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« IS^UE 21'1 DECEMBER 1999

Acorn User Awards 1995

Best produci
runne' up - PublishART

Acorn User Awards 1995
Besi business software
runner up - TableCalc

Acorn User Awards 1996
BesI network soflware
runner up ■ Seri3lNET

Tel 01344 455769 email atJmbrell@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/isvproduct/

Acorn Usei Awards 1997
Best graphics soHware
Winner - DrawWortisJ

All quoted prices (unless stated)

are for single users versions orily.

Special offers relate to single

user versions only.

All details carreci at ilie itme ol going la press E&OE
NOT i Typogiaphy are Iradernarks ol iSV Products, All other Iradernarke are acknowledged
This advert was produced using NDT tonis
arid DrawWorks Millennmm

;^.i,i.-i.- '-".">;

contents

December 1999

Hands on

HA Run the Rise

N4ike cooks up a relaxing hardwart?
project this month

nfL Rambles

' ^^ Thebeardy-fella'sonhand tohelpoul

with tiny of your computer questions

Published by

PRESS

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Contributors

AlasJair Bjiloy, Walter BngRS, Ian Burley, Mike Cmik. David

DaJc, Andrew Green, Ben Olliverc, Max I'jlmet. lill Regan.

Pjm Tumbull. Nicii van dtr W^lle. I'aul Vigay

Accounl Manager David Bradfortb

-Ad Production Diinslan Orchard

finance Manager Charlie Moran

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ftcani UsmisavatliiWv n-svfviSli Iniratlw
iiilfcInK' ?J«vspspcr Assoinafion L' K

ffiaWTaul'KisLld.

.V,i ^iiaii.'rUI itiBV Ijo TeftMuwd m wliol' "t In pari «'"l"MJt

Written ^>tnruMlEin- Wliflp even f afr » ld>k«X|

the publnhi-rh cJotmiI lie l-fld IukjIIv lespcinsltilc lor

ony iTTOis in artltle?. listing or advofllwmcdts and

itx vituti-ot confribiiiori di> ik^i nKi'wanly itflwt

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Features
48

VNC

Complicated stuff, but you can use
your machine from anywhere

Regulars

fi News

All the latest on what's happening in
and around the RISC OS world

1 '2 Comms

Gimmicks from free ISPs; getting
thumbnails onto Web pages; fruity
software

1 C Graphics page

Using digital stiKk photography from
the Web plus news tin PCA, the new
challenger for OLE's title

1 ^ Public domain

Dfsktop themes and utilities, checking
your site links and chopping up images
for the Web

I Q Cover disc

No disc? DON'T PANIC - turn to page
19 to find out what's going on

'5C Game show

A look at a few of the games whose
StrongARM patches arc on the Acorn
User Website, plus the latest news

■TQ Subscriptions

Get every issue of Acarn User delivered
to your door and the back issues

g1 Letters

Our readers have their say in the
Letters page

Interviewing Tumisiav Simnett in his
houseboat on the Thames

Free ads Page 60

Advertisers' Index Page 71)

Back issues Page 78

Subscriptions Page 78

Reviews
20

24
29

Digital Cameras

Alasdair Bailey reviews three cameras
and the supporting RISC OS software

Noticeboard Pro

Patil Vigay takes a gutid look at this
able piece of presentation software

Composition

Is this the most flexible bit-map collage
creator in the world?

Graphic Equaliser

Mike Cook and his rock 'n' roll son put
this Rise PC based graphic equaliser to

the test

Psion 5mx

Ian Burley takes a gander at Ihe new
improved Psion series 5

Cn Photodesk Plugins

Nick van der Walle reviews a product
which ho wouldn't give up "for love
nor money"

C J. TopModel2

Max Palmer rounds off his two part
review of Sincronia's superb 3D
modelling package

Ancestor+

Now you can store oil your ancestors
on your computer

Education

'7'> Education news

^^ PamTumbuIi lets us know what's new
in the world of education

Education reviews

Keywords for Ihe living world and
more on basic number work

Next month

RISC OS '99 Show Report, ArtWorks pluR-lns,

ParaFS, Internet data logging and on-the-fly

gif creation, digital projection, and a

beginners guide lo Draw.

Christmas issue on sale 25th November

htlp://www.acornusef.com December 1 999

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EMAIL: sales(p^L-ia.ii-iiL'i com tiup

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IB 6Qb (72CK1 rpm) £345 00 |C405 3Bi

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3 yr Warranty on ALL Ac(

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with FPA socket £45,00 £55.88 inc,
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RFC 1ft bit audio & mixer £59 inc
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ftJ«V'A5000 raplscemenl *brO €» 00 *69 33
AIOCASIXW Erflii KB^OOaiO CM.OO €81 08

Replacement Floppy Drives

.'\3(KK)/4()(Vri(H) t;:y,(10+\iii (O4-08)

A3OX0/4OO0/5W)0 n.)pp> allows

cross - rorniiiiEini: of HD and DD

discs i;39.()n+viii (t.M.OK)

Consumables

frciiiiir Quiilitx Ink Refills

Single refills ( 1 x22ml) £6.00 inc
Twintelills (2x22ml) ElO.OOinc
Triple refills (3x22ml) £14 00 inc
Tn- Colour |C MY) £15 00 inc
Quad-Colour (C.M.Y.K) £20 00 inc
125 ml £21.00 inc
250ml £38.00 inc
500ml £50.00 inc
1 lure £70 00 inc
All ^i:t■^ iiviiiliihh- in C M-Y.K

ILOinn DISKS (PlOpH

ExVAT Inc VAT
DD Re-labBi Acorn Imt 10 £2.00 £2,35
DD Re-label Acorn Imt too £17.02 £20.00
HD bulk Acorn or PC 10 £2.00 £2.35
HD bulk Acom 01 PC 100 £17 02 £20.00
HD Branded 10 pack £3.00 £3.53
20 cap Disk Box £1 69 £2.00
40 cap Disk Sox £2,54 £2.98
100 cap Disk Boi £2.98 £3.50
Mouse cleaner £4 99 ES.86
3 5" FWppy head cleaners £2 60 £2.94
CD-ROM cleaner £4 25 £4 99

POWERED SPEAKERS

Ex. VAT Inc. VAT
60 waits with PSU £13.50 £15.86
240 watts with PSU £21.00 £24.68
Subwoofer system £42,00 £49.35

COLOUR SCSI SCANNKRS

\// sditinrrs iitc Acorn Softwttn

niel Mustek 600dpi £99,00 (£116.33)
Mustek A-t 600dpi £119.00 (£139.83)
Mustek A-t 120Ddpi E149.00 (£175.08)
Epson GT7000 £199.00 (£233,63)
Epson GT7000P £249.00 (£292.58)

lnuit;tnui\tri A IhiUIi tilwiiiuihil'li
tri»iiiiiiil\

Charai'Icr Mousv Mats

SouBipark Kenny £4. Sit
Southpa'k Cailmaii £4 99
Disney Mklkev. Poon DonaW, aK £4 99
X-Fitas (lour types) M.99
Gartield or Fioveiry t4 99
Standard mal El 00/Econ, tO.Sfi

Switch Boxes

2-1 wltficaOle £15.00 £1763
2-1 Auto wilfi cable £1500 £1763
4-1 with catJie £19.00 £22,33
2-1 Uonitor/K'board £29.79 £35,00

R-Comp CD-ROM Software

ABUSE £2;ciO Ouake;due«ion) £3300
PsicarH E370a Syrdicala E2eiW
Doom* Tnlogy £300(1 TowBrt oi Daikneis tSOOO
(£32 Sd «* Domi) (Hflien Tfpiel
HorOBi cJUigni CM 00 Ooom lecols Soc* CIO 00
ana Uaqc 2 (CI* SpBtalt

Primer Ribbons, Inkjcl

Carlridgcs,

Ncw/Rccycled Laser Toner Carls

I'ritcs ;i\:iil.it''lL.' en ivqiii-'si

ARC SHARK

Acorn nelwnrkin^ for PCs
€29.'>5 e\c\al 05.19 im\al

sec nelwork section for Cards etc-

StrongARM Rev "T"

t;:5^J.()(»inc VAI

(with any Hurd Drive / Memory
purcha.se i

RiscPC PC Cards

DX2-66 £145.00 inc VAT

DX4-100 £195.00 inc VAT

586-100 (Aleph) £290.00 inc VAT

566-133 (CJE 512) £300.00 inc VAT

We can repair/upyrade your

niachiiie(s) and monitors at

competitive price!f please ask

All Acorn's. BBCs & PCs

KttnrlHshcd RiscPC s

Avuilabltf imw refurbished RisiPC

Svslenis with ,\KKW) Monihirs

oniv £499 + Vat

(AH Prices below include VAT)

THE BARGAIN BASEMENT

Acorn Software Bin

Acjjtn Pockel Book Sctiedule

eta 00

AloTiB in irw Dark

C29 0D

Arm Tecli lowlier

C9 00

Arm Tocli CI^An (vaiiQUi par par*)

taoo

R<id5 nl Wsi

£20 00

Sniing Mansuai

£8 DO

CnildPlsv (desktop]

£14 96

C-okujrSep (CuUuji Sepaialiod Softwaie;

EflOO

Creator 2

£25 (»

UFHe Font Paek (Academy)

£10.00

n'FllH Fwil Pad! (Balmoral)

£10.00

llFilB Font Park (FineStyla Scripll

£10 IX)

D'File Font Pack (Manhatlanl

£10 00

D'File Font Pack llifasiertard)

eiooo

D'FiIh Font Pack (Old Toyma 538)

£12 00

Diary •

£9 00

tlrifier

£30,00

MUh .ml ICE

£15.00

' -.,. :■ HPC)

£13 tx)

ij.i'j.i,. Llao

£10.00

Game ON (lor HPC< A70O0)

EIS.00

Gli)bai EHed

£2500

Guile ,

E 10.00

HbTO QUEST

£15.00

Imagery Ad Package

£25.00

Jatiangir Klian Squasli

caoo

KV ( PlaHom> Game)

IS .00

My World Suppon Disc Ancient Egypt

£12 00

My Wciiid SupiKin Di&c Ancient GieMe

Ct3 00

NudHjes 11 and Elprnems n isaue Zl 00

E25D0

Quest tO' GOLD
RAMnl.ty
FtevBlanon 2

snuany

Silvef6all

SirongGoartl

T.AN.KS

TURBO DRlVEFi - EpEOfi Stylus

Visual Backup

Wavalengtii

World Class LeaOHrtMHra IGOLFI

£5.00
£17.95
£29 00
£14 B5

E9 9B
£25 00
E 16.95
£45 00
£15 00
EIJOC
£10 00

CD General Resource Titles

10000 Clip Art (Draw Format) £5.00

550 fonts £5.00

Symphony Music collection £5.00

Internal Clipatl (new) £25.00

COREL DRAW 5 £29-00

We have a large collection of

Budget PC software sitilable for

RFC Pc Eniulalors and PC clones

inc. Education. Home, games an

ulililics please ring for list

Acorn CD-ROM Software

Crystal Maze

£15.00

D'Ftle PDCD 4

£5 00

D'File PDCD 5

£10.00

Hutchinson Encyclopedia

£39 00

RM)en Duncan Canoon KIT

£39 00

T()t..i<.Art ro

Tots TV ABC

£15.00

YITM Electricity and magnetism

£15.00

YiTM Elements

£15-00

YITM Matenats

£15.00

YITfW (all three titles)

£35.00

1/2 price (or less) Book Bargains

DaDhand Guide 'Budget DTP' E3 00

Dabhand Guide "C vet 3 Ea.50

Dabhand Guide "C ver 2 £3.00
Dabhand "Graphics on the ARM E7.50

Dabhand Guide "Impression' £7 50

Inlemel into server £20 00

SOL £1 7 50

Various Hardware Bargains

A3010 3Mb basas trom £85.00 C99.88

A30?0 3Mb bases Irom £125.00 £146 88

A4000 2Mb bases (lom C15000 £17625

A5000 4Mb bases Irom £225.00 £264.30

A7000 4Mb basse from £275 00 £323 13

A4Por1ablM (6 months wty) £500.00 E5B7.S0

RPC bases (rem £435.00 £51 1 13

SVGA Monitors Various Irom £45.00 £52.38

Pioneer SCSI 4»6« slack £139.00 £163.33

Alternative PC Bases

1 u. .Siiiii.iii^ .SiMul IViilutiii
:[»0\IM.\ IrnniONI.V t:4<)l«i

■ \\\ t)tl- l.'t I.;;.. ] I'll. ■■■.

H(>V\ loOKDIR

HV MAII-iir PHONf^. niat'«> »' P." ' ^t"'"!!! 1*'

miHli.^ paviiNi.' ii> CTA DIRECT.

CKIiDIT CAKIl / SWIIfli plcu«- pivv naiii^-.

aJiiifs>,. Id iHi. lariJ im- i*pit> iliiii-. issui' iiiv

B\ EMAIL. saif^i*rila u ni'l.i'.im

Ob KICIAI. OKIIKILS hv MAU. or ¥\\ picaiw

l-'iirtiuui-chatci.'- itK int; i)i ffinki) BJiim;^ i^^Ja i Cj'M

Small i^l;m^ iimJcr 2Kgi nii miiri- than tt> * vm

()ncho\ orilemNiiiwIling upin 2^Ji¥...£ti.S0 + vm

Computi-t (.ystL'iijs tn > vui

All piK't* an.' ci.itTVi.1 jjiiiii"; in piv-s EAIM;

All iimiUi iiiv liill> puijiiiKced hul rint Mipplitd on

iipptuwl

'--;.-,";.. ~-.'^;"^^-^i.."',-^-."- .

Photo printer stakes

Canon has just Uiunched revised BjC-
5000 and 6000-series ink-jet printer
models. The new A3-LMpable BJC-5100
and A4 6100 are faster than before and
print quality improvements, in the
6100 in particular with its tweaked
1440x720 dpi prijit head, suggest it
could be a justifiable alternative to
Epson's all-conquerin}^ Stylus Photo
on photo-quality alone.

The rather disappointing BJC-7100,
with its complicated PPOP plain
paper optimising system, remains on
Canon's catalogue for the time being.

but despite being positioned as its
photo printing contender, print
samples we've seen from the 6100 are
decidedly superior - on photo paper
at least. For mono printing, the 6100 is
capable of delivering text documents
at a rate of up to ten pages a minute.

Canon is also persevering with its
snap-in 300dpi scaiuier head, which
swaps out the print head. At the much
reduced price, it's now a more realistic
proposition compared to a dedicated
scanner. The 6U10, which is now
being assembled at Canon's
Glenrothes plant in Scotland, also gets
a USB port, the first for a Canon ink-
jet printer.

Another notable feature of the 6100

is its use of separate ink-tanks for each
individual ink colour, which Canon
says will reduce waste and print costs.
Most current ink-jet printers force
users to throw away un-used ink
when one colour is used up as the
other colours are contained in one
tank.

Oddly enough. Canon is revisiting
the multiple tanks first pioneered in
its BJC-600 model line about six years
ago. The company adds that many of
its future model releases will adopt
multiple tank systems as well. Canon
is also working to cttmmence ink tank
production in Glenrothes next year.
Please note, RISC OS comparibility
with the new BJC 5100 and 6100 was
not confirmed at the time of printing.
Please check compahbiHty before
buying.

BlC-6100

Subscription gifts

All subscribers who had been

expecting the latest batch of Acorn
User subscriptions gifts should, by
the time this is published, have
received theni. If you think you
haven't, contact Richard Siggee at
subscrip@acornuser.com for
advice. (If you ring you will
receive a re-direction message to
the new phone number.)

Castle's ISDN bargains

A very sad item of news, recently,
was tlie demise of PMC Consumer
Electronics based in Shipley, West-
Yorkshire, wliich manufactured
modems under the familiar Pace
brand. PMC grew out of its famous
parent company. Pace Micro-
electronics, several Vf^ars ago as a
management buv-out, leaving Pace
to concentrate on TV set-ttip boxes
and digital TV products. Indeed,
Pace recently acquired' what was left
of the old Acorn business after
Element-14 was created.

This was to strengthen its
broadband networking expertise, an
area Acorn had invested in heavily

in terms of research and
development,

The Pace brand has been a
familiar name in modems since the
early '80s, but the market has
become perilously cut-throat in
recent years. Diversification into PC
peripherals like TV tuners and
graphics cards wasn't enough to save
PMC, Despite the passing of PMC,
some of us at least can benefit from
bargain clearance stock.

Castle Technology has secured a
supply of PMC's Pace ISDN Pro
terminal adapters and is offering
them for the \'erv attractiye price of
t"yM including VAT and delivery. Tiie

product was previously on sale for as
much as £149+ VAT. Castle is also
throwing in a free trial offer for the
Argonet Internet service, which is
tailored especially for the Acorn
community.

The Pace ISDN TA has all the
usual ISDN features, including
multilink PPP for aggregating two 64
kilobit channels to enable a 128
kilobit throughput (16K bytes/
second or around a megabyte a
minute).

For more information, check
Castle's Website at http://www.
castle.org.uk, or phone 01728
723 200.

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

Photo printer stakes

Canon has just launched revised BJC-
5000 and 6000-series ink-jet printer
models. The new A3-capable B)C-5100
and A4 dlOO are faster than before and
print quality improvements, in the
6100 in particular with its tweaked
1440x720 dpi print head, suggest it
could be a justifiable alternative to
Epson's all-conquering Stylus Photo
on photo-quality alone.

Tiie rather disappointing BJC-7100,
with its complicated PPOP plain
paper optimising system, remains on
Canon's catalogue for the time being.

Canon is also pcrsevenng with its
snap-in 3tXldpi scanner head, which
swaps out the print head. At the much
reduced price, it's now a more realistic
proposition compared to a dedicated
scanner. The 6100, which is now
being assembled at Canon's
Glenrothes plant in Scotland, also gets
a USB port, the first for a Canon ink-
jet printer.

Another notable feature of the 6100

is its use of separate ink-tanks for each

individual ink colour, which Canon
savs will reduce waste and print costs.
Most current ink-jet printers force
users to throw away un-used ink
when one colour is used up as the
other colours are contained in one
tank.

Oddly enough, Canon is revisiting
the multiple tanks first pioneered in
its B)C-600 model line about six years
ago. Tlie company adds that many of
its future model releases will adopt
multiple tank systems as well. Canon
is also working to commence ink tank
production in Glenrothes next year.
Please note, RISC OS compatibility
with the new BJC 3100 and 6U)0 was
not confirmed at the time of printing.
Please check compatibility before
buying.

BjC-5100

BJC-6100

Subscription gifts

All subscribers who had been
expecting the latest batch oi Acorn
ilsfr subscriptions gifts should, by
tbe time this is published, have
received them. If yoii think you
haven't, contact Richard Siggee at
subscrip@acornuser.com for
advice. (If you ring you will
receive a re-direction message to
the new phone number.)

Castle's ISDN bargains

A very sad item of news, recently,
was the demise of PMC Consumer
Electronics based in Shipley, West-
Yorkshire, which manufactured
modems under the familiar Pace
brand. PMC grew out of its famous
parent company. Pace Micro-
electronics, several years ago as a
management buy-out, leaving Pace
to concentrate on TV set-top boxes
and digital TV products, hideed.
Pace recently acquired what was left
of the old Acorn business after
Element-14 was created.

This was to strengthen its
broadband networking expertise, an
area Acorn had invested in heavily

in terms of research and
development.

The Pace brand has been a
familiar name in modems since the
early '80s, but the market has
become perilously cut-throat in
recent years. Diversification into PC
peripherals like TV tuners and
graphics cards wasn't enough to save
PMC. Despite the passing of PMC,
some of us at least can benefit from
bargain clearance stock.

Castle Technology has secured a
supply of PMC's Pace ISDN Pro
terminal adapters and is offering
them for the very attractive price of
£9Q including VAT and delivery. The

product was previously on sale for as
much as £149+VAT. Castle is also
throwing in a free trial offer for the
Argonet Internet service, which is
tailored especially for the Acorn
commimity.

The Pace ISDN TA has all the
usual ISDN feahires, including
multilink PPP for aggregating two 64
kilobit channels to enable a 128
kilobit throughput (IhK bytes/
second or around a megabyte a
minute).

For more information, check
Castle's Website at http://www.
castle.org.uk, or phone 01728
723 200. "

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

w^"«

L=J

(AW(MA

camera news

Dorset-based RISC OS imaging specialists, Spacetech,

have introduced some interesting new digital cameras

and reduced the prices of some older favourites. The

compact new 190g Olympus C-21 is priced £699.99. It

sports a tiny, yet extremely robust aluminium alloy casing

and despite its size is easy to
use and packs a 2.1 million
pixel l/2inCCD chip -
currently the best resolution
in the consumer digital
camera market - to deliver
1600x1200 resolution images.
— It also sports TTL focusing

and light, metering.
Meanwhile, the best-selling mid-
priced Olympus C-900 ZOOM has

been superseded by the new C-920 ZOOM. Improve-
ments include manual ISO sensitivity adjustment and a

4.5cm TFT display which now has a

wider viewing angle. It also has

increased memory for faster image

saving and

continuous

shooting for all

quality settings.

Its 1.3 megapixel

resolution

provides 1280

pixel wide images,

Spacetech are introducing the new model at the same

price as the out-going version.

Olvmpus' entry level digital camera, the C-830L, has a

similar resolution to the C-920 ZOOM, but doesn't have

some of the newer model's extra features, like continuous

shooting and an optical zoom lens. It's still a value

contender at £349.99 and Spacetech also

throw in a colour filter.
Olympus' current

flagship consumer digital

camera is the C-2000

ZOOM which is now

available from Spacetech

at £649.99. Like the

compact C21, it has a high

resolution 2.1 million pixel

l/2in CCD but adds a formidable 3x optical

zoom lens. For photo enthusiasts, the C-2000

ZOOM also has a wide range of manual settings, plus
external flash synchronisation.

For further information
contact: Spacetech Ltd. at
http://www.spacetech.
CO. uk, tel: 01305 822753,
tax: 01305 860483, ore-
mail: chris@spacetech.co.uk

f^O

Attention all
Linux fans

Keith Gaughan, from Aclare, Co. Sligo in Ireland,
has contacted us to point out that he has started a
project similar to the Linux Open Documentation
Project by the name of Bibliotech. Full information
is on the Web at http://members.xoom.com/
dlm_design/bibliotech/ and submissions should
be made via kgaughan@geocities.com.

It had been pre-announced on Acorn
newsgroups in the summer, but a technical
problem involving Keith's college mail server
meant that earlier submissions were lost. He would
be very grateful if everyone who has sent
submissions re-send them.

Tau Press
on the move

After ten years as a hub of Acorn magazine production
Media House is to be finally vacated. While IDG
Media (previous owner oi Acorn User) has been bought
by Paragon Publishing and Europress (who owned
Acorti User before that) has gone to Hasbro, the current
publisher Tau Press is moving a few miles north of the
Macclesfield address into Stockport.

As the magazine went to press negotiations were
almost complete to move the business into the same
building as Desktop

Projects - the
Stockport-based
Acorn dealer.

Steve TumbuU,
MD of Tau Press,
said: "Since taking
over Acorn User we
had been planning
to move and the
opportunity to go to
the Heapriding
Business Park is
ideal. Not only will
we be right next to

Desktop Projects, but our subscription mailing house is
also just across the way.

"The old green field site was very nice (except when
the wind was from the pig farm) but now we'll have
the advantage of being easy to get to by road, rail, bus
or even plane."

The move will happen just before the RISC OS '99
show - just as tfiis magazine is hitting the streets. All
telephone lines will change (the old lines will be re-
directed) but the e-mail addresses will remain the

tau

PRESS

l€I

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

i^m THE UATA STORE

Serving the RISC OS community

Authorised

The first major event of the post-Acorn world,

RISC OS 4 is now shipping. Compatible with RiscPC

and A7000{+), it provides a whole host of improvements

for the new millennium plus great new bundled software!

Stand up and be counted as a supporter of our favourite

operating system - place your order today!

£1 1 6.33

plus £25 fitting and data transfer if required

SIBELIUS

THE MUSIC NOTATION SOFTWARE

The Data Store now provides the official
Customer Support service for Sibelius Acorn programs.

To celebrate this, we've reduced the price of Sibelius 7

and we're offering one year's technical support free with

every copy sold up to 30th September.

Our specially priced PCs for Acorn Sibelius users

moving to Sibelius for Windows are still available.

Please call for details.

Junior Sibelius! £ 55.00

Sibelius 6 £105.00

Sibelius 7 Student £320.00

Sibelius 7 £525.00

Optical Manuscript £275.00

Sibelius for Windows/Mac £595.00

i We stock copies of Acorn User and

^^J^T have varioiis back issues dating from _-:::
^■■^^ April 1998 onwards priced £3.95 or £4.20,
J. -L Vy Please contact us for availability.

FONTFX

Just a few examples of the effects
that FontFX 6 can produce...

Border effect

Grow and shrink feature

FONTFX

User-definable shadow length and direction

F TFX

Rainbow fill option 3D shadow effect

For further details or to download
FontFX Lite, please visit our web site

£31 .9S \m. VAT ind postiigt

Site licenses and upgrades available
Please phone for details

Connected to the Net?
Then why not visit us online?

THE DATA

Company information, directions to our

showroom, contact details, information on

the range of Data Store Software, online

price lists, downloads, Sibelius Software

information and lots more...

POINT YOUR BROWSER TO...

http://www.datstore.demon,co.uk/

THE DATA STORE

mitriKDinputr

STORE „-,

6 CHATTERTON ROAD BROMLEY KENT BR2 9QN

Telephone (020-8)460 8991 • Facsimile {020-8] 3] 3 0400

Web http://www.datstore.dennon.co.uk/

Email info@datstore.demon.co.uk
(all prices in this advertisement are inclusive of VAT at 1 7.5%)

StrongARM upgrade service

Memory and processor specialists, Simtec, report they
have received a lot of enquiries about modifying
StrongARM cards from users wanting either a faster
233MHz part or to upgrade to a Rev T device. Therefore,
Simtec has launched a service to meet this demand.

For £100 inc. VAT and UK postage, Simtec will send
you a suitable postage box with anti-static packing and a
static-strap for you to safely remove (and reinstall) your
card and post it to Simtec. On receipt, Simtec will test the
card, change the chip to a rev-T 233MHz device and, on
200MHz cards, make the necessary modifications and
component changes to run the processor at
approximately 233MHz. The card will also be tested
before being returned.

Simtec aims to turn orders around the same day. UK
postage is included as First Class Recorded. An extra £3 is
required for registered post. Contact Simtec directly if
you are based out of the UK. Simtec provides a six month
guarantee for the upgrade.

Simtec very openly warns potential customers that
because the process requires changing the processor
and, thereby, the characteristics of the card, they point
out that on some 'marginal' systems, like those with
PC cards, and those that have already required
adjustment, there is a small risk that the system will
require retuning.

Simtec ensures that the customer's original card is

Hidden invaders!

Robert Purchase (u8rp@dcs.shef. ac.uk) has found
there is a space invaders game in RISC OS 4 hidden in
the module IRQUtils.

To activate it, use the following BASIC command:
SYS"OS_Module" ,2, "IRQUtils". These amusements
aren't that unusual in the software world.

Microsoft's voluminous Office '97 suite even hid a
comprehensive flight simulation type program. The
question is. was Bill Ciates amused?

99PV 999V9
9999 9 99
9 99

RISC O-X?

Thomas Leonard, a 3rd year computer
science student at Southampton
University, has announced the ROX
desktop, a project which aims to
provide a RISC OS style GUI on
Unix /Linux machines. Leonard
reports that the Filer code is mostly
finished and the desktop already
supports drag-and-drop loading and
saving, application directories and an

returned, but re-tuning work is not included in the
upgrade price. Contact Simtec at: Simtec Electronics,
Avondale Dr, Tarleton, Preston, Lanes, PR4 6AX,
tel; 01772 812863, fax: 01772 816426, or e-mail:
info@simtec.demon.co.uk

ARM works
with Microsoft

Apart from the fact that you can now buy StrongARM-
based Windows CE machines, the increasing
importance of ARM hardware to Microsoft has
been recently demonstrated by a joint project which
involved the two companies in optimising ARM-
specific support for Microsoft's Windows Media Audio
standard.

Driven by chip manufacturer demand for ARM-
powered digital audio products with Windows Media
Audio support, the ARM implementation is the first
embedded processor-specific Windows Media Support.
ARM and Microsoft were able to decrease power
consumpHon and memory requirements by a factor of
four, resulting in reduced system costs for digital audio
devices running the Windows Media Audio file format
and codec on ARM cores.

With the availability of Windows Media Audio for
ARM, manufacturers of ARM core-based products
can now provide CD-quality audio at twice the
download speed and half the storage space of some
competing audio formats, especially valuable as
witnessed by the rapidly growing Internet music
industry. Cirrus Logic will be among the first to
implement the new audio standard in its range of
embedded ARM solutions.

Meanwhile, ARM has armounced joint development
work with Ericsson on developing Bluetooth support
for mobile phones. Bluetooth is an industry-wide
standard for cable-banishing wireless short distance
communications. Bluetooth is closely associated with
the Symbian mobile operating system group, of which
Ericsson is a member Symbian is currently dedicated to
the ARM platform. Finally, ARM has announced that
3Com, perhaps the largest plaver in the networking
world, will implement ARM embedded cores in its
next-generation networking cards.

iconbar. You can download the core
components (filer, session manager
and text editor). Now Leonard is in
need of some user-feedback. You need
access to a Unix or Linux machine, but
root access is not required.

Tlie ROX homepage is at;
http://www.ecs, soton.ac.uk/~tall97/
ROX/index.html Thomas Leonard can
be contacted at: tall97@ecs.soton.ac.uk

Hm Sni

B-HMmi-feh*"*!

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

■^^i^

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London to follow
Manchester?

As the legend goes, on 18th July
1997, Tommy Lowe wrote to the
comp.sys.acom.misc newsgroup
asking if anyone might be interested
in the possibility of joining a new
Miinchester Acorn user group. He
felt that twenty interested parties
would be a reasonable critical mass.
Over two vears later, the Manchester
Acorn User Group (MAUG) has 150
members and is the UK's largest
regional RISC OS user group. Its
dozen-strong committee includes
dealers, developers, students,
teachers and enthusiasts from the
north-west's thriving RISC OS
community.

The bad news is that Tommy
Lowe has, along with some other
notable MAUG founding members.

succumbed to the lure of career
opportunities down south. The good
news is that there are now proposals
to emulate the success of MAUG in
London. Their plan is for a smaller
and more informal meeting
arrangement, moving around the
area and even including lunchtime
get-togethers if warranted.

An informal initial meeting was
scheduled to have taken place by
now and hopefully the seed has been
sown for the new London RISC OS
User Group or suchlike. If you are
interested in joining in too, e-mail
dgs@argonet.co.uk for more
information.

