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May 2001 [Newsletter Index] [Previous Page] [Next Page] [Features Index] editor@os2voice.org

VOICE needs You!

VOICE has grown steadily in the past 4+ years since its founding. Not to the grand proportions we had in mind when we first decided to form the organization, but still to a respectable size. We originally formed as a response to the moribund status of TeamOS/2, and the complete turn-around of IBM from promoting OS/2 as the "connected operating system" and "the best gaming platform" to the "do we still sell that?" operating system.

Since then some things haven't changed much. IBM still seems to forget they have their own PC operating system in their quest to sell as much hardware as they can or people really need. But you can still buy OS/2 if you can find someone to sell it to you. Better still for about the same price IBM is overcharging for Warp 4, you can buy a copy of Serenity's eComStation and get Warp 4.5, the features of the MCP1(Merlin Convenience Pack), and a lot of extras. So despite IBM's attempt's to drive us away, we still have a "slowly" evolving platform. We are far from dead.

VOICE has been something of a stable rock in these turbulent waters of OS/2. Though we have never been able to do enough, or at least all the things we would like to do, we have weathered the storms and we are still providing support and education to the OS/2 community. To continue to serve the OS/2 community, VOICE needs your help.

First off, we have two unfilled positions on the Board of Directors. We need someone with leadership skills to take the position of President and someone with good communication skills to take the position of Secretary. So far we have only had one person step forward for the President and one person for the Secretary position. We would like to have an election, and fill both vacancies in the very near future. If VOICE continues to lose active members, without any replacements, there will come a point when we won't be able to function at all any more. If you are interested and have the time to commit to the task, please send a short bio and the position you are interested in to nominate@os2voice.org. VOICE needs your help.

Next Warp Doctor needs to be revived. If you are unfamiliar with Warp Doctor, the concept was to revive the old Warp Pharmacy. A site where you could go to find answers to installation and general OS/2 configuration problems. We want it to be able to answer any and all questions about OS/2. There is barely a start at http://www.warpdoctor.org. The project has had several starts, but never had a real vision. If you have any ideas on what you'd like to see in the ultimate OS/2 help site, please join us on IRC on Wednesday at 8PM EDT (00:00GMT) in #voice on the WEBBnet IRC network.

Speaking of IRC, we need more participation at our online meetings. The lack of attendance at our meetings is very disheartening. I know people are busy, but we need your input. Are Monday evenings a particularly bad time for most people? Since we are an international organization, it is pretty much impossible to find a time that is good for everyone, but out of 240+ members I'd expect more then just a handful to actually attend. If you have never used IRC, it is a great way of having realtime support.

One thought I've had recently is to start a regularly scheduled Networking help session on IRC. Maybe on Saturday or Sunday. Does this sound like a good idea? Would people find it useful to get realtime help on IRC for networking problems? Would any of the more knowledgeable OS/2 networking gurus be interested in attending? Let me know if anyone thinks this is a good idea - editor@os2voice.org.

Let's not forget that SCOUG already has a weekly help desk session on IRC, on Wednesday at 10PM EST(02:00 GMT). They have had a lot of success with helping people with all kinds of OS/2 problems. If you are interested in this please come to their help desk meetings on the WEBBnet IRC network in channel #scoug - http://www.scoug.com/chat/index.html.

The Newsletter always needs help also. I try not to keep asking, but I do have to send out a plea for help every once in awhile. If you can write an article reviewing an OS/2 application or a piece of hardware, or an editorial piece, that would be great. If you can help with editing or translating from/to German, we can really use more help in those areas as well. Please contact me at editor@os2voice.org. Recently several new folks have volunteered to help with the translation team. To those who have volunteered to help with this and other tasks, many thanks. There would be no VOICE Newsletter without you.

We would also like to thank the local German user group Team OS/2 Region Trier e.V. that contributed an article for this issue. But that is not all! We have agreed that we both are going to benefit from. They are going to contribute reviews that are published on their website for the Newsletter and in turn we provide them with an English translation. (And this month's article even has been extended in the process.) That way those articles can reach a much larger audience. This is the kind of help and cooperation VOICE and the OS/2 world as a whole needs.

