======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
  I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I TAKE DELIVERY   ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
991223

                  K R U S E   N O W   A   R E B O L

     C O S A   L A U N C H E S   O P E N   A M I G A   G R O U P

         F R E E   A U C T I O N S   A T   C L I C K B O O M

    C O S A   R E P S   F O R   G E R M A N Y ,   P O R T U G A L

     C H R I S T M A S   G R E E T I N G S   F R O M   A M I N O

       A M I G A   F O R E V E R   H O L I D A Y   B U N D L E

        A M I G A   A C T I V E   D E C E M B E R   I S S U E

         A M I G A   C D   M A G A Z I N E   I N   I T A L Y

          W I N   W I P E O U T   2 0 9 7   F R O M   A Y P

      T U R B O P R I N T   V .   7   N O W   A V A I L A B L E

   " I M M O R T A L "   -   A M I G A   G A M E   M U S I C   C D

                    A U D I O L A B S   O F F E R

        " F R E E S P A C E "   C O M I N G   T O   A M I G A

      " I N F R A B O X "   -   I N F R A R E D   C O N T R O L

              M K / 2   K E Y B O A R D   A D A P T E R

       A E M A I L   V .   2 . 2 0   N O W   A V A I L A B L E

            M I C R O D O T   I I   1 . 3   V E R S I O N

          M E T A L W E B   4 . 0   P R E R E L E A S E   2

         M I L L E N N I U M   F O R   T H E   T O A S T E R

               N O T   M U C H   T I M E   L E F T ! !

               S E C O N D S P I N   F O R   M P E G S

               S I M O N   T H E   S O R C E R E R   2

              N E T I N F O   2 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 The old saying "the only constant is change" is certainly true in the
Amiga community. It sometimes seems that you can't count on anything
staying the same from one day to the next.
 Unfortunately, much of the change we've seen in this year now ending
has been anything but good. The most recent change seems to be the
sudden vanishing of the "Amiga's" only remaining North American print
publication.
 We can tell you this, however. There are a lot of people working very
hard to make changes that will ensure a future for the Amiga. There's
just not much to say about these activities right at the moment. We'll
keep you informed as we are able.

Take a look at Amiga Realm
--------------------------
 Received a note a while back from our friend Paul Andrews in the UK
suggesting we take a look at his site "Amiga Realm". He reports he's
been working long and hard on it in the last few months. The effort
shows. It's well worth your stopping by if you haven't, with a wealth
of Amiga information. Find it at:

http://www.amigarealm.com

 We have a wide variety of stories to bring your way this time, and
it's all pretty much positive for once! Hope this brightens up your
day. For those of you celebrating one holiday or another at this time
of the year, we wish you all the joy such holidays can bring! To all
our readers, we say thanks for being with us throughout 1999, and we
hope to have a prosperous, pleasant and re-invigorating last year of
the century with you and Amiga in 2000!
 Best regards,
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

15 Dec 1999

Hello Brad,

 Any idea as to what has happened to Amazing? I haven't received any
mag. for three months I have made 5 or 6 calls to their phone # and
all I get is a taped message to fax or E-Mail. I've e-mailed Don Hicks
several times and have gotten no response.

 PS thanks for keeping Amiga Update going I feel like it is the only
Amiga resource I can depend on.

