Micropendium Volume 1 Number 1
 February 1984 Micropendium (Home Computer Compendium) Front Cover | |
| Editor | Laura Burns |
|---|---|
| Categories | Home Computers, TI-99/4A |
| Publisher | John Koloen |
| Year founded | February 1984 |
| Country | USA |
| Based in | Round Rock, Texas |
| Language | English |
What is the Home Computer Compendium?
It may be better to begin answering the above question by describing what the Horne Computer Compendium is not.
As you can see, HCC is not a slick, high-priced magazine. Nor is it a clever merchandising scheme. We have no intention of selling you, the reader, anything other than this magazine. We have no plans to market software, books, T-shirts or anything else that cannot fit between the covers of the Compendium. To paraphrase a popular television commercial, we will strive to do only one thing well.
So what is the Horne Computer Compendium?
It is a conduit, a source of information and a vehicle for the dissemination of information.
It is also unique among computer publications inasmuch as it operates under newspaper-type deadlines. All of our schedules revolve around the goal of providing up-to-date articles and news. We have the capability of going to press within a day of completing a late-breaking story, unlike other publications which must work months in advance of publication dates.
We also offer a classified advertising section, which we hope you will find useful.
Each edition will also include a minimum of six staff-produced reviews of software, hardware and other items designed for use with the TI home computer. They will be unbiased, consumer-oriented reviews with an opportunity for rebuttal on the part of vendors.
We urge you to review this edition carefully. It is the prototype of what will follow. We hope it is the smallest we ever publish, but regardless of its size we feel that the Compendium is an idea whose time has come.
We hope you agree.
Sincerely,
John Koloen
Publisher
TI: Answers to your questions about what it will do for you - and what it won't
Although Texas Instruments is no longer producing the Tl99/4A home computer, it is not turning its back on buyers of the popular, low-priced machine.
TI spokesmen in Lubbock, Texas and elsewhere say that TI will continue to provide support for the home computer "on an indefinite basis."
According to Jon Campbell, manager of press relations for Tl's con mmer group, this open-ended service policy extends not only to the console but to all TI peripherals, cards and software.
Citing Tl's service policies regarding other discontinued items, including watches and calculators, Campbell said, "we'll continue to maintain our repair facilities for out-ofwarranty repairs." He noted that users in need of service may continue to send the units to the Lubbock repair facility as has been done in the past. Repairs to out-of-warranty items will be billed to the user. Conso-l es come with a one year warranty while other hardware and software items come with a 90-day warranty. There is no charge for repairs made during the warranty period. Campbell says the company continues to service and repair calculators that are 10 years old. Although TI stopped producing watches three years ago, he notes, service is still provided for them. As of mid-December, he said, TI was still producing consoles to meet contractual obligations. TI stopped taking new orders on the consoles when it announced that it was leaving the home computer business. As of December, however, Campbell says, "we haven't ceased manu
