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October 2000
editor@os2voice.org


September 02

NetDrive for OS/2 Beta 3 is available at Hobbes:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/ndfsb3.zip

It will later move to:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/filesys/ndfsb3.zip

Changes in this version:

CHG: 'MountToRoot' flag in ndctl.cfg enables or disables mounting to root mountpoint
CHG: ndfs.ifs - debug code removed, 120kb of resident memory saved
NEW: /Q parameter for ndfs.ifs suppresses initialization messages
FIX: incorrect autodetection of IBM OS/2 FTPD
CHG: 'flag' parameter of ndmount utility was changed, now ro = r
NEW: NDAUTOMNT utility
NEW: NDCHECK utility

NetDrive is a new virtual file system. NetDrive allows users to mount an FTP site or a local directory or a network resource to a virtual volume.


September 02

Specialized to task, the InJoy PPPoE Client is designed to offer dedicated PPP over Ethernet access. PPPoE is a standard for running the PPP protocol over Ethernet and a number of the large broadband ISP's have adopted this technology for xDSL.

The InJoy PPPoE is specifically optimized for broadband access. It's easy-to-use, totally non-crippled and can be evaluated nag-free. It initially ships for only $25 per copy.

For users that require Firewall security, Internet sharing or VPN features, a zero-loss upgrade path to the InJoy Firewall is available.

InJoy PPPoE Features:

* Easy installation.
* 32bit multithreaded PM user interface.
* ASCII based user interface for the experts.
* Multiple ISP profiles.
* Connect at startup, on demand or manually.
* Disconnect on Idle timeout, Session timeout, or manually.
* Re-connect automatically.
* Detection of broken connections.
* Dandwidth ~link monitors for the connection.
* Diagnostics via message log and screen output.
* IPTRACE and IPFORMAT support.
* Sustained high performance.
* Shares look ~feel with the InJoy Firewall for easy upgrading.
* Extensive documentation.
* Zero-loss upgrade path to the InJoy Firewall.

ISP Compatibility:

The PPPoE Client has been successfully tested for compatibility with a range of the large PPPoE capable ISPs, including:

* Sympatico
* German T-Online
* Telecom Italia Network (Tin)
* Earthlink * Bell Nexxia
* Pacific Bell
* Mindspring
* Bell Atlantic
* Escape Communications


More information:

* http://www.fx.dk/pppoe
* support@fx.dk


September 02

Blueprint Software Works (http://www.pmmail2000.com/pressrelease.txt) CEO, Thomas Bradford, announced the appointment of Peter Nielsen as the new President of Product Development for BSW. Peter Nielsen is the highly respected author of PMView for OS/2 and Windows and will be brought in to manage the development of PMMail, PMView and other OS/2 programs. The announcement also included information about forthcoming updates for PMMail/2 and PMMail 2000 as well as a LINUX version in development. The announcement can read at the link below.

http://www.pmmail2000.com/pressrelease.txt


September 02

Matrox has moved its OS/2 drivers to the older operation systems page (together with windows 3.x, and NT 3.X):

http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/latest_drivers/prev_latest.htm

The placeholder for OS/2 is now Linux on the latest driver page:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/latest_drivers/home.htm

But there is some good news about the linux drivers from the Matrox user group:

Not Just For Linux Although Matrox and most everyone is calling their new erm Linux driver a Linux driver it is in fact a XFree86 4.01 driver and is not specific to Linux, it should run on any x86 OS using XFree86 4.01. Here's the low down from Konstantinos Konstantinidis.

Just a short note to let you know that due to XFree 4's neat module loader the mga_drv.o binary released is not really a "Linux XFree" driver, but an "x86 XFree" driver.

I just copied it over my previous mga_drv.o and enjoy the new features even though I'm using FreeBSD. Basically as long as you use XFree 4 on a PC it will work, here's a bit about this from the XFree 4 release notes:

"Since the loader doesn't rely on an operating system's native dynamic loader support, it works on platforms that don't provide this feature, and makes it possible for the modules to be operating system independent (although not, of course, independent of CPU architecture). This means that a module compiled on Linux/x86 can be loaded by an X server running on Solaris/x86, or FreeBSD, or even OS/2."

BTW. XFree 86 4.X is available as Alpha at this site:

ftp://borneo.gmd.de/pub/misc/XFree86OS2/alpha/


September 02

Today I have uploded the first beta of CleanINI:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold

English home page:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/e

CleanINI deletes all Handles in the os2sys.ini of any objects not being used. Additionally it can delete unnecessary PM_Workplace:FolderPos, PM_Abstract:FldrContent, PMWP_ASSOC_TYPE, PMWP_ASSOC_FILTER, PMWP_ASSOC_CHECKSUM and PM_Workplace:Startup.

The program is Freeware.

Direct URL is:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/cleanini54.zip


September 02

Today I have uploded version 1.02 of NewCalls on my home page:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold

English home page:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/e

NewCalls is a patch for the pmmerge.dll. It increases the perfomance for INI-write-actions. This reduces the blockade of WPS during INI-writes.

The file PMMERGE.DLL opens the INI files with the flag OPEN_FLAGS_WRITE_THROUGH which has the consequence that these files are written uncached to the HD, so that the WPS is blocked partially quite a long while. IBM made for exaggerated safety reasons, in my opinion that is not necessary.

This Tool goes back on an idea from Peter Fitzsimmons.

At this the module entry DOSCALLS will replaced in pmmerge.dll by NEWCALLS. The NEWCALLS.DLL contains so-called Forwarder on all functions in DOSCALLS except DOS32OPEN, this function its by own _DOS32OPEN replaced. If opening files, _DOS32OPEN removes the flag OPEN_FLAGS_WRITE_THROUGH and calls then DOS32OPEN in DOSCALLS.

I wrote now a Installer and shortened the file NEWCALLS.DLL somewhat (no, there now nothing is missing;-)).

Supplementary product like DLLRNAME are more necessary.

In this version I have correct on installer again. If DOSCALLS on position 2 in PMMERGE found, a warnig was displayed. This I have removed. DOSCALLS can apparent occur on position 1 and 2.

The program is Freeware.
Direct URL is:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/newcalls.zip


September 02

SysInfo project, a PM clone of Symantec Norton Utilities SysInfo for Windows 9x, now is updated up to ver. 0.57. You can download this new version both from project home page and from Hobbes. Many errors were corrected and new functionality was added. Please, read file Readme.eng, shipped with SYSINFO057.ZIP archive for details.

http://www.os2.ru/projects/sysinfo/indexeng.shtml
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=sysinfo057.zip


September 01

>From IBM's Hursley News Server ibmpub.java.os2 group:

A new service refresh of Java 118 for OS/2 is now available. The build version is o118-20000831 and can be accessed at:

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

Fix list shows only one fix since 08/16/2000:

|o118-20000831 |12837 |IC27832|N/A |Focus never passed into field for applet's |


August 31

Congratulations to Rollin and Mia White!

Rollin White married his long-time sweetheart in a beautiful ceremony on Sunday, August 27th.

Like Mia, OS/2 has played an important role in Rollin's life. He was instrumental in many OS/2 volunteer activities, including the founding of the Southern California OS/2 User Group for which he currently serves as programming SIG leader. Rollin is also Vice President of Sundial Systems, and you'll find some photo highlights from the wedding on our website at http://www.sundialsystems.com/articles/whitewedding.html

Join us in celebrating the nuptuals!


August 31

Bero and LDChen are looking for a person to port their Free PlayStation Emulator (FPSE) 0.8 to OS/2.

Bero's email: bero@bekkoame.ne.jp subject=FPSE
LDChen's email: LDChen@fpse.emuforce.com subject=FPSE



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