Welcome to the ____ / ___) *StarShip* 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast / (_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / ___) / (__ very weekend the *StarShip* on GEnie presents a new 5-MINUTE Weekend (_____) Newscast in Communications Room 10 in the Real-Time Conference Area. Featuring late-breaking stories from the Amiga community, these dynamic, scrolling newscasts cycle every 5 minutes, so you can stop by between 6PM and 3AM Eastern time on Friday, or 3PM and 3AM Eastern time on Saturday or Sunday and learn everything that happened during the preceding week. Industry news, product announcements, upgrades, rumors, special *StarShip* activities, trade show reports, GEnie usage tips, humor, recommended files to download... ... the works -- and it ONLY takes 5 minutes! Each 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast is available on *StarShip* Menu #10 during the following week. Periodically, newscasts are combined and made available for downloading from the *StarShip* Library. ____________________________________________________________ // \ || -*- IMPORTANT! -*- | || | || As long as individual stories are kept intact and credit | || is given, this material may be reproduced in ALL or PART | || on a privately owned BBS or in a user group newsletter. | || See wording for proper credit at the end of this Newscast. | \\____________________________________________________________/ || | || | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to Denny Atkin for his generous input. Here we go!... DateLine: Augutst 13, 1993 This 5-MINUTE Newscast presents the following stories: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Spectronics Introduces Merlin 24-bit Graphics Board 2. Iomega Intros Bernoulli Drives For Commodore Amiga 3. Next Week's Hot Summer Nights *StarShip* Conferences 4. Soft-Logik Translates Professional Page Document Format 5. INOVAtronics Releases CanDo Upgrade V2.5 6. Fish to be Available on CDROM *StarShip* NEWS *Flash* 1st of 6 Stories Spectronics Introduces Merlin 24-bit Graphics Board _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / \/ \ Champaign, IL -- August 3, 1993 / \ / /\ /\ \ (_/ \/ \_)eet the board that has been the subject of discussion on some major computer networks and Bulletin Boards for quite some time now. Based on hardware, custom designed for Amiga, Merlin offers unbelievable speed and powerful features at an incredibly low price. Bundled with flexible productivity software, X-Pert will once again redefine the standards for 24 bit graphics on Amiga. A variety of outputs, such as RGB, Y/C and Composite, together with the possibility to add a genlock and a digitizer make Merlin the all-in-one solutio for demanding artists and video professionals, Fifty Megapixel per second, a Blitter forty times faster than the original Amiga Blitter, and a throughput-speed of more than 20Mb per second (2) when used in a Zorro III slot will prove powerful enough to take the wait out of even the most demanding tasks. The integration of Picture in Picture (1) will allow you to watch real time video at 30 fps, in 24 bit and a resolution of 320x200 pixels, right on your workbench. No more jerky, black and white previews, but real live video. Included Software: * Merlin INTUITION EMULATOR 2.0/2.1/3.0 (AA Chipset emulation on A2000/A3000) * Merlin TV-PAINT 2.0 * Merlin ANIMATOR * Merlin PICLOADER * Merlin DIASHOW * Merlin CHECK Features: * 24 bit- 16,000,000 colors * 50 Megapixel/second * More than 20 Mb/second throughput (2) * 1280x1024 in 24 bit * 1600x1280 in 16 bit * 2048x2048 in 8 bit * All resolutions non-interlaced * 1,2, or 4 Mb of VRAM New: Up to 16 Mb of VRAM on board possible * Composite and Y/C output * 15 pin D-Sub output * Zorro II/Zorro III compatible with automatic detection * 24 bit real time Picture in Picture (1) * Electronic Monitor Switch Price List: Boards 1Mb VRAM $699.00 2Mb VRAM $799.00 4Mb VRAM $999.00 Add-on Modules: Digitizer $699.00 Genlock $699.00 (1) Picture in Picture is only possible with the optional digitizer module. (2) 20 Mb per second or higher throughput rate only possible when used in a Zorro III slot. Throughput rate in a Zorro III slot is approx. 