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Silicon Times Report Issue 1131
SILICON TIMES REPORT
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
"STReport; The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine!"
STR Electronic Publishing Inc.
A subsidiary of
STR Worldwide CompNews Inc.
August 04, 1995 No. 1131
Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine
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R.F. Mariano, Editor
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08/04/95 STR 1131 "The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine!"
- CPU Industry Report - CIS CUTS Rates! - Delrina NEWSWire
- GEnie Cancels Atari RT!! - WebEdit 1.1 - PC-Xformer 3.2
- Super Burn Out! - Steel Talons! - USR ISDN Modem
- Mr. T's CatNIPS - People Talking - Jaguar NewsBits
-* DOJ EYES MS WEB BROWSER USE!! *-
-* ANTI-VIRUS CHIP REAL *-
-* INTERNET TO PROTECT TRADENAMES *-
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From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Well its finally happening, STReport is going to yield to the flow of
the times. This issue is the first of the "NEW" look. Wait a minute, its
time enough. This type of format will work equally as well on the Web and
just about everywhere else. All one needs is the FREE Word Viewer from
Microsoft. It read all types of Word Document files. The release of
Microsoft Word Viewer, a small program that allows users who do not own
Microsoft Word for Windows to view and print Word documents exactly as
they appear in Word. Word Viewer allows users to view page layout, zoom,
outline, headers/footers, footnotes, and annotations. With Word Viewer,
people who own any version of Microsoft Word for Windows, or Word for the
Macintosh; versions 4.0 and later, can share their documents with users who
do not own Microsoft Word. Best part is, its FREEWARE!
The news of "things" to come is very exciting these days. The online
service scene is bustling with all kinds of activity. Watch for all the
services to soon have their on Proprietary Software. By that I mean you
must use their software to use the service. Delphi is going completely
Graphical very shortly as is Compuserve. It stands to reason, that after
the pasting AOL handed all the other services. As every one of the Whigs
sat still, sleeping in their overstuffed chairs behind their oversized
desks. Well, it appears they finally heard the alarms going off all
`round them. When inquiries were made as to why all the ruckus...
suddenly, the younger executives in the services lower ranks were given a
real mission to complete. They're doing it in record time. The shakeout
has already begun. We can expect to see an acceleration of such along with
mergers, buyouts and other crafty and amazing deals within the next two to
three years.
STReport is using Word for Windows 95 Version 7.0, the thirty two bit
version. As the expression goes... "this is a test". We want your
opinions, suggestions and ideas. Don't be bashful, let us hear from you.
Ralph....
Of Special Note:
WEB SITE: HTTP//WWW.RESOURCECENTER.COM/STREPORT
STReport is now ready to offer much more in the way of serving the Networks,
Online Services and Internet's vast, fast growing site list and userbase.
We now have our very own WEB/NewsGroup/FTP Site and although its in its
early stages of construction, do stop by and have a look see. Since We've
received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of
Internet addressees, we were compelled to put together an Internet
distribution/mailing list for those who wished to receive STReport on a
regular basis, the file is ZIPPED, then UUENCODED. Unfortunately, we've
also received a number of opinions that the UUENCODING was a real pain to
deal with. So, as of May 12,1995, you'll be able to download STReport
directly from our very own WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR
list. In any case, our mailing list will continue to be used for at least
the next eight weeks. At that time, however, it will be discontinued.
Each of our readers will have by then, received their information packet
about how they may upgrade their personal STR News Services.
STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Editor
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 Leonard Worzala Tom Sherwin
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STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
Weekly Happenings in the ComputerrWorld
Issue #31
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
General Computer News
>> HP Cuts Desktop 660C Prices <<
Hewlett-Packard Co. has cut prices on its line of HP DeskJet 660C home
printers and HP OfficeJet printer-fax-copiers.
With the price reduction, the DeskJet 660C printer forrPCs and HP DeskWriter
660C printer for Macintosh computers will sell foo about $399 each, a
decrease of $100.
Meanwhile, the OfficeJettand OfficeJet LX printer-fax-copiers will sell for
about $599 and $699 respectively, a price drop of around $100 per product.
>> Mac Accounting Software Updated <<
Peachtree Software has announced Peachtree Accounting for Macintosh 2.5, an
enhanced version of its Macintosh small business accounting software. The
company notes that the update features graphical guides, a setup checklist
and online tutorials that are designed to help first-time users to get up to
speed quickly and expert users to get their work done faster and with more
accuracy. The $99 program includes general ledger accounts receivable,
invoicing, accounts payable, check printing, payroll, inventory, checking
account reconciliation, job/project tracking and numerous other features.
Also provided is a cussommforms desigger that lets users design invoices,
quotes, statementss checks and other forms. Registered users of previous
editions of Peachtree Accounting for Macintosh can upgrade to the newversion
directly from Peachtree for $79.
>> Marrel Comics Debuts on CD-ROM <<
Toy Biz Inc. and Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. have introduced of a series
of Marvel Interactive CD-ROM Comics. The companies note that the first four
discs feature a mix of out-of-print classic tales featuring the X-Men,
Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. The comics have been enhanced
through computer coloring, narration, sound effects, music and animation.
The CD-ROMs are compatible with both PC and Macintosh systems. The products
will be distributed by Toy Biz and Marvel this fall through comic book and
software stores, major toy retailers and the toy departments of major mass
retailers. Each title will sell for $14.99.
"It's a comic book come to life -- on a computer," says Stan Lee, chairman
of Marvel Comics.
>> Apple Has QuickTake Promotion <<
Apple Computer Inc. is offering an upgrade promotion for owners of its
original QuickTake 100 digital camera.
For $199, owners can upgrade to the QuickTake 150 and take advantage of new,
more powerful Macintosh or Windows software, a close-up lens and longer-life
lithium batteries. The upgraded model also offers twice the storage capacity
of the earlier unit (16 high-quality or 32 standard-quality images) and
improved overall image quality. The offer runs through Nov. 30.
Apple is also offering a special price on software for cross-platform users
who purchased a QuickTake 100 Connection Kit for using the camera with both
Macintosh and Windows systems. At the time of the upgrade order, such users
may obtain upgraded software for an additional $49.
>> Sega Narrows PC-Video Game Gap <<
In a move seen as potentially narrowing the gap between PCs and game machines
that attach to TV sets, Sega of America Inc. is announcing plans to make
video games for PCs that use a special chip by Nvidia Corp.
Reports say that Sega will offer two games to be played exclusively on PCs
with Nvidia's multimedia chip. The games were originally produced for Sega's
new Saturn CD game machine, which has been on sale since May.
Sega Vice President William White Jr. said, "The hardware is a means to the
software. We see it as a way to provide our games to a whole other audience
we haven't been able to (reach) before Nvidia."
Analyst Fred Dunn, vice president of Jon Peddie Associates, says Nvidia is
the first maker of PC multimedia components to get the support of a game
console company, adding, "This is a real feather in their cap. Sega is one
of the leading game suppliers in the world; it's an instantly recognizable
name. ... The Sega games will create a pull for boards that use Nvidia
chips."
The kits containing add-on cards with the Nvidia chip and at least one game
will be on the market in time for Christmas at $249 to $399. (Sega Saturn
costs $399.) Last May, Nvidia unveiled its NV1 Multimedia Accelerator,
which puts sound, full-motion video and three-dimensional graphic
capabilities on a single chip. It also has patented technology that improves
the realism of graphics.
>> NEC Cuts Notebook Prices <<
NEC Technologies Inc. has cut prices by up to 17% on its Versa V Series of
notebook computers. NEC has also extended its Versa V promotion through
September 30. The offer provides buyers of any Versa V model with an
active-matrix TFT display a free 14.4K bps data/fax modem (a $224 value)
or a $100 cash rebate. The Versa V models are available with a 50MHz 486DX2
or 75MHz 486DX4 microprocessor. System prices now start at $1,899 and range
up to $2,599.
>> MPEG/AVI Board Design Unveiled <<
AuraVision Corp. and Zoran Corp. have co-developed a new MPEG/AVI playback
reference board design.
The companies notes that the AuraVision-Zoran reference kit is the first
production-ready design to include drivers and source code for Windows 3.1
and Windows '95. The board also offers the ability to simultaneously display
MPEG-1 video on a standalone television monitor and in a window on a VGA
screen.
According to the firms, add-in cards based on the reference
design--code-named Antelope-- will enhance PC's multimedia capabilities
by allowing full- resolution, full-motion video and CD-quality stereo sound.
"As the MPEG market has matured, we have been getting demands for more
advanced reference functionality that will include Windows '95 and video
output support," says Wayne Ricciardi, vice president of sales and marketing
of AuraVision, which is based in Fremont, California. "The Antelope offers a
ready-to-market solution for add-in board manufacturers and desktop computer
OEMs."
OEM design kits will include the board, schematics and support files, along
with a suite of software drivers and source code.
>> Internet to Protect Trademarks <<
A new policy to protect business trademarks has been announced by Network
Solutions Inc., the firm that registers commercial addresses on the Internet
on behalf of the National Science Foundation.
Grant Clark, an attorney with Network Solutions, is quoted as saying, "that
over the past year, several companies have discovered others are using their
names as addresses on the network."
"For example, the name ronald@mcdonald.com as well as the mcdonald.com
'domain name' does not belong to McDonald's Corp."
Says Clark, "We may not be able to give the name back to the 'rightful
owner,' but we can certainly stop misleading use and piracy," adding that
NSI's new policy could block what many large businesses see as blatant
trademark theft.
While NSI still gives out the domain names on a first-come, first-served
basis, if there is a fight between businesses, NSI will ask both parties for
proof of trademark.
The loser can choose to give up the address, taking 90 days to make a
transition to a new domain name. If the two cannot resolve the dispute,
NSI will freeze the domain name, not allowing anyone to use it, and let the
courts decide.
>> Anti-Virus Chip Developed <<
A unit of Quantum Leap Innovations Inc. says it has developed a breakthrough
computer anti-virus device for real-time data networks.
A new anti-virus chip, which is broadly protected by international patents,
"identifies the presence of any virus within a data stream, either entering
or exiting a computer, or traveling along a network in real-time."
Company officials says the technology is a low-cost integrated circuit that
in its first version is compatible with all DOS-based systems, adding
Quantum will develop products for other operating systems, as demand
develops.
Anthony Warren, president of Quantum principal Technology
Management & Funding, said Quantum's hardware-based product is fundamentally
different from purely software-based anti-virus protection programs.
He said the chip transparently protects against any program that behaves
like a virus, whether it can identify the specific virus type or not. By
contrast, he said, software-based anti-virus programs operate by consulting
software libraries of known viruses that must be periodically updated,
allowing for new and unknown viruses to potentially escape detection.
The Quantum Leap chip sits between a receiving computer node and an incoming
data stream, completely blocking the passage of virus contaminated data
streams. The chip can also be embedded in PC's modems, network servers and
interface cards."
>> NEC Makes Re-Writable Optical Disk <<
A re-writable optical disc that can store some 4 gigabytes of data with a
12-centimeter compact disc size reportedly has been developed by Japan's
NEC Corp.
>> PCMCIA Modem Gets Status Lights <<
U.S. Robotics says it has added a DataView connector to its Sportster 28.8
PCMCIA modem.
The DataView connector allows PCMCIA modem users to view the status of their
data and fax connections using the same kind of status indicators available
on external desktop modems. The DataView unit incorporates four LEDs that
allow the constant monitoring of power, send, receive and online functions
during a fax or data transfer.
"The DataView connector greatly increases the ability to verify the progress
of fax and data transfers in the portable computing environment," says
Michael Seedman, vice president and general manager of U.S. Robotics'
personal communications division. "DataView eliminates the uncertainty
previously associated with remote modem connections. The ability to monitor
the status of a connection helps insure remote users of the success of their
fax and data transfers."
The Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA with DataView is priced at $399.
>> Justice Eyes Microsoft Web Plans <<
The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust investigation of Microsoft Corp. now
reportedly has been extended to look into the software giant's plan to bundle
software for navigating the Internet's World Wide Web.
The federal agency for months has been investigating the publisher's plan to
bundle access to its new Microsoft Network online service with its new
Windows 95 operating system to be released Aug. 24. (Online competitors
contend the tactic gives Microsoft an unfair advantage.)
And, write G. Christian Hill and Jared Sandberg in The Wall Street Journal
this week, "according to people familiar with the investigation, the agency
is now concerned about a new development, a plan by Microsoft to bundle
software with Windows 95 to access and browse the Web, a fast-growing network
that may become the main forum for electronic commerce." Some suggest a
Microsoft web browser could hurt the many start-up companies providing
Internet access, the paper says.
As noted, Microsoft announced 10 days ago it plans to bundle its Internet
Explorer with a version of Windows 95 that will be installed by computer
makers on new machines.
"It won't be bundled, at least initially, with the standard Windows 95
version to be sold in stores directly to consumers," says the Journal, "but
will be offered at retail in a version called Windows 95 Plus. Windows 95
will run other Internet browsers, but if it is already installed in new
machines and is optimized to run on the new operating system, other Internet
access providers will be at a significant competitive disadvantage."
Reporters Hill and Sandberg comment, "Bundling the Web browser could provide
a sort of imperfect end-run around any successful attempt by Justice to
force Microsoft to unbundle access to MSN. All of the so-called 'content'
slated for MSN might be best displayed using Microsoft's Web browser,
providing consumers with an incentive to ignore other on-line providers and
Internet access providers."
A Microsoft spokeswoman told the paper her employer's online and
operating-system competitors all are including free Web browsers in their
products, and that Microsoft has the right to also offer a browser.
But, says the Journal, "people familiar with the investigation indicated
they may feel the browser issue provides the agency with more and new
ammunition," adding, "The move shows that the issue of bundling products
with Microsoft's dominant operating systems won't go away, and has to be
dealt with one way or another."
The paper, still citing people familiar with the investigation, said Justice
Department lawyers spent part of last week "intently investigating" the
potential impact of bundling the Internet access software.
Frankie's Corner STR Feature
Louis Cat Orze
separate CD-ROM versions for Windows and Macintosh
for ages 10 to adult
approximate retail $30
IVI Publishing
7500 Flying Cloud Drive
Minneapolis, MN 55344-3739
1-800-432-1332
Program Requirements
IBM Macintosh
CPU: 386-25
OS: Windows 3.1 Not available at "press time"
RAM: 8 megs
Hdisk: 1 meg
Video: 640 by 480, 256 colors
CD-ROM: Double-speed
Misc: Mouse, sound card, speakers
The Kids' Computing Corner
by Frank Sereno
"Louis Cat Orze" is probably the most unique educational title I have
reviewed to date. The program is a historical mystery adventure based upon
the disappearance of the Queen's Necklace from the Versailles palace of King
Louis XIV. The player's mission is to find the missing jewelry and to
arrest the thief. To solve the mystery, he must learn about the peoples and
customs of the Sun King's court.
The year is 1697 and the player only has six days to solve the crime. Each
day, he may visit several locations to gather clues and to learn about late
Seventeenth Century France. The King's cat, Louis Cat Orze, will serve as a
guide and provide clues about palace intrigue.
Even in the Seventeenth Century, visiting a royal palace is very expensive.
The player must spend money to gain access to the various clues. He will be
given a small stake to begin his quest but he must replenish his cash
resources. The program provides three methods of earning money.
First, the player can play the Palace Games. The Games are multiple-choice
questions of three difficulty levels. The values of the correct answers are
twenty-five, fifty and one hundred lives. Players do not lose money for
incorrect answers. Another way to earn money is by correctly answering the
Palace Challenge which is hidden within each scene. These multiple choice
questions are based upon information which can be found in each scene. A
player can choose to search the room to find clues rather than answer the
question immediately. The final method for earning money is through good
investigating. Each scene has a hidden hot spot which provides an instant
cash reward when discovered.
Be careful when clicking though, for some hot spots can land the player in
the Bastille. The only escape is to answer four of five questions
correctly. Failure leads to life in prison without parole and the end of
the game.
Each scene is filled with hot spots which link to a book of interesting
facts and biographies of the royal family and many important courtiers. All
the information must be carefully reviewed for clues to the crime of the
missing necklace and for answers to later trivia questions. I found many
facts to be quite interesting. I never knew that Versailles had no
bathrooms!
The game uses only five icons for gameplay. A question mark represents the
Help feature of the game. The game is explained here. A volume slider
allows the player to control the sound levels. The Save feature is
available from within the Help section also.
The G icon is the player's key to the Gallery, which includes the Palace
Games, the Library, the Hall of Portraits and the Map Room. The last three
choices offer the player many opportunities to learn about the history and
culture of late Seventeenth Century Europe.
The Fleur-De-Lis icon is used to exit a scene, or to end a conversation or
text display.
A portmanteau is a traveling bag. Clicking on this icon reveals the
player's cash reserves. It also includes a notebook containing links to
information about subjects from conversations which the player has overheard.
The Q icon is for quitting the game. Players can choose to save their place
in the game when exiting.
As you can see, the interface is very simple, yet it has many excellent
features. The program comes with a concise user manual which includes game
hints and a troubleshooting guide. Technical assistance is available toll
free.
The graphics are simply beautiful. The scenes are like fine color
illustrations from the finest children's books. All characters are shown in
proper historical dress. The sound portion of "Louis Cat Orze" is excellent
also. The voice characterizations are well-acted. The only voice with a
French accent is that of the cat! Classical music of the period is used
throughout the program and it is quite enchanting.
Play value is difficult to rate on this program. If your child enjoys learning, he
should enjoy "Louis Cat Orze." The program does include some humor, but
most are in the form of puns or word games. This is a very cerebral piece
of software.
Educational value is very good. The program covers many details of life in
Seventeenth Century France and presents these facts in a very entertaining
way. The only problem is that this program will have limited appeal. Those
who are interested in history or France will enjoy "Louis Cat Orze" very much.
Bang for the Buck is very conditional. Before purchasing this program, one
must be familiar with the tastes of the intended user. If the person does
not enjoy mysteries or history, then the program may get little use. If the
person can be persuaded to try it, he may find himself enjoying the game
despite his prejudices against the subject matter because the presentation
is excellent.
