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                             W I N D O W A T C H




         The  Online  Electronic  Magazine  of  the  Internet




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                               WHAT'S    INSIDE
 Vol.1  No. 8                                                 October  1995

 Editorial
 Backup with Software with Long File Names                  Paul Williamson
 A Windows95 TCP/IP Tutorial                                   Phil Leonard
 Upgrading the Box                           A WW Roundtable with Jim Wright
 Norton Utilities for Win95      A Product  Review              Paul Kinnaly
 Our Obsession With Gates                                   From the Mailbag
 Address to the Foundation                                Peter Neuendorffer
 Windows Aspect: A Tutorial - Part Seven                        Gregg Hommel
 Stanley                                                          Bob Miller
 If Operating Systems Were Beers                               Derek Buchler
 I Have Seen the Future                                        Frank McGowan
 Coming Soon                                                                   Todd Henschell
 Idiots Redux                                                     Bob Miller
 Alice's New OS                                           Peter Neuendorffer
 Is There a Logo In Your Life
 A Web Primer                                                      Jim Plumb
 A Windows95 URL List                               Moderator Net Happenings
 A Note From the Middle East                                     Stan Kanner
 The Engineer's Song                                           Derek Buchler
 Reflections of a ModemJunkie                               Leonard Grossman
 The Last Word                                                   Ben  Schorr
 The WindoWatch Staff


                                        ww

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  WindoWatch         The Electronic Windows Magazine of the Internet
  Volume 1  No. 8                                       October 1995


                 Upgrades to '95 and Other Funny Stories!

 This issue is dedicated to those Windows  users who feel they've become
 obsolete with the coming of  '95!  I empathize, - up to a point! Many
 of us remember the first shock of the new '95 desktop with a sense of
 loss.  Those who installed clean, without a backward glance, your
 sink-or-swim approach has more than likely produced success.  It is
 reported, the new OS adjustment produces a bit of  withdrawal pain! Is
 that really true? Those of us who crutched our way with installs over
 Windows3.11, finally remembered to RUN | PROGMAN.EXE for reassurance.
 This hedge-your-bet approach kept installed applications intact and
 immediately available, but brought with it the downside of a cluttered
 hard drive reminiscent of glories long gone.

 As a result, it became obvious that '95 would evoke loud groans of
 anguish, and nostalgic yearning for the good old days  by many old dogs
 forced into the annoying and unappetizing prospect of learning new
 tricks! It was then that I polished up my editor's crystal ball which
 was fogged up with my own gasps of pain and slippery with the sweat of
 recent efforts. There emerged an unspecified number of  ego-strong
 holdouts who would wait to upgrade until there was more time to learn,
 more money to spend and more feedback from other '95 users.

 Discussions  with the WindoWatch staff concluded that upgrade
 strategies to Windows95 would have utility for many Windows
 users....including some of us!

 Last issue Herb Chong and Paul Williamson took on the big issues
 relating to the selection of the appropriate OS and the criteria that
 business especially, must establish when making such decisions. This
 issue we'll look at some of the upgrade questions from both the point
 of view of cost, utility, and time. These are the bread and butter
 issues of backup and  restore, hardware options for careful people on
 limited computer budgets, and a large smattering of Window95  humor.
 Having struggled with upgrading several hard drives using a mother
 board with an older bios, I for one needed a good laugh.

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 The WindoWatch homepage URL has been changed to http://www.windowatch.com




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                  Effective and Safe Backups Under Windows 95

                   Using Your  Existing Backup Utility Software
                  Copyright 1995 Backyard Software Systems, Inc.


         Backup With Software That Doesn't Support Long File Names!
                                        By Paul Williamson

  Problem:    You need to replace the C: drive, which contains
                Windows 95 without having to reinstall the operating
                system.

  Problem:    You have an older, unsupported by Windows 95, tape
                            backup system and/or software.
  Solution:    Use the LFNBK.EXE program provided with Windows 95
                            and your existing backup software.



 One of the biggest advantages of using Windows 95 is the ability to
 create file and directory names that mean something by using Long File
 Names, or LFNs for short.  However, the use of LFNs has created an
 unwanted dilemma as a by-product.  Successful back up and restore of
 files when using Windows 95 is presently not an option!  To completely
 and safely back up and restore any and all files with or without Long
 File Names, without using the backup utility within Windows 95, follow
 the steps below.  I know this works because I had to change my C: drive
 to a larger size.  Doing the backup and restore from Windows 95 was not
 possible because one must boot from a floppy to be able to back up and
 restore the C: drive.  I was, therefore forced into using my DOS backup
 utility, BackIt 4, from Gazelle. Since then, I have replaced the C:
 drive on four other Windows 95 systems, using this same procedure,
 without any difficulty.

 Of the many people I contacted, including Microsoft representatives,
 we all agree that the only acceptable method is to exit, or boot  to
 DOS, backup the Long File Names, backup the files, and then restore the
 LFNs.  If you are replacing the hard drive, you also need to initialize
 the hard drive, and then restore the files prior to restoring the LFNs.

 Before you start, make sure the disk(s) and contents are in good
 working order. Run ScanDisk or an equivalent utility to ensure the
 integrity of the drive(s) to be backed up.

 If you will be booting from a floppy, use the Start Up Disk that was
 made during the Windows 95 installation.  In case you didn't make one
 then, or your system's configuration has been significantly altered,
 make a new Start Up Disk now.

 The contents of the diskette will contain most of the utilities you
 will need to get started. However, there are some very important files
 that you may want or need to add.  If you have SCSI drives on your
 system, you will need to include the real-mode drivers for them.  This
 also  requires that you have a CONFIG.SYS and/or an AUTOEXEC.BAT file
 on the diskette as well.  In addition to those files that are copied to
 the diskette you will also need those suggested for recovery purposes
 which are listed on page 182 of the Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit.
 The following files have proven to be extremely useful and should be
 available on the floppy as well:

 1.  Compression/Decompression software, e.g., PKZIP and PKUNZIP
 2.  XCOPY32.EXE
 3.  CHKDSK.EXE
 4   DEBUG.EXE
 5.  HIMEM.SYS
 6.  MSCDEX.EXE and CD-ROM drivers if you have a CD-ROM attached
 7.  LFNBK.EXE which is the backup utility for saving Long File Names

 _ LFNBK.EXE can be found  on the Windows 95 installation CD in
 the ADMIN\APPTOOLS\LFNBACK directory.  Review the LFNBK.TXT file,
 located in the same directory for details on the utility and how it works.

 You will also need the backup software.  If you can't run the software
 from a diskette, you may need to make a diskette with just the backup
 software on it so you can restore it first from diskette then access it
 on the hard drive after installing the new drive.

 _ If your C: drive is compressed, be sure to back up the
   uncompressed drive as well as the compressed files.


 PROCEDURE


 I. Ensure that the integrity of the hard disk to be backed up has
 been thoroughly checked, using ScanDisk or similar application.

 II. Turn of Long File Name tunneling.
     A. Right click on the My Computer icon.
     B. Select Properties
     C. Click the Performance tab.

  A.  Click the  File System. button located in the Advanced
      settings section

  B. Click the Troubleshooting tab on File Systems Properties screen.

  C. Select Disable long name preservation for old programs and press the
     Apply button.
  D. Press the OK button twice to exit System Properties.
  E. Reboot the system.

  II. Close all applications that are running.  LFNBK cannot rename open
      files.
  III.Start an MS-DOS windowed session.
   IV.At the DOS prompt, run the LFNBK utility.  The LFNBK.EXE
      and LFNBK.TXT files are located in ADMIN \ APPTOOLS \
      LFNBACK directory on the CD.  If you do not have the CD,
      you can download the utility files from Microsoft's Software
      Library, document S15476.

         A. For each disk to be backed up, enter

             LFNBK /b [<drive>] at the DOS prompt to back up and
             remove long file names.

         B. You may notice that your desktop icons will change to
              short names and probably will move too.  Don't worry about
              this, it is a normal occurrence.

  V.   Exit the DOS window and Shut Down Windows 95.
  VI.  Restart the system in DOS mode either from the Windows 95
       Start Up diskette, a previously prepared boot diskette, or from
       the dual-boot menu option if you installed Windows 95 to
       support dual boot.

 VII.  Run your backups for all the drives you performed LFNBK on
       in step #5 above.  Be sure to back up System and Hidden files
       as well.  Windows 95 makes more use of these attributes than
       did previous operating systems.

VIII. If you just needed to make backups of your drives, and are not
         going to replace the drive at this time, then go to step number 11.

  IX. Remove and replace the hard drive.

           A. Shut off all power to the system and remove the power cord.
    B. Replace the hard drive.
    C. Restart the system from the Windows 95 Start Up diskette.
    D. Run the FDISK utility, setting partitions as you wish.
           Don't forget to make one of the partitions active so you can
           boot from it.  After exiting FDISK, the system will reboot.
    E. Restart the system from a diskette that allows you to
           restore the backups you previously made.
    F. Restore all the files from your backups to the new C: drive.

    X. Reboot the system and let Windows 95 start.  Don't get upset
       when you see your desktop in disarray, this is to be expected.
       Desktop and Start groups are stored with the long file names.

   XI. Start an MS-DOS windowed session.

  XII. At the DOS prompt, run the LFNBK utility.

        A.  For each disk to be backed up, enter LFNBK /r [<drive>] at the
            DOS prompt to restore long file names.
    B.  You may notice that your desktop will return as it was
            previously.  However, the icon placement on the desktop may
            not be the same.  If so, just rearrange them to your liking.

 XIII. Turn on Long File Name tunneling.
    A. Right click on your My Computer icon.
    B. Select Properties
    C. Click on the Performance tab.
    D. Click on the  File System. button located in the Advanced
                   settings section
    E. Click on the Troubleshooting tab on File Systems
                  Properties screen.
    F. Deselect Disable long name preservation for old programs
                  and press the Apply button.
    G. Press the OK button twice to exit System Properties.

 XIV. Exit the DOS window and Restart Windows 95.

    A. Final Note:  If you replace your C: drive or have to reformat
       it, the /S option does not properly set up the system files
       for Windows 95, in particular, the MSDOS.SYS file is not the
       correct one.  Therefore, to ensure that the proper system files
       are replaced on the drive during the restore operation, set the
       Overwrite Existing Files option, or the equivalent, to YES in
       your tape restore program.


   Paul Williamson is an on site consultant for Chase Manhattan Bank. He is
   a regular contributor to WindoWatch and serves on the Editorial Board.


                                    ww



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                         Making the Internet Connect


                  WINDOWS 95 TCP/IP INTERNET SETUP PROCEDURES
                         Copyright 1995 by Phil Leonard


 1. MODEMS PROPERTIES

 This tutorial assumes you have Windows 95, a modem installed in your
 computer and that you already have an IAP (Internet Access Provider).
 You will have already received the necessary configuration settings
 from them and probably have connected successfully using another
 Winsock version. If your modem was installed when you installed Windows
 95, the modem connections were already configured. You can verify this
 by selecting Start  |  Settings | Control Panel |  Modems.   Double
 click on the modems icon. If you see your modem listed, then you do not
 need to configure a new modem. If you do not see a modem listed, you
 will be prompted to add one now. Windows 95 will automatically
 configure your modem when you select Next.

 2. ADDING TCP/IP

 Before we continue adding a TCP/IP connection, we need to do a little
 housekeeping. When installing Windows 95, a Winsock.dll  was placed in
 your C:\Windows directory. Open Explorer: Start | Right mouse | Explore
 and confirm that the Winsock.dll is present in your C:\Windows
 directory and dated 7/11/95, 42KB in size.  If it is not there, look
 for a similarly named Winsock file which may have been renamed and
 restore it. Open Control Panel: Start | Settings | Control Panel.
 Double click on the Network Icon. Press the Add button. Select
 Protocol. Press the Add button. On the left of your screen select
 Microsoft, on the right of your screen select TCP/IP and then press OK.
 You will be asked to provide your Windows 95 installation disks. When
 it is complete, restart your computer as requested.

 3. ADD SLIP and SCRIPT

 In the previous step we added PPP but did not add SLIP. This file can
 be found on the installation CD in the :\admin\apptools\dscript
 directory and is named rnaplus.inf. If you do not have the CD, you can
 download Dscrpt.exe (70394 8/22/95 Apptools: Slip and Scripting
 Utility)  free from ftp://ftp.microsoft.com.

 To install, Select Control Panel:  Start | Settings | Control Panel.
 Double click on Add/Remove Programs. Select Windows Setup. Select Have
 Disk, Browse, and select rnaplus.inf from the CD.  On the CD find
 CD:\admin\apptools\dscript\rnaplus.inf or from the file you downloaded
 from Microsoft.  Press OK, and OK again. You will now be presented with
 a  check box for Slip and Scripting that you should select and install.

 4.  DIALUP AND EXCHANGE EMAIL INSTALLATION

 Open Control Panel. (Start | Settings | Control Panel   Select
 Add/Remove Programs. Now select Windows Setup, then Communications, and
 press on the Details button below. Check off Dialup Networking and
 select OK. Check off Microsoft Exchange and Select Apply.

 Insert the Windows 95 Start up CD when prompted and select OK. Windows
 95 needs Win95_06.cab so if you have the floppy version, it will be
 disk number 6. Windows 95 will proceed to copy all of the necessary
 files required to configure your Dialup and E-Mail. When complete,
 restart your system as requested.

 Before the system restarts, it will request certain configuration
 information from you. It will ask if you have ever used MS Exchange
 before. Select the no option and press Next.

 It will then select three information services, MS Mail, Internet Mail
 and Compuserve Mail. Just select MS Mail and Internet Mail for now and
 press Next. You are required to provide a path for a Post Office. If
 you have never setup a Post Office, then just choose a directory or
 leave it where Windows 95 defaults to. This will configure without
 connecting to the server. Press the Next button and give your email
 address and password.

 If you do have a Post Office from a previous install, go ahead and use
 that.  But either way, just press next and we can configure a new Post
 Office setting in the next section of this tutorial.

 You will be asked to provide the address of your IAP's (Internet Access
 Provider's) mail server. In most cases, this is the domain name
 prefaced with mail. For example, if the name of my IAP is
 compuserve.com, the mail address would be mail.compuserve.com.

