Alignment tool
22 messages in this thread
Commodore makes a disk called DigiLog that is available from service. Send me
an eplex message at this account if you need this disk. You'll still need an
oscilloscope to do the calibration, however. andre
Andre, what do I do to get the transformer, i.e. IBM software compat.?
— Ethan
We don't make it anymore. Legally, I don't know. Now, on the other hand, if
you're resourceful…naww, I can't say that on the air, but I'm sorry that it's
not made by us anymore. andre
Somehow if its not made anymore CBM can't complain all too much if its
copied. But I'm considering selling my A500 and getting an A2000 with BB.
— Ethan
Ethan,
I presume you said that in jest…but I assure you, that just because a
company is no longer selling a particular piece of software it is still just as
illegal to copy the software.
Don
I understand that its still illegal, but its ridiculous. If they won't
make the product, then what right (morally, philosophically, not legally) do
they have to prosecute people who copy it!
— Ethan P.S. In my case, if it were on the market, I would have bought it
by now.
Just because a rare first edition book is no longer available does that give
you justification to steal a copy?
-sja
It doesn't give me the right to steal a copy, but if it wouldn't damage
the book, photocopy it.
— Ethan
Try photocopying some $20s and pass them around. Theft is theft.
Ethan,
If I put my car up for sale, and get no offers, so I put it in my back
yard and it sits for a year…does that give you the right to come and take it?
If I write a program, and never offer it for sale, does that give you
the right to come into my home and make a copy for your own use?
CBM isn't selling the A1000 anymore, so is it ok for you to walk into
CBM's offices, and if you see an A1000…take it?
See what I'm saying…what gives you the right to take the work and
effort of someone else without paying for it? If it's not for sale anymore
doesn't change the fact that theft is theft..no matter how you try to justify
it.
If CBM wanted folks to make copies of it…they would have placed it
into the Public Domain, or posted it to the BBS circuit with their permission
to make copies as you wished.
CBM paid for the product, and they have the right to sell/not sell it
as they see appropriate.
Don
The difference between what I would be doing (not AM doing) is that I'm
only making a copy, not taking something. Therefore, if you offered your car
for sale, no one bought it, and I took it, you wouldn't have your car. The
person I would have gotten the program from would still have the program, and
Commodore would not lose any money.
If you right a program and never offer it for sale, and it has nothing
personal in it, I certainly don't have the right to sell it, but if someone you
gave a copy to (or sold a copy to) wanted to sell it to me, what is wrong with
it. As long as you weren't selling the program, you don't lose any money and it
is something that has already been distributed. I might even send you money for
shareware if it was good! 8^>
Finally, about an A1000: if commodore were going to throw out 10 1000s
that collected in their warehouses, what difference would it make if I took
one? You can't really copy a computer. This one, though, could hurt commodore
(unlike the copying of the transformer) as it might cost them a sale of an
Amiga currently in production (500, 2000, …)
Do you see my point? It doesn't hurt anyone that I do this. I'm not going
to, as I don't have an external 5 1/4" drive which is required. But it doesn't
cause any damage to anyone.
— Ethan
So, as long as you don't think you're hurting anyone, you'll do it? What more
proof of "hurt" do you need, than someone telling you "it hurts"?
What do you mean? Who said that it hurts. If commodore doesn't sell
the transformer, and has no intention of ever selling it in the future, who
could possibly be hurt by my making a copy of it? I will repeat once again
that I'm not doing it, but that's mainly because I don't have a 5 1/4"
drive, not moral qualms. WHO AM I HURTING?
"hurt" is not the problem. That program is someone else's property. The
company that CBM bought it from is still in business. It's up to them to
decide the conditions by which it can be used, NOT YOU. The program isn't
yours to take. That comes first, not worrying about who it might "hurt".
It's such a silly criteria to use to determine your actions – by what means
do you determine that you haven't "hurt" someone?
Theft of intelectual property is something that many have yet to see as
wrong. Steal a program by copying it, and you have stolen the results of
soemone's labour, no matter that the copy does not detract from the
original, no matter that the author still has his program. Theft is theft.
I work, you take. I am hurt. You work, I take, you are hurt.
