Question:

What is the preferred method of tracking daily transactions for a small chiropractic office.  I want to track the number of cheques received, the number of people who paid by debit and by credit card and by cash. What program should be used? Thanks

Response:

Excel would suffice for something that simple. — Ken Russell .

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What is the preferred method of tracking daily transactions for a small chiropractic office.  I want to track the number of cheques received, the number of people who paid by debit and by credit card and by cash. What program should be used? Thanks

Response:

What is the preferred method of tracking daily transactions for a small chiropractic office.  I want to track the number of cheques received, the number of people who paid by debit and by credit card and by cash. What program should be used?

The sign of professional IT person is having the ability to recognize when a computer program is needed and when it is not. I consider myself a professional, pencil and paper is all that is needed. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Thanks

Response:

I’d sugggest you use Quicken, Quickbooks or  MS Money. They are easy enough to learn and use, and your accountant will thank you for it. Depending on how well you use it you may find that there are other benefits as well. HS

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What is the preferred method of tracking daily transactions for a small chiropractic office.  I want to track the number of cheques received, the number of people who paid by debit and by credit card and by cash. What program should be used? Thanks

Response:

What is the preferred method of tracking daily transactions for a small chiropractic office.  I want to track the number of cheques received, the number of people who paid by debit and by credit card and by cash. What program should be used?

Here’s 2 cents from a lowly accounting Know-Nothin’. Make sure that what you’ll be doing in the coming year is as simple as you may think right now. I used MS Money ’cause I thought my situation was ultra simple starting off in 2004 with even my accountant agreeing. Just so that I would end up switching to QuickBooks towards the end of the year and spend the equivalent of an entire month re-entering everything and learning how to "crawl & walk" all over again. hth

Response:

Question:

My company issued dividend shares as a part of their most recent round of financing.  They are earned monthly, let’s say one dividend share per month for every 1,000 shares purchased  Their value is $2.45 per share. What is the proper way to account for these shares?  I know I would credit the equity account but what is the correct account to debit? Also, a lump sum of 5,000 shares from this same round was given in exchange to a current shareholder to guarantee a 2 year loan.  Should the total value of these shares be amortized over the term of the loan and handled the same way as the dividend shares? Please reply to this group.  Thanks.

Response:

My company issued dividend shares as a part of their most recent round of financing.  They are earned monthly, let’s say one dividend share per month for every 1,000 shares purchased  Their value is $2.45 per share.

The common stock account is credited for the par value   The paid in capital account is credited for the difference in par value and the fair market value. Retained Earnings is debited for the market value.   Also, a lump sum of 5,000 shares from this same round was given in exchange to a current shareholder to guarantee a 2 year loan.  Should the total value of these shares be amortized over the term of the loan and handled the same way as the dividend shares? Please reply to this group.  Thanks.

Are there any restrictions on that ownership of stock?  Does it vest over the term of the loan?

Response:

My company issued dividend shares as a part of their most recent round of financing.  They are earned monthly, let’s say one dividend share per month for every 1,000 shares purchased  Their value is $2.45 per share. The common stock account is credited for the par value The paid in capital account is credited for the difference in par value and the fair market value. Retained Earnings is debited for the market value.

So you are saying the debit goes directly to retained earnings without appearing on the P&L?  I didn’t know that was an option. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Also, a lump sum of 5,000 shares from this same round was given in exchange to a current shareholder to guarantee a 2 year loan.  Should the total value of these shares be amortized over the term of the loan and handled the same way as the dividend shares? Please reply to this group.  Thanks. Are there any restrictions on that ownership of stock?  Does it vest over the term of the loan?

No restrictions, vests immediately.  We are amortizing it over the 2 year tem of the loan.  So could this be booked directly to retained earnings too? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My company issued dividend shares as a part of their most recent round of financing.  They are earned monthly, let’s say one dividend share per month for every 1,000 shares purchased  Their value is $2.45 per share. The common stock account is credited for the par value The paid in capital account is credited for the difference in par value and the fair market value. Retained Earnings is debited for the market value. So you are saying the debit goes directly to retained earnings without appearing on the P&L?  I didn’t know that was an option.

Dividends don’t affect the P & L.  What some people do is to have a "dividends" account which is in the equity section that closes to Retained Earnings.  A direct debit to RE gets you to the same place at the end. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Response:

 So you are saying the debit goes directly to retained earnings without appearing on the P&L?  I didn’t know that was an option.

Yes.     No restrictions, vests immediately.  We are amortizing it over the 2 year tem of the loan.  So could this be booked directly to retained earnings too?

I think you should probably treat this like the stock dividend above and book it immediately.

Response:

So you are saying the debit goes directly to retained earnings without appearing on the P&L?  I didn’t know that was an option. Yes. No restrictions, vests immediately.  We are amortizing it over the 2 year tem of the loan.  So could this be booked directly to retained earnings too? I think you should probably treat this like the stock dividend above and book it immediately.

I would ask the CPA firm to verify this accounting treatment.  Ordinary stock dividends just expand the shares and usually have no effect but as part of a loan and financing package (is loan guarantor also a stockholder or employee?) it may require some additional accounting treatment!

Response:

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – From a logical standpoint, payroll tax varies directly with wages paid, so I should think it would be part of direct labour costs. — Ken Russell Sydney Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead? If neither, is this simply a period expense? I’m trying to develop a job-order costing system for a small auto shop, and the difference in each method is highly material. Thanks for your help. Robert

If this were job cost accounting I KNOW it would be part of direct labor.   In this case I strongly suspect that Ken is correct (I have no manufacturing clients). — Jim Hudspeth, CFE, CPA   http://survivalworks.com Path: news.uni-stuttgart.de!dns.phoenix-ag.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed 00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!newsfeed.cwix.com !newsfeed.bcn.ttd.net!news.bcn.ttd.net!u_n_a__c_ancel Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,alt.accounting Organization: Telefonica Transmision de Datos Lines: 2 NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.77.196.2 X-No-Archive: yes Xref: news.uni-stuttgart.de control:40458661 autocancel

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – From a logical standpoint, payroll tax varies directly with wages paid, so I should think it would be part of direct labour costs. — Ken Russell Sydney Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead? If neither, is this simply a period expense? I’m trying to develop a job-order costing system for a small auto shop, and the difference in each method is highly material. Thanks for your help. Robert

If this were job cost accounting I KNOW it would be part of direct labor.   In this case I strongly suspect that Ken is correct (I have no manufacturing clients). — Jim Hudspeth, CFE, CPA   http://survivalworks.com

Response:

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around.

The answer is either provided explicitly or is deducible from the information contained in every cost or managerial accounting text I’ve ever owned. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead?

Yes. easy2000

Response:

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around.

The answer is either provided explicitly or is deducible from the information contained in every cost or managerial accounting text I’ve ever owned. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead?

Yes. easy2000 Path: news.uni-stuttgart.de!dns.phoenix-ag.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed 00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!fr.clara.ne t!heighliner.fr.clara.net!diablo.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!cpk-news-hub1. bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.bcn.ttd.net!news.bcn .ttd.net!u_n_a__c_ancel Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,alt.accounting Organization: Telefonica Transmision de Datos Lines: 2 NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.77.196.2 X-No-Archive: yes Xref: news.uni-stuttgart.de control:40457761 autocancel

Response:

From a logical standpoint, payroll tax varies directly with wages paid, so I should think it would be part of direct labour costs. — Ken Russell Sydney

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead? If neither, is this simply a period expense? I’m trying to develop a job-order costing system for a small auto shop, and the difference in each method is highly material. Thanks for your help. Robert Path: news.uni-stuttgart.de!dns.phoenix-ag.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online .de!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!20 4.71.34.15!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.bcn.ttd.net!news.bc n.ttd.net!u_n_a__c_ancel Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,alt.accounting Organization: Telefonica Transmision de Datos Lines: 2 NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.77.196.2 X-No-Archive: yes Xref: news.uni-stuttgart.de control:40458892 autocancel

Response:

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead? If neither, is this simply a period expense? I’m trying to develop a job-order costing system for a small auto shop, and the difference in each method is highly material. Thanks for your help. Robert

Response:

From a logical standpoint, payroll tax varies directly with wages paid, so I should think it would be part of direct labour costs. — Ken Russell Sydney

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find the answer to this question, but it’s not in any textbook I own, and two CPA’s have given me the run around. When using Job Order Costing, do you capitalize the company’s share of payroll taxes as Direct Labor or as Manufacturing Overhead? If neither, is this simply a period expense? I’m trying to develop a job-order costing system for a small auto shop, and the difference in each method is highly material. Thanks for your help. Robert

Response:

Question:

I need to file a tax return for the last 10 years, starting with 1990. The retruns are too complicated to do by hand, so I need some kind of tax software for 1990 to 1992. I already have CCH ProSystems for 1993 to present. Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know of a vendor that sells old tax software? Does anyone have copies of CCH ProSystems Tax from 1990 to 1992? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

In 1990 we only had DOS programs that may not run under current versions of windows. We also had 8 inch floppy drives that are almost all gone now. However, there is an easy solution we use often. Use the oldest software you have for the earlier tax returns for which you lack a program. Type in the year as far to the right as you can after the last name. Also cross out the year on the printed form and type it in. Override where you find appropriate exemptions, standard deductions, percentage adjustments, etc. Do not worry about missing one or all of these. Once you notify IRS of the year of the tax return they will issue a correction for any program errors.      Mike Block – Tax Cut CPA  World’s #1 QuickBooks Top Tester     FREE  NetLedger accounting   FREE 462p QB books/error codes 100+ QB add-ons http://blocktax.com/

Response:

I need to file a tax return for the last 10 years, starting with 1990. The retruns are too complicated to do by hand, so I need some kind of tax software for 1990 to 1992. I already have CCH ProSystems for 1993 to present. Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know of a vendor that sells old tax software? Does anyone have copies of CCH ProSystems Tax from 1990 to 1992? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Response:

Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know of a vendor that sells old tax software?

Have you checked with CCH to see if they can help you on this one?  That would seem to be the obvious first place to check if you haven’t. Does anyone have copies of CCH ProSystems Tax from 1990 to 1992?

If you haven’t already hit it, one real problem is that I’m not sure that earlier versions of CCH’s software are compatible with Windows 95/98/NT/2000–if versions of ProSystemFX exist back then, most likely they are DOS based.  Also, I forget exactly when CCH brought out ProSystemFX–you might need to ask about 1040 Solutions back in that time period.

Response:

Question:

Readers may need to take a lesson from this. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MAINTAIN A SERIES OF BACKUPS — I recommend a total of 12 daily backup tapes/disks.  One is used daily, and on the fifth day of the week, you take one home (and bring one back from home).  Repeat the series on new tapes the next week.  Then have one or two more for end of month. This procedure eliminates or minimizes the risk that database corruption will propagate throughout your backups before it becomes noticable. As to your network, Lantastic is a fairly stable product; however, there is absolutely no reason to be using it now.  You’ll be much better off with Windows networking using TCP/IP.  DO NOT USE NETBEUI, as the error detection and correction is inferior to TCP/IP. Just my 2c, from having installed many, many, many networks. David

