@database "ar115.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report 1.15, July 2, 1993" @{" Open Magazine " link menu} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine July 2, 1993 No. 1.15 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// From STR Publishing [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport @endnode @node P2-1 "For Starters" @toc "menu" ----------------------------------------- * NOVA BBS * Amiga Report Headquarters * Running Starnet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop FidoNet 1:362/508 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee ------------------------------------------ * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Starnet BBS * Robert Niles, Sysop FidoNet 1:3407/104 509-966-3828 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington NOTE: New phone number in effect as of July 18th! ------------------------------------------ * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA * Running Starnet BBS * Larry Cloud, Sysop FidoNet 1:350/30 206-377-4290 USR HST DS 24hrs - 7 days Bremerton, Washington ------------------------------------------ Amiga Report can be FREQ'd each week from the systems listed above. Use the filename AR.LHA and you will always get the latest issue. ------------------------------------------ * LAHO BBS * Official Overseas Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running MBBS * Jim Makinen, Sysop +358-64-414 1516, V.32/HST V.42bis/MNP 414 0400, V.32 MNP 414 6800, V.32 MNP 423 1300, V.32 MNP Helsinki, Finland ------------------------------------------ @endnode ___________________________________________________________________________ /// 07/02/93 Amiga Report 1.15 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Report · New Products · Dealer Directory · AR Online · AR Confidential · Warez Out There · A.M.I.G.A. · SHI News · Cybernetix · Zeus 040/A2000 · Amiga Tip of the Week » Microbotics 1230XA Reviewed « » New Telecommunications Tax Hidden in Bill « » Atari and IBM Join Forces to Market Jaguar « =========================================================================== Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports =========================================================================== PORTAL · DELPHI · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · NVN =========================================================================== @node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" /// From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" ---------------------- The more I think about it, the more I wonder if maybe somebody SHOULD write Ross Perot and ask for assistance in turning Commodore around. After all, here you have a guy that's determinted to make a difference in the American government, and a top-notch businessman. If nothing else, he would want to stop Commodore's unfair stockholder treatment (the meeting in the Bahamas comes to mind). It's a shot in the dark, but it might be worth it. Some- thing could be organized along the lines of the Shareholder Movement -- detailed last week -- to contact Mr. Perot, inform, and make a proposal. On another note, we have been forced to drop support for GEnie entirely. Due to financial limitations, and the cost of maintaining a presence on GEnie, we have decided to relocate to Portal. The cost of participation there is extremely low in comparison, and the Amiga area is every bit as large as GEnie's Amiga RT. We regret having to do this, and apologize to all Amiga GEnie subscribers, but Amiga Report is a FREE magazine. We receive no kickbacks from the services, and are contibuting our time and money. We're officially into summer, and almost every show on TV is a rerun. Star Trek and Deep Space Nine have had their season finales, so we're stuck until late September/early October before we get more Fresh Trek. This is the July 4th weekend, so I'm sure many of you will be out having a great time. As always, if you drive, DON'T DRINK. If you drink, DON'T DRIVE. It's simple, and it'll ensure that you make it back to 'real life' come Monday morning. That's it for the public service announcement. Have a great weekend! Rob @ Amiga Report @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" The Amiga Report Staff Dedicated to serving you! ====================== Editor in Chief =============== Robert Glover Portal: Rob-G Delphi: ROB_G FidoNet: 1:362/508.6 Internet: ROB_G@Delphi.COM Associate Editors ================= Technical Department -------------------- Micah Thompson Robert Niles Portal: Coming Soon! RNiles Delphi: RNILES FidoNet: 1:3407/104 Internet: BOOMER.T@GEnie.geis.com RNILES@Delphi.COM Graphics Department ------------------- Mike Troxell Portal: Coming Soon! FidoNet: 1:362/508 Internet: M.TROXELL1@GEnie.geis.com Contributing Department ----------------------- Tom Mulcahy Portal: Coming Soon! Delphi: 16BITTER BIX: HELMET FidoNet: 1:260/322 Internet: 16BITTER@Delphi.COM ________________________________________ Contributing Correspondents =========================== Marcus Albers John Deegan Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. David Walthour Alan Quirt PC DIVISION ATARI DIVISION MAC DIVISION =========== ============== ============ Roger D. Stevens Ralph F. Mariano R. Albritton @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-2 "CPU Status Report" @toc "menu" /// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News ----------------- Computer Products Update - CPU Report ------------------------ ---------- Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Issue #26 By: John Deegan WINDOWS PASSES DOS IN SALES - For the first time, North American sales of programs for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows environment have sur- passed sales of applications that run on MS-DOS. Sales of all applications software, including word processors and spreadsheets, reached $1.46 billion in the first quarter of 1993, which is an increase in dollar value of 20% from first quarter 1992 and a 26% rise in unit sales. Currently Microsoft says it sells more than a million copies of Win- dows each month. At the same time, the older MS-DOS system now is used on an estimated 120 million to 140 million PCs. LANGUAGE SYSTEMS OFFERED - A new language-training system has been developed by E-Systems' HRB Systems subsidiary and is being offered to educators, businesses, government agencies and international companies. The company said the product provides a self-paced and economical method to achieve conversational fluency. It features foreign films and users' own personal computers for interactive learning benefits. ERICSSON OFFERS WIRELESS MODEM - The $775 Mobidem AT, described as the first commercial packet radio modem that could implement a circuit- switched AT command set interface, has been developed by Ericsson GE Mobile Communications Inc. The firm, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Ericsson SpA, said the provides quick compatibility with major computer operating systems. IRS TO CONTINUE ELECTRONIC NOTIFICATION SERVICE - The Internal Revenue Service has reversed an earlier decision and will continue to allow taxpayers and preparers who file electronically to learn in advance if their refund will be seized by the agency to pay debts owed by the taxpayer. MICROSOFT'S BILL GATES TOPS FORBES' U.S. RICHEST LIST - Forbes maga- zine in its seventh annual ranking of the richest people in the world has placed Microsoft's Bill Gates at the top of its U.S. list. Gates, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $7.4 billion. SONY, APPLE, KODAK TEAM ON CD-ROM - A jointly-sponsored CD-ROM title called Open Wider is being released by Apple Computer Inc., Eastman Kodak Co. and Sony Electronic Publishing. Reports say the disk was created by New York multimedia design com- pany Imergy and documents the assembly of Open, a magazine that explores creativity in the digital age. COMPUTER CHIP THEFTS INCREASE - Computer chips, described by one California deputy district attorney as "the dope of the '90s," are being targeted by daring robbers who sell their high-tech booty for big bucks on the black market. Sources say the incentive to steal the tiny chips is high since they are in such short supply and demand for them is great. "Pound for pound, [chips are] more valuable than cocaine," said Julius Finklestein, a deputy district attorney in the Santa Clara County's high-tech crimes unit. A typical modus operandi calls for large numbers of armed men to invade a site, overwhelm and terrorize employees and disappear with the loot which is then sold for cash to middlemen. Smaller companies are often targeted because their security systems tend to be less sophisticated than larger firms. So far, no one has died in any of the heists, but officials fear escalating violence. The most recent theft occurred Tuesday night in San Jose, California when 10 armed men invaded Bestronics, a circuit board assembly plant. Using plastic handcuffs, they tied up a dozen workers and stole an undetermined number of computer memory chips. One employee was badly beaten, while others were pulled around by their hair. The suspects escaped. LEXMARK, IBM CHASE RIBBON FAKERS - In a Miami sting operation, IBM and former subsidiary Lexmark International -- working with a federal judge and the U.S. Marshals Service -- have busted a ring that was counterfeiting printer ribbons. David Lyons of The Miami Herald says six people signed consent de- crees promising never to do it again and to cooperate with the company in any future investigations. "It was the third time in the last two years that IBM and its distributors had swung into action to knock out counterfeiters in South Florida," Lyons reports. "Their chief weapon: civil lawsuits in federal court aimed at enforcing IBM's trademark rights." Earlier Lexmark successfully sued two California companies and four other firms in South Florida. The latest targets included Digital Ribbon and Supplies of West Dade, also known as Superior Ribbons Inc.; Williams Printing Inc. of Hialeah; and six individuals: Gustavo Ibanez, owner of Superior; Mayda Silva, a Miami saleswoman; Mario J. Williams Jr. of the printing company; Jose Peraza, a Miami artist; Juan Marin of Colombia; and Cesar Giron of Pembroke Pines. ------------------------------ "FEES" HIDDEN IN BUDGET (New modem/telecommunications "tax") Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 18:40:34 GMT From: rpwhite@cs.nps.navy.mil (rpwhite) Organization: Monterey Bay Yacht Club, Monterey CA Subject: "FEES" HIDDEN IN BUDGET WILL COST YOU $$$$!! Keywords: modems,taxes,fnord [Excerpted from The San Jose Herald, and used without permission under the Reasonable Use interpretation of the 1976 Copyright Act.] BY ROBERT DOBSON Herald Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - The Senate moved toward approving its version of President's Clinton's budget package early this morning, a move that is expected to set the stage for a showdown over "hidden taxes" and spending in a House-Senate conference committee. At which time, conservatives in the senate say they will fight efforts to increase taxes and spending which they say is hidden in the legislation. Singled out was $60 million to be used to finance the National Data Network that Vice-President Gore is a supporter of. The $60 million is to be raised by the imposition of a tax on the manufacturers of telecommunications hardware and by fees on the users of such equipment, known as modems. "We used the Pittman- Robertson act, which finances conservation efforts through a tax on firearms and ammunition, as a