====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 990207 N E W T E K W I L L B E A T A M I G A 9 9 O N E D A Y A M I G A S H O W I N U K S E C O N D K I C K S T A R T S H O W S T A R T U P K I T S F O R U S E R G R O U P S C H A N G E S A T A M I G A F O R M A T A M I G A N U T T A A W A R D S A N N O U N C E D A M I G A N S C A N H E L P O Z R E D C R O S S I C O A V O T I N G O N N E W B Y L A W S V I R U S W A R N I N G ! P O W E R - U P / W A R P - U P P E T I T I O N S C R E E N S N E E D S H E L P S T O R M O F T H E E Y E R E L E A S E D B A S E 0 W E B S E R V I C E F R O M Z E N M E T A L 1 2 0 0 N E T W O R K C A R D F R O M H & P V U L C A N A M E R I C A S P E C I A L S P O T E N T I A L L Y : J A V A F O R A M I G A ? T H E N E W A M I G A F O R E V E R S I D S T A T I O N S Y N T H E S I Z E R Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Many interesting things to send your way today, including a few unusual items. For instance, two of our stories aren't exactly Amiga oriented, but they do have relevance. Take a look at the Electricalfire article below. If enough Amiga folks got involved in that effort, it might lead to Java for Amiga, plugging one of the biggest holes in the Amiga's software suite. Anyone able to handle this? We hope so! The other related story concerns a Swedish firm that's built a new MIDI device based on, of all things, the old Commodore C-64 SID chip! We thought the old-time Commodorans would find this interesting, as would all the MIDI enthusiasts who use Amigas. Seems you just never know what might turn up in the computer world. Amiga Forever: One thing that turned up recently, and on which we have a story below, is the latest version of "Amiga Forever" from Cloanto. This is the licensed Amiga emulator for Windows based machines. We've had the opportunity to work with this emulator for the last few weeks and have been pleasantly surprised with how well it performs. It's handled just about everything we've thrown at it, with only minor exceptions. These included the icon editor creating icons of the wrong size when we used imported images. The editor somehow didn't sense the size of the images. We've also had a few "ghost" images pop up on the Workbench when using some software, and had to do a Workbench redraw. These are extremely minor issues, when compared to the fact that all productivity software we've tried so far has worked well, if a bit slowly sometime on the aging 133Mhz system we have for test. On a faster computer, we think you'd find little difference from actual Amiga hardware. We'll keep you posted over the long haul as we work with this intriguing product. We're mentioning our experiences with "Amiga Forever", as we've received several letters from Amigans looking to find ways to stay in the Amiga community when forced to use PCs. With "Amiga Forever" going for $30, this could be one of the best ways to live in both worlds. Furthermore, it certainly provides the most economical way we can thing of to acquire an Amiga laptop. The next thing we have to do is try some games and see how well they work. We'll let you know. In the meantime we have lots for you to read, and hope you enjoy this issue. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 Feb 99 08:02:56 EST I've been subscribing to your wonderful e-zine for quite some time now and I just wanted to say thank you and keep up the EXCELLENT work. That having been said, I'd also like to lay praise on Jeff Schindler for sending you an open letter to your readers. Many have been complaining that Amiga Inc has been too silent too long. Maybe Jeff heard us or maybe his letter is a fluke. Let's all hope it's not the latter. At any rate I'd like to invite Jeff to monthly send us an open letter. Let us know that something indeed is going on behind closed doors. We don't need to know every detail. We just need some assurrance that SOMETHING is happening. A montly letter could be used to update the Amiga Community as milestones of the AmigaOS V3.5 and V5.0 projects are completed. A commitment to provide monthly updates may have a side benefit in that it may provide the discipline necessary to help keep these projects on track. Go Amiga! Thomas ______ Thomas, Thank you very much for the kind words. I must point out the letter from Mr. Schindler was not sent to me or to "Amiga Update", but was instead made available to everyone on the Amiga Inc. website. He has issued such letters from time to time, and when they appear we'll bring them to you. I agree it would be a good idea to make them monthly and we'd be more than happy to help get them out to Amigans around the world. Brad ~~~~~~ 31 Jan 1999 Hello and thank you for all you've done for English-speaking Amiga users everywhere. I just read FWD Computing's letter {in our last issue. Brad}. I know Amiga dealers need sales to stay in business. Please tell me what the point is in putting my faithful, old A1200 in a tower case just so I can add a PPC accelerator card? In around a year there's going to be a new Amiga model with a CPU that'll make even PPCs look like Intel, not to mention a whole new OS. Given that it has to be a choice, (and unless I win a lottery, it does), obviously I'm going to save up for a new NG Amiga, not try to keep my old A1200 going forever. Software is another matter; if it'll run under 3.5, they say, it'll run under 5.x, so it makes sense to upgrade. Or if I needed a Video Toaster solution, business smarts would tell me I need it now, not next year. But if I have enough computer power to make do with until the NG Amiga comes out, it's just common sense to wait for new hardware. I'm sorry if that disappoints my local Amiga dealers, I know they need buying customers to stay in business, but I'm not made of money either, thank you! Allan ______ Allan, You're produced a very timely and thoughtful message. I can't argue with your points, and doubt many other Amigans could either. This is one reason the Amiga market is declining of course. The only answer I can see is for Amiga Inc. to get the next generation to market as quickly as possible. It's horridly frustrating to not be able to do more to solve this problem. Brad ~~~~~~ 22 Jan 1999 Hello Brad On 22-Jan-99, you wrote: He [Petro]says a multimedia workstation based around the PowerPC chip running AmigaOS 3.5 could sell next year for less than $US1500 and deliver comparable performance to NT or Mac machines costing several times that amount. A DVD-based set-top interactive box with Net access is also planned. I will personally fly to Germany and kiss Petro's feet if this ever happens. Sounds an awful lot like the fabled "68080" ... 