The following arrived in response to the note quoted at the end. My
reply appears below that.

Rick Emerson
S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35

- - -

Rick,

We are seeing many PCs exhibiting these problems. They run great when new,
then start crashing with The CAPN or many other graphically intensive
programs after a few months.

The problem isn't The CAPN but usually terminate and stay resident programs
(TSRs) or spybots. A TSR is a program that loads itself into 'startup' and
thus starts-up and runs every time you boot up the machine. These programs
'stay resident' and use a portion of your precious random access memory
(RAM). When enough of them use up enough memory, Windows crashes. To address
this problem go to Start > Run > type: msconfig > go to the startup tab and
uncheck every box except your virus checker (or any other program you can't
live without running all the time). This will remove the program from
automatically starting up but not remove the program from the computer. I
think you'll find that Windows will boot much faster (within reason) and
your programs will run faster and much more reliably. Caution: make sure you
understand what you're doing and don't uncheck something that loads a driver
for your external mouse, printer, etc. If you do uncheck a box that runs
something important, simply go back and check that box again. I think you
will be amazed at the number of programs on this list. Our office record is
147 programs on a machine that took 15 minutes to start Windows. The
customer's wry comment was, "I thought it was slowing down a bit. I just let
it start while I make a pot of coffee."

Oh, just moving programs out of 'startup' on the program list won't work.
Programmers figured out that you knew about this a long time ago...

The next problem is spybots. These are programs that load automatically on
your hard drive from the Internet or 'borrowed' software and hide themselves
among the thousands of files. Their job is to 'spy' on you and report
anything from the websites you visit to your buying habits. They can copy
your entire e-mail list that will wind up on a spammers registry of millions
of 'possible erectile dysfunction customers.' Another version called adware
can load a 'pop-up' ad that that just appears out of nowhere. These things
can be nasty as they use up a tremendous amount of RAM or conflict with
other programs. This will lead to crashes and can corrupt files depending on
the quality of the programming of the spybot. When companies that create
these or use them are caught, they simply plead 'market research' and get
their wrists slapped like most 'white collar' criminals. As you can imagine,
this data can be very valuable.

In order to find and eliminate spybots (also called adware), go to
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ or
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html. These programs are free and
you might want to use one after another as I do. What one can find another
misses. Adaware seems to be updated more often but SpyBot Search and Destroy
will 'immunize' your system against some of these pests. No program is 100%
effective and a final solution is to reformat your hard drive and reload all
of your software.

Or you could have a virus. Be that's another story...

CAPN 8.2 has been released and we are shipping it now. I'm still learning
all the new vector chart controls and features. AIS data integration is
still be finished but will be offered as a free patch 'later.' Please call
800.637.4020 to request your upgrade. If they request a serial number from
your 7.5 upgrade disk please ask them to call us.

PS-I hope you are using Mozilla Firefox as a browser. It's much better than
Internet Explorer at blocking these programs and viruses from disabling your
machine. You can find it free at: http://www.mozilla.org/. Faster than IE
too...

_/)SB


"Twenty years from now you'll be more disappointed by the harbors you sat in
than the gunk holes you skipped. Pull the hook. Leave that crowded, noisy,
harbor behind and explore. You can always buy an RV later." - cap'n
greybeard;}))

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard B. Emerson [mailto:pavilion # pinefields.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 2:10 PM
To: SeaTech Systems
Subject: Cap'n V7.5.3 to V8.x upgrade


Last weekend I ran V7.5.3, purchased at the Philadelphia Strictly Sail
show, for the first time on board my boat and it crashed twice in two
hours. Each failure was so severe it locked the system up and would
only respond to powering down, not even CTL-ALT-DEL. In each case Cap'n
was the only program running and the program was only tasked to read GPS
data, follow a route, and emit commands for an Autohelm 6001 - a system
combination used for five years. Given earlier revs never showed this
problem with the same laptop and OS (WinXP Pro) last year, it doesn't
look good for V7.5.3. Has V8.x been released or is it still in development?

Rick Emerson
S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35

- - -

Thank you for an excellent example of fingerpointing and conclusions
reached without supporting information. I have taught computer science
at the university level. I *write* TSR's on occasion (*not* on my nav
system, obviously). I also have done (and continue to do) security
consulting (past clients include the U.S. Navy). Suffice it to say that
all of my systems (nav and otherwise) are secured from intrusion by
appropriate means and methods. In short, I do know about resource
management in Windows (and other) OS' and I do understand security risk
management in an environment more stringent than a home PC.
I bought 7.5.3 from you as an interim rev. pending the release of V8.x.
It now appears V8.x is in release (your last note indicated it was not
and that you were still waiting for it) and has been updated at least
once, all without any mention, from you, of this. So much for relying
on you for V8.0.
Richard B. Emerson



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Received on Wed Jun 01 21:13:04 2005