@database 00259280-9 @master SD0:Al3.guide @$VER: Amiga Link Magazine, May 1, 1995 @author "Joshua Galun" @(c) "Joshua Galun " @index Main @remark Created with Heddley v1.1 (c) Edd Dumbill 1994 @node "Main" "Amiga Link #3 May 10, 1995" @next "Editorial " --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the NEW Amiga Link Magazine! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{"Editorial" link "Editorial" 0} This month's rant @{"General" link "General" 0} Articles on anything by the Ed! and everything Amiga. @{"The Staff" link "Staff_List" 0} The people who @{"Sites  " link "Sites" 0}  Where you can find make Amiga Link. Amiga Link each month. @{"Products " link "Products" 0} Products that @{"Issue 4" link "nextIssue" 0} What's coming in the Amiga Link highly next issue of Amiga Link! reccomend. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Link #3 May 1, 1995 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @endnode @node "Editorial " "Editorial Menu" @next "ED" @prev "Main" @{bg shine}Oops!@{bg back} Because of the hurry to get the issue out this month, we had to put the Legal BS and Quote of the Month sections here! [sigh] @{"The Ed Speaks" link "ED" 0} This month's rant by the Ed. @{"Quote        " link "Quote" 0} The Official Amiga Link Quote of the month! @{"Legalese     " link "LegalBS" 0} Legal BS, which serves no use except to put insomniacs to sleep. @{"Errata       " link "Errata" 0} Did I do that? @endnode @node "General" "Article Menu" @next "Bankruptcy_end" @prev "LegalBS" @{"Bankruptcy End" link "Bankend" 0} What finally happened at the last 2 days of the C= buyout. @{"Kittel Speaks " link "PeterKit" 0} An announcement from Dr. Peter Kittel, the new head of Amiga Engineering at Escom, on his hiring and plans for the Amiga! @{"IRC Conference" link "IRC" 0} The capture of the online IRC conference about the end of the C= buyout with Jason Compton and Joshua Galun. @{"Interviews    " link "Interviews" 0} Interviews of Bernard van Tienan of Escom and Colin Proudfoot of C= UK, regarding the C= buyout. @{"Amiga Ad no.1 " link "Amiga-ad" 0} The first of 3 imaginary Amiga ads that we thinks the new owners should put on the air. @{"Amiga Ad no.2 " link "Ad" 0} The second imaginary Amiga ad. @{"Amiga Ad no.3 " link "ad1" 0} The final imaginary Amiga ad. @{"RISC Amigas?  " link "RISC" 0} Commentary on why the next generation Amigas must be RISC...and why it doesn't matter that they will be incompatible with existing Amiga software! @{"Some Bits 3   " link "SBOT3" 0} Part 3/4 of the excellent story, Some Bits of Treasure @endnode @node "Staff_List" "The Staff" @next "nextIssue" @prev "General" Yes, the following people have climbed to the highest rung of Amiga life: To write for Amiga Link! Joshua Galun is the Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link, and he wrote the page with all the information on the bankruptcy's end (the Reader's Digest version!), the Editorial, and Imaginary Amiga ad #3. Send comments, letters to the mag, information, dirty gifs, or anything else related to the mag, to Roy Millican is the Technical Editor of Amiga Link. He handles everything that Joshua is afraid to touch, and he's a pretty handy writer too! E-mail him at Joe Solinsky isn't in advertising, he doesn't even have a TV to watch his ad when it hits the airwaves, but he wrote the Imaginary Amiga ad #1 for all those people who won't believe that the Amiga is good unless they see an ad for it during Star Trek! He can be reached at Glenn Saunders (krishna@primenet.com) also believes that the Amiga can make a comeback, but only if there are ads for it on TV. And with talent like this, as shown by his Imaginary Amiga Ad #3, we're sure that some advertising company will snap him up in a second! Brian Strayer is the C= 64 user who won our hearts with his ongoing story, Some Bits of Treasure. E-mail him at Bil Irving of Visions Perceived Software shared his views on what Escom and Dr. Peter Kittel must do to make the Amiga a major computer system again. You can rebutt him or send him your consent in e-mail, at @endnode @node "Sites" "Where to find Amiga Link" @prev "Products" You probably have noticed that we have dropped the BBS list at Amiga Link. This is because after my hard drive crashed, I found it too much of a hassle to run the BBS list. Considering how popular the Internet is becoming, I believe that in a little while, most people will be on the Internet and have access to the WWW and Aminet. If you wish to receive Amiga Link in e-mail each month, mail the address with the message ADD Then, every time the magazine comes out, it will be mailed to you UUENcoded. The magazine is quite big, so if your e-mail address cannot accept messages of atleast 100k, don't put your name on the list. If you want to be taken off the lits, do the same thing, but subsititute DELETE for ADD. If you have the use of AMosaic or Lynx on your BBS, you can view Amiga Link online on 8 different WWW pages. Their addresses are: Roy Millican's home page, one of the best around! The Amiga home page! Check this page out! Ofcourse, you can also get Amiga Link off of the docs/mags directory of Aminet, or off many local BBSs. @endnode @node "Products" "Reccomended Products" @next "Sites" @prev "nextIssue" In using our Amigas and making Amiga Link, we have come across some products and services that we believe exemplary. These products have all received the much desired Amiga Link @{"Chicken Seal of Quality" system "p-view csq"}. They are as follows: @{b}@{u}Heddley@{ub}@{uu}: This is a program to make Amiga Guide documents (such as the one you are reading write now), and it is incredible! Not only is it very easy to use, but it also cuts the time needed to make an Amiga Guide doc by a factor of 8, and has many great features! It's so good that we use Heddley here at Amiga Link! You can find Heddley v1.1 on Aminet. The author is Edd Dumbill. @{b}@{u}Page Stream 3.0g@{ub}@{uu}: Version 3 of this product was released early because of pressure, and as a result is was very buggy. However, Soft Logik has been very good about trying to fix the bugs and about spreading the new releases around. Page Stream 3.0g is not perfect, but it's pretty damn close! This product really brings the Amiga DTP up to industry standards, and we reccomend it to anyone interested in doing DTP on the Amiga, or any computer! @endnode @node "nextIssue" "Issue 4" @next "Products" @prev "Staff_List" Amiga Link #4 will be out on May 20 (give or take a few days) and will be everything that this issue should have been. It will include: o Reviews of the games Guardian, Cybergames, Akira, Dawn Patrol, and RoadKill. o Reviews of the software and hardware products, like the newest version of the e586 software, the Cybervision 64 bit gfx board, the latest MLink software, and more. o The latest breaking news on the Amiga corporation. o A new series on how to install and run AmiTCP, MLink, and all the Internet utilities that go with them. o A new Amiga Link logo! Come see this and much, much more! We'll meet you there! @endnode @node "IRC" "IRC Conference on the C= bankruptcy" @next "Interviews" @prev "Bankruptcy_end" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a log of the Conference on effnet on 4/21/95 starting at 8:00pm PST. All editing done by Roy Milican(AK) Technical Editor of Amiga Link. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- jcompton> Welcome to the First and (I hope) Last Commodore Auction Conference, sponsored by Amiga Report and Amiga Link Magazines-"It's news, and it's cheap. What more do you want?" jcompton> The ground rules: jcompton> We'll be explaining, in as much detail as is possible, what happened over the past two days of the Commodore auction proceedings. jcompton> Then our esteemed op-panel of developers will be free to offer any questions or comments they see fit (careful, boys). jcompton> After that, we'll go to the floor for questions. This is a very complicated affair...if you weren't aware Commodore was in liquidation, you'll probably not catch up tonight. jcompton> The Auction issue of Amiga Report Magazine should be making its rounds now.../msg your neighbor for a DCC if you don't have it yet. (note-don't /msg me...) jcompton> With that said...if there are no objections from the ops, I'll delve into a mini-summary of what's happened... jcompton> No? Ok, here goes. jcompton> The Short Version: Escom AG, the #2 German PC clone manufacturer, has successfully entered a bid for Commodore's assets, including (but certainly not limited to) the Amiga technology. jcompton> The slightly more explained version: Yesterday (Thursday) was the auction for Commodore. What we had been lead to expect was a heated bidding battle between CEI's Alex Amor and C= UK's David Pleasance...after all, they'd been the most vocal in their jcompton> pursuit for the Amiga. jcompton> As it turns out, neither of them bid. Instead, the only three bids came from Escom, Dell (a large US PC clone maker) and a California dealer. jcompton> The Dell and dealer bids were thrown out. Escom's $5 million contract, signed in March, was accepted by the liquidator. jcompton> Almost immediately after the auction, the C= UK heads issued a press release withdrawing from the running. jcompton> The next day (Friday), at the court hearing, the objections to the process were heard. jcompton> From what I've gathered from the attendees (Josh Galun and Giorgio Gomelsky), the three pre-filed objections from C= US' creditors, IBM, and the C= Netherlands/Philippines/UK trustees were done with without a ton of effort. jcompton> However, it seems that the C= Netherlands people were temporarily successful in removing the Philippines inventory of parts and Commodore UK from the buyout package. jcompton> The other objection came from Dell, who, in conjunction with Alex Amor, entered a new $15 million bid. jcompton> This did not please Escom. A recess was called. At the end of the recess, Escom had doubled their bid, that bid was accepted, and so ends the process. jcompton> The Bahamas Supreme Court still has to approve the deal next week, but by their own agreement, it should be nothing more than a rubber-stamp process. jcompton> In addition, Escom could always fail to close the deal, in which case the second-highest bidder, Dell, would be offered the package. Dell has asked for a 30 day "trial" period on the Amiga, which was part of the unacceptable (to the liquidators) condition of their bid. jcompton> However, as of now, Escom is the heir to the Commodore suite. What they choose to do with this is at present unclear. jcompton> They have promised everything from more Amigas to Commodore 64s for China and "Commodore" Macintosh clones. jcompton> That about covers what I've got on my mind now. Josh? Anything to add? Zool> Yes, I do Jason. Thanks a lot for a nice summary Zool> OK. Just to expand on what Jason said about the bidding... Zool> Yesterday, Dell/CEI entered a bid, however it was rejected in favor of Escom's bid. After this, Dell kept working with on their deal Zool> Dell submitted the bid, which was higher, but also required a 30 day waiting period. Anyway, as you now know, Escom raised their bid by 6.5 million dollars, and that cleared up all the obhections Zool> Anyway, I did an interview with the man who will be heading the Amiga devision at Escom, and this is what he had to say Zool> (I can't remember his name) He said that Escom wants to improve on the Amiga technology. Tight now, they are interested in making a Power PC Amiga, although that is not a decision written in stone Zool> He said that they have an agreement with a Chinese manufacturer, who will be shipping new Amigas in 2 months Zool> They said that they