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Silicon Times Report Issue 1321
Silicon Times Report
"The Original Independent OnLine Magazine"
(Since 1987)
May 23, 1997 No.1321
Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine
Post Office Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
R.F. Mariano, Editor
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05/23/97 STR 1321 Celebrating Our Tenth Anniversary 1987-97!
- CPU Industry Report - Woman gets $264k - OL Services SLOW
- Acer Ships NETPCs - IE 3.02 U/L Added - Gnewt's on the WEB
- Out of Band FIX - Shareware Listings - E-Rate OK'ed by FCC
- Sentient Review - People Talking - Classics & Gaming
Feds Probe Microsoft-WebTV Deal
Microsoft, HP, 3Com Lead Poll
HP to Launch New High-End System
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The Publisher, Staff & Editors
Celebrating Our Tenth Year!
1987-1997
Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35
Results: 05/17/97: five of six numbers with four 3 number matches
From the Editor's Desk...
Memorial Day Weekend ..a nice long weekend. I wish all you a
wonderful weekend of fun before the rush of Spring Comdex this coming week.
I will tell you this Adobe has its guns loaded for 1997 and beyond with the
world's finest graphical, Desktop Publishing, Photo managing software known
to mankind. Not to mention the Acrobat Ensemble and the ever so powerful
Photoshop. Look for all the updates and enhancements to hit with the
flurry of a Fourth of July celebration. Adobe has the dominating lead in
the fields of graphics and DTP and its given that there in nothing that
this reporter is aware of that approaches the power and ease of use
PhotoShop and PageMaker, along with all the other Adobe products, offer.
Ralph...
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Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Publisher, Editor
Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs
Section Editors
PC Section Mac Section Shareware Listings
R.F. Mariano Help Wanted Lloyd E. Pulley
Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner
Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno
STReport Staff Editors
Michael R. Burkley Joseph Mirando Victor Mariano
Vincent P. O'Hara Glenwood Drake
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STReport Headline News
LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
ABC Launches Net News Site
ABCNEWS.com, a 24-hour news service that will draw on the resources of ABC
News' flagship news division, has been launched by ABC and Starwave Corp.
The service will be supported by advertising revenue and available free to
online computer users. ABC says it will upon world, national and local news
coverage provided by ABC News and other ABC affiliates such as ABC News
Radio, NewsOne and more than 200 affiliated stations. The Reuter News
Service quotes Tom Phillips, president of ABC News Internet Ventures, as
saying, "This is a medium where you can tell a story in a number of
different ways. This is truly news on demand. It's fresh."
ABC executives told the wire service they believe their service will reach
a broader audience than the existing Internet news sites of their main
rivals, MSNBC and CNN. MSNBC, a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and
General Electric Corp.'s NBC, was launched last July. Reuters notes CBS
also is planning an entry in the Internet arena. A spokesman said the
network will unveil its plans at its affiliate meeting later this month.
The Internet address of the new site is http://www.abcnews.com.
Oracle Eyes Netscape Unit
Look for Oracle Corp. soon to announce plans to buy a unit of Netscape
Communications Corp. that designs Internet-access devices. Neither company
is talking publicly, but reporter Kourosh Karimkhany of the Reuter News
Service quotes industry executives as saying the Network Computer Inc. unit
of Oracle wants to buy Netscape's Navio Communications Inc., which makes
software for browsing the World Wide Web through devices other than
personal computers such as television sets and video game machines.
Netscape established its Navio affiliate nine months ago and Oracle was
among several consumer electronics companies to announce support for the
venture at the time. Notes Karimkhany, "Oracle's network unit is designing
software for so-called network computers, or NCs. These relatively cheap
devices are stripped-down computers that get much of their horsepower from
corporate or public computer networks, such as the Internet. Oracle
Chairman Larry Ellison, who runs the nation's second-biggest software
company after Microsoft Corp., has been pushing the NC concept as a way for
big companies to cut computer costs, and to get computers into the homes of
less affluent consumers."
Analysts point out that until now, the Oracle unit has been concentrating
on corporate markets, but a Navio acquisition would give Oracle's network
computer unit expertise in making consumer-oriented devices. Also, says
analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research Inc., buying Navio would help
Oracle get consumer electronics companies to rally around the NC as a
standard and stave off Microsoft in the battle for primacy in consumer's
homes. As reported, Microsoft in March paid $425 million for WebTV
Networks, the Palo Alto, California, firm that designs set-top devices for
Internet access on TVs.
Zilog Develops New Net TV Box
An integrated design for building television set-top boxes for Internet
access that can retail for less than $200 has been developed by chipmaker
Zilog Inc. and privately-held consumer Internet software developer
PlanetWeb. The announcement follows a number of similar designs by
Internet startups such as ICTV, NetChannel Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s new
acquired WebTV Network. From Campbell, California, the Reuter News Service
notes that, unlike the other offerings, the Zilog-PlanetWeb offering is not
currently available and it will rely on manufacturing partners to build and
market the devices, "but the devices themselves are well below the current
level of Internet devices now on the market for up to $400 each."
A major supplier to the TV industry, Zilog says in a statement the device
specification includes a built-in modem and allows users to access the
Internet using virtually any Internet service provider. Says Reuters,
"This is a contrast to WebTV, for example, which as the pioneer of the
Internet television space requires customers to also use its WebTV Network
service in order to be able to use its set-top devices." Zilog said its
Internet appliance reference design -- licensed from MSU Corp. of Milton
Keynes, England -- includes four megabytes of memory for storage of
downloaded Web pages and two megabytes of downloaded read-only flash
program storage memory. The design also allows for users to print Web
pages.
Acer Ships NetPCs
Acer America Corp. has released a new line of NetPCs. The scaled-down
business systems, which are designed to rely on the Internet for most of
their computing power, begin at prices under $1,000, including a 14-inch
monitor. Standard features include Pentium processors ranging from 133MHz
to 200MHz, 16MB to 32MB of EDO memory and a hard disk with up to 2.1GB of
capacity. The systems also feature a 3Com Network Interface Card, Intel
LANDesk Client Manager, and Windows 95 preloaded. "For the first time,
Acer can provide businesses with an out-of-box, network-ready solution
preconfigured with industry leading software," says Steve Lair, senior vice
president of commercial systems sales and marketing for the San Jose,
California-based company.
HP to Launch New High-End System
A powerful high-end computer and other products are being launched by
Hewlett-Packard Co., hoping to appear to be turning up the heat on its
competition with rival Sun Microsystems Inc. Reporter Samuel Perry of the
Reuter News Service notes an important analyst meeting is coming up in New
York City and "HP must shake off a perception that it has been muddling
through a series of product transitions while the rest of the industry is
moving ahead at warp speed." Editor Andrew Allison of Inside the New
Computer Industry told Reuters, "HP's lost momentum. There is a chance Sun
can overtake them, but I wouldn't count them out yet."
Perry says the showcase item of Hewlett-Packard's new products announcement
is a new range of high-end V Series computers developed with technology
from its Convex Computer Corp. subsidiary. Reuters says the V Series
computers will be pitched as alternatives to mainframe computers of the
variety made by IBM. This is the same market targeted by Sun Microsystems'
Ultra Enterprise 10000 machines, code-named Starfire, launched in January.
The Sun machines recently hit full production and have been so successful
that output has already been raised. "It's going to leapfrog Sun
Microsystems' Ultra Enterprise server," says analyst David Wu of ABN AMRO
Chicago Corp. Watch for Sun to counter- strike. "You can expect
enhancements across the board" to Sun's top-end systems, says Shahin Khan,
director of marketing for Sun's Starfire business.
Adobe Releases Dimensions 3.0
Adobe Systems Inc. has started shipping Adobe Dimensions 3.0, the first
cross-platform version of its 3D rendering tool for Windows 95, Windows NT
4.0 and Power Macintosh systems. According to the San Jose, California,
software publisher, Adobe Dimensions 3.0 simplifies the process of adding
3D elements into artwork. The product includes a variety of
production-quality 3D modeling enhancements, new editing controls for
precise, real-time feedback when modifying graphics and tighter integration
with Adobe's other graphics applications. Adobe Dimensions 3.0 is
available now for $199. The upgrade price from any previous version of
Adobe Dimensions is $69.
Adobe Ships Enhanced Illustrator
Adobe Systems Inc. is now shipping Adobe Illustrator 7.0, an enhanced
version of its illustration software for Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0,
Macintosh and Power Macintosh systems. The cross-platform product provides
new productivity and flexibility enhancements that are designed to help
users create designs and illustrations for multimedia, print and Internet
applications. The San Jose, California, software publisher notes that the
new look and feel of Adobe Illustrator 7.0 allows users to work more
efficiently and intuitively across Adobe applications. The program offers
menu structures, palettes and keyboard shortcuts that are identical to the
ones found in Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and Adobe PageMaker 6.5. Adobe
Illustrator 7.0 is priced at $595. Registered users of previous versions
can upgrade for $99. Competitive upgrades are also available.
Adobe Ships After Effects Update
Adobe Systems Inc. has begun shipping Adobe After Effects 3.1 for Windows,
an updated version of its desktop tool for digital compositing, 2D
animation and special effects. After Effects, which can be used to create
content for film, video, Web or multimedia applications, runs on Windows
95- and Windows NT-based PCs. The software is cross-platform compatible
with the Macintosh version. Buyers can select from a Standard Version,
which sells for $995; or a Production Bundle, which costs $1,995. Both the
Standard Version and the Production Bundle include a CD-ROM featuring the
application, Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 software, online documents in the
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe Type Manager 4.0 for Windows,
QuickTime 2.1.2 for Windows and trial versions of other Adobe graphics
programs and sample movies. Also included is direct access to After Effects
product and technical information, updates and plug-ins via a link to
Adobe's Web site. The Production Bundle adds three sets of additional
effects tools.
Netscape Releases 'Push' Preview
Netscape Communications Corp. has announced the first preview release of
Netscape Netcaster, a new component of its Netscape Communicator client
software that enables the "push" delivery of sound, video and other dynamic
content. Available to developers from the DevEdge web site
(http://developer.netscape.com) today, Netscape Netcaster will be available
for public download from the Netscape site (http://www.netscape.com) next
week.
According to the Mountain View, California, company, Netcaster gives users
the ability to subscribe to dynamic Web content, called "channels." It also
allows users to browse channels and Web sites offline, and to create a
Webtop -- a favorite channel that's anchored to the desktop. Netscape
reports that several leading content providers -- including ABCNEWS.com,
C/NET, CNNfn and Wired -- have already created channels that are
immediately available for free to Netscape Communicator users.
