@database "ar126.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report 1.26, September 24, 1993"

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                       International Online Magazine

                
September 24, 1993                                                 No. 1.26
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


                            From STR Publishing

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

@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
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                        WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT
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___________________________________________________________________________


/// 09/24/93 Amiga Report 1.26   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · Dealer Directory      · AR Online            · AR Confidential
    · InterNet via Email    · SHI News             · A.M.I.G.A.

                          » WOCA Reports Continue! «
                       » Lightwave with the Toaster? «
                               » MOD Charts! «

===========================================================================
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
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@node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

/// From the Editor's Desk                        "Saying it like it is!"
    ----------------------


Another summer has come and gone.  Temperatures are falling.  The weather
here in Omaha has been great for the past few weeks -- in the 60s and 70s,
with an occaisonal jaunt into the 80s.  With the arrival of Fall comes the
general increase in online activity, since the cooler weather is moving
people back indoors.  The major online services will really be jumping here
soon, and more exciting things should happen in the Amiga community.

On the down side, there are rumors that Jim Dionne, President of Commodore,
has resigned.  Calls to Commodore attempting to verify this rumor have been
met with "no comment."  Hopefully, the facts will make themselves known in
the near future.

But on a more positive note, the CD32 will hopefully make its limited debut
in the US sometime next month.  I'm anxious to see one of these little
jewels.  I'm also eagerly awaiting the CD32-compatible CD-ROM drive that
Commodore has announced for the Amiga 1200 and 4000.  The CD32, if
successful, should help bring Commodore back into the realm of viable
alternatives to the DOS platform.  And it'll be a source of some good
games too!

                                 Rob @ AR


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P2-2 "AR Staff"
@toc "menu"

The Amiga Report Staff                          Dedicated to serving you!
======================

  
                                    Editor
                                    ======

                                 Robert Glover

 Portal:                             Rob-G
 Delphi:                             ROB_G
 FidoNet:                           1:285/11
 AmigaNet:                         40:200/10
 Internet:                      ROB_G@Delphi.COM


                                Associate Editor
                                ================


                              Technical Department
                              --------------------

                                  Robert Niles

 Portal:                            RNiles
 Delphi:                            RNILES
 FidoNet:                         1:3407/104
 Internet:                   rniles@imtired.itm.com


                   ________________________________________
 


                         Contributing Correspondents
                         ===========================
                              Keith Christopher
                                Jason Compton
                                Chad Freeman
                               David C. Navas
                                 Dan Zerkle




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


@endnode
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@node P4-1 "Delphi"
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/// Delphi:  It's Getting Better All The Time!
    ------------------------------------------


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


                          SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
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                  DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!


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@node P1-2 "CPU Status Report"
@toc "menu"

/// CPU Status Report                     Late Breaking Industry-Wide News
    -----------------



FCC Split On Personal Communication Networks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Communications Commission approved long-
awaited rules on the auction of microwave frequencies for Personal 
Communication Networks, or PCNs, by a split 2-1 vote. 

The plan, originally written by Commission staff, would require auction
participants to make up-front payments in order to be qualified, and would
split the available 160 megahertz of spectrum between 1.8 and 2.2 GHz into two
30 MHz blocks, a single 20 MHz block and four 10 MHz blocks. The spectrum would
be used for voice, fax, data, and even paging services, in competition with
existing cellular and paging operators. 

Since the spectrum being offered is at a much higher frequency than the
existing cellular spectrum, "cell sites" would have to be closer together than
in current cellular systems, but power requirements would be much lower,
meaning smaller hand-sets could be used. 

Geographically, the commission designated 51 Metropolitan Trading Areas and 492
Basic Trading Areas, as defined by Rand McNally, rejecting a call by MCI for
national licensing. The commission also ruled that existing cellular operators
will be eligible for new PCN licenses, but only outside their existing service
areas or areas where the cellular licensee serves less than 10 percent of the
population of the proposed PCN network. 

A company is considered a cellular licensee if it owns 20 percent or more of a
cellular system -- many systems have multiple owners. 

The regional Bells will be subject to the same ownership rules as other
cellular operators. Companies may acquire up to 40 MHz of frequency space per
service area and there are no geographic restrictions, so technically national
service is possible. 

Voting for the plan were interim chairman James Quello, a Democrat appointed by
President Nixon in 1974, and Commissioner Ervin Duggan, a Democrat appointed by
President Bush in 1990. Voting against the staff plan was Commissioner Andrew
Barrett, a Republican appointed by President Reagan. Barrett issued a long
rebuttal, writing that "In an attempt to make everyone happy, the majority has
created a consensus decision that involves a complicated labyrinth of a few
large allocations and numerous small market allocations, in varying size
spectrum blocks." 

Basically, Barrett found the final decision too complicated, creating high
costs for companies in acquiring licenses. "The decision imposes impractical
transaction costs in order to accomplish complicated spectrum and market
aggregation schemes across over 2,000 small licenses throughout the country,"
he concluded. 

This is far from the end of the matter. The rules do not have to be finalized
until next March. Between now and then, public comments are being sought, and
interest groups are bound to have their say. In addition, incoming chairman
Reed Hundt, a Clinton appointee, is expected to be in office soon, and will
have a vote on the final plan. It's also expected that a fifth commissioner,
nominally a Republican, will have been appointed by the President and confirmed
before the commission votes on the final plan. Even after that vote, there is a
chance for reconsideration and amendment. 

The Clinton Administration hopes to earn $8-10 billion for the Treasury through
auctioning off the PCN spectrum. Such auctions were originally proposed by
former commissioner Alfred Sikes, now an executive with Hearst Corp., during
the Bush Administration, and during that administration, Congressional
Democrats opposed the idea. That opposition vanished after President Clinton
expressed support for the auctions. 

Reaction to the decision was immediate. McCaw Cellular issued a press release
with praise for the plan. "The FCC's decision to issue licenses of varying size
to both experienced service providers and new entrants into the market will
ensure a wide variety of wireless services at competitive prices," the release
stated. "I expect there will be spirited bidding for this expansion of wireless
service," added Chairman Craig McCaw. McCaw recently agreed to be acquired by
AT&T. 


                      ------------------------------



New Ergo Keyboard From Ergologic, Key Tronic

FREMONT, CALIFORNIA -- If you type a lot and hate the idea of relearning some
new keyboard that is supposed to be good for you ergonomically, Ergologic has
a new idea for you. Ergologic and Key Tronic have come up with a standard 
QWERTY-based keyboard for IBM and compatible personal computers (PCs) that 
the companies claim is adjustable so each individual can get their hands in 
the most natural position. 

Since evidence indicates that the debilitating condition carpal tunnel and
Desquervain's Tenosynovitis may be caused by keyboards, interest in keyboards
made more closely to the design of the human hand and body is high.
Approximately seventeen percent of users who use a keyboard more than two hours
a day suffer from pain, numbness, and loss of finger control, and repetitive
motion disorders account for more than 50 percent of all workplace injuries.
Several attempts have been made by various keyboard manufacturers to solve this
problem. 

The Ergologic keyboard looks like a standard keyboard, but the company has
split the keyboard in half and the sides rotate up and in so the user can type
on a standard keyboard with their hands at a more natural angle. The angle of
the halves is set with a knob on the left side of the keyboard and it takes
only seven seconds to make the adjustment, according to Lance Rucker, president
of Ergologic. Seven seconds is the magic number, Rucker said, because if the
time to make an adjustment is longer, even as little as 15 seconds, users will
simply give up and use the keyboard the way it is. 

Integrated hand rests have also been designed to support the forearm weight and
increase comfort in the neck, back, and shoulders during keyboard use. Like the
other portions of the keyboard, the hand rests are also adjustable and do not
interfere with the users normal movement during data input. 

The spacebar is a reverse activation spacebar which allows the thumb to work
the same way it does when picking up something, or it can be used in the
standard way. Users may also control the backspace and return keys with the
thumb if they wish. 

Rucker, an ergonomics and Performance Logic specialist, has done extensive
research into keyboard design. "It was a spin- off of design work we were doing
for surgical settings. Some of our people were very concerned about the
awkwardness and contortions of computer input and we decided to do something
about it," Rucker said. 

The Ergologic Keyboard will be marketed both by Ergologic and by Key Tronic,
which is the manufacturer. Retail pricing is expected to be $399 and company
officials expect the units to be available in November of this year. Key Tronic
will demonstrate the keyboards in both of its booths at the computer trade show
Comdex in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 15-19. 



                      ------------------------------



PCMCIA III Hard Drives Arrive

FELTHAM, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND -- PPCP, the portable peripherals distributor, 
has announced the availability of an 85-megabyte (MB) removable PCMCIA 
(personal computer memory card industry association) type III hard disk.

The drive, which has been imported into the UK from Calluna Technology, has two
1.8-inch format disks inside, yet comes in a unit that slips straight into a
PCMCIA III card slot. 

John Nolan, PPCP's managing director, said that the UKP 499 unit's average seek
time is 18 milliseconds and has a data transfer rate of up to 4MB a second. 

"The drive opens up enormous possibilities for portable PC users. It has enough
capacity to carry all a user's applications as well as data, from machine to
machine," he said. "As with most PCMCIA devices at the moment, availability to
the market is everything and we have product available now," he added. 

The drive incorporates standby and sleep modes for power conservation. When
active, it consumes 425 milliamps (mA) of power and 250mA when idle. 

PPCP is claiming a mean time between failures (MTBF) of more than 150,000
hours. Shock resistance is 300 times the force of gravity (G) when
non-operational and 100G when operational. The unit measures 85.6 x 54 x 10.5
millimetres and weighs just 65 grams. 



                      ------------------------------



Spinnaker Power Album Organizes Images

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS -- Spinnaker Software Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.) has 
released PFS:PowerAlbum for Windows, a $59.95 program said to offer a simple 
way to organize, preview and access disparate clip art, scans, images and 
drawings for desktop publishing or other graphical applications. 

As clip art and scanned image collection expands, files are typically scattered
across numerous directories, drive partitions and network drives. DOS's
8-character name limitation restricts descriptive file names, making it
difficult to determine image contents. 

To catalog images, PFS:PowerAlbum for Windows generates a "thumbnail"
representation and stores it in an "album" file, while leaving the image in its
original directory location and file format to maintain image integrity. The
album file can be further organized into categories. 

In addition to the image organizer, PFS:Power Album also includes 1,000 color
clip art images that can augment an existing image library or provide a new
user with a ready-made clip art repertoire. 

The software is available at computer stores and can also be had direct from
the company by calling 800-826-0706 or 800-851-2917. Spinnaker Software is at
201 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139. 



                      ------------------------------



US Space Efforts In Multimedia

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Americans are fascinated with space travel. They crowd
the beaches and the fields surrounding the launch and landing areas by the 
hundreds of thousands. 

Now you can follow the efforts of the American manned space flight program from
the early experimental rockets and the X-15 program to the latest space shuttle
missions while sitting at your computer with a multimedia software program
introduced recently by Multicom Publishing Inc. 

Called Americans in Space, the program, for Mac or PC, allows the user to sit
in their very own Mission Control and view crew photos, hear audio clips, and
watch video or animation of each milestone in America's space program.
Americans in Space has over sixty minutes of video clips, including the last
launch of the shuttle Challenger, and more than 90 minutes of narration. There
are also nearly 600 images including crew and mission photos and artists
renditions of the space station Freedom. 

According to Multicom President Tamara Attard the software has more video than
any other space-oriented title. "Americans in Space is fully narrated, making
it engaging and easily used be even the younger members of the family,"
according to Attard. 

Multicom Marketing Manager Dan Norton-Middaugh told Newsbytes the company
believes the consumer multimedia market is just forming, and that many
purchasers of CD-ROM drive-equipped PCs have little choice in software beyond
games and reference materials. "Multicom titles are designed for these people,"
says Norton-Middaugh. 

Americans in Space has a suggested retail price of $69.95. It runs on any Apple
Computer Macintosh II-level machine equipped with Hypercard, a CD-ROM drive and
a 13-inch or larger color monitor. Program disks for MPC-compatible systems are
also included. IBM-compatible multimedia systems require Windows 3.1, a CD-ROM
drive, and an SVGA monitor to run Americans in Space. 



                      ------------------------------



Nolan Bushnell Returns With OCTuS

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- Nolan Bushnell, the man who gave us Pong, is back 
again with yet- another company, called OCTuS, and at the Tele-Communications 
Association show announced the company's first product, a Personal 
Telecommunications Assistant. 

The product consists of Windows-based software that provides communications
management, fax, answering machine and voice services functions, plus a
telephone-to-PC interface to access and control the telephone system. The first
release of the product is designed to work with telephone companies' central
office switches providing what is called Centrex service, as well as standard
phone lines and analog lines behind a business' private switch or PBX (private
branch exchange). Later versions are expected to support a broader range of
PBXs including digital systems. 

Pacific Bell said it will co-market PTA, which it called a graphical
communications control center, in conjunction with its Centrex, Voice Mail, and
other products. The agreement will also enable the two companies to market
their products using each other's logos. Pacific Bell said the new deal is the
extension of a business alliance agreement signed last April. The combined
offering will be marketed as Pacific Bell's Desktop Companion. The two parties
also said PTA could be the first of many product offerings from them. Further
announcements and a formal product launch are expected before the end of the
year. 

In a press statement, Bushnell said graphical interfaces and improved hardware
are making computers easier to use, but telephones are getting more
complicated. "The OCTuS PTA system returns control to the user. It makes even
the toughest phone system as easy to use as today's best computers." 

The system replaces current desktop tools with a point-and-click system,
including name and address books, fax access, answering machine functions,
speaker-phone and feature phone features, and a speed dialer, all accessible
from within any Microsoft Windows application. Icons are used to place and
receive calls, transfer calls and forward them, even access voice mail,
conferencing calling, and fax functions, as well as contact histories and the
integrated address book. 

Instead of the telephone's ringing, the PTA provides a silent "pop-up message"
and button bar that gives someone the chance to decide how to handle the call.
In areas with Caller ID service, the system can even present information on the
caller, including a contact history. 

Bushnell said he is working with three other regional Bells on deals similar to
the one he has with Pacific Bell. The suggested list price is $599. 



                      ------------------------------



Motorola To Enter PDA Race

SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS  -- Motorola will make a wireless "personal communicator" 
based on the Microsoft At Work interface. The device will compete with 
products like the AT&T Personal Communicator and Apple Newton. 

A key component of the new device, whose design was not announced, will be an
in-board wireless modem that can access data and exchange messages with a
variety of networks. Earlier this year Motorola announced a range of wireless
modems based on "PC Card" technology under the PCMCIA standard. 

The announcement is important for both companies, and the industry. For
Motorola, the announcement puts it into direct competition with Apple, AT&T and
others in the growing, but still nascent, PDA marketplace, with a unique
product under its own label. For Microsoft, the deal means it will not be left
behind Go's PenPoint and Apple's Newton technology in the marketplace. 

The new device will be produced by a unit of Motorola headed by Bob Growney,
who also produced the PC Card modems. Growney said in a press statement that
connections to desktop software represent a key advantage of the Motorola
device. 

Pat Richardson, general manager of the Motorola Paging and Wireless Data
Group's Subscriber Products Division, said the deal is totally non-exclusive,
adding, "We will continue to align ourselves with major industry leaders,
including computer and consumer electronics manufacturers, software developers,
industry standards groups, and service providers. Our goal is to support major
industry  operating platforms, as well as all wireless networks." 

Earlier this year, Motorola said it would offer a wireless personal
communicator based on General Magic's Magic Cap application platform, and
confirmed its membership in the General Magic Alliance, along with Apple, Sony,
AT&T, Philips and Matsushita. 

In March, it announced a license agreement on Apple's Newton technology, with
plans to market a device based on it. Motorola announced its decision to sign
an alliance with Microsoft in June. 

Motorola said it remains committed to its other agreements, with General Magic
and Apple, and will announce products based on those agreements in the future.
A spokesman also told Newsbytes the company is being deliberately vague about
the specific design of the Microsoft-based product, saying design, shipment,
and pricing announcements will all be made closer to the actual shipment date
of the product. 


                      ------------------------------




Pen Computers Make It Into College Football

REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA -- College football is moving to pen computing 
for play diagrams and game data via a new software product, "Athlepad," 
from Pentech of Lansing, Michigan. The highly portable pen-computers are 
taking over time-consuming hand drawing tasks as well as offering portable 
electronic forms for scouting and medical training. 

Currently coaches spend 10-20 hours a week drawing playing cards for practice
sessions and often the cards must be redrawn in a week with small changes or
even no changes, according to Pentech. However, coaches at the University of
Pittsburgh, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the
University of Wisconsin are using Athlepad's practice card drawing program for
their x's and o's. This is especially attractive since coaches don't need to
use a keyboard or know how to type in order to make efficient use of the
program. 

Pentech says the formations, backfields, fronts, coverage and plays are
designed using a method of pointing the pen to the proper area on the screen.
The play lines are then drawn and stored for future use, and previous plays can
be recalled, modified and stored as new plays. In addition, the plays can be
printed on card stock with a laser printer for use during the practice
sessions. The company said it also integrated the video editing system of
Clearwater, Florida's Athletech Computer Systems into Athlepad for reviewing
games. The coaches are using Grid Convertible pen-based computers, although
representatives for CIC said the software will run on a variety of other
pen-based computers as well. 

