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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail
"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" || News Source)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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000319
L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E
G I F T S A T A M I G A 2 K B A N Q U E T
A M I G A 2 K M E S S A G E T O D E V E L O P E R S
W H A T ' S U P W I T H W O R L D O F A M I G A 2 0 0 0 ?
A M I G A W E S T C O A S T S H O W
A M I G A F O R M A T D I E S A S . . .
. . . A N E W U K M A G I S B O R N
A F D - C O P Y R I G H T N E W S
O F I N T E R E S T T O S P A N I S H A M I G A N S
N E W E D I T O R F O R A I O M A G A Z I N E
P R O G R E S S R E P O R T - N E W U S M A G
B E W A R E - F A K E W A R P S P E E D V E R S I O N
M I T C H Y P A R T N E R S H I P A N N O U N C E D
M O U S E W H E E L S F O R A M I G A
S Q U I R R E L S M O V E T O A N A L O G I C
A M I C H A T T O B E F R E E W A R E
A M I T E C H A D V E R T I S I N G P R O J E C T
B L A C K I R C 1 . 1 I S F R E E W A R E
C L O A N T O ' S A M I G A E X P L O R E R 3 . 5
L O W E R P R I C E O N I N F R A B O X
V A P O R W A R E A U T O M A T E D F A Q
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Lots of material for you today, and a question. Below is the latest
Executive Update from the Amiga Inc. web site. We've been carrying
these for some time as they are the definitive "word from the top" in
the Amiga community. However, these updates are easily found at the
Amiga web sites, and do take up considerable space in "Amiga Update",
sometimes displacing other items. So we wonder - what would our
readers prefer? Should we continue to carry these very important
announcements, or should we just let you know when one has been
issued? Let us know your thoughts - we'll be listening.
There's an amazing amount of information on Amiga publications in
this issue, including some interesting information in the Executive
Update. Over in Britain, what may have been the premier Amiga magazine
worldwide, "Amiga Format" has folded. This is a tremendous loss.
However, in what almost looks like "out with old, in with the new", a
new magazine for the UK has been announced. It's not quite an even
trade though - surely the new publication will have to prove itself to
gain the respect "Amiga Format" had. We wish them luck in doing just
that.
Finally, in Germany there's a new Amiga publication being launched.
Here's what the execellent Czech Amiga News site has to say about it:
"The german newssite amiga.topcool.de plans to publish a new German
printed amiga-magazine. If amiga.topcool.de get 200 preorders of the
first issue, the magazine will release in Summer 2000."
Contact them at:
http://homepages.go.com/~amigaistcool/ausgabe.htm
We hope you enjoy this issue, and hope to see some of you at Amiga 2k
in St. Louis soon!
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
3 Mar 2000
Hi:
Please, if at possible try to help me out by passing this message on
to the U.S. Amiga community at large. I am looking for an Amiga
programming genius that can help to restore a lost partition of my 400
meg Quantum Lightning, that I use in my Amiga 3000.
In a nut shell, attempting to format a 100 meg Zip at 2:30am, I made
a "minor" mistake and started reformatting the HD. Recognizing what
was going on, I powered the machine down and called in the three wise
men from the now defunct Amiga club. They resurrected the corps, and
told me that all of the data is A-OK -, but that the partition went
out to lunch. They felt that the partition data was still encoded on
the HD, but did not know were to look. I don't have much money to
spend, but would like to trade an Amiga 3000 for the service. There is
one more truly minor problem with another HD (murphy's law) that would
take to much time here to list. But again, it is a minor problem.
If you happen to know someone in particular who might be willing to
help then send me a quick E-mail.
Thank you very much,
~~~~~~
Mike,
Sounds like you have a problem. Can anyone help? Please send
information to "Amiga Update" and we'll pass it on quickly.
Brad
======
26 Feb 2000
What about the new BVision? I am Italian and proud owner of a Power
towered A1200 with PPC. I need a BVision. How can I buy it and where?
