thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (12/26/89)
(Perhaps the newspaper should change its name to Hoser Mercury News? :-) For those not aware, the San Jose (California) Mercury News (SJMN) touts itself as the premier daily award-winning newspaper of Silicon Valley and Northern California. For those who've read this newsgroup (and its predecessor, net.micro.amiga) over the past 3 years, you'll recall my hundreds of excerpts and direct quotes from the SJMN pertaining to the Amiga; seldom is the SJMN complimentary to the Amiga. In fact, at times it seems the SJMN deliberately and possibly maliciously (IN MY OPINION) badmouths, slanders, and reports negatively on the Amiga. They have had 3 Computing Editors in those 3+ years, all of whose posturing reflected poorly on the Amiga, its capabilities, and its reputation. Recently, Joe Smith posted the presence of two articles in the Dec.17, 1989, SJMN which appeared to reverse the SJMN's normal tendency! However ... The following item, exactly reproduced in its entirety, is on page 3E (BUSINESS Section) of the Dec.25,1989 San Jose Mercury News' LETTERS TO THE EDITOR column. What is NOT evident is that the headline font is 1/4" tall. And why does the SJMN think ATARI manufactures the Amiga? Sigh. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In any event, at least the body of the letter is complimentary, and presented here for your perusal: " ATARI beats Mac, PC for multimedia Editor: I often enjoy James J. Mitchell's column, but the Comdex article ("The future for computer users," Nov. 16) was more than a bit misleading. Contrary to what William M. Spaller of IBM says, if multi-media software automatically made things easier, a VCR would be easier to use than a piece of stereo equipment. On the other hand, waiting around for IBM to cobble something together is not necessary. The digitized, animated, screeching eagle was impressive ... when it was shown at the Amiga's debut four years ago. Games "containing sound, voice, animation and video on our personal computers" have been available on the Amiga for some time, and versions of Deluxe Video, the original multimedia construction set, have been on the market since 1986. The Amiga is not a perfect machine, but it has been the obvious multimedia computer since its introduction, and it still features a much greater range of media tools, at better prices, than the limited selection belatedly available on the Mac or PC (in)compatibles. Jon Freeman Creative Director Free Fall Associates Los Altos " Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]