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GEnieLamp IBM - Vol.2, Issue 11
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|| |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable
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~ TECH_TALK: ALL ABOUT UPS ~
~ NEW! 3 ON 1 MINI_BYTES REVIEWS ~
~ PD_QUICKVIEW: TEXTRIS ~
~ THE PLAIN VANILLA GUIDE, PART 4 ~
~ HOT FILES, HOT MESSAGES ~ HOT NEWS ~
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
GEnieLamp IBM ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 11
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Publisher.................................GEnie Information Services
Editor-In-Chief........................................John Peters
Editor...............................................Bob Connors
~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp [PR]/TX2 ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~
~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~
~ Member Of The Disktop Publishing Association ~
////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE IBM ROUNDTABLE? <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ February 1, 1993 ~
FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY]
Notes From The Editor. Is That A Letter For Me?
HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] YES, I DO WINDOWS ....... [WIN]
Safe Fax. From The Windows RT.
CowTOONS! ............... [MOO] REFLECTIONS ............. [REF]
Great Cows From Literature. Online Communications.
TECH_TALK ............... [TEC] MINI_BYTES .............. [MIN]
Down To The Wire... 3 On 1:Writing-Style Analyzer.
THE MIGHTY QUINN ........ [QUI] THE ONLINE LIBRARY ...... [LIB]
Random Access. HOT Files In The Library.
PD_QUICKVIEW ............ [PDQ] ONLINE FUN! ............. [PDQ]
Textris: Spell Fast. Search-ME!
DOCTOR BOB .............. [BOB] CLASSICS ................ [CLA]
The Plain Vanilla Guide, Pt.4. Try Some Triangles.
ADD ALADDIN ............. [ADD] LOG OFF ................. [LOG]
Cut & Paste Scripts. GEnieLamp Information.
[IDX]"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing
""""""""""""""""" system to help make reading the magazine easier.
To utilize this system, load GEnieLamp into any ASCII word processor
or text editor. In the index you will find the following example:
HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]
[*]GEnie Fun & Games.
To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If
you want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take
you to the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index.
MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages re-printed
"""""""""""" here in GEnieLamp, you will find all the information you
need immediately following the message. For example:
(SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475)
_____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________
|Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number|
In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page
475 enter the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1.
A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this
message is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two
or more messages that are following the same topic. For example: {58}.
ABOUT GEnie GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and
""""""""""" weekend access to more than 100 services including
electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment,
single-player games, multi-player chess and bulletin boards on leisure
and professional subjects. With many other services, including the
largest collection of files to download and the best online games, for
only $6 per hour (non-prime-time/2400 baud). To sign up for GEnie
service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH.
Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99368,GENIE and hit RETURN. The system
will then prompt you for your information.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "The best way to sum it up would be: /
/ $1CFA,$1C5A,$4310,$717E,$19FA,$09D2,$4620,$61F6 /
/ $12FA,$10D2,$4D20,$61F6,$0772,$105A,$58A8,$60F6 /
/ $9019,$7FF7,$7FF7,$0010,$71F7,$F22F,$4FF2,$1301 /
/ $A245,$54FB,$7DFB,$7DFB,$0FF0,$5300,$0630,$0110 /
/ $2FEE,$258E,$7F74,$40F2,$31EE,$2086,$7F74,$43F2 /
/ $3EEE,$2086,$7F74,$4012,$3DEE,$218E,$7E74,$40FA /
/ $3BE6,$2206,$7C7C,$40FA,$36EE,$2686,$7974,$43F2 /
/ $2F0E,$2916,$7074,$41F2,$31EE,$388E,$6074,$48FA" /
/////////////////////////////////////////////// D.ENGEL ////
[EOA]
[FRM]//////////////////////////////
FROM MY DESKTOP /
/////////////////////////////////
Notes From The Editor
"""""""""""""""""""""
By John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
FROM MY DISKTOP When chatting online or when leaving messages to other
""""""""""""""" RoundTable members, sometimes problems, misunder-
standings or downright angry confrontations are created simply because the
other person doesn't understand what you're _really_ trying to say. If
you're not careful in how you convey your thoughts via the keyboard, what
you meant as a joke or wrote in jest, can sometimes be taken the wrong way
or blown entirely out of context.
The problem is it's not _what_ you say that creates this situation,
but it is _how_ you say it. For instance, a sentence said with a smile can
take on a whole new meaning than if it was said with a frown or angry look.
Facial movements and voice inflections are difficult to interject into your
writing, especially when you're writing on the fly as in an informal
RoundTable Conference or when writing a message or reply online. Since the
reader can't see your face or body-language, he or she may not know that
you're making a joke or that you are teasing.
There is a solution. Over the years a "modem-language" has developed
to help take care of this predicament. By interjecting a smiley face, " :)
" within your message or a descriptive word in brackets, such as [grin] or
[laugh], you can tell the other person, "Hey, don't take this seriously,
I'm just having fun." A well placed [grin] can go a long way to help stop
a misunderstanding.
Another reason this modem-language developed is to help minimize the
amount of typing it takes to convey a message to someone else while online.
For example, it is much quicker to type, "BTW" then to type, "By The Way"
or "IMHO" instead of "In My Humble Opinion."
Confusing? Not really. As you become more familiar with the lingo,
the strange characters and funny faces will be easier to figure out. If
you do come across an unusual cluster of letters and you don't understand
what they mean, by all means ask the person who sent them. To help you get
started, here's a partial list of some of the more popular modem-phrases
being used today on GEnie. (Note: The following has been collected from
online posts, unofficial dictionaries and other sources.)
>>> THE UNOFFICIAL GEnieLamp ONLINE DICTIONARY <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
b4 - before BCNU - Be See 'N You
brb - be right back BTW - By the way
chuckle - something was kinda channel hoppers - someone who
funny jumps from one channel to
another
c u l8tr - see you later go pri - go into private
GR8 - that's great grin - something was humorous
groan - I can't believe you hahaha - something was funny
said that
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - something was MORF - Male or Female
REALLY funny
OIC - Oh, I see re - about (as in re last night)
rehi - hi again TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
turbo sta - doing a /sta * to get UR- you are
a list of all Chat Lines users
wave - to someone monitoring yawn - I've heard that before
(like "Waving at Fuzzball on
channel 15)
???? - I don't understand... [] = hugs
or What?
:) - a sideways smiley face ;) - a winking smiley face
:P - a smiley face sticking :( - a sad face
tongue out
:/ - frustrated/perturbed =:0 - surprise
:-I - Indifferent smilie. :-> - User made a really biting
Better than a Frowning sarcastic remark. Worse
smilie but not quite as then a :)
good as a happy smilie
>:-> User just made a really >;-> Winky and devil combined.
devilish remark. A lewed remark was made.
[SMILE] [LAUGH]
LOL - Laughing Out Loud ROFL - Rolling On the Floor
Laughing
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion WTG - Way To Go!
Think about what you're typing. Does what you write really say what
you mean?
[*][*][*]
PARTING SHOTS GEnieLamp Script users take note! The GEnieLamp RoundTable
""""""""""""" (M515) is undergoing some major menu changes.
Unfortunately, this means that your script files will no longer work. Once
the changes are in place we will be uploading new scripts to the GEnieLamp
Library. We're sorry for the inconvenience, but we think you'll like the
new menus. (Hint: Lots of new goodies in store! :)
NEW BBS ONLINE NEWSLETTER February 1, 1993 marks the start of a new
""""""""""""""""""""""""" online newsletter for members of the BBS
RoundTable. How the newsletter will be distributed is still undecided.
For more information, drop by the BBS RoundTable on page 610.
(Keyword: BBS)
ASK DOCTOR BOB Do you have a question about operating systems, GEnie or
"""""""""""""" anything concerning computers? If so, you can get your
questions answered here in GEnieLamp by Doctor Bob. Any question is fair
game...and if the good Doctor Bob doesn't know the answer, he'll find
someone who does. Stop wandering around in the dark, send your question
via GE Mail to GENIELAMP.
Until next month...
John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
/////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "***** - Warning: Long post and lousy spelling ahead <G> - *****" /
////////////////////////////////////////////////// K.CAVAGHAN2 ////
[EOA]
[HEY]//////////////////////////////
HEY MISTER POSTMAN /
/////////////////////////////////
Is That A Letter For Me?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Bob Connors
[R.CONNORS2]
o BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS
o IBM ODDS & ENDS
o WHAT'S NEW
o TIPS AND HINTS
o HOT TOPICS & RUMORS
o QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT
>>> IBM BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
[*] CAT3, TOP13...............Quicken and SuperStor
- a Less than Great Fit?
[*] CAT7, TOP19...............Which games are better
- IBM or Amiga?
[*] CAT14, TOP21..............Speed Up Windows Video
[*] CAT21, TOP6...............DRDOS - More than a cult favorite?
[*] CAT30, TOP 23.............Telecomm for OS/2
>>> IBM ODDS AND ENDS <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
GOOD NEWS FOR OS/2 USERS I have a small announcement to make. I have
"""""""""""""""""""""""" recently received a promotion and a new job at
IBM. The new job is with the OS/2 Marketing Organization. I have just
recently moved from Los Angeles, CA to Boca Raton, FL, where the OS/2 team
is based.
Due the hectic and sudden nature of the move, I have not logged on to
GEnie for over a month. I apologize to anyone whose questions or E-Mail
have been un-answered during this time.
The good news is that now, as a member of the OS/2 Group at IBM, I
will be able to directly influence both IBM's marketing and products. I
have been very impressed by the quality of the feedback on OS/2 here on
GEnie. I am looking forward to taking your suggestions and criticisms
forward and making positive things happen.
I now return you to your normally scheduled topic. :)
-Neeraj Srivastava, IBM OS/2 Marketing
(N.SRIVASTAVA, CAT6, TOP8, MSG:416/M615)
16 (OR MORE) MEGS? HERE'S WHY Large amounts of RAM (16 Megs or more) do
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" have their uses. Mostly, having a lot of
RAM while running a multitasking system allows for running more
applications concurrently, faster, because the system has all the memory it
needs and doesn't need to swap chunks of it to disk to make space for more.
Today, this applies to every major OS (i.e. OS/2, Windows, Unix, etc),
except for DOS.
Under DOS, you can use the extra memory (basically everything above 1
Meg) as RAM disks and simulated EXPANDED memory. Also, there are a number
of programs that use EXTENDED memory, so they could benefit too.
However, in my opinion, getting something with a lot of memory (or the
capability to hold a lot of memory) is not so much important today, when
most people are still pretty much stuck in the DOS world, but in the near
future, when the advanced OSs become more established and displace DOS.
Then, 16 Megs and more will be the minimum standard and, by getting a
machine that can handle that today, you will prepared for what comes in the
future. -Chago (A.SANTIAGO3, CAT12, TOP16, MSG:10/M615)
BORLAND REPORTS THIRD QUARTER FISCAL 1993 RESULTS SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" -- January 18, 1993 --
Borland International Inc. (NASDAQ:BORL) today announced third quarter
revenues of $104.3 million, a 9.0 percent decrease compared with $114.6
million for the same period of fiscal 1992.
Net loss for the quarter, which ended December 31, 1992, was $61.3
million compared with a net profit of $7.5 million in the third quarter a
year ago. The company lost $2.34 per share for the third quarter of fiscal
1993, compared with a 28 cent per share profit in the third quarter of
fiscal 1992.
On December 9, 1992, the company announced a consolidation of its
organization and a related reduction of its workforce. The results for the
quarter ended December 31, 1992 include a pre-tax charge of $25.0 million
principally for workforce reduction, facilities and write-off of software
technology.
Subsequent to the announcement of the restructuring, the company
announced certain promotional pricing programs on the company's Quattro Pro
spreadsheet products, including price protection. Reported revenue reflects
a $10.7 million reduction principally related to these programs.
Additionally, the results for the quarter ended December 31, 1992
include a $9.8 million charge to cost of revenues for inventory write-
downs, freight and rework.
Revenues for the nine months ended December 31, 1992 were $346.9
million, a 5.1 percent decrease compared with $365.7 million for the nine
months ended December 31, 1991. The company lost $54.3 million, or $2.08
per share in the nine month period ended December 31, 1992. The company
reported a loss of $83.5 million, or $3.42 per share, for the nine month
period ended December 31, 1991.
Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter ended
December 31, 1992 were $81.1 million, a 12.3 percent increase from $72.2
million for the same quarter the previous year. Research and development
costs for the quarter were $18.9 million, a 34.8 percent increase from
$14.0 million for the same quarter the previous year. The increase in
selling, general and administrative costs was principally related to
greater marketing efforts, especially related to new product introductions.
The increase in research and development costs related to the company's
development efforts on a new generation of products for the MS-Windows
operating system.
Borland International Inc., headquartered in Scotts Valley,
California, is a leading developer of object-oriented software and
programming languages.
>>> WHAT'S NEW <<<
""""""""""""""""""
POWER BASIC 3.0 Well I got my Power BASIC 3.0 today. The docs are
""""""""""""""" written much better than the QB docs. The Docs on comm
programs look particularly good. (Bob, take note! :))
The new features look real powerful and the edit-compile-run-
load-edit-debug cycle is not quite as bad as I expected. At least for
short programs.
I like the binary, bit manipulation, array string search and and
array sort features.
I wish this Basic had come along a a month or two ago. I might now be
using a lower cost, faster GPS receiver that puts out binary strings
rather than ASCII strings. :)
One of the first things I checked is DO WHILE NOT EOF(x). Unlike
Quick BASIC this works fine in Power BASIC.
The WordStar like, block moves and saves-to-disk are greatly
appreciated. By contrast the QB editor has no way of saving a block of
source code to disk.
The biggest down side I have found so far, relative to QB, is the
subtle beneficial effects of the QB editor's syntax checking. When you
make a mistake while still in a line, the QB editor refuses to capitalize
the key words when you press Enter. This in effect is telling you about
the mistake right then and there. Instant reward and punishment :).
Instant feed back.
I am sorry to say this, but the QB smart editor was and remains a
major breakthrough in programming languages. This feature alone puts QB
head and shoulders above all other programming languages. It is just too
bad the Evil Empire is off on the Windows kick. The potential of this idea
is enormous. Boy what I could do with QB if I had control of developing
and marketing.
Power Basic's editor on the other hand is not smart! It accepts the
line regardless of how many mistakes are on it. It is not until you
compile or try to run the PB program that you discover the mistakes.
Since the Power Basic editor is not smart it does not capitalize the
key words at all... ever... making the resulting source code harder to
read. Manually capitalizing key words is a pain in the butt. This also
makes it quite difficult to write a routine that analyses the source code
and comes up with a sorted list of labels and variable along with their
line numbers.
You must also type in all space characters if you want your code to
look half way readable.
Well I guess I could load the PB source in QB temporarily and let
the QB editor capitalize and space everything :)
Now the question remains, do the new features of Power Basic
outweigh the down side?
More experience with and exposure to PB is in order. -Paul
(P.LAMAR, CAT18, TOP31, MSG:20/M615)
BORLAND LAUNCHES AGGRESSIVE PRICE PROMOTION FOR PARADOX DATABASE
AND QUATTRO PRO SPREADSHEET SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
New Prices Leave Competitive Products As Much as 500 Percent Higher
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. -- January 18, 1993 -- Borland International
Inc. (NASDAQ: BORL) today announced an aggressive 90-day price promotion
for its Quattro Pro for Windows spreadsheet and soon-to-be-released Paradox
for Windows database. Quattro Pro for Windows will be available for
$99.95. Paradox for Windows, due to be shipping shortly, will be available
for just $139.95. The promotion is open to any customer and does not
require proof that the customer owns a competitive product. The 90-day
promotion runs February 1, 1993 through April 30, 1993.
In conjunction with its Windows market debut and price promotion,
Borland has redesigned its packaging to focus on customer value.
"Borland is celebrating its two-pronged entry in the Windows market
with this limited-time, while-supplies-last promotion," said Philippe Kahn,
chairman, president, and CEO, Borland International. "Quattro Pro for
Windows and Paradox for Windows are the highest quality PC spreadsheet and
database products on the market, and this 90-day price promotion and new
product packaging kick off our entry in the Windows market while
guaranteeing incredible value for our customers."
Paradox for Windows, like its DOS counterpart Paradox 4.0, sets new
standards in relational database management systems. "Paradox for Windows
is the most hotly anticipated Windows database product in the computer
industry," said David Watkins, vice president, product marketing, Borland
International. "With Paradox for Windows at $139.95, there is simply no
reason to buy any other Windows database."
