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Amiga Update (2002-06-30)
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A M I G A |#020630 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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N E A T N E W S F R O M B I L L !
. . . A N D A C L A R I F I C A T I O N / I M P R O V E M E N T
A M I T H L O N L I C E N S I N G
. . . B U T T H E R E W I L L B E A D E L A Y
T H E L O Y A L O P O S I T I O N S P E A K S
A - W E B G O E S O P E N S O U R C E
N E W A M I W E S T I N F O R M A T I O N
P I A N E T A A M I G A 2 0 0 2
N E W S F R O M A N D R E A S O N A K D A T A T Y P E S
F X S C A N 4 . 0 I S R E A D Y T O R O L L
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Quite the issue we have for you this time! Lots of news, perhaps the
most important of which is the recovery of Gary Peake from his recent
heart attack. I'm sure Gary knows the entire Community's thoughts and
prayers were with him and we're all relieved to know he's on the mend.
There's lots of interesting - and, we think, very positive -
information from Amiga about computers, too. Two Executive Updates
from Bill McEwen are needed to get everything covered. They're both
below.
While there are continuing signs of the shrinking classic Amiga
market we think the re-birth of the Amiga is really happening after
all this time. Births of anything, especially new computers, are
always risky. But if this goes as planned, and the community pitches
in, Amiga One and OS 4.x could be very close to success.
I'll keep the notes short this time - we have a very full issue - and
let the stories speak for themselves.
Brad Webb
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
1 June 2002
Hey Brad!
First, a renewed thanks for continuing to cast these lifelines out to
the Amiga community. I read them "cover to cover" and have archived
them from the first issue I received. The content is always concise
and useful, with a light, honest and fair handed editorial touch!
I also have a quick point of correction on your editors notes for the
latest issue:
> Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
> [snip]
> Meantime, over in the Axis of Evil Computer Style, we understand
> Micro$oft is being investigated by the SEC (Securities and Exchange
> Commission) for falsifying records.
>>>
> Plus, they are apparently being
> sued by a French software company for illegal use of code.
>>>
According to links below (and other tech list discussions I have
followed), Micro$oft lost this drawn out law suit in the French courts
just this past December. If we are talking about the same case, M$ has
been found guilty of pirating intellectual property and fined for
same.
The code they stole was in the SoftImage 3D modeling and animation
program when they swallowed the original SoftImage innovators several
years ago, though it may have found it's way into other Micro$hafted
products as well.
For reference:
=
-- from: http://www.aaxnet.com/topics/msinc.html
- 1995 - Syn'x Relief sues Microsoft for Software Piracy of a number
of pioneering 3D animation features developed by French company Syn'x
Relief for their product Character. They were negotiating a license
for several features to a developer named SoftImage, which was
acquired by Microsoft. Negotiations were broken off when SoftImage
made unreasonable demands. These features are unambiguous and unique
in the industry, and Microsoft promised to remove them all from the
SoftImage product. Microsoft did not remove any of them and Syn'x
Relief found they had no recourse but to sue.
[CONCLUSION - 8 Dec 2001] - Microsoft was found guilty of software
piracy and fined. They promised to appeal to keep this in the courts
until Syn'x Relief gives up.
--- Detailed Article at:
<http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2001/12/
h081201microsoft_softwarepiracy.html>
=
> So - would
> the same MS lawyers who prosecute the cases of piracy of MS products
> be the ones who defend the company in such a case? We wonder.
> No, we don't feel this justifies stealing software from anyone,
> including Micro$oft. Theft is theft. Also - Micro$oft - hypocrisy is
> hypocrisy.
> [snip]
Actually, according to the U.S. 911 lynch mob legislation that can
accurately be labeled the Un-patriot act... under provisions which M$
"lobbied" aggressively to have bundled with the package... just the
allegation of software piracy establishes Micro$oft as a Terrorist
organization that has no claim to civil or legal protections .
The actual court conviction just expedites punishment by providing a
publically palatable excuse for having the traitorous corporate
officers, along with the terrorist thugs of their BSA splinter group,
secretly imprisoned and/or tortured and/or summarily executed at a
foreign soil military base.
(These thoughts would, of course, be humorous if the suggested
legislation and police state actions weren't anchored in reality.
Sorry if the truth of it offends, but the Axis of Evil slam in the
intro told me you might graciously indulge my therapeutic tangent into
these sardonic embellishments.)
peace
(with justice)
aaron
~~~~~~
Aaron,
Quite a letter! Thanks for the kind words and the update on the
Microsoft case. I've run your entire letter, as there's much food for
thought - and discussion - here. We'll avoid the political discussion
(I'll keep my thoughts to myself) as we could easily fill up letter
columns for months to come on these topics. However, if Microsoft has
a reply, I'd be happy to print it. (Do they read "AU"? I doubt it.)
Thanks,
Brad
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
N E A T N E W S F R O M B I L L !
A Message to the Community
{After you read this Executive Update, please read also the one that
follows. The new one adds some clarification and makes some important
changes. As I write this, the second Executive Update is not on the
Amiga web site, so you'll see it here first. Brad}
Bill McEwen - June 23, 2002
A message to the Amiga Community, Present Past and Future:
I would first like to thank all of you who expressed your concern and
shared your support for Gary Peake and his family when you learned of
his heart attack. I can now share with you that Gary is looking
forward to returning to work in the next couple of weeks. He, of
course, was trying to send e-mail from the hospital (at one point, he
thought that the beeping of a heart monitor was the logon sounds of a
modem), but fortunately with his hands and legs restrained, as well as
some very effective tranquilizers, they were able to keep him from the
computer. Having said that, I wanted to personally thank each of you
on behalf of Gary and his family for your kind words and support.
This is an amazing time for Amiga, and the Community. You have all
been patient, more than understanding, and have dealt with more
misinformation, disinformation and rumors than any one group of people
should, ever. Yet, and happily, we are moving forward and gaining
momentum. Admittedly, we have not been very public about many of our
plans and activities, to date, but they are many and we are pleased to
be bringing this news to you, The Community, as well.
