|-------------------------- Acorn News Service --------------------------|
 |                     http://www.acornusers.org/ans/                     |
 | ISSUE 53                                                 20 March 2000 |
 |                                                                        |
 |       An independent fortnightly newsletter for the Acorn world.       |
 |        Send your news items or comments to ans@acornusers.org.         |
 |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |  Featured site this issue: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Systems/RISC_OS/  |
 |------------------------------------------------------------------------|


Contents
--------
 1) General News
 2) Commercial News
 3) PD/Shareware News
 4) Club News
 5) ANS information



General News
------------

 1) Acorn Southeast Show

  The 'Acorn Southeast Show' will be taking place on Saturday 1st July 2000
  at The Alban Arena, St. Albans, Herts.

  The show is aimed at RISC OS users in South East England and is supported
  by the Welwyn Hatfield Computer Club. To reflect a strong hobbyist
  approach, organiser John Stonier would like enthusiasts to play a part on
  the day of the show and a special area will be set aside for this.

  People or user groups providing a non-commercial RISC OS related service,
  or who having something of interest to demonstrate on their computer,
  should get in touch. It would be an excellent opportunity to publicise
  yourself or your group to a large number of enthusiasts, at NO cost to
  you.

  For more information phone (01935) 413170, e-mail acornshow@argonet.co.uk,
  or visit the web site http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornshow/.


 2) Acorn Users Group RC5 Cracking Effort ranked at #70

  The distributed.net team promoting the use of Acorn computers has now
  reached 70th place in the world. The team now needs to recruit more
  members to get up the charts as quickly as possible!

  Anyone with any 32 bit computer can help the team, for details visit the
  web site http://www.acornusers.org/rc5/.

  As well as helping the team promote Acorn users, taking part in
  distributed.net contests also helps to demonstrate when encryption
  is too week, and can provide useful scientific information.


 3) Serial cable TCP/IP networking

  A new step by step guide to setting up a Acorn/other PC TCP/IP network and
  Samba over a serial cable is at http://www.clementlee.freeserve.co.uk/.


 4) Frax RISC OS software index

  Frax is another new store of information and download links for RISC OS
  software. Programs can be located by browsing through categories or with
  a search engine.

  If you would like to be able to publicise software on frax, you must apply
  for an account.

  http://www.frax.co.uk/



Commercial News
---------------

 1) Atomwide stock clearance

  Continued expansion of Atomwide's networking business means there is a
  further range of clearance stock available for sale, including second-hand
  Acorn computers and assorted peripherals. Details are available at
  http://www.atomwide.co.uk/products/clearance.htm.


 2) AddressIt, EasyClip now available from R-Comp

  R-Comp http://www.rcomp.co.uk/ is pleased to announce that AddressIt,
  the post code and address finder previously developed by Fabis, is now
  available in a revised form.

  AddressIt is supplied on CD and costs GBP99. It works alongside all main
  RISC OS business software such as Impression, Prophet, Ovation Pro,
  Techwriter, FireWorkz, and PipeDream.

  Also, thanks to a partnership with Chris Morison, author of the widely
  acclaimed Organizer PIM software, AddressIt information will be available
  directly from Organizer.

  Following R-Comp's acquisition of EasyClip 2 from Fabis earlier this year,
  R-Comp has released EasyClip 2.10b which adds numerous enhancements to the
  product including keyboard shortcuts and other keyboard entry
  enhancements, much improved online help systems, user interface
  improvements and various bug fixes.

  http://www.rcomp.co.uk/


 3) Support for Morley's Acorn products

  Morley Electronic Systems Ltd has given Partis Computing the go ahead to
  take over the support and development of Morley 32bit Acorn/RISC OS
  products.

  This includes Morley SCSI, Revolution CDROM system, ST509 hard disc
  interface and the Analogue/User/Midi interface.

  If you have a Morley SCSI card, you may upgrade your software and firmware
  via a Partis Computing PowerROM, which will give extra functionality
  (including support for newer processors and operating systems), and extra
  performance with file system access. This is available for GBP35 plus GBP2
  package and posting from Partis Computing. http://www.partis.org.uk/

  If you have a Revolution CDROM system, a ST509 hard disc interface or a
  Analogue/User/Midi interface, there are currently no upgrades as the
  existing system will work on all processors and operating systems.


 4) TBA Software cease trading

  TBA Software ceased trading on March 13th. All software development has
  finished and no further orders will be received or dispatched.

  TBA Software are planning to release a lot of the source code developed
  for games and tools into the public domain. Further details will be
  available soon.

  http://www.tba-software.co.uk/


 5) Compo Clues and CompoScript

  The upgrade to version 1.18d of Compo is now available from
  http://www.crosswinds.net/~rdavison/compo.htm.

  This new version represents a major step forward for Compo, and a
  significant enhancement of image processing on the RO platform as it now
  supports 'CompoScript'.

