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Amiga Update (2004-06-30)
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A M I G A | 040630 | 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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O S 4 . 0 P R E - R E L E A S E T O D E V E L O P E R S
O S 4 . 0 U P D A T E F R O M H Y P E R I O N
N E W H Y P E R I O N W E B S I T E
A M I G A A L P E A D R I A A L M O S T H E R E !
A M I W E S T T I C K E T F O R M
T W O N E W V E R S I O N S O F P A G E S T R E A M
M O R E S V I E W I V F R E E W A R E
V I R U S Z I I I U P D A T E D
L A T E S T F R O M W I N U A E
M A L I B U 1 . 1 P L U G I N I S O U T
P I C S H O W F O R O S 4 , O T H E R S
T H E L A T E S T F R O M . . . C O M M O D O R E ?
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
June was a busy month in the Amiga community, as the variety and
nature of the stories below will show. The most important event, of
course was the arrival of the OS4.0 "pre-release" in the hands of
developers. It's hard to over-emphasize how important that is to the
Amiga community. All involved deserve a hearty "well done!" from the
rest of us. But there's no rest for the good guys. On now to the
general release to the rest of the Amiga world!
We also picked up on an interesting rumor. As most Amigans know,
Commodore has been resurrected after a fashion by Tulip Computers. The
rumor involves the "new" Commodore marketing Amiga One computers under
the name "Commodore Amiga". It's enough to make your head spin if
true. We haven't found any indication that this rumor IS true, but it
IS fun.
Speaking of Commodore, we thought you might be interested in knowing
what they're up to so they're the subject of our last story this time
around.
And while we're talking about non-Amiga news that might be of
interest to Amigans anyway, we came across the following in the June 18
issue of "Linux Pipeline":
"In Germany, the Brandenburg Cabinet, a regional governmental body,
approved a five-year strategic plan that approves the concept of
open-source software for government use as being "modern und
innovative." The Brandenburg action followed another move this week in
Munich, where the decision was made to move some 14,000 computers
gradually from Microsoft software to Linux-based open-source programs.
The process is scheduled to be completed in 2009, and the Munich city
council earmarked $42 million to carry out the plan.
"Elsewhere in Europe, Bulgarian politicians in Sofia criticized
Microsoft in a press conference, noting that the European Community's
antitrust regulatory agency had found the company guilty of antitrust
violations. Microsoft has denied the allegations.
"And, in Bergen, Norway, governmental officials moved to install
Linux on servers, utilizing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, replacing
Windows and Unix products."
You can read the entire article at:
http://www.linuxpipeline.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=22100903
Theres lots of fun this issue in our opinion. We hope you enjoy it.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
The following note was received this month, coming as a result of
recent letters from readers asking about the Video Toaster. Brad.
1 June, 2004
HI!
We've been a NewTek dealer for the last 14 years. NewTek is still
offering repairs (the last time I checked for a customer for free) on
Toaster and Flyer cards. I don't know if they have software available
but my guess is that they only have the last version (4.x) and it's on
CD. If the person who wrote in needs it on floppies we might be able
to get him copies.
The biggest problem we've seen in getting Amiga Toaster systems
running is usually they have a bad Amiga part and those are hard to
find replacements for (and NewTek has never done repairs on Amigas).
We've pretty much stopped doing repair because of this problem. Since
the person who wrote in gave no specifics it's hard to tell whether
ourselves, or any one else, can get the system running again.
They're welcome to call and speak with us if they like although I
make no guarantees. Our phone number is 812-330-0124 (Tues. - Sat.
10-6EST or they can e-mail me at kkuntz@digarts.com.
Thanks,
Kris Kuntz - owner
Digital Arts
Bloomington, IN
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O S 4 . 0 P R E - R E L E A S E T O D E V E L O P E R S
Leuven, Belgium - June 5th, 2004
Hyperion Entertainment is proud to announce that the
Developer-prerelease of AmigaOS 4.0, the PowerPC reimplementation of
the original Multimedia Operating System, is right now being shipped
to end users.
We invite all pre-Release customers to register their copy of AmigaOS
4.0 to unlock additional downloads and updates from our download area.
