@database "ar207.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.07 -- February 25, 1994"

                               @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"}

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                       International Online Magazine

                "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information."

                   Copyright  1994 Skynet Publications
                            All Rights Reserved

                                      //                                  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% February 25, 1994               \\//                   Issue No. 2.07 %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                      Where to find Amiga Report                       %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

  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
@{"       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
@{"   THE STYGIAN ABYSS     " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois
@{"    AMIGA DO PC BSS      " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil
@{"     COMM-LINK BBS       " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada
@{"    PHANTOM'S  LAIR      " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois
@{"    Tierra-Miga BBS      " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca
                           Non-FidoNet Systems 
                            -------------------

@{"    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

@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

                ____________________________________________
         //    |                                            |        //
%%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%%
%%   \\//      | Issue No. 2.07           February 25, 1994 |    \\//    %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
               |____________________________________________|             
                                                                          
    The Editor's Desk      Mail Order Survey        FTP Announcements
    Reader Mail            Dealer Directory         Distribution BBS's
    Amiga News             In Review                The Clipper Chip 
 
                            SPECIAL FEATURES 

  Emulation Rambler ....................................... Jason Compton
  Amiga in Business ....................................... Andre Perusse                                                                          
  Video Backup System ...................................... John Collier 
  A600 In Use ............................................. Kieth Foldesi
  Slow Machine - Great Display Blues .......................... Roy Teale
  Inexpensive Computers ................................... David Tiberio
  Take Another Look ....................................... Thomas Reamer
  Snow ..and the Amiga ...................................... Sean Graham
  Compact Disks ......................................... David Schofield
  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%              @{" DELPHI " link P4-1}  @{" PORTAL " link P4-2}  @{" FIDO " link P2-1}  @{" INTERNET " link P4-5}           %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode

@node P1-1 "The Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The Editor's Desk                                     By Robert Niles %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Welcome back!

Well it was a nice relaxing "vacation", but good to be back!
We've had a nice responce to my plea for more of you to write articles 
for Amiga Report. And here they are! I thank you all!! Keep them coming!

We've had some good news and bad news this week to report.
Looks like there will be no World of Commodore Amiga in New York this
year. I have no idea why, I've tried to contact CBM on this, and have
recieved no responce from them.

Also concerning the CD32, it looks like Electronics Boutique will not
be carrying these machines, but stated that if they get a large request
for them, they might change their minds. BUT it looks like Software Etc.
will be. Hopefully we'll get you more on this.

There's been someone on UseNet ...in c.s.a.advocacy in fact, stating that
the AAA machine is dead. Well my responce to this is that it isn't even 
out yet....don't jump the gun. No, he's not out there shouting the death 
of the AAA from fact. This person is well known for ..um, er, shooting 
himself in the foot. I tell you, the stuff I hear from him is getting
a little old!

Before anyone starts jumping the gun, I would suggest that you don't
start worrying until the fat lady STOPS singing :)

Until next week ....enjoy!

@endnode

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

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%       Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World!       %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


 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                         %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

  
                                  Editor
                                  ======

                               Robert Niles

 Portal:                         RNiles
 FidoNet:                      1:3407/103
 Internet:             rniles@hebron.connected.com
 Fax:                         509-966-3828
 US Mail:                     P.O. Box 8041
                            Yakima, Wa 98908

  

                             Assistant Editor
                             ================

                               Rick Gideon
 Internet:             rgideon@hebron.connected.com



                            Emulation Editor
                            ================

                             Jason Compton
 Internet:                 jcompton@tcity.com


                            European Editor
                            ===============

                              Jesper Juul
 Internet:               norjj@stud.ham.aau.dk

@endnode


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

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                      Amiga Report Maillist 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 rniles@hebron.connected.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@hebron.connected.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 P1-2 "In Review"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% In Review                                            By Rick Gideon %%
%% PD/SW/FW Reviews                       rgideon@hebron.connected.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Hello fellow Amiga users,
	
	Well, as you know Amiga Report has changed hands from Robert
Glover to Robert Niles, so Mr. Niles has formed a new staff, I am the
new Assistant editor for AR. To tell you a little about myself; I
live in Washington State, I go to Central Kitsap High School in
Silverdale, Washington, and I am the Sysop of the Amiga area on
(****WARNING! SHAMELESS PLUG!!!****) TSCNet BBS 1-206-692-2388, the
Amiga area has not been finished yet, but I am importing new files
from Aminet soon, well enough of this psycho-babble =). 

I will most likely be grabbing articles off usenet to be
published in AR, mostly Amiga, maybe even some other platform news,
if it's worthwhile to publish. Robert and I will be discussing the
future of AR soon, we are hoping to plan some VERY nice surprises for
you, the readers. We are also hoping to grab a few more staff
writers, and maybe change the format of AR. I hope my articles on new
Public Domain/ Shareware programs will benefit you with helpful
information. The reason we are doing this online magazine is for you,
the Commodore Amiga consumer. Well down below I'll put the addresses 
you can reach me at.

		Rick Gideon
		
		rgideon@hebron.connected.com <<--- Prefered address
		rick_gideon@tscnet.eskimo.com 
		rickg@eskimo.com	   
			    or
		On IRC "RKM" or "FaLlAcY"

WOW! This week the rumor mill has been producing many interesting
things.

First, rumors of the AAA chipset being tabled this has not
been confirmed by anyone, although I have heard it from		
many people. Also rumors of World of Commodore Amiga, New York
being cancelled, this has pretty much been verified, by reports on
usenet and by people on IRC. Also, it has pretty much been verified
that Commordore Austrailia has been closed and is being sold, this
has been apparently been caused by debts that C= Austrilia had. 

As you can tell I spend a lot of my time on IRC and usenet and
cruising AmiNet (probably too much of my time). During Amiga
Reports week off I have been busy gathering information from all
the helpful people on the Internet. 

Well during these past two weeks lots of new Public Domain/
Shareware has been hatched onto Aminet. I have not had time to
review a new program yet. But you will find some reviews in this
issue of AR, taken from Comp.sys.amiga.reviews. many of the new
programs , MUI 2.0, ppshow 4.0, and many, many more. In the next
upcoming weeks I will do a head-to-head comparison of many of the
most popular picture format viewers, ViewTek, FastJPEG, FastGIF.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first article as Assistant Editor for
Amiga Report.

				Rick Gideon
				 	

@endnode

@node P1-3 "Amiga News"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Amiga News                                                          %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

    Scientific Amigan: Call for Authors
    
  Scientific Amigan is in search of writers with experiences in research,
development, or design with Amigas.  If you have used or written techni-
cal software for the Amiga, SA wants your reviews or descriptions.  SA
publishes Amiga hardware design information, as well.  Since our readers
often publish papers or other technical material, information on technical
publishing is welcome.

  Scientific Amigan is the only publication devoted to the technical
Amiga user.  It is a monthly newsletter, providing access to a disk and
reprint library containing information and software related to the news-
letter articles.  Readers span the spectrum of technology, from chemistry
to aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, physics, mathematics,
and other fields.  Subscribers from Hong Kong to Norway (and mostly in
the United States) are eager to find out how to get the most from their
Amiga.

  Please consider writing for Scientific Amigan now.  Start by sending
email or mail for an Author's Guide.  A sample issue is also available.

                   Walter Lounsbery, Publisher
                   Scientific Amigan
                   POB 60685
                   Savannah, GA   31420-0685
                   waltal@well.sf.ca.us
                   

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

Conference on Portal!!


             Online Conference with Terra Nova Development
              March 2, 1994 in the Chat Area  (go chat;2)
              beginning at 7pm (Pacific), 10pm (Eastern)



On Wednesday, March 2, Terra Nova Development will host a conference
with these giveaway prizes:

  `The Labyrinth of Time' for CD32, CDTV and Amigas with CD-ROM drives
  `Magic Lantern' 1.5 animation software for Amiga displays, Retina,
                     Picasso II, Opalvision, EGS and Spectrum displays
  `Designer Objects Vol. I:  Diner' for Imagine
  `Designer Objects Vol. I:  Diner' for Lightwave

  Bradley W. Schenck and Michal Todorovic of Terra Nova will be on hand
to answer questions about all of these products.

  `The Labyrinth of Time', published by Electronic Arts in the United
Kingdom, is a 270 room ray traced adventure/puzzle solving game which was
created on Amiga systems with off-the-shelf Amiga graphics tools like
Imagine, Art Department Professional, and Vistapro.  It's now available
for MS-DOS  machines in VGA and SVGA as well as Amigas, CDTV and CD32.

  A Macintosh version of the game is near release.

  Although the CD32/Amiga/CDTV version was published in December it's
still a rare find on this side of the Atlantic.  So come to the Terra
Nova conference and be the first on your block to own a copy, and
this is your chance to ask questions to the guys who created these
exciting new Amiga products!

See you there!

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

(Courtesy of Portal's Amiga Zone)

PRESS RELEASE
 
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
      
               New Upgrade of PEGGER Image Compression Software
 
Columbia, MO -- February 11, 1994
 
 
     Heifner Communications Inc. is proud to announce the availability of
v1.3 of their product, PEGGER, an automated image compression system for
Commodore Amiga computers.  PEGGER v1.3 brings drastically improved support
for the NewTek Framestore format used in the popular Video Toaster product.
"We are pleased to offer the finest support of NewTek's Framestore format
found in any 3rd party software currently on the market", said Heifner
Communications President, Greg Heifner.  "We have become well aware over
the past months that many of our customers are Toaster owners and we felt
that improving the product's performance for them was an important goal."
Not only is PEGGER v1.3 much faster when compressing and decompressing
Framestore images but also provides incredible broadcast quality while
maintaining high compression levels. 
 
     PEGGER v1.3 also provides support for compression of pre-buffered
Toaster CG Framestore pages as well as automatic support for compression and
decompression of IFF and JPEG images from the Macintosh.  In addition, we
have listened to our users and implemented some of their suggestions to
improve the software.
 
     This upgrade of PEGGER is so important that we have decided to provide
a free upgrade to all currently registered owners of the product.  If you
have already sent in your PEGGER registration card you will automatically
receive PEGGER v1.3.  In addition, a patch file to upgrade either PEGGER
v1.1 or PEGGER v1.2 to v1.3 will be placed on all electronic services,
including Internet, for the benefit of those PEGGER owners who have access
to these services.
 
     ATTENTION DEALERS/DISTRIBUTORS:  We will be providing dealers and
distributors a demonstration video tape explaining PEGGER and showing
off its capabilities as well as some cool animations that were originally
compressed using PEGGER.  You can share the video tape with your customers
and use it as a point of sale tool for PEGGER.  The video tape will be
shipping in approximately 2-3 weeks.  If you do not receive a video tape,
please call Heifner Communications to request one!
 
Availability:   February 15, 1994.
 
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
 
   CHRIS MINSHALL / IVAN MOORE
   HEIFNER COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
   4451 I-70 DRIVE NW
   COLUMBIA, MO  65202
   (800) 445-6164  (VOICE)
   (314) 445-6163  (VOICE)
   (314) 445-0757   (FAX)
 
PEGGER is a trademark of Express-Way Software
Video Toaster, Framestore, and Toaster Paint are trademarks of NewTek, Inc.
Amiga is a trademark of Commodore Business Machines, Inc.

@endnode

@node P1-4 "Amiga in Business"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Amiga in Business                                  by Andre Perusse %%
%%                                             aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

This is a story of my experiences with Emplant and A-Max IV.  I hesitate to
call this a review as this text is not formatted in a reviewing-type
manner.  It may give you a little bit of information of how each board
performs in a business environment, however.

