NEW IN THIS RELEASE
This release comes quickly on the heels of v2.3 but we have added a new feature that we felt deserved to see the light of day. It is a type of seamless install from zip archives. Double-clicking on any install.exe or setup.exe in the viewer automatically sets the archive up to do an installation. Afterward the user can press the "Clean up" button to have WarpZip take care of the mess.
WARPZIP OVERVIEW
WarpZip is the latest in Zip and OS/2 "Packed" file management. Beneath WarpZip's stunning interface you will find some revolutionary and powerful functions that will save both time and effort and boost your productivity.
The integration of a directory tree as part of the interface makes unarchiving complete archives or just selected file(s) from an archive to any directory as simple as a 3 inch drag and drop, to ANYWHERE on your drives. If you don't have the directory you want, create it! You can also open any folder from the directory tree for drag and drop operations. Drag files into or out of archives. Delete any directory or even complete directory trees from WarpZip!
DOWNLOAD PREPROCESSOR
No more manually selecting a directory when downloading from NS. WarpZip's Download PreProcessor allows your browsing sessions to sport one click downloads that obey your every whim. It will selectively move your downloaded zip files to any directory you choose, test them for integrity, virus test them and queue them up for later review by WarpZip. All this is handled seamlessly in the background while you spend your on-line time making your browser session count. When you're off-line, WarpZip will be waiting with the list of files you've downloaded. It will automatically load them in it's queue on startup and present you with any test results you may have requested.
PACKED FILES?
OS/2 Packed file extensions can have "_" or "@" or no extension at all. So how do you locate them? Better yet, how do you locate and see what files are archived inside of them? We are unaware of any software that will help you find those almost unrecognizable OS/2 packed files except WarpZip. Of course, dragging a file out of them or viewing them is as easy as working with a zip archive.
SEARCH FACILITIES
WarpZip will search a directory, directory tree, hard disk or CD for zip files as well as OS/2 packed files. It will add or delete files from archives, view files in archives or you can test run them (to do an installation, for example) and let WarpZip clean up after you. You can test zip files or run virus scans, view bitmaps, grep, build self extractors, copy, move, rename, delete... well... you get the picture...
INSTALLATION DETAILS
During installation WarpZip will allow you to use existing paths for dll's etc. and keep track of them for you. It will write an uninstall script specific to your installation should you decide to remove the program at a later date. No forgotten file clutter...
ERRATA
WarpZip licenses are available at BMT Micro ($29) http://www.bmtmicro.com/
After visiting with many of you at WarpStock, (Arkay brought this to my attention) it has become apparent that we haven't been able to make it all clear about what WarpZip really does. Because I can't demo it very easily here, I would hope that you all would take the opportunity to download a fully functional copy from our web site and try everything out. The "Sample.zip" that opens automatically on the first run will help get your feet wet but we hope you will check into all the different search mechanisms in the program too.
Back Again/2000 has many new features and capabilities not found in any other OS/2 backup utility. These new features make protecting your OS/2 workstation or server easier and faster than ever before:
Place your order today on CDS' secure commerce server at http://www.cds-inc.com/ or you may call toll free 800/284-4156. International customers please call 651/730-4156 or fax your order to 651/730-4156. American Express, Visa, and Master card accepted. CDS stands behind all its products with our hassle-free 30-day money back guarantee.
- Brad Benson
Software Engineer
CDS, Inc.
December 6, 1999
New in this version:
Added support for time zone settings. More than 300 countries and locations around the world are available with their settings for the tz variable.
Added a Fastsave option. Fastsave saves the config.sys file only, without showing the new config.sys file and all the dialogs.
Added some functions to determine that the config.sys file is bootable and compatible with the OS/2 install and update programs. These functions are called at every save. The limitations are as follows: Config.sys should not be greater than 64000 Bytes, Config.sys should not have more than 600 lines and a single line should hot have more than 1024 characters right from the equal sign.
The Change History function has been redesigned to avoid problems with the 600 lines limitation. The Change History will now be written to an externally file and not inside the config.sys file.
Tyra/2 is year 2000 tested and proofed.
Added some entries to the Config.sys Descriptions.
On my web site is a small utility available that can speed up the start time of Tyra/2 and any other VXREXX written software. This is done by preloding the Vrobj.dll file and holding it in the memory.
Tyra/2 is available in English and German.
Bug corrections:
Fixed a problem with the Check Paths function. The function reported that you can delete the boot drive entry (i.e. C:\) from the the SET Path variable. It is only needed by the Setup.cmd from any GRADD based graphiccard driver. Without it the setup.cmd will fail with an error message "Can't find BOOTOS2", you have to add the bootdrive to the SET Path variable.
