[Coco] Hijacked: Multipak redesign/replacement

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 26 February 2015 22:38:50 James C. Hrubik wrote:

> 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 enough 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).
>
Where my copies of Fine WoodWorking are often as not, a bit bedraggled by the 
time I actually file them in a records box.

> 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.

I hear that! Just 4 years ago I almost had to go buy a Louisville Slugger to 
get an EE out of my way long enough to show him by putting it together on the 
floor.  I'd spent 2 hours trying to explain what needed to be done 13 feet up 
in the air because he was 40 years younger, but his degree in EE absolutely 
blinded him to any and all aspects of mechanics. As an EE he sucked, had no 
theory that actually gave the right answers even for Ohms Law, but as a 
mechanic, he had trouble putting the car keys in the switch right side up.  
Geriatric rental car, key wasn't a mirror.  Iron Mountain Michigan, what can 
I say.

> 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.

So do I Jim.  This seemingly simple little thing that the shack envisioned as 
a game console, has, with the os9 OS, turned into the single most effective 
learn as you go CompSci coarse ever built, thanks to the ability to write 
position independent code.  That choice may have been serendipitous, based 
more on Motorola being next door that anything else, has IMNSHO been an eye 
opener into how its done right, and if as coders do our part, the results are 
all out of proportion to the power others see in such a "toy" machine.

> 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".

As has been observed, there is a piece or two of my code in the repo that was 
done purely to show that the guy I was figuratively slapping around with it, 
that his school where he was studying, took his money on false pretenses.

> 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.

Even 20 years ago you would have thought you were reading some scifi stuff.

> 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.

Thanks for the flowers Jim, us frustrated teachers enjoy them.  But sure as 
heck, we'll forget to water them...

> 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.

Which plaza Jim?  I have a Mahogany, Cedar and Ebony blanket chest to deliver 
to Kansas when it gets a little warmer, and at some point will need to 
recycle some coffee & find something to mix with the metformin to keep my 
sugar balanced on my way by.  If I come that way at all, Ohio doesn't 
reciprocate on the WV CWP the last time I checked.  Heck, all 3 of us 
probably can share a war story or 2.  I'd like that.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>