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Amiga Update (1998-10-08)
======================================================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING ||
======================================================================
AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
981008
R E P O R T O N T H E M A E S H O W
M O R E O N O S 3 . 5
C H A N G E S A N D G O A L S F R O M I C O A
I M P R O V E M E N T S T O A M I G A Z O N E !
G E N E T I C S P E C I E S G O E S T R U E C O L O U R
A M I R C V 2 . 1
C H R O M A N E W S
U G N N E W S L E T T E R A R T I C L E E X C H A N G E
U G N - N E W W E B S I T E
F U T U R E S H O C K 2 A U D I O C D
U G N P A R T N E R S W I T H P A N T H E O N
A M I G A R A D Y K A L P A R T Y I N S P A I N
M O R E U N P L E A S A N T N E W S F R O M V U L C A N
N E W F R O M V U L C A N ( T H I S I S P L E A S A N T )
A M I G A S U R V E Y E X T E N D E D
F O O L S C R E A T E N E W V I R U S
T H E R E ' S A L S O A N E W V I R U S C H E C K E R
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Last month may have been a quiet one in the Amiga community, but
October looks to be making up for it. We have many things to report
this time, and most of them are positive stories.
Top of the list has to be the announcement that there will be an
upgrade to the Amiga Operating System for Classic machines. Amiga OS
3.5 was made official at the MAE show in Ohio, USA, just a few days
ago. We have a report on the show itself, then a second story on the
OS from Team Amiga. What we've heard so far, we like very much.
The User Group Network has been busy also. There are a total of four
press releases from them in this issue, counting the MAE show report.
Not bad, folks, keep up the good work!
We almost didn't carry the story on the new Amiga virus, the results
of thieves hard at work trying to kill the Amiga through their own
stupidity. The reason for not running the story is it seems unlikely
that most honest Amigans would run into the particular archive which
carries the virus. However, these idiotic creations spread and could
eventually hit any of us, so we are spreading the word. Be careful
with what you download always.
On a brighter note, looks like the Spanish Amigans are putting
together quite a party. We have some details below for you, along with
many other storys we hope you will enjoy.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
R E P O R T O N T H E M A E S H O W
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Midwest Amiga Expo '98: A show report from the floor
05 October, 1998
Wayne Hunt
Executive Director User Group Network -
Note: The quotes and content of this article have been verified for
reproduction with Amiga Incorporated.
Midwest Amiga Expo '98 (MAE for short) has traditionally been one of
the two largest yearly shows in North America. This year with over 40
exhibitors and vendors, MAE may have just moved up a notch. All I can
say is that my utmost compliments go out to show organizers Ronn Black
and Dave Pearce (not to forget the rest of the AmiCON crew) who did an
excellent job responding to the requests and needs of attendees and
vendors as well as dealing with a few unexpected complications.
The show officially didn't start until Saturday morning, but that
didn't stop people from showing up beginning early Friday morning for
the seminars and classes available during the day. Setup for show
vendors/exhibitors started roughly at 5:00pm Friday and wrapped up
while the vendor party was just getting underway. Vendor lists are
available but I can't verify some of the people or names so to be fair
and not exclude anyone, I'm going to deal with the personal side of
the show, rather than the technical "vendor x showed up and showed his
product x". I figure there will be plenty of those type reports.
The only thing I want to press on product wise was an incredibly cool
shirt (which I am currently wearing to work at NASA) for sale by
AmiCon which featured "Stop The Madness: Buy an Amiga" featured with a
picture of a CD titled "Microsoft World Domination 99 - Total Control
Edition 1.0".. Contact them at www.amicon.org to see if you can get
your own, I promise you, it's really neat, not to mention making
people curious as you walk down the hall...
As of showtime Saturday, since RJ Mical never made it to the show for
one reason or another, Amiga Inc's own Bill McEwen gave the keynote at
5:00pm EST (GMT-5). In the keynote address, Bill McEwen gave us news
of the upcoming release of OS 3.5... He stated that he couldn't give
pinpoint details because OS3.5 is under a heavy Non-Disclosure
Agreement (NDA) and is a joint/cooperative effort between
approximately 20 authors with Amiga Inc's Fleecy Moss leading the
project.
For the first time ever on the Amiga, you can hear the keynote speech
for yourself in .gsm format at
http://ugn.amiga.org/events/audio.shtml. This comes to you courtesy of
a lot of hard work on the part of the User Group Network's Events
Coordinator Bill Borsari (tekmage@amiga.org) and a whole dedicated
crew of people who made it happen, overcoming the technical odds.
A few highlights of his speech and the OS 3.5 info include;
Re-targetable Audio (RTA) Support
Re-targetable Graphics (RTG) Support
CD-Filing System (CDFS) Support
PPC Co-Processor support built-in
Internet Ready
a newly updated and refined interface.
plus bug fixes and updates to several areas of the OS
due 1st Half, 1999
One of the more interesting aspects of the new 3.5 was stated that
"OS 5.0 will be backwards compatible with 3.5." and that "All of the
programs you have that currently run under 3.1 'should' work under
3.5..." From a development standpoint, this is incredible, but
curious.
