Updates from last month's column:

The WarpZilla team has released Mozilla 1.7 Release Candidate 1 as of 04/22/2004. This is an update to Mozilla 1.4 that was demoed by Tony Butka at the Sept. 2003 SCOUG general meeting. Older versions of Mozilla were mentioned in the May 2002 Mr. Know-It-All. Go to ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.7rc1/contrib/. There is now an installer version again (mozilla-os2-1.7rc1-installer.exe), and a zip file (mozilla-os2-1.7rc1.zip). More info is at http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/.

NOTES:
1. Steve Wendt has a WarpZilla tips page at http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/Warpzilla.html.
2. If you install the zip file version, you need to unzip it yourself into a directory and create or update a program object accordingly.
3. Another site that has documentation of plugin support on OS/2 is at http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/OS2.html.
4. The recommended installation method is to install into a fresh directory; however, if you install over an older version, be sure to delete GKCONTNT.DLL (or GKCONTENT.DLL) and COMPREG.DAT (if they exist); otherwise you may have problems running Mozilla after installation. Also, if you do install over an older version, be sure to read the Dec. 2003 Mr. Know-It-All.
5. This version requires the GCC runtime; download that at http://download.innotek.de/gccos2/runtime/libc-0.5.1.exe (a self- installing executable). The EMX runtime is no longer required if you don't already have it installed. The GCC runtime defaults to x:\OS2\DLL (where x is your OS/2 or eComStation boot drive); it may be preferable to put the runtime in the same directory as MOZILLA.EXE (for reasons listed in the next note).
6. Mike Kaply of IBM posted to the netscape.public.mozilla.os2 newsgroup that he figured out how to share a profile between version 1.4.1 or older (which is compiled with the VACPP compiler), and version 1.5 or greater (which is compiled with the GCC compiler): Make sure MOZRMI36.DLL is NOT in your LIBPATH and only exists where the version 1.4 MOZILLA.EXE is; conversely on the version 1.5 or greater side, make sure the GCC runtime DLLs (LIBC05 & GCC322) are also NOT in your LIBPATH and only exists where the version 1.5/1.6/1.7 MOZILLA.EXE is.
7. If you use the InnoTek Font Engine, and you are upgrading from a previous version by installing into an fresh directory, you may need to re-install the InnoTek Font Engine.
8. Tony's notes on installing and running Mozilla are at http://www.scoug.com/os24u/2003/scoug310.mozilla.html.
9. MultiZilla version 1.6.3.1d has been released as of 04/16/2004. This is an extension that adds more features to the tabbed interface in Mozilla. Go to http://multizilla.mozdev.org/.

DFSee, which was presented by Tony Butka at the March 2004 SCOUG general meeting, is now at version 6.05 as of 04/06/2004. It is a FDISK, display, analysis and recovery tool for disks and filesystems. It includes the ability to resize FAT and FAT32 partitions, and has some JFS and LVM support. Go to http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee.htm. Tony's tutorial on DFSee is at http://www.scoug.com/os24u/2001/scoug012.dfseetutorial.html.

NOTES:
1. You can also use search key dfsee on Hobbes.
2. DFSee is now shareware. Registration is at Mensys (http://shop.mensys.nl/catalogue/mns_DFSee.html).

Guiffy, which was presented at the April 2003 SCOUG general meeting, is now at version 6.1 build 118 as of 04/23/2004. It is a file compare / merge (diff-like) tool with a GUI implemented in Java. Go to http://www.guiffy.com/.

DVDDAO version 0.0.5 has been released as of 04/05/2004. It is a tool for writing DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. Use search key dvddao on Hobbes. NOTE: You need ASPIROUT.SYS version 1.1b5 or above.

EmperoarTV version 1.08e has been released as of 04/07/2004. This software brings OS/2 support for the Hauppauge PVR250/350 TV cards, including high-quality MPEG2 hard disk recording and playback. You can listen to FM radio stations in stereo, watch TV programs in excellent image quality, and more. Go to http://www.s-t.de/emperoar/. NOTE: Emperoar can be purchased at Mensys (http://shop.mensys.nl/cgi-bin/db2www/mns_art2.d2w/report?catname=EmperoarTV).

