====================================================================== ________ _________ ____ _|__ __ __|_______ _________ __\ _____ \\\\ \_ _/ //___// _____//______\ _____ \\ // \\\\ /. \\\\__ \/ __// \\ \\____. /// \\\\ /. \\ \\___\¯ /___///___\ /___\ \\_________//\\___\¯ /___// ¯ \/ ¯ ¯ \/. |¯ ¯|z!o ¯ ¯ \/ ¯ A M I G A | 030228 | U P D A T E |________| "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G E N E S I S A R L S U E S A M I G A H Y P E R I O N P A R T N E R S W I T H S C I T E C H A M I G B G 2 0 0 3 I N S W E D E N I N M A R C H S P O N T A N E O U S C O M B U S T I O N S A M P L E P A C K E L B O X S P I D E R U S B 2 . 0 H I - S P E E D F L A S H R O M F O R T H E H I G H W A Y U S B B O A R D B A R S N P I P E S U P D A T E A N N O U N C E D N E W P I X L O A D P R E V I E W V E R S I O N Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: February was another of those months we've had far too often recently where there was not a great deal of real news in the Amiga Community. Yet interest in the Amiga remains high - we had many new subscribers to "Amiga Update" for instance, and we saw quite a bit of traffic on the Internet. In addition, there was _some_ news to report and work seems to be continuing doggedly on OS4. By this time in March we hope OS4 will be available and the pace of life and news in the Amiga Community will be picking up. It certainly has to happen soon ... We ordinarily don't report on anything Beta or "preview" as there is so much that never gets completed in these categories. However, we included a couple of items this month which we might not have had there been more to report. We think the stories on the ROMulus and Pixload deal with products that you will really be able to obtain in finished form. We hope you enjoy this issue. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: 14 Feb 2003 I have just spent the last few days moving the 1200+ square feet (not 800 as previously thought) of Centsible's inventory to storage facilities here in Edwardsburg, MI. It will take some time to inventory and test the computers (and other items), but for anyone who wishes to place orders, the website has be changed over so I will receive the orders. I will get the computers checked out ASAP and get the list started for all those of you who wish to take me up on that part of the proposal. Temporarily, I need to ask that any orders be placed either by payment in advance (our new address is Centsible Software, PO Box 445, Edwardsburg, MI 49112-0445) or via PayPal.com (using wd8izh@beanstalk.net for the "Pay To:" section). This is due to the fact that my merchant account (that allows me to accept credit cards directly) is slow in being processed. I will send out notice when this situation has been resolved. Thank you all, once again, for your help. --- Bill Griffin The new owner of Centsible Software ~~~~~~ The note above from Bill Griffin was sent to several people and organizations in the Amiga Community, including "Amiga Update". We're pleased Centsible will be able to continue as a going Amiga concern and wish success to Bill - and to all the dedicated vendors who struggle to survive in a very difficult Amiga market. Brad =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- G E N E S I S A R L S U E S A M I G A 4 February, 2003 {The small item which follows was taken from the excellent "Czech Amiga News" site, with additional information pulled from the web site that lists some of the court case information. Genesi is the firm making the Pegasos "pseudo" Amiga and its operating system MorphOS. Thendic is an earlier name for part of the company. Brad} In a comment on ann.lu Bill Buck and Raquel Velasco confirmed that Genesi SARL has taken legal action against Amiga Inc. because of breech of contract: "MorphOS IP is 100% legal. Any concerns or questions can be emailed to us directly. All suggestions to the contrary are complete FUD. Neither, Amiga Inc. or any of the AmigaOS4 signatories have any legally supportable evidence to the contrary. Having said that, Genesi has taken legal action against Amiga Inc. in Federal Court (Washington State) for breech of contract (FACT). We are expecting a favorable result (OPINION)." Civil Cases Filed in the Western District of Washington http://amiga.czex.com/history/pree.html Case Number C03-0003 Short Case Title Thendic Electronics Components v. Amiga, Inc. Judge Assigned RSL Nature of Suit 190 - Other Contract Division Seattle Date Filed 01/02/2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H Y P E R I O N P A R T N E R S W I T H S C I T E C H Chico, California -- (February 18, 2003) -- SciTech Software Inc. and Hyperion Entertainment VOF are pleased to announce they have enterered into a strategic partnership which will see SciTech's SNAP(tm) technology integrated into