News from RISCOS Ltd No. 23 October 11th 2002 =================== RISCOS Ltd AGM -------------- The 3rd RISCOS Ltd AGM was held on Friday 27th September at the Quy-Mill Hotel in Cambridge. The meeting was attended by 10 shareholders and 15 members of the public who had accepted the Open Invitation to attend the meeting. MicroDigital were in attendance showing two functioning Omega's and the insides of a third. We were showing a preview of the forthcoming RISC OS Select Release 2, along with our development MP3 JukeBox Player. David Atkins from MicroDigital posted his usual very personal style of report on the proceedings on the MicroDigital Web Site, which unfortunately contained a couple of minor errors. Firstly Simtec are not Shareholders in RISCOS Ltd. Secondly I have expressed my concerns about PC based Acorn Emulators quite clearly over the past 11 months, and I have made the legal position quite clear. Without a Licence Agreement the distribution of anyone else's software is illegal. As I pointed out to the meeting, it was Aaron Timbrell's responsibility to prove that he did have a Licence, rather than for me to say that he didn't. The meeting spent a large part of its time discussing the relative merits of PC based Acorn Emulators, and the way forward for RISCOS Ltd and the problems associated with future 32 bit versions of RISC OS. 32 bit RISC OS Development -------------------------- Back in November 2000 we co-operated with Pace in the release of a new set of Beta software tools version of the components required for users of the Acorn C/C++ development environment to produce RISC OS programs that would be compatible with future 32-bit only versions of RISC OS. The Terms under which those tools were released limited their use to a 60 days evaluation period. However some programmers decided to use later versions of the 32 bit Shared C Library which had been released by a third party. Since RISC OS itself is heavily reliant on the use of the Shared C Library we were obliged to prevent the soft-loading of that later Shared C Library. Firstly because of a number of incompatibilities with the software, and Secondly because we cannot expect to rely on a key part of RISC OS that has been developed by a third party, using source code to which we do not have access. There are also other issues involved, some of which have been resolved recently and consequently we hope to provide support for specific versions of the 32 bit Shared C Library as part of future Select versions. RiscStation and Select ---------------------- The RiscStation R7500 is now fully supported by Select. The forthcoming RISC OS 4.32 Release of Select will for the first time support all three current RISC OS platforms. !Printers+ Frontend to be released via SourceForge -------------------------------------------------- We will be releasing the Source Code to the Frontend of !Printers+ as a publicly accessible collaborative project via the SourceForge Web Site. SourceForge.netistheworld'slargest OpenSourcesoftwaredevelopment website, with the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet. http://www.SourceForge.net/ provides free services to Open Source developers. We would like to point out that this does not signify that RISC OS is to become an Open Source Operating System, but in order to allow greater development of certain components we are making this release of !Printers+ source for non-chargeable use by Developers. The actual availability of the code on the SourceForge site will be announced at a later date. Please note that this release will not include the back-end PrinterDumpers. We will endeavour to support developers who need help in gaining information from Printer Manufacturers about their current Printer ranges, or who require detailed information of the back-end functions of !Printers+. Any Company or Individual who would be interested in administering the SourceForge site should contact mailto:developer@riscos.com RISC OS PNG Developers Kit available ------------------------------------ We are pleased to announce the availability of the first release of the RISC OS Select PNG Developers Kit. Designed to be a patent-free replacement to GIF files, the PNG file format provides lossless, portable and well compressed storage of images. PNG handling is now supported natively in RISC OS by the PNG module. This developers kit provides information and resources for developers of applications which manipulate PNG files. It is expected that users be familiar with RISC OS interfaces, and using SWIs. Knowledge of libpng and the PNG specification is not required but may be beneficial. Dependent on the library being used, knowledge of C or BASIC may be desirable. 10 Years Ago ------------ It was on 28th September 1992 that RISC OS 3 was released. The price was initially 49 but this was raised to 89 in 1994. Shortly afterwards in December 1992, Acorn announced that they would be producing the final batch of Master 128 Computers during 1993. Those cost 410 each. Other prices in 1992 were AGB50 A3000 Action Pack 399 ALC16/AKF30 A3010 and AKF30 Monitor 749 ALB35/AKF18 A5000 4MB HD 160 and AKF18 Monitor 1799 AGA32 486 PC Card with 4MB RAM 499 CA050 Multimedia Expansion Unit (Single Speed SCSI CDROM) 586 RC5-64 key finally found ------------------------ 30th Sep 2002, 15:35:56GMT Source: drobe.co.uk Chris Williams RISC OS cracking team in top 100. Marc Warne, web master of the Acorn RC5 cracking team website, has sent news of the RISC OS powered contribution to the distributed.net RC5-64 cracking project, following recent news that RSA Lab's RC5-64 number crunching competition has been solved. 