Every year I say that I won't go and every year I do. Where to? The annual
March meeting of Amiga users. My reluctance is based on the dwindling number
of vendors and users of Amiga products. It just hurts me to see how few of
us are left who still bother to show up at Amiga events. In the final analysis,
I go because the Amiga users who do attend are truly special and creative with
lots of interesting stories and a hope for the future.
This year's March meeting , called Amiga Expo, was held in Baltimore, Maryland
and hosted by Kermit Woodall of ImageFx fame. Turn-out was much lighter than
in previous years, possibly due to the fact that it was held from Good Friday
through Easter Sunday and overlapped Passover as well.
Bob Sharp, who usually holds meetings this time of year in St. Louis, claimed
that he would be unable to organize a repeat of last year's successful event
because he and his wife were adopting a child. However, Bob and his wife were
able to attend Amiga Expo, bouncing around a 1 year-old baby boy, clearly
attempting to indoctrinate the kid early in the ways of the Amiga.
The hotel, which was about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore by commuter
rail, had all the amenities one expects from a Marriott and the rate was
very reasonable as well. Amiga vendors occupied a meeting room on the
ground floor while Amiga classes were held downstairs.
Amiga Expo 2002 featured some welcome departures from the past. For one, people were given name tags and, even if these were hand
written, at least we knew who each other was. Second, vendors were allowed
to begin selling their wares on Friday night rather than having to wait until
10:00 A.M. on Saturday morning. Although there weren't a lot of new products,
each of us found something. For example, I bought a scan doubler/flicker-fixer
housed in a clever see-through case which immediately returned to me all the
Amiga modes I lost when I replaced my multi-sync monitor with a fancy LCD
flat screen.
There were about 18 vendors present. Some of the larger ones included
Compuquick, Mr. Hardware, and -- surprise, surprise -- Newtek. Tim Jenisen,
president of Newtek, gave a keynote speech Friday night. I do think that
it is significant that Newtek had such a large presence at Amiga Expo and
I couldn't help but wonder if there might be something in the works between
Amiga, Inc. and Newtek, just like the old days. Probably just wishful thinking.
If Newtek was conspicuous for its presence, Amiga, Inc. was conspicuous for
its absence. Although I heard people say that Amiga, Inc. people were "busy,"
I have great difficulties with this explanation. Would they have shown up if
one million dollar bills were given out? Of course.
Cloanto was present but Haage and Partner and others were not. Hyperion was
available via the Internet.
Classes were unusually well attended and I thought that most of the rumors and
gossip to be had at the meeting was to be found there. Several classes had a
Video Toaster tie-in but the coverage was wide, and an attendee had his or her
choice of presentations on Amiga Webcams, Amiga Forever 5.0, Robots, Amiga/PC
data sharing and much more. Of note was the class presented by Jeri Ellsworth
who presented the CommodoreOne, a re-engineered C64 she created on a single
board.
One of the more entertaining events was a panel discussion by former Commodore
engineers led by Dave Haynie and Andy Finkel. Learning about the missed
opportunities and last days of Commodore is an exercise in nostalgia. The
demise of Commodore is sad, tragic, and probably unnecessary. Fortunately, it
was not the demise of the Amiga. Gentlemen, it is time to move on.
The Saturday evening dinner had a warm, comforting feeling, the kind only found
among family and friends, but the hall was much less full than in previous
years. There were no guest speakers. No Jim Collas or Bill McEwen. Instead,
there was Dave Haynie singing lead in the Unplanned Swampland Band, accompanied
by Tim Jenisen of Newtek and former Commodore engineers. It was the highpoint
of the day or, some say, of the meeting.
I think I can speak for the attendees when I say that we were glad to see
those developers and vendors who were able to come and missed those who did
not. We would like to think that those who did not attend did so because of
economic reasons or because of the timing of the show and not because of some
conflict, real or imagined. Also, we would have gone bonkers had an Amiga
One prototype been able to find its way to Baltimore, but this did not occur,
much to our disappointment. The Amithlon and Amiga Forever 5.0 were there,
but it isn't the same thing.
We are a small community which appears to be marching in several directions
simultaneously. We need to maintain diversity while achieving consensus.
I will now share with you some pictures I took which of the exhibit hall on
Sunday.
April, 2002
