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`24.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 24 - Michael Rupp / Amiga-News.de wishes Merry Xmas The Christmas door and thus the conclusion of our Advent calendar premiere is Michael Rupp. More than a year ago, Michael familiarised himself with the Hollywood programming language and wrote SonosController, an application for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS that can be used to control the "speakers" distributed by Sonos. In the meantime, he has further developed this to version 1.2, which now also supports AmigaOS 3. But his main project is certainly a different one: at the beginning of 2001, and of course we reported on it, Michael Rupp published the result of his work on TAWS - The Amiga Workbench Simulation - for the first time publicly with version 0.5: a JavaScript project with the aim of bringing the look and feel of the Workbench to the browser. The idea came from the fact that many Amiga-themed pages are based on the Workbench for their navigation, which he aims to perfect with this. Michael has been working on the project for over 20 years now and we would like to mention a few "milestones": Version 0.9: Firefox support Version 0.11: the first application, "Clock", which look like the Amiga original but offers some additional options Version 0.13: support for Opera and AppleWebKit browsers (Safari, Google Chrome and OWB), MultiView loads JPEG, GIF, PNG, HTML and Text Version 0.16: complete simulation of AmigaOS 1.2 Version 0.17: complete AmigaGuide interpreter Version 0.23: all AmigaOS versions are simulated Version 0.26: Simulation of Amiga Shell Version 0.30: TAWS Early Preset Selection Version 0.31: new AmigaOS 3.1.4 Preset Version 0.34: MultiView support for IFF-ILBM files, new presets "AROS One" and "OS 3.9 AfA One" On the occasion of his Advent calendar door, he has today put the current version 0.35 online and, in addition to numerous new features and improvements, has also included a little Christmas surprise at our suggestion. Before we close our calendar with the last anecdote, we would like to use it to thank everyone who participated in the calendar once again. We hope it was a welcome change for everyone away from the usual news ticker. We wish our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We would like to thank you for your continued loyalty over the years and would like to encourage you to continue to contribute in the new year: both with feedback on the software and hardware projects presented here by the developers, but also with news reports via our Amiga News Feed (ANF). On the one hand this makes our voluntary work easier and on the other hand it is a service to the community and an expression of appreciation. Thank you very much! And now please, Michael :) "Pirate copies Yes, that's right, I said the unword: Pirate copies No "backup copies" or "not-quite-empty disks", but plain and simple: Pirate copies And the following story tells us that these can be dangerous. Even if it is somewhat different from what one would expect ... but everything in order: Trading pirated copies was the most natural thing in the world for us at the age of 14 (ok, yes, even later). There was a reason that we had not saved up a stupid console with its impractical cartridges, but a real computer with recordable floppy disks. Buying originals didn't even occur to you, the thought was so absurd. They cost a fortune! No, the money was needed for the memory expansion, everything was already expensive enough: over 200 francs for 512 kilobytes, just imagine. But I still think that all the piracy at the time contributed to the success of the Amiga to an extent that should not be underestimated, at least for the hardware manufacturers. Less so for the software producers, of course. In other words, success and decline rolled into one. Well. And where better to do this than in the schoolyard, before, after or even during lessons? Exactly. Nowhere. So there was nothing unusual about always having a few floppy disks at hand at school. So, one fine summer's day in 1989, the following happened: No, wait, I have to go a little further: I grew up in a rather rural area, in Teufen, an idyllic village of 5,000 souls in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, which already counted as a somewhat larger village in Switzerland (at least at that time). The school was undergoing renovations, so some subjects had been moved to a provisional location, including the cooking class, which I was supposed to switch to during the break. However, the provisional school was on the other side of the main road from the school itself, and the school itself was on a hill. And nice weather meant I was on my bike (CH German for "bicycle"). So, that brings us to all the important facts. I ask you to visualise this: We have a hill, a steep road that leads across the well-travelled main road incl. tram