News from RISCOS Ltd No. 30 April 9th 2004 ============== RISC OS 4.39 ROM shipments -------------------------- I'm pleased to announce that the RISC OS 4.39 ROM development has now been frozen and production of the ROMs has commenced. We have received 148 orders as of yesterday morning so if you are still deciding whether you still want to place an order for one of this first batch of 150 you will have to be very quick! We will need approximately a further 250 orders to be able to cover the costs of producing further ROMs, but I hope that judging by the speed of orders so far, and by the expected positive comments by word of mouth once the new ROMs start shipping it will not take long for us to reach that level of orders. MicroDigital have been testing the 4.39 ROMs with the Mico and Omega computers and we expect them to make the details of that testing available shortly. Orders will start shipping after the Easter break and as each ROM is being individually programmed it will probably take about a week to process all the orders. We have started to process cheques so if your cheque has been paid by your bank then we have received your order. Orders placed by Credit Card will be processed shortly. We have not had time to acknowledge orders received individually but if you want to check that we have received your order please call the office next week. Please remember that if you have opted to exchange your current RISC OS 4.02 ROM set then you have 28 days from the date of receiving the new 4.39 ROMs to send the old set back. If ROMs are not received back within that time you will be charged the extra £10 plus a processing charge of £5. We ensure that ROMs are returned by "Signed For" service to help ensure that we receive them. We will shortly we starting work on the Select version of RISC OS 4.39 which we expect to have available by the end of May. This will be issued as Select 3i4. Select 4 will follow later in the year with even more features and a new bundle of supporting applications. Foundation Risc User Issue 14 ----------------------------- The latest edition of the Foundation Risc User has recently been shipped to subscribers. If you have not received your copy yet please contact the Office or send an email to mailto:foundation@riscos.com Forthcoming Shows ----------------- Wakefield Show 2004 ------------------- This years show will be the 9th and again is going to be a 2 day event, rather then the one day in 2003. This has come about as a result of feedback from both exhibitors and visitors. The venue will once again be the Thornes Park Athletics Stadium over the weekend of 15 and 16 May 2004, and will be open to the public between 10 am and 6 pm on Saturday and 10 am and 4 pm on the Sunday. A free minibus service will operate from Wakefield Westgate station to the show and is sponsored by APDL and Virtual Acorn. Due to popular demand the Advance tickets facility will be returning for the show. Advance tickets will be available from March 2004. Ticket prices: 5's and under Free. Advance tickets 6 pounds On the day rates: Saturday 7 pounds Sunday 6 pounds To request your advance tickets by post (from March 2004) send a cheque or postal order made out to 'WROCC Show' to : Wakefield Show 2004 3 Riverdale Avenue Stanley WAKEFIELD West Yorks WF3 4LF Advance Credit Card orders will only be able to be placed via the show website from March 2004. Of course it would not be a Wakefield show without the usual Show Theatre, and Charity Stall, which will again be raising money for Wakefield Hospice. There will be the usual catering facilities upstairs and a prize draw. The show this year is currently being sponsored by APDL, FinnyBank Ltd (Qercus), Spellings Computer Services, Stuart Tyrrell Developments, Virtual Acorn. With support from all the magazines. To keep up to date on what happening and who is attending the show. Check out the show website: http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/ Organisers: ----------- The show is once again being coordinated by Chris Hughes, who has organised all the previous Wakefield shows, in the past supported by the late Mike Wilson, and now by Steve Potts / Phillip Marsden and of course the WROCC members. The show is organised on behalf of the Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club one of the longest running Acorn/RISCOS computer clubs in the UK. Dutch Risc OS Expo 2004 ----------------------- Saturday, June 19th, 2004 from: 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. at the Expohall, Hotel Mercure, Buizerdlaan 10, Nieuwegein (near the city of Utrecht). The hotel is easily reached from the A2 Motorway, with a restaurant, free garage parking and (usually) rooms for the night. Internet reservations for hotel rooms have lowest room rates try http://www.hotelclub.net/DirectHotel.asp?hotelID=5095 The Show offers exhibitions/promotions by various companies, including Dutch, German and British Acorn/RISC OS dealers, demonstrations by club members, etc. Visitors are members and non-members from Holland, Belgium, Germany and UK. Participation is free of charge for dealers from the UK to minimise the costs for coming to Holland. User Group Meetings ------------------- A reminder that I am always happy to visit User Groups to demonstrate RISC OS Select, RISC OS 4.39 or just talk generally about the RISC OS market. Standing Order Renewals to be replaced by Direct Debit ------------------------------------------------------ As I have mentioned before we continue to have a large number of problems with administering Standing Order payments and we have now been approved for Direct Debit authorisation. We will be contacting everyone who currently pays by Standing Order to arrange for Direct Debit Mandates to be set up as soon as the Bank Formalities have completed. Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd 3 Clarendon Road Cardiff CF23 9JD Tel 02920 492324 Fax 02920 492326 mailto:paul@riscos.com Copyright ©2004 RISCOS Ltd.