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09.Apr.2001
Diverse Sources


Software News
QuickNote V1.5 Beta 1
OnxySoft released version 1.5 (Beta 1) of the program 'QuickNote' by Stefan Blixth. Download: quicknote15b0408.lha

Tales of Tamar Amiga Client V0.34r2
There is a new version (V0.35 R2) of the Amiga-client of Tales of Tamar for registered beta testers available here.

Shogo:MAD
As already reported Hyperion Software uploaded a demo of Shogo:MAD to the Aminet. Download: ShogoDemo.lha or ShogoDemo.lha

Ghostscript 6.50
Rüdiger Hanke announced that
he released version 6.50. The download is available at his Homepage.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 21:37] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Alfred Sturm


New Aminet Uploads
SKF13Theme.lha       biz/dopus  7.1M+Theme for DirectoryOpus5 Magellan 2
ListbrowserPch.lha   biz/patch   10K+Fixes AWeb popup problems with OS3.9 BB1
ShogoDemo.lha        biz/titan   36M+Shogo: Mobile Armor Division demo versio
fnews10.lha          comm/misc   50K+Free configurable News Display Tool for 
daytimedemo.lha      comm/tcp     9K+Daytime client/server example + source (
smbfs.lha            comm/tcp   120K+SMB file system client; complements Samb
TaskiSMS.lha         comm/tcp   362K+Sends SMS to GSM phones (MUI).
mbs-oldskool.lha     demo/ecs   300K+Oldskool Fools by Mandel Bros.
dln-1st.lha          demo/intro 140K+First intro by Deadline SF
dln-dentro.lha       demo/intro 102K+Dentro by Deadline SF
dln-mustro.lha       demo/intro 146K+Mustro (2nd intro) by Deadline SF
Message.lha          demo/intro  88K+An Old-School Demo by HCS 90
upstream1.lha        demo/mag   579K+Upstream 1 diskmag by Balance
upstream10.lha       demo/mag   436K+Upstream 10 diskmag by Balance
upstream8.lha        demo/mag   645K+Upstream 8 diskmag by Balance
dln-notelines.lha    demo/sound 803K+Notelines musicdisk by Deadline SF
deepcore.lha         demo/track 406K+Deepcore trackmo by Balance
JMildred_ScrMd.lha   dev/basic   18K+Example of using Mildred with AGA and RT
devpic.lha           dev/cross   95K+PIC16 development package
FD2Pragma.lha        dev/misc   144K+V2.124 create pragma, inline, ... files
muimaster020.lha     dev/mui     97K+Muimaster.library 020 patch Rel 4
IICopier2.0PL.lha    docs/help    9K+Polish Locale for IconImageCopier2.0
jAnimator1.0PL.lha   docs/help   10K+Polish Locale for jAnimator1.0
MagellanIIPL.lha     docs/help   39K+Polish Locale for MagellanII
Aakt0401GUIDE.lha    docs/mags   89K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
Aakt0401HTML.lha     docs/mags  267K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
rusfaqs.lha          docs/misc   94K+Amiga FAQs, in Russian
SuddenDeath.lha      game/actio  50K+4 player tron
F1GP_2001.lha        game/data    9K+2001 F1 season data for F1GP-Ed (1 April
obvious.lha          game/data  102K+DynAMIte style with obvious colors
MUI_HLed.lha         game/misc   71K+Map editor for HistoryLine 1914-1918
PerOneMine1.lha      game/misc  249K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
PerOneMine2.lha      game/misc  362K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
PerOneMine3.lha      game/misc  363K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
PerOneMine4.lha      game/misc  345K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
PerOneMine5.lha      game/misc  336K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
PerOneMine6.lha      game/misc  372K+AGA/ECS Emerald Mine game with 81 levels
gse1.lha             game/patch  17K+Editor for Gunship2000 roster files
WHD_JWSnooker.lha    game/patch  30K+HD Installer for Jimmy White Snooker
WHD_PDroid90.lha     game/patch  17K+HD Installer for Paradroid90
WHD_RAMHamster.lha   game/patch   8K+HD Installer for Rockstar Ate My Hamster
WHD_UridiumII.lha    game/patch  14K+Uridium II Hard Drive Installer
WHD_Zeewolf.lha      game/patch  25K+HD Installer for Zeewolf
WHD_ZeewolfII.lha    game/patch  24K+HD Installer for Zeewolf II
eyangband.lha        game/role  789K+EyAngband 0.3.0 - Roguelike solo RPG
gumband.lha          game/role  953K+Gumband 2.1.3b - Roguelike solo RPG
kangband.lha         game/role  843K+Kangband 2.9.2r1 - Roguelike solo RPG
oangband.lha         game/role  900K+Oangband 0.5.1 - Roguelike solo RPG
Connect4.lha         game/think  64K+Connect 4 game using MUI (with source)
MagicNumbersDt.lha   game/think   2K+V1.1, German catalog for MagicNumbers v1
MentalBlokz.lha      game/think 405K+Puzzle game that will drive you mental f
Warp3D-4.0.lha       gfx/board  980K+Warp3D V4
SoftCinema.lha       gfx/show   403K+Ultimate Movie Player (PPC) V0.12
FMdriver.lha         hard/drivr 356K+FrameMachine drivers, TV on WB, Videos a
FMdriverVHI.lha      hard/drivr  15K+FMdriverVHI - VHI-FrameMachine drivers
ps2m.lha             hard/hack   23K+Ultimate Amiga PS/2 WheelMouseController
mathdrill.lha        misc/edu    50K+Math Drill Flashcards Program
imdbDiff010330.lha   misc/imdb  2.1M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
vdo_whit.lha         mods/vdo   802K+Valkoinen [xm 14ch]
DelfMPEG.lha         mus/play   161K+MPEG audio player for Delfina DSP
dmdev.lha            mus/play   135K+Mpeg.device for Delfina DSP
MASMPegDevice.lha    mus/play   129K+CBM compat. device for MAS MP3 Player
AMIGirl.lha          pix/misc   321K+Picture of Death - The AMiGA Girl ;) by 
BareED.lha           text/edit  279K+Simple text editor which supports propor
AutoPDF14.lha        text/misc   26K+AutoPDF 1.4 - Convert Postscript to PDF
ltools157_demo.lha   text/misc   70K+Dictionary and Document Translator
CheckX.lha           util/arc    30K+V1.83 Check for Archives/Packers/Viruses
ilbmdtPPC.lha        util/dtype  11K+Ilbmdt for the PPC, running WarpUP (45.3
WarpDTPrefs.lha      util/dtype  27K+WarpDT preferences program V44.3
WarpJPEGdt.lha       util/dtype 133K+JFIF-JPEG datatype V44.19 (68k,WarpOS,Mo
WarpPNGdt.lha        util/dtype 140K+PNG image datatype V44.14 (68k,WarpOS,Mo
cookietool.lha       util/misc   67K+Clean up your fortunes database, V2.5
AmiGOD.lha           util/moni  498K+V1.44 - WB graphics benchmark
WheelBusMouse.lha    util/mouse  12K+Bus Mouse wheel support
ScreenShell.lha      util/shell   9K+Opens full size shell on new public scre
VEPatchBrain.lha     util/virus  19K+PatchBrain v1.29 for VirusExecutor v2.xx
aafont.lha           util/wb      4K+Antialiased fonts on wb (1.1)
choowin.lha          util/wb     19K+Start and Window activation utility
classaction.lha      util/wb    190K+AmigaOS multipurpose filemanager
CondenseIcon.lha     util/wb      6K+Os3.5 tool to make .info files smaller (
mainprefs.lha        util/wb     86K+AmigaOS Preferences GUI


[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 19:51] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Thomas Würgler on ANF


Trojan Warning (Update II)
Some sort of trojan (apparently the newly uploaded stackattack.lha on Aminet) has caused SMTP bombing of haage-partner. The file is this: StackAttack.lha util/boot 68K 0 V1.2b Kills GURUs (stack problem). It's on the German Aminet mirror.
Could there be hidden loopholes in MorphOS? Read the link and consider for yourself.

Frank Niewiedzial informed us that other files could be affected too.
"Do not download and install safe.lha and fblit.lha. They are fakes and send hatemails to H&P."

Silivio K. told us that the current version of 'BlaceWCP' could be concerned too.
"The current version of BlaceWP, available from the aminet, opens the port 113 (auth) of your computer and connects to the H&P web- and ftpserver! The program itself is not a product of H&P. Thats why it could be possible that it is a trojan too.
The following logs were recorded:
tcp 0 0 pD9042BA5.dip.t-.auth haage-partner.co.61797 TIME_WAIT
16:00:46.081940 pD90427BC.dip.t-dialin.net.2865 > haage-partner.com.smtp
16:02:08.530618 pD90427BC.dip.t-dialin.net > 217.5.107.165: icmp: echo request
"

Annotation of editor's:
Haage & Partner confirmed that at the moment 15 e-mails arrive at H&P every minute. Juergen Haage: "Do not panic. No normal mail will get lost."

The MorphOS-Team has nothing to do with the virus and dissociate from this! "Lowest level, this is not our way of competition".

Even Georg Steger, the original author of StackAttack dissociates him self in his commentary at ANN.

Virus Help Denmark and the admin of the aminet Matthias Scheler are informed and they will check the files and maybe delete them.

At the title link there is a tool available that removes the task from the ram. After reboot it will be there again and you have to restart the tool.

Annotation: Messsage of the day from Aminet
  • TROJAN HORSES FOUND ON AMINET. The following four archives on Aminet were unfortunately infected: util/boot/StackAttack.lha, util/boot/BlazeWCP.lha, util/virus/Safe.lha and util/boot/FBlit.lha. They contain faked releases of the original software linked with a Trojan horse which sends out abusive e-mails. On infected systems a process called "zakahackandpatch" will show up. If your system is infected deleted the software listed abover or replace it with older versions and reboot. As a protest against this abuse of Aminet we will shut down our services on "us.aminet.net" and "de.aminet.net" until Friday.
  • DE3.AMINET.NET NOW COMPLETE. The mirror in Erlangen, Germany now stores all Aminet files.

Annotation 10.04.2001:
Following the official message by Virus Help Denmark. They are offering the old alten Archives at there homepage.

Four new 'TCP' trojans was found today on Aminet. If you installed one of these archives, please delete the files. We hope to have a cure for these trojan within the next 24 hours.
The TCP trojan will send an email to 'Haage & Partner', with a very stupid text.

Here is what we know so far:

Virus Type.... : TCP Trojan
Trojan name....: zakahackandpatch

Archive name.. : Safe.lha Archive size.. : About 20 kb
Archive name.. : Fblit.lha Archive size.. : 142.086 bytes
Archive name.. : BlazeWCP.lha Archive size.. : 32.862 bytes
Archive name.. : stackattack.lha Archive size.. : About 32 kb

Thanx to Frank Niewiedzial, Kev Harrison, Luca Longone and many more for your information about these archives.....

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 17:52] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Greg Donner


Update of the Official AmigaOS 3.9 FAQ
Since our last message about the official OS3.9 FAQ by Greg Donner there were many updates in different parts of the FAQ.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 16:39] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Olaf Koebnik via E-Mail


Amiga Arena News
Amiga Arena Prerelease!
We made ArTKnoid by Thilo Koehler (developer of Toadies) available at our side. The program is a arkanoid-clone.

Amiga Arena TaskiSMS annotation
The registration for the special-price for TaskiSMS is now possible via snail-mail.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 15:20] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Achim Stegemann on ANF


Digital Almanac III - News
After a longer brake there are now some new news about Digital Almanac III (DA 3). The English version is available now! The German update will be available within a few days.

These are the main changes since version 2.0:
  • Improved stability
  • Corrected times of the rising and setting of the moon.
  • PixelCheck-function does not longer crash with CGX-15/16/24Bit-Screens.
  • Times of moon eclipses in the calendar are now in local time.
  • and much more...

