During the Q & A I asked 1 (one) 3-part :_) question: "Why did Gateway buy Amiga Technologies, what they are planning to do with it and how soon can I get one of their fancy cow-colored boxes with an Amiga in it?"

Mr. Snyder replied that it's tough to be specific at this point. He said that when purchasing something during a bankruptcy, you're actually buying an equivalent of a large box with 'stuff' in it. You have an IDEA of what the stuff is, but no clue what the details of the contents are. Until you're given the permission to 'open the box', you can't begin to make any kind of concrete plans regarding it. Even though the offer has been accepted and there are several Gateway 2000 people in Germany working on the details, he has not heard everything from them and therefore does NOT want to mislead anyone or promise something that's not so (remember, what I said earlier about being in Microsoft country - this guy, very obviously, is taking a different approach).

After the keynote address, I decided to approach Mr. Snyder and do a follow-up... I asked him if Gateway had people who truly understand what it is that they've got and what can be done with it. I also told him a little bit about the Amiga community and how, if Gateway is to play their cards right, they could gain a small but significant army of their proponents. He didn't specifically say that yes, they did have people who understood, but his non-answer was more of answer to me than if he gave me a direct response. He said that "Gateway could NOT let a technology like that die!" This is a direct quote from his mouth to my face one foot away!!!

So, from the above I gathered that even though the situation remains unknown and no specific plans or decisions have been relayed, I really liked what this guy had to say, I liked the company he represents and I liked the approach he's taking toward the future. Considering all of the turmoil with ownership of Amiga since the day it was invented - at this point I'd have to say that Amiga's future has NEVER looked brighter! I'm officially very glad that Gateway 2000 bought the Amiga Technologies. I'm very optimistic about their future plans and Amiga's future under them! From the past experiences, I won't believe anything 100% until I SEE it, yet I remain, cautiously yet extremely optimistic.

Considering the name of the company, it's interesting that it matches Amiga community's sincere wishes to have some company be the GATEWAY to take Amiga into the year 2000 :) and beyond...

[Source: http://www.accessone.com/~olegm/303.html ]

ToC

Gateway 2000 Chairman and CEO Ted Waitt Addresses PC Tech Forum

BURLINGAME, CA, May 20, 1997 - Ted Waitt, chairman and CEO of GATEWAY 2000, Inc., presented the keynote address today at PC Tech Forum in San Francisco. Waitt's speech, entitled "The industry is cruising, but who's behind the wheel?" discussed his vision of where the PC market is headed and how new feature sets will be defined.

"I believe we have reached the point in this revolution where innovation for the sake of innovation isn't necessarily progress," said Waitt. "We can't try to make people accept technology based on what's cool, high tech, or just because we can do it. We have to use the available and developing technology to make products that actually do what people want them to do. It's the companies that sell the technology products that are driving, and consumers have put their trust in us to safely get them to their destination. If we want to see all the potential of this revolution fulfilled, we need to make the customer more than a passenger, we need to make them a partner and the deciding factor in where we go with technology."

Gateway 2000 ranked first in customer loyalty among home buyers, according to a recent IDC/ACNielsen joint study. The study showed that of current Gateway 2000 owners planning to buy another PC, 51.5 percent intend to select the Gateway brand again.

In marketshare, Gateway 2000 finished fourth in US desktop shipments during the first quarter of 1997, capturing almost 8 percent of the marketshare, according to Dataquest. Overall, Gateway finished fifth, with 6.6% total marketshare.

[Source: http://www.gw2k.com/corpinfo/press/1997/pr052097a.htm ]

ToC

Gateway CEO takes on Goliath

BURLINGAME, California--When Larry Ellison rails against the Microsoft-Intel power axis, the general reaction is that Larry is just being Larry. But when Ted Waitt implies the same, you had better listen. The chairman and CEO of Gateway (GATE), speaking here today at the PC Tech Forum, implied strongly that the duo's stranglehold on the personal computer industry is not good for customers.

Asked in a brief interview with CNET's NEWS.COM how his vision matches up with Bill Gates's oft-stated goal of "Windows on every desktop," Waitt did not directly answer the question. But he did say the operating system gets too much attention.

Waitt said the OS should be "hidden away" and that what users need is a "front end, a navigational tool" that would allow them to simply do their work. "It should be a sort of a browser-centric world," he said. Waitt pointed out that users spend 27 percent of their time, on average, fiddling with Windows.

Waitt didn't pull any punches during his speech either. "We can't let the creators of this technology lead and the world follow blindly...We should not allow ourselves to be intimidated by some technology companies," Waitt told the audience of engineers and industry analysts.

Asked later whether he thinks Microsoft and Intel are the intimidators, Waitt said, "You can read between the lines."

Waitt's comments are extraordinary, coming from the head of a company that has reaped tremendous financial rewards from the Microsoft-Intel duopoly and over the years has been one the greatest proponents of the two companies' model for the PC industry.

Waitt's general theme is that personal computers need to be more accessible, easier to use, functional, and affordable, elements that are often lost in the industry's zeal to innovate.

"Technology for technology's sake is not innovation," he told the audience. "What we in the industry have to be concerned about is what products do, as opposed to what the processing power is."

The Internet is having a great influence on how people use the personal computer, according to Waitt. Users, he said, are increasingly interacting with content and information, and in that environment "the operating system will be less important than the content."

Waitt also implied there were alternatives to Intel's chips. He told NEWS.COM that AMD's K6 "is a pretty good processor." He refused to comment on whether Gateway is considering building a non-Intel PC but did say that Gateway is "always evaluating new technologies."

