@database "ar139.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.39 -- December 31, 1993"

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                       International Online Magazine

                "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information."
                
December 31, 1993                                                  No. 1.39
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                         Winners Don't Use Drugs                         /
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

                   Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications
                            All Rights Reserved


@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"
/// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT                         Distribution Sites!
    --------------------------

  Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                             FidoNet Systems                              /
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report!

@{"     OMAHA AMIGANET      " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska
@{"          NOVA           " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee
@{"     CLOUD'S CORNER      " link P2-1-3} ............................Bremerton, Washington
@{"       BIOSMATICA        " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal
@{"    AMIGA JUNCTION 9     " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom
@{"     BITSTREAM BBS       " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand
@{"   REALM OF TWILIGHT     " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada
@{"    METNET TRIANGLE      " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England
@{"   AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM    " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland
@{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France
@{"      GATEWAY BBS        " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi
@{"       TALK CITY         " link P2-1-13} ...............................Waukegan, Illinois
@{"       AMIGA BBS         " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexaco

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                           Non-FidoNet Systems                            /
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@{"    IN THE  MEANTIME     " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington
@{"   FREELAND MAINFRAME    " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington
@{"           LAHO          " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland
@{"         FALLING         " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway
@{"      COMMAND LINE       " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada
@{"       RENDEZVOUS        " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand
@{"  LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL   " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany
@{"   STINGRAY DATABASE     " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany
@{"  T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE    " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey
@{"     AMIGA CENTRAL       " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee
@{"   CONTINENTAL DRIFT     " link P2-1-59} ................................Sydney, Australia
@{"    GURU MEDITATION      " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain

@endnode

Non-AmigaGuide Users:  See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS.
___________________________________________________________________________


/// 12/31/93 Amiga Report 1.39   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk       · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · FTP Announcements       · Dealer Directory     · AR Confidential
    · The Humor Department    · Usenet Reviews       · AR Online
    · EuroDemo Compatibility  · DiskExpander         · 

                        » Buying your first Amiga «
                            » CD32 Reviewed! «
                       » AmigaWorks:  New Column! «

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                 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 · PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET            /
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

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


I want to apologize to everyone for not having an issue last week.  Normally,
I try to announce a break in circulation at least a week ahead of time, but it
just didn't happen this time.

There were two main reasons why we didn't make it out last week... first, 
I didn't have much to put in the issue -- it was a slow news week, and we've
been having some trouble getting people's submissions through Email intact.
The second reason is that I've been trying to assemble two PC systems over the
past two weeks.  One for myself, one for a friend.  Yes, I know... PC's suck.
Well, rather, MS DOS sucks.  I've been battling with mail order vendors and
other people that just couldn't get things shipped on time, and when I did
get enough pieces to get one of them running, I had the ever so pleasureful
experience of trying put it all together and get it running.

In fact, I'm still working on getting these blasted things working.  I have two
PC's on my desk, plus my A1200, and only two monitors.  So I keep switching my
NEC 3D from my 1200 to the PC and back.  It's really time to get an A/B switch-
box.

Building a PC is NOT for the faint at heart.  Had I not been doing one of them
for a friend, I would have given up in disgust and sent all the crap back.
But now that they're close to being usable, I might as well keep it. ;)

Now I'm sure you're wondering why I'm going on about PC's in an Amiga magazine.
Well, I had been starting to take my 1200 for granted, and had been tempted by
the PC.  Especially that new game, Doom.  It's wild.  But after going to the
trouble of assembling one, I really came to miss my 1200.  Especially the most
endearing quality of the Amiga:  Preemptive Multitasking.

I tell ya, Windows can't multitask worth a crap.  It's all cooperative, which
means applications have to voluntarily give up control so another application
can get CPU time.  The best I've managed is playing Solitaire in Windows while
downloading at 14.4Kbps, without causing problems.  And this is on a 40 MHz 486!
Sheesh.  If I had the money, I'd add enough memory and run OS/2, but 4 meg
doesn't cut it.

To further complicate things, I think I'm coming down with the Flu.  Wonderful.
I consider myself fortunate that I haven't had it yet, but the beginning of a
three day weekend is not the time one wants to get sick.  I feel like dozing
off right now as a type this...  Zzzzzzzzzzzz...



                     Rob @ AR                           \|/
                                                        @ @
----------------------------------------------------oOO-(_)-OOo------------

@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-1 "Delphi"
@toc "menu"


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

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

  DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan.  It gives you 20 hours each month
  for the low price of only $19.95!  Additional hours are only $1.50 each!
             This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections!

          For more information, and details on other plans, call
                 DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005


                             SPECIAL FEATURES
                             ----------------

 · Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more!
   (Internet option is $3/month extra)

 · SIGs for all types of computers  -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc.

 · Large file databases!
 
 · SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more!

 · Business and world news, stock reports, etc.

 · Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia!


                  DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!



@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:   General Mail:   ROB_G@Delphi.com     
             Submissions:    Rob-G@cup.portal.com
 


                      Assistant and Technical Editor
                      ==============================

                               Robert Niles

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



                        Contributing Correspondents
                        ===========================
                                Randy Abel
                               Boydell Brown
                               Jason Compton
                             Douglas R. Cootey
                                Njaal Eide


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

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



          ** Trial Edition of Quicken for DOS now Available **


   Intuit Inc. this week announced a new Trial Edition of Quicken for
DOS, Windows and the Macintosh. The finance software publisher says the
Trial Edition lets people test drive Quicken. Intuit notes that it
developed the Trial Edition for the 8.5 million PC-owning households
that don't currently use personal finance software.

   The Quicken Trial Edition contains all the functionality of the lat-
est versions of Quicken, but limits users to setting up eight accounts
and to entering 50 transactions per account, providing about a month's
use of the software. Users can continue to run reports and graphs even
after they've reached the 50- transactions per account limit.

   The Trial Edition also includes a Getting Started guide providing an
overview of Quicken's features.

   The Trial Edition is available for $8 directly from Intuit by calling
800-624-5071. A rebate coupon good toward the product's full $69.95
purchase price is included.


                ** IBM Tries Again with ThinkPad 500 **

   IBM has resumed shipments of its ThinkPad 500 subnotebook computer, a
system it pulled from the market last month because of a battery prob-
lem. Sources say the IBM PC Co. will install and test the new battery
free to owners of the unit, which went on sale in July. If you are a
ThinkPad 500 owner and need information, call IBM at 800/426-7244.


                  ** U.S. Chipmakers Outdo Japanese **

   According to Dataquest, a market research firm, for the first time in
eight years, U.S. semiconductor makers this year retook the lead in chip
production. The Dataquest report says American companies controlled 41.9
percent of the world semiconductor market in 1993, compared with 41.4%
for Japanese makers.

   Dataquest says that Intel Corp. was the world's largest chipmaker for
the second year, stretching its world market share to 9.6%, 2.2 points
ahead of Japan's NEC Corp.  Motorola Inc. moved ahead of Japan's Toshiba
Corp. to become the world's third-largest chip company.


                  ** Apple No Longer in First Place **

   The research firm, International Data Corp., sees IBM reclaiming from
Apple Computer the title as top seller in the U.S. for the year.  IBM is
expected to edge out Apple Computer Inc. by 25,000 units in the U.S.,
which represents 40% of world market.

   IDC says the 10 largest firms account for 9.5 million of the 14.8 mi-
llion PCs sold in the U.S., or about 64% of the market, compared to 52%
a year ago.

   "That is a big, big change," Richard Zwetchkenbaum, chief of PC
   market research at IDC said. "A brand name has become important for a
   number of reasons. These vendors have more marketing muscle, more R&D
   capability, the ability to have multiple brands and an array of dis-
   tribution channels."

   IDC's projection of 14.8 million units shipped in the United States
represents a 26% increase from 11.8 million units in 1992. The research
firm projects worldwide shipments of 36.1 million units, up 19% from
30.4 million in 1992.

   -:- IBM's U.S. sales rose 51% to 2.08 million units from 1.37 million
in 1992.  Worldwide sales climbed 37% to 4.4 million units from 3.2
million a year ago.

   -:- Apple showed 32% growth in the United States, with 2.05 million
units compared to 1.55 million a year ago. Its worldwide sales were 3.6
million, up 30% from 2.8 million in 1992.

   -:- Compaq posted the year's biggest growth, more than doubling U.S.
sales to 1.4 million units from nearly 676,000 in 1992. Worldwide sales
were up 96% to 3.05 million units from 1.56 million a year ago.

   Packard Bell remained No. 4, followed by Dell Computer Corp., Gateway
2000 Inc., AST Research Inc., Tandy Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Zenith Data
Systems Inc., which rose to No. 10 from No. 16. Compudyne Computer Corp.
fell out of IDC's top 10 in U.S. sales.


                  ** Sharp to Sell Sun Workstations **


   Starting next year, Japan's Sharp Corp. will sell workstations made
by Sun Microsystems Inc. Sharp also plans to start development of its
own workstations and server models by acquiring Sun's processors and
operating systems.


                  ** Compaq Quits Printer Business **

   Compaq Computer Corp. this week announced that it's leaving the prin-
ter business.  The company will continue to offer its existing Pagemarq
product line during early 1994, but is discontinuing its printer devel-
opment immediately. It will also continue to offer its printer customers
full support


                    ** Piracy of CD-Roms Alleged **

   A federal grand jury has indicted a woman for allegedly importing
more than 900 counterfeit CD-ROMs from Hong Kong with the intent to sell
them in the United States.  An indictment for software piracy had been
handed down against Clare Waioi Sham, 29, and her company, C-88 Interna-
tional Corp.

   Sham is alleged to have imported more than $200,000 worth of the co-
unterfeit computer parts along with manuals. If convicted, Sham could be
sentenced to 20 years in jail and a $1.75 million fine.


                   ** Thieves Steal Computer Chips **

   A band of armed robbers yesterday handcuffed employees at an Irvine,
Calif., computer chip business and escaped with an estimated $200,000
worth of property.  Five to six men armed with handguns handcuffed the
employees and taped their eyes, mouths and legs while they removed
property from the business, said Police Lt. Vic Thies.


             ** Magazine Editor Convicted of Mail Fraud **

   The editor/publisher of defunct computer magazine Desktop Publishing
Journal has been convicted of mail fraud following an investigation of
an alleged computer scam.

   Set for sentencing March 18, Linda Ann Laurie, 37 -- who used the
name Linda Hansen when she operated the magazine that folded in 1988 --
faces up to five years' imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine.

   A statement from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Seattle al-
leges from September 1988 through November 1989, after the magazine
ceased publication, Laurie mailed numerous letters from her home in
Snohomish, Wash., to computer hardware and software companies throughout
the United States, "claiming that the Desktop Publishing Journal had a
monthly circulation of as many as 80,000 and requesting that certain
computer-related items be loaned to her for an evaluation to be reported
in an upcoming issue of her publication."

   The statement says that the indictment handed down against her last
May further charged she received equipment worth about $75,000 and
attempted to get additional items worth over $95,000.


           ** Video Games Might Not be a Link to Epilepsy **

   A study commissioned by the British government says video games are
no more likely to trigger epileptic seizures than TV. The U.K.'s
National Epilepsy Society study was commissioned by the Department of
Trade and Industry last May after reports of several cases of epilepsy
among young video game players.  The report says:

   -:- About 30,000 people in Britain have a first epileptic seizure
   every year.

   -:- Of these, about 600 are susceptible to seizure triggered by TV,
   video games, computer graphics and other flashing light sources,
   meaning they are photosensitive epileptics.

   -:- Up to 150 people a year may have their first seizure triggered by
   playing a video game, but the report estimates that TV will touch off
   about the same number.

   The report found no evidence that photosensitivity itself can be
caused by playing video games, watching TV or by other light sources.


            ** Study Says U.S. School Computers Outdated **

   While America has boasted of the extent to which computers have come
to its school classrooms, a new study says the technology often is
outdated and that teachers lack adequate training.

   "Teachers are not afforded the time they need to become conversant in
computer technology or to plan lessons which integrate technology into
classroom activities," concludes "Computers in American Schools," a
study by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement, a cooperative of research centers in more than 40 countries
that study educational practices.

   The research, paid for by the National Science Foundation, compared
computer use in schools in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Austria and the
Netherlands.

   The study fewer than half the schools surveyed have introductory com-
puter courses for teachers either in their schools or at local colleges.
By comparison, in the other countries, two-thirds to 95 percent of the
schools said training is available.

   Japan, Austria and the Netherlands all had a higher percentage of up-
to-date school computers than the United States, the study found.


   ** BBS-Delivered Death Threats Gets Houston Teen Jail Sentence **

   A death threat made on a computer bulletin board system has meant a
30-day jail term for a Houston teenager who already was on probation for
allegedly trying to hire the killing of a romantic rival.

   Eighteen-year-old Shawn Kevin Quinn also was ordered by State
District Judge Denis Collins to spend three months in the county's boot
camp for young offenders after finishing his jail sentence.

   "On Sept. 7, Quinn was using the Spitfire computer bulletin board and
   found himself discussing his probation with a man who called Quinn a
   whiny complainer who probably belonged in jail."

   Quinn responded, "I deserve freedom, criminal conviction or not ...
   Even if I was in jail, and I read your stupid, rude message, I would
   probably think about getting a gun or other lethal weapon, Brady bill
   or not, and you can guess the rest. The moment I escaped or got
   paroled, guess what I'd do? And you don't need a gun to kill someone,
   though it certainly makes things a bit easier."

   Quinn was placed on probation Aug. 12 "after pleading no-contest to
charges stemming from him giving seven Atari computer games and $5.30 to
a district attorney's investigator in January to assassinate a fellow
student at Alief Elsik High School."


                 ** Two Accused of Stealing Systems **

   Charges of stealing desktop computers containing the records of 7,000
people who receive AIDS-related services have been lodged against two
hospital security guards in Miami. The two insisted they did not know
what was on the computers taken from the South Florida AIDS Network at
Jackson Memorial Hospital. Some activists fear the confidential informa-
tion could be used against the named patients.


               ** Massachusetts Child Porn BBS Busted **

   A Massachusetts man has been indicted by the federal government for
operating a computer bulletin board system from his Medford home that
offered explicit child pornography images to anyone who logged on.

   Reports say that Alden L. Baker, 44, distributed child pornography
from his home computer BBS during the late 1980s and early 1990s to
users all over the United States and as far away as New Zealand. Baker
called his BBS Boston's Eagle's Nest.

   Federal prosecutors said Baker's computer files contained numerous
graphic images "which involve the use of minors engaged in sexually
explicit conduct." The government also accused him of employing or
coercing a minor to perform sexually explicit acts to be distributed via
computer.

   U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said this indictment "emphasizes that
we will vigorously prosecute any sexual exploitation of children. The
use of computerized bulletin board systems which distribute pornographic
images to members throughout the country are particularly deserving of
our vigorous prosecution."

   UPI notes that if convicted, Baker would face a maximum of 10 years
in prison on each count and a fine of up to $100,000.


     ** Microsoft Introduces New Windows Releases to Developers **


   At its Professional Developers' Conference in Anaheim, Calif., this
week, Microsoft Corp. is providing in-depth technical information to
5,000 developers to prepare them for the next major release of the
Microsoft Windows operating system -- code-named Windows "Chicago."

   At the same time, a pre- release version of Windows "Chicago" for
developers is being released to attendees. Technical presentations at
the conference explain how the same applications programming interface
(API), Win32, can be used to develop a new generation of 32-bit
applications that can run across the entire Windows platform -- on the
Windows 3.1, Windows "Chicago," Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT
operating systems, as well as the next major release of Windows NT,
code-named Windows NT "Cairo" -- and also can optionally exploit new
functions in each.