FotoGet/2 version 1.0.2 has been released as of 04/07/2004. It is a utility to ease the transfer of pictures between a digital camera and your OS/2 or eComStation PC. It makes use of the WPS; it optionally creates light tables instead of folders, and optionally creates shadows of subfolders on the desktop. Use search key fotoget on Hobbes. NOTE: You need WarpIn to install.

ProcMan beta 4 has been released as of 04/06/2004. This is a process manager / killer, similar in purpose to WatchCat. Use search key pmb on Hobbes.

JAlbum version 4.4 has been released as of 04/03/2004. This is a web photo album generator that runs on Java 1.3. Go to http://jalbum.net/index.jsp.

IBM Alphaworks has released as of 04/14/2004 version 1.2.1 of a MPEG-4 player and content creator development kit that works with Java 1.3.1. According to Steve Wendt, it plays MPEG-4 video (samples included) just fine on a PII-300Mhz machine. Go to http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/tk4mpeg4.

z! has been updated to "test 14" status as of 04/30/2004. This is a text-mode MP3 player that can handle ogg, streaming audio (Shoutcast), and has Normalize support. Go to http://dink.org/z/. A FAQ is available at http://dink.org/z/zmsgbase.html?read=A4E7P6Y7K5.

Some fixes for XFree86 version 4.4.0 have been released as of 04/13/2004. This is a port of the popular windowing system used on Unix platforms. Go to ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/xfree86/4.4.0/fixes/; the parent directory is at ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/xfree86/4.4.0/. NOTE: There is also an installation guide available at http://www.os2world.com/os2files/xfree86/installation_v4.html.

LAME version 3.96 has been released as of 04/24/2004. It is a MP3 encoder, and includes a graphical frame analyzer. Use search key lame on Hobbes.

eComStation Maintenance Tool version 2.1.6.7 has been released as of 04/24/2004. As the name implies, it is used to apply software updates to eComStation. Go to http://www.ecomstation.com/.

NOTES:
1. You must be a registered user of eComStation; after signing-in, then you can download the Maintenance Tool.
2. You need WarpIn to install the Maintenance Tool.

NetLabs has released as of 04/26/2004 beta 2 of a Samba client for OS/2, as a plugin for the NetDrive filesystem. It allows you to mount SMB or CIFS shares on OS/2 without the need for NetBIOS (IBM LAN Manager or IBM Peer). Samba is freely available under the GNU GPL (General Public License); you can download the full OS/2 source code from NetLabs CVS. There may be a Samba server as well in the future, but this highly depends on the support of the community. Go to http://samba.netlabs.org/. Information about sponsoring NetLabs is at http://about.netlabs.org/?detailcontentregions_id=3.

Amouse version 2.5 has been updated as of 05/01/2004. It is a scroll mouse driver that works better on some wheel mice than IBM's driver. It has USB support, improved Logitech support, and also a widget for XCenter available now. Go to http://www.nbsoftware.de/sw_ms_en.htm.

IBM has updated as of 04/09/2004 the BIOS for the ThinkPad T40 & T41 series. Go to http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/license.do?filename=mobiles/spsd1rc2.exe.

This month's new listings - Drivers:

IBM has updated as of 04/09/2004 the embedded controller program (H8 controller firmware) for the ThinkPad T40/T41 series. Go to http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/license.do?filename=mobiles/embd1r66.exe.

SciTech has announced the beta release of My.SciTechSoft.com, a new web site for dynamically generating Personal Edition versions of SciTech SNAP Graphics. Personal Editions are licensed for non-commercial use, and are locked down to a single graphics chipset. Go to http://my.scitechsoft.com/; you will need to supply it a user-id of "mybeta", and a password of "lassen" (without the " signs, of course).

SciTech has also released as of 05/01/2004 SciTech SNAP Graphics version 2.9.0 (also known as 3.0 beta 1). This is a "universal" video driver, with support for over 200 graphic chipsets, with extra features such as zooming and multi-head support. The latest version features software OpenGl 1.4 support, optional unattended installation, DVI on the Matrox G450 and G550, and more. Go to http://www.scitechsoft.com/ftp/snap/os2/beta/. The change log is at http://www.scitechsoft.com/snap2_changes.txt, and the list of supported chipsets is at http://www.scitechsoft.com/ftp/snap/os2/beta/readme.txt. More info is at http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/ent/snap_os2_content.html.