Furthermore there are about 100MB of videos concerning astronomy and science-fiction.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 12:15] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Markus Fellhauer on ANF


AmigAIM 0.9412 Beta Released
Betaversion 0.9412 of AmigaAIM by Richard H. Poser is available for download: AmigAIM_BETA.lha

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 04:47] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
Jens Troeger on ANF


InstallerNG
I released a small update of InstallerNG. I only changed the runtime error handling: you are able to switch of the error requestors via tooltypes.

There will be version 2 out in some weeks. If you have any wishes for the new version just send me a mail.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 04:39] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2001
No Risc No Fun on ANF


Abode of Golgotha Saga at NoRiscNoFun
We have a review of the Abode of Golgotha Saga. These games are based on the Heretic II engine.

[News message: 09. Apr. 2001, 04:37] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Michael Garlich via E-Mail


Titan Computer Support MorphOS
Press release from Titan Computer, Software Development, 08.04.2001

Titan Computer is happy to announce that we have decided to now also support MorphOS in the future.

One of our first projects will be the video-editing software Motionstudio, which will be developed by the company with the same name, who have already developed software like Elastic Dreams and Artstudio Pro.

Motionstudio will be released in 4/Q exclusively for MorphOS. The software supports non-linear video-editing, PlugIn interface, more than 40 video- and audio effects, innovative GUI as well as Firewire support (e.g. B-Plan Pegasos Computer).

Take a look at one of the first screenshots (201 kB) of the GUI.

Kontakt:
Titan Computer
Mahndorfer Heerstr. 80 A
D-28307 Bremen
Tel.: +49/(0)421/48 16 20
Fax : +49/(0)421/43 88 29

E-Mail: MacFly@TitanComputer.de
WWW: http://www.Titan-Computer.com

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 22:31] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
RELEC im ANF


Prometheus in Switzerland & France
Prometheus in Switzerland & France!
RELEC Software & Hardware AMIGA become exclusive distributor in Switzerland and France. More informations and FAQ in French at relec.prometheus.html.

Note from the editor:
'Prometheus' is not the BBS-software, but the PCI-Board by Matay with the same name.


[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 21:17] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Jens Schönfeld on ANF


Mekka & Symposium 2001 co-sponsored by individual Computers
As during the past years we support the now nearly legendary scene-party Mekka & Symposium with prices for about 1100,- DM. The fourday party is held every year on easter in Fallingbostel (between Hamburg and Hannover (our report).

In the Mid 80's the first "European style demos" came to the C-64. Intro-Coders broke with the Cracker-scene to let their creativity develop freely. In the 90's this programming style evolved on all of the computer systems, for example Amiga, C-64 and PC, to an style of art, which we think is worth supporting.

The programming (coding) of demos has become a lifestyle for some people: Even the proposal of marriage of a well known C-64 coder to his girlfriend had to shown as a demo over the "big screen" - supported by the applause from several thousand scene-members.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 21:15] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Martina Jacobs


Sven Drieling's Evaluation now also in English
Martina Jacobs has translated the evaluation by Sven Drieling entitled "St. Louis 2001: Nothing has changed".

St. Louis 2001: nothing has changed - 05.04.2001 Translator: Martina Jacobs

Last weekend Amiga published their current plans in St. Louis which beforehand were announced to be a ground shaking event. According to what I have read about that in the Internet since Sunday it seems to me that nothing has changed.

Amiga's long term target further on is a portable, independent running AmigaDE combined with TAO's Elate. New is that the plan to develop AmigaOS v5 including memory protection, SMP, and other features as an further foundation component for this system was added. Furthermore there is Sharp featuring a cooperation to develop applications for Sharp's Zaurus PDA basing on AmigaDE.

Unfortunately no changes happened to Amiga's information policy, too, thus it is very hard to understand, what Amiga's plans are about and I'm not quit sure if I realized their plans correctly.

Indeed it effects me if Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss are talking about one single plan, but concentrating on opposite tails. Bill McEwen is focusing on short term targets (AmigaOS for PPC, PDA, hosted AmigaDE) and Fleecy Moss is focusing on the long term targets (independent running, portable AmigaOS v5 + AmigaDE for hardware from PDAs through servers including the desktops). Those two different focal points might be one reason for the current confusion. A second reason might be that Amiga didn't publish any contiguous texts clearly stating their future plans, by now - a.o. still almost nothing is known about the AmigaDE.

As I've got it the plans are now as follows, whereas I'm absolutely not sure, if my version is correct, since it is very hard to read what Amiga now actually wants to do from the input coming from Amiga and there is range for personal interpretations.

Short term targets are the AmigaDE hosted on Linux and WindowsCE for PDAs, an an AmigaOS v4.x plus the hosted AmigaDE for PPC computers, which meet the Zico specification. For example this applies to the AmigaOne 1200 by Eyetech.

The long term target is a portable, independent, run-anywhere OS basing on the AmigaOS and combined with TAO's Elate and the AmigaDE. That OS will offer memory protection, virtual memory, SMP, and similar and will be available scalable for from PDAs through servers.

In this there are no changes in plans for and further development of AmigaDE. It still will offer the VP, the Sheep language, OpenGL, and the other planned and still unknown features and it will run hosted on other systems, as well as it will be available as an independent system, on the long run.

The d'Amiga also might still will act as a computer for software development with an advanced SDK. I don't think/hope that Amiga will nominate the Zico-PPC for the only development computer for AmigaDE.

By that and 15 month after their foundation Amiga should now meet the wishes of both, the people wanting an AmigaOS for PPC as well as the people recommending AmigaDE, and not at the expense of any of these groups.

It is completely incomprehensible to me, why Amiga is not capable to put this across the public.

What makes me bothered by St. Louis

Calamitous information policy

Amiga finally has to realize that it is absolutely impossible for outsiders to understand and to comprehend what Amiga actually is planning and for what reason. This is due to all of the necessary information published only bit by bit on account of tempered reactions from Amiga users, who were completely confused and misinformed after the announcements in St. Louis.

What sill is missing are texts illustrating Amiga's plans clearly, understandable, comprehensible, and without contradiction - on amiga.com. Such would not only be helpful for the Amiga users, but even for Amiga's staffers, who again got a flood of tempered reactions lavished on them after St. Louis, while they could have spent their time doing more suggestive things.

No new SDK

Contrary to what was anticipated by many of us there was no new version of the SDK presented in St. Louis already containing e.g. OpenGL, a glimpse on Sheep, and offering other elements. That might have been a reason for the impression that Amiga now would disregard the AmiaDE and instead would put their focus on AmigaOS.

Neglect of current AmigaPPC computers

In the beginning disregarding the AmigaOS and concentrating on the AmigaDE. There even wasn't the definite statement that a third-party company will port AmigaDE to the current AmigaPPC machines and that AmigaDE will contain a Classic Amiga emulation right from start (with accentuation on definite statement). Because of such statements one could have purchased hard- and software for the existing Amigas in peace of conscience, since one would have known that one would be able to use those components together with AmigaDE in the future. That way Amiga companies and distributors could have continued to transacted their businesses from early 2000.

That's why I don't understand why Amiga makes the same mistakes, again. AmigaOS v4.x was announced for Zico PPC machines, but there is no definite statement that AmigaOS v4.x also will be available for existing PPC-Amigas. Equipped with a PCI board plus adequate FireWire cards, and similar, these computers would meet the Zico specification, moreover.

I understand that Amiga themselves is focusing the easier to handle AmigaOne. With this Amiga will not forfeit time and they can concentrate on their real target in a better way. But I cannot understand why the possibility for third-party companies to port the AmigaOS v4.x for AmigaOne to the existing PPC-Amigas wasn't mentioned in one single announcement. Though somewhere Fleecy Moss denoted that possibility, there doesn't seem to be any definite statement on that.

Amiga would not deteriorate by such a port, but probably there would be some 1,000 AmigaOS v4.x users more. Nobody would mope because of the expensive PPC hardware suddenly becoming useless, though this hardware would be proper for the AmigaOS, and Amiga companies and Amiga vendors could earn money with PCI boards, and similar, already now, instead of being forced to wait for the AmigaOne in summer.

Neglect of desktops

Regarding the AmigaDE Amiga first put their focus on PDAs. Due to the existing cooperation with Sharp and - as I think - because it is easier to gain a secure market position in the PDA section than in the desktop section, they are doing it right. But since AmigaDE must be available for desktop machines (developer machines), and because one certain point in case of PDAs is the easy data transfer between PDA and desktops, in my opinion nothing objects to talk about desktops in one breath. Since just AmigaDE would make it possible to execute one single application on PDAs as well as on desktops. The desktop variant then would run hosted on the widely spread Windows and Linux machines, and in addition on AmigaOS v4.x on PPC-Amiga computers.

Conclusion

With AmigaDE plus applications for PDAs and AmigaOS plus the PPC-hardware, in my opinion Amiga takes two ways on which Amiga, as well as third-party companies, could have gains in a short term, already. Additionally Amiga now meet the wishes of the PPC and AmigaDE backers, without changing the initial targets.

I don't know why Amiga now reclaims the AmigaOS. Reasons for that might have been the claims to further develop the AmigaOS, and that Amiga learned to know reality during the last month and while that learned that yet it takes some time to transform own ideas, no matter how good these are.

The Zico PPC computers are still a very small corner of the market only addressing the existing Amiga users, for the first time. With a LinuxPPC for those machines the ring of users can be extended with another hand full of people, who then might become aware of AmigaOS and AmigaDE, too. But in my opinion it will not be possible to address a bigger market with that. But this might be possible by a hosted AmigaDE for PDAs and desktops. While I still don't know what AmigaDE is about in detail, so I absolutely have no idea how much interesting this system would be for users of other systems.

But if there would be an independent running AmigaDE, already yet, that would represent only a small part of the AmigaDE systems installed, cause most of AmigaDE systems probably would run hosted on another system, as I think. Because this way users were able to use the system and software they know and additionally the new system with the run-anywhere software. They would not be forced to switch to another system, overnight.

Because I don't have any details about the AmigaDE, I cannot estimate Amiga's future chances, at the time being. But I think they now have put their plans on stable ground, thus they have good conditions in the beginning.

But in my opinion a possible breakthrough will not come overnight, but will yield over the years. One important thing in this then will be the portable AmigaOS v5, in which assumedly AmigaOS and AmigaDE will melt together as one, making Amiga independent from other systems.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 21:08] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Alexander Kurtz on ANF


AmiNET-Gui Available under www.aminet-gui.de
The AmiNET-Gui is, at last, once again reachable under a .de-domain. The Domain aminet-gui.de will in the next hours once again link to the amiNET-Gui. Shortly the page will be redesigned , as soon as http://www.aminet.de will be connected once again.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 14:57] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Diverse Sources


Software News
V³ 3.3.95beta
The browser Voyager is now available in 2 versions, one for AmigaOS and one for MorphOS. Which changes have been made can be read in the Readme.
Download:
AmigaOS: v3_3395beta_amigaos.lzx
MorphOS: v3_3395beta_morphos.lzx

Choowin V1.0
Martin Elsner has released version 1.0 of his Workbench-Tool 'Choowin'. Choowin is a small tool to start programs and bring windows to the front and activate them, similar to a task-manager. Version 1.0 now has a startmenu, a new tooltype-filter and a new look
Download: choowin.lha - 20 kB

SoftCinema V0.12 beta
Total Vision has released beta-version 0.12 of SoftCinema, the movie and animation player for the Amiga. The program ist shareware, an unregistered version plays only 30 seconds. You can register the program online at RegNet or, if you don't have a credit card, order at Fun Time World.
Download: SoftCinema_012.lha

CondenseIcon V44.5
Stephan Rupprecht released version44.5 of CondenseIcon, which lets you shrink .info-files.
Download: CondenseIcon.lha - 6 kB

Mapeditor V1.01
At Peter Weigoldt you can find version 1.01 of his map editor for the game 'Schlachtfeld'.
Download: Karteneditor.lha - 72 kB

Turboprint V7.17beta
At IrseeSoft version 7.17Beta of the printer driver system 'Turboprint' is available for download.
Download: tp717beta.lha

VEPatchBrain V1.29
AT Virus Help Denmark you can find the new PatchBrain version 1.29 for the virus checker 'VirusExecutor'. Here the details:
Name: VEPatchBrain v1.29
Archivename: VEPatchBrain.lha
Archivesize: 19.658 Bytes
Releasedate: 8. April 2001
Coder: Jan Erik Olausen


[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 14:49] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
A.C.T. on ANF


Prelude Programmer-Infos
A.C.T. have made available the first version (currently only in German) of the information for programmers, which will allow to write Prelude drivers. This makes it also possible to develop Linux drivers for both Preludes (Z2 and 1200). Knowledge about the used sound chips is also necessary.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 13:23] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Daniel Reichen via AMIPRESS-ML


Send Convalescent Wishes to John Zacharias
As we already reported on our Special St. Louis page John Zacharias, author of AEMail and organizer of the AmiWest, happened to have a stroke on the St. Louis Show. Meantime he's on the mend. Send him your convalescent wishes with the greeting card under the title link, created especially for that on Northwest Amiga Group.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 13:22] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Stefan Robl on ANF


FMdriver und FMdriverVHI V1.25
After a long delay at last I released the two FrameMachine drivers v1.25, today. New in FMdriver the possibility to save different configurations to have optimal source regarding settings at hand. This is very helpful especially if one uses different players for passing data (e.g. 16:9, 4:3, DVD, etc.), but wants to have removed those ugly black borders right from the start. Moreover it now is possible to create time laps recordings in a very simple way.