Amiga OS 4.0 © 2004 Hyperion Entertainment, developed under license
from KMOS, Inc. All rights reserved. "Amiga" and associated trademarks
are registered trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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O S 4 . 0 U P D A T E F R O M H Y P E R I O N
8 June, 2004
By Hans-Jörg Frieden, Hyperion Entertainment
With the Developer Pre-release finally out, the time is right for a
status report on the current state of AmigaOS 4.0. The huge amount of
work invested into the project by a lot of dedicated developers means
that there has already been substantial progress since the
pre-release.
Some of the 68k components of the pre-release have in the meantime
been ported to PowerPC code. The most prominent of these are Picasso96
and MUI. While Picasso96 is still in alpha test among the developers,
the PPC version of MUI is being beta-tested right now, and is expected
to be stabilized soon.
The kernel has also seen some updates. Among other things, it now
supports a special resource called the performance monitor. The
performance monitor is a hardware profiler within the CPU that allows
the programmer extremely fine-tuned profiling of code, even including
counting cache hits and misses,instruction timing, pipeline stalls,
number of instructions patched, instruction throughput, and a lot of
other factors. The performance monitor is controlled via
performancemonitor.resource, which offers an easy-to-use API that
wraps all this functionality into a few functions.
Further improvements of the kernel include support for the Altivec
unit. The Altivec unit is a SIMD vector processing unit. SIMD stands
for "single instruction multiple data", meaning that a series of
instructions is executed in parallel on multiple streams of data
items. Altivec has a lot of uses, most prominently in 3D graphics, but
also in image processing, signal processing,
compression/decompression, and all general computing applications that
inherently work by executing the same instructions on large datasets.
Altivec support in the kernel isn't 100% stable yet, but is expected
to be fully functional very soon.
Moovid, the well-known media player, has now also been ported to
PowerPC, and the results are quite spectacular. An Altivec-enabled
version is also in the works. Moovid plays a wide range of movie
codecs, including DivX. A lot of progress has also been made on the
shared C library, newlib, and the static C library, clib2.
Subsequently, there is now a new gcc compiler suite that runs up to
six times faster than the compiler included in the SDK. Furthermore,
since the final release of GNU C 3.4.0 has emerged, it has also been
successfully ported to AmigaOS 4.0, and is now used for most
components and programs. GCC 3.4.0 features a much better code
generator than previous versions, much better support for ANSI C++,
and implements the Motorola 'vector' extension for Altivec (meaning
you can use types like 'vector unsigned char x' in your program to
signify a vector for Altivec).
One program that has seen a tremendous speed boost is AmiPDF. The new
PowerPC version of AmiPDF is, depending on input, up to 60 times
faster than the original version on the prerelease.
Furthermore we expect a working serial device and floppy support
soon.
The USB stack is shaping up as well. It now supports HID devices like
keyboards and mice as well as HID joysticks and steering wheels, and
USB mass storage devices like USB sticks, flash card readers, 7-in-1
card readers and cameras.
The A1 IDE device now has working UDMA support. Also, interrupts are
no longer polled but delivered properly. This means that the device
does not require any CPU time for transfers.
Currently, work concentrates on performance optimization. Results
look quite good already, and stress tests have shown the device to be
100% reliable - no data corruption occurs
This material will in due course be released for download to
registered users of the Developer Pre-release on our web site at:
http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz
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N E W H Y P E R I O N W E B S I T E
Leuven, Belgium - June 5th, 2004
Hyperion Entertainment is proud to announce that our new web site is
now online. The new site can be reached at
www.hyperion-entertainment.biz.
The new site features an all-new dynamic content system that allows
registered users to login on the front page. Logging in will give
users access to otherwise restricted areas of the web site, including
more download options.
New features will be added to the web site in the future.
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A M I G A A L P E A D R I A A L M O S T H E R E !
25 June, 2004
Amiga Alpe Adria, the annual alternative and classic computing
get-together organized by our Italian Amiga Forever team, will take
place in little more than a week in Udine, a beautiful town located
between Venice and the Alps.
