eD6st-§elling RISC OS magazine in the world 4^:^^ i I
m
Find out what Rf| ::j!:azj achines can do
tau
ISSUE 215 CHRISTMAS 1999 £4.20 1 1 1 1 1!
House balls heavy (packol 10) £15 illSJ 640HS Media lot MO dri.c £|9 £!2J]|
Mouse lor A7000/r- N/C CD 630t1B re-wriie niedia £10 fii.rs £S tS.il Mouse for all Aciirns (not etr) A70DQ CD 630MB vrriie once raedis (Pk ol Computers for Education £12 II4.II1 10) £|0 £11.15 Original mouse for all Atoms (not A7K) HARDWARE i £16 urn JAZ IGB midta £58 £68.15 Business and Home |AZ 2GB media PERIPHERALS £69 [i PD 630MS media SPECIAL OFFER! £18 tll.lS I Syid 1.5GB media £S8 £S!IS ISDN MODEM + FREE Syquest lOSMB media £45 [S28I ACORN A7000+ tOHniTERS FIXING K. SytfuestOiMB media £45 islSjl INTERNET CONNEaiON )f[|iit'iij![IMB media £45 tS2S slice lor ,!.:., 2d Rlst PC int 1 waj L jj) i( 1 Syqufit 770HB media £76 £45 (Sji? I A?000 4. Ciasm [D £499 hard drive liting kir 2x 64k bpi ehaniiels mil M IDE £|2 £14.10 Zip lOOHBraetfia £8 (Ml IS9xU0«40mm A7000+(l3isnhO £449 W.il i- baikplane (not il CO aJrody insialled) Zip mW £34 [3).!S iOOMB media 1; pack) £35 awl]
;;! footprint A71100+0(lyHeyCD £549 mil Fixing km for hard drives ^ £S ff.40 Zip2S0HBmedia £11.50 (I4.i .Wf^ »«* 2 analogue ports |aTODCH- Odysse)- Nmotk HoniiDr cable lor all £525 mm Acorn (lelecdon) £|0 fll iS | 30 I- Odyssey Primary £599 flOJ ai Podule mi lor A3D00 £|6 RISC OS UPGRADES 47000 I OdyssEc Setoiidary £599 Rise PC I slo[ backplane ISP trial mm ii4.B I Argonet I £29 A700Oi Rise OS 3.11 chip sti £20 am OdyssEr^uil £699 Lih.il SCSI I S II [abteclioice from £io [II JS I - RiitOSJ.II hardware upgrade A300 (73-51} SCSI lerniiiiarar/adapiors £10 (seledion) £|0 (II.JS iiiiVAluidd[li«ry iSDNiintmrtri RiicQS }.ll tnannahei I £20 am ACORN NC COMPUTERS SCSI/IDE ribbon cables Irom £S lyj ili«0SJ.7fl(Ri!(PC0nly) £25 f7!.37
Sprin[(rl6f1B £299 BSI.Jll a-sc 4 0! (RiscPt/A700CI) £99 (Hi 32 FLOPPY DISC DRIVES MODEM I Spriiiier 16MB - Topcai rtady £299 OSI.H
I23k ISDN 2 analogue ptione ports iliyj I SpfinLfr iplm I6HB inc M" MonnDt £379 t4
Ethernet Card I70M6 IDE A300/A400/ASk (RJ4S/BNC) £99 (116.32 CD TOWERS km/mo interface inclnded £100 illJ.SO SOFTWARE Ethernet Card A]020/A4k (BNC MAU) £94 £111.45 nOMBIDE AJDOO Interlace Inrlnded £85 imi £549 iMs.or RisCafelavaioftwarMCD) Ethernet Caid A3O20/A4I! {R|4S MAO) £94 £111.45 04.03 am 170MB IDE A3010 Idicrtace Incliided £8S Bm fix CO 7 drivf Wer £379 !MS.!? Acom C/C * -^ Ethernet Card A30iO/A4k (Rj4S) £111.45 £160 £168,10 I7nM6 IDE A] firiine kit included £94 I 030 £49 mi initniernei Suite £'ll.i! Eihernei Card A30«0/A4k i RJ4S/BNC) £99 (II6JJ £95 IDE A3D0/A400 in[erlace Included £130 flS27S TOPCAT NT server iottware CD WRITER Ethernet Card Rite PC/A7k (Rj4S) £94 £110.45 £500 tSS7.S0 hOtlllBIDE AJOOOiniei face included £115 umi Eihernei Card Rut PC/A7k soohbide AJOIOInjerfac? Included {RJ4VBNC| £99 (116.32 SPECIAL OFFER! £115 Limi SPECIALS soomb ide A302O fining kii included £79 Lm PRINTERS INKJET A-link for pocket book (AHAJO) 6x record £|0 £11. /S A4 LCD Screen 4x re-write HARD DRIVES Video Acorn prmtw driver for any hsted printer £10 £11.75 £30 0S.7i A4PSUPa(k I6xread CANON B{(.200D (lOI.OS £10 01.75 Video SCSI £86 1 9GB eternal £599 ASOOO PoHiT Supply Unit CANON BJf -4400 £129 {151.52 £|0 (||,7S I Video SCSt external £899 Dtetrlbute your A/000 Computer CANON BIC-46S0 (A3) £225 Q64i7 £299 £3Sl.i7 resources, back-up HARD DRIVES Xtra CANON ajC-6000 £189 Dim Acorn Econet i/t all Ktepi RPC £5 iS.SI your data and give Aiwa h CO player CANON B]C-7I00 £219 (IS737 £49 (SJ,s; unlimited youneK ! Xira SCSI iiiiernal Alcatel voice auto aittiidani leltphont PC £169 ilSSSlj EPSON Stylus coloin 4iO £85 mil card £500 £587.5)
ttorage! I Xira SCSI iniernal DIS Upgrade £299 fiSuH EPSON Stylus colour m £99 mil £5 (SSI German keyboards RiscPC/A7000 etc EPSON Stylui colour B60 £194 £227.!S £|0 (II 7S )PI50 sheet feeder IDE INTERFACES Parallel prmtfr cable £t0 £117! £I0 (IL7i Mailer 128 TCP/IP (LPR}pnstii.prriirEr driver £175 £!I]S(I motherboard £|0 £Ii 75 Ai/400 IDE interface foi 2.Siii S l.Sin luiii dnvti £60 OOSCl GREAT V MailT internal SOOHB SCSI drive £99 (l|iJ2 AJOOO IDE inierlace kii - I.Sm hard drive £S2 fiJ.IO Mustek I2000P Scanner (PC Only) £55 iifl.JI A3I1I0 IDE hierface Kit - 2,iin Hard Drive £52 [61 10 NEW! Netprodutti Netitaiion £120 (141.01) AJD20 Imng tii 2. Sin hard drive £8 H.40 ^251 233MHz StrongARM (revt) PC card lor A3000 A30I0 A3020 AJOOO £49 £57.i7 KEYBOARDS UPGRADE WITH RISC OS 4 Rf Modulator N/C etc (phono in - TV out] £|5 (ll.j) Rise PC sound card (ACDOS) £|0 £JI7i
AilRA Acain keyboard fur A700CI and Rise PC £29 m il Sj Econet Bridge £20 £7i.S(l I I Ok performance Erjo keyboard CD WRITERS £39 £4S.!! SJ Etnnti starter kit £20 IZi.Sil increase whh Ergo keyboard for pre Rlic Pt £69 £11.07 Ui^jiie SCSI CO in[ RcWmei m ICDBiirN £219 OS?!! 1^ StrongARM Ke^boaid cable |'6 waf) £10 CII.IS DELIVERY CHARGES - next dny insured 6<4«l6SCSItiiCDItaWri[eri[ic!CDBum £249 t29JSJ upgrade 49% performance Orders over £200 paid by debit card FREE fltE[ COMBOS (HO A CD) MEMORY incrense with Small Items £6 fJ.OS RISC OS 4 All other orders £11 £11,93 A30USA')00l-4MB OS li\ I! {call for details) (CDSIOOHeHD-eMernalSCSI £99 Fitting charge (inc collecDon) £18 £11 15 AiOOO I -4MB £55 iiUl 1 8y CD S SOOME HD - e«mnal SCSI £129 We welcome payment by cheque (allow A3O00 4-8HB £124 (14110 PROCESSORS S days to clear). Credit and Dehii cards, EXTENDED WARRANTY A3000 serial port upgrade £B am A3Q!OI-2MB £25 ARM 3 processor lor A4(KI aw AiOOO A300 £||S (I3i.|i I EDUCATIONAL ORDERS WELCOMED.
• - A7000/A7000 e*l(nded warranty I yclr £S9 AJ0I0I-4MB 610 £55 mi ARM processor (2nd user) £69 (J|.07 CASTLE TECHNOLOGY Ltd, Ore Trading Estate A7000/A7000 • exiended warranty - 7 year £109 A3020SA4000 inm 2-'1H6 £35 UI.I7 StrongARM processor & RISE OS 4 £254.47 I IW WoDdbndge Road. Framlingham, Suffolk iPI3 9LL A70OO/A7DOO !- UKiended warranty -4 year £189 £227117 |A4004-aHB- £99 (111,32 StrongARM processor (tevi) S RISC OS 3 1 £229 £269.(17 Rise PC - (600/700) eitended warranty I 1104.57 2-4MB ftsr £89 00 £45 iS7,87 TEL0172e723200 FAX. 0300 783 9638 Rise PC extended warranty - (600/700) 3 year £159 ilEiSi [AS00D4liMB £119 IDImI REMOVABLE DRIVES Sales lines open Monday to Fnday 9,00am [ill 5 OOpm Uist PC (S00./700) emended warranty -4 year £279 07/ il Sattirday lO.OOamill I.OOpm i ZIP drive external SCSI I Rise - £99 il|(,Jj SifongARM PC eiiended warranty I year £99 m.n MEMORY RISC PC A7000 drive - i ZIP parallel not A300 etc £109 £I7S,0I SirongARH Rise PC eiiended warranty 1 year £179 ami Contact us by e-mail: [email protected] 4HB SIMM lor Rise PC and A7U00 £7 an 250HB 7IP drive external SCSI Visit 1 £129 fiSfJ) our web site' www.casrle org.uk StronjARM Rise PC emended warranty - 4 year £319 074! | KMB SIMM fur RISC PC and A700I) £10 tii.is MO dive internal I Mm £239 fJSO.S All trademarks acknowledged. 16MBSIMH-RiscPCAT000/r drivt £39 Hi.8 b^Wi HO ejtsrnal £279 £327,8 EXTERNAL SCSI CASES E80E All produces carry 32MB SIMM -Rise PC A7000/ £59 fS9J2 lomtga Parallel ZIP driver (lOOMBI I £25 ll1.il \ a full I year warranty unless AtornHEU2 0800 783 9638 www.castle.org.uk 01728 72320U contents Hands on Regulars Reviews Run the Rise News 24 Artworks plugins an overdue look at 68 Mike Cooks lends his talents to the area 6 Colin Sutton takes What happened at the RISC OS '99 add-ons for this popular art package of garden pest control in Bash a Mole show plufa what's coming up Rambles Comms 45 ParaFS 70 Mr Cook takes a break from being a 13 Networking two RISC OS machines Latest on broadband Internet John Peel look-a-iike to answer your without pricey network cards? connection; what does your browser questions reveal on the Web Digital projector 60 Mike Battersbv points the way in the Published by 1 A Graphics page world of digital projectors Spacetech hitorials, Chris Jarman's art and the hfe of Nick van der Walle Features 16 Public domain Looking at a little known graphics New machines ix)nverter, d SLTtwi grabberdnd 18 Steve Tiirnbull looks at the hardware perspecti vised Draw behind RiscStation's machines PRESS Game show 40 2ft Planetary visions Getting jiggy with some of the older Unit 2A, Heapriding Business Park, Ford Street, Trevor Attewell explains how the game stuff in emulation formats Stockport, Ctieshire SK3 OBT most detailed global image ever was e-mail: [email protected] created (with help from Acon\s) h ttp : / / WWw.aconi use r.coni / ^2 Subscriptions Teh 101611 429 8902 Fax: (01611 429 1)685 Get every issue of Acorn ikcr dehvered '24 TopModel tutorial Printed bv The Manson Gniup l-td, SI Albans to your door and the back issura Max Palmer gets down fo basics in Editor Steve TurnbuU Pari I of this helpful series Deputy Editor Duns Ian Orchard Letters Production Manager Aian (ones 73 Net graphics Art Editor Anthony Broughlon Make your views, news and opinions 46 Find out how you can compile data Contributors known on our regular page Simon Anthony, TrCTor .\ttewcll, Alasdair Bailey, and draw Web graphics on-the-fly Mike Battersby. Ian Burley. Mike CiMk, David Dade, Regan files Andrew Green, Simon MelliUBli, Mux Palnier, lill Regan, 74 Intro to Draw Colin Sutton, I'ani TurnbuU, ?aul Vigay Talking to that crazy hardware man of 52 Getting to grips with the basics of the Pennines: Stuart Tyrrell Account Manager David Bradfcirth this versatile drawing package Ad Production Dun^tan Orchard Finance Manager Charlie Moran Subscription Manager Richard Siggee Circulation Director Darren Whiteman Competitions Distribution COMAG 1018951 444(55 Education Managing Director Steve Tumbull '2 '2 Win a RiscStation (i'l Education news Subscriptions: One of the new RISC OS machines is Bringing together all the latest news tor 0870 606O424 for grabs in this excitmg educationalists E-m ascription rate; £43-9') (UKl, competition ''eU), £63,99 (World) /^CT Education reviews C'l Win an enormous ^^ The latest Keyioonis product from ii-cr '\i-fTn I i^avniUblLtasspneLh tajru tliL' Sherston and what's with Argosphere? i,iiii:i^s;pH;sprtp6i .AsB'iidiition UK Software bundle! LlOOOs of pounds of software could be Next month rii,ilL'i--,il 111 I !.. iiTiui,(ii,-,.J til whole L'l !] ;.J|I nlLlvjul yours in this great competition '. V.I I ^o\-t>ry cjnj is taken, Nexl month's Issue >ees articles on keeping your old machines liir ]ii,i . II Id le^llj' rehpiiiwWii.dH' running; Uiinn TWAIN scanner driver?; creating your own em' uirtir- a. ihlhIit. li'.lingMir odviSrllSEnienliaiid Free ads , Page 59 Mailing I'ni; what goes into writing a RISC OS game; and Ihi! vk'vi'5 ol tuntcll'utoi-ii do not nnoisaiirlly reflect AdverHsers' Index Page 56 reviews of the 2S0Ub Zip drive; the Archive CD; JM's mouse ^Jj^lmvfrjilhr.' pubhshei's Contact us Page 56 mat; and Castle's new Iteyboard, plus all the on-going series. Back issues Page 70 r^^OJi^L, vv%vw,argL>nEl.c http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 m 1 Curriculum Training Associates Depl. Xnias. 168 Elliott Si. Ty Ides ley Gtr. Manchester M29 8DS EMAIL: [email protected] http;//www.cta.u-net.coni Tel - 01942 797777 Fax - 01942 79771 0% Interest FREE credit (6 months) or LOW cost finance available on all new systems. 6 iiiiiiiHis liiU-rfst Frt'c (_ rt-dil On All SvnI^iiis mc [iiTipluTals. sullwure and 273 >r upliuiul \<;irrHntics (minimuiu spt-iid CKOO iiic \all SA233T" Web Wizard A7000 + Series Machines WscStaiUon A7t)0(l+ Cla^'.k :^ Mips RO.I.T SM / OfTWO^^'iFUflCStatiOn 34Mb/t!G/DvdCD/1 7" mon/Slereo Spk. Am Rise Basad TechnolOQJes ]fi HD/niiCR 1:444.1x1 (£S27.5t() Inteniel & Jarva with a SfiK niiKlem Tor only A7U00+ rhLsMt 29 Mips R03,7 l "Hw.risi-stiitiiiD.eii.iik *fff wptintlf pnt'i' livt Sw fur nmif di'taiK Sff it»it.risi'st(iliiin.i:i>.iik liir moivrfi'luils confi^ratitm you require. RISC OS 4 StrongARM HARD DRIVES AND SUB-SYSTEMS WH y m Y MORE? A3020 A30X0 & l/F A4000/A5000/A4(X1 RPC/A7()00/RiscStalion £99.00 +vat Rev "T" Ex VAT InoVAT Ex VAT inc VAT El VAT Inc VAT Ex VAT Inc VAT (£1 16.33) place your with 6a«0UB £39 00 £45 a3 £79.00 E92 83 210Mb (refurb) £25 00 £39 37 2.1GB £60,00 £70 50 order now 170MB £49 00 £57 S8 £89.00 El 04 .57 250MB £30.00 £35 25 4.3GB £70,00 £82 25 RISC OS 4 340MB £59,00 £69 33 £99,00 Cits 32 34DMa £35.00 £41 12 6.4GB £75 00 £88 12 500MB £79.00 £92 83 £tt9.00 £139.83 4E0MB £40.00 £4? 00 a4GQ £85.00 £99 87 Fitting & dala iraiisfcr, if required. £25 m eiDMBIt £99.00 £116.32 £12500 £14637 - only £299 500B £49.00 EST 58 12.9GB £95.00 £11162 inc val (£)5 wiih new HD). • 1 0Gb e £109.00 £128 08 £13400 £157 45 1 2QB £95 00 £11162 16.808 £110 00 £129 25 Stock Available NOW inc VAT 2 16B B £123.00 £144 53 £149 00 E175 0a 21GS £100.00 £117.50 20.1GB' £125.00 £14687 3 2Ga » £129,00 £151 sa £15500 £183 12 3.2G8 £105,00 £12337 25 0GB- £168,00 £197 40 4 3GB H £149.00 CI7S0e £17500 £20562 4.3GB • £110.00 £129 £240.00 All nK>ml^r^ 25 36 4GB* £282 00 jne 3 yi-. JVfOMITOR S ACORN MKII IVlV-^l^l versicin ' " ^.ly tl^lo^'.^fxcineJ H^IVJ AJOXO iiielm es CD ROM l/f which can alsu inc. iniemal removable HD & CD rcquicc. RISCOS 4 or TRACKBALL vustiliiiA.'OlOor A4(X)0. For esicnial A.IOOO i/r ROM 1/1. For pail ill on ing .M)flwarc Paniiuming s/w fur RISCOS 3.5 lil-dULl Ei VAT Ire VAT itlil I^U.UO +VAT # rifludt's p^miliuHing w.il"1v.jre 0!ll> ^ 25.0()+iji(£2y..'Ki / .3,6 / .1,7 iiiily as.m + val M" SVGA 0.28 Oyrofi-srlol E79.00 E92.B3 & MOUSE 14" SVGA 0.2S Multi-Media £99.110 £116 32 Removable Drives IS" SVGA 0.28 Oytod-site] £95.00 t1 11.62 SCSI HARD DRIVES IE' SVGA 0.28 Muiti-Medta £119.00 £13Q.a3 IDE Drives SCSI Removable Drives t-IOM(j n imiiied Bupi)iv tJi» (£41.131 II It -I.p.h:- Jiypptr, -ipi(,,hk. ,1ii'vl* nlurfiKuiv : E.Vr.A0 2flnvr RTRi Ct2re;S £149.e9 iGli E50 (£50 ,-i ZiplOOMin rasoo IfSg 88) 17"SVGAa28(3yfOfi.sitBl flJSOO £175.06 LSI20inl please nng 2Gb (5400 rpm) special E80 [E94.00) Zip 2SaM e« tneoo (£136. 30) Zip lOOirrl E5500 (E94.63) 0.29 m-mediat3yr) £169.00 £198.58 -".ii. i;;3n riKn, n Eio(; 50) rrSVGA PD651VC0 CI 39.00 (£163 33) lt117 Zlp2Mim CI 19 00 [SMsa.BSl Fl" 4.3eb I SVGA 2fi |.l,i ijti-srr»j E?49 00 £292.57 \Dmal 750 C16S0O (£193 88) 15400 or 7200rpm| £140 (£164.50) £1 Parallel Drives " SVGA 0.25 (3yt On-BilB| £540.00 £634.50 Jb2 2Q in! E235.00 (f276 13) 9 iObi72O0ipni) £195 (£229 13.1 I'dfaiklilfiifMriLlikJr ,\L,kniS->Jthiii( 18" liV'jA M Mdvi u"-l,i1p1| EH.ISOO E1697.BS £29.79 + VAT Jaz2Geiit £235 00 (C276 13) 18.6Gb|7200Tpm| £329 (£386.58) 15' llyBfTia Vision Mnslsi 350 C125.CW £146. 87 Zip 100 EB3.00 IE1 16.33) 36 4Gb (7200 rpm) £640. (£752.00) 17" Zip 250 £139.00 {E1B3.33) llyama Vision Masler Fsr K35.1XI £276.12 (£35.00 inc) hirt.XT. SCSI lal^cO(HKl VAT lint L-ahicl E290OO (£351 17''llyamHPro410 E267.00 £313 73 Jai2G 33) hiittXT SCSIIIi.-d>,i:tS.\IM) V..\r (muMhlcl 10' livama Pro 450 C400.i« E470.00 21- llyama Pro DIamondlron £630.00 £740,25 C D-ROM WRITERS Drive CD-ROMS AKF53 Mullisync 14" lyrflTB E149 00 £175 08 6 ', - AKF50 Mullisync 14" lyrHTB £19000 E223.25 Prices Start 4«\ IDE SCSI AKF12PAL l4-Tah,niMaif= £155.00 E76 37 * 1 . from SCSI 48x £39,00 (£45,83) 40x £65.00 (£76.38) AKFS2/53 Maync leiuib BO Qays £99 00 C 11 6 32 40x £35-00 (£41.13) 32x £55.00 (£64.63) AKF60SVGA M'rsiN-DSOdiys £6500 E76 37 '; £149.00 + . ^ CDROM SCSI 8x 8x £30.00 8x £30.00 Multi sync A30(VA 3000 cable EB.50 £9.99 Towers (£35.25) (£35.25) 2x2x6x £149.00 (£175.00) Autochanger Forcstt-rnallDtnrSCSE 1 add £511,00 + VATfinL.tahlcl 4x4«16« £199.00 (E233,83) £499 £85.(X1 + vai THE BEST PRINTER PRICES For cik-rriiil SCSI 1! aJd ES5.00+ Vul, (inc. tabid CD-BURN £49,00 (E57.58) (£5m.33) (£99.88) IDF drivtr lor Rist OS 3.1 £15 + viil I Please ring Tor laicM prices ) CD-SCRIBE 2 £49.00 (£57.58) IDE ml. filling kil i'S inc. Inl. SCSI fitting kil^ Irani t)U + v, E« VAT Inc VAT Canor BJC 1000 colour A4 £77 00 £90 4B Canon BJC 2000 colour « A4 £89 00 £104 58 Interface Adapters Canon BJC 2000 Scan U \ A4 £158,00 £185 65 e«VitT mcVAT 9lV«T Inc VAT IlKMbZip Canon BJC 4650 colour # A3 £228 00 £267 90 CB.EH 5 !Gb DVD HAU ESS 00 32-bit C3S00 E41.13 EE50X SCSI DMA £84.26 £99.00 Canon BJC 4650 Scan K A3 £275.00 E323 13 fU If. t;DBC[>,BOM CI m El 50 Canon BJC 7000 colour » A4 E169.O0 £198.58 Storm SCSI 8-bit (A30x9 int) £88.00 ei 03.40 E7.00 t:B,Z3 CDR III pKh tHJOO Cll 75 Epson Stylus 440 £85.00 l"i C 1 Gn .tn/j UftDO CGBIS ClinB0min!5pa. a5.53 ncoo Storm SCSI 32-blt DMA (podule) £128,00 £150.40 E^ivi.'Fi '.lylij', fi^i.i'iolour A4 [165 I.".. •.I'.'Hii/ JGBJftW Eiaoo L'SI DS Epson Stylus 1 520 colour £360 CO £41 1 25 Stmtec 8-bit (A3000/A3010) £55.00 £64.63 A3 1 , .. . 1 5GDSvai«31 tsauo tee IS 1 , Epson Slylus Pholo 700 * A4 £135,00 £158.63 Simtec 16-bit (AXOO/A5000/RPC) £45.00 £52.88 Epson Stylus Pholo EX # A3 £265.00 £311.38 Desktop FAX MODEMS APDL 16-bit DMA £45.00 £52.88 HF 61(1C r*.llMif HP 895CXI colour A4 E200.00 E235 00 56k X2/V90 3Com USR £11B-J0 £129 00 APDLBiitZ 32-bit DMA £99-00 £116.33 HP LASERJET 1100 £249.00 £292.58 56k FieftiVgO (Rockwell) £55 32 00 M5 Removable IDE or SCSI housing unit £20.00 £23.50 HP LASERJET 21 00 POL £454.00 £533 45 ISDN modem le«em,nl) £99 00 £1 16 33 High speed serial cards single £67.23 £79,00 HP LASERJET 2100 PS £514.00 £603.93 ANT Inlemei Suite £99,00 £116.33 Pholo drivers (or » £58 72 £69.00 Webster XL £2128 £25.00 High speed serial cards dual £75.75 £89,00 Scanner drivers tor I £29.79 . £35,00 IJava CD £33,19 £39,00 High speed serial cards triple £84.26 £99.00 VHfiFAviun.t f h% rl;[fUL-^l^" AfcFax Fax software £26-38 £31,00 1 3 yr Warranty on ALL Acorn MEMORY why pay More?? NEW LOWER PRICES liISC P( MF.MOHY ' oitt\ whils! ctinciti s!(>ck-\ last Also lor A700(l Ex VAT IfWVAT 8MD SIMM EtOOO El 1.75 EicVAT IneVAT 16Mb SIMM £20.00 £23.50 A3tt)^M6 upgrade E3S E«1.13 32Mb SIMM £38.00 tw.es A310 FISC OS camei Board CI 9 eZ2 33 32Mb fiigb clearance £44.00 E51.70 ASTOUeMClaiipgtaOeliit i2Q £23.50 A400/1 two Upgrade (per MB) C25 £29.38 64Mb SIMM £65.00 £76.37 A30tlU i-aMbfton-UpqraaeHble £15 E17 63 12BMbSIMMtrorti £130.00 £152.75 A3000 1 4Mt] Upgrade £35 £41.13 1Mb VRAM £38 30 £45.00 AMOO Serial PoM Upgrade £19 £22 33 3Mb VRAM £76 00 £09.30 4.aUl. Up. IA310. WQ, 3000') ESS £64, B3 l-2Mb (Bxgtiange) £65.00 £77.55 A301DI-aUt> Upgrade £20 £23.50 A30i0i-4Mb Upgrade E4& E52.BB A3020/'1DOO 2-4 Mb Upgrade C40 £47.00 3.1 Mhz Arm 3 upgrade SPtiCI.M. ASOOa 2- 4Mb Uograde £45 £52.88 with FPA socket £45.00 £55,88 inc. A5000 4-aMb 2M!- a 33Hh/ E5S £64. S3 r-iEW A-r,.io MM. f^S £5cBfl FPA10(25Mhz) £84.26 £99,00 inc. FPA10 Inr A5000 of Arm 3 Card £45 £52.58 Replace mem VI DC or IOC ctiips E20 £23 SO RPC 16 hit audio & mixer £59 inc rework il requifsd £25 1129.36 Kisv 0!«3.il Rum upgrades RPC audio mixer £35 inc t.:5.IKIi.-.v^- V:il a2')..lNt MICE & KEYBOARDS Replacement Floppy Drives Consumables NETWORK Specials .A.^(HK)/4(K)/,'i()() t2y.{K)+vat {t;34.()Sl Hij!hQu;tliiy F'n-mit r Qiuilin Ink Rejilh Refurbished DCI4 .A,30X()/4(M)0/5()(H) tltippy allows Ac urn ERGO Single refills (lK22ml) £6.00 inc cross - formalting ol' and Mciu.sc tIKKI HD DD Podule combo cards Twin refills (2x22ml) £10.00 inc discs £29.{H)+v:il(£34.(lK) (£14.10) Triple refills (3x22ml) £14.00 inc 10base2&T E« VAT Inc VAI Tri- Colour ICM.Y) £15 00mc Acorn IrackerbalL^ouse 'Jt v i2»T» E35M POWERED SPEAKERS or Aeon Original Mouse €25 00 (2S^ Quad-Colour (C.M.Y.Kl £20.00 inc Acorn E'lii-'MoioeriLW cia.w €14.10 Ex. VAT Inc. VAT 125 ml £21.00 inc RPC network podule « tUM (14 to 60 watls with PSU £13.50 E15.86 250ml £38-00 inc Ergo (siflj Rise PC KayBMua I51M EHOO 10base2 Ergo curbed flisc PC Kcytioara EM.Tfl OS DO £21.00 240 walls with PSU £24.68 500ml £50,00 inc A400^A5[X)0 rgp^aCnmDETl K/brd £59 00 €69 33 Subwooler system £42.00 £49.35 only £79.00 + VAT A400IASM0 Ergo Kayboarfl C6S00 EBtca 1 litre £70.00 inc iivailahic in CM. Y.K COLOUR SCSI SCANNERS Character Mouse Mats FLOPPY DISKS @ 20p!! Soul hparii Kenny E4.99 ARCSHARE Ail siiimiers iiii' Amni Sojhuiir Ex VAT Inc VAT SoulhpartiCannian £4.99 Acorn networking for PCs Disney MicKsy, Pooh, Donald, elc £"1.99 DD Re-label Acorn fml 10 £2.00 £2.35 X-FrlH3 (tour lypesi £4.99 DD Re-laDel Acorn hnl lOO £17.02 £20.00 i;29.95 exc Val US.IM inc \al Garfield ar roi/ally £4.99 HD bulk Acorn or PC 10 £3.00 £3 35 sec network section for Cards etc Slandard niatei.DO'Ecor CO 65 HD bulk Acorn or PC 100 £17.02 £20.00 •^ HD Branded lOoack £3.00 £3.53 Switch Boxes 20 cap Disk Bon CI .69 £2 00 RiscPC PC Cards 40 cap Disk Box C2.54 £2 98 2-1 With cable £15.00 £17.63 DX2-66 £135.00 inc VAT 100 rap Disk Bo" £2.98 £3.50 2-1 AulQ with cable £15.00 £1763 Mouse cleaner £4.99 C5.B6 SSe-ICX) (Aleph) £225 00 inc VAT 4-1 wiThcabie £1900 £2233 3 5' Floppy head cleaners £2.50 E2.94 586-133 (CJE 512) £225,00 inc VAT P'llal Mustek; eoodpi £99.00 (£116.33) 2-1 Monttor'K'board £29.79 £35 OQ CD-ROM cleaner £4.25 £4 99 Mustek A4 600dpi £119,00 (£139.83) MusleKA4 1200dpi £149,00 (£175.08) R-Comp CD-ROM Soft ware Prinler Ribbons, Inkjet We can repair/upgrade your Epson GT7000 £199.00 (£233.83) ABijSE f»00 Ouakis [flue-ioorn fl3M machine(s) and monitors at Epson GT7000P £249.00 (£292,58} Dssoorrl K7 00 Syr>i>Celo E^P 90 Cartridges. Dmrn. Tfllagy t30M Iwtrsol Darkness eaOM competitive prices please ask Imiivfiunter & Iwiiin iihii iivtiiliil'lf (i:3Z 50 «>th DooK) (Haisn Tnpis! New/Recycled Laser Toner Carts Heroes til Wight £32 no Doom sattBls Bml 1 w \rpuniirh I'dlo- .n.iilahlc kill ri'i.|iii_'^t All Acorn's. BBCs& PCs (CTA Speolall {All Prices below include VAT) THE BARGAIN BASEMENT Quest lor GOLD E5 00 Titles Acorn Software Bin CD General Resource We have a large collection ol* RAMplJfy £17.95 Ai^Drn Pocliel Book Stheflule C10.D0 10000 Clip An (Draw Format) £5.00 Revalalion 2 £29.00 Budget PC software suitable for Alone in the Dark £39.00 SSOtonls £5,00 Shuggy £14.95 RPC Pc Emulators and PC clones Aim Tech LatiallBr £9 00 SllverBall £9.99 Symphony Music collection £5.00 Arm Teth CllpArl (various per pEickl £8 0li inc. Education. Home, games an SlrongQuard £25.00 Internet Clipart (new) £25 00 BirOs ol War £20.00 TANK.S. £1695 utilities please ring lor lisl Boxing Manager £8.00 COREL DRAWS £29 00 TURBO DRIVER - Epson Slylus £45 00 ChlklPlav ((iesklnp) EI4.B5 Visual Backup Eis.oo ColQurSep IColour Separation Software; £6 00 Waveiengm £12.00 1/2 price (or less) Book Bargains Crealcr 2 £25 00 Alternative PC Bases World Class LeaOarlKiartl (GOLF) £10.00 Foni Pack i Academy) ClOOO DRIB Dabliand Guide 'Budget DTP" £3.00 I.e. Siciitaiis Ni\orl OF lie Foni Pack (Balmwall ElOOO Pcmiuin Dabhand Guide "C" vsr 3 £8.50 DFite Foiil Pack (FteeSryla Sciipl| £10.00 :()() from ONLY t24'>.ll() Software Dabhand Guide ver 2 £3 00 MMX DFIIa Font Pach (Mantiawin) ElOOO Acorn CD-ROM "C + V/Vr ring lot laiesi price-.. D'File Fonl Pack (Maslercard) CIO.OO Dabhand "Graphics on the ARM £7 50 D'Fite Fom Pack (OIO Towne 5361 El 2.00 Dabhand Guide "Impression" E7 50 CryslalMaze £15.00 Diary -t £9,00 Internet info server £20 00 now fo()Ki>i;k Drifter £30,00 D'File PDCD 4 £5 00 SQL £17.50 FIPE and ICE £15.00 UY MAlL.it PlIONTi ("iiC4iic. i.r PO,v ^bimlJ It D'FilePDCDS £10.00 ni.i,lt piiyahlc Frah ((rar RPC) £13.00 m C\.\ WRBCT. Hutchinson Encyclopedia £39.00 Gaiaclic Dan E10.O0 Various Hardware Bargains CREDIT CARD/ SWITCH pltii^c give na-nc. jdilres-;. id, no, card nil, expirv diile. issue mi, Game ON [lor RPC/ A700U) £15.00 Rtrtiert Duncan Cartoon KIT £39.00 A30OO IMt Dases troni • css.ou £64 52 \ale^(?oui,u-nel.fom A3I1 1 ZtfD tiBseb from • £85.00 £99 SB UY EMAIL Global Etlecl £25,00 TopicAn CD £srX) Irom I OKHClAt.ORDKRShj MAILorFAX p^ea^e Guile £10.00 A30ao 2Mb Bases £115.00 £135 12 Tots TV ABC £15.00 A40aO2MBDa39Blram • Et5OO0 £176 35 (^imjtfi: ctijj^c; mil in\ A ^xiLkJtfint^ ^lur^cd .it co.l HERO QUEST £15.00 A5DO0 4Mb irasef tiom £210 00 £246 75 .Sm.ill iicnn (umler 2K^) \\'< imin; ihjii £h + idt Imagerv An Package £25 00 YITM Electricity and magnelism £15,00 A70DD Nuclides II and Elements II (save C5.O0 £35.00 • as 31 III iBBf nvrni SlU ito« IW, z^ij-i^-y J Intel and ARM ook to the future After a long period of uncertainty ARM platform and delivered a fully compatible with software between the two companies, Intel, 200MHz StrongARM, which was available for ARM cores," said which owns the StrongARM variant over four times more powerful than Tliomas R. Franz, vice president. of the ARM RISC processor, and the fastest ARM700. Computing Enhancement Group, ARM Ltd have announced that they Digital, though, was in financial and general manager. Applied have jointly forged an agreed chaos and the company was broken Computing Products Division, Intel roadmap for the ftihire. The news up, with Compaq snapping up its Corpctration. He added: "The high- seals the future for StrongARM and computer products division and Intel performance, low-power StrongARM ensures that new, faster, versions will acquiring its semiconductor business. microprocessor family is essential to be produced, hopefully during 2000. For a while, it was feared that Intel's success in the portable, StrongARM, which can be StrongARM, which was considered handheld and applied computing thanked as the saviour of the Rise PC an alien technology by Intel insiders, market segments. in the mid'90s, was originally the was to be jettisoned in order to "Intel has joined the growing work of Digital Semiconductor. concentrate on the Alpha platform. ranks of companies that have ARMs have always been But it was soon realised within embraced the ARM architecture and impressively quick for their size and Intel that StrongARM was, if the ARM Partnership Model," said lack of complexity, but ARM Ltd anything, a more valuable asset than Reynette Au, vice president. made no bones of the fact that it was Alpha and so Intel has now Worldwide Marketing, ARM, adding: primarily concerned with the swallowed its pride and committed "Intel's technological expertise helps lucrative market for current-frugal itself to developing StrongARM in push the envelope of the ARM battery-powered devices, like mobile co-operation with ARM. roadmap. This agreement further phones. The newly announced deal reveals validates ARM's acceptance as the Tills policy has enabled ARM Ltd a licensing agreement which will architecture of choice in a wide range to be one of the best performing enable Intel to develop a full range of of high-performance, power-efficient, companies on the stock markets in soiutioi"is based on current and future cost-effecHve solutions targeting the last year and the company is now versions of the ARM architecture applications such as portable valued at over $3 billion. That's not beginning with version 5TE. telephony, digital consumer and e- bad for a chip which was basically "We believe the ARM architecture commerce driven, Internet-enabled designed on a BBC Micro at Acorn in has proven itself as a leading products." the early 1980s. But RISC OS users processor platform in applied Intel has confirmed that needed more power than ARM Ltd computing and embedded StrongARM processors are being re- could provide with the original applications. Intel's StrongARM engtneered to reach target ARM600 and 700-series cliips. Digital implementation utilises Intel's performance levels of 600 MHz (or applied their Alpha monster-RISC unique microarchitecture and low an estimated 750 MIPS). That's just processor design techniques to the power technologies while remaining what a Rise PC needs! RISC OS sub- notebook? Well, not really, but sort of. In fact at Jornada, but the display the recent RISC OS show in Epsom, machine was a bit of a cheat, RISCOS Ltd had on display a simply displaying a picture Hewlett Packard StrongARM-based of a RISC OS 4 screen as it Jornada sub-notebook, which would might appear in future. normally nm Windows CE. On its Nevertheless, it was a potent LCD screen instead was a RISC OS sign that there are plenty of desktop. RISCOS.Ltd have plans to opportmiities for RISCOS port RISC OS 4 to machines like the Ltd, given the opportunity *\ Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com (lews RISC OS radar You may never have heard of Researcher at Denbridge Digital, Denbridge Digital, but the enthused about the programmability Merseyside-based company is a of the host Rise PC. long-time user of Acorn technology Although he isn't born and bred in its specialised line of high-tech on RISC OS, he quickly appreciated products, including, of all things, its streamlined nature and the radar control systems. In fact we first manner in which it interfaced with learned about Denbridge Digital last the hardware. month when we heard about one of At the show, the demo radar their products, a RISC OS-controlled controller was showing a simulated accident black box recorder system display of a real installation for ferry ships. somewhere in the UK. Not only does Wliat we didn't know tlien was the equipment display the radar that several radar systems around scan, but it can control the strength the country are controlled using of the scan, take snapshots and ruggedised Rise PCs and one was on archive too, It's likely that Acorn User display at the AAUG stand during will be featuring Denbridge Digital the RISC OS '99 show at Epsom Race in more depth in a future issue of the Course. Dr. Colin Wright, Principal magazine. Up-to-date Beeb As we approach the Millennium, support for the venerable old Beeb 1 St RISC OS soldiers on as the trusty 2MHz 8-bit warhorse nears its 20th birthday. This month we've heard from R.P. Sprowson, who has made a trio of Show is a success offerings available for die-hard Beeb users. The first is a Zip file 'chaotic' often repeated - not in a The first RISC OS Show, organised by was compression utility and what's more, the the sense, although it did get a AAUG and ARM Club, was negative it's free, Secondly, there is a Year 2000 over the last days of October bit crowded, but because of the held two more bug fix for BBC Masters - earlier at the novel venue of the Queens enthusiasm of the attendees. Beebs mostly escape from the Y2K Castle Technolog)''s Stand at the Epsom Race Course, Jack bug as they don't have real time more readily recognised as the home Lillijigston reported that he sold an clocks. The fix is a ROM upgrade and of The Derby. unexpectedly high number of Rise adds several new/enhanced Some 1,200 visitors attended the PCs and that in general perhaps more commands, including *CONFIGURE show and while the size of the show visitors wanted to buy things than in TIMEZONE as provided by RISC OS. smaller than the Acorn World previous shows - probably because of was The charge for this is a very to fill this RISC 4 and the general upswing Show which used autumn OS reasonable £9, inc. postage and a slot, most exhibitors we spoke to were in the market. CJE's Chi'is Evans also printed manual. Existing users can very reported that business was brisk, as complimentary. The opening upgrade to this latest vl.22 by Saturday of the show saw 800 did Cumana/Cannon Computing's returning their ROM with 2 first class the tiie term Nigel Cannon, The show venue, in through doors and stamps. Finally, there is an updated the swish Queens version of PICstiitc for RISC OS. Stand building PJCSuite consists of an assembler, split the exhibits disassembler, simulator, programmer, into upstairs and and launcher and the programming downstairs levels hardware for under £100. It now and the only big supports both 12- and 14-bit PIC complaint from chips, allowing almost all of exhibitors was that Microchip's devices to be access for getHng programmed - including 8-pin ones upstairs wasn't up used in games machines and satellite ideal. decoders. In all, the RISC The assembler on its own is a OS Show was available for free down-load. For success and we all more information on all these expect it hope and products, check the Web at to make a re- http://www.sprow.co.uk or appearance next e-mail: [email protected] year. hltp://wvvw.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 (lews ood repair Following on from our feature on them in the November issue of Acorn User, Reflex Electronics have Reflex armoLmced that they have signed a five year deal with Cabot 2 Ltd (formerly Acorn Computers Ltd) which will see Reflex officially take Electronics responsibility for all Acorn- manufactured product warranty work packaged by Castle. Acorn. Now we and our customers and technical support for the next five Original Acorn stock will be can look to the future with confidence, years. Cabot 2 is the company which covered by warranties which will be For Acorn users the agreement means was set up in the aftermath of the honoured by Reflex Electronics, while that from now on they should refer all splithng up of Acorn between Element computers built by Castle are questions relating to the warranty, 14 and Pace in order to tidy up supported by Castle's own scheme. If repair, service, maintenance and remaining contractual and logistical you are unsure as to which company support of Acorn products direct to us obligations. to approach if you have a warranty at Reflex." That term 'Acom-manufactured' is enquiry, Reflex Electronics will be able Based in Stevenage, Reflex important. Since to determine from Electronics have been fixing Acorn shortly after Acorn serial numbers equipment for over four years and closed down its whether or not they were contracted by Acorn to carry out Workstation division are dealing with an warranty work before the company in 19*^8, Castle Acorn warranty or a was broken up. David Lumley also Technology has had Castle warranty. stressed that his company are keen to exclusive rights to Reflex Electronics' carry out non-warranty work, act as a build and distribute operations director, source of spares to anyone as well as Acorn-branded David Lumley, provide technical support and even products. Part of commented: training. The company are also able to Castle's stocks were "Everyone at Reflex is supply extended warranties both to originally built by, and delighted with this individual customers and to resellers. came from, Acorn, agreement which For further informahon, the Reflex while others were validates our past and Electronics enquiry number is: 01438 assembled and CASTLE present commitment to 720 379. Wakefield 2000 show Latest releases revealed The Wakefield Acorn Computer from Castle (User) Group has announced that CTL have a pair of new productions Kids Keyboard which is suitable for the fifth Wakefield show has been this month, including an A3 format Acorn Rise PC and A7000+ computers. booked for the weekend of the SCSI scanner and a keyboard This keyboard differs from others in 20th and 21st May, 2000 at the specifically aimed at youngsters. The that the key top legends are lower case now familiar venue of the new scanner is priced £199 plus VAT characters instead of upper case - in Thome's Park Athletics Stadium and is claimed by CTL to be the first of Primary Schools children start by in Wakefield. - its type for Acorn users. Its full name is learning the alphabet in lower case The previous four events have the ScanExpress A3 SP and it has 600 x and the key action is also soft and all been very successful, spurred 300 dpi optical resolution, 36-bit colour tactile, better for small fingers. on by the enthusiasm and capability as well as monochrome grey Meanwhile, grown-ups haven't professionalism of the Wakefield scale modes. The scanner is bundled been left out - for example, the Acorn Computer User Group with David Pilling's popular Image keyboard is equipped with the new which belies their non-profit Muster software and the latest version Euro symbol. The Kids Keyboard is status. of Castle's Twain 1 driver which allows priced £39 plus VAT and is also For more information keep an control of brightness, contrast and available as an option on new eye on the Web site: http://www. gamma settings. computers purchased from Castle as a cybervilla ge. CO. uk / a corn / Schools and parents with small £20 upgrade. CTL, tel: 01728 723200, Wakefield children could be interested in Castle's e-mail: [email protected],uk Christmas 1 999 http://www.acomuser.com | 3.5" IDE Hard Discs Public Domain, Shareware and other low cost hardware and software for RISC-OS computers Drive + i/face Dnve 420 Mb £89 £47 540 Mb £102 £57 e\ b'."ii:K^rli\.''