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From:    "Colin-Stewart Bridge Deady" <csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com>
Date:    29 Mar 99 23:33:47 +0000
Subject: Summary 13
To:      kosh-general@kosh.net

This is a MIME encoded multipart message. The fact that you are reading
this means you don't have a MIME capable mail program. You might still
be able to read part of the mail's content, but some of it may require
a MIME capable mail reader to decode. Following are some URLs where
you can find MIME-capable mail programs for common platforms:

  Amiga............: MicroDot-II  http://www.vapor.com/
  Unix.............: Metamail     ftp://ftp.bellcore.com/nsb/
  Windows/Macintosh: Eudora       http://www.qualcomm.com/

General info about MIME can be found at:

  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mail/mime-faq/top.html

--=_=8<==MD237000DDB-2E5C69D0==8<=_=
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Hi all

Summary 13 enclosed. Many thanks to Robert Wise and John Chandler who
helped out with writing it.

It's a long one - a very long one - and I decided to keep John's
excellent contribution in a separate file to reduce the size of the
main file - although admittedly this is a larger_than_average summary.

If we get this many contributions to the general mailing list in the
future I will need help summarising the ML on a regular basis -
alternatively -please- take a lot of topics to the appropriate other
lists as I can't summarise them for lack of time.

Regards
-Bridge


--
http://www.mythicz.u-net.com | csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com
ICQ:29145054 | DT-MUD:sunsite.auc.dk:4242
Amigan | Vegan | KOSHan Go for a swim in the object sea,
http://www.kosh.net | Storm of the Eye GUI-PBEM http://www.2bp.com/

--=_=8<==MD237000DDB-2E5C69D0==8<=_=
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="ksum13.txt"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: plain (7/8 bit)
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="ksum13.txt"
X-MD2-FilePath: Work:mythicz/ksum13.txt

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 20th March 1999

Number: 013

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

The Summary this week was completed jointly by myself, Bridge Deady, Robert
Wise and John Chandler. I have incorporated Robert's sections into the main
summary but I have enclosed John's separately to allow for different
pagination.

a)

Subject: Keyboard mapping

Summary of debate: An idea posted is that it would be useful if you could swap
                   keys of the keyboard in software. For example, if you wanted
                   to replace "x" with "y" you would just run the appropriate
                   mini application, specify the keys to swap and choose OK.
                   This would allow people who would like keys to be mapped
                   slightly differently to be able to accomplish this.

                   It was further suggested that this could later be
                   implemented in hardware by allowing physical hotswapping of
                   keys on a keyboard. Does USB have the bandwidth and features
                   to enable this?

                   Each key could have the character it represents embedded in
                   it, interfacing through a quick-connect/disconnect plug. An
                   advantage of this is that if a key stopped working you could
                   just buy a new key rather than a new keyboard. If you needed
                   more space for a larger alphabet you could just clip on a
                   new section to the board and populate it with your chosen
                   keys. Perhaps this interfacing could be achieved with PIC
                   chips cut down to size?

                   It was pointed out that this is all part of a larger picture
                   about the ability to input into a computer in a native
                   language. To this end it would be nice to get involvement
                   from people in Asia in KOSH. The system should support many
                   languages as standard (presumably via language objects).

                   Keyboards could be handled via a keyboard driver object. The
                   actual keyboard can be anything the user wants to use. A
                   stream of input messages come from the keyboard which could
                   be unicode characters or special events (eg: Help key)/ If
                   its a smart keyboard (like USB) it will automatically start
                   the correct driver.

                   Suggested that a lot of what has been said could be
                   accomplished by a configurable touch screen although it
                   would lack tactile feedback. Tactile feedback could possibly
                   be handled via a gell that becomes progressively harder as
                   an electric field is applied to it - at the points where it
                   is pressed.


                   Different keyboard input objects based on Unicode could
                   handle any input required. Alternatively have an intermediate
                   object between the keyboard input object and the input
                   handler object, which may translate.

                   The Dworak keyboard that maps the most used keys closest to
                   where one has ones fingers was mentioned.

                   Could each key have a LED like the one on the Amiga Caps
                   Lock key?




b)

Subject: Cooling KOSH (was Waterproofing KOSH)

Summary of debate: Perhaps by using conductive fluid pipes in the computer one
                   could cool it.

                   Another idea would be to have slots on top of the machine
                   (not the side where they currently are), but this would take
                   us back to the first problem - coffee spills and dust.
                   Therefore the slits could be at the top edges of the case
                   facing out of either side with a slight V-shape in the
                   inside top of the case directing hot air that rises to these
                   outlets. Any foreign bodies entering these outlets could be
                   made to fall down channels in the inner side of the machine
                   and hopefully not enter the fragile innards.


c)

Subject: Chunky pixel and bit plane graphics modes

Summary of debate: When we get around to designing KOSH graphics cards can we
                   try to use the advantages of both systems mentioned above?

                   By connecting the vsync signal from the graphics card to a
                   hardware interrupt pin on the CPU we can make real-time
                   window dragging look smooth and fluid.

                   KOSH should use the inbuilt interrupt feature of many
                   graphics cards to accomplish this.

                   KOSH graphics cards could contain some form of copper, maybe
                   a more advanced version that allows 2D operation (which
                   would speed up the GUI).

                   Further questions raised: do we want a graphics card at all
                   when instead we could use a modular design, keeping the RAM,
                   DAC and custom chips as separate, scalable and optional
                   modules?

                   Do we want shared memory for graphics, data and sound like
                   the Amiga's chip RAM?



d)

Subject: Memory protection

Summary of debate: Would it be possible with today's memory management units to
                   protect private members of a single object?

                   Dave Haynie has previously suggested a system using flexible
                   context objects, which can live in at least four different
                   protection levels (app, global, object, and system).

                   Only if you wanted to devote a large chunk of memory to each
                   such object. An MMU, for good reason, works in page-sized
                   increments.

                   Could there be a standard way to lock an object in memory
                   for reading and writing to prevent another task or person
                   from changing the object that is curently being used?

                   Only if you wanted to devote a large chunk of memory to each
                   such object. An MMU works in page-sized increments.

                   However from the Amiga we can see that a system can be
                   stable without protection - it also shows where protection
                   is needed.

                   Only write-protection is needed to avoid having
                   applications trash each other's memory. However security
                   reasons would mean that you may not want someone to scan all
                   your documents and therefore read-protection is also needed.

                   What mechanism might exist to identify methods that a given
                   object understands? How would it be possible to tell that a
                   particular subclass of text object manipulator understands
                   font styles or not, or some similar thing? Not necessarily
                   determining whether it responds to a specific method, but
                   whether it has an equivalent method.

                   To physically protect objects from being altered by
                   malfunctioning classes each object could have its own memory
                   space. Knowing when to protect the object is as important as
                   actually protecting it.


e)

Subject: Book recommendations

Summary of debate: Booch's book about Object Oriented Analysis and Design,
                   (Grady Booch. 0-8053-5340-2) comes recommended.
                   Also recommended is Software Inspection by Gilb and
                   Graham (0-201-19246-2, 0-201-63181-4), which gives good
                   ideas about how to increase the quality of software.

                   Scribe's note: Books are summarised on the kosh booklist
                   website - see a previous summary for the URL.



f)

Subject: KOSH training

Summary of debate: Many people involved with KOSH may not that well versed in
                   the technology behind the proposals. Mario Saitti is willing
                   to help set up a system for KOSH to teach structured
                   programming methodology/Data Structures/SSADM/computational
                   to anyone interested.

                   Suggested that we should be thinking about teaching OO, not
                   structured programming. Structure programming doesn't really
                   go well with the object sea.

                   OO Design could also be a very valuable skill for all KOSH
                   members.

                   Could such training "courses" actually be devised?
                   Supplementing such training with books was recommended.


g)

Subject: Against hosted

Summary of debate: One scribe-e pointed out that they are against running hosted
                   versions of KOSH. Their reasoning is that there may be little
                   point in redefining computing to use modern methodology if we
                   put it atop of a base that is at least 20 years old. While
                   ensuring market compatibility is the compromise worth it?


h)

Subject: Why there should be an Object Sea

Summary of debate: One scribe-e pointed out they currently view the object sea
                   as just a set of descriptors and protocols made up of sub
                   classes which determine how the system will handle the
                   object.

                   The advantages of this approach include the fact that it
                   promotes really serious, heavy use of code reuse and
                   polymorphism. Together, these can lead to both better
                   performance and far more reliable code. It is then easy to
                   add behaviours to the system.

                   why is there a need for a frozen form?

                   A datatype still needs to open the JPEG file, close it later,
                   perhaps committing or forgetting edits at the same point.


i)

Subject: COMAL, REBOL, JIT & Basic KOSH

Summary of debate: Should KOSH come with a BASIC-like interpreted language?

                   A COMAL interpreter included with KOSH as standard was also
                   suggested. COMAL is very widely supported.

                   How about REBOL which is a messaging based interpretive
                   language currently going towards version 2.0 and developed
                   by Carl Sassenrath? See: http://www.rebol.com <=Some like
                   REBOL, others are less impressed.

                   Why bother with an interpreted language when with KOSH we
                   are thinking of the possibility of programs compiling at
                   either install or run time from a slim binary type of
                   format? How about a JIT compiled language as we would not
                   lose significantly in time that way?

                   Suggested is making a computer language that is more like
                   the equations that scientists and people in general have
                   been using all their life. Pointed out that we may not want
                   to create a new language. Mentioned that instead of a
                   compiled language one that halts and hilighted errors would
                   be good.

                   The standard compiler shipped with KOSH could be simple with
                   a more advanced highly optimised version available for
                   purchase.

                   In regard to OO rather than structured programming, see
                   Farenheit at http://www.sgi.com for some of the newest
                   declarative systems.


j)

Subject: CORBA links

Summary of debate: See:
                   http://www.corba.org ? Try searching for papers and AOOC.
                   http://www.cetus-links.org/ have some links that might be of
                   interest.

                   Also see: http://www.omg.org (or something similar) - the
                   parent organization is something like "Open Management
                   Group".




k)

Subject: Structured design methodology

Summary of debate: Suggested that we could all write a few lines on structured
                   design methodology and someone could summarize it for the
                   glossary.


l)

Subject: Accessing KOSH (continued)

Summary of debate: A completely aural interface for the system could be very
                   useful for those who are completely blind.

                   However this could have disadvantages such as if the
                   interface was left turned on next to a radio. Perhaps
                   preface commands to the computer with another word (aka Star
                   Trek).

                   Any audio control should be able to understand conceptual
                   terms - most likely via some AI.

                   A true 2-colour screen could be useful for someone who is
                   colourblind.

                   Avoiding colour clash (a form of colour blindness) when
                   certain colours are placed on other colours should be
                   paramount in KOSH.

                   Braille keyboards and a Braille screen were further
                   suggested.

                   Circular radar like pulses going to a mouse pointer when you
                   press a shortcut key could be used to help keep track of the
                   pointer.

                   The Amiga and Mac ability to flash the screen when there is
                   an error as well as provide a beep should be included.

                   We should also look at alternatives to keyboard + mouse
                   including joystick control amongst many possibilities.

                   Mario Saitti has suggested that issues like these would need
                   an entire working group of their own.



m)

Subject: DLL's

Summary of debate: Was mentioned by a number of people that we should stay away
                   from a system similar to Windows DLL files as these can
                   create severe problems when things go wrong.


n)

Subject: Garbage collection

Summary of debate: Garbage collection from LISP could be used. Object Seas
                   based on their existence are suggested as the way to go.


o)

Subject: Localised languages

Summary of debate: Locale on AmigaOS allowed easy adaptation to many languages.
                   By incorporating this in some form into KOSH the system as a
                   whole becomes even more inclusive.

                   To fully internationalise KOSH it was suggested that a
                   mixture of languages should be useable at once. An example
                   given was Swedish in a wordprocessor but something else in
                   the other applications.

                   KOSH from the ground up should be designed to be flexible
                   and powerful in respect to language implementation including
                   Kanji which appears to be very complex.


p)

Subject: Punch cards

Summary of debate: KOSH should support punch cards as there is a lot of data
                   stored on them which is currently difficult to access.

                   It was pointed out that this could be achieved by placing
                   the punch card in a scanner and then interpreting the
                   resulting picture.


q)

Subject: KOSH-OO-help ML

Summary of debate: A mailing list with the above title was suggested by John
                   Gustafsson so him, Dave and others can post a mail now and
                   then about something about OO and those interested could
                   talk about it.


r)

Subject: Get together

Summary of debate: Suggested we should all get together to celebrate the
                   release of KOSH 1.0 when it is out. Joel Newkirk wants to
                   know if we want to go to a party at his place? Such an
                   opportunity will give us all a chance to meet each other.
                   Dave Haynie then goes and invites us all to his place for a
                   Summer party in the year 2000 - what a nice gesture!. Mario
                   Saitti then makes further offers around the theme of a get
                   together.

                   Oh and ideas for the place to celebrate KOSH 2.0 are coming
                   in now as well:P


s)

Subject: Hardware Procurement WG

Summary of debate: Joel Newkirk suggests the above working group to establish
                   means of procuring hardware for testing, kommunity needs,
                   individual purposes, etc at the lowest available prices.
                   Maybe establish a specific physical/legal base in the state
                   of Delaware, which is conveniently free of sales tax, yet in
                   a convenient location at the heart of the US East Coast
                   Metro-Belt.


t)

Subject: Users as objects

Summary of debate: Suggested that we could tread users as objects or a set of
                   objects, with permissions for various things and levels
                   being objects or object-related as well.

u)

Subject: Multiuser systems

Summary of debate: Mentioned that would we need a multiuser system? With KOSH
                   being designed so that it is fast, easy and fun to use
                   rather than a mainframe OS with terminals and users perhaps
                   multiuser is unnecessary.

                   However multiuser systems may be a must for any connected
                   computer. File sharing would be hard and inefficient without
                   a multiuser system.

                   The multiuser model could be defined and then set the single
                   user model as the degenerate case.

                   By being able to boot the system into a configuration mode
                   that is free of user context software and hardware could be
                   easily added globally.

                   Data, applications and hardware could all be user-specific
                   (with the ability to add other users) or global in their
                   availability. Therefore we could have just one KOSH
                   distribution with many different levels of users. Sharing
                   like this could also be done over a network.

                   If every KOSH machine is fully multi-user it would mean that
                   identifying oneself to any machine would allow access to all
                   of that users resources and settings. Suggested that KOSH
                   should see multiuser as adding "personal" resources and
                   access privileges to the generic system.


v)

Subject: Resolving handles

Summary of debate:  Resolving handles and finding methods/interfaces is likely
                    to take at least some processor time. Suggested these
                    things could be cached.

                    Further suggested is that we could have some objects built
                    at install time and updated at runtime if applicable, to
                    handle the resolving, on the machine the application or
                    object's installed on. The OS then wouldn't have to do a
                    new complete resolve each time the object were to be
                    invoked.


w)

Subject: KOSH Vocabulary WG

Summary of debate: Ruward F. Leenstra has suggested that it is time to create
                   the above named working group. As this will help with
                   reading Dave's paper on the Object Sea by defining and
                   explaining the terms contained within it.

                   A lot of interest was shown in this idea.


x)

Subject: KOSH FAQ

Summary of debate: Suggested that for subjects covered by KOSH mailing lists we
                   could have a frequently asked questions section of the web
                   site.


y)

Subject: Object synchronization

Summary of debate: One of the concepts arising in the discussions is the ability
                   to synchronize object by transferring the events (methods)
                   from one system to another. If the objects in question are
                   identical then no problem exists. If they are different, but
                   significantly similar then the same effect could be achieved,
                   in a limited fashion. The question is how can we determine
                   what methods a given object will respond to, and if those
                   methods are globally standard or intrinsic to that object?

                   By looking at the objects class hierarchy, the class
                   definition will determine the methods an object will
                   understand.

                   Suggested that we let the object manager be responsible for
                   almost everything related to this.  Instead of calling an
                   object directly or using an object that pre-exists, we could
                   call the object manager to rebuild an appropriate object. All
                   calls to the object manager should be abstract under this.

                   Object Synchrony developed as an approach where two compatible
                   objects on different systems are synchronized by duplicating
                   the events therein or methods sent thereto between 2+ objects.

z)

Subject: Alternatives to the monitor

Summary of debate: Audio cues discussed in depth. They have advantages over
                   simply enlarging the text on screen, although having the
                   ability to work split at the OS level (not just in
                   applications) with one half at 100% magnification and the
                   other at anything you choose would be neat.

                   See http://www.cast.org - Center for Applied Special
                   Technology. Part of their purpose is to expand the
                   accessibility of computers. Their Blobby tool at
                   http://www.cast.org/blobby is very useful to check web pages
                   for accessibility.

                   Suggested KOSH could contact relevant organisations (eg:
                   Royal Society for the Blind in the UK) and tell them that we
                   are interested in getting opinions of our ideas from
                   experts in the field, and that we are eager to try to
                   incorporate capabilities they can show to be helpful.

                   It was stated by someone who is visually impaired that a
                   windowing system is useless for the blind and if you are
                   otherwise visually impaired such a system is poor.


1a)

Subject: Window shapes

Summary of debate: At the moment almost all windows are rectangular. If KOSH
                   implemented a form of masks from the outset the windows
                   could be any shape desired.


1b)

Subject: VB Problems

Summary of debate: See the following re Visual Basic and problems with it:
http://www.vb-zone.com/upload/free/features/vbpj/1999/mckinney/mckinney1.asp#1


1c)

Subject: Mouse movement

Summary of debate: The mouse pointer in KOSH must not be jerky, it must be
                   completely fluent.


1d)

Subject: More mouse control

Summary of debate: A small trackball under the finger on top of a mouse could
                   be used in addition to the mouse itself for panning and
                   zooming etc.

                   How about a horizontal wheel as well as the vertical one.

                   Mice that sense rotation were suggested.

                   Pointed out that if the drivers were written better the
                   support for the mouse could be automatic without an
                   application exactly having to support it.

                   A trackball or a trackpad in the center of a split keyboard
                   was suggested as an alternative.


1e)

Subject: Cartesian Coordinates

Summary of debate: Cartesian Coordinates were suggested to be used with the
                   Object Sea as 2D and 3D objects. However they can be
                   difficult to deal with a lot of non-rectilinear objects and
                   waveforms.


