Press-release about the development of a new eComStation system component eSchemes

2005-11-29 18:55:34 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [eCo Software, press-releases]

eCo Software, december 1th, 2005
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eCo Software announces the development of the eComStation eSchemes system component, which will allow the user to tweak and tune system appearance, from one single application.

eSchemes is developed with Mensys BV technical and financial assistance. eSchemes is part of the ongoing effort of eCo Software to develop applications by using an object-oriented approach in software development for the eComStation operating system. eSchemes was created using SOM technology and is fully integreated into the system desktop.

A scheme can contain sets of pointers, sounds, in addition to information about colors of system appearance, and lets the user to configure parameters both of single objects and entire classes. Thanks to the fact that the scheme is stored as a single file, a scheme is mobile and can be easily transferred from one computer to another.

Apart from that, the problem with incorrect display of some system controls will be resolved in eSchemes, because it can change the main color in the system appearance, which was previously fixed at grey.

Yury Prokushev, eCo Software leading engineer, proclaimed: "eSchemes greatly increases efficiency of system control. During the next years we anticipate to improve the situation in development of component applications."

Joachim Benjamins (Mensys BV) considers that "development of new components for eComStation was started back in 2002. We are glad that eSchemes will now form another milestone in the development of the eComStation infrastructure which provides a professional looking userinterface and adds to the unique abilities of the Workplace Shell"

We recommend companies to update their software today, to use all eSchemes abilities. eCo Software will soon publish detailed information about necessary changes and recommendations for application development.

eSchemes will be available for all eComStation 1.2 users (and next versions) for free.

Additional information:

• eSchemes homepage: eCo Software site -- http://ecomstation.ru/projects/eschemes
• Download eSchemes: eComStation Betazone -- http://betazone.ecomstation.nl

Genmac Wrapper 1.0.0 released!

2005-11-08 08:29:21 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, Adrian Gschwend]

Willibald Meyer finished work on the first release of Genmac Wrapper!

This driver acts as a wrapper for Windows NIC drivers so one can use them on OS/2 and eCS as well. So far the following cards are supported:

• Device : 10b7:9200 "3Com 3C90xC PCI"
• Device : 10b7:1700 "3Com/SKNet Gigabit"
• Device : 11ab:4320 "3Com/SKNet Gigabit"
• Device : 1148:4320 "3Com/SKNet Gigabit"
• Device : 1814:0101 "ASUS Wlan RT2400"
• Device : 8086:4220 "Intel 2200 Wlan"
• Device : 8086:1043 "Intel 2100 Wlan"
• Device : 168c:0012 "Atheros Wlan"
• Device : 168c:0013 "Atheros Wlan"
• Device : 168c:1014 "Atheros Wlan"
• Device : 14e4:4320 "Broadcom B/G"
• Device : 14e4:4318 "Broadcom B/G"
• Device : 14e4:165d "Broadcom Gigabit"
• Device : 14e4:4401 "Broadcom 10/100"
• Device : 14e4:170c "Broadcom 10/100"
• Device : 104c:9066 "Dlink DWL-G520+"
• Device : 10de:0066 "nForce 2 10/100"
• Device : 10de:00d6 "nForce 3 10/100"
• Device : 10de:0057 "nForce 4 10/100/1000"
• Device : 10ec:8169 "Rtl 8169 GigaBit"
• Device : 10ec:8180 "Rtl 8180 Wlan"

Please note that you are *not* allowed to distribute this version, it must be downloaded on netlabs.org only because we want to see how popular it gets.

Please make sure you read the helpfile! You will find notes about support in there as well.

Thanks a lot to Willibald for his work! Do *not* contact him directly if you run into problems but consult the INF-file!

P.S. Wireless LAN Monitor version 2.00 has been released (11/6/2005). It is available as a XCenter widget as well as a standalone program, and features connection monitoring, multipe connection profiles, generation of WEP keys, and more.

Italian version of eComStation

2005-11-05 18:19:13 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Serenity Systems announced release of eComStation 1.2 Italian. As you can see, the company continues to fullfill own commitments.

The resellers see good perspectives for new version of eComStation: the operating system is indispensable on the italian market and is claimed by solution developers and home users.

You can buy eComStation from resellers.

eComStation is available on: english, german, russian, dutch and italian languages (November 1, 2005). Simplified chinese enters testing at this time.

Employing Rexx as a Scripting Language for Java

2005-10-31 02:26:35 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.osnews.com]

Rony Flatscher introduces the open source and free Bean Scripting Framework (BSF), which allows any Java application to deploy scripts in other languages. Any Java application developer can use BSF to supply scriptability in a user-friendly scripting language such as Rexx.

Rexx is a key technology of eComStation. Some useful references:

• Rexx: Power Through Simplicity (english)
• Free Rexx Runs Everywhere (english)
• REXX - the potential of OS/2 platform (russian)

Week of notebooks

2005-10-29 18:32:54 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The forty fourth week of 2005 is dedicated to collection of info about notebooks with onboard ATI Radeon video adapters. Our database contains 80 records only... Major part of the models are not produced anymore. Post new reports using the web-form.

Attention! The developers of solutions are interested to know the list of unsupported notebooks.

Warpstock 2005 photos

2005-10-28 16:05:00 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The Warpstock 2005 took place in Hershey, PA, USA; October 6-9, 2005. The conference gathered eComStation and OS/2 users from the whole world.

Some photo galleries was published on this week:

• Gallery of Julian Thomas
• Gallery of OS2eCS Org

There were 70 attendees this year. The list of presentations is available here.

Full list of conferences and meetings related to eComStation and OS/2

Netlabs at SYSTEMS 2005 fair show

2005-10-23 19:39:21 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Welcome to the SYSTEMS fair show (IT.Media.Communications), Munich (Germany), 24-28 October, 2005.

