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Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent Online Magazine" (Since 1987) July 25, 1997 No.1330 Silicon Times Report International Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor STR Publishing, Inc. Voice: 1-904-292-9222 10am-5pm EST FAX: 904-268-2237 24hrs STReport WebSite http://www.streport.com STR Publishing's FTP Support Server 10gb - Back Issues - Patches - Support Files (Continually Updated) ftp.streport.com Anonymous Login ok - Use your Email Address as a Password Check out STReport's NEWS SERVER NEWS.STREPORT.COM Have you tried Microsoft's Powerful and Easy to Use Internet Explorer 4.0? Internet Explorer 4.0 is STReport's Official Internet Web Browser. STReport is prepared and published Using MS Office 97, Corel Office Perfect 8 & Adobe Acrobat Pro 3 Featuring a Full Service Web Site http://www.streport.com Voted TOP TEN Ultimate WebSite Join STReport's Subscriber List receive STReport Via Email on The Internet Toad Hall BBS 1-617-567-8642 07/25/97 STR 1330 Celebrating Our Tenth Anniversary 1987-97! - CPU Industry Report - Adobe NewsWire - Ecstatica II Review - Alexander's Battles - STR Mailbag - UltraEdit 4.4 Detailed - Gaffe Kills `Net - Excite: Free Email? - Shareware Listings - JagFest Show Report - People Talking - Classics & Gaming Who Owns What's Inside Your Head? Rossetto Steps Down as Wired CEO New Mac OS: Hit or Hype? STReport International Magazine Featured Weekly "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports Adobe Acrobat Pro 3.0 Please obtain the latest issue from our Auto Subscription, Web Site or FTP Site. Enjoy the wonder and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to all computer types, worldwide, through the use of the Internet. All computer enthusiasts, hobbyist or commercial, on all platforms and BBS systems are invited to participate. IMPORTANT NOTICE STReport, with its policy of not accepting any input relative to content from paid advertisers, 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 Publisher, Staff & Editors Celebrating Our Tenth Year! 1987-1997 Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 07/19/97: four of six numbers with 4 three number matches From the Editor's Desk... Is time really flying or am I losing track of it all together? It seems like I was doing this yesterday when I was talking about the "El Cheapo" fan. we received quite abit of email relative to that item and we picked a few of them for you to read. Hope you enjoy it. By the way. in the event you were not aware, We do Promote the submission of GUEST EDITORIALS and ESSAYS. Send them to our Email address. As long as its informative and entertaining reading acceptable to all ages.. We go for it. Let's hear from you! Stay tuned.. BIG things are in the works. been busy all week on them and expect to be again next week. I'll tune y'all in as soon as things begin coming together. It's gonna be good. Of Special Note: http://www.streport.com ftp.streport.com STReport is now ready to offer much more in the way of serving the Networks, Online Services and Internet's vast, fast growing site list and userbase. We now have our very own WEB/FTP Site, do stop by and have a look see. Since We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addressees, we were compelled to put together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wished to receive STReport on a regular basis, the file is ZIPPED, then UUENCODED. Unfortunately, we've also received a number of opinions that the UUENCODING was a real pain to deal with. You'll be pleased to know you are able to download STReport directly from our very own FTP SERVER or WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR AutoMailer list which allows a choice of either ASCII or Acrobat PDF. STReport's managing editors DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Publisher, Editor Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors PC Section Mac Section Shareware Listings R.F. Mariano Help Wanted Lloyd E. Pulley Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael R. Burkley Joseph Mirando Victor Mariano Vincent P. O'Hara Glenwood Drake Contributing Correspondents Jason Sereno Jeremy Sereno Daniel Stidham David H. Mann Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Brian Boucher Leonard Worzala Please submit ALL letters, rebuttals, articles, reviews, etc., via E-Mail w/attachment to: Internet rmariano@streport.com STR FTP ftp.streport.com WebSite http://www.streport.com STReport Headline News LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Net Tax Ban Draws Complaints A Philadelphia city councilman has come to Congress to argue a bill banning the imposition of any new Internet taxes would infringe on the sovereignty of state and local governments. Brian O'Neill yesterday urged a House subcommittee to reject a bill that would impose a moratorium on new taxes on Internet business transactions. Associated Press writer Cassandra Burrell says O'Neill told the subcommittee that by the turn of the century, telecommunications could amount to one-sixth of the national economy, and businesses, which use public resources, should contribute to the cost of government through taxes. Added the councilman, who also is first vice president for the National League of Cities, "The preemption of state and local taxes on Internet transactions will have a profound effect on one of the largest and fastest growing parts of the nation's economy -- a change with serious consequences for all taxpayers." On the other side of the issue, supporters of the bill say taxes specifically targeted at Internet transactions could choke the growth and advancement of a medium that could deliver products and services faster, easier and cheaper than current ways of doing business. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), the bill's sponsor, told the subcommittee, "The Internet will not develop this extraordinary potential if it is shackled by government regulation and taxes. If everyone wants to cash in on it, we're going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg." As noted, this bill and a similar measure moving through the Senate aims to bar any new taxes on computer transactions -- such as taxes on Internet access or online services -- for an indefinite time while Congress conducts a two-year study of Internet taxes. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), sponsor of the Senate bill, notes current taxes of this type would remain in effect. Says Burrell, "If passed, the bill would not affect normal business income taxes, business license taxes and sales and use taxes as long as they are the same as those imposed on interstate catalog and mail order sales. Any income derived from Internet sales would continue to be subject to any applicable state or local tax." Under the House proposal - but not the Senate version - the government also would suspend the Federal Communications Commission's authority to regulate Internet access or online service prices. Virginia Library to Block Net Sites Over objections of its director, the Loudon County, Virginia, Library Board has voted to install software to block sexually explicit material from children who use the facility's computers. Reporting from Leesburg, Virginia, United Press International says the new restrictions specify that adults who want the screening software removed will need to request full access from a library employee. The wire service says the board voted 6-2 to accept the Internet policy after four hours of debate and having heard from about 40 people and the objection of Library Director Douglas Henderson, who said parents should have the right to decide what is appropriate for their children. Board member Richard Black said the debate was over whether the library was going to allow pornography into the library. "Under the new restrictions," says UPI, "children 16 and younger who want full access to cyberspace will have to have a parent or guardian with them." Symantic Amends Copyright Complaint Symantec Corp. has filed a motion to amend its original copyright infringement complaint against McAfee Associates Inc. after reportedly finding more of its code in additional McAfee products. Symantec says it recently discovered that McAfee copied its code in other products, including VirusScan and PC Medic 97. Cupertino, California-based Symantec notes that its findings have been confirmed by an independent third party. According to Symantec, the allegedly copied code includes sophisticated routines that are used extensively in many of its products. Symantec says the code enables it to develop applications quickly, shortening the time required to get its products to market. "Ultimately, customers are the losers in cases involving technology theft because they don't get the best products for their money. The most competitive offerings do not result from cloning, copying, or theft. They result from innovation," says Enrique Salem, Symantec's chief technology officer. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is set for August 29. Symantec is requesting a court order to stop the shipment of McAfee products with the infringing code, and to remove all the products that include it from the distribution channel. Rossetto Steps Down as Wired CEO Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired magazine, is resigning as CEO of its parent company but will remain its chairman and Wired's editor and publisher. He also will stay on as CEO until a replacement is found. Also, John Battelle, deputy editor and a founding staffer at Wired Venture's Wired Magazine, is resigning to pursue a publishing venture. Also, a news article posted at the Wired News site said Wired Ventures has hired the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to assist in the hunt. A Wired official told Carmen Fleetwood of the Dow Jones news service that Wired Ventures Ltd. has grown to the point where it's impossible for one person to do everything and that is why Rossetto decided to relinquish his post. Spokesman Don Markley told the wire service the company is on track to reach $50 million in revenue for the year and that online operations make up close to 30 percent of total revenue. That's up from the 10 percent reported by the media in October, when Wired Ventures canceled plans for an initial public offering for the second time in the same year. "Wired Ventures has recorded a profit from Wired magazine," DJ reports, "but it has lost money on its Internet publishing operations." Microsoft Buys Into Progressive Software giant Microsoft Corp. has bought a non-voting minority stake in Progressive Networks Inc., and says it will license Progressive's RealAudio and RealVideo Internet technologies for its products. Reporting from Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, the Dow Jones news service reports that under the agreement, Microsoft will license RealAudio and RealVideo technologies for incorporation in its NetShow streaming server software, which will become part of the Microsoft Site Server, its software for operating Internet sites. Look for Microsoft also to include Progressive Networks products in its Microsoft Internet Explorer for browsing the Internet, and the companies will push Microsoft's Active Streaming Format as an industry standard for streaming media. The RealAudio and RealVideo software allows continuous "streaming" sound and video to be sent and received over the World Wide Web. Progressive Networks says RealAudio and RealVideo are in regular use on some 10 million to 12 million personal computers. New Mac OS: Hit or Hype? While some industry observers are crying, "Hype!" Apple Computer Inc. contends the latest version of the Macintosh operating system -- to be released today -- is its most important software upgrade yet. Regardless of its historical significance, the release could, says business writer Catalina Ortiz of The Associated Press, "help Macintosh users keep the faith as Apple struggles to restore its battered bottom line and shrunken market share, Mac fans and analysts believe." Called Mac OS 8, this version contains several improvements, primarily greater stability and ability to handle more than one task at a time. Apple has had no choice but to revamp its aging operating software, says Ortiz, noting Apple has lost much of its market share as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95 operating software for rival PCs largely erased the Mac's traditional ease-of-use advantage. "Apple is renewing its software two different ways," she adds. "In addition to Mac OS 8 and future upgrades, the company is developing a more advanced program with technology from its acquisition of Next Software Inc. earlier this year. That operating system, known as Rhapsody, is due out next year." As noted earlier, analysts says the new OS was designed to work with -- and take advantage of -- the Power PC microprocessor and also simplifies Internet access. "The new software program also is less prone to crash than the current version," adds Ortiz. "In addition, it enhances the Macintosh's ability to carry out more than one task at a time." Excite Eyes Free E-Mail Service Teaming up with Whowhere Inc., a closely held company backed by the wealthy Rockefeller family, Excite Inc. says it is planning to offer free Web-based electronic mail. Details are undisclosed, by reporter Samuel Perry of the Reuter News Service reports from Redwood City, Calif., that the agreement will make Excite the first Internet search company to offer free e-mail. Several other companies specialize in offering computer users e-mail via the World Wide Web but do not provide Internet searches. Meanwhile, officials with Whowhere tell Perry the deal was the first of several expected in its e-mail offerings. "Excite's e-mail service will compete with privately held Hotmail Corp., which now says it has more than 5 million subscribers, along with Bigfoot and Rocketmail, a unit of Four11 Corp.," Reuters notes. "The service, which is advertising supported, will allow Web users to pick up e-mail over the Internet using a standard browser without being tied to a specific computer, officials said." Who where has a directory of 11 million personal e-mail addresses, 80 million U.S. residential phone numbers and addresses and 800,000 listings of personal pages on the Web. Perry says Whowhere is backed by $4 million in venture capital from Venrock, the Rockefeller family's venture capital arm, and is considering making an initial public offering. Digital Returns Intel Documents Capitulating to part of a lawsuit by Intel Corp., Digital Equipment Corp. has agreed to return secret documents to Intel about a powerful chip that company has in the works. Reporting from Santa Clara, California, Kourosh Karimkhany of the Reuter News Service says the documents outline Intel's technical and marketing plan for Merced, a next-generation microprocessor that Intel is expected to unveil in a few years. "Computer makers, including Digital, rely on information in such confidential Intel documents to plan new lines of personal computers," says Karimkhany. "A spokesman for Digital, which is based in Maynard, Massachusetts, said the company had not yet returned the Merced documents, but has decided it will return them." Spokesman Dan Kaferle told the wire service Digital had no plans to work with Intel on developing the Merced when Digital's own Alpha processor has been on the market for years, adding the documents "are more than a year old and were provided so Digital could provide critical feedback to Intel on their Merced design process. He said, "We have no need for this information and are not participating in developing Intel's much delayed 64-bit processor. Our 64-bit processor has been on the market for five years and we're not interested in helping them design the chip, so the information is irrelevant to us." The fight over the documents arose after Digital sued Intel in May, alleging the chip maker stole key semiconductor secrets from it and had infringed on a handful of Digital semiconductor patents. Intel retaliated by suing to force Digital to give back all sensitive documents Intel had shared with Digital. Gaffe Leads to Major Net Outage A gaffe yesterday by Network Solutions Inc., the government-appointed firm that registers online addresses, resulted in one of the worst outages in Internet history. Many couldn't retrieve Web pages, for others, e-mail would not go through. The problem, writes reporter Jared Sandberg in The Wall Street Journal this morning, was caused by human error when a Network Solutions employee accidentally sent out incorrect address files that Internet computers world-wide rely on to route e-mail and to connect users to Web sites. "Though the Herndon, Va., company later realized the error and sent out correct address files," Sandberg reports, "copies of the mistaken files were still circulating through the Internet hours later." President Doug Luce of Internet service provider Telerama Internet, which hosts 300 Web sites that were largely inaccessible for hours starting early yesterday morning, said the error caused a "considerable amount of distress for several customers." One Internet security expert described it this way for the paper: "Imagine if all the phone books disappeared and directory assistance didn't work. It's a very serious problem." Meanwhile, Steven Bellovin, a researcher at AT&T Corp.'s laboratories, said, "The real lesson here is there is an inherent fragility in certain parts of the Net. There are very few things in the Net that are centralized and that's one of them." Bellovin said he would have heard about the problem much sooner in the day but e-mail alerting him took seven hours to reach him. A Network Solutions spokeswoman told the paper, the problem originated about 2:30 a.m. EDT when a database program that routinely updates "router" computers spit out incorrect information. Though alarms went off alerting Network Solutions to