AmigaOS 4.x which is currently under development by Hyperion for PPC based systems. SciTech SNAP, SciTech's leading edge graphics device support, allows for the rapid development and deployment of embedded solutions across multiple platforms and currently already supports well over 170 different graphics chipsets including all the latest offerings from industry leaders ATI, nVidia and Matrox. "We are very excited about SNAP as it offers us out of the box support for a huge and ever growing number of graphics cards and effectively allows us to redirect resources away from device driver development and cut down on time to market", said Ben Hermans, managing partner of Hyperion. "We are convinced that prospective customers of AmigaOS 4.x will appreciate the high-performance, low footprint graphics card technology that SciTech has developed over many years." "SciTech shares in the vision of the Amiga platform and is excited to play a key roll in the further development of the original multi-media OS." said, Andrew Bloo, Director of Marketing, SciTech Software Inc. "By adopting SciTech SNAP Graphics as the core graphics architecture for the Amiga OS, Amiga can now offer a level of performance and compatibility equal to that of any mainstream OS". SciTech and Hyperion are set to broaden their cooperation to encompass 3D graphics support and support for other PPC based operating systems. About SciTech SciTech Software, Inc. is a leading supplier of graphics utilities, drivers, and tools for the embedded, industrial and enterprise markets. SciTech's products include, SciTech SNAP Graphics, a fully accelerated binary compatible graphic device driver solution, SciTech GLDirect, an OpenGL to Direct3D driver and SciTech MGL, a professional graphics library used to develop some of today's most popular software programs. SciTech products support the Windows, Linux, OS/2, DOS, QNX, and SMX operating systems. SciTech is privately held and the company's web address is http://www.scitechsoft.com About Hyperion Entertainment VOF Hyperion Entertainment is a privately held Belgian-German company, founded in March of 1999. The company specialises in 3D graphics and the conversion of top-quality entertainment software from Windows to niche-platforms including Amiga, Linux (x86,PPC) and MacOS (OS 9/X). Hyperion Entertainment has undertaken contract-work in the field of 3D graphics for companies such as Monolith (www.lith.com) and has developed a mature, fast, small foot-print technology to bring 3D graphics to low power digital devices such as PDA's and STB's. Hyperion is currently working on AmigaOS 4.0, a vastly enhanced PPC native incarnation of the groundbreaking OS introduced by Commodore in 1985. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G B G 2 0 0 3 I N S W E D E N I N M A R C H 27 February, 2003 The Lindholmen area where AmiGBG 2003 will take place on the 29th of March between 12.00-17.00 is one of the most expansive areas in Gothenburg. News New exhibitor: Eyetech Group Ltd! 2003-02-27 It´s a big pleasure and a honour for the AmiGBG user group to welcome Alan Redhouse from Eyetech Group Ltd to the AmiGBG 2003 fair! New exhibitor: Amitopia! 2003-02-27 The norwegian amiga magazine Amitopia, an exhibitor at AmiGBG 2002, is now also taking part in AmiGBG 2003. The AmiGBG user group consists of a number of people living in Gothenburg, Sweden that have the amiga computer as a common interest. All of us have been using this wonderful computer for many years. After many years where the Amiga had lead a languishing life in Sweden we decided to form the user group in November 2001. The overall purpose with this user group is to organize fairs and gatherings to promote the interest around the Amiga in Sweden. Since AmiGBG was founded in 2001 we have had time to organize two arrangements, the AmiGBG 2002 and Aone 2002 Gothenburg Fall Event. AmiGBG 2002 was attended by approx. 450 visitors, which was a lot more than we had hoped for. We were all pleasantly surprised considering this was the first Swedish amiga fair since 1998. We met visitors from all parts of Sweden, along with guests from a long way away such as Denmark and Norway. The fair proved what we were hoping for - that a great interest for the Amiga and alternative operating systems still exists! The positive feedback that we received after AmiGBG 2002 was very encouraging indeed, it almost seemed that some of the visitors barely couldn´t wait for the next swedish Amiga fair to take place! On the autumn the same year we organized the Aone Gothenburg 2002 Fall Event together with the Swedish amiga retailer GGS-Data, in cooperation with Eyetech Ltd and two AmigaOne betatesters. Over two hundred persons attended this event which was free of charge. AmiGBG is a non-profit organization and we organize the AmiGBG 2003 fair aided by non-profit working functionaries that assist us in the work around the arrangement. Contact Email kjell@amigbg.com mattias@amigbg.com http://www.amigbg.