====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 971114 N E W T E K S P E A K S A M I G A U S E R G R O U P N E T W O R K M A E A F U N S U C C E S S C O M P U T E R ' 9 7 I S U N D E R W A Y N E W C Y G N U S E D P R O F E S S I O N A L A M I G A I N F O R M E R S W E E P S T A K E S F I A S C O 2 . 1 D A T A B A S E M A N A G E R N E W S F R O M V U L C A N S O F T W A R E L T D M O N T E ' S W I P E W O R K S V O L U M E 1 M I D I T R A C K E R V E R S I O N 1 . 2 P G P D E V E L O P M E N T F O R A M I G A E N D S F E A T U R E - A M I G A I N F O R M E R A N N E X Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: We begin this issue with an important announcement from NewTek. My editorial in the last issue produced some interesting comments and letters from readers. There's too much material to print here, but the responses - well thought out, almost all of them - covered a wide range. Some thought it was unfair to criticize NewTek, especially when no formal statement was available with the company's actual announcements. Others agreed with the main points. Basically, I said NewTek always had a tendency to want to be the tail that wags the dog, and comments by Expo attendees brought that to mind. I stand by that observation about NewTek. It's not too surprising - their products are wondrous things, and worth the acclaim they received. But their approach is not always in the best interest of the Amiga. The statement we have below shows a much more business-like approach to things. Coming a month after the announcements it refers to, and not being "in sync" with the reports we received just after the Expo, it may be an exercise in backtracking - or those who commented on the Expo could have over-reacted. Either way, we welcome the statement and find it reassuring. There's a lot of product information for you this time. It's worth reminding everyone that these stories are almost all written by the products' promoters, and only lightly edited. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with what's said. If we found a problem with any of these stories, we wouldn't run them (keep in mind we haven't tested the products either). This does mean that the sometimes breathless enthusiasm you see in them is the attitude of the promoter, not "Amiga Update" so read them as you would an advertisement. We have quite a bit of information on PGP or "Pretty Good Privacy" this time. Our story for the "Amiga Informer Annex" section just happens to coincide with an interesting announcement about Amiga PGP. We've quoted extensively from the Amiga PGP home page, and have both items for you below. We hope you enjoy this issue, and keep writing with your thoughts. We welcome them all. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-MAIL TO THE E-DITOR The Amiga Update web site "http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/" says that the July 2 issue of Amiga Update is the latest. I'd sort of figured you'd gone out of business, until I saw more issues listed at "http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/AUD/index.html", and then also found more in your web site's "1997 issues" section. Just thought I'd let you know... -Steven Sittser {Yes, we had a small site maintenance problem. We hope no one else was inconvenienced. Typically, we put the latest issue on the site a day or two after it goes to the e-mail subscribers. Sorry 'bout that! Brad} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W T E K S P E A K S 11 Nov. 1997 Dear Loyal NewTek Customer: Well, I am pleased to see that the passion for NewTek and our products is still strong. However, I do believe that a number of misconceptions are brewing. I'd like to take the time to address these issues to all of you so that you have a clear picture of where NewTek stands. At NewTek Expo last month a statement was made during the dealer meeting on Sunday afternoon that referred to NewTek's Amiga development being "on hold." NewTek is in the desktop video development business, today, and for the last 10 years the Amiga has been the most suitable computer for this development. Now that the Amiga is in the hands of Gateway 2000 we are evaluating our next move. Gateway provides us with the potential to pursue a number of different avenues of development, some obvious, others less so. I am in conversation on virtually a daily basis with the folks at Gateway working on an agreement. One of the first steps taken by Gateway is the licensing of QuikPak. We have encouraged this association and are please to see that a dependable supply of equipment, parts and warranty service will be available to all Amiga users. As for our commitment to you, our customers, NewTek's mission has always been to provide our customers with the most powerful tools possible at a price that is affordable. This approach has resulted in a significantly large number of people being able to enter careers and make a living