/// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News
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AMIGA HAM ECHO ANNOUNCED
Mario Bonelli, the moderator of FidoNet's AMIGA_CDROM is starting another
echo called AMIGA_HAM. Chatting about anything to do with HAM radio and
the Amiga. Helping amatuer operators, future operators, or those who just
have an interest.
The echo is not on the backbone yet, but if you wish to join (being placed
on the backbone requires a certain amount of nodes to carry this echo),
please send a Netmail message to:
Mario Bonelli at 1:273/934.
------------------------------
INOVATRONICS RELEASES CANDO UPGRADE v2.5
CanDo 2.5, INOVATronics' popular multimedia authoring system software,
has added exciting new features which not only utilize the capabilties of
the new Amigas, but allow you to make more impressive applications even
more easily!
Some of these enhancements include:
* AGA Graphics
* Stereo Music Files
* ASL Commodore Requesters
New Main Panel
The main panel has been cleaned up and reorganized. The XtraTools menu and
icon have been removed and replaced with a list on the main panel. This makes
it easier to find and use these tools.
New Window Editor with AGA Graphic Support
The new Window Editor is more clearly laid out. The new "Open the Window
onto..." section allows you to select the screen. You can have your window
open on any "Public" screen.
The "Available modes..." button on the Window Editor brings up a requester
allowing your to select from the modes available on your computer. This
requester is similar to your "Screen Mode" preference setting. This method
insures both the greatest possible compatibility with future Amiga
enhancements and your application's ability to run on Amigas with different
capacities.
Support for Music Files
You can now play stereo music files. You have full control over tempo and
volume. The new InovaMusic.library supports StarTracker, SoundTracker,
NoiseTracker, ProTracker, MED, OctaMED, Oktalyzer, and 15 instrument
Soundtracker music files!
Expanded Requester Support
CanDo now uses the Commodore supplied ASL File Requester which has many
expanded features such as Save Mode (which allows the user to create
directories), Multi-Select, Filter Drawers, Only Drawers, File Patterns, and
more. These features not only give you greater programming control, but
provide the users of your application a standard, powerful means of selecting
Files and Directories.
We even added support for Commodore's "Easy Requesters." These allow you to
prompt the user with a question, have as many buttons as you need or possible
responses, and have the result returned in a function call. This means you no
longer have to setup a SubDeck to ask simple questions.
New SuperMover XtraTool
This Tool allows you to easily move groups of objects in a single step. You
no longer have to Edit each object individually and attempt to move it at the
same distance as other objects.
Full Font Support
We now fully support Compugraphic and Color fonts.
Command Expansion in the Script Editor
You can define your own shortcut sequences to use in the Script Editor. For
example, you can define "wwd" to expand to "WorkWithDocument" when you press
Shift-Space following "wwd".
Layout EditorTool
Some of you may remember the Layout Editor Tool from ProPak. It is now
included with the released software. It allows you to flow text around
complicated shapes in the window.
Using the LayOut/Helper you can wrap text around complicated objects on your
window using a point and click editor. Set your margins, straight or
contoured, enter your text, and the Layout Tool will do the rest. It's as
easy as pie!
Amiga Guide Support
CanDo's Help system uses the new AmigaGuide help system. Furthermore, you can
even add AmigaGuide help files to your own applications!
CanDo 2.5 - Real Programming made Real Easy!
Version 2.5 demonstrates Inovatronics' dedication to continually enhancing
CanDo to make it the easiest, most powerful means of making real
applications. Don't get left behind! Order your upgrade today!
Limited time for no Shipping Charge!
If you order by September 30, 1993, the shipping is on us!
IMPORTANT NEW SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
CanDo now requires a Hard Drive, 2MB of RAM, andd 2.04 or later of the OS.
Furthermore, DeckBrowser is no longer included with CanDo. If you have any
questions in this regard, please call us Toll Free!
CanDo Version 2.5 Upgrade:
Upgrade from 2.0 $25.00
Upgrade from 1.6 $75.00
Upgrade previous to 1.6 $90.00
CanDo T-Shirt $16.95
------------------------------
IOMEGA INTRODUCES BERNOULLI DRIVES FOR AMIGA
Iomega Corp. is now shipping two versions of its popular Bernoulli drive
designed for use with Commodore Amiga personal computers.
Called the Box 150, the unit is compatible with Commodore computers that are
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)- capable. Iomega says the 150 megabyte
(MB) capacity of the Box makes it particularly suited for personal video
production.
The Box 150 Transportable is an external unit, while the Box 150 Insider
installs inside the Amiga chassis. The Transportable has a suggested retail
price of $1,225, while the Insider will carry a $1,099 price tag. Both models
include a read and write cache, which Iomega says make them up to three times
faster than competitive removable hard drive products.
