ST Report: 4-Aug-95 #1131
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 08/13/95-06:36:02 PM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 4-Aug-95 #1131
Date: Sun Aug 13 18:36:02 1995
SILICON TIMES REPORT
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From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Well its finally happening, STReport is going to yield to the flow of
the times. This issue is the first of the NEW look. Wait a minute, its
time enough. This type of format will work equally as well on the Web and
just about everywhere else. All one needs is the FREE Word Viewer from
Microsoft. It read all types of Word Document files. The release of
Microsoft Word Viewer, a small program that allows users who do not own
Microsoft Word for Windows to view and print Word documents exactly as they
appear in Word. Word Viewer allows users to view page layout, zoom,
outline, headers/footers, footnotes, and annotations. With Word Viewer,
people who own any version of Microsoft Word for Windows, or Word for the
Macintosh; versions 4.0 and later, can share their documents with users who
do not own Microsoft Word. Best part is, its FREEWARE!
The news of things to come is very exciting these days. The OnLine
service scene is bustling with all kinds of activity. Watch for all the
services to soon have their own Proprietary Software. By that I mean, you
must use their software to use the service. Delphi is going completely
Graphical very shortly ..as is CompuServe. It stands to reason, that after
the pasting AOL handed all the other services as every one of the Whigs sat
still, sleeping in their overstuffed chairs behind their oversized desks.
Well, it appears they finally heard the alarms going off all 'round them.
When inquiries were made as to why all the ruckus... suddenly, the younger
executives in the services' lower ranks were given a real mission to
complete. They re doing it in record time. The shakeout has already
begun. We can expect to see an acceleration of such along with mergers,
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buyouts and other crafty and amazing deals within the next two to three
years.
STReport is using Word for Windows 95 Version 7.0, the thirty two bit
version. As the expression goes... this is a test . We want your
opinions, suggestions and ideas. Don t be bashful, let us hear from you.
Ralph....
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STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Issue #31
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
General Computer News
>> HP Cuts Desktop 660C Prices <<
Hewlett-Packard Co. has cut prices on its line of HP DeskJet 660C home
printers and HP OfficeJet printer-fax-copiers.
With the price reduction, the DeskJet 660C printer for PCs and HP
DeskWriter 660C printer for Macintosh computers will sell for about $399
each, a decrease of $100.
Meanwhile, the OfficeJet and OfficeJet LX printer-fax-copiers will sell for
about $599 and $699 respectively, a price drop of around $100 per product.
>> Mac Accounting Software Updated <<
Peachtree Software has announced Peachtree Accounting for Macintosh 2.5, an
enhanced version of its Macintosh small business accounting software. The
company notes that the update features graphical guides, a setup checklist
and online tutorials that are designed to help first-time users to get up
to speed quickly and expert users to get their work done faster and with
more accuracy. The $99 program includes general ledger accounts
receivable, invoicing, accounts payable, check printing, payroll,
inventory, checking account reconciliation, job/project tracking and
numerous other features. Also provided is a custom forms designer that lets
users design invoices, quotes, statements, checks and other forms.
Registered users of previous editions of Peachtree Accounting for Macintosh
can upgrade to the new version directly from Peachtree for $79.
>> Marvel Comics Debuts on CD-ROM <<
Toy Biz Inc. and Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. have introduced of a
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series of Marvel Interactive CD-ROM Comics. The companies note that the
first four discs feature a mix of out-of-print classic tales featuring the
X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. The comics have been
enhanced through computer coloring, narration, sound effects, music and
animation.
The CD-ROMs are compatible with both PC and Macintosh systems. The products
will be distributed by Toy Biz and Marvel this fall through comic book and
software stores, major toy retailers and the toy departments of major mass
retailers. Each title will sell for $14.99.
"It's a comic book come to life -- on a computer," says Stan Lee, chairman
of Marvel Comics.
>> Apple Has QuickTake Promotion <<
Apple Computer Inc. is offering an upgrade promotion for owners of its
original QuickTake 100 digital camera.
For $199, owners can upgrade to the QuickTake 150 and take advantage of
new, more powerful Macintosh or Windows software, a close-up lens and
longer-life lithium batteries. The upgraded model also offers twice the
storage capacity of the earlier unit (16 high-quality or 32 standard-
quality images) and improved overall image quality. The offer runs through
Nov. 30.
Apple is also offering a special price on software for cross-platform users
who purchased a QuickTake 100 Connection Kit for using the camera with both
Macintosh and Windows systems. At the time of the upgrade order, such users
may obtain upgraded software for an additional $49.
>> Sega Narrows PC-Video Game Gap <<
In a move seen as potentially narrowing the gap between PCs and game
machines that attach to TV sets, Sega of America Inc. is announcing plans
to make video games for PCs that use a special chip by Nvidia Corp.
Reports say that Sega will offer two games to be played exclusively on PCs
with Nvidia's multimedia chip. The games were originally produced for
Sega's new Saturn CD game machine, which has been on sale since May.
Sega Vice President William White Jr. said, "The hardware is a means to the
software. We see it as a way to provide our games to a whole other
audience we haven't been able to (reach) before Nvidia."
Analyst Fred Dunn, vice president of Jon Peddie Associates, says Nvidia is
the first maker of PC multimedia components to get the support of a game
console company, adding, "This is a real feather in their cap. Sega is one
of the leading game suppliers in the world; it's an instantly recognizable
name. ... The Sega games will create a pull for boards that use Nvidia
chips."
The kits containing add-on cards with the Nvidia chip and at least one game
will be on the market in time for Christmas at $249 to $399. (Sega Saturn
costs $399.) Last May, Nvidia unveiled its NV1 Multimedia Accelerator,
which puts sound, full-motion video and three-dimensional graphic
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capabilities on a single chip. It also has patented technology that
improves the realism of graphics.
>> NEC Cuts Notebook Prices <<
NEC Technologies Inc. has cut prices by up to 17% on its Versa V Series of
notebook computers. NEC has also extended its Versa V promotion through
September 30. The offer provides buyers of any Versa V model with an
active-matrix TFT display a free 14.4K bps data/fax modem (a $224 value)
or a $100 cash rebate. The Versa V models are available with a 50MHz
486DX2 or 75MHz 486DX4 microprocessor. System prices now start at $1,899
and range up to $2,599.
>> MPEG/AVI Board Design Unveiled <<
AuraVision Corp. and Zoran Corp. have co-developed a new MPEG/AVI playback
reference board design.
The companies notes that the AuraVision-Zoran reference kit is the first
production-ready design to include drivers and source code for Windows 3.1
and Windows '95. The board also offers the ability to simultaneously
display MPEG-1 video on a standalone television monitor and in a window on
a VGA screen.
According to the firms, add- in cards based on the reference design--code-
named Antelope-- will enhance PC's multimedia capabilities by allowing
full- resolution, full-motion video and CD-quality stereo
sound.
"As the MPEG market has matured, we have been getting demands for more
advanced reference functionality that will include Windows '95 and video
output support," says Wayne Ricciardi, vice president of sales and
marketing of AuraVision, which is based in Fremont, California. "The
Antelope offers a ready-to-market solution for add-in board manufacturers
and desktop computer OEMs."
OEM design kits will include the board, schematics and support files, along
with a suite of software drivers and source code.
>> Internet to Protect Trademarks <<
A new policy to protect business trademarks has been announced by Network
Solutions Inc., the firm that registers commercial addresses on the
Internet on behalf of the National Science Foundation.
Grant Clark, an attorney with Network Solutions, is quoted as saying, "that
over the past year, several companies have discovered others are using
their names as addresses on the network."
"For example, the name ronald@mcdonald.com as well as the mcdonald.com
'domain name' does not belong to McDonald's Corp."
Says Clark, "We may not be able to give the name back to the 'rightful
owner,' but we can certainly stop misleading use and piracy," adding that
NSI's new policy could block what many large businesses see as blatant
7
trademark theft.
While NSI still gives out the domain names on a first-come, first-served
basis, if there is a fight between businesses, NSI will ask both parties
for proof of trademark.
The loser can choose to give up the address, taking 90 days to make a
transition to a new domain name. If the two cannot resolve the dispute,
NSI will freeze the domain name, not allowing anyone to use it, and let the
courts decide.
>> Anti-Virus Chip Developed <<
A unit of Quantum Leap Innovations Inc. says it has developed a
breakthrough computer anti-virus device for real-time data networks.
A new anti-virus chip, which is broadly protected by international patents,
"identifies the presence of any virus within a data stream, either entering
or exiting a computer, or traveling along a network in real-time."
Company officials says the technology is a low-cost integrated circuit that
in its first version is compatible with all DOS-based
systems, adding Quantum will develop products for other operating systems,
as demand develops.
Anthony Warren, president of Quantum principal Technology Management &
Funding, said Quantum's hardware-based product is fundamentally different
from purely software-based anti-virus protection programs.
He said the chip transparently protects against any program that behaves
like a virus, whether it can identify the specific virus type or not. By
contrast, he said, software-based anti-virus programs operate by consulting
software libraries of known viruses that must be periodically updated,
allowing for new and unknown viruses to potentially escape detection.
The Quantum Leap chip sits between a receiving computer node and an
incoming data stream, completely blocking the passage of virus contaminated
data streams. The chip can also be embedded in PC's modems, network
servers and interface cards."
>> NEC Makes Re-Writable Optical Disk <<
A re-writable optical disc that can store some 4 gigabytes of data with a
12-centimeter compact disc size reportedly has been developed by Japan's
NEC Corp.
>> PCMCIA Modem Gets Status Lights <<
U.S. Robotics says it has added a DataView connector to its Sportster 28.8
PCMCIA modem.
The DataView connector allows PCMCIA modem users to view the status of
their data and fax connections using the same kind of status indicators
available on external desktop modems. The DataView unit incorporates four
LEDs that allow the constant monitoring of power, send, receive and online
8
functions during a fax or data transfer.
The DataView connector greatly increases the ability to verify the
progress of fax and data transfers in the portable computing environment,"
says Michael Seedman, vice president and general manager of U.S. Robotics'
personal communications division. "DataView eliminates the uncertainty
previously associated with remote modem connections. The ability to monitor
the status of a connection helps insure remote users of the success of
their fax and data transfers."
The Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA with DataView is priced at $399.
>> Justice Eyes Microsoft Web Plans <<
The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust investigation of Microsoft Corp.
now reportedly has been extended to look into the software giant's plan to
bundle software for navigating the Internet's World Wide Web.
The federal agency for months has been investigating the publisher's plan
to bundle access to its new Microsoft Network online service with its new
Windows 95 operating system to be released Aug. 24. (Online competitors
contend the tactic gives Microsoft an unfair advantage.)
And, write G. Christian Hill and Jared Sandberg in The Wall Street Journal
this week, "according to people familiar with the investigation, the agency
is now concerned about a new development, a plan by Microsoft to bundle
software with Windows 95 to access and browse the Web, a fast-growing
network that may become the main forum for electronic commerce." Some
suggest a Microsoft web browser could hurt the many start-up companies
providing Internet access, the paper says.
As noted, Microsoft announced 10 days ago it plans to bundle its Internet
Explorer with a version of Windows 95 that will be installed by computer
makers on new machines.
"It won't be bundled, at least initially, with the standard Windows 95
version to be sold in stores directly to consumers," says the Journal, "but
will be offered at retail in a version called Windows 95 Plus. Windows 95
will run other Internet browsers, but if it is already installed in new
machines and is optimized to run on the new operating system, other
Internet access providers will be at a significant competitive
disadvantage."
Reporters Hill and Sandberg comment, "Bundling the Web browser could
provide a sort of imperfect end-run around any successful attempt by
Justice to force Microsoft to unbundle access to MSN. All of the so-called
'content' slated for MSN might be best displayed using Microsoft's Web
browser, providing consumers with an incentive to ignore other on-line
providers and Internet access providers."
A Microsoft spokeswoman told the paper her employer's online and operating-
system competitors all are including free Web browsers in their products,
and that Microsoft has the right to also offer a browser.
But, says the Journal, "people familiar with the investigation indicated
they may feel the browser issue provides the agency with more and new
ammunition," adding, "The move shows that the issue of bundling products
9
with Microsoft's dominant operating systems won't go away, and has to be
dealt with one way or another."
The paper, still citing people familiar with the investigation, said
Justice Department lawyers spent part of last week "intently investigating"
the potential impact of bundling the Internet access software.
Frankie s Corner STR Feature
Louis Cat Orze
separate CD-ROM versions for Windows and Macintosh
for ages 10 to adult
approximate retail $30
IVI Publishing
7500 Flying Cloud Drive
Minneapolis, MN 55344-3739
1-800-432-1332
Program Requirements
IBM Macintosh
CPU: 386-25
OS: Windows 3.1 Not available at "press time"
RAM: 8 mbs
Hdisk: 1 mb
Video: 640 by 480, 256 colors
CD-ROM: Double-speed
Misc.: Mouse, sound card, speakers
The Kids' Computing Corner
by Frank Sereno
"Louis Cat Orze" is probably the most unique educational title I have
reviewed to date. The program is a historical mystery adventure based upon
the disappearance of the Queen's Necklace from the Versailles palace of
King Louis XIV. The player's mission is to find the missing jewelry and to
arrest the thief. To solve the mystery, he must learn about the peoples
and customs of the Sun King's court.
The year is 1697 and the player only has six days to solve the crime. Each
day, he may visit several locations to gather clues and to learn about late
Seventeenth Century France. The King's cat, Louis Cat Orze, will serve as
a guide and provide clues about palace intrigue.
Even in the Seventeenth Century, visiting a royal palace is very expensive.
The player must spend money to gain access to the various clues. He will
be given a small stake to begin his quest but he must replenish his cash
resources. The program provides three methods of earning money.
First, the player can play the Palace Games. The Games are multiple-choice
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questions of three difficulty levels. The values of the correct answers
are twenty-five, fifty and one hundred lives. Players do not lose money
for incorrect answers. Another way to earn money is by correctly answering
the Palace Challenge which is hidden within each scene. These multiple
choice questions are based upon information which can be found in each
scene. A player can choose to search the room to find clues rather than
answer the question immediately. The final method for earning money is
through good investigating. Each scene has a hidden hot spot which
provides an instant cash reward when discovered.
Be careful when clicking though, for some hot spots can land the player in
the Bastille. The only escape is to answer four of five questions
correctly. Failure leads to life in prison without parole and the end of
the game.
Each scene is filled with hot spots which link to a book of interesting
facts and biographies of the royal family and many important courtiers.
All the information must be carefully reviewed for clues to the crime of
the missing necklace and for answers to later trivia questions. I found
many facts to be quite interesting. I never knew that Versailles had no
bathrooms!
The game uses only five icons for gameplay. A question mark represents the
Help feature of the game. The game is explained here. A volume slider
allows the player to control the sound levels. The Save feature is
available from within the Help section also.
The G icon is the player's key to the Gallery, which includes the Palace
Games, the Library, the Hall of Portraits and the Map Room. The last three
choices offer the player many opportunities to learn about the history and
culture of late Seventeenth Century Europe.
The fleur-de-lis icon is used to exit a scene, or to end a conversation or
text display.
A portmanteau is a traveling bag. Clicking on this icon reveals the
player's cash reserves. It also includes a notebook containing links to
information about subjects from conversations which the player has
overheard.
The Q icon is for quitting the game. Players can choose to save their
place in the game when exiting.
As you can see, the interface is very simple, yet it has many excellent
features. The program comes with a concise user manual which includes game
hints and a troubleshooting guide. Technical assistance is available toll
free.
The graphics are simply beautiful. The scenes are like fine color
illustrations from the finest children's books. All characters are shown
in proper historical dress. The sound portion of "Louis Cat Orze" is
excellent also. The voice characterizations are well-acted. The only voice
with a French accent is that of the cat! Classical music of the period is
used throughout the program and it is quite enchanting.
Play value is difficult to rate on this program. If your child enjoys
learning, he should enjoy "Louis Cat Orze." The program does include some
humor, but most are in the form of puns or word games. This is a very
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cerebral piece of software.
Educational value is very good. The program covers many details of life in
Seventeenth Century France and presents these facts in a very entertaining
way. The only problem is that this program will have limited appeal.
Those who are interested in history or France will enjoy "Louis Cat Orze"
very much.
Bang for the Buck is very conditional. Before purchasing this program, one
must be familiar with the tastes of the intended user. If the person does
not enjoy mysteries or history, then the program may get little use. If
the person can be persuaded to try it, he may find himself enjoying the
game despite his prejudices against the subject matter because the
presentation is excellent.
Ratings
Graphics 9.5
Sound 9.5
Interface 9.0
Play Value 8.0
Educational Value 9.0
Bang for the Buck 9.0
Average 9.0
Muppet Reading & Phonics II
dual format CD-ROM for Mac and Windows
for ages 3 to 7
approximate retail $30
from American Education Publishing
150 E. Wilson Bridge Road
Suite 145
Columbus, OH 43085
1-800-542-7833
Program Requirements:
IBM Macintosh
CPU: 386 CPU: Color Mac
OS: Windows 3.1 OS: System 7
RAM: 4 mbs RAM: 4 mbs
Video: 256-color VGA Video: 256 colors
Hdisk: 1 Mb Hdisk: 1 Mb
CD-ROM: Single speed CD-ROM: Single speed
MISC: Mouse, sound card (optional) MISC: Mouse
Kermit, Piggy, Rowlf and the rest of the Muppet gang are back once again to
entertain and educate your child. This assortment of programs provides
important lessons using tried-and-true teaching methods.