also want to use the Amiga technology for other products, such as set top boxes for TV Zool> When I asked them about liscencing Amiga clones, they said that anything was a possibility at this point, and that we may see Amiga clones Zool> Escom sounded very open on their policy on the Amiga, as much of what I questioned them on was replied to with "yes, that may be possible. We'll look into it" Zool> Later in the day I talked to Colin Proudfoot of C= UK. Zool> Colin Proudfoot said that in Escom is meeting with C= UK in two weeks, and that Escom will most likely buy C= UK at that point Zool> Colin said that Escom may have wanted the Amiga to use it to go into the US Computer market Zool> He said that Escom doesn't want to start up an American operation with only PCs, since you can already get PCs very cheaply in the US. On the other hand, if they came into the computer market with new technoilogy, that would seperate them from the crowd Zool> Escom, by the way, said that they would try to hire as many ex-C= techs as possible, and that they already have some on their staff. They did say, however, that some ex-C= techs already had new jobs that they were haooy with Zool> Anyway, in the end, my interview with Escom left me pretty satisfied with their plans. Zool> Although I think that CEI/DELL would have been better for the Amiga, Escom could still be very good, especially with the business savvy and 2 billion dollars in sales they had last year Zool> Alex Amor, when he lost the bid, sat stoically, and left soon after the announcement. He made no comment on what had happened Zool> Jason, I give the floor back to you. Devophile> Zool: I am sure I speak for everyone when I thank you for this information. Zool> Devophile: it was my pleasure. jcompton> For those of you who worry about transcripts, a raw version will be available soon after the conference. After that, if you want an edited version, wait for the appearance on Aminet or for AR 3.09 or Amiga Link #3. Zool> I would also like to say that the text version of my interviews with Escom and C= UK should be on Aminet soon. jcompton> I've had time to read over Josh and Giorgio's interview with Escom. Obviously, he was with the guy, so I'm one level removed. jcompton> Still, I am not exactly convinced that Escom's interests lie with the Amiga. From a strictly financial point of view, Escom is poised to launch their PCs in the UK (now that they have obtained the Commodore name AND the large chain of Rumbelowes stores) Zool> About the Phillipine plant, although Escom does not have it yet, apparently they should have it very soon. jcompton> ...they have spoken of Mac clones, and of course C-64s in China. With markets like that, it seems that the Amiga could easily fall by the wayside...thinking that the Amiga is an inroad to the US is ludicrous-Escom hasn't checked the Amiga's public image in the US lately. KermitW> I don't think that's the point. Devophile> jcompton: The plans for the US market seem to be right on the nose, as far as the US is concerned. New technology can be welcomed or outcast, depending on how it is brought forward. Zool> Escom believes that the Amiga can make money, which is why they're in this, and not because they have any fondness for the amiga. However, they will pour money into Amiga R&D, and they think that the Amiga can make money for them Devophile> jcompton: Let us hope Escom knows what they are doing. AK> Does Escom have the capital and willing to use it to launch a marketing plan in the US. Zool> AK: they have the capital jcompton> So, of course, the logical course of action is to make sure they DON'T forget. They have repeatedly avoided contact with the Amiga community and lied to journalists. I'm not accusing them of doing it in this case, but my point is that there are no assurances. I currently have no contact information for Escom...Josh? Fastlane> jcompton: what ever happened to the 'rumor' that Escom had a side-deal with CEI with regards to the technology and the trademarks? Zool> AK: I believe that they will market it in the US, because according to C= UK, they want to make inroads into the US market jcompton> Fastlane: Considering that Escom told Alex that their relationship depended on his performance at the auction, and that he tossed in his hat with Dell...well, CEI isn't ruling anything out, but I'm not holding my breath. Devophile> Fastlane: The smart thing for Escom to do would be a joint deal with CEI, as CEI knows the US market and has the distribution channels. Plus, a strong goal to get the Amiga back on top. Zool> Fastlane: It is conceivable that Escom might liscence Amiga clones to CEI jcompton> Kermit: You were going to say something? Fastlane> Devophile: agreed. Escom only seems to want it all for the name anyway. fallous> Why don't we hear from the developers before we turn this loose to the rest of us? Devophile> fallous: Agreed. jcompton> fallous: That was what I was trying to get to. :) AK> When will Escom make a official press release? Zool> Fastlane: As I said, Escom seems excited about the Amiga. The man from Escom said "We wouldn't have spent all this time and 12 million dollars if we didn't want the Amiga" KermitW> Only that the Amiga lends a uniqueness to a company looking to startup in the Zool> AK: Probably tommorow, to AP KermitW> US market that they would lack with yet-another-pc-clone. It might not be the jcompton> AK: "When they're damn good and ready", I would expect. KermitW> top of their market or even a large part of it, but it could be the thing that KermitW> could keep them in the press and, face it, the Amiga's still pretty good at Zool> And Escom wouldn't pour money into R&D for the Amiga if they didn't want to continute with the Amiga brand KermitW> getting used in TV and film venues for publicity. CBM never truly made use of this, but a smart company could. jcompton> Zool: Until we see some serious commitment from Escom, and some serious former employees-not C= Germany exec and sales staff, Commodore engineering. jcompton> Zool: Until then, there's no guarantee of anything. Zool> KermitW: Escom has business smarts. PillBottl> Zool: But they need engineering smarts too. Devophile> All: Escom needs to face the reality that the Amiga is still a viable platform. And with proper R&D, marketting, and distribution - the Amiga can make Escom a lot of money. But they need to support the users, the developers, and listen to comments Devophile> and suggestions. Zool> jcompton: True, but Escom did sound excited about the Amiga. I genuinely think that Escom wants to market and sell Amigas. fallous> Kevin, do you have a view from SoftLogik? AK> Will Escom pursue 3rd party support that has sence left the Amiga? KermitW> Until I see otherwise, I would assume Escom is business smart. Zool> PillBottl: that's why they are hiring ex-C= techs. jcompton> Zool: Then why avoid contact with the Amiga market since August of 1994? Beowulf_> I assume it's also not out of the question for Escom to license the Amiga technology to third parties... Zool> jcompton: I don't know. Perhaps because C= was a hideous company, and they didn't want to deal with them? Also, they said that they had sold Amigas at Escom stores before KermitW> Remember that some of that third party support that left the Amiga, left softlogik> Soft-Logik is comitted to the Amiga as long as long as the market can support them. No special info on Escom yet. KermitW> because they WEREN'T successful on the Amiga, and many still weren't KermitW> relatively successful after leaving anyway. Zool> KermitW: Yes, but Escom is going to buy C= UK, and C= UK had GREAT developer relationship. They put on a World of Amiga show after C= died. PillBottl> A big pat on the back to Softlogik and the other "important" developers who kept the faith! bytey> The real question is will a real effort be made to get a new Amiga model out (new chipset) and that would require a _lot_ of work software wise. Do they have previous software staff ? (Chris Hames PC-Task/DirWork etc) Devophile> A comment I just received was in regards to why developers are "tripping over each other to leave this platform", simply because C= did not support developers, nor users as well as should have, and have been basically gone for a year. :) Zool> bytey: They did say that they had and were hiring ex-C= people. Zool> bytey: Some C= techs don't want to come back, though. KermitW> As a developer (of ImageFX) I can say that it wasn't like anyone is forcing Devophile> Softlogik: Thank you for not betraying us, we are all appreciative. bytey> Zool: But ex CBM does not mean ex US software developers. The ones with the knowledge that would take months to learn. KermitW> developers to leave the Amiga. The market, your sales, are what push you into Zool> SoftLogik: I'm with Devophile. Nice job, you guys! Nyx> Well, forget my log guys. :P KermitW> new platforms. A lot of companies who visibly and audibly left the Amiga to AK> Devophile: Be tray is alittle strong, they just have to think of the business aspect. Cappy> As the president of one of the most successful C= user groups in the country, I hope that a US branch gets implimented soon and get user groups involved as much as possible. Devophile> Cappy: Yes. KermitW> go to Macs, SGIs and PCs weren't run well or making the money they needed. In softlogik> The boss thanks you. lemming> There is a log being kept by t00 still KermitW> many cases it's because their Amiga products weren't "up to snuff" anymore. Zool> bytey: Well, I assume the reason they are hiring ex-C= people is to get people with smarts on the Amiga OS. Also, many ex-C= people don't want to come back because they have already found nice jobs. Devophile> AK: Yes. It was a poor choice of words. :) "abandon" would have been better. fallous> Such as GVP Zool> Cappy: Escom said that they would be starting a US operation pretty soon. I'll have the info on that within 2 weeks. bytey> have they said anything about _real_ developer support ? Light2> All: Bernard van Tienen ESCOM was vice-president of Commodore International. Does he have a track record we can follow? Zool> bytey: Nothing other than: "Yes, we'll work with developers" Zool> Light2: BTW, that was who I spoke with at Escom jcompton> bytey: Again, there have been no solid commitments, just a lot of broad based indications of what CAN happen. Fastlane> Zool: that has been said by many before... but did it ever REALLY eventuate? Devophile> I just received an amusing comment.. "Did Sony buy Amiga or what?" Cappy> Zool: Does Escom have an email address that they can be reached? I'd like to press the issue of the importance of user groups. Zool> FastLane: Who has said that before? Other than C=? Zool> Cappy: I don't believe so. Zool> Devophile: :) Fastlane> Zool: my point exactly. Light2> Zool: Yes, I read the transcripts. I would really like to know what to expect. Previous track records in mind. jcompton> Cappy: E-mail? Not to our knowledge. That would make too much sense. They're not even sure if they want to use the net to help promote their product. KermitW> We're quite willing to give Escom the time they need to do this. It can't Idcmp> Many ex-C='s like Dave Haynie and Dale Larson have already said that they don't like the direction that Escom is planning for the Amiga and Zool> Fastlane: Yes, that is a problem. But since we have no real choice in this, we have to jhope for the best. KermitW> possibly happen overnight or even over just two months. Developer support, Idcmp> it would take more $$ rather than less or equal $$ to get them to go back to R&D rather than if CEI or alike had got it. KermitW> user group programs, new machines, all this will take time for anyone. Zool> You know, if Amiga