ST Report: 14-Feb-97 #1307
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 02/22/97-08:08:52 AM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 14-Feb-97 #1307
Date: Sat Feb 22 08:08:52 1997
Silicon Times Report
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February 14, 1997 No.1307
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- CPU Industry Report - Counterfeit Wares! - Net Job Scams
- Epson 4 Color Ships - Hayes OFFERS - ITC FINED $250k
- Xfree86 Project - CompuServe Rated #1 - Informix SUES Oracle
- UnAbashed Atariophile - People Talking - Classics & Gaming
DIGITAL CAMERA MARKET BOOMS
Ohio Lottery Admits Piracy
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>From the Editor's Desk...
For the past year or so, I've been witness to a series of computer
shows put on by what I can only call "A Bunch of Yahoos". Either someone's
BLIND. or, the words "BUNDLED SOFTWARE, NOT FOR RESALE".. or, software
with a price that's too good to be true.. applies only to the outer reaches
of Southern Mongolia. What is going here? How are the "hemorrhoids of
society" getting their hands Corel Office Perfect 7, Windows 95-OEMSR2,
Adobe Photoshop 4, Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 and on and on.. Most, if not all
of this stuff is counterfeit! The OemSR2 package we saw was an outdated,
early version of OEM having file dates well before the RC candidate's true
dates. Don't buy this stuff folks. it'll victimize you, your computer and
the legitimate operators and support organizations all across the country.
I would imagine that computerists who buy this stuff are just as much
to blame, but one must stop and look at the temptation levels and then the
obvious legit look to the software from the package to the CD itself have
been faithfully copied. Its really up to all of us to make certain this
sort of thing does not continue. If you find that a Computer Show, Flea
Market etc. local to you, is allowing Boguus or, Bundled Software to be
sold, please call the local FBI office. It is Piracy! Piracy at it's very
worst. The FBI is highly interested in these nefarious practices. In
reality, its putting the software outlets out of business and in the long
run, its one of the major causes of the cost of software continually
rising. One of my questions is how are these sleeze bags getting their
greedy grips on the software to begin with? Obviously, someone, somewhere
is licensed to receive the Bundles and bootlegging them out the back door
or, a huge and very profitable counterfeiting group is happily rolling
along.
Bundled Software is provided to computer manufacturers, assemblers
etc., to be installed on NEW computers and the software and documentation
to be shipped with each machine its installed on. Obviously, its not.
Please, if you see this sort of thing going on. Call the FBI. Must we
watch many more than just Egghead being forced into Re-organization and
perhaps extinction because of this type of Criminal Activity?
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Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner
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STReport Headline News
LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Sex Site May Have Hosted Scam
>From Montreal comes word the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are conducting a
fraud investigation because of complaints of excessive phone charges that
appeared after some computerists accessed a World Wide Web site run by a
Dallas, Texas, firm. Millions of dollars may have been bilked from people
who visited the Web
site -- http://sexygirls.com -- and downloaded what was characterized
online as "viewer" software need to see "adult" images.
The Newsbytes computer news service quotes Cpl. Marc Gosselin of the
Montreal RCMP Commercial Crime Section as alleging the site took money
from Web surfers without their knowledge by redirecting online visitors'
modems to a phone number to the southeastern European country of Moldova.
"To look at the pictures at the site, they had to download what the content
at the site called a 'viewer," says Newsbytes. "After the program was
downloaded and installed, it secretly disconnected the user from their
Internet service provider and dialed the phone number in Moldova -- all
while de-activating the modem's speaker. From Moldova, the user's data link
was rerouted to a company in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. The link then
ended up at server at an unnamed company in Dallas, Texas."
Gosselin said the result was phone charges for the unlucky user that ranged
from $600 to $900 (Canadian). "In addition," says Newsbytes, "the Web
surfer would not know about the charges until their phone bill was
delivered, up to a month later.... Part of the reason the phone bills were
so high is that the modem stayed connected to the server, even if the Web
surfer thought they completely disconnected from the Internet. ... The only
way to terminate the link was to either reboot or completely shut down the
computer (meaning) if a computer user kept their computer on all night or
all day long, the charges would keep mounting."
Gosselin told the wire service that in Quebec alone, Bell Canada received
more than 1,200 complaints about the site. Canadian authorities also sa
the site kept itself a "secret" from the Net user. Gosselin said that while
a disclaimer appeared on one page of the site much of the time, a person
who went directly to the page where the viewer could be downloaded
completely missed the disclaimer. And the fact that "the modem's speaker
was turned off" shows an intent to deceive, he added.
Gosselin told Newsbytes he would not reveal the name of the company because
it has not yet been officially charged with any crime, but added the firm
appears to know authorities are "onto them," because the disclaimer at the
site changed several times. More recently, he said, the business seems to
be spelling out online exactly what happened when the "viewer" was
downloaded. More information on the RCMP's Commercial Crime Section can be
found on the Web (http://www.durham.net/rcmpbow/commcrm.html).
FTC Warns of Net Job Scams
The Federal Trade Commission is warning all of us -- especially college
graduates and out-of-work professionals -- to avoid Internet-promoted
business opportunities that look too good to be true. Probably, they are.
In a report called, "Fighting Consumer Fraud: The Challenge and the
Campaign," the FTC says, "Thanks to personal computers, desktop publishing
software and affordable video equipment, bogus sales pitches have the look
of legitimacy and lure millions of consumers to take the bait."
FTC officials told David Lawsky of the Reuter News Service business schemes
are a big part of consumer fraud that costs Americans a reported $250
million a year. "And far more fraud likely goes unreported," says Lawsky.
"Shady promoters aim at recent college graduates or out-of-work
professionals, frequently promising job placement with Fortune 500
companies, the federal government or travel carriers such as cruise ships
and airlines. ... Con artists retain processing or finder's fees they
charge, it said. Or they use personal financial information to debit client
bank accounts or use credit cards."
The FTC, working with the FBI and postal inspectors, has brought seven
actions against nine companies and 16 people who promised, falsely, to
obtain jobs for consumers. "By the end of 1996 these efforts had produced
more than $1 million in refunds for tens of thousands of consumers," said
the agency, which has responsibility for consumer protection.
The FTC warned those seeking jobs to:
O Be suspicious of any promises to find them a job, especially if the
company charges fees in advance or guarantees refunds.
O Check with the corporate offices of any company listed in an
advertisement to find out if the company is really hiring.
O Watch out for firms promoting supposedly "undisclosed" federal
government jobs, noting that all federal positions are announced to the
public.
CompuServe Vows Continued Fight
On news that a commercial mass e-mailer will appeal a federal court-order
ban, CompuServe has vowed to continue its fight against what it terms
"junk e-mailing" and "spamming." As reported, a federal judge in
Columbus, Ohio, has barred Cyber Promotions from sending unsolicited e-mail
advertisements to CompuServe's 5 million subscribers. CompuServe sued
Cyber Promotions last year, saying its host computers were bogged down
with junk e-mail, and that subscribers were complaining about having to
sift through their electronic mailboxes while the meter was running on
their accounts. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge James L. Graham
wrote in a 32-page order, "CompuServe is entitled to restrict access to its
private property," adding the order will remain in effect until the case is
decided at trial or settled.
Now Cyber Promotions indicates it intended to appeal that decision. On
this issue, CompuServe general counsel Steve Heaton says in a statement
from Columbus, "The court's decision has a broad impact as the first
decision of its kind that says unauthorized mass junk e-mailing is illegal.
This precedent is likely to be used by other (Internet service providers)
to protect against intrusive and unwanted junk e-mail. CompuServe's goal
was to see this through to a binding court decision to prevent not only
this defendants spamming efforts, but those of others who would seek to
exploit CompuServe and its subscribers." This week's ruling can be read on
the Internet's World Wide Web (http://wsgrgate.wsgr.com/resour
ces/intprop/briefs/compu.htm).
Net Provider Fined $250,000
In a settlement with state states, Internet service provider IDT Corp. has
agreed to supply refunds to consumers, pay a $250,000 fine and change its
advertising pitch. Reporting from Lansing, Michigan, United Press
International says the settlement follows charges of false advertising over
dial-up charges and tech support leveled against IDT by attorneys general
in Michigan, New York, Iowa, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas. Michigan
Attorney General Frank Kelley said in announcing the settlement, "Consumers
must be vigilant to avoid rip-offs in cyberspace as well as service
providers who don't deliver what the promise to business and consumers
alike."
New Jersey-based IDT was accused by the states of advertising "total"
Internet access for $15 a month, but then charging $29 a month for a
complete link with graphics. "Another come-on," says UPI, "was that
access meant 'almost always a local call' even though many dial-ups were
toll calls. And the attorneys General said IDT's 'free' technical support
required a long-distance phone call." The agreement calls for IDT to
refund customers who paid unexpected long distance charges for access or
for long distance charges for phone calls to technical support, customer
service or billing departments and those who were charged after canceling
accounts. UPI says refund claims including payment proof and other
documents must be mailed in 30 days to IDT Corp., 294 State St.,
Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601.
Net Chain Letter Blasted as Hoax
An Internet chain letter that talks of a 7-year-old girl dying of cancer is
said to be a fraud. The American Cancer Society in Ohio has condemned the
letter, which says corporate sponsors will donate money for each new
person who receives the message. In Dublin, Harvey Schwartz, the state
group's vice president of communications, told United Press the message
apparently started on America Online and has spread beyond that online
service. "The letter talks about Jessica Mydek, who is described as dying
from an acute and very rare case of cerebral carcinoma," says UPI. "The
letter says that as part of her dying wish, she wanted to start a chain
letter to send the message to live life to the fullest and enjoy every
moment."
Schwartz told the wire service the letter also states the American Cancer
Society and several other corporate sponsors have agreed to donate three
cents toward continuing cancer research for every new person that gets
forwarded the chain letter. However, as far as Schwartz's organization can
determine, the story is completely unsubstantiated and no fundraising
efforts are being made by the American Cancer Society in er name or by the
use of chain letters. "We don't even know if she exists," he added.
Meanwhile, Renee Deger of PC Week Online reports the e-mail claims to have
begun as the sickbed wish of the Mydek child, adding the cancer society
first learned of the electronic chain letter about two weeks ago when
would-be donors began calling their local chapters.
Add Deger, "The glaring clue that the rumor was most likely a hoax is the
response-driven 3 cents donation, said Pamela Donovan, a lecturer at the
City University of New York, who researches urban legends. Corporations and
charitable organizations generally don't dole out donations in such a
fashion, she said." Donovan said that what helps perpetuate such rumors is
that sometimes they are true, in the case of localized collections to pay
for an operation for a poor person, often a child, or someone with
inadequate insurance benefits, said Donovan. She said the rumors spread so
quickly because it's easy for people to participate.
Ohio Lottery Admits Piracy
Admitting its offices used computer programs without paying for them,
Ohio's state lottery commission has confirmed it will pay the Software
Publishing Association $187,000. Reporting from Columbus, Ohio, United
Press International says that in September, a lottery employee informed the
SPA about computer programs that had been copied and used without paying
for them. Kathy Weiss, chief legal counsel for the lottery, says employees
had been copying and using Borland, Corel and Software Publishing Co.
programs, including word processing programs. Assistant Lottery Director
David Griffin told the wire service the lottery commission has instituted
several policies, including periodic audits, to make sure the problem
doesn't recur. Also, the commission has hired a deputy director in charge
of computer security and a software librarian, to ensure software is not
copied.
