European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Shopping for a used pc by Carla Lazzareschi los Angeles times Hile there Are some rules to follow when searching for Tho perfect used computer in the end. The prospective. Buyer much like tha buyer of a used car must operate As much on instinct As cold hard facts and it May be even More gift cull for the compile buyer than i hear buyer because these High tech wonders Don t com equipped with odometers isel reads or other Lel Llali indicators of How much or How hard a machine has been run. Nevertheless,.the potential bargains of a used computer can be alluring. Follow the tips irom the National association of computer dealers in the United slates listed below and then remember unless you gel a warranty it is still buyer beware. Do your Homework. Among the Best sources of information Are the classified and sections of newspapers and computer magazines and services listing prices commanded by used machines compare the used prices to new prices particularly those offered Al special sales. In some cases you might do almost As Well buying a new machine on Sale than buying a used one. New High tech equipment loses 25 percent to 50 percent of is retail value within three months of its initial Purchase. Before making your Purchase work with Tho machine. It usually takes a minimum of an hour for heat related problems in the system to Manifest themselves so allow Al least thai much time Lor your lest run. Your lest should include several Steps. Ii you re buying an ism personal computer or one of its Many clones run one or More of the built in diagnostic lest programs contained in the machine s own operating system. There Are software programs available in computer stores to test the internal Workings of an Apple computer. Ii you have some bring your own software to be sure thai the machine you Are interested in can run it flawlessly. This is especially important i you Are buying an ism compatible. Machine and want to be Able to run software designed for the ism pc. Check the floppy disk drive to be sure you can both read your existing disks and write on hem. Look for evidence of abuse of the machine. Dirt cigarette ashes and dust on the keyboard and disk drive doors should set off warning signals. Those can be signs of Polc Lial problems and at the very least could indicate that the owner might not have been As careful with the machine As you would like. Ask the seller to give you As much of the original Purchase material As he has including the machine s original operating manuals. Vou should also chock to see h the original warranty is still in Elpeet. If it is it often can be transferred to a new owner. Take your time. Don t allow yourself to be rushed into making a decision. Unless you have some sort of Money Back guarantee or warranty on defects which is not usual in used equipment transactions the machine you buy is the machine you gel. Although it is still a disorganized and decentralized operation the used computer business is enjoying Heady times in the United states. Fuelled by a continuing How of naw technology and increasing  among buyers sates of an types of used computers and their accessories Are expected to reach As much As $6 billion this year according to the National  amount $1,8 billion will be spent for personal computers the largest and fastest growing segment of the Market although established resale operations have Long been Iri place Lor the Large mainframe an minicomputers unloading a personal computer is still not an easy proposition for the average individual or Small businessman. Unlike the automobile Industry the personal computer marketplace typically shuns Trade in deals leaving the would be seller to negotiate a Maze of Deal making that typically ends wit the seller placing a classified and. Other alternatives include attending a Swap meet or striking a Deal with a family member coworker or triad. The National association of computer dealers estimates that nearly 70 percent of All used pc sales Are handled by individuals. Of the. Remainder used equipment retailers handle 6 percent and brokers about 5.5 percent. Corporations unloading their own gear account for about 16 percent of the sales usually to heir employees or other companies. As computer Power i by Larry Blasko associated press hang on to your seat Ells. Home computing is about to Enlar it icons. And it the Rush of oncoming technology is anything like the Rush of hormones Home computing is going to see changes Al least As dramatic As puberty and maybe As painful. Figure Tho beginnings of personal computing from 1975, with the introduction of the Altair 8800. To 1977, with Apple and radio Shack. Since the introduction of tha ism pc in 1981. The notion of a personal computer has become commonplace and the very idea of having one no longer draws much attention. Now the locus is what the machines will do. For All the talk from hobbyists who have figured out ways to computerize everything from sundials to switches personal computers Lor most of us do Lour things they process words they count Money they play games they file things. Word processing financial spreadsheets games and Daia bases All existed before personal computers. They were matted typewriters calculators and pencils Board games and filing cabinets. Putting a computer to work on those tasks enhanced them in some ways and made them easier o perform but did t basically change them. A hand calculated spreadsheet is exactly like a computer calculated spreadsheet the difference being Drudgery. The next few years of personal computing May see something different springing from three major and interrelated developments. The tremendous growth of processing Power data storage and handling techniques and interconnect levity May contribute to fundamental changes in Many areas of Ordinary die. Take processing Powe computer to handle Tel Orr Ordinary measurements i the computer performs in number of bits binary Duj Able 1o handle Al once. The last 10 years or so from machines that could 800,000 instruction per s bits Al a time to machine million instructions per so bits at a time. A machine handle Multi tasking Doir a the same time and Cai vary sophisticated so flows it in t stretching thing1 individual can have More Power sitting on a de Klc in entire rooms of comp years ago. A computer on that Leve of running a Small Home to. Basement a terminal for w. Doing a search in a data be even with the Power of Power and production i grouping the chips and h work on a different part o same time. That s called and it s a computer verse make Light  since it s unreasonable growth of computing Pew it in t outlandish to Begler our Homes will replace in Lor Amily members with c just As Central heating Rej room fireplaces of an Earl that processing Power matched by new develop technology of storing one informal Orwid rooms c Only memory Zufle lasers i millions o characters of i pits on the surface of a i into a coat pocket. Hard disk drive by Michael Himowitz Baltimore evening Sun y Friend Bob has been using a pc with iwo floppy disk drives. For a couple of years now. He is a writer and he uses the old version of word Star that came packaged with the computer i can t think of a combination that is More gruesome but Bob did t know any belter and he was Happy until he visited another Friend who had just bought a new system. I did t understand what was going  Bob said. He did t use any disks he just turned on the computer and everything was there he said he had a hard disk and did t need anything else can i gel one of those does it mean i won t need any disks either hold Bob the answers to his questions were yes and sort  in any Case. I told him there is virtually no reason Why anyone who uses a computer Lor serious work today should put himself through the masochistic ritual of dealing with floppy disks regularly to begin at tha beginning i told him there ate a couple of major differences Between floppy disk drives and hard disk drives floppy drives use disks made of flexible plastic coated with Magn encased in a Square Jack Standard ism pc disk a diameter and held about programs or data. Newer 3v Inch disks encased 1r most common of these h bytes of data although 11 models available in ism s hold 1.4 million bytea., a hard disk drive does disks it contains a fixed with a very High density a tha smallest hard disk a hold 20 million bytes old. This kind of mass store disk s major advantages floppy will store Aboul 60 that May seem like a lot frequent revisions to a Tot can fill up a lot of disks. A 20-megabyte hard d contrast can store More words of text the Euh a average novels. On top of that Many o sophisticated programs i require Hall a dozen Flop word processor May Nee Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday Novet