19 Jan 1999 Announcement for immediate release: Amiga Apache Web server with PHP Web scripting language: now available for free. Somebody tell who ever wrote that release that PHP/Apache has ALWAYS been free... :/ {Name withheld by request} ______ Name withheld, Interesting observations and good points, both of them, about items from our last issue. Thanks for sending them along. Brad ~~~~~~ 4 Feb 99 08: Please tell Jeff {Schindler} and others not to use the term "NG Amiga". You and I know he means Next Generation Amiga. Any good marketing person knows never to put "NG" in a product name because NG stands for "No Good". Are you listening Jeff? Why not call the new Amiga something catchy like "New Amiga" or "New Technology Amiga"? How about asking your readers, Brad, to suggest a new name? Thomas ______ Thomas, You raise a good point. However, it may not be as bad as in years past since "Start Trek: The Next Generation" came along. That program has actually made NG mean Next Generation to many people. Hovever, not so many that there aren't probably more who would in fact think of No Good. We'd be happy to hear suggestions from readers on alternative names. Brad ~~~~~~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W T E K W I L L B E A T A M I G A 9 9 February 3, 1999 NewTek signs on as an exhibitor at Amiga 99, the Gateway Computer Show With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation, and special effects tools. The company's products are used worldwide on projects from home video to feature film, including some of the most widely anticipated recent blockbusters, such as Men in Black, Titanic, Lost in Space, HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, and The Jackal. website: http://www.newtek.com. See them, and so many others, in St. Louis March 12 - 14 at Amiga 99, the largest Amiga show in the U.S. Check our web site at: http://www.amiga-stl.com Bob Scharp Amigan-St. Louis bscharp@icon-stl.net The Gateway Computer Show - Amiga 99© ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O N E D A Y A M I G A S H O W I N U K 5 Feb 1999 Gasteiner Technologies will be holding an Amiga show on Saturday February 13 1999 at 18-22 Sterling Way, Edmonton, London N18 2YZ UNITED KINGDOM HiSOFT SYSTEMS (http://www.hisoft.co.uk), Power Computing (http://www.powerc.com) and others will be there. The entrance fee is 3 UKP Adults 2 UKP Children Come along for some good sale bargains on many Amiga products. The show will be open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm You can get to the show by Road: We are located on the A406 (North Circular Road) at the Edmonton Angel. Approx 10mins from the M25 (Junction 10). Also last junction of the M11 (Junction 1). Train: Main Line Station (British Rail) is Silver Street Station. Bus: Buses number 34, 102, 279, 259, and 144 See you there! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S E C O N D K I C K S T A R T S H O W 19/12/98 Kickstart Show 2 Announced. The Kickstart User Group, based in Ottershaw, Surrey have announced the date for their second Kickstart Amiga Show. The Place: Brook Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw in Surrey. The Date: Saturday February 27th 1999. The Time: 1pm-5pm. Admission fee: One Pound Amiga International are officially supporting this years' show, and Petro Tyschtschenko has kindly donated a complete A1200 Magic Pack along with an assortment of Amiga gear, all of which will be given away to show goers throughout the day. The show will consist of a sale of Amiga hardware and software, games competitions throughout the day, demonstrations of Amiga applications and new hardware and the opportunity to join the Kickstart User Group. In all it's a great day out where you can have fun, get help with your Amiga problems and meet other Amiga users. ------------------ What's on at the show: The second Kickstart Show will be bursting with even more Amiga activities than last year, showing both Amiga owners and their friends exactly what Amiga can REALLY do: Stands: 18 stands selling new and second-user Amiga software and hardware. Refreshments will also be on sale and a Kickstart membership stand will also be on hand to answer questions and handle membership enquiries from show-goers. Competitions: Amiga International are supporting the show by offering a complete A1200 Magic Pack (worth 200 pound) for the grand draw, which each show-goer is automatically entered into. There will also be various Amiga give-aways throughout the day and great prizes for the various gaming contests planned. Games: Three gaming competitions are planned: A multiplayer Doom tournament (with as many as five simultaneous players in each game). A Sensible Soccer tournament. A Skidmarks contest (with as many as eight simultaneous players in each game). Demonstrations: Kickstart members will be on hand to demonstrate various applications, such as Mac emulation under Fusion, PC Emulation under PCX and Amiga emulation using Amiga Forever. Also on show will be new hardware innovations, such as the AteoBus busboard and Pixel64 graphics card and various A1200 & A600 tower conversions. Magazine launch: Being unveiled at the Kickstart Show will be the first issue of the new monthly Kickstart magazine Amiga Insight. This magazine, produced totally by club members on Amiga hardware, will have a monthly mix of news, product reviews, tutorials and informed debate about the latest Amiga topics - indeed everything from the fate of OS3.5 to why 880K floppy disks should be killed off! For show enquiries and stand bookings, please contact Raymond McCarthy at ray@tadworth.demon.co.uk. Directions to Brook Hall From the M25, J11 take the Woking exit, at the next roundabout take the first left onto the A320 to Woking, at the next roundabout take a left again into Murray Rd, about 20yds on the left is a car park, park here and Brook Hall is straight in front of you, on the corner of Murray Rd and Brox Rd. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T A R T U P K I T S F O R U S E R G R O U P S UGN Announces User Group Startup Documents FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The User Group Network (UGN) is pleased to announce the availability of the User Group Startup Documents. This kit provides a valuable resource to those individuals wishing to start an Amiga related user group in their area. It can also provide useful information to existing user groups interested in making their group better. The User Group Start Up Kit is a compilation of materials assembled by the UGN's own Robert Hamilton (Lostman). Robert has searched high and low to include information on the following topics: starting up, legal issues, club services, user meetings, user needs, and working with other groups or companies. Also available is the User Group Startup Guide from Inprise Inc. (formally BorderBund). If you want more information, please take your web browser and go to "http://ugn.amiga.org/startup". The UGN Web Page can be found at "http://ugn.amiga.org". Together the User Group Startup Kit and the UGN can provide you all you need to have a successful Amiga User Group. The User Group Network is an organization dedicated to the advancement of the Amiga computing platform and the fostering of Amiga oriented User Groups worldwide. The UGN will work co-operatively with the owners, licensees, user groups, and the users to establish and expand a customer support base for licensed Amiga computer products. The UGN will endeavor to provide a single, centralized resource for the promotion and assistance of User Groups and users world-wide. The UGN Web Page is located at "http://ugn.amiga.org". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C H A N G E S A T A M I G A F O R M A T 29 Jan 1999 Hi all, Just wanted to tell you the latest news about Amiga Format. 1. After five years of working on Amiga Format, Nick Veitch is finally leaving to pursue an editing career on a different magazine, called Computer Publishing which will be on sale in the UK in May. He'll still contribute as a freelancer to Amiga Format, and Ben Vost will take over the reins as editor. 2. This means that we really could use a staff writer on Amiga Format to help with the production of the magazine. We'd prefer it if you were a 1200 owner, with an interest in music, the internet, coding and hardware and you knew how to write witty, informed and on time copy, in order to complement the skills of the efficient Amiga Format team. If not, but you're interested in the post which would involve you moving to Bath, send email explaining who you are, where your Amiga expertise lies and why you'd like the job, and we'll get you down for an interview. You can send an email to ben.vost@futurenet.co.uk with the subject "New Staffer", or send a letter to the usual address of 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. 3. The third bit of news concerns two new mailing lists for the Amiga. The first - afb-announce is a list that gives out the details of what will be in the next issue of Amiga Format before it becomes on sale in the UK, or sent out to subscribers. If you want to know what we'll be covering in advance, you should subscribe to this list. You can do so by visiting http://www.egroups.com/list/afb-announce/ and signing up. You can expect an email every four weeks or so. We also have an open discussion list, called afb, which is available from http://www.egroups.com/list/afb/. It's a bit hectic, but it's a good place to get general (and specific) Amiga information. At the moment, the list gets about 65 messages a day, so it's quite busy, but offers the facility to read these messages on the web, so you don't have to have your mailbox filled with them constantly. Both mailing lists also have additional facilities in their calendar functions, which allow you to see important upcoming events; and polls, which allow for online voting on important topics. Join up, and see what you think. All the best, -- Ben Vost T: (+44) 01225 732337 Associate Editor F: (+44) 01225 732275 Amiga Format UIN: 20459449 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A N U T T A A W A R D S A N N O U N C E D 1998 Amiga Nutta Awards. Well, Amiga Nutta finally got around to sorting out all the replies they got and things came out as follows, congratulations to all those who have won. As you can see the whole thing was dominated by three games, with Quake taking most of the honours. Best Game of 1998:- QUAKE Runner-up:- Genetic Species Third Place:- Foundation ------------------------- Best Technical Game:- QUAKE Best Graphics:- QUAKE ------------------------- Best Sound:- Genetic Species Most Playable Game:- Foundation ------------------------- Best Developer:- Paul Burkey Best Publisher:- ClickBOOM ------------------------- Best Developer/Publisher Webpage:- ClickBOOM Best Amiga Related Webpage:- Czech Amiga News ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A N S C A N H E L P O Z R E D C R O S S 2 Feb 1999 By Chris Baird Posted to Usenet Original artwork by well-known Amiga and cartoon artist Eric W. Schwartz is being auctioned, with all proceeds going to charity. The artwork was won (by me) in a competition that Eric ran on The Official E.S. Productions Website , and with his okay whatever money I can get from ripping this off I'm donating to the Australian Red Cross through their New England branch. This is /real/ artwork to hang on your wall and admire! Be the envy of all your friends! Scrape Eric's skin cells from the paper and clone him! Do what ever you want with it, and assist a humanitarian organisation in the process. For practical reasons, payment and delivery of the framed artwork is being limited to Australian residents only-- I'd prefer not having to hassle with international exchange and postage (but feel free to arrange with a friend). Bidding will close at midnight EST on the 28th of February (1300 hours UTC Feb 28). The winning bidder will receive the artwork and make payment by COD. (Disclaimer: Eric knows of this, but so far only the local branch of the Australian Red Cross knows what I'm up too. :) The auction webpage is at: http://mcs.une.edu.au/~cbaird/auction.html Thank you for your interest! -- Chris Baird,, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I C O A V O T I N G O N N E W B Y L A W S 29 January 1999 For Immediate Release All ICOA members and all Amiga Developers interested in becoming ICOA members are invited to take part in a vote to approve new bylaws for the ICOA. The new bylaws are intended to open the ICOA up and move it towards an organization devoted to helping Amiga developers help each other directly and through common projects. Go to http://www.amiga.net/icoa-bin/vote.cgi?module=reg and follow the procedures for casting your vote. To reduce voting irregularities, email registration is required and free email servers like Hotmail and others are screened out. Voting will take place immediately and will be open until the weekend of February the 6th, 1999. Over the weekend the vote results will be finalized and made available. Remember - vote early, but don't vote often! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V I R U S W A R N I N G ! Kuang Eleven Virus Warning! 5 Febuaray 1999 Extract taken from Kuang11Update.readme 2.34 (5.2.99) Warning All Kuang Eleven users who have received an update in the past few weeks are at risk! Two viruses have been released via the update server attached to different versions of the file rexxkuang11.library (normally placed in LIBS:), and also affecting the file C:Mount. Details The two versions of the library which were infected are shown below, along with some details: rexxkuang11.library 0.36 ( 4/02/99) * File size: 31,172 * Attaches itself to your C:Mount file (any version) unless * SnoopDOS is running * Performs "run >NIL: newshell TCP:2551" (both the library and C:Mount) * Allows remote CLI (shell) access to your computer * Calls itself "Vaginitis #2" by "STD" * Does NOT spread to any other files (other than C:Mount) rexxkuang11.library 0.27 (27/12/98) * File size: 26,532 bytes * Performs "RUN >NIL: newshell tcp:2333" when the library is opened * Allows remote CLI (shell) access to your computer * Calls itself "Vaginitis #3" by "STD" * Does NOT spread to any other files Solution You should have received version 0.37 (or later) of rexxkuang11.library with this update. You should verify this by typing: Version LIBS:rexxkuang11.library FILE FULL You should get the response: rexxkuang11.library 0.37 ( 5/02/99) or a later version. * Reboot your system (if possible, do NOT go online). * Replace the file C:Mount from your original disks, or some other reliable source. * Reboot AGAIN. If you have any copies of rexxkuang11.library versions 0.27 and 0.36, they should be deleted, as these were never legitimately uploaded to the update server. Explanation The server at which the Amiga Coding Syndicate's updates are stored was hacked by an unknown, malicious person or persons. We have changed our passwords and have made every effort to secure our site. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this has caused anyone. If you wish to eliminate auto-updates from your Kuang Eleven installation, simply rename or delete the file Rexx/Kuang11UPD.amirx (relative to your AmIRC directory). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P O W E R - U P / W A R P - U P P E T I T I O N 3 Feb 1999 The petition about free choice when choosing PPC kernel is going on for some time. So far more than 400 Amiga users signed the letter which will be sent to phase5 (Mr. Wolf Dietrich) to remove ppc.library from flashrom and place it in libs instead. The petition Web page is http://jagor.srce.hr/~doozanic/. There you can obtain all information about petition you need. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S C R E E N S N E E D S H E L P Stockholm 29 January,1999 Since we first announced Screens, the new operating system for high-end Amigas, a lot of people have asked how they can aid and take part in the project and while t certainly has not been the only question it is indeed a valid one. Since we regard Screens to be a "peoples OS" it is now our turn to ask you, the Amiga users, the question "how do you want Screens to be?" and in cooperation with Amiga Universe we aim to do so through a number of inquiries where we will ask for suggestions concerning a specific part of Screens. First out is the GUI (or Graphical User Interface) and thus we would like you to submit your ideas on any, and we mean ANY, part of the GUI, preferably as images saved in a non-destroying format. JPEG is fine (In fact we recommend it.) just as long as you save the image in 100% quality. However, if you cannot or do not wish to illustrate your ideas we are more than willing to recieve written descriptions. Before you send us your ideas please understand that although we may not choose to make the standard Screens GUI your way you will have no trouble creating alternative GUIs as Screens will support such in a similiar way to X windows. Then again, do not be surprised to find a modified version of your vision of the Screens GUI when you first boot Screens... Once again, no matter how small your contribution may seem, please submit it. You know, every closegadget counts. :-) Christian Nylén, Screens project leader and main programmer. Lennart Fridén, Screens programmer and author of the L programming language. P.S. We would offer a free copy of Screens to everyone that contributes, but that would be pointless as Screens will be totally free of charge. Contact them at: christian@mematex.se ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T O R M O F T H E E Y E R E L E A S E D Perth, Western Australia - 25th January 1999. 