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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: blakespot on July 30, 2015, 01:35:15 AM
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So, first, I got my first Amiga in 1985 and have 3 in the house now, not counting my SAM440ep Flex, which is an Amiga more or less.
I've been keeping it updated and fiddling with apps.
The thing is, when I fire it up, I never find a compelling reason to keep using it daily. It is sitting beside my quad-core 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac w/ 3 screens and I _want_ to use it but I think I just don't have the apps to keep my interest.
I've got the WebKit browser, and WookieChat (I am an IRC guy). What else is there that might keep me day to day on it? Is there a way to control it remotely from the office via VNC? MilkyTracker is fun. I like Quake on it as it has the software rendered and is fast. Generally, tho, games are not my interest on the machine.
Ideas? I am unlikely to shut the Mac off for a month and only use the SAM, so what can I do to keep it nifty? Asking for help and ideas here.
Thanks.
bp
FWIW I posted the for #Amiga30
http://www.bytecellar.com/2015/07/23/the-amiga-turns-30/
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I use my X1000 for these basic things on a mostly daily basis.
IRC, SMTube to download YouTube vids to my X, play music with AmiAmp, check amiga related emails with YAM, basic browsing of all Amiga related content from Odyssey.
All things I can do from my Intel i7 box with loonix or OS X from my Mac Mini or Macbook Pro, but seems more fun doing it on my X1000.
Also watch Dr Who on my X all the time as I have a boatload of those on there.
Occasional play a game or two. Keeps it busy.
TJ
So, first, I got my first Amiga in 1985 and have 3 in the house now, not counting my SAM440ep Flex, which is an Amiga more or less.
I've been keeping it updated and fiddling with apps.
The thing is, when I fire it up, I never find a compelling reason to keep using it daily. It is sitting beside my quad-core 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac w/ 3 screens and I _want_ to use it but I think I just don't have the apps to keep my interest.
I've got the WebKit browser, and WookieChat (I am an IRC guy). What else is there that might keep me day to day on it? Is there a way to control it remotely from the office via VNC? MilkyTracker is fun. I like Quake on it as it has the software rendered and is fast. Generally, tho, games are not my interest on the machine.
Ideas? I am unlikely to shut the Mac off for a month and only use the SAM, so what can I do to keep it nifty? Asking for help and ideas here.
Thanks.
bp
FWIW I posted the for #Amiga30
http://www.bytecellar.com/2015/07/23/the-amiga-turns-30/
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@blakespot
of course it depends on what you want to do with it, but i use my pegasos2 and X5K beta systems every day. here's some of the stuff i use regularly:
audio
i'm a big music buff, so i have a ton of audio files sitting on my AOS4 machines. nearly all of my CDs have been ripped into MP3s using adripper (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=audio/misc/adripper.lha), which is a terrific tool which pulls in all of the CDDB information on each track into ID3 tags as well as encoding the audio, and i use amigaamp3 (http://www.amigaamp.de) for playback. i also use the latter to listen to internet audio streams. everything is nicely organized with atunes (http://apps.amistore.net/zTools/). i also do plenty of recording, so i use audio evolution (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=audio/record/audioevolution4.lha) for most of my editing work, unless i'm doing stuff with MIDI, and then i use HD-rec (http://www.hd-rec.de/HD-Rec/index.php?site=hdrec_details). i also have tons of MOD files, which i play with milkytracker (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=audio/tracker/milky/milkytracker.lha), hivelytracker (http://www.hivelytracker.co.uk/downl.php), or schism (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=audio/tracker/schism.lha). i keep meaning to buy digibooster pro (http://www.digibooster.de/en/index.php), but haven't gotten around to it. and, lastly, i use amipodder (http://www.amipodder.com/) to sync up podcasts that i either play on my 'miggies or on my blackberry when in the car. there is so much audio software that works with AOS4, but this is the stuff i use regularly.
