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[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by A1260

Wildstar128=Barry

just admit it....

Robert Bernardo, Jeri Ellsworth can certainly confirm to you that I am not Barry.

They actually met me in person. There are several others that can vouch that I am a different person.

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Thanks for digging that up.

I hope Wildstar reads it all from page 1 (but I'm sure he already knows about it). Then it is worth tracking down the other threads as they show more designed that are not theirs, insult customers, send insulting and threatening PMs, post the contents of private PMs, etc.

It should keep him busy for months.

I will take my time looking at them. I can see how this devolved. I will have to read through it a few times as it takes a great deal to process this.

I do have some feelings that some of the responses were baseless and just part of childish, immaturity of some of the folks. Some claims were ridiculous.

I can say that Leo had stated a few things that might have been inappropriate in terms of claiming not that you won't wait x number of months. It was too open ended. Granted, they are only human running a business venture is unique and you make mistakes or decisions that might not have been the best or state things that might be a little loose with the mouth. Both Barry and Leo do have some looseness of the mouth. Maybe we all do. Experience may limit those occurances.

I am not saying I am perfect either. I have been critiqued (ie. Ridiculed) about it. Someone here made a loose reference to percentage. This is why I don't use percentages about project status. It is also why I don't announce projects until they are done or ready for some review.

Anyway, the community often reacts far too volitile and with vitriol when it isn't really necessary. It is a problem with the "punk culture" which some of the community members come from. Sorry if the label offense anyone. It is meant to put into simple words that describes the culture and that was very popular among the demo scene.

This may certainly underly some of the cultural factors involved in the community that still is active.

[Darrin]

Originally Posted by Wildstar128

Robert Bernardo, Jeri Ellsworth can certainly confirm to you that I am not Barry.

They actually met me in person. There are several others that can vouch that I am a different person.

I actually believe you on this bit. Even after your couple of meltdowns, you're still a million times more polite than Barry would be by now.

[Darrin]

Originally Posted by Wildstar128

I will take my time looking at them. I can see how this devolved. I will have to read through it a few times as it takes a great deal to process this.

I do have some feelings that some of the responses were baseless and just part of childish, immaturity of some of the folks. Some claims were ridiculous.

I can say that Leo had stated a few things that might have been inappropriate in terms of claiming not that you won't wait x number of months. It was too open ended. Granted, they are only human running a business venture is unique and you make mistakes or decisions that might not have been the best or state things that might be a little loose with the mouth. Both Barry and Leo do have some looseness of the mouth. Maybe we all do. Experience may limit those occurances.

I am not saying I am perfect either. I have been critiqued (ie. Ridiculed) about it. Someone here made a loose reference to percentage. This is why I don't use percentages about project status. It is also why I don't announce projects until they are done or ready for some review.

Anyway, the community often reacts far too volitile and with vitriol when it isn't really necessary. It is a problem with the "punk culture" which some of the community members come from. Sorry if the label offense anyone. It is meant to put into simple words that describes the culture and that was very popular among the demo scene.

This may certainly underly some of the cultural factors involved in the community that still is active.

Have at it. Also feel free to search for other threads started by "Dammy" on Amiga.org or by "Damocles" (as he likes to be called) on Amigaworld.net.

I warn you now that there is a mountain of stuff to wade through. We don't call him "Spammy" for nothing.

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by CritAnime

Also lets not forget this little nugget from Barry when the vic slims were been announced.

http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum...5&lang=en#4560


This was the same thread that Barry also mentioned this when the question was asked about the vic slim pricing.

I would have to criticize him on being too cavelier and maybe too loose with the mouth and letting professionalism slip but people aren't expected to be perfect. Everybody has personality and so did Jack. Jack had his own way of speaking then again if we know anything about Jack Tramiel then we would know something about him. Barry is from a later generation and I believe Barry is not Jewish so that may play into how Jack is compared to Barry.

However, I don't see it much different then Sam's gaffes.

Barry, be careful of gaffes. There are some childish jerks in the world that would do anything to make a public scene to embarass a person in public.

Some of my poke and jabs on this forum is just that. After all, I got that from you guys.

