European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 20 the stars and stripes monday september 12, 1977 Metis it Topay creak " p $ i Aik conditioning Mil a off at warning Balice by Bob Kuesterman associated press or $1,500 you can got a computer system in your Home to water your Lawn control your heating and lighting play games plan menus and keep track of your  of people Are taking up the Home computer Hobby a Hobby that began with computer operators taking their work Home spread to Amateur electronics experimenters and today is reaching the person who s never touched a soldering Iron. Mass production technology and increased demand Are lowering prices creating More demand. The year old Utah computer club has 153 members most with Complete set ups and the rest planning for Home systems said the club s president i Folly Barney. Computers As a Hobby got a boost in february 1975 when the mits Altair computer appeared on the cover of popular electronics she said. Before that Home computers were Home brew put together from scratch by electronics whizzes. Many hobbyists like Inez and Ralph Bullock of Salt Lake City justify their Home computer outlays by using them in their work. Inez does her company s payroll and Falph a financial analyst for the phone company finds it easier to program solutions to his firm s problems in the quiet of his Home. They Are both Amateur radio enthusiasts and Ralph Bullock programmed the computer to Send practice code the dots and dashes at varying speeds. Others use Home computers to turn lights on and off to make an empty House appear occupied regulate Lawn watering according to soil moisture and control heating and air conditioning for saving Energy. Inventory food storage and Canning make shopping lists based on weekly newspaper ads plan menus. Tutor children in spelling and math. Type letters theses checks Christmas lists and Enve Lopes. Play games games and More games As advanced Over the to game As chess is Over tic tac toe. Included Are games in which the computer deals cards accepts bets and keeps track winnings strategy games such As Star trek in which spaceships goes after the klingon with phases and photon torpedoes and graphic games on color television such As football with Green Fields and a crowd. Here s what s needed for the Complete set up i the processor unit the thing that takes data an does something to it the heart of the computer. About $700 and up. 2 memory. The Basic unit of information is a switch that is either on or off. It is called a  eight bits make a  there Are 256 combinations of eight switches which could stand for All the numerals letter Sand typewriter commands plus other data. About 1,000 Inez Bullock slips a disk into drive unit As husband Ralph checks program of Home computer. Bytes make one a and 8k makes an average beginning memory. Memory now costs about $300 per 8k. 3 some Way to program the computer Tell it what Todo. The simplest Way is with toggle switches and lights on the front panel of the computer. That requires every bit be programmed separately a lengthy but Inex pensive process. An easier Way is with a $60 typewriter like keyboard plugged into a $150 television Monitor or the Standard Home to and a $200 video interface the thing that connects the computer to the to. With that kind of set up the hobbyist can program quickly. But to change programs it s necessary to Start from Stratch each time. 4 a $65 interface connects the computer with a tap recorder and now programs can be stored on Cas settes. It s convenient to buy programs ready made. That simplifies telling the computer what to do. The machinery is called hardware the programs soft Ware. Add about $100 for software and you have the com plete computer set up. Most hobbyists expand mainly by adding memory. One Way is with floppy disks which look like 45 rpm records and Are inserted into a tap deck Type machine. A mini floppy system costs about $800 and holds 90k. There is easier Access to a particular program on a floppy disk than there is on a cassette tape. Then there Are the refinements an interface to control electrical switches in the Home costs $125. Printers to put on paper what s on the to screen cost$600 and up. Voice synthesizers experimental and limited allow the hobbyist to instruct the computer by speaking to it. There also Are music generators and graphics Genera tors. Dee Justesen owner of the computer room in Salt Lake City says the average hobbyist starts with about a$1,000 investment and builds to about $2,200. Said hobbyist Bullock it will be the Amateur As it was with radio at the beginning of the Century who will discover the Many uses for the Home  by Erma Bombeck at wits end my neighbor Wanda weird was complaining to me the other Day about her son. That kid is going to drive me crazy she said. Ever time i turn around he wants to be paid for what he does. Do you know what he had the nerve to give me last Mother s Day he gave me a Chintzy Little plaque made out of Library paste and tooth picks that he made  i think that s rather Sweet i  a 19-year-old boy i know How Wanda feels. Our son s Middle name is do i have to use my own Money some years ago in a burst of parental insanity we initiated the allowance system at our House. We thought it would be an incentive to do a Good Job instill a firsthand working knowledge of How our free Enterprise system works and give him a feeling of financial Independence. We did t know then he was saving up for a Down payment to buy Nevada. What do we get for our $2 a week we get the table cleared whether we Are still eating or not. I have had my Coffee cup snatched from my Mouth while my lip were still blistering. We get a decision maker who decide that the remains of a $6 sirloin should be tossed Down the disposer while a peach seed floating in a bowl of syrup should be saved in the refrigerator. We get a garbage Hustler whose open lid policy has attracted dogs who have taken buses to get to our garbage can smorgasbord each night. Every week his Money goes into the Bank giving life to a new adage it is better to receive than to  whether it s gum a movie a poster a record there is always the perennial do i have to use my own Money yesterday we stopped in front of an ice Cream parlor and i could just anticipate his next question. So i said to him i do not think you realize that it costs parents $147,154 to raise just one child. That includes education health expenses clothes housing food and the potential salary of a Mother who might have worked but stayed at Home to raise the child. There is some sacrifice involved. Of course we would t have it any other Way. But think about it. Imagine that in a lifetime your father and i will have coughed up $147,154 on  he was silent for a moment then got out of the car and went in for thrice Cream. When he returned he handed me a Cone and said i Only got one dip each for us. I did t think you could afford two  c Field enterprises. Inc