VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org

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OS/2 and USB site Updated

Hi

I have updated the OS/2 and USB site with some minors changes.

- Added a tip about the Labtec USB speakers by J ri Ivask
- USB Cameras area added
- Added a Tools area with a quick description of OS/2 USB Resource Manager.
- Added some USB printer models at the Printers Area with someone that are reported to work under OS/2.

plus:

- Added Scanners area, but itÆs empty right now. If you found an USB scanner that works under OS/2, let me know.
- USB Hubs area added, but empty for the moment.
- Added text navigation bar at the botton of the page.
- Added link to www.usbman.com

http://www.os2world.com/os2usb

Don't hesitate to send me info about USB stuff you have working under OS/2.

bye

From: Martin Iturbide martin@os2world.com

Impos/2 scanner driver updated

Impos/2 scanner driver actualized

Compart has released new scanner drivers for Impos/2

Agfa:

Studioscan II Si


Epson:

GT 5000 Flachbett SCSI

GT 5500 Flachbett SCSI

GT 6500 Flachbett SCSI

GT 8000 Flachbett SCSI

GT 8500 Flachbett SCSI

GT 9000 Flachbett SCSI

GT 9500 Flachbett SCSI


Escom

Power Scanner 3000

Power Scanner 6000


HP:

ScanJet Plus Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet IIp Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 3p Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet IIc Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet IIcx Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 3c Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 4c Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 4c/T Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 5p Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 6100c Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 6200c Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 6250c Flachbett SCSI mit ADF

ScanJet 6300c Flachbett SCSI

ScanJet 6350c Flachbett SCSI mit ADF


Fujitsu:

ScanPartner 600c

M3093GX

M3097DG

M3097DG (IPC)



Microtek:

ScanMaker II Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker II G Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker II XE Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker II HR Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker II SP Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker II SPX Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker III Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker 330 Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker 630 Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker E2 Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker E3 Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker E6 Flachbett SCSI

ScanMaker 35t+ Flachbett SCSI


Mustek:

MFS 6000 CX Flachbett SCSI

MFS 8000 CX Flachbett SCSI

MFS 12000 CX Flachbett SCSI


Canon:

DR - 3020 Einzug SCSI

DR - 5020 Einzug SCSI

DR - 5080C Einzug SCSI


Ricoh:

IS410 Flachbett SCSI A3 mit ADF

IS420 Flachbett SCSI A3 mit ADF


IBM:

2456 Image Scanner Flachbett SCSI A3 mit ADF


Bell+Howell:

5000FS Flachbett SCSI A3 mit ADF


C.T.S.:

LS500 Belegleser SCSI

LS505 Belegleser SCSI

http://www.compart.net/

BTW: you need an account for download and cookies must be enabled

Warpzilla status reportv

Just to give everyone an update on why there have been no nightly builds...

A new image library was dropped in a few weeks ago, and we just got it finally working properly today.

Unfortunately, today, some new pref code was dropped that caused us to change some linkage stuff, and we are not sure what the fallout is from that yet.

A lot of code is changing in Mozilla right now which is causing us to have to do a lot of catch up.

We hope to be in better shape in the next couple weeks.

We will be working very hard to produce a 0.9 milestone.

Mike Kaply
IBM

Moderator note: For more on Warpzilla The freeware port of the Netscape 6/Mozilla browser - http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/

ODIN Announcement: Weekly builds

Hi.

As many of you have noticed we are changing the build pattern for Odin32.

Every Thursday a weekly build is uploaded to the ftp sites. The weekly build is only distributed as WarpIn packages. (Like it or not!) If there are build problems the build might be delayed, but it will get there as soon as we've solve the problems.
The users should use the weekly builds.

W e w a n t b u g r e p o r t s o n w e e k l y b u i l d s. (Got it?)

The weekly builds are found at:
ftp://ftp.os2.org/odin/Weekly/
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/odin/Weekly/

----

The other days we will upload .zip packages to the ftp sites. These are only for testing bugfix(es) you _know_ have been done after the latest weekly build. Read the ChangeLog _before_ downloading a daily .ZIP build. The ChangeLog is found in the same directory as the daily zip files.

The daily builds are found at:
ftp://ftp.os2.org/odin/daily/
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/odin/Daily/
ftp://ktaskmgr.sourceforge.net/pub/ktaskmgr/daily/

----

To the developers:

Be very careful testing anything you commit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We don't want build breakers and non-functioning 'Weeklies'.

Kind Regards,
knut

PS. Yes, bugzilla is coming sooooon! Then problem is that some of us have just much to do right now. Please be patient.

Scigraphica 0.6.3

Scigraphica for XFree86/2 0.6.3 is now available. Thanks goes to Christain Hennecke, who asked for the new version...

Scigraphica is extremely powerful chart building application, it it very much usable in OS/2 too because it generates Postscript files on output which later can be printed directly or through GhostScript.

Homepage of project is: http://scigraphica.sourceforge.net

Get it from ftp://ftp.os2.ru/incoming/scigraphica063.zip

Bye!

Airline and car rental discounts for Warpstock 2001

The Warpstock Committee has made arrangements for airline and car rental discounts for Warpstock attendees. If you are going to fly to Warpstock or rent a car in Toronto, these discounts from Air Canada and Avis Rent A Car could save you money.

Discounts for flights with Air Canada are as high as 35%, depending on the type of ticket, although most flights will qualify for discounts between 5% and 15%. Call Air Canada at 800-361-7585 or 514-393-9494 and mention "convention number" CV674086 to the travel agent, who will then work with you to determine the best schedule and rates for you. If you do purchase a ticket from Air Canada, make sure the convention number appears on it.

For care rentals, Avis Rent A Car is offering rates as low as $33 CAN/day. To obtain these rates, contact Avis and mention the Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number J868909. Please note that attendees who stay at the official Warpstock 2001 hotel (the Holiday Inn Select Toronto Airport) will probably not need a vehicle, since the hotel provides a free shuttle bus from the airport, and the conference will be held inside the hotel itself.

The Warpstock Committee hopes that these discounts will make Warpstock 2001 even more affordable for all OS/2 users coming to Toronto. Considering the favorable exchange rate and the opportunity to visit Canada, everyone should be attending Warpstock 2001!

The 5th annual Warpstock conference will be held October 6-8, 2001, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is produced by Warpstock, Inc., a North Carolina non-profit corporation. The Warpstock annual conference is a gathering of OS/2 users, developers, and vendors from around the world for the purpose of education and advocacy. More information is available at the Warpstock 2001 web site: http://www.warpstock.org or its mirror site: http://www.ibmforum.com/warpstock/

http://www.warpstock.org/2001/location/travel_info.html

RexxMail -- the sequel.

News about RexxMail:

RexxMail has been updated with built-in POP3 and SMTP services, so users are no longer dependent on external programs (e.g. sendmail) to handle mail transmission. This makes installation and configuration of the program a lot easier. Of course, RexxMail still offers capabilities for handling mail transmission through external programs for those who prefer to do so.

The updated RexxMail also includes a mailing list feature with the option of sending personalized messages.

RexxMail is an object-oriented e-mail client written in REXX that makes full use of the extensive range of facilities offered by the OS/2 Workplace Shell (WPS). The RexxMail user interface uses only standard WPS components (folders, file and program objects, etc.). RexxMail mail message objects are separate, plain text, files that can be used anywhere on the WPS desktop. You can use your favourite editor to compose and read mail messages, and since both incoming and outgoing attachments (including HTML content) are presented as standard WPS objects, you can also use your favourite software to process these.

The program takes up very limited system resources (the RexxComm-stripped RexxMail code weighs in at a puny 88 kB), and only when performing specific tasks such as sending, collecting, and processing e-mail message files. For all other tasks, it relies on the unequalled object-oriented data handling environment of the WPS. In addition, RexxMail offers an easy command-line interface for all its functions.

