SpeakUp with Sundial Systems from 10/04/99

<Abraxas>  MODE +o WarpHoss
<WarpHoss>  My inbox is ridiculus.
<Abraxas>  hehe ... mine was pretty full, too .... but no message from Ratti :-(
<WarpHoss>  :(
<Abraxas>  I had a few ... 1st thing this morning ... from him ... but nothing since ... no new info
<Abraxas>  He may join the meeting tonight, though
<WarpHoss>  I hope so.
<MADEZIRC>  MODE +o madodel
<WarpHoss>  MODE +o madodel
<WarpHoss>  Anyone in here ever use Frontpage?
*  Sector has no use for it *
<madodel>  Ack, a devil incantation. begone devil worshipper
<WarpHoss>  Me either... My brother asked me how to do something with it my advice was del *.*
<Abraxas>  Good advice
<Sector>  Format C: would be better
<madodel>  Format C: /L
<WarpHoss>  Nope. He's hooked on MS because he can't find apps for his bus. in OS/2.
<Sector>  Does the mickysoft format command use /L?
<madodel>  Who cares, boot to a real os
<Sector>  Well if he didn't have one...
<Sector>  We wouldn't want the format command not to work. Most mickysoft windoze users would want to know what went wrong.
<Sector>  Welcome
<VoiceBot>  MODE +o Projects
<WarpHoss>  welcome rollin
<rollin>  Hello!
<rollin>  Randell will be here shortly.
<Sector>  JudyM!
<JudyM>  g'evening everyone :)
<JudyM>  Sector!! :)
<eTronik>  Hello all
*  Sector wonders where mandie could be tonight... *
<JudyM>  she's in conference ;)
<eTronik>  .
*  Sector thinks his clock must be slow if Swanee is here already *
<Swanee>  Sector: You have lost faith in me? :-)
<JudyM>  Swanee: nope, just knows your track recrd :)
<Sector>  Well, a slip up every once in awhile is allowed. Just don't let it happen too often...
<Swanee>  Tough crowd! :-)
<JudyM>  topic* Warpstock preview from Sundial Systems
<JudyM>  lol
<JudyM>  g'evening everyone
<Swanee>  JudyM: Did you get all the info you were expecting today?
<Swanee>  oops, I'll be quiet
<JudyM>  VOICE is pleased to have Sundial Systems tonight as their guest
<JudyM>  for those that aren't aware....
<JudyM>  Sundial Systems has been kind enough to provide us with information on the first Monday of even numbered months
<JudyM>  and if you're not confused yet :)
<randell>  Hi all, I'm finally here.
<JudyM>  Tonight Sundial's topic will be
<JudyM>  Warpstock preview from Sundial Systems
<JudyM>  Welcome Randell and Rollin, the floor is all yours ;)
<rollin>  Thanks Judy!
<rollin>  The goal tonight is to give you an overview of what we'll be
<rollin>  talking about and showing at Warpstock. Then, whateve areas interest the crowd,
<rollin>  we can go into more depth.
<rollin>  First, the fun part!
<rollin>  We'll be putting on a "game show" Warped Jeopardy.
<randell>  And "warped" it is...
<rollin>  We did this for the first time at Warp Expo West, and despite some technical problems, seemed to be a lot of fun.
<rollin>  The concept is similar to Jeopardy, but with a bent on Warped questions. Also there will be audience participation.
<rollin>  We will have three other presentations for the weekend.
<rollin>  Dan Kulp will be showing what is new in the next version of Mesa 2.
<rollin>  Randell will be giving a demonstration on Rover Pack, it's features and advantages.
<rollin>  I'll be discussing the product currently named as Kiwi which we discussed last Speak-up.
<randell>  And Dan will also be covering how to get the most out of Mesa (not just what's new).
<rollin>  We'll also be on the exhibit floor standing by to demonstrate any of our other products.
<rollin>  Thanks Randell.
<randell>  And, to the extent that time permits...
<rollin>  That's the overview, so I guess I'll throw it open to questions
<randell>  We'll use some of the time from the Rover Pack session to cover what's happening with Relish, etc.
<rollin>  Yes, we learned from last year you can't fit four products into an hour time slot.
<rollin>  Although I did present all four to the Seattle user group once in 50 minutes. A few heads were spinning.
