Note:<888> 2/07/98 Saturday 6:15 A.M. EST: I was up all night again, mosty tweaking the system. I now have 125 megs free with a 33 meg swapper at the beginning of the optimized hard drive. The hard disk does cache when I use the web browser. The system overall is much more responsive. I add a MS Internet Explorer Fix Internet Explorer Security MK Overrun. I updated recent bookmarks www.mikescott.net/bmnow.htm . I am bushed but with the help of Norton Utilities 30 day demo I have got my system up to snuff. I am off to dreamland. I also installed www.thedj.com , I recommend not installing the new beta 3.02 since it messed up my sound files, and I reinstalled the sound drivers, however version 2.2 works fine. CIO

Note:<888> 2/06/98 Friday 6:15 P.M. EST: Last night and morning I did system maintenance. I downloaded the Norton Uninstall Deluxe and freed up ten megs of disk space and then deleted it. It is a tricky program to use, and one could delete critical files if not careful. I worked with the Norton Utilities more. I have freed up about 120 megs of disk space all together, thus with the 80 meg Norton Utilities I have 140 megs disk space including the swapper or about 120 megs usable space free. I might be able to free up more, which I will work on next. Greenwich was was warmer about 45 degrees today. The library was quiet. Lots of kids were roaming around on this warmer day. Scott's Index portfolio was up about $5,000 today, see www.mikescott.net/scopor01.htm . It is almost at the $1,100,000 threshhold which would be about a $85,000 gain since September for a total of about 17 % gain yearly which is pretty dang good for the stock market. Still one has to watch the stockmarket, lots of people have lost their shirt in it over the years. Enough "Constant Comment" from Greenwich, Connecticut. CIO

Note:<888> 2/05/98 Thursday 10:00 P.M. EST: Happy 87th Birthday to Ronald Reagan and our Best to Nancy see his Presidential Library. I was up until noon today. I have my system going great with the Norton Utilities. Still at this time of night I updated Scott's Index www.mikescott.net/scopor01.htm. I deleted the three Volcano movies, and sound files from my hard drive. Norton Utilites found 460 errors in my registry it repaired. It also deleted about 80 megs of cache, temporary, and extranious files. It set my swapper at the beginning of the drive, and optimized my drive. I placed command.com, config.sys, himem.sys, and autoexec.bat as files first and c:\windows and c:\netgold1 "Netscape 3.04" as the two starting folders. I deactivated the Norton Crash Guard, Norton Speed Start, and Norton Protected Recycle Bin to have more system resources when my 16 meg ram 486 DX 120 mhz system starts. The system information files say my system is half as fast as a Pentium 133 which is pretty good. I notice tonight while reading the computer press, one can buy a PC 266 mhz AMD processor and motherboard for about $350, of course I would have to upgrade my case and power supply for about $100, not to mention I would need to spend about $160 on 64 megs memory, $60 for 24X Cdrom player, and $150 to $300 for 3.5 G to 8 G hard drive, thus it would be close to $1,000 to upgrade my system to what I would like with parts, and realistically one can get a Petium 166 system with everyting for about $800 with waranty, so it is hard to tell whether it would be worth buying the parts or whole system with warranty. Needless to say my system is running fine now. It is the net that is slow in the daytime and evening. It is cold and rainy here. There is ice on the trees slightly north of here. Bargains at the Grand Union this week, Red Peppers 99 cents a pound, Brocolli 99 cents a head, Rib Eye Steaks $3.99 a pound, Grand Union 96 ounce containers of fresh orange juice $3.19 and Tony's frozen pizzas are up to $3.39. Lots of other bargains at our favorite local market. I only had about five hours sleep today, so I am not sure how long I will make it up this morning. I stopped by the library this evening and read the computer press, and Lou Gerstner is featured in an article in InfoWorld which is interesting reading. For $8.99 a pound I bought a pound of Grand Union gourmet coffee beans mixing Hasslenut Vanilla, Hasslenut Cinnemon, and Kalua Flavored beans into my existing mixture. One day I will have to try a mixture of all the Starbucks blends together. Back to the net once it speeds up. I made a full backup this evening when I got up. CIO

