Page 1

Summer 1992 Volume 4 No. 4

"The long memory is the most radical idea in America."

Clara Sparks; From album "Don't Mourn-Organize: Songs of Labor

songwriter Joe Hill."

The Impact of the Computer on Society: Two Views

Current Problems

I just finished reading the

Amateur Computerist (vol. 4 no.

2-3) and I am going to be the

devil's advocate with regard to

your theory about forcing high

wages to encourage automation and

result in labor reaping the bene-

fits of cost saving. It is an

interesting theory but I see the

need for much related discussed

of how it could be implemented. I

can foresee many problems in ap-

plying this theory. The major one

being how can you force industry

to pay high wages? Currently un-

ions are on the wane due to the

Internationalization of Industry

and their ability to move plants

and to transfer jobs any place in

the world. The experiences of

Greyhound and Caterpillar re-

flects the realities of our cur-

rent situation. The introduction

(Continued on page 2)

Table of Contents

Impact of the Computer on

Society: Two Views ... 1

Electronic Mail ...... 4

Letters to the Editor ... 6

Desktop Publishing ..... 8

Computers for People: History 9

TRY THIS: (Programs) ... 11

From the Shop Floor .... 12

America and the Dollar .. 19

Problem Corner ...... 20

Interview with Staff Member 21

The Future

If I should discuss "the fu-

ture", I would take, not a 10-20

year perspective, but a 200 year

perspective. I would ask myself:

What is the real LONG RANGE trend

in the economy, and what sort of

real LONG RANGE target is made

possible by that? Having decided

on a 200 year perspective, I

would use that projection as a

premise for the course I would

want society to follow in the

more near future (0-10 years).

What then is the fundamental

trend in the economy, seen from

the perspective of 200 years? The

answer is of course trivial: An

immense increase in productivity.

And I will say: We have just seen

the start of this, what with au-

tomated manufacturing, process

control, expert systems, and in

the not-so-near-future, Artifi-

cial Intelligence. I disagree

with environmentalists saying

that increased productivity is

impossible because of environmen-

tal constraints. I agree with

their mental alarm about the con-

straints, but I think that auto-

mation, robots, and so on will

make us a better society for all,

at the same time REDUCING the

strain on the environment.

Now comes the next point,

which is not trivial at all: What

sort of society should we strive

for in the light of the enormous

technological potential that a

Page 2

lot of us agree on?

Here is my scenario: A society

where a small percentage of the

population oversee automatic pro-

cesses in administration, manu-

facturing and commerce. The in-

dustry will be running nearly

without human work-hours. So what

do the other 95% do? Before I

answer that question, some

thoughts about "the meaning of

life". Why do we need industry?

Is it an end in itself? (Listen-

ing to politicians and industri-

alists in the media, one is led

to believe that.)

In my view, industry is only a

means TO GIVE PEOPLE MORE TIME

FOR WHAT THEY REALLY WOULD LIKE

TO DO. The remaining 95% of the

workforce in my future society

would have the following jobs:

- Kindergarten teachers and

nurses, 2 adults per 5 children

- Teachers, in classes with less

than 10 children in each class

- Sailplane instructors, scuba-

diving instructors, football

trainers,

- Teaching kids mountain-climbing

- Rearing horses

- Drama instructors, singing in-

structors, actors, singers, musi-

cians, painters, etc.

- Health personnel, one doctor

per 50 persons. Free hospitaliza-

tion for everybody.

- Researchers in anything from

flowers to chess to astronomy to

historical masks of the South

American Indians. A very big part

of the population in university-

level education and research. -

ecologically sound agriculture

and animal husbandry, which, by

the way, may be MORE labor-inten-

sive than today's industrialized

attack on the environment.

- Ecological managing and re-

building of the world. Reforesta-

tion is one important example.

OK, you can see where I'm go-

ing. And I would also stress:

Mandatory work-hours in this so-

ciety are in the range of 2 - 4

hours, if they are mandatory at

all. But people will be on the

job a lot more, because they will

LIKE what they are doing. No

problem.

This far future scenario has

the following consequences for

shorter-term policies:

- Automation is a good thing

- Higher wages which lead to more

automation is a good thing

- Shorter work hours accompanied

by job-sharing is a good thing.

- Less people in industry and

more people in education/health

care/culture is a good thing.

- More people employed taking

care of other people - and this

cannot and should not be "automa-

tized" - is a good thing. In

countries with a publicly

financed health care and educa-

tion, like my own country, this

means the public sector taking a

BIGGER piece of the GNP. This, in

my view, is a sign of an advanced

society, and I therefore find the

persistent wailing from industry,

finance and the political right

against growth in the public sec-

tor totally reactionary and lack-

ing any long term perspective.

Trond Andresen

[email protected]

Trondheim, Norway

( Problems, from front page )

of the computer has encouraged

companies to eliminate mid man-

agement and has helped industries

to cut cost of operation. How has

this benefitted either labor or

the consumer? It appears that all

mid managers are being effected

either through loss of jobs, in-

security and eventually those

left working will probably get

lower pay. I would guess that it

will also effect the pay of all

labor.

I would suggest that your

newsletter might be more meaning-

ful if you would encourage dis-

cussions on all aspects of our

current problems. The history of

the Sit-downers is interesting

from a historical perspective,

Page 3

but it's important to us only if

we can learn from this experi-

ence. The situation today is much

different from the days of the

Sit-downers. I suspect that there

is not much that can be applied.

The other point that you keep

projecting is that workers should

be computer literate to make au-

tomation practical. This is a

real controversial proposal. The

attitude of industry is to keep

workers away from touching com-

puter programs and/or repairing

machinery. Most companies employ

specialists to do programming or

to repair machinery and they

(try) to discourage all others

from becoming involved. When I

worked in Europe I saw the re-

sults of allowing GI's to mess

with computer programs, as it was

often a disaster. It is my belief

that this too needs to be dis-

cussed in depth. I believe that

workers should be encouraged to

upgrade their skills for promo-

tions. I believe that only a lim-

ited number of workers have the

education or motivation to learn

computer skills.

Further your comparison of the

Computer Revolution with the In-

dustrial Revolution needs much

further analysis. At the time of

the Industrial Revolution the

standard of living was so low

that it could not drop further.

Our current standard of living

based upon historical standards

is probably the highest in his-

tory. The computer revolution

could cause our standard of liv-

ing to drop drastically. It is my

belief that any theory regarding

our future direction has to be

explored in great depth. People

tend to be very dogmatic in their

approaches and often ignore real-

ity. An excellent example of this

approach is Socialism. It is the-

oretically a better system but

from a practical standpoint it

hasn't worked. It failed because

no realistic analysis was made of

human greed and no allowances

were made to take care of this

problem.

It is my feeling that if you

really want a newsletter that is

different, encourage the in depth

exploration of the effects of the

Computer Revolution on man. We

can already see some of its ef-

fects on man but many more are to

come. An analysis of anticipated

effects are certainly in order,

and what is more important is

that we speculate on how we could

effectively have people apply

pressure so that the computer is

used beneficially. I don't know

of any organized group who are

actively looking into these prob-

lems, other than the people whom

have a direct economic interest

in exploiting the computer.

You can say that I am de-

pressed about people, but a bett-

er word is cynical. From what I

can see most people are not in-

terested in anything but their

immediate self. They only get

excited when encouraged by the

newspapers and/or TV. Look at all

the noise about Congress bouncing

checks. This is only the tip of

the iceberg and is relatively

unimportant when compared to some

of the other things that our rep-

resentatives have been doing.

Traveling around the World at

Taxpayers expense, the Saving

Bank scandals, the unfair tax

bills, etc. Almost nobody gets

excited about these. I suspect

that Bush may even be reelected,

in spite of the miserable state

of our economy.

I know that there are people

interested in doing something

about improving our current situ-

ation, but these are in the mi-

nority. What we lack along with

more interested people is a clear

analysis of our problems and

leadership to direct solutions.

My analysis of the basic rea-

son for the collapse of the So-

viet Union is Corruption. The

people that started the Soviet

Union were idealists. They ini-

tially accomplished much in that

they introduced education, medi-

Page 4

cal support system and an initial

improvement in the Standard of

Living. But even from the begin-

ning the opportunists took over.

They became the factory manager,

government official, party mem-

ber, army officer, etc. Once in

power, most made every effort to

maintain their positions, bring-

ing in friends, family and shun-

ning people with ability and in-

tegrity. This caused the eventual

collapse of the system. We have

exactly the same problems in this

country except for a minimal

check and balance system. When a

company starts to lose money they

sometimes replace management and

another check is the high level

fights among the power giants.

Oil companies want high oil

prices whereas the airline,

trucking and chemical industries

want low oil prices.

