¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢ ATARI 8-BITS IN THE NEWS -- REALLY! ¢¢ BY Alan Sharkis, Editor¢ OHAUG NEWSLETTER¢¢ I was delighted to receive a small¢ package from RON FETZER just a short¢ time ago. It contained a card and a¢ news clipping from the October 1¢ LARGO TIMES that were sent to RON by¢ JEAN ULSCHMID, who was visiting¢ Florida and happened to see it. At¢ the top of the article is a picture¢ of Pinellas County ACE member Alan¢ Frazer in his computer room. The¢ article highlights Frazer, his love¢ for Atari, and quotes him, PACESetter¢ Editor JEAN BROKAW, and member JIMMIE¢ PARRISH. LARGO TIMES correspondent¢ JULIANNE WU manages to give a¢ favorable account of why these people¢ cling to their Atari 8-bits, even¢ while some of them own other, more¢ sophisticated computers. It was a¢ pleasure to report on this article¢ and to have our local people pass it¢ around at the October OHAUG meeting.¢¢ A short time after that meeting, I¢ received some mail from JOE HICSWA,¢ President of JACG, informing me that¢ he had given an interview to a¢ reporter from THE RECORD in¢ Hackensack, N.J. Joe had asked the¢ reporter, David Noack, to contact me,¢ but since Joe didn't have my phone¢ number, I assumed that I would not be¢ contacted. I was right. But then, I¢ was delighted to see a full-color¢ picture of Joe, topping an article¢ called, THIS OLD COMPUTER and¢ subheaded, STILL WORKING AFTER ALL¢ THESE YEARS. Joe is there, pipe in¢ hand, with his 130XE in front of him.¢ Although the article is about all old¢ computers, and why people continue to¢ use them and seek them out, Atari 8-¢ bits figure most significantly. Joe¢ does a great job of describing his 8-¢ bit's appeal for him. A sidebar to¢ the article lists some areas in¢ online services, WWW pages and Usenet¢ Newsgroups that are dedicated to old¢ computers and, again, Atari figures¢ prominently in these. In fact, I¢ could add to that sidebar, as could¢ many of you.¢¢ I'm going out on a limb and making a¢ prediction that more and more¢ newspapers will pick up on this¢ topic. If I may assume a position¢ atop a soapbox at this time, I'd even¢ venture to say that it's entirely¢ possible that some enterprising¢ reporter may someday appear at JTS¢ headquarters day and ask for comment.¢¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢¢¢
