Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey in the last issue. It wasn't scientific, and the response rate was low, but your feedback was interesting nevertheless.

Responses came from alumni (about 32 percent), faculty and staff (28 percent) and current students (21 percent), but visitors, friends and a few people with no affiliation with CMU also replied. The top three career fields reported were, in order, "educator/researcher," "student" and "IT/CS professional."

More than 70 percent of respondents "agree or strongly agree" that The Link has "interesting writing" and a "wide variety of stories," and also agreed The Link is "attractive" and uses "high quality photos and art." But about half of respondents disagreed when asked if The Link is "provocative" and more than 20 percent said they either don't enjoy the magazine, or rarely read it.

Asked which subjects they prefer to read about, almost all respondents said "faculty research," and a large majority said they enjoy stories about alumni and "general topics in computer science."

Other comments: "The Link gives the impression of SCS as a very male place, which is probably accurate. This is perhaps more a criticism of SCS than The Link." One writer asked for "more stories about the state of the CS field," and "an historical perspective" on computer science.

A respondent asked whether The Link is distributed to all students and questioned whether that was a "waste of resources — I think providing a stack of magazines for each department is more reasonable." (Currently, all SCS faculty, staff and students who have departmental mailboxes receive a copy of The Link, while extras and leftovers are distributed around campus.) And someone simply wrote, "Wonderful magazine — (the) last issue was by far the best," which was a very nice thing to say.

Your comments, criticisms and suggestions are always welcome. Write to TheLink@cs.cmu.edu, call (412) 268-8721, or drop by my office, Gates Center 5013.