Amiga Review vs. AF and CU
31-Aug-97
|
In reply to accusations by Amiga Review who said they closed due
to AF and CU not printing their addvertisements, Andrew Korn of CU
Amiga Magazine replies that this was not the real reason. Besides
that, a full professional magazine does not get advertising
in their rivals, although a fanzine does. Apparently the
decision to not carry advertisements was not very easy, but in the
end the word came from above. On a different subject,
he mentions that over the last couple of years, readership of Amiga
magazines gas dropped 22-28% every 6 months.
|
| Originally posted by
Andrew on 29 Aug 1997 16:42:44 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
A look back at WordPerfect
31-Aug-97
|
The Amiga port of WordPerfect was paid by Commodore, who had to
pay a large number of copies in advance. WordPerfect didn't invest
any money on their own in the port, and when they noticed that the
product was too bad (buggy) and not sold enough (too expensive) they
didn't have any regrets leaving the Amiga platform; not without
stating they did it because of piracy (a weak argument, according
to Dr. Peter Kittel).
|
| Originally posted by
Dr. Peter Kittel on 23 Aug 97 22:15:10 MEZ in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Phase5 delays
31-Aug-97
|
Odd H. Sandvik questions Phase5's schedule for the Phase5 A\Box, given
the delays that an accelerator causes.Imagine how long it will take
them to release an entire computer, when they cannot make a simple
accellerator come through. By this estimate, I would say the A\Box is 5 years away...
|
| Originally posted by
Odd H. Sandvik on 26 Aug 1997 23:05:57 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Strange 060 bug
29-Aug-97
|
A really strange bug report comes from Fabrice. He noticed that several
programs run slower on his 060 than his 030+882. Even stranger is the
fact that WinUAE on a Pentium will do floating point calculations faster
than his real 060-Amiga...
|
| Originally posted by
fmansat@sgn-co.vn.DHL.COM on Wed, 27 Aug 1997 02:51:16 -0600 in fr.comp.sys.amiga [L]. |
|
|
Elvis sightings
29-Aug-97
|
I guess it's high time somebody comes around and tells the real story,
says Olaf Barthel, otherwise next minute we are going to see postings connecting
the mysterious delays [of Phase5's PowerUp] to the Cheops pyramid, recent UFO activity
over Washington and [..] sightings of Elvis.
|
| Originally posted by
Olaf Barthel on Thu, 28 Aug 1997 09:13:30 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Chip manufacturing and Overclocking
28-Aug-97
|
Philipp Boerker points out that all Motorola chips are manufactured
using one single process and are only assigned a MHz rating after
passing the respective tests. The changing quality during manufacturing
may be an explanation why some 060s get extremely hot while others don't.
If there where no flaws during manufacturing, the chip may be overclocked
by up to 100%, but there is no way to find out the quality of the
manufacturing of a 060 and therefore it is not suggested to overclock
the chips.
|
| Originally posted by
Philipp Boerker on 23 Aug 1997 01:36:29 GMT in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
AI management
28-Aug-97
|
Fabian Jimenez points out that Jeff Schindler is the Manager of
R&D; Petro is the Manager of Amiga International. They do
not control Amiga International, both answer to Joseph Burke, VP
of Market Development for Gateway 2000.
|
| Originally posted by
Fabian Jimenez on 24 Aug 97 09:16:11 -0500 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Amiga Advertisements
28-Aug-97
|
Andy Finkel says current AI advertisements may exist to reassure the
existing community that something is still happening (advertising increases
the amount of customer satisfaction) and to keep the magazines afloat.
|
| Originally posted by
Andy Finkel on Mon, 25 Aug 1997 15:58:39 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Doom: ShapeShifter vs. Amiga
27-Aug-97
|
Christian Bauer clarifies that the Doom-comparison between ShapeShifter (running Doom)
and the Amiga (running Gloom and Nemac IV) was won by ShapeShifter. Apparently only
the Mac Doom could be run in 640x480 (on a 060 with CyberVision), whereas the
Amiga games where not very fun to play.
|
| Originally posted by
Christian Bauer on Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:00:05 GMT in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Fusion on QuikPak cards
26-Aug-97
|
Jim Drew says the reason why Fusion doesn't work on
QuikPak 060 cards is their 68040.library eulation.