doing something they enjoy where it may not have been possible otherwise. Since our move to San Antonio we have committed substantial additional resources to improving our customer service. The Technical Support staff has doubled in size and over half of that team has a focus on nothing but Toaster and Flyer issues. Additionally, we have numerous Amiga programmers on staff working on future developments. One of the other business components that NewTek has committed a great deal of resources to is third party development. For many customers one of the most appealing aspects of the NewTek line of products is the wealth of support from third party developers that provides additional capabilities and depth of functionality to our products. We welcome and encourage this support and expect to see much more development from this arena on the Toaster and Flyer, in addition to LightWave. We remain committed to Amiga technology and believe the future holds the potential for more great things. We have never stopped believing in or supporting the Amiga, our users, or the creative talent that finds ways to use or improve our technology. As always, we appreciate the high value that you place on NewTek and our products. It is absolutely our mission, in fact our passion, to make sure that you have the most powerful, exciting tools possible and still at a price that makes our competitors crazy. Dwight Parscale President and CEO NewTek Partners, LP ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A U S E R G R O U P N E T W O R K 14 Nov 1997 Amiga User Group Network Formed By Wayne Hunt Amiga Inc, in association with Amiga.org wish to announce the formation of the Official Amiga User Group Network. Designed with both Amiga User Groups and Amiga, Inc. in mind, the User Group Network (UGN) will allow User Groups and Amiga, Inc. to interact in close cooperation. The User Group Network is an internet-based system intended to get essential news out to the users as quickly and efficiently as possible by presenting a unified interface between Amiga, Inc. and the user groups. News from Amiga, Inc. is fed directly to the User Group Network, then broadcast to all of the network members via direct e-mail. To join the User Group Network, please visit the User Group Network site at http://www.amiga.org/usergroups to fill out a quick and easy web form. Your group's information is then placed in the Official User Group Registry which will be available for everyone. More information about this project can be found at the User Group Network site on Amiga.org (http://www.amiga.org/usergroups). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M A E A F U N S U C C E S S According to published accounts on the net, the Midwest Amiga Expo, held November 1 and 2 in Columbus, Ohio, was a rousing success. The atmosphere was upbeat, Amigans from all over had a chance to mingle and meet, and a true sense of community was much in evidence. A speech by Petro Tyschtschenko contributed to the positive atmosphere but may have disappointed slightly when he stated any big announcements would be coming from the Cologne show. That show started today (November 14). The Developers' Meeting turned into a more or less open to the public affair, with little news provided. Future Developers' Meetings will most likely have restricted attendance, starting with the one in Cologne. That will allow more meaningful work to be done. There were products to see, demos to watch and a great deal of activity. The comments we've received remind us of the spirit you'd find in the "Ami Expo" and similar shows held when the Amiga was young and the future wide open. At this time, we believe and hope there's a better corporate structure to keep that positive feeling going forward. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C O M P U T E R ' 9 7 I S U N D E R W A Y {The Computer '97 in Cologne, Germany is getting underway as we finish this issue. The following description is quoted from the Amiga International home page on the web. Brad} The Computer '97 exhibition Unfortunately, the makers of the official Computer '97 website decided to have their pages available in german, only. So we thought it might be a good idea to at least give an overview of what those pages are about anyway... The Show is held in Koeln (Cologne), Germany, from November 14th - 16th, exhibition grounds Halls 11 and 12. Up to 65,000 people visit the show every year. It's the biggest exhibition for Amigans in the world! Tickets are available for DM 22,oo and DM 17,oo (children and students). Features You'll be able to see the latest and hottest (not Amiga only) in Hardware, Applications, Games, Multimedia, Internet and so much more. There are workshops held by famous programmers and other folks, hot news will be announced, press conferences and speeches will be held, you can talk to us (AMIGA International, Inc.), the guys from the AMIGA R&D department (AMIGA, Inc.), and so on, and so on... Exhibitors Have a look at http://www.computer97.de/ausstell.htm to see the exhibitors. See ya! :-) RELATED STORY Thu, 13 Nov Amiga Forever Workshop Visitors of the Computer '97 show are invited to attend the Amiga Forever workshop held by Cloanto this Saturday, November 15, 14:00. All questions from the public will be welcome. Amiga Forever 1.0 Preview Edition Shipping Given the strong interest expressed by users after the original announcement of Amiga Forever, a special "Preview Edition" of Amiga Forever, with a version number of 1.0, has been released, slightly ahead of the planned schedule. This version allows the more technically-experienced users to immediately explore many of the features of the final release, without paying an additional price (the list price of the upgrade from the preview version to the final version will not be higher than the difference between the two). For additional information please refer to the Amiga Forever Home page at http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/. The page has been recently extended with a Frequently Asked Questions section. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W C Y G N U S E D P R O F E S S I O N A L 12 Nov 1997 Cygnus Ed Professional Release 4 is available! Suggested Retail Price DM 69.00 Updates DM 39.00 US$ 41.00 US$ 23.00 (Updates are only possible, if you send us the original disk of your old CygnusEd version.) Cygnus Ed Professional Release 4 ist verfügbar! Empfohlener Verkaufspreis DM 69,00 Updates DM 39.00 (Updates sind nur möglich gegen Einsendung der alten CygnusEd Programmdiskette.) ****** Ordering information: The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html. You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your address and the products you wish to order. ****** CygnusEd Professional Release 4 The premier Amiga text editor celebrates its 10th anniversary with a revised and enhanced edition. Highlights include: * Optimized text editing and output code written in assembly language; text can scroll faster than the eye can see or smoothly depending on your preference * All new Search and Replace requester which supports escape sequences like \n, \r, etc. * Search/Replace history functions * Fast search routine that scans over 100,000 characters per second on 68000 machines -- faster even on 68020 and higher machines * Editing undo/redo feature limited only by available memory * Matching token support for brackets, `C' style comments and HTML tags * Increased characters-per-line limit (now 32000 characters) * Alternate numeric entry in binary and hexadecimal * Cursor position and other information are stored with project icons * Graphical macro editor; enhanced to be able to print the macro list * Updated ARexx interface with new commands * AppWindow and AppMenu support (drag & drop) * Updated, font sensitive user interface; this includes proper menu layout * New menu items for Indenting blocks Erasing blocks Changing spaces into tabulator and the other way round Highlighting single words Changing the text block to lower case or upper case characters Using the text block as replacement text Moving to the location of the last editing operation * Compatible with Picasso II, CyberGraphX and Picasso96 software * Updated and revised online documentation; now includes a complete description of the ARexx interface and its commands * Multiple views * Hot-key activation * Crash recovery tool included; if the operating system crashes, the files you were editing are no longer lost * Text formatting commands * Asynchronous printing * Special editor version included for 68020 and higher machines * Editable document size limited only by available memory ... and many more new features! Requirements: Operating system 2.04 or higher 1 MByte of system memory recommended ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A I N F O R M E R S W E E P S T A K E S Amiga University Online Sweepstakes at The Amiga Informer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 5, 1997 Would you like to win a brand new, accelerated Amiga 1200, or fantastic Amiga software? Well, now's your chance! The Amiga Informer, Pantheon Systems Company, and the top Amiga vendors in the industry have joined together to create the ultimate online prize giveaway! Enroll in the Amiga University Online Sweepstakes at The Amiga Informer's web site, and you'll automatically be eligible to win fantastic Amiga prizes, including Aladdin 4D 5.0, DrawStudio 2.0, PageStream 3.3, or even a fully-equipped Amiga 1200 computer complete with the Jet Fire 134 accelerator and 8 MB of fast RAM! All you have to do is visit http://www.amigainformer.com/ and follow the links to Amiga U. Answer the Amiga University's challenging Amiga trivia questions correctly, and you'll increase your chance of winning! Plus, you'll be eligible for the Amiga U Dean's List, the Hall of Fame of