Boston Wants Bans on the Net
Boston's City Council is being urged to add parental control on the
Internet to keep kids from peeking at porn on city library computers when
they are supposed to be surfing for homework help. A council meeting this
week heard parents complain the students were looking at naked people they
found on Internet sites. United Press International quotes City Councilor
Maureen E. Feeney as saying she is asking the council to schedule a
hearing to determine how students' access to sexually graphic materials can
be limited. The wire service says police and councilors have received
numerous complaints from concerned parents.
One father told the meeting he is upset to learn his 11-year-old daughter
and a group of other boys and girls were gathered around a terminal "to
look at pictures of naked people." A spokesman for the Boston Public
Library and its 26 branches, which have been equipped with Internet access
for the past 18 years, said it's "nearly impossible" to use software to
block out any particular information, adding that for every address
blocked out, children "will find a half-dozn others." Library officials
told the city the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia has ruled the
government could not force libraries to censor materials on the Internet,
because that would violate the First Amendment rights of children.
Portable PC Users Zap Batteries
Forty-one percent of portable PC users surveyed by Sherwood Research
indicated dissatisfaction with present battery life, ranking it 1 or 2 on
a scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "not at all satisfied."
Seventy percent of those surveyed felt that their portable system's
manufacturer exaggerated the projected life of the battery. "With current
users most frequently reporting a battery life of 1.5 hours, it is not hard
to understand the rationale behind their disappointment," says Nathan
Nuttall, computer research director for the Wellesley, Massachusetts,
market research firm. "Granted, features, power, and performance have
dramatically improved, but the high cost of these improvements on the
battery life of portable PCs is driving users to take note and complain."
Battery life has become an important purchase criterion for users planning
to acquire a new portable PC. Sherwood's research finds that 55 percent of
those who are planning to buy a new portable PC within the next 12 months
rank battery life a 4 or 5 on their list of purchase criteria, with 5
meaning "extremely important." In fact, 64 percent of these users are
willing to pay a premium and accept a half-pound weight gain for a larger
and heavier battery with an extra 30 minutes of life. But Nuttall advises
portable PC manufacturers not to waste their time tossing in a spare
battery to compensate for poor battery life. Over half of the users
surveyed by Sherwood stated they have no desire or intention of carrying a
spare battery around with them.
"Battery life for the majority of the current crop of portables PCs is just
plain poor," states Nuttall. "Users are sick of lugging around a spare
battery to keep their portable PC alive through a presentation or plane
fligh, especially when it is only a couple of hours long. Portable PC
manufacturers and component suppliers need to start focusing on what
fundamentally makes a portable PC system portable -- the battery.
According to Nuttall, the problem will only intensify for portable PC
manufacturers as the incorporation of power-hungry features, such as
faster processors, larger displays and CD-ROM drives, continue to eat into
battery life. And there is little prospect of a revolutionary battery
technology appearing in the portable computing arena during 1997.
Portable PC manufacturers need to begin demanding components, options, and
applications from suppliers that draw less power and offer better power
management abilities, concludes Nuttall. Vendors should be actively
devoting resources toward the development of future battery technologies
such as lithium-polymer1 and zinc-air, as well as toward the enhancement of
lithium-ion technology, he notes.
'Phenomenal' Growth for DSP Market
The market for digital signal processor (DSP) chips is booming, finds a
Mountain View, California, market research firm. Frost & Sullivan says
the DSP market grew a "phenomenal" 72.7 percent in 1995 to $1.73 billion.
DSPs are high-speed chips that use complex algorithms to transform analog
data into compressed digital data. The technology enables large amounts of
data to be transferred between two points in real time. The wireless market
continues to provide the largest opportunities in the DSP market, notes
Frost & Sullivan. Cellular telephones, base stations, pagers, multimedia
devices, and mobile modems all use DSPs in their designs.
Three of the most significant challenges currently facing the DSP industry,
according to Frost & Sullivan, are finding ways to integrate DSPs with
other processors on a single chip, increasing processing efficiency by
developing finer processing geometries and facilitating easier programming
and debugging. Frost & Sullivan semiconductors analyst David Johnson
says, "Companies like Texas Instruments, Lucent Technologies and Analog
Devices have dedicated themselves to developing technologies for the
digital revolution as primary business strategies. It can be expected that
a number of companies will seek to integrate DSP cores, computational units
or instruction sets in their devices in the near future."
Digital Camera Market Booms
New studies by the InfoTrends Research Group indicate that the worldwide
digital camera market will more than double in 1997, spurred by new
applications for digital cameras and lower prices. In 1997, the market for
low-end digital cameras -- priced below $1,000 -- will reach close to a
million units in North America, finds the Kansas City-based market
researcher. The market in Japan will rival North America's and is expected
to maintain an even higher growth rate during the next five years.
InfoTrends' five-year outlook for North America shows digital cameras
growig at almost 50 percent annually through the year 2001, reaching over 6
million units installed. Revenues resulting from sales of digital cameras
and related products will top a billion dollars in 2001 alone.
"The growth could even be higher," according to Kristy Holch, an InfoTrends
principal. "There are many factors that could escalate sales beyond the
forecast, such as the growing popularity of sharing pictures over the
Internet. However, there are also significant barriers that should not be
underestimated. Areas like user-friendliness, storage media
standardization, affordable photo-quality color output and
price/performance still need work." Business users will remain the primary
market until 1998 or later, when consumer computer users will become the
major force, finds InfoTrends. The mass consumer market, consisting of the
60 percent of households without a personal computer, will be much slower
to develop, according to the researcher.
Epson Ships Four-Color Printer
Epson America says its new four-color ink-jet printer provides a better
output quality than competing three-color models. The Torrance,
California, company reports that its $229 Stylus Color 400 printer
delivers 720 dot per inch (dpi) photo quality images and laser-quality
black text output. The unit provides a maximum 4 pages per minute
monochrome and 3 pages per minute color print speed. The product is bundled
with Sierra Print Artist and Adobe PhotoDeluxe software. "Epson's
customers are very savvy when it comes to image quality and they know that
three-color printing simply isn't good enough any more," says David
Flowers, Epson's entry- level ink jet product manager.
RealVideo Prepares for Launch
Progressive Networks -- the company that has given the Internet ears
through its RealAudio software -- now wants to do something for the eye
with RealVideo as well. The firm this week is announcing Time Warner,
ABC, C-SPAN and others have agreed to use its new RealVideo software to
send news clips, music videos and live sports event across the Internet, a
deal business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press says "helps
bring cyberspace closer to a full-fledged entertainment and information
medium."
Kalish says the software is billed as improving the image quality of the
Internet's moving images, which after traveling through phone lines
normally appear as jerky as turn-of-the-century silent movies. To view the
video, people first download the free RealVideo software from the company's
site on the Internet's World Wide Web (http://www.real.com), then choose
from a menu of Web sites and point and click to the programming they want.
"While many offerings, such as music videos, are free, others are not.
ESPN, for example, charges $5 a month for access to its live sports
events," Kalish says. "About 50 Web sites initially will use the video
technology, with that number expected to double by the end of the month."
With standard dial-up modem, RealVideo images still are choppy "though a
bit smoother than other Internet fare," says AP, "but more powerful modems
such as those used by many businesses deliver "full motion" or
broadcast-quality images. The company also says its technology compresses
digital information into a way that enables people to download images
faster." Analyst Ron Rappaport of Zona Research in San Francisco told the
wire service Progressive Network's success as the dominant supplier of
software for listening to audio on the Internet may help its foothold in
the video arena. PN estimates between 150,000 and 180,000 people a day
listen to music and other sounds through its Internet technology.
Breakthrough May Speed Computers
Scientists say they have found a way to quadruple performance of today's
microprocessor chips, which could speed up many computer functions.
Though still in the test stage, the improvement, announced by Plasma &
Materials Technologies Inc., "tackles a growing challenge faced by chip
makers as they cram more and more transistors onto each microprocessor,"
says business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press, namely,
"Keeping its signals from getting crossed." Of course, a chip's ability
to carry signals four times more efficiently would enable computers to
perform calculations in one-fourth the time it now takes and could allow
manufacturers to fit more transistors onto each chip, a growing hurdle to
building more and more powerful computers. The Chatsworth,
California-based Plasma & Materials Technologies, which sells manufactring
equipment to chip makers, said several customers are testing the new method
and, if found to be reliable, will use it for mass production in 1998.
"It would be used for producing microprocessors as well as memory chips
with improved capacity for storing computer information," Kalish added.
Specifically, the company says it has developed a better way to apply
insulation material between the millions of tiny wires that connect a
chip's transistors, dramatically reducing interference between the signals
they carry. "Chip makers typically use gases containing silicon dioxide to
create the insulation. The gas later hardens on the chip during a heating
process," says AP. "But the method developed by Plasma & Materials
Technologies over the past four years, dubbed 'Flowfill,' applies the
insulation in a liquid state and adds a tiny amount of carbon to the mix --
giving properties to the insulation that reduce interference between
wires." The insulation's "dielectric constant" -- a measure of its
effectiveness - is below 2.0, the company says, noting that is considered
far less than constants of about 3.5 for today's most efficient insulation.
Apple Completes NeXT Inc. Buyout
The $400 million acquisition of NeXT Software Inc. by Apple Computer Inc.
has been completed. As reported earlier, NeXT Chairman/CEO Steve Jobs now
will serve as an advisor to Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio. Apple has
announced NeXT technology will be incorporated in Apple's plans to update
its operating system. The Reuter News Service notes the Mac operating
system will continue to be upgraded in regular biannual releases, while NeXT
technology will form the basis for Apple's next-generation operating system,
Rhapsody.
Apple officials told the wire service they believe the advanced technical
underpinnings and rapid development environment of Rhapsody will allow
developers to create new applications that leapfrog those of other
"modern" operating systems, such as Windows NT. Reuters expects the first
release of Rhapsody to be launhed to developers in mid to late 1997 and to
customers within 12 months, adding, "A unified Rhapsody release is expected
to be in the hands of customers by mid-1998. This will include
compatibility with existing Mac operating system applications, as well as
provide a platform for next-generation computing."
Online Access Sold, Folds
CMP Media Inc.'s NetGuide Magazine has acquired Online Access, the computer
industry's first Internet publication. NetGuide will incorporate Online
Access' paid subscriber base into its own starting with its April issue.
Launched in 1986, Online Access had a total circulation of 110,000 and was
published by Chicago-based Red Flash Internet Inc. The deal's term's
weren't disclosed. "Online Access was the industry pioneer," says Beth
Haggerty, publishing director for CMP's Internet media division, which
includes NetGuide Live and NetGuide Magazine. "We're sure this venerable
reader base is going to enjoy the depth and breadth of NetGuide. We look
forward to sending them their first issue. The acquisition of Online
Access represents another in a series of circulation boosts for NetGuide
Magazine, which debuted in December 1994 with a circulation of 200,000. The
magazine has since increased its circulation by 63 percent, including a
32.2 percent hike in 1996.
Informix Sues Rival Oracle
Claiming theft of trade secrets, Informix Software Inc. has sued its
arch-rival Oracle Corp. and 11 software engineers who left Informix,
alleging the engineers enriched themselves by misusing proprietary Informix
information. For its part, Oracle claims the employees quit the Portland,
Oregon, office of Informix because they were disenchanted with top
management and the direction the company was headed, adding the
researchers not only approached Oracle for jobs but had spoken with
Microsoft and several Portland-area companies.
