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SILICON TIMES REPORT ==================== INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ============================= from STR Electronic Publishing Inc. A subsidiary of STR Worldwide CompNews Inc. March 31, 1995 No. 1113 ====================================================================== Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor Featured in ITCNet's ITC_STREPORT Echo -------------------------------------- Voice: 1-904-783-3319 10am-4pm EST STR Publishing Support BBS * THE BOUNTY INTERNATIONAL BBS * Featuring: * 45GB * of Download Files Operating with * Mustang Software's WILDCAT! BBS v4.10 * Fully Networked within the following Nets: ITCNet 85:881/253 JAX HUB ~ FIDO Net 1:112/35 Prowl ~ USPOLNet ~ FNET 350 ~ Nest 90:301/3 Delivered via Subscriber List through Internet 904-786-4176 MULTI-NODE 24hrs-7 days 2400-115.2 bps V.32-34 v.42 bis 28.8 Hayes Optima 28.8 V.FC Data/Fax USRobotics D/S Data/Fax 28.8 V.34 Everything FAX: 904-783-3319 12am-6am EST ----------------------------------------- The Bounty STReport Support Central .... 1-904-786-4176 FNET. 620 : Leif's World ................1-904-573-0734 FNET. 690 : PASTE BBS....................1-206-284-8493 FNET. 489 : Steal Your Face BBS..........1-908-920-7981 MNET - Toad Hall BBS.....................1-617-567-8642 ______________________________________________________________________ > 03/31/95 STR 1113 "The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine!" """"""""""""""""" - STR INDUSTRY REPORT - NavCIS 1.6 - Walsh JILTS GEnie - NetScape & Adobe - Mayo Sports - HP-NEW Palmtop - STR Mail Call - V.34/28.8 View - ECTS Report - TEAC CD55A TIPS - WinCIM 1.4 - STR Confidential -* ATARI VIRTUAL REALITY DEAL ENHANCED! *- -* APPLE & MS IN COURT AGAIN! *- -* WIN'95 & INFOWORLD! *- ========================================================================== STReport International OnLine Magazine The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's BBS - The Bounty BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the ITC/Fido/Internet/PROWL/USENET/USPOLNet/NEST/F-Net Mail Networks. You may also call The Bounty BBS direct @ 1-904-786-4176. Enjoy the wonder and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to all computer types, worldwide, through the use of excellent International Networking Systems. SysOps and users alike worldwide, are welcome to join STReport's International Conferences. ITC Node is 85:881/250, The Fido Node is 1:112/35, Crossnet Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is #620. All computer enthusiasts, hobbyist or commercial on all platforms and BBS systems are invited to participate. ========================================================================== CIS ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ ITC ~ NEST ~ EURONET ~ CIX USENET ~ USPOLNET ~ CLEVELAND FREE-NET ~ INTERNET ~ PROWL ~ FNET ~ AOL ========================================================================== SOFTWARE CREATIONS BBS is proud to distribute Silicon Times Report STReport International OnLine Magazine -------------------------------- With more than 130 Lines of PCBOARD access, Internet, Telnet and X.25 local access in every major city world-wide through SprintNet Software Creations delivers the files! -------------------------------------------------- Silicon Times Report joins names like Apogee Software, Borland, id Software, TriSoft, Interactive Gaming, PC Techniques, Coriolis, Fastgraph, PC Information Group, and many more. -------------------------------- Real-Time Credit Card Approval and Membership Upgrades The Software Download Store - for on the spot purchase/approval and download ability! -------------------------------- Call 1-800-4SWCBBS (479-2227); Fax 1-508-365-7214 for more information! ----------------------------------------------------- So, Get the latest releases from SOFTWARE CREATIONS BBS "Home of the Authors" * Software Creations, Voted #1 BBS for 1993 & 1994 * 1200/2400 V.42/MNP Lines : (508) 365-2359 2400-14.4k HST US Robotics Lines : (508) 368-7036 2400-16.8k V.32/V.42bis US Robotics lines : (508) 368-7139 14.4-28.8k V.32/V.42bis/V.fc Hayes Optima lines: (508) 365-9352 14.4-28.8k V.32/V.42bis/V.32terbo/V.fc US Robotics lines: (508) 368-3424 ======================================================================== COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; STREPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit OnLine Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be OnLine in no time at all! "Enjoy CompuServe's forums; where information is at its very best! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" LottoMan V1.3 Results: 03/25/95: two 3# matches and four 2# matches ---------------------- > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" It never ceases to amaze me about how a user can make their true "intentions" as _obvious_ as the nose on their face. This past week, while cruising the nets.. I observed the following; The users who were obviously doing the most "bad-mouthing" of Win'95 made coming to my conclusions quite easy. You are not going to believe this. It would have been easier to at least read and understand what these posters were trying to say if only.. They were polite enough to (a) keep the language they used clean and respectful and (b) not have the Warp or os/2 thing in their signatures or taglines. Talk about giving away their real intentions. Perhaps it was best they did it that way. After who'd believe them anyway? The odd part ws... I didn't see any taglines or sigs with Win'95 in them stuck on the end of bad-mouth os/2 Warp posts. Hmmm. Speaking of Win'95, anybody wanting a Pre-Release copy for their very own need only call MS at 1-800-957-7384 and order it. Win'95 is really very, very nice. Its fast and its fun to use. I've been using it for some time now and I must say, this latest build (347) is excellent. Everything I have here is working just like its supposed to. If you really want to see the future now.. get yourself a copy. Take advantage of the Pre-Release offer. Its good stuff! If any of you have questions about Win'95, drop me a line I'll be sure to answer your questions either in STReport or return EMail. As an aside, think of this.. you have no further memory problems and all my heavy duty DOS GAMES load right up and "do it to it". Ah yes... for the "Thomases"... my productivity software has been working wonderfully also. "I'm luvin' it!" You will too! Ralph... Of Special Note: ---------------- STReport will be branching out further to Internet's userbase in the very near future. We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addresses. As a result, we're putting together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wish to receive STReport on a regular basis, and we'll UUENCODE each issue and mail it to you. If you're interested in being added to our mailing list, please, send your requests to either "dpj@delphi.com" or, RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM. Look for mailings to begin by October first. We are also considering a number of Internet ftp sites in which to post our issues for as well. Whatever we can do to make STReport available to you. we'll try it! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""" Publisher -Editor """""""""""""""""" Ralph F. Mariano Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors """"""""""""""" PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION ---------- ------------- ----------- ------------- R.D. Stevens R. Niles J. Deegan D. P. Jacobson STReport Staff Editors: """"""""""""""""""""""" Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin John Szczepanik Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms Frank Sereno John Duckworth Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Guillaume Brasseur Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian Contributing Correspondents: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Dominick J. Fontana Norman Boucher Clemens Chin Eric Jerue Ron Deal Mike Barnwell Ed Westhusing Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt Patrick Hudlow Tom Sherwin Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: CompuServe................... 70007,4454 Delphi......................... RMARIANO GEnie......................... ST.REPORT BIX............................ RMARIANO FIDONET........................ 1:112/35 FNET........................... NODE 620 ITC NET...................... 85:881/253 NEST........................ 90:21/350.0 America OnLine..................STReport Internet.............RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM IMPORTANT NOTICE ---------------- STReport, with its policy of not accepting any paid advertising, has over the years developed the reputation of "saying it like it really is". When it comes to our editorials, product evaluations, reviews and over-views, we shall always keep our readers interests first and foremost. With the user in mind, STReport further pledges to maintain the reader confidence that has been developed over the years and to continue "living up to such". All we ask is that our readers make certain the manufacturers, publishers etc., know exactly where the information about their products appeared. In closing, we shall arduously endeavor to meet and further develop the high standards of straight forwardness our readers have come to expect in each and every issue. The Staff & Editors """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS """"""""""""""""""" IBM/POWER-PC/PC SECTION (I) =========================== Computer Products Update - CPU Report ------------------------ ---------- Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Issue #13 Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ******* General Computer News ******* >> Atari Boosts Deal With Virtuality For Virtual Reality << Atari has announced an extended contract with Virtuality, the London- based Virtual Reality (VR) software house, in which Virtuality will develop two VR games for the Atari Jaguar games console. The announcement was made at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) which took place in London over the last few days. Late last year, Atari contracted with Virtuality for the development of a head-mounted VR display unit for the Jaguar. Terms of last October's contract called for Virtuality to develop VR game systems for the consumer marketplace, using a VR headset like a motorcycle helmet. The games console headset has been pencilled in for a summer 1995 launch, and draws heavily on the technology that Virtuality uses in coin-operated arcade VR systems. Pricing of the VR system for the Jaguar will be around the UKP 149 mark, Newsbytes has learned. Jon Waldern, head of Virtuality, claims that the Jaguar is the "only 64-bit system currently on the market and is ideally suited for immersive virtual reality games." Commenting on the extended deal between the two companies, Sam Tramiel, Atari's president, said that work on the head mounted display (HMD) for the Jaguar is proceeding on schedule, and the games will be released in parallel with the HMD system later this year. "We've made a significant investment in low-cost immersive Virtual Reality and are committed to bringing this technology to Jaguar customers by the end of the year," he said. This second deal with Virtuality will reassure Atari Jaguar owners that the future for their machine -- and perhaps more importantly, its support on the software front -- now looks assured. >> GEnie President Jumps Ship << In an unexpected move, Mark Walsh, president of GEnie online services, left GEnie this week to take a job with its competitor, America Online (AOL). Walsh had only joined GEnie last August, so this change stunned many industry observers and GEnie employees. Walsh will now be a senior vice president and general manager of branded Internet services at AOL. Walsh, 40, is looked upon by many as an industry innovator and was hired by General Electric to turn GEnie around as it had slipped from about 250,000 users to just over 100,000. Last October, Walsh had boasted that he was remaking GEnie and "rewriting our history". Walsh had planned a telephone conference this week with analysts and reporters to talk about his vision for GEnie. Horace Martin, vice president of GEIS business development, will be interim president of GEnie. >> Phone Calls by Internet Tested << Camelot Corp. is beta testing software called Digiphone that it says allows users to place phone calls over the Internet. Camelot says it is the first Internet phone product to support the same kind of two-way voice conversations that can be expected from regular long-distance calls. Reports say that calls across the Internet will cost no more than the cost of an Internet account, typically less than $40 per month, much cheaper than typical international calls. Available on store shelves in June, Digiphone will work with most currently available multimedia- compatible PCs. Digiphone carries a suggested retail price of $149.95 and will be marketed by Camelot's software publishing unit, Third Planet Publishing." >> Compaq to Use Pentium Clones << Compaq Computer Corp. says it has reached agreement with NexGen Inc. for the use of '586- and higher-class microprocessors in future Compaq products. "As 586-class processors have become 'mainstream' this year, this agreement with NexGen will help Compaq to deliver high performance PCs that represent a greater value to the PC marketplace," notes John T. Rose, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's desktop PC division. "As 586- class technologies become more available from more suppliers, we will be able to offer our customers just the right combination of features, performance and value to meet each of their unique requirements." >> Win95 Bug Overblown << The top editor of Windows Magazine says a recent report about an alleged serious bug in Windows 95 is "overblown." InfoWorld claimed earlier this week that the new operating system can freeze up PCs that try to run several applications simultaneously. "There's no doubt that the M8-Beta version had a serious flaw in it," says Fred Langa, Windows Magazine's editorial director. The problem, he notes, is that the operating system doesn't allocate sufficient resources to run some 32-bit applications, possibly causing the system to crash. According to Langa, Windows Magazine exposed a similar problem last September, when editors observed that an earlier beta version was having serious systems resource problems with 16-bit applications. Langa says the publication alerted Microsoft to the problem and a solution was found within two weeks. Langa believes that Microsoft's current problems will be readily handled and that Windows 95's release probably won't be delayed. "A beta version by definition is not the final version," notes Langa. "It's normal to find bugs in unfinished products. End-users need to monitor a company's progress in resolving these bugs; but it's certainly no cause for alarm, despite the tenor of some recent press reports." >> Apple Takes Microsoft Back to Court << Apple Computer Inc. says it will reveal in federal district court this week that Microsoft Corp. violated the intent of a federal restraining order by continuing to distribute allegedly stolen software on an America Online forum. Reports say that Apple discovered on March 24 that Microsoft had continued to distribute copies of Video for Windows containing 1,000 lines of Apple QuickTime code via its America Online forum. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Aguilar issued a temporary restraining order forbidding Microsoft from distributing the software. >> Prodigy Loses No. 2 Executive << Scott Kurnit, a cable TV guru hired by Prodigy as a vice president two years ago to help turn around the online service's operation, suddenly is departing to join a rival venture started by MCI Communications Corp. The exit of Kurnit "could hurt (the) turnaround effort," writer Jared Sandberg comments in The Wall Street Journal this week, adding, "It also may signal tensions between Prodigy's two giant owners, (IBM) and Sears, Roebuck & Co., which have been at odds about the service's direction." Writes Sandberg, "IBM is pushing to replace the Sears executive who is Prodigy's president, Ross Glatzer, with a choice of its own, according to people familiar with the matter. While the computer maker supports Mr. Kurnit, Sears didn't want to cede control to someone in IBM's camp; the two partners may agree to bring in an outside candidate, according to an executive familiar with the situation." >> Compaq Unveils New ProLiant Unit << A new ProLiant 1500 5/120 computer intended as an affordable, "mission-critical" server has been unveiled by Compaq Computer Corp., built around Intel Corp.'s new 120MHz Pentium processor. In a statement, the company said the system, priced at about $12,749, is available in tower and rack-mountable configurations and includes: ECC memory, TriFlex/peripheral component interconnect system architecture, fast-wide small computer system interface-2, automatic server recovery-2, hot pluggable drives and disk arrays. Redundant power supplies are available as an option. >> Acrobat Boosted for Internet << Efforts have begun to set standards for giving books and brochures the same appearance on the Internet as they have on paper, and three major companies -- IBM, Adobe Systems Inc. and Netscape Communications Inc. -- have interests in the outcome. IBM and Netscape are announcing this week at Boston's Seybold conference on electronic publishing that they will incorporate Adobe's Acrobat software into personal computers and key online programs. Reports say, "Acrobat allows a document, such as a written report or spreadsheet, to be shared to any computer regardless of the kind of computer or software used to create it. The program has two components, one for the creator and one for the reader." The new pacts call for the Acrobat Reader component to become a standard feature on IBM's commercial PCs and to be woven into Netscape's browser software widely used on Internet's hypertext World Wide Web feature. >> Apple Rolls Out New Music Tools << New interactive music tools to help software developers make compact disks that can run interchangeably between computers and stereo players, as well as programs for online concerts and music videos is being announced by Apple Computer Inc. Reports say the QuickTime Music Toolkit "will allow musicians to meld lyrics, photos and videos into QuickTime movies that can be played on Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Corp. personal computers." The software also can make a new "enhanced CD," to display video and play music in a computer or just play music in a car or home audio CD system. >> Microsoft Bookshelf Updated << Microsoft Corp. has unveiled Microsoft Bookshelf '95, a new version of its CD-ROM reference library. The software publisher notes that Bookshelf '95 offers one-click access to eight frequently used reference books from within any Windows- or Macintosh-based program. The 1995 version provides enhanced multimedia features and a new National Five-Digit ZIP Code and Post Office Directory. Also included is a Year in Review section containing a summary of newsworthy events. "Bookshelf '95 represents nine years of investment in the way people think about reference materials," says Patty Stonesifer, senior vice president of Microsoft's consumer division. "It is the most widely owned and, we believe, one of most widely used CD-ROM products on the market." Microsoft Bookshelf '95 will sell for approximately $69. Previous owners of any version of Bookshelf are eligible to receive a $30 rebate from Microsoft. The Windows edition is available now; a Macintosh version of Bookshelf '95 is scheduled to become available later this spring. >> Claris to Offer E-Mail Program << Claris Corp. says it has obtained worldwide, exclusive licensing rights to a newly developed Macintosh electronic mail management application code-named Emailer. Developed by Fog City Software, Inc., the software sends and receives e-mail on the Internet as well as via online services including CompuServe. Claris says Emailer is the first Macintosh application to provide automatic e-mail support for individual subscribers of the Internet and more than one online service. Emailer users can send messages and enclosures to subscribers of any online service or anyone with an Internet address. Emailer creates and maintains a database of e-mail addresses for all recipients. It can store more than one e-mail address for individuals as well as a group address for multiple recipients. Files can be sent as enclosures using drag-and- drop techniques. Emailer automatically compresses and decompresses enclosures and can send enclosures from one online service to another. "As the number of people accessing the Internet and online services increase we believe that e-mail addresses will become more common than fax numbers," says Guy Kawasaki, president of Fog City Software. "We developed Emailer for anyone with an e-mail address who wants to tap the full potential of electronic messaging and communicate with subscribers from a variety of online services effortlessly." Scheduled for availability this summer, Emailer will be available for both 68K- and Power Macintosh-based systems. The product's price hasn't yet been announced. >> HP Offers New Palmtop, 3 Units << A new palmtop PC and three PC models based on Intel Corp.'s new 120MHz Pentium processor have been introduced by Hewlett-Packard Co. as part of its Vectra VL Series 3 PC line. HP says the new palmtop PC comes with the industry-standard operating system, MS-DOS 5.0, which makes it easy for developers to create applications for specific vertical markets. In addition, the HP 1000CX palmtop PC includes LapLink Remote, which facilitates migration of existing MS-DOS applications on a desktop or laptop computer to a palmtop PC. >> Dell Dimensions XPS Introduced << Dell Computer Corp. has introduced a new desktop family of computers called the Dell Dimension XPS based on Intel Corp.'s new Triton chip