users had banded together, we could have had a legal right to send a representative to the court hearing to plead for who we wanted? Zool> Idcmp: Yes, but Escom has a lot of money. Cappy> jcompton or Zool: How about a snail mail address? jcompton> Um, guys, I hate to interject, but we're losing the flow here... Devophile> Another comment, Dell has a better "image" in the US than Escom. People might be more apt to but Amigas with the Dell name versus Amigas with the Escom name. Beowulf_> jcompton: Is there a snail mail address? Idcmp> Zool: And in that sense Escom is alot like Commodore. (was) Zool> Devophile: I dobut that will make much a difference once Escom has an operation here. fallous> OK, jcompton wants to gain some control, so I'm deopping a few of us jcompton> Beo: None that I have access to. Zool may have one, if not, I'll try to get it from Dan Stets. Devophile> Let us all give Jason control again. jcompton> Everyone, please calm down. I'd like to actually let the general public be heard, so... fallous> Sorry, der Fuhr made me do it. ;) Zool> fallous: For the good of the whole, write? :) Bandini> Is NewTek still supporting the Amiga or are they concentrating their efforts on IBM Toasters? jcompton> Ok, am I back in charge? jcompton> Bandini: SHHHHHHHHH. fallous> OK, let's have jcompton run this show. jcompton> Ok. I guess I do. I'm going to start taking requests for comments/questions. /msg me with a ?. You have to be on #auction for this to work... jcompton> You'll be voiced. Make your question/comment and then hit GA for "Go Ahead." jcompton> Um, ok, that's enough, thanks. :) Hold off. jcompton> Um anybody else messaging me with a ? will be ignored, I have a very long list... jcompton> Stop, for now, thanks/. jcompton> Queue: Mitchman harv pieman beowulf jjohnson irc shadowhwk niteflite byter chamer... jcompton> mitchman: Go. Mitchman> Did they mention any plans for a US-based R&D department? This is obviously needed if any of the old engineers is to return. Mitchman> ga jcompton> Mitchman: No specific locales were given, although some engineers have indicated their willingness to relocate in the pass (Chris Ludwig, for example.) jcompton> (past, that is.) jcompton> Harv's up. Harv> So what's up with Alex/CEI?...... Harv> I can't believe he's just gonig to fade away..... Harv> is an Escom/CEI deal possible? or even desireable? GA Zool> Harv: He could possibly get a liscence to clone Amigas. jcompton> Harv: Well, Giorgio told me Alex said "I'm going to grow flowers." I haven't talked to him today. He didn't give up over a year's time, so... jcompton> Harv: At the same time, throwing in with Dell certainly didn't help him in Escom's eyes. On the other hand, money's still money. PieMan> Thankyou. Does escom have any plans to continue to manifacture amiga cd32 console type machines? ga jcompton> Fallous is handling voice, he's a bit behind, so just hold on... Zool> Pieman: I think so jcompton> Pieman: I haven't heard anything that specific discussed. I don't see why not, I know of at least two companies who would love new units for their own products... Zool> Pieman: It makes sense. Escom wants to get Amiga tech in other things than the Amiga computers, so the CD32 would be step towards a set top box jcompton> Pieman: But again, this is one of those things Escom needs to be made aware of. Zool> Pieman: Also, if the Phillipine plant does have 130,000 akiko chips in stock, and they buy it, I'm sure Escom will want to make CD32s. Zool> Pieman: there is still good profit to be had in CD32s and royalties off it. Zool> Pieman: It fits with Escom's strategy. Zool> GA jcompton> Beowulf_'s up. Beowulf_> Mention was made of Escom producing the 64 for sale in some parts of the world. Do you know of any plans for 64's to be sold in the US (specifically the SX 64)? Beowulf_> GA jcompton> Beowulf: Again, that's gotta be up to them. The Chinese market seems to be where they want to put the 64-it's cheap to make and cheap to buy. There's always the CMD market in the US, but again, Escom may not be aware of that. Zool> GA...I have nothing to say. jcompton> Beowulf: I, personally, would be surprised. jcompton> GA. jcompton> So, that brings up jjohnson. jjohnson> If C= Uk is a subsidiary (sp?) of C= Intl who was just bought by Escom (and the Phillipines plant also), how can those two entities not be included with the deal? Thanks. GA Zool> jjohnson: no, C= UK is not part of Escom, but Escom plans to buy it in 2 weeks time. Zool> Escom also will probably buy the Phillipines plant. jcompton> Good question. C= UK is DIRECTLY owned by Commodore BV, which is in liquidation. Its trustees objected to the sale of its assets through C= International (the Philippines assets and C= UK). jcompton> C= BV SHOULD have to report to C= International, but because of Commodore's convoluted structure... jcompton> Zool: The inventory, not the plant. They don't own the plant. Zool> jcompton: It may be illegal to sell the plant to anyone other than Escom, because there may be Amiga tech still in there that Escom owns. That is what the court said. oleg> stoopid question, is the court-approved contract available electronically? it is a public document, so it can be requested. has anyone done that? jcompton> Queue: irc shadowhawk bytey chamer bandini frotz reti032 golum number1 wt kthulu ... jcompton> oleg: It's a very LONG public document. I, for one, don't want to type it in. I'll ask the lawyers on Monday, though. Zool> jcompton: Ofcourse, there are such things as scanners... :) jcompton> oleg: You might be able to get it sent to you from the office. jcompton> Zool: Which any member of the audience can feel free to buy for me. oleg> jcompton actually it *should* be available for the cost of copying/mailing from the bankruptcy court if it is not available from the attorneys Zool> jcompton: :) Zool> jcompton: Maybe a company that makes scanners will be good enough to take an ad out in AR, right? jcompton> irc's not here, so shadowhwk's up. Shadowhwk> Has any evidence as to whether or not ESCOM has talked to, met with or is planning to meet with NewTek? GA jcompton> Zool: I can always hope. HammerD> Any mention of C= Canada or other operating subsidaries? Was Douglas MacGregor there? (head of C= Canada) jcompton> Ok, then, how about bytey? bytey> What is Escom's reputation in Germany ? GA jcompton> HD: Not clear. AK> A Amiga Deal friend of mine has said that NewTek has officially stated that the future Amiga is of no concern of theirs. Zool> Are there any Germans here who have dealt with Escom? If so, /msg Zool so that I can answer bytey jcompton> bytey: Like any large company, Escom has its supporters and detractors. On .misc, there's a thread, one person lauds Escom for great potential, the other says their service sucks. fallous> People are waiting in line for their questions, let's stay with the queue jcompton> bytey: But they've demonstrated tremendous growth lately, so they've got attention on them, and this can't hurt. So I guess the quick answer is: you'll know soon. jcompton> Ok, Shadowhwk was lagged, let's try again... Zool> bytey: Willow says that Escom is very big, but doesn't have good service. Shadowhwk> Has any evidence as to whether or not ESCOM has talked to, met with or is planning to meet with NewTek? GA Cryo> there's more to life than NewTek jcompton> Shadow: Too specific. If they have, they haven't made it public. jcompton> Everyone has to understand...Escom has been incredibly secretive over the past months. We found out more about their plans and thought processes today than we did since the rumors started spreading in September. jcompton> So, any secret deals, meetings, or promises they may have made are still total unknowns. jcompton> GA Nyx> I'd like to mention along with Cryo that NewTek, while being a very "public" company in the eyes of the public, never sold enough Amigas to keep C= alive. Commodore survived on the low-end machines, and always did. jcompton> That'll bring up CHamer. oleg> There is a thread on c.g.lightwave (initiated by lee stranahan an ex-NewTek employee) that NEwTek is in deep financial trouble... Thus they may at least be interested in selling Amiga Toasters for a while, if only to liquidate their inventory. Nyx> The only reason C= had high-end machines at all was for a technology proving ground. Zool> By the way, people, Willow has told me that service is on of Escom's selling points, but that in practice, like Radio Shack, it's not very good, because the people don't have the expertise. CHamer> Thanks. Are there any 'surprise' legal actions on the part of the 'un-successful' bidders set to slow this down again? GA Zool> CHamer: No, it seems as if all is smooth saling from here on in. fallous> Would another op please take over the voicing? I seem to be getting lagged. jcompton> CH: Good question. The only chance would be at the Bahamas court, but the court has all but signed in blood that they'll say what the US judge said, and he said "yes", so... jcompton> Volunteers? fallous> Cryo has been nominated Chief Voicer jcompton> Ok. Queue: bandini frotz reti032 golum number1 wt kthulu fotograf cyclone2 derjag t_c_c piranha mage optic Bandini> somebody stole my Question :-) GA Zool> Bandini: That's probably Escom's fault! :) jcompton> Bandini: In that case, the answer is ".325, 38 home runs." jcompton> Next@! Cryo> frotz, wake up jcompton> Cryo: Voice him first. fallous> frotz is lagged, give him a sec Frotz> Does anybody know how to contact Escom in ANY country, like with phone or fax or email? GA jcompton> Frotz: I don't. One of my Dutch sysops has Escom's number, I'll try to get it in the next issue. Josh might have something...GA Zool> Frotz: I have one number, but I'd rather not give it out, because it is not a general number that is given out. Sorry. However, when I talk to someone at Escom, I will try to get a phone number you can fax requests for the Amiga to. GA jcompton> Hold on...number is coming... Number1> Have any comments been made by either CEI (answered earlier) or Micro-PACE, my two main distributors as an Amiga dealer? If so, what? GA Zool> jcompton: any day now... :) jcompton> Ok, I'll print it when I have it. In the meantime, reti032 is on #mirror, so I'll forward his question: jcompton> reti032-"what about jcompton future plans, i mean ar issues and possible conference qith escom boss ?" Zool> +49 241 27734 is one of Escom's phone numbers. Thanks to ChrisDi for this. jcompton> Answer: I don't see any big changes for AR. As for conference with Escom...that's up to them, but it won't be for lack of trying on my part. jcompton> (Start /msging me with more questions...) Kthulu> Does this mean that the next Amiga will have plug in graphics and soundboards like the ibm? Also I would like to add that the Amiga Computer Users of RIT hope that ESCOM will be open to suggestions from those of us who use the computer. I beilieve that we need to stay on top of Zool> OK, we have more phone #s. Fax: +31-2526-72216 jcompton> Escom is also +31-2526-87971, +31-2526-72216 fax, but those are customer service. Zool> Thanks Willow for that one. Kthulu> of ESCOM so they know what we want and what can be done with the AMIGA Kthulu> ga Zool> Kthulu: I suppose just call those numbers, at this point. jcompton> Kthulu: Another question I'd love to answer, but Escom just hasn't given us specific enough information. Zool> Kthulu: However, as I have said, when I talk to Escom again in 2 weeks, I will ask about where concerned Amiga users can call to voice suggestions. jcompton> GA Zool> GA Cyclone2> How much is Escom planning to put into Amiga R&D? This is a legitimate concern, since C= invested about $30 million a year in Amiga R&D, and it wasn't enough. Cryo> hey