SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP NEWSLETTER May, 1989 What's New Last month George Campbell started the early meeting with a demonstration of several shareware antivirus programs. Some of these programs look for suspicious activities such as formatting a disk or direct write to .EXE or .COM files (CHK4BOMB). Others like STR look for the typical "cute" words that pop up on your screen while your hard disk is being scrambled. CHECKUP looks for changes in the CRC of Command level files. Others, like Flu Shot Plus, write- protect selected programs or keep track of checksums. Several of these programs are scattered throughout our library. I will attempt to bring them together, along with the latest updates as one disk to be offered at the next meeting. After a short intermission, Scott Sedlik, Marketing Manager from Reference Software demonstrated two of their latest programs; Grammatik III and Reference File. Grammatik attempts to make English literates out of individuals like me by checking punctuation, content, grammar and several other misuses of the English language. Reference File is a RAM resident program that will pop up your favorite database for quick perusal of any and all information. Our gratitude to Mr. Sedlik for demonstrating two very interesting programs. Next month we are devoting both the early and general meetings to telecommunications. We do not have a phone jack in Fisher Hall 286. Therefore we will meet in the adjacent building, Science North, in room 215. The time will remain the same. The first hour George will guide us through the basics of setting up an external modem and configuring it to Qmodem 4.0 on a hard disk. We will then test it on our club bulletin board (if it's not busy) and some of the more distant BBS's available through Starlink. At 2:30 we will have our usual business meeting followed by the semi-annual swap meet. Bring all that closetware you recently purchased just to discover you really didn't want it anyway. Remember commercial software must include original disks and documentation. No pirated or hacked copies, please. We will conclude the meeting with the demonstration of Accu Weather, a program used by both radio and television stations for weather forecasting. Earl Gustafson, SLO BYTES member, will be our weather forecaster for the day. We will see an up-to-date weather summary within a 200 mile radius of any point of our choice in the continental United States. In a few short minutes we will download files via modem showing our weather map as text or graphics. This program is available for both the professional and amateur meteorologist. Connect time is $.18 to $.38 per minute depending on time of day with a monthly minimum of $10.00. Treasurer's Report The software fixes are available from Micropro at: Version 5.0 (800-828-2858) Balance in SLO BYTE's account on May 8, 1989 as reproted by Teri Sorgatz, Treasurer: Beginning Balance: $1425.25 Expenses for April: $ 165.90 Income for April: $ 400.30 ======== Balance: $1659.65 NEW MEMBERS Welcome to the following individuals who have joined our membership ranks during April, 1989 Robert Boyd 543-4335 Bill & Betty Henson 541-1986 Gregory Johnson 544-3123 Claryce Knupper 544-6671 John Rogers 544-3018 MEMBERSHIP EXPIRED Oops! Have you forgot something? The following will be dropped from the membership rolls if renewal is not received by July 1, 1989 Tom Cantwell Daniel Senst Gus Thomasson Alan Tognazzini Cleone Van Westen NEWS FROM OUR LIBRARY Here's a list of new programs added to our library for the month of May. New disks may be purchased for $.90 each, or you may copy them during the meeting in our library room, Fisher Hall 292. #325 Virus Detection Disk - This disk contains programs that detect possible virus contamination of your computer files. #326 The States - Learn all about the United States, from demography to states' wild flower. Lots of statistics. Good search routine. Disk 1 of 2. #327 The States - Disk 2 of 2. May need CGA to run although documentation calls for ANSI.SYS only. #328 Physics Tutor - If your'e into Physics, this one is for you. Everything from Vector Analysis to AC circuits. Will give calculations without CGA, but needs color for accompanying graphics. #329 Pro~Scribe - Improve your writing capabilities with this program. Similar to GRAMMATIK but not as thorough. #330 Mixed Bag! - Errorcode List. If you see a 1701 error code on your computer screen, now you'll know what it means. ARTCON - convert pics between PrintMaster, PrintShop, and First Publisher. SD - similar to PCTools, good interface. FASTFOOD - now you can see what you are really eating from Fast Food restaurants. UPDATES: #236 Galaxy Wordprocessor V 2.42 - Great wordprocessor with spelling checker. Simple to learn. Edits files greater than 64K. Demo disks: #069 A&B - Buick Road