 Next you will be asked if you want exchange to be configured off-line
 or on-line. For now, go ahead and select off-line, allowing you to open
 Exchange without dialing in. Press finish and restart your system now.

 5. ADDING A POST OFFICE

 To add a Post Office Directory to Windows 95, go into Control Panel:
 Start | Settings | Control Panel and double click on Microsoft Mail
 Postoffice. Press the Next button and select your preferred location to
 install your Postoffice. (I.E. C:\Windows). Press Next and you will be
 prompted to type in your name and password.  If you do not need a
 password here, just highlight the word PASSWORD and press delete and
 then press Next. This creates a new Postoffice and press OK.

 6. ADD NETWORK ADDRESS SETTINGS

 In Control Panel:  Start | Settings | Control Panel double click on
 Network and select TCP/IP and then select Properties. If your IAP
 (Internet Access Provider)  automatically assigns IP Addresses (Dynamic
 PPP as opposed to a Static PPP) then you can leave this area blank.
 Otherwise, enter the IP addresses required.

 Select DNS Configuration and the Enable DNS radio button. Enter your
 UID (User Identification) in the host field. Enter your Internet
 Provider's address in the Domain field.

 Then add the DNS Server address numbers in the DNS search order field
 as 123.123.123.123. You will have to get this information from your
 access provider.  Then press OK and OK again to finish.

 7. HOW TO ADD CONNECTIONS

 Select  Start | Programs | Accessories | Dial Up Networking. Double
 click on Make A New Connection and create one now. Type in the name of
 the connection you would prefer. Select your modem and press Next.
 Enter the phone number of your Access Provider. Then press Next and
 Finish. If you'd like the number to re-dial, Select Connections and
 choose the re-dialing option. Re-start Windows 95 for all settings to
 take affect.

 8. INSTALLING THE JUMPSTART KIT AND INTERNET EXPLORER

 You will need to first download the Internet Explorer 2.0 beta from
 Microsoft at http://198.105.232.10/windows/ie/iexplorer.htm. The file
 you will retrieve is named msie20b.exe 1125KB 9/30/95. Not only does
 this file include the newest WWW browser for Windows 95 called the MS
 Internet Explorer, but it also includes the Internet E-Mail Jump start
 kit.

 Both of these programs are included on the PLUS! Pack, a retail add-
 on to Windows 95.

 To install msie20b.exe, choose Start | Run and Browse. Once the program
 is installed and it finishes re-booting your system, double click on
 the Internet Icon on your desktop. The first question the Internet
 Wizard asks you is whether you will be using your provider or
 Microsoft's.

 Then it will ask whether you want exchange for your E-Mail client. Be
 sure to select this option. Follow the Wizard and supply all requested
 information and when you are done, the In-box on your desktop will be
 configured for Internet E-Mail and the Internet Icon will be configured
 as your Web Browser. Restart your computer at this point for all
 settings to take effect properly.

 9. ADDING ADDITIONAL ACCESS PROVIDERS

 You can add additional Access Providers by selecting Dial-Up
 Networking
    Start Up | Programs | Accessories | Dial-Up Networking

 and double clicking on Make a New Connection. You can have separate DNS
 configurations for these additional Access Providers. Just select the
 Access Provider with your right mouse button and select properties on
 the chosen connection.

 Now select the button labeled Server Type. It is here where you have
 the option of changing your connection type. You can choose from PPP,
 SLIP, CSLIP or WFWG/NT.  When you push the TCP/IP button, you can
 individually configure each connection independently with it's own DNS
 settings.

 10. SCRIPTING

 Windows 95 supports PAP or Password Authorization Protocol, SPAP
 the Shiva Password Authentication Protocol  and CHAP  the
 Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol.

 A PPP server that does not support PAP or CHAP might require you to
 login manually.  For example, when connecting to CompuServe's PPP, you
 must first connect and then manually send GO PPPCONNECT.

 Included with Windows 95 is a scripting utility called the Dial-up
 Scripting Tool. You can find this in your accessories group. Start |
 Programs | Accessories | Dial-up Scripting Tool

 Included are a few sample scripts. One of which is for CompuServe. If
 you have already made a new connection for CompuServe, open the Dial-up
 Scripting Tool and highlight the CompuServe connection.

 Select browse and choose cis.scp. That's all there is to it. The next
 time you connect to CompuServe, you will be asked for your UID and PW
 and the script will run in the background and connect you to
 CompuServe's PPP automatically.


 11. EXCHANGE AND INTERNET E-MAIL

 Exchange for E-Mail is missing many common features. For example,
 there's no spell checker, no reply quoting, no automatic signatures,
 and you can not configure the default font for reading mail.  But there
 are some fixes out there in third party land. Ben Goetter at
 http://www.halycon.com/goetter/widgets.htm has developed a small add-on
 called  Internet Idioms. This small utility provides built in
 signatures and adjustable fonts for reading mail.

 Just decompress the files into your C:\Windows\System directory and
 double click on inetxidm.reg to automatically install it from Explorer.


 12. INTEGRATE WORD FOR WINDOWS 95 V7.0 AS WORDMAIL

 Another way to enhance Exchange is to buy and install Microsoft Word
 For Windows 95 version 7.0. Once Word 7.0 is installed,  it
 automatically provides a spell checker to exchange. Word 7.0 also adds
 a new menu item to Exchange called WordMail Options. Here you can set
 WordMail as your default E-Mail editor.  With WordMail. Your Internet
 E-Mail can send and receive messages with other WordMail users and
 retain all of the RTF (Rich Text Format) formats associated with Word
 while utilizing MIME.

 However, it is not necessary to limit your Internet E-Mail to other
 Word 7.0 users. You can still use WordMail with ASCII and take
 advantage of  it's Word processing power. There is a feature called
 auto-text which will automatically attach your signature, or any other
 text, whenever you open a new message for editing.  In Exchange, select
 Compose, then select WordMail Options, highlight Email, and select
 Edit. This will open Email.dot. To make  your signature automatic, type
 out the signature you want. Highlight the text and select from the menu
 Edit | Autotext and change the name to "signature" (no quotes) and make
 the autotext entry available to "documents based on email.dot", then
 press Add.  Now whenever you start a new Email message in Exchange, it
 will open WordMail with your signature attached.

 This makes for seamless Windows 95 TCP/IP integration with the
 Internet. Not only does the operating system dial in and connect to the
 Internet, but also adds a 32 bit browser for the World Wide Web. This
 means there is also a 32 bit Internet Mail program which can share
 addresses with your Word, Fax, and MS Mail Documents. In addition to
 these fairly robust Internet tools, Windows 95 does include elementary
 Telnet and FTP clients. You must add the shortcuts to
 C:\Windows\Telnet.exe and C:\Windows\Ftp.exe respectively. There are
 plenty of third party applications that will outperform these command
 line applications included free with Windows 95, but they will suffice
 if needed.


 Phil Leonard continues to "smack it out of the ballpark" with his in
 depth cookbook descriptions of built-inWindows95 tools. Phil is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor and can be reached by email at
 [e-mail]




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  Upgrading the Box?

                 Should We Upgrade That Old 386DX?

 When  considering the options to upgrade or to take a pass on
 Windows95, users must weigh the choice between system hardware
 constraints resulting in performance limitations balanced against the
 cost to upgrade components. Several of our readers told us that a
 spanking new computer could not be justified in terms of how they
 presently made use of their computer. They did not define themselves as
 power users but rather people who kept their personal records, some
 educational programs for the kids, and a few favorite games on their
 home computers. There was, however, an implicit BUT !  It would be nice
 to have more multimedia options, to surf the net in other than a row
 boat and maybe, just maybe, start a home business doing books for some
 of the local small business.

 We confess to not doing an expensive survey but we did ask around.
 On and off the Internet, -some, - a few, - several, - not too many -
 careful people allowed that IF they were going to the expense of of
 upgrading their system was it possible to do it in stages and
 incorporate those upgrades immediately into their present system?

 We took our query to the ILink Hardware conference hosted by Bill
 Simonsen.  From past experience we knew this to be a bunch of very
 savvy people who would answer our questions with care. These were the
 questions asked and the answers given.


 From WindoWatch:

 "If someone were to ask you what was a logical and economical approach
 to upgrade several computers from 386DX 40 (ISA) with 8MB RAM and a 450
 MG IDE hard drive to 486 DX4/100 plus with enough ram for Win95.. What
 would you recommend? The option to scrap the computers and give them
 away for a tax deduction is not an alternative!

 Do we assume the first step to be a replacement of the motherboard?
 What are characteristics and the cost?

 How much memory? Up to 16 meg?  And what are these memory
 converter gizmos all about?

 From Jim Wright:

 I'd recommend a 486 PCI motherboard with a DX4/120 and 16Meg RAM.

     Here's the plan...

 -Trade in or sell the 8Meg of 30pin SIMMs for $25ea ($200) -Buy a 16meg
 72pin SIMM (about $500 - $200 trade in) net cost $300 -Buy a 486 PCI
 motherboard w/IDE, floppy, and I/O for about $125

 The board I use is the Amptron 9300.

 -Buy an AMD 486DX4/120 for about $130
 -Transplant the new motherboard into the systems
 -Think seriously about buying PCI video cards

 Without a new video card each system would cost you about $555 to
 upgrade.  You would have systems with PCI slots and 72pin SIMM
 sockets.  IF you buy PCI video cards, or any other PCI card, or more
 72pin SIMMs, they will be transplantable into Pentium motherboards
 if you upgrade later.

 Here's a slightly less expensive plan...

 -Buy a 486 motherboard with 8 30pin + 2 72pin SIMM sockets

  The only one I know of and use is a VLB motherboard for about $120

 -Buy an AMD 486DX4/120 for about $130
 -Transplant your 8 30pin SIMMs and buy an 8Meg 72pin SIMM for
  about $280
 -Transplant the new motherboard into the systems
 -Think seriously about buying VLB video cards

 This option without a video card,  your cost to upgrade is about $530.
 However, you will be stuck with any VLB cards you buy since almost no
 Pentium motherboards have VLB slots.

 A couple key points here...

 1: A 16meg 72pin SIMM cost less per Meg (under $32/Meg) than 4Meg or
    8Meg SIMMs (about $35/Meg).  That's about $60 per 16Meg of RAM.

 2: The average 64bit video card with 2Meg of DRAM costs more than
    either of the motherboards listed above.  It would be short-sighted
    not to consider the cost of replacing these cards, during a Pentium
    upgrade, if you go the VLB route.

 3: Someday you will be faced with converting to 72pin SIMMs.  The SIMM
    converter boards are at best, a clumsy expensive alternative.

 4: The PCI motherboard has only four ISA slots.  If your current system
    have more than four ISA cards, you must look at the cost of
    converting one or more to PCI.  Note: The motherboard does have
    on-board  Dual (four device) EIDE, and floppy drive controllers
    along with two (16550) serial, and an ECP/EPP parallel port.  This
    should allow you  to remove one or two ISA cards which currently
    perform the same functions. One more thing: The Dual EIDE adapter is
    a PCI, Mode 4, 32bit, high performance adapter.  You can have up to
    four devices, including EIDE CD-ROMs attached. The BIOS supports
    large ( greater than 512Meg) hard drives with LBA capability
    built-in.  Last thing: The BIOS also includes an embedded NCR 810
    SCSI adapter BIOS.  This means you can buy the cheap (under $100)
    NCR PCI Fast SCSI-II host adapters and start using SCSI devices.

  James Wright is President of Intuitive Microsystems, a computer
  VAR and custom integrator located in Aliso Viejo California. He is
  active in the Ilink Tech and Hardware conferences and can also be
  reached by email at [e-mail] or FAX [phone]
  Intuitive Microsystems, Inc.       Tel: [phone]


  Joe Sokalski from the same conference responded thusly to my
  question about memory converters...

  "A DX4-100 VLB system board and processor will be around $300. SIMM
  converters can hold up to 4 SIMMs in each, a right and left one, if
  there is room above them in your computer's system case.  The SIMM
  converters are tall and cost about $50 each; they need to match the type
  of SIMM socket on the system board, 30 or 72 pin and gold or tin leads.

  However, two 4 MB SIMMs will cost about $150 each. Too many chips on a
  SIMM converter may cause a problem so test it  on one system first to
  see it works. You can also search for a SIMM dealer who will take the
  old SIMMs in trade for 4MB 72 pin SIMMs that would be compatible with
  most modern system boards.  A used 1MB SIMM is worth about $15-25."

  Both Joe Solkalski and later Bill Simonsen asked me a couple of
  hitting the nail squarely questions that anyone contemplating an
  upgrade-it-yourself project like this one should consider...

 From Joe:

 "Finally, who is going to install, test, and debug the upgraded
 systems? If it is a do-it-yourself project, do you have the time to
 spend and tolerance for things not working right the first time, and
 patience to trouble shoot and fix or replace things that add to the
 final upgrade cost. Are you turned off by searching for and reading
 technical manuals?"

 And from Bill:

 "What are you running on these machines, Lois?  I think they'd run word
 processing etc, alright under Win95.  If they are too slow, 486DX2-80
 motherboards are going for a song these days.  8 megs should be enough,
 450 megs hard drive too.  What I mean, is that you wouldn't be leading
 the technology parade, but they'd be quite useable.."

 Bill goes on to recommend:

 " and add in a Cirrus Logic PCI video card(s) if you do upgrade to PCI,
 this will cost around 90 dollars and you will be able to reuse them if
 you go Pentium. "

 And my response to Bill

 "The upcoming issue is going to deal with the question of upgrading to
 Win'95 and how an ordinary user (business) proceed. The tax code only
 allows depreciation over five years although there is an option to
 expense.  In any case there is a huge installed base of 386DX computers
 out in the world! Questions of utility - short and long term should be
 considered."

 With that Bill Simonsen again properly cautions us:

 "I think you have to watch it here, Lois. The average user doesn't have
 the do-it-yourself bent that most of us in this conference do.  But
 most medium businesses and schools have one or a couple of  hobbyist
 types who will take on the work."