1f)

Subject: Alternative caching method

Summary of debate: Could we create a new 'protected' directory object that is
                   accessible only to the parent task and appears and
                   disapears along with it? This could be useable to get
                   around a new EU ruling that caching is against copyright
                   law.


1g)

Subject: Mutual NDA

Summary of debate: To protect KOSH work and the work of individuals involved it
                   may be necessary at some stage in the future to use mutual
                   non disclosure acts in some areas of the Kommunity - namely
                   in certain Working Groups set up for certain reasons. Anyone
                   could have access to this but they would have to sign a
                   mutual NDA with KOSH, Inc. to gain access.


1h)

Subject: High Performance Computing Users (HPCU) Group Annual Conference

Summary of debate: See: http://www.hpcu.org re the above, or the email posted
                   by Giorgio Gomelsky (gio1@interport.net) on the 26th March
                   entitled "Fwd: Computers/computation/standards" which is a
                   forwarded message calling for computer papers on an array of
                   topics.


1i)

Subject:  Using a new object model rather than an existing one.

Summary of Debate:  Several features were proposed for the KOSH object
                    model which do not exist in current object models
                    (specifically C++'s.)  One of these features is
                    method transparency/translucence.  Using this
                    feature it is possible to create a transparent/
                    translucent container class which receives methods
                    and passes those methods along to the objects the
                    class contains.  Method transparency/translucence
                    can be utilized by an object to "broadcast" a
                    method to many recieving objects.  There was some
                    concern that this would be wasteful, in that during
                    a broadcast many objects could receive methods they
                    do not implement, and be forced to ignore those
                    methods.  Used appropriately, however, the ability
                    to "broadcast" methods would be a powerful tool.
                    An example of a translucent container would be a
                    generic-disc-object-container.  This would be a
                    container class that held all the information
                    necessary to store an object that exists in memory
                    on the disc.  The advantage of this is that while
                    the object is in memory it is not burdened with the
                    information about how it is stored on disc, and the
                    information about how to store an object on disc
                    can be implemented once, rather than over and over
                    again for each class.

                    Another feature proposed for the KOSH object model
                    was bidirectional polymorphism.  Here methods can
                    be sent to a class which does not implement those
                    methods but may implement them at some point in the
                    future.


1j)

Subject:  "Model-View-Controller" GUI Implementations

Summary of Debate:  Under this common method for GUI implementation
                    each GUI component is broken into three pieces.
                    The Model consists of the logical representation of
                    the component, the View consists of the visible
                    representation of the component, and the Controller
                    consists of mechanisms to which the component
                    responds.  This model originated in Smalltalk and
                    is used in QNX and in modified form in Java
                    JFC (SWING)


1k)

Subject:  Polymorphism

Summary of Debate:  Polymorphism was described as a subclass being
                    functionally the same class as it's parent class.
                    It was noted that this would be useful when
                    attempting to synchronize heterogenous objects.  As
                    long as the objects shared a common ancestry they
                    would have a set of common methods.  C++ uses
                    "pure virtual methods" in it's handling of
                    polymorphism, which are methods that are left
                    unimplemented in a parent class and must be
                    implemented in all subclasses of the parent.


1l)

Subject:  Object Links

Summary of Debate:  Anyone wanting to read more about object
                    orientation should check out the following:
                    Very Introductory Stuff
                    http://www.soft-design.com/softinfo/objects.html
                    Smalltalk ("Squeak" is a popular free subset
                    implementation)
                    http://www2.ncsu.edu/eos/info/ece480_info/project/
                        spring96/proj63/www/index.html
                    http://squeak.cs.uiuc.edu/
                    http://www.ddj.com/articles/1999/9901/9901k/
                        9901k.htm (funny)
                    http://www.stic.org/

                    Eiffel
                    http://www.eiffel.com/doc/manuals/language/intro/
                        page.html

                    Java
                    http://128.95.4.112/homes/gjb/doc/java-lang/
                        index.htm
                    http://www.javasoft.com/docs/books/tutorial/
                    http://www.javasoft.com/beans/docs/spec.html


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Object Technology & Resources Summary

** Efficiency, Flexibility & Classes

The discussion mentioned the trade-offs required to balance efficiency and flexibility. Concerns about
making unnecessary calls to objects which may not implement a specified method was countered with the
fact that broadcasting requests can often be more efficient than implementing suitability tests.

It was also pointed out that it is better to build an object in runtime from appropriate classes using
predefined methods. An 'upgrade flag' would be present in the system: objects could be 'frozen' to assist
with performance, but re-built by the object manager during each upgrade. Classes unable to fulfil a
functional requirement are ignored - this leaves a missing function, but is highly unlikely to cause
anything to fail.

Properties of objects shouldn't be restricted in general - UI characteristics, for example, could
legitimately be inherited by 'non-UI' objects in order to, say, provide display and user-interaction
parameters. Developing hybrid weirdity (great term!) is another reason for being able to want methods
mutating, but without the object code changing. A functional flow interface with user interaction provides
an example of this: streaming data and live interaction with adaption being performed - methods adapting
to the quality and quantity of data to change the visualisation. Dynamic artwork is also mentioned, as is
being able to change colour representation or whatever. To quote Paula Lieberman:

	"let's add some purple dye up there at time N, and at time N+1 change the dye to yellow, and
	when I press the Escape key, make it violent chartreuse with an A minor chord on a organ sample
	at fff....."

In essence, you need to be able to ensure the flexibility is there to cope with the things we didn't
originally anticipate. [John's note: truly creative stuff comes from really bending things totally out of
shape - if you can't do that, creativity is limited]. The needs of users can often be different from the needs
of programmers, which suggests we must make it easy for developers to create the software the users
want, and not their own 'toy pet'.

** Selfmodifying Code

Comments on selfmodifying code spawned some interesting points. Experience of LISP has given a sour
opinion of selfmodifying code to many, and it is indeed a bad idea in most cases (selfmodifying code, that
is - not LISP!). Modern computers, with varying cache capabilities, can easily have performance
degraded by selfmodifying code. Well, if you do it wrongly it can - but if you do it right it can improve
things quite considerably. [John's note: compare to the issue of 'goto' - while a bad thing for almost all
situations, it does have its uses when handled properly].

The cache problem can be handled sufficiently by flushing the first level cache. However, as cache sizes
get bigger and more processors are added you have more caches to flush. The Intel Merced, for example,
will probably have an 8 MB cache, and be present in multiple-CPU configurations.

Furthermore, it's important not to get confused about what selfmodifying code is:  it's code directly
changed during execution. However, if this code is actually rewritten to cover different cases as multiple
sections of code accessed through conditional branching you can develop alternatives for most uses of
selfmodification without cache problems and the like which can degrade performance. Of course, you
could create versions of functions/methods for a given system and just swap a pointer to direct code to the
right method - selfmodification would then only occur at the moment code is first loaded up. It was
mentioned that selfmodification should even be physically forbidden through techniques such as write-
protection of memory.

Are some of us trying to out-optimise modern optimising compilers by any means necessary? Apart from
keeping code compact (not really much of a necessity these days and still achievable through other means)
selfmodification can be replaced by more considered, structured programming approaches.

** Structured Programming

Ah, structured programming... In particular, criticism about universities and other institutions
(particularly in the west) not placing enough emphasis on structured design and programming techniques.
[John's note: Oxford Brookes University, UK taught me structured programming and design with great
emphasis, so not all universities are bad].

Good languages mentioned for teaching structured programming included Pascal and Modula-2 (praise to
Wirth!) as well as Java, while C and C++ came under fire for being unnecessarily complex,
unstructured and unfriendly. C++ has also helped destroy some companies, apparently! [John's note:
Sounds like C++ and ISO 9000 are related...]


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======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E 
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
         KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING         ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
----------------------------------------------------------------------
990328

         A M I G A   R C 5   T E A M   N E E D S   H E L P 

       C O R R E L   R U M O R   S P O T T E D   O N   N E T 

         P U R E   P P C   F R O M   P H A S E   5   . . .

               . . .A N D   F R O M   M E T @ B O X 

              U G N   T A P S   H E N R Y   C H U N G 

               P A L M B A C K U P   R E L E A S E D 

              N E W S   F R O M   D V S   D I R E C T 

           B E T T E R W E B   F R O M   P A N T H E O N 

                 T W O   N E W   F R O M   A T E O 

         C L I C K B O O M   A U C T I O N   F O R   A L L 

                  A M I G A   R A D I O   N E W S 

            N E W I C O N S   4 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

           A N O T H E R   M O Z I L L A   P R O J E C T 

                 T H O R   2 . 6   R E L E A S E D

       W I L D F I R E   7   F R O M   N O V A   D E S I G N 

 
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 This must be the PPC issue. Just as we were sending the last issue
off, we learned of a very interesting PPC board from Phase 5 but
weren't able to get a good story for that issue. We do have a story in
this one. Then, as we were preparing this issue, we learned that
another similar board had also been announced. This one is from
met@box, formerly known as Pios. We've information on both boards
below. We sure hope there's room in the market for both.
 News is always a bit slow after a major show such as the Amiga 99
show which just ended, but despite that we have many interesting items
for you to read. Just about all of it positive; the sort of news we
most enjoy sending your way.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

20 Mar '99

Hello Brad,

In regards to the guy that asked about a printer
driver for a HP 690C. If that is a DeskJet 690C
TurboPrint which is the finest print package I've
seen has a driver for it.

regards,

Lee
~~~~~~
Lee,
 Several people wrote in to point that out. Thanks for being one of
them, and further thanks to all the AU readers who did so. Amigans
have always responded well to requests for help and information, and
clearly the readers of AU are on the top of the list.
 Brad
======

19 Mar 1999 

Hello Brad,

 I just recieved your newsletter, I am suprised you didn't recieve
more feed back about the show. Maybe it's because the community is
still taking it all in. I attended the show with my parents and my
brother (who is a programmer and made an announcement of his own :-) )
and we felt a sense of excitement and hope for the future. I would
have to admit some of Jim Collas' speech could be called political by
the doubters (and was) but I felt a sincere atmosphere.
 
 It always impresses me how a regular Joe can talk so freely with any
of these powerful people at the head of Amiga Inc./Amiga
International. Every one seemed to be receptive to any input and
sincerely listened. I don't think I'd be too far out on a limb to say
you wouldn't walk up to the likes of Bill Gates and get a glance and a
nod let alone listening and asking pertinent questions.
 
 My brother and I spent some time with a group of revellers in one of
the suites after the pub closed on Saturday night. Among this group
were Jim Collas, Jeff Schindler, and Joe Torre. My feeling was that
Jim Collas is much like a 'regular' guy and he really has a grasp of
what we feel as an Amiga community. He asked us in his speech to give
him a chance and I don't think we will have to wait long, but we will
have to wait. What's a little longer.
 
 Some changes can already be noted. We were told Amiga.com and
Amiga.de would be integrated and that has already happened. An
agressive time-line has been announced for the release of OS3.5 and
AmigaSoft4.0OE. BTW: the distinction between OE and OS is an operating
environment encompasses an operating system and operator experience.
Sounds like the Amiga feeling to me.
 
 My brother was talking from a developers point of view w¡th some
users at the show. These users seemed to have a common point of view I
heard expressed: "why should I pay for an OS3.5 upgrade when I already
have Miami/Ibrowse/NewIcons/etc." My brother's point was that the
enhanced functionality from a programmers point of view made the
likelyhood of greater development for Amiga Classic very real and the
users would naturally migrate to 3.5, 3.6, 3.7...
 
 Overall I came away from St. Louis w¡th some great Amiga hardware, a
feeling of greater excitement than I have felt in a long time, and a
chance to meet and greet with the new President/CEO of Amiga Inc.

We're BACK!  Can you feel it???

Jody 
~~~~~~
Jody,
 Thanks for your take on the show, and especially a programmer's
perspective on the upgrades to the Classic OS. Web users will probably
have noted that the two Amiga web sites are now unified in content as
you point out.
 We just got the official count of attendees from the show: 1,142. Not
bad for an Amiga show, especially on a weekend when Mother Nature
aimed a snowstorm at St. Louis.
 Brad
======

21 Mar 1999 

Hi.

 I've been reading your March 19th edition. I was disturbed by part of
Dr. Havemose's open letter. He said --
 
 "I know that the MMC speculation has been fun, but there
unfortunately isn't much to speculate about. We just have not had to
make a decision yet, so we haven't !"
 
 How in the name of sweet reason does Amiga Inc expect QNX to write a
version of Neutron for the MMC if they don't know which chip it is?
Look, I appreciate that ol' "Visa Bill" Gates doesn't need to know
what Amiga Inc is up to, but their partners had better!
 
 Be afraid. Be very afraid.
 
 Allan
~~~~~~
Allan,
 Your letter makes a nice counterpoint to the mostly upbeat mail we've
had since Amiga 99 ended. Unfortunately, you raise a very good
question. Even more unfortunately, I don't have any kind of an answer
for it. I hope someone somewhere does, preferably at Amiga.
 Brad
======

20 Mar 1999 

Dear Brad, 
 Do you know of any reason as to why AMIGA SHOWS are not held in
N.Y.C.? Also since Gateway is the BIG DADDY why don't they advertise
the NEW AMIGA'S on T.V. Fact is, there are still many people that have
never even heard of the AMIGA.Leastwise not here on the East coast. If
a prson walks into an appliance or computer store(RADIO SHACK) and
asks for AMIGA software, they look at you like your"re an alien.


GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HEALTH-JIM
~~~~~~
Jim,
 I've been amazed myself there are no shows in New York or Chicago.
There used to be some good ones in both cities. Anyone out there want
to organize one, especially since the good folks in Ohio won't be
having theirs this year?
 As for advertising the new Amigas, that's probably premature at this
point. It's usually a bad idea to sell "futures" so until the next
models are ready to ship, ads will have to wait. However, when we get
to that point I hope Amiga Inc. will do a better job than the former
Amiga owners did. Wouldn't take much.
 Brad
======

20 Mar 1999 

Hi Brad,
 Thanks for the great newsletter and supporting the amiga. One reason
for this E-mail is the article I read in the March 10 issue of TV
Technology on page 4. the article talks about Echostar's set-top Dish
Network and names Gateway as a partner and custom-builder of these
machines. Is this part of Amiga future?

Ron 
~~~~~~
Ron,
 Hadn't heard of that but it's most interesting. I don't know if the
Amiga plays into this or not, but we'll be keeping our eyes open for
further information. Thanks for sending this along.
 Brad
======

25 Mar 1999 

Just found your Web Site and I'm very impressed.
Had put my Amiga2000 in the closet a few years
ago and just recently dusted it off. Now I'm even
on the WWW with A L L Amiga hardware/software.
But... that's another story.

I'm writing regarding Tony's e-mail to you on
12/18/98 regarding replacement of old battery in
Amiga.

I bought a new battery at the Amiga99 show in St.
Louis recently.

Maybe you could publish the steps (exactly for be-
ginners) on how to remove old battery and install
the new one. Looks like some soldering involved.
Called local computer store. They want $65 per hr
with 1/2 hr minimum.

Thanks.

gary
~~~~~~
Gary,
 You raise a good topic. However, don't have a set of instructions for
replacing batteries. Does anyone know of a goos site on the web or a
text docment that covers this?
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        A M I G A   R C 5   T E A M   N E E D S    H E L P 

7 Mar 99 

Hello Amigans,

 The Amiga RC5 team could sure use your help. The rc5 contest is a
worldwide experiment in distributed computing. The goal is to crack a
heavily encrypted code using the spare crunching power from computers
being used in all walks of life. Its a pretty noble cause--after all
who knows when this technology might really come in handy to quickly
solve a real world crises--but more importantly, its a cut throat down
and dirty fight to prove which platform has the user loyalty and
computing power it takes to find the winning key.
 
 Out of 5,854 registered teams, the Amiga RC5 team is currently in a
dogfight for third place daily. However, ever since the rc5 stats page
exploded early this year, the team hasn't grown as quickly. The daily
stats are back up now, so we can check progress once again...
 
http://stats.distributed.net/rc5-64/tlist.php3?low=1&
limit=100&source=y

 Please consider downloading the rc5 client from the link below, and
adding Myzar to your WBStartup drawer. Its just that simple to join
the team. The Amiga's excellent priority driven preemptive
multitasking OS will allow you to crunch keys in the background
without denting your daily performance, no matter what processor your
Amiga uses. Everything you need to be up and crunching in a few
minutes is on the Amiga RC5 homepage, in the download and misc
sections.

http://distributed.amiga.org/

Thank you for considering joining the team,

-Steve.
-http://www.amigapro.com
-The website for the Amiga performance enthusiast. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       C O R R E L   R U M O R   S P O T T E D   O N   N E T 

23-Mar-99

 {Found the following fascinating item in the Amiga Newsgroups. For
now, best regarded as a rumor ... I think. Brad}

 Apparently Corel (the makers of CorelDRAW and WordPerfect among
others) have announced in Com-Digit Journal, that they will port their
Corel-Office package for the next generation Amiga. The magazine
comments: "If the Amiga was supplied with this software at a
competitive price, it could be a real threat to PCs."
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         P U R E   P P C   F R O M   P H A S E   5   . . .


 Oberursel, March 19, 1999: Once again phase 5 digital products is
happy to announce a groundbreaking new development, which will
represent an extract of phase 5's leading-edge technologies and the
many years of expertise in designing upgrade products for Amiga
computers. After a long time of evaluating the market, we have decided
to support the existing Amiga user base and the new developments at
Amiga Inc. with a next generation product, which will offer highest
performance, future compatibility and a bridge to industry standards.
This product will be a powerful PPC accelerator for A3000/A4000
systems (and other Amiga systems expanded with an A4000 compatible CPU
slot) and the upcoming Amiga OS 3.5, as well as future versions of the
Amiga OS.
 
 The new accelerator, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 board, is a pure
PowerPC-based processor card. It will ship with a fast PowerPC750 or
PowerPC7400 (G4 with Altivec), which is installed in a ZIF socket.
This ZIF socket is fully compliant with the Interposer standard from
IBM and Motorola, which is also used in PowerMacs and other systems,
what will allow easy upgrading, if required by the user in the future.
In the base version with a 400MHz PowerPC750 processor and 1MB
backside Cache @ 200MHz, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will provide an
impressing peak performance of up to 19.2 SPECint95 and 13.1 SPECfp95
(source: IBM website 03/18/99). In real-world applications, this
allows incredible application performance, which is estimated to reach
15 -20 times the performance of a 50MHz 68060 processor (with native
PowerPC coded or PowerPC optimized applications). The CYBERSTORM G3/G4
will use standard SDRAM running at 100MHz, providing a peak memory
transfer rate of 582 MB/s, and has two DIMM sockets which will support
up to 1 GB main memory. An on-board PCI 2.1 interface will allow the
connection of all kind of industry standard devices and cards. The
on-board Flash ROM with 512kB size can be used to install software
necessary for system-startup and other functionalities. By default,
this Flash ROM will only contain a basic boot-strap functionality
(hardware write protected) which will allow to install any kind of
system software from disks; this functionality will be fully
documented and freely available to everybody.
 