Both boards were used in the following machine:
        Amiga 3000UX (no Unix installed, however)
        Quantum 210 & 170MB Hard Drives
        10MB Ram (has since been upgraded to 14MB)
        High Density Floppy Drive
        A2232 Multi-Serial Card
        A2065 Ethernet Card (used in a Novell Environment)
        Retina Card w/2MB (A-Max IV only)
        IC Super Buster Revision K.


        As an employee of an Amiga dealer, I sometimes have the opportunity to
play with some neat hardware and software.  Two of the more interesting
pieces of hardware have to be A-Max IV and Emplant.  Both of these
ingenious devices allow your Amiga to emulate a colour Macintosh while at
the same time allowing you to run native Amiga programs.  These boards are
the perfect solution for people whose main computer is an Amiga, but need
to run Macintosh programs from time to time.

        The dealer I work for is also a Macintosh dealer.  I have therefore
had the (perhaps unique) opportunity to test both boards extensively in an
AppleTalk (the built-in Macintosh networking protocol) environment.  I use
the Macintosh board everyday for extended periods of time while at the same
time running a BBS on the Amiga!  I believe that this should be a good
indication of how well each board multitasks.


EMPLANT Deluxe (used version 3.19 of the Emplant software)

        The first board that I used was the Emplant from Utilities Unlimited.
(This is not exactly true.  The first board I really used was A-Max II+,
but that is another story :) At first, I had a lot of trouble getting an
Emplant Deluxe board.  We ordered it through a Canadian distributor.  It
took quite a while to arrive, which is somewhat understandable considering
UU's production facilities and the demand for the product.  While waiting
for the board, I e-mailed Jim Drew (CEO and Chief Engineer of UU) and asked
him if he knew when I might get my board.  He replied in one day, but
informed me that providing ETA's of boards was not his job.  Oh well, I
suppose that's understandable, but who's job is it?  As it turned out, I
received the board a few days later anyway.

        I was eager to try the board out, so I rapidly installed it in my
Amiga 3000.  Being somewhat cautious with installing hardware, I read the
manual from cover to cover and the README file before trying anything.
Well, I kind of had to because I had to find out how to grab a Mac II ROM
image file from a real Mac.  Oddly, there was no mention of how to do this.
Through experimentation, I found that the ROMINFO file on the Emplant disk
was actually a Macintosh program for saving the Rom image from a Mac II.
Due to the Macintosh nature of my dealership, I was able to save a Rom
Image file on a PC disk and then used CrossDos to transfer it to the Amiga.

        Setting up the preferences in the Emplant startup screen was quite an
involved procedure.  The Emplant has many settings including memory,
serial and parallel, hard drive, etc.  The memory preferences require you
to set a specific size of memory aside entirely for the Mac emulation.
Having only 10MB (only!) and running a BBS at the same often caused a tight
situation.  I often had to set the Mac memory down to 2.5MB, which is small
for a Mac these days.  For a hard drive, I had already made an A-Max
partition for use with A-Max II+.  Emplant recognized it without any
problem and I was up and running with System 7.1 in no time.

        At this point I'd just like to note that Emplant also has a SCSI
interface built into the card.  This interface is available to both the
Macintosh emulation and the Amiga.

        "Tah-dah!" (this is a rough interpretation of the sound a Mac II makes
when it boots up).  This alone impressed me as my A-Max II+ never did that.
"Wow!" I thought, "This really works!"  I proceded to try out a few
programs that I use daily.  They worked without a hitch.  I then tried
logging into a co-workers machine to do some file sharing.  It worked, too. 
Everything seemed to be going great until about five minutes after I had 
started, the machine crashed.  "Typical," I thought.  If I didn't
file-share, the board seemed fairly stable.  As soon as I file-shared,
kaboom!  Major bummer.  Appletalk printing was fine, but file-sharing was
out of the question.  I eventually found out that one of the Macintosh
Extensions (or INITs) was causing the problem.  However, the extension was
Apple's Networking Extension and I though it was weird that it should cause
the Emplant to crash.  That was Emplant v3.19 and I'm sure that bug has
been worked out by now.

        I'm sure you've all read that the Emplant supports colour and stereo
sound.  It does, and fairly well.  It lets you select two, four, or
sixteen colours on an ECS machine.  I found that 16 colours was far too
slow to be usable, but I found the 4 colour mode to be a vast improvement
over my two colour A-Max II+.  Slower, but still better.

        Emplant also allows for the changing of some settings while the
emulation program is running.  Namely, you can change what machine (Amiga
or Emplant) has control over the floppy drives.  Kind of handy.  Also, if
the emulation program happens to crash, you can reset it from the Emplant
startup screen.  Also rather handy.

        The BBS software that I use on the same Amiga is DLG Professional.  As
DLG sysops will probably know, DLG is not the most stable piece of software
for the Amiga.  It doesn't crash a lot, but it is picky about the software
you multitask with it.  Emplant and DLG seemed to get along great for the
most part.  Both peacefully co-existed without causing any major problems.
The only problem I could find was that when Emplant was running, users on
the BBS would get an awful lot of missing characters in their text.
Changing the Emplant's task priority didn't seem to help any.  Well,
running a Mac emulator and a BBS at the same time is a little much to
expect, I suppose.

        I used the emulator for about a month and a half and it mostly worked
fine.  There were a few too many crashes for it to be useable in a business
environment (my database was continually corrupted by Emplant crashes).  On
the plus side, Jim Drew regularly releases updates to the software and is
readily available via internet e-mail.  On the down side, the board is not
a mature product.  The new versions of the software are a little too
frequent for my liking.  A new version comes out - a new feature is added,
a bug is squashed, and a new bug is introduced.  The newest version of the
software doesn't require an MMU, however.  I no longer have the Emplant, so
in regards to the emplant updates, I'm only speaking from second-hand
information read from internet newsgroups.


A-Max IV

        Being a registered owner of an A-Max II+ board, I received an upgrade
notice in the mail.  Readysoft was releasing a new upgrade to A-Max.  A-Max
IV promised to be a multitasking, colour Mac emulator for the Amiga.  It
also was going to support the A2065 ethernet card that I used.  Great!  The
upgrade cost from A-Max II+ was only $150.00 CDN, so I took the plunge.

        Getting the A-Max IV upgrade took some time, also.  It was supposed to
have shipped in the middle of December, but only shipped in the middle of
January.  I assumed that ReadySoft was busy working out bugs, so I wasn't
too upset.  I was also able to talk to their technical support people on
almost every phone call I made.  No holding, no excuses, I was always able
to speak to someone.  They didn't know I was calling from a dealer, so this
wasn't the reason for their promptness.  

        I finally received A-Max IV in the mail.  It consisted of a new
manual, a new disk, and an iddy-bitty little IC chip that I had to replace
on the A-Max II+ board.  With my usual enthusiasm, I went right to work
installing the upgrade.  After reading the entire manual, I double clicked
on the A-Max startup icon.  Immediate software failure.  "Typical," I
thought.  I spent all afternoon trying to find out what piece of software I
had on my machine that was causing this most offending GURU.  I didn't find
it that afternoon.  I took the board home that night and put it in my 3000
Tower. I double-clicked the icon.  It worked!!  Wow!  I changed some
settings in the A-Max IV software and rebooted.  I tried the startup
program again.  "Board not found," it said.  "Typical," I mumbled.
In a later conversation with Readysoft, I found out that the A-Max card
does not work properly in German-made 3000 Towers.  The reason for this is
not known, and a bug fix doesn't appear to be in the immediate future.
This wasn't a major problem as the board was going to be used in a desktop,
anyway.  Providing I could get it to work.

        The next morning I went into work determined to get the bloody thing
to work.  I eventually found out the the A-Max board didn't like the A2065
ethernet card.  With the card in the machine - software failure.  With the
2065 out of the machine, the A-Max was happy.  "Rats," I said.  A call to
Readysoft revealed that they knew there was a problem and a bug fix would
be ready in a couple of weeks.  Okay, I could live without my ethernet card
for a couple of weeks.

        Like Emplant, A-Max IV has mny preference settings.  There are
differences, of course.  One of the difference that I really like is the
fact that you set a certain amount of System Memory (for the OS) and a
certain amount of INIT memory (for System extensions).  After that, A-Max
will allocate memory the itself as required.  For example, if you run a
program on A-Max, it will take up a certain amount of memory.  When you
quit the program, that memory is returned to the Amiga!  Now with 14MB of
RAM, this isn't as important as it was with 10MB, but things still get
tight every now and then.  Another difference between Emplant and A-Max is
their port emulation.  Both boards come with two Mac serial ports.  While
the Emplant's ports are usable by the Amiga side, A-Max's are not.  On the
other hand, A-Max can redirect Macintosh serial I/O to the Amiga's serial
and printer ports while Emplant cannot (or at least not in 3.19).

        I set everything else up and started up A-Max.  A blank grey screen,
but lots of hard drive activity.  Something was happening, but I couldn't
see it.  Remember, I was using a Retina at this point.  I unplugged the
monitor from the Retina and put in into the Amiga's video port.  Aha!
There was a Mac screen there.  I set the Retina to the main monitor using
the Macintosh Monitors Control Panel.  I rebooted the Mac and it used the
Retina this time.  A-Max IV, you see, has the ability to use several
monitors, just like a real Mac.  Neat.

        A-Max deals with floppies a little differently than Emplant.  While
both boards will read and write Macintosh 1.4MB floppies, neither will read
or write 800K Mac floppies.  A-Max has a program that transfers the data
off of an 800K disk to a virtual file on your hard drive, however.  From
there, the Mac emulation thinks that it's dealing with a Mac disk.  Also,
the floppy drive is intelligently shared between the Amiga and the Mac.  If
an Amiga program is the currently selected screen, then a disk inserted at
that point would be read by the Amiga side.  If the Mac emulation is the
current screen, then a disk inserted would be read by the Macintosh.

        When I had the A-Max IV working in the Tower, I had it set in 16
colour mode.  On ECS machines, you can only set A-Max IV to use 2 or 16
colours.  16 colour mode was slow.  Too slow.  2 colour mode was boring.
But using the Retina and 256 colours was awsome!  Not blazingly fast, but
pretty snappy!  All of my software worked, including file-sharing!  In
fact, the A-Max IV board was remarkably stable.  I get the odd crash now
and then (mostly while printing with Print Monitor - Apple's backround
printing program), but I have gone entire days without a crash from A-Max.
I never got that kind of performance out of the Emplant.  In addition, the
BBS experiences no side effects with the Mac running.

        Recently, I talked to Readysoft about the A2065 problem.  They now
have a bug fix and it's due to arrive in the next few days.  I can't wait
to use the Mac with my Amiga Ethernet Card!


CONCLUSION

        As you can probably tell, I prefer A-Max IV.  I'd really like to take
Emplant for another test drive, though.  Version 3.8 of the software is
supposed to be really stable and I'd like to see it.  Unfortunately, we
sold our Emplant board and we probably won't be bringing another one in.

        It should be noted that Emplant is not only a Macintosh emulator,
however.  Supposedly, Emplant will emulate pretty near anything, but as of
this writing, it only does Mac.

        I have learned something very important from all of this:  Although
the Macintosh is a more popular computer than Amiga, it comes no where near
the performance of Workbench 2.1.  Long live Amiga!!