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S P O N T A N E O U S C O M B U S T I O N S A M P L E P A C K DiscreetFX Releases Spontaneous Combustion Sample Pack® A Low Cost Version of a New Real-Time Fire, Smoke & Explosion Effects Library. Chicago, Illinois -- February 22, 2003 -- DiscreetFX LLC Inc., Real-time Broadcast Quality Visual Effects developer for the Amiga Video Toaster Flyer and Video Toaster [2] releases a low cost version of Spontaneous Combustion to give customers a chance to try this all new Fire, Smoke and Explosion add-on for the Amiga Video Toaster Flyer and Video Toaster [2]. Here at DiscreetFX we realize that in these tough economic times every dollar of our clients money is valuable and they want to spend it wisely only on software products they absolutely need to enhance their video and production business. We feel strongly that Spontaneous Combustion will make your productions more explosive and make them sizzle so we are offering a sample pack to allow clients to see if this new product is right for their business. At a cost of only $9.95 including shipping and handling this is a tremendous value and allows everyone to get a taste of what Spontaneous Combustion can offer. For your money you get the following features. Amiga/Video Toaster Flyer version: Four Real-time Broadcast Quality Fire Effects from Spontaneous Combustion. Four animated Video Toaster Flyer clip files that can be used for advanced Compositing. Complete 24 bit IFF image sequences of Real-time effects included in the sample pack. Four Audio sequences in Flyer Audio & Amiga Audio that correspond to the included effects. $10 off the price of the full release version of Spontaneous Combustion. Even if you don't have a Video Toaster you can still use this version with an AGA or Graphics card based Amiga. Video Toaster [2] version Four Video Toaster [2] Real-time Broadcast Quality Fire Effects from Spontaneous Combustion. Four Uncompressed Video Toaster [2] RTV files that can be used for advanced Compositing. Complete still image sequences of the four Real-time effects included in the sample pack. Four Audio sequences that correspond to the included effects. $10 off the price of the full release version of Spontaneous Combustion. Please note that any customers that pre-ordered Spontaneous Combustion at the special price of $49.95 will receive the Sample Pack automatically in the mail. Once completed Spontaneous Combustion will cost $129.95 so the pre-order price is only available for a limited time. For more information please call toll-free @ 1 (800) 852-0930 or send an e-mail to sales@discreetfx.com. Spontaneous Combustion Sample Pack includes a 100% Money Back Guarantee. To order via Paypal simply send a payment for $9.95 to sales@discreetfx.com. If you want to pay by check our snail mail address is http://www.discreetfx.com/Contactinfo.htm. Don't forget Shipping is FREE! About DiscreetFX DiscreetFX creates Real-time transitions and effects seen on over 100 television programs including Blind Date, 5th Wheel, Shipmates and more! You can also see DiscreetFX software used on the following networks HBO, Showtime, Discovery Channel, PBS, Fox and more! www.discreetfx.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E L B O X S P I D E R U S B 2 . 0 H I - S P E E D 11 February 2000 ELBOX COMPUTER is pleased to announce that from now on, Amiga has the possibility of using new generation USB 2.0 devices in the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed mode. This has become possible with the Spider EHCI USB driver developed by Elbox for the MEDIATOR PCI busboard series. When Spider USB 2.0 controller was released in September 2002, it was supplied with the OHCI USB 1.1 driver. EHCI USB 2.0 support was lacking but promised as soon as possible. Today Elbox made good on that promise. The Spider EHCI USB Hi-Speed driver is now included in the Spider CD. All registered Spider users are now receiving this new driver as a free update. USB 2.0 is the fastest USB standard released so far, supporting data speeds up to 480Mbps, that is 40 times faster than USB 1.1. This makes USB 2.0 an ideal technology for external storage devices, digital cameras, webcams and much more. Spider USB 2.0 card features: · Five USB 2.0 Hi-Speed ports: four external ports and one internal port · Compatible with both USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and USB 1.1 (12Mbps) devices · Compliant with EHCI, OHCI and PCI 2.2 standards · All ports can handle Hi-Speed, Full-Speed and Low-Speed transaction · 5-port EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) USB 2.0 controller · Two independent OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) USB 1.1 controllers · Supports up to 127 downstream USB devices · Supplies 500 mA power to each USB port · Supports PCI-Bus Power Management Interface · Hot Plug Capability Don't limit yourself with a USB controller that supports only USB 1.1. Future-proof your computer with Spider USB 2.0 card--Shop Now! http://www.elbox.