 By it's design concept, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is the perfect solution
for running native PowerPC coded Operating Systems as well as emulated
68k OS segments. As a processor card which fits into the A4000
compatible fast slot, it allows to run 100% native PowerPC code, and
has full access to all system hardware functionalities and interrupts
which is not the case with add-ons that are not installed in the fast
slot, but e.g. in a Zorro slot. With it's ability to be the master
system CPU, the PowerPC on the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 does not need an
additional 68k processor which is the case in other designs. Beside
the technical advantages of this approach, it offers the user the
opportunity to e.g sell an existing 68060 processor card in the
second-hand market, thus lowering the cost of the upgrade to the
PowerPC G3/G4 generation.
 
 phase 5 digital products will NOT built or deliver any software or
hardware add-ons for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4. The CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will
be open to third party developers in a wide way:

 o Software support will be realized with the new developments from
Amiga Inc. and Haage&Partner, especially with the upcoming Amiga OS3.5
with PowerPC support, and upcoming 68k emulator products.
Additionally, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is perfectly suited for the
implementation of other Operating Systems such as Linux, which have
already been realized on earlier PowerUp boards.
 
 o For hardware add-ons, the implemented PCI 2.1 interface will allow
third-party vendors to design PCI bus backplanes, and write drivers
for any common PCI card on the market. The interface is implemented as
a single connector, to which other vendors can connects e.g. PCI cards
or PCI backplanes, or design a physical link to PCI slots on bus
expansion boards.
 
 However, due to the current market status, we can only justify the
realization of this project with a significant number of preorders. We
will therefore have to collect a total of 1,000 orders from customers
(end users, dealers, or distributors). For each of these orders, we
will also ask for a down-payment of DM 250, which will be collected on
a notary account and will only be made available to us at the time we
deliver the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 product to the customers. This gives
security to all customers who want to support this exiting new project
and get stunning G3/G4 performance for their Amiga, and will give
security to us when we make the necessary investments.
 
 What will be the cost of this product, and are there benefits for
preordering?
 
 The regular list price for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4, including
 
 o the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 mainboard with an Interposer ZIF socket for
G3/G4 processor modules, 2 SDRAM DIMM sockets for up to 1 GB memory,
512 kB Flash ROM for system software (system software not provided
with the board), a fully implemented PCI 2.1 interface with one
connector (for PCI backplanes provided by third party vendors)
 
 o one G3 CPU module, with a PowerPC750 processor with 400MHz and one
Megabyte Backside Cache with 200MHz clock rate
 
 will be DM 1,995 plus local taxes (in Germany: DM 2.299,- incl.
MwSt). This price is based on the current price projections for
components and parts for the 3rd quarter 1999, and will be updated
whenever major components such as the CPUs fall in price.
 
 A price for a CYBERSTORM G3/G4 model with the new XPC7400 (G4 with
Altivec) processor is not yet determined, and will depend on the
pricing of these new processors. As soon as we have these pricings, we
will determine a list price for this product.
 
 For those Amigans who are ready to support this major technological
step forward by placing one of the necessary preorders, we offer a
special benefit: Customers who are ready to order this board in
advance, at the conditions mentioned herein, will get this stunning
product for a special discounted preorder price of DM 1,750 plus local
taxes, including world-wide free delivery by economy postal service.
And even more: If the regular list price drops before the preordered
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards start to ship, the discounted preorder price
will be reduced by the same amount.

How will the whole project proceed, and be finalized?

 First of all, we will now be looking forward to the response of the
Amiga community to this project. The basic concepts of the CYBERSTORM
G3/G4, as well as major parts of the design (such as the SDRAM
controller and the PCI bridge) have been developed at phase 5 digital
products during the past year, as building blocks of other projects
that we are working on; in other words, most of the product is already
"in the drawer". From the day we can make the decision to start the
project finalization, we estimate roughly four months until the
product can be shipped to the customers. Therefore, the shipping date
will largely depend on the time which we need to collect the
preorders.

The project has four stages:

 1. Announcement and preorder phase.
 
 We now collect preorders from customers all over the world. Please
only place a preorder - which is not yet legally binding - if you are
really ready to buy the CYBERSTORM G3/G4, and if you are ready to
later pay the prepayment. If many users place preorders now, but then
cancel or refuse to prepay, this will hurt the project flow
significantly. If you are not definitely interested in this stunning
new technology, please don't place an order.
 
 2. Notification phase.
 
 Once we have received the necessary 1,000 preorders - the sooner, the
 better, of course - we will open the notary account, and send
 notifications to all customers which will include a proforma invoice
 and the terms of the contract, as well as information about the usage
 of the prepayments. At the same time, we will also release updated
 product information and updated pricing, if available. All customers
 will be asked to pay the prepayment with 3 weeks to the notary
account.
 
 Important: The prepaid amounts will not become available to phase 5
digital products before we actually ship the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards
to the customers who have ordered. If we fail to deliver the product
within a certain time from date of notification, the prepaid money
will be reimbursed. The prepaid money will not be reimbursed if the
customer cancels his order for any reason.
 
 3. Development phase

 Design finalization and verification, including rapid prototyping and
full in-system test will require appx. 3 months. During this time, we
will also work in close contact with other developers, and support
software development on the new boards.
 
 4. Release & Shipment
 
 Once the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is released for production, we will go into
the assembly, and start to fullfill the preorders. The first boards
will ship appx. 4 weeks after the start of the production. We will
fullfill the preorders in the order we have received them. After the
preorders are fullfilled, we will decide if we continue to built
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards for the regular market, what will depend on
the market situation and the demand forecasts at this time.
 
 If you want to take part in this stunning new development for the
AMIGA, which finally will bring the latest G3/G4 technology to the
AMIGA and support the new developments by AMIGA Inc. and their
partners, then go ahead and PLACE YOUR CYBERSTORM G3/G4 PREORDER NOW!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             . . .   A N D   F R O M   M E T @ B O X 


PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hildesheim/ Germany, March 26, 1999

JoeCard G 3 goes AMIGA !

 met@box AG (formerly known as PIOS Computer AG) is proud to announce
the newest member of it´s award-winning JoeCard family: the AmiJOE.
 
 The AmiJOE will be the first pure PowerPC solution for the existing
Amiga platform. AmiJOE will implement the powerful G3 PowerPC
architecture which will enable the Amiga to outperform today´s
personal computers.
 
 The met@box engineering team decided to make the AmiJOE available not
only to users of the high end Amiga Systems, but also to the many
people being committed to their A 1200. The basic specifications of
the AmiJOE products are:
 
 o PowerPC 750 (Lonestar) G3 Processor
 o 333 or 400 MHz
 o 1.024 Kbyte Backside Cache
 o 66 MHz Local Bus Speed (A 1200)
 o 100 MHz Local Bus Speed (A 2000/ A 3000/ A 4000)
 o Universal Serial Bus (USB)
 o Realtime Clock (RTC) (A 1200 only)
 o PCI compatible Connector for future expansion (A 2000/ A 3000/ A
4000 only) - Socket für SDRAM Modules - Flash ROM for easy Software
upgrade
 
 The AmiJOE for the A 1200 is clocked at 333 Mhz at a recommended
street price of 599 EUR, while the AmiJOE for the A 2000/ A 3000/ A
4000 is clocked at 400 Mhz with a recommended street price of 899 EUR.
Prices do not include VAT/MWSt.
 
 met@box AG is ready to take orders without any prepayments. First
product shipments are planned for the beginning of Q3 1999. Purchase
orders please send to sales@joecard.com

http://www.joecard.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             U G N   T A P S   H E N R Y   C H U N G 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25th March 1999

 The User Group Network (UGN) is pleased to announce the selection of
Henry Chung as the Asia Coordinator for the UGN. Henry will help
represent user groups located from Pakistan to the Far East. Henry,
like the other Worldwide Coordintators, will collect information from
user groups in his area when needed, as well as forward on to them
information from the UGN, Amiga Inc., and developers.
 
 Henry is one of the many Coordinators who represent the UGN's
Worldwide committment to supporting Amiga User Groups everywhere. The
UGN Area Coordinators function as the Board of Directors. Their
decisions make sure that the UGN goals and plans are beneficial to
all. They will do their best to ensure that all Amiga User Groups are
supported. The UGN is not about one person, or one country. It's about
all of us!

 The User Group Network is an organization dedicated to the
advancement of the Amiga oriented User Groups worldwide. The UGN will
work cooperatively with all to establish a valuable resource to share
and dissemminate information to Amiga User Groups. See what the UGN
can offer your User Group at http://ugn.amiga.org.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             P A L M B A C K U P   R E L E A S E D 

2 Mar '99

W.F.M.H. is happy to announce that PalmBackup has been released.

 If you own an Amiga and 3Com's Palm Pilot Personal, Palm Pilot
Professional, Palm III organizer, IBM's WorkPad or derivatives, this
software is for you!.

INTRODUCTION

 During the development of our PalmSuite for Amiga software, the
PalmLink library was released. As we needed to find out if that
library gives us any gain compared to our connection stack, we quickly
adapted some tools we got here, to use PalmLink library. The
PalmBackup is the result of that.

FUNCTIONALITY

PalmBackup features:

   o backup of user preselected organiser databases
   o restore
   o configurability of almost any option it offers.
   o multi user support
   o internal cache system (once you list your unit, PalmBackup will
   o keep the list of the remote files).
   o advanced manager for installing, removing, purging etc
   o fully system compatible
   o quick, fast and efficient code
   o fully localized
   o and more...

AVAILABILITY

W.F.M.H. home site:

http://amiga.com.pl/

Aminet mirrors: comm/misc/PalmBackup.lha
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             N E W S   F R O M   D V S   D I R E C T 

5 Mar '99

 DVS Direct to Handle Assembly and Distribution of RBM Digitaltechnik
Products in the US
 
 RBM Digitaltechnik of Eschwege Germany is the maker of several
innovative products for the Amiga Computer including the TowerHawk
expansion chassis. The TowerHawk expansion chassis is design to
convert the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 desktop computers into a full
tower configuration. The TowerHawk 1200ex is the world's first Amiga
1200 expansion system that fully supports Newtek's Video Toaster Flyer
system. Other RBM products include IOBlix Multi - I/O - interfacecard:
4 serial ports and optional 10base/100base ethernet modules.
 
 DVS Direct will also be integrating Complete Amiga Based systems
using the TowerHawk and A1200 . This will ensure an abundant supply of
Amiga Host systems for the Video toaster Flyer as well as other Amiga
specific applications using The Amiga 1200 Motherboard and TowerHawk.
DVS Direct will be stocking TowerHawk components here in the US thus
eliminating lead time for shipping. DVS Direct is also manufacturing
an ISA adapter card to allow use of ISA power devices in the
TowerHawk. For more information the TowerHawk go to our website at
http://www.dvsdirect.com/

DVS Direct
69 Beaver Dr. Suite 110
DuBois PA 15801
PH 814 371 5640
FAX 814 371 2033
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            B E T T E R W E B   F R O M   P A N T H E O N 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 8, 1999

 Pantheon Systems LLC today announced its BetterWeb web publishing hub
service, which includes free home page publishing, great web
publishing hints and tips, and a unique set of commentaries and news
items for the web-savvy and web-beginner alike.
 
 Users with free web sites on BetterWeb are granted access to
BetterWeb's ultra-easy web-based site management tool, which makes
publishing and managing your web site a breeze. No clumsy FTP
programs, just view and manage your site completely within your web
browser!
 
 In addition, all BetterWeb users are automatically enrolled in the
BetterWeb search engine, and have access to a set of excellent tools,
including a hit counter and online discussion forums. Moreover,
BetterWeb's servers are connected to the fastest Internet backbones,
so you'll never have a delay calling up your free home page.
 
 Since the BetterWeb site management tool is completely CGI-driven, it
is compatible with all Amiga browsers, including A-Web II 3.2, IBrowse
1.2, and Voyager 2.9x. To get started publishing your own, free home
page, point your browser to: http://www.betterweb.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 T W O   N E W   F R O M   A T E O 

12 Mar '99

Two product announcements from Atéo Concepts.

Pixel64 ZorroIII

 Atéo Concepts is designing a new version of the Pixel64 named Pixel64
ZIII.
 
 This new version of the Pixel64 will plug on a ZIII slot of the A3000
or A4000 (Sorry, no ZII support...)
 
 3D features for the Pixel64!!!
 
 Atéo Concepts is working on a 3D expansion for the Pixel64. This
expansion will be based on the Voodoo chip (version 2 or 3). The 3D
expansion will be available for all the Pixel64 version. The release
date is not yet available.
 
 Full information about these news on
http://www.ateo-concepts.com/amiga/eproj.html

----

AteoNet

 The cheaper Ethernet card for the Amiga are now available. Two models
exists, a simple Ethernet with RJ45 output and a full version with
RJ45, BNC and AUI output.
 
 More information and order on
http://www.ateo-concepts.com/amiga/eateocards.html

ATEO CONCEPTS
Le Plessis
44220 COUERON
FRANCE

Tel : +33 (0)2 40 85 30 85

Fax : +33 (0)2 40 38 33 21
E-mail : info@ateo-concepts.com
Web : http://www.ateo-concepts.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         C L I C K B O O M   A U C T I O N   F O R   A L L 

 Toronto, March 20, 1999: clickBOOM announces a fully automatic
real-time online Auction place now open to all Amiga users.
 
 After a month of successful operation at The Portal and due to a high
demand, clickBOOM has taken the next step, making Amiga Auctions
available to everyone.
 
 This is where all the action is -- you can bid on or sell
Amiga-related items at the one and only place of its kind on Amiga.
Finally there is a place for Amiga users to be able to trade their
hardware in a simple and absolutely private manner.
 
 1. Amiga Auctions is the place where you will find the best Amiga
deals, guaranteed.
 
 2. Bidding is absolutely free.
 
 3. If you have an Amiga-related item to sell, Amiga Auctions is the
place - hold an auction and have other Amiga users bid on it. It's
fully automatic - create a new auction in less than 5 minutes, and
don't worry about it until you make a sale at the highest offered
price. Best of all, it's free if your item doesn't sell!
 
 4. Advanced options such as Automatic Bidder, three types of
Auctions, notification, etc.
 
 5. English and German, with more languages coming soon.
 
 To see all of the Auctions just visit
http://clickboom.com/auctions
 
 If you wish to bid on, or sell items, fill out a simple form to
register yourself, and you will automatically receive access within
seconds.
 
 Portal users should continue accessing Auctions through The Portal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  A M I G A   R A D I O   N E W S 

March 20, 1999

 The User Group Network (UGN) is pleased to announce the arrival of
Amiga Radio News. Amiga Radio News the first Amiga news source to
broadcast live to the Internet using streaming audio! Amiga User
Groups can download and playback this weekly Amiga news update. Every
Friday, a new update will uploaded to Amiga Radio News. Amiga Radio
News is located at http://ugn.amiga.org/arn/.
 
 In order to listen to the Amiga Radio News you will need to download
an Amiga compatible streaming audio player that supports either ADPCM
or GSM 6.10. Fortunately two such players exist and are available off
Aminet. ADPCM_Package.lha is needed for the ADPCM file, and GIR06.lha
is needed for listening to the GSM encoded file. In the future Real
Audio, MP3, and 8SVX file formats may be added.
 
 The User Group Network is an organization dedicated to the
advancement of the Amiga computing platform and the fostering of Amiga
oriented User Groups worldwide. The UGN will work co-operatively with
the owners, licensees, user groups, and the users to establish and
expand a customer support base for licensed Amiga computer products.
The UGN will endeavor to provide a single, centralized resource for
the promotion and assistance of User Groups and users world-wide. The
UGN Web Page is located at "http://ugn.amiga.org".
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             N E W I C O N S   4 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

NewIcons 4.5 is now available for download. See below for the list of
feature
changes and fixes.

Now the bad news. If you haven't heard already, Eric Sauvageau, our
programmer, has ceased further development of NewIcons. While he still has
his A1200, he is now spending most of his time on his new PC.
Unfortunately,
this is the second time I've had to annnounce the loss of our main coder to
another platform (Nicola left the project after version 2). Eric has been
kind enough to do one last version to optimize things further and fix some
minor bugs.

Fortunately, after nearly seven years of updating, the NewIcons System is
highly optimized, and as stable as ever, and there are thousands of you out
there using it every day. As was the case with Nicola, the NewIcons System
has been a labor of love, rather than a commercial enterprise. Neither
Eric,
nor Nicola asked for one dime for all their hard efforts. I'm glad I've
been
a part of this project from the start, as it really exemplifies the spirit
of the Amiga community. Eric still hangs out as an IRC operator on the
Amiganet IRC network, and you can still catch him there often.

You may be worried that this is the end of NewIcons...NOT SO! I will
continue
to pump out more icon sets and other NewIcons related graphics, and I'm
sure
many others will also. AmigaOS 3.5 is still in development (it's true), and
I have a good feeling that the NewIcons concept of dynamically remapped,
palette independent icons will, in some form, be integrated into the 3.5
operating system. When that happens, you can be assured that the images
you're using today will still be usable, NewIcons patches or not.


Overview of version 4.5:

   o 4.5 is mostly meant to be an housekeeping version. It mostly consists
of
     fixes and minor improvements. It also denotes the departure from 2.04
     support. We'll keep the low-end version of the library so that
     applications can still use it to display/remap icons, but the patch
     itself will now require V39 (Kickstart 3.0).

   o Most of the patch code was rewritten, speeding them up and making them
     smaller (some patches are now fully in ASM rather than a mixture of E
     and ASM).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             A N O T H E R   M O Z I L L A   P R O J E C T 


9 Mar '99

 MOZZAM is a project to port the Mozilla OpenSource browser to the
Amiga platform. It used to be called AMozilla, but has recently been
renamed to avoid confusion with another ongoing project with a
similiar goal (but different approach).
 