"The addition of Netscape Netcaster complements the already tightly
integrated e-mail, groupware and browsing components of Netscape
Communicator, by providing even more advanced functionality for
automatically receiving and viewing subscribed information," says Bob
Lisbonne, Netscape's vice president of client product marketing. "With
Netcaster, Netscape Communicator users continue to gain tremendous value by
being able to receive rich, dynamic content delivered within the familiar,
easy-to-use Netscape Communicator environment."
Bell Atlantic Unveils Net Plans
Regional phone company Bell Atlantic Corp. said today that next year it
will offer customers a faster way to connect to the Internet and send and
receive other data services over their computers. Associated Press writer
Jeannine Aversa quotes officials with the Philadelphia-based phone company
as saying the firm intends to offer by the middle of 1998 a new technology
that will transmit voice, video and data over existing copper telephone
lines, adding the technology is 100 times faster than using existing phone
lines with the speediest modems, which now move data at 56 kilobits a
second.
Also, says the company, the technology is considerably faster than existing
high-speed lines using "ISDN" technology which 206,000 Bell Atlantic
customers now buy. Years in the making, the new technology, called
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, or ADSL, moves data up to 6 megabits a
second. "For customers to use it," says AP, "they would need to buy ADSL
modems and an Ethernet card for their personal computers -- if they don't
already have one built in."
President Fred D'Alessio of Bell Atlantic Consumer Services said, "ADSL
puts consumers in the seat of a Ferrari, roaring past analog modem users
still in the bicycle lane." Look for Bell Atlantic to roll out the
technology first to residential customers, then to businesses. Spokeswoman
Joan Rasmussen told the wire service monthly charges for the new high-speed
connections, which would be regulated, have not been determined.
As reported, Bell Atlantic is merging with New York's Bell phone Nynex,
meaning that once the merger is complete, it will serve local customers
from Maine to West Virginia. D'Alessio commented, "Today's Internet
applications are becoming rich in multimedia content such as video and
audio. Consumers are hungry for faster and faster speeds to take advantage
of this content and for telecommuting or remote access to corporate
computer networks." The firm also has entered into a four-year contract
with DCS Communications of Texas to provide the equipment and software it
needs to offer the high-speed connections.
Microsoft, HP, 3Com Lead Poll
A poll of U.S. brand equity in both the channel and the enterprise markets
has found Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and 3Com at the head of the pack.
Just completed by CMP Media Inc. and Interbrand Schechter Inc., the study,
called The Power of Simultaneous Branding, is said to be the first to
evaluate the strength of technology brands in these two key markets.
"Through more than 2,400 interviews conducted during February and March of
this year," says CMP in a statement from its Manhasset, N.Y., offices, "the
research measures 24 brands in six product categories against more than 20
key factors."
Vice President Jeffrey L. Strief of CMP's Enterprise Computing Group said
the three firms that ranked highest "have demonstrated their competency in
branding simultaneously to resellers and IS/network managers," adding,
"Their effective messaging and consistent execution are 'Best of Breed' in
high-tech." And John Russell, vice president/group publisher of CMP's
Channel Group, says the synergy between resellers and their enterprise
customers has never been stronger and "the study underscores the clear
opportunity that exists for high-tech marketers to increase their brand
equity overall by developing a communications strategy that includes both
the channel and the enterprise."
Categories included in the study were desktop PCs, mobile PCs,
intranet/Internet software, PC servers, networking hardware and SQL
database applications. Twenty-four hardware and software vendors' brands
were evaluated, including 3Com, Acer, Ascend, Apple, Bay Networks,
Cabletron, Compaq, Cisco, Computer Associates, Dell, Digital, Gateway 2000,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Informix, Lotus, Microsoft, NEC, Netscape, Novell,
Oracle, SunSoft, Sybase and Toshiba.
Sun Skirts Encryption Policy
Plans to sell advanced data-security software from a Russian supplier to
overseas customers means Sun Microsystems Inc. will be skirting U.S. export
regulations and so is likely to receive close government scrutiny.
Reporter David Bank of The Wall Street Journal says Sun is set to announce
it will sell encryption software licensed from Elvis+ Co., a company formed
by scientists from the former Soviet space program.
Bank notes Sun has a 10 percent equity stake in the Russian firm whose
Elvis+ products will be shipped to overseas customers from Sun distributors
in third countries to keep them from falling under U.S. jurisdiction.
"Sun's move illustrates how global market pressures are making it
increasingly difficult for U.S. officials to control the spread of advanced
encryption hardware and software," Bank comments. "The technology, which
scrambles data to protect it from computer eavesdroppers, is considered
vital to the growth of electronic commerce. But export of powerful
encryption products is barred under U.S. export-control laws, on grounds
that terrorists and others will use it to evade surveillance."
The Journal quotes President/CEO Jim Bidzos of RSA Data Security Inc. as
saying the Sun action will cause the Clinton administration to face a
difficult decision. "The government," he says, "has to shut this down, or
else the competitors of Sun probably have to say, `We're going to do the
same thing.'" Bidzos, a long-time critic of the export controls, praised
Sun's move as "blatant and in-your-face." The paper says Sun appears to be
the first major company to use foreign software to supply overseas
customers, adding the company's executives say they hadn't discussed the
plans with U.S. government officials but had strictly adhered to current
laws.
Humphrey Polanen, general manager of Sun's network-security products group,
told Bank, "This is not being done to subvert export-control laws but to
deliver solutions to customers. Never before have organizations outside of
the United States had access to such advanced security software."
Meanwhile, privacy advocates, like Jerry Berman of the Center for Democracy
and Technology in Washington, D.C., say Sun's initiative will boost their
goal of making high-strength encryption widely available. Said Berman, "We
think the benefit for security outweighs the liability for law
enforcement."
Elvis+ products are based on a security protocol called SKIP that was
developed by Sun, but Sun says it provided no technical assistance to the
Russian company. "The distinction is crucial," says Bank. "The export
controls cover any product developed with such assistance from a U.S.
company." To be marketed under the name SunScreen SKIP E+, the product
employs various encryption algorithms, or formulas, including so-called
three-key triple DES and 128-bit ciphers, which security experts consider
to be virtually unbreakable.
New Net Threat Appears
Internet Security Systems Inc. is urging network professionals to eliminate
their vulnerability to a new potentially devastating method of attacking
Windows-compatible computers on a network. The hacker technique, called
the "WinNuke" or "Out of Band" ("OOB") data attack, has been reported to
have already brought down thousands of computers worldwide, says the
Atlanta-based company, which specializes in Internet security products. ISS
says it has products available that allows network managers to take
corrective actions and guard against future attacks. More details are
available on the ISS Web site at http://www.iss.net.
Slow Growth for Online Services
Subscriptions to online services grew at a sluggish 6.6 percent rate in
1997's first quarter, according to new research from Cowles/Simba
Information. The Stamford, Connecticut, company notes that more than 51
services reported a total 27.6 million subscribers for the three-month
period ending March 31, compared to 25.9 million at year-end 1996.
"America Online has so many more subscribers than any other online service,
that when it suffers, so does the rest of the industry," says Karen Burka,
editorial director of Cowles/Simba's Electronic Information Report. The
service grew its subscriber base to 8.0 million in first quarter 1997, up
6.7 percent over 7.5 million at the end of 1996. "It's imperative that the
service gets its network capacity up to speed to ensure its long-term
growth," says Burka.
Retailers Heading to the Web
Retailers are continuing their slow but steady move toward providing online
shopping, finds a new study jointly conducted by Computer Sciences Corp.
and trade journal Retail Info Systems News. Along the way, they are also
boosting their investments in data warehousing and executive information
systems as they strive to find the right balance between operational
efficiency and customer intimacy. As the Internet becomes more entrenched
in the daily lives of Americans, notes the study, an increasing number of
retailers are looking for ways to use the World Wide Web to fuel sales
growth cost effectively. Nearly 20 percent of respondents surveyed by study
said they currently offer online shopping -- up from 11 percent in 1996.
An additional 39 percent say they plan to have operational cyberstores by
1999. The study finds that the heaviest users of the Web for shopping
transactions are book and music retailers, grocery and department store
chains and non-apparel specialty stores.
"Retail has made the electronic shopping conversion from parlor game to
business system -- from 'Visit my neat Web site' to 'Click here to order,'"
says Steve Biciocchi, a partner with CSC's consumer goods and retail
consulting practice in Cleveland. "The next great leap forward will happen
when the capabilities and flexibility of online applications mature and
truly meet customer needs, as in, 'Tell us where and when to deliver your
order.'"
Internet Changing Biz Landscape
Internet commerce is changing the business landscape, finds new research
from International Data Corp. "The use of Internet technologies is
projected to become pervasive in the near future, leading to a dramatic
change in corporations' business models," says Susan Tan, a senior analyst
in IDC's consulting and management services research program. "Already,
upstarts are using the Internet to challenge the market position of
dominant players." Although true Internet commerce -- allowing customers
to transact purchases over the Internet -- is still relatively uncommon,
notes the Framingham, Massachusetts, market research firm, 46.4 percent of
companies are planning to offer this capability. "This function represents
the highest rate of response for planned use of the Internet. The trend
suggests the first stage of use of the Internet has been mainly as an
electronic publishing medium, while the next stage of use will involve more
ordering, selling, and distributing goods and services. Internet commerce
is clearly in the early stages of adoption." IDC's Web site
(http://www.idcresearch.com) contains additional information and recent
news releases. The site also offers full-text searching of recent research.
Gingrich Puts Budget Docs Online
House Speaker Newt Gingrich says documents dealing with the balanced budget
deal will be put on the Internet so all Americans can see how it came about
and what's in it. Gingrich told The Associated Press a home page labeled
"a balanced budget for America's future" will allow people to consider the
amendment "at the same time as the Washington insiders, have all the
knowledge we have and truly move toward a balanced budget in the right way
with the American people participating."
AP says the material actually is available to two addresses on the
internet. http://hillsource.house.gov/budg et.html and
http://www.house.gov/gop/budget.html. In a House floor speech yesterday,
Gingrich commented, "Every talk-radio show host, every single potential
critic, every columnist will have access to the same data, but so will
citizens without editing by anyone." He said material to appear online
includes letters on the balanced budget sent from Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, and Gingrich to President Clinton and his chief
of staff Erskine Bowles and summary documents on the budget agreement.
The 'Eyes' of the Net Re-emerge
Twenty-five years ago, when programmers at the University of Southern
California needed an image to test the burgeoning technology of digital
compression, someone decided to scan the eye of the "playmate" centerfold
in the November 1972 Playboy. That image -- of Lenna Sjooblom's eye -- was
sent to engineering labs around the world over the Arpanet, the primitive
predecessor to the Internet, and today, Sjooblom's photo is believed to be
the most-viewed image on the Internet. It also is the standard used to
compare and test various graphic compression techniques.
