Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: RobertB on March 18, 2008, 12:55:16 PM
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-- Forwarded message --
From: SDF Poster
Date: Mar 17, 11:30 am
Hey, here is a cool video of jeri ellsworth on
a local news report:
http://blip.tv/file/749800/
-- End message --
[To be exact, the report is from KGW-TV in Portland, OR, and Jeri speaks
a bit about her history and the creation of the C64 DTV 30-games-in-one joystick.]
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Cool! Also check out this lecture at Stanford University (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1053309060448851979) where she tells you about herself, her story and a little bit about the C64 DTV.
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Interesting, considering the cynicism in our community, would anyone buy new amiga compatible hardware off QVC shopping channel? Does anybody watch QVC?
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Anyone ever seen her girlfriend?
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from December 21st, 2004 :-o
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alexh wrote:
Anyone ever seen her girlfriend?
I don't know if it would be appropriate to discuss personal matters.. :smack:
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redrumloa wrote:
alexh wrote:
Anyone ever seen her girlfriend?
I don't know if it would be appropriate to discuss personal matters.. :smack:
I don't care, as long as I can watch... anyway, don't ruin it for me Alex :-)
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@A6000
You didn't have to watch, you could order online. :-D
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I notice a complete lack of absence of credits to those who worked with her.
She didnt do it by herself and yet in all interviews she's making out like she was a one woman team.
No mention of Jens Schoenfeld who co designed C-One FPGA platform she would initially work on.
No mention of the ASIC engineers which converted the HDL into a real physical chip.
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@alexh
From the short video clip they did not have the time for a full indepth look at the C-One and all of the contributors. It mainly focused on Jeri. I'm sure they/Jeri did not intentionally withhold kudos to the others.
@jeri ellsworth - I share your passion for the old days of computing. The late 70's and earlier 80's were magical times of exploration and discoveries. They did not end there, but those days were the greatest. :-D
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She used the phrase "This is the chip I designed" instead of "we designed". Could have been a slip of the tongue. Difficult when you're under the spotlight.
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alexh wrote:
She used the phrase "This is the chip I designed" instead of "we designed". Could have been a slip of the tongue but I doubt it.
Yes, I noticed this too... what is clear is that she's a salesman/entrepreneur first, electronic engineer second.
The C64 recreation is far more interesting to the geek fraternity when it's promoted by a single pretty woman... Than the technically more challenging Minimig, which was built by a single bloke...
It's all about Marketing, if you listen carefully and cross reference all interviews, she does lapse into "Our chip"... Call me cynical, but I think that's just her slipping off the official line ;-)
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I liked the Stanford lecture, but boy she had some tough times :-o Glad it worked out for her. She reminds me of myself when I was younger, also ripped things apart (still do :-D ) and got picked on @ highschool, didn't use a book though to earn respect but a fist :madashell:
Anywho, she needs to eat better, she looked soo skinny :-(
ow and my bed is your bed Jeri
um
did I say that aloud?? :lol: :-D
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Jerry the ultimate commodore fan dream. :crazy: :crazy:
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bloodline wrote:
Yes, I noticed this too... what is clear is that she's a salesman/entrepreneur first, electronic engineer second.
Yes, she does indeed have good business sense, which seems to be lacking in this community. I for one would like companies to survive so that I could, say, actually call them up rather than searching the net for old drivers, docs, etc.
Jeri is courteous, honest, and sincere, which is more than I can say for a lot of other people. And her personal life, like mine, is none of your business.
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alexh wrote:
She used the phrase "This is the chip I designed" instead of "we designed". Could have been a slip of the tongue. Difficult when you're under the spotlight.
Well I can tell you that in the Toy Industry no one gets's credit on the packaging or even the instruction sheets.
It's structured very much like Atari in the early 80's. Sales and marketing folks get the salaries and perks while the product designers and engineers are asked to cut costs and bear the full effect of cost reductions... forget about royalty payments.
I remember seeing credits to the hardware and software folks on the C-64 DTV screens. Also that was manufactured in Asia, few companies want to divulge what factories they're using overseas.
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@alexh,
Girlfriend - Eh? Am I missing something here - or is that some sort of nerd-fantasy?
Mike.
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mingle wrote:
@alexh,
Girlfriend - Eh? Am I missing something here - or is that some sort of nerd-fantasy?
Mike.
Nerd überfantasy, me thinks...
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mingle wrote:
Girlfriend - Eh? Am I missing something here - or is that some sort of nerd-fantasy?
No. It was a homophobic, insensitive comment about her undisputed sexuality designed to provoke a response.
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hardlink wrote:
Yes, she does indeed have good business sense
Based on what (I've read) she claimed she earned from the C64 DTV deal I would say not. I am sure Jeri wouldn't do it that way again had she known how successful it was going to be.
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alexh wrote:
mingle wrote:
Girlfriend - Eh? Am I missing something here - or is that some sort of nerd-fantasy?
