On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 16:16:34 +0100, Gordon Darling <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>http://www.simindiana.com/default.asp
>
>"Welcome to SimIndianaTM
>
>SimIndiana is a suite of powerful Internet-enabled productivity and
>communications tools available to all Indiana state residents.
I'm a Hoosier, and was intrigued by this when I read about it in the
Indianapolis STAR. The local libraries were *supposed* to have CDs
with the software available, but of course when I checked Friday they
didn't seem to know anything about it. So I downloaded the install.
(BTW, SimDesk is making this available in other places as well. There
is a SimOhio, and SimHouston - anyone interested might try a
www.sim(yourstate or city).com to see if it's available in your
location.)
I don't know what the suite is based on. My overall impression is
that, as the saying goes, it's better than a poke in the eye with a
sharp stick. Nothing stands out as being particularly remarkable --
all the apps seem pretty run of the mill to me. The word processor
will certainly produce documents more complex than a text editor, but
is nowhere near Word, WordPerfect or OpenOffice in capabilities. The
PIM seems pretty basic, as does the e-mail client. Some of the apps
are ones I'll almost surely never use -- SimMessenger, SimPrinter,
SimGroups. But if someone doesn't have a suite of apps like this and
is looking for one that's both relatively compact and free, it's not a
bad deal.
Other than using the e-mail client for an ad-free alternative e-mail
address is the Sim Explorer app, which gives you a virtual drive on
the Sim server. When I had a broadband connection I used XDrive for
offline storage, and with broadband it was like having a physical
rather than virtual drive. I like a virtual drive for off-site
storage. In the event of something really catastrophic happening, like
(God forbid) my house burning down, the CD backups of Important Stuff
stored in a file cabinet next to my computer aren't going to be much
help. The Sim virtual drive is intended to be used for files created
with their suite (since one of their big "claims to fame" here is that
docs can be accessed from anywhere), but I'm tempted to "stretch" that
and see how far they'll let me take it. Since I'm back to dial-up now,
the usefulness of a virtual drive is somewhat limited, but I can see
using it to store comparatively small WP docs created in Word or
OpenOffice.
It will be interesting to see what happens after the 2 year
"guaranteed" free period is over.
David Burton
(remove "nospam" from e-mail address)