-=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || (An Occasional Newsletter) / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || BACK FOR THE FUTURE || -=========================================================================- AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technologies, GmbH --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 961107 B O O K B A N N I N G , A M I G A S T Y L E ? S O M E V I S C O R P N E W S M I A M I - N O B A C K D O O R ! ! L A T E S T F R O M P H A S E 5 This issue: First, a word on our last mailing. Some of you received copies with from two to perhaps 30 addresses in the header. This resulted from our first use of an Amiga mailer to send out the newsletter. We are looking for ways to eliminate this and will be examining other Amiga e-mail packages. Our first story today is one for the books. Literally. It seems IAM has run into a problem in attempting to advertise some of their products. The problem apparently stems from the title of their newest book, "Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica". Read all about it below. Whatever the merits of this unpleasant situation, by running the IAM message I think we've established the position of "Amiga Update" on such matters. Don't buy what you don't want, but you'll at least hear about it here. It should be pointed out we only have one side of the story, and we'd be happy to run a response from "Amazing Computing". Still not much news from VIScorp. We have a small update from Jason Compton which appeared a few days ago. Wasn't enough to make us send out an issue but we thought you'd enjoy reading it. It seems the excellent "Miami" tcp/ip stack has come in for some strange controversy and criticism (see review in AU number 960723). The author's response is below. Finally, another long message from the folks at Phase 5. This one deals with the Power Up project, which will make Power PC based accelerators available for your current Amiga. These things sound very impressive. Wonder if we could get a couple dozen for review at "Amiga Update"?? We hope you enjoy this issue. Brad Webb, Editor --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I A M C L A I M S C E N S O R S H I P O F A D Date: 6 Nov 1996 08:01:24 GMT Organization: Intangible Assets Manufacturing Dear Amiga Community Member: Please help us, we've been censored! We at IAM are offering new low sale prices on our Amiga products, but we are now even more dependent than ever on word-of-mouth to help us sell them. For the last six months, IAM has been running a full-page advertisement in Amazing Computing, the last general-interest Amiga print magazine left in North America. Our ad gives information on all of our products. As of the December, 1996 issue, when we were to announce a new product and major discounts on other products, Amazing Computing will no longer allow us to pay to advertise our full product line in their magazine. Details of this story are available on our Web site (see http://www.iam.com/amiga/amazing.html), but the most important issue for us is that we have to get the word out about our new low sale prices. The Amiga community is too important to be torn apart by arguments or grudges, or to be hampered by censorship. We still ask our North American customers to continue supporting Amazing Computing, just as we ask them to support all Amiga publishers. Call or write to Amazing Computing today. Please say "I support free speech," as you subscribe or renew: Amazing Computing, PIM Publications, P.O. Box 2140, Fall River, MA 02722-2140 1-508-678-4200, 1-800-345-3360, fax: 1-508-675-6002. We also ask you to support IAM. We need your help to spread the word about our products (see below). Please tell your friends about us, try to get our products listed in your user group newsletter, put us on your BBS, link to us on your Web page, write positive reviews of our products, or whatever you can do. Our web page is at http://www.iam.com. If there is anything we can do to help you get the word out, please contact us. We are especially in need of help reaching people who can't find out about us on the Internet. Thank you in advance for whatever help you can give us. Sincerely, Dale L. Larson el Presidente Intangible Assets Manufacturing ***About IAM and our Products*** The best way to get more information about IAM is through the Web: http://www.iam.com We also have an AmigaGuide format catalog of our Amiga products which can be FTP'd from file://ftp.iam.com/biz/iam/iam.lha, and you can get an automatic reply with current information on our products by emailing info@iam.com. Low sale prices valid through 31-Dec-96: * A book on Amiga networking and telecommunications: "Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services" revised second printing (1996) US$19 + s/h, or with 8 freely redistributable disks for only $39 + s/h * Dave Haynie's "The Deathbed Vigil..." video, NTSC or PAL US$19 + s/h (originally $35), or only $35 with the T-shirt below... * The Deathbed Vigil T-Shirt, $17+s/h (size S, L, XL, XXL) includes eject logo on the front and signatures of most Amiga engineers on the back. * DiskSalv4 -- the commercial release of Dave's disk utilities US$30 + only $39 + s/h * Dave Haynie's "The Deathbed Vigil..." video, NTSC or PAL US$19 + s/h (originally $35), or only $35 with the T-shirt below... * The Deathbed Vigil T-Shirt, $17+s/h (size