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[News] Merlancia Situation ClarifiedANN.lu
Posted on 18-Sep-2002 11:55 GMT by RC35 comments
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Once again it seems we are left to clarify a normally easy to understand issue that really is not important to those outside the company/corporate staff.

The short scoop: Merlancia is still alive and well, despite wishes of those who would plot for our demise out of spite and malice...

Plesse read this Merlancia Press Release on this matter for further details. Once again it seems we are left to clarify a normally easy to understand issue that really is not important to those outside the company/corporate staff.

The short scoop: Merlancia is still alive and well, despite wishes of those who would plot for our demise out of spite and malice...

Plesse read this Merlancia Press Release on this matter for further details.

Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 1 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by anarchic_teapot on 18-Sep-2002 10:00 GMT
> Merlancia is still alive and well, despite wishes of those who would
> plot for our demise out of spite and malice...
Ah, it's all a fiendish plot, is it? Oh well.
Rose
(PS: TINC)
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 2 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by anarchic_teapot on 18-Sep-2002 10:03 GMT
(but yes, 'dissolved' and 'bankrupt' don't mean the same thing)
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 3 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Sep-2002 10:05 GMT
So why are you using Micro$loth IIS when it it SO easy to setup and use Apache?!?!?
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 4 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 18-Sep-2002 10:38 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Anonymous):
If you notice, merlancia.com is hosted on a BSD system with Apache, while merlanciausa.com is on one of out NT5 machines. We use NT5 because of other applications that we run, including Wildcat WC5/WINS, VNC (remote server connect sw), PCanywhere and RebolView. When the site is out of Beta it will be relocated on a BSD server (after we upgrade the hardware) and mirrored on an NT server. UNIX doesn't offer everything, even if it is more secure. Note: It was not my choice to use NT, but why should anyone really care?
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 5 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Sep-2002 10:44 GMT
"It is a fact that this paperwork was not received by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) for this year."
Much more than that. It is a fact that no reports have been filed for more than TWO years and that notices of deficiency have been repeatedly ignored.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 6 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 18-Sep-2002 11:08 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Anonymous):
Whatever the situation, it will be investigated. Regardless, I still fail to see why anyone outside of corporate officials would be concerned over this, now why anyone would even be slightly interested in such matters (outside of investors and stock holders). Perhaps you can clarify why this is even remotely interesting to you so I could understand your mindset? I would e-mail you personally, as this is not the place to discuss such issues, however, you are not willing to post an e-mail address. Perhaps it is not common courtesy anymore in the UK to post with your name and e-mail address..after all, what do you have to hide?
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 7 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by m0ns00n on 18-Sep-2002 11:24 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (RC):
The point, RC, is that most people who hang here either have no job, or no life, or just alot of time, and they need to have somebody to argument with - ann is the perfect place. Nevermind them, you gave your press release.
!!
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 8 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 18-Sep-2002 11:36 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (m0ns00n):
Unfortunately it has come to that...it's really getting sad when most of the people that made the Amiga interesting leave, and the only people left are mostly a few 'nut-jobs' that have nothing else to do than complain and point out the mistakes and shortcomings of everyone else...
I would give up entirely if not for the (seemingly) very few people like yourself that actually have a brain, and make it all worthwile at the end of the day.
At any rate, the proceedure for re-enstatement is one form to be filed (Application for Reinstatement) along with copies of the required Annual Reports and a couple needed clarification notices. A very simple matter that takes a few days to a couple weeks to process. As the P.R. said, Merlancia will be reinstated as a subchapter S corporation shortly, and this has not effected out day-to-day operation at all.
//RC//
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 9 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Hoggett on 18-Sep-2002 11:39 GMT
> Once again it seems we are left to clarify a normally easy to understand
> issue that really is not important to those outside the company/corporate
> staff.
Actually, the dissolution means there is NO "corporate staff", because there is no corporation.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 10 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 18-Sep-2002 11:44 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (Bill Hoggett):
Bill,
Would you prefer "company staff" instead?
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 11 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Ben on 18-Sep-2002 12:43 GMT
Well its good news to hear everything is ok in the World of Merlancia.
But the real scoop would be to find out if the Delorean is ok? :)
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 12 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by John Z. DeLorean on 18-Sep-2002 12:58 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Ben):
Which one?