Manchester Acorn User Group -
http://www.acorn.manchester.
ac.uk/

Sub-licensin
RISC OS 4

RI5C0S Ltd has issued a statement
declaring their delight that

negotiations with several sub-
licensees for RISC OS 4 are nearing a
successful conclusion: "The Board of
RISCOS Ltd has established a pricing
schedule that balances the
development costs, past and future,
of this high quality product with the
needs of sub-licensees to be able to
achieve competitive pricing. The
schedule includes a progressive scale
of discounts to reward those sub-
licensees who are prepared to commit
to volume purchases and which
avoids subsidising individual
equipment manufacturers at the
expense of others.

"RISCOS Ltd is committed to
carrving the operating system
forward into the new Millennium as
>i cutting edge product for ARM-
based systems. We have already
commenced work on hardware,
VIDC and lOMD independence, the
ability to run in 32-bit mode and are
adding new features to tlie OS."
Paul Middleton, RISCOS Ltd's
Managing Director added: "I am

delighted that sub-licensees have
recognised the increased speed,
stability and features that RISC OS 4
brings. This new operating system
complements perfectly the
advanced technology being
incorporated in the new generation
of RISCOS computers that will soon
be launched."

Acorn Southwest Show

The Acom Southwest Show will
once again be taking place, on
Saturday 19th February 2000 at The
Webbington Hotel, Loxton, nr
Axbridge, North Somerset.

The show is supported bv Bristol
Acorn Rise User Group. The doors
open at Ulam und close at 4.30pm.
Entry will cost £2 for adults, £1 for
ARM Club/RISC OS Foundation
members, while children under 16
are can enter free if accompanied by
an adult. For information about the
show: tel/fax: 01935 413170,
e-mail: acornshow@argonet.co.uk,
or browse: http;//www.argonet-Co.
uk/acornshow

In brief

Sail safely
with RISC OS

Stuarl Nundy spotted a novel use
for a Rise PC, recently. A BBC 9
O'clock News item on Friday,
1 7th September, covering the use
of aircraft-style in-flight black box
recorders for commercial
shipping, like ferries, showed a
Rise PC monitoring a prototype
black box fitted to the Pride of
Portsmouth ferry. With
Windows' worrying reliability
level, perhaps we shouldn't be
surprised to find a Rise PC being
employed lo monitor a critical
task such as this. If you have seen
any other out of the ordinary
Acorn/RISC OS applications, let
us know.

Contacting RiscCAD

David Buck would like to remind
everyone interested in the
RiscCAD package that from 8th
October 1999, correspondence
should be addressed to him at a
new address: 33 Cromwell
Crescent, Pontefract, West
Yorkshire, WF8 2EG. In fact,
by the time you read this,
forwarding from the old address
will have ceased. Alternatively,
you can e-mail: david.buek@
freeuk.com.

Acorn's FTP site closes

Considering the fact that Acorn as
an operating company no longer
exists, Ibis news is perhaps more
surprising for its lateness than for
Its actuality. Since Friday 24th
September, the Acorn FTP site
(ftp.acorn.co.uk) has no longer
been available. Pace Micro
Technology, who acquired the
remnants of Acorn Computers
earlier in the year, kindly
continued to host the Acorn FTP
site |une. However, Pace did not
acquire acorn.co.uk and
acorn.com domains.

Clearly, the Acorn FTP site was
living on borrowed time provided
by Pace. Indeed its use has
reduced over time to very low
levels and most of its contents
aren't very recent. However, there
is a sentimental and historical
archive value in the site and
Acorn User have distributed
snapshots of its site content on
cover CD-ROMs, so it lives on in

http://www.acornuser.coni December 1 999

Internet ready computers!

Pliiii in. turn on. conned and surf!

CJE Micro's can now supply you a ready to roll

Internet solution. The internet software is
installed and set up with a free Internet service
provider. Up to Hve email addresses
and 1 5MB of web space.

A7000+ 32MB, HD, 14" Monitor
& Internet Pack £850

RiscPC 32MB, HD, CD. 15" Monitor
& Internet Pack £1 300

Internet Systems built to your speeilkations.

Internet pack consists of Modem. ANT Suite

installed and set up with free Internet access.

iTelephone calls at local rale.)

Free Internet!

For existing RISC OS users we can register you

with a free Internet account, provide the

ANT Suite log on script and instructions.

(Telephone calls at local rale.)

5 email addresses & 15MB web space.
Simple painless instructions

Connection Pack Includes:-

Registration, with free Internet Service Provider,
script disc for Ant Suite and instructions.

Connection Pack £15

With the ANT suite £120

With ANT suite and modem £195

All prices include VAT & UK delivery

Second Hand RiscPCs

600s from £480, StrongARM from £700

iwlii-ii iiMiil;ihlc)

A7000S From £350

A7000+"Foundalion' or 'Extreme" £700

StrongARM
Upgrades

Rt'visiftii 'T'
Now available

£292

RiscOS 4 £120

Fitting & HD reformatting Service

£25 or £15 with New Hard Drive
Courier collection & return also available.

Plustek OpticPro A4 1200x600 inc. Acoi'n S/W £140 (with Slide unit £180 )
PC Card 5x86 133MHz 512k Cache £225

5x86 With Part exchange:- £90 CJE586 128k, £125 Acorn 586 & £170 DX2/66

IIYAMA 17" Visioninaster Pro 0.25mni ag £350

32 Speed IDE CD ROM Drive £60

CD ReWriter SCSI Yamaha 4416 with S/W (needs SCSI interface) £320

Acorn C++ HALF PRICE £125

1 00MB Zip Drives from £85, 56K V90 Modem £80

10.2GB IDE Hard Disc £135 25GB IDE Hard Disc £280

S/H Acorn

£550

2501V1B Zip Drive SCSI Ext. £185, Printer Port version with S/W £215, Int. IDE £165
9.1GB SCSI Hard Disc £290 18.2GB SCSI Hard Disc £680
Acorn Access+ Interfaces RiscPC NIC i0b2&T £110, lObZonly £80
DRAM SIMMs for RiscPCs 32Mb £60, 64Mb £95 & 128Mb £200

ICRO^

CJEV35

CJE Micro's
78 Brighton Road
Worthing
West Sussex
BN11 2EN
Tel 01903 523222 Fax 01903 523679 sales@cje.co.uk http://www,cje.co,iik

All prices INCLU DE VAT @17.5%

& Delivery. Official Orders Welcome E&OE
Prices subject to change & stock.

-■■fmas'mmBsa^vi.vt<i^-<- '

Name that domain ^SMi

Free ISPs, Internet Service Providers
offering free dial-up access, e-mail and
Web space, are now so numerous that
ever more attractive features are being
devised to ensnare customers. Limited
duration weekend unmetcrcd calls on an
0800 number are offered by companies
such as IC24 (http://www,ic24.co.uk/)
while Screaming.net {http://www.
screaming.net/) requires you to change
your telephone service provider to get
free local evening and weekend calls to
its servers.

Totalise (http://www.totalise,net/)
give you free shares in the company, free
telephone support and Web access to
your Totalise e-mail address, freenetname
Ltd is one of several companies offering
free connection, e-mail, Web space, free

Miinili--- j/ii'iji/ fniiii \/t<iir iijrii iliiriuiiil

phone support and a free Domain Name
registration. With freenetname you also
get free DNS hosting with unlimited
address e-mail and Web forwarding to
your own exclusive co.uk or org,uk
domain name, adding kudos and
credibility to your Internet presence.

Domain name registration with
Nominet normally costs £94 inc VAT for
twt) years, and DNS hosting, e-mail ajid
Web forwarding - the cross- translation
of e-mail and Web page addresses to
machine IP numbers - usually incur
extra charges, freenetname gives you all
these free, and expects to recover the
costs from the local-rate telephone call
revenue and make a profit as well. For
this reason, you must use their dial-in
number to send and receive e-mail, and
to upload pages to your domain's 20Mb
Web space.

One advantage for Acorn users is tliat
you can sign up online for all these
freenetname goodies without Windows
or httcnict Explorer. I was able to open a
freenetname account and register a nice
domain name using my Rise PC and
ANT's JavaScript Fresco version 2.t)3
with SSL, I spoke to a freenetname
technical support advisor who
recognised the Acorn brand, as he'd
used BBC Micros all the way through
school. Get your domain while you can
from http://www.iTeenetname, co.uk.

Thumbs up for Web images

y Bo

\x-mt

ThunibHTML by John M. Jakobsson

creates an HTML page of small

thumbnail pictures from a directory of

Web image files. The desktop program

uses Acorn's ClumgeFSl to make small

JPEG copies of your

original GIF and JPEG

images, and creates a

tabulated HTML page to

display them on your

Browser, You'll need

version 1,13 of Chan^eFSI,

which can be found at

http:// www.arsvcs,demon.co.uk/

webster/download/dload.htm

To include optional hyperlinks to the
full size images, the progi-am ctipies
them to a new directory, which seems a
waste of space unless you delete your
originals. The resulting index page loads
verv quickly, but the thumbnails vary in

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FS~HaRf>sc4S Comms In^motrmagBS

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Opandr

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size because they are scaled equally.
Watch out for errant slashes in filenames
that may result in blank thumbnails. You
can find ThiimbHTMl at http://www.
jako.demon.co.uk/progs/ info/th.html
Paul Vigay's-4MftJf;7s
z'1.22 uses a different
approach to display
thumbnail images more
neatly, but the page takes
much longer to load, Paul's
program presents the full
size images to the browser
which scales them to a constant width
on loading. AntUtHs offers many other
functions to enhance the ANT Inlcnui
Suite, Including timed fetches, random
sig. for e-mail, search engine selection
and Fresco feature controls. Find it at
Paul's shiny new site http://www.
vigay.com

Knitting your browse

Carl Pfeiffer's Browse mailing list
exists as a focus for support of
Acorn's Browse Web browser.
The mailing list is unofficial but
has many members including
some of the original authors of
Broivse.

Recent discussion has covered
impending version updates and
even the practicality of starting
new RISC OS Web browser
projects based on some of the
open-source browsers from other
platforms, such as Amaya,
Netscape and Opera.

To join the list send an e-mail
to maiordomo@riscos.man.ac.uk
with 'subscribe browse' in the
body of the message.

Pete's receipt

Peter Gaunt's been busy adding
to his Internet utility software
wildlife menagerie, 'rrt' isn't a
frog call, but gives ANT Suite
users the facility of automatically
sending back confirmation thai
an e-mail has been received.
These requests are embedded in
the plethora of normally hidden
headers that precede the e-mail
text Itself.

Peter suggests that setting this
up requires a moderate amount
of thought, and recommends
users read his help file and test i1
locally before going 'live'.

You tan badger Pete for the
program by sending an e-mail to
badger@ beard.demon.co.uk with
just 'get armadillo apps/rrt' in the
body.

Socketeer bears fruit

Sockeleer, the popular freeware
Interne) connection application
by Matthew Bloch, is now being
nurtured by Andy Carter. Andy,
known as Fruit to his oldest
friends, is a long-lime Acorn
enthusiast and has owned many
Acorn machines, from an Atom
to a Rise PC.

For anyone setting up
Socketeer with other freeware
Internet programs, his Argonel
Website contains useful
information and resources.

You can also find out about
the Waterwheel plant and other
carnivorous genera that Andy
nurtures in greenhouses at his
home by visiting http://www.
argonet, co.uk/homepages/frui 1/

Contacting AU J

David Dade:
Comms@acorn use r.com

http://www.acornuser.com December 1999

Icon Technology

New Pro-h version of Easiwriter and Techwriter now available

EasiWriter professional

• Powerful, fully featured, multi-column word processor.

• Reads and writes MS Word 6, 7 & 8 (Office '57/98).

• IMPRESSION text files with styles are imported complete with formatting.

• Reads and writes HTML. Splits large documents with automatic generation
of forward/backward links and contents.

• Reads RTF (Rich Text Format).

• Creates Hypertext documents.

• Built in Table Editor.

• Automatic bulleted and numbered lists.

• Mail merge.

• Automatic numbering of Lists, Sections etc.

• Powerful spell checker.

• Style editor.

EasiWriler professioniil

£119.84

Easiwriter Pro+

£139.00 (offer)

TechWriter professional

"Its great! At tlic risk of writing ndvertisiiig copy for
Icon Technology, no piece of software on any platform has
made me grin with delight as I discover neiu features as
much ns TechWriter has." Archive

# All the features of EasiWriler professional plus a pow-

erful easy to use equation editor.
Writes TeX.

Saves equations as GIF's (using
InterGif) when writing HTML.
Used by the Mathematical
Association to produce the
Mathematical Gazette.

TechWriler professional
£178.59

Techwriter Pro+

£199.00 (offer)

jc and writes

Micros

New! Pro+

Text flow over graphics

Paragraphs can contain multiple graphics which can be left and right aligned
with text flowing over them. Allow^s drop caps.

Java enabled

Run Java Applets inside an Easi/Techwriter window

Plus...

Over 100 new user definable keyboard shortcuts, runs animated GIFs and
Animator files, 300/360 dpi equation resolation when saving as Word.

Upgrade your SiartWrite or

TalkWrite to EasiWriter professional

for jusl £60.00 inclusive.

Icon Technology Limited

Church House • Carlby • Stamford • Lines • PE9 4NB
Phone and Fax 01778 590563

hltp;//www. icon techno I ogy.net

email: sales@IconTechnoIogy.net

graphics

We've

it in stock...

Tlu' CD distributed with RISC OS 4
contains a variety of digital stock
photography images, ail supplied Liy
one of the major players in that
industry, Photodisc. This
acknowledges that they, at least, are
interested in designers working on
platforms other than the Mac.

The advantage of using good
digital stock photography is clear; the
designer gets the flexibility of readv-
made images to work from in much

the same way as clip-art, but without

the prohibitively high cheese factor.

Many traditional stock
photography traders insist on pricing
a specific image to match the context
in which the image is used: A mono-
chrome print of an image used in a
short print run will cost less than the
same image printed in colour for a
widely distributed magazine. And
then there's the issue of how to charge
tor an image to be displayed on a
Website.

Photodisc, and a small
number of other
companies, operate a
much more

straightforward pricing
structure, largely based
on the size of the digital
file containing the image.
Tlie images are royalty-
free so, having licensed
them, you can use them
in as many different
projects as you wish
(with one caveat about
packaging materials,
greetings cards and the
like), Photodisc's
Website, at www.

photodisc.com, makes it possible to
search, license and download single
images in a single session, although
you'll need Secure Socket Layers
available in your browser to be able to
licence the images with your credit
card.

Their total image library nms to
tens of thousands of photos, and
contains a wide variety of objects
photographed against a clean white
background, making them ideal for
compositions.

One other royalty-free digital stock
photography trader worth mentioning
is Stockbyte, whose site at
www.stockbyte.com is in dire need of
attention - although their advertised
vacancy for a webmaster suggests
they're looking to improve in this area.
Nonetheless, it's possible to buy
specific images directly through the
site, and Stockbyte also offer a custom
CD-burning service.

Contacting AU J

Andrew Croon:

grii p hics@a corn use r. ciiiii

Don't forgel to send in yi'ur

entries for Pic of the Month!

The new OLE

As a direct result of their involvement with the Xemplar
NC, Clares Micro Supplies have developed a unique-to-
RISC OS variation on the idea of OLE, called PCA. Witli
traditional OLE, an object in one application (often a
graphic in a DTP document) can be exported to an
appropriate image-editing application, modified, and
then saved back into its original place v^fithin the first
document.

The trouble with this approach is that it can prove to
be highly memory -intensive, as two copies of the object
are used by the computer until the modifications are
saved back.

PCA-compliant applications change this by allowing
the object to be modified In silii by any PCA tools the
system has available: the extra editing tools use the in-
memory copy contained in the actual workspace of the
host application.

PCA tools don't have to be loaded immediately either,
just available for the system to call when appropriate. The
downside of this approach is that the PCA host application
has to trust all of the tools available on the system not to
corrupt the block of memory they share. Tlie clear upside
is that the system allows consistent editing features to be

maintained across a whole range of compliant host
applications, allowing each one to be extended in
functionality as and when new tools become available.

It's a very RISC OS way of doing things. The typical
Windows approach of ha\'ing to use a single application
to make every conceivable adjustment to a document is
rare as it stands on RISC OS - the OS makes things so
easy to apply a range of small programs to a single
project. PCA hints at a highly useful development of that
strategy.

Currently the only tools available are for editing
sprites, although Clares envisage text-editing and other
tools becoming available as the idea catches on. If Znp or
Stnmi^Eii (assuming continued development of the latter
by someone) were to become PCA compliant, it would be
possible to edit a text object in one application dii-ectly,
usijig your favourite text editor.

Clares' own Composition and David Filling's Ovation
Pro (a perfect home for the technology) are PCA
compliant, with TopModel and DaVinci soon to follow. It
remains to be seen whether many other applications wUI
embrace the system - see www.claresmicro.com for
further news as it happens.

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

LinkSure

First oFf this nn>nth is another visit to Richard Goodwin's
'House of Mabel' Website. When downloading software
from the Web to review in this column, one of my pastimes
is spending a few extra minutes wandering around people's
sites. This either lets me discover additional goodies or
lesser known software to download and more often than
not gives me a bit of fascinating backgroimd to the various
RISC OS users on the Internet.

One goody I discovered on Richard's site was a little

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application called LinkSure. LiiikSurc is an amazingly
simple yet effective HTML link checker. I've subsequently
decided that it's one of those applications that you never
thought you'd need, but once you've used it a few times
wondered how you ever made do without it.

In a nutshell, it checks links on Web pages. It's pretty
efficient at its job too - and so simple to use. Just double-
click on it and it pops onto the iconbar. All you then have to
do is to drag an HTML file onto its icon and it starts
scanning straight away.

Not only does it check any links to local files on your
hard disc but is capable of checking remote links too, so you
can quickly find out if any of your links are broken. Indeed,
1 can easily check my various links pages to see if the
remote sites are still where I thought they were supposed to
be. The only slight limitation I could find was that just
occasionally LinkSure would hang up if a particular remote

site doesn't respond in the way LinkSure

would like it to.

This appear to be a problem with the

various fetcher mechanisms because Richard

tells me that he's tried it with other http

fctchers and it behaves in the same way.
Nonetheless, it's a useful utility to have to

hand when checking a Web page to make

sure all the links are correct and actually

point to valid pages.

LinkSure is available to download in beta

form from http://www.goodwin.uk.com/

richard /programs/

Desktop themes

Also on Richard's site is an interesting project he has just embarked upon -
and one I'm surprised no one has done before. A desktop theme selector.
What is this? I hear you ask. Well, it's probably more familiar to people in the
PC worid {possibly because they are not happy with the look of Windows on
their desktop) and is a system whereby you can change the whole look and
feel of vour desktop environment with a simple cUck of the mouse button.

For instance you could give your desktop an
'Aliens' feel (why you should want to, I'm not
sure, but anyway the choice is yours) complete
with new icons, backdrop and window furniture
(the scroll bars and window icons and so on).
You can even assign soimds to various wimp
events if you wish to be really irritating.

Although in it's early development stages,
Richard's implementation is looking good so far
- as the aifXompanving screenshots should show.
You will probably recognise it if you've been to
the movies recently. Keep checking the URL
above, and I'm sure Richard would be willing to
include your own artwork if you've designed a
theme of vour own.

Thfmi' iViifi;fUivtioii icinJmi'

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

ECS Utils

Here is aimther useful little
application which deserves a
mention. It's slowly evolved over
time to become a helpful collection of
desktop enhancers, all housed in a
single application.

Its main features fall into several
categories, including Filer additions,
wimp additions, mode additions and
an application launcher. A lot of ECS
Util^' features are invisible to the
user, activating themselves onlv
when required bv the use of a 'hot
key' press.

Most of the enhancements are
valid while the mouse pointer is over
the window vou want to act upon.
Move it over a standard RISC OS
Filer window and you can then press
the function keys to change the
display mode or sort order, bring
windows to the front, back or center
of the screen.

A useful option for non-RISC OS 4
owners is the ability to open a 'notes'
directorv simplv by moving the
pointer to the right edge of the
screen and clicking Select. This will

also open automatically during drag
operations so you have a convenient
way of saving files when you've
started dragging but forgotten to
open a destination directory first.

ECS Utils lets you toggle between
frequently used screen modes at the
single click of a button, as well as
providing a function to turn off the
hourglass - which might be useful to
Zap users!

You can also scroll a window up,
down, left or right simply by holding
the Alt key down and pressing the
relevant cursor key. This works on any
window, even if it has no scroll bars.

Something unique, which the
author claims is entirely new to any
computer platform, is called a
'Version Manager'.

Drag a Filer object (file,
application or directory) with the Alt
key pressed and a new directory will
be created with a name derived from
the first five letters of the name of
the Filer object followed by the
letters 'Vrsns'. Inside this directory
will be another, this one has a name

derived from the Date/Time stamp
of the original Filer object. Inside this
will be the unaltered original Filer
object. This is very useful when
creating many versions of a program
or file, as you don't need to keep
renaming them.

Finally there are some invaluable
miscellaneous functions of ECS Utils;
A rudimentary mouse speed control
mechanism, a snapshot grabber and
a fine pointer control.

The window snapshot utility is
handy very. Just tap both Shift keys
simultaneously and ECS Utils will
save a snapshot sprite of the window
or menu below the mouse pointer.

Hold Ctrl down at the same time
and ECS Utils will strip off the
window furniture (scroll and title
bars and so on) and just save the
actual contents of the window for
you. Smashing!

ECS Utils comes complete with a
comprehensive IHelp file and even a
manual in StrongEd format. It can be
downloaded from ECS' Website at
http://www.innotts.co.uk/~ecsltd/

SChopper

Rob Davison has come to the help of
graphic Web designers with this
handy little utility to chop up sprites.
Web designers will know that it's
sometimes desirable to have a big
image made up from multiple image
pieces, but up until now, creating
these pieces has been
a tedious job of
cutting and pasting.
SChopper lets you
quickly divide any
sprite file up into
horizontal and
vertical 'slices',
before saving out as
.1 collection of
rectangular sprite
pieces, which you
can then convt^rt into
GIF or PNG format
readv for uploading
to your Website. By
the time you read The :irnpiiiL-

this, GIF, JPEG, and PNG support
may have been added, but in the
meantime download yourself a copy
of Peter Hartley's IntcrGIF.

SChopper is available to download
from http://www.geocities.com/
Silicon Valley/7320/archives/

liVhii'd up lor ilwypiii^

After chopping. Vic iciKicmbk-ii pnwi on n Web page

Contacting AU J

Paul Vigay:
pd pa ge@tic( 1 m user.com

http://www.acornuser.coni December 1 999

■HHi

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us Ufate

2111 Mb

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cover disc

What?

No cover disc?

You can blame the Acorn User
survey. So what's going on?
Well, the story goes
something like this: For a long
time now the restrictions of an 800K
disc, even with compression, have
been pniving a little tight. But quite a
reasonable percentage of RISC OS
users still own machines of the A300,
A40(J and A3000 vintage - a
testimony to Acorn's build-quality,
but a pain in the neck for disc
collators.

So what to do? Occasionally vve
have been forced to go to 1.6Mb
discs, and have run off a smaller
quantity of 800K discs, but this is not
a good .solution. What we also find
from talking to readers who need
80(1K discs is that they do own CD-

ROM drives.

Along comes the Acorn User
survey for 1999 and we take a look at
the results. Tt is a fact that RISC OS
people have the highest percentage
of internet connection.s than any
other group of computer owners - in
excess of 8U per cent.

Ownership of CD-ROM drives
comes in at a staggering 97 per cent -
staggering because none of the early
machines had them as standard,
most of them have been bought as
add-ons.

So why not put a CD on every
magazine?

The programmers in the RISC OS
market just don't have the output to
fill even a high proportion of a CD
every month; within a couple of

months we would have exhausted
the available software. So instead we
are launching a combination of CD
and Internet support.

For every issue, what would have
been the cover disc will be put onto
the Acorn Uhv Website for
downloading - satisfying those with
the Internet connection who need the
disc contents for that month. And
every third issue we will put a CD
on the cover containing not only the
last three 'cover discs' but additional
content as well, taking a particular
theme, such as graphics,
programming, DTP and so on.

Inside the magazine that frees up
that little bit more space for the most
popular items in any mag: Hardware
and software reviews.

Survey results

Here's a selection of the results that came through on this year's Acorn User survey.

5(1

|40

We wanted to know
ivhatjorm the caver dht
should be hi - we fargul
to ask tiknil putting llw
disc on the Internet

DO ISIIOkl diM

jy How much harihil$c »pace

do tlie machines liave?

Hen- yi'i' i-'nn we the level
of liilernel cotineelion unci
CD-ROM drive
ownershiy - allhnugh it is
s7(X/j(/i/ skewed by the
ease of reply in^i to tlw
survey via e-mail

InlunicL ^i>Ljiu:f lii>n

HoV) much memorii do
the machines have?

None Upio25UMb 251Mlilo SOlMbla l.lGbl.j OverlG

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

l€

*. ^

^ ^J^-?«glSy^¥-'

-;sriv£-r^-7^:*ift»yie^>c?^ra^.&CTc«?..f=j^7ytL*y.>>^QW.---j^

'^L^msss

Alasdalr Bailey turns David Bailey
in this digital camera review

Digital cameras have been .iround for
quite some time now. Over the last
few years things have improved in
leaps and bounds and although
photographic-quality hard copies are still
expensive to obtain, for certain applications,
digital is now most definitely the better
route.

This review covers three cameras for
which software drivers are available to
allow use with RISC OS machines.

There are two generic camera drivers for
Acorns, both include support for a variety
of cameras within one host application.
Although there is some overlap between the
drivers, Spacetech's PliofoLiiik supports
most of the Olympus range while Irlam's
Snapshot+ supports a far wider range of
makes and models.

PhotoLink

spacetech's support of the Olympus range
of digital cameras came about Olympus
were able to see that having RJSC OS

drivers for their camera range would be a

MM^

PhotoUnk

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Taken

30 Remain
1972 Kb Free

Exposure

Automatic

Ouaity...

Auto
Flash...

1- '?

Time...

|lcd

Monitor...

80%
Power...

Pholoi.mk'::^ ivntrol u<indo!V

good thing, A couple of older models of
Epson and Sanyo cameras are also
supported by the software. However,
Spacetech didn't find all the UK
representatives as helpful as those at
Olympus, and so are currently focusing
(pardon the pun) solely on their range of
cameras.

PliptoLink was put to the test using the
mid-range C830L and the rather more up-
market C2000Z. Overall, the package
proved very robust and supported all of the
cameras' functions satisfactorily. The user
interface deserves particular praise for its
use of a nice tidy main window which,
when enlarged, offers a toolbar allowing
settings to be altered from the comfort of
your computer, rather than with the
sometimes fiddly on-camera controls.

A live viewfinder can be enabled in the
centre of this window, offering the user an
alternative to the camera's own viewfinder
when, for example, positioning the camera
on a tripod in a tight corner or taking
pictures of oneself. Support is also included
for taking time-lapse
pictures while the camera is
connected to the computer.
Time-lapse photography
is where a series of pictures
are taken of a subject at a
specified time delay in
order to show an
accelerated animation of,
say, a flower blooming or
even a building being
constructed. The pictures
may be displayed on screen
or 'hot-linked' to another
application, for example a
utility to upload the

Tg^...

Preview

aipboard.

Focus mode

I Macro

December 1999^'WII^'www.acornuser.com

■';.»Sit^gl»-'

:_-,rz ■ ^vti^-jrsnta^SeK^^Becjfyv .

PhotoLink currently supports the
following cameras:

• Epson Photo50a

• Sanyo ImagePC

• Olympus D200, D200L,
D210L, D220L, D300L, D320L,
D330L, D340L, C900Z, C840L,
C830L, C820L, C800L, C42UL,
C4UnL, C40U, ClOOOL, C1400L
and the C2000Z

(Note: the Olympus 'D' cameras are

the same as the 'C models, but are
grey imports and may have NTSC
video instead of UK PAL)

pictures to the Internet to form a live
Web<am.

My only major gripe with
PhotoLink is Its naming of time-lapse
pictures. For some reason, it
preserxes the cameras internal
conyenHons and names the pictures
first in single digits (1, 2, 3 ... 8, 9, 10)
rather than 001, t)02, 003 ... 008, 009,
010 and so on. Tliis means that
images aren't properly sorted in
filer windows as the computer will
put a file of name '10' before one
named '2'.

Tlie problem can be overcome by

Olympus C830L

Although this model carries the lowest price tag of the
three (£345,99), it is by no means bottom of the range.
Digital cameras can now be obtained for as little as £150
but we decided that this camera represents the minimum
standard which is acceptable for most uses.

The camera features both an optical viewfinder and an
LCD screen, useful for composition purposes as well as
looking back at photos already stored on the camera. The
resolution of the screen is good but it does make indoor
pictures look significantly darker than they turn out on
the computer. This can be remedied by adjusting the
brightness on the camera but then a similar problem
would exist out of doors, requiring the brightness to be
altered again.

A second small LCD display is provided on the top of
the unit, giving details of how many photos can be stored
at the current resolution along with battery charge and

sorHng the files bv dale but many
freeware slide show apps don't
support this, so manual rearrange-
ment is necessary - Spacetech are
aware of this problem, and it's one of
several features being considered, in
the meantime a program such as
NunibcrFix by Jochen Lueg
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/
tudor/ should help you out.

The hot linking feature which
allows for photographs to be
automatically passed on to another
application is a nice idea. However,
displaying the patlmame of the
directory it's set to and perhaps
creating extra directories to
overcome the 77 files per directory
limit on older versions of RISC OS
would be worthwhile addihons.

SnapShot+

Irlam's generic driver, SnapShot+,
offers support for a far wider range
of cameras than Spacetech's offering.
Some overlap exists between the
packages, notably the C830L which is
included in this review and was
tested with both.
An Agfa ePhoto
1680 was also

Snapshots from Irlam currently
supports the following makes and
models of digital camera:

• Agfa ePhoto 307, 780, 1280,
1680

• Epson PhotoPC 500, 600, 700

• Sanyo ImagePC, Digicam 200^
210,' 300

• Olympus D200, D20aL,
D210L, D220L, D300L, D320L,
D330L, D340L, C400, C400L,
C410L, C420L, D600L, C800L,
C820L, C830L, C840L,
ClOOOL, C1400L, C1400XL,
C200(tZ

(Note: the Olympus 'D' cameras are
the same as the 'C models, hut are
grey imports ami maxf have NTSC
video instead of UK PAL)

borrowed to test SnapShot+, see
elsewhere in this article for how the
camera itself fared.

SnapSliot+ is able to carry out all
of the basic functions which you
would expect; it offers full support
for remote adjustment of a camera's

other mode information. This screen comes in very useful
when trying to conserve battery life as the other full
colour screen really does drain power at an astoiuiding
rate.

By default, the camera ships with a 2Mb memory card,
this is sufficient for most users and the resolutions
passible with this camera limit the size of files anyway.
The card is able to store nine pictures on the high quality
setting (1280x960), thirty in standard (640x480) and four
in super high (again 1280x960 but with less compression
so a higher quality image results).

