Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (10/01)
Reviewing Software
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM WINDOWS XP. Well, it will be here this month- maybe. The operating system of the future will arrive with all its new features, good and bad. Until we've seen the reviews and looked into it more, we stick by the recommendations we've made up to now to sit tight and let the smoke clear. From what we are able to see thus far, here's a very brief summary of what you can expect in the "home" edition:
- XP will be more stable. The new op system will be based on the Windows NT-2000 kernel which has proven considerably more stable than any other Windows operating system. The net result is far fewer crashes to interrupt and aggravate you. Good!
- Better control over drivers. Funky software and hardware drivers will be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Good!
- Internet Explorer 6. Exactly what this will amount to remains to be seen.
- Windows Media Player 8- Lots of nice new multimedia features. Good, but it may be available separately to your current op system as it has been up until now.
- Enhanced Windows update and help features. Will keep both your operating system and your drivers current. Good.
- The cockamamie copy protection (more aptly, revenue protection) scheme we've been telling you about that will prevent you from using the software until you register it, and restrict you to installing it only once and on only one machine. Microsoft calls it "product activation." I call it "product aggravation." Bad, bad, bad! And, by the way, Microsoft says that all of their software will contain product activation by 2002.
- Significantly increased cost. It won't come cheap, unless it is already factored in to the new computer you are buying. Bad.
HERE ARE SOME POINTED ANSWERS to pointed question about Windows XP from ZDNET columnist David Coursey:
1. Can I run Windows XP? The general answer is that any machine purchased since Christmas 1999 ought to run XP just fine. Specific requirements are: 300 MHz Pentium II or compatible or better, 64MB of RAM, 2GB of free hard-drive space, SVGA plug-and-play monitor, and a 12X or faster CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
I haven't had any problems installing XP on older machines, but I think the 64MB of RAM requirement is suitable only for people who run no more than two applications at a time-and people who are that boring probably won't benefit from the new "eXPeriences," like digital music and photography support, built into the new OS. My recommendation? Invest in memory. I am running XP in a variety of memory configurations, and 256MB of RAM or more seems to make the OS most happy. Since memory is inexpensive right now, this is a worthwhile investment.
2. How can I check for XP compatibility on my machine? Microsoft will be distributing, for free, a Windows XP "Upgrade Advisor" that will check your machine for compatibility issues before you spring for the OS. When this is available, it will appear on the XP Website, as well as any other distribution method Microsoft can arrange. I presume we at ZDNet will make it available as a download as well.
3. Is Windows XP faster than the Windows I am now using? XP seems to be significantly faster than Windows 9x and insignificantly faster than Windows 2000 Professional. However, speed isn't really the thing here.
4. Is Windows XP less crash-prone than the Windows I am now using? Now this is the important part: If you are running Windows 9x, you'll find XP to be tremendously more stable than what you're used to. The operating system can be crashed-I've done it-but it's not a regular occurrence. When apps crash, they do so without taking the OS or other apps down with them. In addition, Office XP does a better job of saving data automatically, so the Windows XP/Office XP combination results in a much more stable (and safe) system than the Windows 9x/Office 2000 you are probably running today. Windows XP is not, however, significantly more stable than Windows 2000 Professional. This isn't surprising, since they share a common foundation architecture.
5. I hear Windows XP must be "activated." What's that? Activation is a form of copy protection, in which each copy of XP must be turned on by registering it with Microsoft. The copy of Windows XP is then uniquely associated with a particular computer, thus preventing pirating of the operating system by using the same disk to upgrade multiple machines.
This is highly controversial. The valid reason is that activation can break and require reactivation, which can be inconvenient. The bogus reason is that people raise the valid issue-and make a big deal about it-because they want to freely copy commercial software. Microsoft has responded to user concerns, it says, by making activation as seamless as possible. New hardware with XP pre-installed doesn't require activation and should never require reactivation, even if significant changes are made to the hardware configuration.
