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A
Call For Beta Testers
As a
software company we receive thousands of emails and many of the questions
are identical. Your business or organization may be the same. To save
time we created template answers and stored them in Word. When a question
came in that fit a template, we block copied it into the reply email
and saved ourselves a lot of time.
Now
we save even more time. How? With our new product, FirstResponse Email
Reply Management System. This new program, currently in Alpha Testing,
is saving us a tremendous amount of time by allowing us to store all
of our responses in a single, organized system where we can, with
the click of a button, copy a response to the clipboard then just
paste it into our reply, fully formatted.
The
great thing about a system like this is that you don't need to type
and proofread a unique response then hope you didn't forget anything.
You create the response once and save it for next time. You can modify
it as needed over time, but you will always be sending out the right
response, every time, in no time. Ask yourself if you get the same
questions repeatedly via email. If you do, then you need FirstResponse.
This
is a new product still in Alpha testing, but we are getting ready
for Beta testing. This is where we need people like you. If you are
interested, please click here: Yes,
I want to be a Beta Tester! If you are not interested in being
a Beta Tester, but are interested in being notified when FirstResponse
will be available as a final demo, please click here: Yes,
I want to be notified when FirstResponse is released!
In this
month's newsletter we let you know about a few offerings that you may
not be aware of, news on Vista, Payment Coupon Paper and our QuikCalc
Subscribe plans. We have the answer to last month's puzzler as well
as the name of the winner of a copy of DebtCalc. This month's
Fun Fact deals with Typhoid Mary. Again we have tips and offers that
we hope will be of interest to you. Here's what's covered in this
month's newsletter:
- Offerings
You May Not Know About
- Perforated
Payment Coupon Paper
- Windows
Vista and Slateboard's Products
- About
our Software Subscription Plans
- What
You Are Missing If You Haven't Updated Your Software
- Tip
Of The Month - How to Get Product Support
- Fun
Fact - Who Was Typhoid Mary?
- Last
Month's Puzzler Answer
- This
Month's Puzzler Contest
The staff
at Slateboard Software hope you find our latest newsletter interesting
and thank you for your business.
You
are receiving this as you are either an existing customer of Slateboard
Software or have asked to be added to our mailing list. To
avoid future emails from us, please follow the instructions at the
bottom of this e-mail.
Offerings You May Not Know About
The
vast majority of our customers have discovered us because they were
looking for our QuikCalc product. But did you know...
- QuikCalc
comes in four editions and you can upgrade to any edition for the
price difference?
- QuikCalc
V6 has been completely redesigned and is Vista compatible?
- QuikCalc
Plus!, Premium and Office editions can print Payment Coupons (also
called Payment Booklets)?
- We
now supply pre-perforated Payment Coupons that are compatible with
QuikCalc V6?
- We offer software
subscription plans for all of our QuikCalc products for as low as
$9.95 a month?
- We offer DebtCalc,
a debt elimination planner, that helps you save money and get out
of debt faster?
- We offer VehiCalc,
a loan vs. lease comparison calculator that can help you when deciding
on your next vehicle?
- We offer QuikCalc
Courtesy Edition that allows you to offer a fully branded download
to your customers for as little as 75 cents a copy?
- We offer Annual
Upgrade protection plans for Office Edition users?
- You can upgrade
from an older version to any edition of the latest version for 50%
off the regular price?
As you
can see, there's a wide range of products we offer and we'd be happy
to answer any questions you may have. Just send an email to sales@slateboard.com.
Perforated Payment Coupon Paper
You've been asking ever since we added Payment Coupons
to the Office Edition where you could buy the paper. Now you can buy
it from us! As well, we've added Payment Coupons to the Reports
list of the Plus! and Premium Editions as well. Download
the latest update to QuikCalc V6 from your Help menu to gain access
to this new feature and the link (inside the Reports menu) to purchase
the paper. It is available in packages of 100 sheets for $24.95 or
500 sheets for $99.95. You can order here: http://www.slateboard.com/order_paper.htm
Windows Vista
and Slateboard's Products
As many are finding, Windows Vista has broken many
if not most older applications. We are pleased to announce that
QuikCalc V6.0, DebtCalc V2.0 and VehiCalc V3.0 are all Windows Vista
compatible. In order to use the help-system in QuikCalc V6.0,
you must go to your Help menu and select Check for Updates and install
the latest update shown.
