BARUG NewsMay 2004May's meeting will be held on Wednesday 26 May at the usual time and place. The guest speaker this month is to be David Holden of APDL. David will announce his topic on the evening. Members will recall that on his previous visits David has not fought shy of expressing clearly his forthright views on the RISC OS scene, so an entertaining evening lies ahead! David is of course one of the most prominent remaining RISC OS dealers, and in recent years his company has 'rescued' many software titles which might otherwise have gone into oblivion. He will no doubt bring a selection of his wares to tempt members, so if there's anything you need, check out his website and give David a call prior to the meeting: I'm sure he will be pleased to bring goods with him and you'll save the postage! Last month the 2004 AGM was held. Attended by the necessary quorum (just!), the Committee was re-elected en masse and the subscription confirmed at the previous level of £7 per year. Subscriptions are due this month, so please bring cash or your chequebook and keep the Treasurer happy! Thanks also to Jack and Tony for their presentations on how to get digital photos into a computer, and some suggestions on how to improve them once they are there. I mentioned the program CDBurn a missive or so ago. This has been marketed in recent years by WSS but has now been taken back by its author, Steffen Huber. Under the trading name of hubersn Software, his site can be found at: http://www.hubersn-software.com/ WSS, in turn, have announced that 32-bit versions of some of their programs are finally available, so all the Iyonix users can update those programs you've been missing... The Wakefield Show has been and gone for another year. The Drobe portal has more details... http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact1063.html ..included in which is the launch of a limited edition black-cased version of the Iyonix from Castle (called 'the Panther') and a much smaller device - the A75 - from STD in an orange box. This latter is, I understand, aimed more at industrial users who need a rugged box but don't need the features used by desktop users (such as podule slots). But if space in your study is at a premium, it might fit the bill. See Drobe's article: http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact1047.html Drobe also reports that Castle has published a roadmap for RISC OS (which they now own) under the codename MERLIN. See: http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact1061.html Other news: Martin Wuerthner released ArtWorks version 2.2 at Wakefield: see http://www.mw-software.com/software/artworks/aw2features5.html APDL launched a new version of DrawWorks - no doubt we'll hear about that this week - and Icon Technology has launched new versions of EasiWriter and TechWriter which, amongst other things, can now accept ArtWorks files (no doubt due to the involvement of Martin Wuerthner in the Icon programming team!) So there is still plenty of life left in the market. No doubt David Holden will have more to say on Wednesday... :-) See you next week! Steve |