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I have compiled togeather some ideas for a second developer contest. Please take a moment and visit:

http://home1.gte.net/stefanj/idea.htm

and vote for the idea that you think would make the best contest.
What is it:

The MAMERun Developer Contests are designed to encourage freeware developers producing new OS/2 software.

The first successful contest, an enhaced joystick driver, ended in January and earned the winner nearly $400 in cash and prizes.

Sponsors are always greatly appreciated. More information on contest sponsorship can be found at:

http://home1.gte.net/stefanj/sponsor.htm

ISP800 is preparing to launch a major dialup expansion. We are seeking help from our OS/2 customers. A list of approximately 500 local exchange access numbers is now available to OS/2 users at http://isp800.com/os2/beta.htm. We request that this list be kept confidential within the OS/2 user community at this time. Please send all feedback to Jennifer@isp800.com.

These local access numbers may be used instead of the two toll free numbers. If you use these numbers, you may also continue to use the toll free numbers when you travel or when it is convenient to do so. There is no extra charge for use of the toll free numbers.

Nothing has changed about the toll free numbers. By offering local access numbers our users may get a faster connection time. The real benefit is that it will ease the burden on the 800 numbers.

ISP800 is a national Internet Services Provider with a significant number of OS/2 customers and a commitment to support OS/2 and other platforms of choice. More information may be found at:

http://isp800.com/os2

A new virus signatures refresh dated 10 feb 2000 for the IBM Antivirus/2 can be found at the Symantec site:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html

It may be 1 day after Valentine's Day, but it's never too late to woo your loved one with music! You can get that music off the internet, and play it from your OS/2 computer!

In our next meeting we will cover:

o Digital sound: terms, definitions, issues
o Making Content:

     how to record a .wav file
     how to compress a .wav file into a .mp3 file
     how to convert a cd-music track to a .wav file

Of course News and tidbits, and a Hedges Top Ten List!

Regards,
Roger Borrello
Atlanta OS/2 User's Group Secretary
Eddress: rfb@GoldenCode.com
http://www.goldencode.com/atlos2/atlos2.html

I found this in USENET. The poster doesn't identify his "source" by name, and I caution you to take it for what it's worth.

But it does sound promising, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it, here.

>Ok,
>From a previous post concerning UDF.IFS and DVD-RAM, i checked with my
>Software Choice contact at IBM and was told that UDF.IFS will release
>for the standard warp 4 "fat client" later this year!!

This is in reference to DVD Support in OS/2. Currently, it's only available from Software Choice, and only with a "Server Subscription" as it only works in WSeB.

If the plans by IBM to release a "Refreshed" client later this year pan out, that client will, according to Esther's story at Smart Reseller Magazine, be built on the WSeB Code Base, which would then allow the UDFS.IFS (DVD) File System to work with the Client Version.

I should also note that it probably will NOT include support for DVD Movies.

During the year 1999 as a beta tester I tested exhaustively Windows 2000 Professional, the workstation version of the operating system a.k.a. NT 5.0. Yesterday I upgraded my OS/2 Warp Client 4.0 to FP12 and TCPIP 4.1 (fixed) with Java 1.1.8 (the most recent runtime). For the first time since 1997, I reinstalled this OS/2 Client which runs 450 applications just fine. I expended 1 hour 45 minutes with this update. Finally I compared the performances of Win 2000 Pro and Warp 4 FP12 on the same machine, a Pentium 200 + 128MB RAM and I verified that Warp is much, much more efficient, quicker and has absolute stability. OS/2 Warp Client 4.0 FP12 surpasses Windows 2000 Pro.

I just started on my web site an extensive illustrated report about this upgrade and about this comparative test. Check it out at:

http://macarlo.com

Macarlo, ASP member

SCOUG's Ink Column Gives a Big Thumbs Up to PMView 2000.

Tony Butka, resident graphics guru of the Southern California OS/2 User Group (SCOUG), takes a first look at the new version of PMView. He deems it a real a winner.

http://www.scoug.com/os24u/ink.html

Ink is a monthly feature on the SCOUG web site that focuses on printing and scanning on OS/2.

Contacts: SCOUG Editor editor@scoug.com and Ink's author, Tony Butka Tony@scoug.com

ISP800, a national Internet Services Provider with a significant number of OS/2 customers, is conducting a "Thank You" Contest. The winner in the contest will receive a $500.00 online shopping spree at the site of his or her choice. The contest is open to ALL OS/2 users who are US residents.

