• Tag Archives computers

  • Computer Shopper (November 1990)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Computer Shopper – November 1990

    This issue of Computer shopper weighs in at nearly 900 pages. How many people have even seen a magazine with 900 pages? For a while, Computer Shopper was regularly publishing these telephone book sized issues. While there were tons of ads, there was tons of great content too. It’s amazing how consolidated the computer market has become since the heyday of Computer Shopper. The November 1990 issue includes:

    Features

    • 80386SX Systems: Limo or Lemon – The difference between the 386 (or 386DX as it would become) and the 386SX was that the DX was fully 32-bit while the SX was 32-bit internally and 16-bit externally. This meant that theoretically that the DX could access more memory (up to 4GB vs. 16MB for the SX) and that memory access was much faster. The memory limit difference made little difference as few people ever put as much as even 16MB in a 386. The memory access speed was a much bigger deal. Clock for clock, the 386 DX was about 33% faster than a 286. The 386 SX was actually slightly slower at the same clock speed than a 286. 386SX systems were cheaper though and this article compares four systems including the CompuAdd 320s, Swan 386SX, Sunnytech STI 386SX-16, and MicroLab 386/168. All systems came with 40 MB hard drive and memory ranging from 1 MB to 4 MB. Prices ranged from about about $1700 to about $2900.
    • Exploding the Myth of the Mail-Order Market – There was a time when the mail order market for computers was a risky endeavor. However, even by 1990, there were many reliable vendors.
    • Mail-Order Buying: All About Delays – One person’s experience with endless delays when purchasing a variety of products via mail order.
    • Tightrope Walking – Concerns with buying a computer from little-known manufacturers.
    • Michael, It’s OK to Brag – How Dell became the success that it is.
    • Adventure in Mail Order: Desperately Seeking Hard Disks – A horror story about buying an 80MB hard drive for a Macintosh IIcx via mail order.
    • Attack of the Killer Virus – The story of one network’s virus infestation. In this case, it was Jerusalem Virus Version B [Jeru].

    Buyer’s Guide

    • 24-Pin Dot Matrix Printers: Still Kicking After All These Years – For a long time, dot-matrix printers were the only affordable printer options for the average person. Eventually ink jet would come along and replace them but it took a while. In the dot-matrix world, there were 9-pin and 24-pin printers with 24-bin being the better quality (and more expensive) option.
    • 24-Pin Printers: Technology Overview – A look at how 24-pin dot matrix printers work, or really dot matrix printers in general.
    • Comparison Charts – A comparison of 50 different 24-pin dot matrix printers. Prices range from $449 to $3595.
    • Listing of Manufacturers – The contact information for 22 manufacturers of dot matrix printers.

    Software

    • State of the Apps: Presentation Graphics – An overview of presentation software including Applause II from Ashton-Tate (DOS), Lotus’ Freelance Plus (DOS), PowerPoint 2.01 from Microsoft (Macintosh), and Aldus Persuasion (Macintosh).
    • Games – Reviews of Ishido: The Way of Stones (DOS, Amiga, Macintosh), Hoyle’s Book of Games II: Solitaire (DOS, Amiga), Blue Angels Formation Flight Simulation (DOS, Amiga, Commodore 64), and Railroad Tycoon (DOS).
    • New Stuff – A look at some new products including the ATFAX 9600 ($249 9600bps fax/modem board), Pocket Modem (2400bps modem), Envision It (a $399 tracing, shape recognition and raster-to-vector conversion program for DOS), RapidTax (tax software for DOS), and more.
    • Online! – An overview of proper etiquette in public message bases. Plus a look at what’s new on BIX, CompuServe, Delphi, GEnie, and Prodigy.

