Jason Compton
Communications Manager Amiga
(and all other interested parties @)
VIScorp
111 N. Canal Street, Suite 933
Chicago, Illinois 60606
RE: VIScorp request for input. Aug. 11, 1996
Mr. Compton,
Sometimes history can blind people to what the future holds.
History can also hold the key to removing the blindness. But to find
the key in history takes effort and honesty.
I recently re-joined Amiga Atlanta. I was asked what my original
member number was but I didn't recall. Well I found my original card,
but there was no number. The date was interesting though, it shows
it's been exactly ten years to the month between my membership in
Amiga Atlanta. I still have my A1000 and also own a 4000 by Commodore.
Least on my list for keeping the A1000 is sentiment but topping my
list is the far to low current market value. Even the A4000 went up in
value, and quite a bit, after Commodore went under but the A1000 has
something no other Amiga has.
The real question is WHY? Why has the Amiga survived thru so
much turmoil? Why has it gone thru so much turmoil? Commodore is
history and there is only one thing to note about Commodore and the
Amiga, and that is it was Commodore who bought it from a company out
of financial resources and brought it to market. But Commodore is
history that blinds so many.
The answer to the above whys is not going to be found in
Commodores history. The answers will be found at a former company
named Amiga. The birth place of not the Amiga but the Vision for a
computer. The place where the vision was sparked and evolved. It is
this spirit of vision that is inherently part of the Amiga. This
spirit of vision was built into the computer. It is also this spirit
of vision that is so damned hard to identify or accept as a physical
reality and the real answer to the whys above. The original and pure
(early evolution) vision for the computer has been tainted/crippled by
Commodore and this was not hidden for long but long enough to get it
past Commodore. Workbench 1.2's hidden messages, specifically the
message along the lines of - we made it, they fucked it up!
Now I would be supprised to find the original visionaries of
this computer to not have had their vision and visionary abilities also
tainted/crippled from all that has happened over the years. But each
of them can still get it back, at least long enough to re-capture the
vision so others can correct/heal and even go far beyond the current
and very real physical manifestation of their original vision.
The Amiga computer has, by far, more that was done right about
it than what was done wrong. It is what was done right that is why the
Amiga insist on surviving, what was done wrong that has caused
turmoil. The wrongs, though they may have been caused by management
pressure, show up mostly in the face of end-users. People whom know alot
is right about the Amiga but also know or sence something is wrong or
not quite right. End users whom don't really know what all was wrongly
sacrificed, don't know enough to give the correct answer to what to do
to correct it. NO MATTER HOW OFTEN THEY ARE ASKED! And asking
end-users what they want in the next Amiga is not going to correct the
real problems.
The Amiga is a well integrated system and this helps hide
what's wrong. Integrated within the Amiga are many good things but a
a few bad as well. And the integration makes it difficult to pin down
what is wrong. Perhaps it's the integration itself that was sacrificed,
not completely thought out "full circle"? Close but not quite full
circle. (MORE ON THIS IN A MOMENT)
Jason, I am not at all supprised with your statement that
former Amiga users are the hardest to get back. These are the users
whom saw the promise of the vision but were let down very hard by what
they now view as a false promise that took much from them in both time
and money and perhaps even more. You will find, if you look, these users
are still not satisfied with what ever system they have gone to, if any.
And thinking about the Amiga hurts them a great deal, mostly in knowing
how damn close the Amiga is to the vision, far more so than any other
system. And so it is, by turning and focusing away from the vision -
out of sight, out of mind, away from pain. The promise was never of
what the Amiga could do for the user, but what the user could do
with it for themselves and even more important -> others.
The general history of computers has been what they could do
for the users, but the Amiga presented users with a promise of opening
the door to the future. This difference is what set the Amiga clearly
apart from all others. And that difference is not what the Amiga can
do for the user but what the user can do with it to create a better
future for themselves and others.
TO REMOVE ALL DOUBTS ABOUT THIS: Take a clear hard look at
where and how the Amiga has changed the future. Place yourself back
eleven years ago and look into the future eleven years. See and know
not only where and how but who, the type of users whom caused change
and created the future of today. Know why it was the Amiga that was
used and why other systems were not. Imagine what wouldn't be today
if the Amiga didn't exist. The best known example is of course in
the video industry, but it is far from being the only example.
However, the Amiga could have done alot more in these last eleven
years, more than you can imagine.