With respect to Windows, I

find it a mess to use. I have

been playing with it but I find

it difficult to learn. It is

slow, erratic and the manuals and

help menus are difficult to un-

derstand. The other reason I have

been playing with Windows is I

have been getting some of the

latest software for Windows. I

have MS Word, MS Works, Intermis-

sion and many others. Also I re-

cently installed Stacker which

doubled the capacity of my hard

disk. I find this program great.

I need Windows to use this new

software.

If you care to publish any of

my comments you may. I believe

that you can easily extract them

from this letter. Hopefully it

might generate some discussion,

although I don't feel too opti-

mistic. The last letter of mine

which you published regarding the

effect of the computer on man

apparently didn't generate any

discussion.

Dave Pollack

Sun City, ARIZONA

Electronic Mail

From: [email protected]

Subject: History

Yes, I'm always interested in

articles referring to the history

of PCs. I'd greatly appreciate it

if you could send me some copies.

Also, the history of the Amateur

Computerist is of interest to me,

as I often find myself countering

ideas of technological determin-

ism. The Russians I deal with

seem to feel that IBM waved its

magic wand and created the per-

sonal computer!

Someone is putting together a

multimedia history of the PC, and

I'll refer him to you.

I've certainly heard of Cleve-

land Freenet, in my position with

the Community Memory Project. I

believe that we've developed the

next generation of public-access

bulletin board, which has been in

service at ten public locations

in Berkeley since 1989. We have-

n't done much publicity, but that

will soon change.

Lee Felsenstein

California

From: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Computers vs Factory

Closures: 4 Years of the Amateur

Computerist

Great Stuff!

Makes a refreshing change to

read the classical POSITIVE stand

demanding more high-tech and

blaming the capitalists for pre-

ferring low wage speedup pol-

icies! It's SO sickening reading

the usual garbage about how auto-

mation costs jobs and we should

all work harder for longer hours

to produce less just so that a

system based on "jobs" can sur-

vive (and to preserve nature in-

stead of conquering it of

course...)

An old friend of mine who is

"almost" on the net used to be an

auto worker so I'm passing your

stuff on.

Albert Langer

Australia

Page 5

From: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Computers vs Factory

Closures: 4 Years of the Amateur

Computerist

Thanks for the complete issue.

I just read it and really enjoyed

it. I like the mixture - and es-

pecially the re-capturing of the

"radical subversive" history of

personal computing. Looking for-

ward to future issues.

Albert Langer

Australia

From: Lee Hauser

Got the Amateur Computerist

loud and clear. I'm impressed!

Especially the history of the

newsletter. You may know that we

out here in Washington State are

a bit addled when it comes to

labor causes – we haven't been

called the "Soviet of Washington"

back in the '30s for nothing.

Though I'm not personally a union

type, the reasons for the found-

ing of your newsletter warmed my

heart.

Anyway, back to work, thanks

for the newsletter, and I'll type

at you soon!

Lee Hauser

Washington

From: "More Puzzled"

- 'Cause I'm Still Learning

Subject:Re: The Rest Of The Story

Now before I write anything

else I would like to say that I

was very sorry to hear about Mr.

Floyd Hoke-Miller. I personally

did not know the man but I have a

suspicion that I am for the les-

sor for not having met him. As

selfish as this may sound, who

knows what I might have learned

if I had met him. Anyone that was

a member of the "Wobblies" and

the "famous/infamous sit-down

strike – 1937", no matter what

their point of view, is worth

talking to. If I were a journal-

ist I would have paid to inter-

view him. If there weren't people

like him all the workers might be

in slave camps today.

Before I forget this I should

have mentioned this comment in my

last message. In reading how the

Amateur Computerist was founded

and all of you ( the initiators )

should pat your self on the back.

It can be very tough to get some-

thing like this off the ground,

let alone sustain it for four

years. And I was not surprised

that Ford played games with the

educational future of the work-

ers. I'm not familiar with them

but hopefully they have taken a

different approach these days.

More Puzzled

Ohio

From: [email protected]

Subject: Ford/Amateur Computerist

I'm working on a book called

The Age of Heretics, a history of

efforts to change corporations

for the better over the past 20

years. I saw your note about the

effort by workers to make Ford

put in more computers, not less,

and I'm fascinated. I saw some-

thing similar in the early 1980s

regarding robots.

You offered to reply about

obtaining a copy. How can I ob-

tain one?

Many thanks for your consider-

ation.

Art Kleiner

Ohio

From: [email protected]

Subject: Ford/Amateur Computerist

Thank you. I haven't yet down-

loaded the E-mail – will do so

when I log on with a non-Telnet

access method. I look forward to

it. Book is probably a year or so

away from completion. Its scope

is big.

Re: robots, I noticed when

visiting a Ford plant in early

1980s that the shop floor people

felt much more benevolently about

the robots than a casual visitor

(or at least THIS casual visitor)

expected.

Art Kleiner

Ohio

Page 6

From: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Help with Placing

Amateur Computerist in FTP Site

Sorry for the delayed re-

sponse, I was out of town for a

few days. I am still interested

in putting your newsletter in our

collection. Please send me the

ASCII and WordPerfect files for

the issue that you currently

have. Or if they are presently on

an FTP server, please tell me

where to get them from. We'll put

them in our FTP server at

world.std.com under the subdirec-

tory OBI for Online Book Initia-

tive.

As you get the back issues

online, please send them too.

We'd certainly like to have a

complete set. Let me know if you

need any further assistance.

Mary Riendeau

Software Tool & Die

- Purveyors to the Trade

The World-Public Access UNIX

(617)739-0202

Letters to the Editor

(Editor's Note: We want to thank

Eric Lindsay, Editor of : Periph-

eral, for helping us to track

down information about the

Educ-8, the Australian general

purpose stored-program computer

for home construction which was

announced and detailed in a se-

ries of articles in the magazine

Electronics Australia from August

1974 to August 1975. Not only did

Eric's request for information

lead to this interesting letter

from Peter Gargano, but also Eric

sent us a copy of the original

first edition 1975 handbook for

constructing the Educ-8 (by

Jamieson Rowe). A special thanks

to Eric and to Robert Bruce

Kay-Sewall (who provided Eric

with the manual) and to Peter

Garano for sending us the follow-

ing letter.)

Regarding the EDUC-8 (pro-

nounced "educate") reference by

Eric Lindsay in the Feb 92

:Peripheral, I have a soft cover

handbook called "EDUC-8 An educa-

tional microcomputer system for

the home constructor and college

student" by Jamieson Rowe. My

copy is the second edition (1976)

and the first edition was in

1975. Over 11,000 copies of the

first edition handbook were sold.

The current address of the

editor of Electronics Australia

(Jim Rowe) is - Federal Publish-

ing Company, PO Box 199, Alexan-

dria NSW 2015, Australia.

The contents of the handbook

(80 pages) were originally pub-

lished in Electronics Australia

during the period August 1974 to

August 1975. The preface states:

“..the project started out as a

purely personal challenge to de-

sign a small general-purpose dig-

ital computer "from scratch".

Cost consideration were thus

quite important in the original

design phase...”

Jim goes on to say he was able

to take advantage of the rapidly

falling price of memory chips

“...by redesigning the memory

section from 32-word capacity to

a much more satisfying 256

words.”

Page 7 has a STOP PRESS indi-

cating they received a July

(1974) copy of Radio-Electronics.

They had the following to say:

“...Our design is not the first,

then, as it transpires - we were

beaten by a few weeks!”

Regarding the specifications

of the unit: “...Almost all pro-

cessing is performed serially at

approximately 500kHz and 2Hz

(test mode). Instruction cycle

times are constant at approxi-

mately 96 microseconds and 24

seconds respectively..." (that's

about .01 MIP flat out)

The unit had a PC (Program

Counter), AC (Accumulator), MA

(Memory Address register), MB

(Memory Buffer register) and IR

(Instruction register). The front

Page 7

panel provided access to these

registers and memory. Power con-

sumption of the basic unit was 15

watts. The PCBs were single sided

with a considerable number of

links on the component side.

After describing construction

the later chapters introduce in-

terfacing the EDUC-8 to punched

paper tape, a Philips 60SR print-

er, a full ASCII-type input key-

board, teleprinters and even mag-

netic tape.

I have seen one of these units

(briefly and a few years ago now)

and if I ever see one again I'll

negotiate with the owner. The

first micro I ever made was also

described in Electronics Austra-

lia some time between August 1976

and August 1977. This was the

Mini Scamp, a 256 byte machine (2

x 2112) based on the National

SC/MP.

Other Australian micros...

Some time later a self con-

tained computer with integral

video, keyboard, power supply and

speaker was designed around the

Z80 and described in another Aus-

tralian magazine Electronics To-

day International. This computer,

the MicroBee (not to be confused

with a terminal of the same name

made by BeeHive in the US) became

a hit all over Australia and was

even exported to Sweden where

their education department made a

large purchase. I even became

involved with manufacturing a

small expansion board for the

MicroBee with 256KB RAM (a mas-

sive amount in the early 1980s),

a disk controller and Z80 PIO and

CTC.

