well Nancy what kind of a personal computer do you have
uh we still have an old uh Texas Instruments
Professional Computer
back in the days when TI was making uh computers that were similar to in terms of power to the IBM i don't remember what those were the ATs or something like that or
something like that yeah i have one of those too
way back when i don't know where to get any new software for it unfortunately so we just sort of stumble on using
the same stuff that we always have
yeah do you use computers at work or
um well i used to i have a Master's degree in computer science but i haven't i i took a time out on careers about
uh-huh
so do i
six years ago when my first one turned a year old and
i see
so nowadays i'm teaching him at home and we're using the computer to drill him on math and to let him do some
creative writing without having to have uh
uh the mechanics of
handwriting get in the way of his words this way he can
he this way he just has to hunt and peck on the keyboard i have to admit i'd like a
yeah
a more logical
arrangement of the letters and uh
what do they call it the Cortiope or something
something like that
arrangement
oh
do you use your computer for other things balancing checkbooks do you keep budgets and that sort of thing in it or
um
we haven't for
we ended up uh
actually just sort of keeping it in the closet for a number of years isn't that a terrible statement people who are
we're pretty involved with computers in all sorts of other aspects but um
i guess i wanted something that was easier to use than this and that was more intuitive and so we just
it just ended up not not getting used i should use it to balance my checkbook
but then you have to remember to write it down
that's right that's right
well mine mine kind of died so it's being worked on right now
or enter it
oh my
where do you find a place to work on a TI
i found a technician who works at TI
uh-huh
and does things like that in his spare time
well that's nice to know that there are still such people around
oh yeah
yeah
but i most of the stuff i've used that computer for were work related just bringing work home
yeah well i used to do that i'd used it um until
as i say until i took a hiatus hiatus from working i used to
to uh
trying to think of what you call it i i used it essentially as a terminal then
yeah
you know
and
yeah i've done a lot of that
so
and i suspect most people do uh use them as terminals or
have a spreadsheet and a word processor and that's about it
yeah
what else do you need right
well my kids think i should have games
well that's probably true
on top of games on top of games
and of course we don't have any i keep telling them well you know just learn how to program
yeah write your own games right
write your own games yeah i just
the computer i work have at work came with uh Windows software and it has a couple of games on it one of which is a solitaire just
oh
just standard card solitaire
yeah
but the graphics are so incredible and you can choose what you want the deck of cards to look like you know you can have flowers on the back of them or fishes or oh yes or a robot who has a little gauge that moves in his tummy and
oh really
uh
i just i just happened to stumble across that of course i don't play games at work right
no who would do something like that
but uh
yeah we have basically we use the WordStar on it
uh-huh
you know for a bunch of
i'm taking a class now and
um i'm actually getting a degree in nursing at this point and i asked the
and the class i'm taking now all of a sudden they want everything typed till now everything's been handwritten so it was a good thing that the computer was back up and running hooked the printer up to it
that's right
i was going to say you must have a printer then
right right well i couldn't figure out how to it's been a while since i've gotten it going all right so i tried to hook the printer up and i was sure i put all the
uh-huh
connectors in right and everything and had checked to make sure the pins were all facing the right way and i couldn't get the computer to recognize that there was a printer there to save my life and so i was like oh this thing doesn't work and we've lost the
you know we've lost the install software documentation what am i supposed to do so my husband took it in to work
