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        PO Box 457
        Beachwood, NJ 08722
        1992 December 16

        Dear John,
        I'm afraid collecting virtual books on floppy disks may be
        futile.  I've found examples of older disks (eight to ten years old)
        decomposing.  When any of the oxide breaks down, the residue seems
        to build up on the heads of a diskdrive.  The result is disk damage
        when trying to format a disk for reuse, not only defective disks but
        perfectly good disks.  Sometimes only a few sectors are lost, often
        more than fifty are marked bad.  The worst was having Drive A format
        only one side of a disk.  Cleaning the heads worked eventually.
        No question but that the CD has a longer shelflife than the
        floppy disk.  One of these days there'll be crystal ROM to give us
        indestructible Star Trek libraries.  That'll be the day for a library
        to serve as focal point of a collective community or, at least, a
        learning centre for an extended family of optimum size.
                                                  

                                                  Amicably,
				
                                                  Dan de Parto

        Editor's Note:  Mr. de Parto did not mention the brand names of the
        disks that gave him trouble.  Does this mean that all those copy
        protected disks we have from that era are soon to be dead?  I have
        some disks of a similar vintage, but have yet to have trouble.
        Has anyone had similar difficulties with old disks?

        One computer expert has speculated that CD-ROM disks may eventually
        break down due to oxidation of the aluminum layer. (The writeable
        CD-ROM disks use a gold layer, not aluminum.)  Archival qualities
        of various media also depend on the storage method.






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        л Virus Warning л
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        The  shareware  book  GARLIC MAGIC By  George  T.  Knoblauch  was
        inadvertently shipped with a copy of the Stoned virus.  A warning
        to this effect was issued to all shareware distributors, so it is
        unlikely that corrupted copies reached the public.  Most, but not
        necessarily  all,  shareware vendors routinely screen  new  disks
        before adding them to their libraries.

        If you have a copy of Garlic Magic, you can check your copy  with
        VirusScan  or other virus protection programs.  Clean copies  are
        available from Serendipity Systems or from Knoblauch.
  



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        л Address and other changes л
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        The  Genuine Article Magazine has changed its name  to  OVERBYTE,
        and its publisher has a new address:
        Dick Adler
        402 Broadway
        Venice, CA 90291

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        The Daydreamer and Waste Not, Want Not, both by Dan de Parto, are
        now available in editions using the DART interface.  The  current
        address for de Parto is:
        Dan de Parto
        P.O. Box 457
        Beachwood, NJ 08722

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        Mail  addressed  to John Libertus, the author  of  READ.COM,  was
        returned by the post office and stamped "No forwarding address."





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