Amiga Time Machine

[Pentad]

Hello all,

I came across something I thought a few of you might find interesting.  I have been following the Amiga usenet posts on OldUsenet which has been like a small time machine into the past.

OldUsenet started posting the messages from the early 1980s for each day. So May 19, 2016 would show May 19, 1986.  It has been a wonderful way to watch the Amiga's introduction, addition to Usenet, and growth with more and more users buying machines.  Watching the messages come in each day (with a slight 30 year delay) has been extremely interesting to follow.

Given I was 16 in 1986 and had no idea (or access) to Usenet, this has been a fascinating look at the humble beginnings of the Amiga core group after Commodore.  All our favorite people have been posting (RJ, Dale, Sam, Rob Peck, Bob Pariseau, Dave Haynie, George Robbins, Bob Burns) as well as later standouts such as Matt Dillion, Leo Schwab, Jim Sachs and more.

This was posted on 05/16 which I thought was interesting enough to share:

April 14, 1986

This message marks my first contribution as a "civilian".  Yesterday,
Commodore began to implement company wide layoffs.  The folks at
Commodore-Amiga here in California got their notices yesterday.

I guess Commodore knew just how little I would support such actions
because I got mine in the first wave.

I have enjoyed talking with all of you.  You are a bunch of wild and
wonderful folks.  I continue to feel that the cutting edge of this
business is available to anyone who'll listen on networks such as this
one.

I have not yet decided what, if anything, I want to say regarding
the events that just occurred or my opinions as to what they imply for
Commodore and for the Amiga computer.  It will take me a while to
sort out my feelings.

Regardless of that, I don't expect to be out of action long.  Maybe
I'll start another company. Many people have suggested that I write
a book ("Amiga Dearest"? -- no, I suppose not).  Know any good publishers?

But frankly, my main love is still the technology.  I want to be where
quality people are pushing beyond the "edge of the art".  Engineers
with vision are still the best, the most forthright, and most fundamentally
interesting people I know.

The vision that brought you the Amiga computer still lives.

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

I don't expect to be back on this network for quite some time.
I can be reached at:

  263 La Salle Avenue
  Santa Clara
  California  95051
  (408)296-3823


  --Bob Pariseau
    (formerly) Vice President, Software Development
    Commodore-Amiga, Inc.

Bob Pariseau seemed like a really dynamic sales person and the demo he gave at the Amiga's introduction was quite good.  I have always wondered how long he stayed at Commodore, when he left, and where he ended up so I thought this was informative.  Maybe he can still write that book?  It would be interesting from the Los Gatos perspective.

I invite you all to subscribe to OldUsenet to watch all of this unfold from a different perspective.


-P

[kamelito]

Can you list the group or groups you' ve been reading?
I remember some were written in the guru book.
Kamelito

[HaukeVB]

FYI: this is about http://olduse.net

[kamelito]

FYI: this is about http://olduse.net

Can you go backward ?

Kamelito

[HaukeVB]

Don't think so... http://olduse.net/faq/

[Cass]

Great timecapsule! Which raises the problem : is there any worthy Newsreader program for the Amiga today?

After an OS4 Depot quick search, showed Newscoaster as the only OS4 native program, but I`ve encountered a couple of issues there:
1. An Index update on net.micro.amiga popsup an unrecoverable DSI error.
2. The dates sorting does not correspond to the actual posting dates, which makes reading impossible to follow.

OS3.x-wise, there are many alternatives, the most prominent are Thor & Microdot, both need registration and Newsrog, Demo only (though it was released as open source )which shows the posting dates correct!

Any recomendation regarding the newsreader program to use, is appreciated.

[psxphill]

Can you go backward ?

Kamelito

You can read old usenet articles with google. You can even reply. "Hello from the future!"

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/$20Yesterday$2C$20$20Commodore$20began$20to$20implement$20company$20wide$20layoffs/net.micro.amiga/RrQRjpo6iJQ/uTWGpzJ2b6UJ

[icbrkr]

If you're into BBSes, I've got something similar to this on my board.

I have a few million old Usenet messages that are parsed out and a handful are delivered to the board every day, based on age (currently working on today's date, 1985).  Since it's an 8 bit board, and I wrote the mail processor for it, only about 25 groups are covered.  But still, something cool about reading old 80s messages on a BBS.

(http://www.particles.org, or http://telnet://particlesbbs.dyndns.org:6400)