Muppet Reading & Phonics II consists of three programs on a single CD-ROM.
These are Sound Patterns, Sorting and Ordering, and Thinking Skills. Each
program uses the same user-friendly interface and features many of our
Muppet friends. The interface has five control buttons along the bottom of
the screen. The Previous and Next buttons allows the child to move back
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and forth among the twenty exercises included with each program. The
Contents button shows the list of contents. Clicking on the name of any
exercise will start it immediately. The Show Answer button is self-
explanatory. The Exit button will end the program.
Each exercise is presented with an explanation written in a text box at the
top of the screen. This text is read at the start of the exercise and will
be repeated if it is clicked on. The problem to be solved is in a large
window and the child must click on the answer or drag it to the proper
location.
Sound Patterns features the sounds of -at, -et, -ot, -ig, -up, -an and -en.
Many exercises involve identifying an object and then clicking on the
correct first letter or word.
Sorting and Ordering presents twenty exercises involving the sorting of
items by various criteria, recognizing patterns, ordering steps in a
procedure, and ordering numerically and alphabetically.
Thinking Skills teaches sorting items by group, associating certain places
with certain items or activities, deductive reasoning and word association.
Phonics II has good graphics. The Muppet characters are very appealing.
The graphics seem better in some exercises than others. I am assuming that
several artists were involved in each program. The animation s are much
better than in earlier American Education Publishing programs. The sound
portion of the program is disappointing. The vocals have excellent
clarity, but music isn't used at all. Another disappointment is that none
of the Muppet characters speak. This doesn't hurt the program's
educational value, but it does diminish the fun of the program.
The interface is very simple and elegant. It doesn't have a lot of the
flourishes provided by other programs such as on-line parent guides or
troubleshooting tips. The manual is only two pages long. These extras
just don't seem necessary for Phonics II. Free technical assistance is
available via a toll call. The programs could benefit from better positive
encouragement to the user. The musical ditties used to signify correct
responses are extremely understated and staid.
These programs are fun. Jim Henson's Muppets seem to have a magical
quality only rivaled by Mickey Mouse. Kids simply love these characters.
The exercises are enjoyable and varied enough that they do not become
boring. Unfortunately, some exercises are static in that the problems and
answers are always the same and will not be challenging enough for more
experienced children. Replay value will suffer over time.
Educationally, this program set covers many concepts. The Sound Pattern
program could benefit by featuring more sounds. The many thinking skills
exercises are excellent. Also remember that American Education Publishing
makes a fine line of Brighter Child workbooks that can be used to
complement the computer programs.
With a street price of $30, Muppet Reading and Phonics II is a very good
buy. Flashier programs abound, but they won't be more effective as
learning tools than Phonics II.
Ratings
13
Graphics 8.0
Sounds 6.5
Interface 8.5
Play Value 8.0
Educational Value 8.5
Bang for the Buck 8.5
Average 8.0
Sanctuary Woods and NFL Team Up
for
Educational Software
On July 24, Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, NFL Properties, Inc., and NFL
Players Incorporated announced an agreement which will allow Sanctuary
Woods to use NFL logos and player photos in educational software titles.
The first title, NFL Math, is expected to ship this fall.
Since sports produce so many statistics, it is natural to develop a math
education program based on football. And since so many fathers love
football, an NFL Math game will help develop their interest in their
children's educational software. Parental involvement is one of the most
important aspects for children's educational development.
ACTIVISION'S MECHWARRIOR 2 WORLD WIDE WEB
SITE DRAWS MORE THAN 37,000 VISITORS
One of the First Web Sites Ever Launched to
Promote a CD-ROM Game
One of the first World Wide Web sites launched exclusively to promote the
release of a CD-ROM game, Activision's MechWarrior 2 home page has had over
37,000 visitors and more than 700,000 hits since it premiered just one
month ago.
By logging onto http://www.activision.com, visitors can obtain the latest
information about the highly anticipated 3-D action simulation game, which
will explode onto retail shelves on July 24. More than 500,000 Mb of
MechWarrior 2 screen shots and video clips have already been downloaded.
Additionally, over 7000 people have entered an exclusive OnLine contest to
win an all-expense-paid trip to Las Vegas for four. Once a week, since
June 19, two names have been randomly drawn from the entries received. The
selected names are then eligible to compete in the final drawing which will
be held on July 28. This innovative web promotion is part of Activision's
$1.5 million marketing campaign to support the launch of MechWarrior 2.
PAPARAZZI! TALES OF TINSELTOWN
Activision has released a new, fast-moving satirical comedy, "Paparazzi!"
on two CD-ROMs. It is available for both IBM compatible and Macintosh
computers. This program was developed by Museworthy, Inc., a privately
held company in Addison, Texas and it is being distributed by Activision.
"Paparazzi!" is a tongue-in-cheek simulation of the life of the Hollywood
14
scandal-sheet photographer. Keen wits, a quick eye and a steady shutter
finger are necessary to win at this game. Hazards abound in the form of
angry celebrities, false tips and more.
So if you have thought of clicking pics of the stars, here's your chance to
see if you have the hustle and savvy to be a true paparazzi.
As always, I thank you for reading!
Delrina Updates! STR FOCUS!
Delrina Unveils:
Vision for PC Communications At Your Command
Jack Snell, president of TinyTot Toys in Toronto, runs his business
from his home - but you'd never know it. Right now he's sitting by his home
computer, waiting for an important fax to come in from Hal, his sales guy
in New York. Hal thinks he can get a columnist at the New York Times to
run a review of TinyTot's latest product. Jack's anxious. He's working on
a marketing report, but he's told his PC to let him know when Hal's call
comes through. Meanwhile, a light on his screen is flashing. He clicks on
the flashing icon and a list of his voice and e-mail messages comes onto
the screen. Shoot. Seems like everyone but Hal is trying to get a hold of
him today. He's set up his PC to answer the calls. When people call in,
they hear the message:
"Welcome to TinyTot Toys. If you'd like to leave a message for Jack
Snell, press 'one' now. If you'd like to leave a message for our sales
force, press 'two.' If you'd like more information about our products,
press 'three,' and our automated attendant will take your fax number." Now
the phone rings again and Jack sees a message on the screen. It's Brad
calling from San Diego. Drat it. Brad's been bugging Jack to e-mail him an
article from the Wall Street Journal that Jack told him about. "Doesn't he
have anything better to do?" But it's a no-brainer for Jack, he simply
clicks on his news feed to pick up the article and drops it into e-mail to
send it off to Brad. Meanwhile, no word from Hal, and Jack decides to go
for a short run to calm his nerves. Fifteen minutes later, he's heading
back to his apartment and his pager goes off. The PC has just sent the
notification that a fax from Hal has arrived. Jack runs back to the PC and
sees the indicator light flashing again. Hal's message is music to Jack's
ears: "All systems go! The New York Times loves us." Jack hunkers down to
finish that marketing report so he can shoot it off to Hal.
Welcome to the new age of personal computing. No matter who you are,
where you are, or whatever you need to get done -- send a fax or an e-mail,
program your phone to take messages, tour the Internet, talk to someone
else's computer -- it's all possible from your PC. And the best part is,
it's all so easy, even Brad in San Diego can do it.
This bright new world comes to us courtesy of Delrina Corporation,
15
which has designed a suite of software products -- called CommSuite 95 --
that pull all the popular elements of communications together in one place
and get them working as a team. CommSuite 95 is built on a firm
philosophy: give people everything they want in communications, and bring
it together in
one package that's simple, easy to use, and lets people save money, too.
"We're aiming at the person who's continually frustrated by current
communications capabilities," says Delrina President Mark Skapinker. "The
person who's continually asking, 'how do I get there?' 'why do other people
find it so much easier than I do?"
Overview
People want to use their computers to communicate, but up until now,
it's been so difficult. Imagine what our lives would be like if, in order
to chat to another person over the phone, we had to know how to install our
own phone lines, and then how to configure our local connections to talk
properly to the hundreds of computerized exchanges across the city, and the
hundreds of thousands around the world. Well, until just recently, that's
pretty much what PC communication was like. If you walked into a computer
store and said you wanted to get your computer to talk to another computer,
or to a fax machine or a telephone, often the salesperson would sell you a
few pieces of software and then courteously point you toward the book
section. There you'd find a library full of thick, mind-numbingly
technical tomes revealing the secrets of jumpers and switch settings and
ports and addresses. Sure. Technically, you could get your PC talking,
but the whole exercise was equivalent to studying to become an electrical
engineer. It wasn't fast, it wasn't efficient, and it sure as heck wasn't
easy.
But the world is changing and Delrina is leading that change.
Microsoft Corporation has designed a much-anticipated new operating system,
Windows 95, that promises to create another explosion in the mass consumer
market for PCs by making computers more friendly and accessible. "Now
Delrina can do what it's been wanting to do for a long time," explains Mark
Skapinker, "That is, provide people with software that makes communications
simple to do." Delrina has designed programs that work in complement with
Windows 95 and maximize all its best features.
An operating system is literally the guts of a computer. It's the
software base that works with all the other programs you use on your
machine, plus all the peripheral devices you plug in -- like modems and CD-
ROM drives. Microsoft has put new technology called "Plug-and-Play" into
the Windows 95 operating system that promises to erase the traditional
problems of getting all the pieces of hardware to talk to one another. Buy
the program, plug it in, and you're up and running.
Delrina, meanwhile, has incorporated that same plug-and-play
technology into its CommSuite 95 product. But that's just the beginning.
Once you're up and running, and you've got your PC talking to your modem
and your modem talking to the wide world, there's one other big question:
Now what? That's where Delrina really adds value. In designing all the
CommSuite 95 products, Mark Skapinker says Delrina's people kept one
thought in mind, "How can we improve on what Microsoft is doing? It's not a
question
of throwing more software at the marketplace, but helping people find out
what to do with the stuff once they've got it." Delrina's Vision: "PC
Communications at Your Command"
16
According to Skapinker, the concepts of messaging and
communications are often thought of as the same today, but those two terms
are really very different. Skapinker says messaging is an important part
of communications but communications as a whole means much more than just
messaging. "PC communications is made up of two major components which
include messaging
and on-line/interactive," added Skapinker.
"Delrina's vision is to deliver powerful yet simple PC
communications, in essence, PC communications at your command," says
Skapinker. "Delrina will achieve this vision by delivering high-quality
solutions encompassing the four key elements of communications -- types,
functionality, integration and intelligence."
Skapinker explains, "Delrina will focus on all communication types
including messaging types such as fax, e-mail, voice/telephony and paging
as well as on-line/interactive such as the Internet and terminal
applications like bulletin board systems."
In terms of functionality, Skapinker sees people using each of
these communication types in different ways. Yet each type has its own
unique requirements in terms of functionality. "Delrina's strength is to
leverage its expertise in application development and end-user simplicity
to establish a balance between 'sophistication' such as an application's
features, capabilities and power, and 'simplicity' like usability and ease-
of-learning," says Skapinker.
"To achieve powerful PC communications, we must address the last
two elements: integration and intelligence," adds Skapinker. "For
integration, Delrina will provide users the ability to share and access
common elements between the different messaging types like fax, e-mail,
voice, and paging. And finally, Delrina will deliver capabilities for
people to automate certain tasks using the computer rather than having to
do each task themselves -- this is the intelligence element," says
Skapinker.
When you bring these key elements together -- types, functionality,
integration, and intelligence -- all in one package, all from one vendor,
you have the formula for very powerful yet simple PC communications,
according to Skapinker.
At ten million copies sold, and with 70 per cent of the fax
communications software market in the U.S., WinFax is the best-selling
communications package of all time. Now Delrina has a new version, WinFax
PRO 7.0, which not only lets you send out messages, it lets you send e-
mail, or lets your PC send a message to your pager when a fax has arrived
You can also use WinFax PRO 7.0 to get your telephone talking to your PC.
Functionality
People haven't always had this freedom of choice, and Delrina
recognizes that. "There's a whole area of communications that hasn't been
addressed because of this issue of whether one message-type, fax or e-mail,
is going to take precedence over another," says Mark Skapinker. "We don't
think any one message type is going to dominate over the others. So,
Delrina's focusing on bringing all the types together and getting them
working in a seamless fashion."
Integration
17
Marc Camm, General Manager of Desktop Communications at Delrina,
says Delrina's integrated approach makes PC communications mirror what
people actually do in their everyday lives. "What do people do when they
come back from lunch? They check their voice messages, they check their e-
mail, and then they may go on-line to see if they missed anything on the
news wires," says Camm. "That's real world, today." It's cumbersome and
time-consuming having to go to separate machines to do all these things.
But CommSuite means it all becomes much simpler. Now when you want to send
a message, you can send it out to one person as an e-mail, another person
as a fax, and third person as message to his beeper, all your PC.
Intelligence
Picture this. You're working at home, and you're expecting a call
from your boss, but you've got to skip out for a last-minute client call.
No problem. Your PC answers your calls with the message that you've gone
off to visit a client. And meanwhile, you've given the PC caller-I.D.
functions, so, your boss hears a message that you've left specifically for
him: "I've gone out to see Mr. Mercer. Please call me in his office."
Nifty, isn't it?
Back at your computer, if you want to know right away when your
boss calls, you type in his caller I.D. so the PC will tell you when he
calls. The phone rings, and a message comes up on the screen telling you
it's Mr. Smith calling. If you have a voice modem, in future versions of
WinFax you'll actually hear a voice saying, "Bob, pick up the phone, it's
Mr. Smith calling."
Or, picture this. You're running your own desktop publishing
business from your home. You're writing up a brochure for a client and
you've got a tight deadline to meet, so you don't want to be disturbed by
the phone. You've set up your PC to take the calls. When the phone rings,
an automated attendant comes on, saying "Welcome to Perle Publishing. If
you'd like to leave a message for Winnie Perle, press 'one' now. If you'd
like a free catalogue of our services, press 'two' and we'll take your fax
number." The PC takes the message and an indicator flashes on your screen,
letting you know there's a message waiting. Meanwhile, the automated
attendant has taken the customer's fax number and your PC is now faxing out
that catalogue - that's called fax on demand, and the new features built
into WinFax make it all possible.
WinFax PRO 7.0 comes with other new features, including compression
technology. Compression squeezes a file into smaller bits, so it travels
faster over the phone line. The benefit to you? It takes less time to
send your fax out, and when you're sending faxes long-distance, costs
matter.
Delrina is working with the telephone companies to let WinFax users
do broadcast faxing. Let's say you've got a fax that has to go to 500
different people. Just send the fax normally, once, to an assigned number,
along with the numbers of all the people you need the fax to go to. The
rest is taken care of. You'll get confirmation that the faxes have been
sent, and you'll save money, too, because the faxes will be sent in
parallel, instead of one at a time.
WinFax PRO 7.0 features an intelligent scanner that lets you scan
in those loose pieces of paper. "It's even smarter than a fax machine,"
says Albert Behr, Senior Director of Marketing Desktop Communications at
Delrina. "I take a piece of paper, and I literally drop it in. The
18
scanner turns itself on, it scans automatically, and it asks me what I want
to do with the image: fax it, store it, edit it."
WinFax is simple to do because Delrina takes maximum advantage of
the Windows 95 features, things like Object Linking and Embedding (OLE 2.0)
-- a tool that allows in-place activation. Here's one way in-place
activation is applied: Let's say you're working in WinFax and you receive
a file in Microsoft Word. You only have to click on that file and you can
read it and work with it in Word without leaving WinFax. Tools like plug-
and-play and drag-and-drop make the software easy to use from the outset.
Get the software, plug it in, and you're up and running. Using the
software is as simple as dragging icons from one area of the screen and
dropping them onto another.
That's good news, because it means that with Delrina CommSuite, you
can cruise Cyberspace without being a rocket scientist. Cyberjack,
Delrina's own program, built from scratch, hooks you onto the Internet as
easily as plugging in a phone jack. Cyberjack gives you everything you
need to take advantage of all there is to offer on the Internet - without
having to study a library full of books to get there. No more Internet for
Dummies.
There's a reason why Internet for Dummies is so popular, says Mike
Brookbank, Delrina's Internet Product Manager. "One of the principal
problems with people using the Internet is that when they finally get
there, it's like, 'Okay, I'm on. But what do I do?" Hooking onto the Net
is like walking into the world's largest library and finding no card
catalogue, no index, no order. "It's a library where the books aren't even
on shelves," he says. "They're just tossed around in piles that are
scattered around at a million different sites." In short, it's a mess,
borne of the fact that no one person or group is building the Internet.
More data gets added to it every day, and it's all just more stuff thrown
onto the pile.
On-line and Interactive
So, Delrina has designed the Guidebook, a quick and easy travel
guide to Cyberspace. You can change your Guidebook as often as you like by
downloading another version from Delrina's file server. "The Guidebook is
a pre-delivered collection of cool and interesting places on the Net, and
the user just has to point and click," says Brookbank. So, if you're
interested in art, you click on the art section in the Guidebook and you'll
see a choice of places to go -- maybe the Louvre in Paris, or the Royal
Ontario Museum in Toronto. Popular places like these now have what are
called Web Pages -- files of information thrown into what's known as the
World Wide Web, the portion of the Internet that's captured the attention
of the popular press.