-'L |[pD 4.2 (ib £129 £82 Acorn furnial clip an. For a full catalogue on SUDK or 1 ,6Mh dist please send 5()p or two 1 si tlas^ stamps or sec our web site. 6.3 C;b £IJM £87 APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN n^Hi 10 (;b £155 £IOK ""^^ Phone: QiSl 778 2659 Fa.x: 018/488 0487 u ww,apdLa>.,tik/ 12.7 Gb £166 £119 l6.»Gb £178 £131 18.8 Gb 5 £1% £149 APDL Public Domain, Clip Art and other CDs '+ i/face' price includes an APDL PD-1 Issue 4 £12 50 '"''^ ''*-^' '**' *"** ''"'"' *''^" ''*^'*' ^^ library. Over 1,800 programs and utilities, APDIJasI IDE interface. more than 11)0 novels, etc. No games, clip art. muNic, or other non-serious stuff. "^^ Part-exchange available if APDL PD-2 Issue 4 £1 2 50 ^"'^''"*' sanies and novelties, over 250 games cheats and over 200 demos, you need a bigger drive. plus over 2,000 music files and more than 550 digitised sound samples. Please ptwne far prices. £14> 50 ^'''^^ '""^^ over 500Mh of clip art (lies, all ready to use in Acorn Draw-, Sprite DTP-1 and DTP-2 orArtvsorks 2.5" IDE Hard Discs format. Ideal for use in education. ^^"^ highly acclaimed APDI- clip art CD. Over 720Mb of material. Great for 3010/3000 DTP-3 £17 50 A302O schools or anyone who needs a huge collection of clip art at a sensible price. 80 Mb £49 £97 120 Mb £53 £103 DTP-1 plus DTP-2 plus DTP-3, just £34.50 170 Mb £60 £110 DTP-4 £1 Q 50 ^'""^ latest clip art CD. Over I2.(MMI images, plus more than 400 Artworks tiles 210 Mb £66 £116 and 170 high quality colour pictures. All catalogued complete with thumbnails 250 Mb £72 £122 Games CD 1 £7.90 -^ collection of twenty of the best PD games of all types. Ready to run direct 330 Mb £79 £129 from the CD on almost any machine. Hours of fun for an unbeatable price. 420 Mb £86 £136 Games CD 2 £ / .90 Our Games Collection No. I CD was so popular we've done it again. Another 512 Mb £93 £143 twenty of the best best games at a real budget price. 1.8 Gl) - £149 SkullSOft Collection £9.90 '^ great budget priced games CD from APDL. Pull versions of three popular AMIIOBOm includes APDL IDE games from Skullsofl. lArya, !Xenocide and IFIig interface, -\.V)20 includes fitting kit Soft Rock Collection £9 90 ^'^ classic games from Soft Ruck Software, plus a new version of .'Treilis, Ilie larger sizes and HD+CD availahle adventure game creator/interpreter with two adventures Fantasy Pictures £7.90 ^y "^quest from our cu-stomers, the pictures from the Fantasy section of the APDL catalogue. Lots of Sword 'n Sorcery pics and many others The Grafix CD £7.90 "**N*'^ «f photo (juality pictures, background textures, buttons for web pages, and much more. An invaluable resource for everyone. £1 6 50 '^ ^^ '''*^^' '""^ schfHiIs. AM the things we know you want. Over 5,000 Acorn Blit/ format clip art images, 1 OO's of e-te\ts, over MHi useful programs, and more. Pi'^'tures, databases, information on stars, planets, moons, space missions, etc. Earth in Space £Q Qn etc. A massive amount of data at a realistic price. Geographical database with huge variety of data Is here! Earth Data £9 90 a and statistics on every country. Simple menu-based interface. Including !E'-iii Ihmiip The ultimate superfast IDE Transialing dictionary program David O'.Shea with dictionary files over New Ergane £7.90 by for ! interface for your Rise PC. 50 languages, although some are limited to a few hundred words. Over 6 M/b per second! ^'^^ "''^ eight games. AlfaXL5. Pharoahs Secret Tombs, Last Cybermoch. ' ' £1 6 50 collection Sea Trek. Caves of Confusion. Kobocalch, (>old Runand Jewels of Jezahar. Only £11'^ orjust £109 when purchased with a drive. APDL ideA fast IDE Interface General software setting It's FiisUt P(' - Blitz + RISC OS 4 + drive, No complicated up. self-configuring so just plug i( in! t20 The alternative XT PC I just i222 + cost of hard drive • Uses DMA (Direct Memory Access* on Rise PC. Over twice as fast as the emulator. Works on anv model with 2Mb| built in IDL interface or others which don't use DMA. RAM from A3000 to Strong ARM RPC. SCSI Hard Discs rmvcrliasc - • Includes CDFS and ATAPI CD drivers for many popular CD ROMs. tl5 Popular extremely I Four devices, any combination of CDs and hard drit es. p | pre- RISC-PC machine. essential nniduetivttv lixil. Available at last! The long awaited successor (o (iraham Crovv's highly 32x £149 popular genealogy program Ancestry, previously sold by Minerva. Lpgrades! Connect 32 fast SCSI CD ROM driver softwarf from Ancestrv 1 and Ancestrv 2 available. Can import Ancestrv 1 and 11, We have a limited number of these verv fast Works with ini'si ATAPI {'D\ eK-Piiiiifii IFainily and CLDCOM files and export and Only tW Giililshii: Punasimic, Lhe-im, Mimiiiu, (JLDCOM HTML interfaces (up to 7.5 Mb/sec) at only tS'* Si'iiv. Huuchi, NEC. Tiishihii. Sanvii. ivi, hhliuk's CDFS [<" use with RO .',.\ Data Safe - A new concept in backup and data security liiwutnl l"r liPC hul nin In' iisf Datafite PD CDs 1 make carrying bet^^een home and olTice ARM grows stron Your reporter can remember once maker, 3Com, which produces the Symbian 's prospects are also asking Jamie Urquhart, one of ARM Palm family of devices, strengthened. Symbian is already Ltd's Senior Managers, why it was The TI deal sees ARM join forces backed by the main mobile phone that in analyst reports addressing the with one of the world's biggest manufacturers, including Nokia, RISC processor market ARM chip players in DSP (digital signal Ericsson and Motorola and most of statistics were never featured. Tliat processor) technology. The two their future products will be based wasn't very long ago - five years companies will develop DSP chips around ARM chips and the Symbian maybe? Today, such reports don't controlled by ARM processors to operating system. dare overlook ARM. In its latest supply lucrative markets, from It's also bad news for Microsoft quarterly statement, ARM reveals networking hardware to mobile Windows CE which, incidentally, that it received licensing fees tor 33.2 phones and computer and saw Philips abandon its loss-making million ARM processors shipped in multimedia products. CE pocket computer product line the second quarter of this year by its Meanwhile, Symbian 's deal with recently. Philips is likely to be a user growing band of licensees. ARM's 3Com sees a teclinology licensing of Symbian in its mobile phone revenues in the quarter to tlie end of exchange between the two range. September rose hy A0"/o to £15.7 companies which should eventually ARM's continuing success is million and profit before taxation see the Symbian Epoc32 operating rewarding to Acorn and RISC OS was up 77% to £4.4 million. system kernel running on future fans because, of course, we Besides the news from Intel (see Palm products, though the Palm OS remember that ARM was bom of separate story), ARM has also been front-end will be retained. Acorn and RISC OS depends on boosted by news of a deal with Texas Logically, this represents an ARM-based hardware for its future. Instruments (Tl) and the news that opportunity for future Palm products However, these positive senhments Symbian, the Psion-based OS to be ARM-based too. As the deal are slightly tinged with the technology which runs on ARM also aims to harmonise the source knowledge that had Acorn played its diips, has been licensed by the code compatibility of both Palm and cards better, Symbian too might have worlds' largest pocket computer other Symbian applications. been based on an Acorn OS. nternet portal launched 10 It's about time there was a this RISC OS portal on the Web and end of November to take up the commercial Internet site dedicated to widen the visibility of RISC OS on offer. To submit your site just go to RISC OS in the form of a 'portal' and the Internet, Drobe RISC Software is http: / / WW w.drobe.co.uk/submit_ad here it is, the Drobe Laundi Pad at offering all RISC OS users a free .phtml. For more information, e-mail http://www.drobe.co.uk. The site barmer advertisement which will run [email protected], tel/fax: 0870 offers links, news imd information across the entire Fudgecake network 740 2734 concerning RISC OS and other for one month. In one sense -TBitgljLnBhPid a]iJt»j ^/]alH|l^! nj Acorn-related topics from one central the offer is practically 9 IQi tflL iHI Christmas 1999 http://www.acornuser.com RISC OS '99 In brief 3-CD Quake Resurrection available Show Awards If you didn't visit the recent RISC OS '99 Show, you might not be aware that Best non-game, Best non-game hardware the official version of the classic Quake 3D shoot'em up game is now ever, for There haven't been a huge number of RISC OS available for RISC OS users in the hardware releases tfiis year and there Apart from the wit who suggested the form of the Resurrection Pack, which were quite a few people who decided perhaps-never-to-be-released game includes 3 CDs containing the original that RISC OS 4 was a hardware product Karma there were really only two version of Quake, Malice and Q'.Zone. rather than software, however even they products in the running, one old and All this, along with a disc were unable to beat the votes for: one new and they scored the same, so containing the Acorn driver software produced by R-Comp, is priced £23 it's a joint first place for: Riscstation R7500 Lite including VAT and postage. R-Comp Impression family sold out at the show but as we went to EasiWriter/TechWriter Best game for press, the back orders were just being RISC OS 99 cleared. For more information, contact Best game, ever, R-Comp on tel: 01925 755 1)43, With all the new games releases, mostly e-mail: [email protected], or browse for RISC OS from R-Comp, there was at least a choice htlp://www.rcomp.co.uk this year and the winner by a hair was: While there were plenty of games to choose from in this category, it's Heroes of Might and Magic RISC OS PDF development probably not surprising that the winner Adobe's Acrobat portable document is: RISC OS format {PDF) standard is in the process of being taken on board by RISCOS Elite Personality for 1999 Ltd. The PDF standard is widely adopted and supported on other A controversial category, but by a long Best RISC OS Dealer 1999 platforms. Based on the Adobe way the winner was: PostScript page description language, Even more controversial and the first Justin Fletcher PDF documents retain a high degree of position was tied the final winners are: original layout design and formatting CTA when displayed on-screen, and should CJE New version match the output generated when the document is printed (in fact. Acorn Best non-game software of Compo User is sent to the printers as PDFs). To start with RISCOS Ltd are Although there have been plenty of new Clares Micro Supplies have making a restricted application called releases this year the ones that polled announced version 1.15 of their Taborca available for use with RISC the highest were hardly unexpected. Compo image composition OS 4. This version will only generate EasiWriter/TechWriter would have come application. New features include the first three pages of a document. In out on top if it hadn't been for: additional PCA protocol plug*ti"is a few months' time a full commercial RISC OS 4 including drawing, painting, text version is expected to be available. input, stamping and cropping. Tliese Taborca is available for download at: plug-in applets will work with any http://vvww, riscos.com PCA2 application which works with A real CD Burner sprites. Compo itself is now a PCA- compliant tool and can be used to in- What? No At the begijining of this year, a 4x CD place edit any 32K colour or 16 cover disc? Writer drive was pretty fast. Now million colour sprite image within Nowadays 800K discs are too Yamaha have introduced an 8x writer. another PCA-compliant application. small but many users still own Their new CRW-8424 also has a 24x read Users will also find much- older machines - but even they speed and maintains a 4x read/write improved masking tools, including own CD-ROM drives - and speed. To put the writing performance ant-aiiased brushes and masked PNG most RISC OS people have into it context only takes 9 minutes to fill file format generation. The Internet connections. an entire 74 minute CD ROM compared improvements Ust is much longer So for every issue, what with 18 minutes for a writer. 4x Apart than we have room for. For further would have been the cover disc from that, it's a conventional drive information, check Clares' Web site at will be on the Acorn User Web available in both SCSI versions. IDE and h ttp: / / www.claresmicro.com site for downloading and every Pricing wasn't available at the time of The upgrade price is £29.95 inc. third issue we will put a CD on writing. VAT, plus £3 postage. Clares can be the cover with the last three Yamaha's Media site is Products Web contacted at tel: 01606 833999, or via month's "cover discs" plus at: http://www. yamaha.co.uk/ e-mail: [email protected] extra stuff. online /mediate http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 Based Te The future starts here . . The RiscStation R7500 is a major departure from previous RISC OS Specifica tions Casing compatible machines. Not only does the R7SOO have RISC OS 4 (the latest version of the popular incorruptible operating system} built in. RISC OS A Micro Desktop layout or but also an amazing feature count only previously found on non RISC 16 Mb COO Memory Tower configuration OS based machines. 4 Mb Flash Memory 4.3Gb eioe Hard Drive Software Onboard lObaseT networking, full onboard IGbit sound sampling and 40x Atapi €106 CDROM mixing as well as a Midi controller and games port can all be found on RISC OS 4 even the basic R7SOO Lite model And with an affordable pricetag too. Onboard this maizes the R7SOO Lite the affordable alternative to other home, DrawWorks Millennium office or school computers. 2 X High Speed ID€ Port Fireworkz Professional B X Serial Port PipeDream 4.5 So what of the quality of the machineP RiscStation do not believe in 1 X lO baser Network easiWriter Professional cutting corners, from design through to construction quality has been 1 X Parallel Port ^>^^ of upmost importance in order to provide a robust system with an 1 X Infrared Port Ankh expected lifespan far exceeding that of a non RISC OS based 1 X PC Style Gameport Botkiller 2 computer- Even the third party components have been carefully 1 X Microphone Port Frak I chosen to match the quality of the R7SOO in performance and 1 X Audio Line In Port reliability. 1 X Headphone Port More titles yet to be 1 X PSB Style Keyboard confirmed as well as an -When you buy a RiscStation computer you will know that you have 1x3 Button P5S Mouse extensive shareware purchased a quality. British made computer that is second to none." Midi In Out/Through and demo collection From £499 + VAT ..^cSt^^. For more information contact your local RISC OS dealer or RiscStation on +44 (O) 1942 7ST777 ImnI tlvakr ,.,.:^r...-.nt^v.- , ..t^>.^:-. r Mfi^iia comms Broadband future In brief Broadband is the new buzzword for data month, before BT's own spring 2G00 Opening the Boot communications that transcend the speed roll -out. Paul Vigay's Web site database capabiHties of the now-humbled audio Meanwhile Kingston Communications, of the RISC OS !Boot structure and is modem. The term is appHed to optical supplying independent telecomms services contents of ISystem a timely resource for users fibre and co-axial cable-modem technology in and around the city of Kingston upon upgrading to RISC OS 4. and to ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Hull already operates its Interactive Through the years of various - Subscriber Line or Loop in the USA) Television package. This includes video- releases and changes these which uses existing copper-wire on-demand, digital multi-channel TV, e- directories can accumulate installations. mail and fast 256kbps Internet access using duplicate and extraneous files thai may not now be required. Following BT's belated ADSL trial, ADSL over their existing network. Costing To help you with the clear-out, other broadband ISPs and players are £14.99 per month inc. VAT the full package Paul's page describes Ihe files emerging. The Acorn users' friend uses a set-top box to access the Internet and directories that should be -and-foe online organ "The Register" with an infra-red keyboard available there and Iheir functions. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/) reports as an extra. Rise OS Support that as the BT pre-launch ADSL trial Compare these http://www.vigay.com/ riscos/mods.html charges are upped to £50 a month and the with what US bandwidth chopped, Dixon's Frceserve is subscribers can get. Word in your ear launching its ADSL broadband trial US West's latest Privacy.net is a consumer service in December for £59.99 per RADSL ser\ice in information organisation whose Denver, Colorado offers Web site demonstrates just what 25hkbps 'always-on' ser\-ice can be gleaned from visiting browsers. Your IP address, simultaneously down the computer or proxy name, same pair of wires as the browser type, software serial analogue phone, with a number and even your name are current offer of free ADSL all likely to be sent out to sites modem and circuit acti\'ation that you visit. The Anonymizer for just $29.95 per month - at http://www.privacy.net/ anonymizer/ will give you a about £19. Know any good Privacy Analysis of what il immigration lawyers? knows about you, together with a Traceroule listing of all the machines you're going through, information about your domain name and the ownership of your 13 network. Frightening stuff. Remember Webite? The Anonymizer http://www.privacy.nel/anonymizer/ Webite has re-surfaced as a freeware Webite uses Acorn's Internet module via development version of the HTML 3.2 a Term itelP-wrapper, so the 1.48 version Cache no cash Web browser that part of I was downloaded can't actually be used yet CacheFS is a freeware filing DoggySoft's Termite internet package. with the original DoggySoft Termite system written by David O'Shea Now usable as a standalone browser. Suite. that allows you to easily browse the Browse lVe6Serve page Richard Walker's Webite Central site cache offline. This is useful has both compiled program and source when a cached page has an off- code available for download, and site resource that WebServe Richard hopes that interested would have tried to fetch when programmers will vohmteer to assist online. To set up Ihe directory with further development. The next path for the cache, you drag the icon to the CacheFS config release should allow multiple windows window, click OK and then and other significant improvements. Will select the 'Reread' option from the old 'Acorn spirit' of friendly the iconbar menu. co-operation between dedicated CacheFS programmers prevail? This 'stopgap' http://indigo.ie/~koshea/acorn/ version isn't perfect by any means but it shows that there's life in the old Contacting AU J DoggySoft yet! David Dade: Webite Central [email protected] The Oil] Do^ i-cnewi'd littp://uww.iictv.freeserve.co.iil(/iniiex.htin! http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 A£^ d^JS£ •<*.'•. -.^'i!K-~r. r TuTutorials from Spacetech Spacetech has released a step-by-step been created by Darlington artist explained carefully with reference to tutorial for illustrating with and retired art teacher, David the Pliotodesk tools and effects that Photodcsk, entitled Creative Digilal Cowell, and comprise a set of are used. Imaging: Making the Most of Your hyperlinked Multimedia Textease Such features as masking, Digital Darkroom. The tutorials have documents. The disc comes complete textures, layers and smudging effects with a Textease viewer which may be are given good and authoritative run directly from the CD, meaning coverage, and the tutorials feature a that the tutorials can be accessed strong focus on transforming easily. photos into images that look as Topics covered by the CD include; though they've been created with digital painting, photography, photo ti'aditional art media, such a paint or montages, manipulating photos for charcoal. illustrations, portraits, and creative David is a master of this, and the ideas for text - together with a Hints CD features a great many examples and Tips section that runs through of his work, together with a number some essential pieces of advice of additional image files that may be accumulated by David in 15 years of used as the basis for illustrations working with digital illustrations. such as those featured in the Much of the material on the CD tutorials. covers general technique, and could The CD costs £24.95 and is be applied to painting packages available direct from Spacetech on other than Photoilesk, although each 01305 822753 or visit http:// stage in creating an illustration is w^ww.spacetech.co.uk/ for details Quilljar Well-known RISC OS-based artist and handwriting expert Christopher Jarman has contacted me following my request for URLs of your portfolios, and his distinctive site at http://wxvw.argonet.co.uk/users/qHiUjar/ieaUiTes not only examples of his graphical work, but a selection of typefaces in RISC OS format that he's designed, together with information on the man and his passions. Christopher is the author of Developing Handwriting Skills, a comprehensive book used in UK schools since 1979, and has produced a CD tor primary school children, called ArtLesson. This CD aims to help children make use of paper-based art media, rather than digital art, and contains over 280 pages of ideas and activities for children. He's also a fine graphical artist, as his work highlighted here demonstrates. If anyone else would like their work to I appear in this column, or has any online portfolios of work available, please don't hesitate to drop me a line ai grapihics@acornuser. Contacting AU J returns next - so com. Pic of the Month month Andrew Green: get your entries colling in for that also: printed [email protected] entries receive a £10 cheque. l€J Christmas 1999 http://www.acornuser.com :^ -=-»*«^' Astute Graphics Over the next couple of months we'll he Artworks to using Phatodesk more And, he observes, "tliere are equal perils highlighting the work of some of the extensively. "However, as I will always to be encountered on other platforms, graphic design professionals working be closer to engineering than art, vector even passing files between machines with RISC 05 systems today - if nothing graphics is what 1 feel at home with. The due to a lack of 100% adopted file else, as proof that it can be done! first package I ever had was Euclid format such as the sprite or drawfile." Nick van der Walle Ls well-known in (essentially a 3D version of Dnnu) and The three examples of his work on tlie Acorn world as the marketing force could operate it to levels beyond the this page each had a different start to behind Cerilica, makers of the author's expectations. This skill really life. Convergence was created as a result forthcoming Vantage vector helped when 1 set up Astute Graphics of his proposal for a new image for extravaganza. Astute Graphics, his and had to complete a number of Spacetech's Phatodesk, the highLANDER graphic design agency, predates Cerilica technical illustrations. techjiical illustration was commissioned by a good couple of years (and. indeed, By creating 3D bezier curves, 1 was along with an article for an engineering was first highlighted along with my own able to visualise complex 3D surfaces publication (the whole article and agency by one of my predecessors in this and trace these in 2D using ArtWorks, graphics having been created on his Rise very column). later filling the profiles with appropriate PC) and the proposed AAUG logo was Nick has used RISC OS machines shading." Of course, more recently, an entry to a competition. Typically all since the end of the eighties, Nick has been using the latest of Nick's work is commissioned, and already owned a Rise pre-release versions of especially his technical illustrations, PC when he started out Vantage, testing its which can only be for one purpose. to become a freelance improved line tool and Becoming involved in professional graphic designer. He transparency effects graphic design was a natural J says, "At the start I in real-world progression from engineering design, only really used situations. He has which Nick studied at university and in Artworks {at a time "also found Vnntngc which he later had a career. "I still enjoy when it could still to be very good for engineering and 1 strive to be equally compete with the Web graphics with creative in tlie technical illustrations I Coral and Adobe better anti-aliasing produce. I also find it a major advantage equivalents on and real-time on- to know what the people showing you alternative platforms) screen dithering of the engineering drawings on which to and never forayed into colours." His everyday base the illustration are talking about." serious bitmap image ork also brings him in His wish-list for the future? "I set out creation. I suppose I was quite close contact with Impression with Simon Birtwistle to create Vantage (DAfliitr Gnif'hii blind as to the possible ("one day I shall migrate to (although truth be told, he creates and 1 alternatives at the time, but it was also a Ovation"), ChangeFSI, InterGlF, HTML shout about it) because ArtWorks was matter of costs. Five years ago, crossing Edit, and Fresco to check his Web work. well past its sell-by date. Phoiodcsk now over to a Mac or PC would have The ease of use and efficiency of RISC has layers and 1 can't think of anything 15 equated to a vast outlay if the OS has been a great help to him in his that is really needed from it. This professional packages were to be work - as has the closely-knit combination of packages coupled with included." development community. "You can talk some new hardware from Milbpede will Although his awareness of the world to the person who created the program once more gain my unconditional faith beyond RISC OS is now much greater, and get the best advice possible. And in the platform. Nick still considers RISC OS his home then there are the customers who are '"The future's so bright, I gotta wear platform as it allows him to be more very tolerant. Ideal." But the familiar shades'. As somebody once sang." productive "wliich equates to quicker question of print bureaux tum-around times for contracts and asking whether the Acorn was therefore more profit" (ultimately the "a Mac or a PC" is a bottom line for anyone trying to run a continuing problem for any graphic design business as their graphics professional working livelihood). under RISC OS. "They never However, he feels that RISC OS itself cared when the EPS or TIFF needs major advances over the coming file landed on their desk, but years, to avoid any advantages it has their scepticism was over other operating systems vanishing, enduring!" and leaving comparisons to be made Although tlie main only on the strength of individual problem of RISC OS now is packages - "a war in which the current the lack of up-to-date Internet aging programs on RISC OS would lose technology, he believes the in seconds, with very few exceptions." platform can hold its own in Nick progressed on from just the graphic design world. 0/L' http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 9ffPPPiii im 1 ;,:----:>'.. --^1 DrawPersp surprised to find further manipulation. the following perspective. 1 was I discovered ways of DrawPersp even comes with a There are tour main application on one of my random that shapes into DrawPersp: by complete fractal tree generator. This entering jaunts around tine Internet one creating a) horizontal surfaces, b) facility is in fact based upon an idea evening and decided that it c) lines pointing to User and is used vertical surfaces, second look. Written by published in Rise warranted a points, d) permission. or from vanishing and Seago, DrazoPersp is a with their Robert seems to experimenting with different roofs. The last of these complement to Draw which allows By the horizontal and vertical parameters a multihide of trees can combine you to create simple vector diagrams create a surface area - such as again all positioned tool to representing the perspective of a be plotted, roof on lean-to. to the correct perspective. the red my scene. according Either line or fill colours can be point, Initially using DrawPersp can be By defining a vanishing RISC OS-style get the hang of but chosen using standard then create walls, lines and quite tricky to vou can However, the can get some impressive results colour pickers. roofs which conform to the correct you you to choose a with a little bit of 'surface' icons allow perseverance. texture style if you like, such as Although limited bricks, outline or plain filled like the brick facilities exist surfaces. 1 especially within DnncPersp one - as you can tell from my itself, it will OLE doodle. point with Draw proper, At any time the vanishing you can get so you can easily can be moved around, so delete mistakes or some interesting effects. Although quite move objects some of the effects don't work still under around using that as expected, DrawPersp is we'll see application. development so hopefully worthwhile Saving the future upgrades to this drawfile will educational or artistic complement to transfer the Dram of modified image It's available to download free back into charge horn http://www.users. I'uru'l'c-i' I hki- tlw My fir^l nti-iiipt :! •! -^-vj,- ii^:iiis DrnwPvrsp for netnet.co.uk/rjseago/pdsoft.htm limit; lnr> look n bU fwrl]/! fi-M-lal Inv facilil}/. bill t m>i 16 Look 'n'find UioknFimi is careware, which means drag a selection of files into its control Again, this application was if you find it useful you should window and click the relevant icon to that discovered after 1 searched on the register it donating a fiver to either scan filenames or to scan the by Internet, this time in response to a are one of those people the files themselves. charily. If you on one of the Acorn contents of query of text files and LoobiFind will then go off and scan who have hundreds newsgroups for an application which - locate that elusive bit of text all the selected files for want to would seek out a specific word or through - you know is in one of them content matching your query. It which phrase within files on a disc. LookiiFiiui should be the ideal solution in the background so you can does exactly what it claims works LooknFimI written by Robert carry on with what you were for you. It was with the minimum of fuss and even to do Lytton and can be found at it does its stuff. When it on its icon and doing while effort. Simply click h'ttp://www.acomusers.org/rl/LnF. will open a window enter the text you wish to search for. finishes it containing the results of its search. html This can be a word or phrase. Next mn LoototFind RISC OS 4 S^rch cat Fni Drag drectories her* All of the applications looked at Isl only Search- OS 4 Cose sensiiEve \^ a this montlT are l^SC I Abort I compatible. lMo^ccharaa«rs Catatogue.. Mni, 1 QQQ httn-//www.acornuser.coni • *m^^7^~m'. umi Described as a "fast and cute image very rapidly - being written in ARM back while it displays the sequence. viewer", Me^^umi is one of those code - so you can use it for You can set it to show them in useful applications that seem to get displaying animated GIFs in addition random order or not, and configure overlooked because of more familiar to the range of specific formats the length of delay between each equivalents. In the case of image supported. Another nice feature of one, so it should be suitable for converters, most people, when they Megiiini is the ability to run a anyone who needs to quickly run a need one, immediately think of complete selection of images as a sequence of selected images. ClumgeFSI, Tnmslatr or FYE02 before slideshow. Just drag a selection of Megiimi is developed by Dirk images onto Megtiml's icon and sit Krumbholz and is freeware, so you Although like a number of alter- can download a copy from Otaitt natives, Megiiini will read and http://www.os.rim.or.jp/~siram/ convert JPEG and GIF images to megumi.html j Ctnl« wln^Bn en tamn RISC OS sprite format, it will also (/ Bring niinilcw 10 lop Beware however: the Web site is convert quite a few rarer image F/ <*« iMAdOw Jull W» designed in Japanese. A few words formats, such as PNG, ECC, MAG, are recognisable though, such as PI, PIC. Tlie last two appear to have * ; ftcn.'