01.Oct.2002
Brad Webb (E-Mail)
|
Amiga Update Newsletter #020930 by Brad Webb
Below you will find the complete newsletter of Amiga Update (Brad Webb)
for September, 2002.
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A M I G A | 020930 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E F R O M B I L L
S E C O N D O T T A W A A M I G A S H O W
W O R L D O F A M I G A S O U T H E A S T , U K
M I N I A M I G A S H O W I N S L O V E N I A
" A S K P E T R O " A N D B E I N H I S B O O K ?
P A G E S T R E A M P L A T F O R M S U R V E Y / A M I G A
M O R P H O S T E A M S T A T E S P O S I T I O N
M E R L A N C I A O N I T S L E G A L S T A T U S
B E R N D M E Y E R O N A M I T H L O N X L
A M I T H L O N X L P R E M I E R A T O A S E 2
H A N D P O N A M I T H L O N
I N F O O N E L B O X S P I D E R U S B P C I C A R D
E L B O X E X P L A N A T I O N O N P O S E I D O N
M E D I A T O R U S B D R I V E R S F O R P O S E I D O N
W I L D F L Y E R F O R V I D E O T O A S T E R F L Y E R
P I X L O A D 2 . 1 I S A N N O U N C E D
V H I S T U D I O 5 . 7 , D I G I C A M P A C K A G E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Lots of news this month. Unfortunately, while none of it can be
called "bad" news, much of it is unpleasant. The tone this month seems
to be controversy. There's a legal statement from the Morph OS team,
another from Merlancia, seeming controversy involving Elbox, and a
bunch of unhappiness over Amithlon. Thought that was all settled, but
now comes Amithlon XL and controvery resurfaces. We're not even sure
what Amithlon XL is. We certainly haven't received any press releases
or definitive information about it. What we do have is reported below.
Meanwhile, there are some interesting stories on new products, and on
Amiga shows. Much more fun "stuff".
Have a look at the stories we've got for you, make up your own minds
on the controversies and, if you're like us, hope for a more positive
month next time.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E F R O M B I L L
September 5, 2002 - From the desk of Bill McEwen
Greetings to one and all:
I would first like to thank all of those that I had the chance to
meet in Sacramento. While a short trip it was indeed great fun and
real delight meeting with all of you and hearing not only the
encouraging words, but also sharing in your concerns, desires, and
dreams. We are looking forward to deliver on what we discussed with
you.
When we purchased Amiga from Gateway there were many out there who
said that we would fail. There were many out there who have worked
against our efforts, and others that have misrepresented fact and
manipulated privileged information in order to further their obviously
self serving goals. There have been those who have wronged us, and
caused us damage.
But, guess what? We are still here! We are still delivering! We are
going to stay here! Amiga is about people, technology, excellence, we
are a most tenacious people, and we have the community to prove it.
Has it always gone according to plan? no. Have we made some
adjustments to the plan? yes. Are we delivering on the plan? yes. Will
we allow others to dictate our future? Absolutely not. Period..
Because of you, the Amiga dream lives, because of you, Amiga's are
still being used throughout the world performing amazing tasks and
activities, and because of you, we are still here and moving forward.
Amiga is a giant resting for the day of the fight, and gaining
strength quietly, for, as we embark on this mission together, nothing
will tear us apart.
Thank you once again for supporting us, and showing to the world that
what was begun in 1985 was truly only the beginning.
Bill McEwen, and the Amiga Team
Amiga Club Members:
I would also like to take a minute and say a special howdy to all of
the club members. It is really encouraging to see all of the activity
and input from you with regards to the shirt design and name for the
club. The "I am Amiga" name did not go over as well as I had thought,
but in the next couple of weeks (after we get the ok from those who
already have the name that was selected) we will all have the name and
shirt design with which an be happy and proud to wear. Each member
will receive their first newsletter in the next two weeks, and there
will be all sorts of great announcements and information e, so look
forward to it in your inbox.
As a reminder we will be having a new drawing for an Amiga Enabled
Cell Phone in September, and we would encourage those of you who have
not joined yet, to get in here and do so. We have many plans and
activities coming up for the club, and once again for only $ 50.00 you
will receive the newsletter, Shirt and other special promotions. The
lifetime membership offer has ended, but we would encourage you to be
a part of something really exciting as the members will continue to
receive special discounts and exclusive programs directed at the
membership. We will honor the "$50.00 off" certificate for the next
members who join through the end of September, at which point we will
hold the draw for the new cell phone.
September 1st, 2002:
As mentioned in Sacramento at AmiWest, we had offered amnesty to
those people/companies/entities who have knowingly stolen our IP and
used it for their own gains, or who have shipped product knowing that
they are illegal had until the end of August in order for them to
comply and to get legal.
Now, I am not going to mention names nor am I going to get into a
public discourse on what is happening.. But legal action has begun. In
the next two weeks papers will be served. We will target one violator
at a time with the hope that we will send a very clear signal that
this is very serious, will not be permitted and will be stopped.