Ethan,
I have had a 2000 with BB for quite a while now. The 2000 is great, but
think twice before getting a BB. I can think of a couple of advantages over
separate machines–like shared use of a hard drive, and a smaller footprint;
but on price and performance you're probably better off with a stand alone
Messy Doss machine.
With prices coming down, you can actually get a 386 machine with a decent size
hard drive and 16-bit VGA for around $2500. You could get a similarly equipped
286 machine for under $2000. The bare-board AT BB is what, $1300?
And the standard CGA display on the Amiga monitor is VERY slow. Add in the
price of separate graphics display and monitor if you need anything faster than
molasses-like performance.
Anyway, I don't want to be totally negative, but with PC prices and performance
where they are today, I don't think either BB is a particularly good buy.
John
Recently I discovered that there is a reason as to why the bridgeboard is
designed like it is. If you want something standard I suggest you get one,
since it is exactly standard (as can legally be) to an XT or AT.
The speeds and drive capacities, therefore, are exactly that of a standard pc:
4.77MHz/360K or 8MHz/1.2M for the XT and AT respectively.
Now, about the price. Have you looked at your average bargain AT lately? You
can't tell it (by the size) from your dishwasher 🙂 But it is big in any
case; the Amiga 2000 box looks puny to many of them. The 2088/2286 is a card;
much smaller than many laptops.
Now how much would an XT or AT laptop cost? Remember that this is a fair
comparison because the bridgeboard give you the storage, display, and input
that you'd normally have on another machine.
On those merits alone (size, standard'ability) it's worth it. Add to that less
desk space wasted, less power wasted, less resources duplicated, and the ease
of the file transfer capabilities and use of the hardware cards and you have
the best of both worlds.
I hope this points out some of the rationale of why the bridgeboard is like it
is. It's not meant to blow away your friends. Use your Amiga to do that. But
what it does is allow you to get your work done. andre
Andre,
I didn't mean to imply that there is absolutely no reason anyone would
consider buying a BridgeBoard. You certainly can't beat the footprint!! And
being able to share a hard drive is a nice feature (if you have enough space on
your drive.) I've owned a 2088 for quite a while and never had a problem with
it. I've also never had a problem with the virtual MS-DOS partition on my hard
drive. All in all, the XT BB is not a bad product. I'm assuming the same for
the AT although I haven't used one.
BUT, everything is relative. I certainly wouldn't recommend that anyone buy an
XT clone these days. There might be a SOME people for whom it would be
appropriate, but not many. I mean, how many times do you recommend a C64 over
an A500? So, nothing wrong with the 2088; it's just that XTs in general are
about as fast and as smart as a brontosaurus.
Personally, I also happen to think that any 80286 machine is a poor investment.
There are some excellent 386 machines around at quite reasonable prices, and in
the long run these will be much more versatile systems.
Although the 2286 is certainly a 'standard' AT with a very small footprint,
it's not a great deal in many regards. You still need to add a separate card
and another monitor (so much for space savings) to get decent graphics. A
shared hard disk is convenient, but it's not really free since you can't use
the space on the Amiga side. You have a maximum of three expansion
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slots in the A2000, and the 2286 takes up too much room for one slot (or so
I've heard.) the 2286, plus a VGA board and monitor, and a 40-60 meg hard
drive, the total cost would run approx $2500. For the same price I can buy a
16 MHz 386 machine configured the same way. And the prices on 386 machines
will continue to come down, while I expect the 2286 will always be priced
around $1200-1300.
So, for some people a BridgeBoard may be the right move. But if I needed to
buy a Messy Dos machine right now, I wouldn't get one. As always, people ought
to understand their own needs and look carefully before they plunk down their
hard-earned money.
John
Did I hear you correctly! when you said that you could not share a hard drive
with the Amiga?
Robert
Just because a copyrighted product is no longer distributed is no rationale for
theft. You might contact the developers of the product — Avant-Garde,
publishers of PC Ditto for the ST, over in AtariVendor Forum (GO ATARIV).
-sja
Thanks Andre, I was looking for a PD program that would do the job. I saw a
commercial program call Ami align (I think that the name) that can test the
drive speed etc and make the necessary corrections…
Does the DigiLog come with instructions? I am just hitting the surface of tech
stuff.
Robert
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