[speaker001:] actually you know I've been involved in electronics a long time uh  in computers and I have have really resisted the impulse to get one for the home
[speaker002:] 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 Macintosh uh LC it's a real easy to use color uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] computer and I got a very nice printer that goes along with it and he uses it for his school work
[speaker002:] um-hum well I've I'm currently in school so I've I've had an IBM 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 um at the level I'm at really require some sort of computer uh simulation or analysis so
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] it it's pretty very essential for me schools have them um but lot of times it so difficult to get on them at school it's very easy it it's much more convenient to have one at home
[speaker001:] 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 what all the uh computer assignments
[speaker002:] yeah it's uh
[speaker001:] well do you use your PC for things other than explicit computer work
[speaker002:] um sure I have some games of course which I play on there and uh um I have a program which allows me to access a a weather data bank so I can like check up on the weather around the country or whatever which is a hobby so it 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:] 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 home home computing
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah
[speaker001:] at work at work uh
[speaker002:] that
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh but now I find myself using the computer even the computer at work is primarily a um word processing system and a communication system
[speaker002:] yeah yeah do you use E-mail and like that
[speaker001:] yes E-mail is probably pulls down a third of all my time
[speaker002:] yeah it's I I uh I have a modem in my computer so I can log into the system the uh network at Georgia Tech and access my account through there which is which can be useful but um 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 writing on on my computer uh whether it's term papers or even some smaller homework assignments
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so it's it's really become I don't know really become a 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 um to do a report because my family when I was growing up we got a a basic computer a a TRS eighty when they first came out
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and I even used that to do my first reports when I was in junior high so
[speaker001:] hum well I'm a old-timer I did my Master's thesis on uh a typewriter
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] uh I rented an IBM Selectric
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and it was a pretty big deal
[speaker002:] yeah it 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 all on a computer and it seems seems like I just can't imagine how people did it before it must have been just so much so much work
[speaker001:] yeah it uh well you know it's just it was just a completely different world then
[speaker002:] yeah so um so you you you used uh your son's Macintosh then uh do you do you find it do you like that stuff 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:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um I when I come home from work I I like to stay far away from computers and electronic things
[speaker002:] yeah hm
[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 it's 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 VCR's and whatnot and the kids they just take to it like candy
[speaker002:] yeah well if if if the if the interface is there so that it's like fun to use and the challenge I think you know for a lot of kids that