VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org
[Newsletter Index]
[Previous Page] [Next Page]
[News Index]

September 1999
editor@os2voice.org


August 21 Source: Steve Wendt (stevew@hartnell.cc.ca.us)

The fixpak for the 128-bit version of Netscape 4.04 has finally been released (8/19/99). This same page features WR08660, an SSL add-on for Aurora's TCP/IP.

http://www6.software.ibm.com/dl/cseccs/cseccs-p


August 21 Source: Steve Wendt (stevew@hartnell.cc.ca.us)

Version 1.3.9 of the most popular (by far) web server on the Internet, Apache, has been released. You can download the OS/2 version direct from Apache:

http://apache.org/dist/binaries/os2/


August 21 Source: Bryan Carter (gmezero@gamezero.com)

There is an interesting article over on 32BitsOnline.com where they discuss the idea of which is better, bringing OS/2 to UNIX, or the other way around. Not all that informative, but thought provoking atleast.

You can find it at:

http://www.32bitsonline.com/article.php3?file=issues/199908/os2unix/os2unix&page=1


August 21 Source: Ken Kinoshita (kinop@sakura.email.ne.jp)

Pretty Pop Software released The Wall 3.31, PopCD! 2.17 and Beat/2 2.01, today.

a. The Wall 3.31

The Wall changes background images and/or color at user-set intervals. You can configure each image file in such as *.BMP/*.GIF/*.JPG/*.TIF/ *.TGA/*.PCX/*.DIB in the Wall. Choose TILED, SIZED or NORMAL during configuration. The Wall writes an extended attribute for each and displays the .BMP as configured.

Update topics are...

Version 3.31 (21.Aug.99)
[New Function/Change Specifications]
a.Specification changed to be cheked the `Actual Individual Imange' parameters on context menu.
[Bug Fix]
a.Fixed the inconveniences of `File Synchronize' function.
b.Fixed the inconveniences occures when shutdown.

b. PopCD! 2.17

PopCD! is `Pop Up CD-ROM/Removable media/Audio CD Object' Utility. When you insert CD-ROM/Removable media/Audio CD, PopCD! creates its object on desktop and open/play. And PopCD! ejects CD-ROM/Removable Media/Audio CD when you drag and drop object into shredder.

Update topics are...

Version 2.17 (21.Aug.1999)
a.Add context menu on Tyny CD Player.
b.Fixed the inconveniences of CD Audio Device ID (could not use except for device 1). c.Also maitained other minor inconveniences.

c. Beat/2 2.01

Beat/2 is Swatch Beat, Internet Time Indicator. Beat is new unit of time means `No Time Zones' and `No Geographical Borders'. Beat is proposed by Swatch.

Update topics are...

Version 2.01 (21.Aug.1999)
a.Fixed the inconveniences occures when system shutdown.
b.Other minor parts are modified.

You can get a copy from...

Pretty Pop Music and Software
http://prettypop.tsx.org/


August 21 Source: Paul Davidson (davidson@lks.net)

A new internet site called HAM/2 for Amateur Radio Operators who use OS/2 has popped up. Located at http://www.lks.net/~davidson it has links to known Amateur Radio Resources that are either native OS/2, JAVA or OS/2 Friendly DOS and Windows programs

In addition, others who have information about OS/2 and Ham Radio are encouraged to contact the maintainer of the site at davidson@lks.net so that new information can be posted.

The site is new, small and hopefully useful.


August 21 Source: Mark Eckstein (mark.eckstein@usa.net)

There's a new release of DSTswitch available. DSTswitch 1.40, a utility that changes between daylight saving and standard time automatically, has got lots of new features and also some bug fixes:

You can download DSTswitch from these sites:

hobbes.nmsu.edu, search for dsts140.zip
ftp://ftp.leo.org/incoming/os2/dsts140.zip
ftp://os2serv.rz.fh-heilbronn.de/csw/dsts140.zip
ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com
http://www.GeoCities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/2372/download/dsts140.zip


August 21 Source: Bjarne Jensen (bj@fx.dk)

F/X Communications announced today the third public release of the high performance and industrial strength InJoy Firewall.

The InJoy Firewall is Y2K ready OS/2 software designed to provide affordable gateway and firewall capability to consumers, small businesses and large enterprises.

The InJoy Firewall runs on the computer with the Internet connection and with no reconfiguration of network applications the Firewall is easy to install and works transparently. The connection protected, can be of nearly any type, including xDSL, dedicated T1 circuits, Frame Relay and even satelite connections.

This version introduces support of the interoperable IPSec VPN standard, allowing OS/2 companies to easily create secure channels to other major vendors in the market or to other InJoy products.

IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) is an Internet standard for interconnected, secure networking devices and the predominant technology in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). It provides reliable and interoperable data exchange, ensuring confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of transmitted information.