The key to Gateway's success, he said, is keeping the customer at the forefront.

"Customers should be able to put their trust in us to take them to their destination," he said. "Companies that are closest to the customers are the ones who are going to lead the industry."

Copyright 1995-97 CNET, Inc. All rights reserved.

ToC

Power Players: Ted Waitt

[Editor's Note: This is excerpted without permission from a transcript of an interview with Gateway 2000's CEO, Ted Waitt on MSNBC's The Site. We beg forgiveness from Ziff-Davis TV Inc. for our indiscretion, but we promise not to profit by it, and advise anyone who would like to read the interview in its entirety to seek it out on The Site at http://www.thesite.com/0597w4/iview/iview560_052097.html.]

Gateway 2000 has made its share of headlines lately. First there was the rumored $7-billion merger with Compaq that fell through, then the South Dakota computer maker fueled its stock with a move to the New York Stock Exchange.

There's more to those cow-patterned computer boxes than just a cute marketing gimmick. The story behind those Holstein boxes starts with a fifth-generation cattleman who chose computers over cows: Gateway 2000's pony-tailed CEO, Ted Waitt. In 1985, as a 22-year-old college dropout bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Waitt saw an opportunity to sell computer peripherals and software through the mail-order channel. Sioux City, Iowa, was hardly a technology hotbed, but the opportunity was greater than Waitt imagined. Within four months he and his partner, Gateway VP Mike Hammond, had generated $100,000 in revenue, and 12 years later the company is closing in on $6 billion per year.

By cutting out the middlemen, Gateway 2000 carved out a big chunk of the direct-market business, battling for market share with arch-rival Dell Computer. While pioneering computer companies like Apple Computer have found the PC environment brutal, Gateway 2000 has hit on a winning formula that includes low profit margins (with correspondingly high volume), little R & D and an emphasis on customer service. Now located in North Sioux City, South Dakota, Gateway has manufacturing and marketing operations as far away as Malaysia and Australia.

Waitt was ahead of the market with Gateway's Destination line of home-theater PC systems. It remains to be seen if Destination represents the future of the PC or just another cul-de-sac on the road to PC/TV convergence. But Waitt says taking risks is just part of his nature, which is still more Big Valley than Silicon Valley. When he talked to Sam Whitmore, The Site's contributing editor, Waitt advised computer buyers to spend money on components that won't be obsolete next year. And buy lots of RAM.

The Story Behind Those Cow Boxes

Sam Whitmore: Tonight on The Site, Ted Waitt, chairman and CEO of Gateway 2000. Ted, it's a pleasure to have you with us. For people that don't know much about Gateway 2000, what the heck is it?

Ted Waitt: That's a really good question. You know, Gateway is a multifaceted company these days. We're the leading direct marketers of personal computers in the world. We do about $5 billion in revenue. What we're really about is building relationships with our customers, delivering the best value in high technology products, and with a great service and support offering to really build those long-term relationships with people who buy computers from us.

Whitmore: One of the things that has distinguished you over the years is that you have been in South Dakota - very few companies that are in the computer business are in South Dakota, and yet you've built a $5-billion business there. Has that been because of the service emphasis of the telephone lines you had put in there?

Waitt: Well, being in South Dakota has really been a good thing for us - first of all, being located in the Midwest allowed us to attract a great work force that really cares about the satisfaction of our customers. It also allowed us to not get caught up in a lot of the noise that goes on in the industry, so to speak, and to really focus on doing our own thing. It allowed us to sneak up on a lot of the competition. We have a lot of high tech systems in what we do, but we view it as a people business at the same time.

Whitmore: Exactly what does Gateway 2000 do to make computers easier to use?

Waitt: The first thing we do is talk to customers. We have a very large useability and human-factor organization. We spend a lot of money on understanding the way people use products, the way people want to use products, the functionality of what people want, how can we bring our documentation to make that better, how can we do things from the way we set up the systems to make that better. We started to do some things right now. A lot of things we've been doing you haven't seen in our products yet. But we'll be continuing to roll out new improvements in the way our products are used and the way they look and the way they feel over the next few years.

Cutting Out the Middlemen

Whitmore: The Internet has proven to be a very valuable source of purchasing power for people. How many computers do you sell over the Internet?

Waitt: The Internet's been a great tool for us. We're getting a tremendous number of hits on our websites. It also then generates a tremendous amount of phone calls into our sales force, and we're selling in the low hundreds of computers a day directly over the Internet, where buyers never even talk to a sales person. And they can go through our configuration and custom-configure a PC with the options they want - you know, how much memory, what size hard drive, what size monitor - and it works real well for them that way.

Waitt Weighs in on Apple

Sam Whitmore: Now, a lot of people in the business know this - other people may not know - but Gateway 2000 was reported to have considered building Macintosh clones at one time. I don't think that that's a live rumor at the moment. What do you think about the Macintosh as a platform?

Ted Waitt: The Macintosh as a platform is a very interesting question. Again, we view it as our role in the industry to look at what our customers are going to want and look at the variety of platforms that people might want, and to try to give them the best value in the best products that we can, no matter who they come from. And while a few years ago the Macintosh was a viable mainstream platform, because of Apple's inability to broaden that base, it's very difficult for them to achieve critical mass now. I think the platform has some technical advantages. It works well in the desktop publishing market. In the graphics world they have some very good strongholds there. In the mainstream PC world it's very difficult to see the Mac platform breaking out of the position it's in right now.