Upgraders will have to activate their software when it is installed; typically, this is done automatically over the Internet or alternatively over the telephone. Microsoft says it's significantly raised the threshold of hardware changes required to force reactivation (which occurs if there are enough changes that XP thinks it's been copied to a new computer). I think Microsoft has been sensitized to this issue, and we'll see how it works out once customers start upgrading to XP en masse.
PARTITIONMAGIC 7.0. The latest edition of our favorite hard drive partitioning software, PartitionMagic 7.0 allows you to easily create new partitions and run multiple operating systems on the same computer, even using Windows XP. Using PartitionMagic, you can easily segment a single hard drive into independent sections (partitions) and load a separate OS, or different versions of an operating system, to each partition.
BootMagic, included with PartitionMagic, provides an easy-to-use graphical interface that allows you to select which OS you want to run. Whether you load Linux, Windows XP, Windows NT Workstation, Win2000, Win95, or Win98, you will never have to worry about OS conflict problems again. PartitionMagic 7.0 now supports Windows XP. If you plan on upgrading to XP, or simply want to test drive it without giving up your current operating system, you need PartitionMagic 7.0! PartitionMagic 7.0 also includes the following new features: Merge NTFS partitions; Support for hard drives up to 80GB; Access and partition external USB drives.
STILL INVESTING? You might want to look at the following shareware assists available at zdnet.com/downloads:
1. Personal Stock Monitor Gold is a combination stock ticker, portfolio manager, and financial research assistant. It includes a scrolling ticker bar that constantly displays stock prices, a portfolio that dynamically recalculates your holdings, and links to stock news and research, as well as a lot more. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
2. Fund Manager helps you monitor and analyze your stocks, mutual funds, and other investments. It lets you create a wide variety of reports and graphs, and retrieves stock quotes from the Internet. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
3. U Have To Be a Millionaire streams investment advice from dozens of analysts straight to your PC, gets you stock quotes and the latest market numbers, and tracks your portfolio and lets your do in-depth research. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
BURN PROOF TECHNOLOGY. Some CD recorders today come with advanced technology known as " BURN-PROOF" that you should look for in the model you choose. It prevents the most common cause of CD recording errors, buffer under run. BURN-ProofT (Buffer Under RuN-Proof) technology helps prevent bad burns and CD creation errors, including buffer under-run and track write errors. When the flow of data to your CD-RW drive is interrupted long enough to empty the CD-RW drive's buffer, BURN-Proof pauses the writing process to your CD-R or CD-RW disc. Because CD writing is a real-time process that must run without interruptions, the BURN-Proof feature actually turns off the laser that burns the image of what you are recoding on to your CD-R when your its buffer empties. Once the buffer fills with data again, your CD-RW drive will begin to burn where the writing process stopped.
CD under run occurs most frequently when you are trying to copy directly from a CD in your CD-ROM drive to a CD in your CD recorder (CD-RW drive). CD-ROM drives usually can't feed data fast enough to a CD recorder unless your recorder is set to copy at a very low speed (like 2x or, maybe, 4x).
So what's the catch? Burn proof is only available currently in the faster, more expensive CD recorders. You can accomplish pretty much the same protection by creating a subdirectory on your hard drive ( call it what you will... I call mine CDTEMP), and copying the contents of your CD into this folder. Then copy the contents of the folder into your CD recording software to burn on the CD in your recorder. Your hard drive will usually not have a problem feeding the data fast enough to keep up with the burn speed of your CD recorder. You can then use faster burn speeds without ruining a CD.
By the way, when you install a CD-RW drive (either yourself, or by a technician) be certain that you do not put your CD-ROM and your CD-RW drives on the same data cable as is frequently and wrongly done. That's a sure scenario for buffer-underrun errors AD-AWARE 5.6 UPDATE AVAILABLE. As we've mentioned many times, AD-AWARE is one of those superb and indispensable utilities you need on your computer if you do anything on the Web and you value your privacy. It's a detector of spyware that many sites load on your computer without your knowledge or consent, and tracks your surfing habits and other information that is none of their #67$&^* business. Running AD-AWARE regularly will detect and eliminate hidden spyware. It's free, but for a measly $15 you also get all the latest updates, plus AD-WATCH which detects and eliminates spyware as you surf. You can find it at lavasoftusa.com. It's the recognized quintessential software to do the job!