The VHI driver FMdriverVHI was generally reworked and mate with my new driver conception for the FMdriver packet - now performance together with VHI should be much better.

Something else on personal cause: unfortunately that I'll have to strongly reduce my programming and hardware activities this year, due to my studies and final year project. Due to this I ask you for your understanding, if it will take me some more time to reply on an e-mail! At all events I will try to release more new versions, even though the time famine.

And now, have a lot of fun with the new versions of the programs!

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 12:46] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Juergen A. Theiner on ANF


Play!Amiga: Shogo-Demoversion Review
What took a long time, at last became fine! Shogo demo version available!
After a long waiting period now there is the Shogo demo. The game is supposed to be finished next month. Of course there's one probing question: what will the game look like on my computer? It is about to download simply 40 MB as well as Warp3D v4 and one can get a first impression. That's what Play!Amiga has done for you.

[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 12:38] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2001
Dynamite Team on ANF


Dynamite 1.2 Released for Download
1. There is an update file for updating Dynamite v1.1 to v1.2 for download. Dynamite is an Bomberman like online game.

2. There are some innovations in the HTTP section.
  • The "Stylorama", the page for new graphics sets, now is working and contains the current versions. Look for "Stylorama" down right below "The empereors new clothes".
  • A Dynamite forum was opened. If you want to express yourself or just would like to praise the people involved in Dynamite, you can do it there.

Download:
Update: dynAMIte_update.lha - 216 kB
Complete Archive: dynAMIte.lha - 1757 kB


[News message: 08. Apr. 2001, 12:32] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
Frank Herfurt alias Master 3 on ANF


Invitation for Chat
Channel #miggy.de invites Amiga & PC users to chatting. Everybody with questions or problems regarding his/her Amiga or PC should address to this place. The channel #miggy.de has always an open ear.

Server: de.arcnet.vapor.com
Channel: #miggy.de


[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 20:38] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
Marco Frischkorn on ANF


Development of BATTLE Stopped
Already in November HighAnt Development announced a turn in direction (we reported). Today Marco Frischkorn informs us that the development of the remaining game 'Battle' had definitively been dropped, too.

Frischkorn: "Game Over! You get to see this normally only at the end of a game but in this case it's also valid for BATTLE. Because of private things (I'll become father for the second time) and the general situation we have decided to finish the development of BATTLE and to let the game and the development kit die."
Read his full statement under the title link.

[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 18:28] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
Horst Diebel on ANF


New Entries in the Big Book of Amiga Hardware
Since the 1. April there are again new entries in the Big Book of Amiga Hardware:
  • New entry and pictures: Amiga Desktop Video Master (thanks go to Michael Guenseich)
  • New picture: Micronik A1200 busboard (thanks go to Michael Guenseich)
  • New entry and picture: BSC Ram expansion (thanks go to Michael Guenseich)
  • New entriy and picture: Xpert flicker fixer (thanks go to Michael Guenseich)
  • New pictures: Rocket Launcher (thanks go to Jorge Santillan)
  • New pictures: Access 32 (thanks go to Jorge Santillan)
  • New pictures: A3500[T] (thanks go to an DJ)
  • New entry and pictures: MTec 1230/28RTC (thanks go to Jan Dwoenizky)
  • New entry and pictures: Mastercard (thanks go to Jan Dwoenizky)
  • New pictures and update: Megamix '2000' (thanks go to Jan Dwoenizky and Jens Schönfeld)
  • Generous update: A2024 (thanks go to Ralph Ewers)
  • Update: ATonce Plus (thanks go to Jani Kultanen)
  • New mystery: Item #8 (thanks go to Kepp)
  • Mystery solved: Item #7 (thanks go to Jan Dwoenizky and Jens Schönfeld)
  • New entry: VarIO (thanks go to Jens Schönfeld)
  • Manufacturer reports: (thanks go to Jens Schönfeld)
  • New entry and picture: Prometheus


[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 13:24] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
Jan Andersen via email


VEPatch.Brain for VirusExecutor v.1.28 Released
Name: VEPatchBrain v1.28
Archive name: VEPatchBrain.lha
Archive size: 21.052 Bytes
Release date: 6. April 2001
Programmer: Jan Erik Olausen

[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 11:21] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
FOM on ANF


Amiga Easter Card
From the FOM website you can now send an easter webcard of the known Amiga cartoonist Eric Schwartz.

Amiga no Brasil
You can also find a collection of sundry programs of Brazilian Amiga users on the CD-ROM Amiga no Brasil. Games, internet, tools, animations, mods and more. It can be obtained for DM 5.- plus porto and package from me.

[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 10:51] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2001
Hans-Jörg Frieden on ANF


Warp3D v4 was Released
Warp3D V4 was released. The fourth release of the 3D-hardware driver system now can be downloaded under the title link.

Warp3D needs a compatible 3D-graphics card. The archive contains drivers for ViRGE and Permedia 2. The drivers for the Voodoo 3 aren't present in this actual version yet.

[News message: 07. Apr. 2001, 00:06] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Thomas Frieden on ANF


Shogo Demo on Aminet
The long wait finally has an end: the demo of Hyperion's story-based shooter Shogo: Mobile Armor Division should appear soon on Aminet.

The game runs on PPC (WarpUP) and requires at least 64 MB RAM. For hardware acceleration, Warp3D V4 is required, which should be available from Aminet at the same time.

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 18:28] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Diverse Sources


Software News
Audiomaster 2000 v 0.66
At Frank Fenn, you can find a new version of his MUI sample editor 'Audiomaster 2k', which supports all AHI devices. Saving is not possible in the demo version. Download: audiomaster2k.lha - 276 kB

AWeb popup problem
If you have after installation of OS3.9 boing bag 1 a problem with AWeb that cycle gadgets with less than three options show only the first option correctly, you can find at Tom Parker a small patch which solves the problem by patching the 'listbrowser.gadget'. Download: ListbrowserPatch.lha

Aminet CD 42
Aminet CD 42 is now available at Schatztruhe. The April CD contains more than 800 MB (unarchived) software in almost a thousand archives. As a special highlight, the full version of the SuperView Productivity Suite is included, with a cheap upgrade option to SuperView Productivity Suite II.


[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 17:55] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Olaf Koebnik via E-Mail


Amiga Arena News
In cooperation with Pablo F., the Amiga Arena makes a special price for TaskiSMS possible! TaskiSMS is an easy to use SMS sender for the Amiga. The special price is 50% of the regular price and is only valid until May 10th, 2001. You can register at Reg.net.

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 17:51] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Alfred Sturm


New Aminet uploads
DopJoin.lha          biz/dopus    5K+Join files with DirectoryOpus 4.xx. V1.0
DopJoin5.lha         biz/dopus    5K+Join files with DirectoryOpus 5.xx. V1.0
ListbrowserPch.lha   biz/patch   10K+Fixes aweb popup problems with OS3.9 BB1
DalHelper.lha        comm/irc    37K+Interface to Dalnet Services: (Chan/Memo
YAT.lha              comm/mail  518K+Yet Another heap of Taglines for YAM
GoPortscan.lha       comm/net    99K+V0.2 TCP Portscanner with MUI interface
T-Rexx.lha           comm/tcp   106K+Shows current TV-programs in Finland
titlebar_ic.lha      dev/gui     24K+BOOPSI class of titlebar gadget images
plDPurpleGUIDE.lha   docs/hyper  49K+Polish Deep Purple guide V0.1
Aakt0401GFX.lha      docs/mags  266K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
AmigaOS39revie.txt   docs/rview  12K+A short review of AmigaOS3.9 
diceset.lha          game/data   13K+A dice-set for the WBgame MagicNumbers
WHDParadroid90.lha   game/patch  17K+HD Installer for Paradroid90
WHDRockstarHam.lha   game/patch   8K+HD Installer for Rockstar Ate My Hamster
WHDWhiteSnook.lha    game/patch  31K+HD Installer for Jimmy White Snooker
WHD_UridiumII.lha    game/patch  14K+Uridium II Hard Drive Installer
MagicNumbers_d.lha   game/think   2K+German catalog for MagicNumbers v1.0
AmiCAD_2.08.lha      gfx/edit   691K+Schematics vectorial electronics program
CMNDR-ImageFX.lha    gfx/ifx    136K+Customizable GUI for ImageFX
yav172.lha           gfx/show   396K+PowerPC support. Shows bitmap pictures o
FDDx2toInt.lha       hard/hack   21K+How to connect two PC FDD to internal po
MMKeyboard.lha       hard/hack  140K+V1.00 Use entire Multmedia Keyboard on A
unlzx.c.gz           misc/unix    9K+Unlzx - decompresses LZX archives on mul
GroundMind.lha       mods/blkha 421K+16 channel DBM by blakkhar
Chiba_el.mpg         mods/elbie 5.9M+Chiba_Electronique [electro] by ElbiE^t1
rno-r059.lha         mods/misc  748K+Rno-records release no.59 by kure/rno (h
crs_tilo.lha         mods/techn 596K+CRS00060: phase - timelock
MSE.lha              mus/midi   193K+MIDI SYStem EXplorer - PatchEditor+MORE
madonna.jpg          pix/art    148K+Hand drawn picture of Madonna
AutoPDF13.lha        text/misc   22K+AutoPDF 1.3 - Convert Postscript to PDF
xadmaster000.lha     util/arc   261K+V10.0 Powerful unarchiving system (68000
xadmaster020.lha     util/arc   263K+V10.0 Powerful unarchiving system (68020
xadmaster060.lha     util/arc   267K+V10.0 Powerful unarchiving system (68060
xadmasterdev.lha     util/arc   153K+V10.0 Powerful unarchiving system (DEVEL
WinToFront17.lha     util/cdity  62K+Replaces ClickToFront, with more options
idle1_3.lha          util/moni   15K+A (working) cpu monitor
xfdmaster.lha        util/pack  155K+Rel1.35 Decrunch packed files (exe/data)
xfdmaster_dev.lha    util/pack  175K+Rel1.35 Decrunch packed files (exe/data)
ScreenShell.lha      util/shell   6K+Opens full size shell on new public scre
TimeKeep.lha         util/time   50K+TimeClock Util for Clients-Projects-Invo
TimeKeepDev.lha      util/time   35K+TimeClock Util for Project Development
VEPatchBrain.lha     util/virus  21K+PatchBrain v1.28 for VirusExecutor v2.xx
IconMaster.lha       util/wb     24K+Icon copier with some nice features V1.1


[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 15:39] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
BoingWorld


amiga.org.yu Moved!
After one year without activity, the Yugoslavian news site 2Amiga Jugoslavija" has taken up its news service again under the name "Amiga Pager News". The page has moved and can now be found at http://www.geocities.com/kenguar/index.html. All articles appear in Serbian language.

