Thursday, 10 July 2025

New Issue Coming...

Well, it's been an interesting couple of months. It was nice to get the last issue out a bit early, and I got straight onto the next, not least as #178 and #179 run back to back, but I was a bit miffed when during the first week of June computer emphatically 'said no', and with a blue screen, and then a 'phooft', was gone to computer heaven. Ouch! Actually, over Christmas, I'd kinda been warned this was coming, when I had a 'blue screen of death' but managed to get things going again. At that point I bought a 6TB drive and transferred everything out, and then continued to do so on a weekly basis. So, when in June things were somewhat more final, I only lost about a weeks work. Doesn't sound like much, but actually that's a fair bit of writing, scanning and correcting.

Anyway, I went to 'spare computer', having took 'dead computer' for repair (Still not got it back yet). The FAS is tricky. Currently everything is done on Windows 7 Pro, as after that some software doesn't work anymore (thanks Bill Gates), and as I can make 'Word 2000' stand on it's head, and eat a banana, while Adobe 6 makes a cup of tea, and does the ironing, I can't do that with the newer versions because they are stupidly over-complicated. It's all down to familliarity of course, but I don't need the current versions of either to do what I need to do, and nor do I wish to re-buy them, or 'lease' them. So 'spare' computer on, HD plugged in and ... nothing ... Oops! That caused a bit of a panic. Second computer in for repair and, that's right, I still don't have it back yet.

To cut a long story short computer 3 then also died. I've not even bothered to take this in for repair, but I did manage to find a place in Birmingham that had a 'used' unit identical to computer #1, and they were willing to kick it back to Windows 7 for me, and so I bought it. Having spent a few of days getting things working again, I was up and running, and I was able to start playing catch up. 

Issue #179 was actually about done, so I decided to get that paged for printing and completed, as there's more missing from #180 and #181 from the 'crash'. They were the issues I was working on mostly when computer said 'no'. Therefore, FAS #179 is now ready to go, and in fact 'far far away', and 'far away', issues are already in the mail. UK issues will be going out on Monday. This is actually the August issue, but as with #178, there's no point in me just holding on to it. It's ready, so lets get it out there for you to enjoy.

There's a competition in this issue for subscribers ONLY, and you'll find details on Page 2 (the intro). Closing date for entries, via email or letter, is August 31st, so if you feel like having a go, get them in. Only one entry per person please. Full magazine information will go up here on Monday or Tuesday, after the final batch of issues has been mailed.
 
Over and out...