Finally if you haven't joined VOICE yet, please consider doing it now. It is through the support of our members that we can continue to provide the support that we do to the entire OS/2 user community. We have no sponsorship, other then our members, so if people stop joining we can't expand our services and eventually VOICE will die. You can join online at http://www.os2voice.org/membership.html . I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Andreas Linde and os2.org for providing VOICE with web banner advertisments on the os2.org site. It still amazes me that after all these years there are still people that don't know that VOICE exists and what a great resource it is for all OS/2 users. If you have any ideas on how we can get to more of these folks please let me know editor@os2voice.org

In April we had two general meetings on April 2 and April 16th at 8PM EST (00:00 GMT, 02:00 Berlin). You can review the transcripts of these and other VOICE IRC events at http://www.os2voice.org/transcripts.html This month we have general meetings on Monday May 7th, and Monday, May 21st at 8PM EST (00:00GMT, 02:00 Berlin). In June we will have a Speakup with Sundial Systems scheduled for June 4th at 8PM EST(00:00GMT, 02:00 Berlin). For more information on attending online VOICE IRC meetings please see the VOICE Meeting Information page - http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html

If you have an idea for a Speakup event, please submit it to liaison@os2voice.org, and we will try to schedule something. Also on the VOICE Calendar are weekly Warp Doctor team meetings every Wednesday at 8PM EDT (00:00GMT, 02:00 Berlin). As always, please be sure to check out the updated VOICE Future events Calendar in this newsletter or on the VOICE website at http://www.os2voice.org/calendar.html for more details on future VOICE events.

To start off May's issue we have a review of the game FreeCiv 1.11.4, by Thorsten Thielen. This is a port of the *NIX Civillization II like game, that that requires XFree86/OS2.

Next Lothar Frommhold writes about his success with DVD RAM Disks and eCS, OS/2 . It's nice to see that OS/2 is able to use this cutting edge storage media without any special doodads.

Eric Landrieu returns this month with more on his quest for USB nirvana in USB Film Card Readers and OS/2.

When I saw a post by Peter Brown on Usenet about how he was running the win32 version of StarOffice under Odin, I asked him if he tried the StarOffice 5.2 under Odin. That sparked the following article. Star Office - but which one? - and which version?

Recently the OS/2 world was dealt another blow, when about.com pulled the plug on os2.about.com. We all worried what would become of all the great articles from the site. Also would we continue to see more writing from Walter Metcalf. Well I am pleased as punch to say that Walter will contiinue writing about OS/2 right here in the VOICE Newsletter. His first article appears this month on Creating a Maintenance Partition. Besides writing every other month for the VOICE Newsletter, Walter will be writing articles for POSSI's Extended Attributes magazine. Walter plans to maintain an archive of his articles (from os2.about.com, VOICE and EA) on his own site as well as contributing these articles to the Warp Doctor site.

Finally we have the VOICE Newsletter OS/2 Tips page and the Letters, Addenda, Errata page. If you have any OS/2 or eCS tips you've uncovered, please send them to tips@os2voice.org. If you have any comments or suggestions about the newsletter or articles in it, please send them to editor@os2voice.org

That's it for this month. So far, for June, we have a review of FileStar/2 by Bob Stan and a review of Limewire, (a Java Gnutella client) by Frank Berke. Also Chris Ayers writes about his latest project upgrading a 486 computer and , and Walter Metcalf returns with an article on the upcoming Warpstock 2001 event in Toronto Canada. Warpstock 2001 will be October 6-8th. 3 days of Peace, Love and OS/2. :-) .

We are always interested in your thoughts and views on subjects related to OS/2, and would like to see opinion/editorial pieces as well as hardware/software reviews. If you can help by writing an article please contact me at editor@os2voice.org. Guidelines for Article Submissions to the VOICE Newsletter.

Mark Dodel and Christian Hennecke
Editors, VOICE Newsletter
editor@os2voice.org