 MOZZAM utilizes the MXlib, my own X server library which utilizes MUI
to provide a native X client API to applications. The ultimate goal
behind MOZZAM is to be in sync with the Unix source tree of Mozilla
and, on the long run, to simply do
  ./configure
  make
  make install


 with any new Mozilla source release on a gcc equipped Amiga. MXLib
will be made public later on as an OpenSource resource to ease porting
of other well known applications from the Linux world to AmigaOS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  T H O R   2 . 6   R E L E A S E D

28 Feb 99 

 Ultima Thule Software is happy to announce that THOR 2.6 (finally)
has been released.


                                - THOR -

                               Release 2.6

            Copyright (C) 1993-1999 Ultima Thule Software,
                         All Rights Reserved.

 THOR 2.6 is an advanced multi-format offline reader, supporting the
QWK, Fido, UUCP, SOUP, Bluewave, Omen, ABBS, MBBS and Hippo (BBBS)
message formats. It will also handle TCP-connections with NNTP, SMTP
and POP3, with extensive MIME support.

Changes from 2.5a to 2.6:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THOR:

 - New Save window added.
 
 - The main listview has complete support for proportional fonts now.
There's a slight speed penalty involved with using proportional fonts
due to some extra calculations required for the wrap code, but it
shouldn't be too bad.
 
 - Fixed so that GETCURRENTSYSTEM from an ARexx enter/leave script
will report the correct conference at all times.
 
 - SAVEMESSAGE from ARexx has several new arguments.
 
 - The conferences window now has a tree-view layout, with
configurable folder setup etc.
 
 - Trippled the minimum stack size due to reports of a possible
problem with the stack on advanced multipart messages.
 
 - You will now be allowed to Edit Data on a Forward Msg event and add
a text comment, or remove the previous text comment.
 
 - Previous search results will now be cleared in all conferences and
not just those that matches the current result.
 
 - The TAB key or the small gadget marked 'S' can now be used to
toggle selection of all enties in all requesters where multiple
entries can be selected from a list (eg. To Name/Address when sending
mail, joining groups, etc).
 
 - Added FilterThor to the external menu. FilterThor is a new MUI
based tool to configure sortmail triggers.
 
 - Added conferences field in the attachment listview in the
pack/purge window.

+ many bug fixes and improvements

 QUESTIONS?
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 There is a newsgroup for Thor with the name of alt.sys.amiga.thor. If
the group is not available at your newsserver, ask for it by sending a
mail to your system admin.
 
Mailing Lists:

 The old THOR mailing list has be resurrected. To subscribe to this
list, send a mail to majordomo@thule.no with "subscribe thor-ml <email
address>" in the body.

 There is a mailing list for developers of programs and ARexx scripts
related to THOR. To subscribe to this list, send a mail to
majordomo@thule.no with "subscribe thor-dev <email address>" in the
body. If you have no interest in making scripts or programs related to
THOR, you do not need to join this mailing list.

--
    Petter Nilsen

    EMail THOR Team: thor@thule.no
    WWW site:        http://www.thule.no/
    EMail:           pettern@thule.no
    IRC:             Mitchman
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        W I L D F I R E   7   F R O M   N O V A   D E S I G N 

17 Mar 1999 

Wildfire 7 - Animation Sequencing and 3D Effects

 Nova Design, Inc., producers of the award winning ImageFX package and
the highly received Aladdin 4D package, are proud to announce that
they have arranged to be the exclusive distributors of the Wildfire 3D
effects package for North America -- now in version 7!
 
 Wildfire is an exciting new animation sequencing, 3D effects,
transitions, and animation package by Andreas Maschke published in
Germany by Oberland Computer. It can be compared to SGI Flint or Flame
systems and it is capable of creating amazing 3D effects by mapping
video sequences into Wildfire's intuitive storyboard animation
sequencing system.
 
 Wildfire is perfect for the animation hobbyist, Toaster/Flyer
professional, Movieshop/Draco editor and all others who use their
Amigas for animation and video.
 
 Highlights of Wildfire
 
 Wildfire is a professional animation sequencer that allows you to
create and process animations in several formats, to generate
time-dependant 3D special-effects and design large projects containing
several animations and frame-synchronized sound-effects. Wildfire's
animation sequencing allows you to combine animations on a timeline
and output the results as a YAFA animation with synchronized sound.
 
 Wildfire is able to perform basic non-linear editing of animation
sequences and can import or export frame sequences, Amiga ANIMs,
YAFAs, MPEGs, Windows AVI, and Macintosh Quicktime formats!
 
 The 3D effects included in Wildfire include height-field deforms,
cubes that automatically unfold and fold again, Lightwave object
support, 3D magnet effects, 3D transitional morphing, unlimited
mathematical deformations, twists, sphere mapping, twirling, water
transitions, perspective transforms and more!
 
o Full CyberGraphX Support 
o Font Sensitive GUI
o Full PowerPC Support 
o Storyboard editor Interface 
o Convert using MPEG, AVI and Quicktime movie formats 
o Timecodes Editor 
o Envelope Controls for Effects 
o Filmstrip Interfaces 
o Real-time Feedback 
o Transition Maker
o Preview for almost any Operation 
o Animation with Sound 
o Post Processing Tools 
o Color correction Tools 
o 24-bit Animation Player with Sound

 Wildfire is an open development platform, like Nova Design, Inc.'s
own products, with a complete plug-in development system and a full
Arexx interface (with over 400 commands) is included.
 
Ordering Wildfire

 Wildfire works on your standard Amiga 68k models as well as the
PowerPC and it is only $199.95. You'll find it's available at your
favorite Amiga dealer or mail order firm.
 
 Wildfire comes on CDROM and requires an Amiga 68k series or PowerPC
system.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 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      
======================================================================

Date:    28 Mar 99 14:47:46 +0100
Subject: Offener Brief
To:      "Mag: Amiga News (Petra Struck)" <petra.struck@online-club.de>
From:    Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)

Hallo Petra,

 folgenden "offenen Brief" habe ich an phase5,
 Metabox und Escena geschickt.

 ***************************************************************

Hallo,

 nachdem man nach Einbau einer G3/G4-Karte den alten
 A3/4000 ohnehin nur noch als "Gehaeuse" weiterverwenden
 wuerde...

 Mir geht eine andere Idee durch den Kopf:

 Warum nicht eine G3/G4 PCI-Karte fuer x86-PCs entwerfen ?

 Gleiches versuchen doch auch Siamese mit ihrer 68060-Karte,
 allerdings faende ich es sinnvoller, einen Rechner einzusparen
 UND PowerPC-Support zu behalten.

 Bei einem offenen PCI-Design mit Flashrom koennte man
 dann diese Karte auch im neuen AmigaNG (von mir aus
 als 68k/PPC-Emulationsoption unter "AmigaSoft 5.0")
 weiterverwenden. Der Kompatibilitaetslevel wuerde in
 etwa dem Draco bzw. einem Amiga unter CyberGraphX
 entsprechen.

 Im Detail:

 Nachdem WinUAE/AROS und AmigaNG als Emulations-
 kombination in greifbare Naehe ruecken - warum
 nicht eine PPC-Karte als PCI-Addon fuer den
 neuen Amiga bereitstellen ? Diese koennte den
 68k emulieren UND Kompatibilitaet zu PPC-Anwendungen
 und Amiga OS 3.5 (3.6, 3.7 ?) sicherstellen und
 den neuen Amiga-Prozessor entlasten...

 Daneben waere es denkbar, WinUAE und die Karte
 zusammen in einem normalen x86-PC laufen zu
 lassen.

 Was halten Sie davon ?


 P.S.: Diese eMail ging zeitgleich an phase5, Metabox und Escena.

--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de  or via @gmx.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de
Or try good, old: FidoNet 2:2457/350.18 --- *SuperView* development
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
Visit http://wdo.de/ark/ for information, free downloads, registration

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 13th March 1999

Number: 012

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: Alternative filesystem mechanics

Summary of debate: Part of the feature set for the filesystem "SFS" is that it
                   supports a "run-time defragmenter" that defragments the
                   drive when the user isn't accessing it. Still in development
                   but take a look at the following if interested:
                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjohn/SFS/features.htm

                   There is a similar tool under development for PFS2


b)

Subject: File locations

Summary of debate: If the end user wants to be able to keep their files in
                   locations not originally designed for, eg: applications in
                   the applications area then they should be able to do so.


c)

Subject: Sets

Summary of debate: A collection of files/objects could be termed a set. Sets
                   can contain subsets. Two sets can also contain common
                   objects without one being a subset of another. Folders and
                   drawers as terms lack this ability of multiplicity.

                   Soft sets would contain only references to objects. Hard
                   sets would contain the objects themselves.


d)

Subject: Moving around a GUI

Summary of debate: At the moment most GUI's are designed so that you move
                   around them vertically and then horizontally (or vice
                   versa). As a result moving windows, text, pictures etc. in a
                   fluid and accurate diagonal manner can be haphazard at best.
                   For example: resizing windows in 2 plains at once is OK, but
                   after that you are left with a vertical and a horizontal
                   scroll bar and nothing that combines both (except the new
                   track wheel mice - but these have their problems).

                   Therefore it would be nice if KOSH could have diagonal
                   movement built in as standard in an intuitive way.


e)

Subject: New keys on keyboards

Summary of debate: It would be nice if KOSHkeyboards had cut, copy and paste
                   keys in intuitive positions. However you should be able to
                   define your own clipboard keys so adding these three may not
                   be necessary. If we did add these keys they would need to be
                   placed in the main area of the keyboard and not off to one
                   side (eg: near the keypad) as accessing them becomes slower.

f)

Subject: Abstraction and Backing up data

Summary of debate: Scribe's note: this is a subject that I have summarised in
                   depth as it is central to a number of concerns that people
                   have expressed about the object sea.

                   KOSH will fully abstract physical and logical devices in a
                   comprehensive and easy-to-live-with manner. Therefore it
                   will be possible to locate all animations, text objects,
                   application objects, etc individually (eg: .jpg) or by
                   group (eg: all picture types etc) that are present on the
                   system irrespective of where they are located.

                   There is no relationship between the layout of the
                   filesystem as presented to the user and the physical
                   location of the files on a disk.

                   However there should still be a way to find all data
                   relating to a particular object or objects. This could be
                   one of the many entries in the object "database". Therefore
                   an option to display the system as per the conventional
                   currently used directory tree system should also be included
                   as this could be of use when wanting to do things like data
                   backups.

                   However the user should not need to see this. The backup
                   tool perhaps does but it can present the information to you
                   in whatever way you like.

                   Backup tools would probably take a frozen object and
                   compress it (if not already) and store it on the chosen
                   backup media, and note the pertinent information in some
                   index object it maintains of the backup.

                   Backup tools don't need to work directly with the storage
                   system on the drive, just with the objects themselves. It is
                   unlikely that people would often want to perform a
                   block-by-block backup of their files.

                   With an object sea, you throw your work into the sea. To
                   enable you to find it again, it has one or several strings
                   attached to it. When you need it you can just pull in the
                   right string until your creation comes up to the surface. A
                   natural worry that this creates is that the descriptive
                   strings could get broken and objects could therefore be
                   theoretically lost in the sea.

                   Therefore objects in the object sea will not float in an
                   arbitrary way. The objects will be ordered, even if they can
                   have links all over the place.

                   When sending an object to another KOSH machine the class
                   object and associated binding would be understood. however
                   when passing this same object (eg: a JPEG file) to a Linux
                   or Windows machine, they don't know KOSH object structures or
                   class bindings. Further, "JPEG" has a fairly precise
                   definition as a byte-stream. When sending this out to other
                   systems, just that JPEG stream would be wanted. Likewise
                   when importing: a JPEG (again as an example) from another
                   system should be inserted into a JPEG object.

                   Having the ability to add compression, cryptification or other
                   services to the objectsystem is a very good idea.

g)

Subject: Java Serialization

Summary of debate: See: http://www.javasoft.com - In Java there is something
                   called serialization which provides an easy way to implement
                   loads and saves of data in an ArrayList (from the Java API).
                   This could be the same with the Object Sea except that load
                   and save are replaced with freeze/unfreeze.


h)

Subject: Engineering Jobs at Amiga (in San Jose)

Summary of debate: See: http://www.amiga.de or the post forwarded to the ML by
                   Paul May dated 13/03/99, title as per the above subject
                   for information about positions with Amiga.


i)

Subject: Status of AROS

Summary of debate: Paul May has also forwarded a statement on AROS and where it
                   is currently at to the ML, dated 13/03/99, title: [TA] AROS
                   Statement (fwd).


j)

Subject: Icons (continued)

Summary of debate: Do we want fixed size icons which must occupy a specific
                   square or do we go for the Amiga approach which is more
                   flexible but potentially untidier and harder to handle?


k)

Subject: Force feedback input devices

Summary of debate: The idea to have force feedback devices such as a mouse was
                   suggested. This could (for example) let the user feel
                   scrollbars as channels, resizing windows as pulling elastic
                   and selecting icons becoming heavier the more you picked up.


l)

Subject: Mouse-Responsive Speech in a GUI

Summary of debate: As the mouse (or other control device) moves around the
                   desktop a voice could quietly tell the user the name
                   associated with each icon that is passed over, or some other
                   sound, word, or phrase specific to it. This then provides
                   aural confirmation of selection for those who may benefit
                   from such a feature. The same type of aural presentation
                   could equally as an option be implemented for menus and
                   controls within an application. The same applies to context
                   menus in web browsers.


m)

Subject: Heat dissipation in KOSHboxes (continuing "Waterproofing KOSH")

Summary of debate: Two links recommended regarding cooling chips are:
                   http://www.kryotech.com/ and
                   http://www.totalpc.net/hardware/renegade/
                   Kryotech manufactures cooling cases for PCs that use a
                   refrigerating base that runs through a heatsink that you can
                   then affix to your CPU in place of a standard heatsink.

                   The best solution to overheating would be to use low power
                   components and some sensible power management system that
                   can power down unused parts of the system.

                   As for radio interference as previously mentioned, the way
                   to solve this is with shielding which converts radiation
                   back into heat which can then be dissipated via some inbuilt
                   system.

                   The orientation of cards to allow for unfanned convective
                   currents to be optimised could be important. Orientating
                   cards on a vertical plane would not hinder heat
                   dissipation.

                   We must ensure that any KOSHbox that is produced can compete
                   in the general marketplace and therefore special cases and
                   heat dissipation units may increase the cost and reduce
                   sales potential when put next to an average PC. Therefore
                   apart from passive design points (eg: orientating cards
                   vertically) there may be little we can do initially to
                   improve designs.



n)

Subject: Virtual memory in newer NetBSD systems

Summary of debate: See: http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/pub/chuck/tech/uvm/ for some
                   technical documents on the above.


o)

Subject: Compiling for the Object Sea

Summary of debate: How far would existing compilers need to be rewritten to
                   take account of the new object system when taking into
                   account the fact that programs tend to save data as
                   separate files?

                   A set of functions in the OO filesystem would allow existing
                   applications to be directed to use the new system and not
                   rely on traditional methods of saving. A method would be
                   needed to map the old style files onto the OO filespace.

                   It was stated that this would have nothing to do with
                   compilers as most languages have I/O as some kind of library
                   routine. Allowing for some functions being rewritten there
                   should be no problem.


p)

Subject: RAM disks

Summary of debate: Implementing a RAM: disk aka Amiga-style but designed to
                   work with virtual memory so that the data would be held on
                   disk but not placed in memory. This could be a better way to
                   handle things than temporary files in Windows.

                   Perhaps if everything is conceptually in RAM (including
                   contents of physical disks). Some systems use this and it
                   would building an OO system with persistent objects.

                   There could actually be a (small?) application which does
                   about the same thing as a RAM: disk.


q)

Subject: Task masking

Summary of debate: Could we set up a system where, via a quick option, certain
                   running tasks are suspended and hidden according to user
                   settings and (optionally) another one that's been frozen in
                   the background gets re-activated and set as the current
                   running application?

                   Hotkeys could accommodate this.


r)

Subject: Use of computers by those with disabilities

Summary of debate: See:
     http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/The_Paper/Weekly/Story/0,3605,30692,00.html
                   which is relevant to the above subject particularly as KOSH
                   aims to enable accessibility for all.


s)

Subject: Speed and thousands of files

Summary of debate: In a traditional filesystem organising several thousand
                   files into several directories with several subdirectories
                   allows for a relatively fast search and locate for an
                   individual file. With the Object Sea references to objects
                   will similarly allow fast access - most likely faster
                   if a directory class optimised for large numbers of files
                   was created.


t)

Subject: Printing of objects

Summary of debate: Objects could be made to include the details to be able to
                   print themselves if text (or show themselves if pictures -
                   or both if either etc). This would remove concerns about
                   having the correct viewer/whatever to be able to use the
                   object. Could Amiga-style datatypes be used for this?


u)

Subject: Computer knit-wear

Summary of debate: See: http://wearables.stanford.edu/ for (what one scribe-e
                   describes as) a "combined pocket computer and hand warmer".


v)

Subject: Userinterface Working Group

Summary of debate: Timo Suoranta wants to work on user interfaces. For this he
                   would like a mailing list and a working group set up. Timo
                   details that this would be started by making one version of
                   the user interface with a limited C++ object model. Then when
                   the KOSH object model is available this can be rewritten or
                   translated. The first version would run on top of X.

                   Timo will look at some existing user interfaces which have
                   free source code and see if this can be utilised. See:
                   http://www.fsai.fh-trier.de/~schmitzj/Xclasses/ which could
                   be relevant.

                   It turns out that Xclasses had some building trouble, but
                   another promising toolkit could be: http://fltk.easysw.com
                   which Timo built on his NetBSD system.


w)

Subject: Disadvantages of the Windows interface (again)

Summary of debate: Greg says the URL quoted last time should have been:
                   http://www.iarchitect.com/msoft.htm - that little "l" makes
                   all the difference:)

======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E 
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
         KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING         ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
----------------------------------------------------------------------
990319

     A M I G A   ' 9 9   -   A   W A T E R S H E D   S H O W 

           A M I G A   O S   3 . 5   D E S C R I B E D

               A M I G A   A N D   U G N   M E E T 

        D E A T H   R O B S   A M I G A   C O M M U N I T Y 

                L E T T E R   F R O M   P E T R O 

       E - M A I L   F R O M   H A V E M O S E   O N   M M C 

              F R E E   J A V A   F O R   A M I G A ! 