emulation
before discovering amiga a few years ago, i had been into other retro computing platforms. luckily there are plenty of excellent emulators for software for nearly every system you can imagine. i can play mario brother 3 using amiNES (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=emulation/gamesystem/amines.lha), all of my mac games using basilisk2 (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=emulation/computer/basilisk2.lha), DOS games with DOSbox (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=emulation/computer/dosbox.lha), atari ST games with hatari (http://hirudov.com/amiga/Hatari.php), apple II software with KEGS (http://hirudov.com/amiga/KEGS.php), all of my C64 games -- including support for joysticks via amigainput -- with VICE (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=emulation/computer/vice.tar.gz), and even SNES ROMs with warpsnes (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=emulation/gamesystem/warpsnes.lha). your AOS4 installation comes with E-UAE and the full set of commodore ROMs, so you can already use that for games that aren't system friendly (which would work like any other 68k app). there are plenty of others out there (like stuff for neogeo, atari lynx and jaguar consoles, etc.), some of which are exclusive to acube's game DVD (https://acube-systemsbiz.serversicuro.it/shop/en/91-game-dvd-1.html) -- which i would recommend anyway.
graphics
wow, there's piles of choice here. much of what i use is actually classic software, mainly arteffect 4 (http://www.alinea-computer.de/produkte_details_en.php?product=arteffect), amifig (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=graphics/edit/amifig.lha), and drawstudio 2. for pixel work i use personal paint 7.3 (http://ppaint.com/) and grafx2. but i also have fxpaint 2.0, imagefx 4.5, perfectpaint, and tvpaint (http://forum.tvpaint.com/viewtopic.php?t=11&f=14) installed on my machine, too; i just don't use them as much. one tool i've been using more and more is sketchblock (http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/sketchblock/index.html) and the fractals tool developed for it. it's awesome, and i use it in conjunction with a wacom tablet. i've also been playing with 3D graphics lately, and have purchased copies of aladdin 4D, cinema4d, and lightwave 3d 5.20. all of those work well, although i recommend watching mbrantley's video (http://www.amiga.org/forums/www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRoeHaAS-MI) on setting up LW. in truth, though, blender (http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/blender/) does pretty much what i want, and it is also great for video editing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjifrE_x4kw). lastly i've organized my photo collection using amiphoto (http://www.alinea-computer.de/produkte_details_en.php?product=amiphoto) and use warpview (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=graphics/viewer/warpview.lha) for slideshows. some folks prefer fastview (http://apps.amistore.net/zTools/), and there are plenty of others. basically this is a category with tons of options, both classics like photogenics or wildfire 7, and new AOS4 titles.
internet
these days my pegasos2 does a lot of work on the 'net, so i've got a bunch of stuff to use. i use amirc (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/chat/amirc-beta.lha) for IRC, rather than wookiechat (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/chat/wookiechat.lha), for stability reasons (i'm on IRC constantly). my main ftp client is pftp (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/ftp/pftp.lha), although some prefer amiftp (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/ftp/amiftp.lha). there isn't much choice for newsgroup clients; you can use the 68k ones on aminet, but i'm using newscoaster (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/news/newscoaster.lha), and i recommend it. email is handled ably by simplemail (http://simplemail.sourceforge.net/) -- although others like YAM (http://yam.ch). my main web browser is odyssey (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/browser/odyssey.lha), although i occasionally still use OWB 3.32 (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/browser/owb.lha) or netsurf (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/browser/netsurf.lha), the latter having some unique features i like. don't bother with timberwolf. for things like google chat, i use a third-party jabber server and jabberwocky (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ajabberwocky/) as the client. let's see... i also use twinVNC (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/misc/twinvnc.lha) for connecting with my PC, the rdesktop client (http://www.amigaos.net/software/61/rdesktop) for connecting to my wife's PC, and bigsister (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=graphics/viewer/bigsister.lha) for watching webcams. one thing that i used to use before i gave my SAM to another amigan with the native AAMP stack (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/server/misc/aamp.lha), which included mysql, apache, and php, all with native amiga GUI admin tools. really, really handy for testing stuff out for intuitionbase.com.
