
               _      ____       ___   ______       _______          _
              d#      ####b     g#00   `N##0"    _agN#0P0N#         d#
             d##       jN##    j##F     J##    _dN0"      "        d##
           .#]##      _P ##L  jN##F     ###   g#0"               .#]##
          dE_j##      #  0## jF ##F    j##F  j##'    ______     dE_j##
        .0"""N##     d"   ##L0  ##F    0##   0##     "9##F"   .0"""5##
      .dF'   ]##    jF    ##0   ##F    ##F   `##k     d##   .dF'   j##
    .g#_    _j##___g#__   ]N  _j##L_ _d##L_   `#Nh___g#N' .g#_    _j##__
   """""    """""""""""    "  """""" """"""      """"""" """""    """"""


May 7, 1993                                                        No. 1.08
===========================================================================
                Amiga Report International Online Magazine 
===========================================================================

            "The Original Online Magazine" from STR Publishing

                        [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport


                 -----------------------------------------
                               * NOVA BBS *
                         Amiga Report Headquarters
                          * RUNNING STARNET BBS *
                            FidoNet  1:362/508
                 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
                615-472-9748  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days

              Amiga Report can be FREQ'd from Nova each week.
              Use the filename AR.LHA and you will always get
                             the latest issue.
 
                 -----------------------------------------
                            * THE BOUNTY BBS *
                         Home of  STR Publications
                        * RUNNING  TURBOBOARD BBS *
                 904-786-4176  USR DS 16.8  24hrs - 7 days
                 -----------------------------------------
                
___________________________________________________________________________


> 05/07/93 STR-Amiga 1.08  "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!"
  =======================
    - The Editor's Desk     - CPU Report         - New Products
    - Rendered Reality      - STR Online         - Dealer Directory
    - Warez Out There       - SuperBase Pro      - Final Copy II Rel 2
    - V-Lab Digitizer       - Nib Copier         - SuperCard Ami II
                            - Virus Killers

                     -* Safe Hex International News *-
                  -* Intel to ship 35 versions of 486 -*
                        -* Saddan Hussein Virus *-
                            
===========================================================================
                Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                           From STR Publications
                        [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport
               The Original * Independent * Online Magazine
                          -* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
                "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
     Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
             Hardware ~ Software ~ Corporate ~ R & D ~ Imports
===========================================================================
           GENIE ~ DELPHI ~ NVN ~ BIX ~ PORTAL ~ FIDO ~ INTERNET
===========================================================================


                    :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
                     _________________________________

      Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo)
                     Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
               Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
                         Wait for the U#= prompt.
                 Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.


 GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and weekend access to
 more  than  100  services  including electronic mail, online encyclopedia,
 shopping, news, entertainment, single-player  games,  and  bulletin boards
 on leisure and professional subjects.  With many other services, including
 the biggest collection of files to download and the best online games, for
 only $6 per hour.

 MONEY BACK  GUARANTEE!   Any time during your first month of membership if
 you are not completely satisfied, just ask for your $4.95 back.


         GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric
           Information Services/GEnie, reprinted with permission


***************************************************************************


> From the Editor's Desk                       "Saying it like it is!"
  ======================


One of the things I've noticed about the Amiga since buying mine back
in January is the lack of serious business software.  That is one weakness
we cannot afford to have if the Amiga is to be taken seriously in all
aspects of computing.

Sure, most people realize what a wonderful graphics and video production
system it is, but how many people are there that use it for that?  Certainly
not as many as would use it to, say, run a small business or keep a
database.

There are a small number of good business programs out there, but not
nearly what is required if we expect it to penetrate the home and small
business market.  PageStream is an excellent desktop publishing system,
Superbase Pro is a nice database, and Final Copy II is a wonderful word
processor (and junior desktop publisher for that matter).  But I honestly
cannot think of a good spreadsheet program, or an inventory tracking
system, or a point of sale package.  Tape backup systems are also few and
far between.  I'm sure ICD will take care of that in the near future, but
such a system is direly needed in the business environment.

I'm pleased to say that several networking packages are in the works, from
one that's almost as simply as Parnet, to an Ethernet setup, to a Novell-
compatible system.  Networking is another big hurdle required for serious
business use.

So I hope that I have either failed to notice these programs (if this is
the case, then better advertising is required, as I read AmigaWorld and
AC/Amiga), or else I hope somebody is working on some of them.

Then there is the subject of support for these products.  Soft-Logik and
Softwood have proven themselves with excellent support.  Customers must be
assured that the packages they purchase will include excellent support,
else the software will not be taken seriously, regardless of how good it is.

Mike Troxell's Rendered Reality column is on vacation again this week.  He
told me today that he's had difficulty coming up with a good idea to write
about.  He said he'd rather write a GOOD bi-monthly column rather than
a weekly MEDIOCRE column.  I don't blame him.

On another subject, some people on GEnie have expressed ill feelings toward
the reprinting of their public messages in Amiga Report.  After much debate,
I have decided to no longer print any public messages from GEnie.  The time
required to track down the "owner" of each message that I'd like to print
is more than I have to invest.

More interest has been shown in having an AmigaGuide compatible issue of
AR.  I am reviewing some back issues of AR that have been converted to
AmigaGuide format, and I may try test marketing such an issue in a week or
so, when I have the time to sit down and dive into it.  When this happens,
fear not.  The magazine will be just as readable in straight ASCII as it
will be with AmigaGuide.  I'm not going to leave anybody behind.

A friend gave me an idea... I would like to invite people to send me
Email detailing exceptionally good or bad experiences with mail order
vendors.  It does not have to be Amiga-specific (for example, if you bought
a modem from a PC dealer, but it's for your Amiga).  If I get enough
response, I'll run a feature detailing the worst and best of the
mentioned dealers, including shipping practices, how well they handle
complaints, returns, etc.  I'm not out to slam anybody, as many complaints
are rare.  But some vendors seem to take advantage of their customers,
and I'd like to keep the public informed.  This way, the buyer really
CAN be aware.


                            Rob @ Amiga Report


"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


Amiga Report's Staff                         DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
====================


                                  Editor
                                  ======
                               Robert Glover


           Technical Editor       Graphics Editor        Contributing Editor
           ================       ===============        ===================
           Micah Thompson         Mike Troxell              Tom Mulcahy
 GEnie:       BOOMER.T             M.TROXELL1
 FidoNet:                          1:362/508.5              1:260/322
 Delphi:                                                    16BITTER
 Bix:                                                       HELMET


                        Contributing Correspondents
                        ===========================
                              Michael Arends
                             Christopher Davis
                                John Deegan
                              Michael Hensche
                                Rob Morton
                                Alan Quirt
                              


        PC DIVISION           ATARI DIVISION           MAC DIVISION
        ===========           ==============           ============
        Roger D. Stevens      Ralph F. Mariano         R. Albritton


                             IMPORTANT NOTICE
                             ================
      Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
                              via E-Mail to:

                   Delphi........................ ROB_G
                   GEnie......................... ROB-G
                   Internet.......................ROB_G@Delphi.COM
   

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> CPU STATUS REPORT                 LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
  =================


                 Computer Products Update - CPU Report
                 ------------------------   ----------
                Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
 
                               Issue #18
 
                            By: John Deegan
 
 
   MOTOROLA ROLLS OUT NEW CHIP - Motorola Inc. has introduced the first 
versions of its new PowerPC chip, the MPC601, which is being touted as a 
major challenge to Intel Corp.'s new Pentium processor.
 
   Reports are that Motorola, which is developing the PowerPC with IBM 
and Apple Computer Inc., will ship two versions of the 601 with speeds 
of 50MHz and 66MHz.
 
   Sources say the slower chip will sell for $280 each when sold in lots 
of 20,000, while the faster chip is priced at $374 each.
 
   Intel has not yet disclosed the price for its Pentium, which it began 
shipping last month, but analysts have projected that the microprocessor 
will carry a price tag of about $1,000 each. Both chips are roughly equ-
ivalent in terms of performance and are twice as fast as Intel's top-end 
486i chip.
 
   Motorola says the 601 chip has 2.8 million transistors, or about 10% 
fewer than the Pentium, in a space of about 11 millimeters by 11 
millimeters per side. It said high-volume production will begin in the 
third quarter.
 
 
   ACER SIGNS WALMART DEAL - Acer America Corp. has signed an agreement 
under which the 1,400 WalMart Stores across the country will carry Acer 
ACROS PC desktops. Acer said WalMart began searching last year for a new 
PC line to complement its 1993 PC desktop offerings from IBM and Packard 
Bell.
 
   WalMart will carry the ACROS 486SX/25 Models 4125 and 4130 and the 
ACROS 486DX/33 Model 4335.
 
 
   APPLE SEES EARNINGS, REVENUES GROWTH - Apple Computer Inc. Chief Fin-
ancial Officer Joseph Graziano believes the company should post earnings 
and revenue growth in the second half of the year due to strong demand.
 
   According to Graziano, revenue will accelerate from the 15% growth 
recorded in the 1993 fiscal second quarter ended in March. Earnings will 
also increase, he said, but did not give a specific estimate.
 
   Graziano also said sales will be helped by the introduction of a 
range of new products.
 
 
   ROHM, RAMTRON TO DEVELOP FRAMS - Rohm Co Ltd. and Ramtron Interna-
tional Corp. have announced they will jointly manufacture and develop 
ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) chips.
 
   Reports are that under the agreement, Rohm will supply complementary 
metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafers to Ramtron. Rohm will also build 
a production line to produce Ramtron-designed FRAMs.

   A Rohm spokesman said that FRAMs have the potential to replace all 
existing memory chips in the future.
 
 
   MICROSOFT SETTLES PIRACY LAWSUITS - Microsoft Corp. has reached a 
settlement in its software piracy lawsuit against former Microsoft OEM 
licensee Z-Nix Co. Inc.  Microsoft has also settled lawsuits with Z-Nix 
President Jimmy Chen and three Z-Nix distributors.
 
   The lawsuits were originally filed by Microsoft in June 1992 against 
Z-Nix for copyright and trademark infringement and breach of contract. 
It followed a two-month investigation, during which Microsoft alleged 
that it uncovered Z-Nix's massive illegal distribution of the Microsoft 
Windows operating system version 3.1.
 
 
   INTEL KEEPS HEAT ON AMD - Keeping the heat on its competitor, chip-
maker Intel Corp. has filed a new suit against Advanced Micro Devices 
Inc. claiming AMD had infringed on Intel's copyright for the '486 
microprocessor.

   The semiconductor giant also is asking U.S. District Judge William 
Ingram to reconsider his April 15 decision throwing out a jury verdict 
against AMD in a related Intel lawsuit. That ruling allowed AMD to begin 
shipping its clone of Intel's '486 microprocessor last week.

 
     ___________________________________________________________________



RUSSIA TO CERTIFY IMPORTED HARDWARE

MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- Speaking at the Comtek '93 show in Moscow, the head of
the Main Directorate of the State Standard Committee (Gosstandard) of
Russia, Vyacheslav Gubenko, described the new plan authorities have to
certify electronic and electrical devices which are sold in Russia.

These changes have come about mainly due to the Law on Protection of the
Customer's Rights, which went into effect this year. All electrical and
electronic equipment is divided now into 22 categories which were set by
Gosstandard together with the Customs Committee.

According to new rules, all devices which involve electromagnetic
radiation, emissions, or can be otherwise hazardous, must be certified or
they will not pass customs control. This measure applies to the equipment
which is imported in all contracts signed after January 1, 1993. For all
contracts signed before this date, new restrictions will take an effect
July 1, 1993.

The certifying procedure costs about US$50-70, said Gubenko.  Strangely
enough, medical appliances are not be included on the list of equipment
which must be certified. Also all computers that feature technical
characteristics above typical (that is, more powerful than 80386-based PCs)
do not fall under the certification requirements and may be imported
freely.

Gosstandard understands that there is a lot of confusion and disorder with
the certificates right now but it hopes to straighten things out by the end
of the year. According to Gubenko, in 1994 the certification will be total
and comprehensive.

PC'S FOR JAPANESE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

TOKYO, JAPAN -- The Japanese Ministry of Education, in an effort to beef up
not only computer education but the country's economy, is planning to
install more personal computers at public schools including elementary
schools and high schools.

According to a recent Ministry report, a five-year installment plan will
speed up to involve the installation of all the computers next year. The
original plan also called for the installation of only 3 new PCs at each
elementary school, 22 units at each junior high school, and 23 units at
each senior high school. However, the latest revision calls for 22 units
per elementary school, and 42 units at junior and senior high schools
respectively.

These figures are encouraging personal computer makers. According to a
computer industry source, an additional 335,000 units will be needed for
public schools due to the new Ministry plan. This translates to an
expenditure of 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion). Japan also has stated that
its public schools are behind in personal computer education compared with
schools in the US and Europe.

Under the revised plan, Japanese personal computer makers as well as
foreign personal computer makers can received contracts to supply the
computers to schools. Many schools use NEC's PC-9801, but Fujitsu's
FM-Towns, and Apple's Macintosh are also becoming popular.


HARDWARE VENDORS SUPPORT CLINTON'S ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA -- A number of major hardware vendors have shown support
for the Clinton Administration's endorsement of the federal government
buying energy-efficient computers. Among the vendors supporting the policy
are AST Research, Intel, and Apple Computer.

In his endorsement of computers that use less electricity, Clinton said
that all federal government agencies will purchase only Energy Star
products in the future, providing they are commercially available and meet
the agency's performance requirements.

