279 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
279 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
RAndY's RumOR RaG
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April 1994
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CHICAGO UPDATE
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I hear that Microsoft is having trouble deciding how to
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package Windows 4 as they prepare to release a new beta.
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Apparently they've floated trial balloons to see the desirability
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of several versions which require different system resources
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(versions which require more than the currently suggested 386 with
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4MB).
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Said one independent software vendor, "They're having
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difficulties fitting what they want into 4 megs and making their
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date, so their strategy is to have a mixture of components - here
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is a minimum set that will fit in four megs and here's an add-on if
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you want more."
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Microsoft denies that this is a strategy, saying that offering
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different versions of Chicago for different footprints is "not a
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packaging strategy that's under consideration."
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Most OEMs are skeptical that they can get Chicago in less than
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8 megs without leaving out some features.
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NEWS IN YER FACE
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Hewlett-Packard will release the LaserJet 4 Plus at less than
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$1,800. The new printer will increase printing speed from 8 ppm to
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12 ppm, be powered by an Intel i960 processor, and offer the PCL5
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language at 600 dpi.
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They're having trouble getting OLE 2.0 to work right. Testers
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report that their machines come to a "virtual halt" when trying to
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embed documents from one application to another. Says one
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consultant, "The bottom line is that you need at least a 486-50
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with 12 megs of RAM to get anything near acceptable."
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Intel is has unveiled plans to get into the game market. Look
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for some possible titles by the end of the year which will take
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advantage of higher-powered processors. Look for improved graphics
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and communications capabilities.
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Microsoft is scrambling to ship MS-DOS 6.21 which has
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DoubleSpace and backup compression removed. Delays are expected,
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but nothing serious.
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Aristo-Soft has a package called Talking Icons which includes
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a cheater's version of Minesweeper and Solitaire along with other
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talking Windows utilities.
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WinFax Pro Version 4 will test an installed modem for
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compatibility and capability. Attaching documents is as easy as
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dragging and dropping with cover sheets being able to use multiple
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fonts within a block of text. A spell checker is included. Right
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mouse button support is included as is a query-by-form feature for
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speeding up phone book searches. The dialog boxes have been
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redesigned for greater consistency.
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Intel bought billboard space across from Apple headquarters
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which suggests that Apple customers think before buying a computer
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using the PowerPC chip.
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Compaq will put Ethernet on their motherboards by using chip
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sets from AMD.
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Look for Microsoft to soon offer Foxpro 2.6 for $99 with a
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$19.95 upgrade for existing users. This new Foxpro will run dBase
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IV code.
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LIVE OR MEMOREX?
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Look for Memorex to jump into software in a large way
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beginning in April. The new titles will be sold through
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"nontraditional software accounts" such as drug stores and grocery
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stores. Prices will list from $9.99 to $14.99.
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Initially there will be 25 titles with as many as 100 by the
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end of the year. Titles will include things like self-help,
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personal productivity, edutainment, and games. The software is
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fully licensed, not shareware.
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Support will be provided through 900 number access with
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callers getting the first half-minute free and paying beyond that
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point.
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GOODBYE AMERICA ONLINE
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I need to let you know that I have cancelled my subscription
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on America Online.
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Back in the fall of 1991 I got a call from the guy who runs
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the PC section of America Online. He had seen the RaG and had
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gotten requests for it. He asked if it was alright to make the RaG
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an official part of America Online and I said that was fine. In
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return, I was to receive 10 free hours of usage per month with no
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monthly fee.
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A few months later I turned off my long distance service
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because the #$%&@&* modem was costing me too much money. America
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Online has no 800-number service and I was unable to call. After
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about a year, the complementary subscription was not renewed and
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repeated communication with my contact person failed to re-
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establish it.
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Meanwhile, I was getting charged $11.95 each month. Well, I
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got tired of being nicked $12 every month for something I was not
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using. I have therefore cancelled my subscription.
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I do not mean to criticize America Online, except that they
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still do not have 800-number access. I have no complaint with
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their graphical interface or with what is carried on the service.
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For $12 a month it is not a bad deal - certainly superior to Prah-
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duh-gee.
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In the disclaimer section at the end of this issue I have
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included the phone numbers for two local BBSs where you can obtain
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the current issue of the RaG if you wish to do it that way. I have
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had lots of requests from readers wanting to know where they can
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get current issues. For your information, the RaG is published the
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first weekend of each month.
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MORE NEWS IN YER FACE
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As you may have noticed, IBM has been fond of using Star Trek
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names for beta projects. For example, Ferengi was what is now
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known as OS/2 for Windows. Seems the folks at Paramount who own
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the rights to Star Trek feel that their legally protected names
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have been exploited.
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In other IBM news, there are two beta projects underway and
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industry analysts are unsure of what s going on. I've mentioned
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the development of OS/2 2.2, but there is another project code-
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named Warp which is a small operating system kernel that will run
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OS/2 reliably on a 4 meg PC. These appear to be separate
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developments and the question is - will these be separate upgrades?
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WordPerfect has a project, code-named Envoy, which will allow
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users to view and annotate documents even if they do not have the
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software that generated the files. Both Mac and Windows versions
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will be available. They have problems using the name Envoy since
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there is already a product with that name already, but it will get
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worked out.
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The recent ruling against Microsoft concerning data
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compression may have an effect on the upcoming Chicago. Some say
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that it will ship without DoubleSpace, but Steve Ballmer said,
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"There is and will be compression in Chicago, and [Chicago] will
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come out on time."
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Word is that Novell, WordPerfect, and National Semiconductor
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are negotiating a low-end bundled network solution. This bundle
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would include WordPerfect Office, Personal NetWare, and cards and
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hubs from National Semiconductor, and cables and easy-installation
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guidelines.
