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Silicon Times Report Issue 1113
SILICON TIMES REPORT
====================
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
=============================
from
STR Electronic Publishing Inc.
A subsidiary of
STR Worldwide CompNews Inc.
March 31, 1995 No. 1113
======================================================================
Silicon Times Report
International OnLine Magazine
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> 03/31/95 STR 1113 "The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine!"
"""""""""""""""""
- STR INDUSTRY REPORT - NavCIS 1.6 - Walsh JILTS GEnie
- NetScape & Adobe - Mayo Sports - HP-NEW Palmtop
- STR Mail Call - V.34/28.8 View - ECTS Report
- TEAC CD55A TIPS - WinCIM 1.4 - STR Confidential
-* ATARI VIRTUAL REALITY DEAL ENHANCED! *-
-* APPLE & MS IN COURT AGAIN! *-
-* WIN'95 & INFOWORLD! *-
==========================================================================
STReport International OnLine Magazine
The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine
-* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
"Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports
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"Enjoy CompuServe's forums; where information is at its very best!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
LottoMan V1.3 Results: 03/25/95: two 3# matches and four 2# matches
----------------------
> From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""
It never ceases to amaze me about how a user can make their true
"intentions" as _obvious_ as the nose on their face. This past week,
while cruising the nets.. I observed the following; The users who were
obviously doing the most "bad-mouthing" of Win'95 made coming to my
conclusions quite easy. You are not going to believe this. It would have
been easier to at least read and understand what these posters were trying
to say if only.. They were polite enough to (a) keep the language they
used clean and respectful and (b) not have the Warp or os/2 thing in their
signatures or taglines. Talk about giving away their real intentions.
Perhaps it was best they did it that way. After who'd believe them
anyway? The odd part ws... I didn't see any taglines or sigs with Win'95
in them stuck on the end of bad-mouth os/2 Warp posts. Hmmm.
Speaking of Win'95, anybody wanting a Pre-Release copy for their very
own need only call MS at 1-800-957-7384 and order it. Win'95 is really
very, very nice. Its fast and its fun to use. I've been using it for
some time now and I must say, this latest build (347) is excellent.
Everything I have here is working just like its supposed to. If you
really want to see the future now.. get yourself a copy. Take advantage
of the Pre-Release offer. Its good stuff! If any of you have questions
about Win'95, drop me a line I'll be sure to answer your questions either
in STReport or return EMail. As an aside, think of this.. you have no
further memory problems and all my heavy duty DOS GAMES load right up and
"do it to it". Ah yes... for the "Thomases"... my productivity software
has been working wonderfully also. "I'm luvin' it!" You will too!
Ralph...
Of Special Note:
----------------
STReport will be branching out further to Internet's userbase in the
very near future. We've received numerous requests to receive STReport
from a wide variety of Internet addresses. As a result, we're putting
together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wish to
receive STReport on a regular basis, and we'll UUENCODE each issue and
mail it to you.
If you're interested in being added to our mailing list, please, send
your requests to either "dpj@delphi.com" or, RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM. Look
for mailings to begin by October first. We are also considering a number
of Internet ftp sites in which to post our issues for as well. Whatever
we can do to make STReport available to you. we'll try it!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
""""""""""""""""
Publisher -Editor
""""""""""""""""""
Ralph F. Mariano
Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs
Section Editors
"""""""""""""""
PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION
---------- ------------- ----------- -------------
R.D. Stevens R. Niles J. Deegan D. P. Jacobson
STReport Staff Editors:
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin
John Szczepanik Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando
Doyle Helms Frank Sereno John Duckworth
Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Guillaume Brasseur
Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach
Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian
Contributing Correspondents:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Dominick J. Fontana Norman Boucher Clemens Chin
Eric Jerue Ron Deal Mike Barnwell
Ed Westhusing Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith
Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller
Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt
Patrick Hudlow Tom Sherwin
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
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Delphi......................... RMARIANO
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IMPORTANT NOTICE
----------------
STReport, with its policy of not accepting any paid advertising, has over
the years developed the reputation of "saying it like it really is". When
it comes to our editorials, product evaluations, reviews and over-views,
we shall always keep our readers interests first and foremost. With the
user in mind, STReport further pledges to maintain the reader confidence
that has been developed over the years and to continue "living up to
such". All we ask is that our readers make certain the manufacturers,
publishers etc., know exactly where the information about their products
appeared. In closing, we shall arduously endeavor to meet and further
develop the high standards of straight forwardness our readers have come
to expect in each and every issue.
The Staff & Editors
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
"""""""""""""""""""
IBM/POWER-PC/PC SECTION (I)
===========================
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
------------------------ ----------
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Issue #13
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
******* General Computer News *******
>> Atari Boosts Deal With Virtuality For Virtual Reality <<
Atari has announced an extended contract with Virtuality, the London-
based Virtual Reality (VR) software house, in which Virtuality will
develop two VR games for the Atari Jaguar games console.
The announcement was made at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS)
which took place in London over the last few days.
Late last year, Atari contracted with Virtuality for the development
of a head-mounted VR display unit for the Jaguar. Terms of last
October's contract called for Virtuality to develop VR game systems for
the consumer marketplace, using a VR headset like a motorcycle helmet.
The games console headset has been pencilled in for a summer 1995
launch, and draws heavily on the technology that Virtuality uses in
coin-operated arcade VR systems. Pricing of the VR system for the Jaguar
will be around the UKP 149 mark, Newsbytes has learned.
Jon Waldern, head of Virtuality, claims that the Jaguar is the "only
64-bit system currently on the market and is ideally suited for
immersive virtual reality games."
Commenting on the extended deal between the two companies, Sam
Tramiel, Atari's president, said that work on the head mounted display
(HMD) for the Jaguar is proceeding on schedule, and the games will be
released in parallel with the HMD system later this year.
"We've made a significant investment in low-cost immersive Virtual
Reality and are committed to bringing this technology to Jaguar
customers by the end of the year," he said.
This second deal with Virtuality will reassure Atari Jaguar owners
that the future for their machine -- and perhaps more importantly, its
support on the software front -- now looks assured.
>> GEnie President Jumps Ship <<
In an unexpected move, Mark Walsh, president of GEnie online
services, left GEnie this week to take a job with its competitor,
America Online (AOL). Walsh had only joined GEnie last August, so this
change stunned many industry observers and GEnie employees. Walsh will
now be a senior vice president and general manager of branded Internet
services at AOL.
Walsh, 40, is looked upon by many as an industry innovator and was
hired by General Electric to turn GEnie around as it had slipped from
about 250,000 users to just over 100,000. Last October, Walsh had
boasted that he was remaking GEnie and "rewriting our history". Walsh
had planned a telephone conference this week with analysts and reporters
to talk about his vision for GEnie.
Horace Martin, vice president of GEIS business development, will be
interim president of GEnie.
>> Phone Calls by Internet Tested <<
Camelot Corp. is beta testing software called Digiphone that it says
allows users to place phone calls over the Internet.
Camelot says it is the first Internet phone product to support the
same kind of two-way voice conversations that can be expected from
regular long-distance calls.
Reports say that calls across the Internet will cost no more than the
cost of an Internet account, typically less than $40 per month, much
cheaper than typical international calls. Available on store shelves in
June, Digiphone will work with most currently available multimedia-
compatible PCs.
Digiphone carries a suggested retail price of $149.95 and will be
marketed by Camelot's software publishing unit, Third Planet
Publishing."
>> Compaq to Use Pentium Clones <<
Compaq Computer Corp. says it has reached agreement with NexGen Inc.
for the use of '586- and higher-class microprocessors in future Compaq
products.
"As 586-class processors have become 'mainstream' this year, this
agreement with NexGen will help Compaq to deliver high performance PCs
that represent a greater value to the PC marketplace," notes John T.
Rose, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's desktop PC
division. "As 586- class technologies become more available from more
suppliers, we will be able to offer our customers just the right
combination of features, performance and value to meet each of their
unique requirements."
>> Win95 Bug Overblown <<
The top editor of Windows Magazine says a recent report about an
alleged serious bug in Windows 95 is "overblown."
InfoWorld claimed earlier this week that the new operating system can
freeze up PCs that try to run several applications simultaneously.
"There's no doubt that the M8-Beta version had a serious flaw in it,"
says Fred Langa, Windows Magazine's editorial director. The problem, he
notes, is that the operating system doesn't allocate sufficient resources
to run some 32-bit applications, possibly causing the system to crash.
According to Langa, Windows Magazine exposed a similar problem last
September, when editors observed that an earlier beta version was having
serious systems resource problems with 16-bit applications. Langa says the
publication alerted Microsoft to the problem and a solution was found
within two weeks.
Langa believes that Microsoft's current problems will be readily
handled and that Windows 95's release probably won't be delayed. "A beta
version by definition is not the final version," notes Langa. "It's
normal to find bugs in unfinished products. End-users need to monitor a
company's progress in resolving these bugs; but it's certainly no cause
for alarm, despite the tenor of some recent press reports."
>> Apple Takes Microsoft Back to Court <<
Apple Computer Inc. says it will reveal in federal district court
this week that Microsoft Corp. violated the intent of a federal
restraining order by continuing to distribute allegedly stolen software
on an America Online forum.
Reports say that Apple discovered on March 24 that Microsoft had
continued to distribute copies of Video for Windows containing 1,000
lines of Apple QuickTime code via its America Online forum. Earlier this
month, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Aguilar issued a temporary
restraining order forbidding Microsoft from distributing the software.
>> Prodigy Loses No. 2 Executive <<
Scott Kurnit, a cable TV guru hired by Prodigy as a vice president
two years ago to help turn around the online service's operation,
suddenly is departing to join a rival venture started by MCI
Communications Corp.
The exit of Kurnit "could hurt (the) turnaround effort," writer Jared
Sandberg comments in The Wall Street Journal this week, adding, "It also
may signal tensions between Prodigy's two giant owners, (IBM) and Sears,
Roebuck & Co., which have been at odds about the service's direction."
Writes Sandberg, "IBM is pushing to replace the Sears executive who
is Prodigy's president, Ross Glatzer, with a choice of its own,
according to people familiar with the matter. While the computer maker
supports Mr. Kurnit, Sears didn't want to cede control to someone in
IBM's camp; the two partners may agree to bring in an outside candidate,
according to an executive familiar with the situation."
>> Compaq Unveils New ProLiant Unit <<
A new ProLiant 1500 5/120 computer intended as an affordable,
"mission-critical" server has been unveiled by Compaq Computer Corp.,
built around Intel Corp.'s new 120MHz Pentium processor.
In a statement, the company said the system, priced at about $12,749,
is available in tower and rack-mountable configurations and includes:
ECC memory, TriFlex/peripheral component interconnect system
architecture, fast-wide small computer system interface-2, automatic
server recovery-2, hot pluggable drives and disk arrays. Redundant power
supplies are available as an option.
>> Acrobat Boosted for Internet <<
Efforts have begun to set standards for giving books and brochures
the same appearance on the Internet as they have on paper, and three
major companies -- IBM, Adobe Systems Inc. and Netscape Communications
Inc. -- have interests in the outcome.
IBM and Netscape are announcing this week at Boston's Seybold
conference on electronic publishing that they will incorporate Adobe's
Acrobat software into personal computers and key online programs.
Reports say, "Acrobat allows a document, such as a written report or
spreadsheet, to be shared to any computer regardless of the kind of
computer or software used to create it. The program has two components,
one for the creator and one for the reader."
The new pacts call for the Acrobat Reader component to become a
standard feature on IBM's commercial PCs and to be woven into Netscape's
browser software widely used on Internet's hypertext World Wide Web
feature.
>> Apple Rolls Out New Music Tools <<
New interactive music tools to help software developers make compact
disks that can run interchangeably between computers and stereo players,
as well as programs for online concerts and music videos is being
announced by Apple Computer Inc.
Reports say the QuickTime Music Toolkit "will allow musicians to meld
lyrics, photos and videos into QuickTime movies that can be played on
Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Corp. personal computers."
The software also can make a new "enhanced CD," to display video and
play music in a computer or just play music in a car or home audio CD
system.
>> Microsoft Bookshelf Updated <<
Microsoft Corp. has unveiled Microsoft Bookshelf '95, a new version
of its CD-ROM reference library.
The software publisher notes that Bookshelf '95 offers one-click
access to eight frequently used reference books from within any Windows-
or Macintosh-based program. The 1995 version provides enhanced
multimedia features and a new National Five-Digit ZIP Code and Post
Office Directory. Also included is a Year in Review section containing a
summary of newsworthy events.
"Bookshelf '95 represents nine years of investment in the way people
think about reference materials," says Patty Stonesifer, senior vice
president of Microsoft's consumer division. "It is the most widely owned
and, we believe, one of most widely used CD-ROM products on the market."
Microsoft Bookshelf '95 will sell for approximately $69. Previous
owners of any version of Bookshelf are eligible to receive a $30 rebate
from Microsoft. The Windows edition is available now; a Macintosh
version of Bookshelf '95 is scheduled to become available later this
spring.
>> Claris to Offer E-Mail Program <<
Claris Corp. says it has obtained worldwide, exclusive licensing
rights to a newly developed Macintosh electronic mail management
application code-named Emailer.
Developed by Fog City Software, Inc., the software sends and receives
e-mail on the Internet as well as via online services including
CompuServe.
Claris says Emailer is the first Macintosh application to provide
automatic e-mail support for individual subscribers of the Internet and
more than one online service. Emailer users can send messages and
enclosures to subscribers of any online service or anyone with an
Internet address. Emailer creates and maintains a database of e-mail
addresses for all recipients. It can store more than one e-mail address
for individuals as well as a group address for multiple recipients.
Files can be sent as enclosures using drag-and- drop techniques. Emailer
automatically compresses and decompresses enclosures and can send
enclosures from one online service to another.
"As the number of people accessing the Internet and online services
increase we believe that e-mail addresses will become more common than
fax numbers," says Guy Kawasaki, president of Fog City Software. "We
developed Emailer for anyone with an e-mail address who wants to tap the
full potential of electronic messaging and communicate with subscribers
from a variety of online services effortlessly."
Scheduled for availability this summer, Emailer will be available for
both 68K- and Power Macintosh-based systems. The product's price hasn't
yet been announced.
>> HP Offers New Palmtop, 3 Units <<
A new palmtop PC and three PC models based on Intel Corp.'s new
120MHz Pentium processor have been introduced by Hewlett-Packard Co. as
part of its Vectra VL Series 3 PC line.
HP says the new palmtop PC comes with the industry-standard operating
system, MS-DOS 5.0, which makes it easy for developers to create
applications for specific vertical markets.
In addition, the HP 1000CX palmtop PC includes LapLink Remote, which
facilitates migration of existing MS-DOS applications on a desktop or
laptop computer to a palmtop PC.
>> Dell Dimensions XPS Introduced <<
Dell Computer Corp. has introduced a new desktop family of computers
called the Dell Dimension XPS based on Intel Corp.'s new Triton chip set
with support for 120 megahertz and 100 megahertz Pentium processors.
The new systems retail for a base price of $2,599 and are available
immediately in the United States and Canada.
The line combines Pentium processor technology, new memory
architecture, and high performance 128-bit graphics to offer users
enhanced speed and video performance.
The Dell Dimension XPS systems come equipped with a new high-
performance memory architecture comprised of EDO (extended data output)
memory and a pipeline-burst caching subsystem. EDO memory has two times
more bandwidth than traditional pagemode memory; the increased bandwidth
allows memory operations to be performed in fewer clock cycles, reducing
the number of wait states between instructions and increasing overall
system performance.
Pipeline-burst cache is a new high-speed cache memory that provides
up to 10 percent faster performance than a traditional synchronous cache
used in many of today's mainstream systems. Pipeline-burst cache memory
increases the speed at which memory instructions are transmitted,
reducing the overall time it takes one's computer to execute commands.
The computers are optimized for Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 95
operating system, which is due for release in August.
_______________________________________
> Frankie's Corner STR Feature Mayo Clinic Sports Health & Fitness
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Kids' Computing Corner
--------------------------
Mayo Clinic Sports Health & Fitness
CD-ROM for Windows
estimated retail $45
from
IVI Publishing
7500 Flying Cloud Drive
Minneapolis, MN 55344-3739
800-432-1332
IBM Requirements
----------------
CPU: 486SX-33 RAM: 8 megs Video: 640 by 480, 256 colors
Hdisk: 5 megs CD-rom: double-speed OS: Windows 3.1
Misc: Sound card, mouse, local bus graphics recommended
by Frank Sereno
And now for something completely different, a review of an educational
title for ADULTS. "Mayo Clinic Sports Health and Fitness" is a multimedia
reference for proper exercise and nutrition. Expert commentary and sport
celebrity interviews are included with hundreds of pages of text. Fitness
expert and ESPN reporter Jimmy Roberts acts as a personal trainer to
encourage users to begin and maintain a fitness program.
The training section is divided into several sections. First, the user
will have to fill out a health history. Then you will be asked to do
several evaluation exercises so his fitness level can be determined. The
program will then devise a reading list from the topics available on the
CD-ROM and outline a very generic exercise program. Each user will have
to plan his own program using the advice given. You will not be told to
do X amount of miles walking, X number of sit-ups, etc. Each day Jimmy
Roberts will give some friendly advice regarding the reading list or an
exercise that can be done. The program also includes a journal in which
each user can record his daily thoughts and progress.
I can remember back several years when a company created an aerobics
program for use on the Atari 800 series of computers in which an on-screen
coach would lead users in various exercises. Such a coach would have been
a great addition to this program. In addition, I would have preferred
that the program designed a more specific exercise program for each user
and then guide him through the daily routine.
