Computer Connection Supports Amiga Users
By Louie Dituri

Louie Dituri, owner of Computer Connection, started this business in 1988 specifically to serve Amiga owners. At the time, there were a number of other retail outlets for Amiga's in California, but Louie quickly recognized a need for quality customer support when he tried to buy from his nearest dealer in Sacramento. Ever since that experience, customer support has been the driving force behind Computer Connection.

For fifteen years, Louie has been selling and supporting everything Amiga, from software and peripherals through complete, custom-programmed, Amiga-based applications. His special purpose visual database, Property Master, running on four networked Amiga 4000s, was one of the first systems ever installed in a real estate office for previewing properties--complete with multiple interior and exterior views, flexible searching by neighborhoods, amenities, etc., and even a mortgage calculator! This was in 1991, shortly before Commodore's bankruptcy and the unfortunate disruption of supplies of Amiga hardware. At the time, other computer platforms simply could not compete with Amiga's excellent multitasking, inter-task communication, HAM-8 graphics, and large SCSI-based mass storage.

A frequent collaborator with Louie on projects like Property Master is Dr. Ray Zarling, a professor of computer science at nearby California State University, Stanislaus. Ray has similarly been an avid Amiga enthusiast for over fifteen years. As a trained computer scientist, he appreciates Amiga's elegance and efficiency, and to this day uses a souped-up 4000 Tower as his main office computer at the University, networked with Sun workstations and other high-end machines. He and Louie have worked together ever since a successful joint effort to install a 25-station laboratory of Amiga 3000s in the Computer Science Department in 1989, which was used for many years in Ray's university classes.

When the Commodore bankruptcy disrupted the supply of machines for their visual database business, Louie and Ray traveled to New York and bid against Escom, Dell and others for Commodore's assets in that first bankruptcy auction. While Escom ultimately prevailed that day, we can only wonder how things might have been different.

During the lean, post-bankruptcy years, Computer Connection focused increasingly on its Video Toaster business, and eventually was driven to supporting Wintel equipment, while through it all Louie's dream has consistently been to be able to make a living helping people with their Amigas. But now, looking back, even the lean years contributed to this goal. With the AmigaOne in production, and OS/4 imminent, the experience and connections he has cultivated with industry-standard components and distributors, combined with his long experience with Amigas, uniquely positions Computer Connection to configure quality AmigaOne systems at better-than-competitive prices.

This summer, Computer Connection is helping to fan the excitement surrounding Amiga's first new hardware in a generation. Louie has donated an AmigaOne G3 SE/600 MHz motherboard, valued at over $600 retail, to be raffled at the 2003 AmiWest show to be held in Sacramento July 26-27! This generous donation represents tangible evidence of the excitement of our entire community. Each show attendee is automatically entered into the raffle, with additional tickets available for purchase. Entrants must be present to win raffle prizes. Stop by the Computer Connection booth at AmiWest to chat with Louie and Ray, and see some other surprises they have up their sleeves for the show!

Web links: http://www.compamiga.com/ for Computer Connection's Amiga offerings; http://www.comp-connection.com/ for their PC and Video Toaster site; www.sacc.org/amiwest to learn more about AmiWest 2003.