====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail WELCOME TO TOMORROW || Newsmagazine) ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amino, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 000104 T H E W O R D F R O M A M I N O A M I G A C O S A O N T H E B U Y O U T A M I G A W E B D I R E C T O R Y G O N E . . . . . . A S I S " A M A Z I N G C O M P U T I N G " E X H I B I T O R S S I G N U P F O R A M I G A 2 K M O R E A B O U T S T . L O U I S S H O W S T I L L M O R E O N A M I G A 2 K A M I R C 3 . 3 R E L E A S E D M O R P H O S P R O J E C T A N N O U N C E D V O Y A G E R V 3 F I N A L R E L E A S E C S & E A E U R O P E A N D I S T R I B U T O R Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Wow... So much has happened recently, it's hard to know where to start. Allright, the bad news first. The first Amiga monthly magazine, "Amazing Computing" is dead. It was also the last US Amiga magazine. This is incredibly sad, especially as it just missed making it into the new era of "Amiga by Amino", as announced in our recent special edition. We don't know the details, and I'm not sure I want to. It would be depressing. However, this is a real loss for North American Amigans and the hurt will be felt for a very long time. Also sad, and this for the entire Amiga community, not just us North Americans, is the death of CUCUG's Amiga Web Directory. The cornerstone of the Amiga community on the web, it also just missed the new era. Rumor has it other sites offered to take the Web Directory over, and were turned down. If true, that's mind numbing. We really don't know the details here either, but we will miss them. Now, the good news. There really is some, and it's quite good! The Amiga Community will survive, for some time to come. The computer has a new owner, with a plan for the future (that's almost enough to cause shock in old time Amigans) and a genuine, deep respect and love for the Amiga and the Community. This is a bit hard to cope with after recent events, but it's true. It's also true they have a rough road ahead of them. Success is by no means guaranteed. But they'll be traveling the road with the best computer community that ever existed. If that combination can't build a meaningful future, then there's very little that can. The plan will be revealed to us in the next few months, and apparently goes well beyond desktop machines. It's going to be an interesting new era - we'll keep you posted. Finally, this new era seems to have room for Petro Tyschtschenko and his work in Germany. In our opinion, while Jay Miner is the father of the Amiga, Petro is the godfather or something similar. We're pleased to see he's still involved. There's no one who's worked harder for the Amiga's future over the years. While we're at it - for you gamers, the library of Quake related games have been released for people to port, and work is well underway for PPC Amigas. For those who love these games, the fun is just beginning. Below, the first Executive Update from the Amiga web site, now under the control of Amino Development. We love it! Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E W O R D F R O M A M I N O A M I G A January 3, 2000 YeeHaw and welcome to the year 2000; I want to make something very clear from the beginning we have been told, that Amiga was purchased by Gateway because of the Patents, and that there were not even aware of the Amiga installed base, or the people. Gateway purchased Amiga because of Patents, we purchased Amiga because of the People. Without the people standing behind, developing, creating, purchasing and continuing to believe in the Amiga there never would have been anything for Gateway to purchase. We recognize this, and it is because of you, and what you have continued to accomplish with Amiga that we have purchased the company. I want to make sure that everyone knows and understands what this all means to you the true Amigans. Here is what was acquired from Gateway: 1. All trademarks logos etc. 2. All existing inventory of Amiga International 3. All existing licenses. 4. License to All Amiga patents (Gateway still owns the patents, but we are able to use them). 5. All web sites, and registered domain names. 