I am very sorry to have to write to you to ask for another copy of EUG #27 because mine was damaged in the post. Unfortunately the envelope was torn and the disk irrepairably damaged so that I could hardly get it into the drive let alone out again. I realise that you would have probably have replaced it but I hedged my bets on something a bit more novel and decided to claim compensation from the Post Office.
I do not know if you realise that damages can be claimed for a value of up to £20 for uninsured packages/letters. To do this, if you are interested, is quite simple. You merely have to get a free copy of a form known as P58 "Lost and Damaged Articles". This is obtainable from any Post Office. Just fill it in and hand it back.
You must state the value of the package and then they will inform you of their decision. I thought you may wish to know this for any future damaged disks. In my opinion it is better than Royal Mail pay for their mistakes instead of EUG. But they are nice chaps - for my claim of £1.52, they sent me a book of ten stamps worth £2.60. I have therefore enclosed four first class stamps for a second copy.
Please note that this leaves 4p to my credit. Far be it from me to add it to EUG funds, I calculate it entitles me to 51 sectors and 51 bytes of EUG #28. I may top it up at a later date for the last 1228.8 sectors.
To add to my woes, my half-singing, half-dancing 586 (Even less when it's running WINDOZE 95) has forced my far more loved Electron under the bed to clear desk space, meaning I can't write any more nice long letters on disk for the time being. Which means that if you decide to publish this all, sad and unfortunate people will have to read this on a black and white portable instead of feeling the crisp feel of Basildon Bond. (You can edit any of that apart from the Basildon Bond bit...and for anyone reading this electronically, none of the spelling errors are mine! Don't worry Gus - my new spellchecker is coming soon!)
I can't believe the poor quality of most of the cheap games on the PC. I bought a £10 CD-ROM the other day with over 250 games on it. I've hardly played any of them but I've already come across two copies of the Elk classic Planetoid, neither of which compare to the original.
That sentence is my cue to a big "Hi!" to Alan Richardson Down Under. If I've not written to you yet, it's coming. Nice man. (That's all I can say on a public law-abiding magazine!)
I remember back in the mists of time, Big Al wondered if software published in Electron User is still copyright. It appears to me that it still is, but also that it is freely available for distribution. This is the kind of software known as freeware.
Thanks a lot for the information you sent me on the Internet. It's invaluable.
Please find enclosed four first class stamps and I've changed my mind, you can keep the 4p. Buy yourself an ice cream.
PS. If you haven't noticed the rather big hints, can you publish this letter? Anything to enlarge the platforms for mass public speech and idea integration aiding the diversity of our multi-cultural civilisation.
1st October 1996