Fixed all reported errors.
Tyra/2 is shareware and you will have 31 days to test it. If you are an author of a piece of OS/2 Freeware you can get a key for free.
You can download the newest version of Tyra/2 from this sites:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incomming/tyra170e.zip will be moved in the next time to ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/config/tyra170e.zip
And in the next days at http://www.bmtmicro.com/catalog/tyra2.html
PITTSBURGH, PA - Aviar, Inc. announced today that, it has released the translatable Version of its new product KidStuff for OS/2 and released a Plus Pak.
John Urbaniak of Aviar stated, "We were happy to have received so many requests from individuals in countries where English is not the native tongue and felt it was well worth the effort to add the translatable features to KidStuff for OS/2. Most of our other products are already 100% translatable."
The format of the files was already customizable in the "Preferences" section so if you have more than one child, you can have a separate folder for each child with his or her own copy of KidStuff with that individual child's name included in the programs.
The company also announced the release of Plus Pak I which is an add-on and requires that KidStuff already be installed.
The Plus Pak consists of four (4) modules:
For very small children, a "cheat sheet" is supplied with the program. It contains the pictures with the proper spelling.
In speaking with the developers, they had only one comment, "We're having fun!"
KidStuff for OS/2 is featured on Aviar's webpage at:
http://www.oops-web.com/KS/KStuff.html
(website is case-sensitive).
Aviar, Inc. was founded in 1983 by Dr. Urbaniak to provide top-quality PC software for commercial and industrial users. Aviar's OOPS! was first released more than 10 years ago and is still in use by companies around the world. In recent years, the company has placed most of its focus on development of speech-activated systems. KidStuff for OS/2 is the first of a new product line for Aviar.
Textflow is independent of any scanning application. The document image files can come from almost anywhere. Textflow reads multiple image files of almost any kind from a directory of your choice. Textflow quickly translates each page of each image file into a document in ASCII text or Rich Text Format (RTF) which is saved in another directory.
"We are pleased that we are able to offer a high performance OS/2 OCR product for a lower cost to the end user," said Leon Zetekoff, Product Manager of Solution Technology.
STi is a major manufacturer of production level OS/2 and NT based image, barcode, and forms processing products including BarCode Anywhere, Genie Forms Express, and ReView Document Manager. In addition, the company is a principal supplier of accessory imaging support subsystems for IBM's ImagePlus˙ and VisualInfo˙ product line as well as Input Software's InputAccel product.
Junk Spy is the newest OS/2 software product from Sundial Systems. "It's new technology and it intercepts your junk email," says Randell Flint, President of Sundial. "You connect your favorite e-mail program to Junk Spy, and Junk Spy then connects to your mail server. Junk Spy sees your email before your mail program does and watches for any trash messages. We've been in development on this technology for two years."
There's a lot more inside Junk Spy than just a set of filters. "We also supply a database of spammer clues which we continually update, the same as an antivirus program," says Flint. "We watch the message titles, the contents of the messages and the information in the headers. We've tested and tested and tested. Spam messages are no match for Junk Spy."
Junk Spy is important technology, and a seminar on the product's underlying logic plus a demonstration of the software is scheduled for Saturday at Warpstock.
"I'm speaking on the technology we developed during the creation of Junk Spy," says Rollin White, Development Manager for Junk Spy at Sundial. "We'll cover the methods that Junk Spy uses to connect between your e-mail program and the mail server, the research we did to make the product easy to use, and of course the Junk Spy engine itself that uses the database of rules and knowledge that catches the spam messages. We paid particular attention to the problem of 'false hits', since we don't want mail you are really interested in to be misidentified as junk."
Junk Spy can be fine tuned as much as the user desires. The Junk Spy control panel lets you adjust the individual detectors inside it, and you can define exceptions such as the acceptance of any spam messages that contain the string "OS/2". You can even create your own detectors. The user keeps total control of exactly how trash messages are handled.
And the Junk Spy database can update automatically if the user chooses. "We've set up monitoring facilities to search for new kinds of junk mail," adds Flint. "Our database gets better and better, and you can set Junk Spy to automatically update from our database. That's a user option. Plus, Junk Spy also uses the Realtime Blackhole List of known spam origination sites."
Sundial has the answer for the world's nastiest spammers, and that answer is Junk Spy.
