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Disclaimer:
All the information presented here, was taken from the following sources:
Brain Bagnal's Book
On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore.
Available at Amazon.ca
The new edition had been delayed at Amazon until Feb.2010
Also, a lot of information has come from Video interviews with Bil Herd and Dave Haynie. Dave has a lot of videos on You-Tube. Search them out.. I wish I could post them here, but I don't have permission.
Lastly, more sites on the net have information. There are even a few dedicated sites to the C16. Do a Goggle search, because Bing is just a flash in the pan.:)
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Friday, August 28, 2009
The COST of doing business
Its early in the morning on Friday and boy am I getting a ton of Flack over yesterday's blog. I first want to say: I do know the difference between the development cost of a product and the actual manufacturing cost. While Jens and the whole Indivision team should be commended on the fine work with their products, the final product is just to expensive at $140 to justify itself.
This is an item which should go in every Amiga. Period.
The Commodore CRT's won't last forever and this is a perfect replacement product.
People are flamming me about my stand on the price and are wondering why I am saying such things. I really never have commented before on AmigaKits pricing, and up to a few weeks ago, I didn't really care all that much about the price as long as it worked.
NOW, I have the ear of a true Amiga Hardware manufacture and I am hearing what the production cost of Items are. I am also sitting down and designing hardware with them to bring to the on-line store at an affordable price where everyone is happy. Because we have so many Items "on Deck" right now, to bring an ECS Flicker -Fixer in, would just not be feasible now, but in a year, yes. Once we know what the component costs are, we can bring it to the public at an affordable price (I am aiming at a $80 retail price range).
Now, just remember Commodore's Philosophy: Computers for the masses, not the Classes. This has been lost over the years.
With products like the SAM board, where you need to mortgage you house to get one, to the mini-mig, the only product you can get where the "REAL" Amigas it emulates are 4 times cheaper than the board itself (Talk about a useless and way overpriced item). One can sit back and see that hardware prices are getting way out of the price range of a weekend Amigain.
Yet, if we want the Amiga to become "Mainstream" again, we must take the prices down to earth. No wonder past products like the Beos, Pegagsis 1, Amiga one etc failed to catch on in the market place. The greed of the pricing made them undesirable to the average consumer.
Lets take the SAM for example. Current pricing is so out to lunch on JUST the motherboard, that only a handful will ever be sold. This is probably a good thing, as it looks like only a handful are produced and in a year from now, it will be an item of history and a good seller on e-bay. Simple math shows that if they really wanted for the SAM to make a foothold and become a viable Amiga product, they would drop the price of the motherboard to a price comparable to a high end ASUS board and they would sell a ton more. Like I said on the boards "would you rather sell 30 boards at a profit of $50/unit or 1000 boards at a profit of $10/unit"
Simple economics (and math) dictates the lower the cost, the higher the unit sales.
Now, it may have looked like I was bashing AmigaKit yesterday solely on the pricing. For that I apologize. AmigaKit is just a retailer, and their prices are dictated by the manufacturer's cost. I still say that the price is outrageous, but this is not AmigaKit's fault, they have to make money also.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Windows 7- The begining of the end for Microsoft, and more on the Indivision ECS
So today was a much needed day off. I spent it in Coffee meetings with a bunch of IT guys. We have all come to the same Conclusion. Windows 7 is Windows ME ver.3.0 or Vista re-loaded. In other words, the death Kneel of Microsoft.
I was surprised that they all came to the same conclusion, and it will shock you! We all are promoting it heavily to new computer users!
Why? Its because we REFUSE to support it or VISTA, so instead of idiots calling us for help at all hours, they have to spend big $$$ getting the geek squad out or they have to take it in to Best Buy or such. Now why would we turn down paying customers for tech support you may ask. Simple, the "Average" computer user is becoming dumber and much more stupid over the last few years. They know not to go to certain sites, they know not to load certain programs, but they keep getting more and more viruses and root kits. Their answer is load up more anti-virus programs, double and triple "Internet security" programs and such, and when they can't get on Facebook or Twiter, they call us. Not just once but average of 3-6 times a day. It wouldn't be bad if these people PAID us for our time, but they want it all for free.
I have 3 clients that phone at least 6 time a day for me to hold their hand. The final straw was last Saturday at 3 am one of these guys called because his "F8" key was not working and he refused to do what I was telling him.