 Many thanks to all the Ilink Hardware people for taking the time to
 help us out. lbl

                                     ww



  *             *               *               *               *







                    An Evaluation and Product Review:


                      Norton Utilities for Windows95
                     Copyright 1995 by Paul Kinnaly

 Among the first 32bit programs available for the newly released
 Windows95, was the ubiquitous Norton Utilities.  Symantec's
 announcement of this product brought sighs of relief to Windows95 users
 who had been warned not to use any 16bit disk utilities with the new
 Operating System. The warning was based upon the fact that earlier
 programs were not aware of the long file names used by Win95.  Because
 use of long file names required modifications to the File Allocation
 Table (FAT), many of the earlier Norton Utilities would fix what they
 saw as a damaged FAT, leaving Win95 a horrible mess.  Yet few true
 power users felt comfortable without their copy of Norton Utilities.
 From the time Peter Norton had first released this software,  some
 years ago, it was the tool of choice to deal with the many problems,
 idiosyncrasies, and omissions of DOS.  Running a whole new OpSystem
 -Win95- without this tool at their sides just plain scared many folks.
 Following Symantec's announcement of a Win95 version, the rush was on
 to place an order.

 Disappointment soon followed. Version 8.0 of Norton Utilities for DOS
 and Windows -the last pre-Win95 version - had come with a superb
 manual, a full 1¼" thick, providing detailed instructions on each of
 the 39 separate tools, tutorials, a trouble-shooting guide, and other
 materials. The Win95 version of the program, however, came with a
 manual comparable only with Microsoft's own Win95 manual; a mere ¼"
 thick, it contains only short descriptions of each of its 9 tools, a
 lesson in how hard disks work, and a section on DOS recovery
 procedures. By the way, that was not a typo; only nine tools in the new
 version...

 The following lists the programs included in each version of Norton
 Utilities:

 NU 8.0: Batch Enhancer, Calibrate, Directory Sort, Disk Editor, Disk
 Monitor, Disk Tools, Diskreet, Duplicate Disk, File Attributes, File
 Date, File Find, File Fix, File Locate, File Size, Image, Line Print,
 Norton Cache, Norton Change Directory, Norton Control Center, Norton
 Diagnostics, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Utilities Configuration, Rescue
 Disk, Safe Format, SmartCan, Speed Disk, System Info, Text Search,
 Unerase, Unformat, Wipe Information, File Compare, INI Advisor, INI
 Editor, INI Tracker, INI Tuner.

 NU 95: Image, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Protection, System Doctor,
 Space Wizard, Rescue Disk, Speed Disk, System Information, UnErase
 Wizard.

 Granted, some of the tools available in the earlier 8.0 version are
 very DOS-specific and others are built into Windows95.  However, the
 others would be every bit as useful in a Windows95 environment as they
 were earlier. Did your spreadsheet file get damaged? NU 8.0 could
 probably fix it; NU95 cannot. Do you want to encrypt data on your disk?
 Again, NU 8.0 could do it, but not NU95. Other examples are easy to
 come by; just look at that list again and odds are good that you'll see
 a tool which you had come to depend on is no longer available.

 NU95 also makes you grateful that new, super-size hard drives are
 available: its limited capabilities consume more than 12mb of hard disk
 space, almost double the space used by NU 8.0!  But you do get spiffy
 32bit, protected mode, preemptively multitasked operation of its tools
 - now you can defrag your hard drive while formatting a floppy - if
 that turns you on.... !

 Windows95 itself comes with several utilities, including a Disk Defrag-
 menter and ScanDisk. These programs provide basic functionality in
 their respective areas. NU95 includes their counterparts, SpeedDisk and
 Disk Doctor. Both of these programs add just slightly to the
 capabilities of their Win95 counterparts and include just a few more
 options. But neither seems to include any significant added
 functionality.

 One of NU95's tools deserves special mention: System Doctor. The manual
 states, "...System Doctor runs quietly in the background, continually
 monitoring your computer's operating environment. It can alert you
 immediately when conditions require attention, and can fix many
 problems automatically, without interrupting your work." Sounds pretty
 impressive, eh?  What it does is:

        *   monitor disk integrity (similar to Disk Doctor)
        *   monitor disk fragmentation
        *   indicate how long it's been since Disk Image was last run
        *   indicate how much virtual memory is used
        *   indicate current CPU utilization
        *   indicate when you last made a Rescue Disk
        *   indicate available battery power (if appropriate)

 While these are somewhat useful functions,  very few are vital. In
 fact, most are more appropriate for newbies than they are for the
 techies who formerly were the core of Norton's users.

 With a suggested retail price of $119 for new users -$59 for the
 upgrade(?) - I truly cannot recommend Norton Utilities for Windows95.
 Sadly, what once was a power user's dream package is no longer...


 Paul Kinnaly is the WindoWatch HomePage Editor. He has contributed
 many articles including his evaluation and review of WordPerfect's
 Envoy for Windows and the various commercial and shareware HTML
 tools.



                                      ww


  *             *               *               *               *






  Our Obsession with Gates!                     From the Mail Packet:


                          The Man From Microsoft

 There was a knock on the door. It was the man from Microsoft.

 "Not you again," I said.

 "Sorry," he said, a little sheepishly. "I guess you know why I'm here."

 Indeed I did. Microsoft's $300 million campaign to promote the
 Windows95 operating system was meant to be universally effective, to
 convince every human being on the planet that Windows 95 was an
 essential, some would say integral, part of living.  Problem was, not
 everyone had bought it.  Specifically, I hadn't bought it and I was the
 Last Human Being Without Win95. And now this little man from Microsoft
 was at my door, and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

 "No," I said.

 "You know I can't take that," he said, pulling out a copy of Windows 95
 from a briefcase. "Come on.  Just one copy. That's all we ask."

 "Not interested." I said. "Look, isn't there someone else you can go
 bother for a while? There's got to be someone else on the planet who
 doesn't have a copy."

 "Well, no," The Microsoft man said. "You're the only one."

 "You can't be serious. Not everyone on the planet has a computer," I
 said. "Hell, not everyone on the planet has a PC! Some people own
 Macintoshes, which run their own operating system. And some people who
 have PCs run OS/2, though I hear that's just a rumor. In short, there
 are some people who just have no use for Windows 95."

 The Microsoft man look perplexed. "I'm missing your point," he said.

 "Use!" I screamed. "Use! Use! Use! Why buy it, if you can't use it?"

 "Well, I don't know anything about this use thing you're going on
 about," The Microsoft man said. "All I know is that according to our
 records, everyone else on the planet has a copy."

 "People without computers?"

 "Got 'em."

 "Amazonian Indians?"

 "We had to get some malaria shots to go in, but yes."

 "The Amish."

 "Check."

 "Oh, come on," I said. "They don't even wear buttons. How did you
 get them to buy a computer operating system?"

 "We told them there were actually ninety-five very small windows in the
 box," the Microsoft man admitted. "We sort of lied. Which means we are
 all going to Hell, every single employee of Microsoft." He was somber
 for a minute, but then perked right up. "But that's not the point!" he
 said. "The point is, everyone has a copy. Except you."

 "So what?" I said. "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you
 expect me to do it, too?"

 "If we spent $300 million advertising it? Absolutely."

 "No!"

 "Jeez, back to that again," the Microsoft man said. "Hey. I'll tell you
 what.  I'll give you a copy.  For free.  Just take it and install it on
 your computer." He waved the box in front of me.

 "No," I said again. "No offense, pal. But I don't need it. And frankly,
 your whole advertising blitz has sort of offended me. I mean, it's a
 computer operating system!  Great! Fine! Swell!  Whatever!  But you
 guys are advertising it like it creates world peace or something."

 "It did."

 "Pardon?"

 "World peace. It was part of the original design. Really. One button
 access. Click on it, poof, end to strife and hunger. Simple."

 "So what happened?"

 "Well, you know," he said. "It took up a lot of space on the hard
 drive. We had to decide between it or the Microsoft Network Anyway, we
 couldn't figure out how to make a profit off of world peace."

 "Go away," I said.

 "I can't," he said. "I'll be killed if I fail."

 "You have got to be kidding," I said.

 "Look," the Microsoft man said, "We sold this to the Amish. The Amish!
 Right now they're opening the boxes and figuring out they've been had.
 We'll be pitchforked if we ever step into Western Pennsylvania again.
 But we did it. So - to have YOU holding out, well, it's embarrassing.
 It's embarrassing to the company. It's embarrassing to the product.
 It's embarrassing to Bill."

 "Bill Gates does not care about me," I said.

 "He's watching right now," the Microsoft man said. "Borrowed one of
 those military spy satellites just for the purpose. It's also got one
 of those high-powered lasers. You close that door on me, zap, I'm a
 pile of gray ash."

 "He wouldn't do that," I said, "He might hit that copy of Windows 95
 by accident."

 "Oh, Bill's gotten pretty good with that laser," the Microsoft man
 said, nervously.

 "Okay.  I wasn't supposed to do this, but you leave me no choice. If
 you take this copy of Windows 95, we will reward you handsomely. In
 fact, we'll give you your own Caribbean island! How does Montserrat
 sound?"

 "Terrible. There's an active volcano there."

 "It's only a small one," the Microsoft man said.

 "Look," I said, "even if you did convince me to take that copy of
 Windows 95, what would you do then? You'd have totally saturated the
 market. That would be it. No new worlds to conquer. What would you do
 then?"

 The Microsoft man held up another box and gave it to me.

 "Windows 95....For Pets'?!?!?"

 "There's a lot of domestic animals out there," he said.

 I shut the door quickly. There was a surprised yelp, the sound of a
 laser, and then ....nothing!

            From Frank Vlamings' mail offering Monday, September 25, 1995


         *            *               *               *


 Bill Gates dies and heads up to the pearly gates..no relation!   Saint
 Peter meets him there and says, "Well, you've led an interesting life,
 Bill. To be perfectly honest, we're not quite sure which place to send
 you.  So we're going to let you decide."

 Gates swallows nervously and says, "okay". St. Peter snaps his fingers
 and they are instantly transported to a sunny beach. There's beer and
 rock music and gorgeous women playing volleyball.

 Gates says, "Hey, is this heaven? It's great!" St. Peter says," No,
 this is Hell. Let me show you what Heaven is like." He snaps his
 fingers again and they are instantly transported to a serene city park.
 There's a soft breeze and birds are chirping and old people are sitting
 on benches feeding pigeons and playing chess. Gates says, "Well, this
 is... nice. But, given a choice, I guess I'll take Hell."

 St. Peter says, "You got it," and snaps his fingers. Gates is instantly
 imbedded in molten lava where his skin is flayed off in unspeakable
 agony. All around him he can hear demonic laughter and the screams of
 the damned.

 He looks up and shouts, "Hey, it wasn't like this! Where's the beach?
 Where's the babes?"

 Saint Peter looks down from his Sun workstation and says, "Sorry,
 Bill.  That was the demo !"

  Another Derek Buchler offering from his Email October 4, 1995

                                      ww


  *             *               *               *               *




  Another Alice Adventure:



                          Address to the Foundation

                   Copyright 1995 by Peter Neuendorffer


 You will have to excuse my lapses into babble, as I have just finished
 adding a game and a spell checker to one of my programs.  After two
 near all-nighters, I dropped the resulting Shareware off via the
 telephone. It will go across the country within  twenty-four hours, and
 around the world within a month.  I work very hard writing Shareware,
 and it is my primary activity in life.

 But I get ahead of myself.  I'm giving my address to the Shareware
 Ungrateful Authors Foundation, tonight, and I'm trying it out on Alice.

 "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Shareware Ungrateful Authors Foundation,"
 I begin.  Alice, my friend and mentor, interrupts "You mean fellow
 suckers, perhaps." "No, that would be too bitter," I rejoin. At all
 costs we must carry ourselves with the decorum of the commercial
 writers we are.

 This discussion is not a description of software for the user, and
 neither plugs or pans anyone's work. This sort of critique is done
 admirably by the end user. If you have such a fan club, I am envious.
 As you know, the public perception of shareware is that it is free,
 dangerous, and of shoddy quality. But before we address these issues,
 we must examine what is Shareware.

 Originally it was felt that a lot of people could write software for
 fun at home, and share it widely. Then came the idea that one could
 retain intellectual ownership - copyright. It was later, and timidly
 suggested, that perhaps the authors of Shareware should be paid for
 their time.

 The lure of instant distribution through online bulletin boards created
 a surplus of product. Often very bad product. But also some programs
 became so popular that the original programmers hired more people - up
 to fifteen! Their work became a (computer) household name.

 Then, after a while the Shareware programmer was criticized if he/she
 didn't include every option suggested.  In an effort to increase
 nonexistent registrations (The user is supposed to pay for the software
 after say 30 days) he/she worked all the harder, often doing overnight
 coding.

 It was discovered that many users, fearful of a virus, would delete a
 Shareware program from their system if it did not perform for them the
 first time, especially if they had not even looked at the manual.
 Shareware authors, desperate to get payment, sometimes would "cripple"
 the evaluation work, which was resoundingly panned by users and online
 conference hosts.

 The promise of worldwide distribution thanks to the modem continues to
 excite me. Sometimes I get calls for customer support from users. Email
 comes in from Africa and Peru. Occasionally they send in a registration
 fee.

 Some of the types of applications that are popular with Shareware
 authors are report utilities ('How much memory you have'), add-ons for
 more popular programs ('Doom WAD files' - Barney Doom), or file search
 utilities. The theory is that people will buy commercial programs for
 the brunt of their computing, and will look to Shareware for the little
 things.

 It takes me about a month to prototype a new application. This can be
 done much faster in Windows, as the languages I use are Visual. I can
 literally paint the screen. At 50 hours a week, this works out to about
 200 hours. Say at $20.00/hour we might suppose a labor cost of ??? Not
 to mention profit.

 Occasionally, two people in a company will have a big argument. This
 can get quite serious, and is usually carried out on a computer
 bulletin board network conferences, for all to see. The resulting
 publicity is suspicious, but it is certainly there. Also, the user
 feels free to criticize the author, as no one is going to buy his work
 anyway. This is a popular online sport. Especially ripe are spelling
 errors.

 But let us not forget the highlights of Shareware programming. These
 come not from public acclaim, but from the thrill of challenge.
 Preparing various shaky versions for our beta testers, whom we cajole
 into saying "This stinks!" and then get mad at them when they do.

