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EDITORIAL
by Brian
Grainger: 
brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk
In this issue of the E-Journal I have made a conscious effort to try and garner Amiga related material. Despite using a PC myself the roots of our group were in Commodore related equipment, which in recent years means the Amiga. There has been a lot of talk in the last couple of months about where the Amiga is going and Betty Clay has kept us informed via e-mail. Her missives are produced in our main Amiga Article. New hardware has still to emerge from Amiga but having received a couple of press releases for Amiga Software it is clear some activity is happening. Both items of software, AmigaFX Paint and ImageFX4, are graphic editing packages so address one of the Amiga's strong points.
Among the regulars Bill Wood concludes his experiences of computing to date with a look at upgrading his PC to a nippier processor.
If you have ever wanted to control your security lights with a computer the Francis Townsend's primer may be helpful.
Ken Ross introduces us to another supplier whose customer service appears to be an example of an oxymoron.
Having sung the praises of Microsoft software for years I have decided to start redressing the balance in this issue. The tool I use to edit these pages, FrontPage Express, is the culprit.
During the preparations of this issue, especially the Amiga stuff, the difference between an E-Journal and a paper one is making itself apparent. A paper journal, by its very nature, includes everything and has specific deadlines. One of the difficulties with a paper journal is that news items can get out of date by the time they are published. Despite these difficulties I have followed the same approach with the E-Journal so far. I wanted to make changes gradually rather than introduce many changes at once and mess it up in the process. However, news items are not really appropriate for the journal. These, along with associated commentary, should be on separate news pages, edited as they happen. I am doing this already with the For Sale/Wanted section.
The shareware links page should be dynamic, with links to software that readers have stumbled upon and found useful. I cannot believe I am the only one who downloads stuff from the web and sometimes finds it quite useful. When this happens then I need to know so the shareware links page can be updated. Everybody will get to hear about the good stuff then. What should be in the journal, I feel, is that stuff which does not get out of date with time. This covers reviews, readers projects, programs and technical descriptions. This may cross link to things that have been identified elsewhere. For example, I might find a good piece of software which I index on the shareware links page. I might then write a review or description of use for the journal pages. In reality copy for this section does not need to be tied to deadlines either. However, a deadline helps to concentrate the mind to write something! Without deadlines the result might be no input.
When I read a computer magazine, or technology section of a newspaper, I find the piece I like best is the technical help page. I often find something new from reading about someone else's problem and reading the response. The trouble is I might have a problem and then vaguely remember I read something but now cannot find it. Perhaps we could use our pages as a library to problems and their answers. One reader could send a problem in. If we have an unanswered problems section perhaps another reader will see it and provide a solution. The solution can then go out to the originator and also be stored in the library of problems for future reference.
I would be interested in hearing what you think about any of the ideas expressed above. E-Mail me.
In this fact changing world were computers and software get updated every five minutes you would expect the majority of our readers own PCs or Amigas. This may be true but it is refreshing to note that in the last two months I have had requests from two new VIC 20 owners!
Talking of great computers of history did you ever ask yourself what happened to the new Commodore 64 that would be used to access the web? I did, since I had never seen it in any shops. Well, as I was channel hopping through the NTL cable channels I found QVC, the shopping channel, was promoting the Web-It 64 at well over £200.
Deadline for the next issue is 16th September.
The Editor: brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk
