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          LETTER FROM MIHAI
     Our Romanian Commodore User


[DAVE'S FORWARD]: This letter was
written to the Homestead maillist,
where Commodore users gather to share
and discuss our favorite computer.
Mihai Barbat lives in Romania, in
about the middle of the country (if my
memory servers me well) among the
grand Carpathian Mountains. Here is
his letter:



    Here we are my friends, it's mid
2003! Commodore's death, announced at
the begining of the 90's still hasn't
taken place. Impressive, I know :) The
loyalty of us, the Commodore users, is
beyond any limits I know. We'll need a
psycho-analyst to tell us why we
bonded like this with a machine :)

    My story begins in 1998 when I got
into high school and discovered the
internet. I won't elaborate on this
because I guess most of you know my
story, I am Mihai Barbat (Michael) the
only active C= user left in Romania :)

    Using the internet (email only in
the beginning) naturally, I guess
driven by an inner instinct, I came
across the COMMODOR discussion list.
It was that time in my life when all
my classmates and I were pushing the
school email service to the limits
(the only Internet service we had in
the first year of high school). We
were subscribing to every list
imaginable. I used to get about
300-400 messages per day, 99.99% being
pure crap. I used to love spam back
then, every new message in my inbox
was important :). Slowly I learned a
few listserv commands and I sent a
search command (I was searching
'Commodore') to the list server. I got
only one result. After a few
unsuccesful tries, finally after a
week I was in.

    Very shy, I sent a message to this
list. To my surprise, actual people,
COMMODORE users, answered me :). The
late Ron Fick was the first to respond
me and introduce me to this newly
discovered world. I remember those
times so well. I was absorbing all the
information I could find. I was so
moved and amazed by this strong
connection established between us,
agaist the distance that separated us.
I was asking questions like a machine
gun here and there. I guess that after
some months poor Ron couldn't keep up
with my frenzy and passed me to his
friend Earl Cook.

    This also didn't stopped me and I
continued to push on with my
questions. Some of them were so
hilarious. I remember the first time I
heard about Jiffy Dos. It took me
about 2-3 emails to fully understand
what a 'jiffied C128' was :). The
first blow was when Ron passed away.
It really shocked me, as I got very
close with him and all the CCCC
members. But life followed its way and
I moved on. Naturally, slowly, as I
gathered more information, my wild
quest for C= knowledge slowed down a
bit.

    I moved on to new email lists, the
most important being Homestead. I
guess the COMMODOR list was dieing
when I first appeard there, moving to
Homestead was like a breath of fresh
air, lots of new interesting people. I
had the chance to upgrade my Commodore
with the help of my great friends to
an unimaginable level for a user in
Romania. This put me on the same level
with you guys. I can keep up with
every technical challenge with this
setup. At present I am still on those
lists, emerging from time to time with
every occasion I consider worthy of
sharing there.

    Today I have received the June
UCUGA issue from Dale. As soon as I
began reading it, Dale's words stuck
into my head: 'nothing seems to be
going on !'. This started a storm in
my head. Why is this happend I began
asking ... After 4 years the
discussion lists aren't what they used
to be. Almost all of them are in a
coma-like state. I don't know what
happend, the routine got all of us?
Have we all reached the same level of
knowledge that we don't need to
further comunicate? I don't think so.
My ideea is that we became lazy in a
way, and we seem to like it. There is
almost nothing left to keep the
enthusiams high. I remember that back
then in '99 there were so many people
posting on those list. Look now, most
of them got lost and mysteriously
dissapeard (hy Colin :))) )

    We need something to motivate us,
we need something to set us all on
fire. Let's make the discussion lists
active again people, do you need
another Ironstone/Tulip issue to
awaken you? Even this major news
didn't created much activity, just a
few irritated individuals, including
myself. What do you need to get
active, tell me? What does it take to
achieve this?

    What will you all say if I write
this to Homestead: 'Hm, all the people
here on Homestead just wait for
Maurice to release something so they
can wake up from the coma and say
"Wow! Maurice is the best!!!"' Will
this be enough to annoy everybody, I
mean come on, do we really need
electro-shocks like this to wake up?

    I am challenging you all. Start
being active or remain lame and quiet.
Yes those are my words, lame and
quiet. Start writing about your C=
experiences, start writing about your
favourite activity on the C=, tell us
about your C= dreams, help Dale and
Allan with articles, start
experimenting my dear friends, do
something. Only Colin, Greg, and I
know how much I struggled to get your
attention on JOS now WiNGS OS.

    We spent many many nights talking
about how can we make you curious
about it. I myself wrote some very
tasteful and addictive articles on
Homestead about our experiments
(excuse my modesty). We all said that
we'll achive victory when we bring
Willis on the #wgs chanel to chat and
amaze him with Jolse's creation. Yes
Willis was the prototype of the user
we wanted to attract to the modern
part of the C=.

    You want to know the results? I
don't think you will be very happy. Be
shocked now, because we only got just
one new guy, Geoff Sullivan. It's hard
I know, this was a hard blow for me
and for my motivation. I guess that is
why I kinda dissapeard from the lists.

    What happend guys? Commodore users
were known for their native curiosity
and lust for knowledge and experiment.
I don't know what went wrong. Anyway
the road we took is not in the right
direction.

    Dale, Allan -- you all need
materials for your magazines. Why
don't you launch topics on the lists,
something like 'Hy guys. I am very
curious to find out about '....' I
want an article for my mag, is there
anyone willing to write it? I am
willing to help and I am sure so are
other people. Ask questions on the
lists, for example: ' What do you
think about Ironstone/Tulip, what does
the C= means for you, why are you
still using a C= in 2003 .... there
are so many beautiful questions. Write
more interviews (interview of the
month, introduce newcomers, worst/best
news, best/worst ideea, ) do more
reviews (demos, games), just ask ...
DON'T JUST STAND, INNOVATE !!!

    I hope you all got shocked, mad,
awaken,... I will be very happy to
know that I triggered any reactions.
So I am asking you please react to
this, don't hold anything, you can
even attack me, I won't mind, you're
all my friends :))

A sad Commodore user,

Mihai


[DAVE'S REPLY]

Dear Mahai,

    Patience, my friend. We are not
dead. We are just not managed by the
hyper-excited Commercial Consumer
machine that is in the process of
taking over the world and turning us
all into McDonald Hamburgers!

    I use the C-64 because it is a
unique, simple, powerful computer that
does what I want it to do. I am a
Commodore person because Commodore has
dropped below the radar of those who
would manipulate and exploit it for
nothing more than profit. I love the
C= community because every single
member is an individual, with his/her
own reason for being here. And none
are here because it is a "popular"
thing to do!

    As a pastor of little, rural
churches, I deal with such communities
every day. And we go through seasons.
There are times when something new is
happening every day. There are months
when the only thing new in our
churches is the sermon (and sometimes
even the sermon is microwaved left-
overs).

    This is the pattern of [real]
life. The hyper, constantly HAPPENING
world is created by teams of designers
and marketers who must keep goosing up
whatever it is they are selling. They
do so for one reason: to keep their
jobs! No one is "selling" Commodore.
(OK,