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After the success of Warp Expo West the Southern California OS/2 User Group is moving the Vendor100 exhibit to the web.

"This is a chance for Vendor100 software developers, webmasters, and OS/2 service providers to get additional exposure," says Carla Hanzlik Webmistress for Warp Expo West.

This is also an opportunity for members of the OS/2 community who couldn't make it to Warp Expo West to experience portions of the Vendor100 Exhibit. They will have access to the index of Vendor100, the web pages, the demos, and the online ordering.

"This continues our efforts to provide the information we've collected to as much of the OS/2 community as possible," offered Rollin White Chairman for Warp Expo West. "We hope everyone will take advantage of it."

To get started with the Vendor100 Exhibit online visit:

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/v100/index.html

Sponsored by The Southern California OS/2 User Group.

I came across an interview with Brad Wardell:

http://www.32bitsonline.com/article.php3?file=issues/199909/stardockiinterview&page=1

SecureDesktop an security system for OS/2 is now available in english and german language. SecureDesktop (SD) is based on IBMs SES (Security Enabling Services) which must extra installed.

Modules:

• Basemodule: password protected serial multi-user desktop (ready and available)
  
• file access control (currently under construction)
  
• network access control: single-sign-on for Lan-Server/Peer networks and TCP/IP (currently under construction)
  
• distributed WPS (currently under construction, but ready soon)
  

With SD I want to develop a security system which fullfills the following aspects:

• C2-Security-Level for User files and directories
  
• B1-Security-Level for system files (OS2SYS.INI, CONFIG.SYS etc)
  

For more information or for an order please email me

I have written an A* (a shortest path algorithm) implementation in C which can useful for beginner game programmers and curious people. You'll find it in the development-section from:

http://w1.246.telia.com/~u24602843/

(note: the A* implementation is based on Amit J. Patels A* in simblob)

As a principal in both TouchVoice, a Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) application developer and marketer, and Serenity Systems, a marketing and channel development organization, I feel obliged to comment on the IBM - Stardock decision and Mr. Brad Wardell's recent remarks.

First, I agree and support Mr. Bob St.John's remarks regarding Serenity Systems and Managed Client(r) product positioning which appeared here, on Warpcast, on Monday, September 20

(http://www.os2ss.com/warpcast/wc4111.html).

That includes exploring the licensing of a client product based on the Warp Server for e.business product. We are currently working to resolve product and technical issues related to this effort - which we shall refer to as: "Project eStation".

Second, OS/2 continues to provide the best combination of price performance and reliability required for CTI applications. This includes the TouchVoice WisePath product

(http://www.deltanet.com/touchvoice),

a carrier class product which can scale up to support the incredible number of 1.3 million phone lines, and the new WiseTalker Database Server, marketed through Serenity Systems

(http://www.serenity-systems.com),

allowing this product to scale from supporting one telephone line to over 2,000. That's the value of OS/2 to a CTI developer.

Third, our Managed Client products create a computing environment which runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with exceptional management for operations and software deployment. This was demonstrated at the Warp Expo West Vendor 100 exhibit where we built six client workstations over the network, loaded the OS and close to 100 native OS/2 applications, all within minutes. We will be demonstrating this again at Warpstock in the Serenity Systems pavilion. OS/2 Merlin delivers the industry's best Managed Client platform available today and for the forseeable future.

The Managed Client is intended to provide the ability to outsource the entire computing environment to a third party, an aspect attractive to consultants acquiring a recurring revenue stream, and to small and medium sized business, which have difficulty supporting fat clients and need an less expensive computing model that the traditional Wintel network. It also addresses the most expensive support activities in large organizations. And the Managed Client network can be seen as a step toward operating system independance for desktop users.

And I have not even begin talking about the WiseAlert Server for monitoring mission critical operations and BASS (Building Automaticon and Security Service) channel partner programs - both of which are available from Serenity Systems.

Last week OS/2 offered TouchVoice and Serenity Systems excellent revenue opportunities. Nothing has changed this week. In fact, this week Serenity Systems has received encouraging inquiries from potential channel partners in the US, Mexico, and Europe.

