 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial David Jitts |
Here we are in 1987 and another edition of PC Update. May the New Year bring health, happiness and prosperity to all of you. Judging by the many nice things that were said, the last edition must have turned out better than I had feared and a lot of the credit for that belongs to our Production Editor, John Wilkins. John turned up in the nick of time for the last edition and guided my tottering steps as I learned to walk through the production of a newsletter. John also designed the new cover.
The other offers of help have been most gratifying. Keith Lane has agreed to be our Assistant Editor. John Drake has offered to be the recipient of all contributions made via the telephone as well as help out in editing. John Swales will be responsible for distribution, so if you are having problems in this area, give John a call (his phone numbers are listed on the inside front cover). Ian Robinson, that well known PC Identity, will be a regular contributor and his first offering appears in this Edition. We also welcome our new "DOS Corner" sub-editor, John Preston. Last but not least, Lloyd Borrett has been extremely helpful in upgrading the hardware/software which is used to produce PC Update.
In addition to help from members, we are continuing to receive some very welcome support from Vendors. Olivetti, via their dealer HiSoft, have added an Enhanced Color Graphics board to the M24 Computer which we have on long term loan from them. Microsoft were kind enough to upgrade our copy of WORD to Version 3.0 and also to provide a mouse. Tech Pacific loaned us a Hercules Plus board for a two week evaluation period.
The number of contributions and the volume of correspondence from the
readers of PC Update has been a little disappointing. The very reason for a User Group such as ours is
to provide a medium for exchanging ideas and experiences. Without participation of its members it will wither
and perish. With some 1200 members there simply must be a tremendous pool of information out there that is
simply waiting to be shared. So please dust off your wordprocessor and let us hear from you.
Perhaps the lack of input has been due to some failing in the content of PC Update or even a total
misconception of what the readers really want. We are concerned about these possibilities. To explore this
further, Keith Lane is undertaking a survey of the members to try and establish a profile of their perception
of the Group. Keith's progress report on this project is in this edition. If you can stand another
exhortation (these pages seem full of them), please extend Keith every co-operation in the difficult task
that he has undertaken.
The current buzz word in the micro-computer industry is Desk Top Publishing. 1987 will prove to be an exciting year for this field since there are many new products expected which will allow the IBM PC and its clones to challenge the dominance which has been established by the Apple McIntosh and its LaserWriter. It appears there will be many directions which PC Update can follow in the selection of the ultimate hardware/software combination for the production of this Newsletter. Some work in this area has already begun with the test drive of the Hercules Plus board and the installation of the E C G card.
It is hoped that the Desk Top Publishing SIG will get underway in February and one of its projects will be to determine which of these possible directions is best for us, within the constraints of our existing equipment and our limited financial resources. Given the brains and business connections which exist in our Group, we will surely get it right. If this project receives the industry support which it deserves, we should end up with a pretty nice system and have an awful lot of fun in the process.
It was great to see three members of the Group who are not on the Committee turn up to the Committee Meeting which took place in November. This kind of participation not only brings in a flow of fresh ideas and initiatives but must surely keep us Committee members on our collective toes. So please come along. The date, time and place are listed under "Calendar" on the front cover.
Well last month we promised you a bumper edition and this is it! Phew! Hope
you enjoy it as much as I did the preparation.
Reprinted from the January 1987 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
