If you have always been a curious and adventurous person who looked toward the future, your interest may have led you to learn a little about PC's. Suddenly you may have found yourself "promoted", and made responsible for all the machines in the office. You may be getting by, but in the back of your mind there is these nagging questions: Is there anything I could be doing better? Are there things I am overlooking? This book is for you.

IBM Corp. introduced their first personal computer in 1981. Since then there have been several enhanced models introduced by IBM and a multitude of clones by other vendors. Businesses use literally tens of millions of these machines. Scores of books tell you all about WINDOWS '98 or all about JAVA or all about various other programs. Few or none of these books tell you how to manage the use of these machines in the most effective way. The intent of this book is to share with you some facts, observations, and opinions I collected during more than a quarter century of data processing. I hope it will help you tame the wild phenomenon that the personal computer has become.

There are very few absolute statements one can make about computers. The IBM PC is no exception. By late 1989 there were well over 50 Million installed. Almost anything that a manufacturer could change on a PC has been changed on one clone or another. Indeed, it is hard to even find any two machines that are alike. In the interest of giving you practical advice, I have ignored minor deviations and hardware and software not widely used. I have covered these only where there was some remarkable feature or quirk that I felt you would really need to know if you encountered one of them. Working in a smaller shop you may well have to make do with older machines that are no loner being made, so some of this historical material may be of value to you now.

Not only are there too many hardware variations to consider them all here, there are far too many popular software programs for anyone to master. I have therefore had to leave out the vast majority. I have only been able to give a top level survey. The intent is to give you an understanding of what each major group of hardware and software is and of what features you might want to look for in making a decision. If I know of products to avoid, I say so. If I know of products of especially high quality I say so.

Some of these ideas are only opinions. There are many ways to use PC's, many ways to manage them, many fine programs, etc. Each of us is entitled to his own opinions, even when we do not agree with one another. That which is right for you in your office might be wrong for me in my office, and vice versa.

If you know a little bit about my background, it may help give you some confidence in my opinions: My first data processing job was in 1960. I have worked as a manager of software development for a computer manufacturer. I have been a programmer, systems analyst, and consultant to users. I have run my own software company, creating and selling software to users of mini-computers and personal computers. Our customers included firms ranging from one man shops to Fortune 1,000 companies. They included educational and religious organizations, and federal, state, and local governments. Among other jobs, I have been an MIS manager, and have worked for a firm that repaired computers. I have learned a few things the hard way that I hope to share with you so that you do not have to learn them that way as well. For now, try not to be too critical of these ideas as you read them. Think about them so that you will remember the reasoning when you sit down to review it. Later, when you have had time to reflect on these matters you can decide what is right for you.

Besides the big important ideas about managing computers, there are many little things that no one will ever think to tell you but would cost you quite some time and anguish to figure out for yourself. Some of them might not occur to you until you had suffered major problems. Other computer users have already paid the price to find them out the hard way. You can have it all for a lot less money plus a little time to read about it. Other ideas contained in this book will help you push your PC's faster and explore the capabilities more.

This material does not explain everything in minute detail. It assumes that you are somewhat familiar with PC's. You will find, for example, no definitions of such terms as WINDOWS.INI. You do not need to know esoterica like DOS commands syntax, however, to benefit from reading this book. When you need to know these things, that's what the other books are for.

Generally the term "PC" will refer to any member of the IBM PC product family or any generic compatible machine (i.e., a "clone"). This will include those designed around the 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium or compatible systems. If I intend to refer to the IBM systems specifically I will say so. For most purposes you can assume that I am talking about machines based on the 80386 or newer.

In each section there is a certain amount of introductory material. Some readers may be unaware of a particular area of PC usage such as graphics or data bases, so this introductory material will serve to define a few basic terms in order to structure the other comments. In addition, some terms such as "data base" are so broad that the introductory material serves partly to limit the scope of the discussion.

I would be pleased to hear from you on any aspect of this book. I most welcome questions about what you found useful and what you would like to see more of. I intend to revise it frequently in the future. I trust that I can accept any comments however, and can learn from your experiences as well.

For now you can contact me at the following addresses:

A. G. Carrick

1020 Portofino Drive.

Arlington, TX 76012

mailto://gilcarrick@home.com

web pages at:

http://www.members.home.net/gilcarrick/