News from RISCOS Ltd No. 26 February 7th 2003 ================= RISCOS Ltd enters its fifth year of business ------------------------------------------- RISCOS Ltd celebrated the completion of its fourth year of business on 31st January 2003 and is now in its fifth year of trading. There have been many changes in the RISC OS market since Acorn announced that it pulling out of the production of desktop computers in September 1998. Since the launch of RISC OS 4 in 1999 we have sold over 3900 end user upgrades and there have been approximately 1500 new computers sold with RISC OS 4 pre-installed. 2002 was a quiet year on many fronts, and the uncertainty over the development of new computers meant that sales were for the most part very sluggish. The launch of RISC OS 5 and the subsequent rejuvenation of software development from many publishers has however created a new enthusiasm for RISC OS. It is unfortunate that the continued delays to the RiscStation portable and the MicroDigital Omega are leaving people who do not want to upgrade to a 32 bit only computer with little choice, and we hope that both manufacturers will be able to make realistic announcements about the availability of their planned products very shortly. RISC OS Select Subscriptions reach 900 -------------------------------------- We recently received the 900th subscription to the RISC OS Select Scheme which is great news. However there are also quite a few people who haven't renewed their subscriptions for various reasons. The most common question seems to be what is going to happen to the Select Scheme now that RISC OS 5 has been released? The answer is that our plans for Select haven't changed. Select has always been aimed at the users of 26 bit versions of RISC OS and at present Castle are having to work so hard to fix the core of RISC OS 5, that they cannot cope with other changes being made to support the new Select features. It is however worthwhile pointing out that Select is far in advance of RISC OS 5 in terms of new features, and it is clear from the correspondence we have had from new Iyonix users that they are very much missing the new features in Select. New subscriptions now cost £155 (£150 for Foundation members.) Please note that any outstanding renewals from 2002 and any renewals due in 2003 will still be at the current price of £105 (or £99 for Foundation members.) German Territory now available for RISC OS 4.33 ----------------------------------------------- Detlef Thielsch of A4 Computer in Germany have just informed us that they now have a German Territory module available for RISC OS 4.33 along with appropriate updates the !Boot, !ARPlayer, !ChangeFSI, !Chars, !Draw, !Paint, !SciCalc and !Squash. Further details of availability and pricing of the updates (which are supplied on CD) are available at http://www.a4com.de/ Rich Site Summaries ------------------- Have you ever wondered how people keep up with news items on web sites without browsing each site every day? Well if the site provides a Rich Site Summary (RSS) service, then you can get a digest of the latest news by using a RSS client. The main RISCOS Ltd site now provides a RSS summary of the most recent news items. To use the service you need a RSS client. A PC based client is available from http://www.feedreader.com/ a RISC OS based client will be available shortly. To view the RISCOS Ltd updates point your reader at http://www.riscos.com/cgi-bin/news.rss Other interesting sites which provide RSS summaries are :- The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/tonys/slashdot.rdf Slashdot http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf Drobe Launchpad http://www.drobe.co.uk/rss.php The Icon Bar http://www.iconbar.com/cgi-bin/iconbar.rss Acorn Arcade http://www.acornarcade.com/cgi-bin/acornarcade.rss riscos.org http://www.riscos.org/index.rdf RSS is an XML based format for summarizing and providing links to news stories. There are three main RSS formats in popular use :- 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0. Further information about RSS can be found at:- http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html Operating System World Map -------------------------- Inspired by the Debian User WorldMap, Gurkan Sengun has now come up with a World Wide User map for all Operating Systems. http://www.linuks.mine.nu/worldmap/ To register on the site you need to know your Longitude and Latitude as well as your Operating system. At last check there were 135 RISC OS users registered. So lets see a lot more entries on it for RISC OS users. Software news ------------- Samba update ------------ David R. H. Buxton mailto:david@merddin.demon.co.uk has updated his RISC OS Samba Server !smbserver to version 0.08. This is a straight recompile of 0.07a to be 32 bit compatible. It is available from the new samba home at http://riscossmbserver.sourceforge.net In other news, David reports that he has started looking at porting the 2.2.7 Samba sources since !smbserver is based on really old Samba code. He has no timescales for this work at present. David's own web site is at http://www.merddin.demon.co.uk/ Unix Porting Project -------------------- The Unix Porting project takes advantage of the many thousands of programs available to Unix systems, to improve the software that exists on RISC OS. You say what programs you would like to see converted, and the project will attempt to convert them. There's no programming on your part. Your subscription also pays for support of using these programs (and of the many dozens that have already been converted). It also helps further development of RISC OS in many areas. Although a great many Unix programs are command line based - a very considerable number (thousands) are graphical in nature, and would be excellent additions to the RISC OS desktop. Amongst these are Web Browsers, in which the project takes a particular interest. If you wish to take out an "extended subscription" you can provide extra support for development in that area. The project also makes CDs available at 10 UKP each. On the CD is the entire contents of the website (currently, 20-30 programs). In addition, it also contains the current release of GCC, an experimental 32-bit version of GCC and 32-bit DeskLib (a Wimp programming library). Further details contact Peter Naulls mailto:unix@chocky.org http://www.chocky.org/unix/ or UnixPorts 45 Water Street Cambridge CB4 1NZ FTP 1.40 available ------------------ Colin Granville has now released FTPc version 1.40 at http://www.ftpc.iconbar.com/ !FTPc is a freeware internet File Transfer Protocol Client. It enables you to transfer files/directories to and from your web space from the desktop using drag and drop. The latest change is that the user menu can now have nested submenus by wrapping entries as follows: submenu="submenu