Letters... We Get Letters....

Here's a sampling of the mail we found waiting after last month's
ViewPort.  Much of it comes from a thread on Internet, in
comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, entitled "LIES IN FEB94 VIEWPORT ONLINE MAG."
The text has been edited for space, spelling, and grammar, but is
otherwise intact. Portions following deleted material are preceded by
ellipses (...).

Dear Editor:  Hmmm, where exactly did you get your info from? Apple Corp.?

I found your article very sinister and unfair. The people who trust you
as an "insider" may actually believe you. Especially those people who
don't have ready access to other sources of reliable information.  Hope
your conciousness (sic) is clear...then again you may actually feel proud
of yourself.  - Victor Major

Dear Mr. Major:  I'm sorry you feel that way.  No, it's never a pleasure
to deliver bad news about my favorite computer.  Yes, my conscience is
clear. - JMM

Dear Editor:  You have lost your mind, I'm sorry to say.  All of your
figures of Commodore's sales of the Amiga 1200 and CD32 are totally
inaccurate.  Commodore has not sold 55,000 CD32s... They have sold
400,000 CD32s.

And it is the #1 game machine in Europe, outselling Mega CD by Sega by
4:1.  Please get your facts right, or don't say anything at all.  Also,
upon contacting Digital Creations, they HAVE NOT stopped Amiga support,
and have no intentions of doing so.  There are many other falsities in
your editorial.  Face it:  You lied to the Amiga community.  And I for
one, will do everything I can to try to correct the misinformation that
you have touted as truth to the Amiga community. - Thomas R. Sawyer

Dear Mr. Sawyer: I never said that Digital Creations was dropping Amiga
support.  The phrase I used was "no new Amiga development."  It might
have better been phrased "no new Amiga titles."  Digital Creations has
confirmed that products that have already been announced, like Brilliance
2.0 and the Video Slot Box, will be released.  They will also be showing
the V-Machine, a Toaster-like product originally slated for the Amiga, at
NAB.  The V-Machine currently runs under Windows in a 486-powered
computer; draw your own conclusions.

As for the volume of CD32 sales, Commodore finally admitted that sales had
not been good, blaming it on the "poor environment for games machines" in
Europe.  One would have a hard time figuring how they managed to sell
400,000 CD32s and only pull in a total of $70 million for the quarter.  If
nothing else, we hope that you'll put a little more stock in what ViewPort
says than in the free-wheeling rumors that are found on the nets. - JMM

In two postings on Internet, Jim Norris writes:

The Feb issue of GEnie's ViewPort magazine has an editorial- 'Film at
Eleven' written by Jim Meyer (coauthor of the Brilliance manual) that
contains enough in the way of factual inaccuracy to call into queston the
integrity of its author.

... As far as AAA is concerned, I'm sure that the majority of you well
know that AAA is -already- in silicon and in its final stages of
completion. This information is common knowledge to those who read Usenet
or keep up on current Amiga-related events. Where Mr. Meyers (sic)
received this information is unknown, however, confirmation of AAA's
development and implementation come from C= itself.

 ... You seem to equate working for the Starship as some form of Amiga
advocacy. Did it ever occur to you that it is simply a job for many of
them? The Starship is one of GEnie's biggest roundtables; the folks who
moderate it do it for the money, not necessarily out of some deep love
for the Amiga.

... A lot of bad blood apparently exists between Mr. Meyer and many in
the Amiga community. He has had, by his own admission, bad dealings with
.info, AMnews, Portal and now apparently with Digital Creations to the
tune of several thousand $$$ owed him. This might be speculation, but do
you think it is possible that he might have an axe to grind?

Dear Mr. Norris: About AAA: It's dead.  Period.  Still.  It was cancelled
on January 17.  Furthermore, the version that did exist suffered from
fundamental design problems. There is a big difference between "exists in
silicon" and "works in silicon." While the AAA design embodies a number of
worthwhile concepts, the amount of money required for a single silicon pass
(two more would probably have been required) could be used for other
purposes.  Like doubling the number of Amiga software engineers.

As for your statement that the members of the *StarShip* staff do what
they do for money, rather than any love for the Amiga, I respectfully
submit that you are clueless.  While it goes against policy to discuss
compensation, my understanding is that most - if not all - commercial
online services merely waive connect charges for the assistants.  In the
case of GEnie, connect charges are $3.00 per hour.  Trust me; we do it
because we love the Amiga and care about the Amiga community.

Finally, your assertion that I have some axe to grind because of "bad
dealings with .info, AMnews, Portal and now apparently with Digital
Creations..." is pure bunk.  Digital Creations pays promptly and well,
and doesn't owe me a dime.  The last time I checked, I was still friends
with Mark Brown, my Editor (and a real class act) at .info.  As for
AMnews, it went under owing over $100,000 to various members of the Amiga
community and small business-people, most of whom could ill afford the
debt.  I'm not the only one who has less-than-fond memories of Mark
Jacobson, the publisher of AMnews.  Portal??  I've never been a member.

What disturbs me most of all is the ease with which you were able to make
your accusations.   One would hope that the participants in a forum that
has a potential audience of millions would exercise some responsibility.
Alas, one doesn't have to spend much time on Internet to see that this is
not so. - JMM

And finally, there were these two letters:

Dear Editor:  Where the h is my March ViewPort?????????  - Otis Ivie

Dear Otis:

You're reading it!  You're reading it! - JMM

Jim -  Once again, you wrote a great editorial.  Well conceived and
executed.  - Rhett Anderson

Dear Rhett:

Thanks.  I needed that! - JMM

Got something you want to get off your chest?  Send it to us at:

GEnie: JIM.MEYER Internet: jim.meyer@genie.geis.com

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