Australia was one of the first

manufacturers of a notebook com-

puter with a flip top 8 or 12

line LCD screen based on the

Intel 186 and running MS-DOS.

This computer, originally called

the DULMONT MAGNUM was later re-

packaged for export as the

Kookaburra (also an Australian

bird related to the Kingfisher

family). I tried to buy one last

weekend at a trash-and-treasure

market for $20 but the seller

(who obviously didn't know the

units real value) wanted $80!

Looking through another maga-

zine I noticed another article by

Jim Rowe that claims “...As far

as we know this project is a

world first-the first electronics

construction project based on a

dedicated microcomputer.” The

article describes an ASCII-Baudot

translator using an SC/MP evalua-

tion kit. It appears the original

article was in Electronics Aus-

tralia of October 1976 but it may

have been earlier. Does this rate

as a world first?

If you are interested I can

dredge up more facts on Austra-

lian micros and if you really

want I could get you a copy of

the EDUC-8 handbook. It is a

newsprint style, stapled publica-

tion with advertisements. on the

back and inside covers. It is

copyrighted and "may not be re-

produced in whole or in part (..)

without written permission from

the editor-in-chief of the editor

of Electronics Australia". I'm

currently working with small com-

pany that is manufacturing a

386SX based PC that fits into the

palm of your hand and is designed

to be part of a multi purpose

laser ranging system. I don't

have an e-mail address but I'd

like to hear whether this info

has been of any use.

Peter Gargano.

Aranda, Australia

(Editor's Note: The 1975 manual -

i.e. the first edition - con-

tained reprints of the articles

that had been published from Au-

gust 1974-August 1975. The first

article describing the Educ-8

appears to have been printed in

the August 1974 issue of

Electronics Australia. This issue

contains the following note that

Peter referred to above:

"STOP PRESS Just as this is-

sue was going to press an advance

copy of the July issue of the US

magazine Radio-Electronics reach-

Page 8

ed us. In it they give details of

Mark-8, a minicomputer based

around the Intel 8008 micropro-

cessor IC and 11101 memory ICs.

Our design is not the first,

then, as it transpires – we were

beaten by a few weeks! Ah well,

such is life. Still, readers will

now have a choice of two differ-

ent computer designs, each with

rather different emphasis."

(from Educ-8 by Jamieson Rowe,

First Edition 1975)

(The :Peripheral is available

from Eric Lindsay, 6 Hillcrest

Avenue, Faulconbridge, NSW, 2776,

Australia. Electronic mail ad-

dress: [email protected]

If any reader has a copy of

the July 1974 article printed in

Radio Electronics describing the

Mark-8 computer, we would appre-

ciate seeing a copy.)

Suggestion on Desktop Publishing

Thanks for your letter of Feb-

ruary 23rd. Sure, I'd be happy to

help you out with some sug-

gestions on desktop publishing

the Amateur Computerist. Just

keep in mind that I'm not an art-

ist, so don't expect miracles.

(You'll probably have better

ideas than I will!)

As to software, I really like

Ventura Publisher, but it is a

bit steep in price. There are

actually some much cheaper ways

to get output that is almost as

good.

If you are starting from

scratch, you may find something

like Publish It! (watch your pro-

nunciation) a lot cheaper and

almost as good. I originally

started with a few other programs

like Fontasy and First Publisher,

but they were a disappointment.

Publish It! would have worked out

quite well, except that I needed

the ability to handle equations

and really long files; that's why

I move to Ventura at $800 (at

that time) instead of Publish It!

at $100.

These days, of course, there

is a lot of other software that

will do an almost-desktop-pub-

lishing job, like WordPerfect or

Word for Windows.

As to a printer, again, if you

are starting from scratch, a 4

page-per-minute printer like an

HP IIIP or an Oki or equivalent

is nice, but an even cheaper way

may be a DeskJet from HP (I just

don't remember offhand whether

Publish It! supports it, but if

not, then something else will).

Its output is almost as good as a

laser printer, though slower

(about 1-2 pages per minute); but

that's not really accurate. Laser

printers slow down a lot on

graphics or when the software or

computer driving them is slow, so

the final speed may be more or

less the same. Ink Jet printers

like the DeskJet also have the

disadvantage that the ink is wa-

ter soluble (though the newer

DeskJet ink cartridges are better

than the old ones in that

respect). Which means you would-

n't want to print envelopes in

it. But if you're going to make

more copies on a copier anyway,

that may not be a problem.

As to your other questions, I

don't have ready access to Inter-

net, so your e-mail address won't

help much, though I guess I could

reach you through CompuServe. I

run a BBS here, but I doubt you

want to call to New York.

And yes, I'm the same Peter

Stark who wrote those 68000 arti-

cles for Radio-Electronics. I've

been writing articles for years,

including a series of articles

way back in the days of Kilobaud

Magazine (1977, I think), as well

as a number of amateur radio mag-

azines. If you still have a copy

of the issue that mentioned my R-

E article, I'd appreciate it.

PETER STARKS

Mt. Kisco, New York

Page 9

Once Again

On the Question of Censorship

(Editor’s Note: See “Censorship.”

Vol 4 no 1)

There they were, in all their

black and white glory; those

words that the Morality Censors

had deemed unfit for public view-

ing. "B*******", "a******",

"m***********" and all the others

blared across the page, swagger-

ing in consonant-filled aggres-

sion. Just this once, freedom of

speech had triumphed over the

censors. Their ideas were there

for me, the reader.

I flipped the page, leaving

the entire article unread.

Was this freedom of informa-

tion? Yes – but the free informa-

tion censored the ideas more ef-

fectively than the editor's pol-

icy of using asterisks to suggest

the words.

In spite of all the warnings

to the contrary, we really DO

tend to judge "a book by its

cover". Poorly chosen words, ra-

cial epithets, obscenities, and

outright illiteracy can be more

devastating to an idea than the

hand of an editor. Who wants to

wade through an article full of

misspellings? This leaves the

impression that the writer is so

illiterate that they could have

nothing useful to say to us. Any

message that includes the phrase

"stupid male chauvinist pigs" is

not going to reach any man. Words

like "kike, nigger, wetback,

honky, whore" will only appeal to

those who have an axe to grind

with these groups.

An editor's concern is to pre-

serve and present ideas. A good

choice of words can cause someone

to look at an idea in a more fa-

vorable light. The right words

can cause them to consider an

idea that they might normally

reject.

I feel that the editors made a

call – that the messages there

were more important than the lan-

guage and that the ideas NEEDED

to be seen. They took a standard

editorial policy of substituting

letters in words that many still

find offensive. The words them-

selves added nothing – they were

the same old tired adjectives,

the limp and mindless language of

token aggression.

I think that editors have a

responsibility to the freedom of

information that they cherish.

Correcting spelling, correcting

grammar, and yes even putting

symbols in offensive language are

things that any good editor does

to make the ideas more present-

able to a wide audience.

Are the words more important

than the ideas? In poems and

songs, sense and content can be

ignored for rhyme and meter. But

if the goal is to communicate

ideas, then a little judicious

editorial meddling may not be as

cruel as total freedom of lan-

guage.

Mel White

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

Computers for the People:

A History

Part IV

(Continued from last issue)

The Homebrew Club movement had

a vision. Computer power had to

be put into the hands of the peo-

ple, otherwise, they cautioned,

computers would only be used

against the populace. A coopera-

tive, critical milieu had to be

created to oppose the secrecy and

exclusivity of IBM and the rest

of the computer establishment.

Money wasn't the objective of

these technological revolutionar-

ies. Their objective was to con-

tribute to the society they were

part of. One Homebrew member's

motto expressed the goal: "Let's

stand on each other's shoulders,

not on each others toes." (Paul

Freiberger and Michael Swain,

Fire in the Valley, Berkeley,

1984, p. 178)

Page 10

The Homebrew Club first met in

Gordon French's garage in Palo

Alto. But soon the meetings grew

too large and the club moved to

the Stanford Linear Accelerator

Center. Meetings would attract

500 to 750 people and Lee

Felsenstein, who chaired the

meetings, would encourage ques-

tions and especially the sharing

of information.

The free sharing of informa-

tion was a crucial component of

these important and exciting

days. The free exchange of infor-

mation was a necessity for those

early personal computer pioneers

who were all working in unchart-

ered territory.

The Homebrew club provided a

place where a movement of people

could gather and find the help

they needed to solve the problems

posed by this new technology.

