Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Amiga Update (2005-08-31)
======================================================================
________
_________ ____ _|__ __ __|_______ _________
__\ _____ \\\\ \_ _/ //___// _____//______\ _____ \\
// \\\\ /. \\\\__ \/ __// \\ \\____. /// \\\\ /. \\
\\___\¯ /___///___\ /___\ \\_________//\\___\¯ /___//
¯ \/ ¯ ¯ \/. |¯ ¯|z!o ¯ ¯ \/ ¯
A M I G A | 050831 | U P D A T E
|________|
"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
======================================================================
AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B I G B A S H 3 I N U K
P I A N E T A A M I G A I N I T A L Y
" R 2 D 2 " D I S P L A Y I S N O W R E A L !
E - U A E I S I M P R O V E D
A M I P O D D E R U P D A T E I S A V A I L A B L E
R O C K B E A T R O C K S O N T O 1 . 1
V A G U E L Y U S E F U L L D R A W I N G P R O G R A M
M U S I C P R O G R A M S I N N E W V E R S I O N S
M A T R I X S C R E E N S A V E R 1 . 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
As summer comes to an end (sigh) we find we have a couple of
interesting shows to report on this time, and some interesting
software. My favorite this month has to be the Mindspace drawing
program, honestly released as "vaguely usefull". Now there's a
designation you aren't going to see from Micro$oft although it would
be appropriate in many cases.
It's not an Amiga only item, but the mid-air display announced this
month by the folks at IO2technology has to be about the coolest
thing to come along in quite a while, and is probably the current
ultimate geek toy. For a number of days after the anouncement you
simply couldn't get into their website for the traffic. You can read
about it below, but be sure to check out the website for yourselves
and take a look at the videos. Reading between the lines, it seems
they may only have prototypes actually built so far, but the product
seems real enough. Wonder how well - or if - it will work with an
A1? As soon as someone knows, please tell us!
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
B I G B A S H 3 I N U K
11 August, 2005
The biggest and best Amiga event in the UK - Coming soon
Saturday, 24th of September 2005, Peterborough, UK. Amiga Big Bash 3,
Bigger and Better than before. More to buy, more services, more to
see, more hours and more to come!
Here's what we have lined up so far......
Bring and Buy Sale. (Free Space)
Got some unwanted Amiga related items you wish to sell? Big Bash 3 is
YOUR opportunity to sell them to people who will appreciate it. A
fully refundable deposit of 10(ukp) is all that's needed to secure
your space. Admittance aside, there is no charge for table space and
we anticipate all available spaces to sell out quickly, do not
hesitate. book now.
A1 4 U - Build it Area. (Free Service)
Subject to AmigaOne Boards being available, we will have a team of
experienced Amiga volunteers at hand to help build your AmigaOne on
the day for you. Just bring/Purchase your AmigaOne board, case,
peripherals and OS4, and we will do the rest! Walk out with your
AmigaOne complete and ready to go!
Amiga Medic Area. (Free Service)
Got a hardware or software problem on your existing Amiga? Be it
Classic or AmigaOne, our Amiga medic area, manned by experienced
volunteers will do their best to fix that long standing issue you may
have. Just bring your Amiga, we will have the monitor, leads,
keyboards, mice etc ready and waiting.
AmigaOne Fix it (15 UKP to cover cost of parts and time required to
do the work)We are proud to announce that AmigaOne Productions will
be at hand on the day to repair existing problems on AmigaOne XE/SE
boards. Please note that the fix is done at your own risk and
prebooking in advance is required.
AmigaKit.
We are proud to Announce that AmigaKit will be attending the show
selling a range of Amiga wares, from games to applications, hardware
and consumables.
Stellar Dreams.
The Only UK AmigaOne Dealer will be in attendance selling a wide
range of Amiga Goodies.
Eyetech Permitting, AmigaOnes, may be available to purchase on the
day!
Total Amiga Magazine
The Worlds Biggest Selling, English Language Amiga Magazine will also
be in attendance on the day.
OS4
We are proud to announce that Amiga OS4 Betatester Ryu will be
attending the show with his PPC based Classic A1200T and A4000 both
of which will be running OS4!
Plus!
Lots more to see, from Classic Amigas to Morphos and AROS too!
