Reflections of a ModemJunkie
                       by Leonard Grossman

     Just a few random thoughts this month.  Boy, how time flies. 
Well, the ZIP flap seems to be dying down.  Reports of problems
with PKZ204g are rare and mostly related to deficiencies in other
software.  For instance, the QWK mail program on TBBS boards still
requires the older version, but otherwise most things seem to work.


     SHEZ, the archive shell demonstrated by Al Watson at last
month's CACHE meeting, is an excellent way to handle all of your
archived files... it even lets you extract tagged files from a
zipped file with many files within.  The latest (as of this moment)
version is SHEZ89 and is available on Syslink. (Jim Derr, the
author seems to come up with an improvement every few days.

Now, my last word on PKZIP. I promise.  (How do you show crossed
fingers in ascii?).  Is Phil Katz trying to be P.C. (politically
correct, that is)?  Although the violence on the 10:00 news is
increasing, the language of zipping is becoming pacified.  While
earlier versions "compressed" and "imploded" files and unzipping
led to "extracting" and "exploding", the new PKZIP gently inflates"
and "deflates" files. Sounds like a lot of hot air to me.

Not too far off topic is the art of teleconferencing.  While The
great DOS 6 (try to get that quarter from me, Brad) roll out March
30, was a success and Bill Gates' nationwide hookup gathered some
10,000  enthusiasts in cities from Canada to Mexico in what was
called the world's largest P.C Users Group, someone's head must
have rolled the next morning.  You'd think the nation's richest man
would have pre-tested the audio system.
  
First impression: the audience at the CCS session at the Bismarck,
(which included a good representation of your favorite CACHE and
NICOL regulars) was very restrained compared to the cheering and
shouting around the hemisphere, but the questions asked during the
follow up were excellent and Harold Driscoll represented the group
well with a serious question to Bill Gates regarding documentation.
Second impression: Elec-Tek is cheap.  There were about 450
attendees. Elec-Tek donated 1 copy of DOS 6 for the drawing.  I
wonder if they could afford it.  I wonder how many copies of DOS 6
they sold that night at the heavily discounted price of $49.99.
(That is the regular introductory list price, for those who aren't
paying attention.) OTOH:  Kudos to Microsoft for their matching
grant to charity and their discount on CCS membership.  And the
T-shirts were neat, whoever paid for them. (Wish I could have
gotten in line again. I showed mine to my wife and she said "Thank
you," before I could give it to my daughter.)

Third impression:  If you have DOS 5 and are happy with your add-on
utilities such as compression, defragging, memory managementetc., I
wouldn't run out and buy it.  But if you are still at DOS 3.3 or
lower or are thinking about adding any if the major utilities in
the near future, the price is right.  

Finally, if last month's column seemed even more incoherent than my
usual rambling, it seems a grammar checker ate a paragraph or so
right out of the middle and then stitched two unrelated
sentences together. All you missed was my regular tirade about
Lotus' failure to accommodate the new zip standard in Magellan (I
told you my fingers were crossed). BTW: Lotus maintains they still
"support" Magellan but have no current development program for it. 
Kinda' like child support, I guess. No quality time, just a check
in the mail.  Makes you warm all over.


Copyright 1993 Leonard Grossman