Re: Time Capsule of Computing

[Gary Warner <gar () askgar com>]

ok, old fogie moment.

When i was about to enter seventh grade (1979) the superintendent of schools knocked on our kitchen door (he lived in 
the house behind us).  He asked if "we" could talk to my parents.

He said "the school librarian says you've read every science fiction book in the school library, the city library, and 
the high school library."

we all looked at him with a dumb stare.

He went on "aren't there a lot of computers in science fiction?" 

 i agreed there was.  

he pulls out a key ring and starts playing with it.  "in january i am going to be required to buy computers for the 
school system.  I'm scared to death of them.  There are six different brands sitting in my den in boxes.  If its ok 
with your parents, i wondered if you would mind looking at them this summer and letting me know which ones you think we 
should buy."

and then he gave me the keys to his house, and made my career decision for me that day when i was eleven years old.

There was an Apple II

there was a radio shack trs-80 (programs were loaded from a cassette tape)

there was a commodore PET

There was an Atari, but i really don't think it was the Atari 400.

There was also one called an Eagle, which my mom's boss actually bought from the school when they decided not to use 
it.  Years later i realized that my mother had been programming in assembler!!

The sixth one was one of those "flip the switches" computers, which I put back in the box and never spent much time 
with.

We bought six Apples, but by the next year the Trs-80 II (the "coco" for color computer) came out and we switched to 
that.








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