set with support for 120 megahertz and 100 megahertz Pentium processors. The new systems retail for a base price of $2,599 and are available immediately in the United States and Canada. The line combines Pentium processor technology, new memory architecture, and high performance 128-bit graphics to offer users enhanced speed and video performance. The Dell Dimension XPS systems come equipped with a new high- performance memory architecture comprised of EDO (extended data output) memory and a pipeline-burst caching subsystem. EDO memory has two times more bandwidth than traditional pagemode memory; the increased bandwidth allows memory operations to be performed in fewer clock cycles, reducing the number of wait states between instructions and increasing overall system performance. Pipeline-burst cache is a new high-speed cache memory that provides up to 10 percent faster performance than a traditional synchronous cache used in many of today's mainstream systems. Pipeline-burst cache memory increases the speed at which memory instructions are transmitted, reducing the overall time it takes one's computer to execute commands. The computers are optimized for Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 95 operating system, which is due for release in August. _______________________________________ > Frankie's Corner STR Feature Mayo Clinic Sports Health & Fitness """""""""""""""""""""""""""" The Kids' Computing Corner -------------------------- Mayo Clinic Sports Health & Fitness CD-ROM for Windows estimated retail $45 from IVI Publishing 7500 Flying Cloud Drive Minneapolis, MN 55344-3739 800-432-1332 IBM Requirements ---------------- CPU: 486SX-33 RAM: 8 megs Video: 640 by 480, 256 colors Hdisk: 5 megs CD-rom: double-speed OS: Windows 3.1 Misc: Sound card, mouse, local bus graphics recommended by Frank Sereno And now for something completely different, a review of an educational title for ADULTS. "Mayo Clinic Sports Health and Fitness" is a multimedia reference for proper exercise and nutrition. Expert commentary and sport celebrity interviews are included with hundreds of pages of text. Fitness expert and ESPN reporter Jimmy Roberts acts as a personal trainer to encourage users to begin and maintain a fitness program. The training section is divided into several sections. First, the user will have to fill out a health history. Then you will be asked to do several evaluation exercises so his fitness level can be determined. The program will then devise a reading list from the topics available on the CD-ROM and outline a very generic exercise program. Each user will have to plan his own program using the advice given. You will not be told to do X amount of miles walking, X number of sit-ups, etc. Each day Jimmy Roberts will give some friendly advice regarding the reading list or an exercise that can be done. The program also includes a journal in which each user can record his daily thoughts and progress. I can remember back several years when a company created an aerobics program for use on the Atari 800 series of computers in which an on-screen coach would lead users in various exercises. Such a coach would have been a great addition to this program. In addition, I would have preferred that the program designed a more specific exercise program for each user and then guide him through the daily routine. The reference section is comprehensive. It includes sections on nutrition, exercise, preventing injury, sports psychology and children's sports. As a parent, I was most interested in the children's sports section. It included information on when to start children in sports, handling various situations and even proper techniques to motivate children as a coach. Interspersed in the reference text are numerous animations, illustrations and videos. Many videos were culled from ESPN interviews with sport celebrities. These interviews are used to emphasis the text and should prove entertaining and interesting to most sports fans. The program has a very intuitive interface. It includes on-screen icons, a tool bar and pull-down menus which allow access to various features and commands of the program. A very nice feature is the animated help sequences which explain the program's features. This allows the program to ship without a manual. Technical support is available via a toll-free number and a readme file provides important troubleshooting information. "Mayo Clinic Sports Health and Fitness" is a very good reference for nutrition and fitness information. The information is presented in an interesting and entertaining manner. I think the fitness trainer portion of the program should be enhanced to include more specific programs and have a coach to encourage the user through the exercises. This program can be an excellent supplement to your health and fitness library of books and videos. If you compete in sports or have young children entering sports, you should seriously consider "Mayo Clinic Sports Health and Fitness." _______________________________________ > WinCIM 1.4 STR FOCUS! NEW FEATURES - CHANGES """"""""""""""""""""" CompuServe Information Manager for Windows (WinCIM) Version 1.4 WinCIM 1.4 includes the following new features: ----------------------------------------------- Robust Service Navigation and Presentation ------------------------------------------ * Users can display CompuServe Hypertext documents containing multiple fonts, colors, graphical images, and colorful backgrounds. What was once a plain text news article or reference document can now be presented with in a dramatically more interesting format, combining many media elements in one form. * Like the use of a Mosaic browser on the World Wide Web, WinCIM 1.4 users can navigate to related topics on CIS using hotlinks within documents, making information retrieval much simpler and faster. Hotlink locations can be discussion forums, related documents, images, or service menus. CompuServe Hypertext documents can be saved, printed, or shared with other applications. Internet Features ----------------- * WinCIM users can now connect to the CompuServe Information Service via the Internet. WinCIM 1.4 supports the Windows Sockets (WinSock) interface, providing users with direct access to CIS from their existing Internet account. All of the most popular WinSock-compatible Internet connection mechanisms can be used to connect to CIS. Many users who once needed access to a modem, modem pool, or network router will now be able to connect to CompuServe with LAN reliability because of this new feature. * In furtherance of integration with other commercial host systems available via the Internet and via service gateways, WinCIM 1.4 contains full VT100 terminal emulation support. Users can count on proper function key and display behavior in terminal mode when using CompuServe's Telnet gateway to supported hosts on the Internet. In addition, access to all of the popular CIS Internet services are available via a single mouse click from the WinCIM 1.4 main menu. Person-to-Person Communication ------------------------------ * CompuServe has recently rolled out a new Electronic Conference Center (GO CCC) which provides for moderated discussions of popular topics. Users can submit questions for a moderator or a group of panelists to consider, or submit a vote on an issue at hand. WinCIM 1.4 supports greatly improved interactive display performance in large (1000 user) conferences, and easy, one-button submission of questions and votes during these proceedings. There is no longer any reason to attend a large conference without the advantages of a graphical user interface. Service and Application Integration ----------------------------------- * In support of better application integration, WinCIM 1.4 supports the automatic launching of external Windows applications to view service content, whether downloaded to disk or displayed on-line. For example, viewing an Acrobat file can be as simple as using the File Open command after a download. In addition, other applications can be run automatically upon request by the user or the CompuServe host, allowing for robust new application integration with new client software. Window Handling --------------- * The handling of multiple windows on-screen in this release has been changed at the majority request of our membership. A large number of members complained that windows which were maximized obscured their desktop and caused them to often feel lost. In usability tests, it was common to see a user enter a forum, maximize a message window, feel lost, then issue a GO FORUMNAME command from inside the same forum to go out of and back into the forum and reset their desktop. When you maximize an initial window (a parent window) from the desktop such as your list of email messages, then maximize a window containing a mail message which was picked from your list of messages (a child window), then close the child window, the parent window will return to its normal size. This is the proper way for Windows MDI dialogs to behave. WINCIM.INI Switches ------------------- * To override the new Window handling: [General Preferences] MDI-Keep-Maximized=TRUE * To set terminal emulation foreground and background colors: [Terminal Preferences] Foreground=<color> ; Black is default Background=<color> ; White is default VT100-Foreground=<color> ; White is default VT100-Background=<color> ; Black is default (where color is: Black, White, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, and Cyan) * Some VT100 hosts do not accept the DEL character as a destructive backspace - the normal backspace character is expected. Use the following to set as needed: [Terminal Emulation] VT100-Backspace=[TRUE - sends real backspace | FALSE - sends the delete character (default)] * In CB and Conferencing the user must press the Update button to refresh the Who's here list. Because of load issues and Windows message processing this feature was disabled to support large conferences (1000+ users). To simulate the old functionality use the following: [General Preferences] Auto-Update-Frequency=[number of seconds in which the Who's here list will automatically update vs. actually having to press the Update button] - 0 is the default meaning the user _must_ press the Update button for the list to be updated. Bug Fixes --------- - Corrected paint problems encountered when displaying enhanced menus and articles. - Fixed the Out-Basket Paste From itself GPF - Forum Logo re-paint problem fix - Changed the default printer font face to "Courier New" to fix the DPP print problem. - Forum Fast Map bug fixed - Fixed printing problems encountered with messages > 32K. - Font problem fixed in various dialogs - Fixed a radio button problem in DPP controls - Can now TAB in an edit control in a DPP dialog - Graphics files marked and retrieved now stored in the GRAPHICS directory - Fixed bug with "no topics found" using Find - Terminal emulation bug fixes (fonts, screen sizes, paint problems) - Enhanced DPP multi-select listbox support - Fixed Parent message handling in forums (button enabling) - Enhancements to CB and Conferencing: - Text that is pasted into the input window in the Room/Group/Talk dialogs is now handled correctly. - Some static buffers in the Talk, Listen, and Group dialogs have been replaced with dynamic buffers - The user name will now be updated in the Talk dialog if it changes. "User NN" should no longer appear in the Talk title bar. - Text from older CIMs should be forced out immediately in the output window. - Performance improvements made in conference and CB - Talk button is only enabled if user is allowed to talk. - Disable the Monitor button if listen is not allowed - Fixed problem where the buttons were not displayed properly when you change the size or maximize a window - Fixed problems with cached forum messages when setting a new start date - Fixed problem where the shutdown message would be inaccessible if a modal dialog received the focus - Added Escape sequence to allow the host to switch the micro in and out of Full VT100 mode - Added the Internet icon to the Services menu, removed the Health icon. The Health services may be reached via "Go Health" or through the Home/Leisure icon on the Services menu. - Adjusted the calculation for remaining time and bytes for marked file retrieval - Fixed problem in DPP where the initial edit control would not have the text selected - Made so - Enabled dragging the thumb to the bottom, <End>, or <Ctrl-End > to "retrieve all" in all edit and listbox controls. - Fixed problem in Terminal Emulation window when closing the window when in capture mode - Select All retrieves all the text in articles prior to selecting. - Major speed enhancements made to conferencing and associated dialogs (users list, tracking, etc.). - Fixed bug that would cause the wrong forum logo to be displayed. - Changed behavior of the File Open common dialog handling to maintain the directory last used when repeatedly invoked. - Fixed various User Interface issues relating to the new fonts and 640x480 resolution - Modified the Install program to delete the [Fonts] and [Window-Sizes] sections from the WINCIM.INI file. - Fixed bug where focus in a forum message reply was initially set to the subject - Added menu icons for various services on Ziff - Fixed various font related issues (text being truncated) - Fixed problems when canceling out of DPP - Fixed problems when doing a GO while in terminal emulation capture view mode - Fixed problem that was causing GPFs in forum (e.g., receive a talk while contribute file dialog is present) - Fixed Ctrl-T problem in articles - Fixed double click for GO command in articles - A focus rectangle is drawn around the forum message next, previous, and up buttons so you can see where the focus is. - Fixed problem when trying to send mail across services (e.g. Ziff to CIS) - Can now press ENTER on a minimized icon to restore - Increased spacing between icons on the Browse menu to fix problem of "Member Services" only showing up as "Member" Important WinCIM Information: ----------------------------- - The WinCIM install process will not overwrite existing sounds defined in the WIN.INI file. If the WIN.INI file is updated during setup the original WIN.INI file will be saved as WININI.CIM. - If you are upgrading from WinCIM version 1.0.5 (or earlier) AND you have the "^" character in your password, you will need to re-enter your password the very first time you use WinCIM v1.4. You only need to do this if you have the password stored in your session settings. - A context-sensitive Help feature can be accessed from any area of WinCIM by hitting the F1 key. - Go WINCIM to find WinCIM specific information (i.e., a program description, system requirements, product features, ordering, downloading, and support). - Go WCIMSUPPORT to get on-line Customer Support from the WinCIM Support Forum, staffed by senior CompuServe Customer Support representatives. - WinCIM no longer attempts to determine if the text in menus and articles is column data. This type of data should be displayed using a fixed font. If you are presented with column data that is not lined up properly, switch to a fixed font by pressing Ctrl-T. To toggle between a fixed font and a proportional font press Ctrl-T. - International keyboard characters (ISO Latin-1) can be used in WinCIM. This capability allows WinCIM users to send CompuServe Mail and Forum messages that contain international characters. There are some known limitations to using these characters. For additional information about this topic, see the file WC8BIT.TXT in the "Misc Support Files" Library of the WinCIM Support Forum (GO WCIMSUPPORT). - Sounds (.WAV files) can be associated with WinCIM events (i.e. connecting, file transfer completion, etc.). Sounds can be added and removed through the Sounds module in the Windows Control Panel. __________________________________ > Adobe and Netscape STR FOCUS! Q & A Follows..... """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" ADOBE AND NETSCAPE TO BRING COMMERCIAL PUBLISHING TO THE INTERNET Boston, Mass. (March 28, 1995) (NASDAQ: ADBE) Adobe Systems Incorporated and Netscape Communications Corporation today announced joint plans to enable commercial Internet publishing capabilities that are not possible through currently available products. By integrating and extending functionality offered by their respective product lines, the two companies will be able to offer a complete set of technologies that support secure, electronic transactions across the Internet while also allowing publishers to author and distribute graphically rich content that large audiences can access. As part of the joint plans, the two companies will integrate the Internet navigation and electronic commerce capabilities provided by Netscape with the commercial quality authoring and universal document distribution capabilities provided by Adobe. This will include work to combine functionality offered by Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), an open, searchable file format that preserves document fidelity across all major computer platforms and printers, with Netscape's line of Internet software products. The integration work is designed to allow commercial publishers who use Adobe software products daily for the production of highly formatted, printed materials to easily use the same tools to provide quality content in electronic form on the Internet. In conjunction with Netscape technology and PDF, publishers will now have a commercial solution for electronic information distribution in a universal format. "Adobe technology, such as the PostScript language, provided new ways for people to create rich printed documents and set new computer industry standards," said James Clark, Chairman, Netscape Communications. "By combining Netscape and Adobe technologies, we can bring that same quality and creative power to online information, allowing publishers to leverage their existing tools and quality standards in a way that perfectly compliments Internet publishing via HTML." Many corporations, government agencies and professional publishers, including J. P. Morgan; Time Life Inc.; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; TimesFax, a division of The New York Times Information Services Group; and Springer Verlag New York Inc., are adopting PDF for Internet publishing. By integrating Adobe and Netscape technologies, such as Netscape Publishing Systemt which manages all aspects of an electronic publishing house, businesses can make professionally published content more directly accessible while opening up new business opportunities. "Our customers have very successfully harnessed the power offered by desktop publishing tools to expand the publishing industry and create new expectations for creativity and quality," said John Warnock, Chairman and CEO, Adobe Systems. "Our relationship with Netscape reflects our commitment to keep providing tools that enable the publishing industry to expand to new frontiers." Roadmap Specifics ----------------- The companies disclosed a four step roadmap for delivering a complete suite of Internet publishing tools. First, the Macintoshr and Windowst versions of Netscape Navigatort 1.1 will support the Acrobat Weblinkt software plug-in, a free add-on application from Adobe that allows Acrobat documents to link to other documents on the Internet. The companies will also collaborate on a future version of Netscape Navigator that will seamlessly view documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), the open, cross-platform file format created by Acrobat software. Additional integration efforts will include work on Netscape server software to provide quick access to PDF documents across the Internet, allowing users to download portions of PDF files at a time for faster on screen viewing. Lastly, Adobe will extend its authoring applications to more fully support the ability to import and export PDF files and will provide the ability to output to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in a future version of Adobe PageMaker. The announcement has generated positive reactions from the publishing community. "We have been working closely with both Netscape and Adobe to achieve our charter of developing innovative new media information products," said Stephen Lake, Senior Vice President, Reuters New Media. "The flexibility and security of the Netscape Worldwide Web publishing platform and the richness of new media content we can create through Acrobat allows us to create new products such as the Reuters Photojournalism Magazine. The ability to download portions of a PDF file across the Web will allow us to create even richer documents.""The fact that Netscape and Adobe are coordinating development activity is truly exciting," said Mr. Robert D. Ingle, Vice President/New Media for Knight-Ridder. "Like many publishers, Knight-Ridder has been active in exploring information dissemination via the Internet. However, to date, we've been missing both control over formatting and a commercially viable way to distribute that information. The combination of Adobe and Netscape gives us the full suite of tools to move our efforts from exploration to commercial deployment." "We chose Acrobat because TimesFax is a branded product, and it was essential to provide context in addition to content, preserving the look and feel complete with the typefaces used in the New York Times", said Patricia Ecke, Publisher, TimesFax. "Producing it in HTML just didn't give us that capability. The announcement between Adobe and Netscape reinforces our decision to use PDF, and gives us additional tools to take further advantage of the World Wide Web publishing opportunity". The TimesFax World Wide Web edition is an eight-page digest of news from the New York Times that is made available in PDF format via the World Wide Web. Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software to enable people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over the Internet and other global networks. The company was founded in April 1994 by Dr. James H. Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Inc., a Fortune 500 computer systems company; and Marc Andreessen, creator of the NCSA Mosaict research prototype for the Internet. Privately held, Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California. Adobe Systems Incorporated, founded in 1982, is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Adobe develops, markets and supports computer software products and technologies that enable users to create, display, print and communicate electronic documents. The company licenses its technology to major computer and publishing suppliers, and markets a line of powerful, but easy to use products for home and small business users. Adobe has subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim serving a worldwide n e t work of dealers and distributors. Adobe's 1994 revenue was approximately $598 million. Adobe, PageMaker, PostScript, Weblink and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated or its subsidiaries and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Netscape Commuications, Netscape, Netscape Publishing System, and Netscape Navigator are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. ***** Adobe / Netscape Q&A... -------------------- Q) What, exactly, did Adobe and Netscape announce? A) The two companies announced plans to more closely integrate their product lines to produce the full suite of tools required to enable high quality commercial publishing to take place via the Internet's World Wide Web. As part of the joint plans, the companies disclosed a four step roadmap for delivering a complete suite of internet publishing tools. 1) Netscape Navigator 1.1 will support the Acrobat Weblink software plug-in, a free add-on application from Adobe that allows Acrobat documents to link to other documents on the Web. 2) The companies will also collaborate on a future version of Netscape Navigator that will seamlessly view documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format. 3) The companies will collaborate on extensions to Netscape server software that provide faster access to PDF documents across the internet, by downloading a page at a time. 4) Adobe will extend its authoring applications to more fully support the ability to import and export PDF files, and will provide the ability to output to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in a future version of Adobe PageMaker. Q) When will I see these offerings from Adobe and from Netscape? A) The first part of the roadmap exists today. A beta version of Adobe's Weblink software is now posted on Adobe's Web home page. That version works with Mac and PC versions of Netscape Navigator version 1.1, as well as Spyglass Web browsers. Regarding items 2 & 3, both companies expect to see Netscape products available by year end. Additionally, later this year Adobe will have toolkits available for software vendors that wish to implement similar functionality. Adobe has not yet disclosed dates for item 4, but stay tuned! Q) What is Weblink, and how does it work? A) Weblink is a plug in for Acrobat Exchange that permits the user to create URL's (the cross document linking mechanism standard on the Web). Additionally, when used with a supported Web browser (like those from Netscape and Spyglass), the user can link to any other document on the Web (either PDF or HTML documents), simply by hitting the link. Q) Will that functionality be part of the freely distributable Acrobat Reader? A) Adobe will make that functionality part of the freely distributable Reader. We plan on releasing that product this summer. Q) Will Adobe work with other Web product vendors, or is this exclusive to Netscape? A) We are very interested in working with any and all application vendors that wish to better support Acrobat. Specifically, we are VERY interested in working with all Web vendors, and Web publishers! Q) Didn't you make a similar announcement with Spyglass? How is this similar or different? Will Spyglass offer the same functionality? A) Last fall, Spyglass announced they will support Adobe's Weblink plug in (similar to item number 1 on the roadmap outlined above). We do have an ongoing relationship with Spyglass, and would very much welcome the opportunity to work with them (and any other Web vendor) to offer the same level of Acrobat functionality as we announced with Netscape. Q) Are these announcements only relevant to the Web, or are they appropriate technologies for online services as well? A) The technology we announced and demonstrated is valid for many types of applications. Supporting URL linking is specific to the Web. The technology for faster PDF downloading is very relevant for on-line services. Integrated PDF viewing is very relevant for on-line servies, e-mail, and any other application where viewing & printing high quality documents is a benefit. Q) How can Web browser vendors work with Adobe? A) The first step is to integrate support for Weblink! You can find information on how to do that posted on Adobe's home page (http://www.adobe.com/). From there, keep in touch with your local Adobe representative, and with Adobe's Developer Support Organization for information on the software toolkit supporting implementation of faster PDF download and integrated viewing. Q) Are there licensing fees involved for supporting Weblink? A) The information for supporting Weblink is posted on Adobe's Home Page. There are no fees for supporting Weblink. Q) Will information on integrating PDF viewing and faster PDF access be part of the Adobe Acrobat Software Developer's Kit? Will there be license fees involved? A) We have not yet finalized plans for how that information will be available. Keep in touch with the Adobe Developer's Association (415-961-4111, or the ADA section on Adobe's Home Page) to stay abreadst of our plans. Q) What's the address for Adobe's home page again? A) http://www.adobe.com/ Q) Isn't HTML already the standard file format for Web publishing? Why would I use PDF for publishing on the Web? A) HTML is sufficient when your document is composed of text, and the formatting of the document isn't important. HTML is also appropriate when you want the information to reflow depending on the size of the browser window. PDF is a much better choice for documents that are graphically rich, or where the format and layout of the document are important. HTML does not support even rudimentary layout options like choice of typeface, multiple columns, tables, text shaped around graphics, etc. Many publishers have already chosen PDF for their Web-based information services because of the rich formatting control. Additionally, many publishers are using PostScript based tools for generation of their printed material. Since conversion from PostScript to PDF is as simple as drag and drop, many publishers find Acrobat to be a convenient way to leverage their investment in their print production process, and a simple way to move to Web publishing. Q) But aren't HTML documents more compact that Acrobat files? Doesn't that make HTML a better format for Web publishing? A) Not at all! If you compare file sizes for similar documents you will find PDF compares very favorably with HTML. Acrobat supports a wide variety of data compression techniques for graphics, text, and images (as does HTML), in order to keep file sizes small. Since Acrobat supports a much richer formatting structure than HTML, PDF authors can build more complex documents, which will result in larger files sizes. Also, Acrobat documents can be many pages, where typically, HTML documents are built a page at a time, and linked together via URL's. However, the choice is up to the author. When doing an apples-to-apples comparison, you'll see very similar file sizes. ________________________________________ > MS & INFOWORLD STR Spotlight """""""""""""""""""""""""""" MICROSOFT RESPONSE TO INFOWORLD ARTICLES ON LATEST BETA OF WINDOWS 95 InfoWorld has written a product review and news article on Windows 95 Beta 3 that raises some issues with the product. This document is intended to clarify issues the articles may raise for customers. Summary of Key Issues --------------------- Contrary to the news article written by InfoWorld, Windows 95 is an architecturally sound product. InfoWorld did find some bugs which is expected, and desired, since this is the point of our testing pre-release code. We are fixing the bugs submitted by InfoWorld as we do with the bugs submitted by our over 50,000 beta test sites. Many of the bugs InfoWorld submitted have already been fixed post Beta 3. The vast majority of our beta testers are having a good experience with the product. Based on our internal measurements and feedback from beta testers, we are on track to meet our quality goals and ship in August. Customers should be reassured that Microsoft is committed to shipping a quality product. InfoWorld Articles ------------------ InfoWorld's review misses the point of Windows 95. Windows 95 is a great product that in conjunction with our partners will move the computer industry forward and allow customers to do new, powerful and exciting things with their computer. Unfortunately the review focuses on rare cases and mis-reports others. We are committed to fixing the bugs found as part of their review. At the same time, it is incorrect to make broad, sweeping generalizations about Windows 95 based on bugs in beta code. The product is architecturally sound. The Q&A document below provides detailed clarification for customers. The responses are listed in order of the issues raised in the product review. Detailed Responses to the InfoWorld News Article ------------------------------------------------ Issue: "What was publicized as the largest beta program in history failed to turn up a fundamental architectural flaw in Windows 95 that causes the operating system to freeze when multitasking a few 32-bit applications....The flaw means that not only is the much-touted final beta not the final beta, but also that two years into the development cycle Microsoft has failed to execute on its promise of a multitasking operating system that can run 32-bit multithreaded applications." Response: It is not an architectural flaw, it was a bug that we had already found and fixed. We also delivered a copy of the fixed beta to InfoWorld before this article was published. Windows 95 can multitask 32-bit applications well. The specific bug that InfoWorld hit in the Beta 3 release was in running out of system resources while running a specific 32-bit application, the Microsoft Network (MSN) client. The MSN client is currently also in beta release and has not been fully tuned yet. Currently the MSN client creates 3 threads of execution per window which is opened on the screen. Each one of these threads also creates a local message queue. Thus, each MSN window opened in this untuned state creates a larger load on the system than normal 32-bit applications. The MSN client will reduce its resource consumption in future betas. Even though MSN is not yet fully tuned, we have alleviated many of these problems in the releases after Beta 3 by moving large portions of the window class structure and the local message queue structure out of the system's local 64KB heap and into the 32-bit heap. As a result, we significantly increase the number of 32-bit applications which could be run simultaneously. Our internal tests show that with the Beta 3 release you could run, for example, 8 copies of 32-bit Microsoft Excel for Windows 95. With the bug fix, Windows 95 can now run 17 copies of 32-bit Excel for Windows 95. Most users will never run into these limits while doing their day-to-day work. Issue: "The problem stems from Windows 95's method of memory management...User Resources...can be completely consumed after only a few 32-bit applications are opened." Response: This is not accurate. Windows 95 dramatically increases system resources and provides the capability to run many more applications than under Windows 3.x. In addition to the 32-bit improvements described above, these increased system resources also benefit users of existing 16-bit applications. For example, under Windows 3.1 you could only run 7-8 copies of Word for Windows 6.0. Under Windows 95, you can now run 18-19 copies of Word for Windows 6.0. Issue: "Although all applications call on the Windows Class Structure, multithreaded, 32-bit applications such as Word for Windows NT, Excel for Windows NT, and the Microsoft Network, make heavy use of the Windows Class Structure and will quickly exhaust the limited resources of the 64KB heap." Response: This is not accurate. Not all applications make heavy use of the window class data structure. In fact the vast majority of them don't. The Microsoft Network (MSN) is one specific 32-bit application that uses more system resources than average because the current MSN beta creates a local message queue per thread. Most applications do not use or need a separate message queue per thread. As described above, this puts an increased load on the system. Issue: "Microsoft has a fix that shifts the Windows Class Structure into a 32-bit memory address space above the 64KB heap. Microsoft used a similar strategy last December to extend resources of the GDI heap. Response: This is correct we have fixed the problem. As mentioned previously, Windows 95 can run many simultaneous 32-bit applications well today. Moving the window class structure was not a fundamental architectural change. The reason we did not do it for the Beta 3 release of Windows 95 is because we were unsure if any existing 16-bit applications made assumptions about the location of this structure. If so, our moving this structure would have made any such existing application fail. Since that time we have learned that there are no compatibility problems to moving this structure, and we have done so in the post-Beta 3 releases, even before we knew about the InfoWorld Article. We provided a new version of the Windows 95 beta with this fix to InfoWorld before this article was published. Detailed Responses to InfoWorld First Looks Review Issue: "When you install Windows 95 over an existing copy of DOS and Windows it inherits all of the network drivers, device drivers, and utilities that are loaded in your CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, AND SYSTEM.INI files - even the ones it won't need or can't work with. I left in all of my memory manager, network, CD-ROM, and Sound Blaster drivers, even though Windows 95 properly sniffed out and loaded its own drivers for these features. Redundancy like this won't always bring Windows 95 down, but it will eat up a lot of conventional RAM for DOS sessions" Response: We leave these drivers in for backwards compatibility reasons. This means that, unlike under OS/2, all users can continue to make use of all devices on their machine, even those for which Windows does not have a specific driver. The drivers which are absolutely safe to remove, such as the CD-ROM drivers, some network drivers and various third party memory managers are automatically commented out of the old initialization files. Other drivers which are needed for backwards compatibility are not touched. For example, Windows 95 will automatically remove Novell's real-mode NETX client from the system and replace it with a protect mode replacement, thereby saving 97K of conventional memory. It will also automatically remove the real-mode MSCDEX CD-ROM drivers and replace them with protect mode CDFS drivers for most CD-ROM drives, thereby saving 45K of convential memory. Also, knowledgeable users can go back in at a later date and possibly remove other redundant real-mode drivers if they wish to gain even more conventional memory. Issue: "Unfortunately, the RAM most precious to Windows 95 is the tiny portion it allocates for Windows resources. That's one reason Windows 95 will prove to be as unreliable as Windows 3.1." Response: This is blown way out of proportion. Most people will never run into any system resource limitations under Windows 95. In fact, Windows 95 significantly improves in this area over Windows 3.1. For example users can now run not only all of the applications in the entire Microsoft Office Professional suite, but also many other major applications simultaneously, such as Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows and WordPerfect for Windows. Issue: "I quickly ran out of resources on my 486 with 32MB of RAM when simply running the 32-bit version of Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0 and exploring the Microsoft Network..." Response: This statement needs clarification. First, as mentioned previously, Windows 95 runs a number of 32-bit applications well. The scenario mentioned above should present no problems for customers. Second the Microsoft Network (MSN) is one specific 32-bit application that uses more system resources than average due to the fact that it is not fully tuned yet. Also, as mentioned previously, the system's data structures which were stored in the 64K local heap for the Beta 3 release have been moved to the 32-bit heap. Versions of the beta with this fix included were given to InfoWorld before this story was published. Issue: "This beta is unusable when using 4MB of RAM. It is uncomfortably slow on my 33-MHz 486DX with 8MB of RAM. And it is excruciatingly slow on a 25-MHz 486SX with 8MB when it runs of a disk compressed with Stac Electronics Inc.'s Stacker because the compression forces Windows 95 into using real-mode disk access." Response: Our beta testers tell us otherwise. Internal tests performed on industry standard performance benchmarks tell us otherwise. Specifically, standard performance tests such as Winbench and Winstones show that Windows 95 is roughly as fast or faster than Windows 3.1 on a 386DX with 4MB RAM or better for conducting the same set of common tasks. Also our beta testers confirm these test results from their own personal use. Between the Beta 3 release and the final product release we will also continue to tune our performance. We will work with InfoWorld to ensure that there is not a bug which is affecting their performance. In regard to Stacker compression, it is true that Windows 95 uses real-mode disk access to serialize all the disk activities. This is done for compatibility reasons and is a great benefit for customers that don't want to change what they have to run Windows 95. Customers also have the choice of using protect mode disk drivers for compression, such as the DriveSpace compression drivers supplied in the box, which provide faster performance. Stac Electronics can also, and likely will, write their own protected mode disk drivers which will provide faster performance for Stacker customers. As a comparison to OS/2, Windows 95 is faster than OS/2 Warp in every standard industry benchmark test. In the example below, we ran the Windows Magazine set of 16-bit Word and Excel macros at the same time to simulate a multitasking scenario. Note that Windows 95 is faster than all other competing operating systems even in beta. Word and Excel Windows Magazine macros - Total time score for 3 runs, in seconds: Operating System 16MB 8MB 4MB Windows 95 211 231 905 WfW 3.11 237 304 3863 OS/2 Warp default 333 558 7102 OS/2 Warp fastload 336 554 7025 OS/2 Warp separate VMs 348 failed failed Issue: "My copy of cc:Mail Remote for DOS works fine as a foreground application, but it simply times out and fails to exchange messages when I run it in the background even when I set the CPU idle sensitivity for the DOS session to its lowest setting." Response: This is a known bug in the beta of Windows 95 and has already been fixed in the versions after the Beta 3 release. InfoWorld had a version with this fix included before this story was published. Issue: "...OLE performance in Windows 95 is horrendous. Typing within a Word for Windows OLE object that's embedded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet under Windows 95 is a torturous experience. This is clearly a Windows 95 problem, because I can run the same 32-bit versions of Word and Excel under Windows NT and not experience this lag-time typing problem in OLE objects." Response: We have been unable to reproduce this specific problem in-house, nor have any other beta sites reported this specific problem. We've asked InfoWorld for more information on their particular configuration but they have been unable to supply that yet. If it is simply a bug in InfoWorld's particular machine configuration we will investigate it and fix it before the final shipment of the product. Issue: "Every time I restarted Windows 95, it couldn't make up its mind about how it wanted to log me into the network. I started it up one time and it asked me for a password for each server I use and it automatically remapped drives the way I had them setup last using the Network Neighborhood utility. Then the next time I started Windows 95, it asked me just once for my password and ran my Netware log-in script and mapped the drives according to that." Response: From the best we can tell with the information given to us, the reviewer may be confused as to the expected behavior. A user can specify which entity, in this case NetWare preferred server, to log on to the network. If the preferred server is available at startup, the user will be authenticated on the network and will not be prompted when trying to connect to any shares available via the preferred server or any servers that the user has saved passwords for in the password cache. This facilitates a rapid logon and easy access to network shares without compromising network security. If the server is unavailable at startup time, the user can log into Windows but will get prompted every time they try and access a specific share accessible to them via their preferred server. If this behavior is different than what InfoWorld is experiencing, we will be happy to investigate further and fix this if it is a bug. Issue: "...And the relatively easy-to-use desktop is perhaps the biggest improvement over Windows 3.1 although it falls short of both the Macintosh desktop and the OS/2 Workplace Shell in depth and functionality." Response: The writer is clearly expressing personal opinion. Microsoft has conducted a variety of research that