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IBM has released the UDF (Universal Disk Format) file system for reading DVD-Drives.
Unfortunately it is only available for subscribers of software choice:
English:
http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm
German:
http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/de_de/catalog.htm
The UDF (Universal Disk Format) file system is a widely-accepted standard that
provides high-capacity data storage and retrieval capability for DVD media as well
as compatibility with existing CD-ROM media. OS/2 Warp Server for e-business presents
this new support through common and consistent interfaces such as CHKDSK, FORMAT,
and the OS/2 file I/O APIs.
Many people have asked what is going on with SciTech Display Doctor. This week
Kendall Bennett wrote in the SciTech Newsgroup why there are no new betas available
to the public at the moment.
If you don't know SDD/2, this will be *the* solution to all display device driver
problems on OS/2. Check:
------
Actually B14 has already been sent to IBM, and B15 is nearly ready. I am hoping
we can get B15 ready for general release also, but I can't promise anything. Our
internal releases to IBM get sent our on regular (usually weekly) basis, and we
don't have the resources to handle weekly drops of the end user version at the moment.
The most important thing we have to concentrate on is fulfilling our IBM contract
at this particular juncture.
We are also doing agressive internal testing, both at IBM and internally here.
Hence a lot of the problems people have been seeing should start to get cleared
up as we move forward.
So be patient, and you shall all be rewarded, as IBM requires the product to
work 100% on all supported hardware ;-)
Regards,
Kendall Bennett
------
There is also a discussion about OpenGL support, as you may know SGI released
the OpenGL source to the public (http://oss.sgi.com/).
This was one of the major problems regarding OpenGL and OS/2 because companies had
to pay for the license of OpenGL until now.
Again Kendall says:
-------
I think all 3D HW vendors have such licenses, or at least a sub-license via Microsoft
for Windows platforms. SGI obviously decided to Open Source this stuff because with
the development going on with Mesa, soon their license would be irrelevant for the
Linux platform. No doubt they realised that everyone is better off if we all concentrate
on one set of Open Source code as the foundation for cross platform OpenGL implementations.
> Now that the full source code is open, there should be no reason
> for IBM to withhold the DDK. Does anyone at SciTech or anywhere
> else have any information on this?
I will ask IBM about this, but this does change things somewhat. IBM already
told us that they were looking into how to get us the necessary information we needed
without an SGI license (since we were planning on using Mesa). We may now use SGI
sources instead of Mesa (or a combination of the two), and the stuff IBM owns (the
DDK bindings) should be more readily available.
Of course IBM legal may take months to digest all of this ;-)
We've just updated The Warped Site with a new review of Junk Spy, Sundial Systems'
latest junk mail buster program that keeps your inbox free from spam.
Visit our review section to read the article:
http://users.pandora.be/luc.vanbogaert/reviews/junkspy.htm
Links is a free text based WWW browser that is both very fast and very small
(~385KB). Unlike other OS/2 text based browsers, Links handles tables and is extremely
configurable including cache and character set settings. Beta version 0.82 is currently
available at:
http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/
Both OS/2 and Unix versions are available.
We are searching for beta testers for "CDPlayer for WarpCenter V2.0".
As the title implies, this is a CD Player intergrated in WarpCenter. It is email-ware,
req. Warp 4, REXX, and installed multimedia.
New in version 2.0
- the code is optimized - eject bug is fixed (for users of cdaudio02 or higher)
- graphical installation routine using SFX-installer
- a little REXX tool to back up and restore your WarpCenter trays AND
- intergrated display that indicates CD information
Please send mail to:
mail@subsys.de
with the following information:
- version of Warp
- version of REXX
- current resolution setting of your screen (for testing the display)
- short info about your audio devices (CDROM, sound card)
- your processor speed
There is another FileStar/2 update (v2.10.03) available at:
http://www.filestar.com/pages/download.html
This version contains a fix for the recent update (v2.10.02) that would fail
on startup if there was no existing INI file plus a couple of other minor things
that turned up in the interim.
FileStar/2 is an easy to use PM file manager with features for real power users
that want performance and flexibility.
The AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP) from Kaspersky Labs is now available in the UK
with full technical support. AVP for OS/2 is the only Anti-Virus product available
which has a fully functional on-access scanner, monitoring all file and disk activity.
Available in the UK from Oxford Solutions.
+44 (0)1844 210300
http://www.oxford-solutions.co.uk
sales@oxford-solutions.co.uk
For availability in the rest of the universe look up your local distributor at:
I've taken over the "old" "OS/2 sight", and I'm slowly rearranging
/ updating the pages. The site is available for storage and distribution of programs
that anyone has developed, at no cost. If someone has a page they would also like
to include, ie. on their program, OS/2 information, etc., they can also do this,
again at no cost.
I'm presently moving house, and aim to have the site finished towards mid February.
The site is accessed via a 128k ISDN line, with a fall-over mirrored server at my
office for maximum uptime. Anyone is welcome to contact me about adding pages and
programs, etc.
The site is purely for OS/2, and is a "free" project for the OS/2 community.
A one-stop site for the smaller OS/2 developers with something to give to, or say
to the OS/2 community, or simply to add a pointer to your site.
At present the url is:
I have yet to give it a more direct URL.
New freeware (beta) REXX library for audio editing (change volume, expand dynamic,
filtering, get info on RIFF wave file...) with sample.
http://www.geocities.com/katobleto
Seems that the Warpzilla team are going again. I believe the build can now be
done with either VAC++ 4.0 or gcc.
Some screenshots are here:
http://www.axess.com/users/sobotka/warpzilla/docs/Screenshots.html
Warpzilla is the planned OS/2 version of Netscape Navigator based on the opensource
code released by Netscape.
VMware Beta 2.0 with Support for OS/2 Guest is available:
http://www.vmware.com/support/linux/doc/beta_linux/index_os2.html
http://www.vmware.com/support/win/doc/beta_win/index_os2.html
Note: Support of OS/2 as a guest operating system in this release is experimental
and does not represent a commitment by VMware to deliver any future commercial versions
of its software supporting OS/2. This experimental functionality is being provided
in response to customer requests and in order for VMware to learn more about OS/2
technical and market requirements.
When browsing around on the web downloading many of the small utilities available
for OS2. It often turns out that many small utilies are located on free sites with
strange urls. My question if there's any need for another OS2-site that would host
OS2-developers for no charge.
Is there any sort of interest in this so-called free OS2 web hosting project?
Please send me an e-mail to:
with your suggestions and comments.
I'd like to announce the release of ServerConfig/2 v1.9
This is quite a major release, there have been lots of changes and updates on
nearly every part of ServerConfig/2. Read the history information for a complete
list!
Also adds support for the new Apache 1.3.11.
Soon to come: SSL support.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~dm898/soft.html
ServerConfig/2 is a PM configuration utility for Apache web server, the InetPowerServer/2
and the IBM TCP/IP Firewall! Also supports remote management for Apache (even unix).
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/24/NOS.idg/index.html
carries a survey on NOS'es (which do you prefer?). Sadly, OS/2 is not listed,
but you can vote for "Other", if you want.
The article itself is also about NOSes, so it might interest you.
An Alpha version of Retrocade for OS/2 is available for download.
Retrocade is a multi-arcade game emulator, similar to MAME. It supports fewer
games than MAME does (about 120 or so) but the emulation cores were designed for
SPEED! The "business" part of the code was written almost entirely in
assembly language and it shows!
In addition to the speed advantage over MAME, Retrocade offers a very attractive
and futuristic GUI of its own, making its overall package very impressive. If you're
a fan of MAME or a fan of old arcade games, give it a try!
The currently released version is *alpha* level code. Please be sure to read
the ReadMe.OS2 file before running it for the first time. It currently has graphics
and sound support, but lacks mouse and joystick support (which are coming soon).
I'm releasing this version to get early feedback, so feel free to contact me about
it.
Visit:
http://emuos2.vintagegaming.com
to download Retrocade for OS/2.
Zampa is, as you might know, a PM "front-end" for configuring the firewall
in TCP/IP versions 4.1 and above. This includes, but is not limited to, Warp Server
for e-business.