"We went through a rough start-up with many of our OS/2 users," said Randy Perez, president of ISP800. "Now, things are running very well. We have increased our dialup capacity, added a backup access number (see Customer Support at http://isp800.com), and significantly expanded our customer support capabilities. You hung in there with us, taught us a thing or two, and we appreciate it. We also heard from many of our new non-OS/2 customers that they had heard about ISP800 from their OS/2 friends."

The contest is open to all OS/2 users. Details may be found under "Contacting Us" at:

http://isp800.com/os2

Our TCP/IP ISDN dialer will be enhanced to include security features like NAT, Masquerading, Fierewalling and IPSec. This will allow users to build secure networks over the Internet at a pricing level which can't be reached with any hardware router (the small ones don't support IPSec, mide-range ones do, but normally IPSec is a software upgrade you have to pay for).

We expect availability in Q2.

For information check:

http://www.cedros.com/ -> products -> webroute

or send me mail at mmi@cedros.com if you are interested in the security stuff.

Where do you get it?

You can download SciTech Display Doctor 7.0 for OS/2 BETA 18 from our ftp site using the following URL:

ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/beta/os2/sdd-os2-7.0.0-b18.exe

What is SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2?

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 brings SciTech's proven DOS and Windows device support technologies to the OS/2 Operating System. Although one of the core features of our DOS and Windows products is the support for the VESA VBE/Core standard, the OS/2 version has nothing at all to do with VESA services. Rather SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 incorporates the new SciTech Nucleus, Graphics Architecture device driver technology to bring SciTech's device support to the OS/2 platform.

SciTech Nucleus is a binary portable, OS neutral, device driver architecture. As binary portable drivers, SciTech can fully develop and test the core device drivers in the DOS and Windows environments, while being able to target any Intel x86 based OS as the runtime environment (such as OS/2). This essentially allows the OS/2 product to utilise the same SciTech binary device drivers as the DOS and Windows versions of the product, improving the quality and performance of the drivers for all supported operating systems.

Runtime Requirements

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 requires a version of OS/2 Warp 3 or OS/2 Warp 4 in order to run. More imporantly, it requires at least Warp 3 with fixpack 35, or Warp 4 with fixpack 5 installed. If you have a version with earlier fixpacks installed, SciTech Display Doctor will refuse to install.

List of all supported chips:

This is a complete list of the various graphics cards that this version of SciTech Display Doctor supports. Please note that this list refers to the actual chips being used, not a board-level implementation. Thus you will not see any products from Hercules or STB on the list, but their products are supported because they use S3, Cirrus, Tseng, etc. chips. Also, any card with less than 512KB of memory cannot be supported by SciTech Display Doctor.

. 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V
. 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3
. ATI Mach64 GX, Mach64 CX, Mach64 CT, Mach64 ET, Mach64 VT, 3D Rage
. ATI Mach64 VTB, 3D Rage II, 3D Rage II+, Mach64 VT4, 3D Rage IIC
. ATI 3D Rage Pro, 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility, Rage XL, Rage 128
. ATI Rage 128 Pro
. Alliance ProMotion 6422, ProMotion AT24, ProMotion AT25
. Alliance ProMotion AT3D
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, CL-GD5440, CL-GD5436, CL-GD5446, Laguna 5462
. Cirrus Logic Laguna 5464, Laguna 5465
. Cyrix Media GX, Media GXi, Media GXm
. InteGraphics CyberPro 2000, CyberPro 2010
. Intel i740, i740 PCI
. Macronix 86250, 86251
. Matrox MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II, MGA Mystique
. Matrox MGA Mystique 220, MGA-G100, MGA-G200, MGA-G400
. NVIDIA RIVA-128, RIVA-128ZX, RIVA-TNT, RIVA-TNT2, RIVA-TNT2 M64
. NVIDIA RIVA-TNT2 Vanta, RIVA-TNT2 Ultra
. Number Nine Imagine 128, Imagine 128 II, Ticket 2 Ride
. Number Nine Ticket 2 Ride IV
. Philips 9710, 9712
. Rendition Verite V1000, Verite V2200
. S3 Trio32, Trio64, Trio64V+, Trio64UV+, Trio64V2/DX, Aurora64V+
. S3 Virge, Virge/DX/GX, Virge/VX, Virge/GX2, Virge/MX, Trio3D
. S3 Trio3D/2X, Savage3D, Savage4, Savage2000
. SiS 6202, 6205, 6215, 5597/5598, 6326, 5595/530, 5595/620, 300
. Sigma Designs RealMagic 64 GX
. Trident TGUI9440, TGUI9440-R2, TGUI9660, TGUI9680, ProVidia 9682
. Trident ProVidia 9685, 3DImage 975, 3DImage 985, Blade 3D
. Tseng Labs ET6000, ET6100
. VESA VBE 1.2, VBE 2.0, VBE 3.0