Paradox 4.0, Borland's most recent DOS version, won the most recent
National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) MultiUser Database
evaluation, and was awarded the best overall database product over
Microsoft's FoxPro database. Paradox 4.0 also beat FoxPro 2.0 in the
September 28, 1992 InfoWorld Database Roundup (Volume 14, Issue 39),
receiving the magazine's Buyer's Assurance seal. Paradox beat FoxPro in all
transaction tests, performing up to 25 percent faster. As well, the
InfoWorld tests show Paradox beats FoxPro by 21 percent in querying and 450
percent in reporting.
At COMDEX Fall, top-ranked Quattro Pro for Windows (QPW) was awarded
PC Magazine's coveted Tech Excellence Award over Microsoft's Excel product,
and QPW has ranked much higher than Lotus's 1-2-3 Windows spreadsheet in
industry trade reviews. At a $495 SRP, Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows
are five times the price of Quattro Pro for Windows during Borland's
promotion.
"These incredible prices reinforce Borland's persistently aggressive
stance in the competitive software market," said Dan Ness, senior industry
analyst, Computer Intelligence, a La Jolla, Calif., market research firm.
Customers can take advantage of the limited-time, while- supplies-last
promotion at their nearest software retail store, or by ordering from
Borland directly at 800-331-0877. Prices are in U.S. dollars and apply to
the U.S. and Canada only. Actual dealer prices may vary from suggested
retail prices.
For millions of software developers and end users worldwide, Borland
International Inc. is the leader in application development software. A
pioneer in the use of object computing technology, Borland is committed to
offering the world's best database management, programming languages,
development tools, spreadsheets and applications software. Borland's
products include dBASE, Paradox, InterBase, Quattro Pro, ObjectVision,
Borland C++ and Borland Pascal with Objects. Founded in 1983 by Philippe
Kahn, Borland is headquartered in Scotts Valley, California.
QWK MAIL READER FOR OS/2 2.0 PRE-RELEASE AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC
Mankato, MN, Jan. 4, 1993 - Oberon Software announced today that the
current pre-release version of its 32-bit application PMQWK, a QWK Mail
reader for OS/2 2.0, will be made available to the public effective
immediately. The program is available for download from Oberon Software's
BBS at 507-388-1154.
"QWKMAIL" is a standard procedure for reading and replying to BBS mail
off-line and is supported by the majority of BBSes through- out the world.
PMQWK is designed to interface with any BBS or on-line service which offers
QWKMAIL uploads and downloads. PMQWK is the first and only off-line mail
reader available which exploits OS/2 2.0 to fully multi-task your off-line
mail reading. PMQWK allows the user to read and reply to any number of
confer- ences and messages from any number of BBSes simultaneously;
allowing for easy cross-referencing, cut and paste between mes- sages and
replies, and much more. PMQWK has built-in support for automatic quoting
of message text in replies, Fidonet and Inter- net addressing, regular
expression searching through message text and envelopes, a personal address
book feature, custom tagline generation, and interfaces with all popular
text editors and OS/2 based archiving programs.
Users of this pre-release version will be able to place early orders,
at a special introductory rate, for the general release version of PMQWK
when it become available later in the first quarter of 1993.
Oberon Software has been developing OS/2 software and providing OS/2
related services since 1988. More than just a specialty, OS/2 related
products and services are Oberon Software's only business. Other Oberon
products include TE/2, the Oberon Termi- nal Emulator/2, a general purpose
telecommunications program for OS/2; FSHL, Oberon Software's Alternative
Command Line Executive; and the Commpak/2 Programmer's Toolkit for creating
telecommuni- cations routines under OS/2. The release of the 32-bit
Commpak/2 Dynamic Link Library marked the first step by Oberon to convert
its entire line of software to OS/2 2.0 compatibility.
In addition to the conversion of its present product line to OS/2 2.0
and 32-bit operation, Oberon Software intends to expand its product line in
1993 to include several new, native 32-bit applications.
Contact: Brady Flowers
President-507-388-7001
** OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines
(B.FLOWERS, CAT30, TOP25, MSG:250/M615)
>>> TIPS & HINTS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""
HARD DRIVES: TURN IT OFF OR LEAVE IT ON? The basic theory is that the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" most stress is placed on the
system at power up. This is when the most stress is placed on the power
supply (takes more power to spin hard disks up to speed than to keep them
spinning once at speed), and also there can be a sort of 'surge' as the
power initially reaches the circuits. (much in the same way that bulbs
burn out most often as they are first turned on).
In addition the heating up and cooling causes stress on the parts as
things expand and contract due to the heat. One symptom of this is "chip
creep" the expanding and contracting can actually cause chips to creep up
out of sockets (not as much of a problem with SIMMs due to how they mount,
more a problem with SIP and DIP type chips.
There is also the issue of the heads of the hard drive, which often
'land' on the disk itself (even if over a parking zone) when the drive is
powered down. This is what causes 'stiction, the landing spot to be more
worn than the rest of the disk and actually gets polished very very smooth
by the heads, so smooth that sometimes the fit is so good that there is no
air between the two and they stick together much like two plates of glass.
Of course if the drive is always spinning then there is more wear on the
bearings, so...
My personal preference is to leave it all running and use a screen
saver (BLANK-IT, available in the RT libraries) that simply blanks the
screen entirely. (SCOTTV, CAT1, TOP9, MSG:130/M615)
STACKER SOLUTIONS Sounds like Stacker found a media defect on your hard
""""""""""""""""" drive. I had a similar problem when Stacker v2 found
some bad clusters on my hard drive. Neither CHKDSK or SCHECK reported any
problems, but SDEFRAG kept stopping with a fatal error.
Stacker v2 says that it is compatible with most disk fix utilities.
The manual gives instructions for using SpinRite. Use these instructions
as an example if you use any other disk fix utility. Read the instructions
VERY CAREFULLY.
*** Make a complete backup before trying any of the disk fix utilities. ***
-Bob (R.BENSING, CAT4, TOP4, MSG:466/M615)
GEnie LIBRARY SEARCH TIP Search for ARCE, not the whole string. GEnie
"""""""""""""""""""""""" does a substring match on the first part of the
name or keyword. The trick is to be specific enough so that you don't get
a list of 1000 files, but not so specific that you don't miss what you are
looking for. Also, make certain you haven't IGNORED any categories with
the JOIN/IGNORE option on the GEnie software library menu. The archivers
are stored in Category One, so you have to be certain that one is JOINed.
(HOMCHICK, CAT1, TOP9, MSG:72/M615)
TROUBLE LOGGING ON? First of all, regardless of what the Zoom manual
""""""""""""""""""" tells you, GEnie does not support MNP5 nor V32bis.
GEnie only supports MNP4, so if you are using any data compression or MNP5,
you will not be able to connect to GEnie.
> I get "f'|f^" and nothing else.
This means that GEnie and your modem are not negotiating properly or
you didn't type the "HHH" fast enough when you get the "CONNECT" message.
> AT&F&C1&D2, RTS/CTS=ON, Autobaud = OFF.
This won't work. "&F" is incomplete. You need a variable in there.
The correct setting is "&Fn" where "n" is "0" for factory setting, "2" for
MNP setting, and "3" for V42 setting. Better yet, dump this init string
altogether and try this one:
ATM0&C1&D2&Q5EE1V1X4Q0%C0\N2\V1
This one works for me just fine. :)
(PROF.MARK, CAT23, TOP1, MSG:2/M615)
FIRST, SX MEANS SOMETHING IS CRIPPLED!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
1. 486SX= 486 DX + not working math coprocessor!
486SLC from Cyrix= a chip can support 486 instructions with
1 K cache only, no math coprocessor
2. 486DX > 386 +387+ 8K internal cache, and instructions are
executed faster than 386.
3. 486DX33: Internal clock rate 33 MHz, external 33 Mhz
486DX2 66: Internal clock rate 66 Mhz, external 33 Mhz about 70
to 80 % faster than 486 DX 33
Best buy of 486 family
""""""""""""""""""""""
486 DX 33 system with upgradable mother board, such that you can
replace the CPU by a 486 DX2 66 when the cpu price falls.
Street price: Under $1600 with 120Mbyte hard disk, 4M ram and
SVGA display up to 1024x768x256 and .28 dot pitch.
This system would perform much better than those 'name brand' low class
systems in Circuit city, and etc with the same price.-Hope this will help!
-C.C.Hsu (C.HSU2, CAT12, TOP43, MSG:49/M615)
>>>>> I can help on a couple of these, as I've been shopping for quite a
""""" while for a clone, along with a LOT of reading... I've probably
purchased 10 PC mags a month since this shopping process :-)
A DX is a computer that has a bus speed (motherboard) that is usually
the same as the processor speed... ie a 486/33 has a 33 Mhz internal clock
speed, and communicates with SOME things at that speed (memory)... a DX2
has a processor that has DOUBLE the speed of the bus, so 486/50/25 DX2 has
an internal clock speed of 50 Mhz, while communicating with memory and
external peripherals at 25 Mhz.
It is subjective on which is better, but for some applications, a
486/50 DX2 is somewhat faster then a 486/33...
Local bus (VESA is an association of companies TRYING to standardize
some things, video, hd access, etc... normally, an ISA bus speed is 8 Mhz
and 16 bits wide, a Local Bus is a special slot where a video card, hard
drive interface, or network card would reside, and the cpu communicates
with these slots at the internal clock speed... a 486/33 local bus talks to
the video card (special local bus versions) at 33 Mhz and 32 bits wide, not
the normal 8 Mhz & 16 bits wide... so it has a large speed advantage.
I'll let someone else tackle the other topics... OH, yes, the 486 DX
chips and DX2 have a built-in math coprocessor, the 486 SX do NOT...
(G.D.EDWARDS, CAT12, TOP45, MSG:59/M615)
LOCATING FILES - FASTER The ONLY reason for that line is to EXPAND your
""""""""""""""""""""""" environment. The space that DOS uses, like for
environment variables, SET statements, PATH= commands, etc. The DEFAULT is,
I beleive, 160 Bytes.
The /E:512 sets the DEFAULT to 512 Bytes of environment space.
Actually, this is the SMALLEST amount that this can be set to, using the
SHELL statement. Any lower value is ignored, and any value over 32,751 is
also IGNORED. If these values are exceeded, then the DEFAULTS to the
MINIMUM value.
Now as far as the "/MH" goes, it's not really needed. If you have the
"HIDOS" switch in your CONFIG.SYS file then this switch is redundant. With
the "HIDOS" switch ON then the COMMAND.COM program is automatically loaded
into the UPPPER memory area. According to the manual the "/MH" switch just
specifies that the command.com program to be loaded into high memory.
The "/P" Option has many uses. But in this CASE it is used to FORCE
the execution of the AUTOEXEC.BAT. Actually you should NEVER use the SHELL
statement without the "/P" command. Simple reason - IF your EVER type EXIT
at the DOS prompt, you WILL send your computer to NEVER-NEVER-LAND. Why?
Real SIMPLE - you just removed your command processor, from the computer.
You can probably figure out what that means. That's the REASON for the "/P"
switch. It makes the COMMAND.COM program PERMANENTLY resident.
NOW, as for the WHOLE Line? Well, that's hard to say. What you need to
do is fine out mow much of your environment is currently being USED. Then
see what OTHER programs put into the environment. Most of the time the
default size (160) is enough. But there are exceptions. "I" personally
DON'T use the SHELL statement. I run WINDOZE, and lots of other programs
and I've NEVER seen the error "out of environment space" (that is a VALID
DOS ERROR).
It's a personal choice. You'll recover a small amount of RAM and
that's about all. To "ME" it's a WASTE of RAM. No program that I have run
across YET has ever DEMANDED more environment space than the default,
provided by DOS(DR DOS). So, again, I say it's a personal choice.
As far as FASTOPEN goes? Aladdin isn't the only one that does NOT like
it. Many of the NEW programs that are comming out don't like it either.
FASTOPEN was a cure that has been bypassed by time. It was designed to keep
track of the programs that "you" have RECENTLY used and where the
information is stored on the hard disk. It is a sort of LOOK UP TABLE.
It's intended purpose was to help you locate files FASTER. To keep
"disk hunting" to a minimum. This WAS and IS the case when people start
adding LONG path statements. BEFORE, it would "hunt" through ALL the
directories until it found the program you asked for. So FASTOPEN was
invented. If you invoked a program "A" and then left it and went to
program "B" and then went back to program "A". The "hunting" would start
all over again. SO, FASTOPEN was written to KEEP a look up table, in
memory, of the MOST RECENTLY called programs. Where is was on disk, the
directory, etc., etc. It was and IS a good idea. But technology has passed
it by.
Many programs, today, use environment variables. These, environment
variables, allow the program to "know" where everything is. It can be used
as a "reference" to many functions.
Well, let get off the soapbox and let someone else speak. -W.B.(Bill)
(W.ROWLAND4, CAT4, TOP38, MSG:50/M615)
OS/2 AND ALARMS - HELP! I'm looking for a OS/2 PIM that will have
""""""""""""""""""""""" alarm's pop up over any OS?2 app and also start
OS/2 applications at certain times. I found Almanac for windows on a local
BBS but I don't think it's worth Registering. Any Suggestion's?
(P.DUNNIGAN, CAT6, TOP7, MSG:308/M615)
>>>>> Dunn: I don't know if you have anything against the applets for
""""" daily planning that come with os/2, but they can do exactly what
you were mentioning. Go to alarms, and open the object. The select,
Create a new alarm and up pops a dialog with all the settings. Look at the
lower left hand area, under Actions: you will find one labeled execute
comment as command. If you check this item, when the alarm goes off, it
will execute the comments. You need to have the full path and file name if
the program isn't in the path already.
The only draw back is that it won't both give you a message and
execute the comment as a command. Try it, it's pretty good. It also has
just about a zillion tunes that you can play, about 25 graphics to use,
selectable fonts and it will also allow you to customize the tune, via the
tune editor, if you are so inclined. later, -jtpolk
(J.POLK3, CAT6, TOP7, MSG:311/M615)
>>>>> Alarm Clock and Alarm Clock Pro will do what you want. I believe
""""" one or both are in the library. They're shareware, either $25 or
$35, I forget. (K.LAUX, CAT6, TOP7, MSG:312/M615)
AUTOEXEC.BAT TRICKS Good, nice to here you have more memory. But don't
""""""""""""""""""" throw away that "SHELL" statement. Keep it around.
REM it out or write it down some where. With only 83 bytes left of
environment space, it could get tight. But after running your programs for
a while and IF there are no errors then, I'd get rid of it PERMANENTLY.
About those envirnoment variables? You got a few in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file. The following are there:
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET GS=\GOSCRIPT
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
Do you know how much environment space that takes up? 47 Bytes. Don't
count the "SET" nor the space after "SET". Count the rest of the letters
and spaces (if any) and that is how much environment space is used. Now
your path statement is:
PATH C:\;C:\DRDOS;C:\PCTOOLS;C:\BATCH;C:\UTIL;C:\DV;C:\ADDSTOR
That's 62 Bytes. Count everthing, PATH to ADDSTOR and the spaces too.
Now your prompt:
PROMPT LeMutt $P$G
Count everything. 18 Bytes. Sub-Total = 127. Now with 83 bytes left
out of 256. That means that you should have used (256-83) 173 Bytes. Little
short? Difference of 43 Bytes. Did you SHELL out of ALADDIN to get that
figure? If you did that would just about be the difference. Aladdin creates
that "EXIT" prompt for you and getting rid of it makes it pretty close,
though.
Just type SET at the DOS prompt. Then count every thing that appears
on the screen after that. If the "guess"(WAG) I made above is correct then
"I" don't think that you will have any problems. But you said in an earlier
communication that you do a lot of things with BAT Files.
You could do it like "I" do mine. Let's take that PCTOOLS environment
variable:
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
That just WASTES environment space. WHY? Because the only time that it
is USED is when PCTOOLS is called. Why not put it in the PCTOOLS.BAT? Then
when PCTOOLS is FINISHED, get rid of it. Let the BAT File Dynamically use
the environment space. Here's a rough sample BAT for PCTOOLS.
PCTOOLS.BAT
---------------
@ECHO OFF
CLS
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sets PCTOOS environment variable
>
> The rest of the regular PCTOOLS.BAT File goes HERE.!