[Kesa]

Originally Posted by Wildstar128

Otherwise, blowing $150k on making a bunch of boards for which only 50 on the planet will ever buy isn't going to be prudent. Investing $2k-3k.... Maybe but there is no paying for labor. So, $1k in labor maybe for $129-159 price. This way, you can reinvest and have profit and pay for time.

That is why the price doubling the cost is the strategy. You must nave a profit margin but bring cost down so the price is competitive.

If one is going to have real R&D then for one guy doing the job, we are talking $50k-100k for 20-40 hours a week to bring a product to market. Do yourself a favor and look up what hardware engineers make at major companies for their time. An honest company would endeavor to pay their staff and contracted developers reasonable amount competitive to anyone else. We are talking $55k to $100k. If you got a $1 million is staffing expenses and 2-3 million in other expenses of operation. You need to make $5-6 million to break even to also address taxes. At this scale, we are talking to be viable - $10 Million revenue is a necessary for on-going operation and growth and that needs to increase at least 5% to stay up on the leading edge of inflation.

$10 Million may sound like a lot but that is still small.

$10 Billion is when you are up there with the big league.

LOL. Where are you coming up with all these numbers? Yay for creative accounting!

[Kesa]

Originally Posted by Wildstar128

Millions isn't alot and is easily doable. First, Barry isn't someone with no money connections and financing. You think Barry is completely financed this out of dollars in his wallet? No. It is business venturing and numerous financial arrangements.

Barry knows how to run businesses and isn't someone who has never ran a business. He may not be the brightest individual in the world but experience and knowledge goes hand in hand. The other business like anything is equity to start up CommodoreUSA. Lets put it mildly, it is business and as such he is not going to run it like anything other than a business. Whatever issues or supporting of Commodore and Amiga classic has to be isolated from running down the revenues and incurring liability on the CommodoreUSA business end.

Actually this is my biggest complaint. My feeling is that he doesn't have the experience and knowledge to be a successful entreprenuer.

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Have at it. Also feel free to search for other threads started by "Dammy" on Amiga.org or by "Damocles" (as he likes to be called) on Amigaworld.net.

I warn you now that there is a mountain of stuff to wade through. We don't call him "Spammy" for nothing.

I am aware of Spammy Dammy... LOL.

I don't think anyone at CommodoreUSA can really do much to stop what someone who is not employed by them in terms of what is said. Not even a copany like Microsoft. Don't assume. If you want to verify info, talk to Leo or Barry in a civil manner. Just ask what you want to know. Don't waste time on meaningless garbage and the other piss and vinegar. After all, it stinks up the place.

At least, we should strive to find civil measures to talk about these topics and keep it civil.

Fussing over spilled milk isn't worth the time. Enjoy your Commodore 8-bits, classic Amiga and PPC systems and your CUSA products if any of you purchases them. Just enjoy and have fun.

[CritAnime]

Originally Posted by Wildstar128

I believe Barry is not Jewish

Why would that have any bearing on how he reacts to criticism and comments? thats the biggest load of tosh I have read in a while

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by Kesa

LOL. Where are you coming up with all these numbers? Yay for creative accounting!

Look up salary of a computer hardware engineer. Assume a year's pay and if you get the guy working his or her butt off and get a product delivered.... Voila.

These numbers are based on practical norms. People like Jeri and Jens and Bil Herd would be paid in these numbers. The more drawn out your R&D and complex it is, the more it would be. I would recommend even higher budget for R&D of hardware electronics.

Modern software development isn't cheap either when you actually pay people for their time.

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by CritAnime

Why would that have any bearing on how he reacts to criticism and comments? thats the biggest load of tosh I have read in a while

You are misunderstanding the point. It may play in how someone talks and writes. Depending on generation and religious views might play into whether you would call someone an a--hole or refrain from those word usage. Most people in Jack's generation certainly used less vulgarity and name calling. Depending on what Jewish 'denomination' (sorry, I don't know the proper term for hebrew/jewish equivalent to christian denominations), that may play into how tight to certain social conduct standards one would hold themselves to.