S, L, XL, XXL) includes eject logo on the front and signatures of most Amiga engineers on the back. * DiskSalv4 -- the commercial release of Dave's disk utilities US$30 + s/h (upgrade from DS3 for $10 +s/h) * MRBackup 2.5 $45+s/h (upgrade from earlier registered versions for $10+s/h) * SPECIAL: DiskSalv4 and MRBackup together for only $60! * The Amiga-only peer-to-peer networking software Amiga Envoy, US$45 + s/h (2-user) * MegaBall4, a tres cool video game, $30 + s/h Get a Free XL MegaBalls T-shirt when you order MB4 at the regular price, or get MegaBall4 for only $19 + s/h! * DICE 3.2 C Development Environment (full price $100+s/h, students and competitive upgrades only $75 +s/h) Upgrade from DICE 3.x at ftp://ftp.iam.com/biz/iam/dice/! * "Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica", book, $14.95 In addition to the major new discounts, our December (and future) ads would also have indicated that we will be at the "Gateway Computer Show -- Amiga 97" in St. Louis on March 15 & 16, 1997. (The organizer of that event, Bob Scharp, has already indicated that he'd be happy to have us sell our new book at that show.) We don't accept COD orders, but do accept checks in US dollars, as well as Visa and MC (no Amex or Discover). Our shipping and handling charges are flat-rate: you can order up to one of each of our products for the same charge. We ship via USPS or UPS at our option. In the US: $6 for ground, or $9 for air. Elsewhere: $9 for ground and $15 for air. Our Amiga products are available through Amiga dealers world wide. Small dealers in North America can order from Software Hut. For end-users without a local dealer, three of our larger mail-order dealers (in alphabetical order) are: Safe Harbor (1 800 544 6599), Software Hut (1 800 932 6442), and Zipperware (206 223 1107). info@iam.com -- bot mails you current info on our products sales@iam.com -- to ask questions or to place an order. Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA http://www.iam.com voice: +1 610 853 4406 (orders only) fax: +1 610 853 3733 -- Dale L. Larson Intangible Assets Manufacturing Publishers of el Presidente http://www.iam.com Amiga stuff and of the book dale@iam.com info@iam.com Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica --------------------------------------------------------------------------- V I S C O R P N E W S Date: 1 Nov 1996 06:40:14 GMT VIScorp Web Site: There does seem to be some sort of glitch in the alias to the www.vistv.com web site. Strange as it seems, certain browsers aren't bothered by the glitch. Users of Aweb-II and Netscape can get on the site by simply going to "www.vistv.com", no file designation. For some reason, however, Lynx, IBrowse, and Explorer are having trouble automatically accessing the "index.html" file. Until our ISP can straighten this out, users of these browsers may have to manually add "/index.html" to their http requests. Sorry for the inconvenience, we don't imagine it's anything major. VIScorp Web Site Advertising: Once we get the site back to 100% accessibility, we'll be launching a program to allow Amiga companies to advertise themselves on the high-profile VIScorp web site. Of course, the current policy of providing free links on our "Amiga Sites of Interest" page will be continued. VIScorp-Badged Product Releases: In the interim while we await the final completion of the Amiga deal, the Chicago staff is moving closer to having VIScorp-branded Amiga accelerators available for direct purchase. There are some logistical issues that remain to be worked out, but we should be announcing their availability soon. -- Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com Communications Manager - Amiga, VIScorp http://www.vistv.com/ Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX I know what I like. And I like what I know. AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha AR Mailing list - Mail me WWW - http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR, www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- N O B A C K D O O R I N M I A M I Some users have apparently spread the false rumor that there is some kind of backdoor in Miami, allowing me to do evil things on your Amiga. This is absolutely incorrect, and here is an official statement about this: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Miami DOES NOT contain any kind of deliberate "backdoor", i.e. a mechanism designed to allow someone from the outside to do things on your Amiga or to your Amiga that you do not want or intend. There has never been any such backdoor in Miami, and, as far as I am concerned, there never will be one. Apparently the rumor was spread because some users on IRC noticed that it is possible to remotely detect which protocol stack someone is using, and, in the case of Miami, if it is legally licensed (i.e. if the license code is valid) or not. That much is true: it IS possible for someone on the Internet to gather quite a lot of knowledge about your protocol stack. This has nothing specifically to do with Miami, but is possible for ANY protocol stack. This is because the TCP/IP protocol suite is constantly evolving, and almost all implementations differ slightly from each other in ways that sometimes affect some of the details of how certain packets are formed, and are thus visible from the outside, if you know what to look for. Such differences include assignment of TCP sequences