Ratings
Graphics ............ 9.5
Sound ............... 9.5
Interface ........... 9.0
Play Value .......... 8.0
Educational Value ... 9.0
Bang for the Buck ... 9.0
Average ............. 9.0
Muppet Reading & Phonics II
dual format CD-ROM for Mac and Windows
for ages 3 to 7
approximate retail $30
from American Education Publishing
150 E. Wilson Bridge Road
Suite 145
Columbus, OH 43085
1-800-542-7833
Program Requirements:
IBM Macintosh
CPU: 386 CPU: Color Mac
OS: Windows 3.1 OS: System 7
RAM: 4 megs RAM: 4 megs
Video: 256-color VGA Video: 256 colors
Hdisk: 1 meg Hdisk: 1 meg
CD-ROM: Single speed CD-ROM: Single speed
MISC: Mouse, sound card (optiinal) MISC: Mouse
Kermit, Piggy, Rowlf and the rest of the Muppet gang are back once again to
entertain and educate your child. This assortment of programs provides
important lessons using tried-and-true teaching methods.
Muppet Reading & Phonics II consists of three programs on a single CD-ROM.
These are Sound Patterns, Sorting and Ordering, and Thinking Skills. Each
program uses the same user-friendly interface and features many of our
Muppet friends. The interface has five control buttons along the bottom of
the screen. The Previous and Next buttons allows the child to move back and
forth among the twenty exercises included with each program. The Contents
button shows the list of contents. Clicking on the name of any exercise
will start it immediately. The Show Answer button is self-explanatory.
The Exit button will end the program.
Each exercise is presented with an explanation written in a text box at the
top of the screen. This text is read at the start of the exercise and will
be repeated if it is clicked on. The problem to be solved is in a large
window and the child must click on the answer or drag it to the proper
location.
Sound Patterns features the sounds of -at, -et, -ot, -ig, -up, -an and -en.
Many exercises involve identifying an object and then clicking on the
correct first letter or word.
Sorting and Ordering presents twenty exercises involving the sorting of
items by various criteria, recognizing patterns, ordering steps in a
procedure, and ordering numerically and alphabetically.
Thinking Skills teaches sorting items by group, associating certain places
with certain items or activities, deductive reasoning and word association.
Phonics II has good graphics. The Muppet characters are very appealing.
The graphics seem better in some exercises than others. I am assuming that
several artists were involved in each program. The animation's are much
better than in earlier American Education Publishing programs. The sound
portion of the program is disappointing. The vocals have excellent clarity,
but music isn't used at all. Another disappointment is that none of the
Muppet characters speak. This doesn't hurt the program's educational value,
but it does diminish the fun of the program.
The interface is very simple and elegant. It doesn't have a lot of the
flourishes provided by other programs such as on-line parent guides or
troubleshooting tips. The manual is only two pages long. These extras
just don't seem necessary for Phonics II. Free technical assistance is
available via a toll call. The programs could benefit from better positive
encouragement to the user. The musical ditties used to signify correct
responses are extremely understated and staid.
These programs are fun. Jim Henson's Muppets seem to have a magical quality
only rivaled by Mickey Mouse. Kids simply love these characters. The
exercises are enjoyable and varied enough that they do not become boring.
Unfortunately, some exercises are static in that the problems and answers
are always the same and will not be challenging enough for more experienced
children. Replay value will suffer over time.
Educationally, this program set covers many concepts. The Sound Pattern
program could benefit by featuring more sounds. The many thinking skills
exercises are excellent. Also remember that American Education Publishing
makes a fine line of Brighter Child workbooks that can be used to complement
the computer programs.
With a street price of $30, Muppet Reading and Phonics II is a very good
buy. Flashier programs abound, but they won't be more effective as learning
tools than Phonics II.
Ratings
Graphics ........... 8.0
Sounds ............. 6.5
Interface .......... 8.5
Play Value ......... 8.0
Educational Value .. 8.5
Bang for the Buck .. 8.5
Average ............ 8.0
###
Sanctuary Woods and NFL Team Up
for
Educational Software
On July 24, Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, NFL Properties, Inc., and NFL
Players Incorporated announced an agreement which will allow Sanctuary Woods
to use NFL logos and player photos in educational software titles. The
first title, NFL Math, is expected to ship this fall.
Since sports produce so many statistics, it is natural to develop a math
education program based on football. And since so many fathers love
football, an NFL Math game will help develop their interest in their
children's educational software. Parental involvement is one of the most
important aspects for children's educational development.
###
ACTIVISION'S MECHWARRIOR 2 WORLD WIDE WEB
SITE DRAWS MORE THAN 37,000 VISITORS
One of the First Web Sites Ever Launched to
Promote a CD-ROM Game
One of the first World Wide Web sites launched exclusively to promote the
release of a CD-ROM game, Activision's MechWarrior 2 home page has had over
37,000 visitors and more than 700,000 hits since it premiered just one month
ago. By logging onto http://www.activision.com, visitors can obtain the
latest information about the highly anticipated 3-D action simulation game,
which will explode onto retail shelves on July 24. More than 500,000 Mb of
MechWarrior 2 screen shots and video clips have already been downloaded.
Additionally, over 7000 people have entered an exclusive online contest to
win an all-expense-paid trip to Las Vegas for four. Once a week, since
June 19, two names have been randomly drawn from the entries received. The
selected names are then eligible to compete in the final drawing which will
be held on July 28. This innovative web promotion is part of Activision's
$1.5 million marketing campaign to support the launch of MechWarrior 2.
###
Paparazzi! Tales of Tinseltown
Activision has released a new, fast-moving satirical comedy, "Paparazzi!"
on two CD-ROMs. It is available for both IBM compatible and Macintosh
computers. This program was developed by Museworthy, Inc., a privately held
company in Addison, Texas and it is being distributed by Activision.
"Paparazzi!" is a tongue-in-cheek simulation of the life of the Hollywood
scandal-sheet photographer. Keen wits, a quick eye and a steady shutter
finger are necessary to win at this game. Hazards abound in the form of
angry celebrities, false tips and more.
So if you have thought of clicking pics of the stars, here's your chance to
see if you have the hustle and savvy to be a true paparazzi.
As always, I thank you for reading!
>Delrina Updates! STR FOCUS!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Delrina Unveils:
Vision for PC Communications At Your CommandT
Jack Snell, president of TinyTot Toys in Toronto, runs his business from his
home - but you'd never know it. Right now he's sitting by his home computer,
waiting for an important fax to come in from Hal, his sales guy in New York.
Hal thinks he can get a columnist at the New York Times to run a review of
TinyTot's latest product. Jack's anxious. He's working on a marketing
report, but he's told his PC to let him know when Hal's call comes through.
Meanwhile, a light on his screen is flashing. He clicks on the flashing
icon and a list of his voice and e-mail messages comes onto the screen.
Shoot. Seems like everyone but Hal is trying to get a hold of him today.
He's set up his PC to answer the calls. When people call in, they hear the
message:
"Welcome to TinyTot Toys. If you'd like to leave a message for Jack Snell,
press 'one' now. If you'd like to leave a message for our sales force,
press 'two.' If you'd like more information about our products, press
'three,' and our automated attendant will take your fax number." Now the
phone rings again and Jack sees a message on the screen. It's Brad calling
from San Diego. Drat it. Brad's been bugging Jack to e-mail him an article
from the Wall Street Journal that Jack told him about. "Doesn't he have
anything better to do?" But it's a no-brainer for Jack, he simply clicks
on his news feed to pick up the article and drops it into e-mail to send it
off to Brad. Meanwhile, no word from Hal, and Jack decides to go for a
short run to calm his nerves. Fifteen minutes later, he's heading back to
his apartment and his pager goes off. The PC has just sent the notification
that a fax from Hal has arrived. Jack runs back to the PC and sees the
indicator light flashing again. Hal's message is music to Jack's ears: "All
systems go! The New York Times loves us." Jack hunkers down to finish that
marketing report so he can shoot it off to Hal.
Welcome to the new age of personal computing. No matter who you are, where
you are, or whatever you need to get done -- send a fax or an e-mail,
program your phone to take messages, tour the Internet, talk to someone
else's computer -- it's all possible from your PC. And the best part is,
it's all so easy, even Brad in San Diego can do it.
This bright new world comes to us courtesy of Delrina Corporation, which has
designed a suite of software products -- called CommSuite 95 -- that pull
all the popular elements of communications together in one place and get
them working as a team. CommSuite 95 is built on a firm philosophy: "give
people everything they want in communications, and bring it together in
one package that's simple, easy to use, and lets people save money, too."
"We're aiming at the person who's continually frustrated by current
communications capabilities," says Delrina President Mark Skapinker. "The
person who's continually asking, 'how do I get there?' 'why do other people
find it so much easier than I do?"
Overview
People want to use their computers to communicate, but up until now, it's
been so difficult. Imagine what our lives would be like if, in order to
chat to another person over the phone, we had to know how to install our own
phone lines, and then how to configure our local connections to talk
properly to the hundreds of computerized exchanges across the city, and the
hundreds of thousands around the world. Well, until just recently, that's
pretty much what PC communication was like. If you walked into a computer
store and said you wanted to get your computer to talk to another computer, or to a fax machine or a telephone, often the
salesperson would sell you a few pieces of software and then courteously
point you toward the book section. There you'd find a library full of thick,
mind-numbingly technical tomes revealing the secrets of jumpers and switch
settings and ports and addresses. Sure. Technically, you could get your
PC talking, but the whole exercise was equivalent to studying to become an
electrical engineer. It wasn't fast, it wasn't efficient, and it sure as
heck wasn't easy.
But the world is changing and Delrina is leading that change. Microsoft
Corporation has designed a much-anticipated new operating system, Windows 95,
that promises to create another explosion in the mass consumer market for
PCs by making computers more friendly and accessible. "Now Delrina can do
what it's been wanting to do for a long time," explains Mark Skapinker,
"That is, provide people with software that makes communications simple to
do." Delrina has designed programs that work in complement with Windows 95
and maximize all its best features.
An operating system is literally the guts of a computer. It's the software
base that works with all the other programs you use on your machine, plus
all the peripheral devices you plug in -- like modems and CD-ROM drives.
Microsoft has put new technology called "Plug-and-Play" into the Windows 95
operating system that promises to erase the traditional problems of getting
all the pieces of hardware to talk to one another. Buy the program, plug it
in, and you're up and running.
Delrina, meanwhile, has incorporated that same plug-and-play technology into
its CommSuite 95 product. But that's just the beginning. Once you're up
and running, and you've got your PC talking to your modem and your modem
talking to the wide world, there's one other big question: Now what? That's
where Delrina really adds value. In designing all the CommSuite 95 products,
Mark Skapinker says Delrina's people kept one thought in mind, "How can we
improve on what Microsoft is doing? It's not a question of throwing more
software at the marketplace, but helping people find out what to do with the
stuff once they've got it." Delrina's Vision: "PC Communications at Your
Command"
According to Skapinker, the concepts of messaging and communications
are often thought of as the same today, but those two terms are really very
different. Skapinker says messaging is an important part of communications
but communications as a whole means much more than just messaging. "PC
communications is made up of two major components which include messaging
and on-line/interactive," added Skapinker.
"Delrina's vision is to deliver powerful yet simple PC communications,
in essence, PC communications at your command," says Skapinker. "Delrina
will achieve this vision by delivering high-quality solutions encompassing
the four key elements of communications -- types, functionality, integration
and intelligence."
Skapinker explains, "Delrina will focus on all communication types
including messaging types such as fax, e-mail, voice/telephony and paging as
well as on-line/interactive such as the Internet and terminal applications
like bulletin board systems."
In terms of functionality, Skapinker sees people using each of these
communication types in different ways. Yet each type has its own unique
requirements in terms of functionality. "Delrina's strength is to leverage
its expertise in application development and end-user simplicity - to
establish a balance between 'sophistication' such as an application's
features, capabilities and power, and 'simplicity' like usability and
ease-of-learning," says Skapinker.
"To achieve powerful PC communications, we must address the last two
elements: integration and intelligence," adds Skapinker. "For integration,
Delrina will provide users the ability to share and access common elements
between the different messaging types like fax, e-mail, voice, and paging.
And finally, Delrina will deliver capabilities for people to automate
certain tasks using the computer rather than having to do each task
themselves -- this is the intelligence element," says Skapinker.
When you bring these key elements together -- types, functionality,
integration, and intelligence -- all in one package, all from one vendor,
you have the formula for very powerful yet simple PC communications,
according to Skapinker.
At ten million copies sold, and with 70 per cent of the fax
communications software market in the U.S., WinFax is the best-selling
communications package of all time. Now Delrina has a new version, WinFax
PRO 7.0, which not only lets you send out messages, it lets you send e-mail,
or lets your PC send a message to your pager when a fax has arrived You
can also use WinFax PRO 7.0 to get your telephone talking to your PC.
Functionality
People haven't always had this freedom of choice, and Delrina recognizes
that. "There's a whole area of communications that hasn't been addressed
because of this issue of whether one message-type, fax or e-mail, is going
to take precedence over another," says Mark Skapinker. "We don't think any
one message type is going to dominate over the others. So, Delrina's
focusing on bringing all the types together and getting them working in a
seamless fashion."
Integration
Marc Camm, General Manager of Desktop Communications at Delrina, says
Delrina's integrated approach makes PC communications mirror what people
actually do in their everyday lives. "What do people do when they come back from lunch? They
check their voice messages, they check their e-mail, and then they may go
on-line to see if they missed anything on the news wires," says Camm.
"That's real world, today." It's cumbersome and time-consuming having to go
to separate machines to do all these things. But CommSuite means it all
becomes much simpler. Now when you want to send a message, you can send it
out to one person as an e-mail, another person as a fax, and third person as
message to his beeper, all your PC.
Intelligence
Picture this. You're working at home, and you're expecting a call from
your boss, but you've got to skip out for a last-minute client call. No
problem. Your PC answers your calls with the message that you've gone off
to visit a client. And meanwhile, you've given the PC caller-I.D.
functions, so, your boss hears a message that you've left specifically for
him: "I've gone out to see Mr. Mercer. Please call me in his office."
Nifty, isn't it?
Back at your computer, if you want to know right away when your boss
calls, you type in his caller I.D. so the PC will tell you when he calls.
The phone rings, and a message comes up on the screen telling you it's Mr.
Smith calling. If you have a voice modem, in future versions of WinFax
you'll actually hear a voice saying, "Bob, pick up the phone, it's Mr. Smith calling."
Or, picture this. You're running your own desktop publishing business
from your home. You're writing up a brochure for a client and you've got a
tight deadline to meet, so you don't want to be disturbed by the phone.
You've set up your PC to take the calls. When the phone rings, an
automated attendant comes on, saying "Welcome to Perle Publishing. If you'd
like to leave a message for Winnie Perle, press 'one' now. If you'd
like a free catalogue of our services, press 'two' and we'll take your fax
number." The PC takes the message and an indicator flashes on your screen,
letting you know there's a message waiting. Meanwhile, the automated
attendant has taken the customer's fax number and your PC is now faxing out
that catalogue - that's called fax on demand, and the new features built
into WinFax make it all possible.
WinFax PRO 7.0 comes with other new features, including compression
technology. Compression squeezes a file into smaller bits, so it travels
faster over the phone line. The benefit to you? It takes less time to
send your fax out, and when you're sending faxes long-distance, costs matter.
Delrina is working with the telephone companies to let WinFax users do
broadcast faxing. Let's say you've got a fax that has to go to 500 different
people. Just send the fax normally, once, to an assigned number, along with
the numbers of all the people you need the fax to go to. The rest is taken
care of. You'll get confirmation that the faxes have been sent, and you'll
save money, too, because the faxes will be sent in parallel, instead of one
at a time.
WinFax PRO 7.0 features an intelligent scanner that lets you scan in
those loose pieces of paper. "It's even smarter than a fax machine," says
Albert Behr, Senior Director of Marketing Desktop Communications at
Delrina. "I take a piece of paper, and I literally drop it in. The
scanner turns itself on, it scans automatically, and it asks me what I want
to do with the image: fax it, store it, edit it."
WinFax is simple to do because Delrina takes maximum advantage of the
Windows 95 features, things like Object Linking and Embedding (OLE 2.0) -- a
tool that allows in-place activation. Here's one way in-place activation is
applied: Let's say you're working in WinFax and you receive a file in
Microsoft Word. You only have to click on that file and you can read it and
work with it in Word without leaving WinFax. Tools like plug-and-play and
drag-and-drop make the software easy to use from the outset. Get the
software, plug it in, and you're up and running. Using the software is as
simple as dragging icons from one area of the screen and dropping them onto
another.
That's good news, because it means that with Delrina CommSuite, you can
cruise Cyberspace without being a rocket scientist. Cyberjack, Delrina's
own program, built from scratch, hooks you onto the Internet as easily as
plugging in a phone jack. Cyberjack gives you everything you need to take
advantage of all there is to offer on the Internet - without having to study
a library full of books to get there. No more Internet for Dummies.
There's a reason why Internet for Dummies is so popular, says Mike
Brookbank, Delrina's Internet Product Manager. "One of the principal
problems with people using the Internet is that when they finally get there,
it's like, 'Okay, I'm on. But what do I do?" Hooking onto the Net is
like walking into the world's largest library and finding no card catalogue,
no index, no order. "It's a library where the books aren't even on
shelves," he says. "They're just tossed around in piles that are scattered
around at a million different sites." In short, it's a mess, borne of the
fact that no one person or group is building the Internet. More data gets
added to it every day, and it's all just more stuff thrown onto the pile.
On-line and Interactive
So, Delrina has designed the Guidebook, a quick and easy travel guide
to Cyberspace. You can change your Guidebook as often as you like by
downloading another version from Delrina's file server. "The Guidebook is a
pre-delivered collection of cool and interesting places on the Net, and
the user just has to point and click," says Brookbank. So, if you're
interested in art, you click on the art section in the Guidebook and you'll
see a choice of places to go -- maybe the Louvre in Paris, or the Royal
Ontario Museum in Toronto. Popular places like these now have what are
called Web Pages -- files of information thrown into what's known as the World
Wide Web, the portion of the Internet that's captured the attention of the
popular press.
But the Guidebook is more than just Web browsing. It's best described
in Star Trek terms: You know how, when Captain Kirk says, "Beam me up,
Scotty," and suddenly he's no longer out fighting the Klingons, but back in
his ship? Well, that same idea has been built into Cyberjack. You click
on an icon in the Guidebook, and it might take you to a Web site, but it
might also take you off the Web to an FTP site to retrieve a file, or a
news group or perform a search by asking you a couple of questions. "It's
like morphing," says Brookbank. "You click on an icon and suddenly you're
doing something else."
That's a hot new innovation. "Ordinarily, when you're on the Web, you
can only go to another Web site," Brookbank explains. "If you click on
something else, the software would do its best to show you what's there, but
it would only be an approximation. In our application , we give all the
tools you need, so when you click on a link to an FTP site, it actually
takes you there." That's in-place activation, and it's a key benefit of
Cyberjack that Brookbank says Delrina has "used to the max." Cyberjack is
also integrated with Microsoft's e-mail clieet, Exchange. So, if you're
scanning a news file on the Internet, and you want to send a message out at
the same time, you can do that right from where you are. You don't have to
quit the Internet and open up the e-mail function. "You need that
integration," says Brookbank. "It's something that has been very poorly done
in the past, and it's something we do very well."
