Spring 1987 Volume 3, Number 2 .... 7. - "Little House Computer Club: A Model of Continual Learning" n their travels across the the creative force behind the and members, Professor Leh­ the middle of the night with the country to demonstrate Club's operation. In 1981 (the year mann's concentration on BASIC solution to some question you had IBn~derbun .d software, our of the IBM PC's release), programming has not changed. As during the day. Then you can sit Ambassadors occasionally come Professor Lehmann began classes Mr. Simpson described it, the down at your computer to see if across people who have used at the senior center to promote emphasis at the Club is on mental the solution works. When you their computers to advantage in computer literacy. Working with exercise. "We want all our mem­ write a program that way, it's unique, imaginative ways. five students and two borrowed bers to study BASIC, because it yours. You make it, you debug it, Recently we learned of their visit computers, he began teaching the serves as a kind of calisthenics for and then you can use it." to the Little House Computer fundamentals of BASIC program­ the mind. In their first lesson, our The success of the program Club, where they found a group of ming. As the size of the classes students learn to make the com­ speaks for itself~ The classes are senior citizens who do just that. increased, former students Patti puter say, 'I am your faithful ser­ full, the computer room busy, Curious, we visited the McKibben, Grace Young and Herb vant.' Once they've done that, the and over 85% of the Club's Peninsula Volunteers Little Wampner took on a portion of the computer is theirs to control." members have been inspired to House, a senior community center increased teaching load, and the This emphasis on computer purchase their own computers. south of San Francisco, which the rapid growth of the Little literacy encourages the students Impressively, the Club has started Computer Club calls home. Club House Computer Club to take an adventurous attitude to produce substantial revenue of President George Simpson gave us began. toward computers._"It's fun," its own from the small fees that it a tour of the computer facilities in Though the Club Simpson said, "to charges for its classes and tutor­ Little House's newly dedicated now has nearly wakeup in ials. In short, the seniors at Little wing. 100 students House have created a facility, Our first stop on the tour was curriculum and faculty that would the well-lit and comfortably sized do justice to a small university. classroom, where the Club offers Though BASIC program­ courses in programming, software ming has been the use (Bank Street Writerr• is one of focus the favorite classes) and throughout, related computer the Little skills. Across House users the hall from are explor­ the classroom is ing the world a fully equipped of software as well. computer room, Students are studying word with eight machines in place and processing, spreadsheets four more on the way. In des­ and database programs, and cribing the Club, Mr. Simpson the Club has recently joined referred to its objective as a telecommunications net­ "continuing education." From work to converse with user the activity in the computer groups in other parts of the room and classroom, it seemed country. And if the Club's that description fit well. history is any indication, its Matt Lehmann, 78, a former brand of "continuing educa­ Stanford University professor, is tion" should continue quite successfully at Little House. • Page 'l'wo Bnlderbund News, Spring 1987 O~ ''Off rthe WaJJ" :g, Attenti~n On Balance Winner Announced · .... .. Owners. Granny papered the n Balance owners and new members of the Apple II family walls with $20 bills. hiding all that excess cash. purchasers will be happy to and the new Apple IIGS as well. Inspiration was the mother (or 0hear that Bnjderbund is no The procedure for obtaining the hen we announced our "Off grandmother) of invention in this longer copy protecting this inval­ upgrade is simple. Present owners the Wall" contest this past case. Granny started papering the uable tool for managing personal of On Balance need only send in Wwint er to promote On walls of her house with $20 bills, finan ces. their request for an upgrade along Balancer~ our finan cial manage· and then covered the bills with Marketing Manager Nanci Buck with a shipping address, and one ment package for the Apple II wallpaper. When she needed ready reports on the new policy: "On of the following three forms of series, we expected some bizarre cash, she would wait until she was Balance will now be even more proof of purchase: stories about money matters. alone, rip down a section of wall­ convenient to