Active GUI element

Static GUI element

Code

WPS object

File/Path

Command line

Entry-field content

[Key combination]

more

We scan the Web, Usenet and the OS/2 mailing lists looking for these gems. Have you run across an interesting bit of information about OS/2 or eComStation recently? Please share it with all our readers. Send your tips to tips@os2voice.org. If you are interested in joining a particular OS/2 mailing list, check out the VOICE Mailing List page for subscribing instructions for a large variety of existing lists - http://www.os2voice.org/mailinglists.html.

WPS Hangs When Opening A Folder
January 7, 1995 - Both - General

Your Kindly Editor [YKE] had a problem similar to that described below and found this fix after much searching. It worked for us; so we wanted to share. Especially after seeing similar questions raised recently on USENET and elsewhere. It's a real "Golden Oldie" from the late lamented Warp Pharmacy (and indirect predecessor of VOICE's WarpDoctor), reprinted here verbatim (almost) with the owner's permission.

Problem

Opening a folder sometimes causes the WPS to hang [Last updated: 7th January, 1995].

Symptoms

When a WPS folder is opened, it draws some of its contents and then hangs. If the user presses [Ctrl-ESC], the PM eventually displays a "folder not responding" message.

These symptoms start to occur with increasing frequency, usually with folders that are heavily used.

Cause?

Possible corruption of the WPS folder's Extended Attributes (EAs)

Procedure

This procedure is suggested as a possible treatment for the symptoms described above. It is not claimed that it will treat all cases of WPS hang.

1. Determine the name of the hanging folder

   Press [Ctrl-ESC] several times. PM should display a message of the form: "folder not responding." folder is the name of the folder that needs "surgery".

2. Shut-down and boot to the command line.

   To boot to a command line, hold [ALT-F1] down during the time that the OS/2<white-blob> message is showing. Then select [C] for command line [[F2] in later versions]. Wait a while until a command prompt appears.

   If you need to edit a file while in this mode, type:

   tedit filename

3. For a folder \ADesktopFolder on the desktop:

   Recover the EAs for \ADesktopFolder from an archive:

   eautil "\ADesktopFolder" /s /r
   eautil "\os2\archives\0x\ADesktopFolder" HOLDFILE /s /r /p
   eautil "\ADesktopFolder" HOLDFILE /j
   

4. For other directories:

   Split off the directory's EAs:

   eautil directory /s /r

   Since the archiving process only archives desktop folders, the best you can do for other directories is to split off the possibly bad EAs.

   If you ever need to restore them, use:

   eautil directory /j /o

5. Reboot to the Workplace Shell

   exit

The inspiration behind this procedure was to recognise that some of the information about how a folder displays itself is stored in the Extended Attributes of the folder's directory entry. Since the symptoms occur when the folder is opened for display, I thought that this might imply that the information in the folder's EAs was corrupted in some way. To test this hypothesis, I applied the procedure above. It worked!

I use HPFS partitions so I don't know whether this procedure will work as well with FAT partitions due to differences in the way EAs are stored on FAT partitions. If someone tries this with FAT folders and it works, let me know!

One benefit of this procedure over a full archive restore is that the most recent full archive might be too old to be useful. By restoring the EAs for a single folder, the rest of the current desktop can be preserved.

[I updated this procedure on 7th January, 1995 to use the [builtin] EAUTIL tool. Use of this tool resulted in considerable simplification of the procedure. - jon]

Addendum

Chris Bidmead writes (5th December, 1995):

I've found what I believe to be a much simpler solution to this problem which typically occurs in my OS/2 Apps folder following an unclean shutdown. I'm using Warp Connect on a NetWare 3.12 network.

Opening the rogue folder causes the WPS to hang. Use [Ctrl-Esc] to evoke the option to abort the opening action. The WPS rebuilds, the folder attempts to open again and hangs again. Use [Ctrl-Esc] for a second time. This time when the WPS rebuilds it doesn't attempt to open the rogue folder.

Any attempt to open the rogue folder at this stage will simply send you round the loop again. Instead, drag a convenient object [the "catalyst"] off the desktop, or wherever, and drop it into the folder without opening it. This seems to cause the EA to rebuild. Now you can open the folder without problems. Move the catalyst object out of the folder back to its original position. The problem is now cured.