numbers, assignment of ephemeral port numbers, support for some ICMP methods, slight bugs related to data-copying and byte-ordering, the TCP retry time pattern, initial TTL values for different packet types, parameterized or programmable packet responses (related to routing/configuration etc.) and many other things. This means if a programmer has in-depth knowledge about TCP/IP, and knows precisely how different protocol stacks differ from each other, then it is possible to write programs that watch out for these details and thus remotely identify different protocol stacks. For instance, I can distinguish between AmiTCP/IP, Miami, I-Net 225, FreeBSD, Linux, SunOS (different versions), Windows-95 and several other stacks automatically. Let me repeat this again: I can IDENTIFY different protocol stacks and, for Miami, the licensing/registration status remotely (as can any other user on the Internet who has the required knowledge about TCP/IP), but Miami allows NOBODY to execute code on your machine, delete files, copy files, steal files, steal license codes, crash your machine, format your harddisk, or do any other kind of harm or damage to your machine. The only way for someone to remotely do any damage on your machine is if you are running a CLIENT or SERVER that either contains a backdoor, or is buggy, or is not installed properly (e.g. an ftp-server with improper configuration that "opens" your machine to the outside). Miami by itself allows NOBODY to do any damage to your machine. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBMoHWn+nsbFLUPdU9AQHXkAP/XOd0m0wxLS/xb+CTAr1fvP6grqE8p4kt MD735iyOcUnHUAM0vm9o0nlEGynCBLT8lpTJlLGw1wz6hiKEmIKCWiNW8JANfKXN 1e4aQtGS5ub8hnw8ZKWo6Z3sRb/eKOMfOxEnNDEjJNZCAJtlLhwinHsK8c+IJzAG HUsO4JfsYYM= =Dyhp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- I hope this clarifies this point once and for all. So far I consider rumors about backdoors to be the result of misunderstandings. However if users continue to spread such rumors after this explanation I have to consider such statements libelous and reserve the right to take legal action. -- Holger Kruse kruse@nordicglobal.com http://www.nordicglobal.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- P H A S E 5 P O W E R U P N E W S ! PowerUp - The Next Generation Oberursel, 10/30/1996: After some delay in the first six months of 1996 due to the unclear situation at Amiga Technologies and the break-off of negotiations on a possible joint venture, the PowerUp project of phase 5 digital products is now really getting up steam. The start of deliveries of the PowerUp-Alpha Developer Boards to leading software developers who actively support the Amiga has given the green light for the birth of a new generation of high-performance processor cards. What this means is that Amiga will now be doing more than merely keeping step with the rising standards of performance in the field of personal computing. Due to the implementation of a novel dual processing technique which involves the parallel operation of 68k and PowerPC processors in an integrated, multi-tasking Amiga environment, this enormous boost in performance will go hand-in hand with full compatibility. The existing software runs as usual on the 68k side while new, optimised program versions supported by the strength of the PowerPC processor offer vast potential for an outstanding performance. Power to the People! The commercial PowerPC acceleration cards from phase 5 digital products, which will be ready for delivery by the end of the first quarter of 1997, are powerful, dynamic dual-processor systems in 64-bit technology. Here the two processors installed, either a 68040 or a 68060 together with a PowerPC processor, share the memory and the system bus as required. At the same time a complex interrupt system ensures dynamic distribution of the bus cycles, depending on the activity of the processors. The obligatory option of expanding the memory to 128 M-bytes is integrated as a 64-bit memory while full burst mode implementation for the 68k and PowerPC processors ensures a high data transfer rate so that both processors have rapid parallel access to the RAM. Due to this active parallel operation the power of both processors can be used simultaneously. The tasks running on the different processors are able to exchange data and signals via a message system. Of course both processors can access the entire available address space so that the PowerPC processor can write directly into the chip memory or into graphic cards.This integration allows software manufacturers or active programmers to easily optimise existing programs step by step on the PowerPC. Beginning of October 96, in the labs of phase 5: Worlds first dual processing Amiga system with a 68060 and a PowerPC processor, here connected to Tektronic TLS520 and Phillips PM3585 logic analysers, runs the first Amiga-PowerPC program! Along with the powerful hardware, the PowerPC acceleration cards will also go hand-in-hand with a versatile range of software. The users of commercial programs will certainly be most interested in the CyberGraphX V3 Native, in which multi-media functions for the display of MPEG video and the new 3D implementation, CyberGL, are realised. The exceptional power of the PowerPC processor and the optimised design of the mighty PowerUp accelerator give reason to expect outstanding performance in this field, elevating the product into the