MAIN LINE COMPUTER USERS - APRIL 1998 - ISSUE #191 **** APRIL 1998 *********************************** ISSUE #191 **** VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - APR 04 Special treats in store for YOU! ---------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL TREATS FOR THIS MEETING That is, if we can pull it off! It has been a long haul, but our friends at CMD have begun delivery of the SuperCPU for the C-128. The first one in our club, so far as I know, was received by yours truly, on March 18th! If Murphy does not gum up the picture, I plan to show it at the April meeting!! For the other treat, see the notice below. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MAIN LINE 64/128/PC USERS - Room 110 This month looks, as of this writing, to be a real double header!. So, we'll try to get a prompt start - with the goal of finishing announcements and short Q & A by 10:15. Then, we'll have a short demo of the SuperCPU 128 (yes, as noted above, we have one and we hope very much that Murphy will be kind)! It will be somewhat brief, as experience with it is limited... Following that tantalizer, at about 11:15, we'll have the PC session - with two possible programs. As noted later, we are getting a new PC to use at the meetings - if it has arrived, we'll begin the showing off process. Alternate will be a bit longer Q & A on topics of YOUR choice... MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210 Since we've been having combined SIG meetings the last couple of months, I suggest you read Emil's write up on our March meeting. For April we will be showing the relatively new Catalyzer video which we originally planned to show in January. Catalyzer is an instructional video on how to use ImageFX. I'm sure it doesn't cover all the aspects of using ImageFX, but it does do a significant job of covering topics and issues where the software documentation is weak. We may even take the time to shadow some of the operations presented on tape so as to get a better look at and appreciation of the ImageFX software. Whether we take the time to do so depends on the level of ---------------------------------------------------------------- THIS MONTH'S CONTENTS CUPID: Graphic Perspectives - II 2 Announcements 3 Trading Post 3 64/128/PC meeting minutes 3 MLCUG Webpage Demo summary 4 AMIGA User Happenings 4 State of the AMIGA 5 MAP/Masthead/Meeting schedule 9 Membership Form/Dues 10 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ "GRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE" Part 2: Quick Fixes? by: Jack Blewitt "Why the long faces?" when printing standard Graphics on your new 24- pin printer? As mentioned in Part-1, it is because of the vertical spacing being altered from 1/72" to 1/60" to accommodate the increased number of smaller print pins in the 24-pin printheads. Text seems to be exempt as both machines tend to use a standard 1/6" vertical spacing which was set many years ago with the standard mechanical typewriter. Your problem now is to salvage your favorite graphics to print them with the proper aspect ratio for your new printer. The most common 24-pin printers for use with the Commodore are the Epson compatibles and the Canon Ink-Jet series which can be set for either Epson emulation, (LQ Mode,yes) or IBM Proprinter emulation, (BJ Mode,no). One unfortunate circumstance is that when printing 8-pin graphics with the 24-pin printer, the manufacturer did not select the best 8-pins and results are not always what you want. Even the Tech Help from the factory has no idea of what they have done. The one person that has researched this to its fullest is Ron Hackley, author of the FunGraphics Machine, (FGM). He has developed a driver that helps FGM users get the most out of their machines when using the Fun- Graphics Machine and 24-pin printers. But.., this doesn't account for the elongated faces caused by the 1/60th inch vertical spacing of the new machines. If you want to have your graphic print the same size, you must reduce the graphic size by 2O%. This is no easy task! If you use FGM and wish a "quick fix" you may reduce your screen by 25% to approximate the reduction This takes several steps, and does cause some distortion, but it also lets you see how versatile FGM and your Commodore can be. First, place your screen onto all three work screens of FGM. (I suggest you turn OFF 'smoothing' from the clipart menu (3) to reduce distortion.) Next, move the second screen up 8 lines with the key and the third screen up 16 lines the same way. Now for each of the three screens, simply expand the screens by 3, keys down and tap the ertical key. Then tap the es key to activate. Then reduce the screens by 2 (twice) by: and tapping then . Your screens have gone from 8 lines to 24 lines to 12 lines to 6 lines, thus reducing your original graphic by 25%. The final step is to transfer the top six lines from screens 2 and 3 onto screen 1. If the 25th line is necessary for the graphic, this must be altered and transferred in an additional step. Save the 19 lines of screen one and they will print out on a 24-pin printer much the same as the original 25 lines printed on your 8-pin printer. You say that's one heck of a lot of work to change one graphic! True! But here's the