One request: If you find this information as positive as we do, share
it with someone. Call or e-mail your friends, Amigans who are
interested but might not be following the news as closely as you and
let them know that change is in the wind: that new, interesting, and
most importantly: REAL opportunities will soon be here for all of us
in the Amiga Community.
We all see and hear hype everyday. We know it well, sometimes quite
instinctively. What you are to read is not hype. These are true and
sustainable facts. Reality. The real skinny. We could not sustain and
maintain the hard work and dedication of the members of the Amiga
Family, those people whom are working so hard to bring you real
products, if there were not real opportunities for us to make a real
difference and a real change for the better.
Did you notice the incessant use of the word "Real"? Good. Because
what this Update is telling you is real.
Quite frankly, I enjoy the almost daily updates showing where you can
find Amigas today at work and play. I find it so exciting, and yes,
rewarding, to learn how some are using Amithlon to bring Amigas back
into usage, in places where they have not been in some time. I see new
sales, a new sense of opportunity and a new spirit emerging. A spirit
that challenges conventional thought and challenges us at Amiga
everyday. We are here because of you. Your desire for new Amiga
products, your desire that this platform, this valid, vital and
pioneering computing concept should not be swept aside has fueled our
desire to succeed and grow. We have survived when so many others have
failed, because of you, The Amiga Community and the way you have
challenged us to "deliver the goods". Because of that challenge, we
owe these exciting opportunities, this "Delivering The Future" to you.
Now, let's roll up our sleeves and get started. We have a lot of news
to share with you:
Amiga Party Pack purchasers? This is for you!
Each of you received your Party Pack and in the very near future you
will be able to use the discounts that are associated with your Party
Pack purchase. Each of you will receive an e-mail explaining your
options, and the process is simple:
1. You may purchase the products directly from Amiga at the
discounted price and the products will be shipped to your door.
or
2. Once you have purchased either the AmigaOne with OS 4.0, or if you
purchase just OS 4.0, send us a copy of the receipt along with the
front page of your SDK manual and Amiga will send you back a check for
$100.00!
or
3. Let us know the retailer that you will be using and we will get
them the $100.00 so you do not need to worry about it.
Not a bad deal at all. Each of you have had the chance to work with
AmigaDE and many of you have become developers of Amiga Anywhere
content, because of the party pack. Now soon you will be able to get
$100.00 back when you purchase a new AmigaOne system.
AmigaOne and Amiga OS 4.0 ? Update
We were more than impressed with the response to the AmigaOS 4.0
screen shots and the live demonstration of the AmigaOne boards. We
sometimes have trouble understanding how so many people, people
interested in the Amiga platform and the progress we are making in
bringing it back to market can stay hidden for so long. However, the
facts are that we must make certain production decisions based on
projected product sales volumes, and how quickly we can receive a
return on investment. That's Business 101. So, one of the challenges
for us is we decide on a number of units to build and then we see,
from web hits and direct inquiries, that there are 5 times as many
people who are interested in the AmigaOne than we knew were out there.
You can file that under "Beyond Our Expectations".
AmigaOS 4.0 is going to include many of the features that were
originally planned for later versions of the desktop AmigaOS. With the
need to rewrite certain portions of the code, the Hyperion team has
decided to go ahead and fold in a great many more of the features that
they were planned for OS 4.1 and OS 4.2 into OS 4.0. Ben Hermans and
the team have been doing a great job of keeping us up to date with
screen shots, updated product features and current development
roadmaps. I know that we will have more updates, regarding real
development and feature details from Ben and Hyperion very soon, and
trust me when I say that we are chomping at the bit to share these
details with The Community. Right now, according to our last
conference call with the AmigaOS 4.0 team, at Hyperion, we can see the
exceptional progress and the feature set that is being included with
this release is fantastic. This has been driven by you the Amiga
community, and I know that you will all be very happy.
AmigaOne boards are in the hands of the AmigaOne developers and the
integration work is moving ahead quickly, but with the full
realization that rushing the release to the public will afford no one
any real benefits. Alan and his team at Eyetech has done a great job
of "keeping their eyes on the prize". We are really pleased that the
hardware is out there, and that the Amiga community is going to have
the first new hardware designed for them, with their own operating
system, in a long, long time.
These are real Amiga products from Amiga and their associated partner
companies. Yes, it has taken longer than any of us had predicted. We
too have shared your anticipation and yes, impatience, but some things
can only be done one way: The Right Way. Having said that, we know
that with the results that we are seeing, I believe that you will
share this with your friends and other members of the Amiga family
with us.
The Amiga Community will soon have a brand new platform. You will
soon begin working with the most sophisticated Amiga Operating System
yet developed. There is great care and attention being paid to Getting
It Right, with the features and benefits that you have told us that
you, The Community, want in a new Amiga. However there is a
considerable challenge that goes along with all of these activities
and we are going to need your help in helping us make a determination
regarding certain business decisions that will be made quite clear
further on in this update.
Amiga Anywhere/AmigaDE ? Why are there two?
There needs to be some clarification of these two products: Amiga
Anywhere is a subset of the complete AmigaDE. In speaking with
customers and potential partners we learned that they were looking for
the content, and not the complete DE for their environments. The idea
was to have as minimal a build as possible for these devices. So Amiga
created the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine. This is a series of
lightweight products that offer the binary portable attributes of the
complete DE, while delivering the features and products in a much
smaller form factor. Development is continuing at a rapid pace with
these products and we currently offer an Amiga Anywhere Content Engine
for PocketPC, and Pocket PC Phone edition devices, and shortly for
Smartphone, Embedded Linux, and Symbian devices. This will allow AACE
content to run on all of these various products and devices opening up
even wider audience to which we can introduce Amiga.
Development is moving ahead quite well on both the complete DE and
AACE, and you will see some new partner announcements in the very near
future. These are customers who are going to deploy AACE and the
associated content in a variety of interesting products.