cr¸me de la cr¸me of the modern world of personal computing. Extensive support from software developers Many well-known software manufacturers for the Amiga greet the concept of phase 5 digital products as an avantgarde step which ensures the success of the Amiga system in the future and have announced their support. This means that Amiga users who decide in favour of the PowerUp board can already reckon with a wide range of programs optimised for the PowerPC as soon as the turbo cards become available. Some of the most important software manufacturers who will be giving their support to the PowerUp Project are (in alphabetical order): Cloanto Software Cloanto is planning an adaptation of the well known Personal Paint for the next release version 7, which also will be featuring a lot of new functions. The program is due to its modularity well prepared for a fast and easy migraTION TO THE PowerPC. In addition Cloanto is planning to port other programs of the actual product palette to the PPC. Contact Cloanto under http://www.cloanto.com Digita International Digita International is working with phase 5 to find the best method of porting Wordworth and other Digita applications. Digita's Managing Director, Jeremy Rihll, commented: "phase 5 has developed some really stunning technology that would work really well with Wordworth. After the launch of Wordworth 6 in November, we will be turning our full attention to looking at working with phase 5 and its products." Contact Digita International under http://www.digita.com GP Software The producer of such famous applictions as Directory Opus and GPFax supports the PowerUp program and is planning the adaption of all applications to the high performance PowerPC processors. Contact GP Software under http://www.livewire.com.au/gpsoft Haage und Partner With the introduction of the phase 5 PowerUp accelerators, StormC, an integrated software development solution, will become available, which is the first integrated package to support the PowerPC software development. This powerful development tool will offer state-of-the-art options and comfort for programmers. A demonstration of the first version is planned for the Computer 96 show in Cologne. Contact Haage &Partner under: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Haage_Partner Irseesoft "We are very interested in the PowerUp project. There is a strong demand on bringing back the Amiga to the latest hardware development state available. Most important is the increase of computing speed. The step to the PowerPC is the only solution we can imagine for that purpose. By knowing about these facts, we are going to port our products, such as Turboprint Professional and Picturemanager Professional, to the PowerPC." Holger Kruse Holger Kruse The author of Amiwin and Miami is going to port his products to the PowerPC to keep up to the current level of computing. Contact Holger Kruse under http://www.nordicglobal.com Maxon Computer Maxon Computer is planning the migration to the PowerPC version of the famous raytracer and animator MaxonCinema4D with the PowerUp project.Adaptions to the PowerUp accelerator for other current and future applications is also planned. Contact Maxon Computer under http://www.maxon-computer.com Nova Design The adaption and optimization for the PowerPC is planned for the high performance applications ImageFX and Alladin 4D to achieve the highest possible computing performance from the PowerUp accelerator boards. Users of these programs can expect powerful upgrades in early 1997. Contact Nova Design under http://www.novadesign.com Oberland Computer Oberland Computer states the PowerUp project as the only possible future of the Amiga. By knowing this, the software engineers are already working to fly their famous REFLECTIONS raytracer on the PowerPC. First results are expected for the Computer 96 in Cologne. First test calculations show up a new era for Amiga raytracing to come with the PowerUp accelerator boards. Contact Oberland Computer under http://www.oberland.com ProDAD ProDAD is supporting the PowerUp project as Alpha Developer from the very first days on. Andreas Huber, general manager of ProDAD: "ProDAD appreciates the realisation of the PowerUp project and will surround this project with own ideas and innovations. CockTel, the picture phone system, for example will be one of the first PowerPC compatible applications with especially the compression and decompression routines taking advantage of the PowerPC resulting in higher transmission quality. The products Monument V3 Professional and Adorage will also take advantage on the increased performance capabilities of the PowerUp project by providing new features and functions at higher speeds. Updates with PowerUp support of the mentioned products will follow soon. The first PowerPC native operating system onthe market will be "p-OS", which was designed to support the PowerPC CPU from the first days of development on. With this in mind, the PowerUp project has first priority on the development of p-OS. The CPU performance of the PowerPC together with the lean and fast modern operating system will surprise not only the Amiga community. Innovation, not emulation is the wayto maximum performance and the PowerUp project as well as the p-OS development are following this guideline. So they will support each other to be innovative and to serve the users!" Contact ProDAD under