 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Pres Said John Beck |
I have had calls from some of the Dial Help volunteers asking for co-operation from members soliciting their help. Do not call late at night. Some PC users lose track of time and work on into the early morning. I have on occasions done so also, but the Dial Help people may retire early. When appraised of the late hour and suggested to call the next day there have been rude remarks made. Also when the helpers are busy at the time of the call, requests for the caller to ring back later should be respected, and should not initiate rudeness. Bear in mind the helpers are volunteers and have a job to do. They are not a substitute for reading the manual, and definitely not a service to help run pirated software.
As will be seen elsewhere in the magazine we have some training courses under way at last. It is expected that there will be a continuing series of subjects and levels. In July and onwards it is intended to run a selection from Lotus, Excel, DOS, Introduction to PCs, Wordperfect, Multimate, Word, Works, Autocad, C, Pascal, etc. There are openings for competent trainers, who will be paid a fee for their service. The Constitution of the Group states that one of our primary functions is to enhance the knowledge and understanding of computers. The Committee objective is to organise training on a non-profit basis at the least cost to members. The cost of trainers, laboratory hire, and courseware are fixed regardless of how many people participate. To keep costs down, a minimum of ten students is required, with the exception of Autocad in which case six is the desired number. Details will also be published in PC Update.
Shortly after you receive this copy of PC Update, PC 89 will commence. The dates were incorrectly stated in this column last month as Wednesday to Saturday. It is in fact Tuesday 6/6/89 to Thursday 8/6/89 from 10.00 am to 7.00 pin, and Friday 9/6/89 10.00 am to 5.00 pin. The mailer contains a free admission ticket to attend the show.
Later in the month from Thursday 29th June to 2nd July Games '89 will be held at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds. The exhibits will include games, video games, leisure software, hobbies and sporting goods. We have been offered a stand at no cost. It is unfortunate that this exhibition is held so close to PC 89, because manning (or 'womanning') a stand requires many volunteers.
The two places in the Ventura course kindly donated by Microhelp have been awarded to the two sub-editors. The committee reviewed all the applications many of which were also worthy of a place. However it was considered that the sub-editors, neither of whom had been trained in Ventura, have been giving their time to produce PC Update and have shown their enthusiasm, and hence had the edge on all other applicants.
In the printed catalogue in the last two issues, the list of volume names and descriptions was not printed. Elsewhere in this issue is a listing of all disk names up to 1st May 1989, which is up to and including Melb 1339. The January catalogue only went to Melb 1189. There are some more new disks in the pipeline, and when they are catalogued an updated version will be available on disk. Your old catalogue can be updated for a cost of $2 plus the old disk. It is expected the new catalogue disk will be available at the June meeting and onwards. Of interest to all DataFlex users, Peter Tawse advised me that he is setting up a bulletin board. Our catalogue is run in DataFlex and a copy will be on his board with the source code.
Once again the Group has managed to obtain a reduction in the price of Nashua disks. This has been obtained due to bulk purchase. At the request of Regional SIGs, the committee decided that if anyone from the region is in Melbourne, they can obtain disks and take them back to the region for distribution. It is suggested that prior notice is given to the Office to ensure stocks are available.
Some of the regions feel that they are disadvantaged relative to members in the metropolitan area, and think the Regional SIGs should be given some kind of assistance to compensate for their geographical location. Some suggestions have been put forward, and the committee are investigating how to quantify this disadvantage. At present the Group pay the cost of hiring meeting rooms, and do not charge postage and packing on PD disks to any member outside the metropolitan area. Any exercise of this nature is difficult to cost but we are undertaking the task.
The registration of Shareware which John Drake has been investigating is about to start. At the next meeting he will be collecting $A15 for Buerg's LIST.COM program. Also registrations for PC-WRITE version 3.02 will be taken. The actual cost has not been determined yet, but will be in the order of $A60. This will include the manual and authority to use in perpetuity. With bulk registration of 24 copies there is a discount of 25%. John will contact Bob Wallace in the meantime to establish a firm price. Anyone unable to attend the meeting can order via the box number, and please note on the envelope 'Shareware' so that it can be redirected. Details will be put on the Bulletin Board as soon as available. Acceptance of orders will be until the end of the month to allow country members to order. As this is a new venture there will be opportunity to advertise which programs will be ordered in the following month. John is compiling a list of the ones which have been popular sales from the PD library and is contacting the authors for details of their products. People who have registered with Buerg have received a disk of other useful utilities. Up to the present time Australia has had a poor image with regard to registration of shareware, but hopefully this venture will reverse our credit rating.
Reprinted from the June 1989 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
