====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technologies, GmbH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 970414 I N T E R V I E W W I T H A T H E A D N O T E F R O M P E T R O T . N E W T E K N I Q U E S P R E M I E R E I S S U E T H O U G H T S O F G A T E W A Y L E A D E R U P D A T E O N A U S T R A L I A N A M I G A S H O W H O T L I S T H A N D L E R F O R B R O W S E R S A U T O M A T I C I N T E R N E T H O O K U P ( A L M O S T ) H T M L E D I T O R A N N O U N C E D N E W C H E C K B O O K P R O G R A M V O O D O O E M A I L E R L I C E N S E D Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Some interesting and positive items for you this time. First, a posting we found on the Usenet. It's an unofficial English translation of a German interview with Petro Tyschtschenko, the President of Amiga Technologies. The original interview appears on the German magazine "Amiga Magzin"'s Web site, in German only. In all honesty, we're not entirely sure of the status of this translation - both it's accuracy, and whether "Amiga Magazin" objects to its distribution. However, it's widely available on the Net so we thought you should see it. In addition, we spotted a note from Petro Tyschtschenko in the Usenet newsgroups. We include it here as we found it very interesting. Our thanks to Ben Clarke for making this available on the net. When "Video Toaster User" died, there was a general sadness among Amiga videographgers. The magazine "NewTekniques" promises to end that unhappiness. Their premier issue has shipped. Below is a "sneak preview" that was recently posted. We present it for the benefit of all those working with Amiga video. Story four is a bit strange but we would be lax not to include it. It's another item culled from Usenet postings on the Internet. Originally called "Dr. Amiga chats with Gateway's COO Rick Snyder", it's an excerpt of a Web page. We present it just as it appeared on the Internet. We think you'll find the quote from Mr. Snyder very interesting. As nearly as we can determine, this is 100% legitimate. Amigans on the other side of the world have provided an update on "The Australian Amiga Gathering '97". Details below. There are some interesting new product announcements that recently appeared. We have press releases on five we think you'll be pleased to hear about. Rumor!! Gateway to be Bought! The Net has been alive lately with a rumor that Gateway now is about to be purchased, by Compaq of all companies. The rumor has been attributed to a two year old news story, or recent "money programs", presumably on TV but we don't know. We do know that Gateway is probably the stronger company and we've seen nothing credible to back up this particular rumor. It never ceases to amaze us what the Net can come up with. We hope you enjoy this issue. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I N T E R V I E W W I T H A T H E A D From: Eelke Blok Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:50:12 +0200 I tried to make an as acurate as possible translation. As German is not my native language, there may be still some errors or slight misinterpretatons. ---- Gateway2000 Buys Amiga Technologies - Interview with Petro Tyschtschenko On 24.3.1997 the negotiations between the American PC manufacturer/distributor Gateway2000, Inc. and the liquidator off Amiga Technologies came to a joyful end. We asked Petro Tyschtschenko a few questions on the new situation. Amiga Magazin: Our best wishes. What are Gateway2000's plans for the Amiga? PT: They want to start where we stopped about a year ago. The Amiga has to be built and sold again. No one plans to use chips, motherboards or technological know-how for anything else, as for example VISCorp was planning to do (Put the Amiga technology in settop boxes). A press-release in accordance to this will be released at the end of April. Amiga Magazin: Will the Amiga be available again in the normal way? PT: Yes. We don't want to setup any mailorder scheme without using the other outlets: computer shops, specialist shops, department stores, etc. Amiga Magazin: What will the Amiga's future look like, how much will it cost? PT: In the near future, the computer will be available in the same configuration as it has been before, mainly the A1200. It will cost 698 DM (DFL 780,- US$400,- UKP 250,- , calculations made with current trade market figures, no tax-corrections - EB), 998 DM (DFL 1120,- US$580,- UKP 360,- - EB) including a hard disk. We don't want to let the price rice, but we won't drop it either. Amiga Magazin: We all know that the Amiga, in its current hardware architecture, can't quite follow the innovations in the current computer business, but that