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Amiga Update (2003-08-10)
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A M I G A | 030810 | 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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T H E " A U " A M I W E S T R E P O R T
T H E A M I G A U P D A T E C O N N E C T I O N
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Welcome to our AmiWest show report issue. We've got a very good
report by Joanne Calhoun below about the goings-on in California
July 26 and 27 and we're certain you'll enjoy it.
Sounds like a good show for the Amiga, and the community, and a
genuine success all around. Great to see OS 4.0 featured at Amiga
shows. Next step - show it running in native mode on an Amiga One. The
sooner, the better.
We were left wondering about some attendees, however. We simply
cannot understand what the MorphOS/Pegasos team was doing there. For
that matter, we cannot understand what they are doing at any Amiga
show. There are only two things, both bad, that can come out of the
Genesi efforts: failure for Genesi or depletion of the Amiga market.
If the Amiga community were huge, it could probably support an
unauthorized clone system with no problems. That might even lead to
additional software, since presumably more units would be sold.
However, the Amiga market is quite small and all this pretend Amiga
can do is fragment it. We can't understand why any Amiga supporter
would want to encourage that.
Obviously, there are people who don't agree with us. That's the way
of the world, there will always be many opinions about most things. We
only hope it works out well for everyone, especially Amiga.
We also hope you enjoy this special issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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T H E " A U " A M I W E S T R E P O R T
By Joanne Calhoun
We got there Friday night, due to my new job. After a month of making
sure my husband would be off early for the 3+ hour drive, I had to
work until 5:PM. Being that I just started, I couldn't ask for early
time off. So I stayed and was the one that caused the tardiness of our
departure. The hotel with the plane embedded on the rooftop, was a
very familiar site. The only thing missing was the great big boing
ball that used to sway overhead on the hotel. Ahh, I remember those
times quite well. In spite of the missing boing ball, I was anxious to
find friends that I haven't spoken to or seen since the last show.
After going to our rooms and dropping off our luggage, checking in
etc, we headed straight for the showroom floor. There were lots of
familiar faces. People were busy setting up their booths with lots of
equipment and display stuff. It was looking pretty good. Bill
"tekmage" Borsari, was in the back where he was setting up his magical
electronics corner. He does the best job of bringing the show to those
who couldn't make it. It's live sound and screen captures, this time
streaming video. He does the most amazing stuff. Brings all the
equipment, sets it up, takes it down to set it up for the banquet and
then gets it all back, without missing a beat for the rest of the
show. He does work well with many others to bring this to everyone.
Just to name a few, Amiga Inc, NovaDesign and AudioLabs. Check out
ugn.amiga.org. Also check out stricq.com, he was busy putting pictures
from AmiWest 2003, up on his website. I am sure there are other
sources out there. We cleared out a little after 1:AM.
The next day I was excited to get to the show. I drove up with my
husband, and the president of our users group, Amiga Group Enthusiasts
of Fresno, CA, John Harris. John was honored to be the opening
presentation. Brian Deneen, President of the Sacramento Users group,
the people responsible for AmiWest, announced John. He has been
working on development on hand held games. He showed his ever popular
Solitaire games, his Word Search game, Gobbler, and a new program, a
really cool Scientific Calculator. He always does such a fine job with
his presentations.
The presentations were all informal, in the midst of the showroom
floor. There was a video screen and a projector. John Harris,
representing Amiga was there. MorphOS and PegasOS, with Bill Buck and
his crew, was very nicely displayed, with very high tech, brushed
aluminum cases and some nice monitors and keyboards, Jens Schoenfeld,
with his very famous CatWeasel, and other items at his booth, all the
way from Germany, Finally Amiga OS4 from Hyperion, with James Sellman
from the US, and Ben Hermans, all the way from Belgium. Everyone was
very well supported. Kermit Woodall, with his wonderfull Image FX was
there, as was Mr Hardware whohad some cool items for sale.
The banquet was a bit different this year. There was a panel of
guests, and some Q&A. The food was great! as was the company. The room
was filled with fun and laughter. After dinner, Brian Deneen
introduced Kermit Woodall. Kermit in turn intorduced Jeri Ellsworth,
Jens Schoenfeld on the topics of some new things from Jens, as well as
he and Jeri who were working on her ever popular design of the C-1.
This is her modern day version of the ever popular commodore 64. Bill
Buck of MorphOS, and Ben Hermans with Amiga OS4 were featured also.
After a self introduction, and explanation of how they had come to
this point in their lives, Kermit read some questions to each of them
in turn. The questions were from the audience. After several questions
and answers, we all gathered for conversations and just enjoying each
other's company, and rekindling fond moments from shows and banquets
from the past. Some were invited to the Hyperion suite for a get
together. The custom has been, a bathtub filled with beer on ice. It
was so much fun visiting with others from past years, and making new
friends, people I have known from #Amiga, on IRC, and St Louis shows
as well as past AmiWest shows. It was great to laugh over old times
and just visit. I went up to my room while the party was still going,
at about 2:15 AM.
Sunday morning those remaining were on the showroom floor. There were
more presentations, which I am sad to say I missed. I had to leave
early, but I heard there were some good presentations. And I almost
forgot, good news. Many know Wayne Hunt from Amiga.org. At the banquet
Bill Buck made an announcement that Wayne was going to work full time
for MorphOS. Again Congratulations to Wayne!
One more item of importance, John Zacharias, who was the president of
SACC had a stroke at the last St Louis show. He was supposed to attend
the AmiWest 2003 show, but the doctors felt it would be too much for
him. I wanted to go visit him, but I ran out of time. I understand he
loves hearing from Amigans, and knowing how everyone is doing, so if
anyone wants to, they can contact someone from the SACC group, and get
information on getting in touch with John. My heartfelt best wishes
for John and his family!
One of my favorite things about going to Amiwest is being in
Sacramento, they have a store called Frye's, if you haven't been, you
won't know, but if you have, you know it's a big geek store. Has
everything pertaining to computors, and all electronics, as well as
books, tvs, stereos, cds, dvds, etc. It is just awesome, we don't have
one in my neck of the woods, so I make sure to visit everytime I go. I
think I will go to southern CA, as they have some there as well, and
in the Bay Area, I hear some even have themes. With that I will end
and hope to hear some great news on some new Amiga stuff in the very
near future. :)
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T H E A M I G A U P D A T E C O N N E C T I O N
There is one item to add to Joanne's excellent report that has us
rather pleased at Amiga Update. Turns out the folks doing the demo of
OS 4.0 at AmiWest didn't have a Power PC board available. Fleecy put
out a request for someone to loan a board for the show. The person who
stepped forward and provided the Cyberstorm PPC board for the demo
just happened to be Justin Webb, the next generation of Amiga users in
our household.
The board was shipped out west with plenty time for everyone to make
the appropriate installations and have everything set for the show.
Once the board has returned and been reinstalled in its original
home, no doubt it will be treated with additional respect, being a
"showbiz" board now.
We're not sre how it got to be necessary to search for a board for
the demonstrations, but we're pleased one of us was able to help out.
For the curious, here are some specs on the board used:
50 Mhz 68060
233 Mhx 604e PPC
128 M RAM
UltraWide SCSI onboard
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Stop by and check out our archive!
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Copyright 2003 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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