Of the release dates, Bill stated that complications with their
initial partner caused delays but they've found a new partner which is
quote "much, much better". Unfortunately, this will cause the release
of the development machine to be pushed back another 90 to 120 days
from the original November release. However! (and this is VERY
IMPORTANT) he went on to state that the release of the final machine
is still perfectly on track "for 4th Quarter, 1999 release". (Everyone
was trying to ask questions at the same time, so not everyone heard
him say that part.)
Coming soon is a new Amiga Inc web page (site?) regarding the OS 3.5
and 5.0 progress and upgrades. Mr. McEwen made specific statements to
say that they are reorganizing the way they handle press releases and
in the future will give exclusives and advanced knowledge to the Amiga
Print magazines such as Amiga Format, Amazing Amiga, and Amiga
Informer. This is presumably being done to help stop the decline of
Amiga print magazines that has been so unfortunate as of late. Get out
your pens and start subscribing now if you don't want to miss
anything...
There will be more information on OS 3.5 as well as a look at the
development machine revealed at Computer 98, in Koeln Germany next
month.
It was a great show, in a great location (convention center) and for
once, we weren't condemned to live off of hotel food as there was a
food court and about 5 restaraunts in the convention center itself.
The only downside reported by the attendees that I've heard was
parking availability and locating the show floor itself in the
extremely large center.
Several vendors had new press releases and product out to include a
display of NewTek's (www.newtek.com) new "10X" product, a new release
of Weblord (www.ringlord.com) a HTML processing utility, and the User
Group Network (ugn.amiga.org) itself who announced not only a new
website, but a new focus, and partnerships as well.
You could hear developers and attendees alike discussing Carl
Sassenrath's newly released REBOL programming language and the
possibilities it opens up to Amiga online designers.
During the developer meeting with ICOA Representative, Kermit Woodall
alerted us a few surprises as they announced a new refocusing of
effort, a new upcoming website (at www.amiga.net), and a very much
streamlined management/committee organization.
"We're no longer going to operate where things might sit in a
committee with no progress." reported Mr. Woodall. "We will absolutely
have to institute a way for things to get done efficiently and if
there's no progress being made on a project [or team], we'll have to
find a way to make it happen." He also went into depth on a new
exciting project (the brainchild of AI's own Darreck Lisle) to help
developers protect against software piracy.
After Dark....
After the show floor closes at an Amiga show is not the time to
simply get in the car and go home. On the contrary, it's usually the
best time to meet, greet, and mingle with the developers, owners, and
representatives from the top Amiga efforts at the show.
Thursday Night (before the show) there were several people who
gathered into the "Big Bar on 2" at the Hyatt Regency for cocktails
and conversations. Of major interest to most of the people present
were the prototype boards that Jens Schoenfeld of Individual Computers
(www.jshoenfeld.com) brought to display. Really neat stuff!
Friday night, there was a setup/developer party to include "sumo
wrestling", free munchies and beer, and a GREAT live band. I suppose
the highlight of the evening is when Amiga Inc's User Group Relations
Coordinator, Darreck Lisle and Former Amiga Inc Engineer, Joe Torre
were set to square off in the giant latex sumo outfits. Without
warning, Joe turned to face his opponent, then spun around and ran off
through the hotel attracting a truly miraculous amount of attention.
To keep Darreck from being disappointed, Rick Giannini (AsimWare)
volunteered to step forward and pummel him without the aid of a sumo
suit. To quote Rick "Suit? I don't need no stinking suit..."
Saturday night, the party resumed at a local hotspot called
Jillian's. For those of you who have never seen a Jillian's, it's the
consumate sports bar with pool tables, lots of large Televisions, lots
of loud music, and crowds galore. About 100 or so attended the party
and tinkered with the Televisions putting an Amiga up on them to run
music mods and video effects through some sort of new box (I didn't
get a look at it) that Darreck had bought earlier in the day. We
convened to the video arcade where 8 of us went head to head in a game
or 5 of Rush (a road racing game). Show organizer, Ronn Black
repeatedly humiliated the other 7 of us with his victories although
some suspect that he had the home-field advantage.
The evening at Jillian's couldn't have ended better, as we all
gathered round a giant 60" TV to watch South Park. Most then
reconvened back at the hotel for the traditional selection of Canadian
beverages as supplied by AsimWare's own Rick Giannini.
Alas, Sunday for yours truly was cut short as we had to catch a
flight at about noon (2 hours into the show) but the fun and
excitement will easily last me until the next known show (Gateway
Amiga Show in St. Louis) in March 1999.
Enjoy, and sorry if you couldn't make it... You missed a lot!
http://ugn.amiga.org "Users helping Users"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M O R E O N O S 3 . 5
4 Oct 1998
Reported to by Team AMIGA members at MAE (Columbus, Ohio) ...
It is official!!! Amica Inc, announces OS3.5 with P5 PPC board
support will be done by the first half of '99! It was not announced
however, whether the OS3.5 upgrade will use the P5 or H&P PPC
software.
Developed in combination with a lot of Amiga developers, OS3.5
Upgrade will use the current 3.1 roms and will be a CD ONLY release!