the incorrect information," the Journal adds, "an employee sent out the faulty 'zone files' to seven of the nine major routers on the Internet." Sweet Music for Hackers A little-known audio-compression technique, called MPEG-2 Audio Layer-3 (MP3), has opened the door for college students and hackers to distribute pirated, CD-quality music over the Internet. According to a report published in the trade publication EE Times, the problem is so rampant that hundreds of MP3 Web sites have sprung up on Internet, illegally distributing free of charge all kinds of digital music -- everything from Mozart to Marilyn Manson. To combat the pirates, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is pressing for civil actions that seek temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions against the three top Internet MP3 sites. EE Times notes that the intense activity seems to be paying off in the short term; a number of sites have shut down, ostensibly out of fear of becoming the RIAA's next litigation target. "The educational steps we were taking with universities and the people posting these sites was only doing so much," Frank Creighton, head of the RIAA's anti-piracy unit, told EE Times. "Even the cease-and-desist letters we were sending were sending were only so effective. So we had to go to litigation. We needed to send a stronger message to say, 'We mean business.'" Meanwhile the pirates continue to press on. "Most of the MP3 sites illegally distributing music are run by college students who live in dorms on campus," Cris Henderson, a software-engineering student at the University of Washington who runs a Web site called MP3.Net, told EE Times. Henderson's site, which has no MP3 files of its own, offers pointers to the top 100 sites that do, notes the publication. "Since most colleges offer free, high-speed Internet connections, it's relatively easy for a student to set up a server on a computer and distribute pirated music. Furthermore, if each college in the United States has just two or three students running the a server from their computer, it's clear that there are possibly 1,000 or more of these sites offering music for download," Henderson said. Similar sites outside the U.S. may add thousands more to that figure, adds EE Times. Despite the piracy troubles, the music industry still continues to look to the MP3 standard as a new way to sell CD-quality music to consumers. A new consortium, the MP3 Audio Consortium, is seeking to establish the compression scheme as the predominant format for music exchange and related commerce over the Internet. EE Times' report on digital music piracy is available on the Web at http://techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/97/964news/pirates.html . NSF Funds Rural Net Connections The National Science Foundation says it will pay to connect universities in 18 rural states to government's "Next Generation Internet." It is a bid to head off a political fuss over rural links to cyberspace. NSF Director Neal Lane says in a letter to Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont) that the science agency will augment grants to rural states under its existing Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as EPSCoR. The Reuter News Service quotes Lane as writing, "Rural institutions should not be unfairly penalized by disproportionately high connection costs to high performance networks. To ameliorate this problem, the National Science Foundation will augment some grants for high performance connections to help defray the high costs of links for rural institutions." As reported earlier, the Net project has been criticized by senators who said the NSF planned to send most of the new Internet project's money to schools in a few big states like California and Massachusetts. Reuters reporter Aaron Pressman notes the agency already gives qualified schools $350,000 to connect to the fastest portion of the Internet, called the Backbone Network Service, which will form the core of the Next Generation Internet. Lane says schools in the rural states now will be eligible for an additional $200,000 each. Sen. Burns, who organized a hearing to air the concerns of rural states about the net project, seems pleased. "These grants," he said, "should provide a great opportunity to level the playing field and include rural states in all aspects of future Internet development." Announced with great fanfare by President Clinton during last year's campaign, the Next Generation Internet project aims to send data at up to 1,000 times the speed of today's net. Higher speed and improved reliability could spur a host of new uses for the network, some with live sound and video feeds. "Over the past several months," writes Pressman, "the NSF has taken great pains to brief lawmakers on the Clinton administration's vision for the Next Generation project. In addition to the critical June hearing in the Senate, the House of Representatives in April passed a budget for the NSF that prohibited any spending on the Internet project. But after the agency reached out to legislators and clarified the project's goals, the House reversed course." Released this month, a House Appropriations Committee report on NSF funding included $23 million for the Internet project, a $13 million increase from the amount requested, saying, "The Committee action is in recognition of recent changes in this multi-agency effort." Camera Users Want Better Pix A new study finds that more than 90 percent of digital cameras users are satisfied, but would like to see better image quality on prints made from digitally captured images. The study, conducted by CAP Ventures Inc., notes that over 30 percent of users feel that digital cameras will never completely replace the use of traditional film cameras. The report also finds that non-users are very aware of digital cameras, but their purchase intentions are dependent upon having a home computer. According to the study, computer owners are more than twice as likely to buy a digital camera than non-owners. But the interest in digital cameras among non-computer owners increases with the possibility they could drop off "digital film" cartridges at a film processor. "In the near term, the business and heavy-user home computer markets are the best opportunities for digital camera manufacturers," says Allen Ruster, an analyst with the Norwell, Massachusetts, company. "However, in the future, many of today's traditional film camera owners will likely have a digital camera as well." New Mac OS Gives Apple New Lease on Life. (Too Bad It's a Short One) Apple starts selling its operating system upgrade this weekend. Biggest overhaul in six years, but don't get your hopes up. The upgrade is, however, a major improvement, but it is not enough to pull Apple out of its death spiral. FCC issues key order preempting curbs on TV dishes In a precedent-setting ruling, U.S. regulators Tuesday said federal rules bar a small Kansas town from slapping restrictions on where consumers can install satellite-television dishes. It is the first time the Federal Communications Commission has preempted a local ordinance under new rules that prevent localities from placing curbs on the placement of small dishes as well as antennas for receiving wireless cable-TV. The ruling signals the agency will not let local officials around the nation impose unreasonable site restrictions. A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N LEXMARK OPTRA C COLOR LASER PRINTER For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range. It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a sample that's suitable for framing, see below) Guaranteed. you will be amazed at the superb quality. (Please.. allow at least a two week turn- around). If you would like a sample printout that's suitable for framing. Yes that's right! Suitable for Framing. Order this package. It'll be on special stock and be of superb quality. We obtained a mint copy of a 1927 COLOR ENGRAVER'S YEAR BOOK. Our Scanner is doing "double duty"! The results will absolutely blow you away. If you want this high quality sample package please include a check or money order in the amount of $6.95 (Costs only) Please, make checks or money orders payable to; Ralph Mariano. Be sure to include your full return address and telephone number . The sample will be sent to you protected, not folded in a 9x12 envelope. Don't hesitate.. you will not be disappointed. This "stuff" is gorgeous! A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N Adobe Systems Makes it Easy for QuarkXPress Users to Switch to Adobe PageMaker Free CD-ROM, Technical Support and Competitive Upgrade Pricing Provide Seamless Transition Adobe Systems Incorporated introduced a program to help users of QuarkXPress(R) and other desktop publishing products switch to Adobe(R) PageMaker(R), the world's leading professional page layout software. The new "It's Time to Try Adobe PageMaker" promotion removes the major impediments to switching layout programs by offering discount pricing for users of competitive products, free technical support, and a free CD- ROM that includes a wealth of product and technical information as well as a new QuarkXPress document converter and tryout versions of PageMaker 6.5 for Macintosh(R) and Windows(R). "With on-line publishing capabilities, integration with other Adobe products, and breakthrough layout features, PageMaker 6.5 helps make customers more productive than other layout software," said Carolyn Baillie, PageMaker product marketing manager. "Users of QuarkXPress recognize this and have asked Adobe to help them switch to PageMaker without having to start from scratch. The "It's Time to Try Adobe PageMaker" program answers this call." "It's Time to Try Adobe PageMaker" CD-ROM The cornerstone of the program is a free CD-ROM that guides users through the process of switching products. The CD has four easy-to-navigate sections. For customers in the evaluation stage, the "Why PageMaker?" section includes PageMaker 6.5 tryout software, feature information, step-by-step tutorials, movie overviews, tips and techniques, a design gallery and press endorsements. The "How do I Start?" section helps QuarkXPress users convert existing documents into PageMaker publications and includes a comparison of work environments, shortcut equivalents and a reference guide to help QuarkXPress users learn PageMaker. "Who Can Help?" offers information on training, Adobe- authorized service providers, customer and technical support, PageMaker plug-ins and the Adobe Developers Association. For customers ready to make the switch, "Now I'm Ready!" includes pricing and worldwide dealer information. "PageMaker 6.5 is a great one-stop solution for customers who need to publish in print and on-line," said Jennifer Babik, vice president of Lancaster, Penn.-based Cyber Solutions, an international computer graphic arts training company. "With the new "It's Time to Try Adobe PageMaker" Program, there's never been an easier way for QuarkXPress users to check out the great new features in Adobe PageMaker." QuarkXPress Converter* 3.0 The QuarkXPress Converter* software ensures that users can maintain their investment in QuarkXPress documents as they move to PageMaker. Version 3.0 of the converter, an update to version 2.01 that shipped on the PageMaker 6.5 CD-ROM, lets users quickly convert documents created in Macintosh or Windows versions of QuarkXPress into Macintosh or Windows versions of PageMaker 6.5. The utility supports single or batch documents created in QuarkXPress version 3.1 or later. Extended Technical Support To help users make a seamless transition to PageMaker, Adobe will offer 90 days of free PageMaker technical support to owners of QuarkXPress or Corel Ventura(tm) who purchase the competitive upgrade to PageMaker. Pricing and Availability Customers can receive the free "It's Time to Try Adobe PageMaker" CD- ROM by calling Adobe Systems at 1- 800-422-3623. Owners of QuarkXPress or Corel Ventura can purchase the Adobe PageMaker 6.5 competitive upgrade for $199 (U.S.) by calling 1-800-422-3623. This offer is valid only in the United States and Canada. Customers in other countries should contact their local Adobe representative for details. About Adobe Systems Inc. Based in San Jose, California, Adobe Systems Incorporated develops and supports products to help people express and use information in more imaginative and meaningful ways, across all print and electronic media. Founded in 1982, Adobe helped launch the desktop publishing revolution. Today, the company offers a market-leading line of application software and type products for creating and distributing visually rich communication materials; licenses its industry-standard technologies to major hardware manufacturers, software developers and service providers; and offers integrated software solutions to businesses of all sizes. For more information, see Adobe's home page at http://www.adobe.com on the World Wide Web. Adobe, the Adobe logo, and PageMaker are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Windows is either a trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. QuarkXPress is a registered trademark of Quark, Inc. *The QuarkXPress Converter for PageMaker was developed independently and is not sponsored, endorsed, or in any way affiliated with Quark, Inc. Ventura is a trademark of Corel Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Shareware Treasure Chest STR Feature "The Latest & Greatest" Shareware Treasure Chest By Lloyd E. Pulley lepulley@streport.com ------------ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Netscape Netcaster 32-bit 1.0 beta 3 7/18/97 .62mb Free Netscape Netcaster, the newest component of Netscape Communicator, enables push delivery of information and offline browsing. Netcaster seamlessly integrates with Channel Finder, the source for the best channels on the Internet. Users can subscribe to the information they want and have it delivered automatically. Offline browsing allows users to take the valuable resources of the Web offline with them - wherever they go. Developed entirely using the open Internet standards of HTML, Java, and JavaScript, Netscape Netcaster is an example of the powerful applications that can be built on the Netscape ONE platform. Home Page Site - http://www.netscape.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Netscape Communicator Version 4.01a 7/17/97 13,000kb Freeware An open email, groupware, and browser suite that provides the complete set of tools you need every day to easily communicate, share, and access information on your intranet or the Internet. It integrates open email, groupware, editing, and browsing tools into one powerful yet easy-to-use application. Communicate using Netscape Messenger and Netscape Navigator. Create documents using Netscape Composer. Collaborate using Netscape Collabra and Netscape Conference. Home Page Site - http://www.netscape.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Real Player Version 4.01 7/17/97 1,100kb Freeware From the makers of Real Audio comes Real Video, the only player you need to get all the great RealAudio and the new RealVideo content on the web, all without download delays. Stereo audio at 28.8, near-CD quality at higher bitrates, AM-quality audio at 14.4, Newscast-quality video at 28.8 and full-motion at higher bitrates. Home Page Site - http://www.real.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PolyView Version 2.10 Beta 7/18/97 825kb Shareware $20.00 32-bit graphics viewing program, supports GIF, JPEG, and TIFF. Thumbnail pictures of your images from File:Explore. Home Page Site - http://www.polybytes.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price SpellAll Spell Checker Version 1.1 7/16/97 1,240kb Shareware $24.00 Appears as a small icon, the "spelling bee", in the Windows tool tray. Just drag the bee over any window you want to check and SpellAll goes to work, comparing every word to its 91,000+ word dictionary and alerting you to any words it doesn't know, offering a list of suggested replacement words. You can even choose to ignore numbers, words with numbers in them, single character words, allow plurals, ignore email addresses and ignore Web URL's!! SpellAll can check any edit or Rich Edit window, which means that just about anywhere you can type, SpellAll can check your work! Home Page Site - http://www.leesoftware.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Icon Drive II Version 1.0 7/17/97 215kb Shareware $12.00 An Icon Extraction Program with a twist. It will create a Directory of Icons. So you can have your very own library of Icons. You can extract whole directory trees of Applications or DLL's, by selecting the source Directory where you wish to start. Icon Drive will go through all the Applications and DLL's in that directory and all its sub directories. As you can image there could be a lot of icons and most of them the same. So Icon Drive will compare all icons with icons already in the destination and that way you only have originals. Home Page Site - http://www.genesoft.demon.co.uk/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Dipstick Version 2.00 7/16/97 691kb Freeware This application helps you in your quest for the fastest mirror whenever you're presented a list of them and of course you're unsure about which one to go to. Simply drag them to dipstick's window and it will tell you the best place to go from where you are at the time you're trying to get in there. Home Page Site - http://www.klever.net/kin/dipstick.