By now, you’ve probably heard that 56K modems are coming. Is your shiny new 28.8 or 33.6 modem obsolete already? Determining whether or when to upgrade involves a complex set of issues. Within the next three or four months, the options should be much easier to sort out. But, if you’re in a hurry . . . (like me
There are three different 56K technologies, either released or in beta test. These are being developed by Rockwell (K56Plus), Lucent (formerly Bell Labs; Vflex.2) and USRobotics (X2). Rockwell, Lucent, Motorola, 3Com and a number of other modem manufacturers have formed a consortium called Open K56Flex. The goal of this consortium is to work toward interoperability of modems and servers based on the Rockwell and Lucent technologies. USR is reportedly considering joining the consortium, although modems based on their X2 chipset will not currently connect with the other flavors of 56K.
Is one of these technologies better than another? Maybe . . . Except for one of Lucent’s iterations, connections based on these technologies are asymmetrical. With X2, you can get a maximum 53Kbps from your provider and a maximum of 31.2Kbps for what you’re sending out. Rockwell’s may be 56Kbps down and 33.6Kbps up, but since public test results aren’t yet available, it’s difficult to sort out the reality from the hype. I’ve read that Lucent will have a symmetrical connection available, at about 45K each direction, but this is also unsupported by actual data.
In the long run, the ITU (formerly CCITT) will develop a 56K International standard, similar to v.32, v.34, etc. But, such a standard is probably 12 to 18 months away. All major manufacturers have committed to supporting the ITU standard, once it has been approved.
Will the 56K modem you purchase today be upgradeable to the eventual standard? Again, the answer is . . . maybe. No matter what any modem manufacturer tells you, they can’t be 100% certain that they’ll be able to upgrade the 56K modems on the shelves to the standard, because the standard hasn’t been written yet. Considering the history of the development of the v.34 standard, the modems available this summer that claim to be upgradeable probably will be (although any with a fixed-function data pump may require a hardware upgrade). These upgrades may or may not be free, however, depending on the individual modem and manufacturer’s policy.
Modems are currently being shipped based on both X2 (USR) and K56Plus (Rockwell) chipsets. Modems based on the Lucent chipset are reportedly in beta test. Last week, Motorola announced they were recalling the 56K modems they’d shipped, due to a newly-discovered bug in the Rockwell chipset.
If you’re interested in a modem based on Rockwell/Lucent technologies, I’d suggest waiting a few months. I haven’t seen extensive 56K connection reports, as the testers remain under non-disclosure agreements. Although modems have been shipped, 56K code for the servers in use at the ISPs is still in beta test. So, although you might be able to buy a K56Plus modem, you’ll have nowhere to call, yet.
If you’re interested in a modem based on USR’s X2 chipset, the current news is a little better. X2 modems from USR, Cardinal and PracticalPeripherals have been shipping since the end of February, and X2 code for the server (ISP) end started shipping a couple of weeks ago. I’m an avid fan of USR Courier modems, and believe they’re worth the extra cost over the Sportster in almost all circumstances. But, be cautioned, USR is getting approximately a $60 per modem premium at the moment, since they were first to market. I expect these prices to drop in a couple of months, once K56Flex gets on track. Again, there are no local ISPs supporting X2, although at least one will be coming on line within the next few weeks. There are, however, quite a few ISPs nationally supporting X2, with more coming on line daily.
If you’re interested in upgrading your existing modem, check out the web page of your modem manufacturer to find out if it’s possible. Some are; some aren’t.
We will be checking with all of the local ISPs regarding their plans for 56K access. Hopefully, we’ll be able to report back next month with some better news for local 56K users. Most ISPs will eventually support some flavor of 56K technology. If they have upgradeable hardware, their choice will be obvious . . . for example, those using Total Control racks will move to X2 and those using Ascend servers will choose K56Flex. Some may not be able to support 56K without replacing their hardware.