Best regards.
Prof. Mimmo P.
~~~~~~
Professor Mimmo P.,
Another question I'm going to have to pass to the readership. It's a
good thing we have knowledgable readers. Anyone have an answer?
Brad
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L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E
March 10, 2000
Dear Friends:
With all of the continuing rumors out there, one would think that we
were gone, or just spending the money that we raised on homes in
Hawaii, or doing nothing.
I can assure you that this is not the case. As mentioned in the
previous update, if you do not read it here do not believe it.
This months letter is going to be a long one, and I apologize in
advance for the length. There is a lot of information here so take
your time.
Recently I received an e-mail message that brought to my attention a
sad reality.
When Gateway purchased Amiga in 1997 they made many promises, and in
fact there were 6 different product announcements during their tenure.
I was involved with two of them, QNX, and Linux.
While I believed that we were going to deliver on the two product
versions that I was involved in, they did not materialize, and it has
hurt many of you. The decisions to change or alter either of these
announcements was not mine, but I was a part of the team that was
involved in both. For this I am very sorry.
It is because of the reasons mentioned above that I promised not to
say anything or announce anything until it was done, and ready.
I know that this is difficult, especially with the number of great
people and Amiga companies who are feeling the continued strain, but I
did not want to have us all go through any more false starts, and
undelivered dreams.
April 1, 2000 is the date, and St. Louis is the place. This is the
first opportunity for ``your'' Amiga company to present, demonstrate,
speak, and see the first product to come out of Amiga - The new
Developer System. In fact one lucky show attendee will win one of
these systems.
With all of the above said; Another month, and a great deal of work
has been completed. Many of you believe nothing is happening, I can
assure you that a great deal has been occurring.
Amiga - ``So the World May Know''.
There have been some great new hires, many new partnerships and great
progress as we are moving forward. There is more information about
them mentioned below.
Partnerships
Tao-Group
The first of course was the announcement with Tao-Group which has
been moving along great. In St. Louis we will be showing the first
round of the Amiga/Tao system. There is a great deal of work to be
done, but we are far enough along to launch the new developer system
for Tao at the show.
Haage & Partner
We have entered into a long term relationship with H&P that will
provide API's and a path towards to the future OS. This includes new
updated versions of Storm IDE. They have also committed to porting all
of their software to the new platform.
We are also excited to work with H&P on a new version of the WarpOS
that will allow the new Amiga to run on PPC accelerator cards. This
means that an Amiga that has a PPC card running WarpOS will be able to
run the new Amiga on that card! That's right. The new Amiga running on
the current A1200s!
More on H&P will become public as we continue to move forward and
work through the testing programs.
We are very excited about this relationship.
Hyperion
Hyperion and Amiga have entered into an agreement for the porting of
the existing and new games to the new Amiga. This along with the great
work that Ben and his team have done in working on a new 3D gaming
engine for the new Amiga. They have been working very closely with the
Amiga development team and Tao-Group to make the development of games
for the Amiga a cut above the rest. We are very pleased to be have
them as members of the new team.
Epic Marketing
Thomas Steiding has been a great supporter from the beginning. Epic
has announced that not only will they be making their games available
on the new system, but that they have secured the rights for many new
games. More on Epic with a follow on announcement later.
There are many more partnerships that will be revealed in St. Louis
with even more exciting news.
E-Mails
Where to start. I continue to receive hundreds of e-mails everyday,
and while I am not the only one on the team who seems to be living on
e-mail, we have not been able to answer as many as we would like.
We are listening, and working on many of your comments. Here are some
of your concerns and what we have been doing to help:
Phase 5 and their recent changes.
We have been in contact with Mr. Thomas Dellert, and Mr. Stefan
Domeyer, and we are working with both DCE, and Met@box to provide
solutions for the Amiga market and we expect some great news soon. I
can say that the conversations have been going very well, and we look
forward to working towards an exciting future with both of these
companies.
