Small notes from the big bash

[uncharted]

Here (in no specific order) are my experiences of the Big Bash in short form:-

*Most people got lost on the ring road getting there (Peterborough is not the best laid out or sign posted city) and we were no exception

* We finally arrived a bit late, managing to locate the place by spotting Jurassic Camper’s, erm Jurassic camper :-)

* The_Editor managed to blow up EditChick’s PC with his card yanking exploits.

* EditChick put on a huge and delicious spread, which was perfect because we were starving by the time all the glitches were sorted

* Didn’t see a single crash on any of the A1 systems despite everything that was going on, stability has definitely improved

* Ryu brought along a CD32 for a bit of retro-gaming action

* MikeyMike was the undisputed Speedball 2 champion (although he had to retire early to catch the last train back home)

* Finally got to meet the great Rudei :-) , no fat horses though :-(

* Bar was cheap, very cheap.  It was clear that Bobson had discovered this not long after he arrived :-)

* Mrs Uncharted kindly offered to buy everyone drinks, then asked me for the money :-/

* Linchpin’s car broke down halfway to the show, after much faffing about with the AA, Linch limped home and the rest of the welsh contingent  started out again in MikeAmiga’s (ED-209) car.

* Didn’t get to see Linchy :-(

* Some guy with a really cute Husky puppy won the MicroA1.

* Mrs Uncharted was unimpressed with both Macmiga’s Mac collection (“why would you want 16 of them?”) and also the MicroA1 board (“why are you getting excited over it? it’s tiny”)

* Many many embarrassing pictures of Slackbladder were taken :-D

* MikeAmiga (ED-209) is still the maddest person ever :-)

* Total Amiga 17 was there to buy and is great :-)

* The food was good and the drinks cheap (did I mention that already?)

* Got to play on a couple of AmigaOnes, OS 4 just gets better and better. (I WANT ONE!)

* The due to the glitches, the music was erm...er...yeah. :-p
 
* Good to see everyone again :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

How many people attended?

[uncharted]

takemehomegrandma wrote:
How many people attended?

This might sound really strange, but I really have no clue. I was occupied the whole time and didn't bother to count, I couldn't even give you an estimate.  Perhaps one of the people who organised it could give numbers.

[mikeymike]

I left quite "early" (well, the presentation hadn't started by 19:30, and I had to get the last train home), and assuming not many others turned up after I left, I'd guess 30 - 50.  Easily 30 people were there, though some people were at the bar, not everyone was in the same room at the same time, so it's hard to guess.

I was the undisputed timekeeping champion as well.  I turned up a day early.  Oops :-D

Ryu would probably have beaten me at Speedball 2 if we had played best of 3 or more :-)

OS4 met my hopes and expectations - nicely responsive, quick to boot (15 seconds at most).  The only real thing to hold it back IMO (other than hardware price) is applications support.  Particularly wrt web browsers.  I didn't play with OS4 for very long, but I didn't find any holes to pick in it.

I walked about 12 sodding miles that day.  I was knackered by the time I got home :-(  Though the stop in a pub for a few hours, drinking Guinness and reading Bram Stoker's Dracula did help :-)

The choice of music appeared to get worse as the evening went on.  I was totally expecting to hear "Daphne and Celeste - Oooh Stick You" by the way things were going.  The guy who was showing quake and doom demos on his A1 should have continued to host the music!  Beastie Boys rocks :-)

What was the presentation like in the end?

[Skyraker]

Dunno, I spent the night in the bar. (Stella at 2 quid a pint)

I reckon there was about 50 -ish there though.

[cecilia]

* Many many embarrassing pictures of Slackbladder were taken

and these can be found....where?
 :laughing:

seriously, I'd love to put my hands on OS4! Has no one who has it tried ImageFX? (who didn't see that comin'???)

Kermit is looking for people with OS4 who have installed ImageFX. really.