>
SET PCTOOLS
^Clears the environment of the PCTOOLS variable
I know it's a CHEAP trick. BUT it works. There's NOTHING in the
manuals about doing this. BUT there are some good tricks in the DOS POWER
TOOLS book. This is one of them and I've been using it for years.
Another trick, and this ones simple. Make a BAT File called DOS.BAT.
Put your current dos PATH statement in it. THAT'S ALL. When a program
messes up your DOS path. Just type DOS and it's fixed, or in the worst case
change to the BATCH SubDir and type DOS. -W.B.(Bill)
(W.ROWLAND4, CAT4, TOP38, MSG:52/M615)
ARRRGH! IT'S GONE! Accidentally deleted the OS/2 full screen folder. Is
"""""""""""""""""" there a way to restore it short of a reinstall? Also
is it normal for the hard drive to sound like it's making coffee as it
loads? hard to believe all that activity is doing it any good. I have 386DX
8megs ram,120meg HD with 40 partitioned off for OS/2.
(R.GORDON28, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:767/M615)
>>>>> Just open your templates folder, drag out an OS/2 prg with your
""""" right mouse button, and in the settings where it asks for the
program name & path, put an *. Then click on the session tab and click on
the OS/2 full screen radio button. Now you have your full screen session
back. You rename the session in the settings where you are now or you can
close the settings and <alt>- left mouse button on the Icon title and
change it there. When you have how you want it, just click anywhere on the
desktop.
Os/2 is pretty busy at load time so yes, a lot of disk activity is
normal. You have enough ram so that swapping shouldn't be excessive. -Doug
(D.ROBISON, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:768/M615)
>>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE... <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
EVEREX IN CHAPTER 11 Everex is voluntarily in chapter 11 to buy
"""""""""""""""""""" themselves some breathing room. Prior to filing
chapter 11 they had done most of the staff and product line reductions
needed to make them a leaner, more competitive company. They are shipping
product and we are hoping for the best. -Tom
(T.DUCHESMEAU, CAT13, TOP39, MSG:29/M615)
CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST BORLAND SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. --
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" January 14, 1993 -- Borland
International Inc. (NASDAQ:BORL) today announced that it has been served
with a law suit that alleges certain securities law violations by Borland
and certain of its officers and directors. The lawsuit purports to
represent a class of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Borland
common stock between March 5, 1991 and April 27, 1992. Borland has reviewed
the allegations and determined that they are baseless. Borland intends to
defend the action vigorously.
ZIP-TALK PK has started distributing a BETA for PK204d, which
"""""""" supposedly fixes the known bugs. It appears that some of
problems come from defaults which have unpopular features as defaults.
Actually they may not be unpopular just different from previous versions.
They hope to be able to distribute a maintenance (bugfix) in about 2
weeks or so. In the meantime I'm using the new Unzip but sticking to the
old ZIP for compatibility. -Len
(L.GROSSMAN2, CAT13, TOP3, MSG:16/M615)
BORLAND RUMORS Ah, folks, lately there have been some rumors running
"""""""""""""" around that Borland was considering merging with Lotus,
and that Phillippe Kahn had met with Jim Manzi at a hotel to talk about a
merger.
Phillippe's said that when he read the story, it's the first he'd
heard that he had met with Jim Manzi to talk about anything.
Apparently someone decided to participate in some interesting rumor-
mongering. :) -Juan
(J.JIMENEZ, CAT11, TOP27, MSG:32/M615)
PKZIP MOANS & GROANS One unhappy user's comments on PKZIP 2.04C:
""""""""""""""""""""
1. The severely abbreviated unregistered manual (MANUAL.DOC) is the
pits. Important info is missing. You must register to get
important info regarding PKZIP operation. This seems contrary to
ASP standards.
2. Documentation is seriously inconsistent. Example: If you type PKZIP
alone to get HELP, SCREEN #3 says that the -o option dates the ZIP
file according to the LATEST file in the archive. But MANUAL.DOC
says that -o dates the archive accoding to the OLDEST file in the
ZIP. In fact, -o dates the file according to the LATEST file in the
archive (my preference).
3. The documented option (in MANUAL.DOC) to SET PKZIP.CFG options
apparently NO LONGER WORKS; it did before. My revised PKZIP.CFG,
which is properly SET in AUTOEXEC.BAT (on my system: SET
PKZIP.CFG=D:\PK), reads as follows, but is apparently IGNORED:
ZIPDATE=latest
COMPRESS=maximal
To get these options now, I set my NDOS (COMMAND.COM or 4DOS
replacement shell) alias for "PKZIP" to substitute the following command
line:
PKZIP -ex -o %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
I'm NOT impressed with PKWARE's latest release, though they certainly
took the time they SHOULD have needed to do it RIGHT.
I think that LHARC offers superior RESULTS -- including superior
compression -- though it's slightly harder to use than PKZIP. LHARC is
also friendlier to shareware developers, with NO complicated
payment-for-use arrangements to consider.
(BRAUB, CAT4, TOP15, MSG:91/M615)
>>>>> FINDING PKZIP - PKZ204C.EXE is a self-extracting archive that
""""" includes both PKZIP and PKUNZIP, as well as a few other related
utilities. (PETERZ, CAT1, TOP17, MSG:2/M615)
BAD NEWS, FOLKS I just received a letter in the mail today from
""""""""""""""" Nationwide Warranty Corporation. They say that Centrix
went out of business in the middle of December. Not only did this bring
our Centrix 'lifetime' labor warranty to an end, but NWC says that they can
no longer honor the one year on- site service warranty either.
NWC is willing to SELL you a warranty for your Centrix computer. One
year of toll-free tech support will put you out $99.50. One year of
on-site service starts at over $200.
I am not happy.
"With Centrix, you are not just getting a great computer. You are
getting a great computer company." NOT!
(D.HANNU, CAT16, TOP5, MSG:4/M615)
>>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
Windows RoundTable
Category 2, Topic 2
Message 69 Sat Jan 16, 1993
S.DOYLE at 13:55 EST
Well once again I feel compelled to comment on the state of the
Windows interface. (Maybe I should just lie down until the feeling
passes.)
Despite any worries about "user interface innovation", a plethora of
Windows shells, tools and hacks continue to sprout like weeds. These are
all aimed at making Windows easier and more complete. Unfortunately, I
wonder if they just don't confuse the less computer oriented user. Just
like a "hundred flowers" of DOS shells, tools, utilities sprung up, arming
each sub-cult of DOS a religion of their own.
Now don't get me wrong. I have softened a little lately and found
that there are several programs that do overcome Windows shortcomings.
Problems is, one has to slug thru a passel of them to find out which ones
behave the best as a whole (if one is at all fussy about that). Then you
have to wonder if the latest Windows widget will be around a year from now
or if Microsoft will figure out that it's best they add the feature to
Windows anyway. Flexibility has a price. And Microsoft's version of
Darwinism will sift out the losers.
Steve
[*][*][*]
While on GEnie, do you spend most of your time downloading files?
If so, you may be missing out some excellent information in the Bulletin
Board area. The messages listed above only scratch the surface of
what's available and waiting for you in the bulletin board area.
If you are serious about your IBM-PC, the GEnie Lamp staff strongly
urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally
thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the
world.
////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "We have to do something to be trendy. How about we all decorate /
/ our computers and hard drives with anchovies, wrap small wood- /
/ land animals around our necks, and chant Mexican operas while /
/ we embroider "Censorship is for the *" on our underwear. /
/ Either that, or we can go out for pizza." /
////////////////////////////////////////////////// R.MARTIN22 ////
[EOA]
[HUM]//////////////////////////////
HUMOR ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
Safe Fax
""""""""
>>> THE FRIENDLY GUIDE TO SAFE FAX <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Dr. B. Comfortable answers some of your questions....
Q.: Doctor, I am new to fax, I have not had much fax, and I am worried.
Is it safe to have fax?
A.: Fax is perfectly safe, providing both you and your partner maintain
your equipment in good order, keep it clean and have a regular
check-up by a qualified consultant. Do not be embarrassed at your
lack of experience. There are many excellent fax manuals available,
including my own "The Joy of Fax".
Q.: About how often should I fax?
A.: Those who are new to fax often can't get enough, and do it all the
time. We usually find, however, that as we get older and the novelty
wears off, the desire for fax decreases rapidly, particularly if we
still have the same old machine. (It is not unknown for jaded faxers
to have a brief "fling" with a new, exciting machine, but this, too,
will usually burn out quite quickly.)
Q.: Can I have fax with more than one person?
A.: By all means. This is perfectly normal, even necessary in most
circumstances. It is time we cast aside our hang-ups about fax, feel
free to "let it all hang out" and share your true self with the world.
Q.: Do I have to be married to have fax?
A.: Good Lord, no. People who hardly ever fax their wives will spend
most of their working lives faxing complete strangers.
Q.: My parents say they never had fax when they were young, and were only
allowed to write memos to each other until they were twenty-one, is
this true?
A.: Yes, but why worry about boring old twits like them?
Q.: If I fax something to myself, will I go blind?
A.: Certainly not, as far as I can see.
Q.: There is a place on our street now, where you can go and pay to fax,
is this legal?
A.: Yes. Many lonely people have no other outlet for their fax drives and
must pay a "professional" when their need for fax becomes too strong.
Q.: What are the consequences of indiscriminate fax?
A.: Very high telephone bills
/////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ " >Good thing you're almost done! Ultima Underworlds II is out!" /
/ /
/ "Oh no! :)" /
//////////////////////////////////////////////////// J.JIMENEZ ////
[EOA]
[WIN]//////////////////////////////
YES, I DO WINDOWS! /
/////////////////////////////////
Windows RoundTable
""""""""""""""""""
>>> PEEKING THROUGH WINDOWS <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ From the Windows RoundTable on Page 1335 ~
WINDOWS ALADDIN?
""""""""""""""""
>CHAZ
>
>The PC version is nice, but I was spoiled by the Atari ST
>version, especially the ability to PERm IGNore topics while reading
>them offline.
Not to worry, the author of ST and AMI Aladdin, is also a windows
advocate. He also sent me a beta copy of a windows frontend to play with.
It does everything ST and AMI Aladdin does, and much more.
-Tim Purves (TIMPURVES, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:390/M1135)
>>>>> Wait a second, Tim, I thought YOU were the author of ST and AMI
""""" Aladdins! Did you mean You sent Yourself a beta of a Windows
front end? -JN (J.NESS, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:395/M1135)
>>>>> Correct.
""""" (TIMPURVES, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:396/M1135)
>>>>> I know of at least 3-4 Windows front ends for GEnie in
""""" development, some ready to go beta. Two of those people are right
here, the others are more low-key and I haven't heard from them in a while
since I last read their messages in the IBM RT. -Juan
(J.JIMENEZ, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:397/M1135)
>>>>> No argument, I just find it hard to believe that people are waiting
""""" for PC Aladdin 2.0 before they release. You know why I am waiting.
(TIMPURVES, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:398/M1135)
>>>>> >Actually, if your new Aladdin (AladWin?) is as good as the ST
""""" >version is, PC owners will finally understand what they've been
>missing.
Better, than ST, Windows is a more mature GUI than GEM.
>Yeah, but you're in the same position as I am, none of them are
>in our shoes or have the advantages we have.
Not really.
>Correct me if I am wrong, Tim -- but what Tim is working on is
>not Aladdin for Windows.
True it's not called Aladdin For Windows, and it's not a GEnie effort.
>Not really, please enlighting me why you are waiting.
Cannot enlighten you at this time. Sorry.
(TIMPURVES, CAT16, TOP10, MSG:405/M1135)
IS MICROSOFT ABANDONING TCP/IP SYSTEM? We just got our copies of WFW
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" yesterday. We develop Windows
software, and thought WFW would be ideal for setting up a configuration
management environment for product development. I was dismayed when I saw
that there is no TCP/IP support. We use TCP/IP to talk to our print server,
and our end product uses it.
I tried using two network cards, one for WFW and one for TCP/IP using
that system as a bridge between the two networks. No luck. Does anyone know
of a way we can do this? We have to be able to support FTP's TCP interface,
because the software we develop requires it.
Does Microsoft have any plans for supporting TCP/IP? If not, we'll
have to abandon WFW and figure out something else. -John
(J.WAYCOTT, CAT22, TOP3, MSG:4/M1135)\
>>>>> I hear via PCWEEK that a new version of WFW is in beta. This new
""""" version supposedly has support for TCP/IP as well as native IPX.
(T.KLIMEK, CAT22, TOP3, MSG:5/M1135)
INSTALLING THE CLOCK To have a clock visible on title bar.....
""""""""""""""""""""
o Put the accessory 'clock' in startup group.
o open clock go to 'settings' and choose what you want (analog or
digital)
o Go to '-' /or/ press alt-spacebar
o Choose 'always on top'
o Go back to options....choose 'no title'
o Re-size and position clock where you want it.
o In program manager options choose 'save setting on exit'
o quit and restart Windows
o In program manager options un-choose 'save setting on exit'
(E.STUTSMAN, CAT2, TOP2, MSG:81/M1335)
WHAT'S THE BEST WINDOWS FRONT EDN FOR PKZIP? I'd recommend WinZip. I'm
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" using 3.2, and it handles
the most popular formats, has built-in Unzipping routines for files created
with PKZip 1.1, allows "drag-n-drop" with file manager, can automatically
put the proper associations into WIN.INI (i.e. double- click an archive in
file manager automatically pops up WinZip), etc. etc.
I tried QZip, and really hated it. The interface is non-standard
(there's no menu, the file open function is implemented weird, etc.) An
especial annoyance about it is it apparently will only let you open files
with the extension .ZIP. I sometimes use different extensions when I need
the filename to stay the same (when I want to save different versions of a
program I'm writing, I use the same name, and an extension of ".Vxx", where
xx is a pseudo- version number). The only thing I think it still needs is
support for comments in archives. A single _and_ multi-line comment editor
for the archive as a whole, and single line comments for files in the
archive would be great.
Bottom line: WinZip is fast, flexible, powerful, has a standard
windows interface _and_ button bar, and is easy to use. A winner. DaveG
(D.GOLDEN, CAT14, TOP32, MSG:14/M1335)
778 WINZIP40.ZIP X PETERZ 930117 152576 345 11
Desc: WinZip v4.0 - compression shell
MAKING AMIPRO EVEN BETTER I purchased a book called "Guide To Ami Pro"
""""""""""""""""""""""""" written by Gerry Litton and put out by PC
Magazine and I'd recommend it to ANYone when they first get the program. It's
packed with tons of common english help and lots of little "tricks" to make
AMIPRO more efficient. It's one of the thickest books on my shelf and
probably one of the most used right now.
I actually use Pagemaker more than anything due to heavy DTP work but
this book makes AMI a breeze - I wish I'd had something like this when I
first started with PAgemaker, the learning curve wouldn't have been so
large.
Almost every magazine I receive now raves about AMIPRO. With all this
positive publicity they must be doing SOMEthing right.
I love the program and look forward to when they upgrade to include
better image control for scans,etc. (Then I'll use it as much or more than
Pagemaker - -- the image control is what's keeping me in PM right now.)
I really love the built in Thesaurus (didn't spell that right, did
I?) and sometimes I'll be writing something in PM, need another word for
something, flip over to AMI and find the perfect word to put in the PM doc.
A hassle but worth it to find the right word.
But in my opinion I'd give it a 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.
-Mari (M.COUTURE2, CAT13, TOP4, MSG:67/M1335)
INSTALLING ICONS AND WALLPAPER To change an icon, open the Settings
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" dialog box (select the object, right
mouse click, then Open Settings) and choose General.
To change "wallpaper" (that's a Windows term I think), with the
cursor on the desktop click the right mouse button, Open Settings, and
choose Background. (K.LAUX, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:761/M615)
/////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Techies write and writers go hungry. And users are baffled." /
///////////////////////////////////////////////// W.LIVELY ////
[EOA]
[MOO]//////////////////////////////
CowTOONS! /
/////////////////////////////////
Cows from Literature,
History, and the Arts
"""""""""""""""""""""
Volume I, Number 1 D============(==)==D
/ \
By Mike White `~~~~~~`
[M.WHITE25]
(__)
(oo)-------\
/~~~~ \/ ~~~~\ | \
| || *
""""""""""""""""""~"
Sir Thomas Mooer
1478 - 1535
A Cow for All Seasons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moovie starring Paul Scowfield, 1966
________________
||____________||
~||\ ||~
|| \ ||
|| \ ||
|| \ ||
|| \ ||
|| \ ||
|| (__) ~||
||----(oo)----||
|| \/ ||
|| ||
""""""""""""""""
Moorie Antoinette
1755 - 1793
"Let them eat cake."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
200 years later, all cows agree
|~~~~|
| |
_|____|_
(o~~o)
/---------(..)