ANYTHING that attempts to use the FPU is going to have a problem,
and the MacOS uses floating point for everything.
|
| Originally posted by
Jim Drew on Sun, 24 Aug 1997 04:32:18 -0600 in comp.sys.amiga.emulations [L]. |
|
|
604 + '060 in September
26-Aug-97
|
According to Darren Eveland, Phase5 will ship the 604 + 060
cards [for big-box Amigas] in the first week of September.
|
| Originally posted by
Darren Eveland on 22 Aug 1997 13:21:30 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Blizzard 603e delayed
26-Aug-97
|
Lothar Lekat says that, according to Michael Sistig, webmaster
at Phase5, the release of the Blizzard603e abd 603e+ has been
delayed until late September.
|
| Originally posted by
Lothar Lekat on 20 Aug 1997 21:44:58 +0200 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
No support at Phase5?
26-Aug-97
|
Angela Schmidt, co-writer of MakeCD, says several mails to support@phase5.de
have remained unanswered. The mails were about problems with Philips CD burners
[and P5 SCSI controllers] and an answer would have meant they could better support
customers using MakeCD with Philips CD burners. Angela says Phase5 refuse to
give any support, apart from a hint at a meeting in Trier that didn't help and
guesses that Phase5's support prefer to work together with the authors of BurnIt.
|
| Originally posted by
Angela Schmidt on 21 Aug 1997 11:30:57 GMT in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
"Amiga Again"
26-Aug-97
|
 Harlan Carrol says he thinks
AI should use the old "Amiga Again" advertisement that Commodore already used
for the A2000 a long time ago. It would be
ironic if they redid it to reflect the modern Amiga.
|
| Originally posted by
Harlan Carroll on 20 Aug 1997 20:49:46 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Haynie's Acutiator
26-Aug-97
|
Dave Haynie says in 1991 he was developing a new overall system architecture
for the Amiga, code-named "Acutiator". It was a highly modular architecture,
with each piece indepently replacable, a CPU-independent motherboard and a new
inter-module bus called AMI bus (Amiga Modular Interconnect). The AMI bus
was supposed to be small (few pins), fast (100 MB/s) and auto-configuring.
In 1992 PCI was announced, which was basically better in every area than the
AMI bus, but in addition it was also backed by half the industry. By the fall
of '93, Commodore was too broke to spend much money on AAA or Hombre.
The PIOS One is basically what happens when you try to build an
Acutiator type system entirely from off-the-shelf parts.
|
| Originally posted by
Dave Haynie on Wed, 20 Aug 1997 03:10:28 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
onEscapee, part 2
26-Aug-97
|
Speeding up the character/game and adding running/jumping to onEscapee are
more important than a version for ECS/gfx cards, says Kristian Phillips.
|
| Originally posted by
Kristian Phillips on Tue, 19 Aug 1997 17:03:36 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
onEscapee
26-Aug-97
|
Kristian Phillips of SAdENESS Software says the first version of onEscapee
won't support CyberGfx, as it uses some AGA features that gfx cards wouldn't
be able to handle. A free update for CyberGfx will be available after release
though.
|
| Originally posted by
Kristian Phillips on Tue, 19 Aug 1997 17:03:33 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
AmigaOS porting
22-Aug-97
|
Dr. Peter Kittel says the last report by Olaf Barthel said 80% of
Kickstart were written in assemler. Porting to PPC would probably
cost Gateway a few (one-digit) million dollars.
|
| Originally posted by
Dr. Peter Kittel on 18 Aug 97 16:11:20 MEZ in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
AI announcement soon?
21-Aug-97
|
"Bo" of AmiCom Technologies says he has a contact at Amiga, Inc. in
Dakota Dunes, SD. who told him that AI will be making an announcement
regarding their R&D plans within the next few days.
|
| Originally posted by
Amicom Technologies on 19 Aug 1997 13:19:19 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
PowerUp not worthwile and future-proof?
20-Aug-97
|
Siegfried Otto says investing in a PowerUp board is not
very worthwile as there is no software available for it.
Besides that, AI could officially declare the Digital Alpha
as the new Amiga processor one week after the PowerUp release,
making the PowerUp virtually obsolete. The only possibility
for PowerUp to become a standard is AI including them in their
machines, along with an official Kickstart 4.0 supporting it.
|
| Originally posted by
Siegfried Otto on 18 Aug 1997 09:23:37 +0200 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Phase5 staff problems
20-Aug-97
|
Siegfried Otto says that hotline staff at Phase5 may not be very motivated
because monthly wages are sometimes delayed and there is no support from the
management, for example when there are problems with P5 hardware.
