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From: doug@certes.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: LIVE paleontology
Message-ID: <8707110358.AA14188@unisoft.UNISOFT>
Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 19:40:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: unisoft.8707110358.AA14188
Posted: Fri Jul 10 19:40:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 14:13:45 EDT
Sender: uucp@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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Summary: LIVE-- enquiring minds want to know, and Commodore *does* seem
	to have a death wish (ack! Pournelle was right!)

In article <8707081106.AA14611@unisoft.UNISOFT> doug@certes.UUCP writes:
$ A-Squared designed
$it, and sold the manufacturing rights to Commodore, who then sat on it and
$apparently refused (?) to make and ship the d*mn things. 

In article <2086@cbmvax.UUCP> higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) writes:
>I am not at liberty to discuss this matter in depth, but I would like you
>all to remember that this represents ONE side of the story only, and that
>you should not comment on this unless you know the whole story.
>	Let's all try to keep the traffic down :-)

Sorry, I don't buy this. I have been trying to find out what the story is,
that's all. The LIVE digitizer is the most atrocious case of vaporware yet
seen on the Amiga, always promised to be available Real Soon Now, but always
encountering yet another delay. Most recently A-squared actually announced
that they were taking orders, and passed out an 800 number for the purpose,
but that was bogus too.

I think that announcing vaporware is a dirty trick to play on people, and
I think we all deserve an explanation. And an apology. I don't actually
*expect* this, but it does seem to be called for.

Considering that there are many, many people who are dying to buy one,
and that it would fit very well into the "Amiga-as-desktop-video" marketing
concept, I cannot understand why Commodore hasn't bent over backwards to
get this thing on the streets long since. Besides a tremendous amount of
lost revenues that could have come from the LIVE itself, there are certainly
lost Amiga sales as well!

Just based on the above obvious points, its clear that *someone* has been
real stupid about this. A rude comment? In this case, simply the truth!

Now, as for me passing on the rumor that Commodore was the one to blame,
I fully intended to be provocative in the hopes of hearing the *other*
side of the story.

Perhaps for legal reasons you can't comment, and perhaps that's why
A-Squared has been reluctant to comment as well. But that's not *our*
problem. Our problem is *vaporware*. So it's just plain silly for you
to say that people who don't know both sides of the story shouldn't say
anything about it. The people who *do* know won't talk!

Besides which, on reviewing my article, the *only* inaccuracy in it was
my saying that Commodore "refused" to ship LIVE, and I put a question mark
after that word. Everything else I said is just fact: A-Squared designed it
and sold the rights to Commodore. Commodore did not ship it. A-Squared
re-acquired the rights and then entered into an agreement with GRAB,
but it still isn't shipping.

Commodore has established a track record for lengthy delays, anyway, as
witness the Genlock, Transformer 1.2, Sidecar, and U.S. sales of the
500 and 2000. This is both frustrating to us Amiga fans, and also costs
Commodore a *lot* of lost revenues. Perhaps Rattigan is to blame for
everything? Impossible...if so, he should have been fired much, much
earlier. Since he wasn't, the blame for his actions must be shared by
the Commodore board of directors, for *allowing* him to lose Commodore
millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars.

As I pointed out above, it is *stupid* for Commodore to have not shipped
LIVE, regardless of the (mysterious & unknown) reason. Look at what the
LaserWriter has done for the Mac!
	Doug Merritt		ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug