Page 12      Diablo Blue      July, 2000

(Continued from page 3)

nice lady but she sure didn't know much about computers. PacBell's "web hog" advertising campaign succeeded beyond their wildest dreams leaving their installation people swamped and necessitating throwing untrained people into the gap.
6/23/00 - End of DSL project. Article written and sent to Ron Ogg.
Minor complaint: Companies that sell a software program from their web page promising two week delivery and then never bothering to let you know that the product had been back ordered and would be delayed several weeks. (In fact I still haven't received the product.) The Federal Trade Commission has a rule that a merchant has to deliver their product within a month or has to state their delivery time. If they are unable to ship within a month or by the stated delivery time, they MUST contact the customer explaining the problem and offering to cancel the order. Unfortunately our great government in action doesn't seem to do anything to enforce the FTC rule so it is ignored by most merchants. I guess it is up to us curmudgeons to keep an abeyance file for delivery dates and if the selling merchant doesn't deliver on schedule to contact the merchant and raise hell.
As always, if you have any good material for this column, please send me either an article or the details by e-mail or snail mail. Sorry, but my memory is not good enough to take verbal reports.
That's all for now. See you next week.

(Continued from page 10)

Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. We won't meet on July 3 because of the July 4th holiday. See you in August when everyone who uses, is interested in, or is curious about Windows on their PC is invited to attend.
Here are directions: The Concord Police Department is at 1350 Galindo Street in Concord. From the 242 Freeway take Clayton Road east to Galindo and turn right; the Police Department building is 3 blocks south on your left. From Highway 24 take Monument Blvd. east and continue on Monument Blvd. to where it changes to Galindo; the Police Department building will be on your right a short distance past the signal at Cowell Road.

We've had a large number of knowledgeable members sign up to be Mentors to allow DVPC members to take advantage of this storehouse of knowledge. We'll be adding a Mentor page to our web site maybe not so "Real Soon Now" (apologies to Jerry Pournelle). This page will limit access to DVPC members by requiring the same monthly login ID and password sent to members for access to the current on-line edition of Diablo Blue. You'll be able to look up the mentors for a particular software package or hardware product, and contact them by email to pose your question.
Now the Mentor page has been even further delayed because your editor moved, and now is on a project that takes him to San Francisco Monday through Saturday.
So check the DVPC web site in July and, hopefully (with fingers crossed over a bed of four-leaf clovers that have been blessed by a Leprechaun who was on his way to a pot of gold), the Mentor page may be up and running by the end of the month!