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Amiga Update (2003-08-31)
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A M I G A | 030831 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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M C E W E N M E S S A G E O N M O S M E S S
A M I G A S H O W B E N E L U X I N O C T O B E R
A M I W E S T O S 4 A N D A U - C O R R E C T I O N
P O S E I D O N S I N K S E L B O X S U P P O R T
A C I D 6 4 P L A Y E R 1 . 1 A N D 1 . 1 A
D I G I T A L A L M A N A C U P D A T E
I M A G E M A G I C K 5 . 5 . 7 A V A I L A B L E
W A R P D T - N E W P A C K A G E S O U T
W I N U A E C O N T I N U E S T O I M P R O V E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
This has been a quiet month in the Amiga community, except for the
continuing infighting. We managed to get involved in that with the
editorial in our special issue for AmiWest. You'll see that in the
letters section below. We did some editing, indicated, to keep things
in more readable pieces. Please note that all replies to the letters
printed should be taken as editorial opinion.
Long time readers know we don't usually get involved in controversies
because our thrust is to bring you Amiga news. Some issues, however,
are so close to being life and death issues for the community that we
have no choice. When that happens, we'll make AU's opinions known and
why they are held. But that will never be allowed to interfere with
bringing you Amiga news.
And we do have some interesting items of Amiga news for you below. We
hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
10 August, 2003
Thanks, Brad, for supporting the Amiga. It's nice to hear a sane
voice out there.
Justin
> Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
>
{requotes snipped for space. Brad}
> We were left wondering about some attendees, however. We simply
> cannot understand what the MorphOS/Pegasos team was doing there. For
{Snip again}
Justin,
Thanks for the kind words. I was pleasantly surprised how many people
expressed similar thoughts. Many also stated they were keeping their
thoughts to themselves in order to avoid flame wars, etc. Very
interesting.
More on this topic below.
And, in case anyone is wondering, the writer is not the Justin
associated with AU.
Brad
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13 Aug 2003
i've just been reading (on amiga.org) the reaction to
your editorial remarks concerning MorphOS/Pegasos in
the last newsletter.
While i may disagree with your opinion, i don't think
you should be trashed for having it.
my feeling is that MorphOS/Pegasos will be a good
thing for amiga. and i ALSO wish the OS4 people all
the luck. this may seem polyanna-like but i think a
positive attitude is healthier than a negative one.
cecilia
Cecilia,
Thank you for that response. I would like nothing more than for
Genesi to be a positive force in the Amiga Community. They do have
great talent. But I'm afraid it isn't. Please see the answer to the
next letter, and the item from Bill McEwen, for more.
As for the trashing, it's become an Amiga Community Standard Practice
to flame those you don't agree with. I actually found it amusing. Ad
hominems are simply the least gracious way to admit you've been found
out as having no valid argument.
Maybe time will prove my concerns about Genesi were invalid. I doubt
it very much, but I would actually like to be wrong on this.
Brad
======
13 Aug 2003
> As far as "why was MorphOS at AmiWest", I sympathize with
> your comments emotionally. But, real world, you're sounding
> a bit naive. Why were they there? They have a product that
> they want to sell to their best market, Amiga users.
> Paul
{Letter above edited for size. Brad}
Paul,
Excellent letter, good questions.
The "why were they there" question was asked from the perspective of
why where they invited, not why did they want to attend. I suppose
it's really a rhetorical qustion - if they requested attendance, then
the folks at AmiWest probably couldn't have refused them even if they
wanted to.
Earlier Amiga "clones" were providing product when there was nothing
new from Amiga, and no direction either. That's not the case now.
Genesi's efforts can only hurt the first real direction forward we've
had in years. Plus, I don't recall any of the others actively taking
legal action against Amiga. Not much of a partnewship there, and a
tremendous waste of resources that could go into product development
etc. Finally, the Amiga market is so much reduced now that any
"bleeding" of resources potentially could kill what remains. This is
my main objection to Genesi's presence at Amiga shows. If the people
behind Genesi were really concerned about Amiga's future, they would
be working to strengthen it, not weaken it. That would be to their
long term benefit also. It makes no sense for Amiga supporters to help
Genesi with their plans.
Now, if the Amiga market were strong, Amiga Inc. were larger and
doing very well with well established products, a bit of extra fat so
to speak, I'd actually enjoy having someone around to pester Amiga
Inc. In those circumstances, they'd be providing what would likely be
a productive irritation to Amiga. But that's not the situation we're
in at present. We won't be there until OS 4 and beyond have taken on a
life of their own, if that ever happens. Whether Genesi could fill
that role in the future is impossible to say at this point.
Sadly, for Genesi, if Amiga dies they probably will too. All they
really have is a successful clone. They have put themselves in a
postion where they really do need Amiga to provide a context for their
own existance, at least to date. The people who invested in their
products could well end up losing as much as the Amigans. The Amiga
Community now is so small that the failure of Amiga Inc. will not pass
the torch to a successor as has happened in the past, but will simply
pass the community into history.