<randell>  Or probably even into 4 half hour time slots!
<rollin>  Hi John!
<JudyM>  RAtti!
<Ratti>  Howdy y'all
<randell>  And now we have *six* products!
<JudyM>  you sure will cover alot!
<Swanee>  Hi John!
<JudyM>  I hope to make some of the sessions...some programs have features that we never even know about
<JudyM>  unless of course, you Read That Fine Manual :)
<rollin>  That's true. Frequently during product demonstrations exisiting users will ask how we did a particular task.
<randell>  That's one of the reason's we are having Dan include both an overview and "power user" features...
<randell>  (besides what's new)
<rollin>  Let me recap Kiwi since some of you may have missed the last speak-up...
<randell>  (Dan couldn't be with us tonight as he is on vacation.)
<rollin>  Kiwi is a tool that sits between your email program and the mail server to filter out junk email commonly known as spam.
<rollin>  It does this through a database of clues that identify common traits of junk email.
<rollin>  Ideally, you will never touch that database - it's a hands-off operation. But if you're tinkerer, you can make changes to the database as you see fit.
<rollin>  Everyone's very talkative tonight :)
<randell>  I think that must all be as warn out from Warp Expo West as we are!
<randell>  I know we had a lot of interest in Kiwi (the codename) last time we were here...
<JudyM>  or worn out from preparing for WS99 :)
<randell>  and I want to promise you that it's still on the way.
<rollin>  Yes, last time we talked about a beta around the corner, and that didn't happen.
<WarpHoss>  is kiwi available for beta testers yet?
<randell>  I know last time we talked about an upcoming Beta version that we planned to make available before Warp Expo West
<VoiceBot>  MODE +o Projects
<randell>  But we just plan ran out of time getting ready for WEW....
*  Longstaff is worn out from juggling work schedules to allow space for warpstock *
<rollin>  We were delayed by the expo as well as the standard issues of quality control and documentation.
<rollin>  The current plan is to have the beta ready for WS99.
<randell>  Rollin, do we want to publically say when we expect the public prerelease of it to be available?
<rollin>  Sure :)
<randell>  I guess you just did!
<rollin>  As Randall has said, we will be making PreRelease 4 a public test and it should be available at or near WS99.
<randell>  And I guess we should mention that the product *does* have a real name!
<randell>  We won't say what it is yet... but you can expect to see that at Warpstock and in PR4.
<Longstaff>  cool.....that way anybody who skips warpstock will miss the surprise :)
*  JudyM loves surprises :) *
<rollin>  There may be one other significant surprise of interest to Relish users.
<randell>  We have spent *way* too long on worrying about the "right" name for Kiwi...
<randell>  Yes, Randell *has* been working on Relish... and Rollin has been working on one of the add-ons as well.
<JudyM>  <---relish user "SURPRISE"
<JudyM>  ok, I'll calm down :)
*  JudyM can almost guess what the new add-on will be :) *
<randell>  We won't be ready to "announce" anything Relish related yet... but we will probably preview several "requested" things.
<randell>  And, I'll go out on my own limb and say that we should probably plan on Relish (and the related add-ons) being the topic of our December VOICE chat!
<randell>  (If Randell hadn't been working on Warped Jeopardy so much he might have gotten more done sooner.)
<randell>  Other than Rollin and I, is there anybody on the chat who happened to catch Warped Jeopardy at Warp Expo West?
<Abraxas>  randell I'll make a note ... in Relish ... to remind me :-)))
<randell>  Abraxas, about which? Relish in December? Or Warped Jeopardy at Warpstock?
<Swanee>  I saw a pic of it. Dies that count? :-0
<Projects>  !ask Sundial
<VoiceBot>  [Sundial] Sundial Systems http://www.sundialsystems.com/ (mandie)
<rollin>  If SteveS were paying attention, he would say yes.
<Swanee>  Dies=Does
<Abraxas>  randell Relish in Dec.
<randell>  Swanee, well you *really* had to be there to appreciate it -- at least the multimedia aspects...
<randell>  and the audience participation!
<Swanee>  randell: I'll be there NEXT time. :-)
<madodel>  Is it computerized?
<rollin>  I'm looking forward to the audience part at WS since we're doubling the amount of questions.
