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Like their big brothers in business and government, microcomputers have a central processing unit to do the thinking, an input-output device (typically an electric typewriter connected to a video display screen) for giving instructions and receiving answers, and a memory for storing information. A microcomputer can easily perform such sedentary chores as keeping track of an investment portfolio, maintaining an up-to-date Christmas card list, collating menus or entertaining the kids with a vast Olympiad of electronic games, from TV tennis to Star Trek (destroy the Klingons before they capture the starship Enterprise). Other tasks—reporting on water seepage in the basement, watering the lawn when it reaches a given aridity, locking the front door at night —require the addition of various switches, sensors and motors that can send a house-proud hacker's outlay soaring. Says James Warren, a California microcomputer consultant: "You keep adding components until you exceed your yearly income."
So far the hardware is more easily available than the software or readymade programs telling the computer what to do. But addicts nevertheless manage to find plenty of applications for their new toys. Robert Goodyear, 62, a Framingham, Mass., physicist, uses his computer to tap out and edit his personal correspondence. Manhattan Physician Joseph J. Sanger cross-indexes his medical journals to provide him with instant, tailor-made refresher courses on any disease he asks for. Ham Radio Operator Irving Osser of Beverly Hills has programmed his computer to keep a log of the people he talks to on his radio and to translate Morse code into a typewritten message. Boston Pediatrician Lawrence Reiner uses his machine to relax by playing TV games with his children. Robert Phillips, president of Gimix Inc., a Chicago firm that computerizes entire households, has installed terminals in every room of his Chicago apartment. He uses them to dim and brighten his lights, tune his stereo, turn his television on and off, even to open and close his drapes.
For many household operations, however, microcomputers are clearly inferior to simpler and less expensive devices. Like fingers. Michael Mastrangelo finds it easier to make his own tea than program a computer for the task. Says David Korman, who has an IMSAI 8080 in his Belmont, Mass., apartment: "I tried doing my checkbook on it. It's a lot faster by hand." And even though prices have dropped, microcomputers remain complicated devices that require long hours of study to use properly. When Robert Phillips let his sister give a party in his computerized Chicago apartment, he dutifully left a long list of instructions. Not long enough. Someone accidentally hit a button that killed all the power, reducing the puzzled guests to carrying candles. "The hard part," says Phillips, "is making the computer compatible with people."