If it isn't already too late.
I don't think this view is naive. Rather, it's viewing from the
perspective of keeping a business alive. Bottom line, Amiga is a
business, even if the folks running it are doing it as much out of
passion as a desire for profit.
See our leadoff item from Bill McEwen below. It should add additional
persepective to this.
Brad
=====
11 August, 2003
> ... We simply
> cannot understand what the MorphOS/Pegasos team was doing there. For
> that matter, we cannot understand what they are doing at any Amiga
> show...
Just wanted to say Amen to that, brother! Heck, Commodore
might still be around today if Atari hadn't invaded and depleted their
market with the ST. Is Bill Buck an agent for MicroSoft or something?
(That wouldn't much surprise me, BTW. I'm sure ol' Visa Bill Gates's
realized by now that the only thing that ever hurt Amiga's market was
another Amiga.) One thing's for sure; Genesi will Never get any of my
business!
Thanks for all your hard work,
Allan
Allan,
Nor mine, at least not without some fundamental changes.
Yours is a provacative letter. I'm sure we could get some intersting
discussions going on the topics you mentioned.
There is no doubt the ST cut into the Amiga market. However I'm not
sure we could accuse Atari of doing anything illegal or unethical,
although the possibility exists. I've mentioned in the past that the
ST was in many ways a "grown up" Commodore 64. I've often wondered if
there were patents infringed, etc., but no such accusations were ever
made that I am aware of. In the final analysis though Commodore
committed suicide as the company was systematically bled of its
profits and operating capital.
There's lots to this story. How Atari in the ST days came to be owned
by the founder of Commodore. How the founder of Atari came to work
for Commodore sometime later. And of course, the fact that the Amiga
is really a "grown up" Atari 800. For feuding rivals, the intertwining
of the two companies was amazing. Maybe there'll be a book someday.
I don't doubt that Microsoft is watching Amiga despite the vast size
difference between them. Large companies do such things (just note the
suit by GE on behalf of its Hummer against the revived Studebaker - a
vehicle most people have never even heard of). However, at this point
Microsoft has very little to worry about so will probably leave it
alone - for now. And Amiga is actually making money off Microsoft.
That brings a smile to my face.
Brad
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M C E W E N M E S S A G E O N M O S M E S S
2 August, 2003
Dear Friends:
It has come to our attention that Mr. Bill Buck has made several
statements about the on-going litigation between our firms. He has
stated that he has won the case, and that we have agreed to port
AmigaDE to Pegasos, as well as making certain claims that he has
rights to our logos and trademarks.
The facts are that the legal process is continuing, we have not lost
and we have not agreed to port AmigaDE to Pegasos.
The statements made are false and misleading. I should also like to
remind the community, and those users of the Amiga Operating System,
that the End User License Agreement clearly states that the license
for use is only valid, on Amiga branded machines. Therefore if the
Amiga operating system is being used on a non-Amiga branded machine
the use would be prohibited.
We look forward to the release of Amiga OS 4.0, and we look forward
to continuing our efforts moving forward.
God bless,
Bill McEwen
President/CEO
Amiga, Inc.
{Note: on the Amiga website, this item is listed as being about
Thendic - Amiga litigation. Thendic folded into Genesi. Brad}
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A M I G A S H O W B E N E L U X I N O C T O B E R
9 August, 2003
After a very succesfull show in June 2001, the Benelux Amiga Show
will return in 2003. Due to the incresing popularity of the Pegasos,
the show will bascially consist of two events combined into one; The
Benelux Amiga Show and the Benelux Pegasos Show.
The Show will be held on the 4th and 5th of October from 10:00 till
17:00, in Engels Rotterdam - on the eight floor in the Royal
Residence. Engels is a business/culinary centre for more than a
century and can be found next to the Rotterdam Central Train Station.
The Benelux Amiga/Pegasos show will be the biggest Amiga related show
that has been held in a long time. At this point 1000 visitors or more
are expected to attend.
Exhibitors and VIPs:
-Computer City (in and export of Amiga computers in the Benelux)
-Genesi, producer of Amiga-compatible PowerPC computer Pegasos and
desinger of the AmigaOS-compatible MorphOS operating system.
-Amiga Scene, Dutch Amiga magazine
-Amiga Plus, German Amiga magazine
-Vesalia, German Amiga dealer - Hamminkeln
-e.p.i.c. interactive entertainment gmbh, Amiga and MorphOS software
titles
-Fun Time World, German Amiga Dealer
-GGS-Data, Swedish Amiga Dealer
-Oliver Hanaford-Day, designer of the Coldfire Project, a new
accelerator board for the 'classic' Amiga computers.