*  SteveS saw Warped Jepardy at WEW *
<JudyM>  my hubby got so jealous when he would see Relish pop up to keep me on my toes....he went searching for such a creature for that other OS...well, needless to say, he couldn't find one that compared
<rollin>  madodel, yes fully computerized. Buzzers and everything.
<randell>  madodel, yes indeed it is!
<madodel>  Why thank you for that (rather late) input SteveS
<randell>  The game board is done with Netscape...
<Swanee>  It was mentioned to "get your seats early" but I haven't seen anywhere to do this. Will there just be a signup at WS?
<Projects>  how come there's nothing on Kiwi at the Sundial website?
<JudyM>  SteveS: weren't you Mr. KnowItAll?
<randell>  Rollin wrote the score keeping program with handles the signalling buttons, etc.
<JudyM>  or was that Levine?
<randell>  I pulled together most of the audio and video files...
<rollin>  Projects, because it's still a product in development. We know that product cycles can get delayed, so we avoid promotion too far in advance. The goal is to have the web page by WS.
<SteveS>  MR. KIA was StevenL, Steven Levine.
<Projects>  no wonder I can't find it :)
<rollin>  Probably the best source of information right now is the log from our last Speak-up. It covered Kiwi in detail.
<randell>  We aren't going to roll out the web page info until we also announce the name.
<JudyM>  ok
<randell>  (Carla wouldn't like having to update the web site info by having us roll it out as Kiwi first.)
<rollin>  She already has to update the manual :)
<rollin>  Randell, what about DBExpert, any news there?
<randell>  A little bit...
<Swanee>  Poor girl. You guys are just too nice. :-)
<randell>  We won't really be showing anything significantly new in DBExpert at Warpstock...
<randell>  But we did just recently release version 2.0.8 (as a free upgrade for existing customers).
<randell>  The key new thing in 2.0.8...
<randell>  is the ability to "pack" the .DBE file that contains your "application".
<randell>  That makes it load faster (as well as take up less space on disk).
<Longstaff>  sundial always was commendably resource-conscious
<randell>  Version 2.0.8 also includes almost two dozen fixes...
<randell>  one of which is a rather critical Y2K fix that we messed up in 2.0.5 thru 2.0.7.
<randell>  The details of the new features and the Y2K fix are on our web site...
<randell>  And you can download the update from there as well.
<randell>  (We are recommending all DBExpert users update to 2.0.8 before the end of the year.)
<SteveS>  I think that should be to downloand and INSTALL!
<randell>  Ok, obtain and *apply* the update!
<rollin>  SteveS, this coming from you! When I sat down on one of your computers to help Melanie, she had 2.02 running!
<randell>  2.0.2!@?
<SteveS>  Yep. No need to disturb what works.
<rollin>  That's what I said!
<randell>  That's before we got involved and it's not a particularly stable release!
<rollin>  It wasn't working though :) There was a four digit year problem causing grief. Fortunately, they've updated since then.
<SteveS>  Well, at least works well enough for what I do. NC4.6.1 GA will be installed soon.
*  Projects still uses 2.02 'cause 4.61 has problems here *
<randell>  (DBExpert technical support will not necessarily be receptive to people that don't update )
<Projects>  randell: there's no evaluation version of DBExpert?
<randell>  Projects, sorry, no...
<Longstaff>  Projects - i wonder what 4.04 would be like
<Projects>  argh
<randell>  the reason is a restriction in the license for the ODBC drivers included in the product.
<randell>  If you *really* need a demo version, we can probably work something out.
<Projects>  Longstaff: it ran fine, but I "upgraded" to 4.61
<randell>  (The usualy approach is to purchase the product from an dealer that offers up to 30 day returns as some have in the past.)
<Longstaff>  you can still get 4.04 on sw choice
<Projects>  randell: well, the database app I was using for the voice db went and trashed the files... so now I'm using PCFile for dos :)
<randell>  Projects, sounds like you *could* make productive use of DBExpert.
<Projects>  Longstaff: hmm... thanks, I'll check it out.
<Projects>  randell: yeah, but I'd kinda like to see it before buying it :)
<randell>  Drop me a note (randell@sundialsystems.com) and I'll see what I can do.
