PDF ( Portable document format) is increasingly being used for documents including graphics downloaded from the Internet. Adobe Acrobat allows PC users to read and write documents in this format. For RISCOS !PDF is useful for reading PDF files. Ghostscript is a program for generating your own PDF files on RISCOS.
This talk on PDF Creation Using RISC OS features the latest version of GhostScript, PrintPDF, Artworks and, maybe, EasiWriter. Why do it? How? Does it cost? Find out more. Come to the meeting.
This was a rather unusual meeting since we did not have any computers in use and nor did we use our projector. As I said in the last Newsletter this was the first time that John had visited us as far as I am aware. He is owner/editor of Qercus magazine. John's talk ranged over a wide area from his beginnings with early acorn machine, his purchase of the magazine and the problems encountered and his great knowledge of RISCOS developments and personalities and ending by discussion of his various board games.
So to begin, John started his career in teaching, using the A3000 and Amstrad word processor. He has used most RISCOS machines since. He liked the good design and resilience of Acorn machines and related a story about one even surviving being run over by a car!
He said that this year had been pretty difficult for the magazine and his family life likening it to the three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Pestilence, War and Death.
The Pestilence was illness and this father was terminally ill. The War was the battles between Castle and RISC OS Ltd which had affected the Computing scene. Because of these pressures his magazine had been delayed in production but he assured us that he was now on course and the next issue was ready and would be coming out very shortly. The next 3 issues were in production.
He described a bid he put in for Acorn User in 1991 but after 3 months negotiation was turned down. He felt that he had been out bid by Scientologists, who were very keen to be independent of Microsoft, and wanted to encourage competitive platforms. However the circulation figures were quite good at that time but costs had doubled by the time he eventually was able to buy it. In 1992 Acorn Publisher had several articles on games and Mike Williams the Editor invited him to buy it to include other articles on new technology. He was able to reduce the cover price for Acorn User and it was now the same price as it was 12 years ago. He considered they had made great improvements to Acorn user after buying it from Tau Press. It now had more pages of articles and fewer general PC adverts.
He admitted however that he had made a mistake in giving too good a deal to to the existing subscribers and had lost money on it. An explanation of the name Qercus . Quercus with a "u" following the "Q" is the Latin for Oak and it seemed a good link to acorn. However he said why have a "u" if it always follows "Q" and so left it as Qercus which makes it unique.
One of John's Passions is for board games. Apparently these are extremely popular in Germany. He has designed many of his own games as well as resurrecting medieval games. He uses Artworks to design and print the layouts which are then mounted onto thick card. One feature of these games (which look like flowcharts Ed.)is that several cards can be butted up together to make larger 2D or 3D designs. Another game was a circular Chess game developed from an older version which had died out. This generated a lot of interest at the meeting.
He much admired the work of Stuart Tyrell and Matt Edgar in Advantage 6 and STD. He thought that RISCOS needed more machines to add to the IYONIX range but that there was nothing new on the horizon. There were faster Xscale chips available now which might be used. He thought the low power dissipation of X scale chips was a distinct advantage over CISC computers like Pentiums and we could not afford to keep doubling the electrical power required for computing every year on environmental grounds.
There was a lot more in this talk which I haven't reported here. Quite an interesting evening. I am certainly looking forward to the next issue.
Not much to report this time. However we need to find a new date for our December meeting. Has anyone any suggestions? Would 20th of December be too near Christmas? It would not have to be on a Wednesday.
| October 4th | PDF creation using Ghostscript | Frank |
| November 1st | JPEG slideshow | All |
| December TBA | Gadgets evening and Party | All |
Please note that the December meeting is not on the first Wednesday (6th) since Bourne Vale have another party booked.
Talks with Visiting speakers are shown in Red. We will give more details as soon as they are confirmed.
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website. http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com
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.
Continuing our publicity for EAUG events - please see their Website for details of their next meeting.
Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month
opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.
For directions see below (note the new web addresses)
http://www.eaug.org.uk or 'phone one of the contacts on http://www.eaug.org.uk/ppl.htm
"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.)
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
http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com as a virtual domain,
it can also be reached using http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk