Computing Today (March 1984)

Computing Today - March 1984
Computing today was one of a multitude of computer magazines published in the U.K. in the 1980s. The March 1984 issue includes:

• Consumer News - A bumper bundle of items about the latest products for the consumer.
• Soft Wares - A round-up of commercial software packages for home and business.
• Easycode Part 1 - By stimulating the action of a microprocessor using a BASIC program, this series hopes to teach the machine code novice what it's all about.
• Book Page - Our usual in-depth comparative book review, plus a number of quickies to clear the backlog on our bookshelves.
• BBC Poker - You won't lose your shirt playing Poker against this simulation - all the money is stored in variables. But just try to read your opponent's expression!
• SCOPE Review - Several languages other than BASIC have been released for the ZX Spectrum, but this one is a bit different. Simple Compilation of Plain English is designed to allow machine code speed in graphics routines, for programmers who want to write their own arcade games.
• Genie Utilities - Here are some useful machine code routines (only 334 bytes in total) that provide USR calls from BASIC with some enhancements such as multiple parameters. There's also a number base converter and a VDU statement.
• Learning Forth part 5 - This month we turn our attention to the I/O possibilites in Abersoft FORTH on the Spectrum. The memory map of the language is discussed, together with some versatile use of the RAM disc.
• PROCopinion - More ravings from the editor, who's seen the competition at the low end of the computer marketplace hotting up again. Sinclair, Oric, Memotech, Acorn, Elan - which of them is likely to come out on top?
• Spectrum Centronics Interface - With no RS-232 Centronics port on the Spectrum, you're very much at teh mercy of Sir Uncle's ZX Printer. Here's the hardware and software details necessary to use any parallel printer and improve the quality of your printouts.
• Club Call - Another round-up of User Groups around the world, for a veritable plethora of machines.

...and more!

ldcover2 - Yuna

New Stanford Study Suggests Biden's Agenda Will Have "Devastating Economic Consequences"

Sympathetic media outlets have repeatedly asserted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax agenda would only hurt the wealthy. But a new study shows that Biden’s tax and regulatory agenda could seriously hurt the economy overall.

Four economists from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution analyzed Biden’s proposals to increase taxes, reinstate and expand a host of regulations, and create new subsidies for healthcare and renewable energy. The study concludes that these interventions would distort labor incentives, decrease productivity, and kill jobs.

As a result, the experts project that the policy agenda would, by 2030, lead to 4.9 million fewer jobs and the economy shrinking by $2.6 trillion. So, too, the study projects that consumption would be $1.5 trillion lower in 2030 and families would see a $6,500 drop in median household income compared to a neutral scenario.

“The risk from Joe Biden’s policies isn’t that they will send the economy reeling right away,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board concluded in its analysis of the study. “The problem is that they will have a long-term corrosive impact by raising the cost of capital, reducing the incentive to work and invest, and reducing productivity across the economy. Americans will pay the price in a lower standard of living than they otherwise would—and that they deserve.”

It’s crucial to understand not just what Biden’s government-heavy agenda would do to the economy, but why.

Tax hikes hurt the economy because they reduce incentives to work and produce.

“Taxing profits is tantamount to taxing success,” famed free-market economist Ludwig Von Mises once wrote. “Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away.”

Join us in preserving the principles of economic freedom and individual liberty for the rising generation

Biden has promised to raise the corporate tax to 28 percent. Higher corporate taxes means less money available for investment, expansion, and new hiring—“taxing success,” as Mises wisely dubbed it. This means fewer jobs and lower wages for workers, as well as fewer offerings (especially of innovative new products) and lower quality for consumers.

This is why, while corporate tax hikes might sound like something that would just hurt “Big Business,” in reality, the costs would be passed on to consumers and workers. According to the Tax Foundation, “studies appear to show that labor bears between 50 percent and 100 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax, with 70 percent or higher the most likely outcome.”

Considering this, it should come as little surprise to see economists projecting negative economic consequences as a result of Biden’s hefty tax hikes.

As far as heavy-handed regulations are concerned, they create a drag on the economy by imposing additional costs and stifling innovation. The more red tape and hoops companies and entrepreneurs have to jump through and comply with, the less likely they are to discover new ideas and make breakthroughs. So, too, the more regulated an industry, the harder it is for start-ups to take on the big established companies that can better weather the costs of regulation.

Reducing competition means reduced innovation and more complacency.

Yet the real takeaway from this Stanford study is not about any one candidate, policy, or party. It’s another reminder that free markets and economic liberty drive prosperity—but heavy-handed government interventions hurt more than they help.

Brad Polumbo

Brad Polumbo is a libertarian-conservative journalist and the Eugene S. Thorpe Writing Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Computer & Video Games (September 1984)

Computer & Video Games (September 1984)
Computer & Video Games was one of the longest published video games magazines in the U.K. The September 1984 issue includes: Features

• Mailbag - Are C&VG's reviewers fair on teh games we look at? Your views in print.
• Competitions - Are you brave enough to brave the Evil Dead?
• Dangermouse Competition - You've just read about it on our cover. Now try to win the game!
• Top 30 - Want to know which game is really number one? Find out by checking the C&VG/Daily Mirror Top 30 games software chart.
• Hall of Fame - Our revamped top score contest with lots of new games to try and beat.
• Professor Video - Ultimate's Sabre Wulf mapped out in glorious technicolor
• Software Form - Earn yourself a quick 25 pounds. Send us your listings now!
• Adenture Extra - All the hot new Adventure games checked out by Keith Campbell and his team of top reviewers.
• Bugs
• Adventure
• Bug Hunter's Wallchart - Just got your first computer? Baffled by the manual? Never fear, Bug Hunter is here!
• Puzzling
• Next Month - The shape of things to come...

Listings

• Push/CBM 64 - Try your hand at this version of the famous board game of the same name. For two players.
• Killer Kong/Unexpanded VIC - Mario needs your help again to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of that crazy monkey.
• Trailer/Unexpanded VIC - The summer holidays have arrived and truckie's lot is not a happy one! Can you cope with the motorway madness?
• Sub Kill/Dragon 32 - Can you prevent those enemy submarines slipping past your destroyer into the naval base? You must not fail!
• Enchanted Castle/BBC - We bring you the first part of this graphically stunning Adventure set in an apparently deserted castle.
• Zodiac/Spectrum - You must defend your planet from teh savage attacks of the bloodthirsty space pirates.
• Star Warrior/Atari 400/800 - The Fire Demon is determined to destroy the Kalon civilization.
• Sea Diver/TI-99/4A - There's god in them thar waves!

News and Reviews

• Games News - After the Lords of Midnight comes The Lord of the Rings - the story behind the long awaited Melbourne House deal.
• Reviews - Dangermouse leaps into action on the Commodore 64 and Spectrum. A super-review of the mega-mouse game can be found on these pages.
• Joystick Fury - We take a look at a whole bunch of new releases for the Coleco - including arcade favorites Mr. Do!, Subroc and Time Pilot.
• Arcade Action - The C&VG Arcade Spy took a trip down to sunny Brighton to check out the scene on the seafront and came back extremely impressed.

...and more!