All older versions of QuikCalc (versions 1.0 to 5.0),
DebtCalc (1.0) and VehiCalc (1.0 and 2.0) are not compatible with
Vista. If you decide to upgrade your operating system to Vista,
you will need to upgrade to the latest version of these products.
You can do so for 50% off by clicking
here.
About our
Software Subscription Plans
What is QuikCalc Subscribe? It is a new plan that allows you
to pay a low monthly fee for your software. For this low fee,
you will receive:
- Permission
to install the software on multiple machines, depending upon the
plan you choose. QuikCalc Plus! and Premium come in 3, 5 and
10 user packs. Office is available in 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 packs.
- Free
updates and upgrades.
- Priority
e-mail support.
- Office
Edition plans include voice support.
-
Cancel
at any time. If you decide you don't need QuikCalc anymore,
just cancel.
-
After
one year, you retain the right to use the software indefinitely.
Maintain your subscription however and continue to receive the
above benefits.
-
Already
purchased and want to convert? No problem. We will
discount your monthly fee by 50% until the amount you previously
paid (less S&H) has been taken into account.
As
you can see the advantages are obvious:
-
By
subscribing to the appropriate plan, you can bring your office
onside with our license agreement which requires one copy to be
purchased per machine. The savings can be tremendous for
offices where you require 3 to 10 copies.
-
You
can reduce your up front costs if purchasing new.
-
You
lose nothing if you've already purchased.
-
You
will always have the latest and greatest.
-
You
will be first in line for support.
-
Depending
on the tax laws in your jurisdiction, subscriptions can be written
off immediately whereas software purchases sometimes need to be
depreciated over multiple years.
As
we said above, there are tremendous savings to be had and if you've
already paid, the amount of your last invoice will be credited by
way of a 50% monthly discount until the full amount has been realized.
Then the regular amount will be billed monthly.
| QuikCalc
Plus! Edition |
|
| Monthly
Fee |
#
of Machines |
| $9.95 |
3 |
| $19.95 |
5 |
| $29.95 |
10 |
| |
|
| QuikCalc
Premium Edition |
|
| Monthly
Fee |
#
of Machines |
| $14.95 |
3 |
| $29.95 |
5 |
| $49.95 |
10 |
| |
|
| QuikCalc
Office Edition |
|
| Monthly
Fee |
#
of Machines |
| $19.95 |
1 |
| $24.95 |
2 |
| $29.95 |
3 |
| $39.95 |
5 |
| $59.95 |
10 |
If
you are interested, send an e-mail to sales@slateboard.com
with your registration information and the plan you are interested
in. We will prepare a subscription plan for your consideration.
What
You Are Missing If You Haven't Updated Your Software
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We recommend that you update your software at
least once a month. You can do this easily by going to
your Help menu and checking for updates. For users who
haven't downloaded an update lately, these are some of the things
you could be missing out on:
- Vista
was chopping off messages in QuikCalc V6.0. This has been
fixed.
-
Plus much
more!
|
 |
Tip
Of The Month What's
the best way to get product support? Email. We offer 60 days of free
phone support to all of our customers and our Office Edition users
can purchase an Upgrade Protection Plan that includes voice support
for the year, however the most efficient way to receive support is
via email.
Why do
we feel email is the best? You can provide us with more details and
we can provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to solve
your problem. In almost every case where a support problem is left
via voice mail or taken in a phone call, an email is necessary to
provide the final solution. This is why we highly recommend that whenever
you have a problem, send us an email with as much detail as you can
provide. You will get just as high a priority as someone who calls
in, and we typically will be able to answer your question quicker.
And the
final reason why email is better? You can send an email at any time
of the day (or night) and even on the weekends. The phones don't get
answered off hours, however quite often someone is in working on something
else and will respond to support questions that arrive just to reduce
their workload the next business day.
So what's
the bottom line? Emailing almost always results in a quicker response.
Many
of our monthly tips actually come to us from users like you!
If you have any tips that you would like to share, click
here to send it to us.
