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What you report is very similar to what I experienced with WIN98 and
TS2ki. However, as soon as I upgraded to NT 4.0 SP5 and an AMD K6 400 CPU
and 256 MB RAM, all these problems went away. The 400 MHz processor is
probably not strictly necessary because CPU utilization rarely hits 100% on
my machine, but the RAM and the NT upgrade do make a huge
difference. Diskeeper 5.0 from Executive Software to automatically defrag
your hard drive in the background helps prevent crashes. You need at least
2 GB on your C: drive where TS2Ki needs to be installed.
I had my first crash in 20 days yesterday. I'm going to try rebooting my
system once a week on weekends from now on to see if that completely
eliminates crashes during the trading day. Before I reboot, I'll set NT to
automatically do a scandisk on bootup. I'm also going to run MicroSoft's
free REGCLEAN program before each reboot.
With the above setup, I've found that build 591 of TS2Ki works reasonably
well. Performance is comparable to TS4 running under WIN98 on a P133 with
128 MB of RAM. Until they finish beta testing TS2Ki on WIN98, OR should
come out up front and tell people that it isn't going to work
satisfactorily on WIN98. It took me about 3 months of hacking around and
frustrating email exchanges with OR tech support to get to the above
configuration. If instead of saying that it should work under WIN98 and
giving me a lot of futile things to try on that platform, they had just
come out and said "you have to get WINNT to get this working", I would have
been much further ahead. Their telephone support is useless, basically
another profit center as they generate commissions from the Telcos while
they keep you on hold for hours on your dime. Their email support is
quite good but usually involves at least one business day delay between
submitting your question and getting a response. If you whine long and
loudly enough on this newslist about a specific problem, you'll probably
get 2 hour turn around on your email questions and eventually an email
asking for your phone number and someone from OR will call you and get you
to the above configuration.
Your viable choices are: 1) forget TradeStation and get a competing
product or 2) go directly to the configuration I described above and get
on with your trading. Personally, if in April I knew what I know now, I
would have gone with option 2). I've invested a bundle of money and time
getting familiar with TradeStation and am loath to walk away from that and
repeat the whole process with another system. From what I've seen of
competing systems, Tradestation does have a more comprehensive and
comprehensible set of features.
I'm hopefull that with enough prodding from the vociferous crew
participating in this list, OR will get the message and get it
together. If that doesn't happen, I don't see how they will survive as a
viable business.
Maybe someone should put a bug in Bill Gates' ear to buy OMGA. If we can
get OR's products to the level of reliability and performance that is
characteristic of MicroSoft products, that would be a huge improvement.
(See if you can spot the troll for flames in the above :)
-uf
At 07:54 AM 9/18/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Young Trader,
>
>Hope you don't mind me taking this onto the Omega List since there's
>nothing personal being discussed and it may be of interest to others. There
>are many things Omega should have and could have done better. They could
>have held the release of the software until it was reliable enough for real
>time trading, and they should not have been misleading when all the
>troubles started to become public.
>
>I've worked extensively with TS2Ki on three different machines. 450MHz P2
>with 256Mb SDRAM (brand new installation of Win98 2nd ed and only software
>on the machine was TS2Ki), 266MHz P2 with 128Mb SDRAM (clean installation
>of Win98, TS2Ki only software ever installed), and lastly a 200MHz Pentium
>with 128Mb EDO RAM (tons of other software and upgraded from Win95 through
>Win98 2nd ed). Don't talk to me about NT until you read all the horror
>stories from folks on this list who suffered through the upgrade and still
>can't run TS2Ki reliably.
>
>It works identically on all three setups. Any time there is any kind of
>volume, like at the market's open or during fast market conditions, the
>program slows to a crawl. The Rent-a-Server gives the error message,
>
> "Data Manager is not getting enough time to perform its functions.
> Check if any program is running in a DOS box, another Win app
> may be performing extensive tasks. This is ok if this message goes
> away in a few minutes, if state persists, you may be requesting too
> much data for your system."
>
>This happens throughout the day, but is especially irritating at the open
>when it is very slow switching between WorkSpaces, the program is
>unresponsive to mouse clicks, dropdown lists will not respond, changing
>between tools is extremely slow, even typing text on a chart is one letter
>at a time with much time between each.
>
>I worked with several Omega techies from May 11, 1999 through June 21, 1999
>and they could do nothing except make excuses. They admitted they are not
>sure of the causes of this sluggishness, but told me it would be fixed by
>SP3. I quit working with them when one let it slip that most Omega machines
>do not have real time data feeds. Why would the idiots try to solve real
>time problems on an end of day machine? Because, they don't know anything.
