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March 2000
editor@os2voice.org

March 11

A new virus signatures file, av30fl.zip, dated 10 march 2000 for the IBM Antivirus for OS/2 has been released on the Symantec site at:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html

March 11

This news from mgs-os2-soft (see http://www.os2ss.com/warpcast/wc4915.html for details of the MGS OS/2 software mailing list):

There is a new release of cURL for OS/2 available.

cURL is a tool to grab URLs using a myriad of protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, Telnet, dict, file), supporting reget (FTP+HTTP), append, passive mode (FTP), HTTP proxy, customized HTTP headers and more.

It's similar to wget but DOES NOT do site mirroring.

Download it from hobbes:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/curl64os2.zip

will be soon moved to:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/internet/curl64os2.zip

March 11

There have been a few reports now that ISP800, a US-wide ISP which had featured toll free access numbers and specifically solicited OS/2 users, has closed its toll free access lines. One report claims that ISP800 has closed, without warning, all user accounts that do not have local access numbers as of Friday March 10, 2000.

The ISP800 web site is:

http://www.isp800.com/

March 10

BgMetrics, a native OS/2 solution to track Blood Glucose readings and dietary info for diabetics is now publicly available.

In doing research for the program it was discovered that the previous name of BgTracker was already in use. The name has been changed to avoid any conflict and the program has been updated.

BgMetrics will...
Track Bg readings for specific periods of the day.
Track meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks)
Track meal "carb" values.
Track weight.
Track daily average of Bg readings.
Track daily total "carbs"
Graph Bg values, carbs and weight for any date range.
Print Bg or meal reports and print graphs.

Future plans include support for downloading data from selected glucometers and developing the database for other trackable items. (Fat, calories, A1C readings etc.)

We would also like to find a source of food data that we can glean fat, calorie, carbohydrate information from in order to create a meal calculator. If you know of a database or flat file that we can harvest (legally) please contact us.

If you, your family or friends have to track blood sugar and are looking for an OS/2 solution, please stop by the PillarSoft website and see if BgMetrics can work for you.

BgMetrics is not for sale at this time. We ask all users to please use it freely as the features are fleshed out and do not worry about it becoming commercial if you feel you won't be able to afford it. We will find a way to make it available to you without missing any usage or losing any data. It is our intention that no person go without any help we can provide.

Downloads and more information is available at the PillarSoft website under the "Products" category. PillarSoft is located at:

http://www.pillarsoft.net

A direct link to the BgMetrics page is:

http://www.pillarsoft.net/bgmetrics.html

March 10

I'm proud anounce the 10,000th visitor to Birdy.Hpage. This is a lot I think especially if you hear how small The OS/2 community is supposed to be.

In the beginning we had the small spaceport and fortune city account carrying a file mirror of the Russian Enlightenment/2 files. Than GNOME/2 was added and after the work was done, the pages became the official GNOME/2 and E/2 pages. With time it became the name Birdy.Hpage and upgrades to the webspace were often needed.

Now Birdy.hapge has many sections: GNOME/2, E/2, KDE/2, an Alpha section (that will get interesting in the near future if you want to start porting or help us find bugs) and of course the main section. The favourite pages of the Main section are the News page of course, the SCREAM:driver page (please write SUN about Staroffice if you didn't already) and the latest page the survey.

So that seems to be a long way, but that all happened in the last 5 month. :-)

Birdy.Hpage can be found at:

http://birdy.hpage.net
http://birdy.hpage.de

March 10

I have been receiving a great deal of inquiries regarding using the MPU-401 driver with various sound cards. Most of the time it is because of interest in MIDI Station Sequencer.

To make everyone's life easier I have added a table of sound cards to the RTMIDI section of the web site. This table has settings for various sound card drivers AND the MPU-401 driver that users have found successful.

Please take a look at the link below and if you're using the MPU-401 driver successfully and your sound card isn't listed PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE send me your settings so that I can update the page. I'd like this information to be as accurate as possible.

Thanks in advance for your input,
Christopher Hodges
Author of MIDI Station Sequencer
Link: http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/rtmidi.html

March 09

Last summer, native versions of the Complite File Comparison Family became available for OS/2 Warp and Windows NT. These are word-by-word comparison utilities for programming language source, ASCII text and data files.

