YANL & Web Cams.

Despite all the craziness online these days, the OpenBeOS folks have managed to release yet another newsletter. This time, it's a triple threat from Michael Phipps, covering the topics of Languages, Time Management, and Common Sense. Head on over for an enlightening read.

Adam McNutt, of Nylon Oxygen fame, has asked me to forward his request to all the purchasers of the webcams those many months ago, that they should immediately about payment details.

The original idea was to donate the profits of the webcams to our good friend Ted "Zathros" Leeuwesteijn. Ted wrote to us in a touching letter to the community that he would like these donated funds to be directed to the beunited.org or openBeOS groups.

With that in mind, we'd like to help remind you that either way, the webcam is a great deal, and any monies raised go to a good cause. It's great being part of such a tightknit community, and this is only one of the many ways we've shown it.

So, guilt trip over! Get out your checkbook, and click da links!. ;)

Xentronix News: Sample Studio Split In Two

An update comes to us from the Xentronix camp (thanks for the e-mail Frans). First, they have a new Refraction screenshot, showing their latest Beta available for download. You can view a larger image by clicking on the thumbnail at the frontpage, or, since i'm such a nice guy, just click here.

Second, big news about Sample Studio, Xentronix's (very) good audio app. If you remember correctly, Sample Studio was open sourced recently. Why? Several reasons: lack of BeOS support by other companies, Steinberg was being a bit of a p.o.s. about their VST support for BeOS among others. But as they state, things have changed (for the better): Zeta is close to completion (i won't tell you how close) and Steinberg is coming around and willing to release their source to VST and VSTGUI (also mentioned here recently), so Xentronix has changed their ways a bit. Read on...

With Steinberg finaly willing to make the sources for VST and VSTGUI available to us after all, we believe this platform is viable again to continue our intended Killer Application. While not refering to SampleStudio by this, we do need this application to be available to our other planned application.

Currently, there does not seem to be anyone finishing this application, and therefore we decided to continue on the Pro version ourselves. The source of SampleStudio Basic as is available on our download page and on the BeUnited CVS server remains available, though binary releases of this should either refere to this as SampleStudio Basic or fork with a completely different name.

We have done lots of work on SampleStudio Pro already as can be seen in this recent screenshot.

This screenshot shows the currenly available support for VST plugins running side by side with our build in effects and analyzers. It runs on our newly implemented virtual memory system allowing files of gigabytes to be loaded while using only about 18Mb of native memory. Unfortunately the disk speed under BeOS is not that fast, but Zeta handles this much better.

All people who donated will receive a personal discount on the final product, up to free versions as the donations varied from $3 to $50.

Of cource, if any one is interested, we are accepting a few beta-testers for this product under NDA. To apply, you can mail to .

As you see, big changes. Sample Studio is now forked and development will continue in the form of a Pro version. I'm sure it'll be of the hight quality that Xentronix has accustomed us to and this will make some people happy (maybe... Dane?). Stay tuned for more info as we receive it.

BeGroovy Is Back!

BeGroovy is back! Yes, after the attacks they suffered (which we reported here) they are back, with a new (more secure) host, which will hopefully prevent from what happened to happen again.

Good to see them back, Ryan, Donovan and of course, the famous BeGroovy forums. Welcome back guys, now STAY PUT!

BeGeistert News

This in from BeGeistert's Charlie Clark, in an updated status, to let everyone know how BeGeistert 10 is coming along. And it appears it's coming along very well indeed. It could be the biggest ever. Let me quote some parts:

We're building up to our biggest spring BeGeistert ever and if things carry on like this it might even be the biggest BeGeistert ever. It's really great to see the active BeOS community growing!

BeGeistert 010 really is looking like being a bit special: Sergei "fyysik" Dolgov has promised to do some work on Mozilla while he's over and in addition to several OpenBeOS developers we're looking forward to seeing Frans van Nispen of Xentronix (Refraction, Sample Studio) and the new operating system "Sequel". Bernd Korz will be there to present Zeta and Oliver Kohl will be showing "Fontboy". We always welcome additional contributions: pass your knowledge on.