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 12:56] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
CyberGraphX


Klaus Burkert passed away
Klaus Burkert, known for excellent Amiga hard- and software development died two days ago from a heart attack.

We offer our sincerest condolences to his family and friends. May they find the strength to get over this loss.

Posted on the official P96 mailing list: "Silence, I just want to inform you guys out there that yesterday, after a major heart attack on Monday, one of the greatest developers of Amiga hard- and software who was my best friend and mentor Klaus Burkert has died. It was a really big shock for me and so it will be for others. I don't know what else to say, there are not really words to fit the situation... Bye Klaus, cu on the other side" - Tobias Seiler

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 02:14] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Jens Schönfeld on ANF


isdnsurfer.device V1.943 Online
The new version of the ISDN card driver can be found in the support area of the Individual Computer homepage and offers two new features:
  • EOF Mode: This more efficient method of communication between TCP/IP stack and isdnsurfer.device should give a notable performance boost.
  • NSD (New Style Device) commands: Adaption to the newest OS versions.

Further, a multitasking bug was fixed which led to performance losses. The development continues, with the next update there will finally be Sync-PPP!

Download: isdndev.lha

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 01:02] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Olaf Koebnik on ANF


Amiga Arena News
Amiga Arena full version!
With permission of Thomas Dorn, the TruePaint HD version, the 24 bit painting program, is available for download! TruePaint is the predecessor of XiPaint!

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 00:36] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
René Stelljes on ANF


New IRC Amiga Channel: #amiweb
On April 8th, the new Amiga chat channel #amiweb will officially open. Most of you will probably think that there are so many channels and that another channel won't make any sense. However, #amiweb won't be an ordinary channel, but rather a possibility for the average user to chat with programmers and other important people on the Amiga.

On April 8th from 7:00 pm on, #aminet will be officially opened. Invited for the "opening ceremony", we have among others Petro Tyschtschenko and Matthias Böcker, author of DynAMIte and ATC, and the Amiga dealer "Black & White".

The server data:
Server: showme.altnet.org (IP is 216.87.208.170)
Port: 6667
channel: #amiweb

So now just think up some questions, and then we'll read us on April 8th!

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 00:28] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2001
Fabio Alemagna on ANF


Bill McEwen Interviewed
Quantum Leap, the Italian e-zine devoted to new technologies is proud to publish an exclusive interview with Bill McEwen, president and CEO of Amiga Inc.

[News message: 06. Apr. 2001, 00:01] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Sébastien Jeudy via E-Mail


Interview with Fleecy Moss
Sébastien Jeudy, author of l'Annuaire Amiga Francophone and editor at Planet 100% Amiga has done this little interview and permitted amiga-news.de to publish it:

Sébastien Jeudy: Following the announces of Saint-Louis, here are some questions concerning AmigaOS vs MorphOS: The next AmigaOS (4.0 to 5.0) will upgrade to full PPC and include the AmigaDE part. Now AmigaOS and MorphOS are really in competition. How will you react?

Fleecy Moss: We work to forward the Amiga, as always. How our company reacts depends upon too many things to go into here.

Sébastien Jeudy: What do you think about MorphOS?

Fleecy Moss: I think it was a brave attempt by people to continue the AmigaOS when it looked as it no one else was going to. I think the people working on it are all highly skilled, and I have spent a large period of the last few months trying to get them to work with Amiga to forwards the Amiga. I am always open to talking to them.

Sébastien Jeudy: Do you think that you (Amiga Inc.) and the Ralph Schmidt Team could work together? (MorphOS has already some interested PPC parts...)

Fleecy Moss: Amiga Inc. will work with anyone who wants to work with us, but they have to understand that in doing that, Amiga will also work with others and that that is our choice, not theirs.

Sébastien Jeudy: Have you contacts with the Ralph Schmidt Team?

Fleecy Moss: I met them in Cologne, I have spoken to Ralph a few times and have spent much time dealing with intermediaries.

Sébastien Jeudy: Will you stop their works or will you let them to continue their MorphOS development?

Fleecy Moss: I would be very happy to involve them in the team advancing the Amiga. If they chose to do their own thing and are doing nothing illegal, then they should have nothing to worry about.

Sébastien Jeudy: Don't you think that this competiton will divide our little community ? :-(

Fleecy Moss: Consumers, dealers and developers must follow their hearts. I can guarantee them that we will do our utmost to provide the best solution for them, and for all those out there who should have their lives improved by the Amiga experience...but I cannot, and would not force them.

Sébastien Jeudy: bPlan has said that their Pegasos will run with MorphOS. Can you confirm us that the Pegasos will also run with the future AmigaOS (i.e. the full PPC + AmigaDE version)?

Fleecy Moss: Last time I checked, bPlan still said they wanted to produce an AmigaOne. I shall be checking again this week.

Sébastien Jeudy: Thank you very much Fleecy and Best regards, Sebastien Jeudy.

Fleecy Moss: Thanks Sebastien, and a big hello to all the french.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 23:44] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Sven Drieling on ANF


St. Louis 2001: Nothing has Changed
On the 5th of April 2001 Sven Drieling published his estimation of Amiga's currently published plans. Excerpt:

»Last weekend Amiga published their current plans in St. Louis which were announced beforehand to be a ground shaking event. According to what I have read about that in the Internet since Sunday nothing has changed.

Amiga's long term target further on is a portable, independent running AmigaDE combined with TAO's Elate. New is that the plan to develop AmigaOS v5 including memory protection, SMP, and other features as an further foundation component for this system was added. Furthermore there is Sharp featuring a cooperation to develop applications for Sharp's Zaurus PDA basing on AmigaDE.
[-snip-]

By that and 15 month after their foundation Amiga should now meet the wishes of both, the people wanting an AmigaOS for PPC as well as the people recommending AmigaDE, and not at the expense of any of these groups.

It is completely incomprehensible to me, why Amiga is not capable to put this across the public. «

The entire text (German) is to find under http://olis.north.de/~indy/NichtsGeändert.html.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 22:44] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Michael Ulbrich on ANF


IDE-SCSI-Adapter Available
From now on we provide the IDe-SCSI adapter by the Hantz company. This adapter makes it possible to connect cheap IDE harddisks to a SCSI host. Reasonable useable with the SCSI-Kit for Blizzard cards, BlizzardPPC, FastlaneZ3, WarpEngine, 4091, a.s.o.
Up to now it was Successfully tested with FastlaneZ3, Blizzard-Kit on 1230/4, CSPPC.

The transfer rates achievable are impressing: more than 17MB/s on a CSPPC, close to 8MB on FastLaneZ3 or the Blizzard-Kit.
Connection of the adapter is trouble-free, cause it is completely transparent for the host, meaning there is no additional software needed. Just plug it in, start any HD installation program and configure the disk.

Compared to a SCSI harddisk one absolutely can save several hundred Dollar! One advance compared to common IDE solutions is the observable lower CPU charge due to the DMA possibility of the usual SCSI host adapters.
Answers to questions are to find under the title link inside of the forum of SHOPnFUN (German).

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 22:44] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Rainer Benda on ANF


Metabox Selling ICS
Metabox selling ICS
As it became known from management circles Metabox AG, manufacturer of set-top-boxes, currently are in negotiations regarding the sale of their 100% subsidiary ICS. ICS produce bargain cash systems and was able to gain sales at the value of 2.29 USD in 1999. But meantime ICS has made application for insolvency at the district council of Hildesheim, Germany.
No certain reason was given. According to press reports staffers did not get payed since about two months and a preponderant part of them do not go to work, anymore.
Currently Metabox shares are dealt at the price of 1,40 Euro. The 52-weeks-high is at 45,80 Euro. The current price represents the 52-weeks-low.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 22:41] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Diverse Sources


Software News
Warp-Datatypes
Oliver Roberts has updated the following of his datatypes: WarpJPEG.datatype V44.19 - (68k,PPC/WarpOS,PPC/MorphOS) - WarpJPEGdt.lha - 133 kB
WarpPNG.datatype V44.14 - (68k,PPC/WarpOS,PPC/MorphOS) - WarpPNGdt.lha - 140 kB
WarpDTPrefs V44.3 - preferences program for Warp-Datatypes - WarpDTPrefs.lha - 27 kB

BoingBag3.9-1
Since 04-04-2001 there is an updated BoingBag3.9-1 archive on the OS3.9 support site containing minor changes. The current file size is 5.254.174 bytes. So, who has downloaded BoingBag3.9-1 before 04-04-2001 might get it once more. The following changes were made:
1. German localisation of IconEdit now is okay.
2. The commodities Blanker, CrossDOS, Exchange and FKey are now really included as their latest versions.

.plan by David 'zapek' Gerber
In his .plan David, author of CVS Management and co-author of many programs like e.g. Voyager3, describes why he bets on MorphOS.

IJPEG Tools V6.2B PPC-MorphOS Port
Fr3dY has ported "Independent JPEG Group's JPEG Software tools" to MorphOS. Download: ijpeg62b-mos.lha - 187 kB, It is vital to also read the readme.

ClassAction V4.0 und MainPrefs V2.20
Martin Elsner provides updated versions of ClassAction and MainPrefs for download. With MainPrefs now also variables can be entered and deleted and assigns can directly be added to the user-startup or deleted from it.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 15:55] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Digital Amiga Dream


DAD: Interview with Andreas Falkenhahn
Digital Amiga Dream (DAD) has interviewed Andreas Falkenhahn from Airsoft Softwair. Read the interview under the title link.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 15:33] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Thorsten Will via E-Mail


Invitation for MS2001 Party Published
Mekka & Symposium, the traditional demo scene party, on which many demo workers introduce their demos each year, is coming and the organization enters the final lap. The best demos will be honored with price money. The MS2001 will take place from 13th to 16th of April 2001 in Fallingbostel, Germany, in the Heidmark-Halle.

Mr.Vain of Secretly! (aka Thorsten Will) has done the invitation (unofficial mekka^symposium-invitation) including directions and map and an indication of the youth hostel. Download: scl_ms2001inv.lha - 320 kB.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 12:29] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Richard Kapp via E-Mail


Narr-Site News
From today you can download a theme for Voyager from my site. This again is about a stylish Netscape like image set containing all of the important buttons. There is also included in the archive a matching MacOSX like background pattern. There is a screenshot on the 'Projects site'. Furthermore a page for SendStuff was created containing screenshots and a small description of the program.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 11:49] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Michael Wilps on ANF


ahi.device 5.6 Available
Martin Blom has published the new version 5.6 of the ahi.device for 68k and PPC Amigas on his homepage.

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 11:47] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2001
Michael Burkhardt (IOM) on ANF


Red Zac General Meeting with Amiga 1200
On Monday the Red Zac (also known as Interfunk) general meeting took place in Nuernberg, Germany. On two screens 16 ft. of width Powerpoint presentations and live video from 6 cameras were shown. On customer's demand the computer's name should be faded in the video pictures. This cries for Amiga technology, downright.

IOM took the task of preparation and presentation of these so called 'tummy bandages' using a simple Amiga 1200, acceleration card 1230/40, Scala MM 300, 16 MB RAM, and Sirius II Genlock by electronic design. From my point of view this event was a full success. The Amiga worked trouble-less and it was just fun to admire the Workbench on such a big screen.

And as usual, if an Amiga gets set up anywhere, the same things happen: somebody catches sight of her, recognizes her, and calls out, "hey, an Amiga". After that a small group of people come together, who

a) have owned an Amiga themselves
b) are deeply impressed of this little thing, and
c) are interested in the current situation regarding Amiga.

But if you set up an PC anywhere this isn't anything special, even not if Windows crashes or the computer doesn't do what it is supposed to do. Conclusion: I love "the spirit of Amiga".