There is presently one other question about the current Amiga
Entertainment Pack for Pocket PC devices, and why there is limited
content for it. This is because we were creating a game console type
of experience with this first release, and that it was designed to be
closed. The idea was to pop the card into the device and begin playing
a game, without taking the resources from the relatively limited
memory in the device.
There will be an exciting promotion/contest that we will be
announcing later in the week with regards to AACE and the
Entertainment Packs. We assure you, this will be a great deal of fun,
and we look forward to introducing Amiga to several new customers who
are currently using PocketPC and PocketPC Phone Edition devices.
Amithlon Update ? Yes there is an update! (Cue Trumpets!)
We are very pleased to announce that we have entered into contracts,
and yes they are signed, with Bernd Meyer, regarding Amithlon. In fact
we have been testing a new version in-house for several weeks now, and
this is a great product. As you may remember I was the first person to
show Amithlon to the public, at the AmiWest 2001 Show, and the
reaction was simply amazing from the people there. Since then, we are
seeing deployment of Amithlon in many new places where Amiga's once
roamed and seeing new life for Amiga, with Amithlon. Please know that
we have been working with Bernd for several months so far, and we see
Amithlon as a great product with a long, robust future for both Amiga
and Bernd. You can see the press release here.
The Challenge and the Opportunity!
Now before the naysayers out there begin complaining about this and
start making rude noises, I want to explain the very real situation
before us: Let it be known now that Amiga does not make money on the
following. In fact we will lose money, just as we did on the party
packs. However it allowed us to show to our board and our investors
that we should pursue building a new Amiga computer. Now we are at
that same crossroads again, but in a way that is more complex.
How many AmigaOne's do we build and order?
We need to properly plan, budget, and order for the production of the
AmigaOne. To do that, we need to get a good idea of how many units we
need to order, build and prepare to support etc. You get the idea.
There are those who tell us to plan for 2,500 to 3,500 units. However
over 50,000 people downloaded the OS 4.0 screenshots. These were not
50,000 hits, these were 50,000 different people. Then you have others
who tell me that we are looking at 10,000 units to prepare for. This
is great because there are certain economies of scale, economies that
benefit everyone, that come into play at 10,000 units. You have all
seen how chip prices work: once you are able to order 10,000 of the
chip prices you are able to receive better pricing, and then, prices
start coming down. Everybody benefits.
Then we find that there are currently over 30,000 subscribers to
Amiga related magazines. Add to this the fact that we know that there
are thousands out there who are quietly watching and waiting to learn
more about the release of the AmigaOne before they respond. Then this
last week we learned that there was a very large electronics chain in
Europe who is interested in carrying the line again if there is enough
interest for these new products.
So as you can see, this is a real issue before us:
We do not want to come up short on supply for you, the customers, and
yet it is growing quite difficult to judge how many AmigaOnes we
should build. You can tell, as we do, that there is a big gap between
the numbers and we want to make sure that we have the products ready
when you want them, in sufficient numbers, as you should not have to
wait. We also do not want to go into a situation of oversupply,
either. We thought about putting up a survey, but then we know that
there are some who will try and maliciously effect the results and
that could, and most likely would, cause us a whole new subset of
problems relating to the release of the AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0.
Therefore, we have decided to have some fun with this survey and we
sincerely think that we have developed a way for everyone to
participate and will give us some real numbers and an ability to
better budget and track the real intentions of the community.
So with no small amount of fanfare, here is what we are going to do:
The AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0 "Free Stuff" Early Promotion (catchy isn't
it):
Here is how it works:
Customers who are interested in purchasing an AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0
pre-loaded will be able to purchase a $50.00 off coupon for $50.00!
This way we have a very strong idea regarding how many boards we need
to produce.
Not enough you say! Okay, how about this: For every $50.00 discount
coupon you will receive a free shirt announcing to everyone that you
are part of the future. So for $50.00 you get a $50.00 off coupon and
a free shirt.
Still not enough? Okay how about this: When we reach 2,500 orders we
will have a random drawing for 4 free AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0 systems.
I think that there is more of you out there than that so if we reach
5,000 orders we will give away 10 AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0 systems. That's
riiiiight. 10 people who order their discount coupon and get the shirt
will get an entire Amiga One/AmigaOS 4.0 system for... Free. That's
Free. As in Free. No Cost. A former price, dead on the bottom of its
cage. Or something like that.
There are some optimists in the office that believe that there are
10,000 people who are looking to own the first new Amiga system in
more years than we can count, so if we have 10,000 orders we will give
away 20 AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4.0 systems and 5 Amiga-enabled cell phones!
One last level: If we reach 25,000 orders Amiga will give away 50
Amiga systems, 15 Amiga Cell Phones, and a trip for 2 to either Hawaii
or Florida.
OK one more - hit 50,000 orders Amiga will give away 100 systems, 100
Amiga Enabled Cell Phones 3 trips for 2 to either Hawaii or Florida.
Over 50,000 and I will come up with something even better, because at
this level we can show the world what you have been telling us for
some time, that Amiga is a sleeping giant ready to awaken and take it
rightful place - being in the lead.
The Cell phones, and the Amiga systems will be shipped as soon as
they are available.
If you do not win in the drawing, you simply take your coupon and
wear your shirt into your local Amiga reseller, and you will receive
$50.00 off when you purchase your new system. (Amiga resellers: we
will be sending you the details on how all of this fun and free stuff
is going to work).
Now since we need to be placing the orders in the not-too-distant
future, this promotion will run from today until July 7th, with the
winners being announced at AmiWest in Sacramento.
Click here to get in on the AmigaOne,/AmigaOS 4.0 "Free Stuff" Early
Promotion.
So while I know that there are some people who will make rude noises
and fabricate all kinds of specious claims and others will try and use
this as a method to attempt driving the community apart even more, I
hope that the rest of you, the majority of you, can see where, with
this news and this promotion, we can go together. Developers are going
to be watching also to see if this is a system that they wish to
continue developing for, and others who have left are going to be
watching to see if they want to return to development on the Amiga
platform. So the stakes are real. But we can face them together and
succeed.