This is a private action between Amiga Inc, and those who wish to
continue in this practice. While we announced publicly our intentions,
the actions will be private. I am sure that everyone can understand
this and I hope will support this.
AmigaOne Update:
Well, the amazing team of Eyetech and Hyperion are doing a great job.
Many of you already have in your possession the AmigaOne boards, and
many more of you have seen the hardware in action. This is indeed
another major leap forward as we near the release of the new hardware
and OS 4.0. Eyetech and Alan Redhouse have been doing a great job of
keeping everyone informed of the progress, and we look forward to the
products release.
AmigaOS 4.0:
Hyperion and the team are making amazing strides here. The screen
shots that we all see and the updates from Ben and the people working
on it shows great progress. I know that they are working hard with
regard to the integration into the AmigaOne, and I for one am looking
forward to seeing it all working together, and from what I hear we are
not too far off from making that happen. With this stated we have
received some more shots of the interface from the OS 4.0 team. You
can see the new AmiDock screenshots here.
PDA/Cell Phone Update:
As mentioned in Sacramento the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine and
associated content will be shipping on the new SendoTM SmartPhoneTM
when it ships. Now, to answer the many e-mails that I have received
about the Sendo phone.... I do not know when the device will ship
commercially; it is out of our hands with regard to when they will
have the phone available. I will tell you that before the end of the
year we will be making at least two more Cell Phone announcements and
at least two more PDA announcements.
We are really starting to move on getting these business deals done
and there will be many more opportunities for our developers to create
new products for these cutting edge devices.
A Possible New Product Offering - Let me know your thoughts: In
recent dealings with one of our hardware OEM's they offered an
opportunity. This opportunity is for excellent laptop hardware at
excellent prices. They would be dual boot systems with Linux/UAE, and
Bernie Meyers product (formally known as Amithlon) pre-loaded on the
device. Here is a sample of some of the pricing that you could expect,
all prices quoted are in US$:
Intel® 1.2GHz CeleronTM Processor 256MB RAM 15.0" TFT Active Matrix
20GB Hard Drive DVD Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $999
Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4 Processor 256MB RAM 15.0" XGA TFT Active
Matrix 20GB Hard Drive DVD/CDRW Combo Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $1579
Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4 Processor 256MB RAM SXGA TFT Active Matrix
30GB Hard Drive DVD/CDRW Combo Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $1679
These examples are notebook computers. There are other options
available, but I am trying to find out how many of you would be
interested in purchasing these through your local Amiga dealer. Let us
know by sending an e-mail to interested@amiga.com. There are also
desktops and other configurations but I think that a notebook Amiga
would be compelling. Let us know.
The Product Formally Know as Amithlo*: As mentioned before Bernie
Meyers has a wonderful product, and we expected it to be out by now.
However there have been a couple of delays, none of these are
engineering driven, that has delayed the release. I can tell you that
the new product will be out very soon, and will offer some new
requested features, and from what I understand is really going to
knock your socks off. We will have an update concerning the timing of
this release and the new name very shortly. So contrary to what you
may have heard, it will be available soon.
Developers:
This message is an update for you. You have created some of the
greatest content that the world has ever known. Your skill sets and
your tenacity have overwhelmed many, and everyday you become more and
more important to the future.
If you have been sitting on the sidelines I encourage you to jump in.
We are getting requests from many of our OEM partners with regard to
content that they are looking for on their devices.
While it has been a slow start (as is always the case in developing a
market), this next quarter is going to see major movement, and
distribution. We have many programs ready to take place for the
Holiday season and we want you to be a part of it. So I encourage you
to jump in make contact with us. Join us in creating the future.
In closing I wish to thank each and every member of the Amiga family
for their support and good wishes in this amazing journey that we have
embarked upon together. We are closer today than we were yesterday to
the dreams and goals of Amiga. Tomorrow we will be closer again, and
soon we can all share in the rewards.
Sincerely,
Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team
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S E C O N D O T T A W A A M I G A S H O W
September 30, 2002
Amiga.info
http://www.technomages.net/amigashow/
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
On Saturday November 9, 2002, the Amiga.info user group will be
hosting the second Ottawa Amiga Show. Once again, the show will be
held at the Routier Centre, 172 Guigues Street, in the market of
downtown Ottawa, Ontario.
With all of the interest in alternative operating systems, this is an
excellent opportunity for the public to see the latest offerings from
Amiga, Inc. This includes the AmigaOne, the first new hardware for the
platform since 1993, and the binary portable Amiga Digital Environment
(DE), currently available for Microsoft Windows, x86 Linux systems,
ARM and MIPS processors.
The following is a list of the show exhibitors:
ACK Software Controls from Niagara Falls will be demonstrating the
AmigaOne, the first new Amiga hardware since 1993, and a modified
Amiga 4000T, the last classic Amiga model produced.
