Mini-docks Are Cool!

Sexy Motorbike Girl with black mini-docks

As a promise, a new blog has now been written after some delays, due to some difficult experiences in my life this year. Such are better left in another, more private blog, which will also be written soon enough.

My AmigaOS 4.1.6 on my AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex system, has been through many updates the last year! Nearly 70 (!) important updates!

The multi-tool Jack has also been updated to the very latest version, since version 4.1 crashed with the latest Kernel update, that caused Jack to show a GR message almost every time during startup. This has now been fixed in the latest version of Jack, which is currently version 4.2 and the one i am using.

Latest Jack shows today's weather

As a change, i have also started to let Jack use the AppStore to find programs and files, even leaving comments and feedbacks, very much like you do when you pick stuffs from OS4Depot.net.

AppStore is also used in the latest Assist i use now and then. Downloads are stored in the Home Directory's User drawer where the drawer Downloads is stored.

Not surprisingly, Jack's Weather caster shows that the weather displays rain in my city, that is Bergen City Of Norway. I don't like rain. I want sun and white Christmas, which would give a magic Christmas. Otherwise, i would dream of tropical landscapes. My favourite.

Mini-docks are so cool!

Black mini-docks for black title bar

A feature i haven't thought of earlier, is the wonder of using mini-apps in form of Mini-docks. By adding what i called "TrayDock" into AmiDock. In its' preference, the button "Respect Screen Titlebar" is UNTICKED. Why is that?

Mini-docks do not respect screen titlebar

Because mini-docks don't respect the Workbench titlebar, which is exactly the point. That way, the mini-docks fit right onto the titlebar just like you want it to. It's like an exciting, small puzzle that is easy to master!

Now i have the latest version of CPU, GFX, RAM and NetDock, all located in SYS:Utilities. The difference is that the NetDock relies on a Data drawer in it's drawer, in order to function correctly, while CPU, GFX and RAMDock also need the Data drawer where picture information is stored.

Other mini-docks i have are the Keymap, set to Norwegian, the Mixer mini-dock and the Datetime.docky.

In common, Minidock=ON are enabled for all these mini-docks, as you will see.

Further on, you can see that i have my mini-docks in black for the Workbench title bar, with white text display. I had to UNMARK these in their Tooltypes.

Shadow_RGB=000000 (where 0 is for black colour)
Text_RGB=FFFFFF (where F is for white colour)
Border_Off=OFF

CPU, GFX, RAM and NetDock add a cool feature with a small Reaction GUI when the pointer is near these docks. On the CPU, it displays the type of CPU in your Amiga, how much power is used and what operations the CPU are doing.

On the GFXDock, it displays your graphic system, how much video ram is used and how much is available. It also displays the overal precent used for GFX.

This is also the same with both RAMDock and NetDock. RAM displays how much RAM is used in precent, the RAM that is used and the available RAM left. NetDock shows what type of internet connection you are using and the overal net activity. These mini-docks are extremely useful to have in your AmigaOS4!

Snap Me Up Before You Go-Go! 

 

SnapIT - The new AmigaOS4 native screengrabber

SnapIT is a new, AmigaOS4 native screengrabber based on MUI. It's meant as a successor to the old SGrab that is no longer in development.

The new screengrabber is very effective and easy to use. Still not perfect, as you might notice some GR messages here and there when doing some grabbing by double-clicking.

It would be better if you just could do a simple click, and then pick the choice. But do not worry. SnapIT has great potensial, and improvements will come.

Today (of Tuesday 10th of December 2013), i donated as much as 20 EUR to Onyxsoft for SnapIT through PayPal! Thanks to the wonderful easyness of using PayPal for donations like this one! If you love a program, PLEASE donate!

In order to remove the requester shown during opening of the program, you must send an email to the author of SnapIT, to receive a keyfile to remove this requester, which i have done. In the future, this request might be removed, depending on how big interest there will be for users to use SnapIT.

Despite being quite new, and with some limitations and small bugs, SnapIT is quite useful and very easy to understand. It's a great replacement over SGrab.

The Harmony of AmigaAmp And Ringhio 

AmigaAMP 3.12 syncronizes with Ringhio

AmigaAMP has for a short while ago been updated to version 3.12 through AmiUpdate. AmigaAMP is the greatest MP3 player for AmigaOS4, natively supporting PPC and AHI!

The new version of AmigaAMP adds support for the Notification messenger, known as Ringhio. How does it work?

When you click on a song to play, Ringhio shows a notification on what song you are playing, adopting the same idea you see in both Windows and MacOS X! Very handy feature! It shows how modern and advanced AmigaOS4 has become!

The screengrab shows AmigaAMP playing a song called Tears in FLAC format. The song is actually "Tears Of Love", which i have created with OctaMED SoundStudio. You find the song on SoundCloud under my nick - HKvalhe.

TimberWolf And The Obdyssey Bounty Project

Working on my blog in TimberWolf

TimberWolf - the AmigaOS4 answer to the FireFox browser, is working greatly in my system, using the latest version of TimberWolf, which is 4.0.1.

This browser works best for the Blogspot site, where i have this blog.

Development of TimberWolf has been very quiet, so still nothing new there.

However, there is another possibility.

The OWB browser, which now has the name Obdyssey Web Browser, is under a Bounty Project to be further developed to reach the standards of Webkit today, such as full HTML5 support and proper Javascript, among the things.

A lot of users have donated much money into it already, as the bounty has reached nearly 50% of the full goal, that is $7500 (100%)! When the goal is reached, a brand new, up-to-date version of OWB will appear to both AmigaOS and AROS, so stay tuned. The goal will surely be reached during early 2014.

Wintermute is coming to ScummVM! 

The huge collection of adventures in ScummVM!

ScummVM is an excellent engine to run just about every adventure game that is supported by it! 

ScummVM has been under heavy development for more than 10 years now, and the list of supported adventure games is increasing greatly!

One of the greatest news currently, is that the Wintermute engine has been in development for more than a year, and will be part of the NEXT version of ScummVM, due out soon! The next version of ScummVM is likely to be version 0.7.0, as the version now is 0.6.0! What is Wintermute, exactly?

Wintermute is a powerful, modern and exciting engine that ScummVM is to have for the next version, which again will allow a huge number of more advanced, graphic adventures to be supported and played through ScummVM!

Alpha Polaris - a 2.5D modern adventure

Games like Alpha Polaris, Art Of Murder: FBI Confidential and Fair Noir, are only a few of many great adventure games using this powerful Wintermute engine! Excited yet?!

Some 3D adventures will benefit better with full OpenGL and 3D hardware acceleration. Features that the upcoming AmigaOS 4.2 will have with Gallium3D and Mesa.

Art Of Murder: FBI Confidential

The game Art Of Murder: FBI Confidential, looks very similar to The Longest Journey the way it looks.

Surely a great adventure for fans who love investigating crime and murder, much as i do. Such games are great!

While Fair Noir looks much of the same, it seems more thrilling to play, which is also very exciting. Another great adventure to be supported using the Wintermute engine.

Fair Noir - A thrilling 2.5D adventure

The future is looking really bright, both for the Amiga and ScummVM.

Being soon able to play such modern and truly awesome adventure games, will keep you busy for many hours!

I'm a truly great fan of advanced adventure games! It's almost like being part of a movie and doing the role yourself! It's THAT cool, really!

As you can understand, there is much great things to look forward to.

I will like to wish all of you a truly MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is all for now.

Written by:
Helge Kvalheim, Norway