Dear Foundation member, News from RISC OS Ltd No. 6 25th January 2000 ================= Previous Newsletters -------------------- We having been working hard to try and track down the reasons why some people have not been receiving the emailed versions of the Foundation newsletters. It appeared originally that it was due to anti-spam measures used by many ISP's nowadays. Most people who reported that they had not received the newsletters had Argonet or Demon addresses, which is where the mails are sent from. We believe we have now tracked down the problem due to various limitations in the mail sending system and sent Newsletters 4 and 5 out again to everyone. As a result of the problems with the emails the offer to Foundation members to purchase the forthcoming manuals CD at the offer price of £10 has been extended until 31st January. We hope that this will resolve the problem once and for all, but please allow a day or two for the mails to propogate through the system, before you complain that you still haven't received the newsletters. Earlier Newsletters are available on the Private members area of the WebSite. http://www.riscos.com/foundation/private The username to access the site is your Foundation Number as printed on your membership card e.g 0476 and the password is your PostCode (without) spaces e.g CF239JD If you live abroad then try using just the numeric part of any zip or area code you have. If that doesn't work then email mailto:foundation@riscos.com to ask for the password that has been set on the system. Please remember to quote your Foundation Number on all emails. !Longfiles ---------- It isn't specifically mentioned in the RISC OS 4 Installation manual but if you were using !Longfiles by Jason Tribbeck and have converted over to RISC OS 4 you will find that you will have to stop using !Longfiles 2 as it conflicts with RISC OS 4. If you didn't save your files before moving over to RISC OS 4 you will have found that you were left with lots of weird file names. To convert those names over to RISC OS 4 type you can get ConvertLFS from Quantum software at http://www.cybervillage.co.uk/acorn/qs/keystk.stm If you have SCSI or EIDE interfaces for which there is no RISC OS 4 support yet then there is a new version of !Longfiles available. Longfiles 3 beta is available from http://www.tribbeck.com/ Becta and Computers for Teachers -------------------------------- Visitors to the BETT Show in London recently will have spotted the new Government sponsored Computers for Teachers initiative. The scheme is a three year, £20 M initiative to assist teachers to buy their own computer by offering a subsidy of up to £500 per teacher. The main aim is to enable easier, better and cheaper access to the Internet and National Grid for Learning by teachers. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BETCa) has accredited suppliers who will be offering approved computer packages. The current scheme shows NO support for ARM processor based machines though. If you would like to support us in getting BECTa to approve RISC OS based machines then you can email mailto:andre_wagstaff@becta.org.uk stating that you would like to be able to buy a RISC OS based machine. Programmers wanted ------------------ RISC OS Ltd requires the following staff to work on its forthcoming projects:- Project manager to be responsible for all aspects of the "Ron" (RISC OS for netBook) project. Programmer with extensive C and ARM Assembler knowledge to work on the next generation RISC OS kernel for all forthcoming ARM processors. RISC OS Guru. This post will involve a detailed knowledge of all aspects of RISC OS, and an ability to discuss projects with both Software and Hardware developers. You will act as overall manager on all RISCOS projects and will be expected to provide strategic input on the future development of RISC OS. General programmer. If you have a good basic knowledge of RISC OS and are looking to expand your experience then we would like to hear from you. All posts will be based at the RISCOS Ltd offices in Stratford Upon Avon. Salaries will as always depend on experience. I want ..... ------------ What do you want to see in the next release of RISC OS 4? We have our own ideas, (which we aren't going to tell you yet!) but we would love to hear your serious, and maybe not so serious ideas. send your thoughts to mailto:iwant@riscos.com with the subject line I WANT MY RISC OS 4 Please don't expect a personal reply to your ideas, (unless they are so good that we want you to work for us and make them into reality!) Note that "I want support for every new Printer that is ever produced" or "I want RISC OS to be able to run Microsoft Office 2000" are NOT classed as serious ideas. "I want fully pre-emptive multitasking" is not likely for some time yet but is already on our internal list. Want to put your skills to use? ------------------------------ We have a couple of ideas for useful utilities to go with the next release of RISC OS 4, but they are unlikely to justify our main programmers time. If you have some spare time, or like a challenge then read through the following outlines, and if you feel you might be up to producing them then please contact us at mailto:admin@riscos.com with the subject RISC OS 4 New Goodies We will pay a minimum fee of £150 for the right to bundle these programs or other useful programs with future releases of RISC OS. Idea 1 ~~~~~~ A graphical CD speed indicator. Haven't you ever wanted to know how fast you CD drive really is? If we produce a CD which has large fixed files spaced evenly over the length of the CD, it would be possible to read those files into a RAM disc and time the process. The results could be displayed as a 3D bar chart in the shape of a CD. Idea 2 ~~~~~~ A fast file find utility. With the ever growing size of hard discs, keeping track of where you put a file is becoming a vital task. Ideally we would have a program which would be timed to scan your hard disc overnight, or when your machine was idle and build up an index of files on your hard disc. It would also be possible to enter a keyword and have the program search your hard drive, sector by sector to find all occurrences of that word, but it would be rather slow on current machines. Anyway this is just food for thought. Get your thinking caps on and see what you come up with. Thats all for now. Enquiries --------- The RISC OS 4 Helpline is only available on 02920 492326 from 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Enquiries for the Foundation and General Sales 02920 492324 from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Fax for all enquiries 02920 440071 Please quote your Foundation Membership Number on all enquiries. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd -----------------------------------------------------------------------