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      // \\\\  /. \\\\__ \/ __//    \\  \\____.  /// \\\\  /. \\
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       ¯    \/    ¯ ¯    \/.  |¯      ¯|z!o     ¯  ¯    \/    ¯
               A M I G A      | 060228 |      U P D A T E
                              |________|
  "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
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      N E W   U P D A T E   T O   O S 4   P R E - R E L E A S E 

            N E W   M O R P H O S   F O R   P O W E R U P

        H A A G E & P A R T N E R   /   A L I N E A   D E A L

         E P I S T U A L   I N S T A N T   M E S S E N G E R

              D E S S E R T   R A C I N G   U P D A T E

            R T G   P A T C H   F O R   L I G H T W A V E

       M I N D S P A C E   V E R S I O N   0 . 4   * B E T A *

         W O R L D   W A R   I I   S T R A T E G Y   G A M E

       U P D A T E D   U S B   S T A C K   -   P O S E I D O N

          W O O K I E C H A T   U P D A T E D   T O   2 . 0

              L A T E S T   C O M M O D O R E   N E W S

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Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 It's been more challenge to put together a newsletter this month than 
normal lately. We actually had to leave out a few things we might have 
included other months, such as some local club meetings. We assume 
most of these organizations have other methods for contacting members, 
though we're happy to help. (If you really want to ensure we publish 
your upcoming club meeting, please send us a press release. That will 
increase your chances from "maybe" to "almost certain".) Are we 
getting back to those heady days when we published two and sometimes 
more newsletters a month? Well, no, but we're happy with the amount of 
news around for February. OK, not all the stories are that impressive 
but it's still fun. And all this does include the official 
availability of the latest OS4 pre-release. 

Whither the Power PC??

 This has been an interesting month for the Amiga from a processor 
point of view. With Apple pulling out of the PPC world for future 
computers, these quotes showed up in "InformationWeek Daily" this 
month:

"IBM and Freescale will no longer need to dedicate resources to 
develop Power as a PC processor, and now can concentrate on more 
successful and strategic end markets. That's a good thing, executives 
from IBM and Freescale said during a news conference on Monday.
"The loss of Apple 'allows us to free up resources that were tied up 
with competing with Intel on their home turf," said Michel Mayer, 
chairman and CEO of Freescale. "We have many segments now in front of 
us where both the volume and innovation are more significant [than 
Apple]. It was not a good utilization of our resources to continue to 
fight Intel. We'll let [Advanced Micro Devices Inc.] do that, and they 
do it well. We are selling millions and millions of Power 
architecture processors in many segments across the world, and [Apple] 
was a tiny, tiny piece of the iceberg.'"

 Long time readers may recall editorials years ago when I wondered 
why, if Amiga were now a software company as they stated, they had not 
gone with the most prevalent market for promoting Amiga OS. The quotes 
above certainly had me thinking back to that decision.
 But then, there was this from c|net:

"IBM's advances mean its Power6 chip, due in the middle of 2007, will 
run at speeds between 4 and 5 gigahertz, at least double the speed of 
current Power chips found in server computers that run corporate 
networks, Meyerson said.

The Power6 chip will compete against offerings from IBM rivals such as 
Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Sun Microsystems."

 And finally, this from "Electronic News":

"Motorola spin-off Freescale Semiconductor has joined Power.org as a 
founding member.

"Freescale and IBM announced the membership in the organization 
focused on development around the IBM_s Power processor and 
collaboration between the companies at the International Solid-State 
Circuits Conference in San Francisco.

"The two companies plan several key collaborative efforts, including 
creating a common instruction set architecture, developing innovations 
to extend the Power processors to a broader set of customer 
applications, enabling Linux on the architecture, and expanding the 
ecosystem through marketing programs.

"'With IBM and Freescale joining together again, this time with other
stakeholders, Power Architecture technology maintains the advantage of 
having multiple chip suppliers,' said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst 
with the Linley Group, in a statement.  'It also gains the benefit of 
managed evolution.'

"The collaboration is designed to extend Power Architecture technology 
deeper into next-generation products in end applications including 
consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, enterprise systems,
telecommunications and supercomputers, the companies said in a 
statement."

