 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Guest Editorial Stan Johnstone stanj@melbpc.org.au |
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Just a single magazine this month? Last month we had a bit of a bonus with the promotional free issue of Australian PC User together with its double CD-ROM on the cover. How about that? But this month it's back to normal with our own quality magazine.
A few members asked me what to do with the CDs. I was tempted to say chuck them, but there were some useful upgrades, as well there was the usual collection of sample software with limited shelf life. Many members install just about everything, and then months later wonder why their PC is slowing to a crawl.
What Am I Doing Here, Anyway?
The theme for this month is Picture and Sound, and being a novice in those fields, it's certainly not for my expertise. Last month's issue with Mobile and Wireless Computing had a few articles without current interest to me. Possibly in a year's time I'll become involved with that technology and then want to read some of those articles again.
But that's just an introduction to what I'll mention later on.
Gary Taig? Well, he's flat out as usual putting this magazine to bed. Gary continues seeking out new writers and material for PC Update, and in his usual style works all hours to produce an excellent magazine. If you find some of the articles a bit esoteric, wait, and read them again in a year's time. You'll probably appreciate how far ahead he is leading us. Ash Nallawalla is busy seeking a new job, and after all, family responsibilities must always come first. It would be interesting to know how many of our members are currently in the job hunting market? At the same time, how many members may be able to contribute advice from their own experiences in the job hunting exercise, or have HR skills to offer others? Go to http://communities.msn.com/melbpcnet and read what others have written, and hopefully add something yourself. Users helping Users need not be limited to computing.
So that's why I'm writing this guest editorial. Everyone else is busy this month.
PC Update Online
In my spare time I am continuing to work on the Web page version, known as PC Update Online, and by the time you read this all issues from 1993 through to June 2001 will be available to access through http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/.
If you can't remember that address, there are links from the Melb PC pages to help, or any good search engine will find it for you.
I will continue to work back through the years to the first issues of Melb PC's magazine and newsletters. Many articles are no longer relevant and have been excluded, but just reading the Presidents' and Editors' columns will create a history of Melb PC.
Recently I received an e-mail from Weymouth in Massachusetts asking if I knew where they could have 1980s vintage eight-inch floppy disks transcribed. Weymouth? As I recalled Weymouth was only about 25 km south of Boston, practically a suburb! I replied suggesting they try the Boston Computer Museum as a possible source for the answer. However it really had me intrigued how they had obtained my address, and so I had to ask whether they knew they were asking someone downunder, and why me?
The answer came that in using a search engine, they came across a link to an article I had written about the Boston Computer Society in PC Update March 1996 issue, and it appears in PC Update Online. The fact that the article and writer was in Australia was not noticed, and I suppose irrelevant in this age of immediate Internet access when information can be sourced worldwide.
This is why I said earlier that although some of PC Update may not be relevant on the first reading, at some time in the future you can go to PC Update Online and using its search facilities, find the article you need.
Perhaps some of the most rewarding work has been bringing back to life the wonderful series of articles by Ron Wilby. Ron contributed entertaining and educational articles to
PC Update from 1992 through to October 1995, and they are as interesting today as they were then. Have a look for yourselves - go to
http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/ and use the search facilities and simply enter
ron wilby. You might even like to bookmark the page to come back to again.
Reprinted from the July 2001 issue of PC Update,
the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
