President's Message

High summer is typically a low time for DACS. Offices are on flextime; some of our editors and writers are vacationing in Alaska or East Africa; SIG activity is slow or fast asleep. It's at these times that the .doc can shrivel up like parched grass, and one month's copy merges inexorably into the next. But the show still must go on. Wally David and Jeff Setaro staged their own bang-up presentations at our July meeting when our scheduled presenter canceled out, and Bill Stevens came forward with a great review of the proceedings. Marlène Gaberel turned out her usual sterling preview for next month, and did double-duty as well by sitting in for Secretary Larry Buoy to do the minutes at our Board meeting. Thanks to some more great bylines from our roving reporter Mike Kaltschnee and the editorial contributions of APCUG, we have sufficient copy. And to tie it all together, our indomitable editor, Frances Owles, took her laptop out between the rows of the gardens she tends for her landscaping business, to pretty it all up for the pages of our newsletter.

MacWorld Expo

In something of a turnaround, Apple has lately been taking a bite out of the computer market. The designer model iMac and its new laptop sister the iBook were the stars of the show, and Mike Kaltschnee was there to write about it. You'll find these and other Apple innovations in Mike's review of MacWorld Expo on page 5. It's part of a revival of our column Macinations that we hope will help stimulate new growth of our Mac SIG. Incidentally, if you're curious about the iMac, come down to the Resource Center for the next Mac SIG meeting August 17 to see and our loaner model.

WP foils macro virus falls to Murphy™s Law

Some readers will do a double-take when they see a repeat of last month's John Heckman article on WordPerfect and the macro virus. That's because several paragraphs fell out of the copy, and we decided to run the entire piece again to get it right. No macro virus or worms involved this time, just some clumsy pasting of text. John is not just a terrific writer, but-an increasingly rare commodity these days-an unreconstructed WordPerfect user. And being also of that ilk, I thought it was appropriate to rerun the story in its entirety.

Be a DACS Ambassador

I've had some members ask me lately for a card or a flier to give to others interested in computing so they can learn about DACS. My answer was that dacs.doc is the best introduction any volunteer group could have, and they should pick up copies at the Resource Center or ask Charlie Bovaird for some at the General Meetings.

That sparked an idea that could help us grow and give us the additional skills and resources to provide even more services to our membership: become a DACS Ambassador. Every one of us knows someone who could benefit by joining us. Simply ask Charlie for a few extra copies of the newsletter each month and distribute them to your friends and colleagues. Tell them about our meetings and SIGS, about VOICE FOR JOANIE and the awards we have received. They will thank you for the referral, and perhaps become faithful members-and future ambassadors-of DACS.

--Allan Ostergren
dacsprez@aol.com