Bring Junk Spy into your own office to watch over your e-mail. Let it be your own personal secret agent, spying on your incoming mail for the dastardly junk that steals your time. Junk Spy will do a quick and easy 007 on the trash you don't want in your neighborhood.
Sundial wants you to fire up Junk Spy and get back to using e-mail the way you want it to be - in your control and well-protected from the dregs of spammerworld.
Sundial Systems Corporation
909 Electric Avenue, Suite 204
Seal Beach, CA 90740 USA
http://www.sundialsystems.com/
"Sundial Has The Answers"
CHICO, CA (October 11, 1999) - SciTech Software, Inc. today announced that IBM has licensed a special version of SciTech Display Doctor, which will be distributed by IBM as the primary display driver for all of IBM's OS/2 Warp based operating systems, including the Warp Client, Workspace On Demand and Warp Server for e-business.
This marks the first time that any common PC operating system, either desktop or server, will include a hardware accelerated, universal display driver as part of the base operating system. Until now, operating system vendors have had to rely on overtaxed graphics hardware vendors to provide software driver support, resulting in inconsistent driver quality and infrequent or non-existent updates for the installed base of graphics hardware.
"We're proud to partner with SciTech Software, because they are a leader in graphics device drivers," said Cheng-Fong Shih, IBM Business Line Manager for OS/2. "OS/2, with SciTech's universal display driver technology, will provide our customers with a timely and stable platform for their mission critical applications, regardless of the display hardware they choose to use."
SciTech Display Doctor provides true plug and play capability by detecting the graphics hardware installed and configuring itself automatically. It is not necessary for a user to determine what type of graphics hardware they have, locate the correct driver, fumble with install disks or use configuration utilities - it is all handled automatically by SciTech Display Doctor. The user can even swap out a graphics card or monitor and SciTech Display Doctor will dynamically configure itself for the newly installed hardware. These features make supporting IBM systems in the field much easier for IBM customers.
"As an IBM customer we are pleased that they are working with SciTech to provide a universal plug and play solution for graphics hardware," said Andy Finkel, VP of Software at German computer manufacturer Met@box AG, "It shows that IBM is really supporting their customers."
As part of this agreement, SciTech and IBM are working together to improve the OS/2 Warp platform's core "GRADD" display driver architecture to increase graphics performance and compatibility. The IBM PC Company, which manufactures IBM's personal computer hardware, is also closely involved in this effort to ensure maximum compatibility with IBM branded hardware.
"The SciTech driver technology licensed by IBM is the culmination of years of work by SciTech. We used all of our experience with driver development to create an architecture that is fast, scalable, and extremely compatible," said Kendall Bennett, SciTech's Director of Engineering.
IBM will offer SciTech Display Doctor/se for OS/2 Warp free of charge, directly to its customers. It will be available for downloaded from the IBM's web site and will be bundled with future operating system updates. SciTech also markets SciTech Display Doctor Professional for OS/2 Warp as an upgrade for users who need more advanced display features. Fully functional trial versions of SciTech Display Doctor Professional for OS/2 Warp and other SciTech products are available for download at http://www.scitechsoft.com/. SciTech products are available directly from SciTech Software by calling 800/486-4823 (in the U.S. and Canada) or 530/894-8400.
About SciTech Software, Inc.
SciTech Software, Inc., a privately held firm, is the leading supplier of PC graphics utilities, drivers, and tools for high-performance graphics applications, including computer games. SciTech's products help users fix graphics hardware problems and allow software developers to achieve maximum performance from PC graphics hardware. SciTech's products include SciTech Display Doctor, the only universal display driver, SciTech GLDirect, an OpenGL to Direct3D driver and SciTech MGL, the professional graphics library used to develop some of today's most popular software programs. SciTech products support the Windows, Linux, OS/2 Warp, DOS, QNX, and SMX operating systems. Many major software companies and hardware companies license portions of SciTech's technology for incorporation in their products.
SciTech Display Doctor is a trademark of SciTech Software, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
The good news is that there is a downloadable version of TrueSpectra's PhotoGraphics Pro 2.02S at their support site - http://www.truespectra.com/support.html
The site states that "Photo>Graphics download available only until December 31st, 1999." which is when all support is scheduled to stop as well. It is an unregistered 30 Day trial copy, but if you send e-mail to support@truespectra.com they will send you a registration key to unlock it. From what I can see it just lacks the STI twain drivers from the commercial package. As sad as I am to lose yet another OS/2 ISV, this is certainly a demonstration of class on TrueSpectra's part and I have sent them a note saying so.