Msg: 1625 *Conference*
02-22-92 10:50:17
From: LEX JENKINS
To : PETER COHEN
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #1616 (TEMPTATION)
Hi, guys, Pardon me for eavespeeking, but you're on one of my favorite subjects: the "wonderful" world of MS-DOS vs. "obsolete" technology. The gov't agency I work for (nameless, to protect my reputation!) has two 286 desktops. I like 'em fine and use 'em a lot, and recently began use LapDOS II to transfer data from my Model 100 and 102. Then some bozo got the bright idea to go "portable" and bought a couple of Mitsubishi 286 lapsquishers. Ever seen 'em? They weigh about 20 lbs! Recently both hard drives crashed. Now the powers that be have been suckered into the ultimate in "high tech" whizmotronic doodads: they bought 1,500 AST 386 laptops. They're about the size of a 102, a tad heavier, and... they don't work! Several of 'em had cracked battery terminals or motherboards or something and all of 'em were recalled! Then the spiffy new DOS program (developed by the lowest bidder, natch) designed to eliminate redundant paperwork turned out to be unusable. Nobody can figure out how to boot the damn thing and, of course, Unk Sam didn't budget any bucks for training and tech support! Ya just gotta love the new technology! I'll keep using my "obsolete" 100 and 102, thanks. No moving parts, no autoexec.bat files to drive you nuts. Don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to new technology, and I'm quite comfortable with the MS-DOS environment. But, in their pursuit of adding digits to the 286, 386, 486 lineage, the makers and users have made little significant progress toward making the stuff useful to the average Joe. Whew! I feel a lot better now. <Lex>