The company says Iomega drives, which use removable cartridges for data
storage that can be removed from the drive and locked up or used in other
Bernoulli-equipped computers, can withstand up to 1,000 Gs of shock. "We
literally tossed a disk from a speeding car at 60 miles-per-hour onto a
concrete highway with 100 percent data survival," according to Paul Losee,
director of Iomega's channel development.
In addition to its Bernoulli product line, Iomega also markets minicartridge
tape drives that use both QIC-80 and Irwin-formatted tapes, and a Floptical
drive which used the company's proprietary second generation holographic
technology to read and write data.
------------------------------
SPECTRONICS INTRODUCES MERLIN 24-BIT GRAPHICS BOARD
Meet the board that has been the subject of discussion on some
major computer networks and Bulletin Boards for quite some time now.
Based on hardware, custom designed for Amiga, Merlin offers unbelievable
speed and powerful features at an incredibly low price.
Bundled with flexible productivity software, X-Pert will once again redefine
the standards for 24 bit graphics on Amiga.
A variety of outputs, such as RGB, Y/C and Composite, together with the
possibility to add a genlock and a digitizer make Merlin the all-in-one
solutio for demanding artists and video professionals, Fifty Megapixel per
second, a Blitter forty times faster than the original Amiga Blitter, and a
throughput-speed of more than 20 MB per second (2) when used in a Zorro III
slot will prove powerful enough to take the wait out of even the most
demanding tasks.
The integration of Picture in Picture (1) will allow you to watch real time
video at 30 fps, in 24 bit and a resolution of 320x200 pixels, right on your
workbench. No more jerky, black and white previews, but real live video.
Included Software:
* Merlin INTUITION EMULATOR
2.0/2.1/3.0 (AA Chipset emulation on A2000/A3000)
* Merlin TV-PAINT 2.0
* Merlin ANIMATOR
* Merlin PICLOADER
* Merlin DIASHOW
* Merlin CHECK
Features:
* 24 bit- 16,000,000 colors
* 50 Megapixel/second
* More than 20 MB/second throughput (2)
* 1280 x 1024 in 24 bit
* 1600 x 1280 in 16 bit
* 2048 x 2048 in 8 bit
* All resolutions non-interlaced
* 1,2, or 4 MB of VRAM
New: Up to 16 MB of VRAM on board possible
* Composite and Y/C output
* 15 pin D-Sub output
* Zorro II/Zorro III compatible with automatic detection
* 24 bit real time Picture in Picture (1)
* Electronic Monitor Switch
Price List:
Boards
1Mb VRAM $699.00
2Mb VRAM $799.00
4Mb VRAM $999.00
Add-on Modules:
Digitizer $699.00
Genlock $699.00
(1) Picture in Picture is only possible with the optional digitizer module.
(2) 20 MB per second or higher throughput rate only possible when used in a
Zorro III slot. Throughput rate in a Zorro III slot is approx. 3 Mb per
second.
------------------------------
NEW MIRROR OF AMINET IN CALIFORNIA
Walnut Creek CDROM, makers of the Aminet CDROM, have installed a mirror of
the Aminet archive on their ftp site wcarchive.cdrom.com. This mirror
contains the entire Aminet archive and is updated every four hours so it
will never be stale. Uploads made to our mirror will automatically be
included in the main Aminet archive and all the other mirrors. Please
ftp to wcarchive.cdrom.com and have a look.
If you have any comments about the mirror please address them to
stark@wcarchive.cdrom.com. Also, since part of our goal is to make
the production of the Aminet CDROM more efficient thereby improving
its quality, we intend at some point to begin running the mirror with
CDROM-like names. This means that the names would be slightly different
in some cases from the names at the other Aminet sites. Please also
write to stark@wcarchive.cdrom.com if you have comments about this plan.
Note: Dan Zerkle has made the good suggestion that we set up parallel
directory structures, one with the aminet names and the other
with the CDROM names. How's that for a solution?
LOCAL MODERATOR
Michael Stark (stark@wcarchive.cdrom.com)
A compensated dependent of Walnut Creek CDROM
------------------------------
RIP SCRIP 'PAINT' PROGRAM AVAILABLE (DEMO)
An exciting new product for telecommunications MIGHT be available
relatively soon.
This is the RIP scrip language, by TeleGrafix Corporation. Currently
a Canadian is wanting to bring this to Amiga systems. Available to sysops
and the end user as a RIP scrip paint program (for those of you who have
seen Terminus, RIP graghics should be suported in a future version).
RIPscrip is a text based script language for displaying on-line graphics.