   In addition to presentation materials, each developer is receiving
two CD-ROMs: the new developer release of Windows "Chicago," including
the latest 32-bit development tools for Windows "Chicago" and Win32, and
a pre-release implementation of the next version of OLE that provides
distributed object support for 32-bit Windows platforms.

   Microsoft notes that more than 250 32-bit applications for Windows
are now available, with several hundred more expected to ship by spring
of 1994. Windows NT began shipping in July of 1993, Windows "Chicago" is
scheduled to ship in the second half of 1994 and Windows NT "Cairo" is
scheduled to ship in the first half of 1995.


                 ** COMMON GROUND For Windows Ships **

   No Hands Software says it will begin shipping the Windows version of
its Common Ground electronic document distribution software this week.

   The software publisher says the product is the first commercially
available, cross- platform competitor to Adobe Acrobat.

   Common Ground 1.0 for Windows retains all of the major features of
the Macintosh version, including a free, compact MiniViewer and pixel-
for-pixel fidelity to the original document. Common Ground 1.0 for
Windows also offers full Postscript support, JPEG compression and the
ability to save documents into popular word processor formats.

   Common Ground also acts as an OLE 2.0 server, providing seamless
integration into other applications, including electronic mail and
databases.

   "Common Ground users can send documents with confidence they can be
viewed and printed, because Common Ground lets them include a small,
free MiniViewer, which runs on a minimal system configuration," says
Tony Stayner, vice president of marketing at No Hands Software.

   The Windows and Macintosh versions of Common Ground each have an
introductory price of $99.95.


                     ** Dell Offers New Systems **

   A second group of Pentium processor-based personal computers has been
introduced by Dell Computer Corp. Called the Dell OmniPlex 560 and 566,
they start at $3,499 for the 60Mhz and $3,999 for the 66Mhz model.

   The OmniPlex systems are based on Intel Corp.'s Peripheral Component
Interconnect architecture and extended Industry standard architecture,
featuring the highest level of Intel-based computing power now
available.


                     ** Newton's Sales Slow Down **

   Sources say that Apple Computer Inc.'s Newton message pad's sales
have slowed considerably since they peaked in October. The hand-held
communicator, the first of its kind, was introduced in August. Specula-
tion is that sales could increase as more software and features become
available.


                   ** FoxPro 2.5 for Mac is Here! **

   Microsoft Releases to Manufacturing the New FoxPro 2.5 Relational
Database Management System for Macintosh Microsoft FoxPro Defines New
Standard for Performance and Power; Offered at Special Introductory
Price of $99

   Microsoft Corporation announced this week that the Microsoft FoxPro
database management system version 2.5 for Macintosh has been released
to manufacturing, with commercial availability in January 1994. Designed
to empower developers and users alike, FoxPro provides unsurpassed
speed, full cross-platform capabilities and extensive support for
Macintosh System 7 technologies. Through June 1994, FoxPro for Macintosh
will be available at a special introductory price of $99.


         ________________________________________________________



                     CENVI FOR OS/2, DOS, AND WINDOWS
                               Version 1.008

(Now executes faster and can create stand-alone, royalty-free executables.)

Cmm (C minus minus) is 'C' for the rest of us.  CEnvi runs Cmm programs in
the DOS, Windows, and OS/2 environments (more to follow).  Together, CEnvi
and Cmm make the power and flexibility of the C programming language part
of every computer user's environment without the hardware, time, and
programmer resources needed for developing full-blown C programs.

With CEnvi and Cmm, anyone can take control of their computer environment.
C is not just for programming nerds anymore.  CEnvi utilities, macros,
batch files, and scripts can quickly be created, shared, and modified among
all computer users, professional and amateur alike.

CEnvi can be incorporated at a pace that is comfortable to you: you may
only want to use CEnvi code set up by a more experienced user, you may want
to enhance existing batch files with a line or two of CEnvi code, or you
may write complete utilities using CEnvi.  The following statement is a
single-line CEnvi example that you can include into batch files to return
ERRORLEVEL 1 only on Fridays:

    CEnvi "date = ctime(time())  return( strstr(date,"Fri") ? 1 : 0 )"

Nombas provides over a hundred samples such as this one--many single-line
and other complete program files--and more samples are added every day to
provide solutions to CEnvi user's needs.  Sample programs included with the
CEnvi shareware demonstrate Cmm programming; looping in batch files;
altering environment variables; using environment variables in mathematical
equations; user input; reading time; sounds; setting ERRORLEVEL; file
read/write; OS/2 WPS and PM calls; controlling OS/2, PM, and Windows tasks;
interacting with DOS, OS/2, and Windows operating systems; defining windows
and Windows functions; extending PATH; scheduled command execution; setting
NUMLOCK; and much more. Even if you don't learn the Cmm programming
language, you could still personalize these samples to suit your needs. (Do
you need a program to tell if it is a Thursday? I'll bet that you could
"reprogram" the above sample Cmm code to return ERRORLEVEL 1 only on
Thursdays!)

If you choose to learn the Cmm programming language (C programmers will
find that they already know it), then step through the Cmm programming
tutorial in the CEnvi Registered User's Manual. This tutorial takes you
step by step through the planning, creation, and debugging of a simple text
editor: CmmEdit.

With the /BIND option, you can create stand-alone executables from your Cmm
code.  These executables can be freely distributed without paying any
royalties to Nombas.  (This is a great feature if you are a computer
support guru who must often come up with a quick fix in diverse
environments.)


CEnvi costs $38 for a license that includes the OS/2, DOS, and Windows
versions.  Additional site licenses (which do not include the 100+ page
manual) are $15 each. The CEnvi Unregistered Shareware package is a working
version of CEnvi with occasional registration reminder screens.

The most recent versions of CEnvi Unregistered Shareware, including sample
files, are always available via anonymous FTP from "world.std.com" in the
"pub" directory: cenvi2.zip, cenvid.zip, and cenviw.zip are CEnvi for OS/2,
DOS, and Windows, respectively.  From CompServe: CEnvi for OS/2 is
CENVI2.ZIP in OS2USER library 4, CEnvi for DOS is CENVID.ZIP in IBMSYS
library 1, and CEnvi for Windows is CENVIW.ZIP in WINSHARE and WINUSER
library 6.  Also available for download from the Nombas BBS (suggested dial
string ATDT16173916565,,,,,44444).  Upgrade patches for this latest version
are available for electronic download to registered CEnvi users.

Nombas may be reached at:
   Nombas                        Internet: bsn@world.std.com
   P.O. Box 875                  CompuServe: 72212,1622
   Medford, MA  02155  USA       Phone: (617)391-6595
                                 BBS: (617)391-6595 ext. 44 after 2nd ring
                                      (e.g., ATDT16173916595,,,,,44444)

************************* CENVIW.ZIP FILE LIST *************************

CENVIW.ZIP, the Unregistered Shareware CEnvi package for Windows, contains
the following files:

*CENVI.EXE: CEnvi shareware executable for DOS, OS/2, or Windows.
*CENVI.DOC: CEnvi Shareware Manual, Chapter 1: CEnvi Unregistered Shareware
*CMMTUTOR.DOC: CEnvi Shareware Manual, Chapter 2: Cmm Language Tutorial
*CMM_VS_C.DOC: CEnvi Shareware Manual, Chapter 3: Cmm versus C, for C
  Programmers
*CENVILIB.DOC: CEnvi Shareware Manual, Chapter 4: Function Library
*LICENSE.DOC: CEnvi Unregistered Shareware License Agreement
*README.DOC: Introductory file. Read this first for quick intallation.
*REGISTER.DOC: CEnvi registration form
*INSTALL.CMM: Cmm source file for installing this shareware version
*Ascii.cmm: Display the ascii character table
*BattMem.cmm: Show values stored in a PC's battery-protected memory
*BootEd1.cmm: Start NotePad to edit c:\AutoExec.bat and C:\Config.sys using
  Windows DLL's.
*BootEd2.cmm: Start NotePad to edit c:\AutoExec.bat and C:\Config.sys using
  CEnvi's spawn() function.
*Border.cmm: Draw a simple border on the screen
*BugHunt.cmm: Example for using the ClipBrd.lib routines. Constantly scan
  clipboard for "bug" in clipboard text
*ClipBrd.lib: Library of routines for reading from or writing to the
  Windows clipboard
*CmmEdit.cmm: VERY simple text editor; developed step-by-step in the
  tutorial chapter of the Registered CEnvi Manual.
*Comm.lib: Simplified function interface into Windows' serial communication
  routines
*DosTime.cmm: Show time according to computer's internal clock
*Fibonacc.cmm: Two methods for generating the Fibonacci sequence
*FranTick.cmm: Animated tick who drank too much coffee
*GDI.cmm: Demonstrate some of Windows' graphics functions from GDI.lib
*GDI.lib: Library of a few of Windows' graphics routines
*Hello.cmm: My first Cmm program. Used to begin the Cmm tutorial.
*HexDump.cmm: Display hexadecimal dump of a file
*Icons.cmm: Minimize all windows.  Demonstrate PostMessage() from
  Message.lib.
*IdleTime.cmm: "ScreenSaver" - Show clock if computer is idle
*Install.cmm: Install this registered version of CEnvi.
*KeyCode.cmm: Display keycodes returned by getch().
*KeyGhost.cmm: Demonstrate how to use KeyPush.lib to control other
  applications.
*KeyPush.lib: Library of routines created for passing keystrokes to a
  window with the current focus.
*Message.lib: Wrapper for Windows' PostMessage() and SendMessage() function
  to send commands to windows.
*MsgBox.lib: A wrapper library for Windows' MessageBox() function.  This
  file is #include'd in other CEnvi sample files.
*MsgBoxes.cmm: Show various message box types using the function in
  MsgBox.lib.
*NumLock.cmm: Set the NUMLOCK key ON
*OpenCmm.cmm: Use Windows' common dialog (via PickFile.lib) to select a
  *.cmm file to edit.
*PickFile.lib: A simple interface to the GetOpenFileName() function in the
  Windows Common Dialog DLL.  This library file is #include'd in some of
  the other CEnvi sample files.
*PMCorner.cmm: Minimize Program Manager and then move its icon to the
  lower-right corner of the screen.
*PongTime.cmm: Bounce the Windows clock mini-app around
*Quote.cmm: Choose a "profound" quote at random
*RunTime.cmm: Schedule a command to execute at a specified hour and minute.
*Terminal.cmm: A simple terminal program; demonstrate some of the functions
  in COMM.lib
*WhoRYou.cmm: Design and implement a dialog box using CEnvi's MakeWindow()
  and DoWindows() functions
*WinBeep.cmm: Call Windows' MessageBeep() function.
*Window.lib: A few functions and many defined values useful for CEnvi's
  MakeWindow(), BreakWindow(), and DoWindows() functions
*WinExec.lib: A wrapper library for Windows' WinExec() function.  This file
  is #include'd in other CEnvi sample files.
*WinExecs.cmm: Demonstration of Windows' WinExec() function using the
  wrapper from WinExec.lib.
*WinList.cmm: Show a list of all Windows, their handles, and their
  children.
*WinMsg.cmm: Demonstrate how to make a window, and show all the messages
  that go to that window
*WinShell.bat: Start windows with a specific shell.  Run Windows for a
  single program.  This use CENVI.EXE for DOS.
*WinTools.cmm: Demonstrate many of the capabilities of WinTools.lib
*WinTools.lib: Library of routines for directly manipulating windows by
  name or by handle
*WinUtil.lib: A small selection of utilities that may be #include'd in
  CEnvi code to get simple access to Windows DLL functions.




                NetMinder for Windows Version 1.01 Release

   CPProgma Software Inc is pleased to announce the general release of the
newest version of its high successful NetMinder Internet address book
program for Microsoft Windows.

Version 1.01 Update Features:

-Much improved memo functionality. Paste from your terminal to
 the memo window with Shift-Ins.
-Improved interaction with your Unix session prompt via the
 new "LaunchLines" feature.
-List by "type gopher" category.
-Faster searching with large databases.

   NetMinder is a program that allows the easy use, storage and manipulation
of hard to remember Internet or other network addresses. NetMinder lets you
enter these addresses into its database either by manually entering them, or
by using the Windows cut and paste functions to "cut" them from your Windows
compatible terminal screen and "paste" them right into the
NetMinder database entry screen.

  One way to think of what NetMinder does is to view it as an interactive
electronic address book. You could use it to record E-Mail addresses and then
use it's search capabilities to find a specific name. Or perhaps for example,
you might want to list everyone who has the domain .edu in their address.
NetMinder stores more than just E-Mail addresses, it is specifically
configured for Telnet, FTP, Gopher or any other conceivable network category.

  While the "Address Book" analogy for NetMinder is in some respects true,
NetMinder is far from being just another address book program. NetMinder is
a powerful database program that can create an unlimited number of different
databases, each containing many thousands of entries. NetMinder not only has
the capability to record network information for each entry, but external
information such as postal addresses and memos as well. NetMinder stores
its information in a standardized DBASE IV file format. This makes it easy
to take the information you have stored in NetMinder and use it in another
application (such as Microsoft Access or Borland Paradox). Using this
capability you could for use Microsoft Access to print postal mailing
labels for the entries in your NetMinder database.

  NetMinder is completely compatible with your Windows network. Multiple
instances of NetMinder can be run, and databases can be exchanged
amongst them or with any other users of NetMinder.

          ****************** Obtaining NetMinder 1.01 ******************

  A demonstration version of NetMinder for Windows (nmdr11.zip)is
available for FTP or download from the following and other sites:

                          ftp.uu.net (/tmp/NETMINDER/)
                          ftp.uni-kl.de
                          ftp.uml.edu
                          ftp.cica.indiana.edu

             Compuserve:  WUGNET file library
                          announcements/demos area

  A fully enabled, registered version is available for $45.00 UPS included
from:
                          CPProgma Software Inc.
                          Box 1147
                          108 - 4800 Kingsway
                          Burnaby, B.C.
                          Canada V5H 2C0

                          Tel: (604)438-2693

Please feel free to address any queries regarding NetMinder to chapmaa@sfu.ca




         FREE E-Newsletter on Adv Computing, incl Online Services


HOTT -- Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly electronic newsletter 
featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and 
electronics technologies.  Each issue provides article summaries on new & 
emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neural networks,  
PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), 
intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary 
programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, 
nanotechnology, and massively parallel processing.  

Summaries are provided from the following sources:

Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, 
  San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Financial Times (London), Daily 
  Telegraph (the largest circulation daily in the U.K.) ...
 
Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report ...

Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist (London), Nikkei Weekly 
  (Tokyo), Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) ...

over 50 trade magazines, including Computerworld, InfoWorld, Datamation,
  PC Week, Dr. Dobb's Journal, LAN Times, Communications Week, Electronic
  Engineering Times, New Media, VAR Business, Midrange Systems, Byte ...

over 50 research journals, including ALL publications of the IEEE Computer 
  and Communications Societies, plus technical journals published by AT&T, 
  IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Sharp, NTT, Siemens, Philips, GEC ...

over 100 Internet mailing lists & USENET discussion groups ...

plus ...

listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books and
  forthcoming trade shows & technical conferences

BONUS:

Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers ... the next issue features 
an interview with Mark Weiser, head of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Lab


Send subscription requests to:
  listserv@ucsd.edu
Leave the "Subject" line blank
In the body of message input:
  SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST
Do *not* include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST"


The next issue of the revived HOTT e-newsletter is scheduled for transmission
in late January/early February.

Please forward this announcement to friends and colleagues, and post to your 
favorite bulletin boards (especially university BBS).  Our objective is 
to provide a high quality newsletter for over 1,000,000 subscribers.  
Thank you.