But the Guidebook is more than just Web browsing. It's best described
in Star Trek terms: You know how, when Captain Kirk says, "Beam me up,
Scotty," and suddenly he's no longer out fighting the Klingons, but back in
his ship? Well, that same idea has been built into Cyberjack. You click
on an icon in the Guidebook, and it might take you to a Web site, but it
might also take you off the Web to an FTP site to retrieve a file, or a
news group or perform a search by asking you a couple of questions. "It's
like morphing," says Brookbank. "You click on an icon and suddenly you're
doing something else."
That's a hot new innovation. "Ordinarily, when you're on the Web,
19
you can only go to another Web site," Brookbank explains. "If you click on
something else, the software would do its best to show you what's there,
but it would only be an approximation. In our application , we give all
the tools you need, so when you click on a link to an FTP site, it actually
takes you there." That's in-place activation, and it's a key benefit of
Cyberjack that Brookbank says Delrina has "used to the max." Cyberjack is
also integrated with Microsoft's e-mail client, Exchange. So, if you're
scanning a news file on the Internet, and you want to send a message out at
the same time, you can do that right from where you are. You don't have to
quit the Internet and open up the e-mail function. "You need that
integration," says Brookbank. "It's something that has been very poorly
done in the past, and it's something we do very well."
Other Internet packages don't offer this level of integration, they
don't give people access to everything on the Net, and they don't offer
this same ability to cruise around in it live. Nor do other services offer
a quick and easy way of transferring files from the Internet onto your
desktop. In Cyberjack, transferring files is simple and easy. Let's say
you've found the FTP site where Sotheby's keeps its catalogue of upcoming
items for auction. You want to keep that catalogue. Simply drag the file
name onto your desktop and the file is saved there as an icon. But it's
not just a text file, it's a live connection back onto the Net. "The
object contains all the information necessary to make the connection,"
explains Brookbank. "I click on it and it makes the phone calls, it makes
the connection to the proper machine, and, there you are." And the best
part of Cyberjack is that now you can share the Internet, live, with
someone else. "There are some very cool things on the Internet that people
are unaware of," says Albert Behr, "and one of them is Internet Relay
Chat," or IRC. Delrina incorporates this tool in the Cyberback package, and
strips away the complexity of it, so now, with a click of the mouse, you
can send messages back and forth to other people on the Internet, live.
Soon IRC will include a voice option, so you can get on the Net in New York
and link up with your buddy at the Moscow University and actually talk to
him (if you both have voice-modems) "and guess what?" says Behr, "You're
not paying any long-distance charges."
If you want to hook into an on-line bulletin board service or even
get your PC talking to another PC, WinComm PRO 7.0 will let you do it
simply. WinComm PRO offers a quick and easy way to get to on-line bulletin
board services. Plug in the disk, make a few clicks with the mouse, and
you're on-line. Imagine this scenario. Jane Smiley is a housewife who
works from her home in Toronto as president of the local chapter of an
international agency that wants cities to clean up toxic waste. She uses
WinComm PRO 7.0 to get to an on-line forum where she can share her
experience with other like-minded people.
This sort of thing has been possible before, but with one big
drawback -- there was no live dimension to it. The files you downloaded
were just words on a screen. But with WinComm PRO 7.0, those icons on the
screen behave like live objects, not just text. This is another example of
that tool called in-place activation. Click on one of the icons and it
brings you right back on-line.
"It's like a short-cut to get back on-line," says Ashley Desatlik,
program manager for WinComm. "Instead of having to go into WinComm, open
up the program, open up the session you want and click on that, you just
click once and you're in.
20
And WinComm makes it easy for you to share the experience of being
on-line, says Desatlik. "You can download a file and send off an e-mail to
your friend and say, 'Hey, Fred, check this out'."
And WinComm also comes with virus detection that's activated with a
simple click of the mouse. With other on-line packages virus detection
means quitting your application, opening up another program called PKUNZIP
, and going through a bunch of complicated commands that unzip the file,
then running another piece of software to check for any viruses WinComm PRO
7.0
not only lets you detect viruses on the fly, but it comes with an Image
Manager that lets you download complicated graphics from a bulletin board
service and watch the image unfold right on your screen as it's being
retrieved.
Delrina is operating on a higher level than other PC software
developers. "Asking what it is that people really want to do with their
PCs, and creating a solid package that people would prefer to pay money for
because they know it's going to be reliable, well-integrated, extremely
capable and very simple to use. That's what we're focusing on. Nobody
else is focusing on that," says Mark Skapinker.
Adds Marc Camm, "Windows 95 is an excellent operating system.
While Windows 95 has basic fax and Internet hook-up features, Delrina's
vision takes these capabilities to a new level -- where they're integrated
in a much more significant way. Every application has to be robust and able
to stand alone. They have to be fully-functional. It can't be a grab-bag
of stuff."
"There are many exciting things coming down the line in the very
near future," says Rich Goldher director of Delrina s Voice/Telephony Labs.
"Right now, the two most important pieces of equipment a person uses are
his PC and his phone. These two pieces of equipment are going to be merged
into one. So, you'll no longer have a phone on your actual desktop, but
the phone will be on your electronic desktop. And the phone will no longer
be a dumb instrument, but will have all the functionality of your
computer."
Imagine this. Your PC is in your office in Toronto. A customer
from San Diego calls in with an urgent matter that needs attention.
Meanwhile, you're away on business in New York. Your computer calls you in
New York to say that Mr. Walters from San Diego is calling, and that he's
holding for you on the other line. You accept the call, and the computer
patches Mr. Walters through to you.
"That future isn't as far off as you might think".
"In the future, your fax, your phone, even your computer these
will no longer be separate pieces of equipment, but their function will be
built right into your PC. So you, the user, will be removed from the
burden of having to think about what type of message you're sending or
receiving, and by what method, " says Marc Camm.
"Our business is creating the best communications software and
developing an environment for people to be productive," says Mark
Skapinker. "So, however the different pieces of hardware converge, Delrina
will be there creating applications to make them work together simply. Our
vision is that you'll always be able to walk into a computer store, buy a
21
PC, some additional software, and then buy the latest version of Delrina's
CommSuite software for all your communications needs."
WebEdit 1.1 STR Spotlight
WebEdit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This documented is intended to answer the most frequently asked questions
about WebEdit. If you have questions not answered in this document, please
send your administrative questions to our feedback department and technical
questions to technical support. Technical support is only available to
registered users.
The following questions are answered in this document:
What is WebEdit?
What's New in Version 1.1?
How Can I Register My Copy?
What is the Most Current Version?
Where Can I Get WebEdit?
What is HTML?
What Web Browsers are Available for Windows?
What Other HTML Editors are Available for Windows?
How Can I Test My HTML Code?
Where Can I Learn More About the World Wide Web?
What is WebEdit?
WebEdit is a Windows-based text editor specifically designed to ease the
editing of hypertext markup language (HTML) documents. Click here for a
screenshot.
WebEdit strives to be the best Windows-based HTML editor available.
Specifically, we have tried to include support for every feature of every
version of the HTML specification, from HTML version 1 through the current
draft specification for HTML version 3 (aka HTML+), including optional
features and special non-standard extensions supported by browsers such as
NetScape.
Note: HTML 3 is a moving target. However, as the standard evolves, we will
release minor upgrades to WebEdit that support the current syntax.
Additionally, you can add any elements you like with WebEdit's User-Defined
Tags dialog.
Moreover, WebEdit tries to make all of these features available in a
consistent, well-organized fashion, with a minimum number of keystrokes,
allowing you to create HTML documents as rapidly as possible.
The current version of WebEdit offers the following features:
MDI - WebEdit's rich, multiple-document interface (MDI) lets you work on
up to ten different HTML documents simultaneously. WebEdit uses a very
22
consistent, very "Windows-like" interface, with standard menus,
toolbars, tooltips, status bars, etc.
HTML Dialogs - WebEdit has specially designed dialog boxes for defining
anchors and links, inline images and figures, forms, tables, etc.,
including a URL Builder for rapid creation of Uniform Resource Locators.
Additionally, WebEdit saves every URL you enter, letting you choose from
a list rather than retyping the same URLs over and over.
Browser Support - Whatever Windows-based browser you use, you can link
it into WebEdit to test your HTML documents at the click of a button.
Document Structure Elements - Document structure tags such as <HTML>,
<HEAD>, <TITLE>, <BODY>, etc. are all supported, including HTML 3 and
Netscape-specific attributes.
Block Formatting Elements - WebEdit supports all HTML block formatting
tags, such as <ADDRESS>, <BLOCKQUOTE>, and <PRE>, plus HTML 3 extensions
such as <NOTE> and NetScape-specific extensions such as <CENTER>.
Logical Font Formatting Elements - Every logical formatting tag and
attribute from HTLM version 1 through HTLM version 3 is included, from
standard tags such as code and citation, to new proposed tags such as
person, acronym, etc.
Physical Font Formatting Elements - Blinking text, bold, italics,
underlining, typewriter text, emphasis, strong emphasis, font sizing,
etc. It's all in here.
List and Miscellaneous Elements - Select a block of text and choose
Numbered List or Un-numbered List, and WebEdit automatically inserts
list-item tags on each line. WebEdit also includes all standard
insertion tags such as <P>, <HR>, <BR>, etc.
Special Characters - WebEdit includes support for the entire ISO Latin
character set, allowing you to easily insert extended ANSI characters
into your documents. WebEdit also includes support for special
characters such as "<", ">", "&", non-breaking spaces, and more.
Form Elements - Create web forms quickly and easily with WebEdit's
built-in Form support.
Table Elements - HTML 3 defines a new syntax for displaying tabular
information. NetScape now supports this syntax and even extends it.
WebEdit supports both the HTML 3 and extended NetScape syntax. To
simplify the creation of HTML tables, WebEdit also includes a WYSIWYG
table builder; you simply enter your data in a spreadsheet-style grid,
and WebEdit writes the HTML for you.
User-Defined Elements - If there are any HTML tags or other text you
enter regularly that are not already built-into WebEdit, you can add
them to WebEdit's User-Defined Tags dialog box for easy insertion into
your documents. You can even add filenames into the dialog box for
larger "insertion macros". Selecting a filename in the User-Defined Tags
dialog tells WebEdit to insert the contents of the file into the current
document.
Non-standard tags and attributes - WebEdit includes support for non-
23
standard tags and attributes, such as those recognized by NetScape (font
sizing, special image alignment, etc.) and those in the HTML version 3
draft (tables, background images, etc.). These tags and attributes are
ignored by most browsers, but are included in WebEdit in case you need
them. HTML Removal - WebEdit lets you quickly and easily remove HTML
tags from any document or portion of a document. Simply highlight the
text from which to remove HTML tags, and click the Remove HTML Tags
button.
Spell Checker - Correct the spelling of your documents directly within
WebEdit using our new built-in spell checker.
Shortcut Keys - We have provided shortcut keys (e.g., Ctrl-B for
Boldface) for all of the most common tags, allowing you to enter HTML
codes in your documents as quickly as possible.
Floating Toolbars - If you prefer to use a mouse to enter HTML codes,
WebEdit 1.1 provides floating toolbars for every class of HTML elements
(e.g., table elements, block formatting elements, etc.), and a special
floating toolbar that has buttons for the most commonly used HTML
elements.
Tooltips - Every field on every dialog has popup tooltips that provide a
brief explanation of the purpose or use of the field, reducing the
amount of time you will spend looking things up.
Right-Click Menu - Right-clicking on any document pops up a menu that
allows you to close or save the file, or choose from a list of the ten
most common HTML tags to insert in your document.
Is WebEdit Free?
WebEdit is shareware. This means it is not free. You may download WebEdit
and evaluate it freely for up to 30-days. If you continue using WebEdit
after the 30-day evaluation period, you are required to register it and pay
the registration fee. For commercial and government use, the cost of
registration is US$99.95. For educators, students, home users and not-for-
profit organizations, we offer a discounted registration fee of US$49.95.
By registering your copy of WebEdit, you will receive several benefits.
We have worked very hard to bring you what we feel is a world-class HTML
editor. Without your support, we cannot continue to enhance WebEdit. Please
make sure you register your copy of WebEdit if you plan to continue using
it.
What's New in Version 1.1?
WebEdit version 1.1 has all of the features of WebEdit 1.0, plus:
All the rest of HTML 3
WYSIWYG Table Builder
Spell checker
Floating toolbars
Tooltips on all toolbar buttons and dialog box fields
24
New enhanced right-click popup menu
Many editing enhancements
In addition, WebEdit 1.1 has been rigorously beta tested to ensure that it
is completely stable under Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT
and Windows 95.
How Can I Register My Copy?
You can register by telephone, fax or post at the following address:
KnowledgeWorks, Inc.
2251 San Diego Avenue, Suite A-141
San Diego, CA 92110
USA
Phone: (619) 220-8026
Fax: (619) 220-8324
Do not call KnowledgeWorks for technical support unless you are a
registered user. The cost of registration is US$99.95 per license for
standard commercial and government users. If you are a student, a school, a
home user or a not-for-profit organization, you may register for a
discounted fee of $49.95. You may pay your registration fee by check or
money order (US funds only please), or by Visa or MasterCard. Please call
us for information about site-licensing discounts.
What Benefits Does Registration Offer?
Registration offers the following benefits:
Access to WebEdit's advanced features, including:
Spell-checker
WYSIWYG table builder
Floating toolbars
No more nag screen (this screen does not appear until after the 30-day
evaluation period)
A complete Help file, including HTML tutorial and reference
Free online technical support
Automatic notification of product upgrades
Free minor version upgrades
Discounts on major version upgrades
Most importantly, your WebEdit registrations are what allow us to continue
upgrading the product. Developing this product takes time and money and we
cannot do it without your support.
25
What is the Most Current Version?
The most current version of WebEdit is 1.1. You can download the current
version of WebEdit here. By registering WebEdit, you can help ensure the
release of WebEdit version 2.0, which should include the following
enhancements:
Large Documents - One of the most important features we plan to add to
version 2.0 is the ability to edit HTML documents larger than 32K.
Long Filenames - Because version 2.0 will be a 32-bit Windows 95/Windows
NT program, it will include support for Windows 95 features such as long
filenames (e.g., MyVeryOwnHomePage.HTML).
Import/Export - Rich Text Format (RTF) import and export, plus a
document template for Microsoft Word for Windows will provide an easy
way to convert your HTML documents to word processing documents or Help
files, or turn your Word documents into HTML pages.
Multi-level Undo - Multi-level undo will allow you to correct those
accidental insertions and deletions.
Document Wizards - WebEdit 2.0 will include Wizards to help you create
complex document sections such as forms and tables even faster.
Document Templates - Create your own boilerplate documents for a fill-
in-the-blanks approach to HTML document creation.
Your Suggestions - Are there any features or shortcuts you'd like us to add
to WebEdit? Let us know about them so we can continue to make WebEdit the
easiest, most powerful HTML editor available.
Where Else Can I Get WebEdit?
In addition to the web site shown above, you can also get WebEdit by
anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.thegroup.net/ in the directory /WebEdit. If you
are in Europe, WebEdit is available by anonymous ftp at ftp.demon.co.uk in
the directory /pub/ibmpc/windows/webedit. Other WebEdit locations will be
listed here as they become available.
What is HTML?
HTML, hypertext markup language, is a relatively standardized hypertext
page description language, primarily used for creating hypertext pages for
the World Wide Web (WWW).
Before you begin using WebEdit, you should have an understanding of HTML
fundamentals. If you already know the basics, you will find that using
WebEdit will help you learn HTML more thoroughly because it does much of
the work for you, letting you choose HTML tags from menus and toolbars, and
offering the attributes appropriate to each tag in dialog boxes.
Here are some useful places to learn more about HTML:
Introductory Documents
A Beginner's Guide to HTML
How to Write HTML Files
26
Introduction to HTML
Style Guides
Composing Good HTML
CERN's style guide for online hypertext
Reference Documents
The HTML Quick Reference Guide
The Official HTML Specification
A Description of SGML
Mosaic for X 2.0 Fill-Out Form Support
NetScape Extensions to HTML
What Other HTML Editors are Available for Windows?
Our goal is to help you create the best HTML documents as easily as
possible. In addition to writing the best possible program we can, that
also means making it easy for you to find other HTML editors so you can
choose the one that best suits your needs. We invite you to evaluate the
other commercial and shareware Windows HTML editors. We think you'll find
that WebEdit compares favorably.
The following sites offer independent reviews of the various Windows HTML
editors:
http://www.interaccess.com/users/cdavis/edit_rev.html
http://gfecnet.gmi.edu/Software/softhtm.html
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~neuroses/html.html
http://www.kosone.com/people/nelsonl/review.htm
If you know of an editor that you think is better than WebEdit, we would
like to hear about it. Please send us email with the name of the editor,
where we can find it, and why you prefer it over WebEdit.
How Can I Test My HTML Code?
There are several HTML validation services on the Web. These can not only
help you spot problems in your documents, but they can also help you learn
to write better HTML documents. Here are a few we have seen:
WebLint
HAL Software Systems HTML Validation Service
Where Can I Learn More About the World Wide Web?
For those of you who would like to learn more about the Internet and the
World Wide Web, including how it works and what resources are available, we
strongly recommend the following books:
The Internet Complete Reference
The Internet Complete Reference is one of the most comprehensive and fun-
to-read books ever written about the Internet. This book provides thorough
and clear explanations of the Net and its various resources, including
Usenet, mail, the world wide web, gopher, telnet, wais, archie, etc.
