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Amiga Update (1999-08-28)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail
KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING || Newsmagazine)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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990828
A M I G A G O E S Q U I E T . . .
. . . A N D S O D O E S I W I N
I W I N B R I E F S T A T E M E N T
I W I N I N T R O D U C E S T H E M S E L V E S
I W I N P R I C E S
J I M C O L L A S O N I W I N
A M I G A A D V I S O R Y C O U N C I L
A M I G A D O W N U N D E R R E P O R T
H A Y N I E O N N G
A M I G A 2 K I N S T . L O U I S
S E C O N D A N N U A L P O W E R P I C N I C
A M I G A E X T R A V A G A N Z A 9 9
S A K U 9 9 I S C L O S E !
R U S S I A N P A R T Y T H I S W E E K E N D
F I F T H A N N I V E R S A R Y - G A U H P I L
A M I G A C A R D G A M E
" A M I G A " E 4 0 0 0
R E Q U E S T E R E N H A N C E R
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Even if I didn't have many other reason to use an Amiga (and I have
many), I'd still be a member of the Amiga community just to see what
might happen next. This month has provided many examples of why that
attitude exists. First, from out of the blue comes a company no one
has heard of, by name of Iwin Corporation. They promise two new Amiga
compatibles, to begin manufacturing in September, that offer just
about everything any Amigan could want. Compatibility, features, power
(Motorola 68060 or Power PC), and low prices. The natural reaction is
to wonder if they're a hoax or for real. Our opinion is the company is
probably for real, but we wonder if it's possible for them to deliver
what they intend. We have some information for you below. We had
intended to publish the specifications of the two models Iwin is
discussing, but can't. Everything on their website is copyrighted, and
they haven't responded to our inquiries. We haven't asked for
permission, because we didn't get an answer to our first note. Perhaps
that's because we used the sentence "If everything turns out to be on
the up and up, we'll be happy to carry news releases and information
from Iwin to help you get the word out." Perhaps we insulted them,
though that wasn't our intent. If you want the specifications, you can
find them at their web site: http://www.iwin-corp.com.
As you will see from the note from Amiga President Jim Collas below,
we'd hoped to hear something about Iwin from Amiga this week. We kept
this issue back, hoping to include that information. It's now Saturday
night and we've heard nothing. Instead, Amiga has gone quite, as we
discuss in the next paragraph. At this point, we're drawing no
conclusions from the timing.
The second strange thing this month was the decision by both Amiga
and Iwin to stop communicating with the Amiga community for now, to
concentrate on products. They both announced it at about the same
time, and in similar terms. We have statements below. We think it's
probably a good idea for Amiga to scale back their communication as
they've put a lot of time into it. A lot of information has gone out
to the world at large also, probably too much. We note that the press
section of the bulletin board on the Amiga site is shut down, with a
statement that too much proprietary information slipped through.
We do have one more thing to say about the Iwin products. If they
become available as planned, we'd be happy to look at one and review
it. We almost never do reviews here due to space constraints, but this
would be such a significant event we'd make an exception - even if we
have to give the computer back afterwards. ;-)
"AU" HOUSEKEEPING:
This is the second issue to go out under the auspices of the ONElist
site. Overall, my impression is ONElist is working out reasonably
well. A few of our readers may have had other opinions. Let me share a
note I received from ONElist recently, and which many of you may have
received as well:
"Dear ONElist Subscriber
You may have recently received the onelist_announce newsletter.
During the recent transfer of email lists to ONElist, some new members
were inadvertently subscribed to this newsletter. We sincerely
apologize to you for this oversight and would like to assure you that
your email address has now been removed from this newsletter and you
will no longer receive editions of it.
This applies only to the onelist_announce newsletter. Any other lists
you subscribed to will be unaffected.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and again, our apologies.
The ONElist Team"
The note explains some puzzling letters we got from readers
expressing concerns about ONElist, including fears of spamming. We're
inclined to view this as a genuine mistake on their part, and a
particularly ill timed one from our point of view as it happened just
as we switched to their service.
Let me point out that we have used ONElist in several capacities for
many months before moving "Amiga Update" there, and we had no bad
experiences. Please keep us informed of any problems you may
have, but we really don't expect any serious problems with this
relationship.
IT'S NOT US ...
Finally, we need to comment on a new Amiga site just established in
Norway. The site is called .AmiUpdate - a name that certainly got our
attention. Please note that there is no connection between that site
and this publication. We've asked them to place a statement to that
affect on their site, and they readily agreed.
That doesn't mean .AmiUpdate isn't a good site. It turns out to be a
very good place to go on the net for news and especially interviews.
Check it out at http://amiupdate.8m.com/ - we think you'll enjoy it.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:
19 Jul 1999
Brad,
Thanks for the years of Amiga Updates... you should be given an Amiga
ambassadorship for all your hard work and dedication.
While I think the move towards Linux on the Amiga is the best move
for that platform, the development of an Amiga Workbench, to set it
apart from the other window managers, is key to its success. A
customized X display server is necessary to take advantage of any
proprietary graphics Amiga might house. Another feature to might
separate it from the masses is to put the Linux kernel in ROM, or
flash RAM, like earlier Amiga models. That will make the archictecture
flexible for server, workstation, or as a mananaged PC on a network
much more easier. If not, it will be just another Linux port.