AST Research is the latest to announce support for President Clinton's
Earth Day recognition of energy-efficient computing and the Environmental
Protection Agency's Energy Star program.

The company has also announced its intention to introduce an Energy Star-
ompliant PC this year that exceeds Energy Star guidelines that stipulate
30-watt maximum electricity usage each for the system and monitor.

In announcing the company's support, Safi Qureshey, AST president and chief
executive officer, said: "We are pleased the President has given the thumbs
up for federal government procurement of Energy Star-compliant PCs. The
development of energy efficient PCs is the next logical step for government
agencies, as well as corporate America, to take in protecting the
environment, while benefitting the bottom line."

According to the EPA, computer systems currently account for five percent
of commercial electricity use in the United States, with potential growth
to 10 percent by the year 2000.

Intel has also announced support for President Clinton's actions to require
the federal government to purchase energy-efficient computers. Said Andrew
S. Grove, Intel president and chief executive officer, "The President and
the EPA deserve a lot of credit for such an enlightened use of the federal
government's purchasing power. Nudging the computer industry in this
direction will pay off in both lower energy consumption and a better
environment. All of Intel's new microprocessors, including the recently
introduced Pentium processor, will have energy-saving circuitry that will
enable computer makers to meet EPA Energy Star standards."

Apple has also announced plans to market a wide range of energy-efficient
personal computers and printers. Fred Forsyth, senior vice president and
general manager, Macintosh Systems Division, said:  "We plan to make energy
efficiency a feature of all Apple computers and peripherals. Reducing power
consumption is good for our customers and the environment."

Apple claims that the Apple Macintosh Color Classic, introduced February
1993, is the industry's first available desktop computer system to
automatically reduce power consumption to less than 25 watts when it is
inactive. This power-down feature could cut in half the electricity used by
the system.

In June, the EPA is expected to release the Energy Star symbol for display
on products that meet the program's technical criteria.


CANADIAN TELECOM ACT AMENDMENTS REMOVE LICENSING

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA -- The Canadian government has introduced
amendments to its proposed new telecommunications act that would remove a
licensing requirement. Established Canadian carriers were unhappy with the
licensing plan, which was intended to help enforce Canadian ownership
requirements.

In place of the licensing provisions, which would have required all
communications carriers covered by the act (not including long-distance
resellers) to get licenses, the amendments give the Canadian Radio-
elevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the power to enforce
Canadian-ownership rules.

The proposed new law would restrict foreign ownership of carriers to 20
percent, although existing carriers that are more than 20 percent foreign-
wned could remain so.

In the proposed amendments, the licensing provisions are replaced with a
number of new clauses giving the CRTC power to regulate ownership and
related matters.

The amendments also fine-tune a provision called forbearance, that allows
the CRTC to decide not to exercise its regulatory powers if it decides that
a hands-off policy will best serve the aims of telecommunications policy.
The revised forbearance provisions place more emphasis on competition, and
require the regulatory body to forbear regulation where it finds there is
full competition in a particular area.

The act, first tabled in February, 1992, was to receive second reading in
the House of Commons this week. If passed, it will replace the antiquated
Railway Act, which has been the basis of federal telecommunications
regulation in Canada since 1881.

A key effect of the new act -one not affected by the amendments - is to
assert the federal government's authority over telecommunications across
Canada. In the past, telephone companies in many provinces have been
regulated by provincial governments.


CFC'S, SAYS STORAGETEK

LOUISVILLE, COLORADO --  Storage Technology, manufacturer and marketer of
information storage and retrieval tape sub-systems, says it has
eliminated the use of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other class 1
ozone-depleting substances from all its manufacturing and systems
development activities worldwide.

The company has manufacturing facilities in Louisville and Longmont,
Colorado, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Great Britain.

Storagetek Chairman Ryal Poppa told reporters the company announced its
intention to eliminate CFCs in 1989, saying then its goal was to be
CFC-free by the end of 1993. "This was an ambitious goal and we exceeded it
by eight months," said Poppa.

The company estimates it has spent about $5.5 million during the life of
the program, including $1.9 million last year. CFCs have been used by
nearly all electronics device manufacturers to clean circuit boards. With
the concern over the depletion of the ozone layer, which protects earth
from the bombardment of ultraviolet rays from space, the industry has been
moving towards CFC-free operations for some time, substituting water-based
cleaners and other non-ozone depleting processes.

The computer controlled aqueous cleaning machine now employed by Storagetek
is constructed of stainless steel, is 24 feet long, and weighs 4,500 pounds.
Its conveyer belt, which moves at a speed of five feet per minute, runs two
shifts per day and can handle 160 circuit boards per hour, the company
said.

Tom Gooch, Storagetek executive vice president for operations, said the
company was cited in 1988 for emitting 345,000 pounds of CFCs and was
listed as being the 21st largest emitter of CFC 113 in the United States.
"Now we are free of all types of CFCs in our manufacturing - not just in
Colorado, but worldwide."

The company said it has also converted 17 centrifugal chillers to
alternative refrigerants at a cost of another $1.3 million. The chillers,
which range from 300 to 600-ton capacities, provide air conditioning and
process cooling for seven buildings.

Storagetek is also actively participating in other waste reduction and
recycling efforts, and says it recycled more than 250 tons of corrugated
cardboard, over 71 tons of white paper, and nearly two tons of aluminum
soft-drink cans. For its efforts, Storagetek received the Clean Air
Colorado Partner of the Year award in 1992.


VOICE ACTIVATED PC DEBUTS IN UK

EAST GRINSTEAD, SUSSEX, ENGLAND -- Imagine being able to control a PC,
dictating copy into the machine at 30 words a minute. Enter the Shakespeare
Speechwriter, a fully voice-activated PC system that supports dictation
speeds of 30 words a minute - equal, the company claims, to the speed of a
proficient typist.

Shakespeare Speechwriter UK claims that real speech-controlled PCs have not
been feasible until now, owing to inadequate processing speeds, restricted
vocabularies and an inability to understand individual speech patterns.

The system must be taught the idiosyncrasies of an individual's voice, a
process that the company admits takes a couple of hours. As it used, it
adapts itself to the user's voice and can actually be speeded up. The basic
dictionary of the system is 80,000 words long, although extra words are
added as the software learns the user's voice.

In use, as words are spoken, they are identified in the dictionary and
converted to digital text which is then shown on the screen. Ambiguous
words - such as there, they're and their - are flagged as options, with the
most frequently-used items being the one initially chosen by the system. A
simple spoken command makes the selection from the options available

Malcolm McPherson, managing director of Shakespeare Speechwriter UK, said
that two breakthroughs have made the voice-activated system, which is the
result of five years' work, possible.

"PCs based on Intel's 486 processor now have the power to convert speech
into text at speed, while the specially-developed Organizer within the
package provides a quick way to resolve any errors and ambiguities," he
said.

The complete Shakespeare Speechwriter system, which is based around a
Compaq Prolinea 4/50, costs UKP4,995. This price includes all tutorials
and a mike, the company claims.


INTEL TO SHIP 35 NEW VERSIONS OF 486

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- Intel plans to ship a number of new versions
of the best-selling 486 processor in 1993.

Nancy Pressel, spokesperson for the company said, "We'll have about 35
new versions of the 486 microprocessor this year. That can vary anywhere
from 486es with new features, new packages, new speeds, or new voltages."

The new products will be tailored for specific markets.  Said Pressel,
"They will be tailored for both the desktop and the mobile market." They
will also include a number of power-saving features, geared specifically
for portable computing.

The company's new Pentium processor will increase in shipment volumes as
the year progresses. Said Pressel, "We will ship about 10,000 Pentium
processors this quarter, which is pretty low volume for us. This year we'll
ship hundreds of thousands of Pentium processors. Next year we'll pass the
million mark."


 The preceding stories are (c) 1993 NewsBytes.  Reprinted with permission.


     ___________________________________________________________________


INTERNET CONFERENCE ON DELPHI


There will be an internet conference on Delphi next week, on Thursday,
May 13th at 10 pm Eastern Time.

The conference is being hosted by Robert Niles (RNILES), and the guest
speaker will be Walt Howe, Delphi's Internet Guru.  He'll be able to
answer non-Amiga-specific Internet questions.

Topics will include basic internet access, how to use File Transfer
Protocol (FTP), how to deal with the strange compression utilities
used on the Internet (.Z and .TAR files for example).

So come on in next Thursday evening and join in on the fun, learn
something, or share your knowledge with others!


     ___________________________________________________________________



ARMYMINER V1.1 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


  Description:

    ArmyMiner is a logic board game where some of the squares
do contain bombs. When clicked, the bomb-free squares display
the number of bombs in their neighbourhood. The objective of
the game is for the user to mark all the squares having bombs
in a minimum of time. The game requires good concentration
and offers a very interesting mental challenge.

    There are many instances of that game on different
platforms (Minesweeper on IBM-compatible, XMines on XWindows,
etc). ArmyMiner v1.1 integrates all of the good aspects I've
seen on all the versions of that game available on 
personal computers. Its options include:

  - Automatically mark or clean the neighbours of a square
  - Safe start (no explosion at first click)
  - Safe click (gadget-like behavior for squares)
  - Question marks (for configuration analysis)

  You can also specify your own custom board settings.
The game has a very useful pause option, sound effects,
high-score tables and a very nice interface. It works
on either OS v1.3 or 2.0, under NTSC or PAL.

  ArmyMiner v1.1 is freeware, binary only. You are free
to use it as long as you leave my copyright notice intact.
You can distribute that program as long as you don't ask any
more money for it than a nominal fee for copying, and if you
keep the "ArmyMiner.doc" file with it. If you want to include
this program in a commercial package, you need my written
permission.

  "Copyright 1993 Alain Laferriere, All rights reserved"

  About release 1.1:

    This is ArmyMiner v1.1 which works on all Amigas. The
ArmyMiner v1.0 crashed on the Amiga 4000 because the
executable was compressed with "TNM CRUNCHER 1.1" which
does not work on that machine. So, I recompressed the file
with PowerPacker which is said to work perfectly on all
Amigas.

  ArmyMiner v1.1 is currently available on the following
FTP sites:

  Switz.  amiga.physik.unizh.ch (130.60.80.80)  pub/aminet/game/think
  Scand.  ftp.luth.se           (130.240.18.3)  pub/aminet/game/think
  USA     ftp.etsu.edu          (192.43.199.20) pub/aminet/game/think
  USA     oes.orst.edu          (128.193.124.2) pub/aminet/game/think

  The files you have to download are:

  - ArmyMiner_1.1.lzh
  - ArmyMiner_1.1.readme

  Have fun! 


     ___________________________________________________________________



AMIGA F2C AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

f2c an automatic Fortran->C source code converter.

VERSION

f2c release date: 22 July 1992.

COMPANY

Amiga port by Eric G. Stern (egstern@fnpx19.fnal.gov) from the
original freely distributable sources available on netlib.

AUTHORS

S.I. Feldman, David M. Gay, Mark W. Maimone, N.L. Schryer

Amiga port by Eric G. Stern (egstern@fnpx19.fnal.gov)

DESCRIPTION

F2c is a program that translates Fortran 77 into C or C++.  F2c lets
one portably mix C and Fortran and makes a large body of well-tested
Fortran source code available to C environments.

This is a port for the SAS/C 6.2 environment.  The f2c executable
supplied will run on any sufficiently large Amiga, but the support
libraries were assembled for the SAS/C 6.2 librarian and linker.

NEW FEATURES

This release has no new features from the original documented f2c.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

The f2c executable and libraries are large.  A hard disk would
probably be necessary for reasonable use.  Also, the resulting code
generated after conversion and linking is quite large.  Probably 2 or
more megabytes of RAM are needed.  The I/O support library uses some
AmigaDOS 2.0 routines.

HOST NAME

amiga.physik.unizh.ch and other aminet sites

DIRECTORY

/pub/aminet/dev/misc

FILE NAMES

f2c.lha

PRICE

This software is free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

The software is freely distributable provided all copyright notices in
the source code and documentation remain intact with their warranty
disclaimers.


     ___________________________________________________________________



ITALIAN PROGRAMMER'S CONFERENCE



                                   IPISA '93

           Incontro dei Programmatori Italiani per lo Sviluppo Amiga
                                 Third Edition

                                Call for Papers

                           Saturday, November 6 1993
                                 Milano, Italy

  IPISA is an annual meeting autonomously organized by a group of people
interested in computer science, programming, and applications of the Amiga line
of computers.

  The meeting is dedicated to the presentation and diffusion of projects,
experiences and non-commercial products developed using Amigas.
As in the previous events, it will be possible to discuss research programs or
job contacts with people otherwise difficult to reach.

  The meeting, one day in length, is laid out as a series of short, twenty
minute, and long, forty-five minute, talks. During these talks the Italian
language must be used to communicate.  The proceedings consists of paper
documentation and software on magnetic support.  The paper documentation will be
edited by the editorial board of the electronic magazine AUGS Newsletter.

  The organizers invite proposals in the form of a 300-word abstract,
which must be received by June 5, 1993. The submission of papers to be
published in the proceedings independently of their public exposition is
encouraged (if necessary, the space presumably occupied on the magnetic support
has to be specified). The papers can be submitted in English or Italian.

  In case the author desires to personally exhibit his or her work, it is
necessary to specify the estimated duration of the talk. The authors will
receive confirmation of their participation by June 15, 1993, and will have to
send the complete papers for proceedings inclusion by September 15, 1993.