Also, Homebrewers shared their

critiques of new products being

offered to warn each other of

false claims or bugs they encoun-

tered. Homebrew Club meetings

were also a place where the par-

ticipants could share their re-

ports of good products. The cul-

ture developed by the Homebrewers

supported the principle of open

and free exchange of ideas and

information so achievements could

be built on and development could

proceed in a cooperative rather

than proprietary manner. "...In

part due to Lee Felsenstein," the

authors of Fire in the Valley

write, "Homebrew encouraged the

conviction that computers should

be used for and not against peo-

ple." (Ibid., p. 108)

The Club developed a set of

principles that were argued out

at meetings. One principle was

that there should be free dissem-

ination of software code and that

information about the internal

workings of a computer should be

open to everyone. They stood for

open architecture, and public

knowledge of the physical design,

as well as an open operating sys-

tem.

Most established companies,

though, had the opposite view.

Companies like Intel wanted no

standards set unless they were

Intel's own standards, and MITS

tried to hide the specifications

of the architecture of the

Altair. Homebrew set up a stan-

dards subcommittee to deal with

the controversy. Freiberger and

Swaine describe what happened

when the subcommittee met:

"When the subcommittee decided

to formulate standards whether

Intel liked them or not, Intel

acquiesced. This was outrageous

cheek. A bunch of hobbyists...

had simply ignored the biggest

microcomputer company of that

time and had faced the leading

chip manufacturer and not been

struck by lightning." (p. 122)

The authors go on to describe

the process of the battle:

"The committee was attempting

guerrilla design.... Tiny parame-

ters and other features were dic-

tated by the companies. IBM and

DEC worked this way. In their way

their method was certainly easier

than communal design. But the

S-100 committee members dug into

the Roberts' [Altair 8800 archi-

tecture - ed] bus, figured out

how it worked, and were scrapping

it in favor of a new, independent

bus open to all." (Ibid.)

Freiberger and Swaine explain,

"This was a populist revolt

against the tyranny of the big

company, and MITS hoisted as a

poor but adequate symbol of the

big company. The revolution was

succeeding." (p 123)

The Homebrewers had opened up

the architecture of the machine,

but something more was needed to

get the computer to the masses of

the people. People were hungry

for computers but they wanted to

be able to see what they could do

with computers themselves. To do

so, they needed to be able to

write programs, they needed a

version of the BASIC computer

programming language that would

make it possible for people to

Page 11

use their computers for their own

purposes. Kemeny and Kurtz at

Dartmouth had developed the BASIC

programming language for the

Dartmouth Time Sharing System in

the 1960's. BASIC was a language

which was easy for beginners to

use, yet it also made it possible

for more advanced users to uti-

lize the power of the computer.

The version of BASIC created by

Paul Allen and Bill Gates ran on

the Altair, so with their early

personal computer, users had ac-

cess both to their own computer

and to the power a programming

language made possible.

And along with the development

of open architecture and operat-

ing system and a language, an-

other component was needed in the

technological guerrilla war. Cri-

tiques that honestly evaluated

the products being offered were

crucial in the effort to develop

useful and functioning items.

Freiberger and Swaine report of

how this critical attitude was

nourished. In the Spring of 1975,

Lee Felsenstein wrote articles on

the Altair for the Bay Area com-

puter magazine PC. Relying on

information he received from

telephone conversation with Ed

Roberts, he wrote about the

Altair. Readers of the magazine,

however, who bought Altairs found

bugs when trying to use the com-

puter. Their letters complaining

about the problems they encoun-

tered flooded the editors of the

magazine. Freiberger and Swain

describe Lee Felsenstein's re-

sponse, "In a PCC article he ti-

tled `Criticism and Self-Criti-

cism,' Felsenstein then apolo-

gized: `I lied folks; this thing

has problems.' He detailed the

computer's flaws and how to cor-

rect them. He also began fixing

Altairs for friends and PCC read-

ers, working on them in his half

of the garage. Loyal to other

hobbyists and feeling guilty

about misinforming people,

Felsenstein did the work cheaply.

In the process, he learned a

great deal about those early

Altairs." (p 109 Fire)

Also, Ted Nelson's Computer

Lib contained concrete criticism

of IBM's management practices

that were antithetical to the

free flow of ideas needed for

technological development.( See

"The Behemoth IBM", "The Good

News and the Bad News About IBM",

"Quickie History of IBM, and "The

Big Questions" "IBM's Control:

The Virtual Mechanics", etc., pg

52-55 of Computer Lib)

Soon critiques began appearing

evaluating the new products and

criticizing those practices and

products that were dishonest and

harmful to the movement. Adam

Osborne's columns appearing in

Interface Age to begin with and

later in Infoworld indicted com-

panies that misled their custom-

ers. He exposed dishonest prac-

tices such as companies who used

the money from a prematurely an-

nounced product to finance the

production and distribution of

their products. "Silicon Valley,

"write the authors of Fire in the

Valley," was the source of his

information and he called his

column `From the Fountainhead'."

(Ibid., p. 260)

(To be continued next issue)

TRY THIS

Faces

(for IBM)

5 REM Just the Beginning!

7 GOSUB 160

10 PRINT "My name is happy face -

see? :-)"

17 GOSUB 160

20 PRINT "My name is sad face -

see? :-("

27 GOSUB 160

30 PRINT "My name is mad face -

see? :-O"

37 GOSUB 160

40 PRINT"My name is winky face -

see? ;-)"

Page 12

47 GOSUB 160

50 PRINT "My name is small happy

- see? :)"

57 GOSUB 160

60 PRINT "My name is bracket -

see? :-]"

67 GOSUB 160

70 PRINT "My name is cry baby -

see? :~-("

77 GOSUB 160

80 PRINT "My name is weird eye -

see? =-)"

87 GOSUB 160

90 PRINT "My name is small weird

eye =)"

97 GOSUB 160

100 PRINT" happy face

:-)"

107 GOSUB 160

110 PRINT "happy face

:-)"

117 GOSUB 160

150 END

160 FOR X = 1 TO 2500: NEXT X

165 CLS

166 FOR T=1 TO 900: NEXT T

167 LOCATE 15,25

170 RETURN

Magic Square

* The following four lines are the `obfuscated'

* version of the program below. Both versions

* print a magic square of odd size. The size

* must be an odd number, given as the first

* argument on the command line. If no argument

* is given, the size will default to 1. No

* argument checking is further done however.

#if 0 /* Don't let the compiler touch this one ...

main(o,O0)char**O0;{int OO,O;O=--o?atoi(O0[!0]):!

0;for(o=((OO=O*O)-O+!0+!0)>>!0;OO;o+=((--OO%O)?-!

0:((((o-!0)%O)?O:0)+!0))-(((o-!0)%O)?O:0)){printf

("\n%*d "+!!(OO%O),!0<<!0<<!0,o+=(o<!0)?O*O:0);}}

#endif

#include <stdio.h> /* Needed for the printf() func

* Below is the non-obfuscated version

* of the same algorithm.

main(argc, argv)

int argc;

char *argv[];

{

int n = 1; /* Default square size */

int row; /* Loops over square */

int col;

int num; /* Current cell value */

if (argc > 1) /* Argument given? */

n= atoi(argv[1]); /* Grab argument */

num= (n*n-n+2)/2; /* Top left square */

for (row = 1; row <= n; row++) /* For all rows ...

for (col= 1; col <= n; col++) { /* For all

columns */

printf("%d ", num); /* Print current square */

if (col != n) { /* Not on last column? */

if (num%n == 1) /* Subtract one allowed? */

num--;

else /* Next diagonal */

num-= (n+1);

if (num < 1) /* Adjust for wrap around */

num+= n*n;

}

else { /* Last column reached */

num++; /* Adjust for new row */

printf("\n");

}

return 0; /* Just to be conformant */

} /* main */

If you notice carefully, this little thingy

reads

the command line. It wants an odd number as its

single

argument; if not present, this number will

default to

one (1). It prints a magic square of the size

given.

In your case, since you didn't supply it with

argument, it always printed a single `1', which

is an

odd sized magic square by default.

Unless other implementations, this thingy

doesn't need

any storage proportional to the size of the magic

square, i.e. no two dimensional array to store

the magic

square.

The algorithm works as follows:

- the number 1 to n^2 are stored in a square such

that

the sum of the all rows, columns and the two

diagonals

are equal. Simple calculations show that this sum

equals

(n^3+n)/2

- The number in the middle position of the square

equals

(n^2+1)/2

- Therefore the number in the top left position

equals

(n^2+1)/2+(n-1)/2

- Observation of the magic square shows that the

number in a row is one less than the previous,

unless

the previous number was 0 mod n. In this case the

number in the row is n-1 less than the previous

number

mod n.

- the first number in the next row is 1 more than

the

last number in the previous row.

The classical way of constructing an odd sized

magic

Page 13

square is:

- put a one in the last column of the middle row.

- repeat the following steps:

- move one position to the right and one down. If

you

`fall off' the square: wrap around, i.e. consider

the

square as an unfolded torus.

- if the cell is free, put the next number there,

otherwise move one position to the left and put

the

number there

- until all positions are occupied.

