                               The Bad News
                     on Hardware and Software Products

                             November 1993, #1

                           Jay Dougherty, Editor

NOTE: Send correspondence and feedback to Jay Dougherty on
CompuServe at 73114,151. Please also consider writing for The Bad
News. Your experience is valuable. Donations for this newsletter
are accepted. This newsletter is available in traditional paper
format. Please inquire for rates.

_________________________________________________

    Opinions contained in this newsletter are those of the authors of
     the articles contained herein. Opinions are based upon personal
      experiences with the products mentioned and are provided as a
                             public service.
_________________________________________________

CONTENTS
Use the search feature in your text viewer to locate a specific
article. Place your cursor beyond the table of contents listing
and then search for the roman numerals identifying the section(s)
you wish to read.

I.     Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4
II.    Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4L
III.   WordPerfect 6 for Windows
IV.    Colorado Tape Backup (Jumbo)
V.     Corel Ventura Publisher
VI.    Corel Upgrade Pricing and CorelDRAW 4
VII.   Computer Buying Tips
VIII.  Fax/Modem Boards
IX.    Important New Technologies
X.     Hard Drive Noise

This is the second issue of TBN. This online newsletter has come
into being to fill a gap left by many computer publications
today. As PC Magazine columnist Jim Seymour recently noted, "far
too many computer-magazine reviews focus only on the what's-new
and what's-great aspects of new products." We intend with TBN not
to focus on the "what's-new" and "what's great" aspects of
computer products but rather on those aspects that may cause
users to regret their purchases. Some space may also be devoted
to the great new features of products, but most emphasis will be
placed on the problems that users are likely to encounter.

You'll probably want to scan this newsletter each month to see
whether there are any problems reported about concerning computer
products you own or plan to buy.

TBN welcomes the contribution of others who are active in the
computer field. Send me E-Mail to Jay Dougherty at 73114,151 on
CompuServe. The December issue should prove to be even larger
than this one.

==========================================
I.     HEWLETT-PACKARD LASERJET 4
This printer is known to have at least two operational faults,
and many consider both of these faults major.

First, the printer will print out pages wavy, especially with a
top-end-of-the-page curl that is difficult to get out.

Second, the printer has a tendency to spit out two pages at the
same time, the second page being blank. This is a problem that
can cause quite a headache if a user is dealing with a large
print job and must go through the printed pages and manually take
out all of the blank pages that were printed.

The first problem has been acknowledged by HP "with certain
papers," but everyone that I know who owns one of these printers
has this problem with all papers. The second problem has not, to
my knowledge, been acknowledged by HP at all, but it certainly
exists. Read around on any bulletin board where HP printers are
discussed, and you will see complaints about both of these
problems.

The HP LaserJet 4 is also fairly loud when running (meaning, when
just sitting there waiting to print). Therefore, you will
probably not want to keep it on all the time, a major pain when
you print one job early in the computing session and must turn it
on again later in the session. This is a pain because the printer
takes approximately two minutes or more to warm up.

This is a fine printer otherwise, but the first two problems
mentioned may incline you toward waiting until these problems are
fixed with the next release.

According to an HP representative that I spoke with, the paper
curl problem is remedied only in the HP LaserJet 4si, which costs
considerably more and is a veritable monster sitting on or around
a desk.

==========================================
II.    HEWLETT-PACKARD LASERJET 4L
This printer, a "personal model," does not have the paper curl
problems or the blank page printing problems of the LaserJet 4,
but its print quality is not nearly as good, either.

The "good news" about this printer it can be left "on" all the
time due to its wonderful energy-saving feature that powers down
the printer when not in use for a time. Such features make other,
older printers seem dinosaurs overnight. Insist on this feature
in the next printer you buy. And insist on at least 600 dpi.

==========================================
III.   WORDPERFECT 6 FOR WINDOWS
This word processor runs ONLY in 386 enhanced mode in Windows.
Bear this in mind if you have an older machine (286) or if you
run Windows within DESQview, which forces you to run in standard
mode.

Many have reported problems with the installation program of WP
for Windows.

Crashes are a common occurrence with WP 6 for Windows, especially
if the user invokes the attached modules, like WordArt or WP Draw
and then plays around a bit more.

Memory is a BIG issue with this program. Don't think that you can
get by and keep your sanity with less than 8 megabytes of RAM
(and a fast computer). More RAM would be desirable, as much as
you can afford. Even with a lot of RAM, however, be prepared to
wait a substantial period of time (over a minute) when opening,
scrolling through, or doing other things with larger documents
(from 25-50 pages).

For veteran WP users, this is a tempting upgrade, but my advice
is to wait until the bugs have been worked out, and there are
many. Scroll any bulletin board where WP 6 for Win is being
discussed, and you will be tempted to avoid the headaches that
are being discussed.

WP for Windows still does not have a draft mode screen that
allows the user to employ any screen font she desires regardless
of the printer font defined for a document. AmiPro allows this to
some degree, with its draft mode screen that has all text, left
and right margins, on the screen regardless of the printer font
defined. This is a shortcoming of WP that has existed since its
inception.

==========================================
IV.    COLORADO TAPE BACKUP (JUMBO)
This tape backup drive is VERY loud when in operation, so loud
that you will probably not be able to sit comfortably in the same
room when the drive is running. You may not be able to reside in
the same HOUSE, depending on the size of your abode, when the
drive is running. The noise is a high-pitched wine. My wife
refuses to let me run the drive while she is in the house, an
inconvenience at best.

This tape backup drive also has a great deal of trouble with most
commercial backup software on the market. It may format and read
without incident, but restores (the most important aspect of any
backup) are unreliable. If you use the Colorado Backup or intend
to buy one, get the latest version of the Colorado Backup
software (4.01) and use it. Do not rely on third-party backup
software packages.

==========================================
V.     COREL VENTURA PUBLISHER
Corel has purchased Ventura Publisher and released a version 4.2
of the software. The new version's main enhancement, from 4.1, is
that it now supports Adobe's Acrobat format. For this enhancement
and the Corel name present users of the software will pay a $99
upgrade fee. A rip off, in my book.

==========================================
VI.    COREL UPGRADE PRICING AND CORELDRAW 4
While most other software manufacturers are keeping their upgrade
prices in the $129 and below range, Corel seems satisfied to
charge upwards of $200 for its upgrades. Consider this before
buying a Corel product. The last version upgrade of CorelDRAW was
over $200. There were, it's true, a lot of enhancements to the
product, but there were no major new features added--primarily
enhancements of the existing features. Many reacted negatively to
the high upgrade pricing, and the whole situation was exacerbated
by the fact that the first release of CorelDRAW 4 was full of
bugs, so many that lots of people considered the product
unusable.

==========================================
VII.   COMPUTER BUYING TIPS
When buying your next computer, make sure you ask these
questions:

1. Must I take out the installed RAM in the machine in order
increase the amount of RAM in the future?

If the answer to this question is YES, ask about different RAM
configurations. For instance, if the machine comes with 8 megs of
RAM, and there are 8 1-megabyte SIMM modules installed to get
this RAM, ask if you can have 2 4-megabyte modules installed
instead. This configuration would give you six open SIMM slots,
assuming there are 8 slots total on the motherboard. If different
configurations are not possible, look elsewhere.

Quite a few manufacturers stuff all of the available RAM sockets
in a computer with low-capacity RAM, requiring you to pull out
the RAM modules (SIMM modules) installed in order to increase the
amount of RAM installed. This means that you will have paid for
RAM in your original computer that you will have to throw away in
order to get more RAM in the machine than was originally
installed.

2. What is the decibel rating of the hard drive used in the
computer?

If you are sensitive to noise, or if you are using the computer
in a home environment that you want to keep quiet, then take the
noise issue seriously. Hard drives can make a lot of noise, and
any hard drive that emits more than, say, 32 dB when spinning is
going to grate on you after awhile. Don't believe those
salespeople who say of hard drives "they're all quiet." Such a
response is a sure indication that you're speaking to someone who
either doesn't know better or doesn't give a damn.

3. Is the power supply quiet?

Again, this is a noise issue. Power supplies are traditionally
the number-one cause of computer noise, and because of this, some
manufacturers have spent the few extra pennies necessary to
install power supplies that have quieter fans. PC Power and
Cooling makes a power supply call The Silencer, and this power
supply is fairly quiet. However, other manufacturers also make
quiet power supplies. Unfortunately, there is usually no decibel
rating listed on the spec sheets of power supplies, so you will
most likely have to take the reseller's word for how quiet the
power supply is.

Just keep this in mind: when you have a machine with two or more
fans in it, the noise level of the machine will be higher. The
more fans, the more noise.

4. Does the monitor store graphics settings digitally?

If the answer is no, consider upgrading to a monitor that does.
When a monitor does not store the different resolution settings
digitally, you will have to resize the picture of the monitor
every time you switch from, say, VGA graphics to text-mode VGA.
Most cheaper, low-end monitors do not store signals digitally.
Avoid the typical monitor that comes standard with the computers
you see in many computer stores and in many advertisements.

5. Do the computer and monitor (and printer, if you're buying a
printer as well) conform to energy-star specifications?

See the discussion under section IX below.

6. Does the computer offer an auto-resume feature (yes, ask this
even if you're buying a desktop).

See the discussion under section IV below.

==========================================
VIII.  FAX/MODEM BOARDS
You may be tempted to seek a quick fax/modem solution by buying
one of the many fax/modem boards advertised these days. But
beware: faxing with one of these boards does not offer the speed
(and often not the convenience) of faxing with a traditional fax
machine. In fact, sending a fax with one of these boards usually
takes five minutes or longer, no matter what speed the modem part
of the board runs at. This is often an unacceptably long time if
you send faxes with regularity.

Consider, too, that the fax boards do not receive faxes unless
the computer in which they're installed is turned on. This means
that, with most of these boards, the user loses the convenience
of being able to receive faxes at any time. If the computer is
kept on at all times, electricity is wasted and electricity bills
soar.