 Or the last day of crunch mode, when we discover, much to our dismay,
 that the software still has bugs.  In fact even after publication,
 usually about 20 seconds after, we discover an unforgivable bug. We
 recompile our work and repackage the product and get on the phone to
 the five Sysops we have published to, begging for a "Slipstream." This
 means the program has changed, but the user doesn't know it. We then
 dutifully write mail to all the out-of-town sysops who have downloaded
 the work.

 One of the fringe benefits of being a developer is the junk mail. We
 have a stack of catalogs to read when we get some free time, any minute
 now. We received three chain letters last week, one providing
 value-added cookie recipes. Then there are the hang-up calls. But I
 digress.

 A surplus of product has led to a degradation of quality, as well as
 the possibility of virus being written. Contrary to popular belief,
 writing a virus is a trivial problem, and not a badge of expertise. We
 all note the front page publicity given to roadhogs, pirates, and
 crackers, while we authors toil away in relative obscurity (sigh, then
 pause for dramatic effect.)

 Since it is "free" software, you can try it out first. You can get
 Shareware by purchasing a CDROM disk, subscribing to a bulletin board,
 or downloading it from a major online service (for a fee.) Just know
 that the author, you of the Shareware Ungrateful Foundation, will not
 see a penny of any of those fees. These companies, while providing
 services, are fed by the author, not the other way around.

 Alice: You are not really going to give that address? It sounds so
 negative. You are biting the hand that feeds you. Didn't anything good
 happen?

 Along the way, I have had a lot of fun publishing my own ideas and
 work. There is a great rush when I finally finish something, then hit
 the upload button, knowing that a previously nonexistent work is now
 out in the world. I began to correspond with someone about an imaginary
 friend named "Alice" which came to the attention of WindoWatch, hence
 my chance to write for this magazine.

 Nonetheless, I did get a large custom job from Scandinavia. It was
 interesting as I had to translate some of it into Norwegian. Then,
 after seeing my Transit software, I was invited to see the master
 control room at Amtrak. The dispatcher presses a place on a monitor
 map, and the train switch is closed in the yard. A large visual on the
 wall showed the progress of trains from here in Boston to New Haven.

 But take heart fellow Shareware authors, somewhere someplace, someone
 is using software that you wrote. And be grateful to belong to an
 industry society, this Foundation, that protects you and your programs,
 thinking how it must be not to belong to such a society. Thank you all.
 I will now take questions from the audience, as long as they are not
 too personal.

 Alice: Do you think these free programs are any good?

  Peter Neuendorffer has an homepage where he and Alice can be reached at
  [e-mail].

                                    ww

    *           *               *               *               *





  Programming Notes                                A WindoWatch feature

                    Window Aspect: A Scripting Language
                   A Tutorial: Part Seven Ghost BBS v3.20
                      Copyright 1995 by Gregg Hommel



 We digressed last time so let's get back to... the INI format file....

 Two columns ago, we began discussing INI format files, and using them
 under Wasp. This time, we are going to get into more specific ways to
 use an INI file to control a script or scripts, and look at some other
 examples of how they can be valuable in script writing.

 There is one aspect, no pun intended, of INI format file use that I
 have fallen back on time and again which can be very helpful during the
 writing stage of a script.  I began using it because A) compile time on
 my old, now upgraded,  386SX20 machine were dead long, and B) my wife
 is far from a computer expert. Although this example of using an INI
 format file is derived from GHOST, it can be applied to any script in
 the experimentation stage of new coding.....

 As I said, my wife is not a computer expert... she knows the programmes
 she needs to know for work, and so on, but certainly doesn't use GHOST
 frequently, since that is my baby.  She knows how to start and stop
 GHOST, how to change certain settings using the GHOST utilities, and
 even how to edit a text file.  I wouldn't want to walk her through
 locating source code, editing it, compiling the result, and then moving
 that compiled file to the directory where GHOST expects to find it.
 Even talking her through locating where, in some 8,000 lines of code or
 more, a particular section is located, would be a real challenge. In
 truth,  I sometimes can't remember where important lines of code are
 located and must go searching too.

 I decided to use my INI format files to help out. I created a temporary
 entry in the [DOS Comm] section of GHOST.INI where other parameters
 controlling the operations of GHOST under DOS are stored -  like this
 DOS_Pause=2

 I then modify the code in GHOST from a simple PAUSE 2 that I
 needed to recompile before testing, into this...

   profilerd S0 "DOS Comm" "DOS_Pause" pauseval
   if pauseval > 0
      pause pauseval
   endif

 I recompiled the code with this code in it, and went off to the other
 location to test things. It still didn't work, so I had my wife edit
 GHOST.INI to change DOS_Pause= from 2 to 5. She saved the changes, and
 I tried to open a DOS door again, knowing that now GHOST would pause
 for five seconds before actually opening the door.

 In this way, I was able to use the INI format file to allow me to
 perform multiple tests of the same code with a minor change done,
 without having to recompile the code in between tests.

 This same concept can be used if you want to test multiple code
 routines to handle the same thing, i.e. a conditional running of
 certain code that can be easily changed to test different code without
 the need to recompile between tests.

 Suppose that you have an INI format section named [Testing], with a
 line

   use_code= which is set to an integer value, to start with, a 1.

 In your source script, you have something along the lines of this...

   profilerd inifile "Testing" "use_code" testval
   switch testval
      case 1
         ;use this code to handle the situation
      endcase
      case 2
         ;use this code to handle the situation
      endcase
      case 3
         ;use this code to handle the situation
      endcase
      case 4
         ;use this code to handle the situation
      endcase
      case 5
         ;use this code to handle the situation
      endcase
   endswitch

 Simply by changing the value of use_code= in your INI format file, you
 could test five different methods of handling a certain situation. One
 can determine from that, which of the differing code ideas best handles
 specified procedures without having to re-code and re- compile between
 each test.

 In the end, you might even decide to leave some of that code in the
 script, to allow you to easily customize the operation of it at any
 point in time, or if you distribute it for others to use.

 But there are a multitude of other ways you can use an INI format file,
 in place of a text file. GHOST uses INI format files for a lot of
 things, so let's look at those files under GHOST to see how else you
 might use an INI format file.

 1) The main GHOST IN format file is GHOST.INI and it is used to store a
 whole host of settings that control the actual operation of GHOST.
 However, there is much more here than meets the eye..

 When you first start GHOST, you actually don't. What you really are
 starting is the GHOST launcher script, called GHOST.WAX, in your
 \ASPECT subdirectory.  In the interests of keeping that subdirectory as
 clean as possible, I really didn't want to put everything to do with
 GHOST BBS there. GHOST uses a fair number of support files, and putting
 them all in \ASPECT could really clutter things up.

 So, GHOST allows you to store everything but three files (GHOST.INI,
 GHOST.WAX, and GHSTUTIL.WAX, the utility launcher) in directories of
 your own choosing.

 This is great, except that the GHOST launcher script has to know where
 to find them, so that they can be used.  The GHOST.INI file contains
 all of that information. Many of the entries in GHOST.INI are pointers
 to tell the various scripts which make up GHOST in it's entirety, where
 to find other scripts or support files that might be needed.

 There is a side effect to this.  When I release an updated version of
 GHOST, I can include an install utility to do the update for the end
 user. I don't have to know where on their system, they have put the
 various GHOST files. All that the GHOST install utility has to do is
 read their GHOST.INI file, and the install script knows exactly where
 to put the new file.

 2) One of the biggest complaints I heard about the old PCP/Win 1.0x
 Host script, and to a lesser degree, about the newer PCP/Win 2.xx Host
 script, is that it would make changes to your PCP/Win set up in order
 to run properly, and then would leave those changes in effect after it
 shut down.  These changes would make the use of PCP/Win afterwards, a
 nightmare for the user.

 GHOST BBS makes every effort to avoid this. And to do so, it uses
 the GHOST.INI file.

 When you first launch GHOST, one of the first things that the launcher
 script does, before actually launching the runtime script for GHOST, is
 that it reads various settings from your current set up. These settings
 are for settings that GHOST is going to change in order to function as
 a host, and are therefore, the very same settings  to be reset when
 GHOST is shut down. The GHOST launcher script writes these settings it
 has read, into a special section of the GHOST.INI file. When the
 runtime script begins, it can freely change these settings to whatever
 is appropriate for GHOST operations and without concern.  When you exit
 GHOST by shutting it down, control is returned to the launcher script,
 which reads all of the original settings, and then restores them to
 their original condition.

 However, there is one other feature to this.  When GHOST changes the
 settings, it also sets a "flag" entry in that same section of
 GHOST.INI. If, for some reason, GHOST is terminated abnormally, and
 your system is NOT restored as you would expect, there are two
 remedies.

 When you re-start GHOST, and let's assume it is in your StartUp Group,
 and a power failure is the cause of the abnormal termination of GHOST.
 Once power is restored, your system starts back up, and because GHOST
 is in the StartUp Group, it also re-starts the GHOST launcher. It will
 be able to tell, by that flag entry in GHOST.INI, that your set up
 under PCP/Win was changed, and was not restored to "normal".
 Therefore, the  launcher, this time, doesn't read your system settings,
 but instead, just re-starts GHOST. When GHOST is finally terminated
 normally, the original settings remain to be restored.

 The second remedy  is when you don't restart GHOST, but know or suspect
 that it was terminated abnormally the last time you ran it. There is
 one other script which GHOST installs in your \ASPECT subdirectory,
 called GHOSTFIX.WAX. All you have to do is to run this script, and
 GHOST will check that INI file flag. If it is set wrong, GHOST will
 offer to restore your original system settings, in the event that any
 remain behind and were not properly reset with the abnormal termination
 of GHOST.

 3) Here's one use for an INI file that GHOST 3.20 doesn't use, but
 GHOST 3.10 for PCP/Win does. It might prove useful to you in your
 script writing because an INI file setting can be used to pass
 information from one script, to another.

 GHOST BBS 3.10 is written as a series of modules to get around the
 PCP/Win 1.0x limits on memory. However, most of those module scripts
 need information being held in the main script, in order to run. This
 information can indeed, be passed by setting a system global variable
 such as I0 or S0,  even though at times, it can be difficult to track
 those variables with the possibility that you might pass the wrong data
 to another script.

 However, if you write the data to an INI file entry, and then, when the
 secondary script begins running, it checks that INI file entry for the
 data it needs, you have passed the data without worrying about keeping
 track of what the system global variables are holding.

 4) When a user logs on to GHOST, certain information about that user
 needs to be used regularly throughout their log on. This is suited to
 storage in global variables. However, other information on that user is
 needed only at certain points in the script, and it seems silly to
 waste good global variable memory space on something like that. As
 example, when you open a DOS door in GHOST, certain information on the
 user opening the door, along with various system settings, such as baud
 rate, parity, etc. have to be included in what is called a drop
 file-DOOR.SYS for the DOS BBS door to read and use. But they are only
 needed then, and not elsewhere in GHOST. Other information in the drop
 file never changes, such as the BBS name.

 The drop file (DOOR.SYS) is a text file, and as we all know, trying to
 locate and change one or several lines in a text file can be done in
 Wasp, but it involves a fair bit of code to accomplish. GHOST does it
 the easy way... it stores all of the information needed in the drop
 file, in a special section of the GHOST.INI, listed as Line#=, where #
 is the line in the drop file where that information must be recorded.

 GHOST uses what is called a 32 line, GAP standard drop file, called
 DOOR.SYS for DOS door information. When you log on to GHOST, the
 personal information about that user required in the DOOR.SYS file is
 written to GHOST.INI. When a door is opened, the specific system
 information existing at the time (baud rate, parity, stop bits, etc.)
 is read and written to the appropriate places in that same INI section.
 To change the appropriate lines in the DOOR.SYS file is now a simple
 task, because we don't actually change those lines. Instead, we create
 an entirely new DOOR.SYS file, with the appropriate information in the
 correct spots.  To do so is a simple for/next loop, like so....

 fopen 1 door_file CREATE TEXT
 for i = 1 upto 31
    strfmt _line "Line%d" i
    profilerd IniFile "DoorSys" _line TempVar
    fputs 1 TempVar
 endfor
 fclose 1

 which should, by now, be a fairly simple code segment to follow. All it
 does is create a new DOOR.SYS file, read the lines from the INI file,
 starting at Line1= and finishing at Line31=, putting the results of that
 INI file read into the DOOR.SYS file after it has been read.  Voila! A
 new DOOR.SYS file, with all the current, and correct, information is
 created in a flash.

 We've only just scratched the surface in using INI format files, but
 heaven forbid that our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, Lois, the ogre, should
 accuse me of being too long-winded in a single column, so we'll stop
 here for this month, with a summary of the uses noted above for INI
 format files. Please study this carefully, as questions on it may be on
 next month's oral examination <g>...

 The "Summary" so far...

 1) INI format files can be used, when writing a script, to test various
 optional code segments, and determine which one does the best job,
 without requiring that you edit the source code, and recompile for each
 test.

 2) An INI format file can allow you to use support files for a
 given script, and to store those support files in locations other than
 the main \ASPECT directory.

 3) An INI format file can be used to store certain settings not necessarily
 needed by the current script, but perhaps needed to restore the system to
 its original state when the current script is done.

 4) INI format files can be used to pass data from one script to another,
 even if the two scripts are run in different PCP/Win sessions.

 5) Sometimes, only a text file will suit.

 But an INI format file can be used to store the information required in
 that text file, even if set at scattered locations throughout the
 script, and then used to create the text file when needed.

 Next month, we'll look at other INI format files used by GHOST, how
 they are used, and some ways that GHOST uses information stored in
 multiple INI format files to personalize various aspects of a GHOST
 logon....

 One last thing... If any of you are interested in pursuing the topics
 discussed in this column, or any other Wasp related topics, on a more
 personal basis, you are welcome to contact me to initiate a one-on-one
 discussion. I can be reached several ways. Email on the Internet is
 often the fastest, and most reliable.

 My email address is [e-mail] or if you have Compuserve
 access, my CIS ID is 72537,552. If neither of those suits, I can also be
 reached in the Windows and Procomm conferences of RIME, NANet and ILink,
 and the EchoNet and FIDO Windows conferences. For R/RO mail on RIME, my
 node is ->118, and for FIDO netmail, my FIDO node is (1:229/15).


 Gregg Hommel is a much respected Aspect script writer and programmer. He
 is well known on the various nets hosting any number of conferences.
 Gregg sits on our Editorial Board. Comments concerning this or earlier
 tutorials can be directed to him as [e-mail]

                                      ww




 *              *               *               *               *







    The Cat's Out of The Bag!