model," said Congressional spokesperson Bonnie Houck. "The people purchasing and using this type of equipment are affluent and well off. It's fair, it's not taxation, this is a progressive measure that asks the users of a resource to pay for the costs of that resource." [deleted] Clinton Administration spokesperson J. R. Dobbs cautioned against calling the fees a tax; "Inaccurate buzz words like `modem fees' and allusions to `modem taxes' produce knee-jerk reactions that short-circuit constructive inquiry into a vital public issue. Telecommunications users from all sectors - educators, small business, local governments, public service entities. liraries and recreational users - should take strong interest in how the next generation of telecommunications networks will be developed and financed. The newly authorized user fees are concealed in an obscure line item (Docket 37-42 of the Data Communications Network Architecture, or DCNA proposal), "the implications of which NO ONE at this time fully understands," according to noted MIT communications policy expert James Parry. These changes would require telecommunications users to pay "usage sensitive" carrier charges. [deleted] Roger Carasso is a special assistant to the chief of the Common Carrier Bureau at the FCC. He said it made sense that someone using a 14,400 bps modem pay more than someone using a 2400 bps modem. He also commented that it was good policy to have the fees collected by modem manufacturers and the regional Bell operating companies (RBOC's). "That way the users don't see the government involved in the same old `tax and spend'. In this case the users can take pride in the fact that they are, in fact, directly financing the new `data superhighway' while, at the same time, freeing up scarce government resources for truly necessary social programs such as Medicare, food stamps and education." [rest of article deleted] UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED. ------------------------------ ATARI AND IBM ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC MANUFACTURING CONTRACT FOR MULTIMEDIA ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM June 28, 1993 - Sunnyvale, CA - Atari Corporation announced today that it has contracted with the IBM Corporation's Charlotte, North Carolina, facility to manufacture the Atari Jaguar, Atari's new 64-bit multimedia entertainment system. IBM's multi-year contract is valued at $500 million. The Atari Jaguar, to be made in the United States, is an interactive multimedia entertainment system which features over 16 million colors in 24-bit true color graphics and produces shaded 3-D polygons for manipulation in a "real world" in real time. A 32-bit expansion port will allow for future connection into cable and telephone networks a digital signal processing port for modem usage and connection to digital audio peripherals. The Jaguar will also feature a double-speed compact disc peripheral. "This system is clearly the wave of the future", said Sam Tramiel, President of Atari, "Because the Jaguar will feature such an array of visual and audio special effects, we wanted to work with a premier company that we are confident can manufacture the quality product we have developed". The Charlotte-based IBM plant, which for 15 years has manufactured and developed products only for other IBM businesses, just recently began working with outside companies to meet their production needs. The Atari Jaguar project represents one of IBM's first entries into manufacturing for the mass consumer electronics market. "This is a wonderful opportunity to work with Atari and their new system", said Herbert L. Watkins, Director of Application Solutions manufacturing at IBM Charlotte. "Everyone expects IBM to manufacture complex information technology products, and with this we'll show that we can competitively build a sophisticated consumer product". In addition to assembling the Jaguar, IBM will be responsible for the component sourcing, quality testing, packaging and distribution. The Jaguar, announced on June 3, is based on an Atari designed proprietary 64- bit RISC processor that features four times the technology currently seen in the marketplace today. The sound system is based on Atari's proprietary high-speed, Digital Signal Processor dedicated to audio which can produce CD quality sound. The Atari Jaguar will be available on a limited basis in the fall, focusing on the New York market. A national roll-out is expected next year and the Jaguar will retail for approximately $200. Atari Corporation manufactures and markets personal computers and video games for the home, office and educational marketplaces throughout the world. Atari headquarters are located at 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089. The IBM Corporation's Charlotte facility manufactures and develops for IBM and other companies wide variety of products, such as banking systems, automotive diagnostic systems and electronic circuit boards. The site includes 2.3 million square feet of work space on a 1.200- acre site. Its address is 1001 W.T. Harris Blvd., Charlotte, North Carolina 28257, Telephone (704) 594 1000. For further information: Nancy Chan Bohbot Communications, Inc. (415) 705 6888 Bob Page IBM (704) 594 1729 ------------------------------ SPA CONFIRMS SOFTWARE SALES WASHINGTON, DC -- Companies often make wild claims about the number of copies they have sold of particular programs, so the Software Publishers Association regularly certifies sales numbers for some popular programs. Since 1985 the SPA Certification Program has audited sales of more than 450 programs published by over 55 companies and this week they released minimum sales numbers for 49 new products. Accolade has sold 50,000 or more units of the following: Al Michaels Announces Hardball III; Blue Angels Formation Flight Simulator; Elvira; Jack Nicklaus Golf & Course Design Signature Edition; Jack Nicklaus Presents the Major Championship Courses; Mike Ditka Ultimate Football; Star Control; Steel Thunder American Battle Tank Simulation; The Cycles International Grand Prix Racing; and The Muscle Cars: Test Drive II Car Disk. Sales of the following were greater than 100,000 units each: Grand Prix Circuit; Hardball II; Jack Nicklaus Unlimited Golf & Course Design; Test Drive II The Passion; and The Supercars: Test Drive II Car Disk. Broderbund Software sold more than 100,000 units each of: BannerMania; Dazzle Draw; MemoryMate; Prince of Persia; The New Print Shop Graphics Library; Type!; Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?; Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?; and Wolfpack. And more than 250,000 units of these were sold: Kid Pix; The New Print Shop; The Playroom; and The Print Shop Deluxe. These two were best sellers for Broderbund at more than 500,000 units each: The Print Shop Companion, and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? The Learning Company was certified as having sold more than 50,000 units of Operation Neptune and Super Solvers Spellbound; while sales of Reader Rabbit 2 were 100,000 units. Maxis' A-Train sold 50,000 plus units; SimAnt's sales were 100,000 units; SimEarth's sales reached 250,000 units; and SimCity was most popular with sales in excess of 500,000 units. MySoftware Company's MyBackup and MyLabelMaker had sales of more than 100,000 units. Reality Technologies' Wealth Builder by Money Magazine topped 50,000 unit sales. Spectrum HoloByte's Flight of the Intruder; Vette!; and Wordtris all sold more than 50,000 units each; and both Falcon 3.0 and Super Tetris sold 100,000 plus copies. Tally Systems Corporation's PC Census had sales of 500,000 units. Walt Disney Computer Software has two software products - Donald's Alphabet Chase and Mickey's Runaway Zoo - that sold more than 100,000 units each. ------------------------------ TWO SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN CONNECTICUT ATM FRAUD NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT -- Two Arizona men have been arrested in connection with a fraud case that involved using a fake automated teller machine (ATM) in a Connecticut mall to obtain the account numbers and identification codes of bank customers. Alan Scott Pace and Gerald Harvey Greenfield, both of Tucson, Arizona, are in custody and charged with fraud, conspiracy, and transportation of stolen property, after the illegally obtained codes were used to steal about $100,000 from bank accounts, Dan Marchitello, the Secret Service agent in charge of the investigation, told Newsbytes. Several warrants were outstanding for Pace on other offenses including credit-card fraud, Marchitello said. The dummy bank machine was placed in the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester, Connecticut from April 24 to May 9 of this year, Marchitello said. It recorded the account numbers and personal identification numbers of bank customers. The thieves then used those numbers to withdraw money from customers' accounts at various bank machines up and down the East Coast of the United States. Marchitello said Pace and Greenfield were arrested partly as a result of information from a New York company that had sold them coding and embossing equipment. The company said the men had not paid a $20,000 bill for the gear. A court appearance is set for July 1. The Secret Service is seeking a third suspect who played a minor role in the scam, Marchitello said. ------------------------------ PHIBER OPTIK TRIAL TO START NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The trial in federal court of Mark Abene, well known throughout the hacker community as "Phiber Optik," is scheduled to begin on July 6th in the Southern District of New York. The trial, to be presided by Judge Louis Stanton, will take place in Courtroom 444 in the New York City's Federal Courthouse at Foley Square. Abene was indicted on July 8 of last year along with John Lee, Julio Fernandez, Eli Ladopoulos, and Paul Stira, on a variety of charges relating to computer intrusion and telecom fraud. In the interim, Lee, Fernandez, Ladopoulos, and Stira have pled guilty to lesser charges. Lee has been sentenced to a year and day in federal prison and Fernandez is reported to have become a witness for the government. Stira and Ladopoulos are scheduled to be sentenced on July 23. Lawrence Schoenbach, attorney for Abene, told Newsbytes, "We are all looking forward to the trial and the litigation of the issues involved. This is a trial for the 21st Century and addresses the questions of how much the government can interfere with the search for knowledge and how far it can intrude into personal communication." Schoenbach added that he expected the trial to take a few months. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Fishbein declined to comment on a case about to go to trial, telling Newsbytes, "We will be making our profound statements in court." The trial is expected to provide the cornerstone for a book by Joshua Quittner and Michelle Slatalla, Newsday reporters, who having been covering the case since the indictment. Quittner told Newsbytes that he is taking a leave of absence from his Newsday duties for the duration of the trial. ------------------------------ GOT A SECOND? THERE'S A LEAP SECOND COMING ON WEDNESDAY WASHINGTON, DC -- If someone asks you to "wait a second" this week, you can accommodate them without missing any of your usual weekly activities because the government is giving you, free of charge, some extra time this week. Do the workdays just seem to drag on forever? Well, if this Wednesday seems to be a bit more of a struggle to get through than usual, you can at least look forward to a full extra second of evening rest courtesy of the world's timekeepers at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., and their counterparts in Boulder, Colorado. At precisely 23 hours, 59 minutes, 60 seconds Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) or 7:59:60 p.m. EDT on June 30, 1993, one second will be inserted into the world's most accurate clocks because variations in the way the Earth turns have gotten it slightly out of sync with the super-accurate atomic clocks which the world's scientists now use to determine the "correct" time. In the past, human beings relied on the rotation of the planet itself as the "standard" for time keeping and reset clocks to match the Earth's daily turning, but since the late 60s the US Naval Observatory has been relying on a computerized clock that counts the 9,192,631,792,458 vibrations that take place every second in a Cesium 133 atom. By contrast, the Earth's rotation is only constant to about 1/1,000- second each day and therefore the Naval Observatory has inserted 18 leap seconds in the clock's time since 1972 in order to keep the clock perfectly synchronized with the Earth's rotation and thus with rising and setting times of stars. The reason the Navy is responsible for timekeeping goes back to the traditional needs of the British and other navies which required precise timekeeping in order to help them determine the position of their ships at sea. Today these positions are determined by using computerized global positioning systems which rely on satellite signals which are again related to precise timekeeping. Although this change can be ignored by most people, computers used to measure or record many scientific events must be set to a precise time tick; anyone can actually have his or her clocks reset using the Naval Observatory's special electronic bulletin board system which is used just to co-ordinate computer clock times. ------------------------------ EXPLOSION IN HOME PCs PREDICTED BY 1999 DALLAS, TEXAS -- Market research group Channel Marketing is predicting "explosive" growth in the PC market in the next six years saying more than eight times as many personal computers (PCs) will be sold by 1999 than have been sold since the introduction of the PC. The group also claims the majority of these computers will be purchased through mass marketing outlets, such as warehouse buying clubs, just as microwave ovens and video cassette recorders (VCRs) are now. A high 2.5 computers per household is predicted by the end of the decade, up from 2.2 per household predicted a year earlier. At the end of 1992 there were an estimated 0.3 computers per household, or about 30 million units. Contributing factors to the purchase of computers for the home include lower prices, increased mass market retail availability, increased growth in home-based businesses and telecommuting, educational needs of children, and the use of computers by college and university students, the group said. In the educational environment, many higher educational institutions are now requiring that students own a computer. In the future, parents are also expected to offer each child their own computer as an educational advantage. The research firm also maintains families want to have access to on-line information utilities such as America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy. The notebook computer will be as common in schools across America as the pocket calculator is today, Channel Marketing asserts. By 1995, more than half of all computers purchased will be purchased through the consumer mass market channel. Since most computers come with the software installed, buying a computer will be no different than buying any other appliance for the home, Channel Marketing insists. The preceding stories are © 1993 Newsbytes. Reprinted with permission. @endnode __________________________________________________ @node P1-3 "Release of CDROM-FS" @toc "menu" CANADIAN PROTOTYPE REPLICAS RELEASES UPDATED CDROM-FS VERSION 1718 Canadian Prototype Replicas has released a new version of CDROM-FS, the HiSierra and ISO-9660 File System for the Commodore Amiga line of personal computers. New features include: o Requires AmigaDOS(tm) 2.04 or greater. o Now supports all known SCSI CDROM drives. o Supports JVC XR-W1001 in read modes. o Supports Philips CDD-521 in read modes. o Supports Toshiba XM-3301/3401 CDROM-XA modes automatically. o Utilizes Exec Pooled Memory Model. o CDDACtrl Players converted to stand alone. o New Lock and Unlock ARexx commands for CDDACtrls. CDROM-FS release 1718 addresses mostly minor concerns associated with some of the newer drives now available. Additionally, code size has been reduced, while increasing overall performance. New international character recognition code has also been added to handle discs in either alpha order or ISO-9660 order and discs that have minor mastering problems in their path tables. Customers wishing to upgrade to version 1718 from a previous version, may return their original disk along with $10.00 (CAN) directly to Canadian Prototype Replicas, or take their original disk to their dealer, who is authorized to copy the new version onto an original disk. Canadian Prototype Replicas is a leading edge software development firm specializing in system level software for the Commodore Amiga line of personal computers including CD-Rom, Networking, and System Resource Management. Product: CDROM-FS Version: 1718 Retail Price: $50 Canadian Contact: Allan M. Purtle Company: Canadian Prototype Replicas Phone: +1 519 884 4412 @endnode ------------------------------- @node P1-4 "New MO Company, Select Solutions" @toc "menu" NEW MAIL ORDER COMPANY FOR AMIGA Select Solutions - a new division of Micro-PACE, Inc. - combines the expertise of eleven years in Commodore and Amiga distribution with a new, state-of-the-art consumer-direct sales and marketing division. The core of Select Solutions is the world's largest inventory of Amiga related computers, peripherals, accessories and software. NewTek, Commodore, Great Valley Products and Digital Creations are just a few of the top selling product lines that are available. The heart of the new division is a sales and technical support staff with unmatched product knowledge. No matter what your needs, from a complete personal video production system to simply upgrading your current system with a hard drive, memory or a new mouse, Select Solutions has the answers. Answers are great, but more important are price and availability. And how about same day shipping on over 1400 in stock items? This is where you will find Select Solutions to be your truly remarkable one-stop shopping resource. Select Solutions is located at 3001 Clark Street, Champaign, IL 61821. You can find our current advertisements in Amiga World and Video Toaster User magazines. We look forward to serving you in the coming months. As an added bonus, call now and with your first order get a free Amiga coffee mug (while supplies last) just by mentioning this BBS announcement (Source Code B02). Sincerely, Michelle Schluter Mail Address: Select Solutions P.O. Box 6512 Champaign, IL 61821-6512 Orders: 800/322-1261 Support/Returns: 217/355-2785 @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-5 "Blitz Basic 2" @toc "menu" BLITZ BASIC 2 Blitz2 is a BASIC programming language for your Amiga, infact it is fast becoming the BASIC programming language on the Amiga. It can be used to program any type of software, from valuable applications to entertaining arcade games. Blitz2 is a compiler, it takes BASIC code and creates very fast, compact, standalone programs. Programs that most people will think you created in machine code or C. Blitz2 is a next generation BASIC with features borrowed from PASCAL, C and others. Blitz2 has given BASIC, the friendliest programming language of all times, a new lease of life with more power than .More.. ever before. * Features ---------- Full implementation of extended BASIC (Select..Case While..wend etc.) Support for standard IFF graphics, sound and animations NewTypes similar to C Structures making Blitz2 more than just another BASIC In-line macro assembler for advanced users Linked list support for quick database type programming Standard Amiga screen, window, menu & gadget management commands Full access to the internal Amiga libraries and structures .More.. Power-Windows type user interface generator Extended Workbench 2.0/3.0 support including AGA palette control Super fast Blitz-mode operation which "cleanly" takes over the Amiga OS 6 different Blitting commands for ultra fast, smooth graphics Extensive display control for smooth scrolling, dual playfield etc. Produces 100% machine code (fast and compact) programs * What you get -------------- Blitz2 ships with 2 manuals. The reference manual is a large 320 page A4 book detailing the Blitz2 command set with example code for most of the 300+ commands and functions. The User Guide is a smaller book .More.. containing a step by step guide to getting started in Blitz2 as well as indepth discussions and tutorials introducing the many facets of programming in Blitz2 including many type in programs. The disks contain not only the Blitz2 compiler program and editor but heaps of examples, utilities, games and extra documentation. Also included with Blitz2 is a free issue of the BlitzUser magazine. * Blitz User Magazine --------------------- Blitz User is currently a quarterly publication that includes both a printed magazine and disk. Each issue is jam packed with upgrades, bug fixes, new commands, tutorials etc. As Blitz2 is continually being expanded both in versatility and ease of use, a subscription to Blitz User Magazine will keep you up to date with the fastest growing language on the Amiga. .More.. Here's a list of updates from the first 4 issues of Blitz User Magazine Issue 1: Tutorials on using Intuitools, ShapesMaker and the MapEditor as well as serial port and speech control. Also listing for the BuzzBar game. Issue 2: Includes new commands for DPaint anims, adding Arexx ports to your Blitz2 programs, octamed support as well as heaps of program listings etc. Issue 3: Ted is given a major revamp and a powerful runtime debugger is added to Blitz2. Issue 4: .More.. Cycling gadgets, radio buttons, AGA screens, polygon commands and heaps of other new goodies. * What the Amiga Magazines say: ------------------------------- CU AMIGA Giving Blitz2 an overall 88%, CU Amiga summed up Blitz2 with the following conclusion: If you want to know exactly what makes the Amiga tick without having to buy 15 manuals and learn assembler and C there is no better way. You can write whatever sort of program you want, be it a demo, a game, or a piece of applications software. The only drawbacks are those of the Amiga and the BASIC language itself. If you want a program to do something bad enough, you'll find a way with Blitz BASIC. It's ideal for beginneres and experts alike and whats more .More.. it produces true Amiga software. Get it! EASE OF USE: 81% VALUE FOR MONEY: 82% (PRICE WAS TBA!) DOCUMENTATION: 94% FLEXIBILITY: 96% AMIGA COMPUTING Paul Overaa reviewed Blitz2 in July 1993's Amiga Computing, and came up with the following comments: blisteringly fast and offers some stunning Amiga-orientated graphics Ted (Blitz2's Editor) is a fast, reliable editor even novice programmers are going to be able to produce a lot of clever effects very easily indeed more experienced programmers will find that Blitz2 offers stunning possibilities EASE OF USE: 8 .More.. IMPLEMENTATION: 9 VALUE FOR MONEY: 8 OVERALL: 8 For more information about Blitz2 --------------------------------- In NewZealand contact Acid Software phone or fax 09-358-1658 In the U.S.A. contact David Maziarka by voice at (608) 257 9057 by BBS 6pm to 6am at the same In the U.K. contact Benoit Varasse 0227 763 539 In Germany contact Solaris Computers in Koln In Australia contact Computer Discounts 02-281-7411 @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-1 "Aroach 1.0" AROACH V1.0 AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE ARoach VERSION 1.0 AUTHOR Stefan Winterstein (winter@cs.uni-sb.de) DESCRIPTION ARoach - cockroaches hide under your windows! ARoach displays disgusting cockroaches on your screen. These creepy crawlies scamper around until they find a window to hide under. Whenever you move or resize a window, the exposed orthopteras again scamper for cover. You can squish them with a mouseclick, if you want. ARoach is based on Xroach for X-Windows. It features a shell and and a Workbench interface and makes use of Amiga's BOBs. Full source for SAS/C 6 is included. BUGS As given by the ROACHES option. Default is 10. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher. HOST NAME All AMINET sites, such as litamiga.epfl.ch (128.178.151.32) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/game/gag FILE NAME ARoach.lha PRICE None. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-2 "MainActor 1.1" @toc "menu" MAINACTOR V1.1 AVAILABLE FOR FTP TITLE MainActor VERSION 1.1 AUTHOR Markus Moenig markusm@tolkien.adsp.sub.org DESCRIPTION MainActor is a modular animation package. It allows you to create,edit,play animations of the provided animation formats. You can convert any format into any other, allowing you to convert for example a range of pictures into an animation format of your choice, or resave the frames of an animation to an picture format, or simply to convert different picture formats. The following modules are included in this release: Animation Loader Max. Depth Animation Saver ---------------- ---------- --------------- Universal Universal_PicassoII IFF-Anim5 8 Bit IFF-Anim5 IFF-Anim7_16 8 Bit IFF-Anim7_16 IFF-Anim7_32 8 Bit IFF-Anim7_32 IFF-Anim8_16 8 Bit IFF-Anim8_16 IFF-Anim8_32 8 Bit IFF-Anim8_32 IFF-AnimBrush 8 Bit Picture Loader Picture Saver -------------- ------------- Universal Universal_PicassoII IFF 24 Bit IFF Workbench-Icon 4 Bit Workbench-Icon PCX 8 Bit ICON New features of Version 1.1 -You can now map your arexx scripts to the function keys. -New IFF-Anim8_32, IFF-Anim8_16, PCX modules. -The new Universal modules allow you to easily load all of the supported graphic formats. The Universal_Picasso-II modules remap the output of all modules directly to the Picasso-II graphics board from Village Tronic. -MainActor has now an powerful external player named 'MainView', it can view all animations/pictures for which MainActor has the proper loader module. It is executeable from the wb or cli and supports, per tooltypes or cli arguments, all of MainActors view options. -MainActor now (optionally) saves icons for your newly created animations or pictures, enabling you to view the animations/pictures by selecting their icons. These icons support the same tooltypes as MainView. -You can now control how many times MainActor/MainView plays animations. -The new 'Flash' option allows you to profile your animations. General Features: -Intelligent caching/tracking, MainActor can cache your animations and picture lists, if you have not enough memory it will directly access your data from any device. This makes it for example possible to create/edit/play a 400MB animation on your 2MB Amiga. -If you run OS 3.0 or higher, you will get an extra speed bonus on animations through the use of the new graphics routines. For OS2.0/2.1 users there are specific routines in the modules, which will give them the best playback speed possible on their system (and my knowledge :)). -Under OS 3.0 you will get the extra features of showing pictures or playing animations in a scrollable, resizable window on your MainActor or Workbench screen. The colors will be properly adjusted to your screen attributes. -MainActor has an arexx port, nearly all functions can be accessed through it. You can for example scale or dither whole animations through the use of an image processor, scripts are included. HOST NAME MainActor should be available on all Aminet sites. For Example : Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.16.3 Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 USA ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/gfx/edit FILE NAME MainActor1_1.lha SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS 2.0+ PRICE The shareware fee is $50 DISTRIBUTABILITY MainActor is shareware. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-6 "MEBBSNet v1.0 Release" @toc "menu" MEBBSNet v1.0 SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE THE FOLLOWING IS COPYRIGHT (C) 1993, MEBBS ENGINEERING AND SOFTWARE. This electronic document is freely redistributable provided it is made available in its ENTIRETY, and may NOT be modified, altered, prefixed, or appended to in any fashion without the express written permission of MEBBS Engineering and Software. MEBBS Engineering and Software is pleased to announce a release date for MEBBSNet BBS v1.0 of August 31st, 1993. As you may know MEBBS Engineering and Software purchased StarNet BBS from the previous owner last fall and has used the ensuing months to perform major rewrites, build in numerous changes and fix existing problems. Among the enhancements, fixes, and changes you can expect to see in MEBBSNet v1.0 are: o DRASTIC reduction in executable size. The MEBBSNet executable is now under 290k vs. 380k+ for StarNet. (Possibilities are good it will shrink even further before release as fine tuning continues). o DRASTIC reduction in the amount of system STACK usage. MEBBSNet only requires a 20k stack for operation (Down from 60k in StarNet). o DRASTIC increase in execution speed. Sophisticated programming techniques and removal of 'busy loops' have resulted in incredible speed increases in system operation. o Removal of all Enforcer and MungWall problems. The software has been converted to TRUE 32bit base-relative addressing, and uses a 'vanilla' compile (no switches needed at compile time). o WorkBench v1.3 Compatable. o Complete new file transfer protocol operation. Existing file transfer protocols have been completely removed (and suffered a horrible, fiery death :-)). XPR protocols are now used for file transfers, and are Sysop configurable via an included GUI utility. There is no hardcoded limit to the number of XPR's you may use. (Hooks are in place to allow XPR protocols to be configurable by accesslevel in v2.0) o Libraritized Task Management system keeps memory usage to a minimum while maintaining a secure and stable environment. o 3rd Party Developers Library and programming support (MEBBSutility.library). Developers are furnished full library information, example code, and complete documentation in 'autodoc' format. o 3rd Party Developers are assured upwards compatability with new releases of the MEBBSutility.library -- no more recompiling when a new version is released. If it works under MEBBSNet v1.0, it WILL work under future releases. o Graphic User Interface (GUI) utilities for Editing system configuration, Users, and Files (MEBBScfg, MEBBSue, MEBBSfl). Library functions available for 3rd party developers to write software that will access these features via remote operation. o Support for alternate character sets. o Full Internal ASCII string configurability. This includes not only the text itself, but also the Menu Command letters. o Serial I/O has been rewritten from the ground up with an eye on stability and speed. o Support for 16,800 bps modems. (Early betatesting has shown 16,800 bps file transfers to exceed 1950 cps on binary files, with more improvement likely before release.) o NEW Modem Compiler o NEW Menu Compiler o NEW ARexx port (with MORE features) o NEW Nodelist Compiler (MEBBSnlp) o CLI Door support. o Emulator for running existing StarNet doors. o NEW Line-oriented Message Editor (Full-Screen Editor(s) are already in development by 3rd parties at this time). o All file I/O code rewritten. (No more 'lost' files.) o Internal File Indexing routines rewritten using linked-lists. ReIndexing now is fast as well as easy on the CPU. o Support for alternate 'FrontEnds' rewritten for proper operation. o Internal FrontEnd now supports EMSI. o NEW Tosser/Packer (MEBBStoss), is 5x faster than the previous Tosser/ Packer and supports 4-D Addressing. o Mail packets are processed in chronological order. No more reading replies before the original. o Point.CTL file removed. All point information is contained in Areas.ctl o PassThru.ctl removed. All Passthru information is contained in Areas.ctl o Tagnames are no longer tied to a particular messagebase #. If you move a messagebase from one area to another, Areas.ctl no longer needs to be modified. o If a FidoNet (c) network transfer is aborted ALL files contained in the .FLO file are reinserted for later transmission. (This includes file- attaches, .tic files, etc..) o NewUser Login has been rewritten for more logical operation. The old problem of a newuser entering an existing handle no longer dumps them back to the beginning. o NodeList search function rewritten for proper operation. o MEBBSbase now removes 'holes' (deleted file #'s) from the filebases upon initialization (aka 'NOGAPS'). o General reorganization of the system for more logical operation. For FidoNet(c) systems, Areas.ctl now handles 4-D Addressing, Passthrus, and tagnames. o All user-configurable text files (.ctl) now reside in the MEBBSnet:S directory. A Sysop now need only look one place to find configurable textfiles. 3rd party developers are encouraged to use this reorganization change for their utilities also. o Log files now are more descriptive and consistant. This will allow for 3rd party utilities for billing, and other things that rely upon system logs for operation to operate easier and with greater efficiency. o Modem Dial-out functions have been completely rewritten. o Eight Support Site systems available 24 hours a day to registered users. Four are located in the United States, 1 each in Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. All are available via FidoNet(c) and some are available via alternate networks. o Support is taken VERY SERIOUSLY by MEBBS Engineering and Software and every effort will be taken to address problems encountered by registered licensees. o Software Upgrade Fees, MEBBSNet v1.0: Registered StarNet licensees: NO CHARGE o Documentation Upgrade Fees, MEBBSNet v1.0: (Not set at this time) A completely new manual will be made available upon release. Due to printing costs, it will be made available at our cost (We are NOT in the manual selling business!). Cost has not been determined at this time, and will be set after quotes have been received from printers. Roger Walker Director, MEBBSNet BBS Product Development MEBBS Engineering and Software @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-7 "Online Weekly" @toc "menu" /// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online The lines are buzzing! --------------------------------- From the Amiga_Tech echo on Fidonet ----------------------------------- Date: 26 Jun 93 12:24:00 From: Skipper Smith To: Jussi Alan{r{ Subj: Re: 68030 MMU ------------------- JA> Steve, I have a friend with an EC030 that also says it has an MMU. JA> Enforcer runs with no problems. After talking to a friend who works JA> at Motorola, they