Since July, the DOS and NT versions have continued to generate downloads, inquiries, and sales, but the OS/2 versions have languished. Since the NT and OS/2 versions are virtually identical, I was surprised at the huge disparity in activity between the two.

Although I use the OS/2 versions regularly, is there an OS/2 only problem that doesn't affect the NT versions? I'd be interested in hearing from OS/2 users that have tried the utilities.

Descriptions and demonstration versions are on my web page below.

I can also supply a few fully functional, but time-limited evaluation copies with the exchange of contact information, and hopefully a U.S. phone number.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Veale

email: jdveale@world.std.com

web: http://world.std.com/~jdveale/index.html

....................................................................

The OS/2 Warp versions consist of:

o CompDeux and TigDeux - General purpose with fast, or rigorous comparison engines.

o TFuzDeux - Fuzzy number comparison allows you to treat numbers which are close to each other as equal, based on user specified ranges. Avoids problems with round-off and number formats.

o SibDeux - Sibling software merge utility, maintain local modifications to vendor updated source.

March 09

Contact: Craig Greenwood captain@warptech.org
1-480-968-8625 office

WarpTech's design team has created an outstanding logo for the upcoming WarpTech OS/2 conference. Take a look at the new WarpTech banner logos at:

http://www.warptech.org/WTBanners.html

These banner logos (large and small) are intended for display on OS/2 web sites everywhere. WarpTech has one purpose -- to support OS/2 users -- and if you have a web site with a similar purpose we'd love to have you use them.

And when you've added WarpTech to your web site, let us know so we can add you to our Supporters list! Send an email with your url to webmaster@warptech.org and we'll add a link from WarpTech to you. It's our way of saying "thanks" for supporting WarpTech OS/2.

- - -

WarpTech 2000 is a 3-day OS/2 technical conference taking place May 26-28 at a pristine 463-acre desert resort in the beautiful Southwest. Come to Phoenix, Arizona USA for three full days of OS/2 -- the biggest OS/2 conference ever held.

Visit the WarpTech web site at:

http://www.WarpTech.org

To volunteer or just to watch the goings-on, subscribe to the WarpTech 2000 planning list by sending mail to steward@bitranch.comwith the following text in the body (not subject!) of the message: subscribe w2k

Hosted by the Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc.

March 09

Since February 21, IBM has finally included the special IBM Edition of SDD for OS2 version 7 at

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/os2ddpak/sddse700.zip

March 08

The latest information about StarOffice for OS/2, coming from within Sun/StarOffice GmbH, Hamburg, Germany, confirms an earlier WarpCast message to the point that there won't be any further development. All other rumors are said to have been misunderstandings and quotations out of context (one of them originally supposed to be aimed at OS/2 itself, not StarOffice for OS/2).

So all we can still do seems to be tell Sun that we don't like this and that for interoperability reasons, in case there'll be no more StarOffice for OS/2, we'll also have to migrate all our Windows desktops to Lotus SmartSuite.

This URL seems to be suitable for the purpose:

http://www.sun.com/cgi-bin/comment-form.pl

March 07

Date March 1, 2000

F/X Communications announced today the release of the industrial strength InJoy Firewall version 1.4.

http://www.fx.dk/firewall

It's an afforable and powerful solution that offers tremendous value for businesses relying on OS/2 as part of the network topology. Using the InJoy Firewall, the customer receives full gateway, firewall, interoperable VPN capability and PPPoE - all in one product!

Takes pride in being the most reliable and comprehensive security solution you'll find for OS/2 today! Ships in different shapes and the modular plugin technology assures clean interfaces and easy deployment of new features. Start small ~grow as your needs dictate - the well proven design assures superior speed and efficiency for both consumers and businesses.

Install the Firewall stand alone or use it to safely share the connection among multiple work stations. With no reconfiguration of network applications, the Firewall is easy to install and works transparently. The InJoy Firewall is Also widely used as a stand-alone VPN client/gateway or PPPoE Client.

The connection protected, can be of nearly any type, including Cable, xDSL, dedicated T1 circuits, Frame Relay and even satellite connections.

New support for the PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) protocol adds seamless connectivity to industry leading ISPs. The PPPoE support is easy to configure and operate. Includes support of multiple ISP profiles and demand connections. Coexists with IPSec, NAT, filtering and Firewall support. Prepared for third party licensing!

