Iris web browser available to OBrowser supporters

Without going into a fully detailed history,RISC OS Developments Ltd was formed only a few short years ago with the original (and initially hush-hush) aim of funding the development of a web browser. The company has achieved a number of other things since, the most notable of which is probably taking over ownership of RISC OS itself and making it fully open source – but all the same, that original purpose was the web browser.

Read More

Validate VAT numbers from the desktop

If you run a business (or look after the books for one), sometimes it can be useful to be able to double check VAT registration numbers to ensure they are valid, or to simply look them up to find an address. Double checking a UK VAT number can be done with some simple maths1, but all that does is ensure it could be a valid number, not that it is one. Better, then, is to be able to punch the number into an online service, and be told not only…

Read More

QrCode receives a little house training

Kevin Wells has released a new version of his QrCode application. The software is used to produce ‘Quick Response’ codes – two dimensional bar codes that can contain a little more information than their simpler older relatives, with URLs being a common example, whereby you scan a QR Code with your phone or other device, and from there your web browser can be launched pointing to the relevant address. For example, the one used on this page – somewhat pointlessly, I admit – leads to this page.

Read More

LanMan98 2.08 released under open source licence

Developed by Paul Gardiner and released as a Warm Silence Software (WSS) product, LanMan98 provided a means to access other devices on a network using the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. In its original form LanMan98 worked alongside LanManFS and Omniclient, and offered support for long filenames on remote filing systems, but the software grew from those origins and became something that could work independently of Omniclient.

Read More

Cavern pops its way into !Store

I’m forever blowing bubbles orbs… A popular game from yesteryear was Bubble Bobble, which was available for a number of 8-bit home computer platforms and consoles – a platform game in which the player moved around each level, firing bubbles at the monsters in order to eliminate them. It’s also one of the games featured in the Code the Classics book from the Raspberry Pi folk – and the ‘type in listing’ from that book, written in Python, is called Cavern.

Read More