Ottawa's own Technomages will be showcasing their latest Amiga DE
software, such as Eric Schwartz Puzzles and Memory. Their software
will be running on a Windows x86 system and a portable MIPS based
Windows CE system.
ZEE4 of Toronto will be on-hand demonstrating their brand new Amiga
DE offerings.
There will also be three Amiga retailers at the show. Cinereal of
Ottawa, Downtown Amiga from Montreal, and Livewire Systems of Ottawa
will be selling a wide range of hardware and software for Amiga
computers.
Finally, Amiga.info will be presenting information about the user
group and answering questions about the Amiga platform.
Despite the G20 meeting that was held at the same time as the Ottawa
Amiga Show of 2001, the show drew Amiga users from as far away as
Pennsylvania, New York, Toronto and Montreal.
The current position of the Canadian dollar makes coming to Canada an
inexpensive proposition for our American neighbors. At the time of
this writing, $100.00 USD = $155.00 CAD.
Ottawa is about a two hour drive west of Montreal, five hours
north-east of Toronto, and nine hours from Boston. You can also get to
Ottawa by flying into the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International
Airport.
There is a mailing list that you can subscribe to if you would like
to be kept up to date on the show details. To subscribe, send an email
to oas-subscribe@technomages.net.
Any questions about the Ottawa Amiga show can be directed to
amigashow@technomages.net.
About Amiga.info:
Amiga.info, pronounced "Amiga dot info", is a bilingual Amiga users
group located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Formed in February 1995,
Amiga.info is a non-profit resource for anyone interested in the Amiga
computer. Amiga.info meets on the third Wednesday of each month.
Membership is free. http://www.technomages.net/amiga.info/
Details of the 2001 Ottawa Amiga Show can be found at :
http://www.technomages.net/amigashow/2001/
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W O R L D O F A M I G A S O U T H E A S T , U K
16 Sep 2002
Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to the clash of the year, presenting,
In the Red Corner, all the way from Germany and the UK, with years of
experience, a true survivor - Amiga OS4 supported by AmigaOne!
Presenting in the Blue Corner, from Germany and France, the new young
pretender to the crown, MorphOS supported by Pegasos! The main event
will be held at the World of Amiga Southeast Show in Poplars Hall,
Brentwood, Essex, England, (UK) on Saturday November 2nd 2002.
Don't miss this exciting one off spectacular clash, get your tickets
in advance from Fore-Matt Home Computing for only £3.50! This Action
packed event will feature Amiga veterans, Eyetech, Weird Science,
Fore-Matt Home Computing, ZeoNeo, Kicksoft, Thendic France, Mediator
Support Team and of course Amiga inc. themselves. Plus the infamous
Gaming Arena and the Mandatory After show speeches/demonstrations.
This is a great opportunity to see AmigaOS4/AmigaOne Versus
MorphOS/Pegasos under the same roof on the same day.
For more information, please visit our temporary website
http://www.seal-amiga.com/woase
For tickets visit http://www.forematt.co.uk or call +44 (0)8700 11 22
34
World of Amiga Southeast 2002, aren't you glad you are going?
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M I N I A M I G A S H O W I N S L O V E N I A
Sept. 09, 2002
The 4th Amiga Mini Show will took place on saturday, 19th october at
Krajnik racunalnistvo d.o.o., Kidrièeva 66/a in ©kofja Loka. Show will
begin at 10am. We are proudly to present AmigaOne, AmigaOS 4.0
(preview), USB products and more. Because of closeness of railroad
station (cca. 50 meters away) you can take a train to attend the show.
More infos about AMS will be released in the following days.
http://www.amiga-klub.si/
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" A S K P E T R O " A N D B E I N H I S B O O K ?
Sept. 14, 2002
Petro Tyschtschenko, who worked at Commodore Büromaschinen GmbH since
October 1982 continues to work on his long-awaited memoirs. One of the
chapters planned allows Amiga fans to ask Petro questions, which he
will answer. Petro Tyschtschenko, a well-respected figure in the Amiga
community was chief of Amiga Technologies, a branch of ESCOM, which
bought all rights of Commodore and the Amiga in April 1995. As Escom
also got into bankruptcy 1996 Petro tried everyt hing to ensure the
survival of the Amiga and became chief of Amiga International, Inc.
after Gateway 2000 bought the rights in 1997. He encouraged the
further development of the AmigaOS, then released in version 3.5. In
April 2001 he retired o fficially from AMIGA Inc.. He has not left
altogether as he still goes to Amiga events to talk with Amiga fans
who were customers and are now friends. The Amiga Community now has
the opportunity to put forward some interesting questions about his
life and the Amiga. You can e-mail your questions to:
mail@commodore-amiga.de.
