The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Carol Daniels cad@melbpc.org.au

Editors - like parents - are supposed to love all their children equally. So I probably shouldn't confess that the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) issue is one of my personal favourites. One reason I like it so much is that when researching the topic, I always find interesting and inspiring material. Surprise! Editing PC Update involves more than writing an editorial once a month. I spend several hours each month reviewing trends and issues related to upcoming themes. I don't believe the enthusiasm I have for this issue is entirely based on the fact that I operate a small business myself. In fact, I rarely find anything that relates to my particular line of business. But I do think that business operators like to read about other peoples successes (and learn from their mistakes).

This month I stumbled upon a trivia question, that went something like this...
How many small-business people would be drastically affected if their computers suffered a catastrophic breakdown?

My response - all operators of small businesses would be drastically affected if their computers suffered a catastrophic breakdown - reveals at least one thing about my personality.

To tell you the truth, I don't even remember if I actually read the figures in the answer, because I got sidetracked by a reference to something else, from the US Congressional Budget Office. Their research said that nearly 76.6% of American families own assets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, businesses and homes that could potentially produce a capital gain. There was some associated information about the proportion of those that used a home PC to track those assets. That made me think about our membership.

It wouldn't surprise me to find all of our members used their computers to track assets, or perform some other vital task - from updating a resume, tracking deadlines, cataloguing collections, managing stock portfolios or monitoring budgets. A catastrophic computer breakdown could have a significant financial impact on each and every one of us. The process doesn't have to be elaborate or require a dedicated program for the loss to be significant. Nor does the loss have to be financial for it to be significant.

Of course some of our members operate or work in small businesses. As a group, operators of SOHO businesses have a reputation for being eager to implement technological innovations in our businesses.

Even members who use computers primarily in a corporate environment, are finding they are expected to take more responsibility for running a tight ship. Each employee is expected to identify and implement more efficient and effective work practices.

After all that thinking my head was throbbing, but I no longer felt quite so guilty about enjoying the SOHO issue just a little more than some of the others. I decided that, SOHO business operator or not, a good proportion of Melb PC members are probably using their home computers for some SOHO-like activity. Now instead of seeing SOHO as a branch of the business sector, I think of it one step along the continuum from pure hobbyist to corporate computer use.

In addition to relieving me of some of my guilt, this train of though was quite satisfying. It's not always easy to identify things that unite us as computer users. With a group as large as ours, it's often easier to see the ways we differ. Our membership runs the gamut from highly experienced IT professionals to dead set newbies, from people who comfortably use several different operating systems to those for whom point and click is the only command structure.

Whether we use our computers for fun, profit or a little of both, a desire to use our computers efficiently and effectively unites us. For the SOHO business operator, success can mean the difference between profit and loss. For the hobbyist it can mean the difference between enjoying a task or dreading it. That doesn't make it less important to the hobbyist, just less risky financially.

Here then are three dead simple tips I found this month, they have universal appeal and applicability, and none of them costs a cent to apply.

• Group data files in folders/directories by subject (not application). You'll find it easier and faster to find files if you do. Use sub-folders/directories to further organise your data.
• Archive old files. Dead wood is dead wood, whether it's sitting behind a desk or on your hard drive. Use utilities that can search archived files if you need to access old files with any regularity.
• Mice are nice, but key strokes are quicker. Take a few minutes each day to learn a new keyboard shortcut.

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