====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" || News Source) ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 000409 A M I G A 2 K S H O W - M I X O F O L D A N D N E W B O X E R , A N T I - G R A V I T Y , A M I G A P R O B L E M S W I T H A M I G A W E B S I T E A M I G A A N D P H O E N I X P O S S I B L E N E W G E R M A N M A G A Z I N E A F D - C O P Y R I G H T U P D A T E V O Y A G E R 3 . 1 R E L E A S E D I B R O W S E 2 . 2 U P G R A D E A V A I L A B L E F U S I O N V 3 . 2 F O R 6 8 K R E L E A S E D Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: We're back from the Amiga 2K show in Saint Louis, and very pleased we went. This was the first major show for Amiga under the new regime, and we feel they did very well. It's a different Amiga world now, and some are going to be unhappy about that fact. We've already seen many postings both from those upset and with and those accepting of the new Amiga directions. We'd hoped to have more information for you about those plans than we do, but there has been little put out by Amiga since the show. In part, that's due to problems with their web site (see below). We expect more details to be released to the public as soon as things settle down for Amiga, and we'll bring them to you. The overall direction is clear, and we discuss it some in our show report, below. Other than the show, there's not a great deal of news at the moment. We do have some items we think you'll find interesting, so wish you happy reading. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: 27 Mar 2000 {The following was received in a note responding to last issue's request for information about otbaining BVision cards. Thanks Tony for esnding the URL along. Brad} http://www.softhut.com/bvision.html ====== 23 Mar 2000 I'm not sure whether I'd read the updates at all if you didn't bring them to me. OTOH, if they're taking space that could go to other useful information, then they're getting in the way, and I could find them online. I read them so I obviously care. Instead of reprinting the whole, long thing, could you give us a precis of each update and remind us where on the web it is? 'Til next time, Allan ~~~~~~ There were too many responses to my request for reader thoughts on how we should handle Executive Updates for me to include them all, so I selected one at random and it was Allans. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write! Allan's comments are pretty much indicitive of the concensus. What we'll probably do in the future is make a judgement based on the size of the Executive Update. Smaller ones we'll most likely include in AU, larger ones we'll probably summarize, then include the URL to the full text. If we find this doesn't work out well for our readers, we'll take another look at the issue. Brad ====== 9 April, 2000 I'm looking for software for a Tiny Tiger II hard drive connected to the parallel port of the A1000. Do you have or do you know where I can get such. It was made by M.A.S.T. Memory and Storage Technology. Wendell ~~~~~~ Wendell, Hoo Boy, does this question take me back! We remember M.A.S.T. from the very early days, but we're not familiar with the Tiny Tiger II. Another one I have to toss to the readers for help, and this one is a bit of a challenge. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A 2 K S H O W - M I X O F O L D A N D N E W By Brad Webb The Amiga 2K show in Saint Louis, March 31 through April 2, was a "must attend". This was the first major show to be presented since the newest Amiga Inc. was formed, and took over the management of the Amiga computer. The real interest was in what Amiga Inc. would be announcing, both to the developer community in private and the world at large. The show itself was what most Amiga computer shows have been in recent years - a sort of a combination family reunion and rummage sale, with a bit of an amature feel in its organization. That doesn't mean it's not fun, well done or worthwhile - only that there's a certain "Amiga" quality that is hard to describe. There were new products available. To our mind, the most significant was from Best Power, a well-known maker of uninteruptible power supplies for the mainstream computer industry. Best Power now has software to link Amigas to their products, thanks to the dedication of their employee Jamie Krueger. Jamie is responsible for maintaining the software on 14 different UNIX varieties for Best Power. He does this on an Amiga 4000 tower, using AREXX to update the various UNIX machines as he goes. This has to be one of the best stories to come out of this show. We counted about 40 booths on a good-sized exhibition floor. We don't have actual attendance numbers, but while there were many people there, we didn't feel the crowds were actually