office
productivity software is something i usually use on my office PC since i need powerpoint, but for home use, i've got plenty of office software that i use on my amigas. i'm quite partial to amigawriter (http://www.alinea-computer.de/produkte_details_en.php?product=amigawriter) for personal letters and other word processing needs. clean, simple, and easy-to-use. i'm in the minority on that one, with most of the other guys i know who use AOS4 preferring either finalwriter 97 or wordworth 7. i still use digita organiser, although i usually import it into aorganiser (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=office/misc/aorganiser.lha) so i get pop-up reminders. spreadsheets are done either in staram plan (http://aminet.net/package/biz/spread/StarAm_Plan881) or, if i need to import something from work, i'll fire up gnumeric (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=office/spreadsheet/gnumeric.lha) and amicygnix. (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/misc/amicygnix-base.lha) i also have turbocalc 5 and finalcalc installed on my machines, but i don't use them often. for keeping track of my collections i use finaldata but am in the process of developing an application around muibase (http://muibase.sourceforge.net/) for a retail business i'll be starting soon. it's an amazingly powerful database system. finally i use hollywood designer (http://hollywood-mal.com/) for putting together presentations (which powerpoint isn't required), and that's terrific software. worth every penny IMO. oh, and i admit to being a word geek, so i also love wordnet (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/scientific/wordnet.lha). :)
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science
the main reason i decided to splurge on a NG amiga was actually digital universe (http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/). i cannot begin to tell you how much i love this piece of software. for the amateur astronomer who actually observes, it is perfect. i use it to generate my nightly lists of objects and positions to observe in the sky. bill eaves could charge triple what he does, and i'd gladly pay. of course the kids like it when i use celestia (http://www.amigaos.net/software/104/celestia) because of the animations, but that's just for fun. there are some things i use when i don't have my PC, like mathx (http://aminet.net/package/misc/math/mathx132), YACAS (http://aminet.net/package/misc/sci/yacas), mathscript (http://aminet.net/package/misc/math/MathScript32), and eqed (http://aminet.net/package/misc/math/EqEd), the latter being helpful when i have some complex equation and don't want to write it in TeX by hand. i even have the old copy of maple 5 installed to use when i want to pull up EE projects from college. i also play with fractals, either using sketchblock (http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/sketchblock/fractals/) or flashmandelNG (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=graphics/misc/flashmandelng.lha). heck, i even have a resistor decoder (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/misc/amigaohm.lha) installed, too.
video
i have terabytes of old japanese movies, BBC nature specials, the simpsons, and loads of other video on my pegasos2 and now mirrored on my X5K. until i got the latter, i could only play SD videos (480p), but now can play up to 1080p just fine. you'll want mplayer (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/play/mplayer.lha) (there are several versions) and the mplayer GUI (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/misc/mplayer-gui.lha). you'll have to experiment with settings, though, to get things to play well on your SAM. you might also check out dvplayer (http://dvplayer.amistore.net/), which i use for all of my MPEG and AVI files. it's much simpler to use. for editing video i use ffshop (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/edit/ffshop.lha) (and ffmpeg (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/convert/ffmpeg.lha)+GUI (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/convert/ffmpeggui.lha)), videoclipper (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=video/edit/videoclipper.lha), or blender (http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/blender/), when i need to add titles and such.
utilities
ok. these things may be boring, but as you use your SAM more and more, utilities and add-ons will probably be used more and more. first up are amiarc (http://www.alinea-computer.de/produkte_details_en.php?product=amiarc) and cranu (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/archive/cranu.lha), which i use for file compression purposes. you can also use ztools' fastcompress stuff if you prefer. file browsing is something workbench is OK at, but for many things i'll use filer (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/filetool/filer.lha) or dirmeup (http://glames.online.fr/index_page.php?page=products/dirmeup.html). i was a dopus (http://dopus5.org/) fan, but don't really use it anymore. i like to examine my system when i have problems, so devinfos (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/misc/devinfos.lha), ranger (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/misc/ranger.lha), scout (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/misc/scout.lha), and sysmon (http://ztools.amistore.net) are a must in my book. let's see, what else? oh, i bought turboprint (http://www.irseesoft.de/default.htm) and like it very much, although it took some tweaking for my printer. and then you'll want a good text editor. i started with annotate (http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=utility/text/edit/annotate.lha), then tried cygnused (http://cygnused.de/index-en.php), and finally settled on StormC5Ed (http://www.alinea-computer.de/produkte_details_en.php?product=stormc5ed).
... there's a lot more to cover, like games, but i need to stop now. i invite you (and everyone) to come to amiwest 2015 (http://amiwest.net) and check out my demo machine, which much, much more installed on it to play with. there's also intuitionbase.com, which is a good resource for software stuff.
-- eliyahu
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Eliyahu,
Incredibly thoroughg response. I thank you. Inspiring.
What is your hardware?
