 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial David Jitts |
I am having a bit of a tussle with my ethics. As Editor, should I enter the Presidential election campaign and sound off about who I believe is best man for the job? That little bugger that sits on my shoulder says "NO", so I'll refrain. But I have asked permission to speak at the AGM as an ordinary member in support of my nominated candidate. So if you are interested in my views, come to the AGM, listen (assuming permission is granted) and make up your own mind.
November marks the fourth anniversary of the birth of Melb PC. This must be one of the fastest growing organisations that I have ever encountered and it is exciting to be part of the action. To celebrate this occasion, we have an article on the history of the Group written by its Founder, Lloyd Borrett. Lloyd is eminently qualified to deal with the subject. He not only conceived and gave birth to the Group, but has nurtured it ever since.
Is my face red! Under the big banner "The Twelve Commandments", I published the current blue print for the Group's development. The only trouble is that there were only eleven commandments. You would be amazed at all the comedians that my boo-boo has produced.
But "The Twelve. ." seems to roll off the tongue much easier than "The Eleven . .". So let's have twelve.
I am going to run a competition among the membership to find another
Commandment. Send your in your entry: C/- The Editor,
PC Update Twelfth Commandment Competition
G.P.O Box 1728P, 3001.
The winning entry will receive a prize of a pack of ten diskettes. The Committee will be the judges and
therefore its members are ineligible to compete. Come on, be in it.
This month I have had a number of calls from members who have strong views on Shareware software as distinct from public domain software. Speaking as one who has published shareware software, I listened very sympathetically to their point of view. One of my callers said that the response from the USA had been quite encouraging but that the Australian contributions were barely enough to feed the cat... and that was because he only had a very small cat which has a light appetite! This is the same as my own experience.
So I have an idea. Let's start an Aussie Shareware SIG which would be dedicated to helping programmers to market their products via the Shareware concept. I can see Melb PC becoming the focal point for all this activity in Australia. Of course, having got this brilliant flash of inspiration, I have exhausted myself. Who wants to get the ball rolling?
For those of you who leave messages for me on the bulletin board, I think I should explain how I receive those messages. I have only a 300 baud, manual dial modem and I just hate the problems of trying to log onto a busy board. For this reason, I never access the Melb. PC Bulletin Board. One of the Sysops very kindly clears all messages for me once a month, just after the copy deadline for PC Update.. As a result any messages uploaded after the deadline just sit there until the next month.
One day in the future I will acquire another modem and overcome my inherent
irritation with bulletin boards. When that happens I will get the messages more frequently. However, the
problems of deadlines still exist because of printers, etc. Perhaps I will then just up-load the entire
magazine and bypass the printing process altogether.
Reprinted from the November 1987 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