2 Bit Productions today announced the release of Storm of the Eye, a large scale strategy wargame played via email. Storm of the Eye is a commercial Play by Email game, which has been in development for two and a half years, and in playtesting for the past 6 months. The game caters for up to 100 players at a time, with each player using a sophisticated front end program to view their turns and input their instructions. Turns are processed weekly, with one turn costing $2.50 Australian. Each player has control of one of the worlds' 100 tribes. Gods perform miracles regularly for the devout, and the sacrifice of conquered enemies is encouraged. All is not what it seems in this happy (yet bloodthirsty) world. A complicated sequence of events which began thousands of years ago is rapidly nearing a conclusion, and the future is very uncertain. 2 Bit Productions are currently accepting reservations for places in first commercial game, which will begin once it is full. Players will not be charged anything until the commencement of the game. The front end program is free, and can be downloaded from the website below. A demonstration turn is available for download also so people can have a closer look at the mechanics of the game. 2 Bit Productions is a small company, dedicated to providing the best and most innovative play by email games on the market. For more information, visit the 2 Bit Productions website at: http://www.2bp.com/ or send email to: info@2bp.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B A S E 0 W E B S E R V I C E F R O M Z E N M E T A L ZenMetal Software Announces Availability of Base0 Web Service NEWS 27-01-99: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! Announcing new Amiga WWW Message Board software! Ray A. Akey of ZenMetal Software is pleased to announce the release of Base0 Web Service (B0WS). B0WS is the premiere message board software for the Amiga and, can be used as a "bbs-style" discussion forum or as a support message board. B0WS supports both flat and hierarchical message areas and now has theme support. Those interested in ordering B0WS should access the Official B0WS Homepage at http://www.cnetbbs.net/zmnews/bowsnews.shtml. There are links to current systems running B0WS in various themes and looks, recent version changes and ordering information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 0 0 N E T W O R K C A R D F R O M H & P The Netax1200 is the best solution for Amiga 1200/600 owners to network their computers in a smart and cheap way. The card plugs in the PCMCIA slot and gives a fast, powerful and reliable Ethernet connection, in a 100% compatible way with other platforms. The Netax1200 is a fast PCMCIA "credit card" who comes with a detailed printed manual, a pass-trough "T" connector for BNC cables and a disk including the Netax software for Amiga Systems. The software features a standard system device (netax.device), that makes the card compatible with almost every Amiga networking software, including Genesis, NetConnect, AmiTCP, Miami and MiamiDeLuxe. The device fully complies to SANA-II specifics, so also other software like Envoy run flawlessly and with no bottlenecks. The Netax1200 also features a full combo connector for both standard UTP and BNC cabled networks, and can also be plugged while your computer is on with no risk for the computer or the peripherals. By providing a full Ethernet connection, the Netax1200 can be used to network the Amiga with almost every other computer as PCs, MACs, UNIX like systems and so on. The card consumes no CPU time, leaving your processor free for other applications, unlike other networking devices do, and assures you unthinkable speeds also on the plain 68000 mounted on the Amiga 600. We recommend anyway at least a 68030 processor to get the best out of your Netax1200 and reach higher speed rates. Our tests indicate that in FTP mode, the Netax1200 provides speeds not lower than 500kb/sec. with peaks of 600kb/sec on a simple 030. With a 060 processor the speed goes over 800kb/sec, making the Netax1200 one of the fastest card available for any Amiga model. Technical Details: o Credit card PCMCIA type II o 10 MBit Ethernet o Combo transceiver with UTP/BNC connectors o Network and Transfer leds Price: 198 DM (120 US$) © 1999 HAAGE & PARTNER Computer - http://www.haage-partner.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V U L C A N A M E R I C A S P E C I A L S TLAS~Vulcan America Announces Special Offers ** Hello All, *** From now till Feb 12th we will ship any order above $50 for no shipping fee in the US. Canadian orders over $ 50 are shipped for only $ 3. This special is for those who place their order on the web-site ONLY. Simply put 'Shipping Special' in any unused blank on the order form. **** USER GROUP MEMBERS **** Mention your user group in another of the unused blanks on the order form and we'll take 10 % off your orders. You must be a member of an Amiga Users Group for this offer. This group member offer is not limited to just the 2-week period like the shipping offer. (so use it when you order) ****************************** why not visit soon to take advantage of some great offers. Final Odyssey CD ... $ 15 (compare to $39) The Strangers CD .... 15 (compare to $39) Uropa 2 CD .......... 15 (compare to $39) Many Aminet CDs on sale lots more, come see Just come to http://www.pantheonsys.com/tlas and click on 'Current Specials'. Also check out our great low prices in all sections. When you order from our site we will e-mail you back and inform you of your total cost. We will also let you know if an item is not in stock. We will NOT charge your credit card untill your order is ready to ship. Most orders ship within 24 hrs. Regards, Terry f/TLAS~Vulcan America TLAS~VULCAN AMERICA 302 Oxford Street Midland, TX 79703-5535 tel: 915-694-7588 fax: 915-694-7595 ************************************ http://www.pantheonsys.com/tlas ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P O T E N T I A L L Y : J A V A F O R A M I G A ? {Extracts from the Mozilla/Electralfire web site. Anyone out there want to get involved? Brad} ELECTRICALFIRE FROM MOZILLA ElectricalFire A compiler for the Java Platform ElectricalFire is a Java Virtual Machine that uses JIT (Just In Time) compilation techniques to accelerate Java code execution. ElectricalFire was designed from the start to generate high-performance machine code and to be portable to many different processor architectures. ElectricalFire Compiler Frequently Asked Questions Author: Scott Furman ----------------------- What is ElectricalFire ? ElectricalFire (EF) is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) - an engine that executes Java programs. Like many other JVM's, EF compiles Java class files into native machine code for faster performance. (A Java source-code compiler is first used to compile Java into the intermediate bytecode language that is stored in Java class files.) EF's compiler is a JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler because it does not compile code until it is executed for the first time. What's a JIT ? JIT is short for "Just-In-Time compiler". Here's how a Java JIT works: When Java code calls a Java method and that method hasn't been previously called, the caller is suspended while the compiler loads the Java class file from the network or file system and compiles it to machine code. After compilation completes, execution resumes in the newly compiled method. The compilation process is completely transparent to the Java program (except for any delay when a method is first invoked.) JIT compilation is superior to traditional batch compilation because: o It allows on-demand compilation of methods. Unused methods are never compiled. o It enables distribution of platform-independent Java classfiles rather than platform-dependent executables. o In the case of network-loaded classes, a Java program can start before its been fully loaded. On the other hand, JIT'ing code has its disadvantages: o It causes suspension of program execution while the compiler runs. These short delays often aggregate into a perceptible startup delay for a Java program or they might cause a program to run "choppily". o JIT'ing requires that the compiler be distributed and run as part of the JVM and also consumes more memory in order to perform the compilation. o JIT compilation might not produce code that's as fast as that produced by batch compilers. This is both because the optimization techniques used by batch compilers are too slow to use in a JIT and because insufficient global information is available to make optimizing decisions, e.g. inlining, when compilation proceeds incrementally. For these reasons, some attention may be given to a batch compilation mode for ElectricalFire. Is ElectricalFire a port of Sun's JDK ? No source code from Sun's JDK is used anywhere in ElectricalFire, nor will any be allowed in the future. What platforms does ElectricalFire support ? Short answer: For now, only x86 Linux and Windows 95/98/NT are supported. Long answer: Really, the first question to ask is, "What processor architectures does ElectricalFire (EF) support ?". EF was designed to be relatively easy to port to any architecture by creating a compiler "back-end" and writing some assembly support code. The EF source code release contains a relatively complete x86 back-end and very incomplete back-ends for the Power-PC, HP PA-RISC, and SPARC processors. Second, you have to ask whether your OS is supported by the Java runtime libraries. Since the state of ElectricalFire's runtime libraries is highly incomplete right now, this is still an academic question. What's the current state of ElectricalFire ? The project is just starting to get interesting. On x86 machines, more than 90% of the Java Compatibility Kit (JCK) instruction tests now pass and we are able to run javac, the Java compiler that is itself written in Java. Support for the java.lang and java.lang.reflect packages is substantial, but far from complete. Basic support is available for java.io. Virtually all other classes, e.g. AWT, do not work at all because they require integration with the VM's native code. (When EF was a commercial product, we were relying on being able to use Sun's JDK1.2 classes and native code to implement virtually all high-level library functionality.) We will work with one of the groups working on free Java class libraries, such as the Classpath project, to add Java standard class libraries. Late-breaking news: Sun's new Java licensing scheme might allow the use of the JDK 1.2 libraries with ElectricalFire. Stay tuned for further updates. Does ElectricalFire support JDK version 1.1 or 1.2 ? It doesn't really support either yet. See "What's the current state of ElectricalFire ?" What programming language does ElectricalFire use ? Most ElectricalFire code is written in C++. A small amount is written in platform-specific assembly code. Does ElectricalFire contain both an interpreter and a compiler ? Electrical fire does not contain a Java bytecode interpreter. All Java bytecodes are compiled before executing them. Hence, there is no opportunity to introduce bugs in which Java program behavior differs depending on whether or not bytecode are compiled or interpreted. It might be desirable to add an interpreter to eliminate compilation delay for rarely-executed methods, such as static initializers. How fast does Java code run using ElectricalFire ? The truth is, we don't know yet. No large Java programs have been benchmarked yet using ElectricalFire. We would expect EF to be at least as fast as existing JITs. The goal of the project is to produce code that has performance that is roughly on par with C/C++. I'm a programmer, but I don't write compilers. Can I help ? Definitely! For ElectricalFire to be successful, we will need a strong conformance and functional test suite. Another good place to contribute your time would be the Classpath Project, which seeks to create an LGPL'ed replacement for the standard Java class libraries. Without Java class libraries, ElectricalFire would be virtually useless. How do I use ElectricalFire for running my Java programs ? It's a little premature for end-users to run ElectricalFire. For one thing, there is only limited implementation of Java classes. You can't use it with Java programs that use AWT, for example. Also, EF is still immature, with many known bugs. Finally, there's no debugging support. When will ElectricalFire be released as a commercial product of Netscape ? There are no plans to make ElectricalFire into a commercial product, by Netscape or anyone else that we know of. There are no employees paid by Netscape to work on ElectricalFire. If Netscape isn't paying anyone to work on ElectricalFire, who's going to do the development ? You are; This is an open-source