TCS - From the Dealsguy

From the Dealsguy

Bob Click
Greater Orlando Computer User Group
From the September 1999 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter

New York! New York!

I managed to make the PC Expo/APCUG event and enjoyed it. A lot of hard work by many people made this event possible. I noticed attendance was mainly people in the area. PC Expo starts on Tuesday, making it necessary for distant attendees to stay longer, but I thought that extra day (Monday) was well filled with interesting activities.

Many attendees commuted from home. The hotel @ $129 + taxes per day gets expensive. While PC Expo is fun, it's a corporate show, not that useful for myself. NY was expensive for our sponsoring vendors and their support is already waning.

Why weren't more of you there? I'm sure your APCUG officers wonder why and you should express your thoughts, whatever they are. Is it the wrong show; if so, what show do you prefer? Is it too expensive? Are two events a year to many --- although one seems attended mostly by people from the east, and the other by people from the west. Is the duration too long? What can APCUG do to get your attendance?

Most shows are held in expensive cities, with few exceptions, and many shows go from city to city each year. You might be interested in something smaller, such as the Dayton Computerfest or the Trenton Computer Festival, which could simply be a long weekend (if either group were interested in working with APCUG). Or is it even necessary to hold APCUG events in conjunction with a show? The FACUG event offers only it's own conferences, roundtables and the supporting vendors, and is limited to 150 attendees. FACUG is mostly attended by Florida area UG officers and was not intended to attract from all over.

Now for my pet peeve -- I have always thought these events should be opened up to all UG members rather than just officers. Would you attend such an event if there were NO FREE MEALS during the presentations? That could mean more vendors might be sponsors giving presentations. APCUG thinks few would attend such an event without freebees.

I'd like comments from all my readers, especially user group officers. Up until now, these events were intended for officers only (considered the movers and shakers). You can send APCUG your comments via <board@apcug.org>. They would love to know your thoughts. If you'd rather, e-mail me at , I'll read and forward them. Now for some deals.

Manage Your Computer's Memory Better

I don't often feature shareware, but when I saw "MemTurbo" demonstrated by Mike Ungerman & Hewie Poplock at a Central Florida Computer Society meeting recently, I liked it and the vendor granted a special offer for this column. MemTurbo does a better job of managing your computer's memory. I watched as they demonstrated by opening up many programs and draining available memory, but a touch of the button brought things back in control. MemTurbo can display a graph showing your resources, and it changes, remarkably, right before your eyes.

The following are their claims: (from their Web site)

MemTurbo stays in your tray until you need it. When its time for more RAM, press the hot key and watch the onscreen progress display. And get this: it doesn't modify any DLLs, and installs nothing outside its own directory.

Visit the Web site www.memturbo.com for more explanation and a free download for trial. I haven't tried it myself, but I liked the demonstration that was done by friends I respect for their abilities, although Hewie doesn't normally use any such utilities. The address is Silicon Prairie Software, 23316 NE Redmond Fall City Road, Suite 553, Redmond, WA 98053-8376. I noticed on the ever-popular Tucows.com shareware site that MemTurbo was rated only three cows, but you can download the free version to see for yourself.

Visit the URL http://www.memturbo.com/bsco.html for the special offer on MemTurbo. This URL was created just for my deals column and will be good during September and October. It's normally $19.95, but you get the full version during that limited time for just $14.95 by downloading it from that URL. You save shipping and get the lowest price. If you prefer, call them at 713-524-6394 Ext.15789 to order at $19.95 + S&H. (Because phone orders require a staff, the $19.95 price stays the same.) S&H will be $3.00 USA and $5.00 Canada.

How About Some FREE Software?

The following is an announcement I received recently: "The problem with the Windows clipboard is that you can only copy once before pasting. Not anymore; now you can copy several times from one application before pasting into the next. You can also save thousands of clips permanently. We publish the leading clipboard utility 'Classic Clipboard.'

"As a brand awareness promotion, we are releasing the Windows 95/98 version totally FREE of charge. We invite you to offer 'Classic Clipboard' as a FREE utility to your members. There is no catch; the product is FREE and we ask nothing in return. You can either link to our download site, place the installation file on your own site for download, or distribute it in any manner you wish. The download page for 'Classic Clipboard' is: http://www.easysoftwareuk.com/classic.htm. John Turnbull, Easy Software Ltd."

Not many companies give us FREE software, John, so we thank you. I wonder how "Classic Clipboard" compares with the clipboard utility included on your windows CD (but not installed) that nobody seems to know about. This will give you a chance to find out at no cost.

Finally, Something Just For The NT Folks

What do you do about fragmenting on your hard disk if you're using NT? In fact, what in the world is fragmenting? Most NT users already know this, but for newcomers, fragmentation occurs naturally as a user creates, appends, deletes, or truncates files during normal system use. On an empty hard disk, when the first files are saved to a disk, it is laid down on the tracks in contiguous clusters. In other words, the read/write head can move directly from one cluster to the next in one smooth operation. The head stays in one place over a single track and reads or writes the file as the disk moves beneath it. As more files are added, they too are written in contiguous clusters. But, as files are erased, they leave empty clusters to which new files can be written.

Unfortunately, some of these clusters are not big enough to hold the new files. As a result, a fragment of the file is written to one cluster with the rest of the file linked to the next available cluster, or clusters if necessary, on the disk. File fragments can end up being any distance from each other on the disk, causing the head to move/jump all over, thus causing the drive to write and read information slower. This is where a good defragger should come to the rescue!

PerfectDisk NT is the smart, safe, powerful way to improve Windows NT performance by rapidly defragmenting a disk (putting your files back in some contiguous order) using Raxco's patented SMARTPlacement. SMARTPlacement reorganizes files based on usage patterns. Seldom-used files move toward the back of the disk and every-day files move closer to the master file table, thus minimizing head seek time. After initial setup, PerfectDisk NT will automatically defragment and optimize ONLY the files that have been fragmented since the previous pass.

Raxco is the only company offering single-node licensing, so, for the same price you can have the same functionality for servers and workstations. Until October 31st 1999, Raxco Software, Inc. is offering its NT defragger for only $19.00 to Dealsguy column readers.

But, you say, I don't have an NT system. In the late September or October time frame, Raxco will be launching its PerfectDisk 2000. PerfectDisk 2000 supports Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. It defragments all system files including the NTFS Master File Table. Pick and choose; you can either buy PerfectDisk NT retail, register the copy, and get a free upgrade to PerfectDisk 2000, or simply visit the Raxco site at http://www.raxco.com for product info, then take advantage of their special $19.00 offer by visiting the URL http://www.raxco.com/cug for the download. No modem? Call 800-546-9728 and tell the inside sales representative that you are calling about the special code "BCDEAL" priced at $19.00 + $10.00 S&H (US/Canada). (Downloading saves S&H!) One caveat, the URL created just for my readers to order will not be in service until September 1, 1999, and ends October 31, 1999.

Snail mail address is Raxco Software, Inc., 6 Montgomery Village Ave., Suite 500, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. (Fax) 301-519-7711.

That's it for my September column. Meet me here again next month to discuss deals. I'm working on a couple of very interesting ones. This column is written to make user group members aware of special pricing and my comments should not be construed to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of products. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click. dealsguy@mindspring.com.



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