Kind regards
--
Don S.
~~~~~~
Don,
 I have no idea - and I did try to find out. We've received several
letters similar to yours. It's very disappointing - and disconcerting
- to have the venerable "Amazing" just pull an amazing vanishing act.
 Don Hicks, are you still there?
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                K R U S E   N O W   A   R E B O L

The following announcement was posted recently on the web site of
Holger Kruse, developer of many of the Amiga's best pieces of
software:

Changes for the year 2000

 I am happy to announce that starting January, 2000 I will work for
REBOL Technologies in the capacity of Director of Network
Technologies.

 For those of you who have not heard about that company before: REBOL
Technologies (www.rebol.com) is a privately held company that was
founded by Carl Sassenrath, one of the premier developers of AmigaOS.
REBOL Technologies develops and distributes the scripting language
REBOL, a very intuitive programming language and run-time environment
with built-in Internet support and messaging capabilities. REBOL is
available for over 50 computer platforms, AmigaOS being one of them.
The basic version of REBOL is available for free, extensions are
available for license fees.

 Declining revenues from Amiga software sales and increased software
piracy in 1999 finally forced me to look for a full-time job outside
of my own company. Between several job offers I decided to accept the
offer by REBOL for several reasons. The most important one is that in
my opinion REBOL is currently one of the few truly innovative products
in the software market, and with Carl Sassenrath's history with
AmigaOS his company and its product in many ways reflect and represent
the Amiga spirit.

 With my background in AmigaOS and TCP/IP I am excited about the
opportunity to participate in the development of REBOL, in particular
in the improvement of its networking capabilities, the AmigaOS port
and ports for possible Amiga successors.

 I am afraid this new job means that I will no longer be able to work
full-time on my own Amiga software (Miami, Daytona etc.). This does
not mean that the software becomes unsupported or that I am leaving
the Amiga platform though. I intend to still provide updates and
support for existing software, as my time permits. Here are some
details about current plans for my Amiga software:

 - AmiWin: still supported. An update with 24-bit support and a newer
X11R6 kernel is still planned, but unlikely to be ready soon.

 - Daytona and related products: I am afraid Daytona and its planned
extensions have to be cancelled. There are two reasons for this: one
is lack of time: with my new full-time job I have to cut back
somewhere, and doing it on a project that is still in development
seems to be the most reasonable solution. The other reason is a
possible conflict of interests, because Java and REBOL are competitors
in the market of languages for distributed computing, which may make
it unethical for me to remain involved in Java-related software. I
have not yet determined what will happen to the Daytona sources. There
are several options, somewhat restricted by Sun's licensing
conditions, and I will try to find a solution that will somehow still
allow the existing Java VM of Daytona to be released to the Amiga
community, without future involvement or support from me though.

 - Miami: still fully supported. Version 3.3 is planned for release in
the year 2000.

 - Miami Deluxe: fully supported. After several delays and many
improvements the first full release including documentation will
probably be ready before Christmas, and after that development will
continue. Subject to demand the planned improvements for future
versions may include IPv6, IPsec, named, extensions to IP-NAT and
possibly dial-in support.

 - MiamiSSL: fully supported. A new version that incorporates the
latest OpenSSL changes and protocols is planned.

 - MiamiTelnet: fully supported, as part of the Miami Deluxe package.
Telnet encryption and support for running in a shell window are
planned for future versions.

 - ppp.device: still supported, but no new versions are planned. Miami
and Miami Deluxe should be considered successors of ppp.device.

 - ReOrg: not supported at this time. A version with support for NSD
and disks > 4 GB is something I am considering though, time
permitting.

 I will also have to move my residence from Winter Park, Florida to
Ukiah, California, where REBOL headquarters are located. This means my
LAN will have to move as well, including the server that handles Miami
registrations and orders. Because of that there will be some service
outages affecting my Internet presence during the months of December
'99 and possibly January 2000. Please see my separate announcements
about that. On the up side, chances are my LAN will get a DSL
connection in Ukiah, which should provide better reliability and much
faster responses, in particular for mailing lists, than the current
56k connection.

 Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and a successful year 2000.


Holger Kruse
Nordic Global Inc.
kruse@nordicglobal.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     C O S A   L A U N C H E S   O P E N   A M I G A   G R O U P

 COSA HEADQUARTERS -- December 22, 1999 -- COSA (the Campaign to
Open-Source AmigaOS) today officially launched it's new sister
project, the Open Amiga Group, at Amigakernel.org.

 The Open Amiga Group has been created, in the spirit of the Christmas
season, to encourage and help developers, by providing a system where
Amiga projects and applications can be openned up to the contributions
of a team of Amiga developers, using the open-source model as a guide.
It is hoped this will lead to the creation of new high-quality Amiga
applications, and to the revival of stalled or abandoned projects,
which could be continued by a team of open-source Amiga programmers.

 Amiga developers will be able to use the Amigakernel.org website to
join existing projects (currently aMozillaX and AROS, with AmigaOS "in
reserve"), or to easily create projects of their own using the forms
available on the Amigakernel.org website.

 Through a variety of mailing lists, the Open Amiga Group will keep
developers who have registered with us informed of the latest projects
that are being set up, and in contact with other developers working on
the same projects. (It is our intention there be a mailing list for
users and a mailing list for developers for each project hosted by the
Open Amiga group.)

 Open-source projects can then either be hosted by Open Amiga using