3 Mb per second. For more information contact Spectronics International, 34 East Main Street #23 Champaign, IL 61820, telephone 217/352-0061 or fax 217/352-0063. -*- *StarShip* NEWS *Flash* 2nd of 6 Stories Iomega Intros Bernoulli Drives For Commodore Amiga ____ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (_ _) Roy, Utah, U.S.A. -- August 11, 1993 / / _/ / (____)omega Corp. is now shipping two versions of its popular Bernoulli drive designed for use with Commodore Amiga personal computers. Called the Box 150, the unit is compatible with Commodore computers that are SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)- capable. Iomega says the 150 megabyte (MB) capacity of the Box makes it particularly suited for personal video production. The Box 150 Transportable is an external unit, while the Box 150 Insider installs inside the Amiga chassis. The Transportable has a suggested retail price of $1,225, while the Insider will carry a $1,099 price tag. Both models include a read and write cache, which Iomega says make them up to three times faster than competitive removable hard drive products. The company says Iomega drives, which use removable cartridges for data storage that can be removed from the drive and locked up or used in other Bernoulli-equipped computers, can withstand up to 1,000 Gs of shock. "We literally tossed a disk from a speeding car at 60 miles-per-hour onto a concrete highway with 100 percent data survival," according to Paul Losee, director of Iomega's channel development. In addition to its Bernoulli product line, Iomega also markets minicartridge tape drives that use both QIC-80 and Irwin-formatted tapes, and a Floptical drive which used the company's proprietary second generation holographic technology to read and write data. For more information, contact Iomega Corporation at 801/778-1000. -*- *StarShip* NEWS *Flash* 3rd of 6 Stories _ Hot Summer Nights on the *StarShip* / \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / - \ / ___ \ (_/ \_)ll Conferences start at 10PM Eastern Time in the *StarShip* Real-Time Conference Rooms (Menu Option #2 on Page 555) unless otherwise noted! Amiga programmers meet each Wednesday at 10PM EDT in the Pro/Am RoundTable Conference Rooms on Page 670. ___________________________________________________________________________ | | | August 1993 *StarShip* Hot Summer Games Schedule | |___________________________________________________________________________| | Monday | Tuesday |Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | | Telecomm | Music | AmiGames |Multimedia| Graphics| Party! | Surprise | |__________|__________|__________|__________|_________|__________|__________| | 16 POKER | 17 WEEK | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | | ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~| | | . . 5-MINUTE Weekend News . . | |Telecomm | Elec Arts| Accursed | HELM |Brilliance |DEEPMODEM | | | Releases| Toys |Fantastic | Night | Can You |Tells ALL | | Night |Deluxe |Stephen & | New |w/Digital| Beat The | About | | | Music II | Jennifer | Program! |Creations| Hangman? |Commodore | |__________|__________|__________|__________|_________|__________|__________| Monday Aug 16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Telecommunications Night The *StarShip* Staff is standing by tonight to answer some of your questions about Amiga terminal software. With a host of powerful telecommunicating tools at our fingertips, sometimes it is hard to locate the one that gets the job done you need it to. Tuesday Aug 17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DeluxeMusic is Released by Electronic Arts Come meet Orlando Guzman from EA along with some of the others involved with this great new Amiga music product, DeluxeMusic! Yes, the long awaited program is scheduled for release and shipping this month, and we've got EA here to talk to you about it! Be there early so you don't miss a beat! Wednesday Aug 18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AmiGames Presents Accursed Toys Jennifer and Stephen of Accursed Toys will join our regular AmiGames hosts, Peter and Zach, for a thrilling evening on conference. In addition to their own game demos and game related files in the *StarShip* Library, Jennifer and Stephen love to talk about the Art of The Game in their own Category 30 on the Bulletin Board. Don't miss a single inventive and exciting minute with these fun guests! Thursday Aug 19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Multimedia Extravaganza with New Authoring System: HELM Come meet Jerrell Nickerson, designer of the great new Amiga authoring and graphics program, Helm, from Eagle Tree Software, at what promises to be an informative and fun conference. You might want to take a look at the Helm in the *StarShip* Library. Friday Aug 20 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brilliance Night w/ Digital Creations The most exciting thing to happen to Amiga graphics is a killer new paint program from Digital Creations, Brilliance! You can talk to the folks at Digital about all of the advantages of using Brilliance tonight, because they'll be here at our Graphics Conference. Saturday Aug 21 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The *StarShip* staff is going to see whether you or the Hangman lasts longer. You DO remember how to play Hangman, right? Good. We'll bring the Virtual Chalk and Chalkboard, you bring the pretzels and the drinks, and lets see who wins the prizes tonight! No special software required, just come prepared to have fun. Neck protection is