The Associated Press says the suit, filed in Multnomah County, Oregon,
Circuit Court, seeks to prevent the 11 researchers from keeping their jobs
at Oracle's Portland office and asks that searches be performed on all
their computers, and those owned by their relatives, to ensure they have
not taken competitive information. If the developers are allowed to stay
at Oracle, Informix wants safeguards that they will not share trade
secrets, AP says.
Informix and Oracle compete in the market for corporate database software
and, says AP, "by losing key developers from its Portland office, Informix
contends it loses potential revenue and expertise." The wire service says
Informix has offered to give 10 of the employees their jobs back, the
exception being former vice president of research Gary Kelley, who
Informix contends recruited the other 10 employees on Oracle's behalf while
h still worked for Informix.
"Together," says AP, "the 11 employees represented 22 percent of the core
team and 50 percent of the managers who worked on Informix's extended
parallel servers, a technology used for storing massive amounts of data.
They also were working on a database technology that can store graphics and
sounds as well as text." Meanwhile, Oracle contends it advised the
departing Informix employees not to bring or disclose any trade secrets. As
a matter of policy, Oracle asks all employees to promise in writing that
they bring no trade secrets from former employers.
CompuServe Rated #1 for Business
NetGuide magazine has named CompuServe the best online service provider for
business. In its Editors' Choice awards, the magazine gave CSi a grade of
A- compared with C+ for the next-best online business information service.
"The vast range and excellent quality of CSi business services put it miles
ahead of any other ... in this area," the magazine reports in its March
issue. Strengths cited by NetGuide include strong reference materials,
well-focused online discussion groups and general depth and breadth of
information. The publication put CSi significantly higher than its
competitors and said CompuServe is easier to use than "the Web's infinitely
confused endless resources." Besides its resources geared toward big
business, NetGuide also recognized CompuServe's information available for
entrepreneurs in the Small Office/Home Office market. Specifically,
NetGuide cited CompuServe's Standard & Poor's 500 for stock updates, the
Reuters news wire, Magazine Database Plus and TrademarkScan as examples of
the diversity of system's reference materials.
Net Service Providers Grow 9,475%
The number of Internet service providers has grown from about 24 at the
start of 1996 to 2,298 by the end of the year. And before you get out your
calculator, that's a growth rate of 9,475 percent. So says the Omaha,
Nebraska, American Business Information Inc., which calls Internet service
companies the fastet growing businesses of last year, based on information
derived from its database. Meanwhile, says the Reuter News Service in a
report on the ABI numbers, health and fitness program consultants
represented the largest decline in numbers for the year to 2,662 at the end
of the year from 3,317.
"Other firms that are growing in numbers," says Reuters, "range from the
high-tech, such as computer networking, pager services and cellular
telephone services, to bagel shops and tattoo parlors. ... Businesses that
are declining in number include retail typewriter sales and services, comic
book stores, baseball sports cards and memorabilia stores, coffee and tea
shops and antenna systems." ABI's database is compiled from 4,800 Yellow
Page directories, business white pages and other public information and is
verified with additional telephone calls.
E-Mail Vendors Ranked by New Users
A handful of top software vendors dominated the market for new corporate
e-mail users in 1996, finds preliminary research from International Data
Corp. The Framingham, Massachusetts, market researcher reports that
IBM/Lotus held the number one position in 1996 with 8.4 million new users
of its Notes, cc:Mail, and OfficeVision products, representing a 26
percent share. Netscape, a new entry in the e-mail market in 1996,
captured the second spot and a 17 percent share with 5.5 million new users
of the Netscape Mail component of its Navigator browser. Microsoft took the
third spot with 4.4 million new users of its Exchange and Mail products.
Overall, the corporate e-mail market added 32 million new users worldwide
in 1996, finds IDC. IDC's Web site (www.idcresearch.com) contains
additional research and recent news releases.
Consumers Defy Tech Marketers
A new survey from NFO Interactive finds that significant marketing
challenges confront high-tech vendors in converting non-computing
consumers, upgrading current computer users and marketing emerging
technologies. "The industry is in a rut; the current benefit/price ratio
is too low to support rapid, across the board growth," says Charlie Hamlin,
executive vice president of interactive business development for the
Greenwich, Connecticut, market research firm. For non-computing
households, less than 8 percent indicated they plan to buy a computer in
the next six months. The major reason cited was the lack of a compelling
reason to buy. Only 2 percent expressed interest in Internet appliances; 1
percent would "probably" buy a PDA and 2 percent indicated they would buy a
digital camera.
Computing households that are reluctant to upgrade their systems indicate
they are waiting for PC prices to drop or for a must-have reason to buy.
Survey results also indicatethe Internet could be the factor that drives a
decision to upgrade. Additional factors include support and training for
Internet technology. The one area of strong growth is the Internet and
online services, with survey results indicating that between five and 15
million households are likely to connect to the Internet over the next six
months. Other NFO surveys have shown that three to four million households
connected to the Internet over the past nine months. "These survey results
show that continued market growth will require marketing strategies that
target the distinct segments of the current consumer technology market
with appropriate product and service characteristics, pricing models,
distribution channels and communication strategies," says Hamlin.
A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N
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Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range.
It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said
that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark
Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a
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A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N
IS UUNet at Fault? STR Spotlight
UUNET, BOON OR BOONDOGGLE?
By Ralph F. Mariano
Why is it UUNet seems to have the most problems in maintaining
reliable Internet Networking? What is the reason for the . like clockwork-
like failures of UUNET feeds at least once a month for a approximately
three to six hours for the last four months? After experiencing another in
the annoying procession of failures and usual local excuses, we decided to
take the matter to the source of the problem itself, UUNet.
A call was placed to UUNet's headquarters (1-800-900-0241) at
approximately 02:33pm on Feb. 11, 1997. After being shuffled around
between three different (top echelon people, VP marketing, sect'y. to VP
Network Admin, sect'y to VP PR) we were told the party actually able to
either explain and/or correct the problems and possible misunderstandings
would return my call.
When one considers the amounts of money being PAID TO UUNet for
Internet feeds, ($5000.00 &up per month), it becomes rather difficult to
understand the rather nonchalant attitude we experienced at the hands of
their top people. Here we find an entire region, the Southeastern USA, is
down. and they simply didn't have a time explanation. The local ISP's are
actually.. no, literally "up in arms" over the outages. We've been told
they are in the process of organizing for the purpose of financing legal
counsel to deal the regular and predictable outages. At 03:35pm we called
UUNet again and were eventually connected with Kevin Coyne allegedly "the
man with the answers". Unfortunately, we were unprepared for the vague,
indirect pablum answers we were about to be fed. I now know what it is
like to be a cultivated mushroom.
A number of questions we posed to UUNet's Kevin Coyne, ext:5628, also
were deftly avoided or, went un-answered. "Are you aware the ISP services
of AT&T and Southern Bell are operating quite reliably? Are you aware the
subscribers of the Independents served by UUNet are cancelling their ISP
accounts and going to the "Big Boys" in pursuit of reliability? It is sad
to see the little ISP being squeezed out because of UUNet "equipment
failures". An alleged "relay switch failure" - Can you say CLOUD? Of
course, a full explanation of the situation from Coyne was NOT forthcoming.
Doesn't it seem rather odd that the companies you lease your lines
from is not only a direct competitor of yours but also in direct
competition with those you service?? Why is it AT&T and Southern Bell are
not experiencing the regular, annoying and inconvenient outages you are?"
we asked of Kevin Coyne. Could it possibly be that somewhere, somehow,
there may actually be unfair competitive business activities taking place?
Each and every question was either avoided, sidestepped or answered
with vague non informative noise. Ie., "a switch failure in Jacksonville".
"RIIIIGHT" ..in my very best Bill Cosby, doing the Moses skit, voice.
Since when. does it take six or more hours to change out a switching
device? After all, they are simply connected to the system with plugs and
jacks. Some one's clouded aamong the Clouds alright and as usual, it's the
consumer taking on the chin. In this case, the consumer is the ISPs and
their subs.
About three months ago, STReport reported that it seemed rather odd
that AT&T and Southern Bell, along with the other Baby Bells, were both
"feeding at the trough and OWNED the very same trough". We were under the
impression that this sort business tactic and practice was frowned upon.
Its these types of practices that seemingly have the consumer holding the *
ragged, short end of the stick * unless of course they "subscribe to either
AT&T or one of the Baby (Oy Ve! What Babies!) Bells for their Internet
Access." By that I mean if one uses an independent ISP its either outages
and poor connections or, if one is using either AT&T etc., its manna from
heaven time. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
It is time we began a letter writing campaign to each of our Congress
Critters. The abuses from the monolithic, Telecommunications Monster
seemingly, is already beginning. I'm willing to bet the big Bells and
their "Bell Headed" leadership are already blaming the Internet itself for
the outage problems. This is hogwash.. It is a lack of reliable Bandwidth
being made affordably available to independents like local ISP's and UUNet.
Odd though, AT&T and the Baby Bells seemingly have plenty of Bandwidth.
Something is definitely rotten in Denmark.
Perhaps a formal investigation of ALL the "Bells" is appropriately in
order. Hopefully, as a result of doing so, a very sad chapter in the
history of the Internet and the Bell Monsters will never be written. The
way it looks right now, its going to be a devil of a horror story.
EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed
Edupage
Contents
Lehman Calls For Global Patent Protection
Toll-Free Calling Goes Global
Next-Generation Memory Chips From NEC
MCI Ties Voice, Data Transmissions Together
First Technology Literacy Grants Released
Microsoft Drops Windows NT For PowerPC Chips
Hayes Has A Deal For You
America Online Adds 50,000 Modems
Repetitive Strain In Academia Not Limited To Coursework
Intel Offers Stock Option Plan To All Of Its Employees
Texas Sizes Up Anti-Trust Charges Against Microsoft
Cell Phones & Car Accidents
The One Mailbox
Ameritech Long-Distance Plans Taken Up Short
Microsoft To Offer Russian Spy Photos
College Club Online Service Links Academics
Companies Overlook Ex-Employee Access Problems
Software Piracy Revisited
Imelda-Dot-History-Dot-Revision
LEHMAN CALLS FOR GLOBAL PATENT PROTECTION
U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce Lehman has recommended
the establishment of a global patent office, noting that the current
system requires inventors to file patent applications in every country in
the world. "We need a global system that takes advantage of technical
advances," says Lehman, who plans to propose automating the Patent
Cooperation Treaty -- which provides for multiple filing of patent
applications -- to the World Intellectual Property Organization in the next
few weeks. Domestically, Lehman says the Clinton Administration could
very well back off on its attempt to redefine the distribution right under
the Copyright Act to explicitly include a "transmission" right. (BNA Daily
Report for Executives 4 Feb 97)
TOLL-FREE CALLING GOES GLOBAL
Toll-free calling via "800" numbers is going international, with a new
service sponsored by long-distance carriers such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint,
WorldCom, USA Global Link and the International Telecommunication Union,
which is administering the system. The numbers will sport the usual "800"
prefix, followed by eight, rather than the usual seven, digits. Experts
predict the new numbers will have a profound effect on international
business and marketing efforts. More than 15,000 U.S. companies have
already applied for the new numbers. (Tampa Tribune 8 Feb 97)
NEXT-GENERATION MEMORY CHIPS FROM NEC
Calling its new 4-gigabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip the
largest yet developed, NEC says the new chip can store more than 4 billion
bits of information -- enough to hold 47 minutes of full-motion video, or
256 times the capacity of the 16-megabit DRAM chip now commonly used. NEC
says it will begin selling the 4-billion bit chips around 2000. (New York
Times 7 Feb 97)
MCI TIES VOICE, DATA TRANSMISSIONS TOGETHER
MCI is developing a new network architecture called Vault that will link
the computers that govern MCI's voice network to the company's Internet
backbone. The new arrangement will allow companies to combine the
intelligence of the voice network with the flexibility of the Internet,
says MCI's president and COO. "It's like a single command-and-control
center for all network capabilities," says the director of Perot Systems.
