The Compleat Personal Computer

from apple to ibm, here's an easy-to-understand print-out on little wonder machines that are ideal for home or small-business use

Just Mention the word computer and most minds go blank. And why not? For years, television actors costumed in white lab coats have stood in front of flashing control panels of computers, spouting high-tech gibberish. Or perhaps you're now entangled in a frustrating billing dispute with a credit-card computer thousands of miles away. No matter how nicely you write explaining that you've never been to Joplin. Missouri, a computer form letter rudely demands payment for a car you rented there. But computer phobia can be arrested once you begin to understand how a personal computer can help you with your business and personal affairs. Today's equipment is easier than ever to use, even if you have no computer background at all. And with costs coming down, it's only a matter of time before a colleague or a competitor gets the jump on you by discovering the efficiencies of the personal computer. A good place to start the learning process is at a computer-specialty store, where you can see the little marvels in action. However, few store salespeople have the expertise or the patience to work with the uninitiated, so you'll be ahead of the game if you arm yourself with the following jargon-free basics.

First, we must distinguish a personal computer from a home computer. That is not so simple, because the categories overlap. A personal computer, generally, is a desktop unit with big-system computing ability that is inexpensive enough for one person to control cost-effectively. If a company's data-processing department won't track sales or maintain personnel files the way you'd like, for example, then let your own personal machine do it. The home computer, on the other hand, is a less sophisticated machine that's ideal for keeping household-budget records and for playing video games. In general, home computers offer color graphics and hook up to your color-TV set much as Atari and Intellivision do.

Our personal-vs.-home definition runs into difficulty because several machines fall into both categories, functioning well as business computers and as game or education machines. And many expensive, deadly serious personal computers--small-business systems, actually--are adorning home desktops these days as business people use them as secret weapons to get ahead in their careers or to launch their own businesses on the side.

What is helping more nontechnical people realize the benefits of a personal computer is that the machine is gradually becoming more like an automatic home appliance, though an appliance that deals with intangibles. Instead of putting bread into a toaster and taking toast out, you put disorganized information or numbers into a computer and take your organized information out.

Understanding how a personal computer operates requires little more than what you already know about its close relative, the pocket calculator. If you have some numbers to add, you punch them into the calculator via the small keyboard, press the plus key and--presto!--you have the total appearing in the display. The only thing you probably don't know is that while you're pushing those keys, the microchip inside is shuttling the numbers all about and storing them temporarily until you're done. That's really all there is to a basic computer: (1) a way to get your original info into the machine (keyboard); (2) the shuttling and temporary storage by chip or chips that do all the (continued on page 216) Personal Computer (continued from page 122) work; and (3) a way to show you the result (display or printer, as on a printing calculator).

A pocket calculator is essentially a special-purpose computer. The chip or chips inside were instructed at the factory to behave like a calculator the instant you turn the machine on. Thus, when you have a special problem--say, a column of numbers to add--you naturally turn to the special-purpose computer designed to solve it. But let's say you have another problem, such as a long list of measurements that must be converted to metric dimensions. The job would go much faster if you had a special-purpose pocket metric converter, which may have a keyboard, microchip and display similar to your calculator; only the factory's instructions on the chip would be different. Since you already own most of what makes up a metric converter, wouldn't it be cheaper to plug metric-conversion instructions into the chip in place of the calculator instructions? You bet!

Instructions like those are called programs (also, pardon the jargon, software) and are sold at computer stores and via mail-order ads in computer magazines (from less than ten dollars to into the thousands). For the nontechnical user, a personal computer without a program is just a useless hunk of keyboard, chips and display. But with each program, your personal computer becomes a different special-purpose computer ready to tackle a specific job.

Personal-computer programs are stored, duplicated and sold on cassettes (just like hi-fi cassettes), on a device called a floppy disc (also known as a discette or just plain disc) or on plug-in cartridges (with a microchip or two inside). A cassette program requires a cassette player, which either plugs directly into the computer or is sometimes packaged with the unit. Discs need a disc drive (acting like a record player), frequently incorporated (sometimes in pairs) into the computer console.

Programs on cassettes are inherently slower than disc programs to load into your computer's temporary memory. Long programs may take several minutes on tape, ten seconds on a disc and less than a second on a cartridge.

Whichever device you use to load programs (except cartridges) will also permanently store work you have in progress or information you need to update only from time to time. (Cartridges do not yet retain info you enter when they're unplugged.) Cassette or disc mass storage saves you from reentering information each time you use your computer.

The major factor in selecting a personal computer should always be the availability of programs to solve specific problems. Three hundred games programs for a machine won't help you if a much-needed accounting program is unavailable. And since programs are not necessarily compatible among computers, shop for the programs that do what you need--then find out what machines they run on.

Let's take a closer look at the kinds of special-purpose programs or applications available. Most personal computers can be instructed to convert themselves into remote terminals capable of communicating with huge computers over a standard telephone (through an accessory gadget called a modem--a modulator/demodulator). You can conduct extensive library research through services such as Lockheed's Dialog Information Services (Palo Alto, California). While sitting in front of your computer, you can have access to more than 120 individual data bases covering consumer-periodical-advertising space; legal- and medical-journal indexes; bibliographic indexes in psychology, philosophy, social sciences; statistics; legislative action; sales prospects by Zip Code; patents . . . the list goes on and on. Dialog charges only for time used (charges vary for each data base accessed; most are from $25 to $95 per hour), with no registration fee.

