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Amiga Update (1996-06-25)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH
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960625
I T ' S A D E A L ! ( E X C E P T F O R P A P E R W O R K )
V I S C O R P P L A N S D E S C R I B E D
G U I B A S E D P P P A V A I L A B L E
N E W C H O I C E F O R P R O G R A M M E R S
B R O W S E R S T A T S N O T E D
About this issue:
We begin with a story we've been waiting to run for some time. Escom and
VIScorp have at last announced the official signing of the deal for Amiga
Technolgies. Reports we've read indicate the paperwork and legal matters
may drag on until the end of July, but the essential matters are now
resolved.
As if to underscore the transfer, VIScorp issued a public memo providing
some information on its future plans and discussing some copyright
concerns. A very interesting bit of news revealed in the memo is the
creation of an Architectural Design Group.
We noticed recently that a new name and position have been added to the
VIScorp staff. Jason Compton, familiar to may Amiga users as the Editor of
"Amiga Report", an electronic Amiga magazine in AmigaGuide format, is now
listed as "Communications Manager - Amiga Inquiries". We wish Jason the
best of luck in his new position and trust this will provide a valuable
service to the Amiga community.
We have some new shareware announcements we think will be of interest. If
you've been struggling to get your Amiga "on the net", you may wish to
examine an Austrian product called AmiPPP. Completely mouse driven setup
is promissed for what has otherwise been a baffling type of software for
many to install.
If you're interested in writing the next blockbuster Amiga game program,
to win yourself fame and fortune in the reviving Amiga market ... well,
maybe it could make some extra beer money, if you drink beer ... consider
DOOPSIE, a new Object Oriented Programming language, described below.
We suggest you try AmiNet for copies of the shareware, or use the WWW
addresses listed in the articles.
Finally, an item that may be pure silliness but we found it interesting.
(Wonder what that says about us?) There's a site on the WWW that exists for
the purpose of tracking what various Amigans are using to do their web
browsing. We've included the statistics this site showed at the time we
logged in, about a week before this issue.
We hope you enjoy this issue - and have a happy and safe Fourth of July.
Brad
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D E A L I N K E D B E T W E E N E S C O M A N D V I S C O R P
ESCOM AG sells Amiga Technologies GmbH to Viscorp
Bochum/Heppenheim/Chicago, June 21, 1996.
ESCOM AG and Visual Information Service Corp. (VIScorp), have now signed
the final agreement about the acquisition of Amiga Technologies GmbH by
VIScorp, subject to approval by their boards. According to the agreement,
the entire staff and property of ESCOM subsidiary Amiga Technologies GmbH
will pass into the possession of VIScorp. This includes all existing
components and finished goods in inventory of Amiga and the intellectual
properties of the former Commodore group, except Commodore trademarks. The
purchase price is approximately US $40 million in stock and cash.
VIScorp's products, the Universal Internet Television Interface (UITI),
the Electronic Device (ED), the UITI-TV and the ED-TV (smart television
systems), are powered by Amiga custom chip-sets and the Amiga operating
system and offer a means by which TV viewers can bridge the separate worlds
of the television, computing and tele- communications.
Amiga Technologies GmbH will continue to coordinate the production and
distribution of Amiga computers at its headquaters in Bensheim, Germany.
Additional information on VIScorp and its technologies are available
through its Web site at http://www.vistv.com.
For further information:
ESCOM AG, Dr. Bernd Wirsing, Tel.: +49-6252-709-193
Amiga Technologies GmbH, Petro Tyschtschenko, Tel.: +49-6251-802-110
VIScorp, Florine Radulovic, Tel.: +1-312655-0903
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V I S C O R P M E M O O U T L I N E S P L A N S
VIScorp - Memo 29-June-96
June 19, 1996 - Chicago, IL USA
VISCORP VALUES THE AMIGA
System Improvements
In the months ahead, VIScorp will be making substantial improvements to
the Amiga system architecture, including both the hardware design and the
operating system software. These advanced new systems will be developed
not only for our upcoming Set Top Boxes, but also for future Amiga Desk Top
Computers. VIScorp is investing considerable resources into engineering
these improvements.
One of the primary objectives of VIScorp's business plan is to develop,
manufacture, market, and sell Amiga Desk Top Computer Systems.
Architecture Group
Many of the above improvements require an in-depth knowledge of specialty
markets and technologies. Because of this, VIScorp made the decision in
May 1996 to form an Architectural Design Group consisting of a small number
of highly qualified Amiga experts. While this group is still in its early
formation stage, we intend it to oversee and resolve the numerous
suggestions and enhancements that must be addressed for the long term
success of the Amiga.
Technology Licenses
As stated above, VIScorp will research and develop valuable enhancements
to the architecture and technology of the Amiga, resulting in a wide range
of next generation, price competitive computer products.
There are, however, situations in which it makes sense for VIScorp to
license Amiga related technology to qualified companies whose business
objectives are consistent with VIScorp's long range plan. Such agreements
may include binary, ROM, and documentation licenses for the distribution of
Amiga OS upgrades, hardware and software system licenses for specialty
markets, and possibly source code co-development licenses to help expand
the Amiga and its feature set into the next decade.
