bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (11/12/87)
CBM got fried this week on several fronts. Let's throw a little
balance into this:
Commodore is supporting the Amiga in a big way. The A500 is obviously
selling very well, and to customers that could not afford an A1000.
If these people come though and purchase software, the Amiga market
will be bright indeed.
Commodore is working on improving the operating system, the Fast
File System project is one example. V1.21 and V1.3 Kickstarts
are another. All the V1.3 rummors paint it as a nice upgrade
indeed. And it should even support overscan fully :-).
Hardware projects are on the horizon from Commodore. The A2090
does it's job, but let's hope for boot roms in the future.
Hedely's Highres Monitor sounds really neat (hope I spelled it right).
The 68020+FPU+MMU project is another. The rummors of another
Live! digitizer are interesting.
And the advertising! Real advertising. Especially that A500
video tape, very well done. Low on technical mistatements and
high on action. Very persuasive. Really done "right".
And on that A2000, who cares about IBM-PC slots? All they take
up is some real estate and all they cost is connectors. Very
easy to ignore if need be.
(The local dealer must be hogging bridge boards... 18 in stock
while everyone else is scrambling to get them. Hmmm.)
Well, darn it, looks like I'll end on a negative note. Flipping
thought my mail today and I find the A500 software offer which clearly
says:
"DON'T DELAY...THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFER EXPIRES OCTOBER 31, 1987"
What it forgot to say is, "TIME MACHINE NOT INCLUDED". Today is
Thursday Nov 12. Blame the post office, it came bulk mail.
|\ /| . Ack! (NAK, SOH, EOT)
{o O} . bryce@hoser.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!hoser!bryce
(")
U "We want to fashon puppets that pull their own strings."
-Ann Marionandy@cbmvax.UUCP (11/12/87)
In article <21739@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: > > "DON'T DELAY...THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFER EXPIRES OCTOBER 31, 1987" > >What it forgot to say is, "TIME MACHINE NOT INCLUDED". Today is >Thursday Nov 12. Blame the post office, it came bulk mail. I think the offer has been extended to Nov. 31st. andy -- andy finkel {ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy Commodore-Amiga, Inc. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share. I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
gt4785b@pyr.gatech.EDU (CARTER) (11/12/87)
I =knew= I've been forgetting to post something important... In article <21739@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: >Well, darn it, looks like I'll end on a negative note. Flipping >thought my mail today and I find the A500 software offer which clearly >says: > "DON'T DELAY...THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFER EXPIRES OCTOBER 31, 1987" On October 31, when I was ready to put down my money and get a A500, and was calling mail order places to compare prices, several of them told me the user group software deal had been extended through November 30, 1987. It was later confirmed at the local user group meeting. Phew! (and thanks, Commodore!) David Carter
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (11/14/87)
Gee. I thought what C= was doing right was everything that
wasn't being complained about :-)
I particularly liked the 'Kerry Zimmerman bug'
Monday: KZ: When I do this, it does that. Is that correct ?
Tues: C=: Uhh, no. Looks like a bug.
Wed: C=: Yeah, it's a bug. I'll mail you the new driver.
Thu: KZ: Yes. That fixes it. Thanks.
Talk about responsive. And he didn't even have to sign up on Bix ! :-)
For a company of C='s size, the number of people thay have on this net
and others, is simply outstanding. Atari ? 1 guy that I can tell. Apple ?
Maybe 3 or 4. IBM ? You must be kidding.
I never owned a C64 or a C128 or any of that stuff. I had an Atari 400,
waaaay back. I was difficult for me to come to grips with spending
all that money on a COMMODORE computer. But do I have any regrets ?
**** NO !
You people ARE doing an OUTSTANDING job.
And face it, a larger cover on a 2000 (just a steenking piece of
bent sheet metal) will keep Mikes Meyer (Geez, I just *can't* get that
name right) happy, and a command line switch will keep Keith Doyle
happy.
All in all, no problem. Just a bad phase of the moon or something.
C= you are appreciated.
Really.
