News and Views
from the AmiTech-Dayton Gazette, November 2003
Recent court findings have not gone well for Merlancia. Merlancia was found guilty in a lawsuit brought by Nova Designs and must pay $270,000 for backing out of a business deal. No word when or if Mr./Dr./Count Ryan will pay or challenge the ruling.
Activities surrounding the Pegasos, and to a lesser extent the AmigaOne, seem to be picking up a bit. OS 4.0 is making the rounds to several European shows while Peg/Morph is making appearances in the US and Canada as well as overseas. Second generation Pegasos boards should be available soon.
In related news, Merlancia announced they will be releasing new machines with the Amiga MCC cases. No information is available other than the two machines will have two different motherboards, two different processors of unknown speed, no operating system, and no ideas when they will be available, other than real soon now. While they are not taking money for pre-orders you can put your name on a call-when-ready list.
In a recent speech, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stated personal computing is the most significant creation in the history of man, and Microsoft invented it. Someone needs to check Bill's medications -- they're not working.
In related news, Mr./Dr./Count Ryan has declared that Merlancia invented everything ever named Amiga, including the computing platform, the software, the Amiga hotel in Seoul City, South Korea, the German recording label Amiga, and some kid named Amiga by his fanatic parents. No word on what Merlancia may seek in damages, but an announcement is expected real soon now.
Microsoft announced they will offer a bounty of $250,000 to anyone who turns in the people responsible for the two biggest viruses (virii?) to hit MS software. A flood of false alarms are expected to be called in in Redmond. (I wonder what happened to the guy that stole my lunch in sixth grade? Hello, Microsoft? I have someone to tell you about...).
Virginia Tech has created what is now known to be the world's third fastest supercomputer cluster, using 1,100 off-the-shelf Power Mac G5 Dual processor machines, With 2200 2.0ghz processors and 8 gig of ram per machine the Big Mac is capable of in excess of 10.8 teraflops per second. And although it is still being fine-tuned and should reach over 17 teraflops per second it will still fall far short of the two top machines. But it will have cost far less having been assembled for less than six million dollars. Virginia Tech will be selling do-it-yourself kits to other universities who may be interested.
In related news, Mr./Dr/Count Ryan has announced he too will be selling the G5 Super Computer kits under the name Merlancia Amiga G5 Super Elite Split-Level Extended Chassis Millennium DeVille. No word on pricing, but it is expected to be available real soon now.
Apple released its iTunes Music Store for Windows software to the sounds of laughter from most of the larger pro-MS news sources, saying the public prefers the richer environment that Microsoft products provide. The public responded by downloading over one million copies of the free software in the first twenty four hours and legally downloading music at the rate of over 1.5 million song a week, giving Apple an eighty percent share of the online music market. Microsoft has responded by asking the government to look into Apple's monopolistic practices (hello, pot? meet kettle.) In related news, Mr./Dr./Count Ryan announced plans to provide downloadable music available through his new service, myTunes. A new mp3 player dubbed The Merlancia Music Storage Thingy will also be released with the ad campaign slogan "Is that a Wurlitzer in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?". Availability should be real soon now.