( Writing this just after midnight . . . trouble was that one of my brother-in-laws was being thrown a Birthday Celeb Dinner at home and I got stuck-in to the food last when I made it home . . . . then, I got to see MatrixII on DVD -- standard one under the 68cm TV )
No chance to take photos I'm afraid -- I was one of the helpers and don't have very easy access to unload digital photos anyhow!
I left to travel in by bus at 10.25am -- crossing from Southbank, I decided to save my legs some by using an elevator at QUT and I had my first ocassion to extole the news about the Amiga return on PPC, & OS4.0, to a stranger who shared that lift.
Entering the theatre, I found things were being set-up; hardware out on the dias, the transparent A1 (with Linux) up the back, and the big banner up under the main screen.
Dropping my backpack under one of the rear tables, I helped with a load of gear to be brought in from a car. The closest parking was 40-50 metres away and, after helping load two 19" CRTs screen-down on a dolly, I loaded up with a laptop-strap over my sholder while I carried one mid-tower. Later I was sticking up some banners & posters outside the theatre.
Only two or three visitors (as distinct from presenters & workers) entered before the 1.00pm kick-off time!
Come 1.00 o'clock, however, and short lines began to form at the enterance door!
Unfortunitely the NAME - EMAIL ADDRESS & Sign-the-doorprize-docket procedure slowed things up at the entrance. The low-light and shadows didn't help that either. (The door prize was a snappy-looking 5¼" bay-Mounted cooling fan) I tried to assist by handing out the information packs.
I think that there is to be a national prize, following all the Australian RoadShows, of a Thermatake Tower Case!
Unfortunitely, after the presentation started, I missed a bit as visitors continued to arrive. Because of what I missed, I hope someone else will write-up a better report.
Anyway, the 1.00 - 5.00pm RoadShow presentation was divided up by two breaks which split the segments on Amiga History - The Comeback Story - The Developer Talk (Ross- I think) - OS4 Talk - and the Hardware Talk. Questions were fielded from the audience. I tried to submit some obvious-type questions (so the presenters could describe some progress & features NOT yet handled) to the speakers when audience questions were sparse! This DID help because the presenters were able to show quite favourable features of RoadShow: the TCP/IP Stack & Handlers, for one thing! The NEW implimentation of UAE is superior. The UAE improvements are due mainly to recent work from Richard Drummond { this info from the A1g3dev List }.
Doug Moir presented the final session - quite busy as he wore (figuretively speaking) many hats: representing ADUG, the reforming QLD users group, his business as distributer to the EAST-half of Australia-N.Z.-& S.E.Asia! He also has a lot of contact with various Australian developers incl several already onboard to write drivers for the mini ITX board!
° Speaking of which- Doug slipped that board out of its foil pack and held it up beside the A1XE board! WHAT A CONTRAST!
Physically it seems slightly smaller than many of the manuals that are supplied with accessories, and that came with the '85-'94 Amiga models!
Anyway, I'm sure you get the impression - it would fit inside a CD32 Case! Aparently, it takes a Laptop-type Ram Simm, has a 2.5" IDE Header (& can Boot from a Memory Card in a no-moving-parts type configuration), onboard sound, onboard Gfx, onboard Firewire, incl VGA & SVideo outputs.
I can forsee someone fitting it into a Laptop Case, for one application!
WELL - to round-up:- last event was an IRC Session with Fleecy (10 Hrs behind Oz E.S.T) The questions seemed to lag so I kicked in with questions concerning the Joyboard (of El Torro fame), Naration.device & SAY, and Speech Input! Fleecy wrapped it up by telling us that his kids were assulting him with their copy of Thomas The Tank Engine on video. I asked him if they had one of The Wiggles!
THE VERY LAST thing, for myself, was to arrange a lift homewards, since I wasn't about to take my NEW A1XEG4 System home on a BUS! John (another one!) and his better half (sorry, forgot name) kindly ferried me in their car! I'll leave it for daylight tomorrow to set it all up - I have BAD memories of mashing pins on the A1200 IDE Header trying to connect a SCSI Pass-thru under harsh artificial light, and THAT was when my eyes were TEN YEARS younger!