Now Sjooblom is making her first public appearance since her 1972 Playboy
pictorial, attending the 50th Annual Conference of the Society for Imaging
Science & Technology in Boston this week. Says Playboy Magazine, in a
statement from Chicago, "At the conference, many of the world's leading
digital imaging authorities will meet for the first time the beautiful
woman who has been a mainstay of their work for the past quarter century.
... Sjooblom lived in Chicago at the time of her Playboy appearance, but
soon returned to her native Sweden, married and had children, unaware of
her notoriety in imaging scientific circles." A tribute to Sjooblom now is
available on the "News Desk" on the "Playboy Home Page" on the World Wide
Web (http://www.playboy.com).
Feds Probe Microsoft-WebTV Deal
Microsoft Corp.'s planned purchase of WebTV Networks Inc., which lets
people cruise the Internet from their TV sets, is being investigated by
federal antitrust regulators. Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa
quotes Gina Talamona, spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Antitrust
Division, as confirming, "We are looking at the transaction." AP notes
that under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, planned mergers in which the acquired
company's sales or assets exceed $10 million must be reviewed by either the
Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission. The Justice Department
review determines if the $425 million planned merger would hurt
competition, raise prices or otherwise harm the economy.
Aversa adds that among the things the Justice Department is looking into is
whether the Microsoft-WebTV merger would impede competition in the
developing market for software contained in set-top boxes or future TV sets
enabling TV viewers to connect to the Internet, said industry sources close
to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The
Microsoft-WebTV deal," says Aversa, "comes as the computer industry and
existing TV set makers race to define what the next generation of digital
TV sets will look like. The prize: $150 billion in spending needed to
replace the existing 220 million analog TV sets in the United States."
Adds AP, "The computer industry's vision is essentially a large-screen
computer that people use not only to get a crystal-clear TV picture but
also to surf the Internet and send e-mail. TV set makers have a different
vision: a wide-screen TV with superior picture and sound quality but
little, if any, computer capability."
Apple Loses Another Top Executive
Apple Computer Inc. has lost another top-level executive. George Scalise,
the computer maker's chief operating officer, is leaving the company to
become president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. Scalise, 63,
is the latest of a half-dozen high executives to depart Apple in the past
few months. He says he has accomplished all his goals at the company.
Prior to joining Apple about a year ago, Scalise served as executive vice
president and chief administrative officer for National Semiconductor Corp.
from 1991 to 1996. He has also served as a senior executive at Maxtor,
Advanced Micro Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor and Motorola. "I look
forward to the challenges and responsibilities of working at the SIA," said
Scalise. "While we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the
transistor this year, we're still a young and dynamic industry. We've grown
at an average rate of 17 percent a year and continue to invent information
technologies that are transforming the way we live, work and play."
Woman Duped Online Gets $264,000
Some $264,000 has been awarded by a Virginia judge to a woman who met on
the Internet a person she thought was the man of her dreams -- only to
learn after four months after marriage that he was a she. Administrative
assistant Margaret Hunter of Alexandria, Virginia, will get $250,000 in
damages and $14,000 to cover what she spent on the couple's relationship --
including $9,500 for their wedding before 70 unsuspecting guests last April
at a fancy hotel, The Associated Press reports, adding the ruling came from
Circuit Court Judge Alfred D. Swersky in Alexandria. As reported earlier,
Hunter, 24, met Holly Anne Groves, 26, of Bryan, Texas, online in the fall
of 1995. In computer messages -- and later in person -- Groves called
herself "Thorne Wesley Jameson Groves," and told Hunter she was a jet-set
businessman dying of AIDS (an alleged circumstance that Groves said
prohibited physical intimacy between the couple).
Groves also bound her chest with bandages, saying she had rib injuries from
a car accident. After their marriage, Hunter grew suspicious when Grove
did not seem to be getting sicker or receiving any medical bills. When
Grove's parents called and asked for "Holly," Hunter went looking for
Grove's birth certificate and learned she was a woman. Following this
week's court verdict, Hunter told reporters she hopes the fine will "send a
real strong message" to Groves and others who misuse the Internet.
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
LEXMARK OPTRA C
COLOR
LASER PRINTER
For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to
you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color
Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business
sized envelope please) to:
STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range.
It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said
that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark
Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a
sample that's suitable for framing, see below) Guaranteed. you will be
amazed at the superb quality. (Please.. allow at least a two week turn-
around).
If you would like a sample printout that's suitable for framing. Yes
that's right! Suitable for Framing. Order this package. It'll be on
special stock and be of superb quality. We obtained a mint copy of a 1927
COLOR ENGRAVER'S YEAR BOOK. Our Scanner is doing "double duty"! The
results will absolutely blow you away. If you want this high quality
sample package please include a check or money order in the amount of $6.95
(Costs only) Please, make checks or money orders payable to; Ralph Mariano.
Be sure to include your full return address and telephone number . The
sample will be sent to you protected, not folded in a 9x12 envelope. Don't
hesitate.. you will not be disappointed. This "stuff" is gorgeous!
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
Shareware Treasure Chest STR Feature "The Latest & Greatest"
Shareware Treasure Chest
By Lloyd E. Pulley
lepulley@streport.com
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Internet Explorer 32-bit 3.02 5/22/97 .82mb Free
The update for Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 provides RFC 1867 file
upload capability which up until now it has lacked (Netscape already had
it).
Home Page Site - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/default.asp
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Windows 95 TCP/IP Out-of-Band Security Fix 5/22/97 .25mb Free
The information in this article applies to:
ú Microsoft Windows 95
ú Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release versions 1, 2, 2.1
On a computer running Microsoft Windows 95 (all releases) using the
Microsoft TCP/IP protocol, the following error message may occur when
certain data is received over the network:
Fatal exception 0E at 0028:<address> in VxD MSTCP(01) + 000041AE.
This was called from 0028:<address> in VxD NDIS(01) + 00000D7C.
After this error message occurs, the computer may not receive further
network data until Windows is restarted. This error message can occur if
certain, very specific, "out-of-band" data packets are deliberately sent to
the server during a TCP/IP session.
Home Page Site - http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q168/7/47.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Eudora Pro 32-bit 3.0.2 beta 4 5/16/97 6.00mb Shareware
One of the best email clients around. It features: *Enhanced message
filtering *Multiple e-mail accounts *Plug-ins *Stylized text *"Drag and
Drop" support and almost everything else you can think off.
Home Page Site - http://www.eudora.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WinRAR 2.01 5/18/97 490kb Shareware $35.00
The RAR compression format compress files better than the ZIP format most
of the time, but it is relatively unknown right now. It also has a cool
interface, and also supports the ZIP compression, but needs pkunzip.exe
and/or pkzip.exe.
Home Page Site - http://www.inetpros.net/rar.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Time & Chaos 32-bit 5.2.8 5/16/97 2.00mb Shareware $45
A really nice PIM that allows you to send email, faxes, make phone calls,
and visite web sites all from the "phonebook". It also has to do lists,
appointments books, and more.
Home Page Site - http://www.isbister.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
ProPick NFL Football '97 1.97 5/15/97 1,847kb Shareware $15.00
A Windows NFL tracking and forecasting tool. It comes ready for the '97-
'98 season with statistics it uses to make judgments on game outcomes based
on weighted averages. It contains schedules for all the planned games for
the year, including where the game is (home or away) and the day of the
week it falls on. The program automatically figures out standings based on
scores that the user enters as the season progresses to hone in on the
winners. View weekly results, results by team, or predictions for upcoming
games. Schedules, names and locations can all be modified through the easy-
to-use pull-down menus.
Home Page Site - http://www.adsnet.com/conan.brown/index.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Hardcopy 6.3 5/19/97 652kb Freeware
A utility that is used to print out your screen or window. A title with
the date, time, hostname and username is printed. Key [Print] - prints out
the current screen. Key [Alt+Print] - prints out current window. A click of
the hardcopy-icon in the taskbar prints out the current screen. You can
change the settings that Hardcopy while saves the srceen, and doesn't print
it, You can change the settings so that Hardcopy prints the screen to an
other printer as the default.
Home Page Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sweckman/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Excite PAL 32-bit 1.0 beta 5/16/97 .64mb Free
Excite PAL is a confidential messaging service between you and your
network of friends. You will be able to tell when family, friends and
colleagues are online, plus you can send and receive messages
instantaneously to anyone logged in to Excite PAL.
Home Page Site - http://pal.excite.com/go.webx?98@@pal/index.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
pcANYWHERE32 7.5 5/17/97 4,770kb Shareware
The fastest and easiest way to access applications and data remotely from
a home or office PC or network-anywhere, anytime. Make quick and easy
connections to check e-mail, support clients remotely, download files, or
simply run remote applications as if you were right there.
Home Page Site - http://www.symantec.com/pcanywhere/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
IPSentry 32-bit 2.1 5/17/97 4.00mb Shareware $129
PSentry is a Windows NT / 95 utility that will continuously monitor all
your internet and intranet TCP/IP services 24 hours a day, ensuring your
email servers, web sites, ftp servers, news servers, and any other TCP/IP
based services are active and responding. In the event of failure, IPSentry
will notify you (according to the defined schedule) via any or all of
several different methods; PAGER, EMAIL via SMTP, AUDIBLE via .WAV or PC
speaker, Launch external command. Utilize alert frequency scheduling,
machine downtime scheduling and many more feature.
Home Page Site - http://www.crackthecode.com/IPSentry/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Norton AntiVirus 2.0 5/17/97 5,710kb Shareware
Removes viruses automatically, while providing the ultimate in Internet
protection. It installs in minutes, is easy to use, and works in the
background.
Home Page Site - http://www.symantec.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
AntiHack File Protector 1.0 5/16/97 139kb Shareware $40.00
An unhackable file protector with multiple protections system. You can
use the AntiHack File Protector to protect all of your personal files and
not to worry that someone can see it. AntiHack will protect your files with
password protection. But not just a simple password protection, It has a
tremendous technique of password protection from VisuaLand Technology. You
won't get any crackers trying bypassing your password, because it will ruin
the other data. AntiHack is equipped with powerful level-protection system
that has been tested to some professional hackers, and they admitted that
AntiHack can't be easily cracked. We have created AntiHack for your best,
simple and efficient personal data protection because AntiHack will also
compress your file.
Home Page Site - http://www.visualand.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
SubSpace for Win95 1.25 5/17/97 2.20mb Free
A space type shoot 'em up with a difference. It's played entirely over
the internet with all human opponents. The game itself reminds me in a way
of the old Atari 2600 game Asteroids because the movement is basically the
same. However instead of being one one small screen and blowing up
asteroids, you are on a huge level and blow the crap out of other pilots.
