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*---== AM-REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Online Magazine of Choice!" from STR Publishing Inc. """""""""""""""""" December 05, 1991 Volume 1.18 ========================================================================= > 12/05/91: AM-Report #1.18 The Online Magazine of Choice! -------------------------- -The Editor's Desk -General Amiga News -General Industry News -* Commodore Stockholders Meeting Scandal *- -* New Technology Amigas *- -* High Density Floppy Drive *- -* CDTV/P Expansion Kit *- TODAY'S NEWS ..TODAY! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > AMReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors! ================ Publisher - Editor ------------------ Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Robert Retelle Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON Contributing Correspondents --------------------------- Mike Todd (CIX) Jim Shaffer, Jr. (UseNet) 70117,634 on CompuServe amix.commodore.com!vanth!jms Andrew Farrell Australian Commodore and Amiga Review & Professional Amiga User Magazine Mike Ehlert, SysOp: PACIFIC COAST MICRO BBS -- FidoNet 1:102/1001 IMPORTANT NOTICE ================ Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 76370,3045 GEnie......................... ST.REPORT Delphi........................ RMARIANO BIX........................... RMARIANO FIDONET....................... 1:363/18 or 1:363/9 FNET.......................... NODE 350 ************************************************************************* EDITORIAL ~~~~~~~~~ Another week (or so), another issue. This time there is a lot of real interesting stuff going on in the Amiga market. Quality advertisements for the Amiga 3000 and CDTV have been noticed on radio, television and in print. Numerous people in cities like Denver, San Francisco, Toronto, Houston and Seattle have reported television ads for CDTV and quality radio spots for the Amiga. Commodore is pushing the Amiga 3000 "video solution" in magazines like Computer Graphis World with full-page ads. Hell hasn't frozen, but the Cubs are playing night games at Wrigley so I guess anything is possible. The latest Commodore stockholders' meeting was a real interesting item. It seems that some irate shareholders actually showed up in the Bahamas to let Gould know how they feel. One was physically ejected by security after refusing to be silenced! Commodore is selling more Amigas and selling them faster. A rare sighting of an Amiga high-density (not A.E.) drive has been reported. Amiga developers are churning out new software and upgrades to current items. SID 2.0 is finally being released. OCR is coming to the Amiga. The Toaster should finally work with 2.04 and the Super Denise. NewTek is at it again. General industry news abounds. I've received numerous letters blasting NewTek [again]. It seems that Computer Shopper credited NewTek with "designing" the Toaster Workstation (an A2000 with a Toaster and optional GVP 3501 card). CS also said that the Workstation doesn't require a "host computer". Hmmm...what's the Amiga? Video peanut butter? Of what use is CDTV? Who is its intended market? I've also received a number of letters on this subject. Most of them claiming Commodore will fall flat on its face. So, I used my imagination and my writing skills (meager though they may be) and addressed the subject. Two of the items in here are direct reprints of Philadelphia Inquirer articles. All credits are given and copyrights (if any) belong to the Philadelphia Inquirer. A brief chat with my lawyer (actually my company's lawyer) confirmed that I was legally able to reprint the articles without permission of the Inquirer for the following reasons: 1) Proper credit is given to the author and the publisher. 2) AM-Report can fit the legal definition of "press". 3) I derive no profit from publication. 4) The Inquirer loses no potential profit from publication. [Just to placate the legal departments on the various networks.] Read on MacDuff. -Chas __ __/// \XX/ AM-Report International ============================================================================ *** NEW BITS AND BYTES *** ============================================================================ COMMODORE DISSENT -- STOCKHOLDER EJECTED FROM MEETING The following is from the Tuesday, November 26, 1991, edition of the Philadelphia Inquirier. It is verbatim. All copyrights belong to the Philadelphia Inquirer. ----------------- Begin newspaper article ------------------- Stockholders follow Commodore to Bahamas by Valerie Reitman Inquirer Staff Writer NASSAU, Bahamas -- For the third consecutive year, Commodore International Ltd. yesterday held its annual shareholder meeting in a posh Bahamiam country club near the home of its chairman and largest shareholder, Irving Gould. But the distance and expense of getting to the meeting on the island in the Atlantic during a holiday week didn't stop a handful of small shareholders of the West Chester company -- mostly zealous users of Commodore's Amiga computer -- from attending. "If Gould wants to shut users out, the next meeting's going to have to be in Siberia," Edward Gee, of Havertown, a medical-equipment technician, said before the meeting at the Lyford Cay Club. One dissident shareholder, Richard Ash, of Philadelphia, was physically ejected by security guards after he tried to introduce a motion to adjourn the meeting and reconviene it in New York. Through 1988, the company's annual meetings were held in Manhattan. At the last session in New York, several shareholders complained about the company's high executive salaries and perks and the use of the corporate jet. Ash said yesterday that more shareholders could attend if Commodore's meetings were held in the United States, since that is where