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F L A S H R O M F O R T H E H I G H W A Y U S B B O A R D 20 February, 2003 Michael 'E3B' Böhmer and Chris 'Platon42' Hodges are proud to announce that the prototype of the ROMulus FlashRom extension developed by E3B a few months ago for the HIGHWAY Zorro USB board is properly working. ROMulus adds a FlashROM expansion to the HIGHWAY board which can be used to add system software even before the first boot. We wanted to verify the operation of this addon module before announcing any details on this board. ROMulus contains 512KB flash memory that allows the user to install all kinds of rom modules onto the board to be available at the very first boot. This, of course, includes the popular Poseidon stack, making it possible to boot directly from USB media right after the machine has been turned on. No need to mention that other USB devices like mice and keyboards will be available in an instant, too. These advantages are actually not available with PCI solutions, unfortunately. But this is not the only advantage: System upgrades available from OS3.5/3.9, that are normally installed by SetPatch can be also stored in the FlashRom, making an initial reboot of the machine unneccessary. Moreover, also BlizKick modules (non-patching ones) can be used aswell. Whole Kickstart replacements are not supported, though (technical reasons). More possible applications for the flash rom: password protection modules, custom boot intros to impress your friends, XSurfIDE (to boot from the IDE connectors of the XSurf), etc. Of special interest is the possibility to add the new FastFileSystem as well as SCSI / IDE drivers. By this ROMulus breaks through the actual barrier of 4 GB for partitions which can be used directly for booting. The BootLoader software supports crunched data, so the effective space for modules is about 700-900KB. The decrunching process is very fast, so you will not notice it. Software support currently consists of a shell tool for the user to change the flash rom contents. A GUI to easily manage the features will be available at release time. The ROMulus can be used in addition to the NORWAY ethernet module or stand-alone on a HIGHWAY. The flash rom feature is also part of the Highway II, which is in testing phase now and will go into production, if there is enough demand. The addon module will be priced at approx. 35 EUR, including the necessary bus interface upgrade of the HIGHWAY USB board (excluding shipment). Your HIGHWAY needs to be shipped in to E3B for this upgrade. Production will start as soon as possible. E3B will announce the availability right after the production run. Please note that upgraded HIGHWAYs will no longer work without the ROMulus module attached to it. However it is possible to switch off the ROM feature at boot time without the need of opening the computer case. Technical data addon module for HIGHWAY Zorro II USB controller FlashROM size 256kB x 16 (512kB x 8) original expansion port of HIGHWAY still available can be operated together with NORWAY ethernet module reprogrammable up to 10.000 times (no recycled flash chips) Software support compatible with AmigaOS 3.1, 3.5 und 3.9 software modules are automatically inserted by bootloader easy reprogramming by included software FlashROM can easily be deactivated at boot time Included in delivery 1 * ROMulus addon module 1 * detailed English installation manual 1 * disk with driver software Requirements Amiga OS 3.1 or higher Processor 68030 (25MHz) or higher HIGHWAY with firmware upgrade (included in pricing) Support two years warranty on parts and work excellent technical support team worldwide reputation for quality and durability online documentation and support messages Changes can be made without further notification. All trademarks are property of the corresponding firms. http://www.e3b.de/usb/romulus_e.