Will 56K work with your home phone line? Again, it depends . . . . Based on a totally unscientific survey of newsgroups, it looks like about 15% of the folks cannot get X2 connec-tions. The most common reason is reported by the USR modems as 'Multiple CODECs in Channel.' In all three of the 56K implementations you are calling with an analog modem and connecting with a digital modem. There must be only one analog/digital conversion in the path between the two modems, or it does not work. Depending on your location, your wiring, your path to the ISP, etc. it is possible to have multiple COderDE-Coder transitions, and you will not achieve a 56K transition. As far as I know, this is true with all three technologies. USR is developing a program called LINETEST, so that you can check your line before purchasing a new modem. This should be coming out within the next few weeks.
The following procedure will not guarantee high-speed connects, but it will indicate most problems. Using any comm program in terminal mode, go to USR’s BBS (toll-free) by typing ATDT18888779248. When prompted, give your first name as X2 and your last name as TEST. You will be told if your line is X2 capable. This will work when calling with any v.34 or v.34+ modem.
Be aware that you probably won’t really get 56K connects, but should get a substantial improvement from your current connect rates. Also, due to general congestion on the Internet, slow web sites with poor connections to the backbone will remain slow web sites with poor connections to the Internet. So, a faster pipe to your ISP doesn’t guarantee that everything you do will be speedier.
If you want to stay informed, I highly recommend reading the comp.dcom.modems newsgroup. You may also want to check out the web pages of the local ISPs and the modem manufacturers.
Enough of this tech nerd stuff! "What kind of performance will I get???" Well, as usual, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). We’re typically getting 46.6K connects here, with final speeds typically at 45.3K. We’d probably do better if we didn’t have each of our phone lines split at least two or three ways (to 3 computers, 3 phones, etc.) Additionally, the X2 code is immature; improvements (via software flash) are to be expected. Downloads of compressed files range from 4.1Kbps to 4.6Kbps. Web pages load significantly faster. I used to spend as long as 4 hours per day downloading news, and that’s quite a bit shorter, too. We currently use USR Courier v.Everything modems and are beta testing X2 with a local ISP, using a USR TotalControl rack. For us, the upgrade to 56K was free . . . and obviously well worth it!
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Members seem to be quite interested in the upcoming visit in April by PowerQuest with their planned demonstration of Partition Magic. Many questions have been asked over the past couple months that will be answered in April by Dick Kellerman, PowerQuest’s representative. Among the concerns will be whether or not 2 hard drives can be set so that you can boot one this time, the other another time? How well can two, three or even four independent operating systems survive on the same computer with Boot Manager?
Make sure you don’t miss out on all that PowerQuest will reveal to us on April 24 at 7:00 PM.
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I would first like to thank all the board members for filling in for me during February. I appreciated their support and yours.
We are looking for some volunteers to write a short review of the general meeting presentation. As you can see, you don’t need to be a professional writer, they put my stuff in here all the time :-)
Our newest SIG, Windows 95, is back to meeting on the last Tuesday of the month in April. Be sure to thank MapleTronics for the use of their classroom. Check out the calendar of events for all our SIG and meeting dates and locations.
I have finally upgraded my home system to Windows 95. The installation was smooth and uneventful but there are some things to keep in mind. First, make a back up of your hard disk just in case. Once you start, make sure you don’t bypass the option of making an uninstall disk. All your Windows 3.1 and DOS programs should run just fine, but you will want to start getting new programs to take advantage of new features. I installed Netscape Navigator for Windows 95 and then had to go get all the plug-ins again. It took me the better part of a Saturday to make the switch and get everything running the way I wanted.
I also installed a larger hard drive and went from a 700 Meg drive to a 1.6 Gig drive. To install a new hard disk, you need to partition it with FDISK, format it and then load your data onto it. My old drive had 670 Meg used on it, but on the new drive, the same data occupied 840 Meg. This is because of how the File Allocation Table works. You don’t want me to explain how this works here, but if you partition your hard drive properly, you can save a great deal of wasted space. Since I already had a backup, I reran FDISK and made the partition smaller, formatted the drive and copied everything back again. This time my storage used was the same on both drives. Our April meeting will be featuring Partition Magic by Power Quest. This software takes the pain out of partitioning your hard drive by allowing you to do this on the fly without reformatting your hard drive. For a complete explanation and demonstration, come to the April 24th meeting.
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Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guineapig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one loose tooth, two leese teeth? One index, two indices?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo or a truck by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? Lift a thumb to thumb a lift? Table a plan in order to plan a table?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can a person be “pretty ugly?”