The basic interface is still about the same as in previous versions, but I've
added a "Wizard" which makes it MUCH easier for the average user without
much knowledge of firewalls to set up a simple configuration.
This is in particular what I need tested, together with the basic interface's
functionality. I know there are many bugs in the program, but I have lost oversight
over many of them, so there might still be bugs left from earlier versions. I need
all the feedback I can get in order to fix this.
The program home page is:
http://www.mo.himolde.no/~ltning/os2
Here you will find both a brief history of the project, the latest version for
download, and the readme file. I'm in the process of re-writing the readme file,
so currently it's not included in the ZIP archive.
PS: I'd appreciate if all download links would point to:
http://www.mo.himolde.no/cgi-bin/zampa
since I'm trying to keep track of how many users I have. It's no point continuing
the project if there's no users... So far it looks good, however, during the last
24 hours I've had about 150 downloads. I hope this number will rise.
The "Rexx Snippets and Code for OS/2 ~VisPro/Rexx" web pages have been
updated with an additional routine and an update.
The new snippet comes from Doug Rickman (easily our most prolific contributor)
and sets up generic routines for initialization and loading of ini files that can
be plugged into your program with just a bit of tweaking. The title to look for
once you are there is "Generic "Ini" Loading Routine".
We have also updated the "Get Boot Drive" routine to include the SysBootDrive
call if it is present and fall back to alternatives if it is not present.
The url is:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/rexx/rexx.html
or go to:
and choose "Rexx" from the menu.
As an aside:
If you have written and I haven't answered with my usual speed and "savoir-faire"
(OK, just joking) it is because the isp I have most of my email routed through is
having a mail server problem that they hope to have fixed (or exorcized) in the
next day or so. Please be patient and cross your fingers that it all gets here eventually.
If the problem persists or you need to contact me, I have redirected the wswanson@pillarsoft.net
wswanson@pillarsoft.net temporarily to another isp that I will check periodically.
Version 3.21 of Electronic Teller was updated this afternoon. This version is
an 'emergency' release, because a last-minute bug fix did not make it into version
3.20 uploaded yesterday.
Briefly, Electronic Teller is a native OS/2 financial management suite for home
users. It does not yet include investment account support, but will eventually.
For additional information on Electronic Teller, including screen shots and download
sites, visit:
http://members.home.net/phcaron
I've received many mails from people asking why the web pages at OS/2 Netlabs
are still out of date. I'm really sorry about this, actually my studies consume
much more time than I thought and because of this I can't invest as much time into
OS/2 Netlabs as I would like to. Beside this I will move to a new appartement at
the end of February so it will take a while until I've set up all my stuff again.
I hope you understand this.
The update *will* come, it's just a question of time.
You can find some more news at:
http://www.netlabs.org/news.html
Thanks
Adrian Gschwend
@ OS/2 Netlabs
As you may have realized the original GIMP/2 mailing list is not working anymore,
it looks like the domain name of the mail server we used is cancelled.
I've created a new mailing list at eGroups, you can subscribe to the list at:
http://www.egroups.com/group/gimp-os2/
If you have questions about the OS/2 port of GIMP you should ask them on this
list. Announcements about the OS/2 port will also be done on this list.
For those of you who still don't know GIMP: GIMP is a very powerful image manipulation
program originaly developed on Linux. It's very similar to Photoshop but it's free.
:-)
My web page has had a couple of updates, namely:
How to ftp through a firewall
and
How to use an NT domain home directory without getting a NET8191
More ideas are stumbling around my head, waiting to get out, but I'll be happy
to take suggestions.
http://www.haynes97.freeserve.co.uk/
CDRecord/2 V1.8a40 is ready for download:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/cdrecord/cdrecordmain.htm
CDRecord/2 is a port of a freeware CDRW/CDR burning software application for
*nix. CDRecord/2 is released as freeware under the GPL.
New with this release:
-Updated version of the cdcopy package
-Bug fixes. Cdda2wav now should work as intended
With InfoZip's update to version 2.3 of their "Zip" utility on the
9th of this month, we have had to make a few adjustments to acommodate the new version.
Programs that have been updated are DeskTop Backup (DTB), WarpZip and the SFX Installer.
