Author Archives: Al M

Outlook Express 6

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NEWWe noticed our review of PocoMail 2.63 was dated October 28, 2002. We go through e-mail apps like Imelda Marcos went through shoes. Holey cow, we’re using OE 6 now. How long did Pocomail Last, and why did we switch?

We stuck with PocoMail for a little over a year. In our book, it remains a solid, stable app with few quirks or glitches serious enough to be bothersome. For us, that’s saying a lot.

What really provoked the switch might well be more of a training issue than any problem with the software or its design. Synchronizing mail files with the laptop turned out to be a bodaciously hellacious job. “For us, that’s saying a lot”.

After a file synch that looked perfectly good to us in Windows Explorer, we would take the laptop off on vacation, and PocoMail would somehow re-index everything so that we ended up with two copies of every mail item in the in-box, dating back to the previous vacation. We never figured out what we were missing. I like Outlook Express 6 a lot better, though, and it seems cleaner and more reliable than the bloated corporate Outlook bundled with MS Office.
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Building a PC 2004

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In Brief:

DFI LanParty

For this year we picked AMD 3000+ as the price-performance sweet spot. The picture shows a DFI Lan Party motherboard (nVidia chipset) in the Cooler Master case. We had some horrible problems and ended up not taking pictures to document the project.

The problem turned out to be a damaged CPU chip, probably caused by improper packing at Outpost.com. It took over a month to pinpoint the problem, by which time we were using the ASUS A7N8X-E motherboard instead. Outpost.com did make good with a no questions asked return authorization.
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COBOL Emulator

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Our chief programmer and system architect at work purchased a COBOL emulator to run mainframe code on his PC. This was about 1989. If you’re a mainframe shop, and considering the state of PC’s at the time, this was a cool development tool.

After a year or two of satisfactory use, he had a question. He called the manufacturer. After verifying which product he was inquiring about, they said, “So you’re the one.”

What did they mean by that? “We only sold one copy of this particular product. We always wondered who purchased it.” December 6, 2003

Jump Drive by Lexar

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Summitlake.com reviews the Lexar JumpDrive: “JumpDrive 2.0 Pro, Portable USB Storage – Lexar Media’s new hi-speed JumpDrive 2.0 Pro is one of the fastest ways to transfer large data files via the USB port on your computer. Compatible with the USB 2.0 specification, it supports read speeds up to 6MB/sec and write speeds up to 4.5MB/sec.”

We put our Iomega ZIP selections back on the store shelf and bought a couple of these instead. They really are the greatest thing since sliced bread! February 23, 2003.

PocoMail 2.63

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Review :PocoMail 2.63

Powerful, simple, uncluttered email client offers most of the features of more complex programs and several indispensable tools that neither Outlook nor Eudora offer. We reviewed this a couple of weeks after porting our venerable Outlook installation to PocoMail in a single evening. We’ve replaced Outlook with this reliable, pleasurable email application. October 28, 2002

Spammers Giude

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Satire: Spammers Giude

Here’s a 19-Point Guide primer on the bottom-feeders who choke your mailbox and the Internet with unwanted, unattractive spam, porn, and unbelievably crude scams. Evidently, somebody believes them. Spam is not only getting cruder and more explicit, it’s beginning to adopt age-old high pressure sales tactics and classic con schemes. It never hurts to be aware of these tactics. There is no way you can overestimate the pervasiveness and sophistication of this new low in the advertising world. June 11, 2002

Digital Photo Software

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Letter: Digital Photo Software

Question: Some great software came bundled with my digital camera 3 years ago, but I can’t find an upgrade. Can you help? Answer: we recommend getting away from “bundled software” entirely for exactly this reason (and more). Here’s the way we do it. May 27, 2002

FireWire DOS Drivers?

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Letter: FireWire DOS Drivers?

Summitlake.com delves further into “portable drives” as a true backup solution. Is FireWire or USB2.0 going to work for you as a backup solution? Now? Ever? Guess again. Here’s what we found out about the current state of driver support for these two new technologies. May 26, 2002, with continuing updates

Computer Stereo Audio

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Article: Computer Stereo Audio

Hooking the PC up to a REAL stereo. Buy a few simple standard audio cables and adapters at Radio Shack, and retire those tinny old PC “speakers”. Don’t spend more than $29 on a pair of PC speakers, and don’t expect more than $29 sound out of them! A primer in the nuts and bolts of making the leap from toy audio output to the real thing. It’s much simpler than most people think. May 4, 2002