ETTL News & Views
Volume 12 • Spring 2004 Newsletter
The new electronic version of ETTL's Newsletter … Keeping you up to date on
what's happening at ETTL Engineers & Consultants … typical current projects …
how we can be of service to you … links to our web site and people … and more!

Doug's Corner

A note from Doug Flatt,
Chairman of the Board of ETTL

Introducing the First Electronic
Version of ETTL's News & Views

We've been sending this Newsletter out to our clients and prospects for some twelve years now, preparing it in the form of "hard copy" (as printed matter often is called nowadays) and distributing it via "snail mail" (the current term for regular mail). The vocabulary of the electronic age is increasing apace! And so are the incalculable benefits to the art of communication presented by the internet, e-mail and computers in general. So, as you can see, we've decided to keep abreast of the times, providing you with a Newsletter you can swiftly click through wherever you are, making it easier (and swifter) to see what ETTL has to offer and to take advantage of it.

One of my (somewhat) older friends recently told me he remembers that back in the 40's, during the Second World War, he read an article in what was then called Astounding Science Fiction magazine. It prophesied that after the war most fairly large companies would soon have their own digital computer systems to help them keep track of and manipulate data. "It sounded like a wild dream," he said. But, of course, such did begin to happen. By the fifties, huge digital computers had begun to appear. Often they were systems that made use of punched-card data. And many occupied an entire sizable room, and processed in hours what an elementary notebook computer now can do in a few seconds.

"Fact is," my friend said, "I got my first personal computer back in 1980, a new AT&T unit that outweighed its monitor - practically outweighed me! - even though the case was the same size as nowadays. It had a hard-disk capacity of all of 10 meg. And cost over $3,000!" (Which would be well over $6,000 now.)

It's to be remembered that television didn't even exist until some years after the war. Things have changed! And often for the decided better. Our goal is that this change with our Newsletter will work that way for you. Do you like this electronic format? Does it tie in better with your needs and schedule?

Or did you prefer the previous printed (hard copy) format?

Would you let us know? Send an e-mail to Bob Graham, our editor, at:

bgraham@ettlinc.com

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