From: utzoo!decvax!cca!csin!cjh
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re re requiring vs. banning college equipment
Article-I.D.: csin.204
Posted: Fri Oct 29 13:35:35 1982
Received: Sat Oct 30 04:06:28 1982

In response to your message of Fri Oct 29 01:14:00 1982:

   Your statement that "the cost of a personal computer is two or three orders
of magnitude greater than the cost of books" is way off base. When I \entered/
college (1971) I was budgeting a minimum of $100/yr for textbooks (and that
was none too generous---the basic texts for organic and bio chemistry were
>$15 each). This would suggest that personal computers cost >$10-100K, which
is of course ridiculous. Your figures are out of line even if you compare
individual textbooks with computers today (Kernighan&Ritchie on C is $16, and
that's a modest-sized paperback---are personal computers $1.6-16K? (well, yes
if you go for a lot of options).
   But note that the above are also ignoring that CMU is specifically
expecting that some company, in return for the placement and the huge quantity
order, will give them a break---I seem to recall mention of $200-800 each when
ordered for all undergraduates, which is certainly no less than I would budget
for 4 years of textbooks were I entering college today.

		CHip