One of the key benefits with the relationships that we have been able
to strike with both of these firms is their long term commitment to
Amiga.
According to our initial conversations, and project plans we are
working to ensure that the new Amiga will run on both of the PPC
boards supplied by these companies.
We will be providing more detail in product announcements from both
firms.
Dealer and distributors have been contacting us about their current
situations and future plans.
In response to the many requests we have created the Amiga Dealer
Network, or ``A D N''. Randy Hughes our VP of Sales (more about him
later) sent out an e-mail message to over 300 dealers, and the
response has been fantastic. Many dealers are ready to begin carrying
the Amiga again, and more are very excited about the future. The A D N
is a way for us to better communicate our plans, hear concerns, and
work together to create a stronger Amiga. As I am sure that you will
see there are great things to come from the A D N.
Remember that we plan on being able to run the New OS on PPC boards.
Does your machine support that option?
Developers and the future development plans.
Training sessions at Tao-Group have been continuing for some months
now, and we have a better relationship today than when we started, and
we are more convinced than ever that our decision was the right one.
There will be opportunity in St. Louis for others to see the
Tao-System at work, and we look forward to seeing all of you there.
We also will be having a developer meeting in St. Louis on March 31st
at 7:00pm. This is a developer only meeting, and we will be giving
information about the hardware, software tools, and the developer
support program. We know that there is going to great interest in this
seminar to plan ahead and get there early as space is limited.
Please check the St. Louis show site, and the Amiga sites for more
information.
Communication with the Amiga Community.
We have contracted with Equinox Design to create the new ``Amiga
World'' newsletter. This will be available for free to all of the
Amiga community.
Initially this will be made available via the Internet from our new
website and then (if demand merits) we will make a printed version.
This is not in anyway in competition with the existing Amiga
publications that currently are in print. This instead is targeted as
a newsletter designed as a vehicle to help the community communicate
better together. The Editor of Amiga World is Fletcher Haug, the
former Editor and Publisher of the Amiga Informer. The first edition
should be available within the first two weeks of April.
There are no advertisements, and we are using this as another method
to get information out to all of you, and to help the publications
that we have today.
More Communications with the Amiga Community.
As mentioned in the past update, I have reactivated the AAC. There
have been some great discussions and great ideas to come out of the
conversations to date, and they will be a great help in the future as
we move forward. The members of the AAC are:
Christoph Dietz
Carsten Schroeder
Coner Kerr
Andrew Elia
Bill Panagouleas
Craig Delahoy
Ben Vost
Wayne Hunt
Don Hicks
Goetz Ohnesorge
Gary Peake
Kermit Woodall
Holger Kruse
Thomas Frieden
Juergen Haage
Thomas Raukamp
Heinz Wrobel
Wayne Martin
Thomas Svenson
Jeffery Rose
Randhir Jesrani
Trish Zlotek
Tom Lively
Cade Hannan
Luca Danelon
Guenter Horbach
Ian Greenaway
David Law
Paul Lesurf
Bill McEwen
Christian Kemp
Basil Flinter
We will soon be reactivating their aac.amiga.com mail accounts.
New Faces for the Team
There are many new people at Amiga, and we are excited about the team
that we are continuing to build. Below you will find some specific
detail on certain team members, here you will find the names and
descriptions of the folks that I get to work the most closely with.
Randall P. Hughes - VP Sales and Strategic Business Development
Randy comes to us after being the VP of Sales at a very exciting Java
technologies company ThinWeb. Randy and I worked together when he was
my primary contact at QNX. He is a very skilled person with
backgrounds in Banking, and technology. Randy understands the Amiga,
and what the future brings. He has had business dealings with some of
the strongest technology companies in the world. He was the person
that QNX selected to open their first office in California. I know
that you will enjoy meeting him in St. Louis.
