If Microsoft built cars (29-Jun-97 )

Jacob Gerber posts the top-14 ways things would be different if Microsoft built cars.

 · Posted by Jaco Gerber in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Screen colors at failures (29-Jun-97 )

Hajo C Jeske posts an updated list of screen colors that are shown at reset/bootup time to show failures (German only).

 · Posted by Hajo C Jeske in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

infinitiv disadvantages, part 2 (29-Jun-97 )

Joern Plewka says that the infinitiv tower system is pretty much the same as adding an AlphaII to a C64.

 · Posted by Joern Plewka in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

infinitiv disadvantages (27-Jun-97 )

According to Christoph Dahlen, the infinitiv tower system can't be very reliable. He has got a "normal" A1200 tower system already and fears that it will explode some day. Even with his 030 he can't play an animation from CD-ROM or hard disk that doesn't flicker and sometimes stops for tenths of a second. Copying a 3MB file from CD-ROM or ZIP to hard disk takes nearly a minute, so there definately has to be something wrong in this kind of tower system. He adds that the price of an infinitiv tower system comes close to the price of an Eagle A4000T without CPU module, which seems to be a much neater system.

 · Posted by Christoph Maria Dahlen in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Website design (27-Jun-97 )

According to Dr. Peter Kittel, the new design of the PIOS homepage was created on Amigas, with the help of CED and PPaint, but "daily work" is often accomplished withan ASCII editor on PC's.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Olaf Barthel on AI licenses (27-Jun-97 )

Olaf Barthel says it appears that all AI/AT licenses seem to reserve the "right" to sell expensive, not fully working or even failing to work hardware, which only got a CE approval because it can't by swallowed by babies. He says that apparently nobody at AI noticed this yet. Other persons finish developing hardware that AI should have developed (and sold directly). Besides that, the infinitiv's tower set doesn't fully emulate the Z2 bus and therefore expansion card manufacturers will get additional problems. He finishes his post with the message that there are many ways to make a platform die, but that ruining the hardware basis is one of them.

 · Posted by Olaf Barthel in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Boing demo (27-Jun-97 )

According to Olaf Barthel, the Boing demo was rewritten to use the operating system routines, albeit in strange and mysterious ways. The first version was running even before there was an OS, later versions was cleaned up to run on Workbench. Olaf says one part of the program explores dark and forbidden regions of the OS, but he prefers to call this "firmware banging" rather than "hardware banging" ;).

 · Posted by Olaf Barthel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

DeliTracker dead? (27-Jun-97 )

Rene Laederach posts a trilingual article that explains the current situation of DeliTracker. Apparently DeliTracker has bit the dust because it was repeatedly disassembled and re-released under different names. Rene asks for suggestions that could make Frank and Peter, DeliTracker's programmers rethink their decision of stopping work on DeliTracker.

 · Posted by Rene Laederach in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Commodore sold again (27-Jun-97 )

Skal Loret forwards a report which indicates that Commodore will be sold again.

Commodore BV, the Dutch computer manufacturer that manufactures and sells PCs under the Commodore name and "Chickenlips" trademark that it purchased during the Escom liquidation, will be acquired by it's rival, Tulip Computers, for 1 Billion Guilders($US 515 Million).
Commodore will continue to manufacture PCs for home and small office use, while Tulip will concentrate on higher-end business machines.

 · Posted by Skal Loret in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Corprorate use of Amigas (27-Jun-97 )

Index Information Ltd. give some information about their primary market, the corporate market. The retail market is fickle, the buying decision is based on individual choice at the time of purchase, this tends to make the latest greatest product sell and causes the sudden collapse of the market or failure of it to start. The corporate market buys for different reasons - based on the requirement and the cost, while there can be a tendency to look at kit with flashy features there is also the reality that they are not necessary if all you need is a rolling point of sale display. They say they sold ober 7000 add-ons for the CD32 in the last 2 years, for a corporate project; while only very few CD32's have been sold to the retail market in that time. They estimate that 30-50 per cent of CD32 have ended up in corporate projects. For the corporate market, a 68EC020 with AGA will be suitable, as it is cost effective, compatible, reliable, functional. The future of Index will lie in smaller and more embedded areas as we cost reduce and shrink the designs with increased R&D man hours and investment. Finally, they point out that there were 2.4 billion 8 bit micro's sold last year, which is a lot compared to PPC sales they estimated at 3 million. So eventually, Index are aiming at a broader market, not limiting it to a narrow retail one.

 · Posted by Index Information in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Blue Ribbon software information (24-Jun-97 )

"tc_silvey" posts informations about Blue Ribbon Software, who where bought up by Microsoft some time ago. Please refer to the original article For detailed information.

 · Posted by tc_silvey in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Frontpage designed AI's website (24-Jun-97 )

Chryse says he's ashamed to see that the homepage of our beloved Amiga was made with Microsoft FrontPage and invites everybody to write to the Amiga International Inc. staff and say what we think of that.