By itself the game is pretty good (nice graphics), however when you add
real human players it really shines. At almost any given time you can find
around 50-60 other people playing, so the action is always hectic. You can
make squads, join teams, send messages while you play, and generally cause
havoc. This game is really worth the download, it's nifty.
Home Page Site - http://www.vie.com/subspace/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
NetToob Stream 32-bit 3.2 5/17/97 1.20mb Shareware $19.95
Provides the ultimate software-only solution for playing all current
digital standards on a Windows based PC including MPEG-1, Video for Windows
(AVI) and QuickTime for Windows (MOV) as downloaded media, and varied frame-
rate MPEG-1 on-demand media without server software." With Net Toob, users
now have the choice of playing media on-demand, simply by clicking on it,
or by downloading the entire file and then playing it.
Home Page Site - http://www.duplexx.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Stiletto 97d 5/18/97 650kb Shareware
Perform cosmetic surgery on your programs/files interface with Stiletto:
access commands by any mouse click on a tiny button bar, customized menus,
tray icons, hot keys, screen corners, desktop clicks, submenus of your
Start Menu, alarms, or timers. Instead of littering it with shortcuts,
enliven your desktop by randomizing your wallpaper, sounds, and screen
saver.
Home Page Site - http://www.inforamp.net/~crs2086/index.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WinZip Self-Extractor 2.1 Release 5/15/97 593kb Shareware
Self-Extractor creates self-extracting or self-installing zip files.
Home Page Site - http://www.winzip.com/betase.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Quick Cab 3.0 5/15/97 999kb Freeware
Lets you create .cab files for internet distribution, or just for
archiving and backing up your own files. With an excellent interface, and
easy to use options, Quick Cab is one of the best utilities of its kind.
Home Page Site - http://www.cripton.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
FutCal32 7.0 5/18/97 35kb Shareware $35.00
Futures Calculator. The calculator evaluates futures fair values, deltas,
thetas, rhos. Futcalc also determines the premium, basis, index value and
implied dividend of the future. The index value is what the underlying's
spot value should be given futures price. The implied dividend shows how
the future's fair value differs from the market price. Spreadsheet template
provided which shows how to use all the features of addin together with
whatif analysis and charts.
Home Page Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/fis_ltd/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Net Term 32-bit 4.2.0 5/18/97 1.10mb Shareware $20
A windows communications program that provides a combination of ethernet
and dial up telnet, ansi bulletin board support , and dialer programs, all
in one. Enables fast dial up for SLIP/PPP Internet providers, as well as
Internet SHELL access. At last, zmodem file transfers over the Internet!
NetTerm will even allow editing a host file on your local computer, with
just one command, 'netedit'. Need to print a unix file on your local
printer, no problem, NetTerm will do that! NetTerm now supports
International keyboards and VT100 line drawing support.
Home Page Site - http://starbase.neosoft.com/~zkrr01/netterm.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
InfoTree32 3.2.1 5/15/97/ 2,530kb Shareware $39.95
Freeform information storage for Win95/NT from iSBiSTER Int'l. InfoTree32
is a great program to help get your information organized, whether it is
meeting notes, project planning, home inventories, or even your recipies.
Take those scraps of paper and piles of sticky notes and organize them for
fast searching, retrieval, display, and printing. Build links to Web Sites
or attach files. Includes full-featured text editor and MAPI email support.
Home Page Site - http://www.isbister.com/itree32.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
IPage 32-bit preview release 2 5/18/97 2.00mb Free
With ipage a quick glance of your list of "friends and associates" will
let you know who is online at that moment. Contact any number of friends
and associates and bring them all to a private chat room for group
discussions or just to catch-up. Send links to any Real Media file to
friends and associates and ipage will instantly launch the Real Player.
Home Page Site - http://www.ichat.com/ipage/index.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Cool Clock! 1.0b 5/18/97 509kb Shareware
A very configurable digital style clock which is actually displayed on
your desktop, not in a window! It is texturemapped and animated. The time
and date formats are totally configurable. The time/date can be scaled to
any size and moved anywhere. Fonts are also user-definable. Built in CD-
player and CD wake-up alarm functions.
Home Page Site - http://www.engr.orst.edu/~schonfal/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Carmageddon Updated Demo 5/19/97 13.00mb Commercial Demo
Pit your wits and wheels against 25 other maniac drivers over 36 race
circuits in your quest to become the Prince of the Pile-up! Your car and
those of your competitors behave in the most accurate manner yet used in a
computer game. Watch your wheels moving independently on their suspension
as you slide your car into your unfortunate competitors. Ram a competitor
from behind as he corners and watch him flip over your head in a terrifying
roll.
You are also actively encouraged to destroy other contestants' vehicles on
the track, awarding the victorious driver with credits, depending on the
extent of the damage inflicted. These credits can then be exchanged for
automatic damage repair to your car or better and more deadly features when
you visit the parts shop.
Home Page Site - http://www.sci.co.uk/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
EoEdit 32-bit .79 5/19/97 .03mb Shareware $5
EoEdit is a stripped-down text editor with the programmer in mind. It is
a simple, fast text editor. Features include:
*Font Style, Size, Color and Background Color Selection
*Multiple Document Interface so you can work on several files at once
without having to open
more than one instance of the program and more.
Home Page Site - http://vtg.org/bsmith/eoedit.shtml
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
POPit 32-bit 1.7 5/19/97 .12mb Shareware $10
POPIt is a Windows 95 and NT 4.0 winsock application which sits in the
Taskbar tray and monitors up to ten (10) POP3 compliant mailboxes. POPIt
continuously displays in the icon tray the number of received E-Mail
messages. InstaScan displays the headers of any received mail. Any recieved
message may viewed and printed using the InstaView feature. Un-wanted
messages can be deleted quickly with a simple button click. Audible and/or
visual notifications can be programmed to occur if new mail is received
during a mailbox check that occurs at programmable intervals. You can also
launch your favorite EMAIL application with a single button click.
InstaReply lets you reply to received mail from a simple dialog box without
having to launch your EMAIL Program. The InstaNote feature allows you to
send a text message to any EMail address on-the-fly! The 'URL Trap" lets
you go to any URL location embedded in a message from InstaView!
Home Page Site - http://theweeds.smxcorp.com/popit.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
NetLoad 32-bit 3.6a 5/19/97 .31mb Shareware $34.95
NetLoad is a fully automatic smart file transfer system which maintains
remote sites using conventional FTP. Only new or updated files are
transferred, and entire directories and sub-directories are recreated based
on your directory structure. It now includes mirroring of remote sites.
Home Page Site - http://www.aerosoft.com.au/netLoad/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WebVCR 32-bit 1.0.4 5/20/97 1.60mb Shareware $19.95
WebVCR works like your home VCR: you program it with the sites you want,
it "records" the web sites using your preferences, and you view your sites
by "playing" them back on your favorite web browser. Unlike first
generation offline browsers, WebVCR has a powerful, wizard-driven Windows
95 interface that puts you in control of recorded content, allowing you to
specify exactly what you want to record and what you don't want to record.
Plus, WebVCR doesn't limit you to a single cache of downloaded web pages.
It allows you to create as many "Web Tapes" (recorded web pages stored in a
file) as you like in any location on any media (hard disk, Iomega Zip,
SyQuest SyJet, etc.) which makes it easy to archive, transfer, or
distribute the web content you've recorded.
Home Page Site - http://www.netresultscorp.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
DynamIP 3.0 for Win95 5/20/97 3.10mb Freeware
DynamIP is a free Internet Utility (32bit, multi-threaded) for Windows
95/NT with the following features: - Dynamic IP address poster (updates
your web pages with your current dynamic IP address; up to 5 connections) -
POP mail checker (up to 5 e-mail accounts) - PC clock synchronizer (works
with any NTP server) - IPchat (chat with other DynamIP users and establish
a point-to-point connection with MS NetMeeting) - HTTPscan (scans arbitrary
sequences of IP addresses and searches for web servers). DynamIP now
includes a timer controlled RAS dialer and event driven program launcher!
Home Page Site - http://crubelier.stanford.edu/~cmu/DynamIP/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Netscape Communicator 32-bit 4.0 beta 4 5/21/97 13.40mb Free
The newest version of Netscape navigator. It features: Enhanced visual
appearance and user interface, Taskbar that enables easy access to
Communicator components, HTML Editing, Collabra Conferencing and a lot
more. This version is the same as the last beta 4 [last week] but this
version includes the netcaster add-on ("push" capability).
Home Page Site -
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.0/relnotes/windows-4.0b4.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Windows Commander 3.02 5/20/97 850kb Freeware
An excellent replacement for the Windows95 Explorer. Small, quick, great
features - everything you need!!!
Home Page Site - http://www.ghisler.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Tanarus 32-bit beta .88 5/21/97 6.00mb Free
[formerly called Armorgeddon]
Tired of playing against your computer? Then prepare yourself for the
ultimate online challenge in Sony Interactive Studio America's ArmorGeddon,
a futuristic multi-player action/strategy tank game in which all the
competition are other players just like yourself.
Home Page Site - http://armorgeddon.station.sony.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Screen Print 32 1.2b 5/21/97 10kb Freeware
Print your screen by simply hitting the Print Screen button on your
keyboard. No icons to clutter up your desktop. No configuration neccesary.
Will also print a specific screen area if required.
Home Page Site - http://www.almac.net/personal/tdocherty/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Java JDK 32-bit 1.1.2 5/22/97 8.00mb Free for personal
use.
The Java Developers Kit (JDK) lets you write applets that conform to the
applet API for the Java Programming Language.
Home Page Site - http://java.sun.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
FileHound 32-bit 0.9 5/22/97 .24mb Shareware $15
FileHound is a simple Winsock application that fills a serious need: One-
step, robust file downloading from both FTP and Web servers. I'm sure
you've used your web browser to download files, but you've probably
experienced failed transfers, corrupted files and some horrifying lag
during the downloads. FileHound ensures these things will never happen
again. Even if you haven't had a lick of trouble, take a look at the
features offered:
* Multiple-file download queue with stop, start and resume.
* Never gives up on a transfer. Will retry and resume automatically.
* Advanced options for default directories, login ids, passwords.
* Manages downloaded files, including file Open and Delete.
Home Page Site - http://www.frii.com/~afs/filehound/
EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed
Edupage
Contents
Multifunctional Smart Cards
Corbis Drops CD-ROM Project
House Judiciary Endorses Lifting
Ban Against Encryption Exports
Steve Jobs Wants Apple To Dump The
Newton
Net Censorship Attempt
HP Disconnects Modem Business
VidModem Sends Two-Way TV Over
Phone Lines
On The Internet, Nobody Knows
You're A Woman
What Kind Of Web Animal Are You?