bunghole.. you're up Cyclone2> GA jcompton> queue: fotograf cyclone2 derjag t_c_c piranha mage optic mr_t drizzit chamer pala droids corinna baconrunr hidog tritn sudog oggy Zool> Cyclone2: It sounds like they are willing to spend a lot. They know that the Amiga need new technology upgrades, and that it will take a lot of work to incorporate the Power PC into the Amiga. Cryo> dejag jcompton> "As much as they say they will." As of now, Escom is a >$1 billion company. Their clones require far less R+D than the Amiga would, and the 64 certainly won't be an engineering challenge. jcompton> GA. Zool> jcompton: Yes, but if they believe that the Amiga can be a viable computer, they will spend on R&D. jcompton> Zool: Of course. Zool> jcompton: And Escom did say that they bought it to make Amigas, and that they wouldn't have put the time into it otherwise, nor the money. Zool> Another Escom phone number, this one Germany: +49 6252 71313 Thank ChrisDi for that one! jcompton> Zool: I think they could turn a handy profit without the Amiga. In fact, I'll submit that the Amiga is the riskiest part of a balanced diet of PC and Mac clones, the 64, and the Amiga. Zool> jcompton: They could make a profit without the Amiga, but they could make a bigger profit WITh the Amiga. Cryo> if you aren't paying attention, you will lose your slot Zool> jcompton: I believe that they want to revamp the Amiga. I could be very wrong, but that is what they conveued to me. And a revitalized Amiga sold in big computer chains could make money. jcompton> Cryo: Some people are lagged, though...we ARE putting a lot of load on... Nyx> Not unless you can attract big name software vendors as well. Zool> Nyx: Those will come if Escom sells Amigas again, especially if they put them in all Escom stores and other big computer chains. jcompton> Nyx: But, Ken, with you at EA, that shouldn't a problem. :) Nyx> Zool: Perhaps in Europe. Cryo> chamer: speak or die CHamer> When are we going to see some machines appear? Zool> I think that Escom should sell cheap A1200s to China, because that would really boost the Amiga user market. Zool> CHamer: In 2 months, according to Escom. Zool> CHamer: They already had a deal set up with a Chinese firm to make Amigas in their plants. CHamer> Is that real, or just 'smoke'? mr_t> Have Escom talket with the AmigaOS replacement group? and what are their plans for distribution to others than their own stores? jcompton> Zool: Um, your interview says 3 months. Zool> Chamer: Well, the Chinese were at the hearing, so i assume so. Zool> jcompton: [sigh] That must have been a typo... mr_t> How are they going to promote the Amiga vs PC? jcompton> mr_t: Another question locked in the brains of many German and Dutch execs. We just don't know yet. Zool> mr_t: Willow informs me that Escom hasn't contacted the Amiga OS project. However, C= Uk did contact the Amiga OS project, and Escom will be buying C= UK, so they may contact them through C= UK. GA Optic> Will American/Canadian stores be able to sell Amigas, or do Escom only sell their products through Escom retail outlets? jcompton> GA Zool> Optic: I assume that Escom will sell Amigas everywhere. It makes business sense to sell them in stores other than their own, because they can make more profit off the Amiga that way. Pala> what did do the amiga director of escom when he was at C=, how good how bad ? GA jcompton> Zool: That's a pretty simplified view. Pleasance sent the OS people a letter saying "Good work, carry on, we think it's neat", but there was no commitment made... Zool> Optic: Ofcourse, that will be a measure of how much they want the Amiga to survive. If they don't allow other stores to have it, that's a bad sign. Zool> jcompton: Actually, he said that they were interested in talking to them, and that was before they got the Amiga, and just that he acknowledges them is a good sign. jcompton> Pala: Good question. I'd never heard of the guy. Zool> jcompton: I though you knew everything about C=...my idolization of you is shattered... :) jcompton> Zool: Sorry, CIL management wasn't one of my fortes. jcompton> I'd just like to interject that I DO strongly feel that Escom's purchase of Commodore's assets seriously imperils the future of floor scrubber development. mage> From which point would it be realistic to think Escom would continue R&D? Will they start over from scratch, or will they keep any of the "old stuff" ? jcompton> (It's been asked that I point out that CIL had a good dozen or two vice presidents at any given time, so this one was probably nothing to wrry about.) Zool> I just want to say that although I agree that Escom could turn out to be VERY bad, they could also turn out to be VERY good for the Amiga. jcompton> mage: Well, Amor toyed with the idea of scrapping AAA and 3DRISC, because the benefit-to-time ratio may not have added up. But it's going to be up to Escom's evaluation. Zool> mage: I don't think we really know. They could go Power PC and, make old software compatible, or they might feel that it is easier to start from scratch with the Power PC. Cryo> those who aren't getting voice propagated on their turn, send me a msg and I'll add you back in the list Cryo> the network is obviously fucked as usual. jcompton> mage: As it stands, AAA and 3DRISC (separately) are each a good 18+ months from saleable completion. jcompton> msg rlsayer Reminded me, that is. Zool> jcompton: "saleable"? :) Nyx> Zool: 18+ months before you could have them in a sellable product. Cryo> droids: you're on droids> Does Escom have a floor scrubber, and do they know how to use it? GA jcompton> I like "saleable". jcompton> droids: Probably, but unfortuately they haven't admitted it. Zool> Also, I think that with Escom, we pretty much have an all or nothing venture. They either are going to kill the Amiga, or do great things with it and push it like crazy. WilloW> Zool: That's correct. Is a totaly unknown thing. Maybe they are worse then C= or ten times better. Cryo> technical difficulties Cryo> please sit by HiDog> Did Escom mention their intended market? High/low end, desktop/console etc.? I still have a feeling they might just milk the Amiga technology as is and eventually kill it i.e. cheap settop box... GA jcompton> Any more questions? We're going to close the queue soon... jcompton> Hidog: They mentioned all markets, like the good salesmen they had on hand. Cryo> tritn, you're on Zool> HiDog: I believe that they want to do low end for new markets, like China, but on the other hand, I think they wanted to make Amiga business machines for the European market, which is very business oriented Sudog> How long can we expect to wait (perhaps an estimate?) before we see some sort of action in North America? I'm looking for general ballpark, not exact figures. So far from what I've heard, it doesn't look good for us. Please, your impressions would be wlcm. Sudog> GA Sudog> Wait! Sudog> I ask this for the users out ther who have broken Amigas! Like broken a4000s. Sudog> NOW GA. jcompton> sudog: Well, what Giorgio told me about their answer to the US distribution question was NOT encouraging. Their answer was "Well, we'll look for the best people", which means "We haven't thought about it." Zool> Sudog: Escom said that they want to set up American offices soon, and Colin Proudfoot says that Escom wants to use this to get into the US market, so I think it looks pretty good. Zool> jcompton: Hmmm...conflicting answers... oggy> Escom are breaking into the UK PC market theyve bought up all the rumberlow(formaly owned by Thorn Emi) and are opening superstores on top of these in the UK, now theyve bought C= and say they plan to break into the US market as well, although they have.. jcompton> Zool: Yes, and you were both talking to the same guy... Cryo> transcripts will be available on www.warped.com oggy> large captial, will it be enough or have they bitten off more than they can chew? Cryo> uh oh.. guard your sheep.. joec is up Zool> jcompton: perhaps I misunderstood his statement. However, he did say that they were going to be setting up some kind of US contact, somehow, and Colin Proudfoot did say that Escom wanted to get into the US market. jcompton> oggy: Rhetorical question. :) Zool> oggy: Escom definitely has the capital to the do whatever they want with teh Amiga... JoeC> What was Microsoft's objection at the hearing, and who gets to pay that old cursor patent fee now from that other company? jcompton> Zool: Because as salesmen, they would be committing suicide to rule anything out. That's their job. jcompton> JoeC: Microsoft didn't object, they were at the auction as a creditor. Zool> oggy: The computer market is growing in Europe, and they are positioned to make a nice sum off it. jcompton> JoeC: And it will fall on Escom to re-license the CadTrack patent, and pay up all of the MANY MANY patents that are "not in good standing". jcompton> For instance, the CrossDOS license is not in good standing, along with hundreds of others. Cryo> corinna.. speak Corinna> Comment: We need to be positive about the future with Escom, being negative will not help anyone, us or them. This could be a whole new era for the Amiga. KEEP THE FAITH! :) jcompton> Interestingly enough, not even Consultron knew it was not in good standing... Corinna> Thanks to Zool and Jason and all other folks for the info! GA! Zool> Corinna: Thank you! I think that since we are stuck with Escom, we should hope for the best, and wait to see what happens. jcompton> (The queue is closed)... Optic> jc: What about the Amiga speech synth? jcompton> I'll agree...but this is also not the time to be complacent. We've been screwed around before, and this last year hasn't exactly been fun, so it's worth our while to make DAMN sure Escom knows what they have to do. Piranha> Since IBM still has patents pending on some of the architecture on the Amiga platform, is it *secure* that Escom has the technology, or will they end up going to court again? This will put our Amiga's out of commission 'again'. Is this something we have to worry about? Go Ahead-GA jcompton> Optic: I didn't see it in there, I thought that was a dead issue. Zool> Piranha: It is secure. Zool> Pirahna: IBM dropped their objection, as far as I understand. Drizzit> Will Escom allow ship Amigas with better CPUs with stock machines (ie 25,33,&40MHz models) instead of just one (25MHz right now)? And will they move on to the PowerPC, the 060, or some other RISC based chip? jcompton> Piranha: Unfortunately, the result of IBM's claim was unclear. The main problem seems to be that they weren't LISTED as holders, making them wonder what the liquidator was trying to pull. jcompton> Drizzit: We don't know the answer yet. jcompton> Piranha: They held a license, not the patents themselves. Zool> Drizzit: The have said that they like the Power PC chip, but that no decision has been made yet. Cryo> super samarai cybers up Cryo> go lighty Lighty> The following question is for Zool to include in his next interview with Escom: Lighty> I realize that the matter has probably not been discussed internally yet, but in a future version of the Amiga's OS, do they plan to include plan to include internet capabilities? Lighty> GE Lighty> err...GA Zool> Lighty: OK, I'll ask them that when I next speak to them. Thanks for the suggestion. Cryo> tritn: you're on Cryo> anyone I miss? Cryo> tritn, you type "Hello, I have a question" jcompton> If you were missed, let us know now... Cryo> no bunghole.. type Cryo> type type type type type TritN> Hello I have a Question TritN> I'm sure I speak on Behalf of many ppl within the large Amiga community of Montreal, Quebec. I Must ask, Is there any news about distribution in other countries like Canada? (Also please comment