NWA-PCUG 01/2000 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 January 2000 Deals Column Editor's note: Asterisks denote a heading you may wish to treat in your own manner. Also, if space doesn't permit printing this column in its entirety, please mention that fact in your heading for the column. This column should contain about 1680 words including this Editor's note. From the Dealsguy, Greater Orlando Computer User Group A consultant friend suggested that comments about chipsets, etc., might not be appropriate in the Deals column. He feels they're a bit above the average reader's head, and that's not what the Deals column should be about. I'm not so sure about all that but this month I'll only do a follow-up on the chipsets and USB as promised previously. My intention was to advise you of things to ask when purchasing a computer, not to make you a nerd. What do you think? The Intel 820 chipset is finally shipping. Also, the USB development team says version 2.0 will be faster than originally expected. In fact, it may be as fast as FireWire (IEEE1394). As food for thought though, USB components use more power than the internal components, so I hope you have an adequate power supply if you use USB peripherals. There could possibly be a trend in some motherboards to only offer one plug-in slot (a PCI) and depend more on USB. Let's touch on tech support. All my soundboards, uptil now, have been Sound Blaster (Creative Labs) because each was something I found a deal on at Comdex. Recently, I had a technical question and tried calling Creative Lab's tech support. After many phone-menus, I finally received a recording that they no longer offer "voice" tech support. The recording said you must go to support on their Web site, or use the fax-back system. If they don't want to hear my voice, they won't see my money any more. Problems with a sound system aren't easy for the layman to troubleshoot and there's plenty of other "fish in the sea" to try. Here's the opposite. I bought Ulead Systems' "Cool 3D" and have never waited long to talk to their tech support. Questions were answered quickly and accurately. I like Cool 3D and I'll tell my friends about Ulead's good service. The Adobe PageMill I'm using to construct my Web site only gives you ONE tech support call. I received it free at a FACUG event, so no argument there, but what if I had bought it? Wouldn't that be a bummer! We decided too late to attend Comdex and were unable to find a flight we could afford. My heart was there though and I missed seeing all my friends. It cost me in phone calls this month to compile the column because Comdex is the place to find deals. When telephoning, nobody ever seems to be at his or her desk, so you get voice-mail. Voice-mail doesn't work because people could be anyplace, even at the mall. Returned calls are few and far between. If they do, it's rarely on the same day, likely a week or so, and I have probably just stepped out for a few minutes. Calling back right away usually gets you voice-mail again. Talk about frustration! *Still good is the "Windows 98 in a Nutshell" book by O'Reilly Publishers. Call 1-800-998-9938 and give the CS rep the code "DSUG" for your discount. Also the SharpEyed Music Reader to convert sheet music to MIDI files. Contact BMT Micro at to purchase the registration key for $35.00. Don't forget the ACS Innovations new "Ezfone Pro" add-in board for phone conversations over the Internet. What a great product. Call CT & R Inc. at 1-408-566-0900 (fax 1-408-566-0909) and talk to Michael Ho to order at 20% off list. The Web4Life offer is over, but you might give Joy Porter a call anyway at 1-888-267-1122 to see if she would extend it for you. A one-time cost is a good deal. Joy is great to work with and may still do it. Let's get started, I even have a Mac item further down. *Big Home Page For Small Bucks When Ken Formoyle was here for his DTP workshop, I noticed "Web Express" by MicroVision (one of the raffle prizes) and it caught my eye. It is inexpensive, but certainly gets the job done in an impressive manner. In fact, the user's manual is 212 pages, and almost a course in building your Web site. Considered a bargain by John Dvorak (on the box). Some of the key features are: professionally designed templates, easy graphics conversion, fast image display, Web site manager (even remembers what needs to be changed on your web site when uploading), frame wizard, WYSIWYG frame editing, form wizard, setup wizard, cascading style sheets, link checking, image map editor, edit text on images, image editor launcher, sound files, video clips, browser plug- ins, marquees and ActiveX objects. All that plus hundreds of background textures, buttons, clipart, style sheets, CGI scripts and much more. Wow, my grammar checker went nuts with that paragraph, but Web Express offers a great