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 13 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by [JC] on 18-Sep-2002 17:48 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (RC):
I would just like to be anal and point out using NT does not mean you have to use IIS. Apache is available natively for Win32 and is at least as capable as the Unix versions.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 14 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Blah on 18-Sep-2002 18:19 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Anonymous):
> It is a fact that no reports have been filed for more than TWO years and that notices of deficiency have been repeatedly ignored.
Oh, Rich, give it a rest...
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 15 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Lando / Trinity on 18-Sep-2002 19:58 GMT
I'm glad to hear that Merlancia is still alive. (I can't understand the negativity in this thread from some people... what is their problem? They were looking forward to seeing yet another Amiga Company go bankrupt and now they're dissapointed that it isn't the case?)
Personally I'm looking forward to see what new Amiga products Merlancia come up with based on the case designs they purchased from Amiga Inc. It sounds like there'll be some extremely interesting products coming our way from Merlancia.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 16 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Sep-2002 21:47 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Lando / Trinity):
"Personally I'm looking forward to see what new Amiga products Merlancia come up with based on the case designs they purchased from Amiga Inc."
Right, well here's a list of Merlancia's forthcoming products for you:
* Tsunami alpha February/March 2001, release November/December 2001
* Apocolyps alpha November 2001, release February/March 2002
* Hurricane alpha December 2001, release March/April 2002
If you believe that then I also have an opportunity for you to invest in the BoXeR, just mail me the cash and we'll write up a contract later.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 17 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Brad Ray on 18-Sep-2002 23:02 GMT
Hmmm...
Has anyone ever purchased a merlancia product?
I've seen a lot of pretty pictures, but I've never seen an actual product of thiers being sold.
I could be wrong, of course.
But if that's the very arrogant dude that my brother was talking about at one of the prior Amiga shows...
I wouldn't buy anything from them anyway.
If I am incorrect in my analogy, please someone out there... correct me.
I sure would hate to be pointing fingers at the wrong people here.
Because I'm not really familiar with merlancia.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 18 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by m0ns00n on 19-Sep-2002 04:04 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Brad Ray):
But still, you _had_ to comment? What a laugh: "HAHAHA". Now go watch Jerry Springer.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 19 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by gz on 19-Sep-2002 07:21 GMT
hahaha RC, are you sure you didn't use the web economy bullshit generator to create your "press release"?
What a load of ***** almost reminiscent to the AI corporate executive updates.
Why can't you just say you run a carage company? Hell I run one too and there's no shame in truth. At least that would give a good reason for the delay of all products that are on merlancia site.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 20 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 19-Sep-2002 09:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 19 (gz):
carriage company?
--
At least we have real offices, not a bloody PO box, and real staff working for us, we aren't asking for money up front, like other companied, and we are offering internet and software products of our own (in house development), unlike other companies. We don't pretend to be a huge multi-billion dollar corporation like other firms int he Amiga market either, but we do try to offer a professional aspect that other Amiga companies have forgotten how to do...while at the same time, trying to retain a personal relationship with our clients.
Have you ever tried to order product from us, or contacted us on the subject? Would you like to orderr a system with LinuxPPC? What would you have us offer if AOS4 is not ready, and MOS is not yet perfected?
We can't sell a hardware solution without an OS, that is a legitimate problem. If you would care to order a PPC system with Linux, then you are more then welcome to. We do offer that, not that Amiga people would really, or should really care.
When our new orderign system is finished (which will also be one of our industrial/internet products, fyi), you will be able to place orders for PPC products online. until then, you may feel free to contact us with any questions you have at PowerPC@merlancia.com. Dont be a bit surprised of we offer other RISC solutions in the future as well. Amiga is great and all, but it is too small of a market community to be completely dedicated to. We have other clients and markets that we are working with that have absolutely nothing to do with Amiga..
Don't get me wrong..everyone at MI still loves the Amiga computer..(can't say as much for everyone involved with Amiga at this time, however), but we have to expand outwards if we are to survive. There areonly a few thousand Amiga users left inthe world right now..perhaps when a new product is available, more will come back, but in the current state of affairs, we just can'tride on that bet.
We will continue to offer Amiga products and Amiga related products as long as any market (even a few hundred people) exists, just as we still support classic CBM equipment to this day. We also offer industrial internet, scientific, and multimedia products completely unrelated to Amiga. There is no shame in that either.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 21 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by dakang on 19-Sep-2002 10:56 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (RC):
Amen.