  Subscription costs will cover all expenses, and will be, all being well, less
than 20,000 italian lire.

  Organizing committee: Roberto Attias, Vittorio Calzolari, Fabrizio Lodi,
Sergio Ruocco (chair), Carlo Santagostino, Paolo Silvera, Reinhard Spisser,
Carlo Todeschini, Sebastiano Vigna, Marco Zandonadi.

e_mail: ruocco@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it
        attias@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it

IPISA '93
c/o Fabrizio Lodi
Via Faruffini 43
I-20149 Milano MI


     ___________________________________________________________________



KINGFISHER V1.30 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


  KingFisher 1.30  is now available via  anonymous ftp.  This major upgrade
  adds  extensive AmigaGuide  support,   an ARexx  port,  enhancements  for
  unattended server operation for   BBS systems, greatly enhanced  keyboard
  control, especially  under  KS 2.0+,  ability to invoke external commands
  using the function keys, ability to partially or completely configure the
  program through tooltypes,  numerous KS 2.0+ improvements (gadget colors,
  tab cycling, help), minor enhancements  and fixes all known (and  unknown
  ;-) bugs.

  General overview of KingFisher:

  KingFisher is a freely distributable replacement  for Aquarium, providing
  a mechanism  to  search for software  in  Fred Fish's Library  of  Freely
  Distributable Software.  KingFisher  has been designed  for users of both
  floppy-only and harddisks systems operating under either Kickstart 1.3 or
  Kickstart 2.0.  Some features are available only under Kickstart 2.0.

  KingFisher v1.30 offers the following features:

  - Maintains a split database across multiple disk volumes,
  - Searches this database more than 3 times faster than Aquarium,
  - Multi-string searches with AND, OR, and NOT operators (boolean search
    expressions) including case selection and V37+ regular expressions,
  - Will highlight search keywords in descriptions,
  - Provides a small and very fast program name search index,
  - ARexx port with 13 commands (40+ variations),
  - Native AmigaGuide support with Gadget-help, Menu-help, etc.
  - Adds new fish directly from Contents files or Usenet postings, even
    from multiple concatenated postings or email contents files,
  - Fish can be deleted from the end of the database to undo errors,
  - Database is a line-oriented text file accessed through index which can
    be modified by hand and then reindexed,
  - Flexible print and export functions, including search-filtered output,
  - Select from multiple different search strings,
  - Limit searches to a portion of the database,
  - Follow version links to older or newer versions of software,
  - Maintain multiple different "bookmarks" into the database and switch
    between them with a single mouse click,
  - Supports proportional and scalable fonts for description text,
  - Now supports the 2.0 display database including Text Overscan.  Limited
    support for overscan, PAL, and interlace displays is available under
    Kickstart 1.3.
  - String gadgets are optionally kept active for keyboard comfort,
  - Full configuration saved between executions,
  - Iconifies to save Chip RAM (46K).

This update  consists of  one  mandatory archive  (KingFisher130.lha, sized
173589 bytes) and the optional database (KFData850.lha, sized 490953 bytes)
which is distributed more as a convenience feature for those of you who are
installing KingFisher for the first time and do not wish to  start with the
older database in other distributions.

KingFisher130.lha and KFData850.lha can be found at the following ftp sites:

wuarchive.wustl.edu     128.252.135.4      /systems/amiga/incoming/fish
grind.isca.uiowa.edu    128.255.19.233     /amiga/Read.These         (*)
ftp.cso.uiuc.edu        128.174.5.59       /pub/amiga/KingFisher     (*)

(*) May take a little time to show up there.


     ___________________________________________________________________



MULTIPRINT V1.9 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

     MultiPrint

VERSION

     1.9 28-April-1993

     This is an update to version 1.7 released on the
     19th of April 1993.

AUTHOR

     John Matthews
     4 Wadham Grove,
     Tawa, 6203
     Wellington
     New Zealand
     
     Phone 64 4 232-7805
     Fax (by arrangement)

     email:
      Internet : tribble@gphs.vuw.ac.nz
         ( Irregular Monitoring )

DESCRIPTION

     MultiPrint is a program initially designed to print
     document files, and other text files, to as few sheets
     of paper as possible. It has since had other features
     such as bold/italic/font support, Compugraphic support,
     paragraph reformating and full justification added
     for improved flexability and readability.
     
     MultiPrint prints text files to multiple columns, on
     both sides of the sheet automatically, with no need
     to shuffle the pages.
     
     Pages are printed with a footer, with margins, page
     numbers, and with a gutter to allow easy stapling,
     or hole punching.

NEW FEATURES

     Version 1.8 fixes a few bugs that crept into the last
     released version, and adds a few significant features.

    Bugs fixed :
      1. Persistant bug with centering in non-reformatting mode fixed.
      2. Fixed bug with inter-process communication, which caused the
         program to jam sometimes when aborted.
      3. Aborting print fixed when a command-line option is misspelt,
         resulting in a non-existant file message.
      Maybe more. It's easier to debug with the preview option present.
      Uses less paper when printing to the screen.
    Changes :
      1. Slight redefinition of command format. If you want to place
         formatting commands, in particular Justification and Centering,
         on their own line (they must start the line anyway or they
         will be ignored) without leaving a blank line, leave
         off the closing brace. Alternately, remember to leave the
         closing brace it there is supposed to be a blank line.
      2. Improved preview function, to allow it to run on existing
         (public) screens, especially Workbench.
      3. Improved preview to allow for large 'virtual' screens, in
         one direction (usually height) with autoscroll.
      4. Added spoolling to disk, for those really large files, and
         background printing, where memory is required for other
         things.

    Version 1.9 fixes a few more bugs/misfeatures

    Bugs fixed :
      1. Changed Footer options from xxxFootxxx back to xxxFooterxxx.
         My compiler has trouble with long string constants, so now
         some things are linked in as objects, and the template can
         be as long as necessary.
      2. End-of-paragraph at end-of-page code was commented out during
         testing
      3. LargeScreen option should now (correctly) only give you
         scrolling in one dimension in all displays.
      4. Default Footers now give the name of the first file on a page,
         rather than the last.
    Changes
      1. Made balancing the columns on last pages an option.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     MultiPrint requires 2.04 or higher.
     
     MultiPrint works best with page oriented printers, such
     as lasers and HP deskjets. A fast printer helps.

     MultiPrint provides better output with the use of
     Scalable fonts, and better italics/bold if you have a
     complete family (or more) of Scalable fonts.


HOST NAME

     This version can be found as MultiPrint18.lha on
     amiga.physik.unizh.ch (130.60.80.80), where I uploaded
     it in the new directory.
     
     You could also try wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4).
     
     In New Zealand, you can try kauri.vuw.ac.nz.


DIRECTORY

     Should end up in /pub/aminet/text/print, where the last
     version was put.

FILE NAMES

     MultiPrint19.lha, MultiPrint19.readme

PRICE

     MultiPrint is shareware, basically. If you find the
     program useful, or need anything added, and want to
     encourage me, a donation is welcome, but not
     essential.
     
     I would like to make enough money from MultiPrint to
     replace the Ink Cartridge I used most of in testing
     MultiPrint.
     
     Suggestion, US$20 or equivalent, NZ$ if you can get them.
     Any amount is fine though.
     
     Hey, here's ambition ... maybe I could make enough
     to buy a laser printer! :-)


DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Shareware. Distribute to whoever, but if you plan
     to include it in a magazine's cover disk, or anything
     like that - let me know first.
     
     No matter what, leave the documentation intact.


     ___________________________________________________________________



PAGINATE V1.00 AVAILABLE ON AMINET, GENIE, AND FILEWORKS

TITLE

    PAGINATE

VERSION

    V1.00

AUTHOR

    Fergus Duniho

    Internet: fdnh@troi.cc.rochester.edu
    GEnie   : F.DUNIHO

DESCRIPTION

    This program can do both pagination and line numbering on files.

    PAGINATION

        The pagination involves breaking a text file up into pages of equal
        length, and optionally marking each page with a header,  a  footer,
        or both. The headers and footers may contain  the  page  number  in
        various formats, including both upper and lowercase roman numerals,
        as well as the time and date in  various  formats.  They  may  also
        include any other text you want to put in them.

        You may choose different headers  and  footers  for  odd  and  even
        pages, as well as for the first page. You may also choose  to  have
        no header or footer on the first page, on odd  pages,  or  on  even
        pages. And you may choose to have the same footer or header on  all
        pages.

        You may also choose to make the first page a title  page.  A  title
        page has no headers and footers on it. Also,  "Paginate"  does  not
        begin page numbering with a title page. And as far as  the  headers
        and footers for the first page are concerned, "Paginate"  does  not
        regard the title page as the first page. It  considers  it  as  the
        page prior to the first page.

    LINE NUMBERING

        The line numbering consists of printing  a  string  with  the  line
        number in it at the beginning of each  line.  You  may  choose  the
        format of the line number, and you may put other text in  the  line
        number string. The default is to do no line numbering.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    None

WHERE TO FIND PAGINATE ON AMINET

    SITES

        amiga.physik.unizh.ch and its mirrors.

    DIRECTORY

        text/misc

WHERE TO FIND PAGINATE ON GENIE

    Amiga StarShip, Library #4, File #19202

WHERE TO FIND PAGINATE ON FILEWORKS

    FileWorks is the Amiga BBS in the Rochester, NY area that I use most
    often.

    Line #1: (716) 377-0719 12-14.4K v.32bis HST DS Line
    Line #2: (716) 377-3695 12-2400          Supra  Line

    FidoNet 1:2613/278

    FileWorks BBS
    PO Box 842
    Fairport, NY 14450

    Paginate is in the "Printer & Print Utilities" Area in the Files
    Library.

ARCHIVE NAME

    paginate.lha


     ___________________________________________________________________



PC-TASK V2.00 DEMO AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

     PC-TaskDemo

VERSION

     2.00

AUTHOR

     Chris Hames
     bytey@werple.apana.org.au

DESCRIPTION

     PC-Task is software IBM-PC emulator, it uses your Amiga hardware so
     the faster you make you Amiga the faster emulation gets.  You can
     get your Amiga running a screen as an IBM-PC with just a few clicks
     of the mouse button.  The only thing not supplied is MSDOS.

     Features:-

          MDA and CGA graphic adapter emulation.
          Up to two floppy drives emulated.
          Two emulated hard drives either File or Partition types.
          Serial and parallel port emulation.
          Mouse emulation.

     New Features!!:-

          EGA and VGA graphic adapter emulation.
          Some CDROM support.
          Better mouse emulation.
          Better CGA emulation.
          Better Hard Disk Partition Support.
          Some speed ups in MDA and CGA emulation.
          Support for serial and parallel ports besides the defaults.
          Many other little improvements.

COST

     PC-Task costs $40AUD or $35USD, see the README file for more info.

     Current registered users who are down for an update should all receive
     the new version by the end of May.   The update is $10AUD or $10USD
     for other registered users.

HOST NAME

     PC-Task should available on Aminet sites and wuarchive.wustl.edu.
     GEnie:  Amiga Roundtable, file #19122.

PATH

     Aminet: pub/aminet/misc/emu/PCTaskDemo200.lzh
     wuarchive: systems/amiga/incoming/PCTaskDemo200.lzh

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     This demo version is Freely redistributable.


     ___________________________________________________________________


 
VIDEO BACKUP SYSTEM FOR AMIGA


      The Video Backup System AMIGA is an inexpensive and reliable
      hardware-interface/backup-software combination, which
      enables you to connect any video recorder to the Amiga and
      use it as a backup storage device.  As many as 200 Amiga
      floppy disks will fit on a 4-hour tape.  When used for hard
      disk backup, a 4-hour tape can hold 175MB of data.

      Key features of the Video Backup System AMIGA:

           - Ability to backup a complete Amiga diskette in 1
             minute.  Restore in the same time, even to an 
             unformatted disk.

           - Hard disk backup:  The software allows you to specify
             which files and directories are to be stored.  Full
             or partial restore to any path.  Verify function.
             Performance about 800 Kbyte per minute.

           - Recommended media:  High-Grade video tapes, about $6.
             Low cost storage $.03 per megabyte!

           - The software has an intuitive, menu-driven graphical
             user interface.  Hard disk backup looks and feels 
             similar to other backup programs.

           - Control Monitor connection which allows you to switch
             1084 display between amiga signal and VCR signal.
             (Will also allow the user to view any VCR output on
             the 1084.)

           - Very high reliability with High-Grade tape.  Effective 
             error-correction scheme ensures that a Video Backup 
             is even more reliable than the usual backup on
             floppy disks.

           - Log files:  The VBS software automatically maintains
             file log files, which contain title and counter
             position on every backup.

           - Video Connection Check:  VBS checks whether the
             hardware is hooked up correctly.  This ensures fool-
             proof operation.

           - Easy-to-understand manual.

      This product is the ideal backup system for both floppy and
      hard disk users.  Floppy users can store large games and
      public domain collections on one tape, and hard disk users
      can make their archival backups with it.  At a cost of only
      $99.95, no Amiga owner can afford to be without one!