The football programs were developed using software from Redwood Shores,
California-based CIC, which develops the PenDOS pen operating system and the
accompanying Handwriter Recognition System. PenDOS makes DOS applications into
pen- aware applications, handling handwriting recognition, gestures, and inking
capabilities. The product supplements DOS so developers can use the same tools
to create pen applications as to create DOS keyboard-based applications, added
CIC. 


                      ------------------------------



Aldus To Bundle PhotoStyler In Multimedia Kit

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Aldus Corporation says it has teamed up with 
Singapore-based Creative Technology Limited to bundle PhotoStyler Special 
Edition with a Creative OmniCD, the Sound Blaster DigitalEdge CD, the 
Sound Blaster Discover CD 16, or a Sound Blaster Edutainment CD 16 
multimedia upgrade kit. 

The kits are being distributed by Creative's US subsidiary Creative Labs Inc.
The special edition versions of PhotoStyler 1.1a and the forthcoming version
2.0 offer a reduced feature set of the complete product, and are designed for
use with other manufacturer's products. PhotoStyler SE includes the image
retouching, color correction, filters, special effects, and image
transformation tools. 

Greg VendenDries, sales VP at Creative Labs, says the agreement will allow
Creative to broaden the firm's multimedia market. "Aldus PhotoStyler SE allows
our users to obtain complete solutions for the creation and incorporation of
Kodak Photo CD images, as well as giving them a more professional design tool."
Kodak Photo CD technology allows computer users to have pictures they take with
a camera stored on a CD disk. The images can then be viewed and manipulated by
computer software such as PhotoStyler. 

Each multimedia upgrade kit from Creative includes a multi-session CD-ROM
interface card, a CD-ROM drive with a 680MB storage capacity, one of the Sound
Blaster cards, and the necessary cabling to connect the drive to an
IBM-compatible personal computer. 

The Sound Blaster DigitalEdge CD kit gives users the ability to play 16-bit
sound. Also included are several CD-based software packages, including
Microsoft Works for Windows, Macromedia's Action and Authorware Star graphics
presentation programs, and VoiceAssis, a speech recognition program from
Creative Labs. There is also object linking and embedding software that allows
the user to add speech or music to any application that supports OLE, and a
text-to-speech utility called Monologue for Windows that reads and vocalizes
text, numbers, and data from Windows applications. You also get The Software
Toolworks 21-volume Multimedia Encyclopedia. 

Creative says the suggested retail price for the kit will vary depending on
which Sound Blaster card is being bundled. The full version of PhotoStyler has
a suggested retail price of $795. If you buy one of the multimedia kits bundled
with PhotoStyler SE you can upgrade to the full version for $150. 



                      ------------------------------




Apple Media Kit: Build Mac, Windows Multimedia Apps

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA -- Apple Computer's Personal Interactive Electronic 
(PIE) division has announced a software developer toolkit the company claims 
will allow developers to build multimedia applications that will run in both 
the Macintosh environment and the Microsoft Windows environment for Intel-
based personal computers (PCs). 

Duncan Kennedy, product line manager for Apple's Digital Publishing Tools said:
"Multimedia developers are frustrated with steep learning curves, poor playback
performance and unpredictable results. Developers are demanding a new
generation of tools that allow production teams to work together seamlessly; we
are addressing this demand with the Apple Media Kit." 

The Apple Media Tool Kit comprises two components -- the Apple Media Tool for
designers, and the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment for programmers.
The Media Tool is aimed at non-programmers and offers assembly of media
elements and the addition of interactive multimedia features with object-based
authoring. 

The company says that prototypes can be generated easily using rough-draft
media elements and interactivity between different media elements can be
preserved, even when work-in-progress is substituted for finished content. 

Apple held up Los Angeles Times Media Lab director Jude Angius, who used the
Apple Media Kit with a team of reporters to produce a Super Bowl multimedia
presentation. Angius said: "...We met our deadline in less than four weeks.
Apple showed us the product, and we saw that it would allow us to integrate all
the elements quickly and easily." 

The second component, the Apple Media Programming Environment, is for
programmers, allowing the customization and extension of projects developed
using the Apple Media Tool. A new programming language is included and a new
application framework, the company said. 

While the downside is having to learn yet another development language and
paying a royalty for distribution of finished applications, Apple lists the
advantages as: combining an object- oriented program language with a scripting
language; allowing for portable code between Macintosh computers and PCs
running Microsoft Windows; and providing access to both Macintosh and Microsoft
Windows' toolboxes through a C language interface. 

Andy Hong, technologist at the Art Technology Group in Cambridge, Massachusetts
said the learning curve for his programmers was a short one. "We were building
controls and special features for an exhibit right away. The programming
language is very powerful, and if you really want to enhance the program, you
can also write code in C," Hong added. 

A runtime player must be licensed from Apple for a fee based on the application
and the distribution quantity. Corporate licensing is $5,000 per year for
unlimited use or 50 cents per copy. Commercial publishers must pay 2 percent of
the title's average wholesale price and 3 percent of the average price for
hybrid CDs. Educational licensing is free. 

PIE says that the Apple Media Tool is $1,195, but can be obtained for an
introductory price of $995. Also, the product is bundled with Videofusion 1.5,
a special effects software package valued at $649. 

The Apple Media Kit, which includes the Apple Media Tool, the Programming
Environment and the Videofusion bundle, is $3,995. APDA, Apple's source for
developer tools is handling the Apple Media Kit, and the company says prices
outside the US may vary. 



                      ------------------------------



Electronic Imaging '93 - 3D Eyewear For Kubota Workstations

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS -- At Electronic Imaging '93, StereoGraphics has 
announced a $2 million agreement to supply Kubota-Pacific Computer with its 
CrystalEyes active shuttering eyewear and other 3D (three-dimensional) 
stereographic products. 

Used for virtual reality applications, flybys, and industrial purposes, the
CrystalEyes eyewear is synchronized with the monitor, according to the company.
The monitor alternately displays the left and right images of each stereo pair
at 120 frames-per-second, resulting in a "true stereo 3D image." 

Kubota plans to offer the eyewear with Kubota Kenai ("keen eye") workstations,
which are based on DEC's Alpha AXP processor and Kubota's scalable Denali
graphics subsystem, as well as with Kubota's own Denali workstations. 

Silicon Graphics, another workstation vendor, has been providing the eyewear
with its workstations for the past six or seven years, said Paul D. Wait, sales
engineer, speaking with Newsbytes at the StereoGraphics booth. 

In the booth, StereoGraphics ran a demo on a Kubota workstation of a 3D flyby
of Orange County. StereoGraphics has also produced a demo of Autodesk, Wait
told Newsbytes. The company hopes to have applications based on StereoGraphic
equipment accessible from an icon in an upcoming edition of Autodesk's 3D
studio, he noted. 



                      ------------------------------



Electronic Imaging '93 - Smallest CCD Camera Module

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS -- At Electronic Imaging '93 this week, Sony introduced 
a product billed as the smallest CCD camera module ever made, along with an 
ultra-tiny color liquid crystal display (LCD) display.

Both products will be used for professional broadcasting and film applications,
and the CCD camera module might also be used in desktop peripherals, said Jim
Trumpp, national sales manager, in an interview with Newsbytes on the show
floor. 

Several Sony customers will be taking the camera and LCD, encased in protective
enclosures, on underwater ocean filming expeditions, Trumpp told Newsbytes.
Customers in this market segment include Osprey and Deep Sea Power & Light, he
added. Many land-based applications are also on the way, he said. 

The 1.7- by 1.1- by 3.1-inch XC-MO7 monitor is designed to function as a
"portable viewfinder," and is ideal for testing camera installations, he
explained.  The miniature monitor weighs only 4.2 ounces, requires only a
12-volt power supply, and has a total power consumption of only 2-watts. The
display area is just 0.7-inch wide. 

The RGB (red, green, blue) pixels of the LCD are arranged in a delta pattern,
which is aimed at providing exceptional picture quality compared to the fixed
color pattern found in vertical stripe and mosaic pattern arrangements. 

According to Trumpp, the LCD is the first of its size to offer zero retention
time, meaning that a shadow of a previous image is not retained by the panel. 

The new "subminiature" XC-777 CCD module measures less than four-inches in
height and under one-inch in both height and width, making it one-third smaller
than Sony's previously released XC-999 module, he told Newsbytes. 

The module outputs stand color video signals, either NTSC composite or Y/C,
producing horizontal resolution of 470 TV lines. The use of Sony's Hyper HAD
(Hole Accumulated Diode) technology has reduced light sensitivity to 4.5 lux,
said Trumpp. Signal-to- noise ratio has been improved to more than 48dB. 



                      ------------------------------



Gateway 2000 Intros Pentium-Powered Local Bus PC

NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA -- Gateway 2000 has announced that it is now 
accepting orders for a Pentium-based PC that uses PCI local bus architecture. 
The unit is scheduled to ship in mid-October. 

The company says that the P5-60, is available in volume. Base configuration
includes a 424 megabyte (MB) hard drive, 16MB of system memory, a 2MB video
card, a double speed CD-ROM drive that Gateway says transfers data at the rate
of 300 kilobytes (KB) per second, a 1.44MB 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, 16 KB of
internal cache memory, a 15-inch non-interlaced CrystalScan color monitor, a
mouse, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and a choice of application software. Gateway
says the P5-60 is more economical than comparably configured systems that are
powered by a 66 megahertz (MHz) 486DX2 chip. 

The P5-60 uses a 32-bit PCI local bus that Gateway says can move data up to 15
percent faster than through existing VESA (Video Electronics STandards
Association) local bus designs. If the user adds peripherals such as modems or
network cards, the system BIOS (basic input/output) recognizes and
automatically configures them. Gateway says peripherals running on the PCI bus
run at a 33MHz clock speed, more than four times the rate used on standard ISA
(Industry Standard Architecture) bus expansion slots. 

The unit comes in a tower style case that accommodates five external drive
bays, six internal drive bays, two fans, and a 300 watt power supply. Gateway
will install Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program, the CD-ROM edition of
Microsoft Word and Bookshelf, MS Powerpoint presentation software, Microsoft
Project project management, Microsoft Entrepreneur Pack, or Borland's
Paradox/Quattro package at no charge. The user can also elect to have a second
application installed, including several CD-ROM titles. Gateway says those are
available at competitive pricing and include Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft
Dinosaurs, Jazz: A Multimedia History, Microsoft Cinemania and the TIME Almanac
1993. 



                      ------------------------------



A BBS For Law Enforcement, Safety, Security Pros

PHOENIX, ARIZONA -- Wayne Church, Director of Safety and Security at the 231-
bed John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, says it is important for 
security, safety and law enforcement professionals to talk to each other, so 
he started a free computer bulletin board service where professionals in 
those industries can network and share ideas and information. 

"The goal was to bring together the software that would make available safety,
security, law enforcement, emergency disaster management, occupational health
and industrial hygiene files. so the professionals in those fields would have a
place to go to find the information they needed to do their job better. The
goal is to provide a resource," says Church. 

Called "Safe'n Secure BBS," the electronic bulletin board allows users to
download text and graphics files that contain information about safety,
emergency and disaster planning, hazardous materials, security, hostage crisis
management, and law enforcement issues. In addition to text files, pictures of
missing children distributed by the National Center For Missing and Exploited
Children located in Arlington, Virginia, are also on the board. 

Users can also upload information they want to share. The FBI recognized the
importance of electronic bulletin boards in its March 1991 bulletin, calling
them "a useful tool for law enforcement officials." 

Church says that while there are a number of general purpose computer bulletin
boards across the nation, only a small percentage are for law enforcement and
safety officials, and none are for security personnel except those interested
in computer security issues. "What I wanted was a board that would allow
security directors to swap policies and procedures, find software that would
let them do their job better, and obtain demo copies of software so they could
download it and try them out." 

Safe n' Secure uses the "Wildcat!" software program published by Bakersfield,
CA-based Mustang Software Inc.  "It's very easy for someone who has never been
on a bulletin board to use," says Church. Users with modem-equipped PCs can
call the BBS using almost any communications software program, including those
that came with their modem. 

Safe n' Secure is also a place where users can exchange electronic mail, and
Church posts bulletins announcing industry happenings and information on how to
be certified as a Certified Protection Professional (CCP) by the American
Society For Industrial Security or a Certified Healthcare Protection
Administrator (CHPA) by the International Association of Healthcare Security
and Safety. 

Even though the BBS has only been in operation officially since June 1993,
there are already almost 700 files available for reading and/or downloading,
and the board has over 100 users registered. Church verifies the professional
status of each new caller by phone the following day since that status
determines what areas of the board will be accessible. 

There is no charge to use Safe'n Secure, but Church does accept contributions
towards upgrade of the computer equipment, and contributors are granted more
board privileges. "It doesn't even have to be money. If someone wants to
contribute a CD-ROM I'll accept that in lieu of cash," he told Newsbytes. The
board hasn't acquired non-profit status yet, although that is one of Church's
goals, so donations are not tax-deductible. Contributions go towards expanding
the system and adding more phone lines.  Church wants to add a CD-ROM drive and
an eight line modem. 

Most of the downloadable files are formatted for IBM-compatible PCs, but there
is also a section of the board devoted to Apple Computer's Macintosh users.
Church is looking for a Macintosh "sysop" or system operator, a user to run
that portion of the board. He compresses his files in order to save download
time and disk storage space. The software needed to decompress files is
available on the board, along with the program required to view graphics images
such as the missing children pictures. 

Church has written a parking management computer program for the hospital that
tracks assigned parking, registration, towing wheel locks and citations. A demo
version is available for downloading at no cost except long distance charges.
It is also available on a computer disk for $15. The full version sells for
$289. 


                      ------------------------------



Apple Offers Free Newton OS 1.04 Update

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA -- Apple Computer is shipping the latest version of 
the Newton Messagepad operating system (os), Newton System 1.04, to users 
without charge. The Sharp Newton-workalike called the Expertpad is also 
available. 

For Newton users without a Connection Kit or a modem, the way to update the
Newton OS or ROM is to contact Apple directly via a special toll-free number
and make a request. Apple is not charging for the version 1.04 update, but the
company is taking credit card numbers to ensure it gets back the old Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card with the previous
version of the Newton OS on it. Delivery is estimated at seven days and a
pre-paid return envelop is provided for return of the old PCMCIA card. 

The 1.04 update offers fixes for screen problems present in the 1.03 version
and Apple says it offers improved memory and power management. 

The Sharp Expertpad is available in some retail outlets, such as Mac Warehouse,
and the main difference between the Expertpad and the Messagepad appears to be
that the AC adapter is extra. Mac Warehouse told Newsbytes the Expertpad is
$699 and the AC adapter is an additional $39. Some users have said they like
the slimmer appearance and the built-in open and close cover of the Expertpad.
However, reports are some Expertpad users could end up with the 1.03 version of
the Newton OS and Apple's position is not to upgrade Expertpad users to version
1.04. 

The way to discover the version of the ROM or OS is to bring up "preferences"
on the Expertpad or Messagepad, which also displays the version number at the
bottom of the screen. 


                The preceding stories are © 1993 NewsBytes.
                        Reprinted with permission.

@endnode
            __________________________________________________

@node P1-3 "The Scientist"
@toc "menu"


                           THE  SCIENTIST, INC.
                            3501 Market Street
                          Philadelphia, PA 19104
                                    USA


For more information, contact:

EUGENE GARFIELD, Ph.D.
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Phone : (215)386-0100 Ext. 1504
Fax   :  (215)387-1266
E-mail: garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu


THE SCIENTIST newspaper, now available on Internet

THE SCIENTIST a biweekly newspaper for scientists and the research community,
is now available electronically -- in full text and free of charge -- on the
internet network via ftp, WAIS, and Gopher.  Eugene Garfield, publisher of
THE SCIENTIST states that electronic access to the newspaper's articles and
features has been made available following a successful trial experiment on
NSFnet, the electronic communications network of the National Science
Foundation.

Founded in 1986, THE SCIENTIST is published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
USA, and is circulated internationally to researchers, administrators, and
policy makers in academia, industry, and government.  THE SCIENTIST is the
only newspaper that exclusively covers current issues and events that impact
the professional research environment--including funding legislation, new
grants, employment and salary trends, career advancement opportunities,
ethics and conflicts of interest, representation of women and minorities in
science, and the interplay of industrial, academic, and governmental research.
In addition, THE SCIENTIST reports on trends in research and features the
opinions of leaders in science.


THE SCIENTIST can be accessed on the InterNIC (AT&T) server by the in-
structions provided below.  The full text of issues from November 1992 onward
are accessible.  New issues are added every two weeks on alternate Mondays,
coinciding with the cover date of the printed edition.  Back issues are being
loaded every other week, until the full seven year file is complete.

INSTRUCTIONS FOLLOW....


          INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING THE SCIENTIST ON AT&T SERVER

via FTP
-------
type:  ftp ds.internic.net
login or name, type: anonymous
for password, type in your internet address
at ftp prompt type: cd pub/the-scientist
at next prompt type: dir

This will list the files in THE SCIENTIST directory

type : get (and the issue you wish to retrieve)
To leave the server, type: quit


THE SCIENTIST files are added every two weeks.
File numbers will correspond to date of publication.
Example:  get the-scientist-921207
is:       the-scientist-92(for year) 12(for month) 07(day)



                              OR
via GOPHER
----------

THE SCIENTIST is available on the InterNIC Gopher Server

From your Gopher client, connect to internic.net 70
For example using a UNIX Gopher client, type: gopher internic.net_70
(NOTE: _70 = space 70.    70 is Port 70)

You will be at the following menu:
      1.  Information about the InterNIC.
      2.  InterNIC Information Services (General Atomics)/
      3.  InterNIC Registration Services (NSI)/
      4.  InterNIC Directory and Database Services (AT&T)/

Choose: #4 -  InterNIC Directory and Database Services (AT&T)/

You will be at the following menu:
      1.  InterNIC Directory of Directories Resource Types/
      2.  Information about the InterNIC Directory and Database Services/
      3.  IETF Documents/
      4.  IETF Steering Group Documents/
      5.  Internet Draft Documents/
      6.  Internet Informational RFC Documents (FYIs)/
      7.  Internet Policies and Procedures/
      8.  Internet Request For Comments (RFC) Documents/
      9.  Internet Society (ISOC) Documents/
      10. Internet Standard RFC Documents (STDs)/
      11. National Science Foundation Databases/
      12. Publically Accessible Databases/
      13. Publically Accessible Sources/
      14. The DS WHOIS Database <?>
      15. The Internet Resource Guide/

Choose: #12 -  Publically Accessible Databases/

You will be at the following menu:
      1.  TRAINER-DIALOG for DIALOG Information Services/
      2.  THE SCIENTIST - Newsletter/

Choose: #2 - The Scientist-Newsletter/


You will now be at THE SCIENTIST's menu where you can find help,
for key-word searches, see an overview, an index or select an
entire issue.
                               OR
via TELNET/WAIS Client
----------------------
type:telnet ds.internic.net
at login, type:  wais      (lower case;  no password required)
at search prompt, type     : db the-scientist
at next search prompt, type: query_(key words to be searched)

To view a file, type: view (serial number of the file retrieved)

A tutorial on searching by WAIS is available on the menu.
at search prompt, type: help

When you are finished, at search prompt, type: quit

                               OR

via TELNET/GUEST
----------------
type: telnet ds.internic.net
at login type  : guest  (no password required)

You will be at the following menu:
InterNIC Directory and Database Services Telnet Interface Main Menu

        1) Help Tutorial
        2) Person Lookup
        3) Institution Lookup
        4) Document Lookup by Name
        5) Document Lookup by Keyword
        6) Internet Resource Lookup
        7) Exit

Enter desired option (1-7) and press the <RETURN> key:

Choose #5
at the search prompt type: db the-scientist
at next search prompt type: query (key words to be searched)
When you are finished type: quit

                               OR
via EMAIL
---------
You can access THE SCIENTIST via AT&T mail server, which is
an automatic program that delivers information by electronic
mail.  To request THE SCIENTIST from the mail server, send
a message to:

mailserv@ds.internic.net

include the following lines in the body (NOT SUBJECT) of the
message:  file /ftp/pub/the-scientist/the-scientist-yymmdd
for path, type your return email address
type: end

The mail server will split the document into 64k chunks by
default and the requested information will be transmitted to


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P1-4 "NewBytes CD-ROM"
@toc "menu"


NewsBytes CD-ROM shipping


 *** Newsbytes Volume III - Available For $24.95 09/20/93 ***

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA -- Newsbytes Volume III, all the news, reviews,
and editorials that have been published on the Newsbytes News Network
through July of this year, is now available for $24.95 on CD-ROM
(compact disc - read only memory).

The disc, which runs on both Apple Computer Macintoshes and PCs,
contains the over 40,000 news stories on the world-wide computer and
telecommunications industries written between May, 1983 and August,
1993 by the Newsbytes News Network staff.

This rich compendium of reports, published by Wayzata Technologies,
chronicles everything from the infancy of the microcomputer to
today's highly diversified and complex array of technologies.

Newsbytes has a staff of 19 daily reporters in the following cities:
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Atlanta,
Washington, DC, Boston, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney,
New Delhi, and Moscow.

Newsbytes reports 30 stories a day, or 600 a month. These are
objective, first-hand new stories involving interviews with the
people who make the news, and on-site trade show coverage. A
Textware search engine enables the Volume III CD-ROM disc to be
keyword searched for stories in which individual words or text
strings appear,  or Boolean searched (eg "keyword1" plus "keyword2"
but not "keyword3"). This makes it an invaluable tool for
researchers and libraries.

According to Wendy Woods, Newsbytes' editor in chief, this is also
the lowest-ever price for a Newsbytes disc. Previous discs were,
according to Woods, priced in the $50 to $100 price bracket.

"We want to make sure everyone has access to our reports, and that
price is not a barrier. Our rich history of the computer industry is
the most extensive available on CD-ROM," she said.

Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication, has provided daily
coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications
industries to online services, magazines, newspapers, newsletters,
and fax and e-mail news delivery services world-wide since 1983.

Newsbytes coverage has won Best Online Publication awards four times
from the Computer Press Association, the largest organization of
professional computer journalists world-wide. Newsbytes is an
independent, privately held news organization.

The disc is $24.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling to US addresses,
$4.50 shipping and handling to all other countries. Those interested
in ordering the CD-ROM should send a check or money order, or their
Visa or Mastercard number, with expiration date (no American
Express please) to: CD-ROM Offer, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage
House, 406 West Olive St., Stillwater, MN 55082 or fax to 612-430-
0441. Please include shipping address.



@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P1-5 "Lightrave"
@toc "menu"


                   Lightwave 3D(tm) without the Toaster?

                      The solution is Lightrave(tm)!

September, 1993. Richmond, VA - Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc. announced their
solution for the Amiga(tm) computer which allows you to use NewTek's
Lightwave 3D animation system without the Video Toaster(tm). The product
is Lightrave - an all new hardware device that resides on the serial port
of ANY Amiga computer and emulates the necessary Toaster functions that
allow Lightwave to fully function on your Amiga!


Features:

HIGH SPEED EMULATION: Lightrave is a custom hardware module that emulates
all of the Toaster functions needed by Lightwave 3D!

TOASTER FREEDOM: Lightrave enables any Amiga to run Lightwave 3D without
requiring a Video Toaster to be installed.

NEW ADVANCED FEATURES: Lightrave adds a suite of professional features never
before available to Lightwave 3D users.

FASTER!!  Lightrave will render images faster than a Toaster equipped Amiga,
as no lengthy display time to the Video Toaster is required.

TRUE 24 BIT DISPLAY: Rendering is no longer limited to the Toaster's
composite display alone. Lightrave now allows Lightwave 3D to render
directly to the most popular 24bit graphic cards. Supported cards include
the GVP IV-24, Retina, Opalvision, DCTV, Firecracker, EGS Spectrum,
Piccolo, Picasso, Rainbow 3, Amiga, and Amiga-AGA displays.

PAL COMPATIBLE: Lightrave makes Lightwave 3D fully functional for European
PAL users.

FAST ANIMATIONS: Full screen preview animations previously only available
on the Toaster-4000(tm) are now available to all Lightwave 3D users. The
animations are stored in standard Amiga "Anim" animation formats and may
be transferred and edited by other Amiga programs. Direct rendering to DCTV
and OpalVision animation formats will be available shortly.

NETWORKING: Lightrave is fully network compatible. From the low cost Parnet
to the high end Ethernet solutions, Lightrave is the perfect solution for
all Lightwave 3D "Render Farms".

IMAGE PROCESSING: Render directly to GVP's ImageFX, where frames can be
image processed before being saved to disk!

FULLY COMPATIBLE: Works with the entire Amiga line of computers. Even the
Amiga 500 and the new Amiga 1200!


Requirements:

o       Lightwave 3D 2.0 or 3.0 required.
o       Compatible with all Commodore Amiga models, both NTSC and PAL.
o       Workbench and Kickstart 2.04 or later.
o       Lightwave 3D requires a minimum 512 chip RAM and 512k fast RAM.
o       Extended memory and hardware acceleration are reccomended.
o       2 Megs of Chip RAM is recommended for direct rendering to GVP IV-24.
o       Lightrave registration requires a Toaster registration number.


Lightrave is shipping now and carries a suggested retail price of $499.
Call your dealer or distributor for availability and product information.

Amiga is a trademark of Commodore Business Machines, Lightwave 3D, Video
Toaster and Toaster 4000 are trademarks of NewTek Inc., ImageFX is a
trademark of Great Valley Products, Inc.

Michael Vunck, President
Warm and Fuzzy Logic Inc.
2302 Marriot Road
Richmond, VA  23229


@endnode
                      ------------------------------

@node P1-6 "New Courier modems"
@toc "menu"


New Courier Modems Offer Host of New Features Including V.32 terbo, HST
Cellular, V.17, Security; Products to Ship September 1, 1993

SKOKIE, Ill. -- August 23, 1993 -- U.S. Robotics, Inc. today announced a major
evolution to its Courier modem line; the company will ship new Courier models
beginning September 1 that include a battery of new features, most notably the
19.2 Kbps V.32 terbo protocol and U.S. Robotics' proprietary Adaptive Speed
Leveling (ASL[tm]) technology, which further boosts speed to 21.6 Kbps.  The
new features fall into three broad categories:  increased data rates, fax
enhancements and high-end features.  The company is offering an upgrade
program for current Courier high-speed modem users, also beginning September
first.

U.S. Robotics Among First To Ship V.32 terbo

Among the features included in the new modems is V.32 terbo, a new protocol
for 19.2 Kbps data transmission developed by AT&T; Courier modems will be
among the first shipping products to include V.32 terbo, which delivers a 33
percent increase in speed over the 14.4 Kbps V.32 bis standard.  The move to
V.32 terbo is in keeping with U.S. Robotics' philosophy of developing modems
that support a variety of protocols and provide compatibility with a wide
range of modems from other vendors.

These products allow Courier customers to take advantage of increased data
rates, while still assuring them of a clear upgrade path to the forthcoming
V.fast standard. Additionally, the new modems provide Courier customers the
added benefit of proprietary technology that boosts connect speed to 21.6
Kbps.

Proprietary ASL Increases Speed to 21.6 Kbps; DTE Interface Rate Jumps to
115.2 Kbps

The Courier V.32 terbo modems include the company's proprietary Adaptive Speed
Leveling (ASL[tm]) protocol, boosting throughput to 21.6 Kbps, a 50 percent
increase in speed over the current 14,400 bps V.32 bis standard.  This
protocol allows users who are connecting two Courier modems to take advantage
of the 21.6 Kbps rate; V.42 bis data compression provides an additional
increase in throughput.  An increased DCE to DTE (modem-to- computer)
interface rate of 115,200 bps and faster processors accommodate these higher
speeds.

Courier Modems Still Upgradable to V.fast (ITU-T V.34)

The new Courier modems, like the current Courier high-speed models, will be
field upgradable to the forthcoming V.fast standard, which will likely be
named V.34.  Availability will depend on ITU-T progress in finalizing the
standard; however, study group approval of V.34 is expected in June, 1994. 
The standard will provide data rates of up to 28,800 bps.

Dale Walsh, U.S. Robotics vice president, advanced development, and a member
of the ITU-T committee developing the V.34 standard, points out that V.32
terbo should not be confused with the V.fast standard.  "The V.32 terbo
protocol is really an extension of V.32 bis," said Walsh.  "In fact, when you
compare the processing power necessary to run V.32 terbo and V.34, the
processors in V.32 terbo modems are more like the processors used for V.32 bis
-- they are certainly not capable of achieving the 28.8 Kbps throughput that
will be available with V.34."

U.S. Robotics' upgrade to V.34 is performed via a daughterboard swap, which
takes a typical user about five minutes.  Because the pending V.34 standard
requires two to three times the processing power of V.32 bis, both the
hardware and software must be upgraded to provide enough power and ensure that
there are no hardware bottlenecks that might impede the speed of V.34.

Upgrades to New Product Available for Current Courier Users

Current Courier users may upgrade to the new models.  Pricing will vary
depending on the modem model being upgraded.  The upgrade program will include
both current-model Courier modems, which may be upgraded via a daughterboard
swap, as well as older-model Courier modems, which may be exchanged for the
new models.  Courier 2400 bps modems are not included in the upgrade program.

New Courier Enhancements:  Fax, Data and High-End Features The full list of
features that will be added to the Courier line includes:

Data Rate Enhancements:
*  V.32 terbo
Supports data rates of up to 19.2 Kbps.
*  Adaptive Speed Leveling (ASL*) for 21.6 Kbps throughput Exclusive to U.S.
Robotics; proprietary protocol boosting connect speed to 21.6 Kbps
*  Increased DTE interface rate of 115.2 Kbps *  HST Cellu"- etary protocol
for high-speed cellular data transmission Available only in HST Dual Standard
Courier models

Fax Enhancements:
*  V.17
14,400 bps fax capabilities
*  EIA Class 2.0 fax capabilities
Standard for fax communications; U.S. Robotics is the first to provide support
for EIA 2.0
*  Call selection
Automatic detection of a fax or data call

Feature Enhancements:
*  Dial-back Security
*  Link Security
*  V.25 bis
Protocol for synchronous dialing

The Courier modems including these features will be shipping September 1;
model information and pricing follow.

Courier Products and Pricing

Model Name                      List Price Courier V.32 terbo                 
$695 Courier V.32 terbo/PC                 $645 Courier V.32 terbo Fax        
$795 Courier V.32 terbo Fax/PC             $745 Courier V.32 terbo Fax/PS/2   
$745 Courier HST Dual Standard with
V.32 terbo Fax                       $1295 Courier HST Dual Standard with
V.32 terbo/PC                        $1245


U.S. Robotics, Inc., (NASDAQ:USRX), is a leading designer, manufacturer and
marketer of data communications systems and products.  Both corporate
headquarters and manufacturing operations are based in Skokie, Illinois. U.S.
Robotics owns and operates U.S. Robotics Ltd. in Slough, England, U.S.
Robotics, s.a. in Lille, France and P.N.B., s.a. based in Suresnes, France. 
The company markets its products to business, industry, government agencies
and original equipment manufacturers.


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-1 "AudioScope v2.01"
@toc "menu"


AudioScope 2.01 available for FTP


TITLE

   AudioScope Spectrum analyzer

VERSION

   Version 2.01

AUTHOR

   Richard Horne (RHorne@cup.portal.com).  Comments or questions welcome.

DESCRIPTION

   AudioScope is a real-time audio spectrum analyzer for the Amiga.
   AudioScope uses a 512 point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to process
   audio data received through your audio digitizer to produce a high
   resolution display of audio signal amplitude vs frequency.  AudioScope
   can be used to evaluate the frequency content of sounds of all kinds.

NEW FEATURES

   AudioScope 2.01 is an update to the original version on Fish Disk #543.
   New features include support for many additional audio digitizers,
   better multitasking performance, compatibility with AmigaDOS 3.0
   monitors and display modes, and AmigaGuide documentation.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

   AudioScope 2.01 requires AmigaDOS 2.0 or higher and an accelerated
   Amiga because of the high computational load.  A 68020 or better
   microprocessor is mandatory.  An audio digitizer is also required.
   Perfect Sound 3, Sound Magic, Sound Master, DSS 8, and many generic
   digitizers are supported.

HOST NAME

   AudioScope is available via FTP at all Aminet sites, such as
   ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4).

DIRECTORY/FILE NAME

   AudioScope is located at systems/amiga/aminet/util/misc as
   AudioScope.lha

DISTRIBUTABILITY

   AudioScope is free public domain software.




@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-7 "Online Weekly"
@toc "menu"

/// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online                The lines are buzzing!
    ---------------------------------




From Portal's AmigaZone
-----------------------


.../Amiga Zone/Files & Messages/Message Bases/Hardware/Composite Output
16027.3.250.2 Re: Composite Output
9/17/93 22:20 25/1429 NES-Bill

>  To play arcade games on a big-screen TV off an Amiga 2000, what is
>  the best hardware to use?  I have an ancient C'Ltd(?) demodulator
>  that is nothing more than an Amiga video plug, housing a few discrete
>  components at one end of a coax, and an RCA plug on the other end.
>  Has modern science come up with something more sophisticated?  8-)

        If you want the best quality, you want a video encoder that gives
you an RS-170A composite signal or a split Y/C signal like SVHS uses.
Which you look for will be determined by what your TV can handle. SVHS
gives a lot better looking image than regular composite. Most good
encoders aren't cheap, they range from $75 or so on up... A cheap one,
however, can be had in the Commodore A520 encoder. That plugs into your
RGB port and gives the appropriate signals. you can't use an RGB monitor
at the same time though.