He doesn't give names, but says that he used to and still has good contact
to the P5 hotline staff. Apparently a few people at P5 have confirmed the
above-mentioned statements.
|
| Originally posted by
Siegfried Otto on 18 Aug 1997 21:00:20 +0200 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Amiga CDs in the shops
20-Aug-97
|
Angus Manwaring says that CU Amiga magazine has a story about Guildhall Leisure
who convinced Electronics Boutique and HMV to try stocking some Amiga CD titles
(Civilisation, F1, Theme Park, BlitzBasic and more).
|
| Originally posted by
Angus Manwaring on Mon, 18 Aug 97 17:33:36 +0000 in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
www.aminet.org
19-Aug-97
|
Oliver B. Warzecha points out that the domain-status of aminet.org is on hold,
which may mean that somebody has not (yet?) paid for it. Of course this does
not necessarily mean that Aminet is broke.
|
| Originally posted by
Oliver B. Warzecha on Sat, 16 Aug 1997 22:52:54 MES in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
AI R&D
19-Aug-97
|
Jason Compton replies to an earlier post by George Noel [see below, 16-Aug-97]
and says that Jeff Schindler is General Manager of Amiga, Inc., a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Gateway 2000 which is charged with, among other things, Amiga R&D;
and adds that George is wrong saying Jeff is only "temporary". Besides that,
he also points out that Gateway will/would also able to properly carry out an Amiga
strategy without officially endorsing the ICOA or any other organisation.
|
| Originally posted by
Jason Compton on 17 Aug 1997 23:33:58 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Blue Ribbon Software update
19-Aug-97
|
Troy Silvey says that Microsoft will definately sell Blue Ribbon
software (Bars&Pipes etc.) but points out that there may be
talks between Microsoft, Petro T. and Jeff S. to bring back the
program to the Amiga.
|
| Originally posted by
tc_silvey@juno.com on Fri, 15 Aug 1997 22:21:16 -0600 in comp.sys.amiga.audio [L]. |
|
|
Next Generation Statement explained
19-Aug-97
|
Mathew Ignash explains that Next Generation's statement [see below],
saying that Gateway never had plans to sell any Amigas, may indeed
be true. Gateway never said it would sell Amigas, their subsidary,
Amiga International, does that.
|
| Originally posted by
mignash@rust.net on Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:21:27 -0600 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
New building for Amiga?
19-Aug-97
|
Vince Hiannini reports that www.nationalamiga.com mentions that
Gateway has recently hired
Amiga programmers and hardware designers and established them in a whole
new building.
|
| Originally posted by
Vince Giannini on 16 Aug 1997 09:08:05 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
ICOA "inofficial" message
19-Aug-97
|
Timothy Rue forwards what seems like a Czech posting that includes
an English message from the ICOA Transitional Steering Committee.
The message says it is not an official release, but confirms a lot
of the recent rumours about Gateway. The TSC has been in contact
with Jeff Schindler; the TSC was invited to Gateway2000 for a meeting;
Gateway has been in contact with OEMs wishing to leverage
current and future Amiga technology - apparently some very
big names in consumer electronics industry; Jeff will do R&D while
Petro will do marketing; GW have already hired support and admin stuff
but no techs yet; they have rented a separate building to house the Amiga
employees; they want to make money on the Amiga and invest in any area
that can bring a profit; Jason Compton is going up for a separate meeting.
Timothy Rue then forwards a mail apparently written by Carl Sassenrath
to Petr Krenzelok that says it is an email message directly from REBOL.
[although this could be a fake, invented by Timothy]
|
| Originally posted by
Timothy Rue on 17 Aug 97 08:41:19 +0500 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
VIC parody
18-Aug-97
|
A parody on Timothy Rue's VIC concept comes from Myron Sothcott.
His concept is called VAC, the Virtual All-purpose Command.
A magic command, "DOIT" will do whatever you can imagine.
Myron's concept is already finished, except that the hardware
needs to be developed (because he is no hardware guy) and the
software needs still to be written (because he is no software guy).
The VAC is freeware, all he wants is every computer user everywhere to kneel with forehead to floor
at the very mention of his name!!!.
|
| Originally posted by
Myron Sothcott on 15 Aug 97 18:37:02 +0500 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
No gfx card support for onEscapee?
