Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: GadgetMaster on May 21, 2009, 09:23:11 AM
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No matter how much the technology world changes there is always fun to be had with Amiga computers.
For some it's a retro hobby but for some it is the only computer they ever use.
Given that other technologies have surpassed the capabilities of our favourite machines, do you find it embarrassing to admit you are still an Amiga Junkie or do you openly flout or even still evangelise it?
It would be interesting to get a snapshot of how the Amiga scene stands in this particular stage in in time.
The poll is multi choice and anonymous. Try to be as honest as possible.
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I openly and proudly flout my Amiga hobby by having my A3000 proudly on display and actively participating on this site :D
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"No I openly and proudly flout my Amiga hobby"
I even took it further than that, we needed an AT&T Unix machine at work; I took my fully installed and running A3000UX to work. She was even placed in a Dell 19" rack in between PowerEdge servers and an EMC SAN. How cool is that?! :)
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I too am open and proud about my Amiga addiction. The only thing i have hidden (mainly from my wife) is the amount of money i have spent on the recently purchased A2000HD which has joined my growing collection of Amiga's.
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The only thing i have hidden (mainly from my wife) is the amount of money i have spent on the recently purchased A2000HD which has joined my growing of Amiga's.
And you admitted that on a public forum?
Just wait until she reads this over your shoulder. :argue:
:lol:
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@Tahoe
" She was even placed in a Dell 19" rack in between PowerEdge servers and an EMC SAN. How cool is that?!"
It's so cool I wish you had taken a photo! :afro:
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Nope, I'm proud of my Amiga heritage... But it no longer enters conversation. It has now been so long since the Amiga was relavent in both my personal and professional life, no one ever makes a ref to them. Technology over 10years is off the radar!
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There's no hiding it! I have over 30 computers in the house!
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I even took it further than that, we needed an AT&T Unix machine at work; I took my fully installed and running A3000UX to work.
Where do you work?!
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My Amiga1200 is proudly on display in my front room along side the Wii and PS3. Why hide something as great as the Amiga?
Ok, it doesnt come up in conversation on a day to day basis but for the people who remember it its a great nostalgia trip. Anyone who comes to mine always asks to play on the Amiga rather than the PS3 or Wii.
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most of my amiga gear is on display permantly in my front room,
as in all over the place :-)
in fact i met a guy the other day who use to come and sortout my amiga
i havent seen him for 8yrs, and he was suprised that i still have my amiga :-)
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How could I hide it?
I have an entire room full of all my Amiga gear...
Lately I've even started taking my A4000's Cf hd to work so I can code on the miggy through Winuae at lunchtime!
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I used to have so many Amigas in my old home and showed them off now though I can`t afford to have all those Amigas but I proudly have the A1200 and CD32 in the front room, even my wife has started to show her appreciation with the Amiga. Oddly enough actually the Amiga comes up at least a few times a week in my conversations. Got good mates!
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I have a few of the Amiga shirts they sell on Ebay, and at work, I am always reading Amiga books and manuals, so I get a lot of inquires about it. Most people that are old enough to remember, are always saying how they "regret" giving up their Amiga's and have nothing but good memmories about it.
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Do you really mean flout? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flout) Or flaunt? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flaunt)
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Do you really mean flout? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flout) Or flaunt? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flaunt)
probably tout
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The only thing that embarrases me about being an Amiga user is Amiga Inc. I honestly wish that they'd hand over the reins to someone who cares.
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No matter how much the technology world changes there is always fun to be had with Amiga computers.
For some it's a retro hobby but for some it is the only computer they ever use.
Given that other technologies have surpassed the capabilities of our favourite machines, do you find it embarrassing to admit you are still an Amiga Junkie or do you openly flout or even still evangelise it?
It would be interesting to get a snapshot of how the Amiga scene stands in this particular stage in in time.
The poll is multi choice and anonymous. Try to be as honest as possible.
