 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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PC 89
I made my annual pilgrimage to Melbourne's largest PC show, PC 89 last
month. This year children below the age of 18 were not supposed to be admitted, although I know one lad who
got in because he was a genuine customer with hard-saved money ready in his pocket.
There were a few stands where the occupants were busy talking to one another instead of attending to
prospective customers; there were a few stands manned by people who seemed to know little about computers;
and then there were a few manned by enthusiastic, knowledgeable people - the usual mixture. I did not see
IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Ashton-Tate or other big names seen in previous years, although their products were
being displayed by their distributors. It must be another bad year for the computing industry if the big ones
can afford not to be there. Our illustrious group had a big stand which helped not only to increase our
numbers but also enhanced visibility in the computing industry. About 150 joined on the spot and, as is usual
at these shows, many others will have taken application forms away to fill out over the next few weeks. For
the first time companies were asking us how they could advertise in our magazine.
It was mostly an 80386-cum-VGA dominated affair. I am no longer excited by this technology mainly because it
is getting beyond my budget, and even businesses cannot justify the expense when an AT or XT class machine
would suffice. Nevertheless, if money is not an issue, it appears to be the way to go simply to reduce the
risks of obsolescence.
Wyse 80386
Wyse Inc (USA) rang me at home at 3 am to tell me they would appreciate our fax number. My wife and I are
usually asleep at that hour, and that day was no exception. Luckily I remembered the office fax number and
gave it to them. They were responding to a letter from us complaining about the BIOS and DOS in our two Model
3216s. When the fax arrived it asked us to try our dealer, distributor, Wyse Australia and then Wyse Inc in
that order. Apparently we needed an upgrade. Now both machines have been to the dealer since their purchase,
and we would have been informed of known upgrades. For machines worth some $10,000 each (fully optioned), I
rightly or wrongly would expect to hear about upgrades somehow, if not from the dealer, then at least from
the manufacturer who got our registration card, or perhaps in an advertisement. But there is no money in such
an exercise from the manufacturer's viewpoint and I don't recall any company doing this. If the customer
finds out then well and good; otherwise he obviously doesn't miss it.
I faxed Wyse Inc saying that I did not know the distributor concerned and that I was not aware of their
Australian office. Fortunately they chose to end the correspondence by asking their Sydney office to send us
two free sets of BIOS chips complete with installation instructions and DOS 3.3. We are still waiting for
these to turn up, and I hope they will help me use Fontware and help the BBS too. The moral there is to find
out if your machine (if it is still on the market) has had a BIOS upgrade since your purchase, as there is
usually an ad-vantage in obtaining it. This is not the place to explain what the BIOS is, but suffice to say
it is vital to your PC and that its version number is usually displayed when the machine is switched on.
IBM PS/2 Model 70
An item in the Wall Street Journal three days ago mentions an oil
leak problem in the 120 MB drives used in IBM's PS/2 Model 70. Some 25,000 units are affected and IBM (at
least in the USA) has offered to replace the defective units. In case you or your employers have this model,
don't dive for that telephone until you have determined that the drives were manufactured at IBM's Fujisawa
plant in Japan, because the defective models represent only 15 per cent of the Model 70s sold since June
1988. I thought oil was a no-no in hard disk drives.
DR-DOS
If anyone has seen or used Digital Research's DR-DOS, which is allegedly used in millions of PCs as an
alternative to MS-DOS, could they please write about it in an article in these pages?
Interleaf
If you fitted your IBM 80386 with 6 MB RAM just to run Interleaf then you may have been hasty. The New
York Times reports that the latest version requires a mere 2 MB, a more sensible figure, I think.
Advertisements Wanted
Please count the ever-diminishing advertisements in these pages and see if you can do something to improve
the situation. Without advertising your subs could barely support a quarter of these pages, and believe me,
you will see thinner issues unless the situation improves. We have a few new accounts but we need full-page,
12-month contracts to be comfortable. If you buy a product from an advertiser please tell them you saw their
advert in this magazine.
PC Update Matters
We say farewell (only as regards their association with this magazine) and thanks to John Wilkins and Peter Tawse, who have given us sterling service over the years. Dial Help amendments are being handled by David Sloan until we find a new volunteer. Any takers? Charles Wright is making a temporary departure from these pages until the September issue, so please send all articles to Peter Lazarus for the time being. Peter is taking a break from mid-August to early October.
Another landmark: 4400 copies are now being printed - a jump of 400 since the previous issue. This issue also marks a year in this honorary job for ye ed.
Some reminders: Please do not send disks to my private PO box as I cannot
get to the post office before 5 pin three weeks out of five and, besides, the correct editorial procedure is
to mail the disks to an Associate Editor for subbing. I sound like a broken record because some people like
to think that they are exceptions. If you missed the dead-line then it is too bad. Sometimes the Secretary
can print late news on the mailer. If the disk or parcel is not an article for this magazine, but is (say) a
review copy of software or a box of chocolates then please send it to our club address. While the associate
editors are away I will be doing the subbing, so please use the club address then. The situation is as
follows: for the August issue - send disks to Peter Lazarus; September issue - send to club address; October
issue - send to Charles Wright; November - back to normal.
Reprinted from the July 1989 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