 · Posted by Chryse in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Chinese Amiga (24-Jun-97 )

Dr. Peter Kittel says he heard differing rumours about the Chinese Amiga [by NewStar]. Apparently, it's more like a CD32 plus MPEG playback hardware, because MPEG CDs with movies are the current big hit in China. He adds that there is a Chinese version of the Workbench.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Who owns old CBM rights? (24-Jun-97 )

In reply to a question whether Gateway bought all old CBM stuff (C64, VIC-20, PET...), Jason Compton replies that this is probably the case, unless Escom did something with them that permanently transferred them before their demise.

 · Posted by Jason Compton in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Screen colors (24-Jun-97 )

Wolfgang Paul forwards a listing of the screen colors Kickstart displays when something wrong happens after the Amiga is turned on. Dark grey means hardware is OK, light grey means software works and white means the initialization tests have passed. If the screen turns red, green, blue or yellow, your ROMS, your CHIP RAM, your custom chips or your 680x0 are not properly working.

 · Posted by Wolfgang Paul in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Gilles Bourdin selling his Amiga? (22-Jun-97 )

The following text was posted by Gilles Bourdin, he is selling an A4000T/060 for 2500 DM.

Mit 32 +16 MB RAM, 1 GIG Platte, Emplant, BSC ISDN Karte, CD ROM, Cybervision 64, ext. Syquest 88c Software: TVPaint, Art Effect, Scala MM400, uvm Reg. Shareware: Miami, Voyager, Mirc, MUI, Trapdoor, Spot, Golded, Shapeshifter mit MacOS 7.5 auf eigener 330 MB Festplatte.etc..

 · Posted by Gilles Bourdin in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

More pirates (22-Jun-97 )

Simone Tellini (STFax) says a "black list" of people who spread registered versions of Amiga software would be useful reports that he received a phone call from a guy running a WaReZ bbS and who asked why his cracked copy of STFax didn't work on his system...

 · Posted by Simone Tellini in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Network Amiga? (21-Jun-97 )

John Bayko speculates there may be an Amiga-based network computer within the next year; but that Gateway will neither know that a market exists nor will they know that the Amiga-stuff could contribute to that NC's success. He thinks that if an Amiga-based network computer will succeed, it will because of its Amiga-ness, not its NC-ness. As normal computer, he says, the Amiga's remaining life span will barely make it into the next millenium before being quietly folded up and placed next to the boxes of unsold EISA cards.

 · Posted by John Bayko in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Why we should be patient (20-Jun-97 )

Without further comment:

A lot of people are worried about what Gateway's not saying. They feel that they are being ignored, or at the very least not being looked after. They believe that Gateway doesn't feel the same sense of urgency that we do.

However, one does not create a multi-billion dollar sales machine in a decade by appearing anxious, nervous, and reactionary. This is a new ballgame, and Gateway's going to play it their way--professionally, which has worked pretty well for them to date. So rather than obsessing about what you perceive as their failings, sit back and let them take care of business.

 · Posted by Jason Compton in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Another Gateway announcement (20-Jun-97 )

Jason Compton says the big announcement that people mistakenly assumed would have something to do with the Amiga has come out. Gateway's newest Destination big-screen PC/TV now comes with DVD. Yes, that's it.

 · Posted by Jason Compton in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Greedy Shareware authors? (20-Jun-97 )

Thorsten Stocksmeier said he visited #amiga_warez and "they" where the opinion that shareware authors were greedy because they wanted money for their voluntary work. Thorsten says he powered hundreds of hours work into FFNews and only got back for perhaps 20 or 30 hours. He finishes by saying that the think's it is absolutely weird to say Shareware Authors would be greedy or suck blood from the poor poor Amiga community.

 · Posted by Thorsten Stocksmeier in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Amigas in TV stations (18-Jun-97 )

We all know that Amigas are widely used in American TV studios. But did you know that, for example, German's SAT1 has at least four A2000's, one A4000T and two A1200's?

 · Posted by Bernd Rehlinger in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Shareware and pirates (18-Jun-97 )

Thorsten Stocksmeier, author of FFNews shows an example of how impertinent crackers can get. Apparently a guy calling himself "fLOw/sPANK!" sent a mail to Thorsten, saying that he is evaluating FFNews and that it seems good. The odd thing is that this guy's mail header includes the following line: X-Newsreader: FFNews 1.64 (Amiga;32bit) *** BETA *** #00000001. Thorsten explains that key #1 is his own and that a posting with a dot (".") behind the version header comes from a cracked FFNews. Even more worrying is that the guy is not ashamed to use his own mail address...

 · Posted by Thorsten Stocksmeier in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Still no working PIOS One (13-Jun-97 )

PIOS still don't have a PIOS One ready, apparently. Peter recently told me they don't even have one working, says Jason Compton.

 · Posted by Jason Compton in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

pOS prerelease (11-Jun-97 )

A pOS preerelease should be available in July, according to a news item forwarded by Ingwar Twachtmann. It will cost DM 49 (USD 30), will ship on CD or disk and will be upgradeable to the full version.