All - Just let the guy get on with his job huh? Wait for OS4 to be released (and/or MorphOS) and then if they dont deliver, criticise. Until then, just leave the guy in peace...
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 22 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by gz on 19-Sep-2002 17:12 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (RC):
Ok, I guess I was out of line. but there is another side to the coin I was speaking of. Merlancia has been all quiet untill now. No information clarifying the os problems etc... It's not a wonder why some people got the impression merlancia products might be the next boxer's of amiga market. And now suddenly a press release with mighty words and sales speech almost like there hadn't been any serious problems at all. That was what I posted about, not about merlancia inside workings. Anyway I didn't mean it that bad and I apologise for hurting your feelings.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 23 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by John Block on 19-Sep-2002 20:02 GMT
There was some discussion that you will be using some new form of keyboard.
A comment about that ould be interesting :)
As a footnote, Eyetech also do specialist warehouse computers and systems
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 24 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Brad Ray on 20-Sep-2002 00:00 GMT
All I'm saying, is quit throwing bones at the camera, walkin' around with your head in the clouds, and act professional.
Then,you might actually be taken serious.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 25 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 20-Sep-2002 07:18 GMT
In reply to Comment 23 (John Block):
The keyboard you are speaking about is what we call 'TouchSmart(TM)". The concept is a keybaorf that, instead of regular keys is to have a plane like the surface of a trackpad (actually, it is the same, just much larger.) Via system firmware/keyboard firmware the plane will be divided up so areas on the surface generate the same codes than an regular keybaord would. (It could be set to make a "click" noise everytime a key is pressed.)
before you start about "key response/feeling"..this product is not meant for touch typists that write novels..it serves two main goals:
For inustrial uses with a hight volume turnaround on keyboards due to environmental conditions (dirt, chemicals, humidity, etc.) or;
For poeple that eare either a) looking for a futuristic design or are smokers who go through a lot ofkeybaords due to smoke buildup in the mechanism.
In theory this type of design would be virtually indestructable, and keep working forever.
A concept image is at: http://gotboing.com/merlanciapr/MMC23062K1-B.html
Questions on this subject can be directed at: misel@merlancia.com
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 26 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 20-Sep-2002 07:24 GMT
In reply to Comment 22 (gz):
The concept is that until we are unable to show anything to the Amiga market, we are not goign to talk anymore about it.
We are tired of all the broken promices and missed release dates, and until we have anything 'real' to show you, we aren't going to put our more release schdules or schedule updates. I regret that we have been wanting to tell more, but with all the flying off the handle that is typical of Amiga users, we feel that it is better to remain quiet until something happens.
But I thank you for your concern and i appreciate your understanding of the situation.
//R//
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 27 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Marktime on 20-Sep-2002 11:59 GMT
Listen...here is some valid criticism, I have gone to the site before, did I visit it today? no....but not everyone visits everyday. And when I have visited, I have found broken links, outdated information....it existed everywhere and this was every time I tried over a course of several months.
You know, software hut doesn't do that. The other amiga vendors didn't have that problem. I feel much more comfortable about a site that has current information, that if I order, I will receive a product.
You all are absolute CRAP about maintaining your commerce sites in any kind of reasonable fashion.
Sit there and invent excuses and whine and tell us all about how you HATE your own customers, the amiga community...(and every time you slam the amiga community for being complainers or this or that, that is not helpful)...
but what you all should really do is get your act together.
You can't keep your books together, you can't keep your site together.
and you say merlancia produces products for the amiga community?
OK I'm all ears, what is the AmigaOS product again, maybe I'll consider buying it from another dealer.
With all that said, its obvious you have genuine interest in this community...GREAT...cool...if you ever contribute something interesting I'll be your biggest fan.
I disagree, btw, a PPC product that runs LinuxPPC and UAE could be marketed to this community, all it has to have is the promise it will run OS4....OS4 is only a promise anyway at this point.
Slamming AInc, is fine, they have their own issues, but they have produced (or didn't prevent from happening) OS 3.5 and OS 3.9, and so they have a small history of releasing products.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 28 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Kronos on 20-Sep-2002 12:13 GMT
In reply to Comment 27 (Marktime):
Slight correction:
AmigaOS_3.5 was done before Amino bought Amiga (and became AInc).