* a»io\( ttm« [wwniii) 'RISC I _, 'Acorn', P OS' and so you been developed in Japan and used ItaiUoni ptaun tUtaai I shouldn't have too much difficulty for a range of Anime cartoon style downloading. images whose popularity has spread from that country, hence the name. In fact, Me^iiiui is one of the few, if not the only, RISC OS application which will load and convert KISS images. These are popular in France and Japan for displaying the multitude of KISS dolls you can download from the Net if you are an Anime fan. Megumi's skills don't, however, Statistics an the currently loaded stop at displaying static images. It St]i(i§n(.- image - ami one of can also display animated images Ptocewing the reasons Megttmi Time (ko) and both decodes and displays files 15 termed 'cute' DunSnappr This small utility is written by Simon now choose whether to grab the or Right Control respectively. The Anthony, who brought us ECSiltHs various bits of 'window furniture' application runs in the background so (mentioned last month). Indeed, also - that's scroll bars and icons doesn't have any icon or menu, thus DiiiiSnnppr is a part of ECSUtHs, but around the edge, to you and me. This you can only quit it fiom the task which has now been made into a is because RISC OS windows are so window. However, it's an excellent, stand-alone application and improved flexible, allowing software authors to compact utihty for quickly and easily in the process. control exactly which icons are grabbing open windows from the This was done by Simon in reponse present in each window. screen. If you want complete to a request from Dunstan Orchard DunSnappr has a distinct keypress customisation then you can always (who he?). 1 wonder if that's where it for every eventuality. The actual run the full ECSUtils. It's available to gets its name from? window snapshot is executed by download now from http://www. The aim of the utihty is to make moving the mouse pointer over the innotts.co.uk/~ecsltd/ sprite files of any open window window you want to grab, and underneath the mouse pointer. Where pressing the two Shift keys Contacting the application has been improved simultaneously. AU J and made more flexible is in the If you wish to remove the verfical Paul Vigdy: control and choice of what to actually scroll bar, horizontal scrollbar or title pdpage@acornu ser.com grab from under the pointer. You can bar, just tap the Left Control, Left Alt J http://www.acornuser.coin Christmas 1 999 the Monday morning before '99 Onthe RISC OS show I went on a little jaunt north of Manchester to the birthplace of the first commercially available RISC OS computers to appear 13 months after Acorn pulled the plug on the market. Simtec have been in the RISC OS market for a long time, best known Times for their memory upgrades and the multi-processor expansion card for power depending on what it's been the Rise PC known as the Hydra - told to do. Each of the events is but the Simpson family (the business individually switchable so you can and circuit board manufacttire is have all or none - the keyboard carried out at the family home) has a option can be limited to only reach beyond our small world, working with certain keys and designing and building boards for although it hadn't been put into the are dozens of clients. PlC's software at the time I viewed I had already had a couple of the system it should be possible to briefings on the capabilities of the specify an exact sequence of keys to new machines by RiscStation but this activate the machine: a password. time it was to be a concentrated look Although some PCs have the at the hardware capabilities. A chip equivalent of these options, at the by chip examination of the system time of writing we were not aware of its any that retains these settings if chan and why quality exceeds even PC Acorn's standards. you unplug the machine completely - so any security password would be We got the power lost (a bit pointless). Tlie PIC has customers who want this kind of The Apple Mac has had the ability to flash memory, it doesn't forget what machine, and to that end the PIC switch itself on based on an alarm you asked it to do and you can't get also contains a watchdog program for many years, various PCs have round a keyboard option just by that notices if the machine has been manufactured witli it too. But implugging it. crashed completely and will restart it no Acorn machine has had the There is a way round the settings without any inter\-ention, essential capability - then again there hasn't just in case someone manages to when used in a stand-alone situation been a completely new Acorn completely lock themselves out of and quite useful to those who leave machine in four years at least. their own machine but Simtec their machines switched on all the More recently these fancy 'wake- wouldn't tell me how it was done. time up' options have been extended to: These boards have not been The power supply is a standard - Wake on modem where a computer designed solely for RiscStation ATX with a 5V standby voltage that will start up if the modem is Simtec has various otlier industrial keeps the always-awake sections accessed from an outside telephone line; Wake on LAN makes it possible to arrange things so that if the 18 computer receives certain network packets it wakes up; Wake on keijboard so that just pressing a key on the keyboard starts the mactiine; you might have some other specialised way of switching the machine on, in which case you can have Wake on something else; and finally there's Wake on poiver switch. Did that last one seem a bit odd? It isn't. On these boards the power switch is 'soft', it's just a signal to the part of the machine that never sleeps to say it's time to wake up now. The board has a built-in PIC processor that is kept powered even when the main processor is switched off, as are certain other key areas of •38 I I t ill I the machine such as the network area, both of the two serial interfaces, I f parts of the keyboard and so on. I I The PIC is programmed to watch I ( r I II I t I \\\ for events happening in the live areas and controls the system's ^ l€OI Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.confi ^r^x^s^.ir-:^^-s^^x^^^^.*^'^<^-^-±-r-^- Steve Turnbull takes a detailed look at the first of the new machines running all the time. The problem with PC power supplies is that they expect a big loading in order to kick into life, these new boards draw so little that there's almost a risk that the supplies won't start up - with tongue firmly in cheek: Simtec recommend you buy lots of hard drives to ensure there are no start-up problems. Finally, on the subject of power, there are the fuses. Personally I've never had a fuse blow in a computer but it does happen, and when it does it's a real pain: Where is the fuse? Which one has gone? And how do 1 get a replacement? With these new boards those problems no longer exist, they use thermally resetting fuses. If one blows you just wait until it cools down and off you go again. Against the clock Simtec talked to me about the slow shift towards PC-style architecture, the fact that we can migrate slowly, getting cheaper and cheaper machines as we go. One step in that direction is the real-time clock (RTC). For these boards Simtec no longer use the I2C method - I2C is a method of communicating with various ptyipheral devices but it is slow and wastes many processor clock cycles. Instead they have standard PC RTCs which also contain a unique serial number. These sealed units have a built-in http;//www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 Reflex Electronics The Official Service & Support Centre for all Acorn products Extended Warranty Purchase extended warranty or renew your existing warranty on all Acorn computers. A7000 and monitor (one year) £59.00 Rise PC and Monitor (one year) £89.00 S.A. Rise PC and monitor (one year) £99.00 Reduced rates available for 2nd and 3rd year warranty Free inspection / service of your computer when you purchase our extended warranty. Acorn Repairs Aeorn Computer repairs from £70.00* Monitor repairs, prices from £45.00 We also offer part exchange on Acorn computer PCBs and PSUs (ask for prices) ^includes BBC Bs, Masters. A3xxx series, All Archimedes. A4, A4000, A5000, Rise PC & A7000. Acorn Original Spares We are the sole UK authorised distributor of Acorn Spares. Acorn Original Mice (£ p.o,a atooo mice) £15.99 We also carry spares of many other Acorn items, such as Power Supply Units, Floppy drives, keyboards, master battery packs etc.. Please call 01 438 31 7200 for a full price list or to place spares orders. All prices exclude VAT and delivery. E.& O. E. All the Acorn Support you need... Call now on 01438 311299, spares 01438 317200 Fax 01438 31 1286 http://www,reflexeLdemon.coMk service@reflexeL demon, co. uk Reflex Electronics Service Limited, Unit 18, i: Gunnels Wood Park, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Herts, SGI 2BH. battery which will last ten years after (ROSL) about what to do. Taking the harddiscs in their robust hardware. which can just - you replace them if clock as an example, for a program For RAM there are the standard it's important to keep the same to find out the time and date it calls a two SIMM sockets taking up to machine ID you can, alternatively, particular routine in RISC OS that 128Mb, the standard machine attach an external battery after the then goes through the necessary will get 60ns memory and the ten years is up - considering - how operations to read the information memory modules don't have to be long the old Acorn machines last, but this is a copy (in RAM) of what matched at that speed. Tlie machine and how better much these machines the hardware clock says. will run with slower 70ns memory are it wouldn't surprise me at all if Old RISC OS assumes there's a and will run faster if given 50ns they are still going strong in ten I2C clock located in a certain place modules. years. and looks for it. This assumption has With typical Simtec thoroughness Oh yes, and these RTCs nre to be changed so Simtec have been the machine starts up normally and millennium-compliant. working hard with the ROSL then queries die modules to see Something I was not aware of programmers a on standardised way what's available - if faster memory is until my trip to Simtec was how PC of bringing about the hardware plugged in the hardware and chips are different, even these have independence sti that every new software is re-configured so the acquired the dreaded 'plug and play' manufacturer doesn't have to have a machine nms quicker, it makes the label. What it means is that -* they customised version of RISC OS a best use of whatever is fitted. won't just switch on and work, but nightmare. Like the A7000 range these new they have to be initialised and Part of the solution is that there boards don't have any VRAM which assigned to an area of memory are three ROM sockets in the means that with bigger/higher before they begin to function. machine, one pair take an (almost) resolution screens they do slow One particularly nasty typo of PC uncustomised operating system, and down. In a screen mode of 1600 x virus messes up the initialisation of the third to contain the necessary 1200 X 256 colours the download these chips and, for example, assigns routines to access the actual speed from harddisc is about them all to the same area of - memory hardware in the machine whatever 2Mb/sec - which is the same as a so any attempt to read write or to it happens to be, Rise PC with VRAM, In screen mode them wreaks havoc and prevents Simtec, naturally, didn't stop of 800 X 600 X 256 colours you get 4.5 anything - from functioning a there, these boards have ability to to 5Mb/sec, these figures were wonderful innovation. take a flash ROM of up to 32Mb provided using David Holden's disc Simtec have some clever hardware capacity - although once again this is speed utility, rather than being protection that prevents this primarily for their non-RISC OS idealised guesswork. happening so won't you get a RISC clients who don't want delicate An independent test using the OS virus doing the same thing. Once Replay Tumble demo (timing how again they wouldn't tell anything me long it takes to run through the hirther about that, 1 didn't mind. whole sequence) gives a figure of 610 seconds for these new hoards, a Rise Memories for you PC 700 with VRAM does it in 700 As these machines have extensive seconds. differences in hardware to the typical RISC OS machine Simtec have been Socket to me in discussion with RISCOS Ltd The back of the board has a standard set of ATX connectors which, reading from left to right, are: mouse; 21 PCI machines keyboard; network; parallel; serial; video; and audio group. RiscStation Ltd has been pushing their The mouse and keyboard sockets PCl-capable ^ machine quite heavily in are interchangeable so it doesn't recent months, lots of hype but with matter if you plug them in wrong - some genuine potential. Tlien suddenly the software sorts it out, in fact this "'•u, T|»^j it all went quiet and there were isn't a new feature, I^SC has The PCI OS mutterings that Simtec had got it wrong, machine - always been able to do that. that it couldn't be done. So I asked them aimikiMe The network card is a standard specitically next \iCiir about it: lObaseT which somehow manages to "It isn't cheap," said Gareth Simpson "But give more than 450Mb/sec using of - course it's possible and practical. What Acorn /^rcc-^s which is not the most happened was that we had found a relatively low-cost PCI chip-set that efficient protocol in the world. With appeared, on paper, to do the job. So we got hold of a set and began all networking software and testing it. hardware built-in this is Uie first "Unfortunately it wasn't good enough, it couldn't do everything that RISC OS machine that can match was claimed hut it took us a while to discover the problem so we were the iMac for connectivity, just forced to reject it. We have switched to a more expensive chip-set that will plug it into your LAN and go - definitely do what's needed, well, maybe. can't "You do PCI in a cheap machine so the PCI machine has been The parallel port is, of course, bi- delayed until early next year but it's given us the opportimity to finish directional but conforms to the two the board for the R7500 Lite and the NetWORX." major standards EC? and EPP which are used for scanners as well as http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 m : New machines a slightly voltages around the board (which chunkier output if can detect overvoltages as well as •ill; II' ;'.?•••••••••• *.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.".v. '.V.V.V.V, JU'i ••••••#•• ..,.'*. Vr.'.'^lT.T.T.TT ^^ti'm* if one of those you want it plus undervoltage) plus J: - you could slot thermally resetting fuses does blow this board into a it can tell vou which one it was (not " multimedia PC that vou need to replace it). , ..«!. I t t .—.,.. II : : ";' case which has ii !!: I: i -U.""""™™"'' external physical More connections of I shall =B volume header As I begin to run out space ; __ and it does work type faster to get it all in. Apart from I also have to the connections off the back the main include the board is bristling with headers to analogue connect even more stuff: joysticks under • Second serial port which can be ' '!=: » the sound section configured as a serial port, because they are another MIDI port or a -^Si JliilViiiii^H; I. part of the audio 115Kbit/sec IrDA (infra-red) port; package and • Wavetable connector for added Board Im/out ofSimtcc's radical design there's something sound - slightly skewed in favour printers. Tliere's a pseudo DMA interesting; On most PCs the joysticks of a particular unit which has 256 (direct memory access) channel that are read by the processor in a way byte FIFO (first-in first-out) 16 is used with the parallel port which that wastes processor cycles. When queues, most only have bvte means data can be read in even the Simtec boys were examining the queues. This means it won't trip for a faster. The primary serial port (there chip specs they found there was a up if the processor is busy is another) will nm at 460Kbit/sec setting where reading the joystick while; thoroughly which is somewhat faster than the ports could be put on automatic and • Four IDE devices, Rise PC's nSKbit/sec. the result just read by the processor in buffered and can detect cables in The video port has hardware one go when needed. Guess which the wrong way round. Can reset frtim support of DDC - okay, I forget what option they chose. IDE software; joysticks; it stands for but it's a way for the This is the most comprehensive • More monitor to tell the computer what RISC OS music machine so far • Second audio CD mixer the monitor is capable of displaying. created - take this machine, combined connection; Once the software support is with R-Comp's Anthem software and • Can support two floppy drives; supplied (and should be made a part you have a very potent combination • Acorn genlock (as Rise PC); header; of RISC OS) it will mean you won't indeed. • I2C have to worry whether you have the right Monitor Definition Files any On the monitor And the ISA socket, for a few Interestingly the more. I have already given some indication pennies why not? Once the information has been of the thoroughness of the hardware ISA connections are just about the downloaded from the monitor the design in these machines. Let's do same as a standard Acorn 'podule' display software will just list the some more. Tliere is a temperature connector apart from the I2C signals. modes you can have, there'll be no sensor near where the harddiscs are Simtec have had an ISA modem - chance of damaging yoiu- monitor by connected to the board - it's assumed working though not thoroughly is harddiscs will tested. Once again it was a feature of „ „ driving it to hard plus you'll just be that this where the - machine more use to their 'other' customers. 2.2. j able to plug-in any monitor and just actually be located and the start. However software support can react if the temperature gets the Conclusion is not vet there. above a certain level. There are two sets of fan So there you have it. The new RISC I heard that connections, one is for a standard 12V OS machines, as made by Simtec. In The audio capabilities of this fan, but the other is for a digital speed their RiscStation incarnations they are machine now match a decent PC, controlled one, So as the temperature the R7500 Lite, with 4Gb harddisc supplied; or the you get MIDI in /out; there's goes up the fan can be made to switch and tons of software standard line in, line out on and go faster (under software NetWORX which is the same machine (headphones) and microphone; a control) until the cooling starts. If the but with no harddisc supplied, 50KHz audio sampler; 20 voice FM heat goes on rising the machine can be designed purely for local network synthesiser as standard plus there's shut down automatically. usage. I cannot deny being wavetable expansion on the board There's also feedback from the very impressed. laiJiJ itself (of which more later). fan so the machine can tell if it's Typically Simtec have allowed all actually going round - this system Product details the audio sources from the board is not absolutely essential for J machines that don't have Pentiums (including two CD audio inputs) to Product: New machines from be mixed on board plus there's the inside but, once again, it's one of RiscStation capability to do filtering of the sound those handy features for tliose third Price: From £394 + VAT Supplier: RiscStation Ltd or your local - all controlled from software. I was parties Simtec supply. And you never RISC OS dealer treated to a number of demonstra- know, you might be stuck in a desert Tel: 01942 79 77 77 Hons based from simple BASIC one day... E-mail: [email protected] The system monitoring doesn't programs. Web site: www.riscsUtion.co.uk There's a I.IW audio amplifier for stop there: There is monitoring of the Christmas 1999 hllp;//www.acornuser.com ii^sinsn^Rcitii It IS possible lo have a Server wiih ALL I Tektronix Economic these attributes! ^ & Flexible LinServer - An Internet Gateway & File Server Colour Laser Printers Phaser 740LA4 1200dpi Mono Laser £1320 PC, NC & RiscOS Computers -Colour upgradable. 16ppm, 16Mb RAM, lOBaseT Etherriet, Standard features: - Parallel, Postscripl Level 3, PCL5. 136 Fonts. 1 yr RTB warranty, i-r IJnServer is an incredibly n>l>usl NFS. PC File sen/er Phaser 740N A4 600 dpi Colour Laser £1 700 and dependable File, Print & with disc quota's - 1200dpj Mono, 5ppm Colour/ieppm Mono. 32Mb RAM, lOBaseT Internet (iateway server providing P0P3, SMTP, IMAP4 - Ethernet. Parallel. Postscript Level 3, PCLb, 136 Fonts, lyr GSM, Mail Server virtually every internet resource NNTP News Server Phaser 740P A4 1 200dpi Colour Laser £2390 Web/Proxy Server lOBaseT 16ppm, 64Mb RAM, Ethernet, Parallel, Postscript Level 3, Tbere arc NO licensing issues on FTP Server - PC[.5(colour), 136 Fonts. 1 year On-Sile warranty. the number uf users supported. Printer server Internet dial-on-demand Colour Solid lnl< Printers IJnServer supports over 10.000 using ISDN or modem Phaser 840N A4 1000dpi Colour £2225 users, the limit \w\n\' imly storage Dial-in modem access lOppm, 32Mb RAM. lOBaseT Ethernet. Parallel, Postscript Level 3. capacity and RAM. It supports WWW Server Toots PCL5 (colour). 136 Fonts. Colour upgradable, lyear GSM. PCs, ... Plus many more. Phaser 840DPA4 1000dpi Colour £3165 Net- - lOppm Auto Duplex, 64Mb RAM, lOBaseT Ethernet, Parallel, USB, work & RiscOS computers. - Postscripl Level 3, PCL5{colour), 136 Fonts, lyr GSM ^ Vou can literally place this Tektronix Consumables 840 3 Black ColorStix Free server in a secure room and - 740L Colour Upgrade £Call 840 5 C/MA' ColorStix £146 for^^et about it. bein}> almost 740 Std Black Toner £71 completely self-maintaining 740 Large Black Toner £90 The price of colour 740 or Y Toner £147 except for user administration. Std CM consumables are PER I^^^Q^ 740 Large C. M or Y Toner E210 colour. Toner Yield; 740Fuser £182 Std 6k Mono, 5k Colour Contact us for more 740 Fuser Roll £58 details or to arrange a 740 Imaging £175 Lrg 12k Mono, 10k Col Kit demonstration. Other Remote Networks te. schools, branch offices --^ RiscOS & PC Network Computers m©\ni Based Technologies WinFrame Ring for Details Server RiscOS4 Now Available We are offer a comprehensive RiscOS4 Installation service. Special Offers Acorn Grey Mouse £20 Acorn A7000 Mouse £25 RiscOS, PC Windows ^ Citizen HD Floppy Drive £20 Apple Sl Unix Citizen DD Floppy Drive £30 Desktop Computers CJE586-1 33MHz PC Card £225 Web Hutchinsons Encylopedia £2 Computing - RiscOS 92 or Windows 97 Ver. Wireless Terminals and Nintendo 64 Bundle (1 only) £50 PDA's etc. CilRIX - With SuperMario/Goideneye RiscDisc Vol 3 £5 Wolfenstein 3D (SA compat.) £5 - fully boxed. Last remaining stock A Citrix® WinFrame or MetaFrame Server provides access to 4D Games £5 each virtually any Windows® application, across any type of network Various Games £5 each connection to any type of client (including Thin-Clients & Ring for details of other offers. RiscOS). It allows multiple, concurrent users to log on and run special Offers Sirictly Whilst Stocks Last. applications in separate, protected Windows sessions ON the 200W Active Speakers server, resulting in each user consuming as little as one-tenth of Mains powered, Magnetically Shielded their normal network bandwidth. It gives you centralised management, exceptional performance and improved security for all your education/business critical £15 applications and data. Ring us now for further information or call Into our showroom Incl. for a demonstration. Tel: 0161-474 0778 - Fax: 0161-474 0781 Open 10.00 - 18.00 Monday - Saturday All prices Include VAT. Carriage not included. E&OE. 01/11/99 citrix Solutions www.desktopp.demon.co.uk - email: info<@desktopp. demon.co.uk Network Unit2A Heapriding Business Park, Ford Street, STOCKPORT, Cheshire. SK3 OBT SILVER r Colin Sutton finds a new interest in plug-ins for Artworks in great stir was Early 1992 a created among Archimedes o o ^ a owners with the arrival of \[^I:A% \ o Artworks from Computer % C3V o % o ^ :: Concepts - a modular object- orientated illustration program, in Nolhng selected ±1 jF| . y •] [TT] other words a vector art drawing ^ JForsground package far beyond anything JLliJ ^ previously available. l^i^iirc II: Art Works'' toolbar lUhi info ha Eight years on ArtWorks is still very popular having a large and well including any new plug-ins added to tablet. Precision from CC is really a established user base plus a new the 'Auto' directory. Re-selecting pair of tools. Mover and ReSizer, generation of 'second users' as 'Quick Start' and 'Save Choices' will added to the toolbox. Mover allows equipment and software change now restore the status quo. Step-by- movement of objects or groups of with a single click. hands. Remember I used the word step instructions for both installation objects 'modular' in the opening paragraph and de-installation are included with ReSizer, unlike the ArtWorks tool, is with and this is the secret to its expansion most plug-ins. scaling concerned and continuation for sometime to Some plug-ins will now appear in absolute height and width of an come. the Artworks toolbox window (the object or group rather than just a A close look inside ArtWorks will order of these tools can be changed). multiplier. Instructions were to least. reveal it's made up of many smaller The info bar at the bottom of the minimalist say the modules (or tools) which form the Artworks window will vary its A freeware plug-in Splatter by complete package and allow for easy contents depending on the tool Richard Millican (a CC employee at addition of extra modular tools, currently in use. Other plug-ins will the time) appeared in 1996 though it known as 'plug-ins', from CC and add extra options and functionality appears to have been started some other third party developers. to the ArlWorks sub-menus. two years earlier. Operation is simplicity itself, click on the Splatter How do they work? The plug-ins tool and splatter away - with a name The plug-ins are in the form of mini CC's foray into providing additional like that do you really want more applications, each containing the modules was rather shortlived. One instructions? appropriate module. These mini- of the first to appear in 1994 was the As with all the ArlWorks tools it is 'V apps are simply dragged to the Arrnn^er 'magnetic tool' actually up to the user's imagination to 'Auto' directory mside ArtWorks and developed by Open Sky Projects. Its decide what is appropriate in the next time the program is run it will purpose was to make objects snap to artwork being conceived. Even the automaticallv load the new modules one another in a similar way to most bizarre of special effects can be from within the plug-ins. snapping to guide frames in 'just right' if used in the right If you are using the 'Quick Start' luiprcsskm. Although a very useful amount and in the right context. opHon in ArtWorks you will need to tool it was criticised for its poor and presentation and minimal switch it off, re-save the Choices Vilkommen instructions. Arranger was not quit Artworks. Re-running ArtWorks Martin Wiirthner shows every module it loads StrongARM compatible but one Martin WiJrthner The idea of plug-in tools really took 5P1 ADFS:rHji>iD54.^0din.grapffK»!V«M'''t!ngJiK-'i»cu«nfVct.TUrAii^ (more of whom off with the involvement of Martin R ILIl H l:iJ m ffl later) came to the Wiirthner, famed for his innovative, IBknd 'FiLwt rescue with a quality software. Multilingual Martin m Q StrongARM patch. (he is actually German) is regularly About the same seen at shows, resplendent in dapper ^A O m EH g time, Pressurt; the jacket and bow tie displaying typical 'QUK.kCop> '.ReplhT.-ac 'Jijilultfr Eesox pressure Teutonic efficiency. This same m m tool appeared and attention to fine detail is reflected in was to be used his wide range of plug-in tools for a] in conjunction ArtWorks where each is supplied !Vie*M BtSfm Bin* with a pressure with detailed and helpful f'':<"' ( Vw tiirn-ioni ;rilhiii ArlWofki whcrf Hit' yhi^^-im i>re stored sensitive graphics instructions coupled with the liii Christmas 1999 http://www.acornuser.com .3- avaiiability of upgrades, Web site Figure V: lil-Lll.^J).fK[ UntMcdlsISG^ information and support pages. Mscale in action Martin's approach is to combine some of his plug-ins into small groups containing related modules. They are a mixture of commercial, shareware and freeware. AlignPlus group Figure IV: MRolnle in action A shareware trio of plug-in modules comprising: AlignPlus - Does not add a tool to Artworks toolbox but rather it adds three menu entries to the ArtWorks Objects sub-menu allowing you to perform various enhanced alignment operations with respect to the ilED baselines of text objects as opposed K to the bounding boxes. in a more exact way is a - MRotate Provides a tool allowing feature of this plug-in, rotation of several objects inspired by a similar but not simultaneously but about their own quite-so-powerful feature in centres, working in the same manner CorelXara. Another example of as the standard less and versatile Herr Wurthner responding to Artworks rotation tool. suggestions for plug-ins from - MScale The same concept as established ArtWorks users. MRotate, but scales each object the Artworks info bar provides AutoSave - Another plug-in individually from its centre rather editable boxes for co-ordinates, angle providing an extension to the than rotating. and line length. File>Choices... sub-menu. A new Polygon icon in the document Choices group Freeware group window allows auto saving with or The shareware registration for The freeware plug-ins are available for without a prompt at arbitrary Polygon also includes a licence for individual download from Martin's intervals. The auto-save status can be - Intersect and Pathiltils two tools Web site. saved within the document with the reserved for the exclusive use of MadnessT - Martin has offered this added benefit that you can specify Polygon users and not available as a freebie as he says "no-one would the auto-save behaviour for each separately. pay anything anyway!". Il is a tongue- document individually. Polygon was actually the first non- in-cheek fun module. If you have tried ZoomPliis - Best described as an commercial Artworks plug-in Acorn's Mniiness application from the enhanced replacement for the module, providing users with a tool old RISC OS 2 days and seen its original Viexver module and although to create »-sided stars polygons and bizarre effects you have some idea the tool is called ZoomPlus, it actually and with a single mouse cHck to what this module does. comes as a directory called IViewer- convert one to the other. - The tool SUowXY A neat little idea inspired not as confusing as it sounds. As was inspired by CorelXara's by a small feature in Jonathan Martin's with all plug-ins which replace QuickShape tool. A very detailed help DrawPhis. ShowXY adds a 'Show Co- existing ArtWorks modules, it is file covers its many features. ordinates' item to the View sub-menu. recommended that you make a - Intersect As its name implies, it A small window continually displays backup of the original in case you allows you to intersect shapes or the pointer position in the window ever feel the need to revert back to it. objects other. with each It does not under the pointer. The option can be Again the extensive help file add a tool but adds two menu switched on or off. guides you through the many new entries to the Lines/Shapes - sub- Translate Provides an additional features, most notable of which is menu. tool in the ArtWorks toolbox whose that the Zoom tool info bar now - Pathiltils Allows you to control four arrows (up, down, left and right) shows Undo and Redo buttons (with line lengths and angles of the allow vou to translate objects by keyboard shortcuts) allowing selected path object. Like other tools specific amounts (for example 0.5cm to movement through the last 32 zoom the left), a simple but most settings for a particular window. M. Alijguneni useful feature missing from Top lo botlom: the original program. Single plug-ins ffon/ofr /Top Filter - This is a single shareware ^ Caiirc 4 Align ZoomPlus group module of quite some complexity and /Bcnum /Diaributc The shareware registration it is essential to study the extensive /Hrigh. of ZoomPUis also includes help file. This quite powerful plug-in AutoSave and QuickCopy. adds a 'Filter' option to the Objects Left 10 rjgiht: - QuickCopy Adds an sub-menu. Its purpose is to filter the _|Ch/Off extra tool to the toolbox to current selection depending on filter allow the creation of conditions, for example object type, multiple copies of an object Canofl OK fill type, line colour, font size and so in a very quick and easy on. - rather similar to DrawChanger or Figure HI: Tliv AhgnPlui nit-mi way- Positioning the copies DraioWorks. Like all the plug-ins, it is http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 Plug-ins that Impression (and, indeed, any other application that reads ArtWorks files) is not able to render files containing objects with any of the new fill styles. You must, therefore, remember to export as drawfiles which will then be accepted and displayed correctly in such applications. Both Hatch/ HatchPro are supplied with a profusely illustrated A5 manual, making these very professionally produced ArtWorks plug-ins. The future Tliough ArtWorks is not being developed any further by CC, it certamly is not dead. There is still much useful mileage to be obtained from this proven product. The existing plug-ins each increase functionality and there's scope for new ones to be added. As for support, CC/Xara have confirmed they are supporting existing users and will offer what help they can to people developing plug-ins. Similarly, Martin Wiirthner has indicated on his Web site that he too will help and requests new plug-in authors to contact him to avoid duplication of any work which Figure VI: Some ofHatchPro's simple fill styles might be in progress. practice and experimentation which replication type, number of By the time you read this, a new help you understand the many replications and offset between and much hyped competitive rival functions and effects. replications can be changed at any product should be available and Replicate - The ability to replicate time. Such replicated objects behave some of you will take advantage arbitrary ArtWorks objects in regular like any other single ArlWorks object (pun intended!) of that. For the rest it patterns many times without and as such can be moved, rotated or is worth noting that there is still life consuming any extra memory is the scaled. The detailed help file in the old (ArtWorks) dog yet! Enjoy feature of this plug-in module. Six describes some advanced features it all while you can. patterns are provided: Matrix, Matrix allowing change of more parameters outline, Matrix chequered. Diagonal, like X and y offsets. Wiirthner contacts Diamond and Diamond outline. The T_Dra;r - Supplied with Replicate Martin Wiirthner 's Web site is well and described as an enlianced worth a visit at; http://www. Current versions replacement for the original TJDrstw flipside.co.uk/awtools/ module. Replicate fixes problems with or e-mail him at: wuerthne@droste. 