18-Aug-97
|
Apparently, the first versions of onEscapee will come
without graphic card support. Reasons given is that the
game will not benefit from it in the slightest, as it is
in 320x256, and totally 2D. Nevertheless, support for
graphic cards will be available on Aminet later - amongst
others to support big box non-AGA Amigas with gfx cards.
|
| Originally posted by
Kristian Phillips on Sat, 16 Aug 1997 21:03:23 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
Gateway with no Amiga plans?
18-Aug-97
|
Darren forwards a part of Next Generation's (a forward
looking video game magazine) Q&A on their website:
Q: Is Gateway still going to sell Amigas?
A: Gateway has never had plans to sell Amigas in the US despite its
purchase of the former computer superpower some months ago.
Instead Gateway was interested in securing the rights to much of the
technology behind the Amiga as well as continuing to service the
sizable European userbase with new software. Announcements
regarding new hardware even in Europe have never been made by
Gateway.
|
| Originally posted by
Darren on 15 Aug 1997 04:15:49 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Amiga advertisements
18-Aug-97
|
George Noël reports that the September issue of Amazing Computing/Amiga
includes a "Powered By Amiga" / "The Boing is Back!" advertising campaign
by Amiga International; and adds that Micronik and Index are also advertising
directly for their new Amiga clones.
|
| Originally posted by
George Noel on 15 Aug 1997 17:31:04 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Amiga to PC
18-Aug-97
|
Harry Adams says he left the Amiga to buy a PC and was in
for a shock. He says he was suddenly able to complete far
more work in a day than ever before. Yet, telling this to the Amiga
community was not a good idea. I wanted to tell them that it
was really easy to switch over and not an arduous task [..]
for commiting such heresy I was given very short shrift and a lot of
abuse. He adds that those who have to change platforms should
not be put off, as the Amiga gives you a good grounding for modern PC's.
|
| Originally posted by
Harry Adams on Fri, 15 Aug 1997 14:53:39 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
Gateway and the ICOA
16-Aug-97
|
George Noël says recent rumours of Gateway talks are no big news.
As far as we know so far, Gateway 2000 still hasn't
officially endorsed ICOA and the Gateway representative looking after R&D
so far is only temporary until Petro hires a new one.
Besides that, the ICOA's attitude of talking directly to Gateway
instead of Amiga International reminds him of small children
trying to solve a problem with a friend by running to their mom.
|
| Originally posted by
George Noel on 14 Aug 1997 19:05:47 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Apple/Microsoft rumour
16-Aug-97
|
Steven J. Saunders says that there are rumours that. beside the
$150 Million payment, there is a very big sum
involved in the deal. This adds to the suspicions that there is
more to this than MS simply investing in Apple to ward off Anti-Trust.
|
| Originally posted by
Steven J Saunders on Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:24:55 +1000 in comp.sys.amiga.advocacy [L]. |
|
|
Phase5 support
15-Aug-97
|
Andreas Magerl of "APC&TCP-Computerclub" thinks that no matter how
many faxes, emails or letters you write to Phase5 as software company,
they are never answered. Due to this, APC&TCP have cancelled all
developments for PowerUp.
|
| Originally posted by
Andreas Magerl/APC&TCP on Fri, 08 Aug 1997 11:10:40 +0000 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Voice CLI
14-Aug-97
|
Kevin Little says thinks the days of a GUI are numbered,
and that we'll be using voice CLI's again.
The need to stare at a display while physically manipulating
some device that moves some small sprite across that display in order
to get a computer to do something useful is a drag.
|
| Originally posted by
Kevin Little on Wed, 13 Aug 1997 17:14:00 GMT in alt.amiga [L]. |
|
|
Lightwave "not yet"?