My implementation is a variation of the last

method

described above, it simply eliminates the need

for an

array, no more no less. Enjoy!

kind regards,

Jos Horsmeier

Rotterdam, Netherlands

NEWS & VIEWS

From the Shop Floor

I'd Hate to Be a Foreman

by Floyd Hoke-Miller

A foreman I would hate to be

And have the men look down on me

As something short of dignity

Without a conscience, heart or

soul.

When every time I turned my back

There'd always be some dirty

crack

About the scruples that I lack

And never a word to extol.

I don't like words unfit for use,

Nor tongues of scorn that hates

induce

But still there is a sane excuse

When used against some mad

Legree.

Who drives his men at fearful

pace

As if it were a chariot race

And by all odds he'd save his

face

And win the victory.

To aspire, I never can,

To exploit my fellow man

For Mammon's parasitic clan;

That ever lies in Luxury's lap.

That's why I wait to see the day

When none can rise and boastful

say

"I gained my lot the easy way

By shearing the working sap."

COMMENTS FROM A CATERPILLAR

WORKER ON UAW-CAT STRIKE

(Editor's Note: The following

posts were part of an Open Forum

Discussion about the 5 month

strike of UAW members against

Caterpillar Corporation which was

ended when the International Un-

ion ordered workers back to work.

There is a Freenet Computer Bul-

letin in Peoria, Illinois where

workers, managers and other in-

terested people discussed and

debated issues of the strike both

during and after the 5 month

walkout. We are reproducing some

of the comments of a Caterpillar

worker which were part of the

Freenet CAT-UAW Open Forum. The

worker's viewpoint is rarely

heard in the U.S. Lines marked

with ">" are being quoted from

another person's post in the fo-

rum.)

From:

[email protected]

Subject: RESPECT

It has been some time since I

last visited Heartland... I grew

weary of the argument I guess. I

was also disheartened that there

were so few Cat workers available

to comment on our perspective of

this issue.

This August I will have spent

19 years in the factories. I

think the sorriest part of this

entire situation is the distrust

and lack of respect that has

grown over the last decade. Dis-

trust and disrespect do not build

cooperation. I am afraid Cat's

latest antics have buried that

hope for good. I know they have

for me. I could care less if Cat

died tomorrow.

There is no way I can explain

the feelings I had on the picket

line, watching hired security

"people" videotape my moves. I

did NOT feel protected. Receiving

Page 14

propaganda at my home only made

me curious where the money was

coming from for all the postage.

The same with the radio, TV, and

newspaper nonsense. I was not

convinced Cat valued me.

It is my perspective that most

of this conflict has been caused

by Cat's callous treatment of its

employees. There must be more to

any working relationship than

money and benefits. Over the

years I have tried to give the

company full measure for my em-

ployment. I have come forth with

my ideas and seen things improved

because of them. Never again. If

I am but a physical body to be

replaced indiscriminately, than

so be it. I will be the machine

they wish to employ. I have no

ideas of value. I realize the

following analogy is somewhat

crude... but it closely parallels

the feeling of many of Cat's

hourly workers.

A person, man or woman, de-

sires companionship. This person

has a variety of choices, but let

us say basically there are only

two. One can buy companionship or

mutually share it... each bene-

fitting from the other. One can

chose to find a mate, and build a

life around that decision. To

share the good and bad, to trust

and benefit from that trust. Or

one can buy limited companionship

to fulfill immediate needs and

walk away with no ties or respon-

sibility. It is my view that Cat-

erpillar has decided to forgo the

benefit of trust and long term

relationship.

Caterpillar has used myself

and fellow workers as prostitutes

to be discarded. So be it.

Michael Legel

Subject: Install?

>This is a time of change. MUCH

>is happening, hopefully for the

>ultimate good. Much does not

>SEEM good now, however, and this

>perception is widespread. Rest

>assured that upper management is

>aware of this feeling; they

>simply do not know how to

>ameliorate it and yet install

>the changes that they feel must

>be made if we, as a company, are

>to be positioned to compete in

>the future.

I doubt if you are aware of

what this paragraph tells me.

Even in an attempt of perhaps

honest sympathy... you insult the

point I try to make. "upper man-

agement is aware of this feel-

ing... and yet INSTALL THE

CHANGES that THEY feel must be

made"? I guess they are not then

aware of our feelings are they?

Or they are and simply don't

think it important enough to co-

operate. I am NOT livestock, fur-

niture, or machinery and have no

wish to have my changes IN-

STALLED. I was once PART OF the

company. Now, I have been reduced

to a number. A cost. A squiggle

on a graph.

Michael Legel

Subject: Wait?...Hope?

>Nothing happens overnight.

>Change creates pain, yes, but it

>also can create lasting value

>for all of us. This is the time

>of change, and the pain - at

>least some of it - is inevitable

>and is felt by all.

>I can only ask that you remain

>open to perceive the hoped-for

>benefits as they arrive, and

>that you at least retain the

>hope that they will arrive.

>Perhaps we will see ourselves

>wedded as a company again. No

>one wants the "prostitute"

>attitude that you imply is your

>only choice left. I *could* say

>the same, but retain the hope.

Fool me once... shame on

you... Fool me twice?

Not a decade ago Cat insti-

gated a 7 month strike that wiped

me out financially, provided the

Page 15

catalyst to end my first marriage

and ripped my career from me as

callously as the wings from a

fly. After that strike, I was

bumped from pillar to post, from

one shift to another, from one

plant to another. It took nearly

5 years to let bygones be by-

gones... to get on with my life

and hope for a better day.

During the ensuing years I

gave up wages and benefits while

top management continued to in-

crease their percentage of wage

and benefit compared to mine. I

gave up a part of my COLA so that

Cat could retrain all of us poor

souls they uprooted and we got

little or no training. I watched

the working class numbers dwindle

while the white collar work force

remained the same or increased. I

participated in ESP and other

"volunteer" functions for the

betterment of Cat with no further

recompense to myself. I and my

fellow workers endured the cut-

backs and watched some of our

friends leave for good. We made

the sacrifices. We waited. We

hoped. Still, we had no

strikes... the contracts were

settled with little conflict and

that gave us some small hope.

February, 1991, Cat started

the ad campaign humiliating its

hourly employees among their com-

munities, family and friends.

They mailed letters, sometimes 3

a week, each one worded to make

me feel guilty for wanting to

share in Cat's success. Vance

Security showed up with their

riot gear and swaggered about the

facilities in their bloused pants

and combat bats to "protect" us.

Just like they "protected" the

workers of Pittston Coal? Right.

Before I ever hit the picket

line, the small coal of resent-

ment from years past had blazed

into pure hatred for the company

I had once been proud to work at.

The final indignity was the per-

manent replacement issue. Cater-

pillar knowingly used us as pawns

in this ridiculous battle to re-

move the union. By what stretch

of the imagination could they

ever believe I and my fellow

workers would not remember these

indignities for the rest of our

lives. I meant what I said. I

have no regard for Caterpillar.

Michael Legel

Subject: Re: Wait?...Hope?

>You say "Or they are [aware of

>your feelings] and simply don't

>think it important enough to

>cooperate." It is only a

>confusion of thought that could

>cause you, in this country, to

>suggest that the owners

>represented by upper management

>have a duty "to cooperate" with

>you or with me. It is WE who

>have the duty to cooperate with

>THEM if we value our positions.

Interesting concept of the

word "cooperate". Your view man-

dates that management is always

correct by virtue of simply stat-

ing "Make it so." My view is one

where the flow of information and

responsibility move in all direc-

tions... each one advising in

those areas at which they are

most competent and decisions made

Page 16

based upon the collective knowl-

edge of all involved. Your atti-

tude seems to reflect that of the

greater Caterpillar mind-set.

Your employees are simply employ-

ees who have no stake in what

decisions are made. Yet you ran-

kle at our deserved displeasure

in this arrangement. I don't

think it is a "duty" for managers

to cooperate, but it would seem

to be common sense to me. I cer-

tainly don't see what Caterpillar

has gained by the current way of

going about it.

>I am sorry you feel the way you

>do. I can only say that *I* feel

>that you have been sold a bill

>of goods by the union leadership

>which *claims* to represent you

>while, in reality, only

>representing itself and their

>own continuance.

>You certainly have no

>understanding at all of what

>management has suffered during

>these years; a lack of

>understanding that I *know* has

>been fostered by union

>misrepresentations. Based on

>this, I strongly suggest you

>reexamine your thinking as to

>what factors *caused* these two

>long strikes.

An another common thread of PR

sound bites. The Detroit Union

this and the Detroit Union that.

I was not quoting the union, but

my own personal observations over

the course of nearly 2 decades. I

do have a mind and am fully capa-

ble of independent thought pro-

cess. My identity is no more de-

termined by the union I belong to

than the company I work for. I

get rather tired of being told

who is leading me where. I make

my own decisions based upon what

I want in life and what price I

am willing to pay to attain those

wants. I will admit you brought

something to my attention I was

not aware of: The suffering of

management? How many thousand in

the exempt payroll have been in-

definitely laid off?