The InJoy Firewall can serve as an ideal central site VPN solution, or it can be used as a VPN client, allowing remote workers to connect to the corporate network using secure tunnels over the Internet. The IPSec Plugin is fully IPSec compatible, and includes software-based 128-bit 3-DES cryptography.

The release of the InJoy Firewall with IPSec support is exciting news for enterprises seeking to provide secure connectivity for OS/2 branch offices, business partners, and traveling employees as well as data communications in the local area networks (intranet security).

More information:

http://www.fx.dk/firewall - InJoy Firewall home page.
http://www.fx.dk/ipsec - IPSec Plugin homepage.


August 21 Source: Andrew Alexeyenko (andrew@attik.transts.ru)

Today I ported mpg123 0.59r to OS/2.

Note: emx 0.9d fix02 runtime required.

You can download it from:

ftp://ftp.os2.spb.ru/incoming/mpg123-0.59r-os2a.zip

Original mpg123 distribution site is:

http://www-ti.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~hippm/mpg123.html


August 21 Source: Jocelyn Doire (jdoire@dlstestworks.com)

Sun is buying StarOffice, see:

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-40754,00.html?st.ne.lh..ni

They would be mostly interested by the thin version. The article does not mention OS/2.


August 21 Source: Brad Hubley (bhubley@home.com)

After seeing how many people are having trouble downloading the patches to bring SS up to 1.1.1 I thought folks might want to know what the problems were that have been fixed. That way you can decide whether or not you want to get the 8.5mb file.

Sorry about the formatting but I just copied and pasted the fix list from Lotus' website.

Brad

Dialog Editor (6)

SPR# JCLT43UU9Z, SPR# JCLT43UUJQ - Error: "Invalid Property Value" When Modal Dialog Returns Incorrect Output [Document#: 173181 ]

SPR# JCLT43UUSK - Error: "Invalid Property Value" When LostFocus Event is Raised Before the Control Loses Focus [Document#: 173193 ]

SPR# JCLT463RSZ - Dialog Box Retains Focus When a Modal Message Box Displays [Document#: 173195 ]

SPR# BDIN44JT42 - "Error in File LTSCT031.DLL" When Opening and Closing .MWP SmartMasters [Document#: 173216 ]

SPR# JCLT48PNHQ - ComboBox Not Working When Style is Set to DropDown List [Document#: 173215 ]

SPR# CCOE437QE2 -"SYS3175 System Error" Displays When Items Are Inserted Into a Sorted ListBox [Document#: 173138 ]

Word Pro (2)

SPR# BDIN43XKSJ - Contents in a Protected Frame Do Not Print Correctly [Document#: 173155 ]

SPR# PNON43WTDR - Pressing ESC or CTRL-ESC Halts Script [Document#: 173156 ]

Chart (4)

SPR# SGAO3ZJ9EA, PMCY48XJT6, CEN48XCZU, PEZ44YNMK, ZZHG46K9AF, ZZHG46GAYF, PEZ44YNMK, DOG46JART - Pie and Doughnut Chart Issues in SmartSuite for OS/2 Warp 4 Release 1.1[Document#: 169617 ]

SPR# ZZHG45N9CE - Duplicate Chart View Displays Transparent when Chart Type is Pie [Document#: 173150 ]

SPR# MLEY47EHTP - Chart Missing from the Chart Tab in Budget.12m [Document#: 173146 ]

SPR# JCUI42277D - Color in Chart Lost If Saved As an Excel File and Then Reopened - [Document#: 173218 ]

123 (1)

SPR# GTAR47ETRT, GTAR3Z9NAF - Extremely Slow Repaint or Refresh of Print Preview Using Large Spreadsheets [Document#: 171627 ]

Organizer (1)

SPR# PNON458Q6P, PNON458QLK- Year 2000 Readiness Status of Lotus Organizer [Document#: 170355 ], Filter For Y2K and Leap Year Date Does Not Work - [Document#: 173122 ]

Approach (13)

SPR# XKAG3WEC8N - Error Saving SmartMaster: "MEM_BAD_POINTER" [Document#: 173175 ]

SPR# HMNN44LR2Y - Error: "Unable to access file \lotusw4\approach\approach.exx" Exporting Data [Document#: 173187 ]

SPR# JWIR45KL27 - Error: "SYS3175 in LTSQRY01.DLL" after Entering the Wrong Password at the DB2 Logon [Document#: 173177 ]

SPR# BDIN45ZPZA - Print Preview of Portrait Report Displays Incorrect Column Layout [Document#: 173147 ]

SPR# BDIN462S5V - Default Printer not Highlighted in Print Window [Document#: 173151 ]

SPR# BDIN46JPNA - Error: "SYS3175 in Approach at address 00000000" After Modifying Column Headers [Document#: 173217 ]