AmigaOne and OS 4.0 are the beginning to a new future, and it is
real.
To all of you who are thinking of attending AmiWest 2002, in
Sacramento CA, please come and join in with all of us who will be
attending, as I will be there and it is going to be great fun learning
who in the audience may be a winner. It is also one of my real rewards
of my job to meet you, the members of The Amiga Community. You also
never know what I am going to announce and we could have some real
surprises.
Or I just may hang around for the food. :-D
It is time to start having some fun!
Amiga. Isn't it great?
http://www.amiga.com/
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. . . A N D A C L A R I F I C A T I O N / I M P R O V E M E N T
{As stated above, the following information has not yet appeared at
the Amiga website, so you get it here first! Bill mentiones 'by the
end of the week' at one point in this Executive Update. Don't measure
that time by the date we've put on this item (which is the date we
received it), it should be measured from the date this information
appears on the amiga.com website. Brad}
29 June, 2002
Greetings to one and all, and a big thank you to all of you who have
Participated (and to others out there who will hopefully participate)
in the promotion. I have some points I need to clarify and a desire
to, once again, be completely honest with all of you.
Here we go:
One question that has been asked of us a lot is "Why are you doing
this promotion?"
This promotion is not about pre-selling AmigaOnes, nor pre-selling
Amiga OS 4.0. We are in no way pre-selling these items. Others have
taken your money in the past, with no products ever delivered to
customers. We are not doing that, nor would we EVER do that. In spite
of what some may think, we have learned well the lessons of history,
and we do not intend repeating them. The AmigaOne board exists in
every way that a motherboard can exist. It has been shown, it is in
use, and is being used in software and hardware development. As a
point in fact, I know that once the news is disseminated further
regarding the show in France that took place last weekend, the largest
majority of you will be very pleased with the progress shown in the
development and deployment of the AmigaOne, and you will know that all
this is very "real".
This promotion is not about the pre-selling of AmigaOS 4.0, either.
You have seen the screen shots, it is in the hands of developers, and
I am excited (yes I used the "e" word, AGAIN, but hey, I am EXCITED,
as we all are here, and we have earned the right to be excited!) about
how well this project is coming along. OS 4.0 will run on other PPC
products besides the AmigaOne, like the CyberStorm and Blizzard PPC
accelerator cards. That's because you, the members of The Community,
with many and varied needs, wanted this support. So we delivered this
legacy support in response to your expressed desires. OS 4.0 and
beyond are providing us with a new future for the AmigaOS in many
different traditional hardware configurations.
So for better clarification, the AmigaOne is a motherboard that will
be sold to dealers. Dealers will then be able to sell the AmigaOne as
is, or can build a complete system, or sell you the parts and let you
the end user make it yourself. AmigaOS 4.0 is not pre-loaded on the
system, but is sold with the AmigaOne.
With regards to OS 4.0, you may purchase this product separately from
the AmigaOne, and it can be loaded and used on other Amiga PPC
products and systems and are certified for OS 4.0.
Whew, I think that I have it correct now.
With all of that out of the way, and I trust better clarification I
want to share with you the real reason behind the promotion and why it
is so very important for all of us. Along with this information we are
making a change that better reflects what the promotion is attempting
to prove:
We are working daily with developers, 3rd party services, investors,
dealers, and past dealers who are looking to return to the Amiga
market. The one critical question that is asked of us every day is
"How many Amiga customers can we look forward to, as a base for a
return on our investment in the market?" "We are not interested in
spending money developing software, only to sell a few hundred copies.
" These are quite valid concerns, and we want to answer them
accurately. These same sort of questions do apply to the number of
AmigaOnes we will build and the number of components that are
purchased to effect that construction. The dealers must have a
reasonably accurate idea of how many cases, peripheral components,
even shipping boxes to purchase, so they can build AmigaOne
motherboards up into full desktop solutions for their customers, and
we have some very large, and I mean huge electronic stores who may be
interested in starting to carry Amiga products again, if.....and only
if we can show that there is a viable market for the products. This is
important information we need to learn here, not only for ourselves
but our network of partners as well, both our announced partners and
those waiting in the wings, watching the Amiga market and the Amiga
Community.
This promotion is far more than filling some nebulous coffers: it is
about letting the developers and the world know that Amiga is a
market, that the Amiga Community is viable and that it is one that is
most certainly a market worth developing for, and a market and group
of people worthy of recognition.
Now I know that many out there are in a "wait and see mode". I keep
receiving messages from many of you that tell me that there are 100's
of thousands of Amiga afficianados who will come forward once the new
products are out, and I must say I agree. I know that there are many
more out there waiting before they commit to a purchase. This I
completely understand as well. The issue immediately before us is that
we really need to prove that there is a market out there for Amiga
today, and that there will be even more people tomorrow.
This promotion is about bringing the Amiga family back together
again, reforming the ranks if you will, and preparing us all for the
great successes we can create together, as we make the necessary moves
towards the merging of the DE and OS technologies in AmigaOS 5.0 and
beyond. We are committed to being able to show that Amiga is a force
to be reckoned with in the technology realm, and to showing that there
is an opportunity for developers to return to the Amiga platform and
start making money again, with Amiga the platform and Amiga the
company.
So yes, the promotion is designed for fun. Yes, it is designed to
deliver a good value for you, the members of the Amiga Community. It
is also about providing proof to the skeptics that Amiga is here to
stay and that we are a market they need to recognize, for which they
should develop, that this Amiga Market would be worth their investment
of time, effort and money. At the end of the day, this is business,
and business is about providing a return for all involved.
With all of the above stated, I am going to change this promotion
somewhat, to better capture what we are determined to achieve with
this promotion, the Amiga and you. We are going to do something here
that will let everyone know that we are part of something great and
significant. Most of you have been here far longer than I have and I
appreciate the fact that most, not all of you, but most, have adopted
me into your family. So in order to better accomplish this goal, this
promotion is changing.
