Just read The Last Word each month and see for vourself. Lake I.any Lack, for instance. 1 his Jerry Pournelle John Dvorak (two famous computer columnists who don’t write lordmigaWorld) quasi-clone writes a great column called Digital Dungeon for The Amiga Users of the Heartland, in Omaha, Nebraska. Now Larry never knew I read his newsletters until, that is, he gave Atniga World, and me in particular, both barrels. Larry blasted us about an article that had an error which was die vendor’s fault and levelled a scurrilous attack on me lor my sudden discovery of the Amiga, saying I knew nothing about it and only liked it for the money I made as Editor. Sure, I was a little offended, especially since some of the points were oil target. But I have to admit that Earn' did it with stvle and lutmor. * I had to call. Heck, any guy who can write about “Personal Computer Hygiene" and the “I-Vana Trump Card" is well worth talking to. Besides, the people who are the harshest critics sometimes have the best ideas. So I tried to track him down at home. I tried him at work. Since our schedules clashed, I stayed late one night and nailed him as he walked in the door. “Hey. What’s all this rotten stuff you’re writing about us, Larry?” I asked. “You mean you read our newsletter!” "I read ’em all, Lany." “Oh.” For the next ten minutes, I laid out my side of the story; with Larry taking copious notes. For the next twenty minutes, we talked about everything else. Commodore, the machine, the magazine, his column. Minds met. Friendship began. And now the first thing I do when 1 get the Heartland newsletter is turn to Digital Dungeon. People like Lam Lack are the soul of the Amiga. They take the lime to help organize a group, keep a newsletter going, and give a hand to their fellow users. These groups get involved in the market by voicing concerns to Commodore, keeping mainstream computer publications aware of the Amiga’s existence, and keeping us Amiga magazines on our toes. Ding Dong, You’re: Wrong There are also guys like Paul Metheney, former editor of The Miami AMIGAs newsletter, i got a note from Paul after another publication launched a vicious (we don’t mind that) and inaccurate (now that really bugs us!) Attack on Amiga World because of our aggressive coverage of new products. To his tremendous credit, Metheney churned out a very reasonable defense ofAmigalVorld's attempts to cover the big products first. And it was really well written. So I called him, too. Unfortunately, the publishing crew in question hasn’t so far had spine enough to publish a correction, let alone any of the many letters from users complaining about the attack. As a result. Paul’s letter may never get published. Anyhow, 1 happened to pick up Metheney’s latest newsletter, and there was a quite articulate, funny, and honest description of our conversation. I’d better he careful with guys like Lack and Metheney around. Sooner or later, they’ll come after my job. After I had written the first few paragraphs of this column. 1 got a call from US Army Sergeant Marney, who is stationed in Garlstedt, Germany, We talked about a lot of tilings, such as how he used his Amiga to create presentations about the Gulf War for the 5000 or so concerned relatives of those serving, and how he uses Russian fonts from Classic Concepts in his work as a Russian linguist.