Conference 7.286::atarist

Curses, I didn't know it was on :-(

I went last year and quite enjoyed it (apart from the queues). Can we
assume that you'll be giving us a full write-up then Pat ??

Cheers,

    Derek.

    Hi Pat,
    
    I was there on the Saturday. Now I've never reviewed such a show
    before, but for what its worth my opinions are as follows.
    
    It was good. The show seemed to be split into three main areas.
    Downstairs was what I would call the games/gadgets and add-ons section
    with no shortatge of cheap software. I limited myself to getting some
    very comprehensive catalogs from the big PD libraries. Hey, I'm broke !
    :-(. A wide variety of products were covered with many of the major
    names being covered. 
    
    There was also a small stage at the back where the atari's MIDI
    capabilities were being demonstrated. This exhibit I found a bit
    frustrating... not so much for me personally, but more for others. It
    seemed that all the stand was saying is that the Atari can control 
    keyboards etc. There was some quick technoblurb about the sequencer
    being used and a few demonstration songs being played. Whilst I
    appreciate that it was not a MIDI workshop had I been a complete MIDI
    novice I would have walked away with no more than an impression that 
    the Atari can make great noises if you feed it lots of money. The stand
    did provide a musical backdrop to the bustle of bargain hunters
    scurrying around the stands, perhaps that was the main intent 8^). Nuff
    said.
    
    Upstairs there was a theatre where specialist seminars were being held
    though I did not have time to attend any of these. Shame, because there
    was a new products update that I would have been more than interested
    in hearing.
    
    The rest of the upstairs area was really devoted to the "more serious" 
    software/hardware. Much of the business end of the market was catered
    for here and there was no shortage of Portfolios to play with. 
    
    I have to admit though, I went to the show with one over-riding priority
    in mind, and that was to get more information about the Stacy. There
    were a few of them dotted around the show (drool, drool) and...
    
                               I WANT ONE  !!!!!!
    
    I spoke to an official Atari representative who immediately pointed
    me toward "KEN" (well thats what his name badge said) of Silica, mumbling 
    something about not knowing anything about the STACY and them (Silica)
    being a major distributor of Atari products being able to help me for
    sure !!
    
    Enter KEN. 
    "Hi Ken, I'm looking for some info on the STacy."
    "Oh, Nick will be able to tell you. He has one on the music stand."
    Grumbling just slightly I wander over to Nick.
    "Hi Nick, I'm looking for some info on the STa..."
    "Hey Peter, what's the latest on the STacy..."
    
    Get the picture. I left the show with no real information but wanting 
    one desperately. The nearest I got to an answer to when will they be
    available is earliest late summer.
    
    The show was good and I enjoyed my visit.
    
    Who else went ?? What did you think ??
    
    Jonathan
                                                    

    
    Hi Jonathon and all,
    
    I also went on Saturday!, Didnt see anyone with smoke rising from ears
    though!
    
    I was very impressed. this was the first show RUN BY ATARI, not by a
    magazine. They did very well on the whole.
    
    As -1 states, there was two floors, entertainment downstairs and
    business upstairs. There was a very impressive array of systems in the
    business area. They were demoing the TT, and the STW as well as the
    Portfolio. and Stacey. 
    
    THe STW was priced at 5995 pounds for an entry system, Helios, (UNIX),
    plus applications, 4 megs Plus video ram. 40 MByte hard disk, large colour
    monitor, no ethernet tho, (its an add on). The guy was running
    Xwindows, in one window he was doing a MAndlebrot plot and in the
    second the bouncing balls Ray trace, SIMULTANEOUSLY IN REAL TIME. The
    windows took about 3 seconds to update. !! (This is the ray trace that
    takes about 27 hours on the ST!).
    
    The TT was being demoed with lots of applications, I saw Fleet street
    publisher running very nicely on a large monitor.
    
    Signa was there with a huge stand lots and lots of high end stuff, DTP and
    CAD, Calmus and DYNA CAD. loads of plotters and lasers churning away.
    
    There were the ABC range of Atari PC's as well.
    
    New Hardware.
    