Less imposing but very useful data bases are offered by The Source (McLean, Virginia) and CompuServe (Columbus, Ohio). Both offer current business news (stock and commodity prices, for example) and a broader interest range, including computer games. On-line costs for The Source are as low as $4.25 per hour late at night, with a registration fee of $100.

Many personal computers today are being used for word processing (W.P.). If you write a number of reports, professional papers or personal letters, a W.P. program will save you from retyping pages that don't look right or from erasing typing errors. All creating and editing are performed on the display screen before you ever print a page, and your opus is saved on a disc for subsequent editing or reprinting. Some W.P. programs have supplementary programs that check and correct spelling or typos, and some make it quite easy to personalize a string of form letters. Be prepared, however, to invest $2000 or more for a typewriterlike printer.

A nasty chore for any professional is working on long spread sheets, whether for budgeting, forecasting or sales results. Several programs (VisiCalc is the best-known one) put the spread sheet into the computer, so you can juggle the numbers all you want on the screen. In a flash, the computer refigures all the totals whenever you make a change. Press a couple more buttons and you have a clean printed sheet to give to the boss.

Other "report"-type programs, including VisiTrend/Plot and VisiPlot, help you create impressive bar graphs and pie charts based on numbers you punch into the computer.

If you run a small business, a personal computer can handle the number crunch of your accounting. Programs guide you through setting up a general ledger and tracking your receivables, payables and expenses--then generate a financial statement for you any time you want. You still need to key in the information, but once the data is on file, the disc keeps it together as you update. A number of program packages print checks and invoices as part of the job. Even for small computers, accounting packages can be expensive: up to $500 or more for a general-ledger program alone. Study programs carefully before you buy to make sure they fit the way you do business--not the way they want you to do business.

A timesaving use for personal computers is electronic filing, called database management. Depending on the program, you essentially "dump" information onto a disc in such a way that you can later retrieve it in any order you need. An insurance salesman, for example, might store complete client records on a disc. Then, if he wants to contact clients affected by a new policy covering adults over 45 with two or more children, he can ask the computer to search through the disc and print out a list. The computer performs in a matter of minutes what would take hours of thumbing through a file cabinet.

That kind of information management has uses at home, too. After you put details of your record collection onto a disc, the right computer program could make the machine display a list of cuts of the exact time you need to fill out a cassette you're recording.

Now that you have some appreciation of what a personal computer can do for you, there are a few terms you should know before walking into your local computer emporium.

Temporary memory of computers is known in the computer world as RAM (random-access memory). A computer's RAM is something like an automobile's gasoline tank, because RAM size will determine how many program instructions (fuel) and how much newly typed info the computer can handle at once. The bigger the RAM capacity, the further you can go before having to stop and put in more instructions.

If gas tanks hold gallons (or liters) of gas, RAMs store kilobytes of information. A kilobyte (usually referred to as K) is the equivalent of 1000 letters or characters punched into the keyboard (one byte per character). For the most part, a personal computer with 64K of RAM will amply handle professional programs and leave you plenty of room within which to work.

The K denomination also comes into play with the storage capacity of disc drives. The greater the capacity, the more information you can save on a single disc. The Radio Shack Model III computer, for example, offers disc drives with 175K (175,000 characters) storage per disc--a comfortable size for a personal computer.

Finally, there are three other important letters you'll run across: CP / M (control program for microcomputers). Almost all computers have their own peculiar program language or dialect. That is why you will see program tapes or discs labeled for the computer on which they run. But a CP / M disc designed for a specific computer gives that computer the ability to accept, understand and operate any CP / M--written program. The advantage of "CP / M compatibility" is that you'll be able to run almost all of the hundreds of professional and business programs already written for CP / M.

To help simplify your shopping, we've assembled "Playboy's Guide to Personal Computers" (see page 122), a comparative listing of the most popular units you're likely to encounter. Of course, in the consumer-electronics industry--which changes so rapidly--a real concern of a potential buyer is instant obsolescence of equipment. To avoid that hazard in a computer, you'll want to choose a system that not only offers functional programs right now but will be supported later with more-advanced software, and will also allow you to expand into new applications with perhaps more memory, electronic voice synthesis or detailed color-graphics displays. As a rule, personal-computer manufacturers who encourage outside companies to develop programs and accessories for a machine (or makers who embrace a "standard" such as CP / M) understand that no single company can do it all. The broader the support, the more likely a personal computer will have a long, useful life on your desk.

As for future machines, well, except for some minor, highly technical differences from one personal computer to the next, the basic shuttling and storage techniques should remain pretty much the same for some time. The developments to watch for over the next several years will be in the programs to let today's personal computers do even more of the work for us. With the next generation or two of programs, your personal computer will gain a semblance of personality and the pseudo intelligence to prompt you in plain English through complex computing chores you'd never consider today--even programming the computer.

In the meantime, you don't need a computer-science degree to get going on a personal computer. If you discover in your shopping that one of these gizmos will save time or improve your accuracy, then now is the time to buy. Soon, as with your pocket calculator several years ago, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one.

"When you have a special problem, you turn to the special-purpose computer designed to solve it."

Playboy's Guide to Personal Computers