26 • Polygon 1.20 the DriJio translation interface. informatik.uni-stu ttgart -de • Translate 1.04 The range of shareware and • Intersect 1.05 Hatch and HatchPro commercial prices and their site • ShowXYl.OO Tliis is a major commercial plug-in licences coupled with special offers • PathUtils 1.01 package where the Hafch module and e-mail or snail-mail delivery • MadnessT 1.00 needs to be run in conjunction with options is too great to print here and • QuickCopv 1.03b the supplied PathTool module. perusal of Martin's Web site is vital. • AiignPlus'l.04 The original Hatch provided Computer Concepts still have a Web • AutoSave 1.00 additional pre-defined fully site at: http://www.cconcepts.co.uk/ • MRotate 1.01 customisable fill types, HatchPro support/awmod.htm with some plug- • ZoomPlus 0.05 allows you to define your own fill ins to download, Vor ArtWorks support MScalel.Ol • styles by turning any vector shape contact David Matthewman at: ^^^^ • PathTool 0.05 into a fill pattern. User control of the [email protected] l^£i£9 • Filter 1.05b colours and various numeric • Hatch 1.05b parameters of any fill style leads to a HalchPro 1.13 Product details • countless number of variaHons. The J • Replicate 1.05 fill patterns are not held in memory Product: ArtWorks plug-ins but rendered on the fly. Clearly Martin has been a one- Price: See Web .sile or contact WSS The module is fully integrated with for details man programming machijie and the rest of ArtWorks so you can blend Supplier; Warm Silence Software, has done more than anyone else Box 28, Woodstock, between pattern filled objects, export PO to further the ArtWorks plug-in Oxfordshire, OX20 1 XX them as Draw or EPS, use Undo or concept. Many users will be very Tel/Fax; 0160S737172 Redo and so on. An important point grateful for his efforts. Mobile: (1585 487 642 to remember with Hatch/HatchPro is L€[ii Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com " ' Acorn Acorn Usef Awards 1995 Best business software runner up - TableCalc Tel 01344 455769 email [email protected] Acorn User Awards 1396 Acorn User Awards 1997 BesI network software http://www.isvproducts.co.uk Best graptilcs sotlware runnel up SerialNET Winner • DtawWorks2 Worried about security on your computers? The Font Editor This diraciory Is PctBSword ProlBcted Enler Passwoffl i HETUHN ni[4^rv r^ruirjwjjneiT ^ftl well iVOfF^ the mifiry.' m. O' Ponlf .e^t^'flen>F^ Passwcil protsct rtaiMd illrBctariM Pauward ptotect applications -i 1 OuSniH 1' 1 f 1 & drop configuretian DTFOi Eaey drag Can't copy files without password from desktop atlBlElillEE Over 21 OO high qualily lonts. Iha licgeai commercial lont collKtIon Blocks F12 escape f Ilea cannot be renamed by user < , II All tonlB Irora Typogiaphy 1 plus over ?K NEW laces Totally iranspareFii lo Ihe user FREE copy ol Font Designers Toolkit i FontTtinPSO '^ 11- Tl- "" ^ '^ iiF For RJK OS 3,t or liter ' hard disk (T^ •All fonts tullt hnilea ivHh NDT Eipert j 1 •FullLatml cftafaclersclsa kemlngpairs • : 1 1 H & Run lonis directly from the CD • Inslall iniD EasyFoni FonlDireclory or 'Fonts folders '2 . J 1 3 ij 5 A ^^ t.. : • NEW Inslall single Isceslo your hard ais* « * B C D E F • NEW improved font sample system, see samples ol un-inslalled lonls • ssk lOeslgner - NEW lOesignot. not sure wdich fonts to use li ? Q It S V 1 ^mwm Complete font fain Hies, not just sing* weights B b < . : NEW Nsiol PosiScfipt^tomfiatnes ^KSEftjMZlE^ lSVploaui:1sl398 "T Comprefiensive dlustriled on-scioen msnuajs p 1 \£ y \^rt L. 1__J 1„ #^ Requires fllac OS 3 1 or laler, SUB Ram i CD-Rom drive The desktop security system •EnOiusiisrs verejon of FonlFiend 'Easilirscafloldslpnl Over 2100 includes a FREE site licence LoBOs ill types ol Amrn oulllne Ionia Flip efiracwrs hortionially a vwlfenlly Eiport anil impdilss Orowlilas ' UaiiEs small caps Bulwnallcilly fonts on L(JSil5Diiilr^3lr5tBUlly lonls ' Eil«nd. COKilBnM, ODIIque o,I C one CD plus Don't buy a ' Hake bola Qr open lonis DutDmsUcaily Eiiit Ouliiiics SWielonse.U, ^ easy ic use w\bijs 3aVCDLI\p(9l«CIUQlOnlB a host of graphics tablot •Qn-1 me manual anil rea'lime help syetern Save lanis romplsie wrtn kBfilng laler >ianl ijisll font utilities 'iWuill K«ni[ig«]iicx and Uisc Dala aditar OS 3.1 or SUB RAM & The low cost graphics pen .wesseii/iaipu'c'iBsc. ncammie il wfioWBwieidn Acom User desktop network for 2 o The flfMI. juil inat ' uranted Connect any 2 Rise Os 3 maclilnes Ml H Huidersfield • Share hard alshs & CD-Roms • Unique Neh«crrii Prinling system Transler files i Bpclleations i.^Gross stitch design Send arecEivernesaages Supports high speed serial cards \.M Ifw pfiw S t tiina VKBpati. 'p'Sckage for Rise OS Mailmum speed over SQK per second rSenaiW?) fus go'.lBOellw Supplied wilhoul caQle but wfW wilh wiring di^gri^m ifchlve Jan 1697 OHers all the features of XStitch2 plus... Backslllcli etIiUrg diraclly on the canvas MVSIwrc preview mode, shows you w^al your design wilt look like wtien slilched Impiovea 3tili.aliaEed canvas display User seiecia hie grid colour. Ijaclistllch cokwr & symbol colour SWtn counl routine, no need lo guoss the amguni ol IhrEad needed Ttie clip art manager for Rise OS • tiuiii mplifseaaily and ijuicliJy Uoiii lool, use in • HaniJles Sptlies. IXan, Artworks, Giff, JPEG e.l.c • Qetle youi awn mollis i save them loi later use • Display clips 1 HI s time w on p3g«s of iO Ailit icii lo itie canvas usimj any available oulNne lont • Handles CD's, Ikippnssnd all other devices • Requires a RIbcPC or ATOOO campulei Move pointer with cur»w toys ImpfovMunOo feBlures, up lo 3800 slilchec either 1 al a tune or all at once • Up to l}.b million clips In 77 groups Rugs into serial port socket Rubber band drawing mode •Faslgrcanras Editing, up to twice the speed of XStitciiI Full on-line manual and interactive help Switch between mouse S pen with 1 click > Suitable lor boih Vector i Bilrnap packagei • EasieMot^sia a source image wiihoui losing aapoB rsiio • Find dips l)y name or partial norae • Coflipatible with all multt-iasklng appllcelione Save Pen conftgu ration seUngs Suppons paper up In A3 In size. eJirier Portrari or Landscape • Handles multiple c£pe with the same name - Unique Vector f'eehond drawing loW Produce Iteehand drawing directly in 'Draw Corapreliensive iliuslraied on-screen manuals • Camprehensive on soieen maiuiaJ • House buttons ilso available ftorh keyboard ' Can also be used wIVi a PC card • Hefluites RiK OS 3.1 or later. 2MB Ram i hard dish Value 5 out Q< S Mgfi miis...itif nice HtOenl.. ' "giis • Easy 10 coniiol Iteehand resolution Fully nluslntod on-Hne manual wllh ensmpies ~...ama^ng...3 class pw6\ici" Aichlmeiies Wortd Archive ,.,lmHfant..ft«WyreMmmenifc!f." • lOOdpinsalufiaR 'RsouiresFlisc OS 3,5 or later and hard disk Afchwe Acorn User STOP PRESS - PublishART (rrp 31 .50) for only E16.50 or EasyFontPRO (rrp £46.50) for only £16.50 carriage All quoted prices (unless stated) Overseas orders please add £2.00 iSV Products are for single users versions only. All details correct at the time ot going to press E&OE 86 Turnberry • Home Farm NDT & Typography are trademarks of iStf Froduels. All olher trademarks are acknowledged Special offers relate to single Bracknell • Berks • RG12 8ZH This adveri was produceO using NDT lonts versions only. Tel 01344 455769 user . and DrawWorks Millennium * visions lanetary Visions Ltd are producers a fascinating story, and a long one. Trevor of high quality satellite images. Inevitably it started with a huge collection Their most recent work has been the of images, each showing a small section of Attewell creation of an Image of the whole the Earth. These could only be provided by Earth, with a resolution of one kilometer satellites, a number of which routinely per pixel. It is a true-colour image, transmit information about various aspects absolutely free from cloud. It offers a of the earth's surface. Unfortunately many atlas out considerable improvement over the of these satellites were unsuitable for previous whole Earth image, completed in various reasons. For example, 1990 by the American artist Tom van Sant geostationary satellites such as Meteosat and the California GeoSphere Project, at are roughly 32,000km away, and sit directly 4km per pixel. Planetary Visions chose above the junction of the equator with the RISC OS computers to carry out some of Greenwich meridian. Hence they can see the very complex work involved, using only one hemisphere. Spacetech's Phototicsk application. To scan the whole earth requires polar How was this new image achieved? It is orbiting satellites. These have fixed orbits, crossing over the north and south poles, while the Earth rotates on its axis beneath them. Some of these, such as Landsat and SPOT, do not fully cover the Earth's surface, which is a pity, since they produce maps with high resolution and these r^ would have been most welcome. This leaves the NOAA polar orbiters. They are about 850km from the Earth's surface, take 102 minutes to complete each orbit, and they map the whole of the Earth's surface in slices. How's your colour vision? Planetary Visions make use of NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, which measures the _j^^ radiation it receives *ii^ from the Earth's ^ surface in five frequency bands, of which only a red band is in the V visible spectrum. Another band is in the near-infrared, and it is possible to combine these unlikely components to produce false 'colours', which can then be interpreted to '*,. / lb'' P.1¥ '^""^^^m ^jf reproduce surprisingly accurate colours of deserls, foliage, and other features. Collecting this information from the satellite required the cooperation of 26 receiving stations in 19 countries, involving six different space agencies. About 30,000 useful images were obtained. The basic data was supplied to Planetary Visions by the US Geological Survey in batches, containing data for each of the two bands separately, and r* * requiring about 70Gb of storage. Planetary Visions had installed an impressive stack of harddiscs to cope with this deluge. They knew that there were many problems ahead in working with this huge amount of patchwork information, but could not have known just how difficult it would be, let alone how long it would take. Looking at the headaches in no particular order, we begin with the data dropouts. Satellite pictures are not perfect, and may contain bad pixels. Some of these are due to lightning storms of which, on average, there are about 2000 in progress at any given time on the Earth, yielding 100 discharges every second. Most are in the tropics, falling off to virtually none in polar regions. Nearby flashes can cause glitches in transmission. The on- board equipment may rubbish an occasional pulse on its own account, and small errors in the critical satellite tracking system can produce the equivalent of drop- outs. Every 'bad' pixel in the image had to be corrected by hand to fit in with its surroundings. Invisible darning Another problem arises when two areas from different satellite passes must be joined. There will always be differences between individual pixels in the http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 .-.liKimtmiiAiU'^n'A:-: •- --zt.: !^'LK!s.'ifill'V!/r:^^f'''^Hissl-.•7fi,r^K.'':\:K.•r\'[^ overlap, from which the best overall picture must be assembled. It could be done manually, but that would be impossibly tedious and subject to error. Of two possible scientific methods Maximum Vegetation Indexing was chosen. This involves finding the ratio of the reflectivity of vegetation in the red band to that in the infrared for each pixel. The higher this ratio, the more likely it is that the pixel represents vegetation, and not cloud. Bearing in mind that the data has to be collected over many months, covering the same area many times, vegetation will show changes in colour, and some will disappear for a time, for example, the leaves on deciduous trees in winter. To get around this, the areas in question may have to be masked, and suitably matched. A composite of two areas can show up differences in brightness (Radiometric Error) or inaccurate registration (Geometric Variations). These errors can only be corrected distressing amount of early work been mentioned - but here is manually, which demands a had to be scrapped while the another. A targe area around each great deal of patience necessary skills were being honed. pole is mostly dark during its and practice. A winter season, and the satellite No silver linings cannot see much detail. This means Clouds are an obvious problem and that northern areas must be they can hang around for a very examined mostly between June and long time, especially the orographic August, and southern areas between clouds which often appear abruptly November and February. Climatic over high ground. It can take as conditions also show long term long as a year to get a good variations. For example, parts of image, made up from bits and Canada and Russia are hidden i pieces as they become beneath heavy snow for months at a ' temporarily visible. Active time. volcanoes can erupt for short or As mentioned earlier, the long limes, obscuring significant 'colours' obtained from satellite areas, and there are a surprising data are not natural to us, and must number of them. be converted to standard RGB Seasonal problems have already format. This was done by creating a look-up table, entered with the pixel values obtained from the satellite, from which the RGB values could be read off. The table was continuously refined as the work progressed. Water, water everywhere So far nothing has been said about the sea, lakes and rivers which cover nearly three quarters of the Earth's surface. These were all masked out in the original data, because they would have interfered with the process for separating vegetation from cloud. Putting them back required more data, this time from (he NASA Nimbus 7 safellile, which carries a suitable scanner. This makes use of the chlorophyll mm ://www.acornuser.com T Visions contained in phyto-plankton to provide the sea colours. It does not function properly in shallow water, so coastal areas, lakes, atolls and rivers were -^ , filled in using Space Shuttle i photographs. When taking the oceans out of the original data many small islands vanished with them, including even Hawaii. These had to be replaced from Shuttle pictures, plus data from ship sonars. Another problem appeared with certain rivers, parts of which failed to show up, while other parts upstream were visible. The reason lay in the changing width of the river, which was sometimes more, and sometimes less, than the 1km resolution available. This also had to be corrected by hand. The loss of the oceans meant that no sea ice was present, but the ipermanent ice around the poles is .^an important fixed feature, which must be shown. Data for this had to seemed impossible at times, what is all the time. For example, Dorling be found, this time from the the end product like? It is a superb Kindersley are releasing a World Defence Meteorological Satellite global image, which has been Atlas which makes good use of it. Programme via the Ice Data Centre. shown and acclaimed all over the This should be available before world. It has been used extensively this article is published, and it See it if you can in education, shown on several TV should bring a new reality to map After several years of struggling to channels and in science museums, reading. They will also be issuing a overcome odds that must have and new uses for il are being found CO with which you can scan the whole globe, zooming in and out at will. The pictures accompanying (his lex! are necessarily scaled down to tiny sizes and in fact are not the final pro(»fs (as you can see the oceans are not textured). I'erhaps the following off-beat (but true) facts may give some idea of the sheer size involved. The complete image contains 4%(K)U x 31,600 pixels, at 24-bits per pixel, equivalent to a 2.7(;b file. Printed al JSOdpi, Ihc full picture would measure roughly 24(( wide x 12(1 high, lo display il (ull si/.c and al full resoluliotj on a multiple screen would require a slack of I,4H5 standard monitors. I his is nf)l the sorl of imagery that tnosl people wotiltl wanl to buy for personal use, bul if you ari' seriously nuisidering a business applitafiiin, you can ctmlad IManelary Visions I, Id on 0171 S()4 20in, or bye-mail: [email protected]. acuk END nTip://www.a 0% Finance on CJE's 'Running RISC OS' range ol Lompulers, trom £4U p.m. Phone tor details. Internet ready computers! Free Internet! Phi}^ in, turn on, connect and surf! For existing RISC OS users we can register you Micro's can now supply yon a ready to roll CJE with a free Internet account, provide the Internet solution. The internet software is ANT Suite log on script and instructions. installed and set up with a free Internet service (Telephone calls at local rate.) provider. Up to five email addresses and 1 5MB of web space. 5 email addresses & 15MB web space. A7000+ 32MB, HD, 14" Monitor Simple painless instructions & Internet Pack £850 Connection Pack Includes:- RiscPC 32MB, HD, CD. 15" Monitor Registration. with free Internet Service Provider, script disc for Ant Suite and instiiictions. & Internet Pack £1300 Internet Systems built to your specifications. Connection Pack £15 With the ANT suite £120 Internet pack consists of Modem, ANT Suite With ANT suite and modem £195 installed and set up with free Internet access. (Telephone calls at local rate.) Ail prices include VAT & UK delivery Second Hand RiscPCs StrongARM RISC OS 4 £120 600s from £460, StrongARM from £700 Upgrades StrongARM +RISC OS 4 £304 (when available) Revision 'T' Fitting & HD reformatting Service A7000S From £350 (ex demo) Now availubk £25 or £15 with New Hard Drive or 'Extreme' A7000+Toundation' £700 £292 Courier collection & return also uvailuble. Plustek OpticPro A4 1200x600 inc. Acorn SAV £140 (with Transparency unit £180 ) PC Card 5x86 133MHz 512k Cache £225 5x86 With Part exchange:- £90 CJE586 128k, £125 Acorn 586 & £170 DX2/66 IIYAMA 17" Visionmaster Pro 0.25mni ag £330 CallerlD 32 Speed IDE CD ROM Drive £50 compatible S/H Acorn V90 Modem CD ReWriter SCSI Yamaha 4416 with SAV (needs SCSI interface) £300 A4 £100 Acorn C++ HALF PRICE £125 £450 with SAV £130 1 00MB Zip Drives from £85, 56K V90 Modem £80 10.2GB IDE Hard Disc £125 34GB IDE Hard Disc £350 250MB Zip Drive SCSI Ext. £185, Printer Port version with SAV £215, Int. IDE £165 9.1GB SCSI Hard Disc £275 18.2GB SCSI Hard Disc £425 Acorn Access+ Interfaces RiscPC NIC i0b2&T £110, iob2 only £80 DRAM SIMMs for RiscPCs 32Mb £60, 64Mb £90 & 128Mb £190 CJE Micro's All prices INCLU DE VAT @17.5% 78 Brighton Road & Delivery. Official Orders Welcome E&OE Worthing Prices subject to change & stock. West Sussex ICRO 'Finance subject to status written quotation available upon request. BN112EN CJEV36 Tel 01903 523222 Fax 01903 523679 [email protected] http://www.cje.co.uk Get a Lite! '^^^ In our Millennium competition RiscStdtion Ltd are giving away a R7500 Lite plus 17in monitor to the lucky winner of this three-part competition - plus there are 10 runner-up prizes of £50 vouchers off I I I t 3»R any RiscStation product nil! I I f i The RiscStation R7500 Lite is tiie first of the new breed of RISC OS computers, with more power, more expandability and more user-friendUness courtesy of RISC OS 4. Features Over £1000 • RISC OS 4 as standard • 16Mb RAM worth of prizes • 4Gb harddisc packed with software • 48x CD-ROM drive How to enter • Desktop or tower configuration As this is such a big prize we're running a very special three- • 2x serial ports part competition: In this issue and the next two issues o( Acorn • 2x PC game ports Ihcr we will be suppl\'ing a competition question, three parts in • MIDI in/out all. In the February issue you fill in the answers to each of the • lObaseT network port questions, complete a tie-breaker and send in the coupon. • Stereo sound sampler and mixer • Free external speakers Plus the free software '* EasiWriter Professional • DrawWorks Millemiium R7500 Lite Question 1 9 Fireworkz integrated office suite • PipeDream 4.5 What was the name of the last model of computer released phis a wide selection of by Acorn? games and demos yon cmi read a detailed description of the hardware on page 18 of tins issue. Don't send in your reply now. there tnv two more questiom^ to come Model basics the last couple of months pleasant, non-intrusive aid to Overwe have been taking a good creative modelling. Like all complex look at TopiModelZ and packages, the key to success lies in exploring its features. becoming familiar with how each Hopefully, the previous articles have tool behaves and how they may be helped give those who are unfamiliar combined to achieve a particular with TopMoiicl an idea of its effect. With this in mind, I urge those incredible power and the dramatic of you who have access to TopModel impact that 3D graphics can have. to launch the package and play with However, for those that might some of the basic tools, as soon as is have missed out (where were you?), convenient, since reading tliis article all is not lost since this month we're is no substitute for hands-on going to move on from reviews and experience. concentrate on gethng to grips with TopModcl proper. In particular, we'll Around and about be examining the navigation, In an effort to aid those wrestling manipulation and object creation with TopModel I have broken down tools. the user interface into a number of While you can craft some tool groups, using the colour scheme pretty stunning scenes by shown in Figure I. As well as combining TapModel's identifying the key features, this import utilities and the diagram can be used by those wealth of 3D models trying to follow the steps within the available on CDs or the tutorial to locate the tools 1 will be Net, there's nothing discussing, which have been labelled quite as rewarding as for clarity. settling down to Perhaps the most important work and creating aspect of TopModel that needs to be your own models grasped by those starting out is how from scratch. For the to navigate about a scene, since novice user, this without an idea of space, location process can be quite and direction, things can quickly daunting, since become confused. To help, I have TopModel's user tinted all the icons that are associated interface gives you with adjusting one's viewpoint and access to a navigating round a scene in blue (see bewildering array Figure I). of icons and Try loading in an object and gadgets. experimenting with the tools if you However, a are not already familiar with their little bit of action. The most useful of the confidence, time viewpoint contiols is the cut-away and persever- cube [A], located at the right hand ance will side of the lower toolbar. hopefully This gadget allows you to switch demonstrate to a plan (overhead) or one of two that, in fact, elevation views (front or side) with a what appears to single click on one of the cube's be a cluttered faces. Clicking Select on the cut-away interface is face in the middle of the icon :tuaUy a very switches to a 45 degree view, while Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com 'r^r-'nr.'MLg'^r wanted to make a cube, for example, so TopModel provides a suite of higher level tools to allow complex shapes to be created with relative ease, such as a cube or pyramid. These shapes are formed from a collection of primitives (polygons), which are themselves made up of three or four interconnected points. Since all the points in the object are connected via the polygonal mesh, they are said to form a net of primitives, which represents the most complex type of polygonal structure within TopModel, other than a user-defined group. So there we have it, the three levels of structure: points, primitives and nets. Simple eh? Well, almost... r!,ir»rf /. Bmikiio-uin ii/Tu/i/Hiii/f/^'s iisiv intcrfacf showing Ihc location of fiiiiclioml groups and he\/ fcntun's Bezier surfaces mmtioned hi the text. Thesir include Uwlsfor navigation (green), object manipulation (red), object creation (yellow), general information (cyan), animation (pink) and altering the eni'ironment (blue) In fact, there is another type of structure used by TopModel, known clicking Adjust yields the same view types of 'building block' used within as a bezier surface. Although a bezier but from the opposite 'side' of the TopModc! and shows how they relate surface also consists of points and scene. to each other. primitives, it is not actually made up On the left-hand toolbar, there is a Points are the most basic of of polygons and this is what of group three more icons which TopModel's building blocks and distinguishes it from the type of relate to your viewpoint. The represent a location in 3D space. objects we have just been discussing. magnifying glass [B] enables you to While you can't create a single point TopModel actually provides two zoom the conceptual camera in and directly, all rendered objects consist completely different types of objects out, while clicking Select on the hand of a series of interconnected points known as bezier surfaces and icon [C] will brijig up the rotate which are grouped together to form polygonal meshes. Each are made up cursor which allows you to rotate the the skin of a model. Such groups of points, primitives and nets view about the origin. These two typically consist of three or four (Figure III). modes can also be invoked directly points, and are referred to by However, while the points in a by pressing Control while holding TopModel as primitives, but are polygonal object define its exact down Select for zoom or Adjust for probably better known by you and I shape, the points associated with a rotate. as polygons. bezier object are used to mould the As well as being able to rotate and While it is possible to create a shape of a surface, which defines the zoom, clicking Adjust on the hand polygon directly within TopModel, it object's shape. This is such an icon or holding down Shift and would be tedious to have to create important concept that it is worth Control invokes translate mode, six square faces everv time you repeating, Bezier surfaces describe an which allows the scene to be panned relative to your original viewpoint. This can be done by dragging the 35 pointer in the direction you wish to scroll, while holding down Select. If more precise control is needed, you can enter values in the Pan/ Rotate/Zoom dialog accessible from either the hand or magnifying glass icons. Finally, named views can be stored and recalled using a menu system which can be accessed via the eye icon [Dj. Once you've mastered the art of navigation, it's worth taking time to understand the different types of structure that TopModel uses to construct objects, and how these structures come together to form more complex units. Although this may be considered simplistic by many, gaining an understanding is vital for learning how objects can be manipulated, so I believe it's worth spending a bit of time going over the basics. Figure II illustrates the three Figure 11: The three main poh/gonal structural groups: points, primitwes and nets http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 that it is possible to create curved surfaces very easily, since you only need to manipulate a few control points in order to alter the shape of the surface. For example, imagine how difficult it would be to create the distorted cube shown in Figure V, using a polygonal object. Using a bezier object, only one control point needs to be manip- ulated. However, in a polygonal object, all points are connected via straight lines, so you would need a large number of points to create the illusion of a curved surface, and each time you wished to alter the appearance, you would need to accurately reposition all the points to achieve the new effect. Tlie disadvantage of bezier objects is tliat tliey can be difficult to work with, especially if you have more object's shape using a surface which than one present in the same section can be manipulated using control of a scene, they also take longer to points, whereas polygonal meshes render and, as far as I am aware, consist of points which define the they cannot be transferred to other exact shape of an object. packages in their native state. In fact, if you've used the line However, they can be converted to tools in a vector drawing package, polygons using the 'convert to like Draw, you're already familiar polygons tool' which is something 1 with the concept I'm trying to would recommend doing once you describe. When you need to create a have finished manipulating the simple, angular shape you use the surface. If you aren't ready to fix the line tool, but when a smoother, conversion, but would like to see the curved shape is required, you are general effect use the 'cover surfaces' more likely to use the bezier curve shortcut to temporarily adjust the tool. display [EJ. The same is true of polygonal meshes and Tools of the trade bezier surfaces. Polygonal TopModel provides a range of tools meshes are, by and large, for creating both simple and complex great for creating simple, shapes, These can be accessed by angular objects, clicking on the Create icon [F] - all whereas bezier icons associated with creating objects surfaces are used to define more complex, smoothly curved surfaces. You probably won't be surprised to learn therefore, that the object creation tools come in two flavours, a polygonal form and a bezier form, a number of examples of which are shown side by side in Figure IV. So, now we know about polygonal and bezier objects, when should you use them? Well, the advantage of Figure !V: Poli/gonal and bezier a bezier object is forms of three t\fpes of objects Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com X'' Unsetect poim y^ ^ Bruig to centre Jt^ar' Align groups... primitives 5 ^ Sekx'i 1 ly Select per colour ^Oroup Groups-. X|Y!Z t ^ Select enure neifi |l^ Select per material Select all Dc-sdect Aim 1 Select selects all objects in the scene. Adjust ju^t the vi-iible ones. Figure V!: The Select menu allows different methods ofsekliug object:>: through colour, texture, groups, and so on applying various deformations. deselect them. Before you can apply any kind of As a result you are free to change modification, you need to select the the display mode, alter your items you wish to alter. In the end, viewpoint and change the selection the selection process comes down to mode at any hme without affecting highlighting a point or group of your current selection. You can add points which you wish to alter in to a current selection by clicking some way. There are however several Adjust, at or near the location of the methods by which a selection can be object /primitive /point you wish to made and these are all listed on the add, while clicking Select selects the selection toolbar (Figure VI). new object while deselecting all In addition to being able to select others - as in applications such as by material, colour and group, it is Artworks. possible to select by point, primitive You can also select a group of and net (see Figure VII). Because of points or nets /primitives within a this a duplicate set of icons appear rectangular area by dragging out a on the left hand TopModel toolbar. As marquee (dotted box) with the Figure V: The pou'er ofkezier suifaces. Jha you would expect, 'select by point' mouse. However, care must be taken target object can Ik easily produced using a [G] allows individual points to be when using this technique since it is bezier surface, but requires considerable more nmk to create