<Projects>  will do
<randell>  I'm well aware that not having a DBExpert demo available is a problem.
<Projects>  probably more so for you :)
<randell>  It's something on our "hot list" but it can't be resolved until we make changes in how we handle the ODBC license at some point in the future.
<randell>  (The problem of not being able to distribute a demo verson of the ODBC drivers dates back to when Designer Software originally developed the product.)
<Swanee>  randell: Agreed, I have always wanted a peek but it wasn't available.
<randell>  Swanee, and that's why we try to accomodate serious evaluation requests whenever we can.
<SteveS>  Projects can see and demo the DBExpert at Warpstock '99.
<Projects>  could if I was able to attend Warpstock 99... :(
<JudyM>  Projects will be missed :(
<Swanee>  I can appreciate your situation
<JudyM>  sure, now patronize him! :)
<Swanee>  We've been trying to figure out how to smuggle Projects over the border but haven't had any luck yet.
<randell>  While we won't have specific sessions on DBExpert, Clearlook, and Relish at Warpstock (they wouldn't give us 6 presentations)...
<JudyM>  ok, folks...shall we let Rollin and Randell go for this evening so they can get those Warp Jeopardy questions together?
<WarpHoss>  .me felt his pain in '97.
<randell>  we will be demoing all the products at our booth...
<randell>  And, as I mentioned, we will preview some aspects of upcoming features as time permits after the Rover Pack demo.
<JudyM>  Sundial's booth has always been an attraction at the previous Warpstocks
<randell>  We are sincerely looking forward to seeing all of you that can be there at Warpstock...
<JudyM>  even if I didn't win the sweatshirt last year! ;)
<randell>  And will miss everyone who can't be there as well.
*  JudyM is looking forward to the "family renunion" also :) *
<randell>  Judy, I'd promise you a sweatshirt *this* year, but I don't think we *have* any this year!
<JudyM>  then that's an easy promise to not keep :)
*  Longstaff will see you there *
<randell>  Those of you who can't be at Warpstock...
<JudyM>  Randell and Rollin, thx for coming tonight...we'll have a Warpstock post event speakup in December :)
<randell>  should watch our website around that time for more info about what is currently codenamed Kiwi.
<randell>  Judy, thanks for having us... and we'll plan on a "relish"-ing good time for December.
<JudyM>  great!
<randell>  (Cranberry Relish for the holidays maybe? No.)
<rollin>  Yes, thanks for having us!
*  Projects will be watching for whatever Kiwi evolves into :) *
<randell>  (The initials of the two word name are J and S.)
<lmaxson>  Is this over?
*  WarpHoss 's offer of betatesting still goes. *
<rollin>  Lynn, if you have questions, we're still here.
<randell>  WarpHoss, we will be in contact, definitely...
<lmaxson>  rollin, I have something of a serious question.
<rollin>  Thank you WarpHoss, depending on how PR4 goes, PR5 maybe be a private beta test.
<rollin>  Go for it Lynn.
<randell>  (And to think we used to have a policy of never going beyond PR3...)
<lmaxson>  Given that SmartSuite has little penetration and the current clamor for StarOffice, how does Sundial place itself in that spectrum.
<rollin>  Good question. One we face every day, not just now.
<randell>  Let me comment a bit...
<randell>  One thing I firmly believe in is that you should use the right tool for the right job.
<randell>  We've never positioned the Sundial family of products as an "office suite" for good reason.
<randell>  Some people need more of one thing and less of another.
<randell>  With, for instance, StarOffice, you get *everything* or nothing...
<randell>  And if one part has a problem and traps (or whatever), everything goes down.
<JudyM>  sounds like another *desktop program!
<randell>  So, our philosophy is that we let you choose which tools you need.
<randell>  For instance, not everyone (for good reason) finds the current generation of Clearlook useful for their needs.
<randell>  Some of the folks that use virtually every other Sundial product still use Describe for their word processor... and that's fine with us.
<randell>  We only want you to use our products if they are really *useful* to you!
<randell>  We aren't going to require you get "take 'em or leave 'em"...
<randell>  And we aren't going to try to throw everything but the kitchen sink in one box and some radically low price.
<randell>  But, being realistic, the fact that Star Office is "free" does impact us.
