Number 222 - November 2001

UPDATE
Tailoring Software to Fit Your Needs     We have included an article in this issue which discusses some of the features of Quicken accounting software in more detail than will interest everyone. Anyone who has had to deal with accounting software in the past will appreciate some of the points made about modifying it to include your unique accounts and the problem of making such "packaged" software work your way. BIOS RECOVERY - Hardware? or Operating System?     In the Hardware Notes & Tips section, we present a fairly technical procedure for updating your Basic Input Output System (BIOS) or recovering from a corrupted one. The BIOS consists of basic computer code and is a key element of the operating system, so this article could logically have been included under an Operating System Notes & Tips section. However, the BIOS code is held in a Read Only Memory (ROM) chip, which is hardware, so we have placed it there. The procedure described here is not for the faint-hearted--but when you need it you will have to do something similar to what is described.     We have been told in the past: "That article you published last month was exactly what I was looking for--and very timely--just what I needed!" We sincerely hope you didn't need this one, but if you did we hope it helps you!	Follow-up On AntiVirus Tip     Last month we carried a tip that putting a simple entry like !0000 in your e-mail Address Book but with no e-mail address would stop the re-transmission of viruses by e-mail from your computer. As Fred Langa pointed out in his column this month, while that may come into effect after all other safeguards have been by-passed, it also means that your computer has been infected with the virus. It is much better, as we said last month, to protect your computer from such an invasion with a firewall, such as ZoneLabs' free-for-personal-use ZoneAlarm and antivirus software such as Norton AV (see Librarian Tom Stepanek). Puzzling 110 Error?     For those of you who read Carl Tenning's article Problem Connecting a Serial Mouse in the October 2001 TOGGLE, and wondered about his reference to an ISA 110 card, it should have read ISA I/O (Input/Output) card. Also Chanel B is configured to COM2, not Channel 8. While the sense of the article was not affected by the typos, any time wasted on your part by trying to locate an ISA 110 card or Channel 8 is entirely our fault. Be assured that our editorial staff (Hah!) has already been chastised for their proofreading laxity and have been administered 20 lashes with a wet noodle. (We wanted to use a wet google--or googol?--but couldn't get a grip.)
Number 222 - November 2001