{This item was taken from the Czech Amiga News site, at
http://amiga.realdreams.cz/index.html. As we've often said, that's a
site too good to miss, so stop by if you haven't. Brad}
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P A G E S T R E A M P L A T F O R M S U R V E Y / A M I G A
{An August story, but we just recently got the information. Brad}
August 12th, 2002
The results from our platform survey are in and counted! The volume
was higher than expected, and we thank those who took the time to fill
out the survey. The results of the survey distinguish three platform
choices above the rest. Amiga OS 4.0/AmigaOne PPC, Mac OSX, and Linux
i86 being the heads above the rest. Here is a loose review of these
three platforms and how development will be handled. {Edited,
eliminating all but the Amiga section. Brad}
Amiga OS 4.0/AmigaOne PPC - Development for this "platform" has two
interesting twists to it. First, PageStream Amiga should run in
emulation mode on this system, so Amiga customers can leverage their
existing version of PageStream. Second, customers don't actually have
this "platform" yet, so while there is probably going to be a decent
installed base, there is of course currently no existing installed
base of customers! All that being said, if Amiga OS 4.0 and AmigaOne
PPC is released in a form similar to what is being talked about, and a
reasonable number of our customers get the "platform", we will be
developing a new version of PageStream which is compiled natively on
the PPC, and will use what OS 4.0 functionality is deemed appropriate
for PageStream. We also expect to make an i86 version of PageStream
for Amithlon as well. The costs to develop these versions and the
perceived demand will determine if they are bundled with the "classic"
Amiga version of PageStream, or sold separately. Most likely this
development will be done by Deron Kazmaier, as he is the most involved
these days with the Amiga libraries. Luckily for him, this development
can't begin until the new OS is released, since he has enough to keep
him busy right now.
http://www.grasshopperllc.com/
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M O R P H O S T E A M S T A T E S P O S I T I O N
02-Sep-2002: MorphOS position paper about its legal status
There have been many rumours regarding MorphOS and its legal
standing. After careful consideration, we have concluded that those
allegations are unfounded, those most frequently raised being the
following two.
1. Stolen code
It has often been said that MorphOS is based on stolen source code.
Why would anyone go through the trouble of stealing a code, and
jeopardise his legal standing, when code sufficiently approximate has
been released to the public with the blessings of the holding company?
2. Unfair Competition
It would be ideal for a company not to have competition but this is
not what free trade is all about. MorphOS however has up until now
competed with no other product simply because it is a work in progress
free product, with time limitations. The past beta version in
particular has relied on other true Operating Systems and their
presence, thus perhaps enhancing those OSs marketability through added
functionality. This however will not be the case when MorphOS is
released to the public as a final product. Competition should thus be
expected in the future.
On the other hand, given the persistent empty allegations and actions
taken against MorphOS, we have a pretty strong case of anticompetitive
actions performed against us.
Such actions, this not being a complete list, include the posting of
various messages delivering empty, repeated threats and the direct
involvement against MorphOS being presented in a TV show.
Although it is clear to us that we can pursue legal action against
those defamatory acts, we prefer as a matter of policy to settle
accounts outside courts. Patience has of course its limits and since
we can afford a long legal battle, if forced, we shall take action.
For those purposes we have taken the following steps:
a) Analysed all data available to us, interviewed people involved,
and verified the consistency of all information. Although, as
anticipated, we found nothing new or contradictory, this is something
that we should do.
b) Analysed all allegation raised and those which are possible to be
raised as a ``last resort'' attempt. Although allegations are easy to
be raised, and are thus many, we have concluded that they are weak, if
not unfounded, at the very best. Our analysis was based on MorphOS
past, present and future.
c) Ascertained counter actions that will be spawned from filling an
action against us. Dragging people in court just in the vain hope to
intimidate them or disrupt their business does have consequences.
d) Ascertained all harmful actions made against us, collected
defamatory statements, analysed further conduct. Additionally, we
investigated the possibility of intellectual property belonging to us
being unlawfully exploited.
e) Prepared a full draft legal document, concerning the above points.
Emphasis has been given on countering the allegations, rather than
taking the offensive which is not within our current interests.
Despite that, the offensive part is sizeable.
f) Preliminary consulted lawyers outside the company's resources so
as to verify some conceptions of ours.
We are here and we are ready. Legal battles may not be our preferred
route of action but we can most certainly perform well if needed.
Best regards,
All of us...:)
Singleview
Thendic-France/bplan/MorphOS Team
D. Scheibler
http://www.morphos-news.de/
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M E R L A N C I A O N I T S L E G A L S T A T U S
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
18th September 2002
Merlancia Industries
3516A West Cactus Road
Phoenix, AZ 85029 USA
1-877-53-AMIGA | ++1 602-789-0956
http://www.merlancia.com | RC@merlancia.com
--
Merlancia Industries Clarifies Questions Regarding Current Legal
Status
To all concerned with recent discussions and/or questions regarding
the current legal status of Merlancia Industries and all Merlancia
Companies:
Merlancia Industries is still alive and functioning as a private
company. The mentioned corporate dissolution on ANN and possible other
internet sites has to do with a paperwork error on our behalf. All S
class corporations are required by the Arizona Corporation Commission
(ACC) to file annual repots on inner corporate activities for the
purpose of showing that the corporation is still in existence. The
purpose of this is to allow the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC)
to 'throw away' any dead companies in their database.
