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Right in the centre of London lies Trafalgar Square.
Right in the centre of Trafalgar Square stands Nelson Column.
Right on top of Nelson Column resides a statue of Admiral Horatio
Nelson. A relief at the southern side of the monument's socket
shows the admiral's last moments during the battle of Trafalgar
and his famous quote "England expects that every man will
do his duty". Admiral Nelson surely deserves his place on
top of the column. And putting it graphically, he could be called
a columnist.
As a freelance journalist I always wanted to be a
columnist too. When you spend a lot of time testing new products,
reading press releases, attending press conferences and trade
shows and then writing about everything you've done, you sometimes
wonder, if the readers really care about who has done all
the work. To be honest, if I read something in a magazine, I don't
look up the author's name either. But with columnists, it's a
lot different. First of all, there is always this picture on top
of the page, usually showing a very serious and intelligent looking
person that just makes you think "Whow, this guy really must
be good or they wouldn't print his picture here !". And all
of a sudden, you look at the following text from a different point
of view. Because the person on the picture must me really smart,
the following text has to something really special. So much for
theory.
I was chosen, elected, talked into, tricked, bribed
into writing the column you are reading at the moment by a friend
whom I met at a trade show in Berlin this summer. We only knew
each other for few hours and suddenly I was a real columnist.
But opposite to Admiral Nelson I am afraid that the battle for
me has just begun. In the months to come, this column should be
a place for you to find some amusing stories, that, of course,
are somehow related to these bits and bytes that make up our daily
life. And if you stumbled onto this website by accident and you
don't even own a PC (or some other metal box filled with lots
of chips, wires and other incomprehensible circuitry), go get
one and a modem too ! Otherwise you'll miss out on all these wonderful
things orbiting around though cyberspace and that would be just
too bad. And get a huge trash can as well, believe me, you'll
need it.
The big thing about the web contrary to the televison
is supposed to be it's interactivity. Of course this column is
supposed to be interactive as well. So feel free to mail any comments,
suggestions and topics of interest to howen@winstuff.de.
And pleeeaaassse, do include the keyword "WINSTUFF"
in your subject line, since my mail software has this nasty habit
of automatically distributing all incoming mail into sometimes
wonderous places on my harddisk.
Even though this place is called "Howen's column",
this place should become a column for WINSTUFF-users from WINSTUFF-users.
So all you need is someone to write it all up. I am not made out
of stone yet and the WINSTUFF crew now "expects me to do
my duty". So here I am and I am looking forward to hearing
from you.
Best regards from the Octoberfest,
yours
Georg von der Howen
email: howen@winstuff.de
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