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#Commodore layoffs
23 messages in this thread
Considering the public flogging I received in this forum over my
ill-considered, outdated concerns over Commodore's financial health, I just
thought I'd show up to let you all apologize in person. Or throw more rotten
tomatoes, as the mood strikes you (he said, ducking quickly). ..bruce..
Hi Bruce!! No tomatoes here… but, why the title "Commodore layoffs"? –
Bela
Commodore had a RIF (reduction in force) equivalent to 50% of their total
payroll costs [according to sources inside Commodore], including 20 folks at
Commodore/Amiga, which (incredibly) included Bob Pariseau. Surely you folks
knew about this…
Commodore had a RIF (reduction in force) equivalent to 50% of their total
payroll costs [according to sources inside Commodore], including 20 folks at
Commodore/Amiga, which (incredibly) included Bob Pariseau. Surely you folks
knew about this…
Hi Bruce!! No tomatoes here… but, why the title "Commodore layoffs"? –
Bela
Nice to see you here again, Bruce. You apologized for your column being
outdated. Isn't that one of the dangers of reporting late-breaking news in a
magazine with a four-month lead time?
This sort of reporting worries me to no end. For example, Byte has been
reprinting ten pages of four-month-old messages from BIX. In the micro
community, the information presented in online forums is mostly rumors. It is
often completely off-base, if not downright inaccurate, especially in the Atari
and Amiga communities, where tech support is not as strong or evolved as the
IBM world.
I know I shouldn't be flaming to you about this; I do plan to write a letter to
the Byte editors, too. What do you think of this? I DO NOT like Byte's
growing trend of presenting January's rumors as today's latest news. I read
Byte for background. I read InfoWorld for late-breaking news.
Please excuse my jumping into the middle of your message, but as an extremely
frustrated Commodore supporter and Infoworld subscriber, I would just like to
point out that I get more facts about AMIGA and Commodore in one issue of
four month old BYTE rumors than in two years of reading Infoworld on a weekly
basis. Infoworld writes for an audience that the editors of Infoworld
consider to be middle aged MIS managers and who would no more want an AMIGA
than they would want any user to own a personal computer "unsupervised".
Paradoxically, the AMIGA was chosen as Infoworlds product of the year
(People's Choice). Could it be that the editors don't know their audience??
Nah!! Can't be. Thanks for listening. JOE
Please excuse my jumping into the middle of your message, but as an extremely
frustrated Commodore supporter and Infoworld subscriber, I would just like to
point out that I get more facts about AMIGA and Commodore in one issue of
four month old BYTE rumors than in two years of reading Infoworld on a weekly
basis. Infoworld writes for an audience that the editors of Infoworld
consider to be middle aged MIS managers and who would no more want an AMIGA
than they would want any user to own a personal computer "unsupervised".
Paradoxically, the AMIGA was chosen as Infoworlds product of the year
(People's Choice). Could it be that the editors don't know their audience??
Nah!! Can't be. Thanks for listening. JOE
Actually, my lead time is only three months :-). And I can make changes a
month later than that, when I get my galleys back. But I appreciate your
concerns.
As for "Best of BIX", your criticisms indicate a lack of familiarity with
what's actually being printed. Most of the messages excerpted do *not* include
rumors or late-breaking news; instead, they are technical information, hints
and helps, commentary on products, or discussion of issues. I find it ironic
that you criticize BIX's technical strength for Atari and Amiga, since the
contributors include Bob Pariseau, Dale Luck, Carl Sassenrath, Neil Harris, Jim
Tittsler, and other Atari/Amiga employees. ..bfw..
Actually, my lead time is only three months :-). And I can make changes a
month later than that, when I get my galleys back. But I appreciate your
concerns.
As for "Best of BIX", your criticisms indicate a lack of familiarity with
what's actually being printed. Most of the messages excerpted do *not* include
rumors or late-breaking news; instead, they are technical information, hints
and helps, commentary on products, or discussion of issues. I find it ironic
that you criticize BIX's technical strength for Atari and Amiga, since the
contributors include Bob Pariseau, Dale Luck, Carl Sassenrath, Neil Harris, Jim
Tittsler, and other Atari/Amiga employees. ..bfw..
Nice to see you here again, Bruce. You apologized for your column being
outdated. Isn't that one of the dangers of reporting late-breaking news in a
magazine with a four-month lead time?