Andre Perusse
aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca
Fido!1:251/14.0

@endnode

@node P1-5 "Video BackUp System"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Video BackUp System                                 by John Collier %%
%%                                       John_M_Collier@cup.portal.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


Price: $99.00 (last I saw)

Available from:  MANTA     1-800-477-7706


                Review by Eric Heller


   I used to back up the two hard drives (85 and 130 mb) on my 1200 with
Quarterback and double-density floppies.  Sitting in front of my machine for
two hours swapping 60 floppy disks during a backup wasn't my idea of a good
time, but it was all I had to work with (I was too cheap to buy a SCSI
controller and a tape drive).  Then one day last spring I visited the World
of Commodore Show in Manhattan and happened across Manta's booth where they
were demonstrating the Video Backup System.  What?!!!

Use a VCR as a tape backup?  Yeah right!  They were selling it at the show
for a $10 discount at a price of $89.99.  I was VERY skeptical, but being
the kind of person that can't leave a computer show without buying
SOMETHING, (and I didn't need a new mousepad), I figured what the heck.  So
I brought it home and tried it.  And it worked!

VBS comes with backup software that is as easy to use as my old version
of Quarterback, a male-to-male RCA type cable, and an RCA
male-to-serial-interface.  The manual is clear and well-written.  VBS backs
up data from any AmigaDOS volume (hard disk, floppy, whatever) by sending
the data as a video signal through the composite video output to the VCR's
video input jack (an adaptor is available for Amiga's that don't have a
composite video output, like the 4000).  VBS restores and verifies data from
tape by pulling the video output from the VCR in through the serial port
using the included interface.

When VBS starts a backup, the first thing it records on tape is a video
"label" that shows the name and date of the backup, which can make it easier
for you to find the beginning of the backup on the tape (but VHS tapes are
so cheap anyway, I only put one backup per tape so they always start at the
beginning anyway).  After the "label", VBS records a directory tree that
contains a listing of all the directories and files on the backup.  Then it
proceeds to back up all the files that were previously selected for backup.

To restore files from tape, the VBS software tells you to press "PLAY" on
your VCR at a position on the tape before the backup.  After reading the
directory tree from the backup, which just takes a few seconds, VBS
instructs you to press "PAUSE" on the VCR.  You now can take your time
selecting the files you wish to restore from the backup.  After you've
selected what you want,
VBS tells you to press "PLAY" again, and now you just sit back and relax
while VBS restores your files to the volume you selected.

A "Verify" function is included, which you can use directly after backing
up.  This feature compares the contents of the backup to the contents of
your hard disk (or whatever volume you backed up) and reports any files that
have errors.  I've used it after every backup because I'm a paranoid
schizophrenic but so far every backup has been perfect.  And more
importantly, I've restored files!  Successfully!  I've done complete
restores, partial restores, no problem!  But because VBS doesn't control the
VCR (you do) in the way that a program like Amiback directly controls a tape
drive, there are some small disadvantages when you compare it to a "real"
tape backup unit.

If you want to do a "partial" restore, in other words, restore only
certain files from a backup, VBS can't simply fast-forward the tape to the
positions of those files.  After selecting which files you wish to restore,
you simply press "PLAY", and when the VCR get to those files, it gets to
them.

If you're lucky, those files might be at the very beginning of the backup,
and it won't take long.  However, if they're at the end of an hour-long
backup, it will take an hour.  This doesn't bother me, actually, since I
rarely do partial restores.  If I ever accidentally delete a file from my
hard disks, I can more often than not undelete it with Amiback Tools.

Now, you're probably wondering about how much stuff you can actually fit
on a video tape, right?  Sorry, I forgot to mention it earlier.  The manual
says that you can back up 175 megabytes onto a four-hour tape.  What's a
four-hour tape?  I guess they're talking about a T-120 running at LP speed.
I run my backups at SP (2 hours on a T-120) 'cause I figured the video image
would be better, but I guess if they say you can run at 4-hour speed, you
probably can.  87.5 megabytes on a two-hour tape is fine for me though,
since my partitions are smaller than that.  They do recommend you use
high-grade video tapes.  I picked up some Maxell HGX-Gold T-120's at a drug
store for $4.99, so it's no big expense (MUCH cheaper than tapes for tape
backup units).

One more note:  In order for the VCR (at least in the U.S.) to accept
VBS's output, the computer MUST be in NTSC graphics mode with mode promotion
disabled.  I normally keep my Workbench in DoubleNTSC mode with mode
promotion on, so I just reboot my 1200 into ECS mode (which defaults to
NTSC) before I run VBS, which I find easier than changing my Prefs.  You
probably won't have to worry about this if you don't have an AGA machine,
though.

I HIGHLY recommend this easy-to-use, reliable product to ANY
Amiga owner who's disgusted backing up to floppies and has a VCR readily
available.  I've only seen VBS advertised by Manta (they have ads in
AmigaWorld pretty often).  Their phone number is listed at the top of this
review.  And by the way, I know you've heard this crap before, but I am in
no way affiliated with Manta or with Lyppens Software, and take no
responsibility for anything I say, do, or think.  After all, I'm an 
American.

John Collier ** FAT AGNUS BBS 914-429-7765

@endnode

@node P1-6 "Amiga 600 in use"
@toc "menu"
 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Amiga 600 In Use                                   by Keith Foldesi %% 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
The Amiga 600 In Use
 
I owned an Amiga 500 for about a year.  I had decided to make some 
changes to my system by adding some ram and a hard drive.  I had to 
consider future upgrade ability & cost.  This all had to fit with my needs: 
home business, newsletter production, telecommunications, and 'a little' 
entertainment.
 
I looked at several hard ware items that offered ram and hard drive 
capabilities.  I was also planning to find a 'clones' power supply to rob.  
With these options I was looking at about $200 to get my 500 ready for the 
upgrade.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of SCSI because of external future 
hard ware (CD ROM ect).  However, IDE hard ware is lower cost.  RAM 
was going to be the first thing I did.  I only had 1M on the 500.  So, I 
started saving and watching the BBS's for a deal.
 
When considering an upgrade, its important to keep in mind what you use 
the computer for. My wife uses a spreadsheet on the Amy to keep track of 
income with her day care.  I use her to produce a news letter for a local 
users group (Commodore Users Richmond Va E).  I keep up with the 
latest news in the Amiga community by calling the local BBS's.  Finally, I 
play a little on the system too. :)
 
I was in the process of buying some ram from some one in NY over the 
WWIV net when I read an article on the 600.  It had IDE built in, RAM with 
PCMCIA, and two things I hadn't really considered! WB 2.0 and 2 meg 
Angus!  All this for $200, yea that's what I was going to pay out to get the 
500 in the position the 600 was made for.  I cancelled the order I placed to 
the seller on the WWIV net.
 
I sold the 500 2 weeks later for $150 and bought a 600 for $200.  Since 
then I've gotten the 1M/clock card for the bottom slot and use 2M chip all 
the time!
 
Happy as a Lark!
Hvy Mtl

@endnode

@node P1-7 "Slow Machine, Great Display Blues"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Slow-Machine, Great Display Blues                       by Roy Teale %%
%% A sob-story from one who knows...                     tealro@wwc.edu %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I'm writing this article on a nice 16-color 1152 X 900 Picasso
Workbench, using AZ as an editor.  I should be really happy
about this, since it's got to be the best looking display I've
seen on a PC since I was first introduced to computers.  But
something nags at me.  Something sinister and fearsome.  Let me
go back to November 1st of 1993, when I updated to AmigaDOS 2.1.

My computer system started out as an Amiga 2500.  It had most
everything I could want, as far as speed went.  I had over-
clocked my A2630 accelerator board to 28MHz and installed a
33MHz 68882 (of course, installing a 33MHz crystal and setting
the jumper accordingly.)  I even socketed the two crystals
so that I could swap them in and out if needed.  Everything
worked great!  Until I did the thing that everyone told me that
I should - upgrade to AmigaDOS 2.1.  When I made that fateful
jump in technology, I discovered that my A2630 accelerator no
longer worked.

A friend on Usenet let me know that I needed to obtain an
eprom upgrade for the A2630 in order for it to work with new
versions of AmigaDOS.  I was relieved to discover that, and
promptly ordered a set from a reputable retailer.  The eprom
set arrived the next week, and after installing them, I
discovered that my A2630 not only didn't work, but the way it
refused to work was this:  it would not boot - period.  Just
a nice BLACK screen.

I attributed this problem to a bad set of eproms, since I could
pop the old set back in, and it would work perfectly with
AmigaDOS 1.3.  So I obtained an RMA# and sent the set back for
a replacement.

This story could go on for a LONG time, and it'd be boring for
you, but here's the shortened version...

After 3 sets of eproms from that same company (I also tried
out two other sets, one directly from SMG, and one obtained
from another computer retailer), I gradually began to feel
that it was my A2630 which was defective.  So I sent it into
Kasara Microsystems in South Carolina for repair.  Well, they
just called me this past week and told me what I had already
confirmed for myself - that all the eprom sets that they had
on hand didn't work with it either...

And Kasara Microsystems also told me one other bit of
information:  those same sets of eproms that didn't work with
my board, didn't work with any of the other A2630 boards
they happened to have in their shop.

So why is this happening?  One Usenet Amiga person informed me
that this same problem happened to about 1 out of 2 A2630
owners who updated to AmigaDOS 2.x when it first came out.
Evidently, it had nothing to do with which revision# of
board a person had.  It just so happens that half of the
eproms aren't compatible with the A2630 boards.

So it appears that it has happened again - the supplier
of A2630 eproms must have sent out another big batch of
defective eproms.

Is it SMG's fault?  Is it Commodore's fault?  Frankly, I don't
really care, and in fact, I understand that there are problems
at C= as of late, mostly centered around their money supply.
I understand that there is little concern for owners of
A2000's and A500's out there in the Amiga community, simply
because these are out-dated machines and there are plenty
of new machines around which I OUGHT to be looking into.

But that really doesn't make me want to go out and buy one
of these new machines.  If there isn't support for MY machine
now, can I expect there to be support for an A4000 2 years
from now?  I think not.

What does one need to do?  Start a grass-roots A2000 user
support group?  I'd love to talk to you about it, if you
have concerns in this area.  You can't tell me that since
the A4000 came out, all of the A2000's mysteriously went
*poof* !  I can name half a dozen TV stations that are
using A2000's with accelerators and Toasters to do
video rendering.  With the price of A2000's suddenly
falling to around $300 for a base system, there are
surely people out there who are buying them up, and who
find themselves out in the cold, when trying to upgrade.

So for now, I sit, pecking on the keyboard, and watching the
cursor stumble along on this nice GREAT-LOOKING Picasso
1152 x 900 Workbench screen.  Oh, and its on a machine
with a 7MHz 68000 processor...  I really like this machine,
and I'll REALLY like it when I get my WORKING A2630 board
back.

Roy Teale
Inet:  tealro@wwc.edu

BTW, cudos to Robert Niles, who has so graciously taken up
the position of editor for Amiga Report.  It's quite
a job, I'm sure.  Let's all give him our full support!

@endnode

@node P1-8 "Inexpensive Personal Computers"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Inexpensive Personal Computers                     by David Tiberio %%
%%                                     dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

With Commodore's release and acceptance of the CD32, it may
be time to re-evaluate the competition in the marketplace to
see just exactly how the CD32 is doing. Here I will discuss
various other platforms, and their influences on the market.

For example, the consoles include the 3DO, Jaguar, SEGA
Genesis, CD-I, and SNES. While each can be grouped into various
categories based upon performance and price, we'll have to
compare them all as one group, since each serves the same
purpose.


3DO, developed by the Newer Technology Group, is the most
expensive system. This one boasts texture mapping and a custom
chip set, along with licensing of their chips. But where am I
leading? Simple. Much of the 3DO software is developed using
Amiga computers. After the big release of the REAL system from
Panasonic, a news broadcast on CNN showed Amiga 4000 systems
running applications for a 3DO software developer. The 3DO
was designed by many of the original designers of the Amiga 1000.