It is a fact that this paperwork was not received by the Arizona
Corporation Commission (ACC) for this year. We are currently
investigating this, and will most likely have the situation resolved
in a matter of days.
Dissolution is not the same as insolvency and/or bankruptcy.
Merlancia still continues to function as a private company and will
regain its status as an Arizona Subchapter S corporation shortly.
Currently we are recognized by the state as a private company. The
only difference between the two is how the company is organized.
Merlancia is not only alive, and in a state of financial solvency,
but we are working on both hardware and software products for the
industrial market. As soon as an OS solution is available to us for
the Amiga ® market, we will be ready to release product. Until such is
available, we will continue to offer support for current Amiga and
multimedia products, and continue to offer wholesale and retail
products for the multimedia and industrial markets. Any questions on
this matter should be directed to merlancia industries at the address
above.
In the meanwhile...
Please note the new www.merlancia.com website. There have been many
updates and changes, and the new graphic interface is almost out of
beta. All portions of the old merlancia.com website are now available
on the new, and the old site will be deleted shortly.
Our software programmers are working on a new ordering system based
on Rebol ® technology which will become available in the coming weeks,
as well as other products including a new internet software suite to
be given away free as part of the AmigaZone Internet Services that we
offer. This software package is going to be freely distributable and
offered for free on CD-ROM which will ab available for the cost of
mailing or included with orders shipped from many Amiga ® dealers
worldwide.
If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact us at
the addresses shown above, or via e-mail or telephone. Additional
contact information is available on the Merlancia.com website. Thank
you for your interest in Merlancia Industries.
http://www.merlancia.com
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B E R N D M E Y E R O N A M I T H L O N X L
Sept. 28, 2002
Regarding so-called "AmithlonXL"
================================
* I have absolutely no knowledge of this "product" beyond that which
is publicly available on Amiga news sites.
* I am not in any way involved with this "product".
* At the current time, it is unclear (to me at least) whether this is
supposed to be an add-on for existing Amithlon users (akin to the
Elbox "Multimedia CD", simply offering a collection of new drivers),
or whether it is meant to be something including emulator executable
and ROM files.
* If it is just a collection of drivers, I have no problem with it.
About bloody time, I'd say.
* If, however, someone is planning to distribute my IP (as contained
in the emulator executable), I'd strongly advise to reconsider, as
neither Harald Frank nor Haage&Partner have any license to do so.
Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, neither of those parties
have a license from Amiga Inc for the distribution of kickstart
images.
* The announcements on www.amiga-news.de and www.ann.lu also talked
about the demo machine being equipped with a Dual Head Matrox card. I
sincerely hope that this is not an indication that my multi-head
capable gfx driver for Amithlon is considered or presented as part
of"AmithlonXL", as the license attached to that driver quite clearly
prohibits it.
* Let me also reiterate that of the contents of the amithlon_contrib*
packages released by me, ONLY the parts under the GPL are available
for inclusion with any Harald Frank or H&P product, and that inclusion
of those parts would require the strict adherence to the licensing
terms of the GPL.
* Obviously, I won't be supporting an "AmithlonXL" which violates my
intellectual property rights in any way. This would certainly include
making sure that the proprietary parts of any further contrib packages
I release for the users of the original Amithlon would not work with
such an "AmithlonXL". Personally, I despise crap like that, but what
can I do?
* I would finally like to ask everyone to recognize that at the
current time, to the best of my knowledge "AmithlonXL" is purely a
Harald Frank idea --- I have yet to see a single word about it from
Haage&Partner. So please don't abuse H&P over something they, for all
I know, might not even know about.
Bernd Meyer,
Main Amithlon programmer
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A M I T H L O N X L P R E M I E R A T O A S E 2
Sept. 14, 2002
{While this item refers to a show now past, we thought we'd run it in
light of the press release from Mr. Meyer, above. We haven't found
much else "official" about AmithlonXL. Brad}
AmithlonXL world premiere at O.A.S.E.2 event in Graz
The O.A.S.E.2 event, which will be held this weekend in Graz, will
see the first public demonstration of AmithlonXL components. Some of
the parts shown would regularly be first available only with the
release of the announced OS4 operating system.
The new stuff demonstrated there, will include Audio drivers for
SBLive, TerraTec Solo1, TerraTec 512i, CMedia and many many others.
However, because
of the short time we had, we were unable to get all the hardware to
demonstrate all new Audio drivers.
The Network connection will be established trough a RealTek 100Mbit
card controlled by the brandnew TCP/IP-Stack RoadShow from well known
Olaf Barthel. The features of RoadShow will include great services as
PPPoE, firewall and extended routing possibilities.
The system will be presented by Mr. Schober on his AthlonXP 1800.