SPR# BDIN46WPEP - Edited Column Headers Do Not Display in Browse Mode [Document#: 173194 ]

SPR# LZHG46866M - Currency Format on Numeric Field Displays Accented "u" Instead of Foreign Currency Symbols [Document#: 173191 ]

SPR# JWIR45TSG4 - Error: "SYS3175 in PMWINX.DLL" when Editing a Macro Created in a Previous Release [Document#: 173182 ]

SPR# JWIR462LF2 - Scrollbars Blink or Approach Crashes when Changing Views [Document#: 173183 ]

SPR# JWIR45NMFC - Changing Font of Some Text in Text Box Squeezes Remaining Text Together [Document#: 173184 ]

SPR# JWIR47MP33 - Error: "SYS3175 in APPROACH.EXE" When Trying To View a Customer Information Form [Document#: 173185 ]

SPR# BDIN45TKG9 - Numeric Fields Formatted as Currency Display Incorrect Data [Document#: 173221 ]


August 21 Source: Quinn Sinnott (dbmuqs@ars-grin.gov)

For those Oracle Developers who want to work in an OS/2 environment there is a ray of hope. Using the built in JavaScript capabilities of OS/2 Netscape and Warp's Java you can develop and run applications that access Oracle databases over the web. WebDB allows you to create and run queries, reports and input forms strictly using a Java enabled browser. While not as powerful at this point as its big brother Developer 2000 it has one big plus and that is: it works under OS/2!

I am currently using the NS 4.61 beta2 and java 1.1.8, NS 2.02 works but has some screen rendering problems and occasional JavaScript errors. WebDB and the Oracle database needs to run on a Solaris, *nix or NT box but developers and users need only a browser. You can download WebDB at http://technet.oracle.com/ after registering.

[WarpCast Moderator's note: I use WebDB with Navigator/2 2.02 to access Oracle 8 databases without any problems.]


August 21 Source: David Wei (davidwei@cybermail.net)

Greetings everyone, ThermoProtect V1.28 is offically released today.

First, I'd like to address some people's comment about the config file that ThermoProtect uses.

I personally don't see the config file as a burden but as a feature, it makes remote configuration much easier. It also allows several copies of ThermoProtect to do various things for you without having you to personally write some kind of script to organize the whole activity.

Well, some might say it is a lot of hassle to edit the config file. Well, to fix that, I've coded EnvSetup.exe, which makes editing the config file a SNAP. It doesn't get any easier. :) Now that it is easy to edit with a tool, it is also easy to config manually, unlike .ini based configs. :)

Now with that settled, let's go and check out the new features in this version.

*Now ThermoProtect allows you to modify the time delay that is inserted into the loop, from 1 second to 30 seconds, in millisecond resolution. :) I personally don't have much use for this, but some people might.

*EnvSetup.EXE was created to aid you in editing enviro.cfg, it would allow you to easily edit the Envrio.cfg file without worries of damaging it. Since I was trying to develop this program as fast as I could, some numerical and alphanumerical input are not completely idiot proof... So don't try to enter funny stuff in just yet. :)

@Some people complained about the pipe opening failure warnings showing up, so I removed them. Not a big change.

ThermoProtect is now available at:

http://www.pcenduser.com/ThermoProtect


August 20 Source: Walter Metcalf (os2.guide@about.com)

This week's edition of Focus on OS/2 is now online.

Topic: A Good OS/2 Thinkpad.
If you're looking for a no-hassle OS/2 compatible notebook at a decent price, IBM may have the answer.

The feature can be accessed at:

http://os2.about.com/library/weekly/mcurrent.htm

Many new links and news items have been added at:

http://os2.about.com/library/blnews.htm

The site now contains 988 links.


August 20 Source: Judy McDermott (bri@gt-online.com)

The Warpstock 99 Atlanta Event Team welcomes the addition of the Volunteer Coordinators for Warpstock 99.

Hasan Kamal and Luc Van Bogaert should be "knocking on your door" anytime now.

Hasan Kamal is local to Atlanta and is an active member of the Atlanta OS/2 Users Group. He's been busily working behind the scenes. The word is out now, Hasan!

Luc Van Bogaert is the Warpstock 99 webmaster "extraordinaire". Luc flew in from Belgium to attend Warpstock 98 in Chicago and will be attending this years Warpstock 99 in Atlanta. He is both webmaster and member of the management committee for the Belgian OS/2 User Group. The new coordinators would like to hear from you. Sign up today!

Visit http://www.warpstock.org/99/volunteer_form.html and contribute to the success of Warpstock 99.

See you at Warpstock 99 - Atlanta!


August 20 Source: Peter Skye (pskye@peterskye.com)

Seminar Schedule Posted For Warp Expo West

We've posted the newly updated Presentation Schedule for Warp Expo West.