"That's the answer to a telecom manager's prayers." Vault's technology
will allow Web surfers to click on a "call agent" button to launch a phone
call to a company's sales department, and also will allow customers to use
one line to access an application running simultaneously on the voice and
data network. MCI plans to have Vault-based services ready for market by
year's end. (Information Week 3 Feb 97)
FIRST TECHNOLOGY LITERACY GRANTS RELEASED
President Clinton released yesterday the first installment of a $200-
million grant program to put computers and Internet connections in
schools, and to provide teachers Internet training. The initial $14.3-
million went to Illinois, Mississippi and New Mexico. In Clinton's weekly
radio address, he cited statistics showing that 65% of schools were
connected to the Internet as of last fall, compared with 35% in 1994.
"That's how we must prepare our children for the 21st century -- with the
full promise of the Information Age at their fingertips," he said. (St.
Petersburg Times 9 Feb 97)
MICROSOFT DROPS WINDOWS NT FOR POWERPC CHIPS
Microsoft will phase out its Windows NT support for computers running on
PowerPC processors, which include many of the Apple Macintosh machines in
operation today. "There's a limited demand from both customers and OEMs,"
says a Microsoft product manager. "We've just seen very limited demand for
PowerPC systems and decided to phase it out." The company will continue to
support customers who have PowerPCs with NT 4.0 and 3.51. The
announcement comes two months after IBM, Motorola and Groupe Bull decided
to scrap production of PowerPC-based machines running Windows NT.
(InfoWorld Electric 7 Feb 97)
HAYES HAS A DEAL FOR YOU
Hayes Microcomputer Products is offering current modem users a trade-in on
a new 56-Kbps device for just $99. To take advantage of the offer, users
must register on Hayes' Web site, < http://www.hayes.com >, and they will
be contacted when the 56-Kbps models are ready. Users who mail their old
modems to Hayes along with $114 (which includes $15 for shipping and
handling), will receive a K56Flex-based modem, normally a $200 value.
(MacWeek 10 Feb 97)
AMERICA ONLINE ADDS 50,000 MODEMS
America Online is leasing 50,000 modems from other companies in order to
speed up its plans to increase access capacity by 60%. AOL chief
executive Steve Case says the added capacity should "significantly cut
down" on the problems recently experienced by customers who got only when
busy signals when they attempted to log onto the service. (New York Times
7 Feb 97)
REPETITIVE STRAIN IN ACADEMIA
NOT LIMITED TO COURSEWORK
Although there is little evidence that computer-related repetitive strain
injury has become as much a problem for colleges and universities as it
has for the American workplace, the condition is getting more and more
attention from academic administrators. Dr. David Diamond, a staff doctor
at MIT, says: "It's not a crisis, in the sense that we're not having a
meltdown here. It's a chronic low-level risk, which for those who are
most affected can be hugely significant. The bulk of students are in a
situation where the day after typing for eight hours, there's some
burning. Touch your elbow, and it's tender. They're on the verge." (New
York Times 9 Feb 97)
INTEL OFFERS STOCK OPTION PLAN TO ALL OF ITS EMPLOYEES
Intel is offering stock options to all of its 50,000 employees, the only
condition being that they must have received satisfactory performance
evaluations. If Intel stock rises, employees will be able to buy shares at
the option-price and, if they choose, sell them immediately to lock in
profits. A company executive says: "This is a compensation element that
only means something if the company becomes more successful, so let's
figure out how to get our profitability up ... and our stock price up."
(San Jose Mercury News Center 12 Feb 97)
TEXAS SIZES UP ANTITRUST CHARGES AGAINST MICROSOFT
Texas is the first state to begin a formal inquiry of charges that
Microsoft has used business tactics that violate antitrust laws.
Microsoft says it received a request for documents related to competition
over Internet software marketing. Netscape received a similar request from
Texas in December. Netscape has accused Microsoft of giving PC
manufacturers a discount on its Windows95 operating system if they agreed
not to install NetScape's Navigator software for browsing the World Wide
Web. The Netscape charges also prompted a separate investigation of the
issues begun by the U.S. Department of Justice last summer. (AP 12 Feb
97)
CELL PHONES & CAR ACCIDENTS
Researchers at the University of Toronto say that drivers whose attention
is distracted while talking on a cellular phone are four times more likely
to be involved in an accident. However, insurance companies do not plan
to raise insurance premiums, because accident rates have not increased
overall. The researchers also found little difference between the use of
a receiver or hands-free model of phone, indicating that the problem is
one of mental, rather than physical preoccupation. (Toronto Globe & Mail 13
Feb 97 A1)
THE ONE MAILBOX
Octel Communications, the world's largest provider of voice-messaging
systems, has a new product called Unified Messenger that consolidates all
voice-mail, e-mail and fax messages in a single mailbox accessible by
phone or computer. The system, which works in concert with Microsoft's
Exchange e-mail system, enables workers to call up a list of voice and e-
mail messages on a computer screen, and play the voice messages back
through the PC's speakers. Mobile workers can dial into the voice-message
system and retrieve e-mail messages that are read aloud in a computer-
generated voice. "There are definitely people who are e-mail-centric and
people who are voice-mail-centric," says Octel's CEO. "Usually, sales and
marketing runs on voice mail, while the rest of the company uses e-mail.
Every single company I've come across has those constituencies. People
need that gap bridged." (Wall Street Journal 13 Feb 97)
AMERITECH LONG-DISTANCE PLANS TAKEN UP SHORT
Ameritech's hopes of becoming the first regional telephone company to get
Federal Communications Commission approval to offer long-distance as well
as local service in Michigan encountered an obstacle this week when the
FCC said that it had not supplied sufficient evidence that it faces real
competition for local service in that state -- a condition which must be
met before a local service provider can enter the long- distance phone
service market. Following the FCC ruling, Ameritech suspended its efforts
to win for approval to offer long-distance service in Michigan, but is
expected to resubmit a new application as soon as possible. (New York
Times 12 Feb 97)
MICROSOFT TO OFFER RUSSIAN SPY PHOTOS
Microsoft has contracted with North Carolina-based Aerial Images to publish
very high resolution (to one meter) photographs snapped by Russian spy
satellites. The photos, which were all taken during the 1990s, are the
first Russian-satellite-origin pictures to appear on the Internet, says
Aerial's VP. The initial photos to appear on Microsoft's Web site will
show Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Rome and London. The
photos may be downloaded for a charge of $30 per square kilometer, with the
proceeds to be split between Aerial and the Russian space agency. The
images are likely to be used by mapping services, construction companies
and developers, forestry workers and government agencies, says Aerial.
(Wall Street Journal 13 Feb 97)
COLLEGE CLUB ONLINE SERVICE LINKS ACADEMICS
College Club, developed by students at the University of San Diego, offers
students and faculty members a nationwide e-mail system with services
geared toward the U.S. academic community. Users receive a free e- mail
account, and may participate in chat rooms, discussion groups, and take
advantage of tools to design resumes, find jobs and build their own Web
pages. (Chronicle of Higher Education 14 Feb 97)
< http://www.collegeclub.com/ >
COMPANIES OVERLOOK EX-EMPLOYEE ACCESS PROBLEMS
A majority of U.S. companies neglect to monitor all of the e-mail, voice
and information systems that their employees can access, and as a result,
often forget to shut them off when the employees leave, says a program
manager at Computer Science Corp.: "No matter what anyone says, there is
no way for a large organization with distributed systems to track all
employees' passwords from a central place. Today, companies have faith in
their employees' good nature and presume they'll do the right thing." One
ex- employee of a Big Six accounting firm continued to use the company's e-
mail and voice-mail systems a year after he left, and even accessed the
company's internal network occasionally, although by that time he was
employed by a competitor. Outsourcing network functions just exacerbates
the problem: "It's hard enough to know when your own employees leave the
firm, much less other firms' employees," says the chief technology officer
for Vanstar Corp. To maintain some degree of control, experts recommend
giving employees one centrally controlled password for all systems, from e-
mail to file servers, contradicting the common assumption that one
password creates a system that's especially vulnerable to hackers.
(Investor's Business Daily 12 Feb 97)
SOFTWARE PIRACY REVISITED
The playwright George S. Kaufmann once defined satire as something that
closes on Saturday night, but in the newspaper business it's something
that gets taken seriously. A recent software piracy story in the
Petersburg Times (and subsequently in Edupage 11 Feb 97) failed to include
an introduction that indicated that the piece was satirical and included a
fictitious quotation. (St. Petersburg Times 10 Feb 97)
IMELDA-DOT-HISTORY-DOT-REVISION
Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, plans to set up
her own Web site to argue her case that she and her deceased husband
Ferdinand have been unjustly accused of pilfering billions from the
country's treasury. (Toronto Globe & Mail 13 Feb 97 B12)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educom.edu).
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The conference will bring together administrators, academicians and other
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Apple/Mac Section
Help Wanted
Xfree86 News STR InfofileMetro Link - XFree86 AnnouncementFebruary 5,
1997METRO LINK INCORPORATED ANNOUNCES
Donation of Dynamic Loader Technology to XFree86 Project, Inc.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - February 5, 1997 - Metro Link Incorporated, a
world-renowned provider of X, Motif, and OpenGL, today announced the
donation of its X server dynamic loader technology to the XFree86 Project,
Inc. "We hope that the donation of our loader technology will help to
improve the available implementations of the X Window System. We encourage
its use in freeware as well as commercial applications for the benefit of
all users. Our goal is to promote the long term viability of X in the
spirit of other contributors like Digital, HP, or SUN." said Morgan Von
Essen, president of Metro Link.
"Metro Link and XFree86 have enjoyed a cooperative relationship over the
years. Metro Link has been involved with XFree86 since the beginning,"
said David E. Wexelblat, director and founder of the XFree86 Project, Inc.
"Several Metro Link employees have made massive contributions to XFree86."
THE LOADER TECHNOLOGY
Metro Link's dynamic loader technology supports ELF and COFF objects,
making it possible for the X server to load these modules at runtime. This
eliminates the need to rebuild X server binaries and allows developers to
distribute updated modules without having to touch any other files. Server
extensions can be loaded and unloaded as needed. Metro Link has placed
the dynamic loader technology under an X Consortium-style copyright, so
that it will be truly free. This gives the XFree86 Project the right to
use the donated source code for any purpose. The dynamic loader will
become an integral part of the XFree86 server in a future release.
The loader software is part of Metro-X, Metro Link's commercial X server,
and has been used in demanding mission-critical environments for the past
year and a half.
ABOUT METRO LINK
Metro Link Incorporated is a Florida corporation in continuous existence
since 1989, specializing in the X Window System and extensions to X for
commercial and government markets. Current offerings are Metro- X, Metro-
Media (multimedia), Metro OpenGL (3D graphics), and Metro Link Motif
(graphical user interface). Software is available for many UNIX-like and
real-time operating systems.