For those with less than ecstatic enthusiasm towards this move, keep
in mind that the original Amiga OS is not so different from Linux.
Both have scripting and GUI interfaces to OS and disk. Both do not
rely upon lame hardware addressing schemes, such as C:. Both are
multitasking and Amiga has easily had multiuser capabilities with 3rd
party software, that really work. Linux also offers the most stable
operating system I have ever known to work with, unlike Windows,
Macintosh and, alas, Amiga.
Finally, both units are conducive to the creative minded, not some
warped vision to conform to somebody else's idea of ideal computing. A
marriage of the two should produce one gem of a multimedia personal
computer for the next millennia.
Robert
~~~~~~
Robert,
Good thoughts, and worth sharing with our readers. Thanks for sending
them our way.
Brad
======
6 Aug 1999
Hello Brad,
I found you on "Gramma BBS" in the Seattle area. I enjoy your
newsletter!
I have an Amiga 3000 and a floptical drive which is about 5 years
old. Unfortunately, it stopped working recently....the problem seems
to be that my CPU can't find it "not mounted". Any suggestions about
how to temporarily have my computer "find" the missing drive?
I bought the drive from Tulin Technology in San Jose. Another company
there was Insite Peripherals. The phone numbers for those firms are no
longer working. Do you have forwarding numbers for them? If not, can
you suggest where I might have this unit repaired or possibly I might
even buy another floptical drive....I have a large number of disks and
need something to read them!
Thanks in advance.
Best wishes,
Tim
~~~~~~
Tim,
Never having used a floptical, I'm not a good person to answer your
question. Can one of the readers help please?
Brad
======
4 Aug 1999
Hi Brad, I love this letter, always great and ontop. you work very
hard and it is greatly appreciated what you do , but this line below
my entry has just brought me over the top, I cant believe that they
would even consider it.
not to get into Flame wars here but What is this??!!! if we dont like
what they are doing to the Amiga, ? if we dont like that they are
taking the machine and turning an advanced O/S into another Linux
Clone running Xwindows ? damn straight we dont like it. they shouldnt
either ..
just remember the name doesn't mean a damn thing. its the technology
behind it, hell I bet the new Amiga is just some gateway unix box that
they peeled off the sticker on and on plopped the amiga logo...
and to Alan , Rick and the rest of the tech nerds @ Amiga R&D ,We
love the Amiga, We love everything about it. but when you CHANGE
EVERYHING ABOUT IT WE LOVE , We dont love it anymore. because it is
not what we fell in love with... remember that when you cash your
paychecks...I think that Amiga is Using the Amiga Community's Strength
to hold them together untill they get BIG enough to Stab us all in the
back and leave use behind..
I AM WITH PHASE5 ON THIS ONE...
Chris
>
> To the small number of individuals who have been sending vulgar,
> threatening hatemail because you don't like what we're doing, and have
> announced that you're fed up and are leaving the Amiga community,
> goodbye. Millions and millions of people will purchase Amiga-branded
> and Amiga-compliant products over the coming years, and we're sorry
> you won't be among them.
>
> Rick LeFaivre, Allan Havemose, and the Amiga R&D Team
~~~~~~
Chris,
I get the feeling we'll never settle the dispute over Amiga's
approach or what others would like to do. One thing you may want to
look at is the series of items on Iwin in this issue. While we're
still not sure what all is involved in their efforts, what they're
saying has to be music to the "Classic" Amiga fan's ears.
Brad
======
5 Aug 1999
G'Day Brad
Re Letter in your Amiga Update:-
> Hello Brad
> ... snip ...
> Another problem I'm having is recently I haven't been able to get on
> aminet,
The following exchange of e-mails that I had with Urban Müller may
help:-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frank wrote:
>
> G'Day Urban Müller
>
> Greetings from "The Land Down Under"
>
> I can't seem to get any proper response from these Aminet mirrors:-
>
> * http://us.aminet.net/aminet/
>
> Message from web site:-
>
> Forbidden
> You don't have permission to access /aminet/ on this server.
>
> * http://uk.aminet.net/~aminet/
>
> Broswer message:-
>
> Network error occurred while receiving data
> Connection reset by peer
>
> (This has been happening for a few weeks
>
> * http://au.aminet.net/aminet/
>
> Browser message:-
>
> Unable to locate server au.aminet.net
>
> (I had heard that Livewire who hosted Aminet in
> Australia were no longer doing so.)
>
> Cheers ....
us.aminet.net - file system broken
uk.aminet.net - been hacked, rebuilding
au.aminet.net - oops, forgot to remove from mirror list
Sending out a MOTD
-Urban
~~~~~~
Thanks for the input. Looks like a whole series of problems for
Aminet, all at once. Things seem to be going better for them now.
Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A G O E S Q U I E T . . .
27 Aug 99
The following is a quotation from the Amiga Web site, put up on the
27th:
For the next several months, the Amiga staff will be focused on
implementing our business and product plans. We will not be discussing
or commenting on future company directions during this time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
. . . A N D S O D O E S I W I N
27 Aug 1999
And there's this note, which we spotted on the same day, from Iwin:
During the next couple of days/weeks we will be working on our
projects. Please understand that we will not be able to discuss our
products any further during this time.