using polygons selected, while 'select by primitive' possible to accidentally drag the [H] selects the points that make up current selection as opposed to have been shaded yellow in Figure I. individual polygons or sections of a adding or reselecting a new group of Although the behaviour of most of bezier surface. Finally, 'select entire points. the create tools is self-explanatory, it nets' [I] will select a net of connected One advantage of a drag over a is worth spending some time points. click is that it ensures that all the investigating what each tool does if However, rather unusually, it will points at a particular location are you're not already familiar with their not select a group of apparently selected, as opposed to the point action. Note, to do this, you will related bezier surfaces. This is nearest to you along the 'line of often have to switch views while because the points which lie along a sight'. If you make a mistake and creating an object in order to see join between two or more sections select some points by accident, it is exactly what's happening in all three are not actually shared between the possible to deselect them without dimensions. objects, but are a collection of deselecting all the others currently Once you are famihar with a tool's superimposed points, with one point selected by holding down Shift while basic behaviour, try adjusting some per surface. Care must therefore be performing a marquee drag with the of the default parameters and radio taken when manipulating the joins mouse. button settings, or enter values between bezier sections to make sure Another useful selection directly to see how they affect the that all the required points have been technique (and one regularly used by shape of the object being created. If selected before any modifications are the program's author) is to select an you have time, it's also worth carried out Selected points remain individual point or group of points, 37 playing around with the bezier selected as long as you don't actively and then to use Control+P to select versions of the tools. As you probably have gathered from the previous section, these are very powerful, however, they are also quite difficult to get to grips with, so don't worry if you find them confusing initially. There's an awful lot you can do in TopModel without ever needing to use a bezier surface. Selective manipulation While the creation tools are obviously vital for modelling, more often than not their use represents only the first stage of the design process. A far larger proportion of one's time is often spent modifying objects in order to achieve a particular effect. By modifying I mean moving, copying and rotating points, nets and primitives as well as Figure Vll: The three principal nielhods of selection http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 all which contain the modification mode has been selected T |htodrfv(F5)| PI the primiH\-es ive currently selected points. Repeated you can either interactively apply the (• 10 ^Dy ^ this to chosen effect by dragging one of the use of tecln'uque allows you 1 X 00000 ^ ¥ 0000 'scale up' your selection. Finally, if points in the selection with the Z 0000 you wish to deselect all points, mouse; use the cursor keys in Move 1 simply click iii an 'empty' area of the combination with Shift, which RotsM view. magnifies the effect; or type in values (8 OriQ- _J View [f you have a complex scene, it is and then press the relevant jObpcf likely that will have modification button ^^^^^1 X 0000 ' quite you Y 0000 • trouble selecting a particular point or on the dialog box (Figure VIII). Of Z 0.0000 ' group of points. This being the case these methods I prefer to use the Rotate 1 you can do a number of things. First, cursor keys, but usually enter values Sc it's quite useful to turn on 'object via the dialog box when rotating or a Onfl J View points' mode [via ]], which will show scaling an object precisely. J Obtect If to enter values X 150 0000 \% you the location of all the points in you do choose Y 150 0000 14 your scene, regardless of whether a and make a mistake, it is easy to get 2 150.0000 j* primitive is visible or not. back to your original distribution by Scale Secondly, rotate your viewpoint applying the inverse transform or 2S 1 33 1 50 back and forth imtil you have a clear alternatively, set the undo buffer by ee 1 75 1 100 'line of sight' to the point or pressing Space before you try ISO 1 200 1 400: in. anything experimental [P]. For : \ primitive you are interested f Im Finally, you can hy turning on 'select example if you rotate 45 degrees Figurf V1H: The Modifi/ dia o,?k)Jc visible points/primitives mode' [K], around the wrong axis, simply apply which, as the name suggests, will a -45 degree rotation to get back to allow only visible points and where you were. primitives to be selected, Hopefully a This fix is worth remembering combination of these three since one mistake you are likely to techniques will be enough to make time and again is rotating or eliminate any problems you might be scaling a selection using the wrong having. origin or about the wrong axis. Once you have selected the points, However, in most cases you will what can you do with them? Well, probably wish to apply the chosen the answer is almost anything. transformation locally. In such However, the actions you are most circumstances, use the 'bring to likely to want to carry out involve centre' button (shortcut: Control + the modifica-tion tools, namely: Menu) on the edit menu [Q] to move IL], rotate [M] and scale localise the currently selected group iN]. of points before applying the 'Move' allows you to transformation. move the points within the Tlie modification operations are currently selected active just one example of a host of plane (see the first transformations which can be article for more applied to a selection of points, since information about one of the main functions of a 3D tlie active plane), package is to apply algorithms to a while 'rotate' rotates spatial dishibution. Other types of the points about a operation supported by TopMode! given origin. include different types of Finally 'scale' scales deformation and distortion, for the selection with example volumetric zoom and bezier respect to a specified distortion. origin. To switch I could go on, but rather than between these overload you 1 think it's best to bring modes, either click things to a close. I hope tliis month's on one of the article has introduced a number of modify icons on concepts and techniques which the left hand you'll have fun trying out on your toolbar, use the own designs. Next month we'll be modify menu seeing how the creation and from the tools distortion tools can be combined toolbar [via O] to tackle some real world or type values applications. Until then, keep into the modify modelling... dialog box (invoked by Contacting me J pressing F5, or menu over one of Max Palmer: the modify topmodel@acornuser, com icons). Once a J Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com Pushing forward the frontiers in RISC OS internet & web authoring software Tj Interactive anthem*£7o inc. VAT The RISC OS MIDI Sequencer Anthem is a feature packed, easy to use MIDI sequencing package for RISC OS computers An E-mail and News It employs a powerful and acclaimed new object- ^ Client for RISC OS oriented (phrases of music) song structure that ^ ^ allows the musician flexibility in arrangement E.3U Professional Edition and ease of editing unparalleled by any other RISC OS The only RISC OS internet software with the sequencer. GOOD NET-KEEPING seal of approval one duH^ttc^ uH^eataMe Existing Sound & Music Products include PC SoundPro 2 £35, MIDI Synthesizers, tewing Sound Cards, MIDI Cards, Parallel/Serial Port MIDI, MIDI Support.... HTMLE Next generation WWW EROES authoring for RISC OS \J'^ \jSi Might and Magir^ £105 AH the tools you need THE PRICE OF LOYALTY Our RISC OS web authoring solutions set ne Expansion Pack f standards in power and ease of use XT T The Studio edition provides Rtcjuircs <)rjgin-.il I l()MM2 HTMLEdit 4+ Java support, sound and music. £53 link and inr^age checking, syntax colouring and OLE Requires Doom or Doom+ Enhanced Web Visual frames, tables, animations, Other Games Titles Toolkit maps, palette control. Draw file Heretic & Hexen £32 conversion (Towers of Darkness Pack) WebSpell Full HTML-aware spelling checker £15 Heroes of Might & Magic 2 £35 Webster XL Browser with tables, frames, forms, £25 Descent £30 sound and JavaScript Doom+ £32 SiteMaster pnce now Syndicate^ £29< ^ Abuse £25 The Web Site Management Quake System for RISC OS Computers £30 £23, Now with automatic up-hader for Distributors for ARTEX: Ankh, Exodus getting changes online fast PRO ACTION: Various titles 22 Robert Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6PS Tel: 01925 755043 Fax: 01925 757377 Email: rcomp(^rcomp.co.uk [email protected] LiiA 1 Alastair Bailey pretends he is something else ~^ his month, Came Show takes individuals have released such a step back in time to the game ROM images into the public days when a ZX81 was the domain for all to use. One fine thing to have and all kids , example of this is Beam were well behaved. Yes, we're International who have recently looking at emulation: basically, released a number of their getting one computer platform to Spectrum/C64 and CPC games on pretend it's another. the Internet for emulator users. The first thing you'll need before It seems rather silly that some you can get into emulation is an parties refuse to relinquish emulator. This is the software copyright on their old and now which tells your computer to look, non-commercially viable titles from act and feel exactly the same as the yesteryear. Perhaps releasing older N£S - lots ofMiirio Bros, stuff here'. platform being emulated. Once you titles into the public domain would have the emulator running, you'll ei^Sfl.dfetb^Ci^ot"g good through there for RISC OS, both are from probably want some code for it to David McEwen. MadNES is the run whether it be a game or even enough moaning, on with the faster of the two and is a port of something mortifyingly boring like games! Roberto's upcoming NES emulator a word processor. In the case of for the PC. A NES emulator is game consoles, these come in the GameBoy essential if you're a Mario Brothers form of ROM images which contain There are a number of emulators fan. There are countless thousands all the information stored on the available for this little hand-held of Mario spin-off games to be found original platform's cartridge, tape or wonder, one of which even supports on this platform. CD. the new colour GameBoy ROMs. As I've pointed out before, there The definitive GameBoy emulator Sega's Master System , are some nasty legal issues to be has to be GameBoy from Purple and GameGear contended with when it comes to Monchichi which can be found on obtaining such ROM images. To put the 200th edition cover CD-ROM as These two consoles also hail fromj it simply, it's illegal to distribute well as by following the links on the late 1980s. The GameGear was 3 such games while the original the Web sites below. If you want nice little colour hand-held offering author still retains the copyright. colour GameBoy support, get hold while the Master System was Sega's You have been warned! However, of a copy of David McEwen's VGB answer to Nintendo's NES. Miracle some kind companies and port. This emulator runs at an (http://www.willothewisp.demonj acceptable speed on a uk/SMS) is the definitive Master.^ ..^.-, StrongARM but struggles on System emulator while Gareth _ anything less, so if you're an Moore's Sega port and David's ^^1 ARM6/7 user, perhaps stick MasterGear both do a good job of to the classic GameBoy emulating the hand-held and its big L ^ V k games and a copy of brother console within one W/a^ %m^m^m GameBoy. application. ^Sl \3Iwvr y NES Sega MegaDrive ^n^Sy^KHH^Sm ' The NES was Nintendo's Unlike the other consoles covered JSJ3 11. flagship console for the late here so far, the MegaDrive had a NJ^S 80s. It was very popular in full 256 colours at its disposal along its day and this is reflected with much improved architecture titles for a leap in game seo'*" ^y '^"^ sheer number of which allowed which were released. There graphics and sound. This means I Sixnii ,1 on tlir Scvii Mr',;itt hWi- are two NES emulators out that many of the games on this Christmas 1999 http://www.acor. am will still run quite slowly. That's all the space I have this month. However, if you lake a look at some of the sites listed below, you'll find links to many other emulators including the superb Commodore 64 emulator, I-rodo, and many others. Ap()logies for making this such an Internet-oriented article, those without access can find a number of emulators and free ROMs in the arcade directory aar-ir-]rnr-irn on the 200tb issue cover mount CD. Eor ROM images, take a look at azing graphics... Inih/ iiii((i:iiii{ one of the following sites: http://www.ronihq.coin, latform boast better graphics than http://www.davesvgc.com or some of the less fantastic native http://anime-land.dhs.org/sitc/ Hh RISC OS releases of late. However, (Please note that Acorn Ihcr the emulator, DGcn from David magazine is in no way associated McEwen, is still under development with any of these sites and does not SfiLECT 5T*RI ••. and the version I have here is a endinse the use or distribution of little slow and lacks sound, xys copyrighted ROM images). labelled as a 'dodgy beta' Alternatively, pop along to (me of hopefully there'll be a far superior the popular search engines (like . t Niiih-iiilii (.fiim'Kiit/ - llw Ihiiix lo Iw Si'CH version out by the time you read AltaVista, http://www.allavista.com) irilh ill /i/.ir/\'ifi(i;it/-i inri'ss tin- ii'iiiiliy (!) this. and do a search for the appropriate console format, adding "+ROM" on good emulators for the RISC OS SNES the end. platform relics upon you, the end So far as performance goes, the Many of the emulators currently user, supplying the authors with SNES was quite similar to its Sega being developed for RISC OS are in bug reports and suggestions for competition, the Mega Drive. One of fact conversions of emulators improvements. So, if you do the titles launched with this written for other platforms. encounter any problems or feel you console, Donkci/ Koti^ Countrxi 2, Emulator authors are often quite want to pat the author on the back pioneered the 3D platformer-style willing to let others see how their for writing a jolly good cnuilalor, be which stuck with us right through coding has been done because it's sure to look up their e-mail and do the mid 90s. Gareth Long's SNES9X only very rarely that an emulator is so! provides a reasonably fast written for commercial gain. emulation of the console but, as However, there was a recent case Other news with DCfCii, it's still very much where the publisher of a In other news this month, R-Comp under development. PlayStation emulator for the should have had both the RISC OS PC/Mat was taken to court by Sony Quake player and their hmg- MAME so it does happen on occasions but awaited Unocs of'Mi^ht niui Mn^^ic The MAME (Multiple Arcade not, it would seem, in our sheltered II expansion pack, The Price of Machine Emulator) project aims to little RISC OS world. Lotfiillii, on sale at the RISC OS '99 preserve yesterday's arcade The continued development of show. Next month's column will machines for future generations of include a full show report from a games player. It does this by gaming perspective Where to get your gear f along with providing emulation of the reviews of whatever makes it out in hardware so that once the original David McEwen's Web site (for time. hardware has become unusable, the VGB, MadNES, MasterGear and Cnstic Hcivniw, the two player games will not lost for ever. be DGen amongst others): http:// maze game previewed earlier this Even though this particular www.lizj ay.demon.co.uk/david/ year, should be with us very soon mulli-platform project has strong Gareth S. Long's Web site (for too. In fact, your very own Acom roots in education and preservation. MAME, SNES9X and MESS): User games master is now studying Hie distribution of copyrighted http://www.elecslns.demon.co.uk/ at The University of Birmingham as ROM images is still illegal. The Acorn Emulation Pages (a is the game's author so keep an eye However, the hope is that one day, very comprehensive resource but on these pages for more companies will smile upon the news as it happens! sadly not regularly updated | emulation scene and release their now): http://www.cybervillage. older games into the public domain. co.uk/acom/emulation/ The RISC OS conversion of Acom Gaming's emulation Contacting AU MAME is maintained by Gareth S. section (an up to date source of long. For this one, you'll almost links and news): http://www. Alasdair Bailey: certainly need a StrongARM chip acom-gaming.org.uk [email protected] and even if you have, some games The world's number 1 RISC OS magazine I You already know what a great magazine Acorn User is - it's the only place you can get accurate, rumour-free, Call our detailed RISC OS news, in-depth hardware and software reviews, and Subscription Hotline without doubt the best cover discs available. Tel: 0870 606 0424 Take out a subscription today and you guarantee never to miss an issue of the Fax: 0161 429 0685 biggest and best RISC OS magazine in e-mail: [email protected] the world - at a lower price than you can get in the shops. Please quote code 'A9913' when subscribing by phone or e-mail Subscribe now! 7(1 receive the January Acorn User (issue 216) all siibscriplions must be in Inj Tuesday 14 December. Subscriptions received after this date ivill start witii the fclnian/ Acorn User (issue 217), 'back Issue 214 Issue 213 Dec1999 Nov 1999 . issues A Tt>pModel re\'!ew # TopModel part II re\'iew part I # Digital Cameras # Anthem # Noticeboard Pro # Lrlam i]6 Missed out on one # Photodesk plugins # Messenger Pro # Graphic equaliser # DrawWorks SE of our previous # Ancesfor+ on disc # Composition issues? Take this Issue 210 Issue 209 August 1 999 1999 opportunity to bring July 9 Netpiilot Internet • New Photodesk collection server re\'iewed series your up # AAUC update • Y2K compliance - # RiscStalion report for your PC card to date. But hurry # Home Networking • New programmin| Series series stocks are limited. • Caves game on i 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com - V^ iV.^T ' '«?«me in the world Please send me the following subscription/back issues: Please subscribe me for: 4-issue subscription Neil' Reneiual UK ~l Aum9iu ' ' AUR99U4 £15.99 EU " AEm9134 AER39-134 £17.99 World ~ AWN9913i AWR9913i £20.99 8-issue subscription aehJJi New Renewal UK _J AUN99U» Aumnss £29.99 EU A^mms AEmsns £34.99 ^° for you Worid Q AWN991i8 Awm9ii8 £40.99 Annual subscription (13 issues) New Reneiml UK I AUN9913r AUR9913Y £45.99 , EU AEN9913Y _J \ AER9913Y £51.99 World AwmfiiY \\ awrmi3> £63.99 Please send me the following back issjtes: UK Europe World » T:r**^"^*<>n to Dra |Mo.eUutoHa,pa;^ Issue 214, Dec 1999 £4.20 £4.70 £6,30 Issue 213, Nov 1999 £4.20 £4.70 £6.30 i,r5«»-^' Issue 212, Oct 1999 £4.20 £4.70 £6.30 Issue 211, Sept 1999 £4.20 £4.70 £6.30 ^ Issue 210, Aug 1999 £4.20 £4-70 £6.30 Issue 209, July 1999 £4.20 £4.70 £6.30 Issue 208, June 1999 £4.20 £4-70 £6.30 Lj Issue 207, May 1999 £3.95 £4.45 £6.00 Any 2 back issues; UK £7.40 Europe £8.05 World £11.15 Any 3 back issues: UK £9,60 Europe £10.55 World £15-20 I wish to pay by: to : Cheque/ postal order Press Ltd) I Ipayabb Xau ^^1j i Credit Card (Visa/Maslenrard) _ I \ Credit Card No: Expiry Date: Prkts include postasr & packiHg Name on card; Signature: AU crfdil card Irmsaclions wSl ix under Ihi' name Pvavrtuid: lnii-mal:mal lisai Name 43 Issue 212 Issue 211 Address October 1999 Sept 1 999 • Detailed • First look at TechWriter review RISCOS4 Country • Flat screen • DataSafe review monitors • Home Networks Postcode Tel • Viruses feature Part II E-mail • TechWriter demo • Eurofighter on disc Typhoon reviewed Send your completed Acorn User subscription /back issues form to; Acorn User, Tail Press, Unit Issue 208 Issue 207 2A, June 1999 May 1999 Heapriding Business Park, Ford Street, Stockport Cheshire SK3 OBT • Film Trailer CDII • ProCAD+ Telephone 0870 606 0424* or fax your • RISCOS Ltd • Heretic & Hexen completed Acorn subscription issues interview • Acorn Confidence User /back with credit • APDL games CD's Partn form cird details to • DigSigGen review • Fishy Disk 0161 429 0685 Have a query? E-mail stibscrip® acomuser.com I'lease note e-mail is not secure, we do not rvcommend sending your order details as plain text. . Ples5elickhereify(iudi)nolwish toirrceive 'calls charced at proaii>tjoiul [nfonnatiDn Ircm other companits National Rate- http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 inci VAT fit delivery See http://www.riscos.com for ordering details 3 Clarendon Road, Cyncoed, Cardiff CF3 7JD Tel: 029 2049 2324 E-mail: [email protected] onnect -'-^;T,-.-v>*«iK.---r- Steve Tumbull checks out a low cost network idea connection many people are opting going to allow to be - it's While shared the running, and it will continue to for home networks as they same type of procedure you have to operate even if a single- tasking get newer machines, tlie go through when setting up shared application is running. interfaces and cables can be drives for Acom Access. One disadvantage is that it expensive. ParaFS provides a low- To do this you use the Paths monopolises the parallel port which cost option for linking two machines dialogue box from the iconbar menu, means that you can't have a printer in a practical way and at useful this is a fairly niftv bit of connected at the same time - there's speeds. programming as it tries to figure out no 'through' option unlike, say, a Zip The package, in a video-style box, for you whether you are adding a drive. comes with a small A6 manual with new path; removing a path; or So, does it work? Yes. There seems six pages of instructions and an 800K updating one. The action button is to be something furmy about - disc of software the software itself altered on the fly depending on renaming, if you try to rename a file only takes up 3QK. You can get the whether you enter something new or on the other machine an error box package with the necessary parallel change what's there. pops up - even though it does do the port cable to link the two machines It's not foolproof in its decision rename successfully. Apart from that or without, in which case you can but mistakes don't cause any the transfer speed is quite use the instructions in the manual to problems - tricking it into adding respectable and you can play games make your own, though unless vou an already existent path doesn't with comiections: wire things up all the time you might create a duplicate. From a user If you have a PnraFS link to a as well pay the small extra cost and interface viewpoint I think machine on a network you can make avoid the hassle. separate menu entries would be it share the drives on the networked Installing the software is easy, more helpful. machines as well and at one point you drag it from the floppy to the The paths themselves consist of we had a PocketBook linked to an A4 45 hard disc, or another floppy, or the address path within the machine with some link software; the A4 then network - PnraFS isn't fussy where and an idenhfying name which will connected via ParaFS to an A70U0+ it's launched from though you can be seen on the second machine. and we could manipulate the files on only run two copies at a time on a Once that's been done clicking the PocketBook from the second single-user licence (it's two rather Select on the ParaFS iconbar icon on machine. than one since you need to have the second machine displays the Hst So when you have that second the software running on both of available shared directories from machine and vou want to have machines). the first computer. This then behaves direct access to its files - rather Plug in the cable, run the software like the norma! filer and can be than using 'SneakerNet' - ParaFS is at both ends and you're (almost) treated as any other drive: you can an effective, useful and low- away. For each machine you now load from it, save to it, launch cost networking option. have to set up which drives you're apphcations from it and so on. And that's all there is - to it apart from the Product details I 1-1 »uh> "^^m bells and whistles: You \\^lvl. „,„., \A.) transfer, lOK is the Sl/L' PO Box 183. Oldham, OL2 8FB SlIIHIH recommended minimum Tel: 01706 848 6W Sii..- -.-iiinf- \\hilel50Kisthe Fax: 11870 164 1604 Oiil 1 i E-mail; nf0®s td eV e! , d on . , maximum. You can quit e m CO u k Weh: http:/ /www,sldevei. the application but keep i5* demon.co.uk/ ;i) ltiiill>j*.4 II Aim JiHO • 0.) Panrs the filing system itself http://www.acornuser.coni Christmas 1999 •^^-I'f^i-',-^' '.- ^n-^-.^.. ^-.-^ , -!*g^iJrf7^^jmrfT7-^-'- X. Nets Simon Melhuish investigates Internet data logging and on- tlie-fly GIF creation housekeeping values from a machine of the most exciting maybe their plans to take over the nothing fancy iji Tenerife, onto my local machines. Onefeatures of the Internet is the world! Actually there's that Some knowledge of the socket ability to get live and up-to- about the finger 'protocol'. All by TCP/IP information from happens is that your computer protocol used date - communications is required for this anywhere on the planet - for makes a 'telnet' connection to the is beyond the scope of this example, you could get a headline remote computer on its finger port but that 'finger article. I suggest you examine the news item, or a picture from a Web (port number 79), to talk to a code of existing finger clients to see cam. In this article I'll be looking at daemon'. it's done. sending numbers over the Net, and The User ID is then sent, and the how how we can monitor a numerical daemon replies with some Better than a finger value on a remote computer. Data in information provided by the user or To this on One alternative to finger is to run a its simplest form can be presented system administrator. do server. Pretty much any Web numerically, one way or another. RISC OS you will need a finger Web (see the links server will run user programs when I'll also be looking at a technique sen'er, such as FingerD requested, using what's known as the for generating Web pages featuring page on the Acorn User Web site). gateway interface (CGI). graphs as GIF images. The programs Normally this reads its data from common (set This is typically what happens when to generate these pages, and the files within the application up you access a URL containing 'cgi-bin' associated GD GIF library, can be for each user) which you could with your Web browser. In my found on the Acorn User Web site. arrange to be updated from time to ThermilC arhcle I described how to Those not running network servers time, as required. Better still, you can create on-the-lly tables of temperahire might also find the programs of extend the server code by adding readings using a CGI program interest for their GIF-creation your own BASIC library functions, written in BASIC (Figure I), again, it's functions. then the server will run your 46 program to generate Use your finger a completely up-to- 5 GHz Equipment Temperaturee If you followed my ThermliC series date response in Archimedes World last year you'll whenever anyone have already seen some simple connects. The code 1 Lab rack techniques for monitoring values wrote for ThcrmUC over the Net; in that case, is on the ThtrmUC LOATALbox temperahares. I'll give a brief Web site (see the summary before moving on to links page). something more sophisticated. The finger server West hotplate The first method was to run a technique allows finger server. Finger is an Internet you to connect to East hotplate protocol that allows you to find out anywhere on the users on a remote machine. If Net and check about Corr. hotplate you know somebody's User ID on a whatever values computer connected to the Net, you you wish. You can hotplate would type finger user_id@remote_ also write your own LOCAl. computer at the command line. client to period- Th^e are clients with their own ically do the West box windows too; in their case you'd equivalent, but computer name write the results to type the User ID and East box ;-^j into a dialogue box. Either way, a log file each time. you'll get back some information on I do this myself to !: HTML labU- ^encmtni bii n LGi iiiv:inim the user; perhaps their full name and record some Vijfurc l€! Christmas 1999 http://www.acorniiser.com : '' ----:-^:^«^--S^^^.^c.»-._.. •- i- --TTit'^l'' data (for instance, was my HTML. Load the Index file from equipment about to melt?) Lmless I inside the !Gt1l/3 application into a sat and stared at the screen for an Web browser. There is also a text hour. version - Readinc/txt, If you're going What it needed was a graph. to use GD with your own C Obviously it is more difficult to apphcations you'll probably want to generate an image file than text. At look at the 'header' files too. I have first I tried to tackle this by written a short introduction, below. generating a sprite file, which I then One of the programs supplied converted to GIF using one of the with the library is gtidemo. As you common conversion programs. I can guess from the name this is to made the sprite by re-directing show you some of the library's screen output to a sprite area and facilities. plotting the lines of the graph. It starts with a GIF input file: However, it seems that the HTTP demoin/gif (all filenames are relative .' ' '.'I •'',;:, i'.'i III inj'iil and sen'ers run - oiilpul GIF files to and from ^ddcnio CG! scripts from a task to the !Gdl/3 directory) or you window, pre-emptively multi-tasked. could substitute one of your own. on the ThcniillC Web site. There's Having a program 'swapped out' Onto this it plots various lines, virtually nothing to the tabulation after it has redirected output to a shapes and text and its output is code: because an is HTML document sprite is bad news. My work-arounds written to dcmoout/gif - see Figure II. no more than a text file with a few were getting ugly and, besides, I To view this file you should filetype tags added, the task is accomplished didn't like having to run an extra it to 'GIF' (&695) and load it into a with PRINT statements. The values program. GIF viewer such as ChangeFSl or are recorded, converted to text and vour Web browser. inserted as required. That covers the GD and the art of GIF generation of reports in numeric Fortunately a spell of Web searching Ready to plot form. Next, things will get more led me to the GD library, by Tliomas The result of my work with GD is interesting as I turn to the generation Boutell, You can find this yourself if csv2gif, which can be found on the of graphics. After all, the saying "a you point your browser at http:// Acorn User Web site. The source code picture is worth a thousand words" is www.boutelI.com/gd/ Tlie original is included so that you can modify it very probably true, although does not quite compile 'out of the for your own piu-poses, although hopefully we can get the size down a box' under Acorn's C/C-n-, so I've you will, of course, need a C bit using compression! put my modified version on the compiler to create a modified Acorn User Web site. executable. it Graphing out Tliere wasn't actually very much The workings of the program are The problem I faced in my own work to do, other than adding a few extra described below. From the user's was that, while I see could how my 'include' statements. Tlie best perspective all you need to run it is a remote system was doing at any one description of GD is its own comma-separated-value (CSV) file, time, I couldn't see any trend to the documentation, which is provided as and a place to write the GIF, The CSV file must have the fime at the GD basics start of each line in either of these formats: Any GD-based application will need to access the main header file: dd/nm/yy hhinm Sinclude " You might need to include some other files too, perhaps for fonts. The year value may include the 47 GD defines a new type, gdlmagePtr. You'll need one of these for any century or not. I do expect this to image you work with. Probably the first function you'll want to call is work and keep on working after gdlmageCreateO 1999! Up to 32 values follow the date, each preceded by a comma. The mout = gdlmageCreate (width, height) ; program scans for decimal fioafing- This takes width and height parameters, and returns a gdlmagePtr. Next point numbers, so you might have to you'll need to define some colours. For example: v*ite = gdImageColorAllocate(iin_out, 255, 255, 255) ; Make a similar call for each colour. Now you're ready to start drawing on the image. The simplest calls are: gdlmageSetPixel {gdlmagePtr im, int x, int y, int color) and gdlmageUne (gdlmagePtr im, int xl, int yl, int x2, int y2, int color) There are many other types though. You can plot text with gdlmageStringO or gdImageStringUp(). You must include a font header file at the start of your program to use these calls. Wlien your image is finished you should call gdImageGif() to write the GIF file. Finally, call gd ImageDestroy {) to fidy up. When compiling your program, remember to link to .III I'vniiipk- Wd' fWiji' iifuj^-i the churl CG/ frogrmi. http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 Net graphics time. The file can track up to 32 - 7 values, so the CGI program reads an extra parameter sent as a query string appended to the URL, for instance /cgi-bin/cntr/cntr?n for the first value. As you wilt no doubt have guessed, the format of this CSV file is suitable for input to csvlgif. Thus you may run csvlgif, via its cliart CGI program, to generate a Web page showing how