I wonder if I would have an easier time of it if I had an X_000 modern machine... So pricey, but I understand why. My wife, on the other hand, does not.
bp
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Incredibly thoroughg response. I thank you. Inspiring.
What is your hardware?
I wonder if I would have an easier time of it if I had an X_000 modern machine... So pricey, but I understand why. My wife, on the other hand, does not.
i've had a SAM440ep-flex in the past (my first amiga NG), but these days i'm rockin' a pegasos2 and a X5000 beta system.
-- eliyahu
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I've honestly never found a compelling reason to use my SAM as my daily driver PC. I rely on too many cloud services and such that require better (eg, more modern/stable browsers) browsers, and use too many services like GDrive and Dropbox, which really aren't an option on the SAM.
I love the machine and the OS, but since the day I bought it, it's been entirely relegated to running a BBS, doing some coding on the weekends, etc.
It simply won't do even half of what I need my daily driver PC to do, but it doesn't stop me from having some fun with it on my off time.
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@Duce
i hear you on the cloud services thing. amigas don't have great tools for connectivity to this stuff. there is a box.net client under development, and we do have things like a webdav handler (http://www.openamiga.org/?function=viewfiles&projectid=63), but we could use some more. but while we wait... you're running a BBS on your SAM? that's pretty cool. is it dial-in only or can we connect via telnet?
-- eliyahu
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You could always start developing apps that suit your interest a bit more. The Amiga community, especially the OS4 community, could always use more great apps. :)
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While I don't use either my PC or X1000 daily, when I need a true WYSWYG document, nothing has ever matched the ease of Final Writer -- I do however more than once a week use the X1000 for mindless aggression on Quake II, and some other retro crap. On my PC, I may kill time using Word 2010 for work compatibility, video chatting, and Spider Freecell.
I use a tablet each AM and PM to catch up on news, email, and stuff (while laying in bed) as I wake up or go to sleep (respectively). Life is a bitch.
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Thanks for the suggestions, perspectives.
I've decided to bring my OS 4.1 machine in to the office. That way I can use it as my IRC machine daily, and for other things as well, after some trying out.
It's joining my Apple //c.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/14667516367/in/album-72157604704708180/
bp
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@blakespot
gotta say, i am green with envy over so magnificent a working space. and i just happened upon your blog -- wow! you have a terrific setup. :cool:
-- eliyahu
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Ha, I clicked on his blog over this thread, too. Meant to say something the other night. I've had that picture of your "byte cellar" saved on my computer for a while, in terms of a "maybe someday I can make my place look like this, too" idea. Didn't realize it was yours. Kudos! :D
Edit: Also, fantastic and thorough list, @eliyahu (http://www.amiga.org/forums/member.php?u=8603)! :banana:
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My AmigaOS 4.1 machine makes a nice paper weight at the moment. Power it up now and then to see what is new, but not really there for day to day use.
Nice to check out AmigaOS 4.1 now and then.
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what others have said and I personally also like to dabble with Lightwave and Blender, doodling with SketchBlock, fixing/upgrading my classics/NG keeps me busy too
Basically my old Samflex@800 and now my X1000 are modern extensions of my A1000, A1200's and I look forward to find ways to keep messin with them.
Based on your Byte Cellar which is quadruple the size of my Man Cave I suspect you know the reasons why;)
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Ok, I've got the machine setup with OS4.1FE and it's in my office. Having fun loading it up properly.
I've got player and DvPlayer installed. Someone mentioned that the Radeon 9250 in my 440ep-Flex assists with video playback. Is there some binding I must work to get this happening. Video looks pretty studdery in mplayer, and DvPlayer seems to play nothing I throw at it. (There is mention of .AVI files not playing in the OS 4.1 bundled version of DvPlayer -- is there a better, pay version?)
I've got mpega.library (libmad clone) installed and working. Also installed a52 and dca codecs. What other core things do I want to setup? Is mplayer and DvPlayer it for video playback? There's no VLC port, right?
Other "core" suggestions?
Thanks.
bp
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Thank you for this thread. I'm getting ready to follow along with updating my Sam 440 Flex:) Lots of great suggestions here!