It was Chris's modification that worked for YKE. Way to go Chris!

Jon Seymour's address is on the website:

YKE recommends you check out Jon's site - if only for the history lesson. Some items are a bit dated, sure, but much is "good stuff" not too old to be useful.

top

Empty Folders in eCS 1.1
May 5, 2005 - eCS - Beginner

Mark Dodel reports this from eComStation@yahoogroups.com.

Paul Marwick opened some folders to find them, ah, . . .empty! Nothing there. He thought maybe. . .

Well, they must be there since they do appear when using the drop-down menu (eCenter), but I did try an arrange, plus several different view settings--none of which made them visible when the folder was opened.

I had intended to install XWorkplace (not the cut-down version that comes with eCS--it misses a number of the features that are the main reason that I use XWPS in the first place). But the problem appeared right after install, and I'd deselected eWorkplace during the install. . .

Alex Taylor had a solution:

I would have thought that everybody knew about this problem, and the solution, by now. It's caused by a bug (or rather, a design oversight) in the eCS 1.1 installer.

Several folders use a default sort order that is specific to XWorkplace and/or eWorkplace. If you don't install eWorkplace, the sort order doesn't get changed to anything more reasonable, so the WPS ends up trying to sort the folders in a nonexistent order. The obvious result is that the folder appears empty.

The fix is to just go into the folder properties and change the default sort order. Or, installing XWorkplace should cause the icons to reappear as well.

This was fixed in the eCS 1.2 installer.

top

Recreate eCS Desktop? Yes!
May 8, 2005 - eCS - Intermediate

It's happened to all of us, one time or another--as "Kevin" described in ecomstation.support.misc:

I had something really mess up my desktop and I could recreate the default OS/2 desktop, but I am wanting to recreate the eCS desktop and rebuild from that (and also setup desktop archiving so I have a backup next time). I tried to run blddesk.cmd in \ecs\install, but it errors out, apparently trying to read from CD-ROM? Any ideas on how to recreate the eCS desktop so I can start building my custom desktop again?

Alex Taylor had the answer Kevin needed:

The command(s) used to create the desktop should be recorded in [the log file] \var\log\1_desk.l1 ([look for the lines that start with] @xmakeini ...).

You should run them from a command prompt boot although I imagine you'll have to copy xmakeini.exe from the installation CD (it's probably in \ecs\bin on the CD).

top

GCC Files' EOF Requirements
May 9, 2005 - Both - Advanced

From eComStation@yahoogroups.com Mark Dodel forwards the following slightly cryptic snippet (YKE hopes we've gotten the dialog sequence right).

Nathan Woodruff was having a problem with his GCC compiler not doing what he wanted with his source code; or maybe doing anything at all. . .

But Nathan did get help, and thanked the [unknown to us] helper:

I removed the 0x1A end of file [EOF] marker and it worked. Thanks for telling me the most well kept secret on the planet. I can't tell you how many hours I have wasted on this simple little thing.

Is there any way to put that in the documentation or even better to fix GCC to where a normal user using a standard editor can create a program using GCC on OS/2 and doesn't waste weeks trying to track down this simple little problem of the compiler??????

Thanks for letting me in on the secret. I promise not to tell a soul.

But we didn't promise. . . [Hehehe -yke]

Also, earlier in the same thread, Neil Waldhauer had written:

It appears your hello.c file itself is bad. Gcc source files need to end with a linefeed.

YKE thinks the two comments about end-of-file are the Tip. We didn't know that!

For Nathan's benefit (and you too, folks): "Aaron's Editor" (Aaron Lawrence) ae.exe terminates files with the last line's CR-LF pair--the terminal linefeed mentioned by Neil. We're using the executable from ae1_8_3.zip (330875 bytes); the latest we know is ae1_9_2.zip (338236 bytes).

Then too, there's a patched e.exe from e-.zip by Paul Ratcliffe. "E-" because it leaves off the 0x1A EOF mark.

[Ed. note (not YKE): The 0x1A EOF mark (aka: Ctrl-Z) is a peculiarity of the MS-/PCDOS operating system, and to some extent OS/2. In DOS all text files are terminated with 0x1A. It is not too surprising that GCC considers such a spurious character an error. A common solution was to use copy /b file1.txt file2.txt. The "/b" (binary copy) removes the EOF marker.]

top

RSU FixPak Site Available
May 10, 2005 - OS/2 - General

Not content with being merely a some-time provider of neat Tips for this column, Alex Taylor has announced a service to help out some of us OS/2 diehards.

