TBJ Has a Split Personality.

Due to the recent bandwidth problems we've been experiencing lately, TBJ decided to move the domain BeOSJournal.net to a new host, while still keeping the domain BeOSJournal.org at it's present and fantastic host, Complexero.

We felt it was necessary to do some minor load balancing, so we will be running the .net version as a stripped down version, with just the news, site sections, and image gallery. Basically, everything except the forum, which we will continue to run at the .org domain, and link to from here. Please bear with us, as we are also going to be implementing some rudimentary load balancing php logic in our backend, so that we can handle future traffic more easily, by splitting up image requests between the two servers.

What does this mean for you? There should be no change at all, except that the .net domain won't have a forum. As of this writing, (October 31st, 2002), our .org domain has exceeded it's bandwidth, and we're just waiting until the 1st of November before our bandwidth counter gets "reset". We will continue to serve the news, and other goodies from both locations. Thanks for listening, and have a great day!

DarkWyrm Interview.

Here it is finally. I know i said it would be during the last weekend, but some stuff got in the way so only now are we able to post the interview with DarkWyrm, uber-coder, aka Mr. App_Server. Like we say, better late than never.

Read On...

Xentronix News Update.

Here they are again. After a long period without updates (but not without activity), Xentronix's coder-extraordinaire Frans Van Nispen (the other half of the Dynamic Duo is of course YNOP) has updated their site with the latest news.

To pleasure your lazy trigger fingers, i'll paste the update right here:

This is just a note on the progress of our products to let the community know we are still supporting BeOS.

YNOP is currently working hard to fix some deadlocks that happen sometimes on dual machines. A lot of new stuff is implemented and we expect to release the last beta of Refraction before the final version in a few weeks from now.

Also the selection tool will be enhanced and some crop fucntions are added. The selection now also works as marquee and you can choose to have the marquee enabled, the bitmap mask or both.

Well, there you have it folks. In case any of you were wondering, they've been busy behind the scenes. Like Marcus Overhagen said quite rightly "which is better, to code or to update the site?" Very well put.

beunited.org to port Helix.

In an public announcement yesterday afternoon, beunited.org (no capitals, remember) stated they will begin to port Helix over to BeOS.

They mention their (let me borrow from Conan O'Brian here) crack team... and not team on crack, has already begun the process. They also invite any interested developers to join in the effort by contacting them directly.

And what is Helix you ask? Well, Helix is a new media platform created by Real Networks. Quoting directly:

Helix™ is both a platform and community that enable creation of digital media products and applications for any format, operating system or device.

Good news folks. Helix is really taking off. It is supported by more than 30 partners including Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Sun Microsystems. Palm is also another partner, believing this will be a boom for wireless devices as well. Let's get BeOS on the supported OS list!

Only 10 More WebCAMS To Go!

Only 10 more WebCAMS to go in Kancept's offer to help our good friend Zathros! Click here to order a WebCAM and help support a good friend!

No Games For BeOS? BAH!

I sometimes hear (read) people complaining that there aren't that many games they can play in BeOS. While in one way this is true, if we're talking the latest and greatest (i would love to have Counter-Strike for BeOS for example, and every game that's coming out of course), in another way it's false.

I'm not talking about the many games that are present, right now, over at BeBits. I'm talking thousands of other games available, some you might have played in an arcade for example.

Many of you may not know this, but there's a site out there, not many times mentioned, though it deserves to be, called BeEmulated. GoodOldGames has been doing a terrific job with it, updating it constantly with news, more ports, updates, etc.

So, if you want to play games (and you know you do), pay them a visit and you'll be flooded with them. I especially like to play Metal Slug.. it rocks! GoodOldGames, keep up the great work.

BeShare Gone?

Some people have been wondering why BeShare has been acting flaky, as did I until I was told that the domain beshare.com recently expired. The reason why the clients are acting strange is because they use the domain to retrieve server list information when they first start up. Or something close to that, anyway.

So, what does this mean for us? It means that someone should register the beshare.com domain, and that's exactly what I'm working on doing. We will get it hosted, and online, if we can. Either way, we'll make an official announcement of the situation when more is learned.

For now, head to the forum, and discuss an appropriate short term server address, so that we know where we can chat until things settle down. Thanx for being patient everyone!

Print Kit Beta 3 Available

There's a new beta for you brave ones out there to try. It comes straight from the Print Kit team and has the name... Print Kit Beta 3

It has our two favorite things, bug fixes (kill 'em all!) and new features. So don't forget, get it, use it, stress it, test it and finally, report back to the coders. Believe me, you'll get a warm fuzy feeling inside when you do that, because you know that by providing feedback, you're helping OBOS to become a better product.