RexxMail features a multi-user configuration as well as a wide range of individual user options, including:
- choice of text reader for incoming messages; - choice of text editor for outgoing messages; - preprocessing of incoming attachments (e.g. virus scan); - preprocessing of outgoing attachments (e.g. data compression); - preselection of header entries to show for incoming messages; - preconfigurable message object title content; - send message text as quoted-printable or (word-wrapped) ASCII; - send selected messages or all messages as ASCII text; - intelligent 8-bit (PC850) to 7-bit (ASCII) text conversion; - conversion to 8.3 filenames for selected filename extensions; - full error and message traffic logging; - RFC to ISO-sorted date conversion; - choice of message icon stationery colours.

The updated version of RexxMail will be available after the weekend from: http://www.degeus.com/rexx

RexxMail is released under the terms of the GNU license, see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Regards,

Marcus de Geus
--
marcus@degeus.com
http://www.degeus.com

PM123 1.1 beta 4 is now available for download:

zip:
http://sektori.com/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
ftp://sektori.com/pub/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip

WarpIN Installer:
http://sektori.com/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi
ftp://sektori.com/pub/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi
ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi

More information is available at:
http://sektori.com/pm123/
http://www.cam.org/~guardia/pm123.html

What's new!

- Fixed crash when using "add" pipe command.
- Load Plug-in file dialog showed "pm123.exe*.dll" instead of "*.dll"
- Path with no trailing backslash would not work with wavout.dll
- I hope I fixed all crash in os2audio.dll ...
- Fixed a few minor bugs in playlist playback and reduced delays
- Added "don't make PM123 wait on buffer" in os2audio settings. Makes for less delays between songs in playlist, but synchronization is all screwed up... use at your own risk. Might be improved in the future if I come up with any magic ideas.
- Timing problem with "*status" return values from \\PIPE\PM123 fixed!
- "*status" would only work when a song is playing.
- Fix crash and other problems when moving entries in playlist.
- Added support for WM_CHANGEBR to update the bitrate display in real-time to reflect the current bitrate of VBR MP3s.
- Manual updated thanks to Filip Molcan <molcanf@seznam.cz>
- Filenames longer than 100 characters can now be loaded properly.
- Fixed a bug in playlist recursive add where PM123 would not read some directories at all (giving errors like "can't read x:\dir1\dir1")
- Increased stack size to prevent crash in DOSCALL1.DLL during recursive add.

mpg123.dll
==========

- Fixed some non-MP3 files being recognized as MP3.
- Fixed more floating point crashes (any left?) due to corrupted MP3.
- Fixed a buffer overload crash that would sometimes happen.
- Added support for WM_CHANGEBR
- Enhanced MP3 detection mechanism. Once more less non-MP3 are identified as MP3 files..

Groups wishing to host Warpstock 2002 should indiciate their intent to bid by sending an email to bids@warpstock.org by June 1, 2001. The email should include the location (i.e. which city), the names of the individuals involved (they would then become the Event Team), and any other information available at that time (e.g. possible locations for the conference).

After submitting the bid intent, the group should work on submitting a completed bid form by August 15, 2001. The bid form, and all other relevant information, can be found at http://www.warpstock.org/2002/bid_form.html, in RTF, PDF, and WordPro formats. Any questions should also be directed to bids@warpstock.org.

Attendees and conference planners will have a full year to prepare for the next conference. For planners, this time frame could even allow them to select otherwise unavailable sites that need significant advanced reservation. But most importantly, announcing at each conference the dates and location of the following conference will demonstrate that the annual Warpstock Conferences are a well-planned, ongoing tradition, and not haphazard events that get cobbled together six months in advance.

The 5th annual Warpstock conference will be held October 6-8, 2001, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is produced by Warpstock, Inc., a North Carolina non-profit corporation. The Warpstock annual conference is a gathering of OS/2 users, developers, and vendors from around the world for the purpose of education and advocacy. More information is available at the Warpstock 2001 web site: http://www.warpstock.org or its mirror site: http://www.ibmforum.com/warpstock/

Board of Directors
Warpstock, Inc.

http://www.warpstock.org

Shisen Sho 1.03

Daniel Valot, developerof the the well-known and must have Dsk4pm and other quite useful utilities, has ported his Shisen Sho Game from Windows to OS/2

The Shisen Sho software is not shareware nor freeware. You can only get it from Daniel F. Valot. You do not have to pay anything for Shisen version 1.03

Merci Daniel :-)

http://dvalot.free.fr/games.htm

Updates at PillarSoft

The SFX Installer, KidStreet, the Enhanced E and the PillarSoft Suite have been updated.

