PCs and Computer Systems
Background
This section is aimed at IVC which do not yet have a computer and are perhaps wondering what it is all about, could one benefit the club. But those who already use one may still learn something from this.
Computers were created in order to perform calculations for the military. When they came into commercial use, they continued to calculate, mostly money - accounts, payroll and such like.
They still compute but this is no longer their primary purpose; rather, they handle data, store it, retrieve it, manipulate it, reformat it, reduce vast quantities of it to information. Under the covers, they still perform masses of calculations but happily, this is largely invisible to us, the users.
Membership records
One good use for this power is to store the details of club membership; name, address, subscription due date and so on. This can then be used to generate address labels each month in order to post out club bulletins and to generate reminder letters or lists when subscriptions come up for renewal. It can also be used to provide information on the patterns of membership, how long members stay, who is coming up to their first renewal, who organises how many events and so on.
In a large club, with hundreds of members, this is likely to be the initial reason for buying a computer; indeed, some clubs have been doing this for a decade.
Bulletin production
Computers can also generate documents and magazines to the standards of a professional publisher. This has long been possible but the cost of a suitable printer - thousands of pounds - put this out of reach for most. Now an ink jet printer will give reasonable quality for less than £50 while little more will purchase the higher quality of a laser.
The software to produce a bulletin, letters and other documents is variously called a word processor or, when it is more sophisticated, a DTP (desktop publisher).
Finance
Computers do still handle numbers very well and so can be used for club accounts, income and expenditure, balance sheet and so on. The challenge is that the numbers all have to be put in accurately in the first place unlike, say, membership details. If I misspell the address of 'Junipar Close' (sic), the Royal Mail will still get it there. But if I put the decimal point in the wrong place in the accounts, the results could be disastrous.
So financial data has to be entered and carefully checked. In commercial organisations, this can involve keying all the data in twice using two different people and then comparing the two, a tedious exercise.
So while there is a superficial attraction to giving all the number-crunching to a computer, it is only worth it if the data is going to be used many times, if for example the club wants an update at each committee meeting of how much has been spent in each category and how that compares with the budget to date or how the figures would project to the end of the year.
E-mail (electronic mail) is the ability to exchange mail with other computer users via the telephone network. The computer is equipped with a modem which allows it to connect to a telephone socket and you pay a fee to an access provider. Suitable software then allows you to send and receive messages with other, similarly equipped users. The technology that joins users together over the telephone system is called the Internet; you will normally connect to this via an access provider.
E-mail is an adjunct to, and not a replacement for, other forms of communication. Personal contact remains the best (we are, after all, a social organisation). The telephone is convenient (as long as the other person is in) while letters are better for complex ideas, for diagrams or lengthy discourses (like this).
E-mail is fast, as long as the other person logs on and collects their mail. It allows a more rapid debate than letters ever allow while allowing the information to be read and re-read. It can be broadcast to a thousand people as quickly as it can to one (a mixed blessing). But it can only be accessed from a suitably equipped computer and, millions of those as there are, they will never (well, almost never) be as widespread as the mobile phone.
Any club buying a computer nowadays should buy the equipment for e-mail, even if they do not plan to use it immediately.
World Wide Web
A PC attached to the Internet can also access vast libraries of information using a technology known as the World Wide Web. At the time of writing, over three quarters of clubs in the AIVC have set up Web pages of their own.- The club Web site is best used to provide support for publicity material produced by a club. To achieve this clubs, should make every effort to ensure:
- The club web address appears on all printed material (including bulletins)
- The club web site is kept up to date with the correct contacts
- A sample of the type of events organised by the club is shown
- All other relevant information on the web site is kept up to date
- Someone is given responsibility for maintaining the web site (the 'Webmaster')
Ownership
By now you may have spotted a potential problem. The different uses described above relate to three or more different officers. Can you afford three computers? and if not, who gets the one you can afford?
One idea is to rearrange the roles of the officers to fit the uses better. (I know, machines should serve man, but computers don't know that). For example, details of membership may currently be spread across several officers. Computerisation is a good time to rationalise this and have a single officer whose job it is to maintain all details of membership. This may then be combined with some financial work, of getting subscriptions in, or with providing information on membership to other officers.
