This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (194 messages)
>I think that if they haven't settled this by January 1st, 2000 the Amiga >technology should go into the public domain. ;^) It would be irrelevant in the public domain even today because of the cost involved in using the knowledge.
Hi Hank. Just an FYI… *Donald* Pleasance is a famous actor in many films including a James Bond one (he played Blofeld [sp?]). At C=UK, it's *David* Pleasance.
OED
Message #167531
I've read reviews of the CD version of the OED which rave about it by the way.
I thought that one can be "in hock" which means they're in debt. I thought that "to hock" something (as in Dale's reference) meant to sell stuff in order to get out of debt.
"The liquidator told me he must submit his recommendation to the Bahamian Supreme Court on or before Oct. 15." Well, let's see what happens first – a recommendation from a liquidator in the Bahamas, or Raul Cedras (sp?) leaving Haiti. 🙂
#166080-
#New Rumor 10/2
Message #166264
With quality dealers like that, is it any wonder the Amiga had a hard time? Where is this dealer?
There's TapCIS (DOS), OzCis (not sure), WinCIM (Windows), and Navigator (Windows), to name a few. WinCIM isn't good at keeping online time down but Navigator seems to be great.
Hi Don – good to "see" you, good to hear you're still getting good articles for your magazine, and I hope all is well with you. Regards, Paul.
"The sigh may or may not still be there." Beautiful play on words. Bravo. 🙂
"I want a DSP for ISDN, v.34, advanced voice synthesis and recognition, etc." I believe the new PowerMacs have a DSP, right? I know they were going to put the 3210 in new machines. Anyway, I know Apple ported VCOS (AT&T's DSP OS) to the Mac (no small feat).
#SunRize 516
Message #163383
"I hope they improve the audio, too. I'd like to see 44.1KHz/48KHz 16-bit, 8 track, surround sound stereo, direct-to-disk recording built in. 8-)" It's called a SunRize 516 card and is available today. It's a nice product (I have one).
I believe it. Toaster and Scala are the two best applications ever developed for the Amiga.
…and there are *still* people here who believe the "empire" can be rebuilt. Touching, but sad.
You can get around the app closing WB problem by running any program on WB that opens a window on it, e.g., shell, clock, etc. WB won't close if there's an open app window on it.
I'm saying that the Amiga technology uses chip processes that are out of date for one thing. I'm saying that simply too much time has been lost in the past few years. Basically, if "Amiga" continues, it will essentially have to be a brand new computer with little relation to…
I worked at Commodore for 11 years in a variety of areas. You might say I saw a lot. I left at the end of '91 when I could see that the Titanic was listing badly.
Exactly! However, if your daughter's 7, she's probably already pretty aware of computers, and will see the transitions from today forward.
With Dave Haynie and Jeff Porter leaving, plus almost all the key software (OS) engineers, there's hardly anybody left at all. The remaining folks are just there as caretakers should anyone buy the technology and want to find out something about it. But as far as moving the Amiga technology…
Philadelphia Inquirer
Message #157299
"(he has a couple he uses a bit more)" Yes – one beginning with "a" comes to mind.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Message #157298
Your wife is right. Not only is he a control freak, he's a sociopath.
#Philadelphia Inquirer
Message #157297
By the time your baby is old enough to use a computer, your current Amiga will definitely be obsolete. I don't believe there will be any new significant products for the Amiga outside of the video and multimedia areas. I wouldn't worry about that far ahead anyway, I'd just get…
#Philadelphia Inquirer
Message #157296
Pleasance's respect for the Amiga engineers is fine, but I'm sure you realize that the one's he's thinking about are no longer with Commodore.
#Philadelphia Inquirer
Message #157295
"When reached at home by telephone in Ridgefield, CT, Ali shouted 'You're intruding on my home. I'll complain to your editor. You're an idiot.' He then hung up." That's how he frequently treated employees, too. No joke. And often MUCH WORSE.
#Byte sez…
Message #156556
Did anyone else see that the latest issue of Byte has an editorial type piece at the end (either the last or near last page I think), on Commodore? Something like "RIP: Commodore…" Anyway, I think it's an exceptionally well written article, and VERY positive on the merits of Commodore's…
I believe there is NO possibility of getting MS Word on the Amiga at all, unless the Amiga suddenly switches to running Windows, Chicago (Windows 4.0), or NT. Why would Microsoft bother porting all that code, help files, documentation, etc., to a machine with such a small market potential? Very…
#152327-
Rumor Update
Message #152541
If I were Microsoft, I'd do it. They'll ship ZILLIONS, plus drive ZILLIONS of people to upgrade to Chicago.
