Any *really* homebrewing going on? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

4 Oct 1998



...
 
>  
In the 1950's, this stuff was new. Now, it's all for fun. I agree it
must be a lot of fun, but there's no scientific/practical value.
...
 Yes, but was there a 'point' to building a CPU
from relays in the  1950's 
...
 ? Other than the fun of doing it, of course.
 

Companies can make more money otherwise. If a kid buys $300 worth of
parts and shares all of his homebrew apps with friends ala GPL, no
one makes any money. If a kid buys $2000 worth of plastic and then
keeps on buying $50 apps, it's a lot of money! It didn't happen like
this on purpose, by the way. When stuff started to get bundled and
kids started to play around with the computers their parent bought 
them...
...
 Yes, but why not? Some of us would like to reverse that
trend.
 No, I'm not. How many people are there in Boston who do this stuff?
5? That's not much information. And a web site inspires no one.
...
 Are you kidding? The web is full of sites with data
sheets and 
application notes. Just about every major (and many not-so-major) IC 
manufacturer is there. When I started out you had to phone the 
distributors and convince them to send you a data sheet. This wasn't 
always easy if they realised you were a hobbyist who would probably buy  a 
>couple of chips at most.
...
 
>  >> I'm curious why the HPCC would be interested in homebrew? Or is
HPCC
>
>Well, it used a calculator, right..... Why should any computer club be 
>interested in homebrew. This project started as a replacement for the 
>much-missed HP-IL interface on the HP71 and sort of grew...
>
>-tony
>
>

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