September 92 - Office Memo - In the Blink of an Eye
Office Memo - In the Blink of an Eye
Steve Mann
It's amazing how much can happen when you're not looking. Things have been
particularly busy around the MADA offices since the last FrameWorks issue went to
print. Let me summarize some of the more interesting activities.
First, I'm pleased to announce that Patricia McCauley has joined us as our new Office
Manager. If you call our offices, chances are Patricia will be the cheery voice on the
other end of the line. She comes to us with a wealth of experience in direct mail,
retail, and other related skills. It's a pleasure to have her here to take care of all the
important stuff. If you have any questions with your memberships, mailings, or
products you've ordered, she's the person to contact.
Ad Lib
We've been shipping Ad Lib betas for about six weeks. Bug reports are getting much
less frequent. We're hoping to have a golden master ready to ship before the end of
September (about this time you're reading this article). Stay tuned for an
announcement.
New Products
In our attempt to provide the broadest possible range of tools to MADA members at
very competive prices, I'm pleased to announce that we are now resellers for two
outstanding products-Steve Jasik's The Debugger and MacNosy, and IT Makers'
Marksman 2.0. The Debugger and MacNosy need no introduction. They've been around
for years. Marksman 2.0 is a prototyping and code generation tool created by George
Cossey, the same person who brought us the original Prototyper published by
SmethersBarnes.
The 1993 MADA San Diego Conference
Those of you that receive MACAPP2TECH$ or MACAPP3TECH$ AppleLink traffic have
already received the conference announcement and call for papers. For the rest of you,
the fouth annual MADA conference will be held February 15-19 at the Hilton Beach
Club & Tennis Resort in San Diego. The Hilton is a great facility, and the rates are
much lower than last year's conference. Look for more details about the conference
program in the November issue of FrameWorks.
Regarding the program, we already have tenative speaking agreements with various
Apple and Symantec folks. Bob Hablutzel, the conference chairperson, is actively
pursuing other presenters. He's determined to make this the best MADA conference
yet.
We're looking for MADA members that would like to present at the conference. The
Call for Participation on page 15 describes the types of sessions, typical topics, and so
on. If you have an idea for a presentation, send Bob a link at MADA.CON. He's also
interested in hearing your suggestions for a banquet speaker and vendor presentations.
Future Directions
In the near future expect to see even more changes at MADA. First, we're going to
implement a mechanism whereby we can get in touch with all our members in a more
timely fashion. A lot can happen between FrameWorks issues. We need to
communicate more quickly.
We're looking at a variety of options-a bimonthly newsletter mailed between
FrameWorks issues, an AppleLink bulletin board (with synchronized counterparts on
America Online and CompuServe), and a member-wide broadcast electronic service (if
you have any suggestions we'd like to hear them). Once we've finalized a mechanism,
we'll be offering additional member services such as an employment clearing house.
We're also hoping to expand our tools offerings, so that we can provide our members
with the broadest possible range of object-oriented software and development tools at
substantial discounts. We're talking to a variety of developers about publishing
software that's already available from other sources. We're also looking for new tools,
class libraries, and utilities that have never been published before. If you know of any
exciting prospects let us know (and expect to see some announcements in the very near
future).
The final message remains the same as in the last FrameWorks-let us know what we
can do to improve our service to you our members. That's why we're here.