Much of the info in the following sections is now out-of-date,
but I don't have time to update it.
The cat was right, and in December, 1997 I upgraded to
a 233mhz Pentium, with 32mg RAM, 2.5gig and 635mgb hard drives, 8X CDrom
drive, 1.44 floppy and Zip Insider (still not used, because it did not
come with instructions, and it has to be hooked up as the MASTER, not slave--Iomega
put installation instructions on its website, so one of these days I'll
open the machine and re-wire it)--actually, the Insider had a conflict
with my bios, which was resolved only with a new mother board. Gravis Plug'n'
Play sound card (wouldn't you know, as soon as I began to use it, Gravis
went out of the sound card business); 28.8 external modem (still fast enough
for my purposes, famous last words), generic video card running a
17" Sony 200ES high resolution monitor. The
new monitor (I'd been using a 14" black and white) has opened up a whole
new world of color, and as my eyes have gotten older, I find that reading
everything is much easier because of the additional screen space; the high
resolution is a major improvement. Almost $700 well-spent!!!
2/15/02 The Sony monitor gave out today. Up to Best Buy, found an array of flat LED monitors; assholes were running what was basically a movie which in no way enabled me to see the resolution; they did have one attached to a computer running a program, but it wasn't really clear and sharp. Hopped down to Comp USA, where they had 2 arrays of flat screens, ca half a dozen brands; one bank had a "movie"; the other a program. Only one brand was sharp, ENVISION EN5100e, but didn't have 17". I decided to try it, figuring I could use it with my laptop when I take the latter on gigs to use with chords and lyrics. Well, this is a 15" (diagonal, real viewing size) but is so large, bight and clear that I don't need the 17", which costs nigh $800; this one cost $380.00. Only weighs ca. 10lbs, and releases a cubic foot of desk space.
Take the lap top on gigs? Well, put this screen on a music stand, use it to view music. I do have my fake books in the computer, and have created "TuneBase" which has the lyrics and chords (right now, only Dixieland Fake Book and Treasures of the 20s-30s-40s-Dixieland, but will have all the fake books in the near future.) (Eventually the fake books will be on CD-Rom...)
1999--Had my machine upgraded when my mother board burned out. Now I have a 40x CD-rom drive, the ZIP Insider is working, a Soundblaster sound card that works with new apps.
I still haven't hooked up my HP ScanJet4C scanner--need to find space in my Collier Brothers office...later: I gave the scanner to my pitfrau, who needed it for her business, and had some space available. I'm going to get a multi-function one of these days, though I don't know when since my HP Laserjet 4L (the first affordable laser printer) is still going strong and Office Depot carries the cartridges...
Touch Pad pointer
I'm using a $60 Cirque "GlidePoint" touch-pad pointer
("Smart Cat" model GDB410) instead of a mouse or trackball, and love it.
I find it a lot easier to use than mouse or trackball; the physical demands
of holding and guiding the mouse are gone--you just move a finger or hand
on the little 2x3" screen. Takes up less space on the desk. Forget the
one in the middle your laptop for more than casual use--just plug a "Smart
Cat" in. Got a good laugh from one of my computerist friends--cat sat down
to my machine to install a piece of software and started moving the touch-pad
around the desk...boy did he get red in the face, cursing to the skies
because the pointer wouldn't move, before I stopped him. Took me a while
to stop laughing and get up off the floor...
I have proposed a new touch pad design
to Cirque, though they haven't responded at all. Basically, it has a base
shaped like and large enough to fit one's hand spread flat, thumb extended.
The pad is angled up a bit. The large left click button is on the thumb,
right click button is in pinky position; or perhaps is a smaller button
next to the left click. The hand rests on the wrist, middle finger is over
the pad. To move the pointer, one merely swivels the hand, thus moving
the middle finger, which touches the pad. To drag, one holds the thumb
down on the left click button, moving the middle finger. This design drastically
reduces the hand tension when doing intensive work such as putting and
moving individual notes on music scores.
2002--I'm not finding Cirque touch pads in stores such as Best Buy (where I got mine), CompUSA, Circuit City. However, they have a new website on which you can order their products: http://www.cirque.com
The Software
I'm now under Windows95, 32 bit system. In 1997 Microsoft
rewrote Win95, and drastically improved it. My technician replaced my 1995
version with 1997 version. I like to have all my programs at my fingertips,
so I went shopping for the 1997 version. After being unable to find it
at several stores, the 7th or 8th store told me that the new version is
available only for new computers, and is not available in stores--@$#%!&!
