Category:

A couple of days ago, Chris Hughes of the Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club and Wakefield Show Coordingator, sent out the latest details for this year's forthcoming show (which takes place in April).

As this year's South West Show approaches, the exibitor list grows. Since our initial announcement about the show, we've checked with RISCOS Ltd. for the latest info.

Until very recently, there were fears that 2008 would not see a show down in the South West of England.  There had been no annoucement from the usual parties involved and RISC OS users were desperate for news.  Thankfully, RISCOS Ltd. have stepped in to organise this year's RISCOS South West Show.

Those keen historians amongs us will already be aware that it is approaching 10 years since Acorn Computers Ltd's. announcement which became known as Black Thursday, back in September 1998. This led to the formation of RISCOS Ltd. in January 1999 and they have now entered their 10th year of trading.

Having returned from the Midlands show, I thought I'd just put up a very short rundown of what I saw and did.  I didn't go prepared to write a report and didn't even take a camera, as I had rather a lot of other stuff with me upon arrival, although less upon leaving - I know that doesn't sound right, but it was for good reason.

RISCOS Ltd. yesterday announced that they have completed preparation of the latest printed Programmers Reference Manual.  Entitled "The Window Manager", the new volume has been brought bang up to date with RISC OS 6 features and will be available for purchase at tomorrow's Midlands Show.

Although dated a few days ago, today saw the publication of a Joint Press Release from RISCOS Ltd. and RISC OS Open Ltd. on the Comp.Sys.Acorn.Announce usenet group.  This press release talks about co-operaton between the two companies and sounds positive for the future of RISC OS development.

December will very soon be upon us, and whilst that is a sign of urgency for many people in the UK to start their Christmas Shopping, there is also another important event with the start of December - The RISC OS Christmas Show 2007.

Although plans are still in the fairly early stages, the Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club has again decided to run a show in Spring 2008.

If anyone was thinking that they'd like to use a VNC Server on RISC OS but just wished it had a front end user interface, then this may be useful to you...

Today Virtal Acorn posted a press release on their web site, announcing that, following feedback from
beta testers, they have now released a new version of Virtual Risc PC for Intel Macs.

Beta testers' comments have been incorporated into the new release and those beta testers have also
received the update in the form of a Universal Binary, compatible with both Intel and Power PC Macs.

Virtual Acorn are taking orders via the on-line store or phone and copies will also be available at the forthcoming South East Show on 20th October.

Whilst trawling the net for something else recently, I stumbled accross a newer version of Henrik Bjerregaard Pedersen's VNC server than I had not found before. Although Hernik originally produced it, others have taken the source code and improved things over time. For those not aware, VNC stands for Virtual Network Computer and is a technology available for remotely viewing another computer's screen and also optionally taking over its mouse and keyboard to perform tasks remotely as if you were actualy sat at the machine in question. VNC is truly multi-platform and is available for many operating systems, including RISC OS. The RISC OS version of the VNC server is not as polished as those for other platforms, but it is certainly functional. My main use for the server is to remotely control my Risc PC from my Windows laptop, from other rooms in the house.

Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating system, according to the Globalisation Institute, a Brussels-based free-market think tank. In a submission to the European Commission, the Institute says that the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market.