ABOUT THE XFREE86 PROJECT
The XFree86 Project, Inc., is a non-profit, all-volunteer Delaware
corporation funded solely by corporate and individual gifts. Over 100
volunteer developers and testers prepare each release for a user community
estimated to number over a million.
HOW TO CONTACT METRO LINK
http://www.metrolink.com/
+1 954 938 0283
CONTACT: Morgan Von Essen, 954-938-0283
HOW TO CONTACT XFREE86
http://www.xfree86.org/
xfree86@xfree86.org
Kids Computing Corner
Frank Sereno, Editor
fsereno@streport.com
The Kids' Computing Corner
Computer news and software reviews
from a parent's point of view
In the News
Hi there gang! This week's news is that The Kids' Computing Corner is
holding another drawing to give away a program. We have a copy of the
Macintosh version of Titanic: An Adventure Out of Time that will be awarded
to a lucky winner via a random drawing. Entries will be accepted through
12:01am Thursday, February 20 and the winner will be announced in the
February 21 edition of the Silicon Times Report. To enter, all you need to
do is send an e-mail to me with the word Titanic in either the message body
or the subject header. My e-mail addresses are fsereno@streport.com and
fsereno@matrix.uti.com. The winner will be notified by e-mail and the
prize will be shipped as soon as I have the winner's address. The staff of
STR Publishing is not eligible for this contest.
Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia
Windows CD-ROM
about $30
for ages 7 to 12
The Learning Company
6493 Kaiser Dr.
Fremont, CA 94555
(800) 852-2255
Program Requirements
OS: Windows 3.1
CPU: 486SX/25
HD Space: 6 MB
Memory: 8 MB
Graphics: 640 x 480, 256 colors
CD-ROM: Double-speed
Audio: 8-bit sound card with MIDI
Optional: printer
review by Frank Sereno
If you are looking for a user-friendly reference program for your children,
Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia may be just what you are searching for.
It features more than 28,000 articles and it includes a dictionary,
thesaurus, atlas and two encyclopedias all on one CD-ROM.
The program is hosted by Zak. This friendly youngster will assist your
child if he needs help in using the program. Zak really has an easy job
because the program is very easy to use. Simply click on links to start a
voyage of learning and discovery. The "go back" button will retrace your
steps. It's really very much like a Web browser with spoken help. The
main interface is Zak's room. There are 17 categories covered by Ultimate
Children's Encyclopedia that are represented by objects in the room. By
passing the cursor over these objects, the program will display text
defining the categories. You can even link to America Online's Compton's
Living Encyclopedia for updated information.
You can enter a search for a specific subject, choose a subject from a list
or just browse the excellent reference material looking for items of
personal interest. Once you are reading an article, you can easily follow
links to related articles, study a timeline, learn word definitions, view
maps and more. The writing is specifically tailored to children so the
articles are clear and concise. Most articles include interesting pictures
and some include sounds.
I do think that the program is better suited for children ages 9 and up
because all the articles must be read. Despite the fact that the writing
is designed for young children, first and second graders will be
overwhelmed by the text. Perhaps if The Learning Company had given the
option for the articles to be read aloud to the user, it would be more
suitable and much more fun for younger users.
I found Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia to be a very interesting and
informative reference program. It packs an enormous amount of material
onto a single CD-ROM. It's affordably priced and backed by a 30-day
satisfaction guarantee. Bring this reference collection home and you'll be
able to "look it up with Zak" today!
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If there are any questions please use either E-Mail or call. On
another note. the ASCII version of STReport is fast approaching the "end of
the line" As the major Online Services move away from ASCII.. So shall
STReport. All in the name of progress and improved readability. The
amount of reader mail expressing a preference for our Adobe PDF enhanced
issue is running approximately 15 to 1 over the ASCII edition. Besides,
STReport will not be caught in the old, worn out "downward compatibility
dodge" we must move forward. However, if the ASCII readership remains as
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Many grateful thanks in advance for your enthusiastic co-operation and
input.
Ralph F. Mariano, Editor
rmariano@streport.com
STReport International Online Magazine
Classics & Gaming Section
Editor Dana P. Jacobson
dpj@streport.com
>From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Okay, so I've been having fun this past week - I'm entitled to a
little bit of fun every once in awhile, aren't I? What have I been doing,
you ask? Well, last weekend I decided to look around for a book - a guide
of sorts to learn a little more about HTML programming. Yes, I love the
HomePage Penguin program, but it is limited. I wanted to know if I was
capable of putting together a web page from scratch (I am NOT a
programmer). Looking at the source code for a number of various web pages
I've seen, including my own, I decided that HTML wasn't brain surgery.
With a guide book, I should be able to do this. So, I did find one fairly
good one. It wasn't the one that was recommended to me, but this one
appeared to be something that would teach me the basics. Note, I said the
basics.
So, after reading it through, I began to re-do some of the pages that
I had begun with HomePage Penguin. Hey, this stuff isn't so bad after all!
Put together some graphics and place them where I wanted them. Do some
wrap-around text where I wanted - not bad. Put some e-mail and web site
links in was a snap. This is fun as I can look at my progress as I go.
I'm writing the code while in Flash II's text editor and running CAB from
within Flash to see what the page looks like. Edit along the way to get it
just right. I still have a way to go to update my current pages and add
more to them, but this is fun. It's also more rewarding doing it "by hand"
rather than having some elaborate program do all of the work for you and
then the "programmer" taking the credit for a great page. I'm not knocking
the programs; I'd definitely use them too if they were available. But, it
does give one a sense of self-satisfaction to be able to say you did it
yourself.
I'm working on a few pages at the moment. As mentioned in past weeks,
I did put together a page for my user group as well as a page for my BBS.
Well, I'm gathering notes so I can add other user groups to my page,
including as much information about them as possible, including links to
their web pages (if they exist) and e-mail links. Same thing with the BBS
page. If I can break away from this stuff, I'll put together a form so I
can post it on the web as well as the Usenet to solicit groups and boards
to be included. I'll keep you all updated as I progress more. If you have
any ideas or suggestions, please drop me a line at: dpj@delphi.com or
dpj@streport.com.
This week's issue is jam-packed with all kinds of interesting items!
It's usually a "scrape together" an article or two and hope no one
complains about the sparseness of the contents. In the past, it's
typically feast or famine - this week, it's feast.
Oregon Research is coming out with TermiteTCP, a new Internet tool for
Atari users. Sounds interesting. The Safari '97 show in Houston is next
weekend. This show may be their last, so catch it if you can! The Phenix
is coming (why not the Phoenix?). Check out the news regarding this new
Atari computer "clone". The Unabashed Atariophile has come out of
hibernation and provided us with a terrific column this week. I think
Michael has outdone himself this week! LOTS of programs profiled in this
week's column. And we have even more news this week, so don't miss a
thing!
Until next time...
Safari ` STR ShowNews97
Safari '97 - Only a week away!!
The seventh annual Houston Atari Safari computer show will be held on
February 22nd, 1997 from 10 am to 5 pm. Safari '97 will be held at the
Four Points Hotel, 7611 Katy Freeway, Houston TX. Primarily a vendor
show, Safari '97 will include:
Computer Direct (Canada's largest Atari reseller)
ChroMagic Software Innovations (Developer of ST and Falcon software and
hardware
Crawly Crypt Corporation (Manufacturer of Atari specific CD's)
Emulator's Inc (Developer of ST emulators for Windows PC's)
It's All Relative (Developer of ST software and distributor of CD ROM's)
More Than Games (A liquidator of 8-bit and ST software)
Systems For Tomorrow (The midwest's largest Atari reseller)
Toad Computers (The east coast's largest Atari reseller)
Trace Technologies (Developer of ST software)
In addition a large number of user tables will be at the show. This is the
largest Atari show in Texas! ... for the year so far, it's the largest in
the US.
Contact HACE (Houston Atari Computer Enthusiasts), the sponsor of Safari
'97 for additional information:
HACE
PO BOX 820335
Houston TX, 77282-0335
or email: hace@delphi.com
or contact George Iken, (281) 493-0122
George Iken
Houston Atari Computer Enthusiasts
Here's a press pre-release of the Oregon Research internet software. It
seems they are _not_ releasing a browser but a PPP program with Telnet, FTP
and email. They are working with the CAB people for compatibility.
Anyway, here it is...
Greetings,
Re: TermiteTCP
Although we have not officially announced it (working on the press release
before I got sick) the port is already in progress. It is a 100% BSD
socket compliant implementation of TCP/IP with integrated PPP driver. It
fully supports all of the current Internet standards as specified in the
RFC's. Setting it up is brain dead as all you need to know is your ISP's
phone number and your user name and password and the ability to click on
the Connect button. Everything else is automatically negotiated with the
host. The base system will ship with FTP, Telnet, and e-mail clients as
well as a Software developers kit for third party clients. We are working
with the CAB people to have CAB support TTCP on release. It has been
commercially available on the Amiga for over a year and the core stack and
PPP drivers are rock solid. All of the critical routines are implemented
in hand optimized assembly making it the highest performance stack
available for micro computers. The target release is sometime before
April. Target price is not set yet but will probably be the same as the
Amiga version which is $69.95 retail ($49.95 street) and will include a
150+ page printed manual including "Reggies Guide to the Internet" a
comprehensive tutorial on the Internet and Internet resources.
Feel free to pass this information on to whomever you wish.
Best regards,
Bob Luneski
Oregon Research Orders/Info: (503) 620-4919
16200 SW Pacific Hwy. Ste 162 Tech Support:(503) 968-9250
Tigard, OR 97224 FAX: (503) 624-2940
Here's the most recent news about the Phenix (sic) Falcon clone by Centek
in France. This is to the Falcon what the Medusa/Hades systems are for the
Falcon. CPU options are040 and 060 and 080 (when available). The 080 =
100x the 040!
The result of our enquiry
Centek thanks every person who answered our questions. It's the first time
that a constructor consults the users to define the future capabilities of
a machine.
700 envelopes sent, 397 answers returned, 23%.
The 397 answers are:
58 programmers
15 hardware conceptors
55 musicians
21 using PAO (Calamus or else)
55 simple users
42 graphists (POV, WEB pages, etc...)
165 Falcon owners
78 STF/E TT owners
32 own an Atari plus another machine
25 computer students
9 don't own their Atari anymore
Some people can appear in two or more categories.
PHENIX: the hardware:
It will be based on a 68040 with an upgrade to 68060. In the future, the
hardware will be optimized for 68060. If enough machines are sold, a
portable PHOENIX can be possible.
For the future, Motorola is preparing the 68080 that is 10 times faster
than the 68060 with the same frequency. Some people would like a Power PC
instead of a 680x0. But those chips are very expensive and won't satisfy
the Atari public. Most of all, the PHENIX team has not the knowledge to use
such a chip (this would have been possible with a greater team, with more
money, more hardware: as we haven't them...).
The PHENIX is the synthesis of several existing machines: Falcon, Amiga,
Macintosh, PC, Unix stations. - CPU Motorola MC 68040/66Mhz (easy upgrade
to 68060: 1600 francs with the exchange of your old 040, not expensive to
run 10 times faster!!!).
- BUS 32 bits (data and addresses), 33MHz - RAM 64bits SIMM interlaced
(40% faster than 32bits) up to 128Mb (4 slots).
- No DIMM?? No, because DIMM 2Kb is cheap but not so fast, and the DIMM
4kb is very fast but very expensive!!!
- Flash EPROM 64Kb containing the boot of the DOLMEN system allowing
immediate upgrades by soft transfers.
- Compatibility with the AES (rewritten version of the current TOS).