shows OS/2 and even Macintosh users are more proficient using Windows 95 to accomplish a set of common tasks as compared to conducting those tasks using their own operating system. For example, we conducted pilot tests for existing Macintosh and OS/2 users and compared those to the same people running Windows 95 for the first time. The tasks each user had to complete were isomorphic, meaning that users never repeated exactly the same tasks but rather completed sets of tasks which were functionally identical. The mean times (in seconds) to complete the tasks for the Macintosh users are given in the table below. These numbers are an aggregate of beginner, intermediate and advanced users. Group All Macintosh baseline 73 Win 95, first try 70 Win 95, second try 52 Win 95, third try 47 For OS/2 users, we conducted a similar test with a group of intermediate to advanced existing OS/2 Warp users (We could not find enough novice users to test). The mean time (in seconds) to complete the tasks is given in the table below: Group All OS/2 Warp baseline 94 Win 95, first try 52 Win 95, second try 28 Win 95, third try 23 It is also interesting to note that of our sample group of intermediate to advanced OS/2 Warp users, over 2/3's of these subjects stated that, after the tests were completed, they preferred the Windows 95 user interface over Warp. Note that the sample sizes used in the Macintosh/OS/2 studies were intentionally small because the studies were for internal use only. Test results for Windows 3.1 users' performance on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 used a larger sample size (25 per group) and are statistically significant. Issue: "Shortcuts still get confused if you move the files they point to another directory - and get hopelessly lost if you move them to another drive. The only improvement in this beta is that Windows 95 will always ask you before redirecting a shortcut to the wrong file. But it ends up pointing to the wrong file nonetheless." Response: This statement is not correct. Shortcut tracking when the target is moved works properly, and does not open the incorrect file unexpectedly without some sort of a warning message. We have said all along that shortcut tracking works on local drives, not when the targets are moved to a different local or network drive. Shortcuts are based on an open architecture that makes them very powerful for linking to a variety of data types. For example, shortcuts can point to not only files, but also specific paragraphs within a particular file, files or servers on the network. In fact, when shortcuts point to files on a network server that currently isn't connected to your remote machine, Windows 95 will automatically dial the appropriate access phone number in order to re-establish that connection. Shortcuts can even be extended to connect to objects on the internet, for example to a favorite places location. They are far more flexible than anything else out on the market today. Issue: "As far as compatibility, Windows 95 did run every application I threw at it but not flawlessly. To name a few of the experiences: cc:Mail for Windows cause frequent General Protection Faults; cc:Mail Remote for DOS repeatedly displayed long lines of extraneous letters when addressing mail; and Lotus Notes for Windows warned me it wouldn't run properly and then couldn't find most of the servers on the network." Response: Microsoft is not familiar with any problems running Windows 95 with these applications. Lotus Corporation visited Microsoft campus a few weeks ago and they ran through their entire test suite for their applications without problems. This is the same test suite they run before they ship their applications and we jointly did not find any problems with Windows 95. However, if there is a problem that is particular to InfoWorld's configuration, we will work to understand it and fix it in the final product. Issue: "Corporate users will gain more headache than advantages for the investment in time and hardware it will take to move from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95." Response: Corporate accounts and industry analysts tell us the opposite. Windows 95 provides three very compelling benefits to corporate accounts: Reduce Support Cost via an easier to use interface, plug and play support for hardware, built-in, integrated networking, and greater system reliability. Increase Control over the Desktop via integrated desktop security, and remote administration capabilities/ tools. With the registry, adminstrators can remotely manage PC's through standard desktop management interfaces such as DMI, SNMP, and RPC. Improved User Productivity through faster print, disk and network I/o, 32-bit multitasking and multithreading, and built-in communications and information access features. Industry analysts such as the GartnerGroup, Stamford CT, estimate that Windows 95 will reduce the Total Cost of PC Ownership on the order of $1,180/year per user over a 5 year period and pay for itself in 3-6 months of moving to Windows 95. Issue: "As for the resource problems in particular, Microsoft claims it can fix them by moving the Windows class out of the 64KB user heap and into the 32-bit address space. They even hand-delivered me a later build to prove it. This build does indeed seem to let you do more before you run out of resources. But there's a problem with this strategy. Operating system architecture is a delicate balance of design decisions. When you probe them in one place, they tend to pop out in another. And this later build is far less stable than the M8 beta." Response: As InfoWorld confirms, later builds of Windows 95 do improve the system resources for 32-bit applications. Contrary to their claim, these changes are not destabilizing. The product is in beta and continues to improve and become more stable as we move to finalize it. We will ship a quality product when it meets our internal criteria and based upon feedback from our beta testers. Issue: Since Microsoft has known about the resource problem for some months now, I have to question why it is trying this "fix" on one of the most fundamental aspects of the architecture after the release of what it is calling the "final" beta." Response: Moving the window class structure is not a fundamental architectural change. The reason we did not do it for the Beta 3 release of Windows 95 is because we were unsure if any existing 16-bit applications made assumptions about the location of this structure. If so, our moving this structure would have made any such existing application fail. Since that time we have learned that there are no compatibility problems to moving this structure, and we have done so in the post-Beta 3 releases. We provided a new version of the Windows 95 beta with this fix to InfoWorld before this article was published. ____________________________________________ > NavCIS TE v1.6 STR FOCUS! It just keeps getting better! """"""""""""""""""""""""" NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows ========================== NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows is a special Timed Edition of NavCIS Pro. It is a powerful off-line navigator designed to make CompuServe easier to use while reducing your monthly connect time (and your CompuServe bill). Reductions up to 70% are not uncommon. If you are spending $50 to $100 per month currently, NavCIS may help you lower your bill to as little as $15 to $30 per month! NavCIS TE v1.6 for Windows features an easy to learn Windows interface. The hardware requirements are: Windows 3.1 or Windows-For-Workgroups (Now NT/95 compatible, too) EGA or higher resolution monitor Hard disk (needs approx. 3mb of disk space) Modem Mouse (not required, but recommended) 386 processor or higher w/ at least 4mb of RAM. NavCIS Pro v1.6 TE for Windows includes: * Spell checker: change dictionaries on the fly. * Advanced freeware image viewer supports PCX, TIF, TGA as well as GIF, JPG and BMP graphics files. * Support for multiple CompuServe IDs. * Forum announcement retrieval system. * What's New topic retrieval system. * Message priority: send messages with High, Med, Low or none. * Unlimited forums. * Font technology for messages: create messages with embedded fonts, bold, italics and wingdings. * Support for high speed nodes: 14.4k, 19.2k and 28.8k. * Automated weather services: maps, forecasts, etc. * Automated stock queries * Automated FileFinder, find files anywhere on CompuServe. * Powerful e-mail features: forwarding, CC, groups, file uploading & downloading. * Powerful forum features: file up & downloading, library catalog creation and searching, thread header downloading, etc. * Tech support via our forum on CompuServe (GO DVORAK). * Message Thread Technology * Many, many more features too numerous to mention. For a listing of all the features available in NavCIS TE, download the file DVORAK.EXE (Self-extracting Windows Help file) or DIFF.TXT from Lib 1 of the DVORAK forum. NavCIS v1.6 TE will let you experience the full power of NavCIS Pro. It will make your use of CompuServe so much easier, so much cheaper, you'll wonder how you got by without it. By downloading NavCIS TE for Windows, you are acknowledging the following: 1. NavCIS TE for Windows REQUIRES Windows version 3.1 or higher. 2. NavCIS TE is Demoware and may be copied and given to friends and colleagues, but you may not charge for such copies. NavCIS TE begins its 30 Day countdown from its first on-line session to CompuServe. 3. NavCIS TE does not come with a warranty or guarantee. By agreeing to this download, you release Dvorak Development & Publishing Corp. from any liability whatsoever for any consequence, whether direct or indirect, of using NavCIS TE. 4. NavCIS is a registered trademark of Dvorak Development. 5. NavCIS TE is a timed edition good for 30 days beginning with the first CompuServe session using it. To INSTALL NavCIS Pro 1.6, Timed Edition: ----------------------------------------- 1. The file you are about to download is a Windows specific self-extracting file called WPROTE.EXE. 2. To run the file, use Program Manager's File | Run command. You may run WPROTE.EXE from any location... (dir, floppy, etc.). 3. When the install screen appears, select the drive and path you want NavCIS installed to... in almost all cases, you should accept the default C:\NAVCIS. 4. You will be asked if you want sounds. Choose either the Male or Female sound set ONLY IF you have a sound card. Otherwise, choose None. 5. Next, it will ask to which group you want the 4 NavCIS specific icons added. In most cases, accept the Default group, NavCIS. The install program will create the group and fill it with the four icons. 6. To start NavCIS, just dbl-click on the NavCIS TE icon. Common Questions about NavCIS TE (Timed Edition): ------------------------------------------------ Q: When does the 30 day evaluation period begin? A: From the first time you log onto CompuServe using TE. Q: Will NavCIS TE keep me informed how many days I have left before it expires? A: Yes, and it also tells you the date it will expire on. Q: What does NavCIS TE do when the 30 days expire? A: NavCIS stops going online... it does not destroy or damage its data files in any way. All functionality remains, but it will now only connect with CompuServe Mail - it will not visit forums or special services. So you can continue to use NavCIS TE to read, search, or print messages and catalogs and check CompuServe mail. Q: If I upgrade to Pro, will I be able to use the data I collected (forums, messages, catalogs, etc.) while using TE? A: Yes, the regular Pro edition will overwrite your TE program files and seamlessly begin using your TE data as though it were its own. Q: How do I order the regular Pro edition? A: NavCIS TE has a built in order form. By pressing the "O" for Order icon button on the toolbar, the order entry screen will appear. Fill it out then press the E-Mail Order button and your order will be securely routed to Dvorak Development via private and very secure e-mail. Or call Dvorak Development at 303-661-0345. We accept VISA, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. WPROTE.EXE is available from Lib 1 of the DVORAK forum. Updated: March 28, 1995. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N FARGO PRIMERA PRO COLOR PRINTERS - 600DPI For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates FARGO Primera & Primera Pro SUPERIOR QUALITY 600dpi 24 bit Photo Realistic Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's Fargo Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the FARGO Primera Pro has GOT to be the best yet. Its far superior to the newest of Color Laser Printers selling for more than three times as much. Its said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. Send for this sample now. Guaranteed you will be amazed at the superb quality. (please, allow at least a one week turn-around) A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. GENIE Information Services copyright 1995 by General Electric Information Services/GENIE, reprinted by permission """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ___ ___ _____ _______ /___| /___| /_____| /_______/ The Macintosh RoundTable /____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ ________________________ /_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/ /__/|____/|__|________|__/ /__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/____ Managed by SyndiComm /__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/ An Official Forum of the International Computer Users Group *** STReport available in MAC RT *** ASCII TEXT for ALL GENIE users! MAC/APPLE SECTION (II) ====================== John Deegan, Editor (Temp) > V.34 - 28.8 bps STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION AT 28.8K BPS ======================================= by Paul Munoz-Colman Background. ~~~~~~~~~~ What are these terms V.FC and V.34? V.FC ("FC" stands for "Fast Class") is a proprietary implementation of an early version of the 28.8kbps asynchronous international communications standard, designated V.34. For the past two years due to marketplace pressure, V.FC implementations have been rushed to the public, while the international standards body ITU-T (formerly known as the CCITT) was slowly and carefully working on the design and development of V.34. Those who released the early V.FC modems were participants of the ITU-T Study Group who cooperatively developed V.34. The current state of the technology. V.34 is now a reality. It was ratified late this past Summer, and is now the international standard for asynchronous communication at modulations up to 28.8k bits per second (bps). V.34 operates at a top speed which is twice that of the previous generation of high speed modems (which were called V.32-bis and operate at 14,400bps), and three times the speed of the generation before that (called V.32, which operates at 9,600bps). At this writing, the marketplace is very volatile. Today, some vendors have V.34 modems on the market, and several more are in various stages of testing. Within six months or more, nearly all vendors will have V.34 modems readily available. The high-speed chaos which this has created. In the haste to get modems to the marketplace and supply chipsets to other modem manufacturers, there have been many releases of V.FC, even within the same manufacturer of modems. This has caused terribly confusing difficulty in interoperability between modems, in establishing connections, maintaining them properly, and in transferring data across them. To a much lesser degree, the implementations of V.34 also suffer from some compatibility problems, due to some difference in interpretation by modem vendors of the high complex specification for this transmission rate. Why is it such an issue? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Because of the design limits of 28.8k. It is not only perfectly normal, but even typical in a V.34 or V.FC connection to see a less than 28.8kbps connection. V.34 and V.FC are not fixed-speed standards, and make/change their connections based on phone line quality. Very few people can get consistent 28.8kbps connections. Speeds of 28.8kbps require pristine phone line quality along the entire length of the connection. But VFC and V.34 modems are capable of pushing the limits of analog phone lines, commonly offering connection speeds of 21.6k, 24k, and even 26.4kbps. The bandwidth (or "bandpass") of a voice-grade phone line is about 3,000Hz to 4,000Hz (3-4KHz). Because the mathematics of compressing 28.8kbps pushes the phone line to near its theoretical limits, V.34 was designed to accommodate a variety of phone line conditions. V.FC and V.34 are both smart enough to do what is called a "channel probe", which is a frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio test of frequencies at various points across the bandpass. During the modem handshake, the modems send a series of tones to each other, at known signal levels and specific frequencies. The modem calculates the level of the received signal at each frequency, and therefore can determine the maximum bandwidth available for use. So, just how good does a line have to be?! In reality, it takes line clarity at about -44dB or better (about the sound level of a clearly whispered conversation across a medium size room) at the top of the phone line's "bandpass" to obtain and maintain a 28.8kbps connection. At about -46dB and below, modem receivers tend to "go deaf". The typical long distance connection can be much worse than this at that frequency; it is not unusual to see -55dB to -70dB (closer to the background hiss level of a factory-fresh medium-grade audio tape). Standard transmit levels for domestic (US/Canada) modems are approximately -10 dB, although V.34 and V.FC negotiate these levels during the initial connection attempt. Receiving levels can vary widely, depending on the conditions on your local phone line, the line at the remote modem, and any long-distance or inter-office carrier facilities. Typical receiving levels range from -40 dB at the low end, to -15 dB at the high end, with figures in the -20dB to -35dB range being most common. Extreme values in either direction probably indicate a problem in the connection from your modem to your local phone company, which in some cases the phone company may be able to adjust. However, be aware that Ma Bell and the long distance carriers are not required by law, statute, or tariff to "fix" this "problem" on unconditioned voice grade lines, because it is not really a "problem"! Why does it get bad? Simple line impairment. Variations in line quality are typically the culprit for low connect rates. Line impairments can result in link timeouts (when the error control protocol does not receive a block of data within its expected timeframe), link naks (when the error control protocol requests retransmission of data), blers (block errors; errors in received error control protocol or data blocks), and resent data blocks. Everyone occasionally gets "a bad line" and has to hang up and call again to get a better connection. However, if you find that you never or rarely connect at rates above 19.2kbps, you will want to investigate the line quality of your connections. All right, so how is V.34 more robust? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recovery from adverse line conditions. The goal of 28.8 modem protocols is not only to have a high top speed, but to spend as much of that time as possible operating at the highest possible speed under inevitably changing conditions. The V.34 protocol has advanced procedures for training and for recovery from transient disturbances during training. There are several retrain and speed switching procedures to insure link integrity under adverse conditions. The line (channel) probe. Both V.FC and V.34 "probe" the phone line for quality. The line (or channel) probe quickly examines line conditions and selects the best transmission strategy to optimize data transmission (there are a variety of such strategies available). This technique can detect certain unusual non-linear distortion mechanisms present on some phone circuits, particularly international ones. The modems can then select the operational modes that better combat distortion. V.FC's weak implementation of probing. The Channel Probe determines proper connection speed. V.34 measures signal levels every 150 Hz across the entire channel, whereas V.FC measures only 6 points, concentrated at the upper end of the frequency range. This provides V.34 with a much more accurate sample of the channel bandwidth, and greater accuracy in selecting the appropriate symbol rate. Thus, in V.FC, the weak implementation of the probe can generally result in a "retrain" (when the two modems lose synchronization with each other), which usually ends up lowering the speed to where it should have been in the first place!! The retrain is a Killer!! A retrain is where the two modems suspend operations and renegotiate the best possible connection all over again. V.FC retrains are extremely slow, and can take 5 to 60 seconds, during which time the modems appear "dead" to the network, host, or PC to which they are connected. With V.FC, a retrain is generally required to change the speed. This might be tolerated by some PC-to-PC connections, but it is rarely tolerated in a network environment, particularly a packet-switched one. The "timeouts" which will be sensed by a variety of network software packages simply won't tolerate them, will perceive them as disconnects, and will act accordingly, interrupting end user service. V.34's improvement of the probe and rate renegotiation. A first major factor is that V.34 probes 25 frequencies across the channel (vice 6 concentrated at the high end for V.FC). Because the frequencies are spaced closer together, the frequency response profile (ie the channel probe) is more accurate. That is a main reason why V.34 connections are more reliable than V.FC connections (more accurate line problem detection). The channel probe occurs during initial modem negotiation, and during training and retraining. Additionally, line noise and the line's signal-to-noise ratio is remeasured continually during the connection. Besides a better probe, rather than retrain, V.34 does a cooperative and nearly instantaneous speed shift (also called a "fallback"), which hosts can better tolerate. This rate renegotiation procedure allow rapid switching ranging from 4.8kbps up to 28.8kbps, as line conditions vary. V.34 speeds will usually be slightly lower, more truthful, and more reliable than V.FC. Other reasons why V.34 is a more robust standard. V.34 has a number of features which may be implemented to a lesser degree, a poorer degree, or may not available at all in V.FC: precoding (changing the transmitted signal to reduce the effects of noise multiplication in adaptive equalization, which compensates for severe amplitude distortions); powerful multidimensional trellis coding; constellation shaping and other innovations that give V.34 a greater immunity to noise; and nonlinear coding (changing the transmitted signal to improve operation in the receiver, which addresses the problem of signal peaks being distorted due to nonlinear circuit elements). A key improvement in V.34 is independent receive and transmit channel speeds (and their associated "symbol rates"). This allows the receive and transmit channels of the modem to be adjusted independently and operate at different speeds, thus making maximum use of available bandwidth in the face of channel impairments. V.FC forces both the receive and transmit channels to operate and the lowest of the two speeds (and thus symbol rates), so a channel impairment in either direction drops both speeds to that tolerated by the impairment. V.34 has more robust Trellis Coding in use by the modem's receiver and transmitter. Trellis coding is a mathematical operation performed on the transmitted data which improves the system's noise immunity. The type of coding may vary significantly when connecting modems from different manufacturers. V.34 supports a 64 state 4 dimensional coding scheme for greater noise immunity than the V.FC protocol. All right, you convinced me! I just bought a V.34 modem and am still having problems! What can I do to get a better connection. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Try calling a different location. Line quality differs from region to region, and it may be a problem with the lines or modem at the other end of a particular call. *Try connecting with a local call. Sometimes the connections within a long distance call can cause impairments. (If this isolates the problem, you can try switching long distance companies.) *Try plugging the modem to a different phone line or wall jack. *Try eliminating all telephone extensions, phone line surge suppressors, line switches, utility monitoring devices connect to the phone line, and anything else on the line with the modem. *If you know someone else in your area with a high speed modem, ask what type of connections they make. Try making the connection from their location. If you encounter the same low connection rates, the problem may be resulting from impairments along the lines running to the local telephone company or within your home or office. Your telephone company or a private consultant may be able to help. Dropped V.FC Connections and V.FC Rate Switching. VFC connections can only switch rates down to 14,400 bps. If you connect using VFC and line quality drops below that allowable for a 14,400 connection, the modems will disconnect. If this occurs frequently for a particular call, you will want to disable VFC before calling that modem again. A slower modulation, (V.32-bis at 14,400bps, for example) will be established and will allow the modems to switch to lower bit rates as line quality warrants. If the problem is severe, use the modem's command set to disable V.FC, so that V.34 (or a lower speed modulation on those modems which don't have V.34) is forced. Some VFC modems from some manufactures do not support rate switching (it's a tossup as to who does and in what version they do). These connections are more likely to drop. For these calls, you can force a lower connect speed by locking the modem to a lower link rate. Dropped V.34 Connections and V.34 Rate Switching. Dropped connections can occur when there is a sharp decrease in line quality during a call. V.34 modems will switch to rates as low as 4,800 bps to compensate for these changes. If the loss of quality is extremely severe, even V.34 will drop the connection. Technical phone line bandwidth requirements, and how a connection's bandwidth and symbol rates are determined. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As already stated, V.34 and VFC connection rates are based on the available bandwidth over the phone line. The modems use the channel probe to test the phone lines before establishing a connection rate, and will select the highest "symbol rate" allowable. V.34 and V.FC modulations allow adjusting the symbol rate to any of six possible values, to obtain the best match with the available bandwidth. Other protocols only allow a single, fixed value for the symbol rate, regardless of the bandwidth of the link. A "symbol" is a waveform transmitted by the modem, which contains a certain number of encoded bits of data to be moved across the link. The receiving modem decodes this waveform, recovers the package of bits, and re-assembles it. The noise levels in the channel determine how many bits are encoded in each symbol; lower noise levels allow a greater number of bits per symbol. The bandwidth of the channel limits how many of these symbols may be sent each second. Symbol rate is directly related to overall connection speed. In general, a higher "symbol rate" allows greater data transfer speeds, but requires greater bandwidth. Once a symbol rate is determined through negotiation, it remains constant. The bit rate then is adjusted on-the-fly to maintain low error rates, based on the modem's tracking of noise and the signal-to-noise ratio. The approximate bandwidth requirements for each symbol rate are shown in the chart below. Thus, based on the connections you make, and/or by diagnostics contained in the better brands of modems, you can determine the approximate bandwidth detected by the modem. The connection can be made at any of the frequency ranges for any of the given symbol rates. This allows it to select the frequency range of best quality for that call. Symbol Carrier Bandwidth Maximum Rate Protocol Frequency Requirements Bit Rate 2400 V.34 1600Hz 400-2800 Hz 21600 V.34/VFC 1800Hz 600-3000 Hz 21600 2743 V.34 1646 Hz 274-3018 Hz 24000 VFC/V.34 1829 Hz 457-3200 Hz 24000 2800 V.34 1680 Hz 280-3080 Hz 24000 VFC/V.34 1867 Hz 467-3267 Hz 24000 3000 V.34 1800 Hz 300-3300 Hz 26400 V.34/VFC 2000 Hz 500-3500 Hz 26400 VFC 1875 Hz 375-3376 Hz 26400 3200 V.34 1829 Hz 229-3429 Hz 28800 VFC 1920 Hz 320-3520 Hz 28800 3429 V.34 1959 Hz 244-3674 Hz 28800 NOTE: These are maximum bit rates. V.34 will connect at speeds as low as 4,800 bps with any of the above symbol rates. VFC will only connect down to 14,400 bps. If the bit rate is much lower than the maximum bit rate supported by the symbol rate, the phone line has lots of noise or other impairments on it. ***** Permission is granted to reprint and redistribute this information only in its entirety. Acknowledgement for selected source materials to: - Paul Gebert, Joe Frankiewicz, and Dale Walsh of US Robotics, Inc. ____________________________________________ > TEAC CD55a Hints STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" TEAC 55A 4X SPEED CD-ROM SPEED ctsy of CDRom Forum There have been several threads in this forum about varying speed measurements with the TEAC 4x CD-drive. I tested a lot of different configurations for my system and came up with a setting that gives optimal performance. The system I tested on was: 486DX2-66 (Intel) on a dark green mainboard with BIOS date from Q4/94, 12MB RAM (0 WS), SB16Multi-CD used as controller for the CD-drive. The CD's used for testing were: MS dev.lib. Q1/95 (617MB), and a game CD w. 150MB. CDbench 1.05 showed me about 300kB/s data transfer rate whenever I used ANY caching (Smartdrv or cdquick). Cache hits were rare w/random reads (as could be expected). When I used caching, data xfer rate did not vary with the mscdex buffers (tested:M=0,4,10,15,20). The next step was to remove CD-caching (smartdrv /U). It was a big surprise to me, setting MSCDEX buffers to 0,7,10,15, or 20 made no difference to data xfer rate or to access time. The measurements were: 443-450kB/s with both CD's used for testing, and access times after 350 test cycles were about 70/220/650ms (min/avg/max) for both CD's used. Only when assigning a very small buffer (M=4) to MSCDEX the performance dropped dramatically (xfer rate was the same, but access times were about 95/359/1500). So, the settings I currently use are: smartdrv /U .... MSCDEX .... /M:0 .... and this gives me the best performance for this drive I could ever measure. I hope this can be of help to some other TEAC 55A users, Peter Gruendler Vienna CIS: 100416,3074 ********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= STReport International OnLine Magazine is available every week for your reading pleasure on DELPHI. STReport's readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of an extremely friendly community of enthusiastic computer users there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN --DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and... At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's 20/20 Advantage Plan 20 Hours for Only $20! ----------------------------- Advantage Members have always enjoyed the lowest DELPHI access rates available. On the new 20/20 Advantage Plan, members receive their first 20 hours of access each month for only $20. If you happen to meet someone OnLine or find some other diversion, don't worry because additional usage is only $1.80 per hour. 20/20 Advantage rates apply for access via SprintNet or Tymnet from within the continental United States during home time or via direct dial around the clock. Home Time is from 6pm to 6am weekdays. Access during business time carries a surcharge of $9 per hour. These rates apply for most services, but note that there are some surcharged areas on DELPHI which are clearly marked with a "$" sign. Who is eligible to take advantage of the plan? Any DELPHI member in good standing. Applications are reviewed and subject to approval by Delphi Internet Services Corporation. It's easy to join. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you can apply OnLine -- at any time -- for membership in the DELPHI 20/20 Advantage Plan. Your membership becomes active at 4 a.m. Eastern Time on the first billing day of the following month. The $20 charge will be billed to you at the beginning of the month to which it applies. Any portion of the 20 hours not used in any month does not carry forward into the next month. Advantage rates may be changed with 30 days notice given OnLine. TRY DELPHI FOR $1 AN HOUR! For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only $5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press <RET> once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press <RET> again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! DELPHI-It's the BEST Value and getting BETTER all the time! -* ANNOUNCING: DELPHI INTERNET JET *- -------------------------------------- Windows-based graphic interface for the otherwise text-only Delphi online service. In addition to providing the user with a graphic interface, Delphi Internet Jet can be configured to automatically gather Delphi Internet e-mail and forum messages, and place them into a QWK packet for the user's existing QWK mail reader! Complete instructions for setup, operation, Delphi membership, and a FREE five hour trial included in the INTJET.TXT file. ************************************************************ ATARI/JAG SECTION (III) ======================= Dana Jacobson, Editor > From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""""" It's hard to believe that it's already the end of March, and Spring is in the air (supposedly, at any rate!). It seems like only yesterday that we were (I was) talking about a relatively mild winter! The TAF show is this weekend. I hope that many of our readers have an opportunity to attend. If you're planning to be there, drop us a line when you get back home to let us know about your experience. Show reviews are always enjoyable to learn about by our readers, and us (when we can't be there in person!). We've got a LOT of interesting information for you this week. So, in order to keep myself to a "self-imposed" one-issue-a-month "short and sweet" editorial - how long will that last?! - let's get to the news. Until next time... _________________________________ Delphi's Atari Advantage! TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (3/29/95) (1) ATARI E-MAIL ADDRESS LIST *(6) SILKBOOT 3 (2) HACE 9412 *(7) ACCENT PUTS FUN IN YOUR TEXT! (3) WORLD CLOCK 1.0A (8) HACE 9501 *(4) UNIVERSAL PRINT CONTROL ACC *(9) HACE 9502 (5) 3X CD-ROM ON AN ATARI *(10) OBSESSION PINBALL * = New on list HONORARY TOP 10 The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently out-performing every other file in the databases. STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.12) ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4) Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database. ____________________________________________ > Speed of Light 3.7! STR InfoFile! - Graphics Viewer Gets Better! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" From: Stuart Denman <sdenman@wolf.cs.washington.edu> I'm please to announce that Speed of Light 3.7 is now available. Since I can't seem to get into atari.archive.umich.edu (or msdos), I am thinking about posting it uuencoded to comp.sys.atari.st. Any objections? If you have a favorite ftp site, please let me know and I will try to upload it there as well. Cheers to all, Stuart Here is a list of changes in version 3.7 from version 3.5: Changes in version 3.7 from 3.5 =============================== -=> "New" now works when using Selectric File selector or wildcards. The first file replaces the current one, and all the others are added to the end of the image list. If you are using Selectric, you can also select multiple files to load at one time. -=> Slideshow feature was added to automatically flip through the images in memory. Control direction, wrapping, start image, end image, and display time. Hidden drawing supported. And for more power... -=> Speed of Light now supports a powerful scripting language for customized slideshows. You can write your own Speed of Light Scripts (.SLS) from scratch, or simply let SOL write them for you by recording your actions. When using slideshow scripts, you can even load and uncompress images in the background while viewing the last image! -=> Speed of Light can now be run from resolutions with less than 16 colors (monochrome too!). The color editor and filtering may not be used, however. You can now use SOL from Medium resolution, and still display in Low resolution (on STs). Monochrome users can now also use SOL (with dithering, of course.) -=> Lines (for clipping and zooming) now look right in monochrome and 4 color modes. -=> GIF uncompressing time now takes 85%-90% of the time SOL 3.5 took. -=> You can now have the screen be blank when drawing the images so they appear instantly. Great for slideshows. -=> Dithering was changed slightly to provide an easier user interface and support for future updates. -=> Some user interface improvements like tabbed dialog boxes. -=> Fixed some bugs in DSP JPEG code from v3.6. -=> SOL now loads GIFs with local color maps without complaining. -=> Other miscellaneous bugs fixed (you'll be amazed)! Changes in version 3.6 from 3.5 =============================== -=> Added some DSP support code in the JPEG routine for the Falcon to make decoding faster. Greyscale and fixed colormap take 3 times more memory than without it, though. Still can use CPU decoding if out of memory or no DSP. -=> Bug fixed that made STs and STEs bomb when switching to greyscale. -=> Picture information box was added to the bottom of the screen while loading to give information about picture size, type, and number of colors. For those of you with WWW access, you can download Speed of Light version 3.7 from my Home Page: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/sdenman/ Even if you don't plan on downloading anything, check it out! There's news on what I'm doing now, plus lots of great computer graphics stuff and images I've done. You can also download some other software like Triple Yahoo. Comments are always welcome. Cheers, Stuart Denman StuSoft ____________________________________ > Free Unix for AlberTT! STR InfoFile! - "Good Stuff....Cheap!" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" From CompuServe: Fm: Jay Craswell 73016,27 To: ALL From: Jay Craswell Dover Research Corp (612) 492-3913 To: Atari Users Subject: Freeware Unix / X-Windows and AlberTT Screen drivers! Here is some high tech news about a freeware Unix system for your TT. And the best thing is that a working driver for the AlberTT is available as well. If you've ever wanted to run X-Windows and Unix and don't care to shell out 30K here's some info. You can find the binaries for Linux on the tsx-11.mit.edu ftp site. Look for the pub/linux area the binaries are in the 680x0 area. If you want information on the AlberTT drivers you can contact Mr. Bammi at 508-446-6224 Better yet send him E-Mail with your questions etc to INTERNET:bammi@cadence.com I understand that lots of nifty freeware (gnu) compilers and other tools come with the Linux binaries. Sounds like a great way to get some free software and experiment with some new technology. *Note this only works on 030+ machines! Mr. Bammi has had the AlberTT card for a scant 4 days before he had a working X-Terminal. He reports some final tweaking is needed to finish his control of the AlberTT Palette. Expect this to be done RSN R.eal S.oon N.ow _______________________________________________ > Atari World! STR NewsFile! - New U.K. Atari Mag to Hit Newsstands! """""""""""""""""""""""""" In a reply to a query that I had sent one of the new Atari World staff: Hi, Atari World is due to be released in the U.K. on 7th April and looks like it'll be a great success. It will have a Falcon supplement and one other supplement every month and will be 170 pages of news, reviews and general info. It is edited by Vic Lennard of the defunct ST Review and most of that mag's team will be writing for it. It costs 2.50GBP in the U.K. and there won't be a cover disk but you can send to the publishers for one if that month's programs interest you. We are offering a subscription for it from issue 2 but will try to get you a copy of issue 1. (they are sold out already!) Phin Pope > CompuServe Update! STR InfoFile! - Database Libraries Software Update! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" News Flash: ----------- *** MARCH 30 *** ---------------- NEW FORUM SOFTWARE! Early Friday morning, the 31st, this forum is scheduled to receive the updated version of CompuServe's Forum Software. The most visible changes will be in the libraries, with longer filenames (8 characters with a 3 character extension), listing of uploaders' names along with User ID numbers, and a new format for catalog listings. In addition, those uploading files will see a new prompt. Please see NEWFOR.TXT and NEWFOR.FAQ in Library 1 [Forum Help & Info] for a complete rundown. (And won't it be nice when we don't need to use such cryptic names :-) The conversion is scheduled to take place between 2am and 5am EST. Due to the nature of the process, any files uploaded prior to that time may be lost. To avoid problems, we ask that you do not upload files to the libraries here Thursday evening. If you do, and then can't find them, please leave a note to SYSOP so we can determine if a reupload is needed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you are currently using an automated program to access the libraries (TAPCIS, OZCIS, etc.) the changes will require an update to your program for some library functions. Please visit the support forum for your software for the latest information. New versions are in the works or already available. NEW LIBRARY FEATURES SOFTWARE Please go to the New Member Help Forum (GO HELPFORUM) or Customer Service Feedback (GO FEEDBACK) with any questions. SUMMARY: Beginning in mid-March, CompuServe forums are being changed to add new features to the libraries, change the charges of sending mail from forums, and fix some problems in the forum software. Highlights of these changes include: - Expansion of file names to 8.3 - Addition of uploader names to file descriptions - Sending mail from an extended service forum is free of postage charges - Messages that scroll from a forum in less than one week and messages that sysops send from a forum will be sent free of postage charges - Change of format of library terminal emulation commands and addition of INVentory command - Addition of a copyright agreement prompt when contributing files EXPLANATION OF ALL CHANGES I. File descriptions II. Terminal emulation library commands/new command III. New upload prompt IV. Mail from forums I. FILE DESCRIPTIONS -------------------- All of the following parts of a file's description have been expanded to allow more room: FILENAME: Filenames can now be up to eight characters long, a period, then up to three characters in the extension (for example, FILENAME.TXT). This is an increase in size of two characters. All files that were uploaded before this upgrade will keep their original name; files can also be less than 8.3 characters long. CONTRIBUTOR: File descriptions will now display the contributor's name as well as User ID. This name is captured from the contributor's forum name at the time he or she uploads the file. If the contributor changes his or her name later, the change will not be recorded in the file without modification by the sysop. FILE SIZE: While there is no limit to the size of a library file, the amount of room that is reserved in file descriptions for size is being expanded to 999 megs. ACCESS COUNT: No hard limit is set for the count of the number of times a file has been downloaded, but descriptions are being expanded to allow up to 999,999 downloads. The following parts of a file description have not been changed: submitted date, file type, title, keywords, and description (abstract). II. TERMINAL EMULATION LIBRARY COMMANDS/NEW COMMAND ---------------------------------------------------- These changes in the file description fields (file name, contributor name, etc) means that the format for the displays of these files will be different. CIM, CSNav, and other HMI programs: Members using the CompuServe Information Manager will be able to use 8.3 filenames and expanded file sizes and download counts with no problems. They will not see contributor names as part of a file's description until later CIM versions, which will support the new information. Members using CSNav will be able to upload 8.3 filenames and see contributor names in the next version of the software. Other programs: In terminal emulation, the BROWSE, DIRECTORY, and LIST commands will have modified formats, and a new command, INVENTORY, has been added to allow quick listings of the files in a forum. *BROWSE format example* [76703,4363] Mike Schoenbach [SYSOP] POLICIES.TXT Text, Bytes:123456789, Count:321019, 30-Oct-94(15-Nov-94) Title : Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures Keywords: PRACTICE FORUM GUIDELINE POLICY RULES OPERATING PROCEDURE AGREEMENT This file outlines the purpose and design of the Practice Forum, our Forum Rules and Operating Procedures, and the entire agreement between you and the Forum Administrator concerning your participation in this Forum. *DIR format example* [76703,4363] Mike Schoenbach [SYSOP] POLICIES.TXT Text, Bytes:123456789, Count:321019, 30-Oct-94(15-Nov-94) *LIST format example* POLICIES.TXT 2 1234.5K 15-Nov-94 Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures *INV format example* POLICIES.TXT 2 123K Practice Forum Rules & Operating Procedures The BROwse and DIRectory commands will continue to always show the file size in bytes. The LIST and INV commands will now display sizes as b for bytes, K for kilobytes, or M for megabytes depending on the file's size. Command File size Format Examples ------- --------- --------- --------------- BRO all bytes Bytes:123456789 DIR all bytes Bytes:123456789 LIST 1 - 9999 bytes 1234b 10K - 9999K Kilobytes 1234.5K 10M - 999M Megs 123.3M INV 1-999 bytes 999b 1K-999K Kilobytes 999K 1M-999M Megs 999M Members who are using automated programs (such as TapCIS, OzCIS, and AutoSig) will need to update their software to properly view the new formats. Contact the software's authors to find out what versions you need and how to upgrade. III. NEW UPLOAD PROMPT ---------------------- With this new version of forum software, new copyright information will be displayed when members upload files. Members will now be asked to type "agree" to state that they have authorization to distribute the file they are uploading. The new copyright notice will read: Copyrighted information must not be placed on the Service without the permission of the owner or persons specifically authorized to grant this permission. You must either have the right to use and distribute information of another, or have created the Information and be the owner of it to be assured that your upload does not violate copyright and other applicable laws. By proceeding with an upload you represent and agree that you are the owner of it, or are acting with the specific permission of the owner or other person authorized to grant these rights. Do you Agree? (AGREE/<CR>) Members who use terminal emulation programs or automated programs will begin seeing this new information immediately, and members who use automated programs (such as TapCIS, OzCIS, or AutoSIG) will need to upgrade to a new version of software to upload files. Contact the software's authors to find out what versions you need and how to upgrade. Members using programs such as the CompuServe Information Manager, CSNav, or some versions of OzWIN will be including the new copyright information and the agree prompt in their next versions. Contact the authors to find out when the next versions will be released with this copyright information. This change will not affect members' ability to use automated programs to schedule an upload while not connected to CompuServe. The new programs will include this prompt at the time members enter in all the rest of the upload information in their updated versions; members will not have to be at the keyboard at the time of the upload. IV. MAIL FROM FORUMS --------------------- The upcoming forum software that's bringing 8.3 filenames and contributor names to the libraries is also going to include some changes to charges for forum messages that are sent via mail. The method of charging for mail and forwarded messages from forums will change. This is the new way that forwarded, composed, or scrolled messages are charged: Cost of Scroll Compose Forum to Mail to Mail -------- ------- ------- Basic/Free No mail charge *Postage Due Extended Service/ Postage due if No mail charge Connect >7 days old Charge * Mail sent from free forums by members with sponsored accounts or free flags will always arrive free in members' mailboxes, in both free and extended forums. MESSAGES THAT SCROLL TO MAIL When the oldest message in a forum is about to be deleted to make room for new messages and the addressee of the message has not read it yet, some forums will send a copy of that message to the recipient's mailbox. Messages will always scroll to mail free of charge from free forums. In an Extended Service (connect time charged) forum, if the scrolling message is seven days old or less, it will arrive in the member's mailbox free of charge. If the message has been in the forum for more than seven days, it will be sent to the member postage due. Also, the subject line of the mail message will now be the same as the subject that the message had in the forum. Currently, the mail's subject is "Message scrolled from XX Forum," which frequently caused confusion when members replied to the mail without changing the subject. The text of the message will continue to begin with "This message has scrolled to you from the XX Forum," and the full header of the message will be included in the text of the message. The first line of the header will be indented one space in the message to prevent the number sign (#) from confusing automated programs. COMPOSING/SENDING A MESSAGE VIA MAIL FROM A FORUM Mail sent from free forums will arrive postage due. When members choose to send a CompuServe Mail message from an Extended Service forum, the mail will arrive free of charge. Mail sent by a member with a sponsored account or a free flag in a forum will always arrive in the recipient's mailbox free of charge. copyright CompuServe Incorporated, March, 1995. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW FORUM SOFTWARE ------------------------------------------------------- These are some of the most common questions members may have about the new forum software that's being released. For more details on any of these answers, please GO HELPFORUM or GO FEEDBACK. WHAT WILL LOOK DIFFERENT IN THE LIBRARIES? File names can now have eight characters before the extension (ie; .EXE) instead of six, and you'll see the name of the file contributor when you view a file's description instead of just the contributor's User ID number. If you use a terminal emulation program on CompuServe (one that doesn't use the windowed interface with the service), Browse, Directory, and List displays will all be one line longer than they were before. In addition, a new command, Inventory, has been added to get one-line descriptions of the files in a library in terminal emulation. WHAT'S THIS PERSON'S NAME IN THE FILE DESCRIPTIONS? File descriptions always give the User ID number of the member who uploaded ( contributed) the file. Now, beside the User ID number, the file description will also display the name the uploader has in the forum. (Note: This is the name the member has in that forum, not necessarily the name on the account.) WHY DON'T I SEE THE CONTRIBUTOR NAMES IN A FILE DESCRIPTION? If you're using a CIM (the CompuServe Information Manager) or CSNavigator on CompuServe, you won't see contributor names in descriptions until the next versions of the programs are available. Keep an eye on What's New and the CIM support forums for news about the new versions of software. You'll automatically be able to use longer file names in all your programs except CSNavigator for Windows. HOW CAN I GET A ONE-LINE-PER-FILE LIST OF THE CONTENTS OF A LIBRARY? The new INVentory command in terminal emulation will give you a quick list of files. You can use the INV command like the other existing commands to search for certain files ("INV *.TXT" to look for all files that end in .TXT), list all files in a library ("INV"), or to list all the files in multiple libraries ("INV LIB:1-4" or "INV LIB:ALL"). WHAT DOES b, K, and M STAND FOR IN THESE FILE DESCRIPTIONS? The directory, list, and browse commands all abbreviate the file size. "B" stands for bytes, "K" for kilobytes, and "M" for megabytes. WHEN DO I HAVE TO PAY POSTAGE FOR MAIL FROM FORUMS? Mail sent from forums will arrive free of postage charges except if: * The mail was composed in a free forum or * The mail is a forum message that expired (scrolled) from a forum after more than seven days and was copied to your mailbox. Scrolled messages are old messages that are deleted from a forum to make room for new messages. Some forums will automatically send you a copy of a scrolled message if it was addressed to you and you did not read it. If that message was waiting in the forum for seven days or less, it will arrive without postage, but if the message was over seven days old, your copy of the message will arrive postage due. Don't forget that you can always delete a scrolled message without reading it to avoid postage charges. WHY DO I NEED TO TYPE "AGREE" WHEN I UPLOAD A FILE? CompuServe will now display more complete information about distribution of copyrighted material. When you upload a file, you'll need to type the word "agree" to confirm that you do have permission to upload the file that you're contributing to the forum. MY AUTOMATED PROGRAM CAN'T UPLOAD A FILE! WHAT'S WRONG? The current versions of programs (like TapCIS, AutoSig, or OzCIS) that automate CompuServe use will not be able to script uploading files because of the new "agree" prompt. In order to upload files, you'll need to upgrade to new versions. Contact the program authors to get more information about which versions you'll need and how to upgrade to them. WHAT DO I NEED TO UPGRADE? If you use a terminal emulation program like ProComm, MicroPhone, or SmartCom, you do not need to upgrade anything to use these new features. If you use the CompuServe Information Manager, you will be able to use longer filenames immediately. If you use CSNavigator, you will be able to search for and download longer filenames, but won't be able to upload files with 8.3 names or see contributor names. The next versions of these programs will support these features. Keep an eye on the What's New announcements or go to the CIM Support Forums for more information on when these new versions will be available. copyright CompuServe Incorporated, March, 1995. -/- Communications Decency Act Unveiled -/- A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would punish people who create obscene material for distribution on computer networks. Washington Post staff writer John Schwartz reports the measure immediately drew criticism from the Clinton administration, online businesses, and civil liberties groups as a potential threat to the freedom of speech. Called the Communications Decency Act, the bill would impose jail terms and fines on individuals or companies that originate online material that is deemed "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent." In addition, it would penalize solicitation of such material. However, the bill does not define those terms, long the subject of legal battles. The measure is sponsored by Sen. James Exon (Democrat-Nebraska), who said he introduced it to protect minors from pornographic material found on some online services. "I want to keep the information superhighway from resembling a red-light district," he has said. Co-sponsor Sen. Slade Gorton (Republican-Washington) said, "It extends to computer users the same protections that currently exist for telephone users" against obscene phone calls. Just as the federal government enforces rules against obscene material appearing on television or radio, the bill would extend similar standards to the online world. Should it pass both the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by the president, the bill would instruct the Federal Communications Commission to devise ways to bar such material. Enforcement of the penalties, which include two years in prison and fines of as much as $100,000, would be handled by the Department of Justice. The Clinton administration has issued a "go-slow" request to the Senate. "The president thinks that this issue deserves thoughtful discussion," said White House spokesperson Ginny Terzano. "The administration abhors obscenity, in whatever form it is transmitted," but we feel "there are important First Amendment issues that need to be addressed before legislation is rushed through. We ought to have a serious approach -- such as hearings -- to find the best solution." Critics say the law would have a chilling effect on the development of online services. "It is unconstitutional and a direct threat to free speech on the information highway," Jerry Berman, chairman of the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group that is helping to coordinate opposition to the bill, told The Post. A broad coalition of civil liberties organizations and businesses came together as the Interactive Working Group to fight the bill. Members of that group, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Library Association, Apple Computer Inc., Time Warner Inc. and the Newspaper Association of America publicly opposed the earlier version of the Exon bill. "I don't think there's anyone in this group that is happy" with the new version, Berman said. Exon's bill was included in the broad telecommunications reform package passed yesterday by the Senate Commerce Committee. -/- Microsoft Corp. Sues Apple Inc. -/- Microsoft Corp. has intensified its ongoing feud with Apple Computer Inc., suing the computer maker over alleged dirty tricks in a current dispute over video software. The federal suit, filed in San Jose, California, accuses Apple of "unfair competition and deceptive business practices" in allegedly orchestrating a disinformation campaign against Microsoft's Video for Windows software. Seeking unspecified damages, the action is a countersuit to an amended complaint filed last month in which Apple accused Microsoft and chipmaker Intel Corp. of misappropriating elements of its competing QuickTime for Windows video software. Reporting on the situation in The Wall Street Journal this morning, writer Jim Carlton says Apple officials told him they couldn't comment on this latest development until they had a chance to review the suit. "A company spokeswoman said Apple stands behind its previous statements regarding Microsoft," Carlton added. As reported earlier, the video software feud escalated last month when Apple added Microsoft and Intel to a Dec. 6 suit against San Francisco Canyon Co., alleging they duplicated and distributed several thousand lines of Apple programming code from QuickTime, which was developed by Apple with help from San Francisco Canyon. Both Intel and Microsoft have denied Apple's allegations that they illegally sought to boost the performance of Microsoft's rival Video for Windows with Apple code obtained from San Francisco Canyon. The case is pending in the same court as the new Microsoft filing. Carlton reports this morning Microsoft's countersuit says that in December it asked Apple to identify the allegedly infringing code and prove ownership, but Apple refused. "Microsoft alleges Apple distributed around the world a 'deceptive' videotape that purports to show Video for Windows providing poor video playback and other problems," the Journal writes. "Microsoft also alleges Apple threatened to sue Windows software developers unless they agreed to participate in an "amnesty program' by putting 'Apple Multimedia Technology' on boxes of software using Video for Windows." The Journal added, "Apple promoted the amnesty program, Microsoft alleges, by deploying its employees to talk it up to developers over the Internet. The employees allegedly used false names, without disclosing their Apple affiliation." Microsoft Vice President Brad Silverberg told the paper the countersuit was filed after Apple refused Microsoft's repeated requests to cease the alleged practices. Said Silverberg, "We really had hoped we wouldn't get to this situation with Apple. Apple continues to lie and mislead customers in the developer community. We feel an obligation to set the record straight." ______________________________________ JAGUAR SECTION ============== ECTS Reports! More VidGrid Opinions! Time/Warner to Sell Off ATC Stock! Another VR Deal! T2K CD Update! And More! *** NICE LOOKING NEW LOGOS IN THE JAGUAR FORUM!! > From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! """""""""""""""""""""""""""" In last week's issue, my editorial centered around the response being seen pertaining to the possibility that the VidGrid CD game might be the pack-in for the JagCD when it's released. The response to that editorial has been quite heavy - more so than I imagined it would be. For the most part, the responses were very objective and those have been passed along to Atari, or will be. Some responses were of the type that I wouldn't repeat, and didn't! The point of that editorial was to generate some constructive feedback from Jaguar users. It was felt that Jaguar owners had a serious concern for what was being perceived as a possible poor choice for the CD's pack-in. They don't want VidGrid, even free - it's seems to be that simple. There's no guarantee that the game is seriously being considered in this vein, but it's possible. Their voices wanted to be heard, and are. Will it have an effect? We'll know soon, I'm sure. Keep those letters coming! We've got some interesting reports of the ECTS show, gathered from our CIS/Internet guru, Jeff Kovach. Be sure to check out some of the opinions of the games in progress. Shocker of the month! Time Warner is trying to devoid itself of its Atari holdings in an effort to raise some cash. All kinds of speculation is occurring to try and find the reasoning behind this news, but it appears to be simply a means to raise cash rather than "getting rid" of "worthless" stocks. After all, it's reported that TWI is selling its Turner Broadcasting stock also. I guess people are confused/concerned because Time Warner has such a large chunk, and has for many years. I'm going to be keeping a very low profile today and tomorrow! After all, this time last year I was "got" by Atari's Don Thomas in an April Fool's joke that took me totally by surprise. Rumor has it that Don might try for a second year, but I'll be waiting!! For the rest of you, watch your backs!! The pranksters are afoot!! Have fun, but have it safely! Until next time... ____________________________________________ > Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's """"""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out. Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp. J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $49.99 Atari Corp. J9005 Raiden $49.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp. J9001 Trevor McFur/ Crescent Galaxy $49.99 Atari Corp. J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp. J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp. JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp. J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp. J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $59.99 Atari Corp. J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp. J9007 Checkered Flag $69.99 Atari Corp. J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp. J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp. Cannon Fodder $69.99 Virgin Syndicate $69.99 Ocean Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams Theme Park $69.99 Ocean Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams Sensible Soccer Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER J8001 Jaguar (complete) $189.99 Atari Corp. J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $159.99 Atari Corp. J8904 Composite Cable $19.95 J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp. J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95 CatBox $69.95 ICD __________________________________________ > Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" -/- Time Warner To Sell All or Part of Atari Stake -/- WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Time Warner Inc. said Friday it plans to sell some or all of its 24.5 percent stake in video game maker Atari Corp. as part of its plan to raise $2 billion to $3 billion. The media, publishing and entertainment giant disclosed its plan in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month, the company said it aimed to sell businesses that do not contribute directly to its bottom line in order to reduce its debt load. At the time, Time Warner did not specify which assets would be sold but it has also held talks regarding its 19.4 percent stake in Turner Broadcasting System Inc. Analysts said Time Warner's plans for its Atari stake came as no surprise but noted that its investment was small. "I got the clear impression that they were really going to essentially rummage through their drawers to find saleable non-core assets," said Scott Wright, an analyst with Argus Research in New York. "I suspect that management is probably happy to be able to make a real announcement that appears to advance their restructuring goal," he said. In the SEC filing, Time Warner said it sold 154,000 shares of Atari between Feb. 17 and March 22 at prices ranging from $3.25 and $3.9375 a share. Time Warner said it currently holds 15.6 million common shares of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based video game company. Atari stock was off 37.5 cents at $2.75 on the American Stock Exchange in afternoon trading. _____________________________________________ Contact: James Grunke Ron Beltramo Atari Corporation Atari Corporation 408/745-2014 408/745-2000 For Immediate Release TEMPEST 2000 SOUNDTRACK NOW AVAILABLE ON COMPACT DISC SUNNYVALE, CA (March 27, 1995) -- Atari Corporation has re-mastered and issued on compact disc (CD) the soundtrack of its best-selling video game "Tempest 2000". The special edition audio compact disc is available at select Atari retailers and from Atari's Customer Service Department. The game music has proven to be a favorite among dance and rave audiences worldwide. "Game players liked the soundtrack to 'Tempest 2000' so much, they asked us to issue it on audio CD," said James Grunke, Director of Music and Audio at Atari Corporation. "The music composed for video games and the musicians who perform it are gaining increasing and well-deserved recognition. We believe that the Tempest soundtrack is a masterpiece and a milestone in video game music." "Tempest 2000 Soundtrack" contains a total of 12 tracks based on the music from different stages of the "Tempest 2000" video game. Hallucinatory, hypnotic, and sometimes harrowing, the "Tempest 2000 Soundtrack" includes new and expanded versions of the game music, as well as new compositions. The 12 selections are as follows: 1. Thermal Resolution 3:59 7. Future Tense 5:54 2. Mind's Eye 4:52 8. Digital Terror 5:07 3. T2K 5:23 9. Hyper Prism 4:26 4. Ease Yourself 7:52 10. Glide Control 5:12 5. Tracking Depth 5:04 11. Ultra Yak 4:00 6. Constructive 12. 