No. It was a homophobic, insensitive comment about her sexuality designed to promote a response.
Sometimes it's fun being English... Sadly few will get our sense of humour... :roll:
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bloodline wrote:
...
Sometimes it's fun being English... Sadly few will get our sense of humour... :roll:
Chuck and The Office (UK version!!!) are golden :-D
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alexh wrote:
> Based on what she claimed she earned from the C64 DTV deal I would say
> not. I am sure she wouldn't do it that way again had she known how
> successful it was going to be
Explain with specifics.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
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@alexh
I notice a complete lack of absence of credits to those who worked with her.
She didnt do it by herself and yet in all interviews she's making out like she was a one woman team.
No mention of Jen's Schoenfeld who's C-One FPGA gave her a platform to initially work on.
No mention of the ASIC engineers which converted the HDL into a real physical chip.
Who worked with her? I thought she did it all by herself. She made the c-one. That was her whole deal. I don't remember anything about Schoenfeld giving her a c-one to work with. I dunno what HDL is, but if it's chip design lingo, then in my limited knowledge of that stuff, I devise the question: do we really care what engineers put together our EEPROM's together? No. I guess if we're on the naming kick, how about we list all the workers in the Chinese factory where she went to oversee the production of the joystick.
I'll be :roll: until someone gives me new info.
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RobertB wrote:
Explain with specifics.
She took a salaried job with Mammoth Toys, probably around the $75k/year (average for an ASIC engineer).
Had she tried to do it on her own, find funding, use a Chinese/Indian chip design company and then taken a percentage of the sales she could have made potentially millions.
But everything is clear with hindsight. I am sure she was just really happy to be getting paid for what she loved to do. Probably had no idea how well it would go on to sell.
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weirdami wrote:
Who worked with her? I thought she did it all by herself. She made the c-one. That was her whole deal.
Exactly. That's crap. Jeri worked alongside some of the greatest minds in homebrew and classic hardware, to get going with the FPGA and then work with specialised VLSI engineers to make the chips.
weirdami wrote:
I don't remember anything about Schoenfeld giving her a c-one to work with.
From what I have read, she had the original idea of recreating the C64 in an FPGA. (Hats off). I would imagine that she played with the various FPGA devkits of the time, found non satisfactory and so Jeri created the specifications and schematics of what an FPGA board would need to be able to do and Schoenfeld designed, routed and built (with input from Jeri along the way) the C-1 PCB to enable her to do it.
Jeri went on to create the initial HDL (hardware description language) core of the C64 image for the C-1. That's the big bit of work she put in. The push to reverse engineer the chips from inspection and technical documentation and turn into VHDL/Verilog for programming onto the FPGA. Again hats off, it was a very impressive feat. But I am sure she didnt work solo on this either.
Then she then took the job at Mammoth Toys where together with other engineers who specialised in chip design they took her HDL (made improvements) into the chips that are on the various C64DTV units.
weirdami wrote:
I devise the question: do we really care what engineers put together our EEPROM's together?
Of course we do. I dont claim to know exactly what went on, I wasnt there, wasnt involved at all. Everything I know is all hearsay, but as a hardware engineer it smells a bit fishy.
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alexh wrote:
> She took a salaried job with Mammoth Toys, probably around the
> $75k/year (average for an ASIC engineer).
Ah, I see that you are guessing.
> Had she tried to do it on her own, find funding, use a Chinese/Indian chip
> design company and then taken a percentage of the sales she could have
> made potentially millions.
Uh, Mammoth Toys came to her, not the other way around.
> But everything is clear with hindsight. I am sure she was just really happy
> to be getting paid for what she loved to do. Probably had no idea how
> well it would go on to sell.
Again more guessing.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
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alexh wrote:
> Jeri worked alongside some of the greatest minds in homebrew and classic
> hardware, to get going with the FPGA and then work with specialised VLSI
> engineers to make the chips.
Name them.
> I dont claim to know exactly what went on, I wasnt there, wasnt involved at
> all. Everything I know is all hearsay...
Agreed.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
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alexh wrote:
Ah, I see that you are guessing.
I am not guessing that she took a salaried job. When asked (in some interview) if Jeri had made lots of money off the back of C64DTV it was written she had been paid as an employee/contractor.
alexh wrote:
Uh, Mammoth Toys came to her, not the other way around.
Did I say otherwise?
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Can we please stop delving into the privates lives of active members of our community? I don't think it is appropriate, it borderlines on breaking the TOS :rtfm: (http://www.amiga.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=18)
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>The C64 recreation is far more interesting to the geek >fraternity when it's promoted by a single pretty woman... >Than the technically more challenging Minimig, which was >built by a single bloke...
Oh, she is single? Cool, does anyone have her email address then? ;)
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alexh wrote:
> I am not guessing that she took a salaried job. When asked (in some
> interview)...
Where exactly?
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
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when i will buy amiga inc, i want jeri ellsworth president.
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D