Dear Ed,
I was, of course, very disappointed to read that you are discontinuing publication next October. All of your cassettes and issues have been of inestimable value to me in learning computing from the word go. I would surely equate them with a good course in computer basics that any college might offer. The Computer Tutor sure knows his stuff and what’s better – knows how to explain it. That is really something.
However, I can understand your position. I trust too, you will understand mine when I tell you I am not renewing. I got a 2068 on Dec. 7th and now almost ignore the 1000.
I am sure that you will understand that the subscription price is too high when I have such little use for the 1000 programs. Should you decide to continue with a written program and newsletter for the 2068, I shall be the first to subscribe.
At any rate, do keep me on your mailing list. It is like losing an old friend not to hear from you people anymore. You are the nicest publishers I have ever dealt with.
Sincerely,
R. Cunningham
Ozone Pk., NY
Dear Rich,
It is sad for us also to be in this position. The numbers of 2068 owners aren’t sufficient to start a new and similar enterprise and the 1000 owners seem to eventually move up to a more substantial computing situation with no new owners of either computer coming in the future. In either case, it makes our market limited.
I’m happy that our product has contributed to your knowledge of computing and saddened to be losing you as a as has been the case with many others, have entered into a unique situation – that is – we have become friends without ever seeing each other’s faces – Ed.
Dear Ed,
Let your readers beware. To the novice to programming on the TS-2068, the book (THE TIMEX SINCLAIR 2068 by Roger Valentine/ISBN 0 471-88300-x Wiley Press) would be a complete waste. Very few of the programs run as listed in the book. They need a great deal of modification.
To the slightly more experienced from using other computers, the user can make some sense of the listings and maybe learn a few techniques.
Mr. Valentine apparently believed Timex was coming out with the 16K as well as the 48K computer and thought he’d get a jump on the market by changing covers on some other book he wrote for the SPECTRUM, but he certainly came out with an inferior product by jumping the gun.
Too bad – – we need help with the TS-2068 books and programs. There is very little on the market yet and books like this could discourage people new to computing from using the TS-2068.
Sincerley,
G. Cary
Coloma, CA
Dear George,
Though I have not seen the book, I’m aware of other books that were written for the ZX-81 that had new covers printed to include the TS-1000 logo. Of course, this was perfectly acceptable since there was virtually no difference between the two computers except for the extra 1K of RAM.
Although I never worked with a SPECTRUM, I understand there are quite a few differences between it and the TS-2068. I have been told that programs written for one won’t even load into the other.
Even with the demise of Timex computer products, we will try to provide a good base of programs and instruction till our last issue. From then on, we’ll be only a software house (God willing!) – Ed.
An Open Letter To Our Subscribers
We are sorry we cannot respond to every letter that we receive with a reply in the magazine or by letter. Time allows only a fraction of of these responses to occur.
We also wish to apologize for the tardiness of our magazine. We have received letters of complaint and our reply must include the following facts:
- sales are only a fraction of what they were last year at this time. We are not encouraging new subscriptions but offer the remaining future issues to old subscribers whose subscriptions have run out for a pro-rated amount. This is basically our only source of income along with the BOSS software sales, which for the TS computers if fledging.
- our staff has dwindled to a smaller amount, which makes it difficult for us to prepare the magazine. It takes the same effort to write the programs and articles for a base of subscribers of 10,000 or 10.
The remaining issues, should however, be prepared at a faster rate since our expenses for each issue become smaller, due to the smaller base of subscribers.
Please bear with us as we are experiencing the opposite of growing pains. We will continue to try to give you quality programs and articles.
Because we are now developing and selling Commodore 64 disk and cassette (write for free catalog if you have one), we have increased our staff a bit to include people with more programming expertise in both the TS and Commodore lines.
It is still pretty much a one man show, as I am responsible for the developement of the magazine articles and programs. I don’t think there has been too much repetition, except in areas of greater interest – Ed.