cunniff@hpfclq.HP.COM (Ross Cunniff) (01/29/88)
No, this is not an advertisement for a Muscular Dystrophy telethon.
The Jerry to whom I refer is your friend and mine, Jerry Pournelle.
It seems, for some reason, that he has taken a dislike to the Amiga
(Firepower notwithstanding) and never passes up an opportunity to
drop a snide remark or an outright insult about our beloved Amy.
WHAT IF... (you can tell I work for Hewlett-Packard, can't you :->)
some well-intentioned person or group of people decided to try to cure
Jerry's disease with a donation of a high-end Amiga 2000. The system
configuration would include:
Amiga 2000 $1750 (???)
J. Random Multiscan monitor 600
Microway FlickerFixer 595
40 MB ST251 hard disc 395
A2090 controller 395
2MB RAM expansion 395
-------------------------------------
Total $3830
Now, a system is useless without some good software; we would need to
pick the latest and greatest version of software which does the following:
Word Processor
Desktop publishing
Paint program (Deluxe Paint II?? DigiPaint?? Other??)
CAD program (???)
Music composition (MIDI or otherwise)
Games (Marble Madness, Arkanoid, Defender of the Crown, etc.)
Spreadsheet (??? I'm not sure this is a good idea :->)
We would make sure that each can be run with the others running at the
same time (to demonstrate the multitasking Exec) and also make sure that
they don't have a tendancy to Guru. This can all be had for $1000-$1500.
So, for a total cost of $5000-$6000, Jerry could have a top-of-the-line
expandible (with more memory, 68020 processor, 80x86 bridge card, 1024x600
4 grayscale monitor, etc.) personal workstation with fairly high-res graphics,
stunning sound, and a quickly growing software base, all available *NOW*
and affordable enough for the small business. What do you think he and
his camp followers would have to say about that?
Now all we have to do is find somebody to pay for all of this... :-)
Ross Cunniff
Hewlett-Packard System Software Operation
...{ucbvax,hplabs}!hpda!cunniff
cunniff%hpda@hplabs.ARPAc60c-6bh@web1d.berkeley.edu (Hurley) (01/31/88)
<---------eat dirt line eater ..::,,''';------------------------>
You must be joking ? Right ? HAHHAHAHAHAH ! Hahahah ?
Give PoorNelly a computer ? I wouldn't give him a road kill.
The man is an utter (udder ?) fool. I mean what kind of man writes
about assasin elephant types ? But we are not talking about that.
We are talking about this mans total lack of anything resembling
computer knowledge.
First off, he gives good revues to people who give him computers
to play with, unless he doesn't like the people. The man is a kneebiter,
my dog knows more about computers than this man does (and I don't have a
dog). The only reason he has his job, is because at one time he was vaguely
amusing. And YOU want to give this man a computer ?? I want to give him
the boot. Instead of an Amiga, we should give Byte a petition to get him
removed from his job (I say job in the most snide, joking way).
If you are going to give anything to anybody it should be to Fred Fish, and
some of the consistant developers of the PD stuff he distributes.
Give PoorNelly a computer, GIVE ME A BREAK !!!
Give a listen to the song Imposter, from Oingo Boingo, it's a song
about Critics. It'll give you the tip of my feelings for JP.
Hurley (Binary star Off) Braden
P.S. Hi Sergie, Mark, rest of youse guys
Berkeley doesn't know I exist, but if they knew me, or what I was writing
about, I am sure they would agree.grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (01/31/88)
In article <4230014@hpfclq.HP.COM> cunniff@hpfclq.HP.COM (Ross Cunniff) writes: > No, this is not an advertisement for a Muscular Dystrophy telethon. > The Jerry to whom I refer is your friend and mine, Jerry Pournelle. > It seems, for some reason, that he has taken a dislike to the Amiga > (Firepower notwithstanding) and never passes up an opportunity to > drop a snide remark or an outright insult about our beloved Amy. > > WHAT IF... (you can tell I work for Hewlett-Packard, can't you :->) > some well-intentioned person or group of people decided to try to cure > Jerry's disease with a donation of a high-end Amiga 2000. BUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTT........ Jerry just received a nice shiny new A2000DK (dealer demo kit) the other day. A couple of people from the BIX gang in the LA area are helping set it up and provide a bit of handholding. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|ihnp4|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
paulz@hpspdla.HP.COM (Paul Zander) (02/03/88)
The folks at BYTE are not very bright. A while ago I received an offer for a trial copy of their rag. "Keep the first issue even if you cancel". So I wrote CANCEL on the bill and expained that I was dissapointed that they no longer covered the neatest small computer around. The magazine and bills keep coming. The latest bill threatened to terminate the subsription for non-payment!
lbrown@apctrc.UUCP (Lawrence H. Brown) (02/08/88)
In article <4160006@hpspdla.HP.COM> paulz@hpspdla.HP.COM (Paul Zander) writes: >The folks at BYTE are not very bright. A while ago I received an >offer for a trial copy of their rag. "Keep the first issue even if >you cancel". So I wrote CANCEL on the bill and expained that I was >dissapointed that they no longer covered the neatest small computer >around. The magazine and bills keep coming. The latest bill >threatened to terminate the subsription for non-payment! Yep, I've had a few stupid ads. The one that makes me sick is on page 63 of the March AmigaWorld. "VideoMaker" The video camera users magazine. The headline is "DESKTOP VIDEO" with a composite picture of a sideview of a camcoder, a monitor that is displaying "Billy's Birthday" (a picture featured prominently with either DeluxeVideo or Genlock) and it's sitting on (Gag, retch) a IBM PC! Come on guys, get real. That ad encouraged me NOT to subscribe! -- Lawrence H. Brown USENET: ...!uunet!apctrc!cdf!zlhb0a or zlhb0a@cdf.apctrc.uucp (?) Phone: (918-660-4389) 24 hrs, voice. USmail: 7325 E. 50th, Tulsa, OK 74145 Disclaimer: I paid 25 cents to see the light. Call it cheap entertainment.
mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick) (09/08/88)
In article <2308@ihlpm.ATT.COM> jmdavis@ihlpm.ATT.COM (Davis) writes: > >This month (October publishing Date for Analog SF magazine) >there is a "science fact" article titled "High-Tech for the >Little Red Schoolhouse" Authored by Roberta Jane Pournelle > >I wonder how the Pournelles are doing? > I was talking to a guy from Supra at the Dev.Con in Washington, and he told the following about good old Jer'. I was at the ComputerFaire last Feb (?) was saw the great Himself speak. He praised the Ami, just a little, but added a whole lot of comments that essentially said "get an Atari instead. . .". Well, the engineer from Supra was there, and had dinner with Jerry and a bunch of others that evening. To be sure, the discussion slipped over to ST vs. Amiga wars. Jerry's son (who was rumored to have been developing ST software), jumped in to defend the Amiga while his father was standing up for Jack's toy. "The Amiga : a muliti-tasking Real Homewrecker" At least some Pournelle's have the blinders removed. One minor additional note. At Jerry's lecture, he mentioned how some design studios were using the ST for "professional" work. He then added "if only it didn't have those damn borders" (read "if only it did overscan!") -- *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick *** "You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom". [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]