Daniela Engert has released as of 04/16/2004 a patched version of the Texas Instruments CardBus drivers, which adds support for all the additional TI chipsets not supported by IBM. Use search key ss2ti on Hobbes.

DaniATAPI version 0.3.16 has been released as of 05/03/2004. It is a replacement for IBM's ATAPI drivers (IBMIDECD, IBMATAPI, PCM2ATA.ADD, and OS2PCARD.DMD). It features support for ZIP-250, including full media swapping, and even booting from ZIP. It has faster 32-bit PIO when used with DaniS506, and devices can be used as SCSI, for use with programs like CDRecord. Use search key dania on Hobbes.

UP2TB version 1.0.2 has been released as of 04/22/2004. This FLT driver allows for disk drives up to 2 TB (terabytes) to be used. It has been tested with an external SCSI Raid array with 570 GB capacity, and works with native hardware ADD SCSI drivers (use DANIS506 for IDE), by altering the CHS disk geometry information passed to OS2DASD.DMD. Use search key up2tb on Hobbes.

BTTV version 0.7 has been updated as of 05/03/2004. This is a port of the Linux BTTV driver, with radio and TV working. Included is a small radio application, and the source is available (along with a LXAPI32 support driver for porting Linux drivers). Go to http://www.nord-com.net/s.milcke/bttv_en.htm.

This month's new listings - Applications:

InnoTek has made the Java plugin wrapper available as of 04/08/2004. This fixes the problem where recent versions of Mozilla & Firefox were unable to use Java due to a missing support DLL (IPLUGINW.DLL). According to Mike Kaply of IBM, it will work with Mozilla 1.5 on up and Firebird/ Firefox 0.6.1 on up, even though the InnoTek website only refers to Mozilla 1.5 & 1.6. Go to http://www.innotek.de/products/javaos2/mozilla/. Unzip the downloaded file and copy IPLUGINW.DLL into your "components" directory (in my case, it's C:\MOZILLA.ORG\MOZILLA\COMPONENTS).

NOTES:
1. If Java still doesn't work for you with this new component, then you may need to delete COMPREG.DAT from your "components" directory, in order to force the registration of the IPLUGINW.DLL component.
2. If you get crashes in ZIP.DLL when you try to run Java applets, fix your JAVA_HOME environment variable in CONFIG.SYS so that it points to x:\JAVA131\JRE (where x is your boot drive), or remove it completely.
3. According to Steve Wendt, this also allows the scripting features of Flash to work with the GCC builds of Mozilla and Firefox.

InnoTek has released GCC 3.2.2 Beta 4 CSD1; it includes compilers for C and C++, as well as a C library (libc) ported from BSD, and updated binutils. The full GCC compiler suite (not included) also covers Objective C, Java, and FORTRAN 77. Go to http://www.innotek.de/products/gccos2/.

eComStation Window Theme Installer version 1.1 beta has been released as of 04/06/2004. As the name implies, it is used to install window themes (currently 83 are available) on an eComStation system. Go to http://www.os2irc.org/themeinstaller.html.

NewView version 2.14.37 has been released as of 04/10/2004. This is a rewrite of VIEW.EXE that comes with OS/2. It reads .INF and .HLP files. Improvements include a new user interface, remember size and position, select and copy from the window, and more. Use search key newview on Hobbes.

MPEG audio utility version 0.26 has been released as of 04/06/2004. This utility analyzes all the frames of MPEG audio files, allowing you to manipulate them, such as removing leading and trailing silence. Go to http://www.maazl.de/project/mp3/mp3frame.html.

ExpEmu version 1.01 has been released as of 04/28/2004. This Explorer "emulator" works as a pass-thru program that redirects EXPLORER.EXE calls to MOZILLA.EXE, so that Java programs which rely on the existence of EXPLORER.EXE will work in OS/2. Use search key expemu on Hobbes.