Property Rights Infringement
It has come to our attention that several companies plan to build their
own "compatible" or "extended" versions of the Amiga without obtaining the
proper licensing from VIScorp. These companies will be placing themselves
at legal risk, because their systems will undoubtedly infringe on Amiga
intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, and trade
secrets.
In addition, we have recently become aware that versions of the Amiga
System ROMs are being reproduced and distributed without proper licensing.
This is a violation of international copyright law, and VIScorp will
prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law.
Realize that VIScorp is purchasing Amiga Technologies at great expense for
ownership of precisely the above property rights and considers them a
fundamental asset of the company. As such, VIScorp intends to aggressively
defend its position as the owner of the Amiga and its related technologies.
Companies that choose to violate the law are well advised to consider the
easier and less costly path of obtaining a license.
If you have important comments regarding the above statement, please send
us email, using a subject line of "We Value Amiga", to carl@vistv.com
Your mail will be read carefully, but please realize that we cannot
directly respond to all mail.
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S H A R E W A R E E A S Y P P P A N N O U N C E D
AmiPPP - Internet Made Easy!
AmiPPP Internet Dial-Up in 10 secs! Not only is the GUI nice - it`s EASY!
Click & Surf! When I first tried to set up AmiTCP and ppp.device I noticed
that it is a real pain. I was used to MacTCP and MacPPP, which is really
easy to use; I simply entered my provider`s phonenumber and my ID &
password, clicked on "Open" and the connection was established.But on the
Amiga I had to edit some config files, set up a dialer, perform some magic
and after all that it was still a pain to use.I decided to write an own
device that should be as easy to use as MacPPP - a click-and-go
solution.AmiPPP is the result. It is very easy to configure (completly GUI
driven, no "external" text files) and once set up it will call your
provider, log in, establish the PPP connection and, if you wish, start
AmiTCP. Just click a button!!!!
It consists of the device (amippp.device) the control and configuration
tool (AmiPPP) and the guide you are reading right now. It has a built in
dialer, features PAP, CHAP (MD5 and MS), supports AmiTCP 4.3, uses
OwnDevUnit.library if present and allows of course ISDN dialing. It`s
*very easy* to use due to the fact that it is completly GUI driven. If you
know MacPPP and like it you will also like this one! It requires at least
OS 2.04.
A 68020 processor or better is recomended but not required.
If you want to get in touch with the author of this software... My
address: Thomas Bickel Effingergasse 10/12 A-1160 Wien Austria EMail:
tbickel@xpoint.at Fido: 2:310/72.34 AmiPPP - Internet Made Easy - © 1996
by Thomas Bickel
http://pcwww.uibk.ac.at/s06user/csaa1298/amippp/amippp.htm
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P R O G R A M M E R S , P L E A S E N O T E
DOOPSI is an Authoring System for the Amiga computers which allows the
creation of adventures such as Day Of The Tentacle or Indiana Jones And The
Last Crusade in an easy and fast way. DOOPSI Game System is more than just
a simply program to help adventure development: it is a real suite of
editors completely mouse driven, which allow creation of a very complex
adventure with small creator's efforts.DOOPSI means: Dynamic Object
Oriented Programming System Interface: a System Interface to simplify OOP,
the Object Oriented Programming.
editor: DOOPSI Coder To code every object in the adventure with DOOPSI
Language. A simply and powerful language.
Anim Workshop A completely integrated environment to create Animated
Objects.
Path Editor An easy and fast way to create paths where player can move in
his adventure.
Dialog Editor A really fast way to create complex and various dialogs.
Spot Editor A very little editor to create hot zones to use them in various
situations.
DOOPSI-GS is Shareware!
Send comments to fsoft@intercom.it
http:www.intercom.it/~fsoft/doopsi.html
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A M I G A B R O S E R S T A T S
Amiga User Statistics
This site is designed to track and record which browsers are being used by Amiga
users. Since many Amiga users also have access to PC's, a large number of them
are using Netscape. These graphs are updated in real time! You were just
counted!
BROWSER TYPES (PERCENTAGE)
AWeb 15
AmigaVoyager 9
IBM WebExplorer 1
IBrowse 14
Lynx 6
Microsoft Explorer 2
Mosaic 2
Netscape 48
GUI TYPES (PERCENTAGE)
MacOS 5
Windows 3.11 9
Windows 95 13
Windows NT 1
Workbench 41
X11 8
OPERATING SYSTEM TYPES (PERCENTAGE)
AIX 1
Amiga 41
BSD 1
HP-UNIX 1
IRIX 1
LINUX 1
Macintosh 5
OS/2 1
OSF1 1
SunOS 4
Windows 36
WORKBENCH VERSIONS (PERCENTAGE)
Workbench 3.0 58
Workbench 3.1 41
Above information does not include Workbench 2.x information.
Please send all comments to dtiberio@pb.net
http://www.melizo.com/area52
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Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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