May 2006 Issue

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200 Today ( Well Approximately)

This is a milestone in the publication of the newsletter being the 200^th edition.

The inaugural meeting was on September 1987 but I note that the first newsletter went out in July 1988. By my calculations we have in fact issued 215 newsletters so something has gone wrong with the numbering. I have not the time now but I will investigate the error some time in the future, that is unless a member can look into it for me.

As I sit here wondering what I can write about, I am surrounded with computers, well three in fact. Two in constant use and the other occasionally.

By my calculations I have had seven computers in my time, nine if you count two rebuilds. I still have five knocking around somewhere.

My first computer was an Amstrad 1512. This was purchased at a time when I knew nothing at all about computers and not particularly interested in them. In fact up to that point I don't think I knew that computers existed, at least for people like me. I had dealings with the computer department at the University. The computer there was installed in it's own room especially built for it. It was a huge thing that spat out miles of paper. I don't know haw many valves were in the computer, probably dozens as I used to supply valves (ECC83 I think they were) in batches of 50. The valves were especially selected and were known as the "Trustworthy Range" I made an allowance for the old valves which even after a period of use in the computer were better than the normal commercial kind.

The Amstrad 1512 was eventually sold to a member and I bought a 1640. The next was a computer called AMD after a period this was completely upgraded by the manufacturers. A member (Richard Starkey) then sold me a laptop. This was a 386 and a huge thing by today's standard. This served me well until a few years ago when the power pack burnt out and it was not worth the cost of renewal. The next was a Dan computer which again was later updated by the manufacturer and is still in use.

My other computer in constant use is an Evesham.

Finally I have a nondescript computer not used much but bought originally to display the thousands of photographs that I have. I have little use for this now as I have a small very cheap DVD player that does the same thing.

Thinking of all these computers led me to wonder what on earth I needed them all for. I remember with fond affection my 1640 which I still have but not used now. On this computer I could do all that I do today except for graphics and the internet. The machine seemed fast for the things that I needed to do. I did not have to wait ages for the thing to boot up while loading anti virus programs.

Windows? I didn't need it. Most of my work was done with Lotus Symphony which gave three windows. I used it for an enormous stock keeping program, a comprehensive database and a word processor. True the database would not compare with Access which I use to keep a record of my large music collection, but in truth I only actually use the bit that could have been done by Symphony. The spreadsheet was very comprehensive and I could do graphs and any calculations I found necessary. The word processor was adequate but could not include graphics but I managed very well without them, in fact at the time I would not have had any use for them.

My 1640 was connected to a network and every day my stock was updated from the master machine nearly 100 miles away.

My old trustworthy Amstrad had one huge advantage over my very powerful sophisticated Evesham computer that I have in use today - It never, ever crashed.

Come to think of it I am writing this newsletter on my old reasonably trusty 386.

The club was started because at the time I knew nothing about computing The company that I had sold my business to, but stayed on to manage had installed a 1640 and I was required to learn how to use it. The manager of the Southampton IteC had offered the use of the school if I would start a club. Knowing little about computers the club was started and I learnt a lot from members and in fact still do so to this day.