Loadstar 232/232.d81/t.loadstar

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 10KB | 351 lines

u
     COMMODOREAN OF THE YEAR 2004
          [K. Dale Sidebottom]


[DAVE'S FORWARD]: At the LUCKI Expo
2004, Dale gathered us into a circle
to discuss the "future of Commodore."
Many comments were made and ideas
aired. While the decline of user
groups was a worry, the technical
advances and loyal support we have
seen in the last years lifted our
spirits.

At some point, for immediate reasons I
cannot recall (faulty memory at
$c000), I nominated K. Dale Sidebottom
as Commodorean of the Year for 2004,
and the "quorum of those present"
agreed.

The immediate cause is fuzzy, but the
ultimate reason for pointing to Dale
is evident in the article that
follows. He is a leader, an enabler, a
cheerleader, an entrepreneur, and
quite a philosopher.

Others also deserve note for their
leadership of our chaotic community --
and will, I am sure, in the coming
years. I have seen many groups
gathered around hobbies and interests,
but few have the heart and soul (not
to mention tenacity!) of Commodorea!

So, to you, K. Dale Sidebottom, we
bestow upon you the distinction of
Commodorean of the Year.

(You can make your acceptance speach
now...)


    When Dave Moorman informed me that
I was to be honored in LoadStar, I
thought back to the last time I was
given recognition by this prestigious
publication. Five years ago, Fender
Tucker selected my August LUCKY REPORT
as one of the five best Commodore
newsletters of 1998.  I'm not sure my
August issue was so outstanding, but
it was certainly unique!

    It was billed as the "Commodore's
First Ever Swimsuit Issue." I worked
hard on it, too. I asked some of our
finest female fans to send me
snapshots of themselves in bathing
suits. I thought I could integrate
these photos into a display of
advanced CMD hardware that would get
everyone's attention. After all, we
see magazines featuring lovely ladies
draped over automobiles and motor-
cycles. Why not similarly extoll the
"sexy" side of Commodore?

    But when I contacted these
wonderful ladies of Commodore, they
all politely replied, "Are you nuts!"

    To find models for my special
issue, I was forced to scan pictures
of classical works of art like Venus
de Milo and Michelangelo's statue of
David (using the HandyScanner 64).
Coverting these scans into GEOS, I
used geoPaint to add swimwear...an
essential detail in any swimsuit
issue.

    To give you an example, I plucked
a nude from Reubens' famous painting,
The Three Graces. I modestly covered
her with a geo-bikini and placed a CMD
device in her arms.  The acompanying
text began, "Peter Paul Reubens wanted
his models to be hefty and robust. How
about you? Do you enjoy big ones? Then
you should check out the 1750XL. This
beauty has two huge meagbytes of
memory, the largest REU ever
manufactured for the Commodore..."

    But that was back in 1999. To be
honored in 2004 as Commodorean of the
Year is even more gratifying. I
realize that not all of you got to
vote on this. Nevertheless, I hope
that I have accomplished one or two
things that merit such mention.

    If you would allow me to make a
small acceptance speech, I would like
to share with you my vision of what
Commodoring ought to be and why I
think it is important. All good things
in Commodore are based upon what I
consider to be the five essential
tenets of Commodore philosophy. They
are as follows:

1.  The power of computing belongs in
the hands of the user. We have a right
to know what is going on "under the
hood."

2.  Programs should be backwardly
compatible. Future advances should
maintain respect for the past.

3.  Obsolecesence, and especially
artificial obsolecesence, should be
voluntary...not mandatory.

4.  Computer skill is demonstrated by
producing more with less...not the
reverse.

5.  We should bear in mind the
universal law of computing...that
given proper time, program and
peripherals, any computer can
accomplish any computer task.

    Based upon these five principles,
our participation in the worldwide
Commodore community should always be a
source of pleasure and pride. But
there is more.

    Consider the history of the 64
itself. This machine was born a child
of serendipity. Think of it as a
convergence of fortuitous events. When
CBM developed the 64, it got
lucky...like winning the lottery.

    Consider the operating system.
Bill Gates was just getting started
and didn't have much money, so Jack
Tramiel was able to purchase an
unlimited license to use Microsoft's
version of the BASIC 2.0 programming
language and operating system. It was
more compact and worked faster than
anyone else's. From the beginning, the
PET -- then the 64 and even the 128 --
profited from a BASIC OS that was not
just cheap, but second to none! Today
Bill Gates and Microsoft are
acknowledged around the world as
leaders in OS development...but back
in the early days of 8-bit
computing...WHO KNEW?

    The SID chip was created by Bob
Yannes would later become the
co-founder of Ensoniq, one the the
best producers of synthesizers in the
world. Before his genius was widely
recognized, his 64 SID chip became one
of the best sound devices ever used in
8-bit computers.

    In an internet interview he was
asked, "What would you have changed in
the SID's design, if you had a bigger
budget from Commodore?" His answer
surprised me. "The issue wasn't
budget, it was development time and
chip size constraints. The design/
prototype/debug/production schedule
of the SID chip, VIC II chip and
Commodore 64 were incredibly tight
(some would say impossibly tight). We
did things faster than Commodore had
ever done before and were never able
to repeat after!"

    My point is that the 64 resulted
from an unexpected union of happy
happenstances. Things went better than
anyone could have expected. Yet, after
the 64 was on the market, CBM failed
to appreciate how lucky they were to
have it. Instead, they started using
it as a loss leader. They drove down
the price, hoping to attract people to
the Commodore computer line in order
to convert customers to more costly
computers down the road. CBM bet its
future on its ability to compete with
the "Big Boys," namely IBM and Apple.
To play up the 16-bit side (the Amiga
and the Colt), it had to play down the
8-bit side...leaving the C64/128
virtually abandoned and impoverished
(no accelerator card, no improved
video card, no hard drive, no CD
access, etc.)

    This went on for years until, in
the late 80's or early 90's,
Commodore's CEO Irving Gould said of
the 64, "We've been trying to kill
that sucker for years!" But the joke
was on CBM. The Commodore 64 turned
out to be the most popular computer
ever made, and CBM's treating it like
an unloved step-child only quickened
their demise.

[DAVE'S INTERRUPTION]: One year after
discontinuing the C-64, CBM is belly
up! I figure [CBM] stood for
Continually Bad Management. But,
excuse me, Dale. Do go on...


    Imagine that you find a child cold
and hungry. Would you feed it? Would
you give it warm clothes? Would you
try to make up for the needless
suffering it has experienced in the
past? Welcome to the C= World
according to Dale. I see Commodoring
as a challenge of fairness, an
opportunity to establish equity. If my
PC has a hard drive, then my 64 does,
too. Why? Out of fairness, okay! If my
PC can access a CD, so can my
Commodore. If my PC is allowed to
print pictures in 16 million colors,
so is my 128. If you love a child, you
make certain that that child has the
same advantages as his/her peers, do
you not? It's only fair!

    Obviously, the Commodore is not
really a child.  And there are many
who believe that a 64 functions best
when plainly attired, like a monk in a
monastary. I have no argument with
anyone as to the strengths of the
stock Commodore system. If one can do
everything they want to do with a C64,
a 1541, and a dot-matrix printer; they
have my highest admiration.

    But twenty years as a Commodore
user have convinced me of a stark
truth. People don't leave Commodore
because of what others do with it.
They leave it because they themselves
have become bored or frustrated with
it.

    To prevent these problems, we must
continually challenge ourselves and
and our Commodo