good part. Once you understand HOW to do it, you can go to the Make a Demo Mode of FGM and Record all the steps. After that, all you have to do is place your next screen so it views, then run the demo you have saved. All work is done automatically! In the final article on Perspectives, you will be shown how to reduce your screens exactly 2O% or size any graphic. Perhaps reduce that favorite graphic so it will fit into your Print Shop format? Files will be provided for your Editor to distribute. [The reader is offered the opportunity to peruse page 9 of this issue to see what CUPID is talking about] ######################################## ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPECIALS ######################################## WELCOME! - we would like to welcome new member, Fred Ameel of Doylestown. Fred is a C-128 user. Hope to see you at the meetings, Fred... GRAPHICS PERSPECTIVE - the series on graphics by Jack Blewitt (aka CUPID) continues on p.2. Tho enphasizing the Commodore aspects, this information has general utility, we commend it to your attention. Anyone interested in working with the tools that Jack discusses, can get a diskette from our disk librarian, Charles Curran. CUPID has kindly provided the article files (as plain text or TWS format), plus the utility programs and graphics files. It is disk C214 - $2, or $3 by mail - contact Charlie. THANKS - to member Dennis Krall. At the March meeting, Dennis brought in a stack of free copies of the "POWER WORD" program suite for the C- 64. He got them as freebies from Centsible Software, who has recently been picking lots of Commodore software inventory from various sources and selling them at low prices. If you missed getting one, and would like one, drop around to the next meeting for your free copy. NEW CLUB ACQUISITION - on March 18th, the steering committee settled on the specs for a desktop PC and monitor to be used for demos at our meetings. These specs will be covered in the PC session in April. SUPER CPU 128! - at long last the wait is over (or mostly over), with deliveries of the new SuperCPU for the 128 being made by Creative Micro Designs (CMD). Unless there is some major catastrovy, this issue of the newsletter is and will be done using my newly received unit (SN # CPU1281064). More about that at the meeting - but it is FAST!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ TRADING POST $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ WANTED: missing copy of the LOADSTAR LETTER #53. It vaporized at the 8-bit meeting in February. Call Emil, if you have it, at 610-388-1581. (1) FOR SALE: selling off large inventory of 64 stuff: 12 C-64s, 10 1541s, 6 C= printers, power supplies, Datasettes, cables, manuals, joy sticks, etc., etc. Also has 10 non-working 64s ($10 each + shipping) - for spare parts useage. If interested, contact Edward Arrasmith, 1-919-753-4876. (2) FOR SALE: MLCUG has a lot of hardware and software that is available for you to purchase at very attractive prices! We'll have detailed lists at the next meeting - here is some of the hardware, the software list is to long to show! 6 computer - C-64 w/PS $25 18 disk drive 1541 - various $20 1 interface - Cardco $ 5 1 interface - MSD $ 5 6 joystick $ 2 1 modem - Panasonic 1200 bps $10 1 monitor - amber - Panasonic $10 1 monitor - screen filter $ 5 1 plotter - Commodore 1520 $10 2 printer - Commodore 1525 $10 2 printer - Commodore 803 $10 2 printer - color - Okimate 10 $10 1 printer - Okimate 120 $20 1 printer - Star Gemini II $25 2 computer - VIC-20 TBD 1 64K RAM/video for VIC-20 TBD 1 computer - Plus4 $25 You can contact Charles Curran to check on any items of interest (610-446-5239). ****************************** 64/128/PC MEETING ****************************** The March meeting was again conducted in three segments. For the first hour, we had announcements and a short question and answer period (mostly PC items). For the second segment, the Amigans came down from room 210 and joined us for the presentation on the club's webpage - given by Peter Whinnery, our errant webmaster. This was a thorough, extensive and entertaining run-thru, which lasted til around noon. Being that late in our usual schedule, we had only a short time for some additional Q & A, then adjournment. All 22 or so attendees were most appreciative of the excellent job that Pete did. Obviously, he is enjoying the project and looking forward to improving the product. Reminder: Pete seeks feedback from any who view the webpage! ****************************** MLCUG WEBPAGE DEMO Our March featured the "next" in our (length undefined) series on the WWW. Last month, Frank Maloney gave us a live, intro demo on the internet, ftp and the www. For this second session, our webmaster, Peter Whinnery, took us thru the MLCUG web page - from top to bottom - which is available on one of the Villanova Univ. servers (the astro4 server, specifically). This demo was done without needing to be on-line as the webpage and the contents of all the key links were on the hard drive of the laptop we were using. This let Pete do most anything he wanted to - with no chance of an internet hangup, slowdown or delay to influence the running of the demo. He ran the Netscape browser - just as you