[News message: 05. Apr. 2001, 05:18] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Thomas Siegel on ANF


Online Music Module Compo started well!
Online-Module-Compo which started on March 1st 2001 has now 17 participants and you cannot send modules any longer. From now on you can download and vote the modules which were all made from the same sample-set. Just download, vote and listen to it - have fun! Thomas Siegel aka "d!RT!E - organiser&websitter of mOOdS"

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 23:49] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Diverse Sources


Software News
Turboprint for Linux V1.0
You can order version 1.0 of the printer driver software Turboprint for Linux at IrseeSoft. It contains printer driver (beta) for Canon S400, 450, 4500, 800; Epson Stylus Color 680, 880, 980 und Photo 790, 890, 1290.

Scalos News
There is an updated version of the 'Persistent Windows Plugin'. of Scalos which is a full replacement of the workbench. Download: Scalos-Plugin_PWindows.lha - 19 kB

iFusion
According to Paul Lesurf from Blittersoft on Fusion mailing list iFusion is being just duplicated. Distribution will start during this week. iFusion is a PPC-Mac-emulator for PPC-Amiga of Microcode Solutions.

ilbm-Datatype
Stephan Rupprecht has published version 45.3b of his ilbm-datatype for PPC(WarpUP). Download: ilbmdtPPC.lha - 11 kB

AmigaAMP
AmigaAMP-mailinglist has moved to amigaamp@amigaamp.de. All members has been entried to the new list automatically.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 17:54] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Neodym on ANF


Sharp Zaurus Really Exists!
Because many reports at least doubts the existence and availability of Zaurus-PDA I kept my eyes opened and went shopping in Tokyo. Zaurus does really exist! Two of them I held in my hands. It is written all in Japanese but the device gives a very solid and good impression. The silver metal housing (there were just dummies of the white and lilac variant) looks very fine and feels good (just like Palm V).

The display is very comfortable: Big, colourful and white lighted as well as rather sharp and well readable. Zaurus is just as thick as a PalmVx in its metal case.

I have taken away a Japanese flyer. If anybody should be interested in it I will try to scan it or to take a photo.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 17:10] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Torsten Dudai


New Caricature online: Doc Fleecy




Dr.Fleecy Moss, "chief-psychiatrist" at Amiga Inc., calms the people`s Amiga feelings...

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 14:49] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Brad Webb via E-Mail


Amiga Update - Newsletter of Brad Webb
======================================================================
                               ________
         _________ ____      _|__ __ __|_______      _________
       __\ _____ \\\\  \_  _/  //___//  _____//______\ _____ \\
      // \\\\  /. \\\\__ \/ __//    \\  \\____.  /// \\\\  /. \\
      \\___\¯ /___///___\  /___\     \\_________//\\___\¯ /___//
       ¯    \/    ¯ ¯    \/.  |¯      ¯|z!o     ¯  ¯    \/    ¯
               A M I G A      |#010403 |      U P D A T E
                              |________|
  "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      *   S P E C I A L   A M I G A   2 0 0 1   I S S U E   *

            O U R   " T A K E "   O N   T H E   S H O W

   A M I G A ,   S H A R P   Z A U R U S ,   A N D   O T H E R S

   S O M E   D E T A I L S   F R O M   G A R Y   P E A K E   . . .

    . . .   A N D   D E T A I L S   F R O M   C T O   F L E E C Y


Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 Below are items pertaining to the just completed Amiga 2001 show held
in St. Louis, USA, over the past weekend (March 30 - April 1). Due to
the importance of the show, and the buildup before it, we thought
we'd put together a small special issue to get information to you.
 As with most things, the true significance of events will probably
not be known for some time.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            O U R   " T A K E "   O N   T H E   S H O W

3 April, 2001

By Brad Webb

 It was billed as "1985 all over again". In some ways, for some
people, it probably was.
 It was definitely the changing of the guard.
 It had it's usual share of organizational problems.
 It was fun, and the place to be this last weekend.
 The most important news from the point of view of our readers may be
that there will be additional versions of AmigaOS, and they will be
Power PC native!
 The most important news from the point of view of the Community and
its continuation is that there are once again good ways to make money
as an Amiga developer!

Logistics
~~~~~~~~~
 There were problems with getting classes and seminars started and
ended on time, and there was a terribly long wait to enter the banquet
hall Saturday night. These things seem endemic to many Amiga shows and
can often be traced to the small number of people willing to help. We
hope as the new market develops and grows, more people will be
available to help run Amiga shows. In the meantime, those who worked
on Amiga 2001 did a fine job given the circumstances, and those in
attendance were able to deal with the minor logistical problems and
get real benefits from the events.

The Sales Floor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 The sales floor was well attended, especially on Saturday, and there
seemed to be a good amount of buying. The number of vendors was not
real high (about 14 or 15 key Amiga stalwarts), but the large booth
belonging to Merlancia seemed determined to make that up by itself. It
looked as if all the stock ever assembled by Amiga International was
there to be purchased. They also had a nifty assemblage of items in a
sort of mini-museum of Commodore and Amiga memorabilia. The two large
vats of free bottled beer on Saturday didn't hurt matters, and went
well with the incredibly huge pile of pizza in boxes brought in by
Petro for his retirement luncheon. The pizza itself was first rate.
 There were only a few new products, the most interesting of which was
a PC on a card from Mr. Hardware Computer. We haven't seen it in
operation, but hope to have more information in the future.

Petro
~~~~~
 Genuine emotions and deep appreciation were everywhere in evidence
for Petro throughout the weekend as his retirement was was both
celebrated and regretted. The roast, which certainly had its
hilarious moments, ran quite long as many in the Community wanted to
share their affection and memories. It might well have been an event
by itself on another night, so much needed to be said. A standing
ovation for Petro was just one of many clearly deeply felt attempts to
express appreciation. And just because he's retiring, don't be
surprised if you see him very much in attendance at future Amiga
shows.

The Future
~~~~~~~~~~
 When Bill McEwen finally got to the main presentation during the
banquet, he tried to compress his remarks to save time. As it turned
out, he had a lot of good things to say, and anything that had to be
left out was covered later during the weekend.
 Much applause greated the statement that Amiga OS is planned out
through vresion 5.0 and they're not going to stop there! The OS will
become native PPC, beginning by moving OS 3.9 to PPC. Eventually, at
version 4.2, the "old hardware" will no longer be needed and
standalone machines can be built. Once again, emphasis was made that
Amiga will not be making hardware itself.
 For the short term, a completed Amiga ONE board for the 1200 was
shown. We discussed the status of an Amiga ONE for the A4000 the next
day with Alan Redhouse of Eyetech. He tells us it's still firmly in
the plans, but must be a money-maker to remain there. If it doesn't
see the light of day, it will most likely be due to completion taking
longer than Amiga OS requires to reach 4.2, when it will no longer be
needed. It all depends on how fast the new versions of Amiga OS come
along.
 The Amiga ONE is headed into beta in the June/July time frame and
just might (no promises) be ready in time for the west coast Amiga
show in Sacramento, California, at the end of July.
 The other key point made by Bill McEwen during his banquet
presentation is that there is now, finally, a new and huge potential
market for Amiga developers, where they can actually make money! This
is where the comparison with 1985 has some merit. In 1985, Commodore
created a new market for developers with the original Amiga. Now, the
new Amiga Inc. has created another new market for developers with
Amiga DE.

New Market
~~~~~~~~~~
 Bill pointed out that the cell phone and handheld markets are
starving for content. This content needs to be small games and
utilities of the kind Amiga developers are well equipped to create.
 The Amiga DE provides a single solution for this new Java-centric
small appliances world. In Japan, the Sharp Zaurus is already
Amiga-able. More are coming, and coming to the rest of the world as
well. We have a press release below which should answer most questions
you have. Bill did point out there were over 1800 new Amiga developers
now due to this new market.
 Bill noted that after the Zaurus comes the Psion, and that's just the
beginning.
 It's a simple market. The user of the cell phone or PDA downloads an
application / game / ringer sound / what-have-you and pays for it
on-line. Price is perhaps $10 for a small game. 60% goes to the
author, 40% to the distributor. There are no boxes, no shelves full of
inventory, no manuals to take care of, and no returns. Simple,
elegant, and with millions of potential customers.

New Amiga OS Versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Bill also stated that Amiga DE would roll into the Amiga OS as it
goes forward. During discussions Sunday morning, Bill explained the
reason for going forward with Amiga OS was a business one, which means
there's a good chance it will actually happen close to plan. The
business reason is simple - the new Amiga needs server machines it can
control for use as it's home server. There's nothing better for the
job than the existing Amiga OS. A second, but very important reason,
is that Amiga knows a number of the talented developers in the
Community won't develop on anything else.
 There are a couple words of caution. At this point, it's not clear
how compatible existing PPC based machines will be with the future
standards. Compatibility will not be ignored, we're sure, but of
course can't stand in the way of success for the future.
 In addition, this does mark a change in direction for Amiga from what
was announced in the past. The Amiga DE was supposed to be scalable
from PDAs to servers. Now it seems it is not, due primarily to its
lack of memory protection as we understand it. A change in direction
is not all bad when it's fine tuning an overall strategy. The problem
is the Amiga community has seen little other than changes in direction
in the past, with no direction lasting long enough to produce growth
and meaningful product. This change doesn't seem to be in the same
category as previous ones, but we're not surprised Amiga is being
taken to task in postings on the net by long term disillusioned
Amigans. As we've said so often in the past, "time will tell" - but
we're inclined to be more reassured than frightened by this change.

The Transition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 It might have escaped notice by some, but this event marked a
significant transition for Amiga. Petro's retirement was one element
of this, though mostly symbolic. The second is more subtle, but more
important for the future. Amiga Inc. is now taking a firmer guiding
hand. In the past, Amiga OS 3.5 and 3.9 (for example) were pretty much
farmed out on a "bring us something" basis. From now on, Haage and
Partner and other key contributors will be functioning more as project
managers within an overall strategy maintained by Amiga. This will
give the market some much needed direction and should be a help to all
who depend on it. It's a sign of the maturing of the company, and is
quite welcome.
 Interestingly, Bill McEwen stated Amiga enters this new state with a
new Vice President of Engineering, a person he would not identify yet
to spare him loads of e-mail, but who came from MicroSoft. The
operating system side of development is being handled by Fleecy Moss
and his team.

Word Pictures
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 There's always so much more to an Amiga show than the speaches and
sales. We'd like to share a few "word pictures" with you from the
weekend.

 40 or 50 Amigans talking about every Amiga topic under the sun at
Amiga's Hor's D'overies party Friday night. We finally got to meet
Phil Vedovatti, the man behind New Icons, and found him delightful.

 Living in yet another hotel with strange floor arrangements. Last
year's Henry VIII was torn down due to airport expansion, but this
Sheraton maintains its spirit. We entered on the ground floor, then
took an elevator down two floors to our room on the first floor.
There, we had a door out onto a ground level patio. Shades of
"Castrovalva" from Dr. WHO.

 Getting tossed out of the dining room along with "Mrs. Brad", JoAnn,
Florence and John Zacharias (of "AE Mail" fame) when they closed it
for the night. There was a lot to be gone over, so we just moved on
...

 The first day, the phones didn't work. Not just in the hotel, but all
over this section of St. Louis. Someone cut a key cable somewhere. It
was NOT a MicroSoft plot to keep the word from getting out.

 The Mardi Gras beads being handed out by Kermit Woodall of "Nova
Design". No, we're not going to tell you what you had to do to get
some. Yes, we do have some. They were everywhere in evidence, all
weekend long.

 Seeing Dave Haynie and Leo Schwab again, Leo in full medieval costume
as in days of old. Wonder where he gets the hats? "Schwabbies"
(remember them?) might be just "the thing" for the new small appliance
market.

 Rollie and his clarinet, performing "A Very Good Year" for the
banquet crowd. Actually kept everyone quiet in appreciation of the
music, no small task! High marks for the organizers for this one!

 The dancing Petro baby during the Petro roast video. Not to mention
the speach by video from Bill Gates - or a darn good rendered
likeness, anyway.

 The stories of Petro's driving. It's a good thing he's skilled at it,
or we might be short a large number of Community members.

 The UGN folks in the corner, doing their best to get the word out to
the world. We didn't get to discuss the phone failure and how it
affected them, but it can't have been a help.

