U.S. Update News December 2001
The Internet monthly update will be posted to our four monthly update websites on Wednesday, December 26th.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your “November disks” ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed the December 2001 Update. November disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the December edition.
I want to begin by saying thank you to God for sending his only begotten Son Jesus to save men from their sins. There is no greater story of sacrifice and love of man than that which is told in the New Testament of the Bible. God was under no obligation to provide a way for mankind to be saved from sin. The only thing that compelled Him to do so was His love of man.
I also want to thank God for the free country in which we live. While our history is filled with those who would try to take that away from us, God has continued to give us a spirit of liberty and a willingness to pay the price to defend it.
Mindful of that, I want to say thanks to the men and women who serve in our military. They have demonstrated, time and time again, their willingness to lay down their lives for us.
Jesus said in John 15:13 (NASB),
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
In this same regard I also want to thank the police officers, firemen and rescue workers who serve and protect. We often do not think of them laying their lives down for us but as witnessed on September 11th, each time they answer the call they are moving into harm’s way.
Once again, thank you. My staff and family wish to convey to you and yours the very best of the season. Have a very Merry Christmas.
Disk Update Price Increase – January 1, 2002
Now that monthly updates through the Internet are working quite well, we prefer that our subscribers use that method of obtaining updates. Once again, prices for Internet subscriptions are not changing and we do not expect them to change in the near future.
The new prices are as follows:
| Agency Use | Updates by Disk | Updates by Internet |
| One Year Subscription | $379 ($349 prior to 2002) | $299 |
| Two Year Subscription | $659 ($599 prior to 2002) | $499 |
| Personal Use | Updates by Disk | Updates by Internet |
| One Year Subscription | $279 ($249 prior to 2002) | $199 |
| Two Year Subscription | $459 ($399 prior to 2002) | $299 |
| Compulife Lite ** | Updates by Disk | Updates by Internet |
| One Year Subscription | $139 (was $99) | $99 |
** NOTE re: Lite subscriptions
Lite monthly updates are now available through the Internet. As a result, the price for Lite updates by disk have increased to the above mentioned $139 per year. The $40 additional fee, versus the $90 additional fee for the regular and personal use system, reflects the fact that Lite software is shipped by regular mail as opposed to Priority Post.
Those with a current Lite subscription are continuing to receive disks at the old prices. There will be no change in service or price until the Lite subscription renews.
Having said that, we suggest you act now, before the deadline as it is our experience that most people forget there is a deadline and then want Compulife to extend it. In this case, that will not be done.
Here is an example of the top-up opportunity:
If your personal use subscription is paid to May 31, 2002, and you act now you can add one more year for $249 or two more years for $399. If you didn’t act by December 15th then you will receive your normal invoice in April 2002 for the new price of $279. You could elect at that time to pay a total of two years for $459.
If you receive that new invoice, at the higher price, don’t forget that you can still elect at that time to switch over to Internet monthly updates and save $80 per year. The price for a personal use Internet subscription remains only $199.
Fortunately, just in the nick of time, Compulife has completed the Windows version of our comparison software.
However, and until now, Compulife has relied upon two DOS components for installing our product. One is the INSTALL.EXE program which unpacks and copies files from our disks to your computer. The other is the DECOMP.EXE file which unpacks and copies files from internet updates to your computer.
INSTALL.EXE will NOT be changed from the current DOS program. Therefore, if you elect to place a Windows XP operating system in your office, and if you want to run Compulife on it, YOU MUST SWITCH TO OBTAINING UPDATES FROM THE INTERNET. INSTALL.EXE, which allows you to install disk updates, will remain a DOS only program which works fine in ALL other Windows operating systems, but does not work for XP.
To accomodate XP a Windows version of DECOMP.EXE has been completed and it is called DECOMPW.EXE. This program file will only be provided by e-mail to those Compulife subscribers who need it, and who are signed up to obtain updates from the Internet.
The GOWIN.EXE file that is in your monthly update for December will now check to see if you have the DECOMPW.EXE program on your computer. If it finds that program, it will use that to install your Internet updates. If it does not find the program, it will continue to use DECOMP.EXE which is also on your December disk update.
Once again, the Windows version of the DECOMPW.EXE is only available by e-mail, to subscribers who request it and who have signed up for Internet monthly updates.
As we have explained before, the existing Compulife database can require two or three separate product entries to include all the numerous “rate categories” which some products require. The existing Compulife rate entry system allows one product entry to contain up to four rate categories; a maximum of two non-smoking and two smoking categories. If a product has more categories we end up making additional product entries to accommodate those categories.
The “product family” enhancement allows us to group multiple product entries into one product family, effectively giving us an unlimited number of categories per product. For those who try it, you will find single product (F2) menus much, much simpler. Also, comparisons use the main name of the product without all the (P+ Super Pfd/R+ Select) type notations which are used to distinguish individual product entries in the system.
Work has also wrapped up on expanding Pick 5/11 to Pick 12. The existing “pick5.dat” file, which now contains your selected products, had some limitations attached to it. These prevented us from easily expanding the maximum number of products to 12. The “pick5.dat” file format has been overhauled and it will now permit up to 12 products in the spreadsheet. More important, it will accommodate further changes and enhancements we are planning to make.
Note: The limit will remain at 11 in DOS due to the printing limitations of fixed pitch fonts in landscape mode.
For more details of the changes, read the new manual chapters which are available at www.compulife.com. The new chapters were written with the new features documented in advance. You can download the newest GOWIN.EXE file by going to the mid-month website and downloading the UPDATE3.CMP file. Call us at (800) 798-3488 if you need help.
a) Enhanced Internet Updating – Compulife will be upgrading our Windows software to permit it to automatically search the Internet for both monthly and mid-month updates at our numerous websites. The system will divide our users among our various websites and servers to ensure a moderate traffic level for each server. It will also automatically check for alternate servers when connections fail or where download performance is deemed unacceptable. This will make the process of Internet updating much simpler.
Note: The existing system of updating will continue to work just as it does now. The new approach will simply automate the steps.
b) Pick 12 will eventually allow the filing of multiple life quotes reflecting discounts for companies which offer multi-life options. You will be able to print pages showing total premiums for all lives and then subsequent pages for each individual life. Discounts, where available, will be noted. As the Pick 12 features become available, they will be posted to our mid-month update site.
c) Pick 12 will allow the quotation of modal premiums together with waiver of premium. Currently, when you click on waiver of premium, the spreadsheet defaults to annual premium. If you switch to another premium mode, the waiver of premium is dropped.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we have a third website standing at ready with the monthly updates ready. If you cannot obtain your monthly update from either compulife.com or compulife.cc, call our office at (800) 567-8376 and we’ll tell you where the third site is.
1. Switch to obtaining monthly updates by Internet.
Not only will you eliminate the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $50 per year in subscription fees (that will be an $80 per year savings starting January 1, 2002).
To switch to Internet monthly updates, call us at (800) 798-3488. We will send you an agreement called the “Internet Update Endorsement”. Read it carefully, especially the part where you agree that you have successfully downloaded and processed our “mid-month updates”. If you haven’t done that before, call us and we’ll be happy to take you through the procedure. It’s easy.
2. Disk Purchase Program
The other way to avoid returning the disks and the disk box each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). Once you do that 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 following year. $21 costs you less than mailing back disks each month.
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