Dear computer friends: This issue has a lot to offer...starting with SuperSpiro. It's rare to find a program that gives you pleasure and that is also useful. SuperSpiro. is that kind of "gem." Run it during periods of inactivity and it will protect your screen from image "burn in." We liked this DOS program so well that we went ahead and turned it into a Windows 3.1 screen saver--which is also on this disk! Run SuperSpiro from the ODM menu for installation instructions. Rounding out the issue are: Budgeteer; Conflagration; Mem Plus, a helpful DOS utility that gives you more info than DOS's "MEM" in an easy-to-digest form; great .PCX clip art; templates for Memo Writer 2.0 (published on issue #76); and our other regular features. ENJOY! * * * SPECIAL BULLETIN! Shortly after issue #76 reached your hands, you began reporting that you experienced printing problems with Freeform Database 2.0 and Jacket II. We immediately studied our source code and discovered that by adding some text-book "error trapping" routines, we'd created routines that wouldn't work properly on a few printer models. We quickly re-mastered (recopied) that issue for future back issue sales. A remastered issue is available, free of charge, to any subscribers who contact our Customer Service or Technical Support departments to request it. Please call 1-800-831-2694 or 1-318-221-8718 for a re-mastered copy of issue #76 if you received your copy of those programs as part of your regular subscription only. NOTE: All back issue orders have been fulfilled with the re-mastered issue, so there is no need to call. * * * By the time you read this, spring will be an odoriferous melee of blooming flowers and fresh cut grass, and the March 12-13 blizzard will have been relocated to long-term memory. And I'll be wishing I lived closer to a city with a major league team--as in BASEBALL.... It may seem strange, guys, but for five years I was the managing editor of a sports card collectibles magazine (write me if you're interested in a collecting program). I was hooked on baseball, however, long before that. While still a girl, my uncles filled my head with stories of the Babe, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays, to name only a few. And stories about those wonderful, old wooden ballparks and that magical place called Cooperstown. Spring meant watching games on lazy, sun-filled afternoons with dad and his brothers. And cheering for an aging Hank Aaron, a young George Brett, a brilliant Nolan Ryan, an incautious Pete Rose, an unerring Johnny Bench and an unbelievably mustachioed Catfish Hunter. Spring meant using some of Mom's self-rising flour to scratch out a lopsided baseball diamond in a nearby empty lot, a dream-filled "square" of fescue and weeds where my friends and I would play baseball until the ground became damp and the white ball with the red thread became impossible to see on a fast pitch by one of the boys. You'd go home tired, hungry and immensely glad to be alive...to be able to play baseball again on another day. But what, you might be wondering, does this have to do with On Disk Monthly? In those days I didn't have a computer. I wonder how much time I'd have spent playing baseball if I'd have had a PC or a Nintendo. Would I have been "glued to the tube" like so many kids today? It's just that I think there's room for both in our lives--room to be young (or to remember being young) and room to enjoy every byte of On Disk Monthly--even during those long, hot summer days. Baseball and On Disk Monthly are a good balance...somehow. Both are "non-linear," involve skill, require thought and are FUN! And neither requires your attention to the total exclusion of the other. Don't let spring fever keep you from On Disk Monthly, but do have a hot dog or two for me when you take your friends, spouse, kids or grandchildren to a ballgame. I like mustard, ketchup and a little chili on my "dawg." How about you? Happy computing, Ronda Faries ODM Product Manager