First beunited NewsLetter Is Sent.

beunited.org has just sent it's first newsletter to all the beunited members. If you haven't signed up till now, what are you waiting for? Head over to their site and sign in.

BeEmulated Wants YOU!

Our buddy GoodOldGames (no, that isn't his real name) posted an update over at BeEmulated. They need a new coder to maintain the MAME port.

What is MAME you ask? MAME is an emulator, an arcade emulator, and a good one at that. It's former maintainer Yoshi has left (he has done a great job with it) and a new maintainer is needed to keep it in sync. Here's the full post:

The MAME team has released version 0.64 today and their is no one who updates the BeOS version anymore. Yoshi did a great job in the last years and maintained the port until version 0.61. It's based on Allegro and is faster than XMAME. All source mods made by Yoshi are available ... so a port of the latest version would be possible for a programmer who knows what he is doing. Preferable would be someone, who is not only porting but also improving it, for example with a nice GUI. The new porter can expect best possible support from BeEmulated, including the hosting of a project homepage!! Please keep this great piece of software alive on BeOS!

So there you have it. There has already been a few posts about it, but noone's come forward to take lead. So if you think you can do it, if you think you have what it needs, contact GoodOldGames and volunteer.

Printing to PCL5 Printer with OpenBeOS.

I just spotted this over at the OpenBeOS site. Daniel Reinhold tells us of a gem that print-guru Michael Pfeiffer (any relation to Michele? If so, give her my e-mail adress, thanks) found in the CVS repository. Here are Michael's words about it:

I have found a real jewel in our cvs repository, libprint, implemented by Y. Takagi! It makes writing printer drivers for raster printers very easy. I have today implemented a PCL5 compatible printer driver and commited to the repository. Currently it does not support color printing.

Enjoy whoever has a PCL5 compatible printer (like HP DeskJets) and want to test this driver.

Being the kind of man who laughs in the face of danger, Daniel set out to try this on his own, and it worked! This is what he had to say:

Well, I have an HP Deskjet, so I thought I'd give it a try. It worked no problem! Actually, I didn't do anything more complicated than print out a small text file, but at least it handled that.

For the adventurous among you, I have created some directions for building/installing this driver. This requires cvs, and jam, and developers tools, etc. so don't fiddle with this if you're not already an OBOS source code junkie. Perhaps Michael will create a downloadable package for this at some point for those who would like to test it but prefer to skip all the compiling fun ;-)

Very nice indeed. Remember what i said yesterday about the Asian BeOS community? Yep, exactly.

Update: There's is now a alpha driver ready for download. Just click here. As usual, don't forget to give feedback about usage.

Darkwyrm Updates Again.

I'm sure he does it in purpose, so i don't to sleep earlier... but i'm not complaining. Darkwyrm is at it again. He has once again updated his site with some more app_server developments. This time after he coded his RDD (Recomended Daily Dosage) he came up with a mockup of the OBOS R1 gui. Update follows:

I got bored today after work and I'd already done my daily coding session so I sat down and came up with a new mockup of what the R1 GUI will look like. While I doubt it will look exactly like this, it's a reasonable assumption that it can look pretty close to it. Click here for the screenshot (82 KB). BTW, the some of the tiny text doesn't look so good mostly because of the JPEG compression. Note the cursor. That exact cursor is possible literally right now. ;)

What do you say? It looks like R5? Yes, it does. OpenBeOS R1 is intended to do that. Though i believe by the time it comes out, OpenTracker will have SVG support buil into it. Great work (as always) Darkwyrm.

MDR Supports Japanese And Korean Fonts.

The last few weeks, Alexander Smith of the Mail_Daemon Replacement team has been in touch with a Japanese group of BeOS users lead by Jun Suzuki (link), though the BeShare user Koki, in order to add full support to Japanese characters and encoding to the Mail_Daemon Replacement. And it has been done in Beta 8 which is already available for download. There are a couple of small bugs remaining, but they should be squashed in time for the Beta 9 release.

Also helping in this effort were the members of the Be-in BeOS User Group in Nippon, which site you can find here, by sending test messages. Further localization, including menus etc, is in study. And as Alex told me last night, Korean support has already began to be integrated, with improvements being quickly added.

This is without a doubt, a very useful and important move from the MDR team, by allowing the West and East BeOS Users to come closer, something that in the past hasn't always been easy. Japan, Korea and in general the Asian market is a very big and important one, with a huge margin for growth, if we can "rally" the users, it will be a big help for the BeOS future. We'll bring you new developments as they occur.

GeForce FX Vs. Radeon 9700.

Anandtech brings us a new (excellent as usual) article, comparing the latest and greatest from the two biggest video cards companies in the world, Nvidia and ATI.