{See Editor's Introduction and following stories for more information
on Iwin. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I W I N B R I E F S T A T E M E N T
18 June 99
{This brief item from the Iwin web site has a June date and seems to
be the first information posted by the mysterious company about the
Amiga. It went un-noticed in June, including by us. Brad}
Iwin Corporation today has announced to support e more operating
system in the future with as many applications from the Iwin business
units as possible. The new founded Amiga division of the software
business unit will produce high-quality Amiga applications and
multimedia titles. Iwin is pleased to hear about the promising
upcoming Amiga events and how the Amiga shall again roll over the
market in the future. Iwin Corporation will do it's best to help the
Amiga again on the market.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I W I N I N T R O D U C E S T H E M S E L V E S
17 Aug 1999
Hello Amiga fans and freaks,
We were watching the things going on here {Amiga newsgroup
comp.sys.amiga.misc} now since a couple of hours. Read all the posts
from you, smiled a little and now decided to really post our own
statement. We expected a lot of bad posts and mails, but that what we
had to discover during the last hours was awful. We understand that
the Amiga community was fooled by Amiga Inc. for a long time, however
persons who cannot or don't want to believe in our products - you
don't have to.
First of all, we are not here to fight some battles with any kind of
person or firm.
Second, there were some questions posted here which we will now
answer:
1. About the firm "Iwin Corporation"
Yes, Iwin was incorporated in Delaware. What's the problem? Commodore
Business Machines was incorporated on the Bahamas. Yes, Lewes/DE is
currently our only US contact but we will open another office in
Houston soon. Sorry guys, but we are new as Iwin and new in the US.
Things take some time - even in the US.
CEO of the firm is Martin Steinbach. He doesn't have anything to do
with these "Martin Steinbach's" usually found when searching with
Altavista. He is also not connected with Scientology or any other
sect.
The firm has 338 employees in sum around the world.
Iwin was founded because of the merger of Worksoft and Branch
software. As you might have read on the webpage - Worksoft AUSTRIA.
The address www.worksoft.com doesn't have anything to do with Worksoft
Austria.
Yes, the domain name was registerred only in June. Sorry guys, as we
said we are new.
Regarding the German telephone number. You can find contact
information on the webpage.
Why didn't you hear about us before? This is very simple. Just take a
look at the past posts here and you know why. We were thinking for a
very long time when and how to announce our products and we have to
confess that we are almost sorry for doing it.
About the commodore deal. We are saying "We are negotiating" with
Tulip. We want to sell our products under the name and logo of
Commodore. We didn't say we are Commodore.
Now regarding the new classic amigas:
No, we do not use any of copyrighted Amiga or Gateway or whatever
patents or technology.
8MB chipram might be impossible with Amiga chips. As we mentioned
already, we have a completely new archticture. If somebody needs this
now or not - it's up to you if you want/need it or not.
Every further question what we received in the last few hours is
currently being put on a special FAQ section on our webpage. There you
will be able to read about technical datas etc.
Once more, we are not here to have some fights with somebody. On the
contrary (as we mentioned in the interview) we would like to work
closely together with Amiga Inc. and other Amiga firms.
If there are any questions left please post them here as a reply.
Thank you.
Yours,
Martin Steinbach Rue Ann Mark
President Vice President
www.iwin-corp.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I W I N P R I C E S
21 Aug 1999
Dear Amiga users and friends,
As that we are getting more and more questions about the prices
mentioned on our website and in several posts here before we decided
to write this message.
The entry price for an A5200M (ex A510) system will be !around! $239.
This is just for the computer, case, floppy, keyboard, mouse, etc. but
NO harddisk, monitor, etc.
The entry price for an A5300M (ex A1010) system will be !around! $499
for same configuration as above.
The P {Power PC. Brad} versions will be around $100 more than the M
versions. There are currently no prices for the M+/P+ or the A5400!
Many people were asking us how we can make these prices. Well, if you
are buying enough of these things from a manufactor, then you get very
low prices - this is how the market works. As that we have three major
partners (for producing the computers, producing the chips, etc.) we
can keep our production costs very low.
Information about the names:
Because we have received many requests for it, we have decided to
rename the computers. The final decission is still not made, but it
will be fixed by the end of the next week.
Current names/numbers:
A5200 = ex A510 (Cleveland)
A5300 = ex A1010 (Ockna)
A5400 = ex A2010 (Rita)
Names in brackets are the projects names.
If you have any further question regarding these things, please post
them directly here.