large. Friday was reserved for the Amiga Developers' Association meeting, and the Developer Conference. There had been an Exhibitor meeting scheduled, but it was cancelled. The Developer's Association is an informal grouping of Developers, with Kermit Woodall of Nova Design leading the way. The Developer Conference, which was well attended, was a closed forum for Amiga Incorporated to present their plans for the future. The forum was only available to those who signed Non-Disclosure Agreements. What can be said about the new Amigas is that while Amiga will produce hardware references, they will not be a hardware company. Others will build the boxes. The new Amiga software environment will be hardware independent, and will feature several products from Amiga's partner TAO. This will include both the Elate RTOS and TAO's superb Java Engine. The TAO products will be wrapped in an Amiga environment which will lie between them and the user. All this will sit on top of Linux, though TAO products can operate with any underlying OS, or even none at all - who knows what the future may bring in this area? The hardware independence is a function of TAO's use of a Virtual Processor in it's software. Here are some of our observations from the show, in the form of "word pictures": More Amiga t-shirt designs than I've seen in a long time wandering about the Henry VIII motel. We had our own to show off, of course. The Henry VIII itself - a rambling, doomed, interconnected set of buildings displaying faded elegance, wonderful woodwork, a ridiculous idea of what architecture was like in the time of Henry VIII, the most confusing room numbering system I've ever seen, and a staff whose Southern approach to life seemed a bit out of place in such a place, but delightful nontheless. The hotel will soon be destroyed to make way for airport expansion. We understand the home of show organizer Bob Scharp may suffer the same fate. The staff provided good service and showed surprisingly high morale during the show despite knowing the fate of the work-place. Some call this progress. Crowds of Amigans filling the aisles in search of goodies and finding many, though few new products. Gil and his 500 (!!) raffle tickets. He did not win the Developer System despite purchasing what must be a record number. He won a lot of other items, though. The developer system itself. At this stage just a plain, beige, small tower PC with a paper Amiga logo pasted to the front. But oh, what it promises. Current minimum specs: AMD K6-II 500 Mhz, GeForce Prophet 3D video card, SoundBlaster PCI card, 64 megs of ram. Bill McEwen's marvelous and genuinely inspirational speech at the Saturday night banquet. Most want to believe, but most are too many times stung by false promises in the past to be entirely comfortable yet. Still, there's something very different and reassuring about the new Amiga crew. During his talk, McEwen showed some almost wildly modernistic concept models for both desktop machines and games consoles. These models were the work of Disney employees, provided free of charge to Amiga. There has been mis-information about the models and their use by Amiga. First, the Disney employees created the models on their own and NOT as a Disney product. Second, the concepts were clearly presented by McEwen as possibilities for hardware reference standards, not as something Amiga was going to make itself. Too bad the misunderstandings have arisen, as the concept models and the way they were given to Amiga is the real story here. Scala used for Bill's presentation rather than Powerpoint! So much better. So sad it was running on a PC laptop. Positive reaction from the banquet crowd to Amiga's list of partners, including TAO of course, Sun, Motorola, ESI, Corel, JVC, ARM and Red Hat. It should be noted the extent of the partnerships was not revealed. Positive reaction also to the list of companies pledging software, which included ACT, Epic, DCE, Met@Box, Scala, something called Amiga Development, Haage & Partner, Digital Images, Hyperion, Crystal Software, others. The official number of current Amiga packages scheduled for porting is 117. The demonstration of what TAO by itself can do, after the banquet. Running several copies of Quake at once, and Doom, and utilities - with no slowdown. Combined with the plans announced, there's much to look forward to. The t-shirt rush at the banquet. A unique item only for attendees - or their spouses. Then there were the leather Amiga bomber jackets for the Amiga Inc. crew. As Bill McEwen pointed out, "remember what these were". Breakfast with Amigans I hadn't met before. Many marvelous conversations with readers and old acquaintences. Did Joe Torre really sleep in the lobby Saturday night? Boing shoes and all? A late Saturday night's visit