said that when they are testing chips and the JA> Instruction unit passes but the MMU Fails, the MMU is completly JA> disabled and the chip is marked EC. I would like to know who your friend is. This is NOT how Motorola does business and it is NOT how the 68EC030's come into being. Processors that are destined to be MC68EC030's are taken off the assembly line for the 68030 after masking the final layer and are routed to another area where their MMUDIS\ pins are tied to ground. After that point, only absolutely minimal testing is performed on the MMU portion of the chip to make sure that the TTC's (transparent translation registers) are functioning and that there are no grevious masking problems that could affect the rest of the chips operation. No processor under the EC or LC mark has failed ANY tests (and, in fact, the vast majority of them would probably pass the More [50%]? -Y/n/c- c full MMU test if it was done). The reason for this is because tester time is VERY expensive and every chip has to be tested. By having a version of the chip that doesn't need as much time on the tester it can be sold for less money (there are other reasons why the EC is cheaper but I won't go into those here). JA> OTOH, when they have a bunch of full blown 68030s and a customer orders JA> 500 EC 030s and they only have 350 or so laying around, they label 150 JA> of the good parts EC and ship them. Since EC units are supposed to go JA> to embedded controllers, the added MMU would just be ignored by JA> whatever piece of hardware it would be put into. Now this is correct. The easiest way to identify if you are the fortunate recipient of a "real" '030 in MC68EC030's clothing is to check out the package. If it is ceramic, you have a real '030. If it is plastic, you have a 68EC030 (one of those other cost saving measures). Skipper Smith Motorola Technical Training All opinions are my own and not necessarily those of my employer ------------------------------ Date: Sat 26 Jun 93 8:56 From: Darren Ewaniuk To: John Fraser Subj: Re: 3.0 os on 2000's? ------------------- In a message dated 24 Jun 93 09:41:41, John Fraser wrote: JF> RE: Re: 3.0 os on 2000's? JF> BY: John Fraser to Mike Noreen on Wed Jun 23 1993 13:31:22 > > Sorry kid, wrong again. The AGA custom chips are STILL 16-bit. They only > > 32-bit access to chip-ram. That's all. JF> How could (and why?) a 16 bit graphics chip(set) have 32 bit access JF> to ram? I mean, a 16 bit chip wouldn't benefit from 32 bit ram anyway, JF> so why would CBM put it in there? Alice (like Agnus) has a 16 bit bus. Lisa (like Denise) has a 32-bit bus. Paula is 16 bits, but then she didn't change. More [42%]? -Y/n/c- c Lisa controls the graphics display and reads the data from the chip memory in 32-bit-wide 'chunks'. This gives a two-fold increase in chip memory bandwidth. Couple that with the fact that it does these fetches in a 'burst' mode of two 32-bit chunks at a time, you get a four-fold increase in chip memory bandwidth. This is only for the tedious task of drawing the screen each scanline, every frame. Memory is 32-bits wide (like the A3000). So CPU access to the chip memory is also twice as fast as a 2000. The blitter and coprocessor (Alice) is still only 16-bit. This means any blits will still only be moved 16 bits at a time. Through a bit of magic circuitry (actually, it's not too hard) Alice can select which part of a 32-bit longword (lower 16-bits or higher 16-bits) in the chip memory it will blit to for any given 16-bit word. So the system does benefit from Lisa and the chip RAM being 32-bits wide. Alice doesn't benefit, but it does know how to cope with it at its own 'speed'. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-8 "SHI Announcement" @toc "menu" /// A Word from Safe Hex International ---------------------------------- FROM: MICHAEL ARENDS @ SHI-RVC/West P.O. Box 1531 Lynnwood, WA 98046-1531 ---------------------------------------------------- A word from Erik Lovendahl Soerensen from the MAIN SHI CENTER: ------------------------------------------------------------- Several people have asked me about our reward of $1000 for the name of a virus programmer, and a few have phoned me or have written to me to get the reward. One of the questions I've been asked was about if other than Amiga viruses were included for the reward. Of course we pay the reward for ALL different kinds of viruses both PC, MAC and like. Today I don't have a valid virus announcement. If you know a virus programmer, please state the following: 1. The virus name (must be well-known). 2. The address and name of the virus programmer. 3. The name and the address of other people, who maybe know that the virus programmer has spread this virus. 4. If you know, which way the virus was spread please state this, (spread e.g. by modem) I can ensure that your name will be held 100% confidential, when we contact the police, if you want that! Please contact me, and I will send you more info: SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL Erik Loevendahl Soerensen Snaphanevej 10 4720 Praestoe Denmark Ph. + 45 55 99 25 12 Fax + 45 55 99 34 98 ---------------------------------------------------- Michael Arends PIONEERS BBS: SHI RVC/West P.O. Box 1531 (206) 775-7983 Lynnwood, WA. 98046-1531 USA ---------------------------------------------------- Jim Maciorowski Ground Zero BBS: SHI RVC/East (813) 849-4034 P.O. Box 724 (813) 845-4577 Port Richey, Florida (813) 934-9765 34673-0724 @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-9 "Tip of the Week" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Tip of the Week --------------------- By Robert Niles For those of you who dislike having to change the DEFAULT TOOL on the Amiga Report's Icon from MULTIVIEW to AMIGAGUIDE each week might be interested in this. You have to have OS 2.x (sorry 1.3 readers, you will still have to go in and change the DEFAULT TOOL), and all you have to do is create a "HardLink" so that everytime MULTIVIEW is called AMIGAGUIDE is run. You do this with OS2.x 's MAKELINK command. MAKELINK will create a file which "points" to another file whenever called upon as an application or a command. To do so all you have to do is type: MAKELINK SYS:UTILITIES/MULTIVIEW SYS:UTILITIES/AMIGAGUIDE (Template: MAKELINK [FROM] [TO] [HARD]) This assuming that AMIGAGUIDE is in the Utilities directory. The MAKELINK command requires that the FROM and TO fields be on the same volume. You only have to do this once, and MULTIVIEW and AMIGAGUIDE could be replaced with any other application or command you wish (Like when an icon asks for MUCHMORE you can have it call up MORE instead). Now that's some aspirin for an old headache eh? @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-10 "UseNet Review - Cybernetix" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Cybernetix -------------------------- By Marcus Albers (malbers@ns.ccsn.edu) PRODUCT NAME Cybernetix BRIEF DESCRIPTION This is a side scrolling shoot'em up with parallax scrolling, excellent animation, digitized sound F/X, and multiple weapons. The game is shareware and can be found on any Aminet ftp site in the directory pub/aminet/game/shoot. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Vision Software Address: Unit 10, St. Kevin's Arcade Karangahape Road Central Auckland New Zealand LIST PRICE This game is shareware, and the registration fee is 5 pounds sterling (about 10 US dollars should do it). What do you get for your money? The satisfaction of having registered this excellent game. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE NTSC Standard mode. Operates in PAL mode. Not compatible while A570 CD-ROM drive is enabled. SOFTWARE None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500 AmigaDOS 1.3 1 megabyte Chip RAM External floppy drive A570 CD-ROM drive REVIEW I remember the world of shareware for the Commodore 64 way back when. If I was able to find a game that used sprites instead of a custom character set, it was an excellent find. But finding games that even came close to being commercial quality was unheard of. Things very well may have once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-12 "A.M.I.G.A." @toc "menu" /// Another Moronic, Inane and Gratuitous Article --------------------------------------------- by Chad Freeman (cjfst4+@pitt.edu or cjfst4@cislabs.pitt.edu -- Internet) (cfreeman -- BIX) Hi there folks! Well, last week I left you with a sort of un- intentional cliff-hanger, since the crummy zmodem program on the UNIX box I send this to was hungry and ate half of my article. Unfortunately, I hadn't saved the article on my Amiga, being in relative haste to get it in slightly later than on-time. Since I can't find our friend Oswald, I've decided to make this... *======================================================* !------------------------------------------------------! !THE FIRST AND PROBABLY LAST EVER A.M.I.G.A. CONTEST!!!! !------------------------------------------------------! *======================================================* 'Wow!' you say. 'Gee!' you say. 'Stop with the "you say's"' you say! 'Quit using weird quotation groupings!' you say. Well, shut up and let me tell you about the contest, ok? The FAPLEAMIGAC (pronounced 'bleh') contest is thus: you write a suitably funny ending to Oswald's AMIGA PARK story, and _I_ will print YOUR NAME and YOUR STORY in MY COLUMN! How's that for the deal of the century?? Yes, I know, you're saying 'big whoop.' Well, if you're bored one night, jot down a hundred words or something and mail it in to one of my INTERNET addresses. If you mail it in before Wednesday, July 14th, and I arbitrarily pick it as the winning article, you'll know by that Friday when AR comes out, or whenever you read it, whichever comes later. Oh, and if you're simply an egomaniac wanting your name in lights and will go around killing people if you don't win, don't bother. Well, now I'm feeling really good, because I've slacked off on another week's work by setting up this contest, plus eaten up some precious article space this week. So on with the article. Y'know, recently there has been a lot of bad press about Commodore. They're firing people left and right, is what it comes down to. But while many people see this as a bad thing, I, in my twisted way, don't (boy I use a lot of commas). See, the way I see it, all of these firings ought to INCREASE productivity. I mean, after all, now the remaining staff can knock out the walls in their cramped offices and have some elbow room. Also, Commodore now has tons of free warehouse space so they won't have to maintain or rent a large building to hold their stock. And to top it all off, the money they save from recycling all of those office-door nameplates should save them a bundle. So don't worry about Commodore, they'll do just fine. In fact, the only time I'll worry about the old seaman is when a certain unnamed individual on the Usenet newsgroups starts having good things to say about the company (but then the Earth will end so I won't have to worry about it). And speaking of Usenet and the Internet; some people are calling it the prototype for a global information highway. Doesn't this scare anyone else? Internet is one thing and one thing only, ladies and gentlemen: mass chaos incarnate. It's been a gazillion years since the first Internet mailing programs showed up and they still can't get rid of the 20k or whatever limit on messages, folks! Every piece of mail you read has 2000 lines of junk at the beginning, and a 100 line signature at the end, with 500 lines of useless text quoted in the middle. In fact, I think sending your mail out in space and waiting to see if it follows a circular path and ends up back on Earth would be better than the current system. No, I think we should ditch the Internet and hire NewTek to do the job of designing and implementing a global network, because 1) it'd use Amigas and 2) it'd have a cool name like Telecom Coffee Maker or something. Just think, you'd get a 'mail bean' from your buddy in Kalamazoo and you could use your own editor to write a reply. Just save it to the 'roaster' and out it goes. Of course a mail processing program could only be called the 'grinder.' And multimedia extensions to mail? Why, 'cream and sugar' of course! Well, now that I've 'pun'ished you for the week, its time for me to file this under 'T' for terminally warped. Remember, get those FAPLEAMIGAC submissions ready! I leave you, dear friends, with this little tidbit, the joke of the week. Q. How many Bill Gates does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. One, but you need to add 4 megs memory and an 80 meg hard drive. Tune in next week for another exciting episode of A.M.I.G.A., the only column with new added whitening ingredients to get your teeth sparkly clean! @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" /// Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users -------------------------------------- Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA or through Tymnet from anywhere in North America. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: - Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files, online, 24 hours a day. Portal has dedicated a 2.5 GIGabyte disk drive to the Amiga Zone. We have virtually unlimited space for files and new uploads. - The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. All of it. Every disk. Well-organized so it's easy to find exactly what you're after. - Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. - Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES, and many others including Compute's Amiga Resource with over 4 Megabytes of exclusive Compute magazine disk stuff you won't find elsewhere. - 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. Since Portal has FTP connections we can get new freely-distributable software online within MINUTES of its being announced on Usenet. - No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. Start downloading files with your first session on Portal. - Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. Instead of stumbling around in frustration you can talk to the people who design your hardware, who write your software. - Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. - Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. - FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! - Portal has the Usenet. Tthousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Usenet feeds into Portal many times each hour. There are 14 Amiga-specific Usenet newsgroups with hundreds of articles posted every day, including postings by Commodore personnel. Since Usenet is distributed worldwide, your questions and answers can be seen by literally hundreds of thousands of people the same day you post them. - Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. - The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. - Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. - All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. - Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) - And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well.. it's true. Portal Signup or for more information: 1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 1-408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Tymnet 9600bps services is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone sent me!" That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-13 "Zeus 68040" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Zeus 68040 Accelerator for Amiga 2000 ----------------------------------------------------- By David W. Walthour (David.W.Walthour@Dartmouuth.EDU) PRODUCT NAME Zeus 68040 accelerator for the Amiga 2000 BRIEF DESCRIPTION 68040 accelerator card for the Amiga 2000 with SCSI II controller. Expandable to 64 MB of 32-bit RAM. This review describes the 28 MHz version of the card. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Progressive Peripherals Inc. Address: 938 Quail Street Lakewood, CO USA 80215-5513 Telephone: (303) 238-5555 FAX: (303) 235-0600 BBS: (303) 238-6326 LIST PRICE Due to the sudden drop in price of this card last February, I am uncertain of its current list price; however, I believe it is about $1495.00 (US) with no RAM installed. When I purchased my Zeus in February, the price was $649.50 (US) with no RAM installed. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS The Zeus card requires that you have an Amiga 2000 computer. The board is designed to handle both the original German A2000 and the B2000 (rev 3.9 and greater). MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga B2000 with rev 3.9 motherboard 1 MB Chip RAM AmigaDOS 2.1 (Kickstart 37.175, Workbench 38.35) 28MHz Zeus, 12 MB 32-bit RAM, with mounted Quantum 105LPS hard drive HARDWARE & INSTALLATION [MODERATOR'S NOTE: If you are not comfortable opening up your Amiga or handling expansion devices, then you should have the work done by an authorized Amiga service center. Opening your Amiga yourself may void your warranty, and careless work may even damage the machine. - Dan] The board contains the 68040 processor, which is cooled by a small fan mounted on top of it, 16 SIMM sockets for adding up to 64 MB of RAM, an internal and external SCSI II connector for adding either SCSI or SCSI II devices, and a mounting bracket for attaching a low profile SCSI drive to the back of the card. The board takes standard 1x8 or 4x8 SIMMs which are 80ns or faster (28 MHz Zeus) or 60ns or faster (33 MHz Zeus). The SIMMs are installed in groups of 4 and must be of the same type (1x8 or 4x8). You can mix groups of 1x8s and 4x8s on the board to achieve many different memory combinations. This allows you to start cheaply with 1x8 SIMMs and add larger amounts of RAM using 4x8s later. You need at least one group of 4 SIMMs on the card in order to use it. Without 32-bit memory on the card, it is likely that you won't notice much speed improvement, and certain operations may actually run slower than on a stock 2000. The SIMMs snap into the sockets easily; however it is recommended that you get your dealer to install the memory for you. If you are foolhardy enough to install memory yourself (like me), you should wear a grounding strap to avoid damaging the SIMMs. After you install memory on the board, you have to configure the jumpers on the board. PPI was very thoughtful in designing this board and put these jumpers at the top of the card so that when it is installed in the computer, they are still accessible without having to remove the card. There are about 12 jumpers to configure which control the memory, computer type and default settings of the board, and the manual does an adequate job of explaining most of these. However, there is one set of jumpers that the manual is rather unclear about. These jumpers control the amount of memory that will be autoconfigured. Autoconfigured memory has an advantage that it is available to the Amiga even if you boot it in "native" mode (using the 68000 instead of the Zeus's 68040). However, there is a disadvantage: the autoconfigured memory is accessed as if it were 16-bit memory rather than 32-bit memory when in 68040 mode, resulting in a 60% slowdown when the '040 uses this memory. So you should consider the specifics of your setup before choosing the amount of RAM to autoconfigure (0, 2, 4, or 8 MB). A special note for Amigas with only Chip RAM: if you choose 0 MB autoconfigured, then Kickstart will get loaded into Chip RAM, slowing down your performance. So you need to set aside some Autoconfigure memory (typically 2 MB) so that Kickstart will be in Fast 16-bit RAM; however, it is not possible to get them opened in the much faster 32-bit RAM. Mounting a SCSI drive is easy using the mounting bracket on the card and the additional hardware provided. Now you can install the Zeus into the 2000. You should also have a dealer install the board for you, but here are a few tips if you decide to go it alone. Installation of the board is somewhat hampered by the fact that the fan atop the '040 sticks rather far out of the board. As a result, to insert the board, the manual directs you to remove all other cards from your 2000 and swing the card in from the side (the manual has pictures to help describe this). This was rather inconvenient for me because I have quite a few other cards in my system, so I removed the screws from the drive bay/power supply cage in my 2000 to move it slightly out of the way so I could insert the card straight down. Either method gets the job done, but neither is particularly easy. It would have been nice for PPI to design the board for easier installation. The only thing remaining is to install the software. This consists of placing a few libraries in your LIBS: directory and placing a program called INIT040 at the beginning of your startup-sequence. This program adds the 32-bit memory to the system, places a Kickstart image in 32-bit RAM and moves the system vectors to 32-bit RAM. A program is provided to move these things from the installation disk to your hard drive, but unfortunately my installation disk was slightly damaged and so I had to install these programs and libraries myself. REVIEW When I got the Zeus configured and installed, and I booted my machine, I was amazed by how much faster it was. To quantify this speed increase, SysInfo 3.18 reports about 21 MIPS (millions of instructions per second) and about 5.33 MFLOPS (millions of floating point instructions per second). This is about 29 times faster than a stock 2000 in MIPS and about 350 times faster in MFLOPS. Using the benchmark program AIBB 6.1, I found that, overall, the Zeus card was 1.74 times faster than an Amiga 4000 at integer tests, 1.15 times faster at floating point tests, but only 0.62 times as fast at graphics tests (due to the 4000's AGA graphics chips). Quantifying the speed of the SCSI II controller is not possible for me because I don't have a SCSI II drive. However, with my Quantum 105 SCSI drive, I find that I can potentially achieve a transfer rate of about 1.1 MB/sec from Diskspeed 4.2 which seems to be the limit of the Quantum drive. This performance unfortunately drops off quickly as the drive becomes fragmented. I have used my Zeus for about 4 months now and have had very little software trouble with it. Some games and some PD demos programs have not worked with the 68040 processor, but in such cases it is easy to reboot the machine in 68000 mode to run the program. The vast majority of software I have used is compatible with Zeus. DOCUMENTATION The documentation is well written; and except for the lack of information regarding the technicalities of the autoconfig memory (see above), it is very complete. LIKES AND DISLIKES Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the Zeus accelerator. From a hardware point of view, I think it is extremely well designed. However, I do have two dislikes about the software: one relatively small and one large: My smaller dislike is with the INIT040 program in that it initializes the system in a nonstandard way. For instance, when it remaps the Kickstart into 32-bit memory, it does so by not adding 1 MB of the 32-bit RAM to the system and using this to hold the 512 KByte Kickstart image. The result is that the remaining 512 KBytes that aren't configured are wasted and can't be used by the system. Furthermore, INIT040 initializes the Memory Management Unit (MMU) tables of the 68040 processor in a non-standard way which can conflict with other programs (such as EMPLANT) which also try to use the MMU. For these reasons, I suggest that anyone using Zeus NOT use the INIT040 program. Nic Wilson's Set040 (on Fred Fish #642) can be used to map the Kickstart ROM. There are also a variety of programs to add memory to the system and to move the system vectors to 32-bit RAM, and the latest version of Commodore's SetPatch and 68040.library will set up the MMU tables in the standard way. My large dislike is with the device driver for the SCSI II controller. For some unknown reason, PPI wrote the driver in such a way that it steals nearly ALL of the CPU cycles when it is reading or writing to any devices attached to it. This is an Amiga, not a MAC! Device drivers should be properly written to utilize the Amiga's multitasking architecture and should not use busy loops to poll for data from the device! The stupid programmers at PPI better get their act together and rewrite the device driver properly! Neither of these problems is big enough, however, to recommend not purchasing the Zeus card. It is a phenomenal value. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I have never used another 68040 accelerator for the 2000, so I can't compare it to other 68040 products. However, I have used a GVP '030 Combo accelerator and can say that Zeus compares favorably with it. I feel that the Zeus has a superior hardware design in that it is built around using inexpensive 1x8 and 4x8 RAM SIMM modules, whereas the GVP accelerators use proprietary SIMMs which cost quite a bit more ($50+ per MB for the GVP vs. $33 per MB for the Zeus). The GVP accelerators, though, have more thoughtfully designed software which operates with AmigaDOS in a more standard way (like not using busy loops in their device drivers). BUGS I have found no bugs other than those already listed above. Some other owners on Usenet have complained that they have examined their 68040 chip and found it to be marked as a "68EC040", the version which does not contain an integral MMU, and some users who have checked have complained that they could not get the MMU to operate. PPI claims that they received a shipment of '040 chips from Motorola which were incorrectly marked. I have not examined my '040 chip and my MMU does operate correctly, so I can't really comment on this issue. VENDOR SUPPORT Vendor support from PPI has generally been poor. When you attempt to contact them, you almost always reach an answering system, and they have taken over a week on average to respond to any questions I have left on their system. If you have questions regarding Zeus, I would recommend turning to USENET or your local dealer before trying to contact PPI. WARRANTY PPI offers a limited 1 year warranty on Zeus which extends only to the original purchaser. CONCLUSIONS Overall, I feel that the Zeus accelerator is a very good product and would give it a rating of: o 4 out of 5 overall o 5 out of 5 on hardware design o 2.5 out of 5 on software for the poorly designed, but bug-free, device driver o 4 out of 5 for the documentation I would recommend it to anyone buying an accelerator for their 2000. ------------------------------ An update from Alan Quirt... I just read David W. Walthour's review of the PPI Zeus board. I followed the discussion in c.s.a.hardware when the price reduction was big news, and kept notes on problems and suggested solutions. Two things should perhaps be added to the review. 1. The Init040 program supplied by PPI should NOT be placed at the beginning of your startup-sequence if you are running any OS version earlier than 2.1. It will crash your Amiga. Instead it should follow LoadWB. (Of course you may not want to run it at all, for reasons given in the review.) 2. Some Zeus boards came from the factory with the autoconfig jumper set for 4 MB of autoconfig memory. If you have only 4 MB on the board and leave that jumper unchanged, nothing works. Several people said to avoid using over 2 MB autoconfig. I think it would be best for anyone with other fast RAM to leave all Zeus memory non-autoconfig. Both of these hints come from USENET, not from personal experience. However, several people reported the problems, and I saw no contradictions in the posted solutions. Regards, Al Quirt (aquirt@bnr.ca) @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-3 "Holonet" @toc "menu" /// Holonet: Inexpensive Internet Access ------------------------------------- *** HOLONET *** HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS. HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu driven interface. HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to use Internet services. HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell access. Services include: o Convenient Access A local call in 850+ cities nationwide. o Online Publications Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News, Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine. o USENET Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day. The following news readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN. o Internet E-Mail Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to: member@holonet.net o Internet Access Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP. (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use) o Single and Multi-player Games Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games. o Support for Eudora Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader. o UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet. How to try HoloNet for FREE: Telnet: holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400 bps. There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an automated response containg a list of access numbers, send e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net How to get more information: E-mail: info@holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps Voice: 510-704-0160 Fax: 510-704-8019 HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc. Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-14 "Warez out there" @toc "menu" /// Warez Out There --------------- By Tom Mulcahy TITLE STAT-RAM VERSION 2.0 AUTHOR A joint effort by Richard Waspe INTERNET : waspy@cix.compulink.co.uk USENET : rwaspe@hamlet.adsp.sub.org FIDONET : 2:255/72.2 Nicola Salmoria INTERNET : MC6489@mclink.it DESCRIPTION StatRam is a very fast, very recoverable ram drive. It works on any Amiga using V2.04 or greater of the OS. It maintains the remarkable recoverability of the original VD0:, but has now been totally re-written to handle any DOS filesystem, be named what you like, and give back memory from deleted files instantly. Please follow these instructions closely as the setup is very different from earlier versions of StatRam The files in this archive are based on asdg.vdisk.device, originally ** Copyright 1987 By Perry S. Kivolowitz (ASDG Incorporated) All Rights ** Reserved to Author. NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. We are not willing to infringe copyright laws; but since there hasn't been any update in the last five years, we are trying to provide an useful tool to the Amiga community. StatRam 2 has been so totally re-written, there is almost none of the original remaining. However, the same distribution restrictions of the original apply: ** May not be distributed by any commercial software or hardware vendor. ** May not be sold under any guise. ** Must (please) contain this and copyright information above and below. ** ** Specifically: ** ** No maker or seller of Amiga expansion hardware or software may dis- ** tribute this software in *any* way. No reseller of public domain ** software may distribute this software either (as this is *NOT* in the ** public domain). ** ** The only acceptable means of distribution is by networks, bbs's, fnf, ** and by (non-profit) user groups. Distribution MUST BE FREE (except for ** media costs plus a token amount covering only shipping and handling). Overview -------- Some of you will remember, and maybe still use, one of the first recoverable ram disks ever written for the Amiga: VD0. VD0 is quite good at its job, and is probably the one which resists the heaviest system crashes. It also uses memory in a very efficient way, starting from the bottom of the memory pool and thus avoiding fragmentation. This also means that if you have both 32-bit (fast!) and 16-bit (slow!) memory, it will use 16-bit memory first, leaving the faster memory for more important tasks. Unfortunately, VD0 also shows its age. It doesn't support FastFileSystem, and it doesn't work on machines which don't have fast memory in 24-bit addressing space. Here is the solution. We have completely disassembled asdg.vdisk.device, and made major changes and enhancements in it. The result is a new device called static.device, which holds the advantages of VD0 and enhances them with new features. Static.device: - Supports all filesystems from OFS to the new DCFS provided with OS 3.0. - Works on all machines. At least, we hope so. - Frees unused memory almost instantly.. - May be named anyway you like - it's not stuck to SD0: - Will test sector checksums on every read (_very_ important with Fast File System which doesn't do it by itself). Installation ------------ - Copy static.device to DEVS: - If you have Workbench 2.1 or later, drag the icon SD0 to DEVS:DOSDrivers. If you have Workbench 2.04, join the file named Mountlist to DEVS:Mountlist, and add a 'Mount SD0:' command to your user-startup. Otherwise, you're in bad luck: it won't work with previous releases of the operating system. Configuration ------------- You may control three aspects of SD0: - Its size - The type of memory it uses - The filesystem it uses AVAILABILITY BIX - statram20.lha - 6,399k ------------------------------ TITLE How to code demos on AGA machines - text VERSION v5.0 AUTHOR Comrade J/SAE - ex demo maniac DESCRIPTION Some good info on how to properly code on AGA machines. The next best thing to the actual C= v39 includes and autodocs for now. AVAILABILITY BIX - howtocode5.lha - 32,681k ------------------------------ TITLE DiskSalve 2 VERSION v11.25 AUTHOR Dave Haynie 284 Memorial Avenue Gibbstown, NJ 08027 USA BIX: Hazy Portal: Hazy Usenet: daveh@cbmvax@commodore.com DESCRIPTION DISKSALV 2 (V11.25) RELEASE NOTES DiskSalv is a "Disk Salvage" program. It can recover data from a disk in severe trouble, it can fix a good portion of disk problems directly on the problem disk, and it can locate valid partitions on a disk with an unknown layout or damaged rigid disk block. It supports all AmigaDOS file systems through 3.0. The included "Cheap" manual details the basic functions available, while the semi-commercial manual covers every little detail, theory of operation, and other good stuff. If you're the type who would rather just run the program and see what happens, type "DiskSalv" or click on the icon to begin. Brief help on individual menu items and gadgets is available via the HELP key. HELP will active the help message for any gadget or menu item that's currently under the mouse pointer. CONTENTS The DiskSalv 2 distribution comes in two archives for on-line release, one for the program and English documentation, one for the various locale support files. For software library distribution, it comes with the program and English documentation expanded, the locale information compressed. The