our own resources - website, mailing list and tools (and the resources
of sourceforge.net), or we can simply provide links and references to
your own websites, mailing lists and tools.

 The Open Amiga project is a natural extention of COSA's charter,
which is to promote open-source within the Amiga community, and to
campaign for the release of the Amiga operating system as open source.
(It should be noted that negotiations with Amiga Inc's Tom Schmidt on
this matter are ongoing.) We also felt it would be wasteful not to
offer the 130 developers who have already registered with COSA as
"probable developers for an open-source AmigaOS" a chance to work on
other projects.

 For more information, or to register as a developer, or register an
existing open-source Amiga project on our pages, please visit
http://www.amigakernel.org to visit the Open Amiga Group's website, or
http://cosa.amigakernel.org for more information on COSA, the Campaign
to Open-Source AmigaOS, and for the latest news on the status of our
negotiations with Amiga Inc.

 In the spirit of this season of co-operation and friendship, we wish
the Amiga community a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May
the millennium mark a turning point in the Amiga's history, where we
finally reap the mainstream attention and respect that our platform
and it's powerful, speedy OS deserve.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       F R E E   A U C T I O N S   A T   C L I C K B O O M

FREE AUCTIONS FOR EVERYONE
============================

 Starting 16 Dec. 99, and for the next 60 days after, holding an
Auction at clickBOOM's Amiga Auctions is absolutely FREE for everyone!

 There are no limits to what you want to sell, how many Auctions you
want to hold or how long you want them running. Use all three types of
Auctions, use photographs, layouts, all FREE !


GAME AUCTIONS
===============

 But, that's FAR from everything.

 We want you to come every day and check the latest Auctions.

 Every day, for the next 15 days, we will auction one copy of each of
our games!

 The highest bidder takes it, so you can walk away with a brand new
clickBOOM game of your choice for as low as a few dollars !!!


COMPARING CLICKBOOM AMIGA AUCTIONS TO EBAY
==============================================

 Sure, eBay is the name in online auctioning, however, when it comes
to selling Amiga goods, clickBOOM's Amiga Auctions are simply a better
choice:

 1. Amiga Auctions are free !

 2. Auctions held at Amiga Auctions actually have a better selling
rate than eBay !

 3. Amiga Auctions support English and German !

 4. Amiga Auctions have several layout designs to choose from !

 5. At Amiga Auctions you can choose from a list of Amiga hardware
photographs, and having a photo Auction is free !

 6. Amiga Auctions show approximate price in 3 other currencies !

 7. Amiga Auctions are ran by the Amiga community, for the Amiga
community !

 Bidding, of course, as always is free, so come to
http://clickboom.com/auctions and get in on the Auction action.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   C O S A   R E P S   F O R   G E R M A N Y ,   P O R T U G A L

New COSA Country Contacts for Germany and Portugal

December 7, 1999

 COSA are pleased to announce the creation of two new "country
contacts". Country Contacts are COSA members who have volunteered to
act as representatives for COSA in their home country and provide
translation services.

 There are current two Country Contacts. They are Volker Mohr from
Germany, who runs the Project IMP website, and Rui Manuel, from
Portugal.

 If you speak German (Deutsch) or Portugese (Portuguese), you should
feel free to contact either Volker or Rui and discuss any comments,
questions or suggestions you have about COSA or Open Source with them.
They'll be happy to help you.

 COSA wants to take this time to thank Volker and Rui for their help,
and for providing this valuable service. With their help, COSA is also
to reach out to people in other countries.

 Volker and Rui are also helping to translate the COSA webpages into
German and Portugese, and these translations will be put online when
they are ready. But this is hard work, so why not drop them an e-mail
and thank them? Or offer to help? They'd like to hear from you!

 English-speakers should still feel free to write to me, Steve
Crietzman. I will try my best to respond as quickly as I am able.

 Once again, our thanks to Volker and Rui! Welcome aboard the COSA
Team! :-)

-- Steve, Volker, Rui, and the ever-growing COSA Team

 {NOTE: the story didn't give information on how to contact these
folks. You might start at http://www.savetheamiga.org.uk and work from
there. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    C H R I S T M A S   G R E E T I N G S   F R O M   A M I N O

{The following little note was posted to the Team Amiga list by
Amino's Fleecy Moss. We thought it would brighten everyone's week,
whether you have holidays to celebrate or not, so we're including it
here. Brad}

23 Dec 1999

 Fleecy Moss

 ...to everyone here.

Just to let you know that Amino is still working away
at trying to provide a real future for the amiganauts,
and that this list is one of our inspirations, showing that
there is still talent, passion, nutjobs, and fun, and that the
flame of the Amiga is still burning despite the best efforts
of some to put it out.

Happy holidays to all, and here's looking forwards
to a better tomorrow.

Cheers

the three Aminos...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       A M I G A   F O R E V E R   H O L I D A Y   B U N D L E

 For all Amiga emulation enthusiasts who ever wondered what Workbench
1.0 looked like, or what the late Jay Miner, "Father of the Amiga",
has to say in his own voice about the Amiga and other interesting
issues, Cloanto just released the Amiga Forever Plus Pack, which
contains new Amiga ROM, Workbench and MP3 audio files! The Plus Pack
joins the Amiga Forever family of emulation and support products,
which are officially licensed by Gateway's Amiga companies.

 Only for the next few days, the Online Edition of Amiga Forever 3.0
($29.99 stand-alone) and the Amiga Forever Plus Pack ($14.99) are
available in a special holiday bundle for only $34.99!

 The Amiga Forever Holiday Bundle includes the Amiga Forever Online
Edition package, with its preinstalled Amiga emulation environment
(1.3 and 3.1 Amiga ROM and OS) and the Amiga Explorer networking
software, plus the following new items, which are part of the Plus
Pack:

- Amiga Workbench ADF files v. 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.04 and 2.1