 The many good restaurants, bars and shops in the West Port area right
outside the hotel. Definitely an improvement over the old venue. There
are a lot of word pictures to come from events in a few of the bars,
which we won't be bringing you.

 The collision of the Amiga crowd waiting to enter the sales floor on
Saturday morning and 100 or so children with parents heading through
the same area on their way to an early Easter Egg hunt. Can't blame
the organizers for this one. Incidentally, the wandering Canada geese
outside the hotel seemed slightly confused by all the colored eggs
lying about.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   A M I G A ,   S H A R P   Z A U R U S ,   A N D   O T H E R S

 ST. LOUIS, MO, March 30, 2001 - Amiga Incorporated, a pioneer in the
development of multi-media and content, today announced a long-term
partnership with Sharp Corporation, a worldwide developer of
innovative products and core technologies in electronics, in which
Amiga will develop content for next-generation Sharp handheld
computing devices.

 In March, Sharp announced its plans to market the Zaurus PDA in the
United States and Europe as one of the world's first Linux-based
handheld device. The Linux operating system is gaining wider
acceptance in the computer server market because its underlying code
is freely distributed on the Internet. Easily adaptable for different
hardware devices, the Sharp handheld will be able to run software
written in Sun Microsystems' versatile Java software language that
supports different operating systems.

 In this partnership, Amiga announced that its developer community
would either develop new content or adapt existing content for PDA
applications, using their reputation for innovation and leadership in
gaming, 2D, 3D, animation, video, and music applications.
Amiga-developed content can be downloaded directly through wireless
networks, using desktop computers, or ported directly into the new
device.

 "By working with Amiga as one of our content partners we are able to
expand the applications and content available for our new devices,"
said Dr. Hiroshi Uno, Ph.D. Division General Manager - Mobile Systems
Division, Communications Systems Group, Sharp Corporation Japan.

 Amiga has an outstanding reputation for software development. We
anticipate that the alliance with Amiga will create a lot of momentum
for the Zaurus PDA."

 "Amiga is excited to be part of the Zaurus PDA project, and we look
forward to bringing the excitement, brilliant content and magic of the
Amiga community to Sharp," said Bill McEwen, President/CEO of Amiga
Incorporated. "Amiga is adding new dimensions of content for the next
generations of computing devices, and we see the new PDA platform as
an important area of strategic business growth and applications for
the Amiga community. We intend to develop some really great
applications as consumers more fully understand the great potential
and skill set of the Amiga community."

 About Sharp Corporation

 Sharp Corporation, a worldwide developer of the core digital
technologies that are playing an integral role in shaping the next
generation of mobile computing products for consumer and business
needs. Since creating the Wizard(R) electronic organizer in 1989,
Sharp has led the market in introducing innovative handheld computing
products. Sharp is also the global leader in LCD technology, which is
incorporated into leading-edge LCD monitors and projectors. From the
small office/home office (SOHO) to large corporate environments, Sharp
provides a variety of innovative, computer-related solutions designed
to help increase productivity while providing functionality to meet
customer demand. Dedicated to improving people's lives through the use
of advanced technology and a commitment to innovation, quality, value
and design, Sharp Corporation employs approximately 60,200 people
worldwide in 30 countries. More information is available at
http://sharp-world.com/index.html.

 About Amiga

 Amiga Inc. provides technology to developers for writing and porting
applications to a new multi-media operating systems which is hardware
agnostic. AmigaDE is a joint development effort between the Tao Group
of Reading England, and Amiga Incorporated. AmigaDE based applications
can run unchanged on x86, PowerPC, M Core, ARM, StrongARM, MIPS R3000,
R4000, R5000, SH 3, SH4, and NEC V850 processors. The Amiga OS can run
hosted on Linux, Embedded Linux, Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, CE and
QNX4. Amiga is based in Snoqualmie, WA, 28 miles east of Seattle and
has offices worldwide. Amiga can be reached at (425) 396-5660 or visit
Amiga on the web at http://www.amiga.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   S O M E   D E T A I L S   F R O M   G A R Y   P E A K E   . . .

 {The following items were found posted on the net and should help
clarify the announcements from Amiga 2001. Brad}

3 April, 2001

As has been discussed here several times, AmigaDe has no
memory protection. This and a couple of other issues are
the reasons for the announcement.

Basically, here is what we are doing and why:

1. Developers are starving to death and will leave
unless we find a way to help them make money fast.
Dealers have the same problems. We need more oomph to
take advantage of higher fps games, etc. This IS a
multimedia platform community after all. My mail box
tells us developers and dealers need something quickly.
We can get AmigaOne and OS4.0 out by summer without
losing any time developing the DE. This is with our
thanks to Haage & Partner and Eyetech who have agreed to
meet PRD's we set before them. We could not implement
this plan so quickly without their valued help. Also we
should include Hyperion who is assisting our team with a
level of GL and video capability that will enhance game
developers potential.

2. Users want new hardware. Amigas are starting to fail
and frankly it is just too expensive to start R&D for
new (modified) chips in the amounts we would probably be
able to sell and just as expensive for fabbing the older
chips as well. So, off the shelf, open designed, new
machines based on PPC is the most inexpensive way to get
the Amiga user onto a newer platform.

3. Amiga users have always been partial to PPC. Dean
Brown, Dave Haynie, Mick Tinker, and Joe Torre (four of
THE best and brightest Amiga minded hardware gurus I
know) are all for a PPC based platform advance. Dave had
the PiosOne design that he allowed us to release openly
to help people see what can be done with an open
hardware design based around PPC. We did not release
Dave's specs the week before the announcements by
accident. It was to open people's minds to what can be
done by thinking outside the box. Dave Haynie doesn't
know what a box is. Remember, we already run on a bog
standard PC.  :)

4. Our Zico base specs are an open spec based around
PPC. Alan Redhouse at Eyetech has a full plan, knows
when to freeze the design and ship, and has met our
Product Requirements Document. Dean Brown has approved
his design. Dave Haynie saw it in St Louis and thought
it was cool. Joe was there also and while I didn't ask
Joe specifically for his ideas, he is open enough to
have said if he thought the design was bad. Haage &
Partner have met our PRD's on the software side. Both
have excellent reputations for actually meeting
deadlines and shipping product when they say they will.
While they are contracting to us, these projects are
being managed by us now.

5. Amigade provides us with binary compatibility,
distributed processing capabilities and many other
things we can get no where else. This line of
development will continue as previously planned. Note:
There are NO changes to what you have been told we plan
to do with AmigaDE.

6. We intend, as we have stated all along, to cover
everything from PDA's and cell phones, set top boxes,
and servers. This plan allows us to do that with ease.

7. AmigaOS will continue to be developed and will be
merged into or under AmigaDE so that we eventually have
our own familiar base to play on and it will be a full
AMIGA base that is server capable and cell phone capable
as well. But we will not drop Windows and Linux
compatibility either. Think of this as adding yet
another playground for AmigaDE. It is no different from
deciding to also play on top of Be or any other OS out
there. We will continue to find playgrounds that provide
us, our developers, and dealers even more opportunities.

8. As far as splitting the community and the developers:
We have over 2,000 developers currently involved with
us. Another 30 added themselves today after the news
from St Louis. My mailbox is so full I spent all day
JUST answering new mails from developers and companies
wanting to come to Amiga and play and I didn't get them
all answered yet. Half of the developers are firmly in
the PDA, cell phone, and set top box camp. The other
half are either desktop oriented or want to do both.
This gives everyone a place to utilize their talents and
make money.

9. Most notable request from developers I have
is "please also give us a desktop". As Bill noted in his
banquet speech, he made certain promises to me based on
what Team AMIGA members (6000 plus) and others in the
community have said they want from whomever has the
Amiga name. I took this job based on those promises.
Bill keeps his promises.

10. This is a business and this is fun. We do what we do
because we want to and we can. If someone tells us we
can't, we do it just to show them we can. This is also a
family. This was very evident over the weekend. I hugged
more people in St Louis than I do at a family reunion.
Bill had tears in his eyes as he talked about us losing
Bob Cosby. We care. We have to make sure our friends and
family can finally make money but we have to do it in
ways that keep us afloat as well from a business
standpoint.

11. Tao Group is a great partner and is providing Amiga
with opportunities we have never been able to land
before. Good business means taking advantage of this
opportunity they provide and we intend to do that with
their help and asistance.

12. Listen to the facts and ask questions here and in
other Amiga forums where we are there to answer your
questions truthfully. Don't listen to the naysayers, the
hype, the conjecture, and the innuendo of people who
have no clue. We will tell you the truth. Bad or good,
you get the truth.

13. We have taken flak from certain people because they
say we provide no value. Our value is in uniting as many
people as we can into a formidable force. We can not do
what we plan alone. It takes unity, solidarity, team
work. All of us must work together and together we will
slowly conquer the world ... just because we want to.


Sincerely,

Gary Peake
Amiga Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   . . .   A N D   D E T A I L S   F R O M   C T O   F L E E C Y

{Also found on the net, and dealing with things at a bit more
technical level, are these notes from Amiga's CTO, Fleecy Moss. We
found this as a posting from Alexander Lohrmann and answers from
Fleecy, which we indicated with *s. Our thanks to Mr. Lohrmann for
asking the questions! We've removed a few things for clarity but added
nothing beyond the *s. Brad}


Apr 1, 2001

 Will there be any improvements over OS3.9 like:

 - A really integrated TCP/IP-stack

 *Brand new, written from scratch.

 - Memory Protection for new apps (I know it is impossible for old
ones)

 *Virtual Memory will come in OS4, which will make a big difference.
MP is much harder and will be done in OS5.

 - recource tracking

 *the Amiga Component Model will give you that.

 - SMP

 *OS5

 - A new datatypes-system, especially for streaming and anims

 *The ACM and streaming system will give you that.

 - a new and better soundsystem, with support for surround and 3D

 *The Audio system will be the best of any system out there. We have 5
of the best audio people in the world working on it.

 - 2D and 3D APIs, integrated into the gfx-system instead of hacked-in
like now

 *Already underway, and with our close alliance with Matrox, there
will be not only standard high level APIs but GLIDE like low level
APIs to really take advantage of Matrox cards.

 - a new Workbench

 *OS4.5

 - an improved intuition.library (we really need one !)

 *OS4.5

 - hardware-independancy

 *OS4.2

 - a new filesystem

 *OS4.0 -

 - a good printer-system with drivers for more printers

 *Probably OS4.2, waiting for USB, and for the full benefits, OS5, the
PDP media system.


  2) AmigaDE

 We always heard that the AmigaDE will run on everything from PDAs to
servers. I think you have left this idea behind, I have understood it
that way that it will run on STBs and PDAs and the new AmigaOS 4. Is
this right

 *That's correct.

 ? Do you think that there will be a really native version for x86 &
co, I mean a real desktop-os, later in the future ?

 *It will integrate into existing desktop OSs. That is what all of our
big customers tell us is necessary for success.

 What I liked about the AmigaDE as it was announced in the past was
the fact that (as I understood it) developers would have the
possibility to write an application or a game for the AmigaDE and
contribute some kind of runtime-environment including all necessary
stuff like the translator, the Elate-kernel, GUI, Sound and 3D-APIs or
whatever is needed by the product for every supported operating system
with it. This could bring developers to the AmigaDE and if there is a
version of AmigaDE hosted (or really part of) on AmigaOS 4 then there
would be many new apps and games and then maybe there will be some new
(or old ? :-)) users. Will this still be possible ?

 *Yes.

 Will the AmigaDE still contain stuff like OpenGL, a sound-API or some
gui-stuff ? Or will it only contain things PDAs need ? If it would
contain everything needed by big apps like office-packages or games I
think many developers would come along, even companies, because they
could increase their sales from let's say only Windows-users to Mac,
Linux and AmigaOS 4 users without the need to make several version.
Write once run everywhere

 *The AmigaDE has a capabilities system which dynamically matches
requests to capabilities. If you are on a desktop, you can use AmigaDE
desktop apps.