to the makeshift. And at the top you see young Michi swinging onto his bike, in his left hand a pack of freshly exchanged disks with ... right: Pirate copies. "Everything's easy", I think to myself, I can brake well with my right hand, and off I go, down the steep road. The main road quickly approaches, I pull on the brake, and it does: Whack! Brake cable snapped and there is no time left for further reflection, only reflexes remain. And these tell me that I must not let go of the disks under any circumstances, because at that age they were worth more than pure money. And apparently also more than life and limb. The road is rushing towards me, luckily there is no tram coming, but while I'm chasing across it, a station wagon gets in my way, so I slam into its side with full force. Suddenly I can fly, and then the lights go out for a moment. When I wake up, the police are already there and the ambulance is not long in coming, and I wonder how long I was away. As it turned out, I had probably not been unconscious for a minute, and there was a very specific reason why the police were at the scene of the accident faster than anyone would think possible: The car was the police Of all the vehicles whizzing past, I had actually chosen the police car to demonstrate the full power of kinetic energy. By the way, Yvonne, who I secretly had a huge crush on, had observed the whole thing, and she immediately informed my parents. In retrospect, I often thought that I should have used this circumstance somehow to get closer to her. But at the time I was probably just embarrassed, and unfortunately nothing ever came of it. And the disks? The ... Pirate copies? They were scattered all over the road, but the nice policeman, who seemed a bit worn out himself, collected them for me and gave them back to me. A car must have driven over one of them, it was gone, but all the others were still in perfect working order! I still find it remarkable today - and somehow also sweet - how absolutely clueless the authorities were about this issue back then, at least in rural Switzerland. Oh yes: About a year later I received an official letter informing me that a case against me had been dropped, of which I had known nothing at all. But even then it was only about the damage to the police car and not about ... Pirate copies!" (dr) [News message: 24. Dec. 2022, 07:26] [Comments: 2 - 24. Dec. 2022, 13:55] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`23.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 23 - George Sokianos One more time we will be awake...;) George 'walkero' Sokianos will shorten the time until Christmas Eve with his story for our 23rd door. George is currently the driving force behind many AmigaOS 4 projects and it is always surprising how varied his software theme choices are and where he finds the time to tackle it all. In addition, he has also been providing MorphOS versions of his software lately. At least here with us, his "career" began with the release of Comicami, a viewer for comics in .cbr and .cbz formats for AmigaOS 4. George tirelessly tries to improve the user experience under the Amiga operating systems and to make standards from the PC world available for the Amiga with smart ideas: For example, he has released aiostreams ("All In One Streams"), a collection of Python scripts that make it possible to watch retro streams on Twitch.tv and Mixer.com also under AmigaOS 4, AmigaOS 3, MorphOS and AROS instead of on the PC. Likewise, he publishes and updates scripts for the Odyssey web browser (AmigaOS 4 port) on his website, which succeed in displaying, for example, GitHub or itch.io websites. However, he is also venturing into the really big chunks that could make his just-mentioned efforts obsolete at some point: as we reported at the beginning of November, he has formed a small team that has started porting WebKit. The developer is also significantly responsible for the Software Development Kits for AmigaOS 4.1, ports the Editor Lite XL for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS and maintains iGame, his MUI-based frontend for launching WHDLoad titles. Using MediaVault, online radio stations can be streamed and podcasts listened to. We also want to mention his ported games, for example BreakHack, which was only released yesterday, BlobWars: Attrition or The Battle for the Solar System - The Pandoran War. On his Ko-fi website you will not only find a lot of interesting background information, but also the possibility to donate a coffee or more to him as appreciation (of which he gives 50% back to the community at the end of each month by supporting projects or developers). We wish George continued joy and success with his projects and look forward to many more interesting news here with us. His anecdote: "I'd like to share a little story of how I got into the Amiga NG scene. As I've been an Amiga user since around 1989, I was watching all the news for our