After Show Banquet
Don't wonder out, stay in, pay an additional £10 on the admittance
charge and you can join, exhibitors, organisers and volunteers for a
meal in the main hall after 6:45 pm.
All this plus, live webcast/webcam from the event
Don't miss out on the greatest Amiga Show in the UK this year, Head
to Peterborough!
Admittance is 3.50 UKP. Doors Open at 1:00pm and Close at 6:00.
Venue: Stafford Hall, Hampton Court, Westwood, Peterborough, PE3 7LD
For more information, please check our website
http://www.amigabigbash.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P I A N E T A A M I G A I N I T A L Y
31 September, 2005
The show will be held 3 and 4 september 2005 in Empoli's
Palaesposizioni. Here follows the official opening time of the show:
Saturday 3 September
sunday 4 september
Open 10:00 9:00
Close 18:00 12:00
ticket price: FREE!.
Appuntamenti - Appointments
This is a first list of the presentations and conferences that will
take place during Pianeta Amiga 2005:
- Amiga Platform Awards 2005 (to vote visit www.amigaplatform.com).
Highlights:
Amiga Forever 2005
Amiga OS 4.0 native PPC on Blizzard PPC and Cyberstorm PPC
Audio Evolution OS 4.0
Bitplane Amiga magazine issue 12
MMC 64, mmc adapter for C=64
Amiga Classix 4
LocalizATOr web application for management and creation of
locale catalogue
...and dozen more products and exclusive news...
Latest update:
- a new batch of microA1-C boards just reached us from Eyetech, they
will be sold at the show (only a few boards are still available).
- Andrea Vallinotto, from the AOS4 team, will keep two speeches on
Saturday 3, one aimed to AOS4 users and the second one aimed to AOS4
developers.
- Soft3 will show at its stand Autovision 2005, a multimedia package
actually in use in Driving Schools in Italy. The package reached its
10 years of life, and the author, Marco Fogli will show a WIP of the
new AOS4 version.
- Virtual Works will show AOS4 running on A4000 and A1200 PPC equipped
systems.
- Joachim Thomas will show LocalizATO, his new web-based project for
creating and managing local catalogs for Amiga.
- The price of the show ticket, thanks to the efforts of Jasa and all
the exhibitors is FREE!
http://www.pianetaamiga.it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
" R 2 D 2 " D I S P L A Y I S N O W R E A L !
22 August, 2005
>From IO2 Technolgy:
Overview
The Heliodisplay includes patented and patent pending technology to
transform normalambient air and display video images into free-space.
Some Heliodisplay models are interactive allowing a finger or hand to
move images around in the air as if one were grabbing a tangible
object.
The Heliodisplay requires a power outlet, and a computer, TV, DVD or
alternate video source. The current version of the Heliodisplay
projects a 22" to 42" (depending on model) diagonal image that floats
above the device. The Heliodisplay system is backward compatible and
accepts most 2D video sources (PC,TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game
consoles). For connection to a computer, the Heliodisplay uses a
standard monitor VGA connection; for TV or DVD viewing, it connects
using a standard RGB video cable.
Heliodisplay images are easily viewed in an office environment. Like
any computer monitor or TV, images appear brighter the lower the
ambient light. Also, just like viewing any computer monitor or TV,
viewing a Heliodisplay image in direct sunlight is almost impossible.
The Heliodisplay is interactive, like a virtual touchscreen. A hand
or finger can act as a mouse. No special glove or pointing device is
required. Just as you use a mouse to move the cursor on a traditional
computer monitor, you can use your finger to move the cursor around
the Heliodisplay image (see: Images & Videos).The Heliodisplay
connects to a computer (at least: Pentium III 400MHZ;25MB free disk
space;Win2000/XP) through a USB port.
Operating the device will not change a room's environment, air
quality or other conditions. Air comes into the device, is modified
then ejected and illuminated to produce the image. Nothing is added
to the air so there isn't any harmful gas or liquid emitted from the
device. If a Heliodisplay were left running for a week in a
hermetically sealed room, the only change to the room`s environment
would be from the electricity used to run the device. Although the
Heliodisplay uses lasers, the images are not holographic.
The image is display into two-dimensional space (i.e.planar).
Heliodisplay images appear 3D when viewed from more than a few feet
away because there is no physical depth reference. Images can be seen
up to 75?off aspect for a total viewing area of over 150?- similar to
an LCD screen. Viewing requires no special glasses or background
foreground screening.