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price MIcrosoft Internet Explorer Version 4.0 Preview 2 7/15/97 400kb Freeware This is the Active Setup program to install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. Once the active setup program is installed, you can choose from Minimal (14 MB), Standard (15 MB), or Full (22 MB) installation, depending on which add-on components you wish to include with your download. This is a preview release and because this software is still in development, some of the functionality is incomplete at this time. It is intended for expert users only. Home Page Site - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price HyperSnap-DX 32-bit 3.05 7/18/97 .44mb Shareware $20 HyperSnap brings professional quality, convenient Windows 95 and NT screen captures to your fingertips. It was designed for ease of use, with powerful and useful features to aid the professional as well as support the needs of the occasional user. Now features DirectX game screen capture technology. Home Page Site - http://www.hyperionics.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Zipcat Pro Version 2.0v12 7/12/97 4,200kb Shareware $25.00 ZipCat Pro is a 32-bit application for Windows 95/NT4 with the look and feel of the Office 97 suite, which catalogs fixed and removable media. It remembers your "disks" so that you can recatalog them with only one button! Browse your disks offline visually (like Explorer,) or perform queries with a powerful search tool modeled after, but superior to, the Windows 95 Find tool. Export your volumes for printing, Email, or importing into other databases. You can add descriptions to just about everything, and delete individual items too. ZipCat Pro works with CDs, floppies, removables (ZIP, Syquest, etc.,) network shares, and more. It can also handle FAT, FAT2, FAT- 32, NTFS, ISO-9660, Microsoft Romeo and Joliet formats and more. Home Page Site - http://www3.blackboard.com/m2s/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Paint Shop Pro 32-bit Version 4.12 7/15/97 2,983kb Shareware $69.00 The complete windows graphics program for image creation, viewing, and manipulation. Features include painting with 8 brushes, photo retouching, image enhancement and editing, color enhancement, image browser, batch conversion, and scanner support. Included are 20 standard filters and 12 deformations. Supports plug-in filters. Over 34 file formats. Home Page Site - http://www.jasc.com/psp.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price A.G.F. Version 1.0 7/18/97 1,966kb Freeware Asteroids like Arcade Game with multiplayer-support and level-editor. DirectX Home Page Site - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1067/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price System Utilities Version 1.1 7/17/97 2,050kb Shareware An enhanced system maintenance utility that allows you to edit as many files at once, efficiently and easily. It includes, customization support so you decide which system files you want to edit. You also get to choose what the font and color should be. The #1 feature about this application is the backup feature. It automatically backups to the App directory! System Monitor 1.1 is a utility that monitors your system. It has more than 48 things to monitor! You have the option to let it sit in your system tray, also. The #1 feature about this application is it's status bar. It notifies you if your configuration has changed, if you're low on battery, a new device is available, if a device has been removed, system settings have changed, the display has changed and if the monitor has changed. If System Monitor is in the system tray then it will notify you by changing the icon to an exclamation point. Home Page Site - http://www.usaretail.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price MediaBlaze SE Version 5.0a 7/19/97 2,400kb Shareware Screening many types of files for multimedia projects can be a real pain- -you're constantly switching applications just to check out your inventory of audio, graphic, and video clips. Our hero of the day, MediaBlaze SE, can handle just about all of your multimedia file formats, and display other MCI components as well. MPEG, VideoDisc, and PhotoCD are supported, and you can also play audio CDs. This application's tabbed interface makes it easy to select which media file to view or play. Image files can be viewed in thumbnail or "stretched" format, and sound and video files play at the touch of a button; a moving bar displays playback progress. Right-mouse menus offer viewing or playing options, as well as delete, copy, or move file commands. Also included is a timer--just in case you forget to take a break. Supports: JPG, GIF, BMP, RLE, WMF, EMF, CUR, ICO, AVI, QT, MOV, MPEG, DAT, WAV, MID, RMI, CD and other MCI Devices. Includes Interval Based Reminder and Windows 95 Logo Changer. Home Page Site - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3862/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Cookie Web Kit 7/19/97 .01mb Free The Cookie Web kit automates the deletion of your cookie files everytime you boot up your computer or click on a certain icon. It works by the use of a simple bat file, and can also be configured to delete cache and history files. This software is compatible with all versions of Netscape, and Internet Explorer (Windows95). Includes comprehensive setup file. Home Page Site - http://www.cookiecentral.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Go!Zilla 32-bit 2.11a 7/19/97 .61mb Shareware $15 Go!Zilla is an internet file management and retrieval system. Gather URL links to files that you want to download by simply Dragging them from your favorite internet browser. Instantly see file sizes, estimated download times and network connection performance. You can even add as many different locations for a single file as you can find or let Go!Zilla do the work by quickly searching FTP archives. Then when Go!Zilla retrieves the file for you, it checks all available locations and delivers the fastest possible connection. Go!Zilla will even resume a failed download from both FTP and HTTP web sites. Downloads can be started at any time, or scheduled for later when network traffic dies down. Home Page Site - http://www.gizmo.net/gozilla/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price ChemLab Version 1.1d 7/15/97 1.0mb Shareware A real-time 2-D simulation of a chemistry lab in which the user interacts with animated lab equipment, similar to lab work. Each lab simulation is contained in a separate simulation module, thus many different labs are possible using the common lab interface. ChemLab allows users to quickly run-through chemistry labs, in a fraction of the time of an actual lab, while emphasizing the critical principles and techniques of experimental chemistry. It is ideal for lab run-throughs, demonstrations, pre-lab work, dangerous labs and labs which cannot be performed due to time limitations. Home Page Site - http://www.hookup.net/~josephc/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Plastic Thought Quick3D 32-bit beta plug-in 7/20/97 .02mb Free Requires QuickDraw 3d 1.5.1 to be installed. Plastic Thought's Quick3D Netscape plugin puts 3D in the browser. The 3D model can be rotated, turned to a specific view, scaled and zoomed online. It works in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Product viewing is ideal with Quick3D, as it can rotate the model automatically on screen. If the user would like a specific view or zoom into a detail the controls allow this. Quick3D is used to view 3DMF models online. QuickDraw3D's 3DMF file format is a compact and efficient method of storing 3D models with textures and camera information. New models can be made with popular 3D packages, ready to use 3D clip art can also purchased. Home Page Site - http://www.plasticthought.com/Quick3D_about.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Hard Disk Sleeper Version 1.43 7/18/97 68kb Shareware $20.00 With HDSleep you can control the Power Management of your IDE- and EIDE harddisk drives even if your Computer-BIOS does not support it. You are able to define suspend times for all drives or apply independent settings to each of your drives. With the small taskbar icon and its context menus, you will control the power management just with a mouse-click. Home Page Site - http://www.mwso.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price The Space Is Special Foundation Trivia Game! Version 1.0 7/12/97 1,600kb Shareware $10.00 An excellent program for learning, or studying about space. It has excellent graphics, a great midi soundtrack (You can change the music at any time!), random sound effects, and over 120 questions. When you complete the program, you can put your name on the high score table, or even print your own customizable certificate complete with your score and percentage. If you like this program, please register it. 100% of the profits will go to the Space Is Special Foundation, and will go towards sending special education students to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama in the future. This program was actually written by one of the students. Home Page Site - http://www.geocities.com/~space_special/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Mcafee Viruscan for Win95 3.10 7/23/97 4.90mb Shareware An excellant virus scanner that scans all system areas to provide extensive security including local and network drives, CD-ROMS, floppies, boot sectors, file allocation and partition tables, folders, files and compressed files. It also accurately cleans most virus infections from files, master boot sectors, partition tables and memory back to their virus- free state. Name/Version Release Date Size Price McAfee Virus Scan Monthly Update Version July Update 7/14/97 1,060kb Freeware This is the July update for Mcafee VirusScan version 3.0. Note: This will not work with earlier versions of VirusScan. Home Page Site - http://www.mcafee.com/down/dat.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Pagoo 32-bit 1.0 Official Release 7/21/97 .56mb Free Pagoo is a new revolutionary way to communicate between you and your friends. Pagoo is a FREE unique service that delivers phone calls to user's desktop while they are on-line. Is it always impossible for your friends to contact you because your phone line is always busy? You are browsing the web too much! Now, they can call the pagoo center (1-805-685-9056) using any phone and leave a message that you will receive directly on your desktop a few seconds later. They can leave you a voice mail or a numeric message just like a pager. Home Page Site - http://www.pagoo.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Panda Antivirus Professional Version 5.0 7/10/97 2,735kb Shareware Special 32 bit version for Windows 95, that includes Panda Anti-Virus Professional 4.0 For DOS/Windows 3.x. In addition to the general features of all the Panda Anti-Virus family, it has the following specific features: VIRTUAL VxD DRIVER . This virtual driver keeps you constantly protected by supervising all files that the system handles, be it from Windows itself, from virtual DOS Windows, or files entered via the network, diskette drives, a BBS or via modem from the Internet. NCSA Certified. Identifies and eliminates more than 13,000 viruses. Detects known and unknown viruses. Scans compressed files. Eliminates viruses from files, boot sectors and the partition table. Very fast and reliable detection system. Investigation and heuristic method for detecting unknown viruses. External and internal vaccines. Constantly being updated for new viruses. Home Page Site - http://www.pandasoftware.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinImage 32-bit beta 3.07.3046 7/21/97 .25mb Shareware $30 WinImage is a powerful disk utility that enables users to make disk image from floppy, extract file from image, make an empty image, put the image on blank disk. WinImage also supports many different standard and non-standard formats, including Microsoft new DMF format. Home Page Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/winimage.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Quick Cab Pro Version 6.0 7/15/97 1,330kb Shareware $50.00 Features zip level compression, with faster speeds. You can make either a .cab or a .exe EASILY!You can also use Quick Cab Pro to create a setup.exe which uses SETUP API to provide a tiny redistributable package. Quick Cab also incorporates 448bit file encryption (unrestricted by US law unlike most other encryption utilities.) Excellent online help, support, and many features make it a must for all computer users. Home Page Site - http://www.cripton.com/qcpro/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Excite PAL 32-bit 1.0.51 7/21/97 .54mb Free Excite PAL is a confidential messaging service between you and your network of friends. You will be able to tell when family, friends and colleagues are online, plus you can send and receive messages instantaneously to anyone logged in to Excite PAL. Home Page Site - http://pal.excite.com/go.webx?98@@pal/index.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinTAR-Remote Version 2.2.1 7/13/97 720kb Shareware $40.00 A TAR program for Windows 95 and NT. It supports backup on floppy diskette, on TAR files, and over TCP/IP to a remote tape drive on a Unix workstation. For SCSI tape drives support on a PC, WinTAR-SCSI is the solution for you. Home Page Site - http://www.spiralcomm.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Mini Notetab 32-bit 2.63b 7/21/97 .44mb Freeware Mini Notepad is not just another Windows Notepad replacement! It is a feature-rich program with a selection of original productivity tools that you will find in no other editor. Mini Notepad has been designed to use a minimum amount of Windows system resources so you can safely keep the editor open all the time. The program is capable of opening a very large number of files (the actual limit is determined by the amount of free system resources). Each document is displayed on a tabbed page making it easy to switch between them. A separate window, called the Document Selector, makes it easy to find a specific document when a large number of them are open. Home Page Site - http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/mininote.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Virtual Book Version 2.00 7/17/97 2.0mb Shareware $10.00 An electronic book program which can be used with text, RTF (Rich Text Format) files and markup (HTML) files. It is handy if you'd like to take a book or two with you , but don't wish to carry your library with you. Another nice use of it is for bed-time reading where others want the light off. With it you can page through a book, place a bookmark, easily create and use the index, keep notes on the book, put books on your virtual book shelf (the shareware limit is 3)... all graphically and intuitively. Home Page Site - http://pdxnet.com/~ayecor/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price UltraEdit 32-bit 4.40 7/21/97 .89mb Shareware $30 A really good text editor with almost every feature you could want. Some of it's many features include: Disk based text editing - No limit on file size, minimum RAM used even for multi-megabyte files, Column mode editing!!!, Insert columns/ delete/ cut/ add sequential numbers, 100,000 word spell checker, Syntax highlighting - configurable, pre-configured for C/C++ and VB and some HTML, Hexadecimal Editor - Allows editing of any binary file, HEX Cut, Copy and Paste support , HEX Insert and Delete of characters, HEX Find, Replace and Replace All, Multiple files open and displayed at the same time, and more. Home Page Site - http://www.idmcomp.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Video Tape Cataloge Version 1.0 7/27/97 758kb Freeware If you've reached that situation where you don't know what you've got on your video cassettes, why not download a free copy of Video Tape Catalogue. It does exactly what it says - and anyone can use it with ease! Home Page Site - http://www.pyramid.simplenet.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price The Journal Version 1.42.00 7/17/97 5,500kb Shareware $25.00 If you want to keep a journal, The Journal is what you are looking for! The Journal is specifically designed to help you organize your thoughts and ideas, whether for business or personal use. The Journal is very flexible, allowing many options in creating the perfect Personal Journal for you, while maintaining an unrivaled ease-of-use. The Journal sports powerful word processing capabilities (including a spell checker and a thesaurus) and full OLE container support. The Journal allows you to create multiple entry categories such as "Daily Journal", "Programming Notes", "Project Notes"--completely user defineable! Home Page Site - http://www.busprod.com/davidrm/software/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Thumbs Plus 32-bit 3.0g1 7/22/97 3.00mb Shareware $65 ThumbsPlus is a graphic file viewer, locator and organizer which simplifies the process of finding and maintaining graphics, clip-art files, fonts and animations. It displays a small image (thumbnail) of each file. You can use ThumbsPlus to browse, view, edit, crop, launch external editors, and copy images to the clipboard. You can use drag-and-drop to organize graphics files by moving them to appropriate directories. ThumbsPlus will also create a slide show from selected graphics, and install bitmap files as Windows wallpaper. You can print individual graphics files, or the thumbnails themselves as a catalog. ThumbsPlus can convert to several formats, either one at a time or in batch mode. You can also perform image editing in batch mode. ThumbsPlus will also convert metafile graphics to bitmaps (rasterize). One important new feature in 3.0g is the ablity to generate Web pages of thumbnails. Home Page Site - http://www.cerious.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WebTurbo 32-bit 1.01 7/22/97 1.60mb Free WebTurbo streamlines searching and surfing by combining two great features--a Web Previewer and a powerful Search Tool. The Web Previewer uses its "hypersketch" outline technology to create previews or summaries of Web pages, letting you rapidly see the contents and links of a page in an intuitive outline format without having to download the page itself. These previews are not just hyperlink lists, or the first 100 characters on the page, but meaningful summaries of the page. The search tool allows you to query all of the popular search engines at once using WebTurbo's "smart queries" to bring back better results in an organized, clear fashion. Home Page Site - http://www.webturbo.