This file contains letters from our subscribers, along with answers from our editors and programmers. We also have a file of letters which contains comments from our subscribers that don't need a response. That file is available as our "SUBSCRIBER COMMENTS" column.
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Dear Sean,
I suppose I will have to get my two cents worth here on the issue of Shareware on ODM.
I do not think they should be included on the monthly ODM. I subscribe to the combo Shareware Spotlight program and have enjoyed the offerings that have appeared so far. It is great to have someone else screen the thousands of shareware programs for the best. I'll accept your judgement to what is the best rather than send my money to the Shareware catalog companies and find that I do not like the program. I do get many Shareware Catalogs in the mail. I must be on everybody's mailing list. But, if I believed all their descriptions of the programs listed, I would get them all.
Please keep the ODM as it is and let the Shareware buyers subscribe to your Shareware Spotlight disks.
Yours truly,
Charles Swingler
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Mr. Swingler
Thank you for your comments. We have decided to do just as you suggest and stop publishing shareware on ODM.
Sean Golden, Product Manager}
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Dear Sir or Ms:
Your work has changed quite dramatically since I last subscribed. The setting is gentle, soothing and pleasant to look at! However the programs you offer are STILL copy-cats of old programs. Typing Attack, Poker Face, Win2Do are only graphically better than programs I already have. The Jonathan Font is not exactly a font people would use all the time. It is great for making logos or letterheads, maybe, but the average computer user doesn't do that, I don't think. Likewise with the .PCX graphics, -- great for letterheads or logos. The scarecrow may be the only art that a person may put into a word processed personal letter. But since I am not Dorothy, a scarecrow isn't my favorite subject...
I am sending this first disk back to you, along with the report card which should give you a better idea of my disappointment in your disk's programs. But I want you to know that I do think that your hard work is very valuable to people, who are like I was a few years ago, -- new to the computer world. Your disks are great for those people. But now that I have two years' worth of subscription disks in my collection, I find that much of what you offer is repetitive. Which is too bad, because you have a really great idea going. The programs just stink, that's all. I do however, and will continue to, highly recommend "ODM" to friends who are new to computering.
Please cancel my subscription. But let me know when you guys get into CDs!! And thanks for the chance to see the new look. It IS very nice...
Marilyn Y. Bailuk.
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Ms. Bailuk:
Thank you for your discussion of what you like and don't like about On Disk Monthly.
I think you have really hit the mark on some of your comments, but I think your criticism of ODM may be a little harsh.
I could go point-for-point on your letter and try to debate with you, but I won't. I realize that ODM cannot appeal to everyone, and I think it may be fair to say that ODM appeals most to new computer owners.
On the subject of "repetitive" software, I'm afraid that I have to disagree with you. Of the three programs you mentioned, only Typing Attack is a "repeat" and it has been significantly upgraded, not only from EGA to VGA, but also to include a speed typing module that allows you to truly evaluate your typing skill, something older versions of Typing Attack did not support. The other two programs were brand-new efforts and compare well, in my opinion, with commercially available products.
Sean Golden, Product Manager}
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Dear Sirs:
Your ODM menu continues to improve and I am delighted with it. Even when I run ODM from the floppy I am impressed with the speed! On a 286 PC at that.
I enjoyed the Western Vistas slide show. This type of thing is not new to me, I've had this in fractal programs. But it does make a nice break after doing some hard work. Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get more .GIF files in the correct resolution for the slide show. Are you going to include more in the future?
Although I know DOS Manager is a good program, I already have another program very similar to this which I use to check file contents, and must keep it on the hard disk because my brother, when he has to fix things for me, uses it. So I won't be using DOS Manager as I don't want to clutter up the hard disk and anyway my trackball refuses to show up in it, althought it is automatically loaded every time I boot up. That reminds me, once in a long while the trackball won't work in one of your programs. Klondike II, on ODM issue 71, is a strange case wehre the trackball refuses to work in the game outside of the ODM shell. I was forced to make a copy of ODM 71 and run the game inside the ODM shell, where it works very well. My trackball emulates a three-button Microsoft mouse.
Thank you for responding to me by sending a disk to replace one that was damaged in the mail. I am really sorry to see that even the 3 1/2" disk gets battered. I would ask you to use disk mailers, but it sure would cost more, I bet.
Again, thank you for doing a good job with this fine product, the ODM 86. I will continue to look forward for more with lots of enthusiasm!
Sincerely,
Rhoda Showalter
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Ms. Showalter:
Thank you for your letter. I'm sorry to hear of the problems you are having with your trackball. I'll refer this problem to my programming staff and we'll try to ensure that all of our programs work with your trackball in the future.
You are right about the disk mailers. If we were to start using them to protect disks, we would have to raise our prices. The mailing costs would go up two ways, first the cost of the mailers themselves, then the additional postage for the added weight of the package. Since mailing out our product is one of our biggest expenses, we would be forced to increase the price of the product to maintain any profit from the mailing.
Sean Golden, Product Manager}
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Dear On Disk Monthly,
A few suggestions and praise; I'm very impressed with the professionalism of your disks and the quality of the graphics. I will be subscribing for quite a while!
One big suggestion: Why not have an On Disk Monthly BBS where subscribers could call and download the current issue and leave comments? Even subscribe online? That would save your company a lot of disks, and would also let you make the issues larger than 1.2 MB.
By the way, I think that it is a great idea for you to send out starter disks that would alleviate a lot of headaches and disk space consumption.
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford
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Mr. Crawford:
It's amazing. We have just begun looking into an "ODM BBS" of just the sort you describe. There are an amazing number of technical details to work out (not the least of which is how to have multiple phone lines available) before we can decide whether to implement the ODM BBS, but we are definitely looking into it.
Sean Golden, Product Manager}
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Dear ODM:
I cannot HOLD Western Vista pictures. Pressing any key exits the program. See my computer setup enclosed. Please call me with a fix, if possible.
L. H. Van Arsdale
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Mr. (or Ms.) Van Arsdale:
I'm afraid that I have to tell you that there is no fix to this "problem" because there is no "problem" to fix. Western Vistas is a slide show program that simply cycles through all of the 320x200 GIF files in a directory. It uses a variety of fades and/or wipes between images. When you press a key, it quits.
If you want to use or look at the graphics, you'll need to use a graphic utility program. DOS Manager, from issue #85, will let you open and view the graphics at your leisure.
Sean Golden, Product Manager}
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Dear Sir/Madam:
I recently received issue 85 on which was a TrueType font named Joanelle. I have installed it but it won't print (see output sample enclosed) even though it appears on my monitor in both PageMaker and AmiPro programs. Your tech support people were unable to help and suggested this letter.
What can I do to print this font?
Sincerely,
Fred Romanucci
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Mr. Romanucci:
This caught us right out of the blue. We have published several TrueType fonts, and we have installed all of them on our systems here at Softdisk without any trouble.
But we have received too many calls on this for there to not be a problem. I am convinced that some of these problems are experienced even after correctly installing the fonts. I am researching TrueType fonts and we will do our best to insure that they work on your system.
I wish I could give you a better answer, but I'm afraid this one will require some work on our part.