      The Video Backup System for the Amiga was developed by:
      Lyppens Software Productions



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> ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online           People...  Are Talking!
  =================================



From FidoNet's Amiga_Video conference:
-------------------------------------


Area: AMIGA_VIDEO                      (MAIL:Fido/Amiga_Video/)
From: Rich Koster                      To: All                           
Subj: Commodore's Keynote Speech                                            
Date: 03 May 93  22:34:24


Berend Ozceri (bo24+@andrew.cmu.edu) posted some interesting information
from the World of Commodore show in N.Y. held last month.  His writings
contain some information not seen here yet.  I quote in this message and
the ones that follow from his post on Usenet's comp.sys.amiga.announce:

KEYNOTE BY GEOFF STILLEY, VP SALES, COMMODORE

This keynote speech was on the last day of the show. I wasn't really
looking forward to attending it, expecting a boring speech. I was not too
wrong. Even though there were a couple of interesting points, the overall
speech was boring.

The first thing Mr. Stilley did after greeting his audience was to go
through a list of the new products shipped in 1992, which were the
A3000/040, A600, A1200, and the A4000/040. Then he described the way they
prioritized their market focus:

   1) Video: He explained that the Amiga is the "de facto" standard in
      computer video and that their efforts would be to push the Amiga
      usage to higher levels in this area.

   2) Training: Mr. Stilley explained that Amigas are widely used in
      training situations and that President Clinton's training/re-training
      policies would create a good market for the Amiga.

   3) Presentation Development: He mentioned that powerful software like
      Amiga Vision and Scala MM200 enable a lot of people to create
      effective and creative presentation on their Amigas.

   4) Kiosk Developers: He explained that Amiga was gaining more and more
      ground every day in the market of kiosks. He said that Commodore had
      orders of about 20 to 30 thousand machines for kiosk use.

   5) The User Base: He said that Commodore wanted to give the users what
      they wanted and support developers.

Then he proceeded by talking about Commodore's advertisement strategies.
He explained that their idea was to advertise the Amiga with ads that
"Jump off the page," decorated with quotes like "Hey! Go look at IBM, go
look at Mac, then come back and look at the Amiga!" or "Nothing can sell
you an Amiga better than a couple of minutes with a Mac or an IBM."

He explained that the company hired for Commodore's advertisement
campaigns was Ketchum Advertisement of Pennsylvania. He said that Ketchum
is a very respected advertisement company with customers like Pizza Hut,
Westinghouse, DuPont, and many more. It is the 18th largest advertisement
company in the world. Ketchum supplies Commodore with full-services
including advertisements and promotions, yellow pages, and sales promos.

Mr. Stilley then talked about Commodore's 1993 campaign. He said that the
1993 campaign would be more focused and would provide higher impact. He
explained that they would use "Amiga people" in their advertisements,
meaning they would advertise with the experiences of current Amiga users.
He showed a booklet called "Commodore Multimedia" that opened up to expose
four pages that included experiences of a physician, a software engineer, a
kiosk designer, and a videograph. The booklet talked about how these people
utilized their Amiga's for multimedia applications and presentations.

He further commented that the 1993 campaign would be aimed at getting the
Amiga into the computer buyer's consideration set, making the Amiga a safer
buy, and generating sales leads.

Mr. Stilley then talked about their dealer and user-group support
policies. He said that all the dealer's were (or would be) supplied with
A4000 demo systems, and would be given large volumes of advertisement
materials. He also mentioned that the dealers would be able to get info
from Commodore's user-database, which includes information about current
Amiga owners.

The user-group support would consist of (but not limited to) regular
mailings from Commodore, notices of promos, and loaner systems. Mr.
Stilley mentioned that user-groups in need of support should contact
Commodore. He said, "Call me, you will be supported."

Berend 0zceri
Carnegie Mellon University
Freshman, Electrical and Computer Engineering

--- April V0.994fRegBeta+
 * Origin: Rich's $#MandeVilla by the Sea$#, Mandeville, LA USA (1:390/15.6)




Area: AMIGA_VIDEO                      (MAIL:Fido/Amiga_Video/)
From: Zoltan Hunt                      To: All                           
Subj: Amiga Lobby Group #3                                                  
Date: 01 May 93  23:03:14


Amiga Lobby Bulletin #3, May 1, 1993

     First off some bad news: around the end of April someone
posted that CBM USA has layed-off its sales reps.  Another
posting by someone saying they used to work as a CBM multimedia
sales rep seems to indicate that this is true.  

     It is my opinion that this is linked to poor sales in CBM's
last quarter (before the introduction of the A1200 and before the
A4000 was readily available.)  Another related possibility is the
new joint advertising program between NewTek and CBM (announced
at this year's National Association of Broadcasters show along
with the Toaster4000).  Perhaps (I stress perhaps) CBM hopes that
NewTek will continue marketing the Toaster as successfully as it
has, therefore selling Amigas for CBM.  

     This last bit is part of this month's good news: NewTek and
CBM getting together and selling Amiga and Toasters.  To those
who (like myself) didn't care for the AmigaGuy cartoon featured
in Amiga ads, the latest news is his elimination.  Last month's
issue of Camcorder magazine gave the A1200 the most positive
review I have heard yet.  This month's issue of Computer Graphics
World reviewed OpralVision(positive) and mentioned Imagine,
Playmation, Alladin 4D & LightWave in their round up of low-
end/mid-range rendering packages.   

Since the last bulletin I've received some ideas for
products/companies to target, they are:

1)
A monitor designed specifically for the Amiga
IDEK liyama Europe B.V. 
Kruisweg 587, 
2131 NA Hoofddorp 
Holland, Europe 
Tel + 31 20 653-0797 
FAX + 31 20 653-0800 

2) 
Standard software drivers, optimized from WB2.x or WB3.x for the
pressure sensitive cordless pen Wacom drawing tablets.  Maybe a
ZORRO interface to transfer the data faster? 
Wacom Computer Systems GmbH 
Hellersbergstrasse 4 
W-4040 Neuss 1 
Germany - Europe 
 
TEL + 49 2131 16 60 01 
FAX + 49 2131 10 17 60 

3) 
Fractal Formatter: A fractal based compression system that allows
lossless compression and playback (compression does take awhile
in some cases.)  or a full review, look at last year's last
October's Printer Issue of PC Magazine.
Iterate Systems Inc. 
5550A Peachtree Parkway 
Norcross GA 30092
Telephone is (404) 840-0310, 
FAX is (404) 840-0806, 

4)
Amiga Photo-CD reader software
Eastman Kodak Company
343 State Street
Rochester NY 14650

5)
An upgrade to Animation Studio (AGA support etc.)
Walt Disney Computer Software Inc.
Attn: Customer Service - "Andy"
500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank
CA 91521-6385
Disney BBS (818)567-4027

     I'd like all members to write back with their top 3 choices
for the products we should try to get on the Amiga.  In about a
month and a half from now (May 1,1993) I'll poll the results and
draft a letter.  If anyone has a product not on the list, send it
in anyways and I'll include it on the next list (a few months
from now).

     To anyone who wrote me E-mail and hasn't received a reply,
I'm having some problems with E-mail (I receive fine but sending
is another problem).  Again I'd ask that anyone interested in
becoming a member send in their real-world address to me at the
address below:

Amiga Lobby Group
c/o Zoltan Hunt
R. R. #2, Beeton
Ontario, CANADA
LOG 1AO
     
     Lastly, It looks like Commodore marketing is looking for
suggestions.  If you have any ideas you can write to:

Mr. James Dionne 
Commodore Marketing 
Dept #480 
1200 Wilson Drive 
West Chester  PA  19380-4251 

Zoltan Hunt

--- Star-Net v1.02
 * Origin: Amiga Zone *HST* StarNet HQ, Canada 705-424-5198 (1:229/216.0)



Area: AMIGA_VIDEO                      (MAIL:Fido/Amiga_Video/)
From: Glenn Schworak                   To: All                           
Subj: Amiga is getting ignored                                              
Date: 27 Apr 93  22:13:00


I can't stand this any more. I just spent 30 minutes watching
one of my favorite TV shows....

The Next Step on the Descovery channel. They had this really
lame excuse for video on computers segment. They showed how
the MAC and IBM could do this really "amazing stuff" (NOT!)
and that there isn't a computer that can do broadcast quality
video yet. There won't be for at least 2 years.

I find this to be a slap in the face to all Amiga users. The
Amiga wasn't even mentioned. It was simply ignored. Just
because the other platforms are two years in the dust doesn't
mean that we should be ignored. Am I wrong, is this system
here in front of me just a toy that can't do better than the
others?

Answer... NO, It is far better than the others in the field
          of video.


Personaly, I am going to write to the Descovery channel and
complain about this. As a matter of fact, just a week ago, I
saw Invension (also on Descovery just before The Next Step)
do a great segment on the Toaster. They didn't mention the
Toaster 4000, but it was filmed well before the anouncement of
it so that is ok. But I think they should have at leasted made
a quick comment on the Amiga. I know that the traid show they
were filming in had to have at least one Amiga somewhere in there.


Keep your eyes on this message base. I will be posting the
name and address to write your comments to at the Descovery
channel....


  Glenn's World     | |_| |_| |/            Amiga, Falcon, and Custom Stuff
  Salem, Oregon     |   |.  | |\ SupraFAX            (503) 581-6524

 * Q-Blue v0.7 *
--- Maximus/2 2.01wb
 * Origin: The Gamorian Vortex Project (1:105/601)



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> Safe Hex International News
  ===========================

FROM MICHAEL ARENDS @ SHI Regional center WEST


                     ABOUT THE "SADDAM HUSSEIN" VIRUS:
                     --------------------------------

Please  be  very careful , if you are working with the new "Saddam Hussein"
file/link  virus.  Note  that  there  is  a  boot virus with the same name,
don't  be  confused . 

Here you have some facts about this virus:

1) The  virus is a "multi-headed" file- and link virus.  Always infected
in L/Dir, if there is not an L/Dir on the disk,it will make one by itself.

2) The Saddam file virus part is always found in the L/disk-validator,with
the same file length (1848) 

3) The  Saddam  link  virus  part,  is a VERY, VERY... easy spreading virus,
it will link to all files , e.g. to all executed, written or copied files,
BUT it does not change the file length, it only writes "IRAK" in the start
of the files. Please Note, that all theses infected files will cause Read/
Write" errors! The original "Saddam" infects  hard disks too.
 
4) It is IMPOSSILE to delete the virus or the link infected files with a
file editor like "Diskmaster", or from CLI.

5) Attention: the "Saddam Hussein" virus doesnt infect a disk,IF copyed
from another disk, AND IF your disk is error free!


Please  note: that VirusZ and VT are the ULTIMATE "Saddam" killers, but ONLY
use "Check files" to FIND the "Saddam" virus, you must then use the  "Repair
disk" or like to salv the Irak infected files. These killers will find the 
"Saddam" virus and make it passive and repair the infected files  very  near
100 %,of the time  but  can't remove the virus itself, you have to re-install
the original Disk-vaildator yourself.

If you  have virus infected disks, I recommmend to try to use several diff-
erent killers, in some cases the killer may just break-down by meeting the
virus. If you try to repair your disks, or don't find the virus you have
got, a word to the wise: ALWAYS use a backup of your disk, when you have to
repair your virus  problems, and especially... with the "Saddam" virus or
other link or file viruses!


Many  people  have said , that they have found a "SPECIAL" virus  an 
"Australian Parasite" virus , which cannot be killed with VirusX 4.01, 
(the LAST official release...) Because  by a stroke of luck VirusX,
is accidentally able to find the "Saddam Hussein"  Disk-validator virus.
The problem here is, that the Australian Parasite  virus, is a virus you
will find in the boot block, and the nasty "Saddam" virus is to be found
in the L/Dir.

After  repair, always.......  use a program like Quarterback Tools or
Ami-back tools to check the disk to see if the disk structure is alright.



"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> Usenet Review:  Final Copy II Release 2
  =======================================
  By Alan Quirt
  (aquirt@bnr.ca)


PRODUCT NAME

        Final Copy II, Release 2 (Feb 25, 1993).
        USA version.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A mid-range graphical word processor with exceptionally high-quality
printing using proprietary outline fonts.  Release 2 adds landscape printing
and support for Postscript Type 1 Fonts and standard Amiga Compugraphic
fonts.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Softwood, Inc.
        Address:        PO Box 50178
                        Phoenix, AZ  85076
                        USA

        Telephone:      (800) 247-8330 (USA and Canada)
                        (602) 431-9151


LIST PRICE

        $159 (US).  By mailorder, approximately $90 plus shipping.
An upgrade from Release 1 is available for $20 plus $5 shipping.
        

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                2 floppies or Hard disk (strongly recommended).
                1 MB RAM (more if using many fonts in a document).
                Barely adequate speed with a basic 68000 processor.

        SOFTWARE

                Requires Kickstart 1.3 or newer.


COPY PROTECTION

        None.

        Installs easily on a hard drive using Commodore's Installer.  The
Installer for the Release 2 update is not set up to update an existing hard
disk installation.  It insists on creating a new drawer to hold the program;
so if your disk is as full as mine, you may have to delete at least part of
your original installation before you install the new version.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 2000HD with 52 Mbyte Quantum drive.
        1 Mbyte Chip RAM. 2 Mbytes Fast RAM on A2091 disk controller.
        AmigaDOS 2.04 (Kickstart 37.175, Workbench 37.67)
        Commodore 1080 Monitor.
        Printers:  HP DeskJet 550C, Panasonic 9-pin.

SUMMARY

        Here's one more view of Final Copy II.  Like previous reviewers, I am
glad I bought it and consider it to be excellent value. The best new feature
in Release 2 is support for Postscript Type 1 fonts.