I applaud Stardock and IBM for the work they did in considering how to support an new fat client product. I regret the outcome. Mr. Wardell has tried to deliver a balanced message regarding OS/2. Even so, I believe the message is too negative. I do believe that not having Stardock as part of plans for a new OS/2 fat client will hurt a set of users most directly effected by the traditional fat client. This is an important group of users but does not represent the end of commercial opportunity for OS/2.

TouchVoice has never stood still and is not standing still today. We still see OS/2 as our flagship OS because of the business solutions it enables. Serenity Systems makes new contacts every week, which represent new relationships, new beginnings. Not the end.

I feel compelled to be on record with what I believe is a positive, accurate, and realistic business message.

I found my alpha port (dating back to February '99) sleeping quietly on my hard disk. It should be working but I don't remember if it works and how good it is. Anyone want to try it and help me?

I have no time at the moment to test it, thus I can't decide to release a public version that I have not tested.

So if you are willing to, send an e-mail to whiz@whiz.cjb.net.

If I receive enough mails, we'll start testing and finally release a public version.

If you are wondering what MAngband is... MAngband is a real-time, multiplayer rogue-like game loosely based on the world created by J. R. R. Tolkien.

For more info:

Official MAngband page:

http://www.umr.edu/~keldon/mangband/

MAngband for OS/2 page:

http://www.geocities.com/os2faq/angband.htm#mangband

Dear OS/2 community,

Last weekend I wrote an article about the decision of IBM about a new OS/2 client. It's really incredible how much feedback I got and the best thing is that the feedback was just great (at least 99.9% :-) Thanks to all of you who wrote an email to me, I am really happy about this.

This weekend I will write another article with a summary about the feedback, for sure without names. I will also try to answer the emails but I have my exams this week and because of this I am more than busy actually, so please be patient with me.

If you don't know the article yet, you can read it at http://www.netlabs.org/tobeornot.html

Thanks for all the great support!

September 24, 1999, Seal Beach, CA - One game down, two to go... Warped Jeopardy! made its debut at Warp Expo West and is now headed to Warpstock Atlanta. The game is hosted by Sundial Systems and is a take-off of the popular television show, but with a definite OS/2 bent and a few other twists.

Mr. Know-It-All columnist, Steven Levine, was the winner at Warp Expo West, making the most points with his correct questions. Terry Warren, president of SCOUG, and Peter Skye, representing Webfoot the Duck, filled out the trio of celebrity contestants. The game covered a wide range of categories, from Famous WWW Sites to Desktop Anagrams and Stupid Shell Tricks. Steven played for the "green" team, so everyone in the audience with a green ticket was a winner as well.

The audience gets to play in several ways, including a special short round in the middle of the game. Several contestants drawn from the audience at the first game won copies of Sundial's products Relish and Rover Pack by correctly asking questions about Warped People and Warped Places.

Take note: Warped Jeopardy! is on the schedule for Sunday at Warpstock. There will be a whole new set of categories, contestants, answers and questions - all related to OS/2. So even if you saw it the first time, you don't want to miss Sundial's Warped Jeopardy! at Warpstock Atlanta. Be sure to pick up your free admission ticket from Sundial Systems in the Exhibit Hall.

After Atlanta, Warped Jeopardy! moves to Warp Tech in May, 2000.

Pictures and news of Warped Jeopardy! at Warp Expo West are at http://www.sundialsystems.com/warpedjeopardy/wew.html

Warpstock is at http://www.warpstock.org

The Mr. Know-It-All column appears monthly at http://www.scoug.com/os24u/mrkia.html

Warp Tech is sponsored by POSSI, http://www.possi.org

today I have uploded a new version of CopyWave on my homepage.

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold

english homepage

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/e

The program copies parts from an existing PCM-Wave file starting from an indicated place in an indicated length into a new Wave file. The files can be very big.

CopyWave used now the OS/2-API to file I/O no more the C-functions, this incrases the performance.

Also are three new switches included to turn off the caching.