It is a very efficient language in which graphics and the like are compressed
and can be transmitted faster to the end user. A user can "point and click",
selecting whatever commands available on a BBS supporting RIP graphics.
The nice thing about the RIP scrip language is that it is an open protocol
which may be used on a variety of platforms.
Mike Nelson wishes to bring this RIP "paint" program to the Amiga community,
and he needs your help. To buy the development tools he needs $300.00. He
has provided a "demo" of his future program, which can be found on many BBSes
(It is currently on In The MeanTime, under the name of RIPGRAF.LHA and can
either be downloaded on the first call or it may be File REQuested), GEnie,
Delphi, and Portal, and needs at least 15 people to register to come up with
the $300.00.
For further information see the documentation within the archive or send
a letter to:
Mike D. Nelson
76 Olympus Ct. #59
Sarnia, Ontario
Canada, N7S 4S7
------------------------------
SOFT-LOGIK TRANSLATES PROFESSIONAL PAGE DOCUMENT FORMAT
St. Louis, Missouri (August 10, 1993) Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation
today announced a change to the feature set of the upcoming PageStream
3.0, a completely new version of the #1 Amiga desktop publishing
program. PageStream 3.0 will have the ability to load Professional Page
documents directly. It will also be able to load PageStream2 documents
and the new IFF DOC format documents.
"Document formats have been dark and secret for too long," said Deron
Kazmaier, the president of Soft-Logik Publishing. "Customers want the
freedom to move their documents between programs, and we are going to
give them that freedom."
For the first time, users of Gold Disk's Professional Page desktop
publishing program will be able to make the transition to PageStream
painlessly. They have been able to use their fonts with PageStream since
version 2.0, and Soft-Logik added the ability to load and edit
Professional Draw illustrations in 1992. Adding support for another
program's documents is an industry first and simplifies switching from
Professional Page to PageStream.
Converting a Professional Page document for use in PageStream is a
simple task. Just choose the Open command from the Project menu and
don't worry if it is a PageStream or Professional Page file. The
Professional Page document conversion module is included free of charge
with PageStream 3.0.
PageStream 3.0 will be available in early fall for $395. Customers who
purchase a full copy of PageStream 2.2 after March 15, 1993 are eligible
for a free upgrade to version 3.0 by mailing their registration card,
proof of purchase and $5 for shipping and handling, to Soft-Logik.
Previous purchasers can upgrade for $125 if they own PageStream 2.0 or
higher, or for only $95 if they own PageStream 2 and HotLinks Editions.
Professional Page users can upgrade to PageStream 2.2 now for only $175
plus shipping and handling, and receive a free upgrade to PageStream 3.0
when it's released.
PageStream 3.0 will change the way you think about publishing.
voice: 314-894-8608
toll free: 800-829-8608
fax: 314-894-8608
------------------------------
CALL FOR HELP
SOFT-LOGIK NEEDS PROFESSIONAL PAGE DOCUMENT FILES FOR TESTING!
PageStream 3.0 will have the ability to open Professional Page documents
and save them in PageStream 3's IFF DOC format. To ensure that this
feature works with real-world files, we need ProPage documents to test.
We want it to work flawlessly to make your conversion to PageStream3 as
easy as possible.
While we hope to make it translate 100% of every document correctly, we
cannot guarantee this because the Professional Page document format is
not publicly available. We believe that we have successfully documented
every aspect of the ProPage document format, but we can only verify this
through extensive testing. By testing your files now, we can ensure that
this feature will work properly for you when PageStream 3.0 is released.
To have your ProPage 3 or 4 documents tested with PageStream 3.0, mail
them to:
Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation
Test my Documents!
11131F South Towne Square
St. Louis, MO 63123
Note: We will keep your document files confidential and will use them
only for testing. Nobody outside of our programming and testing staff
will see your files.
------------------------------
SIGGRAPH '93
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA -- The SIGGRAPH Show was full of surprises from unusual
art to actual virtual reality rides for show goers. Much emphasis was made
on kids, supercomputers, art, and employment opportunities as well.
Games, entertainment, and education were the themes of the show. Trip
Hawkins, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of 3DO, and chairman of
computer game maker Electronic Arts, was the keynote speaker. Childcare was
offered at the show, but many show goes had their children with them as many
of the booths and exhibits featured games or hands-on activities for children
and adults. An entire portion of the show floor was given to Sigkids, an
exhibit of hands-on computer activities by and for elementary age children.
