Many thanks for EUG #56 and the free preview disk of EUG #3. I have jotted down a few thoughts on the latter which may (or may not) be of interest to your readers, but may help to fill a vacant space in the new magazine! Please feel free to consign them to the wastepaper bin if you wish!

As an almost complete "computer illiterate" of 83 years, I do not feel qualified to comment seriously on the contents of EUG #3. Personally, I must admit that I prefer to turn the pages of the old printed copy I have rather than work through a Menu on the computer, although of course the text can be printed out.

Something that struck me immediately though was the large number of letters on different Electron subjects in EUG #3 as compared to recent issues. I expect it is difficult to write anything new now since the Elk has been going for so long. The articles, "old hat" to most EUG readers, also reinforce how much things have advanced in the nine years since they were written. The article on "Using View With Tape" for example must be obsolete now: tape has followed the example set in Cinematography just as film was ousted overnight by the advent of videocameras. Now still, photography is going the same way.

I thought the "More Ideas" hardware article and diagrams were interesting. It gives methods for providing an output for a colour monitor and also a method of fitting a jackplug to give a sound output for an amplifier or loudspeaker. The article on Slogger's Stop Press 64 is informative but I doubt whether the product is still available. "Using Assembly Language" is like Greek to me (My best effort is to write programs using basic BASIC!).

There was a paragraph about Reader's Queries which made me wonder whether queries could be answered by letter to save having to wait two months for the reply via the EUG magazine, although the most interesting ones could be included there. Perhaps a small charge could be made for such a service; the proceeds of which could go to EUG funds?

Digressing, something that strikes me is how much things have changed since World War 2. Before then, a simple box camera or watch cost about five shillings (25p) and a radio about £5.00. Now, with today's high wages, cameras, watches and radios are given away as freebies by companies soliciting business!

Also, I was a Radio Amateur and was pleased to work a station in the British Isles or Europe and on rare occasions make contact with the other side of the world. Now you need only pick up a mobile phone and the world is at your fingertips!

Alva Parrott