most of its shareholders live. "You're holding it in Nassau because you don't want" shareholders to come, he charged. Commodore's chief financial officer, Ron Alexander, asked Ash to make his comments in the question period after official business. But Ash persisted, saying: "No one is able to attend the meeting in the middle of nowhere." Ash, a perennial thorn in Commodore's side, has in the past complained about management's high salaries, a private jet used to ferry Gould back and forth to the United States and stock options granted to Gould and company president Medhi Ali for a penny apiece. "I've come to Nassau at great expense because I'm a shareholder," Ash said. Gould retorted that it was appropriate to schedule the meeting in the Bahamas: "Are we a Bahamian company?" Commodore has its headquarters in Nassau, although its North American base, as well as the company's financial and research operations, are in West Chester. The location it lists as its Bahamian headquarters actually is the office of its registered agent, Ernst & Young, on the third floor of a small pink ofice building called Sassoon House. About 1,000 companies represented by firms in the building are listed in the lobby. "Just one employee of Commodore is located in the Bahamas," said Paul Clark, an Ernst & Young partner. When Ash persisted in speaking, Alexander asked him to "leave peacefully" or be "physically ejected." Then, two guards appeared and Ash was led from the room. Gould later apologized to shareholders for "what happened earlier." In meeting business, Mike Levin, president of the Philadelphia Amiga Users Group and a student at Drexel University who paid $500 to get to the meeting, said he was representing the "lifeblood of the company -- its actual customers." He told Commodore executives that rivals were "catching up" to Amiga's technology, which has made the computer popular with computer hackers and graphic artists. Gee and several other shareholders told company officials that they were concerned Commodore was not adequately promoting its personal computers in the United States, where it has consistently been losing money and market share. At the same time, it has been enjoying stellar sales and profits in Europe, particularly in Germany, where it is second only to IBM in PC sales. Overseas sales made up 85 percent of Commodore's $1 billion in revenues in fiscal 1991, which ended June 30. While Gould conceded that rivals had gained on the Amiga, he said they had yet to match it in price compared with performance. Gould and Ali said they were frustrated in not being able to crack the North American market. In the year ended June 30, the firm had a loss of $24.7 million in the United States on sales of $192.8 million. In the prior year, its North American operation lost $17.7 million on sales of $259 million. With European and other operations included, it had profits of $48.2 million on sales of $1.05 billion in fiscal 1991, and $1.5 million on sales of $887.3 million in fiscal 1990. ============================================================================ "NEW TECHNOLOGY" AMIGAS -- AMIGA "FANATICS" -- BIG SALARY COMPLAINTS The following is the interesting portions of article on Commodore in the December 2nd issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer (their copyright): Business Section - Page D1 COMMODORE SEEKS NEW U.S. AMIGOS By Valerie Reitman Inquirer Staff Writer NASSAU, Bahamas -- Dan Hess flew from Bellefontaine, Ohio, last week to an annual shareholders meeting in the Bahamas with one question for the directors of Commodore International Ltd. Why wasn't the company advertising its Amiga computer, which he thinks is fantastic, more heavily in the United States? Such commercials could show the machine's capabilities -- from word processing to video games to animation. "We could crush Nintendo," Hess, whose family owns about 2,000 shares of Commodore, told company directors. "Commodore needs its name stamped around." Irving Gould, the company's chairman, acknowledged his frustration in getting dealers to stock and promote the product. "We've gone on several advertising campaigns," Gould said. "If we took spot ads every 15 minutes on every station, if we don't have store- fronts and product distribution, it still wouldn't make any difference. It's no good -- it's the chicken and the egg." Indeed, while Commodore is second only to IBM in personal-computer sales in Europe, how to crack the North American market is a problem that has vexed Commodore for years as it competes with top sellers such as IBM, Apple and Compaq and the IBM clones. Although many of Commodore's computer users are zealous -- in fact, some live up to Gould's term, fanatic -- the West Chester company can't seem to get much of a hold in the biggest and most lucrative market in the world: the United States. It reaped 85 percent of its fiscal 1991 sales of $1.04 billion in Europe. [...] Commodore president Mehdi Ali hinted that the company was working on a "new generation" of Amigas to come out in the next 18 months -- and indicated that the company might make a bigger push then. "We don't have critical mass" now, Ali said. "With the next generation of Amiga, we will make a big push. We can't flog something we've been flogging for four years in the same way." "I constantly get letters from users," Gould said. "I don't call them users, I call them fanatics. With all those letters, I wish somebody would tell us how" to sell computers in North America. Gould and Ali declined to answer questions after the meeting about the "new generation" of products. [...] International Data Corp., a market research firm, says Commodore controls 12.4 percent of the personal-computer market in Europe, slightly behind IBM's 12.7 percent. Apple's Macintosh computer was way behind with 5.2 percent, Compaq with 4.6 percent and Oivetti with 6.2 percent. [...] Still, Stahlman believes that Commodore's North American division will soon return to profitability. But he believes that it will "return to its roots" and that its "new generation" of products will emphasize the lower-end Amiga 500, which it sells through mass merchandisers. Such a strategy disturbs users of the high-end Amiga machines, which Commodore sells through dealers. Ethan Solomita, a Columbia University computer-science major who called himself an "Amiga fan who's trashing the company," said users who exchange information on computer "bulletin boards" complain about what they see as the dwindling technological lead of the Amiga line over rivals IBM and Apple. "Everyone is fearful that if they don't put money in the Amiga, it will just not compete. "Now, IBM has begun catching up technologically, and Amiga's not keeping pace," Solomita said. "The operating system and graphics are catching up, and the prices are dropping. Today, the Macintosh is starting to become comparably priced, and clones are well under Amiga's price." The users and shareholders, such as Dan Hess, complain about Ali's and Gould's salaries. Gould earned $1.75 million, while Ali earned $2.4 million. Gould in 1989 was granted 350,000 options, while Ali was given 120,000 shares in the last fiscal year atop 300,000 options given previously. John Akers, chairman of International Buesiness Machines Corp., which has 50 times Commodore's sales, made $2 million in salary in 1990. "I wish he [Gould] would take some money out of his wallet and put it into marketing." Hess said. There was even talk among users of a grass-roots movement of Commodore computer owners to buy shares of stock and gain a controlling interest in the company. Since Gould owns 20 percent of the shares, that's kind of a pie-in-the-sky idea. One shareholder, Edward Gee of Havertown, who attended the meeting in Nassau said that he requested a list of shareholders from Commodore last summer, but that the company would not provide it. ======================================================================== COMMODORE SELLS 3 MILLIONTH AMIGA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commodore International Limited has announced that during the month of November, unit sales of the Amiga computer line has reached the three million mark. Shipments of the Amiga computer product line began in September, 1985. Sales reached the one million mark in March, 1989, three and one-half years after introduction. The two million mark was reached one and one-half years later in November, 1990. With increasing unit sales, Commodore has now reached the three million mark in twelve months. ============================================================================ HIGH DENSITY FLOPPIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CompuServe user Pat Beaulieu is reporting that the floppy disk drive in his Amiga 3000 will format high-density disks out to 1.6 Mb under OFS and 1.74 Mb under FFS. He reports that an "info" command reports the drives with double the normal space free and that Quarterback recognizes the disks as 2 Mb floppies. Pat reports that his A3000 was purchased 8 to 9 months ago and that nothing special is required to format the larger disks, except the larger disks themselves. Commodore, of course, denies the existance of any such drive. The following explanation for the technology was given by a [CIS] resident developer: "Yes, the technology does exist. Since there appears to be at least one such unit out there, I will tell you that it works by slowing down the drive to half the speed. In this manner the custom chips are able to handle the transfer rate of the larger amount of data stored on the track (twice the amount in this case). It looks at the HD hole to decide when to do this operation so... IF you have been using some HD diskettes and formatted them on the normal drives and then attempt to read it on one of these new technology drives you will not be able to do so. BTW, this will certainly break any software out there that ASSUMED that a floppy was only 880K instead of querying the drive as it is supposed to." [Ed. -- Okay, everybody. Get out them high priced floppies and check it out!] ============================================================================ CDTV/P ADD-ON KIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The November 25th issue of PC Week is reporting that Commodore is readying the CDTV/P add-on kit for CDTV players. The kit contains a keyboard, mouse and floppy disk drive and will be priced in the $300 range. The CDTV/P add-on kit is being billed as a kit that will turn a consumer-electronics protuct (CDTV) into a full-fledged computer. ============================================================================ CROSS-DOS' BIG BROTHER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following message was posted on CompuServe by Michael Gerard. Hi folks: I just spoke with Consultron about their new product for BridgeBoard users called "Ambassador". They indicated that the product should be available sometime in January. Of interest to A3000 Bridgeboard users, they said they are struggling with having their product allow booting the bridgeboard from an Amiga drive. The problem they are having is that a new version of the Janus software is expected from CBM R-S-N, and they don't know if that would break their software's ability to offer this booting feature. Boy, wouldn't it be nice?! Consultron is quite aware that A3000 users have to do a bit of hacking with drives to fit their computers with BB's, so they are taking this feature very seriously. I asked Consultron if they would mind posting an information text here in the AmigaUser forum but they said that they don't have a CIS account. I