of fate of C= Canada) GA Cryo> there is no hope for some people mr_t> Has Escom said anything about what direction the are planning on developing hardware and OS (besides setop and PPC)? GA jcompton> Tritn: C= Canada was a direct subsidiary of C= International, so will be part of Escom. jcompton> Tritn: No news about Canada otherwise, though. Fastlane> let me add also with Australia (C=Australia was never any good) Zool> mr_t: No. jcompton> Ok, it's really closed for real now, no more etc. jcompton> mr_t: No, but I'm sure they haven't ruled anything out. Cryo> dra: you're up Draegon> What kind of support can we posibly expect for older amigas? GA... jcompton> Draegon: I'd say you should stop hot-swapping joysticks now, just in case. Cryo> cybers: online cybers> can we send a copy of this to Escom? Cryo> cybers: yes, with a xerox of my butt jcompton> cybers: Yeah, but make it one of the edited ones. Cryo> chamer: you're 15 seconds starts now ;-) CHamer> Thanks, Are there going to be assurance that while machine production ramps up, that parts will become available as well? GA jcompton> CH: No, there's no assurance of that at all. This is another one of those things Escom won't think of unless they hear enough complaints and prodding. Cryo> spinner marks the end of the queue oleg> zool, who exactly are you, and what relationship, if any do you have with ESCOM? Spinner> Will the Chinese manufacturer mean cheaper (cost and/or quality), more expensive, or similar to current AMigas? Spinner> Will we see an A4000 cost competitive to a 486 syustem? GA. Zool> oleg: I am the Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link Online Magazine. I have no relationship with Escom, except that I talked to them today at the hearing. jcompton> Spinner: I'm not sure what the relation of Chinese-to-Philippines labor costs are, but I'd imagine Chinese labor is a few degrees cheaper, at least. Cryo> unedited transcripts will be available from www.warped.com.. edited ones will be elsewhere Zool> Spinner: It will probably mean Slave labor, sadly. oleg> zool so why aren't we getting at least some "I don't know answers from you"? you CANNOT conceivably have covered every question asked here in your talk with ESCOM, soo how much is speculation on your part, and how much is ESCOM answers? Cryo> thank you all for attending.. we have some entertainment for you coming up Cryo> We are going to tie jason down and let you all come with your cow prods and have at him jcompton> Yeah, that about does it for the formal part, everyone. Thank you very much for coming, the official edited transcripts will be appearing in the online magazine of your choice... Zool> oleg: I haven't said that because I don't answer what I can't answer. And yes, there is a matter of speculation inveolved, but it's the best that I can do with a 3 minute conversation. caldi> Cryo: Your butt would be better entertainment, put it in the fax machine. jcompton> All I have left to say is that I'm not about to watch Escom screw this up, so I'd appreciate all the help I can get making sure they don't. jcompton> Open up the floodgates... Cryo> *ding* *ding* *ding* this conference is officially over. Zool> oleg: The best thing Escom said was "We wouldn't have spent million and the time to buy the Amiga unless we wanted to make Amigas" Cryo> thanks for attending.. @endnode @node "Ad" "Imaginary Amiga Ad #3" @toc "General" @next "RISC" @prev "ad1" This was written a few months ago, so please don't e-mail me telling me that the Microsoft and Apple as campaigns took place months in the past! As you may or may not know, both Microsoft and Apple Macintosh have recently launched new advertising campaigns. In Microsoft's they show you images of lots of 6 year old Caucasians with huge eyes and old Asians looking into the camera. While you are seeing these sickeningly cute images in the background you hear supposedly awe-inspiring music and subliminal messages (like "This stuff we make, it makes you powerful," and "Gather up your ideas, we can't wait to see what you do"), and occasionally, a glimpse of the Windows logo or some software. In the Macintosh advertisements you see people trying to do various procedures with a PC and failing because it is so complicated, and then going over to a friend's house to do the procedure on a Mac. After giving some serious thought to these commercials I began to plan the fantasy ad for the Amiga in my head (it's obviously a fantasy, for when was the last time you saw an Amiga ad period, let alone a good one?) Some sort of mix of the Mac and Microsoft ads. Yeah...that would be good... The ad opens up with a man trying to save the world from total nuclear destruction on his PC (not a game, it would be a real experience). He is frustrated because the PC keeps saying: Not ready error reading drive B Abort, Fail, Retry? Abort, Retry, Fail? He finally gets so frustrated that he calls a friend and asks him if he can come over and use his Amiga to save the world. The friend is hesitant, telling him that he IS in the middle of computer chess, but OK, he can use his Amiga. You see the man walk up to the door of his friend's house and walk in with his friend. An image of the faces of a 6 year old girl with huge eyes and an old man appear on the screen for now reason at all, although it looks cute. Suddenly a blinding light streams out from the room in front of the camera. At the same time "Thus Spake Zarathustra" begins to play (you know, the song from 2001!) the man walks into the light filled room and sees the Amiga. (A bit like those cheesy Alien encounters on TV) The music reaches a chreschendo and then switches from "Thus Came Zarathustra" to Hendel's "Messiah." In the background you hear subliminal messages telling you to buy 50 Amigas. The man sits down at the Amiga. He begins to type away in an effort to save the world. His friend approaches him and begins to use the mouse. The man says, "Excuse me, I'm trying to save the world!" "No problem," says the friend, "Amigas have had true multi-tasking since 1986. The friend is visibly impressed as he watches his friend render in Lightwave as the computer works on stopping a nuclear missle countdown. The man is so overjoyed that you see him buy an Amiga and throw his PC out a window. We come back to him three years later, and his formerly bald head now has hair on it, his teeth sparkle, and he lives in a mansion. The ad ends with the new Amiga logo and a slogan that says: @{bg shine}The Amiga: So Powerful it Will Grow Hair on Your Head@{bg back} OK, maybe there are some slight "exaggerations" in the advertisement, but really, the Amiga hasn't had an ad in America for so long that it should be excused for a few fibs. Besides, Microsoft has been fibbing for years, and nobody's noticed, so why should it be any different for the Amiga? @endnode @node "SBOT3" "Some Bits of Treasure, Part 3" @toc "General" @next "Staff_List" @prev "RISC" Some Bits of Treasure Part III by Brian Strayer Soon after Armand left for the oasis, John and Tom retired to the Rover to eat and rest. The long hours and this strange turn of events had left them exhausted. They awoke late into the evening. Tom stretched and yawned, "Do you think he will get the tablets back?" "I don't know," John slowly replied, "But I've just had a thought." Tom waited, not saying anything. He would almost rather sleep than get at the bottom of this mystery that was swirled around them. John continued, "I remember that some of the symbols on the last lines were about duplication. I think there might be a copy of one of the tablets or, maybe, even a new one." "But what about its location?" asked Tom, voicing the next hurdle. "Without the last tablet, how will we know where to look?" "Well, I may be wrong on this," John acknowledged, "but I think the symbols on duplication also referred to it's location. Let's go check." They grabbed the lantern and tools and headed to the chamber. They had just set the light when the sound of a scuffle from the tunnel made Tom jump visibly. The boy entered with his head down. "How did it go?" John asked. Armand looked up, his disappointment apparent. "I did get your tablets. But they were hid in a food bag, and I lost them to a big bird. I do not even know where they are now. I am sorry." John laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, "You did your best. We appreciate that. And we are certainly no worse off than before. In fact, we were just going to check out something else." John briefly told him their thoughts of another tablet. Several minutes work yielded a large pile of small rocks and sand, but no tablet. A second effort doubled the size of the debris pile, but still no artifact. "Maybe it is just a little deeper," volunteered Armand. A third time hands and tools went to work. This time a small, flat tablet was their reward. Tom quickly voiced the next problem, "How are you going to translate that without the laptop? All your data was in it." John arose, "It was. But, remember, I did that printout just before we found the third tablet. It's in the Rover. I'll get it." Tom then brought Armand up to date on the tablets. John returned and started the lengthy task of translation. It was almost dawn when he finished and roused Tom and the boy. "Ok," John began, "here it is. This is a new tablet, not just a copy of the last one. This one tells us when and how things will happen, though the 'when' doesn't do us much good. It seems they tracked time by a small particle, maybe a subquark, field decay rate differential. Even if we knew the particle, the type of field they meant and how to measure it's decay rate seems way beyond me." "So what about 'how'?" asked Tom. "Well," John went on, "they knew, or planned, that the Commodore logo would be on a computer. Entering this code would somehow let the Commodore symbol act as a lens for a remote apparatus that would begin the access operation. The computer would also be a needed source of electrical energy." "Access to what?" Tom asked promptly. "I don't know, that was on the third tablet," John said shrugging. Tom voiced his doubts, "If this was some cheap dime novel, it would be a portal for large one eyed creatures to come here and wipe us out." "I don't think that's going to happen," replied John disapprovingly. "But how do you know that for sure?" Tom pursued with more vague possibilities nibbling at the edge of his mind. John said nothing, and continued through his notes. "Now," he finally remarked, "all we need is one of those computers." Armand spoke up, "My friend in the village has an A500. He lets me use it whenever I want." "But is your friend there today?" John asked. "No," the boy stated, "He is gone for some days, but he lets me come in when I want. It is ok." "All right." was John's decided reply. " Let's pack up and go!" to be continued... @endnode @node "RISC" "Why the next generation of Amigas must include RISC technology" @toc "General" @next "SBOT3" @prev "Ad" The Future Of The Amiga - My Opinion So, another day has come and gone, and still we're apparently only another day left in the dark as to what is going on with our beloved micro. In the meantime, PC's are surging forward with their technology - both in software and hardware. It's sad to see how far behing the Amiga is now, compared to the massive lead it enjoyed a mere eight or nine years ago. There is no question that these are dark times for the Amiga, but now that Escom has succeeded, what will they really be getting for their troubles (and money - Ed)? The operating system really is the jewel in the Amiga's crown. That, above all else, should be preserved and improved upon. Despite the PC's advances, the only two true pre-emptive multitasking