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 29 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by MarkTime on 20-Sep-2002 12:15 GMT
I'm on a roll, but I can't help but complaining again! WOW!
It is the old "I can't release a product syndrome"
Oh yes, users complain if you release a buggy product, but guess what,
you can't sell anything unless you release a product. Users wanting a
good product is a natural thing. But whenever did the users sign up
and demand that NO PRODUCT BE RELEASED.
Over and over again, Amiga, Inc., and others in this community have made
the decision to release no product in favor of some pipe dream. This community has said over and over again, we hate pipe dreams more than anything.
Sell products, dangit. Be courageous. Stand up to a little criticism. Be a
freakin man and you'll be rewarded for it.
Apple got caught up in this crap at one time, couldn't update their OS to save their life cause they had big plans for a unixesh os....the most courageous thing they ever did was release System 7.6. It was a minor update, it was crap, it wasn't anything like the update users had hoped for and been waiting for a long time.
But what made 7.6 special, is they released it. They figured out how to release something again! From then on came the regular updates, 8, 8.5,9.0, and finally that unixesh OS was complete and they released OS X.
Now, apple has had other problems...but they have survived and been profitable in a very tough market...they wouldn't have made it this far without innovating, and that is something they did right.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 30 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 20-Sep-2002 13:10 GMT
In reply to Comment 29 (MarkTime):
I remember one of the last things that scared BeOS users before the company finally announced that it was going out of business one way or another. That was an article from an ex-Be engineer claiming that Be Inc. had forgotten how to release new versions of the OS. Literally, people who knew how to do a customer build had left, changes had been made that were unstable, but no-one was sure how to undo them, the QA team didn't have a clear set of acceptance tests for a release candidate, all that sort of thing.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 31 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 20-Sep-2002 14:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 27 (Marktime):
>Listen...here is some valid criticism, I have gone to the site before, did I
>visit it today? no....but not everyone visits everyday. And when I have >visited, I have found broken links, outdated information....it existed
>everywhere and this was every time I tried over a course of several
>months.
Yes, that has been a very large issue, which we honestly tried to address several times.
*Starting with this new site, we are trying to correct this issue*
While the Amiga catalogue is still the way you outlines (as mentioned before, we are working on a catalogue systen, database driven, based on Rebol, which will be quite ntensive, and we will offer a CD catalogue that you can use on most Amigas, PCs, and Macs), the rest of the site is getting ready for a complete relaunch. By the end of next week, there should be no broken links, and by the week following, all out of date info will be trashed and/or updated.
>You know, software hut doesn't do that. The other amiga vendors didn't
>have that problem. I feel much more comfortable about a site that has
>current information, that if I order, I will receive a product.
>
Well, yes and no. Most vendors do not have that problem..some are much worse. SWHut's site is very complete, but hard to navigate and very slow. Many vendors only have a partial inventory online...
Our n ew system, whenfinished will be the best of all worlds.
Fast, easy to use, and complete, with a larger inventory of Amiga specific products than any other vendor...
All we ask is a little pacience here..nothing more.
>You all are absolute CRAP about maintaining your commerce sites in
>any kind of reasonable fashion.
I assume you are referring to the ordering ststem..see above.
>Sit there and invent excuses and whine and tell us all about how you
>HATE your own customers, the amiga community...(and every time you
> slam the amiga community for being complainers or this or that, that is
>not helpful)... but what you all should really do is get your act together.
Well, ther I draw the line. We neither hate Amiga users nor the Amiga userbase community at all. While we have problems with certain individuals, we feel that the Amiga community in general is made up of many wonderful, intellighnt and creative people and companies.
My problem with many people is the way they tear down anything they can without any logical thought behind it...Yes, this has been spawned by many years of neglect and abuse, but still, there is no reason to blast those who really do give a damn. I personally still use an Amiga regularly (A4000CR, 68060/60, 128, 18GM HDD, CV64-3D, Ariadne-II nic, M1764 monitor, OS3.9- if you are interested.) Can't say as much for execs and owners of other Amiga companies, inclyding most dealers.
>You can't keep your books together,
Exactly what company info are you aware of here that I am not?
>you can't keep your site together.
>and you say merlancia produces products for the amiga community?
If nothing else,, we keep other companies alive to allow new product to come out. We even gave Amiga Inc money when they needed it this year.
>OK I'm all ears, what is the AmigaOS product again, maybe I'll consider
>buying it from another dealer.