>You also say that the ad and

>mail campaign made you feel

>guilty for wanting to share in

>Cat's success. How sad. You felt

>guilty for wanting to share what

>was not in being. You easily

>forget: we have been losing

>money. Hardly success.

>Potential, yes; success, no.

My statement was worded ex-

actly as follows:

"They mailed letters, sometimes 3

a week, each one worded to make

me feel guilty for wanting to

share in Cat's success." Do not

construe that the cleverly worded

psycho babble sent to my home

made me feel guilty. I simply

recognized the wording was de-

signed to induce guilt, to con-

vince me I should be utterly

grateful for any tidbit Cat might

deign to throw my way. I notice

you and Caterpillar use the word

WE in an inclusive sense only

when it suits you. If WE aren't

making profits, why don't WE sac-

rifice equally and which side of

the WE made the unprofitable de-

cisions?

Michael Legel

Subject: Training

>For example, you gave up part of

>your COLA. Management gave it

>all up. YOU received little or

>no retraining. Perhaps not, or

>perhaps you did not recognize it

>all. I am in possession of

>sufficient data to know a whole

>lot of it went on. Question: Did

>you remain on the same job all

>of those years, running the same

>machine? You inferred you did

>not. If there was change, SOME

>retraining must have gone on for

>you to become proficient at the

>new one. Each time. Each time,

>SOMEONE took valuable time to

>show you the ropes.

I'm sure you have data that

shows time was charged against

Page 17

accounts for training purposes.

What is not obvious by that data

is the quality and usefulness of

the training. By and large, Cat-

erpillar shop training falls into

one of 3 categories: Hourly em-

ployees training other hourly

employees in the jobs they are

about to leave. Training sessions

purchased along with new equip-

ment from the equipment maker or

retailer. Classroom type instruc-

tion from Caterpillar staff per-

sonnel.

Over the years I have usually

been "trained" by the man I was

replacing. I was allowed at most

two weeks to absorb whatever in-

formation the person was willing

to share with me. If the man was

being promoted, I got a fair

"break in". If he had just been

laid off, I was on my own. He was

not too interested in training

the person taking his job from

him. At best, this type of train-

ing is limited to the skills of

the replaced person and if moves

are made within months of each

other, there are only a few

months skills developed to pass

on. No continuity. No training.

Factory training can be helpful

if the purchased machinery has

not been altered beyond the in-

structors experience. Often times

Caterpillar has need of special-

ized machinery for which there is

no solid experience to train

from. There are even times the

instructor is dubious about what

it is that we are trying to do

with the machine. So, we all

learn together if we learn any-

thing at all. Again, a learning

process; but no "training".

Classroom instruction, by and

large, is useless. The majority

are taught by highly educated

people with lots of book knowl-

edge and little or no actual shop

experience. There is no "hands

on" training and most of us con-

sider it a waste of time. The

other type is the coolant or

tooling "salesman" and these

"training sessions" usually

amount to hour long commercials

rather than actual useful knowl-

edge.

The most important factor to

keep in mind about all of this is

that it is not the trainer who is

responsible for results. It is

the trainee. He is expected to

quickly adapt and start producing

or he risks downgrade. He there-

fore must train himself by exper-

imentation or find a mentor who

will take time from his own du-

ties to help. Unfortunately, man-

agement personnel often don't

even know how to turn the machine

on and are of no help at all.

They just want results. Right-

fully so, as they are not in-

structors either and have been

charged with producing finished

parts. They may sympathize, but

they won't put their neck in a

noose if you have problems. Cat-

erpillar is in desperate need of

an organized, effective training

system with competent personnel

who can provide the continuity

necessary in training new person-

nel or developing new processes.

The present "pass it on down"

system is antiquated and ineffec-

tual with the fast pace of cur-

rent changes. It should not be

the responsibility of the lowest

rung on the ladder to insure ade-

quate training. Especially when

he is contributing monetarily to

the training he expected to

get... and didn't. It was our

belief that Cat intended to im-

prove the system. It has not im-

proved.

Michael Legel

Subject: RE: Training

>NO ONE TRAINED ME! When I did

>get a job, I had to learn

>another new skill set. I

>LEARNED. NO ONE TRAINED ME! Why

>do you people with a high school

>degree and/or a few courses at

>ICC, or an associate's degree,

>think it is your GOD given right

>to be trained at someone else's

>expense? I PAID FOR MY TRAINING

Page 18

>IN $ and IN TIME. You are not

>special because you CHOSE not to

>continue YOUR OWN TRAINING. Stop

>wining, take charge of your own

>life.

The context of the training

issue was in regard to the

worker's agreement to forgo an

amount of hourly wage. This money

was placed in a training fund for

our benefit. We do not expect

something for nothing. Every hour

we work, an amount of money is

put into this fund rather than

into our paycheck. I did not deny

that a certain amount of training

is ongoing, but that it was not

as applicable as it could be. I

was then informed I was not in-

telligent enough to realize when

I was being trained, so I tried

to explain what Caterpillar

training entails. I don't have to

recognize it because I am told on

these occasions so I will charge

my time to the proper timekeeping

account. Again, the workers are

paying a significant amount for

training which they are not sat-

isfied with.

>No one has to train you. If you

>are being paid, it is your

>responsibility to earn your

>wages. Just do it. Act grown up

>and take responsibility for your

>own life.

The theme of your message as-

sumes that anyone can walk up and

run a complex machining center

without training. This is no more

true than if I were to state I

could do your job without train-

ing. If a person chose to attain

this experience independently, I

don't know where it would be

done. Caterpillar is the only

place I know where one can learn

to machine the large and complex

parts of construction

The workers of Caterpillar are

not as ignorant as people think

they are. This stereotype is an

injustice to them. Most are good,

hardworking people who have no

wish to be placed in this spot-

light.

Michael Legel

Subject: Options

I had an incident recently at

work that might highlight my dif-

ference with Caterpillar's view

of "cooperation".

Another worker and I were told

we were to "hand cut clearances"

on some noise abatement panels.

These panels were about the size

of the average card table top and

were made of a plastic and foam

material. We were taken to an

open area in the middle of the

shop where the night shift had

already been cutting on these

panels. There were two fans aimed

at the work table. There was a

fine layer of dust all around the

area. My first question was,

"What is this material". My fore-

man replied he did not know. I

asked him if it was appropriate

that the dust be allowed to con-

taminate the air and was it a

hazard. To his credit he did

agree that we should do the work

under an exhaust fan and directed

us to move to such an area. He

told us to get to work and he

would get answers from the Safety

Dept. I again told him I would

not feel comfortable working with

the material until I knew what it

was I was working with. He became

angry and said, "You know your

options!" I asked him what those

options were and he stated I

could go to work as ordered or go

home. Fortunately, others in the

area convinced him that it was

not right to force us to work

with possibly hazardous material

without the proper precautions.

Without their support I was lia-

ble for disciplinary action for

"insubordination". A short while

later, my foreman brought the

building manager with him as well

as the safety personnel to inform

us of the material's composition

and what precautions were re-

quired to work with it. He con-

tinued to be confrontational and

Page 19

accused me of not being "coopera-

tive". I reminded him that it was

not I that had made any ultima-

tums or rash statements. It was

not I that had lost my temper and

allowed it to rule. He immedi-

ately tried to apologize for los-

ing his temper and was visibly

concerned that I had brought this

up in front of his boss. His boss

felt that the apology was suffi-

cient. Had I lost my temper and

treated him with such disrespect,

I could have apologized all the

way out the door for what good it

would have done me. The double

standard is alive and well at

Caterpillar. If disciplinary ac-

tion is warranted for one, it is

warranted for another for the

same offense. This foreman now

knows that he can lose his tem-

per, make ultimatums etc. and

fear no reprisal for these nega-

tive traits.

Michael Legel

OPEN ACCESS

(Editor's Note: We welcome views

from the shop floor on all sub-

jects facing workers and we in-

vite opposing views.)

America And The Dollar

By: Tim Hendrickson

The Symbol of Freedom we dis-

play in our Country is sometimes

not so easy to understand for the

individual who can't find a job.

We are tied to the downfall of an

anchor sinking slowly, then fast-

er as the weight defeats the

buoyancy of the water trying to

hold it up. We the people of the

United States of America have

found ourselves without that

buoyancy to defeat the weight of

the High Tax Dollar spending of

Congress, the increase in weight

of higher insurance rates, Doc-

tors who see only a Dollar walk

through their office doors, and

not the patient. The past sixty

years of Cancer study has pro-

duced very little in the cure for

it. But you only have to stop and

think, ...if they find the cures

for the Cancer? What happens then

to the millions of dollars for

the treatment of cancer patients?