Now the official comments that will be going up on the web site later;
Mr Hughes comes to Amiga directly from a Java based start up where he
headed the sales and alliances function from inception to its filing
for IPO on the NASDAQ exchange.
Randy was initiated to the Amiga community as the lead manager
responsible for the relationship with Amiga during his tenure at QNX
where he headed the expansion to Silicon Valley and into Southern
California.
Randy was first and foremost a financier from his days at notable
Canadian financial institutions, namely the Bank of Montreal and Royal
Bank.
Randy was educated at the University of Ottawa, Canada and at
Marlborough College in England.
Vincent P. Pfeifer - VP of Operations
Vince and I worked together for several years at ConnectSoft. Vince
has an incredible ability to deliver products. I have seen him time
and again walk into extremely difficult situations with very hard
headed engineers and stupid marketing people, and deliver amazing
products. I am very pleased that he has agreed to join us.
Here is his official web site description;
Vince Pfeifer has 14 years experience in the computer industry with
the last 12 spent in the software area. Vince joins us from GraphOn
Corporation where, as Vice President of Product Development and
General Manager of GraphOn's Seattle based operations, he oversaw all
Engineering resources for GraphOn's multiple development sites. During
his tenure at GraphOn, sales tripled while product offerings doubled.
Additionally, Vince helped oversee the merger that made GraphOn a
publicly traded company whose Market Capitalization quadrupled in
under a year.
Vince has hands-on experience building and managing software
development operations as well as product management organizations.
Vince has experience with both startup organizations (ConnectSoft,
Exodus Technologies, GraphOn) as well as more established companies
(Symantec).
Why I joined Amiga, by Vincent P. Pfeifer
Other than the belief that Bill McEwen could sell ice cubes to
Eskimos, I joined Amiga to take on the challenge of turning a
company's name and image that has become somewhat dated here in the
United States into a top level, respected company in the computer
industry. As I am coming off a successful venture in helping turn
GraphOn into a publicly traded company with record revenues from the
position of Vice President of Product Development, I was ready for a
new set of responsibilities in more areas than Product Management and
Engineering.
Amiga offers a challenge that I look forward to: build a company from
the bottom up with the benefit of having name recognition and some
technology already in place.
It is an opportunity to do something that I have wanted to do since
my early days at 5th Generation when I sat on the Tech Support phones
and listened to average users try to use relatively complicated
software. I know that it sounds like a religious crusade, but I want
to make computers easier for the masses, and with my position at
Amiga, I have an opportunity to help influence that vision
significantly.
Gary Peake - Director of Developer Relations and Support
My favorite man from Texas. Gary has already put thousands of hours
of his life to support the Amiga, and the community worldwide. Now he
has joined our team in delivering his years of experience and
affection for the Amiga in supporting the efforts of the Amiga
community.
Tarah Mallo - Reception and Office
Tarah is our first line of communication to the outside world. She
has been working with the development team gathering information and
support. As well as helping me to get organized. I will state for the
record that the pictures of the original office were taken ``before''
she joined. Say hello to Tarah the next time you call.
Kari Erickson - Executive Administration
Kari is the person who will keep my life and travel plans in order.
She is who you will get to speak to first before getting me, or any
other member of the executive team. Kari joins us after leaving one of
the very prestigious law firms here in the Seattle area, and I am sure
that you can already feel her pain in having to deal with me on a day
to day basis.
Susan Sutton - Director of Finance and Human Resources
Susan is going to take over the collection of funds, and the paying
of bills.
She is also the person who gets to deal with all of the employee
complaints about Fleecy. Just kidding there are more complaints about
me, than there are Fleecy.
Gordon Stone - Director of Information Services and Information
Technologies
We refer to Gordon as the network man. Gordon got his start in
computing by upgrading Amiga memory for recording studios in Oregon.
He has since moved onto operating numerous systems, and is versed in
all that is connectivity. Gordon actually will start in two weeks, but
we wanted to introduce him now.