14-Aug-97
|
David Myers says he heard from a friend, who enquired about
LightWave 5.5 for the Amiga, that NewTek don't say "no" but
say "not yet".
|
| Originally posted by
David Myers on 07 Aug 97 23:07:06 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Definition of Windows
14-Aug-97
|
From Gordon Proudler comes a definition of Windoze95:
- Windows95 (noun):
- 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit
patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for
a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company,
that can't stand 1 bit of competition."
|
| Originally posted by
Gordon Proudler on Tue, 12 Aug 1997 06:30:06 -0400 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Gateway / ICOA rumour
12-Aug-97
|
Jonathan Hollin (TheLair!) forwards an anonymous mail he received:
ICOA's "Temporary Steering Commitee" has been talking to Gateway
2000's new head of R&D, Jeff Schindler (see G2K's web-site) about the
Amiga and ICOA's vision for a new machine. My source (who gives the
impression of being an insider within the ICOA) informs me that they
(the TSC) found Mr. Schindler to be "VERY open to ideas and
suggestions".Jeff Schindler has a prior association with the Commodore of old -
straight out of school, he sold VIC and C64's [..] for around 4 years, before becoming a hardware
engineer. He is notable in that he headed the "Destination" project,
Gateway's most innovative project to date.
|
| Originally posted by
DarkBlue on 9 Aug 1997 22:57:25 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Gateway announcement soon?
12-Aug-97
|
"Razor" says there is rumoured to be a HUGE annoncement by Gateway
regarding the Amiga VERY SOON!
|
| Originally posted by
Razor on Sun, 10 Aug 1997 14:15:34 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Amiga STB, again?
12-Aug-97
|
Rev. Ronny Bangsund says he just discovered that Gateway 2000 are
talking Amiga with Jeff Schindler, the guy who made their Destination
box, a huge, expensive thing with peecee hardware and a TV in it. All
Jeff has had to do with CBM-type products, is selling Vics and C64s before
becoming an engineer.
|
| Originally posted by
Rev. Ronny Bangsund on Sat, 09 Aug 1997 09:27:41 +0200 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Gateway rumour
12-Aug-97
|
Here are the complete contents of yet another rumour article:
I have recieved a "rumor" from a "reliable source" that GW are seeking
ways to make money on the Amiga and are willing to put $$$ into any
area they believe can turn a profit. This could be Kiosk, settop box,
desktop OS, anything. This all the info I have at this time and would
consider it "reliable rumor" so please ignore the man behind the curtain.
|
| Originally posted by
lmcgahey@net-link.net on 10 Aug 1997 20:35:54 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Miami GUI's
12-Aug-97
|
Apparently Holger posted on the Miami-Announce ML that Miami 3.0 would
be available in GadTools, MUI and BGUI versions.
|
| Originally posted by
Daniel Lundberg on 7 Aug 1997 20:39:01 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.programmer [L]. |
|
|
PPC/68k switch on PPC
12-Aug-97
|
In reply to a post saying that the switch between PPC and 68k on the
PowerUp takes 0.1 seconds, Ralph Schmidt says this is wrong.
This depends on how you do it; 0.1 seconds is not the "general switchtime"
which is very low; this can be optimised; this assumption is based upon
a 603E prototype still based on a CyberStorm2.
|
| Originally posted by
Ralph Schmidt on 7 Aug 1997 07:27:30 GMT in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
AROS
12-Aug-97
|
Andreas Kleinert says AROS [the AmigaOS replacement project] is
already 50 percent done, most of the rest currently in work.
|
| Originally posted by
Andreas Kleinert on 8 Aug 97 14:17:01 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
2 MB CHIP mem limit
12-Aug-97
|
You can't move CHIP RAM to a (faster) accelerator board, because
Chip RAM is controlled by Agnus or Alice, respectively, and they
can't go faster. And so you also would have to put these chips on the
accelerator board, and, and, and...
|
| Originally posted by
Dr. Peter Kittel on 8 Aug 97 13:56:12 MEZ in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Development at Commodore
12-Aug-97
|
According to Dr. Peter Kittel, the hardware engineering department
at Commodore was about 100 people, software engineering was
smaller most of the time (at one time after 1.3 even down to two people IIRC).
|
| Originally posted by
Dr. Peter Kittel on 6 Aug 97 17:05:07 MEZ in alt.religion.amiga [L]. |
|
|
UAE enhancements
09-Aug-97
|
Mathias Ortman says that Juergen Schober wrote a very
interesting Intuition replacement for UAE that will allow
Amiga apps to open their windows directly on the host's
desktop. Stefan Stuntz is apparently willing to provide
an Intel-native version of muimaster.library. Mathias
ends his post with the sarcastic note that we may soon be
living in a world where the PC happens to be the fastest
MUI platform.
|
| Originally posted by
Mathias Ortmann on Mon, 04 Aug 1997 21:58:15 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.advocacy [L]. |
|
|
The Need for Games
09-Aug-97
|
George Noel says the Amiga had always been known for its games so it is wise to get that
category back as it will hopefully lead to the Amiga being popular in
homes again. The Amiga needs siome big company names, but that
isn't going to happen unless AI or Gateway 2000 subsidize a company
to port their software.
|
| Originally posted by
George Noel on 4 Aug 1997 16:37:36 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Pirated files for UAE
09-Aug-97
|
In a thread about availability of cracked files in ADF format for UAE,
Even Sandvik Underlid says he's seen such a site in Norway as well.
