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- Atari ST RoundTable
- by Lou Rocha
-
- Buoyed by the cheer of the holiday season, most of us approach New Year's
- resolutions with fervor and sincerity. Whatever you resolve, why not include
- the ST RoundTable in your plans? The ST RoundTable will increase your
- computing pleasure and productivity, and let you have fun while you work!
-
- Supporting Shareware
-
- Since most members regularly download files from the ST Library, one fitting
- resolution might be to make shareware payments for the software you find
- useful. In fact, that point was recently made by ST member Mike Easter on
- the ST Bulletin Board. "This reminded me of how remiss I was in sending
- shareware payments (or even postcardware!) for the many utilities that ST
- programmers provide us to tinker with. It's like someone loaning us an
- indispensable handmade tool, and then we don't even say thank you for t heir
- efforts."
-
- Mike's comments were echoed by syndicated columnist Al Fasoldt. "You have
- reawakened a similar thought in me. I depend on -- stake my computing life
- on, in fact -- many shareware utilities, and while I have paid the small fee
- for dozens of them, there are others I never paid for because I tried them
- once and thought I would never find a use for them -- and then discovered
- later that they became essential in some minor way," Al remarked. "The
- coming season of cheer gives me a chance to make amends to those s hareware
- authors."
-
- Mike and Al are right on the money! Many of us use shareware programs on a
- daily basis, yet forget to send those reasonable payments to the authors. We
- also forget that payments often get us manuals and the latest versions of
- our favorite programs. Shareware contributions sometimes even provide
- substantial discounts on commercial versions; truly a win/win situation!
-
- Make*A*Date
-
- In a recent poll of the ST RoundTable sysops, we discovered a new shareware
- program we think should be on everyone's list of New Year's resolutions: Get
- file #26281 MDATE_25.LZH, uploaded by J.H.CARROLL.
-
- Make*A*Date V2.5 is a beta shareware release. It's a Personal Information
- Manager (PIM) that sports a Scheduler, Phone Book, ToDo List, Notes with
- File Attachments, dBASE file viewer, Phone Dialer, and more. This version
- supports recurring events, and dBASE file viewer.
-
- You'll actually enjoy using Make*A*Date to enhance your personal
- productivity. Make sure you look it over; it's worth the download time!
- About the only thing it won't do is drive you to that New Year's Eve party.
-
- Helping Hands
-
- On a related note, I've been marveling at the interactions between members
- on the ST RoundTable Bulletin Board. In addition to numerous talented
- sysops, the Bulletin Board is frequented by "regulars" who graciously lend a
- helping hand to novice and veteran members alike. On any given day you'll
- find folks like Joe Meehan, Damien Jones, Mike Hebert and scores of others,
- freely sharing their expertise on topics ranging from software and hardware
- to stock options and the latest Lynx games! Mike Easter put it s uccinctly:
- "It set me to thinking about how much help I've gotten from others here on
- this service. Maybe that's part of what motivates us to respond in some way
- to the questions and problems people post."
-
- You said it, Mike! Let's all resolve to be more openly thankful to the folks
- who help us in 1994, including ST shareware authors.
-