 What are we to make from all this? Only time will tell (one of my 
favorite sayings, I'm afraid, given the wacky world of tech). But that 
initial story from "InformationWeek Daily" still has me very nervous 
right now.
 Whatever happens, we hope you enjoy this issue.

 Brad Webb,
 Editor
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

      N E W   U P D A T E   T O   O S 4   P R E - R E L E A S E 

8 February, 2006

Hyperion Entertainment announces the immediate availability of the 
fourth update of the AmigaOS4.0 Developer Prerelease.

The new features in this pre-release include:

* All-new Warp3D with support for Voodoo 3/4/5 and ATI Radeon models 
7000, 7200, 7500, 9000, 9200 and 9250.
* Petunia Just-In-Time 68k emulator.
* All-new Intuition with advanced features like flicker-free window 
redraw and new screen dragging features (among other things, screens 
can be dragged freely in any direction and will reveal other screens 
beneath even if dragged sideways)
* Updated ExecSG kernel
* New Extended Input System allows the use of mouse wheels on both 
PS/2 and USB mice, and the use of Multimedia keyboards (with keys like 
volume control, play/pause etc)
* And much much more. Practically ALL components of the system have 
been updated.

Registered AmigaOS4.0-Owners can download the update in our Download 
area immediately.

Again, we would like to thank all of our customers for their continued 
support.

http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           N E W   M O R P H O S   F O R   P O W E R U P 

23 February, 2006 

The MorphOS Development Team has released version 1.4.5 of MorphOS 
1.4.5 for Classic Amigas with a PowerUP/PPC card. 

"The MorphOS Development Team is pleased to announce the immediate 
availability of an updated MorphOS version for computers equipped with 
PowerUP accelerator cards. The included changes are as follows:

- Vastly improved graphics hardware compatability: MorphOS now i
ncludes 68K drivers for popular graphics cards such as the 
Cybervision64, Cybervision 64/3D and the Picasso IV.

- Problems on machines with more than 128MB of memory were fixed.

- hal.com1 was updated in order to allow proper support of CV3D.

- The RegTool (registration application) was updated as well.

- An experimental version of 4IDE support was added. (Please read the 
IDE splitter section in the "morphos.readme" text file.)

- The update also includes new Hungarian locale settings.

The MorphOS Free Edition for PowerUP can be downloaded from
http://powerup.morphos-team.net. We suggest to carefully read the 
instructions on the website as well as in the included "readme" text 
to make the installation process as effortless as possible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        H A A G E & P A R T N E R   /   A L I N E A   D E A L

Alinea Computer takes over distribution of Haage&Partner's Amiga 
products

Glashtten/Glashtten, Germany, February 17th, 2006 - Haage & Partner 
and Alinea Computer announce that Alinea Computer will take over 
distribution of the Amiga products of Haage&Partner. This applies for 
the following products:

    * AmigaWriter
    * ArtEffect
    * StormC
    * Pagestream (German Amiga versions) 

Information about the products can be found at the Alinea Computer 
website and also from the Haage&Partner website.

Please send all your dealer and support requests for these products to 
Alinea Computer. All end user can get the products from their local 
Amiga dealers, but also directly from the Alinea Computer OnlineShop.

Haage&Partner Computer GmbH
www.haage-partner.de

Alinea Computer
www.alinea-computer.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         E P I S T U A L   I N S T A N T   M E S S E N G E R 

23 February, 2006

Epistula is to AmigaOS what GAIM is to Linux and Windows. For people 
not in the know, GAIM is an instant messenger application which can 
handle a variety of IM protocols, for example Microsoft MSN, AOL AIM 
and Yahoo Messenger.

I know JabberWocky can provide a similar service, but that requires 
extra setting up with Jabber ID's etc. This way, you can log straight 
onto your favourite protocol, by-passing any need for yet another IM 
account. One of the main reasons I started to write this client was 
because I couldn't be bothered with Jabber... I can't be the only 
one... can I?

Unlike GAIM, Epistula is written in a modular fashion in that each 
'protocol' is a plugin which can be installed, and updated, seperately 
from the main application and other plugins.

Epistula is initially only in development for AmigaOS 4, but hopefully 
in not-to-distant future, will also be made available for MorphOS, 
AmigaOS 3.1 and AROS.