@endnode

@node P5-1 "SwazInfo v1.0"
@toc "menu"


                               SwazInfo 1.0


TITLE

        SwazInfo - replacement for workbench icon information

VERSION

        Distribution version 1.0

AUTHORS

        David Swasbrook

        E-mail address: swaz@status.gen.nz


DESCRIPTION

        SwazInfo replaces the workbench.library (V39+) icon
        information function giving the user greater control
        when editing the icon information. It is now possible
        to set protection bits for owner, group and others.
        The icon image may be changed by simply dropping an
        alternative icon into the window. All gadgets have
        hotkeys and the font is configurable. Tool types can
        be sorted/cleared/restored or added from the tool
        types of other icons.

FEATURES
        1. AppWindow support for changing the icon image by
           dropping any icon ontop of the current ieage. Can
           also add tool-types from other icons in a similar
           manner.

        2. Commodities support

        3. Arexx support

        4. Configurable font for icon information window

        5. Locale support

        6. MultiUserFilesystem support to set file owner.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        OS release 3 or greater is required.

        "matrix.library" version 23.1620 required. (included in archive)

        Hypertext compatable document. (ie. MultiView/AmigaGuide)

        Commodore Installer for easy installation

        Distribution is archived with lha so program to
        un-archive them is needed.

HOST NAME

        Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site:

        wuarchive.wustl.edu      128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/

        and will be readily available on other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY

        /pub/aminet/os30/util

FILE NAMES

        SwazInfo10.lha   -   SwazInfo binaries and documentation

PRICE
        Shareware. Contributions are gratefully accepted.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive
        are kept in tact. SwazInfo is shareware, and may not be
        included in any other distribution or used for commercial
        use without my express permission.

OTHER
        E-mail address for bug reports and fixes:
        swaz@status.gen.nz or msd@status.gen.nz




@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-3 "Amiga Report Online"
@toc "menu"


/// Amiga Report Online News                  Eavesdropping on the world!
    ------------------------




                              » From Usenet «
                                -----------

From: c.connery@mis.mi04.zds.com
Newsgroups: alt.internet.services
Subject: Misinterpretation of BIX correspondence?
Date: 16 Dec 1993 16:12:45 GMT

In the December 1993 issue of OS/2 Professional (Pg.42) is an add for "BIX:
Your Coach to the Internet."  I am looking for an Internet service provider so
I figured I read through the add.  The first line of the body of the text
reads "Give BIX a try with our new 5 for Free Offer!"  I'm all for any try-
before-you-buy Internet services so I figured I'd give it a go.  I was a
little confused by the rest of the add, however.  The very next line stated
"Join BIX today and get 5 hours of evening and weekend access for $5!"  The
"5 hours for $5" slogan was present throughout the rest of the add as well.

It appeared to me that someone had screwed up when creating the add, but I
wanted further clarification so I emailed info@bix.com (as suggested in the 
ad).  The next day I received a timely response which not only answered my 
specific questions, but also included a wealth of information regarding BIX.  
The technical representative who responded to my question, did, however, 
question my interpretation of the ad and asked me to point out the specific 
lines which confused me.  I emailed a response pointing out the above 
information and asked a few other questions regarding their service.  To this 
email I received, what I thought, was a very belligerent reply.  One of my 
questions addressed their 20/20 billing plan which allows for 20 hours of 
access for $20.  I noticed in the literature that this 20/20 plan was in 
addition to the $13 monthly fee.  I pulled out a Delphi brochure to see what 
their 20/20 plan called for and noticed that there were no extra charges per 
month (a one time $19 set-up fee is required, however).  In my final 
correspondence with this technical representative, I pointed out that I was 
disappointed to see this difference hoping that he/she would respond with the 
appropriate marketing verbiage necessary to convince me that BIX was better 
that Delphi for the following X reasons and that is why their billing rates 
differ (much in the same way that someone might ask Compaq why their PC 
offering is more expensive than, say a comparable Gateway offering).
Little did I know that Delphi and BIX were owned by the same company.  
This was very rudely pointed out to me, however.  The  response I got was as 
follows: "BIX is a separate service, sir.  DELPHI's policies have nothing to 
do with BIX.  Although owned by the same company, each product serves a 
different audience (and population) and therefore has different 
pricing/costs/services." 

Below please find an exact copy of the two correspondences and their responses.
I have used "Xtechnicalrep" in place of the representative's actual name in
case it is I who am just misinterpreting the text.

My questions are these:

(1) Has anyone else had problems with BIX or ever used BIX?  I had never heard
of them until I saw this ad.

(2) Am I wrong in my interpretation of these responses as being belligerent? 
Might the tech rep just be foreign or use a different writing style than I am
use to?  I found the word "sir" to be very condescending and it seems that the
writer was pre-supposing things such as (1) my knowledge of the relationship
between BIX and Delphi and (2) that everyone uses UNIX and has a .sig that
they can modify (I send email through a cc:Mail gateway that we have setup
here at work and thus attempt to sign my correspondences with my return 
address).


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Initial correspondence from cconnery@zds.com to info@bix.com on 12/14/93
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward rate information for BIX services to cconnery@zds.com.  I am 
specifically interested in SprintNet, Tymenet [sic] access in the Birmingham
Alabama area (area code 205).

I'm a little confused with you advertisement in the December issue of OS/2 
Professional which states "Give BIX a try with our new 5 for FREE Offer!" but 
then goes on to state that you get 5 hours for $5 (as opposed to free).  
Please clarify this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Response from Xtechnicalrep.@BIX.com (I don't want to slander him/her)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sir:

There are 9600bps nodes for both Tymnet and Sprintnet in Birmingham, AL.  
These can be provided to you during registration.

I have reviewed the OS/2 Professional December '93 BIX ad - I do not see any
mention of 5 for Free.  Could you review this and point out where it might be?
Our $5 for 5 hours offer still stands for new subscribers.

[followed by 3.5 pages of marketing text and billing information]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow-up from cconnery@zds.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xtechnicalrep,
Thank you for your quick reply to my request for information regarding your 
service.  After reading through the information you supplied, a few questions 
still remain:

(1) Is the NewsReader available yet? If not, when do you anticipate its 
availability?

(2) Can I try the BIXnav windows software before I buy (I'd like to see the 
GUI interface before I spend the $15+). Also, is a Mac front-end available as 
well?

(3) Regarding the December OS/2 Professional December '93 BIX advertisement 
(pg. 92), the first line of the body of the text (to the right of the circular 
5 hours for $5) clearly states in bold letters "Give BIX a try with our new 5 
for Free Offer!"

Any further clarification of the above items would be much appreciated.

cconnery@zds.com

I am a little disappointed to see that the 20/20 plan is in addition to the 
$13 monthly fee (if I'm not mistaken, DELPHI's 20/20 plan has no additional 
charge other than the 1 time $19 sign-up fee).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XReps' response to cconnery's follow-up
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sir:

You certainly do want to correct your return path or include a .signature
for the e-mail address to send responses to in each message -- you'll
probably get more replies!

1: Newsreader (nn) is going along smoothly, available in January.  But you
   can't hold me to that.
     
2: No, you can't try before you buy.  You must purchase it from the
   BIX.mall.  By doing so, you will have the opportunity to download
   a pre-release version of the successor, InterNav, which has point
   and click access to some of BIX internet services as well!

   No Mac front end at this point in time, there are plans for a
   solution to this during next year.

3: Thanks for pointing that out: there is an error and our advertising
   firm had made the mistake.  You may have a free keyword: use "bix.free"
   for the 5 for free offer.  The advertisment [sic] keyword is for 5 for $5.

>I am a little disappointed to see that the 20/20 plan is in addition...

BIX is a separate service, sir.  DELPHI's policies have nothing to do with
BIX.  Although owned by the same company, each product serves a different
audience (and population) and therefore has different pricing/costs/services.

--Xtechnicalrep
BIX Technical Associate



                              » From Delphi «
                                -----------


21273 23-DEC 08:28 Business and Productivity
     Good Recipe :)
     From: JULIENNE     To: ALL

Greetings of the Season....I know this isn't the "recipe sig" but here's a
little something posted on a local board I call here back home....just had
to share it :)

                  BEST RUM CAKE EVER

        1 or 2 quarts of RUM
        1 cup butter
        1 tsp. brown sugar
        2 large eggs
        2 cups dried fruit
        1 tsp. baking soda
        1 tsp. baking powder
        1 Tbs. lemon juice
        1 cup sugar
        1 cup nuts

      Before starting,  sample the RUM to check for quality.
   Good isn't it?
       Select a large mixing bowl, measuring cups, etc.
   Check the RUM again.  Good isn't it?  (It must be just
   right).  To be sure the RUM is of the highest quality, pour
   one level cup of RUM into a glass and drink it.  (If the RUM
   quality is not the best, the cake will not be superior).
   With an electric mixer beat 1 cup butter into a fluffy bowl.
   Add 1 seaspoon of tugar and beat again.  Meanwhile, make sure
   the RUM is of the finest quality--try another cup.  Good isn't
   it?
       Open a second quart of rum, if necessary.  Add two arge leggs,
   2 cups of fried druit and beat until high.  If the druit gets
   stuck in the beathers, just pry to loosen with a dewscriver.
   Next.  Sift 3 cups of baking powder, a pinch of Rum, a
   seaspoon of toda and a cup of pepper or salt.  (It really doesn't
   matter).  Sample the RUM again.  Good inn'nt it?
      Sift 1/2 pint of lemon juice.  Fold in chopped butter and
   strained nuts.  Add 1 Tbs. of brown sugar (or whatever color
   you can find).  Grease that crazy oven and crank up that cake
   pan to 350 degrees.  Now, pour the whole mess into the oven.
   You don't need a pan.  Just throw it in.  (Where is that oven
   anyway?)
     Now check the RUM again.  Good, ain't it?  Now, get someone
   to watch the oven `cause if you feel like I do, I'm gon t' bed.


Grumpa--this Rum Cake's for YOU! ;)
(If you make it--let me know how it turns out <s>

Merry Christmas everybody..."C-ya" after Christmas Day!

*Julienne*




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


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


No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are
you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga
Report each week?  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@imtired.itm.com.  Your
account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy.
For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages.

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 concerning the mailing list
should be directed to Robert Niles at rniles@imtired.itm.com.  Also, please
do not send subscription list requests or changes to the editor.

Many thanks to PORTAL Communications 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.  Thanks!
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

@node P1-4 "AR Questionnaire Results"
@toc "menu"


/// AR Questionnaire Results
    -----------------------
    by Robert Niles (and Amiga Report)



Well the results are in, calculated and tabulated!!
First off, thanks to all of you who took the time to respond!
Everyone's response was insightful, and thought provoking!! I loved 
hearing from you all!


1.  How old are you?

We received a total of 168 replies. All percentages are based on this 
count.

    < to 16 :  4%
   17 to 25 : 58%
   26 to 40 : 29%
   41 to >  :  8%
   No answer: <1%


2.  What AMIGA computers do you own?

Most people reported owning more than one Amiga. In fact, one person 
owned at least one of everything except for the A600. 

   A500   : 35%
   A600   :  1%
   A1000  : 11% 
   A1200  : 15%
   A1500  :  1%
   A2000  : 28%
   A3000  : 18%
   A3000UX:  1%
   A4000  : 21%
   CDTV   :  2%
   CD32   :  1%


3.  What other computers do you own?

Most people reported that they use a multitude of other computers at 
school or at work. Here we only report on the other platforms that 
they OWN. The percentages are low from a total of 168 people, as alot 
of people only own the Amiga.


   MS-DOS (AT/XT): 20%
   MAC           :  2%
   Apple         :  0%
   C64/128       : 13%
   Atari         : <1%
   Other         :  6%



4.  What other external peripherals do you have?

Now, of course, people own more than one of the items listed below. 
This makes the percentage count quite high. These figures are based on 
the total of 168 reponses. The 'OTHER' column seems to reflect music 
hardware the most, but various other things were included. I thought 
it was strange that people seem to be buying modems before they even 
think of buying a printer. 


    Modem   : 76%
    Printer : 56%
    Video   : 18%
    Other   : 21%
    CD-ROM  :  9%
    Tape/DAT:  7%



5.  What internal peripherals do you have? (modems, RAM, video, etc)

 Here again, it's the same as number 4 above. Basically a HardDrive 
and extra memory were important items to purchase. This seems to be 
quite different from a couple years back. The 'OTHER' column includes 
everything from serial cards to other not-so-common devices. The 'Gfx' 
column contains everything from display boards to items like the Video 
Toaster.


    HardDrive  : 78%
    Memory     : 78%
    Gfx        : 18%
    Accelerator: 23%
    Emulator   : 10%
    Network    :  2%
    Other      :  7%
    Modem (int):  2%



6.  What do you do for a living? (job, student, nothing, etc.)

Wow!! There's a wide range of people out there using the Amiga. I 
received responses from ALL over the world! I heard from students, 
writers, physicists, programmers, line production workers, Video 
production supervisors, and more!


7.  Do you use your Amiga in a business?

I thought it surprising, the amount of people who actually use the 
Amiga in some manner with their business. Although, the percentage 
wasn't high, it was higher than I expected.


    Yes      : 29%
    No       : 67%
    No answer:  4%


8.  What do you primarily use your Amiga for? (games, educational, 
    bbs, etc.)

This shows what you all are doing with your Amigas. ALOT of 
telecommunications out there. From BBS'es to Just chatting online.


    Online      : 55%
    Games       : 36%
    Productivity: 34%
    Graphics    : 20%
    Programming : 36%
    Education   :  8%
    Job         :  6%
    Other       :  5% 



9.  What would you really like to see made for the Amiga? Either, 
    hardware, software, etc.

OK, there were alot of requests, and ideas. I'll post the ones here 
that were asked for quite frequently.


  #1 - Good Productivity software. This was what the largest portion 
	  of the responses asked for. Better Word Processing, better 
	  Spreadsheets and Database programs..
  #2 - Cheap Networking capabilities. Even CBM's own networking                         
	  systems much like Apple has with AppleTalk.     
  #3 - RTG Graphics. 
  #4 - Commercial! Alot of people asked that CBM advertise the Amiga.
  #5 - 16bit Audio built into the Amiga.
  #6 - Cheaper peripherals - Quite a few people thought that add-ons 
	  for the Amiga were just too expensive compared to those found 
	  for MS-DOS.
  #7 - A Portable Amiga computer.
  #8 - RIP communications programs.
  #9 - PAL Video Toaster
 #10 - CD32 add-on for the A4000/A1200



10. Name one of your most liked pieces of Hardware that you have with 
    the Amiga.

  #1 - The MODEM. The simple things are liked the most.
  #2 - The HardDrive. Again!
  #3 - The Amiga computer
  #4 - Picasso II
  #5 - GVP's IOextender
  #6 - Video Toaster
  #7 - Extra RAM
  #8 - OpalVision
  #9 - Supraturbo 28
 #10 - Retina


11. Name one of your most liked pieces of software that you have with
    the Amiga.

It was good to see quite a few of the PD and SW programs in everyone's 
"favorite" list. There were many more, but I picked the ones mentioned 
the most. 


   #1 - SAS/C
   #2 - PageStream
   #3 - The Amiga Operating System
   #4 - Dir Opus
   #5 - Spot
   #6 - Terminus
   #7 - Term
   #8 - DICE
   #9 - Deluxe Paint IV
  #10 - Lightwave



12. Would you buy the CD^32?

Alot of people still undecided on whether they should buy the CD^32. 
Most of them stated that they would rather purchase the CD-ROM as an 
addition to their existing platform (A1200 or A4000). Quite a few have 
the "wait and see" attitude. Some being afraid that the CD^32 might 
turn out to take the same path as the CDTV did.

   
    Yes      : 23%
    No       : 40%
    Maybe    : 30%
    No answer:  7%


13. How often do you read Amiga Report?

Looks like we're gaining popularity! Good! Alot of the kudos here goes 
to all of you. You read the mag, but you all make the magazine too!