The reference section is comprehensive. It includes sections on
nutrition, exercise, preventing injury, sports psychology and children's
sports. As a parent, I was most interested in the children's sports
section. It included information on when to start children in sports,
handling various situations and even proper techniques to motivate
children as a coach.
Interspersed in the reference text are numerous animations, illustrations
and videos. Many videos were culled from ESPN interviews with sport
celebrities. These interviews are used to emphasis the text and should
prove entertaining and interesting to most sports fans.
The program has a very intuitive interface. It includes on-screen icons,
a tool bar and pull-down menus which allow access to various features and
commands of the program. A very nice feature is the animated help
sequences which explain the program's features. This allows the program
to ship without a manual. Technical support is available via a toll-free
number and a readme file provides important troubleshooting information.
"Mayo Clinic Sports Health and Fitness" is a very good reference for
nutrition and fitness information. The information is presented in an
interesting and entertaining manner. I think the fitness trainer portion
of the program should be enhanced to include more specific programs and
have a coach to encourage the user through the exercises. This program
can be an excellent supplement to your health and fitness library of books
and videos. If you compete in sports or have young children entering
sports, you should seriously consider "Mayo Clinic Sports Health and
Fitness."
_______________________________________
> WinCIM 1.4 STR FOCUS! NEW FEATURES - CHANGES
"""""""""""""""""""""
CompuServe Information Manager
for
Windows (WinCIM) Version 1.4
WinCIM 1.4 includes the following new features:
-----------------------------------------------
Robust Service Navigation and Presentation
------------------------------------------
* Users can display CompuServe Hypertext documents containing multiple
fonts, colors, graphical images, and colorful backgrounds. What was once
a plain text news article or reference document can now be presented with
in a dramatically more interesting format, combining many media elements
in one form.
* Like the use of a Mosaic browser on the World Wide Web, WinCIM 1.4 users
can navigate to related topics on CIS using hotlinks within documents,
making information retrieval much simpler and faster. Hotlink locations
can be discussion forums, related documents, images, or service menus.
CompuServe Hypertext documents can be saved, printed, or shared with other
applications.
Internet Features
-----------------
* WinCIM users can now connect to the CompuServe Information Service via
the Internet. WinCIM 1.4 supports the Windows Sockets (WinSock)
interface, providing users with direct access to CIS from their existing
Internet account. All of the most popular WinSock-compatible Internet
connection mechanisms can be used to connect to CIS. Many users who once
needed access to a modem, modem pool, or network router will now be able
to connect to CompuServe with LAN reliability because of this new feature.
* In furtherance of integration with other commercial host systems
available via the Internet and via service gateways, WinCIM 1.4 contains
full VT100 terminal emulation support. Users can count on proper function
key and display behavior in terminal mode when using CompuServe's Telnet
gateway to supported hosts on the Internet. In addition, access to all of
the popular CIS Internet services are available via a single mouse click
from the WinCIM 1.4 main menu.
Person-to-Person Communication
------------------------------
* CompuServe has recently rolled out a new Electronic Conference Center
(GO CCC) which provides for moderated discussions of popular topics.
Users can submit questions for a moderator or a group of panelists to
consider, or submit a vote on an issue at hand. WinCIM 1.4 supports
greatly improved interactive display performance in large (1000 user)
conferences, and easy, one-button submission of questions and votes during
these proceedings. There is no longer any reason to attend a large
conference without the advantages of a graphical user interface.
Service and Application Integration
-----------------------------------
* In support of better application integration, WinCIM 1.4 supports the
automatic launching of external Windows applications to view service
content, whether downloaded to disk or displayed on-line. For example,
viewing an Acrobat file can be as simple as using the File Open command
after a download. In addition, other applications can be run
automatically upon request by the user or the CompuServe host, allowing
for robust new application integration with new client software.
Window Handling
---------------
* The handling of multiple windows on-screen in this release has
been changed at the majority request of our membership. A large number of
members complained that windows which were maximized obscured their
desktop and caused them to often feel lost. In usability tests, it was
common to see a user enter a forum, maximize a message window, feel lost,
then issue a GO FORUMNAME command from inside the same forum to go out of
and back into the forum and reset their desktop.
When you maximize an initial window (a parent window) from the desktop
such as your list of email messages, then maximize a window containing a
mail message which was picked from your list of messages (a child window),
then close the child window, the parent window will return to its normal
size. This is the proper way for Windows MDI dialogs to behave.
WINCIM.INI Switches
-------------------
* To override the new Window handling:
[General Preferences]
MDI-Keep-Maximized=TRUE
* To set terminal emulation foreground and background colors:
[Terminal Preferences]
Foreground=<color> ; Black is default
Background=<color> ; White is default
VT100-Foreground=<color> ; White is default
VT100-Background=<color> ; Black is default
(where color is: Black, White, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue,
Magenta, and Cyan)
* Some VT100 hosts do not accept the DEL character as a destructive
backspace - the normal backspace character is expected. Use the
following to set as needed:
[Terminal Emulation]
VT100-Backspace=[TRUE - sends real backspace | FALSE -
sends the delete character (default)]
* In CB and Conferencing the user must press the Update button to refresh
the Who's here list. Because of load issues and Windows message
processing this feature was disabled to support large conferences (1000+
users). To simulate the old functionality use the following:
[General Preferences]
Auto-Update-Frequency=[number of seconds in which the Who's
here list will automatically update vs. actually having
to press the Update button] - 0 is the default
meaning the user _must_ press the Update button for the
list to be updated.
Bug Fixes
---------
- Corrected paint problems encountered when displaying enhanced menus and
articles.
- Fixed the Out-Basket Paste From itself GPF
- Forum Logo re-paint problem fix
- Changed the default printer font face to "Courier New" to fix the DPP
print problem.
- Forum Fast Map bug fixed
- Fixed printing problems encountered with messages > 32K.
- Font problem fixed in various dialogs
- Fixed a radio button problem in DPP controls
- Can now TAB in an edit control in a DPP dialog
- Graphics files marked and retrieved now stored in the GRAPHICS directory
- Fixed bug with "no topics found" using Find
- Terminal emulation bug fixes (fonts, screen sizes, paint problems)
- Enhanced DPP multi-select listbox support
- Fixed Parent message handling in forums (button enabling)
- Enhancements to CB and Conferencing:
- Text that is pasted into the input window in the
Room/Group/Talk dialogs is now handled correctly.
- Some static buffers in the Talk, Listen, and Group
dialogs have been replaced with dynamic buffers
- The user name will now be updated in the Talk dialog if
it changes. "User NN" should no longer appear in the
Talk title bar.
- Text from older CIMs should be forced out immediately in
the output window.
- Performance improvements made in conference and CB
- Talk button is only enabled if user is allowed to talk.
- Disable the Monitor button if listen is not allowed
- Fixed problem where the buttons were not displayed properly when you
change the size or maximize a window
- Fixed problems with cached forum messages when setting a new start date
- Fixed problem where the shutdown message would be inaccessible if a
modal dialog received the focus
- Added Escape sequence to allow the host to switch the micro in and out
of Full VT100 mode
- Added the Internet icon to the Services menu, removed the Health icon.
The Health services may be reached via "Go Health" or through the
Home/Leisure icon on the Services menu.
- Adjusted the calculation for remaining time and bytes for marked file
retrieval
- Fixed problem in DPP where the initial edit control would not have the
text selected
- Made so
- Enabled dragging the thumb to the bottom, <End>, or <Ctrl-End > to
"retrieve all" in all edit and listbox controls.
- Fixed problem in Terminal Emulation window when closing the window when
in capture mode
- Select All retrieves all the text in articles prior to selecting.
- Major speed enhancements made to conferencing and associated dialogs
(users list, tracking, etc.).
- Fixed bug that would cause the wrong forum logo to be displayed.
- Changed behavior of the File Open common dialog handling to maintain the
directory last used when repeatedly invoked.
- Fixed various User Interface issues relating to the new fonts and
640x480 resolution
- Modified the Install program to delete the [Fonts] and [Window-Sizes]
sections from the WINCIM.INI file.
- Fixed bug where focus in a forum message reply was initially set to
the subject
- Added menu icons for various services on Ziff
- Fixed various font related issues (text being truncated)
- Fixed problems when canceling out of DPP
- Fixed problems when doing a GO while in terminal emulation capture
view mode
- Fixed problem that was causing GPFs in forum (e.g., receive a talk
while contribute file dialog is present)
- Fixed Ctrl-T problem in articles
- Fixed double click for GO command in articles
- A focus rectangle is drawn around the forum message next, previous, and
up buttons so you can see where the focus is.
- Fixed problem when trying to send mail across services (e.g. Ziff to
CIS)
- Can now press ENTER on a minimized icon to restore
- Increased spacing between icons on the Browse menu to fix problem
of "Member Services" only showing up as "Member"
Important WinCIM Information:
-----------------------------
- The WinCIM install process will not overwrite existing sounds defined
in the WIN.INI file. If the WIN.INI file is updated during setup the
original WIN.INI file will be saved as WININI.CIM.
- If you are upgrading from WinCIM version 1.0.5 (or earlier)
AND you have the "^" character in your password, you will
need to re-enter your password the very first time you
use WinCIM v1.4. You only need to do this if you have the
password stored in your session settings.
- A context-sensitive Help feature can be accessed from any area of
WinCIM by hitting the F1 key.
- Go WINCIM to find WinCIM specific information (i.e., a program
description, system requirements, product features, ordering,
downloading, and support).
- Go WCIMSUPPORT to get on-line Customer Support from the WinCIM
Support Forum, staffed by senior CompuServe Customer Support
representatives.
- WinCIM no longer attempts to determine if the text in menus
and articles is column data. This type of data should be displayed
using a fixed font. If you are presented with column data that is
not lined up properly, switch to a fixed font by pressing Ctrl-T.
To toggle between a fixed font and a proportional font press Ctrl-T.
- International keyboard characters (ISO Latin-1) can be used in
WinCIM. This capability allows WinCIM users to send CompuServe
Mail and Forum messages that contain international characters.
There are some known limitations to using these characters.
For additional information about this topic, see the file
WC8BIT.TXT in the "Misc Support Files" Library of the WinCIM Support
Forum (GO WCIMSUPPORT).
- Sounds (.WAV files) can be associated with WinCIM events (i.e.
connecting, file transfer completion, etc.). Sounds can be added
and removed through the Sounds module in the Windows Control Panel.
__________________________________
> Adobe and Netscape STR FOCUS! Q & A Follows.....
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
ADOBE AND NETSCAPE
TO BRING COMMERCIAL PUBLISHING
TO THE INTERNET
Boston, Mass. (March 28, 1995) (NASDAQ: ADBE) Adobe Systems Incorporated
and Netscape Communications Corporation today announced joint plans to
enable commercial Internet publishing capabilities that are not possible
through currently available products. By integrating and extending
functionality offered by their respective product lines, the two companies
will be able to offer a complete set of technologies that support secure,
electronic transactions across the Internet while also allowing publishers
to author and distribute graphically rich content that large audiences can
access.
As part of the joint plans, the two companies will integrate the
Internet navigation and electronic commerce capabilities provided by
Netscape with the commercial quality authoring and universal document
distribution capabilities provided by Adobe. This will include work to
combine functionality offered by Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF),
an open, searchable file format that preserves document fidelity across
all major computer platforms and printers, with Netscape's line of
Internet software products.
The integration work is designed to allow commercial publishers who
use Adobe software products daily for the production of highly formatted,
printed materials to easily use the same tools to provide quality content
in electronic form on the Internet. In conjunction with Netscape
technology and PDF, publishers will now have a commercial solution for
electronic information distribution in a universal format.
"Adobe technology, such as the PostScript language, provided new ways
for people to create rich printed documents and set new computer industry
standards," said James Clark, Chairman, Netscape Communications. "By
combining Netscape and Adobe technologies, we can bring that same quality
and creative power to online information, allowing publishers to leverage
their existing tools and quality standards in a way that perfectly
compliments Internet publishing via HTML."
Many corporations, government agencies and professional publishers,
including J. P. Morgan; Time Life Inc.; the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention; TimesFax, a division of The New York Times Information
Services Group; and Springer Verlag New York Inc., are adopting PDF for
Internet publishing. By integrating Adobe and Netscape technologies, such
as Netscape Publishing Systemt which manages all aspects of an electronic
publishing house, businesses can make professionally published content
more directly accessible while opening up new business opportunities.
"Our customers have very successfully harnessed the power offered by
desktop publishing tools to expand the publishing industry and create new
expectations for creativity and quality," said John Warnock, Chairman and
CEO, Adobe Systems.
"Our relationship with Netscape reflects our commitment to keep
providing tools that enable the publishing industry to expand to new
frontiers."
Roadmap Specifics
-----------------
The companies disclosed a four step roadmap for delivering a complete
suite of Internet publishing tools. First, the Macintoshr and Windowst
versions of Netscape Navigatort 1.1 will support the Acrobat Weblinkt
software plug-in, a free add-on application from Adobe that allows Acrobat
documents to link to other documents on the Internet. The companies will
also collaborate on a future version of Netscape Navigator that will
seamlessly view documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), the
open, cross-platform file format created by Acrobat software. Additional
integration efforts will include work on Netscape server software to
provide quick access to PDF documents across the Internet, allowing users
to download portions of PDF files at a time for faster on screen viewing.
Lastly, Adobe will extend its authoring applications to more fully support
the ability to import and export PDF files and will provide the ability to
output to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in a future version of Adobe
PageMaker.
The announcement has generated positive reactions from the publishing
community.
"We have been working closely with both Netscape and Adobe to achieve
our charter of developing innovative new media information products," said
Stephen Lake, Senior Vice President, Reuters New Media. "The flexibility
and security of the Netscape Worldwide Web publishing platform and the
richness of new media content we can create through Acrobat allows us to
create new products such as the Reuters Photojournalism Magazine. The
ability to download portions of a PDF file across the Web will allow us to
create even richer documents.""The fact that Netscape and Adobe are
coordinating development activity is truly exciting," said Mr. Robert D.
Ingle, Vice President/New Media for Knight-Ridder.
"Like many publishers, Knight-Ridder has been active in exploring
information dissemination via the Internet. However, to date, we've been
missing both control over formatting and a commercially viable way to
distribute that information. The combination of Adobe and Netscape gives
us the full suite of tools to move our efforts from exploration to
commercial deployment."
"We chose Acrobat because TimesFax is a branded product, and it was
essential to provide context in addition to content, preserving the look
and feel complete with the typefaces used in the New York Times", said
Patricia Ecke, Publisher, TimesFax. "Producing it in HTML just didn't give
us that capability. The announcement between Adobe and Netscape reinforces
our decision to use PDF, and gives us additional tools to take further
advantage of the World Wide Web publishing opportunity". The TimesFax
World Wide Web edition is an eight-page digest of news from the New York
Times that is made available in PDF format via the World Wide Web.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open
software to enable people and companies to exchange information and
conduct commerce over the Internet and other global networks. The company
was founded in April 1994 by Dr. James H. Clark, founder of Silicon
Graphics, Inc., a Fortune 500 computer systems company; and Marc
Andreessen, creator of the NCSA Mosaict research prototype for the
Internet. Privately held, Netscape Communications Corporation is based in
Mountain View, California.
Adobe Systems Incorporated, founded in 1982, is headquartered in Mountain
View, California. Adobe develops, markets and supports computer software
products and technologies that enable users to create, display, print and
communicate electronic documents. The company licenses its technology to
major computer and publishing suppliers, and markets a line of powerful,
but easy to use products for home and small business users. Adobe has
subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim serving a worldwide
n e t work of dealers and distributors. Adobe's 1994 revenue was
approximately $598 million.
Adobe, PageMaker, PostScript, Weblink and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe
Systems Incorporated or its subsidiaries and may be registered in certain
jurisdictions. Netscape Commuications, Netscape, Netscape Publishing
System, and Netscape Navigator are trademarks of Netscape Communications
Corporation.
*****
Adobe / Netscape Q&A...
--------------------
Q) What, exactly, did Adobe and Netscape announce?
A) The two companies announced plans to more closely integrate their
product lines to produce the full suite of tools required to enable high
quality commercial publishing to take place via the Internet's World Wide
Web.
As part of the joint plans, the companies disclosed a four step roadmap
for delivering a complete suite of internet publishing tools.
1) Netscape Navigator 1.1 will support the Acrobat Weblink software
plug-in, a free add-on application from Adobe that allows Acrobat
documents to link to other documents on the Web.
2) The companies will also collaborate on a future version of Netscape
Navigator that will seamlessly view documents in Adobe's Portable Document
Format.
3) The companies will collaborate on extensions to Netscape server
software that provide faster access to PDF documents across the internet,
by downloading a page at a time.
4) Adobe will extend its authoring applications to more fully support the
ability to import and export PDF files, and will provide the ability to
output to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in a future version of Adobe
PageMaker.
Q) When will I see these offerings from Adobe and from Netscape?
A) The first part of the roadmap exists today. A beta version of Adobe's
Weblink software is now posted on Adobe's Web home page. That version
works with Mac and PC versions of Netscape Navigator version 1.1, as well
as Spyglass Web browsers.
Regarding items 2 & 3, both companies expect to see Netscape products
available by year end. Additionally, later this year Adobe will have
toolkits available for software vendors that wish to implement similar
functionality.
Adobe has not yet disclosed dates for item 4, but stay tuned!
Q) What is Weblink, and how does it work?
A) Weblink is a plug in for Acrobat Exchange that permits the user to
create URL's (the cross document linking mechanism standard on the Web).
Additionally, when used with a supported Web browser (like those from
Netscape and Spyglass), the user can link to any other document on the Web
(either PDF or HTML documents), simply by hitting the link.
Q) Will that functionality be part of the freely distributable Acrobat
Reader?