Jason, just playing around with Workbench lacks vision. You
DO NOT lack vision Jason, you see it and it is what inspires you to
play around with Workbench. But the vision is so increadably huge that
you are consumed by it, pulled into it. And from inside you cannot see
it all at once. You can turn and look in any direction and see parts
of it, possibilities, as so many others have. But also from inside you
cannot see what is wrong, though you do sence it. Only from the
outside can you see what is wrong, but to see from the outside you
must know what the vision is. The vision is the same as it was so long
ago, but sight of the vision was lost, sacrificed in order to get the
Amiga to market.
The vision is this: "The Vision of allowing ALL USERS to achieve
their Visions within the inherent and obivious physical constraints of
their system and attached devices." Of all visions this vision is the
most difficult to acheive. For it requires the ability to recognize
and allow for the visions, both visions yet to be imagined and visions
unknown to those achieving this vision. To allow for the unknown!
IT'S TIME TO REMOVE THE CRUTCHES, OPEN THE DOOR ALL THE WAY AND
COMPLETELY FULLFILL THE PROMISE OF THE AMIGA! THIS MEANS NO EXCEPTION,
NO SACRIFICES, AND AGAIN no sacrifices!
Some eight or so years ago I sat down at my Amiga 1000 to do
something I thought would be simple to do. Certainly the Amiga could
do this! I had seen enough to know it can. All the parts were there
and more. All working just fine. But I discovered the falseness in
the promise. I couldn't get the parts to work together. I knew and
still know that the Amiga can do this, so I set out to figure it out.
What I discovered in my search was that certainly the Amiga can do
this but so could other systems, only the Amiga can do it much better
for the price/performance and was what inspired me in the first place.
But it still has not been done! Before I go into the basic few
reasons why, it should be understood that these reasons should never
have existed on the Amiga to begin with. But do as a clear result of
rushing the development of the OS and maybe some (minor in comparison to
all that was done right) of the hardware in order to get the Amiga to
market. That in the rush the depth and width of the concentrated thought,
put into developing the OS, was sacrificed and never fully looked back on
and corrected. Causing the promise to fall short.
Although I have plenty, more than I need, of education and
knowledge about computer hardware and software to know what I set out to
do can be done, the few basic reasons why I haven't are:
I haven't been working in the field of hardware or software
development and as such the time it would take me to gain
the experience and do it outweights available finances. I do
know those with experience could do this much faster than it
would take me to do so. However, what I have spent time on is
defining what it is I sat down at my A1000 to do. Something
that needs to be done anyway but my doing this is more so to
communicate to others (without being able to show it working
on a computer - for an obvious reason) what needs to be done.
Basicly writing the manual, which require a depth and width
of concentration far greater than if I had the application to
refer to. And the real kicker of all of this is, is that this
manual just defines the foundation elements and their intergrated
configuration. What I sat down to do on my A1000 was to make use
of this configuration rather than have to build it. The parts of
which exist, at least in basic forms but still usuable, one
would think.
At this point in this document I should make it clear that what I
set out to do can be done without any changes to the Amiga (any of them)
or any of it's OS's. But it is in recognizing the level of difficulty that
I also recognize the why the Amiga has fallen short of its promise. The
vision was real, people saw and understood it, a promise was made in so
many ways that even the Amiga itself was saying it in so many ways. A
promise made by those whom had the vision BUT WERE NOT GIVEN THE TIME
TO DO IT RIGHT. Distracted and rushed to the point of forgetting to go
just a little deeper and wider in thought as to what needed to be done.
Rushed into forgetting to apply the spark of vision that started it
all. Leaving the end users to deal with it in frustration as I have
all to often. Trying to bootstrap something that shouldn't need it.
A system that should have had included in it's integration something
that wasn't included.
Imagine how things might be today had enough time to do it right
was given, if you can. One thing that would likley not exist is the
Amigas well known system crash or guru meditation caused by an
application. Think for a moment why it was called a "Guru Meditation" when
it could have been a "Program Intelligence Gone and OUT or PIGOUT" or
something humorious to signify an application failure and removal with
perhaps a file created named "process#.pigout" with details. Point
being - a disciple meditation should not cause a guru meditation. The
disciple "Commodore" whom caused a guru meditation "the visionary
developers" from being able to meditate - think it out correctly - So in
return the developers let the Amiga say so and remind everyone what should
have but didn't happen.
Certainly there remains a file named commodore.pigout and maybe but
hopefully just an almost one named escom.pigout. As humorious as this may
be it's worth recognizing the fact the visionaries were so good at what
they were doing that what happened showed up in their work, including the
why. The heart, soul and spirit of the visionaries and vision is almost
all there in the Amiga. It just needs to be completed or taken "full
circle".
