 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group CPU (Club President's Update) Charles Wright charles@melbpc.org.au |
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One of the great things about this group is the fact that our membership represents an enormous diversity of experience and interests.
Come along to one of our monthly meetings and you'll be rubbing shoulders with novices, intermediate and "power" users and people who in their working hours are responsible for the technology that runs multi-million-dollar corporations and government departments. If you think the expression networking refers only to the connection of computers, you haven't been taking advantage of our monthly meetings and our Waffle SIG. (Another highly promising development in the area of attendance at our monthly meetings is the fact that increasingly you'll also find many more women than was the case even a year ago. Computers are definitely becoming a mainstream activity.)
To some extent the way we use computers affects our attitudes to technology, so the inquiring user is going to be able to gather a cross-section of opinion on pretty well anything to do with computers.
At last month's Random Access, for instance, George Skarbek took the view that we should not approach Windows 95 with any haste. His attitude reflects the fact that he is, for all of his modest, genial manner, one of this city's genuine experts on the application of the PC in the corporation. If you are in the same position, you'll be well advised to heed his warning.
On the other hand, my background as a single user/small business person (PCs still haven't been widely adopted in the corporate area in which I now work) means that I've approached Windows 95 from a far different angle. I can't say I was overjoyed at the prospect of risking my data, to say nothing of my peace of mind, by adopting a radical change of operating
systems - anyone who has read my columns over the years would realise my attitude to Microsoft operating systems has not necessarily been
enthusiastic - but, having leapt in at the deep end, I'm quite impressed. From that vantage point, I believe Windows 95 represents an opportunity to harness a much more powerful, much more stable operating system that clears up many of the difficulties I had with Windows for Workgroups.
But don't expect to escape without some degree of angst (although I can't say my installation experience was all that difficult) and probably some denting of your bank account. Don't even consider upgrading without at least a 486 processor and 8 MB of RAM (and I'd suggest 16 MB), and plenty of room on your hard disk. My experience suggests that having a fast, uncluttered hard drive is a critical speed factor with Windows 95.
Whatever your view, however, it seems inevitable that most of us will eventually be using Windows 95, and at some point we're going to have to master its intricacies. We'll need all the help we can get to familiarise ourselves with the tricks that can make the relationship much more harmonious, and avoid those traps that can blight our computing lives.
Make no mistake about it, although at the time I write this, none of the prophecies of major bugs in Windows 95 have emerged (I realise of course that I'm tempting fate), this is not a simple upgrade, and it's going to take quite a bit of adjusting to things like long file names and the desktop metaphor, to shortcuts and even to things like mouse clicks.
The pervasive influence of Windows 95 makes our first one-day seminar - Windows 95
Explained - this month such a great opportunity for members.
This is the chance to have a panel of real authorities ease your passage into the
future - you know the one that Bill Gates' advertising campaign suggests is such a simple, exciting transition to a new age of computing. Of course we know, don't we, that it never really works out like that.
If you haven't already booked for this event, you'd be wise to do so immediately, because this is an opportunity you'll kick yourself for missing.
The date is October 21. It starts at 10 am, and continues until 4 pm. The venue is Camberwell Centre. Our team of volunteers, led by
Stan Johnstone, has been liaising with Microsoft and other vendors to ensure that the presentations are going to be full of information, and that you're going to be able to serve up your toughest questions, and expect to get them answered.
We're trying to make the program particularly relevant to our members. One example: as one of the bonuses you can expect to get a dial-up script that will allow you to connect direct to our Internet service from Windows 95, without having to enter passwords etc. The dial-in scripting procedure in Windows 95 is not altogether intuitive.
We've made the admission for this event a token $5 for a member, and $10 for a non-member, so you can bring a friend.
Some of the committee take the view that the small charge is going to give the wrong impression, and that we ought to fix a price that would indicate the value of this event. In the commercial world, you'd expect to pay a good deal more for a full day of this sort of information. I have to admit that as president, with one eye always on the balance sheet, I would have liked to charge $20, but I've been persuaded that we'll cover the costs at $5, and we want to make the proceedings available to as many members as possible.
It's particularly important that this venture succeeds, because it's the model for a whole series of in-depth weekend activities that could, depending on the response, even lead eventually to weekend monthly meetings. We will definitely be looking for feedback.
The popularity of our Internet service continues to outstrip any of our projections. As I write this, we have exceeded by 250 per cent, the
number of subscribers we predicted we would have at the end of the calendar year. The amount of Usenet news group traffic they generate has also far exceeded our expectations, so that we had to put a temporary restriction on our feed.
We are therefore working on increasing our Internet bandwidth by up to four times the existing 64 KB, which among other things, will give you much better Web-browsing performance
Obviously we're also going have to put in more lines and modems. We're allocating funds for another 16 lines and fast modems. We've had some good response to our search for paid staff to maintain the service, and as this magazine reaches you, I'm hopeful we will have made an appointment. Obviously all this means massive expenditure, which fortunately we can meet out of our earnings, but I don't know if our next all-day seminar, which of course has to be on the Internet, is going to be priced at $5. [Presidential grin.]
Reprinted from the October 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
