Flash@UMass.BITNET (Rick Flashman) (08/22/86)
Greetings, As some of you will remember, I purchased 3 weeks ago a copy of I*S Talk. I informed you of how it did NOT run and bombed all over the place. Well, after having sent the program to B.I. 3 weeks ago, and 4 phone calls, I have some info to say. First of all, B.I. was AWARE that their ENTIRE first shipment of I*S Talk did NOT run. Their head of Costumer Support admitted this to me today. They just decided to ship it, and allow all the registered owners to UPGRADE to a working copy. Now, you tell me if that is not slimy. The WORKING version is scheduled to be released in 2 weeks, and will be shipped to ALL I*S Talk owners who have registered their products. Now, that's terrible. To sell a product with bugs in it, I hate, but can see. But to sell a product that just doesn't plain do what it is advertised to do, is an outright ripoff. Isn't there some sort of Costumer Protection Plan or organization out there to prevent this same happening? What about Atari, Neill? Do you guys care of what is happening out there? Tramiel claims that the only program he ever uses on the ST is a program by the SAME company I am talking about. This isn't some small in-house software hack them company. This is just about one of the LARGEST ST dedicated software company. Is this a sign of things to come? I was also told by the same person, that Degas Elite is still 6-8 weeks away. And Paperclip Elite, you will be lucky to see it by X-Mass. Do NOT buy I*S Talk. NONE of the copies available at the present moment WORK correctly. They all suffer the SAME problems I mentioned before. BTW, I met the writer of Final Word from Mark of the Unicorn this week. Do NOT expect many new enhancements for the ST or a GEM version of that program. He said after writting version 1.7 for the ST, he doesn't feel like doing anything else. He prefers IBM. He just finished version 2.0 for the IBM. If I was you, I would shop elsewhere for a good wordprocessor. Also, I heard that Microsoft's Write is at a suggested retail of $129.95. It supports multiple fonts, and proportionally spaced fonts. It will also support various laser printers, like the canon. The version ported to the ST was Word Version 1.00 from the Mac (Does that mean they took extra care in porting the bugs too? :-). BTW, you guys who keep talking about the internal keyboard clock card. I hate to tell you, a company has had it for sale for about 2 months now. Cost $49.95 suggested retail. Check your local dealer. It consist of a pair of rechargable batteries that plugs into the keyboards chip. They recharge when the ST is on, and keep the chip running when the power is down. Easy as Pie. For those who use OSS Pascal, I had a long talk with their head of costumer support and one of their cheif programmers. They recommend anyone who is serious about OSS, to download the TECHNICAL NOTES from their BBS. He also mentioned to me that you are looking at POST-X-MASS for a new update. (Version 2.00) This version will have a new manual and extra GEM calls. They are very small, and he described me that their hardware consisted of two 1040's. They are number 10 of the software best selling list. Bye for now, Rick Flashman
hallock%marlin@NOSC.ARPA (Michael J. Hallock) (08/23/86)
------- The man's name is NEIL. I appreciate your informative comments, but the man's name is NEIL. Mike Hallock -------