told them that if they created such a text file, I would be glad to post it for them, and forward back any responses to them. Let's see if they ge me that text. As far as upgrades go, they said while it has not been finalized, it looked like Cross-Dos users would be able to upgrade for the difference between Cross-Dos ($40 list) and Ambassador ($79.95 list) or around $39.95. Here's how the features list reads from the ad in .info/Dec: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- from the BridgeBoard: o Directly access the Amiga-connected floppy drives as MS-DOS drives from within most MS-DOS programs. o Receive up to a 100 times speed increase when using our version of the PC virtual hard drive partitions. from the Amiga: o Access MS-DOS formatted media using the same features as our five star rated product CrossDos. o Access BridgeBoard created virtual hard drive partitions (such as MakeAB and JLink files). ============================================================================ QUARTERBACK UPGRADE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (PRESS RELEASE) Central Coast Software is pleased to announce a new version of Quarterback, the best selling hard disk backup program for the Amiga. Quarterback 5.0 adds several new features and enhancements, including: ~ Integrated streaming tape support. Quarterback has built-in support for streaming tape drives, no additional software or device drivers are necessary. ~ Compression. Quarterback can optionally compress the data being backed up, requiring fewer floppies (or smaller tapes) for the backup. ~ Backup and restore to a file. Rather than doing direct-access to floppy or tape drives, Quarterback can optionally backup to an AmigaDOS file, so you can use Quarterback as a general-purpose archiving tool. ~ Password protection and encryption. You can optionally protect your backups with a password -- the data will be encrypted and unusable by anyone but the password owner. ~ New "3-D" user interface. Quarterback has a completely revamped 3-D user interface, and now is even easier to use than before. ~ Increased performance. Unbelievably, Quarterback is now even faster! ~ AREXX and Workbench 2.0 support. Quarterback now has an AREXX port and can be fully controlled through the AREXX system. Additionally, Quarterback supports a number of new features in Workbench 2.0. Several other improvements have been made to Quarterback, such as support for up to four floppy drives, increased file selection versatility, and more. Quarterback 5.0 will be available in January 1992, and will have a suggested retail price of $75.00. Upgrades from previous versions will be made available at a reasonable cost, details on upgrading will be made available at a later date. James Bayless Central Coast Software A division of New Horizons Software, Inc. ============================================================================ SID 2.0 ~~~~~~~ The following message was posted on Timm's BBS (Deep C) about SID 2.0, a very popular file utility program. There are bad months, and then there are bad months... 11/29/91 As most of you know, I spent the end of the summer travelling alot. On my last trip to New York (what an awesome city), I became violently ill. I was so sick that I was vomiting constantly and passing out. Upon my return to Cincinnati, I went to the hospital and was diagnosed as having a bacterial virus. They sent me home, but two days later I was back, and they admitted me and started me on heavy IV's. I spent over a week in the hospital, and another three weeks at home in bed. I returned to work on November 4th -- my birthday -- a month and a day after becoming ill. In November I've been on full physical restriction--go to work, go home, and go to bed. But on Monday the 25th I saw my doctor and he gave me the okey- dokey: the infection is completely gone, and I can slowly resume my normal life. I've lost 15 pounds and my muscles have begun to atrophy, but hopefully I should be back in the swing of things in no time. I'm still experiencing vein problems -- the IV's were so harsh that they damaged the veins in my left arm -- but other than some pain and blood clots for the next few months, it shouldn't present much of a problem. So now the magic question...how's SID? I have managed to invest another 100 hours in SID this month (amazing what happens when you have no social life), where I've fixed almost every bug reported to me by my beta testers, I've rewritten it to be easily translated into any language (German, French, Italian, etc), I've finished the colors and most of the buttons, and all I have left is the menu editor and the docs. I've learned enough not to make any more promises--something always seems to come up when I do--but I should be cashing the checks very soon, if that's a hint. I'm also making some changes in how SID will be distributed, how much it will cost, etc., but for those of you who have already sent me your check and are waiting (im)patiently, don't worry, you're covered. All I can is say thanks to those of you who have supported me. I know I have taken quite a beating on the boards, and even some of my trusted beta testers have turned against me. It's a shame considering how hard I've worked on SID. I just hope all this is worth it in the end. --Timm ----------------------------------------- ============================================================================ - Federal Way, WA. MIGRAPH ANNOUNCES INTELLIGENT OPTICAL CHARACTER --------------- RECOGNITION APPLICATION FOR ATARI SYSTEMS "Since the release of the Migraph Hand Scanner, we have been searching for an OCR Solution that would meet Migraph's high quality and performance standards", state Migraph president Kevin Mitchell. "Migraph OCR is the result of a joint development effort between Migraph and a top developer