People looking for individual 68k instant messengers available now 
wouldn't be going far wrong looking at JabberWocky, AmiMSN and 
AmigAIM.
 
News
    
After a period of internal testing by several members of the AmigaOS 
4 beta testing team, and a developers pre-release shortly after, it 
seems that a lot of the bugs are now finally squashed within Epistula 
itself, leaving only the MSN plugin to be fully debugged once 
codesets.library is finally released this week.

Work is on-going and I'm busy implementing the last couple of 
functions in the plugins for adding, moving and removing contacts from 
the contact list. A new 'general messages' window is now almost 
complete and work has begun on the preliminary file transfer 
interface.

Thanks again to the people who have registered Epistula, your support 
is appreciated. Incidentally, you've indirectly helped me buy a new 
tyre for my MG TF-160, stopping me going further into debt before pay 
day! :-)

The following should be available by 11pm tonight (23.02.2006):

    * Epistula 50.11 Released
    * MSN Plugin 1.2 Released
    * Screenshots Added
    * Updated Plugin Development Kit
          o Updated Autodoc
          o Updated Skeleton Plugin
          o Removed protocol_requestchat() function
          o Updated protocol_sendmessage() function
    * Catalogs Available
          o Provided as an archive containing both a .ct and .catalog 
            files
          o Added Greek catalog information/download as provided by 
            George Sokianos
    * Cleaned Links
          o Fixed links to MUI custom classes
          o Updated AmiSSL link with correct URL and authors
          o Moved PDK and Locale links
    * New PacMan-esque logo. I had to do it in Xara3D, much rather 
      have done it in Candy Factory 2 ;-)

http://www.the-snakepit.co.uk/epistula/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              D E S S E R T   R A C I N G   U P D A T E

25 February, 2006

There are three patches available for the full version and the demo.

The demo of Desert Racing (230MByte file, needs 600MB HD) can be also 
obtained from the Support-Homepage.

The demo version isn't needed to be downloaded again it is sufficient 
to apply the patch which is only a few KByte.

The patches for the demo version are available on the Desert Racing 
Supportpage on http://www.apc-tcp.de

The patches for the full version can be only obtained via Mail from 
info@apc-tcp.de because of piracy.

For a patch for the full version we need the real name and if not 
bought directly from APC&TCP the dealers name and the bill number.

http://www.apc-tcp.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          R T G   P A T C H   F O R   L I G H T W A V E 

12 February, 2006

Description:    Patches Lightwave's rendering to work on RTG
Download:   lightwave_rtg_patch.lha       
Version:    1.0
Author:     Stephen Fellner
Submitter:  Stephen Fellner
Email:  sf amiga/gmail com
Requirements:   AmigaOS4.0, Lightwave 3.5+
Category:   graphics/raytrace
License:    Freeware
Distribute:     yes
FileID:     1597


Released by popular request.

LightWave RTG Patch is a small tool to allow LightWave to correctly 
function on RTG-only systems running AmigaOS4.

LightWave's rendering preview expects a classic Amiga planar screen to 
be opened and treats it as such, performing direct access to the 
screen's planes. This does not work under RTG graphic systems because 
they do not support the classical planar screen formats used on old 
Amiga hardware. Unfortunately it is not possible to disable the 
preview, therefore the only way to make it work is to patch it.

This patch must be started once (and only once!) before starting 
LightWave. It can be stopped by a CTRL+C command. This is an ugly 
hack, therefore it is not guarranteed to work on future versions of 
OS4. Also be catious using it, I am not responsible for any damange 
caused by the use this patch!

http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=graphics/raytrace/
lightwave_rtg_patch.lha
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      M I N D S P A C E   V E R S I O N   0 . 4   * B E T A * 

{Ordinarily, we avoid reporting on unabashedly beta software. However, 
this one is just too fascinating to pass up. So I made an exception 
this time. As Editor, I get to do that once in a while. Brad}

MindSpace Version 0.4

The All-Together Now release

MindSpace and all its associated IP, files, icons, documentation and 
everything are copyright Yoodoo2/Riba/AST 2005-6.

MindSpace enables the user to produce:

    * flowcharts
    * a range of UML diagrams
    * MindMaps and Brainstorms
    * Silly little pictures

In the future, MindSpace will output template code for C/C++ 
structures, functions and classes.

