By Uncle Abdul

Ahh, where would to modern world be without computers? Almost everyone has them, and here I would include such things as toaster controllers, etc. Janus and the members thereof are no exception. They're used to record the minutes of the business meetings, keep the accounts, prepare flyers, maintain the website, and--of course--publish this august journal in which you're now reading ol' Unc' comments.

But there was a time--in the dim mists of the past--when Janus didn't have all this computerization. Ahh those were the days when you had to walk through six feet of snow, uphill, both ways to get to the pencil sharpener. (But I digress!)

Actually the computerization of Janus started slightly before I joined this august club. The Membership Secretary back then worked for an organization where he had access to their computer. He suggested that the Janus membership records could be computerized, and he was willing to do the job. Well he worked all day, and he worked all night--without benefit of friends in either Minsk or Pinsk. (You'll notice the only ones laughing at this line are the ones who actually remember Tom Leherer's song about Nicholi Yevononvich Lobochevsky... but I digress.) Finally he got all the data transferred to punch cards, and ...what do you mean, "What are punch cards?" Oh, the youngsters of today! This system was used for a couple of months at which the membership records for the entire month of February got lost ...vanished ...consumed by the great goddess, deos mechanica. That of course explains the reason when by the time I started going to business meetings, Janus was back to paper and pencil membership records, and it took years for the February 'dip' to disappear.

Janus' own Steve K. was the next to re-introduce computerization to Janus. He had just bought himself an IBM PC-Jr and convinced everyone that he could maintain the membership records on that. This time the experiment worked, and mailing labels consistently were printed correctly together with membership records of any stripe coming out our ass. This of course was done with File Handler and later D-Base software (for those of you into antique software). Also I was GP editor at the time, and I used my Mac (appropriately named "Bluekiller") to do the layout for GP. Yes, we were on our way into the cyber age.

Then Janus bought it's first computer, a 286 if I recall. This was used by the Membership Secretary until she retired from the post. Then she said, "I don't want this *^$*^%$ thing around any more. Come by tomorrow, and it will be sitting on my front porch. When I see it gone, I'll just assume that the club has it." Fortunately it was rescued and used for at least another year.

Of course by then, many Janus members had their own computers. (In fact I can count on the fingers of one hand people I know who don't own computers.) Then came the cyber revolution that even today the beginnings of which are rapidly diminishing into the mists of memory and lore. Todd H. did Janus' first website. The e-mail list got started, and the rest is history.

Having gone through the pencil and paper era in Janus, I'm personally glad it's over with, but having a 'labor saving device' consistently has never 'saved labor.' It just means that people can just have more work thrust upon them seeing as, "...well, you should be able to whip that out on your computer in no time..." Ri-i-i-ght!

Chao-4-Now

Unc'