 P.s.: Will AmigaOS 4 run on existing PowerUP-hardware ? I think this
is a must-be, otherwise many users will feel traited ... (Is this the
right word ?)

 *At the moment no 8-( Anyone who has bought PPC accelerators
understands the drag the architecture has placed on those products. To
code an AmigaOS4 around that solution is to condemn it before it even
begins. The new AmigaOnes will be cheap enough and expandible, and
will be orders of magnitude faster than the existing products. It is
hard, but this is the first Amiga certified hardware in over five
years - the line has to be drawn somewhere, and this is it.

 *There is a possibility of a software compatability layer, but the
performance would most likely kill its usefulness compared to an
AmigaOne.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 2001 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: 04. Apr. 2001, 14:34] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Sven Ottemann via E-Mail


LHA 1.14i for UNIX Amiga-port
Sven Ottemann has compiled LHA1.14 for UNIX for AmigaOS. This version supports -lh6- und -lh7-. You can download versions for 68000, 68020+ and PPC (WarpOS) under the title link.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 14:25] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
FORE-MATT via E-Mail


100%Amiga issue 11
The English software distributor 'Fore-Matt' has published a new Amiga magazine. The magazine is called '100% Amiga' and is distributed exclusively on CD-ROM. It has a seperate surface which leads the reader through the magazine.

Current issue 11 which is being just pressed contains mainly a report about St. Louis Show. Furthermore the CD contains a report about WoA Show of Fleecy Moss, a review of Payback, a first view on 'Silencer', the topic datatypes and much more.

Contact:
FORE-MATT Home Computing (Dept e)
PO Box 835
Wootton Bassett
Swindon
SN4 8RX

Tel: +44 (0)8700 11 22 34
E-Mail: sales@forematt.idps.co.uk
Web: www.forematt.free-online.co.uk

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 14:10] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Rainer Benda on ANF


Finance Online: Chairman of Met@Box Resigned
»Today Met@Box which is quoted on the New Market announced that chairman Geerd-Ulrich Ebeling resigned. Private reasons were named for that. There will not be a successor because the company is going to name a new chairman as a financial chairman.

Further more the company informed of selling off its shares of Interzart AG 3D Commerce. The share finished at 1,82 Euro.«
Source: Finance Online 03.04.2001 23:50

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 13:49] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
ADR (BAUD) on ANF


Amiga Apache 1.3.19 - PHP 4.0.4 pl 1 Published
You can download the new patch-level of webserver Apache version 1.3.19 - PHP 4.0.4 pl 1.

Everybody who is interested in the topic Amiga-Apache can find three articles online at Amiga-Magazin:


[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 13:42] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Thomas Dellert via E-Mail


DCE Microserver G3/G4 - Press Release
Product-info "DCE Microserver G3/G4"

Starting from Q3/2001, DCE Computer Oberhausen will offer a G3/G4 PowerPC® based PCI card. The so-called "DCE Microserver G3/G4" will give you the complete functionality of a Server System. The PCI card can be either used as Master or Agent. By this flexibility there are several possible configurations for this machine to fit the user's personal convenience. Possible options are:
  • usage in a DCE PCI expansion as Amiga PowerPC® card
  • using a passive backplane to build a complete standalone system
  • creation of a PowerPC® cluster system in conjunction with the Pegasos mainboard (www.bplan-gmbh.de)
  • industrial use as single pcb high end solution

Due to the highly optimized design of "DCE Microserver G3/G4", the price of this solution without CPU will be in the range of backplane-only expansions.

Technical information:
  • G3/G4 CPU 450-733 MHz 1-4 MB Cache
  • up to 1 GB 133 MHz SDRAM
  • 100 Mbit Ethernet
  • optional Firewire
  • PCI 2.1 Master/Agent

DCE MicroServer G3/G4, GREX 1200/4000 as well as the existing PPC board user base will be supported by MorphOS. This will guarantee that Amiga users can use most of their software with that system. In the near future there will be a JIT (Just in time) emulation included in MorphOS that will allow execution times of 68K software far beyond current 68060 50MHz level even on the existing Phase5/DCE hardware.

Furthermore, MorphOS opens the door to real PPC OS software, like
  • CyberGfx
  • SFS
  • Datatypes
  • MUI
  • AmiTCP V5
  • Voyager
  • YAM
  • CED
  • Bochs (Windows-Emulator)
  • Office-Paket Papyrus of Rom-Logicware, which was ported by Titan.
  • Many more important programs are being ported right now.

Thomas Dellert
R&D Department
thomas.dellert@dcecom.de
http://www.dcecom.de

DCE Computer Service GmbH
Kellenbergstr. 19a
D-46145 Oberhausen
Phone:+49-208-660673
Fax: +49-208-630496


[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 12:46] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


Elbox publishes MediatorUP2.1
There is an update of the driver software of the Mediator-PCI-board of Elbox. The file is 60 kB and you can download it at the usual places or order it from Elbox.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 05:44] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


MakeCD 3.2 beta6 with Video CD Support
It has been announced version 3.2d public beta6 (videoCD-edition) of the writing software MakeCD. All CD-RW-driver has been updated. You can now import .toc (cdrdao) images which are generated with VCDTools and .cue (CDRWin) images which are generated with VCDGear. Please have a look at History for further information. Download: Is still not possible.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 05:20] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


Cinemaware offers TV Sports Football and -Baseball for Download
Due to the overwhelmingly positive response from the last offering, Cinemaware proudly presents these two innovative classics! Take a nostalgic journey back to the birth of the modern sports craze! The TV Sports franchise was original and new in that it presented the game like it was an actual television broadcast.
They're only going to be available for a limited time, so run to the Vault quickly to download TV Sports Football and TV Sports Baseball. Don't forget to stop by at the forums and tell us which other classic titles you'd like to see made available.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 05:11] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


Meternet Reworking Hardware of their SimpleBox
Meternet informed of reworking the hardware of its SimpleBox (Set-Top-Box) which is supposed to run on AmigaDE in order to produce SimpleBox still cheaper. It is possible that there will be news still this month.

[News message: 04. Apr. 2001, 05:08] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Ruediger Hanke via eMail


Aladdin Ghostscript 6.50 for Amiga
I have compiled Aladdin Ghostscript 6.50 for Amiga. You can download it from my homepage (title link), I will upload it to the Aminet in the next days. There is a 68k- and a PPC-version available. The PPC-version needs the latest WarpOS version (5.0)

With Ghostscript you can convert and print Postscript and PDF files. Most interesting is may be the fact that you can convert Postscript files from Pagestream or FinalWriter to PDF, like the Adobe Distiller, Ghostscript 6.50 is the first Amiga program that can handle embedded fonts (PageStream does not (yet!) support font embedding, and 5.10 converts fonts to graphics, which results in huge PDF files in poor quality.)

An archive with sources is available, too, but I created Ghostscript with the StormC-Compiler and not with GeekGadgets. This means there are no Amiga-makefiles but only StormC-projects. If you want to recompile please make sure to read the !!!Source.readme in the archive.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 20:14] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Alfred Sturm


New Aminet Uploads
FootballPatch.lha    biz/dbase  109K+Patches for Football 2.6
LocalePL_OS39.lha    biz/dbase   78K+Polish locale for OS3.9 ver 1.5.1
Indy5Theme.lha       biz/dopus  5.5M+Theme for DirectoryOpus5 Magellan 2
DCF77update.lha      biz/patch  573K+Update for DCF77 3.0-3.10 to 3.11
DCPatch.lha          biz/patch   34K+Some Bugfixes and improvements for DosCo
YAM22GrkCP.lha       comm/mail    4K+Greek charset conversion files for YAM 2
TTimeDeluxe.lha      comm/misc  582K+Displays Phonecosts online (Germany only
Amster-locale.lha    comm/tcp   352K+Napster client for Amiga with nice GUI
Amster-main.lha      comm/tcp   199K+Napster client for Amiga with nice GUI
Amster-source.lha    comm/tcp   144K+Napster client for Amiga with nice GUI
BabelDoc.lha         comm/tcp    30K+Translate docs or strings from one langu
TaskiSMS.lha         comm/tcp   362K+Sends SMS to GSM phones (MUI).
TaskiSMS_PL.lha      comm/tcp   181K+Polish catalog & documentation for Taski
simplehtml.lha       comm/www    34K+V0.15 of the simple HTML Offline Browser
wpz-impact.mpg       demo/file  2.9M+VHS demo by Whelpz+Potion released at Sa
Distance2.lzh        dev/amos     4K+Computes distances between 2 points on e
repos_demo.lha       dev/misc     9K+Small demo source of drag`n`drop lib and
ScalosDev.lha        dev/misc    49K+Scalos Development Kit v3
muimaster020.lha     dev/mui     97K+Muimaster.library 020 patch Rel 3
Amplifier2.21P.lha   docs/help    9K+Polish Locale for Amplifier2.21
BookCon1.4PL.lha     docs/help    9K+Polish Locale for BookConverter1.4
HardDrive.lha        docs/help   14K+The Amiga Hard Disk Guide
hmg4ng.lha           docs/hyper  61K+AG about Metal Bands - V 4.0 NG
NotizieAmiga.lha     docs/hyper 777K+Mailing-list NotizieAmiga 03/2001 (Itali
AaktInt0301.lha      docs/mags  208K+International infotainment magazine
AaktInt0301GFX.lha   docs/mags  105K+International infotainment magazine (gra
FireballExtr1a.lha   docs/mags  843K+German Entertainment Magazine
FireballExtr1b.lha   docs/mags  834K+German Entertainment Magazine
Fireball_2HTML.lha   docs/mags  596K+German Entertainment Magazine
Fireball_5a.lha      docs/mags  741K+German Entertainment Magazine
Fireball_5b.lha      docs/mags  666K+German Entertainment Magazine
mc501.lha            docs/mags  386K+German Metal Mag in HTML - May 2001 Issu
wtdcsea.lha          game/2play  17K+An underwater level type for WormsDC
wtdcwb.lha           game/2play  32K+A WorkBench 3 level type for WormsDC
DopeWars.lha         game/actio  46K+Classic game where you go around and buy
dynSP_Style.lha      game/data   94K+SouthPark Style for dynAMIte
MagicSets.lha        game/data   34K+3 nice 256 colour sets for MagicNumbers!
MOTU_11.lha          game/data   30M+Abode of Golgotha 2 - Heretic II Addon
obvious.lha          game/data  102K+DynAMIte style with obvious colors
M-1_Demo1.lha        game/demo  1.9M+Game Demo by Marcio Esper playable more 
sys.lha              game/gag     7K+Commodore C64 SYS command emulator
pawclaw.lha          game/jump  133K+Arcade platformer
roper.lha            game/jump  467K+Roper
SManMOSB2.lha        gfx/fract  121K+Mandelbrot generator for MorphOS
SManWOSB2.lha        gfx/fract  133K+Mandelbrot generator for WarpOS
NcodeR_Indy5.lha     gfx/misc   145K+Skin for NcodeR V1.5x +++
NcodeR_TD21.lha      gfx/misc   217K+Skin for NcodeR V1.5x +++
MMKeyboard.lha       hard/hack  133K+V0.62 Use entire Multmedia Keyboard on A
ps2m.lha             hard/hack   21K+Ultimate Amiga PS/2 Wheel Mouse Controll
TestGear-Notes.lha   hard/hack    7K+Test equipment projects, general notes.
TestGear3.lha        hard/hack  257K+Simple test equipment projects, Disk 3.
TestGear4A.lha       hard/hack  288K+The Oscilloscope Project Disk 4A.
TestGear4A.lha       hard/misc  288K+The Oscilloscope Project Disk 4A.
DarcNES.lha          misc/emu   116K+NES/SMS/GG/PCE/SG1000/CV emulator v9b031
imdbDiff010323.lha   misc/imdb  1.1M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
diru.lha             misc/misc  2.9M+English <-> Russian dictionary (near 700
diru_nodb.lha        misc/misc   85K+English <-> Russian dictionary (near 700
elu_grav.mpg         mods/elbie 5.2M+Elusive Cure - Gravety [Gothic] By ElbiE
memory.mpg           mods/elbie 2.9M+A Memory of the Past [Electric] by ElbiE
crs_apac.lha         mods/techn 329K+CRS00059: phase - apache
crs_mend.lha         mods/techn 968K+CRS00058: jocko - mendes
id3taglibgui.lha     mus/edit    80K+MPEG Audio ID3Tag (V1.x and V2.x) Editor
Episode-II.lha       pix/anim   4.8M+Star Wars Ep 2 intro sequence (.mov)    
GameIcons1.lha       pix/gicon  551K+Great GlowIcons for MANY Amiga games.
lch-JapIcons3.lha    pix/gicon  101K+Japanesque GlowIcons for Os 3.5 pack 3
NetGlowIcons.lha     pix/gicon    5K+A few GlowIcons for AmigaOS 3.5+
AmigaFINlogo.gif     pix/irc      6K+#AmigaFIN
Hipsamtab4.jpg       pix/misc    53K+More pics of this amazing Amiga. Read .r
Hipsamtab5.jpg       pix/misc    51K+More pics of this amazing Amiga. Read .r
Hipsamtab6.jpg       pix/misc    58K+More pics of this amazing Amiga. Read .r
Pointers.lha         pix/misc     7K+Some cool mouse pointers!
sg-strip_10.lha      pix/misc    64K+[ancor] StarGround 10
sg-strip_9.lha       pix/misc    46K+[ancor] StarGround 9
yoroshii.lha         pix/misc   281K+[ancor] a pic with Sandra & Sarah
x-not-x.mpg          pix/mpg    2.5M+A preview for an upcoming film
AKIconzGold.lha      pix/mwb    531K+The ALL NEW 32 col. Icon Collection #1
cbm-logo.lha         pix/trace   55K+C4D Commodore logo by Hibisch
madonna.jpg          pix/wb     148K+Hand drawn picture of Madonna
wb1200_1.jpg         pix/wb      79K+How to make the best out of 2MB Chip-RAM
wb1200_2.jpg         pix/wb      69K+How to make the best out of 2MB Chip-RAM
guideml2.lha         text/hyper  54K+Cool AmigaGuide -> HTML converter (V2.2)
AutoPDF12.lha        text/misc   20K+AutoPDF 1.2 - Convert Postscript to PDF
Epson_400.lha        text/print  25K+Epson Stylus 400/440/460 Driver for WB V
Epson_600.lha        text/print  26K+Epson Stylus 600/700 Driver for WB V40.2
acces1-11B.lha       util/app    33K+Multi User system (difrent settings and 
RemAPollo.lha        util/boot   64K+A1200 040\60 MMU Apollo Turboboard Rema
titleshadow.lha      util/boot   20K+Add shadows or outines to your window ti
WoW.lha              util/conv   40K+Text converter (Html, Ww6, Rtf, AGuide, 
ReportPlus.lha       util/misc  351K+Report+ 4.4: Multipurpose utility
ReqAttack.lha        util/misc  635K+Best, configurable requesters for Amiga
ReqAttackUpd.lha     util/misc  117K+RAPrefsMUI1.74, ReqAttack1.60 
SelectOSv.1.1.lha    util/misc   11K+Select AmigaOS and/or Linux APUS and/or 
WheelBusMouse.lha    util/mouse  10K+Bus Mouse wheel support
ScreenShell.lha      util/shell   6K+Opens full size shell on new public scre
DRemind_Ger.lha      util/time   18K+German catalogs for DRemind 1.57
VEPatchBrain.lha     util/virus  16K+PatchBrain v1.27 for VirusExecutor v2.xx
VirusExecutor.lha    util/virus 252K+VirusExecutor v2.09
QuickLens.lha        util/wb      8K+A quick lens, any OS, source included
ScalosModuleEC.lha   util/wb     22K+Scalos 'Execute Command' Replacement
ScalosPlugin39.lha   util/wb     17K+Scalos 'Workbench 3.9' Plugin
ScalosPluginPW.lha   util/wb     17K+Scalos 'Persistant Windows' Plugin
ScalosPluginTP.lha   util/wb     12K+Scalos 'Titlebar PPC' Plugin
ScalosPluginVG.lha   util/wb     13K+Scalos 'Volume Gauge' Plugin