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price DSpace Version 0.5 7/20/97 759kb Freeware A very handy utility that displays information about any directory on any disk. Using an interface similar to Windows Explorer, it tells you how much space is taken up (both by filesize, and true allocation) under any directory, including all nested subdirectories. It is very fast at scanning the disk, and has an extremely fast and powerful delete feature, useful for getting rid of those disk space hogs. This is currently a beta release, but it functions as expected. Home Page Site - http://www.ktb.net/~daniel/dspace/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Sand Warriors 7/22/97 17.00mb Commercial Demo Blending Ancient Egyptian iconography and futuristic hyper-technology with the fastest SVGA graphics engine ever, Sand Warriors from Gremlin Interactive is the arcade 3D flight-sim for PC owners this summer. Two warring nations are locked in genocidal war on the dying planet of Tawy. The prize is the right to discover the Orion technology need to colonize the mysterious desert planet. Home Page Site - http://www.interplay.com/games/sandwar.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Cookie Cutter PC 32-bit 2.0 7/23/97 1.30mb Shareware Each time you go to a web site using your browser, you may be having information about your preferences placed on your hard drive. Or... each time you go to a web site your preferences may be being read by others. This information is stored in "cookies", and your best line of defense against any cookie (you know it's coming) is a good Cookie Cutter. The shareware version will cut your cookies 50 times, by which point you may have decided whether or not to register it. Home Page Site - http://www.pdxnet.com/~ayecor/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PrintKey Version 1.2 7/21/97 123kb Freeware Adds a real Printscreen to any PC runing Win95 or NT4.0 just press the Printscreen key on your keyboard and you can print the Desktop or active window the output can also be modified like enlarged, centered, monochrom, landscape and more. Get it and you will love it. Home Page Site - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/3053/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Tanarus 32-bit beta .91 7/24/97 10.00mb Free Tired of playing against your computer? Then prepare yourself for the ultimate online challenge in Sony Interactive Studio America's Tanarus, a futuristic multi-player action/strategy tank game in which all the competition are other players just like yourself. Oh and Tanarus has 3dfx support so if you have a Monster 3d, Flash 3d,etc you are in for a treat. Home Page Site - http://armorgeddon.station.sony.com Name/Version Release Date Size Price Net2Phone 16-bit 8.23 Official Release 7/24/97 1.30mb Free program/service costs $$$ Net2Phone is a new technology which makes it possible to place domestic and international calls from a personal computer to any telephone in the world. Net2Phone enables Internet users with sound-equipped PCs to initiate calls from their computers and transmit them over the Internet to IDT's phone switches. The switches then convert the signal from the "packet switch network" Internet environment to the "circuit switch network" telephone environment. And then to its' final destination - any ordinary telephone. The result is real-time uninterrupted voice communication between the two calling parties." Look out AT&T :) Home Page Site - http://www.net2phone.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Password Tracker 32-bit 3.01 7/24/97 .84mb Shareware $10 Password Tracker Deluxe version 3.0 now has "Autoscan", the ability to continuously monitor your system to insert usernames and passwords automatically, without any user action! This latest release retains the simple and easy-to-use interface of previous versions, but has added powerful features like autoscan, auto program launch, and random password generation! Password Tracker Deluxe allows you to safely and securely store and organize your passwords, usernames, and associated notes. An unlimited number of users can each store individually password-protected lists. Home Page Site - http://www.xnet.com/~robertc/PassTrak.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinWeather 32-bit 3.0 7/24/97 .71mb Shareware $19.95 WinWeather 3.0 is The Best Way to Get Weather on the Net. It brings hourly weather reports and forecasts, satellite images, live WeatherCams, ski reports, earthquake reports, hurricane advisories, and much more to your PC through the Internet. Version 3.0 offers many great new features including desk tray and dial up connection support, no screen real-estate Weather Ticker, and more. Home Page Site - http://www.igsnet.com/ STR Editor's Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard" Editor's MailBag Messages * NOT EDITED * for content In reply to our editorial about the "El Cheapo Cooling Fans" .. To: rmariano@streport.comFrom: Mike Mannweiler <mikemann@mindspring.com> Subject: CPU Fan Hi Ralph,To my knowledge, the best CPU fans come from a place in California called PC Power and Cooling. You can reach them at 619-931-5700 (sorry I don't have an 800 number for them-they usually have an ad in PC Magazine). They are also known for their good power supplies. The same thing happened to me last year with a cheap fan. I replaced it with one of these and it's been working great every since. You may have to look at the fastening wire/spring a minute before you "get" the way it's supposed to fit. Just make sure your CPU is in a "socket 7" and be sure to apply a thin coating of the thermal transfer "grease" that comes with the fan. I'm not sure how the "grease" would affect a warrantee if it turns out the CPU needs replacing. I believe a Pentium fan costs a little under $25.00. By the way, I've been downloading the STReport for a few months and really enjoy it. I don't read it all, but I always read and enjoy the news and the shareware reviews. Good luck and feel free to email with questions. Mike Mannweiler mikemann@mindspring.com In reply to: Mike.. Thank you for the great info about PC Power and Cooling. I will follow up with our impressions of the fans. and their other high reliability and performance products as soon as possible. Ralph. To: rmariano@streport.comFrom: John Crea <johncrea@interoz.com>Subject: CPU FANS, etc. Ralph, Check out the cooling fans from PC Power & Cooling. Industrial strength, with ball bearings. Pricey compared to the cheap ones, but a really great product. Runs around $25 for the Intel MMX Pentium. Also, while I have your "ear", I have tried to get the Adobe Acrobat 3.01 update from both your website as well as the ftp site. Have downloaded it at least 3 time successfully, and in all three cases, the file was glitched. On clicking it, it displayed garbage for text, and if you go ahead and click install, it comes up with the message that it is password protected. You may want to check the file on your hard drive. John In reply to: John. Thank you too for your sincere interest and recommendations you can believe we shall be writing about PC Power and Cooling very soon. About your problems with Acrobat 3.01 unzipping itself. it is an .exe file and should auto-run and install itself as soon as you click on the exe. We're using it here with great success and soon. very soon now STReport will go a step further and offer even better visual enhancements. Ralph.. From: "Stan Sieger" <sieger@hotmail.com>To: rmariano@streport.comSubject: failed fan fries files? Sorry to read about your CPU fan problems. Of course, nobody wants something like that to happen to *them*! I am relieved to read that no harm actually came to the computer or your files because of this incident. A little psychological grief? No biggie. However, let's be reasonable about our expectations. Is CPU fan failure a common problem? Based on the variety of replacement fans sold by my local electronics superstore...YES! But, has this ever happened before to you or anyone you know? Probably not, or the computer magazines would be full of articles on the subject and full page 4-color ads for replacement fans. No mechanical device can be made to operate without EVER failing. If you are the Pentagon spending unlimited tax dollars then you can afford to design and build a fan that has a very low chance of failing and/or replace the fan on a regular basis before it reaches its expected lifetime. Intel could do something similar by buying $100 fans with very low failure rates, but then *you'd* be the one to pay the extra $94. The best thing for them to do is install cheaper fans with reasonable lifetimes and hope that they never fail in the computer owned by a newsletter editor! It looks like you got a fan that failed before its statistical lifetime was up. All is not lost! If you think that you might have this problem in the future you may want to look into the "CP- Vue", a $20 gadget that you clip to the CPU heatsink. Should the heatsink temperature rise above 118 degrees (when the cooling fan fails!) an alarm sounds. For the really paranoid (um...me), the deluxe version has an LCD readout of the heatsink temperature. I've seen this advertised in catalogues, although I bought mine locally. Distributor: Quad-G Electronics, 120 South Terrace Ave., Mount Vernon, NY 10550. Stan In reply to: Stan. I don't believe I was paranoid as much as you portray. I may have been .(literally) P.O.'ed. You must agree, to see a five figure system come tumbling down due to a $6.00 fan is a bit much. Probably as bad as crashing because of a cheapo power supply. I might take a moment to point out that Fan Failure is really quite predominant and in most cases, the last item to be scrutinized. Usually, an upstanding computer tech will do the right thing and simply replace the fan. if that's all that's been damaged. However, in my experience, (letters t the Editor, etc.) its been seen that many times the damage caused is more serious than initially thought. In any case, thanks for your reply. it too, contains some very interesting and noteworthy information. I shall inquire of Quad-G and try to obtain more info about this read-out goodie. (That's an interesting device). Ralph. EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents FCC Ready To Approve Bell Atlantic Merger With Nynex German Telco Launches Internet Telephony Trial Credit Card Companies Agree On Security Standard Time Warner's Stake In Cable TV Game Over Compaq Seeks To Bar Channel Partners From Servicing Rivals Mac Gets UpgradeNew Mac OS Licenses Are Still In LimboWho You Gonna Call? Dell-Busters!"Security Is Not Protection, It's Delay"Who Owns What's Inside Your Head?The Changing Face Of The WebSprint Buys Computer Networking Company Microsoft Buys Stake In Progressive Networks E-Mail From Excite Zilog Sold To Investors Mac Gets Upgrade Edupage In EstonianAOL Users Face More Junk CallsSoftware Vendors See Hot Market In Higher EdWindows 98 To Have Feel Of Web BrowserDigital Fires Back With Antitrust Charges Against Intel Apple Options Microsoft Targets Africa CompusServe To Have Red Light Zone Time Warner Agrees To Carry Fox In New York A Yellow Color They Call "Yellow" FCC READY TO APPROVE BELL ATLANTIC MERGER WITH NYNEX Pleased with an agreement by East Coast phone companies Bell Atlantic and Nynex to open their local phone service markets to competition from new rivals like long-distance companies AT&T and MCI, the Federal Communications Commission is ready to approve the proposed $23.7-billion merger of the two companies. FCC Chair Reed Hundt says: "If Bell Atlantic and Nynex want to be the East Coast phone company, then they must open the whole East Coast to competition." (New York Times 20 Jul 97) GERMAN TELCO LAUNCHES INTERNET TELEPHONY TRIAL Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecommunications carrier and Internet service provider, on Friday became the first major telephone company in the world to offer Internet-based voice telephony in a trial involving 1,000 customers, mostly employees of multinational companies. The service is offered among the U.S., Germany, Japan and Canada. Participants will be able to use ordinary handsets, rather than computers, to make their calls, and will pay only for the cost of accessing the Internet gateway at an average cost of about 13 cents a minute -- less than a fifth of the cost of a regular voice call from Germany to the U.S. "The targets of this project are to test the technology, to analyze the usage, and to evaluate whether Internet telephony can be offered at lower rates than conventional telephone service," says the company. (TechWire 18 Jul 97) CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AGREE ON SECURITY STANDARD Visa and MasterCard say they've agreed on a set of technical standards for secure electronic transactions, called SET 1.0. The two companies are already running pilot programs to test the standards in 25 countries, and hope to introduce the standard to the general market at the end of this year. "If we work together as an industry, this will go a lot faster," says Visa's senior VP for I-commerce. The companies hope that the new standard will be in wide use by next year. (InfoWorld Electric 18 Jul 97) TIME WARNER'S STAKE IN CABLE TV A year ago Time Warner's stake in the cable industry was $16 billion in debt, but media analyst Jill Crudick says there's been "a critical turnaround in the cable business. The value of cable assets are rising and Time Warner is able to buy down its debts faster because its cable operations are humming along at a good clip." The company has recently reaffirmed its alliance with U S West, the third largest cable TV operator, and its partner in Time Warner Entertainment. (Atlanta Journal- Constitution 20 Jul 97) GAME OVER The Senate is planning to require federal agencies to remove computer games from all government computers and to prevent them from buying any new computers that have games already installed. Senator Lauch Faircloth (R - NC) explains: "The taxpayers don't need to be paying the salaries of people who are playing games while on official time. The removal of these games will save millions, if not billions, in lost productivity. It is time to pull the plug on people playing computer games." (USA Today 18 Jul 97) Editor's Note: WHAT ABOUT BOTH HOUSE'S GOLF COURSEs, GYMS, HANDBALL COURTS etc., ad infinatum, ad naseum!! Launch Faircloth ain't FAIR at all! Get rid of all the FAT Launch! PS, "Launchie Baby" .stop trying to make a name for yourself at the expense of others. COMPAQ SEEKS TO BAR CHANNEL PARTNERS FROM SERVICING RIVALS Compaq Computer is considering including language in its Channel Configuration Program agreement that would bar its channel assembly partners from servicing PCs made by direct mail rivals Dell and Gateway 2000. Approximately 10-15% of Dell's products that are sold to the corporate community currently go through the channel. "I understand why Compaq would like to do something like that. There are probably other suppliers that would like to do that, too. But the concern we have is keeping the customer happy," says a VP at MicroAge, which also does business with Dell and Gateway. Lawyers who've looked at the new wording say it does not appear to be illegal. "They would get in trouble only if they would prevent Dell and Gateway access from the big chunk of the downstream market," says a partner at a D.C. law firm. "Clearly, the gloves are off between Compaq and Dell. They will do anything to compete against each other. I see it as Compaq jealously guarding the channel's integrity," says the CEO of Tech Data Corp. (Computer Reseller News 19 Jul 97) MAC GETS UPGRADE Apple is launching Mac OS 8, the first major upgrade in six years of its operating system for Macintosh personal computers. The new system boasts significantly improved stability as well as a "multi-threading" capability facilitating the simultaneous execution of various processes. An Apple executive says, "I feel we have re-established our reputation for quality." (Wall Street Journal 22 Jul 97) NEW MAC OS LICENSES ARE STILL IN LIMBO While Apple is busily touting the release of its new MacOS 8 operating system, Macintosh clone makers are still waiting to have their licenses renewed. Although most of the clone makers have agreed to the general terms of the new licenses, nothing has been signed yet. "This is a disaster," says an independent market analyst. "I expected Apple to have resolved this last quarter." Meanwhile, Apple has said it plans to charge more for the new licenses, and wants to institute a sliding scale arrangement based on the price of the system and the power of the processor. (Computer Reseller News 21 Jul 97) WHO YOU GONNA CALL? DELL-BUSTERS! Computer resellers and industry analysts are talking about the latest weapon in the arsenals of the big three indirect PC sellers -- "Dell- busters." These are specially trained sales people whose main purpose is to sell against one particular PC maker -- singing the praises of the indirect sales model while pointing out the shortcomings of Dell's direct sales system. Compaq denies the existence of "Dell-busters," but resellers say they're definitely out there: "Dell's got 200-plus people on the street and they have compelling stories for large accounts. I think the indirect guys have no choice but to get in with their own stories," says an IDC analyst. IBM officials openly acknowledge their Dell-busting contingent, formed in 1996, and Hewlett-Packard says everyone in sales is a Dell- buster: "It's not just a core set of people -- it's the whole bloody sales force," says an HP group marketing manager. (Investor's Business Daily 22 Jul 97) "SECURITY IS NOT PROTECTION, IT'S DELAY" The