- Amiga ROM files v. 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 2.04 (WB 2.1 uses 2.04 ROM)
- Jay Miner MP3 Track 1: Birth of the Amiga
- Jay Miner MP3 Track 2: Computers and Society
- Jay Miner MP3 Track 3: A New Job
- New HTML pages, including instructions to play MP3 audio files

 For download convenience, the items are archived in two files which
can be downloaded separately, also with the help of an optional
download wizard. It is always possible to resume an interrupted
download, or to download the same file again at no additional cost.
The Plus Pack is cross-platform, while Amiga Forever Online Edition is
for Windows systems only.

 The Amiga Forever Holiday Bundle is available now from the Amiga
Forever Home Page at http://cloanto.com/amiga/forever/

 The Cloanto Team wishes all Amiga fans great holidays and a very
happy New Year!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        A M I G A   A C T I V E   D E C E M B E R   I S S U E

26 Nov., 99

 The December 1999 issue of Amiga Active magazine is out now in
newsagents around the UK. Visit our web site (and click the "issues"
button) for more information about what's in this jam-packed issue -
it's definitely one you shouldn't miss, and we're not just saying that
- take a look for yourselves!

 http://www.amigactive.com

 If you can't get hold of Amiga Active locally, you can now order
individual issues to anywhere in the world, direct from the
publisher... read on...

 *** Credit Card Subscriptions and Backissues

 Pinprint Publishing are pleased to announce that credit card
subscriptions to Amiga Active magazine can now be taken out online,
simply by filling in a form. You can also phone us, or send us your
credit card order by post.

 For more information about how you can order individual issues as
well as subscriptions to anywhere in the world via credit card, visit
the web site!

    http://www.amigactive.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      A M I G A   C D   M A G A Z I N E   I N   I T A L Y

November 5, 1999

        Softwave Announces a new CD based Amiga Magazine


Dear Amigans,

 My name is Giorgio Signori, and I am the director of Softwave, a new
company born in Italy this summer. I have been writing on the only
Italian Amiga magazine, Enigma Amiga Run, in the past years, and I am
in Amiga environment since years. After years writing for Amiga, I
decided to build up a new company to publish an Amiga-only, CD-based
magazine. After a lot of work, at the Amiga show Softwave was there
with the first issue of Amiga.it, showed during the conference with
Petro Tyschtschenko. After this, we decided to publish Amiga.it, under
the name Amiga.news, also outside Italy. We put much effort in this,
translating, for now, the whole magazine in English. We will show and
sell the first issue of Amiga.news at the next Home Electronics World
of Cologne, on 12-14 November.

 We hope that the public response will be enough to convince us to
keep doing a multi-language magazine also for the next issues. If so,
since the 3rd issue, we will translate it also in German, as many of
you already requested. In the next days in this site will be published
the summary of the first issue.

 But now, some of the highlights of Amiga.news:

 The magazine part count many important writers here in Italy. Editors
like ing. Massimo Gais, system administrator of the Italian Aminet
node and of the Astronomic Observatory of Naples, like ing. Alessio
Cappelli, expert in Amiga and NetBSD environments. People like Massimo
Marino, writer for the biggest selling videogames magazine in Italy,
The Games Machine, and Nick Mordock, experienced Amiga writer since
years. Not to mention Andrea Favini, the 3000+ staff and Laura
Falzone, writers of proved experience.

 The CD part of Amiga.news differs from what we are used to see on the
market. it will not be a simple shareware collection. Of course it
will contain the recent shareware software from month to month, with
index and search function, but it will be thematic. The first issue of
Amiga.it, published only in Italian, had Linux as theme of the month,
with a RedHatPPC distribution and a serie of articles dedicated to
installation of Linux, but not only. Every month a different theme
will fill the CD. I can anticipate that on the issue that will be
presented at Cologne, there will be a much requested Linux68k/RedHat68
distribution, and a special on Star Wars on Amiga.

 I am available for every question, I will be happy to give all the
answers you may need, if you are a user or an Amiga
distributor/reseller. You can find me at the mailbox yurex@tin.it.
Website: http://www.skylink.it/ear

 Giorgio Signori Director of Softwave
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         W I N   W I P E O U T   2 0 9 7   F R O M   A Y P

22 Dec 1999

 Finally our 26,000 hit is almost upon us! (It would have been 25,000
but the Amiga used to update Amiga Yellow Pages broke - OK?)

 To celebrate this great occasion, Amiga Yellow Pages have teamed up
with Amiga retailer FORE-MATT Home Computing to give away a copy of
WipeOut 2097.

 Don't despair if you already own it or don't have the required specs,
because those nice people at FORE-MATT will let you take your pick
from their £30.00 range which includes hits such as Wasted Dreams,
T-Zero and many more. Or even better! you can opt to choose two games
from their £15 pound range, with a choice of Foundation DC, Moonbases,
Pheonix Fighters and many more.

 Take a peep at the FORE-MATT Home Computing advert, on Amiga Yellow
Pages http://ayp.amiga.tm and take your pick. Alternatively why not
download their December catalogue which contains more goodies than the
advert.

 To Win.. Just save the 26000 counter as a gif file and email to A.Y.P

 FORE-MATT Home Computing can also be reached by telephone on: +44
(0)1793 853802. Mon-Fri. or by email to: sales@forematt.idps.co.uk

 Best wishes for the festive season and all the best in the New Year,
from every one at FORE-MATT Home Computing and Amiga Yellow Pages!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    T U R B O P R I N T   V .   7   N O W   A V A I L A B L E

9 Dec., '99


 NEW: Turboprint 7.09beta2 with new drivers for BJC1000, BJC2000,
BJC6000 and BJC7100 for download is now available! From IrseeSoft

Features in the brand new version 7 are:

 o Interface to Postscript interpreter "GNU Ghostscript" makes every
printer Postscript compatible.

 o Print Postscript and PDF files from the Internet or a CD, improved
quality and speed with many programs like Final Writer, PageStream (24
bit / 16 mio. colours!), TurboCalc or Wordworth.