I'm pretty much open about my 'geeky Amiga hobby' to anyone that comes into contact with me ;) I'll admit though... not as much as I used to be. There was slightly a bit more hope ten or so years ago than there is now and that's saying something, so a hobby it definitely is.
It's always nice to take a trip into the world of nostalgia every time you switch an Amiga on. I shall always remain bitter that the Amiga has never truly been rewarded with what it deserved, but I guess that's part of the 'fun' of still using one and being part of a wonderful little community :)
Steve
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I often mention my Amigas at work.
I've been filling everyone in on my new Sam and AmigaOS 4.1.
I have worn my Amiga T-shirt at work.
I usually have an Amiga-themed backdrop on my Windows box at work. (Just today I have changed it to something else, though.)
(I have assumed that flout was intended to be flaunt.)
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"No I openly and proudly flout my Amiga hobby"
I even took it further than that, we needed an AT&T Unix machine at work; I took my fully installed and running A3000UX to work. She was even placed in a Dell 19" rack in between PowerEdge servers and an EMC SAN. How cool is that?! :)
photo, plz!
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I often mention my Amigas at work.
(I have assumed that flout was intended to be flaunt.)
I assume that if you combine flaunt + tout = flout.
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I don't hide it. There's just hardly anybody around my small town who even knows or cares about it.
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I assume that if you combine flaunt + tout = flout.
No. They're different words with completely different meanings and etymology.
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Do you really mean flout? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flout) Or flaunt? (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flaunt)
Flaunt actually. Sorry. :lol:
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I openly flaunt and actively talk about the Amiga to just about anyone that will listen. And when company comes over, they're more than likely to notice a system or two hanging about. Most of the people I know are very interested in non-mainstream computing. They barely have an awareness of it, but that gives me a chance to talk about the SAM, Pegasos, A1 OS4.1, MorphOS, AROS & Efika stuff. Only a friend or two could care less about retro computing and the advances/activity that surrounds it. Most agree though that as far as computing goes, the Amiga was something special. And when you talk about some of the aforementioned, you should see the look on their faces. The communities and new stuff going on are not too bad for a "dead" system, eh? lol
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No. They're different words with completely different meanings and etymology.
I assume if you combine scientology + mythology = etymology
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I assume if you combine scientology + mythology = etymology
If you combine the Greek "etumos" with the suffix "-logia", then you get etymology :p
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I am proud of my Amiga hobby and I mention it by any plausible occasion.
I am happy that after Atari 65XE, I fell into the hands of Amiga 500. Which was totally playable games with descent music, nearly 3D graphics, plus some smart software solutions (DO, protracker and more). And it was some 20 years ago, the time when PCs were pooping all over, especially at their then-masochistic owners.
I consider this an honour to have such a hobby, my all friends roughly at my age are too busy in their workaholism to have a hobby. Well maybe other than skiing and surfing. Or they're through it already but take most of their spare time for going to the therapy.
Also as I am an informatician, knowing and having all three systems home (fed up enough), I need something fresh, I need AmigaOS or MorphOS. This is indeed geeky since Linux itself is considered a geek system, so Amiga-like system is beyond that.
Mobile phone gaming shows reinventing the wheel, when I see all those titles, I'm glad I was born in the right time to have enjoyed it as a kid. Originally.
One more - my several friends when noted about Atari2600, Amiga etc. concluded that "concerning such a tremendous level of abstraction, complexion etc. they're dealing with at work, they simply cannot deal with those things". This is embarrassing and shows their low self esteem by saying that. To me? Dunno... Quantum computing, BCI, bio-computing, NASA - now that's futuristic! Not some bullshit Data Warehousing done in HP. Bollocks! I'm happy I can appreciate stuff like Atari or Amiga, instead of putting yet another pound of RAM into my home computer, only to see how yummy this is to the yet another MS Word instance (beta of course).
So this whole Amiga thing connects my childhood, hobby and work (I plan to code as well). It fits my computing philosophy also, that is why i consider it so precious.
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To me? Dunno... Quantum computing, BCI, bio-computing, NASA - now that's futuristic! Not some bullshit Data Warehousing done in HP. Bollocks!