27
Author: Harley Hahn
Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN #: 0-07-881980-6
Price: US$29.95
The Internet Yellow Pages
If there is a "roadmap" for the Internet, this is it. The Internet Yellow
Pages, Second Edition is indispensable when it comes to finding and
accessing what's on the Net. This book contains well over 5,000 entries. We
strongly encourage everyone who uses the Internet, from beginner to
advanced user, to pick up a copy of this book.
Authors: Harley Hahn and Rick Stout
Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN #: 0-07-882098-7
Price: US$29.95
Most recent revision: July 27, 1995
Copyright 1995, Nesbitt Software
All Rights Reserved
Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit 1.1 HTML Editor for Windows
Nesbitt Software introduces a powerful new upgrade to the most complete
Windows-based editor for World Wide Web hypertext documents. Nesbitt
Software announces the availability of Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit 1.1, a
Microsoft Windows-based hypertext markup language (HTML) editor designed
for rapid creation and easy maintenance of World Wide Web (WWW) documents.
Created by internationally recognized Windows and Internet expert Kenn
Nesbitt, WebEdit 1.0 was widely acclaimed as the best HTML editor available
for the Windows platform. According to Harley Hahn, co-author of the number
one best-selling computer book The Internet Yellow Pages and author of The
Internet Complete Reference, "WebEdit is the program against which all
other hypertext editors should be measured. I love WebEdit. Like all great
tools, it helps me do what I want without getting in my way."
WebEdit's clean, well-organized interface makes it the perfect tool for
HTML beginners. And unlike other HTML editors, WebEdit does not skimp on
power or flexibility. Designed for use by HTML experts, WebEdit 1.1
provides support for every feature of HTML, including HTML levels 1, 2 and
3, and even special language extensions such as those recognized by the
Netscape Web browser.
WebEdit 1.1 provides complete support the draft specification for HTML 3.
According to Rick Stout, co-author of The Internet Yellow Pages and author
of the forthcoming World Wide Web Complete Reference, "WebEdit is an
exciting new editor that allows you to work in an organized, uncluttered
environment. Of the many Web authoring tools I have looked at, WebEdit is
the most compliant with the HTML 3 specification."
Among it's many new features are support for HTML 3 inline figures,
mathematical formulae, tabs, banners, admonishments, and more. WebEdit's
powerful URL builder helps you construct uniform resource locators for
hypertext links to Internet resources, and a new WYSIWYG table builder
creates HTML 3 tables for you; simply enter your data into a spreadsheet-
style grid, and let WebEdit write the HTML code. Using WebEdit's Custom
28
Tags dialog, you can define your own tags to quickly enter often-repeated
sections of text. Floating toolbars provide single-click support for every
tag in HTML. With new "Easy Links" and "Easy Images" windows, you can drag-
and-drop inline images and hypertext links right into your documents. And
WebEdit's new built-in spelling checker helps you make your pages letter
perfect.
WebEdit 1.1 is published by KnowledgeWorks, Inc. as shareware and can be
downloaded from http://wwwnt.thegroup.net/webedit/webedit.htm for a free 30
day evaluation. The registration fee is US$99.95 for business use, and
US$49.95 for educational users, home users, and not-for-profit
organizations.
WebEdit is a trademark of Nesbitt Software.
CONTACT:
KnowledgeWorks, Inc.
2251 San Diego Ave., Suite A-141
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 220-8026
(619) 220-8324 Fax
Internet: webedit@thegroup.net
CompuServe: 76100,57
OS/2 WARP STR FOCUS! NEW! WARP COVERAGE!!
By Mike Restivo
Hello, and welcome to the beginning of IBM's OS/2 Warp coverage right here
in Silicon Times Report. This column will not only
contain news and reviews of OS/2 applications, but also hints and tips on
how to get the most out of your OS/2 system. Since some
people either think that OS/2 has no future or it's technically inferior to
other operating systems, I'll try to stay away from
those arguments and let the facts speak for themselves.
If you're not familiar with OS/2 Warp, take the next few minutes to read
over these few questions to learn a little more about it.
Ok, let's begin!
What is OS/2 Warp?
OS/2 Warp is IBM's award winning operating system aimed at a large variety
of computer systems, including desktop PC's and
client/server systems. OS/2 Warp is the third major release of OS/2. It is
a powerful, 32-bit operating system which delivers what you need:
Compatibility, performance, value, reliability, and ease-of-use.
What do I get when I buy OS/2 Warp?
Currently, there are two types of OS/2 available: OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp
Connect. OS/2 Warp Connect is OS/2 Warp plus a complete connectivity
29
solution, all in one box. OS/2 Warp Fullpack and Warp Connect Fullpack,
versions with a Blue-spine box, include Win-OS/2 code, which provides
compatibility with Windows programs; a Red-spine version does not include
Win-OS/2 code, so it relies on existing Windows software to provide
compatibility with Windows applications. All versions of OS/2 come with DOS
compatibility.
In addition to this, every copy of OS/2 Warp and Warp Connect comes with a
BonusPak. This collection of software includes:
Communication software:
Internet Connection (a.k.a. Internet Access Kit or IAK), Compuserve
Information Manager, and HyperAccess Lite Multimedia: Person 2 Person,
Multimedia Viewer, and Video In
IBM Works:
Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Charting, Database, Report Writer, Personal
Information Manager (PIM)
FaxWorks
System Information Tool
As if this was not enough, OS/2 Warp Connect comes with TCP/IP for OS/2 and
IBM's WebExplorer, plus additional software for your network. Of course,
with every version of OS/2 Warp, you have the best support and customer
service in the industry, courtesy of IBM.
What kind of system do I need to run OS/2 Warp?
IBM says OS/2 Warp will run on a 386-SX or higher computer with 4 Megabytes
of RAM. While this is true, OS/2 runs a lot better with 8 MB of RAM. In
addition, you need at least 55 MB of free hard disk space for OS/2 Warp
(Red-spine, no Win-OS/2 code); closer to 75 MB for Warp Fullpack with Win-
OS/2 code (Blue-spine); and at least 100 MB for Warp Connect. OS/2 Warp
installs off either an almost countless number of floppy disks (3.5") or a
CD.
Other system requirements include VGA or better graphics support, an IBM-
compatible mouse, and Multimedia-ready system for sound support. To use
the communications software provided, make sure you have a 9600 baud or
faster modem, and lots of extra hard disk space. (While the hard disk
space is not required, you'll soon find yourself up at 3 a.m. downloading
megabytes of files while reading Usenet newsgroups.)
Ok, cut to the chase: Is OS/2 for me?
OS/2 Warp will let you run virtually all your DOS and Windows programs, but
that's only half the fun. OS/2 Warp also will run
any of the thousands of native OS/2 programs. While they may not be as easy
to find as your generic DOS/Windows application, when you find a good one,
the advantages of OS/2 are clear.
Microsoft, and a large number of developers for Windows, are moving away
from Windows 3.x programs and toward the Win32
platform. (Both Windows 95 and Windows NT run Win32 applications.) The
problem is that there are few Win32 programs
out there, but lots on the horizon.
30
While you can compare the technical aspects of operating systems until the
cows come home, the choice really boils down to
software. Is there any immediate need to upgrade all your programs to their
next versions? Do you want to continue to use
the same programs you have, but updated for a new operating system? If so,
Windows 95 will probably be your best choice.
If you're not so sure about upgrading your software, but you do want to
take advantage of the cutting-edge features in current
operating systems, take a good long look at OS/2. More and more companies
are starting simultaneous development of Win32 and OS/2 versions of their
software; combine this with OS/2's already large selection of software, and
when you finally decide to
upgrade your programs, chances are there will be an OS/2 program that will
fit the bill.
A Round of Applause... ...as OS/2 Warp wins yet another award.
OS/2 WARP NUMBER ONE IN USER SATISFACTION
The July 1995 special issue of PC Magazine names OS/2 Warp as the number
one operating system for user satisfaction in their annual Reader Support
and Satisfaction Survey.
OS/2 Tip Of The Week
If you are familiar with OS/2's Drag 'n' Drop mouse/keyboard combinations,
add the line SET MENUSTYLE = SHORT to your
config.sys file. When you right-click on any object, the list of menu
choices does not include the Copy, Create Another, Create
Shadow, Move, Delete, and other options.
Conversely, if you are a novice to OS/2, or are not comfortable with using
the mouse/keyboard combinations to work with objects,
add SET MENUSTYLE = LONG to your config.sys file. (This is the default.) In
the end, it's all a matter of personal preference,
and OS/2 lets you configure the Workplace Shell to work for you.
A first look at... OS/2 Essentials
by Stardock Systems
As the name implies, OS/2 Essentials contains a number of programs which no
OS/2 user should be without. You get DirMaster,
an advanced file manager; Screen Saver 2.0; Roids, an arcade game; Filebar,
a Launchpad replacement; and File Graph/PM. All
this for only around $24.95.
Contact Stardock Systems at (313) 453-0328; fax: (313) 453-1480;
email: wardell@ibm.com; or WWW: http://oeonline.com/~stardock
That's all for now. There will be lots more to come in the future,
including in-depth reviews and previews of OS/2 software.
Please direct any feedback to either our editor or, directly to me at the
email address mike.restivo@streport.com
31
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
FARGO PRIMERA PRO COLOR PRINTERS - 600DPI
For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to
you that demonstrates FARGO Primera & Primera Pro SUPERIOR QUALITY 600dpi
24 bit Photo Realistic Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped
Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to:
STReport's Fargo Printout Offer
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
Folks, the FARGO Primera Pro has GOT to be the best yet. Its far superior
to the newest of Color Laser Printers selling for more than three times as
much. Its said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. Send for this
sample now. Guaranteed you will be amazed at the superb quality. (please,
allow at least a one week turn-around)
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
___ ___ _____ _______
/___| /___| /_____| /_______/
/____|/____| /__/|__| /__/
/_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/
/__/|____/|__|________|__/
/__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/_____
/__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/
________________________________________
/_______________________________________/
MAC/APPLE SECTION John Deegan, Editor (Temp)
USR NEWS! STR FOCUS!
US Robotics ISDN MODEM NewsLines
The I-Team is a subset of USR's Customer Support department that is
dedicated to providing you assistance with all aspects of getting your I-
modem up and running. The I-Team provides the following services:
Determining the availability of ISDN service to your location.
Determining installation and monthly service charges.
Determining lead time for installation.
Offering contact information for ISDN service providers.
Making the above information publicly available.
32
Coordinating with your ISDN service provider to make sure the line is
set up correctly.
Informing you of the correct I-modem settings for your ISDN line.
Whom Should I Contact?
For pre- and post-sales ISDN line ordering information, and technical
support for a purchased I-modem, call the I-Team at (800) 550 7800 between
8 am and 6 pm Central Time or send Internet e-mail to support@usr.com.
For I-modem literature, pricing, and availability information, call the USR
sales department at (800) USR CORP.
How Do I Get Detailed Information?
The information presented in this document is publicly available by the
following means:
USR Fax-on-Demand 800 762-6163
USR BBS 708 982-5092
World-Wide Web http://www.usr.com
ISDN Ordering Information for the I-modem. ISDN Service Provider
Information
Ameritech
Bell Atlantic
Cincinnati Bell
GTE
NYNEX
Pacific Bell
Rochester Tel
Southern Bell
Southern New England Telephone (SNET)
Southwestern Bell
Stentor (Canada)
US West
I-modem Requirements
USR I-Team
This document is intended to help you order your ISDN lines appropriately
for the I-modem. This document lists all the requirements for the I-modem
that your ISDN service provider should observe when setting up your ISDN
line.
Physical Interface
ISDN Direct BRI service
2B1Q line coding with the D channel used only for signaling
Support for V.120/I.463 rate adaptation at 64kbps/56kbps or V.110/I.462
rate adaptation
Line and Channel Configuration
33
Line and channel configuration for the I-modem with Integrated NT-1 and
analog device jack:
Minimum - 2 B channels: 1 that supports circuit switched voice and data
(CSV/D) call types and 1 that supports circuit switched voice (CSV) call
types. (NIIG Line set 12.)
Recommended - 2 B channels, both supporting circuit switched voice and
data (CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 17.)
Line and channel configuration for I-modems without an analog device jack:
Minimum - 1 B channel that supports circuit switched voice and data
(CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 4.)
Recommended - 2 B channels, both supporting circuit switched voice and
data (CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 17.)
General Requirements
Multipoint Attachment / Data line option (MP)
Automatic/Dynamic TEI assignments
No EKTS or CACH EKTS services
No B or D channel packetized (X.25) data
An RJ45/RJ61X or RJ11 connector
Terminal Type A
No additional / multiple call appearances
No flexible calling features or buttons for voice such as Automatic
callback, Call forwarding / hold / conferencing / pickup, CNI / Caller
ID, or Multiline hunt groups.
Provide This Information to Your ISDN Service Provider
Name, address, and current telephone number
Billing address (if different than above)
Installation address (if different than above)
Major intersection near the installation site
Indicate whether it's a business or residential ISDN installation
Preferred long distance carrier
Whether you'd like listed or unlisted ISDN Directory numbers
Whether any inside wiring is required ISDN physical information, line
configuration, and general requirements (from the top of this page).
Get This Information from Your ISDN Service Provider
34
1 Directory number (DN) per B channel
1 Service profile identifier (SPID) per B channel
CO switch type and call control protocol, either National ISDN-1: AT&T
5ESS Standard, Northern Telecom DMS-100 "Standard" (PVC 2), Siemens EWDS
Standard, or other NI-1 OR Custom: AT&T 5ESS "Custom" or Northern
Telecom DMS-100 "Custom" PVC 0) OR National ISDN-2
Cost for installation which would include initial service order, connection
charge, and/or premise visit charge, wiring charge etc. Monthly cost for
local and long distance usage (tariff) and Installation date and circuit
number
ATARI/JAG SECTION Dana Jacobson, Editor
From the Atari Editor's Desk
"Saying it like it is!"
We have a lot of news and information for you this week. It's seems,
lately, that I've either been at a loss for words (really
unusual!), or running out of time late in the week to really fulfill my
editorial responsibilities to put forth my opinions in this space.
Well, another week has swept past and I find myself in another similar
situation! It's been hectic here again - it seems like time
is something that's not always something any of us has a surplus these
days.
Let me just say that interesting news is included this week. Missionware
Software had a successful launch of its latest version of
Flash II - Version 3.00. Check out the information about this new upgrade.
You're going to want to upgrade, or buy the program outright!
Some interesting tidbits from the Internet, as well. So, let's move
forward and see what's happening this week. I promise I'll try
and force myself to put some time aside and put some thoughts together to
get you thinking.
Until next time...
Delphi's Atari Advantage!!
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (8/2/95)
(1) MEMWATCH 4 (6) CD_LIST UPDATE - JULY 1995*
(2) EASY MONEY 1.0 (7) DIAMOND EDGE PATCH -> V2.03
(3) IN-TOUCH 1.52 (8) FLASH II 2.23 UPGRADE
(4) MARIANT 1.0 (9) ATARI COMMUNITY EMAIL LIST*
(5) HCOPY 1.6S (10) OCR V.1.4 (MAY, 1995)*
35
* = New on list HONORARY TOP 10
The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently
out-performing every other file in the databases.
ST REPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.30
ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5)
Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database.
Flash II, Version 3.00! STR InfoFile! Version 3.00 Now Shipping!
FLASH II VERSION 3.00 SHIPS!
FROM:
MISSIONWARE SOFTWARE
354 N. Winston Drive
Palatine, Illinois 60067-4132
United States of America
phone 708-359-9565
Missionware Software is pleased to announce the release of version 3.00 of
Flash II. This is our seventh update and is our all-new
multitasking version! Flash II originally went up for sale in April of
1992. Version 3.00 adds a number of new features, as highlighted
below.
Flash II is the update to the most popular Atari ST telecommunications
program ever! It's available exclusively from Missionware Software and
at an affordable price! Flash II is completely rewritten by Paul
Nicholls of Clayfield, Australia. It's easy and fast to use for the
telecommunications beginner or pro!
What's so new and good about Flash II version 3.0? The following list
highlights a few of the many changes that will make your on line time
even better:
Flash II is now fully multitasking capable. The program easily
multitasks under such operating systems as MultiTOS? (trademark of Atari
Corporation) and Geneva? (trademark of Gribnif Software).
All elements of the program are now contained within GEM windows
including both editors and the terminal. That means that Flash II can,
by itself, do all file transfers in the background.
A new Auto Learn DO function is included that makes making logon and
other navigation scripts easy and automatic.
A new menu structure is used in version 3.00 that confirms more rigidly
to the official Atari standard.
Version 3.0 includes 2 editors! One editor is specifically designed to
be used as a capture buffer (just like the old editor) while the other
is designed to be used as a type ahead window or command window (or
both). While these editor functions are dedicated to a specific use
36
while online, you can use them as separate editors while off line for
any text editing purpose you desire.
The Atari standard clipboard is now supported in 3.0 meaning that you
can easily cut and paste text between both windows or between Flash II
and other applications.
A new Edit menu replaces the old Block menu and includes all standard
editing functions, such as Cut, Copy and Paste.
A new Window menu permits easy control over access to the windows.