How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another. Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who are spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on. Why is “crazyman” an insult, while to insert a comma and say “Crazy, man!” is a compliment (as when applauding a jazz performance.)
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the crea-tivity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
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No answer to your question at the meeting? Help Line didn’t help this time? Q&A time run out before you got your question asked? Put your question here and it goes out to all members. Maybe the person with your answer could not make it to the meeting.
Do you know the answer to a question asked here? What about previous month’s questions? We still don’t have them all answered.
Write your questions or answers and bring them to the meeting, or mail, e-mail, or call them to the editor. Please include your name and phone number even though we will not print it, just in case we need to clarify something. Be brief and clear with both questions and answers.
New Questions
Q. I recently had Windows refuse to terminate and telling me to close an application that was running, even though all applications appeared to be closed. How can you determine which application is claimed by Windows to be running so that it can be closed? I had to exit Windows by using the Ctrl+Alt+Del combination.
Answers to Previous QuestionsA. Last month or month before, someone at the general meeting asked about some files that were undeleteable. Without knowing the exact question, this may not be the correct answer, but may solve a problem for someone else or save one. If a name has extended characters that cannot be converted to ANSI you may not be able to move, delete, open or access it, and Explorer will tell you it doesn’t exist! Work-around: move all other files from the folder and use the DEL command with *.* method.
Still Unanswered QuestionsQ. Why does the connection between my computer and the Elkhart library computer result in unintelligible characters when I use COMIT as my communications program? I’ve tried virtually all the 20-odd options the library offers for computer emulation and none will give me a readable response. However, using Windows Terminal works alright. My system includes a 28,800 modem, Windows 3.1, DOS 6.0, and a 486 co-processor.
Q. In Win3.x there was a trick of shift/close Windows which saved my program manager settings just like I wanted them, and as long as no one saved their changes, they could move my icons or resized my program mgr and the next time I opened Windows it was back to my settings. Is there an equal trick in Win95? For example, I have a folder on my desktop containing my Internet related shortcuts (Netscape, Eudora, etc.) I want these icons to be large but sometimes when I open the folder they are and sometimes they are in “list” format.
Q. Win95 has a temp directory just like Win3.x did, but it doesn’t seem to be emptying it. How do I set Windows 95 to do this?
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St. Joseph County Public Library has monthly programs on the Internet and other special related topics. They are usually 90 minutes with a lecture and an online demonstration. Librarian Michael Stephens is in charge of the Internet training and development for the St. Joseph County Public Library.
All dates, times and topics above are subject to change. For questions about the Internet classes, send e-mail to: m.stephens@gomail.sjcpl.lib.in.us
Main Library 304 South Main St. South Bend, IN Phone: 282-4625
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I am very new to computers, in fact I had never been close to one until three years ago. I was fortunate enough to go with my grandson to Ivy Tech for a computer workshop. We spent a total of three hours of working with computers. The few hours at Ivy Tech were just enough to wet my appetite for the hands on working with computers. That is all the training I have had, which is not near enough. It has been learn as I go, and mostly on my own. I don’t get to spend near as much time learning as I would like to on the computer, but I do manage to spend at least an hour or two a day, sometimes more.
Recently, I had the opportunity to enhance my computer learning by working with and reviewing a book sent to the Users Group. Although the book is only a deceivingly short forty pages in size, it was enjoyable reading, and I learned a lot from it. The book was easy to understand, and it explained everything clearly and in detail. At first I started to just read it all at once. Then I started doing the examples, and from there I just did a little each day. From time to time I go back to the book to refresh my memory on different things I’m trying to do.
I would recommend this book to everyone who is trying to learn a computer, because it helped me understand what I was doing. I feel that the $5 price for User Group members is an excellent deal. It is a very good book to have around.
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Most students know that using many different sources of information for their homework is a good way to impress teachers, but few know how to use the Internet for help with homework or reports.
A lot of the information is very current and sometimes information is published on the Internet before it is sent to the magazine or newspaper subscribers. Plus it always looks good (at least for the student) if the student knows things about the topics being discussed in class before the teacher does. The Internet has so much information that it is sometimes hard to find exactly what you want. That is why there are many search engines which look through the title of the document for certain words. Some of the best are Alta Vista, Yahoo!, Infoseek, Lycos, and Excite. Yahoo! is also good if the topic is very broad because you can select many more specific topics under the many different broad topics.
