As always, my suggestions are:
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[*]AutoCAD R 14 / 2000 (or some of the less expensive, easier to learn and semi powerful "over the counter" CAD apps - such as TurboCAD),
[*]Excel (97 and up) or Lotus 1-2-3 version 5 (and up) for Spreadsheets,
[*]MS Access (97 and up) or Lotus Approach for Database work,
[*]MS Word (97 and up) or Lotus Word Pro for Word Processing,
[*]Adobe Photoshop, Paintshop Pro or equal application from MS Office or Lotus Smart Suite packages, for image work (such as Digital Camera Images),
[*]Scanning Software w/ OCR ability, for scanned documents,
[*]Winfax Pro (version 9 works well for me), for faxing via your PC,
[*]Netscape Communicator (version 4.79xx and up), for Internet work.
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And some of the more "Advanced" items would be:
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[*]Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (full Version 5.0 and up), for creating .PDF documents and all that Adobe stuff,
[*]Electrical Circuit Simulator application (such as Circuit Maker), for designing and simulating circuits using PSPICE,
[*]Visual Basic 4.0 and up, for creating custom scripts, applications, "helper" applications and killer Macros.
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And the most important of all:
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[*]A solid Machine to run everything on (good CPU, DRAM, Power Supply, Disk Drives, M Board, Bus Adapters or "Cards" housed in a quality case),
[*]Large SVGA Monitor (17" and up),
[*]Ergonomic Mouse and Keyboard (plus workstation items, such as Keyboard stand, Mouse tray and chair),
[*]Solid Operating System(s) - for NOS and GUI,
[*]Proper Lighting.
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Scott S.E.T.