Fun
Fact
| Who
Was Typhoid Mary? Mary
Mallon was born in Cookstown, Ireland on September 23, 1869
and emigrated to the United States alone in 1883.
Mallon worked as a cook in the New York City area between
1900 and 1907. During this time, she infected 22 people with
typhoid fever, one of whom died. She had been working in a
house in Mamaroneck, New York for less than two weeks when
the residents came down with typhoid. She moved to Manhattan
in 1901 and members of the family for whom she worked developed
fevers and diarrhea and the laundress died. She then went
to work for a lawyer until seven of the eight household members
developed typhoid. Mary spent months helping to care for the
people she made sick but her care further spread the disease
through the household. In 1904, she took a position in Long
Island. Within two weeks, six out of eleven family members
were hospitalized with typhoid. She changed employment again
and three more households were infected. Often, the disease
was transmitted by a signature dessert she prepared: peaches
and ice cream.
Sanitary
worker George Soper was hired by the landlord of a house where
Mary had worked to investigate the typhoid outbreak there.
After careful investigation, he identified Mary as a possible
carrier of the disease.
When
Soper approached Mallon with the news that she was possibly
spreading typhoid, she violently rejected his request for
urine and stool samples. Soper left and later published his
findings in the June 15, 1907 issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association. On his next contact with her,
he brought a doctor with him, but was again turned away. Mallon's
denials that she was a carrier were based in part on the diagnosis
of a reputable chemist who had found she was not harboring
the bacteria (Some believe that she was in temporary remission
when the chemist tested her). Moreover, when Soper first told
her she was a carrier, the concept that a person could spread
disease and remain healthy was not well known. Finally, George
Soper may have been somewhat tactless in his dealings with
her. (During a later encounter in the hospital, he told Mary
he would write a book about her and give her all the royalties.
She got up and locked herself in the bathroom until he left.)
The
New York City Health Department sent Dr. Sara Josephine Baker
to talk to Mary, but "by that time she was convinced
that the law was wrongly persecuting her when she had done
nothing wrong."
|
Typhoid Mary in a 1909 newspaper illustration
A
few days later, Baker arrived at Mary's place of work with
several police officers and took her into custody. The New
York City health inspector investigated and found her to
be a carrier. She was isolated for three years at a hospital
located on North Brother Island, and then released on the
condition she would not work with food. However, she assumed
the pseudonym "Mary Brown", returned to cooking,
and in 1915 infected 25 people while working as a cook at
New York's Sloan Hospital; two of those infected died. Public
health authorities again seized her and confined Mary Mallon
in quarantine for life. She became something of a celebrity,
and was interviewed by journalists who were forbidden to
accept as much as a glass of water from her. Later in life,
she was allowed to work in the island's laboratory as a
technician.
Mallon
died on November 11, 1938 at the age of 69 due to pneumonia
(not typhoid) after a stroke six years earlier which left
her paralyzed. However, an autopsy found evidence of live
typhoid bacteria in her gallbladder. Her body was cremated
in Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
Part
of the problems Mary had stemmed from her vehement denial
of the situation. She maintained that she was healthy and
had never had typhoid fever. Historians say it also stemmed
from the prejudice that existed against working-class Irish
immigrants at the time. Today, a Typhoid Mary is a generic
term for a carrier of a dangerous disease who is a danger
to the public because they refuse to take appropriate precautions.
|
*Source:
wikipedia
Last
Month's Puzzler Contest Answer
Last
Month's Question Stevie
has half the stock options that Warren has. Billy has 3 times as many
as Stevie. Together they have 72. How many stock options does each
billionaire have?
Answer
Billy
has 36 stock options, Warren has 24 and Stevie has 12.
And
This Month's Copy Goes To... Tammy
Harris of Virginia. Congrats!
This
Month's Puzzler Contest
|
Send your answer for the puzzler below to contest@slateboard.com
for a chance at a copy of DebtCalc Home Edition. We will
randomly draw one name from all of the correct answers received
by April 30, 2007. The name and correct answer will be
revealed in the next newsletter.
Question: Richard
needs 100 new bandanas for his fitness class. He has exactly
enough fantastically fabulous fabric for 100 equal-length bandanas.
If it takes him 3 seconds to cut each bandana, sweating non-stop,
how long will it take him to cut all 100 bandanas? |
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