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Amiga Update (1996-04-29)
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/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Occasional Newsletter)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH
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960429
W H A T T H E B L A Z E S ? V I S C O R P I S S O L D ?
U P D A T E O N V I S C O R P
I B M E R S H A V E C H I C A G O , W E H A V E M I A M I
About this issue:
We found the article about Blazemonger Inc. some days ago and immediately
contacted the author after reading the surprising report. Full details are
below. Read with caution.
We have been keeping a close eye on VIScorp itself since the intended sale
was announced. There were several developments in the last few days that
we thought you'd like to know about, so we put together another issue. We
also got wind of a new tcp/ip networking stack being developed by Holger
Kruse, a premier Amiga networking software developer. Anyone who uses an
Amiga to "surf" the Internet will want to keep an eye on the new stack,
named "Miami".
First, the information about VIScorp. We have a series of VIScorp
announcments. Our comments will be separated from the announcements by {}.
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VIScorp Purchased By BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED
Yes, Amiga fans, the rumors are true! As of six hours ago, VIScorp has
been purchased in a surprise takeover by BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED. VIScorp
chief honcho and generally cool guy Carl Saskatchewan is reportedly
"delighted" with the acquisition and looks forward to an "er... unusual
product line" to be introduced at next month's WORLD OF BLAZEMONGER
conference in Chickenmilk, Wisconsin.
Among the products to be introduced at the W.O.B. are:
The Amiga ST: a set-top computer that, when attached to any television
set, automatically converts all incoming programs into reruns of
"Gilligan's Island."
Sidecar II, an IBM PC emulator roughly the size of the Queen Elizabeth II
luxury liner. Comes complete with torpedos.
BLAZESCAPE, the ONLY World Wide Web browser capable of connecting to
ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS. Features multithreading, HTML 6.0, and new Virtual
Java (TM) which beams cool animations DIRECTLY into your CEREBRAL CORTEX
with a sledgehammer.
The AmigaBICEP 5000, their new top-of-the-line computer. In direct
contrast to the original Amiga 1000, which used an off-the-shelf CPU and a
custom graphics chipset, BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED has decided to use an
off-the-shelf graphics chipset and a custom CPU. Known as the BLAZEIUM
chip, this little speed demon runs at a blazing 2,000,000 tychohertz (10 to
the power 8275, base 19) and features over EIGHT BILLION REGISTERS for the
ULTIMATE in hardware banging!!!
And of course, BLAZEMONGER MCXLVII: "FATAL DEATH KILLERS OF ARMAGEDDON."
[Availability is pending the overturn of the Communications Decency Act,
and possibly the Geneva Convention.]
See you in Chickenmilk!!
Dan
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|Dan Barrett -- Computer Science Dept, University of MA, Amherst, MA 01003|
|http://www.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/public.html -- barrett@cs.umass.edu|
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---
Copyright 1996 by Daniel J. Barrett. This article may be freely
distributed as long as it is distributed in its entirety. It may not be
included in any publication without the written permission of the author.
So nyaaah.
{ The above was printed with due permission from the author. He was last
reported hiding in an abandoned Atari warehouse, hoping to escape the wrath
of a mob of miffed Amiga owners. Somewhat more reliable information on
VIScorp follows. Brad}
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A N N O U N C E M E N T S F R O M V I S C O R P
{ We were a bit concerned when we came across this announcment late last
week: }
Press Conference Cancelled
Message to Amiga Developers & Amiga press.
24 April, 1996
We had to cancel the press conference scheduled on the 24th of April in
Frankfurt. We would like to apologise for this. The new date will be made
public as soon as possible. Target is end of May.
The project initiated by VIScorp with the Amiga developer community is
currently being proceeded. The completion of this process will be
determining the date of our press conference.
You will be notified in time, please stay tuned.
Info: Gilles Bourdin - AMIGA Technologies GmbH - Berliner Ring 89 -
D-64625 BENSHEIM Tel +49 6252 709 195 - Fax +49 6252 709 520 email
gbo@amiga.de - HTTP://www.amiga.de
{ We aren't certain what the press conference was intended to deal with,
but any time one is cancelled it is bothersome. The "project" mentioned in
the announcement was presumably the one described in this earlier
announcement. This seems like a very positive move on VSIcorp's part: }
Message to Amiga Developers
23 April, 1996
Recently, a number of Amiga-developers have contacted VIScorp to make
proposals about the future of Amiga.
VIScorp is ready to listen to all suggestions coming from the Amiga
developer community.
In France, an Amiga developer asked if VIScorp would like him to represent
officially the company to the french developer community in order to
centralize their ideas and proposals.
We found this to be an excellent idea for supporting the Amiga and would
actually like to extend this system to all countries where Amiga developers
are active, so that there are VIScorp representatives in each country.
If you would like to represent VIScorp in your country, feel free to
contact David Rosen (drosen@vistv.com), VP, Business Development or Raquel
Velasco (raquel@vistv.com), Director of Sales and Marketing Europe at
following Email address: raquel@vistv.com.