So, is OS4 stable? can you open a bunch of windows and it doesn't bog down? are there ANY programs on it?? and why not?
were the systems at the show multiboot (with linux)??
is there a nice GUI for switching from one OS to the other when rebooting???
can someone transport me ("Beam me up, Scotty") to an AmigaONE right now so I can see and touch it? :lol:

[chris]

cecilia wrote:
seriously, I'd love to put my hands on OS4! Has no one who has it tried ImageFX? (who didn't see that comin'???)

ImageFX was running and works properly (one of the photos on SEAL's website proves this)

So, is OS4 stable?

Fairly.  There are a few things that don't work as expected, a few operations which crash.  It's in beta.  This is to be expected.  Overall though it works very well and I didn't see any major problems on any of the show machines.

can you open a bunch of windows and it doesn't bog down?

The GUIs were drawing faster than my A1200 so I'm guessing yes on this one... but I didn't try it myself.

are there ANY programs on it??

Only the usual OS stuff.  There are OS4 native apps but these don't come with OS4 of course.

were the systems at the show multiboot (with linux)??

No.

is there a nice GUI for switching from one OS to the other when rebooting???

No, although this could happen with a FLB (I think) for Linux.  At the moment you have to break into U-Boot and start Linux manually.

can someone transport me ("Beam me up, Scotty") to an AmigaONE right now so I can see and touch it? :lol:

You can come and look at mine any time you want. :-)  Bring the OS4 install CD with you. :love:

Chris

[cecilia]

chris wrote:

ImageFX was running and works properly (one of the photos on SEAL's website proves this)

great! if you know who this person is can you get them to contact Kermit? PM me if you like.

can someone transport me ("Beam me up, Scotty") to an AmigaONE right now so I can see and touch it? :lol:

You can come and look at mine any time you want. :-)  Bring the OS4 install CD with you. :love:

Chris

ok, if a miracle happens and I can travel AND find OS4, then it's deal!  :lol:

[Linchpin]

Hey - yeah i made it home... JUST!

Damm thing - got about 100 miles and the clutch cable snapped - grr made the sensible decision and headed home, drove all the way with no clutch - not easy :-)

Sorry again to the lads for not making it there, i had a good go tho ...

And the AA ? Useless.

Oh well im off to bed.

Linchy :-)

[bloodline]

LinchpiN wrote:

Damm thing - got about 100 miles and the clutch cable snapped - grr made the sensible decision and headed home, drove all the way with no clutch - not easy :-)

um... how does one drive a car without a cluch?

[Cyberus]

I beleive its possible to change gear if the revs are right - difficult to do, more so if you have a quiet engine

[Ryu]

yup it is, get the revs high and bang it through the gears.

[Bobsonsirjonny]

It was a big {bleep} 2 litre job... He could rev it hi and slam it into 5th gear from 1st... Modern Gear box's are more fogiving#.. though I hope his is alright.

It was a damn nice car, and Linchpin, we missed your company.


http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3733&forum=4&6

That is our tail of trouble... But it was a mission :-)


# - according to the mechanic.. I know bog all about cars.

[amigamad]

um... how does one drive a car without a cluch?

you have to force it into gear or try to keep a reasonable speed ive had a cable snap on me i had to park the car in a car park which was fun and get a cable from halfords only took 10 minutes to change so easy on a mk2 cavalier. i bet it isnt on my mk3 though not much space with the v6.

[Linchpin]

Problem is - wasnt the actual cable that snapped.. as we found out :-)

Was actually a little teeny plastic clip hinge thing that hook's onto the back of the clutch cable.

Basicaly had to stop the car, put it into 1st gear and started it up, hopping down the road. Pull it out of gear, then rev it up to about 5000 rpm, let the rev's drop slowly and gently ease it into gear. Basically you need to get the engine speed equal to the speed of the clutch and it kinda, goes into gear. Not good for the car tho, hence why i gave up and went home.

Git.