This machine will be equipped with SoundBlasterLive, RealTek 100Mbit
Network Adapter and Matrox DualHead graphics card.
If possible, some benchmarks with the new FFS2 file sytem will be
made, but if time should prove to be short for those, we will deliver
their results on our Amithlon product home page later.
More information about AmithlonXL and AmigaOS XL Updates will be
available shortly on the usual web sites of our distributor
Haage&Partner. Naturally these will also contain information about
pricing and availability.
Link to O.A.S.E.2 event http://www.oase.at/cgi-bin/start.cgi
Link to Amithlon/AmigaOS XL Homepage http://www.amithlon.de
Best regards
VMC Harald Frank, founder and developer of Amithlon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H A N D P O N A M I T H L O N
19. September 2002:
The current differences between every party involved with the
Amithlon project are by way not that easy as they are described in the
internet discussions - often from one perspective only. Our contract
regarding the distribution rights for Amithlon is still valid. We have
been reluctant with public statements, cause we try to resolve the
differencs between the parties privately. We want to resolve the
problem and would like to see the contract being fulfilled by all
parties. The internet audience can not help with these negotiations
and will often be used, to spread the own oppinions as the only ones
that are true. Also the one, who cries the loudest, just expresses the
own perspective. To solve the conflict round on Amithlon it is
important to mediate between the different perspectives in private
negotiations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I N F O O N E L B O X S P I D E R U S B P C I C A R D
Sept. 12, 2002
Elbox Computer is proud to introduce the first USB 2.0 host
controller for the Amiga computers. The Spider USB 2.0 PCI card
provides a simple and affordable way to add five Hi-Speed USB ports to
Mediator-equipped Amigas.
The Spider USB 2.0 Hi-Speed PCI controller is backward-compatible,
which means it works also with older USB 1.1 peripherals.
Features:
· Four external and one internal USB 2.0 Hi-Speed forts
· Compatible with both USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) and USB 1.1 (12 Mbps)
devices · Compliant with EHCI, OHCI and PCI 2.2 standards
· All ports can handle high-speed, full-speed and low-speed
transaction ·
Supports up to 127 downstream USB devices
· Supplies 500 mA power to each USB port
· Supports PCI-Bus Power Management Interface
· Hot Plug Capability
Requirements:
· One free PCI slot
· Mediator Multimedia CD
The package contents:
· Spider USB 2.0 High-Speed PCI card
· Mediator OHCI USB drivers for the Poseidon stack
· Unregistered, time-limited version of the Poseidon USB stack
Mediator EHCI USB drivers for the Poseidon stack will be shipped to
registered Spider Card users as a free update (when completed).
Pricing and availability:
The Spider USB 2.0 High-Speed PCI card will be on sale as of 16
September 2002, at the suggested retail price of EUR 39.95 (VAT excl.)
To locate an authorized distributor or purchase the product visit the
Elbox Computer website at http://elbox.com/buy.html
Mediator users are the first, as always...
Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
contact: press@elbox.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E L B O X E X P L A N A T I O N O N P O S E I D O N
URL : http://amiga.realdreams.cz/local/20_9elbox.html
Title: Elbox explains Poseidon issue
Sept. 20, 2002
This is an official statement on behalf of the Elbox Computer company
aimed at explanation of the recent misunderstanding concerning support
for the Spider USB cards in the Poseidon stack.
Chris Hodges, author of the Poseidon stack, approached our company
several weeks ago with the proposal of co-operation. He suggested that
we prepared hardware drivers for Mediator for the Poseidon to enable
operation of USB cards, the support to which under our own USB stack
was to be released in a short time.
The proposal from Mr. Hodges was analysed in detail and accepted
after many additional mutual considerations.
Its basic principles were presented in the mutually accepted
announcement: http://www.elbox.com/news_02_09_11B.html
To clarify the issues once and for good:
1. The number of models / types / of USB PCI cards supported by our
drivers was never the subject matter of the mutual considerations.
Elbox, the party who prepared the drivers, decides which cards to
support.
2. One of our proposal: bundling by us or by our distributors the
registered version of the Poseidon stack with the USB PCI cards, was
rejected by the author of the Poseidon stack. And we accepted it.
Two days ago, we were surprised with the message signed by Mr.Hodges,
but posted by the producer of the USB card for the Zorro II slots. Mr.
Hodges has not contacted us since the Sunday presentation of the
Spider card in which he participated. Therefore, yesterday we asked
him to provide explanations on his part. We have received his reply
today.
We understand from his explanations that the whole misunderstanding
is due to the fact that Mr. Hodges did not know that almost all the
objections in the Mediator list were posted against him by people who
do not have Mediator busboards and do not want to have them.
Those who shout loudest "on behalf of Mediator users" own other PCI
solutions, which are not produced by Elbox, or they do not even have
Amiga computers at all.
There were messages in the list from just a few "loud" people. On the
other hand, the messages coming in recent days to us express huge
support and satisfaction from our releasing the Spider USB 2.0 card.