AH! Thought I had forgotten? No way, click right here and then hit the download button. Have fun!

App_server Updated (Yes, again)

Did i or didn't i say Darkwyrm is a busy bee? I'm telling you, the man doesn't stop! He's updated his website again with more app_server news.

Witha straight-to-the-point title "What's Done, What's Left", Darkwyrm talks about his progress. For your viewing pleasure, i'll paste the contents here.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend furiously coding away at both the FreeType rendering code that we've seen a lot of lately and also the prototype. The general font infrastructure is largely in place and appears to work ok, and that was largely what this prototype was designed to test out. The display driver has been updated to actually do DrawString. BeOS does the actual text rendering, but it's a start. GUI color preferences set by the Appearance application actually show up when windows are displayed as long as the decorator loaded utilizes them. Things are definitely looking promising! Prototype #7 will probably be released when I finish the FreeType renderer, integrate it into the display driver, finish some minor details, and test it some.

I'm telling you, this guy is like a Duracell bunny.. he keeps going... and going... and going... keep it up!

New Name Proposal of 61 Choices.

Alright. We've managed to collect 61 names for the new naming process, out of which we will pare down to 25, then 10, then finally 1, which we'll present to both beunited.org and the openBeOS group. Please visit the round 2 forum and place your vote. You can also discuss this entire process in the discussion forum. Peace, love, and happiness everyone.

While we were down...

While we were down, the BeOS world didn't stop, in fact there was a lot of stuff going on. BeGeistert had it's 9th meeting in Düsseldorf. It was a busy place, with around 60 people attending it, nice, crowded. I couldn't attend but our own Chris Simmons was there, poking around, making reports for the (great) BeOSRadio, interviewing folks, in general, being a pain in the behind. Kidding kidding of course!

Also, DarkWyrm has been a busy boy (when is he not?). Lots of good and exciting stuff happening with the ________ (insert new name) app_server. You can follow the progress over at his site. And, speaking of the (nice) devil, he's updated it again, this time with some more great news, R1 will be able to set the direction for typing, left-right, right-left, top-bottom and vice-versa... awesome! And speaking of DarkWyrm, we'll be posting a small interview with him in the next couple of days (hopefully). Short but very interesting.

There's a new BeServed available for download and purchase. Teldar has updated their app again, and it keeps getting better and better. Head over to Teldar's site to check it out.

Also, The General Coffee Company has been having problems getting the OK from Macromedia to port Flash 5 (and beyond). We don't know the reason of it (yet), but the community hasn't been asleep. There's already an ongoing petition, asking Macromedia to allow TGCC to port Flash. Go here and sign it.

Last but not least (and if i'm forgetting something.. phew.. let me know), there's a new BeOS Mailing List available. It's the BeOSMediaDev list, and it's dedicated to, you guessed it, Media content developers. To find out more and subscribe to it, point your browsers in this direction.

All in all, these are busy times for BeOS. Good things are coming our way, most definitely. It's going to be a wild ride, better hang on tight!.

OpenBeOS Name Choosing Time. (and we're back!!)

Yes, we're back, after a few days (a week or so) of downtime. It's all sorted and fixed now, and we'll try to avoid it happening again, or at least minimize the downtime. Thanks for your patience.

Now, for the news piece, OpenBeOS has opened the voting booths for us all to help choose a new name. It began yesterday and will go on for a while, so there's plenty of time for you to head over to the openBeOS site and vote for your favorite(s).

Michael Phipps Wonders About a New BeBox

Michael Phipps from openBeOS recently wrote a story in Issue 28 of the openBeOS Newsletter, and makes some very interesting points that coincide nicely with an article series we're doing here.

He wonders if it's time to think about a new BeBox, and what it would entail, from a hardware perspective. I just wanted to say to Michael that we at The BeOSJournal have thought about this too, which is why we're writing a four part series on the subject. It's great to know that others in the community have the courage to voice their dreams and ideas. It encourages everyone to speak out, even for just friendly conversation.

We will certainly be bringing more details about a new age BeBox over the course of the next few weeks, so please, check back often.

As to the rest of this week's newsletter, he makes another fine point. It's not just a group of trained monkeys working in the backroom that is churning out material on a weekly basis. ;-) It's you and I, the readers and activists who are keeping the dream alive, that are voicing our thoughts and ideas on a daily, if not minutely (BeShare) basis. I want to say to you all, that you deserve a pat on the back... Keep up the good work, and keep sending those news items in. (three cheers...)