Marketing monsters, eh? These are public companies, John, that have responsibilities to their shareholders. Allocating R&D resources to doing Amiga versions of their packages would be irrational. All of these companies need all the resources they can muster just to remain competitive in the PC and Mac markets. Borland, if…
What are you looking to pay for an A2000? I have one.
It's nice to know that I worked with all those people, and a couple even worked for me.
>if [Scala] became the new owners [of the Amiga], we'd be in >great shape, wouldn't we? It's a long distance from selling multimedia software to worldwide manufacturing and sales of computers. I very much doubt Scala has the resources. I still believe it will take a capital and marketing investment…
#Digital World in LA
Message #151495
Hi all. I'm typing this message from my hotel room in downtown LA, and thought I'd comment a bit about the conference I'm at. It's called Digital World and there's a regular trade show part and some VERY interesting conference sessions that I've been attending. The show part is highlighting…
How would your brother know the difference between product coming from inventory and product manufactured since the plan to liquidate? Just because product's been in stock somewhere doesn't mean it won't look new when it arrives in some store.
I always thought it was weird that 3DO is publicly traded when they've only been around for a couple of years and haven't had any success yet.
I went into a store that sold the 3DO box the other day, and the titles they had were really no better than what one can get for a Sega, for example. If the 3DO really is good, the titles sure aren't showing off the technology. I was disappointed. As…
>I've seen a lot of analysis reports on the European market, and the Amiga >has a higher installed base (barely) than PCs. That's not true. Maybe in the home market only, but not total installed units.
Every computer newspaper/magazine wants to cover the "latest" stuff so that they will be competitive. To do this, they rely heavily on being TOLD by the computer vendors what's new. Commodore's PR was PATHETIC, so the press basically never heard about the Amiga. I wouldn't blame the press for the…
#Amiga not dead!
Message #147591
You can blame greedy whining record companies for the fact that DAT did not make it in the consumer market. They kept DAT vendors in the courts for years regarding copy protection they wanted.
What ARE you talking about!? A 16 bit stereo sampling and playback board for the PC with 20 voice synthesizer chip and CD ROM interface is about $150 these days. That kind of sound is a tad better than the Amiga I'd say. For about $70, you can get the…
Boy, at those prices, they really ought to sell like, er, swamp land?
That's a very common situation, that is, once you have a hard drive on an Amiga, it's excrutiating to go back to a system without one. I remember one time after I'd had my A2000 with an 030 for a few years that I had to do something on an…
What to believe
Message #146941
I understand what you're saying about OS/2 numbers. I think IBM's claims about numbers of OS/2 users are almost as exaggerated as the number of Toasters out there.
What to believe
Message #146940
I agree that a PC is useless without a hard disk. While you CAN use an Amiga without a hard disk I would say it's only OK if you're playing games or are not really interested in multitasking.
What to believe
Message #146938
I have no axe to grind. Not sure what makes you think that. I know how many A590's C= sold for instance, and obviously I know how many A500 hard drive add-ons GVP sold (and they had almost a lock on the UK and German markets while I was there)…
Thanks for the info confirming my guesses. Obviously I had a pretty good inside track up until I left the place at the end of '91. I think your number on total PCs installed is a bit dated though. I've seen estimates as high as 140,000,000.
To the best of my knowledge, no more than 5 million Amigas have been sold. I'd guess it's closer to 4 than 5. Of those, I believe a good 75% are A500s, A600s and A1200s.
>OS/2 has far less users than the Amiga. Where are your numbers? IBM claims that over 4 million copies of OS/2 have been shipped. Also, even supposing there are more Amigas in use than PCs running OS/2, the OS/2 user tends to spend more for software and hardware (being primarily…
Well, Thomas and Dave are both right to a degree. The GM's often made ludicrous requests for products, but it's the responsibility of the guy at the top (Ali) to sift through the good and bad ideas and pick the winners. Not an easy job of course, but Ali wouldn't…
No, no more info. I just knew how involved Mitsui was with C=.
Have no idea, sorry. Last I knew, Jim Mackraz was consulting with Go.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's Mitsui. And no, that's not Mitsumi or Mitsubishi, etc.
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