


                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