Operations in Germany - New Members on our team
Markus Grohmann - Order processing and EDP
Markus already has a family history with Amiga, as his brother used
to work with us in Braunschweig. We look forward to working with
Markus.
Barbara Nitzsche - Executive Assistant to Petro
With the addition of Barbara to our team in Germany we will be able
to have Petro out more. Next time you call Langen say hello to Barbara
and welcome her to Amiga.
Members of the Development Team
Dean Brown - Dean founded DKB weeks after the first A1000 came out
and then spent the next 15 years designing and producing all manner of
add ons, expansion cards and accelerators for the whole range of Amiga
computers. He brings a deep understanding of the spirit and reality of
the Amiga hardware, along with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of
current and future projects. He will use this to help Amiga and its
partners create multiple hardware platforms for the future.
Dave Taylor - Dave is another scouser, from Liverpool, UK, although
he supports the wrong football team. He has spent the last ten years
designing and implementing distributed manufacturing, control, and
eCommerce systems for small, medium, and large companies across the
globe, on Mainframe, Unix and Windows architectures. The last 3 years
have seen him concentrating on distributed systems, databases, and n
tier commercial systems. He brings commercial world experience,
eCommerce expertise and formal methods with a refreshing new look on
architecture to the company, and was also brave enough to try
snowboarding with Wouter and myself.
Wouter van Oortmerssen - Wouter is a tall, dutch, quake master
currently completing his doctorate at Southampton University. He has
been an Amigan since the early 1990's and is most well known for the
excellent Amiga E language and compiler that grew from a research
project into a professional system. He is bringing a fresh look at
language, conversation and interaction in the new Amiverse.
Andreas Kleinert - Andreas has worked for the last few years
producing public domain, shareware, and commercial applications for
the Amiga, PC and UNIX markets. For the Amiga market, Andreas
concentrated on various graphics and datatype systems before taking up
the challenge of lead developer for the SuperBase database product
line. His deep knowledge of data storage, retrieval and indexing is
core to creating a self describing and multi dimensional amiverse.
Trond Werner Hansen - Some people are leg men, others are face men.
Trond is most definitely a face man - INTERFACE man 8-) Over the last
seven years he has moved from small programs to enhance workbench,
through completely reimplementing layers.library as SuperLayers, to
developing a NG Amiga workbench system. With configurability and
simplicity being central features for the Amiverse, Trond will be
helping to redefine presentation and participation in digital worlds.
The Amiga Developer Support Network Crew!
Gary Peake
Gary has used and beta tested on most Commodore/Amiga computers from
the Vic-20 to the A3000. His organizational, design, and testing
skills will be a valuable asset to providing a unique, forward looking
online developer support system that will set many "firsts" in the
computer industry. And his association with Team Amiga will enable
Amiga Inc. to provide a valuable multi-national scope to Amiga
Developer Support. Gary has many years of experience with online web
applications and will utilize his experience to provide an evolving
Developer Support structure that will grow with us and our Amiga
developers. Gary is also a current member of the 3D Development Team.
Gary will host our first Amiga DevCon in St Louis on Friday March
31st and will be there to answer questions on an individual basis
through April 2nd. The full program details will not be announced
until then, but all developers wishing more information should contact
Gary Peake at gpeake@amiga.com .
For information on the time and place of the DevCon contact Bob
Sharpe at bscharp@icon-stl.net
Ray A. Akey
Ray is the creator of CNet BBS for the Amiga Classic and has been
programming for the Amiga for a number of years. Ray's understanding
of all areas of product development from concept to coding to testing
to finished product gives us a unique look at all areas of Amiga
Developer Support needs. Ray's experience with Internet application
programming will prove extremely helpful for the future of the Amiga.
Ray will also be assisting in maintaining some of the online systems
we will employ. Ray currently lives in Canada.