    IBM

    • Charles Bermant – Commentary on how the current age would be the most chronicled in history due to the personal computer.
    • IBM News – Gilbert Hyatt to be awarded to patent on the microprocessor; Intex updates products for new version of Lotus 1-2-3; QuarkXPress 3.0 shipping for $795; and more.
    • Northgate OmniKey Ultra – A PC, XT, AT, and PS/2 compatible keyboard for $149.
    • Spear 80386SX: A Well-To-Do Commoner – A customized 16 MHz 386SX based machine for $3390.
    • Home on the Range with Cote Computers 386/20 – A 20MHz 386DX based system with 4MB of RAM, 64K cache, 200 watt power supply, 40MB Quantum IDE hard drive, ATI Wonder Super VGA with 512K, and more for $3077.
    • Micro Express Regal 386LX Lunchbox: Raison D’etre? – A portable 16 MHz 386SX based machine with a 40MB Conner IDE hard drive, Teac 3.5-inch 1.44MB floppy drive, 1MB RAM, and a super EGA 640×400 gas plasma screen for $2599.
    • Canon’s LBP-8 Mark III Laser Printer: A New Standard Emerges – The latest laser printer from Canon for $2995.
    • What Can You Get for $5,000 – For $4897 from CompuAdd you get a 25 MHz 386 based computer with 2MB RAM, 1.2MB 2.5-inch disk drive, 1.44MB 3.5-inch disk drive, and a 150Mb ESDI hard drive among other things.
    • IBM’s LaserPrinter E: Turning New Ground – A $1495 laser printer from IBM that can be upgraded to support postscript ($499 with 17 fonts, $899 with 39 fonts) and faster speeds ($1099 to go to 10-ppm from 5-ppm), and more.
    • Ampro’s Little Board/386: The World’s Smallest Computer – A 20-MHz 386 based machine that is only 5.75×8 inches for $1695. It also is expandable via mini-modules to add things like modems, networking, etc.
    • Big League Teleprompting on Your IBM PC with Econo-Prompt – $40 teleprompting software for DOS. Included in the article is a design for a teleprompting box you can build yourself.
    • QEdit Text Editors: Small Size, High Quality – A look at two versions of this simple text editor. QEdit Advanced 2.1 and QEdit TSR 1.1.
    • PopDrop Plus: RAM-Cram Manager – A TSR manager that lets you load and unload TSRs from active memory as you need them.
    • Off-Track? The PC-Trac Trackball – A review of this somewhat flawed trackball controller for PCs. I know a guy where I work that still prefers to use a trackball to a mouse.
    • Lean And Mean: The IBM LaserPrinter – A $2395 laser printer from IBM.
    • Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows: Serious Fun in Business Presentations – One Presentation Manager to rule them all I guess. PowerPoint became so popular that people stopped saying Presentation Manager and just say PowerPoint.
    • A FAX in Your Pocket: CFAX/P – A small portable fax machine that can be used with laptops. It includes a scanner for scanning the item to fax but relies on a separate printer if you want to print out a received fax.
    • Life of a Salesman: Sales Associate – A software packagae and book for salesmen. Includes advice and database software.
    • Human Resources on the PC – A database designed for managing personnel.
    • KB 3270 PLUS Keyboard: An Impressive Debut – A $350 keyboard from Key Tronic designed to be used with a mainframe workstation or PC.
    • Spanish Assistant 4.0: Translation Software! – Such software is now pretty much obsolete. Google or your favorite AI can basically translate anything in real time. The age of the Universal Translator is here.
    • DirMaster for the IBM PC – A disk management program for DOS that can do things like copy, rename, delete, and move files among other things.
    • Proposal Tracker – A customized Paradox database for tracking marketing efforts.
    • WeatherBrief: An Armchair Meteorologist’s Dream – I would have loved this software back in the day. It basically lets you generate the sort of weather maps you see on TV. You can use it as a standalone product or also download data via a service.
    • Computer Tyme’s Directory Manager 3 – A file manager that also interfaces with other software products from Computer Tyme.
    • Powerful Scheduling Simplified – A look at Complete Calandar from Stevenson Software. Another type of software product that was consumed by Microsoft. Now it seems everybody uses Outlook.

    Macintosh

    • Steven Bobker – The dearth of serial ports on the Mac and ways to add more.
    • Mac News – New Macs reach retail shelves including the Macintosh Classic, Mac IIsi, and Mac LC; Northgate exists Mac keyboard market; dBASE IV 1.1 released; and more.
    • MathCAD And Theorist: Two Math Problem-Solvers – A look at two math software packages for the Mac.
    • atOnce! for the Macintosh – Accounting software designed for small businesses.
    • Abaton 300/GS: Almost the Supreme Scanner – A monochrome flatbed scanner for $1595.
    • MacRIP and Freedom of Press: PostScript Without the Price Tag – Freedom of Press offers 35 fonts for PostScript printing on more than 50 different printers. MacRIP is similar but comes with fewer fonts (17) and more limitations (like lack of color printing for most fonts).
    • Rodime Cobra Hard Drives: Take a Bite Out of Your Storage Requirements – The Cobra series of drives is available in a variety of capacities including 45, 70, 100, 210, 330, and 650MB. The 100MB external model is looked at here ($1949).
    • MacRecorder 2.0: Makes Recording Sound on the Mac Easy – The software you wanted if you need to record sound on your Mac.
    • Now Utilities: How Now Mac Utilities – A collection of 12 utilties including AlarmsClock, Customizer, DeskPicture, InstantAccess, MemorySetter, NowMenus, Persistence, Print Previewer, Profiler, RearWindow, Startup Manager, and WYSIWYG Menus.
    • WordMaker: A Low-Cost, Graphics Word Processor – A (relatively) low-cost and fairly average word processor for the Mac ($124.95).
    • Publish It!: Threat or Promise? – A basic low cost desktop publishing package.
    • Model-It!: Simulation Software For Macintosh – Software that allows you to build simulations graphically using block diagrams, objects, arrows and pipes.

