"Some look for mind catching without the need for eye catching. That's what I think Dave is saying," That's a much better way to put it! On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 12:22 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Some look for mind catching without the need for eye catching. That's what I think Dave is saying. Evan and I have been talking a lot about this lately off-line. Many people find "serious" computing very boring, Some a room full of computers running games to be boring. VCF is a public event with a proportional mix of these groups. We need to accommodate both and make sure we don't favor one group over the other. I am sure Evan is taking all of this into account when he approves and kindly adjusts exhibits to find that balance. b
On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 12:06 PM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
"how do we present our hobby in such a way to draw people in and help them appreciate it the way that we do?"
That's exactly why I posed this question. A display needs to be interactive and eye catching to be successful, otherwise we may as well do what the Smithsonian does and have unpowered machines behind plexiglass. That's not to say we need to hide the "power applications" for the machines, we just need to show something that would interest everyone.
-J
On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 11:54 AM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Dave, I agree with you. However, what can be done to make serious software eye-catching? I personally am thrilled to look at spreadsheets all day (well, maybe not thrilled), but I think that kind of thing would not grab the attention of the average person. I think we have had similar discussions here: how do we present our hobby in such a way to draw people in and help them appreciate it the way that we do?
On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 01/10/2017 10:58 PM, Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It's sad, but what I've noticed over the years at VCF is that the general public is more interested in games than anything else. Even when I brought the HP minicomputer setup, they wanted to know what kind of games ran on it.
Sigh. And we wonder why China is eating our lunch. We're all a bunch of anesthetized children anymore.
Can you connect a couple of terminals to it? Dig up the source for Rogue or Hack and let 'em play.
This only reinforces the idea that computers are only toys for children. If someone is looking for games, they can go find them. There will be people there who are looking for more mature material. The event will continue to lose credibility in their eyes if they see even very serious computers reduced to toys. Please don't reinforce it.
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085