Amiga Inc answers your questions (updated)

[JoePillow]

"Hi, it's Amiga Inc here, our security certificate has run out. Can you renew it please and send us the bill" and Starfield said "Yes, Bill, we'll do that right away"

This may apply for any other service, but a security certificate is a statement about who you are. This statement is not accessory to the service, but rather this is what the service, and what you declare, and what is verified, are all about. If you cannot even state properly who you ("us") are, then I would say that you have a problem. And if you call a certification authority pretending that you are Amiga, Inc. (Washington) when instead you know that you are Amiga, Inc. (Delaware), an unrelated company, then that could even be considered something like fraud, I guess.

Of course, this may be bordering conspiracy theory, but think about it for a moment, because it could even make sense: maybe they can't change the certificate, because their little secret is that the new Amiga, Inc. (Delaware) does not own the domain amiga.com. So they can only renew it by pretending that they are the dead company. Which, according to whois data, is the owner of the amiga.com domain. I don't think this is peanuts. People know how much a domain like this is worth, especially if they care so much about "intellectual property", and if they carefully transferred things from one company to the other in several steps. So, I'd be curious to know what is behind this. If it was just a mistake, it could confirm how everybody treated the two companies as if it were one, which is also a bad thing to do, when you are trying to avoid legal and financial problems by setting up a new and "unrelated" company. Certainly, by running two businesses with the same name, as they are doing now out of two states, and even providing and renewing services for each other, and in particular doing so on such important things like your web presence and your digital identity, you don't help support the "unrelated" claim.

[JoePillow]

Condolences

With my deepest respect for what happened, I am not sure about how appropriate it is to mention this personal tragedy over and over again in this unrelated thread. I mean, we are going on with condolences and thanks for condolences after more than two years after the event, and after this already came up on Amiga mailing lists and sites of those days (such as Amigaworld.net and Moo Bunny Amiga).

I am mentioning this now just in case it is not clear that we are talking about events which happened in May 2004.

[CodeSmith]

@JoePillow

You have no idea what you're talking about.  A digital certificate is tied to an URL and can be renewed only if you have the private key (which only the hosting company and maybe the customer will).  So even if the one asking for certificate renewal is not the actual owner, the only one who benefits is the owner of the actual certificate.  Certificate renewal is also cheaper than getting a whole new cert because renewal is done by running a small script (or pushing a button on Windows), whereas a brand new cert requires verification of who you are so it takes a lot longer.  I can hardly blame Amiga Inc for choosing the cheap route.

[Tomas]

With my deepest respect for what happened, I am not sure about how appropriate it is to mention this personal tragedy over and over again in this unrelated thread.

I actually did not hear about it until i read this Q&A session, so i strongly felt like giving a condolences even if it was late.

[Ratte]

Poster: Piru  Posted: 2006/9/14 3:12:10

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With regard to the issue that you are talking about, we were notified by third parties that someone had manipulated and altered the ROM's. This is a violation of our IP and they were notified. We have since been told that it was not true and nothing was really done, that it was a manipulated video, not actual code that was changed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/beta/ - manipulated video? really? Anyway, how does hosting a video breach amiga IP?

.. hmpf <%u§$> ..

[odin]

Well, only saw the the answers today. Thanks to Bill for answering the QA.

However, it's just the same old fluff we've seen so much of. Not even worth getting a new supply of popcorn.

[TheMagicM]

@odin:

wait till after the IRC chat.. THEN you can get your popcorn.. :lol:  :popcorn:

[weirdami]

From the personal note:

Think of my surprise when I learned that all of our inventory was sold for $75,000.00 to a company in India, when we were generating more than that on a monthly basis. This created a big operational hole for the company and caused us great harm in our ability to move forward. This hardware was not even put up for bid or auction, and nobody was consulted in the process.

Was Petro responsible for that? Maybe why he got fired?

[SHADES]

Personally I find all this news very refreshing and positive. There is some vaugness about certain answers and ok, that's to be expected esp if there is legal mess to clear up. Don't know of any company opperating that hasn't had some of that legal mumbo jumbo to go through.