Microsoft marketing--I guess they wanted to force folks to get Win98!!
The file manager (Explorer) is so improved that I did
not bother to overlay it with Norton Navigator, as I had with the 1995
version. I had been using the PC Tools file manager over Win3.11, and when
Symantec bought out Central Point Software, Norton navigator incorporated
PC tools into Navigator, which I used on top of Win95. The advantage was
that all file manager functions were available on one screen--including
ZIP, unzip.
The new Explorer has everything available, using the
right "mouse" button. I added Quik View Plus and WinZip, and on installation,
they incorporate themselves onto the right button menu, so all my functions
are instantly available.
QuikView Plus is a file viewer that shows files in their native format--html documents, images, databases, spreadsheets, texts. Not perfect, for a variety of reasons, but very useful, and I highly recommend it. Having seen a very favorable review, I went out to buy it (it's that good), and found it included in the Corel WordPerfect Suite, so I saved myself some bucks. I upgraded in 2000, and like it better.
WinZip is clunky compared to Norton Navigator's zip functions, and one has to learn a few tricks, but basically it does what I need at this point in time, and it's terrifically fast. It's shareware that I downloaded, so maybe the registered version is better.
I've used Norton Utilities since the beginning; PC Tools
had a complete set of utilities, but for most of the time, they weren't
quite as sophisticated. By PC Tools for Windows, ver. 2, the two sets were
about equal in quality; I found that each could do some things better than
the other.
When Symantec bought Central Point, we lost the competition.
I now have NU for Windows 95, ver. 3. One thing I hate about NU is that
it is almost constantly busy doing something to guard my files and system,
and I'll be typing along and without warning, NU will start up and no letters
will type, or I'll be copying/pasting or whatever, and click something
else because the system saves your key strokes, and I end up having to
undo mistakes. How about a box that says "NU wants to [...] in 15 seconds.
Can we do it, or should we wait 5 minutes?" (As I was writing the paragraph
on PIM, NU interrupted my typing about a dozen times, after which I stopped
counting!!) My other major complaints are that AntiFreeze does not
stop all screen freezes, and all the busy busy slows down the whole computer--This
is very noticeable; I mailordered NU Win95 ver. 3 after the changeover,
and I revelled in the speed of the new system. After installing NU, I was
basically back to 486 speed for most functions. So I disabled everything
but the disk monitor and anti-freeze, and am back up to speed...Except
that during a gltchfest, Window95's file/directory fixit utilities, that
load when I reboot after a freeze-up or crash, replaced NU's as the defult,
and they are painfully slow; NU's are much faster.
I have explored Quicken and Quickbooks. Quickbooks is perhaps simple to use, BUT it sends data all over the program, and it's virtually impossible to trace an individual piece of data; after all, it is a real accounting program, double entry and all that, whereas all I need is transactions in several types of accounts, transaction reports, and calculating totals. Quicken is not in .dbf format (I'm never again going to have my financial or other vital data in any proprietary format), and the memo fields are way too small. MYM11 had a simple wordprocessor built in, so not only could one type documents, but the transaction memo fields were in effect word processing documents, and I used this feature in many ways. MymWin reached ver. 2, then MECA stopped selling and supporting MYM except to banks, for on-line banking. So I created financial databases in APPROACH, which gives me what I need, though my system could use some refining...
I used TAXCUT for my taxes, and it got better each year. However, they refused to give me a rebate for the 1999 version, so in 2000 I switched to TurboTax; I like it and it and the DC Tax program work ok. Turbotax has a 1099misc module that works great; prints out the current form so I don't have to use a wordprocessing template.
I bought TurboTax again, but it requires
the use of MS Internet Explorer ver. 5.5. In fact, when I installed TT,
it automatically installed Internet Explorer on my drive without asking
me if I wanted it. This in and of itself is inexcusable, but IE occupies
80mgb, and I was low on space at the time! Ostensibly they did it
to automate updating the files, forms and IRS instructions, but I fail
to see why they couldn't give me the option of using Netscape manually.
IE also included "services" which included a new module to dial into my
internet provider, and it took over, and I had to learn how to use it without
conflicting with my existing dialer; again, without a by-your-leave or
warning. Admittedly it seems to work just fine, so I may ditch Netscape
6, which takes so long to load.