Note that there are many more chipsets that will work with our existing legacy VBE/AF based drivers, that are not included in this list. For a complete list of all chipsets supported in our prior Windows and DOS products, please visit our web site. We are currently in the process of moving all our existing device support code to our new SciTech Nucleus device driver architecture. The above list only lists those drivers that have been converted, and we won't be supporting any chipsets not on the list until those drivers are properly converted.

Changes in this BETA:

. All changed are now tracked on the web. Public changes are tracked at the following URL:

http://www.scitechsoft.com/sdd2_changes.txt

This is to let everyone know that Build 3 of MIDI Station Sequencer Preview Edition is now available.

The changes to this build are as follows:

1) Added Channel Extract module - allows you to extract messages from one channel and move them to another and uses the filter to screen what gets moved.

2) Fixed a potential bug when loading MIDI files that use lyrics.

This is it before the 2.0 version goes gold. There are a few minor issues that have to be resolved including completing the documentation. I expect the final version will be ready on Monday, February 14th.

For those of you who don't know what MIDI Station Sequencer is -- its the most advanced MIDI/Audio sequencer available for OS/2 and it uses the RTMIDI (Real-Time MIDI Subsystem).

The URL for the product is:

http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/index.html

Christopher Hodges
Author of MIDI Station Sequencer

After an handful of delays, I've finally finished the January edition of WarpUP! Client.

It is shipping now!

The January Server version should be available within two weeks.

The January Server version should be available within two weeks.

Changes from the previous version:
- newer Java fixes (2/1/2000)
- TCP/IP 4.0 (Warp4 TCP/IP) fixpak
- TCP/IP 4.1 fixpak
- MPTS 5.12 fixpak (WR08425)
- various driver updates
- improvments to the WarpUP! engine.

Check out:

http://service.indelible-blue.com/warpup

for more information.

I ported rpm (Red Hat Package Manager) version 3.0.3 to OS/2. You can extract or install files from Linux CDROMs or Linux FTP sites. You can also make rpm packages for OS/2 users.

You can get a copy OS/2 ported rpm from:

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~vtgf3mpr/index-e.htm

I also ported dpkg (a low-level package manager for Debian GNU/Linux). It will be put in my page. If you'd like to use `dpkg' urgently, please e-mail me at:

SAWATAISHI Jun jsawa@attglobal.net

Cheba is a young programmer that has made several OS/2 and DOS freeware programs that you could find useful. Please visit:

http://cheba.darktech.org

for more information and his programs.

Regarding a recent WarpCast message:

http://www.os2ss.com/warpcast/wc4780.html

I had a brief look at the Russian pages describing the "VM/2 project":

http://www.baltics.ru/~andrew/

And I want to offer a bit of clarification:

1. In my understanding it is not a VM implementation under OS/2, (by VM I understand IBM Virtual Machine Operating System), but rather a project utilizing the concept of Virtual Machine to design the new operating system for 486 (and up) platform. The project plan assumes a possibility of using some of OS/2 components/ideas, like device drivers. So far, as I understand, the project is at the specifications definition stage.

2. There are OS/2 (and Linux) implementations of IBM's VM, like ESLI but are not freely available, like other S360/370/390 emulations for OS/2.

Lone Peak Automation is proud to announce the release of DP Show, a slide show and presentation tool with wireless remote control capabilities.

With DP Show you can create and edit slide shows and display the pictures original size or scale them to full screen.

Slide sequence can be controlled with the keyboard, mouse or using a wireless keychain controller with an X10 home automation interface.

With the wireless keychain controller, you won't have to reach for the computer to advance to the next slide. In fact, you can forward, reverse, stop and jump to slide remotely.

Find out more about DP Show at:

http://home.att.net/~ASchw/dpshow.html

Where do you get it?