>  On a similar vein, what is the maximum acceptable dot 'pitch' to be
>  considered in buying a VGA monitor to attach to a Microway Flicker
>  Fixer or a CBM 2320?  I keep seeing how prices go up as the pitch
>  gets smaller.  Is this relevant to an Amiga 640 x 400 max?  Thanks.

        This can be one of those wars, of course. :-) I wouldn't recomend
a dot pitch worse than 0.31mm for anything that involves text display on
the screen. Coarser than that gives you fuzzy looking letters.

                           Bill Seymour - Amiga Zone Hardware Specialist



                      ------------------------------



.../Amiga Zone/Files & Messages/Message Bases/Hardware/Composite Output
16027.3.250.3 Re: Composite Output
9/19/93 06:17 22/1064 TOMESH

>        If you want the best quality, you want a video encoder that gives
>you an RS-170A composite signal or a split Y/C signal like SVHS uses.
>Which you look for will be determined by what your TV can handle. SVHS
>gives a lot better looking image than regular composite. Most good
>encoders aren't cheap, they range from $75 or so on up...

         Where do I look to find ads for useable 'video encoders' that are
high quality, if not especially cheap, should the prize turn out worth the
game?  (I have a large Sony TV with Y/C signal inputs available.)

         Also...  what do the ads mean in the IBM world for 'non-interlace'
monitors vs. 'interlace' monitors, and what is the difference between VGA
and SVGA monitors?  I thought the frame-signal being fed into a monitor
each 1/60th of a second determines whether the display is interlaced.
Is all this garbage related somehow to the horizontal scan rate?



                      ------------------------------



.../Amiga Zone/Files & Messages/Message Bases/Hardware/Composite Output
16027.3.250.4 Re: Composite Output
9/19/93 20:18 31/1871 NES-Bill

>         Where do I look to find ads for useable 'video encoders' that are
>high quality, if not especially cheap, should the prize turn out worth the
>game?  (I have a large Sony TV with Y/C signal inputs available.)

        Well, a few years ago when I worked for CMI, I'd have said that their
encoder was the best buy for the money. Now that they're out of business, a
used one of theirs is the best buy for the money. :-) If you have a machine
with a free video slot, I saw some of the Magni encoder/genlocks at WoCA last
weekend for sale still at reasonable prices. Failing that, the Commodore A520
is still available, and fairly cheap. Though it doesn't give as good of a
signal as the others.

>         Also...  what do the ads mean in the IBM world for 'non-interlace'
>monitors vs. 'interlace' monitors, and what is the difference between VGA
>and SVGA monitors?  I thought the frame-signal being fed into a monitor
>each 1/60th of a second determines whether the display is interlaced.
>Is all this garbage related somehow to the horizontal scan rate?

        The interlaced SVGA monitors for PCs aren't able to handle quite as
good of a bandwidth as the non-interlaced. This means (for instance) that for
a 1024x768 resolution, an interlaced monitor would have to display the screen
in two passes, showing every other line on each pass, while a non-interlaced
monitor could show the whole screen in one pass. Many of the newer monitors
go one step better and display a non-interlaced screen at 72 or 75 Hz instead
of the more normal 60 Hz. This reduces the flicker...

        The display that the monitor actually is showing is a function of the
display card, not the monitor. All SVGA cards that I know of can display most
of the higher resolutions in either an interlaced or non-interlaced display.

                           Bill Seymour - Amiga Zone Hardware Specialist



                      ------------------------------



.../Message Bases/Creativity - The Arts/Deluxe Music 2.0 now shipping!
16030.3.87.1 ..finally :)
9/21/93 15:58 32/1482 Harv

Electronic Arts is FINALLY shipping Deluxe Music 2.0, the major
upgrade/rewrite of Deluxe Music Construction Set which they originally
relesaed back in 1986. (There has been a demo version of DM2 in
our library here for the past few months).

If you own any old version of DMCS, your manual cover and
$57 will get you the new version. I ordered mine today. I did not,
however, save my note as to what address I mailed the envelope to.
However, you can dial Electronic Arts on 1-800-245-4525 as I did
and follow the voice mail menus through to the "upgrades"
selection to get to a human being who can give you all the
appropriate information.

I don't know what the retail or street prices for Deluxe Music 2.0
are.. I phoned Creative Computers' store (nearby me) this morning
but they had not yet received the product in so they couldn't
tell me what they were selling it for.

From postings I've read on Usenet, this new upgrade offers even
MORE than the demo version here has, such as the ability to make
completely free-standing score files with the instruments embedded
in them, plus it has a player program so the main program need
not be invoked just to listen to scores you already have.

Check out comp.sys.amiga.audio on Usenet for reports by folks who
have already received their upgrades and what they think of it.
And remember, if/when you get yours we have a veritable TON of
DMCS scores in a dedicated file library here for you to
download.

Harv
Amiga Zone Sysop



                      ------------------------------




From FidoNet's Amiga International Echo
---------------------------------------


Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 19 Sep 93 15:33:08
From: David Godlewski (1:124/2105.0)
To  : All
Subj: Alive!

THE AMIGA IS ALIVE!!!

Yes it's true.  It has been for many years in case you haven't
noticed.  A word about "doom & gloomers": useless.  Most of
the time they have no idea what they are talking about.  I was
going through some old Amiga Worlds (1986 & 1987) and there 
was talk of Commodore going under way back then.  When is
going to end?  Never probably, but we can stop subscribing
to it's message.

The Amiga CD32 has a bright future.  Commodore will get it right
this time.  When it does come here to America, and when it is 
available from stores such as Toys (backwards)R US,  I suggest 
buying it from there and not local dealers.  WHY?  The CD32 will
need the support through mass market chains.  

Just a little history on me... My first Amiga was the 1000 (that's 
right.. I am among the 1st generation) next the 500, 3000, then the 
CDTV.  I have them all still except for the CDTV.  It was fun 
for a while,  but useless to me because it was basically like the
SEGA CD is now:  lots of crap software and not much long term value.
I was going to get a new 1200, but the CD32 sounds like a much better
deal.  I have enough computers to do my serious work.  All I want
now is great games at a good price(which the CD32 will deliver). 
Overall public opinion is in favor of the CD32.  

I think the main problem over the years is that only a select few 
have been graced with enough intelligence and vision to use the
Amiga.  Many Americans want to be told what to do and like to 
know exactly what something is for.  The Amiga has always been
described as an everything machine.  Fine for us, but bad for the
majority.  Many people(believe it or not) do not have any creativity
or individual inspiration.  Now is a good time for the Amiga.  The 1200
is a good home computer, the 4000 is an excellent video workstation, 
and the CD32 is a great games machine.  Finally Commodore has made the 
same machine into 3 different machines so most people will now know
which one to get for their own individual reasons.

This may shock some people, but I like Commodore, and thank them 
for everthing they have done. (Come on they kept the Amiga Alive).
I have never had a problem with any product from them, and to this 
day all of my Amiga's still work perfectly. (including my A1000)

Another long one... Anybody read it?
-=> DAVID GODLEWSKI <=-



                      ------------------------------



Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 10 Sep 93 14:28:17
From: Tim Lloyd (6:700/267.69)
To  : ALL
Subj: CD32 I've got one !!!! :)

Well Guys & Gals

I have just received my CD32 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It took only one day to get from England to here in Hong Kong !! now thats
what I call fast.... and who says mail order is slow :^)

Well the run down....

First impression.... well I'm gob smacked :)

The machine.....

Contrary to other reports the build quality is fine, the lid is solid
enough, and not flismy. The rest of the machine is fine... no rough edges,
no bad fittings. Overall it looks really smart.
The main machine itself is made in the Phillipenes whereas the joypad is
made in China (I have a feeling it's made by the quickshot people, as they
have a very large factory in China).
The joypad is great, I used to hate the things, but this one sits in the hand
really nicely.

I have it connected up to my 21" TV through the S-Video output, and have the
sound running through a rather large Amp :-P

The games....

Well it comes with Diggers & Oscar - both are on the one disk.

Diggers I haven't really tried out yet so I can't really give an opinion,
although from what I have seen the graphics & sound are superb. The one I did
try out was Oscar.... this is a great platform game, colourful graphics lots
of music & sound effects... overall great fun to play (although I have only
spent 30 minutes playing it so far).

I also have Trivial Pursuit, which I bought for use with my CD Rom drive
attached to my 3000T, problem is it never worked, as the Xetec software
couldn't support this disk.
Well I can now use it ! so if anyone is a fan of Trivial Pursuit, GET this
disk... it's excellent, it's real fun to play, the questions are spoken and
you get great pictures with every question (they actually look 24bit on the
TV, they are so clear).

Well all I can say is, I can't wait for Syndicate, Alien Breed II, Pinball
Fantasies, etc, etc :^)

If you can get your hands on one... then get it, you won't be disappointed.
it's certainly the machine to carry the Amiga forward (in the publics eye),
and get the Name more widely recognised.

Tim


                      ------------------------------




Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 20 Sep 93 23:19:30
From: Matt Morgan (1:202/1312.0)
To  : All
Subj: 3DO -- CD^32  MUST READ UPDATE!!!

        All Electronique's Boutique Stores have recieved display boxes of the
 Panasonic 3DO player. It will sell for $699.00, and in extremely small
 quantities (smaller quantities than the Sega-CD had last Christmas!) EB
is having a Pre-Sale on this item. The box doesn't give away too many specs,
double-speed multisession CD-ROM (Just like the CD^32) and a 32-bit RISC
processor capable of 64 Million pixels per second.

        The Amiga CD^32 is in the newest issue of DieHard GAMEFAN and will
have more coverage in the future. The magazine lists it's specifications
and notes that it has been released in Europe, U.S. release unknown, European
consumers very excited, Developers quickly taking action, and Jurrasic Park,
 Zool II, and Chaos Engine.

        The CD^32 is selling in quantities of 20,000+ each week in Europe. At
the World of Commodore Exhibition, CBM gave an expected U.S. release date of
October (Around the same time as 3DO) in limited quantities. With the CD^32's
32-bit 68020/14Mhz, 2MB Memory, 32-bit Graphics Co-processor, Double-speed
multission CD-ROM for a $399.00 Retail Price, the odds are somewhat even.
Developers are more interested in the CD^32 because it's a lot easier to
develop for. Developing tools for the CD^32, which is an Amiga at it's heart,
have gone through eight years of evolution. Commodore went to developers first
and actually asked them what they wanted in this system! Many developers are
lined up including, but not limited to, Acclaim, Virgin, Ocean, Gremlin,
Compton's New Media, Psygnosis, Probe, Mindscape, and Millenium. Notice how
Electronic Arts seems to be missing? Ha Ha Ha! Only time will tell the future!



                      ------------------------------



Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 21 Sep 93  7:07:06
From: Jon Peterson (1:383/300.0)
To  : All
Subj: FFish1000th Anniversary

Here is the list of donors for the third week of the FFish 1000th
Anniversary thingy:


Jon Peterson
Matthew L. Schultz
Chris Nelson
Asha DeVelder
Marshall Freedland
Jeremy Friesner
Michael Phipps
Darrin & Lisa Zimmerman (Amiga Un-Sig of Southern Michigan)
Eric V. Peterson (muchly appreciate the letter and news)

Total donations as of 9/18/93 are $175.00.  Got a ways to go
folks.  Please talk this up with all concerned (Amiga users) and
pass the word on to your Users Groups.

    ******************* THE PROPOSAL***********************

For years and years, the work of Fred Fish in the organization, culling and
distribution of non-commercial programs to the Amiga community has been of
great benefit to us all.  Programmers have been able to present their best 
efforts and we, of course, would have had doubtful access to some of the 
most innovative programs written - for any computer platform.  As the vast 
majority of us Amiga users are aware, Fred Fish is coming up on the 1000th 
disk issue of this outstanding collection. This, in my humble opinion, is a 
milestone that should not go unnoticed. His contribution to the Amiga 
community certainly ranks alongside those that created this outstanding 
machine.  As such, participants on FidoNet have proposed the Amiga community 
show our appreciation at the issuance of the 1000th disk by sending in 
donations to gather sufficient funds to purchase an A4000T (if and when 
available) or comparable machine when the time comes.  Now is the time to 
get this thing going. If estimates are correct, at the present rate of 
publication, the 1000th disk should be out in approximately three to four 
months. Donations are being sent to:

Concho Valley Computer Users Group
FFish 1000th Fund
% Jon Peterson
P.O. Box 2661
San Angelo, TX 76902

Your assistance in posting this message on the BBSs you use or run would be 
greatly appreciated (sysops, how about a bulletin on logon?). Also request 
everyone pass the word at any Users Group meetings you attend. This should 
be a group effort on behalf of all the Amiga users throughout the world. 
Please donate whatever you can afford - or even better - what you honestly 
think FFish's work has been worth to you through the years. Thanks.



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc "menu"


/// Amiga Report Mailing List
    -------------------------


Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get
Amiga Report each week?  Have you been spending more money that you want
on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution
Sites?  If so, have we got a deal for you!

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report
in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put
on the list, send Email to Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu.  Your
account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy.
For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our
issues are well over that limit.

Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests
for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an
intact copy).  All other correspondence should be directed to the editor
at ROB_G@Delphi.COM.

Many thanks to Bob Caron for setting this service up for us!

P.S.:  Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your
request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier.  Thanks!

** IMPORTANT NOTICE:  PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over
** 100K!  We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a
** 100K size limit for incoming mail.  If we get a bounceback with your
** address in it, it will be removed from the list immediately.

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-8 "SHI News"
@toc "menu"


/// SHI News:  PC-Task Virus Nonexistent
    ------------------------------------


                                                    September 18, 1993

 

    To: ALL                                From: Michael Arends @
                                                 SHI RVC/West
                                                 P.O. Box 1531
                                                 Lynnwood, WA  98046-1531

    RE: PC-Task Virus


    --------------------------------------------------------------------

Salutations everyone,


I am going to make this as short and sweet as possible, BUT yet as much
to the point as I possibly can.

In a earlier addition of AMIGA REPORT I stated that the SHI virus centers
were receiving reports of the Emwurm Virus in certain copies of PC-Task.
While this IS the case, certain things have been pointed out to me and I 
feel that I must clarify the subject with everyone so as NOT to further
damage the reputation of Chris Hames (PC-Task Author) or his program
PC-Task.

Apparently the problem stems from the fact that the version of PC-Task
that the Emwurm virus was reportedly found in was a CRACKED, UNAUTHORIZED
version, and that the Author, Chris Hames, whom I have since talked with
had NO knowledge of this and/or anything to do with it.

It has also been pointed out to me that this particular version of
Virus-Interceptor may have in fact erroneously found this virus anyway, and
that in fact new versions of Virus-Interceptor no longer report such a
virus.

So the point I guess I am trying to make, is that I should have clarified
(1), that a CRACKED, PIRATED version of PC-Task is what has caused this
situation to occur.  That (2), the author, Chris Hames has had no knowlage
of the situation concerning this reported virus and PC-Task. Last but not
least (3) PC-Task is a OUTSTANDING program and that everyone who is
considering a PC emulator for his/her Amiga would be doing thier respective
selves a disservice if they didn't try and REGISTER it.

I must apologize to Chris Hames for any misunderstanding I may have
caused, and I want to make sure people know that I may have been speaking
AS a representative of SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL, NOT as a representative of
AMIGA REPORT. I am sorry if this has caused anyone problems, and I hope
that in some small way this helps to rectify the situation. 



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-9 "WOCA Report"
@toc "menu"


/// 1993 World of Commodore Show Report
    -----------------------------------
    By Dan Zerkle
    (zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu)



Part 3, Seminar by Axiom


This is part 3 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga
show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and
12th.  This section details what I saw at the seminar Axiom
Software (about ANIM Workshop and Wavemaker).  I will continue to
post sections each night until I finish.  There should be at
least three more sections.  This section will be a bit shorter
than the other sections.

CORRECTIONS

A whole lot of people wrote to explain to me just what "multi-
session" means on a CD-ROM.  Holger Lubitz (hal@caty.north.de)
said that I could use his explanation.  Here it is:

(start quote)
Multisession refers to a CD recorded in several sessions.
This indeed happens only with Photo CDs. When the first few
pictures are recorded to the CD (Photo-CDs are write once media),
they look like a normal single-session CD, just not a very
full one (since Photo CDs can take a hundred photos or so, one
film fills just a quarter of them). The problem arises when
you record more pictures on the same CD. Because the directory
has already been written, and it is a write once media, you can't
just append the new pictures to the old directory. Instead, you
have to start a new session on the unused space.

Thus, the firmware in the drive must be able to read fragmented
directory informations, and it must also be able to read past
the "end" of the CD (past the first session, that is).

Older drives cannot do that, thus Photo-CD-compatible drives
must have multi-session capability. Double speed is not
necessary, though it helps a lot regarding access times.
(end quote)

Matt Simmons (zarthac@cs1.bradley.edu) had a comment about the
price of the 12" laser discs:

(begin quote)
LaserDiscs cost about $10-20 to press, and typically cost $30-$60
(not $100). The only $100+ discs are the Criterion Collection
discs, the Fox VideoCollectors Discs, and other Special
Editions...
(end quote)

Thanks for the help, guys!


AXIOM SOFTWARE

These folks had a seminar Friday at 12:45.  At the demonstration,
they showed of their new software:  ANIM Workshop and Wavemaker.

ANIM Workshop is a software package to help build, edit, and
otherwise manage animations.  One of their folks (all I got was
"Scott") used the package to put together and eight-frame
animation of some spinning marbles.  The package allows you to
easily add and remove frames.  It has a slick user interface to
help with this.  I noticed that it had some sophisticated tools
for dealing with all the files that store the original frames of
the animation.

The other use of the package was for large-scale image
processing.  It uses AREXX to control Art Department Pro (from
ASDG).  With this combination, you can (for example) change the
whole animation to 16-color, all in one pass.  The whole thing
was automatic.

It was not demonstrated at the seminar, but ANIM workshop has
another interesting feature.  If you use it to play back your
ANIM, you can tie sound effects to different frames.

After that, Tony Stutterheim demonstrated WaveMaker.  This is a
tool to create animated flying logos for video by generating
scripts for NewTek's LightWave software.

Again, the user interface looked quite good.  Instead of going
through the complicated object and motion path design, you just
select your logo, click on one of the many motion paths for your
logo, select some background elements, and you're done.  Well,
not quite done.  You have to wait for the animation to render,
first.  A utility to render all the frames is built in.

I found the elements to be the most interesting.  Elements are
"all that junk in the background."  WaveMaker has quite a few
pre-fabricated elements, like lines and other neat stuff zipping
around.  You can select different speeds, densities (how many),
and sizes.  You can even layer several different kinds of
elements on top of each other.  I imagine it could get messy very
easily.

The motion paths for the logos to use while entering and exiting
the screen are all pre-designed.  You just click on an icon
representing the path you want, and you're set.  You can tweak
some parameters here to get exactly what you want.

Stutterheim showed some demonstration tapes he had generated.
The logos looked very slick.  The motion looked quite good, with
proper accelleration to and from stopped motion.  The elements
buzzing around in the background looked really slick.

It takes about five minutes to put together a flying logo
animation with WaveMaker.  If you need to do that sort of this,
this package could be a real time saver.

Both of these packages were beta software.  The press release
says that they will be ready by the fourth quarter of this year.


Tomorrow:  OpalVision from Centaur Development, plus whatever
interviews I have time to write up.

I don't have the spec sheets for OpalVision.  Can someone supply
the info so I can put up numbers?  Otherwise, I'll just go with
notes and the advertisements.


ADDRESSES:

Axiom Software
1668 East Cliff Road
Burnsville, MN  55337-1300
Phone: 612/894-0596
Fax  : 612/894-1127



                      ------------------------------



Part 4, Seminar by Centaur and Terra Nova Booth


This is part 4 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga
show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and
12th.  This section details what I saw at the seminar held by
Centaur Development (about Opalvision).  I will continue to post
sections each night until I finish.  There should be at least
three more sections.


CENTAUR DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

Since there seemed to be so much noise about Opalvision, and
because Pjotr was interested in it, I dropped by the Centaur
Development seminar on Saturday.

Opalvision itself is a 24-bit graphics card for Amigas with a
video slot.  It has been around for a few months, and people know
about it, so I won't go into much detail.  Basically, it offers
768 x 480 resolution (with 24 bits per pixel), enough speed for
real-time double-buffered animation in 24 bits per pixel, and can
work in PAL mode.  It lists for $699, and is bundled with paint,
animation, and presentation software.  It is made by Sydney's
Opal Technology and distributed in the US by Centaur Development.

What makes Opalvision different from the other graphics cards out
there is all the "neat stuff" you can add on to it.  There are
three additions, all of which give new video capabilities.  The
Video Processor is a board which hooks the the main board and
provides digital video effects, frame grabbing, and genlocking.
The Video Suite is a rack-mount module that hooks to the Video
Processor.  It provides five stereo sound inputs, one stereo
sound output, four composite and S-Video input with two each of
such outputs, a combination RGB and YUV input and matching
output, plus alpha channel transparency effects.  The third
module is the Scan-Rate Converter/TBC, which provides scan
conversion to non-interlaced 31Khz output, and also time base
correcton.

The demonstration at the seminar focussed mostly on the new video
capabilities.  This combination of devices is clearly set up to
compete directly with the Video Toaster.

The Centaur people demonstrated that with the added hardware,
Opalvision can act as a sophisticated signal switcher, doing all
the expected fancy tricks used to get one video signal off the
screen and another on.  You just select the effect you want from
a bank of icons and have it go either automatically or by
grabbing and moving an on-screen handle with a mouse.  It
reminded me quite a lot of the Video Toaster switching software.

Some things were different though.  Opalvision can do a Z-axis
rotation of an incoming picture.  What's that?  Set a sheet of
paper on the desk in front of you.  Put a finger on the top left
corner, and another on the bottom right.  Slide one corner up,
and the other down.  Your paper will do a Z-axis rotation.

Also, the switcher software can switch between audio channels.
They fade in and out and can be tied to the video switching.

Finally, Opalvision provides an editor so you can produce your
own video effects for the switcher.  As one picture comes on the
screen to replace another, you can control the path it follows,
the size, the rotation, and so forth.  This is done by dragging
points around in a fairly friendly user interface.  The motion
path is represented by a spline curve.  The other parameters are
represented by a line graph.

After showing off the video tricks for awhile, the Centaur people
demonstrated OpalPaint.  It seemed like a fairly standard 24-bit
paint package, but it had some tricks.  It has a few image-
processessing features thrown it.  The neatest trick I saw was
when a demonstrator at the booth took a digitized picture of a
red car against a fairly complicated background, and turned it
into a blue car.

After this, they showed a demonstration video.  It opened with
some spectacularly bad acting involving two people poking fun at
a few of the Toaster's shortcomings.  It them moved on to a
montage of demonstrations which had just been done live for us,
except that these were accompanied by loud music.

The demonstrators didn't mention the Opalvision's biggest
advantage over the Toaster:  It can handle PAL mode.  All the
folks in Europe and elsewhere that need to do their video in PAL
have been left out in the cold by NewTek.  Opalvision will be
able to sell there without any real competition.

The video people were all quite impressed with all of this.
However, Pjotr was disappointed for one very good reason.  The
video add-ons won't be ready for months yet.  Yep, this stuff is
all still vaporware, and may not be available anytime this year.
Contact the address below for more information.


TERRA NOVA DEVELOPMENT

Michael Todorovic and Brad Schenck of Terra Nova demonstrated
their wares in a small but very attractive booth near the center
of the floor.

The corner of the booth was an artistically-designed tower
holding a CDTV and a large monitor.  Mike's sister, Natasha,
demonstrated the CD-ROM game Labyrinth.  This is a first-person
view graphical adventure.  All of the scenes are beautifully ray-
traced, and displayed in HAM, as might be expected of Brad.  From
any position, you can look in any of four directions, and you can
also examine some objects more closely.  The detail is
incredible.  It should be, as the game includes 200 megabytes of
graphics.  It also contains 30 minutes of spooky music (at 25
megabytes).  It seems to be one of the first games that really
uses the tremendous storage of CD-ROM.

The game seems to be addictive.  Natasha spent all day Friday
playing it.  The guys inside the booth made her let other people
play it the next two days.  Most of the game that I saw was in an
"Old West" town, but there were plenty of other areas, too.

Labyrinth will be distributed by Electronic Arts, probably before
Christmas.  It requires an Amiga with a CD-ROM drive and at least
a megabyte of chip memory.  Yes, it works with CD32.

Brad was selling copies of his Diner 3D object set.  I have
already published an announcement of this, so I won't go into
detail.  I saw a short animation of a scene constructed with
these objects, and they looked very good.

Mike demonstrated the new Magic Lantern animation software.  This
package creates, edits, and displays animations.  It can display
using the Amiga's graphics, the Retina card from Macrosystems, or
the GDA card from GFXBase.  It has an ARexx port for control by
other programs.  It can co-ordinate sound effects with the
display.


ADDRESSES

Centaur Development
P.O. Box 3959
Torrance, CA  90503
Phone: 310/787-4530
FAX  : 310/222-5882
BBS  : 310/787-4540

Terra Nova Development
P.O. Box 2202
Ventura, CA  93002-2202



                      ------------------------------



Part 5, Interviews on Show Floor


This is part 5 of my report from the World of Commodore Amiga
show held in Pasadena, California, on September 10th, 11th, and
12th.  This section details interviews I conducted at the booths
on the show floor.  I will continue to post sections each night
or so until I finish.  There should be at least two more
sections.


HEIFNER COMMUNICATIONS

After the keynote address, I went by the booth of Heifner
Communications, Inc.  They were, of course, showing off their new
Pegger JPEG compression software.  I managed to talk with several
people there.

I have already posted an announcement of Pegger on the group, so
I won't go to extreme detail here.  Pegger wedges in to the file
system to notice when a graphics file is being written.  It
automatically compresses the file using the JPEG standard,
resulting in up to fifteen-to-one savings in disk usage.  It
translates the file right back when it is read.  Heifner
Communications is promoting it as a low-cost alternative to a
large hard drive.

They were also demonstrating their Toaster Cozzy 4000.  This is
basically a little box that sits on top of your 4000 (or, I
presume, 3000), and holds one of Newtek's Video Toaster cards.
While this is less essential with the introduction of the Toaster
4000 (the older Video Toaster doesn't fit properly into a 3000),
it does free up a Zorro 3 slot.

The main business of Heifner Communications, it turns out, is
distributing television signals to local cable stations and
providing technical support.  They have been in the business for
about twelve years.  The Amiga support is apparently an outgrowth
of their video work.


REFLEX POINT BBS

Somehow, this Pasadena bulletin board system managed to fund a
booth for the show.  They were very ambitiously handing out
flyers to anybody who got too close.  In particular, one red-
haired young woman tried to give me flyers at least five times.
I think she was doing it on purpose to get me to scream and run
away.  It almost worked.

ReFLex Point <sic> is a free multi-line BBS supporting the Amiga.
The flyer hints at networked electronic mail, but doesn't
indicated what kind.  It has areas especially dedicated to
Japanese animation and to science fiction.  It also has on-line
chat, Amiga files to download, and on-line games.

See below for dial-in lines.


SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

I had a short chat with David Griffith of Systems Development
Services.  They were showing off a new educational game called
"Robokeet."

Robokeet is intended to teach spelling to early elementary school
children.  SDS intends to eventually sell it on CD-ROM for CDTV
and CD32, but the version they demonstrated was running from
normal magnetic disk.

The game seemed to consist of two kinds of segments.  In one
segment, you get to try to spell words.  If you do well here, you
get to arm a parakeet with various weaponry and armor.  The other
segment is a side-scrolling arcade sequence.  Your brave budgie
sets out to shoot down the enemy.  If you do well with the
spelling, this sequence is easier.


ADDRESSES

Heifner Communications
(no address given)
Phone: 800/445-6164
       314/445-6163
Fax  : 314/445-0757

ReFLex Point BBS
v.32bis: 818/792-3477
       : 818/792-5622
2400bps: 818/792-3938

Systems Development Services, Inc.
Route 4, Box 41AA
Dupont Plaza, Room 2W
Parkersburg, WV  26101
Phone: 304/863-6592




@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-2 "Portal"
@toc "menu"

/// Portal:  A Great Place For Amiga Users
    --------------------------------------



                   Portal Communications' Amiga Zone

         The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
         -------------------------------------------------------

The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was
formerly on the People/Link System.  Plink went out of business in May,
1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has
just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves
about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition.

If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If
you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly
Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA or through Tymnet from anywhere in
North America.  If you have an account on another Internet-connected
system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from
anywhere in the industrialized world.  Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet
into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use.

Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:

 - Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files

 - The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online.

 - Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at
   once, of any size, with one command. 

 - Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG,
   Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES.

 - 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files.  Hot new
   stuff arrives daily.

 - No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
   often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it.

 - Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you
   will recognize.  Special conferences.  Random chance prize contests.
   Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm.

 - Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything*
   Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts.

 - Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi,
   Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases.
   Read months worth of postings.  They don't scroll off, ever!
   No need to clutter your mailbox with them.

 - FREE unlimited Internet Email.  Your Portal account gets you a
   mailbox that's connected to the world.  Send letters of any length to 
   computer users in the entire industrialized world.  No limits. 
   No extra charges. No kidding!
   
 - Portal has the Usenet.  Thousands of "newsgroups" in which
   you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can
   possibly imagine.  Usenet feeds into Portal many times each hour.
   There are 14 Amiga-specific Usenet newsgroups with hundreds of
   articles posted every day, including postings by Commodore 
   personnel.  Since Usenet is distributed worldwide, your questions
   and answers can be seen by literally hundreds of thousands of
   people the same day you post them.  

 - Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
   NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics
   SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few.  ALL Portal SIGs
   are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever.

 - The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra)
   An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine.
 
 - Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP,
   TELNET, MUDS, LIBS.  Free to all Portal customers with your account.
   Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of 
   utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account.
 
 - All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC.  
   And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time 
   with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 
   24 hours a day. 

 - Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end"
   for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your
   waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files!  Reply to mail
   and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are
   sent automatically the next time you log into Portal.
   (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher)

 - And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether
   you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low 
   price.

How does all that sound?  Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true.

Portal Signup or for more information:

1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
1-408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day
or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada
or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere.

PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES:

All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars
                                                Total Total  Total  Total
                                                Cost  Cost   Cost   Cost
                                          Fee   1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs.
                          Startup Monthly Per   Per   per    per    per
                          Fee     Fee     Hour  month month  month  month
                          $       $       $     $     $      $      $

Portal                    19.95   19.95         
 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs        0.00 19.95  19.95  19.95  19.95
 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet    2.50 22.95  32.45  44.95  94.95
 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95  69.95 119.95  varies
 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit        1.00 20.95  24.95  29.95  49.95

* plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area
  Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the
  UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already
  have on an Internet-connected system. 
% 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas
+ $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities
# PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit
 "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account
 is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD  at the
 SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. 

Note: 

   Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST
   modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial
   high speed lines into Portal.  No busy signals!

   SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only.
   Tymnet 9600bps services is V.32 modem protocol only.
   Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users!

   Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable
   system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program
   to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere
   in the world.  If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal 
   reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing
   Internet account.  

Call and join today.  Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!"

[Editor's Note:  Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so
they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and
other information!]

That number again:  408-973-9111.

Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any
amount by personal check or money order.  The Portal Online System is
a trademark of Portal Communications. 



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-10 "A.M.I.G.A."
@toc "menu"


/// Another Moronic, Inane and Gratuitous Article
    ---------------------------------------------
    by Chad Freeman
    (cjfst4+@pitt.edu or cjfst4@cislabs.pitt.edu -- Internet)
    (cfreeman -- BIX)



                       THE A.M.I.G.A. FALL PREVIEW

    Well, its fall again, and you know what that means.  That's right, the
summer doldrums of T.V. reruns are over, and the fall doldrums of new series
have begun.  And what a better place to talk about the new season than in a
moronic, inane and gratuitous article?  So, with further adieu, here are my
picks for the best and worst shows of the season.


     BABY-LEN 5:  Yes, that's right, yet another spin-off of Look Who's
Talking hits the small screen.  The twist is that Lenny can only think five
words, 'Mama, Hypoglycemia, Tesseract, Kumquat, and Cyndicrawford,' but
unfortunately after the first three minutes of hysterical laughter as Lenny
tells his hypoglycemic mother where to put the kumquat, its all over for this
show.  The only reason to watch is the awesome special effects.  In fact,
EVERY scene is generated ENTIRELY by a network of 5,000 Amigas with Screeching
Video Cement Mixers installed.  Needless to say, this saved TONS of money on
cast, crew, equipment, etc., while also purchasing twice as many Amigas as
were sold in the United States in the past three months.  For that reason
alone, I give BABY-LEN 5 a whopping 5 gurus!

     SEE-QIX RBG:  Finally, a show for all of us closet Qix fans!  See-Qix RBG
(the RBG stands for Really Boring Game) is 30 minutes of Qix action on the
small screen!  Yes, that's right, you get to watch the likes of Peter Falk,
Axl Rose, and Dave Haynie playing Qix each and every week!  I must say, I was
thoroughly impressed by this show.  A special version of Qix was programmed
especially for the Amiga and Video Char-Broiler, complete with flying logos
and a special 3-d board!  See-Qix RBG gets a big 4.131519 gurus!

     ANIMORONIACS:  Weiner Brothers' and Stephen Spillburg's new show is
apparently supposed to be some sort of replacement for Tiny Toon Adventures.
 IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.  -3 gurus (and we want more Tiny Toons!).

     NHPD BLUE:  The newest series from Steven Botchedup has been billed as
'pornographic' and 'the first R-Rated TV show.'  It takes place in New
Hampshire, one of the most BORING places in earth (New Hampshirites, please
direct all comments to ROB_G@delphi.com :-), and that's why they have to put
lots of sex, nudity and foul language in it.  Since this reviewer really
_likes_ that kind of stuff, NHPD Blue gets 4.7 gurus.

     FLOOSIER:  That's right, the infamous Floosier Crane, that wacky
cross-dressing manic-depressive from Cheerios is back with his own doomed
spin-off show!  Floosier's antics are typically inane, it feels like Cheerios
without the bar.  Be sure to pass this one up, even if you have to watch opera
on PBS to do it. -10 gurus.