Only GEM-programs will be accepted under DOLMEN.
- DSP 56302 (compatible with 56001), 66Hz (1 MIPS per MHz) with 6 DMA
channels 32 bits.
- A slot for a second DSP 56302 chained with the first. - connector DSP
26 pins for Audio-digital interface (compatible with Falcon 030).
- IOP (Internal Operating Processor) 683xx managing 4 serial ports, one
parallel port and 2 independant DMA channels 32 bits. They will transfer up
to 44 Mb/s in theory (better than the current Power MAC 10Mb/s), waiting
for the tests.
- Fast SCSI 2 WIDE 16 bits with DMA 32 bits (15 periph chained). Maxi:
20Mb/s in theory.
- ZILOG 16 bits with 4 DMA channels. Printing, receiving files, sending
files at the same time!!!
- Voice synthesizer processor (High quality) - 3 PCI slots for graphic
cards, Ethernet, etc... The choice of 3 slots is wanted: one for the
graphic card, one for Ethernet, and one for what you want. No ISA, nor VME
buses.
- Graphic card: Matrox, 2Mb (up to 8Mb) with two versions: Mystic (for
everyone) and Millennium (Pro). Matrox is a good choice, because they are
preparing a daughter board for real time video!
- 2 slots for Audio/Midi (2 versions: 16 bits (for everyone, 100 francs)
and 24 bits (pro)). The basic config will contain the 16 bits card, if you
ask, you can have no audio card.
- 2 slots direct to CPU for various extensions (emulation, diagnosis,
ram, graphic card,...)
- standard keyboard PC 105 keys (the TT one was too expensive, sorry!)
- mouse 3 buttons
- floppy 1.44
- CD rom x4 SCSI 2 (faster and more up to date than IDE). A faster CD is
not justified as the SCSI 2 gives it enough speed for the multimedia
applications.
- RAM 8Mb.(As prices decrease, it may be 32Mb) - Black Tower or Rack 19
(you can choose). - you can get the mother board for personal config for
4000 francs (more or less).
- Price: under 10 000 francs.
- special prices for sellers and developers.
Speed comparison with a Falcon (Theory... :)
- BUS x 2
- graphic card that frees CPU time: x 2
- 68040 66MHz : x 12 (or 68060 120 MHz: x 62!!!)
Summary: PHENIX 040: 48 x Falcon
PHENIX 060: 270 x Falcon
(for the 68060, depending on the code, you can get up to x540 as several
instructions can be executed in parallel). If you want to get crazy: the
68080 is ten times faster than a 68060!!!
The price is calculate to the lowest possible, considering its power and
the cheap extensions, its price is very attractive compared to other
platforms (PC or MACS: you must upgrade regularly those machines to get an
acceptable power to run the latest softs, I said 'acceptable', not
'correct'!)
DOLMEN: the soft
It is not another step with TOS/GEM but a total rewriting of some TOS parts
(AES, VDI, Speedo) with a look like 'X Windows' and all its options. The
DOLMEN operating system is the synthesis of Atari-GEM, Amiga-Workbench,
Apple-finder, PC-Windows, UNIX-X-Windows.
It is extensible, the DOLMEN.SYS folder contains various other folders: -
PRG (system programs such as Word processors, HTML, workgroups... with an
easy upgrade)
- FONTS (SPEEDO, TRUE TYPE, POSTSCRIPT and (?)CALAMUS). - MODULES
(sound, images, txt, animations, 3D,...) - DRIVERS (CD ROM, video, DSP,
printers,...) - ICONS (old ones and new ones)
- HELP (texts and sounds)
- KEYBOARD (according to your country)
- LANGUAGE (resources according to your country)
The modules will be a part of the system. I mean that if you have the
correct module for one format, every application will be able to save/load
with this format. The icons can be treated in two ways: as a separated
file, or included into the header of the application. This way, when you
copy a file, you get its icon by the way.
According to the extensions of the files, you can specify that they will be
treated by the system (with a module) or by a specific program (for
example you can tell DOLMEN that GIF, IMG, PAC, TIFF are treated by the
system viewer and that the other formats will be treated by Image Copy 5.)
The system will be divided in sub-programs: viewers, icon editor,
res-change, file selector, background copies and printing, etc...
The resolution change won't reboot the desktop, as this will be handled by
the graphic card itself.
A TCP/IP, SLIP/PPP will be integrated with the Internet connection on
either a serial port or on the Ethernet card (1,25Mb/s, option).
The system is,of course, multitasking with windowing of every application,
and so, multi windowed. You can personalize your desktop (sounds, images).
The system will handle the *.BAK files (saving or deleting). Protection
(with a password) of physical units, folders or files.
- Auto save of the settings of each application.
- Load/save music/video in DTD.
- Every current option of the TOS/GEM.
- Enhanced MAC FAT.
- Resume function to wake up your computer.
An overlay of programming for PC compatibility (with the emulation card) to
simplify to translation of PC games on the PHENIX.
Ready for developers on March 1997.
Ready for the public on June/July 1997.
A hard&soft documentation will be available with the developers kit from
CENTEK, you'll get one too into your system as HTML pages. Besides, you'll
be able to rent a Phenix to finalize your softs on this machine.
Why PHENIX?
Because of the idea of this bird that is reborn from its ashes into the
mythology. The spelling is English for a better general understanding
across the world.
The distribution will start from CENTEK, and then in centers agreed by
CENTEK. Yes, you'll have to demonstrate your capabilities! An European
distribution will come later.
This machine won't be a French-only computer. We plan to sell it in the UK,
USA, and most of all Germany where people, developers and the magazines are
waiting for it.
The PHENIX is not a concurrent of the HADES and Medusa, those machines are
'pro', we want to touch the personal user.
Our Enquiry:
Looking at the results, a large part of you are pessimistic according the
future of the machine. You can stop wondering: a lot of contacts are made
all around the world coming from enthusiastic people. Some people think
that a simple conversion from PC/MAC of the sifts would be sufficient to
make the PHENIX live. Here is our opinion:
Softs created on PC/MAC are commonly written in C with non-optimized code.
That's why they need so much MIPS/RAM/MHz to make them run correctly. The
CPUs are becoming unaccessible to the common programmer, the HARD isnot
understood anymore as it changes every six months. Too short to learn how
to optimize anything!
That's why we prefer from the start a developers kit in assembler with
optimized biblio for this system and then (later, let us take enough time
to make it good) a C developer's kit with optimized libraries.
Your remarks concerning the PHENIX
Many of you seem very enthusiastic about this project, reading your letters
we have found some 'genius' that we'll contact to make them a part of the
PHOENIX project. Even some PC owners found it good (bored by M&I). Good
new: one girl replied!!! She uses the Atari as a secretary. Some other
persons were very negative. The danger is that their names are known from
you, they write articles into magazines, they even write programs for
Atari, but always saying the Atari is dead, but they still go on working
with it! Are they jealous? Are they stupid? Their influence on the Atari
world is great and they should close their mouth sometimes...
CENTEK would like to thank the PFM team and everyone who replied and helped
us in this project.
Heissler Olivier.
Roni Music Home Page offers free down load of the Sweet Sixteen MIDI
Sequencer for Windows and Atari computers. Sweet Sixteen is a
comprehensive and powerful MIDI sequencer for PC/Windows and Atari ST/STE
range of computers.
Sweet Sixteen offers Piano Roll, List and Transform edit pages as well as a
dedicated Mixer page you can use for your favourite synthesizer.
Two versions are available:
1. A demo version which is a complete version of Sweet Sixteen with all
file saving disabled.
2. A "lite" version which lets the user save files but certain other
functions are disabled.
Check it out at: http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11396
Rolf Nilsson / Roni Music <roni@mbox317.swipnet.se>
Nybogatan 21, S-212 32 Malmoe, Sweden
Phone: +46-40+494411
URL http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11396
STR Feature
The Unabashed Atariophile
by Michael R. Burkley
February 14, 1997
I'm sorry to say that it's been awhile since my last "Unabashed
Atariophile" article, but you already know that. The reason for my delay
has been the continuing saga of the failure of my PC to boot. It's been
over a month now that I've had this piece of sorry equipment sitting on my
desktop not doing much of anything at all. It's sitting there because my
local dealer doesn't have any idea why it's not working either. That's
rather frustrating because it worked just fine before he upgraded it! Oh
well, someday...
Until then I'm carting my TT with Cattamaran back and forth between the
church building and my home. All of my work is being done with it, and
actually, I'm very glad about that! I said above that my PC was "sitting on
my desktop not doing much of anything...." The something that it is doing
is providing power to the hard drive it contains. I'm using HD Driver and
BIGDOS08 to access that PC formatted drive with my TT. Doing that I can get
all the information and archives off of it, and use it to write
descriptions for you!
If you are a programmer I have a request for you. Please don't put any "-"
or "'" or any other special characters in your program or file names. I'm
working on another CD of Public Domain/Shareware/Demo software, and when
those characters are included in the filename the filename cannot be
properly written to the standard CD format. Other standard characters are
automatically substituted for the offending character by the CD-making
software. That means your program often won't run, which isn't good for you
or me! There are a number of very useful programs which fall into this
category (ST-GUIDE.ACC by Holger Weets is one that comes to mind).
My listing of files today is a mixture of the old and new (to be honest, I
guess mostly old). I'm finally beginning to catch up on my descriptions.
Now I'm just working my way through my hard drives describing as I go. Some
of the belo files are from Delphi, my favorite online place, while others
are from the Internet. Some of the Internet sites you will probably
recognize, others you won't. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how to find
them other than doing a search for "Atari" or "Hensa" or "UNIKL" with an
Internet search engine such as Yahoo. I've just stored them away in their
respective site folders and not recorded the "URL" addresses. I'm sure if
you find something interesting you'll be able to search it out. If not,
give me a shout, and I'll see what I can do.
On to the descriptions...
I found the following on the AURA Homepage:
AURA_LIB is the PMOD-library used by the AURA crew for many of their demos.
The PMOD format is a PC-relative format including some project
informations in the assembled modules and header files for easy use. That
means you can include pre-assembled files in your source (faster assembling
times and shorter source codes), by accessing the different module-routines
with normal labels (with the headerfiles). A tool to manage the complete
lib is included. The PMOD-Lib is about 500 KBytes, including modules and
sources for routines like polygon-drawing, gouraud-routines,
DSP-transformations, 030-transformations, relocating programms, mouse,
colour-handling (including the complete POV-table of colours defined with
names), DSP and 030 macros and so on...
C3D2_POV is the Cyberscuplt to POV converter v.1.41 coded by BDCannibal of
AURA. This program converts 3D2 objects to POV, and, if desired, it
generates "smooth_triangles" for (pseudo) round edges. The archive includes
the (highly portable) C source which can be compiled using Pure-C or GCC.
The TOS Exec is in the archive.
FALC_DOC is a comprehensive documentation of the video system (and more) of
the Atari Falcon by Chris of AURA (dated 1993). Unfortunately (for me),
it's all in German (Tat / Digital Chaos has written an English translation,
but I don't know how to ask him for it, as the file ID tells me to do so!).
Chris considers this his "masterpiece". Ther is a lot of English
documentation though. There is information on the Falcon Audio system, its
Multi-Function Peripheral (68901), the DSP, and lots of other stuff
(meaning: I don't know what it is!) for the ST/STE/TT and Falcon. Chris
was one of the authors of the Screenblaster 3.0 video upgrade for the
Falcon, so he knows his stuff.
