[Coco] Hijacked: Multipak redesign/replacement

[Christopher R. Hawks]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 23:24:21 -0500
Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Thursday 26 February 2015 22:38:50 James C. Hrubik wrote:
> 
> > Gene & Richard, that’s the problem with us fossils.  Back in the
> > Paleolithic Age when we were getting our noodles curled around
> > practical technology with wooden paddles, the knowledge was scarce,
> > precious, and the media that contained it was expensive enough that
> > the public library was a treasure trove.  Through my years in the
> > classroom I collected the various journals that I was able to,
> > because I figured that my sons would find them as intriguing as I
> > did.  They don’t; they think that if it isn’t on the internet, it
> > isn’t relevant technology.  I finally pitched boxes of old Journal
> > of Chemical Education issues after scanning in the more fascinating
> > historical articles and lab experiments.  My piles of Scientific
> > American issues from the 70’s and 80’s will be the next to go, but
> > I still find myself fascinated and amused looking through them —
> > and finding old Radio Shack computer advertisements!!! (see, this
> > is sort of on topic).  Years of Wood Magazine, from when it first
> > came out, are still sitting on my shelves, and nobody has bothered
> > them in at least a decade.  (A complete set of Rainbow, too, minus
> > Issue #1).
> >
> Where my copies of Fine WoodWorking are often as not, a bit
> bedraggled by the time I actually file them in a records box.
> 
> > I had the idea at one point to try to put them on eBay, but I
> > looked at what things like that were bringing, and it wouldn’t be
> > worth my time to write an advertisement for them.  The knowlege
> > doesn’t cost anything today, and the value of it is seen to be
> > related to the cost.
> 
> I hear that! Just 4 years ago I almost had to go buy a Louisville
> Slugger to get an EE out of my way long enough to show him by putting
> it together on the floor.  I'd spent 2 hours trying to explain what
> needed to be done 13 feet up in the air because he was 40 years
> younger, but his degree in EE absolutely blinded him to any and all
> aspects of mechanics. As an EE he sucked, had no theory that actually
> gave the right answers even for Ohms Law, but as a mechanic, he had
> trouble putting the car keys in the switch right side up. Geriatric
> rental car, key wasn't a mirror.  Iron Mountain Michigan, what can I
> say.
> 
> > It has been pointed out that the millenials are tech doofuses
> > because they have no idea how to fix anything that might be
> > broken.  Just throw it away and get a new one.  Don’t bother to
> > think that you might be able to invent something new.  That is why
> > this list is so close to my heart.  Here people talk about fixing
> > stuff, and even improving on it.  I hope that spirit keeps on after
> > we pass from the scene.
> 
> So do I Jim.  This seemingly simple little thing that the shack
> envisioned as a game console, has, with the os9 OS, turned into the
> single most effective learn as you go CompSci coarse ever built,
> thanks to the ability to write position independent code.  That
> choice may have been serendipitous, based more on Motorola being next
> door that anything else, has IMNSHO been an eye opener into how its
> done right, and if as coders do our part, the results are all out of
> proportion to the power others see in such a "toy" machine.
> 
> > The CoCo may be a commercially dead 
> > computer, but it has a lively fan club driven by the spirit that
> > made modern civilization possible — “If you tell me it can’t be
> > done, I’ll prove that you are wrong".

[snipity-snip]

	This conversation reminds me of the current thread in
User Friendly!

http://www.userfriendly.org/static/



Christopher R. Hawks
HAWKSoft
-- 
    I think it's a new feature.  Don't tell anyone it was an
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