The news is organised in chronological order, with the most recent stories at the top. Choose the month you require, then click on a topic heading to jump to the associated announcement.
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The announcement concerning RiscCAD seems to have started off a flow of useful comments, all of which are being considered with the development of the package. The new release now consists of a CD-ROM with documentation in HTML format on disc, or optionally with two printed manuals.
We are unfortunately going to have to revise our original pricing. The CD-ROM edition alone will be priced at ukp59 inc VAT (ukp10 more), and the manual will be ukp10 no VAT (ukp10 less). For a limited time, orders placed at the originally posted price will be fulfilled, but after 1st April 2001 all orders should be at these rates.
To order, call APDL on 020 8778 2659. We shall shortly have a RiscCAD webpage available at risccad.riscos.org.uk - this presently points to the APDL website.
For some time now the ARM Club's free software has been hidden away out of harms way on our FTP server. We have now linked the software to our website so hopefully it will start showing up on search engines, and enable people to find it more easily. The URL is:
http://www.armclub.org.uk/free/
I've also taken the opportunity to fix a bug in !FreeMap which gave problems with disc that had absolutely no free space on them.
Please note all enquires on this software should be sent to druck@armclub.org.uk
The "teach yourself assembler" area on HeyRick has been updated to cover writing module code. Also I've copied the search facility into the menu because it is a logical place to find it. I've also updated a few small bits and pieces.
http://www.heyrick.co.uk/assembler/
If you do not wish to read it on-line, a downloadable archive of the HTML files is available. Note that the examples (source codes) need to be downloaded seperately.
Following a good response to our announcement of a range of Print Server boxes with RISC OS software/manuals a few weeks ago, we are pleased to announce two new additions to the range.
Print Server boxes provide a method of attaching "normal" printer port printers onto a network. The boxes have several printer ports, to which you attach the printers, and a network socket to connect it all to the network. This provides comprehensive, cross-platform printer sharing, without dedication a machine to the task. By using a dedicated box (about A5 in size) for the task, you have a reliable, faster and effective way of sharing printers amongst a number of machines.
Almost as a "side effect" of the system, you will automatically gain full background printing, as the network printing technology spools quickly to disc in the background, and then is transmitted across the network. The Print Server box then ensures that the job is printed quickly and smoothly to the attached printer. This can also resolve some printer-port-related RISC OS printing problems.
The two new boxes are both 10/100 Mbit compliant (100Mbit being the faster standard which is now commonplace with PCs/Macs) which gives you futureproofing. It is worth noting, however, that the parallel connection to the printer may well be the bottleneck, rather than network speed!
The first new addition is a 2 printer port 10/100 Mbit unit, which effectively replaces its more expensive cousin previously announced. The other unit differs only in offering an extra serial port printer connection, but serial port printers are rather rare these days! This unit costs 175ukp inc VAT and UK carriage, and includes full RISC OS drivers and software.
The second new addition has 3 standard printer ports, offering greater flexibility and scope for connecting printers. Unfortunately, the manufacturers impose a price pentalty for this, resulting in a price (including drivers and UK delivery) of 230ukp.
The driver software is supplied in site licence format, so can be used on all your RISC OS machines on the network.
The previous 10Mbit and 100Mbit version remain available for 160 and 190 ukp respectively inc drivers and delivery.
As before, we do occasionally get B-grade units coming through from our suppliers at reduced prices, so ask about these if you are interested.
Manuals for using and setting up the boxes with/from RISC OS machines are included.
If you have any futher questions, feel free to email or telephone us (01925 755043).
Hello there; a while back I wrote some tutorials for Archimedes World which a few people have since asked me about. After the efforts of Jeffrey Lee converting them from Impression format, I've now got the whole lot online along with the example programs. The tutorials are pretty terse, and would sit well beside a copy of Nick van Someren's book on ARM programming. Nevertheless if you're a RISC OS programmer wanting to break into hand-writing your ARM code, they could be useful. Any feedback would be useful, particularly if you know the subject and can find some inaccuracies :-)
You can find the articles at http://www.soup-kitchen.net/armcode/
A revised RISC OS printer driver has been developed for the Hewlett Packard DeskJet 895Cxi printer.
The original driver provided settings for EconoFast, Normal and Best qualities with Plain Paper plus Normal and Best qualities with Special Paper where the type of Special Paper was not specified.
The revised driver provides settings for EconoFast, Normal and Best Black qualities with Plain Paper.