SYSTEMS verifiably gives its exhibitors the most efficient platform for qualified contacts to commercial and technical decision-makers from small and medium-sized enterprises and major corporations.

Thanks to the fair's solution- and sector-oriented structure, visitors can rely on optimum security and transparency for their investment plans.

Netlabs (Adrian Gschwend) is going participate in this exhibition too (Stand 243, Hall A3). He is representing Netlabs, distributing eComStation demo CDs, communicating with developers of platform-independent technologies.

Week of video adapters

2005-10-19 17:56:54 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The forty second week of 2005 is dedicated to collection of info about compatible/non-compatible video adapters. Our database contains 24 records only... Major part of the models are not manufactured anymore. Post new reports using the web-form.

Attention! The developers of solutions are interested to know the list of unsupported adapters.

We suppose that adapters based on ATI Radeon chipsets: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9250 are the most popular among eComStation and OS/2 users because:

• Such video adapters are available in any computer supermarket; the cost of second-hand card is about 20-30 USD;
• You can select PCI or AGP model;
• WarpOverlay! supports the mentioned ATI Radeon chipsets (install the video overlay if using computer TV or video players to minimize the load of CPU);

Updated drivers

2005-10-14 00:29:10 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New version of ACPI driver (1.0.15). Current task is collect the statistics related to SMP and/or SMBus controller (if you are running P4 (HT) computer then you have SMP too; if you are running notebook then you have SMBus). Enter the eComStation beta-zone via www.ecomstation.com

Updated USB controllers drivers and USB printer driver. Please, login to www.ecomstation.com

OS2World.com Gaming Site Updated

2005-10-11 18:38:32 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2world.com, Martin Iturbide]

The OS2World.com Gaming Site was updated with the last games ported to OS/2.

• Rocks 'n' Diamonds
• Alizarin Tetris
• ScummVM

Visit the OS2World.com Gaming Site here.

Waiting for news from Warpstock 2005

2005-10-11 18:33:43 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The Warpstock 2005 (Hershey, PA, USA) is completed. There was 68 people there from different countries. "WarpStock Hershey was really great. It was one of those 'why did I not go before'?". Let's wait for photos from the conference.

Full list of conferences and meetings related to eComStation and OS/2

Reminder about NetDrive

2005-09-23 12:31:59 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

NetDrive for OS/2 is a virtual file system which allows seamless access to various resources. It let the user to create a virtual drive letter and to mount resources to the drive. The current version of NetDrive for OS/2 supports local, network and FTP sources and can use external plugins for different types of resources.

Plugins available:

• FTP plugin (free) -- access remote FTP directory as an ordinary OS/2 drive.
• SAMBA client (free) -- The plugin provides seamless access to SMB/CIFS file shares over your network using TCP/IP as the underlying transport protocol.
• ThirdEye plugin (shareware) -- access to digital cameras connected to COM-port
• WebDAV plugin (free) -- DAV client and can connect to Apache mod_dav, Novell NetStorage and Microsoft Windows XP WebFolders.
• VFAT plugin (shareware) -- The plugin allows read/write access, including creation of long file names, to a drive with Microsoft Windows 95 VFAT file system.
• NFS V2 plugin (shareware) -- NFS plugin can mount an NFS server disk to the NetDrive file system.
• Psion Plugin (free) -- The plugin allows to access Psion PDA disks as an ordinary OS/2 drive.
• Cipher Plugin (shareware) -- The plugin allows transparent access to files in cipher.
• ISO CD FileSystem (free) -- The plugin allows one to access contents of ISO-9660 CD images (read only) and CD disks.

NetDrive homepage: http://www.blueprintsoftwareworks.com/netdrive/

Reviews of NetDrive:

• NetDrive Cipher plugin (english) -- http://ecomstation.ru/showarticle.php?id=13
• Samba server for OS/2 (english)-- http://www.os2voice.org/VNL/past_issues/VNL0405H/vnewsf5.htm

Week of WiFi cards

2005-09-23 11:55:39 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The thirty ninth week of 2005 is dedicated to collection of info about compatible/non-compatible WiFi network adapters. Our database contains 34 records only... Major part of the models are not manufactured anymore. Post new reports using the web-form.

Attention! The developers of solutions are interested to know the list of unsupported adapters.

SNAP in eComStation

2005-09-21 21:55:56 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, Serenity Systems International, Bob St.John]

SSI has completed negotiations with SciTech Software. The objective was to provide eComStation users with video chip set support in 2006. As a result of this agreement, OS/2 SNAP Enterprise product will be included in the next release of eComStation. Arrangements are now being made to make this available to Software Subscription users.

T&V HappyPlayer 2.01 beta 1 released

2005-09-21 01:29:01 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New version of T&V HappyPlayer is released. T&V HappyPlayer allows you control TV-tuners built on Brooktree BT848 chip (and compatible). Supported signal coding standards: PAL and SECAM. It is pleasant to notice that unlike other applications, T&V HappyPlayer does not hog CPU.

Whatsnew:

• Autodetect tv-tuners
• Fixed troubles with video memory address detect

If your tuner works with T&V HappyPlayer then

• please, post report to the Hardware database
• Send results of PCI+AGP bus sniffer to our e-mail: support (at) ecomstation.ru (all info about TV-tuner, Subsystem ID value)

Week of USB toys

2005-09-18 23:43:30 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The thirty eighth week of 2005 is dedicated to collection of info about compatible/non-compatible USB-toys (audio/multimedia devices, tuners, self-made devices). Our database contains 3 records only... Post new reports using the web-form.