14. What would you like to see in Amiga Report?

Alot of suggestions came in. I'll post some of the most requested 
here. This next year we should be taking some of you requests and 
putting it into AR.


    #1 - Hints and Tips column.
    #2 - More news from Europe and elsewhere.
    #3 - More PICTURES!!
    #4 - Less news about other platforms (but still keep anything that 
         might be important for the readers to know).
    #5 - Programming articles (C and ARexx was suggested).
    #6 - Technical articles.
    #7 - Cross comparison on various products.
    #8 - More news from Commodore!
    #9 - CBM stock quotes.
   #10 - More software/hardware reviews.



15. Do you prefer the AmigaGuide style, or should we go back to simple
    ASCII text?

AmigaGuide won out!! For many reasons, from simplicity to use to 
"it feels more like a mag".

    AmigaGuide: 83%
    ASCII     :  8%
    No answer :  7%


16. Comments:

Alot of comments came in as well. I read each and every one. I'll 
be making sure that Rob, our editor gets to read them as well! It 
was fantastic doing this survey...maybe we'll do another one next 
year!!

A happy New Year to you all!!!



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-5 "Buying your first Amiga"
@toc "menu"


/// Buying your First (!) Amiga
    ---------------------------
    By Jason Compton
    (jcompton@tcity.com)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: I know what you're thinking.  "Wait a second.  I already OWN an
Amiga.  I don't WANT to buy one for the first time.  True, if you're
reading Amiga Report, odds are you've already bought your first Amiga. 
I would like, though, for all of you to distribute this article wherever
you can, on the condition that it says "Reprinted from Amiga Report
#1.39 with permission".  My purpose here is to present some sort of
cohesive guide to people who might consider buying an Amiga for the
first time. They're out there. I've met them.  I've sold Amigas to them.
It CAN happen. This article, I hope, can help.  In addition, it could
be used as a reference if anyone wants to convince someone to buy an
Amiga...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

So, you want an Amiga but don't really know which one would be right
for you? Maybe I can help.  I've owned 3 so far, ranging from the 1 meg
Amiga 500 I started with to my current A3000, with an accelerated 2000
inbetween.  I've messed around with the others enough to have some sort
of grip as to what I'm talking about.

Why would you want an Amiga?  Well, plenty of other people can give you
reasons, and if I repeated them or added my own, this article would run
even more horrifyingly long than it already is.  I'll assume you've
discovered why.

What do you need to own an Amiga?  Two things: money and courage. How
much money depends on what type of Amiga you want, and we'll deal with
that momentarily.  How much courage?  A considerable amount. Right now
is not a time in which Amiga users can sit back smugly knowing their
future is assured.  With an onslaught of uninformed, lying, and
otherwise deceived people out badmouthing the Amiga, it takes a strong
person to stare back and say, "You're wrong." It comes with practice.

Quick glossary: While I'm assuming that the reader either knows why
they want an Amiga, or know someone who will tell them :), I do sling
around a few terms I'd like to define:

ECS/OCS:  The Enhanced Chip Set and Old Chip Set.  These came with the
Amiga 500,600,1000,2000, and 3000.  They are the ones which provide the
4096 color palette and 32/64 color game play (in most cases). AGA:
Advanced Graphics Architecture chip set, which provide a gargantuan
color palette (at least a quarter million, if I understand correctly),
and lots and lots of ways to display things on the screen. Comes in the
1200 and 4000.

PCMCIA slot:  An industry-standard expansion slot, also called "credit-
card expansion slot".  Usually used on laptops, but can be found on the
600 and 1200, for easy and cheap memory expansion. Zorro II/III slot:
The Zorro slots are the regular Amiga bus slots found on the 2000, 3000,
and 4000.  The 2000 has Zorro II slots, which are slower than the Zorro
III slots found on the 3000 and 4000.

How will I help you decide?  Well, I'm going to list the pluses and
minuses to each machine as I see them, and then rank the machine on its
expandability, compatibility with certain types of Amiga software (read:
games and demos), Cost-effectiveness, and future.  I'll start with the
pioneer of the Amiga line:


The Amiga 1000 -------------- You can't find an Amiga older than this,
and you won't find one new. These were the first machines, initially
released in 1985.  They're the classics, but not show-stopping
productivity machines.  If you want to play games, run demos, and aren't
too worried about high-level graphics or speed- demon operation, this
is for you.

Pluses:  If you can find a 1000 for sale, chances are you'll get it for
VERY, VERY cheap.  I've seen a 512k system sold for $50.  Your mileage
may vary.  Like I said, for games and demos, I can't see a better
choice. Minuses:  Expansion for the 1000 was fairly limited.  It needs
special hardware to get the 2.0 and above OS.  Your speed is effectively
locked at a 7.14mhz 68000, unless you dig up the specs for the LUCAS
68020 project and are a madman.  The parallel port is also inverted.
Rankings (10 being the best)

Expansion:  1. It's just not very expandable anymore. You can add a HD
and 2.1, but it would be an effort.

Compatability:  OCS/ECS-6     AGA-0.  While you will be hard pressed to
get 1 meg of chip mem, most games and utilities will treat you well
enough with 1 meg, regardless of how you get it.  2.1 CAN be added, if
you like.  It works, mate.

Cost-effectiveness:  7. Well, you're still getting the Amiga multitasking
capabilities, and nobody is looking to gouge you for it. Future: 0.  The
1000 hasn't been much of an issue forquite some time.

Conclusion:  If you can get it cheap, get it.


The Amiga 500 ------------- My personal first Amiga, it became
inadequate for me when I decided I wanted more speed and more
expandability, particularly towards IBM slots.  If a 1000 is a bit too
flaky or too hard to find for you, and you want more expansion options,
this computer is a considerably better choice. No longer produced new,
but you can obtain a used one relatively cheap.  I let a 2.5 meg 500 go
for $150, if that gives you any indication.  You can go up to 8 megs on
this, and you can accelerate it to an 040, if you can find the board. 
GVP still makes an 030/40 for it.  It's a one-piece affair: bordering on
easy transportation. Pluses: Like I said, you can upgrade the memory,
HD, and speed far easier than on a 1000.  One-piece design is nice.  Can
use the 1 meg Agnus, putting it at a higher level of compatibility, and
is easier to upgrade to 2.1.  Also fixed that parallel port thing.
Minuses: Expansion is expensive on this machine and tends to be
external, which can make for a very unwieldly system. The computer has a
relatively big footprint and I've heard some complaints about a bad
keyboard angle, but I always liked it. <shrug> Expansion: 3.  No Zorro
slots built in, but you can get ones off of the left-hand expansion slot
(a Trumpcard 500 case has two of them, in fact.).  But expanding this
sucker is pricy: buying a BaseBoard and 2 megs was $200.

Compatibility:  OCS/ECS-10    AGA-0.  After all, it's one of the target
machines for those chipsets, so it BETTER be compatible with all of the
software.

Cost-effectiveness:  8/5.  Like I said, I sold mine for pretty cheap, and
there's not much of a reason for someone to ask for an arm and a leg for
one.  The 5 represents what happens when you start expanding the
computer.

Future:  3.  Support for the 500 has really dwindled, but it's out
there, as exemplified by GVP's 030/40 add-on.

Conclusion:  More useful than a 1000, but probably still not the best
choice for a full-blown high-memory and HD system.


The Amiga 600 ------------- This is the cutest computer I've ever seen.
It's sort of amazing that something this small really works Amiga
magic.  It, much like the 1000, would be primarily a games/demos
computer, but it can of course handle application software...albeit
slowly.

Pluses:  SIZE.  If you don't have room to spare, this is the computer
for you.  Memory expansion is pretty low-cost, compared to the 2000 or
500, since it takes standard PCMCIA-slot RAM, and the 2nd meg of chip
ram comes pretty cheap ($35) too.  With a little LCD screen and a power
socket, this thing could theoretically be a laptop.  Comes with a
built-in IDE hard drive interface, which is always nice.  Memory and HD
expansion (if it's a 2.5in drive) won't increase the size of the
footprint. Minuses:  You can't increase the speed. Period.  Ever.  Also,
since it's surface-mount, if something goes wrong you've got a big
problem. The keyboard is a bit cramped, too.

Expansion:  5.  Memory and HD additions are pretty straightforward, and
internal (see 500 expansion).

Compatibility:  OCS/ECS-9  AGA-0.  I've had a little trouble getting
assorted things to run on one of these, so I can't give it a 10. No AGA,
ever.

Cost-effectiveness:  8. A friend of mine got one new, 1 meg with a 40 meg
HD, for $200.  Wasn't bad at all.

Future:   1. The support for the 600's hardware seemed to die instantly.
Conclusion:  It will never win any speed records, but is the best
choice if you want a 68000 HD system with easy memory expansion. The
Amiga 2000.

Floor models and other refurbished-types of this computer are still
being sold at outrageously high prices.  This was the big brother to the
500: similar architecture, but a LOT more expandability.  It has its
pluses and minuses. Pluses: The computer itself is a pretty good
investment, if you're not looking at true AGA.  You get a TON of slots,
so you can add any Zorro-II (old bus format) card...and keep adding
them.  It also has 2 16-bit and 2 8-bit ISA slots, expandable to 4
16-bit-meaning with a Bridgeboard, you can have a very well decked out
IBM system on here.  Has a processor slot for easy speed upgrades, and
three drive bays.  Can be accelerated up to 040/33, and can support
Zorro-II 24-bit cards for AGA emulation and more.

Minuses:  This sucker is huge.  I mean, REALLY, REALLY big.  Maybe not
quite as big as an original XT, but that's not saying much.  It's also
expensive to upgrade: not so much as a 500, but if you assemble a 2000
with an 030/25 and some memory next to a 3000, the 3000 wins.

Expansion:  8.  Gotta love all those slots, whether or not you know what
you're going to do with all of them.

Compatibility:  ECS/OCS-10     AGA-possible but questionable.  After
all, 24-bit AGA is not true AGA, and no self-respecting shoot-em-up game
is going to be fooled.

Cost-effectiveness:  5.5.  It's hard to say.  New 2000s are being sold for
something outrageous like $500 for a 2000, 2 floppy drives, 1 meg, an
ECS chipset and OS 2.1.  Old 2000s are bound to be a considerably better
bargain, though.

Expansion routes are still a bit expensive, but not insurmountable.
Future: 3.  Zorro-III is finally being developed, so the 2000s slots
might not cut it in the future, but it's still got a shot, since it can
support Emplant, bridgeboards, and 24-bit video cards.

Conclusion:  A good computer for big desks.

(The Amiga 1500 and 2500 are not included because they're silly.)


The Amiga 3000 -------------- The first Amiga to feature an onboard,
standard processor that was NOT a 68000-at the same time being the only
Amiga without any 68000 on it. It's a very nice machine: compact but
still expandable, although not NEARLY as much as the 2000.

Pluses:  Its 2 external-facing, 1 internal 3.5in bays make for some
pretty nice expansion options, and its built-in SCSI controller is a big
plus. Memory can be expanded onboard to 2 megs chip, 16 megs 32-bit
fast- VERY nice.  The Zorro-III slots make going 24-bit video a more
attractive option as well.  BUILT-IN FLICKER FIXER!

Minuses:  The lack of a 68000 onboard is a drawback for many games and
demos, because try as you might to get them to run with a Degrader-type
program, some simply will not work.  It's not the target computer for a
Bridgeboard, because it has only 2 16-bit ISA slots, meaning you can
have the Bridgeboard and a multi-IO (VGA/serial/parallel/IDE) card, but
no sound above a PC speaker.  The Video Toaster also does not fit
without modification.  Also, to my knowledge, nobody develops 3000
accelerators anymore,  so you're stuck with what you've got unless you
find someone willing to sell.  The 3000T, from what I have heard, can
come with an 040 onboard, however.

Ratings:

Expansion:  7, because although Zorro-III is nice, the slots are
overlapping, so while you have 4 Zorro-III slots, a video slot, and two
ISA slots, you can only have 4 cards at a maximum.

Compatibility:  ECS/OCS-8 AGA-possible.  Of course, OS-compliant things
will work just fine on the 3000, but a lot of things that rely heavily
on custom, 68000-specific code just won't work.  That's when you want a
spare 500/1000 series machine around.  AGA can be emulated to a point
with 24-bit video boards, but again, only for OS-compliant software.
Cost-effectiveness-8.  Putting a 2000 system and a 3000 system together
side by side will bring the 3000 out a winner the vast majority of the
trials.  At the blowout pricing of late, it's a good deal.

Future:  5.  The 3000 has not been forgotten, as video board
manufacturers try to gain their attention with new, better, and more
features, as well as better AGA, since Commodore seems unwilling to
offer a true AGA solution to 3000 owners.  Not being of the true AGA
generation, however, it is not at the forefront of the market anymore.

Conclusion:  A very good deal for the money, especially as a
productivity machine.  OS-compliant programs, a significant portion of
games, and even a lot of demos WILL work on it.  Don't be scared-just
don't get too mad when things that work on a 500 won't work on it.


The Amiga 1200 -------------- The low-end AGA machine, the 1200's price
has fluctuated a bunch and is hard for me to keep track of.  It has a
redesigned version of the 500's case, making it attractive in a unique
way.  The 1200 is a machine with quite a bit of promise.

Pluses:  AGA.  Right there is a good reason to own one.  It comes with a
68020 EC chip, meaning it gives you more speed than a 500/600/1000/ 2000
without turning itself into a racehorse.  It can be upgraded up to
030/50, last I checked, with memory expansion available either on
processor boards or (slower) the PCMCIA slot.  Comes with an onboard IDE
controller, always nice to have.  If Utilities Unlimited ever gets
around to buying PCMCIA connectors for the right price, Emplant should
be available for it.

Minuses:  It shares the keyboard design of the 500, for all practical
purposes, but that's a minor thing.  It has no IBM-type expansion and in
general has pretty limited expansion, since the alleged external
expansion boxes for the 1200 haven't materialized, at least as far as
I've seen.

Expansion:  6.  You can add processor upgrades, but memory is sometimes
constricted-like with ONE SIMM slot on the board.  The Zorro slots are
nowhere to be found.

Compatibility:  ECS/OCS-7 AGA-10?  I rate the ECS/OCS compatibility lower
than the 3000s for these two reasons. 1.  I owned a 2000 with an 020
and suffered the same incompatibility problems I do now with the 3000,
but back on the 2000 I could just disable the accelerator. Not so on the
1200.  Also, since the system comes with OS 3.0, it's harder to get
back to good old Kickstart 1.3 for the picky programs that want it. I
haven't gotten too involved in the discussions on AGA compatibility, so
until I hear otherwise, it's got a 10.

Cost-effectiveness:  6. Seeing as how the price for a 1200 and HD seem 
only slightly more than the cost of a new 2000 with 1 meg of RAM, I'd say
it's not bad.  AGA-supporting monitors aren't the cheapest things in the
world, though, and the lack of expansion on this limits the cost value.

Future:  7.  I keep hearing rumors of the 1200s demise, but haven't
seen solid proof yet, so I give it a 7 for AGA.

Conclusion:  A faster, AGA'd 500/600-type machine, but far more
expandable.

If you're not hankering for lots of expansion, but want AGA, it could
be your machine.


The Amiga 4000 -------------- The current Amiga flagship, this model is
the one that's the "must-have". It sports the fine points of AGA as
well as being highly expandable. Pluses-This is the high-end machine. 
By all rights, this is the one that the "serious" user is supposed to
want.  It sports Zorro-III slots as well as three 16-bit IBM slots,
meaning that it is easy to put together an MPC IBM system, if you REALLY
want to.  In more practical terms, you can add both VGA and a sound
card.  For the Amiga side, you get either an 030 or 040 onboard, and
pretty decent memory options. Onboard IDE controller for hard drives.
You also get the 3.0 version of the system software, which from what
I've gathered is 2.0 faster with some really innovative features.

