Krashan wrote:,
Quote:This is impressive. I guess you've simply had no time to show DigiBooster 3?
I hope you will feel better soon.
Sorry that I let you down by not demonstrating DigiBooster 3 during the 2012 AmiWest Show. I had fully intended to do so, but as often happens at all AmiWest Shows for me, the time goes by too quickly and the pace is so hectic with so much going on. This year was the most challenging for me, due to my back pain being so bad I needed to use my wheelchair almost every day by 3pm, or 4pm, because my legs would stop working reliably and the pain was too great.
The good news is that my 2nd back surgery appears to have been approved and will take place in less than 2 weeks on November 5th. Before my 1st back surgery I was confident and looking forward to feeling better in the weeks and months after the surgery. This time I am genuinely scared and very worried that this 2nd surgery may not work to reduce any of my pain, or in the worst case, it may increase my pain like the 1st surgery results did, which forced me to give up working at a very good job that I had worked all my life to obtain.
With back surgery there are no guarantee's and the percentage of people who are helped after any surgery is somewhere between 60% & 85%, depending on which kind of procedure is being done and what kind of back pain the patient is experiencing. If I were not so desperate to get some relief and try to get back to a normal lifestyle, I would not be taking this chance a 2nd time.
Thanks to everyone who has expressed their well wishes and concern for my health. If you are a religious person, you may want to put me in your prayers on November 5th. I am not a member of any organized religion, but have generally tried to live my life following the good parts of all religions, so I guess I believe that there is a strong chance that there could be an omnipotent being, but I have not yet designated what name to give him/her.
One of my goals for the next twelve months is to promote the 2013 AmiWest Show when ever I have the opportunity, and to do what ever I can to help the SACC organizers double the attendance of the show for next year.
One thing some of you may not realize is that when you spend the time and effort to haul 6 or 7 computers to each AmiWest Show and set up a display table, it takes up a great deal of time and it is hard for me to experience everything else that is happening during the show when I am trying to keep an eye on my display table, answer questions, reboot my 2nd G4 PowerBook that I was using as an Internet Server by connecting my Ethernet port to a 5 port switch, so the rest of my computers being displayed would all have an Internet connection. The hotel's security log-in page would pop up at random times and take down the Internet connection to all of the computers I was displaying, so it is like a constant baby-sitting job. I try to listen to all of the presentations being given, but the room where the show is taking place gets very loud when 50+ people are all talking at the same time and before you know it, you are shouting at someone who is only 3 feet away from you. Maybe I am getting old and need hearing aids?
As I wrote in this thread, or another thread here or on AW.net, one of the high points of this year's AmiWest Show, was getting to meet and talk with Beth Richard (not Richards, as I might have incorrectly written previously), who was a chip design engineer at Commodore, in Pennsylvania, from 1990 to 1994, IIRC. She has her initials on the motherboard of the CD32 and I think also on the CDTV-CR. She worked on the Beauty and Grace chips and brought several of her Amiga computers in to the show to have them worked on during the Friday evening Classic Amiga Repair Clinic, including her own CDTV-CR. Beth says that only 64 of these units were ever produced, plus a handful of custom hand built prototypes, which would bring the total number of units to slightly over 70, so it is more rare than I had first imagined when I first saw one 2 years ago when Carl Sassenrath sold his CDTV-CR, along with lots of other Amiga hardware from his basement or closets during the 2010 AmiWest Show.
Beth Richard said that she wants to get at least 2 or 3 of her Amiga computers working, including her CDTV-CR, which needs some surface mount soldered components replaced, so she can keep these 2 or 3 Amiga computers for herself, but would probably be selling the rest of her Amiga computers during next year's AmiWest Show. I know that she won't be selling her CDTV-CR, and that the rest of her Amiga collection may not be any different than the Classic Amiga computers that you and I already own, but if you would like to purchase an Amiga computer that a former Commodore Chip Engineer had previously owned, I suggest that you make sure you attend the 2013 AmiWest Show.
Talking with Beth and listening to her stories about the last few days of Commodore made this year's AmiWest Show special. I know that I was not the only person who was entertained by Beth's humor and charm, as Trevor also seemed like he could not get enough of her stories and took a few pictures of her with his cell phone, which will most likely show up in his blog soon. It is things like this that make each AmiWest Show special and why my invitation remains open to everyone who is interested in attending an AmiWest Show, but lives far away and could only justify such a trip if they brought their whole family and made a real vacation out of the trip to the USA. I live within a 2 to 3 hour drive to most of the tourist attractions in Southern California, including Sea World (2-1/2 to 3 hours), Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain (2-1/2 to 3 hours), Universal Studios Tour and Amusement Park, all of the beaches of Southern California, Palm Springs, Las Vegas (4 hours), the London Bridge on the Colorado River at Lake Havasu, and of course my own little resort heaven of Big Bear Lake at 7,000 feet elevation, with a man made lake that is about 15 miles long and 1 mile wide and has excellent fishing and boating with water skiing, although it often gets too windy in the afternoon's for skiing and you would be better off on a catamaran sail boat, or wind surfing when the wind kicks up. Oct. temperatures are still comfortable during the days usually, but can get cold during the evenings and nights. Rarely we have snow arrive for Halloween, as most of our snow comes in December, January and February, but freak snow storms can come any month of the year here, if just the right conditions occur.