-Ebay Nederland,
-Amiga.org, leading Amiga newssite and community portal
-Hellcoder, Software group
-IOSpirit, Software company
-HCC Commodore Gebruikers Groep, largest user-group in Holland
-Individual Computers - Jens Schoenfeld, designer of Amiga hardware
and manufacturer C-One Commodore-64 compatible reconfigurable
computer.
More information:
A number of other potential exhibitors have shown interest. More info
can be found next week at the official website.
Internet connections are available during the show and multiple
exhibitors will be giving away prices at the end of each day.
Events during the show
- AmigaOS4 demonstration
- Pegasos demonstration
- Amiga museum
- Lan-party (hosted by Genesi)
Conclusion
Make sure not to miss the greatest Amiga show this year! Bring your
friends, family and everyone who might be interested in Amiga
computing ... because this show will be something that you cannot
afford to miss !!
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A M I W E S T O S 4 A N D A U - C O R R E C T I O N
In our special issue on AmiWest earlier this month, we got our facts
wrong. The board loaned for demonstration of OS4 actually went to Mr.
Hardware Computers for their demonstration held later in New York.
The demonstrations held at AmiWest were on equipment provided by
Louie Dituri and Ray Zarling, who get high marks for their Amiga
volunteer spirit. Well done gentlemen!
We regret any confusion we may have caused. Brad.
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P O S E I D O N S I N K S E L B O X S U P P O R T
1 August, 2003
As of 01-Aug-03, further support for Elbox hardware has been dropped
for all times. No keyfile can be obtained anymore that will work with
the Spider. Users, who have registered before this date are not (yet)
affected. Eventually, the free updates will cease at some point (but
not this year). I've said this before, but I think I have to say this
again: Users of USB solutions, that come with an OEM-Licence (this
includes Subway, Highway, Algor and Pegasos), are not affected at all
and will have full support as long as Poseidon is available as a
product.
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A C I D 6 4 P L A Y E R 1 . 1 A N D 1 . 1 A
21 August 2003
ACID 64 Player version 1.1a released. A bug fix release for the
Catweasel MK3 card.
20 August 2003
ACID 64 Player version 1.1 released. It now supports the Catweasel
MK3 PCI/Flipper card.
Some new features:
- Changing device will not restart the sid tune anymore
- HardSID frequency adjustment for exact PAL/NTSC frequency like a
real C64
- Display/Change of PAL/NTSC frequency
- Support for switching output device to correct SID type (6581/8580)
- RSID file format support (still no digi's and will not work for all
tunes yet)
- Deadlock detection
- Improved muting (real silents when voices are muted!)
- Improved SID type check
- Improved layout for filter setting and device setting
ACID 64 player is a Commodore 64 music player for Windows that can
play SID tunes on sound cards with a real SID chip, like the HardSID
card and the Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper card. It emulates the MOS 6510
micro processor to run the code of a SID tune and controls the SID
chip (6581/8580) for playing Commodore 64 music.
This project started in 1995 with the SidCard. The SidCard is a
hardware module with a real SID chip that can be connected to the
parallel port. However, this hardware project is discontinued. The
software written for this project is ported to Windows and supports
now all the HardSID cards and the Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper card.
Features
- Supports all HardSID cards and the Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper card
- Support for multiple cards
- Emulation of all 6510 instructions including all undocumented
opcodes
- Exact timing for normal speed and multi speed songs!
- Exact frequency playback like a real C64 (PAL/NTSC)
- SID signal indicator for each voice (Note trigger)
- Up to 20 times fast forward
- Real muting of voices!
- Easy solo voices, change volume and toggle filter on/off
- Switch easy between devices without restarting the song
- Drag & drop support for multiple files
- Minimize to system tray for background playing
- Go back and forward in the history of played songs
- Easy short cuts to change settings on the fly
- And much more...
What's new in version 1.1a
- Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper card support
- Changing device will not restart the sid tune anymore
- HardSID frequency adjustment for exact frequency playback like a
real C64
- Display/change of PAL/NTSC frequency
- Support for switching output device to correct SID type (6581/8580)
- RSID file format support (still no digi's and will not play all sid
tunes correctly)
- Deadlock detection
- Improved muting (real silents when voices are muted!)
- Improved SID type check
- Improved layout for filter setting and device setting
http://www.xs4all.nl/~boswme/
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D I G I T A L A L M A N A C U P D A T E
25-Aug-2003
New version of Digital Almanac
The new version DA III V5.4 has been released. You can find it in the
download area. Here is a short list of changes that have been made:
City list has been rewritten. The list contains all countries of the
world with their flags (optional). The format of the list has changed,
so the list is now independent from the Locale settings. The moving of
cities was very buggy before. Now it works without any problems.