Pros:

-   Unbeatable output quality on any printer, from 9-pin to laser.
-   Fine tune text: kerning, leading, width scaling, and slanting.
-   Style tags let you easily play with the look of a document.
-   The structured drawing tools work well for simple shapes.
-   Prints bit-mapped graphics well, and flows text smoothly around them.
-   Handles left and right pages, at layout time and print time.
-   Nearly all Softwood fonts have full support for accented characters.
-   Outline fonts are used on-screen, so any size looks good.
-   Release 2 supports Amiga Compugraphic and Postscript Type 1 fonts.

Cons:

-   There is no Undo function, so save your work often.
-   Multi-column layouts apply to the whole document.
-   Layout is paragraph-based, not frame-based.  Not a desktop publisher.
-   Graphics always have fixed page positions: they cannot float with text.


THE FONTS

        Final Copy II release 1 had no support at all for standard Amiga
fonts.  That turned out to be a marketing problem, so Softwood added support
in Release 2 for Workbench 2.1 (or higher) Compugraphic fonts. I doubt I will
ever use them. I could not try them because I am still running AmigaDOS
2.04, but the upgrade documentation warns that quality is poorer than Nimbus
Q.  From my experience with PageSetter, I expect Compugraphic fonts to look
fine on the screen, and to print with smooth shapes but ugly letter spacing
(kerning).  To judge by comments on the network, other programs such as
ProWrite that use Compugraphic fonts have similar problems.

        I did try the Type 1 font support, using the two full disks of public
domain fonts that Softwood is supplying free with the upgrade until the end
of April.  The upgrade documentation warns you that the quality of public
domain fonts is spotty.  If this sample is typical, I agree.  Most have no
accented characters, some have no lower case, some have no numbers, and the
otherwise attractive Middleton font is missing lower case letter 'x'.  The
general look of many of them is less than professional.  Still, I'm planning
to keep about 15 out of 40 on my hard disk.  Some are fun novelties, such as
PostCrypt, a Halloween font with mossy letters.  By the way, on my slow
Amiga, Final Copy takes about 30 seconds to load a Type 1 font, and
rendering seems a bit slower than Nimbus Q both on screen and to printer.

        Nimbus Q fonts in Final Copy render faster than Compugraphic fonts in
PageSetter II, and print quality is better.  With my old Panasonic 9-pin
printer, characters are as smooth as the printer's best built-in fonts, but
the printer's narrowest lines are too thick for some fonts.  With my new
DeskJet 550C and the right paper, the overall impression is as professional
as Postscript laser printing.

        You cannot find public domain Amiga Nimbus Q typefaces on bulletin
boards, but the program comes with a generous selection.  Softwood counts
typefaces the way printer makers do, claiming 35.  I count 8 font families,
each supplied in plain, italic, bold, and bolditalic, plus 3 single-style
fonts.  Most are clones of standard Postscript laser printer fonts:  Avante
Garde, Bookman, Courier, Helvetica, Palatino, New Century Schoolbook, and
Times.  You also get the bland sans-serif font "SoftSans".  The specialty
fonts are Symbol, Old English, and a clone of the Postscript old-style font
Zapf Chancery.  The serif italic fonts are true italics, not just slanted.

        Softwood sells four font sets, each containing 25 name-brand
typefaces from ITC and Letraset.  A large poster included with the program
shows you samples of all of them.  They cost less than the going rate for
licensed fonts.  List price is $100 per set, but a typical mailorder price
is $60, and Softwood has had specials.  In comparison, Adobe's list price is
$149 (introductory price $59) for each set of 8 to 10 Postscript typefaces
that it sells for Adobe Type Manager.

        You should budget for at least one font set.  I decided that the
basic serif and sans-serif fonts were equally attractive in all the sets, so
I chose Set 1 to get Zapf Dingbats.  The joined script fonts Balmoral and
Rage Italic are good for certificates.  Bible Script looks like calligraphy.
Dolmen is ultra black, great for posters.  The 27 typefaces in Set 1
(including surprise extra weights of Bauhaus and Kabel) are equal to at
least 40 from Adobe, because Softwood doesn't need italic versions of the
sans-serif ones; you can slant any font.  There's also no need for condensed
versions when you can scale the width of any font.  It is great to be able
to scale a title to 94% so that it fits perfectly on one line.


PRINTING

        Typical print speed is a leisurely 5 minutes per page with either of
my printers, using their highest quality graphics mode.  Release 1 had
trouble multi-tasking during printing, but Release 2 is fine (though Final
Copy itself does nothing else while it prints).  By choosing a lower density
graphics mode (150 dpi on the DeskJet) I got reasonable rough printouts in
two to three minutes a page.  Forget about what Final Copy calls draft
printing.  It uses your printer's built-in fonts for speed, but totally
ignores your page layout.

        Release 2 adds the ability to print in landscape (wide) mode.  First
the good news -- it works, and output quality is fine.  But it is far too
slow to be practical on an unaccelerated Amiga.  A simple certificate that
normally printed in under five minutes took over 33 minutes on the DeskJet in
landscape mode.  Setup is also a bit awkward; you have to define a custom
page wider than it is high, and rearrange your margins.  For example, the one
labelled "right margin" controls the top of your sideways page.

        I've tried a little colour printing.  Using public domain print
drivers, the colours were murky and the printout had obvious raster lines.
Using the DeskJet driver from Wolf Faust's Studio package, the quality was
good, though a bit pale.  I'm sure I can make it much better by playing
with the dozens of adjustments.  A page of black text with one colour image
4 inches wide by 3 inches high took over ten minutes to print.  I hate to
think how long a big colour picture would take in landscape mode!

        I haven't tried Postscript printing, but it looks easy in the
documentation.  You can send printer output to a file if you don't have a
Postscript printer attached to your Amiga.  Postscript landscape mode seems
to use normal margins, unlike graphic printer landscape mode.


DOCUMENTATION

        There is an attractive, spiral-bound manual nearly 200 pages long.
It is clearly written and has plenty of illustrations and screen shots.  It
starts with a good introduction for beginners, including a short tutorial.
The next nine chapters each cover a topic such as Setting Preferences,
Formatting a Document, and Working with Graphics.  A nine-page Reference
section describes each menu very briefly.  Appendices include keyboard
shortcuts, a Glossary, and a list of Postscript font equivalents.

        One chapter describes Final Copy's outlining features.  They hardly
deserve a paragraph.  There are some predefined style tags that will indent
text so that it looks like an outline, but there are none of the features of
a real outliner like More on the Macintosh (or even Microsoft Word).
Perhaps they intended to have outlining, but it didn't work well enough to
release.

        There are some strange omissions.  For example the two sections on
deleting text mention the Cut menu function and the backspace key, but not
the Del key.  (It does work normally.)  There is no listing of the characters
in the supplied Symbol font, so you have to find out by trial and error.
The Table of Contents may be more useful than the Index.  For example, the
appendix on Postscript fonts is not listed under either "fonts" nor
"Postscript."

        The update documentation is one letter-sized page printed on both
sides.  It describes the new features briefly but gives no help with
installation.


USER INTERFACE

        Final Copy II has an attractive, 3-dimensional, "System 2" look with
a ribbon of formatting icons across the top.  It follows many of Commodore's
user interface guidelines, including standard keyboard shortcuts for basic
menu items like Open and Save (and the poorly chosen standard cut, copy, and
paste keystrokes which cannot be done with one hand).  It does not use
standard file requesters.

        I like little features, like hiding the mouse cursor when you start
typing, and highlighting a whole word including the following space (but not
a following punctuation mark) when you double click on it.  Like Macintosh
programs, Final Copy lets you replace a highlighted text block by simply
typing a new version.  I appreciate that feature on the Mac, but it is a
mixed blessing when there is no Undo.

        Text is rendered to the screen using selectable horizontal and
vertical resolutions.  That is slower than using prescaled screen fonts, but
ensures that any size of any font looks equally good.  The default of 80
horizontal by 72 vertical gives text and graphics proper proportions on an
interlaced or Productivity screen, but 80x80 is easier to read.  You can
select a non-interlaced screen to reduce flicker on older Amigas like mine,
but that gives you a choice of vertically stretched or illegible text.  I
don't have a flicker fixer, but I find the level of flicker tolerable using
the standard colour scheme and a cheap dark plastic anti-glare screen.

        There are some handy undocumented features in the interface.  Hold
down the Right Alt key, and the cursor turns into a magnifying glass with a
'+' in the middle.  Each mouse click magnifies the display by a factor of
two, and the text is redrawn in the higher resolution.  Shifted Right Alt
gives a magnifying glass with a minus sign; as you might expect it has the
reverse effect.  Smaller magnifications remain fully editable.  I found that
very handy for rearranging a page to correct the overall look.

        If you hold down the Right Amiga key, nothing visible happens, but if
you then press the left mouse button, the cursor turns into a four-way arrow.
You can then drag whatever is under the cursor to a new location on the
screen.  This is very useful when working at high magnifications.  (In my
opinion, the cursor should change before you press the button.)


GRAPHICS

        You can import IFF ILBM picture files and scale or crop them.  You
can create lines and boxes (round, oval, rectangular, or round-cornered) with
the built-in drawing tools.  Final Copy will flow text around the graphics
(for illustrations) or place the graphics under the text (for separator
lines or shaded text boxes).  However, you cannot import or export
structured drawings in any standard Amiga format, and you cannot treat text
as a graphic object that can be placed in arbitrary positions on the page.
The best you can do if you want a drop capital, for example, is to create it
extra large in a paint program, import it, and scale it down to reduce the
jagged look of its bitmapped image.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        I have used WordPerfect and PageSetter (I and II) on my Amiga since
1987.  The whole family (including children age 10 and 12) now uses Final
Copy for letters, school reports, and anything else that comes along.  At
work I use More (an outliner and presentation graphics program) and
Microsoft Word, both on a big-screen Macintosh SE whose processor is as slow
as my Amiga's.

        Amiga WordPerfect is my obvious choice at home for heavy-duty
reports with tables, footnotes, and table of contents.  When I don't need
those features, and at home I seldom do, I use Final Copy for its graphics,
choice of fonts, and superb print quality.  Final Copy is a little slower
than Word (but to be fair I should compare it to Word plus Adobe Type
Manager).  I miss some Word features such as imported structured graphics
and the ability to change the number of columns within a document.

        Final Copy's ads are misleading.  They show a three-column
newsletter with a full width banner title across the top.  You can do that,
but only by putting the banner in a master page that will print on every
odd-numbered page.  If your newsletter is more than two pages long, you will
have the annoyance of having to create the front page as a separate
document.  In Word, you would just start a new section with a different
number of columns.  Structured graphics of course should allow text, as they
do in Word.  That would make it easy to have multi-column headlines and drop
capitals.

        The spell checker and thesaurus, licensed from Proximity Technology,
are first rate.  The spell checker is better than others I have used at
suggesting replacements that sound like a badly spelled word, and the
thesaurus gives helpful definitions not just a list of related words.


BUGS

        I hesitate to mention bugs nobody else has reported, as they may
just mean my hardware is flakey.  They are not reproducible, but I seldom use
the program for an hour without encountering one of them.

        The scroll bars are active in real time:  you can see the text move
as you drag them.  If I drag them quickly back and forth, or click quickly
on the single-line up/down gadgets, random garbage sometimes appears
superimposed on part of the text.  Fortunately the program appears to
recover if I just click in the scroll bar area to display a complete new
screenful of text.

        The other bug is less common but more serious.  During fast typing,
the whole program locks up and stops accepting mouse or keyboard input.  The
only thing I can do is switch to another screen either by keyboard or with
the screen-to-back gadget.  If I click on the Workbench, the mouse pointer
reappears and everything there works normally, even starting a new Final
Copy session.  I can return to the original Final Copy session, but it
remains locked up with no way to save the file or quit the program.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        Softwood quickly delivered the font pack and the upgrade to Release
2 that I ordered by phone.  I mentioned the bugs I had found in Release 1,
and the person I was speaking to said my report would be passed on to the
programmers, but Release 2 still has the same problems.

        I tried to buy a copy of the British English dictionary and
thesaurus, since British spellings are used in Canadian schools.  I got
nowhere.  The best their sales person could suggest was to write to their
British agent and buy a whole new copy of the British version of Final
Copy.  I plan to write to Softwood with a similar request, and will be most
interested to see what kind of response I get.  I'd prefer Email, but the
company does not seem to have any presence on the networks.


WARRANTY

        The only warranty is 90 days on the diskette medium.


CONCLUSIONS

        Final Copy is a fine word processor.  It has the three features I
wanted most:  style sheets, solid support for graphics, and truly
professional printed output.  There are a few additional features I'd like
to see, and some operations are painfully slow on my Amiga, but I'm glad I
bought the program.  It will be most interesting to see whether the next
release emphasizes desktop publishing (more layout control) or word
processing (index, table of contents, outlining).


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

             Copyright 1993 Alan Quirt.  All Rights Reserved.
                        Reprinted with permission.



"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> Virus Checkers  AR InfoFile
  ===========================


              FROM MICHAEL ARENDS:  SHI REGIONAL CENTER WEST
     Speaking about SOME of the available virus checkers for the Amiga
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

NEVER use a killer older than 3 months.  Why?  Because EVERY month there are
coming about 8 new viruses, and of course old killers don't find new Virii!
 
All  the virus killer programs mentioned beneath are shareware, freeware or
like.  The commercial virus killer programs like Viruscope, Virus Control,
and  Master  Killer  are  NOT better than the the following mentioned virus
killers:


VIRUS CHECKER: Programmer, John Veldthuis 
-----------------------------------------

VIRUS_CHECKER  is  an excellent virus killer for all purposes, and is
easy  to use. Please note the excellent "Learn mode", which makes it
very easy to learn new unknown boot viruses too. It is Excellent for all
People, Novices and experts alike, who don't know how to start and use
other more technical virus killers.


