Dear Foundation member, News from RISC OS Ltd No. 4 5th January 2000 ================ First of all, a very Happy New Year to you from everyone at RISCOS Ltd. It appears that some of you are still not receiving copies of this email newsletter. To help us identify the problem, could you please take a few minutes to reply to mailto:foundation@riscos.com to confirm that you have received this email. Please quote your Foundation membership number. RISC OS Manuals CD ------------------ The demand for CD pressing was very high this Christmas, and consequently the CD's will not be pressed until the end of January. We have taken the delay as an opportunity to extend the amount of work being done to ensure that the PRM's are updated with known addenda in place on the HTML versions rather than as separate files. The PDF version will still be an exact match with the original printed versions of the following manuals:- PRM Vol 1 - 5a, Basic V, Toolbox, DDE, C++ and ASM. You have a final chance to place orders at the introductory price up until 14th January 2000 of £10 ( including delivery ) for Foundation Members. After that date orders will be charged at the full price of £25 for Foundation members and £30 for non-members. To order a copy email mailto:ro4orders@riscos.com with your Foundation number and Credit Card details, or send a Cheque payable to RISCOS Ltd to the usual address. If you are concerned about security, then send your Credit Card details attached as a Drawfile, with the text converted to a path. You don't need to send your address details, unless you have moved, since you first joined the Foundation. Foundation Private Area ----------------------- This area is now active. The letter sent to you with your Membership form gives you details of how to access the area. The only change from that letter is that the password may be greater than or less than the 6 characters originally mentioned, so enter the full number if your postcode has more than 6 characters. If you live abroad then you should usually just enter the numbers. If you are having problems accessing the site then email mailto:foundation@riscos.com with the subject PRIVATE SITE ACCESS and quote your Membership Number and Name and we will email you the full access details. RiscStation ----------- The first RiscStation machines were shipped in late December. Acorn or RISC OS? ----------------- After the takeover of Acorn by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter last year, the various parts of the old Acorn organisation have now come under the ownership and control of a number of different organisations. The Acorn name is used by Castle for their licensed Risc PC and A7000 machines, but any other uasge is not allowed. It is likely that the Acorn name will be acquired for use outside the current market, and to that end we want everyone to start referring to the "RISC OS" market and being a "RISC OS" user, rather than being an "Acorn" User. Printer Drivers --------------- A lot of work has been put into supporting a wider range of printers than was possible under RISC OS 3.7 To that end we are planning to make a number of chargeable as well as free upgrades available this year. Full details will be made available in a few months time, but things to look out for will be support for different types of network printing, printing very long pictures, and better support for page sizes bigger than A4. Developers and Programmers Conference ------------------------------------- We are holding a conference on Saturday 22nd January for programmers and developers to get the full info on the new features of RISC OS 4. The venue is close to the Birmingham NEC and admission will cost £20 if you are not a semi-commercial or commercial registered developer. Attendees will receive a CD with lots of goodies!! If you would like to attend please email mailto:andrew@riscos.com Where have I seen that idea before .... ? ----------------------------------------- The following news item was posted by Apple just before Christmas. It seems such a good idea that I don't know why no-one else has done it before! > ----------------------------------------------- > 7. NetBoot Makes Network Administration Simpler > ----------------------------------------------- > > You may have heard about NetBoot, a feature of Mac OS X Server that > allows a lab or classroom of "clients"--iMac or Power Mac G4 > computers--to start up and obtain a full range of applications and > other services from a central server. But have you spoken to anyone > who has taken advantage of NetBoot in an educational environment? > > Then listen to what Les Finken, a senior systems analyst, has to say > about his experiences with NetBoot and Mac OS X Server at the > University of Iowa: "NetBoot, he says, "dramatically reduces the > time required to update software on the network--it's nearly > instantaneous--and makes it much simpler to install and maintain the > applications." > > http://www.apple.com/education/hed/aua0202/iowa/ Thats all for now. Enquiries --------- The RISC OS 4 Helpline is only available on 02920 492326 from 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Enquiries for the Foundation and General Sales 02920 492324 from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Fax for all enquiries 02920 440071 Please quote your Foundation Membership Number on all enquiries. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd -----------------------------------------------------------------------