Atari has released the Jaguar "64 BIT" system. Although
many still speculate that it has 2 32 BIT buses, what matters
is what it offers software wise. My local Electronics Boutique
claims 2 titles are available. But let's take a deeper look;
Atari also released the Lynx system, developed by some of the
original developers of the Amiga OCS chip set in the Amiga 1000.
Likewise, Atari has been using Amiga computers to develop Lynx
games.

The SEGA Genesis is one of the most popular game consoles
to date, and is doing very well currently (but not for long).
What few people realise is that the original software development
systems were Amiga 500's with special expansion cards on the
exterior bus. This is because the Amiga had nearly identical
specifications with the SEGA Genesis.

Philips, makers of the CD-I interactive system, uses Amigas
to create software in its Sidewalk Studio in Santa Monica,
California. In fact, as Commodore's CDTV unit matured, some of
the support staff "moved on", one to later join a CD-I publishing
company. Philips also uses Amigas to perform research on LCD
displays in the Netherlands.

IBM has probably done more Amiga based presentations than
any other competitor. These mainly focus on Scala multimedia
software, doing presentations for its OS/2 operating system at
CEBIT in Hannover, and at some other exhibitions. The Minnessota
Mainframe site uses Scala to create multimedia presentations.

The best is always saved for last... Apple Computers used
Amiga 2000's to control video sequences at a MacWorld exposition
a few years back. And best of all, the machines were spotted by
onlookers behind the curtains. The Video Toaster, an Amiga-only
product, was titled the best product at the Mac show by a Macintosh
magazine.


In a future column I'll list some universities that have Amiga
graphics departments, many of whom also offer courses using Amiga
computers, such as Amiga Animation 101!


David Tiberio
dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu

@endnode

@node P1-9 "Take Another Look"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Take another look!                                  by Thomas Reamer %%
%%                                                   treamer@osp.chi.il %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Hello once again!  It is a pleasure to write for the Amiga Report.  I plan to
do my part as much as possible to keep the Report alive.  Being that there is
an obvious shortage of Amiga magazines here in the States, we must all attempt
to do our part to keep at least ONE of them alive!  Specially when that 'one'
just happens to be the mere price of a phone call.  I personally did not "pick
up" an Amiga Report until I was told to by a buddy of mine.  If not for him I
probably would not be writing at this time.  So in short, pass the word on to
each and every Amiga owner!  Hell, print it out for even that IBM or Mac friend
you have!  There is never a dull moment in Amigaland.

I wanted to write more about the CD32 but I figured I would hold off a bit. 
Wouldn't want to overload you with to much info.  Can you ever have enough?  I
try to think back to the days when I stood proud to say the word Commodore.  It
seems so far now. Starting out with a 1 meg A500 and 2 floppy drives as most
people do, I was so excited to tell everyone I can how awesome Commodore is and
how Amiga games blow away their Nintendo or their computer in both graphics and
sound.  Well, I am past the 500 past the 2000 and now own a A4000/040.  I am
proud to own the computer but not proud to live under Commodore.  Many people
have lost their respect for the company. Not because of the products.  The
products are fantastic but the company that supplies them has left the poor
Amiga owner here in the United States rather tongue tied. Out in the cold, left
without even 1 television commercial.  Not even a radio commercial.  Not even a
non-Amiga magazine ad.  Left to say "I own an Amiga, you probably never heard
of one but....".  Maybe this isn't so bad?  Did we buy our Amiga's to be with
the crowd?  No...Did we buy our Amiga's because they were just a computer?  NO!
 We bought our Amiga because they are the best.  The best there can be.  I need
not tell you about it's capabilities.  It is just that-that keeps us fighting
for our honor for our Amiga. Nearly everything it does puts a smile on your
face.  Nearly every time you turn it on you find something new.  Nearly
everytime you watch something on TV you can stand proud to say "THE AMIGA DID
THAT, THE COMPUTER I OWN!!!"

     So, although the Amiga is not the most popular name here in the states,
although it is not in every store and every TV commercial and every magazine
ad, to us it is the best, it is beyond others.  To us it is a friend, one to
help out, one to have a damn good time playing with.  One to be honored for
what you own.  It is not easy to be an Amiga owner in the United States.  One
receives allot of slack for even owning one.  But a Viper isn't seen on every
corner, but it is one of the best.  It is not sales that make a fantastic
product, it is the name under the plastic plate.  Ours happens to be AMIGA. 

@endnode

@node P1-10 "Snow...And the Amiga"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Snow...And the Amiga                              By Sean M. Graham %%
%%                                                  hoser@ds.gen.nj.us %% 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
Well winter is sure hitting hard here in Jersey, and I know it is elsewhere
too.  We are getting record daily snowfalls here and we are not even in the
prime snow months (Which usually run from Mid-February to Mid-March).  It
seems that I will never stop shoveling and salting until the snow actually
cools the ground to the point where Hell freezes over, or July, Whichever
comes first.  The Basements of my home and all my neighbors are
collectively flooding and gutters are overflowing with ice.  Recycling hasn't
been collected in weeks (And garbage isn't far behind either).  I am stuck
inside the house listening to my friend rambling about all his new software
that the UPS guy brought, and getting more and more depressed that I can't
make it to his house to play with his Toaster.
 
One of my neighbors works for the county as a dispatcher for plows, and he
hasn't gotten any sleep in 72hrs.  This brings me to another point,
plowing, while the plowing isn't the best here in Hopatcong, it isn't bad.
Now I have a question, how come every time there is a large snowfall, there
is some reporter on the news asking people on the street what the streets
and driving is like. WHAT DO YOU THINK? You stupid moron! (Please, If you
are trying to figure what the hell all of this has to do with the computer
we have all come to know and love, please stick with me, it all ties
together). And It seems that there is always someone on the News
complaining that "The plows banked me in and they have no regard for us,
they just don't care!". Shut up you stupid dolt, if they didn't plow at all
you would be complaining that they didn't! These people are pushing 16 hour
shifts every other day to get your butt out to work safely, the least you
could do is be grateful they are doing what they can! (Here comes the
Tie-In)
 
Now to the point, Much like the plows, people are always bashing Commodore
for not doing the right thing, then when they try to come up with a good
idea (CD^32), Those same people complain that C= is gonna turn the Amiga
into a game platform.  At least a Game Platform sells and will pump money
into software development!  I mean with the AAA chipset complete (Alegedly)
C= won't drop that technology for games, it would be a waste of R&D.  I am
not in any way trying to justify C='s actions either way, but I am tired of
people looking for something to complain about. Give them a break, because
the CD^32 could grab C= a slice of the dwindiling market share left.
 
 
Sean Graham
 
hoser@ds.gen.nj.us (Primary)
SeanGraham@aol.com (Secondary)

@endnode

@node P1-11 "Compact Disc, How good is it?"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Compact Disc, How good is it ?                   by David Schofield %%
%%                                               schofieldd@newi.ac.uk %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

At the moment, CD's are being touted as anything, and everything, from the 
next big thing in games playing, to the saviour of home computing. Every major
computer, and console, manufacturer has either released, or is currently
developing a CD based system. The question is, how useful actually are CD's ?


The History of Compact Disc.

CD's were first launched in the early 1980's by Philips, and over the rest 
of the decade, they slowly gained a foothold in the music market, where they 
were sold as vastly superior replacements for the old fashioned vinyl LP's and 
cassette tapes which were available at the time. The main reason for their
success in this market was the promise of better sound quality, and a vastly
superior lifetime.

However, from the start CD's have had their detractors. True audiophiles
argued that the sound quality on a digital CD could never be superior to an
analogue recording because of the quantisation of the sound. Also, CD's were
found to have a much shorter lifetime than anticipated, with some CD's
snapping on removal from the carrying case, and others reacting with sulphur 
residues in the cardboard packaging. Admittedly, the use of sulphur-free 
cardboard record sleeves to store the CD's are becoming more and more common.

It was not until the end of the decade that computer designers and users 
first started to realise the huge potential of CD's for information storage. In
fact, it was the early 1990's when the first CD-based machines hit the streets. 
The first two of these machines that the man on the street could hope to buy 
were the Philips CD-I, and the Commodore CD-TV, both of which were relative
failures at the time. Although Philips are still engaged in an active
advertising campaign, it is rumoured that this is because Philips was relying
on CD-I to succeed to secure financial stability.

However, as multimedia caught on in a large way, more and more machines had 
CD drives released for them, and the software designers started to write 
software which took advantage of the large storage available. The earliest 
programs were mostly of an educational bias, with dictionary's and 
encyclopaedia's highlighting the extraordinary potential of the new medium.


Software on Compact Disc.

The majority of early, and for that matter modern, CD games always appeared 
to consist of a slightly re-written version of an early non-CD success, with
extra music, and graphics padding out the CD. In fact, it is still difficult to 
name a single game which takes full advantage of the storage available.
However, this can be, at least partially, attributed to the high cost of
development.

There are two main game genres which could appear to benefit from the extra
storage presented by CD's, simulations, and graphics adventures. With graphic
adventures, the possiblities are endless; full stereo soundtrack, digitised
location graphics, large numbers of differing locations, and the complexity of
the solution are all factors which could be improved with the extra storage.
For simulations, the possibilities seem more restricted, but it is entirely
possible to have much more complex algorithms, resulting in even more realism
than is possible nowadays. Also, the use of digitised pictures in flight
simulations, and the ability to store many different weather conditions, would
lead to the possibility of full scale flight trainers available at home.

The majority of the best of the current CD software appears to belong to the
world of education. The possibilities presented by a multimedia encyclopaedia
are beyond anything which was available even five years ago. It should soon be 
possible to obtain CD's which contain full music scores, along with a full
biographiy of the composer. Already, it is possible to buy, with digitised
pictures, multimedia applications explaining how the body works, without having
to resort to dissection. This is, without a doubt, the main areas where the use
of CD's is without equal in any other storage format.

The possibilities for buisness software is also endless. It should soon be
possible to buy a CD based word processor, which combines the best features of
Word for Windows, WordWorth 3, Final Writer and Quark XPress, with a full
multilingual dictionary and thesaurus, a CD full of clip art and graphics, and,
one or more CD's, full of fonts. This is the kind of program which a large
number of people, myself included, would kill for.

One of the most exciting developments in the CD field is the release of Full
Motion Video, an amazing little gizmo, which allows the CD to store graphic
images using MPEG (Motion pictures something Group) compression. This allows
actual film footage to be played though a suitable unit. Although the
compression is currently only good enough to display images on a par with a VHS
video, it is hoped that within the next few years, broadcast standard images 
will be possible. Already, the first games are starting to take advantage of
this new technique, and several are available with state of the art live action
footage forming an integral part of the game. As well as incorporating this 
feature into games, it is possible to buy CD versions of various successful 
films, including Top Gun, and various music videos.


The Problems with Compact Disc.

At first glance, CD appears to be nearly perfect, however, on closer
consideration, the reality is slightly different. One of the golden rules of
life is that nothing is perfect, and CD is not the exception to this rule.

There are several major disadvantages with the use of CD, but the main problem
is with the non-availability of writeable-CD. As CD's can store so much data,
it is inconcievable that the average user will be able to make backup copies of
any program on CD. At first, this does not seem like a major problem, but CD's
are relatively easy to break, and how many companies would be willing to
replace a CD which was rendered unusable ?