The revised driver also provides specific settings, and sends the correct codes to the printer, for Normal quality with Transparency media, and Best quality with Coated Paper and Glossy paper.
Finally a more appropriate icon bar symbol is provided.
Please note photo-realistic printing support is NOT provided. RISC OS 4 and !Printers 1.64 are recommended as also is an IEEE 1284 standard printer cable.
This driver is being offered free of charge thanks to the support of Graham Howell (aka 'thedoctor') who met all expenses incurred in the driver's development.
For more information please email me, Jonathan Briggs, at jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
Announcing the first public release of a RISC OS program - !Fingering.
(Just in case there is another bassoon playing RISC OS computer owner :-)
The program stores and displays bassoon fingerings, trills and shakes (German system). It comes with my list of fingerings and more can be added using the program.
The zipped program can be downloaded from my web site below.
http://www.j-schroder.demon.co.uk/
It is free.
It was written with the help of DrWimp, which I can recommend.
As part of our continued commitment to supporting the RISC OS platform, Microlynx is releasing a new version of its Topcat product.
* avoids having to enter Address Reservations - for 2Mbit clients only
Whilst a new Topcat Client is provided as part of this release, existing Topcat Clients can be used with Topcat version 2.0.
The new version will cost £499, but existing Topcat Customers can upgrade for the special price of £250. This offer is valid until 31st May 2001.
Show Information from Wakefield Acorn Computer (User) Group
One of the major attractions at the show will be the ever popular Bring & Buy Charity Stand which will provide an excellent opportunity to clear your shelves of unwanted items of computer hardware, software and accessories. Show visitors will be able to browse through the donated items and pick up some surprising bargains.
Last year we raised over ukp1600 for local charities and hope to do even better this year.
While donations brought along to the show will be very welcome, it would be even more helpful if items could be posted, or delivered, in advance. Wakefield Hospice, who will be the principal beneficiary have kindly volunteered to receive and store items for the standuntil showtime.
These should go to:
Please mark donations:
Goods can be received between 8:30am and 3:30pm on Weekdays.
For all the latest information see the show website at:
Or address your enquiries to:
postal enquiries to:
Issued by: Mike Wilson Publicity Officer WACG. 24 Feb 2001
0113-253-3722 showpub@wacg.org.uk
To help get you over the long Winter months (OK, I live in Scotland) here at Quantum Software we've decided to offer a page of free software you can download and play with.
We are even giving away one of our past popular commerical programs that we previously sold for ukp14.95 and are now just giving it away!
Take you web browser to http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/qs/ and follow the free software link.
Here is what you can find:
Impressive - Our Impression 'addon'.
Designed to be used with the DTP software Impression this toolbar makes it even easier to use. This was previously sold for ukp14.95 but now its 100% free!
KeysLib - Our Keystroke Library resource.
This contains over *seventy* very useful programs that can help you use your computer.
BgrdImage - BackgroundImage.
You supply a path to a directory of JPEGs or Sprites and this little program places one of the pictures on your background of your Pinboard. But it is intelligent enough not to repeat itself until its displayed all of them.
Pics - Seven big sample JPEG Pictures to go with the above program or whatever use you want.
Convertlfs - Convert LongFile names.
This program is for those people that have bought RISC OS 4 and used LongFS to generate long file names on their drives. Now you don't need to use LongFS, but this application will convert your files back from 'name}002' to their correct long names.
IEURL - Internet Explorer Favorites.
This program allows users of Fresco to make use of Internet Explorer Favorites files that they may have imported from work?
Icons - Lots and lots of converted Windows icons for you in Sprite format.
WimpInfo - A useful Wimp tool for telling you programmers what your windows and Tasks are up to.
Beeps - A collection of alternative 'beeps' or system error sounds.
Bing, Camera, Car Horn, Chimes, Chirp, Ding, Meep Meep, Phone, Kryton - PhotoCopy, Quadra, RedAlert, Starting, Tada, Tick, Tuner, Water Drop.
Beeps2 - A further collection of alternative 'beeps' or system error sounds.
Boing, Bond, Chord, Computer, Dog, DoorBell, You've Got Post, Horse, Open, Splash, Spring, Star Trek Beeps, Tiger, Torpedo, Tribble, Ultimate, Use It, Welcome, Wibble.
Beep3 - Due to popular demand even more alternative 'beeps' or system error sounds.
Godzilla, Hmmmm, Ping, Tuner, Type
Tick - The first one we did and still very popular. If you've not used these Beeps before and are unsure then try this one out first.
