APOLOGIES

  I find myself in the uncomfortable position of needing to apologize to a
great many people over what has happened in the last year.
  I took on the Amiga responsibility for POV-Ray in November of 1995, and
dedicated a great portion of my time to it, as my family and 90 hour per
week job allowed.  As time passed, my young son's health needs began to
occupy more and more time and money, seeing over a dozen doctors on a
regular basis.  Many people would have been disappointed, but surely
understanding, if I had chosen then to abdicate my role in the POV-Team,
but I decided to continue, dedicating what spare time I had.  Then one
day my internet access through Compuserve was suspended from non-payment,
and I simply could not afford to reinstate my account, cutting me off
without even the ability to inform the POV-Team and Amiga enthusiasts
that I was gone.  In the time since that happened, I have continued to
work on the Amiga version of POV-Ray 3.0 as I was able to, downloading
updated beta sourcecode via the local library's internet connection, which
unfortunately prohibits sending of mail.  I have been in intermittent contact
with Chris Young, POV-Team Coordinator, via telephone, whose support and
understanding have helped me get through this year in many different ways
which he never expected.  During the first week of August, I picked
up the new Amazing Computing/Amiga magazine, and was suprised, pleased,
and distressed to see a very positive article about POV-Ray 3.0 Amiga,
the public beta of which had expired and ceased to work, one day early, 8^(
in July, and which listed my now defunct Compuserve account as the
primary contact point.  Now I felt a lot worse, but still with little I
could do about it.  Knowing how I felt about POV-Ray, and seeing
the article in Amazing, my wife Trisha decided to use money she had been
saving to pay my way back onto the Internet, and here, after many trials and
delays, I am.
  I can never apologize enough for having let everyone down, and left them
wondering what had happened.  I only hope that you can understand, and that
what happened in no way affects anybody's opinion of POV-Ray, the POV-Team,
or the Amazing Amiga.

  I must extend thanks to some people here as well:

 - Joshua Marshall for taking the initiative and releasing a custom POV-Ray so
   that the Amiga community wouldn't be entirely screwed by my disappearance.
 - Ireneo Toffano for the same, building a GUI.
 - The other members of the POV-Team, for keeping me on as a member after this.
 - Beta-testers and contributors who had no idea what happened either.
 - My wife Trisha, and my son Donald.

Joel NewKirk