Other Internet packages don't offer this level of integration, they
don't give people access to everything on the Net, and they don't offer
this same ability to cruise around in it live. Nor do other services offer
a quick and easy way of transferring files from the Internet onto your
desktop. In Cyberjack, transferring files is simple and easy. Let's say
you've found the FTP site where Sotheby's keeps its catalogue of upcoming
items for auction. You want to keep that catalogue. Simply drag the file
name onto your desktop and the file is saved there as an icon. But it's
not just a text file, it's a live connection back onto the Net. "The
object contains all the information necessary to make the connection,"
explains Brookbank. "I click on it and it makes the phone calls, it makes
the connection to the proper machine, and, there you are." And the best
part of Cyberjack is that now you can share the Internet, live, with someone
else. "There are some very cool things on the Internet that people are
unaware of," says Albert Behr, "and one of them is Internet Relay Chat," or
IRC. Delrina incorporates this tool in the Cyberback package, and strips
away the complexity of it, so now, with a click of the mouse, you can send
messages back and forth to other people on the Internet, live. Soon IRC
will include a voice option, so you can get on the Net in New York and
link up with your buddy at the Moscow University and actually talk to him
(if you both have voice-modems) "and guess what?" says Behr, "You're not
paying any long-distance charges."
If you want to hook into an on-line bulletin board service or even get
your PC talking to another PC, WinComm PRO 7.0 will let you do it simply.
WinComm PRO offers a quick and easy way to get to on-line bulletin board
services. Plug in the disk, make a few clicks with the mouse, and you're
on-line. Imagine this scenario. Jane Smiley is a housewife who works from
her home in Toronto as president of the local chapter of an international
agency that wants cities to clean up toxic waste. She uses WinComm PRO 7.0
to get to an on-line forum where she can share her experience with other
like-minded people.
This sort of thing has been possible before, but with one big drawback
-- there was no live dimension to it. The files you downloaded were just
words on a screen. But with WinComm PRO 7.0, those icons on the screen
behave like live objects, not just text. This is another example of that
tool called in-place activation. Click on one of the icons and it brings
you right back on-line.
"It's like a short-cut to get back on-line," says Ashley Desatlik,
program manager for WinComm. "Instead of having to go into WinComm, open
up the program, open up the session you want and click on that, you just
click once and you're in.
And WinComm makes it easy for you to share the experience of being
on-line, says Desatlik. "You can download a file and send off an e-mail
to your friend and say, 'Hey, Fred, check this out'."
And WinComm also comes with virus detection that's activated with a
simple click of the mouse. With other on-line packages virus detection
means quitting your application, opening up another program called PKUNZIP,
and going through a bunch of complicated commands that unzip the file, then
running another piece of software to check for any viruses WinComm PRO 7.0
not only lets you detect viruses on the fly, but it comes with an Image
Manager that lets you download complicated graphics from a bulletin board
service and watch the image unfold right on your screen as it's being
retrieved.
Delrina is operating on a higher level than other PC software
developers. "Asking what it is that people really want to do with their
PCs, and creating a solid package that people would prefer to pay money for
because they know it's going to be reliable, well-integrated, extremely
capable and very simple to use. That's what we're focusing on. Nobody
else is focusing on that," says Mark Skapinker.
Adds Marc Camm, "Windows 95 is an excellent operating system. While
Windows 95 has basic fax and Internet hook-up features, Delrina's vision
takes these capabilities to a new level -- where they're integrated in a
much more significant way. Every application has to be robust and able to
stand alone. They have to be fully-functional. It can't be a grab-bag of
stuff."
"There are many exciting things coming down the line in the very near
future," says Rich Goldher director of Delrina's Voice/Telephony Labs.
"Right now, the two most important pieces of equipment a person uses are
his PC and his phone. These two pieces of equipment are going to be
merged into one. So, you'll no longer have a phone on your actual desktop,
but the phone will be on your electronic desktop. And the phone will no
longer be a dumb instrument, but will have all the functionality of your
computer."
Imagine this. Your PC is in your office in Toronto. A customer from
San Diego calls in with an urgent matter that needs attention. Meanwhile,
you're away on business in New York. Your computer calls you in New York
to say that Mr. Walters from San Diego is calling, and that he's holding
for you on the other line. You accept the call, and the computer patches
Mr. Walters through to you.
That future isn't so far off as you might think.
"In the future, your fax, your phone, even your computer - these will
no longer be separate pieces of equipment, but their function will be built
right into your PC. So you, the user, will be removed from the burden of
having to think about what type of message you're sending or receiving, and
by what method, " says Marc Camm.
"Our business is creating the best communications software and
developing an environment for people to be productive," says Mark
Skapinker. "So, however the different pieces of hardware converge, Delrina
will be there creating applications to make them work together simply.
Our vision is that you'll always be able to walk into a computer store, buy
a PC, some additional software, and then buy the latest version of
Delrina's CommSuite software for all your communications needs."
>WebEdit 1.1 STR Spotlight
WebEdit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This documented is intended to answer the most frequently as
ked questions
about WebEdit. If you have questions not answered in this document,
please send your administrative questions to our feedback department and
technical questions to technical support. Technical support is only
available to registered users.
The following questions are answered in this document:
What is WebEdit?
What's New in Version 1.1?
How Can I Register My Copy?
What is the Most Current Version?
Where Can I Get WebEdit?
What is HTML?
What Web Browsers are Available for Windows?
What Other HTML Editors are Available for Windows?
How Can I Test My HTML Code?
Where Can I Learn More About the World Wide Web?
What is WebEdit?
WebEdit is a Windows-based text editor specifically designed to ease the
editing of hypertext markup language (HTML) documents.
WebEdit strives to be the best Windows-based HTML editor available.
Specifically, we have tried to include support for every feature of every
version of the HTML specification, from HTML version 1 through the current
draft specification for HTML version 3 (aka HTML+), including optional
features and special non-standard extensions supported by browsers such as
NetScape.
Note: HTML 3 is a moving target. However, as the standard evolves, we will
release minor upgrades to WebEdit that support the current syntax.
Additionally, you can add any elements you like with WebEdit's User-Defined
Tags dialog.
Moreover, WebEdit tries to make all of these features available in a
consistent, well-organized fashion, with a minimum number of keystrokes,
allowing you to create HTML documents as rapidly as possible.
The current version of WebEdit offers the following features:
MDI - WebEdit's rich, multiple-document interface (MDI) lets you work on
up to ten different HTML documents simultaneously. WebEdit uses a very
consistent, very "Windows-like" interface, with standard menus, toolbars,
tooltips, status bars, etc.
HTML Dialogs - WebEdit has specially designed dialog boxes for defining
anchors and links, inline images and figures, forms, tables, etc.,
including a URL Builder for rapid creation of Uniform Resource Locators.
Additionally, WebEdit saves every URL you enter, letting you choose from a
list rather than retyping the same URLs over and over.
Browser Support - Whatever Windows-based browser you use, you can link it
into WebEdit to test your HTML documents at the click of a button.
Document Structure Elements - Document structure tags such as <HTML>,
<HEAD>, <TITLE>, <BODY>, etc. are all supported, including HTML 3 and
Netscape-specific attributes.
Block Formatting Elements - WebEdit supports all HTML block formatting
tags, such as <ADDRESS>, <BLOCKQUOTE>, and <PRE>, plus HTML 3 extensions
such as <NOTE> and NetScape-specific extensions such as <CENTER>.
Logical Font Formatting Elements - Every logical formatting tag and
attribute from HTLM version 1 through HTLM version 3 is included, from
standard tags such as code and citation, to new proposed tags such as
person, acronym, etc.
Physical Font Formatting Elements - Blinking text, bold, italics,
underlining, typewriter text, emphasis, strong emphasis, font sizing, etc.
It's all in here.
List and Miscellaneous Elements - Select a block of text and choose
Numbered List or Un-numbered List, and WebEdit automatically inserts
list-item tags on each line. WebEdit also includes all standard insertion
tags such as <P>, <HR>, <BR>, etc.
Special Characters - WebEdit includes support for the entire ISO Latin
character set, allowing you to easily insert extended ANSI characters into
your documents. WebEdit also includes support for special characters such
as "<", ">", "&", non-breaking spaces, and more.
Form Elements - Create web forms quickly and easily with WebEdit's
built-in Form support.
Table Elements - HTML 3 defines a new syntax for displaying tabular
information. NetScape now supports this syntax and even extends it.
WebEdit supports both the HTML 3 and extended NetScape syntax. To simplify
the creation of HTML tables, WebEdit also includes a WYSIWYG table
builder; you simply enter your data in a spreadsheet-style grid, and
WebEdit writes the HTML for you.
User-Defined Elements - If there are any HTML tags or other text you
enter regularly that are not already built-into WebEdit, you can add them
to WebEdit's User-Defined Tags dialog box for easy insertion into your
documents. You can even add filenames into the dialog box for larger
"insertion macros". Selecting a filename in the User-Defined Tags dialog
tells WebEdit to insert the contents of the file into the current document.
Non-standard tags and attributes - WebEdit includes support for
non-standard tags and attributes, such as those recognized by NetScape
(font sizing, special image alignment, etc.) and those in the HTML version
3 draft (tables, background images, etc.). These tags and attributes are
ignored by most browsers, but are included in WebEdit in case you need
them.
HTML Removal - WebEdit lets you quickly and easily remove HTML tags from
any document or portion of a document. Simply highlight the text from which
to remove HTML tags, and click the Remove HTML Tags button.
Spell Checker - Correct the spelling of your documents directly within
WebEdit using our new built-in spell checker.
Shortcut Keys - We have provided shortcut keys (e.g., Ctrl-B for Boldface)
for all of the most common tags, allowing you to enter HTML codes in your
documents as quickly as possible.
Floating Toolbars - If you prefer to use a mouse to enter HTML codes,
WebEdit 1.1 provides floating toolbars for every class of HTML elements
(e.g., table elements, block formatting elements, etc.), and a special
floating toolbar that has buttons for the most commonly used HTML elements.
Tooltips - Every field on every dialog has popup tooltips that provide a
brief explanation of the purpose or use of the field, reducing the amount
of time you will spend looking things up.
Right-Click Menu - Right-clicking on any document pops up a menu that
allows you to close or save the file, or choose from a list of the ten most
common HTML tags to insert in your document.
Is WebEdit Free?
WebEdit is shareware. This means it is not free. You may download WebEdit
and evaluate it freely for up to 30-days. If you continue using WebEdit
after the 30-day evaluation period, you are required to register it and pay
the registration fee. For commercial and government use, the cost of
registration is US$99.95. For educators, students, home users and
not-for-profit organizations, we offer a discounted registration fee of
US$49.95. By registering your copy of WebEdit, you will receive several
benefits.
We have worked very hard to bring you what we feel is a world-class HTML
editor. Without your support, we cannot continue to enhance WebEdit. Please
make sure you register your copy of WebEdit if you plan to continue using
it.
What's New in Version 1.1?
WebEdit version 1.1 has all of the features of WebEdit 1.0, plus:
All the rest of HTML 3
WYSIWYG Table Builder
Spell checker
Floating toolbars
Tooltips on all toolbar buttons and dialog box fields
New enhanced right-click popup menu
Many editing enhancements
In addition, WebEdit 1.1 has been rigorously beta tested to ensure that it
is completely stable under Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT
and Windows 95.
How Can I Register My Copy?
You can register by telephone, fax or post at the following address:
KnowledgeWorks, Inc.
2251 San Diego Avenue, Suite A-141
San Diego, CA 92110
USA
Phone: (619) 220-8026
Fax: (619) 220-8324
Do not call KnowledgeWorks for technical support unless you are a
registered user. The cost of registration is US$99.95 per license
for standard commercial and government users. If you are a student, a
school, a home user or a not-for-profit organization, you may
register for a discounted fee of $49.95. You may pay your registration fee
by check or money order (US funds only please), or by Visa or MasterCard.
Please call us for information about site-licensing discounts.
What Benefits Does Registration Offer?
Registration offers the following benefits:
Access to WebEdit's advanced features, including:
Spell-checker
WYSIWYG table builder
Floating toolbars
No more nag screen (this screen does not appear until after the 30-day
evaluation period)
A complete Help file, including HTML tutorial and reference
Free online technical support
Automatic notification of product upgrades
Free minor version upgrades
Discounts on major version upgrades
Most importantly, your WebEdit registrations are what allow us to continue
upgrading the product. Developing this product takes time and money and we
cannot do it without your support.
What is the Most Current Version?
The most current version of WebEdit is 1.1. You can download the current
version of WebEdit here. By registering WebEdit, you can help ensure the
release of WebEdit version 2.0, which should include the following
enhancements:
Large Documents - One of the most important features we plan to add to
version 2.0 is the ability to edit HTML documents larger than 32K.
Long Filenames - Because version 2.0 will be a 32-bit Windows 95/Windows
NT program, it will include support for Windows 95 features such as long
filenames (e.g., MyVeryOwnHomePage.HTML).
Import/Export - Rich Text Format (RTF) import and export, plus a document
template for Microsoft Word for Windows will provide an easy way to
convert your HTML documents to word processing documents or Help files, or
turn your Word documents into HTML pages.
Multi-level Undo - Multi-level undo will allow you to correct those
accidental insertions and deletions.
Document Wizards - WebEdit 2.0 will include Wizards to help you create
complex document sections such as forms and tables even faster.
Document Templates - Create your own boilerplate documents for a
fill-in-the-blanks approach to HTML document creation.
Your Suggestions - Are there any features or shortcuts you'd like us to add
to WebEdit? Let us know about them so we can continue to make WebEdit the
easiest, most powerful HTML editor available.
Where Else Can I Get WebEdit?
In addition to the web site shown above, you can also get WebEdit by
anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.thegroup.net/ in the directory /WebEdit.
If you are in Europe, WebEdit is available by anonymous ftp at
ftp.demon.co.uk in the directory /pub/ibmpc/windows/webedit. Other WebEdit
locations will be listed here as they become available.
What is HTML?
HTML, hypertext markup language, is a relatively standardized hypertext
page description language, primarily used for creating hypertext pages for
the World Wide Web (WWW).
Before you begin using WebEdit, you should have an understanding of HTML
fundamentals. If you already know the basics, you will find that using
WebEdit will help you learn HTML more thoroughly because it does much of
the work for you, letting you choose HTML tags from menus and toolbars, and
offering the attributes appropriate to each tag in dialog boxes.
Here are some useful places to learn more about HTML:
Introductory Documents
A Beginner's Guide to HTML
How to Write HTML Files
Introduction to HTML
Style Guides
Composing Good HTML
CERN's style guide for online hypertext
Reference Documents
The HTML Quick Reference Guide
The Official HTML Specification
A Description of SGML
Mosaic for X 2.0 Fill-Out Form Support
NetScape Extensions to HTML
What Other HTML Editors are Available for Windows?
Our goal is to help you create the best HTML documents as easily as
possible. In addition to writing the best possible program we can, that
also means making it easy for you to find other HTML editors so you can
choose the one that best suits your needs.
We invite you to evaluate the other commercial and shareware Windows HTML
editors. We think you'll find that WebEdit compares favorably.
The following sites offer independent reviews of the various Windows HTML
editors:
http://www.interaccess.com/users/cdavis/edit_rev.html
http://gfecnet.gmi.edu/Software/softhtm.html
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~neuroses/html.html
http://www.kosone.com/people/nelsonl/review.htm
If you know of an editor that you think is better than WebEdit, we would
like to hear about it. Please send us email with the name of the editor,
where we can find it, and why you prefer it over WebEdit.
How Can I Test My HTML Code?
There are several HTML validation services on the Web. These can not only
help you spot problems in your documents, but they can also help you learn
to write better HTML documents. Here are a few we have seen:
WebLint
HAL Software Systems HTML Validation Service
Where Can I Learn More About the World Wide Web?
For those of you who would like to learn more about the Internet and the
World Wide Web, including how it works and what resources are available,
we strongly recommend the following books:
The Internet Complete Reference
The Internet Complete Reference is one of the most comprehensive and
fun-to-read books ever written about the Internet. This book provides
thorough and clear explanations of the Net and its various resources,
including Usenet, mail, the world wide web, gopher, telnet, wais, archie,
etc.
Author: Harley Hahn
Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN #: 0-07-881980-6
Price: US$29.95
The Internet Yellow Pages
If there is a "roadmap" for the Internet, this is it. The Internet Yellow
Pages, Second Edition is indispensable when it comes to finding and
accessing what's on the Net. This book contains well over 5,000 entries.
We strongly encourage everyone who uses the Internet, from beginner to
advanced user, to pick up a copy of this book.
Authors: Harley Hahn and Rick Stout
Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN #: 0-07-882098-7
Price: US$29.95
Most recent revision: July 27, 1995
Copyright c 1995, Nesbitt Software
All Rights Reserved
Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit 1.1 HTML Editor for Windows
Nesbitt Software introduces a powerful new upgrade to the most complete
Windows-based editor for World Wide Web hypertext documents. Nesbitt
Software announces the availability of Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit 1.1, a
Microsoft Windows-based hypertext markup language (HTML) editor designed
for rapid creation and easy maintenance of World Wide Web (WWW) documents.
Created by internationally recognized Windows and Internet expert Kenn
Nesbitt, WebEdit 1.0 was widely acclaimed as the best HTML editor available
for the Windows platform. According to Harley Hahn, co-author of the number
one best-selling computer book The Internet Yellow Pages and author of
The Internet Complete Reference, "WebEdit is the program against which all
other hypertext editors should be measured. I love WebEdit. Like all great
tools, it helps me do what I want without getting in my way."
WebEdit's clean, well-organized interface makes it the perfect tool for
HTML beginners. And unlike other HTML editors, WebEdit does not skimp on
power or flexibility. Designed for use by HTML experts, WebEdit 1.1 provides
support for every feature of HTML, including HTML levels 1, 2 and 3, and
even special language extensions such as those recognized by the Netscape
Web browser.
WebEdit 1.1 provides complete support the draft specification for HTML 3.
According to Rick Stout, co-author of The Internet Yellow Pages and author
of the forthcoming World Wide Web Complete Reference, "WebEdit is an
exciting new editor that allows you to work in an organized, uncluttered
environment. Of the many Web authoring tools I have looked at, WebEdit is
the most compliant with the HTML 3 specification."