bargain. I lack room for more description so check their Web site for the whole story. Now for the best part, your special deal is only $59.00 for this package, one of my better bargains. Its my opinion that if you've never built a Web site before, it won't build itself that easily, but Web Express and its large manual and readymade "Web site themes" (with instructions right on the page) sure helps get you going. Even tutors you in some HTML. I liked the look of some of the professionally designed Web site themes for use as templates. I'm putting one together with Web Express for you to see but haven't received my other Web space at this writing for a URL. My readers can get MicroVision's "WebExpress" for just $59.95 by calling 800-998-4555 or 1- 760-438-7781 or via e-mail at . To get this discount, mention your User Group. Shipping is $5.00 US and $7.50 Canadian. *Did You Say 3D? No I Said 4D! Here is a great toy (adults have toys, don't they) from a company creating professional packages. Just the thing for entry level integrated 3D modeling and raytracing (whatever that is) for Windows 9x/NT and Macintosh. Maxon's "Cinema 4D GO" is the entry level of their three packages (the one you and I can afford). The "GO" edition provides the handling, stability and speed of the SE and XL editions, but at a fractional cost. The "GO" edition arms the committed home user, student, multimedia author or Internet designer with tools to create and animate eye-catching 3D graphics quickly and effectively. Besides 3D logos or intergalactic warfare, "GO" can output pictures and animation in full broadcast quality with 4x4 oversampling and fields). For example, the most demanding 3D titles for video films can be created using the internal composing functionality, or by using the alpha channels. The "Instant Space" CD-ROM is included, which is a modular construction system that generates countless varieties of space ships. There's an unlimited number of objects, cameras, light sources etc., and up to one billion points per object, besides an unlimited number of textures per project. There's features galore, so check their Web site to learn more about this high quality software, or call them for a fact sheet and demo-disk. Retail on "Cinema 4D GO" is $195.00, but your user group price is $149.00. Call toll free 1-877-226- 4628 in US (1-805-494-0718 in Canada) to order, and be sure to mention you read it in the Dealsguy column. Shipping is $8.00 US and $20.00 Canadian. They will send demo disks to your reviews chairman for your members. Additionally, Paul said that if you want their upper level packages, you can buy the SE version (retail $995) for only $495.00 and the XL version (retail $1995) for only $695.00 right now. I have not had the opportunity to try any of this software, but the brochure was in the Corel User Group mailing and it looked very good to me. Wonder if I could animate myself to win the lottery. Nah, I think I can scratch that idea. *How About a PIM That's More Than a PIM? "Communicate Pro" by "01 Communique Laboratory, Inc." is head and shoulders above what you've seen. They told me it would take at least four separate products to do what Communicate Pro does. It transforms your PC into a powerful communications center. It organizes your phone, fax, pager, Internet access, e-mail and voice-mail. By January they hope to have incorporated video conferencing into this product. Save money with the Internet Phone and Fax-on-Demand. You save time with Pager Dispatching, contact management, and the CallAnswer Wizard. Greet callers with personalized messages, reduce paperwork and save time by centralizing all your communications under one easy-to-use interface. There's too much to include here. Visit the Web site to find out more, and to download a free version. Be aware that the file size is 13 megs. Their Web site is . If you like it, you can purchase the unlocking key on the Web site for $69.00 (normally $99.00). No phone ordering right now, but you can call 1- 800-668-2185 or 1-905-795-2888 x207 for more information. The sheet I looked at was chuck full of feature lists alone. *I said I was slow in doing a web site with Web Express. That's because I had one almost finished with Adobe PageMill when I found Web Express and have been putting some last minute changes on it suggested by friends. My site is at . You'll find several months of past Deals columns there, except for the last three months that are on a private URL known only by my editors so they can have them first. That's about it for January. Meet me here next month for more deals. This column is written to make user group members aware of special pricing I have arranged and my comments should not be construed to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of products. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click .