                                         The twenty pound black and
                                         white furry Windows expert!
                                        Copyright 1995 by Bob Miller

      Bob Miller's
      Stanley Does
         Windows

                               Purrfectly Yours
                                  by Stanley


 Dear Stanley,

 I am a law abiding person.  I always stop at traffic
 lights, never run a STOP sign, etc.  I have heard that there are
 certain  computer laws and I want to obey them.  Can you tell me what
 they are?


 Dear Law Abiding:

 Certainly.

 Programs always expand to fill all available disk space.
 If you can buy it, it is obsolete.
 The computer you really want always costs $4,000 (this used to be
 $5,000). You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much RAM.
 Never buy version x.0 of anything. If the box says "minimum
 requirements are", always double them.

 If it says "a child can install" ask if child is sold separately.
 If John Dvorak says it will happen, bet against it.
 Never believe what you read in a magazine.  See my human's column for proof.
 If you find a good computer guru, always have a substantial
 supply of chocolate chip cookies, home made brownies and fresh
 tuna fish available for him. Real Coke and milk are also good.


 Dear Stanley,

 I know that my 386-25 4 meg machine is not powerful enough for
 Windows 95.  What should I upgrade?


 Dear Under-powered,

 Do not upgrade your system.  It is a waste of money.  Give it away to
 some local charity (Human Service Agencies are always in need of these)
 and buy a new machine.  You can get a 486DX2-66 with an 850MB hard
 drive, quad speed CD, 8 megs of RAM and a lot more for under $1500.
 True, you can buy a 486 motherboard and chip for only a couple of
 hundred dollars - but your 30 pin ram won't fit, your hard drive is too
 small and too slow, etc.  It is cheaper to get a new system and have
 everything working right out of the box.


 Dear Stanley,

 I downloaded some GIF's from my BBS and I want to make them into
 Wallpaper.  How do I do this?


 Dear Giffer,

 Assuming that those are GIFS of my relatives (no one would
 ever want anything else as wallpaper), you first have to convert them
 into bitmaps.  Two great shareware programs, Graphics Workshop and
 Paint Shop Pro, make this easy.  Size the bitmap to your screen
 resolution (probably 640x480x256) and use Control Panel, Desktop to
 tell Windows to use this as the new wallpaper.


 Dear Stanley,

 I did that but the pictures are all blocky and look terrible.  Why?

 Dear Giffer,

 You are using the default 16 color Windows video driver.  You need to
 run at 256 colors. In order to do this, your video card must have at
 least 512k of memory.  If it does, you can get the proper driver from
 your card manufacturer or try the Microsoft SVGA driver included with
 WFWG and available on their BBS.  Or, perhaps, the bitmaps are of dogs.
 Nothing you can do there - dogs always look terrible.


 Dear Stanley,

 My cat has ruined three Microsoft Mouses by chewing on them.
 What can I do?


 Dear Mouseless,

 Switch to Logitech.  Choosy cats -and there are no other kind, prefer
 Microsoft Mice ten to one.  Or get him a few live ones to play with.


 Dear Stanley,

 I'm terribly confused.  The salesman tells me one thing, the magazines
 say another and my friends say a third (and fourth). Where can I get
 real and accurate answers to my questions?


 Dear Confused,

 You can always write to me - my email address is published in this
 magazine.  The salesman was selling shoes last week and will be selling
 ladies underwear next.  He likely knows as much about computers as your
 average dog - and we know how stupid dogs are. (- Fleas in your inner
 ear! - love- Mandy and Pokey )  Magazines are a starting point but you
 cannot believe them.  Some reviews are colored by the advertising that
 the manufacturer buys.  Other magazines never publish a bad review of
 anything. And many reviewers are just incompetent. Friends may or may
 not, and usually not, know what they are talking about. The very best
 sources of accurate information are to be found in the ILink Windows
 and Windows 95 and RIME Windows conferences.  Local phone numbers can
 be furnished upon request.  To a lesser degree, the FIDO Windows
 conference can help. Avoid USENET like a bath!!! The average mental age
 of a Usenet poster is six. The ILink , RIME and FIDO conferences, at
 least, have moderators who know something about the subject and who
 also keep the idiots, flamers and morons in check.

 Purrfectly yours,
 Stanley

 Our super-star Stanley is a modest individual and wants his mail sent to
 his human [e-mail]

                                      ww




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        Twenty Bottles of Beer on the Wall...Twenty Bottles of Beer

                     If Operating Systems Were Beers...
                       Contributed by Derek Buchler

 DOS Beer: Requires you to use your own can opener, and for you to read
 the directions carefully before opening the can. Originally only came
 in an 8-oz. can, but now comes in a 16-oz. can. However, the can is
 divided into eight compartments of 2 oz. each, which have to be
 accessed separately.  Soon to be discontinued, although a lot of people
 are going to keep drinking it after it's no longer available.

 Mac Beer: At first, came only in 16-oz. cans, but now comes in a 32-oz.
 can. Con- sidered by many to be a light beer. All the cans look
 identical. When you take one from the fridge, it opens itself. The
 ingredient list is not on the can. If you call to ask about the
 ingredients, you are told that you don't need to know. A notice on the
 side reminds you to drag your empties to the trashcan.

 Windows 3.1 Beer: The world's most popular! Comes in a 16-oz. can that
 looks a lot like Mac Beer's. Requires that you already own a DOS Beer.
 Claims that it allows you to drink several DOS Beers simultaneously,
 but in reality you can only drink a few of them, very slowly,
 especially slowly if you are drinking the Windows Beer at the same
 time. Sometimes, for apparently no reason, a can of Windows Beer will
 explode when you open it. OS/2 Beer: Comes in a 32-oz can. Does allow
 you to drink several DOS Beers simultaneously. Allows you to drink
 Windows 3.1 Beer simultaneously too, but somewhat slower. Advertises
 that its cans won't explode when you open them, even if you shake them
 up. You never really see any- one drinking OS/2 Beer, but the
 manufacturer (International Beer Manufacturing) claims that 9 million
 six-packs have been sold.

 Windows 95 Beer: Before you could buy it lots of people taste-tested it
 and claimed it wonderful. Now that it's here, we can see that the can
 looks a lot like Mac Beer's can, but tastes more like Windows 3.1 Beer.
 It comes in 32-oz. cans, but when you look inside, the cans only have
 16 oz. of beer in them. Most people will probably keep drinking Windows
 3.1 Beer until their friends try Windows 95 Beer and say they like it.
 The ingredient list, when you look at the small print, has some of the
 same ingredients that come in DOS beer, even though the manufacturer
 claims that this is an entirely new brew.

 Windows NT Beer: Comes in 32-oz. cans, but you can only buy it by the
 truckload. This causes most people to have to go out and buy bigger
 refrigerators. The can looks just like Windows 3.1 Beer's, but the
 company promises to change the can to look just like Windows 95 Beer's
 - soon after Windows95 beer ships. Touted as an industrial strength
 beer, and suggested only for use in bars.

 Unix Beer: Comes in several different brands, in cans ranging from 8
 oz. to 64 oz. Drinkers of Unix Beer display fierce brand loyalty, even
 though they claim that all the different brands taste almost identical.
 Sometimes the pop-tops break off when you try to open them, so you have
 to have your own can opener around for those occasions. In this extreme
 case you either need a complete set of instructions, or a friend who
 has been drinking Unix Beer for several years.

 AmigaDOS Beer: The company has gone out of business, but their recipe
 has been picked up by some weird German company, so now this beer will
 be an import.  This beer never really sold very well because the
 original manufacturer didn't understand marketing. Like Unix Beer,
 AmigaDOS Beer fans are an extremely loyal and loud group. It originally
 came in a 16-oz. can, but now comes in 32-oz. cans too. When this can
 was originally introduced, it appeared flashy and colorful, but the
 design hasn't changed much over the years, so it appears dated now.
 Critics of this beer claim that it is only meant for watching TV
 anyway.

 VMS Beer: Requires minimal user interaction, except for popping the top
 and sipping.  However cans have been known on occasion to explode, or
 contain extremely un-beer-like contents.  Best drunk in high pressure
 development environments. When you call the manufacturer for the list
 of ingredients, you're told that is proprietary and referred to an
 unknown listing in the manuals published by the FDA.  Rumors are that
 this was once listed in the Physicians' Desk Reference as a
 tranquilizer, but no one can claim to have actually seen it.

 Derek Buchler is a Systems administrator. He has been associated with
 WindoWatch as a contributing writer!


                                      ww




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  The Eager Beaver

                              I Have Seen the Future...
                         Copyright 1995 by Frank McGowan

 Call me what you like: backslider, recidivist, hopeless Luddite... I
 plead guilty to all of the above. I have seen the future and opted for
 the past, at least for the present - and at least for now.

 A few weeks ago, I went out and purchased my very own copy of Windows
 95. Overcome by enthusiasm, I rushed home and hastily installed it -
 with emphasis on hastily. I couldn't wait to get started; so I didn't
 and that was a big mistake. Almost at once I began feeling buyer's
 remorse or more accurately, installer's remorse.  I knew things would
 be different, but I wasn't ready for how different. Not only did my
 screen change radically, I suddenly found that programs I wanted to use
 seemed to have gone AWOL.

 Yes, yes, I know: I didn't heed Microsoft's warning to make backups of
 all my INI files, and take all the other precautions I should have. No
 question, it's my own fault that things went to hell in a hand-basket.
 My punishment was to spend most of two days trying to put things back
 the way they were. The good news is that I'm now using Windows 3.1, and
 my applications are back to about 95% of where they were. A few
 reminders of my 32-bit operating system adventuring remains like why I
 can't fax from Word as I used to. Perhaps  a bit more tinkering will
 solve that one... I hope!. The bad news is that I may have soured
 myself on Windows 95 to the point where I don't want to put it back
 onto my computer. I did talk  Sue, my wife, into installing it on hers,
 though...(What kind of a guy am I anyway?) We were a lot more cautious
 in doing so, and everything appears to be going okay on her box. Still,
 I have some questions for the wunderkind at Microsoft.

 First off, what was the point of changing the interface so drastically?
 I know it's sometimes necessary to put a new product in a new package,
 but in this case the package is the product. What you see is indeed
 what you get when it comes to interfaces. Thousands of seasoned Win
 3.1/3.11 users were made obsolete in a trice. Millions of hours of
 learning became outdated in a New York millisecond. I think I speak for
 the majority of Win3.1-ers when I say that I felt a profound sense of
 abandonment when I first laid eyes on that Win 95 screen.  What
 happened to Program Manager?  And where were my warm and fuzzy program
 group icons?

 And what is what I already know how to use? By that standard, Win95
 misses by the proverbial mile. The new-improved interface only opens
 Microsoft up to a lot of snide sniping from the Mac crowd, etal while
 doing nothing for those who've been in the Windows camp all along.

 On the other hand. Being in the business of training people to use
 computers, I have to see Win95 as a golden opportunity. Companies just
 starting down the road of computerizing their offices will surely need
 to learn to use it; and those wanting to stay current will convert.
 Those, who are computer-hip will probably wait for the next release.
 Rather than ranting on about Microsoft, I guess I should thank them.
 Just maybe !

 Frank McGowan is a teacher and a free lance consultant. He is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor.

                                    ww





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                Coming Soon from Dangerous Cybernetics!

                    Mail Grazer and Global Reader

                   Copyright 1995  by Todd Henschell

 This will  formally announce that Dangerous Cybernetics has begun the
 development of Mail Grazer(tm), our Usenet News and E-mail to QWK
 utility that will let CMPQwk users read their UseNet news and E-mail
 with CMPQwk.

 We've also completed all of the paperwork and design goals for Global
 Reader(tm), which will be underway after Mail Grazer .90 beta ships to
 the public several months from now.

 Global Reader...What is it?

 Global Reader will be the logical upgrade path for CMPQwk users who
 move to a 32-bit operating system. Global Reader will require a modern
 32 bit OS such as Windows NT 3.51 or Windows '95.  It will take full
 advantage of all of the attributes of those operating systems including
 long filenames, 32-bit memory management, multiple threads, and so
 forth.  Global Reader will very likely not be available to the public
 for at least another eight months.  Therefore, it's too soon to
 announce a release date.  Nonetheless, the project is finally--- and
 formally (legally and all that)---underway.

 Global Reader will superficially resemble CMPQwk  including those
 features which make CMPQwk a success. However it will be a more
 powerful application that should satisfy the most power-hungry users.

 Mail Grazer

 Mail Grazer is for those CMPQwk users who don't want to wait for Global
 Reader and would like to read UseNet News and E-mail with their
 favorite mail reader and do it soon.  Mail Grazer will be a small and
 simple application you can use to collect Mail through a Winsock-
 compatible link to your favorite Internet service.  It will seamlessly
 handle things such as UUEncoding and decoding.  You will attach a file
 with CMPQwk and Mail Grazer takes care of the rest.  Long messages can
 be split into a manageable size, if you like, and will be CMPQwk
 friendly. Mail Grazer should appear as a public beta within several
 months in both 16-bit and 32-bit versions. A release date is yet to be
 announced.

 Who Are the Authors?

 Both applications have been conceived and designed by Todd Henschell
 and are being programmed (the hard part) by a top-flight C++ and
 Assembler programmer, Mike W. Smith, who is working under contract to
 Dangerous Cybernetics.

 Mike has worked on low-level device drivers, programmed MIDI hardware
 and firmware, and has a popular MPU-401 dual port MIDI adapter produced
 by MIDIMan that is sold all over the world.  Given his skills at very
 low-level Assembly hardware programming,  I anticipate superb, elegant,
 and very reliable C++ code.  Both applications will also be inherently
 portable to the Mac, to OS/2, and to UNIX systems.

 Mike as a good and tolerant friend is willing to put up with most of my
 insane demands like tagline file definitions for each BBS for those who
 want to set them up, a multi-threaded background-running search engine
 with complex Boolean expressions, and a powerful unlimited-size
 DBase-compatible database engine handling the folders. These are just a
 few of the items listed in the eleven page single-spaced improvements
 over CMPQwk  as part of the design goals.