If you send faxes only occasionally, you may buy a fax/modem
thinking that you can be satisfied with its slow performance
because you will not call on it often. But consider that once you
are hooked up to the world of fax machines, you may be using the
fax capability far more often than you otherwise would have. A
fax machine, once you have one, will tempt you to speed up
correspondence time by faxing as much as possible rather than
using traditional mail. In short, once you have fax capability,
you probably will not be sending faxes only occasionally.

In the final analysis, I believe that the traditional fax machine
still offers the best solution, especially the newer fax machines
that double as a telephone and permit reception of both standard
calls and faxes on the same telephone line. Such machines make
the acquisition of another telephone line for fax purposes
unnecessary. In particular, I would recommend the Panasonic
fax/phone machines: they have consistently received "best buy"
awards in Consumer Reports. Try the KX-F250. Faxes are worth it.

==========================================
IX.    IMPORTANT NEW TECHNOLOGIES
There are two new important technological advances in computing
that are just beginning to appear and that will make computing so
much more convenient and environmental safe that you will want to
ensure that any new equipment you buy has these technological
improvements.

The first important technological advance is energy-saving
circuitry--computers and peripherals that comply with the
government's new energy-star program. Such components will power
themselves down when not in use or contain some kind of energy-
saving sleep mode. With this technology, you will greatly reduce
energy consumption while your machine is powered on, and you will
very likely be able to run the machine longer while using no
more, if not less, energy than you are presently using. Insist
that your new components have energy-saving circuitry, or else
you will be sorry in the very near future that you are paying
more for computing while others are paying less.

The second important improvement just now beginning to appear is
auto-resume, the ability of a computer to save an image of your
computer's present state when you power down and to restore that
state when you turn your computer back on. This means, for
example, that if you shut down your computer when you have three
applications open, with files loaded in two of them, and suddenly
you have to run off and buy some groceries, you can simply shut
off the computer without saving your files and closing the
applications. When you come back home, you simply power up the
computer and all of those applications that you were working with
in the last session are reloaded--and the files as well.

These advances in computer technology are little short of
revolutionary. They will greatly enhance desktop computing and
will help to reduce the toll that computers are taking on the
environment. Insist on these technologies in the next equipment
you buy.

==========================================
X.     HARD DRIVE NOISE (reprinted from last issue by request)
The current crop of hard drives is perhaps the noisiest ever.
Apparently, companies are opting for cheaper production methods
at the expense of quality drive mechanisms that do not make so
much noise. Or, perhaps better put, speed is going up (spin rate:
6300 on most drives) and, as a result, so is noise, and
manufacturers have not been concerned with keeping the noise
level down. Among the hard drive manufacturers, the battle is
being fought on speed and price, the two things that are
mentioned most often in hard drive advertisements and in
articles. My guess is, until journalists and users start fussing
about the noise level of hard drives, nothing will be done to
change this trend.

The quietest hard drives on the market used to be the Maxtor LXT
drives: the LXT213A was a particularly quiet drive. The other LXT
drives, like the LXT535A, are also quiet, although the larger the
drive, the more one notices read and write noise, but the level
is still bearable. Unfortunately, the LXT series is being phased
out in favor of the MXT series, which offers faster seek times
but also much more noise. To be specific, the LXT drives were
rated at around 30 dB, about 8 dB less than any comparable drive.
The new MXT drives are about 10 dB higher than the LXTs, and that
10 decibels is noticeable.

If you want a high-capacity drive that is quiet, hurry up and try
to get your hands on a Maxtor LXT-535A (or S, for SCSI). There
aren't many left, but if you persist in calling mail-order
places, you'll probably still be able to find one. These drives
are fast enough--and quiet enough. Any other drive is going to
annoy you in some way.

DRIVES TO STAY AWAY FROM
- The Fujitsu drives, highly praised by many PC magazines: these
drives will "drive" you out of the room with their noise,
especially the large but inexpensive 500 Meg drives.

- The Quantum LPS drives, also highly praised by several PC
magazines because of their speed, make an annoying ticking sound
every fifteen seconds as their drive heads are moved around to
prevent them from resting over any one part of the drive for very
long. This is the only drive on the market that does this, and it
is annoying as hell. Imagine running more than one of these
drives in the same, otherwise quiet, machine: you would have to
put up with an almost constant ticking sound from that drive.

- The very popular Western Digital Drives, popular because of
their low price, are quiet enough when just spinning but
annoyingly loud when reading and writing.

- Seagate drives are also not the quietest, although I have heard
from some that the large-capacity SCSI Seagates are quiet.

FINAL NOTE
Some will contend that noise is a subjective matter and that,
therefore, any discussion of drive noise is irrelevant. Hogwash.
While people's reactions to noise vary, hard drive noise is
quantifiable; it can be measured and should be measured--and
should be mentioned in magazine reviews of hard drives and
computer systems. The greatest single ergonomic issue that has
not been addressed by computer manufacturers and the journalists
is computer noise. It's time that this changed.

==========================================
COPYRIGHT
(c) 1993 by Jay Dougherty
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner
without express written permission from Jay Dougherty. Parts of
The Bad News newsletter may be quoted by reviewers writing for
publication. Contact Jay Dougherty on CompuServe at 73114,151.