Offtopic : Kevin Mitnick Book Tour

I know this is offtopic, but I thought it was fairly important, to me at least. Kevin Mitnick is going on a book tour for his , The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security , and I would like to a.) purchase a copy, and b.) get it signed. Could someone who lives in the US please let me know if you are in any of the cities mentioned, and are prepared to stand in line for me? I would be very grateful! ;)

What They Said : Matt Verran.

What kind of music do you most listen to these days?
I've got to say its generally stuff like Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure, although I like a lot of the stuff on the Warp label, like Squarepusher (imagine what the guy could do with Cortex!) and Red Snapper.

What is your favorite SpicyKeys shortcut?
[Left-Windows key]-[D] - its set up to type "./troutslap DaaT" in BeShare.

If each BeOS Distribution were an animal, what would they be, and why?
Well, this ones a bit of a toughie - I keep thinking about the Hare and the Tortoise, and whether or not it has any bearing on Zeta and OBOS? Leonardo just makes me think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

What They Said : Jonas Sundstrom (Kirilla.com).

How serious do you take file management on BeOS, and any tips for newbies?
I've kept all of my files in BeOS since R3, so, pretty serious, I should think. :) It's always been a great user experience. The Be Filesystem is wonderful with it's mime-based filetypes, the metadata capabilities and the snappy filesystem queries. And the rest of BeOS, especially Tracker (Be's desktop/filemanager), make great use of those neat features. Some things could be improved/extended, but in general I'm really happy with it. No other platform that I've tried comes close in terms of ease -and- control. Tips.. I don't know.. www.betips.net perhaps? :} The BeOS Bible, by Scot Hacker, (www.beosbible.com) is a must-read for any self-respecting BeOS user.

In your opinion, what would be the most motivating factor for full NTFS support under BeOS?
Co-existing with Windows XP/2000, I suppose. I don't need it myself, but I'm sure there are many who would welcome read/write-capable NTFS support. The OpenBeOS project is cloning/improving the BFS in OpenBFS, and making great progress, AFAIK, so I don't see any reason to look for another -native- filesystem at this point. I'd definitely welcome it as a non-native filesystem.

What CD Burning application do you use in BeOS, and why?
I prefer to use CDBurner, Tracker and Terminal. The other apps don't give me that warm, fuzzy feeling. There's some manual work, creating the filesystem image before adding it as a data track in CDBurner, but I could do that in my sleep. I use zip250-disks for my regular backups, as it's a great read/write format. CD-RW support would be nice.

What Do You Want Now?

I've been hearing growing dissent in the community from various members, and thought I would head it off by asking a simple question.

What do you want now?

Please post your questions, comments, and concerns in the forum, so that developers who lack motivation, or are looking for something easy to do can see what we as a community need right now.

It can be a small application, an add-on, or just a bug fix. It's up to you to voice what it is that should be done, now.

Thanks, and peace.

View Comments Here

What They Said : Guy Haviv.

What is your favorite all-time game, and would you pay if it were on BeOS?
My all time favourite game - that's hard. There were a few. I always loved Epic MegaGames - Tyrian and OMF were great. I would play space shooters all the time if i could get some decent ones. :). OMF was a 2d robots 1on1 fighting game with mod-styled music and cute old-school graphics. (Of course I would prefer some 3d hardware acclerated games and graphics. *hint*)

What sequence of events do you go through on a daily basis using BeOS?
I mostly boot into beos to code. I have a soft-modem, and I couldn't get the TriModem driver to work with any of the 4 soft-modems I have at home.. So I write code on beos, boot into windows to get on beshare with ozone, and repeat that process mostly. Nowadays I'm mostly tweaking Snap and planning to start writing some AttributeBrowser-like tool.

How well do you use -your- workspaces?
My workspaces, well I recompiled the obos-workspaces to 'accept-first-click', I find it alot better this way. I have about 7 workspaces and I mostly work with about 3 with eddie fullscreened and BeHappy on the other one.. that's about it :)

Ask Rudolf Cornelissen Anything.

That's right... TBJ has arranged an interview with Rudolf Cornelissen, and we're asking for your help. Rudolf is the author of the (open)BeOS Matrox MGA driver, located here:

http://www.bebits.com/app/3080

Please post any questions you may have in this forum, and we will compile the top 10 interesting ones, along with a few of our own to keep things fun.

We will limit our question taking period until Sunday, October 20th, so start posting...

Good luck.

