RAndY's RumOR RaG May 1994 NEWS IN YER FACE By this fall, Hewlett-Packard will introduce a color laser printer for under $7,000 list. It will have Resolution Enhancement Technology and print 300 dpi for color and 600 dpi in monochrome. You'll get up to 4 ppm in color and 12 ppm in black-and-white. It's slated for a Fall Comdex introduction and will give users the choice of PostScript 2 or PCL5E. Of course, they'll work with JetDirect and other network cards. They are also planning to increase the speed of new printers, with plans in the work to jump the next version of the LaserJet 4Si from 17 ppm to 22-24 ppm. --------------- At a recent event, the bio slide for Novell Senior VP Mike DeFazio was spelled "Senoir". Looks like they bought WordPerfect just in time to use their spell checker. --------------- Intel's Andy Grove showed off a motherboard prototype with Intel's forthcoming P-6 chip. When he set it down, the chip fell out. Grove admitted they still had some work to do on it. --------------- Someone has suggested that if CSPAN merged with The Home Shopping Channel on the Information Superhighway, people could buy their congressman along with computers that aren't available in the channel. --------------- Rumor has it that Microsoft is still working out little bugs in Access 2.0 and won't get it on the shelves until May 1. Microsoft says mid-April. My suppliers say mid-May --------------- IBM and Motorola's RISC division is working on a 100MHz version of the PowerPC 601 using .5-micron CMOS technology. --------------- Still no word of the new name for the merger of Novell and WordPerfect. Wordell is likely out and don't count on NoPerfect either. --------------- Look for a CD murder mystery from MTV that will feature their infamous "eye-popping visual effects." There won't be any famous bands or VJs but there might be some music videos. In other MTV related news, Sega is working on a Beavis and Butthead game and the caveman band Gwar will make an appearance. --------------- WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? The longer I continue being involved in computers, the more I wonder what the software developers are thinking. The guy I do aerial photography with recently had need to work with Paradox data from Excel 5.0. Microsoft provides an add-in for this in the form of Microsoft Query. But when trying to use it he continued to have problems. A call to Microsoft revealed that the drivers haven't been completed yet (and they didn't want to hold up the release of Excel). And they want to charge an additional $7 for them! "So when will they be ready," he asks? "Can I get my name on the list so you'll send them when they're ready?" "Well, we don't have lists so you'll just have to call back from time to time," says Microsoft. What in the hell way is this to run a business? Isn't it bad enough that succeeding versions of software continue to gobble up megs upon megs of hard drive space without regard to tight code? Now you release a product which sells on the street for $350-$400 and then nick you for an additional $7 for something that should have been in the shipping package. And this is just one example... --------------- MORE NEWS IN YER FACE Microsoft continues to have problems getting Access 2.0 to market. Here are some of the reported problems holding up release: Object names using back quotes must be renamed or access will not convert the database to 2.0 format; Users must create user and group accounts to take advantage of 2.0 security features; Visual Basic applications using JET database engine are not yet supported in 2.0 (Microsoft is promising a DLL). In other Microsoft news, later this year they'll be shipping the object-oriented 32-bit version of Visual Basic. It will have enhanced data controls and will come in 16-bit and 32-bit versions to support Windows NT, Chicago, and Windows 3.1. --------------- Addison-Wesley is publishing "E-Mail Addresses of the Rich and Famous." You can get the E-mail addresses of Tom Brokaw, Bill Gates, Ed Asner, Ross Perot, and others through this $7.95 book --------------- I hear that Norton Utilities is having problems with Stacker 4, in particular the Speed Disk and Disk Doctor programs. A fix is not expected for another six months, three months past the 90-day limit on tech support. Hmmmm... --------------- Apple has a trade-in program where you can exchange a used Mac or any brand-name PC, monitor, or printer and get money toward the purchase of new Apple equipment. --------------- THE ISH Are you as sick as I am of hearing endless drivel about the Information Superhighway - from government geeks who don't know a modem from monitor, no less? I've held off talking about the Clipper chip because I've considered it a stupid idea (look who dreamed it up) and uninteresting. Let me see if I've got this straight - data communications are encrypted with a chip that only the government has the key to? I don't think so. The last guys I want nosing around my computer are Bubba and Algore. Isn't their socialist utopian health plan enough erosion of our freedom? (Oops, I forgot about gun control.) And when has the government done anything right- with the exception of running the military and a couple other things (all of which they're trying to mess up now). I say NO to Clipper and the concept behind it. I don't want Janet Reno lobbing in smoke grenades just because she found a message that I was using in illegal copy of Print Shop. (I'm not!) --------------- MAINTENANCE RELEASE I just received the interim release of WordPerfect for Windows 6.0a. It now ships on 12 disks and includes an uninstall option. They added things like AutoCorrect, which corrects your typing as you go along; new Coaches and other helps. They reportedly speeded up certain areas of the program. Sorry, but I don't see it. If anything the program is even slower than it used to be. They've taken slow printing and brought it to a crawl. They just don't get it. In fairness, they seem to have corrected the problems I had with faxing. The line spacing used to be compressed and now it looks OK. I hate to say it, but I'm giving serious consideration to switching to Word for Windows. This release can hardly be called an improvement when it takes an already slow product and slows it down further. Fortunately the upgrade is free to existing owners because I wouldn't pay a dime for it. Somebody down there in Utah needs to wake up and smell the coffee (oops, I forgot the Mormons don't drink coffee). --------------- PRO GRAPHICS 1024 If you read last month's column, you know that I'm in the market for a different VLB graphics card. I've looked at the Media Vision Pro Graphics 1024 and finally had a chance to install one. Installation is as easy as it gets, but when I loaded the Windows drivers, Windows would no longer run. A call to tech support cleared up the problem and required that I set up the software for 3 wait states for both reading and writing. The card then worked fine with Windows, but with so many wait states I could discern no appreciable speed difference from the stock Windows VGA driver. I've always found Media Vision's sound cards to be excellent, and I'm sure that this card is good too - but they need to get this thing worked out with drivers. Everybody is buying 486-66 machines these days and support needs to be there. --------------- NEXT MONTH I'm hoping to see Corel 5 for review next month. I know they've packed a lot of new stuff into it including Ventura Publisher. I'll probably be using Word for Windows by then so I'll likely talk about that too. Access 2 should be shipping by then and I might even have something to say about Microsoft Baseball and lots of other new stuff. ================================= DISCLAIMER RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local BBS's and GEnie, as well as in Modem News. In case anyone cares, RAndY's RumOR RaG is produced on a 486- 50 with 8 megs of memory,105 MB Toshiba IDE hard drive, Teac 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB floppies, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 running a Hitachi 3750 CD ROM drive, Sceptre SVGA display, Microsoft mouse, WordPerfect for Windows and transmitted through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard modem. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Comments should be addressed to Ainsworth Computer Services on GEnie, phone, analog mail, or whatever method makes you feel good. AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES 605 W. Wishkah Aberdeen, WA 98520-6031 (206) 533-6647 GEnie Address: RAG