would do for regular on-line access. Worked like a charm! Pete kept the source code loaded into Notepad and switched between it and Netscape to show just how the code appeared and what changes to the code could do. This worked perfectly, too! [Man, it is really nice when Murphy stays away and the hardware & software really works!!!!!] Incidentally, all the web info fit nicely on a single floppy disk. NOTE:, for those who would like to play with the webpage themselves, ALL THE FILES used in the March 7th program have been placed in a zipped file on the BBS - filename is webpage.zip. You can download it, unzip it and look and learn to your heart's content! The next act in the play is not yet defined - we would like to have some feedback from any readers on: 1. is there interest in further stuff about web-pages? 2. what does that interest cover? 3. are there any topics that other members would like to demonstrate? =====================================    <>   /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ /\\ | \ / || || ||  /\\ / \\| \/ || || \/// \\ ===================================== By John Deker, AMIGA SIG Leader [continued from p.1] group interest. In addition we may have the chance to preview live the newly released ImageFX version 3. As of March 11th, Nova Design already received over 600 orders for the new version, but hadn't started shipping any yet. So, it could be awhile before I see my copy delivered. FUTURE MEETINGS If you have either software or hardware for your Amiga that has taken your fancy, please bring it to our attention. I'm sure your specific interests will be of interest to others. Let me know if this is the case at the next meeting, or leave me email on our BBS. Remember, a user group is only as rewarding as the sum of the efforts of its individual members. =========================== A M I G A U P D A T E -News and Rumors- (An Occasional Newsletter) =========================== MIAMI 3.0 IS OUT - 02/25/98 Version 3.0 of the Popular Amiga TCP/IP Stack Now Available Nordic Global Inc. has just released the new version 3.0 of our popular TCP/IP protocol stack Enhancements since version 2.x include: * separate user interface modules for MUI and GTLayout, making it possible to unload the user interface code at runtime, and to use Miami without MUI, for users who prefer that * support for SOCKSV4/V5 proxy servers * support for DHCP, used by cable modems and ADSL * completely new configuration tool "MiamiInit", now with support for K56Flex/X2 modems, ISDN TAs, ISDN boards, and local networks. For more information visit: http://www.nordicglobal.com/ ----------------------------- SUPER AMIGA CLONES FROM PHASE 5! Phase 5 Digital Products Announces Development of the Pre\Box, a PowerPC-Based Computer System with Amiga OS 3.1 Taking The Next Step Towards PowerPC Multiprocessing, The Pre\Box Will Take Off to New Performance Dimensions Beside the finalization of upcoming products such as the CyberVisionPPC and the BVisionPPC graphics cards, phase 5 digital products has started a new development project for a stand-alone, PowerPC-based computer system, called the pre\box, which will use the licensed AMIGA OS 3.1 and a further advanced version of the PowerUP System Software to provide Amiga compatibility on the AMIGA OS/Workbench 3.1 level under CyberGraphX V3. "The license agreement that we have signed with Amiga International allows us to start the development project of this new machine, which had been in conceptual design for several months now. It is an important step for revitalizing the Amiga market, encouraging developers and rebuilding a market which is strong enough to maintain" says Wolf Dietrich, General Manager of phase 5. In a separate announcement Dietrich states that the A\BOX, the long-term technology project of phase 5 digital products, is postponed but not cancelled. "The A\BOX project will be continued with revised targets and specifications and with extended resources, based on the succesful introduction of the new product lines". Dietrich points out that the key for the survival of the Amiga and the Amiga market is the availability of new outstanding stand-alone hardware products as soon as possible, a goal which shall be reached with the pre\box design. "We need an expanding market in the very near future, or the battle may be lost for the Amiga computer system" he adds. The new pre\box machines will be targeting the medium and upper price regions for PCs or Personal Workstations, but are designed to provide stunning performance. All systems will come as multi-processing systems with at least four PowerPC CPUs installed, which will allow them to provide an extremely high computing power at an outstanding price/performance relation. "Multi-processing has been one of the most important goals, if not THE most important design goal for phase 5 digital products in the past 18 months" explains Wolf Dietrich. "It is here where alternative technology can offer advantages and superiority over the mainstream products in the PC market. While our current PowerUP product line, which consists of upgrade cards for existing machines, helps the user to update his system and secure the investments made in existing hardware and software, it is a challenge to built new stand-alone hardware products which can price-wise compete with the mainstream PCs - especially under the impression that PC systems are blown out at dumping prices regularly, and that a PC system you buy today maybe outdated and nearly worthless in less than a year." Consequently, the company does not plan to build single-CPU systems which would have to compete at a similar performance level with Intel- based systems, but wants to fully utilize the opportunities which have been given with the move to the PowerPC. "Developers who jump on the PowerUP bandwagon today can make their products ready for multiprocessing quite easily.Therefore it will be possible to take two giant steps - from a single-CPU 68k system to a Multi-CPU PowerPC system - within only one year, an impressive progress for the Amiga community which many have not thought possible" Dietrich adds. The pre\box system is designed on a ATX formfactor motherboard and incorporates a fast SDRAM-based memory subsystem with initially up to 100 MHz memory speed. Depending on the actual bus speed of the PowerPC processors which are used, the processor bus also runs at up to 100 MHz. The four PowerPC processors, which are located on a separate CPU card, will be equipped with inline or backside caches, also depending on which type of processor is actually used. As the PowerUP System Software features a software-controlled cache coherency, the pre\\box can even be equipped with CPUs which do not offer hardware support for multiprocessing, such as the PPC603e or the PPC750 (G3). The pre\box system also has an integrated 3D graphics subsystem, which is connected via a 66 MHz PCI 2.1 bus with a peak performance of 264 MB/s and comes with eight MB of graphics memory. With this gfx subsystem, a powerful standard is provided as the minimum base configuration on which software designers can rely. But more than that: On the same 66 MHz PCI bus there is a special slot for a Voodoo2-based 3D accelerator card which is directly coupled to the built-in gfx chip. "We plan to provide, either on our own or in cooperation with other vendors, a Voodoo2-based solution as a powerful upgrade option" comments Wolf Dietrich. "We will not forget the demands of the serious gamers." Also as standard, there will be an integrated Ultra-Wide SCSI-II controller and a 100 Mbit ethernet controller available, which will allow usage of todays powerful UW-SCSI devices and provide fast network connectivity - a feature which will also support the distributed multiprocessing concepts of phase 5 digital products. For the use of inexpensive hardware expansions, a PCI bus with three standard PCI slots is integrated. This PCI bus runs at 66 MHz, but will also accept 33 MHz PCI boards. With the PCI bus integrated, development of new stunning hardware products for the pre\box systems is quite easy; more than that, developers can use standard PCI products and adopt them for the pre\box systems by simply writing software support for them. Yet not decided is, if there will be a socket for an optional 68k CPU left on the board."In this next-generation product, the consequent option for using 68k software will be emulation. We are continuously encouraging Amiga developers to support our new MP software technologies and guidelines which we introduced with our PowerUP System Software, and those who follow these recommendations will be able to provide applications that utilize the vast power of our upcoming pre\box system right away. This is where efforts should be spend now" says Wolf Dietrich. Beside these main features, the pre\box will offer all standard functionality which is expected from a computer system today, such as fast serial and parallel interfaces, a USB bus, and an EIDE interface for use of e.g. inexpensive CD-ROM drives or additional cheap harddrives. The pre\box release is scheduled for the early fourth quarter 1998. In order to support and encourage customers of PowerUP boards for existing Amigas, phase 5 digital products will offer substantial discounts on the purchase of pre\box systems to owners of PowerUP boards. "We want to provide security for the investments of the users today. Obviously, Amiga users and developers need to see a fast growing base of PowerPC systems in these days, in order to support the progress of developments. We want to encourage the users to invest in PowerPC technology now" comments Wolf Dietrich.Owners of PowerUP boards who later take advantage of the discounts on purchases of a pre\box system will not have to return their PowerUP boards to receive this discount, but can continue to use their PowerUP-Amiga as a stand-alone system or even use it's performance from the pre\box via a link system which will be provided with the pre\box, and with which the networked multiprocessing feature of the PowerUP System Software can be utilized. With this new product roadmap and variety of powerful and stunning products to come, phase 5 digital products underscores it's position as the leading innovator in PowerPC hardware and system software development in the Amiga market. "We want to further support the Amiga market with these efforts" states Wolf Dietrich. "Part of our efforts will also be to support the developers, and to encourage them