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Mike….what a horror story!  We’ve almost had the same series of problems, but for us it was Platinum for Windows.  Needless to say, my company is now comtemplating switching to another accounting program. Our company used Peachtree for the last four or so years. While their software works fine on a single computer, if you use it on a network you’re in BIG trouble. When you call them and tell them that the data is corrupt, or that it brings your network down, they tell you that Peachtree is very sensitive to the actual network software and hardware. They wanted us to change our Lantastic network, W95, the NICs, the CAT5 cable etc., after their database became corrupt. Not only did it become corrupt, it actually let us work with it, sticking in data for two weeks before we found out. During those two weeks it let us overwrite our daily backups because we didn’t know there was a problem, so we had to go back a month in our backups. It took two or three weeks just to get the database straightened out after that. A lot of expensive time lost – and a heck of a lot of stress at our company. We ended up losing the bookkepper we’d had for the last four or five years, and a person we hired just to input data – to say nothing of not being able to keep track of our financial stuff during this time. Peachtree said they were going to refund all of the support money we spent over this, and offered to refund the purchase price of the software. Right. Thanks. The LAST thing I wanted to do was find a new accounting program, I just wanted it fixed. At first, I thought it was us – and our network – even though we were having NO problems with any of the other sophisticated automation we do on the network (everything is 100% computerized here, and we take and ship over 100 orders a day). Then I just happened to go to a vendor’s office, and heard EXACTLY the same story – but they were using Peachtree on NT and W98. A totally different configuration. They lost two months. Then I looked on deja.com, and saw other posts with EXACTLY the same situation – but different network configurations… Added new person(s) to input data over their network, and all hell broke loose. Look for yourself – I’m sure it’s still there. It’s the same ugly (and expensive) story every time. I’m sure most people believe Peachtree when they tell them that their network is screwed up – after all, they are professionals and "nobody else is having that problem" (but they still say that their software is very sensitive to the network software and hardware, AS SOON as you start talking about corrupt data in their database). It’s pretty sad when a company’s financial data isn’t safe, and the software manufacturer has absolutely no concern. They just tell you that your network is screwed up, even though every other software product works fine on your network. A consultant recommended Businessworks (another Sage product – Sage owns about half the companies doing accounting software at this point) after this fiasco, so we downloaded the demo. We installed it on the bookkeeper’s PC, so she could evaluate it. Trouble is, Peachtree wouldn’t run after installing it. We finally found the file that Businessworks overwrote, and restored it. When I tried to delete Businessworks, there was no un-install. What fun. Thanks Sage. Really professional. To get us going, I put Peachtree on the bookkeeper’s PC, and had both employees share it. More fun. It stopped crashing and worked fine, but you can imagine that two people using one PC is a little stressful. As an added benefit, our network stopped crashing. We had been running Peachtree with the data on our server for years. The only thing we were sure of is that it would bring our server down if we tried to close a year through the network, so we transferred all the files to the bookkeeper’s PC to do that once a year. It’s amazing what you get used to! Since taking the data off, our W95 server just doesn’t crash any more! We actually have to reboot the server every once in a while, since eventually W95 IS going to crash by itself. It’s better to happen when we want it to. With the Peachtree data on the server, it would crash at least once a day. After asking Peachtree every which way to fix their database problems, and being told there’s nothing wrong with their software and that we’re the only one having the problem, we are contemplating a law suit. We’ve got the proof that they we’re not the only ones, and facts win law suits. Sage seems to be rather experienced in this respect, but it’s not with software they wrote – it’s with software at companies they aquired (somebody must be a real genius there). The money and time we’ve lost is nothing compared to the stress. We downloaded or bought just about every demo out there for a company our size, and found it pretty grim. Some of these programs would be funny, if they weren’t so sad. Some of the companies would come up with a lame excuse when I asked them about obvious bugs or slowness, and some of them basically said "that’s the way it works." Of course, eliminating any Sage owned software certainly does limit the playing field – to the point that I’d think that there were some anti-trust issues there. I spent hundreds of hours researching a new accounting package, and MYOB was the best of the inexpensive ones we checked out – but not flexible enough for our company even if it could handle the transactions on the network. MYOB was recommended by one of our vendors, who’s an engineer and has been using it for years for his small company (on a Mac). I think MYOB uses Btrieve, like Peachtree. The difference seems to be that MYOB does a built-in integrity check every day. I could live with losing a days worth of data, as long as that was it. Some of the software out there gets real expensive when it’s sold by companies that do nothing but sell and support that kind of software for a living. We’ve decided to do our new installation ourselves (we have a full time MIS person). So far, it’s going fine. I decided on DBA Software for our company (it does a lot more than we need but it seemed like the best choice), which uses a Pervasive SQL database. Pervasive is the company that bought Btrieve from Novell. It seems OK, but I guess I won’t know for a while. DBA comes with source code, and uses Crystal Report Writer to do custom reports – an important item to us. We should have all the data in it and start using it soon. I called some of the references that DBA gave, and they all talked in glowing terms about it. We took a two day class on the software. I’m pretty scared, though! There’s only so much time in a year. Good luck… Mike Sandman What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks Mike Sandman  630-980-7710 WWW:  http://www.sandman.com Our 112 page catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools is on the World Wide Web. We have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools and Training Videos to help you use them. NEW "Basic ISDN", "Intro to T1" and Fiber Optic/CAT 5 Training Videos are now available. Also check out our Telephony History Page, which contains ads and articles from telephony related magazines from the first part of the century.

Response:

Holy Crap! I would drop PT in a second. I have used and modified SBT Extensivly.  My current job has me working with CYMA <sp and both are rock solid stable.  End of discussion.  Take the refund from PT and invest it in other software. Another thing.  Never use a WIN95 box as your server.  Upgrade it to NT workstation, or NT server.  I only use NT, and I love WIN2000 for easier P&Pray issues. Your backups should be spread across 15+ tapes.  Even so, your time before you found out about your problem was too late.  (15 tapes is 3 weeks) __Stephen Russell

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Our company used Peachtree for the last four or so years. While their software works fine on a single computer, if you use it on a network you’re in BIG trouble. When you call them and tell them that the data is corrupt, or that it brings your network down, they tell you that Peachtree is very sensitive to the actual network software and hardware. They wanted us to change our Lantastic network, W95, the NICs, the CAT5 cable etc., after their database became corrupt. Not only did it become corrupt, it actually let us work with it, sticking in data for two weeks before we found out. During those two weeks it let us overwrite our daily backups because we didn’t know there was a problem, so we had to go back a month in our backups. It took two or three weeks just to get the database straightened out after that. A lot of expensive time lost – and a heck of a lot of stress at our company. We ended up losing the bookkepper we’d had for the last four or five years, and a person we hired just to input data – to say nothing of not being able to keep track of our financial stuff during this time. Peachtree said they were going to refund all of the support money we spent over this, and offered to refund the purchase price of the software. Right. Thanks. The LAST thing I wanted to do was find a new accounting program, I just wanted it fixed. At first, I thought it was us – and our network – even though we were having NO problems with any of the other sophisticated automation we do on the network (everything is 100% computerized here, and we take and ship over 100 orders a day). Then I just happened to go to a vendor’s office, and heard EXACTLY the same story – but they were using Peachtree on NT and W98. A totally different configuration. They lost two months. Then I looked on deja.com, and saw other posts with EXACTLY the same situation – but different network configurations… Added new person(s) to input data over their network, and all hell broke loose. Look for yourself – I’m sure it’s still there. It’s the same ugly (and expensive) story every time. I’m sure most people believe Peachtree when they tell them that their network is screwed up – after all, they are professionals and "nobody else is having that problem" (but they still say that their software is very sensitive to the network software and hardware, AS SOON as you start talking about corrupt data in their database). It’s pretty sad when a company’s financial data isn’t safe, and the software manufacturer has absolutely no concern. They just tell you that your network is screwed up, even though every other software product works fine on your network. A consultant recommended Businessworks (another Sage product – Sage owns about half the companies doing accounting software at this point) after this fiasco, so we downloaded the demo. We installed it on the bookkeeper’s PC, so she could evaluate it. Trouble is, Peachtree wouldn’t run after installing it. We finally found the file that Businessworks overwrote, and restored it. When I tried to delete Businessworks, there was no un-install. What fun. Thanks Sage. Really professional. To get us going, I put Peachtree on the bookkeeper’s PC, and had both employees share it. More fun. It stopped crashing and worked fine, but you can imagine that two people using one PC is a little stressful. As an added benefit, our network stopped crashing. We had been running Peachtree with the data on our server for years. The only thing we were sure of is that it would bring our server down if we tried to close a year through the network, so we transferred all the files to the bookkeeper’s PC to do that once a year. It’s amazing what you get used to! Since taking the data off, our W95 server just doesn’t crash any more! We actually have to reboot the server every once in a while, since eventually W95 IS going to crash by itself. It’s better to happen when we want it to. With the Peachtree data on the server, it would crash at least once a day. After asking Peachtree every which way to fix their database problems, and being told there’s nothing wrong with their software and that we’re the only one having the problem, we are contemplating a law suit. We’ve got the proof that they we’re not the only ones, and facts win law suits. Sage seems to be rather experienced in this respect, but it’s not with software they wrote – it’s with software at companies they aquired (somebody must be a real genius there). The money and time we’ve lost is nothing compared to the stress. We downloaded or bought just about every demo out there for a company our size, and found it pretty grim. Some of these programs would be funny, if they weren’t so sad. Some of the companies would come up with a lame excuse when I asked them about obvious bugs or slowness, and some of them basically said "that’s the way it works." Of course, eliminating any Sage owned software certainly does limit the playing field – to the point that I’d think that there were some anti-trust issues there. I spent hundreds of hours researching a new accounting package, and MYOB was the best of the inexpensive ones we checked out – but not flexible enough for our company even if it could handle the transactions on the network. MYOB was recommended by one of our vendors, who’s an engineer and has been using it for years for his small company (on a Mac). I think MYOB uses Btrieve, like Peachtree. The difference seems to be that MYOB does a built-in integrity check every day. I could live with losing a days worth of data, as long as that was it. Some of the software out there gets real expensive when it’s sold by companies that do nothing but sell and support that kind of software for a living. We’ve decided to do our new installation ourselves (we have a full time MIS person). So far, it’s going fine. I decided on DBA Software for our company (it does a lot more than we need but it seemed like the best choice), which uses a Pervasive SQL database. Pervasive is the company that bought Btrieve from Novell. It seems OK, but I guess I won’t know for a while. DBA comes with source code, and uses Crystal Report Writer to do custom reports – an important item to us. We should have all the data in it and start using it soon. I called some of the references that DBA gave, and they all talked in glowing terms about it. We took a two day class on the software. I’m pretty scared, though! There’s only so much time in a year. Good luck… Mike Sandman What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks Mike Sandman  630-980-7710 WWW:  http://www.sandman.com Our 112 page catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools is on the World Wide Web. We have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools and Training Videos to help you use them. NEW "Basic ISDN", "Intro to T1" and Fiber Optic/CAT 5 Training Videos are now available. Also check out our Telephony History Page, which contains ads and articles from telephony related magazines from the first part of the century.

Response:

I wanted your opinion of the software programs, not you telling me what I think.  Yes, my first impression of Business Works is less flattering than my experience with Peachtree, but that doesn’t mean I have made up my to select Peachtree. To be honest, I want whichever is the better product.  I realize each program has advantages and disadvantages over the other. I want to know if anyone has experience with the two programs, and if so what do you dislike (or like) about each of them in relation to the other (Peachtree or Business Works).

Response:

Mike….what a horror story!  We’ve almost had the same series of problems, but for us it was Platinum for Windows.  Needless to say, my company is now comtemplating switching to another accounting program.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Our company used Peachtree for the last four or so years. While their software works fine on a single computer, if you use it on a network you’re in BIG trouble. When you call them and tell them that the data is corrupt, or that it brings your network down, they tell you that Peachtree is very sensitive to the actual network software and hardware. They wanted us to change our Lantastic network, W95, the NICs, the CAT5 cable etc., after their database became corrupt. Not only did it become corrupt, it actually let us work with it, sticking in data for two weeks before we found out. During those two weeks it let us overwrite our daily backups because we didn’t know there was a problem, so we had to go back a month in our backups. It took two or three weeks just to get the database straightened out after that. A lot of expensive time lost – and a heck of a lot of stress at our company. We ended up losing the bookkepper we’d had for the last four or five years, and a person we hired just to input data – to say nothing of not being able to keep track of our financial stuff during this time. Peachtree said they were going to refund all of the support money we spent over this, and offered to refund the purchase price of the software. Right. Thanks. The LAST thing I wanted to do was find a new accounting program, I just wanted it fixed. At first, I thought it was us – and our network – even though we were having NO problems with any of the other sophisticated automation we do on the network (everything is 100% computerized here, and we take and ship over 100 orders a day). Then I just happened to go to a vendor’s office, and heard EXACTLY the same story – but they were using Peachtree on NT and W98. A totally different configuration. They lost two months. Then I looked on deja.com, and saw other posts with EXACTLY the same situation – but different network configurations… Added new person(s) to input data over their network, and all hell broke loose. Look for yourself – I’m sure it’s still there. It’s the same ugly (and expensive) story every time. I’m sure most people believe Peachtree when they tell them that their network is screwed up – after all, they are professionals and "nobody else is having that problem" (but they still say that their software is very sensitive to the network software and hardware, AS SOON as you start talking about corrupt data in their database). It’s pretty sad when a company’s financial data isn’t safe, and the software manufacturer has absolutely no concern. They just tell you that your network is screwed up, even though every other software product works fine on your network. A consultant recommended Businessworks (another Sage product – Sage owns about half the companies doing accounting software at this point) after this fiasco, so we downloaded the demo. We installed it on the bookkeeper’s PC, so she could evaluate it. Trouble is, Peachtree wouldn’t run after installing it. We finally found the file that Businessworks overwrote, and restored it. When I tried to delete Businessworks, there was no un-install. What fun. Thanks Sage. Really professional. To get us going, I put Peachtree on the bookkeeper’s PC, and had both employees share it. More fun. It stopped crashing and worked fine, but you can imagine that two people using one PC is a little stressful. As an added benefit, our network stopped crashing. We had been running Peachtree with the data on our server for years. The only thing we were sure of is that it would bring our server down if we tried to close a year through the network, so we transferred all the files to the bookkeeper’s PC to do that once a year. It’s amazing what you get used to! Since taking the data off, our W95 server just doesn’t crash any more! We actually have to reboot the server every once in a while, since eventually W95 IS going to crash by itself. It’s better to happen when we want it to. With the Peachtree data on the server, it would crash at least once a day. After asking Peachtree every which way to fix their database problems, and being told there’s nothing wrong with their software and that we’re the only one having the problem, we are contemplating a law suit. We’ve got the proof that they we’re not the only ones, and facts win law suits. Sage seems to be rather experienced in this respect, but it’s not with software they wrote – it’s with software at companies they aquired (somebody must be a real genius there). The money and time we’ve lost is nothing compared to the stress. We downloaded or bought just about every demo out there for a company our size, and found it pretty grim. Some of these programs would be funny, if they weren’t so sad. Some of the companies would come up with a lame excuse when I asked them about obvious bugs or slowness, and some of them basically said "that’s the way it works." Of course, eliminating any Sage owned software certainly does limit the playing field – to the point that I’d think that there were some anti-trust issues there. I spent hundreds of hours researching a new accounting package, and MYOB was the best of the inexpensive ones we checked out – but not flexible enough for our company even if it could handle the transactions on the network. MYOB was recommended by one of our vendors, who’s an engineer and has been using it for years for his small company (on a Mac). I think MYOB uses Btrieve, like Peachtree. The difference seems to be that MYOB does a built-in integrity check every day. I could live with losing a days worth of data, as long as that was it. Some of the software out there gets real expensive when it’s sold by companies that do nothing but sell and support that kind of software for a living. We’ve decided to do our new installation ourselves (we have a full time MIS person). So far, it’s going fine. I decided on DBA Software for our company (it does a lot more than we need but it seemed like the best choice), which uses a Pervasive SQL database. Pervasive is the company that bought Btrieve from Novell. It seems OK, but I guess I won’t know for a while. DBA comes with source code, and uses Crystal Report Writer to do custom reports – an important item to us. We should have all the data in it and start using it soon. I called some of the references that DBA gave, and they all talked in glowing terms about it. We took a two day class on the software. I’m pretty scared, though! There’s only so much time in a year. Good luck… Mike Sandman What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks Mike Sandman  630-980-7710 WWW:  http://www.sandman.com Our 112 page catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools is on the World Wide Web. We have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools and Training Videos to help you use them. NEW "Basic ISDN", "Intro to T1" and Fiber Optic/CAT 5 Training Videos are now available. Also check out our Telephony History Page, which contains ads and articles from telephony related magazines from the first part of the century.