 S P E C I A L   F O R   A M I G A ' S   1 4 T H   B I R T H D A Y - 

    - A N D   1 5 T H   B I R T H D A Y   C E L E B R A T I O N 

                C T M A   S H O W   I N   I N D I A  

          P H O T O G E N I C S   4 . 0   L A U N C H E D

   F O N T   W I T H   E U R O   S Y M B O L   A V A I L A B L E 

          A M I G A   T V   P A I N T   N O W   F R E E ! 

     B A S I L I S K   I I   F R E E   M A C   E M U L A T O R 

          A U D I O   E N H A N C E M E N T   D E V I C E

         T O R N A D O   3 D   3 . 0   D U E   I N   M A Y

            S T A R G A T E   1 . 1   A N N O U N C E D 

         A R T   E F F E C T   3   N O W   S H I P P I N G 

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 This newsletter is already almost too long, so I'm not going to say
much right here. Most of my thoughts this time will be found below, in
comments on the just completed Amiga 99 show. We actually held this
issue a day or two, hoping to hear more reaction from the show. The
community has been almost eerily silent about the show. My thoughts on
that are in the article.
 There's an amazing amount of Amiga news right now, and that in part
is because many people make announcements at show time. Several of
these are significant, and we think you'll find the stories very
interesting. We'll have to hold one or two for the next issue.
 Last issue announced the beginning of a new regime at Amiga, one that
has much promise for the future. With this issue, we start chronicling
how they're doing. Stay with us, we'll keep you informed.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:


15 Mar 1999 

Hello Brad.

I know you are gonna have one heck of a crammed issue of Amiga Update coming
out soon.

But if you have got room, can you mention the announcement that NewIcons 4.5
is now available.
(assuming you haven't got that already)

- I love newicons - better than that mwb.

Regards
Mikey C
------
Mikey C,
 Good news for NewIcons users. We may have a story in the next issue.
 Brad

~~~~~~
16 Mar 1999 

Dear Sir,

 I have an Amiga 500 C with about a bushel basket full of soft ware. I
had to stop using it because I couldn't get a print driver that works
well with an HP 690 Ink Jet printer. I love using the machine -- it is
old, like me -- but still runs well. Can you offer any information on
how to keep my old machine fairly close to up to date?

Sincerely,

Dudley 
------
Dudley,
 I wish I had an answer for you. If any of our readers knows of a
driver for the HP 690, please let us know and we'll run the
information in the next issue.
 Brad

~~~~~~
27 Feb 99 

 In the Dec 19, 1998 newsletter, you listed BlackIRC as being
available. Excuse me if you have already addressed my question in a
late issue, but I didn't see an address or web page for more info or
purchasing.
 
 Love the newsletter. You are doing a great job, keep it up.

Thanks so much.

Alan 
------
Alan,
 You can find BlackIRC at any Aminet site.
 We're pleased you like "Amiga Update"; thanks for saying so!
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    A M I G A   ' 9 9   -   A   W A T E R S H E D   S H O W 

By Brad Webb

 What to make of the Amiga 99 show just concluded in Saint Louis, USA?
Circumstances we couldn't control prevented "Amiga Update" from having
a representative at the show. However, there are always many good show
reports available after an Amiga show, so we went looking for the best
to bring you. This time, there has been almost nothing. The best we've
seen so far is by CUCUG's Kevin Hisle on their web site. Check it out
for a list of those who had booths, and many good photos. But even
Kevin's report says virtually nothing about the "big" events -
speeches by the new President of Amiga, Jim Collas, and others,
concerning the new corporate structure, the move to San Diego, the
development plans and so on.
 
 In part, this is probably due to the fact that the new regime and its
newly announced fast track development plans had been in place only a
short time when the show started. In part, it may be due to the few
postings we have seen being marked as not for reposting. That doesn't
explain why more folks haven't given their impressions of events,
however.
 
 From what we can learn, it's still too early to be certain how the
Amiga community views the new order. We think that's why there's been
so much silence. Mr. Collas is saying all the right things. That's
good, but Amigans have heard that before. The plan sounds good, but
Amigan's have had plans described before without results. Our reading,
based on letters from readers who attended and poking around the
community a bit, is that most people are hopeful but wary. They
appreciated what they heard at the show, but will only be convinced
the world is improving when it happens. The good news is people still
believe a future can be built, and they are willing to contribute if
they can. The bad news is they're not prepared to be excited to talk
about it much. It's up to Amiga to make them excited, by following
through. Our guess? We think Amiga will follow through this time, and
there will be some excitement down the road.
 
 We've seen reports that the biggest group of doubters are the
developers. It's hard to judge how accurate that is, but they've
certainly lost the most with the direction Amiga Incorporated has
limped in up till now. We have reports of a deep divide between Amiga
Inc. and the developers being detected at the show. As these are
subjective reactions, we can only hope things aren't as bad as the
impressions some folks received. We did receive other reports that the
developers were more excited by the new directions Amiga Inc. is
talking about than the user community is. This somewhat schizophrenic
reaction to recent news isn't surprising - it will take some time to
see where we're really going. One thing to keep in mind is that
developers are business people, and must have a love of the Amiga or
they wouldn't be in that business. Help create a market they can
thrive in, and they'll be there for you.
 
 There were several important announcements at the show from the
companies involved. We have stories on many of them below. Our vote
for the top news would have two stories tied - the "Daytona" Java
Virtual Machine from top Amiga developer Holger Kruse, and the news
about the "Classic" Amiga OS from Amiga itself. The pages put up at
Amiga International's web site at the time of the show indicate that
not only is 3.5 alive and well, there may even be further upgrades
beyond that. This is a genuine shock, and if it's indicative of the
new thinking going on within Amiga, then we find it very encouraging.
Of course, part of the reason for more than one upcoming revision of
Classic OS is that Amiga is too far behind to put everything in the
next release and get it out any time soon.
 
 According to those who listened to Mr. Collas's speech, he had many
encouraging points to make. First among them was that Amiga now has
the full support of Gateway, who have placed seasoned senior
management in the division and given it a meaningful budget. As if to
underscore this, Amiga has posted several job openings.
 
 Mr. Collas also announced the first version of the new Amiga
operating environment, to be called AmigaSoft 4.0, will be released in
September for developer use. We're not sure why the term is operating
environment rather than operating system. We'll be watching to see if
there's significance to the choice of words. In any event, the final
version is due later in the year. AmigaSoft will apparently support
multiple processors, an unexpected and welcome development. AmigaSoft
5.0 will follow in 2000.
 
 Apparently Mr. Collas has high goals for the Amiga. He mentioned as
many as 30 million sales being targeted, but added that would require
the proper strategies to accomplish. He also promised more involvement
in the Amiga community, with better communications and support
programs for developers, magazines, dealers, shows and distributors.
 
 All this sounds very good, and must have raised the hopes of
most listeners. One thing we've all learned in recent years, though -
we'll listen, we'll hope, but we'll only believe when we see it. If we
do see it, Mr. Collas and the rest of Amiga can count on support and
praise from the community well beyond the standing ovation he received
in Saint Louis.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

              A M I G A   O S   3 . 5   D E S C R I B E D

BENEFITS OF THE AMIGAOS 3.5 UPDATE

        Easy Internet Access
        Support for Hard disks > 4GB
        Modern Graphical User Interface (GUI)
        Extensive CD-ROM Support
        Support for current Printers
        PowerPC Support
        HTML Online Documentation
        Bug Fixes



     EASY INTERNET ACCESS

 TCP/IP Stack
 o Easy to setup the connection to your provider within minutes
 o Multi user support
 o Multi interface support (Internet and Ethernet)
 o Latest Socks v4/5 client module for firewalls
 o Enhanced SANA II support for fast transfer rates
 
 WWW Browser with Offline/Online Support
 o Browsing the OS 3.5 docs and the Internet
 
 New Cross-Application E-mail Library
 o General API for sending and receiving of E-mails
 
 New EMail Client
 o Based on the E-mail library
 
 

     SUPPORT FOR HARD DISKS > 4GB

 NSDPatch
 o New standard for 64 Bit Devices
 o Updated Info, Format, Diskcopy and FastFileSystem
 
 New HDToolBox
 o The low-level library processes the following tasks
 o Scanning the SCSI bus
 o Read the physical information of the hard disk
 o Read/write the logical information (RDB)
 o Create Mount files
 o Read special Mount entries to restore the RDB
 o HDToolBox applicatsion that uses the low-level library
 o New GUI style



     MODERN GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI)

 New Icon Set (Glow Icons)
 o New complete icon set for all system tools
 o New icons for most applications

 New Icon Library
 o Icons with up to 256 colors
 o Automatic color adaptation
 o NewIcon compatible
 o Compatible to OS 3.1 icons

 New BOOPSI Library
 o New complete set of powerful BOOPSI gadgets
 o Very fast, modular and scalable
 o AmigaOS compatible implementation
 o Compatible to existing BOOPSI classes
 
 New Resource Library
 o Loads and manages all GUI resources
 o Change the GUI without recompilation of the application
 o Can be used with any programming language
 
 New GUI Editor for Developers
 o WYSIWYG GUI editor
 o Creates resource files that are used by the new resource library
 o Automatic localization of the application



     EXTENSIVE CD-ROM SUPPORT

 CacheCDFS
 o ISO9660, RockRidge, Joliet (Win 95/98) and MAC HFS compatible
 o Supports Amiga protection bit and file comments
 o MultiSession CD-ROM support
 
 New PlayCD
 o (programmable) Audio player for SCSI and ATAPI CD-ROM drives
 o Low memory consumption
 
 New CDFSPrefs
 o CacheCDFS preferences for 'on the fly' configuration



     FULL PRINTER SUPPORT

 New Printer Device
 o Drivers for all common printers
 o PowerPC support
 o New functions to print all kinds of bitmaps
 o New API to define page size and page break correctly
 o Support for 24 bit Picasso96 DumpRastPort command
 o TurboPrint compatible functions to print 8 Bit chunky and 16/24 bit
 bitmaps

 New Printer Preferences
 o Updated for new GUI style
 
 
 
     POWERPC SUPPORT

 New WarpUP PowerPC Support
 o AmigaOS compatible integration
 o Extensive functionality
 o Hardware independent driver system, easy to extend
 
 New Preferences
 o Updated for new GUI style
 


     HTML DOCUMENTATION

 New Comprehensive Instructions
 o Reworked documentation for Workbench, DOS, ARexx and Harddisk
 o Completion of all the new featues of AmigaOS 3.5
 o Extensive Illustrations
 o Bilingual English/German



     BUG FIXES

 o Corrections and Extensions
 o Accelerated and reworked Workbench
 o Extened and reworked ASL library
 o Reworked Bullet library
 o Reworked Diskfont library
 o New datatypes for JPG, GIF, AIFF
 o New SCSI Mount tool
 o Reworked A2024 monitor driver
 o Reworked CLI command (Join, Status, Type)



     THE FUTURE (PLANS AND OPTIONS)

 3.6, 3.7, ....
 o Further Releases or AddOn Packages
 
 
 4.0 - A New Release for the Classic Amiga
 o New reworked and extended Kickstart
 o Extended PowerPC Support
 o New 68K Emulator for PPC-only systems
 o Many new System Libraries ( Graphics.Library, Layers.library, etc)
 as PPC-native


Amiga OS 3.5 System Requirements

 In order to upgrade your Amiga system to OS 3.5, it must be equipped
 with the following hardware:
 
 o CD-ROM drive
 o Hard drive
 o 68020 or higher processor
 o Amiga 3.1 ROMs
 o 4 MB Fast RAM
 
 For better performance, Amiga Inc. recommends:
 
 o 68030 or higher processor
 o 8 MB Fast RAM
 o Graphics accelerator and/or scandoubler
 o Modem
 
 To take full advantage of OS 3.5 we also recommend you add the
 following:
 
 o 68060 processor with PowerPC accellerator card
 o 16-bit sound card
 o 32 MB Fast RAM
 o I/O Accelerator
 

Amiga OS 3.5 Frequently Asked Questions

 Q. When will 3.5 be completed?
 A. 3.5 is scheduled for release the first half of 1999. 3.5 is still
    on schedule.
 
 Q. How much will it cost?
 A. 3.5 has a targeted list price for USD$49.95
 
 Q. Where are the RTG and RTA support?
 A. These are features that are no longer part of the core of 3.5. We
    are evaluating these features.
 
 Q. Will there be PPC support?
 A. Yes. 3.5 will have PPC co-processor support.
 
 Q. Will it run on a Macintosh?
 A. No.
 
 Q. Will 3.5 support MUI?
 A. As 3.1 does currently.
 
 Q. Will 3.5 have new icon support?
 A. Yes. More specifics will follow.
 
 Q. Do you plan on to bundle the 3.1 ROM with the 3.5 upgrade?
 A. This will be up to the reseller. We are not intending to offer a
 3.1/3.5 bundle.
 
 Q. Is this the last upgrade for the Amiga Classic?
 A. There are plans for further Updates as well as AddOn packages for
    OS 3.5
 
 Q. Is QNX playing some role in 3.5?
 A. No. QNX is only working with Amiga on the NG Amiga.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                A M I G A   A N D   U G N   M E E T 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UGN Representatives meet with Amiga

17 March, 1999

Wayne Hunt
Executive Director
User Group Network
http://ugn.amiga.org
User Group Network Mailing List

 {This is from the UGN's mailing list, covering the metting between
Amiga's management team and the User Group Network. Amiga President
Jim Collas, Jeff Schindler, Bill McEwen, Jim VonHolle and Darreck
Lisle were all in attendance. Below is the story as posted. Brad}

 To elaborate, or at least help Steven with the points he had, I was
asked at the last minute to assemble no more than 12 people to meet
face-to-face with Jim Collas "sometime Saturday afternoon" to
represent the User Groups (and users) out there. This occurred at
roughly 10:00pm Friday night.
 
 8:00 Saturday morning, we had the UGN representative breakfast which
lasted until about 9:30 or so, then found out from our liason, Darreck
Lisle, that it was to happen at 11am that morning. I made the
invitation to the attendees there, then literally RAN around the hall
and show floor searching out each and every user group president and
UGN representative I could find to attend the meeting. If anyone
wasn't included, it was not for lack of trying, it's simply the fact
that I didn't run across you before I had found 12 other people. As
for the rest, here's what happened.

 After hauling our own chairs from the King James conference room, we
all squeezed into Mr. Collas' suite to be greeted by Mr. Collas with
"do you have any questions for us?" Oh boy was that ever an
understatement! What followed was almost one and a half hours
(overlapping the UGN luncheon) of feedback and discussion on several
relevant subjects to include;

- the community
----

 The Amiga staff there pointed out to us that they really would like
to involve themselves fully in the existing community and in fact,
become a part of it rather than simply "the company". JimC (who did
most of the talking) pointed out to us that he's aware that Gateway
has been "screwing up" and underestimating the Amiga community and
they want to make amends by becoming not only the company, but "part
of the community as well".
 
 It was pointed out to the Amiga management that the public needs more
news of every kind to come from the company. Not just "these are the
specs and dates" type news, but all of it. It was suggested that;
 
 1. they look into the production of a biweekly or monthly mailing to
all of the User Groups which would contain giveaway trinkets and news
updates. (similar to Gateway's "Prairie News" newsletter)
 
 2. if they really want to start participating in the community, they
might consider actively participating (when possible) in things like
the UGN Mailing list.
 
 3. let us know the personality details of the crew to make them a
part of the community. Let us know who's hired and their background,
etc.
 
 4. include as news when AI goes out and talks to major third party
 companies
 
 5. it was suggested by several representatives (not me) that Amiga
needs to really get on the ball as far as website updates and that
they:
 o make the .com a suitable, professional site
 o use the .net site for network services such as free web services to
 UG's and free e-mail to all (ala gateway.net)
 o use the UGN's .org site for all outgoing news to users and groups
 which didn't fit on the .com site.
 
 6. Mr. Collas stressed that they (Gateway) had underestimated the
need to support the current machines and market and he firmly pledged
that "the classic machines aren't going away for at least another two
or three years". Now, he didn't offer specifics other than the fact
that they would continue (or in the minds of some attendees, start)
supporting and developing for the "Classic Amiga line" even after the
newmachines were introduced. Editor's note: Combined with the
announcement from H&P that there would be a 3.6, 3.7, etc, the
lifeline of the Amiga "Classic" machines seems ensured.
 
 7. We (the UGN) need to get our contact information verified and
updated in the database so that each User Group could be contacted
directly from Amiga with pertinent mailings, etc. It was also
recommended that EACH user group update their own records and include
the address information of each user, past and present for a private
database which Amiga would use to let people know that "something
wonderful is happening" and to keep an eye on the Amiga.
 
- developers and dealers
 
 We discussed several points of relevance where keeping developers
involved was concerned. Jim Collas said they would (or were) consider
a "sponsored development" (for lack of better terms) program whereby
Amiga could be petitioned by established developers for financial
assistance to complete a project or upgrade in return for some
percentage.
 
 There were also various pointers about keeping dealers involved and
perhaps Amiga organizing discounts on products for Amiga User Groups
through every available, relevant dealer (not just Amiga dealers, but
major players such as Yamaha {speakers}, 3Com {modems and network
cards}, and others.)

 Overall, most every point was designed to help every other part of
the community (Amiga, user groups, developers, and vendors) bring in
both memberships and interest. It is also designed to stop the slow
decline of interest in User Groups and the Amiga in general.
 
 For the first time, as many there will attest, we really felt like
Amiga was actually listening and very, VERY interested in what we had
to say. During the meeting, we got the distinct impression that we
were hearing Jim Collas thinking out loud and that a lot of the
feedback we provided came as a profound surprise to them. A lot of "we
should do this" and such. Later Sunday, I was approached by a
management member who stated that he was told to "be sure this stuff
happens" so I am actually psyched and waiting for stuff to happen.
 
 ***** Current status (just got off the phone)***** is that we (the
UGN and Amiga.org) are working towards reaching a formal agreement
with Amiga to handle and be recognized as the central location for
Amiga Organizations as per number 5 above (the ICOA voted to move
their website to Amiga.org Friday at the show). The mailings (#1
above) aren't expected to actually start until mid April, which will
give the UGN time to get it's ducks in a row.
 
 We need to start assembling and submitting user information to them
ASAP.
 
 Amiga is also in the midst of moving their offices from South Dakota
to San Diego which has all the staff tied up at the moment with
logistics. Once the Agreement is reached to use Amiga.org for
organizations, changes will start occurring and we will start seeing a
lot more news items flowing from Amiga as they've designated a staff
member specifically to disseminating news to the community.

Feedback is welcomed,

Wayne Hunt
Executive Director
User Group Network
http://ugn.amiga.org

"Users Helping Users"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         D E A T H   R O B S   A M I G A   C O M M U N I T Y 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Amiga loses a Champion

3 March, 1999

Hello,

 Mr. Hardware Computers has some sad news to bring you. *Joe Rothman*
(Mr. Hardware) died this morning March 3, 1999. He died suddenly of
apparent Heart failure. Pam, his wife found him dead early this
morning. Joe was a main pillar in the *Amiga* community since the
beginning. Pam's picture even appeared on one of the Amiga 500 boxes.
The future of Mr. Hardware will be announced. If you have any
questions please direct them to me, Russ Norrby (516)821-2364 or
nvp@northeast.net. Pam will not be answering the phone for the next
week or so.
 
 The funeral will be this Friday 10-11am for visitation Moloney
Funeral Hall in Central Islip, NY (516)234-6000 Please do not bring
flowers but , if you would like to make a dontation for his wife Pam.
Make all checks out to Pam Rothman and send to 38 Pearl Rd. Rocky
Point, NY 11778.

Amiga Forever!!!

Sincerely, Russ Norrby

Field Rep for Mr. Hardware & LICA, Treasurer
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                L E T T E R   F R O M   P E T R O 

2 Mar 99 13:08:19 -0600
                       Open letter to the Amiga Community

 February 8, 1999 - a historical day.

 This day reminded me of the spirit of 1985, when Amiga was presented
to the world public in New York.
 
 This time a vision is born: Making computers a natural part of
everyday life.
 
 It is almost 2 years ago, since the take over by Gateway. Many people
know me as an impatient man and you may anticipate how difficult the
period from March 97 to February 8, 1999 was. A time of low
communication with the Amiga community, low public relations and low
information about visions, missions and goals.
 
 But my dear Amigans, I can reassure you the ray of hope will become a
bright sun within the next 6 month. The Amiga will be lead to the
future under the technical experienced management of an absolute
professional. Jim Collas, Senior Vice President Product Development &
Management of Gateway, Inc. has decided to modify his position and to
work for Amiga only. To reach all our goals, I will work on his side
and support him with all my energy.
 
 Our mission is:
 
 To create a revolutionary and compelling systems architecture and
operating environment for multimedia computers and digital information
appliances which can easily be imbedded into consumer computing
devices and enables innovative Internet services.
 
 Without talk big, I can tell you that in the middle of November 99 we
will launch the new Amiga systems architecture and operation
environment.
 
 For this purpose we will organise press conferences to inform the
public about our goals and directions. Besides the new and
revolutionary Amiga Operating System we are working on our existing
platform to present the upgrade 3.5 as soon as possible
 
 First detailed information will be presented in St. Louis, USA (March
12. - 14.). We hope to be in the position to sell the first Operating
System upgrades 3.5 in summer 99. The German company Haage & Partner
and myself will take care about this project.
 
 AMIGA International, Inc. and Amiga, Inc. will conquer as one team
the computer world; under the management of Jim Collas - and you my
dear Amigans, will be a part of it.
 
 Help us performing our goals. Jim Collas will inform you within the
next days about the organisation, plans and goals of our company.
 
 A very exciting time is coming and it is for me and my staff a honour
to be a part of a new computer generation as pioneer and to pave the
way for the future just like it was at Commodore.
 
 Long live our beloved Amiga and our community

Yours
Petro Tyschtschenko
March 1999
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      E - M A I L   F R O M   H A V E M O S E   O N   M M C 

12 Mar 1999 

{The following note from Amiga's Dr. Allan Havemose was discovered on
the Net. The MMC, for those new to the term, is the "Magical Mystery
Chip", or the mysterious processor which will be at the heart of the
next generation of Amigas. Brad}

>The MMC-maker (which one ever - as Allan told us at Cologne there are
>several MMC-like chips in development) would be crazy to tie himself
>too much to a startup-company like AI, who knows if they'll have
>success. And AI doesn't look like they want to tie themselves again
>too much to one architecture (although they need of course one to
>start with).

 We probably made a mistake by not making it completely clear that our
target specs were being met by several MMC at the time of the
announcement (WOA London last year). And with technology moving very
rapidly, who would want to be tied down with just one partner ?

I know that the MMC speculation has been fun, but there unfortunately
isn't much to speculate about. We just have not had to make a decision
yet, so we haven't !

It's really that simple :)

Allan

--
Allan Havemose, Ph.D.
Amiga Vice President, Engineering
email:havemose@amiga.com (W)
email:havemose@ix.netcom.com (H)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              F R E E   J A V A   F O R   A M I G A ! 

 Nordic Global made a surprise announcement at Amiga99--Java for the
Amiga! And best of all, the runtime package and developer package will
be FREE!

----
Daytona(tm)
Java(tm) for AmigaOS

 Daytona is a complete Java 2 runtime system for AmigaOS, based on the
"Java 2 Platform" by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Among other things it
contains support for
 
 o The complete Java 2 API and class set, directly derived from Sun's
 reference implementation, and therefore 100% compatible with the
 official Java specifications and releases (unlike some other Java
 runtime engines for Amiga OS).

 o Multithreading, using a native Amiga implementation. No Unix
 emulation code or libraries required.
 
 o File and socket I/O (multithreaded) including multicasting,
 URLhandling and Internet protocol engines.
 
 o AWT (Abstract Windows Toolkit): The basic Daytona package contains
 AWT runtime classes, but no native bindings AWT bindings for native
 AmigaOS displays are available as part of the Dayton~LUS package.
 
 o JFC (Java Foundation Classes): Swing, Java 2D.
 
 o CORBA.

Daytona is available FREE of charge.

----
DaytonaDEV(tm)

 DaytonaDEV is an add-on to Daytona. It is intended for developers who
want to write their own Java programs, and compile them into Java byte
code. DaytonaDEV contains the following items:
 
 o Java byte-code compiler: launcher and all required runtime classes.
 
 o Various tools (bytecode disassembler, documentation generator,
   archive management tools etc.)

DaytonaDEV is available FREE of charge.

----

 Daytona PLUS(tm) DaytonaPLUS is an independently developed add-on to
Daytona that provides additional Amiga-specific features. DaytonaPLUS
contains:
 
 o AWT bindings for native AmigaOS displays. Includes support for
 CyberGraphX and Picasso96 high/truecolor screens.

 o BOOPSI "look-and-feel" for Swing.

 o Applet API and runtime system with a stand-alone Applet viewer and
 a documented Applet API library, allowing Daytona to be used to add
 Java Applet support to AmigaOS web browsers.

 o PowerPC support for PowerUP

 o JIT (Just-In-Time) compilers for 68K and PPC.

 o Support for precompiled native (68K and PPC) versions of all
 standard Java runtime classes. Daytona and DaytonaDEV come with
 complete sets of 68K/PPC-precompiled runtime classes for use with
 DaytonaPLUS.
 
 DaytonaPLUS is distributed as shareware and requires registration.
Registration fee: to be announced. For more information please contact
Holger Kruse at Nordic Global Inc. (kruse@nordicglobal . corn,
http://www.nordicglobal.com/). Projected release date of first public
beta versions: summer 1999. Features are subject to change.

----

 Daytona, DaytonaDEV and DaytonaPLUS are trademarks of Nordic Global
Inc. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other
collutnea. Nordic Global Inc., Daytona, DaytonaDEV and DaytonaPLUS are
independent of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 S P E C I A L   F O R   A M I G A ' S   1 4 T H   B I R T H D A Y - 


Amiga Is 14 This Year
----

 We at Trogladite Software, and World Of Amiga, decided that we wanted
to do more for the Amiga's 14th birthday than just slap a 'Special
Edition' title on Issue 4 and have done with it. So, we are going to
release Issue 4 on May 20th (instead of June, when it should be
released), and then release WOA Special Issue 1 on June 15th June.
 
 Since this is happening, we need input from you, the readers. Games,
articles, utils, pictures, animations, whatever. Just send it to the
address at the bottom of this page. We've already got loads of
exciting things lined up, including articles from famous Amiga
shareware developers (and a special guest appearance from a well known
man at Amiga Inc... you'll have to wait and see who).
 
 The address to send stuff to is woa14@trogsoft.freeserve.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    - A N D   1 5 T H   B I R T H D A Y   C E L E B R A T I O N 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16th, 1999

Amiga 15th Anniversary Celebration in Atlanta (Amiga:2000)

 Class of '85 Reunion: On July 21st, 2000, we are celebrating the 15th
anniversary of a machine that started a revolution that is still felt
today. The Amiga spawned a cult religion of unbelievable proportion
and magnitude, which keeps the spirit alive in spite of tremendous
adversity.
 
 Come celebrate as we commemorate the life of the Amiga. Join Carl
Sassenrath, Ron Nicholson, Dave Haynie, Matt Dillon, and many many
more Amiga luminaries for presentations on Friday, Saturday and
Sunday. Topping things off will be a banquet awards dinner on Saturday
night honoring those in the Amiga community, and remembering those who
are no longer with us.
 
 You can sign up for a yearbook that spans from the early days of the
Lorraine right up to the show, complete with development notes from
the designers, pictures, and stories from the original Amiga, Inc, and
Commodore-Amiga teams. Also, tidbits from developers and trade shows
will round out the yearbook. There will also be a Boing class ring, as
well as a limited edition event T-shirt autographed by VIPs at the
show.

and.. much... much... more.

Contacts:
William Coldwell, A2K coordinator (billc@warped.com)
Lamar Morgan, A2K coordinator (lamar@mindspring.com)


Mailing List:
Send "subscribe a2k" to listserv@amiga2000.org


Web page:
http://www.amiga2000.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  C T M A   S H O W   I N   I N D I A  

              Cable TV Show '99 in Calcutta, India (CTMA)

 (From the Amiga Web site.) From February 23 - 25, 1999, the third big
exhibition for cable TV in India took place in Calcutta, India. AMIGA
International, Inc. attended the exhibition with an own booth,
represented by our distributor Raja Electronics from Delhi. The show
was a complete success for AMIGA. A lot of people from the cable TV
industry came over from nearby Bangladesh to stock up with A1200's.
 
 AMIGA's booth was a one of the most visited booths of the exhibition.
Also, Mrs. Newel from famous German Radio Station "Deutsche Welle",
(another exhibitor) visited AMIGA's booth (picture 3). AMIGA
International, Inc. is now represented in Calcutta by both a dealer
and a service center.
 
 During the exhibition (three days), 60 A1200's were sold at the booth
and additional orders have been placed. Employees of several cable TV
companies got familiar with the AMIGA system using "Scala" during
seminars held in Lindbay hotel. AMIGA is known in India's cable TV
industry as one of the most popular and irreplaceable computer
systems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         P H O T O G E N I C S   4 . 0   L A U N C H E D

9th March 1999

 Paul Nolan is proud to announce Photogenics 4.0, a complete rewrite
of the original Photogenics, and the culmination of over four years of
development.
 
 Photogenics is a graphics/art package. It allows you to create
stunning images, either from scratch or by modifying existing images.
It can be used for a multitude of purposes, from simple file
conversion, to advanced photo manipulation and re-touching. It also
offers extremely realistic and easy to use media such as pencils,
chalk and watercolours to create stunning masterpieces in minutes.
 
 Photogenics is based on innovation. At its core, it works on images
unlike any other product. Nothing you draw is permanent, it can be
rubbed out as easily as it was drawn, and tweaked to perfection. This
freedom allows you to experiment to a level never before seen.
 
 Photogenics 4.0 features:
 
 o Unparalleled levels of creativity from being able to modify the
colour, transparency, image processing mode, and even the position of
what you have drawn, all in real time!

 o Realistic Media tools such as Airbrush, Chalk, Pencil, Sponge,
Watercolour, Smudge and Smear.

 o Designed to look and feel good using just a standard mouse.

 o Paint-on Image Processing allows the user to apply effects simply
by drawing with any of the media tools. Being able to just airbrush
everything on (and off!) allows instant touch ups without the need for
tedious masking. Paint modes available include AddColour, Adjust
(Brightness/Contrast/Red/Green/Blue), Bas Relief, BiColour, Blur,Burn,
BurnThru, Clone, ColourToGrey, Convolve, Darken, DifferenceRGB,
DisplaceMap, Dodge, EdgeDetect, Emboss, FlipX, FlipY, Hardlight,
Lighten, Min, Max, MotionBlur, Multiply, Negative, Overlay, Paint,
PanBlur, Pixelize, Posterize, RadialBlur, Roll, RubPaint, RubThru,
Screen, Fire, Solarize, Softlight, SubtractColour, and Tint.

 o Exclusive Paint Layer technology allows mistakes to be rubbed out
without having to redo the good parts, simply by fading out with the
right mouse button.

 o Undo/Redo system allows you to go back as far as you specify, so
that you have the power of both undo styles.
 
 o Unlimited number of easy to use layers allows fast image
composition and amazing possibilities.
 
 o Stunning Paint-On Pyrotechnics such as lens-flares, fire, and
explosions. Combine with smear to produce supernovas, waves of fire,
and even sunsets and waterfalls.
 
 o Innovative clutter free user interface (font sensitive and user
scaleable). GUI components can be docked/undocked, and positioned
wherever you please.

 o Fully multi-threaded - you'll never be kept waiting as Photogenics
responds instantly to your requests even while operations are in
progress.
 
 o Advanced yet still easy to use Alpha channel support. Use any open
image as a mask, or simply paint one straight on to the image. Updates
to the Alpha channel such as brush strokes are reflected on the main
image in real time.
 
 o 24bit Alpha channels. Only Photogenics lets you use colour Alpha
channels, which enable you to independently mask each of the red green
and blue channels. Paint on the Alpha with red, and this lets the red
component show through, paint on with yellow, and both the red and
green channels are updated. Painting with shades of grey produce
masking as normal. Create awesome effects by loading in a 24bit Alpha
channel and using it to mask image-processing effects.
 
 o Text Tool - finally you can just drag a box where you want the
text, and type it straight onto any paint layer. Supports bitmapped
and scalable fonts, with antialiasing.
 
 o Multiple Views - allows you to have as many views of an image as
you like, each with its own magnification.
 
 o Impressive colour selection facilities, with five colour choosers,
RGB and HSV sliders, and support for 256 colour swatches. You can also
pick colours from Images, with changes updating in real time.
 
 o Extensive file format support. Current list includes loading and
saving IFF-ILBM, IFF-DEEP, JPEG, Targa, TIFF, BMP, PNG, with more to
follow. Photogenics also supports loading with 24bit DataTypes.
 
 o 24bit Printing support via StudioPrint.

 o Open Architecture - Photogenics is effectively just one big
collection of plug-ins that blends seamlessly to form one program.
Third party developers can have access to the same API as Photogenics
does, allowing developers to extend the core software to an amazing
degree.

Minimum Requirements:

68020, 8Mb RAM, Amiga OS 3.0,CD ROM drive.

Recommended Requirements:

68060, 16 or 24bit display, 16Mb RAM, Amiga OS 3.0, CD ROM drive.

Pricing details to follow shortly.

Paul Nolan
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    F O N T   W I T H   E U R O   S Y M B O L   A V A I L A B L E 

1 Mar 1999

 I've made probably the first Amiga font with the new Euro currency
sign incorporated instead of the "general" currency sign. FlodisEuro
is available for downloading from the Internet address
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/7937/fl-euro.html 
/JohanBjörnson, Malmö, SWEDEN
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          A M I G A   T V   P A I N  T   N O W   F R E E ! 

March 12, 1999

 NewTek To Release Amiga TVPaint!

 NewTek surprised a lot of people at the Amiga 99 Gateway Computer
Show where it announced that it was going to release Amiga TVPaint,
which inspired the PC Aura, for free! NewTek had three representatives
at the Amiga 99 show, where it was showing off TVPaint 3.59, the Video
Toaster, and the Video Toaster Flyer. Beginning the 17th, for a
limited time, NewTek will have TVPaint 3.59 downloadable from its Web
site . Once a short survey is filled out, people will be allowed to
download the full working version of TVPaint 3.59 for free. A CyberGFX
compatible graphics card capable of displaying at least 256 colors is
required to run the program as is Amiga O/S 3.0 or higher

 TVPaint is a three layer paint and compositing program that runs on
the Amiga platform. It includes tools like Pen, Airbrush, Chalk,
Pencil, Crayon, and cutout Brushes along with an easy to use scripting
language for multiple task operations. There are over 2400 drawing and
image processing combinations available. In addition, it includes the
ability to do bump maps, smears, perspectives, blur, grain, and chroma
key.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     B A S I L I S K   I I   F R E E   M A C   E M U L A T O R 


	Basilisk II, Version 0.3
	A free, portable Mac II emulator

	Copyright (C) 1997-1999 Christian Bauer et al.
	Freely distributable


License
-------

 Basilisk II is available under the terms of the GNU General Public
License. See the file "COPYING" that is included in this archive for
details.


Overview
--------

 Basilisk II is an attempt at creating a free, portable 68k Mac
emulator. It requires a copy of a 512K or 1MB Mac ROM and a copy of
MacOS 7.x or 8.x to run. Basilisk II is freeware and distributed under
the GNU General Public License.
 
Basilisk II has currently been ported to the following systems:
  - BeOS R4
  - Unix (tested under Linux)
  - AmigaOS 3.x

Some features of Basilisk II:
  - Runs MacOS 7.x and 8.x (7.0 not recommended)
  - Color video
  - Floppy disk driver (only 1.44MB disks supported)
  - Driver for HFS partitions and hardfiles
  - CD-ROM driver with basic audio functions
  - Serial drivers
  - SCSI Manager (old-style) emulation
  - Emulates extended ADB keyboard and 3-button mouse
  - Uses UAE 68k emulation or (under AmigaOS) real 68k processor

 The emulator is far from being complete. See the file "TODO" for a
list of unimplemented stuff.


Installation
------------

AmigaOS:

 The archive contains a precompiled AmigaOS binary (unless it's a
"src" archive). You need at least a 68020 and AmigaOS 3.0. You must
also have the "PrepareEmul" utility installed that comes with
ShapeShifter (or any equivalent PrepareEmul substitute, see the
ShapeShifter docs).
 