Default transfer paths can now be saved!
Automatic saving of capture after logoff is now included.
A mini-BBS function is now included!
There are many more new features to Flash II version 3.0 too.
Other features of Flash II include:
Fully Falcon030 compatible!
Enhanced DEC VT Terminal emulations including the ability to swap the
functions of the Delete and Backspace keys for conformance to standard
DEC terminals.
Enhanced ANSI terminal and graphics. Blinking characters are now
supported in version 3.00.
Full support for all Atari serial ports on TT030 and MegaSTe as well as
baud rates up to 153600.
Terminal mode now displays either the real time clock or a timer.
DO script files compatible with older versions of Flash!
All macros use the familiar Flash DO script format!
Easily setup the parameters for each BBS you call...this includes
everything from ASCII upload/download options to baud rate!
You can program up to 20 individual and separate macros for each BBS
plus an additional 10 global macros !
Displays RLE & GIF pictures either on or off line! You can also save or
load these pictures for later review!
Supports the following terminal types: TTY, VIDTEX, VT52, ANSI, VT100,
VT101, VT102, VT200, VT300 & PRESTEL.
Includes full support for RTS/CTS. This mode can now be turned on and
off by the user.
Includes Automatic Answer mode!
Includes Auto Boards mode - Preselect the board(s) you wish to dial and
37
when Flash II is launched either manually from the desktop by you, or
automatically by some other program launcher, Flash II will wakeup and
dial the board(s) you've got selected. It will also wait for the proper
time to dial these boards.
Supports the ST, IBM and DEC character sets, including IBM/ANSI graphics
characters!
Supports the following upload/download protocols: ASCII, Xmodem, Ymodem,
Ymodem-G, Zmodem, Modem7, WXmodem, CIS B, Kermit and SEAlink! And all
of these protocols are built into the program...no external modules
required!!!
Zmodem supports the selection of AutoStart and Streaming options. If
you prefer to use an external Zmodem protocol with Flash II, you can
now force Flash II's Zmodem autostart mode to off. For BBS' that don't
support "streaming", this too can now be turned off.
Logs all on line time and calculates your approximate costs for you!
New version written in assembler! Fast!
Runs on all ST, STe, TT030 and Falcon computers!
Supports "Install Application". You can create a DO script that can be
used to launch Flash II from the desktop and force it to dial up and go
online for you, all automatically!
Missionware Software's upgrade policy remains the same for the new
Version 3.00! We will continue to upgrade any old version of Flash!
(copyright Antic Software) for just $35 US, plus $4 shipping and
handling (US and Canada), $8 worldwide. Or, you can purchase Flash II,
version 3.00 outright, for only $59.95 US plus the shipping and handling
charges applicable to your area.
You can also upgrade any old version of Flash II to our new version
3.00. We're offering an "Easy Budget" upgrade which includes a new
program disk and a short 40+ page manual. This manual describes the new
features found in 3.00. (Your old Flash II manual suffices for all
other program information.) The cost of this upgrade is $15 plus $3
shipping and handling ($6 worldwide).
For those of you that want or need our all-new, fully updated, 3.00
manual, you can purchase our "Full Upgrade" which includes the new 250
page manual and program disk. The cost of this upgrade is $30 plus $4
shipping and handling ($8 worldwide).
To order, or for more information, contact:
Missionware Software
354 N. Winston Drive
Palatine, IL 60067-4132
United States of America
phone 708-359-9565
38
The Recipe Box! STR InfoFile! - The Leader in Recipe Storage Systems!
The Recipe Box 5.0
In May of 1992, Mountain Software introduced The Recipe Box to the Atari ST
community. Since that time, the program has been through numerous
revisions, and has been ported to the Commodore Amiga and Apple Macintosh.
Now, more than a year since the last revision, we are happy to announce the
arrival of The Recipe Box 5.0 for the
Atari ST!
Rather than trying to build on old technology, we completely rewrote
version 5.0 from the ground up. The result being a more
compact, more reliable, and more flexible application.
One of our primary goals in version 5.0 was to make the program even easier
to use, and the new button bar was the first step towards that goal. You
can now jump effortlessly between all sections of the program instead of
quitting back to the main menu for every task. In addition, we cleaned up
most menus in the program by switching to context sensitive mouse response.
Now right clicking an object will bring up the appropriate editor for that
object.
By eliminating unneeded buttons in the index menu, we were able to increase
chapter titles to 24 characters, and record titles to 50
characters. This means that you will now have more room for those recipes
with long titles!
In addition, we added a new "information" record type. This new record type
lets you store up to 5 pages of 80 column text in each
record. The possibilities this new record type opens up are enormous. These
include simple uses such as storing nutritional
information or cooking tips, up to entirely new uses for The Recipe Box
such as personal information managers, diaries, address books, song/poetry
books, family histories, inventories, etc.
New database structures allowed us to increase storage capacity to over
65000 chapters with 2000 records in each chapter. And, new
loading routines mean nearly instantaneous chapter loading.
The internal text editors have been greatly improved to be faster, more
feature filled, and easier to use than previous versions.
The recipe import formats have been enhanced, and we've added additional
formats, including "Mastercook II" and the "Usenet
Cookbook". Recipes that do not adhere to recognized formats may be imported
easily using the manual import feature. And, any text file may be imported
as an information record for easy management within The Recipe Box.
As with earlier versions, recipe records may be exported directly in the
latest "Meal-Master" format for easy recipe exchange
with other users. And information records are easily exported for use with
other software.
The accuracy of the print routines has been greatly improved, and now
supports multiple print formats including various notebook
39
sizes, 3x5 cards, and 4x6 cards.
The new grocery menu has undergone many improvements to improve the speed
of the database, and to make preparing grocery lists even easier. A new
"Locate" feature allows you to quickly find the item you are looking for
even when there are many items with similar descriptions. The grocery item
editor now includes a "Staple" field for automatically inserting those
items you buy on a frequent basis. In addition, any changes made to an item
in the item list are reflected in both the item and grocery lists.
The shopping list created by the grocery manager has been improved to be
more readable, and more compact than previous versions.
The old Meal Manager of previous versions has been replaced with a new
Calendar Menu. This new menu features a full graphic calendar and an easy
to understand event list. Any record in the database can be attached to any
date on the calendar, or simply drag a record to the calendar to attach it
to the current date. Personal notes may be entered on any date in the
calendar as well.
There is no limit on the number of events you may store in the calendar,
and you may place as many events on a single day as you
wish. In addition, events will be retained for as long as you wish, though
outdated events are easily removed when you desire it. Or,
simply drag the event to a new date on the calendar. The batch menu allows
you to select any of your desired records for printing or exporting.
The new "Find" menu allows you to search the entire database for records
matching your search string. The complete text or the titles only of each
record may be searched depending on your needs. The results of each search
are maintained so that you can quickly view multiple records that match
your searches.
The new graphical user interface is now much more configurable, and
includes the ability to use up to 16 colors if your system supports it.
Virtually every aspect of the interface is user selectable, and a number of
presets are available to get you started.
A new help system is built-in providing instant access to the program
documentation, from any point in the program. The help
system features a hypertext style document allowing quick access to any
part of the text.
A new statistics display makes it easy to determine the program version,
the registered owner, the number of records stored in the database, the
free memory available, etc.
The Recipe Box runs on all Atari ST, TT, and Falcon computers with 1 Meg or
more of RAM. A hard drive is highly recommended.
GDOS/SpeedoGDOS is required for all printing functions. The program runs in
color or monochrome in any resolution of 640x200 or greater (ST Medium, ST
High, or greater).
The Recipe Box lists for $45.00 and is available through better Atari
dealers. Or, you may order directly from Mountain Software at:
Mountain Software
40
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
Check or Money order in US Funds only!
Shipping is free in the US and Canada, $5.00 elsewhere.
Residents of Washington State, please add 7.6% sales tax.
Registered users of any previous version may upgrade to version 5.0 for
only $20, by sending a copy of your receipt, or a photocopy of your master
disk. Users who have purchased older versions on or after June 1, 1995 may
receive a FREE update by sending a copy of your sales receipt showing the
purchase date. Questions regarding The Recipe Box may be directed to the
following E-mail addresses, and a demo version should be available at most
of these sites soon.
GEnie: A.WATSON6
Internet: awatson@pacifier.com
Internet: a.watson6@genie.geis.com
WWW: http://www.pacifier.com/~awatson
FTP: ftp.pacifier.com/pub/users/awatson
Bear Cavern BBS: (360) 573-2054 (E-mail to Anthony Watson)
Postal Service: Mountain Software
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
Pysgham! STR InfoFile! "Virtual Drives" On the ST!
Pysgham v1.50
S T e c t r e
presents
P y s g h a m
Virtual drives have been rather common in the ST range of computers.
Pysgham will also add sort of virtual drives to your machine but unlike RAM
disks the new drives will correspond to folders in other real drives. If
you for example have a much used folder on drive D such as:
D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\ then with Pysgham you can install a new drive (for ex
H:) corresponding to D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\. When installed by Pysgham you can
access drive H: as any other normal drive ,but the files/folder displayed
in H: will be the one in D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\. As an example H:\*.* will
equal D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\*.* ,and H:\TEST\*.* will equal
D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\TEST\*.*
41
You will now no longer need to select the directory D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\ but
only need to click on drive H. And still data can be saved/loaded, program
ran, file copying etc. all can be performed just as normal!
Up to eight different drives of this kind might be installed at once by
Pysgham. As drives installed by Pysgham will (normally)
correspond to real drives therefore data saved on them will naturally not
be lost when the machine is switched off. Pysgham will also enable you to
turn Write Verify On or Off for EACH drive. You can for example have Write
Verify Off for RAM disks ,and
certain hard drive partitions while keep Write Verify On on other
partitions/floppies. As well as that you can make certain drives Write
Protected by using Pysgham. Pysgham is controlled by using an easy to used
GEM window program. Pysgham will soon be available from the most popular
Atari ftp sites. Or email us to get back a uuecoded version. pysghm15.zip
Please note that Pysgham is POSTCARDWARE.
Mnilu! STR InfoFile! GFA Basic 2 Compiler!
Mnilu!
The GfA BASIC 2 Compiler. Compile GfA BASIC files into stand-alone GEMDOS
executable relocatable files.
- extremely fast compilation speed
- create .TOS or .PRG program files
- minimum file length of output file only 28K
- easy to use GEM user interface
- fully compatible with 95% of GfA v2 written
source code
Latest version (May ,1994) is 1.61.
Mnilu Tranquil - the 'second' version of this great 'Compiler' is coming
out SOON!
MUCH improved and will also compile -!>GFA BASIC v3.5E<!- files Fully
compatible with most GFA BASIC 2 AND 3.5E programs! > out (hopefully) in
early August 95 > something worth waiting for
If you've used the original version then you won't even recognize the new
Mnilu Tranquil!
Now EVERYONE will be able to turn their .BAS/.GFA files into stand-alone
GEMDOS executable .PRG files
Another GREAT program coming soon from STectre.
MIST STR 1 min. Show Report The Show Must Go On!
From Missionware's John Trautschold:
Well, we're back from MIST. We had a good time. Apparently they had
42
around 200 folks attend - not bad considering! :-) They were purchasing
products too. I made a good profit.
Yes, we released 3.00 at the show. Folks seemed quite interested in it and
were anxiously awaiting the chance to get their hands on a copy. Some of
these folks had attended the TAF show in Toronto and had been
given a sneak preview there. All told, it was a good show! Back to work
now...
John T.
There's been some discussion about ZIP drives for the ST; and whether or
not the latest ICD hard drive utilities would support it. From the U.K.
comes this report:
STR Mail Call "...a place for our readers to be heard"
STReport's MAILBAG
Messages * NOT EDITED * for content
I have bought a Iomega for my Falcon. It works great!
It doesn't require any new driver. Just the ICD Pro SCSI 6.5.5 works. And
it works like floppy, I mean like removable media, the system recognized
the change. And it is fast also, just half the speed of my Quantum LPS
540S.
Thought, without new driver, I can't get functions like: password write
protect. I think you can include this email with your next issue.
Malcolm
(1668) 30 Jul 95 00:38:52
By: Troy H. Cheek, Inner Circle (1:362/708.4)
To: Streport, The Bounty BBS (1:112/35)
Re: ATTN: D. P. Jacobson, Atari Section Editor
St: Pvt Kill
@FMPT 4
@MSGID: 1:362/708.4 301ac692
(In the event that this message goes astray, I am attempting to reach the
offices of ST Report, particularly D.P. Jacobson of the Atari section.)
> Jaguar Easter Eggs/Cheats/Hints STR InfoFile - Solving Those Riddles!
> We've been promising game tips and cheats for what seems like an
> eternity. I apologize for not getting these put together as rapidly as
> I would have liked, but our compilation of game tips, cheats, etc. is
43
> just about complete. In this week's issue, we're providing you with
> just some of the game cheat codes for Hover Strike. We'll have more
> for this enjoyable game, next week. We also have an "invincibility"
> cheat, but we'll only send this to you if you request it, unless
> there's an overwhelming demand from our readers!
Consider this a request for the "invincibility" cheat.
In fact, I'd be interested in your entire compilation. If it's too big to
send through Fidonet, would a blank floppy and a SASE do the trick?
Troy H. Cheek Internet: Defunct
Rt. #1, Box 409 Fidonet: 1:362/708.4
Benton, TN 37307 FAX line: by request only
Steel Talons! STReport NewsFile! New Game for Falcon030 Released!
Lexicor Software Corporation is the US distributor for 16/32 Systems Atari
Falcon adaptation of Tengen's coin-op STEEL TALONS. The game was favorably
reviewed by such magazines as ST FORMAT. Llamazap and Pinball Dreams is
also available for the Falcon.
The game is a fast and colorful 3-D helicopter action simulation; full use
of the Falcon's hardware results in an impressive
polygon landscape and great speed and scrolling. Anyone who has played the
original Tengen coin-op will not be disappointed with STEEL TALONS for the
Falcon. There are a number of missions to complete, enemies to harry, and
numerous attacks to avoid.
STEEL TALONS is available from Lexicor Software, retailing at U$D 49.00.
To order a copy, write to:
Lexicor Software Corporation
108 Peterborough Street, 3rd floor, suite H
Boston, MA 02215
or call (617) 437 0414 or fax (617) 437-9413
email: games@lexicor.com
Other games available are: Llamazap and Pinball Dreams. Currently all
games, Steel Talons included, are going for a holiday special of only 35
U$D!
Branch Always News STR InfoFile
PC Xformer 3.2 Atari 130XE Emulator for MS-DOS
July 28, 1995
Price: $34.95 U.S. ($29.95 until August 31)
44
Available: immediately
Requires: any MS-DOS compatible 486 or Pentium based PC
For additional product information contact Darek Mihocka at:
Branch Always Software
14150 N.E. 20th Street, Suite 302
Bellevue, WA 98007, U.S.A.
Phone: 206-236-0540
Fax: 206-236-0257
America Online: BRASOFT
Compuserve: 73657,2714
GEnie: BRASOFT
MSN: BRASOFT
Internet: brasoft@halcyon.com
World Wide Web: http://www.halcyon.com/brasoft/
Introducing PC Xformer 3.2, the newest and fastest Atari 130XE which allows
any 486 or Pentium based PC to run Atari 800, Atari 800XL, and Atari 130XE
software as fast or faster than a real 130XE. PC Xformer 3.2 is fully
backward compatible with earlier versions of PC Xformer and ST Xformer and
supports disk files created by the SIO2PC cable, ST Xformer, and PC
Xformer.
The three biggest features in version 3.2 are SPEED, SPEED, SPEED! Unlike
earlier versions of PC Xformer which were optimized for use on 386 based
computers, PC Xformer 3.2 has been optimized for the 486 and Pentium and
runs an average of about 40% faster than the earlier versions.
What this means for users is that PC Xformer 3.2 now runs about 9 times
faster than a 130XE (equivalent to a 16 MHz 6502) on a 90 Mhz Pentium, and
about 5 times faster on a 486/66. Even the slowest 486SX based PC now runs
PC Xformer faster than a real 130XE giving faster smoother graphics in
games and faster Atari BASIC programs, without having to upgrade your PC.
For compatibility with programs that run best at the normal 1.8 MHz speed
of the Atari, PC Xformer 3.2 has two speeds of operation: NORMAL (1.8 MHz
mode) and TURBO (as fast as possible mode). All of the options, such as
selecting normal or turbo speed, whether to run with Atari BASIC, whether
to run in Atari 800 or XL/XE mode, etc. can all be set from the MS-DOS
command line.
By popular demand PC Xformer now has a built-in 6502 debugger which allows
you to examine and modify the Atari memory, disassemble 6502 code, and even
single step 6502 code. For die hard hackers PC Xformer 3.2 also supports
the ability to customize the Atari OS and BASIC.
PC Xformer 3.2 has full support for emulating Player Missile Graphics with
collision detection, GTIA graphics modes, ANTIC display lists and DLIs, 256
color support, joystick support (as well as joystick emulation via the
cursor keys on the keyboard), sound, printer, modem, and more. Atari BASIC
as well as the Atari 800 and XL/XE operating systems are built-in.
PC Xformer 3.2 can also be run from the MS-DOS prompt in Windows 3.1,
Windows 95, OS/2 2.1, and OS/2 Warp. Run it directly from MS-DOS for
fastest speed.