Sooo... Get VISTA, Get the upgrade and pay some young guy big $$$ for support. Or better yet just buy a new notebook (dirt cheap these days- less then $250 at Wal-mart) and give the old one to me. Heck, I will even pay up to $50 for your virus infected laptop or net book, but your "problem" with your computer, I could not give a rat's ass about, unless I get that 900 telephone number.
I give Microsoft 5 years. It will take then 2 more years to realise that Windows 7 is yet another gigantic turd, although the turd runs now on much more hardware. When the big companies are still running XP and demanding it in 2 years, Microsoft maybe then will scramble and "update" XP, but for now, they just will keep their heads in the sand about the whole thing.
 Yesterday, I brought you news of the new Indivision ECS card. Now Amigakit is taking pre orders for October. I was planning to get at least 6, but AmigaKit's price is $140 each. In my mind this is just hi-way Robbery and I would expect this from some sleazy dealer on Ebay, NOT AmigaKit. This card should be no more than $99. Tops. I would have priced these at $69 and sold a ton of them. At $140 they will sell, but not very many people will buy 2 cards to get dual monitors. They are shooting themselves in the head at this price. I probably will buy just one for my A1000 now, but I just shake my head at such retarded pricing.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
NEWS:Indivision ECS update
Well, My quest for the A1000 Xetec drive has not been going anywhere. I have been working on it though. I also got Mikes A600 done, but the 4x EIDE'99 Buffered interface I ordered from Amiga kit seems to be dead. I am not sure if I need to install the drivers for it, but the CF drive Will boot without it, and with it, the A600 can't see the Drive at all. It is acting like a wall at this point. Its a shame I spent over $50 on it and it is useless (again!) on an A600. This is no big shock, as MOST of the stuff is made for an A1200, and it is sold as "working" on an A600, when infact they are 2 different beasts. It is so frustrating to see this. IF the instruction sheet says "A1200" the dealers should sell it as A1200 ONLY.
Too be fair Amigakit is NOT the only one who does this, I had a "Dealer" on Ebay from the UK send be 3 packages so far with possible A600 floppy drive mounting brackets, and each time he keeps sending me A1200 ones, and I keep sending them back. If it wasn't for Amigakit picking up the ball on that one, I still wouldn't have them mounted.
A few hours ago, more information was released about the upcoming Indivision ECS Flicker fixer card. Apparently, you can piggy back them and run 2 separate monitors, with different screens! Sort of like SLI for the Amiga. They are working on a program to extend the workbench screen to both monitors. Also, it looks like the A1000 will need an adapter, the A3000 will need the battery removed, and a slight soldering mod will be needed on an A2000 with a revision 4 motherboard.
Also, to separate the cards, there is just one jumper stating card 1 or 2.
 
This is wicked news and hopefully they will be ready for sale soon:
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Day Off!
So today is my day off. I am going to be working on my A600's and hopefully wrap them up and then see what more I can do with the XETEC hard drive system. I was spelling it Zetec in my last blogs, so hopefully that clears up come confusion.
Yesterday, and this morning I had an interesting e-mail with THEE Bil Herd. Bil actually answered my e-mail, and stopped by the blog. If you don't know who Bil Herd is, Shame on you and get the book "On the Edge" By Brian Bagnal. Bil was one of the key hardware guys at Commodore and has worked on the TED, C128 and others (I hate to use the word responsible for- but he did some amazing shite!- all under enormous pressure, deadlines, and lets face it -unrealistic goals ) Someday, I want to interview him for the Magazine, but that will have to wait for a while, both his an my schedules are booked for a bit, so unless i can get him on skype and record the conversation and then later transcribe it into print, it will have to wait.
Funny aside to this is I have study the book in depth and read it over a dozen times. In the book, Bil looks like a young Tommy Chong (hopefully that won't offend him). Below is him with Dave Diorio.
Now, seeing picture of Dave Haynie and most of the rest of the Commodore crew, you would think that he looks the same, just a bit older and maybe shorter hair.
But no, today he looks like a fireman or a paramedic (which he is/was) and If I didn't see a new picture of him, I wouldn't have recongnized him at all. As oposed to Dave Haynie which seems to never age :)
Here he is on the left with Bob Russell and Brian Bagnal displaying the book "On the Edge".
Anyways, he should have "modern" pictures of him in the book, just incase we would ever run into each other.
I also got a call from IBM yesterday, it looks like I have another 8 week contract to do roll outs for the Alberta Gov't again, maby starting September first, so that and my regualr job, I will be working 16 hours a day for 2 months. JOY, but I can't turn down that kind of pay.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
A1000 unpacking
Today, I got up early and unpacked everything. I was a bit disappointed that the books and manuals were missing from the boxes except the Fast Track documentation and a manual for "Flight Simulator".
