Acorn News Service Newsletter

Issue: 150 (25 January 2004)

Featured site this issue: http://www.mw-software.com/software/gimp-print/

General News

RISC OS in France

ROSfr is a new service designed to create a link between the English suppliers of RISC OS technologies and French speaking users: <http://www.qrey.net/rosfr/>

Commercial News

Acorn User transition

The January issue of the new Acorn User (number 268), doubling as Acorn Publisher 10:1, should be out at the end of January. The February issue of Acorn User (269) should be with you mid-February.

Acorn User will technically change its name to Qercus for the March issue (270) and will double as Acorn Publisher 10:2 arriving in early March.

By April Qercus should be out on time (1st April) and issues of the new magazine should follow at calendar monthly intervals - hopefully on the first Thursday of each month. The May issue and every two months following will double as Acorn Publisher.

Subscriptions to Acorn User / Qercus for 13 issues commencing January 2004 are:

GBP49.95 (UK)
GBP59.05 (Europe)
GBP70.75 (Rest of World)

Single copies should be available from most newsagents in the UK from the end of January at the cover price of GBP4.20 or direct from Finnybank at GBP4.20 (plus P&P: GBP0.60 UK, GBP1.30 Europe, GBP2.20 World). Taking out a subscription saves GBP4.65 off the newsagent price and entitles the subscriber to special discounts on back issues of Acorn Publisher and Acorn User magazines.

Cheques payable to "Finnybank Ltd". Credit/debit card payments by phone. E-mail enquiries to <subscriptions@qercus.com>.

<http://www.qercus.com/>

Iyonix patch for Star Fighter 3000 v3.00

A patch has been released for Iyonix users who recently bought - or upgraded to - version 3.00 (12th November 2003) of 'Star Fighter 3000' on CD-ROM.

Due to an unforeseen incompatibility between RISC OS 4 and 5, attempting to switch to full screen display on an Iyonix PC consistently results in the error 'Unknown OS_ScreenMode reason code'.

To cure this problem, you can now download a patch with full instructions from <http://starfighter.acornarcade.com/sfrelease2.htm#sfIyonfix>.

PD/Shareware News

New software summary

DoTxtseek, Textseek add on
A small program to allow you to easily open the Textseek search window from either the command line or with a keypress in an editor (tested with Zap).
<http://www.7thsoftware.com/download.htm> <http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/utilities.htm> (Textseek)
HP Deskjet 5650 RISC OS driver
A RISC OS driver is now available for the recently released HP Deskjet 5650 printer. The driver provides settings to allow either full colour or grey scale printing at both 300 and 600dpi. Specific settings are provided for a variety of media types and print qualities. The driver should work reliably with RISC OS 4 and Printers versions 1.62, 1.64a or Printers+.
<http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jbcb/>
Suite of new MPEG audio programs
A set of 10 MPEG audio utilities for StrongARM Risc PC and Iyonix. Half are updates of older versions, the others are new:
- CDrip - convert WAVs to MP3's with freedb info TAGged into ID3 TAG
- ID3genre - stamp the ID3 genre on MP3s
- ID3toCSV - catalogue MP3s to a CSV list
- ID3toM3U - make an M3U playlist of MP3s
- ID3toName - Re-name the filename of MP3s from their ID3 data TAGs
- ID3TrkNo - stamp the ID3 track number onto MP3s
- ID3year - stamp the ID3 year onto MP3s
- MP3test - high speed test for defects in audio MPEG files
- MP3toWAV - convert MP3s back into WAVs (uses Lame)
<http://rogerdarlington.members.beeb.net/DownL.htm>
WakeUp, Wake on LAN
Enables your RISC OS computer to wake up computers on your LAN that support wake on LAN. Unfortunately, no RISC OS computer currently supports it (not even the Iyonix), but they can do the waking up of other computers. Can also send packets with a SecureOn password.
<http://www.apts04.dsl.pipex.com/>

Updated software summary

EnCurr v2.00
Currency support services, for multi-currency applications such as EnBank. The new currency services use a revised structure that permits the support of 'Matrix' processing. That is, exchange rates can now, if required, be specified between any two currencies, not just between any currency and 'base'. Exchange rates can now be specified for a specific time as well as date. The new structure is more efficient, improving the performance of any multi-currency client that uses the service.
<http://www.envsoft.co.uk/riscos/utilities.html>
Image v1.50
ADFS disc image writing software.
<http://www.archez.co.uk/>
NurseW v2.2
Macro-inserter for the Dr Wimp programming library. This version is compatible with Dr Wimp v3.90. A new facility has been added to the icons section, allowing the 'state' to be preselected.
<http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/riscos/soft.html>
ShortCut v3.40
Short cut creator for any application.
<http://www.archez.co.uk/>
Thumbcat v3.0
An image catalogue application. It will handle a variety of formats without additional applications. In addition it recognises ImageFS and ChangeFSI (if running/booted) and all formats handled by those applications. Now faster and includes many other improvements.
<http://users.argonet.co.uk/users/mripley/software.html#thumbcat>

Club News

Upcoming meetings

BARUG (Bristol), 28th January - Paul Middleton, RISCOS Ltd.
<http://www.barug.co.uk/>
ICENI (Suffolk), 4th February - Linux
<http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub/>
DARC (Derbyshire), 9th February - Matthew Cook: Broadband
<http://www.darc-comp.org.uk/>

EAUG (Essex), 10th February - Style sheets
<http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/eaug/>
LAUG (Liverpool), 10th February
<http://www.italia.co.uk/laug/>
NKACC (Kent), 12th February - Broadband
<http://nkacc.roundel.net/>
ROUGOL (London), 16th February - Richard Brown, Oregano UK Ltd
<http://rougol.jellybaby.net/>
RUNG (Norfolk), 17th February
<http://speccyverse.homedns.org/rung/>
RONWUG (North West), 18th February
<http://www.ronwug.org/>
WAUG (Wessex), 21st February
<http://www.mfraz.freeserve.co.uk/waug/>
RISC OS South West Show, 28th February
<http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornshow/>
Wakefield 2004, 15th & 16th May
<http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/>

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