BlueNotes ^CIBM PRINTER BLUES I was first rather excited then very disappointed about the Certificate Creator program. The program looked promising till I got to setting the printer drivers. There are only five drivers available and three of them are laser printers! Now, come on! How many homes have laser printers--60%? The other two choices are Epson. Well I have a Tandy DMP 134 with IBM ProPrinter II emulation, and as you can clearly see (Editor's note: the letter has two hard copies of certificates with improper linefeed spacing), Epson control codes don't do well. Tandy is the nation's leading PC retailer and we sell a fair number of printers to boot. All the Tandy printers today have IBM emulation and only some have Epson. How can you in good conscience deliver a program to your subscribers with these printer drivers? Who is asleep at the wheel? Please offer some advice as to how this program can be made useful to us non-Epson folks. We would appreciate your help. ^REd Champa ^RIndianapolis, IL Dear Mr. Champa, We did test it on our IBM compatible printers with Certificate Creator set to Epson MX and it worked like a charm. Our tests included a Panasonic KX-P1124, Citizen 200GX, Star NX-1000II, Star NX-1020 Rainbow, Seikosha MP-1300AI and a Mannesman Tally 910 Laser printer all set to IBM ProPrinter. They all functioned fine. We will continue to research this problem until we have an answer. I will be driving down to the local Radio Shack and BusinessLand to test Certificate Creator on the Tandy and (real, honest-to-God) IBM ProPrinter printer lines. Once we have the problem solved we'll remaster the disks and announce it on ODM. Until then I can only leave you with--we're doing our best to find the solution. ^CIT'S A SMALL WORLD I finally decided to write and tell you what happened to me this past winter. On Dec. 27, 1990 my Army Reserve Unit was activated for duty in the Persian Gulf. I belong to the 113th Evacuation Hospital and we were sent to an Emirate hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Being a pharmacist, I worked with the current pharmacy staff. I met a pharmacist from Scotland who was working under an employment contract for the U.A.E.. During conversations with him I told him about my subscription to [On Disk Monthly] and he said that he also has a subscription and he enjoyed receiving them regularly. It is a small world when you can travel 10,000 miles from home and find an [ODM] subscriber and be able to relate to him. We were fortunate that the war was short, we received no casualties there and were able to return home quickly. I love your programs and use parts of them regularly. Keep up the good work. ^RJohn L. Jacobsen, Col, USAR (Ret) ^RBismark, ND ^CTHE COST OF COMPUTING After a few years of subscribing to ON DISK MONTHLY, I finally feel compelled to send in a report card and offer a few comments. Issue #59 scared me a bit with its "new approach". The technology and industry is definitely changing and we all must be aware of the fact. Convenient cobwebs must be cleared away and new things must be addressed. But, does it all have to be done at the expense of the average guy who can't afford high-priced coprocessors and rich software upgrades? Nearly all the contents of issue #59 called for DOS 3.0 or higher, not DOS 2 as before. And then there was the question about replacing Print Shop images with unknown (to me) clipart. I am not an expert graphic artist and am wary of the thought of doing away with my beloved Print Shop! On Disk Monthly is a great magazine on disk for the many novices like myself. If more complex, time-consuming, and expensive computing is desired, there are a multitude of PC magazines to be had on the local magazine rack. Yes, we all must grow, including us part time computer users--but give us time and enjoyment in learning! ^RDavid A. Savage ^RMont Clare, PA Dear Mr. Savage, Thanks for taking the time to write with your concerns. I would like to address them one at a time. DOS 2.1: You may not realize it, but MS DOS 2.1 is over 5 years old. MicroSoft has made some major advances in DOS over the years and we want to be able to take advantage of the new features. There is a chance that the programs on our disk will work with DOS 2.1--but no guarantees. The programs that will most likely not work are the utilities. DOS 3.3 actually gave the programmers a way to interface with DOS where 2.1 needed crazy hacks into the system files to get anything to work. If you really want to be safe (not only with our software, but all the great new utility software being developed today) I suggest you drop by your local software store and get MS DOS 5.0. It only costs 59.00 (average discounted price) and will give you more memory, greater speed of DOS operations, help for all DOS commands, and most important, definite compatibility with all of tomorrow's software. Print Shop: We have found middle ground on this issue. We will provide .PCX (PCX is a standard PC graphic file format used by all good graphic editors) clipart and software that allows the user to turn the individual clips into either New or Old Print Shop images. This way we have the best of both worlds. You don't have to worry about us forgetting the "little" people. The fact is that we don't consider anyone "little" and strive to provide something for everyone. You state that you like to use your computing time to enjoy and learn. Well our goal is to entertain and teach, but one of the lessons of computers is that upgrades, especially DOS upgrades, are a necessary evil. ^CTHE STATE FARM ISSUE CONTINUES I have just read both your comments and those of Mr. Lee Schwartz, Agent, regarding State Farm Insurance Company's policy on computer insurance. As I too have been concerned about my valued computer equipment and the inability to insure it at a reasonable cost, I was delighted to learn of these, unknown to me, policies. I promptly called my State Farm agent here in Arlington, TX. It's important to know that I live in Texas since we apparently have our own way to conduct an insurance company. I have adequate Home Owners policy which, to some degree, covers the equipment. I read your notes and those of Mr. Schwartz to my agent. He asked me Mr. Schwartz's location. I told him he was in Minnetonka, MN. "Well, he said, that explains it." It seems each State Farm Unit (by state) makes their own state-wide policies and Texas is one of those exceptions to the general company policy in this regard. The major differences are: 1. The computer MUST be for personal use. 2. If used for work or business purposes, it is not covered under the Home Owners policy. You must get separate coverage for your computers. 3. If your equipment is for home or personal use, it is covered under your the Home Owners policy and is considered personal property. I think that main message is that State Farm has different policies for different states. You had better caution your readers that Mr. Schartz's letter is NOT the final word, check with your State Farm agent. ^RJerry Conger ^RArlington, TX Thanks for the letter Jerry. I'm beginning to think that these policies may even be out of the insurance companys' hands and in the hands of the (gasp) State Governments. If anyone has any other information on this subject please write. ^CWHERE'S THE BEEF? I had intended not to renew my subscription when you announced your new "improvements". However, I felt I owed you enough to allow you the opportunity to justify your product. I find you have not made an improvement. In fact, on this issue you respond to another subscriber by telling her what a fine idea she has in reference to the REPORT CARD, but I see only a dribble of the wealth in her suggestion. And speaking of a waste of space, who cares if your writer has a friend who has resorted to using shovels for writing materials. We who subscribe, do so because we use computers. Unless, there is a tremendous improvement prior to the expiration of my subscription, I will go with my first instinct and not renew. ^RLee A. Brown Dear Mr. Brown, I can understand your frustration. As you can see the changes have started to fall into place and we have lots more on the way. We all hope you enjoy the new ODM!