Dear Foundation member, News from RISC OS Ltd August 10th 1999 ===================== RISC OS 4 shipments ------------------- We produced an initial batch of FlashROM's for development use that were supplied to a small number of people at the Acorn South East show and then to a further 200 people over the last two weeks. However there have been two problems with these ROM's:- 1. The current ROM sets are not suitable for all types of machines. 2. The availability of ROM's has been insufficient for our needs. Consequently, we are reverting to using standard (masked) ROMs until supply of suitable FlashROM becomes available, which is not likely to be until November. Delivery of standard ROMs will take 5 weeks from now, and hence we shall not be shipping any further orders until the middle of September. We should like to assure users that these delays are purely down to supply problems with the ROM's and not due to problems with RISC OS 4 itself. Most importantly we should like to point out that the level of orders has exceeded expectations and we should like to thank users for their patience, and their support of RISCOS Ltd. Foundation CD ------------- If you have any software that you would like to include on the first Foundation CD then please mail it by floppy or CD to our Cardiff Office:- 3 Clarendon Road Cardiff CF23 9JD or by email to mailto:foundation@riscos.com Foundation Private Area on the web site --------------------------------------- This area is not active yet, due to the Web Master moving on to higher things. However we hope to have a new Web Master very soon who will wave his magic wand over the Web site. RISC OS 4 extra apps -------------------- It was not possible to include all the planned bundled applications on the RISC OS 4 CD. The PDF generator !Taborca has been received for final testing and will be shortly be available from the RISC OS website. For those of you who haven't come across PDF it is a universal Page Definition Format which was developed by Adobe to allow documents to be sent out to other people without them having to have a copy of the program that was used to create the document. Further information on PDF format can be found at http://www.pdfzone.com/default.htm PDF is based on Postscript and can generate very compact files. A major advantage of being cross platform is that files can be created under RISC OS 4, exported as PDF files and then printed using PC's or Mac's onto Printers that are not currently supported under RISC OS such as the A4 Hewlett Packard Deskjet 1120C. Authorised Installers --------------------- The list of Authorised Installers will be posted as soon as the final contracts have been approved. These have been delayed due to the take-over of Acorn by Pace. Vacancies at RISCOS Ltd ----------------------- RISCOS Ltd has vacancies for Support Staff and Programmers at our Midlands Office. The exact job descriptions will depend to an extent on the skills that are exhibited by potential applicants. 1. Developer Support Co-ordinator. This person needs to have a good all round knowledge of RISC OS related issues from both and end-user and a developers perspective. They should be a reasonable programmer with both C and Assembler skills. A Knowledge of Linux and HTML would also be useful. With the right experience it is possible that this person could also become the RISC OS Development Team Leader. They must be able to deal with enquiries from both hardware and software Developers and produce documentation in printed and electronic format. 2. Programmer - Hardware and Internet Support This person should have very good Assembler and C skills to work on the removal of the hardware dependency of RISCOS. They may have to work directly with Authorised Manufacturing Sub-licensees who require specific ROM changes to support their unique hardware designs. It would be useful if they also had a good Internet knowledge, but that may be the province of a third person. It is also possible that with the right experience this person could also become the RISCOS Development Team Leader. Salaries for both posts are negotiable dependent on experience. They are full time jobs to be based at our office in Stratford Upon Avon and are NOT suitable for remote teleworking. Applications should be emailed to :- mailto:admin@riscos.com or by post to :- The Managing Director 3 Clarendon Road Cardiff CF23 9JD Enquiries --------- Please note the following contact numbers:- The RISC OS 4 Helpline is available on 02920 492326 from 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Enquiries for the Foundation and General Sales 02920 492324 from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Fax for all enquiries 02920 440071