You can download SciTech Display Doctor 7.0 for OS/2 BETA 17 from our ftp site using the following URL:

ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/beta/os2/sdd-os2-7.0.0-b17.exe

What is SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2?

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 brings SciTech's proven DOS and Windows device support technologies to the OS/2 Operating System. Although one of the core features of our DOS and Windows products is the support for the VESA VBE/Core standard, the OS/2 version has nothing at all to do with VESA services. Rather SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 incorporates the new SciTech Nucleus, Graphics Architecture device driver technology to bring SciTech's device support to the OS/2 platform.

SciTech Nucleus is a binary portable, OS neutral, device driver architecture. As binary portable drivers, SciTech can fully develop and test the core device drivers in the DOS and Windows environments, while being able to target any Intel x86 based OS as the runtime environment (such as OS/2). This essentially allows the OS/2 product to utilise the same SciTech binary device drivers as the DOS and Windows versions of the product, improving the quality and performance of the drivers for all supported operating systems.

Runtime Requirements

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 requires a version of OS/2 Warp 3 or OS/2 Warp 4 in order to run. More imporantly, it requires at least Warp 3 with fixpack 35, or Warp 4 with fixpack 5 installed. If you have a version with earlier fixpacks installed, SciTech Display Doctor will refuse to install.

List of all supported chips:

This is a complete list of the various graphics cards that this version of SciTech Display Doctor supports. Please note that this list refers to the actual chips being used, not a board-level implementation. Thus you will not see any products from Hercules or STB on the list, but their products are supported because they use S3, Cirrus, Tseng, etc. chips. Also, any card with less than 512KB of memory cannot be supported by SciTech Display Doctor.

. 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V
. 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3
. ATI Mach64 GX, Mach64 CX, Mach64 CT, Mach64 ET, Mach64 VT, 3D Rage
. ATI Mach64 VTB, 3D Rage II, 3D Rage II+, Mach64 VT4, 3D Rage IIC
. ATI 3D Rage Pro, 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility, Rage XL, Rage XC
. ATI Rage 128, Rage 128 Pro
. Alliance ProMotion 6422, ProMotion AT24, ProMotion AT25
. Alliance ProMotion AT3D
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, CL-GD5440, CL-GD5436, CL-GD5446
. Cirrus Logic Laguna 5462, Laguna 5464, Laguna 5465
. Cyrix Media GX, Media GXi, Media GXm
. IBM VGA Compatible
. InteGraphics IGA1680, IGA1682, IGA1683, CyberPro 2000
. InteGraphics CyberPro 2010
. Intel i740, i810, i810/DC100, i810e
. Macronix 86250, 86251
. Matrox MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II, MGA Mystique
. Matrox MGA Mystique 220, MGA-G100, MGA-G200, MGA-G400
. NVIDIA RIVA-128, RIVA-128ZX, RIVA-TNT, RIVA-TNT2, RIVA-TNT2 M64
. NVIDIA RIVA-TNT2 Vanta, RIVA-TNT2 Ultra
. Number Nine Imagine 128, Imagine 128 II, Imagine 128 II
. Number Nine Imagine 128 II, Ticket 2 Ride, Ticket 2 Ride
. Number Nine Ticket 2 Ride IV
. Philips 9710, 9712
. Rendition Verite V1000, Verite V2100/V2200
. S3 Vision 864, Vision 964, Vision 868, Vision 968, Trio32, Trio64
. S3 Trio64V+, Trio64UV+, Trio64V2/DX, Aurora64V+, Virge, Virge/DX/GX
. S3 Virge/VX, Virge/GX2, Virge/MX, Trio3D, Trio3D2x, Savage3D
. S3 Savage4
. SiS 6202, 6205, 6215, 5597/5598, 6326, 5595/530, 5595/620, 300
. Sigma Designs RealMagic 64 GX
. Trident TGUI9440, TGUI9440-R2, TGUI9660, TGUI9680, ProVidia 9682
. Trident ProVidia 9685, 3DImage 975, 3DImage 985, Blade 3D
. Tseng Labs ET6000
. VESA VBE 1.2, VBE 2.0, VBE 3.0

Note that there are many more chipsets that will work with our existing legacy VBE/AF based drivers, that are not included in this list. For a complete list of all chipsets supported in our prior Windows and DOS products, please visit our web site. We are currently in the process of moving all our existing device support code to our new SciTech Nucleus device driver architecture. The above list only lists those drivers that have been converted, and we won't be supporting any chipsets not on the list until those drivers are properly converted.

