From james@Snark.apana.org.au Sat Dec 2 16:46:48 1995 Received: from Snark (James@snark.apana.org.au [203.12.237.178]) by PEAK.ORG (8.6.12/8.6.7) with SMTP id QAA15868 for ; Sat, 2 Dec 1995 16:46:36 -0800 Received: by Snark.apana.org.au (Amiga SMTPpost 1.04 December 9, 1994) id AA01; Sun, 3 Dec 95 11:39:24 AEST Received: by Snark.apana.org.au (Amiga SMTPpost 1.04 December 9, 1994) id AA01; Sun, 3 Dec 95 11:37:28 AEST From: james@Snark.apana.org.au (James Burton) Message-Id: <21b54cf5.927c1-james@Snark.apana.org.au> Subject: no subject (file transmission) X-Mailer: //\\miga Electronic Mail (AmiElm 5.42) Date: Sun, 3 Dec 95 11:37:28 AEST Organization: Melbourne ArtWorks To: ridgwad@peak.org Status: R {========================================================================} { File Name : 'November95.txt', 02-Nov-95 } {========================================================================} /\ \/ ___ __ ___ __ _ /\ ||\ /|| || // \ /\ / | o __ _ o / \\ ||\\ / || || // _ / \\ / / / / / /_//-/_ / /_ /_/ /___\\ || \\ / || || \\ | /___\\ /__/ / /_/ /_ / _// /_ / / \\_|| \V ||__||_ \\_/ / \\__________________________/___ {========================================================================} { } { Diversity : The Official Journal of the International Amiga Society } { Editor: James Burton ( James@Snark.apana.org.au ) } { Volume 1, Issue 2, 01-Nov-95 } { } {========================================================================} Contents * News * The Quest for Material * Reader Mail * Credits & Contributions {========================================================================} { News } {========================================================================} On the 22nd of October Thomas Tavoly (ttavoly@amiga.ow.nl) posted to the comp.sys.amiga.misc newsgroup (and a few others as well) that Manfred Schmitt and Gilles Bourdin appeared on T.V. in Germany. I won't go into details, I'll just note that they were proudly pushing the Amiga line and standing firmly behind their new products. This is NOT the sign of a company who has bought a name only. It is now clear that things are looking up for the Amiga, and I feel that this is a turning point for us. (You can find the whole article in Amiga Report 319). Workbench Snap of the Month Competition ======================================= The INTERNATIONAL AMIGA SOCIETY hereby announces The Workbench Snap of the month competition. We will run this in order to encourage Amiga users to register with the IAS, and to increase the level of activity and excitement in the Amiga world. Each month between the 1st and the 20th entries will be accepted via email to WB Snap Comp. Entry - IAS-Queries@ArtWorks.apana.org.au or by normal mail to IAS Workbench Snap of the Month P.O. Box 201 Kingsbury, Victoria 3083 Australia Between the 21st and the 1st of the next month, the entries will be scrutinised by 4 judges, with the results being published on the 1st at http://Snark.apana.org.au/IAS/WBSnap/ and in the IAS newsletter. Actually we only have 3 judges, so if you would like to be a judge then please contact us. The rules and a complete description are available at WB Snap Comp. Home Page - http://Snark.apana.org.au/IAS/WBSnap/ or by asking at either of the above addresses. The only restriction is that you must be an IAS member, or a member of an IAS member organisation. Entries will first be accepted during November and results published on December 1st. New Web Sites ============= This month I can tell you about several new web sites. First of all I should say that the IAS home page system as maintained by John Paden is still growing. Good work John, and to all the other people who have contributed. I suggest you check this out regularly. For those who have forgotten the URL is IAS Home Page - http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~dangermo/IAUG/ Also there is a new interface to Amiga sites that looks just like your workbench. Try out Workbench Interface - http://Snark.apana.org.au/IAS/Workbench This includes a page containing the whole set of Amiga Report magazines from the very first issue to the present. Both the ESCOM and the new Amiga Technologies companies have set up home pages. Amiga Technologies - http://www.amiga.de/ ESCOM - http://www.escom.de/ As of writing these are both in German only. Strangely enough the Amiga Technologies page is also available as Amiga Technologies - http://www.amiga-tech.de/ and Amiga Technologies - http://www.amiga-tech.com/ but not Amiga Technologies - http://www.amiga.com/ also this is of interest Virtual Products - http://www.virtual-products.de/ Also this month a new computer was launched called the BeBox, by a company called Be Incorporated. Aparently the company is headed by some guy who was kicked off the board of Apple a few years back. A very very vague rumour has it that AT people had a few words with Be. Anyway this certainly looks like it might be an interesting machine so check it out for yourself at: http://www.be.com/TechInfo/TechIntro.html For those of you into bagging Mr. Bill, spend some time running through the voluminous material collected here: http://www.micros0ft.com/ And finally there is a new registration point. You can now register with the IAS using the form as follows IAS-Register - http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/IAS/Register.html New version of NetBSD ===================== A new version of NetBSD, the popular multiplatform UNIX operating system that runs on Amigas should be available by November 17th. Beta copies should be available before that. Since it's previous release v1.0 in October 1994 or thereabouts, NetBSD has been known as quite a stable operating system, rivalling several popular commercial systems. If I was to write as much hype as the marketing departments of the companies releasing competing operating systems I might just say that it will be the most advanced operating system to never make it to the market. Rumour says that the NetBSD core development team, by all accounts a group of volunteers have been talking to several high profile rock groups about using their songs in NetBSD promotional material. An unnamed source on the NetBSD core team said "This should be the most significant move by an operating system group ever made. This will revolutionise the marketing of computer based products." The new version will be called v1.1. Talk has it that version v1.2 will be out two months later to fix several bugs found in alpha testing. Said one alpha tester "At least we didn't have to pay for the priveledge of testing the product." The product is totally free and can be found on the following sites. There are also numerous newsgroups, mailing lists and support sites available. NetBSD Web site - http://www.netbsd.org/ NetBSD FTP site - ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/ {========================================================================} { The Quest for Material } {========================================================================} Presentations & Demonstrations ============================== Have you ever tried to organise demonstrations for usergroup meetings? Then you will know that this is very difficult. You can demonstrate maybe a few pieces of software or borrow some hardware from the local dealer and give it a go, but it takes a lot of time & energy. What if you could get hold of tried and tested presentations from the network? This would save you that trouble every month. And if you do a nice presentation, wouldn't it make you feel great if you knew that you were helping other Amiga usergroups around the world? John Paden, our webmaster is trying to set up an archive of presentations some of which may come from usergroups, some may be multimedia demos for shop windows, some may be arranged by a hardware or software company trying to sell more of it's product. If you have such a setup, or any form of presentation then please make it available; send it to John and he can make it available on the website, or put a link to if there. As always you can contact John on dangermo@falcon.cc.ukans.edu Annual Amiga Awards (AAA) ========================= Another new idea that could help to generate a bit of excitement over the next few years is to have an Oscars type peer review award. The idea (attributed to Giorgio Gomelsky) is that we have an annual global presentation of a title (e.g. person who has done most for the Amiga in 1995) perhaps hosted on an IRC channel. Giorgio also suggested that the awards be named after Jay Miner. I guess that would make the full title "The Miner Annual Amiga Awards" or MAAA. The point is to encourage (literally to instill courage into) people to do things for the Amiga community. Perhaps the first award could be presented to Manfred Schmitt. Anyway we need an organising committee to set this idea up and to make it a success. I am going to start organising it but I don't really have the time or the energy to do it all. It sounds to me like it will be a big job. But what I will do is try to build a committee of dedicated people who like the idea and then we'll take it from there. So please if you do like the idea, get involved. I'm now going to present two lists. The first list is a list of ideas that need to be filled in. The second is a list of jobs that need to be filled on the organising committee. * Ideas List - Full & proper title - Date for the presentation ceremony (JM's death, birth of Amiga, purchase by ESCOM) - Method of holding presentation ceremony (IRC or what) - decisions by popular voting or judges (I suggest some categories of each, e.g. peer review in technical areas, popularity in others) - categories (best work for Amiga, best graphic, best modfile, best freeware/shareware program,best commercial SW,best commercial HW) - Person who has done most for the Amiga community in the year (auto. entry into the hall of fame) - A hall of fame * Committee positions - Committee chair - Judges/Returning Officers - event coordinator - host - publicity officer Collection of funny Amiga stories ================================= Over the years that I have been reading Amiga magazines and Amiga newsgroups and files I found on BBSs and exchanging email with other Amiga people I have heard literally hundreds of funny stories related to Amigas. Things like washing an Amiga in soap and water when it got muddy. Somebody related a tale once about taking an Amiga on the back of a motorbike, it fell off, and still worked. Anyway if you have a story of interest, funny, amusing, or just plain curious, please sent it to Johan Torin. Johan is collecting such anecdotes to make an interesting document for everybody to read. Johan Torin - IAS-Funny@ArtWorks.apana.org.au Johan promises to keep the anthology up to date in his web pages somewhere. You can find Johan's home page at Johan Torin - http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/~johan/ Material for the newsletter =========================== What is considered appropriate material for the newsletter? Well anything really, if you have a new product that you want announced, or a press release that you want to appear in here then just send it to the editor. In fact if you want to put your opinions or express your feelings or write a complete article send it in. Any ideas welcome. {========================================================================} { Reader Mail } {========================================================================} {========================================================================} { Credits & Contribution } {========================================================================} Contributors (in no particular order) * James Burton To contribute material or comment on Diversity please feel free to contact the editor James Burton on James@Snark.apana.org.au P.O. Box 201 Kingsbury 3083, Victoria Australia Contacting the IAS coordinators The IAS coordinators are members who coordinate various functions that the IAS feels responsible for. They are available by mailing to the internet address IAS-Coordinators@ArtWorks.apana.org.au Adding web pages or modifying material in the web pages Contact John Paden (dangermo@falcon.cc.ukans.edu ) who is webmaster for the IAS. Subscribing to the members' mailing list We have set up a mailing list for the members of IAS. You can and should subscribe to the mailing list if you have an internet mailbox by sending a message to the address majordomo@ArtWorks.apana.org.au containing the lines as follows: subscribe ias [your email address] quit Availability of Diversity Diversity will be posted to the members' mailing list shortly after the HTML version has been completed each month, in plain text form. The HTML versions are always available at the address Diversity - http://Snark.apana.org.au/IAS/Diversity/ {========================================================================} { End of File 'November95.txt' } {========================================================================}