Alec Dubro

Dennis,

I received a letter from you and now an email.

I wish I had been a member of the PCC. I also wish I had invented DOS.

Neither of these things are true. I lived in the Bay Area at that time, but barely knew of the ferment down the peninsula. Sorry.

Best of luck in your hunt,

Your name, Alec Dubro, was listed on the masthead of V4N6 PCC Newspaper published in May 1976. PCC Newspaper was published in Menlo Park, CA. It was personal computer agit-prop material (we were a non-profit chartered to promote personal uses of computers).

And so, Alec, were you the author of this article or was it your doppleganger?

This is fascinating. As far as I know, I'm the only Alec Dubro in the U.S., possibly the world. It's unlikely that it's anyone else or that someone would impersonate me. Make sure, it's Alec with a c, not with an x, though.

I've been a freelance writer most of my life and lived from 1968 to 1985 in the Bay Area for the most part. I was certainly there in 1976. I suppose it's possible I did some work for the newspaper, but I have absolutely no recollection of it. I could blame drugs, but the fact is most people do forget things after 25 years.

Maybe if I saw the masthead, I'd see a name I knew and it would trigger something. Is the issue on line anywhere?

Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 12:57:44 EDT Subject: Alec Dubro

• Alec Dubro is listed on the V4N6 masthead.
• On page 9 of V4N6 is an article on Biofeedback by Alec Dubro, 1260 Hopkins St., No. 48, Berkeley, CA 94702. This article is about biofeedback and the Biofeedback Center of California, 319 - 13th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.

In 1976-77 I was studying biofeedback, so we published several biofeedback acticles.

• V4N3 page 22. Biofeedback and the Arts. Excerpts from the publication Biofeedback and the Arts, edited by David Rosenboom. Aesthetic Research Centre of Canada, P.O. Box 3044, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 3X5.
• V5N1 page 14. Bill Fuller's Biofeedback Bibliography
• V5N2 page 27. The Positive of Power Thinking by Peter Wonacott
• V5N2 page 28. It's all in the body -- and so is the mind by Russell N. Cassell, Ed.D. Reprinted from Psychology.
• V6N2 & V6N3 (& beyond?). Biofeedback and Microcomputers by Tim Scully.

Dear Dra,

I was indeed the author of that piece. However, I never authorized its resale, so if was going to be sticky about it, I'd say you owe me a fee plus about $10,000 in overtime charges. But I won't.

Does this mean, though, that I am part of the computer revolution, even though I still miss DOS-based systems and can't figure out half of what I need to know in Windows?

If that's the case, put me on your list.

Thanks for checking.

Alec Dubro

The 1-page article "Biofeedback Center of California" listed Alec as the author with his address and phone number. It described biofeedback equipment at the Center, mentioned people and courses at the Center, and twice listed the Center's address and phone number.

I don't remember how we aquired the article. Where was it first published? Perhaps someone at the Center saw earlier biofeedback stuff in PCC and sent the article. That sort of thing happened a lot.