VIRUSZ: Programmer, Georg Hoermann
----------------------------------

VirusZ Is a EXCELLENT  killer for background running on users disks, or
for a persons HARD DRIVE. Please remember you  have the advantage, of having
a virus killer checking your disks as a background task! 

This  program  is  a MUST  for  everybody. Notice  the  excellent  un-pack 
feature  to  test  packed programs for viruses. This killer is a killer of
quite new generation knowing more than 10 different disk packers!


VIRUS INTERCEPTOR: Programmer, Johan Eliasson
---------------------------------------------

Virus-Interceptor, is an utility designed to protect YOU against file-
viruses.The program is designed to be small, safe, and easy to use.
When it is installed in memory, it will constantly check programs that
are run for virus-infection. If a virus is detected in the code, the
program will be aborted before it had a chance to start! It will also check
your memory at regular intervals. If a virus is detected in memory it will
be removed in a safe way. It also has a unique feature: It will detect ANY
new, previously unknown link-viruses in a program that was crunched with
ANY of the known crunchers! and It requires an absolute minimum of user-
interaction.You just start it up, and then you can go on doing whatever it
is you do with your computer,and it will only disturb you if it finds a
virus.


FIND'EM"ALL: Programmer, Koen Peetermans
----------------------------------------

FindEmAll  is a new very excellent RAM virus checker.  When you want to use
this  program, remember first....,to format a disk, then......  install the
FindEmAll on this disk or do the same at your favorit user disks.

Many  people don't know how VERY, VERY FAST and reliable this program is to
use.   The  way to use this program is very special:  First look at the new
disks  you  get,  (You MUST load to the start of the program), then finally
load  the  FindEmAll program.  The FindEmAll program then tell you if there
is  some  illegal  calls  maybe from a virus.  This program is EXCELLENT to
find new unknown viruses.


VT (Virus Terminator): Programmer, Heiner Schneegold
----------------------------------------------------

Use  the  excellent  "VT" Virus Killer.  It is a German killer, but I think
you  will  be  very surprised at how easy you are able to use this ultimate
Killer.  The author has done a very good work with the documentation,  etc.

This  new  version  have a check feature for Read/Write errors and cruncher
types too...Excellent!  Please note; you can save your hard disk boot block
too, to avoid hard disk breakdown by boot virus infection.

A  very good virus killer indeed very, very......useful for harddisk check,
and best knowing killer programs concerning file/link viruses.


VMK (Virus Memory Killer): Programmer, Chris Hames
--------------------------------------------------

A unique virus killer specially for your startup-sequence with an excellent
analyse  function.  To this day......I have not found a new virus, that VMK
could  not find.  Please note, that VMK has a splendid feature, which shows
the  virus text, and most interesting ....this works ALSO if you have a new
non-boot virus.


BOOTX : Programmer, Peter Stuer
-------------------------------

A  very  good all-round virus killer with file check, learn option for boot
viruses,  and  all  the  things  you  need for a good virus killer program,
except from an analyse mode, but maybe you will find it in the next version
of  this ultimate killer.  You will NOT..........  find BootX at this disk,
but  have  to  order  "The  New  Superkiller  II",  which is a disk special
supporting Amiga Kickstart 2.0-3.0 programs and like.  Please see more info
in  the  special text "BootX" on this disk concerning all the new excellent
features.

I think the one of the best Available... including commercial killers.
Too bad Peter has left the scene...


LVD (Link Virus Detector) Programmer, Peter Stuer
-------------------------------------------------

This  program  is  a  first defence protection scheme against link viruses,
file  viruses.   LVD  checks  every executable file your Amiga tries to run
BEFORE  the  actual  program  starts running.  This way, if a linkvirus has
attached itself to the program, it will never get a chance to be activated.
LVD is meant to be put in your startup-sequence, preferably as close to the
begining as possible, but NOT as the first entry since the first entry of a
startup-sequence  is  most  likely to be infected by a link- or file virus.
LVD is special excellent for hard disk purpose.

Don't use just one of the above virus killer programs. To get the best
security alway use 2-3  of the ones  above, virus killers( ALWAYS The Newest
versions Possible).

No ONE KILLER  can be said as the best one.  Maybe you prefer dark haired or
maybe blond  haired girls, but whom is the pretty one? There is of COURSE
alot of hidden goods you first will find when you are familar the right ones.

PLEASE  remember to send a shareware gift to the programmer of your
favorite programs!  This is the only way to keep these fine programmers
to keep writting better virus killers for the future! BYE Peter!!

For more info you can write to one of your SHI centers at the following :
 
   Jim Maciorowski                                Michael Arends 
   SHI/USA East Coast                             SHI/USA West Coast 
   PO Box 724                                     PO Box 1531 
   Port Richey, FL  34673-0724                    Lynnwood, WA  98046-1531


   FROM YOUR SHI REGIONAL CENTER YOU CAN GET:
   -----------------------------------------

   1. The newest update of the NEW SUPERKILLERS for very little money.

   2. Help by phone with your virus problems.

   3. The latest news about new viruses.


   What your SHI Regional center does for YOU!:
   -------------------------------------------

   1. Makes translations of the virus killer docs in your language,
      and always do a new updates of ALL the docs,if something has changed.

   2. Collects  new viruses, writes advertisements or e.g. write little
      virus articles in order to get new viruses.

   3. Spreads the virus killer disks in your country.

   4. Help people with their virus problems.



   HOW TO PREVENT VIRUSES
   ----------------------

   The simple way:   ALWAYS write protect your disks.  ALWAYS turn your
                     Amiga off  for  60  seconds and on again before you
                     insert  a  write  enabled  disk.  And please note,
                     if using 5.25" disks, DO NOT use transparent tape for
                     write-protection, use a black one!

   The best way:     Use this disk  and  send it to  your swap friends.
                     Don't swap with lazy guys who send you virus infected
                     disks more than one time.. We can all make  mistakes,
                     but half-brains like that should NEVER get programs
                     from us...



***************************************************************************

                             IMPORTANT NOTICE!
                             =================

 Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every  week  in the
 Amiga Forum on DELPHI.  Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and
 become a part of the friendly community of computer enthusiasts there.


                          SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
                          ======================
       Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
                  DELPHI services via a local phone call

                              JOIN -- DELPHI
                              --------------

                Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
                                  then...
                When connected, press RETURN once or twice
                                  and....
               At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN.

  DELPHI's Basic Plan offers  access for  only $6.00  per hour,  for any
    baud rate.  The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online.

   For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005

   DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA.

                        Try DELPHI for $1 an hour!

    For  a  limited  time,  you  can  become a trial member of DELPHI, and
receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access  during this  month for only
$5.  If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of
the calendar month with no further obligation.   If you  keep your account
active, you  will automatically  be enrolled  in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan,
where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for  a minimum
$10 monthly  charge, with additional hours available at $3.96.  But hurry,
this special  trial offer  will expire  soon!   To take  advantage of this
limited offer,  use your  modem to  dial 1-800-365-4636.  Press <RET> once
or twice.  When you get the Password:  prompt, type  IP26 and  press <RET>
again.   Then, just  answer the  questions and within a day or two, you'll
officially be a member of DELPHI!

                 DELPHI- It's getting better all the time!


***************************************************************************


> Usenet Review:  Nib 2.0
  =======================
  By Rob Morton
  (morton@wam.umd.edu)


PRODUCT NAME

        Nib version 2.0


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A software copier for copy-protected disks.  It is described as a
"disk nibbler and parameter copier."


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Stellar Systems, Inc.
        Address:        Attn. Software Development
                        P.O. Box 9047
                        Hampton, VA 23670-0047

        Distributed by: Utilities Unlimited, Incorporated
                        1641 McCulloch Blvd, Suite #25-124
                        Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403

        Telephone:      (602) 680-9004 (Distributor)
        FAX:            (602) 680-9006 (Distributor)

        E-mail:         Jim_Drew@cryo.rain.com


LIST PRICE

        I have no idea about price; it came free when I bought my Super Card
Ami (see other review of this product).  The manual says $44.95 (US).

        [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Nib 1.0 appeared in 1989 as a freely
        distributable product.  "Registered ownership" of the commercial
        version 2.0 was offered to users at that time for $16.  The expected
        list price at that time was $38.00.  I can't believe I remember this
        stuff.  - Dan]


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        None.


COPY PROTECTION

        None.  Hard drive installable.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        A2000, 1 Meg Chip RAM, 2 Meg Fast RAM, AmigaDOS 1.3, 2 internal
drives, 1 external drive, 100 Megs of hard drive space.


REVIEW

        The first thing you notice is that Nib talks to you.  When you load
the program, it speaks, "Nib, disk nibbler and parameter copier" in a low,
sampled voice.  That's pretty cool and impresses people that see this
copier.  It speaks quite a lot.  It also says "Error", "Long", "Disks", and
"Copy complete".  This may seem silly, but it helps to not have to watch the
screen.

        The user interface meets no official style guidelines, but it is
very easy to use.  I have used this program to remove the protection from
some games that use "look up in the manual" methods.  It does so quite
well.  It also seems to be able to copy almost any disk that doesn't have a
long track on it, even if it is not in the parameter list.  You can select
individual tracks to copy.  After you copy the disk, if there were any
errors, you hit a button, and only those tracks will be copied.  You can
select between several different copy methods and try them out on the tracks
that didn't work the first time.  Of course, the ideal solution would be to
have a parameter for the particular disk.  As far as I know, the parameter
list has not been updated at all.  When you leave the program, it frees the
disk drives for normal use again.


PROGRAMS SUCCESSFULLY COPIED

        I usually used the best copier for the task. Raw Copy would copy and
remove protections, so it got used for manual-based games the most.  Nib got
used for most of the first round of copying, and then any long tracks I did
individually with Super Card Ami II.  If that didn't work, then I just used
Super Card Ami.  (See my reviews of the other 2 copiers mentioned.)

        Copied:
                Marble Madness
                Menace
                Rampage
        Copied and removed "look up in the manual" protection:
                Battle Chess


DOCUMENTATION

        It is on the disk but is very complete.  It tells everything that
one would need to know.  The author even includes ASCII drawings as pictures
which are accurate enough to make it understandable.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        Likes:

                The speaking, is great. I love this feature.

                It is great to be able instantly to pick the tracks that
                didn't copy the first time.

                As far as I know, the parameters work perfectly. (They did
                for me, but my game collection is not really extensive).

        Dislikes:

                It can't copy long tracks. I got this program with Super
                Card Ami (Hardware copier that can copy long tracks), so I
                would think the two should work together a little.

                While copying, at times the screen gets messed up
                temporarily.

                I am not sure that it is still being supported, at least I
                have gotten no update information on it.

        Suggestions:

                Use Super Card Ami.
                Update the parameter list.
                Stop the screen from flashing.
                Add a bigger vocabulary.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        I have Raw Copy as well, and Nib has a much nicer looking interface
and the unique feature of speaking.  They are very similar products in that
both get rid of manual, dongle, and code wheel protection schemes.  Nib wins
out in every category except support.  With parameter copying programs,
support is a must.

BUGS

        None.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        See above.  I am not sure if they are even thinking of supporting it.


WARRANTY

        I have no idea.  It is not mentioned in the documentation.


CONCLUSIONS

        This is a great program with no support.  Because of the lack of
support I would have to give this game a ranking of 3 out of 4, but that
will go down as time goes on... unless games start being released without
copy protection.



"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> Warez Out There
  ===============
  By Robert Glover


File:           Amiga Boulder Dash
Author:         Jeff Bevis
Status:         Shareware, $20 US.
Where to find:  GEnie, Amiga RT, file #19195
                Internet, amiga.physik.unizh.ch
                          /amiga/games/misc/abdash11909.lha
                Delphi, Amiga Forum, Recent Arrivals

Amiga Boulder Dash is a more-than-faithful incarnation of the original
Boulder Dash from the Commodore 64/Atari 8-bit days.  The look and feel
have been faithfully reproduced, but at the same time, the Amiga's
graphics and sound capabilities have not been wasted.  The result is a
very modern looking Boulder Dash.

In addition to the original screens, new ones have been created.  An
editor even exists to create your own.  The program requires Kickstart
2.0 or greater, and even runs file on my A1200, straight from the
Workbench.  You don't even have to turn off Mode Promotion.  If you liked
the original even a little, you WANT this game.


File:           PayCalc
Author:         Jeffrey A. Leinen
Status:         Unknown
Where to find:  GEnie, Amiga RT, file #19246

PayCalc is a simple, Intuition-based loan payment calculator.  When run, it
opens a window with your gadgets, principle, term in months, annual interest
rate, and payment.  All you have to do is enter the first three, and it
automatically calculates the payment.  It's great for figuring out how much
that new car is going to cost, before you waste your time beating up on a
salesman.


File:           Points of Light Demo
Authors:        Many
Status:         Freeware
Where to find:  Various public BBS's

There are so many demos floating around that it's hard to recommend any
of them.  I stumbled across this one recently while on my one of my local
Amiga BBS's.  It's fairly small for a demo, being about 380K in DMS form.
The special effects are pretty good -- outline text, extruded into 3D,
sroll by in one part, some cool ghosting effects that turn into pictures
of the authors in another, all accompanied by neat stereo music.