http://www.prodad.de RBM Computertechnik RBM Computertechnik RBM is planning to port their scanner software ScanQUIX to the PowerUp accelerator boards. Also future developments are announced to be PowerUp aware. Info for all software developers: If your name does not show up on this page,but you are going to officially support the PowerUp project, please feel free to contact us. Several of the above mentioned vendors plan to show first demos of software supporting the PowerUp accelerators already on the Computer 96 show in Cologne.In addition to these well-known names about 500 software developers have registered for the phase 5 PowerUp Developer Support Programme and it can be expected that they will develop numerous applications for the future especially in the shareware and PD field. In addition to this, phase 5 digital products will give particular support to special projects such as Linux porting and similar, with the result that such projects will probably have already produced results by the time that the PowerUp accelerator becomes available. Show your Support! All active Amiga users who are interested in PowerPc upgrades for their preferred system are invited to contact the vendors of their preferred software products and inquire for updated versions of these software applications which are optimized for the PowerUp accelerator boards. Send your requests or wishes by post, fax, or email to the vendors of the software you'd like to see reaching a new performance level - even to those vendors which are not (yet) listed here. Your strong feedback will help the software vendors to quickly realise the products that you are waiting for! Go ahead and show your support for a Power(PC)ful Amiga future! Deliveries to software developers commence When deliveries of the Beta Developer Boards start the worldwide support from active Amiga software developers will grow. All developers registered in the phase 5 Developer Support Programme now immediately have access to information on the PowerUp Beta Developer Boards and are able to order them. Delivery will commence by middle of November, according to developer status and in the sequence that the orders come in. The Beta Developer Boards are designed as plug-in boards for the Cyberstorm MkiI accelerators and allow professional software development in the accustomed software environment. PowerUp Your Amiga! The amazingly fast, 64-bit PowerPC accelerators which will be available soon mean that existing Amiga systems can be upgraded to a level of performance which is on a par with that of today's fastest personal computers at prices which will make the hearts of convinced Amiga enthusiasts beat faster.Switching to a PowerUp Board will become a worthwhile investment for practically any Amiga user and one which offers outstanding value for money. The prices for the extremely low-cost PowerPC603e-based accelerators, which are also in the planning, have not yet been decided. But they will also offer attractive upgrade possibilities, particularly for Amiga 1200 users and the owners of blizzard boards for the Amiga 1200. As the PowerUp boards for the Amiga 1200 will make it absolutely essential to upgrade the A1200 with a tower housing (if only for EMC reasons), phase 5 digital products will be working closely with the manufacturers of the relevant systems. Look out for more - you will be receiving further information on a regular basis. A pioneering step into the future With the PowerUp project we will be taking an initial, pioneering step into the future, a step so long awaited by the Amiga community. We at phase 5 digital products and our partner firms mentioned here are aware of our commitment to continue to promote and support the outstanding concept of the Amiga. Providing accelerator cards in a performance class which puts the Amiga on a par with today's high-end PC's is a major step forward. An equally important step will be the active support from software manufacturers.More steps will follow. A 100 % Amiga-OS 3.1-compatible operating system core has already been realised in the development laboratories of phase 5 digital products and is currently undergoing intensive testing. We also anticipate further important innovations in this area - also in co-operation with major software developers and partners who are eager to enhance the system and pursue the Amiga vision. The final goal is to produce a full PowerPC-based operating system. But in addition to this, here an ambitious project is assuming concrete form.This is a project that represents major step in innovative design and which is being consistently implemented using all the necessary resources: We are proud to present the Kontakt: phase 5 digital products In der Au 27 61440 Oberursel, Germany Telefon: 06171/583787 Intl. Phone: +49 6171 583787 Fax: 06171/583789 Intl.Fax: +49 6171 583789 Email: mail@phase5.de oder: aproject@phase5.de Specifications are subject to change without notice. AMIGA is a registered trademark of the respective owners. PowerUp is a registered trademark of phase 5 digital products. PowerPC is a registered trademark of the IBM Corporation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available in html format at: http://www.sharbor.com All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. -=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || -=========================================================================-