Re: Java on the Apple2 and C64

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Leif Bloomquist wrote:
> "iAN CooG" <iancoog@despammed.com> wrote in message 
> news:I0Jui.83553$%k.226986@twister2.libero.it...
>
>
> > Ok, I missed it too, can you please show us what is the point, apart that
> > "it can be done"?
>
>
> Why do we do *anything* on the old 8-bits?  Anything we do as part of this 
> hobby (apart from preservation) could be done much, much easier on modern 
> PCs.
>
> I think the Japanese art of Chindogo captures it nicely:
>
> "Chindogu is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, 
> on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. 
> However, Chindogu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to 
> use one of these inventions, would find that it causes so many new problems, 
> or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility 
> whatsoever. Thus, Chindogu are sometimes described as 'unuseless' - that is, 
> they cannot be regarded as 'useless' in an absolute sense, since they do 
> actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot 
> positively be called 'useful'."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindogu

Interesting parallel to Douglas Adams' riff on the "Serius Computer
Companies" products in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

<sloppy paraphrase from memory>

The Serius Computer Company's products are so difficult to use and so
filled with superficial bugs that no one ever finds their underlying
major design flaws that prevent them from working at all.

</sloppy paraphrase from memory>

-michael

NadaNet file server for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."