Comprehensive and unique OS/2 support of the interoperable IPSec VPN standard allows OS/2 companies to easily create secure channels to other major vendors in the market or to other InJoy products.

Used in combination with sound security policies, the Firewall provides a secure technology to regulate both in- bound and out-bound communications. Operates beneath the routing layer on "raw" packets and out performs application proxies.

New major features in this OS/2 version:
- full list: http://www.fx.dk/firewall/download.html
- PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE)
- PPPoE PM GUI based configuration
- New licensing option: IJF PRO - 2 user. Cost-effective VPN client, PPPoE client or PC security solution for a 1-2 user setup.
- New option for easy protection of the Firewall PC.
- New firewall/filter rules to demonstrate popular use.
- Automatic rescan of Firewall IP address
- IPSec support for internal nets behind Road Warriors.
- IPSec support for the faster, yet less secure 1-DES.
- IPSec through NAT.
- IPSec interoperability tests with Windows clients.
* F-Secure VPN+ 4.2 for Win 9x/NT/2000
* PGPnet 6.5.2a IPSEC Client from Network Associates
* SafeNet/Soft-PK
o Ask for configuration guides!

IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) is an Internet standard for interconnected, secure networking devices and the predominant technology in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The IPSec Plugin is released as part of the InJoy Dialer (dial-out), InJoy Connect" (dial-in) and the InJoy Firewall. The Plugin enables these products to serve as an IPSec gateway or function as a VPN Client.

PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) specifies how a host PC interacts with a broadband ISP (via xDSL or Cable) in order to achieve Internet access. It relies on two widely accepted standards, namely Ethernet and the point-to-point protocol (PPP). Service providers are implementing PPPoE to replace the static IP addressing or DHCP systems that do not offer authentication, billing, or service differentiation.

March 07

A russian programmer devoted to the OS/2 Warp cause, Alex Smirnov, has elevated the system info to the state of the art releasing SystemInfo. I tested this beta on my Warp 4 FP12 and I'm just publishing a review about it on my web site, where you can download this software quickly from my high speed server.

http://macarlo.com

March 07

StWTV 1.13 is now available.

It features:
User-defined station buttons
Float on Top Blitting in a separate thread
Free defineable priority of the blitting thread (for a good frame rate)
Rexx-API GRADD-Support (use wcast driver 1.040H or later)
Station preview

StWTV is now shareware and can be found at:

http://home.t-online.de/home/stefan.milcke/homepage.htm

You can register via BMT Micro.

http://www.bmtmicro.com/

March 07

Found this while looking for work. I'm an old OS/2 user but not a developer so thought maybe somebody here would be interested. The url is:

http://www.jewelcon.com/msie/job_ops.html

March 07

I am proud to announce the availability of MIDI Station Sequencer 2.0 Final Edition. MIDI Station Sequencer is an integrated MIDI/Audio sequencer for OS/2 that uses the Real-Time MIDI subsystem available in Warp 4.

Some of the features if MIDI Station Sequencer include:
1) Record, playback and editing of MIDI data
2) Record, playback end editing of audio waveforms
3) Full integration of MIDI and audio in sequences
4) Simultaneous playback of up to 32 waveforms
5) Direct-to-harddisk audio playback and recording with
6) Audio streaming to handle very large waveforms
7) Audio effects unit
8) Multiple MPU-401 port support
9) Piano roll view with full editing
10) 1 millisecond accuracy for rock-solid timings
11) MIDI Delay unit
12) Realtime mixer

And many, many others! I invite you to visit the MIDI Station Sequencer web site at:

http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/index.html

There you can read more information and see some screenshots of the sequencer in action. You can also download the program to evaluate it (while unregistered the program will not allow you to save any of your sequences).

In the next few days I'll be adding some pages to the website listing specific examples on using the MPU-401 driver with various soundcards.

I'd also like to take this time out to say thank you to those users who took the time to give me feedback and submit bugs that they have found.

If you're interested in MIDI and music then come on by and take a look at the most advanced sequencer available on the OS/2 Warp platform!
Christopher Hodges
Author of MIDI Station Sequencer

MIDI Station Sequencer web site:

http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/index.html

Also available at BMT Micro:

http://www.bmtmicro.com

March 07

The new Gimp/2 v1.1.8 has been released.