     THE JON CROQUETTE SHOW:  The man from Lite Court has also landed his own
series, but refreshingly, this show doesn't leech off of a previous series
like some other unnamed sitcoms.  Jon really shows his acting versatility in
this show, playing one of those guys who work in the bathrooms at fancy
restaurants.  His antics with the shaving cream are particularly funny.  Check
it out!  3.9 gurus.

     "SHOT BY THE BELLHOP: THE COLLEGE YEAR":  ACK! GACK! PFFT! SPPFFFFT!
 YUCK!  PTOO! GAG! RETCH!  -infinity gurus!


     Well, there you have it, AMIGA's picks for the best and worst shows of
the season.  As an indicator of how accurate our ratings are, last year's
"best" picks corresponded with emmy-winning shows exactly 0% of the time,
which means we're really on target, cause none of those shows people like ever
win an emmy, do they?


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-11 "The InterNet via Email"
@toc "menu"


/// The InterNet via Email
    ----------------------
    by Robert Niles



Are you stuck at one of those sites that only give you access to some of
newsgroups and internet email?? Are you wishing there was more that you
could do? Do you feel a bit "cut off" from the rest of the world?

Well, ease up a bit. Having plain old email access is really not so bad,
and there is a good range of things that you can do with email.

FTP, Netfind, Archie to name a few, and for those of you who only have
email access to the InterNet, we're going to show you how to do it.

Once you looked through the latest edition of Amiga Report <grin> and
spotted those files listed as FTP'able, you can, through the mail, grab
those files. There are a few FTPmail servers around that let you do this.
Most sites have their own server, and they will instruct you how to grab a
file from their site and get it to you. But we will work with 
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. This ftpmail server will process your request, ftp
to the site in which you want a file from, grab it for you, uuencode the
file and send it to you via email.

Look at the ftpmail server commands below (they'll be explained later):

 reply <MAILADDR>   set reply addr, since headers are usually wrong
 connect [HOST [USER [PASS [ACCT]]]]
                    defaults to gatekeeper.dec.com, anonymous
 ascii              files grabbed are printable ascii
 binary             files grabbed are compressed or tar or both
 chdir PLACE        "get" and "ls" commands are relative to PLACE
                    (only one CHDIR per ftpmail session,
                    and it executes before any LS/DIR/GETs)
 compress           compress binaries using Lempel-Ziv encoding
 compact            compress binaries using Huffman encoding
 uuencode           binary files will be mailed in uuencode format
 btoa               binary files will be mailed in btoa format
 chunksize SIZE     split files into SIZE-byte chunks (def: 64000)
 ls (or dir) PLACE  short (long) directory listing
 index THING        search for THING in ftp server's index
 get FILE           get a file and have it mailed to you
                    (max 10 GET's per ftpmail session)
 quit               terminate script, ignore rest of mail message
                    (use if you have a .signature or
                    are a VMSMAIL user)

 -> the "Subject:" of your request will be contained in the "Subject:"
    of all of ftpmail's responses to you regarding that request.  You
    can therefore use it to "tag" different requests if you have more
    than one outstanding at any given time.

 -> you must give a "connect" command, default host is
    gatekeeper.dec.com, default user is anonymous, default
    password is your mail address with a hyphen prepended.

 -> binary files will not be compressed unless 'compress' or 'compact'
    command is given; use this if at all possible, it helps a lot.
    note that many files are already compressed.  if you use any of
    the binary-file qualifiers (compress, compact, uuencode, btoa)
    without setting 'binary' first, your session will abort in error.

 -> binary files will always be formatted into printable ASCII
    with "btoa" or "uuencode" (default is "btoa").  if you don't
    use the "binary" command, ftpmail will cheerfully try to mail
    you the binary data, which will absolutely, positively fail.

 -> all retrieved files will be split into chunks and mailed.  the
    size of the chunk is 64000 characters unless you change it with
    the "chunksize" command.  CompuServe users will need to set this
    to 49000.  there is no way to set it higher than 100000, so please
    don't ask.

 -> if you ask for more than 10 files in a session, you will receive
    an error message and your entire request will be rejected.

 -> There is only ONE chdir command allowed in a FTPmail session.
    So if you want more than one file, and they are located in different
    directories, it's best to use the path with the "get" command,
    ie:  get /systems/amiga/boing/comm/bbs/quack120.lha

These commands are the commands that you type out in your message to 
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. 

OK, here's an example of the email message that you will be sending to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. (Everything after the SUBJECT line is the actual
message text)

--------------------------------------
TO: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
SUBJECT: Whatever you want to put here.

reply bobjoe@imtired.itm.com
connect wuarchive.wustl.edu
binary
chdir /systems/amiga/boing/comms/term/
uuencode
get term34.lha
quit
--------------------------------------


OK what's happening??

TO: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com    ...OK this is who the ftpmail server is.
SUBJECT: Whhatever you want   ...Doesn't matter what you put here. When
                                 you get your reply, this is what the 
                                 subject line will say. Good to leave a
                                 note for yourself, so when it arrives, 
                                 you know what this is.

reply                         ...This is where decwrl.dec.com is going
                                 to send the uuencoded file. If no REPLY
				 line is sent, it will send it back to
				 the address from which the message 
				 orginated from.
connect                       ...This is were the file you want is, where
                                 you want the ftpmail server to go get the
                                 file.
binary                        ...if the file is compressed in ANY manner 
 				 use the keyword "binary" as we did here, 
				 if the file you want is just plain ASCII 
				 text, replace this with the keyword 
				 "ascii"
chdir /path/                  ...CHDIR is the same as "CD" most users
                                 that utilize a SHELL or CLI should 
				 understand this...you are moving the 
				 FTPMAIL server to where the file is.
uuencode                      ...You HAVE to uuencode the file if it is 
				 binary (which includes compressed files).
				 If you don't the archive, file, or 
				 whatnot will not work. AT ALL!!
get term34.lha                ...Now you are telling it the file you want it
                                 to grab. In this case it's "term34.lha"
quit                          ...You're done, finish up and send you 
				 the file

Done, now all you have to do is wait until it sends you the file in 
uuencoded format. Once you have it all you have to do is uudecode it.

Here's some more examples:

>>examples:

 -> connect to gatekeeper.dec.com and get a root directory listing:
  connect
  ls
  quit

 -> connect to gatekeeper.dec.com and get the README.ftp file:
  connect
  get README.ftp
  quit

 -> connect to gatekeeper.dec.com and get the gnuemacs sources:
  connect
  binary
  uuencode
  chdir /pub/GNU
  get emacs-18.58.tar.Z
  quit

 -> connect to ftp.uu.net as anonymous and get a root directory list:
  connect ftp.uu.net
  binary
  chdir /index/master
  get by-name.Z
  quit


Now admittedly, using FTPmail is slower than realtime FTP, but it gets
you what you want, and it works well. I've had to use this many times
before. There also >might< be certain restrictions at your email site.
Check with the local administrator for details.

Thanks to those at decwrl.dec.com for providing this service, and for the
help file used here.

Next week we will discuss how to use Netfind, and Archie via InterNet
email.


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-12 "WOCA Report"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Repost:  WOCA Show Report
    --------------------------------
    By David C. Navas
    (jazz@netcom.com)



I know others have written about their WOCA experiences.  But, I've always
been hungry for more opinions as it helps me to separate opinion from fact.
So here's another report.

WOC Pasadena was held at the Pasadena Center this year, a nice, short, 20
minute surface street commute from my girlfriend's parent's house.  I'll have
to remember that next year :)  At anyrate, I got to stay at the show for the
better part of Sat. and Sun.

For those who've never been to LA -- congratulations, I don't suggest it.
Imagine your typical suburb stretching several hundred miles.  Endless concrete
streets and the attempts to grow small trees and shrubbery -- well, for a
countryboy, it's a sick sight.  To get a picture of what LA is all about, just
walk the block around the Center.  Quarter way around you've got a Masonic
Temple and a Holiday Inn.  In the back, typical California-pre-yuppie
apartments -- "Cordova Park Villa" and "Park Place".  Your basic two-story
stretch of apartment complexes.

For those of you with a silly sense of humor like myself, our favorite
technical support will apparently be back in town from Oct. 12-17 for a
special, one week show (yes, that would be CATS).  [For those of you with a
slightly blacker sense of humor, "Back to the Past" was also hosting a swap
meet of sorts at the same time that C= was there.  I'll avoid the obvious
jibes.]

I attended most of Saturday's keynote and all of Sunday's.  I missed the
discussion with Rusty Mills (an Animation Director for Warner Bros.
in connection with Animaniacs).  Kermit posted a short on this, you'll have to
read his description.  I did see the OpalVision and Axiom demos, the FMV
discussion, and the Toaster4000/John Gross (animator for SeaQuest) talk.  On
Sunday I also caught SunRize's Studio 16 presentation.  I just wrote Dan
Zerkle some info I had about the OpalVision stuff, so you should see that
show up at some point (probably he'll incorporate it with his own stuff).


                Keynotes/FMV Discussions [combined]

On Saturday, the keynote was given by Lew Eggebrecht (V.P. of Engineering) and
Jim Dionne (President of Commodore U.S.).  They were answering engineering and
marketing questions respectively.  On Sunday, Jeff Porter (Director of
Engineering) and John DiLullo (Director of Marketing) filled those roles.  Jeff
Porter also gave the talk about FMV, along with someone from C-Cubed (whose
name I don't have, sorry).

My impressions?  Lew is a V.P., and as such (along with being on the road) this
has put him slightly out of touch on some issues.  He apparently referred to
Envoy as "Savoy" on Friday, and he also misspoke this on Saturday.  This
probably tells you about the relative priorities of networking at the company
as well.  Jim and John, from all the bad things they had to say, both came
across as frank and honest.  Someone (Dan Zerkle?) said that the keynote
address seemed to have a more hostile audience, however I didn't sense that on
Saturday or Sunday.  I would say there was a lot of healthy skepticism -- I've
seen marketing talk about lots of campaigns before, and I know their
probability of happening....

Although John mentioned "dramatic reductions in overhead", I didn't come away
felling that C= is some "lean mean fighting machine" but I think they have
learned a few lessons along the way.

While Lew is great at telling us what we want to hear, Jeff Porter's a guy that
makes the things he'd like to see actually -happen-.  I'd watch him for the
real cues for future C= directions.


                                U.S. Market

For the forseeable future, C= U.S. is a high-end company.  The U.S. is
responsible for the vast majority of A4000 sales, and C= views this as their
only real market here.  As Skip pointed out, the A1200 can't sell against the
cheap 486 machines -- and they (C=) themselves pointed this out.  [There was a
lot of grumbling about giving up the "A1200" market, as if there was one here
in the U.S.  Although, perhaps mailorder at $400/unit there might be....]

Nevertheless, giving up the U.S. home/business market (that is, the U.S. home
market which is made up of professionals using their computer at home to
supplement their work along with small business markets) would be suicide, so
while they currently don't have the money to pursue this market aggressively,
they do have a reasonable game plan.

Tha plan?  Sell the CD32 into the home market.  To accomplish this, they have
to redefine their target audience from the home/business market to the
home/game market (entertainment, basically).  As this has already been
happening [as far as I can tell] they might have a shot at it.  At an MSRP of
$399, it's going to be hard to beat.

Advertising?  Not mainstream, not unless some billionaire forks over his estate
or something.  Infomercials and appearances on the Home Shopping Network are
being pursued.  Apparently C= France is going to have some huge advertising
campain.  In fact, from comments in some csa groups, that's already
happening.

Future?  Once you have a 2Meg Amiga as your base platform, that'll give
developers a huge break for developing software, and I think (though you
realize most of this is my interpretation of what's going on in their heads)
that the CD32 will show what it's -really- capable of only then....

Will it work?  I think it'll sell CD32s, I don't think it'll help the
home-Amiga Market.  Technology comes down too fast from the high-end around
here.  The A4000 really has to come down, not the other way around.  But, who
knows, really.


                                      32
                                C  D

The star of WOCA was definitely the CD32.  When the excitement begins to wear
off, I suspect that we'll start moaning about the quality of the very first
games -- time will tell,  For this thing to be initially successful, some very
high quality games have to be introduced.  The Sonic clone looked good, the
football game also looked very professional, and the pinball game was a
favorite at the CBM booths as well.  Jurassic Park, for all it's low-res CDXL
animations from the movie looked rather silly, actually.  Perhaps a gaming dude
might care to comment?  Games are definitely not my thing.

Apart from that, though, the box itself seemed well-designed for its purpose,
and frankly, it was "cheap".  I saw one kid oggling the VCD/FMV video and his
question was "how much?"  Which gets at the key of the issues here -- one, it
has to look good (and VCD -definitely- does :)) two, it has to be affordable,
and at $600 for the VCD32 (name made up, cost estimated), and only $399 for the
base unit (MSRP) I think this box has a real chance to grab significant
marketshare.

In fact, I'd take even odds on C= being able to sell 5million in the next
12months (although I'm fairly sure they couldn't fill that demand ;)).  If C=
is making any significant money off of this at all, they're going to do quite
well.  Also, at ~$3/disk sold, they're also going to rake in money from each
and every game sold -- a tactic Nintendo and Sega have used as well, although
C='s seems a lot more fair (based on disks -sold- as opposed to -produced-),
and a bunch cheaper.

The Welcome Screen on the CD32 is quite cute -- it has a nice sound startup,
and the graphics look a lot like Chicago O'Hare's underground walk-tunnel that
connects two of their terminals.  In the center, a "shiny" CD with a few gaudy
rainbow patterns w/color cycling -- but overhead and underneath, a bunch of
curvy rainbow-colored streaks that rush toward you -- grow in intensity, dim,
fade to black, etc.  A nice touch, I thought.

Aside from the gaming aspect (which is not my area of interest or knowledge
anyway), the really significant thing being shown for the CD32 was the VCD
(Video CD/Karaoke) attachment.  This little box (I've heard estimates of cost
between about $180-$250 -- I'd side on the high-end of that, actually) will
literally blow your mind when you see it.  High fidelity sound and video coming
realtime from a teeny audio CD player.  It's astounding, and I definitely want
one :)

Yes, it was being shown -- they had one disk with three different titles -- a
Bon Jovi music video, and two European (yes, PAL) videos -- one French, one
British [I think].  The French clip was, well, bizarre :), the British clip
was very good, though.  Nice lightning effects along with some CGI -- which was
kinda ironic, I thought....

Apparently, these were older versions (the cards have been hitting the road
along with C= officials pushing this concept, more about that later), which
contained a number of rendering glitches (the system seemed to lose sync
pretty often), and the pause, ff, etc. functions were not working on the unit
they had, though apparently all of the above is working in the labs.

VCD is MPEG1 -- a 352x240x30fps compressed video standard which is interlaced
and horizontally doubled before being output.  The bitrate for this format is
1.15Mbps, or slightly under the 150k/sec a normal-speed drive runs.  While VCD
is playing, between 70 and 80 percent of the CPU is available, and the Amiga
screen is genlocked over the VCD output.  So it's quite possible to do some
-very- interesting HAM8 effects over the VCD graphics.  I hope we see stuff
like that in the future.

Along with MPEG1, MPEG2 also exists.  This is a higher bandwidth standard
operating between 4-9 Mbits/sec -- even more for HDTV.  This one is for the
cable companies, and Jeff Porter has been very interested in this area as it
develops.

Speaking of Jeff Porter, yes, he's been hob-knobing with the best of them in LA
trying to drum up support for the VCD format.  It helps, of course, that this
is not a proprietary format -- it's been adopted by nearly every serious CD-
player company on the market.  All of these contacts are enabling him to help
shape current markets in the US, which I see as a real positive move by C=.  I
hope he stays....

Another thing Jeff has been pushing is Photo CD support.  He's been
aggressively pursuing this for fourteen months -- we're talking wading through
the US legal system, don't expect miracles.

At anyrate, apparently there has been some commitment to do the Star Trek
movies along with Indecent Proposal (why this movie?  beats me). I'll
definitely be getting ST II -- heh, heh.  Unless the cost is prohibitive.

And that's really the problem for this format.  Although the cost of cutting a
CD is 1/10th the cost of cutting a laserdisc, the actual MPEG encoding costs
an arm and a leg.  Laser Pacific in LA and Pacific Video Resources in SF will
kindly take a D1 or Betacam source (preferable) and transfer it to MPEG for
the low cost of $50-$600 (respectively) PER MINUTE!  Don't try this at home,
kids....

However, these costs should drop considerably when C^3 finally releases their
encoding chip which is supposed to happen (finally) on Oct. 4th.  Encoding
boards should then only run a couple of thousand, instead of in the tens to
hundreds of thousands of dollars for a high-end workstation, and the shear
volume of encoding should also help bring the price down.  Time will tell.

So what's the quality really like?  Well, the audio sounds as good as Sony's
MiniDiscs (the compression used is similar in nature), and the video hovers
somewhere around SVHS quality (less than laserdisc).


