Thanks to COMPUTERUSER and Molly W. Joss for the fine article on upgrading one's personal computer (November). However, in regard to upgrading to a 56K modem, I fail to see the value for the home user when the residential phone lines remain too noisy or are of otherwise unsatisfactory quality as to permit 56K service. Maybe you folks have some influence with our local telephone service, U S West.

Joe Zwack

jrzwack@ix.netcom.com

Dear Michael Finley,

I thoroughly enjoyed your Diversions article in the October issue of COMPUTER USER. I most liked your comments on children being computer geniuses and the rest of us older ones being technologically challenged. Having studied elementary education, I know firsthand that children are fortunate enough to not be saddled with our experiences. While our experiences obscure our vision, their lack of experience provides them with a certain clarity of vision that is difficult for us to attain.

If you would be so kind, please speak to the person in charge of creating the titles for the articles. The title that your article was given was "Technology and the devolution of man." Usage of the word "man" in this fashion in the English language today is gender-exclusive and therefore archaic (please believe me when I say that I don't write the rules for the language … I'm merely pointing out the rules as they are). A better title would have been "Technology and the devolution of humanity," since this title says the same thing while using the language rules as they are today.

Terry McCarty

Terry.Mccarty@state.mn.us

Because I'm a Mac user, I obviously did not enjoy reading Dan Heilman's "Hardware wars" article in the November issue of COMPUTERUSER, but I can't disagree with much of what he says. However, one of his quotes from Kurt Bertelsen of Andersen Consulting puzzles me. Bertelsen is quoted as saying, "Unfortunately, 99.999 percent of business apps only work on Intel, or on Windows 95, Windows 98 or NT platforms." This statement is a level of hyperbole far beyond anything I've seen in a serious article on computer platforms in COMPUTERUSER.

What is a "business app"? For Bertelsen's statement to be true, one must consider that the Microsoft programs Word, Excel and PowerPoint are not business apps. I use the all of these programs on my Macintosh and routinely use Lotus Notes to exchange files from these programs with Wintel users in the company where I work. FileMaker Pro, a database more suitable for many users than Oracle or Access, is available for both Mac and Wintel. Deltagraph, an excellent graphing program also is available on both platforms.

Apparently, Bertelsen does not count any of these programs as business apps. The statistics I have seen strongly suggest that the majority of use by most Wintel users involves only the Microsoft programs listed above. So again I ask, what programs make up the 99.999 percent of business apps that only run on Wintel machines?

hansenjl@aol.com

John L. Hansen

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