The SFX Installer marries the installation tool for your software and it's own setup tools into one friendly package for point and click installation setups that are personalized for your software. SFX allows you to build an archive in standard or self-extracting format, with or without the installer.

Although the installer is distributed as shareware through BMT Micro ( http://www.bmtmicro.com ), we invite freeware authors to use the installer free of charge as a small token of appreciation for their selfless work. Please read the license for more details.

KidStreet is an educational program for youngsters. Your kids may even have fun while honing their typing, spelling and math skills. KidStreet is in more of a test market phase at this time and is not for sale. Registered users of the PillarSoft Suite may consider it to be another component of the suite and use it indefinately.

More information and downloads are available at:

SFX Installer: http://www.pillarsoft.net/sfx.html

KidStreet: http://www.pillarsoft.net/kidstreet.html

Enhanced E: http://www.pillarsoft.net/enhanced.html

PillarSoft Suite: http://www.pillarsoft.net/suite.html

The OS/2 Files updated

Christian Hennecke has updated his site "The OS/2 Files". Additions include an installation guide for the GIMP in both English and German languages and the long-promised German translation of Platon Fomichevs Enlightenment/2 User's Guide.

http://www.os2world.com/os2files/

From: Christian Hennecke christian.hennecke@os2voice.org

New SysInfo/2 ver. 0.8.7 with embeded PCI SCAN is ready!

New SysInfo/2 ver. 0.8.7 is published on

Hobbes and on SysInfo/2 project homepage.

Main changers are:

*** - Due to a kindly help from Joachim Benjamins new SyInfo/2 comes with new pictures!;

*** - PCI BIOS scaning algorithm is added. All information that it may finds it will dispaly on "Device tree" page;

*** - Memry Read&Write benchmark is added to "Memory" page;

*** - CPU/FPU Benchmark on the first page is normalized using test information from more than 15th different CPU test results. AMD Athlon results are looking very strange! But this is documented truth. ;-))

- Video detection algorithm is rewroted again. Some new info is added and code size is reduced;

- Some erorrs are corrected in multimedia detection algorithm. For now it will work more stable;

- On the first page some new info about local version specification was added to OS/2 version detection and FixPack level and KERNEL level detection algorithms;

- Also there - BIOS vendor detection algorithm was rewroted. Vendor identificators were adedd for thouse BIOS manufacters as Intel, Packard Bell, Insyde, Dell, etc.

*** - More over, more than 65% of all SysInfo/2 code were dramatically rewroted. I think that for now is is better to start againg beta testing phase, couse new SysInfo/2 is a really new product. ;-))

*** - All code references to Sibyl DataBase Engine were erased from SysInfo/2 code. Note: I do not use Sibyl DataBase Engine, but some Sibyl base classes were referenced to it. After removing thouse references total SysInfo/2 size and memory requirements were reduced greatly.

I am very interesting in your comments and bug reports. Thank you very much

http://os2.ru/projects/sysinfo/index.phtml.en
Hobbes: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=sysinfo087.zip
FTP-Search: http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/cgi-bin/search?query=sysinfo087.zip

OS/2 and USB New Site

Hi

I'm proud to announce my new site.

http://www.os2world.com/os2usb/

It's about USB devices I had tried under OS/2. I'm hoping to make this a bigger site and try to encourage device driver developer to make USB drivers for OS/2.

Of course that there is a lot more I want to put on the site. If you want to help me with tips, or telling me with devices are working under OS/2, don't hesitate on contacting me !!

bye !!

