Table of Contents

(click on any article title to move directly to that article)

The Podium--A Quick Overview of this issue

Tech Flash – Windows 2000 and Nexus

Employee Spotlight – Joel Leach –Computer Systems Programmer Analyst

Summer 2000 Calendar of Events - Where will MBS be this next Quarter?

Did you know? - Stay in touch with us via electronic mail.

Hints and Tips - Helpful suggestions and other items of interest.

TechFAQs – Disabling Protection Agreements in Nexus

Sites Unseen – Interesting web sites.

Some thoughts from the CEO - IMAP and pcAnywhere - Let technology work for you.

MBS’ Recommended Hardware List

It should be the early part of July as you are reading this. If it hasn’t passed already, Happy Fourth of July. If it has, well, a belated Happy Fourth of July! Perhaps you have noticed that we have shortened the length of our newsletter. Naturally, that meant eliminating some of the articles that have appeared in the newsletter in the past. Is there a column we have eliminated that you would rather be included in the newsletter? Is there a column we have included that you think should be eliminated? Let us know what you think. E-mail your comments/suggestions to Tom Balducci’s address, which is TBalducci@mbs-intl.com.

Confused by the release of Windows 2000? Read Tech Flash on page two, and perhaps a few of your questions will be answered. Also on page two are The Employee Spotlight, Did You Know? (Send us those e-mail addresses) and our Calendar of Events.

Well, Hints & Tips, which appears on page three, made the cut, or in magazine parlance, did not get cut. However you view it, we’ve included a few Nexus, as well as Word and Win9X hints and tips that should be helpful to you. Also on page three is TechFAQs, wherein we discuss turning off protection agreements. Also on page three is Sites Unseen (our apologies to all the managers and owners out there for the inclusion of the last Web Site address in the column). And wrapping up this issue, on page four Fred Miller discusses IMAP, MapInfo and pcAnywhere, and tells you how each program can be of use to you.

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For Article Suggestions, Copies or Requests, please email Tom Balducci at tbalducci@mbs-intl.com.

For Site Corrections or Suggestions, please email jmcquiston@mbs-intl.com.

Thank you.

Some months ago, in an attempt to confuse us all, Microsoft released Windows 2000. This version is not, as you would think, the next version of Windows (as in Windows 98), but is instead the next version of Windows NT. And to further bewilder us, NT comes in two flavors, Server and Workstation. Nexus will run in an NT server environment, but has NOT been approved to run under Windows NT Workstation. We are working on a Visual Studio version of Nexus to be released 4^th quarter of this year, which will be compatible with the workstation flavor of Windows 2000. So until then it’s best to stay with Windows 95 or 98. If you have any questions please contact MBS technical support.

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This may sound disparaging, but its not: Joel is an average guy. Actually, it’s a compliment, because this quality makes Joel approachable. Quiet yet somehow jovial, Joel is fun to talk to because he laughs easily. Joel was born in Clute, Texas. A year later his family moved to Sulphur, Louisiana, which is a suburb of Lake Charles. Joel spent the next 28 years of his life in Sulphur. "It’s where I was raised," Joel says matter-of-factly. When asked what activities he was involved in as a child Joel answered "Hmmm…well, I was the 4th out of 10 kids, so there wasn't a whole lot of room for extracurricular activities." "Other than that, it was mostly school or playing sports with friends. Not too colorful, I know." But from an early age Joel was interested in "Computers and playing the guitar, both of which I still do."

After graduating High School Joel attended The Delta School of Business and Technology where he studied electronics and microprocessing. A few months after graduating from his technical classes, Joel was hired by ARI Environmental as a Field Tester. After six months in the field testing for contaminants, Joel began to oversee all of ARI’s computer software and hardware. "I was responsible for everything that concerned computers at ARI." Eventually Joel learned how to program and began to write computer applications. Joel spent the next 10 years employed at ARI.

Restless for a change about a year ago, Joel began to circulate his resume with the intention of leaving the Lake Charles area. Enamored of mountainous areas such as in North Arkansas where some of their relatives live, Joel and his wife decided if they were to move, it would have to be to an area with some sort of elevation. Eventually, they settled on Tennessee and the Nashville area, where, Joel observes, "It’s a cooler climate compared to Louisiana, and the hills appear as mountains to me." (Lake Charles’ elevation is 20 feet above sea level).

Joel, a Visual Studio programmer, was hired by MBS to work on the next version of Nexus. We could not be happier to have Joel onboard.

Joel is married to Paula, and they are the parents of three children: Miranda, 6, Harrisen 3, and Nevin 1. Joel and his wife enjoy taking the children to zoos, parks and family-themed movies. Joel’s hobbies include computers and computer games, playing guitar and writing Rock songs, making music with computer sound cards, and watching drama and action movies that have "big, booming sounds."

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July 2000

4th – Independence Day– MBS Closed

21-26th – ICFAU, Memphis, Tenn.

August 2000

3-4th – NC/SC/EA Joint Meeting, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

10-11th – ICFA Small Cemetery/LA/MS/AL joint meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana

September 2000

4th – Labor Day– MBS Closed

22-24th – NCCC, Greensboro, NC

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Did

NEXUS USERS:

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Hint

If you are annoyed by the bell that sounds each time you fill a field in Nexus, you can turn the bell off. To do this, go to the Admin-Environment menu and click off the Bell.