There will be no PPC version, however PPC support will be included
using either P5 or H&P PPC software, as stated above.
Highlights concerning the OS3.5 upgrade:
RTG Support
RTA Support
CDFS Support
New Interface
Plus bug fixes and updates to several areas of the OS
Purposes of the OS3.5 upgrade is to support all the advanced
hardware/software that is on the Classic Amiga market and to allow
developers to code for a higher spec Amiga Classic. This will open the
door for more and better software and hardware for the Classic Amiga
while giving developers more transition time into the NG Amiga!
There will also be a full Classic OS3.5 emulator shipping with the NG
OS so we can all start buying software again secure in the knowledge
that it will be supported and runnable with the NG Amiga!
This 3.5OS upgrade and the promise of full emulation in the NG Amiga
will smooth the transition for all Amiga users to the NG Amiga.
In the next week or so, a website will go up especially for OS3.5 and
Amiga Inc will begin releasing information on the upgrade to the Amiga
press. More details about OS3.5 will also be released in Cologne.
We are told that the highlight of the show thus far for Bill McEwen
is the modeling convention going on in the same hotel! 400 female
wannabe's apparently provided fodder for some of the oldest chat up
lines in the book as Amiga guys attempted to entice the young ladies
into discussions about Intuition and Peeks and Pokes.
Joe Torre, in his own enduring style, showed up in a giant sumo
outfit and ran around the lot persued by security. Not to be outdone,
Rick "The Canadian's Are Coming" Giannini of Asimware flattened Amiga
Inc's Darreck Lisle several times without even putting on his sumo
suit!
Another grand demonstration of why the Amiga community MUST keep one
step ahead of society (and the law!).
Courtesy of Team AMIGA Columbus Reporters ... permission to repost is
hereby granted as always.
Team AMIGA - Dedicated, motivated, and committed to changing the world
of computing. 5000 plus strong and growing daily!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C H A N G E S A N D G O A L S F R O M I C O A
ICOA Announces Changes and Goals
INDUSTRY COUNCIL OPEN AMIGA ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Midwest Amiga Exposition, October 1998
By the ICOA steering committee
Kermit Woodall - Commercial seat
Wolf Dietrich - Commercial seat
Olaf Barthel - Individual seat
Petter Nilsen - Open seat
Harv Laser - User representative
Fleecy Moss - Amiga, Inc. representative
ICOA Announces Changes and Goals
The ICOA (Industry Council Open Amiga) steering committee has chosen
to refocus the ICOA. While the ICOA has always been about developers
serving developers, a clear and understandable focus was needed. The
ICOA steering committee has decided on a course that will reorganize
itself into a professional society. Much like a user group serves its
members, the ICOA will now focus on communications, resources, and
issues relevant to developers.
Towards this the first step of many will be to establish the
permanent ICOA web site. The current site was designed as an
intermediate step during a process of creating the ICOA and hosting
elections. The new site will be a resource to all developers, whether
they choose to join ICOA or not. The web site will feature information
specific to the ICOA such as its mailing lists, software and hardware
development information and FAQs, production and marketing
information, and other news and information that touches on all
aspects of developing and publishing a product for the Amiga platform.
A special feature in the works is an piracy reporting mechanism that
maintains anonymity.
The web site is located at http://www.amiga.net and will be initially
active in the first weeks of October 1998. The site is designed to
grow and is being built under the direction of the steering committee
with the active work of Ted Wallingford and Gary Peake.
Future plans for the ICOA will depend highly on developer support.
Regular developer classes and seminars are already being hosted at
nearly all Amiga shows under the coordination of Steve Shireman and
Kermit Woodall for the ICOA. Coordination of these seminars will
become a regular offering of the ICOA to Amiga trade shows that have
the space and desire to host them.
Pending Amiga, Inc. participation, the ICOA plans to release a
quarterly newsletter and CDROM. The focus of the newsletter will be
more than technical issues, it will include issues relating to running
a business, producing artwork and advertising for a product and more.
The CDROM will include a wide variety of contents that should include
everything from code collections to catalogs of advertising and
promotional products to help companies grow.
Like a user group, members of the ICOA will get out of it what they
put into it. Phrased in computer terms this will mean, 'garbage in =
garbage out'. Right now with what's going into the web site and what
we've seen of the ICOA seminars, we can say we're getting caviar -
let's keep that direction as we move forward!
The ICOA is a professional society by and for developers. For more
information see http://www.amiga.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I M P R O V E M E N T S T O A M I G A Z O N E !
For Immediate Release
AmigaZone Doubles Disk Space and RAM to Better Serve its Members!
Sacramento, CA USA
October 7, 1998
AmigaZone, the premiere online service for Amiga owners, announced
today that it has doubled the memory and disk space of its hardware
host system to better serve its members. Our hardware now runs with
128 meg of RAM and nearly 20 GIGabytes of mirrored disk space, for
virtually unlimited storage of our huge, ever-expanding collection of
Amiga files, which go back to 1985, with fresh stuff arriving daily.