Best regards,
-- Martin and Rue Ann
----------------------------------------------------------------------
J I M C O L L A S O N I W I N
19 Aug 1999
Late today was the first time I have ever heard of Iwin Corp so I
don't know if they are legitimate or not. If they have attempted to
contact Amiga, Inc in the past I am not aware of these attempts. If
the products they describe on their website are real, I would be
interested in talking to them. I have always felt that advancing the
current Amiga platform while we launch a next generation Amiga would
help the Amiga community. This is why we are doing O/S 3.5. Given the
state of affairs when I took over six months ago, I didn't believe
that advancing the current Amiga hardware was feasible. We haven't had
the internal resources to develop both product lines and I didn't see
any external solutions. If Iwin is real, it may be an interesting
option for an O/S 3.5 platform that could also run our next generation
Amiga OE. The new AMiga OE will be fairly portable although it will
optimized for next generation hardware. I am unavailable until Monday
and will contact Iwin at that time. I should caution that I am a bit
skeptical of their claims given nobody in the Amiga community has
heard of them before. I won't make any conclusions until I talk to
them. I will update the community sometime next week.
Sincerely,
Jim
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A A D V I S O R Y C O U N C I L
August 6, 1999
San Diego, CA - The Amiga Advisory Council is officially launched
today August 6th, 1999.
The community submitted hundreds of Nominations, and based upon your
input we are pleased to welcome the following members of the Amiga
Advisory Council:
Andrew Elia Ben Vost Bill Panagouleas Cade Hannan
Carsten Schroeder Chris Heereman Christian Kemp Christoph Dietz
Conor Kerr Craig DeLahoy Dave Law Don Hicks
Gary Peake Gunter Horbach Heinz Wrobel Hulger Kruse
Ian Greenaway Jeff Rose Juergen Haage Kermit Woodall
Luca Denelon Malte Mundt Randhir Jesrani Thomas Frieden
Thomas Raukamp Thomas Svenson Tom Lively Trish Zlotek
Wayne Hunt Wayne Martin
The objective of the AAC is to help us better plan the future of
Amiga through close communications with people who are viewed as
leaders in the Amiga community. The members of the AAC have all
executed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), with Amiga and will have
access to confidential information regarding future products and
plans. This allows Amiga to share sensitive information with respected
members of the Amiga community without having to disclose our plans
publicly.
The members of the AAC were selected to represent their different
areas of affiliation within the Amiga community - the Press,
Developers, Dealers/Distributors, and the User Group organizations.
The AAC is designed to provide a flow of information from the
Community to the Amiga management team and from Amiga back to the
community. Each of the members of the AAC will act as a conduit to the
community and the areas that they represent.
We held our first official meetings with the AAC in London and in
Sacramento with over 20 AAC members participate in these first
official meetings. The AAC was able to share with Amiga many of the
desires, and needs of the community. As we work towards the launch of
the Next Generation Amiga the input received by the AAC will help
guide those decisions.
"We are excited to welcome the members of the AAC as active
representatives of the Amiga community and look forward to
implementing many of the programs suggested in the near future, stated
Jim Collas, "together we will make a difference in computing forever."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A D O W N U N D E R R E P O R T
By Colin Bell
Used with permission
Mini Report on the ADU show for 1999.
The Amiga DownUnder show was held at the Hotel Heritage in
Narrabundah, ACT Australia. The show was in the Canberra room of the
hotel which I presume is normally used for small functions or
weddings. I attended the show on the Saturday. The Show was on both
Saturday and Sunday.
The main letdown came as soon as I walked in and asked about the
schedule for the Jim Collas speech. Unfortunately Jim couldn't make it
down to the show but Petro Tyschtschenko did make it. I was
disappointed but I realise how far away we are down here and I know
he's a busy man so that's ok. The next thing I looked for at the
stalls was for any copies of OS3.5. I knew it was doubtful that it
would be ready in time for us but there was still some hope. I
couldn't see any copies but I'd just arrived in time for Jurgen Haages
demonstration of OS3.5 so I stood and watched that. Jurgen told us
that the release would be ready in late September. Apparently,
although not released at the show, it was still the official "Launch"
of OS3.5.
If you've been keeping up with the developments in OS3.5 then there
wasn't anything really new to be learnt. Jurgen demonstrated most of
the new features that he could and discussed other things that he
couldn't show (eg. 4gig+ HD(only because they didn't have one big
enough for him to work with)) and then answered any questions from the
crowd of around 250 Amigans. Jurgen told us it would be available in
late September for 99DM, $67 US or about $95 Australian dollars. My
impression of OS3.5 is positive. All the preferences windows are
resizeable because they use the new Reactor boopsi classes, you get a
current release version of Miami and AWeb and there is an email client
included . The new Glow-icons look nice and Jurgen showed us how when
you change screendepth from say, 256 colours to 16 or 4, the icons
still looked nice. One unusual decision I found though was that the
OS3.5 manual is on the CD in html and .pdf format. When quizzed about
the pdf format (Adobe Acrobat format) Jurgen told us that most Amigans
in Germany have a PC as well so they'll view that on their PC. Anyway,
there are several pdf viewers available on aminet. The developer tools
and docs are all on the CD as well as a full version of OS3.1 (in case
you need to revert back.) The installer script also creates a rescue
disk which will allow you to boot off floppy disk and reinstall the
system from the CD. Overall, I would say that OS3.5 is worth upgrading
for and is good value.