U.S. military is taking the threat of information warfare seriously, with a report from the Defense Science Board predicting that by the year 2005, attacks on U.S. information systems by terrorists and foreign espionage agents will be widespread. Even scarier is the threat from home- grown crackers, who are responsible for most of the assaults on U.S. information and communications systems. An innovative software program developed at the Defense Information Systems Agency's Information Warfare Division can tag suspected interlopers with an unerasable identification number, and then follow them back to their home or office. Once there, the number can be used to target the intruder with an offensive volley (a virus, for instance) that scrambles the attacker's system. "You have to view security as buying you time," says the chief of the Information Warfare Division. "It's not protection, it's delay." (Popular Science Jul 97) WHO OWNS WHAT'S INSIDE YOUR HEAD? In a case that could set a new precedent in intellectual property law, a former employee of DSC Communications in Plano, Texas, has appealed a court order requiring him to reveal a software conversion procedure he says he knows how to do, but never told the company. Evan Brown, who worked for DSC for 10 years before he was fired, told the company he knows how to automatically convert old software code into newer languages, and DSC now wants that information, based on an agreement that Brown signed making all ideas related to DSC's line of business property of the company. If the court doesn't rule in Brown's favor, the case will go to trial Nov. 3. (Information Week 14 Jul 97) THE CHANGING FACE OF THE WEB PC Meter Vice Chairman Steve Coffey says his company's profile of Web users is really changing: The fastest growing groups of users are now those under 18 and those over 55; those over 55 spend the most time looking at each page -- primarily financial information, which is what has drawn them to the Web in the first place. The average Web user surfs barely an hour a day -- the tiny contingent that surfs seven or more hours a day accounts for a majority of overall Web usage. Entertainment sites represent 14% of online time, vs. 1% for education sites. More than 25% of users visit adult sites, 12% of those while they're at work. (TechWire 21 Jul 97) SPRINT BUYS COMPUTER NETWORKING COMPANY Sprint Corp. has made its first foray into the booming market for computer- network services, buying closely held Paranet Inc. for $425 million in cash. Paranet specializes in setting up and managing corporate networks under an outsourcing arrangement. Estimates have pegged the total U.S. market for network-management services at $27 billion this year, expected to rise to $43 billion by 2000. (Wall Street Journal 21 Jul 97) MICROSOFT BUYS STAKE IN PROGRESSIVE NETWORKS Microsoft is making a minority investment in Progressive Networks Inc., a company in the business of providing delivery of audio and video materials over the Internet, with its Read Audio and Real Video technologies. By forming a partnership with Progressive Networks, Microsoft will be working to define a technical standard for future digital television that will orient that medium toward interactivity (as the computer industry wants) rather than just a prettier picture (as the TV industry wants). (New York Times 22 Jul 97) E-MAIL FROM EXCITE The Internet search-engine company Excite Inc. will offer a free advertising-supported e-mail service based on technology licensed from WhoWhere? Inc., allowing users to access their e-mail messages stored on WhoWhere? servers, using a standard Web browser. Users can access a free e- mail account by surfing to the Excite Web site and entering a user name and password. The service, called MailExcite, is available at www.excite.com (USA Today 22 Jul 97) ZILOG SOLD TO INVESTORS Silicon Valley semiconductor manufacturer Zilog Inc. is being acquired by the Texas Pacific Group, an investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. (San Jose Mercury News 22 Jul 97) EDUPAGE IN ESTONIAN We are pleased to report that Edupage has been available for the past three months in an Estonian translation, prepared and distributed by Linnar Viik and a team of translators and programmers at the United Nations Development Programme in Estonia. Edupage on kokkuv=F5te infotehnoloogia- alastest uudistest, mida koostab kolm korda n=E4dalas Educom, Washingtonis baseeruv juhtivate k=F5rgkoolide konsortsium eesm=E4rgiga edendada haridust infotehnoloogia kasutamise abil. (Edupage is now available in Chinese, Estonian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish, as well as English.) http://www.ciesin.ee/undp AOL USERS FACE MORE JUNK CALLS America Online is reversing its policy of not handing out members' phone numbers to marketing firms, opening up the possibility that subscribers now will face a deluge of telemarketing calls pitching everything from discount phone service to cheap appliances. "I'm horrified," says one subscriber. "It's bad enough to get junk mail, but junk phone calls are much worse." Previously, AOL had restricted its information-sharing to members' e-mail and snail mail addresses. AOL says it plans to give subscribers plenty of notice regarding the change in the terms-of-service agreement, and will distribute information on how to opt out of the telemarketing campaign before it begins this fall. (Wall Street Journal 24 Jul 97) SOFTWARE VENDORS SEE HOT MARKET IN HIGHER ED Many higher education institutions are scrambling to replace or upgrade aging administrative software operations that will be rendered obsolete at the end of 1999. "The software vendors have a hot market right now," says a partner in KPMG Peat Marwick's higher education practice. "It's to some extent a seller's market." For example, Georgetown University is investing in a new system that, when finally up and running, will have taken two years and $5-million to implement. (Chronicle of Higher Education 25 Jul 97) WINDOWS 98 TO HAVE FEEL OF WEB BROWSER Microsoft's next version of its Windows operating system, Windows 98, will allow users to access information wherever it is stored -- whether on a PC, a corporate network, an online service, or the Internet. Industry analyst David Coursey says that Microsoft is "really flexing its muscle... Microsoft must own the desktop PC. It will be absolutely relentless." The new Windows will have the look of a Web browser that can be used to navigate through files by single-clicking on highlighted items. It will make it easier to install PC devices (e.g., digital video disc players), make it easier for companies to manage PC networks, and let a user connect a $50- 100 TV add-on card to allow a PC to run TV programming from cable and satellite companies. (USA Today 24 Jul 97) DIGITAL FIRES BACK WITH ANTITRUST CHARGES AGAINST INTEL Digital Equipment Corp. has charged Intel Corp. of using "monopoly power" to harm Digital, citing its demand for the return of Intel technical documents that Digital had received as part of its customer arrangement. Digital's latest sally is intended to pressure Intel to drop the lawsuit it filed May 27, demanding the return of the documents. That suit, in turn, was filed in response to Digital's May 12 patent lawsuit that accused Intel of violating patents on Digital's Alpha microprocessor. (Wall Street Journal 24 Jul 97) APPLE OPTIONS With market share down to about 3%, many Apple observers are suggesting the computer maker should pursue a hybrid strategy of continuing to manufacture Macs for its loyal followers, but in addition moving into the Wintel arena to build new business. Supporting that strategy are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal ben Abdulaziz Alsaud, who bought a 5% stake in the company earlier this spring, and former Apple CEO John Sculley. Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, who toyed with the idea of buying Apple about 18 months ago, says, "At this point, they need somebody who will just walk in and say 'We're going to be a Compaq' or we're going to be a [Sun-compatible] player. We're down to Tyson-Holyfield... It's better to have your ear chewed on than to be sitting outside the ring." (Business Week 28 Jul 97) MICROSOFT TARGETS AFRICA Microsoft is planning to invest millions of dollars in building an African market for its products. The company, which has had operations in South Africa for years, is now expanding into Zimbabwe and plans offices on the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. (Investor's Business Daily 24 Jul 97) COMPUSERVE TO HAVE RED LIGHT ZONE Online services provider CompuServe is creating a separate area that will contain "adult-oriented" content ruled off-limits to persons younger than 18. Such content will include forums for the Bettman Archive (a collection of historic photos) and sites featuring casino poker, bisexuality, strippers, nudists, gay and lesbian interests, and a copy of the Unabomber's manifesto. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 24 Jul 97) TIME WARNER AGREES TO CARRY FOX IN NEW YORK Time Warner's cable system in New York will now carry Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel to the systems 1.2 million subscribers, in an agreement that will end the antitrust lawsuit Murdoch's News Corp. filed against Time Warner for denying it access to cable viewers in New York City. (New York Times 24 Jul 97) A YELLOW COLOR THEY CALL "YELLOW" Those "old media" people are getting creative again! At the cost of a (quite reasonable!) $40 million paid for consulting services to ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day, the ABC television network has decided to use yellow as the theme color to announce its new season. An ABC marketing vice president says: "One of the things we found out in our research about yellow is that people tend to notice it faster, but also they tend to like it. And it's a color that is more soothing and people tend to think that -- you know, I think that when you see it, it's so distinctive that the idea is - there are a lot of channels out there and if we can break through, that's great." Columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times quotes Lee Clow, the chairman of TBWA Chiat/Day (whose resume says he is an "artist, who happens to be in the advertising business") as saying: "What do we call this yellow - we call this yellow color 'yellow.' . . . It seemed to have kind of an urgency, but also a fun to it. Yet it was -- it just seemed like a different color than you kind of expect from a big network launching a season. When we approached the whole problem, it was kind of like, well, let's try not to look like every network has looked every year, and we came up with yellow." (New York Times 23 Jul 97) Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas (douglas@educom.edu). Voice: 404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057. Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology, University of North Carolina. EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Marvin Minsky (assuming that your name is Marvin Minsky; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage... Subscription problems: educom@educom.unc.edu. EDUCOM REVIEW is our bimonthly print magazine on learning, communications, and information technology. Subscriptions are $18 a year in the U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell; or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel. Your choice. But ring it! EDUCOM UPDATE is our twice-a-month electronic summary of organizational news and events. To subscribe to the Update: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe update John McCarthy (assuming that your name is John McCarthy; if it's not, substitute your own name). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE The CAUSE organization's annual conference on information technology in higher education is scheduled for the end of this month in New Orleans. The conference will bring together administrators, academicians and other managers of information resources. For full conference information check out <http://cause-www.colorado.edu > or send e-mail to conf@cause.colorado.edu. ARCHIVES & TRANSLATIONS. For archive copies of Edupage or Update, ftp or gopher to educom.edu or see URL: < http://www.educom.edu/>. For the French edition of Edupage, send mail to edupage-fr@ijs.com with the subject "subscribe"; or see < http://www.ijs.com >. For the Hebrew edition, send mail to listserv@kinetica.co.il containing : SUBSCRIBE Leketnet-Word6 <name> or see < http://www.kinetica.co.il/ newsletters/leketnet/ >. For the Hungarian edition, send mail to: send mail to subs.edupage@hungary.com. An Italian edition is available on Agora' Telematica; connection and/or free subscription via BT-Tymnet and Sprint (login: <agora) or via telnet <agora.stm.it; mail: <b.parrella@agora.stm.it for info. For the Portuguese edition, contact edunews@nc-rj.rnp.br with the message SUB EDUPAGE-P Seu Primeiro Nome Seu Sobrenome. For the Spanish edition, send mail edunews@nc-rj.rnp.br with the message SUB EDUPAGE-E Su Primer Nombre, Su Apellido. Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology STReport's "Partners in Progress" Advertising Program The facts are in... STReport International Magazine reaches more users per week than any other weekly resource available today. Take full advantage of this spectacular reach. Explore the superb possibilities of advertising in STReport! Its very economical and smart business. In addition, STReport offers a strong window of opportunity to your company of reaching potential users on major online services and networks, the Internet, the WEB and more than 200,000 private BBS's worldwide. With a readership of better that 200,000 per week, this is truly an exceptional opportunity to maximize your company's recognition factor globally. 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Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 Kids Computing Corner Frank Sereno, Editor fsereno@streport.com Ecstatica II PC CD-ROM Approximate Retail Value: 54.95 For ages 17 and over Psygnosis 919 East Hilldale Blvd. Foster City, CA 94404 415-655-8000 415-655-8031 (fax) http://www.psygnosis.com Program Requirements OS: DOS/Windows 95 CPU: Pentium 60 HD Space: 40 MB Memory: 16 MB Graphics: 640 x 480, 256 colors CD-ROM: Double-speed Audio: 8-bit sound card review by Jason Sereno (jason.sereno@mules-ear.com) Ecstatica II is one of the most incredible games I have ever played. Since that is out of the way, I can now give you some reasons why I think so highly of this game. First, while other games use polygons to create characters and landscape, Andrew Spencer Studios uses ellipsoid technology to create the huge playing areas and over 60 monsters. There are more than 1100 camera angles in the game that give you unique views of the huge landscapes. Ecstatica II also contains many puzzles that you must solve using your character's wide variety of moves and your own smarts. Ecstatica II features an abundance of sounds along with just the right amount of music. All in all, this is a truly great game that will hook you from the start. Ecstatica II takes place in 931 AD in Medieval Saxony where the first adventure leaves off. While you are on your way home from your first journey, you discover that your castle has been captured by evil beings led by a fellow named Archamage. He plans to take the Eldersign, which is immensely powerful, and reassign the broken parts of it to unleash nameless gods and unthinkable creatures on earth. To succeed in the game, you must find all of the pieces of the Eldersign and piece it together while defeating the evil Archamage and his four associates. If you succeed, you will recreate the world order. If you fail, you will die and the world will be filled with evil and anarchy for eternity. While moving through the game, you will discover many puzzles, traps, and secrets. In some instances, every step that you take may mean life or death for our hero. A false move could trip a magic bomb and deplenish the player's life. Sometimes there will be secret levers or traps set to fool you. You can use simple objects to activate secret doors or trigger a trap if you move the wrong way. In the game, everything from the structures of buildings, monsters, skies, textures, magical objects, weapons, to the player themselves are combinations of hundreds of ellipsoids. While other games use polygons that portray stiff and inflexible characters, Ecstatica II's proprietary animation engine achieves organic- and fluid-looking objects using naturalistic ellipsoids. You can see the difference when you look at the wide variety of movements. This sequel includes more movements and new characters. The protagonist, as well as your adversaries, can do backflips, 360 degree roundhouse kicks, and many more maneuvers with the eight different weapons at his whim. Ecstatica II contains over sixty monsters and each character has its own strengths and weaknesses that you must learn to destroy them. They are all very distinguishable and favor certain moves more than others. Certain monsters actually appear to be human but are definitely not on the side of good. You may realize this just as they swing their axes and swords at you. While fighting these monsters, you may discover you biggest distraction will be the scenery. Ecstatica II contains beautiful backgrounds and textures as well as the very detailed characters within the game. The skies range from hues of red and black and the monsters are a variety of colors. To see these beautiful arrangements of colors and fighting grounds, Ecstatica II includes over 1100 camera angles. These camera angles will follow you as you travel down a dark hallway or even when you are falling down the side of the castle. No game can be complete however without sounds and music. E2 has many sounds because each of the more than 60 characters has unique vocals. Each character usually has a grunting sound, moaning sound, and some generic sounds for running and jumping. The music within the game is a sort of dark-medieval type of theme. It does change and increase in tempo when a villain is in your proximity. Of course, before I go I have to address the violence within the game. When you begin Ecstatica II, you can see dead bodies lying on the ground with numerous sharp objects jabbed into their lifeless, rotting corpses. As you turn to the left, you will notice two men hanged from the side of a castle wall. Of course, being armed with a sword, you can imagine that when you destroy an enemy it is pretty gruesome too. Even when you jump or fall from a high height, a puddle of blood will surround your corpse. The game carries a rating as a "mature program for ages 17 and over." This is one rating from the ESRB with which I agree. This game isn't for younger children. Since no child mode is included, I honestly think kids shouldn't play it at all. If you are looking for a smooth rolling action game, this is for you. You'll never lose interest in the game due to its many characters and objects. The gaming engine is fast and displays fantastic, fluid graphics. The large setting makes the game seem almost unreal. This is by far one of the best games I have ever reviewed and would recommend it to any (mature) action-adventure gamer. If you are looking for a truly great game that is challenging and magnificently animated, then look for Ecstatica II from Psygnosis in stores now! Alexander The Great Follow-Up Previously I reviewed the game The Great Battles of Alexander from Interactive Magic for the PC. We were unable to include screen shots in the article so the publisher decided to put them in this issue. I really enjoyed this game and the simplicity of its play. It resembles some board games such as Stratego and other classics in the way you position your soldiers. The soldiers themselves have varying firepower and can ride on carriages, horses, and elephants. The game chronicles the career as general of Alexander the Great and his quest for a great empire. It concentrates more on the history of this ruler, although it does contain some animated violence. You will find information in this program that is available nowhere else. It is a great buy for anyone interested in war simulations or who enjoys strategy games. Special Notice!! STR Infofile File format for Articles File Format for STReport All articles submitted to STReport for publication must be sent in the following format. Please use the format requested. Any files received that do not conform will not be used. 