MindSpace Requirements

Amiga running OS4 (PPC)

Not much Hard Drive space

Not much Ram

Minimum Workbench resolution 800x600 (for the moment)

You can contact the author at : yoodoo2@ast-workshops.co.uk or via pm 
at Amigaworld.net 

http://www.ast-workshops.co.uk/MindSpace/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          W O R L D   W A R   I I   S T R A T E G Y   G A M E

25 February, 2006

Description:    World War II strategy war game
Download:   ww2.lha       
Version:    3.1
Author:     Steven Solie
Submitter:  Steven Solie
Email:  ssolie/telus net
Homepage:   http://www3.telus.net/ssolie
Requirements:   OS4 update 4
Category:   game/board
Replaces:   game/board/ww2.lha
License:    Freeware
Distribute:     yes
FileID:     1658
    
Short:    World War II strategy war game
Author:   ssolie()telus.net (Steven Solie)
Uploader: ssolie()telus.net (Steven Solie)
Type:     game/board
Version:  3.1
Requires: AmigaOS 4.0 Pre-release 4 or higher


DESCRIPTION
===========

This is a free computer version clone of the "Axis & Allies" board 
game by Milton Bradley.

The biggest difference between this version and all the other attempts
(both commercial and non-commercial) is that this implementation is
exclusively for the Amiga! :)

The game is now complete with all the 2nd Edition rules implemented.
Please see the included AmigaGuide file for more details.

The next stage in development will be to expand the network playing
options and add optional rules and configuration options. I'm also
considering implementing the other versions of the various other A&A
games available including the revised edition, Europe, Pacific and 
D-Day. Your input will help determine what will be done next so do not 
hesitate to contact me with your request.


HISTORY
=======

3.1  2006-02-25  - Completed entire 2nd Edition rule set.
                 - Replaced ARexx client with a Lua client.
                 - GUI should now be a bit more user friendly and 
                   stable.
                 - Improved look of GUI a bit.


NOTICE
======

This program uses Anti-Grain Geometry package for some rendering.

The Anti-Grain Geometry Project
A high quality rendering engine for C++
http://antigrain.com

Anti-Grain Geometry - Version 2.0 
Copyright (C) 2002 Maxim Shemanarev (McSeem) 

Permission to copy, use, modify, sell and distribute this software 
is granted provided this copyright notice appears in all copies. 
This software is provided "as is" without express or implied
warranty, and with no claim as to its suitability for any purpose.
{Information from the excellent OS4 Depot, http://os4depot.net/ Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     U P D A T E D   U S B   S T A C K   -   P O S E I D O N 

Short:    Poseidon USB Stack Update 3.3
Uploader: chrisly@platon42.de (Chris Hodges)
Author:   chrisly@platon42.de (Chris Hodges)
Type:     hard/drivr
Version:  3.3 (23-Feb-06)
Requires: Highway/Subway/Algor or a compatible USB card

Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The  Poseidon  USB  Stack  is  a  software  solution  that  unleashes   
the possibilities  of  the  Universal Serial Bus (USB) and the devices 
with USB interface, ranging from  mice,  keyboards,  tablets,  
joysticks,  printers, scanners,  webcams,  digicams,  flash card 
readers, zip drives, floppy disk drives, harddisks, memory sticks, 
ethernet  adapters,  scanners  and  audio adapters to less common 
things like power supplies, GPS location devices or finger print 
readers. It is intended to be a solution for all systems.