45
PC Xformer 3.2 also includes a copy of the shareware SIO2PC software, and
about a megabyte of sample Atari 8-bit software.
How to order
Brand new users can purchase PC Xformer 3.2 by contacting Branch Always
Software directly. To order by VISA or MasterCard, call us at 206-236-0540
and have your card ready, or send your order in by mail.
During the month of August we are offering PC Xformer 3.2 at an
introductory price of only $29.95. After August 31 the price is $34.95.
Registered users of PC Xformer can upgrade for only $15. All prices include
shipping to anywhere in the world.
PC Xformer 3.2 will also be available by September 1 from major Atari
dealers including American Technavisions, B & C Computervisions, and Toad
Computers. Call your local Atari dealer for pricing and availability.
Add-on products
There are several products and services available from other Atari
developers which are of benefit to PC Xformer users.
The SIO2PC cable is a cable which connects your PC to your Atari 8-bit
computer and allows you to transfer over entire disks of Atari 8-bit
software to your PC. SIO2PC works on any MS-DOS based PC and creates "disk
image" files which PC Xformer uses. SIO2PC can also be used to transfer
files from the PC back to your Atari 8-bit computer.
SIO2PC is available fully assembled or in kit form from:
Nick Kennedy
300 South Vancouver Street
Russellville, AR
72801
Users who do not have access to an Atari 8-bit computer or an SIO2PC cable
can have their disks transferred from Atari 8-bit 5.25" floppy disks to IBM
PC 3.5"floppy disks for a small fee by contacting Rob Satonica at:
Creative Software Systems
7775 Scottdale Rd.
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
phone: (616) 473-3904
Also available from Creative Software Systems is the Atari Emulator
Manager, an inexpensive MS-DOS utility which allows you to manage your
Atari 8-bit files, configure your PC Xformer settings, and run PC Xformer,
all by using your mouse to click on the various options and files on the
screen. A must have for any PC Xformer user who juggles a lot of different
Atari files! For example, you can have one configuration that runs your
Atari BASIC software in turbo speed Atari 130XE mode. You could then have
another configuration that runs your games disks in normal speed Atari 800
mode. Do all this by just pointing and clicking with the mouse.
46
To order or to find out more about the Atari Emulator Manager, contact Rob
Satonica at Create Software Systems.
Atari Shows
Once again we are hitting the road to demonstrate our products at Atari
shows around North America. If you missed us at the Toronto and Sacramento
shows in April, you can drop by our booths at the Indianapolis Atarifest on
July 29th and the Dallas Atari show on October 7.
At both shows we will be demonstrating and selling the PC Xformer 3.2
emulator as well as our new Gemulator 4.0 Atari STE emulator for Windows
95.
If you cannot attend the shows, send us your name and address to receive
future product announcements, show dates, our authorized Atari dealer list,
product order forms, and more. If you are on the Internet, drop by our Web
page.
Benchmarks
Ok, just how fast is PC Xformer? We believe it to be the fastest 6502
emulator available for your 486 or Pentium. We put a real 130XE computer
side-by-side with a 486/66 computer and a Pentium P5-90 computer then ran
some benchmarks in Atari BASIC. We found the 486/66 runs at least 4 times
faster than the 130XE, while the 90 MHz Pentium runs at least 8 times
faster, and sometimes faster!
Benchmark #1 is a simple FOR NEXT loop:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10000:NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 22.5 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 4.6 seconds (5 times faster)
Pentium/90: 2.4 seconds (9 times faster)
Benchmark #2 is a screen scrolling benchmark:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10000
20 ?X;
30 NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 109 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 29 seconds (4 times faster)
Pentium/90: 14 seconds (8 times faster)
And finally, Benchmark #3 is a graphical line sweep:
10 GRAPHICS 8
20 COLOR 1
30 FOR X = 0 TO 319
40 PLOT X,0
50 DRAWTO 159,159
60 NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 32 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 8 seconds (4 times faster)
Pentium/90: 4 seconds (8 times faster)
47
Now you can understand why for games we needed to supply a normal speed
option!
STR News TidBits
CompuServe Launches Upgrade
CompuServe Inc. has announced a $125 million overhaul, a new low-cost
service for novices and a price change. It also says it is
beginning an extensive marketing push and will nearly double its support
staff.
"We are moving from being a sleeping giant to really revitalizing the
organization," CEO Robert Massey told reporter Jared Sandberg in this
morning's Wall Street Journal.
And Richard Brown, new CEO of CompuServe parent H&R Block, told the
paper, "New competition and new challenges demand that we reinvent our
products and services." (Sandberg points out the CompuServe announcements
come three weeks before the launch of Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Network.)
The paper notes CompuServe's plans include:
An appeal to modem newcomers with the launch next spring of a service
code-named Wow! It is designed to be easy to use and to let users
customize it to their liking.
Introduction of a new look within 45 days.
Simplifying pricing structure by eliminating multiple tiers. It will
charge a monthly fee of $9.95 for the first five hours and $2.95, down
from $4.80, for each additional hour. Eliminated are surcharges for
extended services, such as participating in forums, in a move to
straight hourly fees.
Beefing up the CompuServe network by doubling the number of local dial-
up points to 105,000 from 50,000.
Adding some 400 people to the support staff and tripling the marketing
spending to $115 million in the current fiscal year ending next April,
including a tripled advertising budget of $35 million.
"This announcement represents a significant shift in focus," Massey told
business writer Evan Ramstad of The Associated Press.
Ad Industry Discourages Net Regs
A U.S. Commerce Department task force has been urged by advertising
industry executives not to restrict marketing campaigns on
the Internet. The execs say advertising dollars are the best way to fund
the growth of the global network.
United Press International reports Norman Lehoullier, co-director of Grey
Interactive, told a meeting of the Telecommunications Policy Committee of
48
Information Infrastructure Task Force, "Regulating new media advertising
will not only retard its growth and technical potential, it will retard new
media's ability to increase this country's competitiveness."
UPI says the executives pointed out advertising dollars played a crucial
role in the development of broadcast TV and that today annual spending on
TV advertising is an estimated $35 billion per year.
John Sarsen Jr., president of the National Association of Advertisers, says
agencies hope to play a similar role in the
development of the global data infrastructure, but will not be able to if
regulators impose broadcast-style rules on electronic commerce.
"Advertisers consider the Internet and online services a lucrative market
which attract affluent, well-educated consumers," says UPI,
noting that a recent Commerce Department study found that 58.1 percent of
urban households earning $75,000 per year or more own a computer. Among
urban computer owners, 50.7 percent have attended four years of college or
more.
While online advertising still is in its infancy, the ad executives say
they expect the medium to grow exponentially. Roughly 9 percent to 11
percent of online consumers age 25-54 already peruse online classified ads.
The wire service noted the Clinton administration currently has not
proposed to regulate advertising online.
Chip Markets to Double by 2000
Texas Instruments' chief economist predicts that if present trends
continue, the worldwide semiconductor market may more than double in size
in the next five years to more than $300 billion. Speaking at the annual
Robertson Stephens & Co. Semiconductor
Conference in San Jose, California, Vladi Catto said the semiconductor
market is experiencing unprecedented growth for the 10th year in a row and
the outlook is for growth to continue through the decade.
According to the Reuter News Service, Catto said, "For the past 15 years,
the worldwide market has grown an average of 15 percent per year. If that
growth rate continues, the market will reach about $275 billion over the
next five years. If the market grows at 20 percent annually, the industry
could exceed $300 billion." He said that influencing the industry's
unprecedented growth are four major factors:
The increasing use of semiconductors in electronics.
Emerging market growth.
Computerization of the workplace.
The growth of cellular phones.
Reuters reports the economist predicted the geographic diversification of
the semiconductors market will act as a buffer to a slowdown in any
particular region and that the world economic outlook remains positive,
lessening the possibility of recession. Catto also said that over the next
five years, the semiconductor industry will require more than twice as much
capital spending as it
49
has invested since 1990 to keep up with demand.
NEC Makes Re-Writable Optical Disk
A re-writable optical disc that can store some 4 gigabytes of data with a
12-centimeter compact disc size reportedly has been developed by Japan's
NEC Corp. In Tokyo today, sources told the Jiji Japanese press service NEC
improved the phase change optical disc, a new re-writable computer storage
device that is gaining popularity due to its capacity of some 650
megabytes.
"The company succeeded in shortening the length of pits or tiny
indentations on the disc that record information to 0.33 micron from
the current 0.9 micron," Jiji reports. "The technology allowed the 4GB
capacity, which can store about two hours of video recording with better
resolution than high-quality videocassette recorders."
Jiji adds the overwriting function, or simultaneous erasing and recording
of information, allows users to edit and process video clips
and data.
"For next-generation re-writable discs, Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. ... have announced the SD-RAM
format... an enhancement of their super density-format digital videodiscs,
but its capacity is limited to 2.6GB."
LCD Developer Dead at 68
The scientist who invented the liquid crystal display technology has died
of diabetes complications at 68. Morris Braunstein, during a 20-year
career at Hughes Research Laboratory, where he worked on the "Star Wars"
defense system, also patented four other inventions involving laser and
optical technology.
The Associated Press notes he helped create hypo-allergenic cosmetics when
he worked for Almay Cosmetics in the 1950s.
Feds Say Computer Counterfeited
Some $259,700 in counterfeit money has been seized from a Lubbock, Texas,
home where federal agents allege a Texas Tech student apparently used his
home computer to print the bills. Secret Service Agent R. David Freriks
told United Press International the student, who has not yet been arrested,
apparently used his PC to print the money which was found in several cities
across west Texas and New Mexico.
In addition to a suitcase stuffed with fake $50 bills, investigators seized
a home computer, a printer and a scanner from the student's home. "The
bills look convincing from a distance but a closer look reveals slightly
blurred designs and faulty coloration," UPI said. "The paper is also slick,
unlike real currency, and lacks a watermark strip."
Two more suspects, including the ringleader, still are being sought, said
Freriks who added the student and five other suspects already identified
will probably be indicted by a grand jury next week. Freriks said he had no
50
fear the 20-year-old student will flee, because "at this point, he's more
afraid of his dad than anything."
Tobacco Docs A HIT on the Web
Secret documents from the tobacco industry, leaked to researchers at the
University of California, San Francisco, by a disgruntled Brown &
Williamson Co. employee, have become a hot item on the Internet. UCSF
officials told United Press International in San Francisco that since the
documents were first posted online nearly six months ago, an average of
4,670 queries have been logged daily, many from as far away as Australia,
Japan, Germany and Great Britain.
The documents -- which include a letter from actor Sylvester Stallone
agreeing to smoke tobacco products in his movies for $500,000 -- were
opened to the public by a recent court decision. UPI notes Brown and
Williamson is appealing those decisions, but their efforts to block public
access during the appeal process has been denied by the California Supreme
Court.
UCSF officials told the wire service the high number of requests prompted
the decision to release the material on the Net.
Said UCSF professor Stanton Glantz, an authority on the politics of the
tobacco industry, "The demand was so great, the staff in our archive room
could not get any other work done, so it was merely a matter of efficiency.
In hindsight, it looks like a brilliant
decision."
UPI adds, "The documents contain several files detailing scientific
research that revealed decades ago a link between smoking and cancer. Those
research files have been called invaluable by attorneys around the country
involved in damage litigation against
tobacco companies."
Law professor Richard Daynard at Northwestern University said the release
of the documents "may well be seen as a landmark in the
information revolution as well as in tobacco control." Officials said while
lawyers are among the more than 65,000
computer users who have accessed the files, the majority are ordinary
citizens.
Among the items they are accessing is Stallone's letter, Glantz said,
adding, "A lot of the documents are very technical, but everyone can
understand the Stallone letter. It's one of those fun items." That letter,
bearing Stallone's signature, says in part: "As discussed, I guarantee that
I will use Brown and Williamson tobacco products in no less than five
feature films. It is my understanding that Brown & Williamson will pay a
fee of $500,000."
(Stallone publicist Vicki Warren told UPI her client "did not make a penny
on this issue.")
World Wide Web surfers can read the letter for themselves by accessing Web
address http://www.library.edu/tobacco.
CompuServe members now have access to the Internet's Web through the
51
NetLauncher software. Enter GO NETLAUNCHER for details.
Jaguar Section
Super Burnout Review! CATnips!
Jaguar Edge Update! WMCJ Comments!
Contest #3 Winner! Contest #4!
Towers II! And much more!
From the Editor's Controller
Playin' it like it is!
White Men Can't Jump and Flashback have hit the streets this week. WMCJ
seems to be the game that's seen more online reaction so far; and those
reactions are extremely favorable so far. We hope to have reviews of both
shortly.
We have a winner for last week's contest (see below); and we're providing
you a second opportunity to win a copy of The Jaguar Gamers Guide. See
contest info at the end of this section. As I mentioned earlier in this
column, this is a bad week for editorial comments due to time constraints.
I do have a few topics that I'm in the middle of putting together. I'm
hoping that these upcoming editorials will generate some discussion and
promote some ideas for Atari, and its userbase. Expect to see these ideas
in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, let's get to the Jaguar gaming news and
information this week!
Until next time...
Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile What's currently available,
what's coming out
Current Available Titles
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $29.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $29.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/Crescent Galaxy$29.99 Atari Corp.
J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp.
J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp.
JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames
J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp.
J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp.
J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $39.99 Atari Corp.
J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9007 Checkered Flag $39.99 Atari Corp.
52
J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp.
J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp
J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp
J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp
J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp.
Cannon Fodder $69.99 Virgin/C-West
Syndicate $69.99 Ocean
Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams
Theme Park $69.99 Ocean
Sensible Soccer Telegames
Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams
J9009E Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Corp.
J0144E Pinball Fantasies $59.99 C-West
J9052E Super Burnout $59.99 Atari
White Men Can't Jump $69.99 Atari
Flashback $59.99 U.S. Gold
Available Soon
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
Ultra Vortek $69.99 Atari
Flip-Out TBD Atari
Rayman $69.99 UBI Soft
Power Drive Rally TBD TWI
Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari
Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER
J8001 Jaguar (complete) $189.99 Atari Corp.
J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $159.99 Atari Corp.
J8904 Composite Cable $19.95
J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp.
J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95
CatBox $69.95 ICD
Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile The Latest Gaming News!
CONTACT: Dorf & Stanton Communications
Jessica Nagel/Jennifer Hansen
310/479-4997 or 800/444-6663
For Immediate Release
WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP --- BUT CAN THEY PLAY BALL?
Atari Corporation launches "hoops" game with Team Tap peripheral
SUNNYVALE, CA (Aug. 1, 1995) --- Today Atari Corporation launched two
exciting additions to the Jaguar 64 product line. The quickly expanding
Atari arsenal now includes "White Men Can't Jump"(tm), a fast-paced, trash-
talkin' game of street ball based on the major motion picture from
53
Twentieth Century Fox, and "Team Tap"(tm), a peripheral for the Jaguar 64
system that allows up to four players to participate at once. Now, four
players can compete in this no-holds-barred hoops tourney where teams try
to hustle and shove their way into the street ball hall of fame.
"White Men Can't Jump" players must attempt to make it into the Slam City
Tournament, the ultimate in street ball play. It costs $5,000 to enter,
however, and players start out with only $500 loaned to them from the
BREAKLEG BROS, two unforgiving loan sharks. Hoopsters must hit the court
and win games to hustle the remaining cash.
Players custom design their teams as well as control the scoring, timing
and possession rules. The one thing they can't control is the
shovin' and trash talkin'. Players must be tough and ready to throw elbows
because street ball rules apply --- traveling and goaltending are the only
fouls called.
Atari also launched "Team Tap", a peripheral for the Jaguar 64 system
bundled with "White Men Can't Jump". "Team Tap" enables four players to get
in on the jammin' hoops action all at once. A $29.95 value, "Team Tap" is
included free with "White Men Can't Jump". With select future titles,
players can employ two Team Taps for eight-competitor game play.
Two play modes are available for "White Men Can't Jump": Tournament and
Versus. Tournament mode lets one or two players compete as a team in a
street ball game. With "Team Tap" and Versus mode, three or four players
split into two pairs and play against each other.
"'White Men Can't Jump' launches our fall line-up of sports and action
games for the Jaguar," said Ted Hoff, President of Atari's North American
Operations. "This game showcases the power of the Jaguar 64 and 'Team Tap',
which provides the capability for four players to enjoy on-screen action in
this two-on-two basketball game."
"White Men Can't Jump" is rated KA, appropriate for kids through adults,
and has a suggested retail price of $69.99. Atari communicated with tens of
thousands of Jaguar 64 users highlighting the new title introduction and
peripheral offer through the company's new Jaguar First Alert consumer
postcard program. Other Atari summer releases include "Ultra Vortek,"
"FlipOut!," and "Rayman." The library of games for Atari Jaguar 64 will
approach 75 titles by the end of 1995.
For over twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with high-
quality, value-priced entertainment. Located in Sunnyvale, California,
Atari Corporation markets Jaguar, the only American-made, advanced 64-bit
entertainment system.
Team Tap(tm) all rights reserved. Team Tap(tm), Atari logo and Jaguar are
all trademarks of Atari Corporation.
"White Men Can't Jump"(tm) (c)1995 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
All Rights Reserved. "White Men Can't Jump" and associated characters are
trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Licensed to Atari
Corporation for distribution. Atari, the Atari logo and Jaguar are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corporation. All Rights
Reserved. This software is authorized by Atari for use with the Jaguar 64-
Bit Interactive Multimedia System.
54
Towers II STR InfoFile
TOWERS II - PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER
COMING SOON TO A JAGUAR NEAR YOU
JV Enterprises proudly presents Towers II for the Jaguar system.
Towers II is:
-> An RPG set in the mystical land of Lamini
-> Full screen, smooth scrolling
-> Over 600 Items to utilize
Over 350 creatures to interact and battle with
Two save game features --One to memory and one to cartridge. These are
full saves-- complete statistics, auto map, open and
closed doors, all creature activity, and all item positions.
Towers II will be on cartridge format and expected release date by
Christmas (Constant updates for release dates will published)
If anyone would like to have questions answered, or current screen shots of
Towers II sent to them via e-mail, please let me know by
writing to Jag Jaeger, gagnon@nevada.edu. The screen shots are in TGA
format and zipped into a 189k file. Because of current work load, please
allow a little time for a response.
Towers II can be seen at
http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/Consoles/Tower2/Jag_Towers2.html This
location is also linked with a current review of Towers II for the Falcon
030. Or you can download the screenshots from ftp.cnam.fr
/pub/Atari/Jaguar/ TowersII-Jaguar-sceenshots.zip
Gaming STR News TidBits
Accolade Names New CEO
Entertainment software publisher Accolade Inc. has named company president
Jim Barnett its new CEO. During his tenure at Accolade, Barnett, 37, has
supervised the firm's product development marketing, sales and finance
operations. He previously served as chief operating officer of Storybrook
Heirlooms, president of The Spectrum Group Inc. and has held various
positions at Universal Pictures. He holds an MBA and JD from Stanford
University. Barnett succeeds Chairman Peter Harris as CEO.
"The appointment is the final step in an aggressive turnaround plan
focused on bringing together top industry talent, strategic partners and
financial resources," says Harris. "Jim Barnett has been performing the CEO
functions for several months."
55
In June, Accolade completed a $30 million financing package that includes
investments by Warner Music Group and Prudential Equity Investors. Accolade
says it is using the investment proceeds to continue its development of
sports and action games for PC, Macintosh, Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn
platforms.
Jaguar Super Burnout! STR Review!
Super Burnout
Developed by: Virtual Xperience
Published by: Atari
Price: $59.99
Available Now!
by Craig Harris
Let's face it: For racing fans, the Jaguar system was *not* the way to
go. Note the key word "was." Yes, there is just no excuse for
the sub-standard productions of Club Drive and Checkered Flag. But behind
the name Shen is salvation for the Jaguar auto race genre. For it is they
who have developed a solid motorcycle racing game for Atari called Super
Burnout, and almost redeems the Jaguar name for race-fans everywhere.
Note the key word "almost."
Super Burnout, in its basic form, is a motorcycle racing game that
pits one player against up to 6 computer opponents, or two
players against each other on 8 different tracks. Each player has his
choice of 6 different cycles, each with its own handling abilities. In
single player modes, the player can choose whether to race on one track
(his choice), race the entire circuit in the championship mode, fine-tune
his abilities in a training mode, or race against the clock in Record
Mode.
Controlling the racer takes place in a pseudo-first person
perspective: you view all the action behind the your racer. While
riding your bike over an extremely smooth-scrolling road, you must
maneuvered it left and right through slight-to-tight curves, around
computer drones, and away from roadside obstacles. Do all this while
maintaining a high speed, and you've mastered it. Crashing your bike into
obstacles and computer opponents (which happens a lot) will result in a
high speed dismount across the pavement, as well as a loss of valuable
time.
Each of the eight tracks has their own look. Australia takes place at
night (with a big-ol' moon looming in the sky), where as in
the U. S. A. it's twilight-time, and you race while the sun sets. If
there's not enough natural light, your headlights automatically pop
on. It doesn't help much, but adds to the overall effect of night-racing.
All tracks have smoothly scaling roadside obstacles,
56
ranging from trees to tires to advertisements of possible future Jaguar
games.
All of the tracks have their own construction; some are made for
speed, some are technical (lots of U-turns,) and a couple fall
in-between. Pick the best bike for the track...unfortunately, you cannot
change your cycle in the middle of a championship. If you've
picked a bike that works best on speed tracks, you're going to have a heck
of a time keeping it on the pavement on technical tracks.
Okay, combining the above adds up to one fantastic racer, right? Not
quite. This game's a "no-frills" design. The game offers a
two-player split-screen mode, but doesn't let those two players race
against the computer. In championship mode, the game doesn't allow the
player to get to "know" his computer opponents, by name or number, losing
the "vengeful" factor included in most racing games. The computer doesn't
display the player's championship race progress until the entire circuit
ends. And those looking for an aggressive race between the player and the
computer isn't going to get it here...the computer opponents leave no trace
of their existence once out of the starting gate.
Graphics: 9.0
Sound FX: 7.0
Control 9.5
Manual: 8.0
Entertainment: 6.0
Reviewer's Overall: 7.0
So, as a straight-forward racer, Super Burnout is right up the alley.
However, a polished cartridge it's not. If you're looking for
a good Jaguar racing game, this is it...but don't expect the gameplay to
suck you in. Once or twice around and you've seen it all.
Jaguar Easter Eggs/Cheats/Hints STR InfoFile Solving Those Riddles!
Looking for tips and "special moves"? In next week's issue, we'll have
some "super dunk" moves for White Men Can't Jump (actually, they can!).
Since the game has only been out a few days, we want to give you the thrill
of finding out these moves for yourself; but we know there are a few of you
who might get inpatient or frustrated trying to figure them out! Hold
tight, don't throw the ball (or the game) away just yet!
Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
Status Of The Jaguar's Edge (long)
From: John Marcotte <jmarcott@step.mother.com>
57
I want to apologize for not getting online recently. I've been very busy
with the magazine.
As many of you have surmised, The Jaguar's Edge will not be coming out this
month. I tried as hard as I possibly could to make it happen, but it just
wasn't in the cards. You may have noticed that I have not cashed any of
the subscription checks yet. I didn't think it would be fair to until I
had a solid release date.
Here is the scoop on what has happened so far and what will be happening
soon:
I initially pitched the idea of the magazine to Steve Kipker of STeve's
Atari Sales and David Troy of Toad Computers a the Sacramento Atari
Computer Expo. My plan was to see if they would distribute a few thousand
for me for free, and I would pay for the magazine completely with
advertising. Instead of agreeing to distribute a few thousand, they agreed
to distribute 10,000 apiece.
So the mag had grown from a small fanzine, to a much larger scale. The
only catch was, I had to pay for the shipping. This didn't seem to be much
of a problem at the time.
After meeting with David and Steve, I called several printing presses and
got bids on printing 20-30,000 of the magazine. To this figure I added the
shipping costs I was going to incur as a result of the free mailing. This
increased my costs by nearly two-thirds. But, I set my ad rates based on
those costs and I went to E3 to see how the idea would fly. I received a
tremendous amount of support from the Atari community at E3. I sold
several large ads and made lots of valuable contacts. On the basis of this
strong showing, I put out my first ads for subscriptions on the internet.
The response from the internet community was also positive and quite
strong. I can't thank the subscribers enough. It was due to you that
Atari itself first began to notice us.
As I have said previously, the support from the Atari community was
incredible. The problem is that the Atari community is rather small. I was
only able to book about one-third of the advertising I needed from inside
the Atari community. When I went outside the Atari community I discovered
my advertising rates were not competitive with other gaming mags.
We simply couldn't compete with the larger magazines. Not because of the
printing, but mainly due to the large shipping costs that came with the
free mailing. I experimented with various numbers trying to reduce the
costs, but as I lowered the number shipped, the printing costs (per issue)
rose and negated any savings that might have been made.
In order for the magazine to be a success, we need to set up a normal
distribution route. We need to get into bookstores and Babbages and as
many other venues as possible. This will allow us to keep a high
circulation while bringing in revenues at the same time. Unfortunately,
very few magazine distributors are willing to buy a magazine they have
never seen before. Which brings us to the present.
I have secured a loan that will make it possible to print a "sample" of The
Jaguar's Edge. This will be a smaller version of the full magazine that
will allow distributors as well as advertisers to see what the magazine
58
will look like. The layouts are nearly complete on this abridged edition
and we should go to press in the next week or so. All current subscribers
will get a copy of this "special" issue, but it will not count as one of
the 6 issues in their subscription.
If anyone wants a refund I understand completely. Let me know and your
check will be returned uncashed. But I really believe that the magazine is
going to do well. My preference, of course, is that you stick around and
check out the first issue. I think you'll be
impressed. I welcome any feedback that you care to give. I apologize for
the delays, but they were unavoidable.
Thanks for reading.
John Marcotte
Editor
The Jaguar's Edge
Sb: White Men Can't Jump
Fm: Larry Tipton 74127,601
To: All
First Impression 08.01.1995 White Men Can't Jump
I just received WMCJ today with the four player team-tap. I've only been
playing around with the game for about and 2 hours now. DO NOT do what I
did and try to start playing the game immediately! First, read the manual.
Otherwise you are going to be saying "what the..." a lot.
Highlights:
15 teams to choose from
4 court styles
Z Various game options
25 Super dunks - you pull off then off like they are Street Fighter moves
1-4 Players
The zooming in and out (a nice effect) takes a bit getting used to. I had
to get at least five feet away from my 20inch TV to get the right feel.
Further away on my large TV. The courts appear to be texture mapped. The
players are digitized. Everything scales in and out nicely. The metal and
wooden fences look cool. For some reason, the game colors appear to be on
the dark/muddy side. I had to adjust the brightness and color on my TV to
get it right. The game looks better on my TV with SVideo than with the AV
cables.
There is a lot of "trash' talk in the game. No cursing like in the movie
though. The voices are clear! You can turn it down/up or off.
Likewise the in-game music and sound effects can be adjusted.
The AI seems pretty tough. My players keep getting knocked on their
keesters. It also easy to miss a pass or have one picked off. The is a
player vs mode (you can set the difficulty) and a tournament mode (you
cannot set the difficulty) in the game. You can save your tournament game
in progress.
59
IMPORTANT in order to take control your computer controlled character you
have to double tap on the speed burst button. I also
recommend leaving the player control flag on!
At first I thought the game was slow, the players moved like they had been
playing all day...or like it was a casual game between buds. Ah, but when
you press the speed burst, they move right along! This game will take a
bit to get used to and master. Unfortunately, like AvsP, some people are
going to judge this game harshly because they did not spend a bit of time
with it...it does not play like NBA JAM, blah, blah blah.
Overall all, I like this game. It is not perfect. It takes some getting
used to, like Alien Vs Predator and Hover Strike, but once you
get used to the controls, the zooming and scaling it is quite fun.
Now to the Team Tap - Multi Player Adapter! This is a high quality
product. It connects into one port on the Jaguar. Apparently, the Jaguar
can support two of these things! It is compatible with both the 3-button
and 6-button controller.
That's all for now!
-Larry Tipton
Sb: #86941-WMCJ First Impressions
Fm: Craig Harris 73733,2316
To: Craig Harris 73733,2316 (X)
Just wanted to add a bit to my last message:
After another hour of play (less sweat this time), I beat the tournament
mode. Again, another title falls into the "Atari Lame Ending"
category. I won't give anything away, but after a humorous little
sequence... there's nothing. Nothing at all. Just boots you back to
the title screen.
Not only that, I got to the final stage in 5 rounds, didn't lose a single
match. My secret? 3-point shots at the top of the key are a
CINCH! Even if you miss, your computer teammate is under the basket waiting
for the rebound. Just grab the ball, take it to the top, fire the ball at
the peak of the jump.
I'm rather disappointed with the AI... but then again, this is a multi-
player game. Most sports games get old-hat fast one-player. I
won't hold too much against it in that aspect.
I did inspect the construction of the Team Tap, even though I don't have
extra pads hanging around. I noticed that the plugs on my pad fit much
tighter in the Team Tap than they do in my Jaguar. To give you an example,
if you blow on the plug while it's in the system, it falls out. No lie. At
least Atari's paying attention.
Again, I want to state that WMCJ is a *good* game...just waaaaay too easy
one-player. I wish my friend was over here so I could whup his butt.
-Craig-
60
Sb: WMCJ Programmer Writes..
Fm: Larry Tipton 74127,601
To: All
WMCJ Programmer Responds!!! Read on!
Subject: Re: WMCJ impressions
From: adisak@thymaster.interaccess.com (Adisak L. Pochanayon)
Date: 2 Aug 1995 03:37:54 GMT
In article <3vmftg$rco@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,JSMcKay <jsmckay@aol.com>
wrote:
>>-----------------------------
>>playing. BZZZT! Wrong answer. Remember how, due to the bad
>>animation in TAF, you'd lose your running back in a crowd, and had
>>difficulty telling who was who? Well, there is that quality here
>>as well. It's not as bad as TAF, probably due to the larger (and
>>fewer) characters on-screen, but >it still makes the game more
>>confusing and a pain in the *** to play. It also, IMHO, severely
>>affects your control.
I think the "losing" a character in the crowd has more to do with getting
used to playing in the perspective than with choppy animation s. This
happened a lot during testing so I added an option to make it easier to get
used to the game. You can select from the options screen an option to
permanently turn on the arrows above the players. This makes it nearly
impossible to lose track of your players. I think once you stop "losing"
players and getting used to the game's perspective, you will enjoy it much
more.
>>Second, is frame rate and overall game speed. Frame rate seems
>>pretty low (I couldn't venture a guess, though)
The frame rate is between 12 and 18 fps. It averages around 15. The
overall game runs at about the same speed as JagDoom with the exception
that WMCJ has more than twice the resolution (320x220 vs 160x180). The
framerate for the backgrounds and cameras is the same as the framerate for
the game. I find it hard to believe that you find the camera view and
backgrounds smooth while the game is choppy???
>>sound FX. The most important parts of the game - the basketball
>>game itself (control, framerate, etc.) - is where WMCJ seems to
>>fail, IMHO. The bitmapped players and such are a great attempt, and
>>although WMCJ wasn't an "airball", for me it just "rimmed out".
There is a lot of features in the control of WMCJ that take getting used
to. You can pick up the basic features of the game
immediately but getting good takes a little while. For example, timing
your shots makes them more accurate, using your energy to
boost speed but maintaining enough to pull off dunks, and switching control
of players can be fairly complicated. Add to that the
control changes in passing, blocking, pulling off plays, using the computer
AI controlled teammate to pass to you, etc. and you have
a lot to learn in two hours ;)
61
>>etc.). I'll just hold out for NBA Jam when it's out next year......
To be honest, WMCJ has more actual play depth than NBAJ. You have more
control over the game and features like the AI in WMCJ are considerably
stronger (in NBAJ-TE, the AI simply boosts computer stats and cheats when
the computer gets behind). WMCJ has a much more complicated 3-D texture
mapped game-field and overall is a better game IMHO. NBAJ does feature 60
fps play but only has parallax scrolling and no rendered 3-D. The biggest
appeals of NBAJ are actual NBA teams and lots of hidden features... plus
the simplicity of having automatic dunks (rather than special moves for
dunks like WMCJ). Either way, they are both good games. You might note
that NBAJ will use the Team Tap which comes with WMCJ. As far as I'm
concerned you should buy both ;)
adisak pochanayon -- Jaguar Programmer for WMCJ,- current project
NBAJ-TE
We have a winner for last week's contest. Joaquin Ferrero, who has been a
longtime STReport Internet subscriber, answered our contest question: "When
is the JaguarCD scheduled for release?" correctly. The answer, in case you
somehow missed it in the issue, is August 24. Joaquin's prize will be going
out to him next week! Below, you'll be able to read what he's won; and
also what you can win right now!
In case you're unaware of it, the official Jaguar Gamer's Guide published
by Sandwich Islands Publishing and written by the popular authors: Zach
Meston and J. Douglas Arnold is shipping now! Preorders should already be
fulfilled and store copies should be arriving wherever popular game books
are sold. This book ordinarily retails for $18.95.
If you've been putting off getting your copy, you forgot to enter last
week's contest (or didn't win if you did!) - here's a second
chance to win one!
The guide includes special features such as gaming tips from Atari's own
gaming masters. It has exclusive maps, helpful tips and innovative
strategies.
If you want in-depth play-by-play action coverage including strategies and
tips found no where else on almost 20 of the Jaguar's hottest games, you
must have this book.
What do you have to do? That's easy! In fact, we're making it so easy, it
should be considered criminal! <g> If you're a subscriber
to our Internet mailing list, you're entered in the contest - you don't
have to do a thing! If you're not a subscriber, send us e-mail
now so you can be entered in the contest. There are no questions, no
special feats of strength, no fill in the blanks. Just be a
subscriber and leave the rest to us.
To subscribe, just send a request to be added to our subscription mailing
list, to STReport via E-mail to any of the following
addresses:
dpj@delphi.com
71051.3327@compuserve.com
62
d.jacobson2@genie.geis.com
OR
Dana Jacobson at Toad Hall BBS (617-567-8642)
or
CATscan BBS (209-239-1552)
The winner will be randomly selected from all current subscribers.
All subscription requests must be received by midnight, August 9, 1995.
The winner will be announced in STReport Magazine, in the issue scheduled
to be released on Friday, August 11, 1995. Employees of Atari Corporation
and staff members of STReport or Amiga Report are not eligible to win.