Minuses:  Not coming standard with SCSI has been a hangup for some
people, as has Commodore's 4091 SCSI card.  Actually, from reports I've
read, the Emplant SCSI controller is one of the better options currently
available for a 4000 SCSI solution.  The computer is expensive, but the
price is dropping (I've seen a lower end 4000 sold for $1400 new...) 
Some problems have been had with the Super-Buster chip and some Zorro
cards.

Expansion:  8.  I approve.

Compatibility:  ECS/OCS-7 AGA-10?  Again, just like the 1200, sharing the
same problems with ECS and OCS programs, mainly due to the 3.0
Kickstart.  That's a surmountable problem, but a bit of a pain, really.

Cost-effectiveness:  6.  Being a high-end machine, its price is a bit high.
Seeing how it's been dropping, though, it may become a better and better
bargain by the day.

Future:  8.5.  It's got whatever future there is for the Amiga, which of
course I hope is bright and wonderful.  This is the standard-bearer for
now, so it leads the way for the next generation of Amigas.  This
machine could go far.

Conclusion:  Everybody wants to be #1, and own it, too.  The 4000 IS an
awfully nice machine, but it's not a necessity for everyone.  The 2000
is a better IBM solution, if that's the main goal.  The 1200 is a
lower-cost solution to playing AGA games.  The 4000 does both well,
however, and gives you a powerful computer on top of it.


The CD Consoles:


CDTV/A570 --------- An Amiga 500 in CD-player's clothing, this computer
looked for all the world like a modular-stereo CD player.  Commodore
tried to define the CD field with it.  That didn't take.

The CDTV is the independent unit, while the A570 is an external unit
which plugs into the left-hand expansion slot on the 500, which behaves
as a CDTV.

Pluses:  Well, the A570 unit is selling now for $100 in some places,
which is really an incredible deal for ANY CD-player, let alone one that
will play CD+G and CDTV titles.  Not all of the CDTV titles were bad,
from what I've gathered, and it'll let you sling around the term
"multimedia" like a pro.

Minuses:  This unit really never took off.  It's been supplanted by the
CD32 by Commodore, even though just about every other CD console had
supplanted it anyway.  Too bad, because some of them REALLY suck.

Compatibility:  6.  It reads CD+G, CDTV (obviously), and even some
ISO-9660 formats.  It'll only play CDTV titles as games (again,
obviously), but that may not be enough for a lot of people, with CDTV
titles sort of elusive and CD32 moving in. Expansion-5.  The CDTV could
be turned into a full-blown 500, or hooked up to one via ParNet.
Cost-effectiveness-(?) For $100, I don't see how you can go wrong,
especially if you don't own a CD player already.  Otherwise, though, I'm
not up on the prices. Sorry.

Future:  2.  Some more CDTV material might trickle out, and of course you
can always play audio CDs, but the Commodore CD market is in the CD32.
Conclusion-The 570 unit add-on looks like a nice deal, but the CDTV as a
stand-alone isn't really exciting.


The Amiga CD32 -------------- Commodore's new entrant to the CD game
console field, this sucker is apparently doing VERY well in Europe and
is occupying most of C='s production time.  Now selling in Canada and
occasionally in America, but could be a strong US contender, if it gets
enough popular support from dealers and retailers.  Based on Commodore's
AGA graphics system.

Pluses:  Has a price which pretty much beats out the competition.  CD-I
is $500, 3DO is $700, while the CD^32 is priced around $350-$400. The
Jaguar with CD is said to run around $450.  If the MPEG module is priced
at the latest-rumored $200, that brings a CD32 to $600, a full $100
less than a 3DO (which plays MPEGs), and $100 more than a CD-I, which
plays a proprietary (read: less popular) format.  The CD^32, being based
on the Amiga architecture, also has more years of development and
support behind it.  In the future, will be able to deck out to a full
Amiga 1200-type system.  According to AR1.36, it has over 150 games in
various stages of completion.

Minuses:  It IS a game machine, for now.

Compatibility:  9.  I don't know about the CD+G or ISO-9660
compatibility, but the CD^32 is supposed to be able to play CDTV titles.
Some may have to be re-released with CD^32 patches, but I am not
positive on that. Expandability-Unknown at this point. Let's see what
Commodore does. Utilities Unlimited has mentioned a possible 3DO
emulator for the CD^32, which would be a remarkable piece of hardware.

Cost-effectiveness:  9.  Compared to the other 32-bit CD consoles in the
field.

Future:  8?  The console is the biggest seller in Europe, and
thanks to its price could be big in the US.  The problem is that all of
the major tech/ computer distributers are waiting around to see if it
does well, which is a bit of a paradox.  This could be the big booster
shot for Commodore-Amiga, though.  I'm seriously considering buying
one, and I HATE game machines...but its expandability options entice me,
and besides, I own an Amiga as it is...since the prime reason to go AGA
would be for games, the CD32 can give an ECS/OCS Amiga user who is
happy with the productivity/graphics end of his/her current system a
relatively inexpensive AGA game solution.  After all, if you've got a
2000 or 3000 decked out to the gills, but would like to play James Pond
2AGA, this could be the answer.

I hope this long undertaking has been worthwhile.  Mail me with any
suggestions/responses/additions/deletions you may have, and spread this
knowledge as far as you can.  Only Amiga makes it possible, but only
with your help.


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-6 "AmigaWorks"
@toc "menu"


/// AmigaWorks
    ----------
    By Boydell Brown and Douglas R. Cootey


                       Life after Death
                     (or "Mounting RAD:")


       It's 2 o'clock in the morning.  You've been typing all
through the evening on the term paper that is due the next
morning.  And then it happens:  the dreaded software failure.
The flashing red border is like a beacon from Hell, signifying
the death of all your work and effort.  With your term paper
transformed into digital smoke, you wonder if you should have
been playing that old PD game on Workbench2.0 during your break.
What will you do?
       You have several options, actually.  This first, of course,
is to start over from whatever point you last saved your work on
disk.  Didn't save anything on disk?  You preferred the quick
access of RAM, you say?  Well, you could simply slide in a
stick of dynamite into your disk drive, then stand back.  Or
you could cram your computer down the garbage disposal while
it's still plugged in.  If you leave the water on, it should put
on quite a show.  These later solutions don't help you get your
paper done any faster, but at least they would make you feel
better.  Then again, you could have saved everything in RAD: to
begin with.  Even after the software failure, your term paper
would still be there when your Workbench booted back up.


WHAT IS RAD:?

       What makes RAD so unique is that it is a virtual disk
drive.  Now, the term "virtual" is tossed about a lot these days.
In fact, one could almost say it is a virtual buzzword for our
modern times.  It basically means "almost like the real thing,
except that its not."  The RAD device is a partition of your
computer's memory that pretends that it is a real disk drive.
You can format it, you can copy disks to it, and you can reboot
from it.  You'll find the RAD device configured in the mountlist
within your Devices directory ("devs" for short), unless you have
WB2.1 where RAD is stored in the Storage drawer.  In addition,
RAD cannot function without the "ramdrive.device", also in your
Devices directory, and the ramhandler in your L directory.  These
directories are located on your System disk.  For Workbench2.0
owners, these programs are resident within the 2.0 Kickstart
ROMs.
       By the way, your "RAM Disk" is also a virtual device.
Where the two differ is in their (meta)physical makeup.  Unlike
the "RAM Disk", RAD will survive a warm boot.  This means that
when you reset your Amiga by holding down the Control-Amiga-Amiga
keys, everything in RAM will be a virtual memory, whereas RAD
will be waiting for you when the Workbench screen loads back up
complete with all the files you had stored in there before your
system went to Red Alert.  Often, the RAD disk can even survive a
system crash.


HOW DO YOU USE RAD:?

       Now that you know what the RAD device is, and where its
information is stored, you may be interested in knowing how to
use it.  We have already mentioned how useful RAD is to use as
a storage disk.  Since it is a partition of your RAM, reading
and writing to the RAD disk is exceptionally fast.  Coupled  with
its ability to survive everything except a power outage, it makes
an excellent place to store your current works in progress.
Another excellent aspect of the RAD device is that it is
bootable.  If you were to copy your system disk onto a large
enough RAD disk, you could have your Amiga reboot from memory.
Not only does this give you a very quick boot-up, but it also
frees up one of your real disk drives, allowing you to transfer
information much more conveniently and saving you from constantly
inserting your Workbench disk during disk validation.  Even
though 2.0 uses resident commands to validate disks, you will
find that freeing up two disk drives is still very helpful.  For
owners of hard drives that are not autobootable, a smaller RAD
disk can be mounted that can pass system control to your hard
disk without having to insert the boot-up disk when you want to
reboot.
       These are simply a few suggestions for the use of RAD.  You
may think of others that meet your own individual needs.  Doug
likes to mount RAD when he's optimizing disks with B.A.D.  By
optimizing the source disk to RAD, then optimizing RAD to the
source disk, he achieves blazingly fast results.


MOUNTING RAD:

       Mounting RAD is as easy as inputting any other AmigaDOS
command.  Forget about sensible English for a while, and let your
mind become one with DOS.  You will need to use your mouse for
this first step.  Relish the experience while you can.  AmigaDOS
may be powerful, but it is as intuitive as a brick in the face.
       Open up your Shell icon by double clicking on it.  If you
have Shell, then you shouldn't bother with the CLI.  Amazing as
it may seem, we have met people who actually never use the
Shell, but instead prefer to use the CLI.  These people seemed to
know that the Shell was somehow more powerful than its ugly
brother, but were too intimidated by AmigaDOS in the first
place to even find out why.  The truth is that the Shell is a
CLI (Command Line Interface), and that it operates from the "CLI"
within your System directory.  Where the Shell is different is
that it has a  memory buffer, and it allows the use of aliases,
whereas the CLI does not.  By WB2.x, though, the CLI and the
Shell were one and the same.
       We will pad our AmigaDOS commands with blank lines for
legibility.  In  addition, we will put comments out to the side
after a semicolon (;).  DO NOT input anything after a semicolon
into your Shell window.  This is not to say that your Amiga will
explode if you do, but that AmigaDOS knows that everything after
a semi-colon is a comment, and so should you.  These comments are
there for your benefit and not AmigaDOS's.
       Type the following into the Shell window:


       mount RAD:  ;Remember to hit <Return>


       If you typed in the above statement correctly, then you will
get another Shell prompt (>).  That's it.  You've mounted your
RAD device.  If you were expecting something to happen on your
Workbench, then you will need to access your RAD disk from the
Shell.  For example, type the following to list the contents of
RAD:


       list RAD:


       Since there is nothing in your RAD at this moment, you will
not see very much.  However, you should have noticed the RAD's
icon popped up onto your Workbench.  From now on, you can access
RAD as you would access any other disk drive:  with your mouse
or through the Shell.  Most of the work has already been done for
you in the mountlist we referred to earlier.  For WB2.1, the
mountlist is the "RAD" file.  Every time you reboot your
computer, RAD and everything you stored in it will always be
there.  If you wish to reclaim the memory RAD takes up (unlike
the RAM disk, RAD  allocates a specific amount of memory) you
will either need to  physically shut off your Amiga with the
power switch, or you can type the following into the Shell:


       remrad   ;Removes RAD.  "REMRAD RAD:" for 2.x users


       This will delete all of RAD's files, and liberate all that
memory back to the system.  Now if you reboot, there will be no
RAD icon waiting for you next time.

       Since we only use the Shell if we have to, we like to have
RAD take its place on our Workbench as soon as possible so that
we can put the command line beast away.  A typical Shell session
to mount RAD for us may go as follows:


       mount RAD:

       relabel RAD: LAD  ;Life After Death

       diskchange RAD:   ;not necessary for 2.0 users

       endshell


       In one fell swoop, we have mounted the RAD device, renamed
it "LAD", and ended the Shell session.  1.3 users will need to
use the "diskchange" command in order to inform  AmigaDOS of the
name change.  AmigaDOS2.0 does this automatically.  Since you are
already in the Shell when you are mounting RAD, it is easier to
change the volume name there, than with the mouse from the
Workbench.  Another reason to rename RAD in the Shell, is that
for 1.3 users, AmigaDOS may not recognize the new name.  Of
course, you could always live with the name "RAMB0", which is
sure to impress even the staunchest IBM fanatic.
       In the event that the default RAD size is not to your
liking, there is a way to choose your own size.  Unfortunately,
this may take you far out of your comfort zone.  You will need
to use the delicate practicality of Ed (one of your AmigaDOS
commands) or even the very user friendly MEMACS.  Not to knock
these text editors too badly, but they are very intimidating for
the uninitiated.  You may want to find a Public Domain editor
that offers a more wordprocessor-like interface.  In fact, if
you have a word processor that accepts vanilla text (ASCII), you
may even want to use that, especially if you are more familiar
with it than the others we have mentioned.  Then, once you have
chosen your weapon, it is time to load it.

       Load the SYS:Devs/mountlist file into your text editor.
(SYS: is AmigaDOS for your Workbench disk.)  If you are using
Ed, you would type the following:


       ed devs/mountlist


       Never mind all of the cryptic entries in here; just keep
your eyes out for the entry for "RAD:".  We would also like to
point out that the "/*...*/" you see in front of each device
entry functions much like the ";" we used to set apart our
comments in the above examples.  The location of the RAD: entry
depends on which operating system you are using.  But whether it
is 1.3 or 2.05, the RAD: entry should look something like this:


       RAD:    Device = ramdrive.device

               Unit   = 0

               Flags  = 0

               Surfaces  = 2

               BlocksPerTrack = 11

               Reserved = 2

               Interleave = 0

               LowCyl = 0  ;  HighCyl = 21
               Buffers = 5

               BufMemType = 1

       #


       Depending on what you want to do with your RAD disk, you
will need to set the "Cyl" values accordingly.  "Cyl" stands for
"Cylinder", which represents the amount of information this
device can hold.  For instance, a typical floppy disk has 80
cylinders, 0 to 79, which adds up to 880K of storage.  Therefore,
if you were to change the HighCyl value equal to 79, you would
have a RAD disk of 880K.  If you want to use RAD merely as a
safe, but convenient, storage area for your term papers while you
are typing them, you may find 880K a bit too large for your
needs, and also a waste of precious memory.  For those interested
in only forcing RAD to do their bidding without knowing too much
about it, remember the simple equation below to figure out how
many cylinders you need, and ignore the technical, boring stuff:


       Divide the amount of kilobytes you want by 11.


       For example, 880K divided by 11 gives us 80 cylinders.  If 0

represents the first, or Low, cylinder, then 79 would be the
eightieth cylinder.  Set your HighCyl to equal 79, and you have
a floppy disk in RAM!  If you only want a small portion of memory
reserved for RAD, say 220K, then divide that number by 11 and
set up your RAD entry with the resulting number.  Just remember
that the HighCyl value is calculated from 0, your LowCyl value,
meaning that 20 cylinders will yield a HighCyl value of 19, not
20.
       Once you have changed the high cylinder value to meet your
needs, save the file, and mount RAD.  Of course, you will need
to make sure RAD is not already mounted in order to see the size
change.  In the event that RAD already exists, you will need to
either use "remrad", then reset your Amiga with the hot keys
(called a soft boot), or you will need to completely shut off
your Amiga and turn it back on again (called a cold boot).


SUMMARY

       As far as teaching you how to access RAD and manipulate its
size, we have covered all of our material.  Now you know what
you need to know in order to utilize this powerful feature of
the Amiga.  Although we have given you a few examples, the
individual applications are up to you.  If you can come up with
some creative ways to utilize the RAD device that we have not
covered here, or if you would like to just share with us how you
use the RAD device to make your computing life easier, please
send your comments along to:



Douglas Cootey 1:312/18................................Fidonet

DOUGLAS_COOTEY@f18.n312.z1.fidonet.org.................Internet

57 E 400 N #9
Provo UT 84606-2987....................................US Mail


       We would like to pass along the best comments to the readers
of this electronic magazine in future issues.  And of course, we
are always looking for the easy way to do things.  :)  In
upcoming issues, we will cover AmigaDOS scripts, ARexx scripts,
and many other utilities that help make you more productive under
WB2.x.