Overall, the C830L is a very nice little camera. As can
be seen from the sample photographs, the picture quality
is almost comparable to that of the slightly more
expensive Agfa model, with resolution being the only
downside. If you're looking for a well-priced quality
camera to capture pictures for a Website or perhaps a
computerised archive of some sort, you can't go far
wrong with the C830L. However, if you want to obtain
liigh-quality printouts or use the output in any
professional publication, one of the higher-end models
would be a better bet.

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

■■^--^■^■'y

oups all Alasdair.lDJrCtri.Dirs AU Cameras ResuftsDay

Snapshot* OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

3 pictures taken. 27 pictures left. 1800K free, batteries at 25%

Piaure002

PictureOOl

PiaureOOS

Left: An Album filer teindow Right: Snap!!hot+ in ikIioii

features along with previewing and
dowrdoading pictures from the camera. My
main cause for concern with this package is
that it opts for a main window which is
very much in the style of Paint's sprite file
window. Tliis means that all tiptions are
accessed via a very large menu structure
and is somewhat daunting at first.

Irlam's software also includes support for
capturing time-lapse movies. However, this
is restricted to exporting the sequence as an
Acorn Rfplm/ movie file, rather than storing
l1 sequence of the original images. This is a
i;ood feature but some users would
appreciate the ability to save the individual
pictures.

The Irlam drivers can be
supplemented with a tidy little
clip-art indexing utility by the

'Vjri'?«;;'-S'^'-v

name of AUnini. When activated, this simply
replaces filer icons with a small thumbnail
of the image contained within the file. This
feature can be very useful, and while it can
take a while to create the thumbnails, this
only has to be done once per directory.

Album also allows all of the pictures
from a camera to be downloaded
onto the computer at once - a
handy utility.

Overall, the Irlam drivers are
verv vvell put together and carry out
all their functions correctly.
However, the drivers were found to
be slightly less stable than the Spacetech
alternative and it was also necessary to
manually flush the applicaHiin's temporary
store after a forced exit, otiierwise it refused
to re-load.

Other issues...

All of the cameras reviewed used four AA
size batteries and none really stood out as
being better than the others on power
consumption. AC adaptors are available for
all three but aren't included in the prices
quoted here. The Agfa model does include a
battery re-charger though which is verv
handv and saved manv trips to the garage
during testing!

Each camera considered here also

Olympus C2000 Zoom

The C2000Z is a very nice bit of kit. Although this is
reflected in the price tag it is well worth the extra cost
(mind you, it's been reduced by £100 recently, so price-
wise it's very competitive with the Agfa). Olympus have
basically taken all of the features you'd expect from a
good film camera and applied them to this digital
offering. A powerful 3x optical zoom is included along
with features to give the more experienced photographer
greater control over the final output.

Shutter speed and aperture size may be manually
adjusted, but the point and shoot support seen in the
lower priced cameras is also preserved for those who like
tilings simple. A handy little remote control is also

included for use in positions where pressing the shutter

release could jog the camera and blur the final image.

As with the C830L, both opUcal and LCD screen
viewfinders are provided. However, the optical
viewfinder is offset from the main lens both horizontally
and vertically so the composihon is not quite perfect in
the resulting picture (this is corrected in the C1400XL, not
reviewed here).

Photos of all resolutions produced by the C2000Z are
that bit more crisp than those taken using the other
cameras considered here. This is demonstrated to a
greater extent upon closer examination, so do take the
time to refer to the example pictures on the Acorn User
and Spacetech Websites if you have access.

All in all, tlie C2000Z is a very high quality, robust
camera. With a price tag of £649.99, it'll set you back a few
pennies more than the other two, but it is well worth it if
vou need a high quality output.

l€I

December 1999 http://www.acornuser.com

Digital Cameras

included a video-out lead for
displaying pictures on a TV, along
with automatic flash and red-eye
reduction mode.

Most digital cameras on the
market at present use a serial lead to
communicate with the base
computer. Tliis system is good
because every RISC OS computer,
bar some A30(K)s, supports it by
default, although things can be a
little slow, with a limit of n5200bps
being imposed by e\'en a Rise PC's
serial port. Some cameras are starting
to make it on to the market with USB
connectors, it would be very nice to
see support for these under RISC OS

in future, provided the Mico and
RiscStation manage to support the
relatively new protocol.

Obtaining photographic-quality
hard copies of your snaps is a little
complicated at present. For best
results you'll need a professional dye
sublimation printer, hut the cost of
such a unit puts them well out of
reach for most homes, schools and
colleges.

However, Olympus have come up
with a smaller \-ersion which is more
affordable and is currently available
from Spacetech. The new breed of
'PhotoReal' printers which are now
available at around the £300 mark

Agfa ePhoto 1680

The ePJiofo boasts a

rather more

inno\'ative design

than the Olympus

models considered

here. Its case is split

into two sections

with the section

carrying the lens

able to rotate

through a full 360

degrees. Tliis is

very useful for

taking self portraits

but does make the

camera a little

difficult to hold on

to. Further, the lack of an optical

viewfinder means that the battery

hungry LCD display must be left

on at all times. A battery re-charger

is supplied though, along with four

re-chargeable AA size batteries, so

it's not so bad really.

The quality of picture obtained
with thecFlwlo 1630 lies
somewhere between that possible
with the two Olympus models. Tlie
pictures aren't quite as colourful
and sharp as those from the C2000Z
yet a higher resolution is possible

than when using the C830L.

However, I must add that the
LCD screen on this model is
superior to either Olympus offering
both in refresh rate and colour
quality, it almost makes up for the
lack of an optical viewfinder.

Agfa seem to have designed this
camera as a digital camera rather
than taking the approach Olympus
seem to favour of perfecting the
digital teclmology then packaging
it in a very conventional-looking
case. There's nothing wrong with
this but it does
mean the more
experienced
photographer is
starved of some of
the features he'd be
used to.

However, if you
don't know what
aperture and
shutter speed are
all about, you
won't miss them
anyway. The
cP}wto 7 6S0 retails
at £618.05.

also produce hard copy of an
acceptable qualitv- Again, these are
available with RISC OS drivers from
Spacetech.

And finally...

So far as these three models are
concerned, vou most definitely get
what you pay for. The best advice we
can offer is that you spend as much
as you can afford. As with all
computer hardware it might be
worth waiting a little lunger to see
what new technology becomes
available in the next year or so as the
manufacturers start to target the
consumer market more and more
aggressively.

If you want to buy now, the
recently reduced C2000Z from
Spacetech is a bargain, it's new price
brings it into the same range as the
Agfa, while it's output qualitv
remains high.

Wlien it comes to software,
Spacetech's PhotoLiiik is the better of
the two but it doesn't support many
non-Olympus cameras so
Snapshots still has its niche.

Product details

Product;

PhotoLink camera drivers

Price;

£(i9 (itic VAT)

Supplier:

Spacetech Lid

Product:

SnapShot+ camera drivers

Price:

£59 (inc VAT)

Supplier:

Irlam Instruments LIl"!

Pniducl:

Album

Price:

£31.14 (inc VAT)

Supplier;

Irlam instruments Ltd

Pniduci.

Olvmpus C830L camera

and drivers

Price:

£345.99 {with PholoLink from

Spacetech) £523 (with

SnapShott from Irlam)

Supplier:

see below for company details

Product:

Olympus C2000Z camera and

PhotoLinl< drivers

Price:

£M9,99(incVATj

Supplier;

Spacetech Ltd

Product

AgJa ePhoto IbSO with

SnapSholt

Price:

£(>18.05 (inc VAT)

Supplier:

Irlam I]Tstrum.ents Ltd

Suppliers

Supplier;

Spacflech Ltd, I Tlie

Courtvard, Southwell

Business Park, Portland,

Dorset- DT5 2NQ

Tel:

01305 822 753

Fax:

01305 860 483

E-mail:

sa les® spa cetech.co.uk

Web:

http://www.spdcetech.co.uk

Supplier:

Irlam Instnmients Ltd, Brunei

Science Park, Brunei

University, Uxbridge,

Middlesex. UBS 3i'Q

Tel/Fax:

01895 811401

E-mail:

sales@irlam,co.uk

Web;

http;//wTrt'w.irlam-

instniments.co.uk

http://www.acomuser.com December 1 999

The superb graphics tind text
qiuility of Acorn machines
m.ike them ideal for
demonstration and
presentation purposes. Indeed, the
anti-aliascd font system was
originally designed for optimum
display quality on televisions and
video output.

NoliccBoiini Pro is a
comprehensive presentation package,
enabling users to organise and
display a collection of 'slides', either
as an unattended rolling display, or
as a manually controlled
presentation.

RISC OS users have long been
waiting for an alternative to
Microsoft Powerpaint for use on their
platform. While not intending to
compete with Powerpoiiil,
comparisons are inevitable in this
world of 'keeping up with industry
standards'. Although lacking in some
of the sophistication and extent of
Pou'crpoiiit, NotlceBodnl Pro does
score in ease of use and, of course,
the flexibility of the RISC OS user
interface.

This is not to say that NaticeBottni
Pro is by any means lacking in
features. It contains an impressive
range of controls and options.
However, it's ease of use and non-
daunting user interface will make it
ideal for schools and colleges where
teachers may want to create their
own presentations with the
minimum of effort and fiddling
around.

What you get

NoliccBoani Pro is supplied on two
discs and consists of a player
application and a slideshow editor
application. The idea of supplying the
editor and player seperately is a good
one because it means that not only
can usage and control be kept simple,
but it also means that you can
distribute copies of the player with
vour finished slideshow. (Permission

NoticeB(

Paul Vigay moves into display mode !

is granted for users to
distribute the player-
only application.)

Installation is a
simple matter of
running an install
program and telling it
where you wish to
install on your
harddisc. I did n.m into
a few problems here -
having just installed
RISC OS 4. The installer
program expects to find
the various system
modules inside your
!Boot structure.
However, many of these
are actually inside the
ROM in RISC OS 4, so
[ ended up with a
duplicate set of
modules copied onto
my '.Boot application.

Personally I would
have liked to be either
given the option of
installing these modules
or, more preferably, NoticeBoard Pro to
have recognised that I already had
newer versions in the machine. Tbis
may be changed for future versions
though, now that RISC OS 4 is widely
available. This minor niggle aside
though NoticeBoard Pro seems to run
without problems on RISC OS 4.

Anyone who owns the original
version of NolicfBoiini will be happy
to find a conversion utility that will

ADFS:.OfQC.$.Appticcts NBoQrdPro.!ExQmp(e

rnl

dock

Clock

Font

Homer ton . Medium

/_i Pt

Size

Format !

04;33PM

Try

%I %M %p

Titles

Font
Size

Homerion. Medium

/J. Pt
exes

low inc

FtUed bQck§

rounds

Cancel

Figure !l: Tlic clock ciii}fif;umliivi dhphiyj

Resources Preferences

Groups

Fades

Save

Furniture

Play

Fijfiin- 1 Tlh- Coiilrti] u'liuiinr

December 1 999 http://www.dcornuser.com

take the old format and convert to
the new one.

Creating presentations is easily
performed via the standard RISC OS
drag and drop interface. Tliere are
two options here: you either create a
'pseudo' application which will hold
all the recources inside, allowing you
to transport it as a single item; or
you can have the 'single file' option
where all the resources are accessed
from wherever they are on your
system, but this form is not really
transportable.

Once you've opted to create a new
slideshow, a control window will
open allowing you to set such 'global
parameters' as screen mode to run
in, what 'furniture' to display on
each slide and which fades are
available. The furniture option lets
you place various additional display
features at any of the eight screen

oard Pro

positions {four corners and four sides).
These include a clock, video-style controls
or a variety of title/numbering options -
most are user configurable. For example,
you can define the font and size of the
onscreen clock or titles or which video
controls are displaved. The default option is
no furniture, which will display the slide
exactly as the original was drawn.

The main option in the control panel is
the 'groups' option. This is where you can
effectively define a 'carousel' containing a
set of slides. A group can have a set of
parameters which will globally apply to all
the slides in the current set, such as
background colour, time schedules and
colours. You can also use an image as a
background image. This works in much the
same way as the RISC OS pinboard in that it
can be tiled, scaled or centred within the
defined screen area. Again, the width and
height of the actual displayable area can be
defined by the user.

As regards configuration, flexibility and
ease of use, I would argue that it's certainlv
easier to create a presentation with this
application than it is using Puwerpoinl.

Having made a group in which to hold a
related set of slides, you can then create
them - each group has a specific
background and the slides are displayed on
that background. This is where the
flexibility of NoliceBoani Pro instantly
becomes visible.

Using the usual RISC OS drag and drop
philosophy you name a slide, drag in the
image to use and set various parameters. On

NBoordPro choices

[^ Coche next slide

[^ Cache background

\^ Cache background source ^le

[y Cache sound

Artworks quality Anti-atiased *QJ
[y Hide poimer I Font blending

[^ Sound j ^^I^HBaBHHHM^

Cancel

Save

I'l^urf IV- The Groups opln'ii puml

Figure HI: Vie Ghbut coiiligimilioii window

a basic level you can
simply drag a pre-
designed image into the
new slide window and
click OK. However, if
you want to be more
ambitious you can
schedule your slide to
appear to at a certain
time- useful if you
wish to create an
unattended display for
demonstrahon
purposes.

The separate groups
of shdes can be
displayed at random or
in order, and within
each group the slides
can be shown at
random or in order.

Sounds
effective

One feature which can add a new
dimension to finished presentations is the
ability to link sound effects to slides. This
can spice up displays, especially if created
with young children in mind. One of the
example files contains slides of various
animals. A lion's roar accompanies the
drawing of a lion. This makes it ideal for
use as a learning tool.

If you have a sound sampler (such as the
VTi printer port sampler) you can easily
produce your own sound effect resources
which will drop straight into NoticeBoard
Pro. By carefully selecting your sequence
you could even provide a sound-track to
your presentation. In a teaching
environment, this facility can greativ add to
the ability to keep cliiidren's attention
focussed on the slideshow images.

To create a whole slideshow, you just
follow tliis process, naming a slide and
dragging the image Into the window, The
list of slides will then be built up in the slide
window. You don't need to worry if you get
them in the wrong order either. Not only
can you easily insert or delete slides, but
vou can simply drag a slide from one
position to another. This will swap the two
slides o\'er and works in much the same
way that you would alternate slides in a real

roi

Edt

group 1

rule

Montage 1

HEl Resotxrce

llllli Foreground arta

Schedule
Colours

Cancel

0. 1

Ed! dear

1 1 i

' 1 0.Montd9e Background '

J Scaled J

Centered (S Tiled

^-^ Ltfik with drcaorv

hitp:// www.acornuser.cum December 1999

iceBoard Pro

26)

slide carousel. In true RISC OS
fashion, you can also select a group
of images and drag multiple files
into the group window in order to
create a complete batch of slides.
NoticcBodrd Pro doesn't include any
editing facilities itself, merely being a
tool to create slideshows (although a
double-click will load the selected
image into a suitable editor). The
artwork you use can be created in
Artworks, Draw or any of the bitmap
image manipulations packages
available - anything from Pnint to
Photodcsk.

The import of drawfiies makes
NoticcBoiini Pro even more flexible
because you can design quite
complex slides by mixing images
and text, perhaps utilising one of the
many clip-art collections available.

Indeed, using a read-only version
of Fnsco (supplied with NoticcBoard
Pro) you can even design slides in
HTML format and utilise Fresco's
powerful 'save as Draw' option to
produce the drawfiles for you. If you
have access to the Internet you could
incorporate Web-based resources into
your final presentation.

One thing that I did find tliat
didn't appear to work as described
in the manual was the range of input
formats acceptable.

According to the manual,
NoliccBonrd Pro will accept Drnzv,
sprite or JPEG images, in addiHon to
those created by ArtWorks. Although
JPEG images are not catered for

New slide

Title

SaCe

natively, they should be
accepted when included
in a drawfile. Tliis didn't
appear to work on my
copy. Whether or not
this was due to my
having just installed
RISC OS 4 I'm not sure.
Howe\'er, when I
converted the images
using Chaii^eFSI and
used the resulting
sprites, everything
worked as it should.

Hxj

Prc/grefvcgs

I Always ptay
Time per word

Priority 5 / _, Duration
• Grc^hiC

too

V2 Sound

12am 3am 6am 9am ^^/m^^imm^m

Tue I* •i>:H:'ii!iira'ii"B'B'iil'B '■ ■'■.■'■'■

Vitod !■:■ ■[■!■:■!■'■ '■■!■!■!■■''■■■ i

Ihufili'ii'a ■'«'■'■ ■'■'■!■ ■ ■'■' '■ ■ I
FVifilii- ■>■■■■■■!■■■■■ ■<

8M li la .■:■;■ IM^alB .■;■!■ [■:■>■ IB .It, >>i
« *|.i.Ui*M*l*l *l*|.i.|*! .| *l*i*h

Cancel

Fi^iiiT V: Buihlhi^n neiv S'hdc

December 1999 http://www.acornuser.com

Making
the change

The transition from one

slide to the next is via a

random fade. This can

be made from a wide

selection of o\'er 25

different effects, ranging

from simple wipes to complex flower

designs or Moire lines.

This is where my biggest, and
perhaps only, complaint with the
application lies, for the actual fades
between specific slides cannot be set
by the user. Each slide is faded using
an effect chosen at random from the
pool of fades available. Yc>u can
choose wliich fades are used, but
ultimately the actual one is chosen at
random,

According to the author, this
shortcoming is likely to be reviewed
should a futiu"e version materialise.
However, until then
you'll have to accept
a random one. This
ptiint aside, the
program performed
very well and I would
have no hesitation in
recommending it to
people who wish to
produce an effective
and highly visual
presentation of
images. It's certainly
easier to use than
cumbersome
applications such as
Microsoft Powerpoinl,
and its simple to use
interface and ease of
use will make it ideal
for busy teachers or
for use as unattended
point of presence
'rolling demos'. Tlie
only real competition

^ Show groups at random
(ft SKow groups in order (timed)
^ Show groups in order (maruioO
Window /disploij
u/ f uff screen
M^dow width

Window height
I

J Use <m^ mode

a Use most colours

___} Use highest resolution

Cancel

0.251

sees

Figure VI: The 'Group' Prffi-ri-iia's aelliii/ia
shmim\<i the range of controh provided

sees

■ ■■[a

■"■■^ja

■ afa

RISC OS platform comes from
Spacetech's OHP application. This
doesn't have the ability to add sound
samples to slides, but it does allow
you to choose which fade to use for
the transititm between slides.

The main users of NoliceBoard Pro
will probably be teachers or
businessmen who want to quickly
and easily create a slideshow
presentation, either from tiieir own
resources and artwork, or by using
freely available clip art or even Web-
based information.

They should find no problem
creating impressive-looking
demonstrations within minutes of
installing the software. It's
comprehensive, yet clear and easy
to manipulate.

The only real drawback is the lack
of choice which selecting fade effects
between specific slides, although this
is likely to be rectified in a futiire
version. Some demo examples are
provided, along with a printed user
guide which is concise and ^^^^
easy to understand. "^i-^"*

Product details I

provided on the

Product:

Noticeboard Pni

Price;

09.95 (£15 ii upgrading)

Supplier:

Rpallv GiHid Software

Compajiv, S'J CarLsbrnoke

Rii^d, Harpenden, Herts AL3

5QS, UK

Tel:

(+44/0)1382 761395

Fax:

(-1-44/0) 1582 7hl395

E-mail:

sales, rgsc® a rgon e t. co. ii k

Web:

www, a rgo net . CO , u )( / rgsc /

uality rerrormance
Compatibile Expandable

Mico sets new industry standards for small
computers. Excellence in engineering design,
investment in leading edge technology, and
our zero defect quality assurance programme
combine with the new Rise OS 4 operating
system, to deliver a fast easy to use reliable
computer system preloaded with software ihat
is ideal for the home, small business and
educational user.

Mico is powered by a 56 MHz ARM 7500FE
processor with performance up to 50 MIPS
and higher resolution screen modes. The
processor has a built-in floating point maths
co-processor and DMA.

Mico uses fast EDO RAM. has a high speed
32 bit EIDE interface, dual USB ports, 16 bit
sound sytem with a built-in synthesizer and
wavetable.

Other features include three MicroBus
expansion slots which can support existing
podules and one free ISA slot and the new
Rise OS 4 operating system. These features
combine to deliver performance 2/3 times
faster than the existing RISC computer using
the ARM 700 processor.

livivi poweno Kisc u^ 4 euiupuiers
ft oin 1 499,00

Telephone for full del.'jil'; and colour brochuri; or sec our web sile.

EducaiioiiaJ tliscouiiis are available. Sch^wU can register ai our web siie

lo gain access to our education sile. ..^US**.

Mico is designed and manufac

Mii;ioDipiia]. Mii/ixiBus jnil Mrco V
All <Hher urademarks are acknowlcd™^

r / I f I »

I « I < r r f

f r I I f > I

i I z I i <

Wt ttil l ii.'IfJ W Effl l H fgi m i iffi li

1 \i v\ A

Telephone number 1 274 6 1 8774
email address sales @micriHlieital, co.uk

FAX number 01274;
web sile www.microdlgij

incl VAT & delivery

See http://www.riscos.com
for ordering details

3 Clarendon Road, Cyncoed, Cardiff CF3 7JD
Tel: 029 2049 2324 E-mail: sales@riscos.com

Com DOS in

omputers are tooLs for
accomplishing all kinds of
processes - and humans just
love to manipulate their
environment. So Composition from
Clares is just the program to allow
you to indulge your wildest dreams. 1
am speaking metaphorically of cotirse
- I'm talking of creating fantastic
collages using alt manner of imagery.

Composition is a totally bit-map-
oriented program, but can import
vector images and once they are
suitably arranged, they can be
transported into the bitmap world. So
images from Draw, Artworks and so
on, are welcomed. Once within the
realms of the program, and in bitmap
format, your images can be pulled,
pushed, resized, masked, blended
and illuminated - until they are
altered beyond recognition.

All of youT images can be re-
stacked, brought forward, sent back
and re-shuffled since each one is
floating over the canvas - not fixed.
Composition was also one of the first
bitmap programs on the Acorn
platform to incorporate eight-bit
masks. And it is here where it really
comes into its own. There is only one
possible drawback - the fact that you
are adding a number of bit-map
images, means that the file will
quickly become very large. There are
a couple of solution; Clares produces
a good 'virtual memory' program; or
better still, invest in more RAM while
prices are low. This is a review but for
demonstration purposes, I will be

with

Mr Bond

Walter Briggs puts on various masks

f'/i,'((i(' /: Mr Boi}il'~ itiask zi'imiow

using some of the imagery from
previous articles and especially
Mr. Bond.

Fading image

In Figure I we can see the mask
window overlaying Mr. Bond - this Is
the master manipulator of 007.
Compositions forte lies in its use of
masks. This allows the interacHon of
numerous images within the canvas
window. There are of course many
other options to apply to your
composition, and since this is a
review, I will try to cover most of
them - including PCA (an applet of
growing taste).

There are five types of mask
available for each image in Compo: A
Blend mask, controlling the opacity; a
Tint mask, which allows you to add a
tinted effect to your image; and a
Curve mask that appears when you
want to alter the Gamma curve - the
coloration of your image.

The ability to create shadows for
any of your images is made
possible with the Shadow
mask. By default, the shape of
the objects within the Blend
mask is used for the shadows,
but an individual shadow
mask can be created and
manipulated to suit your tastes.
Last, but not least Is the
Displacement mask, which
allows the distortion of an
image according to the amount
of grey levels
within it.

In the foreground of Figure I
is the blended and masked
silhouette of 007. The mask is a
highlight /linear fill, which can
be controlled by sliders, as in

Figure U: Inserting ihe wave

this case, to allow the Ught point
{white is opaque - black transparent)
to be central to the image, and so
allow it to blend into the background
on either side.

At the bottom of this image is the
Mask Toolbar, in this case for the
Blend mask. The Blend mask can be
chosen from a list of pre-set options,
which opens when you choose a new
mask. Tliis allows you to choose the
type of mask you want to apply to
your image; here it was a modified
linear one. At any time, you can
switch between object and mask, with
the current one visible in the display
field.

You may wonder whv Bond's
collar is black in the mask window.
This is because Compo allows the easy
removal of unwanted backgrounds;

Shakgi notjgynred '

/-(,1,'i'iv Hi AiUlii':; text

^mj

Figure IVir
A rniiinl
I'li'iul mnf'k

Figure [Vt. Adding ihf .4^/fl>s

but the process can also remove
{make transparent) areas that need tu
be seen, since it selects a global
colour. To remove unwanted areas,
you need to see your original image.
Clares has made this a very simple
task; just click on the Eye icon on the
tool bar and vour image appears, next
Adjust-ciick on the area you want to
disappear or become transparent.

in the Bond image, the white
background was unwanted, but in
electing lo remove this, his collar
disappeared as well. This is no major
problem, since there are tools
available to work on a mask,
independent of the options offered at
the outset of masking. All 1 did was
spray white pixels (you can also
spray black pixels) over this section,
and gradually with the lavish use of
the various blend options, the collar
gently re-emerged.

Sca-ing clearly

The next picture to be worked on
(Figure II) had been introduced first
onto the canvas, this was a
photograph of an ocean wave - a
powerful image I wanted as a
backdrop to 007.

This picture was not tall enough to
fill the canvas, but re-sizing is one of
the simplest tasks, Couipo just calls up
Cluut^eFSI and the ocean is re-scaled
to fit the page. It is also possible to
flip, trim and align images on the
page. Compo also supports OLE
(object linking and embedding) which

means, with a Control+double-click
your image can be transported into
your favourite paint package for any
updates. The reason for this option is
that while you can control the opacity
of your image with all kinds of
masks, you cannot edit the actual
image itself. The only drawback with
OLE is that all work on yciur masks is
lost. Of course, if you don't have a
good art program, PCA (more later)
could be your next acquisition.

This second screenshot shows the
sky being removed with the click of a
mouse button, and any distortions
were airbrushed back. After this
work, 1 realised the scene looked
better with the sky All these changes
are dynamic - seen in real time,
updating any changes as you work.

Tlie window in the top right is
another view of the scene you want to
mask - here is where you click on any
unwanted sections, to make them
invisible.

Stirring shadows

In Figure III, text has been added and

given a pseudo-3D shadow. In fact,
Couipo deals with this feature very
well, and the shadow can be easily
altered to suit. You can choose your
own shadow colour, which is really a
tint, and it changes to accommodate
the background colour. In addition,
because the text is aliased, and the
pixel colour of the shadow is
calculated on a pixel by pixel basis -
it means the shadow is altered to
match the shaded colour of any part
of vour background.

With this pseudo-3D effect, the
shadow can appear to be cast along
the ground. Also this simulated
shadow can be manipulated further
by allowing you the option to alter
the X sheer and Y shrink - this simply
means you can alter the length, angle
and shape of the shadow,

Tlie text is entered into its own box
and is available in any font that you
have; and like so many other
features, the text can be changed at
will. Figure 111 shows how text is

created, the colour, font, style, size
and so on. It is also possible to alter
the wording at any time by opening
the dialogue box, making the
modifications and clicking on the
change button. A shadow is easily
added, and can be designed to give
the impression of light from most
angles.

Because the text is set within
certain borders, it is sometimes
necessary to increase the parameters
of the text area to accommodate a
particulariy long shadow. You can
increase the surrounding area of the
text using the trim menu, simply right
chck on the bump arrows to create a
negative value and enlarge the
boundary round the text.

In Figure III, I have increased the
righthand side of the text box to allow
the shadow to extend to the right.
You may notice an added toolbox on
the left side of this window - PCA
tools - a small applet of image editing
tools added to Compo for work on any
of the images that need a little
enhancing. These plug-in tools are
described at the end of the article.

Blended malt

Now we come to the fun part: It's
time to add the glass to the crashing
waves - of course slightly shaken but
not stirred. The original glass was
already a dark shade, tinted with red,
(as seen in the bottom right hand
comer of Figure IV) this colour would
be enhanced later - but now I wanted
to subtly blend the tmnbler mto the
ocean background.

I decided lo use a straightforward
linear blend, which was darker at the
top and allowed the clear section of
the glass to become more transparent.
The sliders allow you to decide which
direction that the blend is to go - dark
at the top, or at the bottom. You can
also select other types of blend; for
example, a radial blend, as seen in
Figure IVb. The idea is the same in all
blend masks; it allows you to control
the opacity of your image. Though at
any stage you can select the opacity
ophon on the toolbar and pull a slider
to alter the overall transparency of a

^\g\irf \']\: A iimpU' colLij^c

particular image.

Figure V shnws a bright red tint
being applied to the contents of the
glass. When selecting the tint mask it
is again possible to see the sprite you
are working on. Here the original
glass, which appears in the window
on the right, has a white dot in the
centre - this represents the centre of
the applied tint. It is still governed by
the radial blend that was applied
earlier, so now the tint radiates out
from the centre of the circular tint
mask. It is possible to move the
position of the tint, by Control+
dragging the centre of the mask
around. It is also possible to have
more than one point of tinted light.

Glass agent

It was of course always my intention
to introduce Mr. Bond into the scene,
and probably behind the glass. Figure
VI shows the needed adjustment to the
mask to allow his weapons to show.

It was the blend mask that needed
to be altered to create more opacity to

glass, and especially to
the base of the tumbler.
There are number of
tools that can bo used to
work on the mask -
iTushes, spray cans,
drawing tools, to
mention just a few. I
simply spraved black
over the section I wanted
to make iiivisible and
gently blended the edges
to allow a softer
transition. It's often good
to blend the mask since
sometimes your image
can have a ragged
outline, this can be
smoothed completely awav with such
options. I wasn't happy with this
composition since Mr. Bond's face was
cut through by the top of the glass. I
decided it was time to move the
special agent to another locality.

Bonded whiskey

Though this simplistic collage (Figure
Vll) held a measure of dynamism with
the wave and glass, I wasn't
completely happy. I felt the whole
scene needed a complete
transmogrificaHon. First I flipped the
ocean horizontally, and moved it so
the crashing wave appeared to be
pouring into the glass.

Mr. Bond was hustled right, and
some new text added. You can see by
the lower legend how well the anti-
aliased shadow works on various
colour combinations. Though this
composition worked reasonably well,
I still wasn't happy with the impact of
the image. What it needed was the
addition of some more points of
interest - old Connery just wasn't

5*tirred

enough - sorry girls!

At least I couid add more liquor -
in the form of the bottle from the
second article in my series. A new sky
complete with planet was warped in,
along with a metallic podule and
suitable 007 text - it made a world of
difference. There was still a bit of
work to do; increasing the contrast of
certain images, brightening colours -
all done within Coinpo. Tlie package
has a number of Special Effect options
which allows most enhancements to
be made. What Coiiipo lacks are
Creative, Editing and PamHng tools
for the images, not just the masks -
unHI now that is. Enter PCA.