Gimp/2 is a powerful pixel graphic program that runs under Xfree86OS/2 and is part of the GNOME/2 project. Gimp/2 is able to work with layers&channels, has a big bunch of Filters and it's know Script language Fu-Script, with a lot of useful examples. Together with X-Scanimage and SANE you also can directly scan into Gimp/2.

Gimp/2 is OpenSource, that means free for everyone to use and free for us to continue porting it.

Find it at:

http://www.os2.spb.ru/software/xfree86/gimp118/

March 07

Daniela Engert has updated her danis506 and daniatapi OS/2 disk drivers again. Now included in the daniatapi driver is support for system viewing of ATAPI drives as SCSI drives. This means that writing CD-R discs is now possible on ATAPI drives under OS/2 with various OS/2 freeware applications.

DANIS506 is an EIDE driver with support for Intel, VIA, ALi, SiS, CMD, Promise, Cyrix, HighPoint and AMD chipsets, and generic busmaster support for all SFF-8038i compliant chips. It can be found at:

http://hobbes.mnsu.edu/pub/incoming/danis506.zip
and later at:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/danis506.zip

DANIATAPI is a filter driver which supports all types of ATAPI devices. It is a superset of IBMIDECD.FLT, IBMATAPI.FLT and DaniADsk.FLT, and supports all devices that the mentioned drivers do. Additionally, all ATAPI devices can be accessed through the OS/2 ASPI software interface. Each EIDE channel shows up as a SCSI channel, and each ATAPI device as a SCSI device (master = SCSI ID 0, slave = SCSI ID 1). It can be found at:

http://hobbes.mnsu.edu/pub/incoming/daniatapi.zip
and later at:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/daniatapi.zip

March 07

There is an updated (0.09) version of Rxwav available. Rxwav is a REXX library for audio editing (change volume, expand dynamic, filtering, get info on RIFF wave file...) with sample.

http://www.geocities.com/katobleto

March 07

The OS/2 Netlabs proudly announces a new project, namely

T H E W O R K P L A C E S H E L L T O O L K I T

What is the Workplace Shell Toolkit ?

This toolkit is a collection of APIs being designed to greatly reduce the amount of effort required to build common Workplace Shell Classes. These APIs are divided into several minor and major categories. Most of the APIs are helper functions, grouped in subcategories:
- Module helper functions (EXE and DLL)
- PM control helper functions
- System helper functions
- Error helper functions
- File helper functions
- Date and time related helper functions

Of course, many more are still to be implemented.

Larger function categories deal with a whole set of tasks being required to provide certain WPS class functionality, making the implementation much easier compared to the formerly required large amount of code, needing a lot of testing and also having much nearly redundant code. Two major categories are already implemented:
- Settings and details manager functions
- Extended Attributes manager functions

The detailed online help povides a syntax explanation as well as a programming guide for the major categories, both in the well known INF book layout style, that programmers are used to from the IBM Toolkit for OS/2 WARP. Moreover, for each category a sample program is provided, enabling you to easily test all APIs with your compiler and toolkit configuration.

Supported compilers/Requirements

The following compilers are supported
- IBM C Set ++ Version 2.1 with nmake support
- IBM VisualAge C++ Version 3.0 with nmake support
- gcc of emx V0.9d with GNU make support

Also required is:
- the IBM Toolkit for either OS/2 WARP 3 or WARP 4
- an HPFS partition for being able to compile the toolkit library, sample programs and online docs.

Where can I obtain the Workplace Shell Toolkit ?

The Workplace Shell Toolkit is free software and OpenSource, as such it can be used, modified and redistributed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, in version 2 as it comes in the "COPYING.LIB" file of the WPS Toolkit source distribution.

In short, this license allows everyone to use the unmodified toolkit library in both free or commercial software products without any other limitation or any fee. Only if a modified version of the toolkit library is being used, the modified toolkit and its modified sources must be made publicly available. This applies to the modified toolkit only, but not to a program using the toolkit.

OS/2 Netlabs provides an Open Source Archive on the Netlabs CVS Server, from where you can download the current developer version either with the "Netlabs Open Source Archive Client" or plain CVS.