       AmigaWorks(tm) 1993 Douglas R. Cootey


@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.  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.  

 · 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:

   408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
   408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
   408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day

   or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
   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              2.50 22.95  32.45  44.95  94.95
 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +%           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 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.
   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 P1-7 "DiskExpander"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review: DiskExpander
    ---------------------------
    By Njaal Eide (njaale@dhhalden.no)



PRODUCT NAME

        DiskExpander ("DE")


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A utility to expand your storage capacity on floppy and hard disks.


COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe
        Address:        Veronikastrasse 33
                        45131 Essen
                        Germany

        Phone:          0201/788778
        Fax:            0201/798447

        Email:          stefano@schatztr.adsp.sub.org


LIST PRICE

        $ 30,-


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        Any Amiga with Kickstart later than 1.2.
        At least 1 meg memory is highly recommended.


COPY PROTECTION

        DE is copy-protected.  But as the original disk is only used when you
install DE, this is not a problem at all.  Serious changes in your system,
or in DE's configuration, might make it necessary to use the original disk
again.  The disk also contains a unprotected utility that lets you recover
your compressed data if your DE disk should get damaged.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING:

        Amiga 4000/030, 6M RAM.
        80MB Seagate hard drive, 250MB Western Digital hard drive.


INTRODUCTION

        If you ever run out of storage-space for your files, you are faced
with three alternatives:  buy more storage-space, delete files, or use more
efficient storage methods.  DiskExpander is a product that takes the latter
approach to solving this problem.  DiskExpander (or "DE" for short) is a
program that gives you on-the-fly compression/decompression of files.  This
means that when DE is installed on a device, all files get compressed when
saved and uncompressed when loaded.  This process is totally transparent to
all applications, as they will not even know that they are loading/storing
compressed data.  This is a really great concept, but as with everything
great, it's got a catch to it:  disk access gets slower (in most cases) and
can be demanding in memory terms.  I will discuss this in more detail later
on in the review.


PACKAGE

        When I first opened the DE box, I got a little surprised that it
contained no less than three disks.  Shouldn't this be a storage expander and
not a storage filler?  Upon further inspection, I found that one of the
disks is a demo version of TurboCalc v2.0 and the other two are identical
copies of DE.  I guess this was due to a packaging mistake at the
manufacturer, but a backup is nice anyway.  Furthermore, the box contained
manuals in both German and English.  The German manual was included probably
because the English manual was not completed.  The latter came in the form
of a bunch of loose A4 sheets; but by the time you read this, it should have
been made into a proper manual.  Anyway, the content of it turned out to be
clear and informative:  no problems here.  If it wasn't for the single phrase
"1.3 oder 2.0 style", I (a Norwegian) could have been fooled to believe it
was written by an Englishman.




INSTALLATION:

        DE uses the brilliant Installer program from Commodore, and the
installation works nicely indeed.  The only problem occurs when you are
personalising your DE disk, as the installation script doesn't check the
protection state of your disk.  So whatever you write will get lost if your
disk is write-protected.


CONFIGURING DE

        When you have successfully installed DE on your hard disk, the first
thing you ought to do is to configure it as you please.  There are several
ways to do this. You can manually edit your startup-sequence, or let a
configuring program do it for you.  DE also supports various tooltypes in a
Project icon.  So if you please, you can place DE icons, one for each device,
in the WBStartup drawer (Workbench 2.0 or later).  I do not recommend the
latter approach, as it seems unreliable (DE doesn't recognise all the
tooltypes that it supposedly should).  I also had problems using this method
on more than one device at a time.  What happens is that DE functions like
an on/off switch.  Run it once, and DE activates.  Run it again and it dies.
This would have been nice if DE checked the state of the device you are
trying to activate.  Instead, DE checks only if it is active on ANY device,
and if it is, then it disables itself completely.  (Remember, this is only a
problem with two or more project icons in WBStartup.  With scripts, there are
no problems.)

        DE doesn't contain a fixed number of compression algorithms built
into the program.  Instead, it uses external libraries for compression
purposes, including the widely available XPK standard and others.  The use
of external libraries lets the user choose which algorithm is most suitable
for his/her needs.  To add a new packing method, you just add a new library.
A user with little memory could choose a library which uses little of it.  A
user with a fast, powerful machine could choose an algorithm that has very
good compression ratio, but is too slow on a less powerful machine.  There
are libraries optimised for most needs (speed, compression-ratio, certain
file types, memory etc.), so most users will find something appropriate.
Lots of external libraries are supplied, and their pros and cons are
discussed in the manual.  Still, it seems like SOS haven't been able to keep
up with the development of new XPK-libraries. I found that I had a newer
version of the XPK-library 'NUKE' on my hard disk than on the DE disk.  Not a
big deal anyway as new libraries will be supplied to registered users.

        Every other program that I have with XPK support expects to find the
XPK libraries in LIBS:compressors.  DE expects to find then in LIBS:.  This
means that I now must store them in both places and shows poor attention to
detail on SOS behalf.  I tried the DOS-command

        ASSIGN LIBS: SYS:libs/compressors ADD

which should assign both directories to LIBS, but this doesn't seem to work
with any program. Is this a bug in AmigaDOS?


IN USE

        Now we have come to the most interesting part.  How is actually DE in
everyday use?  I must admit that DE in the beginning was a real pain.
Programs was either crashing like mad, or they refused to load.  I was
preparing for a long and harsh letter to the publisher.  But by coincidence I
changed the settings for DE, and every problem vanished.  Since then, I
haven't had a single problem with DE at all.  This means six weeks of solid
use, and not a single crash due to DE.  Excellent.

        To save other users from the problems I had, here is what I found:
There are two options in DE called 'No Examine' and 'No ExNext.' DON'T USE
THEM!  These two options determine how AmigaDOS finds the size of files.  If
used, AmigaDOS calculates the physical size of the file.  If not, AmigaDOS
calculates the uncompressed size.  For a user (me at least), it is more
interesting to know the physical size than the virtual.  For the Amiga, it's
definitely not.  My theory why this is essential is as follows.  When a
program loads a file, it first checks its size and allocates that amount of
bytes in memory.  What happens then is that the uncompressed file occupies
more space than allocated, causing all sorts of problems/crashes.  So
remember to use only 'Examine' and 'ExNext.'


BENCHMARKS

        I started out making some benchmarks that measured loading/saving
times with and without DE installed.  But I've come to the conclusion that
benchmarks don't say much.  It all depends on how powerful a machine you
have, how many tasks are running simultaneously, what pack library you are
using, your hard disk interface, file size, etc., etc.  All I can say is that
my experience with DE is highly enjoyable.  With my setup, the increased
loading time from hard disk is just noticeable, and only with large files.
With floppies, loading time actually decreases.

        On average you will save about 30-40% disk space with the most
efficient pack library.  For text files, expect 50-70% savings, and for
previously packed files (like GIF, JPEG, LHA etc.) you will not save a
single byte.  So if you have a hard-disk full of packed pictures, you will
not save much. If you on the other hand are a programmer with lots of
include files and AutoDocs, then your savings will be enormous.  So take a
look at your files before you decide if DE is for you.


INCLUDED UTILITIES

        With DE comes a utility that lets you pack or unpack a complete
partition.  This is useful when you are installing DE for the first time, or
if you want to change pack libraries or remove DE.  Another utility inspects
the files of your choice and gives you various information like
compression level, pack library used, file size, etc.


IMPROVEMENTS

        I'd really like to see DE transformed into a commodity.  Right now, I
find it a little cumbersome to change parameters for DE.  I guess this was
dropped in order to keep compatibility with Kickstart 1.3 (why do publishers
still make productivity software for 1.3?).  It would also be nice to be
able to use different pack libraries on different directories or assigned
drives.  Right now, all files on the entire partition use the same
algorithm. It should also been possible to mark files that DE should not
compress.  That way it would be much safer to install it on a boot
partition.  Right now, you can end up in great trouble if you compress some
of the files DE needs for itself.  I would also like to see DE supporting
RAM: and PC0:.  For some reason, RAM: is only supported on machines with
Kickstart 1.3.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        There are at least two similar products as shareware called EPU and
XFH.  Both gives similar compression results as DE as they use the XPK
standard, but they are very unstable.  I have tried them both, but I had to
give them up.  By the way, EPU is written by the same author as DE.


CONCLUSION

        When you first have got it properly installed, DE is really good.  I
really recommend it.  For those that really think loading times are
important, why not compress only the files you don't use very often?


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        This document is copyright 1993 Njaal Eide, but freely distributable.

        E-mail: njaale@dhhalden.no

        Njaal Eide
        Harreschousvei 31
        1300 Sandvika
        Norway

        Phone: NORWAY-67548247



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-8 "A3000 MegaDemo/EuroDemo Compatability List"
@toc "menu"


/// AMIGA 3000 Megademo/Eurodemo Compatibility List -- 12/27/93
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    By Randy Abel
    (Rabel1@cup.portal.com)