FEV_WEEK by AURA is a conversion of the TCB 24 hours screen (the "Syntax
Terror") to the Falcon. BDCannibal wrote this in two weeks while he was ill
(hence the title, Fever Week). The demo is only runs on a TV or Atari color
monitor (RGB) as the author didn't have a VGA monitor at the time of
writing.
GULLE_AM is a Falcon only "Gulle am Bach" demo by AURA that won first prize
at the Fried Bits 2 (1994) shorttro-competition. It features colorful 3D
dots and morphing wireframe objects (everything calculated on the DSP). The
first "dot" screen feature more than 1400 pixels, which are transformed,
moved, projected and shaded in realtime. The second screen features 400
points connected with 200 lines. The demo uses the normal STE-trackreplay
(by Innovator) for its sound as the two animated screens use 100% of the
DSP all by themselves. According to the internal docs this demo works on
RGB/TV or a VGA type of monitor with at least 2 MBytes of free RAM. The
file description which I read before I downloaded it said it only works
with an RGB monitor. The truth? You'll need to find out on your own!
HIFIDREA is "High Fidelity Dreams," a sounddisk containing the best modules
by Tip and Mantronix of AURA. It features a fast ST and STE tracker replay
and fancy volumemeters (also running on ST). The code and design and
graphics of this demo are by Aeon and the music is by several people. This
is an .MSA file and requires a program such as MSA_2_32 to make into a
runnable form.
ILLUSION is a Falcon only demo EX-Illusion by AURA. It's a demo with a
different and attractive style. It was made as a contrast to all the
flashing techno-demos that you can find everywhere. Slow pictures, slow
music, different 3D animations (all 3D calcs uses the DSP), all make for a
8.5 minute show which will help you to relax a bit. Coded and designed by
BDCannibal; poems by Heinrich Heine; pictures by Herm and JMS and music by
Domm. See ILLU_SRC for the source code of this demo.
ILLU_SRC is the (nearly) complete sourcecode for the Falcon "EX-Illusion"
Demo (dated June, 1995). See ILLUSION above for the complete package. By
AURA.
INDYINT2 is the Indymagintro X from AURA, a small intro for the Indymag.
Some Blitter-filled-EOR-fields. Looks nice, sound by C. Huelsbeck (from
Turrican). According to the author the text is the truth and nothing but
the truth!
KRANK is "the worst module ever!" by BDCannibal of AURA. I haven't listened
to it yet, but I think it might have something to do with a sneeze, as
"Gesundheit" is in the description twice! Anyone know how to play a MOD
file while running GEMulator?
LAMEMINE is Lamemine, a minesweeper clone running on your Falcon in Hires
(640*480), coded by BDCannible of AURA (dated 1993). It is fast, lame
(according to the author!, but since it has lots of levels and options, why
is it lame?) and has NO hiscore list. On RGB you get it interlaced. Docs
included.
MATHEMAT is "Mathematica", a dentro from AURA showing mathematical effects,
like Keftales, SPlines, IFS-Fractals (including a small editor for your
pleasure) and a solid 3D-graphics screen. Several people took part in this
project: The coding and design was by Christ, the 3D Screen by BDCannibal,
graphics by Dan (one font by Carnera), and the chiptunes by Dark Angel.
Dated 1992 and runs on a color STE (at least), but doesn't run on my TT.
MONEYROU is "Money Makes the World Go Round," a little comic (2 screens i
low res Degas format) by JMS and BDCannibal of AURA. According to the
author "it should be funny, but of course, nobody understands it (BBCs
plots are allways played in high-logic...)." Actually, I thought it was
rather amusing, involving a wishing well, an optimistic coin tosser, and an
opportunistic well-dwelling dragon.
OYSTERS is The World is my Oyster," a funny little party demo coded by
Chris, BDCannibal and Cody of AURA and released on a Friday the 13th in
1992 (I can't remember what month though). According to the authors is
includes unspectacular graphics and music with some laugh-making
scrolltexts. I think they are being a bit self-deprecating here! I
especially liked the little frog that jumped across the intro screen as
each portion of the demo uncompresses in memory. Overall I thought it was
pretty good. It runs on a color STE (it doesn't work on my TT, I don't know
about anything else). This comes as an MSA file and requires a program such
as MSA_2_32 to make into a runable form.
STSOUND is the Yamaha YM2149 Chip Emulator v3.10 (dated Nov. 1996) for MS
DOS and Windows based machines by Arnaud Carre (Leonard/ OXYGENE). YM is a
software YM2149 chip emulator. This chip is a FM synthethic sound
processor. It is inclued in the AMSTRAD CPC and in the ATARI-ST. So you can
play music from these both machine with YM !! For emulation, you need a
SoundBlaster(TM) card for the DOS version, or any card for the WINDOWS
version. Detailed English docs and numerous tunes to play (by Jochen
Hippel) included. Cardware (send the author a nice illustrated postcard).
Found on the AURA homepage.
The next set of two files were found on an Internet site in Berlin,
Germany:
KAYFOUR is KayFour v.2.9 by Ralf Gesellensetter (dated Feb. 8, 1996). This
program is a multifunctional bankloader for the Kawai K4 synthesizer and
the Atari ST. With this program and your Kawai K4 you can automatically
recognize and load the following bank data types: .K4, .BNK, .SND Complet
Dump, and .HEX. You may also print out all the ound names on your Epson
printer, save a table of your Bank's contents as a 32k doodle format
picture, print-out a list of effects, crossreference, unused effect
patches, export the sound's names and check sums in order to use them in a
data base, send single sounds to any memory cell, and save comments on your
bank data. The program comes with both English and German resource files,
and while all the dialogs are in German (even in the English version), the
English docs include a dictionary of German/English words that will make
this easy to use. The author is always willing for you to send some cash
his way!
SOX6PL9 is the SOund eXchange program, SOX-6 Patchlevel 9 compiled for the
ST-TT (perhaps Falcon?) by Uwe and orginally written by Lance Norskog, et.
al. This .TTP (i.e.: command line operated) "Universal" Sound Sample
Translator translates sound samples between different file formats, and
performs various sound effects. SOX is intended as the Swiss Army knife of
sound processing tools. It doesn't do anything very well, but sooner or
later it comes in very handy. This release understands "raw" files in
various binary formats, Sound Blaster .VOC files, IRCAM SoundFile files,
SUN Sparcstation .au files, mutant DEC .au files, Amiga/SGI AIFF files,
Macintosh HCOM files, Sounder files, RIFF/.WAV, Turtle Beach .SMP files,
Apple/SGI AIFF and 8SVX, Atari .SND files and Soundtool (DOS) files. The
sound effects include changing the sample rate, adding echo delay lines,
applying low- and band-pass filtering, and the infamous Fender Vibro
effect. I don't know when this was compiled, but the file dates are all
Nov. 13, 1996.
I found the next file on the CyberStrider site:
IPRN201D is iPRN II v. 2.01 demo by Petee Missel (dated May 1996). This
shareware program is a printout accelerator that can yield almost 40 times
the printing speed TOS can bring you. It will speed anything going out the
printer port. More than that, it fixes that annoying 40 sec. delay when
you've forgotten to turn your printer on but your computer hasn't figured
that out. Now with IPRN you get the error message immediately. This demo
only fully accelerates the first printout, doesn't support the registered
control panel CPX that allows you to configure it, and one or two other
minor limitations. The faster your computer is the faster your printouts
will be. Unfortunately for me this doesn't accelerate Calamus output (but
with my Cattamaran TT and SLM605 I guess I really don't need any
acceleration!). This won't work with Atari emulators like GEMulator or the
Janus board, but everything else is fine. Detailed docs.
Now for a LONG list of files from Delphi:
BIGLIFE is BigLife v.3.00 by Owen Rees (dated Dec. 1993). This GEM based
program is the most interesting and full-featured adaptation of "Life" that
I have seen (just get it and I think you will agree with me!). It's not the
Milton Bradley game of LIFE which I'm writing about here, but the computer
program which tracks "generations" of "cells" as they live and die on your
computer screen as based on a simple set of rules. This version allows you
to set the size and rules of your "universe,"create, save, and load your
own patterns, load patterns from a sampling included with the program, and
even load XLife format files from X-Windows. The patterns included with
this are beautiful and fantastic! Rocketships, shooting guns, gliders, and
more are all included! The patterns are so much more complicated and
beautiful than I thought possible. The docs make for fascinating reading,
too. I recommend this program to you! ST-Falcon compatible in ST
resolutions (you can even make the cells display in any two colors). As an
aside, David Brin's book, "Glory Season" has an interesting sub-theme of
how this type of game can spread and influence a society. "Glory Season"
was a very interesting book. I didn't like it much as I started it, but as
I read further and further into it I liked it more and more. I recommend
that to you as well!
GEO_PI is Gio_Pi,two excellent programs by Gio Ciamp designed for
calculating the number "Pi" (you know, 3.1415926...). Output goes
simultaneously to screen and file. Stuart Lyster of Canada and Gio have
been in a partnership over the years in writing "Pi" calculating programs.
This one (dated Jan., 1996), for all ST/TT/Falcon computers, is one of the
best. Stuart wrote the documentation. His Web site address is included so
you may contact him for more information about calculating "Pi".
HUECKEL a program by Uwe Schneider (dated July 1992) which will allow all
of you physical chemists out there to calculate the MO vectors and eigen
values (MO levels) of organic Pi-systems according to the Hueckel
approximation. The heart if this program is a diagonalization of the
Hueckel matrix as proposed by Givens and Householder. Completely keyboard
based, this program is easy to run and should work on any ST-Falcon in any
res. (best in mono). It is compatible with Geneva as well. The program is
in English and has both English and German online helps. More detailed docs
are in German. You really need to be a chemist to make sense of this
program (maybe a working chemist would be a better qualification, since I'm
still a chemist!).
LP104USA is Laborant Professional v.1.04 (the English Version) by Jens
Schulz (dated June 18th, 1995). Laborant Professional is an astounding
GEM-based chemistry program for the "curious chemistry user." This program
does _everything_ a chemistry student or professional might want.
Obviously, such a statement is a bit exagerated, but consider: the Table
of Contents listing the functions available in LP is 270 lines long! Just
as another example he has included a very capable Units conversion option
right in the program. Not only is LP useful in Chemistry, it finds
application in biology, physics, pharmaceutical sciences and mechanical
engineering (thermodynamics)! Nevertheless, its main application is as a
universal chemistry program for the daily work in laboratories and in the
teaching of chemistry. Compatible with any ST(TOS 1.2 or higher)-Falcon
computer, color or mono, in ST med. or higher with 1 meg or more of RAM.
Geneva, MultiTOS, MultiGEM, and MagiC all work just fine. If you are
working as a chemist, or studying to do so (or did do that but now are
working at another job...say as a pastor!) then Laborant Professional is
for you!
Laborant Professional is divided in several scientific divisions :
- Stoechiometry with powerful formula-/equation analysis
- Data processing (Error determination, interpolation, approximation)
- Statistical tests
- Linear equation systems and matrix operations
- Thermochemistry (incl. databases)
- Reaction kinetics
- Chemical solutions and conversions
- Chemical calculation methods of a wide variety
- Tables and exercising programs
- Import/export of experimental data (to a WIDE variety of platforms and
program types)
- Integration of external programs
- TeX support
The program is now fully translated into English in both ASCII and TeX
documents.
Here are two other of my favorite programs of Jen's. He is one creative
guy!
