It’s midnight. Only one lamp in the house is still on. It’s yours, and it’s splashing light on a user’s manual to the new computer upgrade your office just purchased. Too bad, but it’s written by teckies for teckies. And you’re no teckie. But there’s help.

One of the teckies at CCIT (Center for Computing and Information Technology) has teamed up with a non-teckie writer (whose job at CCIT is to make technology understandable) to produce “Packet Xpress, On-line info for MUSC.” The web-based monthly publication aims to keep MUSC computer users up-to-date on the latest issues of campus technology.

“We want to write this from the user’s point of view,” said the Packet’s technical editor George Spain. “We want to present real-life issues facing computer users at MUSC—what you can count on and what you can’t. Hype at midnight isn’t going to do you much good.”

Spain, a former local newspaper reporter and editor with a sense for jargon-free vernacular, and consulting and user services manager David Sisco, pledge not to always present the CCIT line, but dish up potentially controversial and technical computer news and information in simple everyday English regardless of the feathers it ruffles.

If the pub’s March and April issues are any clue, on-line readers can expect computer news, frank discussion of issues and handy tips with ample opportunity to interactively swap opinions, ask questions, and appeal for help. A sneak peak at May’s issue looks even juicier with a hard look at the upcoming campus-wide e-mail changes. Check out this reprint of the April Packet’s feature article, “Battle of the network modems: Is 56K ready for prime time?” It and the rest of the Packet’s web publication can be found at <http://www.musc.edu/ccit/arcs/packet/>