Clip Art - Some old Draw type clipart.
Fonts - A number of PD fonts we've collected.
SAclock - How to overclock your StrongARM CPU. Instructions, test programs and graphs.
Foundation RISC User is sent to Foundation members four times a year, and includes a wide range of substantial, high quality features and resources, presented in a format which is exceptionally well organised and easy to use.
The purpose of the Online edition is to show non-members what they have been missing and encourage them to join the Foundation, and also to present the magazine's Database section in an up-to-date format for the benefit of all RISC OS users.
Unique advantages of Foundation RISC User include the following:
To see what you've been missing if you're not a Foundation member, point your browser at the following address:
<http://foundation.riscos.com/fru.htm>
Be sure to read the Editorial page within the Welcome! section, as it provides extensive further details about the magazine.
On the Editorial page you will also find a new 'Rendered on RISC OS 4' Web button, which you are free to use on your own Web pages as a means of promoting and raising awareness of the RISC OS platform.
Enjoy Foundation RISC User Online!
Richard Hallas
Editor, Foundation RISC User
RISCOS Ltd
I have uploaded a brand new design of the Acorn User Web site
http://www.acornuser.com/
This is the third redesign in recent months but this one's here to stay! The purpose of first redesign was to simply bring the site up to date. The second was a cosmetic improvement (in my opinion) and now this is the long-awaited, swish and sleek redesign (also in my opinion).
Constructive comments are most welcome. There shouldn't be any bugs, but if there are, please do let me know.
Free Ads is fully working again.
Number Plane covers seven number topics: reading and writing numerals and number names; knowing by heart number pairs for 20; knowing by heart number facts for all numbers to 10; division as both sharing equally and repeated subtraction; multiplication as repeated addition; place value in 2 digit numbers; and fractions (halves and quarters). There are three levels of difficulty and all work is within the number range 0 - 100.
All activities are fully narrated and introduce a collection of fun characters such as Dr. Prickle the Hedgehog and the Doughnut Dragons. Murphy Mouse is always on hand to offer clear instructions and gentle help if needed and there are correction routines to reinforce key teaching points where appropriate. For teachers, there is a useful record keeping facility and a carefully designed options menu to help tailor the program to the needs of individual pupils. The CD-ROM also contains a set of resource sheets, ideal for extra work away from the computer.
Number Plane is available on triple format CD-ROM (Windows, Mac and Acorn) and is suitable for children from 6 to 7 years. Price £42.95 (ex VAT) single user, multi-user packs are available.
Julie Bayliss, Sherston Software Ltd
I've set up a Smartgroups list for users of the Speech! application from Superior Software Ltd.
Feel free to join in and disscuss this great app.
The group can be accessed via email:
RISCOS-Speech@smartgroups.com
or via the website:
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/RISCOS-Speech/
I have created a 'smartgroup' for Riscster users. It is a public group, so anybody can join and post articles to the mailing list. The idea is so that I can get feedback about Riscster and respond to it more effectively.
The mailing list is also a convenient way to find out about new versions and share tips... which might be especially useful now the 'official' Napster servers may be closing down.
Riscster is the Napster compatible client for RISC OS. Napster (as you probably already know) is the controvertial system for swapping MPEG Layer 3 audio files (commonly known by the DOS extension, MP3) over the internet.
Riscster can be downloaded from the website at:
http://www.riscster.iconbar.com/
There is a new version available, 1.16Beta, which fixes a few bugs.
You can join the group from:
http://www.smartgroups.tv/groups/riscster/
RISC OS printer drivers have been developed for the Hewlett Packard DeskJet 930C, 950C and 970Cxi printers.
The drivers provide settings for 300dpi EconoFast and 300dpi Normal qualities with Plain Paper.
The drivers also provide specific settings, and send the correct codes to the printer, for 600dpi printing with Plain Paper, Coated Paper, Glossy Paper and Transparency media in full colour and at Best quality.
An appropriate icon bar symbol is provided.
Please note Photo printing support is NOT provided. Please note Duplex printing support is NOT provided. RISC OS 4 and !Printers 1.64 are recommended as also is an IEEE 1284 standard printer cable.
On some systems, particularly those using RISC OS 3.7 or earlier, these printers do not respond immediately after switching on. This can normally be overcome by sending an appropriate command directly to the printer. An application can be provided to make this a simple matter.
A donation of 5 pounds, per user, is appreciated towards the development costs.
For more information please email me, Jonathan Briggs, at jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
A revised RISC OS printer driver has been developed for the Hewlett Packard DeskJet 690C printer.
The original driver provided settings for EconoFast, Normal and Best qualities with Plain Paper plus Normal and Best qualities with Special Paper where the type of Special Paper was not specified.
The revised driver provides settings as before for EconoFast, Normal and Best qualities with Plain Paper but adds a setting for 600dpi Black printing on Plain Paper.
The revised driver also provides specific settings, and sends the correct codes to the printer, for Normal and Best qualities with Coated Paper and Transparency media. A setting is also provided for Best quality with Glossy paper.
Finally a more appropriate icon bar symbol is provided.
Please note Photo printing support is NOT provided. RISC OS 4 and !Printers 1.64 are recommended as also is an IEEE 1284 standard printer cable.
A donation of 2 pounds 50 pence, per user, is appreciated towards the development costs.
For more information please email me, Jonathan Briggs, at jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
We've had reports of a couple of problems with PS2Mouse and optical mice:
a) Mouse buttons becoming "stuck" with Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse:
As announced previously, we have an alternate version of the PS2Mouse firmware which works around the bugs in these Logitech devices. Please contact us if you require this.
b) (new report) Sometimes optical mice "go haywire". This problem may only become apparent after a few hours of operation.
Some optical mice can take up to 100mA in operation. As standard, PS2Mouse has been fused to 125mA (typical mice will consume 5-10mA), although we have increased this to 200mA in later batches.
We have identified a problem with the 125mA fuses we've been obtaining from one manufacturer. Under continuous stress (as would be found with operation with some optical mice), these fuses can fail to low resistance (rather than "blowing" - or remaining low resistance, which is what they /should/ do).
For the screwdriver-weilding inclined - the fuses fail to a characteristic 50-150 Ohms (compared to their usual 3-5 Ohms), and a yellow "fuzz" can be seen around the fuse wire where it enters one of the end caps. This causes an unacceptable voltage drop to the mouse when it's drawing high current.
So - if you /are/ suffering with a haywire Optical mouse, don't suffer in silence, and please contact us - it can be rectified as simply as swapping out a fuse for an alternate.
Many thanks to Steve Fryatt for his assistance in finding issue b - he has one of the few PS2Mouse+ interfaces using these fuses, and we could work back through various components to prove the "culprit". I've since had a PS2Mouse interface back from Simon John which suffers in the same way.
RiscCAD is a superb CAD program for RISC OS computer users. It offers a wide variety of features, which we hope shortly to place within one of our domains. Agreement has now been reached with David Buck, the author, to take over the development and marketing and ensure that RiscCAD has a long-term RISC OS future.
We hope to have RiscCAD available, ex-stock, from 26th February 2001. The new pricing structure will be as follows:
Site licence/network licence prices are yet to be decided. RiscCAD will henceforth be available on CD-ROM as a primary means of distribution. If you require floppy discs, please say so. For upgrades, original discs will have to be returned.
RiscCAD will be available through APDL - tel 0208 778 2659 or email info@apdl.co.uk. My part is to identify what you'd like in future editions. If you do have any views, please feel free to email me as dbproaction@aol.com.
I've recently uploaded !Verma 0.14 to my site:
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/lenny/soft/index.html
Verma is a simple utility that displays version information about Modules that are stored on disc. Eg drag !Boot or !System to its icon and it will display details for all modules found there-in. It will also indicate multiple copies of modules (irrespective of their version number).
This version contains mainly bug fixes along with some minor cosmetic changes.
I've recently uploaded !Mixer 0.17 to my site:
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/lenny/soft/index.html
!Mixer is a utility providing a centralised control of the volume levels of the internal sound system, CD drives and SharedSound handlers (eg PCSound, Synth, Player, etc).
The main change in this version is the ability to save settings. In the case of CD drives, these settings can be applied as part of your main boot sequence.
Just a quick note to say that I've released version 1.10 of my KwikJPEG viewing utility. It'll run on anything over RISC OS 3.1 (for OS 3.1 users, you will need to get hold of Justin Fletcher's DummyDynamicAreas software)
Download from
http://www.acornusers.org/cbsa/Art.html
Hello everyone
My name is David Buck, and I am the programmer of RiscCAD, a 2D CAD program for all Acorn (RISC OS) machines.
I am now finding that I have not got the time to develop this software any further, and a decision has to be made along the following lines.