Straight after the demo, Petro and Jurgen drew the door prizes which
were
1st A1200 plus Amiga gift pack
2nd Amiga gift pack
3rd Amiga gift pack
A special draw was held for 20 copies of OS3.5. These were specially
prepared Amiga DownUnder versions that the lucky winners received and
they will get an update when the final version is released. It's clear
to see that they are just waiting to iron out the last few bugs. All
packaging etc. is finished. These prizes will become collectors items.
I believe that the same door prize draws were held on the Sunday as
well.
After the demonstration I went around to all the stalls. There were
no international Amiga companies there apart from our own GPsoftware.
They were demonstrating and selling Opus Magellan and Dopus T-Shirts.
Computa Magic had a stall and were selling software and hardware and
seemed to be doing a good trade.
UniTech electronics was there selling a full range of stuff including
the round boing ball "Amiga, keep the momentum going" mouse mats. I
had to have one of those. :-)
RMF were there with their QuickNet ethernet cards for the
500/1200/2/3/4000's This Australian company has been around for years
making networking cards that were always just out of most Amigan's
price range. They were selling them for "show-special" prices cheaper
than an Ariadne. If I still had my BBS (and therefore had a need to
network my Amiga's) I'd have snapped up a couple of them.
CAUG and MAUG were there (Canberra / Melbourne Amiga User Groups)
with info about themselves as well as various new and second hand
items and a range of Amiga stickers and boing ball stickers that Petro
smuggled through customs for them.
An Internet Cafe was set up with about 6 A1200's networked together
for free use throughout the show. These were getting a full work-out.
The ADUG (Amiga DownUnder User Group) was launched at the show and
had a stall signing up members. This is an attempt to bring all
Australian Amiga users and is a great idea. The Amiga community in
Australia is small and our country is so vast.
Being from Sydney, my last Amiga show was the WOCA show at Darling
Harbour in about 1992/3. In comparison to that, the ADU 99 show was
tiny. But the spirit was still there. The turn out to the show was
excellent. (It was quite crowded at times) I'm glad I drove down for
it and I'd like to thank the organisers for putting on the show and to
congratulate them all. Well done guys. I'm looking forward to future
shows!
Keep an eye on the official Amiga Down Under website for a full show
report with pictures and transcripts of the speeches.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H A Y N I E O N N G
{The following was spotted recently posted to the Usenet. It's an
opinion of the next generation Amigas by Amiga legend Dave Haynier.
Brad}
Name: Dave Haynie
Email: dhaynie@jersey.net
Location: Arid South Jersey
Occupation: Iconoclast
Wow! It's like Christmas, hearing all the good postings about Amiga
after all this time (ok, two ignorant cavemen didn't like it, but the
appreciation of fine art is beyond the grasp of some lesser minds). I
worked at C=/Amiga from 1983-1994, and consulted for Amiga
Technologies (ESCOM) 1995-1996. The dream hasn't died for many of us,
and it's telling, if you view the history, that fools destroyed the
Amiga from within, not competition. For hardware: in 1991, I was
designing the next generation Amiga systems architecture, to replace
the A3000/A4000 design. With all the cool stuff that went in there, I
can honestly say the PC industry has pretty much caught up and, in
many places, surpassed this architecture (if you include USB and I2O,
they have nailed it). So using part or all of a PC design can still
yield a perfectly Amiga-like system. Software, on the other hand, is
at issue. I was very concerned when Gateway/Amiga dumped QNX (very
much a modern Amiga-like OS) for Linux. Linux is a fine free UNIX, but
in many places, it's the opposite of AmigaOS. You can't do multimedia
on Linux in the Amiga way (in fact, even Windows is better, today, and
Windows usually fails the Amiga definition of recorder-ready
multimedia). You don't have autoconfig at all, not even the primitive
static autoconfig Windows uses. But this may well change. Jim Collas
called me last month, we spoke for more than an hour, and I'm
convinced they may do well. Basically, at worst, you'll have a machine
that fulfills the promise of NeXT, only very open. At best, you'll
have that merged with basic Amiga ideas, and perhaps these will
propagate to the greater Linux community. If you were to look for one
simple way to Linux, in general, doing "the desktop thing" better than
Windows, all you need is an influx of Amiga technology -- we had that
stuff done right, for the most part, back in '86. I can't say how
it'll come out, but Collas seems to be the best guy since Jeff Porter
(A500/A2000/A3000 era) to be running things at a solvent Amiga-owning
company. You could do worse, market wise, to base things around Linux
and Java, so even if it the machine doesn't pass my Amiga acid test,
it has a good chance of standing down Windows at 20 paces. And if it
the new Amiga, for real, done right, reaching The Mainstream, people
won't see personal computers the same way again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A 2 K I N S T . L O U I S
24 Aug 99
Amigan-St. Louis is Proud to Announce Amiga 2K
Amiga 2K is the latest and best Gateway Computer Show. It will be
held at the Henry VIII Hotel, in St. Louis MO. U.S.A. We are fortunate
to be able to utilize this same beautiful hotel again this year. The
hotel was a big hit with everyone that attended Amiga 99.
Amiga 2K will be held April 7 - 9, 2000. Contracts are signed, and
the decks have been cleared. Stand by for the best Amiga show in the
new millennium!
More information will be made available as the show date approaches.
For the latest information, check our web page at:
http://www.amiga-stl.com/
We are in the process of updating them now.