 · Posted by Ingmar Twachtmann in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Reviving the Walker?, 2 (11-Jun-97 )

Jason Compton says that he thinks Olaf Barthels hint of "reviving the development process that would have given us the Walker" meant that it will give us something different now.

 · Posted by Jason Compton in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Reviving the Walker? (11-Jun-97 )

According to Dr. Peter Kittel, the Walker's non-standard slot was a major feature, allowing for any kind of expansion you can dream of. An EC030 would be the easiest, cheapest and fastest to implement. There are no real alternatives to AGA in sight if you want to stay backwards-compatible.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

AI info (09-Jun-97 )

Olaf Barthel posted an article that contained interesting information about AI's future. Don't start guessing and making rumours, continue encouraging Gateway2000 and Mr Petro Tyschtschenko to provide funding for 1 R&D lead, up to 8 developers, 1 technical support guy and 1 marketing/press officer, plus revive the development process that would have given us the Walker. We need all the help we can get.

 · Posted by Olaf Barthel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

No PPC ShapeShifter (07-Jun-97 )

Simon Baechler asked Christian Bauer, programmer of ShapeShifter whether he would do a PPC version. Christian Bauer replied that a PPC version is not planned because he doesn't have the necessary time and motivation. He doesn't participate at the PowerUp program either.

 · Posted by Simon Baechler in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

"Something stirring"? (07-Jun-97 )

After somebody asked whether anything was happening at AI, Olaf Barthel replied that we should wait for it and added that there's something stirring.

 · Posted by Olaf Barthel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

OS Beers (07-Jun-97 )

Terry Coles forwards a text that has been circulating at his work for several days now. It compares OS to Beers. The Amiga entry reads as follows:

AmigaDOS Beer: The company has gone out of business, but their recipe has been picked up by some weird German company, so now this beer will be an import. This beer never really sold very well because the original manufacturer didn't understand marketing. Like UNIX Beer, AmigaDOS Beer fans are an extremely loyal and loud group. It originally came in a 16 oz. can, but now it comes in 32 oz. cans too. When this can was originally introduced, it appeared flashy and colorful, but the design hasn't changed much over the years, so it appears dated now. Critics of this beer claim that it is only meant for watching TV anyway.

 · Posted by Terry Coles in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

AA in CMOS technology (07-Jun-97 )

Dr. Peter Kittel says that in AT times they started a project to investigate the port of the AA chip technology to modern CMOS, and adds that Paula was the principal problem, less Alice and Lisa. He says this could have lead to a one-chip version [of the AA chipset], or perhaps it could even have been intergratable with a 68k core on a single chip. Sadly, he doesn't know about the last state of that project and whether it will be continued by GW/AI.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

More PowerUp software (07-Jun-97 )

Steffen Haeuser forwards his private list of programs supporting pOS and/or PowerUp. This list includes Imagine, CyberGraphX, StormC, PPaint, Myst. Rumoured are also PPC versions of PCX and PC-Task.

 · Posted by Steffen Haeuser in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Even more PowerUp software (07-Jun-97 )

According to Sven Drieling, SuperView goes powerUP. He forwards an official announce. The most time-consuming routines of certain modules of SuperView-Library have been ported to native PowerPC code and perhaps will profit a lot from the presence of an installed powerUP system.

 · Posted by Sven Drieling in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

PCI AutoConfig (04-Jun-97 )

Dr. Peter Kittel says that PCI has some sort of Autoconfig included in its standard and adds that it is a bit better than Amiga Autoconfig.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

No custom hardware (03-Jun-97 )

According to Dave Haynie, The reason the Amiga can't depend on custom hardware is the reason very few system house of any kind develop custom hardware in the personal computer market -- the chip companies do it better, in vastly higher volumes than any single system house will sell.

 · Posted by Dave Haynie in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

PIOS One no Mac clone (03-Jun-97 )

The PIOS One is no Mac clone, says Dave Haynie. The architecture derives from PC industry standarts. When he started working on it, it was supposed to run BeOS and hopefully one day the AmigaOS, MacOS wasn't even an option at the time. The PIOS One is a clone of nothing. I made it up, after researching the various system components I could get, and chose those that would build the best system for the least amount of money. He's using two PC clone chips and an Apple-designed chip for I/O, PC style mouse and keyboards ports; not because they're great, because they're not bad, there's no point in doing it differently. He sums up that he didn't just clone the One, when I started, there was nothing around to clone, even I had wanted to clone something.

 · Posted by Dave Haynie in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

Video editing (03-Jun-97 )

Dr. Peter Kittel thinks the video editing market is at least twice as large as the "home computer" market. he thinks there are lots of people interested and that it is a giant niche market.

 · Posted by Dr. Peter Kittel in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].

New Betas from AI (03-Jun-97 )

According to Angela Schmidt, ftp.amiga.de now includes new beta versions (ie. file system for hard disks over 4 GB).

 · Posted by Angela Schmidt in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L].