Other programs
My music composition program
is ENCORE 4.2.1. This version is totally Win95, 32 bit, and
I like it better the more I use it. I spent 16 months inputting my band
book into ver. 4.02, switched to 4.2, revised and saved everything into
4.2, then found that it is not backward compatable. Some of my colleagues
and trading partners have 486s, 16 bit systems, so they can't use the new
version, hence cannot work with my files...That really stinks, means I'm
stuck doing some of the work they wanted to do...
ENCORE was created by Passport Design, which abandoned it, sold it to G-Vox, which has now released ver. 4.5. It opens 4.2.1 files just fine. Encore was so important that Finale2000 and Finale's cheaper spread, Allegro2000, were modified to import ENCORE files (.enc). I have Allegro2000, and found that although the notes are imported ok, the chord symbols need to be moved above the staves, and some of the other symbols are not imported--I think mostly the ones that are programmed in ENCORE, and lines of text. Encore is much easier to use "out of the box" than Allegro.
One of the great programs for musicians is Band-in-a-Box,
now in it's 12th version. For more info, visit its manufacturer at:
http://www.pgmusic.com
Many music composition programs will save files as midi files (.mid) BIAB will import .mid files. One types in the chords, selects one of many music style files, and the program will play the tune; you can change the tempo and key. Very useful for play-along practicing, and vocalists can use it to determine the right key for them. One can find hundreds of BIAB song files on the Internet.
Delorme's Street Atlas USA seems to be the best map program--I've tried 4-5 others. I'm using ver. 2004. The info below is out-of-date, but I don't have time to get into details or explore new features.
1. Printing: There is a huge difference between the map
one sees and the print version. It has a print preview, but that seems
to be unrelated to the map on the main view; there's a lot of futzing to
do, and even then the printout differs substantially from what one thought
one was going to get. The preview is way too small...2. Their definition
of "places" doesn't include sites that have no addresses. We often get
calls for picnic grounds and the like, eg Del Mar Park, MD, but who the
heck knows what the zip code is, or what town or country it's in? This
is a significant facility that has weddings, big band concerts, etc.
Not to be totally negative, there's a utility that downloads
selected regions to the hard drive so they'll load much more quickly. One
can draw a route out and find out the mileage between points, and save
that route so it prints out. These are very handy features...
NEW DEAL. I wrote my first 2 chordbooks with GEOWORKS ENSEMBLE. This is another piece of classic "legacy" software, a tightly written GUI DOS program. I kept it around because I have 2 complete book manuscripts and 3 partial manuscripts in it. Unfortunately, its documents are in a proprietary format, which in practical terms means the word processing documents can't be imported into other programs with formatting retained, can't even be viewed by Quik View Plus except in computerese; I can locate the text, copy/paste to WordPerfect, but I lose most of the formatting; unfortunately, all 1500 documents are highly formatted. The good news is that although Ensemble didn't work with Windows 95, a company bought the program, renamed it NEW DEAL, and sells it to Ensemble users for $50.00; they've tinkered with it a bit so that it works just fine under Win95! So I'm able to function. They've upgraded NEW DEAL so that it has a Win95-like GUI interface. Works great!
By the way, recent website design has become gadget intensive, with all sorts of complications like Flash, etc., more often than not, at least for the sites I use, a waste of time and computer resources, because most of the advanced stuff is decorative, and not really related to information. I was forced to install Netscape 6, which handles the new stuff, but has taken away the option to not show graphics, so I'm forced to wait for the sites to load all the crap to get the info on fancy sites. I also am getting sick and freakin' tired of various intense demands by websites to load my hard drive up with cookies. I have Netscape 4 set to reject cookies, so to seven see whether a dealor has something I might want, I may have to cancel as many as 7or 8 cookie requests per page.
Furniture
I bought a couple those veneer-chipboard 2-drawer filing cabinets and put a formica kitchen counter top on them. In back, I put 2 5-shelf bookcases. Printer is on a waiter's stand.
Chair As a musician, I have often sat on hotel banquet stack chairs, when playing banjo or during break. On a hunch I bought a used one, and have for several years found that I can stay at the computer a lot longer at one sitting than with any other kind of chair I've used, including a moderately priced cushioned, comfy, wheeled, office arm chair. The stack chair is lightly cushioned, the straight, slightly angled back that reaches just under my shoulders provides full back and butt support. I have a stool under the desk so that I can sit with my legs stretched straight out, or put 'em on the floor. This is infinitely better than slouching, and I don't get back aches. Get up periodically, go up and down the stairs. My dining room table chairs are high, straight-backed, basically uncomfortable, except that if I put the chair sideways, lean, slouched, against the edge of the table, with my arm over the the back of the chair, I stretch my upper body;
Tomorrow in Nerdvana!!!