I also have 2 different Dongles with it. I suspect one is for Word Perfect, but I will have to contact the ex -owners as to find out what they are for. I also have the original box for the 1050 Ram expansion Module, No big deal, but a box in nice shape is hard to find. The 1010 External Floppy drive had an original Price of $399! Man this set up must have cost a small fortune back in 1987. Notice, no yellowing!
After clearing off the bench, the First thing I did was hook up the Genlock unit.
Yes crappy photo's today, the good camera was being borrowed.
I then connected all the back cables, and external drive and even hooked up a second monitor through the genlock unit. The picture through the RCA cable isn't as crisp on the other Amiga monitor, but for now it will do just fine, as it is for testing only.
I then turned it all around. You can just make it out, but the hard drive has a touch of yellowing. I then hooked up the side Scsi attachment. I took the cover off and it does indeed have the extra Ram card, with 2 simms. I am not sure how much extra ram though. The CD-Rom is not hooked up. 
Looks great. Now to turn it on, but as my luck always goes, nothing happened! I powered up the SCSI drive first, and then the Amiga. -Nothing but a grey screen. I then shut everything down and unplugged the Fast Track from the side and it booted up no problems. I watched the EA Kaleidoscope demo disk, then proceeded to try again. Sometimes it goes to a kickstart screen then nothing but a grey screen, I suspect the drive itself has given up the ghost over the years and needs to be replaced. I will take the books with me tonight at work and try to troubleshoot the issue. More tommorow.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Boxed A1000
It is 12:30 am and I just got home from work, so please forgive the bad photos. Not much has bee happening with my Amiga's this week. I have been busy with clients, and nothing really has come in from China yet, just some CD-rom Adaptors.
Today, Just before the Amicue meeting and work, I got in a BOXED Amiga A1000. the box is a bit warn , and written on, but EVERYTHING was boxed.
I just opened the A1000 box and only the keyboard seems to have a bit of yellowing on it. It also came with the correct, original mouse.
I also got a 1080 monitor: 
And an A1010 External Floppy drive:
There is another plain white box that has a Zetec 10-000 Hard drive. Yes a hard drive. The BBOH doesn't have pictures of it , so when I get a chance to set it up Monday morning, I will take better photos of it. Probably am MFM drive, but the box is almost as big as the A1000 box itself. I also got a few other boxes with software. More Monday as I work a double shift tomorrow, and I won't be able to get at it properly.
UPDATE:
Sunday morning:
I opened the Zetec Box. I don't have all that much time for pictures, but the closest I found was under the Zetec Fast Card contoller on the BBOAH.
Yes, take away the A500 and put a small Metal U-shape bracket on the bottom of the Fast Track controller (to raise it up to the hight of an A1000) and you have the 10-000. The photo shows 2 Hard drive units. You can put a CD -rom into the housing also (I would suspect) so this obvoiusly holds potential.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Introducing the New Kickstart Magazine /newsletter
Its no secret. I have been working on the sidelines to put a Amiga based magazine /newsletter out, that I would want to read. Well, I can't quite say it's perfect yet, far from it. But with a week turn around time from pitch to a paper copy, I have been working hard.
This is a magazine for the Amiga public, BY the Amiga public, not just me. So I invite, and if I have to DARE you all to take 5 minutes ad write down an article. It can be anything Amiga related. Tips for the new bee's, the latest Iphone/Amiga game converstions, Step- by -step walk Thu guides, Comic strips or even just pictures sent in of your rig. Remember, this is YOUR magazine also.
The Magazine will be published once a month, no matter how big it is, and you can get a PDF copy Here. (In Fact HERE is the first issue) Mind you it is just a rough "first issue".
I planed to use Amiga's own Pagestream software, but the "Demo" kept crashing in Windows, so I guess I will have to dig up my old copy of Quark Express to do it properly for 4 color seps., for if it goes well, I plan to have it printed up on high quality magazine stock, -if the magazine hits 50 pages or more. Remember this is a totally Free publication, for now, there will be no subscriptions, heck we don't even have a sponsor, so you will have to hit this site around the first of the month to get it.
I welcome questions, comments and such, you can e-mail me at the website's usual address (amiga(AT)amigalounge.com.
UPDATE:
DUE to lack of any real interest by anyone other than myself to contribute to the magazine, it has been scrapped.
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