reccomended. Sunday Aug 22 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DEEPMODEM and DEEPTHOUGHT Tonight in Conference! The *StarShip* has recently found two brave insiders who can 'Tell It Like It Is' at Commodore. We have had to schedule this conference later in the month to make sure that all our security measures are in place. No, I can't tell you who our mystery guests are. But I will assure you that they are well credentialed to present the inside story that NOBODY else will tell. We will provide each mystery guest with a voice scrambler, an ugly wig and nerdy glasses, as well as some padded clothing. They will be seated just behind a back-lit screen. From time to time one of our video cameras will be able to catch a few frames of them, and in those instances, we'll be using the new Kiki-Face-Blur effects to insure that our guests remain strictly under cover. If you have been wondering "What in the world is going on in West Chester?" Wonder no more. Find out. Don't be late. ________________________________ / \ Fun & Games & Great Amiga Info | GEnie's Amiga Multiplayer Games | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Graphical Front End Software | Throughout the MONTH of August | and Sample Screen Shots are | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | available for downloading from | ____________________________________| Menu Option #15 on the Main | / | *StarShip* Menu, Page 555. | | You Won't BELIEVE Your Eyes! \________________________________/ | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | A super *special* AmigaGuide version of the *StarShip* | | Hot Summer Games August calendar is available in the | | *StarShip* Library, and you've never seen a AmigaGuide | | application like it! Download your choice: | | | | 20439 HOTSUMMERFOR3.0GUIDE.LZH :For AmigaDOS 3.0 | | 20440 HOTSUMMER.GUIDE.LZH :For AmigaDOS 1.3/2.+ | | | | Point-and-click access to oodles of wondrous games/people | | info and stories in slick hypertext format! Grab it! | \___________________________________________________________/ -*- *StarShip* NEWS *Flash* 4th of 6 Stories ____ Soft-Logik Translates Professional Page Document Format / ___) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ( (__ St. Louis, Missouri -- August 10, 1993 \__ \ ___) ) (____/oft-Logik Publishing Corporation today announced a change to the feature set of the upcoming PageStream 3.0, a completely new version of the #1 Amiga desktop publishing program. PageStream 3.0 will have the ability to load Professional Page documents directly. It will also be able to load PageStream2 documents and the new IFF DOC format documents. "Document formats have been dark and secret for too long," said Deron Kazmaier, the president of Soft-Logik Publishing. "Customers want the freedom to move their documents between programs, and we are going to give them that freedom." For the first time, users of Gold Disk's Professional Page desktop publishing program will be able to make the transition to PageStream painlessly. They have been able to use their fonts with PageStream since version 2.0, and Soft- Logik added the ability to load and edit Professional Draw illustrations in 1992. Adding support for another program's documents is an industry first and simplifies switching from Professional Page to PageStream. Converting a Professional Page document for use in PageStream is a simple task. Just choose the Open command from the Project menu and don't worry if it is a PageStream or Professional Page file. The Professional Page document conversion module is included free of charge with PageStream 3.0. PageStream 3.0 will be available in early fall for $395. Customers who purchase a full copy of PageStream 2.2 after March 15, 1993 are eligible for a free upgrade to version 3.0 by mailing their registration card, proof of purchase and $5 for shipping and handling, to Soft-Logik. Previous purchasers can upgrade for $125 if they own PageStream 2.0 or higher, or for only $95 if they own PageStream 2 and HotLinks Editions. Professional Page users can upgrade to PageStream 2.2 now for only $175 plus shipping and handling, and receive a free upgrade to PageStream 3.0 when it's released. For more information, call Soft-Logik at voice 314-894-8608, Toll free 800-829-8608, or fax: 314-894-8608. PageStream 3.0 will change the way you think about publishing. CALL FOR HELP ____ Soft-Logik Needs Professional Page Document Files for Testing / _ )~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / ___/ St. Louis, Missouri -- August 10, 1993 / / (_/ageStream 3.0 will have the ability to open Professional Page documents and save them in PageStream 3's IFF DOC format. To ensure that this feature works with real-world files, we need ProPage documents to test. We want it to work flawlessly to make your conversion to PageStream3 as easy as possible. While we hope to make it translate 100% of every document correctly, we cannot guarantee this because the Professional Page document format is not publicly available. We believe that we have successfully documented every aspect of the ProPage document format, but we can only verify this through extensive testing. By testing your files now, we can ensure that this feature will work properly for you when PageStream 3.0 is released. To have your ProPage 3 or 4 documents tested with PageStream 3.0, mail them to: Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation Test my Documents! 