
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