 Derek Backus, the author of CMPQwk, is not affiliated with either
 project  -for those of you who are curious about such matters.  He has
 elected to pursue other types of software such as hangman games and
 sysop utilities for Galacticomm Worldgroup.

 Beta Testing

 Once each product is ready for beta testing, it will be announced on
 the Cmpqwk RIME conference. If you wish to beta test internally for us,
 you must have an Internet connection where you can receive MIME-encoded
 attachments. For those who have expressed interest in beta testing the
 first out of the gate Mail Grazer,  e-mail me at [e-mail].
 I'll reply with an e-mail in MS Write format file for you to print,
 sign, and return to us.

 We will be accepting ten internal beta testers on a first-come, first-
 serve basis at first.  They'll receive (obviously) free registrations
 to Mail Grazer in exchange for their help during development so long as
 they follow the terms of the NDA and file regular reports.  Registered
 CMPQwk users will receive preference over ANY other applicants

 Upgrades

 Once each product is released, we will announce upgrade pricing.
 Suffice to say that I want to keep CMPQwk users in our family, and
 those users who want to upgrade and are running Windows '95 or NT 3.51
 in the case of Global Reader, will be more than welcome to do so.
 Prices to be announced.

 I'll also be posting a FAQ message that will answer many of the
 questions we've received recently about CMPQwk and Gator Edit.

 I'm looking forward to diving into both of these projects.  And both
 will be supported here in the RIME Cmpqwk conference and via Internet
 links, just as CMPQwk and Gator are supported.

 Todd Henschell is the creator of the wonderful Cmpqwk help files and
 has been intimately involved in the Cmpqwk off line reader program. Todd
 can be reached by email at [e-mail] or through  RIME ->487 .


                                   ww

  *             *               *               *               *






                           A WindoWatch feature

                               IDIOTS-REDUX

                       Copyright 1995 by  Bob Miller

 Here is this month's installment of proof that magazine writers have
 little or no knowledge of what they write about.

 Personal Computing, September 1995

 Take your choice of four views [discussing Explorer]. This Details
 view  is almost like the  old Windows File Manager.  Too bad you ...
 can't rearrange the information that is displayed.

 You can't?  Gee.  I just click on the file heading and it rearranges the
 files for me.


 Personal Computing, October 1995

 Adding a new font under Windows 3.1 is complicated.

 Really?  Control Panel, Fonts, Add.  Rocket science it ain't!


 With Windows 3.1, closing a Window is a big hassle.

 All our hassles should be this big.  It could hardly be more trivial.


 Whenever you create a new document or open one you saved previously,
 Windows 95 adds an entry [to the documents menu]. It does no such
 thing.  It only adds to the document menu when you open a file from
 within Explorer - not the application. Tip:  If your PC loses time at
 an alarming rate, try this trick [followed by instructions on how to
 put the Date/Time icon into the Startup Folder].

 Sorry.  If your PC loses time at an alarming rate, replace the CMOS
 battery before the entire system dies.


 And don't forget to check the Start menu for the Documents submenu
 which lists all the recently opened documents.

 No it doesn't.  See above.


 Why waste money on a single-disc CD-ROM drive when you can queue up six
 or even seven disks at once for the same price with Pioneer's DRM-624X?
 ........... The Pioneer is $580.

 Maybe where you shop a single disk CD-ROM drive is $580 but not
 where I do.


 Windows Magazine, October 1995


 Top Ten Business Software. #3 - Microsoft Office Upgrade 3.1.

 Excuse me?  Are businesses only buying three quarters of the program?
 The Office upgrade is 4.2.


 Letters column.  ...The only people I know using Win95 are Microsoft
 employees and the trade rags.  All my clients are happy with Win 3.1
 and have no interest in upgrading.

 Allowing for the time lag between the date the writer sent that and it
 got published, there were still over half a million people using `95 who
 were not MS employees or trade-rag staffers.  And if none of the seven
 million people who bought `95 in its first 5 weeks of sales are among his
 clients, I have doubts about their computing knowledge.  For that matter,
 any  "consultant" who kept his clients on 3.1 instead of WFWG ought to
 have been compelled to explain his position in 10,000 words written in
 WordStar for DOS 1.0.


 Wall Street Journal ad for CompUSA.

 [In 18 point type] Training classes with the personal attention your
 business demands. [In 6 point type in the footnote] Please be aware
 that our introductory course provide an orientation to new software and
 not training in skills for employment.

 Anyone see anything wrong here?


 Infoworld, September 18.

 [From a review of Norton Utilities for 95] You might also want to scan
for fragmented files less often than once an hour.

 Really?  Why?  Are you infatuated with the scanner?  Do you have some
 relationship with its display?  Scanning for fragmented files once a
 MONTH is more than sufficient for nearly everyone.  More than once an
 hour is absolutely insane.

 Brigham & Women's Hospital [move to client server] involved five
 years of downsizing from supercomputers.

 Brigham and Women's is one of the finest hospitals in the world but
 neither they nor any other hospital ever used a supercomputer to keep
 track of patients. If you can't tell the difference between an IBM
 mainframe and a Cray supercomputer, don't write about them.


 InfoWorld October 9.

 Unless you need a single file to be larger than 128MB, it is best to
 create partitions and logical disks of that size or slightly less.

 Five years ago, that made a bit of sense.  Today, with 1.2 and 1.6GB
 drives common, it is ludicrous.  Who wants to juggle 13 hard drive
 letters?


 From Livingston's column on Explorer

 For some reason, Microsoft Corp thought it'd be a good idea for
 Windows 95 novices not to be able to see files with extensions like
 ...SIGHS.  Makes it a little hard for them to edit (or even find) their
 CONFIG.SYS.

 Why would anyone want to use Explorer to edit Config.sys?  That is what
 sysedit is for.  Double clicking on config.sys is NOT going to enable
 an edit.  Yes, I know you can right click and sent it to Notepad - but
 why?


 PC World, September 1995.

 But the Run command still exists, right off the Start menu.....it
 contains a list of commands you may have previously typed.

 It contains the LAST command you typed - not a list.
 But, as far as I am concerned, this throwback is more an oddity than
 a useful tool.  After all, if I wanted to use a command line, would I be
 using Windows?

 On the rare occasions that I might want to run Notepad or Calculator,
 I'd rather type the filename into that box then start up Explorer, go
 to \Windows, find the executable file and double click on it.  Seems to
 me to be a bit easier my way.


 Wall Street Journal, October 9.

 [Quoting a Novel spokesman] "What happened is that we saw a significant
 decline in our applications software sales in the third fiscal quarter
 and we were wondering whether it would get worse in the fourth
 quarter."

 What a surprise.  No one in Orem, apparently, was aware that Win 95
 was coming out then.

 In August, the company said it planned to begin shipping its Windows 95
 compatible software by year's end.  Yesterday, Novel said the shipment
 will begin "early in 1996".

 I wonder what their fourth quarter sales figures will look like?


 PC World, October 1995

 Having 16 megs of RAM will boost your productivity, but starting
 with 8MB is still satisfactory for most applications and will save you
 around $160.

 Please rush me all the 8 megs for $160 deals you can find.


 From a Midwest Micro Printer Ad. FREE Windows driver.

 Pardon?  Someone charges for a Windows printer driver on a new printer?
 Do you also supply a FREE shipping box?  How about a FREE manual?
 Maybe, even, a FREE power cord?


 Computer Shopper, October 1995.

 But installed right next to my beta of Office 95 is my beta of the
 Windows 95 version of Lotus's stunning new Word Pro....Word Pro is good
 enough..............

 "Stunning" is the right word.  This, of course, was the beta that was
 so buggy Lotus had to withdraw it since no one could use it at all. Not
 one word of his gushing "review" mentioned anything about that.


 Infoworld, August 21, 1995.

 With prices topping $80 to $120 (or more) per 1MB of RAM.

 Gee!  PC World has RAM at 8 megs for $160 (see above) while Info World
 has 1 meg at $120. I know - I'll have Stanley buy it from PC World and
 sell it to Info World.  Than he can afford all the tuna fish he wants.


 Idiots Redux  is the invention of Bob Miller who has become a
 Conference Host's - Conference Host! His loyalty to new Windows
 Users looking for the correct answer and to Stanley looking for tuna
 have become well known computer phenomena.  A very knowledgeable
 Windows writer, Bob is the head of a Mental Health Agency and can be
 found at [e-mail]   He and Stanley are regular
 WindoWatch contributors.

                                     ww





 *              *               *               *               *






  Look out Bill Gates....   Here Comes Alice!


                      Alice Announces Text-Based OS

 Alice is quite elated. She is CEO of a large corporation, and my
 friend.  It seems she has written a new operating system which is
 command line driven. This avoids the cumbersome use of a mouse, and
 offers greater flexibility of operations, not to mention the
 possibility of writing macros (.BAT files) to accomplish tailor made
 tasks.

 It has a shell capability which means that individual programs can use
 it for temporary OS functioning. Feeling that graphical interfaces
 confuse  the user and lull them into a false sense of security, Alice
 demonstrated how this new OS could revolutionize the Windows World at
 the Command Line OS convention in Boston this week.

 She demonstrated that by having command line interface, the heartbreak
 of trying to position the mouse just so, - is now avoided! Also, since
 it is text based, the system's graphics capabilities are less likely to
 be taxed.  And the command line interface puts the user closer to the
 machine level than windowed OS's.  Industry analysts heralded this
 retro move as very welcome, and Microsoft stock plummeted after her
 presentation, which was conceived and executed on a 286 AT platform
 with 2 MEGS of RAM.

 Also of note was that when a program did crash, the particular error
 was noted, in contrast to the leading GUI, when more often than not the
 message was "GPF" and an address. Alice pointed out that there is ample
 support for her OS, and a minimum of housekeeping files needed to keep
 it afloat.  Every attempt was made to hide the unfriendly "click me"
 aspects of the machine, putting the command set in the foreground on a
 plain black screen. Alice's company is planning on offering a rebate to
 those users of windowed OS's in an effort to woo users from what she
 describes as the "rush to dumdumland."


 Peter Neuendorffer is a Windows programmer, musician, satirist and my
 friend! He has been associated with WindoWatch as a contributing writer.


                                      ww





  *             *               *               *               *








                   Is there a Logo in Your life?

                 The Microsoft Logoed Software List

 The official Microsoft Internet presence,  WINNEWS, released in Vol. 2,
 #18  of October 1995 the following.  "This is a list of software
 products that have earned the Designed for Windows 95 Logo as of
 October 5, 1995. "

 They go on to say: "To earn the Windows 95 Logo, software products must
 be 32-bit Windows-based applications which provide better multitasking
 and robustness in Windows 95. Applications with the Windows 95 Logo
 also feature the enhanced user interface of Windows 95, support long
 filenames, provide automated installation and uninstall capability.
 Many(?) applications, support OLE component technology which provides
 better cross-application interoperability(?) and efficiency through
 features such as OLE Drag and Drop."

 Given the many features touted in the approved '95 software list,  can
 we assume that every package includes all these standards? Not quite,
 not all the time and certainly not very clear.  "Sort of," says Steve
 Shattuck. "They must be 32-bit, handle long file names, have an
 uninstall,  run on Windows NT plus a few other requirements.  If an
 application requires a feature not supported in Windows NT, then the
 application can simply meet the NT requirements by having the program
 display "This program requires a Windows 95" dialog box. A good example
 of Logo programs with this exemption would be Norton Navigator which
 require the Windows 95 GUI, and QModem for Windows 95 which requires
 TAPI (Telephony Application Program Interface), which Windows NT
 doesn't support YET.

 It might be useful that future authorized MS listings include simple
 check boxes next to each software package indicating which of the '95
 standards are included and how and if they differ from NT standards.
 Certainly as part of the massive upgrade surge required by Windows 95,
 lists of this sort have greater utility to the ultimate buyer if these
 lists represent more than mere exposure to WEB travelers . There is
 also the assumption that everyone is aware of what smallish niche
 developers are about and what there software offerings do  or how and
 where to directly reach them. lbl


                         WINDOWS 95 LOGOED SOFTWARE

 01/FAX for Windows 01                 Communique Laboratory Inc.
3D Kitchen                  Books that Work
3D-Body Adventure             Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
3D-Dinosaur Adventure             Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
ABC Graphics Suite             MicroGrafx
Action Pack I                  Activision
Adaptec EZ-SCSI              Adaptec, Inc.
Add-A-BarCode/32             Wallace Computer Services
Al Unser Jr.                 Arcade Racing Mindscape, Inc.
All-Star Baseball             Accolade Software
Announcements forWindows          Parsons Technology, Inc.
Arcada Backup for Windows 95          Arcada Software
AT&T Mail Driverfor Mapi          AT&T EasyLink Services
Automatic Tour of the Internet         Morris & Associates
Baby Yaga and the Magic Geese         Davidson & Associates
Beat The House              InterPlay Productions
Buried in Time              Sanctuary Woods, Inc.
Calendar Creator             Softkey International
Cinemania 96                  Microsoft Corporation
Clarify                   Clarify
CleanSweep 95                  Quarterdeck Corporation
Colorado Backup for Windows 95      Hewlett-Packard Company
Comedy Classics              Questar Service Corporation
Complete NBA Basketball Guide '95-'96     Microsoft Corporation
Coolsville                  Music Pen, Inc.
Crayola Art Studio             MicroGrafx
Dashboard 95                  Starfish
Dentrix                   Dentrix Dental Systems
DesignCAD 3D for Windows          Amer. Small Business Computers, Inc.
Desktop Toys                  Desktop Toys.
Dust: A Tale of the Wired West      CyberFlix Incorporated
EasyTutor Learn Windows 95          CRT Multimedia Ltd.
Encarta '96                  Microsoft Corporation
Encarta '96 World Atlas          Microsoft Corporation
Endorfun                  Time Warner Interactive Group
Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall     Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Excel for Windows             Microsoft Corporation
Explorapedia- The World of Nature     Microsoft Corporation
FastTrack Schedule             AEC Software, Inc.
First Aid For Windows Users         CyberMedia
Fisher-Price ABC's             Davidson & Associates
FlowModel                  Arcland, Inc.
Freddi Fish: Case of
 the Missing Kelp Seeds         Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Fury3                   Microsoft Corporation
Fusion FTMS                  Proginet Corp.
Harvard ChartXL              Software Publishing Corporation
Harvard Graphics             Software Publishing Corporation
HiJaak                   Inset Systems, Inc.
HotFax Menu                  Smith Micro Software
ImageStream(R) for Microsoft(R) Office     ImageMark Software Labs, Inc.
IntelliType                  Microsoft Corporation
Janna Contact 95             Janna Systems Inc.
Kid Desk Family Edition          Edmark Corporation
Living Book's Dr. Seuss ABC's         Living Books, Inc.
MAPS & DATA for
   Microsoft Office 95          MaconUSA
Mario's Time Machine Deluxe!          Mindscape, Inc.
Math Munchers Deluxe             Minnesota Educational Computing Corp.
Micrografx Windows Draw          MicroGrafx
Microsoft Access for Windows 95      Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Bookshelf             Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Dogs              Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Golf              Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Golf CD-ROM                 Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Office for Windows 95      Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Plus!              Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Visual Basic             Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Visual C++             Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Visual FoxPro         Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Works              Microsoft Corporation
Midisoft Studio for Windows 95      Midisoft Corporation
Milestone, Etc.              KIDASA Software, Inc.
Milestones Simplicity             KIDASA Software, Inc.
Modern Age Books
 Electronic Book Engine         Modern Age Books
Money                   Microsoft Corporation
MTV's Beavis & Butt-head
  in Virtual Stupidity             Viacom New Media
MyAdvanced Brochures             MySoftware Company
Name-It                   Vertisoft Systems
Navision Financials             PC&C A/S
NavTrek                   Nobeltec Corporation
Netscape Navigator             Netscape Communications
Norton Anti-Virus for
   Windows 95                  Symantec
Norton Navigator             Symantec
Norton Utilities for
   Windows 95                  Symantec
NS/Elite                  NetSoft
Oceans                   Microsoft Corporation
Office Binder                  Microsoft Corporation
OfficeBlox                  AlphaBlox Corporation Ltd.
Oregon Trail II              Minn. Educational Computing Corp.
Personal Tax Edge             Parsons Technology, Inc.
Personal Tax Edge             Parsons Technology, Inc.
Personal Tax                 Organizer Parsons Technology, Inc.
Phone Search USA             DeLorme Mapping
PhoneDisc                  Digital Directory Assistance, Inc.
Pitfall!: The Mayan Adventure          Activision
Pixel PRO                  Intergraph Corporation
Popular Mechanics Car Guide          Books that Work
PowerAlbum                  Softkey International
PowerPoint                  Microsoft Corporation
Practitioner                  Life Care Development Corporation
Pressure Drop                  Rocket Science Games, Inc.
Pro CD                    ProPhone Pro CD
Project                   Microsoft Corporation
Publisher for Windows 95         Microsoft Corporation
QmodemPro for Windows 95         Mustang Software, Inc.
Quick View Plus              Inso Corporation
Rubicon 95                  PC-Systemer Norge AS
Sammy's Science House             Edmark Corporation
Schedule Plus                  Microsoft Corporation
Shanghai: Great Moments         Activision
Sidekick 95                  Starfish
SimCity 2000                  Maxis
SimTown                   Maxis
Smart Moves                  PHH Technology Services
SmarTerm 32-Bit
 Edition for Windows 95         Persoft, Inc.
SmartSketch 95              FutureWave Software, Inc.
Street Atlas USA             DeLorme Mapping
Taxability Pro for Windows          Digita International Limited
The Family Doctor, 4th Edition      Creative Multimedia
Trancend                  Intergraph Corporation
TriSpectives (Standard
 & Professional editions)         3D/EYE, Inc.
TSR Screensaver              US Gold
Undersea Adventure             Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
VirusScan for Windows 95         McAfee Associates, Inc.
Visio                   Visio Corporation
Visual Compta                  DC2i
Visual Smalltalk Enterprise          Digitalk
Visual SourceSafe             Microsoft Corporation
Widget Workshop              Maxis
WINLine                   MESONIC GmbH
WinTutor 95                  Softkey International
Word for Windows             Microsoft Corporation
World of Flight              Microsoft Corporation
XoftWare/32 for WIN32                 AGE Logic, Inc.



 The Windows Logo is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. A frequently
 updated help-file of all logoed hardware and software products is available
 on the World Wide Web at http://www.microsoft.com/windows

 This list first appeared in WINNEWS October 1995

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 HomePage Hints

                    Tips on Setting up Remote Web Pages

                       Copyright 1995  by Jim Plumb

 About six to seven months ago I was invited to set up a home page for
 WindoWatch. At that time I didn't know a home page from a home body.
 The Web was taking off at an incredible rate, as it still is, and I
 figured I might as well get in on all the fun.. In truth, I didn't have
 a clue on how to go about making a web page, much less putting it on an
 Internet Service Provider's computer miles away.

 Homework
 That's what you need to do. Look at a lot of pages. Save the ones you
 like to disk and create a collection. Visit the original Web site, the
 CERN particle lab in Switzerland at http://www.w3.org.  I can remember
 what that was like in the beginning. "Hey, I'm in Switzerland now!"
 They have many of the tools you'll need to make web pages. Another
 excellent resource in this country is Bob Allison's Web Master page at
 http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/masters1.html. This guy HAS done his
 homepage homework. Get an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) reference of
 some kind, a book or an online reference. There is a very nice freeware
 package called HTML Library available at
 ftp.swan.ac.uk/pub/in.coming/htmlib/htmlibXX.zip, where XX is the
 version number, currently 1.1a.  Most browsers these days, at least the
 ones running on MS Windows support the tags used in HTML level 2.
 Analyze your saved web pages and see what all the codes do.

 We're assuming in this article that you have a dialup account although
 what I'm going to say is applicable to people directly on the Internet.
 When you opened your Internet account, you probably got a software
 package which more than likely included a Web browser, a Mail program,
 a Newsgroup reader and an FTP client.  Probably, you connect with a Web
 server running some flavor of Unix. Of these, the Web browser and FTP
 client are the most important in creating Web pages for remote sites.
 You'll also need a text editor of some sort. These are the minimum
 tools required.

 You can also get one or more commercial/shareware/freeware HTML editors
 readily at hand. The site at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/ has links to
 many of the tools available. You can also check the site at
 http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/WinMosaic/HTMLEdit.htm for more
 links.

 Simple Web Tools/Editors
 For beginners, I suggest you get a copy of WebWizard, either the 16- or
 32-bit version (ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/local/webwizard). This piece of
 software borrows from the Wizard interface Microsoft uses in Windows
 95. It prompts you for items you might want included in a web page.
 Things like title, background color, text items, bulleted list items,
 graphics, etc. From there you can flesh out the page with whatever you
 need. When you save the file, make sure you give it the extension .htm,
 or if you use Win95 you can give it an .html extension. Another way to
 get started is with Internet Assistant, a free add-on to Microsoft Word
 for Windows 6.0 and a 32-bit upgrade to use with Word 7.0 . Internet
 Assistant gives you the ability to save Word documents as HTML
 documents. You can also use it to toggle Word between edit mode and
 browse mode. Very interesting software. There are other useful tools
 but I mention these two because they are easy to learn and require no
 knowledge of HTML to get you a place on the Web. An excellent HTML
 editor is Hotmetal by SoftQuad, Inc.

 Once you get a basic page, use whatever tools it takes to get the page
 looking as it should. Use your browser to check for errors. In fact
 some HTML tools have a push button or other facility which calls your
 browser to check it out. The final test is call it up and check any
 links you've put in it.

 Once you're ready to share your page with the world, use your FTP
 client to get it to your web site. Usually your Internet Service
 Provider has provided you with disk space for a directory for all your
 web pages. After you understand that this is a simple two way transfer
 the procedure becomes very obvious. The support person at your site
 should help you figure it out.

 The current Windows FTP clients make file transfers a breeze. I use the
 freeware FTP client WS_FTP. It opens up, ready to configure a
 connection and a sub-directory on your computer. Add the host name of
 your web site, your id and password, click connect and you're there.
 Of course you would have already logged on to your SLIP or PPP account.
 Use the right side to change to the web directory on the host. Use the
 left side which displays your sub-directory of choice to select your
 web page file, and then press the arrow pointing to the right side to
 transfer the file.

 If you can't FTP to the site or you can't get an FTP client program,
 you can use a comm program to manually logon to the site. Dial it up,
 logon, and go to your web directory. If you're not familiar with Unix,
 use the cd command as you would in DOS, and use forward slashes instead
 of backward slashes. Example: cd www/html ENTER. Here's a little tip!
 Let's assume you want to call your homepage MyBigHomePage.html. Of
 course you can't call it that on your PC but you can using Unix. Your
 page is named homepage.htm. What we're going to do is create a
 "symbolic link" between homepage.htm and what you want to call it. Type
 ln -s homepage.htm MyBigHomePage.html. You can refer to
 MyBigHomePage.html but it will call homepage.htm.

 Creating a Web page is not all that difficult provided you do your
 homework and have your tools, and of course, an idea  that's good
 enough to want to share with others.

 Have fun!


 Jim Plumb is a contributing writer and has been with WindoWatch from
 the very beginning. He not only did the original homepage for WindoWatch
 but is also our resident Acrobat guru... Jim can be reached by Email at
 [e-mail]







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                  *** From the Net-Happenings Moderator ***


                               WINDOWS '95 WEB LIST

 Craig's Interactive Windows '95 Experience
 http://www.vitinc.com/~cbonsig/win95/win95.html

 WindoWatch
 http://www.windowatch.com

 WinMagWeb
 http://techweb.cmp.com/win/current

 MSN (Microsoft Network)
 http://www.msn.net

 Windows Information Network
 http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/win/winhome.html

 Windows 95 Info Page
 http://www.pcix.com/win95/win95home.html

 Newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www.browser.ms-windows
 news:comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows

 Microsoft Windows 95
 http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Menu.map?417,125

 TechFile (Windows 95)
 http://techweb.cmp.com:80/techweb/techweb/win95/win.html

 Cutter's Windows 95 Crossroads
 http://www.io.com/~kgk/win95.html

 Dylan Greene's Windows 95 Home Page
 http://cville-srv.wam.umd.edu/~dylan/win95.html

 Jason's Windows 95 Page
 http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/j/jgbright/WWW/Win95/Windows95.html

 Randy's Windows 95 Resource Page
 http://www.cris.com/~randybrg/win95.html

 The Windows 95 Page!
 http://biology.queensu.ca/~jonesp/

 Windows 95 Utility Page
 http://www.shadow.net/~wolverin/win95.htm

 The Windows 95 QAID/ABR
 http://www.whidbey.net/~mdixon/win40001.htm

 Stroud's CWSApps List-Windows 95/NT Applications
 http://www.netppl.fi/consummate/win95.html

 CMS' Windows 95 Help Page
 http://www.neosoft.com/~gregcms

 WIN 95 EMAIL DISCUSSION LIST.

 To subscribe, copy the following command in the BODY of your
 email: "sub win95-l yourname" and
 Email to: [e-mail]


 NBNSOFT- Your Net Encyclopedia:
 http://www.tricky.com/liz.html


 NBNSOFT Corporation                  Email: [e-mail]
 Liz W. Tompkins, President            -or-         [e-mail]
 MA, USA                                         w/SUBJECT: NBN




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 A Report from Israel and Jordan:


                        The Internet Technology in Use

 I am pleased to report that the Center for Inventive Thinking
 Implementation (CITI), has recruited my help on its latest and very
 ambitious endeavor.  The project is to build a virtual classroom on the
 Internet where Jordanian and Israeli high school students can function
 in the same classroom, work on projects together, and hopefully,
 dialogue and make friends across borders.

 Israel and Jordan are in the process of redefining their relationship.
 How do countries make the transition from isolation to cooperation, and
 ultimately from war to peace?

 Signing a peace agreement is simple.  Bridging people together is much
 more difficult.  It is widely understood, both here in Israel and in
 Jordan, that long range peace can only occur when animosities subside,
 and people start living and functioning as neighbors instead of
 adversaries.

 This project is a clear example of how technology can be used to
 accomplish mutually defined goals never before possible, and in fact,
 act as a tool for peace.

 Our plans are to set up a home page on the World Wide Web with links to
 general information, other programs and projects on the net, and most
 importantly to two forums, that will be adapted into classrooms.
 Initially, there will be two classes taught.  One on Middle East
 Studies and the other on Problem Solving.  Using the Forums rather than
 real time sessions, has  many advantages.  For one, students and
 teachers do not have to log on at the same time  which alleviates
 scheduling headaches.  Also, anything done in the class will always be
 there for students to see, at least until the teacher chooses to delete
 it.  Although most high school students in both countries have had
 extensive training in English, we are looking into the possibility of
 using a translator program that has already been developed, to bridge
 the communication gap between Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

 This project is in its infancy and is in the process of developing
 resources. If you have any questions about it, its focus, or want to help
 in some way, feel free to contact me.


 Stan Kanner is spending some time in Israel and will keep us up to date
 about what is happening there. Last time he talked about CompuHigh, the
 online high school he established. He takes his experience and expertise
 to the Middle East to help diminish confrontation and encourage cooperation.
 He can receive mail at [e-mail]



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          A Lewd and Lousy Lament!                  from Derek Buchler



                                 THE ENGINEERS SONG
                   (Sung to the Tune of the Beverly Hillbillies)


           Come and listen to a story `bout a man named Jed,
           A poor College Kid barely kept his family fed,
           But then one day he was talking to a recruiter,
           He said "They'll pay ya' big bucks if ya' work on a computer",
           VAX that is ... CRT's ... Workstations;

           Well the first thing ya' know ol' Jed's an Engineer,
           The kinfolk said "Jed move away from here",
           They said "Arizona is the place ya' oughta' be",
           So he bought some donuts and moved to Ahwatukee,
           Motorola that is ...  dry heat ... no amusement parks;

           On his first day at work they stuck him in a cube,
           Fed him more donuts and sat him at a tube,
           They said "Your project's late but we know just what to do,
           Instead of 40 hours, we'll work you fifty-two!"
           OT that is ... Unpaid ... Mandatory

           The weeks rolled by and things were looking bad,
           Some schedules slipped and some managers were mad,
           They called another meeting and decided on a fix,
           They answer was simple, "We'll work him sixty-six"
           Tired that is ... Stressed out ... No social life

           Months turned into years and his hair was turning gray,
           Jed worked hard while his life slipped away,
           Waiting to retire when he turned sixty-four,
           Instead he got a call and they escorted him out the door,
           Laid-off that is ... Debriefed ... Unemployed ...


