tion using dBASE without allowing access to dBASE programming language or the code of the special application. The result is an interesting partnership between the primary software developer (Ashton-Tate) and the backyard application developers. One warning: Often the application programs don't come cheap. Many are over the $1000 mark. Since the applications are not distributed as ,widely as popular software, the producers have to recoup their expenses by charging more per copy. It is an interesting area for nonprofits to explore, for profit or social gain, as they develop their own applications with packaged software. (Suggested by Terry Miller) RFC News, irregular, $3/issue, from: Resources for Communication 341 Mark West Station Road Windsor, CA 95492 RFC News, subtitled "Churches and the Information Age, Your Weekly Guide and Counselor," is one of those one- · person, backyard newsletters with an important and interesting slant. There's nothing real fancy about this communication vehicle, but Robert F. Cramer, the editor, publisher, writer, and · presumably, janitor for the operation, puts together useful information to help churches adapt to the information age. A recent issue was devoted to what Cramer calls, "televideomatics" (we're all looking for some end-all phrase). It is a short overview of the different kinds of remote online services available to computer users. Global Electronics Information Newsletter, irregular, $10/year from: Pacific Studies Center 222B View Street Mountain View, CA 94041 Pacific Studies Center has been around for some time, having some of its roots in a Eugene-based group, the Pacific Northwest Research Center. Both centers have had a long tradition (early 705) of researching the military/industrial complex, and in the case of the Pacific Studies Center, more specifically the electronic industry. Although I only see their newsletter once in a blue moon, it always comes as a pleasant surprise. Their perspective on all this computer-jazz as a world-wide industry that starts with exploitative Third World silicon chip production, is an enlightening (if somewhat depressing) perspective. The newsletter isn't a big hefty production to bring home to the family, but staying in FROM: RFC News touch with their work is important. One of the founders, Lenny Siegel, is publishing a book about the dangers of high technology pollution. Apple Library Users Group Newsletter, irregular, free from: Monica Ertel Apple Computer, Inc. Corporate Documentation 26B 20650 Valley Green Drive Cupertino, CA 95014 There may be a struggle going on in the world of slick computer periodicals to see, who will survive, but at the grassroots level there are countless user-group and other special-interest newsletters, all worth their cost (often free). This one is a useful gem-especially if you match the basic criteria, libraries and Apples. Within this context, there are useful reviews of new software and hardware, descriptions of innovative uses of small computers, and a bulletin board with . users swapping horror and glory stories. Most of the members seem to work in small libraries, with computer application needs similar to some of the needs of small nonprofits. The Software fournal, monthly, $15/year from: Pioneer Building, Suite 427 600 Fh;st Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 A person can easily go broke trying to March/April 1985 RAIN Page 31 keep up with computer-related magazines. You can follow news by the brand of hardware, software, or applications. You can follow the market place developments through publications like Computer Retail News. There are magazines with programs and continuously updated directories to computer bulletin boards. You can follow privacy issues or various levels of policy issues. Well, here's one more. I hesitate to offer up another, but The Software Journal feels comfortable. It may have found a nice, if perhaps too general, niche. It is not a software review magazine. It is news about software, while in the R&D stage, or grand (or not so grand) unveilings at trade shows. One hesitation: They now and then dip into reviewing new hardware, which seems like defeating the purpose of focusing on software.
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