<randell>  We are trying to make each of our "tools" a better answer to at least some people's needs...
<JudyM>  ever thought of offering an upgrade from Describe to Clearlook?
<JudyM>  I certainly go for that....atleast Clearlook is supported :)
<randell>  than the "competition" does... and I think most of our customer's appreciate that.
<randell>  Judy, yes, we have... but we've chosen not to do so *for now*...
<rollin>  Going back to Randell's comment about best tool for the job, it's that attitude that's let us build individual applications. And those individual application have features that make them good tools. It's that same philosophy that creates application with fit on two diskettes.
<JudyM>  bummer :(
<lmaxson>  Well, as far as I know I have all your products except Rover.
<randell>  Jusdy, And the reason for that it simply that *some* people would consider it a "downgrade" and I don't want that.
<rollin>  We appreciate that Lynn!
<randell>  When we get to Clearlook 2.x, which is competative with Describe (and others) on most features, then we'll give it serious consideration.
<JudyM>  ok, atleast you're open :)
<randell>  So, Lynn, what kinda deal do I need to give you so "you've got 'em all?
<lmaxson>  I have what Rover was before you offered it.
<trouvere>  When will Clearlook get to 2,00?
<randell>  Judy, very open... and don't forget that once you have one of our products we don't charge you an arm and an leg for upgrades on that product?
<lmaxson>  It just that I have a genuine concern.
<lmaxson>  At WarpStock Carla is giving me the Visualizer CDs which I am going to demonstrate.
<SteveS>  Randell, are you going to have any Warpstock '99 special pricing?
<randell>  Lynn, then you're entitled to the low cost upgrade price (which I don't remember off the top of my head).
<JudyM>  SteveS: good thinking!!! :)
<rollin>  Lynn, we have concern too. But we're not a suite and pretending to be a suite isn't going to gain us anything. We feel our best way to compete is on individual applications.
<lmaxson>  Randell, you are currently on the product I use most and after that it is GCP and PMMail/2.
<JudyM>  I personally prefer that concept...
<rollin>  SteveS, we will. It hasn't been announced, but it will be similar to what you saw at WEW. It will be available to people that attend WS99.
<randell>  Yep. Special pricing for Warp Expo West just ended. Special pricing for Warpstock starts with the show!
<rollin>  Lynn, which one do you use the most? Mesa?
<lmaxson>  Nah, let's just talk it over at WS99.
<lmaxson>  GRIRC.
<Longstaff>  i agree also .... about two thinds of staroffice i'll most likely never use
<lmaxson>  GTIRC.
<rollin>  Ah, I understand.
<lmaxson>  The most used from Sundial is Relish.
<randell>  And how big is the StarOffice download?
*  Projects only loads the Staroffice pig when a Word document crosses my desk and absolutely has to have all the formatting garbage *
<randell>  And how does that compare to the total of our downloads?
<Longstaff>  about 56 meg, isn't it?
<SteveS>  60meg for StarOffice.
<randell>  And is there any relation between those two sizes and the relative functionality? I don't think so!
<SteveS>  Approx 8 floppies for all of Sundial's products.
<Longstaff>  lol - the mail functions rival ultimail for oddball design :)
<rollin>  Earlier in the chat I was thinking about this in the context of Kiwi. Having just built it from the ground up, I couldn't build a 30 meg application if I had to.
<Projects>  yes. when I want a word processor, I don't need all that other baggage to be loaded as well.
<randell>  SteveS, so what's that, may be 12 Meg vs 60 Meg?
<SteveS>  Not all of those floppies are full! So total is less than 12 meg.
<randell>  And a whole lot *more* than 20% on the functionality...
<randell>  In the case of Mesa, for instance, *more* functionality (and a heck of a lot more performance!) than you will find in StarCalc!
<lmaxson>  I think MESA is your strongsuit.
<randell>  Mesa 2 competes with any other spreadsheet! Relish (particularly in the network version) is strong as well.
<SteveS>  The approx 8 diskettes is really 9. I just counted them. Two diskettes per product execpt Rover which is one diskette.
*  Projects gets a lot of ##### fields in StarCalc when doing large spreadsheets... basically have to trash it and start again when that happens *
<randell>  DBExpert competes reasonably well with Approach and Access. Clearlook's primary weak spot is in the filters (but it has great performance).