A) Adobe will make that functionality part of the freely distributable
Reader. We plan on releasing that product this summer.
Q) Will Adobe work with other Web product vendors, or is this exclusive to
Netscape?
A) We are very interested in working with any and all application vendors
that wish to better support Acrobat. Specifically, we are VERY interested
in working with all Web vendors, and Web publishers!
Q) Didn't you make a similar announcement with Spyglass? How is this
similar or different? Will Spyglass offer the same functionality?
A) Last fall, Spyglass announced they will support Adobe's Weblink plug in
(similar to item number 1 on the roadmap outlined above). We do have an
ongoing relationship with Spyglass, and would very much welcome the
opportunity to work with them (and any other Web vendor) to offer the same
level of Acrobat functionality as we announced with Netscape.
Q) Are these announcements only relevant to the Web, or are they
appropriate technologies for online services as well?
A) The technology we announced and demonstrated is valid for many types of
applications. Supporting URL linking is specific to the Web. The
technology for faster PDF downloading is very relevant for on-line
services. Integrated PDF viewing is very relevant for on-line servies,
e-mail, and any other application where viewing & printing high quality
documents is a benefit.
Q) How can Web browser vendors work with Adobe?
A) The first step is to integrate support for Weblink! You can find
information on how to do that posted on Adobe's home page
(http://www.adobe.com/). From there, keep in touch with your local Adobe
representative, and with Adobe's Developer Support Organization for
information on the software toolkit supporting implementation of faster
PDF download and integrated viewing.
Q) Are there licensing fees involved for supporting Weblink?
A) The information for supporting Weblink is posted on Adobe's Home Page.
There are no fees for supporting Weblink.
Q) Will information on integrating PDF viewing and faster PDF access be
part of the Adobe Acrobat Software Developer's Kit? Will there be license
fees involved?
A) We have not yet finalized plans for how that information will be
available. Keep in touch with the Adobe Developer's Association
(415-961-4111, or the ADA section on Adobe's Home Page) to stay abreadst
of our plans.
Q) What's the address for Adobe's home page again?
A) http://www.adobe.com/
Q) Isn't HTML already the standard file format for Web publishing? Why
would I use PDF for publishing on the Web?
A) HTML is sufficient when your document is composed of text, and the
formatting of the document isn't important. HTML is also appropriate when
you want the information to reflow depending on the size of the browser
window.
PDF is a much better choice for documents that are graphically rich, or
where the format and layout of the document are important. HTML does not
support even rudimentary layout options like choice of typeface, multiple
columns, tables, text shaped around graphics, etc.
Many publishers have already chosen PDF for their Web-based information
services because of the rich formatting control. Additionally, many
publishers are using PostScript based tools for generation of their
printed material. Since conversion from PostScript to PDF is as simple as
drag and drop, many publishers find Acrobat to be a convenient way to
leverage their investment in their print production process, and a simple
way to move to Web publishing.
Q) But aren't HTML documents more compact that Acrobat files? Doesn't that
make HTML a better format for Web publishing?
A) Not at all! If you compare file sizes for similar documents you will
find PDF compares very favorably with HTML. Acrobat supports a wide
variety of data compression techniques for graphics, text, and images (as
does HTML), in order to keep file sizes small.
Since Acrobat supports a much richer formatting structure than HTML, PDF
authors can build more complex documents, which will result in larger
files sizes. Also, Acrobat documents can be many pages, where typically,
HTML documents are built a page at a time, and linked together via URL's.
However, the choice is up to the author. When doing an apples-to-apples
comparison, you'll see very similar file
sizes.
________________________________________
> MS & INFOWORLD STR Spotlight
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
MICROSOFT RESPONSE
TO
INFOWORLD ARTICLES
ON
LATEST BETA OF WINDOWS 95
InfoWorld has written a product review and news article on Windows 95
Beta 3 that raises some issues with the product. This document is
intended to clarify issues the articles may raise for customers.
Summary of Key Issues
---------------------
Contrary to the news article written by InfoWorld, Windows 95 is an
architecturally sound product. InfoWorld did find some bugs which is
expected, and desired, since this is the point of our testing pre-release
code. We are fixing the bugs submitted by InfoWorld as we do with the bugs
submitted by our over 50,000 beta test sites. Many of the bugs InfoWorld
submitted have already been fixed post Beta 3. The vast majority of our
beta testers are having a good experience with the product. Based on our
internal measurements and feedback from beta testers, we are on track to
meet our quality goals and ship in August. Customers should be reassured
that Microsoft is committed to shipping a quality product.
InfoWorld Articles
------------------
InfoWorld's review misses the point of Windows 95. Windows 95 is a
great product that in conjunction with our partners will move the computer
industry forward and allow customers to do new, powerful and exciting
things with their computer. Unfortunately the review focuses on rare
cases and mis-reports others. We are committed to fixing the bugs found
as part of their review. At the same time, it is incorrect to make broad,
sweeping generalizations about Windows 95 based on bugs in beta code. The
product is architecturally sound. The Q&A document below provides
detailed clarification for customers. The responses are listed in order of
the issues raised in the product review.
Detailed Responses to the InfoWorld News Article
------------------------------------------------
Issue:
"What was publicized as the largest beta program in history failed to
turn up a fundamental architectural flaw in Windows 95 that causes the
operating system to freeze when multitasking a few 32-bit
applications....The flaw means that not only is the much-touted final beta
not the final beta, but also that two years into the development cycle
Microsoft has failed to execute on its promise of a multitasking operating
system that can run 32-bit multithreaded applications."
Response:
It is not an architectural flaw, it was a bug that we had already
found and fixed. We also delivered a copy of the fixed beta to InfoWorld
before this article was published. Windows 95 can multitask 32-bit
applications well. The specific bug that InfoWorld hit in the Beta 3
release was in running out of system resources while running a specific
32-bit application, the Microsoft Network (MSN) client. The MSN client is
currently also in beta release and has not been fully tuned yet. Currently
the MSN client creates 3 threads of execution per window which is opened
on the screen. Each one of these threads also creates a local message
queue. Thus, each MSN window opened in this untuned state creates a larger
load on the system than normal 32-bit applications. The MSN client will
reduce its resource consumption in future betas.
Even though MSN is not yet fully tuned, we have alleviated many of these
problems in the releases after Beta 3 by moving large portions of the
window class structure and the local message queue structure o
ut of the
system's local 64KB heap and into the 32-bit heap. As a result, we
significantly increase the number of 32-bit applications which could be
run simultaneously. Our internal tests show that with the Beta 3 release
you could run, for example, 8 copies of 32-bit Microsoft Excel for Windows
95. With the bug fix, Windows 95 can now run 17 copies of 32-bit Excel for
Windows 95. Most users will never run into these limits while doing their
day-to-day work.
Issue:
"The problem stems from Windows 95's method of memory
management...User Resources...can be completely consumed after only a few
32-bit applications are opened."
Response:
This is not accurate. Windows 95 dramatically increases system
resources and provides the capability to run many more applications than
under Windows 3.x. In addition to the 32-bit improvements described
above, these increased system resources also benefit users of existing
16-bit applications. For example, under Windows 3.1 you could only run 7-8
copies of Word for Windows 6.0. Under Windows 95, you can now run 18-19
copies of Word for Windows 6.0.
Issue:
"Although all applications call on the Windows Class Structure,
multithreaded, 32-bit applications such as Word for Windows NT, Excel for
Windows NT, and the Microsoft Network, make heavy use of the Windows Class
Structure and will quickly exhaust the limited resources of the 64KB
heap."
Response:
This is not accurate. Not all applications make heavy use of the
window class data structure. In fact the vast majority of them don't.
The Microsoft Network (MSN) is one specific 32-bit application that uses
more system resources than average because the current MSN beta creates a
local message queue per thread. Most applications do not use or need a
separate message queue per thread. As described above, this puts an
increased load on the system.
Issue:
"Microsoft has a fix that shifts the Windows Class Structure into a
32-bit memory address space above the 64KB heap. Microsoft used a similar
strategy last December to extend resources of the GDI heap.
Response: This is correct we have fixed the problem. As mentioned
previously, Windows 95 can run many simultaneous 32-bit applications well
today. Moving the window class structure was not a fundamental
architectural change. The reason we did not do it for the Beta 3 release
of Windows 95 is because we were unsure if any existing 16-bit
applications made assumptions about the location of this structure. If
so, our moving this structure would have made any such existing
application fail. Since that time we have learned that there are no
compatibility problems to moving this structure, and we have done so in
the post-Beta 3 releases, even before we knew about the InfoWorld Article.
We provided a new version of the Windows 95 beta with this fix to
InfoWorld before this article was published.
Detailed Responses to InfoWorld First Looks Review
Issue:
"When you install Windows 95 over an existing copy of DOS and Windows
it inherits all of the network drivers, device drivers, and utilities that
are loaded in your CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, AND SYSTEM.INI files - even
the ones it won't need or can't work with. I left in all of my memory
manager, network, CD-ROM, and Sound Blaster drivers, even though Windows
95 properly sniffed out and loaded its own drivers for these features.
Redundancy like this won't always bring Windows 95 down, but it will eat
up a lot of conventional RAM for DOS sessions"
Response:
We leave these drivers in for backwards compatibility reasons. This
means that, unlike under OS/2, all users can continue to make use of all
devices on their machine, even those for which Windows does not have a
specific driver. The drivers which are absolutely safe to remove, such as
the CD-ROM drivers, some network drivers and various third party memory
managers are automatically commented out of the old initialization files.
Other drivers which are needed for backwards compatibility are not
touched. For example, Windows 95 will automatically remove Novell's
real-mode NETX client from the system and replace it with a protect mode
replacement, thereby saving 97K of conventional memory. It will also
automatically remove the real-mode MSCDEX CD-ROM drivers and replace them
with protect mode CDFS drivers for most CD-ROM drives, thereby saving 45K
of convential memory. Also, knowledgeable users can go back in at a later
date and possibly remove other redundant real-mode drivers if they wish to
gain even more conventional memory.
Issue:
"Unfortunately, the RAM most precious to Windows 95 is the tiny
portion it allocates for Windows resources. That's one reason Windows 95
will prove to be as unreliable as Windows 3.1."
Response: This is blown way out of proportion. Most people will never run
into any system resource limitations under Windows 95. In fact, Windows
95 significantly improves in this area over Windows 3.1. For example
users can now run not only all of the applications in the entire Microsoft
Office Professional suite, but also many other major applications
simultaneously, such as Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows and WordPerfect for
Windows.
Issue:
"I quickly ran out of resources on my 486 with 32MB of RAM when
simply running the 32-bit version of Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0 and
exploring the Microsoft Network..."
Response:
This statement needs clarification. First, as mentioned previously,
Windows 95 runs a number of 32-bit applications well. The scenario
mentioned above should present no problems for customers. Second the
Microsoft Network (MSN) is one specific 32-bit application that uses more
system resources than average due to the fact that it is not fully tuned
yet. Also, as mentioned previously, the system's data structures which
were stored in the 64K local heap for the Beta 3 release have been moved
to the 32-bit heap. Versions of the beta with this fix included were
given to InfoWorld before this story was published.
Issue:
"This beta is unusable when using 4MB of RAM. It is uncomfortably
slow on my 33-MHz 486DX with 8MB of RAM. And it is excruciatingly slow on
a 25-MHz 486SX with 8MB when it runs of a disk compressed with Stac
Electronics Inc.'s Stacker because the compression forces Windows 95 into
using real-mode disk access."
Response:
Our beta testers tell us otherwise. Internal tests performed on
industry standard performance benchmarks tell us otherwise.
Specifically, standard performance tests such as Winbench and Winstones
show that Windows 95 is roughly as fast or faster than Windows 3.1 on a
386DX with 4MB RAM or better for conducting the same set of common tasks.
Also our beta testers confirm these test results from their own personal
use. Between the Beta 3 release and the final product release we will
also continue to tune our performance. We will work with InfoWorld to
ensure that there is not a bug which is affecting their performance.
In regard to Stacker compression, it is true that Windows 95 uses
real-mode disk access to serialize all the disk activities. This is done
for compatibility reasons and is a great benefit for customers that don't
want to change what they have to run Windows 95. Customers also have the
choice of using protect mode disk drivers for compression, such as the
DriveSpace compression drivers supplied in the box, which provide faster
performance. Stac Electronics can also, and likely will, write their own
protected mode disk drivers which will provide faster performance for
Stacker customers.
As a comparison to OS/2, Windows 95 is faster than OS/2 Warp in every
standard industry benchmark test. In the example below, we ran the
Windows Magazine set of 16-bit Word and Excel macros at the same time to
simulate a multitasking scenario. Note that Windows 95 is faster than all
other competing operating systems even in beta.
Word and Excel Windows Magazine macros - Total time score for 3 runs, in
seconds:
Operating System 16MB 8MB 4MB
Windows 95 211 231 905
WfW 3.11 237 304 3863
OS/2 Warp default 333 558 7102
OS/2 Warp fastload 336 554 7025
OS/2 Warp separate VMs 348 failed failed
Issue:
"My copy of cc:Mail Remote for DOS works fine as a foreground
application, but it simply times out and fails to exchange messages when I
run it in the background even when I set the CPU idle sensitivity for the
DOS session to its lowest setting."
Response:
This is a known bug in the beta of Windows 95 and has already been
fixed in the versions after the Beta 3 release. InfoWorld had a version
with this fix included before this story was published.
Issue:
"...OLE performance in Windows 95 is horrendous. Typing within a
Word for Windows OLE object that's embedded in a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet under Windows 95 is a torturous experience. This is clearly a
Windows 95 problem, because I can run the same 32-bit versions of Word and
Excel under Windows NT and not experience this lag-time typing problem in
OLE objects."
Response:
We have been unable to reproduce this specific problem in-house, nor
have any other beta sites reported this specific problem. We've asked
InfoWorld for more information on their particular configuration but they
have been unable to supply that yet. If it is simply a bug in InfoWorld's
particular machine configuration we will investigate it and fix it before
the final shipment of the product.
Issue:
"Every time I restarted Windows 95, it couldn't make up its mind
about how it wanted to log me into the network. I started it up one time
and it asked me for a password for each server I use and it automatically
remapped drives the way I had them setup last using the Network
Neighborhood utility. Then the next time I started Windows 95, it asked
me just once for my password and ran my Netware log-in script and mapped
the drives according to that."
Response:
From the best we can tell with the information given to us, the
reviewer may be confused as to the expected behavior. A user can specify
which entity, in this case NetWare preferred server, to log on to the
network. If the preferred server is available at startup, the user will
be authenticated on the network and will not be prompted when trying to
connect to any shares available via the preferred server or any servers
that the user has saved passwords for in the password cache. This
facilitates a rapid logon and easy access to network shares without
compromising network security. If the server is unavailable at startup
time, the user can log into Windows but will get prompted every time they
try and access a specific share accessible to them via their preferred
server. If this behavior is different than what InfoWorld is
experiencing, we will be happy to investigate further and fix this if it
is a bug.
Issue:
"...And the relatively easy-to-use desktop is perhaps the biggest
improvement over Windows 3.1 although it falls short of both the Macintosh
desktop and the OS/2 Workplace Shell in depth and functionality."
Response:
The writer is clearly expressing personal opinion. Microsoft has
conducted a variety of research that shows OS/2 and even Macintosh users
are more proficient using Windows 95 to accomplish a set of common tasks
as compared to conducting those tasks using their own operating system.
For example, we conducted pilot tests for existing Macintosh and OS/2
users and compared those to the same people running Windows 95 for the
first time. The tasks each user had to complete were isomorphic, meaning
that users never repeated exactly the same tasks but rather completed sets
of tasks which were functionally identical. The mean times (in seconds)
to complete the tasks for the Macintosh users are given in the table
below. These numbers are an aggregate of beginner, intermediate and
advanced users.
Group All
Macintosh baseline 73
Win 95, first try 70
Win 95, second try 52
Win 95, third try 47
For OS/2 users, we conducted a similar test with a group of intermediate
to advanced existing OS/2 Warp users (We could not find enough novice
users to test). The mean time (in seconds) to complete the tasks is given
in the table below:
Group All
OS/2 Warp baseline 94
Win 95, first try 52
Win 95, second try 28
Win 95, third try 23
It is also interesting to note that of our sample group of intermediate to
advanced OS/2 Warp users, over 2/3's of these subjects stated that, after
the tests were completed, they preferred the Windows 95 user interface
over Warp.
Note that the sample sizes used in the Macintosh/OS/2 studies were
intentionally small because the studies were for internal use only. Test
results for Windows 3.1 users' performance on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95
used a larger sample size (25 per group) and are statistically
significant.
Issue:
"Shortcuts still get confused if you move the files they point to
another directory - and get hopelessly lost if you move them to another
drive. The only improvement in this beta is that Windows 95 will always
ask you before redirecting a shortcut to the wrong file. But it ends up
pointing to the wrong file nonetheless."
Response:
This statement is not correct. Shortcut tracking when the target is
moved works properly, and does not open the incorrect file unexpectedly
without some sort of a warning message. We have said all along that
shortcut tracking works on local drives, not when the targets are moved to
a different local or network drive. Shortcuts are based on an open
architecture that makes them very powerful for linking to a variety of
data types. For example, shortcuts can point to not only files, but also
specific paragraphs within a particular file, files or servers on the
network. In fact, when shortcuts point to files on a network server that
currently isn't connected to your remote machine, Windows 95 will
automatically dial the appropriate access phone number in order to
re-establish that connection. Shortcuts can even be extended to connect
to objects on the internet, for example to a favorite places location.
They are far more flexible than anything else out on the market today.