The Internet is also good for things other then reports. One site that can help with math homework is a place called “Eric’s Treasure Trove of Mathematics” which includes an alphabetical listing of topics. This site has many good definitions for many math concepts but it does not have a listing of symbols and what they mean. If information about science is what you want, try the Exploratorium. The Exploratorium is a hands-on science and art museum in San Francisco. It has 650 interactive permanent exhibits and many traveling ones. Some experiments you can do on your computer, and there is information on other experiments.
If you still need more information, The Library of Congress has information on many subjects and can help you to find bibliographical information on books (which is very helpful when the report complete with bibliography is due the next day and all you remem-ber about the book is the title). The Library of Congress has a listing of many exhibits at the library but there are also many exhibits on the Internet.
If you just want to see what students are doing all around the country, there is a list of K to 12 school sites. At any of the schools you can find out about the school and what the students are doing. Many schools also include a copy of their newspaper and letters written by students about their school.
For information and links to many colleges around the world, try University and College Education (http://www.cs.fsu.edu/projects/group1/combined.hotlist.html). The colleges will tell you about themselves, but most of them still seem to be saying the same thing. The sites do not help with making a decision about where to go to college, but it is sometimes interesting to see what all the colleges say.
One difficulty though with using the Internet for information for large reports is how to list it in the bibliography. I found that some teachers just want the location (but you can tell where the information is coming from by the address, edu for education, org for organization, gov for government, and com for commercial, if it is in the United States; there is a country code if it is from outside the United States). Some teachers want the location and a short description of what is there, but others (like some science teachers) want to see a printed copy of the information at the site (you can’t blame them for wanting to be informed). So it is best to write down the site in case you do need it later. It is more fun to find information on the Internet because while the computer is searching for what you need for school, you can play games and you can’t do that in most libraries. Then when the school work is done (or sometimes before) you can find all the cheat codes for the newest games.
Sara Klein is sixteen years old and she often uses the computer for work and play and has used the Internet for many school reports.
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In addition to repeating many of the Parsons’ free offerings from last month. The following shareware and freeware programs found their way to the “EPCUG Hall of Disks”
CyberSpell - Add-on spell-checking program seamlessly integrates into Netscape Navigator. Understands Internet and e-mail language!
DeskTop Themes for 95 - Install desktop Themes with this theme installer utility! Included on both the following disks.
Disk 1 - Mountain Dew Desktop Theme - If you like Mountain Dew (the beverage) you might like this also, backgrounds, icons, cursors, and sounds. LooneyToons2 Theme - Totally Looney - Includes startup and shutdown screens. You’ve got troubles, Mac...
Disk 2 - Easter Desktop Theme Enjoy spring flowers, Easter bunny and colorful eggs on your desktop! 2 Carnival Desktop Themes for those who would celebrate Carnival with a passion. The two share the same sounds, color scheme and icons; only the wallpaper differs. graphic.web@rt theme (v 1.0) All colors are calm blue and the background is a sky. All the sounds are of birds. This theme really calm you down after a hard days work.
WallPapers - For Win 3.x or 95 (Win 3.x - you may not have Themes, but these will make your desktop just as enjoyable to look at as those with 95.
HOMEwise 95 - Organize your home and family records and events. Individual “to do” lists; “Quick Note”, fully integrated, multi-function word processor; interactive message center; individual personal (and private, if desired) telephone directories plus the main family telephone book; family and personal calendars; personal and family libraries - recipes, books, records, audio and video tapes, CDs, computer and video games; individual private, password-protected diaries and journals; school project organizers and class schedules for students; track banking activities; personal, household, maintenance and vehicle expense reports; inventory function; track family medical and dental records; “Chores” list. A must for every busy family!
Juno - Latest version - Just downloaded (And yes, they have a local Elkhart number)
CryptaPix - Simple to setup and to use. Works with .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pcx, .png, or .tif for conversion or for slide show display
QuickVerse v4 King James Version of the Bible - Another free program from Parsons, with extensive online help. This is not a demo or shareware This is the real program!