Note:<888> 2/05/98 Thursday 8:25 A.M. EST: I downloaded ZDNet Norton Utilities for Windows 95, fully functional 30 day trial, works great!, It is a 29 meg fully funtional download good for 30 days. I have spent the early morning hours tweaking my system with the Utilities. I freed up lots of disk space, optimized and repaired the registry, and optimized the hard disk. Lots of great tools in the Norton Utilities. I would recommend buying it, but if you can't afford download it and tweak your system for 30 days. Thanks to Peter Norton. It is available from Symantec Corporation also. CIO

Note:<888> 2/04/98 Wednesday 7:10 P.M. EST:Today went out at 4 P.M.. I stopped by the Hospital Thrift shop. I bought a bottle of CVS mouthwash for $3.50. I drove down by the water and checked out the weather. I went by Egghead and bought a surge suppresor strip for $4. I went by Staples and picked up a ream of copy paper for $3.15. I picked up three packs of buy two get one free of Merit Lights for $16.20. Hopefully I will be able to keep cutting back on smoking. Last month I spent $35 on cigarettes. I updated Scott's Index, which was up a bit today www.mikescott.net/scopor01.htm . I am roasting a Purdue chicken for dinner which should be ready in 45 minutes. I will surf the net this evening. CIO

Note:<888> 2/04/98 Wednesday 2:45 A.M. EST: I just posted a Winter Olympics Directory www.mikescott.net/olympics.htm , be there in spirit. CIO

Note:<888> 2/04/98 Wednesday 1:15 A.M. EST: I posted a text file Text File of Scott's Random Notes from start June 1997 thru January 1998 about 151 pages or 457,176 bytes , so that one can print out or review all of Scott's Random Notes since I started posting them. I was able to do it by "selecting all text" in each Note's web page, with my web browser and "copying" it and then "pasting" it to the Wordperfect 6.0 Wordprocessor in one long file, and saving it as an ASCII DOS text file. I also printed out the entire file with the HP 500+ printer with Microsoft Font Cartridge in about a half hour for 151 pages, setting the wordprocessor for Adobe Roman Font 12 which the Microsoft Font Cartridge on the HP 500+ accepts, pretty good trick. Unless you have a lot of paper and toner cartridge life to use, I advise reading the files in Scott's Previous Random Notes, instead of printing out the text file. Back to surfing the net. CIO

Note:<888> 2/03/98 Tuesday 10:50 P.M. EST: Last night I surfed the net. It was slow and I finally figured out that my TCP and Modem software were corrutped. I reinstalled the modem with my special init string in the setup. I also reinstalled the Microsoft DUN 1.2 and Winsock upgrade. I deinstalled the active desktop of Internet Explorer 4.0 to save on memory. I got up at noon today missing my noon appointment since the alarm clock did not go off. I surfed the net. I installed the Adobe fonts from Win 3.1 that go with my HP Microsoft Fonts Cartridge into my Win95 fonts file. Now I have about four fonts that download instantly with the HP 500+ printer when I run Wordperfect 6.0. If I ever need to print out a lot of text I am setup. After dinner this evening, I went out for a short walk. I filled up the car with $10.85 of premium at the Exxon gasoline station. Exxon premium is $1.53 a gallon. I stopped by the Grand Union and bought another three 12 packs of Marcal toilet paper for $2.99 all together on sale, and a box of Grand Union raisin bran for $2.19. I returned home and filed this most interesting report. It is quiet out tonight as is the status quo for this time of year. Scott's Index is at an all time high up over $10,000, look at www.mikescott.net/scopor01.htm .CIO

