I’m writing this blog as I prepare to leave the beautiful New Zealand Summer for a trip to the frozen lands of Northern Europe which is locked in deep midwinter, crippled by the continuing financial crisis and an evolving horse meat scandal. Sounds like some something from the Game of Thrones fantasy novel. 😉 During… Continue reading Northern Exposure

Achieving Warp factor……3D “I cannae change the laws of physics!” or so Scotty would say on Star Trek – the original series. Then 5 minutes later he would do just that, allowing Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise to once again save the day! Our very own AmigaOS “Chief Warp3D Engineer” Hans-Jorg Frieden… Continue reading Divine Intervention?

Gone-offline It’s sometimes said that bad news always comes in threes? Whether this old wives’ tale is true or not the computer world has lost a few interesting characters in recent weeks. Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz who helped create Reddit and RSS was found dead last Friday in his New York apartment. The brilliant… Continue reading Internet Freedom or Software Piracy?

It’s that time of year when people make and often promptly break their New Year’s Resolutions. 😉 I must admit, although I don’t make any resolutions, I do use the start of a new year to reflect on my achievements (or lack of them) during the past year and set my goals and objectives for… Continue reading New Year’s Resolutions

I’m writing this blog to the sound of the annual Christmas pop song medley playing on the radio and with shops and cafes adorned with images of robins, Santa Claus, reindeer and snow. Even in New Zealand, where it’s approaching mid summer and the pohutukawa trees are in full bloom! So while the Northern hemisphere… Continue reading Season’s Greetings

The Power of One Radeon HD Frank Menzel, one of the clever developers at AmiBoing (& Entwickler-X) recently posted a YouTube video to show the performance boost that the new Radeon HD drivers can provide even on a lower powered entry level machine. He has written a special parallax scroller which included multiple parallax layers… Continue reading Returning to Middle Earth

Visit to Aladdin’s cave After AmiWest 2012 I flew back to the UK with Matthew Leaman to visit AmigaKit’s new facility in Cardiff.  Earlier this year AmigaKit vacated the two industrial units they have occupied since 2005 and moved into much larger premises in West Cardiff which has enough additional space to support their continuing… Continue reading Classic Bytes

Commodore memories I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to former Commodore employee Beth Richards who is a new member of the SACC user group, the organisers of AmiWest. Beth worked in Commodore’s special chip design group from 1990 until the bankruptcy in 1994. She worked on the Grace and Beauty chips for the… Continue reading AmiWest Special (part 2)

Well I finally made it to Sacramento safe and sound. Clearing immigration in LAX (Los Angeles) was an interesting experience. After just over an hour queuing for passport inspection I received the usual (but not unfriendly) interrogation about the purpose of my visit to the USA. After informing the young passport official I was attending… Continue reading AmiWest Special (part 1)

Westward Bound (travelling east ;-)) I’m writing this blog as I sit waiting in Wellington airport on my way to AmiWest. Only three flights away and almost a day back in time before I arrive in San Franciso tomorrow, before I take off today. Air travel across the International date-line can be so confusing. It’s… Continue reading Back to the Future