included as examples. - Cut and paste of both commands and arguments. - Most commands can be controlled from the keyboard. - Sorting and moving commands and arguments. - Multi-window environment. - Fully controlable through AREXX. Several example macros are included. - Tooltype support. - Will make use of V3.0+ and 68020+ if available. o New library function: ARexxCommandShell() which opens an asynchronous AREXX commandline interface in which the user may type in AREXX commands directly. All commands will be sent directly to the application's AREXX port. o Reserved commands built directly into the library. ALL applications will inherit these commands: GET COMMANDLIST - Returns a list of commands known to your application. GET AUTHOR - Returns name of application's author. GET COPYRIGHT - Returns application's copyright. GET VERSION - Returns application's version. GET LASTERROR - Returns the last error. o SendARexxCommand() can send AREXX commands asynchronously. You may even send AREXX commands to your own port. o SendARexxCommand() can return results from the application it was sent to. o All AREXX commands listed in Amiga User Interface Style Guide are categorized and stored in projects ready to be included in your applications. o Installation script for easy installation. o Information on how to register your AREXX compatible product to the The ARexx Application List. The form to fill out is included. o Various bug-fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS 2.04 or higher. AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/misc/easyrexx.lha (82774) PRICE Free, as long as you follow the two guidelines below: The license is the same for all software, regardless of what type of software the library is used in, be it commercial, freeware, shareware or whatever as long as you: 1) Note in the program and documentation that easyrexx.library is copyrighted 1994, 1995 Ketil Hunn. 2) You give me a copy of each version of the software which uses the library. There should be no cost to me. DISTRIBUTABILITY The files may be distributed as needed. That means that for products that use the easyrexx.library, only that file needs to be distributed. For development purposes, the library and its documentation should be all distributed together. @endnode @node FTP5 "ARCHandler 2.0a" @toc FTP TITLE ARCHandler VERSION 2.0a [37.312 (11.4.95)] AUTHOR Rafael D'Halleweyn EMail: Rafael.DHalleweyn@rug.ac.be PaperMail: Rafael D'Halleweyn Perckhoevelaan 17 2610 Antwerpen BELGIUM DESCRIPTION ARCHandler is a filesystem that allows you to use lha-archives as if they where directories. The files in the archives can be used like normal files: you can read, view and/or execute them. NEW FEATURES Major changes since release 2.0: -When an extracted file is closed it isn't immediatly deleted. When the same file is opened again in a short time, the file doesn't have to be reextracted. -You can now use devices and assigns in the root directory. -Sometimes an archive whose contents wasn't yet completely parsed was already flushed. This generated several Enforcer hits. -ARCHandler could lock up when you used it to access archives in archives. -French and German translations. Check the included documentation for a complete list of changes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS ARCHandler needs Kickstart/Workbench 2.04 or newer and 1Meg of memory. Altough ARCHandler works with floppydisks, a harddisk is recommended. To extract files from archives, ARCHandler uses the 'LhA' command (Copyright (c) Stefan Boberg), both the evaluation and registered version should work. AVAILABILITY The package has been uploaded to AmiNET so it should be available from your local AmiNET provider, for example: ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/util/arc/ARCHandler2_0a.lha 118427 bytes PRICE ARCHandler is shareware, the registration fee is 500 BEF or USD 20. DISTRIBUTABILITY ARCHandler is Copyright 1994, 1995 Rafael D'Halleweyn. This package is released as shareware. This means you can copy it freely, but if you use the package on a regular base, you have to pay the registration fee. @endnode @node FTP6 "Guida Online Magazine (Croatian" @toc FTP TITLE Guida VERSION Last published issue is 7. AUTHOR Dalibor Kezele (main editor) Toplicka 127 42204 Turcin Croatia phone: +385 42 651 567 (20pm CET) e-mail: dkezele@oleh.srce.hr sentinel@bonus.fido.hr Fidonet: DALIBOR KEZELE 2:381/120 DESCRIPTION Guida is a free magazine in AmigaGuide format in CROATIAN language. Themes we cover are: Amiga scene, Internet scene, BBS scene, computer news, programming, hardware, software, informatic language(s) etc. Some texts aren't computer-related, but we think they're interesting to Amiga users. The new issue is out every three weeks. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Any Amiga with AmigaGuide tool. It doesn't use any of new AmigaGuide functions so it can be read on an old Amiga 500. Also Croatian font is needed but we deliver it within lha archive. A reader also must know CROATIAN in order to understand text. AVAILABILITY Available via ftp: ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida0.lha (65442) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida2_5.lha (72150) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida3_14.lha (49495) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida4_99.lha (33992) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida5.lha (42814) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida6.lha (52954) ftp://aris.ffk.hr/pub/guida/Guida7.lha (72571) Available via WWW: http://rasipl1.rasip.etf.hr/~chonky/guida.html (main menu) PRICE Guida is free. OTHER Plain ASCII format of any issue is also available. For more information or subscription contact main editor. DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 by Dalibor S. Kezele Guida is free. Changing the content is forbiden! @endnode @node FTP7 "ChunKit 1.0" @toc FTP TITLE ChunKit VERSION 1.0 AUTHOR Patrick Rogers E-Mail: progers@undergrad.uwaterloo.ca DESCRIPTION Computers store all data as sequential strings of numbers in one format or another. Many utilities are available to view and edit files in their most primitive state, as sequential binary data. However, since most files are structured in a more complex fashion, it is often useful to view them in such a structured format. ChunKit is a hex editor designed to view and edit iff and executable files in such a structured manner. Rather than dumping the unformated contents of the file to the screen ChunKit first checks to see if the file is in executable or iff format. If so, it splits the file into it's component chunks, allowing you to examine the components of the file without having to wade through all of it's structural information. You can then add, edit or delete any part of the file. ChunKit requires at least OS 2.04 Features: * Opens all files * Displays all iff files in a tree format allowing chunks to be deleted, renamed or edited. This means you can read and modify iff files easily without having to worry about iff structure. * Executable, object and library files can be examined and edited in a tree format. Each Hunk can be opened and it's symbol, reloc or code blocks can be examined and modified. Symbol and debug blocks can be removed to reduce size and load time. * New iff and binary files can be created from scratch. If you need to create a specific file there is no need to edit an existing file. * OS friendly, non modal gadtools interface, streamlined to be as user friendly as possible (i.e.: There are a lot of features, not a lot of buttons. The emphasis has been placed upon giving the user as many useful features as possible without an overwhelming array of options. If the program can determine something on it's own it does so.) * Fully supports the Amiga clip board. * Modular internal design so new types of files and chunks can be edited in the future. * Enforcer clean. * Non features such as non standard file requesters have not been included. If the user prefers some other file requestor they can patch it into their system and all of their applications can use it and share a common interface. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS 2.04 or greater. PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archive and its contents are freely distributable. See documentation for details. AVAILABILITY ChunKit is available on aminet in misc/util. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/ChunKit.lzh (57118) @endnode @node FTP8 "Supra Library" @toc FTP TITLE Supra Library VERSION V1.1 RELEASE DATE 11/Apr/1995 AUTHOR Jure Vrhovnik (jurev@gea.fer.uni-lj.si) DESCRIPTION First of all I must express an opinion of mine, which is sincere and makes me very happy that it is: "Inspite of the terrible situation of the Amiga computer, its soul still lives and it's even stronger than it has ever been before. And we've finally realized what this soul really is - it's Amiga users!" Supra is a collection of routines that can be considered as a small update to Amiga ROM libraries. Since computer programs grow complexier day by day programmers find it hard to cope with high level organization, and thus can't afford to use their time for implementing basic routines. That's why Amiga's libraries are so valuable - they help programmers to concentrate on developing larger projects and make the pieces of a puzzle bigger. However, Amiga libraries haven't been updated for quite a long time. The pieces of a puzzle haven't changed, but the puzzle grows along with more advanced projects. This is my first release of supra functions. The collection is very tiny. However I hope this release will set a decent example that Amiga OS can and should be updated. Supra is a linked library which contains a few useful functions that are easy to use. A brief description of what it contains: o File copier o Very easy but powerful recursive directory scanning o Quick file type/existance checking o Create an entire directory path (extension to CreateDir() ) o Image colour remapping (now you can show images in their real colors on a workbench!) o Obtain a list of best pens (extension to ObtainBestPen() ) o Add or change icon's tooltypes Here is a list of function names: - FCopy() - FileType() - RecDirInit() - RecDirNext() - RecDirTags() - RecDirFree() - MakePath() - ObtPens() - RelPens() - MakeNewImg() - FreeNewImg() - AddToolType() Every function is well documented and there are some useful examples included in this archive. All source codes of functions are included. HOST NAME any Aminet site (e.g. ftp.netnet.net) DIRECTORY dev/c FILE NAMES SupraLib11.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY This library can be freely used in your own programs. You can distribute this archive anywhere, as long as it's unchanged. You may change the code to suit your needs, but you must report any change to me. @endnode @node FTP9 "LIP 1.4" @toc FTP TITLE LIP VERSION 1.4 AUTHOR Philip Marley E-Mail: pjm100@unix.york.ac.uk DESCRIPTION Program to aid inducement of lucid dreams via audio suggestion Lucid dreaming - dreaming with awareness of it being a dream, often allowing control of events and surroundings, creating an effect similar to virtual reality but without the need for a silly hat. Fly like a bird! Drive a Ferrari! Magic yourself up an island paradise! - Uses cyclic volume variations to avoid filtering by auditory perceptual system. - Fully configurable: user control over: - Pitch, Frequency, Rate, and Sex of voice - Message given - Minimum and maximum volume reached in cycles - Volume increase/cycle - Delay between cycles - All options controlled by a single menu screen - changing variables is as