[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 19:56] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


osOpinion: Be and Amiga: Ominous Parallels?
»The difference between the two companies lies in the management. Whereas Commodore had faceless suits who were disconnected from the technology, Be, Inc. is run by people who are actually passionate about the operating system.«
More: title link.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 19:13] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Dirk Stoecker on ANF


XAD-System V10 Released
The latest version V10 of the archive extracting system XAD is released in the Aminet. There is a new version of XFD, too. New are bugfixes, new archive types and main improvements. The readme contains the complete (and long) list.

Attention OS3.9 users: This version is not a special version and should not be installed over the OS3.9 version, if you do not like the annoy requester. OS3.9 users can update for half the price.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 12:42] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Christoph Meier on ANF


Amiga.org Online Again
As reported was Amiga.org due to too much traffic caused by the fair pictures and the webcam disconnected by the provider. Now Amiga.org is online again. Amiga.org looks out now for a cheap and reliable provider.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 12:37] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Martin R. Elsner via eMail


News about ClassAction and MainPrefs
News to ClassAction
V4.0 is already finished. I am looking for translators, that can create catalog files. A list of catalogs you can find on the homepage. If you are interseted send an eMail.

After installation of BoingBag1 the program seems to crash if you open a drawer in the directory "Variablen" (variables). The bug is fixed, the latest version 2.20 with more improvements will be available, if the new translations are finished.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 11:21] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2001
Martin baute via eMail


Personal Estimation From Martin Baute
This article in German

My final article - Author: Martin Baute

April Fools?

One thing before I start, since Sunday morning (2001-04-01), I did only flighty check the situation around Amiga. Perhaps the interview given on this day by Bill McEwen at around 8 AM MEST was a single huge April Fool's joke, and I simply didn't get it. This way or the other, I am angry, upset, and most of all severely disappointed. Very quick something about me as a person. I wasn't an Amiga user since day 0, my "career" as Amigian started 1993 with a second hand A2000. But I was there when Commodore went bust. I have seen the Walker on the CeBit exhibition, and was stunned speechless by the senselessness of the design. I have been through the VIScorp misery, and as news-master of the Amiga News & Stories wrote my articles about it. I have been through the Gateway takeover, rise and fall of Jim Collas, and as "English master" of amiga-news.de wrote my articles about it. I have been through the Amino takeover, and subsequently evangelized the strategy of Amiga, Inc. at best I could, with articles, postings and meetings of the Bielefeld Amiga Users & Developers. I was there during the dark years, and I think this makes me an "Amigian". This "being Amigian" found a sudden, surprising, painful end in the morning of April 1st. The scene was set at the St. Louis Amiga Show. With big words it had been announced this show would be a "ground shaking event", a day that would put all previous presentations and announcements to shame. In a way, I think Amiga, Inc. stood up to this promise.

Preliminary

Amiga, Inc. had targeted a completely new concept, based on the Elate / intent technology of the Tao Group: An operating system (rather, operating environment), that could be deployed independently of the underlying hardware, on almost any architecture (PowerPC or x86 desktops, STB, PDA, server, ...). Additionally, there was the option of being installed "hosted", as a seperate application, under every major operating system.

The concept was simple and made sense: Software written for the AmigaDE would run on any operating system, any architecture. No more porting, no more making the wrong decision with the target platform. The capability for "hosted" deployment would have allowed to slowly penetrate the market, step by step drawing in developers and applications, replacing more and more of everyday computing by Amiga software, until the day the host becomes irrelevant.

Expectations

So I was sitting at my keyboard, hours before dawn, curious for what would come. Did they complete the SDK, including 3D and audio support? Did they convince one of the major Linux distributors to bundle the AmigaDE with their distribution? Did they find a strong financial support?

Shortly before the interview started, rumors arose Amiga, Inc. would announce AmigaOS 4.0 PPC native. That would be a bitter pill, I thought, further dividing users, developers and retailers - some focusing on AmigaDE, others on OS 4.0, and both projects failing miserably... On the other hand, I felt sympathetic with the users who did spend significant amounts into their PPC Amigas, and wanted to continue using that hardware.

Decisions

The decision, when it finally came, was about the hardest blow since Jim Collas left. Bill McEwen officially labeled the AmigaDE "no MP, no VM, for PDAs only". For desktop and server systems, AmigaOS 4.x PPC native would be developed, which would see memory protection being added "in one of the future versions". As a sidenote, this OS 4.0 would not run on existing hardware, but only on AmigaOne systems. Over the time, OS 4.x and AmigaDE would then be merged and Amiga be led into a golden future. Bill McEwen seemed to think this was very funny, as you can easily hear yourself by listening to the MP3 of the question-and-answer session.

I was dumbfounded. I felt sick, I was unbelievably angry, and if it wasn't early morning, I probably would have tried to shout at McEwen through the modem cable and shake him violently. So I only shook my head when some hours later I read on various online forums that this decision even found applause among users.

Consequences

I might be wrong. Amiga might make a furious comeback with this strategy. But I cannot believe in it anymore. What are the consequences of this decision?
  1. OS 4.x shall be deployed on servers. Memory protection on desktop systems might be a matter of taste, for servers it is simply a necessity. According to McEwen, memory protection will not be implemented until OS 4.2, which are a minimum of 12 months on Amiga, Inc.'s roadmap. Until then, AmigaOS will not be deployed on production servers, and I even doubt it will after this date: Who can name a company employing servers based on PowerPC CPUs?
  2. AmigaOS 4.x will not run on existing hardware. This means OS 4.x can only be sold to those purchasing an AmigaOne. Many "old" users will stick with their present systems. Some will jump to other platforms entirely. Why anybody from e.g. the Linux or Windows community should buy an AmigaOne (that cannot run *any*thing besides OS 4.x and LinuxPPC), is completely beyond me.
  3. The people who bought a SDK or even a d'Amiga have been completely left "under fire without air cover" by Amiga, Inc. For the foreseeable future, Amiga's plans for the AmigaDE and the SDK encompass PDAs, STBs and internet enabled laundry machines only. The few remaining programmers, which hungered for an opportunity to write applications like word processors, e-mail clients and 3D games for the AmigaDE, and did invest into what they thought is the first generation of the new Amiga, are now facing the decision to either do a summersault backwards by exchanging their x86 machines for new PPC hardware, or having to wait another couple of years until OS 4.x and AmigaDE finally grow together.
  4. Those who buy an AmigaOne can use it under AmigaOS 4.x or LinuxPPC. Should Amiga, Inc. fail with it's current strategy, only LinuxPPC remains. And this for a price tag that easily purchases a x86 PC, offering other options like the better supported x86 Linux, Windows, QNX, BeOS, AROS, WinUAE and over half a dozen other operating systems.
  5. Until Amiga, Inc. can stand up to it's promise of providing an operating environment that scales from mobile phone all the way up to servers, independently of the hardware, a minimum of another three years will pass, according to Mr. McEwen.

I will not speculate about the chances to penetrate a market that, until then, will be secured by Embedded Linux and Microsoft .NET. This year, perhaps even next year still, capabilities like scalability and binary compatibility could have earned a big success. But what a shame, competition is moving just the same direction, and history proves that superior technology doesn't win the race once Microsoft reaches "full steam ahead".
With all generosity, I cannot make sense of the current plans of Amiga Inc. anymore. They force old users as well as the developers on the "bleeding edge" to buy new hardware, they delay the time schedule for their big promises for years to come, and Bill McEwen laughs his head off over it.

Sorry, I'm fed up. I wish Amiga Inc. and the remaining community all the best, and it would be a very pleasant surprise to me should I be proven wrong. But since Sunday, April 1st, 2001 my time as an active "Amigan" is over, because in Snoqualmie, they obviously live in a red-and-white checkered padded cell, or an ivory tower, but in any case they seem to have lost any sense for reality.

[News message: 03. Apr. 2001, 10:29] [Comments: 0]
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