Acorn User have expressed an interest in this, and their deadlines mean I need to know everyone's comments by Monday 19th.
Hi,
just to let you all know that a German translation of "Wimp Programming For All" is available.
The German title is
"Wimp Programmierung unter RISC OS".
You will receive a laser printed book at a price of 39.00 DEM inc VAT ex p&p.
More details on our web site.
We've taken the decision to cease selling software directly to members of the public. This doesn't affectthe availability, or copyright status, of any of the titles. It simply allows us more time to handle developments, writing of manuals and other things which might make us a little money.
Games are still available through R-Comp Interactive
Sleuth 3, TypeStudio, Easy C++ and RISC OS Explorer are available though APDL
In all of this, we have decided to discontinue production of the following items:
This is due largely to the logistics of a handover for the Toons clipart, and because I had no where near the time to give Smash a good push.
So to summarise...
Hope that clears it up
This is partly an announcement to people running web sites which are members of the "Acorn WebRing" and also an encouragement to people who aren't yet members but would like to add their site to the ring.
Due to getting exasperated by Yahoo (who have taken over webring.org) and not particularly wanting to register, just to add and maintain webrings (a concern echoed by many users), I have written my own WebRing system and transferred all existing sites from Yahoo onto my new RISC OS WebRing.
However, this unfortunately necessitates everyone updating the relevant HTML WebRing segment on their homepage, which I apologise for, but hopefully the ring will become easier to maintain and update as a result of this.
The main ring is now located at http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/webring?ring=riscos and contains updated instructions and code examples.
To summarise (for those familiar with the old ring), I've implemented all the original commands, but in a slightly different format. The ring is also now called simply "riscos" (without the quotes) instead of riscosring - which should simplify it.
Your site IDs are exactly the same as before, so if your ID was 15 it will still be 15.
However commands are now entered via the &command= parameter (instead of a single semi-colon - although I hope to implement this in the future), so where before you may have used a link like;
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=riscosring;id=5;next
you would now use something like the following;
http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/webring?ring=riscos&id=5&command=next
Commands are;
| next | go to the next site |
| prev | go to the previous site |
| sprev | skip back one |
| skip | skip over one forward |
| add5 | jump forward 5 sites |
| sub5 | jump back 5 sites |
| add10 | jump 10 sites |
| sub10 | jump back 10 sites |
All the above sites require your site ID to be specified (so it knows where to start counting from). The following commands don't require a site ID.
| random | jump to a random site |
| list | list all the sites in the ring |
| join | join the ring |
| about | display details about the ring (home page) |
If you have any queries, problems or suggestions please email me at paul@vigay.com or view the help pages at http://www.vigay.com/webring/
I look forward to welcoming not only all the original WebRing members, but also some new members. Lets see if we can hit the 100 sites mark....
Hi nutters,
Some recent changes have been made at the SAS Squad site http://www.sassquad.com/:
SAS Squad is my website of goodies for RISC OS and other platforms. Specifically for RISC OS is the two-player arcade game Cavern Duel (http://www.sassquad.com/cavernduel). It's freeware, great fun to play, and includes a level designer, so for anyone with a fast ARM powered machine, it is ideal for the dark winter evenings.
I'm emigrating to the Far East with the wife at the end of this month. A lack of internet connection will prevent the site from being updated for potentially a long while. But I'll be available via email, and won't forget the scene. I'll do my bit to promote our OS in a far away land!
All the best, and happy Valentines Day.
My website has been globally altered to have a slightly different background colour (that doesn't dither on 32K colours).
Following some chaos (that would later be considered amusing), the HTML files have been updated and uploaded. Then I discover the access attributes are incorrect so nothing is accessible. A while spent with chmod fixed that (I think).
Anyway, apologies if you tried to visit during the daytime of Sunday 11th and received a boring "Not permitted" error.
Also, if anything seems wrong or behaves weirdly, or returns with a not permitted message, *PLEASE* contact me. I'm pretty sure I've fixed it all, but I wouldn't trust my memory... :-)
HeyRick offers:
All in all, the sort of stuff that would appeal to a geek. Or the bored. Or a bored geek.
I've just put FTPc 1.32 on my web site. It has the following changes
!FTPc is a freeware internet File Transfer Protocol Client. It enables you to transfer files/directories to and from your web space from the desktop using drag and drop.
