Apart from my Dad adding another year to the tally, here's a rundown of what's happenin' this weekend: "RISC OS Now" magazine launching; R-Comp's new RISCube MINI; some quickies.
 
RISC OS Now
Louie Smith is launching a new magazine (in the preferred dead tree format), with the dual aims of appealing to the existing user/programmer base and attracting new blood.
 
To this end, contributers are sought, and cash money may be on offer:

I'm looking for anyone able to write articles and reviews aimed at experts and beginners alike. I am interested in articles about existing software and new releases. Also, if anyone is interested in writing a regular column please contact me.

Expected to cost £4.20 per issue, or £29.95 for the annual subscription, this may or may not hit a WH Smiths near you soon. It'd be nice to see something hit the shelves again to fill the AU-shaped hole, if Smiths can be persuaded.
 
Source: Usenet posting
 
RISCube MINI
The specs seem a little fluid at the mo, but R-Comp are about to release a "stunning new computer" that's "the size of a medium-sized hardback book - it'll even fit into a briefcase."
 
A dual core, 512MB, 80GB HDD, CD writing, card reading, DVI/VGA/TV outputting and wired/wireless networking model is the base, with Windows XP Home and RISC OS 4 or Adjust; but cheaper (single core) or beefier (e.g. 1GB/200GB/DVD writer/XP Pro) models will be available.
 
Price inc. VAT is expected to be around 999 of your earth pounds, more info at the RISCube website.
 
Source: press release
 
Quickies

• RISC OS ELF GCC with shared library support
• Richard's RISC OS Site updated - ArtWorks and Photography. And no name-fillage in his !HTML3 config
• You can add new or updated software to our database, and they'll appear not only on the front page, but also in our new RSS feeds. Spam should also be kept out due to added security.

 

Search behemoth Google has opened a new area for hosting open source projects.
 
The site seems to be a simple Subversion-based hosting service with few bells and whistles, which seems unlikely to trouble established sites like SourceForge. However, in an article on NewForge, Google geek and Apache Software Foundation chairman Greg Stein is quoted as saying "We really like SourceForge, and we don't want to hurt SourceForge" or take away projects. In fact, to protect stuff on SourceForge, if a project name appears there it can't be added to the Google system without approval from the project owner. It appears that the idea is just to make better use of Google's massive infrastructure, and help the smaller endeavours out there. You won't be able to host a website with them, and currently people can't even download files, but the latter at least will be resolved RSN.
 
So, for all you budding programmers out there, at least the excuse of "I don't have anywhere to host the project" shouldn't be stopping you.
 

Cut to the chase: according to a recent press release, 30% of Castle is about to become available:

Pattotek Ltd owns a 30% share in the voting capital of Castle Technology Ltd ("Castle"), owner of the RISC OS Operating System and developer of RISC OS based desktop computers. Pattotek Ltd today announced that, due to diverging business interests, it is examining its options regarding Castle and would like to hear from potential investors in the RISC OS community who could be interested in gaining control of this stake in Castle.
 
Pattotek's CEO, Pete Wild said, "after almost 20 years personal involvement in RISC OS, it is regrettably no longer core business and we must consider what is best for the future of the OS". He added, "However, Castle still has a dynamic management team, and exciting new plans for the future of RISC OS; here is an opportunity for the user community to have more of a say in those plans. Given the past history between Castle and RISCOS Ltd, this could represent a chance for the re-unification of efforts to move RISC OS forward."
 
Interested parties should email castleinvest@pattotek.com

Coming off the back of Intel getting shot of the XScale (StrongARM), now might be the time for RISC OS fans to look down the back of the sofa for that loose change...
 
Source: Google Groups
 

Interesting news from our forums, a thread on csa.misc, El Reg and the various people who have emailed us today is that Acorn Computers appear to be exhibiting at the Computer Trade Show at the Birmingham NEC this week.

According to their exhibitor entry on the Computer Trade Show site, they will be launching "a new range Acorns, which will be cutting edge, ultra-reliable and feature rich", powered by AMD and Intel processors.

At the moment, their website doesn't give much away, but discussion on our forums and in csa.misc are suggesting that this isn't the Acorn that we know and love, given that Acorn is still a registered trademark of Element-14 (now owned by Broadcom).

The Icon Bar's hero, Paul Vigay, has said on usenet that he has contacted Companies House to report fraudulent use of the Acorn name, and is asking people to do the same, giving details in his post.

More news on this one as it develops.
 

Rebecca Shalfield of Hypertour Software (which interestingly has no mention of RISC OS) has just got in touch to let us know that their new RISC-OS.net website has gone live. The site is a simpler form of RISCOS Ltd's RISC OS Products Directory.

The RISC OS Products Directory was set up by RISCOS Ltd. and was apparently last updated in January 2005. The new version, on RISC-OS.net doesn't contain as much general information as the RISCOS Ltd. version, but is reported to be slightly more up to date, and allows developers to add their own software to the database rather than having to request that it be added.

Of course, there are still other RISC OS Links directories out there, such as Google Directory Category, The ANS Filebase, Paul Vigay's Links Directory (which has just been overhauled again) and the now somewhat out of date (and similarly named) RISCOS.net.
 

This morning, Argonet turned off its ISP services to all customers who haven't yet moved to alternative ISPs. Dialup access was turned off early this morning as was web hosting. Email will remain working for a few more days to allow people to fetch email from another ISP.

Because Orpheus Internet have secured the use of the domain, anyone who had websites or email hosted on argonet.co.uk can contact Paul to arrange for these to be forwarded to your new addresses.

Paul also asks for any users trying to contact Orpheus technical support to "persevere if you have difficulty getting through" as "the Orpheus technical support phones are very busy at the moment." He is, however, aiming to deal with everyone as soon as he can.

Links:
csaa Announcement (Google Groups)
Argonet
Orpheus Internet

 

There's been a fair bit going on over the past few days that we have not had time to write about.

New Risc PCs
APDL have sourced a limited number of brand new Risc PCs. These are all unused, in the original packaging and have been stored since new. The specification is: 233Mhz StrongARM; RISC OS 4.02; 4.3GB hard disc, CD ROM drive, 2MB VRAM and 64MB DRAM. Machines are priced at 259UKP with 15UKP postage, and one years warranty.

Holidays
RISCOS Ltd should have re-opened today after a short break. Finnybank which includes Qercus magazine and FD games will be closed until 13th June for a break.

A9 Roadshow
The next stop for the A9 roadshow will be RONWUG (North West) on Wednesday 15th June at 7PM at Trafford Metrovick Rugby and Cricket Club. [Details]

Software updates
!Tau, the graph-drawing software has been updated to version 1.41. Image processing package Variations has been updated to 0.40b with a vast array of updates including a Dodge/Burn tool. Patrick Mortara has released version 0.96 of !RiscSearch - a search engine frontend. Dave Lambley has released an IPP Device Driver for RISC OS.

Links:
APDL
RISCOS Ltd
Finnybank
 

Peter Naulls has declared on Usenet in response to several abusive postings that "I will [go away], and I'll take my website with me for a period of time. As well the considerable help I provide to these groups."

This comes after heated debate over his recent guidelines.

The move makes his ports no longer available, and potentially puts the Firefox project in jeporday.

A few weeks ago it was pointed out to us that Peter was no longer on the Drobe editorial team.

Update: riscos.info has now disappeared in whole, and redirects to a well known RISC OS news site.

Update^2 riscos.info has returned in full with the porting project and a new Firefox Pledge-o-meter. Peter has also announced that he is to leave the UK for the USA in the summer.

Link: ArcSite coverage