Now when you join the I am Amiga Club for USD 50.00, (EUR 50.00, or
GBP 32.50) you will receive a shirt signifying your membership, a
coupon that can be used for a USD 50.00 (EUR 50.00, or GBP 32.50)
discount on an AmigaOne, or OS 4.0 (for those of you who wish to run
this new OS on your existing 3rd-party PPC cards) you will also
receive a newsletter, and throughout the next 12 months you will be
the first to learn of new products. We will work together with
Amiga-associated companies to offer significant discounts and other
special promotions to the Amiga Club members.
All of the rest of the promotion still applies and all members will
be automatically entered into the sweepstakes.
Here is how you may purchase the promotion:
In my very USA-focused approach (I apologize for that, it won't
happen again) I did not think through the process of ordering the
promotion without a credit card. And for those of you outside of the
USA, where so many of you reside, you can now use Pay Pal, and certain
debit cards that carry a credit card logo may also be used or you can
also send a check, money order, or bank check to:
Amiga, Inc. I am Amiga Club P.O. Box 887 Ravensdale, WA 98051 USA
Please include Name, Address, and all of your other necessary details
for us to be able to deliver the products to you.
Also by the end of the week, you will be able to purchase this
promotion through your local Amiga dealer. This will make it much
easier for all of you to participate in the promotion and order the
items from your local dealer. We will still send you the certificate
and the shirt directly, but this may be easier for many of you to
participate.
Last Item: Extension of the deadline!
We have been asked by many of the dealers and many of you in the
Community to extend the promotion deadline so that more of you may
participate. Well, we agree and the promotion deadline will be
extended to July 19th at Midnight Pacific Time (0900 GMT July 20th).
We will update the numbers daily and we are working to get others to
share the news with their friends also.
Until we meet again, I look forward to as many of you as possible
joining in letting the world know that Amiga is very real and is very
much a force that has yet to truly have its time in the sun.
Every membership counts. If you have been sitting on the fence
wondering if this is another money-grubbing idea, You Are Wrong...
What we are really about is unifying the community of Amiga users and
partners as we move forward. We are dealing with companies and vendors
who would like to believe that there is a viable community willing to
spend money. Amiga Inc. just has to be able to demonstrate to them,
provably, that such a community and such a market exists. I hope that
all of you will join the Club and be a part of that proof and history.
One more clarification: All of you who have already purchased the
coupon are automatically entered into the club and will receive all
listed benefits.
So to summarize:
The AmigaOne is a PPC Motherboard that will be sold to dealers where
you may purchase the product.
AmigaOS 4.0 will run on the AmigaOne and other Amiga PPC certified
products.
All people who have purchased the coupon will automatically be
entered into the Club.
Amiga Club membership includes a Shirt, A discount coupon that can be
applied to an AmigaOne, AmigaOS 4.0 or a combination of the two. It
also includes a newsletter and future product discounts on other Amiga
products and Amiga associated products. These will also include
AmigaDE related products and those products that are Amiga Enabled
(more about these in the newsletter). The letter will be localized for
native languages, once we know what languages to support.
Also the shirts will be produced in more than one continent, so that
we can expedite their delivery to you.
All items will be delivered after the completion of the promotion,
and initial sign up program.
So come on now: I know that there are more of you out there. Lets
make this happen together.
{Note: unfortunately, we don't have a freely distributable show report
for the show mentioned by Bill. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I T H L O N L I C E N S I N G
Amiga, Inc. and Bernd Meyer announce licensing of Amithlon 2.0
June 23, 2002 - Snoqualmie, WA and Melbourne, Australia - Amiga, Inc.
today announced the cross licensing of Amithlon 2.0. The agreement was
made with the author and the inspiration behind Amithlon, Bernd
``Bernie'' Meyer.
As part of the agreement, Amiga will license Kickstart 3.1 and
portions of Amiga OS 3.9 to be distributed as part of Amithlon 2.0. In
turn, Amiga will actively promote and license Amithlon 2.0 to OEM
customers looking for an Amiga emulator on x86 platforms.
Bill McEwen, Amiga President and CEO, said, ``Bernie has been a good
friend and partner to Amiga. I first demonstrated a beta version of
Amithlon almost a year ago at the Sacramento show. Even then the
quality of the product and its potential were obvious to me. Since
then it has become a more polished, a clear reflection of the passion
and skills that Bernie brings to the table.''
``I have also been impressed by the moral and ethical integrity that
Bernie has displayed as he has partnered with Amiga. Too often in the
past we have had to deal with companies who would like nothing better
than to split the Amiga community. Bernie has always had the best
interests of the community at heart and has created a product that we
can all be truly proud of.''
"It is with great pleasure that I finally enter into a deal directly
with Amiga", said Bernie Meyer. "This new version, to be distributed
with Amiga's seal of approval, provides customers with a clear
indication that Amithlon is an actively developed product with great
prospects. This partnership will allow users of Classic AmigaOS to use
their applications on modern, affordable hardware."
A demo version of Amithlon 2.0 will be available shortly which can be
downloaded free of charge from the distribution site here. The demo
version may be upgraded to a fully functional version with a simple
keyfile, which can be purchased online.
About Amithlon 2.0 The goal of the Amithlon project was to make
AmigaOS 3.9 run on commodity PC hardware. Unlike other approaches to
this problem (UAE, Fellow), Amithlon provides AmigaOS with complete
control over the hardware. Hosted on a specially modified linux
kernel, Amithlon's CPU emulation runs AmigaOS; All access to graphics,
sound, networking and interface hardware is provided through standard
AmigaOS drivers. Amithlon 2.0 is distributed as a self-booting CD-ROM
image.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
. . . B U T T H E R E W I L L B E A D E L A Y
29 June, 2002
Dear all,
It appears that the unfortunate past association of Amithlon with Haage &
Partner has created one more stumbling block on the way to the release of
Amithlon 2.0.
