[Coco] Hijacked: Multipak redesign/replacement

[James C. Hrubik]

Gene & Richard, that’s the problem with us fossils.  Back in the Paleolithic Age when we were getting our noodles curled around practical technology with wooden paddles, the knowledge was scarce, precious, and the media that contained it was expensive enought that the public library was a treasure trove.  Through my years in the classroom I collected the various journals that I was able to, because I figured that my sons would find them as intriguing as I did.  They don’t; they think that if it isn’t on the internet, it isn’t relevant technology.  I finally pitched boxes of old Journal of Chemical Education issues after scanning in the more fascinating historical articles and lab experiments.  My piles of Scientific American issues from the 70’s and 80’s will be the next to go, but I still find myself fascinated and amused looking through them — and finding old Radio Shack computer advertisements!!! (see, this is sort of on topic).  Years of Wood Magazine, from when it first came out, are still sitting on my shelves, and nobody has bothered them in at least a decade.  (A complete set of Rainbow, too, minus Issue #1).

I had the idea at one point to try to put them on eBay, but I looked at what things like that were bringing, and it wouldn’t be worth my time to write an advertisement for them.  The knowlege doesn’t cost anything today, and the value of it is seen to be related to the cost.

It has been pointed out that the millenials are tech doofuses because they have no idea how to fix anything that might be broken.  Just throw it away and get a new one.  Don’t bother to think that you might be able to invent something new.  That is why this list is so close to my heart.  Here people talk about fixing stuff, and even improving on it.  I hope that spirit keeps on after we pass from the scene.  The CoCo may be a commercially dead computer, but it has a lively fan club driven by the spirit that made modern civilization possible — “If you tell me it can’t be done, I’ll prove that you are wrong".

Magic indeed, when I can talk to my daughter in China, face to face in real time, from my home in Ohio (but not on my CoCo.  Yet.).  That was science fiction when I was in high school.  At least your “lecture” is likely to be preserved in some archive simply because it appeared on this list.  I hope so.  And I hope all the CoCo-nuts realize the kind of treasure they have here.

Richard — maybe lunch one of these Saturdays at Wendy’s at the plaza when the weather gets a bit nicer?  Us museum specimens should keep in touch better.

—Grandpa Jim

On Feb 26, 2015, at 8:11 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:

> 
> On Thursday 26 February 2015 14:39:48 Richard E Crislip wrote:
>> On Tue, 24 Feb 2015 22:33:17 -0500
>> 
>> Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
>>> Au contaire;
>>> 
>>> Transmission line class 101 is in session:
> [...]
>>> Class dismissed, says great grandpa Gene.
>>> 
>>> Cheers, Gene Heskett
>> 
>> I know you've been showered with flowers already, I am floored that
>> this is coming from one w/o a silly degree. All self taught. I'm not
>> worthy.
> 
> After I retired, I took a 15 year stack of McGraw-Hill's "Electronics" to the 
> local library, saying that there was info in them that should enthral the 
> budding electronics type, or materials science for that matter because back 
> then they were also keeping us slobs in the ditches, up to date on the latest 
> semiconductor fabrication techniques.  Stuff that was way beyond what an EE 
> got from his prof's in any 4 year degree path from any school on the planet.
> 
> 2 weeks later I was back in the library for something else, and expected to 
> see them on the periodicals shelf. Weren't. I asked the girl at the desk what 
> happened to them and was told the head librarian had thrown them out, more 
> fairy tales than science.
> 
> I think it was Sir Arther C. Clark who said:
> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
> 
> I guess to her, that was magic & she wanted nothing to do with it.
> 
> Needless to say, I shed a few tears thinking of opportunities lost for 
> promising youngsters, and it is a sure thing bet that I have made no more 
> donations to that library.  Their loss IMO, but I'll be damned if I put any 
> more potentially useful materials in that building, its a black hole for 
> technical stuff.
> 
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> -- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you hold to my teaching, 
you are really my disciples.  
Then you will know the truth, 
and the truth will set you free.”  
Jn 8:31-32.