Dealers, distributors, shareware and commercial developers, clubs and
others interested in exhibiting, should contact us via email for
details on costs and further details. Ask any of the exhibitors
attending any of our shows, and you will find that they were not
disappointed. In fact most everyone will tell you "The Gateway
Computer Shows put on by Amigan-St. Louis are the best!
For more exhibitor information, email Bob at bscharp@icon-stl.net You
can also check our web page for details. It will be listed under
"Amiga 2K", "Exhibiting". This will also be updated shortly.
See you in April,
Bob & Diana Scharp
Producers of the Gateway Computer Shows
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S E C O N D A N N U A L P O W E R P I C N I C
Amiga Atlanta's Second Annual PowerPicniC
Here's your invitation to the hippest
fun since the last Woodstock SIG!
Electronic Music Play, Interactive Entertainments,
Amiga Gaming, great company and special guests:
Darreck Lisle from Gateway / Amiga Inc.
Darreck will talk about whats new at Amiga Inc.
Get the inside scoop on the revoloution!
He may also have a some hot prizes to give away to a lucky Amigan!
Frank Davis from FWD Computing
Frank will be on hand with hottest Amiga CD titles on sale at
special discount price! Order the new OS3.5 from him or let him
know what other hot software you want to have at the show!
Chris Aldi (OS3.5 programmer) from Finale Development
Chris will be demonstrating and answering question on OS3.5!!!
Get the lastest info, and find out what in the future for the
classic OS!
Just bring your body, your favorite friends, your
favorite family and your favorite food & drinks to
The PowerPicniC Potluck Party!
Sponsored by Amiga Atlanta, Inc.
Check out our web page at:
http://www.amigataatlanta.org
Amiga Atlanta's Sencond Annual PowerPicniC
--- A Mod Happening ---
Saturday, September 11th, 1999
3:00 pm until the moon goes down
Dress is TOTALLY casual and all your friends & families are welcome.
Event attendance is FREE. Refreshmnets will be provided by our lovely
Amiga chef and local diva Dawna Wilkinson. Though she will be be
donating her food and culinary talents, we asks that you show you
appreciation in her tip jar to cover the food. If you wish bring your
own grub, a charcoal grill will be fired up and available for
barbeque. Plates, cups, folding chairs, ice & cooler space will all be
welcome items.
Your participation with performances, displays and volunteer
support are also invited. The more Amiga computers, games,
software, shows & demos the better!
--------->> PLEASE RSVP WITH DAWNA BY SEPTEMBER 4th! <<----------
Email her at: kodiakmarmoset@mindspring.com
Additional Info & Participation Scheduling,
please email or phone one of the folks below:
Robert Hamilton
(404) 627-9356
cyber1@pd.org
Lamar Morgan
(770) 209-4011
lamar@mindspring.com
Amiga Atlanta, Inc. extends its sincere thanks
and appreciation to the owners & operators of
-- RAILROAD EARTH STUDIOS --
for providing the facilities and support
to make our PowerPicniC possible.
Railroad Earth frequently hosts other
electronic art shows, internet exhibitions,
music performances and art related lectures.
For more information on Railroad Earth
and their schedule of events, point your
anti-exploder web browser to WWW.RRE.NET
or email to NEIL@RRE.NET
DIRECTIONS:
FROM THE EAST:
Take Stone Mtn. Freeway (GA-78) West & stay on Scott Blvd.
when the freeway ends. Turn Right onto North Decatur (at 5 way
stop light) Stay on North Decatur to the 5 way intersection at
the gate entry to Emory University, Turn Left onto Oxford Rd.
FROM I-20:
Take I-20 East. Exit North onto Moreland Ave. Head North on
Moreland past Ponce De Leon (where the street name changes to
Briarcliff). The 4th or 5th light after crossing Ponce will be
North Decatur, turn Right. At the 5 way intersection (Emory
entry gate) turn Right onto Oxford.
FROM I-75:
Take I-75 to the interchange with I-85, get onto I-85 North.
About 6 miles on I-85, Exit Right (South) onto North Druid Hills
Road. A few lights down, turn Right onto Briarcliff Rd. About
2 miles down, go left at the light onto North Decatur Rd. At
the 5 way intersection (Emory Gate) turn Right onto Oxford.
FROM I-85 SOUTH:
Exit Left (South) at Clairmont Rd. Stay South on Clairmont past
North Druid Hills, past the Veterans Hospital to the light at
North Decatur (BP station kitty corner, "Entertainment Tonight"
on the right). Turn Right onto North Decatur. At the 5 way
intersection in front of Emory University, Left onto Oxford Rd.
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A M I G A E X T R A V A G A N Z A 9 9
5 Aug 1999
Due to the fact that there will not be the regular Midwest Amiga show
in Columbus, Ohio for 1999....we have started a new show. It is called
Amiga Extravaganza99 and will be held at the National guard Armoury in
Indianapolis, Indiana. Get togethers at the show hotel and setup for
vendors, user groups and developers will take place on October 8. The
vendor area and the seminars will take place on October 9 and 10,
1999.
We have had some good vendor response so far and are looking to
expand it even more (anyone from anywhere in the world is welcome!)