MANAGE YOUR MONEY. Here's three neat shareware apps you can find at zdnet/downloads that will help you do just that:
- Easy Budget is a simple budgeting program for when you want a once-over-lightly view of your finances. It's easy to track your income and expenses quickly, and you can easily see whether you're under or over budget for a given month, or for the year. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
- The Encyclopedia of Personal Finance gives you access to hundreds of articles, tutorials, and quizzes about every aspect of personal finance. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT)
- ISG Personal will help you manage your money so that you'll be set for retirement. It'll help you develop a savings and investment plan so that you have a secure source of income when you retire. (Shareware/Win95-98-NT).
ENERGY SAVER. Many of the computer monitors designed in the last few years have built-in energy saving features that will automatically power down or shut off your monitor when it's not in use. To see if your monitor has such features, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, then double-click the Display icon. Click the Screen Saver tab and look for the "Energy Saving Features" section for your options. Your monitor will automatically turn back on with a stroke of the keyboard or a move of the mouse when this feature is enabled.
TEST YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION SPEED. It's easy if you go to http://webservices.cnet.com/Bandwidth/
HASTEN YOUR DOWNLOADS. If you want to move things along in downloading files, here are a few freeware applications from zdnet.com that you can use to help move things along:
- Download Accelerator is a great way for anyone to download faster. It speeds the process by downloading the file from several servers simultaneously. It'll also resume broken downloads. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
- FlashGet is another freebie. It downloads different parts of the same file from several different servers, increasing your download speed. It also doubles as a download manager. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
- GoZilla is a great download manager that handles every aspect of downloading, installing, and running files. You can schedule files for later downloads, resume broken downloads, install software from within the program, and more. (Free/Win95-98-NT). ATOMICA is its new name, but it's the same great software...and like the best things in life, it's free! Atomica (formerly GuruNet) is a free tool that automatically analyzes the context of selected text. Using a simple, non-linked "Answer Bar" window, Atomica delivers reference information from a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia. It also provides real-time information, such as news, sports, weather, or stock quotes from online sources. It works in e-mail programs, PIMs, browsers, and other applications such as Microsoft Office. Atomica also features language translations, enhanced financial links, up-to-date weather, U.S. area codes, and more. You can download it at zdnet.com.
THE MAIL-ORDER DISADVANTAGE. There was a time that buying computers or computer components by mail-order represented a considerable saving; not anymore. The cost differential has gone from small to non-existent. In fact, there are many instances where the cost is less locally. Don't talk about tax either- what you save in tax you make up for in shipping. The main disadvantage becomes very real if you need to return something. The hassle and the restocking fees can be quite considerable. Then there's the cost of shipping the item back an once again waiting till it arrives at the other end before they will re-ship. A local merchant will usually refund your purchase immediately during a certain period, often 30 days. No matter where or what you buy, it makes good sense to find out all about returns and repairs before you make your purchase.
There are other advantages to buying locally. You get your merchandise right away instead of waiting days, and sometimes weeks, for shipping. In the case of drives, you will get them in a manufacturer's box with all the accompaniments if you buy locally, whereas you will get a bare drive in a static bag if you buy mail order. Then there is also the ethics of supporting the vendors who do business in, pay taxes, and help to support the community in which you live.