Laptop computers exist, as you can see on many Intercity journeys, but they are usually more expensive than the equivalent static models.
So there is always likely to be a dichotomy, between giving a computer to an officer for the membership/financial uses and giving it to an officer to produce the bulletin. Large clubs may choose the former, small clubs the latter.
Which computer
Type
Most PCs (Personal Computers) are of a type known as IBM-compatible (after the manufacturer who invented this standard). Most of the rest are Apples (also called MACs) with a legion of other types filling the gaps. Fortunately, this is an easy decision; Apples are used in a few, specialised, niche markets. If you are in one of those markets, you would already know all about them and would not be reading this. So choose an IBM-compatible.
But after that, there are still too many choices and to understand them, you need more knowledge of what goes on inside a PC.
Hardware
A PC is made up of hardware - the bits you can see and handle - and software, which comes on disks and - once installed - gives the PC its look and feel and ability to do something useful.
The hardware consists of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and system unit. The monitor is computer-speak for the part which displays information, like a TV screen. Television in the UK has a vertical resolution of 640 lines. Modern monitors are designed with a much higher resolution than television with 600 lines being considered low resolution. Many modern monitors can display up to 1200 lines by 1600 dots across and often run at a higher scan rate for reduced flicker and support of fast moving graphics.
The keyboard is like a typewriter keyboard but with additional keys that are used as a shorthand for performing the various specialised functions that are needed to make a computer do what you want.
The mouse is a small lump of plastic that fits in your hand, has two (sometimes three) buttons on it and a ball underneath that rotates as you move the mouse across a flat surface. This allows you to point and select items on the screen as a shorthand for keying in instructions.
The system unit is a metal or plastic rectangular unit that sits on the desk or floor humming gently. Inside it are the processor, storage, disks and other features.
The processor executes the software (which is the whole point of this). Most processors are made by Intel whose first processor was the 8088; this became the 8086(!), the 80286, 80386, 80486 and is now the Pentium IV (Intel realised belatedly that you could not trademark a number but you can a name) which run at between 900 Mhz and 2 GHz.
The processor also has a speed, measured in Mhz (Mega-Hertz) or GHz (Giga Hertz). At the time of writing, 1.2 GHz is typical for a Pentium IV and 2.0 GHz is fast.
To execute software, processors need to load it into memory, also known as RAM. Measured in Mb (Mega-byte), 64 Mb is on the small side, 128 or 256 Mb more common but for more powerful machines, it runs into the thousands.
Memory is ephemeral. Permanent storage resides on disks; hard disks (or drives), floppies or CD-ROM.
Every machine today has a built-in hard drive with a capacity of tens of Gb (Giga Bytes); 20 Gb is a common size but 40 Gb or 60 Gb is widespread. This disk is built into the system unit.
Every system unit also contains a floppy disk drive into which can be placed floppy disks (quite rigid really). Floppy Disks are 3 1/2" square and contain 1.44 Mb of information.
While CD-ROM is similar to - but different from - that used in CD players and is read only. Many machines are now supplied with CD-Writers (CD-RW) which are excellent for backing up large volumes of data onto writeable CDs (650Mb per disk). At the time of writing, a pack of 50 or 100 writeable CDs (CD-R) can be purchased for less than 30 pence per disk.
A DVD-Drive is often supplied with a new machine purchased today, though some low end machines will miss this out to trim the cost. The DVD drive allows you to play all your favourite DVD films and TV programmes through the computer monitor.
Software used to come on floppies but it has grown so big - 30 floppies was commonplace - that the floppies became unmanageable; so a lot of software now comes on CD-ROM.
Floppies can be used to load small pieces of software, to exchange small documents and files with other users and to take backups (yes, all computers go wrong sooner or later); they are vital.
The system unit will also contain adapter cards. The one of most use to an IVC is a modem to allow the computer to connect to the Internet and so to the AIVC Email and web Services (and other clubs). You will also find a sound card is supplied in every new machine which can drive speakers. Multi-media is the name given to the ability to have sound and moving images on a computer.
