Re: What's to become of the Apple II?

[earle@pacbell.net (Earle F. Philhower, III)]

It's a pity that kids today aren't going to have the opportunity that I had 
just ten years ago, growing up in an age of $200 computers that you could 
actually _do_ something with.  Sure, a lot of computers were used for playing 
video games.  But if you wanted you could actually begin programming your own 
games on them!  And if your parents didn't freak out you could do cool things 
like hook up LEDs and other gizmos to your computer, and control the world!

Imagine a world where people have to go to school to learn how to program!  A 
world full of kids staring blankly into TV screens filled with Web pages, 
never being able to do more than be a passive recipient of garbage...We're 
beginning to see the effects of this already: I hear a certain Redmond, WA 
company is hiring college kids fresh outta school, with no real programming 
experience.  And look what they're coming up with!

(But dammit, kids today have the best LOOKING video games, if not the best 
PLAYING.  There will never, ever be a game as great as Racing Destruction 
Set.)

Surplus PCs could actually be a good programming/hacking opportunity, except 
for one thing:  you can't view the output on a TV!  Nobody is going to buy a 
$100 386 based computer, only to spend $250 on a dinky 14" monitor for it!

-Earle F. Philhower, III
 earle@pacbell.net
 (Commie kewl d00d 4ever!)