>
>There are only 59 stocks and indexes in my Rent-a Server, I'm using BMI
>cable. I now run TS2Ki every day on the Pentium 200 because it runs the
>same there as it does on the P2s, so there is no point wasting a P2 on it.
>I only use it for backup and run only eight one minute charts (which it
>still can't handle even though there are no Systems running, only a moving
>average and volume on each chart). Every time I boot TS2Ki and it becomes
>unresponsive I think to myself, "what a piece of crap this software is and
>Omega is crap for foisting it off on the public."
>
>Only a newbie or someone with a vested interest could "enjoy" Omega's
>products or make statements about expecting the software to make money. I
>certainly don't need _any_ Omega products to harvest profits from the stock
>market. Been doing that for years. I didn't "miss" anything, Omega's goal
>was to go public and make their earnings estimates at the expense of their
>clients.
>
>Thursday toward the end of the session, the Rent-a-Server suddenly reported
>it couldn't find the data feed on any port. Maybe you enjoy trading under
>those circumstances, I don't, and until Omega hacks together a reliable and
>responsive real time product, I will continue to post "best joke of the
>week." They make it easy with their promos that tell lies.
>
> >>So tell me how you feel Omega Research should behave? I mean, OR says the
> >>disclaimer as opposed to what? Promising something the software never
> >>intends to deliver anyway? Oh, and in case you missed it, that is
> promising
> >>the software will make you money...
> >>
> >>Please, in the same you laugh, enlighten me as to how things should be
> done
> >>by OR... I for one fully emjoy their products. Because I know how to use
> >>them, and I never expect their software ALONE to make me money...
> >>
> >>- YT
> >>
> >>
> >>>From: ribau@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>>To: omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx
> >>>Subject: Free Trading Seminar
> >>>Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 19:40:47 -0700
> >>>
> >>>ahhhhhhhahahahhaa, voted best joke of the week, Omega offers the Holy
> Grail
> >>>to the public as a goodwill gesture...too bad the software don't work!
> >>>
> >>>On Wed, 15 Sep 1999 16:05:07 -0400, Omega Research Info
> >>><Info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> >>Learn how to create your own strategy for trading success at a seminar
> >>>near
> >>> >>you. Attend the free seminar, Trading Like a Pro, where we'll show you
> >>>how to
> >>> >>develop a strategy to help you determine when to buy and sell at the
> >>>right
> >>> >>time.
> >>>
> >>>Holy Grail disclaimers follow:
> >>>
> >>> >>THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Omega
> >>>Research,
> >>> >>Inc. believes the information contained in this document to be
> accurate
> >>>as
> >>> >>of the date of publication. Nothing in this e-mail is, or should be
> >>> >>interpreted as, a representation or commitment of any kind on the part
> >>>of
> >>> >>Omega Research, Inc. and Omega Research, Inc. does not guarantee the
> >>> >>accuracy of any information included or undertake to update the
> accuracy
> >>>of
> >>> >>any information included.
> >>> >>
> >>> >>The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this
> >>> >>document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the
> >>> >>following conditions:
> >>> >>1. All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be
> >>> >>included.
> >>> >>2. All copies must contain Omega Research, Inc.'s copyright notice and
> >>>any
> >>> >>other notices provided therein.
> >>> >>3. This document may not be distributed for profit or gain (direct or
> >>> >>indirect).
> >>> >>
> >>> >>TradeStation and OptionStation are registered trademarks of Omega
> >>>Research,
> >>> >>Inc. Omega Research ProSuite and RadarScreen are trademarks of Omega
> >>> >>Research, Inc. Other names and marks referred to are the property of
> >>>their
> >>> >>respective owners. Prices and offers are subject to change. Trading
> >>>involves
> >>> >>risk, including risk of loss of trading principal and other losses. All
> >>> >>trading and investment decisions are the responsibility of the
> >>>individual.
> >>> >>Omega Research does not provide investment, trading or financial
> advice
> >>>or
> >>> >>counseling in any form. If investment or other professional advice is
> >>> >>required, the services of a licensed professional should be sought.
> >>> >>
> >>> >>©1999 Omega Research, Inc.
> >>>
> >>>aaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahhaha, anyone want to buy a bridge? Is this any way to
> >>>trade?
> >>>
> >>
> >>______________________________________________________
> >>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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