Last month Bob Ward compared two stock portfolio programs: Ava from Market Maker and Charles Schwab's Equalizer. Ava was well documented with Help as close as the F1 or F2 key. If this wasn't enough, the accompanying manual answered any remainig questions. Your stock portfolio is easily updated through a modem connected to Dow Jones Index or other similar data base. The logic of buying and selling stock was not overly apparent unless the manual was read carefully in advance. Indeed, how to sell stock wasn't found until reading half way through the documentation. Bar graphs depicting percentages of different investments in portfolio and profit-loss ratios of investments held could be shown on screen or sent to printer. A good program for the individual who wants to try his luck in the market! Schwab's Equalizer contained everything Ava had and more. Hooking up to one of many information data bases via modem, one can obtain quarterly profit-loss statments,the history of a company, or a list of officers of any corporation in the market. This information is necessary when making "smart" decisions with investments. By modem, Equalizer allows the owner to sell or buy through his personal account by connecting directly to one of Charles Schwab's brokerage houses. The Equalizer uses UCSD-p DOS which may be faster that MS-DOS but does not allow "customizing" of the program with batch files. Schwab's menu is very straight forward with commands highlighted by use of the arrow keys. Definitely not a program for the amature but worth $199 if you can afford the accompanying phone bill. This coming meeting is a must for all computer owners especially if you've ever experienced loosing freshly entered data before backing it up to disk. Yes, little Johnny pulled your plug just as you finished the last chapter of your latest mystery novel. Data lost ? Not at all if you had an uninterruptable power source made by Cuesta Systems in our own SLO town. Of course it also takes care of the spikes, surges, low voltage, and noise on the line. This month we are fortunate to have Dave Dickey, President and Technical director of Cuesta Systems Corporation who will speak on "The Standby UPS for Desktop Microsystems." Bring you questions, lightening bolts, and a check book if you are in the market for this item. Rumor has it that Rick Racouillat strings jumper cables between his PC and car battery during rain storms. I perfer running the kids on a tred mill to generate electricity during power outages. ************************************************************* Floppy disk Cause of that nagging lower back pain Ram Chip What the Rams leave behind in the pasture Hard Disk Petrified floppy disk CRT A television that doesn't show commercials Power Surge The funny feeling you get when your spouse blows in your ear Drive Door The computers garage door Basic The language everyone writes and no one understands ASCII Texas lingo i.e. "I'll ASCII once more!" Byte What a "bug" takes out of your program Error Message The reoccuring title of all my programs Megabyte Describes a teenager eating dinner ************************************************************* We will be adding 3 new disks this month to our public-domain library. Remember the "hidden message" is somewhere between disk 80 & 90. It's worth 6 free floppys this month so get with it hackers, let's run those programs. We will have more floppy disks for sale to members next meeting. These disks are manufactured by "Generic Inc." and come with all the amminities such as hub rings, write protect tabs, sleeves, and labels. What a deal for $1.25 each. We may limit sales to 15 disks per individual / month depending on demand. Remember they are guaranteed by the manufacture so if one doesn't format bring it back for an exchange. We are always looking for your "original" programs or any other public domain software not already in our library. All donations welcome. ************************************************************* Welcome to our new member, Ron Haennelt (549-8015). He's an AT&T computer fan--so much he bought one. Love those graphics! ************************************************************* This month's one liner: A> BASICA 10 PLAY"T140MBO2C8F8A8O3C8C16C16C8O2A8A16A16A8F8A8F8C" RUN Programmer's tip as found in PC MAGAZINE August 20,1985 To enter a directory for a disk into a file type: A> DIR>filename.exe It only takes a second and now you have a directory that can be accessed from a basic program. ************************************************************* Hey members !! Kick those word processors into high gear. Heard any good ones lately ?? Write us an article. Tell us about one of those not well publicized programs you can't do without. Give us your latest receipe for Pizza or lament to us how your hard disk just crashed for the 3rd time. We'll review it all, misspell half the words and enter it in next months newsletter. All works of art must reach me 10 days before the next meeting. I'll take it typewritten or preferably on a disk (ASCII format only - nothing fancy). Drop it by Poly-Fisher Hall 466 or send it to my home. Bob Ward 2100 Andre' Ave., Los Osos, CA. 93402. We will return your disk after reformatting it with our paper shreader! ************************************************************* The SLO BYTES Newsletter is a monthly publication of SLO BYTES of the Central Coast of California, an IBM personal computer user's group. Information in this Newsletter comes from magazine articles, other PC user group newsletters, and our own members. The purpose of this publication is to inform our members of meetings, their program content, and other information related to the use of PC's and PC compatable computers. Dues to SLO BYTES is $18 per year. As a member you will receive an updated membership list, SLO BYTES monthly newsletter, and free use of our Public Domain Library. Contributors are asked to submit articles for the next issue 10 days before the meeting either in writing or on disk. Have a computer related item to sell? Tell the editor and we will put it in our newsletter. For further inforation call Bob Ward @ 528-0121 eves. ************************************************************* Meetings are held the 4th thursday of every month at 6:15 pm. Location is Cal Poly University, Biology's Science North, Room 313. ************************************************************* Reprinted from Capital PC Monitor, May 85 FREEWARE by Wade Dowdle Many popular and useful programs are currently available outside traditional commercial channels that are, in many cases, professionally written and sometimes even better than their commercial counterparts. Known as freeware, shareware, or user supported software, the concept has become a popular method of publishing for software authors and represents a source of beneficial programs for the alert PC user. Included in this category are PC-TALK III by the Headlands Press (P.O. Box 862, Tiburo, CA 94920) a powerful and user friendly tele-commuinications package; PC-WRITE by Quicksoft (219 First N., Seattle, WA 98109), a word processing program; PC-FILE by Jim Button (P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006), a versatile database management system; and now, PC-DESK by Software Studios, Inc. (8516 Sugarbush, Annandale, VA 22003), a desk manager. The freeware concept, which was pioneered by Andrew Flugelman of Headlands Press, relies on satisfied users who contribute a registration fee to the software developer. Users are encouraged to copy and distribute the program, thus saving the software author the expense of duplication, promotion and distribution. In turn, users who register their program receive program supported, in many cases, updates of the software as they become available. This "try before you buy" concept has worked well and software authors report satisfaction with the rate of registrations. User suggestions and comments often help to enhance subsequent program versions. *************************************************************