/ | ) ~~ Watch for another thunderin' herd of
* |/ || Moo Fun from Mike White in the next
||-------|| issue of GEnieLamp.
~~ ~~
Abraham Lincown
1809 - 1865
"...all cows are created equal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
( )
\_ /"\_/ /----------------------|
( ! ! ) / AN' A ONE, AN' A TWO. |
( " ) < |
/ = \ \ EVERYBODY POLKA! |
/ / ~ \ \ \ _____________________|
/ / \ \
/ |X X X X X X| \
\_ | \ / \ /| _/
( | \/ \ / | ) CowTOONS? Stephen Litwin took us up
\| X X X X X |/ on our offer and sent in this month's
\ / CowTOONS selection.
\_ __ _ /
|| || If you have an idea for a CowTOON, we
|| || would like to see it. And, if we pick
]| |[ your CowTOON for publishing in GEnieLamp
we will credit your account with 2 hours
A Pol-Cow of GEnie non-prime time!
~~~~~~~~~~~
Playing His Cow-Certina
By Stephen Litwin
[S.LITWIN2]
////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "...honor and morals _do_ help when you don't have X$...In fact, /
/ it's when you can't pay that honor and morality will most often /
/ be brought into play." /
//////////////////////////////////////////////// D.A.BRUMLEVE ////
[EOA]
[REF]//////////////////////////////
REFLECTIONS /
/////////////////////////////////
Online Communications
"""""""""""""""""""""
By Phil Shapiro
[P.SHAPIRO1]
>>> APPROACHING A MORE PERFECT STATE OF HUMAN COMMUNICAION <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ Part I ~
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS Have you ever stopped to consider the many types
"""""""""""""""""""""" of barriers that exist in human communication?
Some barriers are barriers of cost. Some are barriers of inconvenience.
And some are barriers of time delay.
It's interesting to take a closer look at these barriers to see how
online communication helps eliminate or minimize them.
The Barrier of Cost The barrier of cost takes on two principal forms:
"""""""""""""""""""
1) The cost of transmission, and,
2) The cost of production.
The cost of transmission usually involves first class or second class
postage costs. And the cost of production usually involves editing costs,
page-layout costs, printing costs, and paper costs.
Online communications radically minimizes both transmission costs and
production costs. In some cases the transmission costs of sending ASCII
text can amount to a small fraction of the cost of sending the same text
via the postal service. This is especially true if people take full
advantage of flat-rate electronic mail.
Of all the many barriers, the barrier of production costs is the one
that most severely restricts useful information from passing between human
beings. The restrictive barrier of production costs was recently brought
to mind in a very personal way. Just last week a national magazine sent my
software publishing company a strongly favorable, but extremely brief,
review of my company's new educational software product.
Despite the positive tone of this review, I could not help but be
disappointed about the brief length of review. One can only speculate that
their production and transmission costs were so exceedingly high that they
had to condense each of their reviews to the absolute minimum number of
words. Another consideration could be that they wanted to give equal space
to fifteen or twenty new software products. The only way to be fair-handed
would be to give short shrift to each product.
Had this same publication been published online, the production and
transmission costs would be a fraction of their current costs. The editors
of the publication would then have no problem in "printing" complete and
informative reviews of new educational software products. The beneficiary
of such improved communication would include not only the software
publishers (who might benefit from increased sales), but also the teachers
and students who ended up using the software. In a very real sense,
society as a whole benefits from the opening of improved communication
channels.
Another example of the barrier of production costs can be seen in
newspaper classified ads. Whether it be employment, for-sale, or housing
classifieds, the content is almost always boiled down to twenty five or
thirty words, with each word so radically abbreviated as to constitute a
veritable dialect of the English language. (This "dialect" was charmingly
spoofed in the 1960's dramatic play titled: "4 RMS, RVR VU," about two
people who meet while searching for a four-room apartment with a river
view.)
Imagine if each classified fully and completely described the job
available, the merchandise for sale, or the housing situation offered.
People could actually browse the classified with a reasonable chance of
finding something that meets their needs. Currently, newspaper classifieds
can only give you an inkling of the opportunity expressed by the
classified.
Online communication does not place such rigorous limits on the length
of "classified" communications. On both local bulletin boards and national
information services classified notices often run to several hundred words
in length. Luxuriating in the available space, persons selling second-hand
computers have been known to list all two hundred titles of software
accompanying the computer. Buyers, likewise, can luxuriate in knowing the
complete details of the computer system they are purchasing.
The Barrier of Inconvenience The second barrier to human communication,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the barrier of inconvenience, is not as
obviously pernicious as the barrier of production costs. Yet this barrier
remains doggedly irksome.
A prime example of such inconvenience is the game of telephone tag.
Nobody but the most persistent person would continue the game of telephone
tag past the first few missed connections. Even when substantial benefits
could be gained on both sides, few persons have the resolve and tenacity to
continue playing telephone tag for more than a few days.
A second example of inconvenience is the trip to the post office that
is required each time you need more postage stamps. Next time you're
standing behind ten other people at the post office, take a moment to
consider the heavy burden of the "barrier of inconvenience."
A third barrier of inconvenience is the time-consuming chore of
affixing an address and postage stamp to your postal correspondence. (Not
to mention the chore of printing out, signing, and folding each letter you
send.)
Online communications almost totally eliminates the barrier of
inconvenience. E-mail makes telephone tag history (or at least more
bearable.) You'll never run out of postage stamps when sending electronic
mail. And you can bypass the "envelope game" entirely.
The Barrier of Time Delay A third barrier to human communications is the
""""""""""""""""""""""""" barrier of time delay. If it takes too long
for communications to travel back and forth, the rhythm of human
communication is seriously disrupted. The example that immediately comes
to mind is the interminable delays of sending and receiving mail between
the United States and Canada.
It's not unusual for an air mail letter to take ten days to travel
between the United States and Canada. That means that an ongoing postal
correspondence between the United States and Canada would yield a maximum
of two interchanges of letters in any given month. It is amazing our two
countries have remained such good trading partners given such slow-motion
postal exchanges.
A second example of the time delay barrier is overseas correspondence.
An air-mail letter traveling between Washington D.C. and Moscow takes about
two weeks to be delivered. Interestingly enough, the letter actually
travels to Moscow in less than three days. It takes the Moscow postal
authorities about ten days to sort and deliver their local mail.
Such time delays degrade the natural rhythm of human communication.
If you sent a letter on the first of the month, would you even remember
what you wrote when you received a reply on the 31st?
Conclusion As each of the above-described communication barriers is
"""""""""" eliminated or minimized, communication between human beings
flows smoother and faster. And history has repeatedly revealed that the
forward progress of civilization is directly proportional to the quantity
and quality of communication taking place.
Businesses grow through communication. Children learn through
communication. Social fabric is formed through communication between human
beings. Improved communications yields rippled benefits that extend far
out in all directions.
-Phil Shapiro
[*][*][*]
[The author can be reached on GEnie at: p.shapiro1; on
America Online at: pshapiro. GEnieLamp invites others to
share their ideas in this forum about our ongoing journey
into this new communications age. Submissions can be sent
via GEnie mail to any one of the GEnieLamp editors listed at
the end of each issue.]
////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "How do you kill the Mother Festor in Xenophobe? /
/ No hints, just tell me straight. /
/ I can take it! <G>" /
//////////////////////////////// ZRATH-SMILEY ////
[EOA]
[TEC]//////////////////////////////
TECH_TALK /
/////////////////////////////////
Down To The Wire...
"""""""""""""""""""
By Paul H. Davis
[TELASKA]
>>> ALL ABOUT UPS <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""
Our business is in creating satisfied UPS customers. Here is our
recommended checklist:
o How big?
o How good?
o "Standby" vs true "Uninterruptible"
o On-line (double conversion) vs. line-interactive
o Conditioning, grounding, sine waves, etc.
o Communication
Your decisions in working through the above considerations will
determine the third corresponding one: How much money? Your intuition is
correct here; bigness and goodness DO vary more or less proportionately
with How Much Money (although there are some note- worthy exceptions).
Ideally, the process is to determine How Big and How Good and then go
shopping for the best deal offered within the performance requirements you
have defined for yourself. Unfortunately, in the real world it often works
the other way around. People are absolutely limited on acquisition cost
and end up backing into the other two; i.e. they buy as much capacity and
as much quality as they can afford, even if it's less than they really
needed. This can be dangerous, because the UPS world is a real cowboy
marketplace and there are situations where something can actually be worse
than nothing.
Let's go through the above checklist step-by-step, starting with Big.
This is the simplest of the two steps because it's entirely arith- metic.
Go around to all the equipment you want to protect and read the nameplates
off the back. If it lists volts and amps, multiply the two together: For
example a 120 volt monitor which draws 0.6 amps is 72 volt/amps (VA). Many
manufacturers use "watts" instead. If the equipment shows watts, multiply
this times 1.4 to convert to VA. Get all the VA ratings for all your
equipment and add them up. Remember to count monitors, terminals and
external data storage devices. Don't include laser printers. If your
final figure exceeds 1000 you'll express it in "KVA"; 1000 VA = 1 KVA. One
last step: to allow for "growth factor" (the equipment you haven't even
thought of yet but which you're going to buy next year) we recommend you
multiply by 1.25. Now you have a figure you can use to match up with the
figures you'll see in UPS equipment catalogs.
Now comes the hard part: How Good? This is a judgment call not
reducible to numbers. However it can be evaluated incrementally, and we
recommend doing this to avoid getting drowned in a sea of gobbledygook. So
let's go through the list a step at a time.
(1) "Standby" vs. true uninterruptible. This probably
generates more confusion and rhetoric than anything
else. There is no industry (let alone Federal) standard
for defining "uninterrup- tible". Some people claim
that, for all reasonable purposes, a break in power of
less than 5 milliseconds (thousandths of a second) is
the same as no break at all. Others insist that a
break in power is a break in power, and that if you have
a break in power your power is no longer
"uninterruptible". We prefer the latter definition, if
for no other reason than to differentiate between
categories of products. There is one category which
does produce a break in power, another that doesn't. We
call the former "standby", reserving "uninterruptible"
for those which don't break, period. Unfortunately this
convention is not even casually observed in the
industry. Many (if not most) of the products you see
advertised as "uninterruptible" or "UPS" are, in
reality, standby units.
APC units are a good example of this. For example, the 200DL,
SmartUPS 600LS, 800-RT, SmartUPS 900, UPS1250, SmartUPS 2000 are all
Standby supplies, not Uninterruptible, even though they're advertised as
such. Nothing wrong with a standby supply if that meets your needs. Just
good to understand what you're getting.
What are your needs? Why do you care? Maybe you don't. APC units
are very popular; they do have a very lively customer service effort, and
this probably adds to their success. We recommend standby supplies only in
non-critical applications. The failure window for a standby supply is
extremely small ... in other words you would have to be extremely unlucky
to have your computer ever notice a 5 millisecond break in power. But it
could theoretically happen, so applications people looking at life-
critical installations, for instance, generally refuse to consider standby
supplies. Sometimes people with accounting applications feel the same way,
apparently placing as much weight on their accounting records as on human
life itself!
The thing to look at closely with standby systems is the "transfer
time" specification. This is critical because of course the longer the
transfer time the more chance of your computer noticing and dumping your
data or fouling the operation of your hard drive. Don't be satisfied with
published specs; insist on seeing actual test results. If they can't or
won't show you test results, there may be a good reason. For example, none
of the above-cited units met their published transfer-time specs in
independent tests! By industry standards they were reasonably close, but,
unfortunately, no cigar. For example, one of the better ones, the 800-RT,
claims a transfer time of 2-4ms; actual tests ranged from 1.0 to 6.8ms. By
comparison, the Trippe model SB/BC-2000 publishes a 6- 10ms transfer, while
actual tests on that one ran from 5.0 all the way to 53.8ms! Best Power
Technology does make an honest line, called "Patriot". These are published
and tested at 2ms typical, 4ms maximum. The Patriot line ranges in size
from 250 to 850 VA.
(2) On-Line or Double-Conversion vs. Line-Interactive The
On-line systems are the traditional architecture for
achieving no-break power. The concept is simple:
Line-feeds-battery-charger-feeds-battery-feeds-inverter-feeds-load.
It has the appear- ance of providing the ultimate
protection to the load because the load is apparently
totally isolated from the utility. Since you're not
getting your power from the utility in the first place,
the loss of utility power (or anything else happening to
it) won't effect the load. The appearance can be
subverted by a little detail called "continuous
neutral", but we'll get into that later.
The traditional architecture has two major Achilles heels (one for
each foot?). They both have to do with the nature of the inverter. (A)
Inverters are inherently sensitive to overload, so designers apply two
remedies: (1) They make the inverters extra big, driving up the cost and
(2) They employ what is known as a "static bypass switch" which continually
monitors the amount of load being put on the inverter. If it senses that
there is too much (as might be the case when equipment is first starting,
for example) it pops the load momentarily over to raw utility power until
things settle back to what the inverter can handle. This may never be a
problem. Unless, of course your overload situation occurred during a power
outage when there was no raw utility power to switch back to! (B)
Inverters, being active devices, are subject to failure. Since the
inverter is running all the time as a critical component, the reliability
of the system, or Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is only as good as that
of the inverter. MTBF figures for on-line systems tend to be not that
wonderful ... in the range of 10,000 hours or so at most. Otherwise, the
architecture DOES have a considerable amount of tradition and experience
going for it and, if one keeps an awareness of those limitations in mind,
the traditional on-line system can be a pretty effective solution.
The Line-Interactive systems evolved partially as a response to the
shortcomings noted above. The way they function is to keep the inverter
OUT of the normal circuit, using it only during power outages in just the
same way standby systems do. The difference is that they achieve no-break
power by using some sort of short-term energy storage to fill in the gap
for that approximately 5 milli- seconds while the inverter is coming up and
getting ready to go to work.
Some die-hard proponents of the double-conversion architecture
pooh-pooh this scheme, saying it doesn't provide the same level of
protection because it doesn't completely isolate the load from the line.
However, Best Power Technology, the chief proponent of line-interactive
systems, produces both specs and test results which suggest otherwise. In
their traditional line "FERRUPS" Best uses a ferro-resonant transformer
which acts both as the energy storage device for the millisecond gap and as
a filter- conditioner-regulator during normal utility power operation. So
effective is the ferro that utility power, after passing through it,
appears to many to be a far preferable source than the inverter- generated
power of the double-conversion units. And here we come back to the
above-cited weaknesses of the double-conversion. The FERRUPS units don't
have and don't need a "static bypass switch" because there is never a time
when they would need to throw you back to raw utility power. Even under
surge loads, the FERRUPS protects the inverter by using its stored energy
instead. And by keeping the inverter OFF most of the time the MTBF goes up
over 100,000 hours with no problem! Best has, within the last couple of
years, also come out with a new design of line-interactive no-break,
sine-wave output systems which don't use ferros. They call these
"Fortress". Much lighter weight (one of the user objections to the
FERRUPS), extremely quiet (another objection) and much less expensive.
(3) Conditioning, grounding, sine-waves, etc. Some people
automatically assume that a UPS also provides line
conditioning during normal operation. This is
especially not necessarily true in the case of the
not-really-uninterruptible "standby" systems. Most
don't, in fact. Surprisingly, it is also not
necessarily 100% true in the case of some
double-conversion on- line UPSs. "How can it not be
true", you ask, "when the power isn't even coming from
the utility? Surely that's the ultimate in power
conditioning ... to be not even connected to utility
power at all!" If you look under the hood at some of the
systems, though, you find that although your power
indeed isn't coming from the utility, they've still got
you hooked to the utility via the "neutral" wire. So
disturbances, especially spikes, which happen to come
down the neutral wire, can come right on into your
system through a big open door. This can be a big
disappointment.
If you decide on an on-line system, be sure and ask for an "isolated
neutral". With the Best systems you're covered on this with FERRUPS but
not with Fortress or Patriot.