This contest is void where prohibited by law.
Credits: STReport and its staff would like to thank Sandwich Island
Publishing and Atari Corporation for its generous donation of the books.
Tradenames herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning
companies.
Permission hereby granted to re-post this contest text, in its entirety,
anywhere that you feel it would be appropriate - your favorite BBS,
user group newsletter, magazine, etc. Please spread the word!
ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
On CompuServe
compiled by
Joe Mirando
CIS ID: 73637,2262
Internet: 73637.2262@compuserve.com
Hidi ho good neighbors. Yep, it's that time again... Time for some of you
to quickly skip to the back of the magazine (in which case, I don't know
why I'm even writing this part), and time for others to dig in and either
find things to agree with or to disagree with. From the amount of e-mail I
received this past week, it seems that about 90 percent of the folks that
read this column agreed with my views about dedicated terminal programs.
By that I don't mean programs like CompuServe Information Manager (CIM)
that give you the _option_ of using an automated program with all the cool
bells and whistles like graphics and a sound or two. My complaint was with
services that _require_ you to use one of these programs (their own, of
course).
While most of you agreed with me, a few decided to take issue with my
opinion (whether they understood what I was talking about or not). One
irate reader told me that programs like these were the wave of the future
and that I should stop impeding progress. I'm sorry folks but, to me,
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progress means _increased_ flexibility, not decreased flexibility.
The idea that you must:
A) Use the service's software and, B) Use a machine that they have
decided is worth them taking your money with, make it very hard for me
to agree with the statement that this is progress. Now, an online
service that put out a program that would allow you to automate your
sessions on _all_ services, provided this program for _all_ platforms,
and made it entirely optional, (or any combination of these things)
now _that_ would be progress my friends. (Jeez, do I sound like Joe
Franklin, or what? <grin>)
My last bit of "impeding progress" is to clarify something I said last
week. I made mention of the fact that an un-named online service had set
up their program to take information from your hard drive and upload it to
their system. One of my new "pen pals" told me that "that is
impossible"... that the technology did not exist to allow a system to
"pull" info from a remote hard drive, and that, "on top of that, there is
nothing wrong with doing that anyway".
As Mr. Spock would say: "Fascinating". It seems that I have to clarify
this as well. Without naming names, a certain online service jointly owned
by Sears and IBM constructed their user program (the terminal program you
have to run on your DOS machine or Macintosh to access their service) with
the ability to grab files from your hard drive and copy them into a cache
file which would upload the data to the service when you called up. The
service, once it was discovered, said that the information was going to be
used to get a better understanding of what types of things their users did
with their computers.
Unfortunately, this constitutes an invasion of privacy. There were doctors
who found that their patient lists had been "cached", and lawyers who found
client information "cached", not to mention those "regular" folks who
had... well, whatever they had "cached".
Someone once said "Information is power", and they were quite correct. But
your information should be _your_ power and not that of a couple of multi-
million dollar corporations.
Hey guys, the next time you want to find out what kinds of things your
subscribers use their computers for, why not ASK?
Well, let's get on with the reason for this column... all the great news,
hints, tips, and (un-cached) information available every week
right here on CompuServe.
From the Atari Computing Forums
Richard Safford asks a very topical question:
"does anyone know how to copyright direct on the internet? I need to
copyright direct seq gmid format."
I have no idea what that last part was about, but Albert Dayes of Atari
Explorer Online Magazine tells Richard:
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"As soon as a work is created it is copyrighted. You do not have to
put in a copyright notice but it is good to do so. So someone cannot
claim that they did not know it was your work.
Copyright (C) 1995 Richard Safford
Something like the above is what you would need for a copyright
notice."
Mike Mortilla jumps in and posts:
"...Under the law since 1976, a work is "copyright" at creation. Of
course, it's not a bad idea to register your work in the Lib of
Congress."
Albert adds:
"If you need to register your copyright you need to contact the
Copyright Office.
Copyright Office (202)-479-0700"
Chris Roth tries to make us all jealous with this post:
"I'm back from my working/vacations journey to the Seychelles. It was
like paradise, I am pretty sad now to be here in Vienna again. Diving
was quite an experience there, I got some great film material of
Whalesharks, what a sensation ;-)!
Everybody allright here?
Did some news occur on the Internet side? I mean, is there an internet
package already available that supports off-line newsgroup reading?
Has
anybody got Oasis to work right now?"
Daniel Osborne tells Chris:
"Glad to see you back!
I have gotten NOS 0.42 (FTP transfers) and Chimera (FTP and WWW browser)
to work just fine on CIS. Go back and read the message threads about
"TAF" and "NOS PROBLEMS"."
Denies Postal tells Chris:
"While you were away I finally got to be able to use chimera. If you
can get it running on your machine, or if you have access to any web
browser, I recommend you try http://www.dejanews.com/ which has an
excellent, search facility for all 10k+ news groups. I use it to find
threads that are relevant to me.
I'm away on holiday 4th Aug to 6th Sept. Longer than you but a much
less exotic location."
Good. I thought that I was the only one who turned green with envy at the
mention of an exotic vacation location. Meanwhile, Rick Detlefsen asks:
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"I'm wondering what the expected throughput is when downloading a file
using a 14.4kb modem. Is it greater than 20%? Anything special that
needs to be done to [get] it [to go] higher?"
Daniel Osborne tells Rick:
"When using QUICK CIS I get anywhere from 1200 cps to 1650 cps. Which
depends on the time of day, and the activity on CIS.
I have never gone beyond 1670 cps on CIS. CPS stands for Characters Per
Second, which is a standard. You can get higher than this on a
standard Atari, if using a 28.8kb baud modem, when connected to CIS at
19.2kb. Mega STE's and TT's can go beyond 19.2k, but not with a 520,
1040 ST's, or Mega ST's (unless modified - hardware modified - risky!!
- use MegaTalk board in Atari Mega ST's). Only Mega STE's and TT's can
do this, since they use an SCC chip, vs. an MFP serial chip, which is
used in the older Atari's."
Rick tells Daniel:
"Thanks for the reply. What baud modem are you using so that I can
put the cps you mentioned into perspective."
Daniel tells Rick:
"I am currently using a SupraFAX Modem 14.4k V.32 bis. I plan on
buying a SupraFAX Modem 28.8k later this year, so I can get true 19.2k
connections."
On the subject of the Internet browser put out by the Toronto Atari
Federation (now known as the "TAF package"), Chris Arrison posts:
"I just got the TAF package, and have some questions. Is there any way
to access Chimera without going through X-Windows? Also, once I've
copied the Lynx files into the proper directories, how do I access it?
And is there any way to speed up Mint when not using X-Windows?"
Daniel Osborne tells Chris:
"No, you must use Mint, and Mint-Net, and X-Windows to use the Chimera
Program.
We are working on the Lynx program, please read msg threads as they
are posted at this time.
To access information about TAF disks (Chimera) please read prior msg
threads about "TAF", this is an on going message thread.
This subject maybe complicated, so please refer to msg threads for the
latest info, until the final version of these programs are released!
Please post any problems you are having, or any additional info you
might have in this msg base!
This msg might sound hard, but we have covered most of this info
already within the recent 3 weeks here on the msgs bases!"
Don't worry Daniel, I think we all know that feeling of having to repeat
66
the same info over and over. It gets especially tiring when the info is in
a database such as it is here. It also provides a unique way to "learn
from the mistakes of others. Chris tells Daniel:
"Thanks for the info. I've read the threads and gleaned many tips from
them. I still am having a couple of problems, though. The docs say to
change all references to dev/console in the "syslog.conf" file to
dev/null. Yet, when I boot into X-Windows, I get some error messages:
Syslogd: unknown priority name "none var/log/syslog"
Syslogd: unknown priority name "info /dev/null"
" " "none var/adm/messages"
" " "debug var/adm/lpd-errs"
And then this:
pid (syslogd): Bus error: User PC 1866100
(basepage=1f3e00,
text=1e34d4)
The only thing I've changed is the dev/console to dev/null. Also, when
I try to dial up CIS,I get something about a file not being found in a
dir like pipe/log. It will, dial but I think my chatfile may be wrong.
I have this Connect "" ame: CIS ID:102101,3036/GO:PPPCONNECT ord:
my*password What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.."
Daniel explains it to Chris:
"I believe they say to do this AFTER you've got the log on sorted out.
Otherwise, there is no way of seeing what is happening with the logon
script.
There is a viable version for CIS in message No:108638 except that
there needs to be a colon between GO:CONNNECT. (I see you already have
it) Apparently CIS ppp connections are sensitive to *unusual*
characters in passwords if you have such, changing it to '/' might
help.
Message 108639 has the 'etc./resolv.conf' file change for CIS.
Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on."
Chris tells Daniel:
"Yes! I finally got it to connect, though I still get error messages
when X-Windows loads. Is it the lack of ram (I've only 4 megs) that
makes the ftp program so slow? NOS is quite a bit faster. I tried
Chimera, but kept running into the same problem. When I would connect
(or try to) to the Toad Computers page, it would dl the file, and then
go right back into X-win. Is it choking on the pics, or am I doing
something wrong?"
Daniel tells Chris:
Remove all ACC and AUTO programs that are not required to run Mint,
Mint-Net and Chimera, if you only have 4 megs of ram. Also turning
off the graphics option in Chimera will help.
I will upload a HTML file from the TAF home page on how to do this, on
67
Wednesday."
On a slightly different subject, Andreas Graf tells us:
"I want to use my ATARI computers for CompuServe connections (I have
both STE and Falcon), but I have no idea how to do this.
Is there any software like a WinCim or Cans for ATARI computers? If
not, which modem and terminal settings are the best?"
Sysop Bob Retell tells Andreas:
"You can use a normal Atari telecommunications program with your Atari
computers to access CompuServe.. we have several choices in the
software libraries here, including a good Shareware program called
STorm.
There are also some very nice commercial telecommunications programs
available from various vendors. Check out FLASH II from Missionware
Software in the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN).
We don't have anything like CIM for the Atari, but we do have a nice
"navigator" style program called QuickCIS. It will do automatic
sessions, log in, capture new messages or programs and log off very
quickly. It's available here in our software libraries too."
Neil Newman posts:
"I'm about to get a CD-ROM drive and next year when I can afford it, I
would like to get a 2 Gig Hard Drive for HD recording etc. and I am
wondering what are the best options. The computer I will be hooking
them up to in the Falcon.
I would like to have both units in one case with one power supply, to
save desk space and power plugs/leads and all that unsightly stuff.
One option crossed my mind, get a PC tower case with power supply and
mount an internal SCSI CD-ROM and later add the internal SCSI HD.
My question is would this work? Apart from a power supply, would I to
have any other boards i.e. motherboard and associated cards installed
in the towercase to work internal drives or is it a matter of hooking
the drives up with SCSI cables etc.?"
Sysop Bob Retelle tells Neil:
"Your idea of using a PC tower case for your Falcon drives should work
just fine...
The power supply should be adequate for anything you want to use, and
there should be no need for any extra boards.
A nice, compact mini-tower case with 200 watt power supply is selling
here in the States for about $50 now, which is about the best price
you're likely to find for any kind of case and power supply for your
SCSI drives."
Our own Atari Section Editor, Dana Jacobson, adds his recent experience:
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"I just installed a number of SCSI devices in a PC tower case so I
could hook it up to my newly-purchased Falcon. You don't need any
additional boards - just cables (ribbon cables inside - SCSI 2 -> SCSI
external). Now I just need to make some space for the tower case!
<grin>"
Scott Starai asks:
"Can anyone recommend a good terminal program? I am new at this and
don't know too much about them. I have an Atari ST."
That Dana guy tells Scott:
"You might want to check out Flash II. There should be a demo of it
either in this Forum, or in the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). In
fact, Flash II should see a new upgrade available this weekend at the
MIST show, so look for some announcements soon."
Look for the upgrade info elsewhere in this issue. Sysop Bob Retelle
adds:
"As Dana mentioned, a very good commercial terminal program for the ST
is "Flash II" from Missionware Software.
A good shareware terminal program that we have here in our software
library is Storm.
If you're online now using an IBM compatible system, you can download
Atari files to the PC & then transfer them to your ST if you remember
to format the 3.5" floppies ON THE PC FIRST, AS 720K DISKS.
Then you can move the files to the Atari by copying them to the disks,
and the Atari will read them directly."
Well, that's about all the news and info for this week, but before I go,
I'd like to share with you a note I got from my old friend, BJ Gleason. BJ
has been a Sysop here on CompuServe in the forums devoted to the Atari
Portfolio for years, and has written some amazing programs for the 'Folio.
He was also a professor at American University. He recently took a
teaching job with the University of Maryland (I think) which holds the
"contract" with the military for continuing education over-seas. His new
job will enable him to see a good deal of Asia and some of Europe. He's
decided that he will keep in touch with friends and acquaintances over the
internet. His first installment arrived on my CompuServe "doorstep" today.
Here's part of what he wrote:
"From: <Bjgleas@aol.com>
To: 73637.2262@compuserve.com
Subject: Report from the Field
Hey Gang... and welcome to the list...
Please do not use the address(es) that these messages may come from. I
am currently an internet vagabond, logging in when and where I can.
BJGLEAS@AMERICAN.EDU will always reach me. This is the last time I am
going to be using BJGLEAS@AOL.COM until I return to the US...
69
Well, I am currently in Los Angeles, awaiting for the flight to Japan
tomorrow (Thurs.) at 12:45pm... It still has not quite sunk in that it
will be a while before I am back in the US again. Right now, it just feels
like another trip...
Spend the last 6 weeks at my sisters, having a great time playing with
the kids and putting off getting ready to go over seas. In the final 48
hours, I packed... I am limited to 140 pounds and 2 bags. No problem...
ha ha ha!
You would be suprised how quickly stuff adds up. For those keeping
score at home, it came to about 120 pounds, 40 of which are dissertation
materials...
I was going to have them shipped, but decided to wait until I found
out more about shipping things about.
Had two days in LA, doing the sight seeing thing. Santa Monica is
VERY nice and highly recommended. Cheap tourist trick, ride the free TIDE
buses about to get a layout of the area. Saw them filming BayWatch in
Santa Monica.
Keep an eye open for a torrid fling between Pamela Anderson and I...
Interesting note in the elevator "In the event the doors do not open,
there is little chance of running out of air or dropping
uncontrollably." If you read between the lines, then, yes Virginia, there
is a chance of running out of air and dropping uncontrollably...
The Schedule:
A week in Japan, orientation sessions, and some sightseeing...
In Seoul about the 10th, and classes are scheduled to begin the 21st.
They will run for 8 weeks. I am teaching three classes: Intro, C++
programming, and Expert Systems.
After that, who knows?
Ok gang, I'll wrap this up for now. You might not get another message
from me until I hit Seoul...
bj
bjgleas@american.edu"
If you know BJ, or even if you only know him by some of the great programs
he's written for the Portfolio, and want to be included on his mailing
list, drop him a line. Anyone who's heard or read BJ knows that he's got a
sharp wit (like that Pamela Anderson thing) and a great delivery. If you
forget to drop him a line, don't worry, I'll be keeping you up to date
right here in this column.
See ya next week, same time, same channel, so be ready to listen to what
they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
70
STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
Columbus, Ohio CompuServe reportedly Takes Gloves
Off !!
Our super snoop has really been busy this past week. First, CIS is
lowering prices for the second time this year, beginning next month. CIS
also announced that they are forming a new online service for beginner on-
liners. No details on content or cost have been released at this time.
Don t kid yourselves bunkie, this new service is the NEW CIS... Super
powerful WinCim Software version 3 (around the Holidays) The days of a
drab ascii interface on CIS are almost over. An interim update to WinCim
shortly, perhaps around the end of the summer. HMI takes over completely,
no more ascii interface. Compuserve is finally waking up to the real
world. Snoops sez, three guesses as to which competing service CIS has
leveled their guns on... This is a Case of real business competition.
CIS is going to win easily.
Highlights of the rate changes:
5 free hours of access each month to most all of CompuServe's services.
Additional hours billed at only $2.95 each.
No more differentiation between basic and extended services. Some
premium services still carry surcharges.
Electronic mail will be billed based only on connect time, with no
additional charges for sending or receiving the message over the
Internet.
There will be no mail surcharges based on message size or number of
recipients.
Club pricing will be expanded to lower the costs for heavy users of the
service. As an example, a super value plan will provide 20 free hours
for $24.95 per month and additional hours at $1.95 each.
Snoop also said the above rate changes is only the beginning.
CompuServe is On the March and out to win the whole enchilada. Watch for
some very strange bed-fellows in the months ahead.
Rockville, MD. GEnie CANCELS Atari Contract!
Old Snoop really dug this one out, seems the old expression. What
goes around comes around is ever so true. The Episodes of a few years
ago now are on the other foot, so to speak. GEnie canceled the Atari
RoundTable contract effective, 08/04/95. Psst... Hey Lee! How About
that!! (In our best Mel Allen voice)
71
STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
A "Quotable Quote" A true, "Sign of the Times"
That Telecommunications Bill the Republicans are busy Pushing through the
house
only proves just how strong the...
THE REPUBLICAN CONTRACT ON AMERICA REALLY IS!!
STReport International OnLine Magazine
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Since 1987 Copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No. 1131
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Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the
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72
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