G'o'tz Ohnesorge
G'o'tz is one of the most aware Amigan's I know in dealing with
cutting edge products and issues. He has been an Amiga user since they
were first available. G'o'tz is a quick study on high-end multimedia
and new technologies. His expertise in getting the facts quickly and
succinctly will aid us in all areas of developer support. He will be
assisting in keeping information current and available for new
developers in the several online systems we will be providing.
G'o'tz's knowledge of several languages will help the new Amiga
Developer Support System to be truly multi-national. He is a current
member of the Amiga 3D Development Team, as well. G'o'tz currently
lives in Germany.
Jonas Gustavsson
Jonas is a long time Amiga user and has excellent experience in
programming, testing and using high-end digital/multimedia
applications. He has worked with 64 bit Alpha's under heavy
multi-media use. Jonas' primary areas of interest is digital graphics,
high-end multimedia, video editing and titling, and he has experience
working in the commercial tv and movie industry as well. Jonas speaks
several languages as well and will be an exceptional asset to the
Amiga Developer Support System in assisting us to be multi-national.
He is also currently a member of the Amiga 3D Development Team. Jonas
currently lives in Sweden.
More information.
We have spending a great deal of time on infrastructure and getting
ready for the next wave.
New Building!
One of the first problems was in the area of Real Estate, we
currently are in 600 feet with us bulging out the walls, and being
located outside of a car wash has its benefits, but it is still rather
annoying with all of the car stereos going at the same time outside
your front door.
We are in the process of moving to our new world headquarters in
Snoqualmie, Washington. The new address will be;
Amiga Incorporated
34935 SE Douglas Street
Suite 210
Snoqualmie, WA 98065
USA
Telephone number +001 425.396.5660
Facsimile number +001 425.396.6551
We officially open the doors and are up and running on March 15th,
2000. However we will begin moving equipment, phones, servers, etc on
Monday March 13th, 2000. This means that it may be more difficult to
get in touch with over the next few days. We apologize in advance for
any hardship this may cause.
New Web Site!
This is one of the number one items on the list, and the largest
number of ``comments'' that we receive from the community.
We have been in process building a new web site for some weeks. The
difficulty has been server location and time. We have now addressed
both of these issues and we plan to have a new site up in the next
couple of weeks.
A web site is a constant work in progress, so we look forward to your
comments, and will continue to try and enhance the experience.
Final thoughts.
This letter does not cover all of the activities that are and
continue to take place. There is so much more happening that I could
spend days writing and still not keep up with it all.
We are extremely busy here, and could not be having more fun. The
company and the people who have contacted us to support what we are
doing have been in many cases overwhelming. We have several more
partnerships that we are going to be announcing in St. Louis, and we
hope to see as many of you there as possible.
I recently asked a long time Amigan, and a member of the select team
that worked with Jay directly the reason that Jay started this
venture. I have heard many ideas as to what Jay ``really'' wanted to
do, and many e-mails inform me that they know what Jay had planned all
along. While I never had the chance of either meeting, or speaking
with Jay I thought I would ask.
Simply stated ``Jay wanted to build the greatest home computing
experience ever, for under 500.00''. I can tell you that his dream
still lives with every member of this company, and we will deliver on
his dream.
I thank each and every one of you for your continued support, and
look forward to the future.
Keeping the faith,
Bill McEwen, and the rest of the Amiga team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G I F T S A T A M I G A 2 K B A N Q U E T
March 9, 2000
Amiga Inc. will be giving away a special gift to the first 250
attendees of the BANQUET. That's right, a free gift for attending what
is already one of the highlights of the Amiga 2K show.
Come to the banquet, be one of the first 250 attendees, and receive a
free gift from Amiga Inc. Sorry - can't say what it is, but I know you
will be proud to have it.
Oh yes, did you hear... Amiga Inc. is donating a "Developer System"
as a door prize, in addition to a Amiga 1200. Another A1200 will be
given in a separate raffle Saturday as well, courtesy of Amiga Inc.