Hosted by CalWeb Internet Services, the biggest ISP in California's
capital city, (home to the AmiWest show), AmigaZone runs a Wildcat5 or
"WINS" system. Wildcat5 provides AmigaZone's members with total
flexibility in how they wish to access the system:
Telnet to our friendly, hot-key driven BBS system, or browse in our
fast Web interface to access over 40,000 files, and 40,000 text
articles in Amiga Usenet and Fidonet newsgroups, Amiga mailing lists,
and local message bases. We also feature .QWK packet transfers, an
online image thumbnail maker, over a dozen ways to personalize and
customize your account, our famous live chatting area with Sunday
night prize contests, and members have access to our private FTP site
and POP3 mail server. You can even log into our multiple interfaces
simultaneously.
For more information about AmigaZone or to join and get your own
account via secure signup, just visit http://www.amigazone.com
AmigaZone is a Trademark of Harv Laser. (c) 1998.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G E N E T I C S P E C I E S G O E S T R U E C O L O U R
23 Sep 1998
Marble-Eyes Development is proud to announce the release of a new
Genetic Species AddOn. And what an addon: 24 bit finally hits an Amiga
game! So we're writing history.
In other words the Amiga and Genetic Species goes true colour, that
means 16777216 colours per pixel. The human eye recognizes about 14
million colours but you'll get 2 million extra! :)
In order to support the 24bit screenmodes in Genetic Species we had
to re-write all the functions which access the display screen. It has
been a lot of work but looking at the result, the time has certainly
paid off. The improvement is simply amazing. Not a single pixel is
rendered in Genetic Species without putting it through an alpha
channel - and the result will blast you away!
I know what you are thinking now, "The engine is probably damn slow
in 24bit!".
Obviously the true colour screen modes take more processor time but
due to heavy optimization the speed decrease is only marginal. Take a
look at this speed test...
Platform: Amiga 4000/o60 50 Mhz, PicassoIV. Settings: HighDetail
Mapping, No Audio, 24 Bit True.
128x100: 50 Fps 160x126: 50 Fps 192x150: 33 Fps 224x176: 28 Fps
256x200: 16 Fps 288x226: 15 Fps 320x240: 13 Fps
What are you waiting for?? The engine is available from
www.marble-eyes.dk in the download section. (Size 100K)
-- Regards, Per Bloksgaard. - Marble-Eyes Development -
www.marble-eyes.dk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I R C V 2 . 1
26 Sep 1998
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _
/ _ \ _ __ |_ _| _ \/ __| __ _|_ ) | |
| _ | ' \ | || / (__ \ V // / | |
|_| |_|_|_|_|___|_|_\____| \_//___(_)|_|
.-----------------------------------------.
| http://www.vapor.com/amirc/ |
`-----------------------------------------'
The eight public release of AmIRC, version 2.1, is now available!
AmIRC is a client for the IRC Internet Relay Chat protocol written by
Oliver Wagner, also the author of VoyagerNG and Microdot II. It is
*SHAREWARE*. You can register it easily with the included VaporWare
registration utility at any of our registration sites around the
world.
Although AmIRC 2.1 contains numerous more hours of work and thus is
slightly more expensive than AmIRC 1.x, there is *NO UPGRADE FEE* --
your legal AmIRC 1.x and AmIRC 2.0 keyfile will continue to work. The
free upgrade is our "Thank you!" to all the people who already
registered AmIRC 1.x, instead of using cracked versions, pirated key
files or "evaluation periods" of several months or even years.
Registrations at the AmIRC 1.x price are *no longer accepted* as of
the 2.0 release.
Where to download it:
FTP:
ftp.vapor.com, /pub/amirc/
ftp.us.vapor.com, pub/amirc/
ftp.de.vapor.com, pub/amirc/
ftp.au.vapor.com, pub/amirc/
ftp.pl.vapor.com, pub/vapor/amirc/
AmiNet, comm/irc (soon)
amirc_21.lzx, 852086 Bytes
amirc_21.lha, 969738 Bytes
(Note that ftp.us.vapor.com has generally the best
connectivity of the listed mirror sites)
WWW:
http://www.vapor.com/
http://vapor.ukonline.co.uk/ (File mirror only)
EMail-Fileserver:
Mail to <fileserv@vapor.com>, put "SEND AMIRC" in the body.
The file will be returned uuencoded.
New features since AmIRC's last public release (2.0) include:
- Single window mode. You can join several channels with opening
just a single window.
- Total queueing. Now everything which isn't urgent (like
KICKS or MODE changes) is sent through the output queue.
to reduce risk of being kicked by a server due to flooding.
- Settable scrollback buffer size. The amount of text stored
in a window's scrollback buffer is now limited; the number
of lines to keep can be configured.
- Vapor Update Library. Will now automagically check for
available updates during startup, and inform you if there
is one -- which you can automatically download, too.
- New plugin API calls. On request by plugin authors, several
new callbacks and functions have been implemented in the
AmIRC plugin API.
- Multiselect ban list window
- openurl.library support
- new translations done by ATO (http://ato.vapor.com/ato)
- several bug fixes and minor improvements (for a complete
list, refer to the history attached below)
New features since the 1.69 release include:
- Query and channel windows can now be iconified individually to a
"tray" window. Tray window button labels turn bold when new messages
are received, white when a highlight occurs, and carry information
about the number of messages in each window.