It should be clear to everybody that the registration method chosen
by Mr. Hodges for the Poseidon stack, directly with him, is the most
advantageous option for Mediator users (when price is concerned). In
this way they avoid all taxes and similar extra fees, which would have
to be added when registration is performed by the companies selling
the registered Poseidon with the USB hardware.
I hope this explains everything.
Let me take the opportunity to inform you that Spider USB 2.0 cards
are now on their way to our distributors and will be available from
them as of the coming Monday.
Mariusz Wloczysiak
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M E D I A T O R U S B D R I V E R S F O R P O S E I D O N
11 September 2002
Elbox Computer is pleased to announce that its drivers to PCI USB
cards in the Mediator busboard operate under the Poseidon USB stack.
These drivers have been prepared by Elbox programmers as a result of
co-operation started a few weeks ago by Chris Hodges, author of the
Poseidon stack.
As the Poseidon stack is already supported by authors of third-party
commercial software, we have decided that releasing another, our own,
USB stack for Amiga under such circumstances would mean doubling
effort of Amiga programmers.
We are sure that high-quality software included in the Poseidon stack
package and our hardware-optimised drivers resulting in high
performance achieved by PCI USB cards in Mediator will satisfy even
the most demanding users.
The unregistered, time-limited version of the Poseidon USB stack will
be available in the Mediator Multimedia CD. Registration of the
Poseidon stack for Mediator users will be provided by Chris Hodges.
About Poseidon:
The Poseidon USB Stack is a software solution that unleashes the
possibilities of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and the devices with
USB interface, ranging from mice, keyboards, tablets, joysticks,
printers, scanners, webcams, digicams, flash card readers, zip drives,
floppy disk drives, harddisks, memory sticks, ethernet adapters,
scanners and audio adapters to less common things like power supplies,
GPS location devices or finger print readers. It is intended to be a
solution for all systems. For more info about Poseidon stack please
visit Chris Hodges' website.
About Mediator:
The Mediator PCI busboard line is designed so as to enable expanding
the Amiga computers with a wide range of standard PCI cards like
Graphic cards, Ethernet and Fast Ethernet network cards, Modem cards,
ISDN cards, USB and SCSI cards, Sound cards and Multimedia cards: TV
tuner and MPEG-2 hardware decoders. Expanding the Amiga with the
Mediator PCI busboard opens the way to employing the power of the
latest PowerPC G3/G4 processors in Amiga, around which SharkPPC and
SharkPPC+ cards are based. For more info about Mediator please visit
Elbox website.
Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
http://www.elbox.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
W I L D F L Y E R F O R V I D E O T O A S T E R F L Y E R
Sept. 22, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DiscreetFX Announces Wild Flyer For The Amiga Video Toaster Flyer®
Our beta testers have reported no major problems with the latest
build of Wild Flyer so we will be shipping it shortly to our Video
Toaster Flyer customers. What is Wild Flyer you ask? It is a Front End
application to the very powerful and often misunderstood program Wild
Fire. Wildfire 7 is ADO animation sequencing, 3D effects, transitions,
and animation package by Andreas Maschke. It can be compared to SGI
Flint or Flame systems and it is capable of creating amazing 3D
effects by mapping video sequences.
The bad news about Wild Fire has always been the steep learning curve
and very difficult to understand user interface. Wild Flyer changes
all this. It uses all the power of Wild Fire as its background render
engine. Wild Flyer gives this amazing German application an easy to
use storyboard interface. All actions happen within the Video Toaster
Flyer screen. Users can just drag and drop the ADO animation sequences
within their Flyer and Wild Flyer takes care of the rest.
Imagine the power of an SGI Flint or Flame system but on your Amiga
VT Flyer! And it is very easy to use unlike these high-end SGI ADO
solutions. WF attains its speed by using the power of a PowerPC
processor as its rendering effects engine. The PPC processor does not
have to be in your Amiga. It can be a networked Amiga One or Pegasos
computer. If you already have a Phase 5 CyberstormPPC card in your
Amiga this will also work but will be slower. One of our beta testers
reports on the Pegasos Betatester system he is getting near real-time
ADO Effects from Wild Flyer.
Wild Flyer features include
1. Height-field deforms, cubes that automatically unfold and fold
again.
2. Lightwave object support.
3. 3D magnet effects, 3D transitional morphing, unlimited
mathematical deformations, twists, sphere mapping, twirling, water
transitions, perspective transforms and more!
4. Easy to use interface that opens on the Video Toaster Flyer
screen.
5. All effects are pure 24bit, no pixelizing or jaggie edges.
6. Full support for all Amiga PowerPC solutions
a. Amiga One running Amiga OS 4.0 (We hope, need OS 4.0 to test this)
b. Pegasos running MorphOS 1.0 (Tested and working)
c. SharkPPC (We hope, we need one to test it)
d. Cyberstorm PPC running PowerUP (Tested and working)
Minimum system
Amiga 4000 with CyberstormPPC card, Video Toaster 4000 & Flyer card,
18MB RAM, 1 GB Harddisk.
