A PERSONAL VIEW OF COMPUTERS AND COMPUTING By Nigel Ballard 28 Maxwell Road, Winton, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH9 1DL England. WOT NO QWERTY KEYBOARD! My experience of computers and computing started off at a rather late age. It came about through necessity rather than a desire to pour vast amounts of money down a seemingly bottomless pit. My interest in radio and scanning had amassed me box files full of information, much of which was scruffy bits of paper detailing obscure allocations etc. People would ask, do you know where so and so is, and what is their frequency? By default I would usually reply, YES. Trouble is I probably did have the information, but I was buggered if I knew where to start looking. ALL CHANGE In steps Bruce, an old contact in electronics and radio, who before he divested himself of his trousers, deep voice and facial stubble, was a bit of a dab hand at electronics. Anyway, a few snips of the surgeons knife and Bruce became Amber, an altogether different kettle of fish. It is rather difficult telling an old mate that he looked better as a rather nondescript male, than as a particularly ugly female. But needs must as the devil drives. Anyway, I digress. Bruce (past tense) had a SUPERBRAIN computer, CPM of course. I realise now that it looked better than it performed, but anyway, I was introduced to early Wordstar, and all those funny key combinations just to get the poxy cursor to move in the desired direction. SOMETHING SWEET IN THE AIR Alan sugar of AMSTRAD fame, had just released the PCW series of CPM computers. For about �450.00 you got a complete package including software green screen and a dot matrix printer. We both bought one, and proceeded to learn Locoscript, which is the bundled wordprocessor. And not too shabby it was either. In fact, the only fond memory I have of those days was Locoscript, which worked a treat. I purchased a CPM database, MASTERFILE 8000, and proceeded to enter in all pertinent frequencies, listings were printed, box files were discarded and all looked right with the world. IT'S JUST NOT COMPATIBLE OLD SON! I got to meet other people with similar computers, and while I was happy writing letters and compiling listings, they were programs in basic, and proceeding up the learning curve. Needless to say I was not. One by one they traded in the CPM machines for anything that had 100% IBM COMPATIBLE on the box. On future visits I was made to feel inferior as they traded vast amounts of interesting software, and got programs up and running in less time than my machine took to check the measly amount of on-board ram. I started to feel a chill setting in, yes you guessed it, I was out in the cold. TWO LUMPS PLEASE! Talking of sugar, Amstrad had made the bold decision not to let IBM take the market share, and so duly brought out the PC-1512 (512K ram). And the PC-1640 (640K ram). These could be bought in any combination your wallet to stretch to. Single disk, double disk, hard drive, mono, CGA (YUK) and EGA. I bought a 1640 twin disk with 14inch EGA monitor. Software poured in, lightning speed was attained, I had credibility now by being IBM COMPATIBLE, but I kept rather quiet about having an Amstrad, as the name congers up visions of previous Amstrad efforts into cheapo hi-fi and television. Not a bit of it, the 1512 and 1640 machines were great, and as I type the 1640 is still very much in production. Yes it is truly 100% COMPATIBLE, and never refused to run an application unless VGA was called for. The only real problem was case emissions which would wipe out every scanner without fail. And the fact that I now realise it was as slow as shit! CAN COMPUTER OPERATORS BE FASHION VICTIMS? Yes, this one can. At work I use 286 and 386 machines mostly tied together by a network. We use large power hungry programs, and Desqview 386. A decision had to be made as to what I should upgrade to. I chased around the usual companies including VIGLEN and DELL, two companies gaining much respect in the lucrative corporate market-place. But still I came back to something I think I read in BYTE. It went something like this, 'dear BYTE, I purchased a taiwanese clone called a *@#*@#, and it just keeps hanging up when I try and run certain well known packages'. The reply said something like, 'Major software houses tend to try out new software on IBM and COMPAQ machines, and if they run fine, then the package is considered 100% IBM COMPATIBLE'. IBM Well for a start they have a very approachable corporate image, but a very highbrow private user image, in fact all but the low end PS2 machines have to come through approved dealers. Also, I just hated the look of the PS2 series, very plasticy, no room for a useful five inch drive, and guess what, they were mostly 286 processors. No way jose! COMPAQ Well yes you guessed it, I am a fashion victim, and if you are asked what computer you own in the UK, and you can truthfully answer, why it's a Compaq 386, then you are immediately considered in the same league as Peter Norton, and not a bad league to be in either. I hunted around to get the best price, Compaq are a bit like SONY over here, advertise the highest price, thus making the competition look like you are not going to stoop to their cutthroat tactics. But in reality they will knock huge amounts off to secure a sale. DESKPRO Duly the 386/20E DESKPRO arrived with 14inch COMPAQ VGA MONITOR, and an