11131F South Towne Square St. Louis, MO 63123 Note: We will keep your document files confidential and will use them only for testing. Nobody outside of our programming and testing staff will see your files. -*- *StarShip* NEWS *Flash* 5th of 6 Stories INOVAtronics Releases CanDo Upgrade V2.5 ____ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / ___) Dallas, TX -- August 9, 1993 / / / (__ (_____)anDo 2.5, INOVATronics' popular multimedia authoring system software, has added exciting new features which not only utilize the capabilties of the new Amigas, but allow you to make more impressive applications -- easier! Some of these enhancements include: * AGA Graphics * Stereo Music Files * ASL Commodore Requesters New Main Panel The main panel has been cleaned up and reorganized. The XtraTools menu and icon have been removed and replaced with a list on the main panel. This makes it easier to find and use these tools. New Window Editor with AGA Graphic Support The new Window Editor is more clearly laid out. The new "Open the Window onto..." section allows you to select the screen. You can have your window open on any "Public" screen. The "Available modes..." button on the Window Editor brings up a requester allowing your to select from the modes available on your computer. This requester is similar to your "Screen Mode" preference setting. This method insures both the greatest possible compatibility with future Amiga enhancements and your application's ability to run on Amigas with different capacities. Support for Music Files You can now play stereo music files. You have full control over tempo and volume. The new InovaMusic.library supports StarTracker, SoundTracker, NoiseTracker, ProTracker, MED, OctaMED, Oktalyzer, and 15 instrument Soundtracker music files! Expanded Requester Support CanDo now uses the Commodore supplied ASL File Requester which has many expanded features such as Save Mode (which allows the user to create directories), Multi-Select, Filter Drawers, Only Drawers, File Patterns, and more. These features not only give you greater programming control, but provide the users of your application a standard, powerful means of selecting Files and Directories. We even added support for Commodore's "Easy Requesters." These allow you to prompt the user with a question, have as many buttons as you need or possible responses, and have the result returned in a function call. This means you no longer have to setup a SubDeck to ask simple questions. New SuperMover XtraTool This Tool allows you to easily move groups of objects in a single step. You no longer have to Edit each object individually and attempt to move it at the same distance as other objects. Full Font Support We now fully support Compugraphic and Color fonts. Command Expansion in the Script Editor You can define your own shortcut sequences to use in the Script Editor. For example, you can define "wwd" to expand to "WorkWithDocument" when you press Shift-Space following "wwd". Layout EditorTool Some of you may remember the Layout Editor Tool from ProPak. It is now included with the released software. It allows you to flow text around complicated shapes in the window. Using the LayOut/Helper you can wrap text around complicated objects on your window using a point and click editor. Set your margins, straight or contoured, enter your text, and the Layout Tool will do the rest. It's as easy as pie! Amiga Guide Support CanDo's Help system uses the new AmigaGuide help system. Furthermore, you can even add AmigaGuide help files to your own applications! CanDo 2.5 - Real Programming made Real Easy! Version 2.5 demonstrates Inovatronics' dedication to continually enhancing CanDo to make it the easiest, most powerful means of making real applications. Don't get left behind! Order your upgrade today! Limited time for no Shipping Charge! If you order by September 30, 1993, the shipping is on us! IMPORTANT NEW SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: CanDo now requires a Hard Drive, 2MB of RAM, andd 2.04 or later of the OS. Furthermore, DeckBrowser is no longer included with CanDo. If you have any questions in this regard, please call us Toll Free! CanDo Version 2.5 Upgrade: Upgrade from 2.0 $25.00 Upgrade from 1.6 $75.00 Upgrade previous to 1.6 $90.00 CanDo T-Shirt $16.95 BBS Disks $ 8.00 [Available in the *StarShip* Library] For