MasterMind - Win95 game selected by NetGuide Magazine in its March 97 issue as one of the best things on the WEB!
nFX Cartoon-O-Matic - Win 95 Create a cartoon face by placing, stretching, enlarging, etc head, nose, ears, eyes, etc. Lots of fun for kids! (And maybe grownups, too!)
Next month look for more kid’s (and adult) special free offerings from around the Internet, some alternative spell-checkers, Internet tools and more!
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Everybody knows you can now name things with up to 256 characters and spaces in Win95, but did you know there is a second limitation on the name? If you want to use ScanDisk or Defragmenter, you need to make sure you have nothing with more than 66 characters in its DOS short name. (That’s where DOS shortens your long file names and directory names with ~1.)
If your system’s set up for multiple users, each has their own Start Menu which is named: C:\Windows\Profiles\TheirName\Start Menu\Programs\ Note - that is five directories and already 48 characters, only 16 more letters to go and we have only one branch off the Start Menu. Then try for \Accessories\Multimedia\Voyetra\ and this is where you keep all the shortcuts to the individual Voyetra programs. It is also where you just developed a problem! ScanDisk will actually run and leave you a notice in the log file, depending on how you have it set up, but Defrag won’t even run. All over the name of a shortcut! So watch how many levels flip open on your start menu if you are set for multiple users. You just might have to do a shuffle to get some things to run.
This is the full path of the folder ScanDisk and Defragmenter could not access.
C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\MYNAME\STARTM~1\PROGRAMS\ACCESS~1\MULTIM~1\VO YETRA\
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When Open Windows sent us a review copy of their three most popular programs, I was very interested in reviewing one of them in particular. The other two have received awards by Ziff-Davis, PCMag, and others. WinJottr had not been reviewed a lot, and was something I was looking for anyway! So, this is what I found out about it.
WinJottr looked like a practical replacement for all the sticky notes I had all around, on, and even under the desk. It was small, had an auto save option that saved every 10 minutes, stay-on-top feature, time and/or date stamp, and short cut keys, what more could you ask for?
I gathered up all my stickies and scratch papers and typed them into WinJottr - Marcus was impressed! I used it over the next week or so, adding notes there instead of on stickies, making my reminder lists in it faithfully. It was handy, always there (I’d put it in StartUp) and I didn’t mind too much that it took up room on my taskbar instead of going into the tray where “I” thought it should go. You may think it belongs just where it is, but that’s a matter of opinion not really a major factor.
Then came the day I found its fatal flaw! I received a phone call and had listed things I needed to tell this person when she called. Lo!, WinJottr would not open full so I could see more than the usual four lines! I needed that list FAST and it was somewhere in the middle! Not good. If it would have opened up full, I could have scanned the list in a second and found my section.
The two main points for this type of program should be, in my opinion, to replace all those little pieces of paper and to be instantly accessible. If I can flip through all those stickies and scraps and find the information faster than the program it isn’t right for the job. It may be cleaner and neater, but it sure isn’t faster. I guess I’ll just have to hope the author takes suggestions seriously and adds the option of full view in an update.
Other programs offered by this author include WinFlash, a flash card creating program which lets you choose fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice types, as well as free-format Q&A pairs. You can construct simple text-only cards, or add video, audio, and graphics to the flash cards for added training or flair. This can be used for training or educational tools, either in strict format or in game-like fashion. The possibilities working with WinFlash are endless. It would even serve as a slide presentation or screen saver program, everything you need is there. I recommend trying it!
Also available is WinKillr, a program which will terminate programs at a specific time, time/date or after a specified amount of time. It Saves open files and Saves As those that have not been saved yet. This would come in handy for many things. For example, you know you are going to have to leave the office before your project is finished running. Yet you don’t want to leave the program open and sitting there until you get back. Set WinKillr up and it will save that file and close the program all while you’re gone. Useful for other things too!
If you would like to give WinJottr a try (it may be just what you are looking for), or any of the other programs from Open Windows, please stop by the Resource Center and pick up a copy. Or, download it from your favorite Internet download site or BBS. The author also has an Internet site at http://www.openwindow.com where you can find WinJottr, WinKillr, WinFlash and other Open Windows programs.
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