Issue:
"As far as compatibility, Windows 95 did run every application I
threw at it but not flawlessly. To name a few of the experiences: cc:Mail
for Windows cause frequent General Protection Faults; cc:Mail Remote for
DOS repeatedly displayed long lines of extraneous letters when addressing
mail; and Lotus Notes for Windows warned me it wouldn't run properly and
then couldn't find most of the servers on the network."
Response:
Microsoft is not familiar with any problems running Windows 95 with
these applications. Lotus Corporation visited Microsoft campus a few weeks
ago and they ran through their entire test suite for their applications
without problems. This is the same test suite they run before they ship
their applications and we jointly did not find any problems with Windows
95. However, if there is a problem that is particular to InfoWorld's
configuration, we will work to understand it and fix it in the final
product.
Issue:
"Corporate users will gain more headache than advantages for the
investment in time and hardware it will take to move from Windows 3.1 to
Windows 95."
Response:
Corporate accounts and industry analysts tell us the opposite.
Windows 95 provides three very compelling benefits to corporate accounts:
Reduce Support Cost via an easier to use interface, plug and play
support for hardware, built-in, integrated networking, and greater
system reliability.
Increase Control over the Desktop via integrated desktop security,
and remote administration capabilities/ tools. With the registry,
adminstrators can remotely manage PC's through standard desktop
management interfaces such as DMI, SNMP, and RPC.
Improved User Productivity through faster print, disk and network
I/o, 32-bit multitasking and multithreading, and built-in
communications and information access features.
Industry analysts such as the GartnerGroup, Stamford CT, estimate that
Windows 95 will reduce the Total Cost of PC Ownership on the order of
$1,180/year per user over a 5 year period and pay for itself in 3-6 months
of moving to Windows 95.
Issue:
"As for the resource problems in particular, Microsoft claims it can
fix them by moving the Windows class out of the 64KB user heap and into
the 32-bit address space. They even hand-delivered me a later build to
prove it. This build does indeed seem to let you do more before you run
out of resources. But there's a problem with this strategy. Operating
system architecture is a delicate balance of design decisions. When you
probe them in one place, they tend to pop out in another. And this later
build is far less stable than the M8 beta."
Response:
As InfoWorld confirms, later builds of Windows 95 do improve the
system resources for 32-bit applications. Contrary to their claim, these
changes are not destabilizing. The product is in beta and continues to
improve and become more stable as we move to finalize it. We will ship a
quality product when it meets our internal criteria and based upon
feedback from our beta testers.
Issue:
Since Microsoft has known about the resource problem for some months
now, I have to question why it is trying this "fix" on one of the most
fundamental aspects of the architecture after the release of what it is
calling the "final" beta."
Response:
Moving the window class structure is not a fundamental architectural
change. The reason we did not do it for the Beta 3 release of Windows 95
is because we were unsure if any existing 16-bit applications made
assumptions about the location of this structure. If so, our moving this
structure would have made any such existing application fail. Since that
time we have learned that there are no compatibility problems to moving
this structure, and we have done so in the post-Beta 3 releases. We
provided a new version of the Windows 95 beta with this fix to InfoWorld
before this article was published.
____________________________________________
> NavCIS TE v1.6 STR FOCUS! It just keeps getting better!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows
==========================
NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows is a special Timed Edition of NavCIS Pro.
It is a powerful off-line navigator designed to make CompuServe easier to
use while reducing your monthly connect time (and your CompuServe bill).
Reductions up to 70% are not uncommon. If you are spending $50 to $100
per month currently, NavCIS may help you lower your bill to as little as
$15 to $30 per month!
NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows features an easy to learn Windows interface.
The hardware requirements are:
Windows 3.1 or Windows-For-Workgroups (Now NT/95 compatible, too)
EGA or higher resolution monitor
Hard disk (needs approx. 3mb of disk space)
Modem
Mouse (not required, but recommended)
386 processor or higher w/ at least 4mb of RAM.
NavCIS Pro v1.6 TE for Windows includes:
* Spell checker: change dictionaries on the fly.
* Advanced freeware image viewer supports PCX, TIF, TGA as well as
GIF, JPG and BMP graphics files.
* Support for multiple CompuServe IDs.
* Forum announcement retrieval system.
* What's New topic retrieval system.
* Message priority: send messages with High, Med, Low or none.
* Unlimited forums.
* Font technology for messages: create messages with embedded
fonts, bold, italics and wingdings.
* Support for high speed nodes: 14.4k, 19.2k and 28.8k.
* Automated weather services: maps, forecasts, etc.
* Automated stock queries
* Automated FileFinder, find files anywhere on CompuServe.
* Powerful e-mail features: forwarding, CC, groups, file uploading
& downloading.
* Powerful forum features: file up & downloading, library
catalog creation and searching, thread header downloading,
etc.
* Tech support via our forum on CompuServe (GO DVORAK).
* Message Thread Technology
* Many, many more features too numerous to mention.
For a listing of all the features available in NavCIS TE, download
the file DVORAK.EXE (Self-extracting Windows Help file) or DIFF.TXT from
Lib 1 of the DVORAK forum.
NavCIS v1.6 TE will let you experience the full power of NavCIS Pro.
It will make your use of CompuServe so much easier, so much cheaper,
you'll wonder how you got by without it.
By downloading NavCIS TE for Windows, you are acknowledging the following:
1. NavCIS TE for Windows REQUIRES Windows version 3.1 or higher.
2. NavCIS TE is Demoware and may be copied and given to friends
and colleagues, but you may not charge for such copies. NavCIS
TE begins its 30 Day countdown from its first on-line session
to CompuServe.
3. NavCIS TE does not come with a warranty or guarantee. By
agreeing to this download, you release Dvorak Development &
Publishing Corp. from any liability whatsoever for any
consequence, whether direct or indirect, of using NavCIS TE.
4. NavCIS is a registered trademark of Dvorak Development.
5. NavCIS TE is a timed edition good for 30 days beginning with
the first CompuServe session using it.
To INSTALL NavCIS Pro 1.6, Timed Edition:
-----------------------------------------
1. The file you are about to download is a Windows specific
self-extracting file called WPROTE.EXE.
2. To run the file, use Program Manager's File | Run command. You
may run WPROTE.EXE from any location... (dir, floppy, etc.).
3. When the install screen appears, select the drive and path you
want NavCIS installed to... in almost all cases, you should accept
the default C:\NAVCIS.
4. You will be asked if you want sounds. Choose either the Male
or Female sound set ONLY IF you have a sound card. Otherwise,
choose None.
5. Next, it will ask to which group you want the 4 NavCIS specific
icons added. In most cases, accept the Default group, NavCIS.
The install program will create the group and fill it with the
four icons.
6. To start NavCIS, just dbl-click on the NavCIS TE icon.
Common Questions about NavCIS TE (Timed Edition):
------------------------------------------------
Q: When does the 30 day evaluation period begin?
A: From the first time you log onto CompuServe using TE.
Q: Will NavCIS TE keep me informed how many days I have left before
it expires?
A: Yes, and it also tells you the date it will expire on.
Q: What does NavCIS TE do when the 30 days expire?
A: NavCIS stops going online... it does not destroy or damage its data
files in any way. All functionality remains, but it will now only
connect with CompuServe Mail - it will not visit forums or special
services. So you can continue to use NavCIS TE to read, search, or
print messages and catalogs and check CompuServe mail.
Q: If I upgrade to Pro, will I be able to use the data I collected
(forums, messages, catalogs, etc.) while using TE?
A: Yes, the regular Pro edition will overwrite your TE program files
and seamlessly begin using your TE data as though it were its own.
Q: How do I order the regular Pro edition?
A: NavCIS TE has a built in order form. By pressing the "O" for Order
icon button on the toolbar, the order entry screen will appear. Fill
it out then press the E-Mail Order button and your order will be
securely routed to Dvorak Development via private and very secure
e-mail. Or call Dvorak Development at 303-661-0345. We accept
VISA, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.
WPROTE.EXE is available from Lib 1 of the DVORAK forum.
Updated: March 28, 1995.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo)
Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
GENIE Information Services copyright 1995 by General Electric
Information Services/GENIE, reprinted by permission
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
___ ___ _____ _______
/___| /___| /_____| /_______/ The Macintosh RoundTable
/____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ ________________________
/_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/
/__/|____/|__|________|__/
/__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/____ Managed by SyndiComm
/__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/
An Official Forum of the International Computer Users Group
*** STReport available in MAC RT ***
ASCII TEXT
for ALL GENIE users!
MAC/APPLE SECTION (II)
======================
John Deegan, Editor (Temp)
> V.34 - 28.8 bps STR InfoFile
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION AT 28.8K BPS
=======================================
by Paul Munoz-Colman
Background.
~~~~~~~~~~
What are these terms V.FC and V.34?
V.FC ("FC" stands for "Fast Class") is a proprietary implementation
of an early version of the 28.8kbps asynchronous international
communications standard, designated V.34. For the past two years due
to marketplace pressure, V.FC implementations have been rushed to the
public, while the international standards body ITU-T (formerly known
as the CCITT) was slowly and carefully working on the design and
development of V.34. Those who released the early V.FC modems were
participants of the ITU-T Study Group who cooperatively developed
V.34.
The current state of the technology.
V.34 is now a reality.
It was ratified late this past Summer, and is now the international
standard for asynchronous communication at modulations up to 28.8k
bits per second (bps). V.34 operates at a top speed which is twice
that of the previous generation of high speed modems (which were
called V.32-bis and operate at 14,400bps), and three times the speed
of the generation before that (called V.32, which operates at
9,600bps).
At this writing, the marketplace is very volatile. Today, some
vendors have V.34 modems on the market, and several more are in
various stages of testing. Within six months or more, nearly all
vendors will have V.34 modems readily available.
The high-speed chaos which this has created.
In the haste to get modems to the marketplace and supply chipsets to
other modem manufacturers, there have been many releases of V.FC,
even within the same manufacturer of modems. This has caused
terribly confusing difficulty in interoperability between modems, in
establishing connections, maintaining them properly, and in
transferring data across them. To a much lesser degree, the
implementations of V.34 also suffer from some compatibility problems,
due to some difference in interpretation by modem vendors of the high
complex specification for this transmission rate.
Why is it such an issue?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because of the design limits of 28.8k.
It is not only perfectly normal, but even typical in a V.34 or V.FC
connection to see a less than 28.8kbps connection. V.34 and V.FC are
not fixed-speed standards, and make/change their connections based on
phone line quality.
Very few people can get consistent 28.8kbps connections. Speeds of
28.8kbps require pristine phone line quality along the entire length
of the connection. But VFC and V.34 modems are capable of pushing
the limits of analog phone lines, commonly offering connection speeds
of 21.6k, 24k, and even 26.4kbps.
The bandwidth (or "bandpass") of a voice-grade phone line is about
3,000Hz to 4,000Hz (3-4KHz). Because the mathematics of compressing
28.8kbps pushes the phone line to near its theoretical limits, V.34
was designed to accommodate a variety of phone line conditions. V.FC
and V.34 are both smart enough to do what is called a "channel
probe", which is a frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio test
of frequencies at various points across the bandpass. During the
modem handshake, the modems send a series of tones to each other, at
known signal levels and specific frequencies. The modem calculates
the level of the received signal at each frequency, and therefore can
determine the maximum bandwidth available for use.
So, just how good does a line have to be?!
In reality, it takes line clarity at about -44dB or better (about the
sound level of a clearly whispered conversation across a medium size
room) at the top of the phone line's "bandpass" to obtain and
maintain a 28.8kbps connection. At about -46dB and below, modem
receivers tend to "go deaf". The typical long distance connection
can be much worse than this at that frequency; it is not unusual to
see -55dB to -70dB (closer to the background hiss level of a
factory-fresh medium-grade audio tape).
Standard transmit levels for domestic (US/Canada) modems are
approximately -10 dB, although V.34 and V.FC negotiate these levels
during the initial connection attempt. Receiving levels can vary
widely, depending on the conditions on your local phone line, the
line at the remote modem, and any long-distance or inter-office
carrier facilities.
Typical receiving levels range from -40 dB at the low end, to -15 dB
at the high end, with figures in the -20dB to -35dB range being most
common. Extreme values in either direction probably indicate a
problem in the connection from your modem to your local phone
company, which in some cases the phone company may be able to adjust.
However, be aware that Ma Bell and the long distance carriers are not
required by law, statute, or tariff to "fix" this "problem" on
unconditioned voice grade lines, because it is not really a
"problem"!
Why does it get bad?
Simple line impairment.
Variations in line quality are typically the culprit for low connect
rates. Line impairments can result in link timeouts (when the error
control protocol does not receive a block of data within its expected
timeframe), link naks (when the error control protocol requests
retransmission of data), blers (block errors; errors in received
error control protocol or data blocks), and resent data blocks.
Everyone occasionally gets "a bad line" and has to hang up and call
again to get a better connection. However, if you find that you
never or rarely connect at rates above 19.2kbps, you will want to
investigate the line quality of your connections.
All right, so how is V.34 more robust?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recovery from adverse line conditions.
The goal of 28.8 modem protocols is not only to have a high top
speed, but to spend as much of that time as possible operating at the
highest possible speed under inevitably changing conditions. The
V.34 protocol has advanced procedures for training and for recovery
from transient disturbances during training. There are several
retrain and speed switching procedures to insure link integrity under
adverse conditions.
The line (channel) probe.
Both V.FC and V.34 "probe" the phone line for quality. The line (or
channel) probe quickly examines line conditions and selects the best
transmission strategy to optimize data transmission (there are a
variety of such strategies available). This technique can detect
certain unusual non-linear distortion mechanisms present on some
phone circuits, particularly international ones. The modems can then
select the operational modes that better combat distortion.
V.FC's weak implementation of probing.
The Channel Probe determines proper connection speed. V.34 measures
signal levels every 150 Hz across the entire channel, whereas V.FC
measures only 6 points, concentrated at the upper end of the
frequency range. This provides V.34 with a much more accurate sample
of the channel bandwidth, and greater accuracy in selecting the
appropriate symbol rate.
Thus, in V.FC, the weak implementation of the probe can generally
result in a "retrain" (when the two modems lose synchronization with
each other), which usually ends up lowering the speed to where it
should have been in the first place!!
The retrain is a Killer!!
A retrain is where the two modems suspend operations and renegotiate
the best possible connection all over again. V.FC retrains are
extremely slow, and can take 5 to 60 seconds, during which time the
modems appear "dead" to the network, host, or PC to which they are
connected. With V.FC, a retrain is generally required to change the
speed. This might be tolerated by some PC-to-PC connections, but it
is rarely tolerated in a network environment, particularly a
packet-switched one. The "timeouts" which will be sensed by a
variety of network software packages simply won't tolerate them, will
perceive them as disconnects, and will act accordingly, interrupting
end user service.
V.34's improvement of the probe and rate renegotiation.
A first major factor is that V.34 probes 25 frequencies across the
channel (vice 6 concentrated at the high end for V.FC). Because the
frequencies are spaced closer together, the frequency response
profile (ie the channel probe) is more accurate. That is a main
reason why V.34 connections are more reliable than V.FC connections
(more accurate line problem detection). The channel probe occurs
during initial modem negotiation, and during training and retraining.
Additionally, line noise and the line's signal-to-noise ratio is
remeasured continually during the connection.
Besides a better probe, rather than retrain, V.34 does a cooperative
and nearly instantaneous speed shift (also called a "fallback"),
which hosts can better tolerate. This rate renegotiation procedure
allow rapid switching ranging from 4.8kbps up to 28.8kbps, as line
conditions vary.
V.34 speeds will usually be slightly lower, more truthful, and more
reliable than V.FC.
Other reasons why V.34 is a more robust standard.
V.34 has a number of features which may be implemented to a lesser
degree, a poorer degree, or may not available at all in V.FC:
precoding (changing the transmitted signal to reduce the effects of
noise multiplication in adaptive equalization, which compensates for
severe amplitude distortions); powerful multidimensional trellis
coding; constellation shaping and other innovations that give V.34 a
greater immunity to noise; and nonlinear coding (changing the
transmitted signal to improve operation in the receiver, which
addresses the problem of signal peaks being distorted due to
nonlinear circuit elements).
A key improvement in V.34 is independent receive and transmit channel
speeds (and their associated "symbol rates"). This allows the
receive and transmit channels of the modem to be adjusted
independently and operate at different speeds, thus making maximum
use of available bandwidth in the face of channel impairments. V.FC
forces both the receive and transmit channels to operate and the
lowest of the two speeds (and thus symbol rates), so a channel
impairment in either direction drops both speeds to that tolerated by
the impairment.
V.34 has more robust Trellis Coding in use by the modem's receiver
and transmitter. Trellis coding is a mathematical operation
performed on the transmitted data which improves the system's noise
immunity. The type of coding may vary significantly when connecting
modems from different manufacturers. V.34 supports a 64 state 4
dimensional coding scheme for greater noise immunity than the V.FC
protocol.
All right, you convinced me! I just bought a V.34 modem and am
still having problems! What can I do to get a better connection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Try calling a different location. Line quality differs from region
to region, and it may be a problem with the lines or modem at the
other end of a particular call.
*Try connecting with a local call. Sometimes the connections within
a long distance call can cause impairments. (If this isolates the
problem, you can try switching long distance companies.)
*Try plugging the modem to a different phone line or wall jack.
*Try eliminating all telephone extensions, phone line surge
suppressors, line switches, utility monitoring devices connect to the
phone line, and anything else on the line with the modem.
*If you know someone else in your area with a high speed modem, ask
what type of connections they make. Try making the connection from
their location. If you encounter the same low connection rates, the
problem may be resulting from impairments along the lines running to
the local telephone company or within your home or office. Your
telephone company or a private consultant may be able to help.