Test 1989 (update) #116 - DecisionPad by Apian Software #117 - Grammatik III by Reference Software #118 - Oracle by Oracle Corporation Should I label my disk(ette)? By: Greg Smith Westchester PC News, October, 1988 Reprinted from Connecticut PC Users' Group, November, 1988 DOS allows you to put an eleven-character alphanumeric Volume Label on your disks (floppy or hard). The primary advantage of the Volume Label is in organizing your collection of floppy diskettes. Used in conjunction with diskette cataloging programs, the Volume Label lets those programs "see which disk is in the current drive and thereby distinguish it from others in your collection. Even if you don't use a cataloging program, it's often useful to use Volume Labels as a shorthand means of describing what is on a diskette. While paper labels often suffice, sometimes they become a jumble of words that make little sense. A Volume Label like BUDGET88 is self-explanatory. The Volume Label is like an electronic version of the paper label you put on your diskettes. You might also think of it as being like the numbers on the spine of each volume in an encyclopedia set. How would you keep all those volumes in order without the volume labels? If you only had one volume (like your hard disk), it would be easy. But if you use diskettes to store information as most of of us do, consider giving each one a unique Volume Label. The Volume Label can be as simple as 001, 002, etc. If you use the Volume Label feature, be sure to also put the same Volume Label on the paper label affixed to the diskette itself. That way, both you and DOS (and your cataloging system) will be sharing the same identifier. Putting a Volume Label on a disk is easy. All versions of DOS beginning with 3.0 have a LABEL command with allows you to add or change the Volume Label even if there are files on the disk. In addition, all versions of DOS allow putting the Volume Label on when you format a diskette, but only when you use the /V option. See your DOS manual under the headings LABEL or FORMAT for more details. As always, be cautious with the FORMAT command. Don't use it until you're sure of what you are doing. It will erase (forever) all the files and any pre-existing Volume Label on a disk(ette)! Disk cataloging systems provide their own means of putting a Volume Label on your diskettes. And for users of DOS earlier than 3.0, a public domain program called LABEL_ARC does what its DOS counterpart does. Labeling, like file naming, is an art. You get better at it with practice. Study other examples. If you just want to see, but not change the Volume Label on a disk(ette), use the DOS internal command VOL [d:] where [d: is an optional drive parameter. For example, VOL A: will report the Volume Label for that drive. Using VOL without specifying the drive checks the Volume Label of the default drive. PC TOOLS VERSION 5.0 (LATEST FIX) When using PC-Backup and 1.44MB drives, I ran into a problem. At the end of the backup, PC-Backup writes directory information on the 1.44. My system hung up, ie: reboot time. PC-Backup wants to see Buffers set at 5 (minimum I found that will work). My buffers were set to 4!! With MS-DOS 3.3, each additional buffer occupies 1024 bytes. For some reason, PC-Backup does not use PC-Cache. Door Prize Winners George Tway - Reference File Eric Schug - Grammatik III Paul Bolstad - Grammatik III WORDSTAR 5.0 UPDATES WordStar Update Micropro has released inline updates numbers 091-093 for anomalies in the original release of 5.0. The fixes include problems in WS.EXE, WSMSGS.OVR, WSHELP.OVR, DRIVERN.OVR, DRIVERT.OVR and PRINT.TST. Problem areas have been identified as: 1- Printer Support 2- Divide Overflow 3- Default Printer 4- Additional HP Support 5- EGA Monitor Fixes 6- Page Preview Modifications 7- PDF Pathing Anomalies Have Been Fixed 8- Windowing/PDF Has Also Been Fixed If you would like a hard copy of the fixes or to check your version numbers, contact Mark Heyman at 528-1146. Grammatik III By Bob Ward STOP THE PRESS!!! Check your spelling. Check grammatical errors. Check those parts of speech. Any dangling participles? What about typographical errors? English appears to be the language with more exceptions to the rules than rules themselves. For a newsletter Editor, and person who sees English as a stumbling block instead of a tool for communications, I have found a solution to some of my language problems; GRAMMATIK III. I always start a software evaluation by loading the program on my hard disk and running it without opening the manual. Some programs faire better than others using this approach. Obviously dBASE or WordPerfect wouldn't hold up under this test but other programs like Grammatik come through with flying colors. Yes, Grammatik is very intuitive and easy to learn. HELPFUL MENUS Grammatik has an abundant number of