He says this sets a very bad example and that some big pirates could
be scared if Amiga magazines wrote about AI busting other sites.
|
| Originally posted by
Even Sandvik Underlid on 08 Aug 97 14:10:09 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Miami 3.0
09-Aug-97
|
In a rather normal MUI vs. xxx discussion, Mikael Berglund mentions
that he's looking forward to Miami 3.0 with a separate GUI. Later
Daniel Lundberg is quoted saying that Miami 3.0 will be available
with a GadTools GUI.
|
| Originally posted by
Mikael Berglund on 09 Aug 97 01:03:44 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.programmer [L]. |
|
|
Phase5 info
09-Aug-97
|
Wolf Dietrich of Phase5 says there will be a concrete decision on which kernel
to use in the A\Box OS in next two or three months. There will
be A\Box-OS betas for the PowerUp, but those are only intended for
developers. There will be a mahor status-update on their website by
the end of month. The Caipirinha-Subset gfx card won't be available
in this year and will probably be a lot more expensive than a CV-PPC.
Therefore it may be interesting for A\Box developers, but only to a
smaller extent for normal users just wanting fast graphics.
Apparently Phase5 disagree with Haage&Partner's method of developing
their compiler, as H&P are rather doing it in a quick&dirty way
whereas Phase5 want to have everything modular and future-proof
(ie. by a new message system etc.)
|
| Originally posted by
Wolf Dietrich on Wed, 06 Aug 1997 09:59:01 +0200 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
|
|
Foundation written in Basic and ASM
09-Aug-97
|
Paul Burkey reports that he's writing his upcoming game, Foundation,
in BlitzBasic, with all time critical routines being in Assembler.
After Foundation is released, he will be working both on a new project
and a PPC port (which implies converting Blitz code to C).
I don't think the language makes that much difference to the speed
of the game. The only speed problems that exist are those of playing
the game in hires screens on AGA...
|
| Originally posted by
Paul Burkey on 03 Aug 97 15:22:15 +0500 in comp.sys.amiga.games [L]. |
|
|
Flame Tim Fan Club
09-Aug-97
|
Tim is trying to be sarcastic and writes an article presenting
an imaginary Flame Tim Fan Club. One valid point that he makes,
however, is that many people seem to flame others just as a way
to release all the anger and frustration that their beloved Amiga has caused.
|
| Originally posted by
Timothy Rue on 02 Aug 97 22:12:14 +0500 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Piracy
09-Aug-97
|
Paul Copsey says he suspects the diminishing number of Amiga users is probably at least
an equal, if not greater killer of the Amiga market than piracy.
Piracy isn't good, but a strong market can live with it.
|
| Originally posted by
Paul Copsey on Sat, 02 Aug 1997 14:41:40 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Timothy Rue
07-Aug-97
|
In a discussion between Timothy Rue and George Noel can be found
what seems the origin of the many discussions and controversies about
Tim's posts. Tim seems to think that his own postings and web site
inspired the ICOA movement, but feels that now he doesn't get enough
credit. George Noel says it is false that Tim was an inspiration and
besides that Tim's ideas were meant to be "Freeware" too, so that he
wouldn't have got more than recognition for coming up with the idea anyway.
George suggests that Tim should, instead of constantly complaining, get
something done and come back when his own initiative is ready.
|
| Originally posted by
George Noel on 6 Aug 1997 06:36:35 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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NewTek dropping the Amiga?
07-Aug-97
|
John Bittner forwards what he thinks may be old news. He says he
noticed that ads for LightWave 3D 5.5 now appearing list Windows
95/NT, DEC Alpha, PowerMac, SGI and Sun as platforms; Amiga being
absent from that list.
|
| Originally posted by
John Bittner on 3 Aug 1997 16:45:00 -0700 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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What (not) to register
06-Aug-97
|
Stuart Caie posts a list of what Shareware to register (and not
to register). Number 1 in the "what to register" category goes
to Shareware with no restrictions or just one instant requester,
followed by Stable Shareware you've been using for years without complaint.