I'm wrapped at what I found out, that AMIGA hasn't just been sitting around doing nothing, that they have been busy developing and sourcing to bring their product forward, it's great news. Time will tell of course. Seeing as though the PS3 release date has recently been pushed back till March next year (due to production problems) the only other solution does seem to be something like Trokia however now that I have read this post by Bill, there may also be some other offerings available. Anyway, regardless, this post has helped me retain my faith in the product, I really would like another AMIGA in an up to date from, so I'm going to keep haging in there.

My only one request at this time is that AMIGA themselves get a little more involved with the community. I know that time is a factor and there are negative nay sayers but they are present in everything. This kind of communication is very welcome. Personally, I'd like to see more of it.

[sdyates]

I would be very happy with OS5.0.

Let's focus, what new has come out in as many years. our classic hardware is getting older and parts failing all the time. If OS5.0 builds on the essence of OS3.X, then I see this as good.

Look what happened to windows tryign to please everyone: its bloated.

I for one am waiting to see what SO5.0 is when it comes out.

I appreciate Bill's efforts and wish him well, especially in light of difficult times for him: how many of us would still step up tot he plate the way he has.

One thing is for sure, we need to stick together. I know its frustrating.

One thing is for certain, Amiga is not dead and there are plans.

[Tron2k2]

So, Amiga of Washington sold everything to iTech and closed it's doors .  Then iTech became KMOS, or sold it to KMOS, who then became Amiga.  With the same personnel in every company, or at least most of them.  Delaware Amiga ended up with all the IP and supposedly paid money for it.  Washington Amiga was abandoned along with its debts.

So, Mr. McEwen, if there was no deception, and this isn't a shell game, then, who will pay Amiga (Washington's) bills then?  You?  Delaware Amiga?  

It seems to me like Amiga sold its' IP to another company with some of the same higher up individuals who then re-named it Amiga.  Viola!  No debt!  And Amiga's IP!  Where's the money from this sale?  I bet that's where Garry Hare fit in-the unrelated entity who could buy Amiga then sell it again to a newly incorporated entity of the original personnel, in a new state.

Were there no deception here, and if you and Amiga were as stand-up as you would have us believe, then I'd be getting paid every month on the debt you owe, and I'd instead be writing a lovely, congratulatory letter on how well Amiga are doing.  You know that I would be, if this were the case.

Maybe I should point the SEC to this thread.  Maybe they'd be interested in this obvious scheme to cleanse the Amiga name of the debts it ran up, or maybe in this post-Enron era this isn't illegal anymore.  I don't know.

Still a bunch of marketing speak, or as my late father would have called it, 'b*******.'

[pierre]

Guys, HUGE NEWS!
I was doing some research on the net and I found out that there is already OS10!  This must be a shock to amiga inc, but a small california company by the name of apple computer REALEASED OSX ( thats OS10!!)

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/index.html

Not only has it been released, it available for X86!
It looks like a sweat OS!  I can't belive the feature list.   Bill you simply must check this OS out, I'm sure you will want to add similar feature to your OS.  Just give it a look see and see if it gives you any ideas. As for anybody that is waiting for OS5, I think you should "skip" OS5 and move forward to OS10 it will blow your mind!
Ps.  I am willing to do some consulting work for amiga Inc, if they need help, but I'm not cheap ($500.000), but I could help avoid such supprieses as developing on OS 5 version behind the current standard for sure!

One thing's for sure Amiga Inc is on it's last breath, Hyperion and Itec are sitting in the corner waiting to take the kill, but wait it looks like apple as stolen the market and long gone off with the booty!  Sorry guys , you snozze you loose!

[pierre]

From the personal note:Quote:

    Think of my surprise when I learned that all of our inventory was sold for $75,000.00 to a company in India, when we were generating more than that on a monthly basis. This created a big operational hole for the company and caused us great harm in our ability to move forward. This hardware was not even put up for bid or auction, and nobody was consulted in the process.



