[Coco] Radio Shack Files Chapter 11

[RETRO Innovations]

On 2/5/2015 9:41 PM, Chad H wrote:
> Quote from that article ...
>
> "RadioShack didn’t leave fixers; the fixers left RadioShack. Our TVs don’t come with vacuum tubes anymore, and woe to the enterprising owner who cracks open his flatscreen to fix a dead pixel. There’s nothing we can fix about our iPhones, really. An entire generation of inventors and innovators grew up taking things apart and putting them back together; now we tinker with apps and services, not the hardware that runs them."
>
> Really!!!???  They must not know anything about the CoCo community that got their computers from Radio Shack and have tinkered with the hardware for years, taking them apart and putting them back together..and will go on doing so!!   BTW, we are the same peole who DO crack open our flatscreen TV to reflow a connection/IC to correct picture issues, or fix our iPhones/Androids by cracking them open and replacing screens, etc.   Long live the hardware tinkers for we come from the land of CoCos!
Well, I'll be that person and say:  I agree with your position, but so 
does the article.  The "entire generation" they're referencing are the 
millennials and whatever the next one is called (I have not kept 
track).  Folks under 25 almost certainly do not crack open their flat 
screens, etc.  If you are young enough to be in that age group, 
congrats, but you're the exception.

I do disagree that RadioShack didn't leave the fixers.  They tried to 
change with the times, but cell phones and cheap batts did not 
ultimately pan out.  Rent is high, product mix gets higher each year, 
it's a tough business.  Go big (mix wise) or go home...  I think the 
Arduino stuff was neat, but expensive, and too late, in my opinion.  
And, the product quality is no good.  Realistic may have been the butt 
of jokes in the 80's as not stylish or fancy, but the units were built 
well and serviceable.  The same goes for the PCs and peripherals.

I tip a virtual glass in the direction of the Coco and the TRS crowd 
tonight.  It's rather like seeing an alzheimer's patient finally slip 
away.  They've not known you for years, but you hold out hope for a 
glimpse of the vibrant younger person they once were, and the loss robs 
you of the possibility of it ever occurring.

Meanwhile, Commodore has been bought and sold so many times, Wikipedia's 
page looks less like a biography and more like a genealogical passage of 
the Old Testament...  Such is probably your life now.

Jim