-=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Ocassional Newsletter) / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || BACK FOR THE FUTURE || -=========================================================================- AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 960208 S P E C I A L " G E T A W A Y F R O M W I N T E R " ( A T L E A S T Y O U C A N D R E A M A B O U T I T " ) I S S U E ! ! ! The weather's been terrible all over the country, it's the beginning of February, there are several weeks of winter left - phooey! Here's a set of Amiga news stories to turn your minds to travel and escape (even if one of the places is Norway, maybe not the best for a winter retreat?) Included is an announcement of a new e-mail package for the Amiga in case all you can afford is to send mail to these places, like most of us. I notice that the mailer package has the same name as the one in the Surfer (see last issue). Have fun and hang in there - Spring's out there somewhere! And just because we need reminding once in a while, I've included a recently encountered list of just what makes an Amiga worth owning. The information provided comes from the Amiga Technologies Home page. Brad W O R L D O F A M I G A - L O N D O N EVENT NAME World of Amiga Show - London BRIEF DESCRIPTION An Amiga only consumer and trade show. LOCATION Novotel Exhibition Centre, Hammersmith, London. Press Enquiries to Ken Highes at Cape Cowley Associates; +44-(0)161-4809811 Trade Enquires to Peter Brameld at PBA Events; +44-(0)1462-480024 TIME Two days; Saturday, April 13th. Sunday, April 14th. CONTENT From the World of Amiga press release, main features; - A games arcade. - Competitions Galore. - Retail area. - Presentation theatre. - High End Applications. Amiga Technologies is said to attend. ENTRY PRICES #7.00 for adults #5.50 for children. Advance booking credit card hotline; +44-(0)1369-706346 Cheques and postal orders made payable to 'The World of Amiga' can be sent to PO Box 9, Dunoon, Argyll, PA23 8QQ. AUTHOR INFORMATION I'm a staff writer for CU Amiga Magazine and I'm responsible for much of our coverage of the technical side of things. _ ___ /\/\(-) | @ cu-amiga.demon.co.uk ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ " T H E G A T H E R I N G " F O R 1 9 9 6 This is a preliminary official invitation to The Gathering 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction CRUSADERS Productions ARE BACK!!! AND THROUGH THE KANDU ORGANIZATION THEY ARE QUITE DETERMINED TO MAKE THE GATHERING 1996 INTO SOMETHING DIFFERENT ALTOGETHER. We have heard your complaints about bad choice of locations, loss of power, poor networking, expensive entry fees, prizes that were not paid until many months after the party and so forth... AND WE CORRECTED THEM ALL (well, most of them anyway). By using only professional companies instead of doing everything ourselves, everything you need for a great party will be there. IN TIME, IN PLACE and IN A WORKABLE ORDER Together with some the largest companies around, we're going to make the THE GATHERING 1996 more fun, more non-stop action, more no-holds barred computer action than any other party! Just a pie in the sky? Read on... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hot Spots LOCATION: "VIKINGSKIPET" in Hamar, north of Oslo, Norway. The main hall from the '94 Olympics in Norway. (If you don't know what the Olympics are, you are just the guy we want at TG, and believe us, the hall is big!!!) 12.000 square meters of pure pleasure 3000+ seats, tables and SEPARATE poweroutlets available. Every person gets a seat, every person gets a tablespace and every person gets his own grounded poweroutlet. (1 outlet per person, bring your own grounded multiple power outlets to have more than one item connected at a time). More than 20 seperate wardrobes with 4-10 showers per wardrobe. Don't panic, bring your own towel. Catering will be provided. In our next info, prices and a day-to-day menu will be included. Junkfood and not-so-junk food will be served at your leisure. Silicone and methane lifeforms make special arrangments. PARKING: Big parking facilities available immediately outside the hall at no extra charge. Will take any kind of possible vehicle you can arrive in. Extraterrastials call ahead for separate reservations. Limousine service available. DATE: Easter'96 System Boot : Tuesday 2 April 1996 00:01am System Shutdown : Saturday 6 April 1996 11:59am PRICE: More than 100 hours of party for maximum 200 NOK! (About US$ 30) As usual, girls and non-Europeans are let in for *FREE*. ET's also have free entrance but have to provide their own phones. Prices MIGHT change for the lower, but no promises yet. NETWORK: 1500++ Ethernet connections with high speed internal and Internet party network from day 0 at NO EXTRA CHARGE!! 98% COAX connections, bring your HUB's for TP-connections. You just need a PC with an Ethernet-card, or buy one from us for 250 NOK (US$ 35) (16bits NE2000 cards for ISA-bus only). This is non-profit way for us get YOU onto the network if you don't already have a Ethernet card. You get to keep the card after the party. No rentals or credit plans available. Major body parts acceptable as a shortterm deposit. POWER: Seperate poweroutlet per person, 20 persons per breaker switch. 