{"id":9515,"date":"2016-10-17T10:15:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T07:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.a-eon.biz\/blog\/?p=9515"},"modified":"2016-10-17T10:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T07:15:23","slug":"down-the-rabbit-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.a-eon.biz\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/10\/17\/down-the-rabbit-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Down the rabbit hole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Have you seen A.L.I.C.E.?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was going to entitle this blog “Showtime” to highlight the three Amiga shows I attended in the last 2 weeks but changed the title due to an incident while driving from San Francisco to Sacramento. Paul Sadlik, daytime architect and night-time beta tester extraordinaire, was driving me to Amiwest along with AmigaOS developer Tony Wyatt and my business partner Matthew Leaman. About 50 miles northeast of San Francisco airport we stopped at an In-N-Out burger in Pinole to grab a coffee and a quick bite to eat.<\/p>\n

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#$@!"*%#@!!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We sat in a window booth with our rental car in full view. Unfortunately that didn’t stop someone smashing the car’s back window and making off with two of our laptop bags. Paul lost his laptop and his car & house keys along with several other items. My bag contained two A.L.I.C.E laptops. The white prototype I’ve had for about a year and a new black model which had been specially acquired and set up for the Amiwest show. My Amiwest presentation and A-EON News Releases were on A.L.I.C.E. laptop and backed-up to a USB HDD which was also in the bag. Did I mention the bag also contained my passport, all my emergency cash and my prescription glasses and sunglasses? \ud83d\ude41 At least the incident led to one of the popular quotes at Amiwest this year, “I had it with me but it was in my bag”.(\u00a9 <\/span>Paul Sadlik ;-))<\/p>\n

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A rose by any other name?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the stolen bags, Amiwest itself was great fun. There was an excellent buzz to the show this year and even the late Friday night pre-show session had around 26 people in attendance including former Amiga developer Bob ‘Kodiak’ Burns and former Commodore UK Joint Managing Director Colin Proudfoot with his partner Anneke Leigh. As usual Robert ‘Goody’ Goodlett brought along a selection of tasty real ales and we also managed to polish off a bottle of Hazelwood<\/em>, an 18 year old blended Scotch whisky I brought along to surprise AmigaOS developer, Lyle Hazelwood<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Amigaaaaaaaaa!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, Lyle was unable to travel to Amiwest due to a last minute change to his work schedule and Hurricane Matthew<\/em> grounding flights in his area. Although Lyle could not attend in person at least he was there in spirit<\/em> (boom boom) and we were able to toast him with the Hazelwood<\/em> scotch.<\/p>\n

Old LAGs and Boing sculptures
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Adelaide (Boing) Balls?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two other shows I attended could not have been more different and far flung. I was invited by Epsilon<\/em> (of Epsilon’s Amiga blog fame) to attend the AAUG’s (Adelaide Amiga User Group) monthly club night in Adelaide, South Australia. About 40 people of all ages turned up to hear me talk about my Amiga passion and I was very pleased to see youngsters playing games on Epsilon’s AmigaOne X1000. He also had his AmigaOne A1222 on display running Linux along with an ‘Amiga’ FPGA box. AAUG is part of the Adelaide Retro computer club which was only founded in 2015. The club is thriving and celebrates all forms of the Amiga and retro computing.<\/p>\n

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Officially an old lag?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way to Amiwest I took a (slight ;-)) detour to Lincoln in the UK to help LAG (Lincolnshire Amiga Group) celebrate its 10th Anniversary. Darren ‘Kernel’ Stevens<\/em>, an active AmigaOS4 beta tester and member of our core Linux support team sent me the invitation and I’d arranged for David Pleasance<\/em>, former Joint M.D. of Commodore UK) to also attend the show. Unfortunately, David was admitted into hospital with a bad leg infection and had to cancel at the last minute. I’m pleased to report that he is now out of hospital and on his way to a full recovery.<\/p>\n

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Darren playing MACE on his AmigaOne X1000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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LAG Chairman - Michael Domoney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show had a distinctly Classic Amiga theme although many of the machines on display had been highly customized in true Amiga fashion. I bought myself a Workbench 1.3 inspired club T-Shirt so now I’m officially and Old LAG! Hey who said if the cap fits! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Close encounters of the X5000 kind
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AmigaOne X5000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s been a long time coming but I was pleased to be able to announce at Amiwest that the AmigaOne X5000 is now officially available for sale. The first commercial version, the AmigaOne X5000 \u2018Close Encounters\u2019 Limited Edition<\/em> is supplied with a fully licensed pre-release advanced copy of the latest AmigaOS 4.1 FE v1.1 update developed by Hyperion Entertainment. The AmigaOne X5000 can be ordered directly from A-EON Technology or from one of the approved Amiga retailers in the following countries:<\/p>\n