Building User Communities (long)

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Sat Jul 5 01:55:42 1997

On Fri, 4 Jul 1997, Uncle Roger wrote:

> But if user groups made the effort to become known and to support these
> computers, they could do a lot of good. Maybe even working with teachers or
> youth programs to make the computers available, and the kids *WILL* use
> them. I've seen it happen and I know it makes a difference. (My living
> room is loaded with older Macs -- until school starts again.)

Unfortunately, teachers won't use them in schools because they simply are
not PCs, and the curriculum is intended to teach the kids skills which are
directly applicable to the real world. Now I'm sure you could argue that
at the very least these machines could be used to teach basic computer
skills and programming, and I would agree with you. But the position of
schools is, if it not a 386 or greater (in other words runs Windows) then
they don't want it. That's why they've been slowly dumping their Apple
][s and other computers.

> Anyway, sorry to blather on so long, but I think that "obsolete" computers
> are still useable, valuable, and beneficial. So lets talk about turning
> people on to them!

Right on. At least WE can keep them alive. That's the point.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Sat Jul 05 1997 - 01:55:42 BST