 Basilisk II needs a 512K or 1MB 32-bit clean Macintosh ROM image. For
copyright reasons this is not included in the archive. No, I don't
know where you can download it. No, I won't send you one. The ROM file
has to be named "ROM" and put in the same directory as the Basilisk II
executable.


Configuration
-------------

Basilisk II is configured via a text file.

AmigaOS:
  ENV:BasiliskII_prefs

 If no preferences file is present, Basilisk II will create one with
the default settings upon startup.
 
 The preferences file is a text file editable with any text editor.
Each line in this file has the format "keyword value" and describes
one preferences item. For each keyword, the meaning of the "value"
string may vary across platforms. The following keywords exist:
 
disk <volume description>

  AmigaOS:

 Partitions/drives are specified in the following format:
 /dev/<device name>/<unit>/<open flags>/<start byte>/<size>/<block
size> "start byte", "size" and "block size" are given in bytes.

floppy <floppy drive description>

 This item describes one floppy drive to be used by Basilisk II. There
 can be multiple "floppy" lines in the preferences file. If no
"floppy" line is given, Basilisk II will try to automatically detect
and use installed floppy drives. The format of the "floppy drive
description" is the same as that of "disk" lines.

cdrom <CD-ROM drive description>

 This item describes one CD-ROM drive to be used by Basilisk II. There
 can be multiple "cdrom" lines in the preferences file. If no "cdrom"
 line is given, Basilisk II will try to automatically detect and use
 installed CD-ROM drives. The format of the "CD-ROM drive description"
 is the same as that of "disk" lines.

scsi0 <SCSI target> ... scsi6 <SCSI target>

 These items describe the SCSI target to be used for a given Mac SCSI
 ID by Basilisk II. Basilisk II emulates the old SCSI Manager and
allows
 to assign a different SCSI target (they don't even have to be on the
 same SCSI bus) for each SCSI ID (0..6) as seen by the MacOS. "scsi0"
 describes the target for ID 0, "scsi1" the target for ID 1 etc.
 The format of the "SCSI target" is platform specific.

  AmigaOS:
    The "SCSI target" has the format "<device name>/<unit>" (e.g.
    "scsi.device/2").

screen <video mode>

 This item describes the type of video display to be used by Basilisk
II. The format of the "video mode" is platform specific.

  AmigaOS:
    The "video mode" is one of the following:

      win/<width>/<height>

 Black-and-white display in a window of the given size on the
 Workbench screen. This is the default and will also be used when
 one of the other options (PIP/screen) fails to open.

      pip/<width>/<height>

 15-bit truecolor display in a Picasso96 PIP. This requires
 Picasso96 as well as a PIP-capable graphics card (e.g. Picasso IV).
      
      scr/<hexadecimal mode ID>

 8/15/24-bit fullscreen display on a Picasso96 screen with the given
 mode ID. This requires Picasso96. For 15 and 24 bit, the frame buffer
 format must be QuickDraw-compatible (big-endian, xRGB 1:5:5:5 or
 xRGB 8:8:8:8). The screen size will be the default size for that
 mode ID.

seriala <serial port description>

 This item describes the serial port to be used as Port A (Modem Port)
 by Basilisk II. If no "seriala" line is given, Basilisk II will try
to automatically detect and use installed serial ports. The "serial
port description" is a platform-dependant description of a serial
port.

  AmigaOS:
    <not yet implemented>

serialb <serial port description>

 This item describes the serial port to be used as Port B (Printer
Port) by Basilisk II. If no "serialb" line is given, Basilisk II will
try to automatically detect and use installed serial ports. The format
of the "serial port description" is the same as that of the "seriala"
option.

bootdrive <drive number>

 Specify MacOS drive number of boot volume. "0" (the default) means
 "boot from first bootable volume".

bootdriver <driver number>

 Specify MacOS driver number of boot volume. "0" (the default) means
 "boot from first bootable volume". Use "-62" to boot from CD-ROM.

ramsize <bytes>

 Allocate "bytes" bytes of RAM for MacOS system and application
memory.
 The value given should be a multiple of 4096. The default is 8MB.

frameskip <frames to skip>

 For refreshed graphics modes (usually window modes), this specifies
 how many frames to skip after drawing one frame. Higher values make
 the video display more responsive but require more processing power.
 The default is "8".

modelid <MacOS model ID>

 Specifies the Model ID that Basilisk II should report to MacOS.
 The default is "5" which corresponds to a Mac IIci. If you want to
 run MacOS 8, you have to set this to "14" (Quadra 700). Other values
 are not officially supported and may result in crashed.

nocdrom <"true" or "false">

 Set this to "true" to disable Basilisk's built-in CD-ROM driver.
 The only reason to do this is if you want to use a third-party CD-ROM
 driver that uses the SCSI Manager. The default is "false".

nogui <"true" or "false">

 Set this to "true" to disable the GUI preferences editor and GUI
 error alerts. All errors will then be reported to stdout. The default
 is "false".

For additional information, consult prefs.cpp, prefs.h, sys_*.cpp,
serial_*.cpp, scsi_*.cpp and video_*.cpp.


Usage
-----

Quitting:

 The right way to quit Basilisk II is to select the "Shut Down" menu
item from the Finder's "Special" menu. You should not kill it from the
shell unless it hangs.

Floppy:

 Basilisk II can only handle 1.44MB MFM floppies. Depending on your
platform, flopy disk changes might not be detected automatically.


MacOS versions supported
------------------------

 Basilisk II has been tested (i.e. it booted) with MacOS System 7.1,
7.5 and 8.0. Your Mileage May Vary. Booting from floppy may take
several minutes, so be patient.


Technical Documentation
-----------------------

 Please see the included file "TECH" for a technical overview of the
emulator.


Acknowledgements
----------------

Contributions by:

 - Bernd Schmidt <crux@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>: UAE 68k
emulation
 - Mac Hellwig <hellwig@iphcip1.physik.uni-mainz.de>: Some BeOS video
code
 - Bill Huey <billh@mag.ucsd.edu>: 15/16 bit DGA and 15/16/32 bit X11
 window support
 
Special thanks to:

 - Bernd Schmidt for letting me use his UAE 68k emulation
 - Daniel Bobbert who printed dozens of pages from the THINK Reference
for me years ago
 - All ShapeShifter users and beta testers
 - Apple Computer Inc., who made writing a Macintosh emulator a
child's play


Author
------

 You can contact me at <cbauer@iphcip1.physik.uni-mainz.de>. Because
of the very preliminary state of this software, I will accept neither
feature requests nor bug reports at this time. Bug fixes are welcome,
as are ports to other platforms. Please contact me before you intend
to make major changes to the source. You might be working on something
that I have already done or I may have different ideas about the Right
Way to do it.

There are two things I will NOT do:
 1. Send you Mac ROM files
 2. Explain to you how to use a Macintosh, install printer drivers
etc.


Support
-------

The official Basilisk II home page can be found at
  http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/B2Main.html


History
-------

Please consult the file "CHANGES" for the release history.


Christian Bauer
<cbauer@iphcip1.physik.uni-mainz.de>
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          A U D I O   E N H A N C E M E N T   D E V I C E

Contraption Industries Announces The Audio Enhancement Device (AED)

February 24, 1999
For Immediate Release:

 Contraption Industries announces that having affordable audio on your
Amiga that sounds great is now a reality.
 
 Frequencies that are normally rolled off by the Amiga's audio
circuitry are added, enhanced, and lightly amplified to produce
amazing dynamic range. The high frequencies are not only brought out
but are smoother and cleaner while the bass is rich, deep, and more
defined.
 
 The AED connects to the audio out of the Amiga and gets it's power
from a pass-thru on the serial port. It is compatible with all of the
Amiga models except for the A1000 and CD32. For online ordering or
more information, visit our web site.

--
Rick Hunter
Contraption Industries

Web: http://www.emagin.com/aed/index.htm
Email: cindus@emagin.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        T O R N A D O   3 D   3 . 0   D U E   I N   M A Y


March 1st, 1999

 ROME, ITALY (March 1st, 1999) Eyelight is proud to announce that
Tornado3D V3.0 is in advanced state of development and will be
released in May 1999. This significant update to the popular rendering
package will sport a redesigned user interface and many high end
features never before available on the Amiga. A partial feature list
can be found on http://www.tornado3d.com/
 
 After the phenomenal success of 1998's special offer that allowed
Tornado3D 1.x users to get V2.0 for free saving over 50%, Eyelight
introduced a new special offer: "Buy Tornado3D 2.1 and get V3.0 for
FREE". The offer is good until May, 31st, 1999 for any copy of V2.0,
regardless of where it has been purchased. Registered users of V2.x
will be able to download V3.0 for FREE.
 
 In addition to the FREE 3.0 offer, an extra 10% discount is available
for customers that buy Tornado3D V2.1 direct from Eyelight using the
online order form before March, 31st 1999.
 
 Tornado3D is the flagship product of Eyelight, a 3D Graphics and
animation firm located in Rome, Italy. It has full support for
PowerPC, Permedia2 and the most advanced feature set available on any
Amiga software. Tornado3D 2.1 now ships with its new, 300+ pages long,
manual.
 
 Eyelight is also pleased to announce that its web presence has
expanded with the opening of http://www.eyelight-it.com/, that focus
on Eyelight's products and services, and http://www.mage3d.com
devoted/ to 'Mage. the revolutionary 3D package for Amiga, Macintosh
and Silicon Graphics that will be unveiled at the end of March, 1999.

Eyelight
Via del Serafico, 64
00142 Rome
Italy
voice: +39-06-51965486/7
fax: +39-06-51965488
e-mail: info@tornado3d.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            S T A R G A T E   1 . 1   A N N O U N C E D 

3 Mar 1999 

 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to announce the release of
StarGate v1.1 e-mail client for the Amiga computers.
 
 StarGate includes many basic email features such as message
attachment and message decoding. StarGate comes with a very extensive
and detailed address book that supports multiple email accounts,
personal and business addresses.

StarGate 1.1 Features
---------------------

 - Multiple mailboxes. (Inbox, Draft, Outbox, Sentbox, Trashcan)
 
 -Unlimited user folders. Can file message from folder to folder.
 
 - File messages to other Folders for archiving.
 
 
 - Mail sorting. (7 different sorts)
 
 - Custom formating for mailbox and folder columns.
 
 - Supports multiple E-mail accounts. Accounts can be turned off at
anytime.
 
 - Detailed address book with multiple email acccount support.
 
 - When sending email you can address users by their first or last
name.
 
 - Auto preview of messages even in Mail Peek!!
 
 - Multiple signatures. Up to 255 characters long.
 
 - Unlimited tags. Tags can be upto 255 characters long.
 
 - Forms in colors and with sounds.
 
 - Filters for spam mail. You can Delete, File or Notify with multiple
level filters.
 
 - Multiple mail notification methods. (Sound, dialog box and filter
report)
 
 - Peek mail. Preview your mail on the mail server before downloading.
 
 - Support PowerPC for MIME decoding and encoding of files.
 
 - Direct http links to your web browser.
 
 - Easy file attachments using UU or MIME methods.
 
 - Helper files to support MIME messages.
 
 -Check mail on StartUp or on Quit.
 
 - Button, Large or Small 256 color icon interface.
 
 - And many more...


 Click http://www.toysoft-dev.com/stargate.html for a preview. To
learn more about Toysoft Development Inc. please visit
http://www.toysoft-dev.com or call 1-403-680-1656
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        A R T   E F F E C T   3   N O W   S H I P P I N G 

 The new version of ArtEffect from Haage and Partner offers a lot of
new functions an most parts have been reworked. The most conspicuous
features are: heavily improved layers, indexed colors, improved color
ranges, new filters and many optimizations


Here is a complete list of the new features:

   
 o Enhanced memory management
 
 o pictures now take up to 3 times less memory
 
 o smart undo technology saves lots of memory and time especially when
 working with layers or invertable operations like flip, rotate or
 invert selection
 
 o layers needs much less memory
 
 o Layer functionality has been strongly enhanced
 
 o there is no limit to the number of layers (of course the number is
 still limited by memory and a bit by processor speed, although ten
 layers a still quite fast)
 
 o layers can cast an adjustable shadow which is calculated on the fly
 
 o layers can be moved around
 
 o several layers can be flattened at once
 
 o layers can be duplicated
 
 o Support for grayscale and indexed color pictures
 
 o floyd steinberg dithering and reduction to any number of colors
from
 2 to 256
 
 o execute simple operations (like flip, scale, rotate) on grayscale
or
 indexed color pictures
 
 o most tools can be used with grayscale or indexed color pictures,
 although they act very limited. (no different paint modes anymore)
 
 o Graduates have been vastly improved
 
 o there are new types of graduates like: square, symmetric and
asymmetric conical
 
 o new graduate dialog allows you to specify any number of colors with
their position in the graduate; they can be simply moved around
 
 o you can specify the transparency for the graduate separately; this
is great to create halos or lensflare effects, when used in
conjunction with the radial fill
 
 o database for the graduates, so you know longer have to setup up
them each time you need them; a simple click will be enough, if they
once have been created
 
 o the graduate database is stored in an ASCII file, making it easy to
join different databases or create graduates with simple programs
 
 o Enhanced brush creator dialog
 
 o brushes (even image brushes) can now vary in size (depending on
pressure or randomly)
 
 o brushes have now a displacement setting, making it easy to create
clouds (in conjunction with the new sizing feature) or simulate the
old paint airbrush behavior
 
 o I/O modules have been improved
 
 o GIF can now save 1-8 bit/color pictures
 
 o GIF pictures can also have transparency
 
 o IFF/PNG can now save 8 bit colors pictures
 
 o JPEG can now create progressive Jpeg
 
 o New intelligent refresh technique
 
 o can speed up drawing (depending on your machine)
 
 o allows you to scroll or zoom the picture, before the refresh is
completely finished
 
 o you can even draw onto the picture, although the refresh isn't
finished yet
 
 o calculations are done on the fly (this is the main reason for the
lower memory consumption); this has the disadvantage that the
refresh time is mainly limited to your processor power
 
 o New/enhanced plugins
 
 o deinterlace filter
 
 o caricature filter is now 30% faster and has some new options
 
 o new gaussian, it's much faster and supports a size up to 100 pixels
in 1/10 pixel steps
 
 o polar coordinate filter
 
 o edgefind has been optimized and a lineart mode has been added
 
 o minor enhancements, optimizations and bug fixes
 
 o cloner now behaves like in Photoshop lalt click selects the source
the next click selects destination
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 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      
======================================================================

• Added sprite priorities (spr/spr and spr/bgr)
• Changed some things in the CPU-core (speed)
• Small fix to the triangle channel
• Added mapper#79 (Krazy Kreatures)
• Better support for the VS-system (still no dip-switches)
• Gzip support (need z.library)
• Fix to the Megadrive-pad reading

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 6th March 1999

Number: 011

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: Virtual Memory

Summary of debate: For decent virtual memory support in KOSH processors will
                   probably need some form of Memory Management Unit. This
                   could cause problems if running KOSH on EC versions of 68k
                   chips. VM could still be implemented without an MMU but
                   would be unable to trap page faults which could cause
                   problems. Amiga programs such as Photogenics often have
                   their own VM implementation that may not require an MMU -
                   raw images are stored on disk and only the bits that are
                   being processed are loaded into physical memory.

                   A good scheduler could allow certain idle processes to be
                   swapped to disk until needed.

                   An alternative would be to run a machine directly from the
                   HDD but via a big memory cache so you would not have to wait
                   for it to catch up all of the time.


b)

Subject: Memory protection

Summary of debate: Memory protection is essential in full-blown KOSH - however
                   some hosted versions may not be able to support this.


c)

Subject: Database systems

Summary of debate: KOSH should feature a good base services for database
                   systems. This could include both RPG and OOP.


d)

Subject: Icons

Summary of debate: A number of people like the idea of having the icon
                   information for a particular file in a separate .info file
                   (aka Amiga-style) as previously mentioned. However when
                   copying or moving a file the appropriate icon file should
                   automatically be copied/moved as well (unless OFC the user
                   selects otherwise).

                   However it was suggested that to the end-user icons should
                   exist as a representation of the file and not be a separate
                   object themselves. It should still be easy to manipulate the
                   icons if the user desires to do so.

                   Perhaps animated or active icons could be used. When you
                   move the cursor over them the icon animates, or it plays a
                   tune or gives a brief snippet of its contents, etc. If you
                   don't like this feature you could just turn it off of limit
                   its effects (eg: audio limited to 5 seconds of play).

                   Icons could be set to "pointer mode". This would allow it to
                   be set up so that one user saw one set of icons but another
                   user could see a completely different set.

                   The image pointer for each file could instead of pointing to
                   an individual icon point instead to a big database which
                   contains all of the possible icons.


e)

Subject: Group locating objects

Summary of debate: Should we have all related objects in the same place, eg:
                   all applications in applications/ etc?



f)

Subject: Object Synchronisation

Summary of debate: By being able to synchronize two or more duplicates of the
                   same object at different locations this would allow
                   trans-internet games (and presumably any other type of
                   application) to handle everything in-system (not at a server)
                   and simply synchronize a world object between each player.


g)

Subject: Application-Objects as drawers

Summary of debate: If we setup application-objects to be a form of drawer,
                   executing it would run the application, but right-click (or
                   alternate key press) on the app-object would actually open
                   it up so that the component objects were visible.

                   On the subject of drawers how about defining a drawer as a
                   physical directory with a folder being a grouping of
                   files/documents (eg: files composing a project) treated as
                   one discrete entity? Or just stick with Objects and object
                   groups.



h)

Subject: Cloning output

Summary of debate: If a window's output could be shown on another user's
                   machine by using a form of object cloning there could be
                   immediate benefits for training and network management by
                   allowing you to use the tools of your choice on network
                   whiteboards.

                   QNX Photon GUI has a concept doing this.
                   The KOSH booklist (scribe's note: thanks again John and yes
                   you can have another free plug) at:
                   http://www.snowcrash.u-net.com/kosh/booklist.html contains
                   references to the QNX system book which covers the above.