Online information of the countries are available from the CIA World
Factbook. Improved ephemeris of the Saturnian satellites Helene,
Telesto and Calypso with the help of the HTC20 theory. Online
informationen about the planets and satellites of the solar system can
now additionally be accessed from the planet filter in the preferences
window. IFF-ILBM savings are done via Datatypes. This saves about 10
kB code and is more system-friendly.
BUGFIX: In the calendar, meteor showers were shown at a wrong date.
BUGFIX: In previous versions, when the program was started from a
Shell, the DOS parameters were analyzes wrong. This bug is now fixed.
BUGFIX: Program could crash when drawing too many Deep-Sky objects
(PPC only).
http://www.digitalalmanac.de/english/home.html
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I M A G E M A G I C K 5 . 5 . 7 A V A I L A B L E
3 August, 2003
ImageMagickTM is a robust collection of tools and libraries offered
under a usage license to read, write, and manipulate an image in many
image formats (over 87 major formats) including popular formats like
TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, PhotoCD, and GIF. With ImageMagick you can
create images dynamically, making it suitable for Web applications.
You can also resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special
effects to an image or image sequence and save your completed work in
the same or differing image format. Image processing operations are
available from the command line, as well as through C, C++, Perl, or
Java programming interfaces.
Here are just a few examples of what ImageMagick can do:
Convert an image from one format to another (e.g. TIFF to JPEG)
Resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an
image
Create a montage of image thumbnails
Create a transparent image suitable for use on the Web
Turn a group of images into a GIF animation sequence
Create a composite image by combining several separate images
Draw shapes or text on an image
Decorate an image with a border or frame
Describe the format and characteristics of an image
--
You can access ImageMagick functions directly from the command line
using the ImageMagick tools convert, mogrify, montage, composite, or
identify. Finally you have access to the various image manipulation
methods directly from the most popular application development
environment: Perl, C++, C, Python, C, PHP, or Java. These programs,
and much more, are discussed in detail. Just follow the appropriate
link on the official ImageMagick WWW site.
You can subscribe to the mailing list or register with the Web-based
discourse server. Here you can ask questions and get advice from other
ImageMagick users and see announcements of bug fixes, enhancements,
and new releases.
ImageMagick is copyright ImageMagick Studio LLC, a non-profit
organization. ImageMagick is available for free, may be used to
support both open and proprietary applications, and may be
redistributed without fee.
http://amiga.sourceforge.net/ImageMagick/
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W A R P D T - N E W P A C K A G E S O U T
The WarpDT package comprises of a collection of picture datatypes,
and an accompanying easy-to-use preferences program. The image formats
currently supported are JFIF/JPEG, PNG, TIFF, Windows BMP, PCX and PSD
(Adobe Photoshop®), although support for more formats is planned. One
of the key features of the datatypes is their superior decoding speed
(hence the name Warp), especially on PowerPC equipped systems, and
most importantly not at the expense of power and features.
Fast, powerful 24-bit picture datatypes for AmigaOS®
68K (OS 3.x & Amithlon) and PowerPC (WarpOS, OS 4.0* & MorphOS)
25 August 2003 - WarpPCX V45.1 released
Today, a new addition to the WarpDT family was born (and free to
existing registered WarpDT users). As the name suggests, WarpPCX can
read ZSoft PC Paintbrush files (PCX). A new version of WarpDTPrefs is
also available, providing support for WarpPCX.
1 August 2003 - WarpTIFF V45.4 released
A new WarpTIFF is now available, with the following new features:
· Added support for files using the old-style JPEG compression
scheme.
· Implemented preliminary support for Xerox image files (XIF), which
use a proprietary format, but is actually extended from standard TIFF
format - PC scanner software, Pagis Pro, uses this file format.
http://www.warpdt.co.uk/
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W I N U A E C O N T I N U E S T O I M P R O V E
24 August, 2003
The latest version of WinUAE (0.8.22R9) has just become available.
Bugs fixed:
compiler misoptimization of some rare instructions (affected 0.8.22R8
only, usually caused GURUs)
bsdsocket emulation (connection freeze, IRCD, AmyGate etc..)
NTSC vsync sound
Windows 2K/XP CD detection problems in non-ASPI mode
more compatible audio emulation
(TBL's Tint, some demos playing only noise)
ticking/unticking 68000 "more compatible" checkbox on the fly does
not crash the emulated Amiga anymore
AVI capture sound sync
New features:
software 2x filters (Scale2x, SuperEagle, 2xSaI and Super2xSaI) and
manual screen position adjustment.
separate windowed and fullscreen mode width and height
100% exact blitter block mode cycle diagram (cycle-exact mode only) r
eplaced "run at higher priority" with priority selection select box
added CAPS support to mini-version
automatic AVI splitting
http://amiga.nvg.org/uae/releases/WinUAE/InstallWinUAE0822R9.exe
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
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Copyright 2003 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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