From the “SAVE A DOORSTOP” Department
Many of you are aware of the CompuServe TIMEX forum in the club section. Every Wednesday night at 10:00 Eastern Time, there is a Timex Sinclair Conference on a private channel. This is a great place to stay in touch firsthand with the TS world. Regulars include representatves of many companies – Curry Computer, Zebra, TS Connection, and RMG, just to name a few. Here you can keep abreast of up-to-the-minute products and developments from all over the globe. You can even place orders for products ‘live’ on-line and get immediate checks on availability, prices, acknowledgements of orders, etc. This is really front-line stuff, here. One need only purchase a modem and sign up for CompuServe to participate.
Another benefit of the CIS club is the message board, where TSers from all over leave notes for each other. The receiving party is automatically notified at log-on when there is a message waiting for him. Unless the sending party chooses to make it a private message, anyone else can read it and even respond.
After last Wednesday night’s meeting on the private Conference channel, I stopped by the message board to read the mail. One of the on-going strings of messages caught my attention, and even stirred me somewhat. It concerns the disposition of all those ZX81s and TS1000s that are collecting dust in the bottoms of closets nationwide. A few of the ideas were to use two of then to hold up color monitors, to gut them and use the cases to store floppy disks, and even to use them as doorstops!
Kinda sounds like some of us have forgotten the virtues of the small computer. Remember back in the very early ’80s when the notion of owning ANY computer was an exciting thought? Remember how exciting it was when that little black wizard first graced your kitchen table? Maybe you even experienced the exhiliaration of seeing the ominous little inverse ‘L’ on the bottom-left hand corner of a ZX80. Yes, it’s pretty easy to forget all that initial anticipation after a few years of fancy computing tables, color monitors, complex sound generators, microdrives, modems, and all we’ve learned since. Think back to those first dozen or so issues of ‘SYNC‘. Really now, wasn’t it wonderful?
Well, why not pass that magic on to someone else? If you’re not using that ZX80 or 81 anymore, why not let it live on in the eager hands of someone who’ll learn from it, be delighted by it, come to love it just as much as you first did in those early days when home computers were just becoming popular? If I may, I’d like to suggest younger people – kids in the 10 to 18 bracket. These kids are not likely to have been overwhelmed by the fancy colors and sounds of the present generation 2068s, QL’s, Amigas, and IBMs. Think now, how many of you have a TS1000 you have forgotten about sitting in the botton of a drawer sonewhere? Why not donate it to the local Cub Scouts or Brownies, or the local Grade School? Maybe you have a nephew or neice who doesn’t have a computer in the house. How about a neighbor? The local Big Brother or Big Sister chapter would certainly welcome a donation of this kind.
If you would like to get your unneeded micro to a good home and don’t have the time or means to do so, I will volunteer to take care of it for you and let you know exactly where it went.
Mail to: Computers for Kids
C/O Bob Woish
1700 Butler Pike, 32-F
Conshohocken, Pa. 19428
Please don’t let these marvelous little machines turn into doorstops! If you make a donation of this type, let me know. If you want me to do it for you, send it along. Either way, each donation will be mentioned in a future column and submitted to TS HORIZONS for publication.
Help keep the TS Spirit alive!
TSH