project, after all. Four people in the original development team have volunteered to act as developers and/or module owners, including the original compiler architect, Waldemar Horwat. So, we have the seeds of a really good team, but lots more people will be needed to make the project a success. If you're interested in contributing, check out the developer roadmap. Will ElectricalFire be the official or default JVM for the Netscape browser ? Netscape's OJI Project is an attempt to allow any JVM to run inside of the browser. Netscape's commercial version of the Mozilla browser could conceivably be distributed with a default JVM. However, ElectricalFire will certainly not have that honor, because there are no plans for it to be released as a commercial product. There is no default JVM for the open-source browser and no plans to nominate ElectricalFire for that position. What are the origins of ElectricalFire ? ElectricalFire began as an in-house commercial compiler project at Netscape in early 1997. The compiler, which was never publicly announced, was scheduled for release in June 1998. It was cancelled in January, 1998 when the company made a strategic shift away from Java. The source was made publicly available on mozilla.org using volunteer effort in January of 1999. Click here for a more detailed history of the project. How did the project get its name ? Scott Silver, one of the first EF developers, originally wanted to codename the project "Sexual Chocolate". (I'm not making this up.) That name was rejected, presumably because it would confuse Netscape's managers: "So, this Sexual Chocolate project actually has nothing to do with chocolate ?" Instead, Silver proposed "Electrical Fire" (two separate words). For the open-source release, Scott Furman coalesced the two words into one: "ElectricalFire", to make it apparent that the project was not to be confused with a safety hazard. A word of advice for the wise: if you end up working on a project with Scott Silver, do not allow him to handle the project codename. Under what terms is the source code licensed ? ElectricalFire is provided under the Netscape Public License. See the NPL FAQ for details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E N E W A M I G A F O R E V E R 31 Jan 1999 From mcb@cloanto.com: IMAGINE... Imagine an Amiga with more Zorro III Fast RAM, Chip RAM and Video RAM than you have ever dreamed of. An Amiga with virtual memory, a floating point unit, and a processor which you can set to be as slow and compatible as a 68000, or faster than a 68060. An Amiga with multiple CPUs, DVD storage, Fast Ethernet and a 128-bit graphics bus. An Amiga that can run Windows software without performance penalty, multitasking with Amiga programs, side by side. An Amiga that will protect your software investment and your experience, continuing to run your favorite applications even in 50 years. An Amiga that will give you no worries about spare parts or repair centers. An Amiga designed to keep the pace as new CPUs are released, and at the same time remain compatible with older programs which access the hardware directly, or which rely on features and effects that stunned the world and made the Amiga... an Amiga. AMIGA HEROES There is a group of Amiga engineers whose names and faces do not often appear on glossy Amiga magazines, and when they do, they are sometimes described as if they belonged to some exotic fringe. Yet for the past years these people have not made empty promises: they have worked hard and discretely, and they have delivered, day after day, month after month, release after release, exciting features and constant improvements. These creative geniuses, which so well represent the Amiga spirit, which is not just an abstract "faith", but passion at work, have given the Amiga the gift of immortality. Their Amiga is the only Amiga that has not stopped evolving many years ago. The work of these Amiga heroes, led and inspired by Bernd Schmidt and Petter Schau, creators of UAE and Fellow, will make it possible for any "new generation" system employing an operating system incompatible with the Amiga, to run everybody's favorite Amiga software, regardless of whether the CPU will come from Motorola, Intel, Transmeta or some alien technology. AMIGA FOREVER More than a year ago, in response to a clear and strong demand, and to guarantee stability and continued support to all of its users, Cloanto licensed from the Amiga companies all the copyrights, patents and trademarks necessary to publish an "Amiga on a CD", ready to run on a variety of platforms. Amiga Forever was born. Before its release, online piracy of the Amiga intellectual property had contributed to create a situation where emulation was almost considered a dirty word. Things have now considerably improved: with Amiga Forever, the emulated Amiga is not only an official, respected and essential member of the Amiga family, but also one that ranks at the top spots of the Amiga charts. Most important, it is an Amiga that is available today, which doubles in power every 18 months, and that will continue to run for a very, very long time. During the fall of 1998, the first Online Edition of Amiga Forever was released. It became the first Amiga software title available for sale and download entirely by electronic means in hundreds of online stores. To make this possible, Cloanto partnered with Digital River, the world's leading electronic distributor, with a reputation for reliable and secure transactions, and preferred by leading companies such as Adobe, Corel, Lotus and IBM for their own online software sales. Once again, the Amiga was playing in the first league. Today, a new version of Amiga Forever Online Edition is available for download. More than a dozen software packages have been added to the previous configuration. Everything, including the emulation software, the Amiga OS and additional Amiga programs, comes preconfigured for immediate use. All users of the previous version are eligible for a free upgrade, and have been sent instructions. The package includes a new version of Amiga Explorer, the networking software developed by Cloanto to connect Amiga and PC systems. Personal Paint 7.1 and TurboText are