A4 - Sunday, October 16, 1983 - North Shore News strictly personal a mechanical by Bob Hunter Basically, I haven’t re-tooled since then. The era of electric typer- writers left me cold. The only juice you need for writing is the stuff that drips from the Muses. The little electric hum distracted me from _ the cosmic hum. Better the reassuring clatter of spindly keys. Well, all that ended when | decided to go computer. It was time to come on-stream with the 20th Century. Of course, as it turns out, you don’t just ‘‘go’’ computer. There was a period of about two months when the search for the right computer for Uncle Bob occupied an appallingly large amount of down time. Productivity — what I us- ed to think of as ‘‘wnting’’ in more innocent times — fell off because | was busy flit- ting from one computer store to another. Finally, the right combina- tion of high-tech replacements for the quill were asembled. I wound up with a word processor called a KAYPRO I], a Quadram Microfazer, a Silver Reed EXP 500 Daisy Wheel printer and a Brother Executron 70 as a backup system in case of a failure of either the KAYPRO or the printer. Fun, eh? It was only after the equip- ment had been lugged home and dumped on my study NORTH VANCOUVER RCMP have few leads in their investigation of the $90,000 theft from the safe at the Westview Shopping Centre liquor store last weekend. “We haven't got a hell of a lot to go on, but we're out beating the bushes (for suspects), "" Sgt Ron McKay told the News this week Police are seeking tor clues to the identity of two or more men who worked their all potten gains hard tor At some point over the Thanksgiving long weekend, the thieves, described by police as a professional pang. broke into a storage shed at the rear of the shopping cen tre and then broke through a concrete blook wall into the lhqueor store Once inside the thieves disabled oan audible alanis system and then took an ony acetylene cutting torch to the sale They fled after scooping $90 000 trom the safe, leav ing the cutting torch tank behind The only clues police have are two sets of footprints and the empty tank The case is similar to the robbery of lbquor store safe in the Fraser Valley com munity of Maple Ridge which took place several weeks ago Anyone may have seen anything suspioaous in the areca sometime between 11 25 pm Saturday and car ly Monday morning the robbery who when was discovered by a liquor store employee is asked to contact’ North Vancouver ROMP at ORS LVI Buying spree upgrades fleet BROKEN get the done TRUCKS COmmunity ss dont woth so to get Changs rothiig amoothhy North council Viareouser Dorscraet Monday conn ocw approved spending $231 000 wheels’ fon othe Mrecanvbe dpoandity Ir totab comme granted the cnginecring departmens Fumeds ter bary seven trucks two packer bodes flor gar bage trucks and one bac bhoc {rameter Destrat boaginee: Baarsy Mi Bride satd most of the vehicles were beyond repan and would require majo repairs and since such repairs cannot be war ranted now trucks are needed Keep a pen handy WHEN I WAS 15 years old, my mother bought me Underwood portable typewriter. floor, still neatly wedged into boxes, that a_ childhood nightmare came back to haunt me. lt was never any good at asembling all those sets of toys that came at Christmas with 20-page books of instruction. Well, my beloved new word processor, it turns Out, comes with a dozen books of instruction. The largest of them, the Wordstar Reference Manual, is 300 pages long! Usually, when a com- plicated mechanical situation comes up, | go off somewhere to powder my nose. In this -case, alas, not even my wife, who is the one who normally fixes the toaster when it breaks down, could help me. Having just laid out $6,000 to experience the joys of computing, there wasn’t much choice except to throw myself in a Toffleresque Third Wave over the top of the literary trench. The battle plan called for my wife to learn to fly the Ex- ecutron 70, which we’d also use for secretarial functions, while I hopped into the cockpit of the KAYPRO II EATON'S ADVERTISING CORRECTION Eaton’s Canada Wide Specials Flyer Page 3 Item 38 Panasonic 26° color con sole Model PC26K22 The description 1s incorrect This TV has a_ 100° {ripotential picture tube and video sensor Page 12 lNtem 12A & B Potyester and wool knit dresses are availabie in assoried sizes only Page 30 Timothy — ¢ jackets The opening paragraph 15 incodect tt shouid read The took of the season tam and snug in these polyester blend jackets for Timothy & And because warmth is impor lant they te potyesier Wed Due to supplter delivery problems the tottowing tlems are not available tor immediate delivery However orders will be accepted tor detivery by the dale shown Page 4 Nem 4A Super ac hon Controttacs Oc tober V7th tem 4¢ Fao bey (an Indyge October 21st) flem 40 Destructor Cartridge Werrrs at Suet Rescue Caaetndge October 76th Not shown Mr Do Pitot Octotoer 17th Teevves Page 26 Nem 268 Zingy Processed ( beese Oh tober Sth Page 77 fem 2/8 Jamesary all chocolate assortment On tober 14th Page 7G Hee 2730 Way Ygrnce ptyte A4d Hem 290) kK Way / pce style Aba On tober 17th Rem 29t Ladies Brooks Super Villancnva Vets ahve pers Ce Votes inadvertently hinted thre eto above have ap peared ooo advertising We sincerethy raqgret any in C CmPIwerlvperene € Cpt 6 Cru ly ate oer for omar coassbarnernns and tried to achieve lift-off. My wife broke down cry- ing at least twice and at one point managed to lose her manual — which I took as one of those Freudian slips. As for myself, well, the elec- tronic cottage wasn’t built in a day. Step by painful step, I have learned to format a diskettte (no, that’s not obscene), move the cursor key around, eliminate words and paragraphs, insert new material, and, perhaps most important of all, operate the Save File command which prevents your deathless prose from vanishing into micro- Never-Never Land. Even though I’ve had the machine for over two weeks, I still haven’t actually manag- ed to get any of my deathiess prose out of the word pro- cessor, through what is known as the buffer, into the printer where my _ words might sully a virgin blank page — soon, soon! A highly symbolic moment came the other day when we needed to get a letter off to a publisher fairly urgently. There we were, flanked on one side by an_ electric typewriter with a built-in 8K memory and on the other by a word processsor so power- ful it boggles the mind. Guess how we wound up communicating with the publisher. My wife scribbled a note to him using a ball- point pen. It was the only communications system we had around the house that we knew how to use. Help! T-44 ‘2.8K 46K 4-OX . Dress bays' shortall Stephanie’s 10th Birthday Celebration Continues! Boys winter bombiee ntylo Little fuaget boys’ duttie 1400 ie a Boye bomber syle confuroy trimmed jackots Bove" boin lined bomber Jeckot smart rt styling ; ‘noye’ cord pants - navy, grey. TAA + Track sults - 2 pe. hooded style tor boys and girls Infant velour collection in asat'd shades of pink, cranberry, teal, red and navy - oe boys’ & girls jumpall Strolee booster seats | Many other ide too numerous to mention! 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