Shareware you should not register includes Shareware with a [Register] button or [Register|Cancel] requester
and Shareware that locks your machine or crashes it on a regular basis.
|
| Originally posted by
Kyzer on 1 Aug 1997 13:00:21 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.programmer [L]. |
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Australian Amiga Gathering Report
06-Aug-97
|
Greg forwards a text he originally send to Jason Compton for
inclusion in Amiga Report, but that was refused. It is a text about
the Australian Amiga Gathering, which Greg thinks was nothing more
than a "Junk Sale" ("Computer Sale"). He says that $10 entrance
fee are too much for this and thinks that the "If you BUY something
in here, you'll get your money back!" offered to him smells like
"Used Car Salesman".
|
| Originally posted by
gregh on 01 Aug 97 08:47:42 +1000 in comp.sys.amiga.advocacy [L]. |
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PCTask in France, part 3
06-Aug-97
|
Didier Duchet says that according to Infogreffe, France Festival
Distribution is in bankruptcy since 27 june 97 and is therefore
not allow to perform any commercial activity.
|
| Originally posted by
Didier Duchet on Wed, 30 Jul 1997 20:20:41 +0100 in fr.comp.sys.amiga [L]. |
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PCTask in France, part 2
05-Aug-97
|
Yann-Erick Proy forwards a text by Bruce Lepper (AmigaNews)
that answers some accusations of FFD (see below) against Duchet.
FFD say that Duchet will always fax in his adverts to magazines
"last-minute" so that he has an advantage over competitors.
Bruce Lepper now says this is not true and points out that Mr Duchets
written advertisements always arrive very soon.
|
| Originally posted by
Yann-Erick Proy on 04 Aug 97 09:41:04 +0100 in fr.comp.sys.amiga [L]. |
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PCTask in France, part 1
05-Aug-97
|
In reply to a post by Peter Fregon saying that France Festival
Distribution is not allowed to distribute PCTask any longer
because of piracy, FFD reply that such messages on the Internet are
not legal at all, because there still is a legal written
and signed agreement between Quasar and FFD, which contains severak
explicit rupture' cases, but Quasar apparently never
used any of these against FFS; not even by signed registered letter.
They say that the piracy rumour is not true and was only started
by Duchet who would like to take this market for France since several years.
[I don't fully understand this whole thread as I've only
been following it recently. I would appreciate if somebody
with more knowledge about the FFD/Duchet controversy could mail
me a summary.]
|
| Originally posted by
ffd on Wed, 30 Jul 1997 22:56:08 +0200 in fr.comp.sys.amiga [L]. |
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Anti-Cracker mechanism vs. bugs
05-Aug-97
|
Wilfried Schott says he doesn't understand why so many honest people
fear programs with built-in anti-cracker mechanisms. He never heard
that any honest user was 'attacked' by such a mechanism. Much more
worrying is that software such as IBrowse can ruin a whole partition
by crashing at decoding a defect image.
|
| Originally posted by
Wilfried Schott on 03 Aug 97 11:04:13 +0100 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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About Phase5 and UAE
04-Aug-97
|
Mathias Ortman posts some replies to a pro-Phase5 article where
he admits that Wolf Dietrich of Phase5 is more competent than he
is; he says that PowerUp could get along faster - no wonder seeing
a board working is hard; adds that it surely is a good decision
to base the A\OS on MkLinux; says there are alternatives to PowerUp
and the A\Box; replies that the A\Box concept is not worth anything,
as a HTML is not very credible; admits that a 68060/PPC board is not
easy to build but pretty useless; asserts that a standard PC is cheaper
and can run Linux as nicely; and finally says that UAE is aimed at
future use more than at current use - current PC's are still too slow.
He ends on the words that hardware may go, but software (through emulation)
will stay forever.
|
| Originally posted by
Mathias Ortmann on Fri, 01 Aug 1997 21:53:36 GMT in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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AmigaOS 3.5 details
04-Aug-97
|
George Noel reports that Amazing Computing quotes Petro T. saying
he thinks the next OS revision will simply be a bundling of stuff
like Executive, KingCon, MUI, NewIcons etc. with the standard 3.1 OS.