Printers
To produce any printed output from your PC, you need a printer. This also counts as hardware and is usually supplied with the PC.
There are two types of printer in common use; laser and the cheaper inkjet (or the closely related bubblejet). The key characteristic of a printer is how many dpi (dots per inch) it can generate; the more there are, the smoother, the less jagged the output. 300 dpi should be regarded as a minimum and is available on both types; this will produce adequate address labels and letters. But to produce a bulletin that reflects the right image for us, more is required, at least 300 dpi (dots per inch), preferably 600 dpi. ( A good inkjet costs under £70, the cheapest laser something over £150). The laser is also faster, 8 ppm (pages per minute) at its slowest. If money is tight, then economise on the system unit and go for a laser!
Operating system
The operating system software gives a computer its look and feel.
The original operating system (for PC) was DOS, first invented by Microsoft and subsequently reinvented by a number of other manufacturers.
But the usual way to interact with a PC these days is by a windows interface with a mouse. The screen is divided up into overlapping windows so that many different types of information can be on display at once; the mouse is used to select items; and icons - rather than text - are used to represent many of the actions you wish to perform and the elements (objects) you wish to perform them on.
The first windowed system appeared on Apple (which is why its aficionados will never use anything else) but it was taken up by IBM whose OS/2 was a highly sophisticated system (no longer available in the general market place), and Microsoft, whose Windows products now dominate the market place.
Windows 98 and 2000, from Microsoft, is the current de facto standard for using a PC. Microsoft have since produced a successor, Windows XP, which needs a more powerful system to run it. While Windows NT is still the most commonly used in business systems.
Applications
At last, these are the raison d'etre of the computer.
Each of the uses described above needs a separate piece of application software. Historically, these each had different ways of doing a similar job. Fortunately, there are now integrated application suites which provide most of what a user needs and these suites come pre-installed with an operating system.
So the choice has become which suite? Microsoft offer a basic suite called Works for Windows which provides a perfectly adequate database (for membership records). a word processor (for printing labels and producing bulletins), a spread sheet (for financial records although not accounts) and a graphics package for maps and diagrams.
The more sophisticated Microsoft package is called Microsoft Office and its word processor - Word - is the most widely used. The AIVC committee has standardised on Microsoft Word for the production of all electronic documents within the AIVC. In general, documents saved to the Word 95/97 will be readeable to most members and clubs.
These packages may not include a suitable program for producing accounts; it is worth checking with your accountant what he uses, what he would like to see, before investing in accounting software. A common package which is widely used for personal finance and small business is Quicken, which is both cheap (about £80) and very easy to use. Since most clubs do not have to account for VAT, Quicken will generally provide an excellent package for running club accounts on. The best bit about Quicken is ... it does the financial reports for you!!
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
I mentioned earlier that access to the Internet, for e-mail and the Web, is via an access provider otherwise known as an Internet Service Provider or ISP for short. You pay a set-up charge and have the choice of paying a fixed monthly fee to them (good for regular internet user users), or calling at local rates (good light internet users) and they provide access to the Internet. There are numerous such organisations in the UK all offering a varity of packages. Most service providers also provide information or services such as mail forwarding, extra web space etc (for an additional fee). There are some ISPs who simly provide the connection service, though these are declining with the need to provide more and better services to customers.
Look in the AIVC address list and you will see a list of e-mail addresses as used by other clubs. Ring up a few and ask them for their experience; but be aware that most providers are growing very rapidly, they will suffer from spells when their facilities are overloaded and users can only gain access by making several attempts.
Choosing a computer
Cost
PCs are getting cheaper. This year's model costs between £350-£2000 depending on the specification, next year's will be half to two thirds that for the same or better performance. Every year, PC increase dramatically in price/performance but the price to us declines more slowly. We get more performance but that performance is often required to use the ever more resource hungry applications like video editing.