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The Old Computer--has some details on Programs
not repeated above.
I now have 16mgb RAM, 8X CD ROM, 520mgb and 635mgb hard drives, 1.44 and 5.25 floppies, 28.8 external modem, Iomega ZIPdrive that I can't get to work, and a Samtron black and white monitor, powered by a Speedstar 64 video board; I prefer the b&w monitor over color, because everything on a crowded screen is clear and shows up in 16 shades of gray. My eyes aren't great, so in order to do a significant upgrade, I'll have to get a 17" very high resolution color monitor. At this time, the latter would be expensive and occupy too much space on my Augean desk...
I am using an HPLaserJet 4L printer, and have an HP ScanJet 4C which I have not yet set up and used.
I have a Gravis sound card that I have not yet begun to use.
I had Windows95 installed on my new 635 mbg harddrive, which is E, mainly as an experiment, intending to use a dual-boot system. Turns out that Win95 takes over the whole machine, which screwed up printing, execpt when printing from the DOS programs, or from Win95; the ZIPdrive problem stymied the Iomega help person. However, the programs I use (including my two key DOS programs), run well under Win95, and actually are faster, plus I can have them running minimized at the same time, along with Win311 and Win95 programs. I now have Norton Navigator installed over Win 95, for the same reason I used PCTools: far superior file manager. In fact, when Symantec acquired Central Point, they took the PC Tools file manager and put it in Norton Navigator, along with a few improvements.
I do not use faxes very often, so I was pleased to find that the Win95 fax program works well. I only have one telephone line, so I need to use it manually, and for some reason not everyone can send faxes to it, so I still have to use the fax machine occasionally. But it's great to store faxes on disk, and printing them yields a lot better copy than the fax machine.
My programs include
DOS: Enable ver. 4.5, a truly classic integrated program that has full-featured database, word processing and spreadsheed modules. The Software Group gave a lot of thought to this program at virtually every step of the way. One can have up to 8 windows running at a time and do considerable copying between them and the various modules. It includes a menu builder, and I created an extensive system that covered many aspects of my daily business operations. It has an extensive scripting ("procedural") language. For years, as I read PC Magazine, PC Computing and other magazines, I found that TSG had included most functions in Enable. Unfortunately, there was never any significant practical guide to the procedural language, and for all the books I bought, the syntax remained opaque, and it just took too damned long to create even small programs that would actually function--there was always some bloody little detail not taught in the books. Then came wysiwyg in the GUI programs, and as I needed to do more promotional literature, design business cards and stationery, I did less and less in the Enable word processor. Never did get around to doing much with the Spreadsheet, because I was using:
Managing Your Money, (as of now I'm in ver. 11), for all my accounting. It still meets all my accounting needs, so I use it to provide the information I dump into Taxcut. However, I am searching, searching for a way to integrate my job, address, client, vendor, and site databases rather than using a bunch of separate programs, which is inconvenient when I want to look something up; I want to automate everything.
Geoworks Ensemble Pro (which I have not tried to run under Win95), was one of the first major GUI programs for the masses. It had word processing, graphics, and eventually small database and spreadsheet modules. I wrote and typeset my two chordbooks with it, and learned about wysiwyg, fonts, etc. Now I use Corel Wordperfect 7 for Win95, and really like some of its convenience features, which make my life easier. I keep Ensemble around because I have more chordbooks in the works, and why fix something that ain't broke. Ensemble is a classic, not only for its own merits, but because it prepared the common man for Windows 3.1, as did PCTools for Dos: they used the Windows formats and as many features as they could, which meant that one could get into Windows 3.1 a lot faster, with less pain because you already knew the mouse strokes, menu and desktop patterns.
Win311: Encore ver. 4.04, a music composition and MIDI program.
Win95: Corel Wordperfect Suite ver. 7, Alpha5 ver. 2,
Netscape Gold ver. 3 16bit (which I'm using for eMail, having switched
from Eudora 1.5.4), and am experimenting with Lotus Smartsuite and Quickbooks
Pro.
Revised 3/10/04