Acorn News Service Newsletter

Issue: 142 (5 October 2003)

Featured site this issue: http://www.xat.nl/impression/

General News

ARM Club Midlands Show Cancelled

The ARM Club have been forced to cancel the Midlands show, which was to be held on 29th November 2003 at the National Motorcycle Museum, due to a severe fire which damaged the suite booked for the show.

<http://www.armclub.org.uk/shows/midlands/>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3115430.stm>

Portal for older Acorn machines

Archez <http://www.archez.co.uk/> is a new portal for people getting back into RISC OS, emulating it or using older machines.

Commercial News

Impression is back

X-Ample Technology of The Netherlands have taken over the DTP package Impression from its former developers Computer Concepts. This means that Impression will be available again to existing users of 26-bit RISC OS machines within a few weeks. Work on a native 32-bit version of Impression has already started.

All existing versions of Impression, such as Style, Publisher and Publisher Plus, will be replaced by a single new version - Impression-X - which will contain all features of Impression Publisher Plus, such as named colours, improved colour support and support for professional publishing. Pricing and availability have yet to be determined, but there will certainly be an upgrade path for existing users.

As XAT now have access to the Impression sources, they are not only able to convert the package to 32-bit, but also to fix some bugs and add new features. Initial work will concentrate on the 32-bit conversion and the fixing of some long standing bugs, but new features will be added soon thereafter.

Existing and new users are invited to visit the dedicated Impression pages at: <http://www.xat.nl/impression/>

Users are also kindly requested to report any bugs and wishes so that X-Ample Technology can prioritise their work. Please send any comments to: <impression@xat.nl>

Stuart Tyrrell Developments / Advantage Six Ltd

Stuart Tyrrell Developments remains one of the few RISC OS hardware developers to design and manufacture their own products.

Over recent years, Stuart Tyrrell Developments has continued to expand, with its core business rooted firmly in the RISC OS and related arenas. In order to allow for further expansion, the addition of further specialised staff, and to enable the funding and development of larger projects, some changes have been made to the profile of the business.

On 1st October 2003, Stuart Tyrrell Developments became a trading name of Advantage Six Ltd. Retail customers may continue to trade with Stuart Tyrrell Developments as before. Phone numbers and addresses will remain the same - your calls will be answered by the same people. However Stuart Tyrrell Developments gains the protection of a larger parent company.

Current and potential Business to Business customers will become direct customers of Advantage Six Ltd, enabling these transactions to be handled more efficiently. Further details will be provided to these customers as required.

Forthcoming months will see the addition of further staff to the team. Familiar to many RISC OS users will be Matt Edgar. Hailing from a similar training background to Stuart Tyrrell, Matt arrives on a permanent basis with over 12 years of experience in software and electronic design and specialises in scalable solutions.

<http://www.stdevel.co.uk/>

Digital Cameras from Stuart Tyrrell Developments

Stuart Tyrrell Developments are pleased to announce the immediate availability of two digital cameras for RISC OS machines fitted with the Simtec USB interface.

These miniature cameras measure a mere 83 x 40 x 27mm (3.27" x 1.6" x 1.04"), and easily fit into a shirt or trouser pocket. They are equipped with a 2.1MegaPixel sensor, and are capable of storing an average of 41 pictures at 1600x1200, an average of 87 pictures at 1024x768, or any combination. A 3MPix mode produces 2048 x 1536 images using internal interpolation.

Images may be viewed on a 1.5" colour TFT screen, both when framing a picture and when reviewing the resultant picture. This screen also gives feedback as to settings and frames left, along with allowing for setup of the camera. In addition to a self-timer function, the cameras are equipped with a macro mode for close-up, and a 4x digital zoom allows for easy framing of images.

The cameras come complete with drivers, batteries, USB cable, a carry loop and a miniature tripod. There are two variants of the cameras, one having a flash fitted for operation in low-light conditions.

STD Standard Digital Camera: GBP99 inc VAT and carriage
STD Flash Digital Camera: GBP119 inc VAT and carriage
Simtec USB card: GBP89 inc VAT and carriage

<http://www.stdevel.co.uk/>

PD/Shareware News

Updated software summary

CCres v1.07
Convert Toolbox Res files (fae) and Wimp Template files (fec) to and from text format. Bug fixes, support for Anti-Aliased fonts.
<http://www.btinternet.com/~davea.web/ccres/>
Webgen2 v2.06
Take a directory of images (GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, Sprite, or PNG) and turn them into a complete web site. New in this version: extended use of the messages file, reduced total download size, and an extra option to allow extended links to be created when splitting the index page.
<http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/daves/software/>

Club News

Upcoming meetings

NKACC (Kent), 9th October - Silver Jubilee / Emulators
<http://nkacc.roundel.net/>
WAUG (Wessex), 11th October
<http://www.mfraz.freeserve.co.uk/waug/>
DARC (Derbyshire), 13th October - PDAs
<http://www.darc-comp.org.uk/>
SASAUG (Surrey/Sussex), 13th October
<http://www.poppyfields.net/sasaug/>
EAUG (Essex), 14th October - Backing up hard discs
<http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/eaug/>
LAUG (Liverpool), 14th October
<http://www.italia.co.uk/laug/>
ROUGOL (London), 20th October - Networking
<http://rougol.jellybaby.net/>
BARUG (Bristol), 29th October - David Snell: web design, ProCAD+ update
<http://www.barug.co.uk/>
ICENI (Suffolk), 5th November
<http://www.archipel.demon.co.uk/ICENI/>
WROCC (Wakefield), 5th November
<http://www.wrocc.org.uk/>

ANS Information

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

How to send in news

To send in your news items simply e-mail <ans@acornusers.org>, or use the form on the ANS website <http://www.acornusers.org/ans/newsdesk.html>. Also if you have an Acorn related announcements mailing list, feel free to subscribe <ans@acornusers.org>.

How to subscribe to ANS

If you are reading this on the ANS web site, or have received a forwarded copy of ANS and would like to subscribe to the mailing list, simply send any e-mail to <ans-subscribe@ans.acornusers.org>. Alternatively use the form on the ANS web site at <http://www.acornusers.org/ans/subscribe.html>.

For details of other commands e-mail <ans-help@ans.acornusers.org>.