FTPc - http://www.ftpc.iconbar.com/
We are adding web support for the election period and beyond for customers of British Parliamentary Constituencies on CD-Rom. The site can be found on:
As the election is likely to be called soon we have introduced a new personal edition of the CD-Rom, and we are making a special offer to RISC OS users. Prices now are:
Standard edition - includes ten user site licence - 50 pounds including VAT.
N
etwork edition - unlimited site licence 120 pounds including VAT
Available from all good bookshops by order or direct from Polemic Books by official order or cheque.
Personal edition - 35 pounds including VAT - Available only direct from Polemic Books
Send your order and payment to Polemic Books, Marquis House, 2 North Street, Winchcombe, GL54 5LH
Contact us on 01242 604060 or e-mail on polemic.books@argonet.co.uk
The CD-Rom uses a well known RiscOs authoring system and runs on RISC OS, Windows 95/98, and Windows NT (installation on NT is explained with the Network edition).
There is a new version of BookMaker on my web site.
This version will import a Netscape hotlist, retaining the hierarchical structure. It also provides the option of a half-height toolbar.
BookMaker is a hotlist & address book manager, available either as a Voyager VIXen application or as a standalone application for users of other diallers. It supports all major RISCOS Browsers, and several email clients.
It can be found at
http://www.argonet.co,uk/users/tigger/
and follow the "Programs" and "Voyager-related" links.
ROX-Filer 1.1.1 - a new developer release of the filer, is now available from the website (source only at the moment):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/rox_filer.php3
It's a developer release, so you may wish to stay with the current stable version, although the new one should be OK.
The filer now requires libxml to be installed (available from the GNOME site if you haven't got it already).
New features:
Translations:
Bug fixes:
Internal:
The filer is distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that anyone can modify it, use bits of it in their own (GPL) programs, etc. Indeed, many of the improvements made to the filer were added by other ROX users and posted as patches to the mailing list.
The filer comes with translations for Dutch, French, Italian and Polish.
There are now two mailing lists, rox-users and rox-devel. You can subscribe here, or look at the archives:
http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=3D7023
TME (South West) Ltd are delighted to be able to confirm the presence of Microlynx' (http://www.microlynx.co.uk/) latest audio-enabled ICA client for RISC OS at the Webbington Show On the 10th of February. This means Windows NT on a RiscPC or RiscStation, with sound, in case you were wondering.
We will have representatives from three schools- Tiverton High, Taunton Prep and Denbury Primary - on the stand, showing how RISC OS is still in widespread and productive use in UK schools.
RiscStation and Castle Technology will be jointly providing workstations for the stand.
Also, we've looked in our spares cupboard, and will be donating various items to the RISC OS Charity Stand. It's possible there will be few takers for what seems like 512 1MB RAM upgrades for A3000, but there are a couple of A30x0 10BaseT LAN cards, among other items, which might raise a bob or two.
TME (South West) Ltd are Lynx Education Agents for Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
Seeing as how Pluto is one of the best products on our platform, and to celebrate my newly arrived copy of Pluto2, I decided to make some groovy new icons and templates for it.
Unfortunately, you'll have to make do with the ones available at:
http://www.cheddarcheese.de/riscos/pluto.zip
These work with 2.02c here, and my work with other versions of Pluto. All the icons a new, and work properly when 'pushed'. The template file has also been tidies up a bit.
Rather than have several pre-show postings about latest R-Comp news, it is supplied here in digest form:
All new copies of Messenger Pro and the R-Comp Internet Suite will be supplied with the new manual. We haven't yet decided how to make it available to existing users, although this is planned once things are back to normal after the show.
This upgrade will be sent to regular customers shortly - there isn't really time pre-show.
We are pleased to announce that we will have limited numbers of special Gods/SpeedBall 2 games packs at the Southwest Show this weekend (if you can't make it, give us a call).
Both games have been updated to run on RO4/StrongArm/Kinetic etc. at the correct speed and with all features, sound, music etc. intact.
The games will be available in a number of ways:
SpeedBall 2 and Gods double pack - 15ukp
Individually - 10ukp each (at 5ukp more, you might as well have both!)
"Chaos Engine Special Edition" - aka Bitmap Brother games collection
25ukp for Chaos Engine, Gods and SpeedBall2
Both games include documentation (the original documentation has been converted into electronic format), and can be copied onto hard disc and played from there without the need for original discs.
Both games are (c) The Bitmap Brothers, and the RISC OS versions are available exclusively from R-Comp Interactive by arrangement.