He says:

As part of my ongoing effort to update and expand my web pages, especially the OS/2 section, I've set up a page for installing FixPaks via RSU (Remote Software Updates).

I did this because IBM has discontinued their own RSU web page. However, the FixPak files themselves are still available on their FTP server, so my page links to those.

Therefore, the only FixPaks which are available in RSU-ZIP format on IBM's server are available for installation in this way. Also, Passport Advantage-protected FixPaks (anything past Warp 4 FP15/DDFP2 and all MCP/ACP FixPaks) are not available here for obvious reasons.

However, people might still find this useful.

The following FixPaks are available:

• Warp 3 FixPaks 32, 38, 40, 42 or 43 (depending on language)
• Warp 4 FixPaks 5, 9, 12 or 15 (depending on language)
• WSeB FixPaks 2 or 3 (depending on language)
• Device Driver FixPak 2

To keep things simple I did not include any languages which IBM dropped from support prior to Warp 3 FixPak 38, or Warp 4 FixPak 12.

The languages available for Warp 3 are:

• US English
• Arabic
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• French
• Canadian French
• German
• Hebrew
• Italian
• Norwegian
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Thai

The languages available for Warp 4 are:

• US English
• Danish
• French
• Canadian French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Spanish

And the languages available for WSeB are:

• US English
• French
• German
• Japanese

Thank you, Alex. That's a generous contribution to our community!

top

CF Memory Cards, EAs, and 'Eject' from a CLI.
May 19, 2005 - Both - General

That's a subject that never seems to 'go away' on USENET, particularly when a USB interface is involved. There are several lessons to be learned in what follows.

Writing in comp.os.os2.ecomstation, among others, Andrew Stephenson had described his troubles accessing his CompactFlash memory cards via USB. In the following he ties it all together, and reminds us of a few things we might have forgotten about OS/2.

The helpful response has been overwhelming. Thanks to you all (and to the help via email--separate reply coming, there).

Opinion seemed unanimous on not putting EAs on the memory card, so I tried this. . .

• Mount card in reader [which is] plugged into a USB-2 port.
• Refresh removables with LVM [lvm /RediscoverPRM]. New drive icon appears--same as with my LaCie USB-2 HDD--so this seems to be activating standard Memory Storage Device mechanisms. Drivers here are the supplied eCS-1.2 set: pretty much what vanilla OS/2::Warp has, AIUI.
• Go to command line and access the card directory the old fashioned way. Copy *.JPG to a directory on the HDD.
• Eject the CompactFlash card, using menu of the drive object.
• Return card to camera.

This time the card was not corrupted (yay!) and the files' copies were accessable (although, somehow, their artistic merit had not grown any greater--must work on that bug).

So we have a work-around. Other suggestions will be investigated tomorrow, after sleep.

A bit later, Andrew returned with yet another tip:

To add to what I reported about accessing the CompactFlash card from the command line (to avoid EAs being added), I have learned one can "eject" a card with command:

eject <drive_letter>:

This may be common knowledge; still I was inordinately pleased to discover it. IMHO "mounting" a card remains easier with the WPS LVM-icon-based refresh command.

top

SNAP Graphics Driver Adds to Your Video Resolutions
June 5, 2005 - Both - Intermediate

Sometimes it pays to experiment. . .

. . .Which is what Stefania Orsini reports in scitech.snap.graphics.os2. First citing the Scitech docs:

Native panel programming is available on the Mobility Radeon chipsets, but it is not enabled by default due to incompatibilities on some laptops. If you wish to test it on your system, you can enable it using "gaoption lcdusebios off" and rebooting. Enabling this feature provides support for widescreen and other non-BIOS modes, as well as the ability to do MultiHead (i.e. LCD as left screen, CRT as right).

Modes are not added automatically; [but] you can use GAMode to do this:

gamode add 1280 800 16
gamode add 1280 800 32

Stefania then went on to push the concept a bit, on a Toshiba Satellite M30X-162 laptop. And it worked:

I have tried also [SNAP] 3.0.6 version. Installation goes without problems, but the better resolution is 1024x768.

