
   *    *    *    *    M A I L B A G    *    *    *    *


READER SUGGESTIONS

  Why don't you include an up-date index of the current disk
[contents] for those of us who are using the ODM Indexer?
Sure would be a lot easier for one person to enter data than
many.
  The new format looks nice on my system. And thanks for
the install program as it makes it easier to install the
issue on my hard drive than to swap disks on the one floppy
drive.
  Do you have any idea why, since ODM changed from Big
Blue Disk to On Disk Monthly, I can't run any of the
programs that require a CGA monitor. Previously, I could
just run a CGA emulator program and most of the programs
would run. I have an IBM/XT clone, by some unknown assembler,
with a Hercules graphics card and an amber monitor. I am
running DOS 3.21 and 4DOS ver 4.0.
                                       Rodney C. Peck
                                       Rome, NY
EDITOR'S NOTE: You should be able to run our programs with
your emulator program. However, we suggest that you try
running individual programs with UniCGA, a universal CGA
simulator that can be downloaded from almost any BBS.
The UniCGA author requests a $5.00 donation. There is one
caveat: UniCGA won't recognize the ODM menu system (you'll
get a blank screen).


  This letter is a plea for your continued support and
improvement of Enhanced Family Tree, the program developed
several years ago by Daniel Tobias, Richard Wong and George
Leritte. I've spent an awful lot of time typing in data to
EFT. So, please try in some way or form to continue to
support it with improvements and upgrades.
  If continued support is not possible for some reason,
would you please consider at least providing us users with a
utility that would allow our data to be exported from EFT to
Genealogical Data Communications (GEDCOM) format? Then
we would have a way to transfer our laboriously typed
data to any one of a number of other genealogical software
packages that can import data in GEDCOM format.
                                       Stanley C. Butler
                                       Bel Air, MD
EDITOR'S NOTE: You and many other Family Tree/Enhanced
Family Tree fans are in luck! We're updating the program
for issue #69.


  I have been a subscriber to ODM for a while and I wanted
to let you know how pleased I was with it. I believe it is
well worth the cost. While I don't have a use for all the
material, I use lots of it. You know the saying: "You can
please some of the people some of the time...." I hope the
current format will continue for years to come.
  On issue #64, you had a program for cataloging your
software. I think this is an outstanding program and I
finally got mine done. I was wondering if, in the future
there might be a program for cataloging personal belongings
(cameras, VCR, etc.) with the same menu-driven input. It
could come in handy with the police and insurance companies.
                                       Ray Turner
                                       Goldsboro, NC
EDITOR'S NOTE: In case you missed it, issue #67 included a
program, called HouseHold, that does just what you describe.
Order that issue and other back issues by calling the
following toll free number: 1-800-831-2694.


  After reading Jim Evans' letter on On Disk Monthly issue
#65, I wanted to write and reassure you that beginners can
and do enjoy your programs. It strikes me as a simple matter
of economics. Where else could a person get so many programs
for so little cost? I don't use lots of the programs for one
reason or another but still feel I have a bargain in my
subscription. And I was very much a beginner when I first
subscribed!
  I have a Tandy TL 1000 with Deskmate. I use the desktop as
my menu. For example, I have a directory named GAMES in
which I put all the games. I have set up the list box to
show only the EXE files. When I want a particular game, I
simply highlight the name of that game in the list box and
I'm off and running.
  I put other programs I use fairly frequently in a
directory called OTHER. This has worked for everything
except FormKing. That one isn't called up with an EXE file,
so I can't get to it from my desktop menu. I have to exit
the menu, change directories, then type in Pasrun FormKing.
Can you help?
                                       Margaret Ostrom
                                       Coos Bay, OR
EDITOR'S NOTE: FormKing, published way back on issue #20,
will be updated in an upcoming issue of On Disk Monthly. It
may resolve your problem and also make the task of creating
great-looking forms even easier.


  Why don't you develop a program so you can print the
images for Print Shop? Then these can be filed and when you
are looking for certain images you will know which disk
they're on.
                                       D. Machen
                                       Montclair, CA
EDITOR'S NOTE: Print Shop Utilities IV, published on issue
#52, does allow you to print the images and catalog them. We
plan to update it on a future issue. Another frequent
question regarding Print Shop is how to convert the "old"
Print Shop images on On Disk Monthly to New Print Shop.
Answer: use the conversion utility that comes with New Print
Shop, not the On Disk Monthly utility mentioned above.

