Midnight Writer: Nov. 1996

by Mike Lloret

First of all, I'd like to congratulate the new TPC President, Pat Hughes , the new Vice President, Ken Cotton , and the re-elected incumbent Treasurer, Tony Whitman.. Also, now two-time ex-President Kevin Ryan deserves all of our thanks for a job very well done under circumstances that were often — to say the least — trying. I decided not to run for anything this year, but to keep the editor's job. It's been an interesting year and a busy one, and I have a lot of people to thank, but I'll let my friend and colleague Publisher Paul Cipywnyk speak for us both in more detail elsewhere in this issue.

I'm going to be out of town during the weekend when we usually finalize the AJ, with the snarling slavering slit-eyed snuffling snickering deadline waiting just outside the desk-lamp's circle of light in the wee hours of Monday morning. This, and the fact that the all-important Monday is a national holiday, means that we had to get the AJ into shape a week earlier than usual. Paul, Ann Colville, and Stuart Woodward cheerfully agreed to this disruption of their schedules, and I'd like to thank them publicly for it. You're a great team to work with, guys...thanks!

Thanks are also due to those who sent in articles and internet downloads. For once we had more than we needed for an issue! You'll be seeing their submissions in this issue and the next. (We might even have an article or two run in the one after that!)

Don't let that stop any of you from sending in material or ideas, though. An ideally-running monthly newsletter really ought to have about three months' worth of material on hand all the time, and we've got quite a way to go before we reach that stage.

The first meeting of the new Executive Committee was held on the 24th at the Black Lion pub near JR Meguro Station. I was especially pleased to see Jose Caldeira there. He had some very interesting and thought-provoking ideas for ways to improve the TPC, and I hope that more members will follow his example and come along to watch the ExCom in action and to offer their opinions and suggestions. The meetings are usually held the week after the monthly meeting, but the dates are adjusted to maximize attendance, so watch the BBS ClubBiz Conference, or contact one of the execs to get the date of the next one.

One of the things we discussed was ways of increasing membership. Ken Cotton is doing a lot of work on publicity, but each of you members can help here, too. Invite a friend or colleague to the meetings, pass on a copy of the AJ, give people our BBS number, mention the TPC to anyone you think might be interested. The Group has a lot of potential benefits for a lot of people, and word-of-mouth advertising is often more effective than that in the media.

There's nothing much to report on the Mike Lloret and The Beast vs. The Forces of Chaos front. The people at T-Zone (the old one mentioned in Sigi Rindler's Akihabara article elsewhere in this issue) having tested my new soundcard and found it fine, I'm going to have to do something else to get it working. I was going to tinker with it this weekend, but since I'm going to remove the graphics board and see if that helps, I reconsidered when I realized that it might be a little tricky editing and printing the AJ without the graphics board (just on the...ahem...unlikely chance that I couldn't put it together the way it was to start with). I'm going to have a pro come over and try to get it working, as soon as I can propose a mutually suitable date.

With bonus time coming, I'm thinking about building a new system after the first of the year. That should provide plenty of material for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned.

© Algorithmica Japonica Copyright Notice: Copyright of material rests with the individual author. Articles may be reprinted by other user groups if the author and original publication are credited. Any other reproduction or use of material herein is prohibited without prior written permission from TPC. The mention of names of products without indication of Trademark or Registered Trademark status in no way implies that these products are not so protected by law.