I have just recently borrowed a copy of your excellent magazine from a friend. I must admit to being rather surprised to find that there is still support for my faithful old Electron computer that I bought way back in 1984. The setup that I own is that of a standard Acorn Electron along with a Plus 3 and an Olivetti 9 pin printer. The actual reason for contacting you (apart from complimenting your magazine!) is that I have a problem with a printer.

My printer has been linked to my Electron for nearly three years now, and no matter what I do, it determinedly refuses to do convincing impressions of the late king Elvis. Both myself and my wife find this odd, especially when my friend (who lent me EUG #5) has managed to get his to sing God Save The Queen in almost fourteen different languages!

So, what is wrong with my printer? We have fed it a solid diet of hamburgers, we have played all of Elvis' many great albums and my wife finally resorted to putting a hairy chest wig on it again to no avail. What is it that we are doing wrong? Is it something to do with the DIP switches? My wife is worried that it could be the female power adaptor that it came with. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Arnold Edrington

"Send for the men in white coats!" was my first reaction after receiving the above letter, which is completely genuine! Then I noticed the PS that read:

'I would like to take this opportunity to say "Well done!" to Christian Weber for slaving away to produce such excellent literature on the Electron. Have you considered giving him wads of cash so he can buy more records? I think you should. I also think you should grovel more when you write to him and maybe...well, hows about calling him "Sir" and - Ooops! I think I've overdone it there!'

Nice one, Christian! You had me going for a while!