The program ist Freeware.
Direct URL is:

http://home.t-online.de/home/C.Arnold/copywave.zip

regards
Carsten Arnold

Finally C&L is proud to announce finalizing their latest book "Warp Server for e-business - Handbuch fur den OS/2-Administrator". It's right now being printed and will be available at beginning of october. (WarpStock Europe will be first GA dates). As usual, you can order so-called "subscription"-books till GA of it. This is similar to preordering, but price is DM 79.- instead of official retail-price of DM 98.- and includes shipping and handling. ordering is available till 10/04/99 by letter or email to:

a) o.mark@teamos2.de
b) Oliver Mark, Lindenstrasse 37, 67065 Ludwigshafen

and transferring money:

a) cheque to same adress
b) money order to account: 3235505 at VR Bank

Ludwigshafen, BLZ: 54560320
Shipment starts after 10/05/99 and includes S&H as well as a official bill.

RU/2 site (http://www.os2.spb.ru) starts a new poll: Does the decision of IBM to refuse Stardock initiative affect your plans of OS/2 usage? You can express your opinion at http://www.os2.spb.ru/gbook/ru2survey.html (a simple "yes" or "no" will be quite sufficient :)

[WarpCast Moderator's Note: This page is in Russian, so if you don't know how to read Russian you'll have difficulty finding the poll.]

A new UniMaint CSD is available for download at http://www.filestar.com/pages/download.html. This CSD is a minor version change (v5.10.02) and contains only three minor bug fixes. However, it does have a new install program (derived from GTINST) which should eliminate most of the installation problems experienced in previous CSDs. It also represents the first UniMaint CSD published by SHS. The install program will be the standard for future UniMaint and FileStar updates so please report any install problems.

I know this has already been out on Warpcast, but I just saw the official announcement on Hursley's news server so I thought I'd pass it on:

A new service refresh of Java 118 for OS/2 is available.

The build version is o118-19990910 and is available from:

ftp://ftp.hursley.ibm.com/pub/java/fixes/os2/11/118

It includes the following fixes:

• GC scanHandle heap shrink problem.
  
• Class Cast exception with JIT on
  
• rmic -iiop generates stubs for abstract interface types
  
• Fix for the licensing issue
  
• ioserx_g.dll not linked to javai_g.dll
  
• Incorrect methods in generated IDL.
  
• RMI-IIOP Incorrectly mangled Exceptions
  
• Invocation API does not set java.fullversion system property
  
• Error with value types and Indirection
  
• JNI GetStaticObjectField calls fail on uninitialised objects
  
• JRE Access Violation with JIT enabled
  
• Exception in JIT
  
• Missing mouse events for right button on TextField
  
• Failure to download com.sun.rmi.io.OutputStreamHook
  
• Memory leaks in IOSER.C
  
• Applet background colouring problem
  
• JRE NAV Tree panel corrupted
  

IDG article on this past weeks news:

http://www.idg.net/idgns/1999/09/21/DesktopUsersSeeMurkyFutureFor.shtml

[WarpCast Moderator's Note: In the article above, Adrian Gschwend, head of OS/2 Netlabs, is quoted grossly out of context. His last name is also horribly misspelled.]

If you are like me and missed WEW, you can at least see some of what went on in all the photos that are now up at the SCOUG site - http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest/pictures/

IMHO this site is very well done. Album 5 has a couple photos of VOICE's presence at WEW.

Everyone else may already know this, but I just noticed that real Drag n' Drop support is back. You can RMB (Depress Right Mouse Button) on a web page and drag it to the desktop or a folder and create a URL object, as in Navigator for OS/2 2.02. No more messing with that bookmark noodle thing. Hip Hip Hooray. Way to go IBM Communicator/2 team. :-)

Many users are reporting problems with the new GA release of Netscape Communicator 4.61. Some pages don't render properly. It is especially evident on pages that include forms with text entry fields.

The problem is in the Default Fixed Width Font.

According to Jeffrey Kobal (IBM Netscape for OS/2 Development Team):

"It was originally "Courier", but "Courier New" renders much better, particularly at odd point sizes, so we changed the default so that the browser would look better overall in its default installed state. Turns out to have been a bad decision, since the font might not be there! Turns out Courier New only gets installed if you install Win-OS/2."

To solve the problem, go into <EDIT> and <PREFERENCES> in Netscape, and choose "Courier" instead of "Courier New" for your default Fixed Width Font.