to Robert Hamilton's room to see his "Amiga Altar". A wonderful work of art by a first rate Amiga artist. Illuminated manuscripts made of computer paper? Stained glass windows of Jay Minor and Mitchie? Of course! Overheard quotes - "the difference between this show and a Microsoft one is there are no hookers here." The announcement by G & G enterprises that their nascent US Amiga Magazine would be called "The New Amigans", by vote of the first subscribers. Well attended classes and demonstrations. Despite a very rough start Saturday morning with equipment problems, these contributed much to the show. The problems were worked out, and things went forward well. The new t-shirt design which showed a boing ball breaking out of a box with black and white cow spots on it. Slogan: "Get out of the box. You'll have a ball!". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B O X E R , A N T I - G R A V I T Y , A M I G A 2 April, 2000 Not only has Anti-Gravity purchased the BoXeR from Blittersoft, but it was announced at Amiga 2K that Amiga has established a strategic relationship with them, backing the BoXeR as a platform for the classic Amiga operating system. It will be a platform for both new and transitional products. The sale of BoXeR was completed on March 31, just in time for the show. Mick Tinker will remain with BoXeR as Director of BoXeR Development. Representatives of Anit-Gravity were present in Saint Louis for the announcement, which was made during the presentation by Amiga CEO Bill McEwen after the show's banquet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P R O B L E M S W I T H A M I G A W E B S I T E 7th April 2000 As many people are aware we are having problems with the web site. This is in no way a reflection of how we do business. This is a reflection of the inherent problems of business relationships. When Amino purchased all of the domains from Gateway for Amiga there was more than one party involved in hosting Amiga web sites. We have been working for months in getting everything transferred to our servers and our ownership. Now many of the people who were at Gateway/Amiga are no longer there, and we still are having problems with their releasing the domains to us. This has become very clear with our new web site, and the fact that thousands of mail messages are not arriving. We are working as quickly as possible on these issues, and hope to have all of this resolved today. However there are some people (companies) who are making this very difficult as they do not want to let go of our accounts. I am purposely not mentioning their companies here in this message, but will make it known if it becomes necessary. I thank everyone for their patience as we are more than frustrated at the lack of professionalism in working with these companies, as we take control of our web sites, and mail. Best regards, Bill McEwen President/CEO Amiga, Inc. {Note: as this issues goes out, the problems of accessing the new site - which is really the old, early Gateway/Amiga site - seem to be coming to an end. Brad} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A A N D P H O E N I X 2 Apr 2000 Amiga Inc is pleased to announce its membership in the Phoenix Developer Consortium. Amiga Inc president and CEO Bill McEwen formalized the partnership at the St Louis Amiga 2K Computer Show in conjunction with Phoenix chairman-facilitator greenboy. greenboy and Phoenix core members Mario Saitti, Clash Bowley and Arto Malian will be working directly with Amiga's recently-appointed director of developer support Gary Peake to make participation in Phoenix an integral part of the Amiga Developer Support Network. Details of the developer support structure will be forthcoming through official Phoenix channels and were shared at Amiga 2K. Amiga Inc (http://www.amiga.com) is a Washington corporation founded in 1999 with plans to produce a modern Amiga OS as well as a hardware reference platform which will take the Amiga into the modern age of computing. Amiga Inc is presenting for the first time in almost ten years an Amiga developer reference platform as well as holding the first official developer conference in almost the same time span. The Phoenix Consortium (http://owlnet.net/phoenix/) was formed in 1999. Phoenix is an international Amiga-inspired organization comprised of OS and software developers, hardware engineers, dealers, marketing specialists, financiers, and media publishers for the specific purpose of designing, implementing and fostering modern solutions for digital desktop and convergence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P O S S I B L E N E W G E R M A N M A G A Z I N E The german Internet news website amiga.topcool.de has announced plans to publish a new German paper Amiga magazine. If amiga.topcool.de can obtain 200 preorders for the first issue, the magazine will be available this coming summer. The URL is http://homepages.go.com/~amigaistcool/ausgabe.