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On another note. the ASCII version of STReport is fast approaching the "end of the line" As the major Online Services move away from ASCII.. So shall STReport. All in the name of progress and improved readability. The amount of reader mail expressing a preference for our Adobe PDF enhanced issue is running approximately 15 to 1 over the ASCII edition. I might add however, the requests for our issues to be done in HTML far outnumber both PDF and ascii. HTML is now under consideration. We'll keep you posted. Besides, STReport will not be caught in the old, worn out "downward compatibility dodge" we must move forward. However, if the ASCII readership remains as high, rest assured. ASCII will stay. Right now, since STReport is offered on a number of closed major corporate Intranets as "required" Monday Morning reading.. Our ascii readers have nothing to worry themselves about. It looks like it is here to stay. Many grateful thanks in advance for your enthusiastic co-operation and input. 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Also: - UltraEdit accepts a command line input and so can be used to replace NOTEPAD or other editors that are called up from a file manager by clicking on a file. Registration You are limited to 45 Days of use for an unregistered version. UltraEdit is a shareware program. If you find it useful and continue to use it you are obligated to register it with the author by sending $30.00 (Ohio Residents add $1.65 Sales Tax) to: Ian D. Mead 8209 Chestnut Hill Ct. West Chester, OH 45069 USA Free upgrades for at least 1 year. Upgrade fee is $15.00 (Ohio residents add $0.83 Sales Tax)for previous registered users. VISA/MASTERCARD/American Express Accepted For VISA/MasterCard/American Express orders, include: 1) Name of card holder 2) Address of card holder 3) Name and address of user if different from card holder 4) Expiration date of card 5) Card #. Credit card orders may be faxed or telephoned to (513) 779 8549, or sent to my E-Mail address (see below). Compuserve Registration UltraEdit may also be registered online on compuserve by typing GO SWREG and following instructions for registering using ID 2662 dor UltraEdit and ID 4017 for UltraEdit-32. This will entitle you to an authorization code, the latest registered version, and technical support. For CompuServe registrations, a newer version is not sent out if the latest version is available on CompuServe. E-Mail Address Internet: idm@idmcomp.com ( backup idm@ultraedit.com , idm@iglou.com ) CompuServe: 71613,2654 WWW http://www.idmcomp.com or http://www.ultraedit.com Return Policy No refunds are issued after an authorization code has been issued. Exchanges are allowed if appropriate. This program may be freely distributed provided it is unmodified, no charge is made for the software, and all of the following files are included: 1) READ.ME - This File 2) UltraEdt.EXE - Executable File 3) UltraEdt.HLP - UltraEdit help file Latest Version The latest version of UltraEdit/UltraEdit-32 may be found in several places: The following www page: http://www.idmcomp.com and http://www.ultraedit.com ftp.streport.com (anonymous & email address for password) In the WINUSER Forum on CompuServe, an official distribution and support online resource for future updates. Search for ULTRAEDIT.ZIP, and UEDIT32.ZIP. The Windows Users Group Network (WUGNET), operators of the oldest and largest independent support resource forum (WINUSER) for Windows Users on CIS with nearly 1,000,000 active members is recognized in the press, user groups, developers, and Microsoft as the foremost resource for shareware publishers on CompuServe and the Internet. On the Internet on several sites, including CICA and other sites. History // History - Purged changes prior to v4.20 V4.20 - ASCII file compare under file menu - Replace in files - Replace in all open files (option under standard replace) - Command line improvements: a) The command line parameter /r will open the specified files for read only. b) Wildcard support: you may now specify *.c to open all c files. c) You may specify that the filename on the command line contains a list of file to open: uedit32 filelist.txt /f where filelist.txt contains a list of files, each on a separate line. - New spelling checker engine that supports French, German, Spanish, Italian, Finnish, Swedish and Dutch. Download dictionaries separately. Also support multiple user dictionaries and can share Microsoft's custom dictionaries. - New column markers to indicate the lines extending beyond specified columns (View menu). - Added option "Save File As Input Format" also that allows a Unix file to be opened and then save as Unix format automatically when used in conjunction with the "Auto Convert Unix Files" function. - User selectable reference help files. From the Help menu you may add help files that you want UltraEdit to be able to reference with keyword searches. Great for adding help support for your programming API. - Syntax Highlighting improvements: - Fixed //* problem with comments for C/C++ - Added support for selectable colors for all 6 languages - Added 5 user colors per language (was 3) - Added color selection for strings (stings not recognized if cross multiple lines) - Added FORTRAN_LANG key word for syntax highlighting to support 'c', 'C' and '*' as comment indicators if in first column. - Long or short filename support passing file names in the - Dos/Windows and Tools commands. If the %F, %P, %N and %E are lower case the name passted to the application is the long file name and the user should put the %f in quotes i.e. c:\somecommand "%f" or c:\somecommand "%p%n" - Other changes V4.20a - Vertical Scroll Bar Thumb SizeOpening files with UNC convention "\\computer name..."Fix possible crash with syntax highlighting (reported once) V4.20b - Vertical Scroll Bar Thumb DragPossible GPF if word-wrap set to wrap at column and insert CR/LFSyntax Highlight related display fixes v4.30 - Drag and Drop Editing (including column and hex modes)Directory Specification for optional default Save Directory - Replace All in Selected Text Only - Option to "not" rember last file opened and open from the default directory (including the directory specified in the shortcut when first started) - Feature to insert a string at a known increment in a file designed to help DB users add delimiters (CR/LF often) at the end of every record. (File Menu, special, "Insert String at Every Increment") - Macro menu item to specify macro to be loaded at startup use to be on the command line but this can be awkward these days. - Syntax Highlighting Block comments now supported with Word Wrap turned on. - Case manipulation functions now work on selected text correctly when in column Mode - Improved HTML support syntax highlighting support - Allow multiple language dictionaries to be used at one time - TeX/LaTeX support with LATEX_LANG flag for syntax highlighting - EBCDIC file conversion - Fix for long delay when accessing drives nolonger available on most recent file list. - IntelliMouse scrolling support - Reformat Paragraph will work on complete file if selected - Set color for selected text - Enhanced user time/date specification for templates. - EBCDIC File Conversion (File - Conversions) - Trim Trailing Spaces (Format menu) v4.31 - INI file selection using command line (allows different - configurations and personal configurations on shared stations - across network) - File Type Associations in Advanced Configuration (32-Bit only) - File Compare - Option for showing Differeces Only, - not complete file - Regular Expressions Support tagged expressions for find/replace - Configurable Keyboard Mapping in Advanced Configuration - (32-Bit only) - Word Count in Search Menu (includes line count) - Macro option to continue when search string is not found - Block Cursor in Overstrike Mode - DDE Support with full command line options - Page setup header/footer alignment commands - Bug fixes v4.31a - Fix problems associated with Column mode, and Ctrl+End v4.40 - Viewing with line numbers on left side of Window (Viem menu)Printing of line numbers (Page Setup) - Page Setup option for wrapping text - Ruler for column numbers (View menu) - TABS to select between open files (View menu enabled) (32-bit only) - An option for the set of columns to the left of the first column marker to be "fixed" and non scrollable (View menu) - Configurable string characters for syntax highlighting. This may be up to two characters. - Allow multiple lines words starting with the same letter with syntax highlighting. - Allow description string for language in wordfile for reference in color selection. - Find In Files now optionally sends output to a regular window or by default sends output to a new list box that can be used to double click on to open the file at the appropirate line number. (32-Bit Only) - Default Browser button/menu item to show current file in the default WWW browser. - Command Output for DOS commands option to output to a new list box that can be used to double click on to open the file at the appropirate line number. (32-Bit Only) - ASCII Table in the View Menu - Favorite Files List - Retain Find/Replace History between sessions - Bug fixes include: Uninstall from Control Panel (Uninstall Icon worked) Possible Lock Up with word wrap as default when UltraEdit Mimized and file opened from Explorer Page Down many times somtimes mispositioned by several lines Windows is a registered Trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Classics & Gaming Section Editor Dana P. Jacobson dpj@streport.com From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" I'm really running short on time this week; this has to be the earliest that I've ever had to put an issue together and get out a few editorial remarks. It's either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when I put the finishing touches on a few articles (but Tuesday as I write these comments). A number of some of the pre-sale paperwork for our new house will take up much of my evenings for the rest of the week, so if I don't finish up now we won't have a complete issue! Anyway, things are looking up with the house. The inspection turned up a few potential problems, but they're being taken care of shortly, thankfully. As it stands now, we'll be closing on August 29th and moving in on Labor Day weekend, of all weekends to have to move! We're really looking forward to the new digs after many years of living in Boston proper. Suburbia, here we come! <grin> So, what else is happening - anything Atari, you ask? Sure thing! The 9th annual MIST show is this weekend. If you have an opportunity to attend, be sure to do so. No one knows how long any of the remaining Atari shows will be around, so try and make it if you can to show your support. CAB 2.5 has been released overseas, but it's not known yet when it may appear in North America. It has to be translated first, so that could take some time as we've experienced with other software over the years. I still haven't installed 2.0 yet, but hope to get a chance to play around with it before my system gets packed away for the big move. Mark Showalter has another of his MIDI installments for us this week, as well. So, let's get to this week's issue and see what's happening! Until next time... Information on the July 26th MIST show (recently circulated by co-organizer Jeffrey G. Hammer) Here is a partial list of MIST FEST IX vendors/user groups attending: Nashville Atari user Group Emulators, Inc (Derek Mihocka) FMH Games LCACE ACORN. LAG ICD It's All Relative Systems for Tomorrow SCAT Remember, because of the state of the Atari market in the U.S., this may very well be the last great Atari Show in the U.S. Location for MIST IX is the Post Road Community Center in southeastern Indianapolis, halfway between Interstate Highways 70 and 74. The location is south of Washington Street (U.S. 40) at 1313 South Post Road. Entry tickets are $1. Show hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For details: Crossroads/MIST BBS U.S. = 317-535-1643 or csears at doe dot state dot in dot us (csears@doe.state.in.us) The Web browser ASH CAB is up to v2.5 and the package contains PPP-Connect by Sven Kopacz. You can read all about it at: http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille/english/cab.html There's some snapshots there of the new CAB Plug-ins, Steganography, CABstega and CABcheck, as well as info about CABsurf, CABalog and CABcache Plug-in modules. With CABDLOAD in a multitasking environment, there is possible to download several files at once in parallel with CAB. With CAB Cache module you can navigate within the CAB Cache folder and add, remove, copy and delete files and folders. The AutoSurf module is able to download whole trees of WWW pages for off-line reading. The CABstega module can be used to hide small messages within HTML-files without changing the file size. CABcheck checks if the hotlist entries are still valid and if the pages have changed. CABalog searches for GIF and JPEG images in a directory optionally the whole directory tree and creates a catalog HTML webpage with all the pictures minimized. I have made The Swedish CAB Online Manual now, in 12 new web pages. It's in Swedish but contains (soon) snapshots of some of the CAB 2.5 dialogues and some other info that could be of interest. http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille/cab/index.html Mille Babic mille@tripnet.se http://www5.tripnet.se/~mille Atari & Midi By Mark Showalter Hello all. I hope you've enjoyed reading these articles so far. I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions, e-mail me: Folkstone@Delphi.com. For this one, I'd like to talk about something that I have to make up a word for, so I'm going to call it cross-program sequencing. Stumped yet? O.K., first, what I mean is using different programs for different aspects of midi composing. recording, performing. For instance, I've talked about my using Edit Track in earlier articles. I just got a copy of Dr. T's Omega 2 sequencer. So, I saved a couple of my Edit Track sequences in standard midi file format 1, then loaded one into Omega 2. Of course, I had completely botched the original file because I had been working on it and forgot to un-mute the tracks that were on ignore for the moment, so I had to go back, un-mute, re-save to standard midi file, then load again into Omega 2. Still wouldn't work. Forgot to un-mute the tempo and meter track. Repeated previous fix, which by now I'm becoming an expert at. Then, I hit play in Omega 2. Not only did it work, but I realized that it actually played back much better than Edit Track. The parts were smoother, especially my midi-delay (see previous article), and I noticed that my one sound module that usually misses a few program changes didn't miss a one. However, one session trying to figure out how to record with Omega 2, and I was back to Edit Track to record. Now, I realize that I've been using Edit Track for over a year, so that's going to make a good bit of difference. Perhaps as time goes by and I can just play around with Omega 2, I'll find myself more comfortable recording in it. But my point here is that Omega 2 seems to be much stronger at playback than Edit Track. I believe it's due to the greater ppq that Omega 2 regularly uses. Also, however, I do prefer the screen layout of Edit Track