 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Pres Said John Beck |
The lateness of delivery of PC Update may account for the low attendance at some of the January SIGs and the monthly general meeting. The Age didn't mention some of them either.
This year's subjects for the monthly meeting is being compiled, so if you desire to have a particular subject covered drop a line to the GPO Box or give David Sloan a call and it will be fitted in somehow.
I often wonder how well people read the magazine. Ash has had some replies to the questionnaire published in the December issue, but it is only a small fraction of the membership. To benefit from membership of the Group it is to your advantage to let your interests be known.
On this subject, some members do not read it and retain the information that they have read. Orders for software or special offers are received long after the particular item is obsolete. For instance the PD catalogue has been on one disk for at least a year, and yet orders are still arriving for a two disk set.
With reference to reading, if you have a new disk, especially if it is PD Software, the first thing to do is to read the directory to find out if there is a READ.ME file a *.TXT or *.DOC file. If there is read it with a text reading file such as L.COM, LIST.COM or any word processor. If none of these are available key in TYPE *.DOC I MORE, and the file will be listed to the monitor a screenful at a time. Pressing any key will bring the next section to screen. The disk must not be write protected for it to work, and the disk drive on which the text file resides must be part of the command. For example if DOS is on the current drive and the file is on drive B: the command will be TYPE B:*.DOC I MORE. Read any of these files carefully and it will tell you how the software operates.
If the program will not run, look in the directory for a file -CATALOG.*** where *** is a number. There should also be a file called CRC.EXE. Type CRC and the files on the disk will be checked for corruption. It will list the files by name and will report *match* if it is OK. There will be an error message noting the difference between the bad file and an OK one. There will also be a message which states Quantity of lines which failed the parse test - 4. This refers to the 4 lines at the bottom of the listing which starts with MELB Library -CATALOG etc. A few disks in the library do not have room for these two files, but if the -CATALOG.*** exists then you can use a CRC file from another disk to run it.
If a file extension is .ARC it must be unarchived before it will run. If the extension is .BAS it must be run from within whichever BASIC is supplied with the DOS you bought. Many dealers are supplying machines with just enough of the operating system to boot up. If it is IBM the system files are hidden, and the only file shown with DIR is COMMAND.COM.
With the clones there will be MSDOS.SYS, BIO.SYS as well as COMMAND.COM. Some machines may have a pirate copy of DOS but no BASIC program.
For anyone not conversant with how to run their machine it is recommended that they attend one of the courses on PC familiarisation, or a DOS course starting at introductory level and progressing through to advanced. In the meantime visit one of the New User SIGs. As they are run at Yarraville, Camberwell, and Heathmont none of them would be very far away unless you live outside the metropolitan area or down the Peninsula. The SIGs are structured to explain "how to do what at present you can't do", rather than specific topics. The reason being that the convenors have forgotten what new users find difficult, as they passed that way long ago. The attendees are the ones who generate input to make the night a success.
During the coming year I intend to visit all our Regional and New User SIGs. There are now too many to fit in a visit to all metropolitan ones. By the time that this article goes to press Doug Brooke and I will have been to the inaugural meeting of the Goulburn Valley SIG at Numurkah.
A small group are working towards setting up an interface between Shareware writers and the Group. The object will be to register shareware for members on a group basis. It may be possible to negotiate a discount on the normal fee with processing several registrations at the same time, and not having the hot line service. Advice on many of the programs will be serviced through our current Dial Help. When this is in operation the latest versions will be sent to us sooner. Disks have already been sent to us from Magee Enterprises, with whom we had contact about 12 months ago.
This year it is intended to have budgetary control of our finances. To date it has been a case of what is required to give service to members, and can we afford to buy it. Now it is intended to plan ahead and allocate funds on the basis of what is required for the efficient running and future progress of the Group. Later on things which would be nice to have but not essential, will be considered on their merits. Since there has been an admin. officer and a financial package in operation, historical data has been gathered. So far six months actual figures have been used for analysis and with a forecast to cover the rest of the year, by about April/May a sound budget can be formulated. Using similar management reporting at monthly meetings our financial position will be known.
Now that the Constitution has been changed to give membership for twelve months from the date of joining, the previous system of subs due in March with grace until June to pay is over. Subs will now be due on the anniversary of joining, or when due under the old formula.
Reprinted from the March 1989 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