The PillarSoft Suite distribution has also been refreshed with the updated programs
for those of you that would like to download them that way.
DeskTop Backup is a point and click interface to building self-extracting recovery
archives for your essential desktop information and configuration data. DTB will
suggest files to archive (if you ask nicely) and allow the user to add his own listings
by file, filter or directory. DTB also has a "Smart" AutoStart to keep
your backups current. DTB is only $15 and more information can be found at:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/dtb.html
The SFX Installer is the first widely distributed one file, self-extracting installer
available for OS/2. Archive setups are point and click and the setups can be saved
for future use. The SFX Installer's price point is $35 and information on it may
be found at:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/sfx.html
WarpZip is the latest in archive managment for OS/2. While zip files are the
main point of attack for WarpZip, it will also find and open OS/2 "packed"
files for viewing or extracting. The search mechanisms built into WarpZip for peering
into zip files are second to none. WarpZip is just $29 and information on this terrific
program is residing at:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/warpzip.html
The PillarSoft Suite is a fine collection of native OS/2 tools and utilities
from PillarSoft and is currently available under our introductory special pricing
($99). Further information on the PillarSoft Suite and what it includes is available
on our website at:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/suite.html
Stop in, poke around and see what is available. Our main gateway to the site
is:
dBase Info is freeware PM viewer for DBF files with basic functions (GOTO, FIND,
SUM, MAX, MIN, AVG). File can be converted into SDF, ASCII and HTM format.
Features:
- NLS: English, Croatian, German, Italian and Polish
- Translation tool: create your own Language support
- Output to file formats (SDF with PRG, ASCII text, HTM). You can select range (start
and end record), sort options (no sort, ascending or descending) in output file.
- Manual.
To download dBase Info 0.95, visit:
http://Goran_Ivankovic.tripod.com/
This small announcement is for everyone how doesn't know it yet.
I'm maintaining the GNOME/2 ~Enlightenment/2 pages at:
GNOME is a desktop environment for XFree86 base on the Gimp-Tool-Kit (for skins
see: gtk.themes.org), wich also means that the latest version of GIMP/2 (current
is 1.1.14) is also on this page. GNOME includes GAMES, Graphic browser, (HTML) editors,
etc. (and a lot more will come in the future).
And the best thing is everything is FREE (OpenSource). As those programs are
written by programmers from different platforms these programs are enhanced fast
an by the help of Platon Fomichev and Asbjorn Petterson the OS/2 version are always
up-to-date.
Enlightenment is a window manager that supports all features that are featured
by GNOME. Its look ~feel is customizable through dozens of skins (see e.thems.org).
And of course it's free (OpenSource), too.
Take a look at the screenshots:
http://birdy.hpage.net/g_shots.html
I developed some FTP/HTTP command line tools for my private use and decided to
share them with other OS/2 users. They are beta at the moment, but if I see any
interest in my work, I will improve them and add new features. They are all freeware
and open-source.
Tied together they can be used to easily download MP3 files from not-easy-to-get-in
servers. It uses AudioGalaxy to find the desired files and then tries to download
them until it gets the file from 1 server successfully. I provided a CMD file to
simplify the process.
The following tools are available:
getftp/gethttp: to download a ftp/http file
extracturl: extracts urls from a html file
autogetftp: tries to download files from a list of urls, until it was able to download
one successfully
htmlstrip: removes all tags from a html file.
All the tools need emx runtime. You can find more information or download the
files at:
A new Special Report has been posted at OS/2 Headquarters:
The article "OS/2 and the Real World" examines OS/2's superior technological
attributes, as well as the cultural and commercial aspects of OS/2's marketplace
position.
In addition, OS/2 Headquarters has been updated with the following changes:
* new taglines have been added to the Funnies Page
* new newspapers have been added to the Generic News Page
* the OS/2 FAQ Page has been updated.
The Apache Web Server v1.3.11 has just been released and I have uploaded a binary
for OS/2 to the Apache site, available at:
http://www.apache.org/dist/binaries/os2/
More information on this release can be found on the Apache Server home page
at:
http://www.apache.org/httpd.html