- New low-level Plugin API. Documentation of the API is available
from
www.vapor.com or Aminet, in a separate archive. An example plugin,
WallChop.AmiPlug, is included.
- Server list is now a ListTree object with subgroups for different
networks.
- Can now use MIMEPrefs to automatically view & save files received
via DCC. Activate the "Use MIMEPrefs to view?" or "Use MIMEPrefs to
save?" menu options.
- "Lag-O-Meter" (tm ;)) probes the IRC server every 30 seconds and
shows the current lag from 0-10+ in a gauge below the userlist. The
Info window also contains the three most recent measurements and the
average.
- Heavily improved logging. All channel and query windows now have an
"L" button to the right of the input gadget, which is a toggle button
to activate the logging to a user-specified directory.
- "Favorites" window added to store the names of channels you use
regularly. Click on the channel name in a window to open.
- AmIRC now uses NList.mcc (if available) for its listviews. NList is
written by Gilles Masson (masson@iut-soph.unice.fr).
- Stronger CTCP flood protection.
- DCC connections now work with Miami's SOCKS support.
- Files received via DCC are opened in shared mode during transfer,
so you can play or view them partially while the transfer is still
in progress (esspecially for all you mp3 freaks out there :-)
- DCC receives now have the options to Replace a file. Both the send
and receive windows have Cleanup buttons, to remove old closed and
failed connections.
- DCCs now show the estimated remaining time of a transfer based
on current throughput.
- Query windows now have an N button to change the nickname the
window is currently bound to.
- Background color of AmIRC's main listviews can now be configured.
- /AWAY messages are now filtered, and only shown once to avoid
screen cluttering when talking to someone who is set /AWAY.
- special "Invite" and "Oper" requesters
- Can now automatically accept DCC Send requests.
- Now sends pertinent information to query windows, such as /nick and
/QUIT messages from that user, as well as CTCP and DCC messages. --
AmIRC Mailing List - http://www.vapor.com/amirc/
ML-Help: <listserv@vapor.com>, "HELP" or "LONGINDEX" in mail body
ML-Unsubscribe: <amirc-request@vapor.com>, "DEL" in mail body *** End
of forwarded message ***
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C H R O M A N E W S
1 Oct 1998
October news from UK Amiga dealer Chroma
Firstly, Chroma`s website has moved - go to
http://www.wensum.net/chroma for all the regular Amiga systems &
accessories, plus this month`s special deals. If you forget the new
URL, don`t worry - you`ll be transported automatically from the old
site after a few seconds. The alternative URL of http://come.to/chroma
will still do just as well.
Next, the new e-mail address to go with the site relocation -
chroma@wensum.net is the one to remember, for hardware enquiries and
general stuff.
With the change of URL, the "AMR Voxel" game-in-progress site has
also moved. Go to http://www.wensum.net/blackfive to check out the
latest demos of the PPC-Amiga-enhanced racing game which won a prize
in the CU Amiga PowerUp compo.
Chroma can now undertake site hosting, e-mail services and registered
domain hosting as well as website design. Check out
http://www.wensum.net for all the details.
As the Lola L2000 S-video genlock has just ceased production (as has
the L1500 model), Chroma is now offering a good deal on the Electronic
Design Neptun S-video model. Visit the Chroma "specials" page for this
month`s unbeatable price.
Finally, just a quick plug for the "Build a Power Tower Online" and
Build a PC Online" pages on the Chroma site. And - just as soon as the
motherboards become available - look out for a "Build a Boxer System
Online" page. Several customers have already expressed an interest in
this promising development.
Regards from Chroma.
CHROMA
+44 (0)1328 862693
Web: http://www.wensum.net/chroma
E-mail: chroma@wensum.net
Amiga & PC systems & accessories
Design & bureau services
Website design, hosting, domain registration & e-mail services
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U G N N E W S L E T T E R A R T I C L E E X C H A N G E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UGN Announces Online Newsletter Article Exchange
2 October, 1998
The User Group Network is extremely proud to announce the Newsletter
Article Exchange (NAE). The NAE provides a way for user groups and
newsletter editors worldwide to expand their content on a regular
basis by sharing articles, reviews, artwork, news, etc. from a common
site.
"Since the beginning of the User Group Network (UGN), the number one
problem we've heard from User Groups has been a lack of content for
newsletter editors to put out their work. This leads to frustration
for the editors/writers and eventually, the demise of the local
newsletter. This is no longer acceptable because in some cases, the
loss of a newsletter is the proverbial "last straw" for a shrinking
user group... Providing the NAE is our attempt to bolster such efforts
by providing a place to editors to gather, talk, and exchange ideas
and content." - Wayne Hunt - UGN Executive Director
We at the UGN encourage members to use the site to the fullest
advantage by contributing articles as well as using what others
provide. Without everyone contributing, no one can benefit.
Now the eternal questions:
Who - UGN Pacific Rim coordinator and Newsletter Editor, Wayne Martin
has primary responsibility for the NAE site. Wayne can be reached at
TB@amiga.org.