Was Petro responsible for that? Maybe why he got fired?

bill mcewen is a better leader for sure. But I think this may have happend after Petro.
Bill are you sure you are not forgetting some part of the story here?  Maybe you made a deal with realy nasty VC (senture capital) people who though you where failing and did not want to give you money for ideas they thought where bad?  Maybe the fact that you where not paing you coders was putting the bonding company on edge.  I don;t kneo someting about yout answer makes me think you have forgotten some facts..... :-)

[Tron2k2]

Poster: pierre  Posted: 2006/9/19 8:29:41

Guys, HUGE NEWS!
I was doing some research on the net and I found out that there is already OS10! This must be a shock to amiga inc, but a small california company by the name of apple computer REALEASED OSX ( thats OS10!!)

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/index.html

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

Brilliant!!

OS 10, or 'OS X' as the 'Mac geeks' like to call it, is pretty mind blowing in a lot of ways.  It is stable, secure, and efficient, as seen here rockin' a G3-450/Radeon 7000 where it will happily capture video thru the firewire port all day long.  It's even got lots of drivers! Schweeet!  Also Amiga-like, it seems to get faster with each new OS release-and these releases seem to happen with STUNNING regularity-it just keeps gettin' better and BETTER!!

OK, fanboy mode off ;-)

But seriously, I posted last night in reply to this chain of marketroid drivel, and Wayne moderated it in about five minutes.  Was it because I said a naughty word at the end?  Or was it because I called attention to the fact that McEwen and friends created a shell company, sold all AI's assets to it, then created another company in Delaware, sold the shell company's assets to it, then closed down the previous companies and, viola'!  No debt!!  And all the principles of the 'new' Amiga are the same as those of the 'old' Amiga!  I think it's called FRAUD, but I'm having my attorney check on that :-D

My late father, who co-incidentally died the same month as Bill's daughter *and yes I've personally offered my condolences to Bill about that, it eclipses this whole circus by far* would have called that 'horse puckey'.  

Wayne, thank you for moderating out my last post about this soo quickly, wouldn't want anyone here to be exposed to any naughty words or negativity about Amiga, Incorporated.

It's a good thing they're on top of guarding their IP by shutting down your little Amiga.org shirt operation on Cafepress.  You could have made fifty bucks without them getting their cut! :lol: What were you thinking?!

[Tron2k2]

What happened is that Bill didn't do his due diligence well enough before he bought into Amiga.  Petro had a 'sweetheart deal' with the Germans and in fact was contractually prevented from being fired by Amiga-they couldn't get rid of him.  Petro was a very smart guy.  He also was the exclusive recipient of OS 3.9 revenues, not Amiga, and this was also unknown to Bill when he signed on, and he found out later to his dismay :-(

Petro didn't like American Amiga companies much (can you blame him?) so he pretty much did what he could to stick it to them.  See the 060 deal, where he subsidized Phase5, selling them 060 CPUs for two hundred bucks less per chip than American companies, such as DKB, could get them.  Suddenly, Phase5 060 boards were much cheaper than the Wildfire!  Ask any American Amiga retailer, of which I was briefly one, and they'll tell you about how Petro sold European companies A1200s for literally hundreds less per unit than American companies could get them-sometimes American vendors would buy them from Euro vendors as it was still cheaper than getting them direct.  Thanks, Petro!

At least you could get Petro drunk and he'd give you Amiga stuff like tie clips, lighters, etc. :-)  Petro was more fun to party with..

Anyway, yes, Petro did kinda stick it to Amiga and it was a bad deal for them.  Sales of Amiga hardware were subsidizing things like paychecks. :-(  I don't know if Bill really could have known all this when he signed on, as in, it might have been very difficult for him to find it all out, and Petro took major advantage of that fact.

[pierre]

finaly sombody with a spine and some knowlage!  Mods, if you delete this mans works are just censoring what many true amiga fans think!