Note:<888> 2/03/98 Tuesday 12:30 A.M. EST: I wrote mother a letter this evening. I fiddled with the HP500+ printer drivers, the Microsoft font cartridge won't work with Wordperfect. The printer is about 10 years old. It prints out True Type fonts fine at the expected speed. I ownly recognized two Adobe fonts that print instantly Courier 12 and Line 16. I might try to find some others, but I think that is the only fast fonts it will work with. If I put Microsoft Word on it would work with the printer font cartridge. It is fine as is for now, since I don't really print that much. I noticed today that my 80 year old RCA radio at the Hospital thrift shop is $35. The IBM, Laser 4120 printer I gave them is postscript downloadable. It needs a new $70 cleaning cartridge. They are trying to sell it for $75. I put the memory card back with it, since the shop had seperated them. They also have an older IBM PS/1 486/SX computer with 2 megs of memory and 80 meg hard drive with monitor and accessories for $75 there. I suspect more used equipment will be showing up there, as people upgrade and need a tax write off for what they donate. I went out to mail my letter and it is slow downtown on Monday night. Bargains this week at the Grand Union gallore. Marcal is practically giving away its products. Three 12 packs of toilet paper are $3 all together, 400 napkins package is 99 cents, 4 boxes tissue are $2, three paper towels are $1. Also Purdue roasting chicken is 79 cents a pound, cans of mandarin oranges or mushrooms are 3 for $1. Basically I stocked up. I will do a little net work this evening and check my font situation. However, it is really not important. Hopefully the net will be faster. I have a 3 P.M. appointment tomorrow and the rest of the week free to be up at night. Back to surfing the net. CIO

Note:<888> 2/02/98 Monday 6:10 P.M. EST:Today I paid my bills, and had a quiet afternoon doing a little reading at the local library. I updated Scott's Index www.mikescott.net/scopor01.htm , it was a good day for the market. Bill Gates wealth has gone up a bit Bill Gates Personal Wealth Clock . CIO

Note:<888> 2/02/98 Monday 5:00 A.M. EST:I updated the "Government, United States of America" category www.mikescott.net/026.htm ,and www.mikescott.net/u2.htm . I also added a few links to bookmarks www.mikescott.net/bmnow.htm . To update the directory just save those two pages. Have a good "Ground Hog's Holiday". CIO

Note:<888> 2/01/98 Sunday 11:15 P.M. EST: Today I was up at noon and chatted with family members on MCI's five cents a minute plan on Sunday for long distance. I cleaned my apartment and watered the plants. I went out at 4 P.M. . I stopped by the Bruce Museum. They have a new exhibit there on very nice paintings. I was looking for coasters in the gifts shop. I stopped by the Bush Holley house, and I found a nice set of six coasters with Christmas trees on them for $7.50 half price. I noticed a television crew leaving the place. I told the delightful young gal at the museum about the Scott family history around the area. I stopped by Stables in Old Greenwich looking for a telephone battery for my old GE portable but did not have one. The memory I mentioned yesterday is $40 for two 8 megs making 16 megs. I went by Egghead which is going out of business at the end of this month. All hardware is 10% off, software is 20% off, and accessories are 30% off. I stopped by Caldors and bought a shower curtain liner for $3.50 and a new GE 25 channel remote portable telephone with 25 channels for $30 plus tax down from $50. I returned home and installed the shower curtain liner. I started doing my laundry. I installed the GE telephone which takes 12 hours for the battery to charge up. I put it by the computer which is next to my couch potatoe couch. I finished the laundry. The battery for the old GE portable would have been $12 at Radio Shack, so after dinner I dropped it by the hospital thrift shop along with my old "gum ball" machine. I went downtown and had my trusty thermos of coffee with me and drank it front of the senior center. I chatted with a local representative that advertises the University of Alabama, and he told me the Darien library has the internet. I walked around the bottom of Greenwich Avenue, and then went to the Grand Union. I chatted with a nice young Danish couple there about Danish people I have met. I bought a 12 pack of Pepsi for $2, a half gallon of 2% percent milk, a Tony's frozen pizza, and five pound bag of sugar. I returned home and updated this page and will do a little net surfing. CIO