In it we can see that, though the GeForce FX has, according to Nvidia all the bells and whistles and is the greatest thing ever made, the Radeon 9700 PRO still kicks it's ass in a good number of benchmarks.

What does this have to do with BeOS? Well, with upcoming Zeta and with several mainstream games being ported to it, this is a good article for anyone who's in the market for a new video card. So without further delay, click here for the article.

P.S.: If you believed that "mainstream games being ported" bit, you still believe in Santa Claus.

Darkwyrm Gets Some Days Off and... Codes.

Darkwyrm, coder extraordinaire has once again updated his site. He brings us news of just the app_server this time, including some outside help with FreeType2. Here's the (non) scoop:

Ahh, Ohio. For those who haven't been to Ohio, or the northeast US, for that matter, the weather is quite nice in the winter, particularly when it snows. It's beautiful. Then again, it's even better when we teachers get a day off for snow. :) I had a half day of work on Thursday and the whole day off Friday, so guess what I did? I wrote code. Ironically enough, I traded one form of work for another, but, then again, teaching and coding are fun, just in different ways.

I really worked on the app_server the last several days - the thing now has a never-before-seen cursor manager which will allow OpenBeOS to have systemwide GUI cursors similar to that seen in the various versions of Windows. I'll go into this in more detail some time, but not right now. I also implemented the messenger class for BApplications. It's not quite complete, but it's probably 95% done. As I get time, I'll flesh the server out a bit so that you can actually *run* it. That might be kind of useful. :P

Our copy of FreeType 2 (our font library) has just been patched, as well. It seems a gentleman by the name of David Chester tweaked the hinting module to make things look better. You can go here to check out the results. They're worth a look. Anyway, I hope we get lots of snow tomorrow. ;)

Nice update. I had been to David Chester's site before and his modifications really make a difference. Also, i've been to the Northeast US (Maine) and he's right, it is beautiful... of course, it's also freezing, but that's to be expected. Keep up the great work guys.

Michael Phipps On The Road To Hollywood.

OpenBeOS' own fearless leader, Michael Phipps is becoming quite popular between the radio folks. Just one week after appearing on the "On Computers Live" show, he's been asked to return, to continue their discussion on OpenBeOS. And it's SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! Yay for us non-Americans.

That's good news, it shows they liked what they heard (it was a good interview) and their listeners liked it as well. In fact, since they put the ogg and mp3 files online for the public to download, their server was hit quite strongly, even becoming inaccessible for a while.

As before, visit the OnComputers Live! site to tune in.

One more thing, a transcript of the first interview (obviously) is being prepared at the moment. As soon as it's ready, i'll post about it here.

Thomas Kurschel Interview.

As promised yesterday, we have for you the second interview of this "Two-for-one deal", this time Thomas Kurschel steps under the spotlight (with no water) to answer our and our readers' questions. Note: This interview was conducted by e-mail.

Read on for Thomas' interview...

BeGroovy Has Plastic Surgery.

I didn't visit the site these last couple of days and they go and come up with version 3... figures! Well, BeGroovy has pulled out of the hat their new layout. And i must say, i like it. Not only that, Deej has also decided to change careers and he's going into stand-up comedy... bad move buddy.

I also spotted an interesting news bit over there. They mention John Fehr, CEO of Wildcard (they brought us, among others, Civilization: Call to Power) is auctioning several items over on eBay, including a BeOS t-shirt and a great BeOS CDs collection.

He gave a lot to BeOS at his own personal expense, so it doesn't hurt to give some back (i already bidded for the CDs), and that CD collection is really great. What do you think? Search for bids by user "jfehr67".

OpenBeOS Newsletter.

This sunny (at least here) Thursday brings us the issue #34 of the OpenBeOS Newsletter. The last one edited by our buddy Deej. He's done a terrific job with it, and i'm sure the OBOS guys will find a suitable replacement.

This issue brings us an article on VM2 and the Fate of Microsoft, by Michael Phipps, and Niels S. Reedijk has for us part 2 of his friend Beatrice's story "From installer to cvs GUI". As always, an interesting read, click here to read it.

Rudolf Cornelissen Interview.

For the last couple of months, we here at TBJ have asked our readers to post questions they would like Rudolf Cornelissen (of the OpenBeOS Matrox driver) and Thomas Kurschel (of the Radeon driver) to answer. Finally, we bring you the resulting interviews.
I must say, they both provided exceptional answers, both in length and content, so due to that fact, i'll post them separately. Rudolf today and Thomas tomorrow. Since these were asked by our readers, you will find some duplicate questions which both will answer. Note: This interview was conducted by e-mail.

Read on for Rudolf's interview...

Listen to the Michael Phipps' Interview.