"Sounds great, where/when can I buy one?"
Hah, can't fool me, you're asking marketing questions again :)
The box is already shipping to Europe.  Because C= deals solely with
distributors now, they only have a feel for what the distributors are buying,
so the initial success is hard to determine.  Until then, the official line
is that they're being sold as fast as they're shipped.  What that really
means is that the distributors in Europe are buying them as fast as C= can
make them (which is between 20-22k/week).  Hopefully by October/Novemeber,
we'll be able to see whether this demand continues or not.

It's been reported in various newsgroups that France is making some rather
large marketing moves, though the British, for all Dave Pleasance's talk,
have been relatively quiet.  I haven't heard news on the German (or other)
fronts. Hopefully someone can fill us in on what's happening over there.

As for the US, the box is supposed to ship in limited quantity starting in mid
October running until January, when C= will (assuming Europe went through the
roof trying to get their hands on the thing) become aggressive with the
American consumer market at the January CES.  Jim Dionne said that the
strategy is to attempt to get the box into everyhere that the Sega CD is
sold.  That's -very- aggressive indeed.

As for coverage, infomercials and Home Shopping Center have been considered,
but there's doubt as to whether a real TV ad campain could be run due to the
financial problems at Cmdre.



                                FINANCE

So what's the deal with Cmdre's financial situation anyway?  Well, it sucks
basically.  Lots of words have been used -- "high dollar value",
"collapse of the PC margin", "reduction in overhead", but it all comes down
to the fact that C= is on very shaky financial grounds.  As with real
evolution, Cmdre is being asked to evolve or perish, CD32 is their attempt
to avoid the latter in favor of the former.

As others have fairly well covered these aspects, I won't go into too much
detail.


                                GIMME HIGH-END

Lew still claims that the main pursuit of Cmdre engineering is producing
products quickly.  And I think we can safely say that its one of the larger
criticisms that that's exactly what they aren't doing.  While CD32 has had a
fast track, the rest of engineering has screached to a halt.   AAA is supposed
to have been demonstrated in-house blitting images around.  Bugs have been
found, fixes will be proposed, and the current schedule sees completion of a
second round of AAA chips by January.  Assuming that the chips are then bug
free (which -I- consider unlikely) systems would be available around 3rd
quarter next year.  I don't expect them even then -- but one can always hope.

Besides AAA, there's very little other good news on the high-end front.
Networking has been pretty much sold off, the DSP work has been suspended and
will remain like that until January.  RTG (almost certainly with the quitting
of Chris Green) has hit a dead-end, they -hope- to have it in AAA machines.  I
wouldn't hold my breath.

As for RISC, despite the blathering and rumours of way-cool RISC machines,
reality is that they haven't picked a chip yet, nevermind put an OS on an
actual prototype.  The current favorites are HP/PA and RISC.  The HP
apparently has a very nice price/performance point, although MIPS is running
NT -- which is still, apparently, some kind of wise choice in Lew's mind.  I
imagine MIPS will gain further favor with the success of the Screamer and
NewTek's association with C=.  However, I'm none too pleased with NT as a
choice operating system.  The current hope is a RISC platform in '95.  I
think it's wiser to expect it late in '96 if that, from a software perspective.

Lew was stressing that he couldn't emphasize enough the importance of AmigaOS.
However, I'm not sure he himself believes that yet, I'm not sure he grasps the
software side of the Amiga yet, but at least he's done chasing the Alpha! :)
Neither Alpha chips nor PowerPC chips are likely to wander into the Amiga
platform anytime soon.

As for the CISC world, Motorola already has plans beyond the 68060, and C=
will follow Motorola's lead for now.


Is it really that bleak on the high-end development?  Yes, it is.  Any
future developments in the high-end (aka the U.S. market) are dependent on the
success of the CD32.  So for now, a lot of us are sitting and crossing our
fingers....


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-13 "ModCharts"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Repost:  MODCHARTS!
    --------------------------
    By Oliver Bellmann
    (oliver@math.uni-muenster.de)


 Hello Friends!

Welcome to the charts of the month SEPTEMBER 1993.  Get the MODs, listen to 
them, put them to the places 1 to 10 and send back your vote to me.

NOTE: Please do not vote for "Klisje paa klisje" anymore.
      This song stayed for 6 months in the top ten and has to quit the
      charts now. If you want it to stay, you have to say so under the
      section "MODs that I want to hear next month".
      This is the only way to keep this MOD in the charts.
      If enough of you want "Klisje" back, the song will appear as
      re-entry next month.
      DON'T PUT THE SONG TO THE PLACES 1 TO 10 IN YOUR VOTE.

 Here we go now:
 
 place  last                     number of months  percent of  filesize
	month                    in the charts     all votes   (Bytes)
 1)     ( 2)  1989 - a number       3                11.63%    210.304
 2)     ( 5)  Ethnomagic            1                11.45%    414.864
 3)     ( 1)  Enigma                5                10.72%    187.012
 4)     ( 0)  Space Debris          new               9.81%    347.582
 5)     ( 0)  Das Boot              new               9.45%    351.546
 6)     ( 4)  Klisje paa klisje     6 ***             7.81%    224.288
 7)     ( 7)  I feel much better    5                 7.45%    346.174
 8)     (10)  Exterminate           2                 6.54%    329.648
 9)     ( 7)  No Limit              3                 6.36%    268.222
10)     ( 0)  Boom! And she cums    new               5.63%    284.004

The newcomers:
 a) Sad Song                    (sadsong.mod) 141.289 Bytes
 b) Power of American Natives   (p-o-a-n.mod) 580.062   "
 c) Technomedley                (techno.mod)  138.658   "

--cut here-----cut here-----cut here-----cut here-----cut here--------
My vote for the charts of SEPTEMBER 1993:
_______________________________________ (place your name, email-address
					 or alias here for identification)
 1) ________________
 2) ________________
 3) ________________
 4) ________________
 5) ________________
 6) ________________
 7) ________________
 8) ________________
 9) ________________
10) ________________

MODs that I want to hear next month:
   Klisje paa klisje (yes/no)
a) _________________    (please give me the path :-) )
b) _________________
c) _________________
...

That's all. And don't forget to vote as soon as possible :-)
==========NEW ADDRESS==========NEW ADDRESS==========NEW ADDRESS==========
Send this vote to  OLIVER@MATH.UNI-MUENSTER.DE
==========NEW ADDRESS==========NEW ADDRESS==========NEW ADDRESS==========
Seeya on the boards,
Oliver (a.k.a. HITMAN on IRC, #modcharts)



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-3 "Holonet"                                    
@toc "menu"

/// Holonet:  Inexpensive Internet Access
    -------------------------------------


                                *** HOLONET ***


HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS.

HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu
driven interface.  HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to
use Internet services.  HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell
access.

Services include:

    o  Convenient Access
       A local call in 850+ cities nationwide.

    o  Online Publications
       Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News,
       Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine.

    o  USENET
       Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day.  The following news
       readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN.

    o  Internet E-Mail
       Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to:
       member@holonet.net

    o  Internet Access
       Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP.
       (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use)

    o  Single and Multi-player Games
       Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games.

    o  Support for Eudora
       Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader.

    o  UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds
       Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet.

How to try HoloNet for FREE:
      Telnet: holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or
              14400 bps.  There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an
              automated response containg a list of access numbers, send
              e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net

How to get more information:
      E-mail: info@holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps
       Voice: 510-704-0160
         Fax: 510-704-8019

HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc.

           Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc.
                           All Rights Reserved.


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-14 "Textra v1.14"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  Textra v1.14
    ----------------------------
    By Keith Christopher
    (keithc@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu)



PRODUCT NAME

        Textra version 1.14


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        GUI-based Amiga text editor.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Mike Haas
        Address:        3867 La Colina Rd.
                        El Sobrante, CA  94803
                        USA

        E-mail:         mikeh@starnine.com

                        Also author of JForth Professional and
                        LCD Calculator.

LIST PRICE

        The program is shareware:  $25.00 (US).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS


        HARDWARE

                At least 40K of free RAM.

                Fully hard drive installable via a install script.

                Worked on all CPUs.
                        Tested on:
                                A4000, A2500, A500

        SOFTWARE

                None.


COPY PROTECTION

        None.  Hard drive installable.


MACHINES USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 4000, 6MB Fast RAM, 2MB Chip RAM, AmigaDOS 3.0.
        Amiga 2500, 8MB Fast RAM, 1MB Chip RAM, AmigaDOS 2.04.
        Amiga 500,  1MB Fast RAM, 512K Chip RAM, AmigaDOS 2.1.

        The A4000 is stock, the 2500 is a 68020 CBM, and the A500 has a 512K
        memory expansion board.


REVIEW

        I originally did my text editing with Textra 1.12.  I used it on my
A2000 under 2.04 without a hitch. After selling my 2000, I waited to buy a
4000.  After I purchased my 4000 I again wanted Textra. After ftp-ing and
installing the 1.14 version, the first thing I noticed (and appreciated) was
it was NOT crippled in any way. This is excellent because, like most of you,
I hate getting a piece of shareware and finding that the one feature I
wanted to test is disabled!!  This makes you want to uninstall the author's
programming language.

        But not Textra!  Instead, the unregistered version has one of the
most troublesome startup screens one could want to wade through to get
things going.  Worth the wait?  After testing it out, yes!  Worth the wait
every time I want to edit my code.  NO WAY.

        Calling the program from Workbench is easy enough:  double click the
icon.  (Can't understand why it says "Textra 3.0" though.)  The first thing
you are greeted by is a personalized registration screen (which goes away
quickly) followed by a window that identifies the disks available on your
system which are placed beside a listview window to select the document to
edit.  After selecting a drive and a file to edit, you get a 1/2 screen
window that has the look and feel of a pretty hard hitter.  I was really
surprised by the interface and options available.  In the upper left corner
it displays the column and line number. In the title bar of the window it
displays the path with the filename being edited. The menus supply the basic
find/cut/paste/open/save/save as options as well as some other nice
features. The Windows menu lists all open files; so if you are editing
several hunks of code, you can easily find the one you are looking for
quickly and painlessly. The Edit menu provides the common cut/paste/find
commands and houses find&replace, go to selected line number, case setting,
and the edit preferences. Editing preferences gives you options like
auto-indent, auto-backspace, tab length... you get the picture. Utilities
menu is one sweet pick. The options are: set file protections(RWED),
keyboard "keystroke command" help (e.g. Amiga X = Cut), The ARexx interface
(perfect for use with your favorite compiler!), and the font preferences.

        The list of things you can do with this editor is huge.  The
documentation is well written well and one can search quickly and painlessly
through it by highlighting the topic number and hitting right-amiga-F (if
you are in Textra 8-)).  If you want a very good text editor and manipulator
with an excellent ARexx interface (50 commands), this is the one for you.  I
have personally used this editor for writing code and searching/editing
documentation and feel it is well worth the registration fee.

        It worked flawlessly under 3.0 on my Amiga 4000, as Textra 1.12
worked as well on my 2000 under 2.04. It is Enforcer clean as Mike states in
his documentation (I didn't get any hits).  I did get a "guru" (I know he's
dead in 3.0 but I miss him) error twice when loading a file but I could not
replicate the errors.  Textra multitasks extremely well with everything I've
tried to run (i.e., SAS/C 6.3, Virus Z, TrashMan, Toolmanager 2.1, DirOpus,
Xcomm, Term3.4, PowerSnap... you get the idea (these were all running at
once).


DOCUMENTATION

        Documentation is disk based.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        Loved that the registered package comes with very detailed
documentation, and 30 ARexx scripts. The Installer allowed one to install
the documentation in a separate directory.  (I have all my documentation in
one directory, so this was nice.)  Textra can be intergrated with JForth Pro
3.x, HSPascal, Paul Kienitz's Q-Blue Offline Mail Reader, and I've used it in
conjunction with SAS/C 6.3!  Mike also includes his LCD calculator with the
registered version.

        From the WhatsNew.doc file:

        "Programmers will find this nice:

                "If you double click on any of these characters... ( ) < > [
        ] { } Textra will search through the file in the appropriate
        direction for a "balanced match" (handles nested substrings).  This
        is great, for example, when programming C and you want to see
        everything that the { you're staring at encompasses.  Textra will
        highlight everything forward to the balancing } character."

        I would love to see a preferences editor that would allow one to
input compilation parameters and hit F1 to compile.  A dictionary module
would be nice, but it's a text editor not a word processor.

        The most needed option I can see is an Iconify. I am spoiled by the
terminal emulation programs out there that do this:  Terminus 2.0, Xcomm 1.0,
Term3.X, and so on.  This is a sweet option.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        Other than a couple of very poorly written editors for the Amiga, I
can only compare it to the system supplied editors.  Ed is like UNIX "vi" to
me.  If I need a quick and painless edit this is the way to go, I would not
call Textra up each time I needed to edit a single line, it was not made for
this.

        Compared to Memacs, simply put, Use Textra ! 8-) Textra is much
easier to move around in than Memacs.  With the ARexx ability it is much more
practical to use.  If you are not familiar with Memacs, I strongly recommend
you get Textra, or kludge around Memacs for a while. (While I am not knocking
Memacs, I just find it hard to learn the ins and outs for new users.)


BUGS

        I only had 2 system alerts while using Textra; however I could not
replicate them no matter how often I tried.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        I e-mailed Mike @ starnine with a question and he quickly answered it
and that was that. He offers $5 (US) upgrades once you register Textra.


WARRANTY

        No warranty is expressed or implied.  (Straight from the
documentation.)


CONCLUSIONS

        If you want a very good text editor and manipulator with an excellent
ARexx interface (50 commands) this is the one for you.  I have personally
used this editor for writing code and searching/editing documentation and
feel it is well worth the registration fee.

        Rating:  4 stars out of 5


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        This review is freely distributable.

Keith Christopher
Welch Medical Library
Unix System Administrator


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-6 "BIX"
@toc "menu"

/// BIX - Byte Information Exchange             Lots of information!
    -------------------------------


BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts.
While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for 
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BIX is divided into areas called conferences, each devoted to a 
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contains.

These are some of the exchanges on BIX:

amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts
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If you wish to connect internationally through Tymnet or SprintNet, 
please contact your local PTT.  BIX accepts prepaid international calls,
direct dial, or telnet connections.  In order to make a "collect" (not 
prepaid) call to BIX, your account must be verified before the charges 
are accepted.  When you complete the registration, we'll mail you a BIX
Membership Agreement by regular US Mail.  Whe you receive it, sign it 
and return it to us by mail.  When we receive it here, we'll authorize
your account to make reverse charged calls.

If you want to access BIX right away, contact your local PTT to set up a 
prepaid account.  You'll pay your local carrier for your calls to BIX in
advance, so there's no waiting period or verfication needed. Or, connect 
at BIX via telnet to x25.bix.com.

SprintNet international calls from most locations are $24 an hour.
Tymnet international charges vary, but are generally between $20-$30 an hour.

=========================
Billing Information: 
=========================

You can charge your monthly BIX membership fees to your Visa, 
Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card.

You may have your company invoiced for one or more BIX memberships with 
a BIX Corporate Account.  To do so, send by US Mail or fax a Purchase Order 
including a Purchase Order number, invoice address, contact person, a 
phone number where we can reach the contact person, and the company's 
fax number.  Please direct it to the attention of Connie Lopes, who
handles corporate accounts.  Our fax number is 617-491-6642.  Your 
corporate account will generally be set up within 24 hours.


========================
To Sign Up For BIX:
========================

   Dial by modem 1-800-695-4882 or 617-491-5410 * 
   (use 8 data bits, no parity, full duplex)

   Press a few carriage returns until you see the Login:(enter "bix") 
   prompt, then type  bix

   At the Name? prompt, type bix.amrpt

* Users already on the internet can telnet to x25.bix.com instead.
  At the USERNAME: prompt enter bix, then bix.net at the Name? prompt.
  Once your account is registered, you can connect the same way, except
  at the Name? prompt you'll enter your BIXname and then your password.


Using the above procedure will allow users in the 48 contiguous United 
States to take advantage of our special "5 for $5" offer.  This offer 
lets you use up to 5 hours of evening/weekend time on BIX during the 
current calender month (whatever month you sign up in), for $5.  
Additional time is $1.80 per hour ($1 per hour for telnet).  At the end 
of the calender month, you will be placed into our standard rate plan, 
at $13 monthly plus connect charges.  You may also join the 20/20 Plan 
at this time.

If you have other questions, please contact BIX Member Services 
at (800) 695-4775; send a fax to BIX at (617) 491-6642; or send Internet
mail to info@bix.com.

BIX Member Services hours are 12pm - 11pm, Monday through Friday, ET.  