Tools on tap

The idea of having a set of special
effect tools attached, and available for
almost any program that contains
images, is a great idea. But what if that
program also doesn't need to know
anything about the attached tools or
the work they do? That's TCA.

PCA is a plug-in system which
allows objects to be shared between
applications. Graphic objects in
Cawpo, or other software supporting
PCA, can he edited using PCA
applets, which are plug-in tools that
can manipulate that type of object. In
fact each of the tools is a separate
program running on the machine and
can provide their capabilities to any
program that uses PCA.

TTiis PCA plug-in system allows
images and masks to be edited
outside Cotnpo, without actually
moving them out, in a variety of
ways. It is designed to be an open,
extendable protocol so that plug-ins
written for it, can be used with any
program that supports the protocol.

To sum up, Coitipo provides a
powerful, yet straightforward means of
creating dynamic compositions from a
variety of images. Now with the
availability of these PCA applet tools,
the main criticism of this Clares
product can be erased. These add-orj,
tools which allow 'in-program' editing
is just what the package was crying out

for. Look out for a 'Preview' of

PCA in the near hiture. QZEV

Product details I

Prutiud:

Oimpositinn

Price:

£75 (on offer.

usual price £99.95)

Supplier;

Clares Micro Supplies.

75.1 Webbs Lane, Middiewidi,

Cheshire CWlliyOS

Teh

(+44/0) lhn6 8^3999

Fax:

(+44/0)1606 836111

E-mail:

sa le.s®cl a res m ic ro. com

Web:

www.claresmicro.ciim

Mike Cook adjusts his frequency amplitudes for better effect

et's face it, when i^LUHHUU-
compulers, sound has always
taken second place to
graphics. In fact second place
niiglit be pushing it somewhat The
tiny speakers fitted to most
computers have always ensured
there is a market for external ones
but surprisingly Ihey are still a
minority purchase and, even if
bought, they are seldom used.

I know I don't use them much
because of the trouble of where to
put them, remembering to power
them up separately, and the general
reluctance to have a powerful beep
tjiasting out at you with every
terror.

.-jCVertheless there are those
whose main use of the computer is
enhanced by good sound, not only
games players but also musicians.
When my son Alec, who is studying
music for A-levcl set his eyes on the
3D Surround sound t^tfiinliacr he
was drooling over not only the
prospect of enhanced sound but
also the cool look of the thing.

This unit has been designed for
the mass PC market and as such is
built in sufficient quantities to be
affordable. It is the same size as a
CD player and fits in a standard
slot. This means it is ideal to fit into
a Rise PC although you might need
a two-layer one if you already have
a CD-ROM fitted. There is an
Acorn-specific back panel which
fits in place of a standard podule
with a slip of paper saying how the
plugs are labelled wrongly.

You have a high and low level
input with a slider switch to select
between them, plus a speaker

output and microphone input. All
these are on 3mm jack sockets.
Round the front is a headphone
socket and microphone input again
all on 3mm jacks. The equaliser has
a disc drive-type power socket that
you can plug into a spare power
loom. However, if you have another
sort of RISC OS machine fitting
might not be so straightforward.
Essentially you would need an
external disc drive case and power
supply.

The business end consists of a
main volume control, seven
graphics equaliser sliders and a
microphone input level slider.
Either side of these is a red 10-bar
LED display; coupled with the
green LEDs on the sliders and a red
one on the volume control you have
a veiy cool looking addition to your
computer setup.

The graphics sliders have a
central click position indicating
OdBs or no effect. Sliding up and
down gives a +/- lOdB range but the
physical range is smaller than I
would like. I got out my
oscilloscope and signal generator
and measured the range of the
controls. At the low end, at 60Hz,
the controls gave a range of -lldB to
+ l4dB; in the middle, at IKHz, it

SHS(»r NEWCi"

ranged from -9.5dB to +16dB; and at
the top end, at 15KHz, it went from
-lldB to +11dB. So not exactly
consistent across the range but they
gave mostly the range they should.

The frequency response however
drops off a little too soon for my
liking, by lOOHz it was nearly 3dB
down and this had dropped to 6dB
by the time 60Hz was reached. I
suppose this is partly compensated
for by the extra gain in the lowest
equaliser control, but it means a flat
setting of the controls does not give
you a flat response which
somewhat defeats the object of the
graphics nature of the beast.

When setting up any graphics
equaliser the sliders end up looking
like some sort of a smile, albeit
crooked. An upside-down smile is
definitely wrong and there is
enough range on these sliders for it
to sound very wrong as well. :■

Does it work? '

Yes, very well indeed, and the
pulsating left/right volume bars
look very flash. However, once you
have set the controls for your
speakers/room there is little else
you need do with them, but this is
where the enhanced sound button
comes in. This switches on the SRS

r i 1 9- 1

.H} Suir<»i»tl h^(Hil' :•

cember 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

surround effect, I don't know what
that stands for but the practical
effect is that the sound is made
larger and fatter. It sounded like a
bit of reverberation and does
definitely improve the sound
accompanying any arcade game.
Explosions have more boom, guns
have more zip and peeongs are
peeongier.

I am not so sure about enhancing
music, yes it's more expansive but a
composer really needs to be in
control of any reverberation effect
as the ears quickly tire of the full-
on effect this box gives, thus
reducing its impact, I suppose that's
where the off button comes in.
Nevertheless it sounds impressive
when first switched on, making a
much bigger sound.

1 can't see how it can give a true
3D effect as this is really a physical-
acoustic effect that places a sound
anywhere. That includes not only
left and right but up, down, front
and behind. This is done by subtly
modifying the volume and phase of
a sound between the left and right
speakers. It's something that can't
really be tagged on afterwards but
has to be an integral part of the
initial sound.

'Real' surroundsound is a

subtle effect and I have heal
convincing demos such as
helicopters flying round the room,
however most of the time I find it
difficult to spot the effect. 1 did visit
the surround sound room in the
Sheffield Museum of Popular
Music. That was in a circular room
with 18 very large speakers, but
most of the time the sound
appeared to be coming from over
my right shoulder. So, at best, you
can call the Equaliser pseudo-3D.

Anyway I dragged out the 'scope
to see what it was doing to a simple
sine wave. Pressing the effects
button made a righthand mono
signal appear in the left side as well
but reduced in amplitude and
phase-shifted. The phase-shifting
altered with frequency which
shows it is doing something.

Whatever the merits of true 3D
sound this processor did give a
feeling of being immersed in the
sound rather than having it thrust at
you, so I guess it was doing its job.

Although this is a piece of
hardware designed for a PC, Eesox
have provided a RISC OS desktop
application to control the volume as
well as an information sheet
detailing how to set it up with the
innards of a Rise PC. I had the

graphics equaliser a few weeks
before the second part of the
package arrived, the three piece
subwoofer speaker system. The idea
is that at low frequencies your ears
are not sensitive to the direction of
the sound so you can have that
coming from a central speaker. Two
other speakers provide the
conventional left and right sounds.

Woofers are the name given to
speakers handling the lowest
frequencies and sub-woofers
handle frequencies that are in
theory too low to hear. The idea
being that low frequencies are more
felt than heard. By this definition
it's not a true sub-woofer because,
according to the box, its frequency
response only goes down to 50Hz,
something you can hear. The effect
however is quite pronounced. Alec
said "That's the way music should
sound" as Metallica boomed out of
the newly connected speakers. "It
has a good kicking bass" he said as

he picked up his bass guitar and
played along. The side speakers,
however, gave a bit of a thin sound
at times, I thought.

On the technical side each of the
side speakers gives 3W output with
lOW from the sub-woofer itself.
These are also magnetically
shielded so that you shouldn't have
any problems when placing them
close to your monitor, not that you
would want to anyway. One of the
side speakers also has a power
switch/volume control and a bass
and treble control. This is a bit
redundant given a graphics
equaliser, so many combinations of
settings can give the same sound.

The equaliser and speakers are
sold separately but together they
form a good combination not onlj'
in sound but looks. It looks
cool, it sounds cool - sorted.

Product details

1 I'mdiict;

3D Surround Equaliser, 3

]

Piece Multimedia Subwoofer

Speaker system

\ Price:

Equ.-iiiser, £47.50; Speaker sef

£45.50; both £87,50; including i

VAT; Carriage extra.

Supplier:

Eesox, Centurv House, Market '

Street, Swavesey, Cambs, CB4

5QG

Tel:

(+44/0)1954 208208

F<ix:

(+44/0) 1954 208208

E-mail:

in f o®eeso x. corn

Web:

www.eesox.com

Requires:

Rise PC for ease of use bul

could be used on other

models ,

December 199.

Pushing forward the frontiers in RISC OS
internet & web authoring software

An E-mail and News
r^n Client for RISC OS
fmS\) Professional Edition

The only RISC OS Internet software with the
GOOD NET-KEEPING seal of approval

HTMLE

Next generation WWW
authoring for RISC OS

105

Aii the tools you need

Our RISC OS web authoring solutions set ne
standards in power and ease of use

The Studio edition provides

HTMLEdit 4+ Java support, sound and music, IS'

//nk and image checi<.ing, syntax

colouring and OLE
Enhanced Web Visual frames, tables, animations. £j
Toolkit maps, palette control. Draw file

conversion
WebSpell Full HTML-aware spelling checker

Webster XL Browser with frames, tables, forms, i:

sound and JavaScript

SiteMaster Pi-'ce now

The Web Site Management ^^i\

System for RISC OS Computers 1 3 v

Now with autornatic up-ioader for
getting changes online fast

22 Robert Moffat, High Legh,

Tel: OI92S 755043 Fax: 01925 757377

Interactive

anthem*ao

inc. VAT

The RISC OS MIDI Sequencer

Anthem is a feature packed, easy to use MIDI
sequencing package for RISC OS computers
It employs a powerful and acclaimed new object-
oriented (phrases of music) song structure that
allows the musician flexibility in arrangement, and
ease of editing unparalleled by any other RISC OS
sequencer.

Existing Sound & Music Products include
PC SoundPro 2 £35, MIDI Synthesizers,
Sound Cards, MIDI Cards, Parallel/Serial
Port MIDI, MIDI Support....

THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
Expansion Pack I ^7*7

f ^ Requires < )i-iginii! I l(iMM2

Also: Final Doom Levels Pack £ 1 5 I

Requires Doom or Doom+

Other Games Titles

Heretic & Hexen
(Towers of Darkness Pack)
Heroes of Might & Magic 2
Descent
\\ Doom+
Syndicate*
Abuse

£32

£35.
£30.
£32.
£29.
£25.

00
00
50
00
00

Distributors for ARTEX: Ankh, Exodus
PRO ACTION: Various titles

Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6PS

Email: rcomp(fl'TComp.co.uk rci@rcomp.co.uk

II being well, a selection of
patches to make a whole host
of older games function
correctly on the latest
StrongARM Rise PCs will be on the
quarterly CD and downloadable
from our website.

Cataclysm

The object of Cataclysm is basically
to get all of the liquid from the top
of the screen to the bottom. Simple,
eh? It's actually more difficult than it
sounds, as the liquid has to fall into
the collector at the bottom - any
liquid that doesn't fall in reduces the
amount of time you have left on the
level, which means you have to place
blocks in the right places to make the
liquid go the right way.

This is made even more difficult
on later levels because there are
different types of liquid; acid is fatal
on contact, and the blue and yellow
liquid must be mixed before being
collected, plus the puzzles become
more fiendish.

You have to look very carefully to
make sure that the water will
definitely get to the collector before
releasing it, this is made even more

Alex Macfarlane Smith takes a
look at four games from yesteryear

difficult by various valves,
dissolving blocks and remote control
doors. There are also guns and aliens
which will either try and shoot you,
or follow you around as you
progress. There are a total of 40
levels, so plenty to keep you
entertained - some of the later levels
are particularly difficult. Another
feature of the game is that it also
records your scores and times for
each level, so you can go back and
try to beat your best score and time,
or compete against your friends.

The only feature that I felt would
have been nice is a level designer.
The graphics are quite good, you can
easily see what is happening most of

Wr7ii, wet fun in Cataclt/sm

the time (except when you are
hidden behind water). It can get a bit
repetitive at times, but if you leave it
for a while and go back to it, it's still
very good and addictive. Cataclysm
is great fun to play, especially if you
enjoy arcade puzzle style games.
Cataclysm is still available from

rth Dimension, see their
ietails in the CJE Micros
.«.^.^»w&iewhere in this issue.

Elite

Elite has become one of the most
widely known games since its
release on to a number of different
platforms (the first being the BBC
Micro). The RISC OS version is
considered by most Elite fans to be
the best version on any platform.

Elite is a space adventure with a
variety of gameplay which includes
trading, combat and missions which
involve hunting down pirates, or
saving planets.

Initially you have to trade
between planets to improve the
specifications of your ship, and then
you can choose what path you want
to go down - trading, overcoming
pirates, or even become a fugitive by
attacking friendly ships, shooting
down the police ships (Vipers) and
so on. The layout of the eight
galaxies are identical to the original
BBC version, but in almost every
other way the game has been
improved.

All of the graphics use filled
polygons (unlike the wireframe
graphics of the original), there are
now moons around some of the
planets, and the varied ship routines

tp://www.acDrnuser

A brief fliishhnck la Flashback

are much better - you can be flying
along and find pirates attacking each
other, or a transport ship which you
can either destroy, or defend from
attacks from pirates [lots of pirates
then - Ed]. If you're being attacked,
sometimes Vipers will come and
help you - depending how 'clean'
you are. If you are a fugitive, Vipers
will actively hunt you down. Not to
be recommended before your ship is
of a reasonable status.

Once you have got your ship well
equipped, or have the appropriate
number of kills, you may be
contacted by an organisation or
individual to carry out one of the
four missions in the game, which on
completion will award you with
money to upgrade your ship, or
special additional equipment. The
ultimate goal of the game is to have a
fully equipped ship, completed all of
the missions and to be Elite.

Elite is now freeware and was on
the cover disc of Acorn User a while
back. An updated version to run on
StrongARM Rise PCs may be
downloaded from the features
section of Acorn Arcade by following
the links from http://www.
acomarcade.com/

Flashback

Flashback is probably one of the best
arcade adventure games available for
RISC OS. The inlro sequence is slick,
and introduces the story line - Aliens
want to take over the world. They
chase you. Shoot your space bike
down. They assume you're dead, but
you're not. The fools.

Your first task is to find out more
about yourself - as you become
conscious again, you knock a
holocube off a ledge, picking this up
and examining it gives you
information about who you are and

what you should do. The
." . I eventual aim of the game is
to save Earth from invasion
by the aliens. The graphics
in the game are excellent -
. the way that the characters
' * ' within the game are

animated, particularly the
7^ hero, are superb [I spend
■; most of the time making

, him do forward rolls or
pulling his gun out the
holster, shooting a tree,
then putting it back. It
really is very good - Ed].
The backgrounds are also
very well put together.
There are a number of
puzzles or tasks to solve; for
instance, on the first level, you must
help a man get to hospital, where he
will give you an ID card allowing
you access to the next section of the
level.

Mostly you have to run around
avoiding or killing your enemies, but
it gets interesting later on when you
have to complete certain missions to
receive credits and also take part in a
gameshow to get back to Earth.

The monsters and other
inhabitants get increasingly clever as
you progress through the game, and
you have to learn when to use your
forcefield. Ygjj|,rfj^fa e hit a maximum
of four tim^MH^your shield runs
out, but there are recharge points
scattered throughout the levels
which will regenerate your shield.
The game is spread over seven
levels with movie sequences
scattered throughout the game.
Flashback is an excellent game, with
a superb blend of puzzles, action and
skill. Sadly, stocks of Flashback are

somewhat hard to locate at present.
The main distributor, CJE, has sold
out, but keep an eye on the free ads
and second-hand games advertised
on the Internet newsgroups and you
could get yourself a copy.

Populous

Populous is a God style game, where
you have complete control over all
your people. The object is to build
up your empire and eventually attack
neighbouring tribes and wipe them
out. You have a certain level of
Manna which will increase with the
number of people you have, and will
decrease when you perform certain
tasks.

Earthquakes which destroy the
land and may cause people to drown,
volcanoes which cause the enemy to
spend time dropping the land back
down to a reasonable level, swamps
which people can sink into, and
floods which cause the entire
landscape to be dropped by one level
must all be faced and survived. You
need to be careful of these on later
levels when the computer uses them
to its advantage.

Your people are able to construct
buildings, gather together to become
stronger, travel to find enemies to
fight, or you can create a knight who
will go and find enemy walkers to
kill or buildings to destroy. There are
over 500 worlds in conquest mode
where you battle it out against the
computer - with varying levels of
difficulty, and varying skills
available.

Alternatively, you can just try
custom mode which allows you to
customise all aspects of the game -
what skills good and evil can have,

»ecember 1 999

the way the landscape looks and so
on. You can then either battle it out
with the computer, or watch the
computer play against itself. There
was to be a serial link option so that
two people could fight it out
between them, but sadly it was never
implemented.

To sum up. Populous is a very
enjoyable and varied strategy game.
It may not appeal to everyone, but if
you enjoy planning attacks on the
enemy, or just playing God, this is
the game to look for. As with
Flashback, nobody seems to have
slocks of Populous any longer. Keep
an eye on the second-hand market if
you're really keen to get hold of this

News

In a break from the norm, there's
actually some gaming news this
month. Firetly, I bring the sad news
that programming group CEK has
left the RISC OS scene.

Their Website says that this is due
to all of the members "buying PCs".
GEK's two current projects, ChopX
and Sumitsu Sun were nearing
completion, so anyone who fancies
taking these on should e-mail
games@acomuser.com for details of
how to contact CEK directly. The
good news this month is that
Nintendo has announced they intend
(o use an ARM processor in their
next generation GameBoy. This isn't
"' ictly anything to do with the RISC
i market but it does go to show
it had things happened differently,
tM-based Acorn machines could
ve been a lucrative gaming
atform. The news will mean that
lulating the new hand-held

console under RISC OS should be
easier than those consoles which use
other processors. Look out for a full
emulation round-up on these pages
in the next few months.

It has been rumoured that R-
Comp Interactive are close to
receiving their order of the Heroes of
Might and Magic 2 expansion pack.
The Price of Loyalty. This pack was
due for release at the
Wakefield show in May
but delays in shipping
the boxes over from the
US put the schedule
back by several
months. Unlike some
other expansion
packs, this one is
set to add new
features as well as
offering new

missions. For one, a ;

random map generator
is now included
along with
some very
good music.
Keep an eye
out for a full
review.

Another t

new release.
Toy Chronicles, is ■<
also still on the * '

cards for the new year.
Billy from the Greek coding group.
Fantasia Fan, posted
to the gaming newsgroup to
announce that the project is still
being worked on but is being held
back by the absence of TopModel's
animation plug-in which was
promised many months ago.

It's still hard to tell what this

game will be all about, but a few
examples of the stunning artwork are
included this month.

Cheats

Since Archimedes World magazine
stopped earlier this year, there's been
nowhere for you no-good-cheats to
send your wares for publication. Just
so you know, cheats are equally
welcome here but unfortunately we
can't offer you any earthly reward
other than having your name printed
in this little 'ol mag. So if
you have a cheat, level
walkthrough or even a
CheatMod from Desktop
Hacker, e-mail it to
ganies@acomuser.com or
send it on a disc to the usual
editorial address. This month,
we have a previously undiscov-
ered cheat for Chocks Away
Extra Missions submitted by
Keith McKillop:

Go to practise map 'C,
go into practise, pause,
then hold 7' '£' 'T' and
'M', and press Space.
With hiek, it should de-
pause and give you
infinite speed limits and
' crashing will raise you

about 100ft from where you last
were. The necessity to refuel is also
removed. Oh, and if you're on inside
view when it happens, you're
suddenly looking left I think, so the
plane may appear to act oddly (it
isn't though) until you change view.

A second cheat this month allows
progression through the devilishly
hard BotKiller 2 from Wag Software.
This one was contributed
anonymously and is being published
as revenge on the author for using a
girl's name rather than my name, as
it was in the pre-release versions:

Enter a password of 'CLAIRE' from
the main menu and the text 'CHEAT
MODE' will hopefully appear at the
bottom of the screen accompanied by
a sound sample. Once in the game, use
the following keys to gain your
reward:

ketfpad 1 - level skip
keypad 2 - all three key cards
keypad 3 - full ammo and weapons

Alasdair Bailey

Contacting AU

Alasdair Bailey:
games@acom user, com

Some Ullages from Toy Chronic tes

"-r^t

corii

ware

Business and utilities

Ant Internet Suite II 110.51

Arc Fax 35,00

AfcFS2 25,00

ARCshare 49.95

Artworks 104.69

CD Burn 58.75

Complete Animator 94.05

DalaPower 1 110.00

DataPower2 166.32

DaVinci90 81.08

Digital Symphony 56,95

Disc Doctor 28.45

Disc Rescue 45.00

Draw Works Designer 31 .50

Easy C++ 116.32

EasyFont Pro 59.95

Eureka 3 110.51

FastSpook 17.62

Fireworkz Pro 166.31

Font Directory Pro 65.00

FontFXe 29.95

Game On! 2 15.00
Holy Bible (lllus.) BP(KJV) 82.25

HTML Edit 4 53.00

ImageFS 2 44.59

IMaster & TWAIM Driver 35.00

Impact Pro 100.00

Impression Publisher 136.41

Impression Style 83.54

LanMan98 41.12

MellDI 129.00

MIDI Synthesizer 46.94

Midi Works 151.95

OHP (Presentation) 29,95

Ovation Pro 158.62
P'rilel port Zip driver (Argo) 34,08

PCPro2 39,00

Personal Accounts V4 49.00

Photo Link 65.55
Photo Real (Canon/Epson) 65,86

Photodesk 3 299,50
ProArtisan 24 (RPC Only) 89,95

Prophet 3

179.77

Rhapsody 4

94,95

Schema 2

121.50

Sibelius 6

116.00

Sibelius 7

599.00

Sibelius 7 Student

345,00

Sleuth 3

116.32

SparkFS

25.00

StrongGuard

25.00

Studio Sound

113.95

Tablemate Designer

60,00

Top Model 2

145,11

Turbodrivers (Can/HP/Eps) 54.69

WebSpider

WebTooI for ANT Suite 2

WIMP Basic

Win95FS

XSlitch 2

EDUCATION

Animated Alphabet. Talk

Arc Venture (various)

A2tecs, Age 7-11

Calabash Pirates

Crystal Rain Forest

Data Sweet 3

Dazzle +

Dinosaurs (10/10)

Doodle

English (10/10)

Essential Maths (10/10)

Essential Science

Expl with Flossy the Frog

First Logo

Freddy Teddy's Adventure

French (10/10)

Fun School 3/4 (various)

Geography (10/10)

German (10/101

40,00
29,36

44.99
41.12
35,00

33.43
39.01
50,17
25.98
50.17
69,33
83.71
13,49
32.37
1349
13,49
13,49
28,79
38,95
23.50
13.49
24.99
13.49
13.49

Granny's Garden 28.79

James Pond Run. Water 27.00
Maths (Geometry) (10/10) 13.49

Maths (Number) (10/10) 13.49

Mega Maths 24.99

Micro Maths 24,99

My World 2 + 2 54.70

Naughty Stories Vols 1 -6 44.65

New Teddy Bear's Picnic 36,78

Nursery Rhyme Time 33,43

Oxford Reading Tree 3 44.65

Pendown DTP 65,85

Playdays age 3-8 23.40
Playground (Freddy teddy) 23,50

Smudge the Spaniel 25,98

Spelling a Punctuation 13,49

SplOSh+ (1-5 users) 51.70

Table Aliens 27.85

Tiny Draw/Tiny Logo 29.37

Tizzy's Toybox 47.94

Watch Magic Grandad 30.13

GAMES

Alone in the Dark 20.00

Anagram Genius 20.00

BMP Brutal Horse Power 28.49

Birds of War t 30.00

Black Angel 30,00

Carnage Inc. 22,50

Chocks Away Compend. 25.00

Cobalt Seed 23.74

Crystal Maze, age 7+ 28,45

Cyber Chess 31.50

Darkwood 20,70

Demon's Lair 20.00

Drifter (DD/HD) 31 50

Dune II (CD -£31.50) 26.60

Dungeon f 27 00

E-Type2 1 30.00

Eclipse Collection 22 49

Enter the Realm 25.00

Exodus 25.00

Fire and ice 23.39

Global Effect 27.00

Groundhog 12.00

Haunted House 25.00

Holed Out Compendium 20.00

James Pond 2+ 1 6.20

Logic Mama 27.00

Morph 25.00

Pandora's Box 25.00

Patience Addict 19.95

Play It Again Sam 3 24.95

Play It Again Sam 4 35.00

Real McCoy 2/3/4 (each) 35.00

Real McCoy 5 31.50

Rick Dangerous 15,26

Saloon Cars Deluxe 31.50

Scrabble 26.59

Shuggy 25.95

Shovy 3D 20,00

Silver Ball 12,00

Simon the Sorcerer 27.00

Small t 21.20

Spobbleoid Fantasy 30.00

Stereoworld 22.50

Stuntracer 2000 t 35,00

Supersnail 25.00

The Time Machine 25.00

Virtual Golf 31,50

CD BUSINESS & UTILS

Arm Club PD CD 1 19,00

Arm Club PD CD 2 15,00

Artworks ClipArt 1 or 2 20,08

BitfoliO 7 42.74

Font Emporium 29.95

PDCD4 (Datafile) 15.00

PDCD5 (Datafile) 15.00

ProArtisan 2 98,93

Rise Disc Vol.1 15.00

Rise Disc Vol, 2 20.00

Rise Disc Vol.3 25,00

Rob Duncan Cartoon Kit 42.74

Task Force Clip Art 33,20

Tekkie Disc (PRfvl's etc) 47.50

CDROM Education

Ancient Egyptians 42.30

Ancient Lands 50,53

Anim Talking Alphabe 33.43

Bniish Isles from the Air 42,30

Ifl

Castles 42,30

Crystal Ram Forest 2 50, 1 7

Dangerous Creatures 50,53

Dinosaurs 50,53

Era of the 2nd WW 81.08

Garden Wildlife 42.30

Guardians of Greenwood 58.16

Hutchinson's Encyclopedia 52.82

Illustrated Shakespeare 29,32

John Cabo! S Merchant V. 42,30

Kingfisher Micropedia 76,38

,■*,

King Arthur 58.69

lAa

Kiyeko with Acorn reader 36.43

Map Detectives 50,17

Musical Instruments 50.53

■j

My 1st Incrd. Amaz. Diet. 41.13

Number Time 2 28-99

Oxf Talking Infant Atlas 2232

PB Bears Birthday Party 41 1 3

Perspectives Francais 81 08

Romans 42 30

Science Explorer 66.96

Seashore Life 42.30

Science In Action 1 3.73

Settlements 81,08

Space Exploration 13,73

Survival. Mysteries of Nat. 42.30

The Way Things Work 50.53

The World's Weather 52,87

''■'■^

Tizzy's Toolbox 44.65

TOTS TV 19.95

Ultimate Human Body 50,00

Understanding the Body 42.30

Vikings 42.30

World of Robert Burns 93.94

CDROM GAMES

Abuse 25.00

Ankh 25.00

Crystal Maze 28.45

Doom Trilogy 35.00

Dune II 31,50

Heroes of Might & Magic II 35,00

Simon the Sorcerer 32.40

Syndicate 29.00

Wizards Apprentice 24.95

;; Some dealers may riol stock all

i tides

^ Miniinutn delivery £ 2

j Credit Cards and Omdal

!^ Orders welcome. R&OE
All Price.s Include
VAT<if 17.5^

New & Featured
software

Textease Multimedia

Award winning
Offer price £85

Acorn Advance

RISC 0S4/SA compat.
£50

ArcFS2

R/W compression

filing system

£25

Alone In The Dark

Walkabout game not SA
Offer price £20

ImpactPro

Relational database

New Publisher!

£100

Key :

NRPC Not for RP
t Separate RPC ve..
Many titles abbreviated for advert

Order from a participatiag dealer

Unjqueway

•j Tel 01222 464020 Fax 01222 440071

email sales@uniqueway.co,uk

*■ Davyn Computer Services

y Tel 01924 254800 Fax 01924 254036

email sales@davyn.demon.co.uk

CJE Micro's /NCS

, Tel 01903 523666 Fax 01903 523679

email sales@cie.co.uk „^. ^.

CTA Direct

Tel 01942 797777 Fax 01942 797711

email sales@cta.u-net.com

The Data Store

Tel 0181 460 8991 Fax 0181 313 0400

email sales@datstore.demon.co.uk

Liquid Siflcon

li! Tel 1 592 592265 Fax 1 592 596 1 02

et.co.uk

RISC OS compatibl€ products for the new MillEnnium

min\

RISC 05 compatible products for the new Millennium

CONTENTS

Page 2

The Latest RiscStation News

)

(

Page 3

Introducing the RiscStation NetWORX

)

Page 4

Introducing the RiscStation R7500 Lite

Page 5

RiscStation R7500 Lite Software Pack

)

Page 6

introducing the PCI PROJECT

)

Page?

PCI PROJECT Upgradability

)

Pages

RiscStation Dealer Contact Infonnation

NetWORX And R7500 Lite Now Shipping

Following the delay of a vital PCI component back in August the PCI-less
projects, originaly scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2000,
have been brought forward for release before the R7500 and are now
ready to find their way into many happy customers' homes and businesses.
Initial feedback from customers on the NetWORX and R7500 Lite is
extremely encouraging.

"RiscStation would iike to thank our customers for their comn^ents, we look
forward to entering the new Millennium with you. "

Projected sales figures are high and just as importantly, interest from the
United States (bearing in mind no marketing whatsoever has been
undertaken there) indicates a further increased user base for the new
Millennium.

l-l-l I Jl I.I I 11 • I I « < t

aSSN^

I When ttie proiolype uniis wore Being

tested the technicians found that the

power consumption was so

economical, they could run one

^on just three AA sizeb batteries

^.That's Httle more than most

TV r»mole controlsl

R7500 Evolution

The advanced release of the NetWORX and RTSOO Lite computers has
allowed the R7500 PCI variant to be completely re-designed to achieve
maximum performance, for those users who require even more power.
Due to these major re-designs the RiscStation R7500 has been renamed
"PCI PROJECT" and has swapped release dates with its PCI-less
brothers.

"The PCI PROJEC T is expected to be completed by early 2000. "

JNEWS

64bit PCI and Mega I/O for PCI PROJECT!

RiscStations hardware partners are currently producing new silicon to
allow the PCI PROJECT to use an enhanced PCI based I/O chip in
place of the current super I/O processor. This results in vastly improved
I/O over the original R7500 and previous RISC OS compatible systems.

It is also envisaged that 64bit PCI will be a part of the PCI PROJECT
as standardt This will result in an I/O bandwidth of a superior 264r^b
per second- This bandwidth makes possible the use of the latest in PCI
cards such as the new Simtec multi-processor boards, Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces and the latest RAID controllers.

