The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Gary Taig editor@melbpc.org.au

EFA Is Always Active

A few weeks ago Irene Graham, Executive Director of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc (EFA) sent out some material on two topics that will be of particular interest to members. They are the proposed Do Not Call Register and Classification Fee Waivers.

The Do Not Call Register is under consideration by Government and those subjected to a deluge of telemarketing calls at dinner time will no doubt be delighted to see that it appears to be serious consideration. You can read the discussion paper circulated by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and a host of public submissions at http://www.dcta.goc.au/tel/do_not_call. When you
have a handle on the issues, the EFA submission is at http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm-dcita-donotcall-2005.html.

The other one is also worth reading because it provides background to the problem experienced by Ian Rankin in his efforts to include games and other multimedia material on the Monthly Disc. The argument over whether material is a film or a computer game and whether or not a game should appear under film classifications and the limits imposed on distribution of material is sometimes purely academic but one difficulty Ian faces is that because of the way The Act is worded, a game cannot be distributed if it's not classified. A significant question is, who would bother spending the money to get a freeware game classified?

The CLASSIFICATION (Publications, Films And Computer Games) ACT 1995 can be viewed at http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/2/1143/top.htm  and an EFA submission on the waiver of classification fees can be found at http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm-agd-oflcfeewaiver-2005.html. There is enough in that to keep you going for some hours and when you've learnt it all, I'm sure Ian would appreciate knowing that everyone approached his/her local member of Parliament insisting that the wording of The Act be fixed.

Refresh Your Archives

Jennifer Johnson writes (elsewhere in this edition) a timely reminder around how all our old documents on disk are rapidly ageing. Many people reading this will already have lost old and perhaps precious old documents simply because a floppy disk or backup tape has failed (from the days when we never gave the problem a second thought and assumed they would last forever); but Jennifer raises an important point, that you don't need the original version of your chosen software. Most software packages, particularly word processors are backwards compatible and will usually always open files that were created and saved by earlier versions. Then, as Major Keary points out in his review of StarOffice if your favourite word processor won't open its own or earlier files, the inimitable StarOffice is known for its success with that task.

It's important we remember that while computers are built from plastic and steel and may last for many decades without physical deterioration, the data we store on floppy disks and tapes is subject to the magnetic qualities of the storage media being retained and "lasting the distance" against all odds. Many times it will not, and there would be few people with a long term involvement in computers who haven't already lost old data because of the failure of a storage device.

It's well worth setting aside some time to tabulate and document all your stored data and review its physical storage. The more work you did on your computer in the past the bigger the task and naturally, more reasons to conduct this review as a matter of urgency. If you still have data stored on floppy disks or on old tapes schedule the job immediately before it's too late.

Online Backup

A member wrote asking about online backup services for a PC...  "Mv daughter is a Mac user and member of Mac.com which costs about $100 per year, You get a Mac e-mail address, tech support (perhaps other things I don't know). You also have the ability to backup anything on your computer to a Mac site. You can set your computer to backup automatically as often as you want. Then if your computer crashes, gets stolen, or your house burns down, vou've got backup."

While members using the group's ISP service each get a small amount (10 MB) of private storage space on the Melb PC servers, and WestNet provides its users with 20 MB of space, these and others like them are primarily for hosting one's personal Web site. Is there anyone out there with a particular knowledge of Online Backup services? Someone who could write an article, or perhaps identify information for someone else who has the time to write? There will be other members who want to know about such services, so let's unearth them.

Photographic Competition

I expected to have news of the 2006 competition by now but alas, No! It seems that we must put together a formal proposal so that someone in Sydney can properly evaluate the benefits of ongoing participation with Melb PC. I don't know how long it will be before I have the time to put together a suitable proposal. They get advertising and promotion value that far exceeds the cost of the donated prize and I have to think how can I explain the same facts over again. So, treat the 2006 photo competition as being in the melting pot for the moment.

Reprinted from the March 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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