Tips & TidBITS
©
by Caroline Horton
Last month I commented on NYNEX and ISDN lines for your modem. In the Midwest USWest offered ISDN lines earlier last year and have now raised their monthly rates 3x’s. Seems that some of the customers are slightly upset -- because of the investment in new equipment and higher prices.
If you have line maintenance, or you can opt for it and later drop it, you can cure most of your modem problems with one phone call. Call and report that you are have "radio" interference on your phone line. When the line person comes he will install a M-150 RFI line filter. This filter will remove line noise before it gets to your modem -- speeding up your transmission and reducing errors in file transmission.
Supra has been bought out by Diamond Multimedia Technologies (Diamond Stealth card manufacturers).
Now that Justice has unleashed IBM (IBM was shackled by Justice in 1954 for the same reasons AT&T was ordered to break-up) it could spell trouble for other computer manufacturers. IBM has very deep pockets and can now bundle all of their services together. It would seem Compaq Computers could suffer irreparable damage along with some other manufacturers.
Remember the sale of WordPerfect to Novell just over a year ago for $1 billion big ones -- well Novell just sold WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and the rights to Borland’s Paradox to Corel for a cash and stock combination of a measly $186 million -- boy talk about bargain basement prices!
Hold onto your hats -- seems that all of the new foundries (chip factories) have produced a glut of memory chips -- the Japanese are in a snit -- their economy is in shambles already -- tough luck! The chip glut has resulted in an over-supply of 4Meg and 16Meg SIMMs and the 1Meg cache SRAMS have dropped from $25 to $7. At the last Peter Trapp show SIMMs were selling for $28 a Meg -- sure is nice to see the prices drop.
Last month I included a list of compatible hard drives, I left out Samsung -- so I am providing a revised list:
Connor, Maxtor, Samsung, and Seagate -- using Fast ATA-2 standard.
Quantum and Western Digital -- using the EIDE standard.
Intuit has released the final 1995 New York State TurboTax package. This year's version has a new look and runs smoother than last year's version. Under
File select Go to State, your options are -- States Assistant Method or Forms Method. Either way you use the new QuickZoom feature. The program suggests the proper return form by your deductions and income as supplied from your federal return. It even suggests whether you should apply for the housing credit and earned income credit. With only 4 or 5 spaces to fill in, the program finishes your return in minutes. After you are through it runs a quick check on all your forms and locates any possible errors, with explanations for each. The only problem about the program is the release date -- 3 weeks late, otherwise this program combined with TurboTax Federal makes doing you taxes a breeze. (I could not in all good intentions say that doing your taxes with this program was a pleasure!)If you have not been able to use Quicken’s Financial Network - TurboTax Network also -- you are not alone. Intuit uses the Concentric Network and the Netscape program, seems the Concentric Network has been down most of the time lately. Use your INTERNET connection and the address --
http://www1.qfn.com/quicken -- and you will end up at the same place.I have uploaded the newest drivers for Windows 95 for Diamond Stealth64 Video cards, 2000, 2001, and 3000 series to the CNYPCUG BBS. The file name is
GTW95218.EXE -- the drivers are referred to as Diamond Stealth GT drivers. The file name translated means GT drivers for Windows 95 released on 2/18. The new features that are available with these new drivers will make you think twice about buying any other interface program.Once installed, you can click anywhere on your desktop with the left mouse button and have the Start Menu pop up, or use your right button to change your monitor features: zoom in or out, change your desktop resolution, pan, fast scrolling, turn your screen saver on or off, and a few other odds and ends. The driver also makes Windows 95 run faster.
I have also uploaded the file
IMGINST.EXE to the BBS -- this is from Microsoft and WANG, it is an image processing program with TWAIN drivers and links specifically for Windows 95. Microsoft forgot about scanners when it produced Windows 95, but this program more than makes up for the wait. The program allows users to scan, view, annotate, manage, store and share paper documents and electronic images.Also uploaded to CNYPCUG BBS are the following Windows 95 update files:
DMPATCH.ZIP
-- newest Western Digital hard drive drivers for Windows 95.EXUPDUSA.ZIP
-- upgrades the Microsoft Exchange program.GE1261.ZIP
-- update for OLE32 interface for Microsoft Office 95.MSIE20DL.ZIP
-- Microsoft Internet Explorer V2.0.MSPWLUPD.ZIP
-- upgrade for Windows 95 password library for security.MSTERMS.ZIP
- MSTERMS.DIC, additional dictionary for Word 95 -- place in the directory -- C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof – change C:\ when needed.UNIMODV.ZIP
- Unimodem V is the newest release of Unimodem, the Windows universal modem driver/telephony service provider for data/fax modems. Unimodem V adds the most commonly requested features to support data/fax/voice modems, including wave playback and recording to and from the phone line, wave playback and recording to and from the handset, and support for speakerphones, caller ID, distinctive ringing, and call forwarding.VRMLUB11.ZIP
-- virtual reality update for Microsoft’s Internet interface.WRDCNT32.ZIP
-- upgrade for the word counter in Word 95 -- place in the directory -- X:\MSoffice\Winword\Startup -- where X represents your hard drive where Winword is installed.WORDIA2B.ZIP
-- Internet Assistant for Word for Windows 95.Intuit has released new upgrades for Quicken v5 for Windows -- this will upgrade your installed version to 5.0f -- the upgrades are on CNYPCUG BBS as:
QW50F.ZIP
-- standard floppy version. Some of the problems fixed include showing Banking-Online negative balances in black (positive) instead of Red (negative) and problems deleting transactions, and problems with Microsoft's Intellipoint or Intellitype running.DLX50F.ZIP
-- for the floppy or CD-ROM Deluxe version and for the Quicken Deluxe part of the Quicken Financial Suite.The files listed here, except for the Quicken, Diamond, and Western Digital files, make up the free Windows 95 update that Microsoft will be releasing. If any of these files are changed or any new files added they will be uploaded to the CNYPCUG BBS. These files are free of charge and are licensed by Microsoft, they can only be used with Windows 95.
Recently I decided to try Prodigy, because they have sent me dozens of disks. The program installed easy enough, but it does not include an uninstall program. I logged onto Prodigy late at night and did not enjoy the experience. I decided to give it another try when it was not so late, (an excuse for being tired). The second experience was worse than the first -- because now I was wide awake. The system is very slow and it is not intuitive, you have to work at finding everything. This definitely is not the system to use if you want to get any real work done! The interface leaves much to be desired, especially the menu setup. If you feel bored and have some time to waste, give it a try the first 10 hours are free -- just remember there is no uninstall for this program. You should also keep in mind that Sears and IBM are trying to sell Prodigy.
Netscape Navigator Beta 2.0 has a major flaw -- after the trial period is up naturally you must uninstall it. Seems that it deletes some of Windows 95 system files necessary to run other programs. Please keep this in mind -- you will have to do a reinstall of Windows 94 and Plus.
Does the rapid flashing of sub-menus on the start button make you irritable -- here is a way to fix that problem.
Click on the Start button and select Run -- then enter REGEDIT.EXE.
When the new window appears -- click on the plus sign on the left of
Hkey_Current_User.Now click on the plus sign on the left of the Control Panel folder.
Select the Desktop folder in the left window and then click on the item
MenuShowDelay in the right hand window.Once this line is highlighted select Edit on the main menu bar and then select Modify. You will have a new window that allows you to edit the "value data" -- try changing the value to a number between 500 - 1000 and then click OK.
You can actually set this value to any number -- the number represents milliseconds: 1000 represents 1 second. This should delay the rapid popping of the sub-menus.
