Page 12      Diablo Blue      March, 2001

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After mulling that information over for awhile I though that since I have done some consulting why not claim I was a business.
Back I went to the web page and clicked on the business icon. No luck. Apparently once you access the Dell web page and click on one of the three choices, Home, Business, or Government, they put your e-mail address in their data base and you are forever more locked into that category. There does not appear to be anyway to change your status in Dell's data base and, more importantly I would have to pay $300 more than the price advertised in my local paper if I wanted that particular laptop.
I've already written to Dell Corporate on the subject but have not received a response.  This is no way to treat a customer. Maybe that is why their business has dropped off and they are currently downsizing.

I demonstrated this problem to the people at last month's meeting but repeat it here.
Several years ago I purchased one of Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard for about $99.00, and was very pleased with it. Recently, however, it began showing signs of wearing out, with various keys occasionally not working, so I began looking for a replacement. Visiting CompUSA I was very pleased to see the keyboard "on sale" for only $29.00. What a deal! So, of course, I bought it and brought it home.
MISTAKE!
The keyboard only looked like the original keyboard. When I hooked it up and started using it I found that it skittered around the keyboard shelf, something the old one never did. So I decided to start looking for reasons why this happened. Here are my findings:

• The new keyboard is about ½ the weight of the old keyboard. The old one weighed over 4 pounds, the new one was barely 2 pounds.
  
• Next I noticed that the new keyboard's function keys were much smaller than the old keyboard. A nuisance if you touch type.
  
• There were also other key re-arrangements, such as the cursor keys and the page up/page down keys.
  

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world by storm. MP3 players are proliferating everywhere to the point where they are built into everything. (At Comdex we saw several digital cameras with MP3 players built in.) Don't be surprised if your next car or home stereo will have a built in MP3 decoder. This compressed music format gives you virtually CD quality recordings in a very compressed file (depending on the compression size you select). I have put over 200 songs on a single CD in this format.
In April, I hope to have Intuit give a presentation, but my hopes are fading as I wait for confirmation that, so far, has yet to arrive. I spoke with Intuit back in November to get this organized for April -- so keep your fingers crossed.
Finally, in April we will hold our annual elections for the DVPC Board of Directors. We have some seats to fill on the Board, and as always are looking for volunteers. Extra help and fresh ideas are always welcome! The work is minimal, the rewards even more minimal (pizza at the monthly Board meetings), but the contribution you can make to your club is extraordinary.