This show is being billed as The Affordable Amiga Computer Show.
Nothing is wrong with fancy and glitzy shows, but this one will have
the theme of affordable while still being fun and productive. For
those who want to spend their hard earned money on fun, food, software
and hardware for their favorite computer. The rates for the hotel are
very reasonable, the price for vendors and user groups to rent table
or booth space is much lower than average. (one of the reasons some of
the dealers in Canada gave for not being able to make some of the
shows has been the cost to them, versus the sales they can expect to
make.) We want to encourage as many vendors and developers and user
groups as we can to come together for this event.
To find out more about the show, goto the page set up for the show:
http://www.midlink.com/amiga/AEShows.html
This show is being produced by A.R.C.U.G (Amiga Response Crew User
Group) under the leadership of it's President J. R. Wilson and
Vice-President Bryant Pedigo, with some assistance from FWD Computing.
The hotel of choice for the show is:
Comfort Inn West/Airport
5855 Rockville Road
Indianpolis, IN 46224
Reservations:
317-487-9800
1-800-323-2088
Fax: 317-487-1125
Show rates are $58.95 plus tax per night and when making a
reservation let them know it is for Amiga Extravaganza99.
Looking forward to seeing many of you there (as well as at AmigaFest
in Dayton the last weekend of August and at the Annual Amiga picnic
the 12th of September in Atlanta, Georgia) Thanks,
Frank Davis
FWD computing
fdavis@iquest.net
http://members.tripod.com/~FWDcomputing/
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S A K U 9 9 I S C L O S E !
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Finnish Saku 99 Event Only Two Weeks Away
Illustrated How To Get There Guide Now Online
ESPOO, FINLAND - August 21, 1999 - Saku 99, the biggest Amiga event
in Finland this year, is now only two weeks away. The show will
feature lots of competitions, demonstrations and Amiga goodies for
sale. Once again, Petro Tyschtschenko will be there to talk about the
latest developments at Amiga - and hopefully we can demonstrate some
of them.
Saku 99 is organized by the Finnish Amiga Users Group and admittance
will be free of charge. For those who are uncertain of it's location,
we have prepared an illustrated How To Get There guide and collected
travelling instructions on our Web site. These include instructions
for foreign visitors, so be sure to check them out.
Please visit http://batman.jytol.fi/~saku/english/ or our mirror site
http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/english/, for further information.
E-mail inquiries may be sent to Janne Sirén (siren@mikrobitti.fi).
About Saku 99
Saku 99 will be the biggest Amiga event in Finland this year.
Following the success of Saku 98, which was visited by some 500 Amiga
enthusiasts, Saku 99 is aimed to be bigger and better than the
previous events. Mr. Petro Tyschtschenko of Amiga has already
confirmed his presence and other great highlights are planned. Saku 99
will be held on Saturday September 4th 1999 at the Science Centre
Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki.
About Finnish Amiga Users Group
Finnish Amiga Users Group (Suomen Amiga-käyttäjät ry.) is a
non-profit organization for promoting Amiga computing and helping
Amiga users in Finland. Also known as Saku, after it's disk magazine,
the group is trying to accomplish it's goals by organizing meetings
and by publishing a disk magazine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users
Group and it's predecessors have released over thirty issues of the
disk magazine and held several public gatherings. Other
accomplishments include the Web site and Sakunet, a national Fidonet
style network of Amiga related bulletin board systems.
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R U S S I A N P A R T Y T H I S W E E K E N D
CAFe99
Computer Art Festival (CAFe99) will be held August 28-29 in Kazan,
Russia. This event is organised by Vysokogorsky Computer Center and
dedicate to Tatarstan Republic Independence Day (August 30). CAFe99
will be held at the Mayakovsky Culture Club.
The show will feature lots of competitions on four platforms: Amiga
(Yes, Amiga!), PC, BK (16-bit russian homecomputer), ZX-Spectrum(still
alive :)
Day 1
Amiga/PC 1k intro
Multichannel music
ZX Spectrum 4k intro
Hand-drawn graphics
BK demo
Amiga/PC 64k intro
Wild
Day 2
Amiga/PC 4k intro
4-channel music
BK 4k intro
Render graphics
ZX Spectrum demo
Amiga/PC demo
Animation
CAFe99 support:
"ComputerWorld-Kazan" magazine
"Hi-Tech for all" magazine
"Novaya Amiga" magazine
"Volga 104FM" radio
KAZANNETWORK Ineternet service provider
CAFe99 official site is cafeparty.da.ru
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F I F T H A N N I V E R S A R Y - G A U H P I L
12 August 1999, Göttingen, Germany: Dietmar Knoll announces that the
Geographical Amiga Users Home Page Internet List (GAUHPIL) is
celebrating its fifth online anniversary.
The GAUHPIL is a moderated list of personal homepages of Amiga users.
It was established as early as in 1994. Today, a major update was
released. Currently listed are 785 personal homepages of Amiga users
from 33 countries on six continents!
There is also a new page for German-speaking readers. It explains the
rules of the GAUHPIL and describes in brief the contents of the
sub-pages.