PD: My site is published in memorial of the "Ramones Lead Singer" - Joey Ramone - 1965-2001

http://www.os2world.com/os2usb/

From: Martin Iturbide martin@os2world.com

The latest build is out. The report of a hang exiting an OS/2 fullscreen session now seems to be a pmmerge issue. The procdump issue should be resolved. As always, Get the kernels on the internet at ftp://testcase.boulder.ibm.com/ps/fromibm/os2. DFxxx is the dump formatter stuff for this build. xxxD.zip are the debug kernels. Don't use them unless you know how to use the kernel debugger.
w4 kernels are for Warp 4/MCP
uni/smp kernels are for WSeB/ACP uni and smp installations

readme follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This contains fixes since xr_e002/xr_m015/mcp/acp. Important note: If you use the OS/2 SES facility, you need a new sesdd32.sys dated April 2001 or later to use this kernel. Also, a matching dump formatter (df_ret.exe), provided separately, is required, if you want to analyze a dump from this kernel. Finally, note that os2ldr is only required for the >64mb memory detection mentioned below.

New function:
1) Support for >64m memory using int15 func e820. Note, this support is enabled ONLY for Intel Pentium Pro or later, or non-Intel Pentium-class machines. This is done in an effort to prevent problems on older PCs.
2) The presence of \os2\boot\os2norev.$$$ suppresses the display of internal revision during boot.
3) Adding "EARLYMEMINIT=TRUE" to config.sys will allow device drivers, etc., access to the memory above 16mb early in boot. Previously, this was only available after DD and IFS init was completed. This has various implications when enabled:
a) AHA154X.ADD may do bad things to your system. Don't even askb
b) There may be some settings of HPFS386 cache that are incompatible.
4) Trap messages will now give the module name instead of the device name. For example, "Exception in module: CLOCK01" instead of "Exception in Device Driver: CLOCK$". ***change from 0220/0223: Traps in 32 bit code now show the modname, too
5) Systems with a 486SX chip running FP15 will function correctly. Note,
they will NOT work with ACP or (necessarily) on MCP.
6) SESDD32 will now work correctly (I hope) for both uni and smp

Bug Fixes:
Fixes from earlier "dated" kernels:
Fixed a trap 000d in w_OpenCreate (140:4dfd or so in uni/w4 krnls, don't have regs for SMP). This was a post mcp/acp regression
Fixed strange loader i/o problems specific to the 0111 kernel.
Fixed a bootup sys31xx problem specific to the 0123 kernel.
Fixed a problem that was (I think) specific to Janauary uni ~W4 kernels which resulted in odd ring 3 (maybe ring 0?) traps and hangs
Fixed some trap and other peculiar problems specific to the 0206 kernel. Those were the result of a build problem.
Fixed some trap and other problems specific to the 0220/0223 kernels
Fixed a regression from JR15038 that caused a trap in CWBBS.IFS and PCSFLR0.IFS (AS/400 shared folders access).
Fixed a regression in the 0330 kernel that messed up getting procdumps

Fixes to problems that exist in released code:
JR15494: Delayed response of Ctrl-C or Ctrl-S (pause) in os/2 windows
JR15405: (probably) DosQueryAsyncTimer fails on timecritical thread after mscount rolls over after 49.7 days of uptime
JR15030: TRAPDUMP QUERY doesn't show PD (needs a new trapdump.exe, too)
JR13335: Some VDMs won't run, complaining of too-long command lines
JR15194: XCOPY fails with SYS1186 or SYS1192 on (at least) MO drives
JR15038: Trap 8 in h_DeviceHelpDM running an app from a tcpbeui drive
JR15229: Files left open after ERROR_TOO_MANY_OPEN_FILES returned to app
PJ27700: SMP systems may get a trap 000e in _tkStopScan, particularly during a procdump operation.
PJ27676: Causes hangs on some systems running UNI or W4 kernels
PJ27554: Hang or (on allstrict) trap 3 on SMP (only) during beeps
PJ27678: SMP kernels could not be RIPL-booted. As part of this, there is a new config.sys parameter I13PAGES= available. Adding I13PAGES=1 to config.sys (note, no SET) reduces the memory usage of the mini VDM processes used by ibm1s506.add and the GRADD drivers. This becomes important in RIPL-boot situations. It may be helpful for UNI RIPL boot, as well.
PJ27677: SMP systems hang with multiple threads of same process entering a critical section (affects ADSM client)
PJ27757: Trap 000e running Theseus/4 (note, theseus4.exe may still end up with a sys3175, but at least the system doesn't crash).
PJ27736: Trap in _PLD_WriteReturnCode
PJ27777: Set BEGINLIBPATH= (in config.sys ONLY) may be ignored. Also, it would lead to a bogus copy of BEGINLIBPATH= in the environment.
PJ27821: Trap 000e in SchedNextRet2 on some APM-enabled machines

Following are rough instructions for applying the os2krnl fix: In the directory from which you boot (C:\ or d:\ or whatever), type these commands. Note that os2krnl should have come with this file.