Sine waves are the shape of the ideal waves you are supposed to get
from the utility. When running on inverter most of the standby power
systems don't give you sine waves, they give you square waves. Some
manufacturers call them "modified sine waves". They're almost all really
just square waves. Who cares? Does it matter? For a lot of computers it
doesn't matter. But if you want to be sure that the power you have
available will be right for whatever you plug into your box, there's peace
of mind in knowing that you'll be furnishing the same wave shape all
equipment was designed for: sine waves. Ask for sine waves if you can
afford it. Related point: Harmonic Distortion. Big rooms full of
computers will throw harmonics back onto the power line. Harmonics are bad
for computer power supplies, creating currents where they don't belong.
Look for a UPS (or a conditioner) which takes care of harmonics, especially
if you've got quite a few computers working together.
(4) Communication. Why communication? Because from the
moment you plug in and turn on your UPS you're going to
be constantly wondering what it's doing and not doing
and what it will or won't do when you need it. There's
lots of peace of mind in being able to find out such
things as (a) that your UPS is working, (b) how much run
time it has left in it, (c) how much load you're putting
on it, (d) what the current input and output voltage is
... etc.
APC does a pretty good job with communication; they are right out
front, if not the industry leader, in interface software. Our favorite for
this, though, is with the Best Fortress line, where all of the above plus
more is displayed on an LED digital display on the unit itself,
controllable with some front-panel pushbuttons. No need for even using
software if you're within view of the box. Otherwise, Best also has
software to go with almost all its boxes, the only exception being the
smallest of the Patriot standby units.
More information? Real-time mouth-to-ear consultation via telephone
on 800-488-6748.
(TELASKA, IBM, CAT15, TOP46, MSG:120/M615)
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "That's "Voila!", not viola. <grin> Your fans are going to /
/ wonder how to fiddle (uh, viola) with their cash flow." /
/////////////////////////////////////////// K.VANDELLEN ////
[EOA]
[MIN]//////////////////////////////
MINI_BYTES /
/////////////////////////////////
3 On 1: Writing-Style Analyzer
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
By John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
Program Name : Wintertree Writing Style Analyzer (WStyle)
Filename : WSTY113.ZIP
Library Area : 3
Program Number : 31610
File Size : 109568
Program Type : Text utility
Author : Wintertree Software Inc.
Version Reviewed: 1.13
File Type : Shareware ($25.00)
[*][*][*]
FROM THE AUTHOR The Wintertree Writing-Style Analyzer -- WStyle for short
""""""""""""""" (pronounced "Double-you Style") -- helps improve your
writing style in two ways. First, it examines your writing for common
problems, such as redundant words, wordy phrases, and awkward sentence
structure. Second, it analyzes your writing style and presents statistics
that tell you where your writing is weak and where it is strong. Although
WStyle is not a substitute for an independent review, it can help you to
write more clearly and directly and avoid common writing- style errors.
WStyle runs on MS-DOS-compatible computers. You can install WStyle on
a hard disk or a floppy diskette. WStyle can check files produced by most
word-processing programs.
[*][*][*]
MINI_BYTE BY BRAD [57] I am skeptical of any style checker, but I went
"""""""""""""""""""""" into this review with an open mind.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with WStyle. "F4 Ignore" did not appear
to work (to bypass flagging the same word(s)). I managed to hang my system
trying to use Edit Path when choosing a file. I tested WStyle with my
Classic column this month, and every use of "program" was flagged with no
explanation.
The authors point out this is a strictly mechanical process to flag
the most frequent problems encountered in writing. For example, every time
it finds the word "is", it tells you it's a passive verb, and suggests you
rewrite with an active phrase. You have to decide whether or not it's
appropriate. I'm sure there are people who would find WStyle useful, but I
am not one of them.
MINI_BYTE BY TIPPY [84] WStyle is a "poor-man's" grammar checker that
""""""""""""""""""""""" will suffice for most casual users. The program
documentation claims to check just about any word processing file, and it
had no problem handling the ASCII, Enable, Wordstar and Ami Pro files I
threw at it. I really liked having the ability to set the error checking
level. This gives you the flexibility of having the program report
anything from all errors to only the most severe errors. Additionally, you
can set a target reading level prior to checking a document. The error
checking is thorough and gives appropriate suggestions for each error.
After the document is checked, it gives you a nice summary screen with some
applicable statistics. The reported grade level however, appeared to be a
bit high.
The only drawback I found is the inability of the program to fix
errors on the spot. Instead, you can either save the error reports to a
disk file or print them, then return to your word processor to correct the
errors. This, however, is only a minor drawback and should not prevent you
from trying this program out. WStyle should prove handy for users needing
to check letters and small documents, but lacks the power features of it's
commercial sister products.
MINI_BYTE BY JOHN [80] I've had some prior experience using WStyle long
"""""""""""""""""""""" before its release in the IBM RT Library. How?
Wintertree Software Inc. started out by releasing grammar oriented programs
for the Atari ST. One of their programs, GramSlam, is a popular grammar
checker. I wasn't surprised to see WStyle following along the same path as
GramSlam. Unfortunately, although WStyle is similar, it has neither the
speed nor ease of the ST version. Still, for those without a commercial
grammar checker, it's a good alternative. This is the first (shareware)
release of WSTyle whereas GramSlam is a now a full-blown commercial
product. No, you can't edit files on the fly, and yes, it does have a few
problems when flagging suspect words or phrases. However, based on past
performance, I suspect that future releases of WStyle will develop into a
popular grammar checker for the IBM - just as it did for the ST.
[*][*][*]
GEnieLAMP MINI_BYTE'S RATING
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
BRAD ............................................... 57
TIPPY .............................................. 84
JOHN ............................................... 80
""""
MINI_BYTE SCORE .................................... 73.6
MINI_BYTES RATING SYSTEM
""""""""""""""""""""""""
0 / 9 Not worth the download - pass on this one.
10/20 Bored? Looking for something to do?
30/40 Got money to burn? Go for it! A definite maybe.
50/60 You may like this one - unfortunately, I did not.
70/80 I like it! You will probably like it too.
90/100 What? You haven't downloaded this program YET?
If all three reviewers give the program a 90 or higher rating, it
will receive the ~ A GEnieLamp Excellence Award! ~
>>> REVIEWER PROFILES <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
BRAD.........uses his 286/12MHz clone to run a shareware
distribution business. He's saving his
pennies to buy a 486 screamer with a _big_
hard disk. He is also a computer consultant
in the IBM mainframe environment.
TIPPY........uses his 386 based system for Word Processing
and Database Management to enhance the
computing power of a large Air Force Squadron
in Washington D.C. He also enjoys playing
games, but between CPU time for work and a
Masters Program, the game directory usually
sits and waits.
/////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "This looks like 'The People's Court', without da judge!" /
/////////////////////////////////////////////// J.P.C. ////
[EOA]
[QUI]//////////////////////////////
THE MIGHTY QUINN /
/////////////////////////////////
Random Access
"""""""""""""
By Mark Quinn
[NEWSIE]
"A Whole Buncha Milliseconds with Mark"
by Mark Quinn, DOA
GEnie address: NEWSIE
VIRTUAL REALITY CHECK Most of us have heard about, seen, or even partaken
""""""""""""""""""""" of today's crude "goggles and gloves" brand of
virtual reality. The attraction and benefits of the many-generations-
removed grandson of such a technology are obvious, especially at a time
when ads for laser disc players proclaim that the medium is "60% closer
to reality", and during the year that Congress is due to make a decision
on which brand of HDTV (High Definition Television) we'll all be drooling
over in the closing years of this century.
The "goggles and gloves" forays into VR seem almost laughable when
compared to visions concocted by futurists and science fiction writers. No
one knows what shape tomorrow's VR will take. Speculations of VR couches
complete with Medusa-like helmets, or biochip interfaces, or simple
headsets are nice, but are merely icing on the VR cake: the importance of
VR lies in its applications.
So here are some of the obvious and the not-so-obvious applications
for virtual reality that occur to this tech-crazed modem monkey.
1) Medicine. How about training interns on virtual
patients instead of real ones? Or teaching someone who
has recently broken a leg how to walk on crutches? Or
spurring the memories of an amnesiac? Or bringing out
the true personality of someone with split
personalities? Listening to white noise in the
background is comforting, but how about _actually
being_ in a picturesque setting for as many hours as it
takes the hurt to disappear? How about letting a
paraplegic have the experience of climbing a virtual
Mount Everest? Letting a (however base and hackneyed
it sounds) neutered person have a universe-shattering
orgasm? How about having people relive experiences in
their lives in a _positive_ way -- actually going back
to childhood and stifling that mouthy person or bully?
2) Education. It is said that experience is the best
teacher, and virtual reality ought to be at least
second best. Virtual reality field trips could range
farther afield than any mundane one. Students could
descend miles into the earth, and leap light years into
space while in the comfort of a virtual reality
classroom. Students flying in a VR spaceship could see
relativistic physics at work, witness the birth of our
galaxy, and preview its eventual demise. Or they could
wing above a Jurassic landscape on the backs of
pterodactyls, phone home on a re-creation of the set
of _E.T._ to see how movies of our time were made, or
peek over Segovia's sheet music as he sight-reads
_Estudio Sin Luz_.
3) Military. Entire battles could be planned in virtual
reality. It's raining brickbats, the terrain is
muddy/rocky, the enemy is approaching from the east,
your men are fatigued -- don't kiss your corporal
goodbye, mister, DO something!
I might as well stop here. What I'd like to leave you with as you're
reading this on your screen or from a printout is that the idea is the
important thing. First comes the idea, then the hardware, then the
applications for that hardware. (So we're leap-frogging the middle step?
Who knew?) You've undoubtedly thought of other uses for virtual reality,
too. Uses which are as varied as virtual reality promises to be. And I
hope I've (very quickly) outlined some you haven't thought of.
What intrigues me so much about cyberspace/virtual reality is not how
it will take us where we will go, but what we will do when we get there.
////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "It's "funny" we've generated MUCH more message traffic here /
/ talking abut the pros and cons of such a topic than many /
/ such messages would have otherwise :-)" /
//////////////////////////////////////////// JOHN.DENNING ////
[EOA]
[LIB]//////////////////////////////
THE ONLINE LIBRARY /
/////////////////////////////////
Hot Files In The Library
""""""""""""""""""""""""
By "Tippy" Martinez
[TIPPY.ONE]
>>> FILES! FILES! FILES! <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
THE IBM SOFTWARE COLLECTION Welcome to The Online Library, home of the
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" largest software collection on GEnie! During
January, a large number of files were uploaded to the IBM Roundtable's
Software Library. This month's issue highlights some of the more
interesting ones available. Each entry includes the file number, file
name, approximate number of bytes and the long description of each file.
Some of the most popular shareware products had new versions uploaded,
among them Hyperdisk and PKZIP. Many of the newer uploads are compressed
with the new version of PKZIP, and it will be needed to extract them.
Without any further delays, lets check out this month's collection of
goodies just waiting to be downloaded!
[*][*][*]
31344 HYDK432.ZIP 279936 FASTER THAN SMARTDRV?? Hyperdisk,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "the ultimate disk caching utility",
increases hard & floppy disk drive's performance. Supports read & write
caching in any type of memory, and any size of cache. Requires just 10-35K
DOS RAM. Supports Windows 3.x. Package also includes HyperKey keyboard
enhancement package.
31349 OPPM42L.ZIP 392960 OWL Personal Portfolio Manager 4.2.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" An easy to use program that combines stock
charting/technical analysis with complete investment record keeping.
Completely menu driven with on-line user's guide. Tracks up to 5000
securities in up to 500 portfolios with cost basis accounting using FIFO,
Specific ID, and Single or Double Category Cost Averaging. Plots price
volume charts with multiple moving averages, relative performance, momentum
analysis, correlation and net worth charts. 15 reports for net worth,
capital gains, portfolio income and return on investment analysis. Included
PORTFOLIO PRICE LOADER to automatically update prices from GEnie, Prodigy,
Dow Jones NR and Compuserve. REQ: 640k and Graphics.
31358 CPAVSOS.ZIP 274688 This is a scan only version of
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Central Point Software's Anti-Virus
program. It will detect over 1200 different viruses. There is no charge for
this program.
31377 SW-440.LZH 61696 SW 4.4 is the newest release of the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" popular batch file enhancer. Create text
window messages fast and easy without an ECHO. Full color support. Batch
file branching is also possible. SW v4.4 adds support for VGA 28 line mode,
cursor positioning and expanded text handling. DI 1.4 has a new /TYPE
switch which returns the storage device type by errorlevel. When you
register, you will receive SWV.EXE, a text file viewer that works with SW
and SW-DIR.EXE, a file picker for batch files. Shareware. Uploaded by
author.
31384 STAX92.ZIP 271488 1992 user-friendly Form 1040 tax
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" program for individuals and paid tax
prepares. Prints IRS-approved high-quality graphic Form 1040 on LaserJet,
DeskJet, IBM ProPrinter, Epson FX and LQ. Prints IRS-approved substitute
for all other forms on any printer. Automatic installation, pull-down
menus, mouse support and on-line help. Includes: 1040, A, B, C, D, E, EIC,
F, R, SE, 2106, 2119, 2441, 3903, 4137, 4562, 6251, 8606, 8615, 8829,
worksheets ad Client Invoice. This is the final version, ready to use to
file your tax return (Version 2.1). Requires 370K RAM and 1 diskette.
Economical Shareware.
31385 FB301.LZH 185088 A unique file viewer that allows you
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" to view and manipulate ASCII, dBASE, ARC,
ARJ, LZH, PAK, ZIP, BIF, GIF, PCX, TARGA, and TIF files. dBASE support
includes database management and a report writer. Archive support includes
archiving, extracting, and deleting files. Image support includes
processing, cropping, saving across formats, "slide-show" viewing, and
printing to a HP LaserJet or compatible printer.
31397 TOUCHNGO.ZIP 376704 Touch-n-Go! is a multipurpose command
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" center for your personal computer. It
includes file manipulation functions to include copying, moving, renaming
deleting, encrypting, attribute change, and date/time stamping. It
includes functions for disk copying and formatting, directory changing,
creation, and removal. In includes a text editor and terminal communication
module. Also included are system information and diagnostic functions. It
allows other programs to be integrated into its menu system and contains
many configuration options. Touch-n-Go! is shareware with a minimum
registration charge of only $34.95. -
31400 HR31.ZIP 171136 Household Register is the only software
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" you'll care about the day your home or
office is robbed or destroyed! Records! all the right information about
your assets so that the insurance company pays. Record category, location,
owner, serial#, model#, description, purchase/replace price, warranty
information and more. Quick powerful searches. Prints numerous reports to
the screen, printer or disk. Requires 384k and a color monitor. Uploaded
by Author: Lemuel D. Turner, ASP Member
31401 VLB352.ZIP 203008 Powerful easy-to-use menu driven program
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" that quickly organizes and maintains any
size video library. Includes context sensitive help, pop-up pick list for
data entry, moveable, resizable and scrollable browse window. Mouse
support. Holds all the right information about your movies, 18 fields, plus
a 31 line memo field is available. Prints numerous reports to the printer,
screen or disk. Also prints labels for your cassettes. Now includes a file
re-index/re-build utility. Uploaded by author: Lemuel D. Turner Member ASP.
Requires 512K,
31469 RDIR136.ZIP 78976 Graphic representation of subdirectory
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" size in Pir & Bar charts. Pinpoints
where disk space is being used. CGA, VGA or EGA. Navigate around your disk
by selecting & examining directories from the list on the graphics screen
using arrow keys. Or enter drive/directory name from the command line.
Latest revision adds PageUp & Down, Home & End while viewing the list of
subdirectories. Reviewed in PCM Magazine June 1991 and the May issue of
Compute.
31470 LAB3D.ZIP 450432 Ken's Labyrinth is a very fast 3-D action
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" game which supports PCspeaker, Adlib,
Sound Blaster, and MPU-401 sound. For those with multi-sync monitors, a
special 360x240 wide-screen video mode can be used. Each level has a wide
variety of art and original music.
31472 PHYSICS.ZIP 103424 Physics Tutor 1.0: Helps high school
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" seniors and college freshmen to
understand physics better. Uses graphical animation to demonstrate
concepts. The program should supplement normal classroom learning. The
author holds a Ph.D in physics and an M. S. in computer science. For IBM &
compatibles with 640 KB RAM and EGA/VGA graphics. Volume II in a series;
more forthcoming. Author will answer questions from registered users.