more information or to order, contact your local authorized Amiga dealer or INOVAtronics, Inc., 8499 Greenville Avenue #209B, Dallas, TX 75231-2499, telephone 213/340-4991, fax 214/340-8514, or Toll Free 800/875-8499. -*- *StarShip* Amiga *Flash* 6th of 6 Stories Fish to be Available on CDROM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____ August 11, 1993 (_ _) by Fred Fish fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com / / _/ / (____) have further details on the CDROM distribution. Things are still very much in the preliminary planning phase, but as details become available I'll continue to post updates. The quick summary of the situation is that I am going ahead with CDROM distribution and plan to produce several types of CDROMs. There will be a monthly CDROM containing several categories of material, including new material received since the previous month's CDROM, a continuously updated set of widely used "base tools" such as archivers, editors, compilers, text processors, etc, and possibly a few toys like the most popular PD games, and some random selection of older material on a space available basis. There will be a quarterly CDROM containing the archived form of all the previous new material from the monthly CDROM's to date, plus as much of the floppy distribution as will fit. When the floppy distribution reaches 1000 disks, there will be a CDROM with the contents of the entire floppy library (assuming it can be made to fit of course) and the library will migrate to CDROM distribution only (expected to happen in early 1994). Here is a quick summary of the topics that I'll cover in more depth later in this message (not in any particular order): o I now can be reached directly via FAX! :-) o Why I'm going to do CDROM distributions and what it means for the floppy distribution. o How the CDROMs will be organized and how material will be selected. o How often CDROMs will be issued and what the cost will be. o The initial production runs will be of limited quantities. o Legal issues; redistributability, copyright, etc. o Submission guidelines for authors. o Library facelift wanted (calling all graphics authors). There is a *lot* of info in this message. I decided to do it this way, rather than break it up into lots of small little messages, each dealing with a single topic. Feel free to upload this message to other electronic services (BBS's, Genie, BIX, etc) where it might be of interest. WHY CDROM DISTRIBUTIONS More Cost Effective It is simply far more cost effective, both for me and for the library subscribers, to distribute the library on CDROMs than on floppy disks. The current cost of a subscription averages about $40/month for less than 12Mb of new material per month. A CDROM distribution, depending upon quantity, is expected to be $20/month or less for 50-150Mb of new material per month (assuming there actually is that much available). Multiple Distribution Formats With the floppy distributions, the name of the game is sometimes to see just how much material can be crammed onto a single floppy. There is almost always a tradeoff between the convenience of having the material in unarchived format and the desire to get as much material as possible into a new release, or to make something fit on a single floppy. A fair amount of time actually goes into juggling things around until a set of 10 floppies achieves the desired density of 95-100% full. With a CDROM distribution, we get the best of both worlds. With a vastly larger amount of room to play with, the new material can be distributed directly in two forms, a ready-to-run form (unarchived) and a BBS-ready form (archived) on the same media. This is how the monthly CDROM will be organized. The quarterly archival CDROM's will contain only the BBS-ready form. COORDINATION WITH FLOPPY DISTRIBUTION Timing of Floppy Releases For the past several years, I've released floppy disks in batches of 10, with a new batch being released about every 2 to 6 weeks. Beginning with the first monthly CDROM release, floppy releases will occur when the CDROM is committed to production, and will not be any set number of disks. It is expected that when a new CDROM is released each month, that there will be 15-25 floppy disks that are released at the same time, the contents of which will make up some fraction of the new material that is included on each CDROM. Note that not all the new material will be contained on the floppy disks; the only way to get all the new material is via the CDROM. There will be a supported way of recreating individual copies of the floppy disk distribution from the contents of the CDROM. I expect to release one more batch, 901-910 before the first CDROM is completed. This batch should be released in the last week of August. I'm currently projecting the first CDROM master to be completed by the last week of September and committed to production