1. attrib -r -s -h os2krnl
2. attrib -r -s -h os2ldr
3. copy os2krnl os2krnl.sav
4. copy os2ldr os2ldr.sav
5. copy \os2\system\trace\*.tdf \save (or wherever)
5. unzip -o xxx.zip
If you want, you can turn the os2krnl and os2ldr attributes back on, but it's not necessary to do so.

Trace files (*.tdf) have been included.

An os2krnl.sym file has been provided with this fix. Just save it somewhere (root directory or anywhere). It is only needed in case OS/2 service requests a standalone dump of your system in the future.

Please visit the IACT website soon to check out our brand new 24x7 technical report, "Solutions for e-mail: some lessons from REXX, BeOS and OS/2."

It takes a close look at how the system capabilities and design philosophies of OS/2 and BeOS can help netizens to send, receive and manage e-mail with built-in options not even available yet in other environments. As you yourself may know, both BeOS and OS/2 have been recognized as two of the most powerful and versatile operating systems. They both are object-oriented and highly compliant with open standards.

- But is it true that either of these operating systems has any built-in capabilities for performing important e-mail tasks?

- If yes, then how can users and programmers take advantage of these integrated features?

- Is there any possibility that the BeOS and OS/2 engineering philosophies, if not actual code, can be adopted elsewhere such as Windows and Linux?

- If enhanced e-mail functions are implemented in OS/2 through the REXX multiplatform programming language, then how could such a program be instructive for other environments?

The IACT 24x7 report searches for the answers to those interesting questions as well as to common e-mail problems in areas like security, privacy, compatibility and choice. As an example of an integrated solution, the report also introduces a new, innovative e-mail handler called RexxMail, released as OS/2 freeware under the GNU Public License and developed with the REXX multiplatform programming language.

Regardless of which operating system(s) you are using now, bookmark IACT's 24x7 Reports page at <http://www.iact.net/features/24x7.html> and check out the intriguing possibilities of RexxMail, BeOS and OS/2.

------------------------------------------------
International Alliance for Compatible Technology
http://www.iact.net/

more open standards, user choice and
free access to compatible technology

New home for Focus on OS/2 articles

Hello everyone,

Slightly more than two weeks have passed since I received the email from About informing me that Focus on OS/2 had been terminated. Since I knew it was against About's policy to forward email sent to a cancelled site or Guide, I published a note on the web explaining what had happened with the sole intention of preventing you my readers from drawing the wrong conclusion from the sudden disappearance of my site. I didn't want you to think that I had suddenly given up on you, or worse, that I had died.

I was completely unprepared for what happened next. I was flooded with email expressing appreciation for my site over the past three years and concern that the articles I had written would be lost; several were even concerned that the OS/2 world might lose me as a contributor.

As you might imagine, having a project in which you have invested 3 years of your life abrupted terminated and taken down has a powerful emotional impact. Your kindness during this time, as well as your support and desire to see my work continue has done a great deal to soften this blow. I thank each of you who has taken the time to write me from the bottom of my heart.

Now for my announcement.

Two editors contacted me within minutes of my publication of the "Farewell to Focus on OS/2" note. I am happy to report that I have reached mutually satisfactory arrangements with both editors and their respective publications to begin writing for them beginning in May. These publications are "VOICE Newsletter", published by VOICE, and "Extended Attributes", published by POSSI, the Phoenix OS/2 Society.