6. The Amiga OS and all that is associated with the OS. 7. The Amiga operation as it exists today. Specific details of the developer system, the OS partners and how one can begin developing will be released in the next couple of weeks. We will be making an announcement on January 8th, 2000 with one of our partners at CES in Las Vegas, and more details will follow that release. Fleecy, Myself, Petro, and the rest of the team are not going to make promises and create presentations and demos. We are going to deliver products, services, and the rest of the world will know what you have already known. We will be officially changing the name of Amino Development Corporation to the Amiga Corporation this week, and we will let everyone know of this change shortly once it is officially completed. I want to thank all of you for your continued support we will make Amiga what it should have been, and more importantly what it will be. Keeping the faith, Bill McEwen President/CEO Amino Development Corporation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C O S A O N T H E B U Y O U T COSA Reaction to Amino Purchase of Amiga Rights January 2, 2000 Within the past few days, ownership of the Amiga rights, trademarks and technology passed from Gateway to Amino Development. People have asked for COSA's opinion on the sale, and for comments how this affects the campaign to open-source the AmigaOS. We believe the sale of Amiga to Amino is a good, positive step forward for the Amiga community, and that the new owners of the Amiga technology rights are the right people to steer the Amiga technology into the new millennium. COSA have known Fleecy Moss, co-founder of Amino, for quite some time, and have been in e-mail discussions on a number of matters of mutual interest, including Open Source, for quite some considerable time. We have a good working relationship, and a mutual understanding of what needs to be done to bring the Amiga into the new millennium. COSA is confident, based on our discussions with Fleecy, that Amino has the vision and direction necessary, to take the Amiga into the new millennium. The major difference to their predecessors being that Amino truely understands the Amiga technology, and is receptive to the needs, ideas and inspirations of the Amiga community. (The management of Amino are, afterall, Amigans themselves.) We await the announcements from Amino in the weeks and months ahead with much anticipation, and look forward to a hopefully long and productive working relationship with them. Congratulations, Guys! Steve Crietzman, and the team at COSA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A W E B D I R E C T O R Y G O N E . . . January 1, 2000 - The Champaign- Urbana Computer Users Group (CUCUG) announced today that it has retired its popular, award-winning Amiga Web Directory (AWD) web site. Citing continuing declines in the Amiga marketplace and Gateway's failure to deliver new Amiga computer systems, CUCUG reluctantly decided to discontinue its popular web site link directory and news service on January 1, 2000. It was felt that while CUCUG could continue with the AWD for several months, it was better to retire now rather than allow the site to slowly decline with the market. CUCUG is hopeful that the latest owners of the Amiga can turn this market around for the developers and users who have held on throughout all the past ownership changes and other difficulties the Amiga has faced. For over five years, the Amiga Web Directory served as one of the most-visited Amiga-oriented web sites on the Internet. Its carefully cataloged listings of Amiga web sites was the most-respected collection of its kind. Each site in the AWD's listings was reviewed by the CUCUG webmaster to ensure quality and Amiga orientation. Site descriptions were carefully prepared by hand, resulting in accuracy not possible on other machine- driven sites or those which allow site owners to write their own descriptions. The AWD's Amiga news pages became one of the most imitated features in the Amiga web community. Dozens of Amiga news sites were inspired by the success of the Amiga Web Directory's hugely popular news pages. A well-known offshoot of the Amiga Web Directory was "Agnes" the Amiga web searching service. Agnes was also a cartoon character which personalized the searching service. In addition to the over-2000 Amiga sites cataloged in the Amiga Web Directory, Agnes could search the general Internet for Amiga content, newsgroup messages, CUCUG Status Register newsletters and other Amiga-oriented materials. The Amiga Web Directory was one of the first member-supported Amiga web sites. Amiga enthusiasts joined the CUCUG organization to show their support for the efforts of the group. These memberships covered the costs associated with running the popular web service and other CUCUG activities. CUCUG is very grateful to its members' support which it has received over the years. The group also acknowledges the many Amiga-oriented companies which have given assistance. CUCUG, which has been supporting local computer users in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area since 1983 will now focus its efforts on local user group activities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . A S I S " A M A Z I N G C O M P U T I N G " 31 December, 1999 "Amiga Update" has received confirmation from several sources that PIM Publication's "Amazing Computing" has recently filed for