now also part of the distribution. The Shell has been extended with KingCON, and a ToolManager dock on the Workbench screen gives quick access to all programs. Installation of new items has become considerably easier: LhA and LZH archives can be extracted with a simple drag-and-drop, and the Amiga Installer has been upgraded. TCP/IP is enabled by default in the more professional configuration, and can be used to access the internet, and even to run Amiga Explorer from inside the emulation, giving the Windows Desktop access to the contents of Amiga disk image files (ADF and HDF). An Amiga OS 1.3 configuration for running older games, and with the original Boing! bouncing ball demo preinstalled, is also included. The new Amiga Forever Online Edition has a download size of 6.5 MB (this includes the emulation software for Windows, two Amiga operating systems and the preinstalled programs), costs $29.99, and is ready to run immediately after the download. Upgrades to new versions of the emulation software are free and only involve replacing one file. FREE SUPPORT AND SOFTWARE FOR EVERYBODY The Amiga Forever web site has been extended and updated, and now contains even more information not just for Cloanto customers, but for Amiga users in general. The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section is one of the most visited Amiga pages on the web, providing advice and links on topics which include for example how to connect an Amiga and a PC and share a modem for internet access, how to read Amiga floppy disks on a PC, and some considerations for those who believe that emulation will kill the Amiga, rather than make it live forever. MailBX, a new utility developed by Cloanto to convert Amiga mail archives to Microsoft Mail, Outlook Express and Exchange Server, is available for free download on the Cloanto web site and on Aminet. Cloanto's "biz/cloan" directory on Aminet is one of the Amiga's richest collections of free software coming from a single commercial software house, and is expected to continue to surprise the Amiga community with several new and important items. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Amiga Forever Home Page http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/ Amiga Forever Online Edition Download http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/online.html Email mailto:info@cloanto.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S I D S T A T I O N S Y N T H E S I Z E R UElektron ESI AB Pressrelease FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gothenburg, Sweden Jan,28,1999 Elektron ESI AB announces the SidStation MIDI Synthesizer - unique sounds for pioneering musicians Background The SidStation is a MIDI-controlled synthesizer with realtime controllers. The heart of this synthesizer is the sound generating chip from the classic home computer Commodore C64. This soundchip, named SID (Sound Interface Device) was developed in the early eighties at MOS technology. At the time the SID-chip was released to the public, it took the computer industry by storm. There was nothing like it. It wouldn't be either, as the development of synthesizers changed direction toward the digital sampling and FM technology. This leaves the SID-chip as a unique item still today. The rediscovery of the SID-sound will be a pleasant surprise for many pioneering sound explorers that are looking for something more exiting than the current crop of analogue imitating 'virtual' synthesizers. Why use the SID-chip? One might draw parallels between the sound of the SID with the beeping noise that was generated by the early C64-games. It is very possible to make SidStation sound like a blipping game of Bubble Bobble. Some will appreciate that, but that is certainly not all the SidStation is capable of. Listening to a few examples will probably be needed before believing that the SidStation can sound like a roaring distorted groundshaking monster as well as an 80:s computer game. The secret of the SID-sound is the way it is programmed. And with the new environment in the SidStation it's now possible to create sounds never heard before. Compare the new use of the SID with the difference between the intended use of the TB-303 as a cheap replacement for a bass guitarist and the acid squelches it generates today. The SidStation can match specifications for popular modern analogue kit, such as Novation Basstation and Waldorf Pulse, but adds many more possibilities for sound creation. Specifications Hardware: o Highest quality in all components o Drummachine style sturdy aluminium casing o Alfanumeric 2x16 LCD display with backlighting o Four realtime controllers o Rotary wheel for easy dataentry o Numeric keyboard o MIDI In/Out/Thru o Audio In/Out (Audio In routed through filter) o 100 User patches o Dimensions: 240W x 70H x 200D [mm] Synthesis: o Powerful and friendly SidStation OS operating system o Three oscillators (For three note polyphony or one monophonic sound) o Basic waveforms: Triangle, Sawtooth, Pulse, Mixed, Noise o All oscillators syncable through Ringmodulation and Hardsync o Pulsewidth modulation o Portamento (individual for all three oscillators) o Special C64-style arpeggiator (individual for all three oscillators) o Four individual routable LFO's o Resonant analogue filter with envelope (Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass or any combination) o C64 SID song player support Availability The SidStation is now available for ordering from all over the world through the SidStation webpage (http://www.sidstation.com). Price for end customer is 4000 SEK. VAT (25%) has to be added for private customers inside the European Community. Website For more information, sound examples and ordering information please visit our website at http://www.sidstation.com About Elektron ESI AB Elektron ESI AB, located in Gothenburg, Sweden, is a new player in the MIDI music synthesizer market. Established in 1998 we are devoted to create unique sounds for pioneering musicians. SidStation is a trademark of Elektron ESI AB. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html Stop by and check out our archive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================