Shareware ($20) from Z & C Software.
31481 RSCARDS.EXE 44672 This is the front end program for GEnie's
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" RSCARDS Multi-player games (Blackjack,
Backgammon, Checkers, Poker, Reversi, and Chess). This program requires an
IBM-compatible computer with a VGA, EGA, CGA or MCGA graphics adapter, at
least 256K of free conventional memory, and a modem connected to COM1 or
COM3 (IRQ4), or COM2 or COM4 (IRQ3). A Microsoft Mouse-compatible pointing
device is optional. This program is distributed as a self-extracting
archive file - after downloading, just type "RSCARDS-" (without the quotes)
from the DOS prompt to extract. Please read the READ.ME file in the
archive for further operating instructions.
31482 CILNK255.ZIP 348928 An elegant mouse driven comm program that
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" is easy to install and set up in a few
minutes. While not a Telix or Telemate it has many advanced features such
as Mouse Pass-Through, built in Zmodem auto and Zmodem recovery. A very
good program for the new modem user with enough features for the advanced
user. Shareware from Ceder Island Software Products. Registration $25.00.
It deserves a look.
31480 PKZ204C.EXE 188928 Latest Version (2.04C) of PkWare's PkZip
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" utilities in selfextracting archive form.
Includes all necessary utilities for archiving and dearchiving. This new
Version will decompress files compressed with the older V1.10 (PKZ110.EXE).
Please note that files compressed with this Version 2.04C <CANNOT> be
decompressed by older Versions of PkZip.
31489 FFLYER.EXE 341760 The FREQUENT FLIER MANAGER is a valued
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" asset for one or more frequent airline
travelers. It estimates individual flight distances and bonuses between
major cities; graphically displays monthly travel and examples of aircraft
seating charts; monitors and displays the miles required to achieve your
next award or personal goal; has a popup memo pad; provides a "bridge" for
intercomputer data exchange; contains a schedule importing capability from
your display, when connected to the WS or ES systems, - and much more!
IBM/DOS3.0+ with C or D hard disk. Self-Extracting. Type "FFLYER", then
read file "ReadMe.Now" BEFORE PROCEEDING. Professionally developed trial
use SHAREWARE for individuals and businesses.
31495 LOTOPROF.ZIP 170624 LottoProf 3.0: Unique lotto program with
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" sophisticated analysis capabilities.
Tracks a player's betting progress, showing how to win more often with the
same amount of money wagered. Includes lottery's winning numbers, over 180
number wheeling systems, and the ability to print bet slips directly. Lets
players design number systems to meet their own needs. Requires DOS 3.0+,
EGA/VGA, 1 MB disk space, and 640 KB RAM. Shareware ($39.95) from
ColorVision Computing.
31497 SOA.LZH 214016 SOA, (Skill-Oriented Algebra), is meant
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" primarily for teachers. It presents a
complete, computer-based course in elementary algebra. The software is
MENU driven and produces printed exercises and tests formatted for direct
and immediate in-class use. Exercises and tests are random number based,
so the supply is substantially unlimited. Difficulty level is
teacher-adjustable with answers provided on following sheets. Using a
photocopier and the full course documentation, a teacher can provide a
creditable, highly teachable course in algebra., designed specifically for
modern students. Alternately, SOA's exercises and tests can be used to
augment and enrich a more traditional, text-based course.
31502 INVSTR.ZIP 312192 This is a demo version of an excellent
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" invoice/inventory program that was written
by Michael Colucci. I recently downloaded 15+ invoicing program, and found
this to be the best and easiest to use for people that are not computer
oriented. It has too many features too list in detail, but include:
customer, product, salesman, and invoice databases that are simple to work
with. It also creates reports and summaries of all types. It also has
pop-up help,calendar, and calculator. I was happy to spend the $35 to
receive a registered version. I upload this at the request of Michael
Colucci. This program is worth the download,and the 10 item limit per page
of printed invoice is easily increased
31503 NWATCH10.ZIP 143744 NIGHT WATCH - PC ACCESS CONTROL keeps
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" unauthorized persons from using your PC
by requiring entry of a valid User ID & Password. The program allows you to
define a personal User ID & Password for each person who is authorized to
use your computer. In addition, Night Watch maintains a complete log of all
successful and unsuccessful attempts to gain access to your computer. A
screen saver is included so that you can run Night Watch any time you are
away from your computer.
31505 BL15.ZIP 184448 Easy-to-use book database management system
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" is ideal for managing your personal,
church, club or corporate library. Capacity limited only by disk space.
Each record can hold the following: Title, Author, Type, Subject, E
Edition, Pages, Copyright Year, Catalog ##, ISBN, Purchase Date, Price,
Publisher , Location, two Note Fields, and a 31 line memo field. Features
context sensitive help, mouse support and much more. Quick search and Find
procedures and extensive reports that can be listed to the screen, printer
or disk. Req 512K memory. Upl/Author: Lemuel D. Turner.
31520 SHERLO15.EXE 100992 Sherlock is a game of deduction, a MUST for
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" logic puzzle enthusiasts. It is your
task, based upon the information available in provided clues, to determine
the locations of 36 blocks. Every puzzle can be solved by using the clues
to eliminate possibilities until the location of a specific block can be
determined. Sherlock may be played by a SINGLE person, or a TOURNAMENT may
be set up, with each person in the TOURNAMENT attempting to solve the same
puzzle as quickly as possible. A TIME LIMIT may be set if desired.
Shareware <ASP> $15.
31521 PCV45F.ZIP 233100 PC-Vault Plus v 4.5f <ASP> Hard Disk
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Security. Requires user name/password to
access hard disk even when booting from a floppy. Administrator can grant
up to 12 users separate Read/Write /Execute permissions for directories and
keep a record of user file accesses. LunchBreak feature blanks screen,
locks keyboard. Many other features. Shareware by Johnson Computer Systems,
Inc., ASP Member.
31547 STKM14.ZIP 328576 This program converts GEnie closing quotes
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" so that they can be easily read into
Quicken or your favorite spreadsheet. The program correctly converts all
types of stock and mutual fund quotes saving you from manually typing in
prices. Has built in Portfolio Manager which keeps track of portfolio
totals, % gain on total and % gain on individual stocks. Includes many
other performance measuring tools. V1.4 Shareware registration $7. Requires
512k.
31550 UMB11.ZIP 8192 Memory managers such as QEMM and
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Microsoft's EMM386 allow loading drivers
and TSR's into Upper Memory Blocks (memory in the first megabyte, but above
640K). This program modifies a DOS data structure to allow normally DOS
programs to use the leftover UMB memory as if it were conventional DOS
memory. Can help with compilers, etc. See enclosed UMB.DOC for details.
31551 IFSE10.ZIP 130816 New for 93, views bmp's and gif's,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" zoom capability,jpeg compression all in 1
dos utility. In these days of limited Hard Drive space, this program can be
a Life saver, (reduces gifs more than 50% with no discernible loss) Suggest
when prompted for compression use 50% or less :) Enjoy!
31552 GIFLK100.ZIP 107520 Now you can view a gif while downloading
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" it from any comm program, using any
protocol! I have successfully added this to TT20.exe and telix and it
should work in any comm software! Not just for procomm plus anymore!
31555 PHONELST.ZIP 147200 Keep those phone numbers at your
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" fingertips with COMPUTER PHONELIST! This
is more than an electronic phonebook, it is a telephone database with
sorting capabilities by Name, Number, City, State, and Zip code. There are
corresponding reports for each sorting criteria so you can send the
information to your printer as well. The registered version includes a
telephone log that enables the user to keep track of long-distance phone
calls, and the report on this feature serves as an excellent way to
double-check the accuracy of your telephone bill. Extensive help screens
throughout program - great screen display! Uploaded by author.
31573 FSCR11.ZIP 268200 From Scratch-recipe processor for Windows
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ASP Shareware, version 1.11. Card File
interface, Toolbar, Shopping list,copy to clipboard, Converts yield,
complete Search, Nutrition information, Prints unlimited pages, Unlimited
ingredients, unlimited # of recipes, Fractions, more! Registration
includes data conversion, import/export, bound manual, support, and over 90
recipes. ASP Shareware. [Note: This file is compressed with the new
version of Pkzip, V2.04C].
31575 ORG213.ZIP 65152 ORGANIZE is an easy to use, comprehensive
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" calendar/memo program that accepts your
daily notes, appointments, and memos. ORGANIZE prints attractive calendars
with your notes printed in their respective calendar blocks. Online help,
support for IBM Graphics and HP laserjet family of printers, configurable
options. David Pritchett (ASP)
31577 FORM1.ZIP 155320 Formula1 is a High School / College
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Algebra program which combines Computer
Based Training with an Artificial Intelligence algorithm. The AI algorithm
becomes an Electronic Tutor which monitors performance and guides the
student through the course. If you hate Algebra but have to learn it, this
is the program for you. Contains anti-virus selfcheck. Requires Harddisk,
Color Monitor, and 512K Memory. Shareware. Compressed with PkZip V2.04C.
31578 KRYP22.ZIP 41236 You can solve Kryptograms or you can
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" create them for others to solve. Since
there is no challenge in solving puzzles you have created yourself, share
them with others - your spouse, children, friends, colleagues or the world
at large. Just give them a copy of KRYPTO and the Kryptogram files you have
created, and let them have fun meeting your challenge.
31583 GIFLT200.ZIP 68096 This is the brand spanking new version of
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the popular GIFLITE program (v2.00),
dated 01/05/93. Compresses GIF files up to 30%, depending on the picture
complexity. This version adds a few minor bells and whistles, such as
increased VESA compatibility, and added support for the Acumos chip set. A
couple bugs were also corrected. This unregistered version does have
certain limitations, but overall, you should be able to compress most of
your files and save disk space.
[*][*][*]
Well, that wraps it up for this month. Remember, this is just a small
sample of the files available in the IBM and Windows Roundtables. The next
time you are looking for that certain utility, game or application, head on
over the Software Library and, chances are, it will be there just waiting
for you to download.
////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Just think how boring life would be without you guys... /
/ energize... 8^)" /
/////////////////////////////////////////// D.HARRIS8 ////
[EOA]
[PDQ]//////////////////////////////
PD_QUICKVIEW /
/////////////////////////////////
Textris: Spell Fast
"""""""""""""""""""
By Brad Biondo
[B.BIONDO]
Program Name : Textris
Filename : TXTRIS11.ZIP
Library Area : 7
Program Number : 31439
File Size : 99,584
Program Type : Game, Educational
Author : Thomas G. Hanlin III
Version Reviewed: 1.1
File Type : Shareware / $8.95
[*][*][*]
FROM THE AUTHOR Textris is a twist on the familiar Tetris game. Rather
""""""""""""""" than blocks of varying shapes, it has falling letters
from which you can make words. Words must be from 3-7 letters long, and
must not be capitalized names or trademarks.
Spelling counts! You may find that playing Textris helps improve your
spelling. It'll help polish up those Scrabble (or Scramble) skills, too.
Of course, the main point is to have fun!
You can make words either horizontally or vertically. Textris will
take the longest word it can find. If it finds two words of the same
length, it will pick the first it comes across. In this context, it may
help to know that Textris scans from left to right before checking top to
bottom.
You move using the arrow keys. Either the spacebar or down arrow can
be used to make a letter drop faster. The keys are shown on the
screen, so
you can refer to them as needed.
[*][*][*]
PD_Q RATING 4 LAMPS
"""""""""""
DOCUMENTATION EXCELLENT
"""""""""""""
PD_Q COMMENTS If you're going to get addicted to one of these Tetris-
""""""""""""" like games, you may as well do it with one that can be of
_some_ benefit, no? Textris has the power to addict you, but spelling
words while you're at it seems to justify the time spent.
On-screen help lets you know you can use function keys to make the
letters drop to the bottom immediately when pressing the down arrow or
space bar, you can toggle the sound on and off, and you can also toggle the
preview next letter feature, although it almost feels like cheating by
looking ahead to the next letter. But then again, it helps you plan some
strategy when you're first learning the game.
Two other features include a blank tile, which you can set to any
letter you want (or need), as long as you press that letter before it hits
bottom. Otherwise, a random letter appears. There's also an on-screen
high score board, for the competitive people out there who always want to
go one better.
Registering provides an additional benefit which perhaps justifies
this game as being educational. The registered copy of Textris comes with
a dictionary editor, just the item to add the children's spelling list.
Hey, whatever it takes to get the homework done, no?
Registration is $8.95, plus $3.00 shipping and handling. You get the
latest version of the game and dictionary, plus the dictionary editor as
mentioned above. Textris is available from Thomas G. Hanlin III, 3544 E.
Southern Ave. #104 Mesa, AZ 85204.
[*][*][*]
PD_Q QUICKIES Shortly after last month's column on Business Plan Master
""""""""""""" was submitted, a Window's version was uploaded. But as I
write this, I'm thinking, doesn't that belong in the WINDOWS Roundtable
library? Anyway, here's the abbreviated rundown:
Program Name : Business Plan Master
Filename : BPMWIN10.ZIP
Library Area : 3
Program Number : 31218
File Size : 123,264
Also, for the great following that has (by now) grown, there's a new
version of that great game Sherlock (really, the author isn't paying me!)
that I uploaded:
Program Name : Sherlock
Filename : SHERLO15.EXE
Library Area : 7
Program Number : 31520
File Size : 100,992
Enjoy!
/////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "And be careful! Wear rubber gloves! Stand on a rubber mat! /
/ Call 911 _before_ you open the case. ;-)" /
///////////////////////////////////////////// D.A.BRUMLEVE ////
[EOA]
[FUN]//////////////////////////////
ONLINE FUN! /
/////////////////////////////////
Search-ME!
""""""""""
By Scott Garrigus
[S.GARRIGUS]
THE PHOTO RT Hi everybody! Yep, it's February already. Can you believe
"""""""""""" it? Boy, I wish I could build myself a time machine and
relive some of those great moments. Though I'm not too sure if there were
really _that_ many great moments to relive but it would still be nice. :-)
We _do_ have the next best thing. Photographs. Yes, everyone's talking
about photographs these days, especially since Kodak's unveiling of that
new CD photo stuff.
Well, guess where I visited this month... Yes, you guessed it. The
Photo RT! And what a great place it is! Some of the best photographs
you'll ever see in your life are in the libraries there. There are
pictures in all the standard formats available for downloading and viewing
on your computer. You can also contribute your own pictures to the library
too! You send your pictures through the mail to the sysop and he'll scan
your photos and put them in the library for free! Neat, huh? And if your
into picture taking at all, the Photo BBS is a great place to talk to other
people just like you! To get there, type PHOTO at any prompt.
So visit the Photo RT this month and have some fun with pictures! But
before you do, be sure and solve this month's puzzle. You want to be hip
by showing everyone you know all the latest buzzwords right? :-) Have fun!
PHOTO & VIDEO ROUNDTABLE
""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ PHOTO PAGE 660 ~
X N K E D X B I G N Z C Z J Z M N A C U Y D X
D S M G N X N O H P I T E L U L A H Y S Q Y D
T I Y I G V A X B Y I K Y J Y U I U K N Z D N
Y W G F N S W A R C B H O A U D N W D Q D D V
K I I I Q O K G U A D Z F N L G O Q R E P L G
F D G C T G L Y Z N X K Q M E B S C M P H V E
N F G R T I D T Q A N Z C P C O H S O P B R W
D P B Y N X Z X A C V K J P X Z T K C G U L O
C J O O I M K E O I L I I S F T I T C T T G X
H O E M R W N F H N Y U E R T Q M B C Y B V G
A T N Q P O J S F O Z P O W L J S I R K N J N
S T E V N V P O O R F P T W E L P E K H Y X W
C Q P A E C L E U B T G Q G L R L B N A S M C
I E C D A R K R O O M K P O U L Q E A N D U Y
H O S T J W S M B F X P M E A U G R X S G O C
P T O R S W D I S S K D F G W A T O X X M Q K
A O L E C E G B O B F F M V M N K B O T R S K
R H V P D N W I E N V D U I D A H S X T Z Z Y
G P S I Z I C A J I G I J C F C K Q Z E R E M
Y Q G S J G V W X H E X T V D S P K M F L F X
ART BRONICA CANON
CONVERSION DARKROOM DIGITIZE
GALLERY GIF GRAPHIC
IMAGE JPEG KODAK
MINOLTA NIKON PHOTO
PICTURE PRINT SCAN
SMITHSONIAN VIDEO VIEWER
[*][*][*]
GIVE UP? You will find the answers in the LOG OFF column at the end of
"""""""" the magazine.