Among it's many new features are support for HTML 3 inline figures,
mathematical formulae, tabs, banners, admonishments, and more. WebEdit's
powerful URL builder helps you construct uniform resource locators for
hypertext links to Internet resources, and a new WYSIWYG table builder
creates HTML 3 tables for you; simply enter your data into a
spreadsheet-style grid, and let WebEdit write the HTML code. Using
WebEdit's Custom Tags dialog, you can define your own tags to quickly enter
often-repeated sections of text. Floating toolbars provide single-click
support for every tag in HTML. With new "Easy Links" and "Easy Images"
windows, you can drag-and-drop inline images and hypertext links right into
your documents. And WebEdit's new built-in spelling checker helps you
make your pages letter perfect.
WebEdit 1.1 is published by KnowledgeWorks, Inc. as shareware and can be
downloaded from http://wwwnt.thegroup.net/webedit/webedit.htm for a free 30
day evaluation. The registration fee is US$99.95 for business use, and
US$49.95 for educational users, home users, and not-for-profit
organizations.
WebEdit is a trademark of Nesbitt Software.
CONTACT:
KnowledgeWorks, Inc.
2251 San Diego Ave., Suite A-141
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 220-8026
(619) 220-8324 Fax
Internet: webedit@thegroup.net
CompuServe: 76100,57
>OS/2 WARP STR FOCUS! NEW! WARP COVERAGE!!
By Mike Restivo
Hello, and welcome to the beginning of IBM's OS/2 Warp coverage right here
in Silicon Times Report. This column will not only contain news and
reviews of OS/2 applications, but also hints and tips on how to get the
most out of your OS/2 system. Since some people either think that OS/2
has no future or it's technically inferior to other operating systems,
I'll try to stay away from those arguments and let the facts speak for
themselves.
If you're not familiar with OS/2 Warp, take the next few minutes to read
over these few questions to learn a little more about it.
Ok, let's begin!
What is OS/2 Warp?
OS/2 Warp is IBM's award winning operating system aimed at a large variety
of computer systems, including desktop PC's and client/server systems.
OS/2 Warp is the third major release of OS/2. It is a powerful, 32-bit
operating system which delivers what you need: Compatibility, performance,
value, reliability, and ease-of-use.
What do I get when I buy OS/2 Warp?
Currently, there are two types of OS/2 available: OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp
Connect. OS/2 Warp Connect is OS/2 Warp plus a complete connectivity
solution, all in one box. OS/2 Warp Fullpack and Warp Connect Fullpack,
versions with a Blue-spine box, include Win-OS/2 code, which provides
compatibility with Windows programs; a Red-spine version does not include
Win-OS/2 code, so it relies on existing Windows software to provide
compatibility with Windows applications. All versions of OS/2 come with DOS
compatibility.
In addition to this, every copy of OS/2 Warp and Warp Connect comes with a
BonusPak. This collection of software includes:
Communication software:
Internet Connection (a.k.a. Internet Access Kit or IAK), Compuserve
Information Manager, and HyperAccess Lite Multimedia: Person 2 Person,
Multimedia Viewer, and Video In
IBM Works:
Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Charting, Database, Report Writer, Personal
Information Manager (PIM)
FaxWorks
System Information Tool
As if this was not enough, OS/2 Warp Connect comes with TCP/IP for OS/2 and
IBM's WebExplorer, plus additional software for your network. Of course,
with every version of OS/2 Warp, you have the best support and customer
service in the industry, courtesy of IBM.
What kind of system do I need to run OS/2 Warp?
IBM says OS/2 Warp will run on a 386-SX or higher computer with 4 Megabytes
of RAM. While this is true, OS/2 runs a lot better with 8 MB of RAM.
In addition, you need at least 55 MB of free hard disk space for OS/2 Warp
(Red-spine, no Win-OS/2 code); closer to 75 MB for Warp Fullpack with
Win-OS/2 code (Blue-spine); and at least 100 MB for Warp Connect. OS/2
Warp installs off either an almost countless number of floppy disks (3.5") or a CD.
Other system requirements include VGA or better graphics support, an
IBM-compatible mouse, and Multimedia-ready system for sound support. To
use the communications software provided, make sure you have a 9600 baud or
faster modem, and lots of extra hard disk space. (While the hard disk
space is not required, you'll soon find yourself up at 3 a.m. downloading
megabytes of files while reading Usenet newsgroups.)
Ok, cut to the chase: Is OS/2 for me?
OS/2 Warp will let you run virtually all your DOS and Windows programs, but
that's only half the fun. OS/2 Warp also will run any of the thousands of
native OS/2 programs. While they may not be as easy to find as your generic
DOS/Windows application, when you find a good one, the advantages of OS/2
are clear.
Microsoft, and a large number of developers for Windows, are moving away
from Windows 3.x programs and toward the Win32 platform. (Both Windows 95
and Windows NT run Win32 applications.) The problem is that there are few
Win32 programs out there, but lots on the horizon.
While you can compare the technical aspects of operating systems until the
cows come home, the choice really boils down to software. Is there any
immediate need to upgrade all your programs to their next versions? Do you
want to continue to use the same programs you have, but updated for a new
operating system? If so, Windows 95 will probably be your best choice.
If you're not so sure about upgrading your software, but you do want to
take advantage of the cutting-edge features in current operating systems,
take a good long look at OS/2. More and more companies are starting
simultaneous development of Win32 and OS/2 versions of their software;
combine this with OS/2's already large selection of software, and when you
finally decide to upgrade your programs, chances are there will be an OS/2
program that will fit the bill.
A Round of Applause... ...as OS/2 Warp wins yet another award.
OS/2 WARP NUMBER ONE IN USER SATISFACTION
The July 1995 special issue of PC Magazine names OS/2 Warp as the number
one operating system for user satisfaction in their annual Reader Support
and Satisfaction Survey.
OS/2 Tip Of The Week
If you are familiar with OS/2's Drag 'n' Drop mouse/keyboard combinations,
add the line SET MENUSTYLE = SHORT to your config.sys file. When you
right-click on any object, the list of menu choices does not include the
Copy, Create Another, Create Shadow, Move, Delete, and other options.
Conversely, if you are a novice to OS/2, or are not comfortable with using
the mouse/keyboard combinations to work with objects, add SET
MENUSTYLE = LONG to your config.sys file. (This is the default.) In the
end, it's all a matter of personal preference, and OS/2 lets you configure
the Workplace Shell to work for you.
A first look at... OS/2 Essentials
by Stardock Systems
As the name implies, OS/2 Essentials contains a number of programs which no
OS/2 user should be without. You get DirMaster, an advanced file manager;
Screen Saver 2.0; Roids, an arcade game; Filebar, a Launchpad replacement;
and File Graph/PM. All this for only around $24.95.
Contact Stardock Systems at (313) 453-0328; fax: (313) 453-1480;
email: wardell@ibm.com; or WWW: http://oeonline.com/~stardock
That's all for now. There will be lots more to come in the future,
including in-depth reviews and previews of OS/2 software. Please direct
any feedback to either our editor or, directly to me at the email address
mike.restivo@streport.com
A T T E N T I O N--A T T E N T I O N--A T T E N T I O N
FARGO PRIMERA PRO COLOR PRINTERS - 600DPI
For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent
to you that demonstrates FARGO Primera & Primera Pro SUPERIOR QUALITY
600dpi 24 bit Photo Realistic Color Output, please send a Self Addressed
Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to:
STReport's Fargo Printout Offer
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
Folks, the FARGO Primera Pro has GOT to be the best yet. Its far superior
to the newest of Color Laser Printers selling for more than three times as
much. Its said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. Send for this
sample now. Guaranteed you will be amazed at the superb quality. (please,
allow at least a one week turn-around)
A T T E N T I O N--A T T E N T I O N--A T T E N T I O N
___ ___ _____ _______
/___| /___| /_____| /_______/
/____|/____| /__/|__| /__/
/_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/
/__/|____/|__|________|__/
/__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/_____
/__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/
________________________________________
/_______________________________________/
MAC/APPLE SECTION John Deegan, Editor (Temp)
>USR NEWS! STR FOCUS! US Robotics ISDN MODEM NewsLines
The I-Team is a subset of USR's Customer Support department that is
dedicated to providing you assistance with all aspects of getting your
I-modem up and running. The I-Team provides the following services:
Determining the availability of ISDN service to your location.
Determining installation and monthly service charges.
Determining lead time for installation.
Offering contact information for ISDN service providers.
Making the above information publicly available.
Coordinating with your ISDN service provider to make sure the line is set
up correctly.
Informing you of the correct I-modem settings for your ISDN line.
Whom Should I Contact?
For pre- and post-sales ISDN line ordering information, and technical
support for a purchased I-modem, call the I-Team at (800) 550 7800 between
8 am and 6 pm Central Time or send Internet e-mail to support@usr.com.
For I-modem literature, pricing, and availability information, call the USR
sales department at (800) USR CORP.
How Do I Get Detailed Information?
The information presented in this document is publicly available by the
following means:
USR Fax-on-Demand 800 762-6163
USR BBS 708 982-5092
World-Wide Web http://www.usr.com
ISDN Ordering Information for the I-modem. ISDN Service Provider
Information
Ameritech
Bell Atlantic
Cincinnati Bell
GTE
NYNEX
Pacific Bell
Rochester Tel
Southern Bell
Southern New England Telephone (SNET)
Southwestern Bell
Stentor (Canada)
US West
I-modem Requirements
USR I-Team
This document is intended to help you order your ISDN lines appropriately
for the I-modem. This document lists all the requirements for the I-modem
that your ISDN service provider should observe when setting up your ISDN
line.
Physical Interface
ISDN Direct BRI service
2B1Q line coding with the D channel used only for signaling
Support for V.120/I.463 rate adaptation at 64kbps/56kbps or V.110/I.462
rate adaptation
Line and Channel Configuration
Line and channel configuration for the I-modem with Integrated NT-1 and
analog device jack:
Minimum - 2 B channels: 1 that supports circuit switched voice and data
(CSV/D) call types and 1 that supports circuit switched voice (CSV) call
types. (NIIG Line set 12.)
Recommended - 2 B channels, both supporting circuit switched voice and
data (CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 17.)
Line and channel configuration for I-modems without an analog device jack:
Minimum - 1 B channel that supports circuit switched voice and data
(CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 4.)
Recommended - 2 B channels, both supporting circuit switched voice and
data (CSV/D) call types. (NIIG Line set 17.)
General Requirements
Multipoint Attachment / Data line option (MP)
Automatic/Dynamic TEI assignments
No EKTS or CACH EKTS services
No B or D channel packetized (X.25) data
An RJ45/RJ61X or RJ11 connector
Terminal Type A
No additional / multiple call appearances
No flexible calling features or buttons for voice such as Automatic
callback, Call forwarding / hold / conferencing / pickup, CNI / Caller ID,
or Multiline hunt groups.
Provide This Information to Your ISDN Service Provider
Name, address, and current telephone number
Billing address (if different than above)
Installation address (if different than above)
Major intersection near the installation site
Indicate whether it's a business or residential ISDN installation
Preferred long distance carrier
Whether you'd like listed or unlisted ISDN Directory numbers
Whether any inside wiring is required ISDN physical information, line
configuration, and general requirements (from the top of this page).
Get This Information from Your ISDN Service Provider
1 Directory number (DN) per B channel
1 Service profile identifier (SPID) per B channel
CO switch type and call control protocol, either National ISDN-1: AT&T
5ESS Standard, Northern Telecom DMS-100 "Standard" (PVC 2), Siemens EWDS
Standard, or other NI-1 OR Custom: AT&T 5ESS "Custom" or Northern Telecom
DMS-100 "Custom" PVC 0) OR National ISDN-2
Cost for installation which would include initial service order, connection
charge, and/or premise visit charge, wiring charge etc. Monthly cost for
local and long distance usage (tariff) and Installation date and circuit
number.
ATARI/JAG SECTION Dana Jacobson, Editor
> From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
We have a lot of news and information for you this week. It's
seems, lately, that I've either been at a loss for words (really
unusual!), or running out of time late in the week to really fulfill my
editorial responsibilities to put forth my opinions in this space.
Well, another week has swept past and I find myself in another
similar situation! It's been hectic here again - it seems like time
is something that's not always something any of us has a surplus these
days.
Let me just say that interesting news is included this week.
Missionware Software had a successful launch of its latest version of
Flash II - Version 3.00. Check out the information about this new
upgrade. You're going to want to upgrade, or buy the program outright!
Some interesting tidbits from the Internet, as well. So, let's
move forward and see what's happening this week. I promise I'll try
and force myself to put some time aside and put some thoughts together
to get you thinking.
Until next time...
Delphi's Atari Advantage!!
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (8/2/95)
(1) MEMWATCH 4 *(6) CD_LIST UPDATE - JULY 1995
(2) EASY MONEY 1.0 (7) DIAMOND EDGE PATCH -> V2.03
(3) IN-TOUCH 1.52 (8) FLASH II 2.23 UPGRADE
(4) MARIANT 1.0 *(9) ATARI COMMUNITY EMAIL LIST
(5) HCOPY 1.6S *(10) OCR V.1.4 (MAY, 1995)
* = New on list
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HONORARY TOP 10
The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently
out-performing every other file in the databases.
ST REPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.30
ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database.
>Flash II, Version 3.00! STR InfoFile! - Version 3.00 Now Shipping!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=========================== FLASH II ============================
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Now shipping version 3.00! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
FROM: MISSIONWARE SOFTWARE
354 N. Winston Drive
Palatine, Illinois 60067-4132
United States of America
phone 708-359-9565
Missionware Software is pleased to announce the release of version
3.00 of Flash II. This is our seventh update and is our all-new
multitasking version! Flash II originally went up for sale in April
of 1992. Version 3.00 adds a number of new features, as highlighted
below.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Flash II is the update to the most popular Atari ST
telecommunications program ever! It's available exclusively from
Missionware Software and at an affordable price! Flash II is
completely rewritten by Paul Nicholls of Clayfield, Australia. It's
easy and fast to use for the telecommunications beginner or pro!
What's so new and good about Flash II version 3.0? The following
list highlights a few of the many changes that will make your on line
time even better:
* Flash II is now fully multitasking capable. The program easily
multitasks under such operating systems as MultiTOS¿ (trademark
of Atari Corporation) and Geneva¿ (trademark of Gribnif
Software).
* All elements of the program are now contained within GEM windows
including both editors and the terminal. That means that Flash
II can, by itself, do all file transfers in the background.
* A new Auto Learn DO function is included that makes making logon
and other navigation scripts easy and automatic.
* A new menu structure is used in version 3.00 that confirms more
rigidly to the official Atari standard.
* Version 3.0 includes 2 editors! One editor is specifically
designed to be used as a capture buffer (just like the old
editor) while the other is designed to be used as a type ahead
window or command window (or both). While these editor functions
are dedicated to a specific use while online, you can use them as
separate editors while off line for any text editing purpose you
desire.
* The Atari standard clipboard is now supported in 3.0 meaning that
you can easily cut and paste text between both windows or between
Flash II and other applications.
* A new Edit menu replaces the old Block menu and includes all
standard editing functions, such as Cut, Copy and Paste.
* A new Window menu permits easy control over access to the
windows.
* Default transfer paths can now be saved!
* Automatic saving of capture after logoff is now included.
* A mini-BBS function is now included!
* There are many more new features to Flash II version 3.0 too.
Other features of Flash II include:
* Fully Falcon030 compatible!
* Enhanced DEC VT Terminal emulations including the ability to swap
the functions of the Delete and Backspace keys for conformance to
standard DEC terminals.
* Enhanced ANSI terminal and graphics. Blinking characters are now
supported in version 3.00.
* Full support for all Atari serial ports on TT030 and MegaSTe as well
as baud rates up to 153600.
* Terminal mode now displays either the real time clock or a timer.
* DO script files compatible with older versions of Flash!
* All macros use the familiar Flash DO script format!
* Easily setup the parameters for each BBS you call...this includes
everything from ASCII upload/download options to baud rate!
* You can program up to 20 individual and separate macros for each
BBS plus an additional 10 global macros !
* Displays RLE & GIF pictures either on or off line! You can also
save or load these pictures for later review!
* Supports the following terminal types: TTY, VIDTEX, VT52, ANSI,
VT100, VT101, VT102, VT200, VT300 & PRESTEL.
* Includes full support for RTS/CTS. This mode can now be turned
on and off by the user.
* Includes Automatic Answer mode!
* Includes Auto Boards mode - Preselect the board(s) you wish to dial
and when Flash II is launched either manually from the desktop by
you, or automatically by some other program launcher, Flash II will
wakeup and dial the board(s) you've got selected. It will also wait
for the proper time to dial these boards.
* Supports the ST, IBM and DEC character sets, including IBM/ANSI
graphics characters!
* Supports the following upload/download protocols: ASCII, Xmodem,
Ymodem, Ymodem-G, Zmodem, Modem7, WXmodem, CIS B, Kermit and
SEAlink! And all of these protocols are built into the
program...no external modules required!!!
* Zmodem supports the selection of AutoStart and Streaming options.
If you prefer to use an external Zmodem protocol with Flash II,
you can now force Flash II's Zmodem autostart mode to off. For
BBS' that don't support "streaming", this too can now be turned
off.
* Logs all on line time and calculates your approximate costs for you!
* New version written in assembler! Fast!
* Runs on all ST, STe, TT030 and Falcon computers!
* Supports "Install Application". You can create a DO script that
can be used to launch Flash II from the desktop and force it to
dial up and go online for you, all automatically!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Missionware Software's upgrade policy remains the same for the new
Version 3.00! We will continue to upgrade any old version of Flash!
(copyright Antic Software) for just $35 US, plus $4 shipping and
handling (US and Canada), $8 worldwide. Or, you can purchase Flash
II, version 3.00 outright, for only $59.95 US plus the shipping and
handling charges applicable to your area.
You can also upgrade any old version of Flash II to our new version
3.00. We're offering an "Easy Budget" upgrade which includes a new
program disk and a short 40+ page manual. This manual describes
the new features found in 3.00. (Your old Flash II manual suffices
for all other program information.) The cost of this upgrade is $15
plus $3 shipping and handling ($6 worldwide).
For those of you that want or need our all-new, fully updated, 3.00
manual, you can purchase our "Full Upgrade" which includes the new 250
page manual and program disk. The cost of this upgrade is $30 plus
$4 shipping and handling ($8 worldwide).