MAYBE YOU NEVER KNEW IT, but every retail CD copy of Windows 98 (not necessarily the OEM versions bundled with hardware) ships with a version of the Windows Resource Kit right on the CD-ROM. The great computer guru, Fred Langa, reminds us that this colossal ResKit is equivalent to a 1,700-page book, and can answer a huge range of Windows setup, deployment, troubleshooting, operational and tuning questions. Plus, the ResKit comes with more than two dozen powerful software tools and utilities that let you do things with Windows you may not have imagined possible. Its combination of tools and information add up to more than 24MB. Win95 has a similar offering. You can read about these bundled- but largely hidden- tools via http://content.techweb.com/winmag/library/1998/1101/fea0068.htm and http://content.techweb.com/winmag/library/1998/1001/fea0045g.htm The retail version of the WinME CD, alas, has much less, but still offers a few goodies. For example, the "Tools" directory on the setup CD contains the old, DOS-level "Microsoft System Diagnostics" which can be useful when tracking down some low-level hardware problems; a CD test program; TCP configuration tools; etc.
THE UPS HASSLE...DON'T GO! My recent visit to UPS to send a package raised my blood pressure at least 30 points. They have new policies which are the most asinine, annoying and onerous I have ever come across. Firstly, and regardless of how nicely you have packed your package, UPS now opens each and every package to make sure that what you are declaring is actually in the box.
Secondly, even if you have surrounded your items in bubble-wrap and Styrofoam peanuts as I did, they place your box inside another much larger carton and surround the space between with balled-up wrapping paper. Now you not only pay for their increased shipping charges, you pay for the new box plus extra size and weight caused by their re-packing. Add all this to the annoyance, time and hassle you have gone through in the process. UPS gets a 5 stinkweed rating, and the US Postal Service gets all my future business.
GUARD YOUR PRIVACY. The four major credit bureaus in the US. [were] allowed, starting July 1, to release your credit info, mailing addresses, phone numbers, etc. ... If you would like to 'opt out' of this release of info, you can call 1-888-567-8688. It only takes a couple of minutes to do, and you can take care of anyone else in the household while making only one call, you'll just need to know their social security number. Be sure to listen closely, the first opt out is only for two years, make sure you wait until they prompt you to press '3' on your keypad to opt out for good. Listen to the tape and choose for the opt out permanently.
DON'T WRITE ON YOUR CD's. Labeling a CD by writing on it with your marking pen is not a good idea. The ink can penetrate the thin upper surface to the recording layer immediately below. Your best bet is to label the jewel case or container, but not the CD.
SPEED YOUR DOWNLOADS WITH GETRIGHT. GetRight is a shareware Download Manager program to help you download files from the Internet. Most people have already experienced the problem...you are downloading a file, and your modem gets disconnected, or call waiting interrupts, or your computer crashes, or any number of other problems. Then you have to restart the download from the very beginning, losing all the time you had already spent. GetRight solves this problem by allowing you to resume a download. If you got part of the file before the problem, GetRight will restart the download in the middle so it only gets the rest of the file, without having to restart from the beginning. This makes downloading your files much easier and faster.
GetRight has many other more advanced features to help you download the files-from re-dialing the modem automatically to turning off the computer when it is done getting the files (so you can just leave it alone to do the work!) You can even set a time when it should dial the modem to get the files...so it can do all the work in the middle of the night while you sleep. GetRight is available for a FREE trial to see how it works for you. If you do like it, you can buy it reasonably. Go to http://www.getright.com/whatisit.html for more info and to download a trial copy.
CATCHUP ON YOUR UPDATES. To get the latest fixes, updates and patches for your software, go to http://catchup.cnet.com/. A little shareware gem called Catchup may be just what you are looking for.
WHY NO KNOCKS ? Every so often I am confronted with the observation that our software reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Does that mean we never knock a product? What it means is that we don't waste our limited space and your valuable time with bad software; and there is an awful lot of bad software out there. Before we bring a product in for review, we make every attempt to ascertain that it is something we would want to recommend to you. If we discover a shortcoming in a product that is otherwise good, we certainly will and have mentioned it. If we discover it's a lemon, back it goes to the software publisher with our comments. We often have and will continue to keep you advised of what we consider more disturbing. However, as far as reviews go, we attempt to keep you informed of what we consider something you would rightfully want to own and use. We try to restrict our review space to what's good, and avoid what's bad.