©on 2000

RISC 05 compatible products for the new Millennium

NetWORX

ATION

56 Mhz ARM7500FPE (with integrated floating point
co-processor)

RISC OS 4

8/1 6Mb 60ns EDO System Memory

6Mb Flash Memory containing RISCOS 4 and Utilities

Micro ATX Desktop Configuration

PS2 Style Keyboard Input
PS2 Style 3 Button Mouse Input

From £399 + VAT

2 X Senal Port -Rated at 460k baud

2 X PC Style Game Port supporting Midi In/Out/Through

2 X High Speed EIDE Ports 'Supporting up to 4 devices
1 X lObaseT Network Port with Wake On Lan Support

1 X EPP/ECP Fast Parallel Port
1 X IRDA Infrared Interface Support
1 X High Density Floppy Drive Port
1 X 15Pin VGA Connector

Full 1 6Bit 0PL3 Stereo Sound Sampler & Mixer with FM
Synthesizer, Midi, Wavetable and 2 CD Mixer Ports

3 x 3,5mm Jack Sockets for Line in/Mic In/Headphone &
Speaker Out

ARM.

W-

Network Ready

^ s

Free Software

^D^CSStllftDOP

2000

RISC OS compatible products for the hew MillEnnium

f /

' / ' M ( r if I 1

■ i t i

/',

R7500 Lite

IFICATION

56 Mhz ARM7500FPE [with integrated floating point
co-processor)

RISC OS 4

16Mb 60ns EDO System Memory

4.3Gb HIDE Hard Drive

48X Atapi EIDE CD ROM Drive

6Mb Fiasti Memory containing RISCOS 4 and Utilities

Micro ATX Desktop or Mini/Midi Tower Configuration

Minimum 60 Watts External Stereo Speakers

From £499 + VAT

2 X Serial Port 'Hated at 460k baud

2 X PC Style Game Port supporting Midi In/Out/Through

2 X High Speed EIDE Ports 'Supporting up to 4 devices
1 X lObaseT Network Port with Wake On Lan Support

1 X EPP/ECP Fast Parallel Port
1 X IRDA Infrared Interface Support
1 X High Density Floppy Drive Port
1 X 15Pin VGA Connector

Full 16Bit 0PL3 Stereo Sound Sampler S Mixer with FM
Synthesizer, Midi, Wavetable and 2 CD Mixer Ports

3 X 3,5mm Jack Sockets for Line in/Mic In/Headphone &
Speaker Out

PS2 Style Keyboard Input
PS2 Style 3 Button Mouse Input

ARM

Available as Desktop

<9 O

*8 Network Ready ^^^^ Speakers ^^^e Sottware

RISC OS compatible products for the new MillEnnium

R75QO Lite SQFTWARg

RISCOS 4, the operating system of the R7500 Lite, comes with
applications built in. A personal organiser, text editors, drawing
applications and music software can all be found as part of the
RISC OS 4 package. As well as the standard installed RISC OS 4
software, there is a bonus CD with even more too! Games,
demo's, graphics and utilities can all be found on here.

As well as software that acompanies RISCOS 4, every R7500 Lite will
arrive with a lop selection of software preinstalled ready to use. Whether
you want to work or play, there are programs for everyone on the R7500...

A great graphic design package that comes with
a complete set of 2100 fonts and even a set of
over 1000 clips to use with your designs! With a
host of graphic enhancers as well as a complete
font editor. DrawWORKS Millennium is a great
tool for that creative job.

s^^Ksa (ja?(&© ssgD ©sots

PWt*^^^»*^

EasiWriter Professional is quite simply a brilliant Acorn compatible
word processor. As well as being extremely user fhendly, it can
utilise the many fonts supplied with DrawWORKS Millennium.
Combine this with MS Word compatibility, the European spelling
checker and the many utilities found in this professional package,
and you have a strong stand alone word processor.

Fireworkz Pro is a versatile office suite consisting of a
word processor, a spreadsheet application and a database
editor. A great all in one office package that is well laid
out and easy to get to grips with, Fireworkz is a great
solution for home office or business alike.

i)ifistimiin 'i-.^

Back by popular demand, PipeDream is best
described as an open plan office utility. Create
a letter, a spreadsheet or a new database all in
the same program, easily. A great introduction
program for children due to the simple layout,
yet a very able program never the less.

Aside from the serious applications, RiscStation have
installed a selection of games in the GAMEZONE. Ankh,
Botkiller and the nostalgic Frak! can all be found here.
Also a selection of shareware and demos of up and
coming titles can be found in the DEMOZONE, another
place to visit if your seeking fun and games!

Even more titles to appear soon.

DEMOZONE

x\kk

cZONE

KSSt^Hl^D©^ ao66

RISC 05 compatible products for th€ new Millennium

PCI Project

IFICATIQN Aq OF AimiMN qq

£TBA

Minimum 56 Mhz ARM7500FPE (with integrated floating
point co-processorj

RISC OS 4

Minimum 16Mb 60ns EDO System Memory

Minimum 4.3GB UDMA Hard Drive

Minimum 48X Alapi UDMA CD ROM Drive

6Mb Flash Memory containing RISCOS 4 and Utilities

ATX Desktop or Tower Configuration

Minimum 60 Watts External Stereo Speakers

Enhanced 64b)t PCI Bus

2 X Serial Port 'Rated at 460k baud

1 X PC Style Game Port supporting Midi in/Out/Through

2 X UDMA/ATA66 IDE Ports 'Supporting up to 4 devices
1 X lOObaseT Network Port 'Optional

1 X EPP/ECP Fast Parallel Port
1 X High speed Infrared Interface Support
1 X High Density Floppy Drive Port
1 X ISPin VGA Connector

Full 1 6Bit 0PL3 Stereo Sound Sampler & Mixer with FM
Synthesizer, Midi, Wavetable and 2 CD Mixer Ports

3 X 3.5mm Jack Sockets for Line in/Mic In/Headphone &
Speaker Out

PS2 Style Keyboard Input
PS2 Style 3 Button Mouse Input

Available as Desktop

5!fi *^^ If

^^^ Network Ready ^^^^ Speakers Free Software

.DgeSl^llftD©^

eooo

RISC 05 compatible products for the new MillEnnium

PCI PRI

ues

Returning to the original R7500 designs and enhancing the PCI Bus and other areas of the
motherboard has presented us with the ability to use very fast PCI card upgrades, the likes
of which would not have been as functional on previous designs. The new PCI PROJECT
will boast a 64bit PCI Bus for a bandwidth of around 264Mb per second, more than enough
for most PCI upgrades.

StrongArm Upgrade - Upgrade to the faster StrongArm processors for increased
power under general operation and for an overall quicker performance.

Multiprocessor Upgrade - Available with between 2 and 8 processors installed. Up
to 3 cards can be used in any one machine, totaling 24 StrongArm processors!
Powerful multithreading useful for many an application.

PC Card - Plans indicate the use of on board memory, and the ability to utilise up to
a SOOMhz processor, and beyond. PC Cards have NEVER been as powerful.

32bit SCSI Card - Up to 15 high speed devices can be connected to the R7500 via
this low cost, high performance card. SCSI Scanners, Hard Drives, Removable
Drives, CD Writers and a host of other devices will be available to the RiscStation
user,

lOObaseT Network Card - For increased performance over a network, this card can
be added to the R7500's PCI bus enabling faster transfer between systems,

USB Port Expansion - USB. the new multipurpose port available to PC systems for
some time now, will be available for the RISC OS user. WebCams, Digital cameras,
and an increasing range of products can be connected via USB to the PCI
PROJECT.

Internal 56k & ISDN Modems - Connection to the internet will be possible via an
internal modem. Connecting the modem to the internal PC! bus results in a faster
data transfer from modem to computer as well as cutting out the need for a bulky
external box, a neat solution for the internet user.

3D Graphics Accelerators - Soon the RISC OS user can experience the power of
a 3D accelerator card. Enhanced 3D gameplay in high screen resolution will be
possible on the R7500 with this breed of card, as well as the possibility of special
lighting and smoke effects being added real time to an intense 3D game.

ATA 66 IDE Upgrade - An extremely fast IDE expansion catering for those people
wanting more low cost yet high speed IDE devices. More Hard Drives, CD ROMs
and the like can be attached with this upgrade for very little expense.

MPEG Decode/Encode - MPEG encoded movies decoded on a RISC OS machine
quickly for high quality entertainment and presentational purposes will soon be a
reality with this upgrade. As well as this, the ability to encode your own material in
high quality MPEG format should be possible with this exciting project.

"PCI, the future of RISC OS computing. "

RiscStation

Ri5c Based Technologies

Sf_l 1 ■ -^MM A^ ■■

ACC Compuiers

Davyn Compuiers

Pineapple Software

Herenlalsebaan 212

The Workshop off Princes Street

Suile 1 , South Park Business Centre

B2100

Sandal

310 Green Lane

Deurne

Wakefield

llford

Belgium

WF1 5NY

Essex

+32 323/366,50-80

01924 254800

0208 599 1476

sales@davyn, demon. CO uk

sales@pineaple.demon.co.uk

APDL

39 Knighlon Park Road

Desk

Simnet Computer Services

Sydenham

Sierbloem 3

■Mir' Ham Wharf

London

3068 AP Rotterdam

Ihe Ham

SE26 5RN

Netherlands

Brentford
Middlesex

0181 779 2659

+31 010 2860541

TW8 8EX

info(gapcll.co.uk

lnro@deskvof,nl

0181 568 5393
tom@simnetttX)mp.freeserve. co.uk

Cannon Computing

E.t.c.

Whiiegale

58 - 60 Hexthorpe Rd

Dunmow Road

Hexlhorpe

Starlight Corp

Hairield Heath

Doncaster

Amenkalei84B10

Bishops Slorlford,

South Yorkshire

B-200D Antwerpen

Herls

DN4 ODB

Belgium

CM22 7ED

01302 342818

+32 3 238 5245

01279 730800/900

etc@cwcom net

manu T@writeme com

sales® cannon CO demon co uk

Explan Computers Ltd

Uffenkamp Computer Sysleme

CJE Micro's

PO Box 32

Gartenstr 3

78 Bnghlon Road

Tavistock

D-321 30 Enger - Dreyen

Worthtng

Devon

Germany

West Sussex

PL19 8YU

BNIl 2EN

+49 5224 978075

01822 613868

laiu@ucs.de

01903 523222

into@explan. demon co.uk

sates@c|e.co.yk

Uniqueway

Ifet

3 Clarendon Road

CTA Direcl

21 Glenfield Road

Cyncoed

168 Enroll Street

Glenmounl

Cardiff

Tyldesley

Plymouth

CF3 7JD

Manchester

PL6 7LL

M29 8DS

01222 464020

01752 777106

sales@uniQueway.co.uk

01942 797777

sales .ifel@3rgone1. CO .uk

sales@cla.u-net.corn

X- Am pie Technology

Levens Software

PO Box 77

Cumbria Software Systems

Kable House

5340 AB Oss

Unit 3A

Amber Dnve

Netherlands

Townfoot Indus Est

Langley Mill

Brampton

Notlingham

♦31 412 634433

N916 4BE

xat@horizon.nl

01697 73779

sales@cumsofl.demon.ca.uk

0500 121 242

CONTACT L

The Data Slore

6 Chadderton Road

Liquid Silicon

Bromley

2 Forth Avenue

Kent

Kirkcaldy

BR2 9QN

Fife

0181 460 8991

01592 592265

sales @ da la slore demon co uk

liquid@cableinel.co.uk

Datawave Nederland

Ofcom Syslem Haus

Chnslinalaan 31

Leipziger Sir 70

SOEST

06766 Wolfen

3761 BR

Germany

Netherlands

+49 3494 6950

+31 35 6013016

ofcomshw@professional-intemel.de

in(o@datawave.demon.n1

Hardware Partners

Registered Developer

RiscStation Ltd.

168 Elliott Street

Tyldesley

Greater Manchester

M29 8DS

United Kingdom

Tel: +44(0) 1942 797777
Fax; +44(0)1942 797711

Email: info@riscstation.co.uk
Website: www.riscstation.co.uk

Psion's Series 5 hand-held
computer has been around for
just over two years. It has
always had much to tempt an
Acorn user as, sentimentally at least,
it's a British design using an ARM
processor. Like RISC OS, the Series
5's powerful in-house developed
operating system, EPOC, is
staunchly Wintel-independent.

The Series 5 is a stylish and
innovative product, but it's by no
means perfect. Now Psion has
introduced a face-lifted model, the
Series 5mx and it successfully
addresses many, if not all, of the
original's faults.

Ask a seasoned Series 5 owner
what they would like Psion to
improve and the list would
inevitably include a clearer, brighter
screen, more memory, slightly less
lethargic applications, integrated
hiternet support and a case finish
which didn't start to flake and peel
after a few months.

The new m\ does have a revised
screen - well, according to Psion at
least. Compared to a fairly new
standard Series 5 1 couldn't see any
difference. Because of the touch
screen laminate, the screen remains
lacking in contrast, especially in dim
light. However, 1 suspect that all
more recent Series 5s, mx or
otherwise, have slightly improved
screens compared to original models.
The backlight is different, however.
It's no more brighter than before, but
it doesn't buzz like the old one and
Psion says it uses about a third less
power.

16Mb of system memory is now
standard compared with the
previous maximum of 8Mb,
which is just as well,
because if you k)ad
various

OptiOTVS,

like the
Java add-in
- which

Psion

Series

Ian Burley sees some improvement

consumes
3Mb on its
own, 8Mb
would be
barely adequate.
As the mx has a
speed-doubled 37MHz
ARM 71 OT processor,
applications are notably faster. For
example, one particular address
database search used to take 5
seconds to locate 55 records out of a
total of over 700.

Now on the mx it barely takes 2

seconds. Navigation of menus and
folders is noticeably a more crisp
affair. Best of all, the new processor
consumes no more battery power
than the old one. I typically get 4-6
weeks use from a pair of AA alkaline
batteries.

You can use NiCad rechargeables,
or even better, more modern Nickel
Metal Hydride (NiMH) types and
the latter will last almost as long as
ordinar\- aikalines, but they die
almost without warning at the end of
their charge, whereas aikalines fade
out more gracefully. Internet e-mail,
a Web browser and PC file
synchronisation software used to be
an expensive optional extra.

It's now bundled for free and the
e-maii portion is e\'en on ROM with
its own iconbar button. The e-mail
client was, from the word go, a
pretty agreeable affair. It can now
open Microsoft Word
attachments natively.

Web browsing is still a
rather sluggish and
imfulfilling

experience.
Frames
are still
not

supported,
so it's an
^. emergency-use

y/ only option really.

■V Multiple accounts are
supported; useful with the
* plethora of 'free' Internet
offers currently available. Java,
which works in conjunction with the
Web browser, is supplied on CD-
ROM, which could be important for
some business users. Psion has made

a big commitment to Ja\"a and
expects thousands of Java
applications to attract all sorts of
users evenhially. If there is one major
distinguishing feature of the nix, its
metallic grey paint job is it.

The old Series 5 was dressed in a
dark grey or occasionally a special
edition British Racing Green
rubberised finish. Unfortunately, the
exposed sharper edges of the case
soon lost their paint, leaving
otherwise reasonably new Series 5s
looking prematurely tired.

The new finish looks hard
wearing but only time will tell. So
what else has changed? Support for
Microsoft OfficL' file compatibility has
been stepped up and there is e\'en an
Outlook Contacts database application
in addition to the original 'Data'
database. Information exchange
using platform-independent
standards like vCard and IrObex are
now supported.

To summarise, the Series 5mx is
smarter, more capacious, faster and
more versatile than ever before. It
has evolved, but not radically. As a
Series 5 original edition user I look
longingly at the mx but my financial
conscience orders me not to part
with the £429 inc. VAT asking price.

However, if you're in the market
for a powerful pocket computer with
a great keyboard and digital
voice recorder - go for it!

Product details

Pnxiuft:

Pinion 5m X

Prife;

£429 inc. VAT

Supplier:

Most High Street

electrical retailers

Network

Ben OHivere

uses his machine

at a distance

computing

Linux is .1 hit of a buzz word in
the computer industry these
days. It's a free operating
system that is .1 derivative of
Unix and was initially written bv
Linus Torvelds, who still heads one of
the development teams. Tlie most
common derivative (RedHat Linux -
http://www,redhat.com) is available
for RISC OS, in the forni of ARMLinux
(http;//www,arm. uk.linux.or^)
though installing it is tricky and
involves reformatting your harddisc,

An alternative is to use a
Unix/Linux machine over a network
from vour own computer. This is most
commonly done by installing an X
server - a piece of software allowiiig
you to run programs on a remote
computer while the output is
displayed on your machine.

The most common software for this
is Humming Bird's E.vavtf (which I
have nm successfully on my PC card
using NetLinks). Another common
method is to connect using a telnet
client, which gives you a text-only
command prompt.

But what if you want to use an X
windows session on RISC OS? Gnome
Computers produce .'X which is
equivalent to Exceed, but it is single-
tasking and costs £199
(http://www.gnome.co.uk). However
it is possible to get a completely usable

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X session using free alternatives.

IXservcr is a freeware X server
under development by Vincent
Sanders, and is equivalent to ,'X. You
can get it from http://www.inkvine.
fluff.org/~vince

AthoLigh only at the 'alpha' stage of
development, it does work, but won't
really rim anything useful at the
moment.

VNC

Virtual Network Computing is a
system shnilar to X, but allows you to
run it on a variety of operating systems
- clients and servers exist for almost
every OS (including Windows, MacOS,
Linux/Unix, RISC OS and BeOS),

In order to get a running X session
under RISC OS you need to download
tlie Linux client software from
http:/ /www.uk.rescarch.
att.com/vnc/ follow the download
link and select the OS installed on the
remote machine you wish to connect
to. Download the archive and save it
to your directory

The following instructions assume
you <M-e using a Boume-type shell and
a Linux box. You should telnet to the
remote machine and enter the
following at the command prompt:

[ollivere@xserver oUivereJS unzip vnc-
3/3/2r3_x86_linux_2/0/zip

This will extract the program to a sub-
directory called u)ic_x86Ji)UiX_2/0

tonivere@Kserver oUivereJS cd
vnc_3t86_linux_2.0

Changes directory,

[ollivere@x8erver viic_xe6_linux_2«0] S
dmod u+rv(x •

Sets the file permissions,

[olUvere@xserver vnc_xB6_linux_2»0]S
./vncpasswd .auth

Constructs a password file

Password: [enter desired password]
Verify: [re-enter desired paasword]

The next task is to start the VNC
server and get a window manager
running. Unix has a system of display

screens, this is where several display
systems can function at once. It is very
likely that your server machine will be
running X windows on screen 1. So
you will start VNC on screen 2.

It is usual to specify a screen like a
port number, so xseryer.sjc.ox.ac.uk:l
would be sci'een I on the machine I
use, and xseryer.sjc.ox.ac.uk:2 would
be screen 2. We also need to set the
display to output to VNC, and start a
window manager:

[oUivereSxserver olliverelS ./Xvnc :2 -
geometry 1024x768 -depth 16 -rfbauth
./.auth &

Start VNC,

[ollivereSxserver ollivere]S ejtport
DISPIAY=xserver.9Jc.ox.ac.uk:2

Set display to VNC or, if you are using
tcsh or other c type shell;

[xserver] % setenv DISPLAY
xserver.3jc.ox.ac.uk:2
[ollivereSxserver olliverelS wmaker &

And start windoiv nmkcr window
manager.

The initial command ./Xvnc sets
the VNC server running, you can get a
full list of options with:

./Xvnc -help

You must add the '-rfbauth ./.auth', or
anybody will be able to log on to your
accoimt without entering a password,
which represents a major security risk,
Your system may not have windotv
mrtA'cr installed (mv window manager

Changing shell

If you are not using a Bourne-type
shell [bush or derivatives), you can
change shell by typing ssh at the
prompt, and selectijig bash from the
available options.

Obviously tlie system is limited
in performance b)' the network you
use, however you can alleviate
network load by choosing a
window manager that requires less
redraw, 1 find afUrstep or ivindoio
milker to be the quickest, axidjvivml "
to be particularly slow.

r)(>rt>mhpr 19<ti) htln-//ufwiv.-irnrnii«pr rnm

.iVStif^r1t^ir■3»J^^i^>fiVr'\•^^■

Network

of preference), if you get an error,
something like:

[ollivere@)tserver viic_x86_liiiux_2,0]$
bash: wmaker: ccmnand not found
[1]+ Exit 127 wfflaker

Then try a different window manager,
either twm oxfowm.

Client software

Now you have a working VNC server,
vou need to get hold of a RISC OS
cHent to connect to it. There are two
currently available: VNC by Simon
Truss (http://www'.bigblue.
demon.co.uk/VNC.html) and
VNCviewcr by Leo White (http://
www.brighteyes.u-net.com / ).

Connect to your server on screen 2,
and enter your password when
prompted. Hopefully you should now
be presented with an X windows
screen. Now vou have vour VNC ser\"er
running successfully, it can be tweaked
a little to make it run a more efficiently.

If you are running a fast network
(such as an ethernet) and the remote
machine is on the same hub, or across a
couple of hubs, you will be able to
increase the performance of the VNC
desktop by increasing the network
traffic, this will increase the
performance of your desktop, but slow
down the network for other users.
There are three changes that can be
made:

Screen Update/Poll Time

Tliese settings set how often your
local screen is updated. The lower
this value the more responsive the X
desktop will become.

Mouse Update

Tliis sets how long the program
waits before sending updates to the
mouse position on the screen. Tlie
lower this value the more
responsive the mouse will feel.

WimpPoll{UNConly)

Tliis option sets in (centiseconds)
how long a time slice VNC may use
before other tasks are swapped in.
Setting this as high as possible {100
cs), will devote more time to VNC
than to other tasks.

Disable Nagle Algorithm

[VNCscrver only) This disables
grouping of packets {information
sent over the network). Selecting
this results in less efficient, but
faster, networking.

There are various other methods for
increasing the performance of VNC. If
you don't neec^ 16bpp colour reducing
the number of colours will reduce
network traffic. Rather than doing this
on the viewer, if you start the VNC
server with '8' rather than '16' to
specify the colour depth you will not

llu-CIM

only get better dithering,
but a m;ich faster displav.
You can also make life
easier by not selecting
textured window tools
and backdrops, as plain
colours compress better
and will therefore be
quicker to update.

VNCvieiver is the most
fully implemented of the
two RISC 05 clients,
sporting features such as
full screen and single-
tasking modes, as well as
having an easy to use and
understand configuration window.

Connecting is simplv a case of
clicking Select on the iconbar icon. You
do need to specify the screen number
though, which is 2. VNCvieioer also
has the edge in terms of ease of
configuration with an easy to
LmderstaJid, nicelv laid out configure
window.

VNC is more fiddiv than
VNCx'ieiver, and you must set up many
of your choices through editing the
config file, it also lacks a full screen
mode. However, VNC sports a toolbar,
is quicker, and so is my client software
of choice.

VNC vs X

So far VNC has been presented a little
as a 'poor man's X ser\'er', however
there are quite a few ad\'antages to
using VNC rather than an X server.
The first and largest advantage is
that you get a persistent desktop.
Logging off and closing your window
does not kill your tasks, or change
anything on your desktop, as VNC is
still rurming, while under an Xserver

How does it work?

VNC is not an emulator, when you
run a program under VNC you are
running it on a remote machme
over a network. This means that
applications run at full speed, what
doesn't run at full speed is the
screen update.

In a VNC system you have cMent
software and a server software
which communicate with each
other over the network. The client
software detects the mouse-clicks
and keys you press on your
machine and ti-ansmits them over
die network to the server software
which 'ijiputs' them for you on the
server machine, and then transmits
the informalion back o\'er the
network so the client can update
it's display. Various tricks are used
to ensure that the client runs as
quickly as possible.

the window manager and tasks would
usually be killed, and if they weren't
there would be no way to re-connect to
your new display. Hence it is possible
if you (like me) move to many different
locations on the same network, or
locations with fast Internet access, vou
can simply open your VNC display to
find the desktop as you left it.

VNC also allows multiple
connections to the same session, this
means that two people may connect to
the same desktop at different locations
{and on a fast enough network
connection even in different countries).
This is very useful for demonstrating
software or multiple use.

VNC {imlike an X server) may run
on any desktop system. Hence it is
possible to use a PC, Mac (or even
Amiga) with a VNC client simply by
running server software on that
maciiine. There is now even a Java
version which will run embedded in a
Web page, hence machines such as a
Psion may still run VNC.

Equally, (and possibly more
usefully), it is possible to run a
VNCserver on the Acorn. This allows
you to use your RISC OS machine
across the network. VNCsenrr
(http://www.interconnex.co.uk/~paul)
is the only server software available,
and is fairly rudimentary, but it does
work.

Useful software

So what is actually worth using on
VNC? Pretty much anvthing will run
(aside from games, you won't be
playing QtinkL' for example) at an
astounding speed considering what is
going on. Software 1 find particularly
good includes:

The GIMP (GNU Image
Manipulation Package) is a complete
fully featured art/image manipulation
package, and best of all it's free.
(http://www.gimp.org)

Wardpcrfcct S. the definitix'e word
pmcessor for Linux (http://www.
corel.com) and Netscape. -—--».

(http://www,netscape.com) ld£l£9

http://www.acornuser.cum December 1 999

PhotoFX

Nicholas van der Walle of Astute Graphics
returns to Photodesk with some optional extras

l€J

Don't blame me. I freelv admit
t(t the toct thLit Spacetech's
two 'FX' plug-in p.icks for
Photoiicsk are nothing new. I
had my hands on them a year ago
and even then thev had been
available for some time.

The delay in getting them
reviewed lies squarely on the
shoulders of Acorn User's Deputy
Editor - the contact address being at
the front of the magazine if you wish
to complain [and to think I got him
this job - Ed]. Weil, that may not be
perfectly true but it does make for a
more watertight excuse.

I reviewed Photodesk 3 what seems
like a year ago now (my filing
system does not allow for
spontaneous checks of any nature)
proudly displaying my then latest
self-proclaimed masterpiece,
Conzvrgeiicc, created with the
aforementioned program.

While a lot of hard graft went into
thai one drawing (on the assumption
that if I put that comment in, more
people will fooled into thinking I
work for a living), I must confess to
having created many effects within
Convcr^cncf using the special FX add-
ons. Back then I found them
indispensable. A year later you
would not be able to take them away
from me for love nor money.

The FX packs

Officially, I should refer to the
Photodesk add-ons as Photodesk Phi^-
m Effects Collection FXl (and 2). But
as I haven't got ail week to write this
review, from here on the products
shall just be referred to as FXl and
FK2.

It's all very well to give them a
more efficient title, but what are
they? Well, Photodesk 2 and Photodesk
Light acquired an ability that the
original product never had - that of
being able to add to the package's
functionality by supplying a small
application that would work within

the framework of Photodesk.
Modularity is another name for this
practice.

Like all the other applications that
have this ability to be expanded
{Artworks. Photoshop, and so on),
Photodesk's plug-ins are invisible to
the Filer after installation, imless
vou dive into the contents of the
program (for which there is no
reason to do so). The matter of
installation is simplicity itself being a
case of just running a foolproof
install program.

As the FX packs are not full
programs in their own right, they are
very compact and are supplied on
single floppy discs. In fact, the
majority of the disc space {95+% if
you want to be pedantic about it) is
taken up with the supply of the
public domain Web browser Webster
and the FX's accompanying Web
help file. Yes - your only source of
documentation is a disc-based
HTML document, but this is never a
problem as the plug-ins are so easy
to use.

FX pack one

Each pack comes with a distinct list
of additional effects that may be
achieved over and above what is
supplied as standard with Photodesk,
which may be seen as precious few

'SpedaT effects

Angle 180

•ccw

fy' Comtrain effect to canv»

Apply

Image twM

\.H

Ty^

Figure I: The "Spddal" ("jfixlf wiitdmv
slioii'ing 1(5 {'review opiioii

figiir,' II: The OrigiunI image

in the classic 'FX' sense. FXl brings
the following list to the party:

# Lens simulation

# Spin and zoom blur

# 3D ripple

# Diffuse map

# Outline glow

# Sharpen edges

# Hatch

# Pixelise

# Crackle

All new facilities listed above, just as
with the second FX pack, may be
accessed through the FX icon on the
Photodesk toolbar It is a great relief
that ail effects may be found through
a similar user interface with the
minimum of fuss, which makes any
sort of documentation unnecessary.

The truth is that probably the best
way to explore the potential of these
additions is to load one of the
hundred example JPEGs supplied
with RISC OS 3.5, especially one
with a great range of colours like the
fruit bowl, and start manipulating all
before you with these new toys.

Common interface

Each effect is controlled through a
similar compact 'Special effects'
window as shown in Figure 1. The
top half of the window (along with
the ability to select the type of effect
available) is always shown, with tlie

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

•-ser^ar-'a'K.v^:

'^TT^TZ^S-^,

fif^un' IV: Tlw image after :i i'0:^ilive leiK
siimdation of 500% distort ion and 2S()%
magnification has been applied

eye icon giving the choice to view a
preview of the effect yoi-i intend to
apply. The variables controlling the
particular effect differ from type to
type.

If you opt to see the preview
portion of the window (as depicted
in Figure 1), the left window may
contain either a sample snapshot of a
particular area or a global view of
the whole image. Whether a
snapshot or global view is depicted
depends on the suitability for the
chosen effect. To the right, a
complete scaled view of the whole
image is always visible.

If a snapshot preview is deemed
to be suitable by Photodesk. it is
usually because the option applies
localised effects (such as rain drops)
as opposed to a gltibal effect (such as
twisting as shown in Figure I).
Navigation around the whole image
to select an area to snapshot preview
is available in three handy ways;
clicking on the area of the global
preview (lower right of the window),
manually scrolling the snapshot
image (for more precise movement)
and clicking on the exact spot of the
main canvas image. The Preview

Figure V: Creating the ubiijiiitous 'magnifying tfus

button applies the
effect to the snapshot
or global preview
image. This does not
alter the main canvas,
which is thankful, as
some of the effects are
quite processor-
intensive.

Once you are
happy with the effect
you wish to apply, the
appropriately named
Apply button forces
the effect upon the
whole image on the
canvas, apart from the
masked areas. Simple.

Using FXl

The effects provided
on FXl are all pretty
self-explanatory in the
function they are likely to provide.
The benefit of this is that they all
have a very clear use, so these extras
are more than just toys. To
demonstrate this, I shall use the Lens
Sitntdation to create a, erm... lens
effect.

The classic scenario is drawing a
timeless magnifying glass above an
exciting image, letting the new
Plwiodesk effect warp the section of
the image that may be viewed
through the glass lens area.

Figure II shows the square
original image taken from the
example images supplied with my
Rise rC. When I tlien apply a
positive lens simulation of 500%
distortion and 250% magnification to
the image. Figure IV is created.