To order, or for more information, contact:
Missionware Software
354 N. Winston Drive
Palatine, IL 60067-4132
United States of America
phone 708-359-9565
=====================================================================
>The Recipe Box! STR InfoFile! - The Leader in Recipe Storage Systems!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Recipe Box 5.0
In May of 1992, Mountain Software introduced The Recipe Box to
the Atari ST community. Since that time, the program has been through
numerous revisions, and has been ported to the Commodore Amiga and
Apple Macintosh. Now, more than a year since the last revision, we
are happy to announce the arrival of The Recipe Box 5.0 for the
Atari ST!
Rather than trying to build on old technology, we completely
rewrote version 5.0 from the ground up. The result being a more
compact, more reliable, and more flexible application.
One of our primary goals in version 5.0 was to make the program
even easier to use, and the new button bar was the first step towards
that goal. You can now jump effortlessly between all sections of the
program instead of quitting back to the main menu for every task. In
addition, we cleaned up most menus in the program by switching to
context sensitive mouse response. Now right clicking an object will
bring up the appropriate editor for that object.
By eliminating unneeded buttons in the index menu, we were able
to increase chapter titles to 24 characters, and record titles to 50
characters. This means that you will now have more room for those
recipes with long titles!
In addition, we added a new "information" record type. This new
record type lets you store up to 5 pages of 80 column text in each
record. The possibilities this new record type opens up are
enormous. These include simple uses such as storing nutritional
information or cooking tips, up to entirely new uses for The Recipe
Box such as personal information managers, diaries, address books,
song/poetry books, family histories, inventories, etc.
New database structures allowed us to increase storage capacity
to over 65000 chapters with 2000 records in each chapter. And, new
loading routines mean nearly instantaneous chapter loading.
The internal text editors have been greatly improved to be
faster, more feature filled, and easier to use than previous versions.
The recipe import formats have been enhanced, and we've added
additional formats, including "Mastercook II" and the "Usenet
Cookbook". Recipes that do not adhere to recognized formats may be
imported easily using the manual import feature. And, any text file
may be imported as an information record for easy management within
The Recipe Box.
As with earlier versions, recipe records may be exported
directly in the latest "Meal-Master" format for easy recipe exchange
with other users. And information records are easily exported for use
with other software.
The accuracy of the print routines has been greatly improved, and
now supports multiple print formats including various notebook
sizes, 3x5 cards, and 4x6 cards.
The new grocery menu has undergone many improvements to improve
the speed of the database, and to make preparing grocery lists even
easier.
A new "Locate" feature allows you to quickly find the item you
are looking for even when there are many items with similar
descriptions.
The grocery item editor now includes a "Staple" field for
automatically inserting those items you buy on a frequent basis. In
addition, any changes made to an item in the item list are reflected
in both the item and grocery lists.
The shopping list created by the grocery manager has been improved
to be more readable, and more compact than previous versions.
The old Meal Manager of previous versions has been replaced with a
new Calendar Menu. This new menu features a full graphic calendar
and an easy to understand event list. Any record in the database can
be attached to any date on the calendar, or simply drag a record to
the calendar to attach it to the current date. Personal notes may be
entered on any date in the calendar as well.
There is no limit on the number of events you may store in the
calendar, and you may place as many events on a single day as you
wish. In addition, events will be retained for as long as you wish,
though outdated events are easily removed when you desire it. Or,
simply drag the event to a new date on the calendar.
The batch menu allows you to select any of your desired records
for printing or exporting.
The new "Find" menu allows you to search the entire database for
records matching your search string. The complete text or the titles
only of each record may be searched depending on your needs. The
results of each search are maintained so that you can quickly view
multiple records that match your searches.
The new graphical user interface is now much more configurable,
and includes the ability to use up to 16 colors if your system supports
it. Virtually every aspect of the interface is user selectable, and
a number of presets are available to get you started.
A new help system is built-in providing instant access to the
program documentation, from any point in the program. The help
system features a hypertext style document allowing quick access to
any part of the text.
A new statistics display makes it easy to determine the program
version, the registered owner, the number of records stored in the
database, the free memory available, etc.
The Recipe Box runs on all Atari ST, TT, and Falcon commuters
with 1 Meg or more of RAM. A hard drive is highly recommended.
GDOS/SpeedoGDOS is required for all printing functions. The
program runs in color or monochrome in any resolution of 640x200 or
greater (ST Medium, ST High, or greater).
The Recipe Box lists for $45.00 and is available through better
Atari dealers. Or, you may order directly from Mountain Software at:
Mountain Software
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
Check or Money order in US Funds only! Shipping is free in the US
and Canada, $5.00 elsewhere. Residents of Washington State, please
add 7.6% sales tax.
Registered users of any previous version may upgrade to version 5.0
for only $20, by sending a copy of your receipt, or a photocopy of
your master disk.
Users who have purchased older versions on or after June 1, 1995 may
receive a FREE update by sending a copy of your sales receipt
showing the purchase date.
Questions regarding The Recipe Box may be directed to the following
E-mail addresses, and a demo version should be available at most of
these sites soon.
GEnie: A.WATSON6
Internet: awatson@pacifier.com
Internet: a.watson6@genie.geis.com
WWW: http://www.pacifier.com/~awatson
FTP: ftp.pacifier.com/pub/users/awatson
Bear Cavern BBS: (360) 573-2054 (E-mail to Anthony Watson)
Postal Service: Mountain Software
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
___ Mountain Reader II - #AUTHOR 1
>Pysgham! STR InfoFile! - "Virtual Drives" On the ST!
""""""""""""""""""""""
Announcement: Pysgham v1.50
S T e c t r e
presents
P y s g h a m
Virtual drives have been rather common in the ST range of computers.
Pysgham will also add sort of virtual drives to your machine but unlike
RAM disks the new drives will correspond to folders in other real
drives. If you for example have a much used folder on drive D such as:
D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\ then with Pysgham you can install a new drive
(for ex H:) corresponding to D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\. When installed by
Pysgham you can access drive H: as any other normal drive ,but the
files/folder displayed in H: will be the one in D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\. As
an example H:\*.* will equal D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\*.* ,and H:\TEST\*.*
will equal D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\TEST\*.*
You will now no longer need to select the direccory
D:\WP\TEXT\LETTER\ but only need to click on drive H. And still data
can be saved/loaded, program ran, file copying etc all can be performed
just as normal!
Up to eight different drives of this kind might be installed at
once by Pysgham. As drives installed by Pysgham will (normally)
correspond to real drives therefore data saved on them will naturally
not be lost when the machine is switched off.
Pysgham will also enable you to turn Write Verify On or Off for EACH
drive. You can for example have Write Verify Off for RAM disks ,and
certain hard drive partitions while keep Write Verify On on other
partitions/floppies.
As well as that you can make certain drives Write Protected by using
Pysgham.
Pysgham is controlled by using an easy to used GEM window program.
Pysgham will soon be available from the most popular Atari ftp sites.
Or email us to get back a uuecoded version. pysghm15.zip
Please note that Pysgham is POSTCARDWARE.
>Mnilu! STR InfoFile! - GFA Basic 2 Compiler!
""""""""""""""""""""
The GfA BASIC 2 Compiler. Compile GfA BASIC files
into stand-alone GEMDOS executable relocatable files.
- extremely fast compilation speed
- create .TOS or .PRG program files
- minimum file length of output file only 28K
- easy to use GEM user interface
- fully compatible with 95% of GfA v2 written
source code
Latest version (May ,1994) is 1.61.
Mnilu Tranquil - the 'second' version of this great 'Compiler' is
coming out SOON!
MUCH improved and will also compile -!>GFA BASIC v3.5E<!- files
Fully compatible with most GFA BASIC 2 AND 3.5E programs!
> out (hopefully) in early August 95
> something worth waiting for
If you've used the original version then you won't even recognize
the new Mnilu Tranquil!
Now EVERYONE will be able to turn their .BAS/.GFA files into
stand-alone GEMDOS executable .PRG files
Another GREAT program coming soon from STectre.
>MIST Show mini-report! - The Show Must Go On!
""""""""""""""""""""""
From Missionware's John Trautschold:
Well, we're back from MIST. We had a good time. Apparently they had
around 200 folks attend - not bad considering! :-) They were
purchasing products too. I made a good profit.
Yes, we released 3.00 at the show. Folks seemed quite interested in it
and were anxiously awaiting the chance to get their hands on a copy.
Some of these folks had attended the TAF show in Toronto and had been
given a sneak preview there.
All told, it was a good show! Back to work now...
John T.
There's been some discussion about ZIP drives for the ST; and whether or not the latest ICD hard drive utilities would support it. From
the U.K. comes this report:
STR Mail Call "...a place for our readers to be heard"
STReport's MAILBAG
Messages * NOT EDITED * for content
I have bought a Iomega for my Falcon. It works great!
It doesn't require any new driver. Just the ICD Pro SCSI 6.5.5 works. And it works like floppy, I mean like removable media, the
system recognized the change. And it is fast also, just half the speed of my Quantum LPS 540S.
Thought, without new driver, I can't get functions like: password write protect. I think you can include this email with your next issue.
Malcolm
(1668) 30 Jul 95 00:38:52
By: Troy H. Cheek, Inner Circle (1:362/708.4)
To: Streport, The Bounty BBS (1:112/35)
Re: ATTN: D. P. Jacobson, Atari Section Editor
St: Pvt Kill
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@FMPT 4
@MSGID: 1:362/708.4 301ac692
(In the event that this message goes astray, I am attempting to reach the offices of ST Report, particularly D.P. Jacobson of the Atari
section.)
> Jaguar Easter Eggs/Cheats/Hints STR InfoFile - Solving Those Riddles!
> We've been promising game tips and cheats for what seems like an
> eternity. I apologize for not getting these put together as rapidly as
> I would have liked, but our compilation of game tips, cheats, etc. is
> just about complete. In this week's issue, we're providing you with
> just some of the game cheat codes for Hover Strike. We'll have more
> for this enjoyable game, next week. We also have an "invincibility"
> cheat, but we'll only send this to you if you request it, unless
> there's an overwhelming demand from our readers!
Consider this a request for the "invincibility" cheat.
In fact, I'd be interested in your entire compilation. If it's too big to send through Fidonet, would a blank floppy and a SASE do the
trick?
Troy H. Cheek Internet: Defunct
Rt. #1, Box 409 Fidonet: 1:362/708.4
Benton, TN 37307 FAX line: by request only
>Steel Talons! STReport NewsFile! - New Game for Falcon030 Released!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Lexicor Software Corporation is the US distributor for 16/32
Systems Atari Falcon adaptation of Tengen's coin-op STEEL TALONS. The
game was favorably reviewed by such magazines as ST FORMAT. Llamazap
and Pinball Dreams is also available for the Falcon.
The game is a fast and colourful 3-D helicopter action
simulation; full use of the Falcon's hardware results in an impressive
polygon landscape and great speed and scrolling. Anyone who has played
the original Tengen coin-op will not be disappointed with STEEL TALONS
for the Falcon. There are a number of missions to complete, enemies to
harry, and numerous attacks to avoid.
STEEL TALONS is available from Lexicor Software, retailing at
U$D 49.00.
To order a copy, write to:
Lexicor Software Corporation
108 Peterborough Street, 3rd floor, suite H
Boston, MA 02215
or call (617) 437 0414 or fax (617) 437-9413
email: games@lexicor.com
Other games available are: Llamazap and Pinball Dreams.
Currently all games, Steel Talons included, are going for a holiday
special of only 35 U$D!
-------
PC Xformer 3.2 Atari 130XE Emulator for MS-DOS
==============================================
July 28, 1995
Price: $34.95 U.S. ($29.95 until August 31)
Available: immediately
Requires: any MS-DOS compatible 486 or Pentium based PC
For additional product information contact Darek Mihocka at:
Branch Always Software
14150 N.E. 20th Street, Suite 302
Bellevue, WA 98007, U.S.A.
Phone: 206-236-0540
Fax: 206-236-0257
America Online: BRASOFT
Compuserve: 73657,2714
GEnie: BRASOFT
MSN: BRASOFT
Internet: brasoft@halcyon.com
World Wide Web: http://www.halcyon.com/brasoft/
Introducing PC Xformer 3.2, the newest and fastest Atari 130XE which
allows any 486 or Pentium based PC to run Atari 800, Atari 800XL, and
Atari 130XE software as fast or faster than a real 130XE.
PC Xformer 3.2 is fully backward compatible with earlier versions of
PC Xformer and ST
Xformer and supports disk files created by the SIO2PC cable, ST Xformer,
and PC Xformer.
The three biggest features in version 3.2 are SPEED, SPEED, SPEED!
Unlike earlier versions of PC Xformer which were optimized for use on
386 based computers, PC Xformer 3.2 has been optimized for the 486 and
Pentium and runs an average of about 40% faster than the earlier
versions.
What this means for users is that PC Xformer 3.2 now runs about 9 times
faster than a 130XE (equivalent to a 16 MHz 6502) on a 90 Mhz Pentium,
and about 5 times faster on a 486/66. Even the slowest 486SX based PC
now runs PC Xformer faster than a real 130XE giving faster smoother
graphics in games and faster Atari BASIC programs, without having to
upgrade your PC.
For compatibility with programs that run best at the normal 1.8 MHz
speed of the Atari, PC Xformer 3.2 has two speeds of operation: NORMAL
(1.8 MHz mode) and TURBO (as fast as possible mode). All of the options,
such as selecting normal or turbo speed, whether to run with Atari
BASIC, whether to run in Atari 800 or XL/XE mode, etc. can all be set
from the MS-DOS command line.
By popular demand PC Xformer now has a built-in 6502 debugger which
allows you to examine and modify the Atari memory, disassemble 6502
code, and even single step 6502 code. For die hard hackers PC Xformer
3.2 also supports the ability to customize the Atari OS and BASIC.
PC Xformer 3.2 has full support for emulating Player Missile Graphics
with collision detection, GTIA graphics modes, ANTIC display lists and
DLIs, 256 color support, joystick support (as well as joystick
emulation via the cursor keys on the keyboard), sound, printer, modem,
and more. Atari BASIC as well as the Atari 800 and XL/XE operating
systems are built-in.
PC Xformer 3.2 can also be run from the MS-DOS prompt in Windows 3.1,
Windows 95, OS/2 2.1, and OS/2 Warp. Run it directly from MS-DOS for
fastest speed.
PC Xformer 3.2 also includes a 40 manual, a copy of the shareware
SIO2PC software, and about a megabyte of sample Atari 8-bit software.
How to order
------------
Brand new users can purchase PC Xformer 3.2 by contacting Branch Always
Software directly. To order by VISA or MasterCard, call us at
206-236-0540 and have your card ready, or send your order in by mail.
During the month of August we are offering PC Xformer 3.2 at an
introductory price of only $29.95. After August 31 the price is $34.95.
Registered users of PC Xformer can upgrade for only $15. All prices
include shipping to anywhere in the world.
PC Xformer 3.2 will also be available by September 1 from major Atari
dealers including American Technavisions, B & C Computervisions, and
Toad Computers. Call your local Atari dealer for pricing and
availability.
Add-on products
---------------
There are several products and services available from other Atari
developers which are of benefit to PC Xformer users.
The SIO2PC cable is a cable which connects your PC to your Atari 8-bit
computer and allows you to transfer over entire disks of Atari 8-bit
software to your PC. SIO2PC works on any MS-DOS based PC and creates
"disk image" files which PC Xformer uses. SIO2PC can also be used to
transfer files from the PC back to your Atari 8-bit computer.
SIO2PC is available fully assembled or in kit form from:
Nick Kennedy
300 South Vancouver Street
Russellville, AR
72801
Users who do not have access to an Atari 8-bit computer or an SIO2PC
cable can have their disks transferred from Atari 8-bit 5.25" floppy
disks to IBM PC 3.5"floppy disks for a small fee by contacting Rob
Satonica at:
Creative Software Systems
7775 Scottdale Rd.
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
phone: (616) 473-3904
Also available from Creative Software Systems is the Atari Emulator
Manager, an inexpensive MS-DOS utility which allows you to manage your
Atari 8-bit files, configure your PC Xformer settings, and run PC
Xformer, all by using your mouse to click on the various options and
files on the screen. A must have for any PC Xformer user who juggles a
lot of different Atari files! For example, you can have one
configuration that runs your Atari BASIC software in turbo speed Atari
130XE mode. You could then have another configuration that runs your
games disks in normal speed Atari 800 mode. Do all this by just
pointing and clicking with the mouse.
To order or to find out more about the Atari Emulator Manager, contact
Rob Satonica at Create Software Systems.
Atari shows
-----------
Once again we are hitting the road to demonstrate our products at Atari
shows around North America. If you missed us at the Toronto and
Sacramento shows in April, you can drop by our booths at the
Indianapolis Atarifest on July 29th and the Dallas Atari show on
October 7.
At both shows we will be demonstrating and selling the PC Xformer 3.2
emulator as well as our new Gemulator 4.0 Atari STE emulator for
Windows 95.
If you cannot attend the shows, send us your name and address to
receive future product announcements, show dates, our authorized Atari
dealer list, product order forms, and more. If you are on the Internet,
drop by our Web page.
Benchmarks
---------------
Ok, just how fast is PC Xformer? We believe it to be the fastest 6502
emulator available for your 486 or Pentium. We put a real 130XE
computer side-by-side with a 486/66 computer and a Pentium P5-90
computer then ran some benchmarks in Atari BASIC. We found the 486/66
runs at least 4 times faster than the 130XE, while the 90 MHz Pentium
runs at least 8 times faster, and sometimes faster!
Benchmark #1 is a simple FOR NEXT loop:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10000:NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 22.5 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 4.6 seconds (5 times faster)
Pentium/90: 2.4 seconds (9 times faster)
Benchmark #2 is a screen scrolling benchmark:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10000
20 ?X;
30 NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 109 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 29 seconds (4 times faster)
Pentium/90: 14 seconds (8 times faster)
And finally, Benchmark #3 is a graphical line sweep:
10 GRAPHICS 8
20 COLOR 1
30 FOR X = 0 TO 319
40 PLOT X,0
50 DRAWTO 159,159
60 NEXT X
Atari 130XE: 32 seconds
66 Mhz 486: 8 seconds (4 times faster)
Pentium/90: 4 seconds (8 times faster)
Now you can understand why for games we needed to supply a normal speed
option!
-/- CompuServe Launches Upgrade -/-
CompuServe Inc. has announced a $125 million overhaul, a new
low-cost service for novices and a price change. It also says it is
beginning an extensive marketing push and will nearly double its
support staff.
"We are moving from being a sleeping giant to really revitalizing
the organization," CEO Robert Massey told reporter Jared Sandberg in
this morning's Wall Street Journal.
