ACE.THD --- Copyright 1987 by Phil Wheeler An original compilation of Compuserve Model 100 Forum messages for use by Forum members only. There is a fascinating new computer-related product on the market, the Franklin Spelling Ace. It is a pocket-sized (big pocket!) electronic spell checker. These messages describe it and give several members' comments. Whatever else, it is a fun gadget! Message range: 152020 to 152067 Dates: 7/7/87 to 7/7/87 Sb: #Franklin Spelling Ace Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: All Spellers The Franklin Spelling Ace, a portable hand-held spelling dictionary, which has been priced at $89.95 since it was first released, is now available for $69.95 from Fordham Radio in Hauppauge, New York. It is listed in the Fordham-Scope 1987 Summer catalog at that price, with a catalog number FCSP-8000. You can order by phone, (800) 645-9518, or in New York State, (800) 832-1446. They take Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Briefly, it is a hand-held, "calculator" type of device with a built-in 80,000 word dictionary. It will verify the spelling of a word, or find the correct spelling of any word typed in phonetically. Can also be used with wild-card characters to locate words, as in crossword puzzle applications. It also provides hyphenation information. It's battery operated, and is roughly 4.5 x 6.5 inches... about the size of a paperback book. If anyone gets one of these, we'd like to have a review for the data library. Fm: Don Zeikel 75775,1430 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 I played with one of those at a department store counter for a couple of minutes a few weeks ago, and found the following: The demo card next to the demo model suggested that I type in a word spelled wrong (I think it was "brocaly," or some such). I typed in the word misspelled as on the card, and it printed the correct version. I then misspelled the same word in several other logical, phonetic ways, and it would not find a match. Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Don Zeikel 75775,1430 Well, so much for their "phonetic" claim. ---- One thing I've always found puzzling about dictionaries, you have to know how to spell a word, in order to look it up, to find out how to spell it! Thanks for the comment, though... maybe we'll get a thread going here on the little bugger. Fm: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 I thought dictionaries are for looking up what a word means (definition), rather than for looking up how to spell a word. There is a dictionary which is indexed in phoenetic sound, and it can be used to find the correct spelling. Otherwise, I usually ask someone else. Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 That's just it! I use it more for looking up the correct spelling than definitions. You only need to look up a definition with an unfamiliar or new word, but you often have to look up the spelling of words you don't use regularly, or even some you do... take seperate, for example. I can never remember whether it's seperate, as in keeping the dogs seperate, or separate, as in separate the books into two piles. Fm: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 An easy way to remember separate is: it has A RAT in the middle. Now if you could help me with surprise (or is that surprize or suprise or ...) Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 I like that.... gonna rite it down RAT now! (grin) Fm: Don Zeikel 75775,1430 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 Years ago I bought a car with a Wankel engine before they "perfected" it. My first computer was the first pocket Radio Shack, with extremely limited RAM. I bought it before they "perfected" it. A few years ago I bought a pocket TV with an LCD screen before they "perfected" it. I think I will pass on miniature computerized dictionaries until they are perfected. Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 Even easier than Guerri's suggestion is a trick I learned in school... SEE-PAW-RATE (as in see your father rant and rave) SEPARATE Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Don Zeikel 75775,1430 You've got a track record going there, don. I guess when you bought your 100 you sighed, and said, "Well, that's one in a row." (grin) Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Wayne Day 76703,376 You have no idea how long I've been spelling that word incorrecitley.