My newest technotoy is a CASIO QV-4000 digital camera. I was going to give a brief review of it, but I've reconsidered after having received the detailed and knowledgeable review of the Canon Powershot G2 from Andrew Hayes that starts on Page 14 of this issue. Perhaps in a future issue, after I've had a chance to learn my way around it, I'll talk about my new camera. I will mention, though, that the Casio folks at the Customer Support Center were very good about providing me with an English version of the manual and software. As is often the case, the company's policy is to exchange the English version for the Japanese version, but when they were told that I wanted to keep the Japanese documents and software and was willing to pay for the English ones, they cheerfully refused payment and mailed them to me.

The other computer-related news I have this month is that I finally succeeded in setting up a PC in the Little Euro pub where we have the monthly TPC executive meetings. A venerable but still serviceable Pentium I 166 MHz machine, it would have been easy to set up if not for the new owner's preference for an English-only machine. The hard disk drive had Windows 98J on it, and the keyboard was a Japanese one. Not a big problem of course, but I could have saved myself an extra trip to Akihabara if I'd noticed that the keyboard connection is an old AT one; after getting a PS2 keyboard I had to go back and get a PS2-to-AT adaptor. It also would have gone smoother if the boot disk I first tried to use had not been corrupted. I gather that the pub will soon have an internet connection, and the pub's management has high hopes that the PC, besides being useful for making menus and the like, will represent an additional benefit to old patrons and a draw for new ones.

The first TPC Java SIG meeting went very well, and I am looking forward to seeing the SIG grow. If you have an interest in Java, be sure to drop by the tpc.java newsgroup and their corner of the TPC website, too.

After years of lurking on their mailing list, I recently joined SWET, the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators. I was very pleasantly surprised, after posting a brief self introduction on the list, to get a couple of messages from other members asking for information on joining the TPC. Since I'm very interested in increasing the TPC's membership, I'd like to encourage those of you who are members of other organizations to mention the TPC to them. A little word of mouth advertising can't hurt, and it might help a lot.

Please also keep in mind that the newsletter always needs material. You might take a look at some of the back issues on the TPC website to get ideas for an article, review, or anecdote. You could even be of great help by "mining" the newsgroups for interesting threads and tying them together into a single document...add a few comments of your own if you like, and send it to me to be edited. I'd like to make the "Best of the Litter" into a recurring feature; perhaps you'd like to try your hand at it with a different topic. Don't be shy about contacting me, even just to discuss an idea for a newsletter submission.

I'd also like to hear your ideas on how to improve the TPC. As I said, I'd like to see the membership increase, and I believe the best way to accomplish that is to make the group as attractive as possible. I'm interesting in hearing from current members about how you'd like to see the group improved, and from prospective members--whom I define as everyone other than current members--about what would make the group attractive enough for you to join.

You can contact me at the email address on the facing page, or better still start a discussion thread in the newsgroups, so that others will be encouraged to add their opinions. You can also, of course, talk to me before or after any monthly meeting or executive meeting. I'd really like to hear from you.

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