People's Computer Company Jan-Feb 71 •
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yolS no 4 People's Computer Company jan-feb 71 •.. ········CO"N·TENTS······························.. •· .. ·......... ...............................................·········· ··············iiii·yH·isTssuf· .. ·...... ············ .................................................................................• ............. , Subscription Information 2 Results of the pee Readerlhip Survey: Who We Are Come alld gel il,1 A jam-packed over-sized issue! Rulx;ts. Sat!!flites, spa,'(! games, 5 My Computer Uk .. Me even Better When We Hold Conversations . s/)(u'(! colullies, space ships, space out! Flllllrislic (('chllo/UKY Q/ld computers are another way of introducing children to programming aimosl iI/separable. Qllc/ we're just 011 the frulllien of exploratiun. Howabuut IIollle microcomputers linked Ilia public imerest satellite fo play Q I1l1lssive game 7 Crossword Punle Solution to design Qnd builcJ Q sfarship? Or what abmlf.. well, read the articles and let 8 A dly in the Ufe of eec .... inside a storefront computer installation us klluw your reactiuns' open to the publi(l 10 The Data Handler Usar', Manual ... a aerialized how·to for ulers of We 'n' lots uf educatiunal articles for all teachers Ihose in tile clilssruom as well as Ihe hume educaturs: see how 10 readl kids ",';11, COl/venatiUlUlI progrommillg 6502 microprocessors and Do" InnUlI! 's {rullt-o{-a-series uf how-lU articles all Ihe 6502-basecl Dala 12 Calculator Calculus _. _ a classroom revolution Handler. Severo' u{ the edlu-ariullal articles will be Ile/pflll hOlh 10 begillllers 13 Kalculator Korner ... problems and tricks alld alsu those wllo teadl begillllers. 14 Tinv BASIC ... an introduction for beginners And there's more. mure. more: sumething {ur evcryone: games listings, calcu 17 REVERSE •.. a game to turn you around lator arricles, Till)' wl/guages. etc., etc., etc. Tllere's a gigantic a''''Ullllcemcnl 18 Games for You to Program ..• even if you're a beginner sectioll witlliuts uf cheap software and other guot! slU{f 20 Tiny PILOT ... specs from a user's viewpoint await your reaction l,/lst (well. sort uJ:' ill {a('( it's the first artit'le) bill by 110 mcons least are Ihe 23 Computer Store Survey resullS uf readership survcy. The slIrve:,; mlS higllly success{ul a /ine 23 '"l' What It A Computer? ... a lot like the elephant of fable fame respollse. with lots ofgUlHI itlcas_ I~e hear yuu-' Keep gil"illg us feedbad.. as 24 Computer Stores . .. an update to the li st in the last PCC we keep respolldillg to yo"r jnpllf! 25 Microcomputer & Peripheral Manufacturers TJlANK YOU! 26 Mastermind 28 FORTRAN MAN Dragon Emeritus: BOB ALBRECHT Co·Editors: PHYLLIS COLE & MARC LE BR UN 30 Don Quixote Starship ... an historical (hysterical?) background ?, Artists: ANN MIYA & JOAN LARIMORE 32 Oon Quixote Starship .•. Is trembling on the pad •• Circulation: BEVERLY ROBINSON 34 The United States Robotic Society Bookstore: DAN ROSSET 35 Robots as Household Pets Last issue. Larrv Press was a non·credited 38 SPIce & Computers . a faScinating match contributing editor ... our thanks. Lar. And as ever. wild applause for the many 40 Public Interest Satellite Association ... how to get a sli ce of that pie in without whom we wouldn't have this the sky issue. 41 PCC Interviews Ted Nelson ... who', continuing to liberate computers and dream of machines RETAINING SUBSCRIBERS: 42 Letteu John R. l..eM, Jr. The Computer Corner, Han-iet Shair 46 Announcements ... feirflS, conferences, publications, club" hardware, John Rlble software Bill Godbout Electronics Mark S. Elgin Bookstore Stuff Jim" Muvsenberll ................... __ ......... -............................ __ ................... _._._ .. _........ ,-.- o.ni" Dicit People's Computer Company is an independent non·profit Dr. Dobb's Journal, our sister publication, is the reference o.xter Fletcher California corporation, so tlonations to PCC beyond the journal for home cumputer users. It offers free or low· o.or" Bowil III cost of subSCriptions are tax-deductible. cost software and "'all-meat" contents without display ads. Lt. Stan JUrgillwiez Joe Wehbecker Retaining subscription f! S25 DOl carries complete systems and applications software, o Bernie. Pantell (S19 tax deductible) lots of soft and hardware proJects. independent consumer Larry Press Sustaining subscription {II inform3tion, reprinls, directories, hot news, and aU sorts o Frank Otsuka (594+ tax deductible) of o ther good stuff. ~Ol is published 10 times a year. SUSTAINING SUBSCRIBERS: PCC SUBSCRIPTIONS U.S. Subscriptions U.S. o SJ2 for I year Paul, Lori end Tom c.lhoun o 51 Single copy o $21 for I year first class! airmail to anywhere o S6/yr. (six issues) in the U.S. o SII/2 yrs. (12 issues) Foreign Surface Mail o add S4!yr. anywhere outside the U.S. In Britain: Foreign Surface Mail PACS o add S4/yr. for Canada ~F'''';;I'' AI RMAll o add S9/yr. to Canada c/o 10hn Remizo o add SS/yr. elsewhere o add S16/yr. to Europe and Pan American 142 Grove Lane Foreign AIRMAIL o add S20/yr. elsewhere Hale, Altrinchan add S8!yr. for Canada Cheshire, UK o Back issues, SI.50 each: circle those you wish to order: add SII/yr. for Europe o indicate how many copics if more than one of each is PCC: £ 7.S0/year o add S14/yr. elsewhere requested. 