Regards,
Bill Buck
CEO, VIScorp
VISCORP
111 North Canal Street, Suite 933
Chicago, IL 60606
{ And finally, this message appeared just yesterday. If intentions count
for anything, and they should, this should make for a happier Amiga
community. Time will tell what VIScorp will actually be able to do but we
like their approach so far: }
Message to Amiga Developers and Users
From Eric Laffont, VIScorp Developer/User Liason
28-Apr-96
I have been given the responsibility by Mr Bill Buck, CEO of Viscorp, to
rebuild a strong Amiga Developer and Users Community. I know that the
Amiga community is currently very fragmented and in the past nothing
serious has been done for you. As a Commodore developer since 1983 (C64,
then Amiga), I can understand all your wishes.
First of all, we are listening to all your suggestions about
software/hardware development, documentation, distribution, contact--just
about anything you want if it's reasonable. It's a great mission to seek
information from the entire world. So if you're interested in collecting
suggestions and representing your Amiga community, contact us on the
VIScorp Web Site, or (elaffont@pratique.fr) simply reply to this message.
PS: Mrs. Raquel Velasco and Mr. Bill Buck apologize for not replying to
the mail they have received because they are very busy, as you can imagine.
They will reply when they return to the US around the first of May. But
you can always reach me via email:
elaffont@pratique.fr (Eric Laffont)
VISCORP
111 North Canal Street, Suite 933
Chicago, IL 60606
{Small Wonders Research apparently does a stock market analysis of
technology companies. We found this report on VIScorp's homepage.}
R E S E A R C H R E P O R T O N V I S C O R P
Author Michael Harrison
Small Wonders Research Reports
Visual Information Service Corp (VisCorp), traded on the NASDAQ Bulletin
Board (VICP), has created proprietary technology for the first commercial
"set top box" connecting the TV and the telephone. This
inexpensive device will allow non-PC users to access the Internet, on- line
services, E-mail, Fax, Voice-mail, and direct credit-card transactions, as
well as all telephone functions, with a TV and remote controller. With
prototyping completed, the company has formed key strategic alliances for
technology, manufacturing, and distribution, that will assure a very rapid
rollout of the product, both in the US and throughout Europe. Current
field testing with Booth Communications in the Detriot area suggests
VisCorp may very well win the race to (a very big) market with this hot new
product.
{The above analysis of VIScorp sounds very positive. The report was pulled
from the VIScorp website, which contains a longer version as well.
Following is information about Small Wonders Research, from their homepage
on the Net. We run it here to give you a quick idea of the company which
provided the reassuring rating of VIScorp (VICP in the chart below): }
SMALL WONDERS RESEARCH REPORT Mike Harrison, Analyst
Fax: 860-688-0226 Voice: 860-688-6297 Email: harrison@tiac.net
Track Record as of April 19, 1996
Since changing our approach and publishing schedule back in September 1995,
we have been relatively more successful. Prior to that time, we published
on a daily basis. In addition to being overly hectic, that schedule
allowed little time for the in depth analysis, frequently including site
visits, that characterize our current recommendations. We now publish on a
"when available" schedule, meaning when we have found an exceptional stock
and have completed thorough due diligence. We're happy with this approach,
and following are all our picks since September.
Sym ---Date- - Price- Hi Cls - - Fri Cls - - % Hi- - % Fri - - 96 Target
ISSM --9/13/95 - .75 - 2.06 - - 1.25 - - - +175% - +67% - - 5.00
RTL-V -1/16/9 - C1.70 - C1.95 - - C1.40 - - - +15% - (18%) - -C3.00
VICP --3/2/96 - 7.50 - 10.25 - - 10.25 - - - +37% - +37% - - 20.00
IVDO --3/21/96 - 1.50 - 4.12 - - 2.75 - - - +175% - +83% - - 10.00
Avg -- (6 mo) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +100% --+42%
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M I A M I - A N E W T C P / I P S T A C K
From the home page of Holger Kruse:
Miami is a new TCP/IP protocol stack to access the Internet by modem.
The main difference to other existing protocol stacks (such as AmiTCP and
AS-225) are: Very> easy to use. The configuration is completely
GUI-driven, without any config files or environment variables to edit.
Dialer (interactive and script-driven) and PPP/SLIP integrated. No SANA-II
drivers required.
Separate configuration program MiamiInit to automatically configure Miami
for your Internet provider
API-compatible to AmiTCP and AS-225, i.e. you can use most existing
clients and servers with Miami.
Several new features that make modem-based connections easier and more
convenient to use, e.g. dialer for multiple phone numbers, phone bill
display, localization for the GUI, automatic dialscript generator, dynamic
DNS host name cache and other things.
I expect a first release version of Miami to be ready in June or July 1996.
{ A tcp/ip stack is the key networking software which allows your computer
to have network communication with others on Internet style networks, and
on the Internet itself. Holger Kruse is the author of an excellent PPP
device much used to connect Amiga browser programs to the Internet, and
also of AmiWin, an excellent X-Windows package for the Amiga, among other
networking programs. Brad}
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Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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