This column was created with a program called SEARCH ME,
an Atari ST program by David Becker.
///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "[The game] MAELSTROM has brought me close to carpal tunnel /
/ syndrome, I just know it! :^) /
//////////////////////////////////////////////// J.BUDIL ////
[EOA]
[BOB]//////////////////////////////
DOCTOR BOB /
/////////////////////////////////
The Plain Vanilla Guide, Part 4
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Bob M. Connors
[R.CONNORS2]
>>> THE PLAIN VANILLA GUIDE TO DOS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Editor's Note This series of articles was originally published in
""""""""""""" TeleTalk Online Magazine and distributed via the now
non-existent T/TalkNETwork. Back issues of TeleTalk Online Magazine are
available in the GEnieLamp RoundTable Library (M515).
In my first column, we discussed the CONFIG.SYS file and I alluded to
such things as an AUTOEXEC.BAT, root directories, and paths. This month, we
will look at all of these things which will hopefully give you a better
understanding of what they are and how to use them.
Before going any further, we must define and explain the use of
directories since everything we do in MS-DOS (from now on, I will just say
DOS which will mean MS-DOS or PC-DOS -- and don't forget, we are discussing
version 3.x, and below, of these DOS's, not the new version 4.x) depends on
paths for efficient operation. If your computer does not have a hard
drive, paths are not as important to you so you might want to skip past
this part in that case.
A directory is a file on your disk(ette). It contains a list of all
the files that are currently active and visible on the disk. You can see
the contents of a directory by typing "DIR<ENTER>" while at the DOS prompt
(the DOS prompt will be a drive letter followed by a greater than (>)
symbol). If you have more files than will fit on a screen, the list will
scroll up off of the screen. Typing "DIR /P<ENTER>" (the space is not
needed; "DIR/P<ENTER>" works the same) will cause the display to pause when
the screen becomes full. You continue the display by pressing <ENTER>
again, repeating as necessary. So think of the "/P" as the "pause" command.
Here is a sample of how a typical DIRectory listing looks:
Volume in drive C is PC-DOS-32
Directory of C:\
PCD-UTIL <DIR> 3-15-88 8:50p
AUTOEXEC BAT 1078 10-18-88 8:35a
.
. (other files listed here)
.
NANSI SYS 2500 10-20-86
Strike a key when ready . . .
SETCLK COM 116 1-01-87 12:00a
.
. (other files listed here)
.
26 File(s) 405504 bytes free
The first line of the directory is the volume name or label we have
given the directory (if any) using the LABEL command. If there is no name
assigned, it would say "Volume in Drive C has no label." Labels, or names,
can also be assigned using a parameter with the FORMAT command (/V for
volume label) which we will discuss in a future column.
The second line, "Directory of C:\", tells us that we are looking at
the "root directory" of disk drive C. Remember last month I stated that all
drives are referenced by letters, usually followed by a colon (:). The
slash (\) in this line is the key to what directory we are looking at.
Since nothing follows it, we know we are at the root directory. Below this
line is the list of files that are contained in the directory. The first
column is the name of the file. It can be from 1 to 8 alphameric
(alphabetical, numerical, or special characters) characters.
The filename is followed by one or more spaces and then a 1 to 3
alphameric file extension. File extensions are handy ways to group similar
files by categories. When the filename and file extension are put together,
they are separated by a period (.) and called a file specification. For
example, the file specification for the filename, AUTOEXEC with the file
extension of BAT would be AUTOEXEC.BAT while SETCLK COM would be SETCLK.COM
(notice the removal of any blank spaces in the filename). The only
restriction for a file name or extension is that they cannot begin with a
blank space.
Next we have the size, in bytes, of the file followed by the date and
time of day the file was created or last written to. With only a few files
on a disk, file maintenance is not a problem. However, putting all your
files into one directory can get very cumbersome to deal with very quickly.
That is why we have what is called "subdirectories." Looking again at the
sample directory listing, we see a line that says, "PCD-UTIL" followed by
"<DIR>" and the date and time. This a subdirectory (subdir), or a directory
within a directory. We could list this subdir by typing the command, "DIR
PCD-UTIL/P," at the DOS prompt. All the files that are contained in the
subdir would be listed just as the files in our root directory were.
We can use subdirs to put files together that are similar. For
example, let's say I have Turbo Pascal. All the files for Turbo Pascal
could be put in a subdir entitled "TURBO" in order to keep them together.
Likewise, the TURBO subdir could contain other subdirs to group the source
listings of programs I write, the .EXE(cutable) files created by the
compiler, etc. So as you can see, directories can contain subdirs which can
contain subdirs which can contain subdirs which.... well, you get the idea.
Each of these subdirs then could be used to group together files of a
similar nature. The following diagram is typical of the organization of
directories:
D:\-+-BATCH
|
+-CVCS--------+-CATALOG
| |
| +-CM------------DATA
| |
| +-G&J
| |
| +-QUARTET
+-DOSUTIL
|
+-KITTY
|
+-WC------------REMOVED
|
+-WILDCAT-----+-BULLETIN
| |
| +-DISPLAY
| |
| +-DOORS-------+-TW200
| | |
| | +-TW500
| +-HELP
| |
| +-LIVECAT
| |
| +-MENU
| |
| +-PROTOCOL
|
+-WORKAREA----+-ARC
|
+-TESTDOOR
This diagram is commonly referred to as a "tree" and is used to
graphically illustrate the structure of disk directories. I am sure, based
on how it looks, you can see where it got the "tree" name. We start at the
root (D:\) and "branch" out from there. Our root directory contains seven
subdirs, BATCH, CVCS, DOSUTIL, KITTY, WC, WILDCAT, and WORKAREA. Some of
the subdirs have other subdirs and some of the subdirs have more subdirs.
Okay, here it comes, so pay attention here. What you are looking at are
"paths" which are not to be confused with the DOS command known as "PATH"
(although they are related).
A path is nothing more than the way to get to a specific directory or
subdir. For example, let's say we want to list the files in the TESTDOOR
subdir. We already have covered the DIR command (partially; more will be
covered later) so we have the basics on how to do it. There are different
ways we could examine that subdir's directory listing. The easiest, at
least at this point, would be to type "DIR WORKAREA\TESTDOOR" at the DOS
prompt. Here is what we would see:
Volume in drive D is DATADRIVE-D
Directory of D:\WORKAREA\TESTDOOR
. <DIR> 6-28-88 9:07p
.. <DIR> 6-28-88 9:07p
2 File(s) 4632576 bytes free
Hmm, looks a little different than the last directory display,
doesn't it? The familiar volume name is there in the first line. Our second
line looks almost the same but now contains information after the "D:\"
which tells us the name of the directory (or subdir) we are looking at.
However, there are no files listed even though the last line says that two
files are there. What gives? Notice that there are two lines with <DIR>
shown. The first line contains a single dot in the directory/file name
column and the second line contains two dots. These two lines (with
different dates and times) will appear anytime you get a directory listing
of a subdir. In the first line, the single dot represents the "current"
directory or, as in this case, the directory D:\WORKAREA\TESTDOOR. The two
dots in the second line represent the next higher, or parent, directory or,
as in this case, D:\WORKAREA. Note that DOS considers these dots to
represent files, thus, 2 File(s) are contained in this subdir. Later on, we
will discuss how to use these shorthand dots when moving from directory to
directory. The main point of this discussion is that
"D:\WORKAREA\TESTDOOR" represents a "path" to the directory we want
displayed.
Paths are used by many DOS commands, one of which (DIR) we just
covered. As we continue this column about DOS, you will see how important
paths can be. This month, I will cover just the PATH command itself as we
go over the second file that DOS looks for when it initializes,
AUTOEXEC.BAT.
What is a .BAT file anyway? The extension BAT stands for BATCH file.
This file is a pure text file that contains a series of commands that are
performed by DOS just as if you typed the commands from the keyboard one at
a time. When you type a command, DOS will check to see if that command is
part of its built-in library of commands. If not, it will next see if the
command is a command (.COM) file. Again, if not, DOS checks to see if the
command is an executable (.EXE) file. Finally, failing all else, DOS will
check to see if the command is a .BAT file (if not, then it issues an error
message, "File not found"). Assuming it is a .BAT file, DOS will open the
file and read each line, one at a time, acting on each before going to the
next. The file can contain DOS library commands or lines that contain the
.COM or .EXE file commands, and can even jump to another .BAT file if need
be. More detail about how to create and use batch files will be covered in
a future column but for now, let's just concentrate on the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.
The purpose of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is to relieve you of the
drudgery of typing various commands over each time you boot-up (or reset)
your computer. I will use the AUTOEXEC.BAT file I use to initialize my BBS
system as an example for this discussion and in the process, you will see
some new DOS commands. I won't go into a lot of detail about these commands
since most will be covered in later columns. I will tell you, however, what
the commands are doing in this batch file. Each line of the batch file
will be numbered for reference purposes only. The numbers should not be
included in the batch file. Here it is:
1 ECHO OFF
2 REM set DOS path
3 PATH C:\;C:\PCD-UTIL;D:\BATCH;D:\DOSUTIL
4 REM Get battery backed-up DATE and TIME
5 GETCLK
6 MODE MONO
7 MODE COM1: 9600,N,8,1
8 PROMPT $P$G
9 REM Define EDIT Configuration file
10 SET EDCONFIG=D:\DOSUTIL
11 REM Force system into TURBO (8 Mhz) Mode
12 FAST
13 REM Activate DOS PRINT utility, with 1K buffer and 20 entries allowed
14 PRINT /D:PRN /Q:20
15 SPS > NIL
16 BRK ON
17 ECHO.
18 ECHO Press ^C to ABORT batch file at this point if desired
19 REM Pause for 3 seconds before continuing in case ^C desired
20 WAIT! 3
21 REM Execute CAT.BAT to load and execute WILDCAT! BBS
22 CAT.BAT
In line 1, we see the ECHO command followed by the parameter, OFF.
Normally, as a batch file is executing, all the commands are echoed to the
display. The command, ECHO OFF, tells DOS we do not want to see all these
commands. This makes the display look a bit nicer. Things tend to move
pretty fast during batch execution and sometimes you won't even be able to
read what is happening, so you might as well turn the ECHO OFF. Besides,
echoing commands to the screen does slow down the batch execution. You can
turn the ECHO back on by just putting the word "ECHO" or "ECHO ON" in a
separate line.
Line 2 starts with the REM command. REM is short for REMark and is
used to document your batch file. Anything following REM is ignored by DOS.
If ECHO is ON, REM lines will appear on your video display. By the way,
both ECHO and REM are commands used _ONLY_ in batch files. Typing them from
the DOS prompt has no effect. In our REM line, we indicate that we are
going to set the DOS PATH (finally, useful path information!).
Line 3 is the PATH command which is used by DOS to determine where to
look for a file if it can not be found in the current directory or
subdirectory. Remember a few lines ago my talking about how DOS searches
for a file (the .COM, the .EXE, or the .BAT files)? If no path is set, DOS
issues the File not found error message if the file is not in the current
directory/subdir. If the path is set, DOS will search for the file in each
directory/subdir specified by the command before issuing the error message
(assuming the file isn't found in any of them). To see what your path is
set to, just type PATH<ENTER> from the DOS prompt. If you see "PATH =" with
nothing following it, then there is no path for DOS to use.
Let's look at line 3 and see exactly what is there. Of course, we
have the word, "PATH." Following that command, there are a series of
"paths," each separated by a semicolon. Each "path" is the drive and
directory we want DOS to search when looking for files. Since my C: drive
has DOS in the root directory, I specified a path of "C:\." I put all the
utilities for DOS (such as format, backup, chkdsk, etc.) in a subdir on
drive C: called PCD-UTIL, so I included that subdir in the path line.
Almost all of my batch files are on drive D: in a subdir called BATCH, so
that is the next path I have included. The subdir of DOSUTIL contains many
utilities that I have accumulated over the years and that is the final
entry on the line. Note that each of these directories is separated by the
semicolon except for the last one. The end of line characters (a carriage
return followed by a line feed), which does not display, ends the PATH
command. Once executed, DOS will search, in order, the current directory,
and then the directories specified in the PATH command and either execute
the file if found or issued the error message. To reset (delete) the PATH
command, the command, "PATH=<ENTER>" at the DOS prompt or in a batch file
will remove the path and DOS will only check the current directory once
again. One final note about PATH. DOS uses it to find executable files
only, not data files. Data files should always be in the current directory
or the application program must be given the path in which the files can be
found.
Line 4 is another remark while line 5 contains a command, GETCLK.
GETCLK is not a DOS command. It is the name of a .COM file that came on a
diskette with my multi-I/O (input/output) board that has a battery
backed-up clock on it. It causes the clock date and time to be used as the
system (DOS) date and time and eliminates the need to manually set the date
and time each boot-up. Note that I did not include the .COM designation
since it is not needed (DOS adds it automatically, as it will the .EXE and
.BAT designations if the .COM is not found).
Lines 6 and 7 use the DOS MODE command. MODE is used to set values
for various devices that you may have connected to your computer. Among
these are the printer, a modem, and the video display. The first MODE
command informs DOS that my system uses a monographic display (as opposed
to color). The second MODE command initializes my communications port to
use port 1 at 9600 baud with no parity, an 8-bit word, and one stop bit.
What all these mean is beyond the scope of this article but if you use a
modem with a communications program, your documentation covers them.
The next line, Line 8, has a command called PROMPT. When you first
boot-up DOS, the prompt line for DOS is the letter of the drive followed by
the colon and a "greater than" symbol. For example, if you boot-up on drive
C, your prompt is "C>". No matter what directory on your C drive you are
in, you will see the same DOS prompt. I for one, like to know what
directory (or path) I am currently in which is what my command, "PROMPT
$P$G," does. If I am on drive D in subdir MENU, my DOS prompt shows:
D:\WILDCAT\MENU>. If I change drives, the drive letter, as well as the
path, also changes. This way, I am always aware of where I am at regardless
of the drive or directory I currently have active. The PROMPT command has
other options you can use to set colors and other neat things. We will
cover them later.
Line 10 contains the SET command. If you type "SET<ENTER>" at the DOS
prompt, you will see such things as the location of the COMMAND.COM file,
what your path is set to, what your PROMPT variables are (if any), and
other SETtings that you have specified. In my batch file, I tell DOS that
EDCONFIG should be set to the D:\DOSUTIL path. This setting is stored in
reserved memory in what is called the DOS environment. DOS does not use
this particular SETting, but another file I have does. The file is a text
editor which will search the DOS environment for the term, "EDCONFIG=", and
when found, extracts the path so that it knows where to place its
configuration files. Many programs use this feature which acts almost like
the PATH command. If a program you use takes advantage of the feature, it
will be in the documentation for that program and it will tell you exactly
what the SET parameters should be. Be aware that you can issue a SET
command over and over again, each one containing different parameters
(similar to the DEVICE command in the CONFIG.SYS file we talked about last
month).
Next is the FAST command in line 12. Again, this is not a DOS command.
Rather, it is the name of a .COM file that switches my computer into the
TURBO mode, changing the operating speed from 4.77 mhz to 8 mhz.
In line 14, I tell DOS to setup the printer spooler for 'future' use;
that is, reserve space for it without actually printing anything at this
time. The /D:PRN parameter tells the PRINT command that I want DOS to use
the standard PRiNter device. I could have also stated LPT1 (line printer 1)
since it is the same as the PRN device. Alternatively, I could have used
LPT2 if, for example, I have 2 printers and want to use the second one for
the spooler (or only one printer but it is connected to the second printer
port). The /Q:20 parameter tells DOS that I want to specify up to a maximum
of 20 files to be printed at one time (higher or lower numbers can be
used). PRINT has many more parameters than the two specified here (which we
will cover later) but I find that these two are sufficient for most
purposes. Now whenever I want to print a file, I type (at the DOS prompt)
"PRINT filespec" and DOS will put the file into a queue (pronounced cue)
for printing. I can issue up to 20 such commands and each file will be
printed one at a time in the order I issued the PRINT commands. DOS will
send a form feed (page eject) after each file is printed. Anytime I want
to see the current status of the queue, I issue the PRINT command without
any parameters. The current file being printed is shown along with a list
of all other files waiting in the queue to be printed. If there are no
files being printed, DOS will display the message, "PRINT queue is empty."
