TUT
TALKS
HAL says Hi!!
HAL
was the talking computer in “2001 A Space Odyssey”. Today’s computers are not quite there yet. However, for about $1,350 you can get a
Pentium 4 at 1,300 MHz. Quite a rocket compared with those early 386 models at
25 MHz, or even early Pentiums at 133 MHz or so. Any time you can triple your speed for the same price as you paid
for your current computer, it is a good upgrade. Also see Printers
about changes to TUT printer
requirements and some good values as well.
Most
of you have been getting your upgrades via www.tutsoftware.com. The update process for TUT is virtually
automatic. Everyone has been very
pleased. The current revision is
6.4.25. The 6 is Year 2001, the 4 is
April, the day is the 25th.
Please install this upgrade as it has many new features including Check Reconciliation and a new required Support Update
menu item.
"TUT
ALERT" still lacks interest. Our
plan “C” is to FAX the update alert notices.
I think we have most everyone’s fax number.
Almost
all the "Free" Internet options are no longer in business. Yet more and more mason contractors get
on-line every day. Get
"Connected".
Now
some specific issues:
Windows 98se / Windows Me / Windows 2000 ?
We
now have experience with all 3 window’s flavors. Windows Me has proven to be the least desirable, especially in
networked installations. It has
frequent problems and seems to loose or change settings at will. This is Not Good. Windows 98 second edition (Win98se) in a very good upgrade from
Win 95 and Win 98 original versions.
Windows 2000 is quite a bit different from previous Windows versions, as
it is an NT upgrade. Please understand
that Win2000 is NOT being marketed as an upgrade to Win98. There are specific testing programs, which
will tell you how much trouble an upgrade might present. Unless you have some specific problem with
Win98se, upgrading is still not recommended.
Windows 2000 workstations have a definite problem working with Novel 3.X
servers. If you have a Novel network,
either upgrade it to Novel’s latest version (5.+) or stay away from Windows
2000.
Support Update
Support
pricing is based on the number of people on payroll each week. Previously, we have not had any method to
update this count to reflect the fact that most businesses grow after
installing TUT. A new feature in
version 6.4.25 is a new menu item under “System Utilities” called “Support
Update”. This program will analyze your
payrolls for the last year and recalculate your proper level of support. We are encouraging everyone to:
Upgrade to 6.4.25
Run the “Support Update”
Fax the resulting report to 800-875-6885
Please
complete this process by July 1st, 2001. Anyone who has not completed the process by August 1st,
2001 will be considered to be at the “Unlimited” level. This report process will be repeated
annually between the 2nd and 3rd quarter. The evaluation process does not count the 5
largest weeks, and averages the next 15 largest weeks to produce a fair
estimate of usage levels. Most everyone
who has purchased TUT in the last 2 years will be unaffected. Older TUT customers will likely have
increases, a few may have decreases, but $700 is still the minimum support
level. Our plan is designed to give the
best support and still share the cost properly among our customers.
E - Fax / E - Mail
In
November of 2000, TUT support faxes began to be routed through an internet
based service called “efax.com”. This
service records your fax and changes it into an E-Mail attachment. The E–Mail is then sent to us at help@tutsoftware.com. This gives us an electronic version of your
request. We now store all the “faxes”
we get by customer and can check and exchange this information easily between
support staff. This has worked very
well for us. We are now going to
encourage anyone who has the capability to just E–Mail us instead of
faxing. In prior years we did not check
our E–Mail with the same diligence as the faxes, but that has changed. E–Mail
requests for support are mixed right in with the E–Fax requests. For both forms of support request, Please
include your Company, Phone Number, Application (PR AP AR JC GL ES) and some
description of what is the problem.
“Call me” is understood to mean, “Call me when you have some time”.
Check Reconciliation
Check
Reconciliation has finished testing and has been working well for over 3 months
in selected test sites. It has been a
long awaited upgrade. It is well
designed and doing the job very well.
Enjoy! Instructions are
available via our web site under Support.
Printers
Selecting
printers keeps getting harder each year.
The computer has become a home entertainment device and thus most
printers offered today are designed for home use only. Home models have duty cycles (expected life
or normal use) of 12,000 sheets for it’s life time. “Commercial” models have duty cycles exceeding 10,000 sheets per
month. The other factor in printer
selection is the ability of the printer to respond to software control commands. We have standardized on the HP PCL (printer
control language). PCL has allowed us
to adjust the print positions in AIA form printing and produce a new 4up Laser
W2. It has therefore become a
requirement of TUT to have a PCL compatible printer. HP has the following new models available for your selection:
HP
Laserjet 1200 15 page/min 10,000 sheets/month $399
< 30 men
Hp
Laserjet 2200d 19 page/min 40,000 sheets/month $799
< 90 men
Hp
Laserjet 4100 25 page/min 150,000 sheets/month $1,099
>90 men
These
printers are available through Office Depot, Office Max, Etc. While most people have a color inkjet type
printer, it is not suitable to make maximum use of TUT’s newer features. Please select from these printers when
upgrading your printer.
Just
a reminder: moreinfo@tutsoftware.com (sales)
help@tutsoftware.com (bob
& jim)
jim@tutsoftware.com (yours
truly)
Your
ideas & suggestions are needed as we strive to exceed your expectations.
Jim
Meidl, President