of OCR software on UNIX based systems. The combination of the OCR engine and Migraph's interface provides a powerful, yet easy to use program." "Perhaps a better indication of our commitment to the ST market can be measured by the emergence of Migraph OCR, The Omnifont based OCR product. You will not find any of the leading PC Software giants rushing to spend thousands of dollars, and several man-years to port a $500 OCR package to the Atari. Nor has any developer for the ST made the large upfront cash investment necessary to bring Omnifont technology to the ST. Well, just like you, we at Migraph got tired of waiting. So we forged a strategic alliance with an OCR Omnifont engine developer. Together, we are bringing their mature UNIX OCR engine coupled with our intuitive interface to the ST market. The cost to Migraph has been substantial. We have focused our complete financial and manpower resources on this project. We've done this knowing that your satisfaction and word of mouth recommendation would generate years of sales as we continue to support and improve the product." Optical Character Recognition is the process of using software to recognize text characters that have been scanned into the computer. The end result is an ASCII file which can be loaded into a word processor or desktop publishing programs. OMNIFONT TECHNOLOGY Migraph OCR uses Omnifont Technology, widely recognized as the leading technology for OCR products. Omnifont technology enables the program to recognize characters based on mathematical definitions rather than a set pattern. This greatly increases the speed of the application as well as its accuracy. "Having the Omnifont engine makes this a quality product. Adding 'Intelligence' makes it a superior product" states Kevin Mitchell. "Trainable OCR programs have the capacity to learn new symbols aided by the user. Migraph OCR uses lexicons and linguistic dictionaries to help recognize characters, so that fewer characters are presented for identification by the user. The end result is quicker and better character recognition and a more satisfied user." Migraph OCR includes these additional features: = Directly supports the Migraph and Golden Image Hand Scanners = Loads IMG and TIFF files = Defines text and graphic areas; saves out text as ASCII files and saves graphics in TIFF or IMG format. = Includes four different linguistic databases: English, French, German and Dutch. = Allows the user to create dictionaries for multipage documents that have the same type of characters (mathematical, Greek, etc.) = Easy to use interface. REQUIREMENTS Migraph OCR will run on any Atari ST, Mega, STe or TT system with 2mb ram and a hard disk drive. AVAILABILITY Migraph OCR will be available this December through normal distribution channels as well as direct from Migraph. The suggested retail price is $299.00 For additional Information: MIGRAPH INC. 200 South 333rd Street Suite 220 Federal Way, WA 98003 1-206-838-4637 voice 1-206-838-4702 Fax [Ed. -- Yes, I know this is an Atari announcement. Migraph is planning on having an Amiga version out in January or 1992.] ============================================================================ NOTEBOOK FROM BLACK BELT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NoteBook ================ Product Information Sheet December 1st, 1991 Black Belt Systems is pleased to present a totally new type of tool for the Amiga series of computers. This new tool is called "NoteBook", and the name says it all. What we have done here is to provide a replacement for the tired old notebook on your desk; and pump it up with enough "pizzaz" so that it's actually fun to use. NoteBook never runs out of paper; and throwing away sheets doesn't waste material and money. It's an object oriented system, and that means that those drawings you've been making in the margins will be easier to do, and better looking to boot! Look at these features: - Three types of paper: Lined, graph and blank - Switchable grid on a per-page basis - Fully supports labelled TABs on any page - Change TAB label, move, add, delete or change TAB color anytime - Use Multiple fonts in text - Any number of pages per sections per notebook without slowing down - object oriented; Wonderful drawing tools including * Freehand (filled, unfilled, open, closed, colored, outlined) * Rectangle (filled, unfilled, colored, outlined) * Ellipse (filled, unfilled, colored, outlined) * Polygons (filled, unfilled, open, closed, colored, outlined) * Polyarcs (filled, unfilled, open, closed, colored, outlined) * Arcs (filled, unfilled, open, closed, colored, outlined) * Text (colored) * Text Highlighter (multiple pens) - Reposition any object after it's been drawn - Reposition any object WHILE it is being drawn! - Change object color, outline, size, aspect etc after it has been drawn - Group and Ungroup objects to any level - Change paper style at any time - even with a full page! - Import and Export text and IFF - Text Search capability - Complete "clipboard" for cut, copy and paste of objects between pages - Multi-level UnDo, single level ReDo - Color printer support - Flip pages without waiting for them to draw - Quick page marking with "paperclips" - Extremely efficient - tiny notebook files! - "Sleeps" on your WorkBench for instant availability - Nice to look at, fun to use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our NoteBook is the perfect replacement for the ones you've been using until now. The speed and convenience of computer manipulation of notebook pages and sections has to be experienced to be appreciated. Until now, if you made a note days ago, you had to struggle to find it. Now it can be kept in it's own little section, and you can flip there instantly - or, put a "paperclip" on the page, and use the go to next and previous