files themselves are the same in any case. The main program distribution (all files have associated .info files) DiskSalv2/README This file DiskSalv2/DiskSalv The main program DiskSalv2/Project.info A sample project icon DiskSalv2/Docs The documentation files DiskSalv2/Docs/english English docs directory DiskSalv2/Docs/english/DiskSalv.doc The cheap manual, in English Please see the current locale distribution for the available selection of localized catalogs and documentation files. SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge some of the help I had on this project. There are individuals too numerous to mention who had a part, either by making suggestions or testing. Thanks go to the Commodore-Amiga Software group for help with the GUI development and pushing me to use style-guide standards and post 2.04 things like localization. And I want to call particular attention to those who did the translations for me: Danish translation by Jesper Kehlet email: kehlet@kehlet.adsp.sub.org French translation by Jean-Francois Dreyfuss email: dreyfusj@issy.cnet.fr Italian translation by Fabrizio Lodi email: lodi@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it Norwegian translation by Petter Nilsen of Ultima Thule Software email: petter@pnilsen.adsp.sub.org Finnish translation by Jukka Marin email: jmarin@messi.uku.fi Swedish translation by Mathias Axelsson email: d92max@txfs1.hfb.se Hopefully additional translations will be finished before too long, work continues on this. AVAILABILITY BIX - disksalv2.lha - 79,616k AMINET @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-15 "Lazarus Long" @toc "menu" /// Lazarus Long V II STR Feature Thank you for the humor.... ----------------------------- Reprinted from STReport #9.25 THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG Issue #2 [Editor's Note: I don't know what happened to Issue #1.] Compiled by Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. Various real-life sayings (some attributed, some not) that could fit in- to the Notebooks of Lazarus Long. From the Jerry Pournelle RT on Genie Cheap, fast, good - pick two, "We must be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains fall out." -- James Randi "If it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober. -- William Butler Yeats "The only thing worse than not getting what you want, is getting what you want." Any benevolent system designed to aid the truly needy will be abused by the truly unworthy. Wherever I go, there I am. Despite its high cost, living remains popular. "To desire the end is to desire the means." That which does not grow stronger, kills us. --M. Dederian Most people would sooner die than think; in fact they do so. -- Bertrand Russell "Beware of cookies bearing fortunes" -- Found in a fortune cookie In ten seconds I can tell you more than I know. -- Anonymous Government Employee Being right too soon is always socially unacceptable. "Arguments are debatable." Politicians hate to see a beautiful theory mugged by a gang of ugly facts. Never carry a knife to a gunfight. The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his. -- Gen. George Patton I think the past is behind us - it'd be real confusing if not. From the Blues Traveller song, "But Anyway." @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-16 "AR InfoFile" @toc "menu" /// MCI 800 COLLECT SERVICE AR InfoFile ------------------------------------ MCI's 1-800-COLLECT =================== MCI has announced 1-800-COLLECT, a new way for consumers to make collect calls. Beginning today, children, students, men and women in the armed services, travelers, truckers -- everyone who takes advantage of long distance collect calling -- will be able to save their parents and loved ones up to 44 percent (vs. AT&T operator-dialed rates) on collect calls they make from any phone in America and Puerto Rico. Americans now make 1 billion collect calls each year, spending more than $3 billion. "Until MCI's 1-800-COLLECT, collect calling lagged far behind advances made in other products and services in the long distance marketplace," said Gerald H. Taylor, president of MCI Consumer Markets. "Reversing the charges, which dates back to the 1890s, is one of the oldest services available. Contemporary collect callers have been stuck with some very old-fashioned constraints." When the consumer makes a "0+" collect call today, the person he or she is calling is charged by the long distance provider of the phone from which the call is placed. Demand has been suppressed due to complicated dialing schemes, high prices and the absence of any true competition. "In a world where consumers usually make choices about services, collect callers are simply left out," Taylor continued. To use the new service, callers simply dial 1-800-COLLECT (1-800-265-5328) to reach an operator who will connect the call. Neither the caller nor the recipient needs to be an MCI customer. 1-800-COLLECT is made possible through billing arrangements with local telephone companies and MCI's proprietary ISN (Intelligent Service Network), a specialized software-controlled network for MCI's Calling Card and Operator Services. The ISN enables MCI to provide the customized call handling and network routing for 1-800-COLLECT calls. The network efficiency provided by the ISN is passed on to consumers in the form of lower rates. MCI launches today a multi-media national advertising campaign to introduce 1-800-COLLECT. Advertising will appear on network and cable television, in print publications and outdoor media throughout the United States. CONTACT: Kate Fralin or Su-Lin Cheng of MCI, 1-800-436-9749 @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-4 "NVN" @toc "menu" /// NVN WANTS YOU! Another Network Supports Amiga! -------------- National Videotext Network (NVN) National Videotext Network (NVN) has recently added an Amiga Forum to it's growing lists of available services. The Amiga Forum is ready and waiting for you! Order an extended NVN Membership of 6 or 12 months, pay for it in advance and receive a bonus in connect time at no additional charge. Choose from two subscription plans: 6-Month Membership ------------------ Pay just $30 for a 6-month Membership and receive a usage credit that entitles you to $15 of connect-time in the Premium services of your choice. Your total savings using this plan would be over $20!* 12 Month Membership ------------------- Pay $50 for a full year's Membership and get even more free time online. We'll give you a $25 usage credit to use in your favorite Premium services or try out new ones. You could save as much as $45.* For more information about either of these plans, give us a call at 1-800-336-9096. -=* 9600 BAUD USERS *=- $6/hour non-prime time - $9/hour prime time You can join NVN one of two ways. By voice phone 1-800-336-9096 (Client Services) or via modem phone 1-800-336-9092. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-17 "AR Confidential" @toc "menu" /// AR Confidential "We heard it through the Grapvine!" --------------- Rumor has it that NewTek is to be the first electronics company to market breakfast cereal. To be called ToasterFlakes, the pieces will be shaped like tiny Amiga 2000's with no nameplate, and have a distinctive flavor that beta testers call "Freon." Each box will include a prize -- a different screenshot from various movies produced using the Video Toaster. The cereal is said to have no nutritional value, and yet at the same time does not contribute to tooth decay or heart disease. In fact, further rumors indicate that the primary ingrediant will be dried banana peels. Demos of this new cereal are available on S-VHS, Hi8, 3/4" and VHS formats. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" /// Dealer Directory Serving our readers! ---------------- Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, Florida 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 GEnie: B.GRAY Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 Finetastic Computers 721 Washington St Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-18 "Humor Department" @toc "menu" /// The Humor Department Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs -------------------- If you believed what you read in AR Confidential, you're dummer than the heads of Atari! @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== Amiga Report International Online Magazine July 2, 1993 * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE * No. 1.15 Copyright © 1993 All Rights Reserved =========================================================================== Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. =========================================================================== Only * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * _ _ __ ___ _ * * /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ * * / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ * * /--- \\| \X || || \\_||/--- \\ * * /______________________________\\ * * / \\ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Makes it possible!! @endnode @node menu "Amiga Report 1.15 Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Staff, Copyright information @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-up information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} Files available for FTP /// 07/02/93 Amiga Report 1.15 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Report · New Products · Dealer Directory · AR Online · AR Confidential · Warez Out There · A.M.I.G.A. · SHI News · Cybernetix · Zeus 040/A2000 · Amiga Tip of the Week » Microbotics 1230XA Reviewed « » New Telecommunications Tax Hidden in Bill « » Atari and IBM Join Forces to Market Jaguar « =========================================================================== Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports =========================================================================== PORTAL · DELPHI · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · NVN =========================================================================== @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} A Word of Caution @{" CPU Status Report " link P1-2} Modem Taxes?? @{" CDROM-FS v1718 " link P1-3} New release of CDROM device @{" New M.O. Company " link P1-4} Another place to get Amiga wares @{" Blitz Basic 2 " link P1-5} New Release @{" MEBBSNet v1.0 Release " link P1-6} Specs and info of MEBBSNet BBS program @{" Online Weekly " link P1-7} The lines are buzzing! @{" SHI Announcement " link P1-8} Reward info on info relating to Virus programmers @{" Tip of the Week " link P1-9} Creating Hardlinks @{" Usenet Review - Cybernetix " link P1-10} Great game!! @{" Microbotics 1230XA Review " link P1-11} An Accelerator for the A1200 @{" A.M.I.G.A. " link P1-12} Contest!!!!! @{" Usenet Review - Zeus 68040 " link P1-13} Accelerator for the A2000 @{" Warez Out There " link P1-14} PD/SW program information @{" Lazarus Long V II " link P1-15} Humorous Sayings and such @{" AR InfoFile " link P1-16} MCI 800-Collect @{" AR Confidential " link P1-17} New Cereal from a BIG developer! @{" The Humor Department " link P1-18} SSLLLAAAAPPPPP !!!!! @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright information @endnode @node P4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc "menu" @{" Delphi " link P4-1} Select for information on these services @{" Portal " link P4-2} and how to sign up. @{" Holonet " link P4-3} @{" NVN " link P4-4} @endnode @node P5 "Files for FTP" @toc "menu" @{" ARoach 1.0 " link P5-1} CockRoaches infect your screen! @{" MainActor 1.1 " link P5-2} A Modular Animation Package @endnode