Recommended system
Amiga 4000 with Mediator PCI busboard and SharkPPC card, Video
Toaster 4000 & Flyer card. Or Amiga 4000 with Video Toaster 4000,
Flyer card and Network card that supports TCP/IP networked to Amiga
One or Pegasus computer system.
***More information coming soon***
http://www.elbox.com/products/mirage_4000_pro.html
http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/300502update.php
http://photosamiga.free.fr/Thendic0802/album.html
Get Wild Flyer and let your Video Toaster Flyer go wild.
Best regards
Bill Panagouleas
CEO
DiscreetFX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P I X L O A D 2 . 1 I S A N N O U N C E D
Sept. 19, 2002
DESCRIPTION :
This loading "bar" allows you to launch any program or script by one
click on icon. A bubble help tells you the name of loaded program.
Three help files (GUIDE, HTML and PDF) are available.
CHANGES :
- Drag and drop is now available on Pixload bar and also on each icon
(three first icons from left, others detect file types)
- Icons are scalable
- All settings of each icon are saved and can be loaded again
WHAT ABOUT :
It is a borderless window with buttons including IFF pictures. Each
click on button, loads a command line which loads a program. Drag and
drop is also available. It makes in AREXX, RXMUI and MUI for graphic
part. You can modify everything (colors, aspect, etc.. from the
Pixload contextual menu).
CONFIGURATION :
There are 3 elements to configure :
- Icons (IFF Pictures in Pixload/icones folder). First color of each
icon will be TRANSPARENT !!!
- MUI (look at documentation). You can configure MUI from Pixload
contextual menu (MUI settings) .Prefs files (Pixload.1.prefs and
Pixload-prefs.1.prefs) are located at SYS:prefs/env-archive/mui and
RAM:Env/mui
- The Pixload from Pixload-Prefs, which loads the configuration
program (look at help bubble)
- click on Pixload.prefs in the Prefs folder and choose :
- if you want to display Pixload horizontaly or verticaly
(horizontaly by default)
- if you want sound or not - numbers of enabled icons (15 by default,
but if you choose 10, the five lastest icons will be saved but
disabled) - size of icons (%) - name and path for each programs used
by drag and drop for reading text, picture and music module - for each
line, path and name of programs and bubble help content. - sounds for
each programs launched (listen to it !!)
MUI settings, is available from the Pixload contextual menu.
N.B : If you drag and drop file on 1st, 2nd or 3rd icon, program
linked to this icon will be launch and your file. A popup window will
appear with the linked program bold name.
By example : Drag and drop a icon of text file on 3rd icon will load
EDITPAD and your file.
If you drag and drop this icon anywhere else on Pixload bar, there
will be a filetype auto detection and, from your settings, a text
viewer will be load, otherwise it will be Multiview. A popup window
will appear with the filetype name found, in bold.
If you drag and drop a removable disk icon (CD Rom, Zip, etc), it
will be ejected
By default, Pixload analyses some file types (thanks to Filetypes
file in S folder) but it only reacts for : GIF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, 8SVX,
IFF, ILBM, ILBM24, Rexx, Text, Mod, Mods, Modules, MP3
You must have all datatypes for each file types listed above in
Devs/datatypes and Classes. For reading MP3 files, OS 3.9 is required
because Amplifier is used for this.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pixel-art
----------------------------------------------------------------------
V H I S T U D I O 5 . 7 , D I G I C A M P A C K A G E
10 Sep 2002
We´re proud to announce you the availability of a new and expanded
version of VHI Studio today.
New features/improvements in VHI Studio 5.7:
* USB-support (Digitalkameras, Webcams)
* new, integrated FTP-client for the webcam-functionality
* completly newly written .mov-animationexport
* automatic framerate-recognition
* an ARexx-port has been added
* heavily advanced webcam- and timelapse-functionality
* example-webcamfiles with elegant design in the archive
* extended PPC-support (e.g. JPEG-decoding)
* now uses fxWARP 9 technology
* native CPU-modules for PPC (PowerUP, WarpUP, MorphOS) and x86
(Amithlon)
Along with the availability of the new version we also have
relaunched our VHI Studio-pages.
VHI Studio is the award-winning software for videoboards, digicams,
webcams and other video sources on the AMIGA with the broadest
hardware-support. Functionality includes recording and cutting of
videoclips, download of images from digital cameras,
still-picture-grabbing and their optimization, watching TV on the
Workbench, a full-blown webcam-software (besides, this feature also
works with videoboards, digicams, etc!) and the easy creation of
timelapse-animations.
----
IOSPIRIT Felix Schwarz
Am Gründla 3
D-91074 Herzogenaurach
Germany
EMail: info@iospirit.de
WWW: http://www.iospirit.de/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
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[News message: 01. Oct. 2002, 12:18] [Comments: 0]
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