The Heliodisplay is backward compatible and accepts most 2D video
sources (PC,TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game consoles). For connection to a
computer, the Heliodisplay uses a standard monitor VGA connection;
for TV or DVD viewing, it connects using a standard RGB video cable.
This version of the Heliodisplay is interactive, like a virtual
touchscreen. A hand or finger can act as a mouse for mouse/cursor
control. No special glove or pointing device is required. Just as you
use a mouse to move the cursor on a traditional computer monitor, you
can use your finger to move the cursor around the Heliodisplay image
(see: Images & Videos). The Heliodisplay connects to a computer (at
least: Pentium III 400MHZ;25MBfree disk space; Win2000/XP) through a
USB port
http://www.io2technology.com/technology/overview
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E - U A E I S I M P R O V E D
12 August, 2005
E-UAE 0.8.28
============
This is a fork of UAE, the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator, with an
emulation corebased on WinUAE. It attempts to bring many of the great
features of WinUAEto non-Windows platforms. This version now finally
has a name, E-UAE, sincethat's what everybody was calling it anyway.
The 'E' can stand for anythingyou fancy. Experimental, extreme,
exciting, egalitarian, eggplant, . . .
Currently it will build and run (with a varying degree of supported
features) on Linux and other Unices, Mac OS X, BeOS, AmigaOS itself
(either for 68k machines or PPC machines with OS4.0) and the AmigaOS
clones AROS and MorphOS. OS X requires either LibSDL or an X server
for graphicsoutput, but native graphics are supported on AmigaOS and
BeOS, although, at the moment, SDL is also preferred on BeOS since
the native driver is incomplete.
E-UAE is open-source software and is made available under the terms
of the GPL. See the COPYING file included with the E-UAE archive for
details.
E-UAE is based on the work of dozens of contributors including Bernd
Schmidt (the original author and maintainer of UAE), Bernie Meyer
(the author of the x86 JIT compiler), Toni Wilen (the current
maintainer of WinUAE), and many more.
To make full use of E-UAE you will need access to an image of some
version of the Amiga Kickstart ROM (although UAE does include a ROM
emulation which may work with some old games). The Amiga Kickstart
ROMs are copyrighted material and may not be freely distributed (so
don't ask me for a copy). If you don't have an Amiga from which you
can legally make a ROM image, a selection of ROM images are available
for purchase online from Cloanto (publishers of the Amiga Forever
distribution). Seehttp://www.amigaforever.com/
What's new since 0.8.27
=======================
General
-------
* Many core emulation changes and fixes merged from WinUAE 1.0.
* Optimized interpretive 68k emulation with speed improvements of up
to 30%.
* Fixes for building with GCC 4.0.
* Fixes for building on 64-bit hosts such as the AMD64.
* Option not to use the CPU's time-stamp counter for synchronization
on x86,
AMD64 and PPC machines (generally you will want to).
* Fixed virtual filesystem bug that was causing IBrowse to crash.
* Improved 'new' bsdsocket emulation (and it now works on OS X and on
AMD64/Linux too).
* Better screenmode support in SDL graphics driver.
* X11 driver supports raw key-mapping for xfree86 keycodes.
* Documentation updates (thanks to Henrik Farre for documenting the
command-line options).
Linux
-----
* Faster start-up on x86 and AMD64 systems and PPC systems with Open
Firmware (it's no longer necessary to perform TSC/TBC calibration at
start-up).
* CPU frequency scaling supported on x86/AMD64 systems.
OS X
----
* Faster start-up (it's no longer necessary to perform timing
calibration at start-up).
* Improved Cocoa dialogs (thanks to Steve Saunders).
AmigaOS (and clones)
--------------------
* Fixed virtual filesystem bug that broke mounting of a host path
ending in
a ':' or a '/'.
* Faster start-up on OS4 on AmigaONE hardware (it's no longer
necessary to
perform timing calibration at start-up).
* High/true-colour rendering supported on AROS.
* AmigaOS graphics driver now works on OS4 update 3.
* Emulated SCSI device and hence CD32 emulation now work on OS4.0
(support other Amiga-like OSes will follow).
Win32
-----
* Rudimentary support added for compiling with MinGW32 against SDL
(and I've also heard that it works with Cygwin). This is just for
fun right now, and if you want UAE on Windows you're much better off
sticking to WinUAE.
