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newage03
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2006-10-19
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.IF DSK3.C3
.CE 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^W-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE/
^99 *NEW-AGE/99* N
^EW-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE
^/99 *NEW-AGE/99*
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^*by JACK SUGHRUE, Box
459, East Douglas, MA 01516*
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^#3
I often chuckle at doomsayers, but
sometimes they irk me.
I don't think anyone questions
the facts that the APPLE, AMIGA, IBM,
and clones all have more commercial
software and hardware support than
the 4A. Walk into any bookstore and
look at the magazines. Go into a
department store and look at the
racks of software packages. Or into
an electronics store and peruse the
computers, cards, drives, other
hardware and software items. And
therices.
No question: the stuff's there.
And some of us succumb to those
temptations. Don't get me wrong. At
work and at the homes of friends and
relatives I get plenty of
opportunities to play and work with
these other machines. And enjoy my
time on them, for the most part.
But, even then and even when I attend
the other computer user groups or
fairs, I don't have the feeling that
I do with similar TI activities.
The emotion - very much in
evidence at TI get-togethers - is
absent at Apple and IBM gatherings.
There are subtle, important other
differences, too.
When I look at the new Other
software or Other hardware I wonder
if most TIers would pay those
humongous prices or whether most
TIers would want to trouble to learn
these new ways of hi-tech wizardy.
For the most part, the TIers don't do
that now.
An example: The Apple IIGS is $1149.
(That's without the 5.0 (NOTE THE
CONSTANT UPGRADING THAT SEEMS TO BE A
COMPLAINT IN SOME CIRCLES!) $50
Systems disk that's required to
operate the machine. Nothing resides
in memory.
Let's say you want a word
processor for it, as word processing
is the most common use of
non-business computers. Appleworks
(the most popular WP for all Apples)
is another $250. (No percentage
point, folks. It's two-hundred-fifty
dollars, plus tax!) Will the WORKS
give you 40/80 column for those of us
(oldtimers?) whoLIKE40 because the
letters are large and clean and easy
to read? Nope. Try reading 80 on an
Apple monitor.
Can you flip around, as you can
with the fairware FUNNELWEB, for
example, and load up such utilities
as DM-1000, Disk Utilities, ARChiver,
other languages (Assembly, c, FORTH),
other sources (tape, cartridge,
etc.)? Nope. There are no tapes and
cartridges for those Other machines,
anyway, but the WORKS doesn't let you
configure any possibilities outside
the provided environments. How about
modified fonts, underlining,
doublestrike? All available with
FUNNELWEB, even more so if you use
the fairware PLUS! within the FWB
environment.
And speed? The IIGS is slow,
very slow. But for an additional
$399 you can buy a TRANSWARP GS card
that'll speed up WORKS and other GS
items to reasonable, runnable speed.
Can you slip into graphics with
WORKS? Nope, but FWB's TI text can
easily emigrate to PAGEPRO for all
kinds of graphic/text manipulations
(or PP can stand alone for similar
structuring).
You must use PRINT SHOP separately to
get some graphics; still, not with
the page possibilities. For that
you'd need the user-UNfriendly
NEWSROOM. Add another $400. Not
counting the graphics. The kind that
are Public Domain through TIPS for
the TI. Say another $500, easily.
How much is that decidedly inferior
wordprocesser now? Still under $3000?
That's not bad as prices go in the
computer world out there. Check
Other computer prices.
Why would we TIers consider THAT
an upgrade? We certainly wouldn't pay
those prices for software for our
superior machine: FWB donation $20;
PLUS! donation $10; TIPS and 5,000
graphics are FREE; PAGEPRO is under
$25. Grand total for us TIers, maybe
50 bucks at the most.
Most TIers don't have RAM disks
or RAVE keyboards or hard drives or
the GENEVE upgrade that includes 640
RAM, truly astounding graphic
capabilities, a superb keyboard and
all other kinds of great stuff,
including TI compatibility (as much
as most clones have with IBM). And
yet EACH of these things are less
than a couple pieces of software for
Other computers.
Most TIers don't (in all honesty)
even pay for the fairware they use,
so I can't see them spending $50 to
$800 per piece of software after
spending a couple thousand for
another system, no matter how great
the software is. Look at the
magnificent under $25 commercial
software items for the TI: TI-BASE,
PAGEPRO, TI ARTIST PLUS, for
examples. Do most TIers who have
disk drives own these three items?
Not by a long shot!
Have most of the TIers who use Tony
McGovern's FUNNELWEB, Barry Boone's
ARCHIVER, John Birdwell's DISK
UTILITIES, or Canada's DM-1000 sent
decent (or any) fairware
contributions to the authors? Or
contributions for the constant
updates? Nope.
Do most TIers subscribe to
MICROpendium or ASGARD NEWS, the only
two magazines we have devoted
entirely to the TI? Nope.
Do most TIers even belong to
user groups? Nope. Not even by mail,
though that is the best source of
disk, tape, and text materials, not
to mention the monthly newsletter
connection, that money can buy (also
under $25).
Do most TIers take advantage of
the massive sources available across
their phone through inexpensive
modems? Nope.
My feeling is why, if TIers are
not even taking advantage of all the
things that are availableNOWand at
a lot smaller cost, would they even
want to move (up?) to more expensive
machines?
It makes me think about a comment
by Keith Jarrett, considered by many
music critics to be the greatest
pianist of this century. Because he
plays jazz and classical and newage
and a style of improv that is
inimitable, he was asked why he
didn't play the electronic keyboard.
"I haven't learned everything about
the acoustic piano, yet," he said.
Ifhehasn't learned everything about
the acoustic piano yet, no one in the
world has.
But I feel this way about my TI.
When people ask me why I don't move
up, I first give them my speech about
moving to Apples or clones or
whatever is not necessarily UP. Then
I think of the real reason: I haven't
finished learning everything I want
to learn and doing everything I want
to do with my 4A yet.
Even if everything relating to TI
ceased instantly; nothing more being
created; all user groups stopped; the
complete TI end - even if... most of
us would still be using and learning
and enjoying our perfectly wonderful
computer for a long time to come.
But such a scenario is not
heading our way in the near future.
There are too many of us who care and
WANT to stay with this gem of a
machine. We all have a long way to
go yet, and I, for one, am enjoying
the journey.
[If you use NEW-AGE/99 please put
me on your exchange list.]
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