It wasn't that important except the main point to be drawn is that may influence Jack in a different manner to Barry. This isn't to say anyone is good or bad person but simply about social customs.

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by Kesa

Actually this is my biggest complaint. My feeling is that he doesn't have the experience and knowledge to be a successful entreprenuer.

No one knows or has a given set of experience to be certain of being a successful entreprenuer. Entrepreneurship is like gamble. There is 1000s of recipes and each is different. If we based things on similar standards, would Jack Tramiel qualified in 1970s just before the KIM and PET. It is hard to say.

I have talked to Barry and I can attest to you that he does have a vast understanding of business. Being successful is not thing you can be guaranteed. You win some, you lose some. That is how life of a business works. How you deal with it... That is the test.

How you respond to the market. No one supporting the Commodore and Amiga classics can I say are really successful entreprenuers. Then, the have set the bar pretty low to something easy that they can do with a real job in day and part time hobby at night. Sorry for the pun.

[Duce]

You don't understand why we participate in this hobby, I'm not about to waste my time with trying to explain the "hobby" aspect again and why money isn't a factor. Just like it isn't to some guy that loves model steam locomotives, you can tell him his "tech" is old school, and chide him for spending a dime on it. That does not detract from the fact he DOES spend money on it, and DOES enjoy it, and SOMEONE is on the business end of it providing services or goods to allow said enthusiast to keep at his hobby.

I'll ask again: why are you still here? I fail to see that you've done anything for many pages now other than sling personal insults towards the community, and quite frankly the mods are dropping the ball in a horrible fashion. How are you helping the community, and A.org?

Kudos to the Jewish reference - nice to know you are a stereotyping racist, too. Not sure why the constant Tramiel/Altman comparisons are going on - Tramiel did business practices that were bordering on illegal. You are not only an abusive bore, but now a racist. Wow. Didn't think it'd get worse, but here we are.

RIP Tramiel, but I'll call that one like history has it down, and a wise man would have done his homework on Jack's little "takeover" history.

[Middleman]

Originally Posted by Darrin

You know how. Stop the lies and just bugger off and sell you Linux PCs without the Amiga logo.

Yeah I should shouldn't I……and if I do I'll probably make a tonne of dosh out of it and get my own villa in the Caribbean by the time I'm finished…..
Honestly, you got such a great imagination Darrin it has to be commended! I mean, seriously……it's so good you could be a successful writer!

Anyways you'll be glad to know (or not) I'm just staying right here for a little while longer because…….a) I don't like being intimidated and NOONE is going to force me to leave just because they disagree with what I say, so I'm not leaving and b) well I'd like to make use of my $30 bucks I donated to the site (or at least whatever's left of it).

Originally Posted by Darrin

In short, you, Middleman and Dammy are here under orders to try and do some damage repair and you're urinating into the wind.

I came to the forum on my own accord in my own time….it wasn't an 'instruction' from Barry or anyone else. I came here because I enjoy the old machines just as much as you do, albeit maybe a bit forward looking on the hardware side as a fan. Plus I have tried to keep my posts here on CUSA as minimal as possible so not as to 'upset' anyone. So if anyone wants to keep the threads 'CUSA clean' as it were, don't ask me questions directly or quote my name in anything about them, and I won't bother to answer them in return….deal?

Originally Posted by Darrin

Everything you say will be taken down and used in evidence against you.

Wow deja vu, I thought this was supposed to be a democratic site…..



Also I would like to say something about this interview, especially to Duce, EDana and others who had doubts about Barry. It was YOU GUYS who was asking these questions about CUSA and the future of Amiga (or leadership as you call it), as well as from Transition etc. for an interview, so I did the favour and passed the message on to Barry. And now that you've got the answers from him where it's currently headed I'm just spellbound why there's all this vitriol and saying it's in deeper dodo than before. I just don't understand the logic…..

Also one thing about the 'Final Challenge' is that…….Barry messaged to me earlier during the interview, he wanted to make the dream come true for you guys in putting together your 'dream' vintage New Amiga ie. an Amiga with whatever spec you wanted in CUSA custom case as a one-off commemorative product that is not an Intel Amiga. But it was your failure to come up with the 500 orders from the community that led it to not work. If you said to Barry 'I want this with a PowerPC/FPCG board with a A1200 case, AmigaOS4 and this and this' and the numbers registered for the project were there including the needed deposits he would have happily obliged. And he still does. It still stands as far as I am aware….