 o GNU Ghostscript and 35 fonts are included in the package.

 o New GfxText mode: Print scalable Intellifonts with any printer,
print text on printers that support only graphics (e.g. Canon BJC7000,
Epson StylusColor300)!

 o Zoom function in GraphicsPublisher: Magnify the page view as
required, make precise alignment of pictures or work with smaller font
sizes more comfortable.

 o TurboSpool printer spooler can now produce multiple copies in one
go. As a result, output speed in copy mode is drastically improved.

 o New printer drivers

 o Lots of other improvements.

http://www.irseesoft.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   " I M M O R T A L "   -   A M I G A   G A M E   M U S I C   C D

17 Dec 1999

Hello!

 I'm pleased to announce that "Immortal" - The Amiga game music album
has been released and is now available to order from
http://www.monteiro-music.com


 'Immortal' is a music CD featuring some of the best soundtracks ever
composed for Amiga games. Includes the full soundtrack from "Shadow of
the Beast", as well as the best music from "Superfrog", "Turrican",
"Space Station 3000", "Utopia", "Harlequin" and other all-time great
Amiga games.

 The CD also includes a 3D rendered video clip, allusive to the theme
of the album.

 For more information, please visit our website at
http://www.monteiro-music.com


All the best,

Ruben Monteiro
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 A U D I O L A B S   O F F E R

December 1999:

 To celebrate the last ProStationAudio release of this millennium,
AudioLabs is offering, until December 27th 1999, the fresh new
ProStationAudio v2.50 with a special discount.

 When ordering before the deadline, you can get v2.50 for US$299
instead of US$395.

 Starting January, AudioLabs will expand the ProStationAudio family of
products for AmigaOS with the hi-end ProStationAudio Millennium. The
new version, among other features, includes 32 channel support on the
timeline, by handling 16 stereo tracks.

http://www.audiolabs.it
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 " F R E E S P A C E "   C O M I N G   T O   A M I G A

15 Dec., '99

 Hyperion is pleased to announce it has acquired a license from
Interplay to port Volition's best-selling space-combat simulator
"(Descent) Freespace: The Great War" to the Amiga.

 System-requirements include PPC processor (WarpOS), graphics-card
(AGA under review) and 32 MB RAM with full support of 3D accelerators
through Warp3D. A 68060 version is not ruled out but would most likely
require 3D acceleration. The game is tentatively slated for release
early Q2 2000 and will be published by Titan Computers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     " I N F R A B O X "   -   I N F R A R E D   C O N T R O L

7 Dec., '99

 HILVERSUM, The Netherlands - Amiga developer
 Leon Woestenberg is pleased to announce that
 the infrared tranceiver hardware called
 InfraBox for Amiga computers is now
 available.

 Together with the freely available InfraRexx
 and InfraFace software, it allows Amiga
 users to use their Amiga's for infrared
 remote control. Users can control their
 consumer electronics such as Compact Disc
 players, video cassette recorders, tuners,
 television sets etc. from the Amiga
 Workbench. Or, from any other application
 that supports ARexx or the
 infraremote.library that comes with
 InfraFace.

 Also, in the other direction, Amiga
 applications can be controlled using a
 consumer electronics remote commander.

 The InfraBox, InfraRexx and InfraFace
 products further enhances the Amiga's
 strength in the field of multimedia and
 system interconnectivity.

 The author has been developing infrared
 remote control applications for the Amiga
 since 1994, and is dedicated to support
 Amiga, AmigaOS and Amiga users well beyond
 the current millenium into a next exciting
 era of computing.

 Leon Woestenberg,
 InfraRexx and InfraFace author, InfraBox
 hardware designer

 InfraBox support website:
 http://www.esrac.ele.tue.nl/~leon/infrabox/
 InfraFace support website:
 http://www.esrac.ele.tue.nl/~leon/infraface/
 InfraRexx support website:
 http://www.esrac.ele.tue.nl/~leon/infrarexx/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            M K / 2   K E Y B O A R D   A D A P T E R

10 Dec., '99

 This model is specifically for the Amiga 2000 and 3000.

 Need a new keyboard for your Amiga? Find out its next to impossible
to get them anymore? How about a mouse? Same deal, and you cannot just
plug in one of those common PS/2 devices that you would find at your
common PC shop.. until now..

 The InsertMK/2 adapter will adapt a PS/2 mouse AND a PS/2 keyboard to
your Amiga 1200, 2000, 3000 4000 (* adapters needed for 1200/4000 *)

 Plug a PS/2 mouse and keyboar dinto this small 6x6x3cm box, then plug
the cables from the box into your keyboard adn you are set.

 The Amiga keys are now mapped to the Winodws keys on your standard
104-key Windows keyboard. The extra keys can be specifically
programmed with software at a later date

 The mouse adapter is unique. You can use a standard PS/2 mouse
(Logitech, Genius, Microsoft, etc..) and even one with a scroller
wheel. The whell is mapped to the up/down cursor keys. Its quite cool
to scroll through a webpage in your browser this way. :)

 They are also flash upgradable. Meaning any changes and upgrades
needed in the future can be performed with a simple flash upgrade
(just like a flash BIOS on a PC)

 This product is now in testing and is scheduled for release in late
December 1999. In the mean time, we need to know how many parts to
order to start assembly with!

 Dealer and distributor enquiries for quantity pricing is welcomed.
60.84 USD $89.95 CAD

Other Related Items:
· MK/2 Keyboard Adapter for Amiga 1200 (2000/3000)
· MK/2 Keyboard Adapter for Amiga 4000 (2000/3000)

Contact Us:

URL  : http://www.nationalamiga.com/
Sales Questions
Technical Support
Phone: +1-519-858-8760
Fax: +1-519-858-8762
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       A E M A I L   V .   2 . 2 0   N O W   A V A I L A B L E

16 Dec., '99

 AEMail Version 2.20 is now available. It can be obtained from AmiNet
or my web page:

 http://www.calweb.com/~jzachar/

 My web page is probably the best source for the AEMail archive since
it is "up to the minute". With AmiNet, it can take some time for the
archive to be replicated to the various mirror sites.

 AEMail Version 1.51 is a minor upgrade that corrects some last minute
bugs found after Version 1.50 was released. It also adds an additional
ARexx script "Addtogrp.aem" to the ARexx directory.

 AEMail Version 2.20 is a major revision of AEMail. This version has
