He’s dead, Jim.
— Dr. McCoy, Star Trek
Nononono, no, no! He’s resting!
— Store Owner, Dead Parrot Sketch (featured in the Monty Python’s FlyingCircus TV Show – Episode 8)
If you made it here, you have probably figured out that Logical Expressions,
Inc. is no longer printing Computor Companion
in the Inland Northwest. As I intimated in the last issue’s Letter from the Editor, we can’t afford the printing and
distribution costs anymore. Like many other businesses, we are being hit by the
downturn in the computer industry. Everybody has to eat, and we are no exception.
But as we’ve said in the past, we are committed to technology education.
So with the help of some of our most supportive authors,
Computor Companion still exists and will continue to exist for anyone to read on-line
at www.computorcompanion.com. We’re also including PDF versions of the
magazine, so if people want to print it out for their own use, they can. We’ve started
up an e-zine, so people can get a few tips every week in their e-mail “in box” as well.
But for you local folks, the printed version of
Computor Companion will no longer be available on local freebie racks or stores in the Inland Northwest.
We also are no longer selling advertising for it.
For me personally, these changes are disappointing, but also a relief.
Driving around through winter storms picking up and delivering magazines can be
exhausting, scary, and dangerous. I sure won’t miss that. And I won’t miss talking
to the various businesses and people that we put in the “Loser” category of our
database system. (It takes a lot to be put into the Loser category; you have to be
so rude to me that I want to be absolutely sure that we never contact — much
less patronize — your place of business ever, ever again.)
Okay, maybe I should be more thick-skinned. But, I
will miss a lot of the really nice people I got to meet and work with in this area over the last two years.
They are out there and it’s good to know who they are.
Returning to the future of the magazine, we have switched to a
syndication model. This change gives me an opportunity to focus on what I do best, which
is editing and creating a magazine and avoid some of the tasks I don’t do as
well, like selling advertising. Some people are good at selling ads; I am not one of them.
So, if you enjoy Computor Companion, and feel strongly that you want this
type of technology education available in a printed form, please feel free to
contact your favorite local publishers (newspapers etc.) and ask them to carry
Computor Companion as an insert.