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- TOM'S COMPUTER NOTES FOR JULY 1990
-
- Public Domain
-
- THE NEW PC-CACHE with PC-TOOLS Ver. 6.0 works just as well as the
- old version and now uses only 11K of conventional memory. The 5.5
- version used 14k. So, you have an extra 3K for your programs. The
- cache is in either EXPANDED or EXTENDED memory, assuming you have
- some.... But, some programs don't get along with the new version.
- Specifically, my DYNABOOT program, the one that reboots the
- computer with new AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.
-
- PC-TOOLS 6.0 too big, too much HD space, it's back to Ver 4.xx
- for me... The DISKFIX program in 6.0 looked sort of like NORTON's
- DiskDoctor. I made the mistake of telling it to "look for lost
- directories." It then created 35 "new" phantom directories full
- of phantom (zero byte) files. What a pain, having to delete
- hundreds of phantom files from my HD.... The only good things
- about Ver. 6.0 are the upgraded PC-CACHE, the improved BACKUP
- program and PC-SECURE if you need to encrypt files.
-
- THE WORD PERFECT 30 Mar 90 upgrade has been installed. Haven't
- noticed much difference. Maybe some of those strange crashes
- won't happen anymore. The speller "seems" to run faster?????
-
- FULL TEXT ELECTRONIC versions of WordPerfect manuals (Ver. 4.2,
- 5.0, 5.1) are available from FOLIO CORP. The package includes the
- manual and a run-time version of FOLIO PreVIEWS software. Cost is
- $59 per single copy. 1-800-873-3654.
-
- INTUIT sent an upgrade offer for QUICKEN 3.0. Actually, an add-on
- to go with my ver. 3.0. The add-on offers automatic CheckFree
- capability. Cost is $12.95. CheckFree charges $9.00 a month
- (minimum) which covers the first 20 electronic (via modem)
- checks. Perhaps cash transfers would be a better name for it. You
- send the info (in batches most likely) and CheckFree writes and
- mails paper checks to wherever the money is supposed to go. A
- recent letter to the editor in one of the PC magazines said that
- you would have to write 52 checks a month (with CheckFree) to
- break even on the deal.
-
- TESTING 1-2-3 Ver 2.2 and it's still the good old 1-2-3. Not much
- difference in look and feel from Ver 2.xx nor does it look much
- different. At least the LINK feature works which is more than I
- can say for QUATTRO PRO. Both programs take about 1.6 megs HD
- space (QUATTRO Ver 1 takes 829K in my setup). QUATTRO PRO loads
- in 7 seconds while 1-2-3 takes 6 seconds including the attaching
- of SQZ PLUS via the add-in-manager.... 1-2-3 Ver 2.2 can be
- trimmed to about 473K if you delete all unnecessary files such as
- translation utility, fonts, etc.... I recently gave up on SQZ
- PLUS because NORTON COMMANDER's file view utility can't
- read/display spreadsheets that have been compressed with SQZ.
-
- TESTING MAGELLAN Ver. 2 and checking out its index file. The file
- takes about a half hour to build and is one meg in size (indexing
- my 40 meg HD). Too bad GOFER can't use it as a speed up method.
- MAGELLAN is something less than intuitive and has no mouse
- support which it badly needs.
-
- IF YOU DOWNLOADED the $250 Niemann Marcus cookie recipe be
- advised that the TWO CUPS OF WATER should be TWO CUPS OF BUTTER.
- Makes a big difference!
-
- FASTBACK PLUS takes up 362K on my HD after I delete files
- (INSTALL, etc.) that I don't need. Compare with PC TOOLS backup
- which uses 281K.
-
- LOTUS AGENDA Demo kit is $10. Call 1-800-345-1043. Ask for AOC-
- 3058 for the 3.5 version and AOC-3053 for the 5.25 disk version.
- OS/2 version is also available.
-
- PARADOX (Borland) free trial version. 1-800-345-2888, Ext. 100.
-
- SEEMS TO ME I had a program that would recover HD sectors marked
- BAD in the FAT. A head parking utility had marked a "landing
- zone" BAD and then I decided not to use that utility. How to get
- the landing zone disk space back? Turned out to be very easy.
- Went to absolute sector 82 (the last FAT sector) and found a
- series of 52 alternating F7h and FFh code --- Changed all that to
- 00's and I had my hard disk space back.
-
- More on PC-TOOLS DISKFIX V 6.0 vs. NORTON DISK DOCTOR: I had a
- 720k disk with lots of files and lots of problems (bad sectors).
- Did some work with NORTON and finished with PC-TOOLS. DISKFIX
- messed up the disk more than it had been messed up to start with.
- DISKFIX created new files out of lost chains without telling me
- and then ended its "fix" operation as if all was well. DISKFIX is
- going to >NUL land as far as I'm concerned.... MACE EMERGENCY
- ROOM was also tried on a sick disk. It permanently eliminated two
- sub-directories and all the files in them. Hot stuff!
-
- THE END
-
-