Remember when you decided to splurge for your first computer - or when the boss announced that you'd soon have one on your desk? We bet you daydreamed about what you'd do with it. All the productivity it would bring. All the new ideas you could explore because the old work would get done twice as fast.
If those dreams never panned out, join the crowd.In many cases, it's because you started out with the wrong programs (possibly because they came "free" with the computer). While speeding along some work, they made you work longer and harder in other areas.
In other cases it's because you started out doing just the basics you bought the computer for - and never got to expanding your computer's reach.
Now that you're comfortable with computers, open the dream box again. Take out your imagination - along with your word-processing program or old-fashioned pencil and paper. List all the things you'd have your computer do today if you were king of it. In almost every instance, you can find software or hardware to make it happen.
We keep adding to our computers' usefulness as we find good products in our research and testing. Still, there are gaps. So early this year, we took our own advice and made this wish list: 1. We'd like to cut down our research time, especially the reading we wade through to pinpoint important facts and trends.
2. We'd like to find quickly and read onscreen what we wrote about a product, whether we wrote it last year or eight years ago. That way, we could answer reader inquiries fast.
3. We'd like our technicians, clients and others to send important deadline data right into our network, so we needn't depend on the mail.
4. We'd like to get at network files and store new articles safely on the network from anywhere in the world at any time.
5. We'd like our network to schedule editorial meetings automatically and notify everyone that the meeting's been set up.
6. While we're dreaming, we'd like to be able to flip on CNN news and watch it right on our computer monitors.
7. We'd also like to be able to videoconference with colleagues and advisers in other offices around the United States.
Slowly, we've been filling our wish list. So far, we used off-the-shelf hardware and software plus services whose fees aren't very high.
Item 1. Nowadays, we regularly make up a list of key words - topics we're planning to write about. We dump the keyword list into our `NewsFlash' box on NewsNet online database, which stores Associated Press's business wire plus many business newsletters.
As NewsNet receives each publisher's latest issue or update, it automatically scans for our keywords. The next time we log on, it alerts us so we can eyeball new items. If one is a lead we can use, a keystroke copies the information onto our computer disk, into our Research subdirectory.
Item 2. We installed the snazzy latest version of ZyIndex, which organizes, indexes and lets us search for data on our network by almost any word or phrase. ZyLab makes it (708-459-8000). Cost: $395 for a singleuser version.
Item 3. MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, CompuServe, Internet, MCI and Sprint Mail all run public electronic mail (E-mail) services. For a fee, they let anybody with a computer and modem leave digital mail in a "box" for pickup by another computer with a modem.
We signed on for a CompuServe box. When our Tallahassee technician wrote a report on multimedia for this column, he dumped it into the box. From there, we moved it right to our word processing program for editing.
If you have an in-house E-mail system that supports Novell's MHS (mail handling system), many of these services can move the mail directly through your network's own E-mail.
Item 4. We installed LANMODEM, a network hardware and software combination. It's not cheap - around $2,000 retail - but it lets authorized users log onto our network from any LANMODEM-equipped computer.
Each user gets the same network privileges we're allowed in the office. On our portable computers, we can use any file, in fact any program, that's on the network. At the same time, our network stays safe from hackers who might try to break in.
We've used LANMODEM from the West Indies. We intend to use it from Spain later this year. It's made by Microtest (602-971-6464).
Item 5. Many calendar programs do scheduling. We installed Right Hand Man on the network to schedule our meetings. Now, if everyone can remember to keep our individual computerized calendars up-to-date - and that's a big if - it can find the first time everyone's free long enough. Then it books the meeting and reserves the time on everyone's personal calendar.
It can't do this kind of magic for stand-alone computers. But for networked offices, it's super.
Item 6. If we felt like investing $1,000 or more in a circuit card and software, plus the cost of wiring up a cable-TV hookup, we could switch to CNN news (or the afternoon soaps) right now. Some of these circuit cards even let you keep VGA-quality text on your monitor while windowing the TV image in part of the screen.
We'll wait for costs to come down.
Item 7. This is still a wish, too. Video conferencing packages we've seen are still crude. Mostly, they include tiny video cameras that clamp to your computer monitor, plus hardware and software that send video images over computer networks.
The images are slow. Phone hookups are expensive. But the technology's available if you've got the money and the interest.