[speaker001:] [Noise] Actually, I've been involved in electronics a long time. Uh, in computers and I have really resisted the impulse to [swallowing] get one for the home.
[speaker002:] [Tone] [static] Oh yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, up until, I guess, maybe about a year and a half ago, I got one for my son. A, a Macintosh
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, L C. It's a real easy to use color, uh, computer and I got a very nice printer that goes along with it and he uses it for his school work.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Well, I've, I'm currently in school so I, I've had an I B M clone, I guess, for a couple of years now, which I've been trying, continually upgrading I guess. And, uh, I've found, I've found that I pretty much become addicted to it and I can't really, I've found that most of homework assignments really require some sort of computer, uh, simulation or analysis, so
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] it, it's pr-, very essential for me. Schools have them, uh, but lot of times so difficult to get on them at school. It's very easy, it's much more convenient to have one at home.
[speaker001:] [Lipsmack] Where you going to school?
[speaker002:] At Georgia Tech.
[speaker001:] I see.
[speaker002:] Yeah, so.
[speaker001:] In engineering?
[speaker002:] Yes, actually.
[speaker001:] So that explains wha-, all the, uh, computer assignments.
[speaker002:] Yeah, it, uh,
[speaker001:] Well, do you use your P C for things other than explicit computer work?
[speaker002:] Um, sure. I have some games, [NOISE] of course, which I play on there and, uh, uh, [NOISE] I have a program which allows me to access a, uh, weather data bank so I can, like, check up on the weather around the country or whatever which is a hobby. So, it provides other means other than just strict, uh, you know, computations and so on, so. Have you, do you have a computer for yourself at home?
[speaker001:] [Lipsmack] No. No, I just have one for my son and I really sort of have the feeling that word processing is a big market for
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] home computing.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Tha-,
[speaker001:] At wo-, at work, uh, [LAUGHTER] I'm a technologist, uh, and I, in the past, have done a great deal of, of, uh, system development just through, uh, software development programming. Uh, but now I find myself using the computer, even the computer at work is primarily a, uh, word processing system
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and a communication system.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah. Do you use Email and like that?
[speaker001:] Yes. Emil is, probably pulls down a third a-, of all my time.
[speaker002:] Yeah. It's, I, I, uh, I have modem night computer so I can log into the sys-, the, uh, network at Georgia Tech and access my account through there, which is, which can be useful. But, uh, yeah that's, that and word processing is while I tend to, I mean, obviously, I do most of my, almost all of my report [NOISE] writing on, on my computer, uh, whether it's term papers or even some smaller homework assignments.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So it's, it's really become, I don't know, really become my mainstay I guess. I can't even remember, actually I don't think I've ever used a typewriter in, in my life to do a, a to do a report. Because my family, when I was growing up, we got a basic computer. T R S Eighty when they first came out.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I even used that to do my first reports when I was in junior high, so [NOISE].
[speaker001:] Huh. Well I'm a old-timer. I did my Master's thesis on, uh, a typewriter.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, I rented an I B M Selectric.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And it was a pretty big deal.
[speaker002:] Yeah. It must have been tough. It's a little bit strange for me. I, I did my Master's thesis, uh, last year and I did that on a computer and it seems like, I just can't imagine how people did it before. It must have been just so much, so much work [NOISE].
[speaker001:] Yeah. It, uh, well, you know, it's just, it was just a completely different world then.
[speaker002:] Yeah. So, uh, so yo-, you used your son's Macintosh then? Do you, do you find it, do you like that kind of computer?
[speaker001:] I like it, yeah. I like it from a distance really. I, I see the packages on it, uh, that are available and it's nice. I really don't use it myself.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, I, when I come home from work, I, I like to stay far away from
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] computers and electronic things [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, so I let my son do it and,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, of course, you know, there's, uh, there's an intellectual evolution taking place where, it's sort of a joke but it's really true, the old-timers, even the people who are technologists don't know how to operate these electronic things like V C R -s and whatnot and the kids, they just take to it like candy.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Well, i-, if, if, if the interface is there so that it's like fun to use and the challenge [tone] [static],