A FOOTBALL NUT? If that's you and you also like to play computer games, you need to take a look at a shareware program called 4th Street Software: Pro Football . It puts you in charge of drafting a real NFL team, then seeing how well you can manage it. It's based on real-world statistics and strategy, so it's one of the few football games in which you actually have to think. Find it at zdnet.com/downloads.
PRICES ARE DOWN. Prices for new computers are down big time as the slide in the economy takes its toll on the industry. You can get yourself a package for just about half of what you might have paid for the same thing 15 months ago. Extra goodies like printers, cameras, etc. may be be included free as part of the package. Just avoid selling yourself to some online service provider (like MSN) as part of the deal. You also need to be cautious about vendor stability. Many of them won't be around a year from now to service you.
KILL SPAM AND COOKIES. And here's a couple of freebies you can find at zdnet.com/downloads that will do the job for you:
- SPAM BUSTER does exactly what it says-halts spam in its tracks. It'll check up to a dozen different inboxes for spam, and will automatically delete the offending mail or let you delete it yourself. Plus, countless other spam-fighting goodies are in this excellent freebie. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
- COOKIE COP lets you take control of the cookies Websites put on your PC to track your identity and surfing activity. You can decide, on a site-by-site basis, which sites can put on cookies and which can't. By the way, Internet Explorer 6.0, just released, also includes some new built-in cookie protection. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
- POP-UP KILLER zaps annoying pop-up windows before you even see them, so you don't have to be assaulted by pop-ups, pop-unders and who knows, maybe pop-in-betweens some day. It'll also limit the total number of browser windows that can be opened at once. (Free/Win95-98-NT)
GOT YOUR OUTLOOK PATCH? Last month, Microsoft finally released a patch to correct a problem with Outlook in which an attacker can "run code of attacker's choice." In other words, via this security hole, an attacker can do just about whatever they want in your system. This affects Outlook 2002/XP, 2000, and 98. You can download the patch by going to: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-038.asp.
RECENT UPDATES. Here's a number of recent releases. If they apply to you, go to the indicated hyperlink or to the program's site and download:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2
- Norton Antivirus Definitions August 2001
- MSN Messenger 3.6.0039
- Nero Burning ROM 5.5.3.5
- Logitech Mouse Driver 9.29.2
- Netscape 6.1
- Babylon 3.2 build 28
- GoZilla 4.0 beta
- PolyView 3.62
- ZoneAlarm 2.6.231.0
- Shockwave ActiveX Flash Player 8.5.0 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cU70AW
- Microsoft Data Access Components 2.61 SP1 ttp://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cVC0Aj
- Norton LiveUpdate 1.63.12.0 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0dJU0Aq
- Microsoft Windows Installer 1.20 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cVA0Ah
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0clt0Au
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0eJ10AH
- Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Runtime Library SP5 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cVD0Ak 18. Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1a http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cVE0Al
19. Quicktime 5.0.2 http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0cVG0An
20. Microsoft DirectX 8.0a http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eB8a0BOdMX0YD0dZq0Aa
The Shareware Report
Only the newest of new users are not aware of the existence and impact of shareware. There are lots of places on the Web you can go to find some of the best software in just about every category imaginable that you can download and try for a period of time. If you like what you see, you can pay a relatively small sum to register the program and keep it alive. Some of this software is free, and designated as freeware. Among our favorite sites for finding share ware are cnet.com and zdnet.com. A search engine will bring you to an landless number of others.
We will attempt to keep you informed of anything we come across that we find especially useful, but the numbers of such are endless, so don't hesitate at looking around yourself. Now for this month's star attraction on The Shareware Spot:
AS-U-TYPE
A top-notch spell checker!
So what's the big deal about a spell check utility when your word processor already has one. There are two answers to that question:
- Many users find themselves entering text into locations that have no spell check, or the one they may have is of poor quality. Prime examples are WordPad, Notepad, and your e-mail program. It will work equally well in your spreadsheet, database, desktop publisher, or any other text entry application, and do so on-the-fly.
- Your word processor may have an aged or poorly performing spell check.
In both these instances, as well as others, it's As-U-Type to the rescue! As-U-Type is a super spell check utility that will work in any and every program into which you are entering text. Checking your spelling is only one of numerous jobs it will do to assure that your document will look right and to offer you a plethora of short cuts to save you typing effort and time.
You can elect to activate As-U-Type on startup so that it is active continuously to do its job in whatever application you are in, or you can activate it only when you wish by clicking its icon on your desktop. Once activated, you can turn it on or off by toggling the key press, Right Shift- Left Shift together.
The program can be setup to do an endless number of jobs:
- Automatic spell correction- It will automatically correct misspelled words as you type. It contains a huge dictionary to which you can make additional entries up to a total of 2 billion words. It is extremely perceptive in knowing what word to substitute for one that you screwed up royally.
- Text expansion- You can abbreviate text so that a few letters you type will expand into as many words as you designate. For example, you can instruct the program to enter "Sarasota PC Users Group" any time you type "spc."
- Multi-clipboard- You can copy and paste multiple individual text entries to and from the clipboard.
- Common error corrections - As-U-Type will correct a huge variety of common errors automatically as you type, e.g:
- It will automatically capitalize the names of the days of the week.
- It will correct the accidental use of the cAPS LOCK key.
- You can add, delete or customize your auto-corrections.
- You can import or export corrections to and from your word processor.
- It will capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence should you forget.
- It will correct mistakenly interposed letters in a word, remove duplicated letters, notify you if you have made a mistake (if you wish), and keep a log entry of all your mistakes for you to review as a learning exercise.
- It maintains a dictionary of common abbreviations to which you can add.
- You can take a boilerplate sentence, paragraph, page, or other body of text and cause it to appear whenever you type a few keystrokes that you designate.
- You can designate a chosen hot-key (macro) sequence to perform various actions in the program.
There are many small ways in which you can customize the program to function to your specifications. It is compatible with your current word processor, but you may avoid some conflict if you turn off your word processor's auto-correct feature if you run the two together. The most recent version of WordPerfect has the nasty habit of commonly underlining words as misspelled that have been spelled quite correctly, something As-U-Type doesn't do. If you find anything too conflicting, you can rt shift-lft shift As-U-Type quickly off.
As-U-Type is a particular aide to me because I can't touch-type. I use the hunt and peck method, so I am most often not looking at the screen as I type. As-U-Type kindly corrects the errors I would pick up more readily if I were looking at my monitor. Unlike you and me, As-U-Type is unfortunately not perfect. Its Achilles heel lies in the fact that in correcting your text, it takes a pretty good guess at what you are trying to say, but it's not always accurate. For example, I asked my divorced friend about his ex. As-U-Type obligingly changed "ex" to "hex" although that was not what I was trying to say. Similar unwanted corrections seem to happen more often than I would like. You could, of course, add "ex" or similar common replacements to As-U-Type's dictionary so that they would be accepted in the future. It's no more annoying than WordPerfect 10's frequent habit of underlining in red as misspelled errors, words that are perfectly spelled, something it never did in WordPerfect 9. So, regardless of what application I use as a correction, I am back to proof-reading when I finish. How much any of this is going to effect you in As-U-Type will be evident at your free trial, so you have nothing to lose.
The program contains a help file that you can print out to produce a first-class tutorial and reference manual. As-U-Type works exactly as advertised, without a glitch. It is an extremely useful utility that you may well wonder how you ever did without. It costs nothing to try for 30 days. After that, it's yours to register and keep for $30. Try it....you'll love it! Fanix Software, www.asutype.com, or www.fanix.com. :
Return to Herb Goldstein's Index
Copyright 2001. This article is from the October 2001 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.