Open Road - Info

Lot's of exciting stuff happening here lately. I've received loads of mail from people in the last couple of weeks, some more suggestions for reviews and even more business related e-zines that look reasonable (I know it sounds crazy... just kidding). I've also found out that people don't mind me ranting about various things but really what you come here every week for are the reviews. So in the spirit of compliance, I'm gonna actually review something this week!

Other things going on... I've got some great stuff going on at Merak (where I work) that'll take up most of my time over the next few months. The Canadian Beer Review Newsletter is now over 100 subscribers! (plug plug - you can join the list by sending a message to: canbeer-subscribe@listbot.com and never miss any exciting new Canadian brew reviews). I've also got some other Web projects to come on-line soon.... ok enough about me, let's hear about:

E-zine Description: From the site:

We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Neverdull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing worldthe way it is! Please tell every on-line friend about us!

Frequency of Publication: weekly

Subscription Instructions:
Send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
Message body: SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName

WWW location:
http://www.compunotes.com/main.html

Contact Information:

Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- pgrote@i1.net
fax: (314) 909-1662
voice: (314) 909-1662

Cost: free

Review

Content - 5
This newsletter puts out extensive reviews, articles and interviews concering PC based software, games, operating systems, hardware, websites, technologies, methodologies etc. etc. Recent reviews ranged from project management software to Windows 98 utilities to a new first person shoot 'em up. Typical issues will contain anywhere from 5 to 12 items.

The one thing that does surprise me a bit is the amount of advertsing that this newsletter contains. In between every article is an ad. It is pretty amazing that a weekly newsletter like this would attract that volume of advertising.

Writing Quality/Style - 4
The Reviews and articles are written by a wide variety of people, (in fact the newsletter actively recruits new reviewers and writers) so the written style varies widely. Overall the readability of the content is good and the editing obviously adds enough polish.

Regularity - 3.5
Weekly. Mostly. Some issues seem to take 2 weeks to arrive. 146 issues produced at last count.

Extras - 4.5
Proper subscribe, unsubscribe info in each issue, along with a full compliment of links to the site and an extensive contacts list. The Web site (with searchable archives) could use quite a bit of work, but hey, I'm here to tell you about the newsletter.

Overall - 5
I read CompuNotes for the content. The wide variety of reviews delivered mean that I can usually find something quite worthwhile to read about. After 140+ issues it's fairly obvious that this newsletter has some staying power.

Subscription Instructions: Send an e-mail to: backerboard@myreply.com

WWW location:
http://www.wowsites.com/backerboard/

Contact Information:
e-mail:backerboard@yahoo.com

Cost: free