This sort of reporting worries me to no end. For example, Byte has been
reprinting ten pages of four-month-old messages from BIX. In the micro
community, the information presented in online forums is mostly rumors. It is
often completely off-base, if not downright inaccurate, especially in the Atari
and Amiga communities, where tech support is not as strong or evolved as the
IBM world.
I know I shouldn't be flaming to you about this; I do plan to write a letter to
the Byte editors, too. What do you think of this? I DO NOT like Byte's
growing trend of presenting January's rumors as today's latest news. I read
Byte for background. I read InfoWorld for late-breaking news.
bruce, could you be a nice guy and upload the source to the benchmark programs
you wrote? i'd like to test the circle one especially on 1.2 of the
kickstart/wb – 1.2 has circle primitives. thanks.
–Scotty
Funny you should ask; I uploaded the circle routine on BIX just the other day.
I'll grab a copy and upload it here as well. ..bfw..
<grin> All that work, and soon to be obsolete… 1.2 finally has a circle
(and elipse) routine. I've seen the "circles" demo (similar to boxes…) and
it looks to be pretty fast. They also have a SuperBitMap version of the
Lines demo, which is cute. –>Steve Bennett
I've been bugging Dale Luck (aka "Duck") to put circles/ellipse routines into
the graphics libraries for months. I'm *glad* my work is obsolete, since
it's so darn slow…
I've been bugging Dale Luck (aka "Duck") to put circles/ellipse routines into
the graphics libraries for months. I'm *glad* my work is obsolete, since
it's so darn slow…
<grin> All that work, and soon to be obsolete… 1.2 finally has a circle
(and elipse) routine. I've seen the "circles" demo (similar to boxes…) and
it looks to be pretty fast. They also have a SuperBitMap version of the
Lines demo, which is cute. –>Steve Bennett
Funny you should ask; I uploaded the circle routine on BIX just the other day.
I'll grab a copy and upload it here as well. ..bfw..
bruce, could you be a nice guy and upload the source to the benchmark programs
you wrote? i'd like to test the circle one especially on 1.2 of the
kickstart/wb – 1.2 has circle primitives. thanks.
–Scotty
Well Bruce, I'd like to know just one or two things.
1. What languages were used and where was the source code for them?
2. What was the circle algorithm and implementation?
3. Do you have the address of the person who allowed the unfactual letter from
the Atari type to be published. (missile coordinates please) <grin>
Seriously, I really did enjoy the article, but felt that the results were
pretty much meaningless without the source for the benchmarks.
Regards, Larry.
1) I used Lattice C originially, then switched to a beta copy of Aztec C for
the performance and disk benchmarks (I couldn't get the graphics benchmarks to
run; kept getting an "out of memory" error that Lattice C didn't produce).
2) The circle benchmark was a hand-optimized version of the Bresenham
algorithm found on p. 445 of Foley and Van Dam; I'll post source here.
3) Don't know who's responsible for letters to the editor, but your best bet
for complaints is Phil Lemmons, BYTE, 70 Main St, Peterborough NH 03458.
4) Part of the problem with posting the source was space, a tight commodity
in BYTE. Another problem was that I used multiple languages in an effort to
get the best times for a given machine and to avoid compiler limitations.
..bruce..
1) I used Lattice C originially, then switched to a beta copy of Aztec C for
the performance and disk benchmarks (I couldn't get the graphics benchmarks to
run; kept getting an "out of memory" error that Lattice C didn't produce).
2) The circle benchmark was a hand-optimized version of the Bresenham
algorithm found on p. 445 of Foley and Van Dam; I'll post source here.
3) Don't know who's responsible for letters to the editor, but your best bet
for complaints is Phil Lemmons, BYTE, 70 Main St, Peterborough NH 03458.
4) Part of the problem with posting the source was space, a tight commodity
in BYTE. Another problem was that I used multiple languages in an effort to
get the best times for a given machine and to avoid compiler limitations.
..bruce..
Well Bruce, I'd like to know just one or two things.
1. What languages were used and where was the source code for them?
2. What was the circle algorithm and implementation?
3. Do you have the address of the person who allowed the unfactual letter from
the Atari type to be published. (missile coordinates please) <grin>
Seriously, I really did enjoy the article, but felt that the results were
pretty much meaningless without the source for the benchmarks.
Regards, Larry.