Dropped V.FC Connections and V.FC Rate Switching.
VFC connections can only switch rates down to 14,400 bps. If you
connect using VFC and line quality drops below that allowable for a
14,400 connection, the modems will disconnect. If this occurs
frequently for a particular call, you will want to disable VFC before
calling that modem again. A slower modulation, (V.32-bis at
14,400bps, for example) will be established and will allow the modems
to switch to lower bit rates as line quality warrants. If the
problem is severe, use the modem's command set to disable V.FC, so
that V.34 (or a lower speed modulation on those modems which don't
have V.34) is forced. Some VFC modems from some manufactures do not
support rate switching (it's a tossup as to who does and in what
version they do). These connections are more likely to drop. For
these calls, you can force a lower connect speed by locking the modem
to a lower link rate.
Dropped V.34 Connections and V.34 Rate Switching.
Dropped connections can occur when there is a sharp decrease in line
quality during a call. V.34 modems will switch to rates as low as
4,800 bps to compensate for these changes. If the loss of quality is
extremely severe, even V.34 will drop the connection.
Technical phone line bandwidth requirements, and how a connection's
bandwidth and symbol rates are determined.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As already stated, V.34 and VFC connection rates are based on the
available bandwidth over the phone line.
The modems use the channel probe to test the phone lines before
establishing a connection rate, and will select the highest "symbol
rate" allowable. V.34 and V.FC modulations allow adjusting the
symbol rate to any of six possible values, to obtain the best match
with the available bandwidth. Other protocols only allow a single,
fixed value for the symbol rate, regardless of the bandwidth of the
link.
A "symbol" is a waveform transmitted by the modem, which contains a
certain number of encoded bits of data to be moved across the link.
The receiving modem decodes this waveform, recovers the package of
bits, and re-assembles it. The noise levels in the channel determine
how many bits are encoded in each symbol; lower noise levels allow a
greater number of bits per symbol. The bandwidth of the channel
limits how many of these symbols may be sent each second.
Symbol rate is directly related to overall connection speed. In
general, a higher "symbol rate" allows greater data transfer speeds,
but requires greater bandwidth. Once a symbol rate is determined
through negotiation, it remains constant. The bit rate then is
adjusted on-the-fly to maintain low error rates, based on the modem's
tracking of noise and the signal-to-noise ratio.
The approximate bandwidth requirements for each symbol rate are shown
in the chart below. Thus, based on the connections you make, and/or
by diagnostics contained in the better brands of modems, you can
determine the approximate bandwidth detected by the modem. The
connection can be made at any of the frequency ranges for any of the
given symbol rates. This allows it to select the frequency range of
best quality for that call.
Symbol Carrier Bandwidth Maximum
Rate Protocol Frequency Requirements Bit Rate
2400 V.34 1600Hz 400-2800 Hz 21600
V.34/VFC 1800Hz 600-3000 Hz 21600
2743 V.34 1646 Hz 274-3018 Hz 24000
VFC/V.34 1829 Hz 457-3200 Hz 24000
2800 V.34 1680 Hz 280-3080 Hz 24000
VFC/V.34 1867 Hz 467-3267 Hz 24000
3000 V.34 1800 Hz 300-3300 Hz 26400
V.34/VFC 2000 Hz 500-3500 Hz 26400
VFC 1875 Hz 375-3376 Hz 26400
3200 V.34 1829 Hz 229-3429 Hz 28800
VFC 1920 Hz 320-3520 Hz 28800
3429 V.34 1959 Hz 244-3674 Hz 28800
NOTE: These are maximum bit rates. V.34 will connect at speeds as
low as 4,800 bps with any of the above symbol rates. VFC will only
connect down to 14,400 bps. If the bit rate is much lower than the
maximum bit rate supported by the symbol rate, the phone line has
lots of noise or other impairments on it.
*****
Permission is granted to reprint and redistribute this information
only in its entirety.
Acknowledgement for selected source materials to:
- Paul Gebert, Joe Frankiewicz, and Dale Walsh of US Robotics, Inc.
____________________________________________
> TEAC CD55a Hints STR InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
TEAC 55A 4X SPEED
CD-ROM SPEED
ctsy of CDRom Forum
There have been several threads in this forum about varying speed
measurements with the TEAC 4x CD-drive.
I tested a lot of different configurations for my system and came up with
a setting that gives optimal performance.
The system I tested on was: 486DX2-66 (Intel) on a dark green mainboard
with BIOS date from Q4/94, 12MB RAM (0 WS), SB16Multi-CD used as
controller for the CD-drive. The CD's used for testing were: MS dev.lib.
Q1/95 (617MB), and a game CD w. 150MB.
CDbench 1.05 showed me about 300kB/s data transfer rate whenever I used
ANY caching (Smartdrv or cdquick). Cache hits were rare w/random reads (as
could be expected). When I used caching, data xfer rate did not vary with
the mscdex buffers (tested:M=0,4,10,15,20).
The next step was to remove CD-caching (smartdrv /U).
It was a big surprise to me, setting MSCDEX buffers to 0,7,10,15, or 20
made no difference to data xfer rate or to access time.
The measurements were: 443-450kB/s with both CD's used for testing, and
access times after 350 test cycles were about 70/220/650ms (min/avg/max)
for both CD's used.
Only when assigning a very small buffer (M=4) to MSCDEX the performance
dropped dramatically (xfer rate was the same, but access times were about
95/359/1500).
So, the settings I currently use are:
smartdrv /U ....
MSCDEX .... /M:0 ....
and this gives me the best performance for this drive I could ever
measure.
I hope this can be of help to some other TEAC 55A users,
Peter Gruendler
Vienna
CIS: 100416,3074
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE!
=================
STReport International OnLine Magazine is available every week for your
reading pleasure on DELPHI. STReport's readers are invited to join DELPHI
and become a part of an extremely friendly community of enthusiastic
computer users there.
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======================
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DELPHI services via a local phone call
JOIN --DELPHI
--------------
Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
then...
When connected, press RETURN once or twice
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At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN.
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are clearly marked with a "$" sign.
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It's easy to join. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you can apply
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The $20 charge will be billed to you at the beginning of the month to
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TRY DELPHI FOR $1 AN HOUR!
For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5
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Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially
be a member of DELPHI!
DELPHI-It's the BEST Value and getting BETTER all the time!
-* ANNOUNCING: DELPHI INTERNET JET *-
--------------------------------------
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service. In addition to providing the user with a graphic interface,
Delphi Internet Jet can be configured to automatically gather Delphi
Internet e-mail and forum messages, and place them into a QWK packet for
the user's existing QWK mail reader! Complete instructions for setup,
operation, Delphi membership, and a FREE five hour trial included in the
INTJET.TXT file.
************************************************************
ATARI/JAG SECTION (III)
=======================
Dana Jacobson, Editor
> From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's hard to believe that it's already the end of March, and
Spring is in the air (supposedly, at any rate!). It seems like only
yesterday that we were (I was) talking about a relatively mild winter!
The TAF show is this weekend. I hope that many of our readers
have an opportunity to attend. If you're planning to be there, drop us
a line when you get back home to let us know about your experience.
Show reviews are always enjoyable to learn about by our readers, and us
(when we can't be there in person!).
We've got a LOT of interesting information for you this week. So,
in order to keep myself to a "self-imposed" one-issue-a-month "short
and sweet" editorial - how long will that last?! - let's get to the
news.
Until next time...
_________________________________
Delphi's Atari Advantage!
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (3/29/95)
(1) ATARI E-MAIL ADDRESS LIST *(6) SILKBOOT 3
(2) HACE 9412 *(7) ACCENT PUTS FUN IN YOUR TEXT!
(3) WORLD CLOCK 1.0A (8) HACE 9501
*(4) UNIVERSAL PRINT CONTROL ACC *(9) HACE 9502
(5) 3X CD-ROM ON AN ATARI *(10) OBSESSION PINBALL
* = New on list
HONORARY TOP 10
The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently
out-performing every other file in the databases.
STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.12)
ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4)
Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database.
____________________________________________
> Speed of Light 3.7! STR InfoFile! - Graphics Viewer Gets Better!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
From: Stuart Denman <sdenman@wolf.cs.washington.edu>
I'm please to announce that Speed of Light 3.7 is now available.
Since I can't seem to get into atari.archive.umich.edu (or msdos), I am
thinking about posting it uuencoded to comp.sys.atari.st. Any
objections?
If you have a favorite ftp site, please let me know and I will try to
upload it there as well.
Cheers to all,
Stuart
Here is a list of changes in version 3.7 from version 3.5:
Changes in version 3.7 from 3.5
===============================
-=> "New" now works when using Selectric File selector or wildcards.
The first file replaces the current one, and all the others are added
to the end of the image list. If you are using Selectric, you can also
select multiple files to load at one time.
-=> Slideshow feature was added to automatically flip through the
images in memory. Control direction, wrapping, start image, end image,
and display time. Hidden drawing supported. And for more power...
-=> Speed of Light now supports a powerful scripting language for
customized slideshows. You can write your own Speed of Light Scripts
(.SLS) from scratch, or simply let SOL write them for you by recording
your actions. When using slideshow scripts, you can even load and
uncompress images in the background while viewing the last image!
-=> Speed of Light can now be run from resolutions with less than
16 colors (monochrome too!). The color editor and filtering may not
be used, however. You can now use SOL from Medium resolution, and still
display in Low resolution (on STs). Monochrome users can now also use
SOL (with dithering, of course.)
-=> Lines (for clipping and zooming) now look right in monochrome and
4 color modes.
-=> GIF uncompressing time now takes 85%-90% of the time SOL 3.5 took.
-=> You can now have the screen be blank when drawing the images so
they appear instantly. Great for slideshows.
-=> Dithering was changed slightly to provide an easier user interface
and support for future updates.
-=> Some user interface improvements like tabbed dialog boxes.
-=> Fixed some bugs in DSP JPEG code from v3.6.
-=> SOL now loads GIFs with local color maps without complaining.
-=> Other miscellaneous bugs fixed (you'll be amazed)!
Changes in version 3.6 from 3.5
===============================
-=> Added some DSP support code in the JPEG routine for the Falcon to
make decoding faster. Greyscale and fixed colormap take 3 times more
memory than without it, though. Still can use CPU decoding if out of
memory or no DSP.
-=> Bug fixed that made STs and STEs bomb when switching to greyscale.
-=> Picture information box was added to the bottom of the screen while
loading to give information about picture size, type, and number of
colors.
For those of you with WWW access, you can download Speed of Light
version 3.7 from my Home Page:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/sdenman/
Even if you don't plan on downloading anything, check it out! There's
news on what I'm doing now, plus lots of great computer graphics stuff
and images I've done. You can also download some other software like
Triple Yahoo.
Comments are always welcome.
Cheers,
Stuart Denman
StuSoft
____________________________________
> Free Unix for AlberTT! STR InfoFile! - "Good Stuff....Cheap!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
From CompuServe:
Fm: Jay Craswell 73016,27
To: ALL
From: Jay Craswell Dover Research Corp (612) 492-3913
To: Atari Users
Subject: Freeware Unix / X-Windows and AlberTT Screen drivers!
Here is some high tech news about a freeware Unix system for your TT.
And the best thing is that a working driver for the AlberTT is available
as well. If you've ever wanted to run X-Windows and Unix and don't care
to shell out 30K here's some info. You can find the binaries for Linux
on the tsx-11.mit.edu ftp site. Look for the pub/linux area the binaries
are in the 680x0 area. If you want information on the AlberTT drivers
you can contact Mr. Bammi at 508-446-6224 Better yet send him E-Mail
with your questions etc to INTERNET:bammi@cadence.com
I understand that lots of nifty freeware (gnu) compilers and other tools
come with the Linux binaries. Sounds like a great way to get some free
software and experiment with some new technology. *Note this only works
on 030+ machines!
Mr. Bammi has had the AlberTT card for a scant 4 days before he had a
working X-Terminal. He reports some final tweaking is needed to finish
his control of the AlberTT Palette. Expect this to be done RSN
R.eal S.oon N.ow
_______________________________________________
> Atari World! STR NewsFile! - New U.K. Atari Mag to Hit Newsstands!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In a reply to a query that I had sent one of the new Atari World staff:
Hi,
Atari World is due to be released in the U.K. on 7th April and looks like
it'll be a great success. It will have a Falcon supplement and one other
supplement every month and will be 170 pages of news, reviews and general
info. It is edited by Vic Lennard of the defunct ST Review and most of
that mag's team will be writing for it. It costs 2.50GBP in the U.K. and
there won't be a cover disk but you can send to the publishers for one
if that month's programs interest you. We are offering a subscription for
it from issue 2 but will try to get you a copy of issue 1. (they are sold
out already!)
Phin Pope
> CompuServe Update! STR InfoFile! - Database Libraries Software Update!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
News Flash:
-----------
*** MARCH 30 ***
----------------
NEW FORUM SOFTWARE! Early Friday morning, the 31st, this forum is
scheduled to receive the updated version of CompuServe's Forum Software.
The most visible changes will be in the libraries, with longer filenames
(8 characters with a 3 character extension), listing of uploaders' names
along with User ID numbers, and a new format for catalog listings. In
addition, those uploading files will see a new prompt. Please see
NEWFOR.TXT and NEWFOR.FAQ in Library 1 [Forum Help & Info] for a complete
rundown. (And won't it be nice when we don't need to use such cryptic
names :-)
The conversion is scheduled to take place between 2am and 5am EST. Due
to the nature of the process, any files uploaded prior to that time may
be lost. To avoid problems, we ask that you do not upload files to the
libraries here Thursday evening. If you do, and then can't find them,
please leave a note to SYSOP so we can determine if a reupload is needed.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you are currently using an automated program to access the libraries
(TAPCIS, OZCIS, etc.) the changes will require an update to your program
for some library functions. Please visit the support forum for your
software for the latest information. New versions are in the works or
already available.
NEW LIBRARY FEATURES SOFTWARE
Please go to the New Member Help Forum (GO HELPFORUM) or Customer
Service Feedback (GO FEEDBACK) with any questions.
SUMMARY:
Beginning in mid-March, CompuServe forums are being changed to add new
features to the libraries, change the charges of sending mail from
forums, and fix some problems in the forum software. Highlights of
these changes include:
- Expansion of file names to 8.3
- Addition of uploader names to file descriptions
- Sending mail from an extended service forum is free of postage
charges
- Messages that scroll from a forum in less than one week and
messages that sysops send from a forum will be sent free of
postage charges
- Change of format of library terminal emulation commands and
addition of INVentory command
- Addition of a copyright agreement prompt when contributing files
EXPLANATION OF ALL CHANGES
I. File descriptions
II. Terminal emulation library commands/new command
III. New upload prompt
IV.
Mail from forums
I. FILE DESCRIPTIONS
--------------------
All of the following parts of a file's description have been expanded
to allow more room:
FILENAME: Filenames can now be up to eight characters long, a period,
then up to three characters in the extension (for example,
FILENAME.TXT). This is an increase in size of two characters. All files
that were uploaded before this upgrade will keep their original name;
files can also be less than 8.3 characters long.
CONTRIBUTOR: File descriptions will now display the contributor's name
as well as User ID. This name is captured from the contributor's forum
name at the time he or she uploads the file. If the contributor changes
his or her name later, the change will not be recorded in the file
without modification by the sysop.
FILE SIZE: While there is no limit to the size of a library file, the
amount of room that is reserved in file descriptions for size is being
expanded to 999 megs.
ACCESS COUNT: No hard limit is set for the count of the number of times
a file has been downloaded, but descriptions are being expanded to
allow up to 999,999 downloads.
The following parts of a file description have not been changed:
submitted date, file type, title, keywords, and description (abstract).
II. TERMINAL EMULATION LIBRARY COMMANDS/NEW COMMAND
----------------------------------------------------
These changes in the file description fields (file name, contributor
name, etc) means that the format for the displays of these files will
be different.
CIM, CSNav, and other HMI programs:
Members using the CompuServe Information Manager will be able to use
8.3 filenames and expanded file sizes and download counts with no
problems. They will not see contributor names as part of a file's
description until later CIM versions, which will support the new
information. Members using CSNav will be able to upload 8.3 filenames
and see contributor names in the next version of the software.
Other programs:
In terminal emulation, the BROWSE, DIRECTORY, and LIST commands will
have modified formats, and a new command, INVENTORY, has been added to
allow quick listings of the files in a forum.
*BROWSE format example*
[76703,4363] Mike Schoenbach [SYSOP]
POLICIES.TXT
Text, Bytes:123456789, Count:321019, 30-Oct-94(15-Nov-94)
Title : Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures
Keywords: PRACTICE FORUM GUIDELINE POLICY RULES OPERATING PROCEDURE
AGREEMENT
This file outlines the purpose and design of the Practice Forum,
our Forum Rules and Operating Procedures, and the entire agreement
between you and the Forum Administrator concerning your
participation in this Forum.
*DIR format example*
[76703,4363] Mike Schoenbach [SYSOP]
POLICIES.TXT
Text, Bytes:123456789, Count:321019, 30-Oct-94(15-Nov-94)
*LIST format example*
POLICIES.TXT 2
1234.5K 15-Nov-94 Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures
*INV format example*
POLICIES.TXT 2 123K Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures
The BROwse and DIRectory commands will continue to always show the file
size in bytes. The LIST and INV commands will now display sizes as
b for bytes, K for kilobytes, or M for megabytes depending on the
file's size.
Command File size Format Examples
------- --------- --------- ---------------
BRO all bytes Bytes:123456789
DIR all bytes Bytes:123456789
LIST 1 - 9999 bytes 1234b
10K - 9999K Kilobytes 1234.5K
10M - 999M Megs 123.3M
INV 1-999 bytes 999b
1K-999K Kilobytes 999K
1M-999M Megs 999M
Members who are using automated programs (such as TapCIS, OzCIS, and
AutoSig) will need to update their software to properly view the new
formats. Contact the software's authors to find out what versions you
need and how to upgrade.