Thus, it is extremely unlikely that I can make the planned release date;
While the delay should hopefully be very short, I can not currently make
any definite promises.
Please bear with me for just a little while longer,
thank you,
Bernd Meyer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H E L O Y A L O P O S I T I O N S P E A K S
{On or about 6 June, a website was opened by a group of Amigans who
disagree with the approach Amiga Inc. is taking on the Amiga One. They
have launched a petition drive. Below is the text of the petition they
are promoting. After you've read this, go back and read the second
Executive Update from Bill if you haven't already. Not sure it answers
all the questions here in detail, but I think it shows Amiga is paying
attention. Brad}
AmigaOS(TM) distribution policies and PPC hardware
To: Amiga Incorporated
On April 12th, 2002, you, Amiga Inc., published your plans regarding
distribution policies for the forthcoming AmigaOS4 in an "Executive
Update" on your web site.
In short, what you say and what we the undersigned object against is
this:
o Any hardware capable of running AmigaOS must first be modified with
"AmigaOS specific extensions" to its "boot ROM" in order to be allowed
to run AmigaOS.
o Such hardware and its distributors must be approved and licensed by
Amiga Inc. and the hardware distributors must also sell and support
AmigaOS4.
o AmigaOS will only be available bundled with such hardware.
We think that the above will seriously hurt AmigaOS users, the
POP/PPC hardware market and thus ultimately you, Amiga Inc.,
yourselves. We expected to finally be able to break away from
proprietary hardware solutions and escape from the dark pit of
expensive, custom hardware from a few select distributors which has
plagued anyone using AmigaOS ever since Commodore stopped its own
hardware development.
AmigaOS users will be hurt because we unnecessarily lose options,
both when it comes to hardware and distributors of such. The POP/PPC
hardware market, its development and competition will be hurt because
it would have to be artificially split into an "Amiga"and an
"everybody else" part, instead of growing with users regardless of OS.
Yes, there might eventually be more than one hardware distributor who
decides to get a license and sell and support a third-party OS
together with his hardware, but the fact remains - unnecessary
limitations are applied to our options. Amiga Inc. will lose revenue
since you'll only make money on the very few hard-core AmigaOS users
who can be expected to buy bundled and licensed hardware together with
AmigaOS at premium prices.
To us, the undersigned, it seems like you are overlooking the fact
that you don't design or sell any hardware of your own, like e.g.
Apple. Independent hardware designers and distributors naturally have
no reason to get themselves and their products licensed and bundled
with another company's OS, unless that OS is as dominating as Windows.
Just look at the recent bplan GmbH Pegasos(TM) debacle for one
concrete example of what could have been avoided if the compulsory
licensing and OS/hardware bundling hadn't existed. Instead, we who
wish to buy and use AmigaOS just lost a hardware option, the bplan
company lost the entire AmigaOS market and you lost the Pegasos market
to competing PPC operating systems.
Only technological compatibility issues should decide whether we are
able to install AmigaOS on a piece of hardware, it shouldn't matter
from whom we bought the hardware or if our distributor acquired a
license from Amiga Inc. or not.
We understand the anti-piracy aspect in requiring modified hardware
(BIOS extensions), but obviously there are countless other options for
copy protection that doesn't involve any special demands on
third-party hardware designers and distributors.
We also don't object to licensing in general. If you want
distributors who wish to sell AmigaOS or sell AmigaOS/hardware bundles
to apply for a license, fine. Just don't deprive us of options for no
technological reason when it comes to hardware.
To be blunt; unless you design "an Amiga" or distribute hardware
yourselves, then our hardware is none of your business.
You claim that your currently presented policies were put into place
after consultation with e.g. developers and users, so we hope that you
will take our concerns into consideration and come up with a morally
and economically sensible revised distribution policy for AmigaOS:
o Sell your product, AmigaOS, separately (as well as bundled with
hardware from licensees).
o Don't try to enforce compulsory restrictions on other companies and
their products, the hardware. We hope that you will work to make
AmigaOS compatible with as many hardware options as possible and that
you will strive to make AmigaOS as big a financial and technological
success as possible.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
http://www.petitiononline.com/amigaos/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A - W E B G O E S O P E N S O U R C E
AWeb announcement
June 8, 2002 - source code released
I regret that I haven't got the time to continue development of the
AWeb browser. Bringing the browser up to date to today's standards
(like support for CSS) would take more time than can be justified by
the remaining Amiga market.
I like to express my thanks to the Amiga community for using my
browser. In return I will release the source code of AWeb, so others
in the Amiga community have a chance to continue development.
All source code is released under the AWeb Public License. In short,
the APL means that you are allowed to modify these sources and/or use
them in your own products, provided that these products will also be
distributed subject to the APL. It also means that you must make the
sources of your product available to the public. Read the full APL
text for more details.
The following source code archives are available:
o awebapl.lha (914 kB) - The main AWeb program sources and developer
documentation.
o awebdocsapl.lha (1147 kB) - The user documentation, catalogs,
images, and other files. These are essentially the same additional
files as were included in the commercial distribution of AWeb-II.
o awebapiapl.lha (154 kB) - The plugin API documentation and
examples.
o awebgifapl.lha (32 kB) - The GIF image plugin.
o awebjfifapl.lha (504 kB) - The JFIF/JPEG image plugin.
o awebpngapl.lha (420 kB) - The PNG image plugin
I regret that in general I can not give any support to developers.
-----
23rd June 2002
Yvon Rozijn (The original author of AWeb) has appointed us
(http://aweb.sunsite.dk) the official AWeb Open Source Development
Team. Yvon states: "Developers: you are strongly suggested to join
this project if you want to help further development of AWeb, instead
of starting something on your own." Click here for more information.
{There is now an open source AWeb3.4 version available at the website.