    Unix

    • Saul Lubkin – A look at the kinds of changes that had to be made to port Norton Utilities to Unix.
    • Unix News – Report titled “Technical Guide to Unix Engineering Workstations” released which compares 119 workstations; Sun positions SPARCstation as direct competitor to high end PCs; and more.
    • A Developers’s Overview to the Motif Toolkit – Motif is a toolkit of C language libraries and implement a certain look and feel on top of X Windows.

    Amiga

    • Peggy Herrington – A look at the new Amiga CDTV.
    • Amiga News – Delays with NewTek’s video Toaster for the Amiga 2000/2500 and more.
    • The Art Department: Amiga Graphics Go Pro – A image-conversion and processing utility for the Amiga.
    • ProWrite 3.0 – A sold word processing program for the Amiga that includes both text editing and page layout features.

    Misc.

    • Feedback Forum – Letters from readers about IBM vs. clones, discontinuation of Apple II coverage, the PC3 portable computer, and more.
    • Ask Dr. John – Questions answered about upgrading from the Epson FX-80 to an HP LaserJet, getting two computers to communicate via LapLink, printing special characters, and more.
    • Coming Events – A list of upcoming computer shows/fairs. There are 17 listed here for November and early December. i don’t think these sorts of things even exist anymore.
    • Bulletin Board of the Month – The BBS of the month is Pro Tech BBS in Chickasaw, Alabama. It features approximately 3,000 files to download, baud rates of 300/1200/2400-14400 HST, and runs on a 20MHz ALR 386 computer with 570MB of hard drive space with WILDCAT! 2.10N BBS software.
    • Bulletin Boards – A list of Bulletin Boards all across the country.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • PC World (September 1997)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – September 1997

    As can be seen by the page count at nearly 400 pages, the late 1990s were probably near the height of popularity for PC World. This is probably true of most computer related magazines (PC ones anyway). The September 1997 issue of PC World includes:

    Cover Story

    • Windows 98: A Convenience You Can Live With…Or Without – A first look at Windows 98. At the time, it wasn’t seen as a major upgrade over Windows 95.

    Features

    • Inside Office 97 – Tips for the new Office 97 including how to mix and matchi Office 97 and Office 95 files, removing unneeded components, and much more.
    • Bigger Is Better – At the time, you basically had a choice between 15-inch, 17-inch and 21-inch CRT monitors. 15-inch monitors were for bargain hunters while 21-inch monitors were extremely expensive. 17-inch was the sweet spot and this round-up includes a variety of 17-inch monitors including the IBM P70, Liyama VisonMaster Pro 17, Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 87TXM, ViewSonic PT775, Samsung SyncMaster 700b, Princeton Graphics Systems E075, Dell UltraScan 1000HS, Compaq V70, Hansol Multitech 17PX and Sony CPD-220VS. Prices ranged from $638 to $899.
    • What a Pain! The First Six Months of Owning a PC – An article that follows the adventures (and misadventures) of 25 new PC buyers.
    • Invasion of the Webcasters – Webcasters here basically refers to push notifications. This article looks at various services that deliver news and other info via this method.

    Special Report

    • Servers With Room To Grow – A look at low cost workgroup servers. At the top of the list is the Digital Prioris MX 6200 SMP. It includes a Pentium Pro-200 (expandable to dual processors), up to 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage with up to 36 GB (4 x 9 GB) for $5300. Others looked at here include the Compaq ProLiant 800, HP NetServer LD Pro 6/180, HP NetServer LH Pro 6/200, and HP NetServer E 40 6/200.
    • Eight Ways to Work Across The Web – A look at various software that helps you to collaborate with others over the web.

