TV Amiga prize

Press, 20 December 1988, Page 28

TV Amiga prize

Television New Zealand is offering $2OO as a prize to an Amiga user who comes up with new graphics for the daily weather forecast.

The present graphics — the map with clouds, rain, sun — has been generated on a Commodore Amiga, and is obviously seeking fresh material.

The contest is being organised through the New Zealand Amiga Users Group, which has a branch in Christchurch. The software is to be written in Deluxe Paint, which takes advantage of the graphics capabilities of the machine. A condition of the contest is that the copyright will pass to Television New Zealand. Given this, the prize offered is a bit

niggardly, though enthusiasts would no doubt be chuffed to have an audience of hundreds of thousands for their work. Excel 2.1

Version 2.1 of Excel, from Microsoft, is now available in New Zealand at a recommended retail price (before GST) of $1195, or $65 as an upgrade for registered users. It comes with a runtime version of the faster version of Windows, 2.1. Brimaur, the New Zealand distributor, says the new version of Excel executes macros 48% faster, pull-down menus 42% faster, and prints on the HP Laser Jet II 22% faster. Microsoft has also released on the New Zealand market Excel to run under OS/2 software, Presentation Manager. Under OS/2, the whole Excel program can be loaded into memory, allowing much faster execution. Robot sales

Sales of robots in New Zealand have been hit by the economic downturn. Only three have been sold in the country this year compared with an average of 17 a year for the last three years, reports the Robot Association of New Zealand.

The president, Mr Rick

Kay, says a number of those sold are either standing idle or are up for sale. Besides a loss of confidence by many manufacturing firms, technical problems by buyers underestimating the difficulty in installing them have been the problem.

However, he says there are a number of successful installations. One of these is at Anderton holdings, which is connected with a well-known Christchurch politician.

Lotus pips Excel Lotus 1-2-3 has won the spreadsheet category of the “Australian PC World” 1988 class awards, with 62 per cent of readers’ votes. Excel was second with 20%, and Quattro third with 8%. This follows the “Infoworld” poll which declared it the most popular spreadsheet in New Zealand.

The poll covers only MS-DOS users, of course, although a release is being developed for the Macintosh and for running under Unix. Lotus says a Compass Research survey shows that 1-2-3 has 60% of the Australian PC spreadsheet market.

Release 3.0 is now to be shipped in the second quarter of next year.

Other polls

Other products successful in polls include Q and A (praised on these pages earlier this year) at the American microcomputer show, Comdex, and Word in a poll by the New Zealand weekly, “Infoworld.”

The “Infoworld” poll declared the Macintosh SE the country’s top personal computer, and Cowman, Bowman Associates the country’s top software writers. Their product, CBA, was also voted the top accounting package. Digital 45

Colt has applied for patents on an electronic ignition firing system for pistols, Gareth Powell reports. When the trigger is pulled, a magnet moves past a solid-state switch which trips a circuit to release the hammer. A digital display will warn when the pistol is loaded and how many rounds are left. Mac update The Microsoft File database management program for the Plus, SE, and 11, has been updated with the release in New Zealand of version 2.0. It is said to be faster, easier to use and more flexible. It also supports colour on the Mac 11.