I think especially data warehousing is futuristic. Why? Because, as Edgar Dijkstra said, computer science is about computers as much as astronomy is about telescopes. Sure, the more we can 'see' (more powerful and versatile hardware), the more we can do. But understanding what we can do, makes it actually useful.
There's still a hell of a lot of revolutions needed in our heads to use even an Atari 2600 to it's full potential.
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When you work in IT business I have noticed that it is better to not mention Amiga during lunch breaks etc, it is not that Amiga is bad, it is just that most people only know Amiga back when an A500 with 0.5 MB extra mem was luxury. These people can almost cry explaining how much fun they had with Populus and Ports of call, however discussing things about the Amiga not mentioning gaming leaves much to be desired.
I fondly remember how I expained to one tech guy how you could connect an Amiga to the internet, he did not believe there where TCP/IP stacks for the Amiga around lol.
The biggest issue though is that people do not take you seriously when you mention Amiga seriously, but yes sometimes I mention I have a couple of Amiga systems at my home worth three times as much as a good PC these days, the looks I get then lol...
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@Tahoe
" She was even placed in a Dell 19" rack in between PowerEdge servers and an EMC SAN. How cool is that?!"
It's so cool I wish you had taken a photo! :afro:
I did..... :)
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I think especially data warehousing is futuristic. Why? Because, as Edgar Dijkstra said, computer science is about computers as much as astronomy is about telescopes. Sure, the more we can 'see' (more powerful and versatile hardware), the more we can do. But understanding what we can do, makes it actually useful.
There's still a hell of a lot of revolutions needed in our heads to use even an Atari 2600 to it's full potential.
It is not futuristic, it's just yet another fancy business tool, just like the ERP systems were. Data Warehousing is mainly to learn (or check instantly) why people buy goods. Not much. Or to have a company's all data (not only operational) in one place, for further analysis and statistics. All you do is employ AI algorithms, mostly dated in 70s and present the results before a VP - THAT's the value added.
If I was asked about futuristic IT I'd gladly mention bioinformatics. Predicting proteins, designing drugs - that's a challenge, unlike another oracle 10i DM installation!!! What else - multiagent systems, not just their military applications. M2m mobile communications and so on. Please do not flatten advanced IT topics to some issues taught in schools twenty years ago, having ZERO value in general technology advancement!
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It is not futuristic, it's just yet another fancy business tool, just like the ERP systems were. Data Warehousing is mainly to learn (or check instantly) why people buy goods. Not much. Or to have a company's all data (not only operational) in one place, for further analysis and statistics. All you do is employ AI algorithms, mostly dated in 70s and present the results before a VP - THAT's the value added.
If I was asked about futuristic IT I'd gladly mention bioinformatics. Predicting proteins, designing drugs - that's a challenge, unlike another oracle 10i DM installation!!! What else - multiagent systems, not just their military applications. M2m mobile communications and so on. Please do not flatten advanced IT topics to some issues taught in schools twenty years ago, having ZERO value in general technology advancement!
I respectfully disagree. Data Warhousing and related technologies account for a large portion of the technological breakthroughs you see today. You talk about pharma industry. When analyzing proteins, studying DNA, examining cell structure... where do you suppose all of those observations are stored and housed? Deciding HOW to store that information so that it can be analyzed... so that it can be usable... is of utmost importance. It is in itself a science and is taught at universities around the glob as such. Take search engines for example... various bots out scouring the web looking for information... tucking that way into a data warehouse such that it can be logically analyzed and searched against... for entertainment... for research... for p0rn. Haha!
Original data warehousing technologies relied upon things like bubble sorts, full table scans the progressed into binary tree searches... then conceptual logic algorithms we see today.
Computers are number crunchers... they follow predefined instructions and act on data... so I would argue that data warehouse techniques are a very key part of technological advancement. Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying it is the end-all and be-all but I think it is a very critical part of the equation.