BeGeistert is getting more and more international with Daniel "DaaT" Teixeira (editor's note: hey, that's me!!) coming from Portugal to join BeOS Journal colleague Chris Simmons. Christian Celona and Giuseppe Gargargo of the Italian BUG and they're planning their own "BeGeistert on Tour - Marco Polo" in Padua as part of webb.it from 9th to 11th May. More details here.

Please note: we won't have any kind of internet connection at 010 so don't expect a webcam or any kind of "live" reports, make a note to come to the next BeGeistert instead!

Bringing in food and drink onto the premises is not be allowed. As this is part of the conditions of the rent we will have to make sure this is the case;

For all of those attending but who won't stay overnight (...) you still need to register before 10th April because a midday meal is compulsory for all those attending. This means that we basically won't be able to let people in who haven't registered as it wouldn't be fair on the others and we don't want any problems with the Youth Hostel.

Well, there you have, the lowdown on how BeGeistert 10 is coming along. I can tell you this, it's going to ROCK! Can't wait.

Update: After a precise and well lead investigation, a conclusion was drawn onto why will this probably be the biggest BeGeistert ever. It is a known fact that BGA might attend BeGeistert #11, so people are seeing #10 like the last "BGA-free BeGeistert", a more than powerful reason for everyone who can to attend April's meeting.

Wooohoooo!!

Top of the day to you all out there, all over the world. Just a small posting with two thanks.

First, and making mine Chris' words, thanks to all of you who showed support in our difficult times dealing with Palm. I'm sure most of you after finding out the truth got a good laugh from it, though i know one that's mad at me... crazy swede...

Second, and this brings me a dejá vu sensation, which is great, i'd like to thank every single one of you for making March our biggest month ever! We were _this_ close to having one million hits, falling short with "just" 998885 hits. This brought us a daily average of 32222 hits... all i can say is.. WOW!!

I've said it before and i'll say it again, you guys rock! Thank a million (or thanks a 998885 in this case)

April Fools. ;)

Well, it seems many of you fell for a classic bit of tomfoolery on our part. ;)

In the first hour alone, I received over 20 emails, and checking my inbox this morning, it's a staggering 63 unique emails addresses about this issue.

Since I only am able these days to go online from work, I had to wait until now, (when I just arrived this morning) to update the site(s), and let you all in on the joke. Bravo to all those that stepped forward via email, irc, BeShare, usenet, and other to offer their assistance. A lot of people who are long time readers (lurkers) of this site also stepped forward, indicating as such that they were watching from the sidelines, and that this latest development, "would not stand!", to put it in their words.

Many people also expressed sentiments about Palm Inc., and how they would never purchase a product from them again. Please don't judge them too harshly, based on our prank. Afterall, they were innocent bystanders in this masquerade, and shouldn't receive 20 lashes for anything perceived to be done here. ;)

On behalf of the entire community, I let out a hearty laugh, and good cheer to all the good sports who thought it might be a joke, weren't sure, emailed, and still believed the ruse. hehehe. Till next year. *grin*

-Chris Simmons,
Avid BeOS User,
The BeOSJournal.

BeGeistert's Car Pooling.

This comes straight from BeGeistert's Charlie Clark. The Car Pooling page at BeGeistert's site has been opened. If you, when registering, said you were looking for, or offering a lift, it's there for the counter-part to see.

If you go to the page (you can do by clicking here), you can see there's 5 people asking for a lift and 6 offering one, so if you're one of them and think are eligible for a lift, contact the other person. Go for it! And even if you're not there but can offer a lift to someone in the list, contact them.

Can't wait for BeGeistert, it'll be my first (aaawww...). And after it, i'm going to Berlin for one week, so if someone in that zone would like to go out for a drink, e-mail me.

PostMagic New Name(s).