A large number of home computer users buy a computer initially to play games,
but, after a while most progress onto others areas of interest. The potential
of advancement on a CD only system is very limited, for instance, who would
spend their time learning to program on a CD based machine if they were unable 
to save their programs. The same goes for the amateur musicians, and graphic
artists, who are not going to be able to show off their latest works. Also, the
market for professional developers will be severely curtailed, which could
result in a similar situation to that on the cartidge based games consoles,
where, to program software on the format, the majority of the required 
equipment needs to be licensed from the console manufacturers.

Even those who just use their computers as games machines are going to be
limited to the type of game that they can play. How many of the modern games
are completable in one session ? Games such as Frontier, The Secret of Monkey
Island, and other graphics adventures are especially limited by the lack of a
storage option for saved games. It would be theoretically possible to use a
password system within the game, but as games get more complex, the length of
password to be remembered will increase proportionally. Just imagine how long
the codes for Frontier would have to be ? With 1000 different starports, the
code would have to be 10 letters long, just for the location, and that is not
including other data, such as the current score, type of ship, and the cargo
carried.

At the moment, the average game can take anything from six months to two years 
to write, for a couple of floppies. Even though the basic code would remain the
same on a CD conversion, to add the extra graphics and sound required to show
the full potential of CD, it would take the skills of graphic designers,
musicians, actors, directors, and a full set of scriptwriters. Admittedly, 
digitising the pictures, and composing the music would take a shorter length of
time than writing the code for the program, but it would still take a 
considerably longer amount of time for development.

It is currently possible to manufacture a program onto CD than it is to make
the same program on floppy disk, but the software companies seem determined
to make a larger profit with the CD version. This is the same situation as the
music industry has been in for several years, and the monopolies commision (in
the UK) were, at one point, trying to force the manufacturers to reduce the
cost of a CD, but this appears to have had little effect.

Another potential problem with the rise in the popularity of CD's, is the
possibility of the death of the shareware and PD scenes. These both rely on the
ability of programmers to write software, and then, save it in a form so that
other people can access it. This required some form of portable storage media.


The Rivals in the Marketplace.

As a mass-storage medium, CD takes a lot of beating, but, there are other
available media which have advantages, and disadvantages, over CD.

The most common form of mass-storage device, is the hard disk, which forms an
integral part of the majority of new computers bought today. These come in a
variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from 20MB, up to 4.5GB, in a variety of
IDE, SCSI, 2.5", 3.5", and various other configurations. Hard drives currently
have a much faster access time than CD, as well as a far greater data transfer
rate, but, the vast majority are not portable.

Another common type of mass-storage device is the tape streamer, which uses a
high quality tape, similar to the ones found in DAT's. These also come in a
large variety of sizes, with a storage capacity ranging from several hundred 
MB's up to several GB's. The main advantage of tape streamers over hard disks
is that they are transportable, but, accessing data from a tape streamer is
almost an arcane ritual, with the tape having to be in the correct position to
find the data. It is for this reason that tape streamers are most often used as
backup devices for hard drives, and over similar storage systems.

One of the newest rivals to hit the marketplace is the floptical, which works
optically, like a CD, and, unlike a CD, it can be written to. The main
disadvantage with the floptical discs is cost, with the cost of a basic unit
costing up to ten times the cost of a CD drive (Power Computing floptical
#800-1000, Silica CDrom drive #99). However, floptical drives can be used to
store a large amount of data on a single disk, and, the cost of new disk is not
too prohibitive.


Q.E.D.

Compact discs are a truely remarkable form of computer media, but, along with
most other things in this life, they are nowhere near as perfect as the
salesmen expect you to believe. There are niches which CD could fill better
than any other rival computer media, but there are also niches where floppy,
and hard, discs will rule supreme for a long time to come, or, at least until 
the release of writeable CD's.

@endnode

@node P1-12 "The Clipper"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The Clipper                                       by WIRED magazine %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

[ Ed's Note: This is a clip from a future article of WIRED. Thanks to ]
[ Jonathan Gapen (jagapen@students.wisc.edu) for sending it to AR     ]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-=-=-=-=-=-Copyright 1993,4 Wired USA Ltd.  All Rights Reserved=-=-=-=-=-=
-=-=For complete copyright information, please see the end of this file=-=-
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

WIRED 2.04
Electrosphere
************* 

Jackboots on the Infobahn
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Clipper is a last ditch attempt by the United States, the last great power 
from the old Industrial Era, to establish imperial control over cyberspace.

By John Perry Barlow


[Note: The following article will appear in the April 1994 issue of WIRED. 
We, the editors of WIRED, are net-casting it now in its pre-published form 
as a public service. Because of the vital and urgent nature of its message, 
we believe readers on the Net should hear and take action now. You are free 
to pass this article on electronically; in fact we urge you to replicate it 
throughout the net with our blessings. If you do, please keep the copyright 
statements and this note intact. For a complete listing of Clipper-related 
resources available through WIRED Online, send email to <infobot@wired.com> 
with the following message: "send clipper.index". - The Editors of WIRED]

On January 11, I managed to schmooze myself aboard Air Force 2. It was 
flying out of LA, where its principal passenger had just outlined his 
vision of the information superhighway to a suited mob of television, show-
biz, and cable types who  fervently hoped to own it one day - if they could 
ever figure out what the hell it was.

>From the standpoint of the Electronic Frontier Foundation the speech had 
been wildly encouraging. The administration's program, as announced by Vice 
President Al Gore, incorporated many of the concepts of open competition, 
universal access, and  deregulated common carriage that we'd been pushing 
for the previous year.

But he had said nothing about the future of privacy, except to cite among 
the bounties of the NII its ability to "help law enforcement agencies 
thwart criminals and terrorists who might use advanced telecommunications 
to commit crimes."

On the plane I asked Gore what this implied about administration policy on 
cryptography. He became as noncommittal as a cigar-store Indian. "We'll be 
making some announcements.... I can't tell you anything more." He hurried 
to the front of the  plane, leaving me to troubled speculation.

Despite its fundamental role in assuring privacy, transaction security, and 
reliable identity within the NII, the Clinton administration has not 
demonstrated an enlightenment about cryptography up to par with the rest of 
its digital vision.

The Clipper Chip - which threatens to be either the goofiest waste of 
federal dollars since President Gerald Ford's great Swine Flu program or, 
if actually deployed, a surveillance technology of profound malignancy - 
seemed at first an ugly legacy  of the Reagan-Bush modus operandi. "This is 
going to be our Bay of Pigs," one Clinton White House official told me at 
the time Clipper was introduced, referring to the disastrous plan to invade 
Cuba that Kennedy inherited from Eisenhower.

(Clipper, in case you're just tuning in, is an encryption chip that the 
National Security Agency and FBI hope will someday be in every phone and 
computer in America. It scrambles your communications, making them 
unintelligible to all but their  intended recipients. All, that is, but the 
government, which would hold the "key" to your chip. The key would 
separated into two pieces, held in escrow, and joined with the appropriate 
"legal authority.")

Of course, trusting the government with your privacy is like having a 
Peeping Tom install your window blinds. And, since the folks I've met in 
this White House seem like extremely smart, conscious freedom-lovers - 
hell, a lot of them are Deadheads -  I was sure that after they were fully 
moved in, they'd face down the National Security Agency and the FBI, let 
Clipper die a natural death, and lower the export embargo on reliable 
encryption products.

Furthermore, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and the 
National Security Council have been studying both Clipper and export 
embargoes since April. Given that the volumes of expert testimony they had 
collected overwhelmingly opposed  both, I expected the final report would 
give the administration all the support it needed to do the right thing.

I was wrong. Instead, there would be no report. Apparently, they couldn't 
draft one that supported, on the evidence, what they had decided to do 
instead.


THE OTHER SHOE DROPS

On Friday, February 4, the other jackboot dropped. A series of 
announcements from the administration made it clear that cryptography would 
become their very own "Bosnia of telecommunications" (as one staffer put 
it). It wasn't just that the old  Serbs in the National Security Agency and 
the FBI were still making the calls. The alarming new reality was that the 
invertebrates in the White House were only too happy to abide by them. 
Anything to avoid appearing soft on drugs or terrorism.

So, rather than ditching Clipper, they declared it a Federal Data 
Processing Standard, backing that up with an immediate government order for 
50,000 Clipper devices. They appointed the National Institutes of Standards 
and Technology and the  Department of Treasury as the "trusted" third 
parties that would hold the Clipper key pairs. (Treasury, by the way, is 
also home to such trustworthy agencies as the Secret Service and the Bureau 
of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.)

They reaffirmed the export embargo on robust encryption products, admitting 
for the first time that its purpose was to stifle competition to Clipper. 
And they outlined a very porous set of requirements under which the cops 
might get the keys to your  chip. (They would not go into the procedure by 
which the National Security Agency could get them, though they assured us 
it was sufficient.)

They even signaled the impending return of the dread Digital Telephony, an 
FBI legislative initiative requiring fundamental reengineering of the 
information infrastructure; providing wiretapping ability to the FBI would 
then become the paramount  design priority.


INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Actually, by the time the announcements thudded down, I wasn't surprised by 
them. I had spent several days the previous week in and around the White 
House.

I felt like I was in another remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 
My friends in the administration had been transformed. They'd been subsumed 
by the vast mindfield on the other side of the security clearance membrane, 
where dwell the  monstrous bureaucratic organisms that feed on fear. They'd 
been infected by the institutionally paranoid National Security Agency's 
Weltanschauung.

They used all the telltale phrases. Mike Nelson, the White House point man 
on the NII, told me, "If only I could tell you what I know, you'd feel the 
same way I do." I told him I'd been inoculated against that argument during 
Vietnam. (And it does  seem to me that if you're going to initiate a 
process that might end freedom in America, you probably need an argument 
that isn't classified.)

Besides, how does he know what he knows? Where does he get his information? 
Why, the National Security Agency, of course. Which, given its strong 
interest in the outcome, seems hardly an unimpeachable source.

However they reached it, Clinton and Gore have an astonishingly simple 
bottom line, to which even the future of American liberty and prosperity is 
secondary: They believe that it is their responsibility to eliminate, by 
whatever means, the  possibility that some terrorist might get a nuke and 
use it on, say, the World Trade Center. They have been convinced that such 
plots are more likely to ripen to hideous fruition behind a shield of 
encryption.

The staffers I talked to were unmoved by the argument that anyone smart 
enough to steal a nuclear device is probably smart enough to use PGP or 
some other uncompromised crypto standard. And never mind that the last 
people who popped a hooter in the  World Trade Center were able to get it 
there without using any cryptography and while under FBI surveillance.

We are dealing with religion here. Though only ten American lives have been 
lost to terrorism in the last two years, the primacy of this threat has 
become as much an article of faith with these guys as the Catholic 
conviction that human life begins  at conception or the Mormon belief that 
the Lost Tribe of Israel crossed the Atlantic in submarines.

In the spirit of openness and compromise, they invited the Electronic 
Frontier Foundation to submit other solutions to the "problem" of the 
nuclear-enabled terrorist than key escrow devices, but they would not admit 
into discussion the argument that  such a threat might, in fact, be some 
kind of phantasm created by the spooks to ensure their lavish budgets into 
the post-Cold War era.

As to the possibility that good old-fashioned investigative techniques 
might be more valuable in preventing their show-case catastrophe (as it was 
after the fact in finding the alleged perpetrators of the last attack on 
the World Trade Center), they  just hunkered down and said that when 
wiretaps were necessary, they were damned well necessary.

When I asked about the business that American companies lose because of 
their inability to export good encryption products, one staffer essentially 
dismissed the market, saying that total world trade in crypto goods was 
still less than a billion  dollars. (Well, right. Thanks more to the 
diligent efforts of the National Security Agency than to dim sales 
potential.)

