Dell Alienware Aurora - R2 User Manual download pdf (Page 11)

by Chuck Fiedler

chuck.[email protected]g

This Month in Our History

So here we are in November and it’s time to get ready

for Thanksgiving, followed by the Christmas and New

Year’s festivities.

This month, we’ll look into the state of things for NT-

PCUG in November 1985 and 1990.

The November 1985 issue continued the continuing

call for volunteers, an ever-present need in our all-

volunteer organization.

It also announced that Ross Carter of Cartech Com-

puter Services in Richardson agreed to serve as adver-

tising manager for the newsletter. Back in those days, the

newsletter had quite a number of paid advertisements

each month. Revenue from these ads helped to offset the

cost of printing and mailing the newsletter to the 2,500

or so NTPCUG members. But as overall membership

numbers in user groups has declined over time, advertis-

ers have become more and more scarce.

Then President-elect, Jim Graham announced a plan

to make a group purchase of hard drives for User Group

members. Given the relatively (compared to today) high

unit prices at that time and the somewhat larger margins,

this seemed like an idea worthy of investigation.

John Pribyl wrote an article titled Add and Divide in

which he showed a simple method for delineating sec-

tions in ring binders using modied Hollerith cards. AT

LAST! A use for all those used or unused punch cards

we all have lying around the house.

Again in 1985, the Group bylaws were under consid-

eration for revision. The proposed revised bylaws were

published in the November newsletter as a centerfold

with for/against boxes for each item. The completed

ballot could then be easily folded and mailed to the pre-

addressed User Group PO Box.

In the November, 1990 issue, Reagan Andrews had

his monthly installment of The Variety Store in which he

spelled out his plan of action and his speculations on

what would be seen at Fall COMDEX. The printing and

publishing constraints of the time required that any inputs

to the newsletter be complete a full month before publi-

cation. Today, as we don’t have printing and mailing to

worry about, lead times have shortened considerably.

Reagan also reported that the litigation wars of the

period continued unabated – TI vs nearly everyone,

Motorola vs Hitachi, etc., etc.

Jim Hoisington had the 45th installment of his

ongoing series, On Complexity in which he dealt with

the subject of software upgrades. Jim postulated four

reasons why software makers offer program upgrades:

1) It provides more income to the software publisher; 2)

It allows for bug and error xes in the original program;

3) It allows the publisher to take advantage of ever-

expanding hardware capabilities and increasing

operating environment; and 4) Once in a while, a

company really does come up with a better version

of the product.

As Jim delineated the upgrade procedures then

prominent, the user generally had to save their data,

uninstall the prior program version, then install the

upgrade and restore the data. I have had several oc-

casions to upgrade software in the last few months

and am truly impressed with how simple the process

is today compared to years ago.

I hope you have found this information of inter-

est. If so, you can read the full original items on our

website, www.ntpcug.org. If you have reections to

offer, contact chuck.[email protected] and we will

consider them for future issues.

Each month, we send members a yer listing the

upcoming second and third Saturday SIG meeting

information. We work to t it all on one page so

it can be easily printed and posted in ofces and

public areas. It can also be sent by email to family

members, friends, colleagues, etc.

With your help we hope to generate increased

interest in User Group activities, thereby helping

us grow. We rely on members, SIG leaders, Board

members and volunteers to share this information

with others. We also need you to consider new

options beyond the obvious – bulletin boards, etc.

We ask you, our members, to think of places

where you can post the monthly yer and to e-mail

it to anyone you know who may be interested.

We try mightily to get this out before the weekend

preceding the second Saturday of each month so

you have time to “do your thing”.

With your help we can grow our Group and reach

others who can “Share what you know, learn what

you don’t.”

Where have you sent

the November yer?

Monthly NTPCUG

Meeting Flyer –

Can You Help Distribute?

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Dell Alienware Aurora - R2 User Manual Page 11

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