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Recently there have been a number of posts regarding Omega and PC's in
general, so I thought I would share a few ideas with the forum. First, I
have been a trader for the last 4 1/2 years and concentrate primarily on the
stock indexes and currencies. Prior to trading I spent 15 years in the PC
industry, so I feel I am at least marginally qualified to make the following
comments/suggestions. I would also like to state that I am not a fan of
Omega and some of their business practices/support by any means.
Recently I upgraded to TS2000i from Supercharts Real-Time and chose an
Internet data feed on a DSL line. While I did experience some problems
initially, these were primarily due to the data provider and not Omega. I
am not going to mention the provider as I think the problems are temporary
and would serve no purpose. I run Windows 95 and have 128MB of RAM on a
Pentium 400 PC. I have 7-8 workspaces open during the day with several
Paintbar studies and NO indicators other than spreads. I do not use, and
never will, the System Builder or other back-testing features in TS so I
cannot comment on the integrity of those applications.
I also run an e-mail package, ICQ and two order entry systems along with
Excel and I.E. 4.0 during the day. While there are a few minor bugs in TS
(and the data from HistoryBank.com is poor to say the least), my system is
VERY stable and I experience no crashes. But how can this be?
First, it is imperative that you have the latest patches/drivers/upgrades
installed for all of your software, especially Windows. It is NOT the
hardware or software manufacturer's responsibility to do this - it is ours.
Technology changes quickly and we need to keep up. You also need to make
sure you have the latest drivers for items such as sound cards, video cards,
monitors etc. All of these files are readily available from the mfgs.
websites, and in most cases are quite simple to download and install.
MSFT makes this task particularly easy. All you have to do is go to the
following Website: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp?. Select
your operating system and click Find. It will pull up a list of files and
down at the bottom of the page there will be a selection called Windows
Update. Click on this and follow the directions on the next page. Windows
Update will search your hard drive and pull up a list of all the upgrades
that you need. I realize that downloading these can be time consuming
without a DSL or cable modem, but it is still the most efficient way of
obtaining the files you need. You will most likely need to reboot your
system after each upgrade is installed.
You should also check the websites for all of your products periodically to
make sure you are always running the latest versions. For those who are
using pirated copies of software and may not be able to obtain these
updates - you deserve all of the problems you have been experiencing.
If you are unsure of what file you need or don't understand their Website
instructions, you will need to call their tech support. I realize this can
be a challenge at times, but it goes with the territory. I will give you a
great piece of advice for dealing with support people - be nice to them.
They get treated rudely by ignorant people on a daily basis and really
appreciate the callers who treat them with courtesy and respect. I know
this goes against the 90's culture of "it's not my fault/everybody else does
it/I'm not happy unless I am whining", but it works. And not just in this
aspect of life.
I also know that some folks like to leave their PC on 24hrs a day (including
me). While this is great as far as the hardware is concerned, Windows can
have problems with this practice. The best solution is to shutdown and
reboot your system every couple of days. This alone can help prevent
conflicts/crashes.
Some other recommendations for anyone who depends upon their PC are to have
an anti-virus program, an uninterruptible power supply/surge protection,
anti-static mat, and backups made on a weekly basis. You should also run
Scandisk and Defrag your hard drive on a regular basis. To do anything less
is not practicing safe computing, and you are just asking for trouble.
Everyone's knowledge level varies when it comes to computers, but if we are
going to utilize them it is our responsibility to learn how to use them
properly and not be so anxious to point fingers.
I hope that some of you find value in this post.
Have a great day!
Bob Heisler
www.rjhtrading.com
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