Whitmore: Which is a niche position and not really compelling for you to get into?

Waitt: No, it's not.

Whitmore: What do you think is going to happen to Apple, Ted?

Waitt: Boy, that's a really interesting question. Again, a few years ago and even as short a time ago as a year, they had a great opportunity to turn around that business. I mean, everybody loved Apple and they wanted to see Apple succeed. It's an American icon. And I think people now are kind of disappointed in what they've seen in Apple. There is still a lot of promise there, but I think people are upset about what's taken place. So the future of that company - I think they have to do something fairly drastic if they are going to continue to live up to the potential that they have. I think the industry needs a healthy Apple. It needs a healthy platform other than just the one platform out there.

Whitmore: Well, you run a $5-billion company. You are an expert. What would you do there?

Waitt: What would I do?

Whitmore: If you ran Apple.

Waitt: Well, again, if it was a year or so ago - you have to focus on the fact that Apple is a brand name, not a religion. It is a set of technological specifications that provides some benefits and ease of use. So you'd be more pragmatic about what customers really want, rather than trying to stick with everything that you've built over time. So I would go out and license, would have licensed the operating system much more broadly, much more aggressively. I think that would have built the base, would have built critical mass. The ISVs and software developers would have supported the platform if they would have seen a broader acceptance of the platform out there. I would have considered using the Apple brand name in other product lines, in more mainstream industry product lines. Just to really build the business up. Right now it's probably too difficult to do some of those things for them.

The Future of the PC

Sam Whitmore: So what does this mean to Microsoft? Do you sell Windows machines by the bushel? What do you think's going to happen to the Windows platform over the next 24 months: no change, still supreme?

Ted Waitt: Ahhh, yeah, you're going to see a continued evolution in the Windows platform. It's going to continue to be the dominant operating system in the world. We're seeing a lot of momentum in the NT platform, and I think that's going to continue.

Whitmore: What do you think about these devices like WebTV and the Zaurus from Sharp? They're computer devices, but they're not PCs. What do you think about those? Some people call them PC mutants.

Waitt: PC mutants, interesting term. You know, WebTV is a very interesting product. It allows people to experience the Internet in a limited capacity for a very low price point. But the key is that limited capacity. Is that what people really want? Are they going to get a complete Internet experience? The Internet by itself is just one application. ...

... Still, a PC is the best way to access the Internet. And you get all the other benefits that a PC gives you, in terms of productivity applications, entertainment applications or education applications for your kid in the home market.

So I think there is a market for products like that, for single-function type products. They have some real benefits with ease of use, but with limited functionality and a limited life to those kinds of products. As fast as things are moving, we find some consumers at the lower end of the market would rather get something they can get a long-term investment out of, even if it costs more money, than something that they get limited time frame out of.

One of the best things that I advise people if you're looking for a $500 product, look at a used PC. The best $500 product you can buy is the product we sold for $2000 two years ago, and you can still get a full PC experience and a better Internet experience than you can on a $500 WebTV product. ...

... So I don't know whether Gateway would ever consider - maybe when the time is right - building a simplicity device like a WebTV and appeal to that type of person. I agree, Sam, that the ease of use, simplicity, is the key in this market. PCs just aren't as easy to use today as they should be, so we're going to do everything we can to make PCs easier to use. And as the industry evolves over the next few years, we do see single-function devices that do one thing very well and hit some of these lower price points becoming to be more compelling, but they will be more towards niche markets than having mainstream, mass appeal.

Waitt on Waitt

Sam Whitmore: OK, let's shift gears and talk about Ted Waitt the human being, Ted Waitt the man, the guy who built a $5-billion company in the prairies of South Dakota. What did you do when you were 15 or 16 years old? I mean, what's your work history?

Ted Waitt: When I was 15 or 16 years old, I think I was mowing lawns in the summer and washing dishes in a hospital and trying to save a little bit of money to have a beer now and then, or whatever you did when you were 15 or 16 years old. I had a very fun upbringing. I was raised in an entrepreneurial environment, with my father in the cattle business. It was a very interesting upbringing. It was a lot of fun.

Whitmore: So how did you get into this business?

Waitt: Well, growing up, I always knew I wanted my own business. I went to college and knew that I never wanted a job. I wanted to start my own business, so I left school. I got some experience in the computer industry. I became fascinated, not just with computers themselves, but with the business, with the industry, with the technology, where I saw the technology going, the impact I saw it having in society, and started my own business not completely knowing where we were going or what we were doing with it, but focused on giving people a better product and better price with better service and support, and it worked out well.

Whitmore: How far did you get in school?

Waitt: How far did I get in school? I made it through about three years of college.

Whitmore: And then you just didn't feel like studying anymore?

Waitt: I didn't feel like studying anymore, so I think I have 67 hours at the University of Iowa or something like that. But I made the Dean's list.

Whitmore: Exactly what kind of business did you start, Ted, when you started your own business?

Waitt: We started essentially a computer mail-order firm. We were selling upgrades for the Texas Instruments Professional computer. It was a computer that was non-IBM compatible, as it was called at the time. And they shipped about 100,000 of them and the customers felt somewhat orphaned by the company they bought a computer from. It was a technologically superior product, but it was not industry-standard compatible. So we built a support network to bind these people together, to go out and get products developed - new software titles developed - for the products, and it worked out pretty well for us.

Whitmore: And then after that, how did you get into the magnificent sale of billions?

