News and Views
by
Ron Schwartz


Well, here we go again. The planning is well underway for Dayton's Fall Computerfest® and, again this year, there will be an Amiga area in the show that we will call AmigaFest 2000, The Show Within A Show. Sound familiar? We have been a little slow getting started with the planning this year because the Dayton Microcomputer Assn. (DMA), the show sponsors, have made some changes since last year and we have been negotiating how and where the AmigaFest would be located within the show. Last year we were in the North hall which, along with the adjacent corridor, was the Flea Market area. Apparently the powers that be in DMA decided that too many major vendors were opting to go into the Flea Market area because of the cheap table rate. Starting with the Spring Computerfest®, the North Hall was converted to a regular, full fee, display area. We have been fortunate enough to once again be assigned space for AmigaFest in the North Hall. The nice part is that we also ha ve special table rates, as cheap as the Flea Market. Our area will be on the west side of North Hall, Under the overhang, where some of our exhibitors were last year. The major difference is that we will have much more responsibility for the layout and arrangement of our display area this year and much more space, if we can recruit exhibitors to fill all the tables in that area, which will require about 50% more tables to be occupied by Amiga exhibitors than last year. 


            We have had several of our exhibitors from last year indicate they were interested in participating again this year but the first to confirm their participation are Compuquick from Columbus and Bill Griffin/G&G Publishing, publishers of The New Amigans magazine and Eric Schwartz's E. S. Productions. G&G will be having a contest for the design of a new masthead for the magazine at AmiWest 2000 in July and plans are underway for them to introduce the new masthead at our show, perhaps with a T shirt made by E. S. Productions. We are also in contact with Amiga, Inc. and are really trying to get their participation, however, unfortunately, Computerfest®/AmigaFest is the same weekend as the Cologne Show and, for obvious reasons, are putting their priorities on that show. Don't give up yet though folks, we're still working on it. We are trying very hard to make this year's show bigger and better than last year. Anyone interested in more informa
tion on the show or, better yet, becoming an exhibitor, contact me, my email address is: schwartr@gemair.com 

            


            Speaking of Amiga Inc., I received an email message from Compuquick, indicating that they would be a distributor for the pending release of Amiga's Software Developer's Kit (SDK). The price for the kit will be $99, however, they will be making them available initially for $89, so, if you are interested in getting the SDK, get your order in soon. I must admit that I considered it for, maybe, a microsecond but I have enough trouble just using software, never mind trying to develop it. 

            


            Have you been waiting for the Amiga version of JAVA. Well, apparently it is finally available. The Amiga JAVA Engine (AJE) is now on line. The official web site for the Amiga JAVA Engine is up and running at http://www.merlancia.com/aje. Apparently they are still in the process of putting together the HTML files to introduce AJE on the web site, so don't be too impatient, but you can contact them by email at amiga@merlancia.com, although I understand that amiga in the email address may soon change to aje. 

            


            Centsible Software are rapidly becoming a major force in the Amiga community. They recently seem to be buying up everything in sight. It seems that everyone that even considers getting out of the Amiga business finds Centsible on their doorstep wanting to buy their remaining inventory. The first full issue of the The New Amigans had an article by some folks from a user group in Michigan that decided to go visit Centsible to see what they were all about. The impression was that they have accumulated inventory so fast that they were not too sure what they even had, at that point. Among others, after Paxtron had purchased all the remaining Commodore inventory of Amiga parts, Centsible bought out Paxtron. Apparently Safe Harbor, after the Gateway announcement that they would not make an Amiga, had decided to sell down their Amiga inventory. Word is now out that Centsible just bought all of Safe Harbor's remaining Amiga inventory. It is fairly obvious, when looking at Cents
ible's ad in The New Amigans, that most of what they are advertising is replacement parts and old upgrade and peripheral items. On the other hand most of the items are very cheap. Centsible is also advertising an Advanced Amiga Analyzer version 2.0. Logic says that this will be an upgraded version of the analyzer that was developed by Paxtron and their predecessor. Anyway, it is interesting to see what was fairly recently a little known player in the Amiga game coming on very strongly. Their biggest problem now is getting the word out since there so few opportunities to advertise in Amiga media. 

            

            Well, I think it is time to close for this month. Don't forget to make your plans to visit AmigaFest 2000 at Computerfest® and to any potential exhibitors, don't miss this opportunity to participate. 

            

            Ron Schwartz 

            AmigaFest 2000 Show Coordinator 

            

            UGN-Times Announcement 

            UGN