--
Richard J. Sexton
INTERNET: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard
"It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition..."ugmiker@sunybcs.uucp (Michael Reilly) (11/15/87)
In article<2283@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM(Richard Sexton) writes: > > >Talk about responsive. And he didn't even have to sign up on Bix ! :-) ^^^^^^^^^^---Responsive is not the word, anytime I have a question/ problem/etc. that is aimed at Commodore I have an answer by the next day, and usually on the same day !!!! now thats support !!! Giving that kind of support to "just a college kid" will keep me a Commodore user for a while.... > >For a company of C='s size, the number of people thay have on this net >and others, is simply outstanding. Atari ? 1 guy that I can tell. Apple ? >Maybe 3 or 4. IBM ? You must be kidding. Not only the number of people, but the helpfullness of each and everyone of them, it's really great!!!!! > **stuff deleted** > But do I have any regrets ? > >**** NO ! Me neither!!! I love my A1000, and the support I get over the net is unbeatable... I might even put a requirement in my resume, that if a company wants to hire me (like who would :-) they BETTER be "on the NET"... > >You people ARE doing an OUTSTANDING job. >C= you are appreciated. ^---------------unbelievably > >Really. >-- >Richard J. Sexton Once More... Thanks Commodore, all of you, Dave, Hedley, George, Carolyn Mike, Paul, and allllllllllll the others whose names have slipped my mind (only temporarily :-) . Michael (what am I wood??) Reilly University of Buffalo Computer Science -------------------------------------- CSNET: ugmiker@buffalo.CSNET INTERNET: ugmiker@{joey,marvin}.cs.buffalo.edu UUCP: ..!{nike|watmath,alegra,decvax}!sunybcs!ugmiker BITNET: ugmiker@sunybcs.BITNET <-OR-> ACSCMPR@ubvmsc.BITNET
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/15/87)
In article <4445@pyr.gatech.EDU> gt4785b@pyr.UUCP (David Carter) writes: > I =knew= I've been forgetting to post something important... > > In article <21739@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: > >Well, darn it, looks like I'll end on a negative note. Flipping > >thought my mail today and I find the A500 software offer which clearly > >says: > > "DON'T DELAY...THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFER EXPIRES OCTOBER 31, 1987" > > On October 31, when I was ready to put down my money and get a A500, and was > calling mail order places to compare prices, several of them told me the user > group software deal had been extended through November 30, 1987. It was later > confirmed at the local user group meeting. Phew! (and thanks, Commodore!) Yup, I checked with out people here and they confirmed that the redemption period for previously issued coupons had been extended until the end of November. Of course, according to my exacting calculations, this is still only a mere two weeks away... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: out to lunch... Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
DISPATCH@NCSUVM.BITNET (11/17/87)
I had been using Macs for 3-4 years. Accumulated over 75 disks with
Macstuff on them. Bought several Mac programs, even though I don't
own a Mac.
I now have a 2000, and have never looked back. If anything, I am
looking forward to all new hardware to come out. Stuff like Newtek's
Video Toaster (I hope they keep that name), CSA's 68020 board, etc.
It isn't the prettiest machine in the world. I could have held out
for another year and maybe the prices on the MacII would come down,
and maybe there would be hardware/software to do what I needed to do.
But these are a lot of maybes.
I don't care if people complain about various aspects of the 2000.
It was, overall, a smart move on Commodore's part. The 1000 was
limited, much in the same way the Mac+ is limited. Closed box
architecture is obviously a dead end, although you can pull "tricks"
to give you more memory (MacSnap), hard drives, etc. The problem is
that these are nothing more than tricks. I have seen many 128k macs
fry soon after getting the 128k - 512k upgrade, early in the upgrade
game. SOTS stuff that passes the bus falls into this category.
PC slots? Why not. The amiga is never going to be the most popular
computer in the world (maybe). Going with a defined standard means
startup costs for third party manufacturers is lower, which means
higher profits, lower hardware costs to customers. Even if someone
doesn't buy a bridgecard, and use those slots, they will benefit
from this decision.
The Amiga 500 is going the redefine the home computer market. It
really is "a computer for the rest of us". A user friendly, iconic
based user interface that supports multitasking. The C64 was revolutionary,
although it is hard to think of it as being so at this date, because
it put a full fledged micro in the hands of people who normally wouldn't
be able to afford one. It is going to have a much bigger impact in the
long run than the MacII, PS2 Model 80, etc. simply because the sheer
numbers of people who will use one at home, and write software for it,
and wonder why their machine at the office can't do the same things.
They will expect multitasking, a user friendly interface, and color.
And kids growing up with the Amiga will be attuned to the pitfalls
of multitasking, and better equipped to use or write software that does
it elegantly.
Enough pipe dreams. Gotta get to work.
Peace,
Hal Netoprhm@ncsuvm.bitnet