Reader Mail
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Reader Mail
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Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:24:02 -0300 (ADT)
From: John McKenzie <davros@ra.isisnet.com>
To: Jason Compton <jcompton@xnet.com>
Subject: Re: Amiga Report 4.07
Jason, hi.
Firstly, I hear that you were hired by Viscorp. Congradulations.
Anyway, after all this time I have finally been recieving AR and enjoying
it. Thanks. My only problem is sometimes the Uuendcoding doesn't like
what you sent me, and I have to go to the homepage. But it is still a good
read.
I wanted to comment on some things from some issues a few months ago.
I for one thought it was great that you mention the demise of Atari. It
is alot more relevant than you think. Atari's influence over both video
games and computers in general is almost inmeasurable, everyone should be
morning its passing. The video Games is obvious. The computer industry
less so but very signifigant. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozinck (sp) were
amonest its first employees and this is how they paid for intial research
into their work. Dozens of basic concepts for connecting computers to
monitors were pionered by them. (They only enforeced them when the
Tramials were desperate for money but they own the patents on things like
scrolling, grey pixels, having sound and image at the same time.)
Most improtantly to Amiga Report, Atari gave money to start up a company
that made Atari 2600 products then made their own computers. It was called
Amiga. Amiga actually made a few Atari 2600 games and other items near the
end of the 2600's lifespan. Then they did that computer thing.
Another topic;
You mentioned that Amiga made a deal with Istar for Internet access in
Canada. This is very bad and I am trying to warn everyone for has promoted
it.
Istar is the merger of a company called NSTN and some small Westren
Canadian companies. NSTN was started when the government of Nova Scotia
thought it best to amalgamate and privatize the internet administration for
the Unviersities across the provience. They would be allowed to sell
private accounts if they could do it low key and low profile allowing the
government to turn its head the other way. (I went to a University that
used them and they are a 15 minute drive from my house.)
NSTN never allowed Amiga users on-line until a few years ago when they
allowed anyone on-line, but if it wasn't an IBM you had to custome write a
script yourself. I don't believe they any longer allow VT100 connections.
If you call them and ask for help they will ask you if you have the
software they give out to customers and if you don't they will say "Thank
you for using NSTN/Istar" and hang up.
Speaking of which the software they SELL you, is sharware with a custome
script. They do not pass a cent on to the authors. This incidently is
illegal in Canada.
Amiga Users who buy the "Surfer Pack" and actually use an account with
Istar are giving money to a company that broke its mandate for its
exsistance, illegally profits off of shraware which isn't theres, and
specificly goes out of its way to promote the IBM platform and discourage
the use of any others.
(As a little amusing note, Main headquaters are located on the corner of
two streets called Brownlow Avenue and Commodore Avenue. :-))
As a modemite, student and member of the local users group I have lived
with these people in our midsts for years. This deal is as usefull for the
Amiga as AT setting up a games division and producing games soley for the
Playstation or Saturn game consoles is.
Thanks for reading.
Again, congradulations on your new job.
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From: Aleksandar Puskas <ipuskas@unsim.im.ns.ac.yu>
To: jcompton@xnet.com
Subject: Hi!
First I'd like to say hello and thanks to Amiga Report for all information
you gave to the Amiga community. During sanctions, AR was only information
source in Yugoslavia.
All I have to say is KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, and LONG LIVE AMIGA.
Reason I wrote this message is my little problem. I sent this to AR
because I really don't have anyone here to ask, and Internet is not
accessible to everyone in Yugoslavia. So I can't go to some IRC conference
or Aminet site and ask. Only possible comunication is via e-mail (or usual
mail, or if you come in-person to tell what you want <--fastest :P ).
I have a LITTLE problem with my A4000.
THE PrObLeM is overheating.
When i bought my A4000 in January 1995 it worked fine, BUT when summer came
it started to slow down. First I wondered what happened, and what is
wrong. Later I find out that CPU is overheating. I opened the cover and
pointed large fan into CPU. And 'solved' the problem. That was OK, summer
finished, came fall, then winter and my A4000 worked well. Somewhere in
between I bought CPU cooler. But the same problem showed again few weeks
ago. Again the same stuff, but CPU is COLD - WHAT NOW???
When 'THIS' happens my Amiga becomes SLOOOOOOOOOW (INCREDIBLY SLOW) and
memtransfer falls below 1.5 MB/s (normal is ~4.3MB/s). After a while it
gets stoned and only a shutdown and cooling helps.
After a closer examination of Amiga's 'hot' parts I found out that some
chips on the processor board are too hot to touch.
They are marked:
U400 (on chip=391409-01 (I think, this one is hard to read)),
U203 (391490-01), U213 (391467-01), U200 (??), U201 (??).
Actually this is the part of processor board that is THE hotest. These
chips are placed on processor board on the opposite side of CPU. FAST
memory SIMMs and CPU are hot too, but only when Amiga is stoned when I cool
down processor board they cool DOwn too (I don't cool them).
Also Zorro part of daughterboard is hottish to touch.
I noticed that Amiga slows down when playing games like F1GP or Breathless,
or doing something like OPTIMISE from QBTools. BUT ONLY WHEN AIR
TEMPERATURE IS HIGHER THEN 25 C.
My Amiga don't slow down when running WITHOUT FAST RAM.
Processor board is ver3.0 and motherboard is version B (I forgot to mention
thiz :)). Everything else is Commodore original A4000/040 pack.
Now I have few questions: Is my motherboard DEAD?, Is my processor board
dead?, WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY #@>?#!?#@ Amiga??.
If you have ANY ideas what could help me (except large fan - I figured out
that already) PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Send me a
note
Milan Belic
Yugoslavia
P.S. Sorry for BAD English.
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From: ComputerTraining.AMNY@ny.ubs.com
Date: Fri May 24 09:58:53 1996
Hey, Jason, I just read your Amiga Report editorial about "only one printed
Amiga publication". [in North America]
CROSSINGS has been published monthly for eight years. It covers issues
related to PC and Mac emulation on the Amiga.
After the next issue, I'm taking a break until fall. It will be my first
vacation from CROSSINGS in eight years. It will give me a chance to build
up the mailing list, give VIScorp a chance to get past the current lull,
and generally give me a vacation.
- Yes, this was a really stupid oversight on my part. My apologies.
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