There are seminars for everyone. Networks. Programming. Business. Multimedia. Java. Web sites. Printing. And of course, we'll be covering the new bright future for OS/2!

Take a peek and see what you'll be enjoying this coming September 18:

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/schedule.html

Warp Expo West is free. Click to the Registration page to let us know you're coming, then peruse the other pages to see what else is going on. Our Exhibitor and Vendor100 count is up to 70 and climbing, so you'll be enjoying that too. You'll be glad you joined us at Warp Expo West!

- - -

Warp Expo West will be held on September 18 near Disneyland in sunny Southern California. All the info is at

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest

Sponsored by The Southern California OS/2 User Group.


August 20 Source: Eric Bentley (eric_bentley@iname.com)

You can find the latest beta of the Lucent PCI soft modem driver at hobbes: /pub/incoming/ltm_554.zip

Eventualy, it should be located in: /pub/os2/system/drivers/modem

Feel free to send me any bug reports. Please use the word Lucent in the subject phrase.


August 19 Source: Detlef Schaebel (dschaebel@nordrhein.de)

The re-designed Warpstock Europa site is now online, you can directly reach the english version at:

http://www.warpstock.de/en/index.html

The german version can be found at:

http://www.warpstock.de/de/index.html

More translations are in progress.

Exhibitors who want to show their OS/2 stuff at Warpstock Europa can contact me (dschaebel@nordrhein.de).


August 19 Source: Craig Ballantyne (ballanty@guisoft-corp.com)

I have ported the Windows version of DOOM (WinDOOM) to OS/2. This version uses the DIVE API for graphics, and the MCI API for MIDI, Wave, and CD play. The source code is included.

Currently, it is at:

ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/os2doom.zip

but it will be moved to:

ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/games/doom/os2doom.zip


August 19 Source: Craig Ballantyne (bochs@guisoft-corp.com)

Bochs (pronounced "box") is a multiplatform 386+ emulator. It is capable of running Windows 95, Linux, Minix, ... in a virtual machine.

Bochs is available on many platforms including: OS/2, Linux, Minix, Solaris, BeOS, Win32, and Mac. Please vist http://www.bochs.com for more information. Note: This software is shareware.

The native OS/2 version supports the following:

The offical Bochs for OS/2 web site is located at http://www.guisoft-corp.com


August 19 Source: Peter Skye (pskye@peterskye.com)

60 Vendor100s and Exhibitors
Already Scheduled For Warp Expo West

We just keep growing. With just over a month until show date, we already have 60 Vendor100 and Exhibitor registrations.

The Vendor100s and Exhibitors will both be in our Exhibitor Hall. And then, we also have the four seminar rooms which will run constantly. Each seminar room will host 7 different lectures during the day -- that's a total of 28 different lectures you can choose from -- and there's even a big raffle at the end of the day with lots of prizes. And it's free! We love it!

Come visit us on September 18. We have maps and travel info on our web site so you can get here easily. There are inexpensive airlines (Southwest, America West) that may serve your city. We have several different airports which you can fly into, all listed on our travel page (we've heard the airfares are quite different depending on which airport you fly into, so check them all).

Here's our growing list of presentations:

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/presentations.html

and here's our travel page:

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/travel.html

and here's where you register:

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/registration.html

If you need some additional travel info, let us know. If you have a question, just ask.

We want you to join us on September 18. Four seminar rooms filled with OS/2 presentations, an Exhibitor hall with lots and lots of OS/2 products, a big free raffle with stacks of prizes. This is what you want an OS/2 show to be -- so come and enjoy it!

Admission is free -- come see us at Warp Expo West!

Sponsored by The Southern California OS/2 User Group.


August 19 Source: Hugh McCreery (maxvamp@hypermall.net)

The other day I posted a news flash that NVIDIA has posted OS-Neutral core drivers for three of their cards: RIVIA128, TNT, and TNT2.

I have recieved several emails informing me that the TNT and the TNT2 drivers already exist from NVIDIA.

This I realize, and I posted anyway with the following mindset.

1. Although there may be OS/2 drivers for a particular card, often they do not take full advantage of the card itself. Features are often missing such as hardware 3D acceleration, or other features. In the case of the TNT series, there is a Video capture feature that their OS/2 drivers do not even attempt to utilize.

2. Furthermore, Often, such is the case for Matrox and others, while there are drivers out there, the performance of these cards are far below the Windows counterparts because the manufacturer wanted to ' just make it work' Often this leaves room for improvement. Look at SciTech's driver package.

I am sorry for the confusion I may have caused, but I was under the belief that the (all) news flash(es) I submit can be of use to the community as a whole to better improve OS/2 and keep it #1 in many areas.


August 19 Source: Goran Ivankovic (goran_ivankovic@excite.com)

Traditional Chinese Language support for INI tools (an INI editor for binary OS/2 INI files with integrated tools to compare INI files and search multiple files for a string) is available.

