Well, we were sitting in the Tun, discussing the possibility of producing Plokta 3 over yet another wet bank holiday weekend. Alison mused that we wouldn't be able to print it out over the weekend, as she couldn't get to Reading by car and she couldn't carry the 600dpi laser printer on the train. Steve looked thoughtful. "Oh, well, what the hell", he finally said. "I've been looking for an excuse to buy a new laser printer." So, a few slight technological hitches later, this issue should be coming to you via the wonders of a brand spanking new HP LaserJet 5P and Steve's state of the art credit facilities.

But we still hanker after colour printing and cover-mounted CD-ROMs.

Thanks to Mike the Bastard, we've realised that our technological insatiability is because we're actually characters in the futuristic roleplaying game Shadowrun. This game includes a "State of the Art" rule. Every month or so you roll dice to see whether there has been an advance in the state of the art of any of your superfluous technology. If there has, you have to spend all your money on upgrades. And then some.

A relatively cheap development since last time is that many of the Plokta cabal have suddenly acquired web sites, thanks to the munificence of Demon, who have given all their customers free web space. For those of you who can view the world wide web, the Plokta pages can be found at www.fuggles.demon.co.uk, [September 1997: Now at http://www.moose.demon.co.uk/plokta, but you probably know that.] [December 1999: And now Plokta has its own domain and is at http://www.plokta.com/plokta] and include Mae Strelkov's multi-coloured hecto amongst other wonders. You won't of course be able to get to this site if you're using state of the art US web censoring software, because it involves mention of such wicked concepts as 'demon'. (Not to mention 'beer'.) But if you keep making your State of the Art rolls, something a bit better might come along soon.

Meanwhile, we hear from a usually unreliable source that TAFF delegate Martin Tudor read and enjoyed Plokta 2, and then consigned it immediately to a box marked "Memory Hole", remarking 'I don't think I've ever read a more eminently disposable fanzine.' Coming soon -- gold-embossed leather binders suitable for holding an entire decade's worth of Plokta. Maybe.

Finally, we've still only had one reader tell us what Plokta stands for. You lot just aren't trying.