PostMagic's (not anymore) Nathan has finally announced their new name (one down, one to go...), and the surprise is that, it's not one, but two names! Yes, that's right, PostMagic will be called FilmPost-16 and FilmPost-35. Here's why:

Yes. That is right. There are two. Over the last several weeks we have decided to divide the PostMagic project into several sub-projects. The project name will remain as PostMagic but we have divided the code into three parts:

1) The Media Engine which is a common set of objects and methods that can be used to create media and track based applications more easily in BeOS.

2) FilmPost-16 which will be a small simple video editing application like iMovie and MovieMaker.

3) FilmPost-35 which will be a more complete media editing application suitable for more intensive use.

As you can see, we are programming with the future in mind. We want to create code that is reusable and applications that fit the needs of the users. Our current focus is to complete the Media Engine and then FilmPost-16. Stay tuned for more to come!

Interesting, and i can see why they chose this path, like he says, they're "programming with the future in mind". Can't wait to give it a run. Keep up the good work.

Sequel Update.

Fresh from the Xentronix oven (like 2 minutes ago), comes to us a Sequel status update. Here's the full monty:

Development of Sequel has continued and while the kernel has gained little additional functionality many bugs have been found and fixed. There remain only a few areas of the kernel in need of large amounts of work and this is allowing us to start focusing on other parts of the OS.

Given the background of many of the developers it will surprise few people that the initial filesystem chosen by the project will be BeFS. the recent efforts of the OpenBFS group has resulted in this being an easier task and their success has influenced this decision.

The development group has recently been bolstered by 2 new additions, includiong our first non-European member, and it is hoped that this will allow the development to continue at a slightly faster rate.

Thanks to everyone who has sent messages of encouragement to us and for the many suggestions of features. Many aspects of Sequel are still under design and we are trying to read every message, idea and comment.

As it's said, progress is being made, slowly but steadily. The network part it also progressing nicely, so all in all not a bad month for Sequel. I'll try to get some more information for all of you reading this, stay tuned.

Update: As promised, here's some more information for you. I asked a member of the team whether they planned on integrating OpenBeOS/Zeta into Sequel or not, and here's the answer:

Sequel's internal design is such that code written for the OBOS kernel is not directly usable, but some parts of the OBOS codebase may be used as a starting point for code within Sequel. Obviously we couldn't use any code from Zeta as it's closed source.

If you are referring to the ideas and concepts that are embodied within BeOS/Zeta and OBOS, then we are planning on using many of these. The Sequel development team has made no secret of it's preference for the BeOS design concepts and many of the API's that BeOS introduced are still very usable and well thought out.

Information is always good, so more information is even better. If more is available, you'll be the first to know.

PostMagic Revamps It's Site.

After a long hiatus, PostMagic's Nathan has updated his site. With the new look came new sections, like UI Design and Status. Here's what Nathan wrote:

It has been a whilte since the last update but there have been a few progressions on the project since then. The first and most obvious is the web site change. We have gotten a new look and a couple of new areas including a UI Design area that Simon is heading up. We have also picked our new name, and we will reveal that shortly once we get things finalized.

On another note, I (Nathan) am not going to be able to spend as much time on this project for the next few months as I have in the past. However, hopefully this will not hinder other parts of the project. I want to let the community know that we still plan on seeing our goals completed, but it may take a little longer. We hope you like the new site and stay tuned for the upcoming new name!

I wonder what the new name is, if you remember correctly there were some great contributions like for example Meep Meep Studio. I guess it's wait and see. Stay tuned.

beunited Requests Software Projects.

Sorry for the delay (i was a bad boy), this should have been published some days ago. beunited.org is offering free hosting for any BeOS software project that would like to become a member of the Dev Portal. Here's what they offer:

# A configurable Project page
# CVS repository with protected access
# A Project Mail List
# Project Bug Tracking Services
# Team Membership control
# Free beunited.org membership
# Eligibility to Developer Contests and Prizes
# Early copies of UnitedBeOS distribution

They are also accepting project donations, for all the projects no longer supported by their developers.

If you are interested, don't waste any more time, and become a part of beunited.org. Simon, thanks for the smacking (he knows what i'm talking about).