bankruptcy. "Amazing" was the first - and the last - monthly Amiga magazine in the US and its presence will be sorely missed. While it is certainly possible for businesses to survive a bankruptcy and continue into the future, we have no indications that such will be the case with "Amazing". It is ironic that as Amiga itself is in the process of a potential rebirth, we have lost both CUCUG and "Amazing Computing" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E X H I B I T O R S S I G N U P F O R A M I G A 2 K December 26, 1999 Amigan-St. Louis announces it's first group of exhibitors for "Amiga 2K". These companies are listed on the Gateway Computer Show's - Amiga 2K© web site. You can view this site by typing in the following address on your web browser. http://www.amiga-stl.com/show.html These companies are just the first in many that are signing up to exhibit at this exciting event. Please check the show pages every week to see the latest news. The Gateway Computer Shows are the largest and the most interesting Amiga shows in the Americas. More products, updates, plans, ideas and other exciting events have been released, announced and planned at these shows than anywhere else. Amiga 2K will be hosted at the Henry VIII Hotel, on Lindbergh Ave., in St. Louis, MO. U.S.A. Show dates are Saturday April 1 through Sunday April 2, 2000. Please check the web site for more information about the show and the hotel. Come join Petro, myself and many other Amigans at Amiga 2K. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M O R E A B O U T S T . L O U I S S H O W December 31, 1999 Amigan-St. Louis is happy to announce the addition of Nova Design, Inc. to it's growing list of exhibitors. The ever popular Gateway Computer Shows, including the new Amiga 2K show in St. Louis on April1 & 2, 2000, have always been very popular with Amiga Computer fans. This newest addition of Nova Design, Inc. and others is just one more step in the growing list of companies that will exhibit at the largest Amiga show in the Americas. Please see the "Show" page in the site listed below. In additon, you can find the "Club Table Contest" described on the "Contest" page of the Amiga 2K site. This is an excellent chance for an Amiga Club to showcase it's abilities, and show off the Amiga, while possibly winning a prize for their efforts. Please check our site at: http://www.amiga-stl.com/show.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T I L L M O R E O N A M I G A 2 K January 3, 2000 Amigan-St. Louis is pleased to announce a discount for clubs exhibiting at the Gateway Computer Show - Amiga 2K©. The discount is 40% off of the normal price. This is a substantial discount, that is only available to clubs, and only available when utilizing an eight foot table. It is a limited time offer. The pricing can be determined by looking at the price guide for eight foot tables under the "Exhibitors" button on the show page at: http://www.amiga-stl.com/show.html Then simply multiply 60% times that price to determine the price a club would pay. Example: An eight foot table space is 9' x 6' or 54 square feet. The price per square foot is $6. So 54 x 6 = $324. That's the normal price. Then multiply $324 x 60% to get $194.40. This is what the club will pay for their table. Eight foot tables can be shared by two groups if necessary. This would further reduce the cost to a club. The cost of the table does not include any admissions to the show. All persons in the club must purchase an admission. All in all, this is a substantial discount. It is being given due to the tremendous support clubs have given to the Amiga. Without the clubs, there would be no Amiga. So to reward them and their hard working members, we are giving this discount so they will not deplete their club treasury to exhibit at Amiga 2K ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I R C 3 . 3 R E L E A S E D 991227 AmIRC was the first VaporWare application to be shown to the Amiga world. Its author, Oliver Wagner, has worked too many late nights on the program to count, and continues to update it to this day. AmIRC's main strengths lie in its interface - it's one of the easiest IRC clients to use on any platform, yet it also keeps the power users happy with advanced ARexx scripting and its plugin API, allowing unique new features to be added. It also features a URL grabber to capture any URLs mentioned in any channels or query windows, a lag-o-meter to measure your system's lag from the server, and strong builtin flood protection including a staggered output queue to stop you flooding yourself off the server. For IRCing on the Amiga, AmIRC should be your number one choice. Please remember, AmIRC is shareware. If you use it, please register the software and help support Amiga software development. Download AmIRC 3.3 and see why it's the