III. NEW UPLOAD PROMPT
----------------------
With this new version of forum software, new copyright information will
be displayed when members upload files. Members will now be asked to
type "agree" to state that they have authorization to distribute the
file they are uploading. The new copyright notice will read:
Copyrighted information must not be placed on the
Service without the permission of the owner or
persons specifically authorized to grant this
permission. You must either have the right to
use and distribute information of another, or
have created the Information and be the owner of
it to be assured that your upload does not
violate copyright and other applicable laws. By
proceeding with an upload you represent and
agree that you are the owner of it, or are acting
with the specific permission of the owner or
other person authorized to grant these rights.
Do you Agree? (AGREE/<CR>)
Members who use terminal emulation programs or automated programs will
begin seeing this new information immediately, and members who use
automated programs (such as TapCIS, OzCIS, or AutoSIG) will need to
upgrade to a new version of software to upload files. Contact the
software's authors to find out what versions you need and how to
upgrade.
Members using programs such as the CompuServe Information Manager,
CSNav, or some versions of OzWIN will be including the new copyright
information and the agree prompt in their next versions. Contact the
authors to find out when the next versions will be released with this
copyright information.
This change will not affect members' ability to use automated programs
to schedule an upload while not connected to CompuServe. The new
programs will include this prompt at the time members enter in all the
rest of the upload information in their updated versions; members will
not have to be at the keyboard at the time of the upload.
IV. MAIL FROM FORUMS
---------------------
The upcoming forum software that's bringing 8.3 filenames and
contributor names to the libraries is also going to include some
changes to charges for forum messages that are sent via mail. The
method of charging for mail and forwarded messages from forums will
change. This is the new way that forwarded, composed, or scrolled
messages are charged:
Cost of Scroll Compose
Forum to Mail to Mail
-------- ------- -------
Basic/Free No mail charge *Postage Due
Extended
Service/ Postage due if No mail charge
Connect >7 days old
Charge
* Mail sent from free forums by members with sponsored accounts
or free flags will always arrive free in members' mailboxes,
in both free and extended forums.
MESSAGES THAT SCROLL TO MAIL
When the oldest message in a forum is about to be deleted to make room
for new messages and the addressee of the message has not read it yet,
some forums will send a copy of that message to the recipient's
mailbox.
Messages will always scroll to mail free of charge from free forums.
In an Extended Service (connect time charged) forum, if the scrolling
message is seven days old or less, it will arrive in the member's
mailbox free of charge. If the message has been in the forum for more
than seven days, it will be sent to the member postage due.
Also, the subject line of the mail message will now be the same as the
subject that the message had in the forum. Currently, the mail's
subject is "Message scrolled from XX Forum," which frequently caused
confusion when members replied to the mail without changing the
subject. The text of the message will continue to begin with "This
message has scrolled to you from the XX Forum," and the full header of
the message will be included in the text of the message. The first line
of the header will be indented one space in the message to prevent the
number sign (#) from confusing automated programs.
COMPOSING/SENDING A MESSAGE VIA MAIL FROM A FORUM
Mail sent from free forums will arrive postage due. When members choose
to send a CompuServe Mail message from an Extended Service forum, the
mail will arrive free of charge.
Mail sent by a member with a sponsored account or a free flag in a
forum will always arrive in the recipient's mailbox free of charge.
copyright CompuServe Incorporated, March, 1995.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW FORUM SOFTWARE
-------------------------------------------------------
These are some of the most common questions members may have about the
new forum software that's being released. For more details on any of
these answers, please GO HELPFORUM or GO FEEDBACK.
WHAT WILL LOOK DIFFERENT IN THE LIBRARIES?
File names can now have eight characters before the extension
(ie; .EXE) instead of six, and you'll see the name of the file
contributor when you view a file's description instead of just the
contributor's User ID number.
If you use a terminal emulation program on CompuServe (one that
doesn't use the windowed interface with the service), Browse,
Directory, and List displays will all be one line longer than they
were before. In addition, a new command, Inventory, has been added
to get one-line descriptions of the files in a library in terminal
emulation.
WHAT'S THIS PERSON'S NAME IN THE FILE DESCRIPTIONS?
File descriptions always give the User ID number of the member who
uploaded ( contributed) the file. Now, beside the User ID number,
the file description will also display the name the uploader has
in the forum. (Note: This is the name the member has in that
forum, not necessarily the name on the account.)
WHY DON'T I SEE THE CONTRIBUTOR NAMES IN A FILE DESCRIPTION?
If you're using a CIM (the CompuServe Information Manager) or
CSNavigator on CompuServe, you won't see contributor names in
descriptions until the next versions of the programs are available.
Keep an eye on What's New and the CIM support forums for news
about the new versions of software. You'll automatically be able
to use longer file names in all your programs except CSNavigator
for Windows.
HOW CAN I GET A ONE-LINE-PER-FILE LIST OF THE CONTENTS OF A LIBRARY?
The new INVentory command in terminal emulation will give you a
quick list of files. You can use the INV command like the other
existing commands to search for certain files ("INV *.TXT" to
look for all files that end in .TXT), list all files in a
library ("INV"), or to list all the files in multiple libraries
("INV LIB:1-4" or "INV LIB:ALL").
WHAT DOES b, K, and M STAND FOR IN THESE FILE DESCRIPTIONS?
The directory, list, and browse commands all abbreviate the file
size. "B" stands for bytes, "K" for kilobytes, and "M" for
megabytes.
WHEN DO I HAVE TO PAY POSTAGE FOR MAIL FROM FORUMS?
Mail sent from forums will arrive free of postage charges except
if:
* The mail was composed in a free forum
or
* The mail is a forum message that expired (scrolled) from
a forum after more than seven days and was copied to your
mailbox.
Scrolled messages are old messages that are deleted from a forum
to make room for new messages. Some forums will automatically send
you a copy of a scrolled message if it was addressed to you and
you did not read it. If that message was waiting in the forum for
seven days or less, it will arrive without postage, but if the
message was over seven days old, your copy of the message will
arrive postage due. Don't forget that you can always delete a
scrolled message without reading it to avoid postage charges.
WHY DO I NEED TO TYPE "AGREE" WHEN I UPLOAD A FILE?
CompuServe will now display more complete information about
distribution of copyrighted material. When you upload a file,
you'll need to type the word "agree" to confirm that you do have
permission to upload the file that you're contributing to the
forum.
MY AUTOMATED PROGRAM CAN'T UPLOAD A FILE! WHAT'S WRONG?
The current versions of programs (like TapCIS, AutoSig, or OzCIS)
that automate CompuServe use will not be able to script uploading
files because of the new "agree" prompt. In order to upload files,
you'll need to upgrade to new versions. Contact the program
authors to get more information about which versions you'll need
and how to upgrade to them.
WHAT DO I NEED TO UPGRADE?
If you use a terminal emulation program like ProComm, MicroPhone,
or SmartCom, you do not need to upgrade anything to use these new
features.
If you use the CompuServe Information Manager, you will be able to
use longer filenames immediately. If you use CSNavigator, you will
be able to search for and download longer filenames, but won't be
able to upload files with 8.3 names or see contributor names. The
next versions of these programs will support these features. Keep
an eye on the What's New announcements or go to the CIM Support
Forums for more information on when these new versions will be
available.
copyright CompuServe Incorporated, March, 1995.
-/- Communications Decency Act Unveiled -/-
A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would punish
people who create obscene material for distribution on computer
networks.
Washington Post staff writer John Schwartz reports the measure
immediately drew criticism from the Clinton administration, online
businesses, and civil liberties groups as a potential threat to the
freedom of speech. Called the Communications Decency Act, the bill
would impose jail terms and fines on individuals or companies that
originate online material that is deemed "obscene, lewd, lascivious,
filthy, or indecent." In addition, it would penalize solicitation of
such material. However, the bill does not define those terms, long the
subject of legal battles.
The measure is sponsored by Sen. James Exon (Democrat-Nebraska),
who said he introduced it to protect minors from pornographic material
found on some online services. "I want to keep the information
superhighway from resembling a red-light district," he has said.
Co-sponsor Sen. Slade Gorton (Republican-Washington) said, "It
extends to computer users the same protections that currently exist for
telephone users" against obscene phone calls.
Just as the federal government enforces rules against obscene
material appearing on television or radio, the bill would extend
similar standards to the online world. Should it pass both the Senate
and House of Representatives and be signed into law by the president,
the bill would instruct the Federal Communications Commission to devise
ways to bar such material. Enforcement of the penalties, which include
two years in prison and fines of as much as $100,000, would be handled
by the Department of Justice.
The Clinton administration has issued a "go-slow" request to the
Senate. "The president thinks that this issue deserves thoughtful
discussion," said White House spokesperson Ginny Terzano. "The
administration abhors obscenity, in whatever form it is transmitted,"
but we feel "there are important First Amendment issues that need to be
addressed before legislation is rushed through. We ought to have a
serious approach -- such as hearings -- to find the best solution."
Critics say the law would have a chilling effect on the development
of online services.
"It is unconstitutional and a direct threat to free speech on the
information highway," Jerry Berman, chairman of the nonprofit Center
for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group that is helping to
coordinate opposition to the bill, told The Post.
A broad coalition of civil liberties organizations and businesses
came together as the Interactive Working Group to fight the bill.
Members of that group, including the American Civil Liberties Union,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Library Association,
Apple Computer Inc., Time Warner Inc. and the Newspaper Association of
America publicly opposed the earlier version of the Exon bill.
"I don't think there's anyone in this group that is happy" with the
new version, Berman said.
Exon's bill was included in the broad telecommunications reform
package passed yesterday by the Senate Commerce Committee.
-/- Microsoft Corp. Sues Apple Inc. -/-
Microsoft Corp. has intensified its ongoing feud with Apple Computer
Inc., suing the computer maker over alleged dirty tricks in a current
dispute over video software.
The federal suit, filed in San Jose, California, accuses Apple of
"unfair competition and deceptive business practices" in allegedly
orchestrating a disinformation campaign against Microsoft's Video for
Windows software.
Seeking unspecified damages, the action is a countersuit to an
amended complaint filed last month in which Apple accused Microsoft and
chipmaker Intel Corp. of misappropriating elements of its competing
QuickTime for Windows video software.
Reporting on the situation in The Wall Street Journal this morning,
writer Jim Carlton says Apple officials told him they couldn't comment
on this latest development until they had a chance to review the suit.
"A company spokeswoman said Apple stands behind its previous statements
regarding Microsoft," Carlton added.
As reported earlier, the video software feud escalated last month
when Apple added Microsoft and Intel to a Dec. 6 suit against San
Francisco Canyon Co., alleging they duplicated and distributed several
thousand lines of Apple programming code from QuickTime, which was
developed by Apple with help from San Francisco Canyon.
Both Intel and Microsoft have denied Apple's allegations that they
illegally sought to boost the performance of Microsoft's rival Video
for Windows with Apple code obtained from San Francisco Canyon. The
case is pending in the same court as the new Microsoft filing.
Carlton reports this morning Microsoft's countersuit says that in
December it asked Apple to identify the allegedly infringing code and
prove ownership, but Apple refused.
"Microsoft alleges Apple distributed around the world a 'deceptive'
videotape that purports to show Video for Windows providing poor video
playback and other problems," the Journal writes. "Microsoft also
alleges Apple threatened to sue Windows software developers unless they
agreed to participate in an "amnesty program' by putting 'Apple
Multimedia Technology' on boxes of software using Video for Windows."
The Journal added, "Apple promoted the amnesty program, Microsoft
alleges, by deploying its employees to talk it up to developers over
the Internet. The employees allegedly used false names, without
disclosing their Apple affiliation."
Microsoft Vice President Brad Silverberg told the paper the
countersuit was filed after Apple refused Microsoft's repeated requests
to cease the alleged practices.
Said Silverberg, "We really had hoped we wouldn't get to this
situation with Apple. Apple continues to lie and mislead customers in
the developer community. We feel an obligation to set the record
straight."
______________________________________
JAGUAR SECTION
==============
ECTS Reports! More VidGrid Opinions!
Time/Warner to Sell Off ATC Stock!
Another VR Deal! T2K CD Update!
And More!
*** NICE LOOKING NEW LOGOS IN THE JAGUAR FORUM!!
> From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In last week's issue, my editorial centered around the response
being seen pertaining to the possibility that the VidGrid CD game might
be the pack-in for the JagCD when it's released. The response to that
editorial has been quite heavy - more so than I imagined it would be.
For the most part, the responses were very objective and those have
been passed along to Atari, or will be. Some responses were of the
type that I wouldn't repeat, and didn't!
The point of that editorial was to generate some constructive
feedback from Jaguar users. It was felt that Jaguar owners had a
serious concern for what was being perceived as a possible poor choice
for the CD's pack-in. They don't want VidGrid, even free - it's seems
to be that simple. There's no guarantee that the game is seriously
being considered in this vein, but it's possible. Their voices wanted
to be heard, and are. Will it have an effect? We'll know soon, I'm
sure. Keep those letters coming!
We've got some interesting reports of the ECTS show, gathered from
our CIS/Internet guru, Jeff Kovach. Be sure to check out some of the
opinions of the games in progress.
Shocker of the month! Time Warner is trying to devoid itself of
its Atari holdings in an effort to raise some cash. All kinds of
speculation is occurring to try and find the reasoning behind this
news, but it appears to be simply a means to raise cash rather than
"getting rid" of "worthless" stocks. After all, it's reported that TWI
is selling its Turner Broadcasting stock also. I guess people are
confused/concerned because Time Warner has such a large chunk, and has
for many years.
I'm going to be keeping a very low profile today and tomorrow!
After all, this time last year I was "got" by Atari's Don Thomas in an
April Fool's joke that took me totally by surprise. Rumor has it that
Don might try for a second year, but I'll be waiting!! For the rest of
you, watch your backs!! The pranksters are afoot!! Have fun, but have
it safely!
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 $49.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $49.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/
Crescent Galaxy $49.99 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 $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9007 Checkered Flag $69.99 Atari Corp.
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
Syndicate $69.99 Ocean
Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams
Theme Park $69.99 Ocean
Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams
Sensible Soccer
Hover Strike $59.99 Atari
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!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-/- Time Warner To Sell All or Part of Atari Stake -/-
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Time Warner Inc. said Friday it plans to sell
some or all of its 24.5 percent stake in video game maker Atari Corp.
as part of its plan to raise $2 billion to $3 billion.
The media, publishing and entertainment giant disclosed its plan in
a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Last month, the company said it aimed to sell businesses that do
not contribute directly to its bottom line in order to reduce its debt
load.
At the time, Time Warner did not specify which assets would be sold
but it has also held talks regarding its 19.4 percent stake in Turner
Broadcasting System Inc.
Analysts said Time Warner's plans for its Atari stake came as no
surprise but noted that its investment was small.
"I got the clear impression that they were really going to
essentially rummage through their drawers to find saleable non-core
assets," said Scott Wright, an analyst with Argus Research in New York.
"I suspect that management is probably happy to be able to make a
real announcement that appears to advance their restructuring goal," he
said.
In the SEC filing, Time Warner said it sold 154,000 shares of Atari
between Feb. 17 and March 22 at prices ranging from $3.25 and $3.9375 a
share.
Time Warner said it currently holds 15.6 million common shares of
the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based video game company. Atari stock was off
37.5 cents at $2.75 on the American Stock Exchange in afternoon
trading.
_____________________________________________
Contact: James Grunke Ron Beltramo
Atari Corporation Atari Corporation
408/745-2014 408/745-2000
For Immediate Release
TEMPEST 2000 SOUNDTRACK NOW AVAILABLE ON COMPACT DISC
SUNNYVALE, CA (March 27, 1995) -- Atari Corporation has re-mastered
and issued on compact disc (CD) the soundtrack of its best-selling
video game "Tempest 2000". The special edition audio compact disc is
available at select Atari retailers and from Atari's Customer Service
Department. The game music has proven to be a favorite among dance
and rave audiences worldwide.
"Game players liked the soundtrack to 'Tempest 2000' so much, they
asked us to issue it on audio CD," said James Grunke, Director of
Music and Audio at Atari Corporation. "The music composed for video
games and the musicians who perform it are gaining increasing and
well-deserved recognition. We believe that the Tempest soundtrack is
a masterpiece and a milestone in video game music."
"Tempest 2000 Soundtrack" contains a total of 12 tracks based on the
music from different stages of the "Tempest 2000" video game.
Hallucinatory, hypnotic, and sometimes harrowing, the "Tempest 2000
Soundtrack" includes new and expanded versions of the game music, as
well as new compositions. The 12 selections are as follows:
1. Thermal Resolution 3:59 7. Future Tense 5:54
2. Mind's Eye 4:52 8. Digital Terror 5:07
3. T2K 5:23 9. Hyper Prism 4:26
4. Ease Yourself 7:52 10. Glide Control 5:12
5. Tracking Depth 5:04 11. Ultra Yak 4:00
6. Constructive 12. 2000 Dub 7:31
Demolition 4:05
The CD is produced and published by Atari Corporation. The executive
producer of The Soundtrack is John Skruch. The production director is
James Grunke. The "Tempest 2000 Soundtrack" CD features music
originally composed by musicians from Imagitec Design, Inc., West
Yorkshire, U.K..
For more information or to order a copy, write "Tempest 2000
Soundtrack", Atari Corporation, P.O. Box 61657, Sunnyvale, CA
94089-1657. The compact disc is priced at $12.99 plus $3.50 shipping
and handling. Inquiries from distributors and radio stations are
welcome.