To download Language support for INI tools (inilang1.zip), visit :

http://members.tripod.com/~Goran_Ivankovic/


August 19 Source: Oliver Poggensee (op@opweb.de)

The well known config.sys editor Tyra/2 and the Config.sys Documentation Project have become a new home. You can find them now at http://www.opweb.de/. The old address www.online.de/home/os2/ will be closed in the next weeks. Along with the address change I have added a few new entries to the Confiug.sys Documentation Project and a search function.


August 19 Source: Jad Mouracade (jadm@sympatico.ca)

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/windows/server/beta/hall/99Aug04.asp

An interview with the original designers of NT. This story is interesting, I think, in the way it illustrates the similar roots NT and OS/2 have.


August 19 Source: Khairil Yusof (mohd.k.yusof@bohm.anu.edu.au)

Lotus has packaged updated files (Dated 29th July) for Smartsuite 1.1 in one package for the various components. This is only for version 1.1 of Smarsuite. Since there are no instructions in the zip file, it's best to read the instructions at the Lotus site:

http://www.support.lotus.com/sims2/sims_or2.nsf/430bb6168e25dd69852566430080b767/c980c1bf48fa57fa852567af00646c04


August 19 Source: Stefan Milcke (Stefan.Milcke@t-online.de)

StHWMon 0.12 is out.

StHWMon is a computer health care kit. With the DLL you can monitor all values of your monitoring chip on your motherboard with REXX or with a self written C-Program. Also included is a GUI application that makes use of this DLL and gives you the possibility to shut down your computer and if it is APM-compatible to power of in case of failures. No config file with cryptic statements needed. No additional software needed. Just download and start it. Set all values and events in dialog boxes. This version is now freeware without a time limit !!!


August 19 Source: J. Dankoweit (jdankoweit@geocities.com)

For all who are waiting for SecureDesktop: The date for delivering SD is the 1st September. Due to some problems with registering objects to the WPS (I think there is a great bug) I need two weeks more to send out the GA. Orders are welcome via email

Sorry for the troubles.


August 19 Source: Helmut Goettl (Helmut.Goettl@gmx.net)

Dear VTeX users:

This is to bring your attention to the release of VTeX/2: a new free port of VTeX, this time to OS/2 Warp.

While we realize that this mailing list has been originally set up for the Linux port and most of you may not have much interest in OS/2, you may have friends who do: we will greatly appreciate if you spread the word and make local TeX user groups aware of this.

A few words about the new distribution:

The main credit for its creation goes to Walter Schmidt (WaS). Taco Hoekwater and Heiko Oberdiek also contributed to its creation; specifically in making sure that we can use the newest Hyperref with full/easy support for accented characters in the pdf outline. The newest Hyperref should also peacefully coexist with german.sty. The binary part of the new distribution is a port of VTeX 6.5 (currently one step ahead of Linux / Windows). Some of the new features are enhanced thumb support and full pdf form support. In addition, the backend code generator has been rewritten and should produce much tighter code now (especially for PStricks and similar packages). 6.5 also fully supports XYpic in PDF mode.

All of these features are coming into the Linux distribution as well; hopefully soon. Meanwhile, a beta of 6.5 for Linux _is available_: go to ftp://ftp.micropress-inc.com/pub/linux-test

to retrieve vtenlnx.gz, unpack it to replace "vtexlnx" and remake the formats. If you are in need for new hyperref and/or xypic support, you can borrow it from the OS/2 distribution for now.

Back to the subject: ftp://ftp.micropress-inc.com/pub/os2

is the place where you can find VTeX/2; make sure to read WaS' readme.eng (or readme.ger) first.

Support: this mailing list (which as far as i recall had almost no linux-specific questions).


August 19 Source: Darin McBride (dmcbride@tower.to.org)

RXSem 1.0 has been released, and is available both on Hobbes where it will eventually migrate to /pub/os2/dev/rexx, and on the author's homepage, http://tower.to.org/rexxsem.

RXSem is a well-documented REXX extention DLL providing nearly direct access to OS/2's native semaphores, both 16-bit and 32-bit mutex semaphores, and to 32-bit event semaphores. It has a few extras, including the ability to use DDE to Netscape (OpenNetscapeWindow), set the current window's title (RxWinSetTitle), query & set the process's priority (PriorityQuery/PrioritySet), find the process ID(s) of an executable (ProcessIDsOf), and even the ability to kill processes based on their process ID (KillProcess).

For more information, see the RXSem homepage, http://tower.to.org/rexxsem.


August 18 Source: Klaus Staedtler (stadt@ibm.net)

IBM has released today fixpak 11 in German

ftp://ftp.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4warp/german/xrgm011/


August 18 Source: Marty (mta3206@osfmail.isc.rit.edu)

MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. It allows you to play your favorite classic, and some not-so-classic video arcade games (from the 70's through the 90's) on your computer.

The OS/2 port of MAME has a new home page located on the same server as Dave's Video Game Classics (http://www.davesvgc.com). The new MAME site is located at http://emuos2.davesvgc.com.

This site will be kept up to date fairly frequently and reflects the status and progress made on the MAME for OS/2 project. Check the News and Rumors page often and feel free to send me some feedback on the new page.


August 17 Source: Dan Casey (dcasey@iquest.net)

I just found this post in usenet. I don't have an IDE drive, so I've never come across it, but if anyone has a system with IDE Hard DRives and have run into a problem with them after applying this Device Driver Fixpak (Warp 4 only), here's the workaround until a new drop of the IDE driver can be found:

From: Irv Spalten, IBM ....

We've located the problem with drives NOT coming up properly. 'New Feature' that went into IBM1S506.ADD to flush buffers more reliably during shutdown using C-A-D. Seems to cause some disks to SPIN DOWN and stay there. We do have a WORKAROUND (and we'll update the FP README.1ST file soon).

WORKAROUND

In CONFIG.SYS on the BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD line, please add " /!SHUTDOWN". This is known to fix the problem.

Feel FREE to post this anywhere, but I'd also like ANYONE who has to use this to send me a message (ispalten@us.ibm.com) detailing the hard drive manufacture, size, and model please.


August 16 Source: Graham Norris (graham_norris@candle.com)

Fortify version 1.4.4 is now available on OS/2. This is a maintenance release which adds support for the latest refresh of Netscape Communicator v4.04 (svc level 6, fixpack #1). You can download this version here: http://www.fortify.net/download_main.html


August 16 Source: Judy McDermott (bri@gt-online.com)

The Sheraton Gateway Hotel, the official Warpstock 99 hotel reports that the rooms are filling up quickly.

Take advantage of the "Special" Warpstock 99 discount TODAY!

Visit http://www.warpstock.org/99/location_info.html for complete details.

See you at Warpstock 99 - Atlanta!


August 16 Source: OS/2 Users Group of South Australia (lbunting@camtech.net.au)

Our August 26th meeting details:

WWW.OS2.ORG.AU upgrade.
Web Server meeting. Web group to demonstrate the new Web server running IBM Warp server for e-business, Lotus Domino Go Webserver, Hethmon e-mail FTP and IRC serving features, prior to installation to replace the current system.


August 16 Source: Klaus Staedtler (stadt@ibm.net)

PM Astronomy has been relaesed in version 1.10.

Free for private and scientific use

http://www.datacomm.ch/cobo/index.html


August 16 Source: David Wei (davidwei@cybermail.net)

Greetings everyone, ThermoProtect V1.27 is offically released today.

The main change in the program is the removal of the command line parameter processing code and replacing it with a config file based configuration system. The code is a lot simpler, and thus easier to maintain. Not to mention it also takes away several annoying bugs assoicated with the command line processing code.

The config file is 100% text, and very easy to understand for modify. I didn't go into the detail of the config file, as I believe the comment in the config file explains it quite nicely... :)

ThermoProtect is now available on: http://www.pcenduser.com/ThermoProtect

Please also follow the link to check out our business site at www.innovalue.com and take a look, that's all we ask. :)


August 16 Source: Hans Hockx (jcm.hockx@hccnet.nl)

Just a short note to let you know that -after 4 weeks of holiday- I've updated the OS/2 Switchboard again. All links were checked and several new links were added. Have a look at URL: http://home.worldonline.nl/~jhockx
August 16 Source: Adrian Gschwend (ktk@netlabs.org)

This weekend I got Beta 5 of SDD/2 working on my system. I did several testings and I would like to share my experience with you. BTW: I am using SDD/2 on an old system with a P133, 16MB RAM and a Matrox Mystique with 2MB Video Memory. I used the Matrox Driver until now and I was very disapointed about DIVE performance, I also had a lot of problems with the Matrox driver. Until now SDD/2 works just great, the system is stable until now (and I already did a lot of testings).

For sure the most interesting stuff to test is DIVE performance, I found some very nice DIVE applications for OS/2:

- SysBench, the ultimate Benchmark for OS/2 download it at http://warped.cswnet.com/Sysbench and try it before and after you installed SDD/2, you won't believe it :))

- MAME for OS/2, the great arcade emulator for OS/2. Actually I have some problems with it but I'm sure it will be much faster than without SDD/2. Maybe it works on your machine. Get the new release at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/emulator/mame-os235b11.zip

- At Hobbes I found HElliZER by Queue Members Group AD, a very cool demo which was 2nd place at Enlight'96. It is using DIVE and I was very surprised about the performance on my old machine!! Get it and enjoy it! URL: ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/multimedia/demos/hellizer.zip

- B.U.G.S., still the one and only 2D shoot'em up game for OS/2, I just love it. You can get a demoversion at http://www.stardock.com/products/bugs/, it runs very fast and without color problems with SDD/2. BTW: The game is very cheap so don't forget to register it :)

- Hexen/2, the port of Jostein Ullestad is using DIVE, I haven't tested it until now becuase I don't have any WAD-Files. But it should also be much faster than before. Get it at http://www.powerutilities.no/hexen2.html

- PUSaver, a cool ScreenSaver with some nice DIVE plugins (don't forget to download them separately). Get it at http://www.powerutilities.no/screensvr.html

- Koules/2, a very cool game. It's hard to describe, just try it! Freeware and available at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/games/action/koulesb3.zip

Upcoming ports which will be available soon:

- a new DOOM port based on the MGL Library for OS/2 (MGL Library is a SVGA library to do fullscreen programming on OS/2, get it at http://www.scitechsoft.com/dp_mgl.html)

- UAE/2 the OS/2 port of the well known Amiga Emulator. The port will be available at OS/2 Netlabs (http://www.netlabs.org) in the near future. The first version is using DIVE but the author will also provide a MGL version as soon as possible

- MAME for OS/2 will also be available in a MGL version as soon as the library is working without problems.

That's it, download the stuff and enjoy the great performance with SciTech DisplayDoctor for OS/2!

For all of you who don't know it yet: SDD/2 is a display driver for a lot of different chipsets. DIVE/EnDIVE support and a lot of other cool features are included in this package. You can get a trialversion at http://www.scitechsoft.com/.

And for sure a big THANK YOU to SciTech for the great work they are doing!


August 16 Source: Hugh McCreery (maxvamp@hypermall.net)

According to LINUXWORLD today, NVidia has released a OS-Core neutral drivers for the potential porting to other platforms.

These drivers cores include the RIVA128, TNT and TNT2.

More information can be found at http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8796.html


August 16 Source: Stan Sidlov (Stanley.Sidlov@Allfun.com)

From NotesNetAnnouncement for 8/14/99:

Domino/Notes 5.0.1 Beta (Mac/OS2)
Although we have shipped R5 Gold on most platforms, we are still in the beta cycle with these platforms: OS/2 and Macintosh. This download (http://www.notes.net/r5) is a refresh of the kits we posted in early May. We expect to release a QMU with support for OS/2 and Macintosh very soon.


August 16 Source: Tom Nadeau (os2headquarters@mindspring.com)

For the second time in less than a month, OS/2 Headquarters (http://www.os2hq.com/) has made arrangements with a Nashville, TN - based computer dealer to provide safe, reliable, 100% Microsoft-free computers. This time the vendor is Micom Systems, an established retailer in Nashville. Along with PC wholesaler Tech Ware Computers, who signed on with OS/2 Headquarters earlier this month, Micom Systems will provide a PC either with no hard drive, or with a blank hard drive, at the request of anyone purchasing a new computer. Micom Systems has been selling IBM-compatible systems since the early 1990's.

More details and contact information can be found at http://www.os2hq.com/ads/micom.htm.


August 16 Source: Timur Tabi (Timur_Tabi@Dell.com)

Every Monday, I'll be reporting on OS/2-related items for sale on http://www.ebay.com and the comp.os.os2.marketplace newsgroup. Even if you're not thinking about buying anything OS/2 related, you might find something that catches your interest.

Looks like Yahoo's auction website is getting more popular. Unfortunately, the signal to noise ratio is extremely low. Maybe they should be called "Yoyo! Auctions" instead.

On Yahoo! Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com/27743-category-leaf.html?&alocale=1us&acc=us) you'll see a very small listing of OS/2 software. You'll also see lots of listings for items that have nothing to do with OS/2. Besides various versions of OS/2 for sale, it looks like someone is STILL trying to sell his "Talk Thru for OS/2", which appears to be some kind of cross-platform terminal emulator (e.g. VT100)

On eBay, there are several copies of OS/2 2.x, Warp 3, Warp 4, and Lotus applications available for sale. There are also a number of OS/2 books available. One in particular that I've never heard of is "OS/2: A Business Perspective" by Dick Conklin. There's also an old issue of OS/2 Monthly.

In the software category, we have: Micrografx Draw for OS/2, Relish Organizer, IBM DualStor Tape Backup, Comm Manager/2, IBM InfoROM CD-ROM, and Drive Image 2.0.

For the collector, we have a ton of stuff: an OS/2 cotton jacket, a white polo shirt, about a dozen different lapel/hat pins from various sellers, a patch, and a key ring. This is definitely the week to stock up on OS/2 collectible items. I recommend you buy as many as you can and wear them to Warpstock.

For programmers, we have some Borland C++ books, Brief 3.1 for DOS and OS/2, a couple programming books, IBM C Set++, and an old IBM C/2 compiler (could be useful for device drivers).