because it seems a more logical layout of what functions I usually need to use. Now, even though the process of saving a standard midi file is slow, I'm finding that I now prefer this so that I can move to another programme to test out different features. If you've got access to other sequencing programmes, try them out in the same way. I'm only just touching the surface possibilities here, because I'm still learning about Omega 2. One especially nice feature is the MPE (multi-programme environment), that allows the user to run another programme from within Omega 2, like Dr. T's Copyist 2, which I also just recently acquired. This is a very powerful scoring program; unfortunately, it's also VERY slow, but the quality of the print out is way above most of the other programs. So, in this case, I am able to start out recording with Edit Track and doing all my basic editing and arranging and mixing, then I save to standard midi file (I don't bother with this until I'm pretty sure I'm done with Edit Track), load into Omega 2, and then listen and test the playback, plus print out a score. My big complaint with Omega 2 so far is that I haven't figured out where the midi click is, which I have to have for my drummer's midi rig so he has something to keep time with. I'm sure it's there somewhere but it's not as obvious as in Edit Track, which is found in a drop-down menu. Now, I know I've said in the past that I wasn't going to get program specific in these articles because I hate it when I read a tip that requires you have a certain program to get any benefit from it. Well, my point here is that by setting up your different sequencing/scoring/editing programs using the Atari's great " INSTALL APPLICATION " function, you can turn your computer into an extremely powerful music tool; plus all this for a great deal less than the current (i.e. " expensive ") platforms. In this respect, Atari is NOT dead! Since I've switched all my midi work to my 1040Ste, I've found my productivity on a constant rise. My New Age projects, some of which are an hour or more long, were simply not possible on my hardware sequencer. The time saved working on my Atari is unestimatable. I also have a Syquest EZ135 hard drive via an ICD boot link that gives me tremendous memory capability. The new EZ230 is now out, which I found at Best Buy for $179, so for those of you still without a HD, for under $300 you can have a tremendous amount of memory storage, plus it's on cartridge. I have two 135 meg cartridges, one will be just for my music work once I get all my files transferred. The very fast access time means I can quickly switch between programs, and having the storage space for multiple versions is great. Atari has allowed me to do work that I couldn't possibly afford on a current platform, and simply couldn't do on my hardware sequencer. If any of you folks try this out, let me know your results, or, if you are already doing this, let me know how you're doing and what programs you use, how they work together; etc., so I can include your ideas and experiences in future articles. I'm also going to pass on a tip from my friend who is my Atari guy, John Morrison at Morrison Computers in Orlando. He'd often told me to try to get a monochrome monitor for my music work, and now that I have one, I'm setting up my music cartridge to boot up on it. It is much easier to stare at for long hours and the clarity is fantastic. I mentioned earlier that I did all my basic arranging and mixing in Edit Track, so I'd like to explain what I mean by basic editing. I think that this falls under three midi features: 1) Midi Volume C.C.# 7 2) Midi Pan C.C.# 10 3) Note Attack Velocity I generally set up my channels at C.C.#7 = 100, except for Bass = 120 and Drums = 110. C.C.#7 sets up the overall volume that the track will be played by your sound module. If necessary, I fudge C.C.#7 if a part ends up too loud or too soft, but usually I don't change the midi volume for a part unless I have to. Next, is C.C.#10, which is midi pan, that is, where in the stereo field do you want the sound to be placed? Also, you can use this to pan a sound across the stereo field, as in a sea wave that starts out hard left, then pans to the right as it washes. I use this a lot in my New Age compositions, it produces a very elemental effect. Using C.C.#10 can take some planning. For instance, don't pan your bass parts. You need the bass center to provide a solid bed for the music, unless you're working on a Jazz Ensemble, in which case, panning an upright bass part can be very effective. I have a piece that uses a drone pulse bass, similar to Pink Floyd's " Welcome To Machine ", in which I use two midi channels with the same patch, each panned hard left or right, and alternating notes so that the part bounces back and forth. This is a great way to completely change the aural landscape in your music. This can also be applied to any repeating pulse. As far as other parts, imagine the music in your head and determine if it needs some space. For instance, George Martin's string arrangement for McCartney's "Yesterday" sounds great with the middle string parts panned hard left and right. This puts the cello and Upper violin part center, lower violin and viola panned. I love this effect. However, be careful to listen to the patches you're using to see if they can be panned, or if panning messes the patch. Sounds that are chorused, like a wide string section, will completely lose their effect if you pan it. Also, some sound effects, like complex wind sounds rely on chorus/part panning to produce the various indeterminate sounds of a natural wind noise, panning can remove this or turn a natural wind into just plain noise. As I've said in my other articles however, use your ears and imagination. If it works, it's the right way to do it. I usually have a good idea of how I want my instruments panned as I'm working on the track, but don't be afraid to play around with panning to improve your tracks. However, please refer to my first article on midi timing problems also for this next bit. Remember, the more C.C.'s you have going in your sequence, the more likelihood for errors to occur. Keep your C.C.'s to a minimum, and if possible, use them to make fixed point settings as you would on a standard mixing board, then find areas where special effects can enhance the track, like the panning sea waves I mentioned earlier. Also, you should keep special effects for areas where there isn't much else going on, or you may find that the effect just isn't going to be noticed. Now, in most cases, I actually use Note Attack Velocity to determine how loud a part plays in the sequence. My main reason for this is twofold: 1) It avoids the previously mentioned C.C.# overuse problem. 2) It's there anyway. Any note you play must have a velocity, so I use the info that's already there to adjust a parts level, do accents or fade in/out. This is merely taking advantage of information that's going to be there anyway. Also, some patches actually respond to how loud the notes are sounded. Just compare the sound of a full-bodied violin played with a bow to the sound the violin plays with a pizzacata (plucked by a finger) attack. The pizz produces a muted, quickly decaying sound with limited dynamics whereas the bow has many tonal possibilities as well as dynamic ones. I have a patch on my JV-880 called "Analouge Seq" that varies with the attack velocity. As it fades in or out, the sound changes from very soft/muted to loud/synthy-full. All you need to do is select a track you want to fade in, go to your graphic window and set it to Attack Velocity, and have at it. I usually try to figure out on fade in's where the part needs to be at full volume, then figure out how soft it should tarts out, and then simply draw the velocity response from the low point at the start to the high point where it needs to be at full volume. Again, a big plus here is that you're not introducing anything new to the track, just using the info that's already there. This isn't just a good idea, it's a very effective way to keep the midi data stream down to a minimum but still have nice effects happening. Unfortunately, there are some synths that don't respond to Attack Velocity, like the Casio CZ-101. No matter what you send it, every note is played at the same velocity, which in the case of the CZ-101 is 64. However, almost any current synth responds to Attack Velocity. You can, by the way, do the same process in reverse for a fade out, but I suggest that you finish the entire sequence before you do any fade outs. You may find a part that fades out nicely until you later add that great string pad for the big finish and your fade out completely disappears. I also use velocity fades for drum parts that I want to fade out, but this requires some real careful listening. The brighter percussion, like snare or high hat, will almost always fade out last, so you may have to bring up the kick drum a bit on the end if it needs to be heard. Well, I hope this all makes some sense and provides some useful information. But especially, don't give up on your Atari, it's got a lot to offer. Gaming Section JagFest Report! InfoSpace! "Populous 3" Football! And more! Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! Electronic Arts' Bullfrog Unveils "Populous: The Third Coming" JUL 22, 1997, M2 Communications - By unveiling Populous: The Third Coming at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Bullfrog Productions, an Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) company, will be showing an entirely new and original generation of one of the most innovative and popular computer games of all time, Populous. The game will be released for PC-CD in Autumn 1997 for Windows 95 and DOS. A version for the PlayStation is expected in Winter 1997. Back in 1989, Bullfrog, then an independent, fledgling British developer with Electronic Arts as its publisher, released the critically acclaimed Populous. It defined the "god game" genre. Along with its 1992 sequel, Populous II, it garnered numerous awards and sold more than three million copies world-wide. Although deriving its name from the original Populous, where the player was provided with godly powers to lead by influence, Bullfrog has taken a totally new approach with this latest reincarnation of the game. Populous: The Third Coming offers players, via single or multiplayer mode (network or modem), the god-like abilities to command true believers while competing against other gods and their followers. Players will find immortal souls, reincarnation and godly retribution at their divine disposal, as well as the ability to build settlements, cast spells and reshape terrain. Along the way to becoming the only player with a flock of believers, the gamer is exposed to technology that gives Populous: The Third Coming an almost cinematic perspective. The game offers a revolutionary curved horizon which makes tracking fluid and movie-like. Choice of perspective allows you to go back-and-forth from ground-level view to a cosmic view of the world as a whole, controlling your forces from either point of view. Additional information about Populous: The Third Coming can be found on the Bullfrog Web site at http://www.bullfrog.ea.com Bullfrog's Official Guide to Populous: The Third Coming will be released simultaneously with the game. Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98(TM) Video Game Only Allows Dolphins to Win Super Bowl, Publisher Promises Fix By Ship! IRVINE, Calif., July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- VR Sports today announced that its Sony PlayStation(TM) video game Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98 has developed a "bug" in the program that only allows the Miami Dolphins to win the Super Bowl when playing a complete season. The game, developed by Padded Cell Studios, will be available November 4, 1997 from VR Sports, the sports division of Interplay Productions. Dolphins Head Coach Jimmy Johnson was unavailable for comment while preparing for the opening of training camp. "We are not sure where the problem is coming from," said Paul Sackman, director of marketing for VR Sports. "There was an earlier development session that involved Coach Johnson and we have calls in to the Coach to see if he had anything to do with this bug. Gamers should rest assured that it will be fixed before the game hits the stores in November." Featuring the endorsement of Coach Johnson and licenses by both the NFL and NFL Players Association, Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98 features game-play hints and advice, pre-game/half-time speeches, post game analysis, and constructive criticism in the game using over 125 video sequences involving coach Johnson. Using motion captured animation, Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98 from VR Sports will feature bone crunching tackles, over the shoulder receptions, goal post dunking, bursts of speed and much more. One Step(TM) play calling makes finding the play you want and calling it easy. The state-of-the-art Quarterback/Receiver logic allows the user to pass the ball before his receiver makes his cut and allows for up to five receivers to be available for each passing play. Genuine plays and formations for each team are based on the actual play book for each team and the Coaches Clipboard allows the user to create unlimited sets of custom plays. Additional teams in Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98 include Pro Bowl, Historical Teams and Jimmy's teams added to the 30 current NFL teams and the greatest teams of the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. All 30 NFL stadiums rendered to simulate each NFL location. Jimmy Johnson's VR Football '98 from VR Sports will be available for Sony PlayStation in November, 1997. Electronic Arts: Electronic Arts announces NCAA Football 98 JUL 22, 1997, M2 Communications - Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS), a leading global interactive entertainment software company, today announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show that it will ship NCAA Football 98 for the PlayStationT and PC-CD in Fall of 1997. NCAA Football 98 is the latest version of EA SPORTS best-selling college football video game line. Previously only available on the Sega Genesis 16-bit game console, fans of this franchise have been waiting for its arrival on the PlayStation and PC-CD with much anticipation. NCAA Football 98 includes all 112 teams from the ten different Division I-A conferences. It has 20 all-time historic games, with 40 of the greatest college football teams ever to step onto the gridiron. It is therefore possible to recreate such memorable games as the historic 1987 Fiesta Bowl that featured the great 1986 teams from Penn State and Miami. Accurate position rankings and skill levels for each school enhance the game's realism. Exclusive rights to the Orange, Fiesta and Sugar Bowls provide real life bowl games not found in any other interactive football game. With the Orange Bowl being pre-determined this season by the NCAA as the bowl game that will decide the national champion, NCAA Football 98 is the only video game in which the user can play a season for the national championship. NCAA Football 98 has features unique to the college game that distinguish it from other football games on the market. Dynasty mode allows the user to build a powerhouse program over the course of multiple seasons. In dynasty mode, after the season the user can pick blue-chip recruits from a field of incoming freshman. The better the previous season's record, the better the caliber of athletes available to your team. Thus, a weak team can be built up to national champion by quality play and shrewd recruiting. As seniors graduate, it is up to the player to replace them with talented freshman who can help build the program. Rival mode instantly brings up the main rival for each team in the game, and with every Division I-A school in the game the number of matchups is huge. With team rivalries being a major part of college football, the rival mode adds an element to the game that defines what the college football experience is all about. Many times a winning season for a team is still considered a failure because of the simple fact that the team lost to its main rival. NCAA Football 98 captures that feeling and immerses the user in the passion of the college game. "We have created a football game that stays true to the feel of a Saturday afternoon college event," said Rob Martyn, executive producer, EA SPORTS. "You'll hear the voice of Rose Bowl announcer Chuck White during the game. We worked with former UCLA coach Terry Donahue to make sure the playbook for each team was authentic and reflects the style of play that team actually uses. You play this game and you feel like you are on the field and part of the college football experience. The emotion, tradition, rivalries and enthusiasm that surround the college game is very intense and EA SPORTS has captured that feeling in NCAA Football 98." The level of detail in the game is incredible from the jersey numbers that are shown on each player, to 122 fully-rendered and authentically reproduced stadiums for every team in the league, plus extra stadiums used in post-season play. Even the most minute details were taken care of, such as the field starting to degrade in quality over the course of the game if it's raining. Also, over 30 licensed fight songs are in the game. In order to ensure a competitive game against the computer, whether the game player is a novice or an expert, skill setting can be placed at Junior Varsity, Varsity or All-American levels. Saved instant replays allow the user to save a great play to a PlayStation memory card and carry it to a friend's house to replay. Exclusive to the PlayStation game are features called scout and practice mode. Practice mode helps the user perfect plays, with or without a defense, prior to starting a real game. Scout mode