Still to do
===========
The following features of WinUAE are not supported:
* Serial and parallel port emulation.
* AHI soundcard emulation.
* Catweasel support.
* OpenGL rendering and graphics filters.
* Snapshots
* Emulation of a CD32 controller.
* Floppy drive sounds.
* Everything else that I've forgotten about.
Known problems
==============
Some significant misfeatures that I know about and am working to fix:
* Only platforms supporting the GTK+ toolkit have a useable
configuration GUI (and the GTK+ GUI is still incomplete).
* JIT direct memory access only works on Linux/x86 and, by default,
you may only emulate up to 32MB of direct ZIII RAM; select more
than that and the JIT will fall back on indirect memory access and
hence will be slower.
This is due to a system limit on the size of a POSIX shared memory
segment. You can overcome this limit my modifying the value of the
procfs setting, /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax.
* Autoscroll screens are broken in Picasso96 emulation.
* Virtual filesystem doesn't support platforms which use UTF-8 for
filenames (e.g., OS X, Linux with a UTF-8 locale, etc.). Filenames
with characters outside of the core ASCII range will be mangled.
* Hard files are limited to 2GB in size.
* Full documentation is lacking.
Using E-UAE
===========
Documentation is a work-in-progress. See the docs directory.
Compiling E-UAE yourself
========================
See the docs/compiling.txt file for more information about building
E-UAE.
CVS
===
Details about how to access the CVS repository containing the current
development version of E-UAE can be found at:
http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=109723
Contact
=======
See http://www.freelists.org/list/uae for details of a mailing list
discussing problems with and development of E-UAE.
Send bug reports, comments, patches, etc. to the above list or to:
Richard Drummond <uae@rcdrummond.net>
http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/e-uae-0.8.28-RC2/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I P O D D E R U P D A T E I S A V A I L A B L E
27 August, 2005
AmiPodder version 1.2 is now available for download. This release
speeds up the "Update all Channels" operation by checking to see if
the channel has been updated before downloading and processing the
feed. It's a small change but makes the "Upate all" feature much more
usable.
Podcasting is a new way for anyone (from large companies to
individuals) to distribute radio programs they have made themselves.
Podcasting has rapidly gained popularity, particularly with the
recent addition of podcasting support to Apple's iTunes music
software. AmiPodder enables you to subscribe (for free) to podcast
fees on your Amiga!
Once you have subscribed to a feed within AmiPodder, you can browse
the available podcasts and download the ones that interest you.
AmiPodder can be configured to download new podcasts automatically so
there is always something fresh and interesting to listen to. Once a
podcast has been downloaded AmiPodder can play it using MP3 player
utility on your Amiga and, optionally, copy it onto a portable MP3
player for listening anywhere.
http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/robert/amipodder/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
R O C K B E A T R O C K S O N T O 1 . 1
24 August, 2005
What is it? - RockBEAT is a simple software drum machine for
AmigaOS4.It is a tool for musicians that allows you to create
drumming tracks. It can create multiple tracks, each one being 4x 4/4
measures with 16th notes. You can save individual tracks as wav
files, or the whole thing as one big song. You can drop in your own
16bit 44100Hz PCM WAV samples in the drumsamples/ folder if you like.
Great for the bedroom guitarist!
- RockBEAT 1.1 now available. It
fixes a few teething problems
- No more grim reaper alerts when starting then stopping playback
quickly I removed an AbortIO() call that wasnt really needed.
- Theres no more excess silence at the end of wav files for
individually saved tracks
- Button graphics are freed up when quitting now
- All message ports are emptied and deleted when quitting. No more
"unfreed signals" error messages now, and I think it has brought up
stability a little.
- Drum samples limit changed to 20. It used to crash after more than
10 samples were loaded due to a silly programming error. i.e. looping
up to 20 times when there were only 10 available spaces in the array.
- Adding new samples to the drumsamples/ folder will no longer make
old projects invalid
- Better compatibility with some WAVs. RockBEAT used to assume a
certain WAV header value was a always certain size, but I've found
out it can bedifferent.
- I have included a cool cymbal sample to the default drumsamples/ set
The demo is restricted to 10 minutes. If you like it, you can
purchase a keyfile from me for $15 USD.