>With all that said, its obvious you have genuine interest in this
>community...GREAT...cool...if you ever contribute something interesting
>I'll be your biggest fan.
Merlancia Amiga MCC towers and consoles based on PPC processors running AmigaOS, when a PPC OS is ready.
>I disagree, btw, a PPC product that runs LinuxPPC and UAE could be
>marketed to this community, all it has to have is the promise it will run
>OS4....OS4 is only a promise anyway at this point.
Well, if you go back and read what I wrote, i feel the same way. A
PPC system with Liunux and UAE is not an Amiga, which is why we are *not* marketing them to you. I personally hate Linux as a desktop OS..it's great for some people, but for me, I want an easy to use, friendly, and nice looking up-to date OS with a good gui. I personally use AmigaOS and MacOS. I intensely dislike Wondows, and Linux just isn't ready yet.
>Slamming AInc, is fine, they have their own issues, but they have
>produced (or didn't prevent from happening) OS 3.5 and OS 3.9, and so
>they have a small history of releasing products.
Well, A/i wasn't behing 3.5..and they almost prevented 3.9..they have a lot of problms..this coupon thing being one of their worst...i for one wouln't send $50 to a PO box...not to any company.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 32 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by RC on 20-Sep-2002 14:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 29 (MarkTime):
Once again-
We do offer systems, but not anything most Amiga users would either want or need. If you personally are interested in a PPC system with Linux, let us know, and tell anyone else to let us know. If there is demand for userlevel system targeted at the Amiga market, we will rework our game plan to reflect that need.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 33 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by MarkTime on 20-Sep-2002 17:11 GMT
In reply to Comment 31 (RC):
I don't mind the criticism of A/i really....yes that coupon thing...it was nonsensical. I will take a philosophical approach though, noone was forced to buy it if they didn't want it. It was a choice, they offered.
Now personally I considered it to be a choice to throw away money.
By the same token, your site is a choice, and not yet a good one, if it is much better next week, then I will be glad.
You make some valid criticism of softhut, but when you do better than softhut...that will be good first step, software hut also has years of service behind them, but that doesn't take long to overtake with a truly good service, imho.
I am not interested in a LinuxPPC solution, except if it was guaranteed to work with OS4 later. If that was the case, I would be interested, running LinuxPPC and UAE just as something to do, waiting for OS4 to come out. I would be willing to give you my official maybe on that.
Ya, I'm a computer geek, so why not, as long as it will be the next Amiga. But no way would I use Linux long term as a desktop OS, and if I was going to use Linux, it would be the intel version.
Personally, I use linux from time to time. It's a great platform to run oracle cheaply, or apache, and php...but no advantage at all to a PPC version, except that it would conveniently run OS4 later...(well MOL is an interesting exception...hmmm certainly sweetens the pot)
the only chance I would have had to buy a ppc board that will later run OS4 is as a betatester on the amigaone, which I considered seriously, but these amiga companies have these maddening policies....they won't deliver the product, till they fix the BIOS, they place a cut off date to order the boards....
they just don't get, take money, ship product....take money ship product...take money ship product.
why place a cut off date on joining the developer program, they have enough developers...no need for any more? they should at least raise the price instead of shutting down all orders....oh well...they say shipping a bios is costly...well raise the price, this isn't a consumer version anyway...a higher priced board is more of a choice than NO PRODUCT.
Now I am criticising them, but its this universal opinion in this community, that inaction is somehow a safe choice, stop selling, stop communicating, stop shipping....aiyeeeee
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 34 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Brad Ray on 20-Sep-2002 19:16 GMT
Well, blow the man down.
RC does have Two good Points that I agree with.
Linux is a bunch of hype, and windows is junk!
and that was kinda cool about giving Amiga Inc. money when they needed it.
To be serious here RC, I hope your company the best.
I hope a time comes when you will be profitable, along with all amiga dealers and such.
The more the merrier actually.
Still think you need to keep your finger out of the camera though. heh.
Merlancia Situation Clarified : Comment 35 of 35ANN.lu
Posted by Colin Camper on 21-Sep-2002 16:34 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (m0ns00n):
I have no job AND no life AND plenty of time on my hands!
Thanks mainly to the Home office in the United Crapdom who gave all our IT jobs to non british Indians and Chinese.
Now where was that Marble Madness ADF?...........
Anonymous, there are 35 items in your selection
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