Atari Corporation markets interactive multimedia entertainment
systems, including Jaguar, the world's only 64-bit game system, and
the only video game system manufactured in the United States. Atari
is headquartered at 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, California
94089.
###
Jaguar is a trademark of Atari Corporation. Atari is a registered
trademark of Atari Corporation. Other products named may be
trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning companies.
-/- Virtual Reality Deal Announced -/-
Virtual reality software developer Virtus Corp. and Simon & Schuster
Interactive, the multimedia consumer publishing division of the nation's
largest publisher, have announced a multi-year agreement to develop
consumer CD-ROM products. The deal's terms weren't disclosed.
The companies say they plan titles that will incorporate Virtus'
"walkthrough" capabilities, real-time 3-D rendering and proprietary
texture mapping technologies. The products will take advantage of
Simon & Schuster's content library.
The first title the companies plan to co-publish is VirtusCube, a
floating 3-D organizer and screensaver. VirtusCube can be manipulated
to present an active work or play component on each of the cube's six
faces. By dragging and dropping on-screen elements, users can customize
each face of the cube with active calendars, family photos, personalized
address books, puzzles, area code maps, famous quotations and similar
material. VirtusCube is set to ship in September.
"This relationship is the beginning of an exciting time for Virtus,"
says Frank Boosman, vice president and general manager of Cary, North
Carolina-based Virtus. "With our real-time 3-D technology and design
skills and Simon & Schuster's incredible array of properties to build
on, we're going to amaze people with a new breed of entertainment and
educational software."
"Virtus is the next generation of consumer software development,"
says Peter Yunich, president of New York-based Simon & Schuster
Interactive.
_______________________________
> Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sb: #New Jag Titles
Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071
To: All
Some news about some upcoming Jaguar titles, as seen in a french gaming
magazine:
-----------------
From: andren6@cti.ecp.fr (ANDRE Noel, Jean, Julien)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.atari
I just picked up the last issue of a french mag and there is a big
article about atari (far better then the EDGE one, which was not bad).
There are a lot of interviews and a lot of previews :
* usual games (everybody know them all)
.........
* new games (at least for me ...)
Commando (Microids - CD)
Commando seems to be a first person shooter (just like AvP)
The picture is INCREDIBLY beautiful, really (hi-res and
true-color)
T-Mek (Time Warner - K)
YES ! The arcade game is being translated to the jag ... cool!
Kart (Cyberdreams - K)
This is a karting game (looks even better than Street racer on
the
SNES). But keep calm, it's far form completion ... :(
Ishar genesis (Silmarils - CD )
Deus (silmarils - CD )
Two new adventures for the jag with incredible graphics
Hyper force (visual impact)
A beat them up (don't like the picture ....)
Chaos Agenda (Atari - CD )
first-person adventure game (impressive)
Sb: ECTS Show Report
Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071
To: All
From the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.atari, a report on the ECTS
show in London:
----------------
From: ma10004.phx.cam.ac.ul (Mark Adami)
LONG: Report on ECTS
<The second half is the SEGA bit...>
I spent today at the ECTS in London, and it sure was great. Atari had
a stand of there own and were mainly showing off games in various stages
of completion. The most impressive was Rayman.
Rayman looks like a dream and it plays like a dream. There is simply
so much colour and so much movement. Beautiful butterflies flitter
around the screen and toadstools jump on top of each other to make
columns. Rayman himself is superbly animated, as are all the other
bad guys. They don't have arms or legs, just feet and hands. It works
so well! <Insert a page of rambling about superb animation and
beautiful graphics.> I spoke to a guy from UBI Soft and he said that
is should be finished in a month, and looking at the game on display I
don't have any reason to doubt him.
Fight for Life was a bit depressing. :-( They have a lot of work to
do on this before it will compare in any way (graphics or playability)
with Virtua Fighter. The version they had on show was obviously very
incomplete but did nothing to boost confidence in the machine. The
interesting thing was that if you went to the back of the booth and
peered through the blackened glass could could see a version of Fight
for Life that seemed to be better than the one they had on show!
They also had Ultra Vortex, F-1 Racer, Highlander, White men can't jump,
Burn Out, Blue lightening and a Doom 2-player link. Ultra Vortex
looked nice but I didn't get a chance to play it. Burn out zooms along
at 50hz but there is not much graphic detail there. F-1 racer looked
pretty incomplete, and White men can't jump looked good but they had
better improve the frame rate!
The show was dominated by Sony. They had a huge screen display where
they had Toh Shin Den competitions and showed off Ridge Racer together
with a brain dead Master of Ceremonies pouring out complements on the
Playstation into a microphone. A huge amount of floor space was given
over to booths where you could play Daytona (I noticed a few 3D
glitches), Toh Shin Den, Tekken (another ace fighting game), that silly
cartoony motor game, Raiden and another game whose name I can't
remember. They certainly stole the show.
If you got on the Sega Shuttle (a bus), it took you to Sega UK which
was only down the road from the show, where you could witness the
launch of the Sega Saturn. You arrive at the building. The front door
is actually painted like an airlock and after you go in you wait
outside another airlock with a flashing rotating yellow light on the
top. After reading the brochure they give you and listening to a
multitude of strange sounds coming from the other side of the airlock,
a guy dressed like a cyborg comes out of the airlock followed by smoke,
a flood of green laser light and stomach-curdlingly load low roaring
noises. The door closes again and after a couple more minutes of
anticipation <all the time the roaring noises are getting loader and a
voice is telling you about the Saturn> the airlock opens and you are
crammed with a bus load of people in a black room filled with smoke and
green laser light, with speaker stacks in each corner of the room
roaring at you. There is a dome in the center of the room around which
moves a guy dressed like a cyborg who says things as if the room was
about to take off for Saturn. In one end of the room there is a Virtua
Fighter arcade and in the other Daytona. They encouraged people to play
these for a while and then the countdown to the launch began. Smoke
started bellowing out of the dome, the roaring got even lower and
louder, and when the countdown finished the dome rose to reveal a
Saturn in between two chairs opposite a large screen which showed a
promotional video. They picked two guys to play a game of Virtua
Fighter, and then two Sega pros showed off some special moves that only
they knew about. Then everyone left the room to play Daytona, Virtua
Fighter, Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight in another room.
Panzer Dragoon was outstanding. It looked incredible but I was not
amazingly impressed with the gameplay. A friend of mine who played it
for longer than I did said it was great to play so I bow to his greater
experience. But this is definitely the best graphical showpiece for
the Saturn. Clockwork knight was okay. Okay graphics, but somehow
there was something missing. It just didn't seem fun. But all in all
it was a great launch.
It said in the brochure that the Saturn would be out in the Autumn and
is expected to cost around 400 pounds. The rumour was that when it
hits the shops the price tag will be 429 pounds. This is prohibitively
expensive for a large slice of the market which is good news for Jag
fans.
Notable by their absence was Nintendo.
Hope you didn't fall asleep wading through that lot!
And another perspective:
Sb: ECTS Report
Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071
To: All
From Usenet, a report on Atari's showing at the ECTS show:
------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.atari From: rmitchellsbd-e@rx.xerox.com
(Ross Mitchell) Subject: ECTS Report Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 07:46:14
GMT
Here's a summary of what was at the ECTS on Sunday. I didn't have a lot
of time there, so it's not particularly detailed. Atari stuff first, and
then other news at the end.
Atari had a reasonably sized stand. TV monitors lined the outside walls,
and there were plenty of games to play. There was also a video showing
'coming soon' games, but I didn't stand and watch the whole thing. Inside
the stand were some enclosed rooms for people to do business. Names I
recognized on badges were Daryll Still and Bill Rehbock. Two complaints.
No games had their controls documented, and two player games didn't
indicate which pad was which. This led to people losing interest quickly.
BURN OUT This was one of the most impressive offerings. Fast and smooth,
and crashing into the scenery was quite amusing. I saw a few tracks - one
fairly flat, one very undulating, and one at night. I also saw some
people playing a split screen 2 player mode. Racing game fans will love
this.
ULTRA VORTEX Infinitely better than Kasumi Ninja. The control was good.
Animation was very good too. The voice modem is listed on the options
screen. Even after a couple of moments play, it became clear the Jag
joypad is crap for fighting games. So, maybe if controller 2 is any good,
this might be worth buying.
BLUE LIGHTNING (CD) This was actually running off the CD, but was clearly
unfinished. For example, one of the mission briefings said something
like "Some text here - Hello Mum! Please Ignore.". There were lots of
different plane types, but I could only select one. Whether this is
because you have to earn the others, or because they hadn't been
programmed in yet was not clear. I tried to do one mission, and there
weren't any planes available! The game ran pretty smoothly, but I found
it rather boring, and just crashed into the nearest building. Not my
sort of game, but I'm sure some people would like it. Incidentally, this
was running off a CD drive without a lid! Makes you think that Atari UK
didn't have many working CD units - whatever the reason, it gives a
half-finished impression.
DOOM There was a two player link-up which was quite fun.
HIGHLANDER (CD) This was also running off the CD. I didn't play this
one, but it looks like an Alone in the Dark type game. The background
scenery was magnificent, and you controlled a polygon person, and
presumably interacted with people and things in the usual way.
POWER DRIVE A very controllable overhead rally driving game. It's
probably much the same as the Megadrive and SNES versions, but it played
nicely - and I don't even like driving games.
FORMULA 1 I don't know who this was developed by because it didn't have
a title screen. Anyway, it's miles ahead of Checkered Flag. There were
6 different viewpoints, and it took me a long time to find the accelerate
button (8 on the keypad!). I couldn't figure out what A, B, and C did!
It ran very smoothly, but I found it a bit dull. For some reason, it
wouldn't let me crash into things. Maybe it's got an auto-pilot or
something. As I said, I don't like driving games, so I got bored and
moved on.
SOULSTAR A game about James Brown. Not really. It's a port of Core's
MegaCD game. This wasn't finished either, and was running of a cart.
There was a debug/level select screen where you could choose a level,
and a number were greyed out, implying they aren't finished. None of the
FMV stuff was there either. The game seems much the same as the Mega CD
version, except the graphics are better. I must admit, I found the
original a little dull, and got bored with this quickly too. I think you
need to put some time into figuring out what everything is, as the screen
is a bit busy.
FIGHT FOR LIFE Oh dear. This did not make a good impression. In fact,
people behind me sniggered at the graphics. I remember people
complaining about the low gravity jumping in Virtua Fighter. This has
gone the other way, where jumps are more like quick hops. The characters
were very blocky, and as usual, the Jag pad did not help with the
control. I am sure this game would be more rewarding if you knew what
you were doing, and put some effort into it, but first impressions did
not inspire me to make that effort.
WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP This is a two-on-two basketball game. I couldn't
figure out the control at all, and in fact, I wasn't really sure which
players I was supposed to be controlling anyway. These are just
complaints about the exhibition setup. The graphics were excellent, and
animation very smooth. One for sports game fans (which I am not) to look
forward to.
VARUNA'S FORCES I didn't see a game here, just FMV. Maybe if I'd have
had more time...
RAYMAN Excellent! UbiSoft had this running on their own stand too. (They
also had Street Racer for the Megadrive, which is an outstanding
technical accomplishment. Really fast!). Rayman moves at a sedate pace,
so it's not really like Sonic. It seems like there's loads to do, and
this one is going to be a big hit.
PINBALL FANTASIES This was running on the 21st Century stand. I found it
a bit sluggish, but I can't remember if the Amiga version was like that.
Guess I've been spoilt by Psycho Pinball on the Megadrive.
The press also reported new pricing. Both Jag and CD are now 150 quid.
That's all the Atari stuff. In a related vein, Time Warner were showing
early versions of Primal Rage on the Megadrive (which looked incredible
considering the technical limitations of the machine), and the PC version
looked even better.
Nintendo weren't there, and Sega were showing Saturn in a separate
building, which I didn't have time to go to.
And now to the star of the show, Sony. Diehard Atari bigots can stop
reading now.
Sony had an enormous stand at the far end of the hall, right behind
Atari. The sheer quality of the games they presented made a lot of the
Atari offerings (particularly FFL) look embarrassing.
Sony showed Ridge Racer, Toshinden, Tekken, Motor Toon GP, Raiden and
Starblade alpha. They also had the Ridge Racer and Tekken coin-ops, and
the only difference between the conversions and the coin-ops was a loss
of resolution. They had about 20-30 machines set up to play on, but you
still had to wait quite a while. (In contrast, the Atari booth nearly
always had a couple of games unattended.) I played Tekken for a while.
This is like Virtua Fighter 2, and is great fun. Ridge Racer was amusing
to try and drive the wrong way round the track. Raiden was superb - I'd
buy the Jag version, if they hadn't left out the auto-fire. I didn't have
time to queue for the other games!
There was a press report that Sony have secured an exclusive deal to
have MK3 before Christmas. All other versions will come after.
So, in summary, it really is difficult to overstate how good the Sony
products were. Atari's showing was mixed. Some games were good. Some
were bad. Most were unfinished. No sign of Battlemorph either!
Don't get me wrong. This is not supposed to be a 'Jag sucks' type of
report, and I certainly do not intend to rush out and sell mine. Mind
you, I will be buying a Playstation on day one of launch. Atari have
got some serious competition, and its coming VERY soon.
Thanks for reading
Ross
____________________________________________
> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
=====================
On CompuServe
-------------
compiled by
Joe Mirando
CIS ID: 73637,2262
Well friends and neighbors, it's time once again to take a look at all of
the news, hints, and tips on CompuServe. But before we do that, I'd like
to get your opinion on something...
For quite some time I've been thinking about approaching Ron Luks, the
Chief Sysop of the Atari Forums here on CompuServe (who I usually refer
to as "The Big Kahuna") about opening up a new message base for this
column. Folks who have access to InterNet accounts either through work,
school, or another online service (shudder, shudder) could e-mail me
questions which I would post in this area in the hopes that our
Cyber-Whiz CompuServe Users could provide answers, which I would include
in the following week's column (since anyone asking a question would
probably have access to some sort of online service or net, and would of
course read STReport, they'd see the answers, hints, etc. in the next
issue).
Before I ask Ron (who has always been exceptionally open-minded about
such things), I'd like YOUR opinion... Does this sound like a good idea
to you?
Please don't be in the dreaded 'Silent Majority'... drop me a note in
e-mail (my account number is 73637,2262) and let me know what you think.
I'll keep you posted on which way the majority is leaning.
Well, I've wasted enough of your time. Let's get on with all of the
great stuff that's available every week right here on CompuServe...
From the Atari Computing Forums
===============================
When David Bulpitt asks about how to get information on CompuServe
commands, Sysop Bob Retelle tells him:
"There's a lot of info available at any of the ! prompts just by
typing HELP.. that will give you all the commands available in any
situation here on CompuServe..
Actually what I suggest is to check out the Practice Forum (GO
PRACTICE) to try out all the things you can do, because there's no
connect charges while you're there... it's FREE to play around, without
worrying about having to pay to learn all this stuff.
They've got some good files in their libraries with help info too...
Haven't had a chance to check out the WWW yet.. with all the time I
spend on just UseNet newsgroups and mailing lists now, not to mention
CompuServe, I'm afraid I'd have to give up non-essentials like
sleeping.."
My friend Myles Cohen sends up a rare S.O.S.:
"I need some info...
I have a friend on the INTERNET who wants to contact me through
E-MAIL...
I want to recieve the message through QuickCIS...
What address will he need to use to get it to me on COMPUSERVE...
In other words, how should he address it...
Next question...if he is successful...will I be able to respond to him
through QuickCIS..."
Sysop Bob Retelle tells Myles:
"Your Internet address would be:
71570.3142@compuserve.com
Note that the normal comma in your CIS ID number is replaced witn a
period...
I'm not sure about how QuickCIS handles filling in the return address
for a reply.. it has to be specifically addressed so CIS mail knows
it's an Internet address by adding INTERNET: to the beginning of the
address.
Normally when I'm manually reading mail, just saying REPLY will work,
so it's possible it would work the same way with QuickCIS.
I'm sure others here have had experience with it though, so I'll defer
to them.."
Myles tells Bob:
"Thanks for your input...Do I use my name with that address or is that
my complete "handle" for the INTERNET...
I hope Jim Ness knows all about this stuff and can enlighten us all in
the places where you are not able..."
As if by magic, Sysop Jim Ness appears and tells Myles:
"The syntax BobR gave you is all your correspondents need, in order to
send to you. Different online services may require additional text, so
their mail system knows it's an Internet piece.
For instance, to send via CIS Mail, an Internet address needs to be
preceded by INTERNET: or CIS Mail won't know how to deal with it. So,
if I wanted to send something to Joe-Bob on Delphi, I'd send it to:
internet:joe-bob@delphi.com
CIS is playing around with "aliases," which will allow you to pick a
name for email. You might pick m.cohen for instance. Then, people
could send to you using your alias instead of your User ID.
That feature should become universally available in a month or two."
Now THAT is good news. I've been corresponding with a few friends who
are not as enlightened as I am and are not using CompuServe. The
easiest way to e-mail them is to use the InterNet. But when they see a
bunch of numbers under 'FROM:' they start looking around for big
brother. Seeing my name instead would let them know at a glance who it
is... of course, that could lead to a few of them deleting the message
without reading it <grin>.
Shelly G. asks:
"Does anyone know about Flash II? I just got it, did some things on
the "edit boards" and now the text on my screen is coming out much
slower than before (when I first logged on without fooling around) Any
suggestions?"
The Big Kahuna, Chief Sysop Ron Luks, tells Shelly:
"FLASH II is supported by Missionware Software both here and in the
AtariVendors Forum. I'll let John T. from Missionware help you out
with this situation."