Don't forget to get your money in for the Banquet tickets. Mail a
check or money order for $35 US to:
Amigan-St. Louis
PO Box 672
Bridgeton, MO 63044
Admission to Amiga 2K is in addition to the Banquet cost. It is as
follows:
Two day admission - In Advance = $17 At door = $20
One day admission - In Advance = $12 At door = $15
Class tickets will be sold at the show only.
WOW! Amiga 2K is going to be HUGE!
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A M I G A 2 K M E S S A G E T O D E V E L O P E R S
March 8, 2000
Attention Developers,
Developers wishing to develop for the newest and most experienced of
the "Multimedia" and "Digitally Enlightened" Computers of the last two
decades. Here's your chance to sink your teeth into development on a
platform that is fun, challenging and with a known name in multimedia
and video.
Amiga Inc. will conduct their first "Developers Conference" at the
Amiga 2K show in St. Louis, MO. USA. If you are a current, past or
future potential Developer for the Amiga Computer platform, you need
to attend this conference.
Amiga Inc. will have all of their executives present to discuss the
platform and answer questions. Experienced Amiga staff will present
the "One on One" sessions. You need to attend, to get a hands on
perspective of the newest and best platform development systems.
To be accepted for this conference, you must fill in the "Developers
Form." Upon acceptance, you will be notified by Amiga Inc. Upon entry
to the conference, you will be required to show a photo ID, and sign a
NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
Schedule of Conference
Friday March 31st, 6 PM - 8 PM - Introduction and discussions
Saturday April 1st, 2 PM - 4 PM - One on one meetings
Sunday April 2nd, 10 AM - 12 PM - One on one Meetings
Please go to the Amiga 2K show site,
http://www.amiga-stl.com/show.html click on the "Developers Form" link
and fill out the form. Amiga Inc. will review your form and email you
as to your acceptance for this conference.
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W H A T ' S U P W I T H W O R L D O F A M I G A 2 0 0 0 ?
15 Feb 2000
"Once again, the UK will be the centre of Amiga attention this
summer. The giant World Of Amiga machine has been activated once again
... show will be happening in late June/early July.
Why are we going for a summer slot ? Quite simply because Amiga have
asked us to book those dates. You can be sure that they have something
exceptional to show this time round... but you'll just have to trust
us because we're keeping extra quiet until then! As always, the show
is taking place with Amiga's full support ... etc, etc."
http://uk.amigasoc.org/news/woa2000start.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A W E S T C O A S T S H O W
15 Mar 2000
The Amiga West Coast show, AmiWest 2000 is shaping up!
That's right!
The AmiWest committee is proud to announce we are again hosting this
year's show in Sacramento, California, at the popular Holiday Inn,
Sacramento NorthEast, 5321 Date Avenue Sacramento, CA 95841, on
Saturday, July 29th and Sunday, July 30th, 2000. The Holiday Inn venue
proved to be such a hit for last year's show that we are again holding
it there.
Show times are Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
AmiWest is in it's third year and is the only all Amiga show produced
on the West Coast. The show has proved very popular for Amiga
enthusiasts in the Western United States.
With the recent purchase of the Amiga by Amino (renamed Amiga
Corporation) from Gateway, the Amiga appears to be on an upswing. The
new Amiga Corporation is headed by Bill McEwen who can be remembered
by participants at both AmiWest'98 and AmiWest'99 as a very
enthusiastic supporter of the Amiga. Also part of the Amiga team are
long time Amigans Fleecy Moss and Petro Tyschtschenko.
You can learn more about AmiWest 2000 by accessing our web page at:
http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/
If you are interested in exhibiting at AmiWest 2000, please submit
the form that is provided on our web page. We need to know early who
will be exhibiting. Booth sizes and pricing is yet to be determined;
however, by submitting the form on our web page you will receive an
exhibitor packet with all necessary forms and information when the
packet becomes available.
Special booth pricing will be available for user groups.
