VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org
Newsletter Index
< Previous Page | Next Page >
Feature Index
|
VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org |
January 2004
Newsletter Index
|
An editorial view from Mark Dodel, former Editor-in-Chief of the VOICE Newsletter.
I just wanted to let everyone who reads our little newsletter that I have stepped back from being the editor of the VOICE Newsletter. I have asked Christian Hennecke to take over as Editor-in-Chief for both versions. And despite the heavy load of running both the German and the English version he has agreed. I can rest assured it is in good hands.
Christian started the German version 3 years ago and has been the force behind automating a lot of the assembly steps in making each issue as well as coordinating the translation team. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his advise, assistance and energy which helped me to make it this long.
After six and a half years I just need a break from the eternal monthly grind. I started out back then taking on the volunteer job of editor just until someone with some real writing/editorial experience could be found. I've been thinking about this for a while now and it seemed like the time to do it, especially since there was someone very capable and interested in taking on the job. Hopefully a fresh perspective will help improve the look of this now fairly old (in internet years anyway) OS/2 resource. Maintaining compatibility with as many OS/2 based web browsers (and even OS/2's builtin INF viewer) has always been a priority instead of trying to look pretty, but everything has to evolve over time or risk dying.
We have grown quite a bit since the very first issue in May of 1997 and have always tried to be open to suggestions from our readers, implementing changes where appropriate which hopefully improved the appearance and usefulness of our online magazine. We have abstained from using frames, gratuitous graphics and things like Java or Java-script. But we have always done our best to bring the OS/2 community useful information relevant to their platform of choice. We could really benefit from a good search feature, though all our articles are available through the Google search engine and we have maintained a Master Index with a rudimentary Java search applet for years as well.
I hope that everyone involved in the multitude of tasks required to put out each issue will give Christian their best effort as they have for me over the years. I am not planning on leaving VOICE or OS/2-eCS and I will be around to help out where I'm asked.
And Christian will need help, especially with the English version, so I hope people will be willing to do what needs doing. It would really help if we could get two sets of editors to work on every other issue so it wouldn't be so draining. This would also require more articles to be submitted sooner so a pool of material would be available for people to work on. If anyone has ideas on how to make things easier please feel free to let Christian know. I hope to be able to help by do more writing, something that has always taken a back seat to the demands of putting out the next issue.
I'd like to thank everyone who has helped over the years as well as the folks who have recently offered their assistance. None of what has been accomplished would have been possible without all the help I have received from the editors, authors and translators. If you have ever considered writing about your OS/2 experience (a software review, hardware review, editorial or How-to article), now would be a great time to contribute. To learn what is involved see our Newsletter submission guidelines. If you would like to help in other ways (editing articles, helping with the web site, translating), please send all offers of assistance to editor@os2voice.org. I'm sure Christian and our entire editorial board will appreciate it.
As OS/2 continues, so will the VOICE Newsletter.
Mark
We are always interested in your thoughts and views on subjects related to OS/2, and would like to see opinion/editorial pieces as well as hardware/software reviews and HowTo articles. If you have an idea for an article, why not write one. It's one of the best ways, short of programming native OS/2 applications, that you can help the OS/2 Community. And anyone can do it. Few of our writers are professionals. They are just OS/2 users trying to help other OS/2 users. Please send me your ideas or better yet a draft of an article to editor@os2voice.org. Please note our guidelines for submissions to the VOICE Newsletter. There you will find suggestions for topics, hints on content, structure and formatting, as well as the legal stuff.
VOICE Online Update: This month the general member meetings are scheduled on Saturdays January 3 and 17 at 3PM EST (20:00 GMT). Please note the change in time! Everyone interested in OS/2 or eComStation is invited to attend either or both of these sessions in #VOICE on the Webbnet IRC network. For more information on attending online VOICE IRC meetings please see the VOICE Meeting Information page - http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html.
If you have an idea for a Speakup event, please submit it to liaison@os2voice.org, and we will try to schedule something. As always, please be sure to check out the updated VOICE Future events Calendar in this newsletter or on the VOICE website at http://www.os2voice.org/calendar.html for more details on future VOICE events.
This month Thomas Klein returns with part eleven of his series How I learned to stop worrying and love REXX after a longer break. Thomas continues with some REXX basics.
Armin Schwarz returns this month with an interesting article on Tapping into the OS/2 Multimedia Structures with REXX. With a little bit of REXX knowledge and Armin's included DLL, you can do some amazing things with multimedia format conversions.
In response to Jason Stefanovich's November editorial on The scourge of SPAM, Peter J Brown offers this review of the Java application PostArmor: Spam killing in brief.
Many OS/2 users are forced to use Windows and access the internet from there. This results in situations where they have to reboot to be able to access mail etc. that has been processed with the other platform. If you are one of those, Karl Steinsky provides solution that can ease your life by Sharing user profiles between Warpzilla and Mozilla.
We do have a couple of letters on the Letters, Addenda, Errata page. And this month our OS/2 Tips page returns. A big thanks to David Brain for taking on the task as our new Tips page editor. If you have any OS/2 or eCS tips you've uncovered, please send them to David at tips@os2voice.org. If you have any comments or suggestions about the newsletter or articles in it, please send them to editor@os2voice.org.
That's it for this month.
Mark Dodel, Christian Hennecke, Marckus Kraft and Jason R. Stefanovich
VOICE Newsletter editors
Feature Index
editor@os2voice.org
< Previous Page | Newsletter Index | Next Page >
VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org