best IRC client for the Amiga. If you registered AmIRC 1.x or AmIRC 2.x, you can update to version 3.3. There is an AmIRC Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be answered there. Features o Advanced Low Level Plugin API. o Single Window Iconification. o Lag-o-meter shows lag from the server o Individual window logging. o Intuitive channel window with userlist and mode display. o Builtin high speed DCC drivers, incl. Secure Chat. o ARexx port includes event trapping. o IRCNet and UnderNet extensions. o Oper and clone announcement. o Builtin IdentD, disables itself if needed. o Bind sound effects, auto deiconify or ARexx to events. o Last nick history, TAB key cycles through. o URL grabber saves any URLs to send to your web browser. o Supports colored text for both input (WYSIWIG) and output. o CTCP/DCC flood protection. o Timestamping of lines and inline clickable URLs. http://www.vapor.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M O R P H O S P R O J E C T A N N O U N C E D Thursday, 23rd December 1999 Today we announce the availability of a new Amiga next generation PowerPC OS project, called MorphOS, to the public. In its current state it provides a modern memory protection microkernel which runs a virtual amiga emulation. This microkernel will be the base for a new OS layer. Research for this project started in early 1998, while at the end of 1998 an early implementation was ready. In 1999, we started on the virtual amiga emulation to make the current AmigaOS available without requiring 68K hardware. The basic design goals behind MorphOS are - memory protection - resource tracking - asynchronous message system - low interrupt latency - virtual memory (optional) - distributed computing - symmetrical multi processing (SMP) - recursive memory management - task/thread and clan/chief model - clean design with an elegant API - micro/pico kernel mixture The developer release is planned for end of January. Minimum system requirements are - A4000 with CyberStorm PPC/604e and Symbios 770 SCSI - CyberVisionPPC - at least 32MB memory installed - Kickstart 3.1 (Version 40.68) and Workbench 3.1 or up Hardware requirements might change as soon as more hardware setups are tested and implemented. As the success of this project will also depend on your feedback/support, we suggest that interested developers visit our project webpage for a general MorphOS overview and information on how to join us to help. Feel free to enter the project webpage at http://www.morphos.de or http://www.morphos.ch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V O Y A G E R V 3 F I N A L R E L E A S E 28 Dec 99 V³ 3.0 final released Here it is: the final version of V³ Core changes since pre5: o now remembers FORM contents on back and, erm, window resize o HTTP/1.1 Accept-Language: support o Support for URL-embedded password support in HTTP URLs o Image information summary added o New Search Central plugin o The usual load of bugfixes and minor enhancements. This release does not include a new VFlash plugin. It is currently undergoing final testing, and will be released individually within the next few days. http://v3.vapor.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C S & E A E U R O P E A N D I S T R I B U T O R CS&E to concentrate on Amiga Distribution 2000 04/01/00 I am writing to you for the good of the Amiga in the UK and beyond. We have many great publishers and retailers and now two dedicated magazines, but no independent distributor. I can announce to you that CS&E will step in to independently distribute. We will reach both mail order and high street retail from our warehouse in Birmingham which is shared with the likes of Eidos. All products are delivered next day across Europe with many guarantees for both the publisher and retailer. We hope that this step will prove to be a great benefit for the whole Amiga community and urge everyone to come together on this issue. Retailers please let us know your full contact details for regular updates with your fax number and e-mail and postal address. Publishers please also get in contact to maximise your sales. A starter pack outlining our aims is being prepared which will be sent out to all known contacts worldwide. UK Amiga users can already feel proud by supporting some of the most innovative companies around, we hope that this link will prove valuable to all and our aim is to assist this good work. David Connolly Kind Regards, CS&E sales: 7 Glyme Close, Woodstock, Oxon, OX20 1LB, Great Britain +44 (0) 1993 812685 visit our website at http://www.csande.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html Stop by and check out our archive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 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 ======================================================================