(c) T.Weeks, 1997
Around 15-Apr-97, dkelly typed:
>Dear Mr.Tweeks;

>    I was wondering what to do with my amiga 500, I just got ACER pentum
>real nice computer. But anyway I have a amiga 500 with GVP 530 .with all
>the goodies .I would like to sell or trade.
> know anybody that wants it. and whats it worth?

Well.. It all depends on what you want to DO with your machine...

Although the hardware on the 500 is quite dated, the A500 with A530 can still
do quite a bit!  Look at my web page under my HTML/WEB development.. check out
the ray traced logo I did for Texas A&M.  This was done on an A500/530 with 
only 9 meg of RAM!  Not only this.. but you can ALSO get a cheap genlock (I got 
MINE for $35!) and do WAY cool home video graphic overlays and character 
generation (scrolling credits)!  

And if your still wondering about the modern usefullness...  the same software
I use to do my ray traced logos is the same software used to do the special FX
in Star Treck DS-9, Voyager, Herculese, Sliders, new Blue M&M commercials,
Babylon 5, and many more!  Now if you're planning on doing more advanced ray
traced pictures and anims seen on a lot of these commercial spots, you might
want to look at a more powerful platform that can handle the extreme number
crunching neededs for this type of work...  The package is called Lightwave
and can be run on a NT Dec Alpha platform... so you can take your work with
you as you upgrade...  but if all you're doing is web page ray tracing... the
platform you have is just fine...

And yes.. if you get a burr in yer butt (like me) you can go ahead and try my
tower hack to give you system a breath of fresh air! hehe

Now as for just doing day to day applications.. your hardware is STILL a
performer...  Since the Amiga platform does not suffer from "Bloat-Ware"
syndrome as do most other platforms today... things like hard drive storage
and RAM for your machine are not needed to NEARLY the extent that the MS
platforms (and others) demand.  For example.. it took me 4 years of running,
buying, and installing apps to fill up my 160Meg SCSI drive...  after that was
full... I got a 540Meg SCSI... and that was over 2 years ago and IT is *still*
only about 1/2 full. Not only this.. but on my machine, I do more with 9 meg
and an old 40MHz 68030 what some running Win95/NT can't even come CLOSE to on
thier 32Meg P166's!  This is because of the tight, efficient code and open
ended OS that the Amiga is famous for.  

Now when it comes to applications, of *course* you are going to have a much
wider array of software available on the MS platform(s) than on the Amiga. 
But you ask almost any Amiga user/hobbiest and he will usually resound that
doing that same task on the Amiga is *ALWAYS* more of a pleasure than it is
doing the same on a kLoNe!

By my little speech... you may think that I would never own anything but an
Amiga... This is not true.  As many Amiga users will also confess, we have
used, or own, all or most of the /other/ platforms out there and have found
the Amiga to be superior in both hardware and software (OS) design and
functionality. Those who adhere to (allbeit sometimes finatically) the idealic
beliefs of superior systems (much as the clingers on to beta video tape over
the more popular VHS standard), don't mind the fact that some times 80% of
their software is either shareware/PD or hard to find single solutions as
apposed to the plethora of PC/kLoNeware out there today.  It is the
appreciation of the beauty of the platform, it's OS, and what its strikingly
rebellious image stands for that binds us together and strengthens us -- even as
there has been no stable parent company or well organised single over seeing
entity for the platform for over 3 years now.

Well, you asked me what to do with your seemingly aged system in the light of
the newer technologies that have made themselves unavoidable.. and I went off!

hehe...

Sorry...  But as you can see, we /AMIGA/ users, if anything, *are* dedicated! 
;v) I hope this did, however, answer some of the basic questions you were
trying to ask and gave you a better idea of what exactly you have sitting
there on your desk (or sadly, in your closet).

Wow...  What a reply.. I may have to save this for future soap box sessions!

Sinceerly,
 
Thomas Weeks

aka

Tom D Tek


-- 
  ___________________________________________________________________________
 /      Thomas W. Weeks        |Team AMIGA  Commodore Amiga 500/030 40MHz    \
|   A&M EET/Telecom Grad '95   |      ///   Hacked Into Black Tower Case,    |
| Authorized Amiga Tech (7yrs) | __  ///    9M RAM, SyQuest 44M, 700M-o-SCSI |
|        Contact Me @          | \\\///     IBM 286 Hardware Emulator,       |
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|   Email: tweeks@texas.net    |"Amiga, The Computer for the Creative Mind"TM|
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