Response:

Our company used Peachtree for the last four or so years. While their software works fine on a single computer, if you use it on a network you’re in BIG trouble. When you call them and tell them that the data is corrupt, or that it brings your network down, they tell you that Peachtree is very sensitive to the actual network software and hardware. They wanted us to change our Lantastic network, W95, the NICs, the CAT5 cable etc., after their database became corrupt. Not only did it become corrupt, it actually let us work with it, sticking in data for two weeks before we found out. During those two weeks it let us overwrite our daily backups because we didn’t know there was a problem, so we had to go back a month in our backups. It took two or three weeks just to get the database straightened out after that. A lot of expensive time lost – and a heck of a lot of stress at our company. We ended up losing the bookkepper we’d had for the last four or five years, and a person we hired just to input data – to say nothing of not being able to keep track of our financial stuff during this time. Peachtree said they were going to refund all of the support money we spent over this, and offered to refund the purchase price of the software. Right. Thanks. The LAST thing I wanted to do was find a new accounting program, I just wanted it fixed. At first, I thought it was us – and our network – even though we were having NO problems with any of the other sophisticated automation we do on the network (everything is 100% computerized here, and we take and ship over 100 orders a day). Then I just happened to go to a vendor’s office, and heard EXACTLY the same story – but they were using Peachtree on NT and W98. A totally different configuration. They lost two months. Then I looked on deja.com, and saw other posts with EXACTLY the same situation – but different network configurations… Added new person(s) to input data over their network, and all hell broke loose. Look for yourself – I’m sure it’s still there. It’s the same ugly (and expensive) story every time. I’m sure most people believe Peachtree when they tell them that their network is screwed up – after all, they are professionals and "nobody else is having that problem" (but they still say that their software is very sensitive to the network software and hardware, AS SOON as you start talking about corrupt data in their database). It’s pretty sad when a company’s financial data isn’t safe, and the software manufacturer has absolutely no concern. They just tell you that your network is screwed up, even though every other software product works fine on your network. A consultant recommended Businessworks (another Sage product – Sage owns about half the companies doing accounting software at this point) after this fiasco, so we downloaded the demo. We installed it on the bookkeeper’s PC, so she could evaluate it. Trouble is, Peachtree wouldn’t run after installing it. We finally found the file that Businessworks overwrote, and restored it. When I tried to delete Businessworks, there was no un-install. What fun. Thanks Sage. Really professional. To get us going, I put Peachtree on the bookkeeper’s PC, and had both employees share it. More fun. It stopped crashing and worked fine, but you can imagine that two people using one PC is a little stressful. As an added benefit, our network stopped crashing. We had been running Peachtree with the data on our server for years. The only thing we were sure of is that it would bring our server down if we tried to close a year through the network, so we transferred all the files to the bookkeeper’s PC to do that once a year. It’s amazing what you get used to! Since taking the data off, our W95 server just doesn’t crash any more! We actually have to reboot the server every once in a while, since eventually W95 IS going to crash by itself. It’s better to happen when we want it to. With the Peachtree data on the server, it would crash at least once a day. After asking Peachtree every which way to fix their database problems, and being told there’s nothing wrong with their software and that we’re the only one having the problem, we are contemplating a law suit. We’ve got the proof that they we’re not the only ones, and facts win law suits. Sage seems to be rather experienced in this respect, but it’s not with software they wrote – it’s with software at companies they aquired (somebody must be a real genius there). The money and time we’ve lost is nothing compared to the stress. We downloaded or bought just about every demo out there for a company our size, and found it pretty grim. Some of these programs would be funny, if they weren’t so sad. Some of the companies would come up with a lame excuse when I asked them about obvious bugs or slowness, and some of them basically said "that’s the way it works." Of course, eliminating any Sage owned software certainly does limit the playing field – to the point that I’d think that there were some anti-trust issues there. I spent hundreds of hours researching a new accounting package, and MYOB was the best of the inexpensive ones we checked out – but not flexible enough for our company even if it could handle the transactions on the network. MYOB was recommended by one of our vendors, who’s an engineer and has been using it for years for his small company (on a Mac). I think MYOB uses Btrieve, like Peachtree. The difference seems to be that MYOB does a built-in integrity check every day. I could live with losing a days worth of data, as long as that was it. Some of the software out there gets real expensive when it’s sold by companies that do nothing but sell and support that kind of software for a living. We’ve decided to do our new installation ourselves (we have a full time MIS person). So far, it’s going fine. I decided on DBA Software for our company (it does a lot more than we need but it seemed like the best choice), which uses a Pervasive SQL database. Pervasive is the company that bought Btrieve from Novell. It seems OK, but I guess I won’t know for a while. DBA comes with source code, and uses Crystal Report Writer to do custom reports – an important item to us. We should have all the data in it and start using it soon. I called some of the references that DBA gave, and they all talked in glowing terms about it. We took a two day class on the software. I’m pretty scared, though! There’s only so much time in a year. Good luck… Mike Sandman What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks

Mike Sandman  630-980-7710 WWW:  http://www.sandman.com Our 112 page catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools is on the World Wide Web. We have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools and Training Videos to help you use them. NEW "Basic ISDN",   "Intro to T1" and Fiber Optic/CAT 5 Training Videos are now available. Also check out our Telephony History Page, which contains ads and articles from telephony related magazines from the first part of the century.

Response:

Great response!!!

Opinionated but there it is! Also, what do you dislike about either of these programs… One thing that I noticed about Business Works is that its reports leave a lot of space on the page creating a need to use a lot more paper.  Of course, you can download an ASCII file and import it to Excel, but it seems like Peachtree reports are a lot easier to format, as well as export to Excel.

You know more about these two programs than you let on initially. Another thing as I have been told is that once a transaction is posted in Business Works it cannot be changed…unless you make a correcting journal entry.  Once a period is closed it cannot be reopened…unless you do a prior period adjustment.  That is good for internal control but Peachtree’s audit trail feature keeps track of changes while allowing the user to correct mistakes easier and cleaner. And Peachtree also allows you to restrict access to these types of transactions to authorized users only so at least you have choices.  Anyway that can be a plus or a minus depending on your point of view, but I’d like to given the option so I can decide which feature suits my needs best.

You chave already talked yourself into Peachtree. Another thing that I seemed to find better in Peachtree is it’s ability to drill down into transactions while viewing most of the reports.  It didn’t seem like it was as easy to do from the Business Works demo I saw.

OK, so you just became an AccountCare Partner and you are trying out a few sales tecniques on the rest of us. What are your thoughts?

My thought is that if Sage keeps buying up companies it it wont matter what accounting system we buy we’ll still be part of the "Sage Family". P.S. Big shocker: Sage just mailed an advertising piece for MAS90 to all the customer base of Peachtree.  Where is the logic in that?

Response:

I am planning to use it for a small business –  approximately 25-50 transactions per day.  I am a CPA and I have done a lot of Quickbooks, Peachtree and a few Dynamics installations and setups.  I saw a demo of Business Works conducted by a reseller. My first impression of it was that it had fewer features than Peachtree did, but I could be wrong. I want to know if anybody here has used both programs recently, and what they liked or disliked about each one. Is Business Works considered a better product?  If so,why? If I like Peachtree, what do you think I would dislike about Business Works? (and vice versa) Hope this helps.

Response:

Great response!!! Also, what do you dislike about either of these programs… One thing that I noticed about Business Works is that its reports leave a lot of space on the page creating a need to use a lot more paper.  Of course, you can download an ASCII file and import it to Excel, but it seems like Peachtree reports are a lot easier to format, as well as export to Excel. Another thing as I have been told is that once a transaction is posted in Business Works it cannot be changed…unless you make a correcting journal entry.  Once a period is closed it cannot be reopened…unless you do a prior period adjustment.  That is good for internal control but Peachtree’s audit trail feature keeps track of changes while allowing the user to correct mistakes easier and cleaner. And Peachtree also allows you to restrict access to these types of transactions to authorized users only so at least you have choices.  Anyway that can be a plus or a minus depending on your point of view, but I’d like to given the option so I can decide which feature suits my needs best. Another thing that I seemed to find better in Peachtree is it’s ability to drill down into transactions while viewing most of the reports.  It didn’t seem like it was as easy to do from the Business Works demo I saw. What are your thoughts?

Response:

What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks

Response:

The question to be asked first is:  What are you planning on doing with it. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks

Response:

I have both Peachtree 7.0.0.3 and Business Works installed at my workstation.  Business Works allows an unlimited number of "Ship To’s", Peachtree allows 10 per client ID. The accrual setup for vacation and sick time is easier to do in Business Works. These are the only major difference that comes to mind but eliminates Peachtree if you ship to many stores (for example) and bill to only one corporate entity.  Otherwise Peachtree is much more intuitive, cleaner interface generally easier to reach the full potential of the program. I’ve noticed that accountants who "consult" on computerized accounting solutions favor Business Works, but that makes me think that is because it generates more consulting fees. "For our particular application" the bottom line (excuse the pun) is Peachtree.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What’s better: Peachtree or Business Works From what I’ve seen Peachtree has a lot more enhancements and user friendliness.  BUT, I don’t know much about Business Works.  Please give your thoughts and share your knowledge. Thanks

Response:

Question:

HI folks. I’m going back to work after having my son (Mitchell: 1 yr. 8 mths.) and it seems like job hunting has changed dramatically just in the last two years.  I’ve place resumes on the web for the first time this month!  Primarily at free sites like careermosaic.com and jobdirect.com, which I like because it caters to inexperienced students and recent graduates, though I think I’m barely squeaking by as a new graduate anymore — sigh.  Are there other sites like that except geared towards returning mothers?  In fact, are there any job sites geared toward returning mothers at all? Thanks for advising me! Phyona

Response:

I don’t know of any geared toward returning mommies.  But, try going to monsterboard.com.  It can link to you thousands of jobs and other sites to help.  Don’t forget to list your time off as experience.  You have learned better time management, personal accounting, diplomacy, etc.  Use your time off as an asset, not a bad thing.  You’d be surprised how many returning mommies are h.r. directors.  Good luck! Liz – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Phyona <4castspamclo…@youpy.com> wrote in message … >HI folks. >I’m going back to work after having my son (Mitchell: 1 yr. 8 mths.) >and it seems like job hunting has changed dramatically just in the last >two years.  I’ve place resumes on the web for the first time this >month!  Primarily at free sites like careermosaic.com and jobdirect.com, >which I like because it caters to inexperienced students and recent >graduates, though I think I’m barely squeaking by as a new graduate >anymore — sigh.  Are there other sites like that except geared towards >returning mothers?  In fact, are there any job sites geared toward >returning mothers at all? >Thanks for advising me! >Phyona

Response:

In article <MPG.12642b13f6c345f9989…@news.earthlink.net>, 4castspamclo…@youpy.com says… > HI folks. > I’m going back to work after having my son (Mitchell: 1 yr. 8 mths.) > and it seems like job hunting has changed dramatically just in the last > two years.  I’ve place resumes on the web for the first time this > month!  Primarily at free sites like careermosaic.com and jobdirect.com, > which I like because it caters to inexperienced students and recent > graduates, though I think I’m barely squeaking by as a new graduate > anymore — sigh.  Are there other sites like that except geared towards > returning mothers?  In fact, are there any job sites geared toward > returning mothers at all? > Thanks for advising me! > Phyona

Phyona – I’ve also gotten some leads from monsterboard, but I have to go with your original vote for jobdirect.com. I was fresh out of school as a 23 year old with no practical experience in anything but the arts and theater, and they actually found a place for those skills – one that was profitable. If they could find me an entry level designer’s position with a magazine publisher, I bet they can find a committed new mom a great position. I had to give it up for my little girl, but I kept my second job. I’m also a music reviewer. I got that prime spot through knocking on doors. That’s my other job hunting success story. Contact businesses you’d like to work for right out of the yellow pages – or off the web. And be confident. As another poster mentioned, you ARE the ultimate manager already. A lot of employers know those skills are sharp in moms. Good luck. – LeeAnne

Response:

In article <MPG.12642b13f6c345f9989…@news.earthlink.net>,   4castspamclo…@youpy.com(Phyona ) wrote: > HI folks. > I’m going back to work after having my son (Mitchell: 1 yr. 8 mths.) > and it seems like job hunting has changed dramatically just in the last > two years.  I’ve place resumes on the web for the first time this > month!  Primarily at free sites like careermosaic.com and jobdirect.com, > which I like because it caters to inexperienced students and recent > graduates, though I think I’m barely squeaking by as a new graduate > anymore — sigh.  Are there other sites like that except geared towards > returning mothers?  In fact, are there any job sites geared toward > returning mothers at all?

I think that’s too broard of a question. Returning mothers can be very experienced or very inexperienced. And depends on what you do, for some kinds of jobs taking a couple of years means a big decrease of work performance, for other kinds it doesn’t matter much… Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

Response:

Phyona, I would start by finding Family Friendly companies. Regardless of your experience level, companies that understand the plagues of parenthood are much more accomodating. Working Mother Magazine posts the top 100 family friendly companies in the US annually. Check their website. You might even be lucky enough to find a company with onsite daycare. You gotta love that! Best of Luck! Robyn (mother of Joey (6) and Nicholas (2)) http://www.robynsnest.com Phyona <4castspamclo…@youpy.com> wrote in message …

"HI folks. >I’m going back to work after having my son (Mitchell: 1 yr. 8 mths.) >and it seems like job hunting has changed dramatically just in the last >two years.  I’ve place resumes on the web for the first time this >month!  Primarily at free sites like careermosaic.com and

jobdirect.com,……."

Response:

Question:

"Dollars d*mn me."     Love that quote.     Hate work. Can’t live on just SSI. Gotta work. Hate work.     Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down.     So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared."     Hate work.     <grumble grumble grumble     Is there a better way to live (besides finding a nice SO to drive the Cinder*lla-mobile)?     Would appreciate input. Lucha & Tribe Cause you are poor you go to public school. Cause public school is free you get a lousy education. Cause you get a lousy education you are uneducated. Cause you are uneducated you are treated with contempt. Cause you are treated with contempt you are contemptuous of others. … And you are destroyed …cause you were contemptuous of others cause you were treated with contempt cause you were uneducated cause you got a lousy education cause you went to public school cause you were poor. –Peter Spiro, "Cause and Effect"

Response:

   Hate work. Can’t live on just SSI. Gotta work. Hate work.

SSI goes down if you work, doesn’t it?    Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down.

Would it be possible for you to `invent’ a job?  This is America, land of ideas, where very silly people get rich    Perhaps something that you like doing in your spare time that you could convert to cash. I have a friend who did well in house cleaning.  Wish I could afford her That way you could start out slowly, with whatever you choose, and grow into a business. One booming area is tutoring.  Tons of people would like to learn to use a computer.  All you need to know is one more thing than they do, plus good communication skills (by that I mean not wrapping the mouse cord around their neck when they don’t understand something you just got done explaining THREE TIMES….).   Well, now we know why Jeff never pursued THAT avenue  :)    So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared."

How about freelance work with some of the skills you picked up?  You could be your own boss, which will eliminate some stress. Maybe tutoring in your degree subjects? I love work. I used to do medical billing.  Did it for ten years. During that time, I taught myself computers and fiddled with them a lot.   Then I got a job doing what I like: fiddling with computers. It’s working out well for me.   I wish you success with your search.

Response:

"Dollars d*mn me."    Love that quote.    Hate work. Can’t live on just SSI. Gotta work. Hate work.    Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down.

I remember that.  worked in a w*lgreens in the 1hr photo lab in order to have something to *do*.  and to get medical insurance.  weren’t willing to consider even trying for SSI for some reason.  prolly figured if we did that, then there went all the chances for that professional career some day. dunno if that was accurate or not.    So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs,

yup, me too. unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared."

*finally*, in the last 2 years, I am finally getting to *use* my training. it’s fun.  of course, it isn’t 6 figures, but it’s a decent salary.    Hate work.    <grumble grumble grumble    Is there a better way to live (besides finding a nice SO to drive the Cinder*lla-mobile)?    Would appreciate input.

well, since you’ve taken the plunge into trying therapy, I think you can work on getting back to the point that you can do the work you worked toward.  took me about 5 years of therapy with someone who knew what they were doing with dissociation.  and I found a nice SO to cook for me along the way     (something else that was pretty much impossible earlier). so.  if there’s hope for me… (you can finish this one  <duck and run) astri

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – "Dollars d*mn me."    Love that quote.    Hate work. Can’t live on just SSI. Gotta work. Hate work.    Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down. I remember that.  worked in a w*lgreens in the 1hr photo lab in order to have something to *do*.  and to get medical insurance.  weren’t willing to consider even trying for SSI for some reason.  prolly figured if we did that, then there went all the chances for that professional career some day. dunno if that was accurate or not.

    Oh l*rd. I knew a kid who worked in that awful place. And one who worked at K-M*rt. <sigh     As an aside, I don’t remember how SSI came about, exactly *-}     Something to do with coming out of the h*spital after the TLE dx; other people telling my then-SO what to do; me just following along feeling completely out of it… Then there were these checks and rules about what I was supposed to be doing … <shrug    So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, yup, me too.

    Um, really: That was *supposed* to be "university degrees." I once misspelled the word "knowledge" in a piece that *almost* made it to print (I was the editor!). Don’t think I’ve ever forgiven myself for that… <sigh     People are always saying that terrible, "You have more degrees than a thermometer" thing to me. Which is *such* an exaggeration, ok?     I don’t really have more than I need. Just more than I can effectively utilize, at the moment. Which always makes it *feel* like the last twenty years’ work was unneccessary unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared." *finally*, in the last 2 years, I am finally getting to *use* my training. it’s fun.  of course, it isn’t 6 figures, but it’s a decent salary.

    Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*ol. We worked hard to earn that money, which we were told would come later, under the "delayed gratification" theory of university professi*nals.     We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on… well, since you’ve taken the plunge into trying therapy, I think you can work on getting back to the point that you can do the work you worked toward.  took me about 5 years of therapy with someone who knew what they were doing with dissociation.  and I found a nice SO to cook for me along the way     (something else that was pretty much impossible earlier). so.  if there’s hope for me… (you can finish this one  <duck and run)

    ARGH! I would be annoyed, but you’re right!!!     It never even *occurred* to us that we might someday be better than this.     Which is odd, given the fact that we refuse to think we’re "sick" or "weird."     Wow. What a concept.     So we could, like, take Jeff’s suggestions *for a while* and, when we’re more stable, we could just move on??     What a thought.     What a thought.     What a thought…     Oh, but wait! Won’t we be too old by then?? Don’t women in the prof*ssions get cut off by the glass ceiling at age 40??     Okay. Hushing now. We’ll just have to wait and see… Thanks, astri. Lucha & Tribe rejection can kill you it can force you to park outside neon-lit liquor stores and finger the steel of your contemplation. it can even make you rob yourself. (when does the veteran of one war fail to appreciate the vet of another?) the ragged scarecrow lusts in the midst of a fallow field and the lover who prances in circles envies me my moves/has designs on my gizzard/kicks shit this is the city we’ve come to all the lights are red all the poets are dead and there are no norths Wanda Coleman, "American Sonnet"

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actually i don’t think ssi makes a professional career any farther off.  i’m on ssi in order to get medicaid and i’m in medical school.  less than one year from an MD (and it’s been a looong haul

Response:

Thank you for letting us know we’re not alone in this.     We appreciate your insights. Lucha & Tribe – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’ve only in recent weeks come to accept the limitations we have and that it may never be possible to go out and take the computer world by storm at a full time job. Not saying I can’t, just being open to reality. So open to alternative ways to use my knowledge and skills. Like now I am working with a temporary agency specializing in accounting, which I have buko credentials etc in. I’ve told them I only want part-time temp jobs, or very brief full day jobs. It is still difficult, since it is just always always always so hard to know how we’ll feel even tomorrow. Worked 3 hours today and was kind of relieved thinking I wouldn’t work for a while.  But didn’t wanna turn this down.  Trying to establish myself in a certain specialization so I can always get jobs of the kind I want with some flexibility. So unless they shut down early tomorrow it will be all day.  That is scary. Trying to be very grounded and present right now and maintain that.  And review things like the need for pacing tomorrow, taking breaks etc. When you are still having insiders taking turns coming up to bat so to speak with new issues and memories or more vivid ones, it feels somewhat risky going to work. And so I try to make money and not exceed the govt limits on my disability for losing it, while prepping for a new career. Sure have done my share of jobs that were way below my potential or had poor conditions. Not fair, but what are you going to do? We try to find strategies and such to be able to function, but then try to emphasize that we can only do what we can do, and if the plans fail then it isn’t the end of the world. Anyhow, you are not alone in this. At all. Todoeoeooe aka puffkitty

I want you to know the worst and be free from it. I want you to know the worst and still find good. Day by day, as you play nearby or laugh with the ladies at People’s Bank as we go around town and I find myself beaming like a fool, I suspect I am here less for your protection than you are here for mine, as if you were sent to call me back into our helpless tribe. John Balaban, from "Words for My Daughter"

Response:

   Hate work. Can’t live on just SSI. Gotta work. Hate work. SSI goes down if you work, doesn’t it?

    Lots of people on SSI are "allowed" to earn x amount of money per month (varies with each SSI recipient).  For us, earning the extra is the difference between feeding our kids and not.    Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down. One booming area is tutoring.  Tons of people would like to learn to use a computer.  All you need to know is one more thing than they do, plus good communication skills (by that I mean not wrapping the mouse cord around their neck when they don’t understand something you just got done explaining THREE TIMES….).   Well, now we know why Jeff never pursued THAT avenue  :)

    LOL. LOL. LOL.     Um, we’re more one of those people who have felt the cord of the mouse looming much too close to the neck during "tutoring sessions," but I LOVE the idea of tutoring. Why didn’t we think of that? Duh.     "Brilliant, but no common sense." That’s what my best friend says, sadly wagging her head about us.    So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared." How about freelance work with some of the skills you picked up?  You could be your own boss, which will eliminate some stress. Maybe tutoring in your degree subjects?

    Dang. That should’ve been "university degrees." We were in a zone, when we wrote that…     Yes, we’ve done free-lance, under the "C" moniker ("Consultant"). Problem is only two of us do that type of work, and feel very unimpressed with ourselves, when we see how the industry keeps changing and growing and getting so much cooler than us     We used to do free-lance writing, and that was going swimmingly (yum…water), until the aphasia from the TLE set in, so now it takes forever plus forever to write anything, and we hardly ever finish <sigh     But tutoring. One of our former students actually called yesterday, and was hinting around that she’d still like to be studying with us. We took that into the head, let it float for a minute, then decided it’s too difficult to deal with parents of students who are young enough to still have parents paying     But did we consider working with people who pay their *own* bills? Nooooo. So thanks, Jeff. We tend to think ourselves into a corner, then pop out the box, deciding the fumes are too much in there… I love work.

    I remember loving work.     :::drifting into sweet melancholy:::     Er, I also remember my SOs *hating* how much I loved my work <sigh I used to do medical billing.  Did it for ten years. During that time, I taught myself computers and fiddled with them a lot.   Then I got a job doing what I like: fiddling with computers. It’s working out well for me.  

    We take your point. Thank you. Sorry to be such dolts about this. I wish you success with your search.

    Thanks! Lucha & Tribe, on with the search! rejection can kill you it can force you to park outside neon-lit liquor stores and finger the steel of your contemplation. it can even make you rob yourself. (when does the veteran of one war fail to appreciate the vet of another?) Wanda Coleman, from "American Sonnet"

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dear lucha,           You expected a six figure salary at your university for being an administrator? If you were College President at a rich IVY school ,or had the right nobel prize,or were the football coach at a big rich football school—perhaps.          But , to be prepped for administration and expect a six figure salary boggles my mind.         best          penny          (   prof.) p.s. What does the provost of uni colorado get? What does a dean earn? What does the dean of the graduate school earn? (for non academics , the provost is the managing director of the university. At some schools there is a president of the school above the provost. This is the top job .     It is extremely stressful. Last year the provost at Harvard had a nervious breakdown from overwork and stress) Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fac We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on…

typically: your administration has lied to you,IMHO. You might get low end five figures as a dean  in a state school Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*o

What is a consortium school and why would it give you more money than if you came out of ,say Harvard?