in early October. Migration to CDROM Only Distributions Once the library reaches disk 1000, there will be no more floppy releases and the library will move to CDROM only. Part of the reason for this is to allow people time to acquire CDROM drives and part of the reason is that it would be a shame to get this close to disk 1000 and not reach it. :-) After the release of disk 1000, there will be a CDROM containing the entire library, possibly in the archived BBS-ready form. The exact details will be determined during production of the CDROM, taking into account experiences and feedback from users of the monthly CDROMs. ORGANIZATION OF THE CDROMs The Monthly CDROM The monthly CDROM is designed to meet the needs of users who want copies of new releases of material as soon a practical with a CDROM distribution. Depending upon when the material was received in the CDROM production cycle, and the time to go from CDROM master to production CDROMs, there should be an average latency of about 3 weeks. However since it is unlikely that there will be enough new material each month to fill a CDROM (or enough time to organize it if it was available), I might as well include some other material on the CDROM and make effective use of the available space. Although subject to change, it's anticipated that the monthly CDROM will be organized into several different sections: o A overview section containing information about the library, this particular CDROM, hot breaking news, etc. o A section containing material that is newly released with this CDROM, in ready-to-run (unarchived) form. o A section containing material that is newly released with this CDROM, in BBS-ready (archived) form. o A section containing installed versions of popular tools that are anticipated to be released in updated form on each CDROM. By leaving the CDROM mounted, you can potentially free up several hundred megabytes of hard disk space to use for other purposes. Of course the tools can still be copied from the CDROM to a hard drive if you prefer the faster access speed of the hard drive or don't wish to leave the CDROM mounted all the time. If this section gets too large, it may be split off onto a separate tools CDROM. o A "filler" section. Whatever space remains after putting everything else on the CDROM will be filled with selected material from a previous CDROM or from the floppy based library distributions. This may or may not include all the new material from the previous CDROM, depending upon space available. The intention is that if possible, users will be able to order every other monthly CDROM (at least in the beginning) and because of the overlap, not miss any of the new material. The Quarterly CDROM This CDROM is intended to meet the needs of users who don't want the monthly CDROM, and prefer to get their doses of new material in larger chunks over longer intervals. It also provides a way for BBS operators to have the maximal amount of recently released new material online using a single CDROM. All of the material on the quarterly CDROM will be in the BBS-ready format. The quarterly archival CDROM will contain all the new material from each of the previous monthly CDROMs, back as far as the CDROMs go or until the quarterly CDROM is out of space. For the first several quarterly CDROMs there will probably not be enough older CDROM material to fill it up, so material will be included from the floppy distribution, starting with the latest disk and working backwards until the CDROM is full. The Floppy Archival CDROM Once the floppy distribution reaches 1000 disks, there will be a CDROM with the entire contents of the floppy library, in the BBS-ready format. LIMITED PRODUCTION RUNS OF FIRST CDROMs The first couple of monthly CDROMs will probably have limited production runs; basically the number of preorders plus some small percentage to cover post production demand (20% maybe?) and another small percentage to cover returns, promotional copies, etc (10% maybe?). Thus if there are preorders for 300 disks, I'll probably order an extra 100 or so. The reason for this is to reduce the risk of significantly overestimating the actual demand and having to heat my house with unused CDROMs, using the fireplace. :-) ORDERING INFORMATION I've decided on the following price schedule, until it becomes more clear exactly what the actual demand for CDROMs will be. Depending upon the actual demand after the first two or three monthly CDROMs, the price may be adjusted either up or down. o $15 per CDROM, plus shipping and handling, for any four or more CDROMs preordered by Sept 1st. Consider this a special discount for helping to defray startup costs and for helping to determine potential actual demand early in the process. o $20 per CDROM, plus shipping and handling, for any CDROM preordered before the CDROM master is committed to production, which is expected to be late September