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@blakespot
dvplayer is commercial, and there's a new version coming, but until then, i'm not sure if you can order it anymore. try dvplayer.amistore.net (http://dvplayer.amistore.net) and see if it will let you buy it. if not, ping matthew (@amigakit) or trevor (@TrevorD) and see if they can help. the version included as an 'extra' with the OS is really more a demo. but i used the full, paid version on my SAM back in the day, and it played 480p AVIs quite well, especially in fullscreen.
mplayer is another animal altogether. for faster NG machines, you don't really need to fiddle with it, but man, i had to on that SAM. you want to make sure framedrop is always enabled. if it's an AVI, you want cache on, if it's a MP4, you don't and you also want force indexing... see what i mean? eventually i just used my office machine to transcode all my video files into 480p AVIs using Xvid or MPEG2 as a codec, and those work great. i was so happy when i got a G4-based system. it played everything, no need to muck about. and, no, there is no VLC port -- at least that i know about.
as for what else, well, there's a bunch of stuff out there (as i mentioned earlier), and plenty of cool games, too. are there any specific things you want to do with your SAM?
-- eliyahu
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The thing is, when I fire it up, I never find a compelling reason to keep using it daily. It is sitting beside my quad-core 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac w/ 3 screens and I _want_ to use it but I think I just don't have the apps to keep my interest.
I think that most of us who still use their Amigas/compatibles in daily use just love how the whole (operating)system works. It's not that much about the apps, but other things.
Of course there are some lovely apps which you love too, but to be honest, other systems have much better offering with the apps you need in the modern world, if you mainly need those. Although nothing still beats Magellan2, AmIRC, CEd, ARexx, PPaint, etc in my use :)
But I'd say if someone who has been a power user on the Amiga earlier (== knows what's possible) is now sitting happily in front of some other system like OSX, Windows, Linux without feeling annoyed... he's a lost soul now. Unfortunately many next gen buyers seem to be like that... having a new machine sitting somewhere without power and waiting some miracle to give them a reason to start using it.
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Update.
I've been installing lots of utils, apps, demos, games on the 440se in my office. It's fleshed out far beyond what it was sitting at home in my basement comp room. I use it a great deal each day at the office. I am hoping to find new ways to use it, still. I need to find a good code editor that has integrated FTP to edit and save remote files. That's my job (web dev).
Nice listening to streams on TuneNet. Will be nicer when it gets back in sync with Shoutcast, as I hear it will before too long.
I've got reg'ed Wordsworth on my A2000 '020 - need to find somehow get that installed on the SAM.
Any other recommendations? Anything you have to offer is appreciated!
bp
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Update.
I've been installing lots of utils, apps, demos, games on the 440se in my office. It's fleshed out far beyond what it was sitting at home in my basement comp room. I use it a great deal each day at the office. I am hoping to find new ways to use it, still. I need to find a good code editor that has integrated FTP to edit and save remote files. That's my job (web dev).
Nice listening to streams on TuneNet. Will be nicer when it gets back in sync with Shoutcast, as I hear it will before too long.
I've got reg'ed Wordsworth on my A2000 '020 - need to find somehow get that installed on the SAM.
Any other recommendations? Anything you have to offer is appreciated!
bp
Have you had a look at [URL]Codebench[=http://codebench.co.uk/downloads.html]? It doesn't have FTP yet, but it's getting there.
A couple of things missing from Eliyahu's excellent list are FreeDB, a database of CD ID's which I use at the same time along with ADRipper, and WebVision, a classic 68K app for viewing webcams. It still works great with AmigaOS 4.1.
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...
I rely on too many cloud services and such that require better (eg, more modern/stable browsers) browsers, and use too many services like GDrive and Dropbox, which really aren't an option on the SAM.
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Then this might be something for you:
Amiga Cloud Handlers (http://aminet.net/search?query=amiga+cloud+handlers )
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@Dandy
thanks for the reminder -- the google drive handler is excellent. i still need to register, though....
-- eliyahu
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Then this might be something for you:
Amiga Cloud Handlers (http://aminet.net/search?query=amiga+cloud+handlers)
tried to get DropBox working on my X1k with no luck so if anyone has it working please let us know here
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You could always start developing apps that suit your interest a bit more. The Amiga community, especially the OS4 community, could always use more great apps. :)
Computers are successful all the time you can do something that you can't do on another computer for the same amount of money.
If the hardware was cheaper and better then people would be rushing to write more apps.