 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group President's Page John Drake |
Do you have trouble accessing our Bulletin Board? I must say I never have any trouble at around 6.00 am. and not much trouble in the early afternoon but I gather that the evenings are hell with the lid on. Well you will be glad to know that we have virtually finished the addition of two more lines and the installation of a new, more powerful computer to run the BBS. The new computer has been installed and the extra lines are waiting but at the time of writing Colin Macauley and Doug Brooke, who spend hours every week nursing the BBS, have been having a few problems with the Desqview program that enables the single computer to look after multiple lines. However, I expect that by the time you read this they will have sorted out the problems and you will have three, and in the evenings four, lines available to you. Three lines will shortly be on a rotating system, so that one number will access the three, and in the evenings the office voice line will be switched to the BBS. In addition, the PC Update BBS has been moved into the Group's Cecil Street office and Committee messages and magazine business will be handled on this board. Colin Macauley has kindly agreed to serve as sysop also on this separate BBS.
But what do you do when you get on the BBS?
The handful of messages that comes in every day certainly doesn't overload the lines.
Doug Brooke has just reviewed accesses to the Board over a 4½ week period. He discovered that out of about 2,050 callers accessing the Board, 1,848 pushed the messages section aside and went straight to the files area. Only 208 entered the message area. And a majority of callers who went to the file areas spent their half hour of access time implacably downloading programs.
What do you do with all these files
I'm not the quickest off the mark at learning new programs. It can take me a week or two learning to use a program and quite a lot of weeks before I feel happy with it; So I am left a bit stunned when I think of members who are downloading 10 or 20 or more programs a month. What are they doing with them ?
Charles Sandercock, a previous PCUG sysop, used to take a somewhat severe attitude to downloading and would scold members who, he thought, were overdoing it. Well, the messages he got in return and the letters the Committee received had to be seen to be believed. One member wrote: I will sweep your Committee out of office on a platform of unlimited downloads for all.
People obviously have strong views on the subject. Maybe some of you would be kind enough to write to me (for publication in this magazine) and let me know what you do with all these downloads.
To coincide with the upgrading of the Board and in the hope of weaning some of those file addicts off their search for a quick fix, the March meeting is being devoted to Communications.
PCUG Sysop Colin Macauley will talk about the problems and some of his experiences (some of them very amusing) involved in running our own BBS. We will have demonstrations of set-up procedures for communications programs, speakers on the international technical conferences carried on the international network to which our
BBS is affiliated and on the procedures for accessing overseas BBSs and data sources. And we expect to display samples and take orders, at excellent prices, for a range of modems.
Office Manager
David Sloan has decided to return to his career as a financial consultant on a full-time basis and will thus be lost to the Group which has profited from his services as admire. officer over the past three years. The Committee has expressed its deep appreciation of David's loyalty and efficiency and we all wish him well in his continuing career. In David's place the Committee has appointed a full time office manager. She is Conine Garamszegi, a qualified nursing sister with a lot of experience in hospital administration who got led astray by a passing PC and has turned her long term goals to computing. She has an Associate Diploma of Business (microcomputing) and an Advanced Certificate of Information Technology from
Holmesglen College of TAFE. The sub-committee which interviewed 10 out of 28 applicants for the post were impressed by Ms. Garamszegi's mature attitude and obvious competence. We are sure she will continue to deliver the sort of service to which David got us accustomed.
Prices Reduced
The prices of both software and diskettes are being dropped once again. In future shareware and public domain disks will cost $5 for
5¼ inch and $6 for 3½ inch. And the postage charge is being reduced from $3 to $2. As well, the prices for Nashua diskettes is being reduced. However, there is a great deal of activity in the diskettes market at present and we are actively investigating the range of diskettes available to us. We hope to be able to make some early announcement on this question but, of course, the cheapest diskettes are not always the best and a good deal of testing is involved before we come to some decision. As they say, watch this space.
The Committee
The Committee is getting itself organised for what we hope will be an active and productive year. We have established a series of subcommittees to take on particular jobs and we would warmly welcome volunteer help from the membership at large. If you will let me or any other Committee member know your particular interest we will point you towards the sub-committee that can best use your talents. If you want to move up to membership of the main Committee it won't take you a lifetime or cost you a fortune in bribes. Vacancies come up from rime to time and we are always looking for genuine workers. At the moment we are holding one vacancy on the Committee to accommodate one of our female members. As I said last month, we would warmly welcome some suggestions.
Reprinted from the March 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