  CompoScript is a scripting language which can be use to 'program' Compo to
  carry out sequences of actions. The language is very flexible and allows
  the user to add functions and 'automate' actions which can then be applied
  to multiple files or objects. This makes tasks such as the generation of
  animations, thumbnails, converting batches of files, etc, much easier than
  before.

  http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Compo/clues.html



PD/Shareware News
-----------------

 1) New software summary

  * Archimedes Logo Extensions
    Logo Xtras and Symmetry Logo both require Archimedes Logo from Logotron,
    and add various features.
    http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/lexicon1/

  * CD Lock, prevent CD ROM removal
    A simple utility that 'locks' the CD drive to prevent a CD ROM being
    removed. It was originally created for schools who wanted to put a CD
    ROM in a computer in the library and ensure that it was not removed.
    http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/lexicon1/

  * DiffBin, binary file compare
    DiffBin reads two binary files, comparing them bytewise. Upon finding a
    difference it reports the offsets into the two files and attempts to
    resynchronise.
    http://www.cix.co.uk/~solipsys/riscos/

  * MP3Radio, Internet MPEG radio
    A client for Internet radio stations, such as those running Nullsoft's
    SHOUTcast server.
    http://www.kiwisoft.co.uk/software/mp3radio.shtml

  * Zmac, Z80 macro cross-assembler
    A RISC OS version of Zmac 1.2, a Z80 macro cross-assembler. Features a
    desktop front end, requiring the FrontEnd module and DDEUtils as
    supplied with Acorn C/C++, but can also be used from the command line.
    http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri0264/software/


 2) Updated software summary

  * AntUtils v1.36
    Shareware extras for users of the ANT Internet Suite. Bux fix and
    new facility to quit on application other than InetSuite.
    http://www.vigay.com/riscos/comms.html#antutils

  * CD_Search v1.10
    Helps finding applications on twenty one of the most common Acorn CDs.
    Now includes China CDs.
    http://www.richie.ukgateway.net/search/

  * CVS v1.10.8
    RISC OS port of CVS 1.10 (Concurrent Versions System), now the current
    1.10.8 snapshot of CVS together with a couple of bug fixes. The port
    version is now 0.17.
    http://gallery.uunet.be/John.Tytgat/cvs/

  * Delirium saver pack
    A new screen saver pack for use with Delirium.
    http://www.various-artists.freeserve.co.uk/delirium/

  * Eurocalc database
    Eurocalc is a multi currency calculator that converts between 'euro'
    currencies and the euro, and you can add 4 extra currencies from outside
    Euroland. Demo version has a new database.
    http://home.wxs.nl/~ekels.zandvoort/acorn/download.html

  * Flash v0.49b
    The second release of this Macromedia Flash player contains a few minor
    fixes.
    http://people.a2000.nl/lsmiers/

  * FTPc 1.26
    Freeware Internet File Transfer Protocol client. This version adds a
    remove_empty_directory message for programmers.
    http://www.c-granville.freeserve.co.uk/

  * NumberFix v1.5
    NumberFix is a utility that help to manipulate numeric files, typically
    image files from one of Spacetech's cameras. This version has a new
    button which will renumber any selection of files. Shareware.
    http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor/english/share.html

  * Psionconv v0.05
    Convert Psion files to RISC OS. Added integration into PsiFS and minor
    improvements in Psion Word file converting.
    http://home.t-online.de/home/thomas-milius/indexE.htm

  * Telephone v3
    A revised version of the application to provide telephone dialling
    facilities from Impact-3 for those whose modem is not connected to the
    standard serial port.
    http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri0264/software/

  * X-Word v0.04
    A 'Crossword-style' game in the spirit of Scrabble but different in many
    important ways. The game for 2 to 4 players is highly customisable.
    http://www.alant.demon.co.uk/software/xword.htm



Club News
---------

 1) Upcoming meetings

  * German Archimedes Group, 6th & 7th May
    http://www.gag.de/

  * Please e-mail notification of meetings at least 2 weeks in advance.


 2) New user group

  Anyone interested in attending meetings of a proposed new group based in
  either Andover, Basingstoke, Newbury, Salisbury or Winchester, contact
  Mick Burrell mick@tab1.demon.co.uk to register interest and state
  preferred location.



ANS Information
---------------

 1) Contact ANS

  Editor         - James Sears       - james@ans.acornusers.org
  Webmaster      - Stephen Courtney  - stephen@ans.acornusers.org
  Translator     - Michael Gerbracht - michael@ans.acornusers.org
  Founder        - Eytan Abrahams    - eytan@ans.acornusers.org
  Life-Webmaster - Richard Hesketh   - richard@ans.acornusers.org
  ADL Moderator  - Paul Johnson      - paul@ans.acornusers.org


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