operating systems on that platform are OS/2 and WindowsNT. Try getting them to multitask in 1MB of memory! WindowsNT in particular, will load in 8MB, run in 16MB, but likes 32MB of memory. Escom should be made aware of what they've got with AmigaDOS, and this brings me neatly to my next point. It is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that the new owners should move swiftly to the concept of a multi-platform machine. It is no longer acceptable for an Amiga not to be able to run Word 6, Windows, CorelDraw or Quark Express when need be. The PC platform will always have the biggest user-base, and no-one, no matter how good their system is, is ever going to touch that. A fast RISC machine could handle Motorola 680x0 and Intel 80x86 emulation at reasonable speeds - allowing users to select the operating system of their choice. A re-write of AmigaDOS would be required (and at this point, long-asked-for extensions to Exec such as memory protection and virtual memory could be added) for this new system, which should be a top priority and developed in parallel with the new machine. Once all this is up and running, the AGA and AAA technologies which have been bought should be licensed out, to allow third-party manufacturers to bring out Amiga emulation cards for the "normal" PC's - allowing the millions of PC owners out there to run AmigaDOS on their PC and play Amiga games. This would have a knock-on effect of raising awareness of the Amiga, and raising the profile of the new company considerably. With all this, you might be screaming that "this isn't an Amiga!" and "What about backwards compatability?". To answer the first, the computing world is changing. As PC's become more prevelant - its folly for Amiga users to hide themselves in their own little cucoon and pretend it doesn't affect them. Standards are being drawn in the cut-and-throat bustle of the marketplace, and unless something is done, the new Amiga Corporation will be left out in the cold, the Amiga with it, and you and me. For the second question, backwards compatability is frankly the least of C='s worries. The Amiga is such a tiny market in the grand scheme of things - with the vast majority of Amiga owners owning out-dated ECS technology. A suitable analogy might be the difference between a horse & cart and a motor car. When the motor car was appearing, did horse and cart owners start yelling: "Why can't I fit a saddle to it?" "Why won't it shit on my lawn?" and "Why doesn't it eat grass ?". The simple answer is: No. Technology moves on, and the sad fact of the matter is that you have to either keep up, put up, or shut up. It's the whole idea behind computing. Developer support should be a priority also. The old Developer Support Program needs a serious re-think before it can be restarted. First of all, software companies & individuals should be encouraged to develop for the machine, rather than discouraged as was the case in "the bad old days". Autodocs and Includes should be available free of charge online, or from PD libraries to all who want them. Technical support should be free for first time members for at least a year after registering. It's no use trying to get people to commit to writing for a non-standard machine with a relatively small user-base when you demand an initial outlay to get going. Once they've been developing for a year or more, and hopefully getting some money back from their efforts, then it seems fair enough to charge them - but not before. In short then, I hope desperately that at least some of these ideas will be employed by the new owners of the Amiga. I've owned an Amiga since 1987, when the first A500's first started shipping this side of the pond, and a C= 64 before then. Now I own a 486-DX2 66 also, and I see how far behind we are in terms of everything except the operating system. I'm not overly concerned with fancy graphics, my life is not based on how many pixels I can fit on a screen, but I love the Amiga and I love the way the system is designed, and in order for it to survive, the new owners have to accept that the market is not the same as it was when the Amiga first appeared, nor is it even the same as when C= themselves went bust. My dream is that in an ever changing world, it should be "Amiga", not "Microsoft" that springs to the mind of every layman even remotely interested in computing. @endnode @node "Amiga-ad" "Imaginary Amiga ad #1" @toc "General" @next "ad1" @prev "PeterKit" Three passes of some gooey Mac chassis, with triumphant camera angles and high contrast shadows cast by two point source lights against a backlit panorama of low hue photographs of apple crates which say "mackintosh" on the sides. Round about the middle of the second pass, you notice a blister and smoke rising from one side. As the camera keeps rotating around, you see a strong lazer burning a huge hole in from the other side. With some expensive transgressional warp, the camera chases over the beam of the lazer to an Amiga and the source, with a moving quote of "Since you saw your first lazer show at an amusement park you have seen what only the Amiga can do." read by some smoker-voice talent. Camera dips into the beam and flash cuts to a digitally generated "sea" of IBM PC-compatibles undulating calmly. After a few oscillations, the sea is torn through perpendicularly by a rocket, blurring the scene with a "heat wave" visual effect. In blackness, that same cancer-victim voice talent says "For 35 years there has been a cesspool of mediocrity in the world of personal computers. Fortunately for you, the universe is a very big place." At this point, a well-rendered starfield has been faded in slowly. The camera moves, banking to an angle perpendicular and up from the current view-point. It follows this current direction and accelerates fast enough to turn the stars into rainbow lines (ala star Trek and laws of physics) with a triumphant musical arrangement lasting only a few seconds, the warp effect stops at a large black sphere blocking all but the outermost stars in view. The sphere rotates and light is cast upon a planetary boing ball. Words are overlayed: @{bg shine}"Amiga"@{bg back} @{bg shine}"You can join us."@{bg back} @{bg shine}"Be Free."@{bg back} @{b}@{bg shine}"1(800) be-amiga"@{ub}@{bg back} @endnode @node "ad1" "Imaginary Amiga ad #2" @toc "General" @next "Ad" @prev "Amiga-ad" Take Babylon 5. Court one of the castmembers with a free machine and then do an ad with them. Start the add with some of the effects and then have Bruce Boxleitner start walking off the set and heading home. "Working on Babylon 5 has got to be the most exciting job I've ever had in this business. And part of that magic is seeing the technology open up a whole new world of possibilities for science fiction television. Effects brought to life by the talented animators of Foundation Imaging using Lightwave 3D with the Amiga, assisted by other expensive workstations. I was given an Amiga to try out for myself by my good friend Ron Thornton, to see what all the hubbub was about. I mean, afterall, , it's not the type of computer you see at your local store." Walks in to his home and boots the A4000/060. "It's kinda like a MAC" (you see him moving the mouse around the Workbench) "But it's also kinda like DOS, or the unix shells you deal with on the Internet: (you see him open an AmigaDOS shell) "But forget about that, the cool thing is, this baby's built for multitasking.: (he runs a script which loads up like 15 different programs, as much as Chip RAM will allow) "I'm a guy on the go, so I don't like having to wasting time waiting like an idiot for the system to let me do some more work." (show him using some DOS/Windows apps and waiting for disks to format or other stuff. Exasperated look on Bruce's face) (then cut to a dizzying montage of him switching windows and screens and printing and doing terminal stuff, downloads, etc... simultaneously). "With the Microsoft garbage, I do, but not with the Amiga." (Bruce turns around to the camera. In the background is a still of the B5 station loaded into Final Writer or Pagestream or something) "The Amiga doesn't have some of the popular programs you may know about, but by working with the Amiga operating system, its own unique programs can pull tricks you'll probably never do on your basic clone setup." (Runs arexx script that takes the B5 image and does a gamma correction with Imagemaster and then sends it back and then it speaks "conversion complete") "And what if you want something, a bit more mainstream?" (clicks on Shapeshifter) "You can _step down_ I mean over-- to the inferior but more well known Macintosh via emulation, and it's pretty fast, and you can even (switches back to workbench) have your cake and eat it to. Yep, multitask it. You could emulate the clones too, but it would be slow and who'd want to you'll have so much fun as it is." "Well, I've got to get back. I told Foundation Imaging I'd show them I was good enough to animate a scene for the show, and I've got the proof right here. This baby's been rendering in the background for a week, I just let it go and forgot about it 'til it was done. Hasn't slowed me down any. Maybe I can do a little moonlighting with this." (takes out videotape and gives the trademark BB toothy smile). "I'm glad I was introduced to the Amiga. It's doing wonders for the show, and for my own productivity--" (also pulls out a page from his laser printer and gives trademark chuckle again and starts heading for the door.) "I better get back to the set. I mainly just came back here to get the tape, my letter for Foundation, and--" (goes into the kitchenette and gets a piece of toast from a toaster which has been rigged up with IRmaster) "My lunch. Uh, I'm on a diet" (Pats stomach) "Yeah, it did that too." (opens door and pauses, looks back at the camera) "So why be some kind of.. slave to Bill Gates and that piece of garbage they call an OS? Dare to be different. Check out the Amiga today. Once you see what you've been missing, you'll never want to go back." (takes a bite out of his toast, smiles, waves, and closes the door). Amiga logo dissolves in ontop of the door (with Amy the Squirrel on top--well, it's a fantasy so I want it that way). @endnode @node "Bankruptcy_end" "The Last 2 Days of the C= Bankruptcy" @toc "General" @next "IRC" @prev "Errata" This is a recount of what happened during the last two days of the Commodore Bankruptcy, and what other news has been announced since then. On April 20, the auction for Commodore took place. Escom's starting bid of $5 million was the starting bid, not including the $1.3 million they had already payed for the Commodore trademark. During the day, two other companies, Dell, a major American PC maker, and an American computer store, entered bids. Dell's bid was rejected for having too many conditions, and the computer company didn't have the $1 million cash deposit neccesary. At 4 PM, the auction ended, with Escom's bid of $5 million the accepted bid. However, Dell continued to work at their bid, and after 4 PM entered a bid of $15 million, which also contained fewer conditions than their previous bid. The bid did, however, have the conditions that Dell would be allowed 1 month to examine Commodore, and that if they didn't want it, they could "return" it, losing only their $1 million deposit. They could also extend that period to 45 days for another $100,000. The management teams of C= UK and CEI, the two most vocal groups during the long bankruptcy, did not bid. It is believed that C= UK no longer had the money to bid. CEI chose to cast their lots with Dell, perhaps because they had the money to win, but not to do anything with the Amiga after they won. The