Computer Answers was a column published for seventeen years in Personal Computer World Magazine. I wrote it for the last five years of its life with PCW, during which time I became aware that it was very popular. Many people telephoned or wrote to me with questions - far more than I could cope with in print, but I tried to answer as much as I could personally - and I came to know a large number of computer enthusiasts.
A problem I always had with the printed column was the lead time. It actually took 3-4 months before a question I received appeared in print, and on a number of occasions I got caught out by advancing technology. I might state that a particular product didn't exist, and three months later my statement appeared alongside a contradictory advertisement!
So, at the start of 1996, I decided to publish a Web version of Computer Answers covering only late-breaking amendments. This was always a free service by way of thanks to all the readers who'd been so supportive over the years - and it mean I didn't feel so bad when the printed version got overtaken by events.
Annual Readers' Surveys suggested very strongly that Computer Answers was one of the most popular features of the magazine, but following an artistic re-design in the Summer of 1996 the management decided to drop the column as it would not fit in with their new concept for the Hands-On section.
Following news of that Computer Answers was to be discontinued I have received so many letters of support that I have decided to keep the on- line version going and expand it to do the same job as the printed copy. So this is it!