Moneydance 2004r2 has been released as of 04/24/2004. It is a personal finance manager written completely in Java. It includes transaction auto-completion, graphing, reporting, a reconciliation tool, running cleared vs. uncleared balances, transaction sorting, double-entry, multiple currencies, multiple accounts, and much more. Go to http://moneydance.com/.

WarpFX has released "The Ultima Visual Solution", a collection of desktop and folder background images, icons, animations, startup sounds, graphic art images, boot logos, and more, specifically designed for the OS/2 desktop. Also included is the Ultima Advanced Graphics Theme for CandyBarZ, which adds advanced 3D titlebars, window controls, pushbuttons, and more. Go to http://www.warpfx.com/.

Several programs have been released as open-source:

1. Thomas Bohn's PGPKeys is a shell for PGP 5.0 key management; his SysEDOS2 is an editor for configuration files; ISORen allows you to rename files and directories in ISO files; and NetUse is a graphical front-end for NET commands. Go to http://bohn-stralsund.de/t_frame.htm.
2. IPSpeed is a small PM application to measure the speed of your TCP/IP connection; use search key ipspeed on Hobbes.
3. IDENTD is an open-source daemon which operates by looking up specific TCP/IP connections and returning the user name of the process owning the connection; use search key identd on Hobbes.
4. Stephen's PM Radio controls Reveal and Aims Labs ISA FM radio cards; use search key pmradio on Hobbes.
5. Michael Bock's CD Player version 1.01; use search key cdplayer on Hobbes.
6. Netgrab version 1.0 (a command-line client mainly for use in batch file programming; it incorporates FINGER, FTP, Gopher, HTTP, NNTP, POPMAIL, and Time clients in one program); use search key netgrab on Hobbes.
7. QFrame and Quickcam exercise code; QFrame is a Connectix QuickCam command-line frame grabber for OS/2 with GIF support. Use search keys qframe and quickexe on Hobbes, respectively.

EMT4PM version 4.32 has been released as of 04/06/2004. It is a PM utility to build disk images, and write images to disk. Go to http://dvalot.free.fr/emtcopy.htm.

A hardware monitor for National Semiconductor LMxx and Winbond 8378x chipsets has been released as of 04/18/2004. Command-line and PM versions are included. Use search key p2l97 on Hobbes.

FixPak Assistant version 2.0 has been released as of 04/19/2004. This package is designed to help you install OS/2 FixPaks (through instructions and a couple of optional REXX scripts). Unlike other "FixPak helpers" which just install one FixPak onto one system, this package also allows you to create a reusable directory tree (on hard disk, LAN drive, or CD) for installing multiple FixPaks onto multiple OS/2 systems. The package includes DSKXTRCT for extracting FixPak diskette images. Use search key fixpak_assist on Hobbes.

CDRWSEL version 3.0.1 has been released as of 04/23/2004. This is a GUI program to attach multiple CDRW's at the same time using RSJ CD-Writer. Use search key cdrwsel on Hobbes.

NesCafe version 0.54 has been released as of 04/23/2004. This is a Java Nintendo Entertainment System emulator, which includes the source code under the GPL. Go to http://www.davieboy.net/nescafe/.

jlGui version 2.3 has been released as of 04/28/2004. This is a graphical music player that supports JavaSound capabilities (WAV, AU, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis) and WinAmp skins. It requires Java 1.3. Go to http://www.javazoom.net/jlgui/jlgui.html.

AudioStation build 0.30 has been released as of 04/20/2004. This is an audio player and editor. Download is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/audiostation/files/Releases/ (you need a Yahoo ID to log in); info is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/audiostation/.

XSane version 0.93 has been released as of 04/29/2004. This is a front-end for SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) that requires XFree86/OS2. Go to http://home.tiscalinet.de/fbakan/xsane-os2.htm.

TVShow version 0.97 has been released as of 05/01/2004. This enables you to view TV with BT878-based TV cards. Go to ftp://ftp.os2.kiev.ua/tvshow/. More info is at http://os2.kiev.ua/en/tvshow.php.

Editorial Note: Special thanks to SCOUG's Dallas Legan for writing a handy REXX script to convert URLs in a text file into HTML tags. It's much appreciated!

Copyright 2004 the Southern California OS/2 User Group. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.