Rich's Ramblings
by Rich Schinnell
I guess I am an old DOS dog whether I like to admit it or not. Even though I have Windows 95 installed on my laptop and my power machine at home, and I am writing this on my laptop with Microsoft Word version 7 for Windows 95, I have been a WordPerfect bigot for lots of years. Even up to the 6.1 version which works great under Windows 95. The only reason that I finally went to MS Word is that It came as part of the Microsoft Office Professional package that I purchased.
Now don't get excited; the deal was too good to pass up. I was visiting Microsoft in Redmond, Wa., as a User Group officer (on my own plane fare), and they allowed me to purchase from their employee store. The price of Office Pro was just too good to pass up.
I will probably need to read up on the manual to learn some of the things that MS Word can do. No! I actually said the RTM words! Gads, what is this world coming to? Rich reading a manual. But after all, even the most techie people need to do this from time to time. The most interesting part of the package is that the manual is on disk (or CD-ROM) which is nice since the Index is much better and bigger than most of the printed ones. Oh...makes me reminisce back to the days of Microsoft Word version 1.0. Copy protection and all...
One of the problems with these small screens today is that under Windows 95--and even the old Win 3.1--the tool bars and such take up so much room. I do yearn for the days of the full DOS screen. My Word screen takes up about seven lines just for the tool and information bars. I need to figure out how to reduce that to a good number. It sure is nice to have a 17" monitor at home. If you ever try to do a lot of work on a small portable machine's screen, you know what I mean. We must be gluttons for punishment.
I have been trying to customize the tool bars in my programs to keep them readable and easily understandable. I try to get file, print, font, and such functions on the tool bars, but there are just too many options. Maybe I will get the hang of it one of these days. COMDEX
While I am rambling, I might as well let you in on my November plans. I will be on my way to Las Vegas for COMDEX (COMputer Dealers EXposition). I have been attending COMDEX for about 12 years now, and this year I will again tell myself to slow down and not wear myself out running through the 12 miles of vendor booths.
The Association of Personal Computer User Groups ( APCUG) is again having some seminars the weekend before COMDEX. Each year hundreds of User Group officers/directors attend these seminars where war stories and lessons learned are exchanged. This year, COMDEX is from the 13th through the 17th of November, so the 11th and 12th are when the APCUG seminars will be held.
COMDEX is an exciting time for the computer industry; all the players are demonstrating their wares, and anyone who is anyone in the industry is speaking or showing something. Big deals get concocted in many of the hotel back rooms. New and exciting software and hardware are shown to the press, mostly as a teaser for favorable reviews. Some of the stuff never sees the light of day as they are just testing the waters.
Each year COMDEX seems to be getting bigger too. Back in 1983, there was a whopping 24,000 attendees. Last year, there were over 200,000. The hotels jack up their rates for this week as geeks and gurus are notorious for staying close to their wallet.
There are plenty of free tickets as each of the vendors get to give away thousands of those $75 general exhibit tickets. Just like FOSE and such here locally.
I will return again with some brochures that I shouldn't have
taken in the first place. And I will have either lost or
forgotten to save some brochures that I really need. Those
brochures that people take and then throw away are expensive.
Some are a couple of bucks apiece, and some cost more. There
will be lots of fuzzy things that you can stick on your
shoulder, hats, and t-shirts. Coffee mugs and those dang water
bottles too; I wonder if anyone ever really puts something in
them and drinks from them before they're put in the dishwasher
for sterilization? You never know where they were manufactured
<G>.
I hope to see the new P-6 chip on some computers so that I can really be wowed. For some reason, I can't seem to get all fired up this year. Maybe I will get to see some neat stuff, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe I'm getting jaded in my old age? Or just plain old...
Writeable CDs
One more thing I would like to tell you about is the Writeable CD that I picked up at CompUSA. It is a Hewlett Packard SureStore CD-R (around $1,199.00), 2X write and a 4X read.
