3 Jul
1997
3 Jul
'97
6:41 p.m.
On Thu, 3 Jul 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
I'll agree with Sam on part of this. You may not be able to attract new
users, but you can help sustain those who are already using the machines.
You can also try to find those who have used the machines in the past
and might be attracted to using them again if it seems like there are
others around for support. You may even find a few others who are are
using TIs and thought they were the last one.
Not everything everyone does is to make money. Some of us do things
because they are fun, help others, kill time, impress women (or men), etc.
Why spend all of your time and energy collecting old computers when you can
be writing million dollar peecee games?
Keep the flame,
--pec
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saved From The Dumpster Collection: http://www.crl.com/~pcoad/machines.html
On Thu, 3 Jul 1997, DAVID L. ORMAND wrote:
Any community based on unsupported technology will eventually shrink to
a few hardcores. Attracting new people will be difficult at best. Old
people will drop out, occasionally a new one will be bitten by the bug.
Use your TI because it is useful to you. Write new applications because
it makes you happy and impresses the other hardcores. You may not be
able to attract many new members, but you can support the ones who are
are already there. You said above that one of the reasons for using
TIs is because there are others doing the same. If you want to sustain
the TI community, give it a reason to exist. Start a collaborative
project, publish a newsletter about TIs crosspost to a.f.c, be visible in
the TI newsgroup.
For a computer to survive as anything more than a
relic, it has to have
a user community. Now, I suppose I could use my TI for "typical home
computing tasks" with the software I already have whether there was
anyone else in the world using a TI or not. And I suppose I would, too.
But for other jobs I wanted done that my computer COULD do (even if
being a Web browser is NOT one of them), I would either have to program
it myself, or find someone else to do it. And if I did it myself, most
of the fun is sharing it with other TI users. And part of the fun of
having this old computer is that there are other people bucking the
trend along with me. In other words, we have a TI computer user
community, and that is a very hefty reason for sticking with the TI
computer.
In fact, the TI community is shrinking, and as the members of the
community observe it shrinking, some are inclined to bail out ("rats
abandoning a sinking ship"). Given that trend, the community will
waste away to a few hardcores unless there is new life added, either in
exciting new "modern applications" or attracting new people to adopt a
simple machine that can perform "common everyday household computing
tasks" that they DON'T need a Pentium to do.
All this (and I'm not just picking on you David) is just so much
techno ludditism. That's like arguing that the Model T is still a usable
car and we must keep driving it to keep it viable? Why? Sure it's still
usable in that you can still drive around in one, but technology moves
on. If you want to keep it viable, more power to you. But don't expect
people to follow suit. Most people would rather use the latest and greatest.
I collect the old stuff for a number of reasons. I
like to boot them up
once in a while and use them, but I can't possibly make it a point of
using all of them.
As a broad collector it is difficult to use all of your machines. Just
collecting a wide range of machines sucks up huge amounts of time. Some
people are a little more focused and actually collect partly to use
the machines.
I can see even if you have just one system that you
still use all the
time (I used my Apple //e up until about 1992) but there comes a point
where you have to just move on, for some at least (me).
Just because one buys a new machine does not mean that one is moving
on. It is possible to use several machines for different purposes.
Sam, you haven't really moved on completely. You still have your Apple.
You still fire it up once in a while. You may not feel responsible
for keeping the Apple II flame alive, but by using, answering
questions, and by reminiscing about it you help stretch the useful life
of the machines.
So what I was
fishing for was the thoughts of those people who read this
List and understand the dilemma. In a Wintel-dominated world, is it
even FEASIBLE to try to attract other people to choose from the
abundance of small computer systems, otherwise destined for the landfill
or recyclers?
Not likely. There's no money in it. Why spend all your time and energy
writing non-saleable TI apps when you can be writing million dollar
peecee games?