By the way, a queue is a term that describes a line (yes, even when in line
at the bank, you are in a queue waiting for your turn). Queues can be
based on 'first in, first out' (FIFO) or 'last in, first out' (LIFO). Our
PRINT queue is a FIFO queue.
DOS gives us the capability of sending to the printer anything that
is on the screen. If, at the DOS prompt, we type Shift-PrtSc (hold down
the Shift key and press the PrtSc key), whatever is currently on the screen
is sent to the printer. If we type Ctrl-PrtSc, this process is continuous
until Ctrl-PrtSc is typed again. Sometimes I don't want the entire screen
sent to the printer but would rather have only a portion of the screen
printed. That is the purpose of line 15. SPS is a .COM file that is called
a TSR (terminate, stay resident) program. It loads itself into memory,
hooks into DOS, and then returns to the DOS prompt (or back to the batch
file). It sits there waiting for the Shift-PrtSc combination. When that
combination is seen, it allows me to specify the starting and stopping
point of the screen dump to printer. That way, I don't need the entire
screen printed each time. The portion of the line that says "> NIL" tells
DOS that this program will generate screen output when it is first run and
that I don't want to see the output. So DOS sends it to NIL which means,
nowhere. Actually, NIL is a file that DOS uses to reroute things of no
practical value. Since there is no practical reason for me to see the output
from SPS.COM each time, I route it to NIL (by the way, rerouting is also
called "piping"). Remember, ECHO OFF only works with batch commands, not
the output from an application program.
The "BRK ON" in line 16 is similar to SPS. However, it does not load
itself into memory; in fact, it is not even a .COM file. It is a command
that has been added to DOS by a DEVICE driver I have in my CONFIG.SYS file
(DEVICE=BRK.DRV). This driver permits me to allow or disallow processing of
^C/^Break keystrokes. Since my BBS uses live programs where the BBS is
exited and a batch file is executed (which ^C or ^Break can terminate),
having the ability to turn off ^C/^Break processing by DOS is essential.
Otherwise, callers could break out of the executing batch file and cause
havoc to my system (they would go to the DOS prompt). In this line, I turn
the ^C/^Break processing on because of lines 17-20.
In line 17, we see a variant of the ECHO command; it is followed
immediately by a period (.) which causes a blank line to be displayed. It
is useful for spacing. In line 18, we tell DOS to ECHO the phrase
following the ECHO command. This turns ECHO on *only* for this one line; it
turns OFF again right after the line is displayed. This is how you can send
prompts for particular actions you may want to accomplish. In this case, I
use it as a way to break out of the batch file if I do not want the BBS to
activate. It tells me to press ^C to ABORT the batch file if I desire.
Line 20 uses the WAIT!.EXE program (from Mustang Software, the authors of
my BBS software) to countdown 3 seconds while waiting for the ^C. If I do
not type ^C during that time, the batch file continues. If I do type it,
DOS will ask me if I want to terminate the batch file. If I answer yes, the
batch file is exited. If I answer no, it continues as if I never pressed
^C.
If I do not press ^C or answer no to the termination prompt, line 22
executes the CAT.BATch file that initializes the BBS (turns it on) and this
batch file (AUTOEXEC.BAT) is done.
Let's summarize what we have learned in this month's column.
AUTOEXEC.BAT is a text file that contains a series of commands, each on a
separate line, that emulate (and eliminates) typing of the commands at the
DOS prompt. AUTOEXEC.BAT is always looked for by DOS at boot-up or reset
and if found, is executed. The file can contain any DOS command, .COMmand
file names, .EXEcutable file names, or .BATch file names. Parameters for
these files can be included in each batch line. We can document a
AUTOEXEC.BAT using the special batch REM command and can turn on or off
screen displays using the batch ECHO command. We can even direct the DOS
send screen displays from any of the files to a special NIL file, resulting
in cleaner displays (or no display at all). Finally, we can jump from our
AUTOEXEC.BAT to any other batch file. We can change AUTOEXEC.BAT at any
time simply by editing it to add, change, or delete lines using any text
editor or word processor that does not imbed any type of formatting control
codes in the file.
By thinking through and planning your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, very powerful
sequences can be put together. The best way to determine what you will
need in your batch file is to keep track of all the things you now type
from the DOS prompt (such as setting the date and time, establishing your
prompt, etc.) and including those things in the batch file. It is a great
time saver.
I know that I promised you all last month that I would discuss the
VDISK ramdisk utility, but I simply have no room for it this month. It will
be first on our agenda next month. See you then. TTFN!
Copyright (c) 1988 by Robert M. Connors
Permission to Reprint is granted provided
Copyright Notice is included in reprint.
[*][*][*]
Do you have a question or comment for Doctor Bob? Leave GE Mail to
R.CONNORS2 or you can reach him in the GEnieLamp bulletin board (M515;1) or
you can contact him on the BBS Wildcat! Orphanage at 719-392-6631.
/////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ ">(Have anything against being quoted in print?) ;)" /
/ "Nah, anything I say is PD. :)" /
//////////////////////////////////////// G.FUHRMAN ////
[EOA]
[CLA]//////////////////////////////
CLASSICS /
/////////////////////////////////
Try Some Triangles
""""""""""""""""""
By Brad Biondo
[B.BIONDO]
Program Name : My First Mosaic Kit
Filename : MOSKIT1.ZIP
Library Area : 14
Program Number : 25917
File Size : 70,656
Program Type : Graphics
Author : James A. Porter
Version Reviewed: 1.2
File Type : Shareware / $15
[*][*][*]
FROM THE AUTHOR The idea for this program came to me when I visited my
""""""""""""""" grandchildren in the spring of 1991. My eight year old
grandson, Chris, had a birthday and he received a puzzle that had a number
of plastic pieces that fit into a frame to make a pattern.
This program uses pieces to help you explore designs. It is a process
similar to that used by craftsmen who use pieces of stone or glass to
create inlaid design called mosaics. You will use the computer and make
your design on the computer screen. This program requires your computer to
have a VGA color screen and a 'mouse'. A mouse is a small hand-held device
that controls the movement of the cursor (the arrow in this program) on the
computer screen. It allows you, the operator, to point to places on the
screen.
The pieces you will use to make your mosaic design are equilateral
triangles (a triangle that has all three sides the same length). You will
be able to select one of sixteen colors for your piece and place that piece
within the frame used to display your design. You will also be able to mix
your own colors. You can create more than 250,000 different colors with
this program but will only be able to use sixteen at one time.
[*][*][*]
PD_Q RATING 3 LAMPS
"""""""""""
DOCUMENTATION EXCELLENT
"""""""""""""
PD_Q COMMENTS It's been a long time since I've been a kid, so it's hard
""""""""""""" to decide how much appeal this program has to the younger
GEnie members (or descendants of the older GEnie members). But if our
little ones are anything like Jim's (the author) grandchildren, then they
should enjoy this program.
Although the hardware requirements mentioned above may limit the
audience for this one, it would be just too cumbersome without the mouse.
There is a grid of sixteen colors which you use to set the color of the
next triangle you place in the frame. You can also turn on a grid in the
frame. This is particularly useful when trying to achieve a geometrically
symmetric design (wait a minute, does geometry have anything to do with
symmetry?).
The program allows you to save and retrieve your patterns, so you can
record Johnny's or Suzie's masterpiece for posterity (and register two
copies of the program and send the artwork to Grandma and Grandpa). Jim
has also sent along six samples, including a nice 3-D pattern (my personal
favorite).
Registration is $15, which the author is donating to his
grandchildren's school. My First Mosaic Kit is available from James A.
Porter, 8400 Post Oak Road, Potomac, MD 20854. He is also working on a
print program to go along with this program.
////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "First thing is don't panic!! And, don't give up until you have /
/ found help from someone more knowledgeble than I!" /
/////////////////////////////////////////////////// R.MOSHER1 ////
[EOA]
[ADD]//////////////////////////////
ADD ALADDIN! /
/////////////////////////////////
Cut & Paste Scripts For Aladdin
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Jim Lubin
[JIM.LUBIN]
>>> TOP 1OO WORLD NEWS SCRIPT <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
TURBO-ALADDIN! The following script will log onto GEnie and capture the
"""""""""""""" latest 100 World News Stories to a file for viewing
offline.
~ cut here ~
Script # Latest 100 World News Stories
log onto "8013"
sendline "2"
waitfor "Reuter World Report"
erasefile "world100.nws"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline ""
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
endcapture
sendline "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendline "91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100"
capture "world100.nws"
waitfor "Item Time Headline"
endcapture
waitfor "or <Q>uit"
sendcommand "Q"
EndScript
~ cut here ~
>>> HOW TO ADD THIS SCRIPT TO ALADDIN <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Installing The Script First of all, you will need to separate this
""""""""""""""""""""" script from the magazine. To do this, just load
this magazine into any word processor or text editor, and cut or block this
script file out to it's own separate file and save it as SCRIPT.TXT. Place
SCRIPT.TXT into your Aladdin folder. Your script file will now
automatically load in when you boot up Aladdin.
IMPORTANT! If you are already running one or more script files, you will
"""""""""" need to append this file to the end of your present
SCRIPT.TXT. To do this in...
Aladdin IBM
"""""""""""
o At Aladdin's main menu, call up an available script, or
overwrite an existing script:
[F7,A] -to use an available script entry
[F7,E,n] -to edit a script already used
(n is the number of the script)
o Make note of the script number in the script editor.
o Use CTRL-Y to delete ALL the current text lines in the script
editor.
o Use CTRL-K,R to read the script file into the script editor.
[CTRL-K,R,<filename>,ENTER]
o Change the # in the line SCRIPT # to reflect the script
number you've previously noted.
o ESC to save
ALADDIN ST/AMI
""""""""""""""
o Under the "File" menu, click on the "Edit User Script" option.
This will load in your current script file.
o Position the cursor at the end of your script file. Now, using the
"Paste File" option under "Edit" add the new script file.
o Change the # in the line SCRIPT # to reflect the script number
you've previously noted. For example, if you have already
installed 3 files, the line would like like this:
Script 4 Latest 100 News Stories
o ESC to save
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ A A A I I I I /
/ I I /
/ I E /
/ E ~~~~ /
/ E _____ ..~ /
/ E ______ O / /
/ E _____ /== / // /
/ ! // / ==/ /
/ \ ! / _ / / /
/ \ ! / ____ \\//\\ /
/ \ / _____ \/ \\_ /
/ _______SPLAAT!_______ \/ /
//////////////////////////////////////////// R.MARTIN22 ////
[EOA]
[LOG]//////////////////////////////
LOG OFF /
/////////////////////////////////
GEnieLamp Information
"""""""""""""""""""""
o COMMENTS: Contacting GEnieLamp
o GEnieLamp STAFF: Who Are We?
o GET_THE_LAMP Scripts & Macros
o SEARCH-ME! Answers
GEnieLamp GEnieLamp is monthly online magazine published in the
""""""""" GEnieLamp RoundTable on page 515. You can also find
GEnieLamp in the ST (475), the Macintosh (605), the IBM (615) Apple II
(645), A2Pro (530), Unix (160), Mac Pro (480), Geoworks (1050), BBS
(610), CE Software (1005) and the Mini/Mainframe (1145) RoundTables.
GEnieLamp can also be found on CrossNet, Internet, America Online and
many public and commercial BBS systems worldwide.
We welcome and respond to all GEmail.To leave messages, suggestions
or just to say hi, you can contact us in the GEnieLamp RoundTable (515)
or send GE Mail to John Peters at [GENIELAMP] on page 200.
U.S. MAIL
"""""""""
GEnieLamp Online Magazine
Atten: John Peters
5102 Galley Rd. Suite 115/B
Colorado Springs, CO 80915
>>> GEnieLamp STAFF <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""
GEnieLamp o John Peters [GENIELAMP] Editor-In-Chief
"""""""""
ATARI ST o John Gniewkowski [J.GNIEWKOWSK] Editor
"""""""" o Mel Motogawa [M.MOTOGAWA] ST Staff Writer
o Terry Quinn [TQUINN] ST Staff Writer
o Sheldon Winick [S.WINICK] ST Staff Writer
o Richard Brown [R.BROWN30] ST Staff Writer
o John Hoffman [JLHOFFMAN] ST Staff Writer
ATARI TX2 o David Holmes [D.HOLMES14] TX2 Editor
"""""""""
ATARI [PR] o Fred Koch [F.KOCH] Editor
""""""""""
IBM o Robert M. Connors [R.CONNORS2] Editor
""" o Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] IBM Staff Writer
o Brad Biondo [B.BIONDO] IBM Staff Writer
o Tippy Martinez [TIPPY.ONE] IBM Staff Writer
MACINTOSH o James Flanagan [JFLANAGAN] Editor
""""""""" o Richard Vega [R.VEGA] Mac Co-Editor
o Tom Trinko [T.TRINKO] Mac Staff Writer
o Bret Fledderjohn [FLEDDERJOHN] Mac Staff Writer
o Bill Garrett [BILL.GARRETT] Mac Staff Writer
MacPRO o James Flanagan [JFLANAGAN] Editor
"""""" o Erik C. Thauvin [MACSPECT] Supervising Editor
o Chris Innanen [C.INNANEN] MacPRO Staff Writer
o Paul Collins [P.COLLINS] MacPRO Staff Writer
APPLE II o Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] Editor
"""""""" o Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] A2 Co-Editor
o Mel Fowler [MELSOFT] A2 Staff Writer
A2Pro o Jim B. Couch [J.COUCH2] Editor
"""""
INTERNET o Jim Lubin [JIM.LUBIN] GEnieLamp IBM
""""""""
ETC. o Jim Lubin [JIM.LUBIN] Add Aladdin
"""" o Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] Search-ME!
o Bruce Faulkner [R.FAULKNER4] CrossNET Support
o Mike White [M.WHITE25] Cowlumnist (CowTOONS!)
GEnieLamp CONTRIBUTORS
""""""""""""""""""""""
o Steven Weyhrich [S.WEYHRICH]
o Dan "Remo" Barter [D.BARTER]
o Jeffrey O. Panosian, M.D. [J.O.P.]
o Stephen Litwin [S.LITWIN2]
>>> SEARCH-ME! ANSWERS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
+ + + + + + + + + N + + + + + + N + + + + + +
D + M G + + + + + + I + + + + + A + + + + + +
+ I + I + + + + + + + K + + + + I + + + + + +
+ + G F N + + + + + + + O + + + N + + + + + +
+ + + I + O + + + + + + + N + G O + + + + + +
+ + + + T + L + + + + + + + E + S + + + + + E
+ + + + T I + T + A + + + P + + H + + + + R +
+ + + + N + Z + A C V + J + + + T + + + U + +
C + + + I + + E + I + I + + + + I + + T + + +
+ O + + R + N + + N + + E + + + M + C Y + + +
+ + N + P O + + + O + + + W + + S I R + + + +
+ + + V N + + + + R + + + + E + P E K + + + +
C + + A E + + + + B + + + + + R L + + A + + +
I + C D A R K R O O M + + + + L + E A + D + +
H O + + + + S + + + + + + + A + G R + + + O +
P T O + + + + I + + + + + G + A T + + + + + K
A O + E + + + + O + + + + + M N + + + + + + +
R H + + D + + + + N + + + I + A + + + + + + +
G P + + + I + + + + + + + + + C + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + V + + + + + + + + S + + + + + + +
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
Material published in this edition may be reprinted under the
following terms only. All articles must remain unedited and
include the issue number and author at the top of each article
reprinted. Reprint permission granted, unless otherwise noted, to
registered computer user groups and not for profit publications.
Opinions present herein are those of the individual authors and
does not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or staff of
GEnieLamp. We reserve the right to edit all letters and copy.
Include the following at the end of every reprint:
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
(c) Copyright 1993 T/TalkNET Online Publishing and GEnie. To join
GEnie, set your modem to 2400 baud (or less) and half duplex
(local echo). Have the modem dial 1-800-638-8369. When you get a
CONNECT message, type HHH. At the U#= prompt, type: XTX99368,GENIE
and hit the return key. The system will then ask you for your
information. Call (voice)1-800-638-9636 for more information about
GEnie.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
[EOF]****