=============================================================================
GROUP               |TITLE                            |A3000
====================|=================================|======================
23 Celsius Crew     |Inside Anarchy                   |Just Boot-minor probs
Abyss               |Monalisa was a Man               |Relokick
Accession           |Sun Wind                         |Relokick
Adict               |Mayday Resistance                |NOPE
Aesthetica          |Ivy & Chrome                     |Just Boot
AGOA                |First Think                      |Just Boot
Alcatraz            |Megademo III                     |Relokick-crashes
Alcatraz            |Megademo IV                      |NOPE -A500
Alcatraz            |Memorial Songs                   |Just Boot
Alcatraz            |Museum                           |Degrader
Alcatraz            |Odyssey (5 disks)                |Just Boot
Alcatraz            |Stop Facism                      |Relokick
Alchemy             |Deliverance                      |Just Boot
Alchemy             |Digital Innovation               |Degrader
Aliens              |Breed disk #3                    |Just Boot
Aliens              |Space Music Disk Vol #2          |Just Boot
Alliance Design     |Arkham Asylum                    |Just Boot-minor probs
Analog              |Dyspepsia                        |NOPE
Analog              |Megademo                         |Degrader
Anarchy             |3D Demo (2 disks)                |NOPE
Anarchy             |3D Demo II                       |NOPE
Anarchy             |DejaVu                           |NOPE -A500
Anarchy             |Flower Power                     |Relokick-minor probs
Anarchy             |In The Kitchen                   |Relokick-crashes
Anarchy             |Krestmass Leftovers              |Degrader
Anarchy             |Seeing is Believing              |Degrader
Andromeda           |Decaying Paradise                |Degrader
Andromeda           |DOS                              |Degrader
Andromeda           |Mirror Music (2 disks)           |Just Boot
Andromeda           |Mind Riot                        |Just Boot-minor probs
Andromeda           |Multica                          |Degrader
Andromeda           |Point Blank                      |Degrader
Animators           |IRAC Demo                        |Relokick
Angels              |Sunrise                          |Just Boot
Anthox              |Demo Compilation                 |NOPE
Arcadia Team        |Megademo I                       |Relokick-minor prob
Arise & Drinks      |40K Tracktro                     |NOPE
Austex              |Genesis                          |Degrader
Avenger             |Megademo                         |Degrader
Awesone & SDC       |Termintor 2 slideshow            |Degrader
Balance             |Lost World                       |Relokick
Balance             |Sound Barrier                    |Just Boot
Balance             |Zoom Parallax Demo               |Just Boot
Bass                |Megademo II                      |Degrader
Beastie Boys        |Megademo I                       |Degrader
Blaze               |Overvision                       |NOPE -A500
Brainstorm          |Musicland                        |Just Boot
Brainstorm          |Musicland II                     |Just Boot
Bud Brains          |Megademo I (2 disks)             |NOPE
Bud Brains          |Megademo II                      |NOPE
C&C                 |Aquarium Demo                    |Degrader
Caltec              |Musipics 10                      |Relokick (1,4,5)
Caltec              |Musipics 10b                     |Relokick
Caltec              |Musipics 11                      |Relokick (2,4,5)
Caltec              |Musipics 13                      |Relokick (1-4)
Cannibals           |Misery                           |Just Boot
Caves               |It's So Cool                     |NOPE
Chaos-Corp          |Hot in the City                  |Degrader-some probs
Complex             |Delirius                         |Degrader-crashes
Complex             |Gospel-Karaoke                   |Relokick
Complex             |Paradigma                        |Just Boot
Complex             |Stateline                        |Just Boot
Complex             |Universal Intensity              |Degrader
Crass               |Anarchy Inc.                     |NOPE
Crass               |Digital Complexity               |Degrader
Crass-Gothic Void   |Perehelion                       |Degrader-crashes
Creator             |Strange Features                 |Degrader
Crionics            |Megademo                         |Degrader (1&3)
Crionics            |Neverwhere                       |NOPE
Crionics            |Total Destruction                |Degrader-crashes
Crusaders           |Audio X                          |Degrader-some probs
Crusaders           |Bacteria                         |Degrader
Crusaders           |Freekd Out                       |Degrader
Crusaders           |Selector Pack 29                 |Relokick-some crash
Crusaders           |Sweet Music                      |Just Boot
Crusaders           |Tuff Enuf                        |NOPE
Cryptoburners       |Megademo II                      |NOPE
Cryptoburners       |Revelations Slideshow            |Relokick
Cult                |Kefmania (2 disks)               |Degrader
Cyberiad            |Great Bytes                      |Just Boot
Cycron              |Musical Massacre                 |Degrader
Da Movement         |Cooky                            |Relokick
Darkness            |Megademo                         |Degrader
Deathstar           |Megademo I (2 disks)             |Degrader-crashes
Decay               |Simpsons Demo                    |Degrader
Devils              |Colors                           |Just Boot
Devils              |Party Cocktail #1                |Degrader
Devils              |Party Cocktail #2                |Degrader
Dexion              |Megademo I                       |Relokick-some probs
Dexion              |Megademo II                      |Degrader
Digital             |Day of Reckoning                 |NOPE -A500
Digital             |Dream Tripping                   |NOPE -A500
Digital             |Magnetic Dreams                  |NOPE -A500
Digital             |Lethal Exit                      |Degrader
Divina              |Technofright                     |Degrader
DMOB                |Lame D'Mo                        |NOPE
Dominators          |Golf War                         |NOPE -A500
Dragons             |Megademo I                       |NOPE
Dream Dealers       |Megademo II                      |Degrader
Drix                |Megademo II                      |Relokick
Dual Crew           |Brain Drain                      |NOPE -A500
Dual Crew           |Finlandia (3 disks)              |Degrader
Dual Crew           |Megademo                         |NOPE
E.T.                |Hartcore                         |Just Boot
E.T.                |NTSC - Demo                      |Just Boot
EMT Designs         |Heliopolis                       |Just Boot
Encore              |Digital Surgery                  |Degrader-some probs
E.O.C. 1999         |Megademo II                      |Just Boot-gfx probs
Energy              |Wasted Time II                   |Degrader
Epsilon Designs     |Nervous Breakdown                |NOPE
Exit                |Exit Demo                        |Relokick
Extacy              |Transfusion                      |Degrader
Exterminators       |Demo Pack 1                      |Relokick
Fairlight/Virt Drms |242                              |Relokick
Fairlight           |Illusion                         |Relokick
FI-RE Crew          |FI-RE Land                       |Just boot-minor prob
The Flame Arrows    |Plasmutex                        |Degrader
Flash Productions   |Danish Know-how                  |NOPE
Flash Productions   |Digital Concert II               |Degrader
Fraxion             |Revenge                          |Relokick
Freedom Force       |Megademo                         |Relokick
Freehand            |MC Hammer Mix                    |Degrader
Future Mirror       |Clasutrophobia                   |NOPE -A500
Future Vision       |Baby Coma 5                      |Relokick
Gate                |Bruno's Music Box II             |Relokick
Gate                |Megademo                         |Relokick
Gunnars Faruebio    |Megademo 4                       |NOPE
Half-Brain          |Sunstone (2 disks)               |Relokick
Hydra               |Synthetic Delight II             |Relokick
Ian 'N' Mic         |Megademo                         |Relokick
Infect              |Earwigg                          |NOPE
Infect              |Helter Skelter II                |Degrader
Infect              |Promotion                        |Just boot
Infect              |Utility Dream #0                 |Relokick
Investation         |Hydra                            |Relokick-crashes
Investation         |???                              |Degrader
IT                  |Megademo II                      |Relokick
JEDS                |Music Disk 1                     |Relokick
Jetset              |Over Loading                     |Degrader
JS                  |Innervision (2 disks)            |Just Boot
KGB                 |Hit Fido (2 disks)               |Relokick
KGB                 |Purple Brain                     |Relokick
Kefrens             |D.A.N.E.                         |Degrader
Kefrens             |D.A.N.E. Interal Exile           |Relokick-crashes
Kefrens             |Desert Dream (2 disks)           |Degrader
Kefrens             |Guardian Dragon 2 (2 disks)      |Degrader
Kefrens             |Interchange                      |Just Boot
Kefrens             |Kris Kros Sucks!                 |Just Boot
Kefrens             |Masterpieces Slideshow           |Degrader
Kefrens             |Megademo 7                       |Degrader
Kefrens             |Megademo 8 (2 disks)             |Degrader-some crash
Kefrens             |Multi-Mega Remix 2               |Degrader+no fast mem
Kefrens             |Powermunker                      |Relokick
Kefrens             |The Wall                         |Degrader
Kyd & Balle         |Cat Computer Club Demo           |NOPE
Lemon               |Groovy                           |Degrader
Lemon               |Rink Pink                        |NOPE
The Link            |Megademo                         |Relokick-crashes
LSD                 |Jesus on E (2 disks)             |Relokick
Lunatics            |Existro                          |Relokick
The Lync Crew       |Party Massacre                   |NOPE
Lynx                |AMFM2                            |Degrader
Mad Elks            |Technological Death              |Degrader
Majik 12            |Dance Diverse Vol 1              |Just Boot
Majik 12            |Ray of Hope II                   |Degrader
Mathic              |Mathic-The Demo (2 disks)        |Degrader
MDMA                |Unnatural High                   |Just Boot
Megawatts           |A Taste of U4ia                  |Just Boot
Megawatts           |Christmas 1991                   |Relokick
Megawatts           |Monolithe                        |Relokick
Melon Dezign        |Crayon Shinchan                  |Just Boot
Melon Dezign        |How to Skin a Cat                |Degrader
Melon Dezign        |Humanoid Target                  |Relokick
Melon Dezign        |Prism                            |Just Boot
Melon Dezign        |Romantic Demo                    |Degrader
Melon Dezign        |The S.O.S. Demo                  |Degrader-crashes
Mops                |Softwave                         |Degrader
The Nasty Boys      |Odessy                           |Relokick
Nation-X            |Lobotom                          |Relokick
Nerve Axis          |Demon's Rage                     |Degrader
Network/Flash Prod. |Just 4 Fun                       |Degrader-minor probs
New Wave            |Vector Up Your Ass               |Relokick
Nikki Corruptions   |Piece of Mind                    |Just Boot
Noice               |Reductio Ad Absurdum             |Relokick+hit return
North Star          |Metademo II                      |Degrader
North Star/Fairlight|Megademo III (2 disks)           |NOPE
Nuance              |Subtle Shades                    |Degrader
Old Bulls           |Fugazi (2 disks)                 |Degrader
Overkill            |The Traditional                  |Degrader
Ozone               |Shed Tears (2 disks)             |Degrader
Palace              |Pulling the Trigger              |Degrader-crashes
Panoramic Designs   |Megademo I                       |NOPE -A500
Panoramic Designs   |Never Again                      |NOPE
Panthorus           |Amos Megademo (2 disks)          |Relokick
Parallex            |Critical Mass (2 disks)          |Degrader-crashes
Paranoimia          |Party Demo                       |Relokick
Parasite            |Imperial Tunes 2-hit single      |Just Boot
Parasite            |The Four Seasons                 |Degrader
Parasite            |Megademo I                       |NOPE -A500
Parasite            |Zyclonium                        |NOPE
Paradise Productns  |Optimas Maximus (2 disks)        |NOPE -A500
Paradise Productns  |Virtual Meltdown (2 disks)       |Just Boot
Perspex             |Hypnosis                         |Just Boot
Phenomina           |Crystal Symphonies I             |NOPE
Phenomena           |Crystal Symphonies II            |Degrader
Phenomena           |Enigma                           |Degrader-minor prob
Phenomena           |Interspace                       |Degrader-some probs
Phenomena           |Megademo                         |Degrader-crashes
The Pornos          |Shave Off Your Mustache          |Just Boot-crashes
Powerslave          |Megademo I (2 disks)             |Relokick
Predators           |Megademo (2 disks)               |Degrader
Profecy             |Numeric Volume 3 (2 disks)       |NOPE
Pure Metal Coders   |Alpha & Omega                    |Relokick-crashes
Pure Metal Coders   |Alpha & Omega II (3 disks)       |Just Boot-crashes
Pygmy Projects      |Extension                        |Just Boot
Quadilyte           |C64 Demo                         |Degrader
Radar Contrast Prod.|Polytheism                       |Relokick
Rage                |Neural Assult                    |Just Boot
Razor 1911          |Voyage                           |NOPE
Rebels              |Advanced Disk Designs V1.0       |Relokick
Rebels              |Megablast                        |NOPE
Rebels              |Megademo                         |Relokick
Rebels              |Megademo II                      |Degrader-no fast mem
Red Sector          |Megademo (2 disks)               |Degrader-crashes
Reflect             |Sound Vision                     |Degrader
SAE                 |Amazing Tunes II (3 disks)       |Just Boot
Sagacity            |Abdomenizer                      |NOPE
Sanity              |Boggledop                        |Just Boot
Sanity              |Interference                     |Just Boot
Sanity              |Pygmie Projects 93               |Just Boot
Sanity              |World of Commodore               |NOOE -A500
Sargon              |Megademo II                      |Degrader-flakey
Scoopex             |2 Unlimited (2 disks)            |Degrader
Scoopex             |Beast Music                      |Relokick
Scoopex             |Laterna Magica                   |Just Boot
Scoopex             |Maxima                           |Just Boot
Scoopex             |Megademo                         |Degrader-some probs
Scoopex             |Mental Hangover                  |Degrader
Scoopex             |Pha Q                            |Degrader
SHITTS              |3 Day Hardcore                   |Just Boot+hit lmb
SHITTS              |Jesus on Cheese                  |Relokick
Silents & Crionics  |Hardwired (2 disks)              |NOPE
Silents             |Blues House (2 disks)            |NOPE
Silents             |Demon Download (2 disks)         |Degrader
Silents             |Enjoy the Silents                |Degrader
Silents             |Global Trash                     |Degrader
Silents             |ICE                              |Degrader
Silents             |Maximum Velocity                 |NOPE
Silents             |Megademo                         |Just Boot
Silents             |Static Change                    |Relokick
Silents             |Xpose (2 disks)                  |Just Boot-minor probs
Sim Productions     |Speed Demo (4 disks)             |Degrader
Skidrow             |Jetset                           |Degrader
SOC.Brigade         |Aabsolute!                       |Degrader
Solution            |Odeon (2 disks)                  |Degrader
Sonic               |Gastric Ulcer                    |Just Boot
Spaceballs          |Mobile Destination Unknown       |Degrader
Spaceballs          |Spaceball Demo                   |Degrader
Spaceballs          |Spasmolytic                      |Degrader
Spaceballs          |Wayfarer                         |Degrader
The Special Brothers|Maximum Overdrive (2 disks)      |Degrader
Split Dim./Caltec   |The Wall (6 disks)               |Just Boot
Stone Arts          |A Demo                           |Relokick
Sundell & Birk      |The 100 Most Remembered C64 Tunes|NOPE
Sunlight            |Megademo                         |Just Boot
Supreme             |Demo compilation                 |Just Boot-not #1
Syntex              |Aluminium                        |Just Boot
T.E.T.              |Melted Experience                |Degrader
Talent              |Q.E.D.                           |NOPE
Team 17             |Alien Breed                      |NOPE
Technoflight        |Ectoplasma                       |Degrader-crashes
Them                |Pixeled Pleasure                 |NOPE
Tilt                |Raytraced Dreams II              |Just Boot
Tom Soft            |Virtual World                    |Relokick
Trakers             |Dead or Precise                  |Degrader
Trash               |The Co-operatation BBS Intro     |Just Boot
Trash               |The Mouse that Ate the Cat       |NOPE
Triangle            |Gigademo II                      |Relokick
Triangle            |Gigademo III                     |NOPE
Triangle            |No More Vectors (2 disks)        |Degrader
Trilogy             |Gigademo (2 disks)               |NOPE
TRSI                |Ecliptica                        |NOPE
TRSI                |Wicked Sensation (2 disks)       |Just Boot
UDO                 |Vaginal Massacre                 |Degrader
Underwurlde         |Megademo                         |Just Boot
Union               |Hallucinations & Dreams (2 disks)|Degrader
Upfront             |Cool Fridge                      |NOPE
Upfront             |Plastic Passion                  |NOPE -A500
VARIOUS             |Corise-Far Beyond                |Just Boot
VARIOUS             |Demos of the World #52           |Relokick
VARIOUS             |Euro Demos 1                     |Degrader
VARIOUS             |Euro Demos 5                     |NOPE
VARIOUS             |Image                            |Degrader
VARIOUS             |Optical Illusion #1              |Relokick
VARIOUS             |Optical Illusion #6              |Degrader
VARIOUS             |Optical Illusion #7              |NOPE
Vectors             |Vectoria                         |Relokick
Vectra              |Amnesty                          |Degrader
Vectra              |Sinking Demand                   |Degrader
Violence            |Phon-O-Bomb                      |Degrader
Virt. Drms/Fairlite |Absolute Inebriation (2 disks)   |NOPE
Vision              |Megademo II                      |Relokick
Vision              |Megademo IV                      |Relokick
Wild Copper Crew    |Preview of Wild Copper Demo      |NOPE
Wildfire            |In Full Affect                   |Relokick
Wizzcat             |Trashcan                         |NOPE -A500
Xymox               |Wind It Up                       |Relokick
==========================================================================
NOTES:  These demos were tested on my 25mhz A3000 with 2megs chip ram
        and 4megs fast ram.  I also have my system set to default to
        PAL mode (via jumper on the motherboard).

        Relokick -  This boots your A3000 in WB1.3.  This program loads
                    the kickstart 1.3 into different locations in memory
                    which tends to give different results even with the
                    same demo.
        (available on Aminet in utils/misc as kick13.dms)

        Degrader (version 1.3) - I use '50hz system', 'nocache',
                                       '1 meg chip','priviledged'
        (available on Aminet in utils/misc as degrader13.lzh)

        'NOPE' - This means I couldn't find a way to make the demo work.
                 By 'work' I mean that the majority of the demo works.

        '-A500' - I could not get this demo to work on my A500 either!
                  A500 configuration - 1meg agnus/no fast ram.

        The recommended boot method may not be the only way to get a
        demo to work but (in my opinion) is the best way/most compatible
        way to get the demo to work properly.
==========================================================================
PLEASE!  If you have found a repeatable way to make any of the above
         'NOPE' demos work on your A3000 then let me know so that I
         can update this list.

Comments, suggestions, and additional information can be sent to:
  rabel1@cup.portal.com (Randy Abel)


@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 
knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions.  You're likely 
to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give 
technical assistance, or point you in the right direction.

BIX is divided into areas called conferences, each devoted to a 
particular area of interest.  They range from algorithms to windows,
from writers to amiga.  Conferences are categorized into groups,
usually referred to as exchanges, so that you can browse through
whatever groups interest you and see a list of the conferences it 
contains.


                  These are some of the exchanges on BIX:

amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts
byte - the full text of each issue of BYTE magazine; source code too 
e.and.l - Entertainment and Leisure; music, pets, games, more
ibm.exchange - everything from OS/2 to PC clones
mac.exchange -  Mac news, support, software, advice
professionals - consultants, engineers, financiers gather here
programmers - some of the best brains in the business!
wix - the Information Exchange for Windows; Windows Magazine online
writers.ex - the professional and amateur writer's exchange


                       *** FULL INTERNET ACCESS! ***

BIX also features access to the Internet - you can use FTP to transfer
files from sites all over the world, telnet to log on to other online 
services, schools, and research sites, and send Internet mail to millions 
of people at services like DELPHI, CompuServe, America Online, MCI Mail, 
and other sites and services.  Services like "WHOIS" and "Finger" are 
also available, with more features on the way (like USENET newsgroups; 
our newsreader is currently being tested and should be available very 
soon!)  There are no usage fees or special charges for Internet access - 
it's all part of your BIX subscription. 


                      ==============================
                      Rates and Connect Information:
                      ==============================


BIX membership costs $13 per month, plus connect time.  There are several 
different ways to connect:

SprintNet*              $3/hour evenings/weekends   $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet:**               $3/hour evenings/weekends   $9/hour weekdays
(SprintNet and Tyment rates shown are for 48 contiguous US states only.)
                                                        
Tymnet Canada:          $4/hr eves/wkends           $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet Hawaii:          $10/hr eves/wkends          $20/hour weekdays   
Telnet(via Internet):   $1/hour, round the clock
Direct dial (Boston):   $2/hour, round the clock (up to 9600 bps)
 
 * SprintNet daytime hours are from 6am to 7pm, M-F, ET.
** Tymnet daytime hours are from 7am to 6pm, M-F, ET.



To find your local SprintNet number, call SprintNet at (800) 877-5045,
ext. 5.  Internationally, call (404) 859-7700.

To find a local Tymnet number, call Tymnet at (800) 937-2862.  
Internationally, call (703) 442-0145.

                             ================

There is no surcharge for 9600 bps access via either telecom carrier.

There is no surcharge for up to 10mb of Internet mail per month (sent
and received).  There will be a charge of $1 per 100,000 bytes 
thereafter.

                             ================


                20/20 PLAN OPTION (for USA-48 users only):

Volume users can choose the 20/20 Advantage Plan, which is $20 per month
and includes the first 20 hours of access by any combination of methods 
from the contiguous United States.  Additional use is $1.80 per hour 
(additional use for telnet access is $1 an hour).  The 20/20 Plan's cost is 
in addition to the $13 monthly fee.  


                           INTERNATIONAL USERS:

If you wish to connect internationally through Tymnet or SprintNet, 
please contact your local PTT.  BIX accepts prepaid international calls,
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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 
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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
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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 
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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 * 
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   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 
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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
                     Internet:  B.GRAY@genie.geis.com


                        Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
                                11 North St
                                  Exeter
                                   Devon
                                  EX4 3QS
                              United Kingdom
                           Voice: (0392) 499 755
                           Fax:   (0392) 423 480
                Internet:  brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk


                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


                             DataKompaniet ANS
                             Pb 3187  Munkvoll
                             N-7002  Trondheim
                              Norway - Europe
                          VOICE/FAX:  72 555 149
                      Internet:  torrunes@idt.unit.no


                               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


                          Industrial Video, Inc.
                           1601 North Ridge Rd.
                             Lorain, OH  44055
                           VOICE:  800-362-6150
                                   216-233-4000
                  Internet:  af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
                            Contact:  John Gray


                                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


                           Wonder Computers Inc.
                             1315 Richmond Rd.
                      Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7
                           Voice:  613-596-2542
                           Fax:    613-596-9349
                           BBS:    613-829-0909


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

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-9 "Humor Department"
@toc "menu"

/// The Humor Department           Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs
    --------------------
(This one comes from Rob Furr (R.FURR@GENIE.GEIS.COM) from the Usenet
 newsgroup, rec.humor)

Hi there!

