Re: Aging Apple //'ers

["Allen Bong" <allenbsf6502@yahoo.com>]

I am 54 and will be retired next year.  I started with a genuine II+ in
'83 before the rotten apples from Hong Kong and Taiwan started storming
in.  It was pretty much just playing with my II+ until the early 2000,
I bought some IIe, IIc, IIc+ and IIgs and 68K Macs from US and
Australian eBay.  I also used the IIe Emu card on my Mac Quadra 605 to
make use of its HD storage.

I used my Apples mostly for hardware hacking.  I have built a TTL prom
programmer for 74S571 with the help from Steve Ciarcia (I wrote him
letters for help).  I also did a dedicated card tester for diagnosing
the faulty chips on some type of cards from an Ericsson AXE Exchange
(aka Central Office in US).  I even won a cash prize from my company.
That was in the '90s.

As long as I am still enjoying my Apple IIs while I am still to read
the screen and see the traces on a PCB.  Why care what is going to
happen in 20 or 30 years' time.  May be my eyes won't let me see the
screen clearly any more or may be I enjoy playing with my
grand-children more than my Apples.  Just let it be.  My wife had been
complaining about all the "junks" that I've kept for years in my
"computer room".  This has forced me to dismantle all the clone Apples
for parts and throwing away the casing and PCBs.  Now I've only left
with a II+, a Euro II+ from my friend, a IIe enhanced with numeric
keypad from Australia, a IIc , a IIc+ and 4 IIgs.

My son  (12 years old) has no interest in the Apples.  He likes his
PS2, Xbox and this Pentium 4 that I used to write this postl more than
anything else.  I think the Apple II will become extinct in the years
to come in this part of the world (Asia).  The main collectors are
mostly coming from Japan and Korea.

So start enjoying your Apples now but not to worry what is going to
happen soon.  What can you do if it does happen?

Allen Bong.