Ellison Sees Himself As An
Enlightened Egotist
Safe Surfing Guidelines From ALA
E-Rate Approved By FCC
Dr. Know
Espionage Goes To Cyberspace
Oracle To Buy Netscape's Navio
Sun To Sell Encryption Software
Through Russian Firm
Gateway 2000 Debuts NetPC
Key Recovery System Is Full Of
HolesNew Graduate Requirement Calls
For Web Page CreationPushing Ahead
Of Security MeasuresMicrosoft Adds
Business News Partners To Explorer
C
D Sales Soar On The Web
AT&T WorldNet Security Hits A Snag
Sony Aims High In New Optical Disk
Storage
Solar-Powered Satellite Phones
Technologies Americans Love To Hate
MULTIFUNCTIONAL SMART CARDS
Mondex International, a subsidiary of MasterCard, is leading an effort to
develop a secure system (called Multos) for "smart cards" that could
securely handle multiple functions (credit/debit purchases, an electronic
cash purse, supermarket loyalty points, a security pass, a rail pass, etc.)
on a single chip embedded in a plastic card. Functions could be changed
or updated without re-issuing the cards. Other companies working with
Mondex are Dai Nippon, Gemplus, Hitachi, Keycorp, Motorola, and Siemens.
(Financial Times 16 May 97)
CORBIS DROPS CD-ROM PROJECT
Weakness in the CD-ROM market caused by competition from online content has
led to a decision by Corbis Corp. to suspend a major CD-ROM project it had
been working on: a biography of the photographer Ansel Adams. Corbis was
formed in 1989 by Microsoft chief Bill Gates to develop an archive of
digital images. (Wall Street Journal 16 May 97)
HOUSE JUDICIARY ENDORSES LIFTING BAN
AGAINST ENCRYPTION EXPORTS
The House Judiciary Committee has approved the "Security and Freedom
Through Encryption Act" -- a bill that would lift most restrictions on
computer software and hardware products containing up-to-56-bit encryption
technology. The bill now goes to the House International Relations
Committee for consideration. The SAFE bill would also allow U.S. citizens
to choose the methods they prefer to secure electronic transmissions;
permit
the sale domestically of any type of encryption; prohibit the government
from mandating key recovery systems; and make it possible to charge
someone with a federal crime "who, in the commission of a felony under a
criminal statute of the United States, knowingly and willfully encrypts
incriminating information relating to the felony with the intent to
conceal such information for the purpose of avoiding detection by law
enforcement
agencies or prosecution." (BNA Daily Report for Executives 15 May 97)
STEVE JOBS WANTS APPLE TO DUMP THE NEWTON
Apple founder Steve Jobs, who was forced out of the company by then-CEO
John Sculley but who now serves as an advisor to current-CEO Gil Amelio,
says Apple ought to sell off its Newton technology used to produce
handheld computers. Wearing worn jeans with patches, Jobs told a meeting
of Apple developers that the company could manage two software projects at
a time (Mac/OS and the next-generation "Rhapsody") but not three (those
two plus the Newton operating system). Instead of working on the handheld
Newton, Jobs thinks that Apple should be developing stripped-down "network
computers" that could be used by "mere mortals" as alternatives to PCs in
accessing information and software from the Internet. (San Jose Mercury
News 17 May 97)
NET CENSORSHIP ATTEMPT
A group of parents in Columbus, Ohio, wants that state's legislators to
require pornography-screening software for a new system that will tie
together the state's 700 public libraries to the Internet. The group,
called Citizens for the Protection of Children, says children should be
protected from material on the Internet that depicts rape, torture or
mutilation, and "chat line" overtures by pedophiles. A number of Ohio
librarians have said the screening is too close to censorship and should
be opposed. (AP 16 May 97)
HP DISCONNECTS MODEM BUSINESS
Hewlett-Packard is scrapping its high-speed cable modem business, deciding
instead to focus on its core activities -- making PCs and peripherals.
"We want to sell the servers that feed the pipe and the PCs and the
printers that receive content from it. We just don't want to provide the
pipe," says the operations manager of HP's broadband program. The
company had been working on a QuickBurst cable modem and router products,
but now says that a recent standards initiative made further investment in
QuickBurst unattractive: "The MCNS has the potential of saying everyone
has to start all over again." (Broadcasting & Cable 12 May 97)
VIDMODEM SENDS TWO-WAY TV OVER PHONE LINES
Objective Communications Inc., based in Chantilly, Va., has patented a
signal-processing technology called VidModem that can accommodate
simultaneous two-way video, voice and data over the standard copper
telephone lines already found in homes and businesses. VidModem transmits
via an FM signal rather than the AM signals used to transmit most
television program over the airwaves or via cable. The technique uses
compression technology to squeeze the 24 MHz FM signal into the 20 MHz
bandwidth that the phone wires can handle. The company plans to start
shipping a commercial system by the end of the year. (Business Week 19
May 97)
ON THE INTERNET, NOBODY KNOWS YOU'RE A WOMAN
A court in Virginia has awarded $264,000 to a woman who married a
"businessman dying of AIDS" she met over the Internet but whom the woman
discovered -- four months after the wedding -- to be another woman.
(Washington Post 17 May 97)
WHAT KIND OF WEB ANIMAL ARE YOU?
Columnist Peter Huber says there are three types of people on the Web: the
cheetah, the hippo and the cow: "The cheetah hunts. He pursues a single,
specific target, selected before the chase begins. He runs in a straight
line and, despite his great speed, covers little ground. He is a narrow-
bandwidth beast... The hippo is a different beast entirely. You won't
spot him sprinting across the Serengeti Plain. Instead, he lumbers from
here to there, browsing on bushes and shrubs as he finds them. He covers
a good bit of real estate because he craves variety in his greens. A
medium-band beast... Cows graze. They inhale their grass, uncritically,
in massive quantities, in the blandest of pastures. They are high-
bandwidth, low-cal beasts. They are bred for television. The Web doesn't
yet interest bovine herbivores at all. It won't until bandwidth goes up
another hundredfold at best... The leading indicator for prosperity on
the Web is bandwidth -- the speed at which Web connections transmit. And
bandwidth is now increasing fast. There's enough to feed the cheetahs
already. The hippos will follow before long. Even the cows will come
home, just as soon as the trail to home.com gets broad enough." (Forbes 19
May 97)
ELLISON SEES HIMSELF AS AN ENLIGHTENED EGOTIST
Why has billionaire and Oracle founder Larry Ellison wanted to buy Apple
Computer? Because he has a mission to put a computer on the desk of every
American child. "This is all being done pro bono. The question is: What
do you do with your life? This is what, after the first several billion
dollars, keeps you going... I mean, the goal is not be the richest guy in
the graveyard. I don't care how much I'm worth when I'm dead. How do I
make myself feel good? The only way I know to make myself feel better is
to make the world feel better. on't mistake that for altruism. It's
egotism. Call it enlightened egotism." (Vanity Fair June 97)
SAFE SURFING GUIDELINES FROM ALA
The American Library Association has drafted a set of guidelines for
librarians, suggesting ways to assist patrons in using online searches
without incurring liability for ones that turn up potentially offensive or
"indecent" material. The guidelines offer "some easy things that a library
can do at this point rather than trying to block access to the Internet or
put up filters or do something that is so restrictive to their patrons'
access to the Internet," says the assistant director of the ALA's Office
for Intellectual Freedom. The recommendations include: educating staff,
library board, governing bodies, community leaders, parents, children, etc.
about the Internet and what it offers; establishing and implementing
written policies on Internet use; reminding parents that they are
responsible for their children's Internet use; creating and promoting Web
pages with recommended sites for parents and children; and placing
terminals away from public view so that others are not offended by any
particular user's choice of viewing material. (Chronicle of Higher
Education 23 May 97)
E-RATE APPROVED BY FCC
The Federal Communications Commission last week voted unanimously to
approve deep discounts on telecommunications service charges for schools
and public libraries. The "E-rate," as it's called, will be available
Jan. 1 and will save schools anywhere between 20% to 90%, depending on
poverty rate and telecommunications costs. The discounts cover phone
calls, wireless services, Internet access, and the installation and
maintenance of internal connections within a building. Companies that
provide the services will be compensated through a universal-service fund
created by fees paid by all telecommunications providers. internet
service providers do not have to contribute to the fund. Secretary of
Education Richard Riley pointed out that the biggest task is yet to come:
"We have a great responsibility. Most of all, we must show that it really
makes a difference in theclassroom." (Education Week on the Web 14 May 97)
DR. KNOW
Xerox and its Japanese sister corporation Fuji Xerox are recognizing the
world's transition into a "knowledge- based society" by establishing a
"Xerox Distinguished Professor in Knowledge" chair at the University of
California at Berkeley. The first occupant of the chair will be well-known
management theorist Ikujiro Nonaka. The effort underscores Xerox's belief
that the role of knowledge in the Information Age will become increasingly
important. "The difference between being effective and being just
efficient, is the ability to access, define, utilize and disseminate the
collective experiences of everyone in the company," says John Seely Brown,
head of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. The hope is that companies will
learn how to document and pass on "tacit knowledge" -- best practices for
solving specific problems or creating specific products that can be made
electronically available to others in the company. "It would put an
intellectual library at digital fingertip reach," says a senior VP of
strategy. (New York Times 19 May 97)
ESPIONAGE GOES TO CYBERSPACE
Industrial espionage is on the rise as warfare increasingly is waged with
information, not bombs and bullets, says leading U.S. computer security
expert Winn Schwartau. Schwartau, author of the 1994 book "Information
Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway," told government and private
sector information security experts that the emerging global economy and
the growth of cyberspace raise new concerns about economic intelligence
and hostile corporate covert actions. He contends that in the information
age, companies and countries must warily guard new targets: their
information and the computer infrastructures that support financial,
power, transportation and communication systems. This notion, which the
U.S. military has embraced, holds that global conflicts will increasingly
revolve around information and the profits they promise. Mr. Schwartau
estimated the U.S. economy loses more than $100-billion annually through
economic espionage,
growing by 500% since 1992. (Ottawa Citizen 14 May 97 F3)
ORACLE TO BUY NETSCAPE'S NAVIO
Oracle Corp. will purchase Netscape spin-off Navio Communications, created
last year to develop software for information appliances. Navio has been
developing a version of Netscape's popular browser that will work with TVs
operated by remote control and "smart" phones with small display screens.