easy as typing in a number - Timer feature allowing user to start suggestions when asleep - Visible display of time remaining before cycles start - Comes pre-configured with all options set to those that have proved successful in the past, allowing user to start straight away. - Could also potentially be used as a general method for giving suggestions while asleep SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires a version of workbench with SAY (e.g. 1.3) AVAILABILITY - Most Aminet sites. Examples of which are: USA: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/aminet/misc/sci/LIPv1.4.lha EUR: ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/misc/sci/LIPv1.4.lha PRICE Shareware, 10 UKP or equivalent amount in any other currency if you like it, nothing if you don't. I maintain copyright of the Amiga version and of the original idea. Details are in the .doc file with the program... DISTRIBUTABILITY Please keep the program and the documentation together. Other than that, feel free to distribute it anywhere you want... @endnode @node FTP10 "Control Panel 4.2.1" @toc FTP TITLE : Control Panel VERSION: 4.2.1 AUTHOR: Martin Hunt E-Mail: Martin@mchunt.demon.co.uk DESCRIPTION: This is a suite of programs that allow easier usage of AmiTCP and related utilities (Mail, News etc.) through a graphical interface. Included utilities include GUI interfaces for Finger, Ping, Traceroute, Link, Plink and Archie, there is also a GUI based newsgroup editor. NEW FEATURES: Version 4.2 has a completely new interface and is fully configurable. This new interface allows control through buttons, menus or hotkeys. There is a facility to log connections to the internet, to aid analysis of phone bills. It also allows 2 user definable buttons and 3 additional user definable menu options. This version 4.2.1 is a bugfix of version 4.2. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Control Panel should run on any Amiga with KS2 or greater, you will need to have AmiTCP installed. AVAILABILITY: The unregistered version is available by FTP at any Aminet site. ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/comm/tcp/cp4.2.1.lha (114519) ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/comm/tcp/CP4.2.1_Link.lha (1496) PRICE: This program is shareware, the registered version includes a few extra features and costs 5 UK Pounds. Payments by other currencies is accepted, see the register.txt file in the archive for more details. DISTRIBUTABILITY: The unregistered archive which is available on Aminet, may be redistributed freely provided no profit is made. It may be freely put onto any bulletin board provided that it is placed in a free download directory, i.e. the users do not have to pay the BBS to download the file. Magazines and other commercial enterprises may redistribute this program provided that they contact me first. @endnode @node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc WHERE =========================================================================== == Amiga Report Mailing List == =========================================================================== If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in @{"UUENCODED" link UUENCODE} form each week as soon as the issue is released. The address is listserv@itesmvf1.rzs.itesm.mx. In the body of the message, tell it- SUB AREPORT To subscribe to AREPORT UNSUB AREPORT To unsubscribe from AREPORT HELP To get general listserv commands help Thanks to Alejandro Kurczyn for getting this service established for us. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ** *** The following is only for Australian readers! *** To circumvent the new pay-per-megabyte system for Australian Internet communication, Paul Reece has been kind enough to set up an AUSTRALIAN-ONLY mailing list, to save his fellow countrymen some money. You can join the list by sending mail to: majordomo@info.tas.gov.au with the single line (in body of message): subscribe ar Amiga Report will then be bounced to you. @endnode @node UUENCODE @toc MAILLIST =========================================================================== == UUDecoding Amiga Report == =========================================================================== If you receive Amiga Report from the direct mailing list, it will arrive in UUEncoded format. This format allows programs and archive files to be sent through mail by converting the binary into combinations of ASCII characters. In the message, it will basically look like a lot of trash surrounded by begin and end, followed by the size of the file. To UUDecode Amiga Report, you first need to get a UUDecoding program, such as UUxT by Asher Feldman. This program is available on Aminet in pub/aminet/arc/ Then you must download the message that it is contained in. Don't worry about message headers, the UUDecoding program will ignore them. There is a GUI interface for UUxT, which should be explained in the docs. However, the quickest method for UUDecoding the magazine is to type uuxt x ar.uu at the command prompt. You will then have to decompress the archive with lha, and you will then have Amiga Report in all of its AmigaGuide glory. If you have any questions, you can write to @{"Jason Compton" link JASON} @endnode @node AMINET "Aminet" @toc WHERE Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. Sites: ftp.cdrom.com, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.tas.gov.au, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk @endnode @node WWW "World Wide Web" @toc WHERE World Wide Web ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open one of the following URLs: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/Amiga/News/AR/ http://sun1000.ci.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR The following AR site also has a mailto form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site.