Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Low cost Mac's ?
Message-ID: <1990Aug30.194221.29942@phri.nyu.edu>
Date: 30 Aug 90 19:42:21 GMT
References: <25541.26DA84DD@stjhmc.fidonet.org> <1385@gold.GVG.TEK.COM>
Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System)
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City
Lines: 32

brandonl@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Brandon Lovested) writes:
> I agree that in 1990, the average person does not "need" a computer.  In
> 1910, the average person did not "need" a car, either.  Our homes grow
> with our tools.

	Perhaps what's really true is that in 1990, the average person does
not need a general-purpose computer.  The average person already owns lots
of computers.  The one in his microwave oven, or his stereo, or the one
with the synthesized voice that tells him his refrigerator door is open.

	If people really need computers to balance their checkbooks, I
predict that the product that will solve that need is something that looks
vaguely like a conventional paper-and-plastic checkbook, but with an LED
display and a keypad with specialized function keys marked "check",
"deposit", "service fee", etc.  It won't be a Mac with a money manager
program, that's for sure.  At least until they come out with a Mac that I
can throw into my pack or cram into my back pocket and sit on, or that my
wife can shove into her purse or handbag along with whatever else lives in
there, and which is simple enough to use that my mother can do it without
having to read the directions (which will probably be written in badly
translated japanese, so they won't make much sense anyway).

	Think about that last bit.  I defy you to show me a single program
that runs on a Macintosh that my mother can use with no more than 30
seconds worth of one-time instruction.  For reference, my mother is an
intelligent woman with a graduate degree from an Ivy league university,
who's only problem is that she grew up before computers were invented.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"Arcane?  Did you say arcane?  It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"