Initially, at least, I'll aim for an article in every issue of EA--in other words, every other month, and another article in every other issue of the VOICE Newsletter. Every article I write, regardless of where it gets published, will also go online in my personal web site, and hopefully also on Warp Doctor. (I'll be keeping the copyright of all my articles; in addition both Mark Dodel of the VOICE Newsletter and Esther Schindler of EA have generously given me express permission to keep them online.) More details on that later. These will be added to the Focus on OS/2 articles which I have already started uploading to my personal web site. (Eventually I want to accumulate a complete library of my articles online for the benefit of anyone who may find them useful. I've tentatively named this library, "Walter's OS/2 Treasury". I'll publish the URL for my personal web site copy after I've cleaned it up a bit more and created a front page for my articles.)

Finally, I wish I could respond positively to the many generous offers that were made. However, it quickly became clear that wasn't going to be possible. Let me just express my thanks once again to all who wrote me, and especially to those who found my contributions to the OS/2 community worth preserving, and were willing to devote some of their own valuable server resources to help make it happen. This has been a truly humbling experience.

Walter

..................................................
Walter Metcalf
email: walter.os2@home.com
OS/2 Lives On!
..................................................

Java scripts page looking for a home

I've posted my page at http://bbs.darktech.org/essence.html

The page targets end-users, using Java applications under OS/2 or eCS. The purpose of the page is to provide OS2/eCS specific scripts for Java applications so they run out-of-the-box. Furthermore, it will attempt to tackle common end-user problems.

The site is currently hosted on my home machine, which isn't always up. If anyone with good uptime is willing to host this site, please contact me.

http://bbs.darktech.org/essence.html

Gili Tzabari : l8r@email.com

Today (April 16 2001) Leif-Erik Larsen has released version 1.5 beta #3 of his popular GUI file manager and command processor, Larsen Commander.

Larsen Commander has a look and feel like the classic Norton Commander. It combines the very best of two very different worlds; - the command line and the file management panels. Both are available at the same time, and even in parallel while one or more commands are running in the background!

Larsen Commander is available at

http://home.online.no/~leifel/lcmd/index.html

Please also be aware of the open Larsen Commander discussion forum at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lcmd

This new beta release has a lot of fixes and improvements. Here you have some of them:
* New and smart dynamic buffering algorithm for file copy and move operation, making the progress dialog display more accurate information independent of the bandwidth. * Internal CD and PUSHD command now also accepts foreward slashes in directory names. (Unix-style slashes.) * Typing a drive letter in the drive selection dialog now activates that drive directly, without waiting for you to press enter. * The loading of filename items into file panels is much, much quicker. * Copy with shift+F5 and rename with shift+F6 now works again. * EA-names in EA-editor no longer shown with a corrupt prefix character. * Fixed some strange behaviour when copying and moving directories.

For a complete list of changes, fixes and improvements, take a look at

http://home.online.no/~leifel/lcmd/beta_history.html

http://home.online.no/~leifel/lcmd/index.html

From: Leif-Erik Larsen leifel@online.no

PMMail Update

Blueprint Software has - once again - updated PM-Mail to version 2.20.2300:

- HTML colors are now recognized by name.
- Corrected errors with the time stamp when being sent through a Qmail server.
- Corrected character set related issues involving the codepage US 437. - Changed memory calls to call for clear memory. This will improve stability of PMMail on some machines and correct some of the color related issues.

http://www.pmmail2000.com/betas/pmm220.exe

Unofficial release of version 0.70 of the SBLive drivers

I've uploaded a new version to http://www.xs4all.nl/~sandervl/sbliveos2.070.zip. It contains a fix for conflicts with the USB driver on some systems. The driver now fails to load if the USB driver was granted exclusive access to the interrupt the SBLive needs.

I've also added a new wave audio interface that is currently used by the latest Odin builds.

An official version will be released in the near future.

As always, let me know if there are any (new) problems with the release.