The event home page is at http://0xAA.org. The web site has just been
updated with the latest flight and travel resources, links to cultural
events, and exhibits information. It is now a very good time to take
advantage of last-minute airline offers. Additionally, tickets are
still available for concerts and performances which range from hip-hop
superstars Cypress Hill (at the nearby Rototom Sunsplash festival), to
Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, to Italian singer and songwriter
Nek.
This week's confirmed Amiga Alpe Adria guests include Ben Hermans of
Hyperion (developers of Amiga OS 4.0), Christian Kemp (founder and
maintainer of Amiga news site ANN.lu) and other Amiga personalities.
Amiga Alpe Adria is free to all attendees, including exhibitors.
Pre-registration is appreciated. The Amiga Alpe Adria web site
includes additional details and contact information to assist visitors
in their preparations and journeys.
We hope to see you on July 3rd!
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A M I W E S T T I C K E T F O R M
18 June, 2004
========================================
TIME TO BUY YOUR TICKETS FOR AMIWEST2004
========================================
Ticket prices for AmiWest 2004 are lower than last year's prices! We
have a great, newly remodeled facility and we want YOU to come be a
part of AmiWest 2004. So print this ticket form out and mail it to the
SACC address (given below)! ASAP!
AmiWest 2004,( July 24th & 25th ) Ticket Reservation Form
Inn at the Oaks
2600 Auburn Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95821
Your Name:______________________________________________________
Affiliation:______________________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
City:______________________________________________________
State/Province:_________________________ Postal(Zip) Code: __________
Country:_________________________
Email Address:______________________________________________________
Ticket wanted (Please Circle) TWO DAY PASS ONE DAY PASS: SAT SUN
Do you want Banquet tickets (Circle One) YES NO
Admission to AmiWest 2004 is:
$10 (One Day Pass - paid in advance by July 12, 2004)
$12 (One day Pass at the door)
$15 (Full Show Pass - paid in advance by July 12, 2004)
$18 (Full Show Pass at the door)
One day passes will allow admittance to any FREE seminars on that day
only.
Seminar topics will be announced later.
Banquet tickets are $28 per plate and MUST be paid in advance.
Seating is limited and tickets are available on a first come, first
served.
Please fill out this form and remit with proper payment (US Funds
Only) to:
AmiWest 2004
c/o Chuck Washburn
7051 Dolan Way
Citrus Heights CA 95621
USA
Make checks payable to "AmiWest". A form must be filled out for each
person attending the show although one check can be used.
For more information you can contact AmiWest by email to:
chela@calweb.com
or bdeneen@calweb.com
Phone: (916) 723-9846 Evenings ( California time )
Our WWW web page is: http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/
!!!!!!!!!!!!
So remember,
AmiWest 2004 is rolling! The facility is reserved and the vendors
are notified! Keep watching for these releases and tell everyone
that you know - the Amiga and the Amiga community is alive and
well!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOTEL CONTACT
July 24th and 25th, 2004
At a new location in Sacramento, CA
Inn at the Oaks
2600 Auburn Blvd.
Sacramento California 95821
Hotel direct reservations: 1-916-487-7600
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T W O N E W V E R S I O N S O F P A G E S T R E A M
16 June,2004
Grasshopper have announced two new releases of PageStream (their
powerful DTP application) for all supported platforms including Amiga.
New features of version 5 include:
o Alpha Blending for Text and Objects
o Picture Transparency
o Text Widow and Orphan Control
o Definable Printer Marks
o More Shortcuts
o Path Flatten and Smooth
o Hanging Bullets, DropCaps and Number
o New Duplicate Objects Method
o and more!
In addition the Pro edition can:
o Place PDF Objects
o Export Objects as Bitmap
o Automatically Adjust Text Width Justify
o Gradient/Radial Blend Masks for
Pictures/EPS/PDF/Drawings
o Path Math: Union/Add/Unique/Subtract
o and more!
The 68K Amiga version is expected later this month but you can order
an upgrade or the full version now.
Further details, prices and an on-line shop are available from the
Grasshopper LLC website.
http://www.grasshopperllc.com/
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M O R E S V I E W I V F R E E W A R E
2 June, 2004
Due to problems with Aminet upload, the SView5 keys now also are
available for download directly from http://www.ar-kleinert.de
14 June, 2004
In addition to the key file, the PPC modules for SViewIV now also are
freely available on Aminet (uploaded today).
