 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Communicating with Melb PC
This issue mentions several forms of communications, mainly the type where you connect your PC to the telephone line and communicate with another computer. A more traditional form of communication that needs your assistance is between members and the group's officers and helpers.
In my mail I sometimes get material that has nothing to do with PC Update. All of that should be addressed to the Administrative Officer, who will sort out what goes to whom. If you need to send a free ad (on disk) and a program for the public domain library, do so on two disks, else you run the risk of delays or worse - loss in transit. Use two pieces of paper if you need to discuss two topics - that will ensure that the two pieces will be forwarded simultaneously to the people concerned.
I am pleased that we have a couple of local articles about our main bulletin board (BBS) because I believe that many people don't know what the term "BBS" means. If these articles still don't answer your queries then you will have to communicate orally with a more knowledgeable fellow member at one of our meetings.
Using Bulletin Boards
There are two main reasons for using bulletin boards. BBSs provide a messaging facility and a repository for non-commercial programs. If you have a problem with a piece of software or the PC itself, you can write a message on a BBS and then hope that someone will give you a good answer. Whom do you leave the message for? Just address it to "All" or the name of an individual. (No postal address is required in such messages.) If you cannot access a BBS (for a variety of reasons) you can either solve your problem by paying a professional or by asking someone who knows more than you do. If someone replies to your message on a BBS then you have a good chance that several others will also jump in and let you know if the first respondent gave you a wrong answer.
If you like to collect non-commercial programs then you can copy them from a BBS. I think that the majority of users fall into this category. Nothing wrong with that, but it would be nice if more people were to read and answer the messages left by others. On our main BBS there are days when scarcely a single message is written in Areas 1 and 2 - most people are using up their 30 minutes downloading programs. I thought that the "me" generation was left back in the 1980s.
PC Update BBS
The PC Update BBS is about 35 kilometres away from the main BBS. It consists of an old PC, a 20 MB disk, a modem, and is connected to the telephone line 24 hours a day.
I have nothing to do with the main BBS (which many of you have used, and which lives at the group's office) except as an ordinary member. Some users log on the PC Update BBS and abuse me for having to re-register, even though they have been members for years. People who don't read every word I write in my editorials don't impress me either - hey that's a joke, OK?
To repeat my June editorial, you have to re-register to get on the PC Update BBS. We can't copy the user list from the main BBS mainly because you and I get different privileges on the PC Update BBS, and also because the old XT would die if it had to check every login against a list of 1500 users!
I don't care how long you have been a member of the user group - the PC Update BBS is run for the convenience of authors and the editorial team so that we can put together this magazine with minimal delay. When you first log on you get the highest possible access you will ever get, unless you become a published author. Then you get some rather dubious additional "privileges", i.e. the ability to download some desktop publishing files, which you probably don't need. We don't want that BBS to become as busy as the main BBS or else we'll be at square one. Hence it is deliberately unattractive to non-authors. Unless you are a potential/recent author, or wish to leave a comment about the magazine, a letter for publication, a free ad etc, you will not want to use that BBS.
DOS Power Tools 2nd Edition
Many members liked the recent review of "DOS Power Tools", which is published by PC Magazine. Members of an interstate user group can buy it for $81 instead of the RRP of $90. The shop concerned didn't want to advertise in PC Update so I suggest instead that you try a local branch of Angus and Robertson. Tell them that another A&R branch is offering a discount, and see if they'll give a similar discount. (Even $81 is way out of my budget, but from all accounts that is a good book and the new edition includes DOS 4.0 and comes with two disks).
Donations
Thanks to WordPerfect dealer Ali Kayn and WordPerfect Pacific for a copy of WP5.1 for PC Update. Thanks also to Borland International for some giveaway T-shirts.
Reprinted from the September 1990 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