Petro was calling this "revision" 4.0.
|
| Originally posted by
George Noel on 30 Jul 1997 08:53:24 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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No Evolution?
04-Aug-97
|
Jack Andrews thinks that Gateway doesn't believe in Amiga Evolution, only "Amiga intellectual property
sales".
|
| Originally posted by
Jack andrews on 2 Aug 1997 20:30:01 -0700 in comp.sys.amiga.hardware [L]. |
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IBrowse 2.0 release date
04-Aug-97
|
According to Stephen Marriott of HiSoft Systems, IBrowse 2.0
should be ready by the end of summer.
|
| Originally posted by
Stephen Marriott on 30 Jul 1997 10:22:57 +0100 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Gateway/Intel Theory
04-Aug-97
|
John Bittner reports that the latest John Dvorak column in PC Magazine
has a theory that Intel helped Gateway not to be bought out by Compaq
(who Intel don't like). This entails that Gateway may have got price
incentatives on Intel CPU's. Another point is that Intel is known to be
considering Intel branded PC's. John notices that this certainly raises new possibilities about Gateway's
reasons for purchasing Amiga.
|
| Originally posted by
John Bittner on 28 Jul 1997 07:14:00 -0700 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Lotus Pacific
04-Aug-97
|
Jason Compton says he called Lotus Pacific and they felt rather differently about the situation,
than Gateway 2000 who didn't return his call. He adds that it is
unfortunate that the terms and details of the Gateway deal were not
disclosed since we outsiders can't look through the materials and make our
own conclusions.
|
| Originally posted by
Jason Compton on 28 Jul 1997 03:49:35 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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MUI using co-operative multitasking?
04-Aug-97
|
According to Collin Ward, MUI uses co-operative multitasking. Whenever
it processes input.device related calls, there can't be a switch to another
process, the system locks up until input.device is released (by MUI).
Collin thinks this is a fundamental design problem that needs
to be addressed; as a mouse pointer locking up in IBrowse when a jpeg is
loaded is a PC/Windows 3.1 type behaviour.
|
| Originally posted by
Colin Ward on Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:56:24 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.programmer [L]. |
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Amiga only a tax writeoff?
03-Aug-97
|
Bill Hoggett says that a tax writeoff would be the only remotely plausible
reason for Gateway wanting AI to fail. However, this makes little sense.
|
| Originally posted by
Bill Hoggett on 26 Jul 97 17:48:02 +0500 in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Olaf Barthel and gtlayout.library
03-Aug-97
|
In a rather article, Olaf Barthel answers a lot of questions
why and how he's programming, maintaining and using his gtlayout.library
even though it has grown large, is uglier than MUI and is only used
by a few programs. 'Term' was the origin of the idea to program a
GUI library for his own use; he didn't want to maintain everything
by hand anymore (as this was time-consuming and error-prone).
He adds that he will probably not program for MUI since MUI doesn't
satisfy his needs.
|
| Originally posted by
Olaf Barthel on Wed, 30 Jul 1997 10:29:46 +0100 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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Phase5 equipments
03-Aug-97
|
Phase5 have laboratory equipment worth 0,5 million DEM (± 300,000 USD),
with 200 channel logic analyser, 16 channel 2 GHz logicscope, more logic
analysers and scopes, EMV-measurement devices, at least 10 test computers,
about 40 standard hardware products for compatibility tests, lots of laboratory
material (that alone worth the purchase price of a car). They are developing
on a Sparc- and UltraSparc workstation network, with chip design tools for
VHDL high level synthesis, simulation and verification for PLD's, FPGA's and
ASIC's, with InCurcuit-programmable logic, and more. Their A\Box development
plan includes another investition of a 7-digit number (of DEM). Phase5
have created 20 employment opportunities in the past few years.
|
| Originally posted by
Wolf Dietrich on Wed, 30 Jul 1997 11:42:47 +0200 in de.comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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First Access pre-sold
03-Aug-97
|
According to Index Information, they have started to ship pre-production
Access units and they have the first firm production order from the first
company to receive one. Once again, Mick Tinker points out that this is
not a retail product, but rather a new full blown licensed
"Powered by Amiga" motherboard. He adds that Gateway have changed
the manager within GW for AI, as well as changing their strategy.
|
| Originally posted by
"Index Information" on Mon, 28 Jul 1997 01:21:50 GMT in comp.sys.amiga.misc [L]. |
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