I suggested that a more immediate and costly real-world effect of their 
policies would be to reduce national security by isolating American 
commerce, owing to a lack of international confidence in the security of 
our data lines. I said that Bruce  Sterling's fictional data-enclaves in 
places like the Turks and Caicos Islands were starting to look real-world 
inevitable.

They had a couple of answers to this, one unsatisfying and the other scary. 
The unsatisfying answer was that the international banking community could 
just go on using DES, which still seemed robust enough to them. (DES is the 
old federal Data  Encryption Standard, thought by most cryptologists to be 
nearing the end of its credibility.)

More frightening was their willingness to counter the data-enclave future 
with one in which no data channels anywhere would be secure from 
examination by one government or another. Pointing to unnamed other 
countries that were developing their own  mandatory standards and 
restrictions regarding cryptography, they said words to the effect of, 
"Hey, it's not like you can't outlaw the stuff. Look at France."

Of course, they have also said repeatedly - and for now I believe them - 
that they have absolutely no plans to outlaw non-Clipper crypto in the US. 
But that doesn't mean that such plans wouldn't develop in the presence of 
some pending "emergency."  Then there is that White House briefing 
document, issued at the time Clipper was first announced, which asserts 
that no US citizen "as a matter of right, is entitled to an unbreakable 
commercial encryption product."

Now why, if it's an ability they have no intention of contesting, do they 
feel compelled to declare that it's not a right? Could it be that they are 
preparing us for the laws they'll pass after some bearded fanatic has 
gotten himself a surplus nuke  and used something besides Clipper to 
conceal his plans for it?

If they are thinking about such an eventuality, we should be doing so as 
well. How will we respond? I believe there is a strong, though currently 
untested, argument that outlawing unregulated crypto would violate the 
First Amendment, which surely  protects the manner of our speech as clearly 
as it protects the content.

But of course the First Amendment is, like the rest of the Constitution, 
only as good as the government's willingness to uphold it. And they are, as 
I say, in the mood to protect our safety over our liberty.

This is not a mind-frame against which any argument is going to be very 
effective. And it appeared that they had already heard and rejected every 
argument I could possibly offer.

In fact, when I drew what I thought was an original comparison between 
their stand against naturally proliferating crypto and the folly of King 
Canute (who placed his throne on the beach and commanded the tide to leave 
him dry), my government  opposition looked pained and said he had heard 
that one almost as often as jokes about roadkill on the information 
superhighway.

I hate to go to war with them. War is always nastier among friends. 
Furthermore, unless they've decided to let the National Security Agency 
design the rest of the National Information Infrastructure as well, we need 
to go on working closely with  them on the whole range of issues like 
access, competition, workplace privacy, common carriage, intellectual 
property, and such. Besides, the proliferation of strong crypto will 
probably happen eventually no matter what they do.

But then again, it might not. In which case we could shortly find ourselves 
under a government that would have the automated ability to log the time, 
origin and recipient of every call we made, could track our physical 
whereabouts continuously,  could keep better account of our financial 
transactions than we do, and all without a warrant. Talk about crime 
prevention!

Worse, under some vaguely defined and surely mutable "legal authority," 
they also would be able to listen to our calls and read our e-mail without 
having to do any backyard rewiring. They wouldn't need any permission at 
all to monitor overseas calls.

If there's going to be a fight, I'd rather it be with this government than 
the one we'd likely face on that hard day.

Hey, I've never been a paranoid before. It's always seemed to me that most 
governments are too incompetent to keep a good plot strung together all the 
way from coffee break to quitting time. But I am now very nervous about the 
government of the  United States of America.

Because Bill 'n' Al, whatever their other new-paradigm virtues, have 
allowed the very old-paradigm trogs of the Guardian Class to define as 
their highest duty the defense of America against an enemy that exists 
primarily in the imagination - and is  therefore capable of anything.

To assure absolute safety against such an enemy, there is no limit to the 
liberties we will eventually be asked to sacrifice. And, with a Clipper 
Chip in every phone, there will certainly be no technical limit on their 
ability to enforce those  sacrifices.


WHAT YOU CAN DO

GET CONGRESS TO LIFT THE CRYPTO EMBARGO

The administration is trying to impose Clipper on us by manipulating market 
forces. By purchasing massive numbers of Clipper devices, they intend to 
induce an economy of scale which will make them cheap while the export 
embargo renders all  competition either expensive or nonexistent.

We have to use the market to fight back. While it's unlikely that they'll 
back down on Clipper deployment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation 
believes that with sufficient public involvement, we can get Congress to 
eliminate the export embargo.

Rep. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, has a bill (H.R. 3627) before the 
Economic Policy, Trade, and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee 
on Foreign Affairs that would do exactly that. She will need a lot of help 
from the public. They may not  care much about your privacy in DC, but they 
still care about your vote.

Please signal your support of H.R. 3627, either by writing her directly or 
e-mailing her at cantwell@eff.org. Messages sent to that address will be 
printed out and delivered to her office. In the subject header of your 
message, please include the  words "support HR 3627." In the body of your 
message, express your reasons for supporting the bill. You may also express 
your sentiments to Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, the House Committee on 
Foreign Affairs chair, by e-mailing hamilton@eff.org.

Furthermore, since there is nothing quite as powerful as a letter from a 
constituent, you should check the following list of subcommittee and 
committee members to see if your congressional representative is among 
them. If so, please copy them your  letter to Rep. Cantwell.

> Economic Policy, Trade, and Environment Subcommittee:

Democrats: Sam Gejdenson (Chair), D-Connecticut; James Oberstar, D-
Minnesota; Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia; Maria Cantwell, D-Washington; Eric 
Fingerhut, D-Ohio; Albert R. Wynn, D-Maryland; Harry Johnston, D-Florida; 
Eliot Engel, D-New York; Charles Schumer, D-New York.

Republicans: Toby Roth (ranking), R-Wisconsin; Donald Manzullo, R-Illinois; 
Doug Bereuter, R-Nebraska; Jan Meyers, R-Kansas; Cass Ballenger, R-North 
Carolina; Dana Rohrabacher, R-California.

> House Committee on Foreign Affairs:

Democrats: Lee Hamilton (Chair), D-Indiana; Tom Lantos, D-California; 
Robert Torricelli, D-New Jersey; Howard Berman, D-California; Gary 
Ackerman, D-New York; Eni Faleomavaega, D-Somoa; Matthew Martinez, D-
California; Robert Borski, D-Pennsylvania;  Donal Payne, D-New Jersey; 
Robert Andrews, D-New Jersey; Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Sherrod Brown, 
D-Ohio; Alcee Hastings, D-Florida; Peter Deutsch, D-Florida; Don Edwards, 
D-California; Frank McCloskey, D-Indiana; Thomas Sawyer, D-Ohio; Luis  
Gutierrez, D-Illinois.

Republicans: Benjamin Gilman (ranking), R-New York; William Goodling, R-
Pennsylvania; Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; Henry Hyde, R-
Illinois; Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey; Dan Burton, R-Indiana; Elton 
Gallegly, R-California; Ileana  Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida; David Levy, R-New 
York; Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida; Ed Royce, R-California.


BOYCOTT CLIPPER DEVICES AND THE COMPANIES WHICH MAKE THEM.

Don't buy anything with a Clipper Chip in it. Don't buy any product from a 
company that manufactures devices with Big Brother inside. It is likely 
that the government will ask you to use Clipper for communications with the 
IRS or when doing business  with federal agencies. They cannot, as yet, 
require you to do so. Just say no.


LEARN ABOUT ENCRYPTION AND EXPLAIN THE ISSUES TO YOUR UNWIRED FRIENDS

The administration is banking on the likelihood that this stuff is too 
technically obscure to agitate anyone but nerds like us. Prove them wrong 
by patiently explaining what's going on to all the people you know who have 
never touched a computer and  glaze over at the mention of words like 
"cryptography."

Maybe you glaze over yourself. Don't. It's not that hard. For some hands-on 
experience, download a copy of PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - a shareware 
encryption engine which uses the robust RSA encryption algorithm. And learn 
to use it.


GET YOUR COMPANY TO THINK ABOUT EMBEDDING REAL CRYPTOGRAPHY IN ITS PRODUCTS

If you work for a company that makes software, computer hardware, or any 
kind of communications device, work from within to get them to incorporate 
RSA or some other strong encryption scheme into their products. If they say 
that they are afraid to  violate the export embargo, ask them to consider 
manufacturing such products overseas and importing them back into the 
United States. There appears to be no law against that. Yet.

You might also lobby your company to join the Digital Privacy and Security 
Working Group, a coalition of companies and public interest groups - 
including IBM, Apple, Sun, Microsoft, and, interestingly, Clipper phone 
manufacturer AT&T - that is  working to get the embargo lifted.


ENLIST!

Self-serving as it sounds coming from me, you can do a lot to help by 
becoming a member of one of these organizations. In addition to giving you 
access to the latest information on this subject, every additional member 
strengthens our credibility  with Congress.

> Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation by writing membership@eff.org.

> Join Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility by e-mailing 
cpsr.info@cpsr

.org. CPSR is also organizing a protest, to which you can lend your support 
by sending e-mail to clipper.petition@cpsr.org with "I oppose Clipper" in 
the message body. Ftp/gopher/WAIS to cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/

crypto/clipper for more info.


In his LA speech, Gore called the development of the NII "a revolution." 
And it is a revolutionary war we are engaged in here. Clipper is a last 
ditch attempt by the United States, the last great power from the old 
Industrial Era, to establish  imperial control over cyberspace. If they 
win, the most liberating development in the history of humankind could 
become, instead, the surveillance system which will monitor our 
grandchildren's morality. We can be better ancestors than that.

San Francisco, California

Wednesday, February 9, 1994

                                   * * *

John Perry Barlow (barlow@eff.org) is co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group which defends liberty, both in 
Cyberspace and the Physical World. He has three daughters.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=WIRED Online Copyright Notice=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

           Copyright 1993,4 Wired USA Ltd.  All rights reserved.

  This article may be redistributed provided that the article and this 
  notice remain intact. This article may not under any circumstances
  be resold or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior 
  written permission from Wired Ventures, Ltd.

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@endnode

@node P1-13 "Survey of Amiga Mail Ordering"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 
%% Survey of Amiga Mail Ordering                           by S.DEMPSEY %%                  
%%                                             s.dempsey@genie.geis.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
There are many mail order homes supporting the Amiga
computer.  For some of us, this is a blessing as local Amiga dealers
have been disappearing year after year.  Having quite a few mail
order homes around, one does not really know where to do their
shopping.
 
For this reason, I have decided to do a survey of mail order
homes that customers have had direct experiences with.
 
I would like to know your experiences that you have had with a
particular mail order company.  Were they courteous when you
placed an order?  Were they adequately furnished with enough
products in stock?  Did they provided good technical support if you
needed it?  Were you even able to get technical support?  If you had
to return a product, what happened; was the company rude or
obnoxious?  When you received your product, was it well packed and
shipped?  Did you really get the best price/deal?  Do not limit yourself
to these questions!
 
Please respond to me in any format you wish but please try to
include the following below:
 
Inventory              1 2 3 4 5   \
Tech support           1 2 3 4 5    \ 1 being poor
Employees attitude     1 2 3 4 5    / 5 being excellent
Overall impression     1 2 3 4 5   /
 
[ Suggestions on comments would be:   The mail order home I have   ]
[ ordered from before is _______.  My dealings with them have been ]
[ ______________.                                                  ]
 
All responses will be kept anonymous.  In no way will your name
will be revealed to anyone.
 
