ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/MAGAZINE/MISC/TN_1H90.ZIP/JUN90.DOC

Text File | 1990-05-31 | 5.7 KB | 108 lines

               TOM'S COMPUTER NOTES FOR JUNE 1990

                          Public Domain

AFTER FIVE YEARS OF USING TurboTax I'm ready to switch to PC Tax
Cut. This year I used them both and all my complaints about
TurboTax were resolved by the authors of PC Tax Cut. I found that
TurboTax (for example) gave rounding errors IN FAVOR OF IRS! OK,
it was just a buck but it shouldn't happen. TurboTax has 117
files and takes up 1.5 megs on my hard drive. PC Tax Cut has 9
files and uses 1.1 megs. What really got me to thinking about
switching was this: I misplaced my 1988 tax paperwork but
thought, "I'll just load the 1988 file into the 1989 TurboTax."
But, you can't do that.... I guess maybe something happened
before that come to think of it. In July 1989 I got a $350 refund
check from IRS because I (TurboTax) had figured my taxes
wrong.(IRS discovered this when running my numbers through their
computer.) .... And, when I did my mother's 1988 tax with
TurboTax the program said she owed money. I didn't think that was
right so I did her simple tax by hand. She didn't owe money.
TurboTax had failed to notice that she got an extra deduction for
being over 65 years old.... As mentioned last month, I needed an
extension form this year but TurboTax didn't have one in its
files group. PC Tax Cut did..... Here is a suggestion for MECA
VENTURES: How about an offer to TurboTax users, ie., "Send in
your 1989 TurboTax manual cover and you can 'upgrade' to PC Tax
Cut at the same price as last years PC Tax Cut user pays for an
upgrade."

NORTON BACKUP Ver. 1.0 is tried & dumped. It works. So do 20
other backup programs. It's no "break through" program. The
interface (menus) remind me of QuickBasic. I think NORTON could
have done a better job if they had developed an interface cloning
COMMANDER and using some of COMMANDER's key strokes. COMMANDER
users are accustomed to using the keypad + key to select all
files and the minus key to deselect, etc. But, NORTON BACKUP
doesn't use that convention.... NORTON has too many files,
clogging up my hard drive. After running the program once
(backing up one megabyte to a HD floppy) I had 861K and 22 files
on the HD. It seems to be slower than PC TOOLS BACKUP and gets
less on a disk too although that's just a general impression. I
played with NORTON for several hours, deleted it from my hard
drive and did a PC TOOLS backup. (If you do buy NORTON make sure
you get ver. 1.1)  ~  PC TOOLS (ver. 5.5) went a lot smoother and
I hadn't used it in six months so it wasn't that I was familiar
with it. PC TOOLS (after configuration and a one floppy/one
megabyte backup) had 11 files using 233K...... I'll review PC
TOOLS ver. 6.0 next month.

CENTRAL POINT seems to go a little overboard in their ads for PC-
TOOLS ver. 6.0, such as: NEW! PC CACHE. New? I've been using it
for a year or so..... UPDATE: I have just discovered that PC-
TOOLS has been using a version of PCKWIK as their disk cache
program. With ver. 6.0 they have their own cache program. It will
be interesting to see how well it works. The PC-TOOLS ver. 5.5
program uses 14K of my conventional memory leaving me with 528K
for programs (I have other TSR's besides PC-CACHE). Once when I
tried PCKWIK it used 36K of my conventional memory..... How come
PRICE CLUB has ver 6.0 already and CENTRAL POINT hasn't gotten my
upgrade to me three weeks after I ordered by telephone? PSL can
get an order to me in 3-4 days and they aren't a big multi-
million dollar outfit like CENTRAL POINT.

TESTING INSTANT RECALL: My advice -- Stick with TORNADO or MEMORY
MATE.

TESTING QUATTRO PRO: It takes up three times as much room on your
HD. Of course, it has a lot more capability built-in....... On my
machine QUATTRO takes 3 seconds to load itself plus a file.
QUATTRO PRO takes 7 seconds to do the same thing... Other than
that, I decided that it was overkill for what I use a spreadsheet
for. I did like the mouse capability and in particular the seven
built-in macro "buttons" running vertically on the right side of
the screen. Four "buttons" are pre-programmed to give you an idea
as to how they work. But being able to <ESC> and <CR> with the
mouse isn't much of a labor saver. You will want to re-program
them to do more, such as: Save the current sheet, clear the sheet
from memory, then put the list of files up on the screen so a new
sheet can be selected.

I WONDER WHY WORD PERFECT freezes up with a "Can't find WP.FIL
file" message from time to time?

WHICH TO BUY/USE??? SPINRITE II, OPTUNE, or DISK TECHNICIAN
ADVANCED????? Early versions of DISK TECHNICIAN  were copy
protected. It was prudent to make an exact copy with COPYII-PC
(now up to Ver. 6.6) before using it. All three programs do a
good job of keeping your disk in good running condition. SPINRITE
does a non-destructive reformat with deep testing. So does DISK
TECHNICIAN and it seems to be inclined to lock out sectors that
are just "slightly" out of whack, ones that SPINRITE passes as OK
(and they probably are OK). OPTUNE does the same stuff and has
the fastest de-fragmenter I have used. SPINRITE has the slickest
user interface. SPINRITE and OPTUNE let you check and reset (if
necessary) interleave. DISK TECHNICIAN ADVANCED has an "automatic
mode" which its little cousin DISK TECHNICIAN PRO lacks. But, if
you can read a manual you can save some money by getting PRO
because except for the "automatic mode" (which scopes out your
disk/controller combination and runs the program without the user
having to know anything) it's the same program. OPTUNE and
SPINRITE work fine on my machine. Disk Technician Advanced ver.
6.07 would not work with my OMTI HD controller. My end
suggestion: Base your buying decision on price. The "best buy"
will probably be Steve Gibsons SPINRITE II.