2000 Dub 7:31 Demolition 4:05 The CD is produced and published by Atari Corporation. The executive producer of The Soundtrack is John Skruch. The production director is James Grunke. The "Tempest 2000 Soundtrack" CD features music originally composed by musicians from Imagitec Design, Inc., West Yorkshire, U.K.. For more information or to order a copy, write "Tempest 2000 Soundtrack", Atari Corporation, P.O. Box 61657, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1657. The compact disc is priced at $12.99 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. Inquiries from distributors and radio stations are welcome. Atari Corporation markets interactive multimedia entertainment systems, including Jaguar, the world's only 64-bit game system, and the only video game system manufactured in the United States. Atari is headquartered at 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089. ### Jaguar is a trademark of Atari Corporation. Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. Other products named may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning companies. -/- Virtual Reality Deal Announced -/- Virtual reality software developer Virtus Corp. and Simon & Schuster Interactive, the multimedia consumer publishing division of the nation's largest publisher, have announced a multi-year agreement to develop consumer CD-ROM products. The deal's terms weren't disclosed. The companies say they plan titles that will incorporate Virtus' "walkthrough" capabilities, real-time 3-D rendering and proprietary texture mapping technologies. The products will take advantage of Simon & Schuster's content library. The first title the companies plan to co-publish is VirtusCube, a floating 3-D organizer and screensaver. VirtusCube can be manipulated to present an active work or play component on each of the cube's six faces. By dragging and dropping on-screen elements, users can customize each face of the cube with active calendars, family photos, personalized address books, puzzles, area code maps, famous quotations and similar material. VirtusCube is set to ship in September. "This relationship is the beginning of an exciting time for Virtus," says Frank Boosman, vice president and general manager of Cary, North Carolina-based Virtus. "With our real-time 3-D technology and design skills and Simon & Schuster's incredible array of properties to build on, we're going to amaze people with a new breed of entertainment and educational software." "Virtus is the next generation of consumer software development," says Peter Yunich, president of New York-based Simon & Schuster Interactive. _______________________________ > Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr! """""""""""""""""""""""""" Sb: #New Jag Titles Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071 To: All Some news about some upcoming Jaguar titles, as seen in a french gaming magazine: ----------------- From: andren6@cti.ecp.fr (ANDRE Noel, Jean, Julien) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.atari I just picked up the last issue of a french mag and there is a big article about atari (far better then the EDGE one, which was not bad). There are a lot of interviews and a lot of previews : * usual games (everybody know them all) ......... * new games (at least for me ...) Commando (Microids - CD) Commando seems to be a first person shooter (just like AvP) The picture is INCREDIBLY beautiful, really (hi-res and true-color) T-Mek (Time Warner - K) YES ! The arcade game is being translated to the jag ... cool! Kart (Cyberdreams - K) This is a karting game (looks even better than Street racer on the SNES). But keep calm, it's far form completion ... :( Ishar genesis (Silmarils - CD ) Deus (silmarils - CD ) Two new adventures for the jag with incredible graphics Hyper force (visual impact) A beat them up (don't like the picture ....) Chaos Agenda (Atari - CD ) first-person adventure game (impressive) Sb: ECTS Show Report Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071 To: All From the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.atari, a report on the ECTS show in London: ---------------- From: ma10004.phx.cam.ac.ul (Mark Adami) LONG: Report on ECTS <The second half is the SEGA bit...> I spent today at the ECTS in London, and it sure was great. Atari had a stand of there own and were mainly showing off games in various stages of completion. The most impressive was Rayman. Rayman looks like a dream and it plays like a dream. There is simply so much colour and so much movement. Beautiful butterflies flitter around the screen and toadstools jump on top of each other to make columns. Rayman himself is superbly animated, as are all the other bad guys. They don't have arms or legs, just feet and hands. It works so well! <Insert a page of rambling about superb animation and beautiful graphics.> I spoke to a guy from UBI Soft and he said that is should be finished in a month, and looking at the game on display I don't have any reason to doubt him. Fight for Life was a bit depressing. :-( They have a lot of work to do on this before it will compare in any way (graphics or playability) with Virtua Fighter. The version they had on show was obviously very incomplete but did nothing to boost confidence in the machine. The interesting thing was that if you went to the back of the booth and peered through the blackened glass could could see a version of Fight for Life that seemed to be better than the one they had on show! They also had Ultra Vortex, F-1 Racer, Highlander, White men can't jump, Burn Out, Blue lightening and a Doom 2-player link. Ultra Vortex looked nice but I didn't get a chance to play it. Burn out zooms along at 50hz but there is not much graphic detail there. F-1 racer looked pretty incomplete, and White men can't jump looked good but they had better improve the frame rate! The show was dominated by Sony. They had a huge screen display where they had Toh Shin Den competitions and showed off Ridge Racer together with a brain dead Master of Ceremonies pouring out complements on the Playstation into a microphone. A huge amount of floor space was given over to booths where you could play Daytona (I noticed a few 3D glitches), Toh Shin Den, Tekken (another ace fighting game), that silly cartoony motor game, Raiden and another game whose name I can't remember. They certainly stole the show. If you got on the Sega Shuttle (a bus), it took you to Sega UK which was only down the road from the show, where you could witness the launch of the Sega Saturn. You arrive at the building. The front door is actually painted like an airlock and after you go in you wait outside another airlock with a flashing rotating yellow light on the top. After reading the brochure they give you and listening to a multitude of strange sounds coming from the other side of the airlock, a guy dressed like a cyborg comes out of the airlock followed by smoke, a flood of green laser light and stomach-curdlingly load low roaring noises. The door closes again and after a couple more minutes of anticipation <all the time the roaring noises are getting loader and a voice is telling you about the Saturn> the airlock opens and you are crammed with a bus load of people in a black room filled with smoke and green laser light, with speaker stacks in each corner of the room roaring at you. There is a dome in the center of the room around which moves a guy dressed like a cyborg who says things as if the room was about to take off for Saturn. In one end of the room there is a Virtua Fighter arcade and in the other Daytona. They encouraged people to play these for a while and then the countdown to the launch began. Smoke started bellowing out of the dome, the roaring got even lower and louder, and when the countdown finished the dome rose to reveal a Saturn in between two chairs opposite a large screen which showed a promotional video. They picked two guys to play a game of Virtua Fighter, and then two Sega pros showed off some special moves that only they knew about. Then everyone left the room to play Daytona, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight in another room. Panzer Dragoon was outstanding. It looked incredible but I was not amazingly impressed with the gameplay. A friend of mine who played it for longer than I did said it was great to play so I bow to his greater experience. But this is definitely the best graphical showpiece for the Saturn. Clockwork knight was okay. Okay graphics, but somehow there was something missing. It just didn't seem fun. But all in all it was a great launch. It said in the brochure that the Saturn would be out in the Autumn and is expected to cost around 400 pounds. The rumour was that when it hits the shops the price tag will be 429 pounds. This is prohibitively expensive for a large slice of the market which is good news for Jag fans. Notable by their absence was Nintendo. Hope you didn't fall asleep wading through that lot! And another perspective: Sb: ECTS Report Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071 To: All From Usenet, a report on Atari's showing at the ECTS show: ------------ Newsgroups: rec.games.video.atari From: rmitchellsbd-e@rx.xerox.com (Ross Mitchell) Subject: ECTS Report Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 07:46:14 GMT Here's a summary of what was at the ECTS on Sunday. I didn't have a lot of time there, so it's not particularly detailed. Atari stuff first, and then other news at the end. Atari had a reasonably sized stand. TV monitors lined the outside walls, and there were plenty of games to play. There was also a video showing 'coming soon' games, but I didn't stand and watch the whole thing. Inside the stand were some enclosed rooms for people to do business. Names I recognized on badges were Daryll Still and Bill Rehbock. Two complaints. No games had their controls documented, and two player games didn't indicate which pad was which. This led to people losing interest quickly. BURN OUT This was one of the most impressive offerings. Fast and smooth, and crashing into the scenery was quite amusing. I saw a few tracks - one fairly flat, one very undulating, and one at night. I also saw some people playing a split screen 2 player mode. Racing game fans will love this. ULTRA VORTEX Infinitely better than Kasumi Ninja. The control was good. Animation was very good too. The voice modem is listed on the options screen. Even after a couple of moments play, it became clear the Jag joypad is crap for fighting games. So, maybe if controller 2 is any good, this might be worth buying. BLUE LIGHTNING (CD) This was actually running off the CD, but was clearly unfinished. For example, one of the mission briefings said something like "Some text here - Hello Mum! Please Ignore.". There were lots of different plane types, but I could only select one. Whether this is because you have to earn the others, or because they hadn't been programmed in yet was not clear. I tried to do one mission, and there weren't any planes available! The game ran pretty smoothly, but I found it rather boring, and just crashed into the nearest building. Not my sort of game, but I'm sure some people would like it. Incidentally, this was running off a CD drive without a lid! Makes you think that Atari UK didn't have many working CD units - whatever the reason, it gives a half-finished impression. DOOM There was a two player link-up which was quite fun. HIGHLANDER (CD) This was also running off the CD. I didn't play this one, but it looks like an Alone in the Dark type game. The background scenery was magnificent, and you controlled a polygon person, and presumably interacted with people and things in the usual way. POWER DRIVE A very controllable overhead rally driving game. It's probably much the same as the Megadrive and SNES versions, but it played nicely - and I don't even like driving games. FORMULA 1 I don't know who this was developed by because it didn't have a title screen. Anyway, it's miles ahead of Checkered Flag. There were 6 different viewpoints, and it took me a long time to find the accelerate button (8 on the keypad!). I couldn't figure out what A, B, and C did! It ran very smoothly, but I found it a bit dull. For some reason, it wouldn't let me crash into things. Maybe it's got an auto-pilot or something. As I said, I don't like driving games, so I got bored and moved on. SOULSTAR A game about James Brown. Not really. It's a port of Core's MegaCD game. This wasn't finished either, and was running of a cart. There was a debug/level select screen where you could choose a level, and a number were greyed out, implying they aren't finished. None of the FMV stuff was there either. The game seems much the same as the Mega CD version, except the graphics are better. I must admit, I found the original a little dull, and got bored with this quickly too. I think you need to put some time into figuring out what everything is, as the screen is a bit busy. FIGHT FOR LIFE Oh dear. This did not make a good impression. In fact, people behind me sniggered at the graphics. I remember people complaining about the low gravity jumping in Virtua Fighter. This has gone the other way, where jumps are more like quick hops. The characters were very blocky, and as usual, the Jag pad did not help with the control. I am sure this game would be more rewarding if you knew what you were doing, and put some effort into it, but first impressions did not inspire me to make that effort. WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP This is a two-on-two basketball game. I couldn't figure out the control at all, and in fact, I wasn't really sure which players I was supposed to be controlling anyway. These are just complaints about the exhibition setup. The graphics were excellent, and animation very smooth. One for sports game fans (which I am not) to look forward to. VARUNA'S FORCES I didn't see a game here, just FMV. Maybe if I'd have had more time... RAYMAN Excellent! UbiSoft had this running on their own stand too. (They also had Street Racer for the Megadrive, which is an outstanding technical accomplishment. Really fast!). Rayman moves at a sedate pace, so it's not really like Sonic. It seems like there's loads to do, and this one is going to be a big hit. PINBALL FANTASIES This was running on the 21st Century stand. I found it a bit sluggish, but I can't remember if the Amiga version was like that. Guess I've been spoilt by Psycho Pinball on the Megadrive. The press also reported new pricing. Both Jag and CD are now 150 quid. That's all the Atari stuff. In a related vein, Time Warner were showing early versions of Primal Rage on the Megadrive (which looked incredible considering the technical limitations of the machine), and the PC version looked even better. Nintendo weren't there, and Sega were showing Saturn in a separate building, which I didn't have time to go to. And now to the star of the show, Sony. Diehard Atari bigots can stop reading now. Sony had an enormous stand at the far end of the hall, right behind Atari. The sheer quality of the games they presented made a lot of the Atari offerings (particularly FFL) look embarrassing. Sony showed Ridge Racer, Toshinden, Tekken, Motor Toon GP, Raiden and Starblade alpha. They also had the Ridge Racer and Tekken coin-ops, and the only difference between the conversions and the coin-ops was a loss of resolution. They had about 20-30 machines set up to play on, but you still had to wait quite a while. (In contrast, the Atari booth nearly always had a couple of games unattended.) I played Tekken for a while. This is like Virtua Fighter 2, and is great fun. Ridge Racer was amusing to try and drive the wrong way round the track. Raiden was superb - I'd buy the Jag version, if they hadn't left out the auto-fire. I didn't have time to queue for the other games! There was a press report that Sony have secured an exclusive deal to have MK3 before Christmas. All other versions will come after. So, in summary, it really is difficult to overstate how good the Sony products were. Atari's showing was mixed. Some games were good. Some were bad. Most were unfinished. No sign of Battlemorph either! Don't get me wrong. This is not supposed to be a 'Jag sucks' type of report, and I certainly do not intend to rush out and sell mine. Mind you, I will be buying a Playstation on day one of launch. Atari have got some serious competition, and its coming VERY soon. Thanks for reading Ross ____________________________________________ > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE... ARE TALKING ===================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando CIS ID: 73637,2262 Well friends and neighbors, it's time once again to take a look at all of the news, hints, and tips on CompuServe. But before we do that, I'd like to get your opinion on something... For quite some time I've been thinking about approaching Ron Luks, the Chief Sysop of the Atari Forums here on CompuServe (who I usually refer to as "The Big Kahuna") about opening up a new message base for this column. Folks who have access to InterNet accounts either through work, school, or another online service (shudder, shudder) could e-mail me questions which I would post in this area in the hopes that our Cyber-Whiz CompuServe Users could provide answers, which I would include in the following week's column (since anyone asking a question would probably have access to some sort of online service or net, and would of course read STReport, they'd see the answers, hints, etc. in the next issue). Before I ask Ron (who has always been exceptionally open-minded about such things), I'd like YOUR opinion... Does this sound like a good idea to you? Please don't be in the dreaded 'Silent Majority'... drop me a note in e-mail (my account number is 73637,2262) and let me know what you think. I'll keep you posted on which way the majority is leaning. Well, I've wasted enough of your time. Let's get on with all of the great stuff that's available every week right here on CompuServe... From the Atari Computing Forums =============================== When David Bulpitt asks about how to get information on CompuServe commands, Sysop Bob Retelle tells him: "There's a lot of info available at any of the ! prompts just by typing HELP.. that will give you all the commands available in any situation here on CompuServe.. Actually what I suggest is to check out the Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) to try out all the things you can do, because there's no connect charges while you're there... it's FREE to play around, without worrying about having to pay to learn all this stuff. They've got some good files in their libraries with help info too... Haven't had a chance to check out the WWW yet.. with all the time I spend on just UseNet newsgroups and mailing lists now, not to mention CompuServe, I'm afraid I'd have to give up non-essentials like sleeping.." My friend Myles Cohen sends up a rare S.O.S.: "I need some info... I have a friend on the INTERNET who wants to contact me through E-MAIL... I want to recieve the message through QuickCIS... What address will he need to use to get it to me on COMPUSERVE... In other words, how should he address it... Next question...if he is successful...will I be able to respond to him through QuickCIS..." Sysop Bob Retelle tells Myles: "Your Internet address would be: 71570.3142@compuserve.com Note that the normal comma in your CIS ID number is replaced witn a period... I'm not sure about how QuickCIS handles filling in the return address for a reply.. it has to be specifically addressed so CIS mail knows it's an Internet address by adding INTERNET: to the beginning of the address. Normally when I'm manually reading mail, just saying REPLY will work, so it's possible it would work the same way with QuickCIS. I'm sure others here have had experience with it though, so I'll defer to them.." Myles tells Bob: "Thanks for your input...Do I use my name with that address or is that my complete "handle" for the INTERNET... I hope Jim Ness knows all about this stuff and can enlighten us all in the places where you are not able..." As if by magic, Sysop Jim