Waitt: What we started doing, we started taking those older computers in on trade for Gateway 2000 computers that we were manufacturing and pretty much selling locally at that time. So that worked out very well for us. It worked out well for the customers for what they could get, and it built scale for us in the PC, where we realized we could be really competitive on a national basis. So we started offering our computers through computer magazines from Iowa, and we advertised a great product with a great price, with a pledge of service and support that we were going to do for our customers, and it worked. ...

Whitmore: If a meteor or something came down and Gateway 2000 suddenly disappeared, why would people be the poorer for it? What wouldn't be able to happen in your absence?

Waitt: Gateway's always viewed itself as the ideal link between the technology and the end users, the people that are using the technology. We want to understand the customers we're dealing with - tens of thousands of customers on a daily basis. We can understand what they want and feed that information back to the technology companies so they can bring better technology to market. We want to be the consumer advocate out there, and we try to be a catalyst in the market to accelerate the pace of change by having a philosophy that says we have flat profit margins on all of our products. We don't care what the technology or how new it is - profit margins are always going to be the same. That's how we drive the new technology into market. And that's how we feel we've had a major impact on giving people better deals on PCs.

Whitmore: Why are you a better consumer advocate than the other consumer advocates?

Waitt: I think because we care more, because we try to do more. It's what we want to do, and we drum the values of the company into all of our people. We want to do the right thing.

Whitmore: When people say that Gateway 2000 doesn't really build the computers - maybe they assemble and configure them, but really Intel builds most of the components and the hardware inside now, and Microsoft provides most of the software. So is it really fair to say you build these computers?

Waitt: Well, there's a lot more to a PC than strictly Intel content and Microsoft content. What we do is, we design the computers. We integrate the components. We don't manufacture hard drives. We don't manufacture chips. What we do is really be the customer's advocate in going out and searching for what is the best technology available at any point in time, and then we integrate that into one product that hopefully we can offer at a great price.

[Source: http://www.thesite.com/0597w4/iview/iview560_052097.html.]

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

300 MHz of Raw Power!

• PROCESSOR: Powerful 300MHz PowerPC 603e RISC processor
• CACHE: 512K Level-2
• RAM: 64MB (expandable to 128MB)
• VRAM: 2MB
• HARD DRIVE: 4GB IDE
• FLOPPY DRIVE: 1.4MB
• CD-ROM DRIVE: 12X
• ZIP DRIVE: Internal 100MB removable cartridge
• MODEM: Internal 33.6K with advanced telephony - Data/Voice/Fax
• SOUND: 16-Bit CD quality Stereo sound with SRS surround sound and integrated subwoofer
• VIDEO: ATI Rage II 64-Bit graphics & multimedia accelerator chip. Accelerated 2D & 3D graphics, Quicktime & QT MPEG & Quickdraw 3D
• EXPANSION SLOTS: 2 PCI
• EXPANSION BAYS: 5.25" Internal SCSI
• PORTS: 1 SCSI, 1 ADB, 1 Serial, Sound In/Out (Mini-Plug), Video Input Slot, TV/FM Radio Bay, Comm Slot II (used by modem), Front Headphone Jack
• Keyboard & mouse included.
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Mac OS System 7.5.3
• WARRANTY: 1-Year

Check out http://www.zones.com/oasis/bin/catproduct.dll?product_id=82206&act_type=DSR or http://www.warehouse.com/oasis/bin/catproduct.dll?product_id=145357.

ToC

Feel The Need For Speed?

Small Dog Electronics (http://www.smalldoggy.com/) has dropped prices on its stock of Apple PowerPC 604 upgrade cards and Newer Technology 604e upgrade cards. Prices below on the 604e cards do not reflect the $150 Newer rebate for your old card. Pricing on the Apple cards and Newer 225 MHz card are the lowest we've seen.

            Model               Price
            -----               -----
        Apple 604/120           $  45
        Apple 604/132              89
        Newer 604e/180            629
        Newer 604e/200            829
        Newer 604e/225          1,129

Small Dog Electronics
Donald Mayer                            Don@Smalldoggy.com
RR#1 Box 171-1                          Phone: 802-496-7171
Prickly Mountain Road                   Fax: 802-496-6257
Warren, Vermont 05674 USA 

The Amiga Section:

Amiga Alley - June 1997

It's all falling into place now. After years of neglect, the users of Amiga computers are being taken seriously by our current steward.

While Gateway did not come right out and say so, I have learned that the real reason they were attracted to the Amiga in the first place was it's fiercely loyal band of vocal users. Us. Yeah - you and me. We kept the faith through the thick and thin and thin and thin, and finally the thinnest of all: VIScorpse. But am I bitter? No, but I should be.

I am elated. The WoA show revealed Gateway as an exciting company, ready to bring the Amiga into the modern world. They are willing to wheel and deal. The Amiga Operating System will be licensed. This alone is cause for celebration. The Mac and Amiga have languished for years because their OS's were not licensed, while the Wintel machines flourished and quite literally took over the world.

I'd like to see the Amiga put a dent in the Wintel duopoly.

This probably will not happen, but I would certainly like to own an Amiga with a PPC Workbench. Native PPC OS. That's what I want.

Word has trickled out that GW/AI wants to release a new update to the OS. They want it to be called 4.0, but I doubt it will be a major update. This may happen before Christmas. As I understand it, AI has not even hired the programmers needed to do the work.

Oh well, it's something to look forward to. I hope to review the Phase 5 PowerUP board in the September issue of the NotePad. I plan on getting the 200Mhz 603e / 040 version when it becomes available. This is slated for the end of June.