there are great peripheral developments. Is it planned to cooperate with these manufacturers and traders in the future? PT: You say it: we are well aware that the Amiga in its current configuration doesn't satisfy the demands of this time. The survival of the computer however, is due to the developments in the hard- and software sector by many innovative Amiga companies. Off course we are planning to have a talk with those competent developers as soon as possible. But we are convinced that these companies will seek contact with us very soon. Amiga Magazin: What function will Gateway2000's German office in Frankfurt have in the support and distribution of the Amiga? They concentrate on MS-DOS computers solely, don't they? PT: It's good that you mention this. Gateway2000 Germany and the European main office in Dublin have nothing to do with Amiga International. We want to ask Amiga users, manufactures and tradesman to abandon any contact, be it by telephone or written. Amiga Magazin: How do you see the future? PT: Very bright. Finally there is, with Gateway2000, a strong company behind the Amiga, which is willing to invest a substantial amount of money in the computer. Amiga Magazin: Thank you very much for this conversation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N O T E F R O M P E T R O T . Date: 14 Apr 97 17:57:11 +0000 Here follows a genuine email from Petro Tyschtschenko. I promise it is genuine, but i suppose you'll have to take my word for it... >>---Start-----------------------<< Ben, thank you for your mail. We will not start again to produce A 1200. We still have some A 1200 in stock, which I will continue to sell. We are open minded for a lot of models for AMIGA International. VisCorp is out and ESCOM is bankruptcy.....So long live AMIGA under GATEWAY 2000. We will be back soon with our strategy. Best regards Petro Tyschtschenko >>---End-------------------------<< Ben Clarke E-Mail: twig@enterprise.net WWW: http://homepages.enterprise.net/twig/ A Member of Convergence International http://convergence.int.eu.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W T E K N I Q U E S P R E M I E R E I S S U E Sneak Preview of NewTekniques Premiere Issue News Date : 10 April, 1997 News Source: Joe Tracy ---- Advanstar has shipped NewTekniques, as scheduled, on April 1, 1997 (no joke). Below is a listing of the contents for the first issue. For more information on the magazine, check out http://www.studiovisions.com or http://www.newtek.com. To see the cover image, go to www.studiovisions.com and select "NewTekniques" then "The Premiere Issue". ENJOY! Departments TekTalk - by Joe Tracy "NewTekniques: The Dream is a Reality" Ask NewTek Reader questions answered by NewTek Short Takes "LightWave 5.5 is Here!" "Amiga Situation Drags On" "Bob Hood Joins NewTek" "The LightWave Warrior" Tekniques "Bypassing Logon for LightWave NT Users" - by John Campbell & Gordon Keenan "Eliminate Flyer Refresh Time" - by Mario Cascio "Getting Better Flyer Sound" - by Bob Ketchum "Amiga LightWave F9 Render Fix" - by Joe Tracy TekMasters An interview with NewTek's founder, Tim Jenison. Renders "City" by Robert Nederhorst "Castle" by Devin Lafontaine "Jasper" by Brian D. Tindall "Coal Mining" by Gary Janello "My Wedding" by Lance Gray Premieres MacroForm 2.0, WaveFilter ImageMagic, Real World Navigation Suite, Gaffer, SuperGlow, VertiLectric, Digital Art Brushes, LightSocket, Con-Motion, The StarFire Collection, Flyer Mastery Guide, Aussies Fast Frames, AV8RPro, FlyFX Decision Maker, InterChange Surf Report A detailed listing of on-line resources Columns Waves - by John Gross "Star Trek Tips for Better Planets" LightWave 101 - by Scott Wheeler "Forget Cloning: LightWave does DNA" Flying High - by Joe Tracy "Flyer Clips and LightWave - a powerful mix" Mojo - by Mojo "Last Word - The Special Edition" Reviews Surface Effectors 1.1 - by Roger Vetruba Club Toaster - by Bob Ketchum WaveFilter Net+ - by Dave Thomas AVILoad 2.0 - by John Campbell & Gordon Keenan WaveNet Pro - by Mike Massee RenderFX - by Mario Cascio AV8R - by George Paramithas Audio Thunder - by James Rainey Tutorials "Smashing Windows in LightWave 3D" Tutorial #1 - by Douglas J. Nakakihara "LightWave 3D for the Power Macintosh" Tutorial #2 - by Thomas Fedoryak "GPI to the Rescue" Tutorial #3 - by Wayne M. Cole Cover story "Digital Domain: Adventure on the High Seas" by Dick De Jong and Molly Dinkins Subscription information $32 covers you through 1998 1-800-346-0085 or 1-218-723-9477 When will the premiere issue be out? Subscribers will have it within 1-3 weeks. How can I learn more about NewTekNiques? www.studiovisions.com or www.newtek.com To get a more detailed Table of Contents, that includes page numbers, sidebars, and the cover image, log onto www.studiovisions.com, select "NewTekniques" then "The Premiere Issue". If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions regarding NewTekniques, please e-mail me at jtracy@main.rosenet.net. I take reader comments and suggestions very seriously. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H O U G H T S O F G A T E W A Y L E A D E R Subject: Dr. Amiga Chats With Gateways COO Rick Snyder! Date: 04 Apr 1997 23:32:02 -0600 I snipped this after following a new link form the Amiga Web Directory. I found it very interesting, and I hope you do as well. ----- Productive Computer Systems - Channel 303 - Amiga's New Parent Company Gateway 2000 Amiga's New Parent Company April 2, 1997 - Dr. Amiga chats with Gateway's COO Rick Snyder On March 27, 1997 the assets of Amiga Technologies were acquired by a very progressive American company - Gateway 2000. [Some very interesting stuff snipped to conserve bandwidth but I recommend that you follow the link from the Amiga Web Directory's New Links and read the whole thing] During the Q&A I asked 1 (one) 3-part :_) question: "Why did Gateway buy Amiga Technologies, what they are planning to do with it and how soon can I get one of their fancy cow-colored boxes with an Amiga in it?" Mr. Snyder replied that it's tough to be specific at this point. He said that when purchasing something during a bankruptcy, you're actually buying an equivalent of a large box with 'stuff' in it. You have an IDEA of what the stuff is, but no clue what the details of the contents are. Until you're given the permission to 'open the box', you can't begin to make any kind of concrete plans regarding it. Even though the offer has been accepted and there are several Gateway 2000 people in Germany working on the details, he has not heard everything from them and therefore does NOT want to mislead anyone or promise something that's not so (remember, what I said earlier about being in Microsoft country - this guy, very obviously, is taking a different approach). After the keynote address, I decided to approach Mr. Snyder and do a follow-up... I asked him if Gateway had people who truly understand what it is that they've got and what can be done with it. I also told him a little bit about the Amiga community and how, if Gateway is to play their cards right, they could gain a small but significant army of their proponents. He didn't specifically say that yes, they did have people who understood, but his non-answer was more of answer to me than if he gave me a direct response. He said that "Gateway could NOT let a technology like that die!" This is a direct quote from his mouth to my face one foot away!!! So, from the above I gathered that even though the situation remains unknown and no specific plans or decisions have been relayed, I really liked what this guy had to say, I liked the company he represents and I liked the approach he's taking toward the future. Considering all of the turmoil with ownership of Amiga since the day it was invented - at this point I'd have to say that Amiga's future has NEVER looked brighter! I'm officially very glad that Gateway 2000 bought the Amiga Technologies. I'm very optimistic about their future plans and Amiga's future under them! From the past experiences, I won't believe anything 100% until I SEE it, yet I remain, cautiously yet extremely optimistic. Considering the name of the company, it's interesting that it matches Amiga community's sincere wishes to have some company be the GATEWAY to take Amiga into the year 2000 :) and beyond... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- U P D A T E O N A U S T R A L I A N A M I G A S H O W Date: 11 Apr 97 ------------------------------------------ AUSTRALIAN AMIGA GATHERING 97 UPDATE ------------------------------------------ Proudly brought to you by Australian Amiga Gazette I am please to inform you that we have finalized the location and dates for the Amiga Expo SYDNEY SHOWGROUND (Exhibition Village) 28TH - 29TH JUNE If you would like to receive automatic updates regarding the "Australian Amiga Gathering 97" just send a email to the address below with the subject "Expo-update", no text is required in the message. --- Australian Amiga Gazette Suite 19 9-11 Abel Street Penrith NSW 2750 Ph: (047) 222-803 Fax: (047) 215-277 Email: mother@pnc.com.au Web: www.pnc.com.au/~mother/aag.