Where - The NAE itself is hosted on the new UGN FTP site at
ftp.amiga.org/ugn/newsletters. A link engine to the files and their
descriptions is also planned for the UGN website at
http://ugn.amiga.org/nae (to be completed 11/98).
How - Login via anonymous FTP to the site, then look through the
various directories which should appear as the following (may change
as time goes on):
/ugn/newsletters
/archived - Articles older than 6 months.
/articles - contributed articles
/complete - complete user group newsletters for distribution
/reviews - reviews of Amiga hardware, software, and other stuff.
Uploading is very simple. Uploads to the site are to be e-mailed to
the site's maintainer, Wayne Martin (TB@amiga.org) who will upload the
submission to the FTP site and interface with the contributor as need
be.
A few rules please;
All submissions become, in a sense, public domain. Contributing an
article constitutes permission by the author to reprint said article
in other freely distributed Amiga User Group newsletters. Said
permission DOES NOT transfer to commercial magazines or ventures
unless the article contributing writer is contacted and/or
appropriately compensated for their work PRIOR TO inclusion.
Uploads are to be provided in the most common formats available
because unfortunately not every newsletter editor does his/her work
from the Amiga (some have access to other platforms, networks, and
high speed printers from their place of employment not accessible to
their Amigas). As a result, All submissions should be in (or will be
converted to) .LHA format archives. Included text should be in (or
will be converted to) ASCII or Rich Text (.RTF) format. All graphics
should be included in either .GIF, .IFF, or .JPEG format. While this
is a little harder for some editors to simply cut and paste, it
provides the utmost in flexibility to be adapted to each individual
newsletter. After all, not everyone owns PageStream or FinalWriter and
not every newsletter has the same margins, headers, or footers.
These rules may change or be expanded as the NAE evolves based on the
needs of the UGN and or contributing authors.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U G N - N E W W E B S I T E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
User Group Network Announces New Expanded Website.
2 October, 1998
Over the last several months, the User Group Network (UGN) has been
hard at work behind the scenes developing a new website
(http://ugn.amiga.org), a new support plan for Amiga Users worldwide,
and new services to help them get the best out of their systems.
The new website, 5 months in the making, refocuses on the services
you've told us that you need. These expanded services include online
discussion forums (which includes a help desk where you can go to ask
Amiga experts questions), a detailed list of user groups worldwide,
and useful hints and tips on starting/expanding a user group in your
area. Also, included is expanded coverage of Amiga shows worldwide
with transcripts of speeches, IRC conferences, and an expanding webcam
presence. You can feel like you're there even if you can't be!
Now, a word about the future of the UGN's online services... With
it's new strategic partnership with Pantheon Systems in place (and
more on the horizon), the UGN is building to get news from the parent
companies out to you faster, more accurately, and more efficiently
than ever before possible. Some of these innovative new ideas come by
way of completely new mailing lists, a very unique Amiga news
coverage, and a technological surprise or two designed to allow us to
instantaneously cover and broadcast Amiga and User Group specific news
items directly to your computer WorkBench.
We invite you and your User Group to become part of the most
incredible, innovative world-wide team project ever seen! Simply stop
by our new website at http://ugn.amiga.org, read what we're about,
fill out a 5 minute form, and stay tuned because it's going to get
exciting from here on out!
Or, if you prefer, simply drop a line to any one of our staff members
at the addresses below:
Executive Director - Wayne Hunt (wayne@amiga.org)
Events Coordinator - Bill Borsari (tekmage@amiga.org)
Public Relations - Fabian Jimenez (fabian@cais.com)
Asia Coordinator - To be determined, apply to ugn_board@amiga.org
Africa Coordinator - Cade Hannan (cihanna@vm.sc.edu)
Europe Coordinator - Tony Mees (tony@amiga.org)
Middle East Coordinator - Mohammed Mostafa Karam
(kamba@technologist.com)
North America Coordinator - Robert Hamilton (lostman@amiga.org)
Pacific Rim Coordinator - Wayne Martin (tb@amiga.org)
South American Coordinator - Giovani Perdomini
(giovani@opensite.com.br)
User Representative - Harv Laser (harv@amigazone.com)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F U T U R E S H O C K 2 A U D I O C D
FUTURE SHOCK 2 by Sidewinder is now available with a new price.
This musical CD was created entirely on the Amiga computer. It is
currently on a second edition and available only from Sidewinder
Productions.
The artist, Texas based Sidewinder had been creating mods for the
Amiga community for years. You've probably heard his mods and
downloaded them from his own directory on Aminet.
FUTURE SHOCK 2 has been featured in rave reviews by magazines like
CUAmiga, Amiga Computing, and Amiga Report as well as many more over
the last 4 years.
This CD features 74 minutes of electronic dance and synthesizer
music, mixed and recorded entirely on the Amiga computer and recorded
in a professional studio in San Antonio, Texas. It was the first %100
Amiga recorded and produced in a proffesional Studio during the summer
winter of 1993. Also Features a bonus track from the popular game
"Scorched Tanks" remixed in CD quality. With striking cover art
created by well known 3d gfx artist Zak Jarvis,this CD will hopefully
please Amiga and Sidewinder music fans for years to come.
