Page 2      Diablo Blue      February, 2000

Last Friday (7 January), the earth shook and flames shot up in to the sky. In case you wondered what caused these mighty phenomena, here is an explanation. The first clue was that the commotion seemed to come from the direction of Sacramento. Further investigation showed that it came from the Governor's office in the State Capitol building. Still no explanation for the commotion until I found the answer in the Saturday Contra Costa Times. Buried on the 11th page of the front section was the following statement:
"California Gov. Gray Davis finally has an e-mail address. Davis' new and improved web page at www.governor.ca.gov took more than a year to develop because the governor was adamant that those who e-mailed him would receive a prompt response."
I've seem this new and improved web page and can't see any way that it should have taken a year to create. Some how or another I don't quite buy his excuse -- what does the governor having to develop a web site have to do with his having an e-mail address? You don't respond to e-mail on a web site, you respond by e-mail. Could it be that our esteemed Governor doesn't really want to hear from the people? Probably the only reason that an e-mail address was finally established is that pressure was being applied from the cyber world.
Don't disappoint our Governor. He's provided a way for us to e-mail him so be sure to use it to let the good Governor know how you feel about his actions and lack of actions. (Think about all the commissions in California that can't operate because they don't have a quorum because the Governor hasn't appointed any replacements.) If you work hard, you might even be able to find something to complement him about. However don't rush it. Since it took a year to establish an e-mail address, maybe it should take a year to try to find something to complement him about.
Until Friday, Gov. Davis was my ONLY elected representative, from County Supervisor on up, who didn't have an e-mail address. So, finally, here's his new e-mail address: graydavis@governor.ca.gov. Now you don't have any excuse, so get those e-mails a-sending, folks!

In my December, 1999 Curmudgeon's Corner column I discussed my problems with Corel and the buggy Word Perfect program. I had ordered a bug fix on 26 August and as of 13 November I hadn't received my CD. A gentleman from Corel called me and said that my order was on the way.
Well, now I have good news and bad news. The good news as that my bug fix arrived just before Thanksgiving, only three months after I had placed the order. The bad news is that they STILL hadn't fixed the problem with the Address book and many other problems I had identified.

Now on to December's villain! MGI, publisher of PhotoSuite III, has done it to DVPC again. At the December meeting they offered us an "unbeatable" price of $39.95 for this software package, limited to the DVPC members who were present at our meeting and bought the software that night. Unfortunately quite a few members fell for the bait. Two weeks later it was offered locally for $9.95 after a mail in rebate. The crowning blow came on Sunday, 19 December, when I saw a Staples sale flyer for PhotoSuite III at a price of -- (are you ready for this?) -- of FREE as a final cost. It was calculated as $49.00 less an instant discount of $20.00 less a mail in rebate of $30.00. 
Those of you with good memory may remember the last time MGI visited DVPC, CompUSA beat our "special" user group price by a considerable amount the next weekend.
I recommend that the next time MGI visits us again (if we ever invite them again), and they offer us their wonderful User Group price, that we thank them for showing us their product but decline to pay their "user group" price. Just wait a few days and you'll be able to buy it for a lot less!