The Communicator Bug-Tracker page has been updated to reflect the bugs fixed in the GA release of version 4.61:

http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/Communicator.html

Please let me know if any of the bugs listed as possibly fixed are still present, and if I am missing anything. I'm happy to report that the list of known bugs (my list, not IBM's) in 4.61 is considerably shorter than before. Version 4.61 has numerous fixes contained it, thanks to the efforts of the IBM Netscape team!

GammaTech, Inc, developers of OS/2 software, is offering special Millennium Celebration prices on GammaTech Utilities and GTIRC. Millennium Celebration pricing is offered from September 18, 1999 through January 18, 2000.

GammaTech Utilities is an excellent companion to your OS/2 System! This package of utilites adds enhanced data optimizaion, manipulation and recovery capablities to your mission critical OS/2 workstation.

GammaTech Utilities support both FAT and all HPFS versions, including HPFS version 2.3, 2.4 and HPFS386. All the utility features support long file names and extended attributes.

Order and download today at the special price of $49.95 and SAVE $30.00! Visit http://www.gt-online.com/html/gt_utilities.html for complete details.

GammaTech Internet Relay Chat, GTIRC, client is the first Presentation Manager IRC client application for OS/2. GTIRC is a multichannel chat program that allows users to engage in real time conversations with people all over the world using the Internet. Talk to friends, family, and business acquaintances across the globe for the price of a local telephone call!

Order and download GTIRC today at the special price of $39.95 and SAVE $15.00! Visit http://www.gt-online.com/html/gt_irc.html for complete details.

For those in need of both GammaTech Utilities and GTIRC, additional savings are provided by ordering the GammaTech Bundle. Visit http://www.gt-online.com/html/gt_bundle.html for full details.

Happy New Year!

Benny Ormnson
GammaTech, Inc.

P.S. Millennium Celebration prices apply for electronic downloads only.

Solution Technology revamps web site and introduces some new products

Boca Raton, Florida--Solution Technology has revamped its web site at http://www.stiscan.com and introduced some new products for the NT marketplace. The old site at http://www.gate.net/~stidev currently redirects to our in-house site and in the near future will be turned off.

STi is currently on-site at a major insurance company installing and testing the latest version of our ReView Document Manager with the new DB2 UDB backend which we plan to start shipping sometime in October, 1999 as well as updated TWAIN for OS/2 driver packs.

STi is a major manufacturer of production level OS/2 and NT based image, barcode, and forms processing products including BarCode Anywhere, Genie Forms Express Modular Forms Processing, and ReView Document Manager  for OS/2. In addition, the company is a principal supplier of accessory imaging support subsystems for IBM's ImagePlus and VisualInfo product line as well as Input Software's InputAccel product.

EFSoftware announces EFCommander special price at Warpstock '99

EFSoftware is proud to announce discounted pricing for EFCommander during Warpstock '99. EFCommander is a complete file manager, like Norton Commander, for OS/2 and Windows 95/98/NT. During Warpstock, OS/2 users will be able to purchase this excellent software for less than half its normal price.

Power users need power software, and EFCommander doesn't skimp on the features. If you don't want to be slowed down by the interface, then you need EFCommander! Just look at some of its features:

Some of the features of EFCommander include: Dual file windows Keyboard and mouse operation Multi Language support Y2K Compliant Long file names Quick View Panel Built in Task List Configurable Button Bar Drives Menu Bar, Command Line, Status and Ministatus Bars Function Key Bar Drag and Drop Extended copying, moving, renaming and deleting entire trees Multitasking for the best OS/2 operation Extended rename for HPFS Extended Delete File Statistics Automatic Archiving and Restore User Defined Commands and quick program launch Full Text Search for any files Built in file viewer 64k Internal Editor Internal Hex Editor Encode/Decode files in UUE, XXE and Mime formats Split and combine big files across diskettes Quick Search Disk operations for copy/compare/verify/label/format/information Customized display File display filters History, Preferred Paths, and Containers Starts OS/2, DOS, Windows Fullscreen and Windows Seamless Powerful Synchronize Function Create Objects Kill Processes Shut Down

And much, much more! Visit http://www.efsoftware.com to view the complete list of features for EFCommander and other software from EFSoftware.