    Top of the News

    • 56-kbps Illusions: High Speed Access Not as Advertised – At this point in time, there were two competing 56K modem standards, one from U.S. Robotics and one from Rockwell/Lucent, and not all ISPs supported both…or either.
    • The NetPC Arrives: Back to the Future for User Control – The NetPC concept was for typically lower end PCs in a small form factor with limited upgrade potential and sometimes missing floppy and optical drives or missing local storage altogether…but were easier for businesses to manage.
    • USB Gives You a Rough Ride – The early days of USB on Windows 95 was not a great experience. Hot swapping frequently caused problems as did driver support.
    • Browser: Manage Your Money – Virtually everyone does online banking today. In 1997 it was still a novelty.

    New Products

    • Digital 6166K AMD K6 system, USA Flex 6x86MX-PR200 Cyrix 6x86MX system – A look at two machines with non-Intel Pentium MMX class processors. While these systems tended to be cheaper than their Pentium counterparts and even sometimes faster for certain tasks, they tended to be slower (sometimes much slower) for FPU intensive tasks including multimedia and games.
    • CSA-6700 USB add-in card – A $59 add-in card that provides your system with two USB ports.
    • Gateway 2000 G6-266XL PC – Featuring a Pentium II-266 CPU, 64MB of RAM, 9 GB SCSI hard drive, 21-inch monitor, 64-bit 3-D graphics card, and a 56K modem for $5128 this was a very high end but expensive PC. A couple of months later I would get a Gateway machine with a 300 MHz Pentium II and 32 GB of RAM for less than $3000.
    • Toshiba PDR-2 digital camera – A 640×480 digital camera designed to work with a PC Card slot for $499.
    • Reunion online BBS/chat rooms – Software that allows you to host chats and browsable bulletin boards on your PC.
    • DVD471T11 DVD-ROM kit – An early DVD-ROM drive that includes Toshiba SD-M002 DVD-ROM drive and CineMaster DVD playback card (because CPUs weren’t fast enough at the time to decode DVD video) for $579. However, this drive could not read CD-R disks.
    • Kai’s Photo Soap – A once popular image editor and photo retouching tool.
    • Uninstaller 4.5 – Windows 95 (and even Windows today) wasn’t that great at uninstalling software, often leaving behind files and especially registry entries. This was one utility available that helped clean things up.

    Top 100

    • Power Desktops – At the top of the list this month is the Dell Dimension XPS H266. My favorite on the list is in 3rd place, the Gateway 2000 G6-233. It features a Pentium II 233 MHz processor, 3.2 GB hard drive, 64 MB RAM, STB Virge 4MB 3D PCI video card, 16x CD-ROM drive and more for $2899. I would own a slightly later revision with a 333 MHz CPU.
    • Budget Desktops – At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS M166s featuring a Pentium 166MMX processor, 32 MB RAM, Matrox Millennium II video card and 12x CD-ROM drive for $2199.
    • Notebooks – At the top of the power list is the WinBook FX featuring a Pentium 166MMX CPU for $3999. At the top of the budget list is the Compaq Armada 15200M featuring a Pentium 133 CPU for $2199.
    • 17-inch Monitors – The top monitor this month is the liyama VisionMaster Pro 17 for $698.
    • Graphics Boards – The top graphics board this month is the STB Nitro 3D with 4MB of EDO DRAM for $149.
    • Internal Modems – The top 33.6 modem this month is the U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything. I always wanted one of these (preferably an external version) but they were pricy. Though here the internal 33.6 Courier is only about $15 less than the 56K Sportster (these are internal models though).

    Here’s How

    • Answer Line – How to reinstall Windows 95, upgrade telnet, and piggyback modems for faster speeds.
    • Windows Tips – Speed up Windows 95 load time, ‘send to folder” functionality for Windows 3.1, Windows 95 safe mode, and more.
    • Internet Tips – Using web auction sites, protecting passwords and privacy, and more.
    • Multimedia Tips – Tips for adjusting PC sound, cataloging your multimedia files, and more.
    • Upgrade Guide – A guide to adding a video camera to your system.

    At Home

    • Home Products – A look at the Panasonic EggCam, Corel Family Tree Suite genealogy software, and more.
    • Top 5 Home PCs – At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS M233s featuring a Pentium MMX-233, 32MB of SDRAM, and more for $2379.

    Departments

    • Up Front – Advice on whether or not to upgrade to Windows 98.
    • Letters – Letters from readers on 56K modems, AOL, the PC98 initiative, Adobe Illustrator, and more.

    …and much more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged