The next meeting of the RISC OS North West User Group will be:

"New Perspectives"
John Cartmell (editor, Acorn Publisher magazine)

6:45pm for 7:15pm, Wednesday 18th September 2002

Trafford Metrovick Rugby & Cricket Club
Finnybank Road
Sale
Cheshire
M33 6LR

Google Toolbar for RISC OS

I haved decided that it is time to release my first *useful* RISC OS desktop program, the Google Toolbar for RISC OS.

The program is a copy of the Google Toolbar which has been available for Windows computers running Internet Explorer for some time, and allows you to search the web, search for images, search the Usenet archive and the web directory from your desktop.

!Google will work with any RISC OS web browser (currently except Fresco, which I am currently investigating) without any settings needing to be changed to change browser.

The program can be downloaded from here and a BASIC source release is also available. The current version being 0.39.

Available NOW.

Simtec Electronics are pleased to announce immediate availablity of their USB interface for RISC OS machines. Basic cards with drivers for mice and keyboards cost £79 plus VAT and carriage from one of our development partners.

Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club Wednesday 4th September 2002 - 7:45pm.

This month brings another first for the RISC OS community. Mike Cook returns to visit us with a demonstration of a RISC OS computer controling a lego mindstorm robot. Most people will be familiar with the lego toys, but over recent years, they have moved forward with technology and can now have little computers on board that can be programmed by desktop machines. This talk should be quite an interesting one, don‘t miss out!

So, pencil in this event - remember, it's Wednesday 4th September, 2002.

Doors open at 7:15 pm approx. Meetings start 7:45 prompt.

There is ample FREE car parking at the venue, and a bar for refreshments.

For more information please see the Club website

The website has a map and directions showing how to reach us.

Comment: At least thats how it appears from the latest news on the viewfinder mailing list...

I very regularly get support questions via email from users that still subscribe and post messages to the deprecated Viewfinder mailing list.

I'll stress once again that the Viewfinder mailing list needs to disappear,

In Scotland? Fancy looking at the latest in RISC OS technology? Read on....

A venue in Livingston has now been booked for Microdigital to demonstrate their Omega computer and to answer our questions, on Saturday, 7th September 2002. The following place may unfortunately not be ideal for everyone but we were booking at short notice, so apologies all round if this is the case (but please see the end of the message).

The venue is:

Deans Community High School
Eastwood Park
Livingston
West Lothian
EH54 8PS

Tel: 01506 497090

A better map is here

Livingston North Railway Station is close by and this can be reached from Edinburgh Waverley or Haymarket (about 10 mins walk?).

Microdigital have reported that they have started sending out letters to customers who have pre-ordered their Omega computer.

Our friends at www.riscos.org have run a story about RISCOS Ltd's new brochure, promoting RISC OS. Available on the RISC OS Ltd website are copies of the brochure for download.

Tonight's meeting of the RISC OS North West User Group will be:

"RiscStation sound software"
Paul F. Johnson

6:45pm for 7:15pm, Wednesday 21st August 2002

Minidisc 0.51 has just been released.

For those not in the know, Minidisc is a cracking little utility which makes the desktop fun and easy to configure.

This version includes...

• Removes many of the icons (including hard discs) cluttering up the left of your iconbar ...
  
• ... and stacks them up into a single icon.
  
  
• 'Shortcuts' application launcher, with a WYSIWYG drag-n-drop configuration tool.
  
  
• A dynamic, customisable toolbar that can be used as an alternate/additional application launcher. You can even move your harddiscs off of the iconbar and on to the toolbar if you want!!!!
  
  
• Iconbar information tool, showing time, date, free memory.
  
  
• Configure up to 16 different actions for iconbar clicks.
  
  
  
• Configure up to 8 different actions for files dragged to the iconbar.
  
  
• A detailed user guide, describing every feature in detail.
  

MiniDisc is about as customisable as you'll ever want. Every feature can be enabled or disabled and changed to suit your personal requirements.

MiniDisc is released as freeware.

Our advice, go get a copy now!

This just in...

Improved anti-aliasing in ArtWorks

Normally, ArtWorks files are rendered using 16 levels of anti-aliasing. In most circumstances, in particular while editing an illustration, this is quite adequate. However, for presentation purposes and for high-quality bitmap output, it is desirable to have more accurate anti-aliasing.

Therefore, I am proud to announce the release of the free AWSwitch utility that allows you to choose between 16, 64 and 128 levels of anti-aliasing in ArtWorks (and other applications that render ArtWorks files).

AWSwitch sits on the icon bar and allows you to change the number of anti-aliasing levels with a single mouse click.

Click here for further information and download AWSwitch.

Interesting news from the Viewfinder mailing list ...

Today, 24th July, based on the current support situation and the results of the polls running on the Windfall Engineering and Viewfinder mailing lists, the following has been decided.

Viewfinder software updates will no longer be provided for free, but on a subscription basis, and will be 'locked' to the particular machine that the Viewfinder runs in (via the machine's ID chip) and/or to the Viewfinder itself via other codes.

After many years now of the dominance that Uncle Bill has placed on the UK, especially since "New" Labour came to power, it finally looks like the powers that be (no doubt lead on by the goings on recently in Europe) have started to see sense.

In a parlimentary answer Douglas Alexander (Home Office) said that they would be looking into the benefits of open source as opposed to propriatory (closed) applications (our mates at ElReg have more here)

The interesting points for all of these are

1. What will happen over GCHQ and the "oh look, let's entrust the security of the nation to a company who's idea of security at it's best is 'OE'"
   
2. The reply given was that the best value for money would be the option of choice. Given the advances in OpenSource desktops and office products, can this be further doom and gloom for M$?
   
3. More importantly, if RISC OS was to go open source, would it enable us to claw our way back in as not only being faster and more efficient than just about anything out there, it's a hell of a lot more stable and friendly to use than anything out there.
   

Peter Naulls has released the first batch of his Unix ports and a fine looking batch they are as well.

The site is comprehensive and gives you all the information you will need to get the apps up and running.

From all of us at MyRISCOS, we must thank Peter (and the rest of the porting crew) for this effort and advise people to sign up for his porting support scheme - it's only 25 quid.

News in from the Cerilica folks...

RELEASE OF CERILICA PUBLISHING PACK 2

For all users of Cerilica Vantage, Draw, Ovation, Impression, TextEase, TechWriter, EasyWriter, etc.!

Cerilica is proud to announce that its its latest brand-new software pack has been officially released.

The Wigan and St. Helens Linux User Group (WISHLUG) meeting which was supposed to be this Saturday in Wigan has, unfortunately had to be cancelled until

August 3rd 2002

This is due to family illness.

Roy Heslop, head chappy at RiscStation has sent us through some much needed information regarding the laptop.

"First, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who have waited patiently for news on the laptop. I can appreciate that people are waiting and have paid up and that the delays are very annoying, but I can say that the wait is almost over"

Note: Which hardware will be first to market? Vote in our poll

The next meeting of the RISC OS North West User Group (RONWUG) will be:

The MicroDigital Omega David Atkins (Managing Director, MicroDigital Ltd) 7pm for 7:45pm, Wednesday 17th July 2002 Trafford Metrovick Rugby & Cricket Club Finnybank Road Sale Cheshire M33 6LR

Not only should the prototype be on display to see and try out, but David will of course be talking about the Omega, and about MicroDigital's wider development programme and future plans. MicroDigital's activities are much more extensive than just producing a couple of computers, and this is the chance to hear the details from David himself (rather than by rumour from other sources). There will also be the opportunity for questions.