Thanks for reading the ticalc.org newsletter! This month has been relatively slow in the TI Calculator world, particularly towards the end of the month (probably attributed to final exams/midterms in many high schools). Nevertheless, it has once again been an exciting month.

The TI Millenium Awards, a joint venture between ticalc.org and Dimension-TI, is currently being wrapped up. This is a forum where users can celebrate the great achievements in the field of TI Graphing Calculators by nominating and voting for programs. The nominations took place on ticalc.org, while the actual voting took place at Dimension-TI. To find more information about the TI Millenium Awards, and to see the results when they are posted, visit http://www.ticalc.org/mil/.

The Program of the Month awards will start up again on ticalc.org. Programs will be selected in four categories: TI-82/TI-83/TI-83+, TI-85/TI-86, TI-89/TI-92/TI-92+, and Computer Utilities/Miscellaneous Programs. All programs released this month that are designated as Featured Programs will be eligible.

For this month's interview we have selected Jason Kovacs, member of TCPA and author of many notable programs, such as Insane Game, Periodic Table, and DStar; all for the TI-83+.

On an unrelated note, Phil Genera and I, Eric Sun, have started a TI Calculator RC5 team at distributed.net, supported by all three major TI calculator sites. RC5 is a project that takes advantage of idle CPU cycles to do something moderately useful (with the potential for a monetary prize, too). If you run the software, you will notice no difference in your computer's speed, so join the team! For more information, visit http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/25350.html.

Eric Sun

January was once again a fruitful month for the TI-83+. Joe Wingbermuehle released version 1.4 of his popular shell, Ion, for both the TI-83 and TI-83+. In addition, Dan Englender of the TCPA released nine modules for the shell. TCPA has also released many programs this month, such as Insane Game v1.3, Periodic Table v2.0, DStar v2.6, BoxWorld v1.1, Lite 3, and Unsquish v1.1, all for the TI-83 and TI-83+. All of these fine programs can be found in the archives at ticalc.org.

Other programming groups have also had moderate successes, such as the Z80 Assembly Coders group(http://z80.us.fornax.com/), who has released a TI-83 Disassembler, BugOS, The Genetic Code, and Stunt Copter. BASM has also released a Pokemon demo for the TI-83 (SOS).

For other calculators, MXM Productions (http://mxm.ticalc.org/) has released [tie], a shell for the TI-92 that features compatibility with DoorsOS programs. This is undoubtedly quite exciting for TI-92 users, since it helps bridge the gap between TI-92 and TI-92+'s.

Other notable programs include Hard Hat Mack and Hard Hat Mack 2 for Ion, by Sam Heald, and Defiance v0.1 beta, by Adamman.

At ticalc.org, we often receive many of the same questions. In this column, we hope to address some of these questions for a broader audience. If you'd like to submit a question, please email it to ask@ticalc.org.

Q: What's the deal with the new shells on the 89? Which ones have AMS 2.03 support?

A: With the release of TI-89 AMS 2.03, many programmers have scrambled to make their programs and shells compatible with the new software. Thankfully, most of the programs that work with AMS 2.03 are labeled with "[AMS v2.0x]" in our TI-89 Assembly archives at http://www.ticalc.org/pub/89/asm/. In terms of shells and kernels, DoorsOS II v0.92 and Kernel v0.6 support the new AMS software. Other AMS 2.03-compatible shells are also currently in development. If you are ever in doubt, simply consult the documentation.

Eric Sun