Tlie fact that the whole image
becomes affected can, on the surface,
seem a bit limiting. However, ail
effects respect any mask present,
with Hutch even being able to
interact with a mask. In practice,

though, the best results are
often achieved by cutting
and pasting the area you
wish to be affected and then
using masks to help control
just how the affected area
can return to the original
canvas. This method should
be familiar to most people
who use Photodesk, with its
fluid cut and paste abilities
aiding the process.
Returning to the lens
simulation effect, we can see
just how versatile each new
tool is. In order to change
Figure II into Figure V, I
conducted a posiHve lens
effect. By altering this to its
default negative one, the

Figure VI: The 3D ripple effet t nl I'i".. ,inii<litiide and ii frequetiey of 5 cycles

more conventional lens 'bulge' may

be generated.

Figure V was created by cutting
and pasting a circular area of the
canvas to a new file, applying the
negative lens effect to that, then
pasting it back to the original canvas
(with Replace selected). This left the
area of the image outside the
supposed glass lens unaffected. To
finish the image, I drew a metallic
lens ring to highlight the extremes of
the effect, lightened the original
backgroimd to increase contrast and
applied some simple shading.

Being picky

Picking out my other favourites in
the FXl collection brings me on to
3D ripple. Imagine placing an image
Lmder the water of a puddle - look
directly down from above and then
drop something in the water. The 3D
ripple tool creates what the puddle
scene describes, except you don't get
wet or have to retrieve a soggy
picture.

To illustrate this, Figure VI is of
the Com'er^encc print manipulated
through the 3D ripple Photodesk effect
at an amplitude setrtng of 35% and a
frequency of 5 cycles. Varying just
these two settings can create wildly
differing results. 1 have also found
that by adding a border to the image
(using the extend feature built into at
least Photodesk 2), the end result may
be controlled as the amplitude
setting takes the canvas as a whole
into consideration.

Another favourite from the FXl
selection is that of zoom blurring.
For this one, discard the imaginary
puddle and just navigate your head
very quickly towards a picture.
Noticed how the image seemed to

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

Fif^ure Vli. A zoom hhir of HH)"" fttvnglli niui
75% speed with it radial mnsk tipfihed

zoom towards you? No? Well, just
apply this zoom effect to see what I
mean. Figure VIl was again
originally taken from the stock
images. Before I applied the zoom
effect, I first specified a little outline
glow (another FXl feature) so that
the tips of the petals would be
highlighted, then set a radial mask
followed bv a mask inversion so that
the centre of the rose head was
protected.

The applied zoom blur of 1007<.
strength and 75"'ii speed affected the
extremes of the rose and
background, leaving the centre
largely in focus. I found that
applying a global zoom without the
use of a centre focal mask would
lose all detail leaving a confusing
blurred image.

All other effects from FX7 that
haven't been touched upon so far are
illustrated in Figure VIII. Of these, I
can only find two limiting factors;
the Spill blur can not be spun any
further than shown and the Hatch
tool can only hatch from NW to SE

(although of course you could flip
the image before applying it).

The Crackle effect is a nice one in
that it can give an 'old master' effect
to any image, while the Diffuse map
option can mimic certain painting
styles as well as rough sketches
(especially for mono images).

The final effect for this first pack -
Pixelise - is the ideal one for hiding
any informant's identity. The person
you want to disguise the identity of
may even specify whether their face
be pixelised to a mask threshold
(giving a jagged pixel border) or not
(giving a much smoother pixelated
profile).

FX2

The second effects pack is identical
in style to the first, but delivers a
whole new batch of options and
buttons to mess around with.
The list of additional features are as
follows;

• Chrome

• Posterise

• Colour contour

• Twirl

• Glaze

• Raindrops

• Dimple

• Channel map

• Median filter

• Crystallise

Again, I will choose three of what I
consider to be the more sophisticated
effects and put them through their
paces.

To start this off, I will tackle what
is probably the most versatile of the
twenty tools found in both packs, yet
looks docile if the user interface's
options are anything to judge it by. I

Hatch

Pixelise

Crackle

must confess to initially ignoring the
Chiumel nmp tool as when 1 just
aimlessly prodded around with it,
the results were disappointing.

The trick was to use the mask
channel to cause a distortion effect.
The profile of the mask determined
just how the image on the canvas
would be stretched and manipulated
- with full control over just how
much tliis tool should pull the image
around.

I found one great result that
appears to be very convincing. By
filling the mask channel with a
coarse texture prior to entering the

"Speyargtf^

StrvigthI too
Dvplh

*ff^.

Spin blur Diffuse map

Figure VUI: Tl:e renuiiitiiij^ FXl effects

Sharpen edges

Fii;urc IX ihin^ the Oiaimel map
toi'l lo create a stone texture

FX tool, 1 would then select channel
4 (the mask, by default) as the
controlling channel for this effects
tool.

Requesting a low distortion value
(of say, 3) and a radius of around 6,
with 50% highlight, I was able to
create Figure IX; what I would
consider to be the ultimate stone
design effect. The difference between
this and just superimposing a texture
is that this actually distorts the
original image rather than just
adding or subtracting brightness
levels.

All in a spin

Practicality can take a pause while
the more gimmicky, but truly
wonderful Twirl effect can make an
appearance centre stage. I had been
awaiting the re-emergence of this
facility ever since Oregan's quietly
laid-down Photo Touch package was
released.

Again using my Convergence
image, in an apparently never-
ending shameless plug, I subjected it
to a 120° twirl effect. The result may
be seen below. The twirl constraint is
between -720" to 720" (two twists
clockwise to two counter-clockwise,
respectively). At these extremes, a
very savage whirlpool may be
generated. But, back to a more useful

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

PhotoFX

tool, the last effect I shall look at in
relative depth is the ultra-realistic
Raindrops effect. This was the tool I
utilised almost everywhere
throughout the development of
Convcrgenci'. Not only does It make
for some great raindrop effects but 1
also found that it was the best way to
create a rough, random texture over
a large area,

The problem with normal textures
(on any system of this type) is that
they are based upon a sample square
greyscale image, usually not more
than 200 pixels square. Whereas
some of these are very convincing
when applied in relatively small
areas, over a greater distance the eye
can quickly pick out the repetition.
Therefore when I had to generate a
gravel effect over a large (pixel-wise)
area, T opted to use the Raindrop
effect tool, setting the cirops to a
minimum size and almost lOO'V..
coverage.

The rest

The six remaining tools in the FX2
pack are not necessarily less
significant, but either do as
their title describes on
the tin or I've never
found a real use for
them (yet...).
Referring to
Figure XI, I kick
off in this final
round with
Chrome- great
for creating sci-fi
look creatures.
Dimple is one of
those tools that
you will find a rea
use for once in a
lifetime. Colour contour
is, well, bright. Again, more
of an occasional tool for photo-
retouching. Glaze is quite unique in
that it is one of those effects that
would be very hard to create in any
other way. Just load in that bowl of

Chrome

Dimple

Colour contour

f^ f^

Glaze

Figure XI: T)il- reimimiitg FX2 effects

Crystallise

Posterise

VJR

Wr^

-^' ^^

^ .

r.r* ■

'>'"

r^/.'-

•,''

Figure X; The Raindrops effect

fruit image as supplied with your
computer, click Glaze and watch the
liquid icing just pour on.

Cri/stallise is very much a
tyle' effect and a
very convincing
one too. The
resultant paint
effect is
^^^^fc realistic and
'^^^y^^ not over-done
^•^^^ as many
inj^^^^ equivalent
VM K f packages tend
' '™ " to produce.
Posterise is in
the same class
as Crystallise,
producing a very
believable effect.
The final effect is that
of Median filter which sounds
less interesting but serves an oft-
requested purpose. It is extremely
good at removing sharp colour noise
as is often generated when capturing
video pictures.
Apparently this
tool was requested
by many of
Spacetech's
customers who cut
their teeth using
their original
satellite data
display packages,
where this feature
was first present.
Never needed it
personally, but
upon testing it on
an artificially-
generated noisy

picture, I had to admit it removed it

cleverly, leaving very few problem
areas.

To top it all

It's been a bit of a strange review; on
their own, each effect amounts to very
little, but when you gain access to all
twenty new tools your list of
possibilities does open dramatically- I
did not use the tools immediately (and
at the start I wondered if they were
worth it), but once you get on with
pushing Pttotodcsk more and more,
you'll find that you start to
subconsciouslv use the tools as if they
were always there. If they were
removed from my setup now, I'm sure
that I would be lost in the first fifteen
minutes of booting Pbotodesk up.

The best compliment is that they are
so transparent in use. There is no need
to flick through manuals, attack alien
interfaces or get to biow the
mathematical formulaes involved. Just
select and click. Then try it again with
another one. Then another, just
to see. And another... BZItf

Product details J

Product;

Photodesk FX 1 and 2

(require Photodesk 2 or 3 or

Photiidesk Light to run, also

available from Spacetech)

Price:

£19.93 each

Supplier:

Spacetech Limited

Address;

1 The Courtyard, Southwell

Business Park, Piirtland,

Dt.rset, DT5 2NQ

Tel:

01305 822753

Fax:

01305 860483

E-rnaii:

,sa les@spacetech.co.uk

Web;

www.spa cetech.co.uk

http://www.acurnuser.com December 1 999

Part 2 of Max Palmer's TopModel2 review

ast month I looked at the basic
features of TopModelZ,
Sincronia's excellent RISC OS
3D modelling package. This
month I'll be finishing my review by
looking at some of its more advanced
features.

The environment

While the creation of 3D objects can
yield satisfying results, it is clear that
a simple wire mesh lacks the realism
we have come to expect from today's
crop of graphics packages. To
■»^ add the next level of depth

s^S^

we need to turn to TopModcI's
environment tools which enable us
to assign attributes to objects within
a scene. By attributes I really mean
material types such as plastic, glass
and metal, colours and texture maps.

In brief, a material type governs
the physical properties of an object,
such as how light reflects off the
surface, whether or not it is
transparent, its ambient colour and
so on, whereas texture maps permit a
picture to be warped over the surface
to provide a high degree of realism.
For instance, a rectangular block can
be made to look like a brick wall by
applying a repeating image of a brick
pattern tti its surface. (Figure I)

TopMode! allows users to assign
attributes to objects by first selecting
the desired polygons or primitives
and then using the attributes
" mdow to set their properties
p^igures 11 and 111). Attributes

may be chosen from a
-i- ntimber of predefined
^terials and named
colours, or a new type
W can be created by
- " ^ defining the necessary
parameters and
assigning a name.

New materials can also
be exported for use in
other scenes using the
new resources editor,
which al ser-

di'finc): i

' ''!

Sfi'^i

the textures that
: have been loaded
ig the creation

of a scene. Since the textures
themselves are not saved as part of a
TopMode! scene file, TopModel copies
any textures used during a session
inside TopRes, its central resources
folder. This also reduces the risk of
problems associated with images
disappearing or moving between
sessions.

Once loaded, textures are
assigned within the attributes
window using one of several
mapping modes, polygonal, planar,
spherical or cylindrical, the choice of
which largely depends on the
geometry of the object to which the
map will be applied. It is also
possible to flip the orientation of the
image, specify the number of times a
texture is to repeat across the surface
(in both the horizontal and vertical
directions), and select a colour which
will be transparent when rendered.

If that weren't enough, you can
apply a texture as a chrome map, or
select an additional image to use as a
bump map. Bump maps are typically
greyscale images, with the intensity
indicating the elevation of the
surface, and are u.sed to simulate the
effects of relief when the object is
shaded - hence the term bump map.

in general, the texture engine
produces good results and Is very
fast, particularly when you consider
the lack nf floating point hardware.
Hov. illy small glitches

appi ..-■red display, as is

lonii many fast mapping

rouliiii--, -xj tare must be taken when
ipplying a texture to the model to
iccount for the orientation and
Hewing angle in order to eliminate
texture smearing.

As well as permitting colours and
materials to be assigned to an object,
the attributes window enables the
display style used to render
individual objects to be specified as
either wireframe or solid; flat or

Mf-'^

*■■" :U**.A'.'*-'

j^ Seta.1 j<^ Crraie j "^ EOii l||^ Defii

■\:

f->'<

\ Sprcial

i ■?^" Lights [^ Libraiv \^^ .AnmuM j^^ Virtual

•<Br Plug-ins

I om mt m tf I

ftwuw

Te>LTure V 1

IHH '*>v^

Difl4niM ■[ ;:
SWmuaitai

Figure //: The attributes

ivindoxi' nlloii's prapcrties to be

assigned to ohjecfs, iiKltiding

the niatcriiil l}4pi'. Thif^

nxiiinph; ^tipfilicii loitli

TopModei shows the effect lluit

cbaii<ics ill diffusion and

reflection hiwe on the

appfnraiice of a maleriat

nsad attributBS

Click lo use avuJnblc Plug-ms.

figuir I: Ati example of texture niajtpiiig

and light or opaque. These
verride the currently selected
er mode and can be used to
»pro\'e the appearance of objects or
ake the machine more responsive
r reducing the load on the
xressor.
~ " example, Phong shading

)lates between vertices to

iprove the appearance of objects,
ikin^ them appear smooth instead
posed of flat surfaces.
rer, this style of shading can

look odd when applied to larg^^ff"
areas, such as walls. In this case, a
user might choose to override the
default rendering style by switching
the particular object's attributes from
smooth to flat.

Polish

Once you have created, imported,
adjusted and distorted the objects
required for your scene, it's time to
think about how you can add polish
before you output your results. Key

areas here include use of lighting, if
you're thinking of exporting a
bitmap image, and choice of viewing
angle.

Unfortunately, while the object
creation and manipulation facilities
within TopMoiiel are pretty good, the
lighting facilities are somewhat basic.
General lighting options include
being able to specify the intensity
and colour of the front light and
ambient conditions, while the lights
menu allows you to add additional

-1 MMKMff

CiJour & muleiuil

Texture 1 \'ani>us

Mike <«leciiun_

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'Cd

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Set miirfiid

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rigiirc III: Tlie attributes of a selected object

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Eagr «fciB... I 1*^^

HicL B> 1 H v^a>i ln« uvO f tf 4 [WurWfn

liirJI)i.i-i " it: 211 tiiinKl Vi

/ 1-iiiiv l\ . The )<,illi (1/ liiihl'^ mil}/ hi- nmdr risiWc /irr tnimipuhitioii
(iiiiiin i'li tiirc) or liiriial off for the final inm<ie (iiisfl)

Spot lights, extra 'sun' type lights
(essentially directional, parallel beam
stiurces of light) and point sources.

While you can adjust the intensity
of the extra lights, move them about
and create primitive lens Hares,
rather strangely there's no obvious
method of setting their colour or
adjusting other properties once they
have been created; an obvious
deficiency. Lights aside, iopMiKicI
allows the viewpoint to be set up

^%T ._-:4<.« ; "*'■

using either the manual
rotatc/zoimi/translate tools or by
entering values into a dialog for
more precise control. Once a useful
angle has been obtained it can be
saved as a named view and recalled
at a later date.

While most editing and creation
of objects is likely ttt take place with
perspective off, more often than not
^will want it to be enabled to

nal scene

viiiiiaiiiiij^

nnatwi^-inwMtTiii^oiif II

i^nd this may be done by toggling the
I perspecti\'e icon on the TopModeJ

j toolbar.

I Other nice features which can be

I used to improve the appearance of
the rendered output are the ability to
use an image as a backdrop and
ijAjJK enable fog, which can be chosen to
■'^^' match (he background colour and
have^Uie intensity and drop-off rate
'"^ . ^ ^^.^^ Putting all these
Ether enables some pretty
ing results to be obtained
""■(7 - as shown in Figure
I' est from

«HMU itL.'inmend
tising some of the alternative output
options awiilable to you.

ToftModcl supports a number of
I output options in addition to its own
native file format, and includes the
ability to export the scene as a
picture, a drawfile (either wire frame
or flat shaded, but not textured), an
ASCII file and its own 31)Scene
filetype, which is compatible with
the freeware TopModcl file viewer
irMViewcr).

The picture export option creates
an image using the current rendering
style and allows the size of the
output image to be specified, al sizes
up to 2048 X 2048, as well as the
filetype (either sprite or targa) and
colour depth. While TopModcl does
not anti-alias the output image, an
ophon is available to export at
double or quadruple the current

S^»uiLir>j

i'liv^Ji I -.lull pti-, D-tlTi'*

Save ribakii

SAtUk'.FJI

Type !

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hHikd Bi uMa MnnHb >■

rc V/: 7Vii' ■rliiiuliinl iojiMiiicl mitiiiil ovtk'ii'i

rk area dimensions, resolution
ilations permitting. You can then
>duce an anti-aiiased version of
" ire, at the original work area
.>n, by halving the scale of the
using an i' -■ essinjt;

>Hon such ' t'Si.

One of the obvious limitations of
,AA,^[ jg ^Y^Q^ while the final

Image is quite good, it is still
(b the capabilities of the
xdering engine. As such there is no
'"t for advanced features such
racing, which enable
five results with physically
te reflections and shadows to
produced In many respects this is
t all that surprising, since the level
com putation required for accurate
icing demands a machine with
nt floating point unit which, if
being sensible here, rules
..orns out at present.
\ iowever, for those who are
rtunate enough to own both an

Acorn and recent PC all is not
completely lost, since TopModel
provides a utility to convert TopMotM
ASCII files into other formats,
including VRML and DXK In
addition, 1 have created a fairly basic,
'rough and ready' PC-based utility to
convert TopModcl ASCII files into OBJ
files, which I may consider releasing
once I've cleared up potential
distribution issues.

While, regrettably, none of these
export options preserve texture
information, they do provide a
relatively painless method for
importing your creations into many
3D packages on other platforms,
enabling you to use TofMoiIrl as a
design loo!, which it is gtKid al. Once
you have imported your models you
will need to add textuivs, htiwever,
assuming your package of choice has
a good ray-tracing engine, the lesults
definitely justify the means, as the
accompanying box on the creation of

J)l^!^'^^'SJ /(I

the RISC OS logo hopefully
demonstrates (Figure Vlil).

Into the future...

One of the great things about
TopModi't is that unlike many other
packages that ha\e come along, its
creators, Sincronia, have tried hard to
listen to users and continually
enhance their tiffering. Although
development oi the core engine
continues, Sincronia have opted to
enhance TopMoiict's feature set by
providing a plug-in system, which
allows extra modules to be loaded at
run-time.

Two such modules arc currently
commercially available, TopDcfonn
and Toj'lonI, while othiTsaiv under
development. TopDcfurm provides an
extra set of deformation tools that are
split into five categories, fractal,
enlarge, envelope, displace and
function.

These allow various types of
distortion to be applied lo a mesh,
for instance an image can be used to
displace points within a mesh (a bit
like emboss in a 2D painl package),
alternatively objects can be exploded
or have fractal noise added to make
the surface appear rough or
crumpled (among other effects).

Probably of inorc interest however
is TopFimta, which comes on CD-

□ o

*) '

Qi.
#:%

^io|

Fjiifure vn(: Sf^s outliving the creation of the RISC OS 4 /o^^i

Stage 1: First the basic RISC OS 4 logo was created in

Artworks using toitr rectangles and three circles. Once made,
the five pieces of the logo were created from the original using
Martin Wuerthner's excellent Intersect plug-in tool for
Artworks.

Stage 2: Next the logo was exported from ArtWorks as a
drawfile and loaded into TopModcl as an extruded object.
TopFonl was then used to create the RISC OS text, with a
simple cut-away bevelled edge selected. The text was then
rotated and scaled to match the dimensions of the extruded

drawfile. Two copies of the face were then made and rotated
to lie in the correct positions. Finally, colours were applied to
each of the pieces, which were then grouped by colour.

Stage 3: The TopMode! file was exported as an ASCII file and
converted into an OBJ file using a PC-based conversion
appHcation written by myself (see main text). The OBJ file was
imported into MetaCreations' Brycei on a PC and tlie colours
and material settings reapplied to the groups. Finally, a radial
light source was placed at the centre of the logo and the scene
ray-traced in Bryce.

ROM and adds the ability to create
3D text. Once selected you simply
choose a font from the list, select a
bevel style and type the text you
wish to display into an edit box. You
then drag the text into the main view
and reposition it using the standard
selection tools.

While this process works very
well, you should be aware that you
can only select from the list of fonts
that are supplied on the CD-ROM
and of those fonts, only numbers and
letters (upper and lower case) are
permitted, although one font, Fences
Plain, does appear to consist of
symbols. These slightly annoying
restrictions notwithstanding, the
variety of effects that can be created

h h k h

c cc c

I r,i-;lang | 1>- | S

AaBbS r

Figure IX: TapFonl in action. Tiw illiislrnlinn
shoips llie effect that different beivl Mt/leA liave
on the appeamnce of some of the fonts supplied

with the plu^-m

examples of which are shown in
Figure IX.

in addition to TopDeforiti and
TopFonts, two more plug-ins are
currently under development.
TopBoiies will allow 'skeleton-like'
control points to be added to meshes,
allowing complex models to be
created and sections repositioned
much more easily than is currently
possible, while TopMoiloii looks set to
add a stunning array of features for
producing animations, including
particle effects and complex linked
actions. After sneaking a few
glimpses at Wakefield, all I can say is
I can't wait.

Round up

In the pi-eceding sections I have
touched upon some of the ways
objects can be created, imported,
distorted and edited using TopModcl.
However, i must emphasise that
there are many other features which i
simply haven't had space to
introduce, let alone describe.

Indeed, it is illustrative that
despite the fact I have been a regular
user of TopModei since it first came
out, some years ago, I still come
across powerful features which I
never knew exist, and tliercin lies
TopModcVs beauty, and also it's curse.

It is so laden with features, which
to a certain extent have moulded the
development of its own, distinctive,
user interface, that it is sometimes
difficult to spot the wood from the
trees, especially when tilings don't

work quite as we have come to
expect them to. This can be
frustrating at times, nevertheless,
despite its flaws - a few of which 1
have mentioned in the text - it is an
incredibly powerful and rewarding
package if you take the time to
investigate its features.

It is also worth remembering that
the world of three dimensional
design is an inherently complex
subject. Hopefully, during the course
of the next few months, 1 will be able
to ease the learning curve and enable
others to get the most from this
elegant, occasionally frustrating,
graphics package.

With the prospect of further
development and new plug-ins on
the horizon the future looks
bright. Bravo Sincronia! i

Product details ^M

Product:
Price:

TopMode 12
£152.75

Product:
Price:

Top3DFonts (Plug-in)
£58.63 (includes CD
collection2 and free v2.14

upgrade)

Product:
Price:

TopDetorm (Plug-in)
£28.79

Supplier:

Spacetech. 1 The Courtyard
Snutliwell Business Park,

Portland, Dorset DT5 2JS

Tel:
Fax:

(+44/11) 1305 822753
(+44/0) 1305 S60483

E-mail:
Web:

sales@spacetech.co,uk

www.spacetech.co.

uk/topmodel/

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E-mail: craigb@argonet, co.uk

RPC 700 with SA upgrade, DX4-100
pC card + software, CD-ROM,
540Mb HD, 32Mb RAM, 2Mb
VRAM, SCSI MKII Epson stylus 200
colour printer, A4 colour flatbed
scanner, 18 months old, perfect
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A5000, 4Mb RAM, 428Mb HD, FP
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Rise PC 600 AKP60, 14in Monitor,
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tel: 01283 517 088

Acorn Rise PC 700 with: 48Mb
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Olympus C1400L Digital Camera

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SmartMedia, Serial Cable, PC
Software & Snapshot+ for RISC OS
(Irlam Instalments), £450 ono.
Works fine with RISC OS 3.6, 3.7 &
RISC OS 4.0. Call Paul on 0171 202
3309 or e-mail paul_jagger@uk.ibm.
com

Would anyone be interesting in
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in Kent, in the UK. Tliank you.
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^-.:nitni. "-^^ .V_> K-.Y and

^25H0 ,omp>.

• PC software for windows, TextEase
Std Ver 4.0 unregistered CD,
manuals £30; Fireworkz for
windows £25.00(no manual)
DX4/100PC card manuals, DOS7
£75. Tel: 01706 812 516

• A3020, 2Mb RAM, RISC OS 3.11,
AKF40 colour monitor, hi-fi sound
upgrade, £120 including delivery.
Also have 4Mb machine, specs as
above, £150 including delivery. Call
Glenn on (01453) 844513 or
preferably e-mail; glenn@squirrel-
net.demon.co.uk

• Acorn A5000 ARM3 with atomwide
8Mb RAM 210Mb HD. With
keyboard, mouse, manuals,
Artworks, Impression, Ant Internet
Suite v2. Games. £120. Telephone
Bamy in Taunton (01823) 490322.

• Acorn Qume Calligraph laser
printer and laser card, cables,
manual and spare brand new laser
toner, £125. Wanted: Ethernet card
with access+. Tel: 01268 734 215

t'ists.
9821

1^ ^tu-

Pr. Manias]
£20; Q4G

azine

!"e discs, man?/(i ,
nal boxes £700. Tel: i^^

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http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

Century House

Market Street

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Cambs. CB4 5QG

Tel/Fax 01954 208208

sales@!eesox.com

CD-REWRITERS

CD-ROM DRIVES

DVD-RAM

SCSI CARD

GRAPHICS TABLET

AUDIO

SOFTWARE

HARD DRIVES

o Eesox have some offers too good to miss...

o ...SO check out our web-site now...

8 www.eesox.conn

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See Mike Cook*s article

'Getting Balanced'

Graphic
Equaliser

£47.50
Speakers

£45.50

Graphic Equaliser 4-Piece set

£87.50

and

3D 600W Subwoofer
Speaker System

Prices include VAT
Carriage extra (£11.75)

Monitors

liyunia I.'^" 350
livama 17" (S7()2GT) .2Hdot
livama 17" 400 Pni .25 dol
CTX l4"Di!2ilalScan
CTX 15" Dinilal Scan
CTX l7".2H70Khz Digital
CTX mons have (3 year on-site warrty)
Many other models available

£145.00

£279.(H)
€35').00
£125.00
£145.00
£259.00

Switch Boxes

Parallel 2 wav (25w 'D' skts) £16.99
Parallel 4 wav (25v^ "D' skts) £19.99
Serial 2 way (9w 'D' skts) £19.99

MoniKir+Keyboard 2 way £19.99

Suilable cables and other boxes
available, please ask

VGA to PAL TV
Converter

Tlie VG.A Convener
allows (he output of any Acorn running
in a VGA or SVGA mode (or PC comp)
to be displayed tin a TV or recorded
onto a \ideo recorder. Please ask for
more information.

Price £159.00 int vat

2^-

Colour
Printers

Epson Sivkis Colour 440 £105.(K)

Epson Slyius Colour 640 £135,00

Kpson Stylus Colour S50 £199.00

HP Laserjet I KM) (laser mono) £2K9.(X)

Virus
Protection

Pineapples Virus Proteciioii

Sciicrnc has been running for

over six years and is still

being updated with new

viruses on a regular basis.

New software versions are

sent out to members every four months

and the total number of viruses which

can be removed is well over 200. The
atesi version is now scanning at up to
bur times faster than previi>us versions

despite coping widi many more viruses.

Joining fee just £28.20

'IJ you 're interested in virus protection,
join the Pineapple Virus Protection
sciieme and buy Killer. Accept no
alternative - 'Acorn User Feb 96

lne\pensi\e mulli-uscr licences

Parallel to
SCSI adapter

A brand new product from Pineapple providing
an inexpensive alternative to a SCSI card when
using SCSI scanners. The SCSI adapter plugs into
the parallel port (with a 'through' primer
conneclor). and can be used direciK with SCSI
scanners. Works with A301()/3()2O/4()O0/50(H)/
A7000/RiscPC (inc SlronuARM).

Pricejust £59.00 inc vat

Colour Scanners

The new tpson GT7()00 is great
value and the Pholo ver^-ion \^ ilh
transparency adapter gives excellent tjualily on
both transparencies and negatives. Our new SCSI
parallel port adapter cable makes this excellent
scanner \ery affordable. The Piusiek 9636T
parallel port scanner also gives excellent quality
with huill in transparency adapter. All .scanner
prices include Imanemaster and Twain software.
Epson C;T7(K)0 - SCSI £259.00

Epson (n 7000 Photo - SCSI f2Vy.(Ht

Plustek 9636P - Parallel Por! £139.00

Phistek 9636T - Parallel Port
(uilh transparency adapter) £189.00

Pineapple Software

Suite f, 310 Green Lane, ILFORD

Essex IG1 1XT

Tel 0208 599 1476 Fax 0208 598 2343

emaii:- sales@pineaple-demon.co.uk
www;- http://www.pineaple.demon.co.uk

Terms:- ,\ll prkis include

\7.S'/i: Mit. Carriaj-f iS on most
hjii'dware. Small il^.■nl^ t3 (or
lt's.s). Phone for ([uotc outside
I k. OtTicial orders, elifqiics
iiiHl ;il! mnjor crt'dit cards
accepted at no extra charge.

Studi<>24Pro

'Many .Acorn User front covers ha\ e
''^ been created from scratch using thi^
program alone, concrete proof of the power of
this creative tool' - Acorn Vser \far96

\cw low price - £59.00 inc vat

Sleuth 3

No matter wtiich scanner you buy. if it was
originally Intended for use on a PC or Macintosh
you will almost certainly be given a 'lite'
version of an OCR package. This is almost
always effective to a point, but when you
demand accuracy it's no good. So what's the
solution?

Sleutti 3 Is the latest version of the acclaimed
OCR package for RISC OS computer systems. The editor has been
enhanced (above that of Sleuth 2) to allow greater control over the
OCR'd text including the ability to insert/remove paragraph breaks
and amend identical errors easily. Greater accuracy has been
achieved, especially with degraded Images. New font information -
a total of 114 fonts and styles - has been added including more
mono-spaced fonts and has the ability to output them in Rich Text
Format (RTF), which can then be loaded into any word processor or
DTP package that supports RTF (including Ovation Pro and
Easiwriter).

While Sleuth 3 can be used on any machine with RISC OS 3.1 and
4Mb of RAM, we recommend use on a Rise PC, A7000+ or similarly
specified machine for the best performance.

Production
programmer

►

Li Olid Restarch Ltd

I(V; (W4B9) Vm»

trail: <>rD9iHlo<|iires.u.uk

MW JloDclres-covk

985

Production

prograniter

The IWO uses purpose
designed clug-in mdules
{NOT CRUDE SaCCET
RDflFTORS) in 9in9 frovM
» Nider ran^e of
dicrocontrollefs thin ici<i ether
knoMn ^tind-alone
progrstmer. HHD ue don't
stand still'-, neu devices
including eprOK and fUsh are
added mnthlu. Full detsiis are
on the \Heb or just telephone.

The key new feslures of Sleulh 3 are:

• Full multitasking editor, allowing you to correct mistakes while
the OCR routine is running

• Ability to achieve over 90% accuracy on recognised fonts,
using good quality 300-400dpi images

• Text conversion at between 80 and 250 words per minute

• User-definable or automatic zone creation can be used to
choose which part of the image to convert

• Editable user dictionaries

i.'.^-/

2n9 IS X

1^^

1^.;^

■H^

y¥'^:^

y %aMe=«-

^^^^mL

^.i

I^^H

Drifter

For many years, one of the most popular styles ol
computer game has been a racing game; and racing

style: car, speeding, and n
else. Drifter is a racing ga
unlike any other on the Acorn
platform. Taking you into space,
the action occurs in a flying
buggy unlike anything seen
before.