Try not to just say things like "I tried to inquire on some software
from brand-x company and they were no help the entire time." -- This
really tells me very little.  Be more specific, like, were they ignorant of
the product or what?
 
PLEASE make sure you only write about YOUR OWN experiences and NOT rehash 
"stuff you read from a BBS" or "my friend told me this" kinda stuff.  
Thanks!
 
I will compile together all the responses I receive and post my
results in a future issue of Amiga Report.  Because I happen to be an
American, and am aware there are European readers out there, I am
limiting my survey to American/Canadian based companies for now.
However, I certainly welcome European responses and will compile a
separate list in a future edition of Amiga Report if there are sufficient
European responses!
 
Please respond to this brief questionnaire by [INPUT DATE] and
send it to me at:  s.dempsey@genie.geis.com
 
SOME MAIL ORDER HOMES OUT THERE
 
1) Creative Computers
2) Computability
3) Amiga Man
4) Safe Harbor
5) Anti Gravity
6) Select Solutions
7) Grapevine
8) Tri State Computers
9) Software Hut
10) De Vine
11) Computer Answers (Canada)
12) Tenex
 
These are some of the more popular mail order homes around but I
am sure there are many more that I have not listed.
 
Once again, Respond to:  s.dempsey@genie.geis.com
 
Thanks!

@endnode 

@node P1-14 "Reader Mail"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                              Reader Mail                              %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From:	Philip Orr <PHILIP@griffith.dwr.csiro.au>
Subject: Amiga Review

Dear Rob,

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Philip Orr and I am a new user of 
Internet.  Australia is connected to the net via AARNET (Australian Academic 
Research Network) and it is only available to government type organisations.  
I hope this will change in the future as the communications possibilities we 
are experiencing will benefit other Aussies as well.  AARNET was set up by 
the Australian Universiiteis Vice-Chancellors committee in 1991 and the 
organisation for which I work, CSIRO, is connected.

I have been reading AR for several weeks now.  I downloaded AR130 through 
AR203 in one hit and have been downloading them weekly since.  I want to let 
you know how much I enjoy reading the magazine as it gives the kind of 
immediate information unavailable in print media.  It also serves to bring 
together a diverse group of people with a common cause.

We are out in the sticks here (the boonies for you Yanks) and it is very 
difficult to get info/help etc and your mag offers the possibility of contact 
with like minded people with whom we can communicate.

I wish you all the best in your new role as editor of Amiga Review.  I just 
hope the rest of the Amiga community appreciates the effort as much as I do.  
I will continue to read and your magazine and support where possible.

Amigaly yours


Philip Orr

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

From:	 [Asked not to be included]
Subject: World leaders using InterNet.

Hello Robert, I have some info from Sweden... use it if you like.

===
Primeminister Carl Bildt of Sweden has found a "penpal", as the
first foreign leader he's writing emails to the US President
Bill Clinton over the Internet.
Mr. Bildt congratulated Clinton of lifting the tradeblock against
Vietnam, and did rapidly get a reply from the US President were
he among other things wrote how importent electronical mail is for
the construction of a global information superhighway.

The fairly young leaders have been very good friends ever since they
first met in Washington D.C last year, apparently Carl Bildt got
impressed how they had opened up the US Government for the public
with emails, because from the first of March -94 the same thing will
happen to the Swedish Government.
On the 7 of Februari he was demonstrated InterNet with Mosaic,
Videoconferances (over ISDN) and Virtual Reality by a few companies
and institutions such as Ericsson Telecommunication and Telia.
(Note: Telia is a "AT&T" type of company.)

He recieved a InterNet membership pin and the official address to
the Primeminister will be : Statsministern@sb.gov.se

AR is getting better, the European section is very good since
C= is doing most of there business here, and it's a bit tiring reading
about "Americans neglected by C= and they will never buy Amiga again".
Commodore are in Europe to make money that they later will put in to
the US, just wait and you'll see...

Have a good one Robert ! 

@endnode

@node P1-15 "Emulation Rambler"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Emulation Rambler                                    By Jason Compton %%
%%                                                  (jcompton@tcity.com) %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

All right!  I'll start off by jumping into the third part of the ongoing
Emplant saga...

Still Dead By Serial Murder
---------------------------

My Emplant serial ports are still dead.  Joe Fenton from UU has faxed me
asking about the part number on the chip, but it's not the one he was
looking for (apparently, ones with ST on them need replacing).  I'll have
to let him know and see what happens...

Half of Jim Drew's Latest Promise Fulfilled!  World Shocked!
------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, I'm not much of a Jim Drew pessimist, but I know some people
never believe what he says.  He told the Emplant community that serial
and parallel (Amiga side) support was the top priority, and half of
that has been realized in Emplant Mac V3.91, allowing you to print
through the Amiga parallel port.  You DO need the relevant driver on
the Mac side (my Epson FX driver is apparently too old, since it kept
bus erroring any program that wanted to do a Page Setup.  System 7.1
drivers don't crash the machine, but they also don't do much for my
Star NX-1000II, since I only have the Image and StyleWriter ones on
there.), but new drivers don't crash the Mac.  Serial is promised for
V4.0, so it'll be a matter of time.

Scummy...er, SCSI peripherals...
--------------------------------

Nobody has been really excited about the prospect of letting me rip
out their hard drive to connect it to the Emplant, but I've done what
I think is the next best thing:  I hooked up a Logitech ScanMan
greyscale hand scanner and put it through some paces.  It performed
like any greyscale hand scanner without a scanner guide and a user
with an unsteady hand would:  decent, some of the time.  In all
seriousness, the scanner was completely accurately recognized and
worked flawlessly.  SCSIProbe correctly acknowledged it, and the 
scanning went as well as my hand was moving at that particular moment.
I considered scanning the Emplant logo from the box, but the box had
gotten dirty in the shipping, so I didn't think it would be the best
of ideas.  (Thanks to Dave Alexander, my esteemed friend, for trusting
me with this piece of hardware).

Boy, does this red herring taste good!
--------------------------------------

What can I say?  In a fit of boredom, I got the idea to hex-scan
through the Mac II executable.  It's filled with neat stuff. Here's
a partial list of the red herrings, hints, and other sundry items...

"This video driver requires AAA ChipSet!"  Well, that's very nice, 
considering I can't imagine any video drivers anywhere that would need
them, unless CATS and/or C= marketing has been working overtime...

"This video driver requires PCMCIA Emplant!"  This red herring I
find very difficult to swallow.  What sort of video driver would need
a PCMCIA card in a 1200 to function correctly?

Taken from the Emplant shipping box:  checkmarks for "Emplant model for:"
A500 and A1000.  What, just in case?  I can understand planning ahead,
but...

Finally, either Joe or Jim loves Chauna...at least, the Mac II program
proclaims "I love you Chauna!"

Benchmarks Revisited! 
---------------------

I know, I know, you're probably sick to death of these damn benchmarks
already, but my good friend Mauricio has come up with a new set based
on updated Emplant software in which the FPU routines are apparently
much improved...unfortunately, I've lost them and his net address: 
I'd like to get both of them again.  Sorry, but I once again have to
blame my Usenet site.


ResEdit: The PREMIER (read: only) Mac HACKER TOOL!
--------------------------------------------------

It works.  Unfortunately, since I don't want to sit down and learn the
setup of the program and Mac programs in great depth, I basically
play around with it a little and get LOTS of opportunities to edit
icons.

RAM Doubler!
------------

I'm trying to get this sucker to work.  The latest Emplant update file
seems to say that "virtual memory has been patched out of the emulation"
for the time being, but RAM Doubler was not mentioned.  I need to get
my hands on the disk and I'll see if I'm in business.

Feeling Guilty at 16 Colors...
------------------------------

I'd really like to be able to review things like Photoshop, Illustrator,
various paint programs, etc...but I just can't get my hands on a 24-bit
video board.  If one of you gentle readers happens to be a friend of
an individual who can help me obtain a 24-bit video board for the
purposes of this review (and, hey, I'd even review the board separately,
too!), please have them contact me, either at the Internet mail address
above or at:
1203 Alexander Ave.
Streamwood, IL 60107.

In the Other Corner...
----------------------

That should do it for Emplant for the week.  Next time, I'll try to
mess with a CD-ROM drive, try to get the serial ports to work, run
RAM Doubler, and anything else I run into inbetween.

My A-Max IV has arrived, so it's only a matter of time
before I can plug it in and get to work.  Hopefully, neither board 
senses the other and melts the appropriate Zorro slot on power-up.

Not a Mac emulator, but an Apple all the same...
------------------------------------------------

In other news, Mr. Kevin Kralian has sent me a beta version of his
Apple II+ emulator, tentatively named Apple 2000.  It emulates about
as thoroughly as anyone could ask for.  He enclosed about 40 programs
with my setup and describes how others can be transferred to the 
emulation: either as single-files if they are indeed that sort of
program, or through Dalton Disk Disintegrator format if they are
full disks.  My first-glance review says that this is a pretty 
thorough job, although not quite out of the bug spray yet.  More
details and information will be provided in upcoming issues.

Mr. Kralian is also interested in writing emulators for other formats,
such as the C= 64, Atari 400/800, Gameboy, and even the Atari 2600.
If anyone can help him with some technical specs, or simply wants to
get in touch with him, get him at Kevin_Kralian@Sacbbx.com.

That does it for me this week.  Look for more Emplant Mac reviews,
an upcoming A-Max IV feature, then some serious comparisons, both
based on statistics and just the look and feel I get out of the two.
In the meantime, I'll probably ramble on and on about the Apple
emulator, and see what Elite MicroComputers might be up to.  See
you soon.  Keep the emulators warm.

@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 P3 "Dealer Directory"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                           Dealer Directory                            %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%



                           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


                           Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
                           1496 Lower Water St.
                       Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9
                          Phone:  (902)-422-6556
                          Fax:    (902)-423-9339
                          BBS:    (902)-492-1544
                    Internet:  aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca


                        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! Amiga Specialists N.V.
                            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


                        Comspec Communications Inc
                  Serving your computing needs since 1976
                              74 Wingold Ave
                             Toronto, Ontario
                             Canada   M6B 1P5
                     Computer Centre:   (416) 785-8348
          Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553
                            Fax:  416-785-3668
                   Internet:  bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com
                              bryanf@accesspt.north.net


                       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


                                CYNOSTIC
                               Office O1,
                     Little Heath Industrial Estate,
                            Old Church Road,
                                Coventry.
                                 CV6 7NB
                             UNITED KINGDOM
                        Tel: +44 (0)203 681687
                        Fax: +44 (0)203 638508
              David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk


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

@endnode 

@node P5-1 "PowerSnap v2.2a"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

     PowerSnap

RELEASE

     2.2a

AUTHOR

     Nico Francois
     nico@augfl.be

SHORT

     Snap and paste anywhere using the mouse.

DESCRIPTION

       PowerSnap is a utility that allows you to use the mouse to
     mark characters anywhere on the screen and paste them somewhere
     else, like in the CLI or in a string gadget.

       PowerSnap will check what font is used in the window you snap
     from and will look for the position of the characters
     automatically.  It recognizes all non proportional fonts of up
     to 24 pixels wide and of any height so this should cover most
     fonts used.  Snapping and pasting text is done using the mouse,
     making PowerSnap fast and easy to use.

       Special note for graphics card owners: this release has been
     succesfully tested on Piccolo, EGS Spectrum and Picasso II (both
     normal and CHUNKY mode).  Some cards may require you to set the
     new RTG switch/tooltype.
     