Dealers interested in selling this CD to the public we offer special
pricing in
5-10 CDs - 25+ CDs -
$8 each CD $7 each CD
The new reedition retail price is $10 us For more additional info
email sidewind@txdirect.net
SIDEWINDER PRODUCTION <AMIGA POWERED>
http://www.txdirect.net/~sidewind/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U G N P A R T N E R S W I T H P A N T H E O N
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
User Group Network Announces Strategic Partnership with Pantheon Systems
2 October, 1998
The Amiga User Group Network and Pantheon Systems announced today a
long-term partnership to develop advanced Internet resources on behalf
of the installed base of Amiga computer users. Pantheon Systems will
leverage the content capabilities and immense influence of the User
Group Network, while the UGN will gain high-availability server
infrastructure and technical depth.
The plan for partership, which will place www.amiga.org at the center
of a highly-focused, multi-year development program for members of the
official Amiga user-support mechanism, the User Group Network.
"Working Actively with Pantheon Systems will open up avenues of
support for the Amiga that we had never dreamed of," said Wayne Hunt,
Executive Director of UGN, at a conference held prior to the official
launch of the partnership, which took place at the 1998 Midwest Amiga
Exposition in Columbus, OH.
Since 1996, Pantheon Systems has been leveraging Amiga technology in
its work, so the adoption of a partnership with the UGN is a natural
fit.
"The UGN has been looking to find a flexible outlet for Internet
services for a while now," said Ted Wallingford, Production Director
and Co-founder of Pantheon Systems. "Since their main goal is to link
groups around the world into an application pool for better
communication about the Amiga platform, they rapidly outgrew a
run-of-the-mill ISP. We are providing the next step." Projects slated
for delivery at amiga.org include worldwide messaging and domaining,
web content, advertising systems, special information exchanges, and
members-only intranet applications.
"You can't really deliver something this huge without a good
partner," Wallingford confessed. "And there's no better partner to
have than the world's best community of computer users."
---
Pantheon Systems was founded in 1996 by Ted Wallingford and Duane A.
Leinninger II. It is considered one of the leading Internet commerce
and web development firms in Detroit, and operates a second regional
practice in Cleveland.
Pantheon Systems world-reknowned work includes development for Nolan
and Cunnings, Gage Products, Amiga Inc., Moneylab Inc., and WomenBiz
Inc.
For more information, visit Pantheon Systems' web site at
www.pantheonsys.com or call (440) 353-WEB-2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A R A D Y K A L P A R T Y I N S P A I N
Amiga RadyKal Party
October 10, 11 & 12 1998, Granada ( Spain )
AMIGA RADYKAL PARTY ACTS PROGRAMME
-- October, 10th. Saturday --
8:00 Opening, reception of visitors.
18:00 Inagural Speech.
18:30 Ceremonia de presentación de los grupos de la scene presentes
en la RadyKal.
20:00 Press conference with Mr. Petro Tyschtschenko.
Questions & Answers
21:30 Demos and videos Shows.
-- October, 11th. Sunday --
09:00 Radykal WakeUp!.
10:00 Deadline. Comunicado de los temas de los concursos fast
graphics y fastmusic.
10:30 Booking for Games competitions
11:00 Games competitions Start
11:30 Conference
12:30 Booking for 'CPU tower' competition
17:00 Prizes for the winner 'Tower'
18:00 FastDeadLine
18:30 Conference
20:00 Prizes for the "Fast" and "games" winners
21:00 Playback of Demos, intros, pictures & videos for the
competitions.
22:30 IRC Party: Valhala' concert. Shows.
-- October, 12th. Monday --
09:30 RadyKal WakeUp!
10:00 Votetools. Mods & Multichannel playback and remember
playback for other works (demos, intros, pinctures, etc)
12:00 VoteTools recolletion
12:30 Conference
13:30 BIg Draw of an A1200HD. Votetool must be filled to enter
the compo.
17:00 Prizes for demos, intros, pictures, videos
20:00 Close-Speech
22:00 End
- People can arrive to the party on friday (9th) to spend the night
at the resort.
- Also you can spend the night at the endo of the party (12) in the
residential area, but you have to un-install the computer before
22:00.
Tuesday, October 12th everybody have to leave the huts at 10:00 in
the morning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M O R E U N P L E A S A N T N E W S F R O M V U L C A N
28 Sep 1998
Imij Software, the development team responsible for the Amiga CDRom
title 'Hard Target' have decided to cease development due to the
economic realities of the Amigas constantly eroding user base.
Vulcan Software understand and support their decision.
Regards
Mr Paul Carrington BA
Vulcan Software Limited Commercial: www.vulcan.co.uk
72 Queens Road
Buckland Promotional: www.vul-soft.demon.co.uk
Portsmouth
Hants PO2 7NA U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)1705 670269
Fax: +44 (1)1705 662226
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W F R O M V U L C A N ( T H I S I S P L E A S A N T )
28 Sep 1998
Vulcan Software
presents
V U L C A N O L O G Y
The MiniSeries Compilation
Capture the first THREE years of Vulcan Softwares development on ONE
compilation CDRom!