"If they can put together their technologies and generate some
efficiencies, it makes an awful lot of sense to me," says one industry
observer. (Wall Street Journal 19 May 97)
SUN TO SELL ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE THROUGH RUSSIAN FIRM
Sun Microsystems will sell encryption software licensed from Elvis+ Co., a
company formed by scientists who worked on the former Soviet space
program. The software will be shipped to overseas customers from Sun
distributors in third countries, effectively skirting U.S. encryption
export laws. Jim Bidzos, CEO of encryption firm RSA Data Security, says
the move is "blatant and in-your-face," and warns "The government has to
shut this down, or else the competitors of Sun probably have to say,
'We're going to do the same thing.'" Sun's general manager of network-
security products defends the action, saying "This is not being done to
subvert export-control laws but to deliver solutions to customers. Never
before have organizations outside of the United States had access to such
advanced security software." (Wall Street Journal 19 May 97)
GATEWAY 2000 DEBUTS NETPC
On May 21, Gateway 2000 will unveil the industry's first NetPC -- code-
named Tomahawk -- priced at less than 1,000 without a monitor, and
sporting a 133-MHz Pentium chip, 16 MB of memory, a 1-gigabyte hard disk
and a speedy network connection. "This is going to be great for the
corporate market," says Gateway's VP. The slimmed down PCs run Windows
programs and have the advantage of the hard disk -- one item the widely
touted NCs (network computers) won't have. NCs rely on a server for
software applications and file storage. "With such low prices, that would
allow me to go in to my managers every year or so and say I need new
machines," says a Merrill Lynch VP. (Business Week 26 May 97)
KEY RECOVERY SYSTEM IS FULL OF HOLES
The U.S. government's plan for allowing companies to export powerful
encryption software on the condition that they establish a third-party key
escrow system could actually increase security risks and raise the costs of
online commerce, says a study coordinated by the Center for Democracy and
Technology. One of the 11 scientists who participated in the study says
that having a key recovery system is similar to having a skeleton key to
your house in addition to the real key -- the skeleton key is easy to copy.
"So the existence of skeleton keys or trap doors, as the government is
proposing, is inherently risky." "A key-recovery system is going to be
extraordinarily hard to design and build economically, safely and
reliably," says another. (New York Times 22 May 97)
NEW GRADUATE REQUIREMENT CALLS FOR WEB PAGE CREATION
Starting with the year 2000, students at Kalamazoo College will be required
to create a portfolio of Web pages documenting their academic and
extracurricular activities. Called a "K Portfolio," the exercise is meant
to improve the academic advising process, by dividing activities into
five categories: lifelong learning, career readiness, social
responsibility, intercultural understanding and leadership. "We're
changing the entire face
of advising, basically," says one of the project's coordinators. "The Web
organizes things by theme or topic. It encourages you to see how many
little physical blue links you can make between different things."
(Chronicle of Higher Education 23 May 97)
PUSHING AHEAD OF SECURITY MEASURES
The rush toward "push" technology is leaving some information systems
managers scrambling for security measures adequate to protect corporate
networks from untrustworthy applets. "The technology is moving ahead of
security options available to manage it," says AlliedSignal's manager of
information technology. "Pushing text and data is fine, but when you get
into the executable world, it opens the door for hackers to create a virus
or get into sensitive information." And while Java has a built-in security
mechanism called a "sandbox" that limits an applet's ability to access
system files, Microsoft Active X controls rely on a digital signature to
identify a trusted source. "Once an Active X control is running on your
machine, you have no way to constrain what it does," says the head of
Princeton University's Safe Internet Programming Team. (CIO 1 May 97)
MICROSOFT ADDS BUSINESS NEWS PARTNERS TO EXPLORER
The browser wars continue: Microsoft announced it has signed up more than
a dozen major business information providers, including Dun & Bradstreet,
First Call, Forbes, Time Warner's Fortune magazine, and Dow Jones & Co.,
to beef up its "push" channels for Web content that will be included in
Explorer 4.0. "This is a real strike against Netscape's attempt to
penetrate the enterprise market," says a Dataquest analyst. Meanwhile,
Netscape's list of new content providers includes Knight-Ridder, Federal
Express and Excite Inc. The company had announced earlier that
information providers such as CBS Sportsline, CNNfn and Hearst's HomeArts
Network will create channels that work with Netscape's Communicator
software. (Wall Street Journal 22 May 97)
CD SALES SOAR ON THE WEB
It turns out that online music buyers isn't just for twenty-somethings,
after all. A recent survey of Music Boulevard's customers shows that half
the frequent buyers are over 30, and that "Leonard Bernstein's New York
Philharmonic Review" has been the best-selling disk since Christmas. "A 45-
year-old guy doesn't want to hand his Frank Sinatra CD to a kid with a
Mohawk and a nose ring" at the cash register, says the president of another
online music seller, CD Now. Jupiter Communications predicts that online
CD sales will more than double this year to $47 million -- up from $19
million in 1996. (Business Week 26 May 97)
AT&T WORLDNET SECURITY HITS A SNAG
A security window on AT&T's WorldNet service has been left wide open, says
a database engineer who subscribes to the service. The account access
pages on WorldNet's Web site are not protected by Secure Sockets Layer,
the widely used protocol for authenticating and encrypting transactions
over the Internet. "We sat there and just started grabbing packages and
dumping them into a database," says the engineer. "Read them off and you
can get people's e-mail IDs, passwords, all that data." An AT&T
representative says they're investigating the possible exposure, but says
the chances that any damage has been done is slight, because only WorldNet
subscribers have access to those pages. (PC World News Radio 21 May 97)
SONY AIMS HIGH IN NEW OPTICAL DISK STORAGE
Sony is planning a new technology for high-capacity recordable optical
disks that will hold 2.6 gigabytes, or about an hour of regular-format
television. The disks are due out by the end of the year. Future plans
call for a revised format capable of storing 12 gigabytes of information
on a single side of a disk the size of a CD. That product should be
available by 2000, and will hold about 1.2 hours of high-definition TV
programming. (Investor's Business Daily 21 May 97)
SOLAR-POWERED SATELLITE PHONES
Australian national telecommunications carrier Telstra is making a new
connection -- it's distributed to 10 remote communities telephones that
employ both solar power and satellite communications. "We're not only
providing technology to remote communities, but we're getting away from
using fossil fuels," says the principal technical officer at Telstra.
"It's clean and green." Fifteen percent of Australia's population is
spread out over an area that covers 80% of the continent, and the roughly
17,000 phone lines that serve this group works out to less than one line
per 385 sq. kilometers. In some communities, the new Interra Net system
will work side-by- side with older diesel-powered digital radio
transmitters, which are in the process of being upgraded to offer ISDN,
fax and Internet services. (TechWire 22 May 97)
TECHNOLOGIES AMERICANS LOVE TO HATE
America's Research Group conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers late last
year, and discovered that Internet shopping is No. 2 on the list of
technologies people wish had never been invented. And No. 1? "What
America calls the dreaded voice mail. This is where they're put into a
machine that instructs them what to do. They press all these different
keys. Ultimately, they never talk to anybody. And many times they find
their phone call is never returned. This is not only far and away the
thing they most wish was never invented, but it's also probably the
biggest negative to customer service today," says ARG founder C. Britt
Beemer. Internet shopping came in second because customers found "it was
more difficult than I thought it would be. And it took too much time."
Another commented, "What happens if I have a problem with the product? I
can't shove it in my hard drive and send it back." Meanwhile, car cell
phones came in third place: "This was a shock to me," says Beemer.
"People don't like seeing other people using a cellular phone in a car.
Virtually every woman who was married with children said they thought it
was a road hazard... They view car cell phones as devices that jeopardize
their families." (Investor's Business Daily 22 May 97)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educom.edu).
Voice: 404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057.
Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology,
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For full conference information check out <http://cause-www.colorado.edu >
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Kids Computing Corner
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Sentient
Windows 95 CD-ROM
Street Price: $49.95
For ages 13 and older
Mild animated violence
Psygnosis
919 East Hillsdale Blvd
Foster City, CA 94404
(415) 655-8031
http://www.psygnosis.com
Program Requirements
OS: Windows 95
CPU: Pentium 90 (P133 recommended)
HD Space: N/A
Memory: 16 MB
Graphics: 640 x 480, 256 colors
CD-ROM: Double-speed
Audio: Sound Blaster or compatible
Optional: joystick, printer
Direct3D: Creative Labs 3D Blaster and
Matrox Mystique 4MB
review by Jason Sereno (jason.sereno@mules-ear.com)
Psygnosis' latest offering is possibly one of the most advanced games to
date for the PC. Sentient is truly a breakthrough with its non-linear
story line and over sixty interactive characters. These characters live in
a space station with two hundred rooms. Sentient features a 3D interface
that utilizes Direct3D. The program is truly unique because it combines
elements of mystery, sci-fi, adventure, and role-playing games around an
interesting plot. Sentient also uses a graphically enhanced menu-driven
dialogue interface that is reminiscent of early PC games. It also contains
many cinematic scenes that contain breathtaking colors and landscapes.
Sentient is the next step in PC gaming and is definitely a step in the
right direction!
You are Garrit, a medical technician from Earth who is investigating the
radiation sickness aboard the space station Icarus that orbits the sun,
Xexor. The space station is mining a new source of energy that could be
causing this sickness. While you are approaching Icarus, a solar flare
erupts that causes you to crash into the Icarus docking bay. After your
rescue, you see that the radiation sickness is not the only problem aboard.
An assassin has murdered the Captain. The station is headed for the sun so
the engineers are considering taking control of the ship, too. In
addition, there have been strange messages sent to Suzie, the station's
computer.
Sentient has six main plots and many sub plots within the game that will
make each gamer's experience unique. The game contains over sixty
characters with distinct personalities. One might just hold the key to
completing the game. Every interaction with a character changes your
relationship with him. If you give too many commands or do not answer
questions when asked, you could be getting yourself into a predicament.
You must play your cards right to accomplish your mission on the space
station. With all of the characters and plots, you can reach many possible
endings. The game is always different and you will never tire of playing
it.
Icarus is very large with over two hundred accessible rooms on twelve
decks. The rooms are divided by function. All medical rooms are on the
same floor and the engineering rooms are grouped together, too. The
station numbers the rooms uniquely. For example, if you wish to find the
room 123, you would try to find the row of vertical rooms with a one in the
hundreds place. These rooms would be arranged such as 169,150,141,132,123,
114, etc. You could also find the horizontal row that is in the twenties
(420,321,222,123, 024, etc.). If you were to follow one of the rows, you
would eventually find room 123.
The 3D interface really brings life to the story. Player movement is
accomplished with the keyboard. The keyboard is also used to change your
facial expression, talk, or choose an action. Players use the mouse to
choose objects by clicking the left mouse button on a person or a device.
When holding down the right mouse button, you may look around to see your
surroundings. When you want to talk to someone, all you have to do is
press "enter" when standing next to the person. You can choose what you
will say with the game's different subjects, verbs, predicates, and nouns.