So what software will I be using with the new PPC card?

Cloanto has already shipped a program for their popular Personal Paint 7.1 that will take advantage of the PPC for blitter operations. That should make PPaint zoom. The SuperView library has also gone PPC. See "SuperView goes powerUP" for the details. Clickboom says they are doing Myst for the PPC.

The sharp-eyed reader will notice a few references to an organization called the ICOA. I got involved with this group last month. Since then they have kept me working my fingers to the bone maintaining their web site.

I had heard of ARise, a mail list for developers, but paid little attention to it because I am not a big time programmer. ARise and it's sister list, Second Wind evolved into the Jay Miner Society (http://www.jms.org/), which went public on the day of the WoA. The JMS is an umbrella organization which administers two other programs, the Industry Council and the Open Amiga Initiative.

Here's how it works. The JMS contacted GW just before the WoA (http://www.znet.com/~colin/icoa/letter.html) and told Steve Johns (johnsste@gw2k.com), the head of Corporate Development, what they were doing. The GW execs liked the concept of the projects and told the JMS to get the ICOA organized and running. After two months, GW will look at the proposals which have been formulated by the biggest developers in the Amiga Community.

The Industry Council is a mail list, in which developers are deciding the structure of the organization. Most of the largest Amiga developers, both hardware and software, subscribe to the list, where they openly discuss how to take the Amiga to the next level of performance. Their recommendations will form the basis for programming and operating system standards. It is hoped the GW and AI will adopt these standards for the next generation of PPC Amigas.

The Open Amiga Initiative will look at how the OS can be standardized and "ported" to other platforms as a native OS.

Please join the ICOA to show GW just how big we are. It's free. For more information visit http://www.znet.com/~colin/icoa.

ToC

The CUCUG Section:

May General Meeting

The May 15th meeting began with President Richard Rollins' traditional introduction of officers. As always, if you have a question or need help, these are the people you can go to first.

• Rich talked about 7.6.1 and Runtime Enabler.

• Kevin spoke about the latest from Gateway. There will be a press conference about their future plans for the Amiga at the London World of Amiga Show on May 17th and 18th.

• Kevin talked about the "founded" rumors of Compaq's proposed purchase of Gateway. Kevin said the deal went all the way to the brink and then Gateway's President Ted Waitt backed out because it just didn't "feel right."

• Jim Huls reported that Exponential will no longer be doing PowerPC development. They've laid off 25% of their work force.

• Brent Cornwell said he needs help getting his A500 fixed. Paul Petersen said he has an A500 gathering dust which he'll donate to help fix Brent's machine.

• Next month at our June 19th meeting we will be having our annual Computerfest-orama 97. Kevin Hisel related some of the behind the scenes work that goes into preparing for the fest. Jim Huls has been involved in addressing Macintosh involvement in the fest. Kevin Hisel reported that Apple sent a brush off letter, but Microsoft sent a box of stuff.

• Kevin also spoke about the Fargo FotoFun printer.

• Kevin then informed the group about five prizes being offered on the web site to all members as a companion to our Computerfest.

• Paul Petersen reported that Digital Equipment has sued Intel for patent infingement in the design of Intel's Pentium processors. Paul also said that after that news broke, Intel lost a substantial sum in capital valuation due to Intel stock taking a big hit.

• Microsoft going to court again for infringement of intellectual property rights.

• John Lynn will show the Fargo printer in the Amiga SIG meeting this evening. Mark Landman will be showing Photoshop.

• Richard expressed appreciation for Kevin Hisel's efforts in gathering members and prizes.

• Richard made a request for two permanent reporters to take the SIG notes during the meetings.

The Amiga SIG: John Lynn shows the Fargo FotoFUN Printer

SIG Chairman John Lynn could not get the TIMM to work with his A4000 again, due to not having the correct cable to connect the two.

Addressing the demonstration for the evening, John was impressed with the Fargo printer, but he had a few problems getting the software to configure to the Amiga. It printed OK, but the configuration left a lot to be desired. John showed different examples of pictures printed by the Fargo and an HP660C.

It was discussed what options John has for upgrading his Amiga 4000 with a video card. Mike Latinovich noted the first Phase5 PowerPC cards will be shipping at the end of this month.

Dave Witt said, due to the lack of finding a battery that would work with the Amiga 3000 motherboard, he is going to engineer the motherboard to work with a removable 3.6 volt NiCad battery and would bring his motherboard back in July to show what he had done. He showed everyone the first signs of a battery going bad.

Next month CUCUG will be having its Computer Fair. The July SIG meeting will be "Your favorite software" night, so bring your favorite piece of software to show. Dave will also have his modified motherboard back for examination.

ToC

The Mac SIG: Mark Landman demos Photoshop

The Mac SIG began with a general Question and Answer period. The first question someone asked was about ZIP disks - Does the format that they come with matter? Some places charge more for blank Mac formatted disks. ZIP disk format doesn't matter. You can reformat IBM formatted disks to the Mac format in fifteen seconds. In fact you should probably reformat them anyway. Formatting places the proper drivers onto the disk and you'll want the latest version. There may also be a discrepancy in alignment between the drive that laid down the factory format and you own drives which could cause problems. Reformat the disk with your drive.

A follow-up question was asked: Does it matter which brand you buy? No.

Richard Rollins mentioned a program, Copy Through, which allows you to copy ZIP disks. Version 2.4 is in the club disk Library. Richard also announced that Emil is the new Mac Librarian.