If you have good ideas for extending the library, or if you are interested in participating the Workplace Shell Toolkit project team, then contact us vial email at:

wpstk@netlabs.org

See the following web pages:

The OS/2 Netlabs home page:

http://www.netlabs.org

The home page of the "Netlabs Open Source Archive Client":

http://www.netlabs.org/nosa

If you use plain CVS, point your CVSROOT to:

http://www.netlabs.org:d:/netlabs.src/wpstk

and login as "guest" with password "readonly". The recommended way for CVS beginners is to use the Netlabs Open Source Archive Client though.

Send comments and suggestions to:

wpstk@netlabs.org

What's next ?

As soon as the forthcoming home page of the Workplace Shell Toolkit is up, a binary distribution will be made available on internet FTP servers (like Hobbes etc). This distribution will already contain the library compiled for all supported compilers and the compiled online help and thus be ready to use.

In addition, we of course search for programmers wanting to share their special WPS code with us, that could be of use for other WPS prgrammers as well. Do you have a particular useful function or a good idea of how to encapsulate a complex task in a really simple set of APIs? Then don't hesitate to contact us at:

wpstk@netlabs.org

The toolkit is for you programmers, and you can help us most to make it the way that you and all of the OS/2 Workplace Shell developers can get the most benefit out of it.

March 06

I posted my new version of SysInfo into Hobbes. You can find it at:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/SYSINFO015.ZIP

and then it will be moved to:

ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/SYSINFO015.ZIP

SysInfo is a self-made PM clone of well-known SysInfo from Symantec NU 3.0 for Windows 95/NT. You can find info about your CPU/FPU, BIOS, HDD, Memory distribution, Video and Printer Subsistem, LAN and Internet connection, OS/2 version and FixPak installed and so on.

I am happy to recieve your proposals, bug reports and screenshots.

March 06

The new release of Ellie, the cutest among all the seti@home client frontends for OS/2, is out and features support for the latest client v2.0.

Point your browser to:

http://www.cee3.demon.co.uk/ellie/ellie_dl.html

March 06

This is a special message for people who work as church secretaries. I have developed a small tool for administering all addresses in a church community. On my home page, you will find more information at:

http://home.t-online.de/home/Juergen.Dankoweit

March 06

IDK, Inc., is proud to announce our new Email list for KeyRing/2, the Secure Password Keeper for OS/2.

Company president, Kevin McCoy says: "The response to KeyRing/2 has been phenominal, with hundreds of demo downloads and many more orders than we expected.

Join our discussion list by sending an email to:

keyring2-subscribe@egroups.com

The mailing list list will cover questions about KR2 installation, tips on use, feature requests and new release announcements.

KeyRing/2 is an encrypted database you can use to store passwords, URLs, bank PIN numbers, product registration codes, addresses - any small secrets. KeyRing/2 for North America uses 448 bit Blowfish encryption. The export version uses 56 bit DES.

More information and a free demo is available at:

http://www.idk-inc.com/kr2index.htm

March 06

SORRY!

Some days ago, I announced ghostscript 6.00 which works in both OS2 PM and in XFree86 is available.

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~vtgf3mpr/index-e.htm

A neary fatal problem was found by some users: When ghost-script is called by viewers like`gv',sometimes it does not work.

If you have downloaded from my web site, do this:
emxstack -s640 gs.exe
emxstack -s640 gsos2.exe
emxstack -s640 gspmdrv.exe

Or download the fixed version from my page:

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~vtgf3mpr/index-e.htm

March 05

From the Odin News page, http://www.netlabs.org/odin/News.phtml#21 The latest working release of Odin, the Netlabs project to run win32 applications under OS/2, now has 3dfx Glide support as well as the first implementation of hardware accelerated OpenGL on OS/2.

"Hardware accelerated OpenGL by Nenad Milenkovic 5 Mar 00 05:15 CET Native 3dfx Glide drivers for OS/2 (Voodoo and Voodoo 2) are now included with Odin and they support Win32 applications (mostly games) that use it. Furthermore, an Odin port of the free OpenGL clone Mesa GL is now also included. There are two versions of Odin's Mesa/OpenGL: one that does the rendering in software and the one that uses 3dfx hardware for the job."

March 05

The Russian Underground has a new English version of the Phone-Dialer (with Phonebook) Dialer/2:

http://www.os2.spb.ru/software/projects/pmdialer/

March 05

EmTec's ZOC for OS/2 has been updated to version 3.14. The URL is:

http://www.emtec.com/download.html#zocfiles

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