You will choose each sentence part in a Windows 95 type menu. Once you
pick the basic structure of the sentence, you will pick words to fill in
the blanks. If I wanted to ask this question: "Does ____ have access to
the _____?", I would choose the sentence from the questions' list, then
pick a person to go in the first blank and a room to go in the second.
After I finish my question, the character will respond accordingly.
The 3D graphics look great in the program, but only if you have a powerful
graphics card. If you do not have a 3D card, then the graphics will not
look as good as they do with Direct3D. In tests run on a common 1MB video
card, the program's animations were choppy and slow. Some of Psygnosis'
new releases are 3D only and will require 3D video cards. Be prepared to
upgrade both your CPU and video card if you want to play the newest and
hottest games.
Sentient contains few sounds. All characters speak using voice bubbles.
This is sometimes tedious to wait for the words to come along on the screen
and is definitely a drawback in the game. Sounds are constant throughout
the game though. You can hear machine type sounds in engineering and when
you open all of the doors there are beeps. (Reminiscent of Star Trek.)
Music isn't present except for in the video sequence in the beginning of
the program.
This game is truly remarkable in the gameplay aspect. Never before has
there ever been a game with so many characters and a large area to interact
with them. The graphics will surprise you if you have a 3D video card but
the sounds might leave you disappointed. The game is great to play and
will stay that way with the many different endings and the myriad plots.
The menu driven interface is simple to use and it is a different look than
most games. Sentient is a great sci-fi game with great plot twists and
numerous story changes that will always keep you on the edge of your seat!
Sentient is also available for the Sony Playstation.
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STReport International Online Magazine
Classics & Gaming Section
Editor Dana P. Jacobson
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From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Ahhhhh, it's that annual time of the year for the "rites of Spring" -
the long Memorial Day weekend. Did you notice that due to the politicians
and retailers, Memorial Day is observed almost a week early this year?
Bring back the traditionalists!
With the holiday weekend upon us, no one is going to be interested
reading editorials - including me! Just the usual reminder to behave
yourself this weekend. If you're going to party, and you will - please do
not drink and then drive - it's not worth it. We want to see you around
next week!
Until next time...
Croft Soft Software
Press Release: 16/05/97
Atari Times
-----------
Issue 9 of our popular disk magazine 'The Atari Times' marks its first
birthday. To mark this, we have produced the biggest issue ever :)
This issue has contributions from:
- Matthias Jaap
- Richard Spowart
- Ashley Seabrook
- Robert Goldsmith
- and a few more people...
The Atari Times can be obtained from the following sources:
- Croft Soft Internet Publications
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/polonowski/
- 42BBS
01256-895106
- Floppyshop
PO Box 273, Aberdeen, AB15 8GJ, Scotland, UK
- Any FAN connected BBS
- Direct from Croft Soft Software
Send SAE, and disk to:
Atari Times
c/o Colin Polonowski
The Croft
Hope Rd
Nibley
Nr Yate
Bristol, BS17 5JH
We are also considering starting a email mailing list from issue 10. If you
want to be included on this list then send an email with a suitable request
to:
polonowski@zetnet.co.uk
People on this list will also receive any press releases from Croft Soft
Software.
Mole Mayhem
-----------
It's still not finished unfortunately! We have had a few technical problems
with the Falcon sample routines as well as a small setback on
the music front!
While we try to sort these difficulties out time is also being spent on
designing the last few levels.
We are currently unable to give a release date but hopefully it shouldn't
be much longer!
Croft Soft Internet Publications
--------------------------------
Croft Soft Internet Publications is still being developed. It consists of a
number of different sites, not all of which are Atari related. There are a
number of new guestbooks so if you visit please do take the time to fill
one in!
Visit CSIP at:
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/polonowski/
Text Editor
-----------
We are currently investigating the possibility of developing a new text
editor for all Atari computers. We realize that the Atari market is
currently flooded with them but if we do go ahead we will aim to make this
one something special.
We have no solid plans but some of the features will hopefully include:
- Full modern GEM interface
- Compatibility with all major Atari operating systems
- Large powerful dictionary
- Fast operation
- Search and replace
- Macro's
- Support for a number of file types such as STOS *.BAS
files and others
- On-line ST-Guide and HTML format manual
- Full support for multitasking systems such as MagiC,
Geneva, Multi-TOS, MagiCPC and MagiCMac.
- Make use of available hardware - FPU, Nemesis etc.
- Compatibility with low memory systems
As stated above, this is only a possibility. If we decide to go ahead then
work will begin once Mole Mayhem is completed.
Copyright 1997 Croft Soft Software
Snail-mail: Croft Soft Software, The Croft, Hope Rd, Nibley,
Nr Yate, Bristol, BS17 5JH
E-mail: polonowski@zetnet.co.uk
URL: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/polonowski/
Netmail: Colin Polonowski on 90:100/300@nest
Tel: 01454-313352
BFN,
Colin Polonowski Croft Soft Software Atari Times
NeST - 90:100/300 Fido - 2:252/502.0
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/polonowski
Hi!
NEWSie v0.76 by John Rojewski is released. The Status display is now
placed into a window by default. The Load and Save Preferences has been
changed to display all .INF. Account Field in Personal Preferences Dialog
separates the user account from the eMail-address. The Ftp-dialog is
modified and NEWSie supports User Defined Function Keys.
You will find NEWSie at:
http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille/english/newsie.html (web_apps.html)
and of course at:
http://www.primenet.com/~rojewski
I have a Swedish support page for COPS - the COntrol Panel Server, that
is a very good replacement for the old Atari XCONTROL.
http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille/svenska/cops.html
Best Regards
Mille Babic
eMail: mille@mail5.tripnet.se
http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille (English, German, Swedish, Croatian)
Atari Falcon CPU40MHz:DSP50MHZ (12MB RAM 540MB+1.0GB HD)
N.AES Operating System with MiNT Kernel and N.Thing Desktop
Gaming Section
Broderbund Returns to Gaming!
"Original Gaming!"
From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
A long weekend, depending on what the weather is like, could mean some
long sessions on the game consoles. I hope to re-visit some old Jaguar
favorites as well as a new one or two. The summer months are almost upon
us; the usual news "drought" is about to take hold as the temperature
rises. Let's hope it cools down nature-wise so the news and info
continues!
Until next time...
Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
Broderbund Renews Games Effort
Veteran software publisher Broderbund Software Inc. is renewing its bid for
a piece of the games market, launching a new brand without the
family-oriented associations of the parent company.
Reporting from Novato, California, The Wall Street Journal says Broderbund
has formed Red Orb Entertainment, a new unit charged with developing games
and other entertainment programs.
Along with in-house development, Broderbund has deals with seven outside
companies to develop products that will carry the Red Orb brand.
"It can use a little excitement," the paper comments, noting the firm "has
been hurt by fierce price cutting and other problems." Broderbund posted a
$3.5 million loss in the fiscal second quarter ended Feb. 28 after a $9
million acquisition charge.
While Broderbund was publishing games more than a decade ago -- its "Myst"
still is a hit after four years on the market -- but most of its revenue
comes from educational titles such as the "Carmen Sandiego" titles and
productivity programs such as the Print Shop series.
"The edutainment field has not been nearly as lucrative lately as action
titles such as 'Doom II' or 'Quake,'" the Journal says, quoting analyst
John Taylor Arcadia Investment Corp. in Portland, Oregon, as saying, "Games
are less vulnerable to price erosion, and the upside potential of a hit is
way, way bigger."
Speaking of Myst, Broderbund Vice President Ken Goldstein, who is Red Orb's
general manager, says a top priority will be completion of the long-awaited
sequel to that game, known as "Riven." Look for it in the
fall, he said.
Jaguar Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr!
The Original Gamers!
By Albert Dayes
In my previous article on Debabelizer PRO v4.x for Windows 95 / NT 4 there
was only one service pak. Now there are 3 service paks available which can
be downloaded form the web site. A demo was recently released so you can
get a better feel of how the program really works. The demo is
approximately 3 megabytes in size. For more info see STReport #1305 for a
product preview and check out the Equilibrium web site.
http://www.equilibrium.com
In my examination of the web coin-op game web sites my eye has always
gravitated towards Atari oriented sites. The Time-Warner web site on
Pathfinder had Area51 and T-Mek coin-ops online for quite a while.
Recently I discovered they had been removed. This was probably due to the
sale of Atari Games (rather the entire TWI division) to Williams
Entertainment which happened last year. So instinctively I typed in
www.atarigames.com and a colorful web page came up on my screen. The words
"the original gamers" appeared in the upper left corner and infamous Atari
logo was prominently displayed.
Several options are available including company history, arcade
distribution, consumer titles, arcade game room, send your resume and
contacting Atari Games. Of course the arcade game room was my first choice
and currently featured is San Francisco RUSH : Extreme Racing. (The game
basically allows you to drive anywhere you want in San Francisco at almost
any speed. Nothing gives you the "Rush" like California Street at 200 mph.
<grin> You can also look forward to home versions of this game by early
next year under the Midway Home Entertainment label.
The distributor list gives the names and addresses of current Atari Games
coin-op distributors. Atari history is well known but you can find more
about it under the company history section. The Frequently Asked Questions
goes to great lengths to point out the Atari Games and Atari Corp. are two
SEPARATE companies ... I wonder why? <grin> ... it makes interesting
reading for sure.
[Addendum] I just noticed today at the Atari Games web site
(www.atarigames.com) that AREA 51 is back on-line.
Atari Games is a subsidiary of Midway Games (www.midway.com) which part of
WMS Industries (www.wms.com).
The Midway Games site has information on such coin-ops as WarGods, NBA
Hangtime, and Cruis'n World. It has a section for current home titles under
development for the different home gaming platforms also.
The best site I have found to date on Coin-op information is at
Randyfromm.com.
www.randyfromm.com
Ranyfromm.com is the on-line home to the world's leading trade journals for
the international coin-operated amusement and family entertainment center
(FEC) business, including Amusement International Magazine,
InterGame, Play Meter,Cash Box International and Street Beat. The yellow
pages has an outstanding number of links to everything coin-op related. A
good place to start when searching for coin-ops used or new.
Follow this link for current information on Namco coin-ops.
www.namco.com
How well do you remember the Atari coin-op games from the past?
http://magenta.com/~jess/
This is an amazing site which has most if not all of the Atari vector
games. Not only are the logos or portions of the cabinet scanned available
for viewing but also some of the enhancements, highest known serial
numbers, flyers, and so forth. There is also a raster portion under
development which will be a perfect compliment to the vector game page when
completed.
To quote from the web page ...
