COMPULIFE® Software, Inc.The September 2000 disk update will be processed Monday, August 28th and Tuesday, August 29th 2000. Disks will be shipped Wednesday, August 30th. You should have the September Update in your office Friday, September 1st. The Internet monthly update will be posted some time on August 30th to our two monthly update websites.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your “July disks” ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this August 2000 Update. July disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the August edition.
Internet Monthly UpdatesFor those who hate returning disks there are two alternatives to eliminate the problem. One alternative is to switch over to obtaining monthly updates by Internet. Not only will you not have the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $50 per year in license fees.
Before switching to updates by Internet we require that you complete a special addendum to the license agreement called the “Internet Update Endorsement”. Once you return that to us we will send you the “Internet Master Disk” which you will need to be able to process the “MONTHLY.CMP” file that you will then be downloading each month.
If you want to switch over to Internet monthly updates, please call our office at (800) 798-3488. Our staff will send you the Internet Update Endorsement.
Disk Purchase ProgramThe other way to avoid returning disks each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). If you do so you can keep them for future reference, throw them away or return them for a credit (once each year) when you are invoiced for the next twelve boxes. This is less than it costs to mail back disks each month.
Term4Sale UpdateIn spite of the recent price increase for 25 and 30 year John Hancock products means the company still enjoys an enormous competitive advantage over its competitors. Given that most Compulife subscribers cannot sell those products, Compulife is moving forward with the listing fee price reduction announced last month.
As discussed last month, those listed with www.term4sale.com on July 1st will be allowed to renew their zip code listing for 2001 at half the normal price. When we invoice you for your listing renewal in early November, the price will be 50 cents per month instead of $1 per month. As explained last month, the majority of the money that you have paid in listing fees continues to sit in the Term4Sale, Inc. bank account. It will remain there until the market (John Hancock) changes.
New Windows ComparisonsDuring July we moved forward with a significant overhaul to the comparison program. This modified the way that the program internally accesses the term rate database. While that work added about 3 weeks to the development process, the result is much snappier comparison performance over the preceding version. Having reviewed the results, I think the time spent was very worthwhile.
The downside of this is that we may not include the newest Windows version with the September edition of program. As we have been doing to date, the newest version of the Windows program remains available to subscribers as the “UPDATE3.CMP” file at our mid-month update page. Anyone is welcome to download the UPDATE3.CMP file and try the new Windows comparison program.
General Release Fall 2000We anticipate that the first general release of the new Windows software will now take place October 2000. As previously announced, once the new version is being used by a sufficient number of subscribers, and once we are satisfied that it is completely reliable, we will substitute it for the current Windows version that you get with your monthly update.
The substitution will be done in two steps. First, those being updated by Internet will have the new version included with their Internet monthly update for October. Second, the new version will be put on the disk update for November or December.
We are breaking this release into two steps to ensure that the support calls generated by the new version do not swamp our telephone support capability. Further, if other bugs and problems show up when we do a more mass distribution, we know that those who have the ability to update monthly by Internet, also have the ability to use this mid-month update facility.
Fall Back PositionFor those wanting to give the new program a try, and we hope that many will, there is still an important safety valve in the new Windows program. You can select, from the Master Menu’s option menu, either the Windows comparisons or the DOS comparisons. In other words, you can go right back to having the Windows version call the DOS comparison module just as it does now. If in doubt you can flip back to the DOS module and double check your values. If you are satisfied that the Windows version is working properly, you can flip right back to using the Windows comparison. We like the safety of our built-in Windows/DOS redundancy.
Finally, the free month offer for being the first to find a rate error stands. This means that if you use the new Windows program, and find a rate quotation mistake, you get a free month for being first to report it.