Amigans in the know. New trivia questions will be posted every two weeks, so you'll have plenty of chances to increase your odds, and while you're at it, you'll get a sampling of the best The Amiga Informer Web Site has to offer the Amiga public. The Amiga University features prizes provided by Soft Logik Publishing, Haage and Partner, Nova Design, Software Hut, and Paxtron Corp., and is administrated by Pantheon Systems Company. The Amiga Informer looks forward to your participation in this fantastic prize giveaway! RELATED STORY 14 Nov 1997 Attention all Amiga University sweepstakes participants! Round 2 of the Amiga University competition exam is now underway! The trivia is tougher, but you'll increase your chances of winning that accelerated Amiga 1200 computer with every correct answer you submit! Not enrolled in the Amiga University yet? Just go to www.amigainformer.com to join the scholarly race to win great Amiga prizes, including Aladdin 4D 5.0, DrawStudio 2.0, PageStream 3.3, or the grand prize: a brand-new Amiga 1200 computer complete with a JetFire 134 accelerator and 8 MB of fast RAM. The Amiga University is brought to you by the Amiga Informer magazine, Pantheon Systems Company, Soft-Logik Publishing Corp, Software Hut, Paxtron Corp., Nova Design, and Haage & Partner. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F I A S C O 2 . 1 D A T A B A S E M A N A G E R 28 Oct 1997 TITLE Fiasco 2.1 AUTHOR Nils Bandener Dekanatsgasse 4 34369 Hofgeismar Germany mailto:nils@dinoex.sub.org mailto:nilsb@amigaworld.com DESCRIPTION Fiasco is an easy to use and powerful database program. Many different types of databases can be created with Fiasco. The structure of a database is defined with the mouse in a style guide compliant mask editor. While designing the mask you can choose from a wide range of field types, including listview fields and datatypes fields. To add complex functionality, Fiasco features an ARexx port and a formula system for calculated fields. The record access system is dynamic, thus you can use databases that are larger than your available RAM. Additional features include an import/export function, a print function and a powerful search function. NEW FEATURES - Support of formulae for calculated fields - Improved search function that can search by several fields and by formulae. - Revised ARexx port. - Var String fields may be displayed in the list window. - Float, date and time fields use locale.library for formatting. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The minimum requirements for Fiasco are Amiga OS 2.04 and 1 MB RAM. The recommended configuration, that allows the use of all Fiasco features, is Amiga OS 3.x, 68020 processor, 2 MB RAM and a hard disk. Fiasco 2.1 requires gtlayout.library (v42 or highet). It is included in the distribution archive. AVAILABILITY Fiasco can be downloaded from the Fiasco support homepage http://www.amigaworld.com/support/fiasco/ or from any Aminet mirror, e.g.: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/fiasco_main.lha ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/fiasco_doc_eng.lha ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/fiasco_doc_deu.lha PRICE Fiasco 2.1 is shareware. The price is 25 US Dollars or 30 DM plus shipping. Senders of gifts for Fiasco 1.x can get a free registration. DISTRIBUTABILITY Fiasco Copyright ) 1995-1997 Nils Bandener. Shareware. Distribution archives may be freely distributed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W S F R O M V U L C A N S O F T W A R E L T D 13 Nov 1997 Latest Genetic Species Screenshots and information now available from the Vulcan Website. Genetic Species now looks set for a February 1998 launch due to refinements and improvements, we now have a deidicated Developer HomePage for up to the minute information, linked at the Vulcan site. RELATED STORY 7 Nov 1997 Uropa2, Vulcan's second Amiga CD ROM release was officially launched on the 6th November 1997. You are the newest edition to the Centurion Task Force, your mission is to save Uropa2 from destruction at the hands of the Kapone droids. Communications with the moon have ceased and the fate of the colonists is unknown. Your task is to rescue any colonists that have survived, destroy the Kapones and ultimately seek out the mastermind behind their rebellion. Uropa2 offers a unique gaming experience! Your mission based adventures cover a multitude of 3D Isometric locations connected by a 3D Vector Light-Sourced environment in which you will need to master the arts of Hovar flight and battle skills. Minimum Specs ------------- Any Amiga, Hard Drive, 68000 CPU, 2Mb Memory (1Mb Chip, 1Mb Any) 4x speed CD ROM Drive. Game Specs ---------- 10 Gigantic, Strategy Based Missions 3D Isometric Action Adventure 3D Vector Light-Sourced Locations Myriad's of tactical Problems to Solve Full Digital Speech Throughout Progressive Weapons and Status Capabilities Linear Plot Progression