We at Serenity Systems International were very encouraged by IBM's review of Stardock's OEM proposal for a client product. While we regret the decision by IBM not to execute the proposal at this time, we recognize the effort and resource expended reviewing the Stardock proposal.

Serenity Systems has an OEM software agreement with IBM. We found the IBM process with Stardock so positive that we are preparing to explore a potential licensing agreement with IBM for a client product based on the Warp Server for e-business kernel.

The Serenity Systems focus is not the traditional fat PC client. Therefore, the client workstation requirements for the Serenity Systems' Managed Client(r) products are significantly different than Stardock's requirements. However, the relationship between Stardock and Serenity Systems is one of mutual support and cooperation. It is our hope that Stardock will participate in some form in any proposal to IBM.

Serenity Systems plans to announce a Statement of Direction regarding support for a Linux based Managed Client product. We want to make it clear that any such announcement is not a departure from, but an addition to, our OS/2 based client.

OS/2 Warp 4 is the superior desktop client OS for Intel PCs in the market today. A commentary explaining our Linux and OS/2 positioning appeared on http://32bitsonline.com last week and is still available for review as "I'll Chose OS/2!".

The OS/2 port of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) has been upgraded to version .36 beta 5. The DOS and Windoze guys must not have wanted me to catch up, but I've done it again. ;-)

MAME runs 1785 classic and some not so classic arcade games of the 70's, 80's, and 90's from the comfort of your OS/2 desktop.

This upgrade includes a few minor bugfixes as well as an updated MAME core.

For more information and to download the latest version, visit http://emuos2.davesvgc.com. There is a Pentium optimized as well as a 486 optimized version available.

Netscape Communicator 4.61 for OS/2(R) Warp (Both regular and Strong Encryption) is now GA and available for download. So far it is only available on Software Choice: http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm for the English versions. Other National Language versions are available on Software Choice as well - http://www.software.ibm.com/os/warp/swchoice/.

Also remember that tonight, VOICE has a rather timely Speakup with Mike Kaply and Jeff Kobal of the IBM Communicator/2 team. So if you have any questions, or just want to pass on a good word about their continued support, please stop in. 8PM EDT on WEBBNet in the #voice Channel. For more on IRC, WEBBNet and VOICE please refer to http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html.

-----

This release of Communicator for OS/2 Warp includes:

• Support for IBM's Java 1.1.7 or 1.1.8
  
• Drag and Drop (back again)
  
• Twenty languages (improved)
  
• Spellchecker dictionaries included for all languages except DBCS (improved)
  
• Additional Spellchecker dictionaries available for download at IBM's Software Choice (new)
  
• Support for speech recognition with an additional menu item 'Link' to enable a user to navigate to any link on a Web page
  
• Bi-Directional language enablement (new)
  
• 16 color support
  
• SmartUpdate (new)
  

Features new to this version of Netscape Communicator include:

• SmartBrowsing: Internet Keywords to find Web sites for you when you key in common words.
  
• SmartBrowsing: What's Related may suggest Web sites related to the current site you are visiting
  
• SmartBrowsing: Netwatch allows screening of Web sites based on PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) standard.
  
• SmartDownload enables you to pause and resume downloads and recover from a dropped Internet connection
  
• Roaming Access allows access to your Communicator preferences and bookmarks from multiple locations or from laptops and 3Com PalmPilots.
  

The Netscape Navigator 4.61 brings to OS/2 customers many improved features used by Web pages today, like HTML 3.2, dynamic HTML, JavaScript(TM) 1.3 and trusted applets.

The Netscape Messenger has many improvements in user interface and Roaming Access to give you access to your voicemail or email from various locations.

The twenty languages now available are: Brazilian Portuguese, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.

Attendance Exceeds Estimates, Warp Expo West Mobbed !!!

Warp Expo West, the international "Warpfest Of OS/2 Excitement" in sunny California, held court to throngs of happy OS/2 revelers on Saturday as it filled lecture halls, exhibit areas and hallways with an enthusiasm unseen in recent memory. The four lecture halls were often at capacity, the exhibitor area often mobbed.