use. We are finding • The original proof of purchase Ms. Valerie Balavage of Monroe­ paper and take down her bills, that our users are becoming tab from the Backup Disk page ville, PA won the contest with a and then repaper the spot. Of dependent on the fast, easy way of the On Balance manual. story about her grandmother's course the bills were a bit sticky, that On Balance helps them to • The original Backup Disk cou­ bookkeeping practices. As Ms. but Granny would simply wash manage their finan cr,s; so much pon from the same page of the Balavage told us, her grandmother and dry them (hanging them up so, in fact, that their concerns manual. had a hard time doing arith­ with cloth espins) and they were about disk failures or possible • The original copy of the first metic. She could, however, "do" quite soon serviceable. delays in back up disk fulfillment page that appears inside the moonshine whiskey, and ran a For her tale, Ms. Balavage won a have prompted us to reconsider cover of the program manual. large bootlegging operation collection of Bnlderbund software our protection policy on this Please note that the upgrade is during Prohibition. With the suc­ with a retail value listed at over product." available at no charge. As always, cess of her business, Granny $1,000, including a copy of In addition, the new w1pro­ send your upgrade requests to needed to create a system for On Balance to help her with her tected version of the program is Bnlderbund Software-Direct, at keeping track of her money and own finan cial management. Iii packaged with both 51A'' and 311.t the address listed on page eight --- ---------'---"d=is=ks,Jo s rve ot t e ,r of..this_newsletter...s ••••S•I•• lit t= Microcomputers: On the Doorstep of the Graphics Revolution n 1955, scientists at M.l.T produced the Whirlwind I, the first computer Apple II series, for instance, home-users can work with up to sixteen ever to offer the possibility of on-screen graphics. The limits of its different colors. Even more recently, the Apple IIGS and the Commodore Icapabilities: primitive line-drawings produced on a monochrome Amiga have been released with up to 4,096 colors in their computerized display console. "palettes." Screen resolution on many home computer monitors has risen Since that groundbreaking development, the computer industry has to 640 X 200 and in some cases to 640 X 400, to provide greater detail been swept by a revolution in graphics capa- and definition. bilities. Today's graphic workstations offer In the software industry, developments more than 65,000 different colors, in an have begun to keep pace with these hardware almost limitless variation advances. As Gene Portwood of shades and hues. With Creative Director of digitizing graphics tablets, Product Development ultra-high resolution maintains, 'We've monitors and sophisti­ come a long way in cated plotters and prin­ terms of graphics qual­ ters, these workstations ity since the early days have uncovered an increas­ of the microcomputer. In ing number of applications the late seventies, home for computerized graphics computers were limited to and computer assisted design graphics of the Space (CAD). Invadersr• variety: flicker­ The graphics revolution has ing images and stilted, extended into the microcompu­ mechanical animation. Today, ter market as well, where hard­ drawing utilities like Dazzle ware advances are now offering Drawr• and animation packages home users some fairly sophis­ likeAnim,ater~ help the home ticated abilities. With the advent user create realistic animation of "double hi-res" on the that rivals professional, televised continued on page 3 Bn'lderbund News, Spring 1987 Variable Feasts: The Best Gitarantee of an Evening's Success Microcomputers Contin:uedfrom previous page ike a lot of Bn~derbund 's Us: Bentley? cartoon work." products, the new Variable Bentley: Yes, it's me. Actually, Equally important is the ease LFeast,s'" is hard to describe. We it's Vari.able Feast,s. I sit down of use that today's graphics could call it a creative cookbook. with this program at the compu- programs offer. In many cases, Or describe it as the program that ter, and it helps me plan a per- takes the pain out of meal- fectly coordinated dinner. It gives Bentley: Try it; it's fun . And the these utilities allow the user to planning and preparation. me a wide range of choices for Reference File in Variable Feast,s draw and animate with graphics But we think the best way to each course in the meal, and then tells me just how long to roast tablet, mouse or joystick control. introduce Variable Feast,s is to helps me select dishes that work meat and poultry to make sure These intuitive controls let tell you the story of Bentley, one well together.