As you probably remember, i posted here about Michael Phipps' interview this last Sunday. In case you didn't listen to it live (like me) you can now download it to your machine. It comes in two flavours: Ogg and MP3. Grab them while their hot. Thanks OpenBeOS for the heads up.

PostMagic Engine Gets Coupled!

Our buddy Nathan from PostMagic has brought us another update. In it he tells us PostMagic has officially played it's first video sequence. Nice! Here's the full post:

After two days spent in bdb land hunting down several very malicious \"segmentation fault\" bugs (which were fixed by good old friend dynamic_cast!) the render engine and the timeline are now coupled together, and Post Magic has officially played its first video sequence! See the screenshots page for some eye candy. :-)

Of course, the application is still not usable. However, we are getting closer and having the timeline and render engine playing well together has been a large step. Also, we are getting some good name suggestions, but we are still looking for many more ideas. So, visit our suggestions page and continue posting your creative names. We really do appreciate the time you take to contribute!

And speaking of the name suggestions (you can add your own right here), there's been some new additions to the list, and some are just hilarious, like for example "meep meep! studio" or "Sit on it!". More names are being added daily, so the more the better. Keep 'em coming. And for the screenshot Nathan talks about, just click here. Great progress Nathan.

What Be Your Choice?

I don't normally post about such controversial subjects, but the Be Operating System is a little different. The ideas and opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Read more...

Darkwyrm Update.

Darkwyrm once more brings us an update on the app_server (and it's many branches) status. In this update he tells us first of all he has a hot brain (mmmm... i'm thinking Hannibal...), and is under health risk (CTS) while working on the server among other items. So as usual, and because i know you don't want to interrupt that "one-handed-browsing" with too many clicks, here's the full update:

I can't say that I mind having a day off for Martin luther King Jr.'s birthday. Even as I type this, I am anticipating the massive commit to the CVS tree to not break the build any more than it already is. The app_server has been added to the build and certain large classes, like the Decorator base class, have been added and fully documented. BTW, documentation has migrated to Doxygen, so the docs will theoretically stay up-to-date with the sources and generating them is a matter of typing 'doxygen doxygen_config'.

The server is still quite a ways away, but I continue to work on it and get closer, step by step. Gabe Yoder, who has been working with me a lot on the server, has begun the *real* driver - the one which uses the graphics hardware. Curiously, my fingers don't really want do anything else, but my mind is running in overdrive. Looks like I'll have to stave off RSI and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by writing my missing specs on paper... Until next time, my friends. :)

This guy's a machine, i think he's running for the "Most (publicly) Active Coder" award against Axel (whom we know now to be a hax0r group). Can't blame him, the prize is a new ball and chain, gold plated. Go for it guys and keep up the good work!

Microsoft pushes through binary patent.

REDMOND, WA-In what CEO Bill Gates called "an unfortunate but necessary step to protect our intellectual property from theft and exploitation by competitors," the Microsoft Corporation patented the numbers one and zero Monday.
At a press conference beamed live to Microsoft shareholders around the globe, Bill Gates announced the company's patenting of the binary system. With the patent, Microsoft's rivals will soon be prohibited from manufacturing or selling products containing zeroes and ones-the mathematical building blocks of all computer languages and programs-unless a royalty fee of 10 cents per digit used is paid to the software giant.

"Microsoft has been using the binary system of ones and zeroes ever since its inception in 1975," Gates told reporters. "For years, in the interest of the overall health of the computer industry, we permitted the free and unfettered use of our proprietary numeric systems. However, changing marketplace conditions and the increasingly predatory practices of certain competitors now leave us with no choice but to seek compensation for the use of our numerals."

A number of major Silicon Valley players, including Apple Computer, Netscape and Sun Microsystems, said they will challenge the Microsoft patent as monopolistic and anti-competitive, claiming that the 10-cent-per-digit licensing fee would bankrupt them instantly.
"While, technically, Java is a complex system of algorithms used to create a platform-independent programming environment, it is, at its core, just a string of trillions of ones and zeroes," said Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, whose company created the Java programming environment used in many Internet applications. "The licensing fees we'd have to pay Microsoft every day would be approximately 327,000 times the total net worth of this company."
"If this patent holds up in federal court, Apple will have no choice but to convert to analog," said Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs, "and I have serious doubts whether this company would be able to remain competitive selling pedal-operated computers running software off vinyl LPs."
As a result of the Microsoft patent, many other companies have begun radically revising their product lines: Database manufacturer Oracle has embarked on a crash program to develop "an abacus for the next millennium." Novell, whose communications and networking systems are also subject to Microsoft licensing fees, is working with top animal trainers on a chimpanzee-based message-transmission system. Hewlett-Packard is developing a revolutionary new steam-powered printer.
Despite the swarm of protest, Gates is standing his ground, maintaining that ones and zeroes are the undisputed property of Microsoft.

Gobe Says No!.