Drifter will work on any RISC OS
computer with 2Mb RAM or
more, but is best suited to a Rise
PC/A7000, The usual price Is £35
inclusive: we've done a deal with
The Fount) Dimension to get you

eio oft!

..^\nv^^1M

-">«<,

Irrvspective of where you work, you will probably
"^ lome across a first-person shoot 'em up

iin the same vein as Doom, 0ua/reand so

I to now all these games have all been PC

il ...enter Destiny, Ihe first original game
Of this type for Ihe RISC OS platform.

The culmination ol four years work, Destiny features high resolution
graphics, a huge variety of levels, serious fire power, intelligent ^
enemies, original music and much much more.

The game requires either a Rise PC or A7000+ (a StrongARM is ^
-»! highly recommended) with
8Mb RAM and a CD-ROM

drive. ^

•^s

Acorn User
past CD-ROMs

^PM^

corn User subscribers

With the immense success ol
our CD-ROM offer, we're now
out of stock of the January '96
^1*^' Cover CD-ROM, We are, however,
pleased to announce a new offer
with a slight twist to it: you may
choose any THREE items from those listed,
for £5. We're offering a little more choice this time; but do note
weie not able to supply anything less than three items.

ju may choose any three from:

August -96 CD-ROM (Collectors CD-ROM 2 - lots of Web
stuff, utilities, games and much more)

December '97 CD-ROM (Collectors CD-ROM 3 - Huge
Destiny demonstration, past cover discs and much more)

TWO past cover discs (of our choice -
they will be over one year old)

BOTH film trailer CD-ROMs

The Evolution CD-ROM

iSS^'

This three-disc
set costs just £5

Basic & Wimp
Programmers' Toolkit

AU Binders

We folks at Acorn User know you like to
program - that Is plain enough for anybody
^Ji see. But we also know there are a few

ou who perhaps don't have the time
' iwn and learn, or would like it to
jat little bit easier.

In this exclusive new reader offer,
ProAction are offering Acorn User readers
a choice of two special programmers'

packs: if you

only have

access to a floppy disc drive,

the Basic & Wimp Programmers' Toolkits

(supplied with full documentation) will

serve as the ideal set of utilities to cater

for your programming needs.

A year's worth of Acorn User hrings you thirteen issues of Ihe

very best news, features and reviews, not forgetting the monthly cover

disc with fully usable applications every month. If left lying around.

your magazines could become damaged or frayed: put

them in an Acorn User binder, this will not happen! If

you'd like your magazines to last much further into

the next millennium, get some binders to put 'em in!

Prices: £7 (one off), £6 (2+)
Postage: £2 per binder (UK),
'3 (Europe), £4 (Rest of World;

Either way, It costs jU
£13.50 or £10 for Aeon,
User subscribers.

' Please send me the following products:

I Zl Sleuths £116.33

I J Textease £25

I Z] Drifler £25

' '_2 Destiny £30 (OS)

Basic & Wimp Programmers' Toolkil £13.30 (£10)

AU Binders £7/£6

I Postage Isingle item)

I ~JUK-i2

' Z\ He^l of Europe - £4

' ,. .1 Resi of World - L6

Postage Q items at mortl
G UK~£3

[ I Rest of Europe - £.b

n Restof World ~ C9

\ I Please tick if
i/i'i' luirva CD-
ROM drive

] Order total (inc. postage) £

AW prices include VAT Prices in brackets are for subscribers

Q Please tick here if vou do not wish to receive information from other compnnies

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Name on card: ,
Signature:

Keepin

in the

Every once in a while, we all
get the urge to research our
family's past. Whate\'er the
reasons, it cair be a long and
arduous task but it can be very
rewarding to find out interesting
details about the lives of those who
went before you.

In the past, family trees would be
written on pieces of paper but in
thesf days of interwebs and
millennium bugs, there's another
method of nurturing your family

Alasdair Bailey

finds out wliere

he came from

tree: from the comfort of yoiu- RISC
OS desktop. Ancestor-^, published by
APDL, is the grandchild oi Anccsliy,
the late Graham Crow's first stab at
family tree software which was first
written in the days of Arthur OS and

Title

Forenainti
Surname

KHenry 7

Henry

Tudor

1457 1509

M X 52y

1486
1503

Oueen

Elizabeth

York

1465- 1503

F X 38y

Pr Wales

Arthur

Tudor

1486 1502

M X 15y

K Henry 8

Henry

Tudor

1491 - 1547

M X 55y

1509
1M3

Oueen
Catherine

Aragon

1485- 1536

F X 50y

Mary 1

Mary

Tudor

1516 1558

F X 42y

Allit':^llil+ ^ lllillll •I'lllitow. III!

single-tasking applications.

Ancestry was published by
Minerva, as was Ancestiy I! which
was written by a different author.
This latest offering was written
partly by Graham Crow but was
taken on by Dave Holden of APDL
after Graham's untimely death. The
subtle name change from 'Ancestry'
to 'Ancestor' came as a result of
Mijierva's claim to sole rights on the
nanie when applied to RISC OS
software.

Ancestor+

Installing the program is a doddle -
just copy it onto a hard disc and
you're away. It will even run from
the floppy disc on lower-spec
machines-
It's very easy to start using
AiKestor+ without referring to the
manual. This is a bonus in any
software package. Although a few of
Ancestor's buttons are a little cryptic
to begin with, interactive help is
supported in most windows. This
could do with some more work
though because not all areas of the
program are yet covered.

Entering data on members of your
family is relatively easy. In operation,
AiKcstor+, is very much like a
customised database. The plus icon
on the toolbar opens up the 'Add
Person' window into which data

about thL' person is entered in the
appropriate fields.

Data is entered in a fairly routine fashion,
all the usual fields like name, surname, date
of birth and so on, are included along with a
few useful extras.

Provision is made for including details of
the locations of births and deaths along with
a field to allow a record to be made of any
bynames which a person may have been
known by during their time.

Some useful date prefixes are supported
throughout Aiiccstor+. Once a date is
entered, an option exists to prefix it with
one of fi\'e date codes.

These can be used where a date is not
precise in order to indicate that an estimate
has been used. Dates may be entered in
almost any numerical form and the program
will calculate ages accordingly, either by
using the death date if there is one or the
computer's calendar for those still alive.

Relationships between people are entered
in a similarly straightforward manner.
Famihes are created by entering details of a
marriage between two people then children
may be added either by record number or
by dragging their icon from the main
window into the family window, This drag
and drop fimctionality is a nice feature and
is also supported in other areas of the
appUcation. Some clever date checking goes

Finding a Family

So, you have a family tree editing
tool, now you need a family tree.
The first stage in researching your
family tree should be to make a
written record of the birthdates,
deathdates and other useful data on
your immediate family. Once that's
done, enter it into the computer and
look for where gaps exist.

It's more than likely that it will be
relatively easy to take the tree back
three or so generations but once you
get to your grandparent's parents,
things become a little more tricky.

So once you reach this stage, it's
best to find the oldest person in
your family and retrie\'e whate\er
information you can on their parents,
grandparents and perhaps even
brothers and sisters. If your family
tree is going to go on a Website or
even just retained for future
generations, it's vital that you make
it interesting to read. Research and
make a record of any details of the
lives of those individuals who have
gone before you. You never know,
your questioning might even reveal

Type m I Piauc
Frorr

Ended by

9-99

B To

]aj

Note (Radio DJ meets Brighton club DJ

X| Adopted _J jhJ I I 0| Children \~0~ Q^ \

LZ - : — ■■ - -■ ■ -- — - — '■* . - *—- - — J

Tlw Ifltcst addition to iite Cook and Ball funnly fri'i's

on when entering families. The program
watches out for errors and alerts the user
when one is detected. For example, when
entering data it is easy to accidentally select
the wrong person as a child of the marriage,
in which case the program will point this
out bv monitoring the mother's age at the
birth and also whether the 'child' already
has parents defined. This error checking can
be quite useful when constructing large
trees. Were it not present, your grandmother
could end up as your daughter and future
generations would forever wonder why you
didn't patent that time-machine. Ancestor's

some of your family's deepest
darkest secrets. While researching
for this article, I discovered that a
member of my family had been
in\'olved in a major tabloid scandal
in the 1970s.

I won't give you all the details
because some things are best kept
within families but it was amusing
to be let in on this skeleton in the
closet so to speak. It's also a fact that
the owner of this journal is
descended from sheep-rustlers and
Romarues - which explains a lot.

Once you've gleaned all the
information you can from living
relatives, things get a little gritty.
Now, it's hme to refer to public
records offices and other archives.
These are only of use if you know
the place and date of birth of a
person.

They can be used to confirm
dates, marriages and all sorts of
other parhculars which are stored in
the public archives. Talk to your
local registry office or library for
more information on accessing the

archives. Another potentially
excellent resource, if your family has
one, is the family bible. Many
families have kept a record of births,
deaths and marriages in the family
bible.

As with many other fields, the
WWW is a very useful tool when
researching family trees. However, it
must be used properly else you'll
end up with a load of irrelevant and
possibly mis-leading information.

A good starting place for UK
genealogy research is the Public
Records Office WWW site at
http://www.pro.gov.uk/. The site
contains many useful links and
details on how to access such things
as military personnel archives and
UK public records,

If you (or an ancestor) have a
distinchve name vou may find a
Website detailing that names
genealogy as researclied by others,
for example there is (to mention that
man again) a www.tumbull.net
which gives quite a lot of
information and source material.

Suman-«:-

Byna 17165 I

Sex [m] staliis I I
B«tti dale |
Birthplace
Date died
Ptacedied

Alasdair John Joseph

10-12-1980

Leicester UK

marriage window includes a handy field
into which the exact nature of the
relationship may be entered. If, for example,
your Uncle Boh has a lovechild by a Miss
Melinda Cheap, a second relationship can
be added involving Uncle Bob into which a
suitable code is added to reflect this.

Ancestor+ doesn't dictate what codes are
used for this purpose, anv letter may be
used and it's left to individual users to set
their own conventions for use within trees.
Re-marriages to the same partner are also
catered for along with same-sex
relationships.

My main criticism of A)tcestor+ stems
from the method it emplovs to display
familv trees. Rather than using the
traditional tree formation, it opts for a more
compact approach whereby only three
generations are displayed at any one time
and children are displayed as a stack of
record cards which must be viewed
individiialtv ratlier than in a line below
their parents all at once. It could be argued
that this approach simplifies things but from
my experience, programs which display the
whole tree in a larger window are far easier
to work with.

I'm told that this option is being worked
on and in the meantime, it is possible to
display the tree as a sort of text file with the
branches fully expanded. The tree can be
edited from this window hut it looks a little
ugly and there's no nice tool bar as is seen in
the main window. One very useful feature
found in AncL'stor+ is the resource directory
where text files, pictures and any other
digital resources you might happen to have
on an individual or family may be stored.
Once constructed, the data within the
resources directory structure is easily
accessed via buttons on the toolbars of both
the family and person editing windows. The
manual does a good job of explaining how
to create and then link a resources directory
to an Aiiccstor+ file. The process is tri\'ial
but perhaps that's more reason for it to be
automated - a
conventional 'save as'
box could be used to
set up the path
automatically.

Aiicc:>hir+ is able to
export the contents of a
tree in various ways.
Data can be saved as a
text file which displays
the whole tree in a
sideways orientation
including names, dates
and all the usual
information. This is a
nice feature but as I
mentioned before, a
complete tree in a more
presentable style

lay 9m

database may also be saved as a CSV file i)r
in HTML form.

Tlie HTML form is quite novel in that
each person's details are listed with their
data fields followed by hyperlinks to their
spouse, parents and children where
appropriate. With some editing, such a
document could be a nice addition to a
personal Web page.

The other major family tree program for
RISC OS is the PD application Famili/, this
hasn't been updated for a few years now
but is a competent application that is used
quite extensively. Ana'stor+ will import
Fivinhf files quite happily and can export
standard GEDCOM format files which
Famili/ and applications on other platforms
will read.

The ability to import GEDCOM files is
being updated continually and as people
find ones that won't load APDL make the
necessary changes to make it work. For
example mihally Ai!ceitpr+ would discard
any notations attached to particular people
in GEDCOM files, now it's possible to put
this informahon into user-defined fields in
Aiicesloi-+.

One ihing Aiiccstor+ won't do is print.
This is a potentially serious problem since
you can't get a hard copy in the traditional
'tree' layout. All is not lost, however,
because by exporHng your information in
GEDCOM you can load it into Fnniih/ and
get your tree from there. APDL say that the
printing situation is being addressed but
users have said that other things are more
important first.

Some useful example files are included
with Aiiceslor+, one of which is very
comprehensive tree charting the British
Royal family from the 15th century to the
present day,

Overall, Aita'stor+ is a very stable
application which does the job it's designed
to do. Bear in mind that, as with any good
application, development is still ongoing
and updates are free of charge. If you're
interested in researching your family's roots,
it's well worth the £59 price tag. With
cheaper upgrades also available from
Ancestr[/ and Ancestry II, there's no ^^^^
excuse for not upgrading today.. IHjUU

Product details I

Make a nolc of il. I'll he cxpfcting /nl? of bii-fhilini i:/f"J:- nvir'

would be nice. The

Pri)diict: Anceslor-i-

Price: a9 (upgrade fnim Ancestry:

f3'i. Ancestry U; £4") ... yes, il

does cost more to upgrade

from Ancestry U)
Supplier; APDL, .^9 KnLghlon P^rk

Road, Sydenham, London.

SE2b 5RN
Tel: U18] 778 2654

Fax. 0181488 0487

E-mail: info@apdl.co.uk
Web: httprZ/vi'ww.apdl.fo.uk/

M diag a drop
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and vtloclly)
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can M linked la

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any MIDI
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PmNci and serial
UplolWMfDIctionnsts

Recent/New Releases

Abuse - 1:23.00

Descent CDs - £28.00

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 - £32.00

Heretic & Hexen CD - £32.00

OHP CD (Spacetech) - £28.95

Photodesk 3 - £279.95

Sunburst- £12.50

Syndicate Plus CD - £26.50 ,

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Tel: 01 592 592265 Fax: 01 S92 5961 02

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and laser Rat code icsnners
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wriicti allows t>ai codti to control ~
1 (Urskiop software

Fudhaf Inlonnatlon Is ■vallaCle.
Complatt syalama ttor

^ Our tur coding

softwafe produces

" - (ilesotthB

. .u..>,wing formats EAN 8,

EAM:i. UPC A, ISBN. ISSN.

CCKM 39 (Noimal and Full

ASCII) TelapcnandBlnarv.

rm» intormaiton 1% avillable
'BatCodm teB.33

Computer Systems

Thiss pilcas do noi include monliors.

unless specif fed

RISC PC StOMti 2Gti HD - CS'S.OO

RISC PC 32t2Mb BGb. OVO CD - eiOSS.OO

Web Wizan) - 33.2Mb 8Qb HD DVD CO dnvo.

ipealwrs. ResulQ, EoWwfner Pra S6K modam,

AKT Imomei SuHe wiir> Java - £1220 DO

arooo. Odyssey CD - 1 6Mb. 4Gtf. 40i - C65S oo

ATOOfr* OdjiSMy mmuvSaeondaiy - 18Mb,

«3bHD.40xCOiminwK9- cniOQ

ATOOO* Odyiiay Surf ' 24Mb, ton. DVD CD.

5eKtncKMm,ANTSun«- £83100

-Sphnier MC Byaiem - lObaieT, 16Mb,

t4 " monitor. Keyboard A mouse - C444.0D

MicniDlBiMI Mi CO Prom C»G 00

RlscStatlon R7H0O. - From £675 00

Monitors

(EWm' bougM ViMiocn*iutiH 01 stpmNMy)

l<yama3S0(iS')-. £170.00

Ilyanu403<t7")~ C283.0D

llyamaPro*10(17-)- ms.oO

llyBma450|)9'')- £487 DO

ilyams P(o4B0(19'l' £483.00

ilyama SOi |2V'| - £749.00

HyainflPro510(22''|- £772.00

ihramaPco-Llte 3es 14.1 LCD- £087 00

iJyaniaPio-LlteSaa 15'LCD - £910 00

MyamaPio-Lllesab IS'LCQ- C94S,00

Hyama Pro-Llle 39a IS" LCD - E1S99.O0

riyama Pro-Ute 46a IS' LCD - £2489.00

Touctiscraen montlors coming sowi -

S^de-IOOwHhPCProJ- £285 00
PC Pro 2 - £38.98
PC Pio 3 - E70.S0

PC Sound Pro 2- £39 95
VIII09SFS- £39.95

Windows 98 CD -CIOO.OO

Psion Series 5mx

ISMb. witn PC connoelion kil - £429 9S
PaiBllel link - £34.95

Memory Upgrades

Please call lo clicck current prices

Olhei upgrades are avaUsblo.

A3D00l-4Mb- £84.60

A30ia 1-4 Mb - (68 00

A3a2CKA40O0 2-4 Mb - £49.00

A500O2>4Mb- £S5 00

A300. 400. SOOO 4-8 Mb - Ct2B 00

Rise PC/A7000 FPM SIMMs

Call lot EDO SIMM prices

16Mb- £28 60

32MI} (not original RPCsl- £44 9S

32Mb|highcleRtanco)- £73.50

64M&- £83 25

12SMb-Cie3 8a

1Mb VRAM- £45.00

I 2MbVRAMswBp- £55.00

2Mb VRAM- £92 00

Music & Sound Section

PIsaae call tor other mualcat Itama

MIDI Intttilaces

DMI 50 Dual MIDI card f2i2| - £1 IS 95

DM I SOKG ~ £259 .95

XC upgrade tot DMI 50 - £1St 85

1«'bil umplet lot DMI SO - £87.95

MIDIMailllnieinallilit- £92.75

PatallalPon lilxl - £89 20

Synth a or Ssalc Synth - £46 95

SynlhPlus- £58 85

Music S Sound Prog Guide- C16.9S

Olhat hanjware

Falar 5L 760 - £450 00

FstarSL 880 -£800.00

Falar 5L II 00' £800.00

Fatir SL 200) - £1050.00

Irlam 116 sound sampler - £119.00

Dl9tBt.iipBiad«d hlam eamplei - £1 77 DO

MIDI upgrade tot Itloni umplei £CaB

Sound Byle Recorder - £57 50

yemaha YST-M8ap«ak«ra- £45.50

TST-M20 0SP speakers- £65 75

VST-MS26 spoakers 5 subw 1:79 S5

Other Hardware

Dual fast serial card - £90 00

Eineinelcard|ComblNICslot)-E1l6 3D

Hard drives a kits - ECall

RPCaecond slice inoPSU)- £90 00

RISC OS 4 ((riling available)- £120 00

SIiongARM upgrade - £275 DO

Other Software

Ankh- £23.00

ANI iniernai Sulla 2 - E112.00

Biutal Horse Power - £26.00

OalaPowet 2 -£185.00

Doom. CDs - £3000

EaslWrller Pro - £129.00

Emplia Soccer 04 - £22.00

Exodus- C21.00

Fiak- £t4 95

Impresalon Siyle - £88.00

ItnpiaMion Publlshei - £135 DO

Inlerrw - £9.50

IXRC- £14 99

Ovalrtio Pro - £142.50

Personal Accounts 3 - £43.00

PhotadaskLighl- £125.00

Ptophet3-£160 0a

Sctwma 2 - £1 18.00

Sleuth 3- £110.50

Teileaie- £54.50

TapModel 2 -- £145.00

Books & Manuals

RISC OS 3 PPM - £104.00
theTekkieCD- £45.00

Catalogue

Our Ire* cMiMsue contains over 2000
■s Plca-ie ask tor acopy

email: Liquic)@cablejnet.co-uk All pricBS INCLUDE VAT & UK carriage : /j£-

http://www.Cvbervillage.CO.uk/acorn/liquid/ Oiricial wders and cfilleis welcome Finance available -j**^

We willallempt !o match or beat any advfrt'se'l pnce - even speca I otters.

I' i

Supporting users in South West England and South Wales

Saturday 19 February 2000

supported by Bristol Acorn Rise User Group

Webbington Hotel, Loxton, Nr Axbridge, North Somerset

Contact:

John Stonier, 54 Runnymede Road, Yeovil, Somerset BA2I 5SU

acornshow@argonet.co.uk http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornshow/

68)

^ ■ aturally following the areas
1^1 covered in the Numeracy
l«l Hour framework for Years 3
I ^ and 4, this is an adventure set
in an old factory, and is reminiscent
of New Media's earlier CD-ROM
fantasy. Here, all the numbers have
been stolen from a town, and it is
down to you to restore them, and so
get the toasters and microwave
working properly again.

Classes can run the activities in
adventure format or, taking the
teacher route, concentrate on specific
areas covered in earlier sessions.
Taking the latter option, children go
directly to the machine they want to
repair, by simply clicking on it. Each
machine mended is noted in the
record-keeping section which
teachers can access at any time.

Your ally in this venture is a robot
called UNIT, who guides you
through the old factory where you
repair the machines; this involves
correcting those machines which

and place value activities with such
machines as the Fraction Contraption
and Order Recorder. Moving to the
first floor, your quest reveals
machines dealing with relationships
between numbers and computation,
in particular the Adder Upper, where
you learn and practise adding two-
digit numbers.

Puzzles are all available at three
levels, so at Level 1 you're adding
two-digit numbers without
exchange, while at Level 2 exchange
is introduced, and at Level 3 you're
adding two-digit numbers with
exchange into lOO's.

On the first floor, manoeuvring is
a matter of entering the correct
coordinates for each doorway. If you
discover a room containing a broken
machine, you must mend it before
moving on to the Attic. There are 21
machines in total, but you can
wander around the factory even if
you don't manage to fix them all.
However, you only use the

The number

works

Pam Turnbull puts the number
cruncher to the test

have forgotten how to divide in half
or multiply by ten. On the first level,
you must guide UNIT to the broken
machines across a square-patterned
floor, using a remote control to input
numbers: positive for forward,
negative for backward; other inputs
turn him to left or right. The ground
floor concentrates on number system

'Mi

£_

oo©
ooo
oo®

l€I

navigahon controls within the

adventure context.

Access to the Attic is also to be
found on the first floor; here, you'll
find a host of numerical problems to
solve. Navigation here is slightly
different ton, with UNTT having to
move around cardboard boxes
shelved to look remarkably like a
grid.

Children move around by
entering two-figure coordinates
to reveal machines such as the
Broken Calculator and Estimator
Guestimator. Estimation is an
essential but difficult concept for
many children and here the
approach is to teach children
how to approximate an answer,
then check if it is within the
correct range. This is taught
using addirions with two digits

at Level 1, subtraction with two
digits at Level 2, and sums such as
23 x 7 at Level 3.

You can tell a lot from a program
by how it deals with incorrect
responses. Here there are three levels
of response. On the first mistake
UNIT points out that the children
have made a mistake but have the
opportunity of trying again. Second
time around, the help button is
suggested: clicking here reveals extra
support by explaining the concepts
involved in what they are
attempting. If they enter a third
incorrect answer (depending on the
activity) children will be presented
with a new, simpler puzzle.

As well as the software and
detailed manual there are a set of 18
Number Works Worksheets as well
as a full-colour board game sheet for
use away from the computer. These
masters are mostly based on the
machines: for instance, one of them
is a blank representation of the
Multiple Machine. You can give one
to each child and call out numbers
for children to write on to their
machine ui the correct place
according tu whether they are a
multiple of that number or not.

This is an excellent package,
whether you opt to use the
adventure or activity route. The
introduction is a little long but there
is a skip button for the impatient. If
children are unsure of coordinates
and negative numbers then it is best
to avoid the adventure's navigation
options as there is not enough advice
and information within the program
for those unfamiliar with such
concepts.

The entire curriculum isn't
covered here, especially insofar as
we're looking at number rather than
shape and space, but the activities
are varied, interesting and relevant
to everyday experience.

TTiis is particularly true of the
very popular Drinks Machine, where
children total coins and practise
decimal notation. A welcome
addition to any Numeracy
Hour.

Product details J

Product:

Ttie Number Works

Ages:

7-9 year olds

Price;

1:4^,^5

Supplier.

Sherston Software, Angel

House, Malinetibury. Wiltshire

SN1^0LH

Tel:

(+44/0) Ihfth 843224

Fax:

(+44/0) !f,fa6 843216

Web:

w w w.she rs ton , c o ni

E-mail:

.sales@sherston.co.Lik

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

i-''*T

VF y*- >•

The

Pam Turnbull

looks at a joint

resource for pupils

and teachers

The first in a new series from
Sherston, this provides the key-
vocabulary required by Key
Stage 2 pupils. The emphasis
here is on The Living World.

In essence this is a simple but
specific encyclopedia. From the main
menu you can choose three routes
into the information: the a b c index,
word search or picture index. The
alphabehcal index is very
straightforward allowing you to
scroll through the alphabetical listing
or jump to the first entry for each
letter by clicking on the relevant
letter of the alphabet - all presented
in a large and clear font.

Along the top of the screen are
simple icons allowing you to revert
to the main menu, ask advice on
using the CD-ROM or find
explanations on what each icon
actually means, all presented in
simple and very child-friendly
language and layout. Other icons are
self-explanatory but everything is
detailed here if vou need to check.
Having found your entry in the
index, you can click on the ear icon
to make sure of its pronunciation,
and double-click or press OK to open
the entry. This will be accompanied
by three icons, one to hear the text.

ducatior

ivin

world

another to see
the links to other
entries and a
third to access a
diagram or
photograph.
Having clicked
on a link, you
can use the back
arrows to find
your way home.
You can also
print out the
information or
export the entry
to another
application.

The second route to information is
to search for a specific word or
words. Type in the words and click
and or or and ihe find button. A list of
matching entries will then appear.
Highlight one and click the blue
sound icon to hear it or click the OK
button to go to the entry. A very
simple search mechanism but all that
is required here - just make sure you
get your spelling right.

Then there is the Picture Index
which looks like and works in a very
similar way to the A-Z listing.
Choose your word to get a screen of
thumbnail pictures. Make your

choice to get a full-
screen image and
caption icon. Click on
this to read/hear a
description of the
picture.

This is a very
simple but effective
reference which
children can access
totally on their own
within ICT or Science
lessons. The major
areas covered in the
QCA Science
document are

■r

• •

These ore ^ms m the
hunxmorm ar»d hand
They are where bones
meet.

Joints oHow the body
to fTvave

Movement is or\e of
the hwng processes-

During the butterfly's

lite ^■.ycle, it goes

through

metomorphosis

This 15 the pupo of the

butterfly. It IS colled a

chrysohs

covered and though not
comprehensive the diagrams and

explanations are clear and well
thought out.

At times the language is a little
high for the majority of Year 3s, and
it would have been nice if teachers
could have had the option of setting
the level of language and detail. As
an extension, research and discussion
tool, however, it definitely earns its
place in the cla.ssroom. The cross-
referencing works too, sending
children off in pursuit of concepts
such as metamorphosis or
photosynthesis. Not only a useful
resource, but one designed ^^^
with classrooms in mind. ISI9

Product details J

Product:

Science Ke^'wurds -

The Living World

Ages:

7-11 years

Price:

£29.'i5

Supplier:

She rs Ion Software, Angel

House, Malmesburv, Wiltshire

SN16ULH

Tei:

(+44/0) 1666 843224

Fax:

(+44/0) 1666 843216

Web:

www.sherston.com

E-maO:

sale.s@sherston.co.uk

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

Acorn Show

Akalat

APDL

Cartridge Care

Castle Technology

CJE

CTA

Davyn

Desktop Projects

Eesox

Genesys

Icon Technology

iSV

ITS

Liquid Silicon

Microdigital

Pineapple Software

Printmaker

ProAction Software

R - Comp

RGSC

RISCOS Ltd

RiscStation

Serious Statistical Software

Spacetech

STD

The Data Store

Uniqueway

Wardlaw Surveys

Werewolf Software

OBC, 71

12, 38, 70

4,5,71

, 72

IFC

, 72

67, 71

61, 70

, 72

39-46, 72

, IBC

9,71

Contacting us

Editor:

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music@acomuser.com

games@acomuser.com

educ@acornuser.com

rambles@acornuser.com

fax
Dave Bradf orth on

01625 85980r

SUSSEX

Hardware
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Installation
Repairs

open 6 days a week
With demonstrations available

78 Brighton Road

Worthing

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BN11 2EN

Tel: 01903 523 222
Fax: 01903 523 679

saies@cje.co.uk
http://www .cje . CO. u !</

LONDON & ESSEX

Pineapple
Software

Pineapple have been in the Acorn marketplace tor over eleven
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SCOTLAND

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ducatior

Try it for free

\\n foriief

If you have been tempted by
AngliaCampus but didn't want to
commit your budget why not take
advantage of their offer of a free two-
month trial? AngliaCampus is
spearheading a campaign to promote use
of iJie Internet by parents, children and
teachers as an educational resource for
the home as well as the school.

The report responsible for this
initiative surveyed nearly 4,000 children
from more than 40 schools throughout
the UK, resulting in the following: 79"'., of
children claim that the Internet helps
them with their school homework; 42%
of schools have computers in their
libraries; 40% have them in every
classroom, but only ten computers, on
average, linked to the Internet.

Interestingly a third of children
questioned said that if they had to be
away from school because of illness, they
would like to receive help with their
schoolwork via the Internet.
Rob Lawson, from NOP, who
researched the findings,
comments: "Our findings
suggest some significant shifts
in patterns of use of the
Internet among British
children.

If they have access from
home they prefer using it from
there - they're on for longer,
they get control of the mouse
and, of course, they don't have
the teacher looking over their
shoulder. The findings also
indicate that u.sage is going to

end up pretty close to one hundred per

cent in the next couple of years."

As an incentive for using the Internet
at home, AngliaCampus for Homes is
now available at http://www.
angliacampus.com. The service is
content-led, based on the requirements of
the National Curriculum for England and
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The new home ser\'ice also provides
additional information, including: advice
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curriculum for all age groups; a personal
guide to finding information on the
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It also has a 'learning exchange'
section with links to thousands of
approved educational Websites which
children can browse for extra resources.

Welcome to AngliaCampus

Aa^raCiBUpib a ih>r VK'^ nun* »njnv miacitiM
wavhc. WiUHn «.itjicuiet> lu.snppiwl lltr Naomi

uul in ilkMualsi of UK -ujhiiuJt khJ huonL

Aooi*

tehftsfs

J' '\A^tWrj»l.pU'i LV JJCrtftt IfTODUn; EWtt*'^^

Letts

Granada Learning's parent company, the
Granada Media Group, has acquired Letts
Educational. This is the latest step in the
development of its rapidly growing
educational and on-line businesses. As a
sign of Granada Media's commitment to
become a leading player in the fast-
growing educatipnal market, G-Wizz,
their new Internet entertainment service,
has announced that it will feature an on-
line educational service when it launches
later this year.