Mark Dodel added this:

. . .it's interesting that using the latest SNAP you can add resolutions not supported by the video BIOS. I haven't tried this, but I know in the past I wondered why on some machines I got a slightly different list of available resolutions to select from than on others. It must have been because these were the only resolutions supported by the video BIOS. I didn't know you could add resolutions, at least with these ATI chipsets.

top

IBM, OS/2, and Passport Advantage.
June 9, 2005 - OS/2 - General

Hoping IBM has left a loophole? Read on. . .

Dilbert Firestorm, in comp.os.os2.apps, 5 June 2005, had written:

I'm re-reading the "How-To"s material on the IBM site. . .

Before hooking with a biz partner or calling IBM, I'd have to enroll at PA [Passport Advantage site -yke] to get a passport advantage id#, does this sound correct?

It does seem that IBM changed the procedure where one could not order it online. . .

Richard W. Budd quickly avowed (9 Jun 2005) this procedure works:

If you're joining to get the OS/2 updates the best way is to join Passport Advantage Express which is for very small volume users. Call the IBM number and get to the Software Sales group.

Let them know that you want to join Passport Advantage Express to purchase product

pn- D5C4NLL "OS/2 WARP INSTALL SW MAINT REINSTATE 12 MO".

The cost is $186.00 + tax.

Wait the 1-2 days for them to send you the 5 emails with registration numbers, invoice, and support info, etc. and you are almost good to go.

For whatever reason you must then go on-line to the PAO (Passport Advantage Online) website and actually order the OS/2 Warp software package (which you already paid for) before you can access the driver downloads. Guess they want to make sure that you are actually own OS/2. . .

I ordered Warp on CD and it arrived in 2 days with the most recent fixpaks. Driver access was immediate after doing the OS/2 Warp order.

I mention the wait for all emails because [receiving] the 1st one the day after enrolling--which gave me the PAO registeration number--did NOT mean that I was "fully in the system".

I tried to access stuff with no luck. After about half a day with the most very excellent support staff we found that not all sites had a record of me. [But] in the morning I had 4 more emails with PDF's attached and now had full access to the sites.

Thanks again to IBM's Yolanda and Monty Hall support reps. Excellent job of hand holding, depth of knowledge, and problem followup!

Along that same line. . .

Jeremy Harbinson wrote in ecomstation.support.misc:

Hi. On www.os2world.com there was a post reporting the latest news from IBM concerning OS/2.

The news seemed quite grim. Summarising (I hope accurately), from the end of this year [2005] IBM will cease the production of new device drivers, etc., and defect support will cease at the end of 2006. I hope this does not mean increased problems for ECS, but it would nice to have some opinions about this.

Thereupon Carl Gehr reminded Jeremy (and all of us):

There is one key, I believe, sentence in the announcement that you omitted:

"Fee-based service offerings will continue to be available. These offerings will provide support beyond December 31, 2006 via a services contract."

So if you insist on IBM support, do re-read Richard Budd's note above! -yke

top

"Deer Park" Firefox Has a Feature So Trivial That. . .
June 18, 2005 - Both - General

A little frivolity's a good thing, too, now and then. . .

In netscape.public.mozilla.os2, Rick Walsh tells us about a "semi-useless new feature" [his words, not mine! -yke] in Firefox:

The Deer Park alphas (the official one & mine) both incorporate a new feature so trivial you might never even notice if it wasn't pointed out. Here's a page I created to demonstrate this major advance in browser technology [<grin> -yke]

YKE tried it but the table didn't do anything. But no worry; ever-helpful Mark Dodel to our rescue:

Are you running Deer Park? It only works in that version of FireFox. Here running Rich Walsh's Deer Park Alpha 1+ (Mozilla/5.0 (OS/2; U; Warp 4.5; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050606 Firefox/1.0+).

When I put the mouse cursor over a row in the table, the mouse cursor changes to whatever the row represents.

top

Another Way to Display EAs
June 18, 2005 - Both - General

Long-time users of the OS/2 family, even experts, still can turn up interesting new ways to do things. Often the goodies are undocumented.

On the BayWarp list-serve [find it at http://www.baywarp.org], Neil Waldhauer wrote:

OK, I've used OS/2 for a long time, and I thought I knew about the type command. . . You know: type <filename> and then the contents of the file scroll by. . .