paperclip operations to find those "special" notes. Since NoteBook can "sleep" on your WorkBench, it's always available at the press of a mousebutton; handy doesn't begin to describe the feeling. This is not a text editor. It's not a DTP system. It's not a paint program. It's not a CAD system. It's not any of those - yet, it is more than all of them combined - it has only one drawback over a desktop based "real" notebook, and that is "you can't take it with you". The fact is, most often you don't need to. Most notes are taken at the desk, with the general intent of getting around to dealing with the task or information later. NoteBook was designed with that idea firmly in mind. If you need to use what you've put in your notebook somewhere else, IFF image export, printer output and text export make it easy. You can even use NoteBook pages with our ClickFAX system and send them to others as fax documents! This is the perfect tool for the busy Amiga user; and it's the perfect "stocking stuffer" for this Christmas. Everyone is always saying they have trouble buying things... "They've already got one of THOSE"... but not this time - because there is NOTHING like NoteBook! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- System requirements: - 1 megabyte of memory - AmigaDOS 1.3 or 2.0 System Recommendations: - 1 megabyte or more of memory (some fast memory suggested) - Deinterlacer or Flicker-Fixer (runs in interlace mode only) Price: - $39.95 suggested retail Availability: - December 1st, 1991 Call (800) TK-AMIGA or (406) 367-5513 to place your order; (800) 852-6442 Call (406) 367-5509 between 2pm and 4pm M.S.T. for technical questions. Black Belt Systems 398 Johnson Road Glasgow, MT 59230 NoteBook is Copyright (c) 1991 Black Belt Systems, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED under the Pan-American Conventions. ============================================================================ VOYAGER FOR THE AMIGA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carina Software is pleased to announce the availability of Voyager, the Dynamic Sky Simulator for the Amiga. Voyager is a full featured planetarium program and a full featured sky simulation program. The feature list is far too long to post here, but if you would like a flyer, call or write Carina Software, 830 Williams St., San Leandro, CA 94577 (510) 352-7332. The major advantages of this program are 1) high performance (from 2-30 times that of competitors), 2) advanced features such as a conjunction search, a plot of Jupiter's Galilean moons, or showing the paths of spacecraft(i.e. Voyager II), 3) animations are fast enough to be shown within the program and do not require another program to play back a special file, 4) Data Extensions with stars to mag 9.5 and over 4000 deep sky objects, and 5) an easy and intuitive user interface with which users are extremely pleased. Voyager has been shipping for almost 2 months and is now available in many software stores. Charles at Carina ============================================================================ RAD MOOSE LEAVES NEWTEK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RAD Moose, NewTek's online representative on CompuServe is no longer with NewTek. He will be replaced on CompuServe by James Hebert of NewTek's Support Department. AM-Report wishes RAD best of luck in whatever path he chooses. RAD Moose can be reached by U.S. Snail at: RAD Moose RADware 1621 Old Castle Place Westlake Village, California 91361-1528 ============================================================================ TOASTER 2.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~ The following message was posted by RAD Moose, NewTek's online representative on CompuServe [see above note]: To the best of my knowledge, all of the incompatibilites with the revised Denise chip should be taken care of in the 2.0 release of the Video Toaster. The 2.0 Video Toaster should also work fine under 2.0 AmigaDOS/WB. Currently, NewTek does not support the Video Toaster in the A3000. I am not sure of future products. ============================================================================ FCC TAGS 100 COMDEX VENDORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Federal Communications Commission issued more than 100 notices to Comdex vendors for exhibiting equipment not yet authorized by the commission as meeting its technical standards. Violators could be subject to $75,000 in administrative fines or criminal fines of as much as $100,000. ============================================================================ TWO VIRUSES ARE BIG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a survey conducted of North American companies and government agencies, two viruses -- the Stoned and Jerusalem viruses -- caused more than 50 percent of computer virus infections. ============================================================================ NASA CRACKED ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Richard G. Wittman, Jr. of Denver, Colorado has admitted breaking into a NASA computer system. He has plead guilty to one felony count of altering information -- a password -- inside a federal computer. In a plea bargain, the government dropped six similar counts against Wittman and has agreed to seek a lighter sentence than the $250,000 fine and upto five years in prison recommended. It took Wittman less than two hours to break into NASA's computer system. He accessed over 118 different systems on the computer and successfully made himself a "super user" with the ability to read other people's electronic mail and files. It took NASA nearly 300 hours to track Wittman and about 100 hours to rewrite the software to prevent a recurrance. ============================================================================ IBM CUTS