Harold Ravlin asked about SyJet 1.3 Gigabyte drives. Are they better than the Jaz? No one had any direct experience with these drives.

Someone mentioned that DVD CD drives will be on the market by September.

Brent Cornwell asked about postscript software to drive an ink jet printer. Someone recommended StyleScript.

Jim Huls reported that the Apple Developers Conference is the week. The developers version of Rhapsody is coming in July. He also recommended the OpenStep/Rhapsody web site - www.stepwise.com - as an interesting site to visit.

The meeting then got down to evening's presentation: Mark Landman showing how to use Photoshop 4.0. Mark called his demonstration a J. Arthur Wingit Production. He had little time to prepare an official program, but he said he has been using Photoshop for about six month, so he felt comfortable just showing us a few things.

First off, Photoshop is an image manipulator. Mark said it would take you years to learn all there is to know about the program. Mark said Photoshop can be obtained for $225 through educational discount, or for around $600 for those less fortunate.

Mark said Photoshop's capabilities have changed dramatically between 3.0 and 4.0. He delineated his own progression from the Amiga using AdPro to ImageFX then to the PowerPC Macintosh and Photoshop. He characterized each stage in this progression as a quantum leap in capability, with the last step being like going to a Lamborgini from a Miata. Mark flatly stated, "There is no comparison."

Mark said he edits with Adobe Premier, doing photo retouching. He said the program makes representations of the photos for the icon of each file, which makes it easy to find what you're looking for later. He said he relies heavily on Kai's Power Tools plug-ins and add-ons for Photoshop. These additions are almost essential.

Mark said he has 32 MB in his Apple 7600 and Photoshop will use it all. Video doesn't take up as much room as pictures do. Their resolution is generally a low 640 x 480.

Mark showed some of the special effect Photoshop is capable of, like turning a picture into a pen and ink rendering.

Returning to his hardware, Mark said he has a Targa 1000 video card in his machine and he uses a Panasonic AG455 video camera to shoot his video. He captures frames from the video with Adobe Premier. He then showed a picture he'd done of a bride and groom matted over a blurred stain glass window, all of which began their lives on video tape he'd shot at a wedding.

In explaining how he had created the image, Mark revealed that Photoshop has "layers" like CADD programs do. You can work in layers, but if you merge layers, they are TOGETHER, so you need to be cautious of that feature. Edwin Hadley asked about how many Undos are you allowed. Mark said "multiple."

Brent Cornwell asked about how to clear up some scans he had taken of children's handwriting. Mark said Photoshop does not have OCR capabilities.

Richard Hall asked if you can scan directly into Photoshop. Yes you can by using the Import/Twain Acquire menu option.

Mark said Photoshop is not as powerful as the Amiga's ImageFX for doing batch processing on multiple images. With Arexx you can have ImageFX make decisions to do just what you want. Edwin Hadley mentioned something called DeBabelizer for the Mac, but Mark had no experience with that. When asked if you could use AppleScript to perform those functions (AppleScript on the Mac being the analog to Arexx on the Amiga, Mark stated that Photoshop is not AppleScript-able.

Speaking of his software use, Mark said he has to "get it and go." He doesn't have time to play around. His schedule makes his approach to software brutally utilitarian. That being said, he seemed very pleased with his ability to make Photoshop do what he needed done.

Continuing his theme of incrementally learning Photoshop, Mark mentioned he had just today looked at something called "adjustment layers."

Mark was very impressed with Photoshop's ability to control lighting effects. He said you can adjust the light source on images you already have. He then proceeded to make a background for a logo. As he was working he exchanged Photoshop tidbits with some of the other members that use the program.

Mark talked about Kai's Power Tools. He said KPT Actions are scripts that do things. They are like batch files, or sequences of commands. He framed a picture he had made using one of these scripts. Mark said they are a whole lot faster than ImageFX, but this is probably due to the speed of his computer. However, it's a big difference.

Mark talked about something called paths.

He mentioned how impressed he was with Adobe tech support.

He related his experience with Adobe when he needed a particular font for one of his clients. It was available on an Adobe product named Type On Call, which he said "comes with every Adobe program out there." This CDROM contains over 2000 fonts. You call in and order the font you want and they give you a key to unlock it. Done. Simple.

Mark then put text on the three-light source background he'd made. He then showed how to use a "drop-shadow" macro he'd written himself.

Mark finished his demonstration with an image of some newscasters wearing retouched Mohawks, letting us in on an inside joke at the television station where he works.

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The Mac SIG: Edwin's Enhancement of the Evening

Photoshop is a bitmap image manipulation program. It costs about $600 new, but can be obtained with an "educational" discount for about $225. Mark Landman has a nice fast machine with some extra features that aid the computer working Photoshop at a fast speed. Photoshop's interface has been changed. Not so much as a rework as much as a face lift. I have plenty of experience with Photoshop 2.5 & 3 and I have had trouble getting used to the new reworked interface.

Several items have been rearranged, pull down menus are on different orders and arrangements:

• You used to select the area you wanted to crop, clicked inside the box and bingo a cropped picture. Now it is a double click, but they have more handles to grab.
  
• If you select an area with the "marque" tool you have to hold down the "command" key to move the selected area, before you just moved it.
  
• When you copy/paste you get a new layer.

The interface is more like Adobe's Pagemaker and Illustrator. And, in actuality, almost all of the graphics programs are looking more and more alike. Only Kai of KPT Bryce/Metatools fame is doing radically different interfaces.