Do you, like many other computer users around the world, have large,
combustible wads of money in your pockets? Do you find writing all those
pesky zeroes down in your bank book tedious? Would you like to lose
$1,000? $25,000? even $50,000? Think it's impossible?

Well, it's not! Anybody can lose AS MUCH MONEY AS HE OR SHE LIKES, and
faster than anyone could imagine!

Five years ago, I was rich. I had money in high-yield investment
securities, stocks, municipal bonds. Two cars sat in my garage, and I was
in the highest income tax bracket possible. Then, one day, I discovered
the secret of how to LOSE MONEY FAST, and it changed my life. Now, I am
living in one small room of a second-story apartment in the second-oldest
apartment building in Durham, and I'm working as a temp at eight dollars
an hour, with no health or vacation benefits.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Read on, and you'll find out how YOU can LOSE
MONEY FAST!

The first step in LOSING MONEY FAST is deciding HOW much money YOU want
to lose. Do you want to lose $1,000? Or do you want to go all the way and
drop $50,000? It's up to you! Take a piece of paper and write down YOUR
personal loss target. Take that number to a local graphic designer, and
have him or her create a really nifty-looking design for that logo, in
four-color seperations, with gold foil highlights. After you have your
Loss Target in hand, take it to a framing studio, and get a cool-looking
frame, maybe in with anodized black trim.  Once you've got it all framed
and nice-looking, PUT IT ON YOUR WALL, and be proud! You've just lost UP
TO $500! That's right! By this time, you're already down FIVE HUNDRED
DOLLARS, and that's only the BEGINNING! There's even BIGGER losses on the
way!

The real secret of LOSING MONEY FAST is in VOLUME. Don't think about
losing money a few bucks at a time, think of losing money HUNDREDS OF
DOLLARS at a time. Here's how: Go to your bank or savings and loan, and
withdraw an amount of money equal to your Loss Target. If you don't have
that much in liquid assets, try selling your car, or even an organ or
two. Ask for the money in small denominations, preferably dollar bills.

Then, go down to your local post office and ask about the rules and
regulations governing mass mailings. Get a number of envelopes equal to
your Loss Target, address them to OCCUPANT, and put a dollar bill inside
each and every envelope. Then, take them down to your local post office,
and send them off! You've just LOST BIG BUCKS! And it's NOT TAX
DEDUCTIBLE! That's the danger in OTHER lose-money schemes...many of them
are tax deductible, and some can even qualify you for charitable awards!
But not LOSE.MONEY.FAST, because YOU cut out the middleman! YOUR money
goes DIRECT from you to OTHER PEOPLE! No receipts! No records! Nothing
except the thrill of seeing your bank account dwindle!

Here are a few comments by happy people who have LOST MONEY FAST!:

Mr. D. Terwilliger, of Pismo Beach, CA.: "I never thought I could lose
money so fast, or so easily. The cash just seemed to vanish. It was
exciting, and I got rid of all my money. I can't recommend
LOSE.MONEY.FAST enough. "

Ms. R.Swathmire, of Springview, VA: "Thank you for telling me how to LOSE
MONEY FAST. I used to have to sweat through bank statements, credit
reports, and dividend checks. Now, I don't have to worry about any of
that!"

Mr. R.Cherminski, of Seattle, WA: "It's such a relief not to have to
worry about my money any more. It's so different, now, I don't have a
care in the world, and it's all thanks to LOSE.MONEY.FAST."

Take advantage of this new and exciting concept in fiscal management, and
LOSE MONEY FAST!*




*as used by the U.S. Government.

@endnode

@node P5-2 "DSE v2.00"
@toc "menu"


TITLE

     DSE

VERSION

     2.00

COMPANY

     none

AUTHOR

     David Prothero
     812A Buchanan Towers
     Bellingham, WA 98225
     USA

     email: n9346670@henson.cc.wwu.edu

DESCRIPTION

     Dave's Space Empire (DSE) is a "door" game to play online most any
     Amiga bulletin board systems (BBS's).  The game is a multi-player
     game where participants compete to build the largest "space
     empire".  The game involves military strategy, cooperation with
     other players, and you mustn't forget to keep the people in your
     own empire happy.  By purchasing and/or conquering various types
     of planets, players gain population, the resources of the
     particular planet, and points.  When a player reaches 100,000
     points, they become "Space Lord".  They do not automatically win
     however, they must retain their Space Lord status for one week
     (seven days).

     Dave's Space Empire is a "DOS" door game to make it compatible
     with as many BBS packages as possible.  It may also be run from a
     CLI window.  It supports ANSI colors and IBM graphics, each of
     which can be turned on/off by each individual user.  Also, all
     menus are ASCII text files so that they can be altered by any text
     editor.  Every message displayed by the game is in one large text
     file so that SysOps can customize the game and colors of the text
     as much as possible.


NEW FEATURES

     The game was originally a CNet game and has been re-written as a
     "DOS" door so that more BBS's can use the game.

     The text code system was implemented.

     Many separate text files were created to add to the flexibility of
     the program.  Anything that appears in text in the game can be
     changed!  This means the game could even be re-written for another
     language without having to touch the source code.

     Text files can be powerpacked.

     Message system has been re-done.  There is now both private and
     public messaging available in the "InterGalactic Radio Network".

     Players can attach cargo transfers to their private messages.  These
     can be for sending items (money, cruisers, soldiers, etc) to someone
     for free or for bartering (requesting a certain amount of money,
     cruisers, soldiers, etc.).

     Many bugs have been fixed and the file format has been made more
     efficient.

     Graphical configuration program.

     Documentation in AmigaGuide format, which includes documentation for
     setting up the game in general terms and also in specifics for the
     following BBS programs:

                      * CNet AMIGA
                      * DLG-Pro
                      * Excelsior!
                      * StarNet
                      * TransAmiga

     Please realize that if your BBS program is not listed here, it
     does not mean that the game will not run.  It simply means I do
     not have SPECIFIC documentation for that BBS.  DSE will run if
     your BBS can run doors that use stdin/stdout.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

     DSE requires at least AmigaDOS 1.3.  Nothing else is required if
     you are just running the game from a shell, but if you run it from
     a BBS, then you will probably want at least 1MB of RAM and a
     hard-drive.  Different BBS programs have different requirements.

HOST NAME
     
     wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) or any other AmiNet site.

DIRECTORY

     /pub/aminet/comm/bbs

FILE NAMES

     dse200.lha

PRICE

     FreeWare

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     FreeWare

@endnode
---------------------
@node P5-3 "Fed-CASE v1.0"
@toc "menu"


TITLE

	Fed-CASE


VERSION

	V1.0 (light version)


COMPANY

	Joosen Software Development
	Dr. J.M. den Uylstraat 32
	4908 CT Oosterhout (N-Br)
	The Netherlands
	
	Tel. (31) 1620 35348
	e-mail christian@ecl008.adsp.sub.org


AUTHOR

	Christian Joosen & Ron Heijmans


DESCRIPTION

	FED-CASE()) for the Amiga is a software tool that can assist 
	the design of software. 

	FED-CASE()) consists of a graphical environment 
	to design flows the  flowchart editor and a source code 
	generator that generates direct compilable C source code.

	The generated code can be used to be compiled for any other 
	C-compiler on any computer system.

	The FED-CASE()) code generator generates C-source code according 
	to the C source code definition. This is including the 
	declaration and prototyping part of the source code.
	The code generator will automatically do the type casting.
	An auto-comment function will take care of commenting the C source
	code with all kind of helpfull information. The source code
	generator will take care of the includes and put all the required
	includes into the source code.

	It is possible to generate source code for a C compiler 
	on an UNIX operating system or a PC operating system.

	The demo version is available on:

HOST NAME

	Aminet
	
DIRECTORY

	/pub/aminet/dev/c
	
FILE NAME

	fedcase.lha		

PRICE

	$79

DISTRIBUTABILITY

	The product is copyright of Joosen Software Development

@endnode


@node P5-4 "C-Shell v5.35"
@toc "menu"


TITLE

     C-Shell (csh)

VERSION

     5.35

AUTHOR

     Andreas M. Kirchwitz (csh 5.20+),
     based on csh 5.19 by Urban D. Mueller

     E-Mail: csh-fan@zikzak.in-berlin.de

DESCRIPTION

     C-Shell is a replacement for the AmigaDOS command line interface.
     Many builtin Unix-like commands, very fast script language, file-
     name completion, command-name completion, comfortable command line
     editing, pattern matching, AUX: mode, object oriented file classes.

     C-Shell is easy to install and to use.  Online help for all
     commands, functions and various subjects.  ARP-free!

NEW FEATURES

     Changes since version 5.31 (summary):

      - Command name completion for DOS-search-path.
      - I/O redirection with <>.
      - Enhanced pattern matching.
      - DOS-scripts are now fully working.
      - Supports ReadArgs()-compatible argument parsing.
      - Supports ".logout" on exit.
      - Supports KingCON (menus not cleared).
      - Various changes/enhancements to existing commands.
      - Bug fixes.

     See file "HISTORY" in archive csh535.lha for complete listing
     of changes and new features.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     AmigaOS 2.0 (or higher)

HOST NAME

     FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors

       For example, ftp.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4].

     UUCP/E-Mail : mail-server@cs.tu-berlin.de

       Send mail to the address above and put the
       line "send /pub/aminet/util/shell/csh535.lha"
       in the body.

DIRECTORY

     /pub/aminet/util/shell

FILE NAMES

     csh535.lha      (binary and documentation)
     csh535src.lha   (source code for SAS/C 6)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Freely distributable, Copyright by the individual authors.

@endnode



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

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                  Amiga Report International Online Magazine
December 31, 1993      * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE *            No. 1.39
        Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications ~ 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. All items quoted
in whole or in part are  done so under the  Fair Use Provision of the Copy-
right Laws of the United States Penal Code.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
                                    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} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information
@{"     FTP Announcements      " link P5} New Files Available for FTP
@{"   AR Distribution Sites    " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT


/// 12/31/93 Amiga Report 1.39   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk       · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · FTP Announcements       · Dealer Directory     · AR Confidential
    · The Humor Department    · Usenet Reviews       · AR Online
    · EuroDemo Compatibility  · DiskExpander         · 

                        » Buying your first Amiga «
                            » CD32 Reviewed! «
                       » AmigaWorks:  New Column! «


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                 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
@{"      Online Weekly       " link P1-3} The lines are buzzing!
@{"     AR Questionnaire     " link P1-4} The results are in!!!!
@{" Buying your first Amiga  " link P1-5} Tips on doing it right!
@{"       AmigaWorks!        " link P1-6} Wow that's RAD:!
@{"      UseNet Review       " link P1-7} DiskExpander
@{" A3000 Compatability list " link P1-8} With MegaDemos and EuroDemos
@{"     Humor Department     " link P1-9} Shameless Jokes, Quotes, and Plugs

@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}  Getting better all the time!
@{"   Portal   " link P4-2}  A great place for Amiga users...
@{"  InterNet  " link P4-5}  Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
@{"    BIX     " link P4-6}  For Serious Programmers and Developers
@endnode

@node P5 "Files Available for FTP"
@toc "menu"


@{" SwazInfo v1.0 " link P5-1} Replacement for WB's icon information
@{"   DSE v2.00   " link P5-2} Dave's Space Empire
@{" Fed-CASE v1.0 " link P5-3} Software design tool
@{" C-Shell v5.35 " link P5-4} Replacement for AmigaDOS' CLI

@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
                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
         MebbsNet/Starnet Support/Distribution Site West Coast USA
                         * Running MEBBSNet BBS *
                            Larry Cloud, Sysop
                            FidoNet:  1:350/30
                            MaxNet:  90:180/10
                  Internet:  larryc@hebron.connected.com
                 206-377-4290  USR HST DS  24hrs - 7 days
                           Bremerton, Washington


New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report.  These are considered
"free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio.  The latest issue
of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR"
or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number.  Freq's are valid at ANY time.

For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide,
you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form.  This service is provided
for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users).  Please note that
any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be
sent with this freq.  This file is not available for dial-in users, but you
can read bulletin #5 with your capture buffer open and get the same file.



@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
                  Sysop Email:  sysadmin@junct9.royle.org

      Line 1  +44 (0)372 271000  14400  V.32bis/HST   FidoNet 2:440/20
      Line 2  +44 (0)372 278000  14400  V.32bis only  FidoNet 2:440/21
      Line 3  +44 (0)372 279000  2400   V.42bis/MNP

                   Internet:  user_name@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 P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS"
@toc "menu"


                            * THE GATEWAY BBS *
                 Official Amiga Report Distribution Site 
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                          Stace Cunningham, Sysop
                            Dan Butler, CoSysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                   InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
                           FidoNet:  1:3604/60.0
                    601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC
                            Biloxi, Mississippi


@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-13 "Talk City"
@toc "menu"


                               * TALK CITY *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
   708-372-0190 - 2400bps   708-372-0268 - V32 14.4K  708-372-0283 USR DS 14.4K
     Fido Net 1:115/372,0  Phantom Net 11:2115/2.0  Clink Net 911:6080/4.0 
                            UUCP tcity.com

        Over 3 Gig of Files Online  |  More and More things everyday.

With Three IBM CD-ROMs online, 10 lines, support for all platforms, and a REALLY
dedicated sysop (The Mayor).


@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS"
@toc "menu"


                               * Amiga BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                         Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop
                             FidoNet  4:975/7
                         First Amiga BBS in Mexico
                        (5) 887-3080   9600 V32,MNP
                         Estado de Mexico,  Mexico


@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 *
                            Lenni Uitti, SysOp
                      Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas)
                     Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas)
                        +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST
                        +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/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 a CD-ROM
drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in
a DesqView windows.

We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff
on the Aminet CD-ROM disk.

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) even on their first call.

The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local
telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy.



@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 "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
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate"
@toc "menu"


                          * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                      An Amiga dedicated BBS for All
                         * Running Skyline 1.3.2 *
                          Mark E Davidson, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                        201-586-3623  USR 14.4 HST
                           Rockaway, New Jersey
                                                                          
              Full Skypix  menus + normal and ansi menu sets.             
             Instant Access to all.  Download on the first call.          
                                                                          
       Hardware:  Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor,        
           125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 125 Meg IDE Maxtor, Double Speed CD rom,  
                                  9 meg RAM                               


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central"
@toc "menu"


                            * AMIGA CENTRAL! *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          CNet Amiga Support Site
                        * Running CNet Amiga BBS *
                            Carl Tashian, Sysop
                  Internet mail:  root@amicent.raider.net
                   615-383-9679  1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis
                             24 hours - 7 days
                           Nashville, Tennessee


Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate,
Zoom 14.4k modem

@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-59 "Continental Drift"
@toc "menu"


                         * CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
        * Running MAXsBBS software (DLG Pro is being delivered!) *
                   Murry Chaffer & Andre Lackman, Sysops
                               +612 9188375
                            24 hours -  7 days
                            Sydney, Australia 


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation:
@toc "menu"



                            * GURU MEDITATION *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain
                         * Running Remote Access *
                            Javier Frias, SysOp
                              +34-1-383-1317  V.32bis
                             24 hours - 7days
                                   Spain

@endnode