Granada is also currently in negotia-

tions with the DfEE to trial a new
interactive educational television service
called Result with a proposed national
roll-out in 2000.

Diary date

BeH 2000 - The Educational

Technology Show

12-15 January 2000

Grand Hall, Olympia, London

Admission. Free

Contacl: 01203 426458

Web: wvvw.edu cation-net. co.uk

Rhyme and reason

Sherston Software (01666 843
200) are about the release
Volume B of the Oxford
Reading Tree Rhyme and
Analogy Activity Software.
This second volume will
feature 18 interactive phonics
activities based on the Rhyme &
Analogy strand of the Oxford
Reading Tree Scheme. Carefully
graded to support children's
knowledge of rhyme, letters
and sounds while helping them
to develop listening, reading
and writing skills, the software,
priced at £40, has been
developed in collaboration with
Professor Usha Coswami,
editor of the Rhyme and
Analogy series.

All the activities in this
volume are based on the
photocopy masters by Dr. Clare
Kirtley and include lively
animated feedback to reinforce
correct answers and gently
correct mistakes. The software
is fully adjustable through the
teacher control menu and
includes a record keeping
facility to tracks pupils'
progress,

ICT courses

Meanwhile, The Advisory Unit:
Computers in Education {01707
266 714) are offering in-service
Primary School Courses to help
teachers undertake a supportive
role in policy, planning and the
application of ICT to the
curriculum, with such courses
as Supporting the Numeracy
Hour with ICT aiming to
demonstrate how ICT can be
used to introduce mathematical
topics into the Numeracy Hour.

Secondary School Courses
are mainly subject-based; this is
for teachers who want to
update their knowledge of
current ICT practice and
requirements in their own field.
With an emphasis on practical
sessions, these courses aim to
perfect skills and to increase
the understanding of how ICT
applies to a given subject.

Contacting AU J

Pam Tumtiull:
educ® a cornuser.com

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

Mike Cook turns
in and tunes on

Relaxathron

y projects have been at the
hi-tech end of things the past
few months so I thought I
would redress the balance
with one suitable for the most basic
of beginners to the world of
interfacing. I got the idea visiting last
summer's music festival at Leeds.
Several stalls had what they claimed
were 'brain machines' but were in
fact no more than this month's
project: The Relaxathron.

To give it the advertising spiel:
The Relaxatluon cuts out the stresses
and strains of everyday life by
providing sensory protection for
disturbing stimuli. Remo\'ing stress
and allowing the user to experience
the ultimate in relaxation therapy. Or
to use more technical language,
slowly flashing LEDs in blacked out
goggles.

The idea is that all you see are
lights changing in a slow random
fashion. Coupled with earphones
playing your favourite ambient or
classical CD track or even slowly
whooshing white noise heard
through padded headphones.

The electronic side of the
hardware is simplicity itself and is
shown in Figure I. It consists simply

of a resistor and an LED on each bit
of the printer port. By using low
power 3mm LEDs there is enough
power from the printer port buffers
to light the LED without any further
buffering or power supply. Different
colours of LED require different
values of limiting resistor to give the
same brightness, that's because the
efficiency is dependent on colour.

Tlierefore different resistor values
are indicated for different LEDs, you
might like to change this to suit the
types you have, in any case in this
application you don't want them too
bright, so you might even double the
values shown.

It does no harm making these
values bigger. You can have any
mixture of colours you like but 1
would recommend using two of each
- red, green and blue - in a diffused
package. The presentation side is a
little more time consuming to make
but is not too tricky.

Start of with a pair of plastic
safety goggles, the type that fits close
to the face rather than the spectacle
type. Next sprav the inside of these
with black paint so that no light
shows through. When dry, line the
inside of the goggles with aluminium

R = 200R for blue LED

R = 220R for green / yellow LED

R = 270R for red LED

Earth(25)

\a \a V \aL VLVy_\ALV
zx zx zx zx

Mounted on goggles

Low power 3rnm LEDs
1

TTTTTTTT

D0(2) D1(3) D2(3) D3(4) 04(5) D5(6) 06{7) D7(8)

Printer Port (pin numbers in brackets)

fil^uiv I: Tin- I'Urtrkiil Lirciiii

foil, the shinv side out. Don't worry
if there are a few wrinkles in it, in
fact a few wrinkles make it a bit
better.

Drill four 3mm holes dotted about
in front of each eye, and push the
LEDs through so that they just
protrude into the goggles. Distribute
the colours evenly for each eye. Now
take some epoxy resin and fix the
LEDs with a little glue on the outside
and, when set, paint round them so
no light gets in. Cut the leads from
LEDs off close to the body and wire
up using thin wire to a piece of 9-
way ribbon cable attached to one
side of the goggles.

Mount the resistors directly onto
the appropriate pins of the 25'Way
plug and attach the ribbon cable to
the other end of the resistors. In
Figure 1 the parts mounted on the
goggles are shown enclosed in a
dotted box. Make sure the ribbon
cable is long enough to reach round
the back of the computer and still
allow you some degree of movement
while wearing them.

If you wanted to make a really
good job you could cut some printed
circuit board to fit inside the goggles
and use surface mounted LEDs,
but that is a bit adventurous. Just a
word of warning here, before you try
the goggles on make sure the paint is
really dry. 1 failed to notice that it
was still slightly wet and when I
removed them I had a line of black
paint round my face - 1 got some
odd looks.

You can test the wiring with my
port monitor application, for those
of you who missed it last time it's
on the Acorn User Website. It powers
up with the printer port in input
mode so you first have to click the
logic one in bit five of the control
register to get it to be an output, then
as you click each bit on the output
port you shttuld see the LED light up

when there is a logic one in the
appropriate bit. If not, check your
wiring and make sure that you have
wired the LEDs the right way round.
When they are new and ha\e long
leads the earth should be wired to
the shorter of the two.

Now on to the software, it is
perfectly possible to write some
simple software to just turn the LEDs
on and off in a random order. All
you have to do is to generate a
random number with a maximum of
255 and send it to the printer port.
You also need a delay loop to stop
you doing this too often otherwise it
will look like they are all on at once.
Such a simple program is on the
cover disc called Flashl. It uses the
system hmer to change the flashing
rate.

You don't need a bidirectional
priiiter port to use this but if you
don't have one you should load the
module nwnoj.i from the disc first.
This is because the operating system
doesn't recognise the port driver
commands on a machine with an old
printer port, my module rectifies
this.

Flash! shows how we can define a
sequence, the state of each hght is
stored in an array called Look% and
then at each time-change the next
pattern is output.

Notice how we don't have to
specify how many steps we use in
the sequence, the routine stops
putting in data patterns when it
finds a number bigger than is
represented by all bits being set. This
is 256 or &n)d, it's better to use hex
as you can see more clearly the
relationship between the bit pattern
and the number.

However, we can be a little more
adventurous than that and actually
control the brightness of each LED in
turn using no extra hardware. The
secret of this lies in using a variable
mark-space ratio signal to turn the
LEDs on and off. The basic idea is
shown in Figure U.

If we feed the LED with a signal
that spends half it's time high and
the other half low you might expect
to see the light flash. However, if this
signal changes fast enough the
persistence of vision of the eye
will make it appear to be on all the
time but only at half the brightness.
If we have a low mark-space ratio,
that is the signal spends most of it's
time low and only a short time
high, the LED will appear dim.
Conversely we get a bright LED the

Mark Space

50% Mark / Space ratio = Half power

Low Mark / Space ratio = Dim LED

High Mark / Space ratio = Bright LED

Fi}{urc II: Altering llw bri^lihwis ii'ith tlu' itnirk/spiKC rutin

more time the signal spends high.

So what we need to do is to write
a routine that will count how long an
LED is on then turn it off and count
how long it is off. To do this you
need two constants and two
variables, one constant is used to
hold the maximum number of coimts
the LED is on for, the other to hold
the off counts. Then the variables are
used to hold the current count for
that state.

Suppose the light is to be on for a
count of 10 and off for a count of 10,
when the routine is first entered the
light will be hirned on and the on-
time constant will be transferred to
the on-time variable. Next time the
routine is called the on-time variable
will be decremented and the hght
will still be on.

Subsequent calls decrement the
variable until it reaches zero, the
light will then be turned off and the
off time constant transferred to the
off time variable. This is
decremented on each call to the
routine until it reaches zero and then
the light is turned on again.

On a Rise PC with a StrongARM
processor BASIC is just about fast
enough for this without you being
able to see flicker, but as each of the
eight LEDs will need looking after
hke this we have to resort to machine
code.

Tlie storage locahons for the
variables and constants are in the
area of memory before the code in a
block of four for each LED: On

constant. Off constant. On count, Off
coimt. Now the rest of the program
is a loop that keeps on calling this
routine and occasionally hmes out to
change the brighbiess.

When this is running if you wave
the lights backwards and forwards
quickly you will see the LEDs not as
smears of light but dashes of light.
The length of these dashes depend
on how fast you wave the lights
about and how fast they are flashing,
Tliis program is called FlnsliS

I did think of making this a multi-
tasking program but the point is that
you are supposed to he relaxed when
this is happening, so the final
program Rclnx blanks out the screen
and plays random white notse at
you. Alright, 1 admit that this bit of
the software really needs improving
as the noise sounds a bit like
gunshots - not too relaxing.

What you really need is some
pink noise, that is white noise with
the spectrum peaking at the lower
end. If you put noise through a band
pass filter and vary its frequency vou
get a howling wind effect or a waves
breaking on the shore, depending on
how vou move the filter.

Warning

As a final point, some epileptics can
have fits triggered bv flashing lights
and although the frequencies mvolved
here are much higher than the trigger
thresholds, if you do fit into this
category you are probably
best avoiding this project. la^iJj

f>|l< .,r<il,..' I i.HHi

76J

A Rambles through

Acorn

r^T.

ri^' ;i3<-

A^/7ce Coo/c

^^" ^

gef5 nof/ced ^ ^ ^^ %M %,^

l€I

Finally I hLive an Acum machine
on my desk at work, although
now with two machines
there's not much room for
anything else. When Pace acquired
Element 14, 1 was sent up to Saltair to
help evaluate RISC OS, but as
RISCOS Ltd have an exclusive licence
to develop the operating system for
desktop computers don't expect to
see any from Pace. I think their
interest lies mainly in the operating
system for embedded processor
systems and they may even port it
for use with another processor.

Anyway that's by the by because
its arrival on my desk has prompted
quite a bit of comment from various
quarters. Mainly along the line of "I
didn't know they made modern
computers" and "Oh, you're (/w(
Mike Cook". Anyway everyone has
been quite impressed at the time it
took me to knock together an infra-
red transmitter that worked with a
new encoding system we are looking
to use.

Then the software was quickly
modified to produce a zapper for our
current OnDigital boxes, this played
back a sequence of control key presses
so we could do long term testing on
them. So the computer is earning its
keep. I did have a bit of trouble with it
at first, the screen would go
completely blank after about three
minutes of^operation. This was cured
by removing the ethemet card from
the machine as it wasn't connected to
anything. Sadly however I don't think
I have converted anyone else into
using them. Let's start with some

feedback from A. R. Triggs concerning
Simon Lee's CD drive empty problem,
he writes;

"Being well known among
colleagues and family as a
person who can get any
software to malfunction in normal
use, I often get the error message
'drive empty' when trying to access a
CD. As with many other
peculiarities, this usually occurs
after using the PC card. My normal
fix is to click Menu over the CD
icon, then select 'Dismount', (this
seems to toggle between on and off).

"I first encountered this when I
had the original motherboard and
610 processor. It has continued with
a later board, and 200, then 233
StrongARM processors. The system
then works normally. II only seems
to reoccur on the odd occasion, but
does tie up with PC card usage."

Tlianks for that, it is a useful
work around even though it
doesn't completely fix the
problem. Are you shutting the PC
environment down properly I
wonder?

The next bit of feedback comes hrom
Richard Grant who remembers a reply
I made to a letter asking about a
project using a laser pointer, he writes:
"In connection with the
question and answer in
your Rambles column of
the July issue of Acorn User, I can
provide small very high-quality
front-silvered mirrors suitable for
incorporating into laser lights. The
glasses are about 22mm across.

about a millimetre in thickness and
only a couple of grams or so in
weight. A coil of 40swg or similar
wire should be hand-wound and
glued lo the back of the mirror with
Araldite or similar.

"Ensure that the lead-in and
lead-out wires are 180 degrees apart
and suspend two such mirrors, one
vertically and one horizontally near
a strong bar magnet or better still,
in the field of a large horseshoe
magnet. Shine your laser onto the
mirrors so the beam bounces off
both mirrors. Feed the coils with a
suitable AC voltage and hey presto,
a laser light display.

"I am no physicist but would
imagine that a suitable program
could weave all sorts of interesting
shapes. This I leave to you. I have a
small supply of these mirrors which
I can supply in pairs for £12 per
pair, all inclusive. I can order
further supplies but my suppliers
will supply only in quantities of
125 or above. In the meantime, it's
first come, first served until current
stocks are exhausted. Contact me at
richard.grant@dial. pipex.com"
Thanks Richard that
certainly sounds interesting
but I suspect that the
mechanical part might be tricky to
do. Now I have left Manchester Met
Lmiversity I don't have access to a
workshop so I am a bit reluctant to
take on this project. Also the mirrors
will need mounting with some
material with a bit of a twist
restoring force. A thin steel wire
might be fine but how would the

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

magnetic field affect this? Maybe it
needs to be of some other material.
As you say I can foresee the
electronic side of things presenting
no problem, just two latching D/A
converters on the printer port
connected to a driver amplifier. The
software could then just step througti
a look-up table and shunt values to
the D/As at regular intervals. If
anyone could come up with a
suitable mechanical design 1 am sure
we could sort out a joint article.

Neil Rodger who signs himself
G4RQN says:

"I have an A3000 running
RISC OS 3.10. My problem
is that 1 want to build an
adaptor to fit a normal 'podule' to ttie
Mini Expansion Card's socket. The
podule socket on the rear is needed
for a hard drive. "The normal podute

Interface wiring table

AKA12

Name

Euro
Card

SKI I pin

/PRE

15c

PR/W

13c

LA[4]

13a

LA[5]

12a

LA [6]

11a

LA[71

10a

LA[8]

LA[9]

LAIIO]

LA[11]

LA [121

LA[13]

/PIRQ

16c

SK3 pin

/PWE

14c

/Psl

22c

CLK2

27c

LA[2]

15a

LA[3]

14a

BD[0]

31a

BD[1]

30a

BD12]

29a

BD[3]

28a

BD[4]

27a

BD[51

26a

BD[61

25a

BDI71

24a

/RST

12c

Power connect! pns:-0 volts ;- SKll

pinsl, 9&17, SK3pinl6

, Euro

Card pins

la, Ic, 3c, 4c, 26c 5 volts j

:- SKll pu-

2, SK3 pins 1,

17, Euro

Card pins

30c & 32a -

that I want to fit is a simple one (it
isn't one that shows up when I type
*podules and it's sole purpose in life
is to do something called Slow Scan
TV). Can you help with the adaptor
connections/circuit please?"

1 know about slow scan TV,
there was an article about it
in the October '98 Acorn User
and besides I am G8HBR and
designed a lot of slow scan stuff back
in the mid 70's. Anyway I did look at
making an A3000 internal module
fit a normal podule slot for a MIDI
interface card you can get it on the
net from:http;//www.doc.nimu.ac.
uk/ Physics/Acorn/articles/
RTR1995/RTR9

In the article 1 think I referred to
the socket numbers on the internal
module, in the table below I have
changed them to match the socket
numbers in the A3000 manual (those
on the board). Pin 1 is at the
righthand end when viewed from the
front of the computer. Also note that
the A3000 does not have any -5V or
+12V supply and if your podule
needs this then you are stuck. As the
internal expansion is only a subset of
the main podule signals there might
be signals that you need on the
poduie but haven't got on this list.

Electrically it's simple enough to
wire them up, but you might have a
bit of a problem with the physical
layout. Also remember that some of
these lines carry high speed signals
so you run the danger of introducing
interference and distortion if they are
not kept as short as possible. Best of
luck with the project - 1 think you
will need it.

Chris Grant wants to upgrade his
hard drive capacity:

"I wonder if you might be
able to help me out here. It's
my harddisc. It's currently
residing in a old and friendly A5000
which I use almost daily, but I'm
now finding that its 40Mb just isn't
cutting the mustard any more. It's
getting to the stage where I've got so
many floppy discs that I have to
shovel my way to the keyboard.

"I understand that I can easily
buy a 3.5in IDE harddisc with oodles
of storage space, but I am a little
confused over the interface situation.
Most of the drives have two price
columns, one with and one without
the interface, with an appropriate
price difference, yet I'm still not sure
I actually need it. "My guess is that

rambles

if I simply replace my old harddisc
with a new one I don't need a new
interface, but if I wanted it as a
second drive then I would?

"I hope I'm not insulting your
intelligence by asking such a trivial
question, but I'm on a very limited
budget here and I don't want to
make a mistake. I can't wait to gel
rid of my floppies."

Well the first computer, I had
with a harddisc had a
staggering capacity of 5Mb,
mind you that was when a floppy
held I'OOK. As Marvin from 'The
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'
said "1 don't know how anyone can
live in anything so small".

Yes, if you just want to replace the
drive go ahead and get a replacement,
although if you get a drive bigger
than 2Gb you are best partitioning it
into smaller drives so you will need to
pay for some partition software. For
an extra harddisc you will need an
interface podule card as well.
However remember that whatever
size drive you choose it will probably
be too small one day.

Finally Christopher Rayson has a
problem with PC files to which 1
haven't got a solution, can any one
help him?

"Having carefully set up
DOSMAP commands on my
Acorn, I find that when
loading DOS-format floppies files
saved on PCs they still come up
'untyped'. Specifically, they tend to
have type &xOO. Occasionally -
generally if 1 saved a whole
directory of, say, /JPG files - one or
two will have the correct file type
(&C85), while the others appear
&200, &500, &E00, and so on. Is this:

a) supposed to happen, (is the
DOSMAP set up wrong?);

b) a known bug in ADFS;

c) a problem with my machine
(an A7000, RISC OS 3.60)

"I have an application, CDFix,
which stops a similar problem in
CDFS. Is there anything I can do?"

Answers on a postcard
please to the usual editorial
address, or the e-mail
address shown below.

Contacting AU J

Mike Cook:
ra mb Ies@a com u ser. com

http://www.acornuser.com December 1 999

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support does not generally benefit from more than 12aKB cache
anyway.

Aleph One Ltd, The Old Courthouse, Bottisham

Cambridge CBS 9BATel: 01223 811679
Fax: 01223 812713 E-mail: sales@aleph1.co.uk

www.aleph1.co.uk/AcornProd/Software/PCPro3Demo/index.titmi

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Write, phone or email us now for more
information or visit our stand at RISC OS '99.
First issue of volume 6 due out October 1 999.

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P.O.Box 231 , Barton. Bedford MK45 4HQ. ^-^
Tel. 01582 881614 fax 01582 881614
Email: akalat@kbnet.co.uk lta»

Bare

letters

minimum

While perusing the
newsgroups the other day
(-specifically comp.sys.
acorn. games} I came across a
posting intimating that there is no
way the Acorn machines will ever be
able to compete with PCs when it
comes to games.

At the moment I'd have to agree
with that statement, but not with the
statements about the Rise PC being
incapable of performing as a gaming
machine.

The post went on to say that
modern gamers wouldn't settle for
anything less than games such as
Nocturne. Intrigued I decided to
search out the demo and have a look
at it. Tliero are times when a
University Internet connection is a
godsend. One 109Mb download later
I'd got a demo of a game some
people would class as the 'bare
mmimum' we should expect of all
modern games. After unpacking the
demo I checked the Readme.txt file
which lists the minimum spec of
machine required:

• Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0,
or Windows 2000

• Penfium 2, Celeron, Pentium 3
or AMD Athlon CPU

• 128Mb System RAM

• Sound Blaster Live! for
environmental audio effects

• Matrox G200/G400, ATI Rage
128, S3 Savage 3D, or
TnT/TnT2 for 3D acceleration

• 200Mb of free harddisc space

• 200Mb of free virtual memory

I thank forward planning that the
five month old machine 1 work on is
a P3x50DMHz with 128Mb of System
RAM, 13Gb drive, Sound Blaster 128
with a 16Mb TNT video card.

Running the demo allows you to
enter the options setup, h seems you
need a 32Mb video card to use any
resolution above 640x480. Having set
everything up the way I'm used to I

started the game and a minute later,
still inifialising the triangle data, it
fell flat on its face. "No room for
triangle data at ....".

Quitting all other apps and trying
again yielded the same result. 1 tried
rebooting and from a clean machine
with much of the graphic detail
turned down to mmimum - the same
error occured.

Well, if that's the baseline that all
future games will need to meet then
I, for one, won't be buying any of the
newer games releases (leastwise not
unfil I have a 256Mb RAM machine
with 4th generation video card
sporting 128Mb of VRAM) and it
seems a little preposterous to expect
the Rise PC to have to compete in
such an arena!

Ghjn Royds. by e-mail

Charity-boy rides again

Tlie next planned charity fund
raising event that I'm organising is to
help Steve Tumbull's MENCAP bike
ride in China. What is intended will
be very nice if it can be pulled off: 1
am planning on releasing a double
CD containing all of the Acom FTP
sites, but I've run into a problem.

Having spoken with Malcolm at
Demon {the chap who looked after
the Acorn FTP site there), he says
that some of the software has
conditions on it saying that they are

Out of the closet

Now that our leader, Toriy, has come
out of the closet and admitted that
he is a computer illiterate, it is no
longer so surprising that one of his
first guests at No 10 was Bill Gates. I
wonder what tiiey could have
talked about. The weather perhaps?

Rather than consult with the
author of so many of the problems
that now face computer users, the
government should have taken
advice from companies such as

for Internet use only and not to form
any part of a CD. This may put a
spanner in the works unless you can
help.

If you have released any software
to any of the following FTP areas,
please contact me as soon as possible
(and I mean soon) saying if 1 can or
can't use the software on these
charity CDs - this applies equally to
those who have this rider on their
software and those who don't - also
if you know someone who has done
this (but maybe won't have read this)
please ask them to reply to me. The
FTP sites are:

• Argonet

• Demcin

• HENSA

• Uni of ShJttgart

• Cybervillage

• Barnet

• Avogadro (Chris Johnson)

• ARM Club

Any of the areas held on the
acomusers.org (CBSA, Emulators,
SkullSoft and so on).

Should I get the green light, the
CDs could be out before Christmas
with a recommended minimum
donation of £12.50 - just double the
price of the Kosovo CD.

Please help.

Paul E Johnson

E-)mil: paiilf.johnson@uknnHne.co.uk

Acom and boosted UK industry

The impact on employment
could, however, have been negative
as there would be less need for the
armies of consultants that make a
good living, while they stay sane,
installing and fixing Windoze
programs. Tliere would also be less
need for tutors for the Prime
Minister (at least in Information
Technology).

Daiv Barnctt, by e-mail

httD://www.arnrmi«pr rnm PI

i#ltli

nterview

Being 16
it is not
easy to
get every-
thing
sorted
out I

l€I

A love of Acorns frequently runs in the
blood- This column itself has covered
a number (if familv pairings: the
Streater, Finn and Simpson brothers.
Now there's a father/son pairing to add to
the list. Back in Christmas 1995 Mark Moxon
interviewed John Simnett of Simnett
Computing and Cumana; I'm now talking to
his son Tomislav. I met Tomislav the day
before his GCSE results came out, which he
was very relaxed about, but then he would be
because already Tomislav is the Managing
Director of Simnett Computer Services.

"t have just become an Acorn dealer," says
Tomislav excitedly. "I just phoned up CTL
and said: 'I want to become a dealer' and they
said 'fine' - it was as easy as that. My father
was desperately trying to tell me not to go
through with it because it would not work so
I told him 'Yeah, it will'.

"The problem is with the banks and
everything. Being 16 it is not easy to get
everything sorted out. It is easy enough to
open an account up, but everything else is as
hard as anytfiing. 1 cannot borrow until I am
18. I am going to be selling mail order; it
should work out. If anyone wants a computer
I'm here."

Tomislav's company is not only selling
computers, but also computer training and
Website design. He uses PCs if people want
training on them, as it makes good business
sense. But Tomislav is really Acorn born and
bred.

"I have being using computers since I was
god knows how young. As far as my parents
are concerned I was tapping away at
keyboards just hitting keys when T was six
months old at our old shop. As far as 1 am
concerned I have been using them properlv
since I was about three. The old BBC,

Spectrum, Atari - vou name it, I've
used it. My love of Acorns stems
from using them so much and not
liking what the PC had to offer. 1 do
have a computer-led life."

Tomislav got into Web design
through writing his own pages. He
gained commercial experience while
doing work experience at
Atomwide. Since then it has
snowballed and Tomislav is getting
requests from all sorts of businesses;
even his dad mav want him to do a
page, although Tomislav is keen to
stress that his father has nothing to
do with his company.

"I don't use FrontPage, nothing to
do with a PC," Tomislav says
emphatically. "I do have a PC but
that's for training on, and that is
because there are so many people
who want it and I can get the
income. I also get to show PC
people how wonderful Acorns are and offer
them my complete Acorn solution. On the
other hand everything I actually do is done
on the Acorn. I have a couple networked
together in my room.

"I use StrongED - it's the best. I tried
using Zap but I am not too keen; Edit is
absolutely awful. I also use Photodesk version
1 - I cannot afford to buy the latest version
yet - Paint, ChangeFSI, IntcrGIF and other
bits and pieces."

Tomislav lives in one of the coolest places
I've visited: a house boat on the Tliames. He
says he could not live in a normal house ever
again, and I understand totally. On the wall
of his bedroom I notice an unusual
decoration, a bike. I find out he is not just
content with having his own company.

"One of my big aims at the moment is to be
a professional cyclist, but I know it might not
turn out. I have problems with my back and I
have to sort them out, then I will join a cvcle
club. The Pro tour this year in May started off
by doing 72 laps aroimd Westminster and they
did 800 miles in seven days. I cycled to
Cornwall to see the eclipse and I did 300 in
four days. It hurt but it is meant to. 1 was
crying. 1 was on mv own and I had no
slipstream to cycle in. What motivated me was
that 1 got to Black Bush airport and thought
'Yes! I am nearly home,' and so cycled the last
part at 25 miles per hour."

As we chat about the pros and cons of a
house boat (which is now gently floating, the
tide having come in), 1 reflect that the future
of the Acorn market depends in many ways
on people like Tomislav, people who refuse
to see that it's just plain silly to cycle to
Cornwall and back just to see the moon pass
in front of the sun,

Jill Regan

December 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com

L.^:.!^..^^^..

ging technolpg^^

2 New Megapixel Cameras:

C920 ZOOM, lasler rephicement Ibc CyOOZ

C2I. 2.1 Megapixel minialure camera

OSM) luiw £50 off! C20()0 ZOOM now £100 off!

NEW CD ROM from David Cowell

See Giancark) dt'inonslraie
NEW TopModcl stuff at RISCOS99!

PHOTODESK 3 is the package which

defines studio quality image editing and artwork on

RISC OS machines, ll is easy to use but has many powerlul fealures. including LAYERS and

a sophisticated colour management system (CMS) for the full-time graphics professional. £299.50

PHOTODESK2 is slill available, retaining the CMS but not layers. £199.00

PHOTODESK LIGHT, an economic alternative to PHOTODESK3 retains most of its creative
features apart from ihe Colour Management System, Layers and some features essential to the
professional user. £134.75 Plug-in Effects Packs are available for all Photodesk packages.
Each pack contains 10 special effects. £19.95

Spacetecli tutorial CD ROMs:

"'All [nfrodiiclioii to Digital Art" tcaluring bitmap and vector
graphics tuloriajs by Iht' WL-ll-kntiwii artist, David Cowell. This is
a fascinaling introduction to siudici qaalily graphics work on CD
ROM for £24.9!!

A NEW CD from Daviil is now available: "Creative Digital
Imaging" This conlains a resource of images and covers the
following topics in greater iletaii: Digiial painling, Paitiling with
Texture, Digital Photography. Photo illustration, Montage. Ponraits.
Words and Text, Crealivc masking. Hints and Tips. £24.95

^-^L^afc

lopModel2 V.2.14 is now available for £152.75. Existing users may upgrade for £29.95

or buy the NEW CD-ROM packed with resources, the new plug-in Top3DFonLs! and a free 2.14 upgrade for only
£58.63. TopModel 2 is the definitive 3D modelling package for RISC OS. Giancarlo front Sincronia will demo
TopBones and Top.Animalion at the RISCOS99 show.

OI1P

A presentation package on CD-ROM from Spacetech

Makes your slide shows quick and easy to create!

Star! building your presentation .S minutes before the lesson? - No Problem

Use your existing work in a presentation? - No Problem, just drag 'n drop it in' Only £29.95

iiQital

"1 cameras

PhotoLink is an Acorn multi-driver for the most popular makes of digital camera. It is bundled
FREE* with the following cameras:

C830L 1280x960 resolution. TFT screen, macro, 2x digital Tele Mode. Now only £349.99

C920ZOOM 1280x960, 3x optical zoom. NEW replacement for C900Z. our price only £499.99

C21 1600x1200 Micro miniature NEW 2 Megapixel baby! Digital Tele mode. TFT. £699.99

C2000 ZOOM 1600x1200 This camera has everything including optical zoom, manual override
for auto settings, remote control. 4.5cm TFT screen. Our price now £100 off! was £749.99 now £649.99

*PholoLink is available free with cameras purchased from Spacetech or on its own, if you have
purchased your camera elsewhere, at £69.00

PhotoReal is the Acorn driver extension for the Canon BJC4300. BJC4650. BJC7000, BJC 7100

BJC20()0. Epson Photo. Photo70{) and PhotoEX printers with photo-realistic capability. PhotoReal
makes u.se of the same advanced techniques for producing high-quality four colour .separations as
Photodesk and comes ready calibrated for the special dye-based inks used for photo-realistic printing.
A calibration application i.s also supplied to allow you to tailor the results lo your own specification.

Driver only £69.00 Inc.VAT. or FREE if purchased with printer!

Exiimples: Stylus Photo700 was £249.50 NOW £204.45

Canon B,IC2000 £149.95 B.IC465() A3 £299.99

BJC7000 £245.00 B.IC7100 £299.00

Epson PhotoEX A3 was £454.73 NOW £363.07
(all prices include PhotoReal Driver)

.maging technoloqy

All prices include VAT

1 The Courtyard, Southwell Business Park, Portland, Dorset DT5 2NQ, UK

Telephone: +44 (0)1305 822753 Fax: +44 (0)1305 860483

Email: saIes(s'spacetech.co.uk Web: http://www.spacetech,co.uk

Lightning-fast

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'Acam' i the acorn nul dsvice aie kodsmaitis al BamenI 14 LlO
DVD drive is used <ia a CD ri '

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