BACK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IBM confirmed that it will be eliminating about 20,000 jobs this year. In similar announcements, IBM Canada said it will cut 2,000 jobs and IBM Australia will reduce it's workforce by 25 percent in 1992. ============================================================================ APPLE, SONY & MOTOROLA TEAM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple Computer, Sony Corp. and Motorola Inc. intend to jointly develop multimedia personal computers by the end of 1993. The three firms are also expected to ask IBM, Toshiba, matsushita and AT&T to join them in the development deal. ============================================================================ COMMENTARY ON NEWTEK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been receiving more of NewTek's hate mail lately. It seems that the December '91 issue of Computer Shopper had an article in the "NOW in the Channel" section on the Toaster. The article was describing the new Toaster Workstations and how they will interface to a Mac or a PC. The two main items that have really irritated people are the statements that "no host computer" is needed for the Toaster and that it is "NewTek designed". I'm not certain if "NewTek" designed was a direct quote from NewTek or just Computer Shopper's creative writing. I think it is a combination of both. The following rumors are floating around the Amiga community: 1) Commodore is unhappy with the situation with NewTek and is trying to harass them. The "holiday prices" on A2000s and A2000HDs was not only a ploy to sell A2000s, but to undercut NewTek's Workstations. At the current pricing levels (A2000 = $999; A2000HD = $1,295) any Joe off of the street can purchase an Amiga for less than NewTek under their OEM/VAR deal. 2) NewTek's price raise on the Toaster was in effect a way to stop customers from undercutting NewTek by buying Amigas and Toaster cards. 3) The $3,995 price on the Toaster Workstation is the absolute minimum that NewTek can charge under an agreement with Commodore. Again, those are rumors and noone on either side will confirm or deny any of them. Take them as you will, but remember the following... 1) If Commodore *is* upset, they have noone to blame but themselves. *They* signed the OEM/VAR agreement with NewTek and if NewTek was violating that agreement, CBM would cut off their supply of Amigas. They haven't, so either CBM isn't mad or NewTek is playing fair by the rules CBM set up -- and beating CBM at their own game. 2) NewTek is pumping the sales figures and installed base of Amigas, making it more attractive as a supported platform for software developers. NewTek is also pumping $$ into Commodore's coffers. $$ talks. On the good side, NewTek is claiming that Toasters are used by the following people: 1) President Bush's staff uses the Toaster nightly to edit and prepare the news broadcasts for his viewing. 2) The U.S. embassy in Moscow requested that one be shipped to the Soviet capital during the August coup so that video tapes of the event could be edited with convenience and speed. 3) Both MTV and VH1 have Toaster Workstations. 4) Multiple artists, including Herby Hancock and Laurie Anderson, have employed it to create recent videos. 5) Musician Todd Rundgren has not only used the Toaster to create a video, "Change Myself," but has gone so far as to found a new production company called Nutopia, starring the Video Toaster. 6) The popular televsion series, Unsolved Mysteries. In a special UFO episode, scheduled to air during the '91, '92 season, the Video Toaster features Lightwave (a 3-D animation rendering device) and Toaster Paint to generate special effects. [Ed. -- I think I saw this one! It had interviews with George Lazar and John Lear. A couple months ago, it was.] The Toaster has gained more unsolicited press, from a wider variety of sources than any other computer product in history. Amiga News, a newspaper-like publication out of Peterborough, NH ($.75/copy) has an interview with two of the Toaster's designers. From what they said, it is about 2/5 done. Future upgrades (software activation of idle hardware) will make each previous Toaster incarnation look like an electronic Etch-A- Sketch. For those interested in helping "correct" the oversites of such magazines as Computer Shopper, I suggest a short letter. DO NOT write "poison-pen" notes or angry letters. Simply point out that in their article (include the issue, article title and page number) they had an misleading item. Tell them that the Toaster is an expansion card for the Amiga; a Toaster Workstation is a Toaster-equipped Amiga 2000 relabeled by NewTek under an OEM agreement with Commodore; and a Toaster Workstation/30 is an Amiga 2000 equipped with a Toaster and a GVP 68030 accelerator which has been relabeled by NewTek under the same OEM agreement. Short, polite letters get printed. Nasty letters get trashed. For more information on the product, contact NewTek, Inc, 215 S.E. Eights St., Topeka, KS 66603; 1-800-843-8934 or (913) 354-1146; FAX: (913)354-1584. For dealer inquiries call (612) 881-2862. ============================================================================ AMI-EXPO ART & VIDEO CONTEST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The AmiEXPO Art and Video Contest will be judged during AmiEXPO - West Coast, February 14-16, 1992, being held on The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The contest categories and prizes are listed below. Commercial Video 1st Place - A Video Toaster from NewTek, Inc. 2nd Place - Pixel 3D 2.0 from Axiom Software 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Commercial Still 1st Place - A Dozen Photographic Print Transfers from ASDG, Inc. 2nd Place - Art Department Professional from ASDG, Inc. 