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H O T L I S T H A N D L E R F O R B R O W S E R S Date: 4 Apr 1997 20:31:02 GMT Organization: none TITLE HotListHandler 1.10 (30-Mar-97) AUTHOR Robert Nienkemper, Den Helder, The Netherlands robertn@tip.nl DESCRIPTION HotListHandler (HLH) will manage your hotlist! Share one hotlist with all the browsers available for the Amiga. If you use more than one browser then use HotListHandler. If you stick with one browser, well, use it anyway. HLH FEATURES o A nice toolbar o Easy to use o Share one hotlist among Amiga browsers o Offers a QuickMenu for fastlinks o Creates an index when viewing the hotlist through a browser o Grab URL's from browsers* (if the browser supports it via ARexx) o Edit the hotlist while off-line (create Groups, add URL's, etc.) o Jump to any public screen o Totally font sensitive o AddToHotlist conversion NEW FEATURES o Sort a hotlist o Search a hotlist o An HLH ARexx port o More Tooltypes for a better startup o Multiple hotlist support (Open, Save As) o Step through groups o Print a hotlist o Use the "hide" flag from AWeb hotlists o Support for Voyager-NG o And more..... HLH SUPPORTS o AWeb o IBrowse o Voyager* o Mosaic o Voyager-NG* * QuickGrab cannot be supported with Voyager as these browsers have no ARexx command to share the URL with other programs. REQUIREMENTS Amiga OS 3.0+ AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/www/HLHandler110.lha (57344) http://www.tip.nl/users/robertn/ REPLACES HLHandler10.lha (22-Dec-96) PRICE & DISTRIBUTABITY Shareware: $10 US Distribution: Not restricted. Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Robert Nienkemper ANNOUNCEMENT SUBMITTED BY Rand R. Fredricksen, Wheeling, IL, USA, rand@maui.netwave.net, English HLH.guide author, upon request from Robert Nienkemper, HLH author. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A U T O M A T I C I N T E R N E T H O O K U P ( A L M O S T ) Date: Sun, 13 Apr 97 10:38:50 GMT Have just updated my website, And have placed a newer version of my install script for a complete Internet installation, Will work with most ISP's. For more info see my website or email me. Introduction ************** NetFace is complete Internet Package Providing Mail, News, Ftp, Telnet & Web browsing. The NetFace Package is a collection of files mostly from Aminet, With an install script to un-arc and install these onto your hard drive complete with an easy to use frontend gui. The Installer will make a drawer called 'NetFace' where you specify and in it, It will place Miami as the TCP/IP stack GRn as the offline Newsreader. NewsAgent1.4 as the News Browser. Geditor as the News & Mail editor. Voyager as the Web Browser. YAM as the Mail Client. AmFTP as the FTP Client. AmTelnet as the Telnet Client. WBRun this is used just to launch NewsAgent. And several extra files in the bin directory ie. Postnews. Sendnews. Mailkick. ect. It will also copy some fonts (GRn.font) to you fonts drawer. and two libraries to Libs: and three files to C: Steve. -- ========================================================= | Steven Chapman - steve@cliffe.demon.co.uk (Private ) | | http://www.cliffe.demon.co.uk | ========================================================= ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H T M L E D I T O R A N N O U N C E D CultureShock Announces Release of Pagemonster HTML Editor News Date : 08 April, 1997 News Source: CultureShock Multimedia -- CultureShock Multimedia is proud to announce the release of Pagemonster 1.0, a new web page generation tool for the Amiga Computer. Pagemonster incorporates an easy to use point and click interface with a modular, non-linear approach to the construction of web pages. This method allows you to gather, arrange and preview all the elements that will comprise your final page into an unlimited number of layouts before saving. Features Include: o No knowledge of HTML required to operate. o Digitized voice narration to help guide you through Pagemonsters operation. o Use your favorite paint programs, image processors, text editors and sound sampling software from inside Pagemonster. o Store external links and any associated files for later use in other pages. o Form wizards allow you to generate forms for user input with just a few clicks of a button. o Plug-in support which allows Pagemonster to grow along with the rapidly changing HTML standards of the World Wide Web. o Create multipule page suites and save everything to disk, media files and all, to upload later or rework. Minimum Requirements: o Amiga OS 3.0 or greater. o At least 6 Megs of Ram. o AmigaVision Player and Runtime libraries o The Append command o At least 8 megs of Harddrive space Special New Release Price Break If you purchase Pagemonster 1.0 direct before July 1997, you will be able to obtain a copy at the special low price of just $49.95. After that the Pagemonster will return to it's normal retail price of $69.95. How to Order Direct Send a certified check or money order for $49.95 (U.S. Dollars) made out to CultureShock Multimedia Plus $5.00 postage and handling to the following address: CultureShock Multimedia 2319 North 45th street Suite 296 Seattle, Washingtion 98103 Dealers interested in distributing this product please contact David Elfalan at cshock@serv.net. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W C H E C K B O O K P R O G R A M Date: 12 Apr 1997 11:56:01 GMT TITLE Pretium Checkbook Finances Software VERSION 1.1 COMPANY IDD 204 NW 25th Street Gainesville, FL 32607 (352) 373-9471 - idd@pobox.com DESCRIPTION Pretium is a checkbook accounting program designed specifically for the Amiga. To record a transaction, such as a deposit or withdrawal from your checking account, enter the information the same way you would record the transaction in your checkbook. Pretium keeps track of the running balance and cleared and uncleared transactions automatically. Choose an option from the menu and your transactions are sorted by payee, category, amount, check number, or date. Pretium supports check printing to print professional looking checks faster than you can write a check by hand. Pretium can be used for keeping track of credit card charge and payments, savings accounts, petty cash funds, cash transactions, and more. You can work with any number of separate accounts on-screen at one time. Select a transaction and click a button, and Pretium will display address and phone number information about the payee from its built-in phone and address database. Pretium can also fill-in information from a previous transaction, matched by entering just the first few letters. If you want a clearer picture of where your money is going, you can have it print a report. Pretium supports categories and subcategories for transactions, allowing you to classify and organize your finances. It also supports importing and exporting of files with Quicken, Microsoft Money, and other programs that support the QIF exchange format. Pretium is designed for international use. It works with any date and money format. NEW FEATURES New features since the 1.01 version include the payee database, sorting of transactions by different transaction fields, funds transfers between accounts, check voiding, and check printing. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Pretium runs on any Amiga with AmigaDOS 2.x or better. Pretium is designed for use in any country with any money and date format. DISTRIBUTABILITY Pretium is a commercial software package. PRICE Pretium's suggested retail list price is $54.95 (US funds). AVAILABILITY The commercial software package is available through several dealers and distributors. If your software dealer doesn't carry Pretium, you can order it directly from IDD by sending $54.95 (US funds) to: IDD 204 NW 25th Street Gainesville, FL 32607 A demo of Pretium is available as on Aminet in /biz/misc as "pretium.lha". You can use the URL: ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/misc/pretium.lha The demo is also available through the IDD web site at . You can also receive it by e-mail by sending mail to idd@pobox.com with "send demo" as the subject. David R Orr, owner of IDD and the author of Pretium. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V O O D O O E M A I L E R L I C E N S E D Finale Development Licenses Voodoo Emailer Finale Development, Inc. will continue Voodoo development for Amiga Helsinki, Finland (April 5, 1997) - I'm happy to announce that I have reached an agreement with Finale Development, Inc. that gives them a source-license to my Voodoo emailer, and will enable Finale to continue its development on the Amiga and pOS platforms in the future. At the same time, I will be ceasing development on Amiga, but this agreement means that the support of Voodoo will continue. Alain Penders of Finale Development has informed me that they plan to include a version of Voodoo with their forthcoming WWW browser, the Finale Web Cruiser, as well as continue the development of the stand-alone Voodoo client as a commercial product. More information about Finale Development and their products, including future Voodoo releases, will be available at http://www.Finale-Dev.com/. Voodoo was originally released in December of 1995 as the first Amiga product with fully integrated MIME support in a GUI environment. It later was the first product to support the PGP/MIME encryption standard. Osma Ahvenlampi, author of Voodoo (up to version 1.280) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) http://www.amigacom.com (in ASCII text) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || ======================================================================