"We had 20% more guests than anticipated," said Rollin White, Chairman of Warp Expo West. "We obviously underestimated the industry's interest in OS/2 and the number of people who would travel long distances to attend a major OS/2 function."

International guests mingled with local attendees as lecture after lecture poured forth from the auditoriums and seminar rooms.

The roundtable with Peter Coffee of PC Week, Esther Schindler of Sm@rt Reseller and Alan Zeichick of Camden Associates had people talking for the rest of the day, discussing the panelist's comments and sharing their own personal insights.

Jerry Rash began the first of his four OS/2 multimedia lecture periods faced with an overflow crowd. Extra chairs were brought in and the audience spilled out through the doors and into the hallway, listening to his every word and vying for an occasional glimpse of the screen.

When asked during a morning pause how the show was doing for bringing in new business, Jim Williams of IBM replied "We've already made several good contacts. Warp Expo West is about the best show we've been to."

And so it went. Guests poured in from all over the U.S. and from overseas as well, taking in this massive gathering of OS/2 technology, products and information.

Lecturers held impromptu discussions in the hallways. The Warped Jeopardy! game show presentation from Sundial Systems was a combined multimedia extravaganza and stage show delight. Live video feeds were sent around the world over Internet connections. Webfoot, The Duck made an appearance.

Special exhibits lined the walls. Vendor100 was spectacular to watch as WiseManager from Serenity Systems instantly brought up icon after icon of Vendor100 software on every machine during the network bootup. Commercial- grade overhead projectors threw large images onto the auditorium screens. The OS/2 space game Stellar Frontier ran on a bank of machines.

"We've accomplished what we set out to do," continued Rollin White, "and we've again brought OS/2 knowledge and products to the community, to both current users and new users, so that OS/2 will continue to be recognized for what it is - the best desktop operating system in the world today."

- - -

Warp Expo West was held last Saturday, September 18, in sunny Southern California. All the info is still at

http://www.scoug.com/warpexpowest

Admission was free.

Special Credits:
Rollin White, Chairman (he made it happen)
Steve Schiffman, Facilities and Networks (he got the building, he got us connected)
Carla Hanzlik, Web Mistress (she put us on the web)

A new perspective on IBM's decision to remain at Warp 4 instead of providing a new OS/2 client version has been posted at OS/2 Headquarters (http://www.os2hq.com/). The article is listed under Special Reports and is entitled "IBM, Forests, and Trees."

I have been privileged to be the About.com OS/2 Guide for the last year and a half. For my reaction to IBM's final decision on a new Warp client, please read "Your OS/2 Guide's Response" (http://os2.about.com/library/blIBMDecision.htm).

Walter Metcalf
http://os2.about.com

Check out http://www.os2.org:

09.19.1999
More generic OS/2 news (Posted by anonymous)

Some news we got from the Warp Expo West meeting:

OS/2 Sales Up By 125%!
News out of Warp Expo West: Sales of all types of OS/2 --including the Warp 4 client-- are up over last year by at least 125%. This information was provided by a real IBM official and it gives, at last, some credibility to Esther's recent article on IBM's surprise at how well OS/2 is doing.

Lotus To Release Update v1.5!
An IBM insider says Lotus will release SmartSuite version 1.5 by the end of this year. Its main improvement will be in Lotus 123 which is currently at the same level of its Windows product. Version 1.5 will put OS/2's Lotus 123 above their Windows product. This is another sign that proves OS/2 is very much alive and kicking butt.

What's The Truth Behind 'The Meeting'?
Today is the first day of Warp Expo West and our reporters are sending in a great many news stories. First, let's start with the very much publicized meeting Brad Wardell claims to have taken place yesterday which is getting much airplay today. According to an IBM official attending Warp Expo West, no meeting took place yesterday on the future status of OS/2. He should know, he sits on the committee itself. On top of this he said IBM has ruled no third party entity out of the running to offer a third party release of Warp 5.

Top Secret: FP12 Is OS/2 Most Stable Update
Although FP12 has not been released publicly (yet) those who have been able to get/install it say it makes their systems the most stable OS/2 systems to date. FP12 corrects some 50 long-standing bugs (APARS). FP12 is expected for public release by October 1.