And Richard Brown, new CEO of CompuServe parent H&R Block, told
the paper, "New competition and new challenges demand that we reinvent
our products and services." (Sandberg points out the CompuServe
announcements come three weeks before the launch of Microsoft Corp.'s
Microsoft Network.)
The paper notes CompuServe's plans include:
-:- An appeal to modemming newcomers with the launch next spring
of a service code-named Wow! It is designed to be easy to use and to
let users customize it to their liking.
-:- Introduction of a new look within 45 days.
-:- Simplifying pricing structure by eliminating multiple tiers.
It will charge a monthly fee of $9.95 for the first five hours and
$2.95, down from $4.80, for each additional hour. Eliminated are
surcharges for extended services, such as participating in forums, in
a move to straight hourly fees.
-:- Beefing up the CompuServe network by doubling the number of
local dial-up points to 105,000 from 50,000.
-:- Adding some 400 people to the support staff and tripling the
marketing spending to $115 million in the current fiscal year ending
next April, including a tripled advertising budget of $35 million.
"This announcement represents a significant shift in focus,"
Massey told business writer Evan Ramstad of The Associated Press.
-/- Internet to Protect Trademarks -/-
A new policy to protect business trademarks has been announced by
Network Solutions Inc., the firm that registers commercial addresses on
the Internet on behalf of the National Science Foundation.
Grant Clark, an attorney with Network Solutions, told Anne
Bilodeau of United Press International that over the past year, several
companies have discovered others are using their names as addresses on
the network.
"For example," says UPI in a report from Herndon, Va., "the name
ronald@mcdonald.com as well as the mcdonald.com 'domain name' does not
belong to McDonald's Corp."
Says Clark, "We may not be able to give the name back to the
'rightful owner,' but we can certainly stop misleading use and piracy,"
adding that NSI's new policy could block what many large businesses see
as blatant trademark theft.
UPI observes, "As with telephone numbers, each address is unique,
and can't be issued twice. Since the Internet has no 'area code,' each
name can literally only occur once on the entire Internet. Businesses
often need to use their company name in their domain, because such use
makes it much easier for casual users to find that piece of Internet
real estate."
While NSI still gives out the domain names on a first-come,
first-served basis, if there is a fight between businesses, NSI will
ask both parties for proof of trademark.
"The loser can choose to give up the address, taking 90 days to
make a transition to a new domain name," says the wire service. "If the
two cannot resolve the dispute, NSI will freeze the domain name, not
allowing anyone to use it, and let the courts decide."
-/- Justice Eyes Microsoft Web Plans -/-
The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust investigation of Microsoft
Corp. now reportedly has been extended to look into the software
giant's plan to bundle software for navigating the Internet's World
Wide Web.
As reported, the federal agency for months has been investigating
the publisher's plan to bundle access to its new Microsoft Network
online service with its new Windows 95 operating system to be released
Aug. 24. (Online competitors contend the tactic gives Microsoft an
unfair advantage.)
And, write G. Christian Hill and Jared Sandberg in The Wall Street
Journal this morning, "according to people familiar with the
investigation, the agency is now concerned about a new development, a
plan by Microsoft to bundle software with Windows 95 to access and
browse the Web, a fast-growing network that may become the main forum
for electronic commerce." Some suggest a Microsoft web browser could
hurt the many start-up companies providing Internet access, the paper
says.
As noted, Microsoft announced 10 days ago it plans to bundle its
Internet Explorer with a version of Windows 95 that will be installed
by computer makers on new machines.
"It won't be bundled, at least initially, with the standard
Windows 95 version to be sold in stores directly to consumers," says
the Journal, "but will be offered at retail in a version called
Windows 95 Plus. Windows 95 will run other Internet browsers, but if
it is already installed in new machines and is optimized to run on the
new operating system, other Internet access providers will be at a
significant competitive disadvantage."
Reporters Hill and Sandberg comment, "Bundling the Web browser
could provide a sort of imperfect end-run around any successful attempt
by Justice to force Microsoft to unbundle access to MSN. All of the
so-called 'content' slated for MSN might be best displayed using
Microsoft's Web browser, providing consumers with an incentive to
ignore other on-line providers and Internet access providers."
A Microsoft spokeswoman told the paper her employer's online and
operating-system competitors all are including free Web browsers in
their products, and that Microsoft has the right to also offer a
browser.
But, says the Journal, "people familiar with the investigation
indicated they may feel the browser issue provides the agency with more
and new ammunition," adding, "The move shows that the issue of bundling
products with Microsoft's dominant operating systems won't go away, and
has to be dealt with one way or another."
The paper, still citing people familiar with the investigation,
said Justice Department lawyers spent part of last week "intently
investigating" the potential impact of bundling the Internet access
software.
-/- Ad Industry Discourages Net Regs -/-
A U.S. Commerce Department task force has been urged by
advertising industry executives not to restrict marketing campaigns on
the Internet. The execs say advertising dollars are the best way to
fund the growth of the global network.
United Press International reports Norman Lehoullier, co-director
of Grey Interactive, told a meeting of the Telecommunications Policy
Committee of Information Infrastructure Task Force, "Regulating new
media advertising will not only retard its growth and technical
potential, it will retard new media's ability to increase this
country's competitiveness."
UPI says the executives pointed out advertising dollars played a
crucial role in the development of broadcast TV and that today annual
spending on TV advertising is an estimated $35 billion per year.
John Sarsen Jr., president of the National Association of
Advertisers, says agencies hope to play a similar role in the
development of the global data infrastructure, but will not be able to
if regulators impose broadcast-style rules on electronic commerce.
"Advertisers consider the Internet and online services a lucrative
market which attract affluent, well-educated consumers," says UPI,
noting that a recent Commerce Department study found that 58.1 percent
of urban households earning $75,000 per year or more own a computer.
Among urban computer owners, 50.7 percent have attended four years of
college or more.
While online advertising still is in its infancy, the ad
executives say they expect the medium to grow exponentially. Roughly
9 percent to 11 percent of online consumers age 25-54 already peruse
online classified ads.
The wire service noted the Clinton administration currently has
not proposed to regulate advertising online.
-/- Anti-Virus Chip Developed -/-
A unit of Quantum Leap Innovations Inc. says it has developed a
breakthrough computer anti-virus device for real-time data networks.
Reporting from Princeton, N.J., the Reuter News Service says a new
anti-virus chip, which is broadly protected by international patents,
"identifies the presence of any virus within a data stream, either
entering or exiting a computer, or traveling along a network in
real-time."
Company officials says the technology is a low-cost integrated
circuit that in its first version is compatible with all DOS-based
systems, adding Quantum will develop products for other operating
systems, as demand develops.
Anthony Warren, president of Quantum principal Technology
Management & Funding, told the wire service Quantum's hardware-based
product is fundamentally different from purely software-based
anti-virus protection programs.
He said the chip transparently protects against any program that
behaves like a virus, whether it can identify the specific virus type
or not. By contrast, he said, software-based anti-virus programs
operate by consulting software libraries of known viruses that must be
periodically updated, allowing for new and unknown viruses to
potentially escape detection.
"The Quantum Leap chip sits between a receiving computer node and
an incoming data stream, completely blocking the passage of virus
contaminated data streams," Reuters says. "The chip can also be
embedded in PC's modems, network servers and interface cards."
Warren said Quantum now is in talks with a number of these
providers on plans to incorporate the Quantum chip into their products.!
-/- Chip Markets to Double by 2000 -/-
Texas Instruments' chief economist predicts that if present trends
continue, the worldwide semiconductor market may more than double in
size in the next five years to more than $300 billion.
Speaking at the annual Robertson Stephens & Co. Semiconductor
Conference in San Jose, California, Vladi Catto said the semiconductor
market is experiencing unprecedented growth for the 10th year in a row
and the outlook is for growth to continue through the decade.
According to the Reuter News Service, Catto said, "For the past
15 years, the worldwide market has grown an average of 15 percent per
year. If that growth rate continues, the market will reach about $275
billion over the next five years. If the market grows at 20 percent
annually, the industry could exceed $300 billion."
He said that influencing the industry's unprecedented growth are
four major factors:
-:- The increasing use of semiconductors in electronics.
-:- Emerging market growth.
-:- Computerization of the workplace.
-:- The growth of cellular phones.
Reuters reports the economist predicted the geographic
diversification of the semiconductors market will act as a buffer to a
slowdown in any particular region and that the world economic outlook
remains positive, lessening the possibility of recession.
Catto also said that over the next five years, the semiconductor
industry will require more than twice as much capital spending as it
has invested since 1990 to keep up with demand.
-/- NEC Makes Rewritable Optical Disk -/-
A rewritable optical disc that can store some 4 gigabytes of data
with a 12-centimeter compact disc size reportedly has been developed by
Japan's NEC Corp.
In Tokyo today, sources told the Jiji Japanese press service NEC
improved the phase change optical disc, a new rewritable computer
storage device that is gaining popularity due to its capacity of some
650 megabytes.
"The company succeeded in shortening the length of pits or tiny
indentations on the disc that record information to 0.33 micron from
the current 0.9 micron," Jiji reports. "The technology allowed the 4GB
capacity, which can store about two hours of video recording with
better resolution than high-quality videocassette recorders."
Jiji adds the overwriting function, or simultaneous erasing and
recording of information, allows users to edit and process video clips
and data.
"For next-generation rewritable discs, Toshiba Corp. and
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ... have announced the SD-RAM
format... an enhancement of their super density-format digital
videodiscs, but its capacity is limited to 2.6GB."
-/- Marvel Comics Debuts on CD-ROM -/-
Toy Biz Inc. and Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. have introduced
of a series of Marvel Interactive CD-ROM Comics.
The companies, both based in New York, note that the first four
discs feature a mix of out-of-print classic tales featuring the X-Men,
Spider- Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. The comics have been enhanced
through computer coloring, narration, sound effects, music and
animation.
The CD-ROMs are compatible with both PC and Macintosh systems.
The products will be distributed by Toy Biz and Marvel this fall
through comic book and software stores, major toy retailers and the
toy departments of major mass retailers. Each title will sell for
$14.99.
"It's a comic book come to life -- on a computer," says Stan Lee,
chairman of Marvel Comics.
-/- LCD Developer Dead at 68 -/-
The scientist who invented the liquid crystal display technology
has died of diabetes complications at 68.
Morris Braunstein, during a 20-year career at Hughes Research
Laboratory, where he worked on the "Star Wars" defense system, also
patented four other inventions involving laser and optical technology.
The Associated Press notes he helped create hypo-allergenic
cosmetics when he worked for Almay Cosmetics in the 1950s.
-/- Feds Say Computer Counterfeited -/-
Some $259,700 in counterfeit money has been seized from a Lubbock,
Texas, home where federal agents allege a Texas Tech student apparently
used his home computer to print the bills.
Secret Service Agent R. David Freriks told United Press
International the student, who has not yet been arrested, apparently
used his PC to print the money which was found in several cities across
west Texas and New Mexico.
In addition to a suitcase stuffed with fake $50 bills,
investigators seized a home computer, a printer and a scanner from the
student's home.
"The bills look convincing from a distance but a closer look
reveals slightly blurred designs and faulty coloration," UPI said.
"The paper is also slick, unlike real currency, and lacks a watermark
strip."
Two more suspects, including the ringleader, still are being
sought, said Freriks who added the student and five other suspects
already identified will probably be indicted by a grand jury next week.
Freriks said he had no fear the 20-year-old student will flee,
because "at this point, he's more afraid of his dad than anything."
-/- Tobacco Docs Hit on the Web -/-
Secret documents from the tobacco industry, leaked to researchers
at the University of California, San Francisco, by a disgruntled
Brown & Williamson Co. employee, have become a hot item on the Internet.
UCSF officials told United Press International in San Francisco
that since the documents were first osted online nearly six months ago,
an average of 4,670 queries have beer logged daily, many from as far
away as Australia, Japan, Germany andtGreat Britain.
The documents -- which include a letter from actor Sylvester
Stallone agreeing to smoke tobacco products in his movies for
$500,000 -- were opened to the public by a recent court decision. UPI
notes Brown and Williamson is appealing those decisions, but their
efforts to block public access during the appeal process has been
denied by the California Supreme Court.
UCSF officials told the wire service the high number of requests
prompted the decision to release the material on the Net.
Said UCSF professor Stanton Glantz, an authority on the politics
of the tobacco industry, "The demand was so great, the staff in our
archive room could not get any other work done, so it was merely a
matter of efficiency. In hindsight, it looks like a brilliant
decision."
UPI adds, "The documents contain several files detailing
scientific research that revealed decades ago a link between smoking
and cancer. Those research files have been called invaluable by
attorneys around the country involved in damage litigation against
tobacco companies."
Law professor Richard Daynard at Northwestern University said the
release of the documents "may well be seen as a landmark in the
information revolution as well as in tobacco control."
Officials said while lawyers are among the more than 65,000
computer users who have accessed the files, the majority are ordinary
citizens.
Among the items they are accessing is Stallone's letter, Glantz
said, adding, "A lot of the documents are very technical, but everyone
can understand the Stallone letter. It's one of those fun items."
That letter, bearing Stallone's signature, says in part: "As
discussed, I guarantee that I will use Brown and Williamson tobacco
products in no less than five feature films. It is my understanding
that Brown & Williamson will pay a fee of $500,000."
(Stallone publicist Vicki Warren told UPI her client "did not make
a penny on this issue.")
World Wide Web surfers can read the letter for themselves by
accessing Web address http://www.library.edu/tobacco.
CompuServe members now have access to the Internet's Web through
the NetLauncher software. Enter GO NETLAUNCHER for details.
>In This Week's Jaguar Section - Super Burnout Review! CATnips!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Jaguar Edge Update! WMCJ Comments!
Contest #3 Winner! Contest #4!
Towers II! And much more!
>From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
White Men Can't Jump and Flashback have hit the streets this week.
WMCJ seems to be the game that's seen more online reaction so far; and
those reactions are extremely favorable so far. We hope to have
reviews of both shortly.
We have a winner for last week's contest (see below); and we're
providing you a second opportunity to win a copy of The Jaguar Gamers
Guide. See contest info at the end of this section.
As I mentioned earlier in this column, this is a bad week for
editorial comments due to time constraints. I do have a few topics
that I'm in the middle of putting together. I'm hoping that these
upcoming editorials will generate some discussion and promote some
ideas for Atari, and its userbase. Expect to see these ideas in the
weeks to come. Meanwhile, let's get to the Jaguar gaming news and
information this week!
Until next time...
> Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out.
Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $29.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $29.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/
Crescent Galaxy $29.99 Atari Corp.
J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp.
J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp.
JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames
J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp.
J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp.
J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $39.99 Atari Corp.
J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9007 Checkered Flag $39.99 Atari Corp.
J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp.
J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp
J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp
J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp
J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp.
Cannon Fodder $69.99 Virgin/C-West
Syndicate $69.99 Ocean
Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams
Theme Park $69.99 Ocean
Sensible Soccer Telegames
Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams
J9009E Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Corp.
J0144E Pinball Fantasies $59.99 C-West
J9052E Super Burnout $59.99 Atari
White Men Can't Jump $69.99 Atari
Flashback $59.99 U.S. Gold
Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
Ultra Vortek $69.99 Atari
Flip-Out TBD Atari
Rayman $69.99 UBI Soft
Power Drive Rally TBD TWI
Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari
Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER
J8001 Jaguar (complete) $189.99 Atari Corp.
J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $159.99 Atari Corp.
J8904 Composite Cable $19.95
J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp.
J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95
CatBox $69.95 ICD
>Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
CONTACT: Dorf & Stanton Communications
Jessica Nagel/Jennifer Hansen
310/479-4997 or 800/444-6663
For Immediate Release
WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP --- BUT CAN THEY PLAY BALL?
Atari Corporation launches "hoops" game with Team Tap peripheral
SUNNYVALE, CA (Aug. 1, 1995) --- Today Atari Corporation launched two
exciting additions to the Jaguar 64 product line. The quickly expanding
Atari arsenal now includes "White Men Can't Jump"(tm), a fast-paced,
trash-talkin' game of street ball based on the major motion picture
from Twentieth Century Fox, and "Team Tap"(tm), a peripheral for the
Jaguar 64 system that allows up to four players to participate at once.
Now, four players can compete in this no-holds-barred hoops tourney
where teams try to hustle and shove their way into the street ball
hall of fame.
"White Men Can't Jump" players must attempt to make it into the Slam
City Tournament, the ultimate in street ball play. It costs $5,000 to
enter, however, and players start out with only $500 loaned to them
from the BREAKLEG BROS, two unforgiving loan sharks. Hoopsters must
hit the court and win games to hustle the remaining cash.
Players custom design their teams as well as control the scoring,
timing and possession rules. The one thing they can't control is the
shovin' and trash talkin'. Players must be tough and ready to throw
elbows because street ball rules apply --- traveling and goaltending
are the only fouls called.
Atari also launched "Team Tap", a peripheral for the Jaguar 64 system
bundled with "White Men Can't Jump". "Team Tap" enables four players to
get in on the jammin' hoops action all at once. A $29.95 value, "Team
Tap" is included free with "White Men Can't Jump". With select future
titles, players can employ two Team Taps for eight-competitor game
play.
Two play modes are available for "White Men Can't Jump": Tournament and
Versus. Tournament mode lets one or two players compete as a team in a
street ball game. With "Team Tap" and Versus mode, three or four
players split into two pairs and play against each other.
"'White Men Can't Jump' launches our fall line-up of sports and action
games for the Jaguar," said Ted Hoff, President of Atari's North
American Operations. "This game showcases the power of the Jaguar 64
and 'Team Tap', which provides the capability for four players to enjoy
on-screen action in this two-on-two basketball game."
"White Men Can't Jump" is rated KA, appropriate for kids through
adults, and has a suggested retail price of $69.99. Atari communicated
with tens of thousands of Jaguar 64 users highlighting the new title
introduction and peripheral offer through the company's new Jaguar
First Alert consumer postcard program. Other Atari summer releases
include "Ultra Vortek," "FlipOut!," and "Rayman." The library of games
for Atari Jaguar 64 will approach 75 titles by the end of 1995.
For over twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with
high-quality, value-priced entertainment. Located in Sunnyvale,
California, Atari Corporation markets Jaguar, the only American-made,
advanced 64-bit entertainment system.
--===--
Team Tap(tm) all rights reserved. Team Tap(tm), Atari logo and Jaguar
are all trademarks of Atari Corporation.
"White Men Can't Jump"(tm) (c)1995 Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "White Men Can't Jump" and associated
characters are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Licensed to Atari Corporation for distribution. Atari, the Atari logo
and Jaguar are trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corporation.