More details about WebChange can be found at
http:/www.webchange.co.uk/ or http://www.softrock.co.uk/
This new version is a complete rewrite, and includes many improvements over previous versions, including:
As well as a variety of other things.
Until the end of February, this price is extended to those RISC OS users unable to make it to the show. To order a copy, please send a cheque or postal order, made payable to Soft Rock Software, to the following FREEPOST address:
Please provide an email address, and specify whether you wish to be subscribed to the support mailing list. Please also state whether you would like the software supplied on disk, or if you are willing to download it.
Therefore, if you are considering buying WebChange, it makes sense to so now - while it's discounted and before the price increase comes into effect!
More details about upgrading will be announced when this version is released, but in the meantime existing users can download the latest beta if they wish - details of this have been posted to those users on the mailing list.
Any full users who have asked not to be on the list but who would like to download this version should contact Soft Rock software by email - please use the name/email address you gave when purchasing the software. (If your email address has since changed, please provide your postal address in order to enable speedy verification.)
Please note that upgrades are NOT being handled at the show.
TopTen is a utility which allows you to recall previously accessed documents from witin a single menu.
Current abilities of the v0.6.8 release include:
Ability to temporarily freeze the document stack.
Ability to save/restore the document stack to/from files by simple drag'n drop actions.
Ability to access the menu diplay at anytime with the minimum of fuss with the use of the hotkey feature.
Extensive configuration options including type of object to exclude from the memorization mechanism, object display format in the menu, hotkey selection;
Interactive Help support (including support for the NIH systeem);
Localisation for both UK and France;
The URLs for downloading are:
http://bgilon.free.fr/RISCOS/inettopten/binTT.zip is the binary only archive;
http://bgilon.free.fr/RISCOS/inettopten/srcTT.zip is the source addon archive
Just to let the users of the 'crippled' version of !euroCalc know:
I've uploaded the February databases on the website, so if you're still working with older exchange rates, this is your chance to update.
!euroCalc is a exchange rate calculator built in S-Base with a window with all euro-land currencies. You can add up to 4 non-euro-and currencies to the full version od !euroCalc.
Databases and crippled version can be downloaded from :
If you have any questions or remarks please mail us at:
mailto:eurocalc@ekels.nl
I have had one or two problems with my Kinetic card, all of which are now apparently fixed, thanks to excellent support from Castle and Photodesk.
I have posted the two problems and their solutions on my Web site. These problems concerned Photodesk and StrongED, but the advice given may help with other problems experienced since installing Kinetic, if you have any.
Please go to http://www.arenaman.com/ and follow the link.
Hope this comes in useful for someone out there!
ProAction is delighted to announce the release of RISC OS Explorer 2.
Best described as a collection of articles and utilities, for the complete beginner to RISC OS, RISC OS Explorer introduces a concept at a time; giving brief but much needed coverage to as many topics as possible.
Sections include:
Supplied in Ovation Pro format, and HTML format, on CD-ROM if you print it out it'll make an ideal reference work. We could try an Acorn HowTo thing, but I don't think it'd work somewhat ;-) Since this project was first considered, I've now decided that the actual editorial content will be published in a separate book. As with Easy C++, rather than insist you buy this it's an optional extra.
Prices are therefore as follows...
RISC OS Explorer (CD-ROM only - all articles and software) - 20ukp
RISC OS Explorer (Book) - 10ukp
Prices include VAT (where appropriate) and postage within the UK. Please add 2ukp for overseas delivery. As with Easy C++, RISC OS Explorer will be available through APDL - given that the Acorn show is this weekend, we're holding off the release until early next week.
For details of upgrades, please email me directly.
Fresh on the heels of !Rename 3.05 comes version 3.06 - this version fixes a bug with the '[]' wildcard specifier.
!Rename is a smart file renamer using !Edit-like wildcards to define rules for renaming multiple files within the desktop.
It can be downloaded by going to
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tigger/
and following the "Programs" and "Desktop Utilities" links.
The German user group Arche Acorn User Club e.V. will be exhibiting on its booth (hall 7, booth 7040) on the computer show HobbyTronic in Dortmund, Germany. The user group will hold presentations of digital imaging, databases, text processing, webdesign and the GNU C/C++ development environment at the show. The HobbyTronic runs from Wednesday, the 14th of February to Sunday, the 18th of February. Point your browser to
http://www.arcsite.de/arche/hobbytronic.html
where you will find more information in German.
Don't forget the next meeting of the Arche ACORN User Club in Essen on Saturday, the 10th of March.