Vulcans unique Amiga MiniSeries collection comprises of 10 award
winning games which cover, flight simulation, car bashing, speech
adventuring, platform romping, strategic warfare, logical puzzling and
seaside simulation.
As a tribute to those golden Amiga floppy days we are producing this
compilation CD, not only at a budget price but as a limited edition
collectors item and will be producing only 500 copies for retail..
.. if you want to capture a bygone era of Vulcan then pre-order now!
Live as Long as you can & Prosper!
Mr Paul Carrington BA Vulcan
Software Limited Commercial: www.vulcan.co.uk
72 Queens Road Buckland
Promotional: www.vul-soft.demon.co.uk
Portsmouth Hants PO2 7NA U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)1705 670269
Fax: +44 (1)1705 662226
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A S U R V E Y E X T E N D E D
6 Oct 1998
Amiga Survey '98
Following the success of the Amiga Survey that was posted on the
Amiga Newsgroups via usenet It has been decided to extend the closing
date to Saturday 17th October 1998.
This is to allow as many on-line amigans to send in their replies as
possible thus allowing us to build a comprehensive database of amiga
user's spending plans.
The Survey has been put on to a form format and can be accessed via
http://www.wirenet.u-net.com/survey98.html
To recap, the survey is a joint venture between Amiga Yellow Pages,
and S.E.A.L with the support of Neil Bothwick of Wirenet, The UK's
Amiga only ISP.
The Survey itself will be compiled and after the data is evaluated,
passed onto Amiga developers, publishers and retailers so that they
can gauge what products Amiga users actually want. This also presents
amiga users an opportunity to tell Amiga developers/publishers and
retailers what products they actually want and intend to purchase over
the coming months.
If you haven't had the opportunity to fill in the survey which was
previously in the Amiga newsgroups then please do so as honestly and
as accurately as possible.
Thank you for your time.
Regards
Mikey C
Member, Team AMIGA & Amiga Yellow Pages.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F O O L S C R E A T E N E W V I R U S
23 Sep 1998
Hi All....
The archive that installs the new "fungus" virus is found. I have now
recived 4 archives from all over the world (Australia, USA, Germany
and Denmark). Everyone of the contains the same files, and the same
file contains the 'fungus' virus in every archive.
Here is some info about the 'fungus' archive
> ----- INFO START -----
Archive name.....: M31H_CRK.LHA
Archive size.....: 436085 bytes (Ripped for BBS adds).
Infected File....: Miami_BETA/MUI.MiamiGui
Infected Size....: 127360 bytes
File_id.diz......: .------------------------------------------.
| |
| Miami 3.1h BETA |
| |
| TOTALLY CRACKED AND ALL HOLGER BACKDOOR |
| SHIT REMOVED FOR YOUR PLEASURE! |
| CANT THE BIG GROUPS CRACK THIS??? |
| |
| CRACKED FOR YOU BY HOLGWHORE KRUDE |
| |
`------------------------------------------'
> ----- INFO END -----
Thanx to Ian, Michael, Peter and Thomas, for sending this file to us.
Regards....
Jan Andersen
Virus Help
Denmark vht-dk@post4.tele.dk
http://home4.inet.tele.dk/vht-dk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H E R E ' S A L S O A N E W V I R U S C H E C K E R
04 Oct 1998
Hi All...
Alex van Niel has released a new update of VirusChecker II.
Here are some info about the new update:
Name: VirusChecker II v1.8 (Brain v2.9)
Archive: vht-vc18.lha
Size: 337.700 Bytes (.Lha Packed)
Date: 04 October 1998
News:
In VirusChecker II:
- Done some minor fixing
- Some cosmetic stuff inside and outside
In Installer Script:
- Completely redid the installer script
- Now also possible to updates with the
script
- Should work on every machine now
In VirusChecker.brain:
- BEOL96 Link Virus added
- HitchHiker 1 link virus added
- UnpackJPEG (MaxsBBS) trojan Added
Note:
There hasn't been a lot this time, although
now I read this back, it look spretty much.
Still, because of a major computer crash I
wasn't able to update and program VirusCheckerII
and it's brainfile. That is why the new fungus
virus hasn't been added and why a few others which
were scheduled to be added have not been added yet.
I hope to correct this soon.
Note2:
Let me state again that VirusCheckerII is trying to
catch up to 3 years of viruses and that all the older
viruses (as well as some new ones) have not been added
HitchHiker 4.x for instance has not been added yet.
If you don't trust VirusCheckerII for a 100% then use
another viruskiller next to VirusCheckerII.
VirusCheckerII WILL!! catch up to all of those viruses.
For the latest viruskillers, please try aminet or VHT homepage at:
http://home4.inet.tele.dk/vht-dk/
(links to all the latest antivirusprograms for Amiga, PC and Mac.)
Regards....
Jan Andersen
Virus Help Denmark
vht-dk@post4.tele.dk
http://home4.inet.tele.dk/vht-dk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html
All back issues available (in ASCII text) at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1998 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
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