accesses to your Web pages have ramped up with time. You can also have different counters SI attached to particular 00:00 pages on your site. Eight temperature cliannals phtteii by csvZgif These will be displayed on the load the FPEmulator module, this counter. No fancy odometer chart as different-coloured lines. can be done by putting a copy in lookalikes here, the program simply Figure III shows a test page with a IBoot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk or by writes a number to a small GIF. counter and a chart showing the log using RMEnsure. If *help fpemulator 'Real' Web counters, which often use from this and another page. works, you're OK. GD, usually stitch together more The use of csvlgif is not restricted Used on its own rsi'2,^f/niust be artistic GIF numbers. The CGI to Web servers. You can use it to plot driven from the command line. For interface is called ciitr, in the cntr and other CSV files using the command use with a Web server it needs some cntrjip directories for AlphaNet and line. To call it manually use this additional code in the form of a hletPlex respectively. form: BASIC program for the CGI. I have So that the program can keep csv2gif in_csv out_gif width heigiit provided two versions of a program count, you have to specify the name called chart on the Web site. The of a CSV file, from which the The dimensions are given in pixels. version in the cntr directory is for use previous count is read. After the GIF I conclude with Figure fV, which is with the AlphaNet server. There is has been created, gdzvcount writes- an example plot of temperature also a cnirjip directory for NetPlex back the incremented count and the data logged by ThermllC. users- It should not be difficult to adapt one or other of the programs csv2gif and gdwcount for other Web servers. In either case the program runs The source to these programs may to include the corresponding font the server to csvlgif, and causes Web be found in the the csvlgif.c and header file. issue a 'redirect' message to the gdwcoiuit.c directories on the Acorn Finally GD is told to save the file browser, should then request which User Web site. Each program must in GIF format. The pre-processor newly-generated file. the GIF be linked against libgd (Ln the '.GDI/3 directives around the RISC OS file- If, when you try out the CGI directory) and the C library stubs. typing operation (_kemel_osfile 18) program on your server, you do not The makefiles provided should are to disable it should you wish to appear to get any updates, it might handle all this for Acorn C/C++. compile the program under Linux that your browser is keeping the be I'll describe gdwcount first, since (or whatever). files cached on harddisc - a problem it's the simpler program. As with csi'2,',j|/has many similar with Netscape in particular - if so, 48 any C program, it is entered at elements. This time the colour re-load, usually you can force a by function main. This first performs allocation is a bit more extensive, as Shift-fclicking) the re- clicking (or some housekeeping functions, such there has to be a colour for each load button. as reading command-line possible plot line. Actually I've been parameters, allocate^colours sets the a bit lazy here, and tlie colours input... Need GIF foreground and backgromnd repeat after the first 8. far I have discussed the So not colours, following the RISC OS- The read_line function is similar of generating the data file, means standard 16-co!our scheme. to that in gdzocount. It is used first to other than alluding to by my To find the previously stored read each line of the log file to ThermllC project. Indeed, if you want count values the program starts just determine the minimum and to monitor temperatures you should before the end of the log file, and maximum limits. Having at earlier articles and the look my searches backwards for a new line. established these, scaling factors programs on the ThcnnllC Web site. The last line must follow this, so it is may be set. Then on a second read- But if temperature is not of read in by read_Line, with get_yalue through of the file each point is interest I have another example picking up each of the stored values. plotted to the image (using points or which also makes use of the GD Now that we have our starhng lines) by plot_to_point. library and be of use to anyone may pointing it is simply a matter of Next the program prints the nmning an 1?JSC OS Web server. This incrementing the appropriate count value and time limits as small text is a Web counter called gdwcount, value by one, and printing it to the (gdlmageStringUp prints text on its and again it can be found on the GIF with gdlmageString. I'm using side, upwards from the bottom of Acorn User Web site. As for csvlgif, gdPontMediumBoid, but you could the image). A small key is printed the is included for you source code change the definition at the head of along the top. Finally the image is to follow and modify if you like. the program if you like. Don't forget written to a GIF file. \!iiwcotint is a rather basic Web Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com QuQlit ', Performance, Ex ARM pow omputer! pnone for full t r see our wer site. I discounts ai awnllable. Scl" site to goln cii cesstoouf educ Mico ,s designed an icroDigitai Limited MictoOigltal. Mi foHusondMico'^ het troaemoiks u e (acknowledged /licroDigital Limited, 37 Tili iKtplev West Y ritstiire, BD18i -elephone n umber 01 274 ( FAXnum ber 01274 619.,,, leS'i^SSIfs»o*i^" site wwlw.microdigifal.co.uk rp THE DATA STOREI ^1^1^^ Serving the RiSC OS communityl Authorised FONTFX The first major event of the post-Acorn world, RiSC OS 4 is now shipping. Compatible with RiscPC and A7000(+), it provides a whole host of improvements Just a few examples of the effects for the new millennium plus great new bundled software! that FontFX 6 can produce... Stand up and be counted as a supporter of our favourite operating system - place your order today! ^^ Border effect Grow and shrink feature £1 1 6.33 '^M^ plus £25 fitting and data transfer if required <[l** User-definable shadow length and direction % TF Rainbow HII option 30 shadow effect SIBELIUS For further details or to download FontFX Lite, please visit our web site THE MUSIC NOTATION SOFTWARE £31.95 inc. VAT and postage The Data Store now provides the official Customer Support service for Sibelius Acorn programs. Site licenses and upgrades available Please phone for details To celebrate this, we've reduced the price of Sibelius 7 and we're offering one year's technical support free with every copy sold up to 31 st December. Connected to the Net? Our specially priced PCs for Acorn Sibelius users moving to Sibelius for Windows are still available. Then why not visit us online? Please call for details. Junior Sibelius! £ 55.00 THE DATA S Sibelius 6 £105,00 Sibelius 7 Student £320.00 Sibelius 7 £525.00 Company information, directions to our Optical Manuscript £275,00 showroom, contact details, information on Sibeiius for Windows/Mac £595.00 the range of Data Store Software, online price lists, downloads, Sibelius Software information and lots more... We Stock copies of Acorn User and have various back issues datinj POINT YOUR BROWSER TO... ^il 1 998 onwards priced £3.95 oFEW^W, http://www.datstore.demon.co,uk/ Please contact us for availability. OPENING HOURS THE DATA STORE Monday 9.30 - 5.30 6 ROAD BROMLEY KENT BR2 9QN lfHIHUIHHI«lll CHATTERTON Tuesday 9.30 - 5.30 Wednesday CLOSED Telephone (020-8) 460 8991 • Facsimile (020-8) 313 O4O0 Thursday 9.30 - 5.30 Web http://www.datstore.dennon.co.uk/| Friday 9.30 -5.30 Saturday 9.30 - 5.30 Email [email protected] {all prices in this advertisement are inclusive of VAT at 17.5%) Celebrate the new At Acorn User, we've seen many thousands of programs over the years, so to celebrate a new Millennium for RISC OS computing we've got together with companies too numerous millennium in style: to mention and put together a huge bundle of superb software for just one lucky Acorn User reader to win. we've got on offer Companies participating include: over £1000 worth of • Tau Press, after 17 years of publication you can read the next 17 years worth - or more software from • Computer Concepts, who have offered a copy of Impression Publisher Plus - still used daily by the Acorn User team for various companies, creating the magazine • Beebug I.tcl, whose Sleuth 1 is the de facto standard in OCR plus a LIFETIME on RISC OS systems • I'roAction Software, who have f)ffered the new Keptoti subscription to Compendium, plus Irak, iechmnlrvum, Air Snpreimicif, l*lmf It A^^uin Sums 1 throw^h 4, and a small selection of nostalgia Acorn User items from the extensive Superior Software BIJC range • llu' lourfh Dimeiisirin has a vast range of games for all the magazine. family: C»-oi/«W//r% Pushy, HlooillusI and SUvfrlmll are all strong entries in their Value for Money range. • Shersfon Softw.ire are still putting their all into the education market, and their triple-format CD-ROMs are set £'000s to be here for a long while. A selection of titles may be won. software Competition entry form won to be .\nswer: Acorn User has been published for years Complete this phrase in 15 words or less: The world would be better with RISC OS because. How to win To enter this superb cunipetiti'jn, jixst ajiiswtfr the following question and then complete the phrase in. 13 words or less. Name Address. for how many years has Acorn User been published? Postcode Tel No a. 17 years Are you an Acorn User subscriber? Yes b. 20 years HH ED No tSlioiild a subscriber win. their suhscriplion will fw r:rfrndi-rf) c 14 years Return your completed form to: Software Bimdie Competition, Acorn User, Unit lA, Etitrm mmt arrm: at th: Amm U?ff f^^-cc &jr Heapriding Business Park. Ford Street, Stockport, Cheshire SK3 OBT I'lth January HMh i^fnd Hwjmf^r.^ d^xi'shn i$ fbwL http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 '^^-y-*-.>ff?»-'^fffe'?? tartin to he Draii' application comes free with all Acorn/RISC OS computers, so you may as well T loiow what you can do with it. In this run-through you will not be expected to know the first thing about Draw, but it would be handy to know your mouse buttons and what each draw one does. The article will run through some of the basics so as to get you (a guide for beginners) going usefully in the first month. First the program must be loaded... Loading Dnnv is easy. Just double Simon Anthony starts his chck Select on its icon in the Apps directory of your RISC OS 3.6 or basic guide to above, or for earlier machines click Draw on its icon in a filing system window (that is a window showing you what is used in the filing window. Don't status (as shown in Figures II and III) programs are available for use on a confuse the icon which shows you was achieved. In this example the floppy, harddisc or Apps filing where the program is and the one Apps filing window has been system). Figure I (below) is a screen which tells you it is loaded and closed, so as to prevent clutter on shot, an electronic photograph (taken ready for use. screen. The user - that was me at the with Paint), of a RISC OS 4 time - has clicked the mouse Select computer's display. It shows that Fill colour button (the left hand button) once on Draw has been loaded - a green The Style menu is the best place to the Draw icon on the iconbar. This pencil and compasses icon can be start once the program is running. action displayed a blank drawing seen on the right hand side of the The rest of this section will area in a Draw window which is iconbar. This is the same icon which describe how this particular display called II and lU. The Toolbox is the vertical column attached to the left of the Drazc window. You can see from it that the rectangle tool has been selected. The mouse Menu button (the middle button) was then clicked over the white working area and the options 'Style' and 'Fill colour' and bright red were chosen. This was done by moving the pointer over the arrow to the right of the option on the relevant menu unHI the coloured boxes were displayed in the 'Fill colour' sub- menu, and then the Select button was clicked on the red one. (If you want you can play around with the red, green and blue values until rigiirc !i Tn loiid Dmifrdiviblc click on !hc Apps icon then ou you Ihf Drnw icou. Diiiw icill then ('f kwU'd to the nofibai get a colour you like the look of, then l€I Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.coni "• -"^- j'>y\ . --.:^-'. ' ^U^^^^^^^^^M Style Line viuMh Fill culour (S RCT J CMYK J HSV LuKpnOem ^ JR«I f<(..7 ' -% Join r- ^fteea U.O /_!* Stan cap f" End trap f ® Blue 0,0 M* Winding nilc r^ Funiname f^ Figiirv Ul: Selecting a line width Fanhi-iglM '- None Caieel I Tc.vt njlour '^ menu shown in Figure III. Simply Background r move the pointer to the 'Line colour' option and then follow your nose along the lines of the 'Fill colour' option mentioned above. ff^Kz-e /f; Sekctiiig a fill aihur in Draw IRISC OS 4.02) The rest of the options above the dividing line (dotted in RISC OS 3.x) dick Select over the OK box to fix it 'colour picker' to help you choose, as on the 'Style' menu take a bit more for use.) Clicking Select to finalise shown in Figure II. thinking about. Leave them until you the choice also closed the menu are feeling fit and healthy and have windows; clicking Adjust would Line width to hand either the full manual, or a have left them all open. As Figure HI shows, the Style menu later article in this series. From now on anything drawn can also lead on to the sub-menu will be filled in red. It is essential to window used to alter the width of a Text entry click on the OK box after making any drawn line. In this instance the 'Line Below the line in the Style menu chajige as this is the only way to tell width' sub-menu shows the enter-it- come the opfions for altering the the computer that you are serious yourself option with a (massive) style of any text which you may wish about it, otherwise the alteration, if setting of ten points. to include in your finished drawing. any, will be lost and the old settings When 'Thin' is chosen the display Draw is not a word processor and will be used instead. and the printed output will always should not be treated as one, but the Under RISC OS 3.1, if the be one pixel wide whatever the text option can be used for making computer is in Mode 15 (a 256 colour magnification or zoom settings; tliis headings or captions on posters and mode), then the coloured boxes in is the default. Any other setting will pictures as well as for handling the 'Fill colour' sub-menu window appear thicker or thir^ner depending masses of text imported from Edit. give direct you access to 16 colours, on the display scale. (Zoom only Text entered in Draw is handled a but the sliders allow you to choose alters the on-screen display. line at a time, with the length of each between all 256 of them. On a Rise Magnification alters the real size as line determined by pressing Return. PC with millions of possible colours printed on paper.) Tine colour of a Each line of text is a separate object the setup is totally different, with a line can be altered from the middle which can have a different size. 53 Figure V: The stulf of the text can be altered before or after wriliiig http://www.acornuser.coni Christmas 1999 m 1 Figure VU: Selecting an object produces a bounding box and 'ears' to alter an object Figure Vlil: Using the enn to scale iin object colour, style and so on. Fascinating in place, displayed in the current style the text, and follow the menus graphical effects are possible on RISC as set by the menu options. shown in Figure VI, you can then OS machines by using the Text to To change the settings it is add, delete or alter your existing text Path' options. important to tell the computer two and set the result by once again To type text into Draw select the things, first which bit of text you pressing Return. Simple. Text entry option (see Figure IV). want to change and second how you This can be done in either of two want to change it. To choose the bit The select box ways: using the Toolbox, or choosing of text (or anything else) that you Figure VII shows a simple triangle the text option from the Enter menu. wish to alter you must use the Select surroimded by a red dotted box with Next move the pointer to where you option on the Toolbox. When that is two smaller boxes an its top and wish your text to be and click Select highlighted you can click on youi" bottom right comers. The box shows once. A red carat will show you object (in this case the text) and a red where the extreme outer points of where your text will be displayed dotted box will be drawn round it. the selected object are, being just big when you type. Only then will the text options on the enough to enclose them. The top Don't worry if tliis is not in the Style sub-menu be a\'ailable. If they right small red box (or 'ear' as my right place, size, colour or typeface, as are greyed out it means that no text students call it) is used for twisting all these can be altered after the event has been selected yet. or rotating an object while the (as well as before); the Style sub- Once your text has been written it bottom right box will scale the object. menu text options give control over is possible to go back and alter it, To use these boxes move the 54 all these variables. Pressing Return although this facility escaped me for mouse pointer so that the tip is will end text entry and glue the text many years. To do so simply select inside ^e 'ear', then hold down the Select button and drag, and the big dotted box will change shape as you go. The object itself will take up its new shape when you let go of the Select button. Sprites can also be manipulated in this way but JPEG images and text can only be scaled. Menu options Figure X shows the Style menu with the Transform option opening on to the 'Transform' sub-menu. Notice that the Toolbox shows that the bottom option, the Dnnv Select option, has been selected. Tbis was done by clicking the mouse Select button on the Select Mode arrow. It is a pity that the same word is used to name a mouse button and a Draw mode, but there you are, we have to live with it. The Drazc application select mode Fi^uix X: Alfeniig mi oi'iect s s;:i' viii the ininsjunu ^\ib-niciui could also have been chosen bv M\ Christmas 1999 hHp://w ww.acornuser.com . I -.^,-^g^-rX-T work in one situation you can easily work out how to do it no matter what the circumstances mav be. This is how. . First decide where vou are going to save the work. The harddisc will do for this example. The relevant icon is the one in Figure XII with 'HardDisc4' under it. Referring to Figure XI (the left-hand end of a RISC OS 4 iconbar), the Apps icon is a 'Read Only' filing system so you can't save anything there. The RAM icon (not shown in this instance) is 'writable' but loses whatever you give it to save when the power is turned off, so be carefLil. To choose a filing system simply click Select on its icon once and a filing system window will open (i.e. be displayed). It is this window into which you must drag the 'save icon' of the work you wish to save. Next, prepare your file for saving (refer again to Figure XII}. In figure XI: To Ativeajik froDi Dniwilnig the 'Sutv m' icon lo i/oiir Hunhlhc Draw, choose the Save option from the Draw clicking the mouse Select button on default memory of only 5k, but the menu. Drag the drawfile icon (the the Select option of the Draiv menu. manual, pages 73-75 (436 in the RISC picture above the box where you enter This screen shot also shows the OS 3,7 manual), shows how to make the desired file name) over to the 'Magnify' option selected. This alters it bigger. As 1 write there appears to destination filing window of your the real size of the drawing in be a bug in the RISC OS 4 Draw undo choice, then let go. (Note: RISC OS 4 absolute terms. For instance a setting facility. users can now drag files directly to the of 0.8 will reduce the drawing, or a drive icons on the iconbar to save, selected part of it, to 80% of the Saving your work without having to open the Filer current size. Tn put it back the way it It's all very well doing Window first.) was a magnification of 125% or 1.25 something in Drniv but Tlie lower part of is needed. In this instance a now you need to Figure XFV shows the magnification value of 1.5 has been know how to keep it. HardDisc4 filing entered. Saving work is the window after the There are many keyboard short first stage of file has been cuts, (that is, ways of getting things printing and is- ur saved. The title done by using the keys rather than should be - always bar of the Draw the mouse), for example, a Draw the last action before '3^^^^ window above it object can be deleted by pressing turning off the ^A ^^^ now shows the full Control + X together, (press Control computer. The first stage ^B 'Path name' of the first then tap X). in saving is to tell the ^ saved file. A Path name computer where you are tells the user and computer 55 Undo intending to save your work. There where a file can be found. In this You will be able lo reverse almost any are several possibilities, ranging from instance ADFS::HarciDisc4.$.Mi/Pic tells action by pressing the F8 function the humble floppy disc, via the now us that the file M\/Pk can be found on key, with F9 restoring it. This is the essential harddisc right up to the top HardDisc4, which is part of the ADFS Undo and Redo facility, which has a of the range re-writable CD-ROMs. filing system. Saving will always If you were to re-save the drawing, follow the same basic the Drazi' Save window would pattern whatever the already have a full Path name in it final destination of ready for you to proceed, and this can vour work, The good also be seen in Figure XII. people at Acorn - and So, by referring to Figures XI and - now RISCOS Ltd XII we now know how to save a file, have done their best where to save it to, and what the Path to ensure that saving names signify. Next month I'll show is an almost identical you how I produced the WOW! picture procedure no matter and how to print out your what program you are creations. Q2I9 using (as long as it nms 'within the Contacting Desktop environment' me J that is). The upshot of Simon Anlhony: fi,(i(tc Kll: Bi/ Imkiiig at llw Path nnims this is that once you dra w®acomuser.com in'fflti i()ji/('rs((iJiJ where n filt' lia^ bci'n siii'CtI to know how to save J http.v/www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 ABVil To advertise i JG 66 I Akalat 66 APDL 9 Castle OBC, IFC, 57 Geraldine Esdaille CJE 32, 56, 64 CTA 4, 5, 57 0161 429 0685 Data Store 50,57 Desktop Projects 23,57 SUSSEX Icon Technology 62 iSV 27 Hardware iTS Consultancies 57 Liquid Silicon 58 Software 78 Brighton Road Mircodigital 49,72 Installation Worthing Pineapple 56,72 West Sussex R-Comp 39 Repairs BN11 2EN Reflex 20 Tel: 01 903 523 222 Fax; 01903 523 679 Rise OS Ltd 44 Open 6 days a week [email protected] RiscStation 12,57 With demonstrations available http ://www.cje .co.uk/ Spacetech IBC STD , 66 LOWJDOJW & ESSEX Uniqueway 58 Wardlaw Surveys 58 Pineapple Software Contacting us Pineapple have been in the Acorn marketplace for over eleven years and have been running the Virus Protection Scheme for over seven years. We specialise in building RiscPCs to your Editor: [email protected] specitlcation and we also supply scanners, printers, harddrives or anything else you may need for your Acorn system. We also Enquiries: [email protected] undertake repairs and upgrades to Acorn computers. Advertising enquiries: advertising®acomuserxom Open 0900 1730 Mon - Fri Suite I, South Park Business Centre Web master: [email protected] 310 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex IG3 9JS Phone 0181 599 1476 Pax 0181 598 2343 Subscriptions: [email protected] email:- sali'.s(& 'pi nedplc.demon.cri.uk hltp://nuH.pinejptE.'.demi>n.e(>.iik Free Ads: [email protected] WILTSHIRE Letters; [email protected] News: [email protected] Comms page: [email protected] Graphics page: [email protected] GonsvHsLiick PD page: [email protected] I \u\\ Acorn Approved Specially with leaching Experienn Business page: [email protected] Educational Consultancy Training and Support PC page: [email protected] Acorn Computer Supply and Installation Games page: [email protected] Software Upgrades and Repairs [email protected] Education page: Tel- 01225 764863 [email protected] Fax- 01225 761437 email [email protected] 1 RTH V\rEST CARD/FF f^o'' 3ll your Acorn needs iT^, Ip\ I Tcrr» AWAi^iK Visit our Showroom BEST DEALER- i/NiQUEway ,„^^ . ^p^ SOUTH WALES' ONLY DEDICATED ACORN as^ ^Monday - Saturday DEALER AND ACORN CENTRE OF TECHNOLOGY A^^^^^' Desktop Projects Ltd ^^J\ .-—^W^ Unil 2A. HeapridineHeapriding Business Pk Ford Sireei STOCKPORT Technical Support Repairs • Hire - internet Connections Cheshire. SK3 OBT Low cost finance available on all systems. Aulhoristftl AciH-n DeaItT & (,'enlre of Technoli)EV VISA 3 Clarendon Road, Cyncoed, Cardiff CF3 7JI) Desktop IPitojects I^M _ Tel 01222-464020 Fax 01222-440071 http:llwww.unique way.co.uk Tel: 0161-474 9778 Email: into(5 Computers & Music Hardware • Upgrades • Software • Cables ate RISCOS4(0iy| . . . CIW.CK) Regislered Fining Authorised (ROMs on lyl . . . . C10.00 Rltiog (ROMa. hard drive Tvforrnatllng and aoflware asecJ Te^^-nolo^ies Iranstef From E2S.O0 Carriage on machines le eitta. Please call lO' delslls of any enra charges on hlsh-apec macninee. FREEPOST EH2725 For details of the next generation Kirkcaldy, FVe, KY2 5BR United Kingdom in RISC OS call computing, now, T*l: 01502 592265 Fsx:015S2 596102 or visit your local dealer :^r email: [email protected] httpL'/www.cybervillage.co.uk/acorn/liqold' HIGMLA.IKrDS SIXFFOL.JK Wardlaw Surveys Vcorri$ \'^| c I Authorised Acorn Dealer, Full range of Acorn Computers for all your needs from Comprehensive back-up service supply, service, repair Call 01 728 62 1 222 or 8e full after sales. fax us on 01 728 621 179 On- fradins F.stnif tt'oodbridgi' Koal Kramiini^am Suffolk IPIiOU, i-rii;iii; s-.)li?.P'rxM]i'-livhni)!f)([\',co,»k Tel/Fax: 01 463 831214 Wfb. hll()v'A™w.c;LsiJ('^icchn(i[oK\',n>.iik. NORTH ^^/^EST LONDON 168 Elliott Si. FOR SIXTEEN YEARS, PUTTING THE Tyldesley fjfd EMPHASIS ON THE VERY BEST SERVICE... Gtr. Manchester M29 8DS Acorn Dealer and RiscOS Centre of Excellence THE DATA STORE Acorn Spares and Repairs Visit our well-equipped showroom just AJl Acorn Machines available on 0% finance 30 minutes from Central London. For more information, look for our Installation. Nelworkins ^ . ^ ,^ , full-page advertisement elsewhere in this issue. ^^'^ ^^^'" ^'^^^''t on Repairs on a no-fix ^ no-fee basis. Pages 4 & 5 6 CHATTERTON ROAD BROMLEY KENT BR2 9QN Tel (020-8)460 8991 • Fax (020-8)313 0400 Tel. 01942 797777 Fax 01942 79771 i -. • Web hltp;//www.; ..6cnion.co.uk/ fiTwi/ into®., li r.'.clemon.co.uk , David Pilling Acorn Arcade Web: http://iuivzv.pilling.demon.co.uk/ Web: http://zvzviv.acornarcade.com/ The David Pilling Web site contains all manner of RISC OS Acorn Arcade is the leading Web site for information on current goodies for those new and not so new in the RISC OS market. RISC OS games developments. Offering news, reviews, features Not forgetting full information on the award-winning Ovation and dowTiloads it's so good we're sure you'll come back. Pro dtp package. Come see us now! Cybervillage Drobe Launch Pad Web: http://acom.cybervillage.co.uk/ Web: http://ivwiv.drobe.co.uk/ Your one stop shop for Acorn information. The Hotnet section, Drobe Launch Pad is a new Internet Portal which combines updated regularly, keeps you up to speed on all developments links, news and information into one easy to use site. concerned with RISC OS and associated/affiliated information. Drobe RISC Software's Web Development Team have spent over 4 months creating the site to ensure that it gives the Torty maximum functionality possible to all RISC OS users, including up Web: http://zvivzv.torty.org.uk to date news feeds usually only found on the larger, main stream portals. Features include a POP e-mail checker without banner This site has the obligatory family snaps page, the almost adverts, a search engine incorporating AcomSearch.com and over obligatory CV and the much more generally interesting RISC OS 20 other popular engines, up to date news feeds and links to the Shareware area. ECSUtils is upgraded here with twenty or so majority of the industry's Web sites. More features including smaller apps for free, doing everything from telling the time to personalisation are due to be launched in the next few weeks. taking pictures. Wc supply a range ol CCD PC cards laser bar and code scanners 5K86-1 DO with PC Pro 3 - £285.00 our and Include wilti these PC Pro 2- £38.95 se drag t diop iBarfleadar anvp.r soMware PC Pro 3- £70,SO r maps |e,g. PC Sound Pro 2- £39.36 iriOBl desktop software. Wln95FS- I and velocity) £39,95 allsrsble by Windows SB CD - £100.00 ig with the mouse ComplelB syslems Itom £137 63 Psion Series 5mx 16Mb, wiin PC connection kit - t4?9,9S Our bar coding Parallel link - £34.95 -iottwafe produces ystem Eiclustves Draw (lies o< Ihe Memory Upgrades lollswing lormals: EAN 8. ing pUyDack Please call to check current prices EAN13. UPC A.ISetJ. ISSM. any MIDI OUier upgrades are available, Code 39 (Normal and Full ce. including A30OO1-4Mb- £6460 ASCII). Telepen and einsty patsltei and serial A3010 1-lMb- £66.00 A3020'A4DO0 £49.00 Other Hardware Up ID 191 MIDI channels 2.4Mb- A5000 2-4Mb- £65.00 Dual fast serial card - £90 00 A300, 400. 5000 4-8 Mb - £123.00 Elhemet card (Comb- NIC slot) - £116 30 Free damo disc available Computer Systems Rise PC/A700f) FPM SIMMs- Hard drives A kils - ECall Call tor EDO SIMM prices RPC second slice (no PSU) - £90.00 These pdces do not Include monilors. 16Mb- £26,60 RISC OS 4 Kilting avaitaiile) -£v.?0 W unless specified 32Mb (no) original RPCs) - £44.95 StrongARM upgrade - £275.00 Rise PC B*OMb 2Gb HO - £679 00 32Mb (high clearance)- £73.50 Rise PC 32<2Mb SGD. DVD CD - £10S9 00 64Mb- Eaa.zs Other Software Web Wizard - 3Z.2Mb. SGb HD. DVD CD drive, t2BMb-£163.60 speakers. ResulU.Easiwrirer Pro 56K modem. IMbVRAM- £45.00 Recent/New Releases ANT Internet Suite wllh Java -0220.00 I-2Mb VRAM swap- £55.00 A7000- Odysse/ CD - 16Mb, 4G1>. 40> - £655.00 2Mb VRAM- £92.00 Abuse -C23.00 A7000t Odyssey Piiraary/Secondarv - 16Mb. Descent CDs -£28.00 4Gb HD.40» CD 4 software- £71300 Music & Sound Section A7000. Odyssey Sutl - 24Mb, 4Gb. DVD CD. call lor other musical of 2 - Please Hems Heroes Might and Magic £32.00 56K modem. AMT Suite- £83100 Heretic & Hexen CD - £32.00 "Sprinter" NC Bysiem - lObaseT. 16Mb, DMI 50 dual MIDI card (2t2l - £1 19 95 CD (Spacetech) - £28.95 14" monlloi. keyboard * mouse - E444,00 OHI 50XG - £259.95 Impression PubHshef- £135 00 OHP - MicroDigilal MIco From £f;8e,CI0 XG upgrade tO' DMI 50- £151,95 Inferno- IB sO Photodesk 3 - £279.95 - RiscSlallon R7500 Series From E483.no 16-blt sampler for OMI 50 - £87,95 .XHC- £1.1,99 Sunburst - £12.50 MIDI Mai II internal tXil - £92.75 Ovation Pro-EUE 50 Monitors - Syndicate Plus CD - £26.50 ParBllelPort filid - £89.20 Personal Accounls 3 £43,00 tElttwt bought with computer or s^Brataly): Synth S or Basic Synth - £46,95 Pholodesk Light - £125 00 ilyam8350{15")- £170.00 Prophet - £160,00 SynlhPlue- £58.65 , 3 iiyama403(17)- £283.00 Music & Sound Prog. Guide - £16,95 Ouahe - CrII iiyamaPro410(17-l- £319.00 Othei hardwaroi 5chema2-£1t600 ^TDK. iiyama45t ()9)- £425.00 Fslar SU 760 - £450.00 $ieulh3-£11O,50 >iyamaPro4S(1(19")- £472,00 Falar SL 880 - £600.00 Textease - £54 50 Discs (ensmple 10i tuhite disca - £4.60, 50i black Blaca- CIS.IO. iiyamaSQ2(21")- £749,00 FalarSLIIOO-ESOODO TopModel2- tiajOO Si HD led/bluefgreaiVwhite discs - £2.49) liy8maPro510(22')- £772.00 FBtarSL20Q1 -£1050.00 ityamaP'o-Lrle3Sc14.1"LCD- £807.00 Manuals Bailail<>s !*.9 4i AA Xtra alkaline - ».IB. 1a 9V alkaline - £1 .84) , Irlam i16 sound sampler - £118,00 Books & Audio & Video Tapes - EVarlous - iiVBmaPro-Lr1e38eT5"LCD- £936,00 DigHal-upgraded Irlamsamplei - £177.00 RISC OS 3 PRM- £104 00 ilyamaPro-LileSBf 15'LCD- £995 00 MIDI upgrade for Irlam sampler - £Call TheTakkleCD- £45 00 iiyama Pro^LiIe 39a IB' LCD -£1599.00 Sound Byte Recorder - £57.50 . FREEPOST EH2725 iiyama Pro-Ule 46a IS' LCD - £2469 00 Vamana V5T-MS speakers - £45,50 Catalogue - - Kirkcaldy. Fife. KY2 5BR Toiicl'scteen monitors coming soon yST-M20 DSP speakers- £65.75 Our tree catalogue contains over 2000 please ask lor turtfter details YST-MS28speshersS6ijhw- £79. 9S Items Please ask lor a eoRy " ~ United Kingdom Tel; 01592 592265 Fax: 01592 596102 We will attempt to match or beat any advertised price - even special offers email: Liquidig-cableinetcouk AH prices INCLUDE VAT & UK carriage WSM[^K1^^^^' cybervillage, CO, uk'acom/liqu id/ Official orders and callers welcome. Finance available. ^MP , Bff"^ . T^reeAds • StrongARM Rise PC, 3.7 OS A5000 with midi card and new • Wanted: Rise OS PRM V5a. can 22Mb, 1.2Gh harddrive, CD- AKF50 monitor. Includes all anyone help me track down a Rom, 486 PC card. Canon software and games. Offers. BJC copy of this manual, I will pay 4200 Printer, lots of software, Colne, Lanes (01282) 863012 or full price. Tel: Greg 01522 822151 large monitor, £117. David 07714 e-mail nelson@nelsonfernlea. after 6pm. Lincoln. 