This weekend event will again showcase the progress that IS the Amiga
Community.
Information on AmiWest 2000 will also be at the A2K show in St. Louis
April 1 and 2 as part of the AEMail booth exhibit. If you're at the
show stop by the AEMail booth and pick up an information packet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A F O R M A T D I E S A S . . .
It's been a very sad month for me. Since I found out that AF was to
close, I've had nothing but sleepless nights and now you've all found
out in the worst way possible, when I thought I should be the one
breaking the terrible news. Future's policy was to keep silent until
the issue had finally gone to press, but now there seems little point,
and in a way, I'm glad - there was nothing worse than me having to
prevaricate about subscriptions or future plans for Amiga Format.
The closure of Amiga Format means the end of an era for me. For
thirteen years (pretty much my whole working life) I've been involved
with the Amiga market in some capacity, whether that be in sales,
distribution, freelance consultant and writer, or journalist and
editor on Amiga Computing or Amiga Format. All this time I've been at
the heart of the Amiga market and I've met and got to know some
fantastic people, not least of whom are my readers. I've used some
fantastic software and seen hardware dreams come and go. I've probably
spent in excess of ten grand feeding my obsession and will carry on
using the equipment I have at home for a long time to come. As for
what I will be doing, you have no cause to fear on my or Richard's
behalf: Rich has a job on Linux Format as a staff writer, working with
erstwhile Amiga Format editor Nick Veitch. As for me, I hope you'll
look favourably on Future's new launch - 3D World - where I'll be
deputy editor and the editor of its website. 3D World will be aimed at
professional 3D artists and those looking to get into that market,
whatever the platform. I will be honest and say that although the only
important criterion for inclusion in 3D World is image quality, the
speed at which those images need to be rendered, and the quality of
the support software, means that I don't think there'll be much, if
any, Amiga coverage and that saddens me too.
For those of you who are subscribers, there's no cause for alarm. We
aren't a fly-by-night company that will let you down when it comes to
dealing with your subscription. All subscribers will get a letter
shortly - included with your final subscription issue, that will
explain all the options.
As far as any future reincarnation of Amiga Format goes, I am not yet
personally convinced that Bill and Fleecy will be able to achieve all
they want to, but if they do succeed I'm sure that Future Publishing
will be one of the first publishers back into a new thriving Amiga
market, and you can bet I'd want to be back. As such, although my new
job will probably take me into the world of PCs and workstations, you
can be sure I'll keep an eye on what's going on here and I've promised
Bill McEwen I would remain part of the AAC in order to be better able
to tell him where I think he's going wrong. :)
In the meantime, I don't think that the Amiga market has died, I just
know it's got to the stage where Future Publishing can't sustain Amiga
Format. At the end of the day, the only reasons for this are an
increasing unprofessionalism in the marketplace and a lack of people
willing to part with their money. There are plenty of good dealers out
there that have their customers interests at heart and it's up to you
to make sure that their level of service and support don't go the way
of Amiga Format.
Just remember, there's still an issue on the shelves right now that
contains all sorts of fantastic info (and Personal Paint 7.1b on the
CD) and our next issue on sale, our last, will be well worth buying
since it will contain a dissection of the Amiga market as the
freelancers and staff on AF see it and a history of AF.
On a personal note, it's not so easy to convey emotion while writing
an email. Suffice to say that this page would be wet if it were a
letter I was sending to you all.
-------
I will still be around, even though I shall be working on 3D World
and I look forward to speaking with all of you soon.
All the best,
Ben Vost
Editor, Amiga Format
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
A F D - C O P Y R I G H T N E W S
4 March, 2000
Hello Amigans!
The AFD-COPYRIGHT Official Support Site had just today its 1000th
visitor! This shows that there still is interest in the "Standard
Amiga FD-Software Copyright Note".
The recent visitor boom happened partly due to the fact that so many
Amiga News sites reported about the latest release.
[1mThanks to all news-webmasters for your support