We see the Industries increasing

the price of the product, without

an increase to the workers. The

weight is heavier everyday. How

much longer can we stay afloat?

Water (The people of this Coun-

try) the stream is drying up af-

ter five hundred years. We the

people cannot support the weight

of the anchor much longer. The

average wage earner pays more in

taxes, than most of the rich.

This country was not founded on

the backs of the rich, but the

working people. Once the water

has lost its buoyancy, nothing

will float. Not even a check!....

The greed for the dollar is when

men go beyond the limits of rea-

son. When they fail to realize

that dollars are made for the

rich by the sweat of the working

man's back. Nothing is gained

without effort. And who puts

forth the effort?

The Dollar... it means more

than friendship, or a helping

hand. More than the correct diag-

nosis from a doctor, or the truth

about the mechanics of your car.

More than honest government,

city, state, or federal... espe-

cially when they use our tax dol-

lars to build factories, and

businesses in foreign countries

for the super rich.

Just for the Dollar we charge

200% and higher for health care,

and medicine for the elderly and

poor. Just for the Dollar, we

suck the oil out of the ground,

and pollute the water and air.

Just for the Dollar, we build

nuclear plants that cost 10 to 20

times more than hydro-electric

dams, that won't produce nuclear

waste. Just for the Dollar, we

flood our country with foreign

Page 20

goods produced by slave child

labor to make the rich richer.

Just for the Dollar, we drown our

society in drugs, that has only

one end. Just for the Dollar, we

sell our talents, and technology

to other countries, to ensure

that our children and grandchil-

dren will not enjoy the same life

style we have. Just for the Dol-

lar, we sold our amber waves of

grain, and tore down our purple

mountains of majesty, just for

the ore, and minerals beneath

them. Just for the Dollar, we

covered our fruited plains with

highways, concrete, and rusted

steel. Just for the Dollar, we

see our seas of shining oil

slicks to oil slicks... Just for

a Dollar, we'll sell America...

Just for a Dollar... Just for a

Dollar....

Problem Corner

(Editor's Note: See vol.4 no. 2-

3, "Puzzled")

From: More Puzzled

Subject: Please Send This To Puz-

zled

Here is the best answer I have

seen to the problem that

"Puzzled" is having with high

density drives and their ability

to read DD and HD type of floppy

disks. As a matter of fact when I

posted this question the first

time I was sure that the person

who provides this answer was go-

ing to do so but as you read fur-

ther you will see why he chose

not to. I have seen answers to

similar problem is occurring with

computer magazines. In particular

I am thinking of: Popular Comput-

ing, Family Computing, PC Comput-

ing, Creative Computing, and Com-

pute. Most of the magazines have

changed their priorities from an

emphasis on hobbyist or home us-

ers to business. Popular Comput-

ing disappeared shortly after

changing its name to Business

Computing. The same thing hap-

pened with Family Computing after

it changed its name and emphasis

to Home and Office Computing.

Unfortunately PC Computing is

following the same path. PC Com-

puting started out as an alterna-

tive to other magazines such as

PC Magazine and PC for the home

or hobbyist crowd in the PC com-

munity. It had reviews of games

and broader articles, while being

a smidgen less technical and com-

pletely unconnected to a business

point of view. The subtitle is

now "The magazine for Business

Computing Experts." Readers have

recognized the change and written

letters to the editor to comment

and complain. As for other exam-

ples, Creative Computing vanished

and Compute compressed down to

one magazine from what was four.

However, Commodore 64s still

sell, and that is a viable commu-

nity. I guess PCs are coming home

from the office, but that doesn't

mean they are only used for busi-

ness at home. A whole community

seems to be left unserviced by

this trend in computer magazines.

True, computer gaming magazines

exist, but home computers are

used for much more than just

playing games. One problem is

that PCs are not particularly

getting cheaper. Any decrease in

price has more or less been inci-

dental to the increase in power.

The 386s cost today what the 286

cost yesterday. But there are

still no really affordable com-

puters in the $100 to $200 range.

This is sad, because the computer

is not as affordable as it should

be. Thus, personal computers are

still not a normal part of most

households which was the real

goal of the personal computer

revolution. While most homes have

been affected by the arrival of

microprocessors in many home ap-

pliances, the Personal Computer

itself is not yet a home appli-

ance. The general recent trend

of computer development is aimed

at business, as opposed to the

people. Not for the majority, but

for the minority. It's like what

IBM did for the mainframe and

other mainframe manufacturers in

Page 23

the '50s, '60s and '70s. The

mainframe then was only afford-

able by the biggest of the big

companies or the large educa-

tional institution. The differ-

ence today is that small business

can afford computers, but still

only businesses. Computers are

marketed as for businesses and

entrepreneurs, and not for the

average person at home, or for

the majority of the people. The

radical push of the personal com-

puter movement in the mid to late

'70s was to make the computer

available to everyone, and not

just accessible to Fortune 500

companies. True, these days com-

puters are much more affordable

than 20 years ago, but the gen-

eral movement in the personal

computer world seems opposed to

its roots.

Ronda: How so?

Michael: IBM exemplifies this

movement with the release of

their PS/2 line. These computers

have a proprietary bus. IBM

changed the name away from per-

sonal computer to personal system

2 which is more like the main-

frame names. It made it less

friendly in that sense.

Ronda: Are you optimistic?

Pessimistic? What do you think

will be the future with comput-

ers? With you and computers?

Michael: Well by going away to

school I'll gain more access to

what's called the Internet, the

big net that exists, the connec-

tion of computers across this

country and across the world. You

gain more access when you go into

an educational community. I'm

optimistic because of that. I'll

have to manage that as part of my

time. Businesses and education

are involved in that. It's harder

if you live at home to have ac-

cess to it. (Editor's Note: Home

access is more available now,

than it was a year ago when this

interview was done.) Somehow you

need something powerful enough to

hook into. It's not quite fully

open. If you live near an educa-

tional community you can gain

access to it. I have and you can.

Our connection is MichNet. So

that will be broadening. That

will be a connection with the

rest of the world computerwise,

but it's not quite just the com-

puter. So that's encouraging.

Somehow they are working on

building things smaller and more

minuscule but not quite price-

wise. The computers aren't quite

like the microwave and the VCR.

Home appliances started out ex-

pensive but there are now so many

different companies making them

that they have come down in price

so they are affordable. As I said

before computer performance in-

creased but it doesn't come down

in price. Actually, its going to

be a stretch to buy a computer

for myself, but I wouldn't have

been able to buy one last year.

What used to be $2000 is now

$1000 or coming closer to $1000.

Ronda: Do you think there has

been some kind of revolution with

the computers? Do you think there

has been a computer revolution?

Michael: Well, there is the

personal computer. If it was up

to the big companies, there

wouldn't have been one. As I said

the corporate trend is reaction-

ary.

Ronda: Do you think there's

been a computer revolution, Bill?

Bill: What do you mean by a

computer revolution?

Ronda: That something funda-

mental has changed because of the

computer.

Bill: Fundamental?

Ronda: Or something substan-

tial that you see at work?

Bill: We're using computers

more. We've got IBM 486 computers

on the shop floor.

Michael: But what do you use

them for?

Bill: For altering and trans-

ferring programs to our CNC ma-

chining center. We got rid of the

Westinghouse computer in the com-

puter room and you can download

more files into the 486 computer.

Page 24

It has all our files already. It

won't hold us up when we are run-

ning the machine.

Ronda: But the computer isn't

being used to run a machine?

Bill: No it's not to run a

machine directly. You have other

computers for that.

Michael: So the computers are

like terminals?

Bill: It's like a database.

But you can edit and change the

data if you need to.

Ronda: Are most people com-

fortable with them. Or is it that

if people don't have home comput-

ers its harder to use them?

Bill: Well they have menus

instead of working with DOS. It

just takes a F[unction] key and

that is it. We finally got a man-

ual for it. The editor is diffi-

cult to work with. They're still

working on a new editor....

Ronda: Remember they were

talking about the workerless fac-

tory in the last 7 or 8 years. My

sense is that hasn't come to

pass.

Bill: Well, there are a lot

less people working in my shop.

They're standardizing everything

so there's less skill involved in

putting dies together.

Ronda: But the computer hasn't

cut the people out or caused pro-

blems?

Bill: No.

Ronda: So do you think there's

been some kind of computer revo-

lution in the last 10 or 15

years? That something substantial

has happened to change.

Bill: Society?

Michael: Well a lot of things

have computer chips in them now.

All your household appliances

have them from the TV set on.

Bill: Cars have them.

Michael: Cars have them now so

society has been changed by the

introduction of them. The main-

frame computer didn't use pro-

cessing chips. It took buildings

with floors to house those com-

puters. But now, the personal

computer is the achievement of

the trend of miniaturization that

came in the 1950s.