OBSESSED WITH GAMES

  I took your dare on Typing Attack, which you made in the
flyer for On Disk Monthly issue #65, and after only three
tries, I exceeded your staff's high score by 410
points...and it's a great game, too!
  In order to document my victory for you and your staff, I
captured the screen showing my high score of 6,440, printed
it out with Word Perfect's Grab program, and finally
photocopied and enclosed it herein.
  I am a computer autodidact of 63, and so take great
pleasure in having won out over the formally educated (one
assumes) and digitally dexterous, though now defeated, nerds
in your office. I can only hope that they are abject at the
news.
  Regarding the other games I have enjoyed from ODM, I am a
regular player of Klondike and Pyramid Solitaire, as well as
Draw Poker. I have attained top scores of 273 in Klondike,
2,030 in Pyramid and have earned $1,340 in Draw Poker, as
well as a full house as high hand. Copies of these scores
are also enclosed. If they, too, are higher than the top
scores of your staff, I dare you to let me know.
  I misspent some of my youth in a pool hall, and now it
seems that I am misspending some of my elder years playing
computer games, which keeps me from completing my
autobiography and threatens the safety of my marriage. Where
will it all end?
                                       Richard D. Curtis
                                       San Diego, CA
EDITOR'S NOTE: I hope it doesn't ever end for you and
congratulations on your scores! Though few of us here at On
Disk Monthly have time to play these games for recreational
purposes (I have no idea what our high scores might be for
Klondike, Pyramid Solitaire or Draw Poker), our Quality
Assurance staff plays every game to its limits during
testing and they assure me your scores are scores worth
crowing about.


CONFUSED ABOUT INFOSYS

  Just a note regarding one of the programs on issue #66 of
On Disk Monthly. I found InfoSys to be an excellent addition
to my collection of informational utilities, but there is a
discrepancy between it, your program on issue #61 called
System Speed and the supplier of my fairly new computer. The
manufacturer sold it to me as a 386 25MHz. System Speed says
it has 36.43MHz (which does vary at times, but always shows
over 25MHz). InfoSys, on the other hand, tells me it has
20MHz. Which one is right? Who should I believe?
                                       James G. Fellwock
                                       Santee, CA

EDITOR'S NOTE: InfoSys was designed to be a reasonably safe
method of determining the configuration of your computer.
Other, sometimes more accurate, techniques for data
gathering can crash computers with non-standard disk or
memory caching.
  If the system speed detected by InfoSys doesn't match what
your computer's manual says you have, don't worry. This does
not mean you've been cheated or that you have a computer
with a CPU larger than your manual says it is. It simply
means that your CPU is "rated" at that speed. In actuality,
moving things through memory may slow your system speed down
or your system may show a higher speed value than expected.
To gauge your system speed, InfoSys goes into a loop and
counts to a certain number. The time taken to run the loop
is used to determine how fast a computer is. For example, a
486 will show a higher speed value because the loop fits
right into the instruction cache on the chip (so the
computer virtually "flies" through the loop), than a 386.
System Speed shows a different speed because it uses a
different method.
  InfoSys might also tell you that you have two floppy
drives instead of one. Generally, this problem shows up on
machines that have one floppy and a hard drive. On these
machines, the a: drive is mapped to both a: and b: in the
hardware. Machines with these configurations will show two
drives because that's what the computer "sees."
  Also, InfoSys might report that you have less memory than
you actually have. Why? There is no standard way to access
that portion of memory between 640K and 1MB. DOS reserves
this area for video memory, BIOS and device drivers. Special
software is needed to make this "extra" memory available to
the system. Some machines have this software and others do
not.
  InfoSys also might not show extra memory above 1MB.
This especially might happen on the PS/X lines of computers
from IBM. Some extended memory cards on the microchannel bus
will not show up using the standard, safe methods that
InfoSys uses to find extended memory.
  Finally, when InfoSys was developed, a 486 machine was not
readily available for testing. Therefore, the program does
not recognize a 486 and will list it as a 386. This problem
should have been corrected before publication. Likewise, an
SVGA monitor was not available for testing, but the
difficulties associated with detecting an SVGA monitor would
probably have netted the same results--InfoSys "sees" an
SVGA monitor as a VGA monitor.