PMJ_ENG2 is Premium Mah Jongg II (the English version) by Jens Schulz &
Thomas Grube (dated Oct. 10, 1993). Mah Jongg is an old chinese board game
in which you seek to remove pairs of tiles from a set of 144 tiles stacked
in a five level pyramid. The game itself might be old, but Premium Mah
Jongg II is anything but old. It is full of features, has excellent game
play and graphics, and is unfortunately quite addictive! It will run in all
ST and TT res, and up to 256 colors on Falcons and graphic cards. I can't
begin to list all the features (but I'll try anyway): First of all, there
are excellent English Docs which explain all the rules of Mah Jongg II and
all the features of the game. Next, the program will tell you all the free
tiles available if you wish (only in the solitaire, non-tournament mode).
It will even check, in real-time if you have reached a dead end in your
play (if it doesn't tell you you're finihed then there is a matching tile
SOMEWHERE!). It will repeat your game for you and allow you to replay your
game from any point. If you don't like the color of the tiles or background
you can change them! This game has a solitaire practice mode, a tournament
mode, and a "happening" mode. The happening mode is where the game produces
multiple copies of the exact same set of games for as many players as
desired. These players then each play the games and the times are compared.
The fastest player wins (and as a prize gets taken out to dinner by the
other players!). This game is shareware, but you only need to pay if you
get so good that you can beat the highest tourney level (or participate in
a "happening"). Recommended. Floppy or hard drive installable. On a
personal note I was surprised to see my name listed in the docs! Joseph M.
Turner (ATARIPOWER7 on Delphi) and I were
thanked for the help we've give Jens (Joseph has done much more than me!).
Also mentioned was the fact that Mah Jongg II cannot be distributed by any
Commercial PD company except Suzy B's Software (hmmm...I've heard that name
from somewhere before <g>)
VALENCY is Only! Valency by Jens Schulz (dated Dec. 24, 1994). I especially
like Only! Valency (O!V) because it reminds me of my chemistry background.
But as the opening screen of this game says, "You will love and curse this
game at the same time." It sure is a challenge! You don't have to be a
chemist to play O!V, all you need is quick reflexes, both mental and
physical. O!V is a boardgame which presents you with 300 levels of
molecules which you need to build using the atoms at hand. Unfortunately,
molecules aren't nice 2 dimensional beings. They are 3D and so are the O!V
molecules. As you build your molecules to match the pattern goal you need
to rotate your molecule to bring the next link into view. This gets
complicated...and fun! Of course, the above would just be too easy, so Jens
has added all sorts of traps and dropouts to slow you down. There are
solitaire (without time limits) and several Tournament modes (with
decreasing time limits) options. This excellent game will play on any
ST-Falcon from ST Low res through VGA 640*480 16/256 colors (including
CrazyDots and Matrix graphic cards). Keyboard or mouse controlled.
Shareware. English and German versions included (and their respective
docs). As with anything by Jens I recommend this.
PHUNIT is the Probe House Unit Converter v.1.0 prg/acc by William Wong (a
good teacher,and you can tell!). For the ST-Falcon and Geneva compatible,
this GEM based program will allow you to convert practically any unit into
another. It's amazing all of the features it has! Here is a list of <some
of> the units it can handle:
Length : feet, inches, yards, centimeters, meters, kilometers,
statute miles, nautical miles, par-secs, light-years,
mils, microns, millimicrons, angstroms, x-units, rods,
fathoms, furlongs.
Mass : pounds, grams, kilograms, tons, amus, ounces, stones.
Speed : m/sec, ft/sec, km/hr, cm/sec, knots, miles/hr.
Volume : cubic meters, cubic cms, liters, gallons, cubic feet,
cubic inches, barrels, hogsheads, boardfeet, cords.
Area : square meters, square cms, square feet, square inches,
circular mills, acres.
Density : kg/m3, slug/ft3, gm/cm3, lb/ft3, lb/in3.
Time : days, years, hours, minutes, seconds, decades, score,
centuries, millenia, fortnights.
Force : newtons, dynes, pounds, gram-force, kilogram-force.
Energy : btus, ergs, ft-lbs, hp-hr, joules, calories, kilowatt-hours,
electron volts, MeV.
Pressure: atmospheres, dynes/cm2, inches of water, cms Hg, torr,
mms Hg, inches Hg, lbs/in2, lbs/ft2, newtons/m2, bars,
pascals.
Plane Angle : degrees, minutes, seconds, radians, revolutions.
Power : btus/hour, ft-lbs/min, ft-lbs/sec, horsepower, kilowatts,
watts, calories/sec.
Area : square meters, square cms, square feet, square inches,
circular mills, acres.
Density : kg/m3, slug/ft3, gm/cm3, lb/ft3, lb/in3.
Time : days, years, hours, minutes, seconds, decades, score,
centuries, millenia, fortnights.
Force : newtons, dynes, pounds, gram-force, kilogram-force.
Energy : btus, ergs, ft-lbs, hp-hr, joules, calories, kilowatt-hours,
electron volts, MeV.
Pressure: atmospheres, dynes/cm2, inches of water, cms Hg, torr,
mms Hg, inches Hg, lbs/in2, lbs/ft2, newtons/m2, bars,
pascals.
Electric Charge :
coulombs, bcoulombs, amp-hrs, faradays, statcoulombs,
electron charges.
Magnetic Induction:
gauss, kilolines/in2, webers/m2, tesla, gamma.
Light : Footlamberts, Nit, Millilamberts, Candelas/in2,
Candelas/ft2, Candelas/m2, Stilb.
Temperature :
Fahrenheit, Celsius, Rankine, Kelvin.
There are others too! Wow! Color or mono. Docs included.
AMYJOGS is an FLC animation for the Falcon. It has been converted from an
ERic Schwartz AMIGA animation by Barry Summer, the animation expert on
Delphi. Watch Amy the squirrel jogging along. This was converted with Apex
on the Falcon and the Apex FLC falcon player program is included This FLC
can be viewed on a "PC" as well.
DUEL is the Duel .FLM animation by, I think, Barry Summer using both new
and old materials. It is a true color FLH animation, put together with Apex
media. It shows a view of a robot warrior turning and firing (this was
taken from a Cyber .SEQ animation thought to have been done by Timothy
Wilson) with a true color space background, which shows the galactic beings
which are being fired upon. Use the Apex .FLH viewer to view. I guess that
means you need a Falcon (or a graphics card?) to view this animation.
INSHAPE is the InShape 3D Modeler & Shader Demo v.1.02. InShape is for all
TT's and Falcon's (with an FPU Chip) and 16 or 256 color display. I've used
this demo on my TT and found it to be fast in display and in the animation
of the provided samples. It seems relatively simple to use, and with the
detailed docs and tutorials included in the demo, you will certainly be
able to learn how to use this capable program. There are some limitations
in the size of your renderings/raytracings, but that's it!. You can even
save your creations! The docs mention an InShape Intro program, but that is
not included in this archive. InShape is distributed by Cybercube.
LIGHTING by Robert W. Stiles (dated 1994) is a very nice screensaving
program which you must run rather than have automatically appear after a
set time. Actually, Lighting is not so much a screensaver as an animation
of a lightning storm. Just run it and sit back and watch! It's pretty neat
to see the flashes of lightning on your screen and not have to worry about
it zapping your system! About the only thing that's missing is the "Boom"
and "Crash!" and the patter of fat rain drops on the window. Robert
developed this storm on a palette-based color display system. It was
developed on a Falcon and VGA color monitor, but it works on my TT and STE,
and should work on any ST. Docs and Pure "C" source code included.
AIRBAG is Airbag v.1.1 by Apache of tnb. This will work with any ST-Falcon
computer. Airbag is a small boot manager expecially useful for games, as it
works in 40 character mode. It doesn't use the mouse, but rather the
keyboard and has built-in help. It allows 10 Preset bootups, each with up
to 28 AUTO programs and 28 .ACCs. The program and docs are in German, but
it's very easy to use anyway (of course, it's even easier to use if you
read German!).
LAUNCHER is Launcher v.2. by Frank Vuotto of F10 Software (dated 1994).
This is an excellent and well-thought out utility. I've installed it on my
NeoDesk Desktop and in Geneva and that's where it's going to stay! Launcher
allows you to install a list of programs into it and then easily run them
with just some mouse clicks. This works very well from the standard desktop
(you can run your programs without searching through mounds of folders),
but it is also very valuable for NeoDesk and other Desktop replacement
users. Most desktop replacements only allow a certain number of programs to
be placed on the desktop. You can use Launcher to increase that number
tremendously and free up a lot of space on your desktop at the same time!.
Place Launcher once on the desktop and you get another 32 programs just two
clicks away. Rename it to indicate what type programs are listed in it and
install it multiple times on the desktop (a Utility Launcher, a Sound
Launcher, a Games Launcher...)! You can also pass documents to a parent
program and sometimes launch accessories (tose that also run as programs).
This version now allows you to automatically return to Launcher when you
exit a program so you can launch another. Launcher only uses 42K of system
memory! Color or mono. ST-Falcon and Geneva compatible. SHAREWARE (I've
registered). Hensa.
NBCBS is NBCBSnnn, v.1.0 by Oliver Scheel (dated June, 1991). This is a
disk cache program based on the original CACHEnnn program by Atari. This
one however, gets rid of some buglets. This will help speed up your hard
drive accesses. Of course, if you use ICD's boot up software you don't need
to use this at all. They have an excellent cache already onboard.
OHNO is the "Oh No!" sound sample v.1.1 by David Oakley (dated 1992). Place
this in your AUTO folder and you will hear a really cute "Oh No!" when you
press the reset button on your computer (requires the DMA sound of the
STE-Falcon computer).
SCHONER2 is the Schoner Screensaver v.0.9 by Stefan Becker (dated Jan. 24,
1993). This is an excellent .ACC screensaver that allows you to choose
between a sliding puzzle, a StarTrek "Warp" effect, and a third-party saver
(see below). You can configure how long it takes to start, and which saver
will automatically be active. It also has "corners" which allow you to
prevent it from activating or cause it to activate immediately. Thorsten
Pohlmann wrote an additional module for Schoner which causes the screen to
drip down in globs (this one doesn't work on my TT with the high res.
monitor installed - the author says that it is especially good in color,
though). Works with TOS, MultiTOS, Geneva, and Magic operating systems.
German and a RufTrade English translation included. Works with Graphic
cards, too. Source code (C) is included, and the author invites you to
write more modules for Schoner!
SPEEDI2 is Speedi v.2.0a for the Mega STE by Philip Hough (of VR CREW).
This program will allow you to configure the speed and cache status of your
Mega STE either at bootup or from the desktop. It's simple to use seems
very nice (as recognized from the well-writen docs since I don't have a
Mega STE to try it on). The author asks you to register (either snailmail
or Internet), but no money need be involved.
S_ART_10 is Screen Artist v.1.0 by Massimo Farina (dated January, 1997).
Screen Artist is a GEM-based Color Screen Saver .ACC for all
TT/Falcon/68030 board upgrades with the FPU chip. This is a newer version
of the author's shareware TT ARTIST program. This file is an awesome PD
screen saver (I've heard that it beats out any Mac, PC, or Unix screensaver
around, and I as far as I've seen it's true). It comes with over 45
animated modules which can either be chosen directly or set randomly each
time it starts. It takes advantage of all available colors (color and
greater than 640x400 res. required). It's hard to tell you which is my
favorite module. There is an awesome line drawing animation, a great clock
display (actually a bo