Bill: More like evolution,

right. You got chips in TV's now.

You got picture-in-picture, not

revolution, not a substantial

change.

Michael: Well, there was the

miniaturization after WWII but it

didn't hit computers then. Com-

puters were still the great big

mainframes that used the vacuum

tubes. Then came the transistor,

the microprocessor, and the inte-

grated circuit. But they weren't

really utilized with the main-

frames. Or if they were, instead

of a whole floor, it was a room.

But it wasn't down to a single

chip which now exists and which

is constantly getting smaller.

They think they're reaching the

bounds actually. Now people are

speculating that the silicon chip

has reached its physical speed

and size limits and a new mate-

rial needs to be used, like chem-

ical or biological materials in-

stead of electronic. But I feel

if it had not been for the per-

sonal computer revolution, there

wouldn't be such use of process-

ing chips and use of computing

technology involved in so many

things in our daily lives.

Ronda: But I feel the substan-

tial question is are they being

used to produce more with less

labor? I think they are being

used more as consumer goods. But

it doesn't sound like they've

made a change, a fundamental

change in the way things are pro-

duced. For example, at the begin-

ning of the Industrial Revolution

people worked in their homes.

Then people were brought into the

factories to work together. There

was an increasing division of

labor, and then machines were

introduced and people operated

the machines. Then machines were

used to operate other machines.

It doesn't seem as if the com-

puter led to a similar kind of

change in industrial production.

It doesn't seem that computers

Page 25

are widely used to produce

things. It seems the computer has

been used for paperwork but not

for producing goods.

Bill: It takes longer to get a

computer to do something than it

does a machine. They are probably

working on that stuff too.

Michael: But actually there's

something called CAD/CAM or Com-

puter Aided Design and Manufac-

turing. But then there's some-

thing called CIM which I did a

study on and it seemed like it

was trying to steal the computer

and give it to management which

was a top down design and not a

bottom up design. When I read

about it two years ago it seemed

a flop. It was trying to steal

the computers from the people

rather than using the computers

to help the manufacturing pro-

cess. But I don't know what your

experience has been with CIM.

Ronda: But there was also a

big push to lower wages and have

people work a lot of overtime.

And I thought that got in the way

of using the computer to make

things more efficient.

Bill: You also had interna-

tional competition too. Third

world countries have cheaper la-

bor. So we had to compete with

them. So that's one reason why

the lower wages.

Ronda: But you can never com-

pete with the cheapest country,

and in fact the story of produc-

tion is that the more advanced

the technology the less labor

that goes into producing some-

thing, the cheaper it can be sold

for. Somehow the whole stress

trying to compete with cheaper

countries was a backwards trend.

The price of things is very high

because hand labor is very expen-

sive. So in this country we had

the ability to make production

more efficient, that's the story

of how cars have gotten cheaper,

how microwaves have gotten cheap-

er, how air conditioners have

gotten cheaper because there were

more advanced technologies, not

because you found someone abroad

to work for cheaper wages. With

cheaper wages the price of goods

stays high. There is a need for

more public discussion over how

computers can be used to change

industrial production. There was

a fight with the corporate world

over what would happen with com-

puters and people had to chal-

lenge the corporate barrage of

wage cuts and longer hours which

impede automation. There are ex-

amples of countries where ad-

vanced technology that was avail-

able was never used in production

because workers' wages were so

low or their hours so long that

it was not cost efficient to put

in the new machine. So that coun-

try remained technologically

backward. The story of the devel-

opment of technology is that the

more advanced technology some-

where replaces the lower wage

backward technology somewhere

else, not that goods made by low

wage workers replace goods made

with less labor and more effici-

ently by machines. But workers

have to organize to prevent the

wage cuts and increased hours

that impede the introduction of

new technology. Somehow the cor-

porate attack on workers and un-

ions has led to people looking

backward, not keeping our eye on

how to go forward.

Ronda: Any final words?

Michael: Even though I have

decided to go to Columbia Univer-

sity in NYC instead of the Uni-

versity of Michigan, I am opti-

mistic. Columbia is less com-

puter-oriented than the Univer-

sity of Michigan, but Columbia

seems better connected to the

educational and academic computer

networks. But Michigan for me

would have been a better computer

school. Columbia has more of its

computer roots in the past while

Michigan has more in the future.

There are a couple of centers

opening up and there is, at Co-

lumbia, the State Center for Com-

puting Research. But it's not as

Page 26

obvious as Michigan how involved

it is with computers. I am sort

of pessimistic, because with the

age of the computer industry, it

seems to have receded. But it's

probably just a cycle.

Ronda: No, it's a fight. You

have to figure out how to take it

up. The personal computer caught

people by surprise when it spread

so quickly and so substantially.

People now have to evaluate what

has happened. I feel the lesson

is you can't trust the business

world of large corporations to

develop computers and computer

technology. Big corporations

can't be coddled by government,

the press, etc. and encouraged to

freeze the development of tech-

nology or to go backwards to hand

labor as they have done in many

instances. The machine is a ma-

chine for society. It was a mis-

take to have trusted the corpo-

rate world to develop it. Instead

the corporate world must be regu-

lated and limited in its efforts

to impede the development of

technology. That's what anti-

trust legislation originally ac-

complished. The personal computer

was created while there was a

U.S. govt. anti-trust suit on

against IBM which kept it from

interfering with the development

of the personal computer. Once

again there is a need for some-

thing independent of the corpo-

rate world, and there is a need

for regulations and limitations

on the corporate world so that

their narrow self interest is

prevented from interfering with

social and technological develop-

ment.

Michael: You need a new Henry

Ford for the Computer world.

Ronda: No, you need another

“Computers for the People” move-

ment.

Michael: No, again.

Bill: My niece is going to go

to Michigan State and she's not

going to get a computer. She's

going to get a word processor.

You have a screen, keyboard, and

a printer all in one unit. That

suits her.

Michael: But its not compati-

ble with anything other than an-

other wordprocessor of the same

type.

Bill: There are some that have

a floppy disk.

Ronda: But it's sad the com-

puters aren't cheap with a cheap-

er printer too.

Bill: Well it’s a letter-qual-

ity printer, she's not going to

be doing graphics.

Ronda: I thought John Kemeny

once predicted that there would

be computers used in the schools

for wondrous things. But now he

is disappointed that that has not

happened.

Bill: One of the problems is

software. There aren't enough

software developers to write pro-

grams people need. To get them

involved.

Michael: Its not just software

developers, its ideas. People are

not creating new ideas but merely

copying old ideas.

Ronda: But I thought that

there was the discouragement,

when people were told "People

don't need to learn to program."

Michael learned to program and it

was a good thing he learned to

program. Instead of saying it’s a

good thing to learn a little pro-

gramming it was said you don't

need programming. So it seems

that there has been a lot of

pressure to keep people away from

utilizing computers and discour-

aging them instead.

Michael: I left out that I

know a little MS-DOS batch lan-

guage, a little C, and a little

Forth. I did very little in As-

sembler.

Bill: Are you going to take

computer classes in collage.

Michael: I don't know if I'll

have time.

Ronda: To sum up, it seems it

is as if this period is like the

period in France before the

French Revolution. Then there was

the basis to have capitalism, but

Page 27

ELECTRONIC EDITION AVAILABLE

Starting with vol 4, no 2-3,

the Amateur Computerist has

become available in electronic

mail form. To obtain a copy,

send E-mail to:

[email protected]

or [email protected]

Also, the Amateur Computerist

is now available via FTP at:

wuarchive.wustl.edu

It is stored in the directory:

/doc/misc/acn

EDITORIAL STAFF

Ronda Hauben

William Rohler

Norman O. Thompson

Michael Hauben

The Amateur Computerist

invites contribution of

articles, programs, etc. Send

submissions to R.Hauben, PO Box

4344, Dearborn, Mi. 48126.

Articles can be submitted on

paper or disk in ASCII format,

(IBM or Commodore.) One year

subscription (4 issues) costs

$5.00 (US). Add $2.50 for

foreign postage. Permission is

granted to reprint articles not

copyrighted herein, provided

credit is given.

you had the feudal lords and the

King holding society back. You

had a Monarchy. There was a need

for the French Revolution to get

rid of the Monarchy and the Aris-

tocracy and the feudal social

forms and laws that they kept in

place. They prevented the reforms

that were needed to develop large

scale production in France. The

problem we have today seems simi-

lar. Big companies are discourag-

ing investment in new technology

like computers because such in-

vestment will lower their rate of

profit. There is a need to get

rid of this fetter so that tech-

nology can be encouraged and de-

veloped.

SUPPLEMENT on USENET NEWS

The Amateur Computerist will

publish a Supplement on Usenet

News in Fall, 1992. It will con-

tain articles about telecommuni-

cations and the development and

importance of Usenet News. The

Supplement will be available in

both electronic and print format.

The Editors