This is not an automated process. Once I recieve notice of your
payment, I will email you a keyfile as soon as possible. This
shouldnt be longerthan 48 hours.
http://wookiechat.amigarevolution.com/rockbeat/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
V A G U E L Y U S E F U L L D R A W I N G P R O G R A M
30 August, 2005
MindSpace Version 0.2
The "Vaguely Usefull" release
MindSpace and all its associated IP, files, icons, documentation and
everything are copyright Yoodoo2/Riba/AST 2005.
MindSpace enables the user to produce:
* flowcharts
* a range of UML diagrams
* MindMaps and Brainstorms
* Silly little pictures
In the future, MindSpace will output template code for C/C++
structures, functions and classes.
You can contact the author at : yoodoo2@ast-workshops.co.uk or via pm
at Amigaworld.net
Bug reports and feature suggestions are always welcomed at the above
addresses.
PLEASE don't suggest a feature already planned. Read the "Future
Developments" bit before suggesting a feature.
If you have any enquiries about MindSpace, mail mindspace@ast-
workshops.co.uk
MindSpace Requirements
Amiga running OS4 (PPC)
Not much Hard Drive space
Not much Ram
Minimum Workbench resolution 800x600 (for the moment)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M U S I C P R O G R A M S I N N E W V E R S I O N S
5 August, 2005
New versions of Horny (OS 4 native MIDI-sequencer) by Inutilis
Software and Audio Evolution 4 (OS 4 native audio-sequencer) by Davy
Wentzler have been released. Both are supporting the eXtream Sync
library for synchronizing now, so MIDI and audio can be used for the
same project. Pressing "play" in one application will start both at
the identical position (same for all other transport functions, of
course).
Inutilis Horny 1.1:
Screenshots and more information at http://www.inutilis.de/horny/
index.html
- added eXtreamSync support for synchronizing with AudioEvolution 4
and other software
- muting individual sequences is possible now
- "Running Status" compression for SMF export implemented
- SysEx import/export with SMF
- SysEx loading/saving from SysEx Manager
- SysEx Manager: Number of Messages are shown in the group list
- "Set Loop around Sequence(s)" function added to "Sequence(s)" menu
- some chapters of manual translated to English (incomplete and old,
sorry, but better than nothing??)
- added some instrument files (thanks to Daniel Jedlicka)
...more small changes and several bugfixes
Audio Evolution 4.0.8:
More information and downloads at http://www.audio-evolution.com
- supports eXtream Sync
- Many bug fixes including aux and mastering bugs
- Sample rates above 64 KHz are now possible
- Fixed licensing issues with OS4 update 3
- Added CAMD in/out selection requester
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M A T R I X S C R E E N S A V E R 1 . 3
1 August, 2005
Description: Matrix screen saver
Download: glmatrix.tgz
Version: 1.3
Date: 01 Aug 05
Author: Steen Lund Nielsen
Submitter: Steen Lund Nielsen
Email: steen@flux-studios.com
Requirements: Warp3D
Category: graphics/screenblanker
Replaces: graphics/screenblanker/glmatrixos4.lha
License: Other
Distribute: yes
FileID: 930
This is a port of the screen saver glmatrix from the xscreensaver
package by Jamie Zawinski.
The porting was done by Shadow of IRIS, aka. Steen Lund Nielsen.
Contact me at: steen@flux-studios.com
Requirements:
A 3D graphics card
Warp3D
AOS4
Installation:
Copy GLMatrix aswell as Matrix3_half2.png to the same directory.
For example 'WBStartup'.
Usage:
The screen saver runs as a commodity. The preference gui can be
accessed through commodity exchange or by running the program
twice.
The GUI is rather simple:
Timeout: The period in seconds it waits before blanking the
screen.
Density: Adjusts how many columns of symbols are dropped from
the top down.
Speed: Adjusts the animation speed.
Encoding: Selects different symbols.
Screen Mode: Select your prefered screen mode.
Fog: Enable/Disable distance cueing.
Wave: Enable/Disable waving of symbols.
Rotate: Enable/Disable camera rotation.
Invert alpha: Inverts the alpha channel of the texture. Enable
this if you are using a B/CVisionPPC or CV3D. I do not know if
this is still true for the OS4 version.
http://www.os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=graphics/
screenblanker/glmatrix.tgz
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~bandr/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! Now in our 12th publication year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2005 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
======================================================================