next day, Friday, April 21, the lawyers for Escom, Dell, and the creditors were present at a court hearing. There were approxiamtely 65 people present, of which 5 were actual Amiga users who went simply to see who won. Dell and the creditors made the arguament to the judge that Dell's bid should be accepted, because it was higher than Escom's bid. Escom argued, however, that that was unfair, for their bid had been accepted, and because Dell's bid had too many conditions, whereas Escom's bid was unconditional. The judge, after hearing long hours of arguaments, ordered both sides to try to work out their differencs at lunch. After a two hour break, all sides re-entered, announcing that they had resolved their conflict, as Escom had raised their offer to $12 million, still unconditional. The judge accepted this offer and Commodore was sold. However, the Phillipines' plant and C= UK were not included in the deal, but Escom is expected to purchase these soon. A few days later the Bahamian Court approved the sale, and all was official. Since then, Escom has made it's policy to the Amiga much more clear. They have decided to allow their Amiga operations to be run by a company that they will be creating, known as Commodore-Amiga, Amiga-Commodore, Commodore-GmbH, or something similiar to that. The company will be owner by Escom. The head of Engineering for the Amiga will be Dr. Peter Kittel, a prolific poster on Usenet. This is viewed by all as good news for the Amiga, as Dr. Kittel is very in tune with the Amiga community and as a "net-surfer", can make all the latest Amiga news known much freely than the old Commodore ever did. Escom's press officer, Dr. Wirsing, will be the Head of Marketing at the new company. The new company will have a starting staff of approximately 50, although that number will grow as money begins to come in from sales. The Engineering department will be located in Germany, as will the technical support at first, although it is also expected to begin technical support in other countries as soon as money allows. There are two general offices, one in Germany and one in the Netherlands. No decisions on starting subsidiaries in UK, the US, or Canada have been made yet. The company will be very liberal with liscencing of the Amiga technology to other companies for use in other products or in Amiga clones. It is expected that CEI and MacroSystems will be the first clone makers. The new company will also sell Amigas in any store that wants to have them, and not just the 1500 Escom stores in Europe. Technical plans have not been made very clear yet, although we can expect much work on changing the Amiga CPU from CISC to RISC. The A4000 and A1200 will be produced, but the company has not commented on the CD32 yet. All in all, this seems to be very good news for the Amiga. We have people who know the Amiga running a new Amiga Corporation, people who are not just interested in milking the Amiga for all that it is worth. We also have the support of Europe's second biggest computer chain, owner of 1500 stores! And, best of all, we will probably see Amiga clones, something that many have been waiting for for a long time. Who knows, someone could easily liscence the Amiga tech and work out a way to make it into a laptop, or a new game's system, or a new high-end Amiga! The only bad news that I see is the small staff at the new Amiga corporation, but I hope that with time this company will grow much bigger. I'm sure that as soon as money comes in from the Amiga they'll begin to hire more staff, and show Escom how important they could be to Escom's business operation. Let us pray. @endnode @node "Interviews" "Interviews with Bernard van Tienen of Escom and Colin Proudfoot of C= UK" @toc "General" @next "PeterKit" @prev "IRC" ========================================================================== INTERVIEWS: Bernard van Tienen of Escom, Colin Proudfoot of C= UK Conducted by Josh Galun and Giorgio Gomelsky jgalun@maple.mis.net gio@phantom.com ========================================================================== Interview with Bernard van Tienen ESCOM. Friday April 21, 1995 [van Tienen is a former vice-president of Commodore International.] by Josh Galun (JG) assisted by Giorgio Gomelsky (GG) JG: How much can you say about your plans for the Amiga? BvT: We are setting up a group of advisors to advice us which products we should produce and we are digging into every product solutions not only Amigas but other products like Commodore products, TV set-top boxes, we are considering PowerPCs with Amiga, we are considering everything at the moment. JG: How soon do you think you'll be able to have Amigas in production? BvT: We haven't decided yet, but we have all the links with the factories. Escom is a big European group at the moment, we assemble our own machines, we have all the contacts with the manufacturers, we spoke already with them, the only thing is which product should we produce, which quality an then we get started. We presume we'll have the first products, the first Amiga products on the market within 3 months... JG: As I understand it, ESCOM is one of the biggest computer-sellers in Europe, I assume AMIGAS will be in all their stores, is that true? BvT: Not only Amigas but we will also produce Commodore PCs, ja, and of course we will use our own stores in Europe but besides that we will distribute products into other countries and also to other dealers in Europe... JG: The Amiga has a very vibrant community as well as many public domain programmers, do you plan to use them in any way or contact them and ask them what they think... BvT: Of course, of course, ja... JG: With the developers as well? BvT: Ja, ja, everybody will be involved...as many as possible to advice us on the Commodore and Amiga products... JG: Do you plan to attempt to hire any of the technicians who used to be with Commodore? BvT: Of course, we are already busy with it and already have some contracts. But a lot of Commodoore people are already working for ESCOM, for instance I was vice-president of Commodore International, Peter Tachenko... I think there are already roughly 100 ex-Commodore people working for ESCOM at the moment. JG: Do you have a position on whether you would license the Amiga technology and software to clone-makers? BvT: Not only to clone makers but also to people who want to produce products and need some of our licences. We are already busy with that, we've made some principal contacts, ja, on that. JG: How long have you been working to try and buy what was left of Commodore? BvT: We started with it, let's see, eh, last year in August 1994. JG: Had ESCOM been interested in the Amiga before the buy-out, in having Amigas in their stores? BvT: The point is that ESCOM. ...must have lasted 3/4 years. We sold Amigas in the past in our stores... JOSH TAKES A BREAK GG: You are aware that the Amiga has a tremendously loyal following? BvT: We know Commodore very well because I was vice-president of Commodore International and I know everybody and everything about C= of course... GG: Do you intend to use this energy that comes from the passion of the Amiga users? BvT: Of course, of course, the biggest asset is not only the name and the products but also the user-groups. There are millions of Amiga users and even more 64 users still, ja. We are also planning to roll out products in China and other countries... GG: How would you achieve this contact with the users? Would you put up a site on the Internet? BvT: We haven't decided yet but everything is possible. Also we would use the magazines of course, there are hundreds of magazines, so ok, we haven't got the deal yet, but as you heard in the court now it looks like we'll get the deal in a couple of weeks, we have planned a lot but now we'll be able to roll it out, ja? So give us some time, ja, we'll consider everything... GG: Could the users be in touch with you, say over the next month or so and communicate their concern? BvT: Ja, we will install people everywhere, in Europe, in the States. Call me and I will tell you who and where they are. We are aware of the frustrations users had under the old management... JOSH GETS BACK JG: Do you have any plans already in place or being discussed with CEI about working with them on the Amiga? BvT: We can't disclose that at the moment. JG: Was C= UK part of the buy-out? BvT (pointing at Colin Proudfoot passing by): That's C= UK... "Ok, Colin, see you next week, ok?" It's not part of the deal at the moment, but next week we have an apoointment with C= to see what we can do with them. We are talking with them... JG: Do you have plans to work with them or to possibly buy them out? BvT: Both are possible... GG: My main concern is for the users, this has been a long slog... BvT: Yes, I think it is a good thing that finally there is this sale. We already wanted to buy last year, but we couldn't proceed, we couldn't hurry it up, ja, it took so long... JG: Can I ask you a bit of a personal question? Do you own an Amiga yourself? Which one" BvT: I don't own an Amiga at the moment... JG (smiling): But you're planning on getting one, yeah? BvT: I,I,I..I've used Amiga in the past, ja, in my office. I'll get a new one that's coming out, we don't know what spec it will be, we are working on it hard at the moment... JG: Do you have any plans to have some online chats on the Internet? Do make more use of the Internet? BvT: Of course the Internet is going around right now, it's very popular in the States, also booming right now in Europe, so ja, something will happen... We will set up support groups to get to know what is going on all over the place... JG: Do you plan to make separate Amiga packages with software bundles, let's say a Modem Package, a Game Package, as C= UK has done in the past? BvT: It worked very well out in the UK, I know the figures because I was involved and everything is possible...but we can also bring out other products under the Amiga name, ja, we can also bring other technology into the Amiga, if you want, ja, we haven't defined it yet but we are considering everything and we expect a lot from Commodore and Amiga, otherwise we wouldn't have bought it, ja? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday April 21, 1995, outside US Bankruptcy Court building 4:15pm Interview with Colin Proudfoot of C= UK by Josh Galun Missed first question CP: C= UK is waiting for this thing to be over. We then look forward to working with ESCOM and reviewing their plans for the future of Commodore cause they're gonna drive the technology and in effect they are quit likely to end up the owners of the C= UK business. JG: Do you believe ESCOM will buy C=UK as they exist right now or do you believe they will license you as clone-makers? CP: I don't think ESCOM will leave C=UK outside its organization, so it's a technical question in acoounting terms whether it's expedient for them to keep the corporate identity as it is today or create a new corporate identity or use their existing structure and merge the C=UK within that. I think that was is key is that they will retain a lot of the staff from the UK organization because we have the expertise on the market place. JG: If you were allowed to make your own plans for the UK market of the Amiga, what would they be? If ESCOM gave you that, how would market the Amiga and make it viable again? CP: I don't think that is a realistic question because if you look at the market place as a whole you can't exclude the UK from the rest of Europe or the rest of the world. Computing nowadays is very much a global market and we would have to fall in line with ESCOM. A regards to what marketing plans we would see, David Pleasance has outlined the plans he would have for the market place and the products and how it would develop. In fact he will be talking to ESCOM about these things next week and we will see how many of those ideas they will wish to adopt. JG: So you're saying that there is nothing that separates the UK market from the rest of the European market or the global market? CP: Europe is now a common market and there are no technical bounderies for free movement of goods and services so a product that's launched in the UK one day we'll find in Germany the next day, or in Holland or in Danmark. JG: I heard that C=UK has good developers' relationships. Have you been talking to them about the buyout and what information have you gotten from them that might be helpful to ESCOM? CP: Well the UK has a very strong software community and a lot of developers are based in there and we've been talking to them throughout the buyout, we've been discussing ideas for eventual new products and I think ESCOM will be very interested in the discussion that we had and the results of those discussions. JG: Is there any technology that C=UK has that has not been released or that it still owns the rights to? CP: C=UK has never owned any of the rights to the technology, it's merely been a licensee. All rights have always been held by CEL in the Bahamas or Commodore-Amiga in California. To come back to the developers, we recognise and I think the ESCOM people recognise how important the relationships with the development community are and on behalf of David and myself I wish to thank the development community for their support over the last 12 months. It' been absolutely tremendous, we couldn't have asked for any more support or any better encouragement from the guys all around the world. Hopefully we're looking forward to working with ESCOM working with the developers' community and putting the Amiga back on top of the market place, which is what we wanted all along. JG: The US is a very competitive, intense and big market. Do you think ESCOM will want tto and are able to attack it properly? CP: You should ask them. I can only speculate and have a personal opinion and I would say the following: ESCOM have been phenomenally successful as a PC vendor in Europe and they have grown the business tremendously. Where do they go from there? They look to North America. How they penetrate the American market? Can they do it with a "me-too" computer? No they can't! So therefore they need a product to differentiate themselves from the rest of the competition and just maybe, just maybe, the Amiga is that product. JG: What are your personal feelings about the end of the buyout? CP: I'm very glad it's over! JG: Are you an Amiga user yourself? CP: I have a CD32 at home and in the office a Commodore 486 PC. JG: Do you have any plans of switching to the Amiga? CP: I am not a technologist I am a businessman. What I do is I talk to David Pleasance and the rest of the guys in the UK to get an understanding from them about the technology and its applications. My job is business. @endnode @node "PeterKit" "Dr. Peter Kittel's announcement of his hiring by Escom " @toc "General" @next "Amiga-ad" @prev "Interviews" This is a message of intent from Dr. Peter Kittel, Escom's new head of Engineering for the Amiga . Mr. Schmitt, Boss of Escom, has authorized me to publish the state of affairs. Most important item first: I have my job, and it's the of the world-wide boss of engineering. Yes, I know, I start into a very difficult task, as successor of real celebrities. OTOH I had eleven years time at Commodore to study what is the wrong strategy and which leads to success. I will spend all effort to avoid these known errors. And now for the big picture: There will be founded a new, completely selfstanding daughter company of Escom AG. It will have own rooms at an own address in Heppenheim. It will be the headquarter of the new company, with control and coordination for the whole world. One subsidiary will exist in any case in the Netherlands, and it will do Europe-wide distribution and sales. Further country subsidiaries are not impossible. Yet there are no concrete decisions about UK, USA, and Canada in particular. The new company is yet to be founded, but this is currently in the works with great effort. The name is not yet decided, it will probably be something like "Commodore-Amiga" or "Amiga-Commodore" or the like. This company will (at least for the time coming) care exclusively for the Amiga model palette. As can be inferred from the first paragraph, there will be an engineering department, for hardware and OS software. For this there exist already promising contacts with well-known and well-reputated names. Yet there's no problem if someone feels obliged to send his resume (no email or fax, please) to Escom AG Personalabteilung Tiergartenstr. 9 D-64646 Heppenheim Germany You see, we consider ourselves an international company. Of course we only want the best ones :-). Further there will be a Support department which will do world-wide coordination, but also covers the german area. Thus most of these people should be german-speaking. The Amiga Developer Support Programm ADSP will get reactivated ASAP. About those developers currently using BIX or CIX, we have not yet decided. These people should feel free to contact me directly at this private account (no company one *yet* existing) and giving some input. In the past years there was a split among the developer community into different communication channels. Thus no direct communication of the developers among each other was possible, and for engineering this meant double work to explain the same issues once on one net and then additionally on another net. We will do everything to avoid this nonsense in future. There are big obstacles, as there are big cost differences in different regions of the earth, and simultaneously a high degree of confidentiality has to be maintained. - Enduser support will happen mostly in electronic form, via mailbox, Internet, and probably also Btx. Of course there will be also a Marketing department and what is needed in admin. All together this will be a rather slim company of ca. 50 people at first, but a further expansion is of course not impossible. It is planned to restart production of the last current model palette, probably in full scale, but no guarantee yet for this. Also of course not all models will appear at the same time again, one after the other. As Escom has an own poweful casing production, they will perhaps get a redesign of their styling, in any case for the A4000, but the hardware under the hood remains unchanged at first. First diverse contributing factories on earth have to revive their production of parts. New developments would mean additional months of waiting, before you could buy the products. That would be too big a sacrifice. The direction of the new engineering department will definitely be the port to some RISC platform. The choice of this RISC is still open. There are ecstatic advocats for at least two alternatives, PPC and HP PA RISC. Chris Ludwig gave an interesting interview about this. It will be the first task of engineering to prepare this choice of paths into the future with all possible expertise. It has been decided to be very liberal in regards of licensing in the future. So, whoever wants to build e.g. an Amiga Laptop or a set-top box, can get chips and OS! As you all see, much of this is still a letter of intent. The points which are declared as still open are *really* open, so there's no use in bombarding me with further questions. As my work load, at least now in the building phase, will be immense, I can't guarantee my presence on the net like before. But who knows me, knows that that would be most painful for me myself. So let's look forward. In the next weeks there will be press conferences to tell more and more details. Long live the Amiga and for a good cooperation. @endnode @node "ED" "The Ed Speaks" @toc "Editorial" @next "Quote" @prev "Main" As the immortal Opus of Bloom County once said, when it rains, it pours cats and dogs. Nothing ever goes smoothly down at the Amiga Link Offices, and this month was no exception. To begin, I have some sad news to announce. Because of disagreements between John Vlachos and myself, we have parted ways. However, the split was not a friendly one, and John has refused to give up use of the Amiga Link name, and he is attempting to make his own Amiga Link. If you happen to pick up his magazine (IF he puts it out), please understand that I am not affiliated with it if my name is not on it. The quality of my Amiga Link will not change, as all the other writers and the mailing list coordinator is still with me, and because I have done all the editing in the past. I'd also like to apologize to all the innocent Fidonet users who had to wade through the endless posts about this situation. See? No more posts! :) You might also notice that Amiga Link #3 is VERY late this month. The issue was almost complete, when just hours before I was going to send it out, my monitor broke. My dealer could not repair it for 8 days, and I couldn't hook up my Amiga into the TV for lack of the correct adaptor. However, to make up for the late issue, Amiga Link #4 should come out early, most likely on May 15, so keep an eye out for it! Sigh...now I've gone and bored you. Maybe this will wake you up, and although you probably know it already, here goes anyway: COMMODORE HAS BEEN BOUGHT! THE BANKRUPTCY IS OVER! Wow...glad to get that one off of my chest! Yes, Escom has bought the Amiga. I for one, am very happy. All the information on this is in the issue. Anyway, look for Amiga Link #4 soon, which will have a real editorial, one which, unlike this one, will NOT be written at midnight while trying to get over a hangover... @endnode @node "Quote" "Quote of the Issue" @toc "Editorial" @next "LegalBS" @prev "ED" "If I wanted my machine to suck, I'd reverse the blower fan on my Amiga, not buy a PC." -Arctngnt on #Amiga in IRC @endnode @node "LegalBS" "Legalese " @toc "Editorial" @next "Errata" @prev "Quote" The views expressed in this magazine are not neccasarily those of Joshua Galun nor anyone related to them. Amiga Link and the articles in it are copyright Joshua Galun. You may not reproduce Amiga Link's articles in any way, or edit the magazine, in any way without Josh Galun's express written consent. Amiga Link may be freely distributed on any BBS or online services as long as it is still in it's original archive and form. Public Domain resellers may sell Amiga Link for a maximum of $4.50 or £3.00, or in any currency as long as the amounts are equal to those, using the exchange rates of May 1, 1995. You may not use Amiga Link in any other way than putting it on BBSs and reading it, and selling it for the amounts specified. If you wish to use Amiga Link or an article in it for something else, you must first contact on of the editors. Amiga Link is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., Escom AG, or any other Amiga publications. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copyright Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any electronic mail sent to the Editors may be reprinted, unless specified otherwise. @endnode @node "Errata" "Errata " @toc "Editorial" @next "General" @prev "LegalBS" Sigh...it hasn't exactly been a great month for us, has it? Last month, we forgot to include the following information: @{u}Jim Drew, Good or Bad@{uu} was written by David Sowsy, a man who has owned multiple Amigas and believes that Calculus is the root of all evil. Now I ask you, has there ever been a more perceptive man? David is known as KicStart on IRC and can be e-mailed at dsowsy@cs.uml.edu @endnode