@endnode
***************************************************************************

@node P3 "Dealer Directory"
@toc "menu"

/// Dealer Directory                               Serving our readers!           
    ----------------



                           Almathera Systems Ltd
                              Challenge House
                              618 Mitcham Rd
                              Croydon, Surrey
                             CR9 3AU  England
                         VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418
              Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
                  (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk


                           Amigability Computers
                               P.O. Box 572
                          Plantsville, CT  06479
                            VOICE: 203-276-8175
                        Internet:  amiga@phantm.UUCP
                             BIX:  jbasile
              (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list)


                            Apogee Technologies
                          1851 University Parkway
                            Sarasota, FL  34243
                           VOICE:  813-355-6121
                              Portal:  Apogee
                     Internet:  Apogee@cup.portal.com


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


                CLICK! Microcomputer Applications B.V.B.A.
                            Boomsesteenweg 468
                        B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
                             Belgium - Europe
                         VOICE:  03 / 828.18.15
                           FAX:  03 / 828.67.36
                     USENET:  vanhoutv@click.augfl.be
                             FIDO:  2:292/603.9
                         AmigaNet:  39:120/102.9


                       Computers International, Inc.
                             5415 Hixson Pike
                          Chattanooga, TN  37343
                           VOICE:  615-843-0630


                               Digital Arts 
                           122 West 6th Street
                          Bloomington, IN  47404 
                           VOICE: (812)330-0124 
                           FAX:   (812)330-0126 
                               BIX:  msears 
 

                           Finetastic Computers
                           721 Washington Street
                            Norwood, MA  02062
                           VOICE:  617-762-4166
                             BBS:  617-769-3172
                            Fido:  1:101/322
                       Portal:  FinetasticComputers
               Internet:  FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com


                               HT Electronics
                         275 North Mathilda Avenue
                           Sunnyvale, CA  94086
                           VOICE:  408-737-0900
                           FAX:    408-245-3109
                          Portal:  HT Electronics
                 Internet:  HT Electronics@cup.portal.com


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


                          Mr. Hardware Computers
                               P.O. Box 148
                              59 Storey Ave.
                          Central Islip, NY 11722
                           VOICE:  516-234-8110
                             FAX:  516-234-8110
                         A.M.U.G. BBS:  516-234-6046


                     MusicMart:  Media Sound & Vision
                            71 Wellington Road
                          London, Ontario, Canada
                           VOICE:  519-434-4162
                             FAX:  519-663-8074
                             BBS:  519-457-2986
                            FIDO:  1:221/125
                        AmigaNet:  40:550/1
                          MaxNet:  90:204/1
                        iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca


                              PSI Animations
                         17924 SW Pilkington Road
                          Lake Oswego, OR  97035
                           VOICE:  503-624-8185
                     Internet:  PSIANIM@agora.rain.com


                           Software Plus Chicago
                          3100 W Peterson Avenue
                             Chicago, Illinois
                           VOICE:  312-338-6100



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

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-15 "AR Confidential"
@toc "menu"


/// AR Confidential                    We heard it through the grapevine!
    ---------------



 - Austin, Texas                       WHO'S THE MOST SATISFYING?
   -------------

 According to market researcher J.D. Power and Associates, it's Dell
 Computer Corp.   Based on J.D. Power's 1993 Desktop Personal Computer
 Satisfaction Index, Dell ranked highest in customer satisfaction with
 an index score of 121. Compaq was second at 118 and Gateway third at 103.
    
 Some well-known names - Apple, AST, CompuAdd, Hewlett-Packard, IBM 
 and Packard Bell - ranked below the industry average of 100.
  
 The rapid acceptance of Microsoft Windows has changed the user dyna-
 mics of satisfaction. In 1992, "Ease of Use" represented 45% of the end 
 user's overall satisfaction, in 1993 "Ease of Use" had dropped to only 
 18%.  "User Support" has displaced "Ease of Use" as the key area of 
 differentiation among business users' overall satisfaction with their PC.


 - Sunnyvale, CA                JAGUAR TO BE DELAYED 'TILL AFTER CHRISTMAS?
   -------------
   
 Our ever vigilant observers have reported the Jaguar is now expected to
 ship shortly AFTER Christmas 1993.  This is in direct contradiction to the
 plans announced detailing a drive to ship to New York City and Los Angeles
 in time for Christmas.  While some observers where somewhat disturbed by
 this news others shrugged it off with the comments; "So what else is new
 with Atari?  They're running true to form!"


 - Sunnyvale, CA    ATARI RUMORED TO BE WORKING ON ITS VERSION OF POWER PC!
   -------------

 The Power PC, the future of computing according some highly informed
 individuals in the computing community, is reported to be in Atari's
 future.  Our "super snoop" comes out of the Sunnyvale "conclave" with
 information pointing toward the Power PC as being the top contender in the
 way to go for the future.  At this time however, since the reports of the
 Jaguar delay, the whole "ball of wax" is up in the air.



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@node P1-16 "Humor Department"
@toc "menu"

/// The Humor Department           Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs
    --------------------






@endnode

@node P5-2 "Quicktools v1.0"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

     QuickTools 

VERSION

    Release 1.0 (15 Sep 93)

AUTHOR

     Eivind Nordseth      Email: eivindno@idt.unit.no
     Ultima Thule Software

DESCRIPTION

     QuickTools is the tool package for the hard disk owner
     who is tired of writing long pathnames when changing
     directories and who doesn't have the time to search
     for files manually. QuickTools consists mainly of
     three small utilities and a library where the search
     routines are. All search routines support standard
     AmigaDOS wildcards.

     Qcd:
     With this you can change directory by only writing
     enough of the directory name to identify it. The
     directory can be anywhere on the harddisk. If more 
     than one directory maches the search word a requester
     will pop up and you can select the directory you want
     to change to.

     If you want to change to a directory with the
     following path: 'Harddisk0:Work/SAS/SelfMade/QuickCD'

     You can write: 
     'Qcd Harddisk0:Work/SAS/SelfMade/QuickCD' (the hard way)
     Or just: 'Qcd qui'   (the Qcd way)

     QFind:
     Search for files, scans through the database in just a 
     few seconds.
 
     QPop:
     A commodity for file and directory searching.

     These programs are a must for any serious hard disk user!!
                                    
     Why use QuickTools instead of other similar utilities:
     - All search routines support wildcards and are in a 
       seperate library. 
     - Qcd (<2K) and QFind (1K) is quite small and can be 
       made resident.
     - The database is quite compact, (37K to store 4500 
       filenames with directory information).
     - Qcd is almost as fast as the normal CD since the 
       directory database is kept resident in memory.
     - QPop can pop up with a hotkey and the search result 
       can be copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted
       to the input stream by program supporting this.
     - All GUI's can be controlled by the keyboard. No need to
       move your hand to the mouse. 

NEW FEATURES

     QuickTools is an update and extension of my former
     QuickCD program.  QuickCD is now a part of the
     QuickTools package.
 
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     Requires an Amiga with OS compatible with Workbench
     2.04. A harddisk is also nice to have :-)

HOST NAME
 
     QuickTools is ftp uploaded to Aminet and can be found 
     at: ftp.wustl.edu          128.252.135.4
     It should also be available at all other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY

     Directory: /pub/aminet/util/cli

FILE NAMES

     Filemame : QuickToolsR1.lha

PRICE

     QuickTools Release 1.0 is FreeWare.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Copyright (C) 1993 Ultima Thule Software, All Rights Reserved.
     QuickTools is NOT public domain, but freely distributable.

@endnode



@node P2-3 "In Closing"
@toc "menu"

===========================================================================
                  Amiga Report International Online Magazine
September 24, 1993     * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE *            No. 1.26
                     Copyright © 1993 All Rights Reserved
===========================================================================
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 a language other than English is accept-
ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis-
tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees  to
cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services  such as
(but not limited to)  Delphi  and Portal.  Distribution  on  public  domain
disks is acceptable provided proceeds  are only  to cover  the cost of  the
disk (e.g. no more than $5 US).  Distribution  on for-profit magazine cover
disks requires  written permission  from the  editor  or  publisher.  Amiga
Report is a not-for-profit publication.  Amiga Report, at the  time of pub-
ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its  staff and con-
ributors are  not and  cannot be held  responsible for the use or misuse of
information contained herein or  the  results  obtained there  from.  Amiga
Report is not  affiliated  with  Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore  Business
Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way.
===========================================================================
 
                                    Only
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                  *       _    _       __  ___    _       *
                  *      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\      *
                  *     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\     *
                  *    /--- \\|  \X || || \\_||/--- \\    *
                  *   /______________________________\\   *
                  *  /                                \\  *
                  *                                       *
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                             Makes it possible!!

@endnode

@node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc "menu"

@{"    Columns and Features    " link P1} News, Reviews, and More!
@{"     About AMIGA REPORT     " link P2} Staff, Copyright information
@{"      Dealer Directory      " link P3} Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-up information
@{"     FTP Announcements      " link P5} Files available for FTP
@{"   AR Distribution Sites    " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT



/// 09/24/93 Amiga Report 1.26   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · Dealer Directory      · AR Online            · AR Confidential
    · InterNet via Email    · SHI News             · A.M.I.G.A.

                          » WOCA Reports Continue! «
                       » Lightwave with the Toaster? «
                               » MOD Charts! «
===========================================================================
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
              Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports
===========================================================================
              @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} · @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} · @{" BIX " link P4-6}
===========================================================================


@endnode

@node P1 "Columns and Features"
@toc "menu"

@{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Saying it like it is!
@{"   CPU  Status Report   " link P1-2} Computer Products Update
@{"     The Scientist      " link P1-3} The Scientist now online via the InterNet!
@{"    NewsBytes CD-ROM    " link P1-4} NewsBytes volume III now shipping
@{"        Lightrave       " link P1-5} Lightwave without the Toaster??
@{"   New Courier Modems   " link P1-6} Featuring V.32 terbo
@{"     Online Weekly      " link P1-7} The lines are buzzing!
@{"        SHI News        " link P1-8} PC-Task virus nonexistent
@{"      WOCA Report       " link P1-9} By Dan Zerkle, parts 3-5
@{"       A.M.I.G.A.       " link P1-10} The A.M.I.G.A. Fall Preview
@{" The InterNet via Email " link P1-11} How to use FTPmail
@{"      WOCA Report       " link P1-12} by David C. Navas
@{"       MOD Charts       " link P1-13} The hottest hits on MODs
@{"     UseNet Review      " link P1-14} Textra v1.14
@{"    AR Confidential     " link P1-15} Where's the Jaguar??

@endnode


@node P2 "About Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"

@{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT
@{"   AR Staff   " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers
@{"  In Closing  " link P2-3} Copyright Information

@endnode

@node P4 "Commercial Online Services"
@toc "menu"

@{"   Delphi   " link P4-1}  It's getting better all the time!
@{"   Portal   " link P4-2}  A great place for Amiga users...
@{"  Holonet   " link P4-3}  Inexpensive Internet Access
@{"  InterNet  " link P4-5}  Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
@{"    BIX     " link P4-6}  For Serious Programmers and Developers
@endnode

@node P5 "FTP Announcements"
@toc "menu"

@{" AudioScope v2.01 " link P5-1} Audio spectrum analyzer
@{" QuickTools v1.0  " link P5-2} 3 utilities for HD owners
@endnode



                 -----------------------------------------
@node P2-1-1 "NOVA"
@toc "menu"


                               * NOVA BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                         Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop
                            FidoNet  1:362/508
                 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
                 615-472-9748  USR DS 16.8  24hrs - 7 days
                           Cleveland, Tennessee
@endnode           
                ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime"
@toc "menu"


        
                          * IN THE MEANTIME BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                            * Running AXShell *
                            Robert Niles, Sysop
                            rniles@imtired.itm.com
                  FidoNet  1:3407/104 (Private - Disabled)
                509-966-3828  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Yakima, Washington


                          ******* Notice *******

After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus
we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still 
accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online.
Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast 
call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report.

Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with
to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest".
At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes).

@endnode           
	       ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner"
@toc "menu"


        
                          * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
               Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                            Larry Cloud, Sysop
                             FidoNet  1:350/30
                 206-377-4290  USR HST DS  24hrs - 7 days
                           Bremerton, Washington
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica"
@toc "menu"


         
                            * BIOSMATICA BBS *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal
                    * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP *
                           Celso Martinho, Sysop
                             FidoNet  2:361/9
                  +351-34-382320  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9"
@toc "menu"


                           * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
         Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                          Stephen Anderson, Sysop
                   Internet:  user_name@junct9.royle.org
      Line 1  +44 (0)372 271000  14400  V.32bis/HST   Fido 2:253/510
      Line 2  +44 (0)372 278000  14400  V.32bis only  Fido 2:253/520
      Line 3  +44 (0)372 279000  2400   V.42bis/MNP   Fido 2:253/530
                  Sysop Email:  sysadmin@junct9.royle.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS"
@toc "menu"



                             * BITSTREAM BBS *
               The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 *
                            Glen Roberts, Sysop
                             FidoNet 3:771/850
               +64 3 5485321  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Nelson, New Zealand

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight"
@toc "menu"


                         * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                         Thorsten Schiller, Sysop
                    Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
                    UUCP:   ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm
                             FIDO: 1:221/202
                             Fish: 33:33/8
                              24hrs - 7 days
                         519-748-9365  (2400 baud)
                         519-748-9026  (v.32bis)
                              Ontario, Canada


     Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM


@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle"
@toc "menu"


                          METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          UK Support for Mebbsnet
                  * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a *
                             Jon Witty, Sysop
                            FIDO:  2:252/129.0
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                     Line  1:   44-482-473871  16.8 DS HST 
                     Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251  2400 (6 lines)
                     Line  8:   44-482-491744  2400 
                     Line  9:   44-482-449028  2400 
                Voice helpline  44-482-491752  (anytime)

                 Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 
                  500 megs HD - Usual software/messages 
           Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT 
                Very active userbase and busy conference  
             Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. 

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet"
@toc "menu"

                            * OMAHA AMIGANET *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                           Andy Wasserman, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                            FidoNet:  1:285/11
                           AmigaNet:  40:200/10
                      Line 1:  402-333-5110  V.32bis
                      Line 2:  402-691-0104  USR DS
                              Omaha, Nebraska

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System"
@toc "menu"


                          * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Janne Saarme, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                       InterNet: luumu@fenix.pp.fi 
                           FidoNet:  2:220/550.0
                          +358-0-675840  V.32bis
                             Helsinki, Finland

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying"
@toc "menu"


                        * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Eric Delord, Sysop
                         Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop
                        Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop
                    Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org
                            Fidonet: 2:320/104
                        +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8
                        +33-1-60037713 V.32bis
                        +33-1-60037716 1200-2400
  

Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro
on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines.

We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site
from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the
SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator.



@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe"
@toc "menu"



                          * FREELAND MAINFRAME *
                   Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Progessional *
                           John Freeland, SysOp
                 206-438-1670  Supra 2400zi
                 206-438-2273  Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis)
                 206-456-6013  Supra v.32bis
                              24hrs - 7 days
                       Internet - freemf.eskimo.com
                            Olympia, Washington
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-51 "LAHO"
@toc "menu"



                               * LAHO BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
                             * Running MBBS *
                           Juha Makinen,  Sysop
                        +358-64-414 1516, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-414 0400, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP
                            Seinajoki, Finland
 
Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and upcoming
CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in
a DesqView window. 

We have over 6000 files online (no CD-ROM yet) containing titles for PC
and Amiga or both like GIF-pictures, music-modules and text-files. The
upload/download ratio is a very lousy 1:100.  (i.e. you upload a 20k file
and may download 2MB).

Messages are mainly written in Finnish, but English is widely used by
Swedish-speaking and international callers.

Download-access will be granted when asked. Also Amiga-areas are available
for those who will need them to avoid 'wars' between PC and Amiga users.
Access to sex pictures and stories are only for persons over 18 years
and given when requested.

Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of
Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of
the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) on their first call.

The system is 4.5 years old and sponsored by the local telephone company,
Vaasan Laanin Puhelin Oy.

   SysOps:   Lenni Uitti        (Main SysOp)
             Juha Makinen       (SysOp of the Amiga-areas)
             Tero Manninen      (SysOp of the PC-areas)
             

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS"
@toc "menu"



                              * FALLING BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway
                             * Running ABBS *
                          Christopher Naas, Sysop
                  +47 69 256117  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                    EMail:    naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS"
@toc "menu"



                           * COMMAND LINE BBS * 
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada 
                Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source 
                        * Running AmiExpress BBS * 
                           Nick Poliwko, Sysop 
                    416-533-8321  V.32  24hrs - 7 days 
                             Toronto, Canada 
@endnode  
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS"
@toc "menu"


                             * RENDEZVOUS BBS *
           Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand
                  New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site
                  * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS *
                            David Dustin, Sysop
                  Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz
                +64 6 3566375  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                       Palmerston North, New Zealand


@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel"
@toc "menu"


                         * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                         * Running EazyBBS V2.11 *
                           Andreas Geist, Sysop
                    Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                    Line 1:  49-30-8110060  USR DS 16.8 
                    Line 2:  49-30-8122442  USR DS 16.8

                 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" 

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-56 "Dead Fish BBS"
@toc "menu"

                           * THE DEAD FISH BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                           * Running Excelsior *
                             Aaron Wald, Sysop
                       (914) 425-6015 V.32bis Supra
                               24 Hrs 7 Days
                        Internet:  dfbbs.linet.org
                           Amiganet 40:714/14.0


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-57 "Stingray Database BBS"
@toc "menu"


                          * STINGRAY  DATABASE *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                           * Running FastCall *
                           Bernd Mienert, Sysop
                 EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
                  +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days
                          Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