Full Blown 3D Rendered Intro Animation Highly Configurable to allow for Individual Preferences Extra Hovar Wars Game with Serial Link Up for Two Players In addition, Uropa2 supports the following languages: English, German, Italian, French, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese and Czech R.R.P. - 29.99 (UK Pounds) Available from all good retailers around the world or direct from our primary distributor Weird Science Ltd (0116) 246 3800 ----------- COMING SOON ----------- THE FINAL ODYSSEY - This masterpiece of a game will be released at the end of November best described as an Action/Adventure/Puzzler, the Final Odyssey combines detailed and entertaining graphics and gameplay to perfection. You play the part of Theseus on his quest to free six rather lovely maidens from the evil clutches of the Minotaur. The Final Odyssey is so vast that we have been unable to reach the end (somewhat disturbing as we're supposed to be testing it) but then rather unsurprising as some of the levels reconstruct themselves everytime you play...... Peter Spinaze is Vulcan's multi talented developer of this fine game. The beautifully crafted graphics in The Final Odyssey have won Peter a scholarship at Silicon Studio which is a state of the art international facility dedicated to training digital artists. Silicon Studio is one of only 3 flagship training centres world-wide and is the most advanced digital media training centre in the industry in the Asia Pacific region to date. Peter's particular scholarship is a 3D Animation scholarship. He is using Alias/Wavefront PowerAnimator as his 3D Rendering software and using the latest Silicon Graphics hardware. The same gear they used to make Jurassic Park etc. The hardware consists of O2's, Octane's, and an Onyx2 Infinite Reality supercomputer. We are all very proud of him here at Vulcan but not at all surprised. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M O N T E ' S W I P E W O R K S V O L U M E 1 These are not your father's Toaster Wipes! Tired of paying BIG BUCKS for SMALL WIPES? "Now for something completely different" it's Monte's WipeWorks vol. 1--a CD-ROM with 30 (count'em) FULL COLOR wipes...including wipes with animated backgrounds! Check out the info on this page. And imagine using these KILLER wipes in your own productions!   Thanks to everybody who's flooding my emailbox with requests for the CD. For the rest of you...what's keeping you? Here's a ton of info for you to look at. Monte's WipeWorks vol. 1 gives you 50 percent more wipes (not 20, but 30)...at less than 50% of the cost...and zero percent rendering! All wipes are ready to load and use...fully tested for Toaster and Flyer compatibility...and every CD is guaranteed to be free of defects. Here's a complete listing of all 30 color wipes: Page Peels Monte's WipeWorks gives you Peelz with Pizzaz! No more wishing for real DVE style image mapping...these peels look just like the heavy-duty DVE peels without the fuss and muss and $$. Some are layered peels, with a 3D-style move between the "A" channel and the "B" channel. You get: * RollNfly (3D style) * TigerPeel * ReversePeel * 4WayPeel (looks like the Avid peel) * FlameNfly (3D style) * IvoryPeel (2 styles) * GlossPeel (2 styles) * RoldGold (3D style) Absolutely Excellent Transitions 3D Animated Wipes are fully-rendered transitions that kick butt! Here's a complete list with descriptions of each. * Jurassic Wipe --straight from the lost world to you. Outa nowhere, this humongous T-Rex jumps up and gobbles you. As you slide down his gullet, you find yourself in another place.... * NeFrameIn --here's that really cool 3D beveled frame look, complete with reflection-mapping and bright neon marquee lights. Great for weddings, sports, theater stuff...and you'll think of lots more ways to use it. * MachineWipe --it's a gizmo...it's techno...it's Sci-Fi in Hi-Res.... * CamToss --don't try this at home! Throw the camcorder up into the air...you see your scene in the viewfinder. Then the camera spins, revealing the next scene in the lens. * Hollywood --your video is flying over Tinseltown. As the searchlights sweep the horizon, your next scene appears. * BlueGlow --squiggly bolts of waycool plasma are zooming around underneath your video. Don't worry--they won't burn you. Also available as GreenGlow. * Celebrate --it's party time, complete with fireworks and balloons. Perfect for any festive occasion. * Industrial --deep below ground in our secret classified lab, the Men In Black have produced...the next scene! * NiteWipe --both scenes in nifty granite frames, side by side. All you need is a host with Koppel hair.... * TimeTunnel --the current scene vanishes into the mists of time, then the next scene rushes toward you... * GridLox --(bagels not included) this 3D grid with laser bolts has a million uses. * Rubiq --your scenes are panels on the famous cube puzzle. You don't have to solve it to use it! * Pedestal --your next scene looks really special at the top of our 2,000 foot pedestal. It's a rush. * LaserIce --soooo cooool cubes of ice with laser bolts flying by. * StarGrid --you're on the holodeck. One scene is taking off, the other is arriving. The galaxy moves in back. * Ca$h --this transition is right on the money for business and other stuff. Can you find the scenes in the avalanche of greenbacks flying thru the air? * StarNslate --Flying stars and flying "clapper" slates for the up-and-coming new talents. The envelope please... * ComingUp --3D beveled type from three different directions: "Coming Up Next" (eat yer heart out, Leno). OK that sounds pretty good...but HOW MUCH? This is the best part! Not $200...not $100...just $49.95 plus $5 shipping &handling. You get all 30 color wipes PLUS Monte's MatteWipes--Blimp, PacKman, horse, tinkRbel, StarSrch, MaKtruK, JumboJet, TheBomb, Bubbles, Brix, Film, AeroBanr....plus matte versions of JurassicWipe and CamToss! Preview any wipedirect from the CD-ROM with ready-to-watch HAM animations. Technical Stuff Hardware: Color wipes run only on Amiga 4000 with the Video Toaster 4000 board set. Matte wipes are suitable for Amiga 2000/Toaster 2000 systems running 3.1 or better Toaster softtware. Memory: All Toaster wipes play from Fast RAM. For WipeWorks wipes, we recommend at least 16MB on your system. All wipes are tested for compatiblility with the Video Flyer. How To Order! Send $49.95 plus $5 shipping (total 54.95 check or money order) to the address below. COD orders will also include the extra charge for CODs from the delivery service. Prepay and save! Make check or money order payable to: Dan Salafia 3198 61st Way North St. Petersburg, FL 33710 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M I D I T R A C K E R V E R S I O N 1 . 2 08 Nov 1997 TITLE MidiTracker V1.2 AUTHOR Sven Thoennissen Karlsgraben 35 52064 Aachen Germany svent@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de sa80@corona.tng.oche.de DESCRIPTION MidiTracker is a MIDI sequencer that uses the 'tracker' concept for composing songs, hence the name. :-) Unlike other tracker programs that have MIDI capabilities, MidiTracker has been designed specifically for MIDI composing and does not use amiga audio (except for the metronome). If you have used trackers before, then it shouldn't take you too long to get accustomed to MidiTracker. The intention with MidiTracker is to keep everything as dynamic as possible thus giving you more freedom and control over your MIDI data within a tracker environment. For example, have you ever had the problem of wanting to realtime record pitchbend, modulation, aftertouch and sustains but the tracker either didn't get the notes properly or wasn't capable of doing so? Miditracker can do it. NEW FEATURES Important changes since 1.1: - Midi access with Midi-Lib available! Now you can play samples with a sample-player program! - PC Keyboard option - Metronome functions enhanced. - Channelscope: New HiFi-look and peak-hold - Sysex-Editor - Quickloader-menu - New Block operation functions - Export SMF Type-1 files. - Main window trackdisplay changes - Tempo value is now with two decimal places. - Synth support for: QuasiMIDI Quasar Roland MC-303 Yamaha-XG Yamaha CS1x - Editable preset names for the supported synths - Editable control sources (name + reset value) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Kick 2.04, better 3.0+ - 68020 with fastram would be good - MIDI interface plus equipment (e.g. synthesizer, keyboard) strongly recommended for composing AVAILABILITY MidiTracker is available on all Aminet sites. e.g. ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk:/aminet/mus/midi/MidiTracker.lha It is also available at its support mailbox in Germany: Corona BBS, Sysop is Mathias Frankenbach. +49 241 39164 USR V34+ 24846 V34 Zyxel D 4090012 V34 Zyxel 2864ID (ISDN + V34) 4090013 ISDN Master Login: MidiTracker Password: MidiTracker PRICE Shareware DM 50,- or US $35.00 or AUS $45 (at the Australian Registration Site). DISTRIBUTABILITY MidiTracker is Shareware. The archive as provided by myself may not be altered. It can be distributed everywhere if done so free of charge. MidiTracker is Copyright 1996-1997 Sven Thoennissen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P G P D E V E L O P M E N T F O R A M I G A E N D S {PGP may not be updated on the Amiga anytime soon, as this story points out, but that doesn't mean it's dead nor has it become a useless product. The "Amiga Informer Annex" that follows will make that clearer for those not already familiar with PGP. Brad} PGP for the Amiga There Will Be NO Amiga PGP 5.0! Why? Consider the following excerpts from the License that comes with PGP 5.0: ...to use internally and solely for non-commercial purposes (as defined above) a compiled version of the source code, including any Corrections, Enhancements, Ports, or Translations (collectively, "Derivative