<Swanee>  Mesa is great. We're using it while we track expenses for the WS party. :-)
<rollin>  It can be used to track income too. That's my prefered use.
<Projects>  is Sundial planning any accounting apps in the future? :)
<randell>  Projects, not at this time.
<rollin>  Just Big Nate's spreadsheets.
<randell>  (Our hands are probably too full as it is.)
<Projects>  sigh...
<randell>  We really owe our loyal Relish users at update!
<randell>  And Clearlook 2.0 has taken way, way, longer than expected!
<SteveS>  All product updates take longer than scheduled!
<randell>  So our current plan is to concentrate on getting both those projects done before we add anything else that's "really big".
<JudyM>  great, I'll add that to the ToDoBun :)
<randell>  I don't want to even start to talk about schedules!
<lmaxson>  Someday Randell I am going to convince you of converting to a specification language.
*  Projects really wishes he hadn't purchased Pmpostnotes before hearing about Relish *
<randell>  If I were to look back at the original schedule for Kiwi (or Clearlook 2.0 or Relish 2.3), I could get ill very quicky!
<lmaxson>  Someday.
<JudyM>  Projects: I have several programs that perform the same function. When I find one that I like better, I just license and use that one :)
<JudyM>  it's ok to have more than one :)
<Projects>  JudyM: you're talking to mr. broke here, remember? :)
<randell>  Projects, I guess the question I should ask is why didn't you hear about Relish? It's not like we (and others) having been talking about it for (almost) 10 years now.
<JudyM>  randell: he must have been hanging with the wrong crowd :)
<Projects>  randell: dunno for sure. Think I found pmpostnotes on a bbs somewhere about 8 years ago...
<Projects>  JudyM: ya... it's called "the boonies" :)
<JudyM>  hehe
<randell>  Ok, if you've been using it for 8 years... then I guess I should cut you a *little* slack...
<Projects>  hehehe
<Projects>  soon's I get some extra $$, Relish and Mesa will be mine :)
<randell>  Projects, if you are *real* nice, Carla might let you take advantage of the Warpstock special pricing even thought you can't be there.
*  Projects puts on his *real* nice face... *
<Projects>  :)
<rollin>  Other questions?
<rollin>  Comments?
<rollin>  Answers?
<Projects>  hehehe
<randell>  Projects, followup with me the week *after* Warpstock and I'll see what we can do.
<lmaxson>  Rollin, thank you. And you too, Randell.
<WarpHoss>  VOICE appreciates your time and efforts gentlemen.
<JudyM>  Thanks again to Sundial
<randell>  Thank you all once again for having us...
<WarpHoss>  I do also.
<Projects>  randell: I may just do that, if I haven't gotten Dan to buy them for me already :)
<rollin>  We always appreciate the opportunity to sit down and talk to everyone at the Speak-up!
<randell>  See some of you in Atlanta and the rest of you back here in December!
<Abraxas>  Projects .. not to worry ... I'll have plastic this year :-)
<Projects>  hehehe
<rollin>  Feel free to email us with any follow-up at randell@sundialsystems.com and rollin@sundialsystems.com
<Swanee>  Atlanta randell :-)
<Abraxas>  randell ... rollin .... Thank you for your time .... and I'll see you in Atlanta
<randell>  And don't forget that technical support is the name of the product at sundialsystems.com (as in relish@sundialsystems.com)
<Swanee>  Thanks rollin & randell
<lmaxson>  Guess we all miss the SCOUG meeting.
<Projects>  rollin and randell sounds like a TV show :)
<Sector>  The randell and rolling showł
<madodel>  Randell: I look forward to hearing from you on the topic for the December Speakup some time in November
<Swanee>  I thought technical support is the name of the game at Sundial Systems
<rollin>  People usually confuse us in person and over the phone.
<rollin>  Swannee of course it is!
<rollin>  See everyone later!
<Projects>  later!
<Swanee>  G'night
<randell>  Ain't that the truth... we now each respond to both names!
<lmaxson>  Bye.
<randell>  madodel, you got it... I'll now already put the reminder in my *special* copy of Relish!
<randell>  Night all!
<WarpHoss>  night
<Swanee>  Night randell