or early October for the first CDROM and approximately monthly thereafter. o $30 per CDROM, plus shipping and handling, for any CDROM ordered after the master is committed to production. Availability cannot be guaranteed, and is on a "first come first served" basis. o Shipping and handling is $3 per CDROM for domestic USA first class mail shipments and $5 per CDROM for overseas airmail shipments. Special arrangements such as federal express are available for a $10 special handling fee, plus actual shipping charges. You can order CDROMs using the same address as for the floppy distribution: Fred Fish 1835 East Belmont Drive Tempe, AZ 85284 USA FAX: (602) 491-0048 (FAX only, no phone orders via voice) Payment can be made via: o cash (suggest registered mail) o check, money order, international bank draft (payable in U.S. dollars) o credit card (VISA or MasterCard; minimum order $100). Be sure to state in your order which CDROMs you want and include the appropriate shipping and handling as indicated above. As with the floppy distributions, funds not immediately used will go into an escrow account (fully refundable at any time), to be charged against as CDROMs are shipped. If you already have an account for the floppy distribution, you can transfer to the CDROM account, and automatically switch over to the CDROM distribution, by simply notifying me that this is what you'd like to do. Currently I can only accept MasterCard or VISA orders if they are $100 or more. I'm trying to work out an arrangement that would let me handle smaller amounts. I'll post a followup message if this becomes reality, but it probably won't happen until early September. Please include a statement with your order that you agree to have the charge made to your card before delivery of the CDROMs, subject to full refund on demand of any unused portion. If you FAX in a order, please sign it somewhere. Since I prefer to have a hardcopy on file somewhere of all orders received, I'm not accepting email'd orders, with payment via credit card, at this time. HYPERMEDIA CONCEPTS CDROM V1.7 The next Hypermedia Concepts "Fred Fish Collection on CD ROM" disk, version 1.7, should be available by mid September. By special arrangement with Hypermedia Concepts, this update will be available from me under the same conditions as the other CDROM disks, and can be one of the four or more disks preordered by Sept 1st to get the special $15 + S&H rate. FAVORITE and MOST USED PROGRAMS One section of the monthly CDROM will be devoted to containing programs that are likely to be useful to a large segment of Amiga users, with a slight bias towards developers. They will be in a ready to run form; I.E. you will not have to copy them off of the CDROM onto your hard drive (though of course you can if you want). In fact, getting them off of the hard drive to free up space is part of the motivation for including them in a ready to run form. I'm soliciting input from the user community for tools that you'd most like to see available on the CDROM. Some of the more obvious ones that come to mind are GNU Emacs, GNU C / C++, TeX, etc. If you submit the name of something you'd like to see put on the CDROM, try to tell me where you think the latest version is available from (ftp site name plus directory path is fine). *StarShip* News Note: For information on the following, please download file 20572 FISHCD.LHA from the *StarShip* Library. This information was not included here due to space considerations. REDISTRIBUTION and COMPILATION COPYRIGHT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS CD32 and CDTV COMPATIBILITY INFORMATION OVERLOAD GIVING THE LIBRARY A FACELIFT GROUP CDROM DRIVE PURCHASE That's it for now folks. -Fred -*- Over a GIGABYTE of Amiga files in our Library! Catch your limit of Fred FISH Disks from the *StarFish* Library. If you are after a SINGLE PROGRAM on a Fish Disk, SEARCH for it before downloading the disk. Most are available separately! _______________________________________________________________ | | | | | Permission is hereby granted to quote ALL or PART of this | | Newscast on a privately owned BBS or in a user group news- | | letter provided you include the following credit: | | | | Reprinted by permission from the *StarShip* 5-MINUTE News | | on GEnie. | | | | If you would add the following, we'd appreciate it! | | | | Joining GEnie is easy! Use half duplex at 300/1200/2400 | | baud. Dial 1-800-638-8369 (Canada 1-800-387-8330). Type | | HHH at CONNECT. At the U#= prompt, * | | type AMIGA and press Return. \ * * / | |________________________________________________ * * ________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * ~~~~~~~ * * * * * * * * * * * * We'd like to know if you reprint * The * the *StarShip* 5-MINUTES News. * *StarShip* * Tell us by leaving Mail about * on GEnie * Amiga on GEnie Page 555. * * _ / * * * * * * * * * * * * * / * * * \ *