All Amiga users are invited to send info about their personal
homepages to be added to the list. Please consider also to add a link
on your page to guide more attention to this service!
The Website can be visited at: http://GAUHPIL.home.pages.de/
The Moderator can be reached at: dknoll@okay.net
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A M I G A C A R D G A M E
27 Aug 99
An AMIGA card game (52 cards) is available made under licence of
Amiga International, Inc. The pictures show 13 different Amiga models
plus three different Jokers such as the BoingBall. On the back of the
cards it's the original AMIGA logo. The card game has been developed
on Amiga computers only. Please do not send requests or orders to
AMIGA but email Marcus Werum (mawerum@stud.uni-frankfurt.de) instead
who is handling the sale and shipping of the card game (DM 15,00 each
plus shipping). Clubs may get special conditions!
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" A M I G A " E 4 0 0 0
27 Aug 99
Official Benelux Amiga Distributor since 1997
E4000
Phone: +31-10-4517722, fax +31-10-4517748 or email info@compcity.nl
Amiga E4000
First of all, this machine is not a new development, new mainboard,
or anything like that. The E4000 consists of a standard Amiga 4000
mainboard (NEW) built in a ELBOX Ebox tower (also known as Power Tower
or Winner Tower). The processor boards used are manufactured by
Apollo, Commodore (3640) and DCE (CyberStorm). We supply AmigaOS 3.5
with this machine. If you buy an E4000 before OS 3.5 is out, it will
be sent to you free of charge when it has been released. As the E4000
is based on the Amiga 4000 mainboard it has of course a CPU slot for
PPC expansions.
Supplied only while stocks last. All components are available in
virtually unlimited capacity except for the A4000 mainboards. When
these run out the supply of E4000's will end (obviously).
Shipment of the E4000 will start in about 2 weeks. Pre-orders are
being accepted as of today.
Technical specifications (general):
o Midi-Tower with 230 Watt power supply
o 2 MB Chipmemory (on A4000 mainboard)
o IDE Controller (on A4000 mainboard)
o SCSI2 Controller (on processor board) for harddrives and CD-Roms
o 7 Zorro II/III slots
o 5 ISA Slots (non-active)
o 2 Video Slots
o 3,5" Floppy Drive HD 1.76 MB
o Original A4000 Keyboard
o Original Amiga Mouse
o 40-speed IDE Cd-Rom drive
o 13.1 GB IDE Harddisk
o AmigaOS 3.5
Technical specifications of Apollo versions:
o 68040 (40 MHz.) or 68060 (50 MHz.) CPU (full versions)
o 32 MB Fastmemory (on processor board) maximum 128 MB
o SCSI2 Controller (on processor board) for harddrives and CD-Roms
Technical specifications of 3640 version:
o 68040 25 MHz. CPU (full version)
o 16 MB Fastmemory on mainboard
Technical specifications of CyberStorm MkIII versions:
o 68060 (50 MHz.) CPU (full version)
o 32 MB Fastmemory (2 x 16 MB on processor board) maximum 128 MB
o SCSI2 Controller (on processor board
Prices:
E4000/Apollo 040: HFL 3499,00 - EURO 1587,78 - USD 1612,44
E4000/Apollo 060: HFL 3999,00 - EURO 1814,67 - USD 1842,86
E4000/3640: HFL 2999,00 - EURO 1360,88 - USD 1382,03
E4000/CyberStorm MkIII - HFL 4299,00 - EURO 1950,80 - USD 1981,11
Extras such as scandoublers/flickerfixers, bigger harddrives etc. are
all available.
These prices include Dutch VAT 17,5%. Outside EC residents please
deduct this.
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R E Q U E S T E R E N H A N C E R
5 Aug 1999
Announce: ReqAttack 1.0 (Aminet: util/misc/ReqAttack.lha)
DESCRIPTION:
============
ReqAttack is an incredible cool new requester improver similiar to
ARQ. It is the successor of KeyReq and improves the look and handling
of requesters of all programs which use the standard system requester
functions (Easy- RequestArgs, AutoRequest, BuildEasyRequestArgs,
BuildSysRequest) for that purpose.
FEATURES:
=========
o Configurable requester logos which can also be animated.
o Configurable button images and button look.
o Configurable requester background pattern.
o Keyboard control. Cycling through buttons with TAB, SHIFT TAB and
CURSOR keys. Activation of highlighted gadget with RETURN and another
configurable key (default LCOMMAND v). Activation of rightmost gadget
width ESCAPE and another configurable key (default LCOMMAND b).
Activation of buttons by keyboard can be aborted by pressing SHIFT or
ESCAPE before releasing the button activation key.
o Possibility to drag the requesters around by clicking anywhere in
the window.
o Possibility to make the requesters open in the center of the screen
or under the mouse pointer.
o Very special conditional configuration.
o It's possible to configure almost everything, like spacing between
the single elements of the requester and it's alignment, the color of
the highlight rectangle and much more.
If you want to see some animated preview images before downloading
the beast check out:
http://freeweb.dnet.it/steger/reqattack/reqattack.html
ReqAttack itself can be found on Aminet: util/misc/ReqAttack.lha
*** ReqAttack is Shareware ***
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
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Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _
A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A
U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_
amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
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