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- TOMS COMPUTER NOTES FOR JULY 1991
-
- Public Domain
-
- DEAR GOTTFRIED: Thanks for last month's tip on using SETVER. I
- got MANIFEST to work with DOS 5.0 by telling the MSDOS.SYS
- version table that I was using Ver. 3.3. ... Dear B.W. You are
- using the beta version of DOS 5 I see. The "real" DOS 5 has the
- version table in SETVER, not in MSDOS.SYS but the method of
- adding/deleting files from the table is the same. With the new
- way of doing things you have to have this line in CONFIG.SYS -
- DEVICE=SETVER.EXE. s/Gottfried.
-
- ANYONE USING DR-DOS? It is being offered for $79.95 with a
- certificate letting you buy LOTUS Magellan for $19.95. DR-DOS is
- version 5. Was there ever a version 4,3,2,1? [Gottfried jumping
- in here - The previous version of DR DOS was ver. 3.41. And, DR-
- DOS 6.0 will catch up with MS DOS 5.0 by incorporating a task
- switcher].
-
- SYMANTEC's ON TARGET (sets up schedules) free demo disk. Call 1-
- 800-228-4122, ext. 303-P.
-
- SYMANTEC JustWrite for WINDOWS free demo disk. Same #, ext. 106-
- P. The program is temporally on sale for $79.
-
- Free FoxPro 2.0 Demo Disk: 1-800-837-FOX2, offer PCD-701.
-
- CHARISMA PRESENTATION software working model: 1-800-733-3729,
- Ext. 5050.
-
- GEO WRITE reminds me of AMI PRO except it is faster in its GEOS
- environment which looks like WINDOWS but isn't. Too bad the
- current version doesn't have a speller, thesaurus or search &
- replace ability. It does have some nice looking fonts, all of
- which show up on my VGA screen in true WYSIWYG manner. My old 9-
- pin Epson prints out the nine supplied text fonts in any size
- from 4 points to 792 points (one character per page!) [Gottfried
- here to say: Ver. 1.2, free to all registered owners, has the
- Houghton-Mifflin spell checker with a 100,000 word dictionary.]
-
- THE GEO ENSEMBLE package also is lacking when it comes to any
- kind of a spreadsheet/database feature except for a basic name &
- address program. [Gottfried here again. The ver. 2.0 release of
- GEOS ENSEMBLE will have a spreadsheet that will work with Lotus
- WK1 files.]
-
- I HAVEN'T WRITTEN much about PSL in almost a year. That's because
- I haven't seen a copy of their PSL NEWS. I like the magazine but
- if I pick up a copy I can't put it down 'till I have read the
- whole thing. That's "information overload" because it takes an
- hour or so to get thru it. So, I cut off my nose to spite my face
- and let my subscription lapse. They recently sent me the June
- issue anyhow.... At one time I had a magazine article in the
- works about shareware and PSL would have had a prominent place in
- said article. I was writing about PSL, CompuServe's Forum
- Libraries, and local Bulletin Boards. CompuServe was undergoing
- big changes every month or so and when I got the article just
- about ready it was suddenly out of date. After that happening a
- few times I quit and went to work on something less challenging.
-
- PSL MENTIONS some problems with DAK but a letter to the editor
- about DAK sez, "Never have I had a problem." PSL lists a good
- deal on a laptop (EPSON) from DANMARK...... For a free copy of
- PSL NEWS call 1-800-2424-PSL.
-
- A NOTE FROM Gottfried Lopez: I find $5 per disk from shareware
- from PSL to be exorbitant. If you want one disk it's $5 plus 4$
- shipping. Before I got religion and went straight I bought disks
- from many sources including the infamous Mr. Moto in Nevada and
- never did I pay more than $2.50 per disk. And this was for name
- brand stuff.
-
- REMEMBER THE PROBLEMS I had with DANMARK and the computer that
- didn't have (as advertised) a VGA monitor? I have tried again to
- buy a low cost XT type computer to use as a backup, this time a
- $249 job (MEMOREX) from a company in New Jersey. Will let you
- know how that works out.
-
- AT SEA ON A BATTLESHIP. Last month I spent four days aboard one
- of the Navy's two remaining battleships. While there I put
- in a slight amount of work (telephone answering) in the
- Information Officer's work space with fellow UofA grad Lt.
- Rob Raine. He does a lot of things on the ship, one of which
- is publishing the ship's newspaper and also the "plan of the
- day." A desktop publishing package I never heard of is used.
- Rob has his own TOSHIBA laptop computer and WORD PERFECT
- 5.1. The official "issue" word processor is WP 4.2 but other
- versions plus WORD, WORDSTAR, etc., have been brought on
- board by the crew. Navy supplied PC's are ZENITH brand and
- all 54 are in stand-alone mode. Computers are strapped to
- desktops and monitors are in turn strapped to the computer.
- This is not for theft prevention but rather as a protection
- in rough seas.
-
- You probably got the same mailing from Microsoft that I got re.
- DOS 5.0 and how you can "upgrade" for only $99.95 direct from MS.
- Gee, thanks Bill. MS sez I can now get "direct support" from
- them. Yeah, and at only $2 a minute. I can now "recover critical
- deleted files." I can't recover ordinary lost files? Who decides
- which files are "critical"? The new Task Swapper "ends the time-
- consuming quit-load-quit routine." The quit the old and load the
- new program strategy is faster than the task-swapper in my tests.
- Oh well, at least EXTEND-A-NAME PLUS works now, which it didn't
- with the Beta test version. .. If you want a better price for DOS
- call EGGHEAD as they have a $39.95 special.
-
- SHAREWARE AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: What This World Needs is a WINDOWS
- that isn't actually WINDOWS. Some sort of a GEOS like graphics
- package. None of the multi- tasking, expanded/extended memory
- management. No big "eats up all your disk space" installation.
- Something that simply lets you run a program like WORD FOR
- WINDOWS with low overhead. It doesn't do anything but let you run
- a single written for WINDOWS program. Am I dreaming?
-
- THE END
-