Response:

actually i don’t think ssi makes a professional career any farther off.  i’m on ssi in order to get medicaid and i’m in medical school.  less than one year from an MD (and it’s been a looong haul

    Good luck in your endeavors! Sounds great Lucha & Tribe I want you to know the worst and be free from it. I want you to know the worst and still find good. Day by day, as you play nearby or laugh with the ladies at People’s Bank as we go around town and I find myself beaming like a fool, I suspect I am here less for your protection than you are here for mine, as if you were sent to call me back into our helpless tribe. John Balaban, from "Words for My Daughter"

Response:

writes: So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared

My daughter, after 19 years of school,  graduating summa cum laude, being the James B. Duke Fellow in Immunology, and getting her Master’s…is qualified to do nothing in the state of Virginia but research…which she hates. She wanted to teach….but they say she will need an additional 30 hours in education. So…after an education casting thousands upon thousands of dollars…she is working at Victoria’s Secret. I hope you can find something that both makes you happy and suits your needs. Margaret "You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh in "Pooh’s Grand Adventure" to reply directly to me remove nojunk from my email address

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dear lucha,           Todoe is very wise on this issue of limitations.          It’s a hard struggle.       In your case, i would be careful about the promises of your administration.         I learned this the hard way too, in my twenty years in the prof. game.        Never trust a verbal promise and always check the numbers (such as salary promises)against other similar jobs at similar schools.. Never expect anything that is not in a legal contract.                best               penny

Response:

dear lucha,          You expected a six figure salary at your university for being an administrator?

    I did, yes. That was, perhaps, silly of me. I did not mean to offend. If you were College President at a rich IVY school ,or had the right nobel prize,or were the football coach at a big rich football school—perhaps.         But , to be prepped for administration and expect a six figure salary boggles my mind.        best         penny         (   prof.)

    I have been offered, in writing, 90K per annum at a small college, for the first year. Additionally, some schools offering a comparable salary have "perks" that include housing, so it ups the "income" balance sheet significantly. I simply was not up to the many, many tasks, however. p.s. What does the provost of uni colorado get? What does a dean earn? What does the dean of the graduate school earn?

    I imagine you could get that information by performing an internet search. I am not currently associated with that system (just retain use of an email account). Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fac We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on… typically: your administration has lied to you,IMHO.

    I was referring to the delay caused by my current "disabled" status. You might get low end five figures as a dean  in a state school

    True. It depends on your field, and on whether your publications and such are considered "in field." Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*o What is a consortium school and why would it give you more money than if you came out of ,say H*rvard?

    H*rvard (splatted for trolls) is a consortium sch*ol.  There were 16, at my last count. What used to be the *vy League is now a group of schools, such as H*rvard, Stanf*rd, Y*le, et al. Attendance at one means there is a matric*lation agreement between all, so you are able, for example, to be enrolled in a degree program at H*rvard, spend a term at Y*le, but still have your credits appear on your transcript for your degree program. Also library and research privileges and the like obtain between all 16 institutions. Lucha ****** I release you, fear, because you hold these scenes in front of me and I was born with eyes that can never close. I release you, fear, so you can no longer keep me naked and frozen in the winter, or smothered under blankets in the summer. I release you I release you I release you I am not afraid to be angry. I am not afraid to rejoice. I am not afraid to be black. I am not afraid to be white. I am not afraid to be hungry. I am not afraid to be full. I am not afraid to be hated. I am not afraid to be loved. to be loved, to be loved, fear. Joy Harjo, from "I Give You Back"

Response:

   Um, we’re more one of those people who have felt the cord of the mouse looming much too close to the neck during "tutoring sessions," but I LOVE the idea of tutoring. Why didn’t we think of that? Duh.

Too close to the forest.  I’d miss it too if it were about me.    "Brilliant, but no common sense." That’s what my best friend says, sadly wagging her head about us.

I get that too. "Vineburg, you’re the dumbest smart person I know."    But tutoring. One of our former students actually called yesterday, and

It’s like a sign    But did we consider working with people who pay their *own* bills? Nooooo. So thanks, Jeff. We tend to think ourselves into a corner, then pop out the box, deciding the fumes are too much in there…

It’s always good to get an outside opinion.. a different point of view.    We take your point. Thank you. Sorry to be such dolts about this.

You’re not dolts and please don’t apologize.  You didn’t do anything wrong

Response:

(PSmith9626) writes: Never trust a verbal promise and always check the numbers (such as salary promises)against other similar jobs at similar schools.. Never expect anything that is not in a legal contract.

Reminds me of a saying…trust everybody AND always get it in writing. <G Margaret "You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh in "Pooh’s Grand Adventure" to reply directly to me remove nojunk from my email address

Response:

dear lucha,          Todoe is very wise on this issue of limitations.         It’s a hard struggle.      In your case, i would be careful about the promises of your administration.        I learned this the hard way too, in my twenty years in the prof. game.       Never trust a verbal promise and always check the numbers (such as salary promises)against other similar jobs at similar schools.. Never expect anything that is not in a legal contract.               best              penny

    I understand. Thank you. Lucha ****** I release you, fear, because you hold these scenes in front of me and I was born with eyes that can never close. I release you, fear, so you can no longer keep me naked and frozen in the winter, or smothered under blankets in the summer. I release you I release you I release you I am not afraid to be angry. I am not afraid to rejoice. I am not afraid to be black. I am not afraid to be white. I am not afraid to be hungry. I am not afraid to be full. I am not afraid to be hated. I am not afraid to be loved. to be loved, to be loved, fear. Joy Harjo, from "I Give You Back"

Response:

   Um, we’re more one of those people who have felt the cord of the mouse looming much too close to the neck during "tutoring sessions," but I LOVE the idea of tutoring. Why didn’t we think of that? Duh. Too close to the forest.  I’d miss it too if it were about me.

    Thanks for not making me feel utterly dense (pun intended)    "Brilliant, but no common sense." That’s what my best friend says, sadly wagging her head about us. I get that too. "Vineburg, you’re the dumbest smart person I know."

    LOL! I like that. I mean: I know how it feels…    But tutoring. One of our former students actually called yesterday, and It’s like a sign

    Ya think? Perhaps…    But did we consider working with people who pay their *own* bills? Nooooo. So thanks, Jeff. We tend to think ourselves into a corner, then pop out the box, deciding the fumes are too much in there… It’s always good to get an outside opinion.. a different point of view.

    I’m discovering that. Thanks, Jeff.    We take your point. Thank you. Sorry to be such dolts about this. You’re not dolts and please don’t apologize.  You didn’t do anything wrong

    Um… okay <shy smile Lucha & Tribe I release you, fear, because you hold these scenes in front of me and I was born with eyes that can never close. I release you, fear, so you can no longer keep me naked and frozen in the winter, or smothered under blankets in the summer. I release you I release you I release you I am not afraid to be angry. I am not afraid to rejoice. I am not afraid to be black. I am not afraid to be white. I am not afraid to be hungry. I am not afraid to be full. I am not afraid to be hated. I am not afraid to be loved. to be loved, to be loved, fear. Joy Harjo, from "I Give You Back"

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – writes: So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared My daughter, after 19 years of school,  graduating summa cum laude, being the James B. Duke Fellow in Immunology, and getting her Master’s…is qualified to do nothing in the state of Virginia but research…which she hates. She wanted to teach….but they say she will need an additional 30 hours in education. So…after an education casting thousands upon thousands of dollars…she is working at Victoria’s Secret. I hope you can find something that both makes you happy and suits your needs. Margaret

Don’t get me started on _this_ topic! I went to school for millions of years, got a MA in psych (which I needed at the job I was at then) and also got what is called an equivalent MA in special ed so I could do what I really want to do. Then I moved to Colorado and found out that they don’t accept the special ed stuff I did in IL (if I had done it in CO I would have been fine) and so I had to start over again. I’m going to end up with basically three MAs just so I can work in a job that will pay me about $30,000. (I can’t wait, I love what I do for a living!:) Of course I could go into private practice and make a bit more than that (people who think t’pists make lots of money aren’t quite right) but then I’d have to work with all sorts of people and not just the kinds of kids I like to work with. Meanwhile, I work at jobs just for fun (and to have something to do) like this past school year I worked at a fun school with some really neat people and had a ball. Got paid just above minimum wage and loved every minute of it Rainbow Colors (Jill) —      The colors blend, the edges soften. Swirling and mixing                    we are becoming white light.

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – [...]    Can’t do anything too "stressful" or "high-functioning," or our system shuts down. I remember that.  worked in a w*lgreens in the 1hr photo lab in order to have something to *do*.  and to get medical insurance.  weren’t willing to consider even trying for SSI for some reason.  prolly figured if we did that, then there went all the chances for that professional career some day.  dunno if that was accurate or not.    Oh l*rd. I knew a kid who worked in that awful place. And one who worked at K-M*rt. <sigh

well, it was fun for a while, actually.  got to let out the artistic sides and play at the photo machine.  :)  and it’s really easy to please most ppl most of the time, so it could be satisfying.  and not more challenging than I could handle.      As an aside, I don’t remember how SSI came about, exactly *-}    Something to do with coming out of the h*spital after the TLE dx; other people telling my then-SO what to do; me just following along feeling completely out of it… Then there were these checks and rules about what I was supposed to be doing … <shrug

mmmm    So here we sit with more universities degrees than any human needs, yup, me too.    Um, really: That was *supposed* to be "university degrees." I once

oh well.  and here I didn’t even notice. misspelled the word "knowledge" in a piece that *almost* made it to print (I was the editor!). Don’t think I’ve ever forgiven myself for that… <sigh

but it *didn’t* make it to print.  isn’t that what counts?    People are always saying that terrible, "You have more degrees than a thermometer" thing to me. Which is *such* an exaggeration, ok?

ok.  but I still have fantasies about going and picking up a law degree some day.    I don’t really have more than I need. Just more than I can effectively utilize, at the moment. Which always makes it *feel* like the last twenty years’ work was unneccessary

nah.  it was necessary.  you needed *something* to fill the time, didn’t you?  ;) unable to utilize any of them for that high-end six-figure salary for which we were "prepared." *finally*, in the last 2 years, I am finally getting to *use* my training. it’s fun.  of course, it isn’t 6 figures, but it’s a decent salary.    Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*ol. We worked hard to earn that money, which we were told would come later, under the "delayed gratification" theory of university professi*nals.

not 6 because I choose to work for the public schools, where the kids who actually need me most hang out.  and I don’t have to send them away due to inadequate insurance.  :)    We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on…

this is not delay.  what you are experiencing now is not a drill.  it is life.  it may not be following the plans you had thought you had laid out, but it is real.  and sometimes that fact sucks.   but career is not everything.  knowledge can be used in other than the original ways it was planned to be used. well, since you’ve taken the plunge into trying therapy, I think you can work on getting back to the point that you can do the work you worked toward.  took me about 5 years of therapy with someone who knew what they were doing with dissociation.  and I found a nice SO to cook for me along the way     (something else that was pretty much impossible earlier). so.  if there’s hope for me… (you can finish this one  <duck and run)    ARGH! I would be annoyed, but you’re right!!!

oh no!!! quick! hide!!!!    It never even *occurred* to us that we might someday be better than this.    Which is odd, given the fact that we refuse to think we’re "sick" or "weird."    Wow. What a concept.

yup.      So we could, like, take Jeff’s suggestions *for a while* and, when we’re more stable, we could just move on??

you could.  you’ll have choices then.    What a thought.    What a thought.    What a thought…

oog.  my brain.  too much exercise.    Oh, but wait! Won’t we be too old by then?? Don’t women in the prof*ssions get cut off by the glass ceiling at age 40??

dunno.  is that body age or mental age?  and why did you splat professions?    Okay. Hushing now. We’ll just have to wait and see… Thanks, astri. Lucha & Tribe

you’re welcome. astri

Response:

   Oh l*rd. I knew a kid who worked in that awful place. And one who worked at K-M*rt. <sigh well, it was fun for a while, actually.  got to let out the artistic sides and play at the photo machine.  :)  and it’s really easy to please most ppl most of the time, so it could be satisfying.  and not more challenging than I could handle.  

     Ah. None of "my" kids (students) got to do anything cool. They all reported hating the work, the hours, and the wages. But then, they were teenagers :-p    As an aside, I don’t remember how SSI came about, exactly *-} mmmm

    "mmmm"? As in a therapist’s "mmm hmmm"?? Yikes!    Um, really: That was *supposed* to be "university degrees." I once oh well.  and here I didn’t even notice.

    Good to know. We always think everyone is reading everything way more carefully than is necessary (like we do) <sigh misspelled the word "knowledge" in a piece that *almost* made it to print (I was the editor!). Don’t think I’ve ever forgiven myself for that… <sigh but it *didn’t* make it to print.  isn’t that what counts?

    Nope. Sadly, what counts is that some horrid old man (whom I could have fired but didn’t cuz he actually *scared* me lol) had to point it out to me. He kept reiterating what an ironic word that was to misspell, and him catching it without any college training, while here I was a college girl, on and on…     Hint (in case you haven’t gotten it yet): We overcompensate. Constantly. And big time. The smallest chink in our armor is cause for red alert!! =-o    People are always saying that terrible, "You have more degrees than a thermometer" thing to me. Which is *such* an exaggeration, ok? ok.  but I still have fantasies about going and picking up a law degree some day.

