In a message of 08 Sep 96 Dave Freeman wrote to me:

G'Day Dave!

 DF> This one is called Westech96 (runs every three years) and is aimed at
 DF> the beef and wool markets - that's where all the interest is in this

I suppose there would be a lot of interest in RAM out there...

 DF> region.  Around 100 stands this year and last time they got over 5000
 DF> visitors in the two days.  Not bad when you consider that the town
 DF> that's hosting it only has a population of around 1500 or so (it's at
 DF> Barcaldine about 100km down the road from Longreach).

Sounds like a bonanza for the town hosting it.  Computers are making
inroads into the outback.  In fact, there is a song about it.  It's called
Waltzing Malaptop...

 DW>> Will you be supporting the Amiga on your stand?

 DF> Much as I would like to do something along those lines I just can't
 DF> justify it.  You just can't do it out here when there's no support
 DF> available.  No, we'll be hawking PC's and internet solutions.  My PC
 DF> dealer mate will be selling the hardware and I'll be trying to sign
 DF> people up for internet courses and web development work.

Fairy 'nuff.  Although you could still use the old Amiga to put together a
presentation package for the display.  On the other hand, Scala is now a PC
program so I suppose there is little point. 

 DF> Ran my first intro course last week and it went over pretty well.
 DF> Picked up some consultancy work as a result of it to go out and fix a
 DF> computer for internet access for someone as well.

I've done a little bit of consultancy work but I am not really suited to
it.  I have a tendency to call the people for whom I consult idiots when
they overlook the simple things.  The idiots don't really like being called
idiots...  ;-)

 DF> All in all things are going fairly well - better than I initially
 DF> expected actually.  It won't pay me a salary yet but it should keep me
 DF> supplied with new toys fairly well.

Been there, done that.  With a bit of wheeling and dealing I wound up with
a `free' A3000.  I don't think I could do as well with PCs though.

 DF> I do all of my web development on one of the PC's here and much of the
 DF> internet access - my ISP uses CHAP negotiation on his PPP connections
 DF> and, so far, only the registered version of Amiga PPP supports this.

That's one thing that cheeses me off.  These sort of things should be built
into Amigados.  Perhaps if we ever see v4, it will be there.

 DF>>> Oh, just an aside in case some of my messages haven't been getting
 DF>>> out...  the AUST_AMIGA web pages are up and running as:

 DF>>> http://www.gla.com.au/aust_amiga/index.html

 DW>> I'll have a look-see tonight.  Assuming my ISP doesn't crash again,
 DW>> that is.

 DF> My ISP has now been down for over 24 hours and I _really_ needed to get
 DF> my web pages online before the show (starts Tuesday).  I got your email

It is always the way.  And out your way there would be few choices in ISP's
so they really have you by the short and curlies.

 DF> though, I've incorporated a number of your bookmarks into the links
 DF> lists.  Thanks for that.

No wukkas.



 DF> I prefer Internet Explorer v3.0 now actually.  I'm having a heap of fun

Beware of IE3.0!  It scrambled my hard drive.  I have since deleted it from
my system.

 DF> with ActiveX and VBScript (and JavaScript).  I suspect that MS are
 DF> going to have a winner with it - if for no other reason then because
 DF> it's free.  My ISP (TPGI) have just announced that they're changing to
 DF> using IE as their default browser and have given the cost of licensing
 DF> Netscape as the reason.

Well, Netscape is free to those in education.  If anyone asks me, I'll
reply that I teach bondage and discipline...

 DF> I haven't had any complaints about not being able to see the Amiga
 DF> pages yet so I'm assuming that what I've setup on them is usable for
 DF> most people anyway.  I always try and ensure that even Lynx users can

I got in there the other night without hassles.  Looks quite good.

BTW, does anyone know whether or not Livewire will be keeping the Aminet
mirror?  They seem to say it will go one week and it is back up the next.



  // Catchya
\X/  kingpin{at}mt.net.au

... I just got a new floppy drive for my Pentium.  Great trade!
--- Spot 1.3a #753