optional 3/5 inch disk drive which out of interest is actually made by CASIO, but because it has the Compaq face-plate, trebles in value, or should I say cost. Opening the box revealed a pretty hefty beast, mostly metal casing and even a sturdy lock on the back of the cabinet, supposedly to stop anyone stealing the 3/5 inch drive! Supplied were a whole set of disks for installing extra drives, disk cache etc. The dealers had already set it up with DOS 3.3. Or should I say, COMPAQ DOS 3.3, which as we all know is the best and most debugged version around. Yes I know there is DOS 4.01, but I want reliability, and Compaq don't include aspirins in the box. HIT THAT SWITCH I connected everything together, plugged in the monitor and computer (mains plugs already installed). The ram check showed a shade over 4MEG, which is standard now with this model. And within a very short space of time the c:> prompt appeared. TO C: OR NOT TO C: I have read of many tales of people saving a few bucks on the system, just to spend the next week low level formatting and generally just trying to get the poxy c: prompt to appear. SOFTWARE. (THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE DOWNRIGHT CRAPWARE) Such a substantial commitment requires some good software to get the max from my new machine. After all who would buy a Ferrari and then fit it with retreads. I started with QEMM-386, opting for this in preference to the supplied software. DESQVIEW-386 went on next. XTREE-GOLD got installed, which for my money beats Norton Commander III hands down. Using LAPLINK-III I transferred everything over from the Amstrad, remembering of course to exclude the Amstrad MS-DOS 3.2. I then set about fine tuning the machine and running LOADHI, a QEMM utility that shoves loads of conventional below 640K resident programs up high out of the way. Such as the mouse driver, which although needed, works just fine out of the valuable 640K area. A friend recommended SMARTDRV.SYS as the way to speed things up even more. I installed it and the Norton SI went up even further. SEAL OF APPROVAL TIME (purely my personal opinion) DESQVIEW-386 What a program. Why the industry is raving about Windows-386 when we already have DV that truly allows multiple programs to run at one, and it is not a simulation. If you have the ram, you can have one screen running SIMCITY, another running ANYWHERE-III playing F-19 STEALTH on a friends computer 10 miles away, another window typing a letter, and yet another window controlling your AOR3000. I had this set-up going last night, it works fine as far as the computer is concerned, trouble is the operator (ME) goes into overload and then critical mass followed by a meltdown as too much is happening on the screen at any one time. But just think of the possibilities. Better still it will run pretty much any application. Forget all this crap about chucking away all your packages and buying WINDOWS COMPATIBLE versions, do they think we came up the river on a banana boat? XTREE-GOLD. I started with XTREE, went onto XTREE-PRO, and now use the gold. It may need a few more keypresses than Norton Commander, but I have never deleted anything by mistake. New options like PRUNE and INVERT are superb. If they ever release XTREE-PLATINUM, I want to be first on the list. They even made a few changes to the software and kindly sent me a whole new version airmail from the States, which I thought was damn descent. NORTON ADVANCED UTILITIES V4.5 If ever there was a lifesaver this is it. Easy to use, yet bloody powerful. I recommend that if you are a novice, you stay away from it until you get more experience. A few wrong keystrokes and missed warning messages can completely stuff your hard disk. Most used features are the SAFE FORMAT,UNDELETE, SPEED DISK, DISK DOCTOR, AND FILEFIND. In fact too many great features to mention. What's even better is that they are all modular, or can be run by typing NI to get the application menu. Without a doubt, the most powerful and useful bit of software I ever bought. Even a floppy disk that comes up with a read error can usually be rescued. Q+A I needed a database that I could enter all my frequency information into, and most importantly extract it at a later date without giving it all kinds of mathematical conventions. Q+A version 3 does it for me. Apart from the fact that I constructed my database with just two references to the manuals, better still is the uncluttered screen and context sensitive help. A feature not often appreciated by non users is the intelligent assistant. You simply type an instruction in plain english, such as: 'display all details where BOURNEMOUTH POLICE exists', after a few seconds you get a report on screen showing every entry where those two words exist in my details column. That is just a simple example, but I feel sure you get the point. Bundled in with the package is a rather good wordprocessor, that performs all my personal letter writing tasks. QFONTS A great font downloader that seems to handle any portrait font I throw at it, and then to download it to my laserprinter. Very easy and very quick. SIMCITY About the only game type program I play. It is so addictive and so annoying, that I just can't delete it off the h/disk. VENTURA+SOFTKICKER Not much needs to be said about this package. Hopeless for editing text, but great if you write it in a text editor and then import it. Really super presentations can be outputted, especially if you have a laserjet. QEDIT I have tried many text editors, but this one wins my vote. You get very extensive set-up options. Wordwrap is included. In fact I am writing this article using it. Well worth checking out. FORMTOOLS If you need to generate forms or documents, questionnaires etc then this is the one. There are many pretenders, but for the money I have yet to try one that compares. TELIX Not the worlds greatest comms package, I don't even have the latest version, but it works, looks pretty, and it's the only package I have used to talk to this BB. PC ANYWHERE III If you have close friends who trust you enough to ring their unattended computers, enter your secret password, and then with the aid of this package, take complete control of their system over the phone lines, then this has to be for you. Just remember not to type FORMAT C: FASTBACK Up until about six months ago, I backed up everything using this program. Now however, I use PKZIP as it is easier, quicker and the program takes up hardly any space on my valuable h/disk. Fastback is still a very good programme. I do think that PKZIP shrinks the files much more than Fastback though. MEMORY MATE Possibly the best product ever from Broderbund. If you talk to lot's of people, and need to record information of a freeform nature without resorting to structured databases, then MM could be for you. When I was first introduced to the programme some fifteen months ago, I could not see any real need to entering all manner of odd information on my computer. Bit's of paper and the faithfull old Filofax seemed enough. Now after having used the program on a daily basis, my job could not run without it. Basically MM can be run as a TSR, when required you just hot-key it up. You then get a mostly clear screen, with just a few of the main commands shown at the top. If you have to remember a conversation with someone who phoned last month, and all you can remember was the fact that you talked about WIDGETS, then type 'CTRL F', MM asks you what to FIND, you type WIDGETS and pres return. MM very quickly hunts through it's database and displays any record that has WIDGETS shown in the text. If it finds three entries, then it says one of three found, and by using the plus and minus keys you can scroll through the three pages. Simplicity itself. To enter info you just type it as a letter, when finished you type 'CTRL S', MM prompts you for a reminder date of you want this page to flash up at a later date, if you don't want that option just type RETURN. Suppose you can't handle setting up a database, then in theory you could enter all your frequencies into MM. Remembering to put text by the side of each listing. Then if you ask it find 460.475 it will quickly display every page that has such a number. I recently bought INFO-SELECT, a package that copies the features of MM, it's biggest advantage is the phone dialler as in SIDEKICK PLUS. I tried it but have now gone back to MM. The broderbund search is more precise, and generally the package is less cluttered. If you sit infront of a computer all day, and speak on the phone or have a million and one bits of pertinent info flying around your head, and your secretary pastes the border of your vdu with POST-IT note tapes, then Memory Mate is for you. GATHERING DUST I have piles of software sat in boxes doing nothing. Why? well I guess if you find a set of packages that does what you want, then why change. My h/disk is only 40megs, I realise now that it's not really big enough for hoarding anything and everything for immediate if not infrequent access. But in reality, everything I run, including Ventura and all the extra fonts I have, only runs at about 26megs. OVERKILL I cannot really understand why large corporations push wordprocessor manufacturers to produce ever more complicated packages. We have a number of them at work. Trouble is, whenever our secretaries are typing letters, they need a few fonts, a few macros, a laserjet two driver, and just the basics you would get with any Wordstar cloned package. If the need for a more complicated letter arose, then we would simply transfer the ASCII text into Ventura and really make a show. So why the likes of Wordperfect 5.1? I remain confused. IF THE CAP FIT'S WEAR IT With so many software junkies around, and so many software houses happy to take us for an upgrade ride, I feel those of us without megga wallets should stand back and reconsider our position. If you have a set of packages that does everything you need, and most importantly you know how to use them, then why pay out good money just to start to learn a whole new set of rules? REGISTER IT Every package I have bought, has had the registration card filled in and returned. Being in the UK, some US houses don't recognise our purchases as valid. But some do, and I have always been able to get both technical help and free printer drivers etc without any problems. Symantic who wrote Q+A even have a free BB, where users can download all the latest drivers and fixes. Well that's as far as I can really take this subject, it is a case of horses for courses. In most applications the difference between a 286 and a 386 is just not really noticable. If you are using a really disk read/write intensive package, then a 286 with a superfast h/disk and caching will prove more useful than a korean 386 with a dog of a h/drive. CHEERS FOR NOW Nigel.