Tip

Screen savers can provide a certain measure of privacy, as well as being soothing and entertaining. Ryan M.Geiss’ self-titled screen saver, "Geiss", is

actually an animated light painting that approaches, or perhaps even attains, the status of "art". The engrossing, fluidly morphing graphics are spectacular in their variety. And "Geiss" can react to music CDs as well as other sound sources, pulsating and glowing in time to the music. Best of all, it’s FREE! Download the screen saver from Mr. Geiss’ home page at www.geisswerks.com.

Hint (Win 98)

Have an over-formatted Word document? Whether you created the doc yourself, or you’re stuck with someone else’s mess, eliminating all formatting is probably the best solution. In Win 98 this only takes four steps: Press <Ctrl-A> to select the entire document. Press <Ctrl>-<Shift>N to apply the Normal style to the document. Press <Ctrl-<Space> to remove all manual character formatting. Press <Ctrl>-Q to remove all paragraph formatting.

Tip (WIN 9X)

Find that ToolTips (when the notes pop up over toolbar icons) and InfoTips (when they pop up over other kinds of objects) are too hard to see or you don’t like the font or colors? Right-Click the Desktop and choose Properties. Next, click the Appearance tab, and in the Item drop-down list, select ToolTip. Utilizing the two color buttons at the right, choose a background color (top button) and a text color (bottom button) from the pop-up palettes. Use the Font and Size drop-down lists and the Bold and Italic buttons to alter the text’s appearance further. Then click Apply. Tweak your settings until you are satisfied, and finish by clicking OK.

Tip
You can close a bunch of open programs, folders and documents all at once in Win98 and IE 4.0: Press and hold the Ctrl key, click on the task bar icon of each program you want to close, then right-click on any one of them and select Close from the Context menu.

Hint

If your Nexus system is set up to automatically withdraw trusted amounts when the Item status is fulfilled, and you find that in some cases that all of the trusted amounts are not withdrawn, then these amounts are probably in transit. To prevent this problem, always deliver the items after you have performed an earnings dispersal.

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TechFAQs

When saving a contract in Nexus, I’m always asked about protection agreements. Since we don’t use protection agreements, is there any way to turn this off?

Yes. To turn off protection agreements, go to Maintenance-Company Information-Department and click on the Commissions/Misc. tab. Under the Contract Parameters section, click off "Prompt for use of Protections agreements on contract entry".

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Sites Unseen

www.mapinfo.com               www.ups.com

www.navision.com

www.intertec.com/forms/subforms/gm.htm: Free subscription to Grounds Maintenance Magazine

www.classmates.com: Find an old High School friend or see famous people's high school photos.

www.ishouldbeworking.com: Games, trivia, stories.  A site designed for the shiftless, angry, lazy employee. No one here at MBS has ever visited this site (tee-hee!)

Sites Unseen is a list of interesting, informative and helpful Web sites we thought might be useful to you.  If your cemetery or cemetery-related business has a Web site, e-mail the address to us at tbalducci@mbs-intl.com.

Our IMAP product is without doubt the best of its kind in the industry. First of all, when compared to any CAD based system, the GIS-based IMAP is the front-runner in terms of speed, ease-of-use, and capability. IMAP brings your cemetery map into the digital age, transforming it from a flat, static drawing into a powerful multi-faceted tool. Want to find the location of the deceased? Click the mouse. Want to print a fool-proof map to their location? Click, it’s done. Want to instantly determine the availability of spaces within a certain price range? Click and tap and you‘ll have the answer! On an on, there is simply no comparison of IMAP and any competition.

The basis for IMAP is a product called MapInfo. Since IMAP was developed using MapInfo, we are quite compatible with the MapInfo library of products. Indeed, Memorial Business Systems is the only Authorized Training Center in this region for MapInfo products.  People come to our training center from the surrounding states just to be taught the MapInfo programs by our staff expert.

Finally, the IMAP information can be put into a computer located in a kiosk, which can be placed anywhere on the cemetery grounds. Information from your Nexus program feeds directly into IMAP, which is located in the computer kiosk along with the printer. The kiosk touch screen monitor is used to make inquiries and …presto directional maps emerge. Technology relentlessly moves along. Why not use this breakthrough technology? It’s the way to get your operation out front.

If you want faster and lower cost service from MBS, we suggest that you make the small investment in pcAnywhere and make your computer accessible by modem. It is so much easier, faster, and much more cost effective to let an MBS support team member dial directly into your system. Your problem becomes visual and understanding of the problem, validation of the system setup, and fixing the problem can be reduced to minutes. Gerald or Murphy can access your data directly, diagnose your problem and help you fix it, all without shipping disks back and forth.

If you don’t have pcAnywhere, buy it - from a computer store or us, but do yourself a favor – get a copy for as little as $90.

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Ports

Pentium III

256 MB RAM

10 Gigabytes

1.44 MB

3Com 100 Base TX

700 Watt Smart UPS

VGA adapter

32 Speed

15" Color

2 Serial, 1 Parallel

Pentium II or III

64 MB RAM

6 Gigabyte

1.44 MB

3Com 100 Base TX

450 Watt UPS

SVGA w/4 MB RAM

32 speed

17" SVGA Color

2 Serial, 1 Parallel