okay so uh do you own a PC
um no not personally but yes uh-huh yeah several
but you have one at work
okay and now because um see i'm doing my uh Master's in Computer Science and Computer Engineering
uh-huh
and um and i don't i don't have one but i have to use them like during especially during my undergrad
right
uh-huh
you you use um like your first couple of years you use personal computers because uh you know the software you know like it's easier for you to go and run a program you know through the disk
uh-huh
uh-huh
because um the grader can do it at home then as the you know as you go up higher like in your senior level you're doing projects which are are so big and you have to have so many people sharing the same data
yeah
um-hum
that you can't use personal computers so you have to use you know a main frame
right right yeah i know i uh i do have a uh you know a computer at home but it's one that the company has loaned me and that that's been my situation is that uh that way i can get in access our um
oh okay
um computers that i have up here and you know do work from home
but does it have uh like a disk drive
oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
oh okay because uh the ones that we use you you know are like Unix base systems and so they don't have a disk drive you know so you can't you you the only way that you can do it is through a modem
right uh-huh
right
right
and you you know you just
do it that way but that's uh that's the only way that you can get to through to the system you can't store it anywhere
yeah
right yeah no i um i i have both because that that's what i use all the time is Unix systems um versus the DOS but then i teach DOS classes uh at night uh-huh part time so
oh okay
and then you also have to do all your grading on the PC
well that that's the really neat thing i teach in the continuing education classes so i don't uh i don't have to have grade any grades no grade books so that's great
oh okay
okay
but uh no i find that i use the the personal computer a lot though for my WordPerfect and um also for my spread sheets um so i think it's extremely helpful and very useful
yeah
well uh for us it's uh uh you know it's like for doing like you know like resumes
uh-huh
and presentations we use like for example a Macintosh which is a lot easier for graphics than the PC than you know the IBM PC's or anything compatible with that
um-hum
yeah
right
due due to the fact that well you know i i haven't tested the the PS two yet but i don't know if the software is as easily you know like you can manage it a lot easier than than the old one the old one you had to go pick a line
um-hum
right
use little arrows to go onto the screen and check where you wanted to start and where you know with the mouse you do it you know like a hundred times faster
right
that's true that's true
and uh you also get you know when you see it on the Macintosh with you know the one i have that doesn't have any color you can look at it and that's the way it's going to print out
uh-huh
and especially if you have a laser printer it's going to print out the same way as it's on the screen
oh um-hum
and so
with you know with the IBM what would happen is uh since the software that i had was it was basically you know you only see part of the page
um-hum
and so the whole page you you never can actually see it you just draw it and they have to zoom out and zoom in and you know it's like every time that you have to do something is it's really a pain
oh um-hum
what a hassle yeah yeah
and also you know it's like for for presentations it's like if you have to do any statistical data it can be easily represented on a on a PC it can be easily represented on a on a PC you know like years back when you didn't have that you would have to map out all this all these numbers
um-hum
yeah
and get a graph which you weren't sure if it was okay or not you know but with a with a new system i can calculate everything so fast you know like for spread sheets
right yeah
um-hum
right right
you can see what the trend is over the years
yeah and i love all the windows that they have out now too they have really simplified things
yeah that
that i i had a i had a program due and uh one one window i had the program and the other one i had the program running so if there was ever a mistake i could easily check you know i could look at the program and say this is where i made the error
right right
right
instead of saying where did i make the error you know go back and forth and and you know you always you know the old ones you had to go out of your program load up um
uh-huh
uh well load up the program again in this case after you load it up change it hope that's right
um-hum
get out of that run the program run uh uh as long as it took and then go back and see if that worked or not but with windows you can have the program and say it messed up in line fifty four
yes
yes
yeah
yeah
so you take a look at line fifty four you take a look at the output at the same time
and you can see that where it messed up because you know it's like in the old computers the ones that uh we're using here a couple of years ago you would always have to have a printout
um-hum
every time that you ran your program you would need a printout because everything else was erased in the background
yeah
right right yeah i know i uh i remember my college days and having to do that too
did
did you learn it in computer science
oh yeah uh-huh i sure did
and when was this
uh i graduated in eighty six
oh okay
yeah so it's been fairly recent
yeah i know because uh all i know is that when i came here in eighty seven
they still had uh it was the last year to to put all your punch cards in
the cards
ah dear i didn't have to bother with that at all thank goodness yeah
so yeah no but it it was just sensational because i walked in and they go oh my God they're still using this it was like this is the last year you can put your punch cards in and get your program out and you know
yes
wow wow
you can get a hard copy of it and that's about it
uh-huh wow
so but i mean the price of computers has gone down they said that um if the auto industry would have kept the same trend as the computer industry has ever since you know it started
uh-huh
they said that uh cars would cost two dollars and they would run forever
oh that would be great
so i mean it's like you know the the joke with the Yugo you know it's like yeah you you know like when your uh car runs out of gas just throw it away
uh-huh uh-huh
and that that that's the way it would be you know it's like
wow
yeah i think i'll buy a new car today you know so yeah but i mean the price has really gone down i mean IBM which um
an IBM PC in like in nineteen eighty one it would cost you five thousand dollars
oh sure oh sure
and now you can get it you know like for one thousand dollars because uh you know because of the parts basically you know what
right yeah and the two eighty six too so yeah
yeah
the the parts and the labor is what they're charging you they're not charging you you know over pricing it because it's like if we sell it for less you know it's like we're losing money you know it's like we want to sell it to break even at least
um-hum
right
um-hum
and i think they stopped producing the IBM PC
um-hum
and uh and the uh PC Junior was a total failure
oh yeah
to them they had uh they're trying to get out small computers but the only problem was that when they took that one out the small computer was the IBM PC
and so you couldn't you know it's like sure bring out into the market something that's smaller when nobody nobody uses anything that's smaller than you know this you know and so
yeah oh
but over the past years IBM has been producing uh like every two years they bring out a whole new system you know like the P C B X T D A T and the PS one PS two things you know and so
um-hum
it's just that you have to always compete and uh Macintosh took a lot of the market from a lot of schools
yeah
because of of their you know you can work with it a lot easier
yeah that's true
so that's what they're trying to do oh well
well
i'll leave you back to your work and uh have a good lunch all right bye bye
okay
thanks bye