restructured the Menus in AEMail providing a separate menu for
ARexx/DOS commands. It also allows you to call ARexx or DOS commands
from a menu list in addition to the function keys. The ARexx/DOS menu
has also been added to the "Edit and save message line to clipboard;
set ARexx variable" requester.

 AEMail Version 2.20 now also allows you to re-arrange your folder
lists and has added the "Move..." menu item to the Folders menu.
Additional edits have also been added when creating new folders to
prevent assigning illegal names to the folders. Any folder containing
the special characters :, \, or / are illegal as well as the name
"folder".

 The folder strip when, it extends beyond the visable window, is now
correctly displayed on systems using display boards and CyberGraphX
software. Previous versions displayed garbage in that part of the
folder strip when it was moved into the visable portion of the window.
Also, instead of specifying a display mode in the Configuration
Edit/General Page, you can select a clone of the workbench display
mode. Whatever you have selected as the display mode for the workbench
(from the Preferences/Display Mode setting) will be used for the
display mode for AEMail.

 Mime attachments that use the "multipart/alternative" mime
type/subtype are now correctly handled. This mime type/subtype is
widely used in the Macintosh and PC world. Also, headers using
Quoted-Printable notation are correctly handled.

 AEMail Version 2.20 also corrects some bugs found in Version 2.01.

 A complete list of new features, changes and the bugs corrected with
version 2.20 is given at the end of the AEMail.readme file. The readme
file is given in the AEMail archive and can also be found on my web
site which can be displayed with a browser.

 With the release of Version 2.00 at the Amiga '99 show in March of
this year, AEMail now utilizes ClassAct which has become part of the
new Amiga OS 3.5. The ClassAct Classes required are included with the
archive for OS Versions before 3.5. Amiga OS 3.5 includes the required
classes as part of the OS.

 For those of you with a version of AEMail prior to 2.00, AEMail no
longer automatically sends the special "Notification" message when you
send your first message. Instead, when you first load the new version
of AEMail a special requester will appear asking if you want to send
the notification message for updates and giving you the ability to
select what information you want to send. You can cancel this message,
but if you do, the requester will appear each time you load AEMail. Tf
you are a registered user and you cancel, you will be given the
opportunity to suppress the message the next time you load AEMail. For
unregistered users the requester will appear each time you load AEMail
whether or not you send the notification or cancel.

 The installation script also had been completely re-written starting
with AEMail 2.00 to allow you to create multiple icons for multiple
users of AEMail. Please read the INSTALL.TXT document before
attempting to install this version of AEMail.

Thanks,

John
====

From: John Zacharias
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           M I C R O D O T   I I   1 . 3   V E R S I O N

 Microdot-II is an integrated email and news program, using the same
familiar interface to to integrate news, mail and mailing lists 'as
one', performing real threading of email or news correspondence to
make it easier to follow conversations between multiple people.

 Under development for some time by Oliver Wagner, Microdot-II 1.0 was
released in the NetConnect v2 package from Active Technologies.
Updated beta versions have been available to the public in beta form
for some time, and version 1.3 has just been released.

 Microdot-II is easy to use for the novice user, with the most common
functions assigned to toolbar buttons at the bottom of each window.
These toolbars are fully configurable for the power user, and may be
set up to perform any function they like, including the use of ARexx
functions from Microdot-II's large function base.

 Please remember, Microdot-II is shareware. If you use it, please
register the software and help support Amiga software development.

 Download Microdot-II now, and try out the Amiga's professional email
and news client.

 There is a Microdot-II Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to
discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your
question may be answered there.

Features

   o Easy to use!
   o Powerful filtering system
   o Multiple POP Accounts
   o Full PGP support
   o High speed message database
   o User-configurable buttons
   o User-configurable shortcuts

   o Interaction with other Vaporware programs
      o Voyager - email
      o AmIRC - notification
   o ARexx Port
   o Flexible sorting of messages
   o Fully supports Contact Manager

http://www.vapor.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          M E T A L W E B   4 . 0   P R E R E L E A S E   2

17 Dec., '99

MetalWEB 4.0 Prerelease 2
=========================

 MetalWeb is the first WYSIWYG HTML editor for AmigaOS. The philsophy
behind the software is that you should not need to understand HTML in
order to create pages within MetalWEB. You can create web pages via a
DTP style editor or the 'old way' via a tabbed, coloured text based
source window. Indeed, like the award-winning Dreamweaver you can
open both the edit and source window, work within one of the windows,
whilst the other window updates, automagically!


 Programmer: Pedro Luis 'MultitasK' Mieza
 <multitaskers@retemail.es>
 <multitask@vapor.com>

 Co-Programmer: Josep 'MetalGear' Rubiralta
 <pep-multitask@retemail.es>

 Even better, highlight an area (ie. some text) within the editor
window, and the specific HTML source is updated concurrently.

 MetalWeb also ships with a MetalMap module, allowing you to create
advanced imagemaps, via an easy to use interface.

 Please don't use a pirated copy :(.

New Features:
=============

    - Memory Use Reduced a lot (Requires 2 megs aprox)
    - Drag'n'drop keep out
    - Cursor to edit text as a DTP editor
    - Mark option enable to cut, copy and paste
    - New Imagemap Editor
            now it's an external program linked by arexx commands
    - Speedbar.mcc
    - TearOff.mcc
    - TextInput.mcc
    - Nlist.mcc
    - New Source Editor.
            With coloured html tags.
    - Cut, Copy, Paste to clipboard.
    - New WYSIWYG <-> Source
    - Single edit window
    - New Colourtext Class
    - Visual Size image edition
    - Visual Size table edition
    - Wordwrap


Features:
=========

