Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[Lee Hart <leeahart@earthlink.net>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> Of course, today's appliance computers have performance and
> capabilites far beyond what those home hobbyists could produce back
> then.  So if the capabilities and performance are what's important,
> then today's situation makes you a winner: today you get much more
> for a much lower price.

The staus quo will always be the easiest and cheapest solution. But, it
doesn't get you any farther ahead. You just get comfortable where you
are.

> But if the capabilities and performance is unimportant and the
> important thing is to construct something yourself - then why not go
> ahead and do it?

You can... but it's gotten considerably more difficult. And, it
continues to get more difficult every day.

I referred to a "golden age" for the electronics hobbyist. By this, I
mean a time when as a kid, I could get broken electronics devices for
free; take them apart and figure out how they worked, and then either
fix them, or use the parts to make something else.

But, we've gone from plug-in vacuum tubes and a tester in every
drugstore... to plug-in transistors that you had to test yourself with
an ohmmeter... to soldered-in transistors that you could at least remove
and re-use... to soldered-in ICs that are very difficult to remove... to
surface-mount chips that are essentially impossible to replace.

Every aspect of electronics is moving through this progression. It's as
if we had a ladder to climb up to become proficient in electronics, but
have now decided we are so high we don't need any of those lower rungs,
and have cut them all off. Fine for us at the top -- but what do people
at the bottom do?

> It's not cutting edge technology, but so what? The capabilities and
> performance were unimportant anyway -- the important thing is that
> you enjoy what you're doing.

Most of the greatest discoveries of mankind were made by people who were
just fooling around, but had a dream of something better. Of course
their first gadgets were crude, and worked worse than the alternatives.
But if they kept working at it, improving it, and perfecting it, the
world got a significant new invention.

> There are plenty of home construction projects you could undertake.
> You could get into e.g. model railroading, ham radio station
> construction, telescope construction, house building...

Quite true. All of these are well supported by hobbyists, clubs,
businesses supplying parts, magazines, etc.

> And even computer construction: you could for instance build your
> own Apple II -- the schematics are available, and the components
> are standard components.

Ah, but this would be a vastly more difficult undertaking. The support
structure to do it is gone. In the "golden age", you *could* build your
own Apple II clone, better and cheaper than the original -- and many
people did!
-- 
Lee A. Hart                Ring the bells that still can ring
814 8th Ave. N.            Forget your perfect offering
Sartell, MN 56377 USA      There is a crack in everything
leeahart_at_earthlink.net  That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen