In July, Orpheus announced their plan to crowdfund their new project.
 
With their usual modesty, they quietly recently updated their website to say the Company had raised the target figure and work has begun. Excellent news for RISC OS market and for their customers.....
 
On a personal note, my 6 year old router had issues over the weekend. Richard Brown from Orpheus was on the phone sorting it out at 9am on Saturday morning and helping me to sort out a replacement router asap.....
 
Orpheus Internet website

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence have unveiled at tech fair Cebit; a peer-to-peer network technology for vehicles on the road network.
 
If a vehicle encounters a problem such as oil on the road it would relay information about the problem to other vehicles behind it who are about to encounter the problem, and it would be passed on to the driver by visual or audio prompts.
 
Link: Vehicle warning system trialled

Another of Acorn's co-founders has been honoured in the New Year's Honours list. Andrew Hopper is now a Commander of the British Empire. Herman Hauser received an honourary CBE in 2002.
 
The BBC reports:

In 1978 along with Hermann Hauser, Prof Hopper founded Acorn Computers that went on to make machines which proved very popular in the UK.
 
It was behind the Acorn Electron and Archimedes machines and also built the fondly remembered BBC Micro. The machines found wide usage in the 1980s and early 1990s. Acorn was broken up in 2000.
 
One of the most influential subsidiaries that grew out of Acorn was Advanced RISC Machines which is now known as ARM. The chip designs of this firm are found in enormous numbers of portable gadgets - particularly mobile phones.

Hopper specialised in networking - he worked on the creation of the Cambridge Ring, a rival to Ethernet, became director of an industrial research lab at Olivetti and later AT&T, and formed RealVNC to develop remote control software. The Acornsoft game "Hopper" was named after him.
 
Links
BBC news article
Andy Hopper in New Scientist
Andy Hopper in Wikipedia
Herman Hauser honoured

The Zaurus range from Sharp are fairly unique in the world of PDAs. Not only do they have keyboards - a rare feature for a PDA since Psion left the market - but they also run Linux. Combine this with the high-res screens, fast processors, and copious amounts of memory sported by the latest models and you have a go-anywhere, do-anything personal computer that fits in your pocket.
 
This review will concern itself with the SL-C1000 model - a clamshell design PDA (Or as Sharp call it PMT - Personal Mobile Tool) with 64MB internal flash memory for storage and 64MB RAM (Half of both of these are taken up by the OS however). With practically the same dimensions as a DS Lite, the Zaurus features a full colour 640x480 touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, CF and SD slots, IRDA, builtin rechargrable battery, and a combined USB host/client port. This means you can either connect it to a PC as a client, or connect it to standard USB devices such as keyboards or mice as a host. The wealth of USB drivers available for Linux allow you to connect it to pretty much anything. Out of the SL-C series, the SL-C1000 is the lower-end model. The current high-end model, the SL-C3200, is essentially identical in design except it sports more memory and a 6GB internal hard disc.
 

Shows are the best places for companies to announce new products, and with all the special offers and the opportunity to "try before you buy", they're not too bad for punters either.
 
The annual Wakefield event, organised and run by the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club under the careful leadership of Chris Hughes, is one of the best. Although this year it's only taking place for one day there's plenty to see, and as can be seen from the companies exhibiting, attendance is a great way to show your commitment to the platform.
 
There's lots going on so for your convenience we've split things up into different categories. The stand numbers are in bold. If this is just the preview, just think what the after show party - I mean report - will be like.

Seeing as I wasn't able to attend this show I'll just provide you with a few screenshots provided by Paul Vigay of RISCOS.org, and finish off with the revised specs for the Iyonix because let's face it, that's what most people went to see ;)

This is a report we've obtained about tests done on the Simtec Net100 card and the Castle Net20 cards.

(Arcsite Artikel auf Deutsch)
 
I went to the show not really expecting to see anything new in the hardware and software stakes, and to be honest in this respect wasn't really disappointed.  But shows aren't always about seeing new stuff, it's about the atmosphere and the chance to meet people.  At least, that's what I told myself.  Anyway, this time it was Paul Vigay's turn to have to put up with giving me a lift, so thanks to him and his good lady Cathy who did all the driving (given Paul's navigating skills, probably a good thing ;)
 
The show was surprisingly busy for a Saturday morning, although being in a golf club's conference room might have meant that there was just less floor space than at previous shows.  There was a general good buzz though, not too many people to make it awkward to move but not so few to make it depressing.  The usual bottlenecks formed - RISCOS Ltd. stand, R-Comp, Castle and Cerilica being busy, and there was a pretty good showing from Surftec.