There are more variables that you can play with in the new Photoshop. You have "Actions." This is a system of recording the actions and processes you work with on one image so that you can use the same process on other images. I wonder if this is an attempt to incorporate some of the capabilities of DeBabelizer, a program for the processing and the manipulation of batches of images for animations, etc. DeBabelizer can be set up to take a group of folders, open the files inside and open the appropriate (compatible?) program and run pre-determined processes on them and then save them to another folder. DeBabelizer had made a name for itself in the commercial 3-D animation market. It was developed for the Mac, but has been ported to Unix and more recently Windows. Photoshop calls it "Actions." Metatools has the same or similar thing for their Photoshop Plug-in program "PowerTools."

The main thing that Photoshop excels in is the manipulation of the bitmap image and most of this is done with plug-ins. The standard Photoshop program is about 10 MB by itself. But to get images in and out, convert, manipulate or do anything else (almost) you need the 15 MB of plug-ins and filters. Blurs, Sharpens, Distorts, Filters, you name it and there is most likely a plug-in for it. There are many freeware and shareware plug-ins on the web. One of the most useful ones I have found are the "Sucking Fish" plug-ins which makes faceted blocks (great buttons), borders of various kinds and other goodies.

The new Photoshop has a bunch of new tools along with its new interface. The interface will take a little learning (re-learning), but it is worth the money and time it takes to get a handle on the program. Photoshop is THE premier photo manipulation program on the market. It is a must if you have to work with images. It is also a memory hog. It uses a lot of free disk space as a "scratch disk", so it works best when "virtual memory" is turned off. But most of all, you must have 32+ MB of RAM and (I suggest) approximately 40 MB of free disc space to be able to use it on moderate sized (3"x5" or larger, 300dpi) images and expect to run any of the fancier plug-ins. I used to run Photoshop 2.5 on my Centris 650 with 8 MB of RAM and 40 MB of disc space and got a lot of "can't do" messages. I got 16 MB of RAM and 50% of them went away. Now, with 32 MB of RAM and 20 to 40 MB of free disc space, I can get by running Photoshop 3 most of the time. Photoshop 4 will most likely only be run on the Power Macs at work - they are 8500/120's with 120 MB RAM and 100 of free disc space. Even with that power, Photoshop can make the machine creep.

Other goodies - Get Kai's (Metatools) PowerTools - More neat stuff to do with your images! Almost too much of a good thing! Unique interface neat stuff. (I do have a graphic designers friend who is in a state of "backlash" regarding the Kai interface, claiming it is too "cutsy" and not "practical enough for regular work in the everyday world". Basically - Stop screwin' around!" But I like them - Whee!

The only possible competition for Photoshop is a program called Live Picture. Live Picture seems to work in a different fashion. One sets up a series of processes and then renders a picture of a pre-defined type. It seems to operate more like a 3-D rendering program with source images, a description file and a finished product. I have just recently obtained access to a copy through work and hope to work with it enough this summer to be able to say I know how to use it. It has been reported to be much faster than Photoshop and potentially more flexible. It takes only about one sixth the disc space, weighing in at 4.5 MB. Maybe more later.

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May Board Meeting

The May meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, May 20, 1997, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend, the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were Richard Rollins, Ed Hartman, Mike Latinovich, Jim Huls, Kevin Hopkins, Emil Cobb, Kevin Hisel, Jim Lewis, Dave Witt, and John Lynn. Treasurer Mark Landman was not present.

Richard Rollins: Richard began by covering the logistical requirements of our "Megablowout 97" in June. Kevin Hisel personally thanked Richard and Dave Witt for opening and cataloging the items for this upcoming event. There is a lot of Amiga merchandise, but Richard noted that there are some decent Macintosh items. Richard thanked Kevin Hisel and Jim Huls for their efforts in soliciting these materials.

Richard asked Kevin Hisel for anything new on the Gateway 2000/Amiga situation and Kevin reported on the extraordinary comments of Gateway's CEO Ted Waitt about the near monopoly Microsoft and Intel have on the personal computer business.

Turning to future Mac SIG meetings, Richard noted that Jim Huls has volunteered to do a program in July on "other Internet tools" (other than Netscape and email), like IRC, FTP, etc.

Richard reported on two executive departures at Apple, one being Chief Operating Officer George Scalise.

Circling back around to next month's computerfest, Richard asked about door prizes. There will be 10 CDs and 30 floppies for Mac door prizes. Kevin Hisel stated he has lots of stuff for Amiga door prizes.

Ed Hartman: Passed.

Mike Latinovich: Mike said, "Welcome me back." (Which everybody did ... in their fashion :-) He said living in Indianapolis was interesting, but he has friends here and the club, so he decided to return. He noted that the last Amiga dealer in Indy folded just recently. They have a user group over there, ARCUG, but he had no contact with them. In short, he is glad to be back.

Drawing on his expertise, Mike volunteered to do a program on Internet related things for the Amiga in a couple of meetings.

Jim Huls: Jim said, "The last meeting was a nice little gathering. Photoshop was kinda cool."

Jim is interested in showing some of the other cool tools he's discovered for the Internet at the July meeting. He noted that MacOS 8 may also be out by then.

Jim reported he is still working on getting in Macintosh donations for the fest.

He concluded his segment of the meeting by filling in the Board on the results of his work on the CUCUG IRC channel last night.

