 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Melb PC Personality Tessa Melland |
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In this series, I am introducing you to some of the volunteers who give considerable time, energy, expertise and commitment in order to bring the facilities of the Club - especially PC Update and the Bulletin Board - up to the standards members have now grown to expect.
Peter Freeman
Contrary to public belief, Peter Freeman is not a myth. Rather more Peter, our new Vice-President is a very active background worker in Melb PC. With eyes and ears to ground, he is a weather gauge as far as members and SIGs (Special Interest Groups) are concerned; feeding information from the grass roots back to the Committee. As co-sysop on the BBS with Barry McMenomy, Peter has spent many hours dealing with membership problems and answering questions. He has a keen wit (you might remember his reply to my question about the bug that crept into my A:Drive, which was written up in PC Update last year) and he has a wide variety of knowledge.
Born in Melbourne, Peter Freeman attended Trinity Grammar (at the same time, he ran a chicken farming business in his backyard in Kew). He continued on to Melbourne University to study Applied Science (Electronic) and RMIT to do Communications Engineering. Feeling he was unemployable, Peter started his first (adult) business Brother Sunshine Lights in the late sixties - providing the lighting and sound for the venues of rock groups, university balls, etc.
Having worked for Wormalds, he decided to establish a business in security and burglary alarms. Taking on a partner eight years ago, they now operate Blueprint Security, (Ph: 417 4904), based in East Melbourne, where they install and maintain alarms, access controls and closed circuit television (CCTV).
When eventually I found Peter's house, in the back blocks of Warrandyte, I descended his precipitous driveway to be greeted by two large dogs - fortunately, I was considered friendly. One of the dogs, Bernie, is Peter's regular companion and can often be found in the BBS room.
Nestled amongst trees singing with bell birds, on about an acre fronting the Yarra, his delightful, large timber house reinforced the country atmosphere.
Unlike others I have visited, Peter's computer activities were not dominantly visible.
At home he has only his old multitasking XT laptop. However, he networks with his other three computers at work and one at his partner's, all of which have modems.
Starting in computers before the days of the IBM PC, he bought an Apple 2E clone for about $6,000 in the late 1970s. Having taken six hours to produce his first word-processed letter, the only writing he does now is his signature. He changed to an IBM clone in 1982-83.
Learning by doing, Peter gets started then refers to the manual later. However, with Open Access, which he considers was the best data base of its day, and was his first and main program, there was an exception; He read all the literature from cover to cover. He still prefers DOS.
Whilst most of his time is spent between work and Melb PC, Peter does enjoy boating in an inflatable surf boat. He was going out onto the water with a friend after I left that day. The idea of them speeding over the waves with their high powered outboard seemed incongruous with the seemingly rather staid Peter that I know. Still, he obviously enjoyed it and was looking forward to getting out there. When he has time, he also enjoys reading short stories and is a regular, fortnightly news reader for 3RPH, radio station for the blind.
When Peter Freeman joined Melbourne PC User Group six years ago. He spent about two years attending only the Open Access User Group SIG. One day, with a major hard disk problem, he contacted Doug Brooke and started attending the Hardware SIG. He then realised there was much more going on in the club. Two years ago he went on the committee and in July 1993, from the BBS committee, he joined Barry McMenomy as a co-sysop for the BBS. On Charles Wright's resignation as President, Peter became Melb PC Vice-President.
As Vice-President, Peter sees the need to counter balance the needs of vested interest groups against those of the whole group, to make sure that a balanced picture is presented. In taking some of the workload from Colin Lovitt, when he's doing other things, Peter sees his role as being involved, also, with industry contact.
Where there is work to be done, there you'll find Peter. Whether it's in the BBS room sifting through and answering mail, re-establishing facilities and supporting the rest of the crew, or whether it is organising, establishing and manning the stalls at the Swap Meets at Malvern or Camberwell, Peter will be there. With his sly sense of humour, his common sense and range of knowledge, together with his quiet, consistent strength and fairness Peter Freeman is a fundamental part of the stability of Melb PC.
Whilst he would prefer to remain relatively anonymous, Peter graciously allowed me to interview him. I thank him for his hard work and participation in so many of Melb PC's activities. I would also encourage members who need security services to contact Peter and to support those members who, like him donate countless hours towards the provision of club facilities and services.
Reprinted from the June 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