But I did not know that type -ea: <filename> would list all the extended attributes for a file.

For example:

[D:\neil\neil\coding\rexx\tifrenamer\test]type -ea:test

.TYPE(EAT_MVMT) codepage=0000 count=0001
     (EAT_ASCII)="TIFF"
 .LONGNAME(EAT_ASCII)="test.tif
                                ? .CLASSINFO ? ?"
 .CLASSINFO(EAT_BINARY)

     90 00 00 00 B0 00 00 00 4D 4D 54 49 46 46 00 4B    ........MMTIFF.K
     00 CF 18 10 00 CF 18 AA 00 CF 18 A0 00 00 00 0F    ................
     00 28 00 73 7A 62 64 57 50 44 61 74 61 46 69 6C    .(.szbdWPDataFil
     65 00 02 00 01 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 02 00    e...............
     04 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 03 00 04 00 07 00 00 00    ................
     02 00 04 00 04 00 02 00 00 00 09 00 52 00 57 50    ............R.WP
     4F 62 6A 65 63 74 00 04 00 0B 00 20 00 00 10 00    Object..... ....
     00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 90 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................
     00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 0C    ................
     00 18 00 02 00 32 35 32 33 34 34 40 32 30 2C 31    .....252344@20,1
     39 37 32 33 38 40 32 30 00 FF FF 04 00 04 00 08    97238@20........
     00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00       ...............

Bill Loughman (yke - moi!) responded:

Not on my Warp 4.51(.5) machine. "File not found", 'cause it can't find the "-ea" file.

There followed a lively discussion among several participants: What version of eCS-OS/2? Server or client? Test files with and without EAs; other software present, etc., etc.

Benedict G. Archer got it right:

Doesn't work on my main machine, eCS 1.2 with 4OS2, but does work on an old laptop also running eCS 1.2 but without 4OS2.

This was confirmed quickly by others. Now 4OS2 is really, really valuable. YKE is one of those who can't live without it. BUT--here's another Tip--it doesn't always perfectly mirror the native command processor's behavior. Sometimes it can mislead you. "Word to the wise."

Don Mattern chipped in with:

File EAs are no problem with filemanager Ztreebold for OS/2, modeled after the popular Xtreegold which is no longer supported. There's also Ztreewin for Windows.

See http://ztree.com     $35.00.

For each file the 4 EAs are listed after the byte count; they can be modified, added or deleted with ztreebold commands. We think it is the best filemanager.

A bit later Neil posted his observation on Usenet too: ecomstation.support.misc (q.v.: 20-25 June, 2005). Check there for a slightly different set of responses.

top

Desktop Folders That Will Not Close
July 16, 2005 - Both - Beginner

An irritating problem that's afflicted most of us, one time or another.

In ecomstation.support.misc, "JBilbro" wrote:

I have had the problem where desktop folders (not executable pgms), such as the Internet folder, will sometimes refuse to close after it has been used. The "close" option will disappear from the menu or the Icon in the upper left corner (as well as the associated menu) will disappear. The result is that the folder will not close even if the "X" in the right corner is used, though it will minimize to eCenter. This problem has existed since OS2 Warp 4 (?) and for a while did not exist under eCS 1.2 (until sometime after some fixes were applied). Anybody else see this "feature"?

The only way to "fix" it is to reboot. [After which] everthing will work fine for varying amounts of time and then it happens again.

It is not a big problem, but it sure is irritating. Any ideas?

From Peter Brown:

I have had that happen occassionally but have usually minimised, restored and then closed the object.

Duncan Way suggested:

This happens occasionally with my Warp fp15. All I do is open another folder, close it, and then I can close the 'stuck' one.

top

The "Right" Keyboard's Still Around
July 16, 2005 - Both - General

One gets used to things. What's just right is, well, just right. But sometimes it's, ah, left, as having function keys on the LEFT side of keyboards. Hard to find these days. But take heart all you diehards. . .

Alan Beagley (ecomstation.support.misc) knows that:

"Gateway 2000" keyboards are just the ticket. [They are] fully programmable keyboards with two sets of function keys: 12 useless ones along the top and 12 on the left hand side--where they were intended to be.

