ieee “About a | year: ago" ‘the ‘federal. government developed a policy. of selling some of it’s airports owned by ‘Transport Canada, The regional district recently showed an interest in obtaining: more. information and was ad- vised by Kathleen Miller, lman- ager of community airports for Transport Canada, that 12 air- beén ‘identified : as being feasible f for outright sale or long term — lease agreements, “Miller advised -that the only one of the 12 in the Terrace area was located at Woodcock and that ‘several local individuals’ had expressed an interest in tak- ing over its operation. After a brief discussion, however, her i } port in the Pacific Region had letter was filed for information.. Computalk is there life after DOS? — Part Il _, With the trend in movies towards sequels, (Ghostbusters If, Rocky XXIII, etc.) I thought I'd try-the same with my column. Last week’s installment brought a number of reactions from ~ readers, from whole-hearted agreement (rare), to complete . disagreement (heated words, no black eyes, but continued amaze- ment about how sensitive some people can be-over their favorite toys, be they cars or computers), to requests for more explana- tion (alright wise guy, if DOS is so bad, what’s better?). Hence this sequel. . As 1 explained last week, an Operating System is a set of pro- -gtams which manages the essential resource allocation operations _of a computer. In other words, it is the operating system which determines where files are stored, how programs communicate ~ with devices such as printers, keyboards, modems, how computer memory is managed, how programs interact, and so on, Every general purpose computer has an operating system and along - with it a means for the end user to communicate with the operating system.-The big problem with MSDOS is that it was designed with the computer programmer in mind, not the end user, Since computer programmers have a language all of their own, MSDOS ended up being a word-based operating system with expressions like: ~ CHKDSK A: /f-.-. ; Pes ET —and— : . . _ FORMAT B: /S/V | ; Now this very terse way of communicating with a computer. ‘may be all right for the computer programmer: or the computer . fanatic (sometimes called hacker), but it’s a bit of. overkill for the typical business person who just wants to maintain his or her. books on computer. —. . This is why the people at APPLE: Computers came up with the idea of a picture-based means of communicating. with the com- puter’s operating system, which resulted in the Apple Maclntosh’s Desktop Manager. Now the user could operate the . computer using a pointing device (usually a Mouse). to. manipulate little graphic symbols (called icons). Contrary to popular belief, APPLE didn’t invent this idea (which had been in use in universi- ty research labs since the early to mid 1970's) but rather were just the first to apply it to the mass market. In addition to this more simplified way of communicating with a computer, the people at APPLE also insisted that all programs that run on a MacIntosh must use this same user interface. The result of this is that learning basic computer file manage- ment operations takes much less time for the beginning MacIn- ‘tosh user compared to the beginning MSDOS user. Before this begins to sound like a paid commercial for APPLE, I should point out that MacIntoshes have their own shortcomings, the.two main ones being fewer business-application software selections _ and prices that are quite stiff relative to the amount of com- puting power purchased. Since the introduction of the MacIntosh, the trend in computer systems has been towards ‘Mac-like’ user interfaces. For example Microsoft has. come out with a programs like Windows, which gives the MSDOS machines a ‘MacIntosh look’. The OS/2 operating system developed for the IBM PS/2 line of computers is also managed through a ‘‘windowing environment” call the OS/2 Presentation Manager. And as computer hardware gets continuously more powerful and less expensive, these type of user interfaces will eventually replace the more primitive MSDOS-like command languages. However, how does one survive until that day in the future? Last week I mentioned that all the average DOS user had to learn was six to 12 DOS commands. This week Ili be a bit more specific. The average end user of an MSDOS hard-drive system never needs to learn more than the ‘magic 7’ commands of the MSDOS command language. They are DIR, FORMAT, COPY, DEL, MD, CD, and RD. As there isn’t enough space for a full- fledged DOS lesson, those of you with MSDOS machines who don’t know these already will have to look them up in your DOS reference books. And those readers who don’t have a computer or another type of computer (such as a Mac) ¢ can pretend they never saw this paragraph. Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 24, 1989 13 _ The new Terrace Government Access Centre is now officially open after a recent ribbon- cutting ceremony by Skeena MLA Dave Parker, Regional Development Minister Elwood Veltch and North Coast Minister of State Terry Huberts. In the background is Terrace Government Agent Randy Trombley, who was given credit for a lot of the work that got the center. established and off the ground In Terrace. Official tracks down UI fraud According to John Jack, in- vestigation and control officer for the Terrace Employment Centre, $708,763 will have to be repaid to the Government of Canada because of inaccurate or - fraudulent claims in the 1988/89 fiscal year. by Pam Whitaker In their investigation, 2,690 '. gases of overpayment of benefits were identified in this region, Jack, a former RCMP officer, - vs ‘covers the area bounded by the Nass Valley, Stewart, Houston, . Kitimat and half way to Prince Rupert. ‘In the north there are also investigative officers in Prince Rupert, Prince George | and Dawson Creek,”* he.said. ‘ Jack pointed out that there are millions of taxpayers’ dollars recovered each year by investiga- tion. ‘In the 1987/88 fiscal year,”’ he said, ‘‘I know of one single computer audit which disclosed UIC overpayments amounting to $72 million!’’ John Jack arrived in Terrace November 21, 1988, shortly eafter retiring from the RCMP. He had been with the police force for 27 years and returned to Terrace because he and his family had liked it when he was stationed here from 1975 to 1977. He and his wife Doreen’s three sons are now grown. “There are various programs which assist in abuse detection,” Jack explained. “Some of these identify abuse immediately, and others take two years to identify cases to be followed up. “In addition to computer pro- grams which identify potential abuse, employers also par- ticipate by reporting newly hired employees. Another important source for investigators - are. anonymous tips from the © public : at large. _ “People who have made false statements - in the past, which — have not yet been detected, are ~ encouraged to let us know. We. will not prosecute in cases where an individual voluntarily owns up to past abuse or fraud of 7 UIC,” he said. New mortgage program Finance and Corporate Rela- tions Minister Mel Couvelier has tabled for first reading in the B.C. Legislature the new Home Mortgage Assistance Program Act. The Act establishes a new pro- gram to help British Columbians ‘who want to purchase a home at $100,000 or less, but who have only a small down payment. The Home Mortgage Assis- tance Program replaces the British Columbia Second Mort- gage Program. “Under the new Home Mort- gage Assistance Program, the. provincial government will issue loan guarantees to eligible ap- plicants,”’ said Couvelier. . The program permits 95 per- cent financing and it will be delivered by private sector - lenders. Couvelier said he will be an- nouncing further details of the Home Mortgage Assistance Pro- — gram very soon. This program was Originally announced as part of the provincial government's $890 million housing action plan in this spring’s budget. American Express Travellers Cheques _NOW AVAILABLE AT ITP Terrace Travel DONT = aft WITHOUT THEM‘ NO SERVICE CHARGE when you book your travel arrangements with a Terrace Travel. ot 4611 Lakelse Avenue, Terrace, B.C. Phone: 635-6551 or 635-2281