Works") you create, provided that you do NOT reproduce, electronically post, transmit, or otherwise distribute to anyone else any such Derivative Works... However, you may submit to PGP (or its designee) any Derivative Works that you create, but in doing so.... PGP will be under no obligation to use, distribute or otherwise exploit any such Derivative Works. For these same reasons, permission to allow you or others to reproduce and distribute any such Derivative Works or any compiled version of the source code of this Source Code Package (i.e., anything except the unmodified version of the Source Code Package), will generally NOT be given. In summary: I am allowed to do my own port of PGP 5.0. I would not, however, be allowed to distribute it. I could submit it to PGP and ask them to distribute it. However, in the past, whenever I contacted the MIT PGP folks about my Amiga ports, I never got a reply.Given the regard most of the rest of the world has for the Amiga ("Amiga? Didn't that company go out of business in the late eighties?"), I seriously doubt that if I did submit an Amiga port to PGP that they would pay any attention to it. As such, I can't see it being worth my time to create an Amiga PGP port. So what do we do? * If you are multi-platformed, you can get freeware versions of PGP 5.0 for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. Naturally, however, this is probably not what you want to hear from the Amiga PGP page. * Wait for somebody to do an illegal port of PGP 5.0, and use that, hoping that PGP,Inc. will continue to ignore the Amiga and not go after you. (This will probably be easier outside the USA, which is further from the legal reach of PGP, Inc.) I am not interested in illegally distributing a port myself. * Try to talk me into doing the port anyway, and distributing the patches you would make to the official PGP source tree to make an Amiga version. The problem with this is that I could never legally distribute binaries, or even complete Amiga source. I could only distribute patches. You would have to get the official PGP source, get the patches, apply the patches, and then compile PGP yourself. * Keep using PGP 2.6.3 and PGP 2.6.3i. PGP 5.0 is capable of writing messages which are readable by PGP 2.6.3. If people send you emssages which you can't read (which will in general use the Diffie-Hellman capabilities of PGP 5.0), complain to them and ask them to use the backwards compatable functions of PGP 5.0. Someday, if we are lucky, one of the independent efforts out there working on cryptography libraries will produce a library capable of dealing with all the PGP 5.0 message packets. Then, we could in principle have an Amiga cryptography package capable of exchange messages with PGP 5.0. In the mean time, however, we stay with the previous version. What is PGP? PGP stands for "Pretty Good Privacy," and it is a public key encryption program. Public key encryption is a scheme where any message encrypted with public key X can only be decrypted with secret key X. In conventional cryptography, one key (or password) is used to both encrypt and decrypt a message. This has the problem that you need a secure channel over which to communicate the password before you can send encrypted messages over an insecure channel. With public key encryption, you publish your public key as widely as possible, and keep a tight reign on your secret key. That way, anybody with your public key can write a message that only you can decrypt, since only you have your secret key. A second benefit of public key encryption is the ability to put robust digital signatures on documentes. A message encrypted with secret key X can only be decrypted with public key X. Therefore, if people read a message that requires your public key to decrypt, they know that only you could have written that message, because it was encrypted with your secret key (which only you have). PGP for the Amiga is maintined jointly by Robert Knop (rknop@panisse.lbl.gov) and Peter Simons (simons@petium.rhein.de). There is but one single source tree, the PGP 2.6.3i source tree maintained by Stele Schumacher. From this source tree, we are able to easily compile versions of PGP both for use in the USA and Canada (PGP 2.6.3) and for use internationally (PGP 2.6.3i). Naturally, Rob maintains the USA version and Peter maintains the international version. There is a mailing list for discussing Amiga PGP at pgpamiga@petium.rhein.de. To subscribe to this list, send a mail message to pgpamiga-request@petium.rhein.de with the single line: ADD yourname@youraddress where you substitute the E-mail address you wish to add to the list. But, wait, which version do I use? IF you are in the USA or Canada, use PGP 2.6.3. IF you are in any other country, use PGP 2.6.3i. The little i makes all the difference. Robert A. Knop Jr. / rknop@panisse.lbl.