From your configuration (128K PCJr/Tecmar Jr. Captain/Multiplan) it sounds like you are taking advantage of this month's Sears Business Systems special. I did the same, though I also purchased the new Sears RGB/Composite/TV monitor (it's great! you can switch to TV during C compilations!) The Tecmar Jr. Captain gives you 128K more, a clock/calendar chip and a parallel port. This is a VERY nice deal for $1300.
I wish Lucas & Co. would get the thing going a little faster. I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts of the Star Wars series.
Any opinions on the new Commodore 64 computer. I've seen it and it looks pretty neat.
(i) it comes with 64K of memory standard (ii) in highest graphics resolution it has 320 X 200 pixels. In lower resolutions you can display 16 colors simultaneously, but the number of simultaneous colors goes down with increased resolution. (iii) it uses a version of sprite graphics (iv) it has a cheap plug in telephone modem (only 40 characters per row) (v) it uses 6510 (like 6502 but with extra I/O ports) and will have a plug-in Z80 option. (vi) it has a synthesizer built in with three voices, each can play over 9 octaves in a variety of waveforms with different attacks, decays, etc. (vii) it lists for $595 but can be bought for less (at American of Madison, for example!). Magazines were offering it for as little as $479 but are not coming thru. It seems that Commodore has forbidden mail order firms from dealing in the 64. (viii) it uses the same Microsoft BASIC as the PET. They say they will have Pascal for it soon.
Doug Lerner
I just heard about something rather frightening: Acquired Immune Deficency Syndrome, AIDS for short. It is transmitted by any excrement or secretion, including saliva, blood, urine, feces, and sperm. It is apparently fatal about 40% of the time. It has a estimated latency time of about a year, during which the victim is contagious but shows no symptoms. The relevance of this to net.singles is that it reminds me of a recent article in Time about sexually transmitted diseases. This article said there was a period when casual sex was possible. VD was easily cured. Then along came herpes. Now, for better or for worse, the choice of a partner could not be so care-free. This article even alluded to a wrathful God inflicting herpes as a punishment. Well, herpes may be painful and uncurable, but it is not fatal. Now here is a disease which is. I wonder if AIDS will encourage monogamy in cases where herpes hasn't. Apparently male homosexuals, who as a group tend to change partners frequently, are often victims of AIDS. I wonder what Time thinks of this. And, I wonder what you think of this. Oh, and don't get any blood transfusions either.
Would anyone else like to comment on the Apple Macintosh commercial shown during the third quarter of the Super Bowl? I thought it was a gripping visceral 60 seconds of SF, and extremely effective. The Boston Globe reports (not surprisingly) that it was directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner).
In case you missed it, it showed a large auditorium filled with zombie-like people with shaved heads, dressed in grey. They are staring at a "Big Brother" figure displayed on a screen who is lecturing them along the lines of "we control the information...". Into the hall runs a blonde woman, dressed in bright red, with police-types chasing her. Before the police get to her, she whirls a sledgehammer around her head and hurls it through the screen. The screen explodes in a blast of light. Then the voice-over explains that Macintosh is coming etc., and 1984 won't be like '1984'.
At first I thought the commercial was an ad for a new SF movie. But the one scene went on for too long - movie ads tend to cut among many scenes. My next thought was the Olympics - athletes preserving our freedom etc. But that didn't fit either - Big Brother was wired on a different track. Once the Apple name appeared, it all clicked - if the young woman is Apple, what other computer manufacturer is Big Brother? The deduction - IBM - was almost instantaneous.
Did anyone else have this immediate reaction? Did Apple tap a lot of subliminal feelings or is this only the reaction of the computer sophisticates? Has SF produced an archetype?
John Aspinall.
I have a friend that raised an interesting question that I immediately tried to prove wrong. He is a programmer and has this notion that when we reach the year 2000, computers will not accept the new date. Will the computers assume that it is 1900, or will it even cause a problem? I violently opposed this because it seemed so meaningless. Computers have entered into existence during this century, and has software, specifically accounting software, been prepared for this turnover? If this really comes to pass and my friend is correct, what will happen? Is it anything to be concerned about? I haven't given it much thought, but this programmer has. I thought he was joking but he has even lost sleep over this. When I say 'friend,' I'm NOT referring to myself, if it seemed that way.
"I've never really written anything like that before"
Spencer L. Bolles
Okay.... I've endured a lot of abuse in my time, but this is the final straw!
**** They are changing the Coca-Cola formula!!!!!!!!!! ****
Is nothing sacred??!!! They might as well outlaw the Beatles, or change God's name, or reinstate prohibition.
For those of you out there who are confirmed cocaholics such as myself, I encourage, nay, INSIST that you call Lucy at (213) 746-5555x4249 to complain about the change.
Tearfully submitted, gordon
Berlin den 10 November 1989
Unbelievable! Incredible! Historic!
As we sit here in West Berlin this morning, we are just discussing the news about the wall - its open and may soon be no more!!!!
Amazing sights to see on the way to work this morning - DDR (East German) cars on the streets, DDR citizens everywhere, traffic jams near the wall, celebrations in the streets the whole night.
A historic day, and one to be celebrate. During the night, not only did people cross over via the border crossings, but people also climbed over the wall, danced on top of it (yes that's right) and a part of the wall was even damaged. Can you picture people dancing on top of the Berlin wall?
Congratulations to the people of East Germany.
Gunter Zschoche, Michael Brady, et al Nixdorf, Berlin