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)
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