ICENI Newsletter June 2006

Advantage 6's A9 is a revolutionary computer that can provide a full desktop RISC OS environment in a tiny box small enough to juggle.

It dispenses with the usual internal CD ROM drive in order to reduce dimensions further. The system also has extremely low power requirements partly because of the use of ARM RISC technology, and has no fans, thus reducing noise output to almost zero.

In its A9home variant, sold by CJE Microcomputers, the system is aimed at RISC OS users wanting a modern RISC OS computer capable of desktop use in an extremely small format, as well as being capable of running the latest versions of RISC OS 4.

In other variants, sold by Advantage 6 to various customers, the system provides a robust but very small (wall-mountable) computer that can carry out a variety of functions. Recently demonstrated have been bluetooth capability, GPS support and more.

Stuart will be demonstrating the A9home for ordinary RISC OS customers, as well as talking about its history and development. He will also show some of the more recent A9 developments including bluetooth.

The meeting will benefit from video projection, so everyone should have a great view. An extensive selection of drinks and snacks will be on sale.

We are looking forward to Stuart's visit since he has never visited us before ( it is a long way from Oldham!), although I have spoken to him many times on the phone.

I am sure this will be a very entertaining evening so please come along and swell our numbers.

We shall also have our own new video projector on show ( and in use) so you'll get a good impression of what we will be able to do in future meetings.

Our Last meeting: "Virtual Acorn and Uniprint" by Frank and Tony.

This was a combined performance by Frank and Tony featuring the use of Uniprint from a PC running Virtual Acorn RPC- Adjust to printer hosted by the Windows side. The VA sends a file to the Uniprint client running on the PC which passes the data to the Windows printer driver. The use of Uniprint means that Windows drivers are used for the printing and it is not necessary to have a RISCOS driver for a particular printer. Drivers for RISCOS are very difficult to obtain since there are so many different printers on the market and the manufacturers will not release details of the printer definitions except to large organizations like Microsoft in order for drivers to be written. Other versions of Uniprint exist allowing printing via a network to another PC hosting the printer which was demonstrated later. Frank described in detail the installation of the software on the VA side which is very straightforward. The PC set up allows the Uniprint server to be used and loaded on demand or else may be run automatically at start up by adding the call to the start up program group. In running VA using ALT-ENTER sets full screen mode for the RISCOS side and toggles back to a dual window presentation with the two mouse pointers when required. The printer used was a Lexmark x5250 and this produced good quality output from files on the VA. In use in the VA configuration the printer(s) is(are) given a name unique to them although it does not have to be a full name. e.g. lexmark or x5250. The printer icon could also be named differently e.g. Unicol300 .

In demonstrating the network version Frank used his IYONIX on the RISCOS side. When using the printer over the network the LAN IP address of the host machine must be known e.g. 192.168.0.3 Some of the newer features of Uniprint include the ability to launch URLs on the Internet via Windows from VA it also now allows printing of text files where earlier versions only printed graphics files.

Many thanks to Tony and Frank who gave a good and amusing presentation - good teamwork!

If you missed this meeting or would like a refresher then there will be a repeat performance at EAUG on June 13th see below.

Editorial

As mentioned above the club has now at last purchased a video projector which will enhance our meetings and give everyone a really good view. It should be somewhat easier and quicker to set up than our multiple monitor system.

ICENI Future programme

June 7th 2006	The A9Home development	Stuart Tyrell of STD and Advantage 6
July 5th 2006	File Transfers	Tony
August	Social meeting - venue to be arranged
September 6th	Quercus Magazine	John Cartmell
October 4th	PDF creation using Ghostscript	Frank
November 1st	JPEG slideshow	All
December 6th	Gadgets evening and Party	All

Talks with Visiting speakers are shown in Red. We will give more details as soon as they are confirmed.

The first visit is free and subsequent visits for non - members is £2. The membership fee is £18 due from the AGM date in April, but may be reduced for those joining late in the year.

Adverts

EAUG News

Continuing our publicity for EAUG events - please see their Website for details of their next meeting. Currently these are:-

Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month

Special Notice - Insurance

"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."

P.S. My insurance company have added my computer cover away from home with no extra premium required, yours might do the same.(Ed.)

Our Website and Email

Following on from a brief discussion at the last club meeting it has been agreed that I should remove a lot of the old newsletters from the website and archive them to CD/DVD. I'll probably not do this before the end of February. If anyone would like a copy of the CD I'm sure this could be arranged.

I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the new website. Our website URL is