From Mathew Caughron, "Proteron LLC posts a maintenance release

From Mathew Caughron, "Proteron LLC posts a maintenance release: GoMac version 1.4.4. Among the conflicts resolved and bugs fixed are the following:

• GoMac displays the Program Bar only if the Finder is running. This should solve the problems and concerns expressed by some users of At Ease.
• Myth no longer crashes at startup
• Fixed a problem in various programs which hide the Program Bar. A strip of unusable real-estate was left across the bottom of the screen in Virtual PC, RealPC, Myth, and some others.
• Compuserve's CSi will launch on 640 x 480 monitors without Auto Hide turned on.
• Items in the Start Menu now appear sorted if they are on a Novell Netware server.
• Timbuktu 4.0 will no longer freeze when the Keyboard Switcher is invoked.
• Changed the Mac OS 8 logo slightly. (Thanks Eduardo Santhiago Da Costa!)

Complete details are available as usual at the Proteron web site ... the update is free of charge...."

From Peter Centgraf, here's his review of the four computer/electronics stores in the Brookfield, Wisconsin, area:

"Computer City has been consistently the best store for Mac products in the area. All of the staff are relatively knowlegable (knowing the difference between 603/604, etc.) The staff respect Mac users, commenting many times that they plan to expand their Mac selection (which they have done). They have a dedicated section for Mac systems, assorted hardware, and a full rack of software. The PC/Mac ratio is about 3:12 - pretty good considering our marketshare! Computer City is the only store in Brookfield to carry Global Village 56k modems and LaCie CD-ROMs (with FM-Tuner). They are also very good about moving cross-platform titles over to the Mac side. Did you know MetaTools made a CD with Steven Hawking for Mac-only? Neither did I. Best of all, I heard some of the clerks talking about new Apple rumors for PowerExpress! You can't hope for better help. I highly recommend this store.

Circuit City, directly across the street, is also a good store but not up to Computer City's high esteem. They had a very nice-looking display of 3 6500s, including all of Apple's latest marketing. The showing paled next to the 30 or so PCs, but was still good. Circuit City failed to woo me with software or third-party hardware, however. This isn't very surprising, though, since even the PC support was awful. While they try to sell Apple, their staff is ignorant of Mac issues and distracted by the hundreds of other products in the store.

Best Buy, one half-mile west, is similarly clueless. They try to hold down a Mac "section" with a nearly empty row of shelves and a few 6500s. Especially disappointing is the add-on section, which is Best Buy's specialty on the PC side. I can count the number of products on one hand - oddball StyleWriter 2200 batteries and carts, an overpriced MouseStick, LocalTalk connectors, and a keyboard. The management obviously wants to attract Mac users, but doesn't know enough to service us decently. Better bets elsewhere.

CompUSA has got to be one of the worst computer stores around Milwaukee. Shelves are disorganized, nothing is labeled with prices, and the back demo section is worse than a frat house floor. I climbed past some boxes to reach the Macs in the corner. The very small selection was fairly comprehensive - networking connectors, a few GV 33.6 modems, and a kit to use HP portable printers with PowerBooks. But everything there could also be found at Computer City - plus. The software section was decent, and growing, so there is room for hope, but I'm waiting for better. I did find Marathon 2 for PC (a rare $10 find), but not much else. The lone 6500 was obviously powered and ingnored - the AtEase user select was still on-screen. When I went ahead and started the Demo, the speaker was set to subwoofer and nothing was audible. An abused-looking 7500 was set up next to it with Apple's new printers. When I went to talk to the sales-rep, he said that it wasn't for sale. They use it to print all the store signs! At least they know enough about Macs to use them!

So the final judgement goes to Computer City. Best staff, best selection, best prices (for retail at least). Hope you can send this along to other Mac users."