Well, there you have it folks, the results of beunited vs. Gobe talks have just come through, and the answer is... no. At least for now. Here's the full beunited post:

beunited.org talks with former Gobe CEO Bruce Hammond have unfortunately not resulted in Gobe releasing any source. Gobe has refused to sell the BeOS 2.0 source base citing that it cannot risk any competition if the BeOS source was ported back to any other OS. "The door is not completely closed, said Simon Gauvin president of beunited.org, as we will re-visit the offer in 6 months and see where Gobe as a company is at that time".

beunited.org wishes to thank all those who participated in the Pledge drive that made this discussion possible.

Sad news.. not a certainty, but sad news... i talked to Simon Gauvin last week, he told me they should know the answer this week and he wasn't leaning toward any of the two possible endings... proved to be a correct stand at the time. Better times will come i hope. I would LOVE to see Gobe Productive 3 in BeOS...

New BeDoper Article.

A new article has poped up over at BeDoper. This time they bring us a "Where are they now" piece, featuring kwown BeOS persona such as Steve Sakoman and Scot Hacker. As usual, a very interesting (and funny) read, just like BeDoper (and it's daddy BeDope used to) always delivers. I especially recommend the previous article, which tells us about JLG's (and his nipples) new career...

OpenBeOS Monitors Their Nodes (plus a Shocking Discovery).

The guys over at OpenBeOS continue to make good progress. This time Axel Dörfler has checked in the initial code allowing Node Monitor in OpenBeOS. And what is Node Monitoring you ask? Let me paste from the words of "those who know":

Node monitoring is that most BeOS-esque of system services that allows applications to offload the task of watching files and directories for changes. It provides the basis of "live" queries and folders, etc.

Yep, that's it. And you probably have seen it in action before. Noticed when, for example, decompressing a file and watching the folder you're putting it in, the reported file size keeps growing till it reaches 100%? That's node monitoring. Now, onto the shocking revelation... a discovery made my Daniel Reinhold himself, at his own life's risk i might add... this is just too shocking, let me paste his words for you to read:

Btw, the extensive number of kernel checkins of late (many of an important and fundamental nature) has confirmed my suspicions: "Axel Dörfler" is actually the code name of a group of about a dozen German programmers secretly coding away in a Düsseldorf basement. What else could explain the incredible productivity?

This is incredible! Axel "The Basement Hermit" Dörfler is just a codename... who would have known. I would like to thank Daniel for risking his life to bring us this news. I'm still in shock...

Michael Phipps On The Air.

Like i said, i got two mails, and the second one came from BeOS user Jorger Mare, koki to those who use BeShare.

Michael Phipps, the OpenBeOS project leader, is going to be on the radio, live, tomorrow the 19th between 10am and 1pm Pacific Time. The schedule can be found at this page.

They have two streams as you can see from the links on the page, and the format for the streaming is asx. Here are the direct links, for fast connections and for those with dial-up connections. Should be interesting. And if anyone gets a hold of a transcript, mail it to me.

PostMagic News and Name Search.

Well, who said begging didn't work? After my news piece from earlier, i got two mails in my mailbox with a couple of news to post.

This first one comes from Nathan of PostMagic fame (whom we've interviewed here). He comes to use with improvements on the new media player and the rendering engine, as well a GUI shaping up. Here's the full monty as usual:

It has been a while since the last update has been released. During this time, we have been able to flesh out a working implementation of the new media player that plays very well with our rendering engine. Also, initial video playback from the timeline is about 90% complete!

As far as GUI design is concerned, there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and we are getting closer to a final design for version 1.0. From what I have seen, we are going to have an amazing GUI to work with. It will be simple, powerful, and beautiful to look at!

And for the major news - we are currently looking into defining the name for the video editing application. However, we would like your support as well, so visit our name suggestion page and submit those names that you always wished your video editors were named!

Like the title said, they are looking for a new name. Submissions have already been delivered, raging from... "Gorilla Stomp!" to a less weird one "Media Art". Don't like those and have your own awe inspiring submission? Click here and make yourself heard.

ATI Radeon 9700 works in Zeta.

Boy it's sure been a slow week... c'mon everyone, give me news to post, i gotta feed my kids...

Just a word about something many of you might have missed. As you know, YellowTab has been building up their hardware list over the last couple of months. Some point to drivers that are currently available at BeBits.

Well this one isn't. The latest item to be added to their compatibility list is ATI's own Radeon 9700 PRO. The fastest card out there right now, fastest and most feature rich. So good news to see Zeta supporting the latest and greatest.

Now, as i said before, it's been a slow week, but that doesn't mean progress isn't being made. Many like to work away from the public eye before saying anything (I know of some) so keep checking back. You can bet that, as soon as we know of something, you'll know it too.