Lon Hooker has an update on Alan's info:

Bless you, Alan. I've been looking for just such a keyboard for years, but never thought of Gateway.

They don't have the " Gateway 2000" anymore, but the Adesso " CAD pro 142" they now carry is the same thing. A bit pricey at US$112, but worth it to me.

top

DSL and WIRELESS with eCS-OS/2
July 18, 2005 - Both - Intermediate

Peter Brede sends us his observations on "going wireless".

To access wireless in OS/2 and ECS you first need a handy device from D-LINK, their DWL-G730AP for about US$80 http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=346 from any good supplier.

• Ensure the unit is set to the ClientAP [option] with the switch on the bottom of the unit.
• Plug it into your Ethernet port and connect the power supply to a USB port or use the power adapter included.
• Set the unit up through a browser as per the instructions via the default address 192.168.0.30.
• Click the wireless tab and search for a wireless server;once you find one click on the service that is available (if you are lucky, or go to a Starbucks) and then connect.
• Apply the new connection to the unit which causes the unit to reboot.

Now comes the fun part.

• Shut down the browser and open a command prompt window.
• Type DHCPSTRT and hit enter. If you have been successful, there are a couple of lines of messages and the command prompt re-appears.
• Open your browser and surf, check mail, download those updates you desperately want, view movies online--it works.

Works on laptops or desktops, and you do not need to alter your network setup from peer to DHCP via "tcpip configuration".

A similar process is required to hook up to a hotel high-speed connection. But you start DHCP first then open your browser and log on at the hotel's screen. Usually [costs about] US$10.00 for 24 hours; credit cards accepted at most places, and no download size restrictions.

Just for fun use the IPCONFIG program in LANWIZRD to search the network you are on.

And there are plenty of useful programs for network info at Project LanScan

I hope this helps someone out there in OS2 ECS land.

top

Scroll Two Windows at Once!
July 21, 2005 - Both - General

There are Good Things "out there" on the Internet. You just have to look. . . Then, of course, report back here to all of us.

Rob Claessen did just that:

Hello YKE,

I have found an interesting tip on the net, http://www.felgall.com/os2dsk6.htm to be precise.

It's about how to scroll a window that is in the background and that you want to keep in the background while scrolling it. [Emphasis added -yke]

The "fellgall" author wrote:

There are times when you are working in one application and looking up information in a second at the same time. Often you find that the screen just isn't quite big enough to display all of what you want in both applications so you hide the controls at the top of one application under the bottom of the data window in the other.

Now if you were running any other [non-OS/2] operating system, whenever you wanted to scroll the second application window you'd have to swap to that application, scroll the window, then swap back, probably losing your place in the first application in the process.

With OS/2 you can scroll the second window without losing your current focus in the first window. To do this you hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag the centre button of the scrollbar in the back window. When you do this, that window is scrolled but the current focus stays with the other window and you don't lose your place.

top

Duplex Printing with the HP 1200d Printer
July 28, 2005 - Both - General

Mark Manley says:

I want to share my success with anyone else out there wanting to do two-sided printing with their HP 1200d [inkjet] printer, only to find that the [OS/2-supplied] HP 1200 [printer] driver does not offer that option.

It seems the driver for the HP 995c works great for duplexing and offers better print quality options also. So now you don't have to boot winx to duplex! Yeah!!!

Mark adds:

After working with this driver for almost two months I found one drawback. If you choose duplex printing and either normal or presentation printing at the same time, all the printer lights come on--and you have to pull the electrical connection to print again. The draft selection makes good printouts however. [OK; nothing's perfect -yke]

top

The LAST WORD. . .
June 7, 2005 - Both - General

. . .always belongs to the editor, to YKE. And we've more than one "Last Word" to say--important words.

This month's offering is pretty skimpy despite combing four USENET newsgroups for our own reasons, three more solely in support of this column, and two listservs. That's a lot of reading. . . rather wearing on these old eyes. Even so, the number of suitable Tips in those nine sources has declined dramatically.

We remind you, Dear Readers, this is your column. You must nurture it. Let's not have a FINAL WORD, and a column lost to the ages.

Send your Tips to tips@os2voice.org. We'll fix any awkward syntax, correct spelling, and generally give your work Tender Loving Care. Our other readers will thank you--we will thank you--for supporting your and our community.

top