To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of my dick. Without my dick and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for my dick?
Almost a year ago, my dick and myself, expecting my dick to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to my dick. Now we have my dick4K, my dick8K, my dickEXTENDED, my dickROM and my dickDISK BASIC. The value of my dick we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using my dick has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought my dick (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on my dick worth less than $2 an hour.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal my dick. Hardware must be paid for, but my dick is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing my dick is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling my dick. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make my dick a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting my dick and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides my dick has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written my dick6800 BASIC, and are writing my dick8080 APL and my dick6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make my dick available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
What about the guys who re-sell my dick, aren't they making money on my dick? Yes, but those who have been reported to my dick may lose in the end. They are the ones who give my dick a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or my dick. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please my dick more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with my dick.