[Wildstar128]

Originally Posted by Duce

You don't understand why we participate in this hobby, I'm not about to waste my time with trying to explain the "hobby" aspect again and why money isn't a factor. Just like it isn't to some guy that loves model steam locomotives, you can tell him his "tech" is old school, and chide him for spending a dime on it. That does not detract from the fact he DOES spend money on it, and DOES enjoy it, and SOMEONE is on the business end of it providing services or goods to allow said enthusiast to keep at his hobby.

I'll ask again: why are you still here? I fail to see that you've done anything for many pages now other than sling personal insults towards the community, and quite frankly the mods are dropping the ball in a horrible fashion. How are you helping the community, and A.org?

Kudos to the Jewish reference - nice to know you are a stereotyping racist, too. Not sure why the constant Tramiel/Altman comparisons are going on - Tramiel did business practices that were bordering on illegal. You are not only an abusive bore, but now a racist. Wow. Didn't think it'd get worse, but here we are.

RIP Tramiel, but I'll call that one like history has it down, and a wise man would have done his homework on Jack's little "takeover" history.

The insult slinging happened on both sides of this argument and you are not innocent either. I do believe because he was Jewish, it was customary to not use vulgarity or engaging in the kind of insult slinging as it would be breaking from one of the 10 commandments. That is the limit of that reference. That was simply a matter of difference. Some persisted the furthering, I believe I had already dealt withnthat point. Some aspects of Barry's conduct, yo would not see a jewish man of his generation doing. That is just a difference between Jack. NOthing more nothing less. Do you get the point so we are done with that point or are we going to simply fuss over.

I know the hobby part but no person can possibly get bank lending to support any of this. No venture capitalist on the planet has ever considered this platform viable since 1999. No one can ever break even on their time. Every person who engages in Commodore and Amiga development loses money including their time.

This is why you can't expect real businesses to support something because real businesses is about making money and profits. That is the purpose of a business entity vs. Doing something for a hobbu.

I have been using the Commodore and Amiga for hobby since about 13 years. When I did graphics for Spork64 for c64 with the group Retro64... That is a hobby. No money.

However, if I am to pay the bills and have food on the table and actually live and not literally starve to death or dehydration in a cardboard box then I better have an income either in working as an employee or running a business. Therefore a business can't be about something that makes no income or the income is so small that the years of time investment would never be paid off.

When I do bulding design work, a business, for clients - it is not for charity. I have to make an income. I have stayed much out of computer software and hardware development because all the jobs have been exported to chinese and india exployees that works for $1.50 an hour withna life style of someone in U.S. for $15 an hour because everything costs 1/10th the amount of US currency in those countries as it costs innthe US for the same item.

How is that legitimate currency exchange. Well.... You can imagine that most of the companies have exported the work there because it cost them less.

That is only part of it. That only addresss lack of jobs other then database entry which I do not enjoy nor did I ever wanted to do. I was interested in the creative development side of things. The other aspect is nobody can make a living as an independent software programmer because no one is going to pay for software that doesn't take up an entire DVD with 3d graphics, cinematics and all the movie level production team requirements or a mega-scale office suite and the likes. If it is a <10-100 MB game with mostly still images and other basically, 2d software of small scale... You can't even get $0.01 for it. It is that difficult to be an independent software developer guy. Sure, I can do that as a hobby but the time commitment without the ability to make a living is a problem.

I am sure some of you feel the strain and difficulty of committing the time and not be able to make a living on your own. Software industry has been largely Corporatetized.

I have to keep in mind that as I still have to pay bills like everyobe else.

Do you think any serious legitimate business is going to invest money in R&D for anything with no ROI?

Vesalia can basically sell stuff on a consignment basis which they receive profits but they didn't have to put huge input cost to take drastic risks.

Unless I can make a load of money without working, I don't think I can afford to be living a hobby.