    - Support most important HTML tags
    - WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
    - Easy Graphic Interface
    - Use datatypes to see pictures
    - No HTML knowledge
    - FRAMES support!
    - HTML 3.2 parser
    - Direct edition on final window
    - Metatools editor
    - Complete Documentation (comming separately "metalweb_docs.lha")
    - Embed object soported
    - Source edition
    - Recent files option
    - Print Source
    - Easy WYSIWYG Imagemap edition!
    - Arexx Commands
    - Resize Images supported
    - Font Colors
    - Font Size
    - Horizontal Bars support
    - Bold, Italic, and Underline on direct edition!
    - Basic TABLE Support
    - MetalWEB could be linked with Amiga best browsers using Arexx



Metalmap 1.0 features:
======================

    - Imagemap can be loaded/saved in HTML format ready to be added
        on your HTML documents.
    - Supports Rectangles, Polygons and Circles.
    - WYSIWYG
    - Arexx
    - Speedbar.mcc



System Requirements:
====================

    Minimum:
        - 2MB of free memory
        - 68000 processor
        - ECS
        - MUI 3.8

    Recommended:
        - 4MB of free memory
        - Hard drive
        - 68060 processor
        - Workbench 3.0
        - Gfx card
        - MUI 3.8
        - PPC Card with PPC datatypes



 To get more information about MetalWEB and another Multitaskers
projects please visit:

    http://www.earthcorp.com/multitask
    http://personal3.iddeo.es/multitaskers
	http://www.vapor.com/metalweb

There is also a mailing list devoted to discussing MetalWEB specific
issues; please see

    http://www.vapor.com/lists/


Or ask me by email:

    multitask@earthcorp.com
    	or
    multitask@vapor.com


Enjoy it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        M I L L E N N I U M   F O R   T H E   T O A S T E R

11 Dec., '99


Nova Design and Newtek Announce Availability of Millennium

The Millennium is Here!

 Millennium for the Amiga Video Toaster/Flyer is here now. It's
extremely cool, it's wildly powerful, and it will give your Toaster
and Toaster/Flyer amazing new powers to help you make your work look
better than ever before!

 The Millennium package is presented by Newtek and has been produced
by Nova Design, Inc. in cooperation with all prominent Toaster/Flyer
developers. It is not to be missed.

What's Inside

 Millennium is not merely a single package. It is a collection of
software, scripts, effects, fonts, backgrounds, and other content
designed to update your Video Toaster and Flyer dramatically.
Millennium was designed to be the largest, most comprehensive, upgrade
you could put on your system. Millennium is for the Toaster owner as
well as the Flyer owner.

 You'll find some old favorites are now part of the Millennium
package. Some packages you will be familiar with and some will be
brand new to you. Some existing packages have been upgraded
significantly for the Millennium release and some have been made
Toaster-friendly and Flyer-friendly as well. Here is a list of what
you will find in Millennium.

 o Wipe Studio - You may be familiar with the 'lite' version-but this
is the complete package! Use it to create your own wipes and effects
for the Toaster and Flyer.

 o RenderFX - Upgraded for Millennium, this package allows you to
render your FlyerClip sequences down to a new FlyerClip. You can then
layer more video, CG, and effects for a far more impressive
production.

 o Flyer Utilities - Includes utilities for converting Toaster wipes
between 3.x and 4.x formats, Undeleting FlyerClips, Timecoding and
much more.

 o ProMix - Also upgraded for Millennium, this package provides audio
tools to let you add audio to video, import/export audio formats, add
audio to FlyerClips and animations, and more.

 o Fast Frames - Allows you to 'Toasterize' your Video Flyer by
pre-recording CG sequences, Framestore montages, and create flying CG
effects and more.

 o Fast Fuel - Adds video deck control to the Toaster/Flyer interface
for automatic clip recording.

 o Electric Scene Knife - This can save you literally hours of work.
The Knife can take a FlyerClip and automatically find the different
scenes within it, mark them, and even offer to cut them into separate
FlyerClips for you.

 o Flyer Backup - A script based system that can backup your actual
FlyerClips to a hard drive or to removable media.

 o CGPilot - The famous CG ARexx scripts that automate many time
consuming CG tasks.

 o Toaster Wipes and Effects - There are hundreds of these and most
are available for both Toaster 3.x and 4.x so both Toaster and Flyer
owners can use them. These include wedding wipes, fire wipes, basic
animated wipes, cool soft gradient wipes, and fully rotoscoped motion
matte wipes.

 o MegFX - 41 Flyer-project croutons, which produce real-time
dual-stream split-screen effects and real-time layer-mixed dual-stream
effects directly in Flyer projects.

 o Backgrounds - Hundreds of full color, professionally drawn,
backgrounds for you to use in your CG pages or in ToasterPaint.

 o Control Tower - Adds tons of new effects and macros to your Flyer
 system.

 o Full motion backgrounds - FlyerClips of animated scenes, fire, and
more. You can use these with your Flyer for CG backgrounds or as
royalty-free stock footage.

 There are many other features of Millennium. We've really just
touched the surface of all the tools and content that are included in
Millennium to make your Toaster and Flyer more productive for you.
Millennium also includes hundreds of new ARexx commands for scripting,
programmer's manuals for the ProMix and RenderFX tools and more.

The package will include three CDROMs filled with wipes, effects, fonts,
backgrounds, software and more; full printed documentation, a video tape
containing demos of the package, tutorials, and promotions for other
Toaster/Flyer products.

Check this out!

 Millennium is available from your favorite Amiga Video Toaster/Flyer
reseller. The suggested resale price is only $349.95 and you can order
now!

 This upgrade is the largest-ever for the Toaster and the
Toaster/Flyer. Order today!

 For more information or to order Millennium for the Amiga
Toaster/Flyer directly, you can call 1-800-462-4369 Monday-Friday or
fax at (804) 282-3768.

 You can also find information, and screenshots, on Newtek's web site
and Nova Design, Inc.'s web sites at http://www.newtek.com/ and
http://www.novadesign.com/ on the Internet.

Welcome...the new Millennium!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               N O T   M U C H   T I M E   L E F T ! !

17th December 1999
For Immediate Release

 Due to the huge success of the 5th anniversary special offer, it has
now been extended until December 25th. Paul Nolan would like to thank
those who have purchased Photogenics for their support, and wishes
everyone a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

 For those who missed the sale details, they are as follows. Paul
Nolan is offering the full version of Photogenics 4.x at a 25%
discount. This brings the price down from $99.99 - to $75, or just $65
if upgrading from a previous version of Photogenics. The special is
only available direct from Paul Nolan Ltd, either online at
http://www.PaulNolan.com, or the StarByte order hotline on 1 800 243
1515, extension 400. Callers outside of North America should prefix
this with their international dialling code for the US (for example
dial 00 1 800 243 1515 from the UK).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             S E C O N D S P I N   F O R   M P E G S

11 Dec., '99

 SecondSpin is a fully working freeware project to give the complete
conversion sollution to mpeg audio. It's mainly meant to help you to
make perfect mp3 files easily with your amiga, but it's also able to
decode mpeg audio back to aiff files to be burnt back to a cd.

 The program is already almost 100% to completed and is currently in
heavy betatesting stage in order to make it commercial quality. It's
really absolutely free and will always be so. The current release can
be downloaded at many unofficial places, like the one here plus the
docs are online here to give you some impression of what to come. I'v
decided to put online some kind of online forum to help us all to
discuss about SecondSpin. If you've got good ideas, what approach
should we use, please contact me

 o will easily convert audiocds (CDDA) to mpeg audio files or
additionally only leech the tracks as aiff files.

 o will also easily convert your existing AIFF or WAV files to mpeg
audio

 o also converts mpeg files back to AIFF for general use.

 o outputs mpeg audio layers 1, 2 (mono/stereo/j-stereo and 3
(mono/stereo/j-stereo) with bitrates of 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 112,
96, 64, 32, 24, 16, 8 kbps

 o a full fontsensitive and easy GUI

 o supports all amigas (with or without fpu) as well as amigas
equipped with a ppc.

 o supports www.cddb.com, so it's able to fetch track information from
the site.

 o fully localized

Contact:  second.spin@pp.inet.fi / lauri.ahonen@pp.inet.fi
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

               S I M O N   T H E   S O R C E R E R   2

20 Dec., '99

 Yeah!!! that`s right Simon the Sorcerer 2 is finally being released
on the Amiga, and about time too.

 Reserve your copy now. There will be a limited number manufactured -
So chances are if you don`t reserve your copy, you won`t get one.

 Simon the Sorcerer 2 - This isn't just any old 'Child in fantasyland'
story. For starters, no other kids have to put up with useless old
wizards, unattractive heroines, baddies that simply don't know when to
stay dead and being the last one in school to discover puberty.

 Armed with a pointy hat (stupid looking), a pony tail (even more
stupid looking) and a tendency to irritate people twice his size,
Simon returns in this action packed sequel which promises to be more
entertaining, amusing and fun than any other adventure of it's type
(allegedly). It's amazing the sort of rubbish you can read on these
sales leaflets. `s right Simon the Sorcerer 2 is finally being
released on the Amiga, and about time too.

 Reserve your copy now. There will be a limited number manufactured -
So chances are if you don`t reserve your copy, you won`t get one.

 Simon the Sorcerer 2 - This isn't just any old 'Child in fantasyland'
story. For starters, no other kids have to put up with useless old
wizards, unattractive heroines, baddies that simply don't know when to
stay dead and being the last one in school to discover puberty.

 Armed with a pointy hat (stupid looking), a pony tail (even more
stupid looking) and a tendency to irritate people twice his size,
Simon returns in this action packed sequel which promises to be more
entertaining, amusing and fun than any other adventure of it's type
(allegedly).


 So stop hanging around looking blankly at your monitor, like a total
anorak. Order the game! Who knows, you might even enjoy it.

 Technical Specs:

 * Fall a long way and go 'splat!

 * Meet pirates and take the mickey out of them!

 * Puke until your shoes are full!

 * Admire the pseudo-gothic architecture!



              Epic Club CARD Holders, Reserve your copy for £25

              Not a Club CARD Holder? Reserve your copy for £30

            Specs: 030 or better AGA or GFX Card  8 meg of memory

 Reserve your copy with Credit/Debit card - No money will be taken
until day of release.

                      Estimated release date: Feb 2000*

//www.epicmarketing.ltd.net/amiga/newpage/cd960.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            N E T I N F O   2 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

20 Dec., '99

From VaporWare

 NetInfo-II is a network information viewer utility. It integrates the
functionality of the well known standalone Traceroute, Ping, Whois and
Finger programs into one seamless GUI application.

 Instead of gathering the information about a host and the Internet
route to it manually, you just enter a hostname and click Start.
NetInfo-II does the rest for you!

Features

 o "quick traceroute": Sends a series of packet in quick succession to
get a route overview very fast, then does accurate timings for the
individual hops

 o graphical display of hop min/last/max timings

 o integrated smart WHOIS function: double-click on a IP, Host or
Network column to automatically receive WHOIS information for the
given object. NetInfo determines the WHOIS host to query.

 o automatically retrieves WHOIS network information for hosts

 o automatically scans destination host for Web (HTTP) and FTP server
versions

 o history for all queried hosts

 o integrated FINGER client

 o integrated "classical" WHOIS client with on-disk cache

http://www.vapor.com/products/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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   A M I G A    /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\      A M I G A
  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E
              /    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_
                    amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
======================================================================