puck@omsvax.UUCP (12/01/83)
<To the Mysterious Article Chewer: Take this line if you must!> Well, the response to my request for uses for a Timex/ZX computer was (to say the least,) underwhelming. I got exactly one response by mail (thanks, Ray), and none posted to the net. Anyway, his response was pretty much like mine: "I use my zx-81 for collecting dust ..." I would guess that this topic could pertain to any home computer - I just can't come up with a real household use for one. Note that this excludes home business uses, writing software for profit, designing hardware interfaces for profit, or balancing checkbooks. That last is the most ridiculous reason I've ever heard for buying a home computer; I could *never* justify the amount of time it would take to type in the necessary information for each check I wrote, as opposed to sitting down with a $4 calculator and adding up the numbers. How about a budget management program? Would that be worthwhile on the TS/ZX? Is anyone there? C'mon, I know you're out there; I'm not the only who's posted to this newsgroup. If nobody answers, I swear I'll post the question to net.micro! (That'll serve you right!) /\ / \ <puck> \ / \/ Responses to: ogcvax \ microso \ !omsvax!puck uwvax / hplabs /
barnes@mprvaxa (12/08/83)
I don't know about household uses, but my father-in-law uses his for building up hardware control devices at work (he works for an airline). One such application is a smart controller for battery chargers which controls and monitors the charging rate and periodically loads the battery to see if it is holding a charge. He thinks the Timex is a cheap, neat little package for such applications. It saves him from having to implement hard wired logic (gasp!), or put together a circuit with a micro and program it in machine language. A monitor can be connected to the Timex to see what's going on, and programming can be done directly in BASIC (with a little machine language where speed is needed). He had a little trouble with the interfacing at first, but now the thing works beautifully, and as far as I have heard, reliably. He also expanded the memory internally to 2K just by adding another chip inside. What more could a hardware hacker want? Perhaps the above thoughts can be applied to practical electrical control around the home? Mike Barnes Microtel Pacific Research -- Michael Barnes Microtel Pacific Research ..!ubc-vision!mprvaxa!barnes