    There were loads of add ons, Hard disks, memory expansions, digitisers,
    a tower system to put any ST in. Gen locks, etc.
    
    I also did not attend the theatre sessions, so I missed the new product
    update, however there was no sign of any new ATARI hardware on show, I
    was hoping that the CD rom might have made an appearance. (in view of
    the latest AMIGA CD ROM systems), but no such luck.
    
    All in all it was a good show by ATARI, on their own, the admission was
    reasonable,  The car parking was easy, although a bit pricey! There was
    enough to see,and there were a good number of visitors! If only Atari
    had had the balls to run these shows three or four years ago! 
    
    On the GFA data media stand I had a good play with the new GFA
    draft plus, they will give me an upgrade from the previous version for 
    50 pounds, very tempting!. Lots of new features in the program and it
    is definately easier to use. When zooming I alway used to "lose" the
    drawing, you can now key a command that references ordinates 0,0 to the
    left bottom corner of the frame at any degree of zoom. Drawing commands
    are picked off a drop down icon menu (it can be removed for full screen
    viewing).
    
    Cheers for now
    
    Patrick K
    

Hi All,

	I went to the show on sunday and did attend the new product seminar.

	This seminar was directed towards the TT (new!!!), However, there
was some new info:-

1	Shipping date NEARLY  confirmed as July 90 - we are waiting for the
kits from USA in sufficient volume.

2	Price just <�2000 ex VAT ie. �2300 inc VAT.

3	Builtin 68881 maths coprocessor not optional as handouts said.

4	Builtin LAN connector based on APPLEtalk? (Lecturer not sure).

5	Not suitable for UNIX (5.2) in current configuration.

6	UNIX available towards end of 90 with a new TT cofiguration.

John

    Hi,
    
    did anyone pick up information about best-buy add-on hard disks and
    could he/she maybe post it here?
    
    Thanks, Jurgen.

    
    Hi Jurgen,
    
    I am sorry, since I already have a hard drive, I wasnt all that
    interested in looking at the numerous hard drives for the ST. However
    there was a comparison test in one of the magazines recently, I will try 
    to drag it out and post a conclusion, although I eem to remember that
    most of the comparison was regarding cooling fan noise!
    
    I saw an advert for a new drive in the ST world that looked like it was
    worth investigating, this is the Power computing Power drive, it was
    quite cheap, A 3.5 in SCSI I think, and it was cheap because it only
    uses 5V, which it drws from the ST itself! 
    
    Chears 
    
    Pat K.

>    Hi,
>    
>    did anyone pick up information about best-buy add-on hard disks and
>    could he/she maybe post it here?
>    
>    Thanks, Jurgen.


	I was at the show and managed to pick up an absolute bargin : a
TCT 65meg hard disk for only �399. I went to the TCT booth to get a 45meg
drive and the conversation went along these lines :-

ME : How much for a 45meg hard disk ??
TCT: Were doing them for �399 [list price �499]
ME : (A bargin !!) I'll take one !!
TCT: (guy wanders away,looks thru boxes and comes back empty handed)
     Sorry we havn't got any 45 meg drives left....
ME : (Knew it was too good to be true !!)
TCT: ...BUT I can do you a 65meg drive for the same price...If you want??
ME : (gibbering wreck by this point) Eh....I think that'll do..
TCT: (guy wanders off to get stuff)
ME : (still comming down from orbit....a week later)

	The moral of the story : Catch them with thier stocks down, they 
				 don't seem capable of thinking straight!!

	The list price of the 65meg drive was �599 so I saved �200 (33%). Not 
bad for 5 minutes work.

    Re .7:
    
    Could you let me know the TCT address? Thanks.
    
    I searched myself meanwhile and got an offer from ABCO Computer, FA
    (904) 786-4176 for an 80 MB disk with Seagate drive for $ 689.
    
    Does anybody know anything about this company?
    
    J�rgen.

I suspect that "ABCO" is Ralph Mariano, editor of ST-REPORT.

    Does anyone know about Ralph and his disks though.  The prices sttm to
    be (too?) good.
    
    				Bill