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Frobnicate returns By Chris Williams. Published: 10th Mar 2004, 22:39:37 | Permalink | PrintableRick Murray's opinionated e-zine is back  Media Watch Rick Murray's unmistakable Frobnicate e-zine is back with a Spring 2004 edition, published online a mere five years after the previous issue.
"I am writing this issue for two reasons. The first, it has always bugged me that I stopped writing with issue 19, I feel I should have at least made it as far as issue 20. Also, because I felt like it," explained Rick in his editorial, which also details how the RISC OS landscape has changed since 1999 although skipping over most of the Omega and RiscStation sagas.
Frobnicate 20 is certainly on the scene and in full effect, written in a manner most Frob fans will appreciate. Rick indeed wrote, edited and produced all of it, except for Ron Briscoe's fleeting Iyonix article. Topics covered include a look at Ovation Pro for Windows, a terribly handy guide to cracking software protection, Ovation, how Rick doesn't like the RIAA, Digiboxes, Ovation, a swipe at RISCOS Ltd. for not publically documenting Select, Ovation, how to control the IIC bus (actually useful if otherwise inaccurate), Digiboxes, Ovation and Rick's PDAs.
Interestingly, in an eyebrow raising 'did he really just say that?' way, Rick begins one programming article with the following observation of his: "I guess I've been reading too many 'how to program correctly' books, and I'm sick of reading the musings of all of those over-zealous pricks who reckon they know best." That's probably because they do know best, Rick. What next? God damn those judges and their big headed 'know-it-all' stance on law and UK legislation. Damn them all. Also, Rick's decided to fork DeskLib with his own 32bit version called "v2.30 [RM/32]", despite the fact that the rest of the RISC OS world is on version 2.53, which is also 32bit.
One other thing we noticed with Rick's articles is that, as amusing as they are, just about every article includes a less than avoidable rant about George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Why not just coalesce the political commentary into a separate write up and end the pollution of otherwise interesting articles? Also, how can Rick keep a straight face while accusing Prez Bush of "all but killing the idea of democracy" and at the same time, promoting Frobnicate as an "Acorn-oriented magazine with an anarchic outlook"?
However as Rick points out: "One of the benefits of writing my own magazine is that I control the content. This isn't to say I'm a control freak; I value the right to have the freedom to express opinions. Instead, it means that if I want to devote some space to slagging off George Bush and saying what an evil idiot he is, then I can do so."
Rick's a big fan of free speech, "that 'article 19'" as he puts it, and that's something we can admire, although anyone can (or should be able to) exercise their right to free speech so Rick perhaps shouldn't always act so surprised when he wields this right. He's not afraid to speak his mind, often in an excitable, frothy mouth yet amusing manner, on matters relevant and not so relevant to RISC OS users. Fans of Frob will no doubt descend upon this season's issue with delirium, we can hide behind our sofas in anticipation of issue 21.
Links
Frobnicate website - download as an OvationPro file, or PDF. Or OvationPro.
Rick's also updated his super assembler guide, fyeo2 software, HTML plugin for yes, OvationPro and teletext suite.
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JessFranco
Anarchism is not chaos, even though most people use the word for that meaning. Anarchism means, that all pleople behave in such ways, that no harm is done to anyone and no central government is needed.