126729. freeserve. co.uk • Holed Out Compendium, • DX4/100 PC Card Dos 7 All For Sale: Acorn Rise PC600 E-Type Compendium, E-Type 2, manuals £80.00. Pipedream computer (complete), AKF 60 Monitor, 420 Black Angel, Virtual Golf, £15 4.5/2 manuals £26.00. Textease HD, 48Mb DRAM, 2Mb VRAM, CD Rom, manuals, Each. Compendium: 4.0 manuals £27.00. All include CD's etc (magazine), loaded with ARCticulate Speech, Cyber postage. Tel: 01706 817570, 3 The software, excellent condition, Glen, Todmorden, Lanes. Chess, Apocolypse, Aldebaran £400 or nearest offer please. £20. Tel: Christian 01285 659872. • Art Works Clip Art 1&2 £25, E-mail: keith@bronteland. Image Outliner £20, 1st Word+ freeserve.co.uk tel: 01535 643419 • A5000. LC. 4Mb, 515Mb AKF18 and Genesis Plus £20, (Yorks) I will send if required. monitor, 24x CD IDE-A Uniqueway Rise Disc CD's 1-3 Interface, Lots of software Inc, Bargain Software: Webmaster £45, £25, Tel: Christian 01285 659872. Impression Style/ Publisher, Impression Publisher £50, Genesis DrawWorks Millienium, Mr • Archimedes A440, +MEMC la Plus £10, All £100. Tel: 01765 Clippy, Vivid 5000, Photodesk, memory upgrade, ARM 3 689913 Ripon (North Yorks). Mac-FS, Sibelius 7, Pro Cad and upgrade, Cumana CA006 SCSI 1 A4000, 14" multiscan monitor, more interface, SCSI 350MB Hard H.P Deskjet 520 Printer, much £300 cash manuals Drive, Monitor, mouse and manuals and software including docs etc P.W.O. upgrade to keyboard, £200 ono. Tel: 01223 Impression Style and Teehsoft SA.RPC forces sale. John 01204 840898 email: [email protected] £250 01294 822303. 571836 Bolton, Lanes. "rf'O^ Jon n^Hy^^ [Wan) noizaa, i)06 '- Acorn User Free Ads Service \ ej/ioWofbuA ^^ !> 3^WbTBH .Tl\ Why not take advantage of our free reader ad service? Fill in guarantees; publication is entirely dependent on space and your details on this coupon (25 words maximum, one word per constraints. Please fill in your name and telephone number box below) and send it to Free Ads, Acorn User, Tau Press Ltd, below ~ these will not be published, but they enable us to Media House, Adiington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP or by e- contact you in case of any queries. Please include your mail to: [email protected]. Only one ad per reader please. town/county in each ad to help other readers with their Although we try to publish every ad we receive, we can make no purchasing decision. dirt- ^ ^^^^^ -^ Your name: Telephone no: .d>/* nO I OH »' I \^ *io(n '" wt '^ '' * "^ I^B ; !!!' "^ ; ^'^7^HTh rTZ ! ^! J''''''^""''^^ "i^ http://www.acornu$er.com Christinas 1 999 the last few years digital Inprojectors have become established as the main means of providing large images from computer output for display to an audience. With specs improving all the time and prices falling they are becoming accessible to a wide range of users including schools, though you can still expect to pay at least £2,000 (excluding VAT) for one capable of being viewed by a reasonable number of people without the need for blackout. In fact the market has seen such a proliferaHon of different projectors with a whole range of different features and specifications, that choosing one can be quite a headache. This article looks at various aspects of digital projectors in the hope of helping those who want one to sort through the variety available. picture Apart from all the other considerations associated with I Mike Battersby gives a few tips on digital projectors there is always the question of whether they will work clioosing a digital projector with your Acorn and if so, how well. By way of example, then, this article also reviews the Mitsubishi rule of thumb however, the higher DSTN. TFT is vastly superior, in S120 digital projector which 1 have the rating, the more powerful the my opinion, and I would barely tested with PCs and Acorns. projector and the more suitable consider the alternative. However, Inevitably, if you look through therefore for larger rooms and you may find a projector at a catalogues you will see references to audiences. I have found that a bargain price which, on testing, PCs and Macs but none whatsoever rating of 650 ANSI lumens is the proves perfectly adequate for your to Acorns. That doesn't mean they minimum requirement for purpose, such as for display to a won't work with Acorns at all, but classroom use without blackout. relatively small audience. Even does mean that some facilities work The Mitsubishi S120 is rated at 900 within these technologies, while others don't. ANSI lumens and should however, different manufacturers therefore be adequate for produce different quality screens. Image quality classroom or small hall use The Mitsubishi S120 produces one Image quality will generally depend without blackout, though be of the best images I've seen from on 3 main factors: aware that direct sunlight on the projectors in its price range. 60 screen will always diminish the # The brightness of the lamp: this is clarity of an image. Screen resolution: this works in usually rated in ANSI lumens but much the same way as for a for some inexplicable reason some The internal screen type: generally monitor and the range of pixel projectors perform as well as good projectors use TFT screen densities will likely parallel that of others with a higher rating. As a technology though some may use monitor screens, typically VGA (640x480), SVGA (800x600), XGA Lamp life (1024x768), SXGA (1280x1024) and so on. The lamp life of most projectors is rated at 2,000 hours. The exception is the 1 personally would recommend Philips range which uses bulbs with a 4,000 hours rating. The longer rating capability of at least 800x600 if does not mean better quality projection just a longer interval before you have you can afford it. Above that all to pay around £300-£400 for a replacement bulb. things like the individual Again, unfortunately, all is not as simple as it icons start to get reduced might be as some lamps do not have full brightness in size to an extent that for their whole life span. You may find that some seems to me to partially bulbs have full brightness for, say, half their life defeat the object of having span then a reduction for the next portion, then a a large display image. further reduction and so on. However, again it is a "This is well worth checking out as it could matter of what you want substantially affect the suitability of a projector for to display, the size of a particular use if the bulb does not maintain its audience and so forth. initial brightness. The Mitsubishi S120's lamp does, The Mitsubishi S120 I beheve, maintain full brightness for its entire life, has a resolution of 800x600 h pixels. Like many other projectors, distortion of the image. mouse socket is of the PS2 type so however, it can display an XGA The Mitsubishi S120 projector will not connect to any Acorn other image using 'compression' which has manual zoom and focus, RGB, than the A7000 series, although means it reduces it to an 800x600 SVHS, video and various audio both Microdigital's Mico and simulation at the expense of inputs and a monitor re-driver RiscStation's latest machines also detail. output. take PS2 mice. It has an RS-232 input for With the A7000 the remote control Extra features connechng to a mouse port and works fine, it moves tlie pointer and Various models incorporate different provides a lead for doing so as emulates mouse clicks from the left additional facilities which typically well as leads to connect from the and right mouse buttons but could include: computer to the projector. It has a unfortunately can't emulate the remote control for turning on and middle mouse button. This wouldn't • Power zoom and focus: where off, adjusting settings and be so bad, except that the connector zoom and focus can be altered by emulating the mouse. from the projector occupies the remote control. Whether this is mouse port on the A7000 so you worth the extra cost involved is Using the S120 can't use a mouse in combination likely to be a matter of preference The projector produces a high with it. of the as it can be more difficult to quality image from RISC OS Therefore the usefulness precisely adjust these than if done computers provided they have a 15 remote control as a mouse depends manually. Once zoom and focus pin monitor output. Tlnis includes all very much on what you want to be have been adjusted for projection models from the A3D20 onwards able to demonstrate. The use of a the onto a particular screen it is (A4000, A5000, A7000 and Rise PC). software utilit)' to emulate mouse unlikely that it would be However, earlier models such as the via the keyboard might be one way necessary to adjust it. A300S, A400s and A3000 only have to combine the use of the remote the 9 pin monitor outputs. control and still have Menu button • Variety of inputs: in addition to There are adapters which emulation. the usual RGB input it may be monitors with 15 pin connectors useful to have an SVHS or video (such as the AKF50) to be connected Conclusion input to enable projection of, for to the older models but the ones 1 There are a wide range of digital instance, videos. Video input tried did not enable a correct picture projectors around to suit a variety of facilitates the connection of a to be displayed. Although some parts needs and pockets. The Mitsubishi small video camera to enable the of the screen displayed, the colours S120 is a very high quaUty projector projector to double as an OHP were incorrect and the images within its price bracket {typically - (overhead projector) for display of unclear. £2,500-0,000 excluding VAT printed matter or solid objects. Oddly, though, the image output educational price, depending on There may also be sound input from the re-driver displayed where you buy it). It produces a high with amplification to a speaker. correctly on an external monitor. quality image from Acorns but is Sound amplification allows video Therefore the projector is really only probably only suitable for sound output or spoken sound suitable for Acorns with 15 pin straightforward display in the amplificahon via a microphone. connectors unless a technical expert majority of cases, though there is Some mini video cameras can come up with a more suitable some potential value in the incorporate microphones for this form of adapter. remote control mouse facility. purpose. The connector to a computer • Monitor re-driver: it is useful to have the ability to take the monitor signal out from the projector to connect to a monitor. This allows simultaneous display via both the projector and a monitor without the need for a splitter cable. % Remote control of the mouse: it may be possible to use the projector remote control to move the pointer on the screen and emulate mouse clicks via a lead to the mouse port on the computer. This can be convenient in that it allows a speaker to demonstrate actions that take Product: Mitsubishi S120 digital 1 place when something is clicked pnijecfiir 1 on without being restricted to the Price; Around i3W5 1 Supplier: Medium UK, Medium House, 1 range of a mouse lead. Unit 4, Peter James Business Cenire, Pump Lane, Hayes, 1 9 Image correction: this can Middlesex UB3 3NT compensate for projection at an Tel: 0181 813 5777 angle to the screen to eliminate Icon Technology Pro-h Version 7 now available, includes RTF output and thumbnail printing EasiWriter professional • Powerful, fully featured, multi-column word processor. • Reads and writes MS Word 6, 7 & 8 (Office 97/98). • IMPRESSION text files with styles are imported complete with formatting. • Reads and writes HTML. Splits large documents with automatic generation of forward /backward links and contents. • Reads RTF (Rich Text Format). • Creates Hypertext documents. EasiWriter professional • Built in Table Editor. £119.84 • Automatic bulleted and numbered lists. EasiWriter Pro+ • Mail merge. £139.00 (offer) • Automatic numbering of Lists, Sections etc. • Powerful spell checker. • Style editor. ^ TechWriter professional "its great! At the risk of writing advertising copi/ for w Icon Technology, no piece of software on any platform has oq made me grin with delight as I discover new features as much as TechWriter has." Archive All the feaUires of EasiWriter professional plus a powerful easy to use equation editor Writes TeX. Saves equations as GIF's (using TechWriter professional InterGif) when writing HTML. £178.59 Used by the Mathematical TechWriter Pro-i- Association to produce the ^ Mathematical Gazette. £199.00 (offer) «"*«* Reads and Mrcroso«®«ord New! Pro+ Text flow over graphics Paragraphs can contain multiple graphics which can be left and right aligned with text flowing over them. Allows drop caps. Java enabled Run Java Applets inside an Easi/TechWriter window Upgrade your Writer to Plus... EasiWriter Pro for just £60 inclusive Over 100 new user definable keyboard shortcuts, runs animated GIFs and or Pro+ 7 for £80 inclusive. Animator files, 300/360 dpi equation resolation when saving as Word. Icon Technology Limited Church House • Carlby • Stamford • Lines • PE9 4NB Phone and Fax 01778 590563 http://www.icontechnology.net email: [email protected] -r-i-'-^-fTT ducat lOr Little fineers, bi^ access In brief SEMERC (0161 827 2927) three but this time with a 22-key caicula tor-style have new My world bonanza keyboards to tempt vou with. The numeric kev pad and an enlarged enter Inclusive Technology (01457 819 TmckBoard is a space saving compact key. This keyboard is 30 per cent smaller 799) have three collections of My keyboard with a buiU-in trackball and than a standard qwerty keyboard tor those World resources on offer. configiu'able colour-coded keys. Its drag- with limited desk space or who want to Collection 1 concentrates on early mode and double-dick keys ensure that access their computer from a wheelchair. language and literacy resources. those with restricted movement have the The third option is Little Fingers which has Collection 2 covers shape, sorting full access. been designed for those with weak wrists and thinking with 3D Shapes, Next is the Little Big Board which also with its built-in full-size wrist rest and Animal Sorting, Pattern Maker, comes with configurable colour-coded kevs trackball. Prices start from £49, Attributes, Blocks and Codes. Not to be outdone Collection 3 looks at reading and recording with six different programs. Each collection costs £75, or Parent Internet pack you could buy all three colleclions for £225 which comes Last year NCH Action for Children school. With a foreword by David with a free My World 2+2. produced a handbook for children and Blunkett, this pack will be sent to Online book access parents highUghting the potential schools before Christmas. hazards to be found on the Internet. John Carr, Internet Consultant for Oxford University Press have added an online store for primary The DfEE have now produced their NCH Action for Children commented: teachers to their Web site. With own guide called Superhighway Safety "School children are the fastest growing over 2000 books and educational which incorporates NCH's NetSmart groups of new Internet users in the UK. resources for maths and literacy tips and which emphasises the potential "This is mainly due to the excellent to choose from you can now of at the Internet, whether used home or policies pursued by the Goverrunent in browse and buy at your leisure. our schools. But obviously we need to be There is also the Oxford Literacy cautious, and questions of safety should Web, a new stand-alone literacy When sha be paramount at all times." scheme for reluctant readers. Why not take a look for yourself we three at: www.oup.co.uk/primary TEEM reviews again... Historica Teachers Evaluating Education meet Muhimedia (TEEM for short) is an Internet project initiated by Computer Kids (0151 638 1296) have sources and Sparrowhawk & Heald in launched Macbeth CD which fits conjunction with CrelCT at neatly with both primary and Homerlon College, Cambridge. secondary literacy requirements while resources Now in its second year, the DfEE providmg quality digital content for has given its support to the (63 project for three incorporatijig ICT in English. TTie Public Record Office is now online. the next years. Each program is evaluated by For £25 there is an A5 booklet, a Teachers, parents, students and pupils two practising classroom teachers, tri-fold play review, Shakespearian can now access mountains of historical once as a piece of curriculum newspaper, comic strip murder scene, resources via their Learning Curve Web software and then as a case study. cut-and-paste storyline, witches' site (http;//learningcurve. pro. gov.uk). You can read what they have to Tliis features the spells and a deadly debate - among material from say on www.TEEM.org-uk others. Domesday Book and Magna Carta to a This is the fourth in Computer huge collection of political cartoons, Kids' ICT Across the Curriculmn series, posters and photographs. Oops Information is stored in galleries where the earlier titles being: Word The wrong details for Medieval and Processing Tasks and Templates, some events are accompanied by video Tudor Hampshire were printed in Pictorial Databases, and Spreadsheets footage, such as the suicide of Suffragette the Novemher issue ot Acorn llstr. Our apologies and here is Ihe through Time. Emily Davison. correct ijiformation: Each CD comes with teacher's Commenting on the launch, the FRO's Product: Medieval and llidor notes and National Curriculum and Head of Education, Ysanne Stiell-McNeill Hampshire said: "The content for the site has been QCA exemplar scheme of word for IT Price: £20 cross-referencing- created by historical experts in Age.';: 7-11 partnerships with practisijig teachers and Supplier: Hampshire Record education professionals to produce a Office Tel: 01962 846154 Contacting AU resource full of in-depth and highly Web: www. )iants.go\'.uk/ accurate information, all of which is Pam Tumbull; record-office/inde>.. presented with the history curriculum educ@acomiiser. ctim html/ J firmly in mind." http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1 999 1 The Acor Granny's Garden 28.79 Business and Utilities Rise Disc Vol.3 25.00 1500 titles Available!! Am Internet Suile II 110,51 James Pond Run, Water 27.00 Rob Duncan Cartoon Kit AO 7d. ArcFax 35.00 Maths (Geometry) (10/10 13.49 Task Force Clip Art 33.20 Some dealers may not stock- ArcFS2 25.00 Maths (Number) (10/10) 13.49 Tekkie Disc (PRM's etc) 47.50 tides ARCshare 49.95 Mega Maths 24.99 CDROM Education J | delivery Artworks 104.69 Micro Maths 24.99 Minimum Ancient Egyptians 42.30 CD Burn 58.75 My World 2 + 2 54.70 Ancient Lands 50.53 Credit Curds and O' Compiete Animator 94.05 Naughty Stories Vols 1-6 44.65 Anim Talking Alphabe 33,43 Orders welcome. H&OE DataPower 1 110,00 New Teddy Bear's Picnic 36.78 British Isles from the Air 42.30 DataPower2 166.32 Nursery Rhyme Time 33.43 Castles 42,30 All Prices Inelude DaVinci90 81.08 Oxford Reading Tree 3 44.65 Crystal Rain Forest 2 50.17 Digital Symphony 56.95 Pendown DTP 65.85 Dangerous Creatures 50.53 Disc Doctor 28.45 Playdays age 3-8 23.40 Dinosaurs 50.53 Disc Rescue 45,00 Playground (Freddy teddy) 23.50 Era of the 2nd WW 81.08 Draw Works Designer 31 .50 1 Smudge the Spaniel 25.98 Garden Wildlife 42.30 New & Featured EasyC-^+ 116.32 Spelling & Punctuation 13.49 Guardians of Greenwood 58.16 EasyFont Pro 59 95 Splosh+ (1-5 users) 51.70 software ' Hutchinson's Encyclopedia 52.82 Eureka 3 110.51 Table Aliens 27.85 | Illustrated Shakespeare 29.32 FastSpook 17,62 Tiny Draw/TinyLogo 29.37 John Cabot & Merchani V 42.30 lmpact-3 Fireworkz Pro 166.31 Tizzy's Toybox 47.94 Kingfisher Mlcropedia 76.38 Relational Font Directory Pro 65.00 Watch Magic Grandad 30.13 database King Arthur 58,69 FontFXe 29,95 New Publisher! Kiyeko with Acorn reader 36,43 Game On! 2 15.00 GAMES Map Detectives 50.17 £100 Holy Bible (lllus.) BP{KJV) 82.25 Alone in the Dark 20.00 8 Musical Instruments 50.53 HTML Edit 4 53,00 Anagram Genius 20.00 My 1st Incrd. Amaz. Diet, 41.13 ImageFS 2 44.59 Textease Multimedia BHP Brutal Horse Power 28.49 Number Time 2 28.99 IMaster & TWAIN Driver 35.00 Birds of War f 30.00 Oxf, Talking Infant Atlas 22.32 Award winning lmpact-3 100.00 Black Angel 30.00 PB Bears Birthday Party 41.13 Impression Publisher 136.41 Offer price £85 Carnage Inc. 22.50 Perspectives Francais 81.08 Impression Style 83.54 Chocks Away Compend. 25,00 Romans 42.30 LanMan98 41.12 Cobalt Seed 23.74 Science Explorer 66.96 MellDI 129.00 Acorn Advance Crystal Maze, age 7+ 28.45 Seashore Life 42.30 MIDI Synthesizer 46.94 Cyber Chess 31,50 Science In Action 13.73 RISC 0S4/SA compat. Midi Works 151.95 Darkwood 20.70 Settlements 81.08 OHP (Presentation) 29.95 £50 Demon's Lair 20.00 Space Exploration 13.73 Ovation Pro 158.62 Dhfter (DD/HD) 31.50 Survival: Mysteries of Nat 42.30 P'rilel port Zip driver (Argo) 34,08 Dune II {CD -£31 .50) 26.60 The Way Things Work 50,53 PC Pro2 39.00 ArcFS2 Dungeon t 27.00 The World's Weather 52.87 Personal Accounts V4 49.00 R/W compression E-Type 2 t 30.00 Tizzy's Toolbox 44.65 Photo Link 65.55 Eclipse Collection 22.49 TOTS TV 19.95 filing system Photo Real (Canon/Epson) 65.86 Enter the Realm 25.00 Ultimate Human Body 50.00 Pholodesk 3 299.50 £25 Exodus 25.00 Understanding the Body 42.30 ProArtisan 24 (RPC Only) 89.95 Fire and Ice 23.39 Vikings 42.30 Prophet 3 179,77 Global Effect 27.00 World of Robert Burns 93-94 4 Rhapsody 94,95 Groundhog 12.00 Alone In The Dark Schema 2 121.50 CDROM GAMES Haunted House 25.00 | Walkabout game not SA Sibelius 6 116,00 Holed Out Compendium 20.00 Abuse 25.00 Sibelius Ankh 25.00 Offer price £20 7 599.00 James Pond 2+ 16.20 Sibelius 7 Crystal 28,45 Student 345.00 Logic Mania 27.00 Maze Sleuths Trilogy 35.00 116.32 Morph 25.00 Doom Spark FS Dune 11 31.50 25,00 Pandora's Box 25-00 Key: StrongGuard 25.00 Heroes of Might & Magic 11 35.00 Patience Addict 19.95 | Studio Sound 113.95 Simon the Sorcerer 32.40 Play It Again Sam 3 24.95 NRPC Not for RPC Tablemate Designer 60,00 Syndicate 29.00 Play It Again Sam 4 35,00 TopModel2 145.11 Wizards Apprentice 24.95 t Separate RPC version Real McCoy 2/3/4 (each) 35,00 Turbodrivers (Can/HP/Eps) 54.69 Real McCoy 5 31.50 Many titles ai WebSpider 40.00 Rick Dangerous 15.26 for Suite 2 29.38 WebTool ANT Saloon Cars Deluxe 31.50 WIMP Basic 44.99 Scrabble 26.59 Win95FS 41,12 Shuggy 25.95 Order from a participating dealer XStitch 2 35,00 Shovy 3D 20.00 The Data Store EDUCATION Silver Ball 12.00 Tel 0181 460 8991 Fax 0181 313 0400 Animated Alphabet, Talk 33.43 Simon the Sorcerer 27.00 Arc Venture (various) 39.01 Small t 21.20 email [email protected] Aztecs, Age 7-11 50.17 Spobbleoid Fantasy 30.00 CJE Micro's /NCS Calabash Pirates 25.98 Slereoworld 22.50 Tel 01 903 523666 Fax 01 903 523679 Stuntracer 2000 35.00 Crystal Rain Forest 50.17 f email [email protected] DataSweei 3 69.33 Supersnail 25.00 Davyn Computer Services Dazzle + 83.71 The Time Machine 25.00 Tel 01 924 254800 Fax 01 924 254036 Dinosaurs (10/10) 13.49 Virtual Golf 31.50 Doodle 32.37 CD Business & utils [email protected] Liquid Silicon English (10/10) 13.49 Arm Club PD CD 1 19.00 Essential Maths (10/10) 13.49 Arm Club PD CD 2 15.00 Tel 01592 592265 Fax 01592 596102 Essential Science 13,49 Artworks ClipArt 1 or 2 20.08 email [email protected] Expl with Flossy the Frog 28,79 Bilfolio 7 42.74 OTA Direct First Logo 38.95 Font Empohum 29.95 Tel 01 942 797777 Fax 01 942 79771 Freddy Teddy's Adventure 23.50 PDCD4 (Datafile) 15.00 French (10/10) 13.49 PDCD5 (Datafile) 15.00 email [email protected] Uniqueway Fun School 3/4 (various) 24.99 ProAnisan 2 98,93 Geography (10/10) 13.49 Rise Disc Vol.1 15.00 Tel 01222 464020 Fax 01222 440071 German (10/10) 13.49 Rise Disc Vol.2 20.00 email [email protected] gassiim ducatior ish as IS spoke Words and Sentences is the second in Sherston's Pam Turnbull looks at a very Keywords series, this one concentrates on English. A specific reference source useful tool for teachers (and pupils), it looks at the language associated articles. These will then change the Word Search choice from the with grammar, punctuation and colour and be underlined, you main menu is best. You can choose phonics. And by the mention on carmot access the links unless you one or two words with an add /or those three words alone, you know click the link button which seems a modifier; click Find when you're that this is tied to the Literacy Hour. waste of time. You many not want all ready, but do watch the spelling. A Based on the book version (also your children to link to other parts of box will then appear with written by Karen Bryant- Mole) it is a the program, but my preferred appropriate matches and clicking on very simple encyclopedia/dictionary. option would be to disable this these will take you to that specific The box contains a poster of the facihty from a entry. program icons, which are pretty self- customisation Finally there is explanatory (and identical to Science screen - which the Picture Index Keywords), but this is a useful idea you can't, but option which as are the Quick Start and Index of this is a minor reveals all the Keywords sheets. niggle. words that have The manual duplicates these but Sometimes a pictures connected contains sound step-by step advice. third, camera, to them. And that •'^'^^^^^^^^^^flH^H There are 136 entries from abstract icon will appear is all there is to it. noun to word, stopping along the which informs Simple and way at complex sentence and you that your effective it contains mnemonic. chosen entry has all the words and 65 The main screen offers you three an illustration (or choice of images) phi'ases children are required to know ways to access the information, via with it. Click to go to the thumbnail by the National Literacy Strategy and an alphabetical listing, picture index images. Make your choice and the in such a way that they can make or through the simple search tool. If full-sized picture will appear with a their own word /definitions books or you know the caption icon next to use it as an electronic dictionary. And word for it. Click here to as most dictionaries for this age which you reveal information group do not cover the grammatical want the on the picture and terms required this is a definition, the the grammatical or definite boon. index is your phonic information best port of it is describing. call. Scroll Along of Product details the top J through the the screen are icons Product: English Keywords - Word and entries or cHck which will let you Senfences on the relevant return to the Price: £29-95 letter to go the previous screen; go Ages: 7-1] year olds beginning of that section of the list. to the main menu; give you Supplier: Sherslon Software, AngeJ Make your choice and you'll find information about using the House, Malmesbury, Wiltshire yourself on a screen with a definititm program; let you print, export the SN16 OLH Tel: {444/0)1666 843224 with some examples. text or graphics to another program; Fax: (+44/0) I666S43216 Click on the ear/speaker icon to or quit. E-mail; salesSsherston.co.uk hear the text read to you or opt for If you're looking for something Web; www.sherston.cam the chain icon to see any linked and you don't know exactly what. http;//www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 THE NEW LOOK ACORN LCX^SmS PUBLISHER RED HOT Networking. BUT ^ Nd need ror cumoersomfr imd alow Ersn^ar pfngroma STILL AS "^ 4oijnd PsraVS easy ta in^la)L ana ^diflrnEomard to GOOD PHiiipPeny,Archr« 12.10 TO READ cAn mjDT. couN wow AS lUllAW Ul+U OVAHIH mil IKMIW: IGOC ON M:WMN& EVER Mouse Interfaces, Trackballs etc Easy Sharing! For the best help and advice with snare devicK QeTMeer a HIscPC and PC using our range ol C|uaflty 9HliaiBs. WlincluOetablss. Game interfaces, Joysticks etc. KeyOoBra, PS'2 iibusb ano sarlal sivih* ,, tjfi '^ desktop publishing, web page PCJaf Anologua jDytftck intv^Kje a\vt% you a giUTpaportl (ideal l^ your monrtty has Iwo iripute) PC Phunlwn Jaysitk tv abovn [it aulo ^u ThnjUie b)c) 15HD 10 5iBNC monllor cbBIb br above t^^ 3vl0 eiHtoM joynvk HilerlaH lot dAn-aTyla digffiiJ alicliB. i ApKhv JDyntic)! tor abovo fmlcroMlirrwd] ^ '^^ KeyDoafd S Monirot svWIcli £3^ design and image processing Acorn IMhon AKamatNo'otiDawHlfinn'nilta-oswiK'ierll fi BfinMrfK* loypMa |siriQtfl.4iaijbiB> ( OnoKKB Drtvon D4ik farciiliDvr'rrck&'iavpddsfli: T Keytneid, MonJtor and PS/3 mouss avvltch C*^ "^^ Pnnlern maoniiB-j? devicBE) £\' Publisher is the magazine of choice. Access Products PnnlBr(aniacn(nBs->1 devica] fi'i^'^ PSPiAoufle-i di^u r ^iiEhmDiiit ask tof ttga^i irinqEions are a^rlable call lo' ^HQhkB»toajnreaacemBnnafJv3'ii»t)onter)f *5^'^ Subscribe now, before the start of Stuarl Tyrrell Developments Phone, Fax or email tor a PO Box 103. OLDHAM bL2 BFB free product inform a lion flyer I TbU 01706 648 600 Oam-9pm} 164 (national lale) Fb>'D87D 1604 All prices Include P&P the new millennium (31st December Email. In first two issues completely free of charge*. The price you pay is just £24.95. Domain Names .CO.UK Acorn NOTHING ELSE TO PAY FOR 2 YEARS Publisher 2000 UK domains are being registered per week Your company or family should be one of them! Probably the best looking and most Register yaufnante.^a.uH noip! readable RISC OS magazine. Domain name package includes : *Your two free issues will be Vol. 6 issue 1 and • All Internic/Nominet registration fees Vol. 6 issue 2. Your subscription will start from • Free Web forwarding to an existing ISP/website Vol. issue 6 3 and run for twelve months from • Free unlimited email address forwarding* that date (total eight issues for the price of six). • DNS hosting "All mail sent to anytlvng@yourdomain co.uk will be forwarded lo an emsttng dial-up account Offer applies to UK only. Also available : .COM, .NET, .ORG domains £65 XTD.UK, .NET.UK, .ORG.UK domains C55 Add your site to 250+ search engines & directories C25 /fKALATV Unlimited individual email forwarding £20 Contact us today to see if vour domain Is available All pnocs exclude VAT @ 1 7 5% ,/iPublishing ^^pelUngs www.speHings.net Compare the competition* P.O.Box 231, Barton, Bedford MK45 AHQ" fi^--v . [email protected] ' o{Q Tel. 07785 935497 Netnames £ 99 --vai Tel. 01582 881614 fax 01582 881614 ^'^' ^' ^^ Normanton Road 1st names £95 -i-vat Services Futurenames £125+vat Email: [email protected] LiinnBa South Croydon Surrey, CR7 7JU ^Mm^mmma^im ducatior Web zone You pays your money and... Pam Turnbull looks into the subscription side of Argosphere you don't know about you're a parent there are things to the quantity and dates of the IfArgoSphere, here's a rundown: keep the kids gainfully employed at programs on offer, with about three this is a UK-based education site home too. Activities are varied, nice months elapsing since the latest for children, parents and teachers to look out and well differenhated upload. But, in addition to offline which you can access at three levels: with items rangijig from The Sea activities, there are printable maths a selection of free activities from the Stealers and Looking at Maps, to worksheets (from Creative full site; Volume 1 which contains Niirser]^ Rin/nies and So Bear. Curriculum Software, you set the most of the activities from the full number, operation and range), site but without new activities or Specific RISC OS crosswords (covering a range of developments; and the Full Site. topics from the Old Testament to Edited by Simon Hosier, the Full support capital cities), even a handwriting Site includes an extensive and With an Acorn pedigree behind it page maker and Web-based expanding range of activities and Argosphere does acknowledge that worksheets for hectic classroom resources. There are two subscription not everyone in the world is using a teachers and a range of clip-art and services to the Full ArgoSphere site - PC. Activities are JavaScript-based fonts to access. one for schools and the other for hut if you don't have it attached to 1 was impressed by the quality of homes. Both provide complete access your browser there is a section of these resources. For instance, the to a wide range of age-specific non-JavaScript activities and Handwriting Page Maker can be interactive resources and activities resources. Even so there are some used online or downloaded and lets for children aged 3+, 5+, 8+ or 13+. activities which Acorn users will you create pages of text based on have problems with. In particular, Christopher Jarman's Jardotty font. For teachers my younger testers were Decide on the letters and words and As this is not just a site for teachers, disappointed that some of the by joining the dots children can copy you don't get the huge amount of interactive activities refused to work the characters with arrows giving classroom resources available on on our Rise PC. However, there is a starting place and direction. some sites, but what is there is useful RISC OS-specific download bureau Then there's TestMaker which rather than gimmicky. In addition if whidn is as rare as it is refreshing. requires JavaScript support. Easy to it lets fteue.trnimiHut This allows you use, you make quizzes which to download most can be used on or offline. You can 67 Sjji^ J/J^HJ nj (but not all) of the opt to choose a correct answer from a v/a.