[speaker001:] So I own a, a P C A T at my home.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, I could never justify owning a personal computer at home, uh, I mean, that's quite an expense to look for, uh, well, who is this, what do you use yours at home for?
[speaker001:] Well, that's actually a good question. My wife works out of the home, our home. She has an office and in fact she sits in the office and she uses it to compose and print out letters.
[speaker002:] Okay, well now.
[speaker001:] So that's a very regular use of it that she has.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And in addition to that I tinker around with it. I'm a computer scientist.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And so I write programs to do little things I'm actually working on a data base at home just to keep track of things nothing special. And also I'm interested in writing some programs that will kind of like remind me of things like remind me that Wednesdays is trash day and the like.
[speaker002:] Uh, huh, well, [throat clearing] excuse me, I, uh, uh, well I'm a technician, electronics tech. Years ago T I sent me to their, uh, computer school down in Austin.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So, uh, I learned to repair one but you know I never really learned to operate one.
[speaker001:] Oh, that's a key thing. Well, actually that's a, there's really two issues to that that there's so many software packages available today.
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] That just require no programming. So that yo-, in other words when someone built that software packet they had to use the programming but if they were careful, they could make the use of it totally without understanding how the computer works.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But I think you you really hit the nail on the head. For the average person is exactly what he can use it for. And if your wife isn't working out of the home and sending letters or if you don't want to build a data base to keep track of the [pause] nuts and bolts in your garage, whatever there, your issue is then there really,
[speaker002:] Well, uh, space is a handicap with me, I live in a motor home.
[speaker001:] Oh, I see well.
[speaker002:] And I'm preparing for retirement.
[speaker001:] I see well, congratulations on that.
[speaker002:] And I'm not to far from it another year and a half.
[speaker001:] Yeah, well, actually one other thing I might ought to mention is that they are actually getting quite cheap.
[speaker002:] Yes, definitely, but just like the computers.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, remember how they started out running three, four hundred dollars.
[speaker001:] Right. Oh, the calculators you mean.
[speaker002:] I mean ca-, calculators, I beg your pardon.
[speaker001:] Yeah, they sure do. Yeah I actually was thinking about upgrading mine very recently and kind of look at the whole spectrum. You can actually buy a whole [throat clearing] brand new computer with a not not a necessarily a slow one or inadequate one but a pretty good one for six hundred dollars.
[speaker002:] You're kidding.
[speaker001:] No.
[speaker002:] Including a printer?
[speaker001:] Well, actually I wasn't including a printer, but you you can buy a printer now for a hundred dollars so make it seven hundred.
[speaker002:] A hundred?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Wholly smoke, a respectable one?
[speaker001:] Yes, uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Well, see of not being particularly interested I don't keep track of prices on them, but I'm, I'm, that does amaze me.
[speaker001:] Yeah, the prices had plummeted, you can buy the computer the guts just the guts with the power supply,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] the box and the mother board of a type of computer called an eighty, eighty-eight, for about two hundred dollars.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] And then the keyboard is another fifty, the monitor with the card that drives is another hundred and then the disk drive is two fifty.
[speaker002:] Well, what, what is a a good brand a inexpensive.
[speaker001:] Well, that's that's the deal is you're not buying brands now, you're buying these knock offs, so there's, probably the way to do it if you really wanted to buy one is there's a magazine called COMPUTER SHOPPER.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] It's a big magazine, it's twelve inches acro-, narrow, the narrow side and
[speaker002:] Oh, wow.
[speaker001:] seventeen inches the tall side and it's probably an inch thick a thousand pages. But the book is, the magazine is full of these mail order, computer mail-order houses and they're all competing with each.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] So you just flip through there until you find a [smack] eighty, eighty-eight computer [breathing] that that's called, it's the original P C. So it's, we call the T I, I'm sorry an I B M P C compatible. And you'll find all these things and you'll find the monitors forty dollars and the card that drives the monitor that goes in the back of the board for twenty-five dollars which is amazing to me.
[speaker002:] Uh.
[speaker001:] And you mix and match and then you do it by mail-order. But there's no real brands it's probably a half a dozen companies around the world that are making those mother boards, the main computer, the circuit board.
[speaker002:] I see. How do you go about getting one of those a catalogs?
[speaker001:] They're available in, you know, the B Daltons, that that type of thing.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] You'll notice that in that it's, it's a, it's a, although it's a magazine it's large. And like I said it's about an inch thick [breathing].
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, well, getting back to the P C -s, I'll tell you, I ya, first of all I don't like a machine that's smarter than me.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] And secondly, I did learn this much about computers, they they are pretty stupid because they add one and one up and come up with ten.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] In binary.
[speaker001:] That's right [breathing]. There's great.
[speaker002:] Well, anyway that's one ever my favorite jokes.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] One and one equals ten.
[speaker001:] Yeah, that's great.
[speaker002:] Course it's it's kind of an inside joke, you know.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You can only tell that to somebody who understands binary.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] I understand, that's great, that's a good joke.
[speaker002:] So what, do you, uh, uh, work with a computers a at T I?
[speaker001:] I did for years and then I was a scientist over in central research labs and just recently I've changed my job to actually do some of the marketing.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, now I I type that one, but I don't use it anymore.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, well I just recently started using one.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] In connection with my work.
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] Uh, I keep track of an inventory here.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And of course now that is where a computer is very handy.
[speaker001:] Yes, I agree.
[speaker002:] And, well I, it's my responsibility to see that equipment is sent off to be calibrated.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] See I'm with the Q R A lab.
[speaker001:] Oh, I see that's fascinating.
[speaker002:] Qualification and evaluation so naturally our equipment has to be in top condition and is constantly calibrated,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and they're dated. So I have to keep up with them, uh, and and it's very handy doing it on the computer.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I just run a printout every week and and it puts me right up-to-date what I'm, what I have to do, what I have to ship, what I should be expecting to be returned.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] So a, it it is handy.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] And I must admit that up until I did start using one, uh, it was, I had very little interest in computers.
[speaker001:] Yes [NOISE].
[speaker002:] But they are amazing.
[speaker001:] Yeah, they certainly are. So let's see, see so I guess with respect to the question, yeah, I guess we've kind of covered it.
[speaker002:] I think we did.
[speaker001:] Great, nice little conversation with you Jack.
[speaker002:] Yeah, Mike you take care now.
[speaker001:] Good day.
[speaker002:] Good luck to you.
[speaker001:] Thank you. Same to you.