001: £14.00/year Back iSlues, 51 each; circle those you wish to order; Yol. I Nos. 1,2,3,4.5,6,7,8,9, 10 indicate ho.... many copies if more than one of each is o All of Yolume I for S13. In West Germany: requested. Pan Atlantic Computer Systems gmbh (PACS) Vol. I, Nos. 1,2,3 Frankfurter Strasse 78 Vol. 2, No.5 061 Darmstadt, West Germany Vol. 3, Nos. I , 4 PeC: 30 OM/year Vol. 4, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 DOJ: 55 DM/year Vol. 5, Nos. I. 2 • • • 1 ******************************************** WHOWEARE /"Q!S uf ill/urmoliun reslIlted frum tile PCC readership slIn'ey $e'll/ out wirll the last toO/IS Qnd disCIIssiul/S uf slOplillg Jimlts. HOI'I! yuu /luticed lI,at Sail Andreas Qlld the issue. J/ere'rc the results. frum IIle 191 surveys tabu fated sv far. except for write-in t:russwvrk pllzzle art' 110 IOllger ill f?l'edellce? 1111! lellen frum Soli Andreas [ails are (vmme1lls, wllk'l! will be presellled next issue. a !as( gasp. Based partly UII slIn'ey results. \\Ie're illiliotillg a I'on'ety oI dWl/ges ill PCC Fur une, Mure challges orl! //I the '"-'Uri!: we 1/ discuss tllem ill the /lext iSSlle. Meat/while, we /lUW IWIII! all explicit policy 10 otluid stuff thaI's Qs!arullf as biq..le repair CQT- keep thuse cards and lellen mming IIley DO make Q differelll"f!' Pl,yflis Cule ii::···················································· .•••••~~ ••.•....••••.•.••..•••••.•.....••.•.•••....•.••.••••..••• Na me. Address ~ Lots of people who read PCC don't work with computers. They include: PCC readers come rrom all over the U. S. and Canada, plus other countries (though slow mails prevented questionaires from other areas from reaching us in time for teachers at all levels, some work with the gifted, others with the handicapped, this profile). some are retired. one does curriculum development students, one of whom is not yet 14 but advises his school, a local bank. etc., By looking at names, we're almost 97% MALE! OK, so females tend to lack propor on micros tional representation in many fields. But most computer-related areas aren't so n TV producer and a TV engineer biased. Hmmmmm ..... mUSicians/composers doctors lawyers ( no Indian Chiefs that I'm aware of, though) 2.&3. someone in military service Age, Schooling a hippy leathersmith a telephone repairm3n, an electronic repairmnn and journeyman machinist, Junior l!igh Junior BA \1A Phd and an electrician High School College magaz.ine editors nnd a technical writer engineers of various sorts under 14 bankers (yes. more than one two!) 2 an architect some people in sales 14 18 6 5 2 What a~uperbly mOl ley crew! Except. of course,Ihatl85 of the 191 are men ... 19 30 12 7 33 16 1 s. Who pays for your PCC SubScription? .11 so 17 8 5 35 29 Most people pay for their own. but schools or universities pay for IS, businesses for 5, public agencies (state. county, etc.) ror 3 and friends or relatives for 4. A couple over 50 of people don't have a subsaiption and don't want one, though they read PeC 1 1 3 2 4 regularly they like an excuse to go to their local computer store regularly. 4. 6. Employment How often do you use PCC list ings? We found 124 of the 191 people who've returned surveys so far 'work with computers. Several people mentioned they used the listings to get ideas andlor learn about Here's how it breaks down. programming. work with maxis: 30 Frequency of use .. ...... IP..._ .. Hl. ..':f. ......':i.r. ....... 5.,~ ...... '.r minis: 24 rru cros: 22 lor more times per issue llIore than I type: 26 type not specified: 22 3 5 Irmes per year llere's what the people working with computers do: many wear several hats: 3 times per year edw,:ation: 25 education plus one or more of t)fORr.Jmmer, enlP,ineer. management, technician: 30 never 'CUl. new reader or new system jill•••••••• programmer 24 programmer/engineer: IS never progr3mmer plus one or more of man3gement. marketing, technician. 4 engineer: 9 engineer plus either or both marke ting, technician: 4 man3gement: 5 (plus 18 already listed work in management) lechnician 3 marketing: I mar ke ling/technician I 2 ******************************************** ******************************************** 3 7. Reactions to pce content Whew! What a tabula tion job! Some IOpics, such as Don Quixote Starship. may have gottcn short shrift since they were unfamiliar to readers.