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The bundle is a month late due to hardware glitches (that
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means that the cards don't work).
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Have you heard about the internal Microsoft memo, allegedly
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penned by Bill Gates, which states that there will be no reason to
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buy an Apple once Chicago is released?
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Novell has pushed back the expected ship date for the release
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of NetWare 4.1 beyond the deadline for its special upgrade
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promotion. They had planned to release Version 4.1 by the summer,
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but will instead release a maintenance release of Version 4.01 in
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June which will include bug fixes and patches.
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Microsoft recently demonstrated that Chicago will work with
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NetWare, assuring resellers and others that past incompatibilities
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will not be repeated.
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Speaking of Microsoft, look for Access 2.0 to hit the shelves
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soon. It will support OLE custom controls which lets third party
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developers plug "applets" into Access applications. There will
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also be more than 30 Wizards, input masks to validate data as it is
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entered, support for cascading updates and deletes, customizable
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tables and queries, and Wizards for mail merge.
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Novell recently outlined a plan for a micro-kernel based
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operating system to be released in 1997.
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NEW PIRACY FRONTIER
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So you probably think that nobody is going to copy a CD, yet
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a company was recently busted for just such a practice.
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U.S. Customs officials recently seized move than $200,000
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worth of phony CD-ROMs as they arrived in San Francisco from Hong
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Kong. Among the counterfeited discs were six titles from The
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Software Toolworks including "The San Diego Zoo Presents The
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Animals".
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Apparently there were misspellings on the copied discs like
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"IBM PC & Compatibes" and "Sandiagozoo".
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Officials also found illegal merchandise in the Utah offices
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of C-88 International.
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THE BIG MERGER
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You've no doubt heard by now about the Novell-WordPerfect-
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Quattro Pro merger. Novell has merged with WordPerfect and the
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Quattro Pro division of Borland.
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To me, this makes excellent sense. The stock market thinks
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otherwise, however. Novell's stock went down when this was
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announced. But I'm sure Borland could use the $145 million their
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being paid for Quattro Pro.
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Look at it this way, you've got the Number One word processor,
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a spreadsheet that has kicked Lotus' butt since the beginning,
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combined with the top network system and an operating system. Can
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you see the killer applications suite here?
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Time will tell the tale. I think it's a good move for all
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involved.
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DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
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In past issues, I have spoken of Diamond products and even
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endorsed them. A situation has developed recently which requires
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that I qualify my remarks.
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Last summer I bought a Diamond Stealth Pro VLB when I upgraded
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to a local bus motherboard. The card performed well until about
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December. I started getting lines appearing on the screen and
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pieces of characters were missing.
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I talked to the people at Diamond Tech Support and we decided
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to try upgrading the card's BIOS. That didn't make a difference so
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they sent me a new card (after I returned mine). The new card
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worked as it should for about a week - at which point it started
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acting like the original card.
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After talking to Diamond Tech Support, it was determined that
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the card was too slow for my computer. You see, I have a 50MHz
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machine and the VESA spec only goes to 40MHz.
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In fairness, Diamond offered to upgrade me to a Viper (which
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is an excellent card) for a few extra dollars, but could not
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guarantee that it would not suffer the same fate as my original
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display card. I decided not to take the chance and asked for a
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refund. They sent me a fax that they did not offer refunds for
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their cards. They offered to repair or replace the card if it was
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defective, but that was it.
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So, I called my supplier from where the card had been
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purchased - but they could not even return the card for credit
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because it was outside of their 90-day warranty.
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I now have a display card which, to the best of my knowledge,
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is not defective but won't work on my computer. I did not know of
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the limitation in bus speed before I bought the card but it looks
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like I'm stuck with it.
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I normally do not try to sell stuff through this publication,
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but if any of you are interested in the Diamond Stealth Pro VLB,
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please contact me. As best as I can determine there is nothing
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wrong with the card - but you can't use it reliably on a machine
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faster than 40MHz. See my number and address in the disclaimer at
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the end of this issue.
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GETTING IT
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Some people have contacted me and asked where they can get the
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newest issue of the RaG. There are two local BBSs which will
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always have the current issue. Check out:
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COMM-1 at (206) 532-7952 (9600 baud)
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Hangar 18 at (206) 538-0382 (14.4)
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I also maintain an conference on Hangar 18 (#101) called "The
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Facts of Life", which is a forum for discussion of social and
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political issues from the conservative point of view. Locally I'm
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considered to be just to the left of Hitler - the Rush Limbaugh of
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computers.
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NEXT MONTH
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I hope to see the interim release for WordPerfect for Windows.
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It should be released any day now. I hope it fixes the problems -
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I'd hate to have to switch to Word.
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Other than that, I can't think of anything new coming down the
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pike so we'll just have to wait and see. Catch you later...
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=================================
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DISCLAIMER
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RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by AINSWORTH
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COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local BBS's, GEnie,
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and America Online as well as in Modem News.
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In case anyone cares, RAndY's RumOR RaG is produced on a 486-
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50 with 8 megs of memory,105 MB Toshiba IDE hard drive, Teac 1.2 MB
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and 1.44 MB floppies, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 running a Hitachi 3750
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CD ROM drive, Sceptre SVGA display, Microsoft mouse, WordPerfect
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for Windows and transmitted through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard
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modem.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. Comments should
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be addressed to Ainsworth Computer Services on GEnie, phone, analog
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mail, or whatever method makes you feel good.
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AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES
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605 W. Wishkah
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Aberdeen, WA 98520-6031
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(206) 533-6647
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GEnie Address: RAG |