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  Musings on Netscape 2.0 and other ponderings....

                        Reflections of a ModemJunkie

                    copyright 1995 by Leonard Grossman



 Its almost exactly a year since I sold my Dell stock,  walked into a
 pawnshop, and bought my screaming 386-40.  A lot has happened since
 then - aside from Dell increasing in value by more than 100% and then
 splitting two for one!

 Regular readers may remember that I had resisted Windows for as long as
 I could, but that my online addiction demanded that I get access to the
 Internet and that my poor typing skills required that I use Windows
 clients for much of that access.  So, when I saw my sleeping beauty on
 the counter and the dealer accepted my firm and almost joking offer of
 $300, I made the move.

 Within a few weeks I had my first internet account and discovered I was
 using it so much that I had to find an unlimited access Internet
 Service Provider (ISP).  It was almost exactly at that time that
 Netscape rushed onto the online scene.  Even though my first provider
 had supplied me with Mosaic, it was only a week or so before I began
 the regular process of updating Netscape. Although Win3.1  was slow on
 my machine, I quickly overcame most of my objections to Windows and
 even stopped spelling it Windoze, particularly after I found and
 installed four more megs of RAM on sale at a swapfest.

 And then I  found it was true:  The learning curve in Windows is
 incredibly fast compared to that in DOS.

 Although I had tried dozens of times to use the Internet from the
 command line, I just couldn't get the hang of it.  I rarely knew where
 I was.  Commands that seemed to work one day, didn't the next. I was at
 a loss!  But with Windows clients I was up and running in just a few
 days, even though there were so many things to learn...and even though
 each client had a somewhat different interface.  Before long I was
 using Netscape, Trumpet News Reader, and Eudora several times a day.

 Within a couple of months a major newspaper had written a feature
 article about my use of Gopher techniques to help my daughter with her
 homework.  I was FTPing files with abandon and had to triple my
 available hard drive space within just a few months. I even discovered
 it was faster to grab files from certain sources on line than to find
 the right CD and grab them from there.

 What made this possible?  Two things! The first was the ease of the
 point and click interface while the second was the availability of the
 Windows help on line.

 The online world is an incredible resource for both the newbie and the
 tyro. I used local bulletin boards like the great Chicago Syslink, and
 the various BBS networks with magnificent resources like the RIME and
 Ilink Windows conferences (frequented by the likes of Bob Miller, Jim
 Gunn, Gregg Hommel to name just a few) In these places, I found
 information and made new friends.  In conjunction with the usenet news
 groups, there was always someone who would help, especially, after I
 learned to bear the heat of the flames .

 In truth, the BBSs were/are very hospitable.  However, a year ago, many
 regulars on the internet newsgroups were openly inhospitable to
 newbies.  We threatened their culture and it took a bit of time for
 every one to accommodate to one another.  Protection of turf has
 subsided and with it fewer flames of that type.  Today, if I ask a
 particularly dumb question I will more than likely be ignored.  We have
 taken it over and made it our own!

 In the months after the change to Windows, I quickly developed more
 confidence.  I upgraded to Windows for Work Groups, added WordPerfect
 for Windows  even though, I still maintain that for simple text
 creation, nothing beats WP 5.1 for DOS.  I then made the plunge and
 popped for the Final Beta!  What fun when that disk arrived.

 In preparation I finally got that 420 meg tape backup I had wanted so
 long, even though the extra space was rendered temporarily useless by
 those #%&@^!  long filenames. I then installed the larger hard drives,
 put the Win95 CD in the machine and began the install.

 Over the next few weeks I played and worked, configured and
 reconfigured.  I spent hours online, seeking answers and providing a
 few too.  In the process I learned more and more about Windows, about
 my machine and about the Internet.

 Eventually, I decided that Win95 wasn't right for me and/or this
 computer. (See my previous columns for some of the reasons why.) Some
 day - maybe, but not right now.  When the surprise package with the
 Final Win95 Beta arrived, I left it unopened.  I have not even tried
 the new MS Office suite demo.  I had gone back to W4WG and was happy.

 And I still am.  I don't feel left out or do I hunger for more multi-
 tasking.  But something is missing.  I hadn't realized how much of my
 time at the screen, and particularly, online, was related to the
 discovery about computers, software and telecommunication.  I still
 spend far too much time on line but now most of it is reading the news
 or simply surfing.

 The driving purpose is missing.  Everything I use seems to be
 configured optimally, even if Netscape still GPFs (crashes) when it's
 time for me to go back to bed.  Without the challenge of something new,
 the need to solve a problem, the Net can be a vast wasteland.  As Lois
 Laulicht editorialized in WindoWatch (Sept. '95 - Issue No.7), the Net
 is in danger of becoming trivialized by commerce.  Slowly, I find less
 and less reason to log on.  Not that I spend much less time, mind you,
 but it doesn't seem as exciting any more.

 OOOPS!! I spoke too soon!! I couldn't sleep last night.  So I FTPd
 (downloaded) the long awaited next generation of Netscape, Version
 2.0b1, at 4:00 a.m.  I was still wide awake so I installed it over the
 previous version.   Big mistake!  The images don't work.  They look
 like a  psychedelic somethings  from the 60's - and other problems ,
 too.

 Quick! Log on to the Net!!  What is everyone saying?  Others are having
 some of the same problems.  Sharing ideas.  What would I do if I
 couldn't find the answers, or at least company to share my misery, on
 line?

 I guess I'll keep my internet account--at least until I figure the new
 Netscape out...


  Some First Impressions of Netscape 2.0 and Related Great Thoughts

 After I installed the newest version of Netscape I noted that like my
 growing waistline in recent years, Netscape has also grown to nearly
 two megs of compressed files.  It also tries to do everything.  It now
 includes a full mail reader, a full featured news reader, and much
 more.  Earlier versions relied on the user to set up helper
 applications to perform these functions.  Now they are included in a
 supposedly common interface.  This is not necessarily an improvement,
 however.

 One of the advantages of Windows clients for the internet is the
 ability to choose your favorite applications to perform different
 functions.  Each can be configured for your own needs.   Netscape, like
 other browsers, seems intent upon doing it all.  In the process, some
 good features were lost along with some individuality.

 I had the same thoughts at the PC Expo, as I watched a lengthy
 demonstration of Emissary, a full featured commercial browser/file
 manager/jack of all trades.  Yes, it does do wonderful things. However,
 I like freedom of choice.  What if there is an upgrade in an
 alternative news reader?  What if there is a new mail program out
 there?  Do I have to have multiples of everything with browsers, too?
 That is how word processors got so huge.  They have to do everything
 today.  But do they really.  Why buy a suit, or a suite, when all you
 need is a pair of pants?   It takes up room in the closet - and on your
 hard drive.  Will Netscape wake up and smell the coffee.

 Speaking of coffee, the 16 bit Netscape failed to incorporate the
 promised ability to handle Hot Java and the buggy 32 bit version seems
 to have been removed from Netscape's FTP site for the time being.
 Perhaps it'll be back by the time we go to press.

 By the way, I solved my Netscape problem for the time being by
 reinstalling the previous version and will wait to see how things shake
 out before I upgrade again.  I must be getting old.

 Speaking of the PC Expo.  I did manage to sneak out of the office for a
 few hours the other day to head over to McCormick Place in Chicago.
 They must have been desperate for attendance-- on the Monday before the
 show, they faxed me a comp admission-- without a request.

 But it was a good show... and,  as an aside, far more enjoyable than
 Windows World this summer which had the disadvantage of taking place
 just a couple of weeks before the big Win 95 rollout.  All those
 vendors could do was hold their collective breath and wait.  The PC
 Expo was a different story.  A few minutes after entering the door I
 came upon a booth with a large crowd around it. No,  it wasn't the
 "adult" CD-ROMS as they're in the back.  It was the Casio booth. They
 were demonstrating a new digital camera.

 It was truly amazing.  It stores images until they can be downloaded
 into your PC.  All of the images can be viewed from a large view screen
 on the back of the camera. they can be edited in the camera and shown
 directly on a television screen or a computer monitor with appropriate
 cables provided.  Using the view screen, it is possible to delete
 images, even after additional photos have been taken, saving memory for
 additional shots.  It is even possible to prepare a show on your
 computer and use this little hand held device to make your presentation
 on your customer's  television screen.  No need to carry a computer or
 have special equipment.

 The stored images printed quickly on a special color printer, which is
 also available. The images were incredibly sharp even tho' my hair
 looked thinner than I remembered.  Not only was my full face image
 perfectly focused, but the face of a woman who must have been standing
 more than 10 feet behind me peered over my shoulder in perfect focus as
 well.  The depth of field was amazing. Perhaps the lens is a bit wide
 angled, which must explain why my hairline appears to be receding in
 the closeup.  Suggested street prices: Camera about $700, printer, a
 little under $500.  Not cheap, but wait 'til next year, Cub fans.

 So, until next time or until I see you on line, I must log on and see
 whether anyone has come up with a fix for Netscape 2.0.

 Leonard Grossman is a lawyer for the Department of Labor.  He is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor and can be reached  at
 [e-mail]



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  The Last Word                                 A WindoWatch Feature


                     Quality Control?  What's that?
                     Copyright 1995 by Ben M. Schorr

 Last week I found a great deal on a tape drive; a Teac 70 and bought it
 at a superstore for $99.  It was bundled with Arcada backup software
 for  DOS and Windows delivered with all the necessary brackets and
 screws.  When I got the drive to the office it installed quickly and
 with ease. In truth, the backup software setup was even easier than
 that of the tape drive.

 Smiling to myself I slid in a pre-formatted tape and fired up the
 software to do a full backup. Drives D: E: & F:  I said - "and away it
 went" and left to run some errands. When I returned an hour or so later
 the backup was just finishing up. - "Perfect timing!" I thought. When
 the software finished, I decided I'd better go through the formality
 and do a compare as this was a new backup with crucial data!

 Much to my surprise, upon starting the compare, the software demanded
 Tape #1 of the set. Well... there was only one tape and it was already
 in the drive. CONTINUE I pressed. "Insert Tape #1" it requested again.
 Now I was a bit confused and I reinserted the tape and pressed
 CONTINUE. Again, the "Insert Tape #1" message.  I escaped out of that
 procedure and went to IDENTIFY which would give me the tape status.

 Much to my shock, IDENTIFY,  after much buzzing  and clicking, reported
 that the tape was blank!  So I tried a smaller backup and compare. Once
 again, after twenty minutes of backing up with no apparent errors,
 IDENTIFY told me  that the tape was blank and COMPARE insisted that it
 was the wrong tape. I tried a different tape... and again, the same
 result.

 A subsequent phone call to Arcada yielded a support person who knew a
 surprising amount about my problem already and then revealed that she
 had already received two calls just like this! She promised to have an
 engineer call me back in one to three days when they'd decided what to
 do.

 Four days later, with no returned call , I called them back. A
 different support person theorized that the problem was a conflict with
 the firmware in the tape drive and suggested that I call TEAC to have
 the drive replaced.   My great deal wasn't looking so great anymore.

 This particular software was written for this specific drive and was
 bundled with the drive when I bought it.  Doesn't anybody test this
 stuff anymore?

     Of Windows 95, Windows NT and other graphical thoughts...

 I spent five hours last night listening to Microsoft people tell us how
 wonderful Windows NT Advanced Server is and heard them downplay Windows
 95 - except as an NT Client!  They emphasized built-in Web serving,
 remote access,  connectivity, scalability and how it matches up, in
 terms of market share, with Netware.

 Sadly, most of these vendor dog and pony shows are spent convincing us
 how many other VARs are selling their product and not enough time is
 spent convincing us WHY we should sell their product and how to work
 with it once we've installed it.

 Interestingly, the Microsoft people seemed very excited about being
 able to dial into an NT server with RAS and add a new user account from
 a remote PC. Pardon my tepid response, but that's exactly what I've
 been doing with LANtastic servers for the last 2 years. Am I really
 supposed to get excited about a feature that has been in a smaller and
 cheaper peer to peer network product for a long time?

 A couple of features that were kind of neat, is the ability to easily
 access your Netware servers from NT and the ability to control many
 parts of an NT server from SYSCON - for you Netware fans.

 Otherwise it was the usual marketing show, with a nice dinner and a
 free copy of NT Advanced Server (a $699 value, according to the
 brochure) for each company in attendance.


                    A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind

 I finally took the leap and cleaned all of those papers off my desk.
 Some were important. Some were overdue. Some were ads. None were
 checks.  Isn't that just the way life is? While I was busy cleaning my
 desk, some  of my clients were busy cluttering their Windows Desktops.

 It's amazing, but I saw a machine this week that had something like
 seventeen open groups at one time. Each of them windowed to the size of
 a postage  stamp so that you could barely see a single icon in the
 group and it was usually a README icon. Is this what the creators of
 GUI interfaces really envisioned for us?

 I tried to resist, but finally gave in and took that user by the arm
 and gave her a fifteen minute lesson on how to clean up the desktop.
 It turns out that the only group where the applications she actually
 uses was one of the only groups that wasn't open!  We spent some time
 learning about minimizing and maximizing. We grabbed blue title bars,
 dragged and dropped, closed groups and even deleted some entirely. We
 tiled and cascaded until we practically heard angels singing! When all
 was said and done we pressed SHIFT-ALT-F4 (Ben's Tip of the Month,
 folks) to save our new, clean, productive desktop and I triumphantly
 whooshed out of the room and on with my day.

 An hour later I strolled past the door and peeked in to see her
 gleefully winning a game of Solitaire.  So much for productivity.

 If you've got a neat trick to enhance productivity, -other than
 deleting Solitaire, E-Mail it to me at [e-mail]

 Ben Schorr is the Host of the Ilink Consultants conference and the
 Director of Operations of Watson/Schorr Consulting of Canoga Park, CA .
 He is a regular contributor to WindoWatch.


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  EDITORIAL

  Editor                                 Lois B. Laulicht
  ContributingEditor:                          Herb Chong
  Home Page Editor                           Paul Kinnaly
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  Leonard Grossman, Jim Gunn, Gregg Hommel , Stan Kanner,
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