phd11@seq1.keele.ac.uk (Tony McDonald) (11/20/90)
Fellow Mac Users...under attack by PC Luddites...HELP!
We have here at our University a small Mac lab (3 IIci's, 4 SE/30's,
Laserwriter II NT and a CD-ROM player).
It is used quite a bit by students, and they all remark on how easy it is
to use compared to 'other machines' (ie PC's of which the University has
many all over campus).
The problem is that PC Luddites have been mumbling about the cost of these
machines, and the fact that they "can't do anything that a PC or a Sun can do".
Basically, we need ammunition to shoot down these arguments, we already run
some Math software (home-grown) that is written in Hypercard. These programs
demonstrate some of the fundamentals in numerical analysis and calculus
problems initially, but as the lab. becomes more mature, we expect the
number of these programs to grow rather significantly.
The Luddites are growing in voice and need to be shut up...fast.
My basic request is this;
Does anyone have any suggestions for some situations where we can go to the
Luddites and say "The Mac is so far ahead of a PC or Sun for this application
that to make a comparison is futile"
Ok, so that may be a little too much, but you get the general idea.
Remember that this is an academic institution so that educational applications
are preferred.
Please, no flames about the viability of a PC over a Mac in certain
situations (Everyone knows that you pick the best machine for the specific
job in mind - which makes the Luddite mentality even more suspect!).
To start the ball rolling, how about:-
1) Interactive Learning at the students own pace using Hypercard.
2) WYSIWYG word processing
3) Multimedia (oh groan, the 'M' word!)
4) Physical Modelling (I'm talking about a program called Interactive Physics
that I believe was mentioned in the American Journal of Physics - but
I've never seen this program)
5) Other simulation programs
etc. etc. etc.
Thanks for any help you can give
Probably best to e-mail and I'll post a summary
(this should stoke the fires a bit!!)
Tony.
--
Tony McDonald (Tones)
JANET: phd11@uk.ac.kl.seq1
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\_/ BITNET: phd11%uk.ac.kl.seq1@ukacrla544@mindlink.UUCP (Rick McCormack) (11/21/90)
It is hard to speak to the question of PC lLuddites - most of us use whatever computer is to hand, but ina message, Tony MacDonald <719@keele.keele.ac.uk> writes: Does anyone have any suggestions for some situations where we can go to the Luddites and say "The Mac is so far ahead of a PC or Sun for this application that to make a comparison is futile" Ok, so that may be a little too much, but you get the general idea. Remember that this is an academic institution so that educational application s are preferred. **********end quote*********** Tony, you used the "M" word (multimedia) -- that may be one of the real points to make note of. If you can find any applicable CD-ROMs, and set up a simple demo program showing how really easy it is to create a HyperCard stack to access any, some or all of the information thereon, the PC Luddites WILL be impressed. I would suggest that you demo how easy it is to start from scratch with a stack with the Apple CD-ROM extensions installed, and just build a few buttons to go to a relevant area on the disk. Make use of one of the well-designed "browser" stacks - they make finding the relevant stuff easy, and also show Hypercard to advantage. Further, Temple, Barker & Sloane, Inc. produced a published report entitled _THE BENEFITS OF THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE: A REPORT ON NEW PRIMARY RESEARCH_ in April 1990. The report details the benefits especially in the white collar areas, of a GUI over a text (character)-based interface. You should contact Microsoft or Zenith Data Systems about getting a copy of the report. Hope this is of some benefit in repelling the nay-sayers. Luck. ______________________________________________________________ | Rick McCormack | IMAGISTICS BUSINESS THEATRE TECHNOLOGY | | Vancouver, BC | Information transfer - with a purpose. | | CANADA | INTERACTIVE COMPREHENSIVE ENLIGHTENING | _________________|____________________________________________|