Up to now, most of the CD writers were very expensive, in the $2,500 area, and required a special high speed hard disk of over 600MB. The creation of the CD was a process by which you wrote all the files and programs that you eventually wanted on your CD to this special hard disk. The software and hardware then created the CD in one fell swoop (that's my new buzzword for the month <G>).
I've always wanted to be able to create CDs of some of my backup data, then I could clean up my hard disk without having to search thru tape backups. Now this is practical and possible with the price breakthrough for the HP SureStore.
You install the SCSI-II interface board that comes with the HP and install the Windows 3.1 software. The HP comes with two blank writeable CDs which you will need to test the speed of your system. The install software, which by the way adds a line to your File Manager task bar, will test your system data transfer speed. If it is fast and you don't have too many other tasks or TSRs running, it will record at 2X speed, otherwise it does it at 1X. If you're backing up, it doesn't make much difference. I backed up 605MB in two hours over my Novell network. So it is pretty fast.
One neat thing about the drive is that now you don't have to write the whole CD in one session. You can add to the same disk at later times. Backup the same file again the next day or later in the week or so.
AND you can then highlight the file in File Manager and see the history of that file, then retrieve older versions off the CD. Remember that these CDs are WORM (Write Once, Read Many). They are interchangeable with other CD-ROMs you might have, and other people can read them on their own CD-ROM drives. And No Virginia, you can not write on just any CD-ROM, only those listed as Recordable CD.
The spare recordable CDs cost around $12.99 each at CompUSA. Other fine stores should start carrying them pretty soon. Maybe the price will come down even more. With spare tape cartridges costing from $12 to $30, maybe this is a way to go.
I haven't figured out a way to automatically do the writing to the CD. It is only interactive now. I am sure that someone will come up with a script and/or program that will do the backups at night. I timed a backup of an 85MB subdirectory, and it took only 10 minutes to add the files to an already recorded CD. The software has some new options on the menu bar for your Windows 3.1 File Manager to look at the amount of free space on the CD. The file history option is real neat since it lets you copy older versions of a program off the CD to any of your other disks. For those who might ask, Yes you can make a CD and then send it to your friend in L.A., and they will be able to read it without problems. They are just like the other CDs that you see for sale in stores, once you've placed data on them...
I was able to backup tons of data off my hard disks so that I could get some more free space. Note that I have over 1.5 Gigabytes of hard disk storage. So you have some idea that I am a junk man; I never throw away a file. I even have IBM's DOS 1.0 still in the box. <G>
Anyway, on future Ramblings, I may have a long one in January if I can get some interesting new software. I know that Windows 95 will be everywhere. Makes you feel like you're in heaven already with all those clouds on the computer screens...
Rich Schinnell is the president of Capital PC, retired from the USN and his second job. He's now on his third career as a consultant along with lots of volunteering for CPCUG. He enjoys helping people with their computer problems. He can be reached at home in the evenings at (301) 949-9292 from 6-9PM, and the Internet at schinnel@cpcug.org.
Permission for reproduction in whole or in part is hereby granted to other non-profit and computer user groups for internal, non-profit use, provided credit is given to the Capital PC Monitor and to the author(s) of the reproduced material, and attribution of copyright is included.
Permission is also granted for posting on electronic bulletin board systems, provided credit is given to the Capital PC Monitor and to the author(s) of the reproduced material, and the files are made available in their entirety, without alteration, including this notice.
All other reproduction, other than for personal use, without the prior written permission of the Capital PC User Group is prohibited.
Unless specifically stated, opinions expressed in any article or column are those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily represent an official position or endorsement of the Capital PC User Group.
Capital PC User Group, Inc.
Plaza East Two
51 Monroe Street
Rockville, Maryland 20850
MIX BBS: (301) 762-9060 (10 Hayes v.34 modems)
Voice Response: (301) 762-6775
Office: (301) 762-9372