Depending on the degree of success of my November 5th 2nd back surgery, I have decided that if it goes well and I am able to do most things that I used to be able to do before my back condition started to get worse, I have decided to move closer to the Sacramento area. If my back condition remains the same, I may be forced to stay where I am currently at, as my younger Brother helps me do some things. If I can, I will be moving to a Houseboat on the Sacramento River Delta, and living full time on a 35 foot to 65 foot long Houseboat. I have already done some research during this last trip to that area and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
My invitation will remain open to anyone who wishes to come stay with me during the time around the Oct. AmiWest Shows, but the accommodations may be a bit different on the Houseboat, than they are at the house in Big Bear Lake. If it is possible to move the houseboat to a marina that is closer to the 2013 AmiWest Hotel, that is what I will do next Oct., assuming that I am able to conclude the purchase of a Houseboat within the next 12 months and make the move.
Typically a 35 to 65 foot long Houseboat can accommodate sleeping space for between 6 and 16 people, so if I am lucky enough to purchase a Houseboat before next year's AmiWest Show, AND there is a marina that will allow me to tie up to their docks for a few days during the time the 2013 AmiWest Show is taking place, we may have to have a party on the Houseboat to celebrate my move and the success of my 2nd back surgery which will have allowed me to pursue that dream of living on a Houseboat closer to both of my Sons, my Grandson, and all of my friends in the SACC group. I will even be able to attend all the SACC club meetings if I live that close to Sacramento.
Other news from the 2012 AmiWest Show is that the Programming Seminar was a success and will be extended to 3 days next year and the 2013 AmiWest Show itself will also be extended to a full 3 days and 3 evenings. The better hotel location that we have used the last two years before this year, has already been reserved, so we cannot lose it like we did this year with a late registration. It has been reserved for the entire 6 days and I strongly suggest that anyone who is interested in programming and the Amiga of any kind, come and spend the whole 6 days with us. This will allow me and others to get even more out of this fantastic event.
This year there were challenges that were all related to the hotel location, so by returning to the former Holiday Inn Express that we used for the 2010 and 2011 AmiWest Shows, none of those issues will exist and the show should go much smoother and we will again have access to the two display screens at each end of the meeting hall and not have to project images on a wall instead. We will have better hotel rooms and a choice of either the Holiday Inn Express, or the Hampton Inn which is right next door and also has good rooms available at reasonable prices. I am going to attempt to go to the hotel a day or two in advance and get us a dedicated Internet connection, without the hotel's usual web based security system popping up every 20 to 40 minutes and stopping our Internet connection until someone can log-in again with the hotel's password. I will also make sure that the hotel and/or the SACC club has all the electrical cords and power strips that we need.
What I really want to see at next year's AmiWest Show are some really experienced MorphOS3.1 users and developers. If I can convince just one of the MorphOS Dev. Team members to attend and to do a presentation of MorphOS3.x at the 2013 AmiWest Show, I will count my efforts as a success.
Does anyone else here agree with me that a bounty should be set up to cover all, or most of the expenses to send one of the MorphOS3.x Dev. Team members to the 2013 AmiWest Show is a good idea? I know that money is only half the problem of sending some one from the Dev. Team to an AmiWest Show, and that I will have to convince one of the Dev. Team members that is it worth their time and effort to do a presentation during the 2013 AmiWest Show and that they will receive a warm welcome from the SACC AmiWest Show organizers, if they do agree to attend and do a presentation of MorphOS3.x, and maybe even a short seminar on how to get started programming on MorphOS3.x.
I believe that we might be on the verge of an increase in interest in Next Gen. Amiga computer systems, as it appears that more people are showing up at the AmiWest Show and asking lots of questions. Some of these people have been away from the Amiga for many years, and some of them have been using their original Classic Amiga computers and were not previously interested in any of the Next Gen. choices, or were turned away because of all the fighting that was previously taking place. In either case, it is clear to me that more people are becoming interested in Next Gen. Amiga computing. Perhaps it is because of all the current choices we have with new and used hardware, and perhaps it is because of the recent improvements in all of the Next Gen. Amiga choices that have made it more feasible to use one of them for many of your everyday computing tasks.
That is more than enough for now. I will write more about the 2012 AmiWest Show if I think of anything else I missed. Ask questions and maybe you will jog my memory about some particular topic that was discussed during this year's AmiWest Show.
MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