"Hello, Welcome to my "unofficial" Atari Vector Page. You will find lots of
info here if you have one of these old beasts and need some help or
otherwise just want to look at the pictures. I have combined the "What's
Here" and the "What's New" sections into this more streamlined and compact
"What's Up" section.(Idea modeled from Phil's Arcade Emulation Page)
Basically this page only covers the 13 games that Atari manufactured using
vector monitors (duh!). Other Atari games that used raster type monitors
are contained on The Atari Raster Game Page. The raster page is pretty weak
right now but give me some time. On this page you will find Pinouts, DIP
Switch Settings, Promo Flyer Scans, Monitor Schematics, Self Test info,
Selected Operator's Manuals, Background History, Trivia, Other Links,
Memory Maps, Serial Number info, Game Hacks, and ROM Images (not for
emulator use though). Enjoy!!"
This site deserves an award for the great amount of dedication, attention
to detail on all Atari games. The number of links to other sites is very
impressive as well.
http://magenta.com/~jess/sega/vector/html/segaxy.html
Is a recent one for Sega vector games in the same spirit as the Atari
vector games web page.
Phil's emulator page has a large number of links on it to other emulators
and how to get emulators working with your PC, and so forth. It is a great
place to start looking if are interested in emulators.
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~pmorrisb/index.html
Other home video game sites include:
Nintendo: www.nintendo.com
Sega: www.sega.com
Sony: www.sony.com
Atari: www.atari.com
This is just a small taste of what is available on the world wide web
especially when it comes to video games of the coin-op variety. The best
place to find out more is to point your web browser in the direction of one
of these URLs and enjoy the experience.
ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
On CompuServe
Compiled by Joe Mirando
jmirando@streport.com
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, there's nothing
wonderful or earth-shaking for me to tell you about this week. Except for
the fact that Oregon Research Associates' TERMite PPP internet access suite
of programs has been pushed back from early June to perhaps August, and
that STiNG (the self-touted successor to STiK) is available but incomplete,
there isn't really anything new and exciting. That leaves us with all the
little things that people talk about every day. But let's under-rate the
importance of the everyday question. As Frank Lloyd Wright said, "God is
in the details".
Well, let's take a look at some of those details from CompuServe.
From the Atari Computing Forum
Elizbeth Frayne posts:
"I have been atempting to use CAB version 1.3 on my 520 ST with 1
Mb of RAM. My server no longer provides slip and so I need a new
server or perhaps an update of this program. Would CAB 1.5 or 2
work on my system with PPP?"
Joe Villarreal tells Elizabeth:
"A new version of Stik will be available that supports PPP. The
author is working on getting PPP working. At the moment Stik 1.12
does not support PPP.
The latest demo of Webspace (Wensuite), 1.70G supposedly supports
PPP. I haven't tried this version yet, but I did try version 1.70D
and it supposely also supports PPP; I tried this version on a local
provider but couldn't get it to work. This local provider
supposely supports Slip also and so far I haven't been able to get
connected using Stik and Cab either.
STING (ST Internet Next Generation) will supposely work with CAB.
I couldn't get this software to dial out. It claims to support
Slip, Cslip, and PPP. Version 1.0 is just a beta release version."
Ben at TOC Oz. posts:
"I've just uploaded the on-line PPP version of the WebSpace demo.
(and i think it actually worked this time !) OXO Concepts are Beta
testing their PPP link and want everyone to try it out, and get
some feedback.
The new demo is called WenSuite, the file name is WS170F_E.LZH, I
not sure if i made that apparent in the description.
Please let me know if the upload bombs, and I'll do it again. ...."
Donald Janney asks for help:
"Can anyone tell me of a way to convert a word processor file from
"Wordperfect for Atari" to "Word for Windows 95"? An alternative
would be convert the Atari Wordperfect to a newer Wordperfect,
e.g., Wordperfect 5.x or 6.x on a PC."
Our own editor-in-chief, good ol' easy-going Ralph Mariano, tells Don:
"Actually, Word Perfect programs in Win95.... ie; WP 6.0, 6.1 and
7.0 all see
the Atari format as WP 4.1 and readily convert it to its newer
format."
Albert Dayes adds:
"The easiest way to do that is download Marcel (a shareware word
processor) it can convert to different file types. Load your word
perfect document into and save as/export as an RTF file. Then you
should be able to use it on almost any Windows word processor
without any problems and should have most of the formatting still
intact."
While on the subject of word processors, Steven Barer posts:
"I may be in the wrong place, but I just had someone ask how to
get some ATARI 1040 ST files from WP to the IBM-compatible WP
format... I'm not sure whether the diskette from a 1040 is readable
on an IBM or not, so any suggestions would be gratefully received."
Joe Meehan tells Steven:
"In almost all cases it [the floppy] will be readable. There are
two possible problems.
First, the disk should be formatted in DOS format. Some versions
of TOS would do this, I forget which ones, and of course the
CodeHead utilities would do so as would Universal Item Selector.
In the event you have a problem just re-format one of your Atari
disks (I suggest one with nothing on it you want <grin>) on the DOS
PC then copy the files on the Atari. The Atari will read a DOS
formatted disk. Done use HD (High Density or SS Single Sided disk).
Second some older PC drives have problems reading any disk they
did not format. Most of these have gone to Intel hell and are no
longer functioning. In those cases they would have difficultly
reading disk from any other PC."
Frank Heller adds:
"Try using PC formatted DD disks to transfer the files. The Atari
can read and write to PC formatted disks. In the case of a 1040, it
has to be DD (720k). The Falcon can read and write on HD (1440k)
disks.
You should be able to get the files into the PC this way."
Michael Robillard asks for help in making a decision:
"I just purchased a C-LAB falcon MK1 and was wondering if I can
just purchase any vga or super vga monitor off the shelf and hook
it right up or do I need some type of an adaptor."
Angelo Vahatoura tells Michael:
"You need some type of box like Omniswitch that converts an Atari
signal into a Multisync signal but unfortunatly the company is mo
longer with us. You should look into getting an Atari Monitor
instead."
Tom Harker of ICD tells Michael:
"I am not familiar with the C-Lab Mk1 case but if it is the same
as the standard Atari Falcon, you just need to purchase a VGA
monitor adapter. It is a standard Atari part and just a wiring
adapter (no active electronics inside).
The adapter has a DB19 on one end and a HD DB15 on the other which
mates with a standard S-VGA monitor cable."
Rob Rasmussen tells Michael:
"I have the C-Lab MK-X connected with the adaptor to a standard
VGA monitor."
Michael asks Rob:
"Where does one get this adaptor? Would you happen to know the
difference between standard VGA and SUPER VGA in other words would
SUPER VGA work with the adaptor you have?
Are there any monitors that can be connected without an adaptor.
It seems kinda of dumb to make a computer system without a monitor
or the ability to purchase a monitor at the store and not have to
worry about adaptors."
Rob tells Michael:
"If you call Toad Computers, they can probably send you the
adaptor you need for a VGA or SVGA monitor. As far as I know, both
of these video modes are 640 x 480 with 256 colors, so there's no
difference as far as the adaptor. The vga monitor will also display
the Falcon/MK-1's true color mode but only in 40 columns, and it
will display mono rez, which the Atari color monitor can't. The
Atari color monitor displays true color in 80 columns. Yes I know
it's strange that no monitors connect directly to the MK-1 without
an adaptor. I'm surprised they weren't included with your MK-1."
As happens on more occasions than I care to mention, I came upon
something I didn't know the answer to so I posted:
"Does anyone know what the DIP switches on the stock internal
Atari Host Adaptor are for?
My internal HD decided to take a dirt-nap last week and, while
removing it and re-seating everything inside, I noticed that the
host adaptor has a block of 3 dips. I know that this isn't my hard
drive's problem since it's worked fine for several years, but I'd
like to know what they are for anyway.
The machine is a MegaSTE with the same adaptor used in the STacy
and (I think) the MegaST.
BTW, the hard drive's problem is that there are now lots of bad
sectors (300+ on the first 30 meg partition alone). The drive
makes a grinding sound on occasion now, and I'm in the process of
trying to retrieve at least some of the data on it. Any info on
the DIPs would be appreciated."
Carl Barron tells me:
"I don't know what the dips are for, but I can feel for you I lost
a 1.6 gig external [re-formatted to 700K!] for some strange reason
once. Get the data off the HD as fast as possible. Sounds like
its dying fast!!"
I tell Carl:
"YIKES! A 1.6 gig drive formatted to 700K? That musta been
something to see! <grin> Kind of an expensive ds/dd disk though.
About 95% of my data is corrupted with no hope of reconstruction.
(Thank goodness for backups and original program disks). It seems
that for a minute or so the drive decided that the sectors were all
(and I do mean ALL) shifted over three places from where they
actually were. This was just enough to scramble the drive up good.
It now also makes that sickening 'jet engine' sound every now and
then. I tried re-writing the FATs the other day and had absolutely
no luck.
My pal Myles Cohen adds:
"I do [know what the DIPs are for]...
They were used to change and/or set the SCSI address of the hard
drive ..using binary code...Reember? All off=0...Right-most
on=1...etc."
Carl tells Myles:
"That makes sense. So if there are no device id# problems, leave
them alone. I am getting spoiled with all these 'plug in it works'
stuff, these days."
I tell Carl:
"Gee, you must be using a far different system than we are at
work. With our stuff, "Plug ' Play" means plug it in and play with
the settings for a day and a half!"
And then I ask Myles:
"Are you sure about that Myles?? It was my understanding that the
internal HD HAD to be SCSI 0. That's why I assumed that it must be
for something else."
Myles tells me:
"As you know...I am not any kind of computer expert...but it has
always been my understanding that address 0 has to be reserved
because it is the computer's address in the SCSI chain...I could be
wrong...and if I am...I'm sure that someone here will set me
right...
Anyway...I always assign address 1 for my root drive...it works for
me..."
I reply to Myles:
"I've just been informed that we were both right! The hard drive
itself must be set to SCSI device 0, but the DIPs control what ID
it is reported to the computer as. This allows you to boot from an
external hard drive if need be.
Isn't it nice when it turns out that EVERYONE is right?? _That_
really ticks some folks off! <grin>"
Dennis Larson asks:
"Is it possible to use a SVGA monitor on a 1040ST? My monitor
died, I'm not sure I want to spend $$$ to fix it. (It was
manufactured by Goldstar, maybe any shop can fix it? Might just be
a couple of [leaking] capacitors).
I have heard that it is possible to use some kind of multisync
monitor; do you need adapters, etc., to make it work? Is it worth
it?"
Simon Churchill tells Dennis to...
"Look in the lib's for a file called VGA.TXT, written by your's
trully it should answer all/most of your question."
Well folks, that's about it for this week. Tune in again next week, same
time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
Memorial Day - 1997
STReport International OnLine Magazine
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STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" May 23, 1997
Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1321
