BARUG NewsJune 2003The May meeting was held at the usual time and place. It allegedly consisted of a discussion on RISC OS topics, but kept meandering off on a tangent..... June's guest speaker will be David Holden of APDL. David is one of the prominent RISC OS dealers, having a thriving business which includes 'rescuing' commercial software from oblivion as other developers find it unprofitable to keep the development going. No doubt David will inform and enlighten with his usual forthright views on the state of the market and the direction of development! This month we heard the sad news of the death of Peter Cox, the former Secretary and Chairman of BARUG. I attended his funeral service in Cardiff, and the family was very pleased that Peter was remembered by the Group. His love affair with Acorns was fondly recalled: apparently he had been trying for years (with limited success) to convince all his relatives to use Acorns rather than PCs, a trait which his relatives regarded as part of his generally eccentric and unconventional life! Peter was clearly much loved by his family. He died in the Holme Towers Marie Curie Hospice in Penarth: the family requested that any donations should be sent there as a gesture of gratitude for the care the staff took of Peter in his final days. Regrettably, it seems that the RiscStation portable programme is unlikely to produce any output in the short term. The Omega hasn't appeared either, although my own contact with Microdigital suggests that it should be shipping very shortly. One evening later this year could be devoted to comparing the speed etc of the Omega with the Iyonix: do any of you who are more expert than I, fancy dreaming up a series of tests that could be done side by side on the two machines to check which does what best? I'm away this month - back in time for the July meeting. See you soon! Steve |