Changes in BETA 17:

. All changed are now tracked on the web. Public changes are tracked at the following URL:

http://www.scitechsoft.com/sdd2_changes.txt

This well-known enhancer adds new features to the OS/2 system like image movement in all windows by means of mouse and keyboard, frames and controls modified for OS/2 and Win-OS/2, Workplace Shell extension - the "Rooms around the Desktop", hot-keys definition for any OS/2 Warp version, various patches for OS/2, and much more. It is totally free... and now it is available in version 3.1.

You can download it from Hobbes, Relcom, Beit and Ghost FTP sites. The file name is Nice-os2-v31.zip.

Full URL for Hobbes:

http://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/Nice-os2-v31.zip

Eventually:

http://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/Nice-os2-v31.zip

Ghostview 2.76 beta, the PM front-end for Ghostscript 6.0 (also good for easy installing) has been released:

ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/ghostgum/beta/

We have added a couple of new skins for Data Shield and another new application for registered users of the PillarSoft Suite. We also have some upcoming plans that I know will excite at least a "few" users of WarpZip.

For Data Shield, we've added a rich Walnut skin and one called "Habu" (nickname for the SR-71 Blackbird). Habu was borne out of a sale to the Air Force and we wanted to do a skin that would be "fitting" in their environment. "Walnut" is... what can I say? It is a "very rich" looking interface. See them both at:

http://www.pillarsoft.net/dshieldshots.html

Registered users of the PillarSoft Suite may want to take a peek at the Suite pages for a new app that is now available to them as part of their previous purchase. (read: No extra charge!)

On the WarpZip front... I am finally working on the most requested feature for the program. Adding support for other archivers. No time frame is set yet as we are still researching all the archive formats and paring down a list of what will be included. Let us know if there is an important format that we may be missing. So far we are looking at rar, arj, and the gzip/tar formats, possibly others.

For more information on these updates and tools visit us at our web site:

http://www.pillarsoft.net

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Speakup with the WARPSTOCK TEAM Date : Wednesday, February 9, 2000 Time: 8:00PM EST (01:00GMT)

VOICE, in its continuing efforts to educate, is pleased to host a speakup with special guests from the WARPSTOCK Team. This event is scheduled on the WEBBnet! (irc.us.webbnet.org) So be sure to flip on over to #VOICE Wednesday night February 9, 2000 and Speakup with the Sundial Team.

A web interface can be found at:

http://www.webbnet.org/server.html

It's as easy as clicking on either one of two "Live Chat" circles.

VOICE invites EVERYONE to attend. Bop on over to the WEBBnet join #VOICE, take a little refuge from the ugly winter doldrums relax and enjoy an evening with VOICE members and the WARPSTOCK Team!

This is the first Warpstock2000 event since the location anopuncement last week. VOICE is sure you will want to take this opportunity to Speak-up with the folks that will make WARPSTOCK2000 a grand success!!

Should you need more information on using the webbnet and IRC, assistance is available 24/7 at:

http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html

Hookup and Speakup Wednesday February 9, 2000 8:00PM EST (01:00 GMT)

For more information about WARPSTOCK visit :

http://www.warpstock.org

For information about VOICE visit:

http://www.os2voice.org

A recent article in ZDNet publishes some rather exciting news about the future of the client version of OS/2:

For complete story, see:

http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/news/0,4538,2434120,00.html

IBM has on 27.1.2000 updated the OS/2 installation disks for their Thinkpad series of products. Naturally they can also be used for other systems:

http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/YAST-3MARH8.html

The patch released on RU/2 site forces Netscape Communicator to work at lower priority. This dramatically improves the behaviour of Communicator, as it does not hog the CPU on dialup connection or when using a proxy. You can get the patched DLL from our site:

http://www.os2.spb.ru/software/internet/netscape/pr3246.zip

or make it yourself in the following way:

1) unpack pr3246.dll with lxlite: lxlite /x pr3246.dll
2) using a hex editor, replace the following sequence:
FF00837D0C00xxxxC7450Cxx
to
FF00837D0C009090C7450C03

The authors of this patch are Dmitry Kubov (DTrue) and Leo F. Mironov.

NB! If you are using GRADD video drivers, patched Communicator can draw "trash" on your screen.