View Comments Here

What They Said : William Goodden (InactiveX).

gogo or lame. Which do you prefer?
LAME for the fidelity of the sound. GoGo is pretty close, and undoubtedly fast. Before I discovered BeOS I used GoGo in Windows because it is dual-processor-aware, and I use a dual-Celeron Abit BP6 motherboard (which I love!). But when it comes to sound quality, I don't like to compromise, so it has to be LAME.

How often do you use Tracker's "Query" feature?
The honest answer is, not nearly as much as I could. About the most adventurous I've got is using a range of dates to pinpoint a file that I know was created around a certain time. But I've been reading about Queries in the BeOS Bible (which I've found has been a very useful reference) over the last few days, and the possibilities are beginning to occur to me. That's what I love about BeOS - the naturalness and flexibility (not to mention novelty, being pretty new to this) in doing the work I need to.

What is the one area in BeOS that drives you crazy? (good or bad ;)
I _wish_ there was a decent Gnutella client for BeOS. BeShare is good for getting the odd file, but I find the choice pretty restrictive compared to what is on the Gnutella network. In fact, BearShare (a Gnutella client) is the only reason I boot into Windows nowadays - otherwise it's BeOS through and through!

New Age BeBox : Part 1 of 4.

This article is not about what motherboard or what graphic card to use but how to build a New Age BeBox. So what is a "New Age BeBox" you ask? A computer with the power to change the world! Well okay maybe not but at least it will scream "I’m A BeOS freak!"...

Read More...

Got Time? Try Some Blending.

Well, you've likely heard about Blender, and how it was recently open sourced. What you might not know is that Blender has quite a history with BeOS, and as of version 2.11 works perfectly happy under BeOS. The unfortunate thing is that Blender's development hasn't taken a break, and is now at 2.25b.

What I'd like to ask is if any willing developers with some spare time on their hands could try to compile 2.25b for BeOS R5 x86, and see how it goes. Please let us know in the forums if you run into any problems, and I will personally contact some leading developers from the Linux world whom I met at the BlenderCon and see about hooking you two up for a helpful chat session. You can find full sources and more at the CVS repository, or at their official website.

Thanks and good luck!

What They Said : Bryan Varner

Now that the Java 2 Runtime Environment has been started for BeOS, what uses do you foresee for it that will help BeOS?
BeOS will become a viable business platform. There are scores of custom business applications and large-scale enterprise apps that run on Java. It literally opens up an entire new world of applications that can be run on BeOS. That's the thing with Java, most people see it as a web technology orsomething. Many folks don't seem to realize you can write full-blown applications in Java.

Java has Database connectivity, portability, existing applications, thousands of active developers... There's no possible way it can hurt us! We only stand to gain a tremendous amount of support from 3rd parties by having a solid and fast JRE.

What music do you listen to these days, and why?
Techno/Trance on occasion, Classic Rock, BeOS Radio, Rock / Heavy Metal, Classical.

• Techno/Trance because it passes the time at work really well.
• Classic Rock - These guys weren't just out to get rich, they were musicians.
• BeOS Radio - How could you NOT listen to it?
• Rock / Heavy Metal - As long as it's not that crappy sell-out I want money by making some lame rock ballad and MTV thinks I'm cool so I'm cool so now everyone in the world has to think I'm cool because MTV says I'm cool and MTV is cool so MTV says what is cool and MTV thinks I'm cool...
• Classical - There's nothing else that'll move your mood like classical.

Basicly, I hate the commercialism that's happend to music, it's about expression and truth. I despise 'artists' who can't play an instrument. That's why I despise pop. It's normally not musical in any sense of the word.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Name three BeOS API constants that bug you, and what would you do to change them?
Ack!
I haven't run across any that I find utterly rediculous yet. I haven't used probably 2/3 of the constants in the BeAPI.

To top that off, my BeBook is 98 miles from here, and I don't have BeOS on this computer, so uh.... How about we say none?

What They Said : Oliver Woods.

How many workspaces do you use on a regular basis, and for what purpose(s)?
I use 3 workspaces normally. One for browsing the net and assorted tasks, another for chatting in BeShare and of course one for coding (on the rare occasions that I do ;) )

mp3 or ogg. Which do you prefer, and why?
Ogg, just so I can be a rebel against big corporations:P . Seriously though, the main problem is that most of the files on the net are mp3 and I am normally too lazy to change the format of my music ;)

How many times have you installed an operating system, and how does it compare to installing BeOS?
I have installed (at least tried to ) Linux about 10 times, only twice did it work out. QNX was easy to install, but of course the BeOS installation was by far the simplest.