On comp.os.os2.marketplace, we have: some free copies of OS/2 2.x and some old programming tools, and various versions of Warp 3 and Warp 4 for sale. There's also an announcement of a Wireless Data Kit for laptops from Extreme Computing. To find these items, I use the URL http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/qs.xp?ST=PS&QRY=&defaultOp=AND&DBS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=comp.os.os2.marketplace&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=date&maxhits=25

Those of you looking to sell your OS/2 related stuff, I strongly recommend you put it on eBay or Yahoo! Auctions and post an announcement on comp.os.os2.marketplace. If you include the word "OS/2" in the title of your description, I'll see it and include it in the next report.

If you're looking for OS/2 items on eBay, search on the phrase ("OS/2",OS2), including the parentheses. I use the URL http://search.ebay.com/cgi-bin/texis/ebay/results.html?maxrecordsPerPage=50&ht=1&query=%28


August 15 Source: Adrian Gschwend (ktk@netlabs.org)

SciTech Soft released Beta 5 of SDD/2. You can download the copy at ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/beta/os2/sdd-os2-7.0.0-b5.zip (about 3.5 megs).

Changes in BETA 5:

If you have problems with this release please report them to the newsserver at news.scitechsoft.com in the group scitech.display.doctor.os2.beta

If SDD/2 is crashing on your system you should try to post the information you find in popuplog.os2, this helps to find the errors in the beta.

SDD/2 is a display driver for OS/2 which will support almost every newer chipset in the final version. You can get a list of the features at http://www.scitechsoft.com


August 15 Source: Hugh McCreery (maxvamp@hypermall.net)

Mozillazine http://www.mozillazine.org/ (The e-zine for Mozilla news) has an OS survey asking "what operating system do you plan to run Mozilla on?" The selections include :
   Windows 2000    Amiga    Be    100% Pure JAVA

But OS/2 is left out. If you wish to inform mozillazine that OS/2 is not dead and buried, I suggest that a visit to the web site (with a response) would be helpful.

[Editor's Note: Below is a follow-up to this message]

August 15 Source: Christopher B. Wright (wrightc@dtcweb.com)

Chris Nelson of Mozillazine sent me the following concerning our report that Mozillazine ommitted OS/2 from a recent poll:

+-------------
There was a bit of confusion regarding the poll that occurred on MozillaZine recently. Many people got the impression that the poll was gathering information on readers' OS of choice. This was not in fact the case, but that impression was furthered by the poor wording of the poll and some of the choices in it.

The poll that apparently had OS/2 users upset was not a question about preferred Operating Systems, but about expectations regarding new Operating System revisions and platforms. OS/2 was not on the list, because from what I can tell there is no official new revision of OS/2 planned. Win98, 95, and Windows NT were not on the list either (but their new revisions, Windows "Millenium" and "2000" were). If I was considering all OS options, of course Win9x and WinNT would be on the list as well. If OS/2 had an official new revision planned (and I have seen no indication of that, only vague murmurs of the possibility of StarDock taking over consumer development of the OS), OS/2 would have made it onto the list, as well.

There is really no controversy, only misunderstanding from my inability to properly state the nature of the poll, and my inability to word it clearly. I did not intentionally ignore OS/2, just as I did not ignore Win9x and WinNT.

I hope this clears things up. I apologize for the poor wording of the poll, and will make an effort to avoid misunderstandings like this in the future.
+-------------


August 15 Source: Judy McDermott (bri@gt-online.com)

Time is "flying". ACT TODAY!

I'd like to remind everyone that Delta Airlines, the Official Airline for Warpstock 99, has provided us with significant discounts. Depending upon when you make your reservation, you will be eligible for a 5% to 15% discount on their flight fare.

Delta Airlines offers a bonus discount for tickets purchased 60 days or more prior to the departure date. That 60 day limit is just around the corner. So take advantage of the money saving discount today!

Details and reservation information available at http://www.warpstock.org.

I'm leaving on a jet plane....

See you in Atlanta!


August 15 Source: Judy McDermott (bri@gt-online.com)

OS/2 Extravaganza Early Registration Approaches

Pack your bags and get ready for the premium OS/2 event of the year, Warpstock 99!

If you haven't registered for Warpstock 99, then now is the time. The deadline for the early discount price, $55 for two days, ends on August 15, 1999. That's only 2 days away! With everyone's busy summer schedule of sun and fun, it's easy to forget. So register today and SAVE!

Visit http://www.warpstock.org and select "Register Here" for details.

Oh, and don't forget about the Saturday night "Social". Can you imagine spending an evening with a bunch of OS/2'ers! hmm... What shall we discuss..........

See you at Warpstock 99, Atlanta!


News Index

editor@os2voice.org
[Previous Page ] [ Index] [Next Page ]

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