Big news
~~~~~~~~
V3.3
  - New CAMD USB MIDI class driver!
  - New Firmware Upgrading class driver!
  - HID class improvements.
  - Trident GUI layout improved.
  - Several bugfixes.
  - E3B hardware drivers optimizations and fixes.

Contact address
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Any mail, comments or donations welcome:

Chris Hodges                    Account: 359 68 63
Motorstr. 34a                   Bank   : Sparkasse FFB (700 530 70)
80809 Munich                    IBAN   : DE61 7005 3070 0003 5968 63
Germany                         SWIFT  : BYLADEM1FFB
Tel.: +49-89/54843054           WWW: http://www.platon42.de/
Email: chrisly@platon42.de      IRC: platon42 on EfNet/Arcnet

{Information from Aminet, http://us.aminet.net/ Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         W O O K I E C H A T   U P D A T E D   T O   2 . 0 

18 February, 2006

{Also a beta, but also worth knowing about, and apparently further 
long in development than Mindspace. Brad}

This is a basic IRC client for AmigaOS. It's not complete yet, but 
here's a beta for everyone to play with.

It's FREE to use. It is "non-crippled shareware", which means I'll 
accept donations from people for the use of this program (suggested 
donation is $10 USD), but if you dont want to pay anything, you dont 
have to. The program will not be crippled in any way or require a 
keyfile.

There is some documentation now to help explain WookieChat commands, 
and hopefully make the program easier to understand for people new to 
IRC.

February 18th 2006 - WookieChat 2.0 - DCC CHAT support added, Outgoing 
DCC SEND works on OS3 now and is compatible with XChat, Outgoing DCC 
SEND is much faster now (by a factor of 2x to 4x), AmIRC/XChat style 
multi column display added (optional, can be toggled on and off 
easily), AmIRC style nick completion added (optional), and quite a few 
bugfixes. More details are available in changelog.txt.

http://wookiechat.amigarevolution.com/wookiechat/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             L A T E S T   C O M M O D O R E   N E W S 

{Because it's worth keeping an eye on them. Brad}

9 February, 2006

Commodore International Corporation, the provider of digital media 
products and content distribution, and SupportPlus Europe BV 
(SupportPlus€), a company active in sourcing and distribution of 
consumer electronic products, announced today that they have signed an 
agreement under which Commodore will acquire all shares of 
SupportPlus. This announcement follows an earlier press release on 
21 October 2005. The acquisition will be paid partly in cash and 
partly in shares of Commodore and is expected to be formally closed in 
the next weeks, subject to certain conditions.

Since its inception in 1999, SupportPlus has become a leading supplier 
of consumer electronic products for audio, video, and domestic 
appliances markets in Europe and Australia. The company reported EUR 
85 million in revenues in its financial year 2004/2005.

The acquisition provides Commodore with a unique opportunity to 
improve its services and product offering to its clients, while 
leveraging the distribution infrastructure and strong sourcing 
capabilities of SupportPlus in China. Commodore and SupportPlus have 
entered the US markets following the successful 2006 International CES 
in Las Vegas earlier this year. This transaction underlines the 
ambition of Commodore to become a key player in the markets of digital 
media products and content distribution.

SupportPlus was already an exclusive sourcing and distribution partner 
of Commodore before the transaction.

œThe presence of SupportPlus in most key markets, their focused and 
successful sales force and extensive sourcing network in Asia 
strengthens Commodoreâ€'s ability to develop and sell its premium 
products†said Ben van Wijhe, President & CEO of Commodore. He 
continues, €"SupportPlus adds an important dimension to enhance our 
already strong value chain and will highly contribute to our ambition 
for a fast market penetration for Commodore Productsâ€".

Eugene van Os, Managing Director of SupportPlus, said "€œWe are all 
excited to add the richness of a legendary brand to SupportPlus' 
proven-successful sales force. The combination of the strength and 
experience of the two companies sets a solid platform to take our 
joint business plan to the next level."


About SupportPlus Europe B.V.
SupportPlus is a supplier of consumer electronic products in Europe, 
Asia, USA and Australia. It has offices in eight European countries 
nd Hong Kong, Shanghai, USA and Melbourne in the Western Pacific 
region. SupportPlus was winner of the 2005 China Trader Award with 
its successful business model which is based on substantial product 
volumes in combination with an efficient distribution model. The 
company currently has over 150 employees in the fields of sourcing, 
quality assurances, sales and worldwide logistics.


About Commodore International Corporation
Commodore International Corporation - which acquired Commodore 
International B.V. from Tulip Computers in 2005 - is a designer, 
creator and full-service provider of digital media products, content 
and services. The company sells a complete line of portable digital 
media products under the "Commodore" brand name, and provides legal 
music and media downloads - all with multi-channel distribution 
through broadband, cable and satellite. In addition, the company has 
developed several innovative media applications such as the Commodore 
MediaBox and the Commodore MediaTower.

For further information visit www.commodoreworld.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/~bandr/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! Now in our 12th publication year. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
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