All Rights Reserved. This software is authorized by Atari for use with
the Jaguar 64-Bit Interactive Multimedia System.
TOWERS II - PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER
COMING SOON TO A JAGUAR NEAR YOU
JV Enterprises proudly presents Towers II for the Jaguar system.
Towers II is:
-> An RPG set in the mystical land of Lamini
-> Full screen, smooth scrolling
-> Over 600 Items to utilize
-> Over 350 creatures to interact and battle with
-> Two save game features --One to memory and one to cartridge.
These are full saves-- complete statistics, auto map, open and
closed doors, all creature activity, and all item positions.
Towers II will be on cartridge format and expected release date by
Christmas (Constant updates for release dates will published)
If anyone would like to have questions answered, or current screen
shots of Towers II sent to them via e-mail, please let me know by
writing to Jag Jaeger, gagnon@nevada.edu. The screen shots are in
TGA format and zipped into a 189k file.
Because of current work load, please allow a little time for a
response.
Towers II can be seen at
http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/Consoles/Tower2/Jag_Towers2.html
This location is also linked with a cu
rent review of Towers II
for the Falcon 030.
Or you can download the screenshots from
ftp.cnam.fr /pub/Atari/Jaguar/ TowersII-Jaguar-sceenshots.zip
_________________________________________________________
-/- Sega Narrows PC-Video Game Gap -/-
In a move seen as potentially narrowing the gap between PCs and
game machines that attach to TV sets, Sega of America Inc. is
announcing plans to make video games for PCs that use a special chip
by Nvidia Corp.
Business writer Catalina Ortiz of The Associated Press reports
from Sunnyvale, California, that Sega will offer two games to be played
exclusively on PCs with Nvidia's multimedia chip. The games were
originally produced for Sega's new Saturn CD game machine, which has
been on sale since May.
Sega Vice President William White Jr. told her, "The hardware is a
means to the software. We see it as a way to provide our games to a
whole other audience we haven't been able to (reach) before Nvidia."
Analyst Fred Dunn, vice president of Jon Peddie Associates of
Tiburon, California, says Nvidia is the first maker of PC multimedia
components to get the support of a game console company, adding, "This
is a real feather in their cap. Sega is one of the leading game
suppliers in the world; it's an instantly recognizable name.... The
Sega games will create a pull for boards that use Nvidia chips."
AP says kits containing add-on cards with the Nvidia chip and at
least one game will be on the market in time for Christmas at $249 to
$399. (Sega Saturn costs $399.)
Last May, Nvidia unveiled its NV1 Multimedia Accelerator, which
puts sound, full-motion video and three-dimensional graphic
capabilities on a single chip. It also has patented technology that
improves the realism of graphics.
"Traditionally," the wire service observes, "objects are drawn
with many small 'polygons,' requiring the computer to constantly carry
out thousands of calculations to manipulate the images. That leads to
jerky movement. Nvidia draws objects differently, with a smaller number
of 'curved surface polygons,' larger and fewer segments that give more
realistic contours. Manipulating them requires less processing and
memory from the PC."
-/- Accolade Names New CEO -/-
Entertainment software publisher Accolade Inc. has named company
president Jim Barnett its new CEO.
During his tenure at Accolade, Barnett, 37, has supervised the
firm's product development marketing, sales and finance operations. He
previously served as chief operating officer of Storybrook Heirlooms,
president of The Spectrum Group Inc. and has held various positions at
Universal Pictures. He holds an MBA and JD from Stanford University.
Barnett succeeds Chairman Peter Harris as CEO.
"The appointment is the final step in an aggressive turnaround
plan focused on bringing together top industry talent, strategic
partners and financial resources," says Harris. "Jim Barnett has been
performing the CEO functions for several months."
In June, Accolade completed a $30 million financing package that
includes investments by Warner Music Group and Prudential Equity
Investors. Accolade says it is using the investment proceeds to
continue its development of sports and action games for PC, Macintosh,
Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn platforms.
>Jaguar Super Burnout! STR Review!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-/- Super Burnout -/-
Developed by: Virtual Xperience
Published by: Atari
Price: $59.99
Available Now!
By Craig Harris
Let's face it: For racing fans, the Jaguar system was *not* the
way to go. Note the key word "was." Yes, there is just no excuse for
the sub-standard productions of Club Drive and Checkered Flag. But
behind the name Shen is salvation for the Jaguar auto race genre. For
it is they who have developed a solid motorcycle racing game for Atari
called Super Burnout, and almost redeems the Jaguar name for race-fans
everywhere.
Note the key word "almost."
Super Burnout, in its basic form, is a motorcycle racing game
that pits one player against up to 6 computer opponents, or two
players against each other on 8 different tracks. Each player has his
choice of 6 different cycles, each with its own handling abilities. In
single player modes, the player can choose whether to race on one
track (his choice), race the entire circuit in the championship mode,
fine-tune his abilities in a training mode, or race against the clock
in Record Mode.
Controlling the racer takes place in a pseudo-first person
perspective: you view all the action behind the your racer. While
riding your bike over an extremely smooth-scrolling road, you must
maneuverer it left and right through slight-to-tight curves, around
computer drones, and away from roadside obstacles. Do all this while
maintaining a high speed, and you've mastered it. Crashing your bike
into obstacles and computer opponents (which happens a lot) will result
in a high speed dismount across the pavement, as well as a loss of
valuable time.
Each of the eight tracks has their own look. Australia takes
place at night (with a big-ol' moon looming in the sky), where as in
the U. S. A. it's twilight-time, and you race while the sun sets. If
there's not enough natural light, your headlights automatically pop
on. It doesn't help much, but adds to the overall effect of
night-racing. All tracks have smoothly scaling roadside obstacles,
ranging from trees to tires to advertisements of possible future
Jaguar games.
All of the tracks have their own construction; some are made for
speed, some are technical (lots of U-turns,) and a couple fall
in-between. Pick the best bike for the track...unfortunately, you
cannot change your cycle in the middle of a championship. If you've
picked a bike that works best on speed tracks, you're going to have a
heck of a time keeping it on the pavement on technical tracks.
Okay, combining the above adds up to one fantastic racer, right?
Not quite. This game's a "no-frills" design. The game offers a
two-player split-screen mode, but doesn't let those two players race
against the computer. In championship mode, the game doesn't allow the
player to get to "know" his computer opponents, by name or number,
losing the "vengeful" factor included in most racing games. The
computer doesn't display the player's championship race progress until
the entire circuit ends. And those looking for an agressive race
between the player and the computer isn't going to get it here...the
computer opponents leave no trace of their existence once out of the
starting gate.
Graphics: 9.0
Sound FX: 7.0
Control 9.5
Manual: 8.0
Entertainment: 6.0
Reviewer's Overall: 7.0
So, as a straight-forward racer, Super Burnout is right up the
alley. However, a polished cartridge it's not. If you're looking for
a good Jaguar racing game, this is it...but don't expect the gameplay
to suck you in. Once or twice around and you've seen it all.
>Jaguar Easter Eggs, Cheats, & Hints STR InfoFile - Solving Those Riddles!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Looking for tips and "special moves"? In next week's issue, we'll have
some "super dunk" moves for White Men Can't Jump (actually, they can!).
Since the game has only been out a few days, we want to give you the
thrill of finding out these moves for yourself; but we know there are a
few of you who might get inpatient or frustrated trying to figure them
out! Hold tight, don't throw the ball (or the game) away just yet!
>Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Status Of The Jaguar's Edge
From: John Marcotte <jmarcott@step.mother.com>
I want to apologize for not getting online recently. I've been very
busy with the magazine.
As many of you have surmised, The Jaguar's Edie will not be coming out
this month. I tried as hard as I possibly could to make it happen, but
it just wasn't in the cards. You may have noticed that I have not
cashed any of the subscription checks yet. I didn't think it would be
fair to until I had a solid release date.
Here is the scoop on what has happened so far and what will be
happening soon:
I initially pitched the idea of the magazine to Steve Kipker of STeve's
Atari Sales and David Troy of Toad Computers a the Sacramento Atari
Computer Expo. My plan was to see if they would distribute a few
thousand for me for free, and I would pay for the magazine completely
with advertising. Instead of agreeing to distribute a few thousand,
they agreed to distribute 10,000 apiece.
So the mag had grown from a small fanzine, to a much larger scale. The
only catch was, I had to pay for the shipping. This didn't seem to be
much of a problem at the time.
After meeting with David and Steve, I called several printing presses
and got bids on printing 20-30,000 of the magazine. To this figure I
added the shipping costs I was going to incur as a result of the free
mailing. This increased my costs by nearly two-thirds. But, I set my
ad rates based on those costs and I went to E3 to see how the idea
would fly. I received a tremendous amount of support from the Atari
community at E3. I sold several large ads and made lots of valuable
contacts. On the basis of this strong showing, I put out my first ads
for subscriptions on the internet.
The response from the internet community was also positive and quite
strong. I can't thank the subscribers enough. It was due to you that
Atari itself first began to notice us.
As I have said previously, the support from the Atari community was
incredible. The problem is that the Atari community is rather small.
I was only able to book about one-third of the advertising I needed
from inside the Atari community. When I went outside the Atari
community I discovered my advertising rates were not competitive with
other gaming mags.
We simply couldn't compete with the larger magazines. Not because of
the printing, but mainly due to the large shipping costs that came with
the free mailing. I experimented with various numbers trying to reduce
the costs, but as I lowered the number shipped, the printing costs (per
issue) rose and negated any savings that might have been made.
In order for the magazine to be a success, we need to set up a normal
distribution route. We need to get into bookstores and Babbages and
as many other venues as possible. This will allow us to keep a high
circulation while bringing in revenues at the same time. Unfortunately,
very few magazine distributors are willing to buy a magazine they have
never seen before. Which brings us to the present.
I have secured a loan that will make it possible to print a "sample" of
The Jaguar's Edge. This will be a smaller version of the full magazine
that will allow distributors as well as advertisers to see what the
magazine will look like. The layouts are nearly complete on this
abridged edition and we should go to press in the next week or so. All
current subscribers will get a copy of this "special" issue, but it
will not count as one of the 6 issues in their subscription.
If anyone wants a refund I understand completely. Let me know and your
check will be returned uncashed. But I really believe that the
magazine is going to do well. My preference, of course, is that you
stick around and check out the first issue. I think you'll be
impressed. I welcome any feedback that you care to give. I apologize
for the delays, but they were unavoidable.
Thanks for reading.
John Marcotte
Editor
The Jaguar's Edge
/----------------------------------------------------------------------\
| The world's first and only | Send check or money order to: |
| magazine devoted to the Atari | The Jaguar's Edge |
| Jaguar. Subscriptions are $15 U.S | P.O. Box 660291 |
| for 6 issues. | Sacramento, CA 95866-0291 |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/
Sb: White Men Can't Jump
Fm: Larry Tipton 74127,601
To: All
First Impression 08.01.1995 White Men Can't Jump
I just received WMCJ today with the four player team-tap. I've only
been playing around with the game for about and 2 hours now. DO NOT
do what I did and try to start playing the game immediately! First,
read the manual. Otherwise you are going to be saying "what the..." a
lot.
Highlights:
15 teams to choose from
4 court styles
Z Various game options
25 Super dunks - you pull off then off like they are Street Fighter
moves
1-4 Players
The zooming in and out (a nice effect) takes a bit getting used to. I
had to get at least five feet away from my 20inch TV to get the right
feel. Further away on my large TV. The courts appear to be texture
mapped. The players are digitized. Everything scales in and out
nicely. The metal and wooden fences look cool. For some reason, the
game colors appear to be on the dark/muddy side. I had to adjust the
brightness and color on my TV to get it right. The game looks better
on my TV with SVideo than with the AV cables.
There is a lot of "trash' talk in the game. No cursing like in the
movie though. The voices are clear! You can turn it down/up or off.
Likewise the in-game music and sound effects can be adjusted.
The AI seems pretty tough. My players keep getting knocked on their
keesters. It also easy to miss a pass or have one picked off. The is a
player vs mode (you can set the difficulty) and a tournament mode (you
cannot set the difficulty) in the game. You can save your tournament
game in progress.
***IMPORTANT*** in order to take control your computer controlled
character you have to double tap on the speed burst button. I also
recommend leaving the player control flag on!
At first I thought the game was slow, the players moved like they had
been playing all day...or like it was a casual game between buds. Ah,
but when you press the speed burst, they move right along! This game
will take a bit to get used to and master. Unfortunately, like AvsP,
some people are going to judge this game harshly because they did not
spend a bit of time with it...it does not play like NBA JAM, blah,
blah blah.
Overall all, I like this game. It is not perfect. It takes some
getting used to, like Alien Vs Predator and Hover Strike, but once you
get used to the controls, the zooming and scaling it is quite fun.
==========================================================================
Now to the Team Tap - Multi Player Adaptor!
This is a high quality product. It connects into one port on the
Jaguar. Apparently, the Jaguar can support two of these things! It
is compatible with both the 3-button and 6-button controller.
==========================================================================
That's all for now!
-Larry Tipton
Sb: #86941-WMCJ First Impressions
Fm: Craig Harris 73733,2316
To: Craig Harris 73733,2316 (X)
Just wanted to add a bit to my last message:
After another hour of play (less sweat this time), I beat the
tournament mode. Again, another title falls into the "Atari Lame Ending
category. I won't give anything away, but after a humorous little
sequence... there's nothing. Nothing at all. Just boots you back to
the title screen.
Not only that, I got to the final stage in 5 rounds, didn't lose a
single match. My secret? 3-point shots at the top of the key are a
CINCH! Even if you miss, your computer teammate is under the basket
waiting for the rebound. Just grab the ball, take it to the top, fire
the ball at the peak of the jump.
I'm rather disappointed with the AI... but then again, this is a
multi-player game. Most sports games get old-hat fast one-player. I
won't hold too much against it in that aspect.
I did inspect the construction of the Team Tap, even though I don't
have extra pads hanging around. I noticed that the plugs on my pad fit
much tighter in the Team Tap than they do in my Jaguar. To give you an
example, if you blow on the plug while it's in the system, it falls
out. No lie. At least Atari's paying attention.
Again, I want to state that WMCJ is a *good* game...just waaaaay too
easy one-player. I wish my friend was over here so I could whup his
butt.
-Craig-
Sb: WMCJ Programmer Writes..
Fm: Larry Tipton 74127,601
To: All
WMCJ Programmer Responds!!! Read on!
========================================================
Subject: Re: WMCJ impressions
From: adisak@thymaster.interaccess.com (Adisak L. Pochanayon)
Date: 2 Aug 1995 03:37:54 GMT
In article <3vmftg$rco@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,JSMcKay <jsmckay@aol.com>
wrote:
>>-----------------------------
>>playing. BZZZT! Wrong answer. Remember how, due to the bad
>>animation in TAF, you'd lose your running back in a crowd, and had
>>difficulty telling who was who? Well, there is that quality here
>>as well. It's not as bad as TAF, probably due to the larger (and
>>fewer) characters on-screen, but >it still makes the game more
>>confusing and a pain in the *** to play. It also, IMHO, severely
>>affects your control.
I think the "losing" a character in the crowd has more to do
with getting used to playing in the perspective than with choppy
animations. This happened a lot during testing so I added an option
to make it easier to get used to the game. You can select from the
options screen an option to permanently turn on the arrows above the
players. This makes it nearly impossible to lose track of your
players. I think once you stop "losing" players and getting used to
the game's perspective, you will enjoy it much more.
>>Second, is frame rate and overall game speed. Frame rate seems
>>pretty low (I couldn't venture a guess, though)
The frame rate is between 12 and 18 fps. It averages around 15.
The overall game runs at about the same speed as JagDoom with the
exception that WMCJ has more than twice the resolution (320x220 vs
160x180). The framerate for the backgrounds and cameras is the same
as the framerate for the game. I find it hard to believe that you
find the camera view and backgrounds smooth while the game is
choppy???
>>sound FX. The most important parts of the game - the basketball
>>game itself (control, framerate, etc.) - is where WMCJ seems to
>>fail, IMHO. The bitmapped players and such are a great attempt, and
>>although WMCJ wasn't an "airball", for me it just "rimmed out".
There is a lot of features in the control of WMCJ that take
getting used to. You can pick up the basic features of the game
immediately but getting good takes a little while. For example,
timing your shots makes them more accurate, using your energy to
boost speed but maintaining enough to pull off dunks, and switching
control of players can be fairly complicated. Add to that the
control changes in passing, blocking, pulling off plays, using the
computer AI controlled teammate to pass to you, etc. and you have
a lot to learn in two hours ;)
>>etc.). I'll just hold out for NBA Jam when it's out next year......
To be honest, WMCJ has more actual play depth than NBAJ. You have
more control over the game and features like the AI in WMCJ are
considerably stronger (in NBAJ-TE, the AI simply boosts computer
stats and cheats when the computer gets behind). WMCJ has a much
more complicated 3-D texture mapped game-field and overall is a
better game IMHO. NBAJ does feature 60 fps play but only has
parallax scrolling and no rendered 3-D. The biggest appeals of NBAJ
are actual NBA teams and lots of hidden features...
plus the simplicity of having automatic dunks (rather than special
moves for dunks like WMCJ). Either way, they are both good games.
You might note that NBAJ will use the Team Tap which comes with WMCJ.
As far as I'm concerned you should buy both ;)
adisak pochanayon -- Jaguar Programmer for WMCJ,- current project
NBAJ-TE
=================================
-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-
* *
J The STReport "Win A Signed Copy of: J
A The official Jaguar Gamer's Guide" Contest!! A
G m Published by Sandwich Islands Publishing G
* *
J ____ ____ ___ ____ ___ __ / J
A / / / / ` / / / / / / / ` / A
G / /---/ / __ /___/ / / / /__ / / G
* \ / / / / / / \\\ / / / / / / *
J \/ / / /___/ / \\\ /___/ /___ /___ \__/ * J
A \\\ A
G \\\ G
* *
-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-STR-/-
We have a winner for last week's contest. Joaquin Ferrero, who has
been a longtime STReport Internet subscriber, answered our contest
question: "When is the JaguarCD scheduled for release?" correctly.
The answer, in case you somehow missed it in the issue, is August 24.
Joaquin's prize will be going out to him next week! Below, you'll
be able to read what he's won; and also what you can win right now!
In case you're unaware of it, the official Jaguar Gamer's Guide published
by Sandwich Islands Publishing and written by the popular authors: Zach
Meston and J. Douglas Arnold is shipping now! Preorders should already be
fulfilled and store copies should be arriving wherever popular game books
are sold. This book ordinarily retails for $18.95.
