Hello, everyone. My name is Evelyn Kaehler, and I am your new Book Review Editor. I have been using PCs since the mid 80’s (anyone remember the Radio Shack TRS 80?). That was my very first PC, and I thought it was wonderful. Now I had a machine that would add numbers for me, create spreadsheets and databases, and automatically perform calculations!
Shortly after that, I moved up to an IBM clone and the big 5¼" floppies. Although it was a drag to have to swap out floppies when you wanted to go from working in an application to actually printing the output, it was still a huge improvement from the old days of paper, pencils, and typewriters. This was in a pre-Windows environment, so we all had to learn at least a bit of DOS to use our computers. Did anyone else ever "format c:" when they meant to "format a:"? Not a pretty picture.
My next job introduced me to the world of Apple computers, the mouse, and my favorite, the trash can. During the following year I went back to the PC world and my first exposure to Windows. In the meantime, I had upgraded my home PC, and added my first hard drive. Little did I know that that first hardware upgrade would be the beginning of what seems to be a never-ending process. I have finally come to the realization that I will probably never have the most up-to-date technology, since "they" keep coming out with something newer, better, faster, bigger, or more powerful.
I spent many years using business, utility, and accounting programs. Currently, I do accounting for small businesses, work on Web site projects, and teach individual and group lessons on "How to Buy & Sell on eBay."
My main focus these days is the Internet, e-commerce, and Web page design, so many of my reviews will be in those areas. However, I suspect that the interests of the group extend far beyond those topics, and that is where you come in. I need your help in reviewing books on all those other fascinating topics, such as operating systems, hardware, languages, utilities, and networking, etc.
The first thing I need from the members is to fill out my Book Topics Survey so that I have an idea of which subjects are of interest to the group. Then, your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to examine a book and write a review. There is a space on the survey form where you may indicate if you would like to be a reviewer. If we receive a good response from this survey, there will be detailed surveys in future months, to better define and refine the book selections.
You may fill out and submit the brief survey online, or print it out and snail mail it to me. Either way is fine, and I thank you in advance for your help. There is no time like the present, so click here to go to the book review survey.
If you just can’t wait to get started, and have a request, suggestion, or would like to volunteer (bless you!), send me an e-mail. Happy reading, all!
