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^CBy Daniel Tobias

   Telecommunications is one of the more interesting applications for a 
personal computer.  It connects your PC with the rest of the world, and lets you
engage in communication with others all over, obtain up-to-the-minute news,
access a variety of databases on every imaginable subject, and obtain programs,
among other things. 

   We have decided to make computerized communications the theme for this issue.
Our special feature program is ^1ProComm^0, an excellent "shareware" communications
program.  And, to help you take advantage of it, we have also included several 
articles relating to the subject.  Leading off is a brief article describing 
the concept of telecommunications for those of you who don't know a modem from 
a monitor.  Next, I have written an article on the history of one of the most 
rapidly-growing applications of computerized communications, electronic mail, 
which has always been a particular interest of mine.  Also, David Sparks has an 
article describing a bulletin board system (BBS) devoted to financial matters. 

   To help you get a modem if you don't already have one, and find uses for it
if you do, we have arranged for special offers from a modem manufacturer and 
several online services.  See the "Special Offers" article, and the enclosed 
coupons, for details. 

   If you're not interested in telecommunications, don't worry.  This issue 
still has the full assortment of regular features.  All of you who are into 
cryptograms will like ^1King of the Jumble^0.  Teachers can use ^1Quizzer^0 to 
present multiple-choice quizzes.  With this program, along with last issue's 
^1Quiz Maker^0 for word-match quizzes, you can keep students busy (and groaning)
with a variety of exams.  If you have to tabulate surveys, ballots, question-
naires, or other such things, ^1Survey Tabulator^0 will be worth the cost of 
the issue.  (I can be really modest about a program I wrote, can't I?) And to 
top it off, you'll finally get to see what happened to ^1Alfredo^0 after last 
issue's animated cliffhanger... or should it be Alfredohanger?

   Well, I won't keep you here any longer.  Just a couple of brief notes, and 
we can get on with this issue.
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^1Note^0:  We're starting to get a flood of mail and calls pointing out that the
^1Streets and Alleys^0 solitaire card game from issue #7 has a bug in it:  at 
times, two identical cards appear, one of them replacing a card that should be 
there but isn't.  This would tend to make it difficult to win.

   We are aware of this bug now, and are working to fix it.  It appears to be 
sporadic in nature; I have played many hands myself and have yet to encounter 
the problem.  It would help if those of you who run into this problem can 
report exactly when the excess card turns up; is it dealt this way at the start 
of the hand, or does a card mysteriously alter itself later?  Exactly what 
commands did you use to get to where it messed up on you?  And does it do it to 
you every hand or just occasionally?  If it keeps happening to you, maybe the 
program somehow reacts differently to different system configurations, since it 
doesn't do it on any of our machines (or at least hasn't yet). 

   As soon as we solve this problem, we will let you know how to obtain a "fix" 
for your copy.  Also, we will alter our masters so that any future back issues 
sold will not contain the bug.  Thanks for helping us improve by reporting 
problems.

^1Another Note^0:  We are planning several contests in the near future in conjunc-
tion with special issues.  One will be to come up with the best templates for 
spreadsheet programs (Lotus, ExpressCalc, Magicalc, etc.) to make them perform 
a variety of tasks; another will be for the best graphic screen images for the 
PC.  We are also considering running a programming contest.  The top five items 
in each of these categories will be published on ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0, and their authors
will receive cash payments.  All other entries will also be considered for pub-
lication, and if they are published, the author will be paid at our usual rates.

   Details, rules, and deadlines will be announced in future issues; this notice
is just to give you a "head start" to begin cranking out material for your 
entries.  Please don't actually submit entries until we officially announce the 
contests.
