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Welcome to the last newsletter of the century - we at R.E.D. are all looking forward to an exciting and challenging New Millennium with lots of new projects.

Congratulations to..

Nicholas Spice from the London Review of Books who was a guest on BBC Radio 3's tribute to Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.

All at the IASC (International Accounting Standards Committee) who seem now well on the way to getting their proposals for a common set of accounting standards adopted by countries on both sides of the Atlantic. A major breakthrough!

All of you at Maney Publishing celebrating your 100th anniversary next year - what a lot of candles that will be!

And to the joint winners of last issues' anagram competition, TJ from Perspective Publishing and Alison from the FPA. Two rather large bars of chocolate found new homes. Last issues' anagram solution was:

Happy Holiday

As usual over Christmas and New Year, we will be closing the telephone lines from noon 24th December 1999 to 4th January 2000. We shall be coming in and out of the office over that time for various projects, so if you have anything desperately urgent it is worth sending a fax or an e-mail, but as they say, don't ring us, we'll ring you!

The manuals and technical notes contained on the website may be of use to you if you run into any problem while the offices are closed.

Early Risers

The web server statistics sent to us by our web host have turned up some slightly surprising results; it seems that on Sunday morning at 6am our site enjoys a large burst of traffic.

Less surprisingly, the bulk of traffic is between 11am and 3pm Mondays and Tuesdays - never mind, we can't all be early risers.

User Group Meeting 2000

With this newsletter our users will find their very own personal invitation to the next User Group Meeting. It is going to be held on the 27 January 2000 at the usual time 2-4 p.m.

This time we have chosen to hold the meeting at our offices, (giving those who've never been here a chance to visit!) As usual we hope that lots of you can attend, especially those who have never attended one before.

The speakers have not yet been finalised, so if any of you have a topic you would like to share then give us a call!

Wishes

Thank you to those who sent us ideas for the wish list, (improvements you'd like to see incorporated into the software). Please do keep sending them in.

The Big Number

Once again, telephone codes are changing to compensate for the huge increases in the amount of phone numbers there are. A phone number conversion utility has been written for R.E.D. software which automatically updates all the UK, Northern Ireland, and mobile numbers.

The update can convert your telephone numbers whether or not they have brackets. It can also remove spurious characters as long as they are not the first character in the code. The original spacing will be retained, unless the layout of the code and numbers is to be converted. The main changeover day is 22 April 2000, but things will be changing slowly until that date, with old and new numbers running in parallel.

You can get further information from:

Oftel: www.numberchange.org
BT: www.numberchange.bt.com
The Help line: 0800 731 0202

and from all other telephone companies.

Subscriptions & Sales Ledger Users

You will be happy to know that your Issue Generate will now be quicker! If you haven't already got this update let us know and we will send you one.

For those who don't use the sales ledger, don't feel left out because your Issue Generate is already quick!

Mailorder Campaigns

If you choose the wrong marketing campaign when you add a new order don't fret, because now there are special options to allow you to change it even after despatch. Again - if you would like this update just let us know.

Validation

A new and improved algorithm for Credit Card Checking has been implemented (the software that checks for you whether or not a credit card is valid). This is triggered when adding an order, paying off an invoice, or renewing a subscription. There was a wish just asking to be granted.

Looking for Someone ?

Have you inherited some less-than-perfect Search Names ? If you have any blank or dysfunctional Search Names there is a new utility routine that can fill them in or improve them for you. The fix can be done for either a selection, or all blank names. Let us know if you would like the instructions.

Tell IT Loud and Clear

For all of you who are using the Pervasive database engine with your R.E.D. software here is some important news to pass on to your IT support team:

Technical support, error codes, updates and patches, and technical manuals are available from the Pervasive web-site at

This could be particularly useful to them over the Xmas break.

R.E.D. in Windows

We are continuing to fine-test the 32-bit Windows software. We are using the software in demonstrations and have a number of different programs compiled and running.

We also have an extended database interface under development that will allow you to use almost any SQL database, including Oracle, SQL Server, and Pervasive.SQL 2000.

It will not be long before we will be announcing a Windows launch date! We already have a list of clients expressing a keen interest in moving to the Windows software. If you have not already let us know then please do.

Diary Dates 2000

The twentieth PPA Magazines and B2B 2000 is being held on the 8-9 May at Grosvenor House. It is already looking to be full of interesting exhibits and high profile speakers. One to put in your new Millennium diaries!

R.E.D. User Map

Those of you who have been to visit us will have seen our big map of the UK showing where all our clients are. Having decided to make it into a graphic for the web-site, we thought we would include it here. See if you can spot yourselves - let us know if you can't. If you are in Central London you will be on top of each other (limitations of scale) !