What is missing from the integration of the Amiga is more than a
better handeling of crashes, but something that would have inherently
made handeling crashes much easier and natural as well as an overall
performance increase for many and in many ways. A fulfilled promise.
Now I wasn't there in the beginning, nor do I know all the details
of the Amiga's internal evolution or thought processes of the
visionaries. So I cannot say where the problem(s) specificically are,
but I do know it has to do with integration of the system and is more
so in the OS than in the hardware. Hardware will evolve, that's a
given, but the fundamental process(s) of the OS should be established
undeniable constants, only these fundamental processes were not
complete/completely thought out, integrated in light of the original
vision of visions.
The reason topping my list of why I still have my A1000 is that it
boots from a kickstart disk! The OS has not been set in stone or
silicon if you want to be specific. And although those Amigas that
have it set in stone may be able to have the ROM bypassed, the A1000
is obivious and direct about it. An interesting note I have made to
myself is that when the C64 was first produced no-one dared dream that
it would someday have a GUI, certainly never in 64K right? Wrong,
someone came to have a vision that no one else saw! Know what I mean
by "no scarifices".
In bringing this document to a close I will say that I cannot
communicate all that I have thought of, taken into consideration in
regards to the Amiga and what I have a vision (that started over eight
years ago) of doing, but knowing it can be done. I can communicate no
more than the visionaries of the Amiga can communicate all they
invisioned in the early days of the spark of vision and all that has
happen and been thought of. But I can communicate what I have available
and in the hope it will help complete the yet to be complete full cycle of
the Amiga promise and if not the Amiga than a system inherently full cycled.
There are other text files included on this disk, please read them.
A few closing notes:
Jason, it was asked and you responded to the question "is VIScorp
hiring?" Your responce was yes and you elaborated on it. You stated
that at this stage of the business many were being hired as consultants
without the current need to re-locate.
Now I'm not making a request or application for employment,
however with what you and any others at VIScorp, that read through the
contents of this disk, should know is that if there was any one thing
I would like to be doing with my time, it is by far, doing something
to help evolve the vision/application I have mentioned above and have
included text files on. Although I have tried to communicate this vision
to companies and people around the world, I have yet to have the
opportunity to communicate to others in person and with the media of a
large chalk/marker board. To actually step through the process(s) in
an environment of direct productive feed back (and forth).
Also, as to the VIScorp logo and Amiga check mark integration.
Personally and quite honestly, I knew you were going to say checkmark
before you did. You could have said ball. Anyway, that's a damn good
move. Actually its really quite simple, though there are variations,
but also something new and very important not to forget.
The checkmark is the "V" in VIScorp. but with a curve to the right
and perhaps down a bit. This curve is within the orange to red area
leaving the red end with a diagonal (left top to bottom right) cap.
Though leaving the checkmark as it is, is ok, let's give it some sex
appeal (curve). If done right "IScorp" is raised just enough to
allow "AMIGA" to be streached below it in a way that also allows the
corp "O" to dot or be pedistal by the Amiga "I". But here's what's new and
important not to forget. Although there are five colors in the checkmark
- blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, a color is missing (on my
Amiga credit card - where colors are clearly defined or at least vauge
on other checkmarks) that prevents the full cycle of the color wheel. And
that color is purple, so with this in mind, pay attention to details and
dot your "I" with at least the spectrum side that contains purple in the
middle, if not all purple. The "O" already defines where color may be
placed. On the fun only side and with hope it won't be taken wrong
"Visual Information Services" might be internally seen as "Vision
Integration Systems" which would be consistant with the original
vision and VIScorps willingness and request for input from everyone.
Timothy Rue
timrue@mindspring.com
P.S. As perhaps a reminder of who I am, I'm the one at the AAi meeting
that asked "what's a set top box?". Actually I had a pretty good
idea but the important thing was that I wanted to know what of
the Amiga technology (though perhaps hidden from the end user of
the set top box) was going to help support the apparent evolution
needs of the Amiga desktop computer. Realizing both will help
each other evolve and are somewhat married in much technology.
P.S.S. I always saw the AmigaCD32 as an ideal, inexpensive, easy to
use and act as a quick backup for use in interactive tradeshow
displays as well as kiosks use. My question would be "was it
ever even test marketed for such". Of course this might be a
pointless question now except there is the set-top box or
perhaps some easy cross point between the AmigaCD32 and the set
top box. Just an experienced thought. Of course the development
platform would naturally be the Amiga desk-top computer.
Email: timrue@mindspring.com
Copyright © 1988, 1994, 1996 Timothy V. Rue