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A F D - C O P Y R I G H T U P D A T E 28 March, 2000 By Dietmar Knoll Hello Amigans! Here are some news about the project "AFD-COPYRIGHT"(TM) or "Standard Amiga FD-Software Copyright Note"(TM). This Copyright Note is an offer for all Amiga developers who want to release FD-Software, be it as Freeware, Giftware, Shareware or whatever. AFD-COPYRIGHT is now available in fifteen (15!!!) languages - all in two formats, as plain text and as HTML-file. *The latest addition is the Russian translation by Andrew Boyarintsev (translator) and Oleg Sergeev (proof-reader).* The files can now be downloaded from the Official Support Site for AFD-COPYRIGHT - as single files or full archive. The Address is: http://AFD.home.pages.de/ The webmasters of you are kindly requested to add it to your hotlist. In case home.pages.de should go offline again, you can also reach the page directly at: http://www.dknoll.myokay.net/AFD/ And of course, news sites are allowed to spread this message. Thanks for your attention, interest and support! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V O Y A G E R 3 . 1 R E L E A S E D 8 April, 2000 Welcome to the latest incarnation of the V3 Portal for all users of Voyager. Today, we bring you not just one update, but three - and then some! Voyager 3.1 Browser is out, with a zillion more bugs fixed and suggestions implemented. Read a full list of changes here and download the archive from Vapor UK FTP or from the list of mirrors on the left. VFlash 1.2 available, for all your Flash needs! The PPC module is complete, but please install ppc.library 46.31 first Vpdf plugin released - view Adobe Acrobat (pdf) files as embedded objects! http://www.vapor.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I B R O W S E 2 . 2 U P G R A D E A V A I L A B L E With virtually no fanfare and no press releases we know about, version 2.2 of the IBrowse web browser for Amiga has been released. Since we don't have a press release, and there's little information about the upgrade on the hisoft website, we can't tell you much about it. However, we don know that lots of Amigans use IBrowse, so for those of you interested, head over to http://www.hisoft.co.uk/ for what details there are and a downloadable upgrade. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F U S I O N V 3 . 2 F O R 6 8 K R E L E A S E D March, 23rd 2000 Fusion V3.2 is released. All Fusion users (and those anxiously awaiting the pending PPC release) will be pleased to here that there is a new upgrade to the 68K version. This release confirms the continued commitment to the 68K Macintosh emulation, but also provides a number of improvements and enhancements. Fusion 68K V3.2 is the final upgrade before the release of the PowerPC upgrade, which is nearing completion. Changes to V3.2 * Added ICP Transfer Priority. You can now specify the priority the Mac runs at while the drives are accessed from the Amiga side though ICP. * Fixed OpenDevice problem with ethernet. * Fixed ethernet query bug. * Added TD64 support. A partition that is partially or completely above the 4G point will cause FUSION to fail to start if TD64 support is not available. Partitions are still limited to 4G in size. * Added support for block sizes other than 512. Up to 64K valid. * Fixed ICP MacBinary file copy hang. * Auto-start doesn't auto-quit if you change the ICP or cpu settings. * Added tooltype and cli switch for specifying parameter ram file. * Changed ethernet from software loaded to a hardware card for Open Transport support. Cleaned up ethernet for better Amiga ethenet card support; Ariadne card now works. * Fixed cursor problem with old Lucas Arts games. * Fixed problem with QD based video drivers. * Fixed slight problem with autosense SCSI data. * New ADB drivers with (nearly) all Mac keys mapped. * Added tooltype support; switches from cli now have Workbench tooltype equivalents. * Auto-start now also implies auto-quit * Changed 060 initial settings; now starts with only SuperScalar off. * Fixed miscellaneous problems with the interface related to the auto-iconify feature (Tall thin windows on WB fixed). * Fixed Timer interrupt bug that prevented QueBase from playing. * Added support for a couple more ROMs. * Updates to video drivers. * Updates to RsrvCold, and RsrvWarm which is now called RsrvKick. To obtain your copy, head for: http://www.blittersoft.com/cgi-bin/2/webc.cgi/~bsoft/Fusion32.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 2000 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 ======================================================================