From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: COMMODORE - HERE'S A CLUE
Date: 2 Oct 1992 08:31:19 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4

dnavas@oracle.uucp (David Navas) writes:
: Hmm, how about having a sound system that can steal from the video DMA?
: Instant -strobe- effects, yeah ;)

Oh, yeah.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  :D

: Make the audio interface scalable, anyway.

Agreed.

: Sometimes?  SOMETIMES?!

: Commercial developers get their information from CATS.  I've heard more than
: one CATS official complain that they don't know what Cmdre is shipping
: until someone sends in a complaint.

:D

: Do a wee little bit of extrapolation.  So when is it that we find out again?

: NewTek got a prototype of the A3000 -one- week before it was announced?
: (Is that really true?  A company attempts to ship its multimedia flagship
:  without the premiere multimedia attachment company getting a peek until
:  a whole week before?  Seems kind of lame, if true!)

Unless they're architectural IDIOTS, there's no reason it shouldn't be
compatible with the 3000, is there?  I certainly can't think of a
reason.  It's not as if they weren't told what they have to do to stay
compatible...  And it's not as if 030 cards weren't available...
Their only stupid thing was that they took advantage of something they
shouldn't have, didn't they?

I'm not about to blame that on C= or anyone within the company.

: What developers are told differs tremendously from what is finally shipped --
: at least in terms of hardware.  The stuff we were told about at DevCon was
: far and away different from what ended up shipping (A4000).  This is why

:D  I'll agree.  However, they weren't exactly giving you 4000 stats,
were they?  They never said "Hello, this is the final product we're
going to be selling".  Nope, they more likely said "Have a peek, guys,
though remember that if we want, everything's out the window, and we
can change what we like.  It's just a peek at the future, folks, not a
finished product with a sheet over it.

: many developers leave the Cmdre fold, disgusted about "lies" or some such
: nonsense.  To go back to what you said, commercial developers often get

(I'd say "some such nonsense" is closer to fact)

: the whole scoop -- a whole scoop full of Gould's "doggie naughties".  ;)

Oh, great.  What's he been doing with dogs THIS time???  He was booked
for disorderly conduct LAST time, and this whole bestial order is
getting really out of... hand?  ;D

: It's not really the engineers' fault.  The average management cycle at Cmdre

Oh, of course not.  Be honest, it's all Dave's fault.  If he wasn't
such a pliable little puppet of management, we wouldn't have so many
of these damn problems.  That spineless little wimp...  ;D

: must be something like six months.  So for six months the hardware engineers
: get to build nice, big, expensive prototypes of new machines -- lots of
: designs get approved, neat stuff is shown at DevCons, and then management
: decides it was all a bad dream -- can the high-end designs, what we really
: need is yet-another 68000 ECS machine.

Gee, we're brutal, aren't we?  Neat stuff at devcon is just that--neat
stuff.  That's it.  They never claim it will make it to market.  Hell,
feel lucky it made it to devcon.

: I'm not so sure WHY such things happen.  Perhaps management makes too many of
: marketing's decisions, but there you are.  We're all very excited about this
: new hardware VP guy and all the "dream" stuff we heard.  The real
: question comes in about 6-9 months.  Is Dave Haynie still "really
: optimistic", or is he back in a funk? :)

Well, he seems to be back inTO funk...  Funk_Y_, that is.  Funky
music, these days.  He's gone metallica on me.  :)  I really shouldn't
say that, I'm a big fan of older metallica, I just think they've had a
gender change as of And Justice For All...

: As long as I'm ranting here, I remember when Ethan (you all remember Ethan,
:right?) went to DevCon last Sept.  I had thought to myself (and might have tol

Yeah, I remember Ethan...  God, I seem old, don't I...  It's not like
he DIED, anyways.

: him at the time) that coming was only going to end up disappointing his
: rather optimistic bent of mind.  I'm not sure if that ended up being the
: case, but he no longer has his A3000....

Hmm.  Oh well.  :)  I liked him, he used to be pretty interesting.

: all pray that Ali and Gould find "Buddha" and move to some desolate
: wasteland in Mongolia.

It's a thought.

: the Amiga is still architectually interesting, so it will keep my interest,
: even though Cmdre doesn't.

AGREED.

: You have a shipping date on that?

Oh, yeah, sure.  :)  If you mean the 4000, it's supposed to be
purchasable RSN...  like I've heard the first/second week in october
mentioned.  That's the right month, isn't it?  :)

: The next chipset will be called, of course, AGOG:  Amiga's Great, Omnipotent
: Graphics.  They will be known internally as OGAG (pronounced, Oh Gag).
: That one is an acronym for "Our Graphics Are Great".

:D

: The four chipset release, which may make it out before the turn of the
: century, doesn't have a name yet.  Perhaps OOGAAG -- "Our Omnipotent
: Graphics Are Amiga's Greatness".  However, I'm pulling for YACS -- Yet
: Another ChipSet.  Or maybe, YICS! -- Yet another Incompatible ChipSet.

Of course, by then, it won't matter.  :)  Since they're not releasing
pinouts, they can incompatibilize themselves to their heart's content,
for all I care.  :)

: [There, has the tone become more acceptable now?]

Oh, yeah.  :D

: [You knew it wouldn't last, right?]

Of course not.  You're just one of those "Helpme,ifC=doesn'tdosomething-
rightmywholelifewillgotoshitandI'llbeforcedtocommitBarricidebeforemillions
andmillionsofnetreadersbecauseI'mjustauseless,manic-depressivederelictof
societywithoutlife,purpose,ormeaning..." kind of really cool guys,
that's all.  ;)

Greg

--
(: (: (: (: Have you overdosed on smileys today?  Why NOT!?! :) :) :) :)
(: 	"Yeah, if improving the system is screwing the user base,     :)
(:	 you all need to be screwed more often." -Dave Haynie	      :)
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