Previously, these only were available for registered PPC users.
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V I R U S Z I I I U P D A T E D
4 June, 2004
Changes since the last release:
Fixed bug in Bootblock Lab which caused "Write" and "Install" to end
up in a disk i/o error if "Ask Before Write Access" option was
enabled. Thanks to Ronald Schakelaar for the bug report.
Fixed password handling for encrypted archives: a correct password
has already been remembered for all files before, but cancelling the
password requester because you don't know the correct password would
have caused new requesters for *all* files in the encrypted archive.
Now VirusZ also remembers the cancelling and will simply report all
following files as encrypted. Thanks to Thomas Tavoly for reporting
this problem.
Fixed bug that appeared after a sector check when checking disks that
have the same name as their device (eg. disk labeled 'DF0' in device
DF0:). Inhibit() is in fact a very simple DOS function that easily
gets confused, so I added a little workaround for this problem. Thanks
to Thomas Tavoly for the report and beta-testing.
Added lots of snapshots sent by Michel 'DMX' Bagmeijer and Andreas
Kürzinger. Thanks guys.
Fixed bug in code calling disassembler.library: the library might
have been opened several times but closed only once. Thanks to Michel
'DMX' meijer for the report.
Fixed bug in preferences loader: the 'Display SegTracker Info If
Available' options got switched off every time you (re)loaded the
settings. Thanks again to Michel 'DMX' Bagmeijer for this report.
Changed distribution from FREEWARE to MAILWARE as I need feedback for
further development. Currently I have no idea at all how many active
users are still out there...
Visit the Denmark Virus Help Team Website for more information.
http://www.vht-dk.dk/vhtdk/amiga/amiga.htm
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L A T E S T F R O M W I N U A E
6 June, 2004
New features include:
new rtg.library, 20-30 times faster Picasso96 pixel read
don't add contents of zip file to disk history if zip only contains
one supported disk image file
compatibility fix for buggy programs that access non-existing memory
in CIA address space
MIDI can be selected without serial port
full collision level implemented correctly (game "Rotor")
AVIOutput tweaks
improved compatibility (Back in Bizness, Total Triple Trouble)
Bugs in 0.8.26 fixed:
JIT-only crash when loading state file or loading new config on the
fly
crash when loading config and directory or no config file was
selected
ports-page uninitialized joystick/mouse radio buttons
ignore files not having .uae-extension when scanning configuration
file directory
GUI works now with non-96DPI fonts
possible crash when starting emulator or inserting/ejecting disks
JIT compatibility problems with some games (for example Alien Breed
3D II)
debugger am-command
"Priority=2!"-debug dialog
disk image path/name text input
Older bugs fixed:
centering improved
hardfile error "tried to seek out of bounds"-message when hardfile
was too small or blocksize was set to zero
fullscreen D3D/OpenGL-mode ALT-TAB
fixed forever repeating "...because desktop is too small for the
specified window size.."
saving config: always add (if missing) ".uae"-extension to config
file name
"exter_int_helper: unknown native action xxx"
Visit the WinUAE website for more information and forum links.
http://www.winuae.net/
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M A L I B U 1 . 1 P L U G I N I S O U T
27 June, 2004
Version 1.1 of the Malibu plugin for Hollywood is out now. With this
plugin, Hollywood can read and display Scala scripts. The following
things are new in Malibu 1.1:
- Support for curved fly-ons
- Many new Scala effects are supported
- General code optimizing; Malibu is faster now
- Several bug fixes
- More precise timing of Scala commands
- Better support for very old Scala versions (Scala 1.0, MM200)
- Better overall performance because of Hollywood 1.9 integration
This update is free for all owners of Malibu and can be downloaded
from the Airsoft Softwair homepage in the Malibu section. The update
can be used with the AmigaOS3 and MorphOS binaries of Malibu 1.0.
Please note that this update requires Hollywood 1.9. Malibu 1.1 does
only work with Hollywood 1.9!
http://www.airsoftsoftwair.com/
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P I C S H O W F O R O S 4 , O T H E R S
21 June, 2004
PicShow V1.31 Aos4 Native Released.