58,747,597,657 blocks worldwide were processed in order to find the key to unlock an encrypted message, with the RISC OS cracking team crunching a total of 110,374,586 blocks. The Acorn team were finally placed 56th in the league table of top contributing teams and according to distributed.net, the odds were 1 in 348 that the Acorn team would have found the key before anyone else. The project has been running for nearly five years and involves a brute force approach to generate a key to unlock a message strongly encrypted by RSA Labs. Clients running on machines from all over the world process blocks of data in a massive distributed computing exercise. "Although we didn't win the competition, and can't have a $1000 party between us", Marc explains, "I think we did pretty well, and would like to say a big, 'Thank you' to all who have worked on this. Let's see how well we can do in OGR!" OGR is another distributed computing project with serious mathematical undertones. Marc told drobe.co.uk that a RISC OS client has been developed for Project OGR, which everyone is welcome to participate in. Printing with the correct paper ------------------------------- We have been testing out quite a few makes of Printers this year especially to compare the different Photo-Capabilities of newer printers. Supporting Photo Resolution Printing under RISC OS is a major issue that we are still working on. The amount of data that needs to be generated to support 1440 dpi or even 2880 dpi printing is very substantial and the innards of !Printers needs some substantial changes as a result. It has however been noticeable that using different makes of paper with the same Printer can have quite an effect on the quality of the Printout. Whilst there are many different paper suppliers around, the exact technology that each printer manufacturer uses to formulate its inks is very proprietary and to get the best results we have found that it certainly pays to use the individual manufacturers inks and their paper if you want the best results. Partis Software Updates ----------------------- Gary Partis has been working to fix and improve the various products that he now supports via Partis Software. These are primarily upgrades for the various makes of SCCI cards which can either be re-flashed or have a new ROM fitted to support his Power-ROM software. New versions of his various software inlcude:- !Backup - V1.06 --------------- * Fixed '!Help' exceptions. !PowerMgr - V2.18 ----------------- * Placed CDFS modules in MODULE directory instead of always being in FLASH (for SCSI with FLASH ROMs). * Removed DOSFS and DOSMount from all ROMs and file systems - causes problems. * Change Kinetic configuration bit in 'Config' word written to FlashROM. * Fixed '!Help' exceptions. * Make PowerMgr think that ATAPI licenses mean SCSI! !Speed - V1.35 -------------- * Fixed '!Help' exceptions. Desktop Filer - V1.53 --------------------- * On file systems which allow stacked icons, and icons are not stacked, the left mouse button will mount a drive. * Stop attempting to add too many lines to licence window - causes data curruption of memory! File Systems - V1.71 -------------------- *Fixed silly branch bug (when device not connected) in SmartMedia, CompactFlash and PowerParallel file systems. Stops exceptions and 'SWI not found' erros. * Fixed infinite loop bug in file systems which require activation (SmartMedia and CompactFlash). * Fixed mount problem when requesting block size (cures RO4 shutdown problems). SCSIDriver - V1.72 ------------------ * Update (fix!) Kinetic status bit from FlashROM. * Connect32 termintor power control now works correctly. * Greatly simplify the DMA subsystem. New Products ------------ Partis are currently developing PowerUSB which is a file system for USB based hard discs, flash memory etc etc. It is completly dynamic (ie. plug in a hard drive and an icon will appear; remove the hard drive and the icon will disappear again)! It is compatable with both Simtec's and Castle's USB cards. Availability is not yet certain - but they are aiming for demonstration versions by November 2002. Select memberships reach 850 ---------------------------- The excellent news is that we have now reached 850 subscribers to the RISC OS Select Scheme. The next Release of Select will be available from the Select Web Site next week, so if you have been putting off joining the scheme, please don't wait any longer. Remember that new subscribers joining the scheme after 31st December this year will have to pay 155 to join. Forthcoming Shows ----------------- The next RISC OS Show is planned to be the RISC OS South East Show being organised by SASAUG in association with Fillin on Saturday 2nd November at Guildford College. http://www.fillin.co.uk/seshow/ RISCOS Ltd will NOT be at that show. However we will be at the ARM Club Midlands Show on Saturday 30th November, which like previous years is being held at the National MotorCycle Museum in Birmingham. Though it is in a different hall this year. http://www.armclub.org.uk/shows/midlands/ User Group Meetings ------------------- I attended two User Group meetings in the last few weeks. The first was the Bottisham Acorn User Group - BAUG (pronounced Borg) on Tuesday 10th September. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.scholes/baug/index.html The second was at the Ipswich User Group - ICENI on Wednesday 2nd October. http://www.archipel.demon.co.uk/ICENI/ That rounds off the User Group Meetings for this year, but as usual if any Groups would like a visit, then please contact me. mailto:paul@riscos.com MicroDigital Omega ------------------ We had very much hoped to have had an Omega and a re-vamped Mico with Ethernet card available by now to test with RISC OS Select. Unfortunately MicroDigital have been unable to supply either machine to us yet so we still don't have any test results to report. Membership Renewals ------------------- As previously announced new Foundation membership fees are now applicable as follows:- European Community countries 35.00 + VAT = 41.13 Non-EC countries in Europe will be 35.00 (No VAT) Zone 1 Postal Countries, such as South Africa 37 (No VAT) Zone 2 Postal Countries, such as Australia 39 (No VAT) UK subscriptions 33 + VAT = 38.78 Lapsed members -------------- If your Foundation Membership has lapsed more than 6 months ago then we have an offer to help you decide to re-join. For only 40 (UK) or 42 (Europe) or 45 (Overseas Zone 1) or 48 (Overseas Zone 2) you can re-join the Foundation for 12 months and also receive the latest Foundation Risc User CD Issue 8 PLUS a further 4 issues. If your membership has only recently lapsed then you can re-subscribe at the standard rates. Please contact mailto:foundation@riscos.com if you wish to renew your subscription. RISC OS Select -------------- The price for new subscriptions to the RISC OS Select Scheme will be increased to 155 (150 for Foundation members) as from 1st January 2003. All existing subscribers will be able to renew at the current price of 105 (99 for Foundation members). i.e if you join the scheme at any time before 31st December 2002 then your 2nd year subscription will cost just 105 (99 for Foundation members). Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ©2002 RISCOS Ltd. RISC OS is a trademark of Pace Micro Technology plc. Certain other product names, brand names, and company names may be trademarks or designations of their respective owners.