Kevin Hopkins: Kevin dealt with the usual topics of mail and exchange newsletters. He reported that an up-to-date membership list is now on the web site. CUCUG membership now stands at a record 286 members.

President Rollins asked Kevin about how the Filemaker Pro database is coming. Kevin reported that he's slowly working his way into the program.

Kevin asked Richard if the Lost Souls Letters have gone out. They have not, so a revised list will be prepared for that task.

Kevin questioned Emil Cobb if a recent C64 disk order had been filled. Emil said it had.

Emil Cobb: 30 members attended the May meeting. He reported that the club sold its 1200 baud modem to Glenn Parker.

Kevin Hisel: Kevin began his segment of the Board meeting by talking about the near deal between Compaq and Gateway 2000. He marvelled at the ability of the President of Gateway to "just walk away" from a multimillion dollar deal because "it just didn't feel right."

He followed that with a discussion of Ted Waitt's comments about the Windows/Intel stranglehold on the personal computer business.

Turning from the news, Kevin reported that BBS traffic is low.

He reported that he had announced the shutting down of the C64/128 Web Directory, but Matthew Ignash has volunteered to take over those webmaster duties, so the site will remain operational.

Kevin said he has had a new volunteer, Laurens van Klaveren of Oops! (http://oops.in.nl), to take over the Demo Scene page of the Amiga Web Directory (http://www.cucug.org/amiscene.html).

Kevin said he will be producing a Computerfest insert for the "real" newsletter.

He had a question concerning how to conduct the online awarding of prizes. After some serious discussion, a fair an equitable plan was arrived at to serve both our Amiga and Macintosh members.

Kevin reported that we have another new banner advertiser: Safe Harbor. They chose the page they wanted to place their banner on: the Results page of searches. Shrewd move on their part.

Kevin said he is working on establishing a couple of mirror sites for the AWD in Italy. He'll let us know how that works out.

President Rollins asked Kevin how many hits we're getting daily, on average. Kevin said between 85,000 and 100,000 hits a day.

When asked about the much publicized press announcement that Gateway 2000 and Amiga Technologies were to make at the World of Amiga show in London concerning the Amiga's future, Kevin reported that Amiga Int. President Petro Tyschtschenko had said "not much." At least one of the other Board members' reactions bordered on seething disgust with the vague drivel that passed as a press announcement, but several other Board members were more tolerant of the vague generalities of the new owners. Kevin said there was plenty of talk about licensing the AmigaOS, but nothing about the production of new machines. He felt that the announcement has been front loaded with too much expectation. About the only thing substantively announced was the final confirmation of the purchase of Amiga Technologies. Mike Latinovich said that his sources reported that the developers liked what they heard. Other reports contradict that assertion.

Jim Lewis: Jim said he has mixed feelings about Gateway 2000. He has been competing with them for some of the University's business and they are tough competitors. Overall, Jim said, he thinks the Gateway purchase of Amiga Technologies is positive for the Amiga. The amazing thing is that the Amiga hasn't died. If it can move away from dedicated hardware, Jim feels, it has a fighting chance. Jim referred to it in his usual style as Daddy Cowbucks and Little Orphan Annie.

Jim reported that Mac support has ended at Apex and that the Champaign Apex store will close soon, along with their Iowa City store. This will leave 5 of the 7 Apex stores still functioning. Jim will continue to represent Apex in our area, working out of his home. If you dial the 337-0022 number you'll still get Jim. Jim hinted at some other possibilities that might transpire, but they are still in the tentative stage.

Dave Witt: Dave said he has been unable to locate a replacement battery for his A3000 and he hasn't received the caddy for his battery substitution project as of yet. He needs a NiCad not a Lithium battery. Jim Lewis said he might have one.

John Lynn: John reported that his scheduled program for July has had to be postponed due to the fact that Ed Serbe, the presenter, has had to change his vacation plans to that period of time. Mike Latinovich was gently strong-armed into filling that vacancy.

John had a question about the warranty card for the club's TIMM monitor, but he was advised that the warranty would be in effect with or without sending the card in, due to laws covering that subject.

Concerning John's struggles with getting the TIMM to work with his A4000, Dave Witt has volunteered to provide the necessary adapter to make that connection happen.

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The Back Page:

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Bresnan Meeting Center in the Champaign Park District Headquarters (398-2550). The Center is located at 706 Kenwood, 1/2 block south of the corner of Kenwood and John Street, in west Champaign. Kenwood is the fourth north-south street off of John as you are going west, after crossing Mattis. The Center is in the northwest corner of Centennial Park, northwest of Centennial High School.

Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year ($25US outside the U.S. and Canada; prorated to $15 at mid year).

Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by the postal service or email at the member's choice. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.

This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.

For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):

President:         Richard Rollins     469-2616            rrollins@cucug.org
Vice-President:    Emil Cobb           398-0149               e-cobb@uiuc.edu
Secretary/Editor:  Kevin Hopkins       356-5026                  kh2@uiuc.edu
Treasurer:         Mark Landman        398-2910       mlandman@prairienet.org
Corporate Agent:   Jim Lewis           359-1342              jlewis@cucug.org
Board Advisor:     Jim Huls            892-8730                jhuls@pdnt.com
Webmaster:         Kevin Hisel         352-1002              khisel@cucug.org
Amiga SIG:         John Lynn           586-3280

Email us at cucug@cucug.org or surf our home page:

http://www.cucug.org/

To get on the net free, call Prairienet at (217) 255-9000. Login as "visitor". Once you're on, just type "go cucug" for a good place to start.

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