Shelly tells Ron:
"Thanks for your quick response. I figured out that somehow my set-up
went back to the default 2400 BAUD--this was why I was getting slower
text. But I do have another question if you could pass this one on.
When I set up my dial board for Compuserve it allows me to tell it the
access number and my password (which it refes to as Logon ID) Where do
I tell Flash my Compuserve ID #?"
John Trautschold of Missionware tells Shelly:
"In the "Auto Macro" text field (in Terminal Options|Macros) you'll
see the macro with a bunch of zeros in it - "00000,0000". You need to
erase the zeros and enter your own CIS account number there.
And if you place your CIS password on the Logon ID field in Terminal
Options, everything will work automatically for you for each logon.
BTW, Might I suggest that you spend some time with Chapter 4 in the
manual. This chapter is the tutorial and spends quite a bit of time
taking you through all of the basic of the program. You might also
want to spend some time starting on page 5-34 in the manual. A rather
lengthy discussion starts there that takes you through setting up a
board slot and uses CompuServe as an example...
If text is scrolling slowly, I'll bet you turned on the "Smooth Scroll"
mode in Terminal Options. Turn that off and everything should go back
to normal."
Rob Rasmussen asks a question about the original Flash!:
"Sometimes when I am in a conference room or in a Group on CIS I want
to send a block of text from Flash (original) capture buffer. In the
Edit menu under "ascii UL/DL" I can choose the speed at which the lines
are sent, then after marking the block I choose "Block ASCII" from the
Upload menu. If it is too fast then I get messages from CIS telling me
"You are talking too fast- wait 6 seconds between lines" or something
like that. The other people in the room may see the first few lines
but miss the rest. If I set it slower, like to 7, the same thing
happens. Even though it looks on my screen like it is being sent OK
with none of the "talking too fast" warnings, people in the room still
say they only get the first few lines. What is the trick to getting
this to work. When guests make opening announcements in conferences, I
have seen this work fine for them."
Sysop Jim Ness tells Rob:
"I think what you are seeing is overload on CIS' end. If you're
comparing CB (a very busy area) to a formal conference (not busy at all
- only one person is talking), I'm sure it's just a matter of CIS'
input buffer being overfilled, because so many people are talking all
at once."
Sysop Keith Joins tells Rob:
"There is a feature in the Conference software called Auto Gag. When
this option is enabled in a particular forum it causes the problem you
are seeing. It is meant to prevent a person in CO from dumping large
amounts of text into the system that would disrupt a CO. In those
forums with this setting enabled try selecting short blocks of text and
then repeat as needed."
Rob tells Sysops Keith and Jim:
"I have had better luck when I slowed it down even more. This was in a
forum when only my friend and I were there. I tried it in a CO room
and in a private group, and it seems to be working. Maybe the slower
ascii send speed, even at 14400, fools the auto-gag into thinking it's
just an average speed typist."
The Big Kahuna jumps in and tells Rob:
"Go into the ASCII UL/DL menu item and set the DELAY to a factor of 4
and you won't "gag" on the uploads. I use this feature *all* the time
and is the main reason I still use FLASH."
Patrick Wong posts:
"My friend has a Mega 4 STe and he was wondering if one of those Mac
emulators would be worth it. I don't know anything about Macs but from
what I've been reading here, the company that makes it has gone
bankrupt or something like that. Is that true? If not, how does the
emulator work? Can it run the Mac's recent software? He's thinking
about buying a Nova Card and he was wondering would he be able to get
color results on his emulator with this card."
Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Patrick:
"The Emulator Spectre GCR can read/write MAC 800K disks but the not
the newer 1.44 meg floppy disks. It only works with System 6.x
software and not 7.x so I would assume that reduces the amount of
recent software (MAC) that works with it. The MAC emulator emulates a
MAC plus for the most part.
I have also read that the company went bankrupt. So I don't know what
the current development status is of that product. Also I don't know
how well it works with graphics cards. I have only used it on a mono
ST machine and it works very well."
Yat Siu of Lexicor tells Patrick:
"All I know is that the Small's Apple Emulator works with the NOVA
Graphics Board, however in monochrome mode only because the board
itself was (the apple emulator that is) was not designed to make use of
more than 2 colors.
So even though the NOVA has a palette of 16,7 million colors, it won't
make use of it, but unlike some other gfx boards, it won't crash or
not work."
While on the subject of Mac emulators, the Grand Daddy of 'em all
(okay, maybe only the Daddy of 'em all), Dave Small, pops in and
comments on the subject of the Mac's operating system software being a
bit on the slow side:
"...The "snappiness" [things jumping from one position to another
instead of moving smoothly across the screen] I always associated with
Macs (even the ~ 6 Mhz original) went away with System 6. I was
horrified when System 7.0 (original) took *two minutes* to boot, from
hard disk, on a Mac Plus ... and when I actually could perceive delays
in mouse movements in menus, renaming files takes a perceived week, and
whatnot. I guess throwing a 68040 at high Mhz, or a PowerPC 601 at 100
Mhz, is one way to solve that, but a more optimizing compiler, and a
little profiling of where the code is spending So Much TIME and
rewriting in ASM might be more profitable.
To be honest, I installed an *accelerator* -- true! -- in a Mac IIfx,
which is a 40 Mhz, 68030/68882 machine, to get more speed, once I
installed System 7.1. I was pulling my hair out waiting, and I haven't
got *that* much left. (Besides, all that Rogaine is expensive!)
What's funniest to me is once I did an 8080 emulator on a machine
called the Dimension 68000. It's 6 Mhz. I benchmarked the emulator at
about 0.6 Mhz (yes, about 600 Khz). I booted and ran CP/M on it, then
WordStar (3.3, I think). To my total surprise, WS-3.3 was *totally
civilized* about running on ultra-slow-mode ... I could not even
out-type it. That was some kinda fast code.
Now I read in magazines that even with a 68040 and 8 megs of RAM, Mac
MS-Word-6 takes *ten minutes* to start up (especially if you have a
lot of fonts -- I think Sandy is an ultimate Font Collector), and can
be easily out-typed. Columnists in MacUsers are openly saying, "Time to
switch word processors." Ya gotta wonder what the Beta Testers did with
MS-Word-6... just go get a Jolt Cola while starting up the program?
BTW, for those of you who don't know me, I wrote the Mac emulator
called "Spectre" or "Spectre GCR" (or a wild number of mis-spellings,
but that's okay.)
Anywho, back to the salt mines ..."
Mike Mortilla tells Dave:
"Thanks for letting me know I'm not being overly picky!
Another funny thing; when I access CIS at 9600 (as opposed to 2400 on
the ST) all but file transfers seem much slower. On the ST the screen
zips along. On the Mac. . ."
Sysop Bob Retelle asks Mike:
"Do you know what the screen resolution and color depth is on the
Mac..?
I've often heard people say that Windows seems to update its screen
slower than an ST without realizing that the ST has a much simpler job
to do with its smaller screen memory and color pallette."
Mike tells Bob:
"Gee, Bob, I'm no technician <g> but my wide's mac has 256 colors
(runs a little faster in 16 and faster still in 2). The screen res?
Gosh, I dunno?! But the GIF files look a lot better <very big grin>..."
Bob tells Mike:
"I was just thinking that the resolution and color depth make a big
difference in the perceived speed of a system... an ST has a lot less
screen to update, which is one reason why it feels faster..."
Peter Joseph posts this bit of humor:
"I had to relate this one, it's laughable. I recently got an envelope
back from the post office with marks all over it saying "Returned to
Sender"..."Unclaimed"..."Box Closed". It contained a registration
card for some MIDI software I had purchased. Not remembering when I
mailed it, I quickly looked at the postmark to find out it was mailed
in November. My first thought was that it must have gone around the
world. I threw it in a pile of papers and forgot about it for a week
or so.
Tonight I ran across it again and at second glance noticed my return
address label on it. Hang on now, I haven't had any of those labels
for quite a while. Come to think of it, it was a long time ago when I
bought that software. So I looked at the registration card and saw
that it had a date of November '93 on it. Closer scrutiny of the
postmark revealed the truth - yep, I had mailed it in November of 1993.
I was wrong in my first thought; I now realize it must have gone to
Mars and back. ;-)"
In response to a question about file transfers to and from a Portfolio,
Benjamin Russell posts:
"Here is an excerpt from a file available here in the library called
"PORT.FAQ". The file referred to in the first paragraph is called
"FT.COM" and it is also available in the library here. (I had to use
this to get the software I needed to do Mac transfers onto my Portfolio
from a PC. Believe me, using a PC and the built-in file transfer
software on the Portfolio is a lot easier than doing it with a serial
interface and null modem/gender benders, etc. as I have to do to get
stuff into the Mac!)
>>41. How do I transfer files to and from the PC?
The Portfolio has built-in software to communicate with the
printer port on a PC via the Smart Parallel Interface. The
parallel interface comes with a command-line driven program called
FT to perform file exchanges. The program is provided on 5 1/4
and 3 1/2 inch disk for a PC. The only real tricky part is the
cable to go between the Portfolio and the PC. You need a
"Male-to-Male DB25 all-lines straight through" cable. While it
can be found in local stores (I bought one at Egghead Software),
it would be easiest to obtain the cable from Atari (408) 443-8020.
The Parallel File-Transfer Cable (HPC-406) costs $19.95. This
approach to file transfer is reliable and easy, but not very fast.
If you don't like the FT program that Atari supplies, there is a
program on Compuserve in the APORTFOLIO library called FTMENU,
which provides a "point-and-click" menu front-end to the FT
program.
Another approach to file transfer on a PC is Atari's PC Card Drive
(HPC-301) which costs $99.95. This hardware card is plugged into
the PC's expansion bus. At present there is no version for the
PS/2 micro-channel bus. A small box is attached to the card, with
a slot to insert a memory card. The software driver on the PC
will now treat the memory card as if it was a regular disk drive
on the PC. It is referred to as the next drive (typically D:) on
your system. You can now use normal MS/DOS command to copy file
to and from the memory card. This is more expensive, but is very
fast.<<
Hope this helps!"
While we're on the subject of how folks use their Portfolios, Gerry
Tompsett posts:
"I still use one for everyday use at work (addresses, worksheets etc)..
I (originating as a programmer) never really got to grips with 123 and
the subset seems rather limited, so I use a basic database with Mr .G's
excellent extenstions and output to a .wks file..
I've got another porty driving a very old clock with two pulses a
minute and every now and then whizzes the hands round a full twelve
hours to amuse cats and children.
I am considering another one as a burgular alarm.
I regularly see them in second hand computer shops for about 25 pounds
sterling (about $40).. and I buy every one..
(It is said that I'm totally mad)"
Benjamin Russell tells Gerry:
"Hey, I understand! ;-) I just bought my first one about a month and a
half ago. A week later, I bought a second one just in case anything
ever happened to the first - I wouldn't want to be without a Portfolio
now that I have been smitten. If I saw another for $40, I'd grab it in
a flash!
I use it for word processing and databases mainly, as well as
scheduling."
JF Davington tells Gerry:
"As we say in French: <<Quelle belle folie!>>
A nice madness to have!"
Jon Sanford adds:
"he he he, some day the ones with the most Atari Portfolios will rule
the world!!!"
Let's end on that prophetic note, shall we? Oh, by the way, MegaByte
Computers can not only provide Portfolio repair, but also things such as
a 512 or 640 k-byte memory upgrade. They are good folks, they do good
work not only on Portfolios, but also on the ST series of computers, and
their prices are surprisingly low. Robert or E.R. are always willing to
help and provide encouragement. Tell 'em you heard me praising them
and... well, you probably won't get a discount, but you might hear a
fairly entertaining story about how frantic I was when I nearly
destroyed my beloved STacy. By the way, Atari is now referring all
Portfolio repair to MegaByte... See that? Atari CAN make a good
decision on occasion <grin>.
Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen
to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
_________________________________
> STR Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard"
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STReport's MailBag
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Messages * NOT EDITED * for content
-----------------------------------
In a post received from one of our more diligent readers ..he sends us
this correction.
Ralph --
I've been enjoying your STReports, but I wanted to mention that the latest
Corel DRAW! CD-ROM update is not E2, it's F2. Actually, it is F1 for the
next few weeks, but F2 will replace it as soon as the disks get out of
production. The F2 release is essentially the same as the current F1
update release, but without a 90-degree rotation problem that affects only
people without math coprocessors.
According to Corel Tech Support (as of yesterday) --
-------------------------------------------------
Version F2 is not a major update to the F1 release. It was produced
strictly to address a problem caused by the Microsoft compiler,
(specifically by the co-processor emulation portion) which was not
discovered until a few days after F1 was released into production. All of
the CorelDRAW applications may have been affected.
The problem manifests itself in the rotation of objects at multiples of 90
degrees. Such objects become converted into null objects and disappear.
Since this problem only affects systems that do not have a math
co-processor, this update will be of marginal benefit to most users.
The second function corrected by this revision is related to the Footnote
function in Corel Ventura. If a paragraph containing both a footnote and
an index code, with the index code being the last code in the paragraph,
the footnote is liable to disappear.
The third problem addressed is with relation to the new Corel Application
Gallery version 2.0. When dragging and dropping images into a version of
Corel Ventura where CorelDRAW has not been installed, the image could not
link properly to the desired file.
As this revision was created primarily to address the return of the
Microsoft compiler problems and as this only affects those users without
math co-processors, there will be few people requiring this specific
revision.
Should you need any further information or assistance, please feel free to
let me know, I will be happy to help as best I can.
Regards,
Julia Harvey,
Corel Technical Support
I included the primary source (74740,1240), in case you want more info.
Allen Cobb [CI], 74273,1307
Malibu, 28-Mar-1995 (NavCIS)
Editor:
Alan, thanks a bunch for the valuable information. Believe it or
not, I had to take a look at the "about" in Corel Draw and sure enough,
you are one hundred percent correct. (F2) By the way, for the record, I
installed the new Corel updates for version 5 from the new CD into Win'95
(347) and it went perfectly. Win'95 is amazing. Great Stuff!
Ralph..
___________________________________
> STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
"""""""""""""""""""""
- Rockville, MD HEAD HONCHO AT GENIE JUMPS SHIP!
------------- Signs on with AMERICA ONLINE!
As seen elsewhere in this issue, Mark Walsh the "wonder boy of
salvation" for GENIE OnLine Services has, in what can only be termed a
sudden and equally surprising move, dumped GENIE in favor of AOL. Walsh,
who went about dismissing, discharging and re-arranging the top end of
GEnie seemed possessed with a determination known only to those who are
committed to succeeding, astonished the industry completely. At AOL he
will be among the "top brass" responsible for setting the trends, writing
the rules and generally calling the major shots.
In this reporter's opinion; The manner in which this event occurred,
which was unheard of a decade or two ago, seemingly signals the "new
beginnings" in not only the OnLine world but the business world in
general. Some very serious changes are afoot in the OnLine community.
For example, Delphi, long thought of as a harmless small service has,
under the Murdoch influence and strength, become a sleeping Giant that has
awakened.
GENIE, on the other hand, is loosing ground in leaps and bounds.
This reporter illustrated this situation a few months ago only to be
scoffed at by one or two fairly visible OnLine "personalities". They knew
the truth then as they now know it along with the general public. Its
also been rumored that the main reason GENIE is on the decline is because
there is little or no real commitment to developing its potential by the
main company.
CompuServe, by far the largest and most popular of the OnLine
Services, has its own bailiwick to deal with. None of which can be
dismissed easily. One rumor flying around the halls of CIS is a possible
acquisition by a real giant in the communications industry. None other
than AT&T. Of course.. since its rumor and rumor only.. We can lend no
credence to that story.
On the other hand, one can begin to ask questions like how much is an
OnLine service willing to spend to obtain a new subscriber? There are
those in the industry who say its in the neighborhood of approximately two
thousand dollars per sign-up. In light of recent well known purchases,
one must ask; "Is a 45 - 65 dollar figure the cap or the starting figure?"
Insider information says the figure is more like four to five times that
amount depending on the quality of sub being sought and just how much
rapid growth is desired.
There has been talk of a number of acquisitions "being discussed" at
this time. For example.. Can you imagine GENIE being acquired by CIS and
of Delphi's Murdoch acquiring the holdings of one of the feuding owners of
Prodigy? Then, there's the quiet Giant in Redmond getting set to unleash
a graphical interface that's a knockout. Software that's a delight and
has the benefit of all the other OnLine service's past experience to draw
from. Microsoft Network is looming quite large on the horizon. It just
might be the catalytic agent needed to accelerate the above mentioned
acquisitions and ventures. Time will tell...
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STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
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> A "Quotable Quote" A true "Sign of the Times"
""""""""""""""""" IRAQI "Fun & Games"
"WHY MUST THE LITTLE GUYS ALWAYS PAY THE PRICE....
...WHEN THE BIG GUYS LEAVE THE JOB UNDONE??"
SEND "STORMIN' NORMAN" BACK TO FINISH "DA JOB"!!
..tired of "half-baked" goods
Skokie,IL
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STReport International OnLine Magazine
-* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *-
AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON OVER 70,000 PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS
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STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" March 31, 1995
Since 1987 copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No.1113
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All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions of
The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions and
Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the
editors/staff of STReport International OnLine Magazine. Permission to
reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints
must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue
number and the author's name. STR, CPU, STReport and/or portions therein
may not be edited, used, duplicated or transmitted in any way without
prior written permission. STR, CPU, STReport, at the time of publication,
is believed reasonably accurate. STR, CPU, STReport, are trademarks of
STReport and STR Publishing Inc. STR, CPU, STReport, its staff and
contributors are not and cannot be held responsible in any way for the use
or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained
therefrom.
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