Christoph Wohlgemuth, the developer of cdrecord, has released cdcreator v.0.37 (dated February 6, 2000).

Cdcreator is a WPS integrated front-end for cdrecord:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/creator/creatormain.htm

IBM has released an update for Java 1.1.8, dated Feb. 7, 2000:

ftp://ncc.hursley.ibm.com/pub/java/fixes/os2/11/118/

A few weeks ago I send out a message explaining how John Gow is working on a generic WIN-OS/2 driver which will bring sound in WIN-OS/2 via almost any audio source. The only thing that is needed is a PDD (Physical Device Driver). If you have sound in native OS/2, you can hear your system sounds in OS/2 for instance, this driver will work (the change is at least very, very big). You can already download a version that brings wave in and wave out to OS/2. Midi support is also coming, however, there is a delay.

(For more info about how the driver works, go to the site, links are listed below).

The driver which you can now download works via DART. For wave support this is quite nice. But for MIDI in WIN-OS/2 sessions this is not a good solution. There are big timing problems on some sound cards, which gives very bad results (notes are not played at the right time!). Also MIDI IN is not supported by DART.

Quite a few people are asking, "why make this device driver?" Well to start with, your old 16 bit Windows 3.1 applications can now be heard under OS/2! Second, when WIN-OS/2 support is working (which will now take some time!), an effort will be made to get SoundBlaster 16 emulation going in OS/2 DOS sessions. This way your old DOS games can keep running, but with sound!

But why this delay? John is writing a device driver which will deliver the data to the sound driver directly, speeding things up a lot! To get MIDI support going, RTMIDI will be used. This means that the old driver base is rewritten and this takes some time.

For cards that don't support RTMIDI there is problem. In a beta that John only has MIDI via DART is included. This may be included in the driver to solve this problem. Its not a solution that will work in every case but it's better than nothing. It is however not certain that this option will be included.

John is very busy and for this reason we can't mention any dates. But in about 4 weeks we hope to begin a closed beta test of this new driver. It will included WAVE in and WAVE out. MIDI support is not certain, that may take some more time.

For more info, and the version that supports wave in wave out, look on:

http://home.wxs.nl/~rwklein

or

http://www.mensys.nl/rwklein/

You can also find a link where you can subscribe to the mailing list of this device driver.

I have ported the 3Dfx Voodoo1 Glide2 driver version 2.46 to OS/2. Included in the port is the driver (glide2x), test programs, and a demonstration application (donut). This is a 100% OS/2 native port.

Ports for Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 Glide2 drivers will follow soon.

Please visit:

http://www.guisoft-corp.com/3dfx

for more information and downloads.

Only 2 days after the Linux and Windows Versions Ghostscript (a Postscript Interpreter, also usable for producing PDF Files) 6.0 has been released for OS/2.

ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/aladdin/gs600/

The Russian Underground has released a patch to Netscape 4.61. I've tested it for several days, no problems, instead a better behaviour (clearing the cache doesn't block the system anymore).

http://www.os2.spb.ru/software/internet/netscape/index.html#461patch

Note that this page is in Russian.

I have a new port of PGP for OS/2 (version 6.5.1).

I have everything working but this port still needs some polish before I make a public release. I will make available pre-release copies of this port to developers who have PGP integrated into their programs. This will allow developers to begin work updating their programs before I make a public release.

I will make another announcement when a public release is available.

Please note: I HAVE NO PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

For more info on PGP, including older versions of PGP for OS/2, see:

http://www.openpgp.net

DTSaver is a REXX script I've been using for a while to automate the saving of my OS2*.ini files, Config.sys, and Desktop structure at start-up. This is nothing complex, but maybe others will find it useful too.

DTSaver uses Zip.exe (Info-Zip). Otherwise, it is a plain REXX script that will run on any OS/2 with REXX support installed.

DTSaver saves all back-up files in discrete archives with a number appended. If you use it at boot, it will effectively show how many times you booted on day n.

You can set the number of back-ups to accumulate before purging. You can set the number of files to purge as well.

DTSaver also creates a cumulative report file that shows the file attributes for the OS2*.ini and Config.sys. You can use this report to track the sizes of these files. Your investments may be shrinking... Watch your Os2.ini grow!

I've uploaded DTSaver to Hobbes. You can also pluck it from

http://www.cyberus.ca/~muses9