At the time of writing, this year's model is a 1.2 Ghz Pentium IV with 256 Mb RAM, a 20 Gb hard disk, a 17" monitor, a floppy disk drive, CD-ROM Drive, Windows XP and Works for Windows. Last years model is a 600MHz, 64Mb with 6Gb hard drive. To run Windows XP would need 256Mb of RAM, to run an Office suite on Windows at least 128Mb.
A laser printer will add £150 to that.
Where from
The other key choice is where to get your PC from.
Cheapest is mail order but there are some sharks (people who will do nothing for you when the equipment is faulty) out there as any trading standards officer will tell you . And the chances are you will need help, perhaps quite a lot of it.
This business of needing help is the biggest hindrance to the use of PC. Computers do not go wrong very often but they are too complex, too prone to do what they think they should and to ignore your perfectly rational instructions. This may colour your decision as to where to buy.
Help can come from other quarters. Some manufacturers offer telephone help lines but the free ones are often busy and you can run up large telephone bills waiting in a queue for service. The other source is colleagues or friends. Your firm uses PC (doesn't it?) and there is a lot to be said for buying the same make as your firm, perhaps the same model, and making friends with your local support (help desk, carepoint, call centre, etc). Friends? well, friends are precious and those that are good at friendship may not have the bent of mind needed to make a recalcitrant lump of silicon bend to your will.
There are many, surprisingly expensive, books on PC. Your local library will have some but often too out-of-date to be of use. There is a range of titles with the word ' ...Dummies' in it. Their jocular style is not to everyone's taste but given the absurd hoops we have to jump through to make these machines do what we want, I find their humour a relief. At a more advanced level, AIVC recommend you look at those published by Que.
In all seriousness, work out how you are going to get help before you decide what model of which manufacturer to order from where. That will be a bigger success factor than the choice of e.g., Compaq, HP or IBM.
When you have mastered the PC and the World Wide Web, then there is mountains of help available through that route; but that is usually too late.
Looking after the computer
Maintenance
The good news is that PC do not need maintenance. Treated well they should last five years, with floppy disks, printer paper and printer cartridges being the only running costs.Enhancement
On the other hand, if you decide to upgrade your machine, you could be entering a minefield. A new release of your word processor offers the ability you always wanted to add that special effect to the front cover of your bulletin. So you install it. It is larger and the machine crashes until you put in more memory. Then you find the memory must be installed in matched pairs. Then the new clipart files fill your hard disk so that needs upgrading too; and when you have finished, the modem complains of clashing IRQ. I jest not. If the PC is doing the job, then leave well alone; and equally, buy one initially that will do all you can foresee wanting to do. (There are of course those who enjoy the smell of hot silicon, the same people perhaps who used to change car gearboxes over Bank Holiday weekends, but then you are not one of those or you would not be reading this - would you?).
Insurance
The PC will be a major asset of the club, probably the most expensive. Ensure that it is insured from the day you get it, both for where it normally resides and in transit - as when one user hands over to another - for fire, theft and accidental damage. But be warned that its value decreases dramatically, perhaps halving in the first year. To you, it should last three to five years and so you write it off over those years; accountants - normally cautious people - do the same (which has led to at least one spectacular bankruptcy). But insurance companies know the reality and losing your one-year old machine could cost you dear.
Backup
As mentioned above, computers do not often go wrong; insurance against failure is rarely worthwhile. But it remains all to easy to spend the weekend typing in your club bulletin and then overwrite it in five seconds on Monday evening.
The golden rule is to consider how much it will cost you when - not if - you lose the data; from human error, from theft, fire and Acts of God. And then take backups on floppies or CD. I can easily copy a floppy or CD and lodge it with a neighbour, a fellow officer, a fireproof safe, anywhere. If my machine is stolen, all(!) I have lost is what can be replaced from the shop. What is most precious to me, my data, is safe. (Time I copied this!).
Summary
Computers are complex, they are a significant cost compared to a club's budget. Yet they save us time and enable us to present a more professional image. Many members will have their own; so should an IVC.
Do consider who is going to use it, for what and where the support will come from. Aim to buy a machine that will not need upgrading and remember to allow for the uncertainties, unreliabilities even, that are inherent in a voluntary organisation such as ours.