\'i«f .:ll,-- (iack itj HfjrM Beneficial for 1 would have liked connections I he New Un.k keeping modem with particularly good education or telephone use sites, but links are limited to In a minimum, OFSTED, plus a few schools and and also for quick commercial publishers. However, I Wtii''^ Mi(w loading of pages - did like the links to www.teaching- About U-:. A/qoNei Ac you're not waiting today.com which gives a scrolling forever for lists of education stories for you to feafoock Age 13' graphics - but also access. The site is still being helpful for schools developed and a lot of thought has not on a network gone into the look, though a more as individual obvious front door would FeedloQck activities can be be a good idea. I^,^^} copied to floppy Resources and used Product details ihroughout the J school. Product: ArgoSphere /ttor /(Tj Ajft^ (-iinyi/c*!' Ormm I was, however, Web: www.argosphere.net disappointed by J hltp://www.acornuser.tom Christmas 1 999 Well here we are at Christmas, it only seems like two minutes ago it was September (little contributors' joke about deadlines). So as this is the season of joy and merriment I thought I would make a game. This one is based on those seaside arcade games where moles peep out of the ground and you have Bash to bash them with a hammer. However, in order to simplify matters somewhat and to appease the anti-animal cruelty lobby we will not be bashing actual moles, nor animatronic versions thereof, but a lights. To be even more accurate we will be bashing switches with lights nearby, but we shall have virtual moles appearing on the desktop just to retain the flavour of things. So let's see what we need our computer to control - basicallv a few LEDs and switches so this sounds mo like a job for one of those many to animals input/output expansion multiplexer Mike Cook gets cruel cute projects I have made over the years. However, in this case that is overkill at any one time, it's the one we are number of LEDs increases by more with the electronics and I have come going to bash, so we can make the than one, four outputs being the up with something much simpler. outputs go further. break-even point. In fact the rule is The problem 1 set myself was to Look at Figure la, here we have an that the number of LEDs we can light control sixteen LEDs and to be able to LED connected to two outputs. The is half the number of outputs read sixteen switches all from the LED only lights up when DO is at a squared. With eight outputs we can printer port without any external logic one (high), and D4 is at a logic control sixteen LEDs which is shown power supply. But, with only eight zero (low). Now, we have used two in Figure II, this sort of arrangement data outputs from the printer port, output lines to light one LED, not is known as a matrix because the how is this done? very efficient is it? Next, in Figure lb, LEDs can be addressed by column If you read last month's article you two LEDs are cormected to DO and 1 and row. In this case to light any LED will remember that I had one output can turn either of them on by putting one row output (DO to D3) has to be controlling one LED, this meant any a logic zero on D4 or D5. high and one column output has to \ LED could be on or off. Now in this Note here if I put a logic zero on be low. Note that the other row 68 game we only want one LED to be on both outputs both LEDs will light but outputs need to be low and the other because the current is being column outputs need to be high to shared from the common ensure that just one light is lit. I r>-i - resistor they will not be as bright, generally I only want Splat a rat one light on at a time. Here That's the outputs dealt with so what V V'V you see we have two LEDs about the inputs? Again we can take being controlled by three advantage of the fact that we only V'5Z T outputs, still not very want to detect a switch closing when 1 jtip\e LiJQC n4 efficient but better than it is associated with a lit LED and so I Figure la. Finally look at can read all sixteen switches by using Figure 1 a Figure lb Figure Ic, this is a simple only four of the status inputs on the extension of the previous printer port. Again in Figure 11 you idea but now we have four will see each row connected to an I .ofiic outputs controlling four input. When the row outputs are LEDs, we have finally logic zero you will see zero on all the reached the efficiency of a inputs but when a row goes high, to vJt- V'^ \a. V^ single output for a single light an LED the corresponding input LED. will also go high. However, see how this Now the clever part is that when L'lgic '.i P5 efficiency is rising faster the switch across the lit LED is closed than a simple linear the LED is shorted out and so goes Figure 1 c relationship, as we add off, and the corresponding status Figuiv 1: Developing an LED matrix another output line the input goes low. Therefore, as the CUr'.^tnt^,. t DUO ^s^g-^^^/-^"-^^- .vv-^- -;^-^r>--".'^'fcs^^rtcy.jy^-i»f,t^t^sr^v^?fe-t^-:iJ^K^ the does put extra working from the back of the board. »k;#. demands on the If you do get it wrong you could y^ w; '^ ruggedness of your always shuffle the icons about in the construction. application using the template editor, r.,^xi r.i.--.: Whatever you choose however you are best using the 15\ you will need to put muirixl program \-^^ \^> to make sure it is some padding on it, I right as you make it. stuck some thick Now we can light the LEDs and neoprene rubber ^ ^ *> ^ read the switches it's time to put it all over the end that together into a game. Looking came from a dead through some old issues of Acorn ^ mouse mat. Switches User I came across software versions can be a problem, the of the same idea. I was inspired by cheapest solution this - oh all right I nicked the sound Llt,-B, would be to use two from WilUam Curson and the domed screws and a graphics from Philip Mellor, but the Printer Po~ ipin numben m Uradiettj conducting mallet. I main code is mine basically because toyed Figure //; Tlie circuit for Basil n Mole with the idea they use a 3 by 3 grid of moles and 1 of putting foil or use a 4 by 4 array. Also I added an computer knows what row output it copper over the head to make a extra image of the mole just starting raised and what it column output contact, but 1 couldn't see how it to appear from its mound. The idea is lowered it can work out if the switch would last in the long term. that just before the light comes on is pressed or not, which is all very You can get push button switches you get a little pre-warning on the efficient. The only slight is that snag but the amount of movement on these monitor of where it is going to come if you press a switch that hasn't got a is Umited and so any hammer blow- from so your eyes constantly dart lit light associated with it you could would direct it's force straight on the between the screen and the board. light a up different light, in the contacts. In the end I settled for With a bit of practice you could context of what we want this isn't keyboard switches as these had a long even become proficient at touch important. travel distance with the 'make' mole-bashing. The rules are simple, The way this circuit is wired up connection condition occurring early keep on bashing until ten moles makes things easy for the software, to in the travel. This meant I could escape - you can change this easily in light an LED you must output a bit arrange a screw to take most of the the code. Also you can change the pattern that has the lower four bits force as shown in Figure III, note you minimum time a mole appears for (least significant nibble) set to 1, 2, 4, need to drill two sizes of hole one along with the maximum time. This or 8 and the upper four bits (most from the front and the other from the requires hacking into the code but the significant nibble) 7, B, E, or D. Note back. variables are placed just before the these are hexadecimal bit values. main loop and all have sensible Now, if we label or number the least Nats to you names. One place you might want to significant nibble patterns to 3 and I stuck the nut on with super glue and improve the application is to have take the status register and shift it to glued the switch on the back with menu options to control the times. flie left by the least significant nibble liberal dollops of hot melt glue. The This would make a great game for pattern's number, we get the bit we board itself was a piece of thick fibre Christmas fairs or parties as long as (69 are interested in always in the same board but for even more rugged you steer clear of the league against place, that's bit 6. results you could use a piece of cruel sports - one option is to replace That may sound complex but it kitchen work surface. Tlie LEDs the mole with Bill Gates. means we can write a very simple should be mounted in a hole so that The Bash-o-Mole game was routine for lighting the LEDs and they are just recessed slightly, this demonstrated at the RISC OS '99 reading the switch. What we need to prevents the mallet from getting to shoxL' - and ivas very popular. do is to generate a look-up table, or them. Again hot melt array variable, with an entry, or glue should secure [ value, for each LED. If we do that them in place. in the right order the two least The important Screw significant bits of the look-up table thing is to make sure index is also the status register shift that the LEDs are in to the left value. Then bit 6 in the the right place on the status register will be a zero if the board to correspond Wooden board switch is pressed otherwise it will be with the software. As a logic one. If you can't follow that you look at the front then look at the program niatrixl- of the board the LED Now VQu have to physically make numbers start at the Figure II. The first thing to decide is top right hand comer what sort of mallet you are going to and go from left to use. For the feel of the game a heavy right. Remember / Key tjoard switch one is best, this is because it is not so when you are wiring manoeuvrable as a light one but it them up you will be Fi_^urc HI: Fixing the f^witches ://vvww. acornuser.com Chri'^'^ tsc^ --'-'•" -•^-•"-'^^'^«wv- AcornA Rambles through .am 0^ MM ^ through the November desktops as well. Reading Mike Cook to issue I was struck by the "I only ask because we tend Regan Files and was rather leave our computer on for long-ish puzzled. If those two Icon grumbles through periods, and if the harddisc could Technology types are such nice guys spin down, would it last longer? If, why has Mike Glover super-glued the trees in theory, there is no problem with Bob Pollard's wrist to a tree? this idea, could the SWI Another thing from that issue was have the very same problem since ADFS_PowerControl be used safely the news that people are being asked installing a secondhand 8x drive I to set the auto spindown to, say, 15 to pay up for using the LZW bought at a show. Your tip of using: minutes?" compression algorithm. Now in the My thinking on this is that it cure US you can get a patent on an doesn't much matter to the *Stop algorithm but UK law specifically lifetime of the disc as the *ADFS spin and spin forbids this. Therefore I would think extra stress on down that any such patent couldn't be has been a great help, thanks. up roughly matches the saving of enforced over here, I would be Unfortunately it assumes that your wear over leaving it running. On interested in the views of any legally current filing system is ADFS and portables this is done purely as a trained reader. so switches back to it after issuing power-saving measure where it is As this is the final issue before the the Stop command. If, however, worthwhile. Does anyone else have Millennium bug is supposed to strike you've been using a different filing any views on this matter? it occurs to me that it's named system, for instance IDEFS, SCSI or incorrectly. The problem has nothmg something, then you will need a Now Alex Farlie is wanting to put to do with the millennium but modified script such as: his skill to helping others, he writes: merely the century, the wrapping "Do you know if there is *CDFS:Stop round of the second significant digit any online material on not the third. It's a mere coincidence which directs the command Stop to disabled access to IT or the that it's a miliermium and nothing CDFS without switching to it and Internet, or designing software for I considering to significant at all. I suppose the having to guess which file system them? am whether 'Century Bug' does not have the to switch back to afterwards." develop a symbol-based e-mail same foreboding of doom about it program for the severely disabled and the media couldn't hype it so Now Fred Dulwich is musing about or literacy impaired and much. I got an e-mail from a user of hard drives, he writes: information resources would be Acorn equipment that had the tag "I have been appreciated. The actual legwork of line "Millennium Smug". wondering.. .why is the deciding what's relevant as well as I ! option 'Spin down delay' in the creative effort is my problem First off, Richard Lewis has another the IDE harddisc configure window however." slant on a noisy computer: greyed out? I have heard that this I don't know of anything off 'In reply to your October option is only suitable for portable hand but 1 would imagine I that your project would be I anonymous contributor with computers, but I can't see any reason it shouldn't apply to most useful if you targeted your I the noisy CD-ROM, I too why iHI Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com mm application on a disabled individual. first hme to get the size of buffers guessed I am a program short of I imagine that disabilities are fairly you need and the second time to being a programmer, but at least I'm individual and if tbere was a blanket actually do the job. It's four pages of keen! solution it would have appeared by densely packed information in the "Other effects 1 would like are now. Try contacting your local Social Programmers Reference Manual, but gradual appearance of a title and Services department of Students just for you, and everyone else really, the opposite, and various screen Union and see if they can put in you I have included the information on fades in both directions (so, touch with someone who needs help. the AU Web site in a plain text file. appearing and disappearing). I remember about 15 years ago I Correct me if I'm wrong but there had a severely disabled student at the David Coulthard is trying to put his isn't a simple commercial program University- He was studying maths computer on television: to do these things. For simple read and had very poor motor control "I am trying to use my cheap. The other side of all this is such that he couldn't speak, feed : computer to put effects and the output to a VCR and 1 believe himself, write or even sit still in his titles onto my home video Pineapple Software sell TV PAL wheel chair without being strapped recordings. I have an upgraded decoders. As I still have my BBC B in. However, he was quick-witted 410/1 with 40Mb hard drive with computer perhaps I could use this and had a great sense of humour. I RISC OS 3.1 and ARM3. in some way. Either run the made some specially modified "The main thing I'm trying to do programs on it or use it's ability to keyboards so that could he learn is produce a realistic scrolling credit use a TV as a monitor." machine code programming and use effect at the end of a film. I've While there are I commercial the mainframes, but 1 have not found looked at other people's programs programs to do this I don't a use for that equipment since. but they are all either too fancy or I know of anv cheap ones, get lost trying to dissect the part I however I am sure some readers will Matthew Sackman is reallv in need require. I think the system font know of some. On the hardware side of a copy of the Programmers would be adequate for my needs as you need the Pineapple PAL coders, Reference manual, he writes: I imagine using a fancy font may be not the decoders. The two models "I am writing a backup complicated. As you might have they sell are priced £160 and £260 utility, and although I have and have different features so you I never released it or After my grumbles through Acom are best talking directly to them to distributed it, it is up to version 1.5. Wood recently RC. Robinson see which matches your needs. One of the new features that I am thought he would join in: You can use your model B as this trying to include in this version is "I thought I would add has a composite video output, but the ability to compress the backed my own grumbles you will need to modify it in order to up files using the Squash module. In regarding Help files and get composite colour out of it. This a StrongHelp manual on SWIs, 1 Info templates. One of my involves soldering an extra capacitor found that there appear to be two biggest grumbles is missing Help in the circuit - the full details are m SWIs, Squash^Compress and files within applications and the one of Acorn's application notes Squash_Decom press. Unfortunately fact that many of them give no that are on past cover CDs, As to the manual provided no information indication as to the version fading effects this is a little more on the parameters, and various number of the software. Why tricky. First of all if you want a attempts of my own to work out the should anyone have to load an picture behind your titles, as 71 parameters needed have failed. application just to find out what opposed to whatever background the "Somewhat unsurprisingly, my version number it is. We should computer puts out, you will need a RISC OS 2 PRMs do not mention the all be able to use the Filer's file video mixer along with something S{jiiash program or module at all. menu to obtain this information. called a genlock. Could you enlighten me as to how to "Even worse is when the Help This gizmo will s3Tichronise your use these SWIs, and also how to file expects a certain application computer to the incoming video look for this module and load it if to be available to even read it signal and allow the two to be found from within the program using this method. Saying that mixed. Then fades can be carried out which I am writing in BASIC. Also, my exception would be Internet- by the mixer either manually or to ease the problem of looking related software and help being under the control of the computer. around for the module, am I allowed in HTML format. However, a genlock and mixer are to distribute the Squash module "Which brings me on to an not cheap but some mixers also inside the program directory?" application's Info template. I include the PAL encoding function, As the module is part of the wish more authors would When you add up the investment in operating system there is no I include a Web button with a link hardware that is needed the cost of I need to distribute it with to their Web site, for updates and commercial titling software is your application. However to be on such. How many times have quite insignificant. the safe side use an RMensure users forgotten the Web address command in your Run file. 1 am not of the author especially for PD surprised you couldn't work Contacting AU out the and Shareware, although J parameters, it is rather complex with commercial houses could also Mike Codk: lots of bits being used as- flags and gain." ra m b I es@acom VI ser. com you really have to call this twice, the J http://www.acornuser.com Christmas 1999 fM Upgrading'P^'BHSW^™ Acorn Computers? www.microdigita^l.co.uk For the best in non genetically engineered quality, dedicated service and unbeatable pricing #See the amazing new Mico RISC OS 4 computer, e 32 bit EIDE controller card 7MB/secperformance, fantastic high speea uataStar hard discs, incredibly low cost Ecole hard discs, temfic CD ROM drives, scintillating Optim backup system, feature rich ViewSonic colour displays, floppy disc drives that ^rerj't floppy, mice you hold in your hand and opps nearly forgot memory fqr sll AcoW models. 1 telephone; 01274 618774 fax:'0V2:/4 619482 email: sales@microdigitai Monitors Colour ^ Parallel to Tiyamal5"3.i0 £145.00 Printers SCSI adapter liyuma 17" {S702GT) .28dot £279.00 liyama 17" 400 Pro .25 dol £359.00 Epson Stvlus Colour 440 £ 1 05 .00 A brand new product from Pineapple providing CTX 14" Digital Scan £125.00 Epson Stylus Colour 640 £135.00 an inexpensive altemaUve lo a SCSI card when CTX 15" Digital Scan £145.00 Epson Stylus Colour 850 £199.CX) using SCSI scanners. The SCSI adapter plugs inlo HP Laserjet 1 100 (laser mono) £289.00 the parallel port (with a 'through' printer CTX 1 7".28 70Kh7. Digital £259.00 CTX mens have (3 year on-site warrty) connector), and can be used directly with SCSI Manv other models available Virus scanners. Works with A301(}/3020/4000/5000/ A7000/RiscPC (inc StrongARM). Switch Boxes Protection Price just £59.00 inc vat Pineapples Virus Protection Parallel 2 way (25w 'D' skts) £16.99 Scheme has been mnning for Parallel 4 wav (25w 'D' skts) £19.99 over six years and is still Serial 2 way (9w 'D' skts) £19.99 being updated with new Colour Scanners Monitor+Keybourd 2 way £19.99 viruses on a regular basis. Suitable cables and other boxes New software versions are sent every available, please ask out to members four montlis Tlie new Epson GT7000 is great value and the viruses and the total number of which Pholo version with transparency adapter gives can be removed is well over 200. The VGA to PAL TV excellent quality on both transparencies and latest version is now scanning at up to negatives. Our new SCSI parallel port adapter Converter four times faster than previous versions cable makes this excellent scanner very affordable. The VGA Converter despite coping with many more viruses. / All scanner prices include Imagemaster and Twain allows the output of any Acorn running Joining fee just £28.20 software. in a VGA or SVGA mode (or PC comp 'Ifyou're interested in virus protection, to be displayed on a TV or recorded join the Pineapple Virus Protection Epson GT7000 - SCSI £259.00 onto a video recorder. Please ask tor scheme and buy Killer. Accept no Epson GT7000 Photo - SCSI £299.00 more information. alternative - 'Acorn User Feb 96 Price £159.00 inc vat Inexpensive multi-user licences Pineapple Software Tei'ms:- ,\\\ prWes include Studio24Pn) I7.59c vat. Ciirrhif^e £5 on most 'Many .Acorn User froni covers have Suite 1, 310 Green Lane. ILFORD hardware. Small items t3 (or been created from scratch using this Essex IGI 1XT less). Phone Tor quote outside program alone, concrete proof oi' the power of Tel 0208 599 1476 Fax 0208 598 2343 LIK. Onicial orders, cheques this creative tool' - Acorn User Mar96 email:- [email protected] and all mujor credit cards New low price - £59.00 inc vat www:- http://ww^v. pineaple.demon.co.uk accepted al no extra charj^e. letters A fish called RISC OS can only offer praise to all promoting 'alien' operating policy to make it even vaguely Oneinvolved in the continued systems, we ignore them at our peril. resemble the versions of Linux development of both software After all Acorn User ran a regular PC available on the PC. I do, however, and hardware for RISC OS column, so why not have a Linux go back to RISC OS whenever I have after the inevitable demise of Acorn. column? the opportunity. to However ensure success where I currently run Linux on my Rise Finally I'd like to thank Messrs Acorn failed one cannot become PC, not because I have lost faith in Price and Ruck at The ARM Club complacent and believe the name RISC but OS because my educational and Mr Hughes of WACG for 'RISC OS' is enough to sell itself. studies dictate compatibility. But helping me get Linux rurming. The RISC OS platform is very ARMLinux is so out of date I have Douglas Blastknd small fish when compared to had to resort to a 'mix and match' York Windows, or even the Apple Mac. If we are to survive it must be shown Viewpoint that not only is RISC OS an excellent For some reason Acorn User much closer platform but, most importantly, that than the horizon). occasionally gets accused of giving So I present and future users are not tied knew that the RISC OS readers a false impression of what's down with outdated equipment and people would flock to the show, going on in the market - attitudes. perhaps willing to spend money on a market even of having rose-tinted glasses in which they To sun'ive we should be able to can still see hope and when it comes to what's happening handle different platforms, but with potential. in the RISC OS world. That PC cards we are stuck at 1331VlHz and hope is fuelled by Naturally enough I don't agree, RiscStation getting hold of recent versions of (the machines should be what I do have is an absolute faith shipping Linux requires Internet access - which as you read this). in the potential for success of RISC Millipede, Microdigital, not everybody has - and even if they CeriUca, OS and the RISC OS '99 show is a Spacetech - do, are they willing to spend so much and all the rest who case in point. time and money downloading huge still support the machines, even if It has to be said that many of the they files that may not even work? don't feel the hope themselves. exhibitors (and some will admit it After As much as many of the RISC OS all it's not easy staying in even now) were convinced that this business fraternity cringe at the thought of when the market has event would not be a good show. shrunk as much as it has. They would attend just to fly the But we've had a year of bumping RISC OS flag but would Change of address certainly along the bottom and we didn't make a loss and spend a fairly quite sink into the mud. It may take Don't forget boring weekend looking Acorn User has moved: after those another year to rise to the surface attendees that you see at every where Unit 2A, Heapriding Business Park, we can all breath more easily, show. but it - Ford Sh-eet, Stockport, SK3 OBT can be done we just have to On the other hand I was doit. Tel: 0161 429 8902 convinced they were wrong, the So I'd like to thank you for not Fax: 0161 429 0685 RISC OS is market inherently losing faith, as long as you're out optimistic - it has to be, All e-mail addresses remain the same. we'd never there we'll be here. This is a great have survived this long if we game we're playing and it is - Contacting weren't and there are very possible to AU J win. promising changes on the horizon So let's win! letters@aco m u se r. com (and some of those changes J are very Sieve Turnbull htto: //www. acorn usermm rhrktm^c iqqq mi nterview and Archimedes. He then did Microelectronic Systems Engineering at UMIST and started a PhD but, in the time- honoured tradition of people in the Acorn market, got side-tracked. "You see I do a lot of Special Needs work as well, which does not show up all that much in the Acom world. 1 do a lot of work for SEMERC; I can't really say too much about it, but a large proportion of the hardware in the catalogue comes from me. Faced with the choice of finishing the PhD or continuing with the Special Needs work, I decided that I could not give up the Special Needs side of my life. "1 did a utility for the Acorns called Serial Mouse so you could use a PC serial mouse. I got a phone call out of the blue from Rod Boves asking if he could distribute the program with some hardware. Then Rod moved to SEMERC and it just continued from there." Wendy, Stuart's partner, now enters the like to think that part of the process of room. She is Sister in Intensive Care interviewing is to strip away the layers Research and so is basically on call 24 hours from people's personalities so they a day, 365 days a year. She and I have a I gradually reveal interesting things about good old chat about Stuart. She jokes that if themselves. Stuart Tyrrell was already Stuart's job fails, she will throw him and familiar with the concept of stripping and Tilly out with matching knotted layers; he had just got down to the original handkerchiefs. Victorian wallpaper on his partner Wendy's "The problem with Stuart," jokes Wendy staircase. Tilly, the waggier one of their two "is getting him to go anywhere. He is a rescue dogs, was there to give me a full-on boring git, although once you get him out doggy welcome. he's fine and we have to go back to the Stuart Tyrrell is the proprietor of Stuart same place tor the next ten years. He gets Tyrrell Developments, His words. I tell very insecure if there is not a square thing in Stuart that the word "proprietor" fits in front of him. He likes shopping but he buys wonderfully with his chocolate and rubbish and he comes back - himself saying: 'Look You see I do a surroundings the foot of the very excited with I Pennines just outside Shaw - and what I've got... quilted toilet roll!' He loves lot of Special Needs that he should have a dark, his two-for~one at Iceland and his bargains. varnished, wood shopfront with He gets that from his father; he is crazy, work as well which gold lettering. basically." "Actually I work from home Stuart laments the fact that although in the at the he's doing a lot in the RISC OS market at does not show up back bedroom moment," laughs Stuart, "which the moment, much of it is concerned with does sound a bit dodgy. 1 am new projects that he can't discuss at this all that much in the very much a designer, a design time. engineer. I do the design work "There are exciting things happening in Acorn world. for the Special Needs stuff. I do a the RISC OS world. I am involved in a bit of fabrication, soldering and couple of projects which will become J stuff like that, but I am actually apparent, and there are a lot of things that shipping most of that out to other people so the public do not know about. Things are a I concentrate on the design work. I am a bit lot healthier than people have been led to of a jack-of-all-trades but 'design engineer' believe. Watch this space but I cannot say does nicely." Tilly begins to help me much more to the point. I am doing work interview Stuart by joining in the with other RISC OS developers but I cannot conversation; apparently Tilly helps with talk about it, I know what ideas they have anything that makes a noise. and everything looks rosy." It comes as no surprise to find out that I think we'll have to wait for time to strip for Stuart it all started in 1981 when away another few layers before we find out his father got a ZX81, which Stuart hijacked, what Stuart means by this. as he did subsequently with the Beeb Jill Regan l€1 Christmas 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com New 2.5 Megapixel maging technology SLR camera Cheaper camera prices for Christmas! PHOTODESK 3 is ihe package which dellnes siudio t|uaHty image editing and artwork on RISC OS machines. It is easy to use but has many powerful features, including LAYERS and a sophisticated colour management system (CMS) for die full-lime graphics professional. £299.50 PHOTODESK2 is still available, retaining the CMS but not layers. £199.00 PHOTODESK LIGHT, an economic alternative to PHOTODESK3 retains most of its creative features apart from the Colour Management System. Layers and some features essential to the profess!{>nal user. ii]M.75 Plug-in Effects Packs aic available for all Photodesk packages. Each pack contains II) special elTecis, £19.95 Spacetech tutorial CD ROMs: "'An InUnduciioii to Digital Art" fcaiunii!; bitmap and vecior ^i-apliics lutoriaU by the well-known artist. David Cnweli. This is a fascinating inlroductiori to studio quality graphics work on CD ROM for £24.y.^ A NEW CD from David is now available: ''Creative Digital biiaging" This contains a resource of images and covers Ihe following topics in greater detail: Digital painting. Painting with Texture. Digital Photography, Photo illustration. Montage. Portrairs. Words and Text, Creative masking. Hints and Tips. £24.95 TopModel2 V.2.14 is now available for £152.75. Existing user.s may upgrade lor £29.95 or bLiy the NEW CD-ROM packed with resources, the new plug-in Top3DFonls! and a free 2.14 upgrade for onlv £58.63. TopModel 2 is the deilnilive 3D modelling package for RISC OS. CM 11^ ^ presentation package on CD-ROM from Spacetech Makes your slide shows quick and easy to create! OIIP Start building your presentation 5 before the lesson? - ^ minutes No Problem - Use your existing work in a prcseniaiinn'.' No Problem, jnsl dnig "n drop it in! Onl\' £29,95 Phololink is a RiscOS multi-driver for the most popular makes of digital camera. ^dnita! It is bundled free-'"^ with the following cameras: "- { __.Mm cameras C8J((L 1280x960 resolution, TFT screen, macro, 2x digital tele/wide mode now only £349.99 C-920ZOOM 1280x960 .Ix optical zoom. Replacement for 900Z was £549.99 now only £449.99 C-2000ZOOM 1600x'l200 This camera has everything including optical /,oom. manual override for aulo settings, remote control. 4.5cm TFT screen. Ouiprice now £150 olT! was £749.99 now £599.99 C-21 1600x1200 Miniature new megapixel baby.Digital Tele/wide. TFT. £699.99 C-2500L 1712x1368 NEW 2.5 megapixel SLR £1199.99 ^'PhoioLink is available free with cameras purchased from Spacelech or on its own. if you have purchased ytmr camera elsewhere, at £69.00. RiscOS .^..T and above only. PhotoReal ls the Acorn driver extension for the Canon B.IC4.^(iO. B.IC4h50. B.IC70l)(). B,IC 71(10 BJC2000. Epson Pholo, and PhotoEX printers with photo- realistic capability. PhotoReal makes use of the same advanced techniques for producing high-quality four colour separations as Photodesk and comes ready calibrated for the special dye-based inks used for photo-realistic priming. A calibration application is also supplied to idlow yon to tailor the results to your own specification. Driver only £69.00 Inc. VAT. or FREE if purchased with printer! Examples: Canon BJC200() £149.95 BJC4650 A.^ £299.99 B.IC7()00 £245.00 BJC7I00 £299.00 Epson PhotoEX A3 was £454.73 NOW £363.07 (all prices include PhotoReal Driver) .maging technology All prices include VAT 1 The Courtyard. Southwell Business Park, Portland, Dorset DT5 2NQ, UK Telephone: +44 (0)1305 822753 Fax: +44 (0)1305 860483 Email: sales (S) spaceteeh.eo.uk Web: http://www.spacetech.co.uk Lightning-fast computing Castle's lightning-fast Acorn RiscPC233T sets the standard for robust, trouble-free computing. The 233MHz processor is further enhanced by the exceptionally efficient and robust RISC OS architecture. This puts the RiscPC233T among the leaders for raw computing power • INTEL StrongARM 233MHz (revision T) processor - ARM designed • Modular expansion - increase the case size quickly and easily • 2nd processor slot - eg use with PC card for Windows applications • CE marked - your evidence of top quality and safety • 100% Acorn - the original tried and tested Acorn design further enhanced Order now! 8MB, 2GB, RiscOS3.7 Can 01728 723200 £749 + vat FreeFAX 0800 783 9638 ') ^iscPC Delivery £1 1 (£12,93 inc. VAT) pet system. 18MB,4GB,40xCD, RiscOS 4.0 £879 + vat RiscPC233t Web Wizard CASTLE Internet Suite, JAVA, 32MB, 2VMB, Computers for Education 8GB, DVD-CD, 56K modem, Business and Home 17" monitor, RiscOS 4.0 £1149 + vat Acorn' S. the acorn ilul cL. _ .... OVCWiuig IS used -is a CD render only