But many of the adults were acting like children at play in virtual reality
exhibits from Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI), Evans and Sutherland,
and in an area where interactive art exhibits were displayed. The SGI
exhibit was obviously inspired by the movie Jurassic Park and show goers
where waiting over an hour in winding Disneyland-like lines to enter a giant
box and get a chance to climb into a saddled Teradactyl. Of the groups who
entered the box only three were allowed to actually ride, but the watchers
could see the virtual scene as well.
Evens and Sutherland offered a chance to ride a virtual hang-glider through
a crowded city-scape. Two hang-glider simulations were running and show
goers were helped into body-length slings that hung them suspended in front
of a viewing screen. Their faces were then situation in virtual space. They
controlled their movement through the space via a hang-glider bar grasped
with both hands. Speakers on each side of their heads provided the sound.
Lines were long to ride and riders told Newsbytes the sensation of hang-
gliding was very real despite the comic book appearance of the city
landscape through which they flew.
In an area featuring electronic art, show goers could stop at an elec-
tronic confessional to confess their sins. Based on the confessions of the
Catholic church, the automated religion kiosk, called "Catholic Turing Test"
by Gregory P. Garvey of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was a thin, shiny, black
plastic structure with a red neon cross at the top and a red kneeling bench
in front. Only large enough for one, an Apple Macintosh SE and Hypercard
were used to create the confessional program which started by asking how
long it had been since you'd been to confession and gave you the option of
typing in a number and choosing either days, weeks, months, or years. Users
selected sins from a menu and were told at the end of the confession what
type of sins they were and how many "Hail Marys" were needed for penance.
Next door was a group of tables where show goers who sat down to relax were
eventually bumped and mumbled at by what appeared to be a giant bowling
ball. Called "Adelbrecht" by Momevideo, Amsterdam, Netherlands designer
Martin Spanjaard, the mobile robot moved around under its own power, bumping
into chairs and people, and changing direction while making beeping and
whirring noises, and mumbling unintelligible speech to show goers.
The "Neuro Baby" was a monitor in a crib that displayed a pink, cartoonish,
buggy-eyed "baby" face that bounced around on the screen and responded to
attendees who bent down to speak into a microphone by the crib. Monitors
near the crib showed people who were waiting in line the responses of the
baby. The baby laughed, cried, said "Hi," rolled its eyes, and even got red-
faced mad when Newsbytes laughed at it. Lines were long to talk to the baby
and it was surprising how many people simply yelled into the microphone.
Naoko Tosa of Ogikubo Suginami-Ku, Tokyo said the voice analysis was
performed by a neural network emulator that converted voice input into
"emotional" patterns based on the wave patterns to which the computer had
been "taught" to respond. A Fujitsu FM Towns multimedia personal computer
was used for the voice analysis, another FM Towns for voice generation, and
a SGI Iris 4D was used to generate the image of the baby.
"The Flock," by Ken Rinaldo and Mark Grossman of San Francisco, California,
was a room of robotic arms hanging from the ceiling and extending just a few
inches above the floor. The arms responded to the movement and voice
intonation of visitors. The arms were unusual as they were partially made
from the dried branches of vines so they appeared to be a strange mix of
organic and electronic material and looked like the limbs of live trees
reaching toward and moving away from visitors. The artists described the
arms as "cybernetic sound sculptures that exhibit behaviors found in natural
groups such as birds, fish, and bats." Acoustic, kinetic, and infrared
sensors on the arms detected sounds and movements and responded. The exhibit
had visitors talking, waving their hands, and walking around these strange
arms. One of the artists was seen to yell and pull at a visitor saying,
"Don't let it touch you" and explained that the arms are fragile and could
be broken by contact. However it was difficult with the unexpected movements
of the long, jointed arms to stay out of the way.
Much talk among show goers concerned supercomputers and virtual reality and
the San Diego Supercomputer Center was represented at the show. The use of
supercomputers for complex techniques such as reconstructing the shape of a
fetus from ultrasound measurements or visualization of global climate
research was emphasized by the San Diego group.
Interactivity was emphasized, not only between people and computers, but
between show attendees. Several locations had tables and comfortable
seating, an international center was available, and even a jobs and message
center was near the show floor. The jobs board took up two sides of the
large four-sized cubical structure that housed it and every inch of space
was filled with jobs postings. Newsbytes was curious to see if the jobs
postings were for positions wanted, but the jobs were all help wanted ads
for graphics artists, designers, and programmers who had graphics experience
from large companies such as Avid and Microsoft as well as from small
companies.
Attendance figures were not available by press time, but the show took up
most of the huge Anaheim Convention Center and it was crowded. SIGGRAPH runs
until Friday in Anaheim. SIGGRAPH '94 has been announced by for July 24-29
at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
The preceding story is © 1993 NewsBytes. Reprinted with permission.
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