    Yeah, me, too. But then I’d waltz myself into the same predicament that’s always filled my dance card: fighting for the underdogs, and never getting paid.     Neglected to mention in my first post on this topic that I had already eschewed the university system, in favor of fighting for underdogs, before I was put on SSI. And continued to do so, until my mind and body just collapsed under the pressure. I had also taken a huge financial hit, because I walked out on the academy (and still hear about *that* move…).     What I *meant* to say in the first post was not that the academy had let me down, nor that my degrees weren’t working in my favor. Simply that I am no longer equipped to function as I once was. So here I am, at the moment when I should be enjoying my professional "salad days" (whatever that means), and instead I’m waiting some more. Bah.     An SO told me, after my dx with TLE, that now my mind "just works like everybody else’s." He added that it came as a great relief to him, because everybody we knew had been saying for years that I couldn’t possibly continue to work at the pace to which I was accustomed. I was, of course, deeply insulted, and remain so. :-p    I don’t really have more than I need. Just more than I can effectively utilize, at the moment. Which always makes it *feel* like the last twenty years’ work was unneccessary nah.  it was necessary.  you needed *something* to fill the time, didn’t you?  ;)

    Yeah. As a friend of mine says, "Graduate school kept me off the streets." :-p    Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*ol. We worked hard to earn that money, which we were told would come later, under the "delayed gratification" theory of university professi*nals. not 6 because I choose to work for the public schools, where the kids who actually need me most hang out.  and I don’t have to send them away due to inadequate insurance.  :)

    I’m glad for people like you. I’ve done it, too. I just can’t do much of *anything* that we find necessary or satisfying anymore.    We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on… this is not delay.  what you are experiencing now is not a drill.  it is life.  it may not be following the plans you had thought you had laid out, but it is real.  and sometimes that fact sucks.  

    Gee, ya think? :-p but career is not everything.  knowledge can be used in other than the original ways it was planned to be used.

    G*d, I hope so. so.  if there’s hope for me… (you can finish this one  <duck and run)    ARGH! I would be annoyed, but you’re right!!! oh no!!! quick! hide!!!!

    LOL.    It never even *occurred* to us that we might someday be better than this.    Which is odd, given the fact that we refuse to think we’re "sick" or "weird."    Wow. What a concept. yup.  

    Yup.    So we could, like, take Jeff’s suggestions *for a while* and, when we’re more stable, we could just move on?? you could.  you’ll have choices then.

    Mmmmmm. Choices. Yummmm…    What a thought.    What a thought.    What a thought… oog.  my brain.  too much exercise.

    Agreed.    Oh, but wait! Won’t we be too old by then?? Don’t women in the prof*ssions get cut off by the glass ceiling at age 40?? dunno.  is that body age or mental age?  and why did you splat professions?

    Almost body age. Mental age varies :-p     Splatted for folks searching the term "w*men in the professions." Earlier for the term "un*versity professionals." Thanks, astri. you’re welcome.

    Lucha ***** ALL I KNOW IS WE ARE FREE BECAUSE THE WORLD IS STILL UNFINISHED. paul skiff, from "June 15, 1990"

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[...]    As an aside, I don’t remember how SSI came about, exactly *-} mmmm    "mmmm"? As in a therapist’s "mmm hmmm"?? Yikes!

nah.  I almost never talk here as a therapist, and when I do I’m clear about it (like saying something like: "I’m a therapist and…").  it’s more a conversational filler saying I notice this and don’t have something particularly brilliant to say but felt the need to say something.    Um, really: That was *supposed* to be "university degrees." I once oh well.  and here I didn’t even notice.    Good to know. We always think everyone is reading everything way more carefully than is necessary (like we do) <sigh

nobody is reading your stuff more carefully than necessary.  they’re all too busy reading their own stuff more carefully than necessary.  besides, I can’t read slowly enough to proofread. misspelled the word "knowledge" in a piece that *almost* made it to print (I was the editor!). Don’t think I’ve ever forgiven myself for that… <sigh but it *didn’t* make it to print.  isn’t that what counts?    Nope. Sadly, what counts is that some horrid old man (whom I could have fired but didn’t cuz he actually *scared* me lol) had to point it out to me. He kept reiterating what an ironic word that was to misspell, and him catching it without any college training, while here I was a college girl, on and on…

   Hint (in case you haven’t gotten it yet): We overcompensate. Constantly. And big time. The smallest chink in our armor is cause for red alert!! =-o

yeah, but that gets *exhausting* I still prolly earn the title perfectionist, but I’m much less perfectionistic than before.  I’ve actually been able to carve out a set of "good enough" for a bunch of things.    People are always saying that terrible, "You have more degrees than a thermometer" thing to me. Which is *such* an exaggeration, ok? ok.  but I still have fantasies about going and picking up a law degree some day.    Yeah, me, too. But then I’d waltz myself into the same predicament that’s always filled my dance card: fighting for the underdogs, and never getting paid.

heh    Neglected to mention in my first post on this topic that I had already eschewed the university system, in favor of fighting for underdogs, before I was put on SSI. And continued to do so, until my mind and body just collapsed under the pressure. I had also taken a huge financial hit, because I walked out on the academy (and still hear about *that* move…).

money does not *need* to be the top priority.  being able to enjoy life is a better goal, imo.    What I *meant* to say in the first post was not that the academy had let me down, nor that my degrees weren’t working in my favor. Simply that I am no longer equipped to function as I once was. So here I am, at the moment when I should be enjoying my professional "salad days" (whatever that means), and instead I’m waiting some more. Bah.

oh, I understood that.    An SO told me, after my dx with TLE, that now my mind "just works like everybody else’s." He added that it came as a great relief to him, because everybody we knew had been saying for years that I couldn’t possibly continue to work at the pace to which I was accustomed. I was, of course, deeply insulted, and remain so. :-p

I’d be, too.    I don’t really have more than I need. Just more than I can effectively utilize, at the moment. Which always makes it *feel* like the last twenty years’ work was unneccessary nah.  it was necessary.  you needed *something* to fill the time, didn’t you?  ;)    Yeah. As a friend of mine says, "Graduate school kept me off the streets." :-p

yup  :)    Why not 6 figures? We were prepped for 6, ostensibly due to the fact that we had "done our time" on the professor gig and were being manicured for administration. Plus the fact that we came out of a consortium sch*ol. We worked hard to earn that money, which we were told would come later, under the "delayed gratification" theory of university professi*nals. not 6 because I choose to work for the public schools, where the kids who actually need me most hang out.  and I don’t have to send them away due to inadequate insurance.  :)    I’m glad for people like you. I’ve done it, too. I just can’t do much *of anything* that we find necessary or satisfying anymore.

you could get there again.  think of working on yourself as your primary job right now.  believe me, *that*’s gonna take a whole lot of your resources. and, imnsho, it’s worth it in the end.    We’re done waiting. But the delay ticks on… this is not delay.  what you are experiencing now is not a drill.  it is life.  it may not be following the plans you had thought you had laid out, but it is real.  and sometimes that fact sucks.  :P    Gee, ya think? :-p but career is not everything.  knowledge can be used in other than the original ways it was planned to be used.    G*d, I hope so.

I’d never planned to be doing what I’m doing now. I couldn’t have predicted this. so.  if there’s hope for me… (you can finish this one  <duck and run)    ARGH! I would be annoyed, but you’re right!!! oh no!!! quick! hide!!!!    LOL.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –    It never even *occurred* to us that we might someday be better than this.    Which is odd, given the fact that we refuse to think we’re "sick" or "weird."    Wow. What a concept. yup.      Yup.    So we could, like, take Jeff’s suggestions *for a while* and, when we’re more stable, we could just move on?? you could.  you’ll have choices then.    Mmmmmm. Choices. Yummmm…

uh huh  :) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –    What a thought.    What a thought.    What a thought… oog.  my brain.  too much exercise.    Agreed.    Oh, but wait! Won’t we be too old by then?? Don’t women in the prof*ssions get cut off by the glass ceiling at age 40?? dunno.  is that body age or mental age?  and why did you splat professions?    Almost body age. Mental age varies :-p    Splatted for folks searching the term "w*men in the professions." Earlier for the term "un*versity professionals."

oh, I dunno if it makes sense to be *that* careful about search terms. really, the brand names and famous people’s names and stuff that might bring ppl who would definitely cause difficulty here (like f/m/s/fers).  but the folks searching for something like that would prolly get thousands of hits and the asd post would be somewhere on the bottom of that list. and if they saw it they’d prolly pass to the next hit that was actually about what they were interested in. Thanks, astri. you’re welcome.    :-) Lucha

astri

Response:

Too close to the forest.  I’d miss it too if it were about me.    Thanks for not making me feel utterly dense (pun intended)

Well done. I get that too. "Vineburg, you’re the dumbest smart person I know."    LOL! I like that. I mean: I know how it feels…

The smart folk have a different way of looking at things than the Great Unwashed. A smart person will come to a door and not go in because it’s locked. A non-smart person will turn the knob and walk right in    But tutoring. One of our former students actually called yesterday, and It’s like a sign    Ya think? Perhaps…

Mom always says `things happen for a reason.’ And we don’t want to argue with Mom, do we?  :) It’s always good to get an outside opinion.. a different point of view.    I’m discovering that. Thanks, Jeff.

Especially when you’re smart, like us We need the others to tell us we forgot our pants.    We take your point. Thank you. Sorry to be such dolts about this. You’re not dolts and please don’t apologize.  You didn’t do anything wrong    Um… okay <shy smile

Now if you want dolts, there are literally thousands of newsgroups to find them in.

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again. I’m going to end up with basically three MAs just so I can work in a job that will pay me about $30,000. (I can’t wait, I love what I do for a living!:)

Best of luck.  You must really love it. P.S.  if you’re half decent with a computer, you can make that to start. but then I’d have to work with all sorts of people and not just the kinds of kids I like to work with.

Great to be able to specialize! like this past school year I worked at a fun school with some really neat people and had a ball. Got paid just above minimum wage and loved every minute of it

That sounds a little TOO well-adjusted

Response:

Dear lucha,         Thanks for defining consortium school.         You did not offend me, I was concerned you were being lied to by the people who gave you a six figure promise.             all best              penny           ( fellow prof) simply was not up to the many, many tasks, however. :

As , I said , university administration top jobs are incredible stress factories. The president of Har. had a nervous breakdown last year : ( apparently the overwork was enough)       Take care of yourself lucca.

Response:

Question:

104 Sr. Auditor Our client, a financial holding company in Deerfield, IL is seeking a Senior Auditor. Responsibilities will include participating in audits of company functions involving the systematic appraisal, analysis and verification of internal accounting and operating controls.  This person will identify business concerns and improvement opportunities and prepare recommendations for corrective actions.  Certification, working knowledge of PC’s, ability to communicate through personal discussion, oral presentations and written reports are required. Proficiency in foreign language is desired.  Position requires 60-70% international travel.  Salary between $35-$55K. Contact:Claire Fx: 847-573-1520 Ph: 847-573-1500 —Share what you know. Learn what you don’t.—

Response:

Question:

Which is better?  What’s the difference?

Response:

I bought a Meguiars set of 3 different compounds. A cleaner, a polish, and a wax. The results were better then any other wax I’ve tried. (autofom, etc) But it was lengthy… took me 3 hours to do my Ranger . -Robb – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Which is better?  What’s the difference?

Response:

I bought a Meguiars set of 3 different compounds. A cleaner, a polish, and a wax. The results were better then any other wax I’ve tried. (autofom, etc) But it was lengthy… took me 3 hours to do my Ranger . -Robb

Robb, Sounds like an orbital buffer at ~$40 would return investment after 2 or 3 polish and wax jobs.  I got a slightly larger Sears 9-inch vesion for $60. These are great time savers and the results are very satisfying. -Ken ‘99 Chrome yellow Mustang GT K&N Filter and no air silencer

Response:

I bought a Meguiars set of 3 different compounds. A cleaner, a polish, and a wax.

I’m also using the Meguiars polish and Step 3 wax.  I didn’t see any "Gold class".  I think "gold class" is new and replaces the wax that I bought. Hopefully it’s practically the same thing.  At any rate, I think it produces a nice wet look, but it remains to be seen how well it protects. -Ken ‘99 Chrome yellow Mustang GT K&N Filter and no air silencer

Response:

Which is better?  What’s the difference?

I used to use both with mediocre results.  Recently went with some stuff that a friend of a friend sold me on, and I’m ecstatic with the results.  (She’s a professional detailer.) Wash: Most car-wash detergents work just fine.  (I use Meguire’s clear-coat wash mix – slightly agressive, doesn’t bother the wax coat, or Meguire’s pink wash gel – less agressive than the other, works better on enamel finishes.) Cleaning: Depends on condition.  2X year, I use 3-M Imperial Hand Glaze to smooth and clean the surface down to a mirror-like shine.  Monthly, I hit it with a little Meguires #9 swirl remover (techically, a chemical cleaner (polish) in an emollient base) to remove stubborn contaminants that washing doesn’t seem to remove, and add oils back into the paint, leaving a very nice shine. Waxing: Bi-monthly, I use One Grand Blitz wax – unbelievable stuff. Easy to apply and buff out, lasts a long time, and doesn’t get "sticky" like most Meguire’s waxes do.  Leaves a shine you wouldn’t believe. This stuff goes on/off so easily, I can do the entire car in 30 mins without breaking a sweat.  (wish I could find this stuff locally!) Zymol products smell nice, look great and cost a bundle, but the shine doesn’t last very long. The tan-bottles that Meguire’s makes ("professional" line) is good stuff.  I stick with hand-applied compounds; #2 fine and #1 med. cut cleaner is excellent for removing scratches, followed by their #7 glaze to smooth and mirror it out, then a nice coat of wax for protection. Don’t fool with the #4 heavy cut cleaner, unless you know what you’re doing.  (like saving for a new paint job) The "deep crystal" stuff is average; the deep crystal polish is very good for hiding swirls using fillers, but like their "hi-tech yellow wax", it is difficult to apply, and truly a frustrating experience trying to buff it out after it hazes.  Same goes for the hi-tech yellow wax in the tin…tough to work with, and doesn’t shine well when finished. Thier "medallion" line in the black bottles is average as well, using a lot of synthetic componants (polymers) rather than natural materials, that don’t work well at all on some finishes, usually leaving them milky or hazy, esp. on german cars.   All "clean and wax" types of products aren’t worth bothering with. More info: http://www.carcareonline.com — Kindly keep it Country, JD & Mona

Response:

I just purchased the first 2 parts of the Meguiar’s 3 step but I used a different wax and I was extremely impressed. The hood on my Suzuki was ugly…. It was pink(supposed to be red) and the where water marks everywhere from the windshield sprayers.  The cleaner itself did an amazing job.  Then the polish really cleaned it up.  I think I am going to get a different wax though, maybe the 3 step.  The stuff I used wasn’t the greatest. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Which is better?  What’s the difference?

Response:

Which is better?  What’s the difference?

I used to be a Meguiar’s 3-step man until I tried the Boyd’s 2-step. The Boyd’s is more expensive, but it really brings the color out. It’s Boyd’s for me from now on. Bob

Response:

I used to be a Meguiar’s 3-step man until I tried the Boyd’s 2-step. The Boyd’s is more expensive, but it really brings the color out. It’s Boyd’s for me from now on.

Can you buy the Boyd’s from the local auto parts store? *Edward Kim                                            *   *Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332* *’97 SVT Cobra (#1714 of 6961)                         *

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I used to be a Meguiar’s 3-step man until I tried the Boyd’s 2-step. The Boyd’s is more expensive, but it really brings the color out. It’s Boyd’s for me from now on. Can you buy the Boyd’s from the local auto parts store? *Edward Kim                                            * *Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332* *’97 SVT Cobra (#1714 of 6961)                         *

Got mine at Autozone. Bob

Response:

<snip The "deep crystal" stuff is average; the deep crystal polish is very good for hiding swirls using fillers, but like their "hi-tech yellow wax", it is difficult to apply, and truly a frustrating experience trying to buff it out after it hazes.  Same goes for the hi-tech yellow wax in the tin…tough to work with, and doesn’t shine well when finished.

<snip I got their regular line (maroon bottles) … steps 1-3.  Step 1 was a pain in the ass but it looked pretty good after i had taken it all off.  Step 2 was GREAT.  Step 3, the wax… was the most frustrating thing i have ever done in my LIFE.  I was working on my car in the evening (about 6 or so) and it was rather cool out.  I put the wax on and even after an hour the stuff didn’t haze as nice as the other stuff I used to use.  Then I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer and I had to get this crap off.  2 hours later (all hand) I had the car buffed off.  The buffing was HORRIBLE.  The stuff just kinda ’stuck’ to the car, i guess it hadn’t dried enough and it was just nasty.  It didn’t just wipe off like the other stuff I’ve used, it just kinda smeared everywhere until I could smear all the crap off. Unless someone can tell me that I need to wax this thing in the middle of the day with the sun way up and maybe even baking the stuff, I’m going to deep six this wax and go to another brand.  I like steps 1 and 2, but the wax is horrible.  The finish wasn’t even as smooth as the cheaper no-name stuff I’ve used before.

Response:

The maroon bottles (deep crystal line) aren’t particularly good.  The paint cleaner (step 1) is so-so; it uses chemicals to remove some contaminants, no abrasives.  The polish (step 2) has no abrasives either, just fillers in an emollient matrix.  This stuff adds oils and fills in swirl marks/light scratches fairly well; the wax (step 3) just plain sucks.  It’s difficult to apply, uses mostly banana oil instead of Carnuaba, and is damn near impossible to buff out well.  The result looks so-so at best, and on some finishes, it looks cloudy.   Waxing it in the sun won’t help much, I’m afraid.  The entire line is fine for a Yugo or something, but not my car.  On top of all that, the wax only lasted about as long as it took to apply.  Bah.  The "Medallion" line isn’t much better. Stumbled across http://www.carcareonline.com/ one day, and found the light!  This guy KNOWS what he’s talking about.  He recommended the following for my ‘98 GT: * 2X year: 3M Imperial Hand Glaze (Meguier’s #7 is pretty close) * When needed, a good polish (P21S gloss enhancing paintwork cleanser or Meguier’s #9) * Monthly: pure wax – One Grand Blitz Wax is outstanding * Weekly: wash with favorite car wash soap If you like quickie cleaner-wax products, Sonax Polish & Wax is the best kept secret. The glaze smooths out the finish immensely, and shines it like a very fine metal polish.  The polish then adds oils and fills in fine scratches and swirls, adding gloss.  The wax protects it all.  My car looks better than new after going over it with this stuff. If you can get your hands on a 16 or 24 oz. can of Blitz Wax, you won’t believe how good it is.  Goes on easy, buffs off even easier, and leaves a hard wax shine that lasts a very long time.  Doesn’t get sticky, or attract dust.  I love this stuff; best carnuaba wax I’ve used in the past 30 years. Kindly keep it Country, JD & Mona

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        I just tried the High Tech Yellow wax and it was a nightmare to use.  I put the car in direct sun because it wasn’t hazing over.  The stuff still didn’t haze over, nothing but smears, and about 3 hours of wasted time. — Rick Slade 98 Cobra #3054 Bright Atlantic Blue/Black

Response:

I just tried the High Tech Yellow wax and it was a nightmare to use.  I put the car in direct sun because it wasn’t hazing over.  The stuff still didn’t haze over, nothing but smears, and about 3 hours of wasted time.

For best results, always wax the car when the surfaces are cool, and never,ever do it in sunlight… Bob

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Step 1 was a pain in the ass but it looked pretty good after i had taken it all off.  Step 2 was GREAT.  Step 3, the wax… was the most frustrating thing i have ever done in my LIFE.

Last weekend I used Meguiar’s  step 1 & 2 and finished with a coat of Mothers carnuba…. very pleased with the results.   Easy on and off. Pep boys was out of step 3, so I went with the Mothers…. =Bill=

Response:

I did wax the car in the shade, it was about 60 degrees out side.  I waxed the whole car and the first fender panel was not dry.  When I did put the car in the sun, the wax still didn’t dry.  I vacuumed the car out the next day after it sat in the garage over night and the wax still appeared smeary.  I’ve never used a wax that was this hard to use. — Rick Slade 98 Cobra #3054 Bright Atlantic Blue/Black

Response:

I did wax the car in the shade, it was about 60 degrees out side.  I waxed the whole car and the first fender panel was not dry.  When I did put the car in the sun, the wax still didn’t dry.  I vacuumed the car out the next day after it sat in the garage over night and the wax still appeared smeary.  I’ve never used a wax that was this hard to use. — Rick Slade 98 Cobra #3054 Bright Atlantic Blue/Black

Perhaps your using too much wax.  I’ve used the stuff and it goes on, dries, and comes off pretty easily.  I notice that I’m turning more heads since I used it, if that’s any indication.  I’m not going to endorse it until I’ve tried other stuff, which is a whole can of wax away. -Ken ‘99 Chrome yellow Mustang GT K&N Filter and no air silencer

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I did wax the car in the shade, it was about 60 degrees out side.  I waxed the whole car and the first fender panel was not dry.  When I did put the car in the sun, the wax still didn’t dry.  I vacuumed the car out the next day after it sat in the garage over night and the wax still appeared smeary.  I’ve never used a wax that was this hard to use. — Rick Slade 98 Cobra #3054 Bright Atlantic Blue/Black Perhaps your using too much wax.  I’ve used the stuff and it goes on, dries, and comes off pretty easily.  I notice that I’m turning more heads since I used it, if that’s any indication.  I’m not going to endorse it until I’ve tried other stuff, which is a whole can of wax away. -Ken ‘99 Chrome yellow Mustang GT K&N Filter and no air silencer

High humidity will also make it difficult to use some waxes. The trick is you want the wax to harden. Moisture and heat work against that process. Bob

Response:

I did wax the car in the shade, it was about 60 degrees out side.  I waxed the whole car and the first fender panel was not dry.  When I did put the car in the sun, the wax still didn’t dry.  I vacuumed the car out the next day after it sat in the garage over night and the wax still appeared smeary.  I’ve never used a wax that was this hard to use

Maybe you got a bad batch or something…. I use Meguiar’s with no problems.  I also live about 1/10 mile from the Gulf of Mexico….. It is quite humid here. George L . ‘88 GT convertible, 5 Sp., 100% stock   ‘97 F-150 Exended Cab 5.4L   To send Email, remove SPAMBUG from My address

Response:

   I just tried the High Tech Yellow wax and it was a nightmare to use.  I put the car in direct sun because it wasn’t hazing over.  The stuff still didn’t haze over, nothing but smears, and about 3 hours of wasted time. — Rick Slade 98 Cobra #3054 Bright Atlantic Blue/Black

Response:

when you stuff wears of try this! toughguard.www.toughguard.com I bought a Meguiars set of 3 different compounds. A cleaner, a polish, and a wax. I’m also using the Meguiars polish and Step 3 wax.  I didn’t see any "Gold class".  I think "gold class" is new and replaces the wax that I bought. Hopefully it’s practically the same thing.  At any rate, I think it produces a nice wet look, but it remains to be seen how well it protects. -Ken ‘99 Chrome yellow Mustang GT K&N Filter and no air silencer

Response:

try toughguard nexst time at www.toughguard.com   Great stuff! Step 1 was a pain in the ass but it looked pretty good after i had taken it all off.  Step 2 was GREAT.  Step 3, the wax… was the most frustrating thing i have ever done in my LIFE. Last weekend I used Meguiar’s  step 1 & 2 and finished with a coat of Mothers carnuba…. very pleased with the results.   Easy on and off. Pep boys was out of step 3, so I went with the Mothers…. =Bill=

Response:

Only for a little while longer, I’m told.  Seems the accountants at Boyds ran off with the money and put him out of business.  Word is Boyds’ gonna come back again with his custom wheels only. Take it for what it’s worth–came from an Autozone counter guy. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I used to be a Meguiar’s 3-step man until I tried the Boyd’s 2-step. The Boyd’s is more expensive, but it really brings the color out. It’s Boyd’s for me from now on. Can you buy the Boyd’s from the local auto parts store? *Edward Kim                                            * *Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia 30332* *’97 SVT Cobra (#1714 of 6961)                         * Got mine at Autozone. Bob

Response:

Question:

Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my "cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic

Response:

Matthew: There’s a lot of "scarey talk" for this problem which can be easily fixed, esp with home/personal computers. I found a site which has an easy to understand two minute explanation of the Y2K bug (you don’t have to be Bill Gates to understand – I understood & lots of times I have trouble finding my files to open) They sell a "debugger" program/application (a nurse wrote the program!) – I got it and it worked fine – but even if you’re not looking for something, their "2-Minute Explanation Page" is really worth a look. I’m pretty sure their web address is this: http://members.xoom.com/y2k_rn/ If not, I heard of them through the Royal Windsor Society’s Nursing Research page (which I’m a member of) – They’re at: http://www.windsor.igs.net/~nhodgins so you could always try to get a link from there. Good Luck and Don’t Worry – It’s Not The End of the World as We Know It! Michael Wells, RCHN, San Fran General – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my "cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic

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it’s this simple long ago computers were wimpy and if we could use 99 to mean 1999 that would save space for other information. now they forgot that when 2000 came the comps would see only 00 and think it was 1900 therefore many may shut down thinking their maintenance sched is way off or something like that. that simple, they just didn’t think the stuff they made would still be around now i guess so they didn’t worry about it. Garett – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my "cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic

Response:

Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my "cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic

Last week’s Time magazine devoted its cover story.  It’s probably written in a way that you would understand easily. I’m a pro with computers.  I’m concerned but I don’t lose sleep over it and I ain’t building a bunker in my backyard.

Response:

(Steph) writes: Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my

"cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic Last week’s Time magazine devoted its cover story.  It’s probably written in a way that you would understand easily. I’m a pro with computers.  I’m concerned but I don’t lose sleep over it and I ain’t building a bunker in my backyard.

