home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.whtech.com
/
ftp.whtech.com.tar
/
ftp.whtech.com
/
articles
/
Sughrue
/
newage14
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
2006-10-19
|
7KB
|
214 lines
.IF DSK1.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*
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^#14
^^^^^^^^^^^GENTLEMAN GENIUS
Of the two tags, Gentleman and
Genius, I think the former gets my
approbation concerning the best way
to describe John Willforth. My wife,
Elaine, agrees. For John is first a
real gentleman; and that is what you
think of before realizing he's also a
genius. Gentlemen, I think, are
rarities today, even among TIers;
though I've discovered more in the
99er ranks than in other walks of
life. People like Charlie Good, Jim
Cox, Jim Peterson, Barry Traver.
Geniuses, though, are a dime a
dozen in the computer world, and most
of them are far from civilized.
An example, small but
significant: Lots of TIers have been
to my home, all of them treated to
Elaine's gracious welcome, her
extended hospitality in the matters
of food and lodgings, so they get to
know her and discover, too, that we
two rattle alone around our hut, now
that our four tykes have leapt into
the grownup world, returning us to
"couplehood" these past two years.
So any female voice answering our
phone will be Elaine. But John is
the ONLY "adult" TI person who will
acknowledge Elaine's existence on the
phone. He always says, "Hi, Elaine,
this is John Willforth," when she
answers, just as if she's not a
non-person. Sometimes they converse
so long I have to pry the phone from
her fingers so I can get to talk to
John.
With others who've been here,
however, it's usually "Jack there?"
when she answers, without even
mentioning who they are.
I don't know. Maybe I'm old
fashioned, but I still believe a lot
in courtesy and friendliness and the
acknowledgment of the existence of
someone I've met.
Anyway, John's old fashioned in
this way, too, and I like it: 19th
Century values in a 21st Century
mind. It's fun being in tune to
someone as family oriented as he is.
He talks about his wife (Fay) and his
three daughters with such joy that
you know love and sensitivity are a
VERY LARGE part of his nature.
My wife and I talk about John so
much that my son Matthew and his wife
(Carolyn) wanted very much to meet
him. The last time he came over for
dinner, we had the "kids" over, too,
and all of us enjoyed his pleasant,
witty company all evening.
John's a talker. That's a
compliment. And he can converse
about almost anything but literature
(as he claims he doesn't have time to
read novels, thus leading to the
time-worn argument in THIS house that
all the major social changes in the
world have been brought about by
fiction ... and so on). It's fun
arguing with John because the
conversation is stimulating and he's
still your friend in the end.
John's logical. He even tries to
use logic with his teenagers (which
probably makes him illogical, when
you think about it).
He's hardworking (to a workaholic
degree, I think) at some pretty heavy
duty electronic wizardry. John even
has a calculator on his watch, which
he uses.
He writes well. His articles on
printers, as well as the long-term
articles on hardware (and software)
are lucid, practical, and scary:
SCARY in the sense that he takes
apart consoles and P-boxes and
anything else mechanical, electrical,
and electronic that he can get his
hands on and performs vivisectionist
surgery on their innards. He seems
to be able to radically modify
anything, from computer chips to his
backhoe and assumes everybody else
should be able to do so.
Whew! Not me. My hands shake
when I have to dump my pencil
sharpener or fill my stapler.
But John's made me a believer.
One evening he came up to my computer
room, still chatting about his
family, and, while carrying on the
conversation, took apart my working
P-box. Completely! Screws, nuts,
bolts, fans, stuff, whachamacallits,
and thingamajigs. Then he reversed
my fan, explaining that it would keep
my box cool (maybe even cooler) while
it would cut down the noise to
one-third. It did. We turned on
other P-boxes in the room and
compared them to the fix.
He also told me where and how to
order floppy drives and how to
install them (5.25 and 3.5 operate
with no cable modification on the
TI). I learned that I could buy any
IBM compatible half-height disk
drives and put them in my TI. [ERM
Electronic Liquidators (1 800 776
5865)] for fully warranted
reconditioned drives. I called,
bought two Panasonic DSDD ($29
each!!!!), installed them myself,
just like a computer grownup. Though
they also sell cables and disks (for
as low as .15 each DSDD), I ended up
getting a Power Y cable for internal
power connector ($.99) and an AT-HDDR
cable set for double connector to
controller ($2.89) and a whole lot of
other things from another company he
recommended: National Computer
Accessories (916-441-1568). So,
thanks to John, I was able to convert
my setup on my school system from one
SSSD to two DSSD at a cost of around
$60! And does that make a LARGE
difference in my ability to do TI
things in my classroom. As a matter
of fact I'm writing this at school on
my quiet P-box, DSSD system and LOVE
it! Everything works great.
(Remember, we're talking about John
teaching me, the man who has to use a
manual to open a jar of peanut
butter. You readers are chuckling
over this "big" hardware deal, but
John opened up new worlds to me. I
plan to confidently upgrade another
system soon and maybe even do a user
group demo.
Which brings me back to John's
generous spirit. While at a training
session in Connecticut some months
ago, John willingly came to our
M.U.N.C.H. in Worcester,
Massachusetts, one evening and shared
some great insights and answered all
kinds of questions, including some
about things he had written as
newsletter editor of the West Penn
user group, which he founded many
years ago to reach out to users
outside the Pittsburgh area.
He was also the hit of the New
England Fayuh that same week.
Everyone there was thrilled to meet
the man they all knew through his
writings and references to his work
by others. He ended up being the
biggest TI star at the whole event.
People at the fair were in awe of him
and still talk about his visit, yet
I've met very few humbler men.
Now, back at my desk at home, I'm
using a console John modified a while
ago and recently gave to me. It has
a plexiglass cutaway of the interior
housing of a Zenoboard containing a
clock, speech, 32K, E/A, XB,
ADVENTURE, TIW, DM, and a system
Pause button. All switchable. I
feel as though I died and went to TI
Heaven.
The man's a genius, no doubt, but
more important, he sure is a warm and
sensitive friend. To me, it's worth
owning a TI just to have met John
Willforth.
[If you use NEW-AGE/99 please put
me on your exchange list.]
ÇçǼçïÉòƒ⌐╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒Çïáááááááááááááááááááááá