Acorn News Service Newsletter

Issue: 163 (25 July 2004)

Featured site this issue: http://www.iconbar.com/news/features/camileon.html

General News

Resolution of the RISC OS licensing dispute

The following statement was issued on behalf of RISCOS Ltd, Castle Technology Ltd and the following AMSs: Advantage Six Ltd, MicroDigital Ltd and VirtualAcorn.

On Wednesday 14th July a meeting, chaired by Mike Glover (of Icon Technology), was held at which directors of RISCOS Ltd and Castle Technology Ltd, and representatives of the AMSs and RISCOS Ltd shareholders were present.

All parties are pleased to announce that a new initiative has been agreed. This will ensure that the RISC OS hardware and software developers can continue with the development and sales of their respective products.

Over the coming months, RISCOS Ltd will be working with Castle to provide relevant features of the Select scheme to IYONIX pc users through the Merlin project. Tematic (Castle's engineering division) will be concentrating on the core operating system technologies and with RISCOS Ltd they will be responsible for the future development of key features of the RISC OS desktop environment.

<http://www.riscos.com/news/news_items/PR150704>
<http://www.iyonix.com/>

Commercial News

Stuart Tyrrell Developments reopens

Following events at the recent RISC OS Ltd Shareholder meeting, Stuart Tyrrell Developments - the RISC OS retail arm of Advantage Six Ltd - reopened for orders for all RISC OS products on Monday 19th July.

This includes Unipod (their integrated USB/NET/IDE podule), the STD USB card, PS2MouseMini (allowing the use of PS/2 mice on older RISC OS computers), NET100 and the A6 series of machines (running RISC OS 4.39, licensed from RISC OS Ltd, under the VirtualRPC-Adjust emulator).

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

UniPod upgrades for only 1 pound

Stuart Tyrrell Developments are pleased to announce a special offer on their UniPod 3-in-1 podule and the Epson 1660 Photo Scanner.

Purchase a UniPod with USB functionality for GBP99
add an Epson 1660 Photo scanner for GBP179
...and get David Pilling's scanner drivers and software free
...and get your UniPod upgraded with NET100 functionality for GBP1
...and get your UniPod upgraded with IDE as well for only GBP1 more.

Total pack price GBP280 including VAT and carriage. This offer is also open to existing UniPod customers who do not have a completely unlocked card - add an Epson 1660 scanner and buy unlocks for only GBP1 each.

This offer is available until September 1st, and strictly whilst stocks last.

Offer details: <http://www.stdevel.co.uk/EpsonScan.html>
UniPod information: <http://www.stdevel.co.uk/unipod.html>

PD/Shareware News

New software summary

RISC OS Territories
Skeleton territories for Spain, Italy, Esperanto and Netherlands, based on the system a4 used to provide the German translation of RISC OS.
<http://www.riscos.de/down/Intl_Terr.zip>
StarGate, set system variables
A simple utility which allows to set a system variable by clicking on an iconbar icon.
<http://www.dasgrinsen.de/riscos/stargate.zip>
WinClip, Microsoft Windows clipboard access
Allows access to the Microsoft Windows clipboard from within VirtualRPC. Also includes EMF2Draw, a basic file format converter with support for Bezier curves. Converts to Drawfiles from EMF, to Sprites from DIB/BMP using ChangeFSI, and text.
<http://www.borcherds.co.uk/murklesoft/>

Updated software summary

BeebIt v0.56
A freeware BBC Micro computer emulator for RISC OS versions 3.00 and above. It emulates the Acorn BBC Model B, BBC Model B+ and BBC Master 128 computers. BeebIt has been updated so that it will now run on Castle Technologies Iyonix computer. This version also has faster access to shadow memory in B+ and Master, new interactive help, and bug fixes.
<http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/bbc.htm>
Graphite v0.21
An application for creating and editing of graphs. 32 bit compatible.
<http://www.zpages.de/>
IcnClipBrd v0.07, Clipboard v0.11
IcnClipBrd is a small module to allow the global clipboard to be used in writable icons on the desktop. Clipboard is a small application that works with IcnClipBrd to allow the clipboard contents to be saved out to the filer, as well as files to be saved on to the clipboard. Now 26-bit/ 32-bit neutral so that it will work on the Iyonix.
<http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/clipboard/>
Powerbase v9.23DA, 9.23SH
Database. This version includes bug fixes and introduces far reaching changes in the way the record format is edited.
<http://www.boulsworth.co.uk/pbase/>
Showjpeg v1.06
A carousel viewer for JPEGs (only) which utilises the JPEG rendering routines provided by SpriteExtend. It provides for scaling, saving and printing. Written in BASIC it works on 26 or 32 bit machines, running OS 3.7 or higher. New features include the option to remove background to show the desktop, the ability to make the carousel loop, and the ability to load a collection of JPEGs that are in the root directory.
<http://users.argonet.co.uk/users/jdp/downs.htm>
<http://www.westcairn.net/>
SpamStamp v0.17
Uses Bayesian filtering techniques to detect spam and adds headers to suspect e-mail, allowing a mail client to treat it accordingly. Bug fix.
<http://home.c2i.net/jjvdgeer/riscos/spamstamp.html>

Club News

Upcoming meetings

BARUG (Bristol), 28th July - CANCELLED
<http://www.barug.co.uk/>
ICENI (Ipswich), 4th August
<http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub/>
WROCC (Wakefield), 4th August - Presenting with RISC OS
<http://www.wrocc.org.uk/>
LAUG (Liverpool), 10th August
<http://www.italia.co.uk/laug/>
NKACC (Kent), 12th August
<http://nkacc.roundel.net/>
DARC (Derbyshire), 13th August
<http://www.darc-comp.org.uk/>
SASAUG (Surrey/Sussex), 13th August
<http://www.poppyfields.net/sasaug/>
WAUG (Wessex), 14th August
<http://www.mfraz.freeserve.co.uk/waug/>
ROUGOL (London), 16th August
<http://rougol.jellybaby.net/>
RONWUG (North West), 18th August
<http://www.ronwug.org/>
EAUG (Essex), 14th September - Richard Brown, Oregano UK
<http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/eaug/>

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