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _ __ _ __ _ ____ _ _ The AMIGA /\\ |\ || |\ || || \\ / I N F O R M E R /__\\ | \ || | \ || ||-- \\ / \\__| \||_ | \||_ ||___ _/\\_ Section ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally appearing in The Amiga Informer Issue 3 , Aug/Sept, 1996 Copyright 1996-97 Eldritch Enterprises By C.Davis Sprague One of the interesting things about the net is the false perception of anonymity and security that it provides. People think nothing of telling their personal feelings to the masses in Newsgroups or their deepest secrets via Email. The overall feel of sitting at home at your terminal and interacting with people around the world is one of security and power. Unfortunately, this is truly only a facade. Even if your system is secure, your system operator has access to your Email files. Indeed, anyone with 'root' access to the system that holds your mail could do this. What's worse? Well, who do you think built the net, back when it was Arpanet? It was the Department of Defense. I don't know about you, but that makes me shudder. Still, Email is so convenient... what's a user to do? Well, speaking strictly for myself, the internet offers too much informa- tion and worldwide interaction to allow my paranoia to completely para- lyze me. But the question remains; is there a way to communicate with relative security? Enter public key cryptography. Remember in grade school, using a substitution code so you could send messages to your friends that other kids couldn't read? You know, E=Q, R=S, etc. Well, this type of code requires that the sender and receiver have the same key. This sort of thing was elaborated on in World War II with the infamous Enigma Machine created by the Ger- mans that basically changed the key with each letter in a pseudoran- dom manner. More recently, cryptography developed into a division of mathematics. Some of the best minds at MIT came together, and due to a quirk in modular arithmetic and prime numbers, public key cryptog- raphy was born. The basis of the public key cryptography on the net is the patented Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithm. What you need to know about this is; it is available for personal use via a set of complier librar- ies; it is the basis of the program Pretty Good Privacy (PGP); and it is classed as a munition. The latter information is simply so you won't ac- cidentally violate federal law, and send a copy of any program using this technology out of or into the USA. The interesting thing about the RSA algorithm is that it uses two keys. One key to encrypt the mes- sage and a second to decrypt it. With this system you can publish one key (referred to as a "public" key), and keep the second "secret" key private. Someone wanting to send you private Email could encrypt the file with your public key, and only you could decode it using your secret key. Further, because the system is reversible, it is possible to "sign" a message with your secret key, and have this signature verified with your public key by anyone reading the message. Encrypting and signing are the two main func- tions of the RSA based program PGP. This is definitely a simplification of the process, but it will give you the data you need to understand the use of this program. Let's talk about the basic principles of secure communication using public key cryptography. First, your message is only as secure as your secret key. It's better to keep your secret key on your machine at home and off the net. Better yet, keep them on floppies and put them in the machine only for use. Second, make sure the public key you use to encrypt something really belongs to the person you want to send the message to. There are forged keys in existence. This means that not only can someone else read the message, but your intended recipient can't. There is a way around this, because PGP allows a checksum-like "fingerprint" of a key to be generated for verbal (telephone or in person) verification. Finally, encrypt frequently. The immediate assumption about encrypted Email is that it is juicy. If you use encryption for most of your mail it makes it difficult to determine what's juicy and what's not. One final admonition, even with the most paranoid use of PGP, the en- cryption is breakable. When RSA was developed the authors encrypted a message with a twenty-someodd bit key and challenged the world to decode it. This has been done. Indeed, although the keys used in PGP are much larger (256 to 1024 bits), so are the NSA's computers. Still, PGP remains state of the art encryption in the public arena, and judg- ing from the way the government treated the programs originator Phillip Zimmerman (he suffered several years of federal lawsuits concerning the development and exporting of munitions), it still must take some for- midable computer time to break a single key. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || ======================================================================