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B A R S N P I P E S U P D A T E A N N O U N C E D 10 February, 2003 Ver. 1.19 (10.02.2003) bugs removed: switching between "normal" and "list" editor. Now the top of the event-list is real the next possible displayable event. (Bigger free ranges in the List-Editor are only to recognize by the values, they are NOT shown by the List-Editor.) horizontal-scrollers now are working right in: - Timeline - window - TempoMap - window - MediaMadness - window - SongConstruction - window Stepentry works now better external synchronization with MIDI-clocks now works better PopUp-Menu in the editors for the mostly used edit-functions added checkmark gadgets have a new knob (not in the "classic"-version) "Selective Toolize" window somewhat altered in the "classic"-version previous requester reinserted LeadIn in Loop-Record-Mode is now working name of the locale-file of the "classic"-version changed to: "BarsnPipesC.catalog", because they now different. So you may use both version, without problems with the locale. The version number of the classic version is jumped to 1.19 to have the same number in both versions. http://www.alfred-j-faust.de/historyeng.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W P I X L O A D P R E V I E W V E R S I O N 20 February, 2003  DESCRIPTION : This little "bar" allows to you load any program or script by one click on icon NEWS : - All icons can be replaced by a drag and drop from Pixload-Prefs - Drop Event icon settings : loading of program and file dropped on icon - Drop Event icon identification by a white triangular - Bugs corrected WHAT'S UP : It is a borderless window with buttons including small IFF pictures. Each click on button, loads a command line which loads a program. Drag and drop is also possible anywhere on Pixload. It was made in AREXX, RXMUI and MUI for graphic part. You can modify everything (colors, aspect, etc...) from the Pixload contextual menu. CONFIGURATION : There are two parameters to configure : - MUI (look at documentation). You can modify graphical Pixload's part from contextual menu -> MUI settings. Prefs files (Pixload.1.prefs and Pixload-prefs.1.prefs) are located at SYS:prefs/env-archive/mui and RAM:Env/mui - Pixload-Prefs (look at help bubble) . Click on Pixload.prefs in the Prefs folder and choose : . Pixload's displaying : horizontally by default . Sound on/off . Sound level (%) . Numbers of enabled/showed icons N.B : (all icons will be showed from Pixload-Prefs, if you choose some icons, others will be "showed" but disabled). - Size of icons (%) - Name and path for each program used to read text, picture and music module via drag and drop - for each line : - Icon (small IFF pictures) located in Pixload/icones folder. You can replace them by drag & drop from pictures located in Pixload/icones folder to Pixload-Prefs window. Attention : This is not really icon (newicon) in Pixload/icones folder but a real IFF pictures with their newicon. You change create own icons with Personal Paint. Load a newicon and save it in IFF ILBM format. This method allows you keep all colors of you icon rather than newicon "lose" many colors. - A Drop Event icon button which is marked by a white triangular under icon sur l'icône. Dans ce cas, un petit triangle blanc apparaitra en dessous de cette icône dans la barre - Path and name of program - Bubble help content showed if mouse pointer is over icon - Sounds for each programs launched - A sound test button Graphic interface from MUI, is available from the Pixload contextual menu. DRAG & DROP : Pixload reacts to icons dropped for several ways : Drop event icon : (with a white triangular located under) If you drop a "newicon" into a drop event icon, program linked to this "drop event" icon will be loaded and your file A popup window with the linked program bold name will be displayed. By example : By example : Drag and drop a text file on Editpad icon will load EDITPAD and your file. This "reaction" is only available if you can type : program + arguments : By example : under CLI, sys:tools/editpad ram:texte will work under CLI, sys:tvpaint ram:picture will not work because TVPAINT refuses arguments. A non Drop event icon : (without a white triangular located under) - If you drop a newicon into a non drop event icon,, there will be a file type auto detection and, from your Pixload-Prefs settings, Multiview will be loaded excepted for MP3 and 8SVX formats. A popup window with a file type detected will be displayed in bold font. By default, Pixload analyses some file types (thanks to Filetypes file in S folder) but it only reacts for : GIF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, 8SVX, IFF, ILBM, ILBM24, Rexx, Text, Mod, Mods, Modules, MP3 Attention :You must have all datatypes for each file types listed above in Devs/datatypes and Classes. OS 3.9 is required because Amplifier is used to read MP3 files, For very long 8SVX sound, Dsound command is used (few CPU time). Drag a volume icon (except floppy !) If you drag and drop a volume anywhere on Pixload, (CD Rom, Zip, etc), it will be ejected http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pixel-art/pixload-3-anglais.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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 2003 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================