If you've been putting off getting your copy, you forgot to enter
last week's contest (or didn't win if you did!) - here's a second
chance to win one!
The guide includes special features such as gaming tips from Atari's
own gaming masters. It has exclusive maps, helpful tips and innovative
strategies.
If you want in-depth play-by-play action coverage including strategies
and tips found no where else on almost 20 of the Jaguar's hottest games,
you must have this book.
What do you have to do? That's easy! In fact, we're making it so
easy, it should be considered criminal! <g> If you're a subscriber
to our Internet mailing list, you're entered in the contest - you
don't have to do a thing! If you're not a subscriber, send us e-mail
now so you can be entered in the contest. There are no questions,
no special feats of strength, no fill in the blanks. Just be a
subscriber and leave the rest to us.
To subscribe, just send a request to be added to our subscription
mailing list, to STReport vca E-mail to any of the following
addresses:
dpj@delphi.com
71051.3327@compuserve.com
d.jacobson2@genie.geis.com
OR
Dana Jacobson at Toad Hall BBS (617-567-8642) or CATscan BBS
(209-239-1552)
The winner will be randomly selected from all current subscribers.
All subscription requests must be received by midnight,
August 9, 1995. The winner will be announced in STReport online
magazine, in the issue scheduled to be released on Friday,
August 11, 1995.
Employees of Atari Corporation and staff members of STReport or
Amiga Report are not eligible to win. This contest is void where
prohibited by law.
Credits: STReport and its staff would like to thank Sandwich Island
Publishing and Atari Corporation for its generous donation of the books.
=========================================================================
Tradenames herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning
companies.
Permission hereby granted to re-post this contest text, in its entirety,
anywhere that you feel it would be appropriate - your favorite BBS,
user group newsletter, magazine, etc. Please spread the word!
ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
On CompuServe
compiled by
Joe Mirando
CIS ID: 73637,2262
Internet: 73637.2262@compuserve.com
Hidi ho good neighbors. Yep, it's that time again... Time for some of you
to quickly skip to the back of the magazine (in which case, I don't know
why I'm even writing this part), and time for others to dig in and either
find things to agree with or to disagree with. From the amount of e-mail
I received this past week, it seems that about 90 percent of the folks that
read this column agreed with my views about dedicated terminal programs.
By that I don't mean programs like CompuServe Information Manager (CIM)
that give you the _option_ of using an automated program with all the cool
bells and whistles like graphics and a sound or two. My complaint was
with services that _require_ you to use one of these programs (their own,
of course).
While most of you agreed with me, a few decided to take issue with my
opinion (whether they understood what I was talking about or not). One
irate reader told me that programs like these were the wave of the future
and that I should stop impeding progress. I'm sorry folks but, to me,
progress means _increased_ flexibility, not decreased flexibility.
The idea that you must:
A) Use the service's software and,
B) Use a machine that they have decided is worth them taking your money
with, make it very hard for me to agree with the statement that this is
progress. Now, an online service that put out a program that would allow
you to automate your sessions on _all_ services, provided this program for
_all_ platforms, and made it entirely optional, (or any combination of
these things) now _that_ would be progress my friends. (Jeez, do I sound
like Joe Franklin, or what? <grin>)
My last bit of "impeding progress" is to clarify something I said last
week. I made mention of the fact that an un-named online service had set
up their program to take information from your hard drive and upload it to
their system. One of my new "pen pals" told me that "that is
impossible"... that the technology did not exist to allow a system to
"pull" info from a remote hard drive, and that, "on top of that, there is
nothing wrong with doing that anyway".
As Mr. Spock would say: "Fascinating". It seems that I have to clarify
this as well. Without naming names, a certain online service jointly
owned by Sears and IBM constructed their user program (the terminal program
you have to run on your DOS machine or Macintosh to access their service)
with the ability to grab files from your hard drive and copy them into a
cache file which would upload the data to the service when you called up.
The service, once it was discovered, said that the information was going
to be used to get a better understanding of what types of things their
users did with their computers.
Unfortunately, this constitutes an invasion of privacy. There were doctors
who found that their patient lists had been "cached", and lawyers who
found client information "cached", not to mention those "regular" folks who
had... well, whatever they had "cached".
Someone once said "Information is power", and they were quite correct. But
your information should be _your_ power and not that of a couple of
multi-million dollar corporations.
Hey guys, the next time you want to find out what kinds of things your
subscribers use their computers for, why not ASK?
Well, let's get on with the reason for this column... all the great news,
hints, tips, and (un-cached) information available every week right here
on CompuServe.
From the Atari Computing Forums
Richard Safford asks a very topical question:
"does anyone know how to copyright direct on the internet? I need
to copyright direct seq gmid format."
I have no idea what that last part was about, but Albert Dayes of Atari
Explorer Online Magazine tells Richard:
"As soon as a work is created it is copyrighted. You do not have
to put in a copyright notice but it is good to do so. So someone
cannot claim that they did not know it was your work.
Copyright (C) 1995 Richard Safford
Something like the above is what you would need for a copyright
notice."
Mike Mortilla jumps in and posts:
"...Under the law since 1976, a work is "copyright" at creation.
Of course, it's not a bad idea to register your work in the Lib of
Congress."
Albert adds:
"If you need to register your copyright you need to contact the
Copyright Office.
Copyright Office (202)-479-0700"
Chris Roth tries to make us all jealous with this post:
"I'm back from my working/vacations journey to the Seychelles. It
was like paradise, I am pretty sad now to be here in Vienna again.
Diving was quite an experience there, I got some great film
material of Whalesharks, what a sensation ;-)!
Everybody allright here?
Did some news occur on the Internet side? I mean, is there an
internet package already available that supports off-line newsgroup
reading? Has anybody got Oasis to work right now?"
Daniel Osborne tells Chris:
"Glad to see you back!
I have gotten NOS 0.42 (FTP transfers) and Chimera (FTP and WWW
browser) to work just fine on CIS. Go back and read the message
threads about "TAF" and "NOS PROBLEMS"."
Denies Postal tells Chris:
"While you were away I finally got to be able to use chimera. If you
can get it running on your machine, or if you have access to any web
browser, I recommend you try http://www.dejanews.com/ which has an
excellent, search facility for all 10k+ news groups. I use it to find
threads that are relevant to me.
I'm away on holiday 4th Aug to 6th Sept. Longer than you but a much
less exotic location."
Good. I thought that I was the only one who turned green with envy at the
mention of an exotic vacation location. Meanwhile, Rick Detlefsen asks:
"I'm wondering what the expected throughput is when downloading a
file using a 14.4kb modem. Is it greater than 20%? Anything
special that needs to be done to [get] it [to go] higher?"
Daniel Osborne tells Rick:
"When using QUICK CIS I get anywhere from 1200 cps to 1650 cps.
Which depends on the time of day, and the activity on CIS.
I have never gone beyond 1670 cps on CIS. CPS stands for Characters Per
Second, which is a standard. You can get higher than this on a
standard Atari, if using a 28.8kb baud modem, when connected to CIS
at 19.2kb. Mega STE's and TT's can go beyond 19.2k, but not with a
520, 1040 ST's, or Mega ST's (unless modified - hardware
modified - risky!! - use MegaTalk board in Atari Mega ST's). Only
Mega STE's and TT's can do this, since they use an SCC chip, vs.
an MFP serial chip, which is used in the older Atari's."
Rick tells Daniel:
"Thanks for the reply. What baud modem are you using so that I can
put the cps you mentioned into perspective."
Daniel tells Rick:
"I am currently using a SupraFAX Modem 14.4k V.32 bis. I plan on
buying a SupraFAX Modem 28.8k later this year, so I can get true
19.2k connections."
On the subject of the Internet browser put out by the Toronto Atari
Federation (now known ae the "TAF package"), Chris Arrison posts:
"I just got the TAF package, and have some questions. Is there any
way to access Chimera etc. without going through X-Windows? Also,
once I've copied the Lynx files into the proper directories, how do
I access it? And is there any way to speed up Mint when not using
X-Windows?"
Daniel Osborne tells Chris:
"No, you must use Mint, and Mint-Net, and X-Windows to use the
Chimera Program.
We are working on the Lynx program, please read msg threads as they
are posted at this time.
To access information about TAF disks (Chimera) please read prior
msg threads about "TAF", this is an on going message thread.
This subject maybe complicated, so please refer to msg threads for
the latest info, until the final version of these programs are
released!
Please post any problems you are having, or any additional info you
might have in this msg base!
This msg might sound hard, but we have covered most of this info
already within the recent 3 weeks here on the msgs bases!"
Don't worry Daniel, I think we all know that feeling of having to repeat
the same info over and over. It gets especially tiring when the info is
in a database such as it is here. It also provides a unique way to "learn
from the mistakes of others. Chris tells Daniel:
"Thanks for the info. I've read the threads and gleaned many tips
from them. I still am having a couple of problems, though. The docs
say to change all references to dev/console in the "syslog.conf"
file to dev/null. Yet, when I boot into X-Windows, I get some error
messages:
Syslogd: unknown priority name "none var/log/syslog"
Syslogd: unknown priority name "info /dev/null"
" " "none var/adm/messages"
" " "debug var/adm/lpd-errs"
And then this:
pid (syslogd): Bus error: User PC 1866100 (basepage=1f3e00,
text=1e34d4)
The only thing I've changed is the dev/console to dev/null. Also,
when I try to dial up CIS, I get something about a file not being
found in a dir like pipe/log. It will, dial but I think my chatfile
may be wrong. I have this Connect "" ame:
CIS ID:102101,3036/GO:PPPCONNECT ord:
my*password What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.."
Daniel explains it to Chris:
"I believe they say to do this AFTER you've got the log on sorted
out. Otherwise, there is no way of seeing what is happening with
the logon script.
There is a viable version for CIS in message No:108638 except that
there needs to be a colon between GO:CONNNECT. (I see you already
have it) Apparently CIS ppp connections are sensitive to *unusual*
characters in passwords if you have such, changing it to '/' might
help.
Message 108639 has the 'etc./resolv.conf' file change for CIS.
Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on."
Chris tells Daniel:
"Yes! I finally got it to connect, though I still get error
messages when X-Windows loads. Is it the lack of ram (I've only
4 megs) that makes the ftp program so slow? NOS is quite a bit
faster. I tried Chimera, but kept running into the same problem.
When I would connect (or try to) to the Toad Computers page, it
would dl the file, and then go right back into X-win. Is it choking
on the pics, or am I doing something wrong?"
Daniel tells Chris:
Remove all ACC and AUTO programs that are not required to run Mint,
Mint-Net and Chimera, if you only have 4 megs of ram. Also turning
off the graphics option in Chimera will help.
I will upload a HTML file from the TAF home page on how to do this,
on Wednesday."
On a slightly different subject, Andreas Graf tells us:
"I want to use my ATARI computers for CompuServe connections (I
have both STE and Falcon), but I have no idea how to do this.
Is there any software like a WinCim or Cans for ATARI computers? If
not, which modem and terminal settings are the best?"
Sysop Bob Retell tells Andreas:
"You can use a normal Atari telecommunications program with your
Atari computers to access CompuServe.. we have several choices in
the software libraries here, including a very good Shareware
program called STorm.
There are also some very nice commercial telecommunications
programs available from various vendors. Check out FLASH II from
Missionware Software in the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN).
We don't have anything like CIM for the Atari, but we do have a nice
"navigator" style program called QuickCIS. It will do automatic
sessions, log in, capture new messages or programs and log off very
quickly. It's available here in our software libraries too."
Neil Newman posts:
"I'm about to get a CD-ROM drive and next year when I can afford it,
I would like to get a 2 Gig Hard Drive for HD recording etc. and I
am wondering what are the best options. The computer I will be
hooking them up to in the Falcon.
I would like to have both units in one case with one power supply,
to save desk space and power plugs/leads and all that unsightly
stuff.
One option crossed my mind, get a PC tower case with power supply
and mount an internal SCSI CD-ROM and later add the internal SCSI
HD.
My question is would this work? Apart from a power supply, would I
to have any other boards i.e. motherboard and associated cards
installed in the towercase to work internal drives or is it a
matter of hooking the drives up with SCSI cables etc.?"
Sysop Bob Retelle tells Neil:
"Your idea of using a PC tower case for your Falcon drives should
work just fine...
The power supply should be adequate for anything you want to use,
and there should be no need for any extra boards.
A nice, compact mini-tower case with 200 watt power supply is
selling here in the States for about $50 now, which is about the
best price you're likely to find for any kind of case and power
supply for your SCSI drives."
Our own Atari Section Editor, Dana Jacobson, adds his recent experience:
"I just installed a number of SCSI devices in a PC tower case so I
could hook it up to my newly-purchased Falcon. You don't need any
additional boards - just cables (ribbon cables inside - SCSI 2 -> SCSI
external). Now I just need to make some space for the tower case!
<grin>"
Scott Starai asks:
"Can anyone recommend a good terminal program? I am new at this and
don't know too much about them. I have an Atari ST."
That Dana guy tells Scott:
"You might want to check out Flash II. There should be a demo of it
either in this Forum, or in the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN).
In fact, Flash II should see a new upgrade available this weekend
at the MIST show, so look for some announcements soon."
Look for the upgrade info elsewhere in this issue. Sysop Bob Retelle
adds:
"As Dana mentioned, a very good commercial terminal program for the
ST is "Flash II" from Missionware Software.
A good shareware terminal program that we have here in our software
library is Storm.
If you're online now using an IBM compatible system, you can
download Atari files to the PC and then transfer them to your ST if
you remember to format the 3.5" floppies ON THE PC FIRST, AS 720K
DISKS.
Then you can move the files to the Atari by copying them to the
disks, and the Atari will read them directly."
Well, that's about all the news and info for this week, but before I go,
I'd like to share with you a note I got from my old friend, BJ Gleason.
BJ has been a Sysop here on CompuServe in the forums devoted to the Atari
Portfolio for years, and has written some amazing programs for the 'Folio.
He was also a professor at American University. He recently took a
teaching job with the University of Maryland (I think) which holds the
"contract" with the military for continuing education over-seas. His new
job will enable him to see a good deal of Asia and some of Europe. He's
decided that he will keep in touch with friends and acquaintances over the
internet. His first installment arrived on my CompuServe "doorstep" today.
Here's part of what he wrote:
"From: <Bjgleas@aol.com>
To: 73637.2262@compuserve.com
Subject: Report from the Field
Hey Gang... and welcome to the list...
Please do not use the address(es) that these messages may come
from. I am currently an internet vagabond, logging in when and where I can.
BJGLEAS@AMERICAN.EDU will always reach me. This is the last time I am
going to be using BJGLEAS@AOL.COM until I return to the US...
Well, I am currently in Los Angeles, awaiting for the flight to
Japan tomorrow (Thurs.) at 12:45pm... It still has not quite sunk in that
it will be a while before I am back in the US again. Right now, it just
feels like another trip...
Spend the last 6 weeks at my sisters, having a great time playing
with the kids and putting off getting ready to go over seas. In the final
48 hours, I packed... I am limited to 140 pounds and 2 bags. No problem...
ha ha ha!
You would be suprised how quickly stuff adds up. For those keeping
score at home, it came to about 120 pounds, 40 of which are dissertation
materials...
I was going to have them shipped, but decided to wait until I found
out more about shipping things about.
Had two days in LA, doing the sight seeing thing. Santa Monica is
VERY nice and highly recommended. Cheap tourist trick, ride the free
TIDE buses about to get a layout of the area. Saw them filming BayWatch in
Santa Monica.
Keep an eye open for a torrid fling between Pamela Anderson and I...
Interesting note in the elevator "In the event the doors do not
open, there is little chance of running out of air or dropping
uncontrollably." If you read between the lines, then, yes Virginia, there
is a chance of running out of air and dropping uncontrollably...
The Schedule:
A week in Japan, orientation sessions, and some sightseeing...
In Seoul about the 10th, and classes are scheduled to begin the
21st. They will run for 8 weeks. I am teaching three classes:
Intro, C++ programming, and Expert Systems.
After that, who knows?
Ok gang, I'll wrap this up for now. You might not get another
message from me until I hit Seoul...
bj
bjgleas@american.edu"
If you know BJ, or even if you only know him by some of the great programs
he's written for the Portfolio, and want to be included on his mailing
list, drop him a line. Anyone who's heard or read BJ knows that he's got
a sharp wit (like that Pamela Anderson thing) and a great delivery. If
you forget to drop him a line, don't worry, I'll be keeping you up to date
right here in this column.
See ya next week, same time, same channel, so be ready to listen to what
they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
Colombus, Ohio CompuServe reportedly "Takes Gloves Off"!!
Our "super snoop" has really been busy this past week. First, CIS is
lowering prices for the second time this year, beginning next month. CIS
also announced that they are forming a new online service for beginner
on-liners. No details on content or cost have been released at this time.
Don't kid yourselves bunkie, this new service is the "NEW" CIS... Super
powerful WinCim Software version 3 (around the Holidays) The days of a
drab ascii interface on CIS are almost over. An interim update to WinCim
shortly, perhaps around the end of the summer. HMI takes over completely,
no more ascii interface. Compuserve is finally waking up to the real world.
Snoops sez, "three guesses" as to which competing service CIS has leveled
their guns on... This is a "Case" of real business competition CIS is
going to win easily.
Highlights of the rate changes:
5 free hours of access each month to most all of CompuServe's services.
Additional hours billed at only $2.95 each.
No more differentiation between basic and extended services. Some
premium services still carry surcharges.
Electronic mail will be billed based only on connect time, with no
additional charges for sending or receiving the message over the
Internet.
There will be no mail surcharges based on message size or number of
recipients.
Club pricing will be expanded to lower the costs for heavy users of the
service. As an example, a super value plan will provide 20
free hours for $24.95 per month and additional hours at $1.95 each.
Snoop also said the above rate changes is only the beginning.
CompuServe is "On the March" and out to win the whole enchilada. Watch for
some very strange "bed-fellows" in the months ahead.
Rockville, MD. GEnie CANCELS Atari Contract!
Old Snoop really dug this one out, seems the old expression. "What goes
around comes around" is ever so true. The "Episodes" of a few years ago
now are on the other foot, so to speak. GEnie canceled the Atari
RoundTable contract effective, 08/04/95. Psst... Hey Lee! How About
that!! (In our best Mel Allen voice)
STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
A "Quotable Quote" A true, "Sign of the Times"
That Telecommunications Bill the Republicans are busy Pushing through the
house only proves just how strong the...
THE REPUBLICAN CONTRACT ON AMERICA REALLY IS!!
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