No plugins or documentation. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W A M I W E S T I N F O R M A T I O N
{It is our understanding that much of what Bill McEwen talked about in
the Executive Updates above will be discussed and explained during
AmiWest. Just another reason to attend if you can make it. Brad}
12 Jun 2002
AMIWEST 2002 INFORMATION RELEASE #3/4
AmiWest 2002 is rolling! The venue is the now-familiar Holiday Inn
Northeast in Sacramento, California, this year under new ownership and
management. As announced last year at the close of AmiWest 2001, the
dates for the show are July 27 & 28, the last weekend of July. This
year, we also have a co-sponsor, Extreme Computing, who have been hard
at work to enhance our show through their many Amiga community
contacts.. See below for their complete contact information.
The time is also coming up when we will begin to release blocks of
rooms that our hotel has committed to our attendees. Again, these are
LAST YEAR'S RATES we are talking about. IT COSTS YOU NOTHING to call
in and reserve a room at the Holiday Inn Northeast in Sacramento when
you hold it with a credit card. CALL IN TODAY to ensure that your room
is not taken by someone who is thinking farther ahead. THERE ARE NO
OTHER HOTELS in close proximity that even come close to the quality of
accomodations you will be getting. BE SURE TO TELL THEM THAT YOU ARE
WITH AMIWEST for the special rates. Here is the contact info:
Holiday Inn, Sacramento Northeast
5321 Date Avenue
Sacramento California 95841-2597
Phone 1-916-338-5800 or
1-800-388-9284 - Toll Free (Hotel directly)
We've just persuaded the Holiday Inn to hold more rooms for us, but
only until July 7th. And while you're reserving that room, be sure to
send us your check for your show tickets. This helps us to plan for
the onslaught better.
Also, please send in your ticket requests ASAP. We need to know how
many to estimate for so we can start stuffing those show packets. This
year, the packet includes a CD full of useful information in addition
to your schedule for the show, your pass and information about the
surrounding area as well as any vendor info that we receive. We will
also have a Saturday night banquet with Bill McEwen speaking. Here are
the ticket prices:
Banquet tickets are $35 per plate and must be purchased in advance.
They will NOT be sold on Friday nor Saturday due to the hotel needing
attendance figures for planning the banquet.
Admission Tickets Main exhibit hall - Saturday & Sunday.
Specially priced tickets are available in advance by mail.
Two day admission tickets.....$17.
One day admission ticket......$12.
If you elect to purchase tickets at the door, the prices are as
follows:
Two day ticket at the door....$20
One day ticket at the door... $15
Send checks to:
AmiWest 2002
c/o Chuck Washburn
7051 Dolan Way
Citrus Heights, CA 95621
Make checks payable to "AmiWest".
As promised, Extreme Computing does have a great surprise in store
for the show this year. Todd Gustafson just emailed us that "Amiga
transportation for AmiWest 2002 will be provided by Extreme
Limousine." In an earlier email, he said, "We are bringing the Extreme
Corporate Limousine to the show. It is a newer full 8-passenger black
stretch limousine with all accouterments, and will be available for
VIP service to/from the airport for our "Special" guests. We are
stocking it full of "Diet Coke", and other non-alcoholic beverages. We
have a nice Magnetic "Amiga" Sign on the outside for it as well.
That's all I can say about it for now. I will keep you posted as I
confirm the "Guests"."
So yet more surprises are in store. Who will they be, the ones who
ride the Extreme Limousine? And why will they be coming to AmiWest?
You'll know as soon as we do! Just keep watching for these releases.
Bill McEwen of Amiga Inc. will also be at AmiWest 2002 along with as
yet unknown others from Amiga Inc. Bill has been at every AmiWest show
since the beginning in 1998 and has always provided scintillating
commentary and inside information on the health and future of Amiga. I
think his first title was "Software Evangelist." And now he is at the
top of the heap. We welcome Bill's participation. It just wouldn't be
AmiWest without him.
Another welcome participant just confirmed in the last few days is
Kermit Woodall of Nova Design, another regular at our AmiWest shows.
He is enthusiastic (as he usually is) about our show and said in a
recent email, "I SHOULD have something extremely cool to show
off...and no, I can't ship the Amiga-based Slot Machine to the show!
<grin>." Now when Kermit says it's cool - it's C-O-O-L!! Come and see
his latest Image FX enhancements.
As you can see, the excitement is building! Don't be left out. Make
your plans to attend the biggest Amiga show on the West Coast of the
U.S., AmiWest 2002. All the people that you want to see are going to
be there. Be sure to visit our website at www.sacc.org/amiwest,
download that ticket order form and get those ticket orders coming in.
And don't forget to reserve your room at the Holiday Inn Northeast,
being sure to mention that you're with AmiWest 2002. We'll see you
there!
Amiga Forever,
Brian Deneen, President
Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
for the AmiWest 2002 Committee
Contact our co-sponsors, Extreme Computing, using any (or all!) of
these channels:
------------
EXTREME CORPORATION / Extreme Computing
PO Box 2319 Voice: 503.793.5797 or toll free 1.888.288.1757
Clackamas, OR 97015 toll free fax: 1.877.370.7045
URL: www.computing-extreme.com e-mail: sales@computing-extreme.com
Space Saving Technology - Networking/Internet Solution Provider
Amiga Software Development and Engineering
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P I A N E T A A M I G A 2 0 0 2
14 June, 2002
On Saturday 21st and Sunday 22th of September will be held, at
"Palazzo delle Esposizioni" in Empoli (Florence) , the sixth italian
fair commited to the Amiga Platform and, for the first time, open to
alternative platforms:
PIANETA AMIGA 2002
(Amiga Planet 2002)
Among the exibitors will be present, as usual, hardware and software
dealers from Italy and other nations. During the fair it will be
possible to see and buy exclusive products, you will be able to speak
with the most important "actors" of the italian and international
Amiga scene, you will meet very important people of the Amiga world,
you will be able to show your works and to exchange opinions and ideas
with other amigans.
In this edition you'll likely have the opportunity to see in action
the new AmigaONE G3SE with the new Amiga OS4 for PowerPC and the
Pegasos together with MorphOS, the AmigaOS-compatible operating system
written for the PowerPC.