This is not an AGA-only demo.  In fact, I had to run it in ECS mode with
caches off on my A1200.  PAL mode is also recommended.

If you like demos, or are searching for a decent one that isn't too big,
this one is worthy of your consideration.



***************************************************************************


> NVN WANTS YOU! AR InfoFile          Another Network Supports Amiga!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



                     National Videotext Network (NVN)
                     ================================



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We'll give you a $25 usage credit to use in your favorite Premium services
or try out new ones.  You could save as much as $45.*

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1-800-336-9096.

                              NVN HIGHLIGHTS
                              ==============

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***************************************************************************


> Usenet Review:  Superbase Professional 4
  ========================================
  By Michael Hensche
  (hippo@aworld.aworld.de)


PRODUCT NAME

        Superbase Professional 4 ("SBase4 Professional")


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A powerful Amiga database program.


OVERVIEW OF FEATURES

        At this point, I just pick some highlights off the advertising text
that is printed on the box Sbase4 is being delivered in.  This might give
you a short overview on the functionality of the package.

        Relational Database System with
        VCR-style browse controls
        Database Management Language (DML)
        Form Design
                Graphical form objects (boxes, lines, etc.)
                Logical form objects (calculation, validation,
                radio buttons, checkboxes, relations, etc.)
        Queries can be done by standardized fill-in requestors
        Reportgenerator included
        Text editor included
        im-/export
                ASCII delimited
                dbase
                Lotus 1-2-3
                Excel
                Superplan
        Telecommunications
                Xmodem
                Xmodem-CRC
                WXmodem
        LAN-Support (5-user LAN Extender Packs enable operation over
                Novell-compatible LANs)
        ARexx support
        Clipboard support for record and field data
        Upwardly file-compatible from Superbase Personal,
                Superbase Personal 2, Superbase Professional 3


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        As far as I know, the Copyright is at Precision but the support (and
selling) is at Oxxi. I am not sure.  In the manuals I find the copyright
notice in Precision's name, but on the disks it is in Oxxi's name.

So here are some addresses I took from the manuals or the registration card:

                        Precision Software Ltd.
                        6 Park Terasse
                        Worcester Park
                        Surrey
                        England KT4 7JZ

                        (081) 330 7166


                        Precision Inc.
                        8404 Sterling Street
                        Irving, TX 75063
                        USA
                        (214) 929 4888

or:
                        Oxxi Inc.
                        PO Box 90309
                        Long Beach, Ca 90809-0309
                        USA
                        (310) 427 1227

                        Oxxi UK Ltd.
                        171 Bath Road
                        Slough
                        Berks. SL1 4AE
                        UK
                        (++44) 0753-551-777


LIST PRICE

        I do not know.  I paid 398,- DM (German Deutschmarks).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                1 MB RAM required.
                I recommend an accelerated processor (e.g., 68030).

                I also strongly recommend a hard disk; here is how much
                space SBase4 takes up on my drive:

                        Total number of files                 149
                        Total number of directories             6
                        Total number of bytes in files    1847857
                        Total number of blocks used          3849

                        Total occupied :   1970688 bytes, 1.9MB.

                $VER: AppISizer ) Girard Cornu v0.20 Dec  2 1992 09:59:12

        SOFTWARE

                AmigaDOS 1.3 or higher.


COPY PROTECTION

        None.  Installs on a hard drive.  You must type your name and
address the first time you start the program, and they are displayed every
time you run the program after that.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 2000 B, Rev. 6.2
        GVP A3001 accelerator Board, 68030 CPU, 68882 coprocessor
        2MB Chip RAM, 4MB Fast RAM (32-Bit)
        AT-Bus Hard drives: Maxtor 200 MB, Quantum 40 MB
        Monitor A2024 (Hedley-Monitor)
        Kickstart 2.04 (37.175) Workbench 2.0

REVIEW

*** My Needs ***

        OK, before I start, I will give you some background information on
why I bought the package and what I do use it for.

        There were some of the usual things people do on a computer which is
more or less senseless like address databases or CD databases which I also
wanted to do.  On the other hand I am trying to realize a little project for
a friend of mine (for his business).  And I always was interested in
databases.

        So I tried Superbase when it first came out.  It was nice, But it
used a dongle. I do not use dongles.  So I did not purchase Superbase.  When
version 4 came out without a dongle and with a nice 2.0 look (and often feel
;), I got it.  And they say: "supports ... A2024 Viking monitor." (I love
software that does this.)

        As a small disclaimer, I will not be able to tell you details on
everything Superbase does or does not.  I am not able to program big
packages.  I am just a "normal" user with a fair knowledge of his Amiga and
with fun and enthusiasm for doing complicated things because I try to
realize them with computers. ;)


*** The Review ***

        Superbase Professional or Sbase4 Professional (they changed the
name) comes in a box that is much too big. They needed much space for
advertising the features.  In the box I find two diskettes and three manuals.
One diskette contains the program itself, and the other diskette comes with
some examples and example data.


*** Installation ***

        To install the program, you double-click the "Install" icon and see
the "SBase4 Install" program. It is not the Commodore-Installer, but it is
more than just an install script.  After a short text you can choose whether
to install the program, the example files, or just part of it, by clicking on
corresponding gadgets (a small hook shows your choice, default is to install
all).  You can enter the desired path in a string gadget.  The last gadget
gives you the choice to register the copy.  I decided to register, so I then
was prompted to enter name, organization, and serial number, which I did.
(The entries have to bee at least 5 characters long, which you find out by
typing less. ;))

        Now all the files are copied to the desired directory.  After
completion, in the WBstartup drawer I found a short XIcon script that does
the "SBase4:"  assign.  This opens a small CLI window on every startup, so I
decided to do the Assign in my s:User-Startup and delete the script in
WBstartup. This has to be done manually.  A novice user might not understand
why this window comes up on every startup.

        In my new drawer I find three icons:  "Sbase4Pro", "SBFD4" and
"readme.txt."  Within this Readme file, they discuss things about new DML
commands which are not in the manual (quite a lot, I think), compatibility
with "Superbase 4 Windows", changes to the manual, and so on.

        But finally, let's see the program.  Double-click, wait a second,
and there it is.  Gives the copyright notice... and does really look nice.
I play around in the menus, start the Forms editor and ... have a GURU.  Not
that nice.

        To make the story short, it seems as if the A2024 support ends in
being able to recognize it and still position requestors in the middle of
the screen.  I tried out different things, but did not succeed.  To work
around this, I looked up the manual to find out how to start SBase4 on a
custom interlaced screen, but found nothing.  At that moment, it seemed as if
I could start SBase4 in just two ways: WB and custom.  But custom still means
Workbench size.  There is no ScreenMode requester; I later found out that
there is a Settings menu to customize the system, but there is still just a
gadget to choose between use of the Workbench or a Custom screen.  So I now
have to switch down HiRes-Interlaced before starting Superbase if I want to
use the program without a crash.  If I do so, I have no problems.


*** The Workspace ***

        The workspace is presented as two windows:  a small, screen-wide one
at the bottom of the screen with VCR-style gadgets, and a large one that
occupies the rest of the screen.  The gadgets give quick access to browse
your data: jump to beginning, jump to end of file, forward/backward one
entry, quick back/forward pause, and stop.  There are two gadgets you might
not find on a VCR: a question mark and a camera.

        Let us say, you have an address database indexed by name, along with
an external file which might be a digitized picture of the person.  With the
"?" you have direct access to the index (you are prompted for a name), and
with the camera you have access to the picture belonging to the current set
of data.


*** Creating a File ***

        To create a file, you select "New->File" in the "Project" menu.  A
window pops up and asks for the name, which you enter.  A second window asks
for passwords for reading and deletion of this file.  Finally, a third window
appears that lets you create the different fields and their types (text,
numeric, date/time, external, required, read only, validated, calculation,
constant, virtual).  Depending on the selected type, you then give details
like field length, date format, kind of calculation, etc.

        The types "external" and "virtual" might need a short explanation.
"External" requires a full path to a text, image, or sound file.  An
external text file might overcome some limitations of Superbase.  Text
fields in Superbase can have a maximum length of 4000 characters, and a text
file just has to fit in your memory to be displayed when clicking on the
before-mentioned camera gadget.  ASCII and Superbase-Texteditor-format is
supported.  An external image file (which will be displayed by clicking the
camera) can be IFF (ILBM, Dynamic Hi-res, Dynamic-HAM), GIF and PCX.  An
external sound file will be played by clicking the camera if it is either
IFF (8SVX) or plain sampled.

        To explain the "virtual" field, I will just cite the manual:
"Virtual fields provide a way of saving disk space. Any field which is
defined as virtual must have a Constant or Calculation formula attached to
it. When you save a record, Superbase calculates the value of the virtual
field, and if it is a key field, creates an index pointer for the record on
the basis of its derived value."  This value is not stored within Superbase
but recalculated every time it is required.

        When done with your file definition (which can be changed whenever
you want, if you recognize (say) that you have forgotten to define the "date
of birth" field), Superbase shows the fields as a list and you can start with
the data entry.  Or you might create a form, which is much nicer since you
can group fields logically, for example.  Therefore the FormsEditor will be
opened by selecting "modify->form" in the "Project" menu.


*** The Forms Editor ***

        This comes as extra program that opens its own screen, the same size
as the Workbench, with two windows similar to Superbase itself.  There's a
small, screen-wide window at the bottom displaying the tools, and the edit
window taking over the remaining space (which is, of course, the bigger
part ;)).

        The FormsEditor gives your creativity a wide range of possibilities.
You can draw on your page, set boxes, lines, circles etc., place your fields
wherever you want, change fonts and styles, etc.  Your work is aided by
tools like grid, snap to grid, crosshair, numerical display of mouse
position, and box, circle and line tools.

        The above-mentioned features will suffice for simple forms that make
your records look nice, but that is not all.  The FormsEditor offers many
powerful tools for creating applications with or without using the DML
(Database Management Language).

        In a form, different files can be linked (for example, your address
database with index-on-name and your "something special on the person" file
with index-on-name).  To do this, you define a field to do the linking and
will then have the persons address and the special notes displayed with that
form.  Since the facilities of the FormsEditor are much too complex to
explain them here, I will add a short list to point out some more highlights:

        - Forms can be created for screen or for printer output.
        - Forms may consist of more than one page.
        - Forms may display external fields (as mentioned above).
        - Forms offer "Transaction lines" (I will cite the manual on
          this later).
        - Forms let you define data entry order.
        - Forms offer fields of the type calculation, validation, pushbutton,
          checkbox.
        - You may interface to a DML program subroutine.
        - You may generate complete "Report"-Forms (coming to that later).

Since one might not know, what "Transaction lines" are, I will again cite
the manual:

  "Consider an example of a database application for cataloguing a book
  collection. It uses two files, Authors and Books. The Authors file stores
  the name and other details of all the authors represented in the collection,
  using one record for each author.  The records in the Books file store the
  details of each book (...). In addition, the records in both files contain
  an alphanumeric code (the Author_Code field) which links the books to their
  authors. (...)
  It makes it easy to design a form which displays the authors and a list of
  their books on screen at the same time. The data would be structured as
  follows:

        Author's name, Author code
        Title, Subject, Publisher
        Title, Subject, Publisher
        Title, Subject, Publisher

  Every time you selected another record in the Authors file, Superbase would
  read in the next author in alphabetical order followed by a variable number
  of lines, one for each of the author's books."


*** Report Forms ***

        A "Report Form" consists of some "action groups" of which you define
the look and the corresponding actions. These are:

        HEADING
        BEFORE REPORT
        BEFORE GROUP
        SELECT
        AFTER GROUP
        AFTER REPORT

When finished with your report, Superbase generates a DML program of your
report form.

        Let us go back to where we started before inserting the "Forms
Editor".  We just created a file.  For some purposes, it might not be
necessary to create report forms.  If you just want to extract some
specific data, you can work with "Queries."


*** Queries ***

        Queries generate a list of selected data, one line for each record.
To create a "query", you select "query->edit" in the "Process" menu.  A
requester pops up that asks for

        - The title of your list (with or without date and page-number).
        - The fields you would like to be printed.
        - A "report" line where you can group, summarize or count selected
          fields.
        - The filter, that includes or excludes data.
        - The order (ascending, descending) of your output.
        - Where to direct the output (screen, file, printer, "Say" program)

Queries can be saved, loaded and edited.


*** The Process Menu ***

        In this menu you find the above mentioned Queries; you also find
import and export modules/filters, split file, mail merge and label
functions, and, last but not least, the "reorganize" menu item one might
choose after weeks of extensive creation and deletion of data.

        The functions all pop up their own requestors that show the fields
of your record (if a file is open).  They let you choose which of fields
should be selected to be printed on a label or used for a mail merge list.


*** DML (Database Management Language) ***

        The DML is another feature I cannot cover completely in this article.

        I have written some small programs to get certain results from my
data and I have started the project I mentioned in my introduction.  But I
did not get into it deeply enough to be able to find bugs or things that just
bother me.  And, I don't program in other languages, so I cannot compare the
functionality to these.  Nor can I decide whether important structures - or
what ever it might be - are missing.

        The language is a little BASIC-like with lots of functions for easy
file manipulation.  It is a proprietary language, not compatible with
standardized SQL (Structured Query Language, which is used (or should be) in
UNIX database systems I had to cope with in business), though there are
similarities.  And it is not compatible with the DBase language (some people
asked and this information is from others who answered).