Sander

IDEDASD updated

IBM updated the IDEDASD package once again. According to the README file the date is Febr 15, 2001 but the IBM1S506.ADD driver dates March 14, 2001

It can be found on the OS/2 Driver Depository under

OS/2 component updates > Installation diskette updates >
Greater than 8.4 gig hardfile support

Direct URL here:

http://service5.boulder.ibm.com/2bcprod.nsf/186d96ebef23e6438625689c007ac1ef/647679d565c73e0f862565980068efb0?OpenDocument

PM123 1.1 beta 4 is now available for download:

zip:
http://sektori.com/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
ftp://sektori.com/pub/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip

ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/players/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip
http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/pm123-1_1-beta4.zip

WarpIN Installer:
http://sektori.com/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi
ftp://sektori.com/pub/pm123/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi

ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/players/pm123-1_1-beta4.wpi

More information is available at:

http://sektori.com/pm123/
http://www.cam.org/~guardia/pm123.html

What's new!

- Fixed crash when using "add" pipe command.
- Load Plug-in file dialog showed "pm123.exe*.dll" instead of "*.dll"
- Path with no trailing backslash would not work with wavout.dll
- I hope I fixed all crash in os2audio.dll ...
- Fixed a few minor bugs in playlist playback and reduced delays - Added "don't make PM123 wait on buffer" in os2audio settings. Makes for less delays between songs in playlist, but synchronization is all screwed up... use at your own risk. Might be improved in the future if I come up with any magic ideas.
- Timing problem with "*status" return values from \\PIPE\PM123 fixed!
- "*status" would only work when a song is playing.
- Fix crash and other problems when moving entries in playlist.
- Added support for WM_CHANGEBR to update the bitrate display in real-time
to reflect the current bitrate of VBR MP3s.
- Manual updated thanks to Filip Molcan
- Filenames longer than 100 characters can now be loaded properly.
- Fixed a bug in playlist recursive add where PM123 would not read some directories at all (giving errors like "can't read x:\dir1\dir1")
- Increased stack size to prevent crash in DOSCALL1.DLL during recursive add.

mpg123.dll
==========

- Fixed some non-MP3 files being recognized as MP3.
- Fixed more floating point crashes (any left?) due to corrupted MP3.
- Fixed a buffer overload crash that would sometimes happen.
- Added support for WM_CHANGEBR
- Enhanced MP3 detection mechanism. Once more less non-MP3 are identified
as MP3 files..

DTape Beta 6 released

Dtape is a OS/2 PM program which provides the facilities to record and replay digital audio directly to/from disk - a digital tape recorder. Features include peak level monitoring and unlimited .WAV file sizes (up to 4GB).

Also included are DPLAY and DRECORD, which are VIO programs for playing and recording digital audio.

http://home.clara.net/orac/os2.htm

The Enhanced E Editor has been updated to v2.2

We had a few teething pains with all the new features in the last major upgrade but seem to have most of them straightened out and have added quite a few more functions. This should be the end of the major changes for now and the next version will focus on minor tweeks and changes.

New features in v2.2 are:

 Added ClipText facility.
 Added ClipBoard viewer.
 Added file encryption.
 Added ReLoad file.
 Added ReName file.
 Added Delete file.
 Rework Ring editor layout.
 Added recovery facility.
 Added Text to Html conversion.
 Added "Load directory\*.*" to ring editor.
 Added bookmarks. (Mark a position in a file to return to)
 Added new font selections to "Report" printing method.

Take a peek at our website for more information on the Enhanced E's. The PillarSoft Suite has also been updated and can be downloaded from our website.

The Enhanced E is $25 and is available through BMT Micro, Mensys and others. The PillarSoft Suite contains this program plus 12 more OS/2 specific programs for only $99.

Downloads and more information:

PillarSoft:
http://www.pillarsoft.net

Enhanced E:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/enhanced.htm

PillarSoft Suite:
http://www.pillarsoft.net/suite.html

Phex: java-based gnutella client

Phex is a new cross-platform gnutella client based on the Furi code-base. Phex is a very useful/flexible/powerful gnutella client released and actively developed by Konrad Haenel:
http://www.konrad-haenel.de/phex/news.html

I have put together a package that includes Konrad's Phex class with a set of install/run REXX scripts.

Readme (link might not work):
http://63.196.159.162/html/phex2.html

I just uploaded the package to hobbes:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=phex

Cary
crenquis@pacbell.net