Carlos Michael Santillan and Julian G. F. Zimmerle
After yesterdays release of !riscSearch V0.5ß, I've received some feedback about some 'small' bugs .... I hope those bugs are fixed now, but if not, don't mind to mail me. The actual version V0.5ßa is available from my homepage at www.mortara.org, changes are:
For all of you who don't know about !RiscSearch: !RiscSearch is meant to be a meta-search engine, and AFAIK it is the only one available for RISC OS anywhere. It helps you to find web-pages about a certain topic by asking different search engines about the keywords you supply. It collects results from (at the moment) 10 different engines, filters out duplicate matches and then presents all links in a window of your web-browser.
We are pleased to announce the availability of network print server boxes to complement the Network Printer Driver software which we announced last year.
These boxes are provided with full instructions for how to set them up from your RISC OS machine, and include software/facilities for RISC OS, Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac, Netware etc.
Network Print Server boxes provide an easy way to network existing "printer port"-style printers. The boxes allow for two parallel port printers, and one serial port printer (if you still have any!). They are very quick and easy to install and set up, and remove the burden of print sharing from individual machines. This means that you don't need extra machines booted up before printing can begin.
Features include:
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with us by phone or email as usual.
The prices are as follows:
10Mb Print Server Box including RISC OS Network Printer software (site licence) 160ukp
(The above is recommended for most users)
100Mb version inc RISC OS software Site Licence 190ukp
Software only (site licence) 40ukp
Prices include VAT and UK delivery.
In most cases, the printer port speed is likely to be the bottleneck rather than the network connection speed. It is worth noting that even so, the print speed should be faster than connecting the printer to a RiscPC etc. Certainly control will be returned to the user much more quickly, thanks to the background printing from all programs.
Occasionally, we also can get ex-demo (B-grade) units, which may be slightly cheaper. If you're interested in these, feel free to ask.
We shall have some units for sale at the SW show this weekend for those who can make it.
Version 1.15 of Easy Accounts, my easy to use accounts package is now available from my website. Improvements over the previous version include:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/stephen.murphy/
I've just uploaded !RiscSearch V0.5ß to my homepage! (www.mortara.org) It will be the last release for some time now, except bug fixes, as I'm trying to completly rewrite the decoder section, to make it faster, more stable and easier to set up.
I've also some ideas to make !RiscSearch more usefull:
But this will surely take some time for me to implement, until then, I'll just tell you the actual changes in V0.5ß:
Any feedback (help, ideas, critics) is still very appreciated!!
Version 3.05 of !Rename is now available; unlike previous versions, this version allows multitasking to continue during most of the rename process.
!Rename is a smart file renamer using !Edit-like wildcards to define rules for renaming multiple files within the desktop.
It can be downloaded by going to
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tigger/
and following the "Programs" and "Desktop Utilities" links.
Slightly later than hoped for, but Easy C++ is now available in release 1.10. New additions for this release include:
We welcome ideas for improvement, and when we come to the next edition are certainly looking at implementing support for other main libraries (Desk, OSLib, etc).
Software prices include VAT. All prices include carriage within the UK - if you are ordering from overseas, please enquire before sending payment. To order, send a cheque/postal order for the total amount (made payable to APDL) to:
APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN.
You can order by telephone via 020 8778 2659 or fax 020 8448 0487. Email enquiries should be directed to info@apdl.co.uk.
Due to an unprecedented demand for NetTime, my online timer, it has had an upgrade to allow the date of last reset to be remembered. It also shows the aggregate amount of time online since last reset, and also the time online of the current logon.
With a few other bits'n'bobs it is useful with ArmTCP or Socketeer, in that it can automatically start'n'stop to keep track of online time.
If you're interested checkout the website below.
http://www.denmarkwa.net.au/~kwright/
Pace Micro Technology plc are seeking to recruit Software Engineers, Hardware Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Team Leaders and Project Managers. There are a number of exciting and challenging developments taking place and we are interested to hear from people who may wish to join our team here in Cambridge.
The technologies you may be involved with include xDSL, Digital TV, Operating System development and Information Appliances. Vacancies exist for engineers working on RISC OS/ARM and a wide range of other platforms.
Please email, fax or send your CV to Nicola Stock <mailto:camjobs@pace.co.uk> or drop in to our offices on Friday 9th February between 12.00pm and 7.00pm to see the office and have a chat.
For more information about Pace please visit our website at
http://www.pace.co.uk/
Directions to the office are available on request.
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