So far nobody seems to be talking about the fact that many other cultures, Chinese and Jews, for example, use completely different calendars.  Maybe the main thing that will happen on 1/1/2000 is more take-out? Joel

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Ain’t concerned whether planes discontine flying; the bank lost my account balance; the mortgage lender thinks I owe 100 years interest, but what will I do if I can’t read this newsgroup? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Group: I’m new at this, so bear with me (a friend just gave me her "old" computer because she got a "new" one for Christmas). I know this might be a bit "off topic", but I thought my "cyber-friends" might be the best to ask, seeing as is concerns a computer?? Does anyone know anything about this millennium virus I keep hearing about. If so, can you pass on what you know. Thanks, Matthew Wilson, RN, BSN, Tulane University Medical Center – Family Dynamics Day Clinic Last week’s Time magazine devoted its cover story.  It’s probably written in a way that you would understand easily. I’m a pro with computers.  I’m concerned but I don’t lose sleep over it and I ain’t building a bunker in my backyard.

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Just read a book called Y2K by Jason Kelly.  I don’t know how much is truth and how much is fiction, but it scared the bejeebers out of me. He talks about imbedded chips having date functions, and that it is the imbedded chips that will be the downfall of everything. When the millenium hits, they’ll just plain quit working.   He claims things like new cars with computer controls and jetliners with computerized fuel systems, etc with cease to function.  He said power plants would grind to a halt, telephone routing systems, banking industry…  I got a call from my credit card company, suggesting I "invest" in a copy of my credit report before Y2K.  All while I was reading that darned book.  It is a fiction book, but SCARY….  Everything I read in Time and Newsweek corroborates what he says.  AND, the government isn’t anywhere as close to being ready as private businesses.  One editorial I read said getting extra food and water wouldn’t hurt, and if it was never needed, you could just use it up.  Wood, too…  Who the heck knows…. Gretchen — "I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking."     Wm. Shakespeare     Othello–Act ii, Sc. 3

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Millenium virus

It’s not a hoax, but it won’t be that bad. Aeroplanes wont fall out of the sky like poisoned roaches.  The engines and control systems don’t even care about what year it is.  I read somewhere that GPS navigation systems may have problems, but aeroplanes have several other navigation systems, including old-style radio beacons that were around long befor computers. The airline and hotel reservation systems may experience problems, but on the other hand the airlines should have everything fixed by then. The shops aren’t going to suddenly run out of food (unless everyone panic-buys because of the media hype).  Even if the shop’s computer system incorrectly says that a batch of food has expired, the shop-keeper is going to use a bit of common sense, and not reject the stuff. There aren’t going to be power blackouts.  Generating systems don’t care what year it is, and the power companies have tested their systems, anyway. Nuclear missiles aren’t suddenly going to launch themselves (even Russian ones), for the same reason. If you set your video on Dec 31 to record a program on Jan 01, it might not work.  After that your video will probably carry on working as before. Your watch may not think that February 29 2000 exists – big deal. If you (or your accountant) does your accounts on a computer it may experience some glitches (esp. with older software), but if the worst comes to the worst that can be sorted out after the event. Colin ps.  It’s not realy a ‘virus’.  Viruses are programs that have been specifically designed to automatically spread from computer to computer causing malicious damage.  A ‘bug’ is closer…

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If so, can you pass on what you know.

Y2K or "Year 2000 Bug" refers to the way dates are being stored on many of the computers since programming pretty much began. All the computer specialists at the time assumed that technological advances would make all the programs put into place then (and currently still running) so completely obsolete that no one would be using them anymore. Therefore they decided to store computer dates as the last two digits – IE they stored "99" instead of "1999". When performing date calculations only the last two numbers of the date are compared thus telling you if the item in question is "in date". (IE you credit card has an expiration date of 10/99 and you make a purchase today 1/99, it subtracts 10/99 from 1/99 and gets an answer of "in date".) When 1/1/2000 comes around, the "short date" for 2000 is 00. Only computers think 00 is 1900. Therefore ALL transactions will be 100 years out of date and be rejected by the computers. This is where the problem comes in. *Someone* has to go through every single line of all the computer programs that have this "short date" code and replace the "short date" code with the "long date" code. So the computers would now be subtracting 1999 form 2000, instead of 99 from 00. This will solve the problem. Only there are so many billions upon billions of lines of code that there are not enough programmers and physical hours in the rest of this year that it is physically impossible to fix the problem. IMO this is one of the reason for so many buyouts recently. Big banks (or other businesses) are buying out and using the computer systems of smaller banks/businesses that were able to fix and have already completed fixing thier computer systems. Some banks are fixed already. NationsBank bought out that bank in CA and are now Y2K compliant. First Citizens Bank is Y2K compliant. BB&T is not. Medicare and Social Secuirty is fixed. The IRS isn’t (maybe that means they will lose all our tax bills.) Also many credit care companies are not fixed, nor many medical systems (again they could lose our bills). Also the problem with medical equipment is that those that run on dates and times such as some of the IV pumps, heart monitors, and drug despensing equipment won’t give out medicenes because the computer thinks it is 1900, again "out of date" transactions and refused. How does this effect you personally? Well, like I mentioned before the IRS, credit card companies, and medical billing might lose all your bills and never be able to collect them. I don’t think you would mind that part too much. But it also means that any computer drived system – like Wal-Mart – will shut down if the problem isn’t fixed by the end of the year. You bank will lose your account, and thus all your money. FedEx will stop working, so will UPS last I heard, although RPS will probably still be running. Most personal computer will be ok, but may have some odd problems if you have any date based systems like Quickbooks, Quicken, or other "accounting and financial" type packages. Even the way the information is stored on the computer may cause problems, but it won’t be a serious as most people use thier computer for "play" type functions, and most small businesses can run without a computer for a few weeks until a new one can be purchased. Larger businesses may have problems, not only internally, but in acquireing the products they sale as the delivery system may break down. For an at home PC you can change the system date to 1/1/2000 and see what happnes. If it boots up properly then you need to go into each software package and make sure they work, especially anything with a date driven database. Also the utility that was mentioned in one of the other answers, as well as several others that are out there can be purchased, many for under $50. One quick and easy solution is just to change you system date back several years and just ignore when the files were stored, etc. It will run the same as it is now, only the computer will assume all the files are old. It will give you some confusing messages when installing software, but shouldn’t cause any other problems. Just don’t set the computer date back to far. Find out what the approximate release date of your computer is (on the purchase order if you have it) and set it to that. Mine was 9/27/94 therefore I would set mine to today’s date in the most recent year I can after that date or 1/18/95. Actually it could be anytime in 1994 but just to make sure you don’t confuse it by giving it a date before it was "born" I would suggest setting it to no earlier than that date or an approximation of that date. I hope this "lecture" is of some help. It’s pretty much the same one I’ve been giving all my home office and small business clients. Along with upgrading their system. Oh, and if you do get a Y2K compliant computer (hardware) make sure all your software is Y2K too. Microsoft just released the beta of it’s Y2K version of MS Office (They named it MS Office 2000 to cut down on confusion) a few weeks ago. And my "new for ‘99" Quickbooks says it is Y2K compliant. My computer isn’t but my software is/will be. I’m trying to save up for a new computer by the end of the year and give this one to my daughter. Makara

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The Y2K problem is not a hoax.  However, there is a lot of differing opinions about what is going to happen.  Nobody really knows for sure. Some people have their head in the sand and are ignoring it and others are stockpiling ammo in their bunkers. There is a lot of misinformation out there and the subject is really too deep to go into here.  If you want to find out more check out these web sites.  Bookmark them and go back often because they are constantly updating. http://www.zdnet.com/zdy2k/ http://cassandraproject.org/home.html http://www.y2ktoday.com/modules/home/default.asp There are also several newsgroups dealing with the problem but they tend to attract allot of the radical, end of the world, type of people and I don’t recommend them. If you are worried about your own computer there are several good programs that you can download that will test your computer hardware for you.  Besides checking Jan.1,2000 they also check to see if it can handle leap years in the next century. — Mike Wilson Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult ICQ# 7510400

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He claims things like new cars with computer controls and jetliners with computerized fuel systems, etc with cease to function.

Hmm.  Even imbedded chips aren’t going to fail unless they care what year it is. If your car (or plane) has one of those computers in that says when it’s next due for a service, based on the time since the last service, the milage, and how hard you drive … then maybe …, though you’d just get a warning saying "You haven’t had your car serviced for a hundred years".  It wouldn’t just turn itself off on January 1st.  On the other hand, though, those sort of systems are only a couple of years old, and hopefully the manufacturers would have been aware of The Year 2000.                             Basically it can only go wrong in ‘2000′, if the year is stored in two digits, *and* if it does calculations based on that 2-digit year, *and* if the program is old, or if the programmer was negligent.  But most systems (esp. imbedded systems) don’t care about the year, they just ensure that enough fuel gets to the injectors (or whatever). BTW, lots of Microsoft software, and software written with Microsoft utilities will go wrong on January 18 2038 at 19:14:07.  I guess they’ve got plenty of time left to fix it… Colin

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For a great short video online about the Y2K bug, go to http://www.apple.com/hotnews/features/hal.html You’ll need Apple’s Quicktime to run the movie, but its free and you can download it from the same page (works on Macs or Win95, Win98, Win NT). Janie If so, can you pass on what you know. Y2K or "Year 2000 Bug" refers to the way dates are being stored on many of the computers since programming pretty much began.

– Conscious of our own failures, there is little that we dare condemn in others.        –Patience Strong To reply via email replace "JLT_ALB" with "janiet" ICQ#22924224 [Smoke-free since 1/1/99]

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<an awesome and informative description of the Y2K bug snipped – way to go Makara! I hope this "lecture" is of some help. It’s pretty much the same one I’ve been giving all my home office and small business clients. Along with upgrading their system. Oh, and if you do get a Y2K compliant computer (hardware) make sure all your software is Y2K too. Microsoft just released the beta of it’s Y2K version of MS Office (They named it MS Office 2000 to cut down on confusion) a few weeks ago. And my "new for ‘99" Quickbooks says it is Y2K compliant. My computer isn’t but my software is/will be. I’m trying to save up for a new computer by the end of the year and give this one to my daughter. Makara

Of course, you could have bought a Mac and you wouldn’t have to worry about Y2K on your home system at all http://www.apple.com/hotnews/features/hal.html Janie — Conscious of our own failures, there is little that we dare condemn in others.        –Patience Strong To reply via email replace "JLT_ALB" with "janiet" ICQ#22924224 [Smoke-free since 1/1/99]

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Here’s another Mac afficianado… Donna – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – -Of course, you could have bought a Mac and you wouldn’t have to worry about -Y2K on your home system at all – -http://www.apple.com/hotnews/features/hal.html – -Janie There’s got to be one in every crowd Victoria Lee

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-Of course, you could have bought a Mac and you wouldn’t have to worry about -Y2K on your home system at all – -http://www.apple.com/hotnews/features/hal.html – -Janie There’s got to be one in every crowd Victoria Lee

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-Here’s another Mac afficianado… – -:) – -Donna If I knew then what I know now I would have started with a Mac, but unfortunately, I’m pretty well stuck.  I have too much invested in IBM programs to switch now.   Victoria Lee

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Trust the computer industry to shorten "Year 2000" to Y2K. It was this kind of thinking that caused the problem in the first place.

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– -Trust the computer industry to shorten "Year 2000" to Y2K. -It was this kind of thinking that caused the problem in the first -place. – -:-) Er, you actually think thinking was involved?  Seems to me like they didn’t think, but that’s just what I think Victoria Lee

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If I knew then what I know now I would have started with a Mac, but unfortunately, I’m pretty well stuck.  I have too much invested in IBM programs to switch now.   Victoria Lee

I know exactly what you mean about investments Victoria.  Apple’s customer service when things go wrong (like UPS losing your computer) sucks big time.  I had such an *awful* Apple buying experience last fall when I bought my new G3, I might have gone with a Gateway (for the same price) if I didn’t have all this Mac software – for the *sole reason* that Apple’s customer service sucks.  I’m still happier with the simplistic approach to system layout that comes with my Macintosh (I can even run Win95 on it if there is some special kind of software that’s not yet available in MacOS format), but it would have been nice to have the financial ability to thumb my nose at a company that doesn’t care much about its customers’ happiness. Janie <==who hopes some Apple big-whig reads this — Praise is more spontaneous when things go right; but it is more precious when things go wrong. To reply via email replace "JLT_ALB" with "janiet" ICQ#22924224 [Smoke-free since 1/1/99]

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If you live along the Gulf Coast, just keep your hurricane season supplies around till February. That’s what I tell my clients. My s2bx’s boyfriend is a survivalist gun-freak planning on moving her and my kids to a remote ranch way inland to "survive" the cataclysm. I don’t think I’m out of line to be a little concerned here. Sorry, had a bad day with the *^%$! s2bx. Glad I’m not a drinking man. Kids are here for their "weekend" with me, off to bed. We cleaned house. Had a nice dinner. Did homework. Quiet and peaceful. But the aura of their mom hangs over us like Damocles sword. I for one will be happy the day it goes away. Didn’t mean to vent. She knows my buttons and loves to poke at them. My kids forgave me for getting angry at her. They love me. They tell me so. She didn’t. Have a nice week everyone. Or at least try not to get too suicidal about it.

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