NEW FEATURES

     o Fixed problem with RTG detection code and added an RTG switch
       and tooltype to force RTG mode on.  If PowerSnap doesn't work
       on your graphics card try using the RTG switch.

     o The clipboard is now opened when PowerSnap is installed and
       closed when it is removed and no longer on every clipboard
       read/write.  This avoids the overuse of CLIPS:.

     o The handler will no longer look for PowerSnap in the command
       path.  It will now simply execute PowerSnap from 'PROGDIR:'.

     o Bug fix: there was a small amount of memory loss when PowerSnap
       was quit.  Oops :)

     o Bug fix: error reporting routine (from Workbench) would hang
       when ReqTools was not installed.

     o Bug fix: on systems without locale.library the hex pattern
       gadgets contained a capital X instead of the correct hex number.

     o Fixed harmless mungwall hit that occured when 'All Fonts' was
       switched on and PowerSnap couldn't find a character under the
       mouse pointer (allocation of 0 bytes).

     o Swedish catalog included, translation by Roger Nordin.

     o French catalog included, translation by Benoit Mortier.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     AmigaOS Release 2.04 (V37+) or higher.

HOST NAME

     wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) [AmiNet]

DIRECTORY

     /pub/aminet/os20/cdity

FILENAME

     PowerSnap22a.lha

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Freeware, Copyright (c) 1991-1994 Nico Frangois

@endnode

@node P5-2 "Ensemble Verbes v1.1"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

        Ensemble Verbes


VERSION

        Version 1.1


AUTHOR

        Peter E. Janes


DESCRIPTION

        Ensemble Verbes is a program to help students practise
        and master French verbs in the most common tenses of the
        language.  It is designed to support classroom work, not
        to replace it.

        The registered version of Ensemble Verbes features:

        * Over 75 verbs, including -er, -ir, -re, reflexive and
          irregular conjugations

        * Seven tenses: present, compound past, imperfect,
          future, conditional, subjunctive present and present
          participle

        * Full online, context-sensitive help via AmigaGuide tm

        * Close adherence to Amiga User Interface Style Guide

        * Sound support

        * Support for international keyboards

        * Locale support

        Registered users can also obtain The French Student's
        Dictionary & Guide, a 150-page book featuring:

        * French/English and English/French sections

        * Most commonly used vocabulary, in context

        * Many easy-to-understand examples to help in
          selection of vocabulary

        * Many idiomatic expressions

        * Regular and irregular verb charts

        * Reference grammar guide

        * Over 5500 entries


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        Any Amiga running V37 or above


PRICE

        Ensemble Verbes:                            CAN $25.00
        The French Student's Dictionary & Guide:    CAN $12.00
        Ensemble Verbes *and* The French Student's
           Dictionary & Guide:                      CAN $30.00

        Add CAN $3.00 for shipping.


DISTRIBUTABILITY

        A freely distributable demonstration version of Ensemble
        Verbes has been uploaded to Aminet sites, and may be
        found in directory misc/edu as Verbes1_1.lha.  It should also
        appear in Fred Fish's collection of Amiga software soon.

        The shareware version is fully functional, but contains
        only -er verbs and present, subjunctive present and
        present participle.


CONTACT

        Peter E. Janes
        R. R. #8,
        Watford, Ontario, Canada
        N0M 2S0

        The author may also be contacted electronically on
        Usenet/Internet as:

           pejanes@descartes.uwaterloo.ca
           pejanes@io.org

@endnode

@node P5-3 "TitleClock v3 r3"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

    TitleClock

VERSION

    3 revision 3, of 12-Feb-94.

AUTHOR

    Anders Hammarquist <f92anha@dd.chalmers.se>
                       2:203/123.16@fidonet.org

DESCRIPTION

    TitleClock is a small commodity that displays a clock in
    the top right corner of any screen. Unlike other clocks,
    TitleClock does not open a window on the screens on which
    it displays the clock. Thus it will seamlessly appear and
    dissapear from screens as they open and close.

NEW FEATURES

    This version adds support for user-specified formatting
    of the time display via locale.library. Some minor bugs
    were fixed, and due to popular demand, it now comes with
    source.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    Requires AmigaOS 2.04 (2.1 if you wish to use the new
    time formatting option), and a screen with a titlebar to
    display the clock in.

FIDO FREQ

    Cyberstation Assimilate 2:203/123 (+46-31-694077)

HOST NAME

    Aminet - ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2) and others.

DIRECTORY

	/pub/aminet/os20/cdity

FILE NAME

	TitleClock3.lha

PRICE

    Free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    Freeware.

@endnode

@node P5-4 "Window Daemon v1.6"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

	Window Daemon - Control Intuition Windows and Screens

VERSION

	Distribution version 1.6

AUTHORS

	David Swasbrook

	E-mail address: swaz@iconz.co.nz


DESCRIPTION

	Window Daemon gives extended control to intuition windows
	and screens through HotKeys and Arexx. In addition there
	is better workbench drawer manipulation, you can close
	the current drawer window when opening another drawer,
	and when closing a drawer can open its parent
	automatically. Using a hotkey you can manage the task
	priority owning the current window and even suspend the
	task. Also the active window can be brought to the front
	or pushed to the back by simply holding down both mouse
	buttons.

FEATURES	

	1. Arexx, Commodities and Locale Support.

	2. HotKey and Arexx support to manipulate the currently active
	   window and screen. Standard window controls are avalable
	   such as Zip, Close, Size, ToFront, ToBack, NextScreen,  etc...
	   Also can suspend tasks and modify priorities.

	3. Able to close the parent window of a drawer when opened on
	   "Workbench" if CONTROL is held down. (Only available under
	   kickstart V39 or higher)

	4. Can open parent window of a "Workbench" drawer when the
	   drawer closed if CONTROL is held down.

	5. Closes all "Workbench" drawers when a drawer is closed if
	   either of the ALT keys are held down.

	6. Specialized options to forcefully close windows and screens,
	   and also to remove tasks that own the active window.

	7. Font sensitive interface.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

	OS release 2.04 or newer is required.

	"matrix.library" version 23.1770 required. (included in archive)

	Hypertext compatable document. (ie. MultiView/AmigaGuide)

	Commodore installer.

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

UPDATE
	This archive is an update of the WindowDaemon10.lha archive.

	New features:

		* Locale support

		* User interface added to configure hotkeys

		* Several bugs fixed.

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/util/misc

FILE NAMES

	WindowDaemon16.lha   -   Window Daemon binaries and documentation

PRICE
	Shareware. Contributions are gratefully accepted.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

	Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive
	are kept in tact. Window Daemon 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@iconz.co.nz or msd@iconz.co.nz

@endnode



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

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                       _    _       __  ___    _                       %%
%%                      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\                      %%
%%                     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\                     %%
%%                    /--- \\|  \/ || || \\_||/--- \\                    %%
%%                   /______________________________\\                   %%
%%                  /                                \\                  %%
%%              Amiga Report International Online Magazine               %%
%%                  February 25, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.07                   %%
%%                 Copyright  1994 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.  Any Electronic Mail sent to
the  editors may be  reprinted, in whole  or in part, without  any previous
permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests
not to be reprinted.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode


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

@{" From the Editor's Desk  " link P1-1} Saying it like it is!
@{"       In Review         " link P1-2} Intro to PD/SW Reviews
@{"       Amiga News        " link P1-3} Happenings in the Amiga world
@{"    Amiga in Business    " link P1-4} Emplant & Amax
@{"   Video Backup System   " link P1-5} Back up HDs to the VCR!
@{"    Amiga 600 in use!    " link P1-6} Why to get one
@{" Machine - Display Blues " link P1-7} Looking at RTG
@{"  Inexpensive Computers  " link P1-8} A look at the market
@{"    Take another Look    " link P1-9} CBM and the Amiga
@{"   Snow..and the Amiga   " link P1-10} Selling the Amiga
@{"      Compact Disks      " link P1-11} How good are they?
@{"    The CLIPPER Chip     " link P1-12} An article from WIRED
@{"    Mail Order Survey    " link P1-13} Tell your story!
@{"       Reader Mail       " link P1-14} The readers speak!
@{"    Emulation Rambler    " link P1-15} Feeling the need for speed


@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"

@{"   PowerSnap v2.2a    " link P5-1} Snap and Paste anywhere w/ mouse
@{" Ensemble Verbes v1.1 " link P5-2} Master French verbs
@{"   TitleClock v3 r3   " link P5-3} Clock commodity
@{"  Window Daemon v1.6  " link P5-4} Extends control to wondows


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most downloaded files from wustl.edu during the week until 21-Feb-94

File                 Dir        Size Description
-------------------  ---        ---- -----------
ar206.lha            text/mags   54K+Amiga Report #2.06 - 2/11/94
ARTM2_0.lha          util/moni   77K+System Monitor for OS 2.04 or newer
unzip51x.lha         util/arc    88K+UnZip 5.1, Info-Zip Portable Un-zipper
ScorchedTanks.lha    game/shoot 365K Tank warfare game for 1-4 players. Scorche
DiskSpareDevic16.lha disk/misc   15K+Use 984kB or 1.968MB floppy disks!
XSize30.lha          util/wb     10K+X style window sizing (now a Commodity)
mui20usr.lha         dev/gui    635K+MagicUserInterface V2.0, user files
WindowDaemon16.lha   util/misc   45K+Extended control to intuition windows
BootScreen21.lha     util/wb     74K+Display picture during boot!  V2.1
TolleUhr.lha         os20/wb     29K+A nice looking Workbench clock

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@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.

NOTE:  This system is currently down.

@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: 1:221/302
                             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.fipnet.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 P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss"
@toc "menu"



                         * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
                    312-384-0616  14.4 USR Courier HST
                    312-384-6250  14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line)
                    312-384-0716  2400 USR Courier

  FIDONet-1:115/384.0    CLink-911:6200/2.0  NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0
      PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0
      FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0
                     AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0
                             Chicago, Illinois

     Over 4 GIGS of files  I  Over 3700 MODS  I  Over 120 On-Line Games
              Tons of digitized sounds  I  Over 15,000 GIFS
           Supporting:  Amiga  I  IBM  I  Macintosh  I C=64/128
              SIR SAMMY-SysOp     Enter.......If you dare!!

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS"
@toc "menu"


                            * AMIGA DO PC BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil
                       * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 *

                              +55-192-33-2260
                         Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT)
                            Weekends: 24 hours
                            Fidonet:  4:801/44
                            RBT:      12:1212/1
                            Virinet:  70:101/17

                    Internet:  fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
                          Francisco Moraes, sysop
                               Campinas, SP

                Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable.

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS"
@toc "menu"


                             * COMM-LINK BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                         * Running Excelsior Pro *
                         604-945-6192  USR DS 16.8
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                         Fido:        1:153/210.0
                        AmigaNet     40:800/9100.0
                        InterSports: 102:540/305.0
                        PussNet:     169:1000/305.0
               InterNet:  steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
                            Steve Hooper, Sysop
                        Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada


@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair"
@toc "menu"


                            * PHANTOM'S LAIR *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                           * Running CNET 3.0 *
                           FidoNet:  1:115/469.0
            Phantom Net Cooridinator:  11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
                               708-469-9510
                               708-469-9520
                CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg
                            Peter Gawron, Sysop
                        Glendale Heights, Illinois


@endnode

@node P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS"
@toc "menu"

                             Tierra-Miga  BBS
                              Software: CNet
                              Gib Gilbertson
                            24 hours -  7 days
                        FidoNet:       1:202/638.0
                        AmigaNet:      40:406/3.0
                        Internet:      torment.cts.com
                        Line #1:       619.292.0754 V32.bis
                        City:          San Diego, CA.
@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!) *
                   Murray Chaffer & Andre Lackmann, Sysops
                              +612 949-4256
                            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