to develop for PowerUP with our best endeavours. We will do whatever is possible for us to make existing developers stay with the Amiga, and will also try to win back Amiga developers who have left the platform or put developments on hold. Recent releases of PowerUP compatible software products, which had been realized within just a few weeks by their developers, show how easy and efficiently existing Amiga software products can be ported to support the new processor and performance generation. To convince software developers, we also need to make them aware of the market potential and the outlook to the future that we offer. All users can support these efforts, too, by contacting their favourite Software vendors and requesting PowerUP versions of their software." ----------------------------- BARS AND PIPES FREE DOWNLOAD 11/Mar/98 The best MIDI sequencer Bars & Pipes Prof. 2.5b for the Amiga is now downloadable from the following site: http://members.theglobe.com/geoarn From this site you can also download others of Blue Ribbon's software packages: * SuperJAM! An Auto Composer and 'band-in-a-box' * PatchMeister A MIDI patcher and library * Tools packages for use with B&P. Additionaly, the site contains relative information, links and a chat forum. - George Arnold, the Bars & Pipes Software Site. ----------------------------- NEW IMAGE FX VERSION 06/Mar/98 Nova Design, Inc., producers of the award winning ImageFX package and Aladdin 4D package, are proud to announce that the shipping version of ImageFX 3.0 will be premiered at Amiga '98 in St. Louis! ImageFX has been the required graphics application for all Amiga owners and has been a part of Video Toaster/Flyer owner's toolkits for years. Combining painting, image file format conversion, image processing, and special effects, ImageFX is the undisputed leader in graphics manipulation on the Amiga leading the pack in all markets worldwide. Highlights of ImageFX 3.0 The interface still follows professional standards for the Amiga and the video and film industry with its paintbox style approach. This has been built on in ImageFX 3.0 to allow child menus to remain open for quick access to frequently used functions, larger effects previews that you can zoom in and out of and move around in, font sensitivity, multiple image windows including the ability to open multiple windows for the same image, real image layers that allow you to compose complex composited images that can be modified over and over with ease, and many other improvements throughout. Cross platform connectivity has been a top concern with ImageFX, from its Video Toaster/Flyer support, to its wide range of image file format support for all computer platform image formats. With this new release ImageFX improves its Flyer support and also now gains support for the Photoshop native file format so that layered images can be shared from Photoshop to ImageFX. ImageFX also now directly supports loading, and preserving, color-mapped (CMAP) image data for quick, accurate, conversion of these formats. Special effects have always been one of the touchstones of the power of ImageFX. From the earliest days ImageFX pioneered bringing high-end "Hollywood-style" special effects to the desktop with it's morphing and warping, wire removal, lightning and fire effects. The effects in this release extend this even further! The all-new Clouds module allows you to generate true fractal clouds that can animate their movement and evolve over time, via batch processing, from one form to another. The clouds can be layered to create three-dimensional effects and combine with custom, or supplied, palettes to create wild plasma designs as well. Scatter is an amazing new effect that can shatter an image into pieces as small as a single pixel and blast them apart in many different patterns. This can be used for artistic designs or for dramatic transitions. Also new in ImageFX 3.0 is Splash. Splash uses ray tracing and bump mapping to create liquid simulations of rain, water ski surf, gelatinous wiggles and more. The effect can be batched to animate puddles of rainwater and create highly organic transitions. A classic effect from other computer platforms, Pagecurler, has been added as well. This can add a cool curled page effect to the edge of an image or make letters appear to peel off of the page! The true gem in the new effects is called FXForge. FXForge uses simple mathematical expressions that, when applied against each pixel in the image, can create hundreds upon hundreds of new effects. It uses a superset of the same technology used in Adobe Photoshop's Filter Factory plug-in and is completely compatible to formulas for effects created for that package. Due to the overwhelming popularity of these formulas, you can find hundreds, if not thousands, of them available on the Internet. Experienced users can create these as well to extend their toolkit of special effects on their own! Unique to ImageFX's FXForge is the ability to animate the parameters and access ImageFX's swap buffer for transitional effects as well! =====================================    <>   /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ /\\ | \ / || || ||  /\\ / \\| \/ || || \/// \\ =====================================