3000 Amps available instantly, and our special TECH task force will be monitoring the powergrid at all hours. The hall itself is providing this as a courtesy service, so it's not us spending the week putting the power up. It's in place the week BEFORE the party. COMPOS: Demo, intro, music, gfx and wild competitions will be held, plus a few surprises... See separate paragraph for more info. VIDEO: Hot new movies and all the old goodies will be shown at regular intervals, 24 hours a day, all week. A special auditorium with 200 quality seats and superb audiovisual equipment provides the quality experience for all of you moviebuffs. If it's good enough for Olympic hot-shots it's certainly good enough for you. SLEEPING: Special arrangements with the local fire department allow sleeping inside the hall. (No more sleeping outside in a tent, we're computer freaks and not Grizzly Adam's fans.) CONTACT: For more detailed ad updated information, you may: * See our web pages at http://www.coming.soon * call CRUSADERS BBS at # +47-22 10 46 46 Conference Name TG96 * call Infolink BBS at # +47-22 57 16 00 or 04 Conference name: Gathering96 * Contact Vegard Skjefstad voice at # +47 90119966 * or Geir Allstedt voice at # +47 90086488 Write to: Crusaders Productions Stasjonsvn. 56 N-2010 Strømmen Norway ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Competitions As this is only a preliminary invitation, most of the details have not been "nailed down" yet. More detailed info will be made available as soon as possible, so keep in touch. General rules: All entries will be presented in the best true form available. To allow us to do this, please follow the written rules or provide us with the hardware/software to show the entry in it's best form. All entries will be put on a (or more) CDROM and run from here. Contributions will be awarded royalty from this based upon contribution. PC DEMO * 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) * 8Mb RAM * SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar * Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell * Max 550K conventional memory requirement * Standalone executable with or without data files * Max 10 minutes shown * Max 5 Mbytes packed * Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) * Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time * - Exits demo at end automatically * Must run from harddisk * Must run from CD-ROM * Soundblaster or above supported * Gravis Ultrasound supported optionally * Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) AMIGA DEMO * Amiga 1200/4000 * AGA * 2Mb Chip * 2Mb Fast * Standalone executable with or without data files * Max 10 minutes * Max 5 Mbytes packed * Harddisk , floppydisk and CDROM installable/runnable. * Exits demo at end * Exits demo by mouseclick * Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) * Should pass Enforcer-test PC 4K INTRO * 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) * 8Mb RAM * SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar * Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell * Max 550K conventional memory requirement * Standalone executable with or without data files * Max 10 minutes shown * Max 4096 bytes packed * Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) * Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time * Exits demo at end automatically * Must run from harddisk * Must run from CD-ROM * Soundblaster or above may be supported * Gravis Ultrasound may be supported optionally * Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) PC 64K INTRO * 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) * 8Mb RAM * SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar * Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell * Max 550K conventional memory requirement * Standalone executable with or without data files * Max 10 minutes shown * Max 65536 bytes * Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) * Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time * Exits demo at end automatically * Must run from harddisk * Must run from CD-ROM * Soundblaster or above supported * Gravis Ultrasound supported optionally * Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) AMIGA 40K INTRO * Amiga 1200/4000 * AGA * 2Mb Chip * 2Mb Fast * Standalone executable with or without data files * Max 10 minutes * Max 40960 bytes * Harddisk , floppydisk and CDROM installable/runnable. * Exits demo at end * Exits demo by mouseclick * Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) * Should pass Enforcer-test GRAPHICS * Image will be shown for 60 seconds * TIFF or IFF formats allowed * Max 24 bit color depth (16.7 M colors) * Max 1024x768 resolution allowed * Any technique(s) allowed, must be stated * Machine format unlimited * No colourcycling effects allowed ANIMATION * Max 15 minutes * Contribution must be provided on a harddisk or VHS-tape (Harddisk media will be returned) * FLI, FLC, MOV or AVI formats allowed Other formats supported by contributors at time of entry into the competition * Max 24 bit color depth (16.7 M colors) * Max 800x600 resolution allowed * Any technique(s) allowed, must be stated on competition entry form * Contributions may be presented with a commercially available soundtrack chosen by the author(s) 4 CHANNEL MUSIC * Max 3 minutes * Max 4 channels * S3M, MOD, PAC, XM and MID formats allowed * Entries will be played on an AWE32 using SB Studio 3.0 MULTICHANNEL MUSIC * Max 3 minutes * Max 32 channels * S3M, MOD, PAC, XM and MID formats allowed * Entries will be played on an AWE32 using SB Studio 3.0 WILD!! * Max 15 minutes * Bring your own hardware and *contact us* SCREENSAVE COMPO * Windows or Windows 95 *.SCR format * Amiga Garschnev blanker or similar * Macintosh After Dark-format * Other formats by providing similar support MACHINE DESIGN * External design (Colours, art, features or similar) * Internal design (Colours, art, features or similar) USELESS UTILTY COMPO * Well, the name is enuff!!! CODER-HAT COMPO * Design * Features * Wearability * Power-consumption GROUP T-SHIRT COMPO * Slogan * Design * Wearability * WET T-shirt allowed Soccer-compo, Frogger-compo, C-Robot AI Compo (PC/Amiga/Unix/SGI/HP/SUN) Poetry/limerick computer compo Descent/Doom/Worms/Deadly Skies/Command & Conquer/Netgames competitions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transport How to get there: From Oslo: - Drive E6 north (towards Trondheim) from Oslo for about 75 minutes, and follow the signs to "Vikingskipet Olympic Arena". If you miss it, make your driver wear larger glasses! If you miss it twice, make your driver wear dark sunglasses and white cane. - Trains for Hamar depart from Oslo Central station every hour, the hall is located about 500 meters from the station. - Bus transports will be scheduled, contact us for booking information. - If you arrive by plane or boat in Norway, follow the above directions from Oslo or call us for further instructions. From Trondheim or northern Norway: - Drive E6 South (towards Oslo) and follow the signs again. From Sweden or Finland: - Drive until you hit E6 in Norway and turn either South or North depending on your location. Ask the nearest gas station. As several hundred thousand people made it during the Olympics, and nearly every person in Norway know where Hamar/Vikingskipet is, ASK!!! Map will be available at a later date at WEB-site and in the written invitation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rules General rules that really should be obvious... * Political, racist and religious activities will not be tolerated. The organizers reserve EXCLUSIVE right to determine what will be tolerated or not. * Commercial activity or trading will not be allowed without prior written permission from the organizers. (And a proper bribe of course). * Alcohol, drugs, firearms, projectile weapons, fireworks and nuclear devices not intended for transportation are not allowed inside or immediately outside the hall. * We will not be held responsible for damaged or stolen property. * Software piracy, hacking and illegal swapping will not be tolerated.Hacking the network is probably fun, but so is living the rest of your life without any testicles!! Remember!! Norwegians eat Rudolf's testicles for X-mas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Stuff * All electrical equipment must be properly put together following normal electrical regulations. Equipment not following this easy rule will not be allowed to hook up to the power grid. * Microwave ovens, grills, toasters, refridgerators, electric chairs and other equipment that may cause electrical noise, power surges or electrocutive experiences will not be allowed inside the party hall. * The party network will be based upon a 100 Mbit backbone. However, we will only be able to connect you to it via standard 10 Mbit COAX BNC connections at each table. IPX/SPX and IP protocols are the only protocols supported. * ANY AND ALL network connections are to be made by TECHNET crew personell. The only thing you should do yourself is installling your own networkclient at your workstation. The Tech Crew will be provide assistance for those who need it to get you onto he network. * Tampering with the network or power system will not be accepted!! Time and technical restrictions makes this a FRIENDSHIP rule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative Easter Why not combine THE GATHERING with your normal Easter holiday? About two hours of driving from Hamar, you find HAFJELL and KVITFJELL, the arenas that hosted the alpine diciplines during the 1994 Winter Olympics. These are two of Scandinavia's most modern alpine centers today, well suited for those family members who don't want to spend the entire week indoor. As well is Hamar a tourist site in itself. Olympics arenas and scenic nature is just part of what makes Hamar interesting. For those of you above 18, Hamar also provides a semi-interesting nightlife. Remember that drunken bastards will not be let into the hall, so behave yourself a bit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KANDU KANDU (Kreativ Aktiv Norsk Data Ungdom) would translate into "Creative Active Norwegian Computer Youth" was formed by Crusaders, Cryptoburners, ATC and a few other groups in order to show people outside the scene what we are capable of, a vital step in the process of getting economical support for a project of this magnitude. You may join KANDU through our web site, or by contacting us directly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last but not least Remember, this is only a preliminary invitation file, and all information stated above may be subject to change without notice. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact us as stated elsewhere in this document. No warranties are expressed or implied...or something like that. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ V O O D O O M A I L TITLE Voodoo - A multithreaded GUI E-Mail reader VERSION 1.103 (First Aminet release) AUTHOR Osma Ahvenlampi E-Mail: Osma.Ahvenlampi@hut.fi DESCRIPTION Voodoo is a GUI E-Mail reader for AmigaOS 3.x with many unique features. Among these are multithreading (you can read several folders at once, or even write several messages at once), the best MIME support to be seen on Amiga yet (attachments are displayed right inside Voodoo using the Datatypes), and an Amiga User Interface Style Guide compliant GUI. Voodoo uses the ClassAct GUI toolkit. All necessary class libraries are included. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Voodoo requires AmigaOS 3.0 or later, at least 2 megabytes of memory, and a hard disk. It will work with any kind of an Internet connection, from UUCP to AmiTCP to Inet225. AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.warped.com/pub/amiga/voodoo/ http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~oahvenla/voodoo/ Any Aminet site: (430K archive) ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/mail/Voodoo-1.103.lha PRICE Shareware, 150 FIM, 35 USD, or 50 DEM. DISTRIBUTABILITY The demo version is freely distributable through non-commercial channels. More information in documentation. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ W H Y H A V E A N A M I G A , A N Y W A Y ? Qualities which make the AMIGA such a unique Computer: * AutoConfig (TM) * Preemptive Multitasking * Asynchronous Floppy Access * Long Filenames * Two User Interfaces * Localization * Diskette Capacity * Alternative Operating Systems * Emulation of most different Hardware Platforms * ARexx * Datatypes Concept * Video Compatibility * Programmable Videologics Chips * Software Situation * Stereo Sound * Working Storage * HAM Graphics Mode * Screen Concept ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AutoConfig (TM) Fully automatical recognition and OS mounting of hardware expansions during system start. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preemptive Multitasking Reliable operation and blazingly fast switching between tasks also in low memory conditions, and all this since 1985... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asynchronous Floppy Access Read, write, copy, format, while you can work on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long Filenames In its current implementation, the AMIGA file system works with 32-character long filenames, for which on low-level even 127 characters are reserved. Filenames are allowed starting with '.' like under UNIX or include multiple extensions: Archive.v102.tar.Z. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two User Interfaces Graphical User Interface (GUI) Workbench and text- or commandline-oriented Shell (CLI), comparable with UNIX Shells. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Localization AmigaOS 3.1 or its graphical user interface Workbench can get switched among 10 different languages providing full localization through a preferences editor, and all this without re-installation of the operating system! Workbench offers this localization mechanism also for applications programs for these languages: Dansk, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Nederland, Norsk, Português, and Svenska. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diskette Capacity 880 KB instead of 720 KB or in the HD floppy case even 1.76 MB instead of 1.44 MB, and all this still with longer filenames etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative Operating Systems Aside from AmigaOS, Amigas also can be run under different UNIX derivatives like LINUX, NetBSD, Minix. Further operating systems through Emulation of following computers: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emulation of most different Hardware Platforms * VIC-20 * C-64 * Apple-II * MSX 8-Bit Computer * Sinclair Spectrum * Sinclair QL * Oric-1 * Nintendo Gameboy * Atari ST * Apple Macintosh These all work as pure software solutions, of course also multitasking among each other. MS-DOS and also MS-Windows can also get emulated by software on comparably powerful Amiga models, but it makes more sense to use a PC Bridgeboard - as available since 1987 as hardware expansion cards. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARexx ARexx is available in AmigaOS as a system-wide macro language and a means for communication of programs among each other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Datatypes Concept Programs under AmigaOS can use these Datatypes system-wide to work with most different kinds of data like audio, text, graphics, animation or data formats like GIF, PCX, AVI. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video Compatibility The Amiga is video compatible from start for simple use with TVs, for professional video presentations, or for video editing and/or video titling in home or professional quality. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Programmable Videologics Chips Practically freely programmable from video compatible to ergonomic displays; in normal, overscanned, or (through 'draggable' screens) mixed form. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software Situation Unique through a comfortable price niveau and an unbelievably big offer in the Shareware or Free Software area. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stereo Sound 4-channel stereo sound standard, expandable through expansion cards, but they are not needed to provide sound at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working Storage AmigaOS shows special qualities in economic use of resources and non-existance of 640 KB barriers etc., thus a linearly useable address space. An Amiga can already work comfortably with 2 MB RAM, on the other hand an Amiga 4000 can get equipped nowadays with RAM of more than 1 GB! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAM Graphics Mode In last consequence, you can imagine it as memory saving, hardware supported data decompression. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Screen Concept Every program can open an own 'screen' when necessary with custom resolution and/or color choice, or put differently: with optimization for speed, memory use, or color display, respectively. You can drag screens down like rollos to expose those in the background. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || Brad Webb - available at: /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || Portal -- XJumpdisk -=========================================================================-