Presidential
RamblingsPresidential
Ramblings
|
This column marks the start of my third year as DACS president. This is one year longer than I intended when I first accepted the job and establishing an order of succession is now a top priority. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the job, but I think it’s important that more people contribute to our club. Letters DepartmentApparently others agree with this as we received a letter a few weeks ago at DACS Central from U. B. Dunn (we’ll call him or her Uby for short). Uby went to great lengths to conceal his identity – even using a non-existent address for the return address on the envelope. He signed the letter “A former attendee,” whatever that means. Uby, it seems, had seen a copy of dacs.doc at the library and checked it out. Since he mentioned my predictions, we can assume it was the January issue. After reading a little and checking the web site, it is Uby’s contention that DACS is ‘dunn’. Uby makes one or two valid points, It is true that our membership has declined since the mid-nineties when membership peaked at just under 900 (as of the last board meeting, it is now just under 400). There is no denying that the computer industry and the role of computer user groups have changed in the last ten years. Yes, we do repeat a meeting topic from time to time, unfortunately computer security remains a hot topic and gets more important each year. A little over ten years ago, the average person could not get on the Internet. The “World Wide Web” had just been invented. Microsoft had finally shipped a version of Windows worth the effort to install. It was slow (on the computers of the day), cranky and complicated. [In many ways the Windows of ten-twelve years ago reminds me of the Linux of today—compare Linux configuration files to the ‘INI’ files of Windows 3.x and you see what I mean.] Computers were not yet “mainstream.” Not every house had one—now we have how many in our homes?! So where did people turn to learn about these new-fangled things? Many people, including yours truly, turned to user groups. Some user groups grew so large that people thought of them as real businesses. User groups in Boston and Dallas had thousands of members. Remember when a modem was an exotic add-on? DACS had a special interest group where members could help each other make their modems work. Why, you ask? Because there were jumpers to change, conflicts to resolve, and .INI files that never seemed to stay right. And they wanted to connect to electronic bulletin boards or online services like The Source or CompuServe. Since then Windows has improved and become easier to use. Now you can plug in a modem and simply expect it to work! Wow! What a concept! You don’t need a user group to do that any more. Believe me, your board of directors has spent many hours discussing this very topic. We have come to the conclusion that we cannot compete with “The Screen Savers.” If you want couch-potato computing, then sit at home and watch Tech TV. It’s on 24 hours a day. But if you want to be able to shake the hands of the people you meet, laugh at each others stories, and ask questions while you learn, then come to a few DACS meetings. We offer you the chance to meet other people who are also interested in using their computers. DACS members are not all experts or all beginners. I believe this mixture is the key to our success. Through the general meetings, the special interest groups (SIGs) and this newsletter, each of us has the opportunity to learn and grow. I really want to see DACS not just survive, but grow. I think it’s unrealistic to think that DACS or any user group will return to its former glory. But there is tons of fun stuff out there to learn and I think it’s more fun when you can share that learning experience with others. If you agree, then renew your membership and get your friends to join. If you don’t agree, then you can sit at home secure in the knowledge that somewhere Uby is also at home. I hope he has as much fun there playing all by himself. New Toys DepartmentThis month my new toy has been a new cell phone. Most carriers offer a one month free return policy, so I decided to try the newly combined AT&T Wireless and Cingular network. So far I have found only one place where the new phone (based on GSM technology) would not work, but the old phone did. The new phone has less ‘static’ but still ‘breaks up’ when the signal is weak. The real benefit is that the new phone comes with a far better deal that will let me combine the two phones we have now into one bucket of minutes and have the whole thing cost less in the end. Things should work like this more often. More next month. The “You can’t make this stuff up” DepartmentAccording to Robert X. Cringely’s column in the May 17th issue of InfoWorld, “wireless phone carriers in Europe are apparently gearing up to deliver adult videos to 3G cell phones. Gartner estimates the mobile fleshpot market will be worth a whopping $1.5 billion by 2005. No word yet on whether you’ll have to pay extra when you set the phone to vibrate.” |
|