Also versions for 68k, PowerUp, WarpOS, MorphOS are also included in
the archive.
New since Version 1.29:
=======================
- AmigaOS4 native version
- new version numbering (version 1.31 now has the internal version
31.x)
- interpolation does no longer block the whole computer on Picasso96
(needs more memory)
- option menu divided into two menus
- picture list can be sorted by different criteria
- functions to control PicShow's window size on the Workbench
- new interpolation algorithms
- crop functions
- configurable user menu
- and much more
Available at:os4depot.net
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T H E L A T E S T F R O M . . . C O M M O D O R E ?
{For old times' sake. Brad}
Amersfoort, 18 June 2004
LEGENDARY BRAND COMMODORE IS BACK
Commodore International B.V. (Commodore), a
daughter company of Tulip Computers N.V. (Tulip
Computers), introduces a new entertainment portal
being CommodoreWorld. It is a distinctive
combination of hardware, music, film, (retro)
games and events via Internet for the whole of
Europe.
The new market approach of Commodore combines
hardware under a single brand, with digital
content and entertainment on a central website.
For the whole of Europe, a wide range of hardware
products in combination with various forms of
digital entertainment is offered. Within
CommodoreWorld, the customer can choose his
personal combination of legal content and hardware.
Music& Movies
Within CommodoreWorld, Music & Movies will be
providing a major contribution to the home
entertainment concept. In the United States, the
legal downloading of music and films is already
very popular while in Europe this is a fast
expanding market. CommodoreWorld offers the user
access to the catalogue of both the major
international record companies and the local disc
companies, primarily in Europe. This will result
in a highly varied offer of artists, which will
reach the widest possible public. The catalogue
will grow within a few months to an offer of at
least 500,000 tracks. All tracks are provided with
Digital Rights Management (DRM) based on Windows
Media Audio (WMA) files. The user obtains the
right to play music both on PC and on mobile
equipment and to burn it on a CD. In addition to
the legal downloading of music, Commodore will
offer the possibility, in the longer term, to
download also video clips and films. These can
also be viewed directly on TV or computer or using
a portable video player of Commodore.
Games
A number of classical C64 retro games will be
available via the CommodoreWorld website. The
games are offered legally, with the permission of
the authors or licence holders. The offer will be
considerably expanded in the next few months.
Commodore is launching emulators on the market for
PCs, pocket PCs and mobile phones, with also the
possibility of mobile gaming. The games are
expected to be available from 1 August 2004.
Hardware
Commodore offers a number of entertainment
products. These include both new products and
existing products in a modern version, such as the
C64 DTV, a joystick with thirty classic retro
games on it, such as: Summer Games, Winter Games,
California Games and Impossible Mission. The
joystick can be directly connected to the TV and
is then ready for use. In addition, also the names
of successful Commodore products, such as PET and
VIC, are reappearing in new hardware. The line of
hardware is composed of the Fpet (mobile data and
music carrier), the Mpet (mobile data and music
player) and the eVIC-20 (mobile jukebox with a 20
GB hard disc). This line will in future be
extended with accessories, additional storage
capacity, and with mobile video players for
viewing films and clips. In addition to mobile
solutions, Commodore will also launch contemporary
home entertainment products on the market. The
content for the selected products can be
downloaded via the CommodoreWorld website.
Media & Merchandising
Via CommodoreWorld, furthermore, a broad range of
various storage media will be available, among
other things CDR, CD/RW and DVD-R. In addition, a
range of products will be on offer including
Commodore T-shirts, shorts, sweaters and other
gadgets.
About Commodore International B.V.
Commodore International B.V. is a daughter company
of Tulip Computers. The CommodoreWorld concept is
developed in cooperation with a number
licensee-partners amongst others Yeahronimo N.V.
and Ironstone Partners Ltd. Through this joint
effort Tulip Computers and its partners will
strengthen their power to act and will limit the
financial risks connected to the development and
production of new products considerably. In
addition the introduction of new products and /or
services will be much quicker. The new and
official Commodore web portal can be reached
through www.commodoreworld.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! Now in our 11th year.
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Copyright 2004 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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