INQUA Working Group on Data-Handling Methods

Newsletter 11: January 1994

NOTE FROM THE COORDINATOR

In the Newsletter this time Joel Guiot provides some thoughtful recommendations for those using biological proxy data. Keith Bennett announces psimpoll version 2.23 that now runs on any machine for which an ANSI C compiler is available. He has put DOS and Mac versions in the INQUA Boutique. Even if you are happy with your present system for drafting pollen diagrams, you owe it to yourself to look at the feature-filled 70-page psimpoll manual to get an inkling of the thorough work he has done. Glen MacDonald continues his frolic through the CDROM world, and he offers advice about the CDROM drive that you should have ordered. Jock McAndrews and Zicheng Yu introduce their fascinating world of RACKs (Random Access Computer Keys) and I discuss how to edit them. Adam Walanus provides a humorous philosophy on using computers as pollen counters. Dana Naldrett tells how to do library searches on the Internet, describing and ranking the assets of 20 colleges in Canada and the U.S. John Birks supplies another of his useful book columns. David Green keeps us up to date with the World Wide Web. I asked Paula Reimer to provide some common questions she gets about CALIB3, the 14C calibration program from the University of Washington. I discuss the Global Positioning System and tell how you can always find where your research sites are even in trackless wastes. And a number of other topics are wedged in where they fit.

My sabbatical year continues. My thanks go to colleagues in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who made me feel welcome while teaching me about computers and geology. I will be visiting John Birks in Bergen during April and Raymonde Bonnefille in Marseille during May.

I ask the readers of the Newsletter to send me information on any of the data-handling techniques that you have used which could be helpful to others. Please check your regular and e-mail addresses for accuracy. Send any corrections/suggestions to:

Louis J. Maher, Jr.
Department of Geology & Geophysics
University of Wisconsin
1215 W. Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53706 USA
Phone: (608) 262-9595 FAX: (608) 262-0693
E-mail: maher@geology.wisc.edu


Copyright © 1994 Louis J. Maher, Jr.
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