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I've been called "an Amiga Snob".....and I carry that name with pride!
:)
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we needed an AT&T Unix machine at work
Dare I ask what you needed that AT&T for?? :)
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None of them, I don't refer to my 5yrs old Amiga as a retro machine (but will do so probably, sooner or later). I avoid talking about it as much as possible, I don't like having to explain to everyone what it is, why it's not a PC and why I use it, or even worse to have to defend myself when they argue that everyone uses a PC with Windows and that there's no sense in using anything else. I have my Amiga in my living room but everyone seeing it just think it's a PC and don't ask anything about it.
Varthall
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Hide it?!?! HA ! I just ordered a complete SAM440 Flex system with OS 4.1 from AmigaKit. I'm not hiding it, I'm supporting the addiction ! I still have an A500 and A4000 as well.
Ed
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If I said the word "Amiga" around here, some would start looking around for the girl and the rest would not understand at all. I have nothing to hide because there is no one around here who would even know or be interested. If anyone notices my Amigas at all, I just tell them that they're my "art computers" and I use them for special graphics. There are 3 PC laptops and one Mac laptop as well as an Atari Mega ST and a whole lot of other equipment in the same room so they just blend in with the crowd so to speak and the only time anyone would ever notice them is if they came to visit when I was actually working with one. If I ever got any scepticism, I could just show them how much my Amigas were worth and justify them as an investment. How much computer gear from the 90s is worth much these days? I have Amiga gear that is worth 3 or 4 times what I paid for it a few short years ago.
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All my friends and esp. my wife think I've lost the plot after buying a *new* 15 year old A1200 last year.
Saying that, everyone is impressed when I show them how good my patched OS 3.9 looks through an IndivisionAGA running on a 19" flat-screen CRT. The fact that I can also show them Google working over my wireless network is a bonus :)
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I'm on a football ("soccer") forum as well. Every now and then they post about computers. One thread was about Macs versus PC's. I said the most user-friendly, efficient and responsive system i have used is the Amiga. They laughed. Until they saw AmigaOS4, and Amikit screenshots. What?? Amiga has a dock??? Amiga has a Start menu?? Amiga has colored icons??? Amiga can get on the net??? Amiga can email???
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My co-workers exhibit a mix of disbelief,scepticism,and ridicule if I mention ANY computer other than some recent,common PC/Wintel box .
I'm afraid mentioning Amigas or anything older than P4 Wintel will cause IT people in my area to regard you as un-professional.The IT people I've met at several different major corporations are control freaks determined to force everyone into a computing staitjacket,mostly because the fewer configurations of hardware and software ,the easier it is for IT to maintain those systems.
I remember an Atari 800 was once used to schedule service calls and parts inventory for a large retailer's appliance department.
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It is not futuristic, it's just yet another fancy business tool, just like the ERP systems were. Data Warehousing is mainly to learn (or check instantly) why people buy goods. Not much. Or to have a company's all data (not only operational) in one place, for further analysis and statistics. All you do is employ AI algorithms, mostly dated in 70s and present the results before a VP - THAT's the value added.
If I was asked about futuristic IT I'd gladly mention bioinformatics. Predicting proteins, designing drugs - that's a challenge, unlike another oracle 10i DM installation!!! What else - multiagent systems, not just their military applications. M2m mobile communications and so on. Please do not flatten advanced IT topics to some issues taught in schools twenty years ago, having ZERO value in general technology advancement!
Then why do you think millions are invested in data warehouse and ERP systems?
And thereby, you didn't understand the essence of my post.
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"No I openly and proudly flout my Amiga hobby."
Why hide it? Some people spend a lot of money on a horse, a car, fishing gear, WOW etc. I also spend some time and money on a classic car. We are all different, that makes us so special;-)
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Dare I ask what you needed that AT&T for?? :)
For an old, custom written piece of software. My collegues (i'm not that much into unix) managed to get it compiled and running, including restoring the database from a QIC tape! The NCR box that used to run it has passed away loooong time ago... :)