Both of these systems will offer the possibility to run Linux for
PowerPC and, for a full backwards compatibility with old software, the
Amiga UAE for PowerPC.
The big news of this year's edition will be the presence of other
alternative platforms. It will be possible, for all Mac, Linux, QNX
and BeOS users, to find a place where they'll be able to meet each
other, exchange ideas, opinions, projects and meet programmers and
dealers all together in an event that is going to become one of the
most important expression of alternative computing in Italy.
We are waiting for you in Empoli on 21st and 22th of September to
discover what is going on inside the Amiga and alternative platform
universe.
Everyone, amigan or not, who want to show his work without any
commercial purpose will get access to a free space for the exposition.
If you want to show your production, animations, pictures, utilities,
hardware solutions, etc., please contact us to reserve a space.
We are also providing free space for users who want to
buy/sell/exchange 2nd hand hardware and software for all the platform
present at the fair. If you want to take part please contact us.
You can forward your request for a free exposition spaces by email or
also using the form on our web site. All requests will be accepted
until booths lasts.
http://www.pianetaamiga.it/
http://www.virtualworks.it/pa2002/
info@jasa.it
info@virtualworks.it
Claudio Marro Filosa
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W S F R O M A N D R E A S O N A K D A T A T Y P E S
28 Jun 2002
Hi,
out of curiosity, I've removed PPC support from akJFIF datatype
and instead did some uae/amithlon-specific optimizations (no native
x86 code yet, though).
Download link for V44.140:
http://home.t-online.de/home/Andreas_Kleinert/data/akJFIF-dt.LHA
Other datatypes/programs may follow. PPC support is gone for now,
since I don't own any PPC card anymore and did not get any Pegasos
developer board, either.
{And, on the very next day we received the following ... Brad}
-----
29 Jun 2002
Hi,
starting with V45.1 (29.6.02), the datatypes akJFIF/PNG/TIFF are
Freeware. The keyfile code and some other legacy stuff
has been removed. This also may speed things up, since there
are less special cases to be covered.
Furthermore, a couple of different optimizations in the 68k code
have been made, some bugs were fixed and some amithlon/uae-
specific optimizations have been made.
Download links:
http://home.t-online.de/home/Andreas_Kleinert/data/
akJFIF-dt.LHA
akPNG-dt.LHA
akTIFF-dt.LHA
These datatypes now are specifically targeted to high-end
68k machines and their emulated counterparts.
--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de | http://www.ar-kleinert.de
Freelance Consultant & Writer | Software Engineering
*** PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX *** | x86 Win/Linux, 68k/PPC Amiga and more
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F X S C A N 4 . 0 I S R E A D Y T O R O L L
22 June, 2002 fxSCAN 4.0 feature update and in production
We´re proud to announce that fxSCAN 4.0 has been finished and the
master was sent out to the CD-ROM production site last Tuesday.
Though we have a very tight timetable for fxSCAN, we managed to
finish a MorphOS-native version of the fxSCAN PPC-servertask and the
OCR-engine which will ship with fxSCAN 4.0. A native version for
AmigaOS® 4.0 is planned, too, and will be available as patch from our
homepage at the time of completion.
Furthermore another two new GUI skins ("Burning Red" and "Laced
Gray", see fxSCAN-screenshots) and a time-unlimited version of the
color calibration software ICS (with printable manuals!) are coming
with fxSCAN now, too.
If everything goes fine in production, fxSCAN 4.0 ships on the 15th
of July 2002. The special preorder offer with a saving of 10 EUR ends
on the 7th of July.
NEW in V4!
Since version 3.0 of fxSCAN the following new features have been
added:
* improved and reworked OCR-functions
o new OCR-engine (OCR-kernel now based on gocr 0.3.5)
. heavily improved recognition of accents, cedille, etc. (French and
"Norwegian" chars)
. faster character recognition
o full PPC-support (ppc.lib, WarpOS, MorphOS)
o enhanced correction-function
o HTML-Export of the results (incl. pictures, illustrations, ..)
o new layout options (can be switched on/off)
. font-size recognition (when saving as HTML)
. division-automatic (words devided for a linebreak are linked
together again)
. column-/layoutrecognition (experimental)
. automated size adaption (scaling) for exported pictures
* PDF-support
o export of scans at high speed
o adjustable compression
o the order of pages can be changed via drag & drop
o selection of the pages to be included (if pages that shall not be
included are also in memory)
o readable with e.g. Adobe® Acrobat Reader® (Windows® & MacOS®) and
APDF (AMIGA®)
o NO detour over Ghostscript®: fxSCAN uses its own, highly optimized
routines
* Improved copying function
o Preview function
o Brightness-, contrast- and gamma-correction with realtime-preview
o improved, internal resolution-automatic for better adjustment
between printer- and scannerresolutions
o Reductor
* further extended PPC-support (now also includes many loaders and
savers)
* less memory consumption during loading and saving
* support for Datatypes for loading
* support for TurboPrint® as printing system
* support for USB-scanners via iousbscanner.device
* images of your scanner can be viewed in the scanning interface
* improved Betascan-support
o selection of automatic document feeders and transparency units (if
supported by the driver)
o available correction-functionality in the scanner can now be set
directly (if supported by the driver)
o selection of black&white-rastering-methods and treshold of the
scanner (if supported by the driver)
* native MorphOS-support
* automated adaption of filename suffixes (two methods, controlable
via Tooltypes)
* adjustable priority of the OCR-task (for improved multitasking on
68K systems)
* new saver: PNG
* AmigaGuide®-documentation has been replaced with a new PDF- und
HTML-documentation (including many illustrations)
HTML-export with illustrations, size- and column-recognition
improved PPC-support (now the OCR is PPC-native, too)
Now with fast PDF-Export!
New documentation as PDF- and HTML-files
Improved support of French and "Norwegian" special-characters
http://www.iospirit.de/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _
A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A
U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_
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======================================================================