beloved machine, and of course, I was drooling watching videos of the AmigaOS 4 running on PPC computers back then. I wanted... No. I needed an Amiga capable to run that operating system. So every day I was watching those youtube videos people were uploading from their AmigaOne XE and SE. Every day I was thinking about how I could buy one. Back then there were not many computers left to buy, as the availability was reducing dramatically. And there were no announcements for new machines to be released. The cost was high. That year was crucial for me since in May that year I got married to my wife, and we were expecting our first kid around October. So the family expenses were at a high grade. But I could stop thinking that fabulous computers with this exceptional OS. The funny thing is that I remember that every day I was going to work and I was visiting the online Amiga shops to check the availability. Every day I was filling up the order form and kept my hand from hitting that "Submit" button. Every day I was sooooo close, but yet so far. The nightmares started when shop by shop began to show the "Not available" label beside the AmigaOnes photos. That awful red label made my sweat grow and my heartbeat increase. Up until a hot day in June 2005 when that "Submit" button finally got clicked. For one more time, I was visiting the website of GGS-Data in Sweden and I was drooling at the photos of a microAmigaOne. And YES... that microAmigaOne became mine. I completed all the necessary payments and got the confirmation for my order, saying that everything was fine. The next day I visited the shops' web pages again and I was looking at the red label without caring anymore. That label appeared on the GGS-Data's website as well. Was the microAmigaOne I bought the last one that was for sale? Did I manage to get the very last AmigaOne back in 2005? What would happen if that day I didn't click that "Submit" button at the end of the order form? Would I be here with all of you developing software for the AmigaOS? I guess we will never learn what would happen. The only thing that I know is that while I am writing those words, I have that microAmigaOne beside my desk, ready to put a smile on my face, as it did 17 years ago. And most importantly, I survived my wife's menace to tell you the story. Take care of your Amiga computers and have fun with them." (dr) [News message: 23. Dec. 2022, 08:37] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`22.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 22 - Jacek Piszczek Willkommen zum 22. Türchen, für das Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek eine kleine Anekdote verfasst hat. Even those who have never or only marginally dealt with the MorphOS operating system will have heard about Jacek's impressive work on his e-mail client Iris and web browser Wayfarer. As exciting as his projects are, the interview we conducted with him in the middle of this year is also worth reading and we would like to recommend it here. We hope you will find as much time for your projects in the future, Jacek. We wish you much joy and continued positive feedback. He wrote the following hardware anecdote: "It was 1998 and I finally managed to buy an A1200 with a PowerPC. Of course at that time it was already becoming a little hard to just get everything from one store, so it took a while to get the motherboard, the Infinitiv tower case and so on. Once everything was finally there, I was very eager to replace the A500 I’ve since outgrown. I’ve known, of course, that the aging hardware was a little finicky and tried to be patient with it. Still, I didn’t expect smoke to come out of the computer on the first power on. Turned out it was the Micronik power adapter cable which was either soldered incorrectly or didn’t get a good enough fit. The result: the cables literally burst and I had to get the power adapter repaired. It’s bugged me several times since, before I was able to replace the whole tower for an Elbox one: Another attempt. Got the cable repaired and assembled everything back again. Power on. Smoke comes out… OK… deep breath… Turns out that in my haste to get it all working I’ve managed to shift the IDE plug by 1 pin. Since Commodore cheaped out when building the Amiga and didn’t use a shrouded header it wasn’t exactly hard to do. Unfortunately, this fried the IDE chip on the A1200 motherboard, so now I’ve had a nice, working, A1200 with a PowerPC card and only a floppy drive to run software from. A much faster A500, ha ha. In the end it was easier to just add an Elbox FastATA to the set than get the A1200 motherboard repaired. Think it all cost me over a month and way too much money. Still, that Amiga was what eventually let me start working on MorphOS and I’ve used it daily until about 2004." (dr) [News message: 22. Dec. 2022, 11:29] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]

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