🚀 go-pugleaf

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PC Notes #82               04/13/92           copr. 1992, Dave Williams
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 It seems to be traditional for columnists to hawk their latest books.
Keep an eye out for "DESQview Unleashed" by none other than myself,
should be at your local bookstores sometime in August.  I still cringe
a bit at what Sams decided to title it, but it's not as bad as what
the British publisher of my first book did with the cover.  I think it
must be in the top ten for "ugliest cover art ever printed."

 Part of the delay between this PC Notes and the last one was due to
The Vacation From Hell - why have an ordinary boring vacation when you
can sleep in a broken car on the shoulder of I-40 in 30 degree weather,
hunt elusive foreign car parts all over Oklahoma and Kansas, or make
a new distributor housing from billet on a borrowed lathe in Colorado?

 Multimedia Spreadsheets:  Lotus is previewing New Improved 123 With
Multimedia, or something like that.  Well, New Improved 123 With GUI
didn't do so hot (123/PM), and New Improved 123 With Artificial
Intelligence didn't do so hot (Lotus HAL), so why quit when you're
losing?
What exactly could you do with a multimedia spreadsheet?  I guess my
imagination doesn't go that far.  "This is a COW.  @SUM MOO."

 More Lawsuits:  As expected, Intel filed suit against C&T's 386 clones,
asking for a restraining order and an undisclosed amount for damages.
Texas Instruments had already signed up to second-source the C&T CPUs
and had added its weight to C&T's side of the case.  TI and Intel have
bad blood going 'way back - both filed patents which covered the
integrated circuit at about the same time and the patent office dithered
for years before making them share it.

 Don' Need No Steenkeeng Palmtops:  Grid's new PalmPad straps to your
wrist like a giant Mickey Mouse watch.  It will run DOS 5.0 and a
proprietary pen-based shell.  Sorry, people.  I can type at least ten
times faster than I can scratch with a graphite-filled stick; as far as
I'm concerned pens are right down there with punch cards and flipping
toggles on the front of the case.

 More Ads:  IBM's new ads for the Model 56 and 57 have boats.  Their
advertising group isn't hobbled by foolish consistency.

 Shuck and Jive:  I finally got the see the second OS/2 promotional
video.  Heck, it's only about a year old.  Nobody had mentioned the
bizarre cartoon video at the end, done to a modified version of
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia."  Half a dozen of us, including a
couple of non-computerists who were baffled by the first part of the
tape, were rolling on the floor and howling with laughter.  Even if
you don't care about OS/2 it's worth watching the video.

(continued)