help screens. HELP is context sensitive, therefore no matter where you are in this program, F1 explains in simple English what specific writing problem Grammatik is addressing. Across the top and always two keystrokes away pulldown windows abound. They come under the headings: File, Checking, Options, Phrases, and Utilities. FILE MENU The File pulldown window sets both the input and output file names. By using wildcards a user can set the directory to display only files ending with specific extensions thus avoiding all the clutter of non text files. Simply cursor down through the files with the arrow key and highlight bar and hit Enter for your selection. CHECKING MENU From the Checking window select from several options. You may choose to do a full check of the document with editing capabilities, a mark only check which inserts comments at suspected problem areas and rewrites the document to another filename, or read only check which places the above on the screen but without editing capabilities. A last choice shows the document statistics, a feature that I will detail later. OPTIONS MENU Because there are so many options one of the first choices is to show only those most commonly used options or all options. Chose the latter and you increase your flexibility by almost a factor of 4. To mention a few, the user has a choice of the following: 1. Check "leading punctuation, 2. Count headers in analysis, 3. Print errors on printer, 4. Use robust spelling algorithm, and 5. Show summary at end. The list is more detailed but does not lend itself to this review. PHRASES MENU The standard phrase dictionary is composed of 4 sub-dictionaries, including standard phrases, strict phrases, business phrases and gender specific phrases. All are user selective. Or if you choose, create up to 4 different user-phrase sub-dictionaries of your own. As an example, under Standard Phrase Types, there are 41 types from Capitalization problems to Preposition Usage. You can choose 1 to all 41 types. UTILITIES MENU The utilities menu has some unique and powerful applications. Like most writers who are constantly striving for a better command of the English language I tend to have my "favorite" words which may be used too often in a single article. So Grammatik lets you list all the words of an article either alphabetically, by most frequently used first, or least frequently used first. This tends to be a real eye-opener for me. From the Utilities Menu, you can choose to edit existing phrases or add new phrases to Grammatik's checker. You may also select the wordprocessor within which you create text files. Grammatik will even files modified by Ventura Publisher. USING GRAMMATIK Perhaps the easiest part of Grammatik III is in it's use. Call up the program with GMK3 followed by the filename you wish to check. Grammatik loads the dictionaries and immediately highlights the first possible problem. Successive problems are shown by pressing the F10 key. If you choose to follow Grammatik's suggestion just type in the correction while in Grammatik. After the document is proofed, Grammatik gives you a large list of statistics about your document, including a readability quotient. SUMMARY After thoroughly testing Grammatik III I have found it to be a very useful program. Although it can't make a literary genius out of most of us it does point to many of the mistakes we make in writing. I find myself consciously avoiding some of the problems which Grammatik pointed out during my initial testing. My only complaint would be the time it takes to load the dictionaries before use. The first time I tried it on a 4.77 MHz PC I thought the program bombed as it took 27 seconds. On my 8 MHz AT it took 9 seconds. Reference Software is promising a new RAM resident version soon. It was scheduled for release a couple months ago. They felt the 200K memory requirement for their beta version was too much, and are at presently revising the program to use less than 100K of memory. Reference Software genuinely believes in their product as witnessed in their guarantee. "If Grammatik III fails to improve your writing, return it to your dealer within 30 days of purchase for a refund of the purchase price." GRAMMATIK III $99.00 Reference Software 330 Townsend Street, Suite 123 San Francisco, CA. 94107 (415)541-0222 PC MAGAZINE DISCOUNT Ziff Davis, publishers of PC-Magazine and PC-Computing, are making it easier for members of user groups to renew their magazines. Just call (800)777-2547 to subscribe to or renew either of these magazines. If you are renewing, have your mailing label handy as they will need information printed on it. PC-Magazine is $24.97 for 1 year and PC Computing is $14.97. These prices are $4 to $5 less than the regular subscription rates. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for your subscripton to take effect. So if you are still waiting for your magazines to arrive, be patient, it's probably on the way. A: Copy README.* LPT1 by Pat Farley SLO Byte's PC User's Group As the town's newest grandfather, Carl Bask should have been running around telling everyone everything his little grandson said. But not Carl. "With all those computerized tests the hospital ran on my daughter," he said, "it was no surprise her baby's first words were 'ega', 'gi-go', and 'threeightysix'." As a supervisor for a national research and development company, Jerry Compton is faced with new and unique problems every day. Just last week he had to let one of his senior programmers go. Tell me, how could someone get a computer in trouble? Paul Trillman's proud of his son's interest in computers. Ted sits for hours, watching in earnest as Paul enters large numbers into his new "Home Banking" terminal. But Paul's pride took a nose dive yesterday when Ted announced, "That new game of yours is a pushover, Dad. I just pressed a few keys and boosted your total winnings from $4,375.35 to $1,450,587.98." Sue Quillin, home for the weekend from her work at the U.N., told us about a new computer that could translate spoken English into spoken Russian, and vice versa. Once installed, an American delegate volunteered the phrase "Out of sight, out of mind." The computer went to work and produced perfect Russian speech. When a Russian delegate spoke the words back to the computer, it worked a little longer and said, "Invisible Lunatic." Needless to say the computer went back to the shop for further testing. Don't panic! Tips on troubleshooting By: Mr. Glitch-Wrench, Picture City PC Reprinted from Big Blue & Cousins, July 1988 Murphy's law says your computer will act up when you need it most. The objective is to get it fixed as soon as possible. Here are some steps so you can enjoy troubleshooting your computer, your printer, you car, etc. CALM DOWN Yelling at the computer won't work. The PC only speaks computerese. And don't hit your computer. That's not what we call being user-friendly. ASSESS YOUR SITUATION Rethink the procedure. Did you miss any steps? Rethink the problem. Is there another way to complete the project? Rethink your decision to use a computer on this project in the first place. CHECK THE OBVIOUS Is there power in the outlet? Are printer paper, ribbon and cables properly in place? If you're using a new disk, is it formatted? If using a working copy of the software, did you copy all of the files that are needed by the program? READ THE DOCUMENTATION One third of all calls for technical support involve problems that are explained in the users manual. Better yet, don't wait until you have a problem or do something wrong to read the directions BOOT THE SYSTEM With the on/off switch, not your foot. Electronic equipment will flake out, on occasion, due to cosmic rays, magnetic fields or witchcraft. These problems always disappear when you turn off the power. Only rarely do they reappear when the power is turned back on. But beware, unsaved data will be lost when you shut off the power. Note that CTRL-ALT-DEL will not reset all problems that might occur. You'd better turn the power off instead. Always pause for ten seconds before turning poser back on to let the electrons drain out completely. ANALYZE THE PROBLEM Has this problem occurred before? When was the last time the software or hardware worked properly? Has anything been added or moved since then? Has the problem grown worse progressively? Can you reconstruct the events that preceded the problem? Can you make the problem repeat itself? Well, don't do that again, silly. LOOK FOR CLUES Record error codes or messages that appear on the screen. Does the red light on the disk drive go on when the program is supposed to be reading the disk? Do you hear any strange sounds coming from the hardware? Do you see any smoke coming from the hardware? ISOLATE THE PROBLEM Do you have the same problem when using other files and the same program, or other programs and the same hardware? Redo the procedure using the other disk drive. Have someone else run it on his computer. PREPARE WHEN CALLING FOR HELP If possible, jot down the model number of the hardware and version number of the software involved. Run the program while you are on the phone. EXPLAIN YOUR PROBLEM CLEARLY What are you trying to do, what is the hardware doing, what is the software supposed to be doing that it is not doing and what is it doing that it should not be doing, what are you doing that you shouldn't be doing, what is all this doing to your mental health and what are you doing about it? PROTECT YOURSELF AHEAD OF TIME Back up your hard disk and important diskettes. This way you can use your data on someone else's computer if your XT is out of service or if you accidentally damage or erase your disk.