 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Registered Marks
We say in the inside front cover that all product names mentioned here are trademarks of their owners. Authors rarely tell us who the owners are but, legally speaking, our disclaimer is apparently not good enough. Henceforth, could authors please do so, so that we can acknowledge the owner by way of a footnote at the first occurrence. My employers' legal department requires this of our own documentation. A product's documentation will mention the precise way the name is spelled, including internal capitals. Some product names are registered in uppercase letters, e.g. WORDSTAR®, not WordStar or Wordstar. Some product names are not registered at all. dBASE® users rarely get its spelling right. My 1985 dBASE manuals say that it is a registered trademark, yet my 1988 Ventura Publisher@ manual thinks that dBASE is a trademark. Hence it is difficult to rely on citations found in third party publications.
Protect Your Belongings
Colin Macauley's home was burgled recently and he lost some hi-fi and photographic equipment. Thankfully, his computers were not touched but it is a timely reminder to mark your valuables with invisible ink or an engraving pen. When I had a MicroBee, I knew a few people who used to reprogram the boot EPROM to display their name and telephone number instead of the original sign-on message. I use my old Service number to mark my property but most people use their driving licence number for this purpose.
End of Wyse PC Saga!
We got our replacement MS-DOS and BIOS chips from Wyse Australia after I sent the US parent company a reminder. Not surprisingly, the 'free' upgrade was only 'half free' - they billed us for the BIOS chips. We have paid the invoice without complaint as it would not normally have been free. Sadly, the new BIOS still will not enable Bitstream Fontware to make fonts but it does give a new (how appropriate) error message and locks up the machine. If anyone knows of a Wyse 80386 (model 3216) user who has successfully used Fontware then please write to us. It works perfectly on other Wyse machines as attested by many DTP users who use Wyse AT-class clones.
Big Screen
This magazine is produced with the help of a 19" Sigma Designs LaserView monitor. I did not know that their new adapter card enables one to use most software with it. At present I use the NEC Multisync for anything other than Ventura and Publisher's Paintbrush. If you have this older model (new ones are called L-View), then Sigma Designs in USA will give you this ability by upgrading your board free of charge if you purchased it after September 1987, or else it will cost US$150 including ordinary postage. They are still working on a Windows/386 driver. I only found out this useful information by chance when I wrote to the company on a related matter.
Whingeing
Some of my whingeing some issues ago was intended to stir con-sciences (and not because I need to cry in public) but it seems to have the opposite effect. Terry Day wrote me a critical, constructive letter which I have not printed because it frees one page to material that you would rather read instead.
Submission Guidelines
Terry asks me to write submission guidelines in a more conspicuous place than the Contact Directory, preferably to be repeated each month. Last year I wrote several pages on this topic, describing an ideal situation but many people assumed that my submission standards were very high. I now merely ask for an ASCII file that has been processed with an electronic spell-checker. The smart users wonder why we don't accept popular word processor formats when Ventura Publisher can handle them all. They will find their answers in this issue.
Asking the Editor for Help
I have not been rude to the people who have conned someone into divulging my work telephone number simply to ask my opinion on a software package, but this must stop. I am the editor, not a Dial Help volunteer and I don't want to get into trouble for wasting company time talking on the telephone.
Thankfully, almost every time I attend a meeting someone comes up to congratulate me for some of the good things I do. To these people I suggest that they should also do the same to the other volunteers who stand behind the counter, get up on stage, organise special interest groups, run courses, attend committee meetings etc. Some of them devote more time to the group than I do.
Group's Postal Address
David Sloan asks that members should forget the GPO box number because it is getting more difficult for him to collect the mail every day. (We are not closing the PO box - it will be used for mail that is less time-critical.) Please use the office address for all correspondence.
More Advertisements Still Needed
We welcome Co-Cam to our list of advertisers particularly as their three-month colour booking gives us a brief opportunity to use colour on the front cover. Have readers any advice for us as regards attracting advertisers? One suggestion is that we could offer wider coverage by approaching interstate user groups and asking them to repeat an advertisement (and share the advertising revenue). It would be great if all Aussie clubs shared one magazine (and nothing else) but we would have to prove to them that we were not ripping them off and they would need to have some control over the contents. How about asking your employers to advertise in these pages? You could then see a hundred-page issue some day without increasing your subs.
Submissions for October Issue
Peter Lazarus is enjoying a tropical sojourn at present and will not be able to edit items for (only) the next issue. Please send all items for the October issue to Charles Wright on disk or via the BBS.
Reprinted from the September 1989 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
