Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!fox!portal!atari!kbad
From: kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Hacker Support
Message-ID: <1966@atari.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 90 02:49:58 GMT
References: <900110.10445243.002724@SFA.CP6>
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 31

So, my argument comes full circle:

Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes:
|     Speaking of hacking...I am disturbed that Atari engineers feel that
| the home computer hacker, the guy who wants to software/hardware
| hack on his machine, no longer exits as a whole.

I rest my case that information distributed via networks such as Usenet
can become mangled and twisted.  I was the Atari engineer responsible for
the Usenet articles claiming that Atari could not afford to support the
average hacker at the level they need.  One of my points was that the
more stuff went out via "unofficial" channels, the greater the chance
of it being warped.

I fully recognize the strong base of hacker types that own ST's, I do
NOT think that Atari hackers no longer exist.  Heck, that's how _I_ got
started in programming!!!  My point was (and is) that the majority of
ST owners are not hackers.  Atari, with its lean resources must use
support who it can... professional developers and end users.  People
caught in the middle are unfortunately left to fend for themselves.
Hopefully, Atari can come up with some reasonable guidelines for
professional developers so that the information they have may be freely
shared with the hackers who want it.

In the meantime, I and other Atari engineers will do what we can to
give out what information we can here on the nets, despite the fact
that it gets more distorted the longer it's out there.  Sigh.
-- 
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>