Ness appears and tells Myles: "The syntax BobR gave you is all your correspondents need, in order to send to you. Different online services may require additional text, so their mail system knows it's an Internet piece. For instance, to send via CIS Mail, an Internet address needs to be preceded by INTERNET: or CIS Mail won't know how to deal with it. So, if I wanted to send something to Joe-Bob on Delphi, I'd send it to: internet:joe-bob@delphi.com CIS is playing around with "aliases," which will allow you to pick a name for email. You might pick m.cohen for instance. Then, people could send to you using your alias instead of your User ID. That feature should become universally available in a month or two." Now THAT is good news. I've been corresponding with a few friends who are not as enlightened as I am and are not using CompuServe. The easiest way to e-mail them is to use the InterNet. But when they see a bunch of numbers under 'FROM:' they start looking around for big brother. Seeing my name instead would let them know at a glance who it is... of course, that could lead to a few of them deleting the message without reading it <grin>. Shelly G. asks: "Does anyone know about Flash II? I just got it, did some things on the "edit boards" and now the text on my screen is coming out much slower than before (when I first logged on without fooling around) Any suggestions?" The Big Kahuna, Chief Sysop Ron Luks, tells Shelly: "FLASH II is supported by Missionware Software both here and in the AtariVendors Forum. I'll let John T. from Missionware help you out with this situation." Shelly tells Ron: "Thanks for your quick response. I figured out that somehow my set-up went back to the default 2400 BAUD--this was why I was getting slower text. But I do have another question if you could pass this one on. When I set up my dial board for Compuserve it allows me to tell it the access number and my password (which it refes to as Logon ID) Where do I tell Flash my Compuserve ID #?" John Trautschold of Missionware tells Shelly: "In the "Auto Macro" text field (in Terminal Options|Macros) you'll see the macro with a bunch of zeros in it - "00000,0000". You need to erase the zeros and enter your own CIS account number there. And if you place your CIS password on the Logon ID field in Terminal Options, everything will work automatically for you for each logon. BTW, Might I suggest that you spend some time with Chapter 4 in the manual. This chapter is the tutorial and spends quite a bit of time taking you through all of the basic of the program. You might also want to spend some time starting on page 5-34 in the manual. A rather lengthy discussion starts there that takes you through setting up a board slot and uses CompuServe as an example... If text is scrolling slowly, I'll bet you turned on the "Smooth Scroll" mode in Terminal Options. Turn that off and everything should go back to normal." Rob Rasmussen asks a question about the original Flash!: "Sometimes when I am in a conference room or in a Group on CIS I want to send a block of text from Flash (original) capture buffer. In the Edit menu under "ascii UL/DL" I can choose the speed at which the lines are sent, then after marking the block I choose "Block ASCII" from the Upload menu. If it is too fast then I get messages from CIS telling me "You are talking too fast- wait 6 seconds between lines" or something like that. The other people in the room may see the first few lines but miss the rest. If I set it slower, like to 7, the same thing happens. Even though it looks on my screen like it is being sent OK with none of the "talking too fast" warnings, people in the room still say they only get the first few lines. What is the trick to getting this to work. When guests make opening announcements in conferences, I have seen this work fine for them." Sysop Jim Ness tells Rob: "I think what you are seeing is overload on CIS' end. If you're comparing CB (a very busy area) to a formal conference (not busy at all - only one person is talking), I'm sure it's just a matter of CIS' input buffer being overfilled, because so many people are talking all at once." Sysop Keith Joins tells Rob: "There is a feature in the Conference software called Auto Gag. When this option is enabled in a particular forum it causes the problem you are seeing. It is meant to prevent a person in CO from dumping large amounts of text into the system that would disrupt a CO. In those forums with this setting enabled try selecting short blocks of text and then repeat as needed." Rob tells Sysops Keith and Jim: "I have had better luck when I slowed it down even more. This was in a forum when only my friend and I were there. I tried it in a CO room and in a private group, and it seems to be working. Maybe the slower ascii send speed, even at 14400, fools the auto-gag into thinking it's just an average speed typist." The Big Kahuna jumps in and tells Rob: "Go into the ASCII UL/DL menu item and set the DELAY to a factor of 4 and you won't "gag" on the uploads. I use this feature *all* the time and is the main reason I still use FLASH." Patrick Wong posts: "My friend has a Mega 4 STe and he was wondering if one of those Mac emulators would be worth it. I don't know anything about Macs but from what I've been reading here, the company that makes it has gone bankrupt or something like that. Is that true? If not, how does the emulator work? Can it run the Mac's recent software? He's thinking about buying a Nova Card and he was wondering would he be able to get color results on his emulator with this card." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Patrick: "The Emulator Spectre GCR can read/write MAC 800K disks but the not the newer 1.44 meg floppy disks. It only works with System 6.x software and not 7.x so I would assume that reduces the amount of recent software (MAC) that works with it. The MAC emulator emulates a MAC plus for the most part. I have also read that the company went bankrupt. So I don't know what the current development status is of that product. Also I don't know how well it works with graphics cards. I have only used it on a mono ST machine and it works very well." Yat Siu of Lexicor tells Patrick: "All I know is that the Small's Apple Emulator works with the NOVA Graphics Board, however in monochrome mode only because the board itself was (the apple emulator that is) was not designed to make use of more than 2 colors. So even though the NOVA has a palette of 16,7 million colors, it won't make use of it, but unlike some other gfx boards, it won't crash or not work." While on the subject of Mac emulators, the Grand Daddy of 'em all (okay, maybe only the Daddy of 'em all), Dave Small, pops in and comments on the subject of the Mac's operating system software being a bit on the slow side: "...The "snappiness" [things jumping from one position to another instead of moving smoothly across the screen] I always associated with Macs (even the ~ 6 Mhz original) went away with System 6. I was horrified when System 7.0 (original) took *two minutes* to boot, from hard disk, on a Mac Plus ... and when I actually could perceive delays in mouse movements in menus, renaming files takes a perceived week, and whatnot. I guess throwing a 68040 at high Mhz, or a PowerPC 601 at 100 Mhz, is one way to solve that, but a more optimizing compiler, and a little profiling of where the code is spending So Much TIME and rewriting in ASM might be more profitable. To be honest, I installed an *accelerator* -- true! -- in a Mac IIfx, which is a 40 Mhz, 68030/68882 machine, to get more speed, once I installed System 7.1. I was pulling my hair out waiting, and I haven't got *that* much left. (Besides, all that Rogaine is expensive!) What's funniest to me is once I did an 8080 emulator on a machine called the Dimension 68000. It's 6 Mhz. I benchmarked the emulator at about 0.6 Mhz (yes, about 600 Khz). I booted and ran CP/M on it, then WordStar (3.3, I think). To my total surprise, WS-3.3 was *totally civilized* about running on ultra-slow-mode ... I could not even out-type it. That was some kinda fast code. Now I read in magazines that even with a 68040 and 8 megs of RAM, Mac MS-Word-6 takes *ten minutes* to start up (especially if you have a lot of fonts -- I think Sandy is an ultimate Font Collector), and can be easily out-typed. Columnists in MacUsers are openly saying, "Time to switch word processors." Ya gotta wonder what the Beta Testers did with MS-Word-6... just go get a Jolt Cola while starting up the program? BTW, for those of you who don't know me, I wrote the Mac emulator called "Spectre" or "Spectre GCR" (or a wild number of mis-spellings, but that's okay.) Anywho, back to the salt mines ..." Mike Mortilla tells Dave: "Thanks for letting me know I'm not being overly picky! Another funny thing; when I access CIS at 9600 (as opposed to 2400 on the ST) all but file transfers seem much slower. On the ST the screen zips along. On the Mac. . ." Sysop Bob Retelle asks Mike: "Do you know what the screen resolution and color depth is on the Mac..? I've often heard people say that Windows seems to update its screen slower than an ST without realizing that the ST has a much simpler job to do with its smaller screen memory and color pallette." Mike tells Bob: "Gee, Bob, I'm no technician <g> but my wide's mac has 256 colors (runs a little faster in 16 and faster still in 2). The screen res? Gosh, I dunno?! But the GIF files look a lot better <very big grin>..." Bob tells Mike: "I was just thinking that the resolution and color depth make a big difference in the perceived speed of a system... an ST has a lot less screen to update, which is one reason why it feels faster..." Peter Joseph posts this bit of humor: "I had to relate this one, it's laughable. I recently got an envelope back from the post office with marks all over it saying "Returned to Sender"..."Unclaimed"..."Box Closed". It contained a registration card for some MIDI software I had purchased. Not remembering when I mailed it, I quickly looked at the postmark to find out it was mailed in November. My first thought was that it must have gone around the world. I threw it in a pile of papers and forgot about it for a week or so. Tonight I ran across it again and at second glance noticed my return address label on it. Hang on now, I haven't had any of those labels for quite a while. Come to think of it, it was a long time ago when I bought that software. So I looked at the registration card and saw that it had a date of November '93 on it. Closer scrutiny of the postmark revealed the truth - yep, I had mailed it in November of 1993. I was wrong in my first thought; I now realize it must have gone to Mars and back. ;-)" In response to a question about file transfers to and from a Portfolio, Benjamin Russell posts: "Here is an excerpt from a file available here in the library called "PORT.FAQ". The file referred to in the first paragraph is called "FT.COM" and it is also available in the library here. (I had to use this to get the software I needed to do Mac transfers onto my Portfolio from a PC. Believe me, using a PC and the built-in file transfer software on the Portfolio is a lot easier than doing it with a serial interface and null modem/gender benders, etc. as I have to do to get stuff into the Mac!) >>41. How do I transfer files to and from the PC? The Portfolio has built-in software to communicate with the printer port on a PC via the Smart Parallel Interface. The parallel interface comes with a command-line driven program called FT to perform file exchanges. The program is provided on 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch disk for a PC. The only real tricky part is the cable to go between the Portfolio and the PC. You need a "Male-to-Male DB25 all-lines straight through" cable. While it can be found in local stores (I bought one at Egghead Software), it would be easiest to obtain the cable from Atari (408) 443-8020. The Parallel File-Transfer Cable (HPC-406) costs $19.95. This approach to file transfer is reliable and easy, but not very fast. If you don't like the FT program that Atari supplies, there is a program on Compuserve in the APORTFOLIO library called FTMENU, which provides a "point-and-click" menu front-end to the FT program. Another approach to file transfer on a PC is Atari's PC Card Drive (HPC-301) which costs $99.95. This hardware card is plugged into the PC's expansion bus. At present there is no version for the PS/2 micro-channel bus. A small box is attached to the card, with a slot to insert a memory card. The software driver on the PC will now treat the memory card as if it was a regular disk drive on the PC. It is referred to as the next drive (typically D:) on your system. You can now use normal MS/DOS command to copy file to and from the memory card. This is more expensive, but is very fast.<< Hope this helps!" While we're on the subject of how folks use their Portfolios, Gerry Tompsett posts: "I still use one for everyday use at work (addresses, worksheets etc).. I (originating as a programmer) never really got to grips with 123 and the subset seems rather limited, so I use a basic database with Mr .G's excellent extenstions and output to a .wks file.. I've got another porty driving a very old clock with two pulses a minute and every now and then whizzes the hands round a full twelve hours to amuse cats and children. I am considering another one as a burgular alarm. I regularly see them in second hand computer shops for about 25 pounds sterling (about $40).. and I buy every one.. (It is said that I'm totally mad)" Benjamin Russell tells Gerry: "Hey, I understand! ;-) I just bought my first one about a month and a half ago. A week later, I bought a second one just in case anything ever happened to the first - I wouldn't want to be without a Portfolio now that I have been smitten. If I saw another for $40, I'd grab it in a flash! I use it for word processing and databases mainly, as well as scheduling." JF Davington tells Gerry: "As we say in French: <<Quelle belle folie!>> A nice madness to have!" Jon Sanford adds: "he he he, some day the ones with the most Atari Portfolios will rule the world!!!" Let's end on that prophetic note, shall we? Oh, by the way, MegaByte Computers can not only provide Portfolio repair, but also things such as a 512 or 640 k-byte memory upgrade. They are good folks, they do good work not only on Portfolios, but also on the ST series of computers, and their prices are surprisingly low. Robert or E.R. are always willing to help and provide encouragement. Tell 'em you heard me praising them and... well, you probably won't get a discount, but you might hear a fairly entertaining story about how frantic I was when I nearly destroyed my beloved STacy. By the way, Atari is now referring all Portfolio repair to MegaByte... See that? Atari CAN make a good decision on occasion <grin>. Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING _________________________________ > STR Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard" """"""""""""" STReport's MailBag """""""""""""""""" Messages * NOT EDITED * for content ----------------------------------- In a post received from one of our more diligent readers ..he sends us this correction. Ralph -- I've been enjoying your STReports, but I wanted to mention that the latest Corel DRAW! CD-ROM update is not E2, it's F2. Actually, it is F1 for the next few weeks, but F2 will replace it as soon as the disks get out of production. The F2 release is essentially the same as the current F1 update release, but without a 90-degree rotation problem that affects only people without math coprocessors. According to Corel Tech Support (as of yesterday) -- ------------------------------------------------- Version F2 is not a major update to the F1 release. It was produced strictly to address a problem caused by the Microsoft compiler, (specifically by the co-processor emulation portion) which was not discovered until a few days after F1 was released into production. All of the CorelDRAW applications may have been affected. The problem manifests itself in the rotation of objects at multiples of 90 degrees. Such objects become converted into null objects and disappear. Since this problem only affects systems that do not have a math co-processor, this update will be of marginal benefit to most users. The second function corrected by this revision is related to the Footnote function in Corel Ventura. If a paragraph containing both a footnote and an index code, with the index code being the last code in the paragraph, the footnote is liable to disappear. The third problem addressed is with relation to the new Corel Application Gallery version 2.0. When dragging and dropping images into a version of Corel Ventura where CorelDRAW has not been installed, the image could not link properly to the desired file. As this revision was created primarily to address the return of the Microsoft compiler problems and as this only affects those users without math co-processors, there will be few people requiring this specific revision. Should you need any further information or assistance, please feel free to let me know, I will be happy to help as best I can. Regards, Julia Harvey, Corel Technical Support I included the primary source (74740,1240), in case you want more info. Allen Cobb [CI], 74273,1307 Malibu, 28-Mar-1995 (NavCIS) Editor: Alan, thanks a bunch for the valuable information. Believe it or not, I had to take a look at the "about" in Corel Draw and sure enough, you are one hundred percent correct. (F2) By the way, for the record, I installed the new Corel updates for version 5 from the new CD into Win'95 (347) and it went perfectly. Win'95 is amazing. Great Stuff! Ralph.. ___________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips" """"""""""""""""""""" - Rockville, MD HEAD HONCHO AT GENIE JUMPS SHIP! ------------- Signs on with AMERICA ONLINE! As seen elsewhere in this issue, Mark Walsh the "wonder boy of salvation" for GENIE OnLine Services has, in what can only be termed a sudden and equally surprising move, dumped GENIE in favor of AOL. Walsh, who went about dismissing, discharging and re-arranging the top end of GEnie seemed possessed with a determination known only to those who are committed to succeeding, astonished the industry completely. At AOL he will be among the "top brass" responsible for setting the trends, writing the rules and generally calling the major shots. In this reporter's opinion; The manner in which this event occurred, which was unheard of a decade or two ago, seemingly signals the "new beginnings" in not only the OnLine world but the business world in general. Some very serious changes are afoot in the OnLine community. For example, Delphi, long thought of as a harmless small service has, under the Murdoch influence and strength, become a sleeping Giant that has awakened. GENIE, on the other hand, is loosing ground in leaps and bounds. This reporter illustrated this situation a few months ago only to be scoffed at by one or two fairly visible OnLine "personalities". They knew the truth then as they now know it along with the general public. Its also been rumored that the main reason GENIE is on the decline is because there is little or no real commitment to developing its potential by the main company. CompuServe, by far the largest and most popular of the OnLine Services, has its own bailiwick to deal with. None of which can be dismissed easily. One rumor flying around the halls of CIS is a possible acquisition by a real giant in the communications industry. None other than AT&T. Of course.. since its rumor and rumor only.. We can lend no credence to that story. On the other hand, one can begin to ask questions like how much is an OnLine service willing to spend to obtain a new subscriber? There are those in the industry who say its in the neighborhood of approximately two thousand dollars per sign-up. In light of recent well known purchases, one must ask; "Is a 45 - 65 dollar figure the cap or the starting figure?" Insider information says the figure is more like four to five times that amount depending on the quality of sub being sought and just how much rapid growth is desired. There has been talk of a number of acquisitions "being discussed" at this time. For example.. Can you imagine GENIE being acquired by CIS and of Delphi's Murdoch acquiring the holdings of one of the feuding owners of Prodigy? Then, there's the quiet Giant in Redmond getting set to unleash a graphical interface that's a knockout. Software that's a delight and has the benefit of all the other OnLine service's past experience to draw from. Microsoft Network is looming quite large on the horizon. It just might be the catalytic agent needed to accelerate the above mentioned acquisitions and ventures. Time will tell... """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" A true "Sign of the Times" """"""""""""""""" IRAQI "Fun & Games" "WHY MUST THE LITTLE GUYS ALWAYS PAY THE PRICE.... ...WHEN THE BIG GUYS LEAVE THE JOB UNDONE??" SEND "STORMIN' NORMAN" BACK TO FINISH "DA JOB"!! ..tired of "half-baked" goods Skokie,IL """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport International OnLine Magazine -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *- AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON OVER 70,000 PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" March 31, 1995 Since 1987 copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No.1113 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions of The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions and Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff of STReport International OnLine Magazine. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. STR, CPU, STReport and/or portions therein may not be edited, used, duplicated or transmitted in any way without prior written permission. STR, CPU, STReport, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STR, CPU, STReport, are trademarks of STReport and STR Publishing Inc. STR, CPU, STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible in any way for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""