|-------------------------- Acorn News Service --------------------------| | http://www.ans.org.uk/ | | ISSUE 253 16 August 2009 | | | | An independent monthly newsletter for the Acorn world. | | Send your news items or comments to ans@acornusers.org. | |------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Featured site this issue: http://www.acornworld.co.uk/ | |------------------------------------------------------------------------| Contents -------- 1) General News 2) Commercial News 3) PD/Shareware News 4) Club news 5) ANS information General News ------------ 1) Acorn World Acorn World is an exhibition and gathering at the Cedar Court Hotel, Huddersfield, on 12th and 13th September 2009, that will celebrate the importance and legacy of Acorn Computers. Over the course of the weekend, the Emley Suite at Cedar Court will be populated with numerous examples of Acorn computers, charting the company's rise from the less well-known Acorn System series and Acorn Atom; through the various iterations of the BBC Microcomputer and the Electron to the ground-breaking Archimedes and Risc PC range. On Sunday afternoon Professor Stephen Furber - a principal designer of both the BBC Microcomputer and ARM microprocessor - will give a talk on The Heritage of the BBC Micro. Topics covered will include construction of the prototype BBC machine and the design and manufacture of the ARM microchip. Stephen will also give an insight into his current research interests, such as the SpiNNaker project: a bold attempt to emulate the interactions of the human brain, utilising an estimated one million ARM processors. This will be preceded by a presentation and demonstration from RISC OS Open Ltd. This event forms part of the Retro Reunited Classic Gaming & Computing convention. Weekend tickets (priced GBP13 each inclusive) cover entry to both Acorn World (Emley Suite) and Retro Reunited (Presidential Suite). All proceeds will be donated to the Shelter charity and it is anticipated that tickets will sell out in advance. For more information or to order tickets, visit: 2) Developers needed for NetSurf The NetSurf Developers are looking for new developers to join the team. The current development plan is outlined here: Any development help is welcomed, but there is an urgent need for a developer to take on the RISC OS front end. The RISC OS front end has not had any maintainer for over two and a half years, and this is now seriously impeding development of NetSurf's multi-platform core. If you are interested in working on NetSurf's RISC OS front end, please get in touch with the developers. Knowledge of C and some experience with the RISC OS WIMP are required. 3) RISC OS London Show ROUGOL, the RISC OS Users Group of London, will hold the first RISC OS London Show on 3rd October 2009, at St Giles Hotel, Feltham, London. Commercial News --------------- 1) Dual-head DVI ViewFinder graphics card A dual-head DVI-capable ViewFinder graphics card for Risc PCs and A7000s is now available, supporting very wide desktops spread over two monitors. A specific AGP card is required for dual-head DVI capability. Existing ViewFinder owners can upgrade for EUR99 including VAT. 2) Picture Book available online Picture Book, the electronic picture book first published by Triple 'R' Education in 1992, has been made available as an electronic download from . Picture Book costs GBP2, payable via Paypal. PD/Shareware News ----------------- 1) Updated software summary * MakeDraw v2.10 A library of BASIC routines for RISC OS which allows DrawFiles to be created directly from data using a BASIC programme. New to this version is the ability to include Spites, JPEGs, and transformed text. * Snapper v1.11 A versatile screen capture program. * Textseek v1.46 A fast file search program which displays its results in the context of the surrounding text using a throwback window. The new version can ignore specific files or subdirectories by name. * Toolbar 1.20 A pull-down application launcher. The toolbar will now open and close at a rate independent of desktop load, you can have multiple toolbars, and the RunImage is no longer squashed. Club News --------- 1) Upcoming meetings * ROUGOL (London), 17th August * RONWUG (North West), 19th August * WROCC (Wakefield), 2nd September * Acorn World, 12-13th September * RONWUG (North West), 16th September * ROUGOL (London), 21st September * RISC OS London Show 2009, 3rd October * ROUGOL (London), 19th October - Impact 2 * ROUGOL (London), 16th November - "Acorn and ARM" by Prof Steve Furber ANS Information --------------- 1) Contact ANS To send in your news items e-mail or use the form on the ANS website . More information about ANS and other contact details are available on the ANS web site . 2) 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 a blank e-mail to . Alternatively use the form on the ANS web site at . For details of other commands e-mail . ---------------- Acorn News Service, http://www.ans.org.uk/ ----------------