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Mixed Media Video 1st Place - A ChromaKey from MicroSearch 2nd Place - ShowMaker from Gold Disk, Inc. 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Two Dimensional Image 1st Place - A Impact Vision 24 from Great Valley Products 2nd Place - DesignWorks from New Horizons 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Three Dimensional Image 1st Place - An 68040 Accelerator from Great Valley Products 2nd Place - Vista Pro from Virtual Reality Laboratories 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Mixed Media Image 1st Place - DCTV from Digital Creations, Inc. 2nd Place - RasterLink from Active Circuits, Inc. 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine Animation 1st Place - A SupraDrive Removable Syquest Drive from Supra Corp. 2nd Place - Imagine from Impulse, Inc. 3rd Place - A One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine All first, second and third prize winners will receive a certificate to be presented at a ceremony during AmiEXPO as well as a One Year Subscription to AmigaWorld Magazine. The work of the first, second, and third prize winners will be displayed in a special section of the AmiEXPO Theatre during each AmiEXPO. Judges for the show will be selected from the wide pool of computer/fine arts faculty members from the art/media institutes, colleges and universities. For official rules and entry blank: AmiEXPO Art/Video Competition 465 Columbus Avenue, Suite 285 Valhalla, NY 10595 Rules for the Fourth Annual AmiEXPO Art and Video Contest 1. All submissions must have been created using Commodore Amiga Computers. Images created using other systems are not acceptable. 2. Categories for the Art and Video Contest are Two Dimensional Image, Three Dimensional Image, Mixed Media Image, Animation, Mixed Media Video, Commercial Still and Commercial Video. For the purposes of the contest, a Mixed Media Image is one that uses either a mixture of digitized and "painted" or rendered elements or a digitized image that has been subjected to image processing techniques. Artwork, Photographs or Video frames that have been merely digitized and saved on disk are not acceptable. Mixed Media Video uses both moving video images and computer generated animation, graphics, digital effects and/or text. Entry into the commercial categories is limited to those stills and videos created for the trade. Videos that have merely been verbatim captioned using the Amiga are not acceptable. Animation entrants should be aware that entries which a story and make use of some kind of audio, whether it be music, narration or sound effects or any combination of the three, have the best chance of winning. 3. Deadline for submissions is January 21, 1992. Any artist may send entries in all categories. Artists may send three images as entries to the Two Dimensional, Three Dimensional, Digitized Image and Commercial Still categories. Artists may send one entry to the Animation, Mixed Media and Commercial Video categories. The still images should be submitted on disk. Animations and videos should be submitted on 3/4" videotape. Each set of submissions to any category must be sent on a separate disk or tape. So, for example, someone wishing to send entries to all categories would submit four disks (with three images each) and three videotapes. Submissions will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped mailer. AmiEXPO cannot be held responsible for these submissions. All submissions must be accompanied by an official entry form. Duplicate the form below for additional entries. 4. The winners of the contest will be announced at AmiEXPO - West Coast, February 14-16, 1992. AmiEXPO reserves the right to use the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning entries in all categories in promotional materials and journalistic coverage of the March 1991 show and contest and all future Expo's and contests. AmiEXPO also reserves the right to include entries into the regular AmiEXPO Theatre presentation. Artists retain their copyrights. 5. Prizes are awarded solely on artistic merit as determined by the judges. The decision of the judges is final. If judges are unable to determine a suitable winner in a category, they may elect to omit awarding a winner in that category. All prizes may not be awarded. 6. Send entries to: Steve Jacobs AmiEXPO Art & Video Contest 25 Andrews Memorial Drive, CPU 2 Rochester, NY 14623 AmiEXPO Art Contest Entry Form Name: ________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________________ Category: __2 Dimensional __3 Dimensional __Mixed Media Image (One Per __Animation __Mixed Media Video __Commercial Image Form) __Commercial Video Title of Piece/Pieces: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Hardware and Software used to produce the piece/pieces: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ By signing this form I understand that AmiEXPO assumes no responsibility for the material I send them. I also understand that AmiEXPO reserves the right to use the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning entries in all categories in promotional materials and journalistic coverage of the February 1992 AmiEXPO Art Contest and all future Expo's and contests. AmiEXPO also reserves the right to include entries into the regular AmiEXPO Theatre presentations. Signature: ________________________________________________ Date: ________________________________________________ **************************************************************************** """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" AMReport International Online Magazine Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" AMReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" December 05, 1991 16/32bit Magazine copyright 1991 Volume 1.18 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""