name" ...list of entries that will go in submenu. endsubmenu="true" you may also give a submenu entry a value. Freeze 1.60 ----------- Freeze is a machine state snapper and restorer for RISC OS. Freeze can save the state of a machine and reload it at any time. Using Freeze, an overloaded boot sequence can take less than 5 seconds. It was originally written by Kostas "GUS" Proitsakis of the ARM's Tech, before he left the RISC OS scene. However he very graciously decided to donate the sources to the public, so that the application can hopefully be amended to run on the new 32-bit machines. Mark Rowan has taken over development of Freeze. http://www.tamias.co.uk/freeze/ New version of !Google 0.63 --------------------------- If you regularly need to search for anything on the web, the various search engines are an essential tool. Google is certainly one of the best search engines, with the capability to search web pages for text or images as well as the numerous Usenet NewsGroups. To speed up the entry of search items, !Google provides a simple way of entering a search query and then submitting it via your favourite browser. http://download.andrewpoole.org.uk/beta/google/0.63/ DirSync 1.01 ------------ As the size of hard discs increases the need to keep backups of your personal data and applications becomes more and more important. With the cost of drives also decreasing the best way of protecting your data is by making a copy of your main hard drive onto a second disc. Whilst there are various Backup programs available it becomes quite a chore to identify the differences between the contents of two directories, or two complete hard drives. http://home.c2i.net/jjvdgeer/riscos.html A plea to software authors --------------------------- I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that software authors would make their download archives unique and easily identifiable. Given that most users have access to filing systems which support Long File Names there is really no reason to restrict filenames to the traditional RISC OS / DOS name limits anymore. It would help me a lot if everyone used archives with names of the format -> programme_name+versionnumber/zip e.g google063/zip instead of just 063/zip This is also makes it a lot easier when searching back through downloads to identify what is in an archive rather than trying to guess what gdp01/zip actually was. New Credit card security checks ------------------------------- By March 2003 most Credit Card companies will have new security arrangements in place to help curb the fraud losses from Mail Order and telephone sales. The new measures include Address Verification and a Card Security Code. In order to process a Mail Order Transaction, we will now require the Three Digit Card Security Code which is present on the signature strip on the reverse of your Credit Card. This code is not printed on any Credit Card receipts and therefore can only be obtained by someone who has the actual Credit Card. Secondly you must provide your registered address that the credit card companies have listed for you, before we can process any transactions using your card. NB We do not store your Credit Card details on any Electronic Media. Forthcoming Shows ----------------- RISCOS SOUTHWEST (Supporting RISC OS users in SW England & S Wales) The RISCOS SOUTHWEST show will once again be taking place, on Saturday 22nd February 2003 at The Webbington Hotel, Loxton, nr Axbridge, North Somerset. The show is supported by Bristol Acorn Risc User Group and Wessex ARM User Group. A number of exhibitors have already booked, including Castle, who we hope, will be demonstrating their new Iyonix computer. A number of talks by various Acorn enthusiasts will take place in the theatre. The Games Arcade and Internet Cafe will once again, be available. There is a free bus shuttle service operating between Weston-super-Mare train station and the show. The first shuttle leaves the train station at 9.30am and the last leaves the show at 4.30pm. Opening times ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The show opens at 10am and closes at 4.30pm. Entrance prices ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adults................. 3 ukp ARM Club/Foundation members.. 2 ukp Children under 16 FREE (accompanied by adult) (Pay at door) For information about the show: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone/Fax: (07966) 731481 E-mail: acornshow@argonet.co.uk WWW: http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornshow Show organiser: John Stonier Wakefield Show 2003 ------------------- The web site for this years Wakefield Computer Show is now active at http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/ People for whom we don't have email addresses 2003 (1) ------------------------------------------------------ Thanks to everybody who has let us know their new or updated email address. There are still quite a few people however who haven't told us that they don't have email, or whose current email address is bouncing. So if you see your name on this list on the web site, and you haven't received any Newsletters by email yet, and you have an email address then please let us know. Foundation Members ------------------ J E Airs Elma Alexander John Arthur Stephen Ashford Christopher Ashley E A Baker Johnathan Barrett Kevin Baxter D Bergg A C Blake N Bradshaw A Braithwaite David J Brown S G Buer Arnold Burdett A Singh Chana Howard Cheesman M Childs Barry Cooper Paul Corke Norman Craggs Jan A de Boer Robert Doran John Drake Ian Dunn John Edgley Alan Fagan Richard Firth Gregor Gellisen G German Frank Gisbey Erwin Gosteli A J Griffin Alan Hall Keith Hampton Alan James Hardwick D A Hendley Alois Hezel D Hilton R Hines Paul Horth J Howarth Susan M Howell M Jackson Alan Jackson W Jappy R T Jones Richard Keefe J G Kraan John Lancaster John McRiner John Mitchell R J Mortimore E Oldham James Ernest Osler George Outram Stephen Parks Ashok Patel Ian Patterson T Pearce B Phillips Derrick Porter F K Reid Willem Renaud Peter Smith Simon M Smith I F Smith E Somerville R S W Southwell D W Steare Gordon Stevenson G Stewart John Styles D Susans Hubert T'Sijen M Tasker W Boyd Tennent Justin Thomas Anne Thompson N Thurlow Michael C R Tod J N Tresidder D J Tyerman John Wade Peter Watt Steve White Ian Williams Derrick Woodhouse Michael Wright Nigel Young Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. If you have received this email in error, or wish to be removed from this list then please send an email to mailto:foundation@riscos.com with the subject REMOVE regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ©2003 RISCOS Ltd. RISC OS is a trademark of Pace Micro Technology plc. Certain other product names, brand names, and company names may be trademarks or designations of their respective owners.