        Menus or requestors can be created with little code, and structured
programming is possible with various functions.  Powerful commands enable
you to create, insert, delete records, formatted output to file, printer or
serial interface, link files, etc.

        All gadgets like radio buttons, checkboxes etc. I mentioned in the
"Forms Editor" section can be accessed via DML.


DOCUMENTATION

        SBase4 comes with three manuals:

o       "Database And Text Editor," with an introduction (Menus, Workspace,
        Opening Files, Using Forms, Exiting From Superbase), detailed
        explanation of all functions and five appendices (Error Messages,
        Functions, Reserved Words, ASCII Values, Superbase 4 File Types),
        and, last but not least, the index.

o       "Form Designer And Programming Language," with an introduction and a
        description of all functions.

o       "Applications Guide," with a description of the demo/example
        programs/files coming with Sbase4 and some kind "question and
        answer" part which gives answers and examples to problems that might
        be typical.

        All manuals are spiral-bound for easy handling.  The "Form Designer
And Programming Language" manual has the logo of "OXXI Inc." printed on it
and is laser printer quality except for the screenshots.  (Take a photo,
copy it, copy the copy, and this is what the screenshots look like.  The text
is OK.)  The two other manuals have high-quality, two-color printing with
black/blue screenshots.

        As far as I am concerned, all my questions (except installation --
more on this later) are covered in detail.  The manuals all start with a
more or less short but complete overall description.  The details are then
covered in either alphabetical or thematical order as a reference.  The part
one is trying to look up can be found easily by using the index in each
manual.

        There is no tutorial that leads the user to a complete address
database, for example. But there is an 11-lesson chapter explaining basical
handling and understanding of what to do for what reason.  The lessons are:
"1. Defining a File", "2. Entering Data", "3. Editing a Record," and so on,
up to "11. Querying the Database"

        One nice thing is a "Where To Go Now" section after the introduction
of the general usage of Sbase4.  It leads the reader either to the lessons,
the programming language, or whatever he/she wants to do first.

        I think both beginners and experts will find what they are looking
for.  But as I already said, it is useful to know how your Amiga works before
reading the manuals.

        One thing I miss is a detailed description of the Icon Tooltypes,
starting parameters, or options at the beginning of the manuals; there is no
"Installation" chapter. They just tell you to insert the disk and
double-click the icon.  Let me cite this section:

        "Loading Superbase

        The procedure for loading Superbase is:

        1. Insert a Workbench disk in drive 0 and start up the Amiga.

        2. When the FastHD disc icon is displayed double-click on it.

        3. When the available tools are displayed double-click on the
           Superbase icon.

        4. When you are given a choice between Superbase (SBPRO4) and its
           Forms Designer (SBFD4) double-click on the Superbase icon."

That's it, folks :(

Somewhere in the manual you will then find a chapter about "Customizing Your
System".  This is the chapter where you learn about the configuration file
"S:SUPERBASE.INI" to define everything (that can be defined ;)).


LIKES AND DISLIKES


        I like the program because it suits my needs. (Okay, I don't think I
need a _relational_ database system. ;)) I like the way most things can be
done more ore less without consulting the manual.  Menus and standard
operations are logically put together.  I like the "forms editor" that
allows everything I need to create good looking and easy-to-handle front
ends.

        This version of Superbase is derived from the MS-DOS version, not
the original Amiga version.  Thus, requesters do not always conform to the
Commodore Amiga Style Guide; they have questions marks or exclamation points
in stop-sign-shaped fields, which makes them look like MS-Windows (and I do
not like Windows).

        I do not like that the file requestor tries to look like the
ASL-requestor (does not always succeed ;) but IS not ASL (so it cannot be
substituted by PD-ones I like more).  To summarize these dislikes:
Superbase is *compatible* with Workbench 2.0 but does not take advantage of
its features.

        Finally, I do not like the program editor.  I would like to use my
favourite text-editor instead, since I know its commands and so on.


*** Suggestions to improve the product? ***

        Have a look at my dislikes and you have my suggestions.  I believe
it would be a good idea to add a ScreenMode requestor as well as all other
2.x requestors that are there to configure/handle software.  And fix the
A2024 problem.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        I have not seen similar products on my Amiga.


BUGS

        Again: problems with the A2024 High Resolution mode.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        I did not yet contact them.


WARRANTY

        You can contact a hotline for half a year after registering.


CONCLUSIONS

        I believe that this is a good product, regardless of its price.
Novice users can easily create simple databases, and expert users will be
able to realize complex projects (I have seen one or two on the
Amiga-Affair).

I'd give this product 4 stars out of 5.  ****


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 Michael Hensche.  All rights reserved.


ANY QUESTIONS?

        If there are questions you think I might be able to answer, do not
hesitate to ask them.

                Michael Hensche
                In der Lohrenbeck 30 b
                W-5600 Wuppertal 1
                Germany

                Internet: hippo@aworld.aworld.de
                Z-Net: HIPPO@AWORLD.ZER

Have fun ;-)



""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> Usenet Review:  V-Lab 24-bit Video Digitizer
  ============================================
  By Joseph F. Korczynski
  (korczyns@oasys.dt.navy.mil)


PRODUCT NAME

        V-LAB V3.1


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        24-Bit Real Time Video Digitizing Card


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           MacroSystemUS
        Address:        17019 Smugglers Cove
                        Mt. Clemens, MI 48038
                        USA

        Telephone:      (313) 263-0095
        FAX:            (313) 263-9639


LIST PRICE

        $499.95 (US).  I paid $415 at my local dealer.
        

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS


        HARDWARE

                Amiga 2x00/3000/4000 Zorro II slot

                1 MB Chip RAM, 2 MB Fast RAM minimum.  8 MB recommended.
        
                50MB hard drive minimum.
                
                Works with all 680x0 microprocessors

                It is suggested that A2000 owners use an accelerator.


        SOFTWARE
        
                Requires AmigaDOS 2.04 (Kickstart V37.175, Workbench V37.67).
                Workbench 2.1 and 3.0 supported as well.


COPY PROTECTION

        None


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 4000/040/120MB IDE hard drive
        2MB CHIP RAM, 12MB 32-bit Fast RAM, 2MB 16-bit Fast RAM
        AmigaDOS 3.0 (Kickstart V39.106 and Workbench V39.29)
        C= 2091 SCSI controller populated with 2MB RAM
        44MB SyQuest Removable Drive
        Chinon CDX-431 CD-ROM Drive
        DCTV display enhancer/slow scan video digitizer
        Canon XAPSHOT still video camera
        HPII compatible laser printer
        
                
MINI-REVIEW

        Unlike DCTV, V-Lab is a real-time 24-bit video digitizer. Since
upgrading from a 2000, I've had been using my DCTV exclusively for
digitizing still video images.  One of my dislikes of DCTV is that I am
constantly switching the printer cable and DCTV digitizing cable on my
parallel port.  (Yeah, I know its cheaper to buy a switchbox.)  In addition, I
often need the capability to digitize images off of video tape. Since DCTV
is a slow scan digitizer, it takes 10 seconds to digitize a video signal.
This requires a VTR with excellent freeze frame capability (which I do not
have). I spent about a month researching the various framegrabbers on the
market.  LIVE! and Progressive Peripherals Framegrabber are not actively
supported by their manufacturers from my viewpoint, and I was not sure if
their aging software would work under AmigaDOS 3.0.  With the latest release
of Art Department Professional (V2.3), I noticed that ASDG included loaders
for YUVN and VLAB which were provided by MacroSystems.  I opted for the
V-Lab board after learning that it is AmigaDOS 2.0 compatible and it
supports ARexx.

        Installation was fairly simple. I opened the Amiga 4000 and put the
board in the next available Zorro slot. The board is not a full height card
(compared to the 2091, it is about 2/3 as high).  All the integrated circuits
are socketed. V-Lab uses a commercially available video chip set which
converts video frames and stores it in special video RAM on the V-Lab card.
Once in the V-Labs memory, it can be transferred to the Amiga's system memory
using a 16-bit bus width (Zorro II). The V-Lab card supports AutoConfig so
there are no jumpers to set. Since the V-Lab card has two composite inputs,
you can connect multiple video sources (like a still video and VTR) and
select them via software.

        The software is delivered on a single floppy disk. It does not
contain Workbench and is not bootable. Installation is painless.  Clicking
on the Install script, you are asked if you prefer German or English
installation instructions. All you have to do is supply the path of where
you want the V-Lab software installed, and the script takes care of the rest.
There are also install scripts for for the V-Lab library file (LIBS:
directory) and Art Department Professional YUVN and VLAB loader modules.

        The software takes full advantage of OS2.04 and higher environment.
It is also Amiga Style Guide compliant. You have the option of running V-Lab
on the Workbench or on its own public screen.  The V-Lab software system
offers the user an environment that puts the functions of the pull down
menus in individual windows which make extensive use of gadgets to adjust
various parameters. These windows include: SCAN for single frame grabbing;
CONVERT for converting raw images to Amiga graphic modes both ECS and AGA;
SEQUENCE for grabbing multiple frames (limited to your available system
RAM); COLOR CORRECTION for adjusting chrominance, red, green, blue,
contrast, luminance, and gamma; SELECT SOURCE for selecting input source
signal PAL,NTSC or user definable; DEFINE SOURCE for altering PAL, NTSC or
defining your image clip width (X1,X2) and height (Y1,Y2), RCA input jack,
luminance filter, chroma filter, VCR mode activates built-in time base
correction, VSYNC correction, noise filter, filter frequency, filer weight;
PREVIEW for a grayscale thumbnail size view of the incoming video signal.
Screen mode, screen fonts, window fonts and language are user definable.
Extensive support for ARexx scripts. Each menu item has an ARexx equivalent.
There are over 125 ARexx commands.  
        
        The V-Lab hardware is capable of digitizing one frame of video in
1/30 of a second, or one field in 1/60 of a second (2 fields equal 1 frame).
The maximum digitizing width and height is 720 x 611 pixels. When images are
digitized, they are stored in YUVN format. In order to display the image on
your Amiga or use it in other programs, you will have to render it in a
display mode that your Amiga supports (ECS or AGA) and save it in that
rendered IFF format. You also have the option of saving it as a 24-bit IFF.
Typically, an image in the YUVN file format is 55% the size of the same image
in 24-bit IFF file format.

        I've had the V-Lab only for a couple days, and I have successfully
digitized still video images from the Canon XAPSHOT camera within the V-Lab
software environment and Art Department Professional (V2.3). The images
appear much sharper when digitized with V-Lab than with DCTV (you get what
you pay for!). I have captured single frames and sequences from my VCR with
very good results to date.  


DOCUMENTATION

        Bound printed manual. Text layout via AmigaTEX. It has the same look
and feel of Art Department Professional manual. It has a table of contents
but lacks an index. Includes a quick start section and gives you a thorough
explanation of all menus, ARexx and AmigaDOS scripting commands. It also
devotes a chapter on video signal technology (very informative for the
novice). 


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        The software is very well thought out and seems bug free. I was able
to use the software without out digging too deeply into the manual, and it
has not crashed the system. The software is Amiga Style Guide compliant.
        
        One dislike has to do with the user manual construction.  The
binding seems somewhat fragile. After only two days of use, some of the pages
are separating from the binding.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        Over the years I have owned and used LIVE! (A1000), DigiView
(A1000), and DCTV (A2000/A4000). Each product was an improvement over the
previous one in ease of use and image quality. Because of its dual
functionality as a display enhancer and slow scan digitizer, DCTV is still an
excellent value.


BUGS

        None from a user's point of view.
        

VENDOR SUPPORT

        The product was developed by MacroSystems of Germany.  However, it
is marketed in North America by MacroSystemUS. 


WARRANTY

        A warranty/registration card is included; however, the length of
warranty is not stated. I assume the standard 90 day warranty on electronics
applies.


CONCLUSIONS

        I'm impressed by the software interface and the control that
user has over the hardware.

        As a whole I give this product 4 out of 5 stars. I think the
manual should be spiral bound so that it is a bit more durable.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 Joseph F. Korczynski.  All rights reserved.
                        Reprinted with permission.



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> AR Dealer Directory        These are not ads -- just a reader service!
  ===================

                            Armadillo Brothers
                            753 East 3300 South
                           Salt Lake City, Utah
                           VOICE:  801-484-2791
                              GEnie:  B.GRAY


                           Finetastic Computers
                             721 Washington St
                             Norwood, MA 02062
                           VOICE:  617-762-4166
                       Portal:  FinetasticComputers
            Internet Mail:  FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com


                                MicroSearch
                        9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
                              Houston, Texas
                           VOICE:  713-988-2818
                            FAX:  713-995-4994


          (Dealers:  To have your name added, please send Email!)

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                    Amiga Report's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
                    """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


> A "Quotable Quote"
  ==================


     "These headphones are only $5.95, and we have an extended service
                        plan for an extra $19.95."



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       Amiga Report International Online Magazine ~ STR Publications
                     -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *-
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AR Online!             "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE"           May 7, 1993
Amiga Report       Copyright (c) 1993 All Rights Reserved           No.1.08
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Views, Opinions and  Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors  and staff  of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of
STR Publications.  Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless
otherwise  noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the
publication, date, issue number and the author's  name. Amiga Report and/or
portions  therein may not be edited in any  way without prior  written per-
mission. However, translation into another language is acceptable, provided
the original meaning is  kept intact.  Amiga  Report, at  the time  of pub-
lication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con-
tributors are not  and cannot  be held responsible for the use or misuse of
information contained herein or the results obtained there from.
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