                   Perhaps synchronisation (as mentioned above) would be more
                   use as this would allow constant communication from source
                   to destination as opposed to cloning which is more to do
                   with a one-shot duplication of an object, its state and
                   data.


i)

Subject: Settings Working Group

Summary of debate: Marcus Peterson has suggested that it may be time to form a
                   Settings WG to define such things as visual design,
                   functional design, bindings between objects, containers and
                   settings, and hot to deal with import/export and multi-user.


j)

Subject: Accessing the OS

Summary of debate: As individual people each have individual preferences as to
                   how to access and use the OS (eg: desktop workspace, file
                   manager, DOS, etc) we should have an object manager and an
                   application manager as a minimum. We could then begin to
                   allow for any desired way of accessing and controlling the
                   OS.


k)

Subject: Studying systems as a whole

Summary of debate: See: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Cybernetics.html re
                   studying systems as a whole in relation to cybernetics.


l)

Subject: ANDF Url

Summary of debate: A company that makes ANDF stuff can be found at:
                   http://www.ddci.dk/news/brief_andf.html
                   and at:
                   http://www.npac.syr.edu/projects/hpsin/hpandf.html


m)

Subject: Supporting formats
Summary of debate: With an object based system supporting any particular type
                   of format (image, sound, text, etc) could be achieved by
                   coding the relevant object for it and inserting this into
                   the relevant part of the Object Sea.

                   The OS could provide a configuration utility for this that
                   allows programs and classes to only have a "form" for the
                   utility to fill out which could include things like image
                   and sound formats.


n)

Subject: Root object & filesystems

Summary of debate: A "root" object in the file system would be the thing that
                   exports methods for allocating and freeing data blocks and
                   perhaps dealing on a very basic level with navigation. A few
                   basic classes (such as "entity" (eg: a disk), "name", "date)
                   would be manipulated by the roots file system.

                   A "foreign" file system could be supported by creating a
                   filesystem object to represent and interact with it.

o)

Subject: Avatars and KOSH

Summary of debate: An Avatar/personality system was suggested and debated that
                   would represent the defaults setup in a system. A hierarchy
                   could serve well here.

                   A media preferences editor would set these things up as a
                   standard chart object. A program wishing to ask you would
                   query the object sea for a list of media types of the
                   specified class, but one wishing to simply write the default
                   would query the media defaults chart for this. Chart objects
                   are nothing more than a standardized way to create class
                   interections with caching (eg, you ask the chart for a
                   specific class pointer by token, not by fully specified path
                   name/URL).

p)

Subject: Novice users and system settings

Summary of debate: For the system to "know" you're a novice, would imply some
                   some intelligence in the recognition. This could break down.

                   Could a series of sets of settings starting at basic and
                   expanding up to advanced with progressively more detail where
                   you could explicitly request that the next time the settings
                   opens it does so at the level previously selected.

                   However KOSH needs to go beyond improving the range of
                   features or grouping them into fixed expertise levels to
                   allow a greater and more accurate degree of response to user
                   ability and desires.

                   The worst case would be what is generally apparent in systems
                   at the moment with every user being presented with the same
                   identical set of options to deal with, and the path that the
                   person must traverse to use these options is rigidly fixed at
                   the software factory

                   KOSH needs to be able to learn to present the user at the
                   very first request those options which the user is most
                   likely to need. This is really the only question the user
                   ever has. "How do I get the machine to do what I want it to
                   do?" A good set of defaults and thoughtful design is helpful,
                   but only as a starting point.

                   Directory requesters usually come up with the system default
                   path or an app-specific pre-configured path, but a few
                   programs are intelligent enough to remember what path the
                   user picked when performing a save (for example), and give
                   that as the first option the next time that function is
                   requested

                   We might want to consider an AI lister that, by use of some
                   artificial neural network for instance, tries to predict what
                   path the user's trying to reach. Eh, well, that would be nice
                   anyway.

                   Inherent within decent file requestors we should have an
                   intelligent form of word completion. As with all such things
                   it should aid usage of the computer and not hinder the user
                   by making unfounded assumptions.

                   User-defined menu structures are something else we should
                   implement.

                   The little personal AI that each Koshan will be growing,
                   training and nurturing (or leaving dormant) should be able to
                   recognise potentially interesting objects and organisms that
                   exist in the wider sea and bring them to the attention of
                   their owner.


q)

Subject: Standardised configuration

Summary of debate: The OS could provide a global configuration utility. With this
                   programs or classes shouldn't have to bother with their own
                   configuration, but just provide a "form" for a standard
                   configuration utility to fill out.


r)

Subject: More on KOSH helpers

Summary of debate: A KOSH helper will have to remember a number of things to be
                   successful in KOSH: Smart Dirs requestors, Version tracking,
                   smart menus, macro building and semi-automated software
                   updates,  Data-KnowledgeBase updates, an option to revert to
                   previous Configuration settings, tracking of software
                   failures and semi-auto bug reporting etc.

                   By standardizing formats (instead of the current system with
                   each application type having its own formats), the helper
                   could then use the prefs and habits of any application the
                   user uses to form its own particular knowledge-base.

                   Even without AI this sort of standardisation would simplify
                   user control over the whole range of options involved.

                   However helpers/AIs/etc have -always- in the past ended up
                   annoying people because they "learn" and make assumptions
                   about what we want to do.


s)

Subject: KOSH hotkeys

Summary of debate: When you have set a hotkey locally lots of times in different
                   applications there could be an option to make it apply
                   globally. At this point a settings editor could pop up and
                   ask you which applications should explicitly keep the chosen
                   hotkey and which should make it the same as the global one
                   which presumably would update automatically.


t)

Subject: Waterproof KOSH boxes

Summary of debate: Suggested that we make KOSH boxes waterproof to avoid damage
                   from spills of coffee that are unfortunately all too common.

                   However a waterproof box may have problems with a fan based
                   cooling system. Solutions could be to pass the internal air
                   current to the edge of the case away from the hot chips, or
                   better still make a fanless system that uses good case
                   design and materials to dissipate heat as it is generated.
                   This could be coupled with using chips that naturally do not
                   get too hot.

                   Heat dissipation to the case would have to be spread out
                   evenly and the temperature regulated to prevent the case
                   from becoming too hot.

                   Could Peltier elements be used to directly transfer heat
                   from one area to another with no moving parts? However they
                   use power and therefore generate heat themselves. An
                   alternative would be heat pipes. They are just a normal hose
                   with a cooling medium and fluff on the inside. It carries
                   heat better than for example a metal bar but can still be
                   bent and curved.

                   How would all this affect radio interference?


u)

Subject: 1999 USENIX Annual Technical Conference

Summary of debate: To be held on June 6th to 11th 1999 at Monterey Convention
                   Center & DoubleTree Hotel, Monterey California. Registration
                   by May 3rd. See the program at:
                   http://www.usenix.org/events/


v)

Subject: Paper on Task Migration

Summary of debate: Greg Webb and Clash Bowley (and possibly others by the time
                   you read this) have volunteered to produce the paper on Task
                   Migration that your humble scribe asked for.
                   (Scribe's note: Thankyou!!)


w)

Subject: disk space and scheduling

Summary of debate: With KOSH we presumably will release some form of disk
                   tools. With a defragmenter could a small area of disk space
                   be kept free so that scheduled tasks (eg: RC5 clients) could
                   run unimpeded. Could it be dynamic as the task was being
                   performed? Could the system tools pause such scheduled tasks
                   if needed and let them continue when possible?

                   With a filesystem that is well constructed to minimise the
                   need to defragment and have the ability to defragment
                   automatically as and when needed with little/no interrupts
                   (configurable by the user as usual) this problem would be
                   minimised.

                   In the object-based file system idea for KOSH, the
                   root object for any file system includes methods for
                   allocating and freeing blocks, which can be optimised
                   independently of the higher level file system objects. This
                   should make it fairly simple to incrementally de-frag.


x)

Subject: Accessing the system

Summary of debate: Rather than the standard downwards (or sideways) accessing
                   of menus we could use a pie system moving out from a central
                   point. As the pointer moves away from the center, the
                   "target" to select increases. In essence you are allowing
                   the user control over the size of the pop-up menu at each
                   instance.

                   Other alternatives could include using a hexagonal system
                   either emanating from a central point or providing a more
                   fluent way to pick sub-menus with more choice available at
                   each step. However this may not be easily accepted by people
                   who have been trained to expect 2D groupings in a
                   rectangular grid of some sort. Therefore for unfamiliar
                   users how intuitive would this system be?

                   A graffiti painting mode could provide an interesting option
                   for those that would like this. However painting can often
                   be frustrating to replicate with a mouse so this would have
                   to be kept simple.

                   If we implemented pressure sensitivity in the input device
                   we could perhaps remove the need for mouse buttons when
                   accessing the system in this GUI based manner (unless
                   someone preferred mouse buttons or keyboard shortcuts of
                   course).

                   A further suggestion is that the pointer could appear
                   somewhere other than at the top of a menu, perhaps
                   determined by the last or most frequent selection.


y)

Subject: Disadvantages of the Windows interface.

Summary of debate: See: http://www.iarchitect.com/msoft.html (NB: this was from
                   Greg's memory so it may not be quite this URL - ask him if
                   you get stuck) for a detailed analysis of the problems with
                   the Windows 95+ interface.

AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special

Neues von der Amiga 99 (13.03.99)
---------------------------------

Wie in AMIGA aktuell 3/99 berichtet, findet in diesen Tagen in den USA die
Messe Amiga 99 statt. An einer IRC-Konferenz, die kuerzlich abgehalten
wurde, nahmen auch Amiga-Praesident Jim Collas und der Leiter der
Amiga-Produktentwicklung Jeff Schindler teil. Nachfolgend die wichtigsten
Details zum Amiga der naechsten Generation, die genannt worden sind:

- Das erste AmigaNG-Produkt werde das Entwicklersystem sein.

- Amiga erwaege, fuer das Entwicklersystem optional eine Erweiterungskarte
anzubieten, die Multimedia-Features und -Leistung zur Verfuegung stellt,
die nicht jeder PC bieten koenne.

- Das zweite AmigaNG-Produkt werde ein Multimedia-Computer sein.

- Amiga will einen Computer zum Preis von etwa 500 US-Dollar mit der
Leistung eines 3000US-Dollar-PCs ermoeglichen.

- Amiga wolle selbst neue Hardware vorstellen, jedoch solle der AmigaNG
eine offene Architektur besitzen, so dass die Technologie in vielerlei
Produkten verwendbar sei.

- Letztendlich peile man eine Gesamtstueckzahl von 20-30 Millionen
Geraeten an.

- Das neue Amiga-Betriebssystem werde Multiprocessing unterstuetzen.

- Weitere Details zur Architektur sollen auf Entwicklerkonferenzen im
Sommer und Herbst bekanntgegeben werden. An anderer Stelle wurden die
Monate Juli/August (moeglicherweise frueher) genannt.

- Amiga verhandele mit verschiedenen grossen Softwareunternehmen ueber
AmigaNG-Unterstuetzung, von denen bislang keine ausdruecklich "nein"
gesagt habe.

- Der AmigaNG soll ueber das bestehende Haendlernetz verkauft werden.

- Amiga werde als weltweite Firma gefuehrt, der Schwerpunkt liege auf den
Laendern, in denen der Amiga am weitesten verbreitet ist, also
Deutschland,
UK und USA.

- Der erste grosse Auftritt von Amiga soll auf der Comdex im Herbst
stattfinden.

- Noch in diesem Jahr soll eine bedeutende Menge an Geld fuer
Marketingmassnahmen bereitgestellt werden.


In einer Rede gab Jim Collas weitere Details bekannt:

- Das neue Amiga-Betriebssystem werde den Namen "AmigaSoft" tragen. Die
erste Version, AmigaSoft 4.0 alpha (fuer Entwickler), werde im September
erscheinen, die endgueltige Version soll Ende des Jahres auf den Markt
kommen.

- Eine Betaversion von AmigaSoft 5.0 soll Ende des Jahres erscheinen, die
endgueltige Version soll im zweiten Quartal des Jahres 2000 fertig sein.

- AmigaSoft soll eine "revolutionaere" Software-Architektur und eine
vollstaendige Entwicklungsumgebung bereitstellen.

- Jim Collas versprach eine bessere Kommunikation zwischen Amiga und der
Amiga-Gemeinde.

- Amiga haette nun die volle Unterstuetzung durch den Mutterkonzern
Gateway.
How to Apply

Amiga sucht Entwickler (13.03.99)
---------------------------------

Parallel zur Amiga 99 startete Dr. Allan Havemose, der Leiter der
Amiga-Softwareentwicklung, eine Aktion, die die Einstellung von
Mitarbeitern zum Ziel hat:


»Below is our latest Engineering job openings in San Jose. If you're
interested and think you may be qualified, please follow the directions
at the end of the message.

Most of the formatting got lost when I pasted it into this news message.
Visit www.amiga.de, select the english language tab, and look for
engineering jobs on the left hand side. Should be easier to read this
way.

As you can see, we're redoing both our web sites. The job openings will
be on www.amiga.com as soon as we finish the work.

NOTE: We have a problem with our mail server. Do NOT send email to
hr@amiga.com for the next few days. Follow the directions as the end of
this message.

I'm looking forward to speaking to qualified candidates !

Allan

*****
ASCII version: Visit www.amiga.de for the HTML version
*****
Job Descriptions for Amiga Engineering in San Jose

General

Amiga is a highly entrepreneurial start-up company. We are headquartered
in San Diego and have our development group in San Jose. All of the
following openings are based in our San Jose offices. Our San Jose
offices are located on North First Street between Trimble and the
Airport.

At Amiga we are designing next generation Internet-ready,
consumer-oriented digital appliances. The Amiga name is associated the
world over with user-friendly, low cost, powerful computing. We are
taking this philosophy into the next generation, enabling products from
hand held Internet appliances to high-end graphics computers that help
the user rather than frustrate them. See www.amiga.com or www.amiga.de
for more details on Amiga, our history and the community.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record in the computer
industry. While each opening has special requirements the general
expectations are:
* Proven industry track record
* Demonstrable ability to deliver robust, top-quality software on time
* Committed to success and willing to  do what it takes  to deliver
industry leading product
* BS/MS/Ph.D. in computer science or electronic engineering
* Strong proven technical skills in C++

Job Descriptions

Principal Engineer/Manager Positions

User Interface Group:
* More than 10 years of commercial experience in generating compelling
user-interfaces
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with real-time, multimedia operating systems
* Experience with Client/Server graphical user interfaces
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Understanding of system architecture and design of operating systems
* Ability to lead, manage and mentor a group of software and
human-factors engineers


Networking and e-commerce Group:
* More than 10 years of commercial experience in networking, e-commerce
and transaction processing.
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with real-time, multimedia operating systems
* Experience with Client/Server transaction/e-commerce systems
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Understanding of system architecture and design of operating systems
* Ability to lead, manage and mentor a group of software engineers


 Sr. Software Engineer/Software Engineer Positions:

Graphics/Video/OpenGL/Audio/Gaming (multiple positions)
* More than 5 years of commercial experience in one or more of the
following
* 2D/3D graphics engines
* OpenGL application programming
* Applications using Digital video algorithms (MPEG, codec s)
* Applications using Digital audio algorithms (AC-3, positional audio,
mp3)
* Gaming technologies
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with real-time, multimedia operating systems
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Experience with embedded programming.
* Ability to write specifications

User Interface (multiple positions)
* More than 5 years of commercial experience in one or more of the
following
* Consumer user interfaces
* Desktop user interfaces
* Use of multimedia (video, graphics, animation and audio) in user
interfaces
* Preferences and Configuration
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with real-time, multimedia operating systems
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Experience with embedded programming.
* Ability to write specifications


Human Factors (multiple positions)
* More than 5 years of commercial experience in one or more of the
following
* Design of consumer user interfaces
* Design of desktop user interfaces
* Usability studies
* Proven creative background with a strong sense for good  user
experiences
* Working knowledge of today s leading operating systems: Windows, Mac,
UNIX, QNX and AmigaOS
* Ability to clearly articulate user interface designs

Networking/e-commerce/transactions (multiple positions)
* More than 5 years of commercial experience in one or more of the
following
* Basic networking technologies (TCP/IP, SMTP, POP3 etc.)
* Browsers and their implementation
* E-commerce standards
* Encryption and Authentication
* Cable interfaces
* Billing & Logging
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with real-time, multimedia operating systems
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Experience with embedded programming.
* Ability to write specifications




Build manager
* More than 3 years of experience managing the build process of a larger
software development group
* Revision control, release management, Documentation control
* Ability to write smaller tools and utilities to assist the development
process
* Good technical skills with an understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Ability to work well with engineering staff and management

Quality Assurance & Test
* More than 3 years of industry experience in the field of software test
and quality assurance:
* Write test-suites and run them
* Tenacity to identify and isolate bugs and inconsistent behavior
* Work as a member of a software development team.
* Strong technical skills with a good understanding of C++ and Java
technologies
* Experience with QNX, UNIX, Linux, WindowsNT, AmigaOS or similar modern
OS
* Experience with embedded programming.
* Ability to write test-plan




If you would like to apply for one of the openings please forward a copy
of your resume to one of the following addresses. Be sure to clearly
indicate the position you are applying for.

Email:
Email: andrew.mccartney@gateway.com
Make sure you to include the word Amiga in the subject line

Fax:
Fax:   (619) 799-3949
Attn: Andrew McCartney, Amiga Human Resources

Mail:
 4545 Towne Centre Crt
 San Diego, CA 92121
 Attn: Andrew McCartney, Amiga Human Resources



Amiga is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Amiga does
not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion,
gender, national origin, age, disability, Vietnam Era veteran or special
disabled veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other protected
status as provided by law.


--
Allan Havemose, Ph.D.
Amiga Vice President, Engineering
email:havemose@amiga.com (W)
email:havemose@ix.netcom.com (H)«


--

Und noch zwei Kurzmeldungen:

* Bei dem Programm 'Daytona', das Nordic Global fuer den Sommer
angekuendigt hat, handelt es sich um eine Java Virtual Machine.

* YAM ist in der Version 2.0 Preview 7 erschienen und kann auf
http://www.yam.ch heruntergeladen werden.

--

E-Mail-Abos von AMIGA aktuell koennen unter Angabe der gewuenschten
Version (1. AMIGAGuide oder HTML; 2. mit oder ohne Grafiken) kostenlos auf
den WWW-Sites http://www.mediaspace.net/amigaaktuell und
http://www.vmc.de/aakt bzw. per E-Mail (aakt@gmx.de) eingerichtet werden.

© 1999 Carsten Schroeder - Der Inhalt dieser Mail darf nur vollstaendig
und ohne Aenderungen weiterverbreitet werden.

AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special

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