enables the user to get a sneak peak at upcoming opponents and determine that team's best offensive and defensive players, and which plays are used most effectively. EA SPORTS is the leading interactive sports software brand in the world. Its top-selling titles include FIFA Soccer, John Madden FootballT, NHL Hockey, NBA Live Basketball, PGA TOUR Golf, Triple Play Baseball, and Andretti Racing. InfoSpace Integrates Yellow Pages With Sega's NetLink REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1997 JUL 21 (Newsbytes) -- By Bill Pietrucha. The lines between entertainment and information, and television and the Internet, just got a little more blurred today, as online directory provider InfoScape Inc., and video game giant Sega signed an agreement to integrate InfoSpace's directories with Sega Saturn's NetLink. The agreement between Sega Saturn, whose video game console can be used as a television-based Internet access device, and InfoSpace, broadly expands the reach of InfoSpace's information directories, InfoSpace president Naveen Jain said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. InfoSpace offers online yellow pages that provide detailed business information, white pages, company Web sites, toll-free numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and local city information, including weather, traffic, and apartments locators. "Our partnerships with companies like Sega reaffirms the fact that InfoSpace is the number one choice for finding information about businesses and people," Jain said. "Sega Saturn is already a popular home entertainment device. Now, people will also be able to enjoy seamless access to InfoSpace's services." InfoSpace's directories can be found at http://www.infospace.com and http://www.sega.com on the World Wide Web. According to Jain, Sega Saturn Net Link users can access the directories through the system's "What's New" pages or by clicking on the "Locator" button available with the 3.0 version of the Net Link browser. The service is available free to all Sega Saturn Net Link owners. Paul Stathacopculos, Net Link producer, said the Net Link system "combines two consumer entertainment products in one, an advanced 32-bit CD-based video game system and a 28.8 Kbps (kilobits-per-second) modem providing full Internet functionality for e-mail and Web surfing." "Net Link allows for networked game play and full Internet access," Stathacopculos said. "Integration of InfoSpace with Sega Saturn NetLink will enable people to use the rich content of InfoSpace's directories from all over the world right from their television sets." Jain said that InfoSpace's strategy of syndicating its content has created a distribution network that now includes yellow pages publishers, newspapers, television stations, search engines, ISP's, information appliances, and popular Web sites. InfoSpace's directory services licensees include: Lycos, Microsoft Network, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, Compuserve, Playboy, CommerceNet, New Jersey Online, Michigan Live, Maine Network, and Data Channel. The company also recently announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, DIBA, and Bandai, and through a relationship with Unwired Planet, InfoSpace directories will be available on cellular phones and pagers from GTE Mobilnet, Bell Atlantic/ Nynex and other telecommunications companies. InfoSpace's services also are available on AT&T's cellular phones and pagers. Windows CE Ported to NEC 64-Bit CPU SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1997 JUL 22 (Newsbytes) -- By Craig Menefee. NEC Corp.'s [TOKYO:6701] NEC Electronics Inc. says the newest version of Windows CE original equipment manufacturer (OEM) adaptation layer, or OAL, supports the firm's VL4300-series RISC processors, used in Nintendo 64 game machines and other devices. The company says the porting to VR4300-class processors heralds a move by Windows CE from low-power, hand-held devices to machines that plug into the wall. Arnold Estep, VR Series marketing manager for NEC Electronics, told Newsbytes the implications are potentially far-reaching, but visible results will not likely show up dramatically in consumer devices until around the end of the first quarter of 1998. The VR4300, a 64-bit microprocessor, is currently available in 100 MHz and 133 MHz versions, which makes it one of the most powerful processors to support Windows CE so far. It already is widely used in consumer and office applications like the Nintendo 64 video game and in high-capacity laser printers like the QMS 2425EX. "We're evolving our current platforms to another level at other price points," Estep explained to Newsbytes. "With those kinds of processors, costing under $30 at OEM volumes, you can potentially see any kind of network terminal applications, be they telephone centers, browsers, entertainment platforms connected by digital TV, satellite broadcast, or whatever - the point is that given a similar base of APIs (Application Program Interfaces) and applications, it will be much easier to get products to market" compared to products that must be powered by a couple of AA batteries. "What we're seeing is an OAL that supports our development boards for the 4300. It's a type of windows terminal, entertainment platform, thin client device - all can run Windows CE and will do so as viable platforms in the very near future," he said. Stated Jon Magill, director of marketing for the Consumer Appliance Group at Microsoft: "The NEC VR4300 processor is a key example of a technology that is important to the success of Windows CE" in embedded or tethered applications. For equipment manufacturers that can afford 100,000 units of the VR4300 chip in order to get the $30 OEM price, a Pentium-level performer certified to work with a Windows CE interface may be a powerful attraction. Tethered or "plugged in" Windows CE applications such as network computers, television-based Web browsers, industrial controls and Internet phones are all target markets, stated the firm. NEC will continue to support low-power and hand-held applications like the MobilePro handheld PC with its VR4101 and VR4102 processors, stated the firm. Jaguar Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr! BRIEF JagFest report... by J. Sean McKay Hey guys, I live in the area, so I thought I'd give a short little overview of today's Jagfest. I was not able to stay the entire day, but was there til 5 p.m. I waited and waited for the Battlesphere tourney (which was supposed to start at around 12:30 by the way), but just couldn't stay any longer (damnit)... Quick points... Most of the day while I was there was simply free-play. Everyone had all their games there, so just about every game was played. Hell, I even played a little Raiden and Trevor McFur! Much time was spent with the newer games, IS2, Towers II, Breakout 2000, WTR, and Air Cars. The only one I actually own is Iron Soldier II - and let me just say that, um, I made the right decision (although WTR is okay...). Still, it helped me decide what games I would like to get (or definitely DIDN'T want to get...) Tempest 2K was a big draw , as were the fighters - Ultra Vortek, Fight for Life, and Primal Rage.... hey Wes, up for a rematch of Ultra Vortek? 8^) Now on to the good stuff... Yes, Battlesphere was available all during the day, not just for the tourney, and yes, I had a few go's at it. I must say that, all of those out there bitching about it taking so long, fine - keep bitching - you'll be sorry if you pass up on it! As many of you know, there are "15 coding days left" or so, but still, the game was fabulous! Visuals, sounds, music (good job Steph!), were fantastic! Oh yeah, did I mention the networking?! Yep, it was networking four most of the day (at least while I was there), and I only saw it lock up twice in an 8-hour period. Slowly but surely, the bugs are getting zapped! If you're like me, however, and are unlucky enough to not be able to do networking (alas, no one around me even know what a Jaguar is!), don't fret, because the single player modes were a blast to play as well! Tom and Steph were both there to answer any questions and accept any feedback about the game. They were both very cool, and were eager to talk about and explain aspects of the game (thanks, Steph, for clearing up the inertia/control issue we talked about...). And believe me, guys, 4Play wants to get this game out just as bad as we do - they aren't pissing around, taking their time. They would really like for their lives to return to normal, seeing as how they haven't been since this project started... All in all, Battlesphere is great! Oh, and the prospect of personalized copies was discussed, and its still a possibility... Yes, Air Cars was there, and was networking two all day, although for the life of me I couldn't really tell what was going on... just a bunch of "blah" polygons, if you ask me... 'nuff said.... Somebody (ICD maybe), had a Lynx running with demo's of Ponx (obviously Pong-like game) and an overhead space-shooter (can't remember name) which will be comlynxable times 4! Cool! Finally, Visual Dimensions 3D had three of its representatives there who talked to the attendees about their future Jaguar commitments. They are planning PC, PSX, Jaguar, and Lynx development. Although they were only VERY brief in their descriptions of game development, here's what was mentioned is in the works: (Jaguar) ::Automaniacs:: - basically the sequel to Club Drive, with an added "Explore" mode, where you will actually be able to drive through the streets of San Francisco (Jaguar) ::DefCon 1:: - some of you have heard about this already - they mentioned it will be a, and I quote, "Tomb-Raider-style game". I asked about it later, and the head programmer mentioned they are looking at Tomb Raider style characters, with Myst-style backgrounds. Polygon characters and 24-bit backrounds... Sounds excellent... let's just hope there are more polygons that the Highlander characters (and that the game is longer than Highlander!)... And another thing - he mentioned that some of the coding for this game is already underway! They are looking at a CD-format for this one... (Lynx) - two games.... can't remember the names of either, but here's a brief description (a) treasure hunting game with two different female characters; will be comlynxable times 2, so that the two female characters can help each other out (sounds kinda like Tomb-Raider), and (b) an overhead racer that will also be comlynxable times 6 (I think) *Visual Dimensions 3D were quick to point out that they are stressing 3D games, and are only going to do 3D games. They mentioned that even though the Lynx overhead racer is, well, um, from an overhead perspective, it will be "done in 3D perspective". How they're going to do that, I'm not sure, and I didn't think to ask... *They are working on getting their own web site domain, but for now, you can check out info on this stuff at http://www.abts.net/~starbase . Or, keep a close eye on Jaguar Interactive - updates will be posted by them there as well. Well, that's all I can think of for now. yes, I am sure I left out TONS. If you'll email me with specific questions, I'll answer them the best I can... And finally... keep up the good work, 4Play! We're waiting...... <g> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! PEOPLE... ARE TALKING On CompuServe Compiled by Joe Mirando jmirando@streport.com Hidi ho friends and neighbors. As many of you know, I took a little vacation last issue. It was nice having some free time for a change, but it's also nice to be back here doing what I've been doing for so long. I also purchased MagiC, the alternative operating system for Atari computers. I must say that it takes a bit of getting used to, but it is fast, memory-efficient, and fairly easy to learn. Look for a mini-review sometime soon. That brings me to another subject (didn't you just know that it would? <grin>). There is a lot being said these days about trying to save all the various species that are being driven to extinction every day around the world. All this 'bio-diversity' talk goes in circles and creates more confusion than anything else. I see both sides of this issue. I mean, sure, it's a terrible thing to loose almost a hundred species of plants and animals a day all over the world, but extinction is a part of evolution. We have no idea yet why some of these species are disappearing, but I think it's safe to assume that at least a few of these species are going not because we are removing their habitats, poisoning their air and water, or crowding them into smaller and smaller spaces, but because it is their time to 'go'. But if you stop and think about it for a moment, loosing even one 'flavor' of life is a terrible thing. What we really need is a 'techno-diversity' law to keep Microsoft from wiping out all other operating systems. I don't think that it's something that Microsoft is doing with the intent of squashing everything else... heck, in business the goal is to sell as much as you can. The problem is that in this market people are not even as well informed as those who don't know about all the dying species around the world. In the computer world, people simply don't think about the value of diversity. When all the other operating systems have been beaten into submission and users reach technical maturity, they will begin to see that there _were_ other options, but that their own lack of knowledge caused their disappearance. The only saving grace is that you can store a program, so other than not having new software for it, you don't loose everything. Well, let's get to the reason for this column... all the news, hints, tips, and info available every week on CompuServe. From the Atari Computing Forum Continuing a conversation about Web Browsers for the Atari, Michael Pappas asks: "Is there any word about these programs supporting PPP in the future?" Joe Villarreal tells Michael: "The author of Antmail stated in e-mail that he was trying to get PPP to work with Stik. This was about a month or so ago." Carsten Baron adds: "ASH hat now a new version of CAB (2.5). It has a PPP-Tool. You can now surf online with a Atari with MagiC/-Mac/-PC." Richard Rives asks Carsten: "Do you know if it is available in english yet?" Carsten tells Richard: "I don't know. But there is already an english 2.0 version in this forum. I think it will be one. I'll ask ASH tomorrow." Michel Tavir adds: "System Solutions in Britain is allegedly selling the English version [of CAB 2.5]. However, we have ordered it by fax on June 12th after talking to them on the phone, asking to include some information as to how to establish a PPP connection from CAB. As of today, we still haven't received anything! According to ST Applications issue 70, June 1997, OXO has gone out of business. CAB, on the other hand has been taken over and made commercial by Application Systems Heidelberg, the team which makes Magic. If one looks into the future (Java, aglets and what else), it might be worth sticking to those who will keep on developing IT programs for the Atari or the Magic platform." Well, I mentioned before that I had gotten MagiC to try as an alternative operating system to TOS. Well, I had a little trouble getting it installed on my Mega STE, so I posted: "Hey folks. I'm in a bit of a quandry... recently purchased both NVDI 4 and MagiC 5 for my MegaSTE (hey, even computers deserve a treat now and again <g>). NVDI installed and ran without a hitch. MagiC seemed to install just fine, but when I tried to boot it, it installs the reset-proof portion, warm-boots, tries to load the main program, and chokes. I get the following message: *** FATAL ERROR IN GEMDOS: *** SYSTEM HALTED *** or something very similar. The only thing I've got here that is non-stock is the 881 math co-processor. Could that be giving MagiC problems? I installed MagiC on my STacy without any problems, so I know that the install disks are okay. Any ideas?" Michel Tavir tells me: "It could very well be [the co-processor]. Also check on AUTO-programs which are not compatible (one, for instance, is CODEKEYS) - use XBOOT *before* Magic." I reply to Michel: "Actually, after I posted about MagiC not working on the Mega E, I reformatted the hard drive, installed only the ICD boot software and MagiC. It still would not get past the second boot-up. I found that the problem _is_ ICDBOOT 6.5.5... but only on the Mega E. The same setup works perfectly on my STacy. I also removed the '881 and shunted the jumpers for it, but had no better results. I am now using HDDriver as my boot software and, except for being able to read my Insite FLOPtical, everything works okay. I really miss the ICD booter though. Perhaps version 7 of the ICD package will address this problem." When Paul Westerman encounters the Ghost Virus, a boot sector virus that will eventually cause your mouse to do very strange things, he posts: "I didn't realise that mice could misbehave so much!" Rich Detlefsen tells Paul: "Hah! I have the same problem once in a while. After reading a directory, my vertical mouse directions are reversed. It takes from one to many re-reading different dirs to get it back to normal. Maybe we should share our AUTO folder list to find out if what common program may be causing it." Sysop Bob Retelle asks Rich: "Are you certain the odd behavior of your mouse pointer isn't the result of a virus on the disk when the effect first appears? Just opening a directory on an infected disk is enough to infect your system with a virus, and the effects will persist until you reboot. If the effects show up again, it's likely the other disks you try are infected too. I really doubt anything in your AUTO folder could cause the problem." Rich tells Bob: "While I haven't documented the problem, it happens rarely, and usually while I'm moving through many folders on my hard disk. But, it can happen when I just read one dir-even a floppy. A dozen or so re-reads (the HD as its faster) and it fixes itself. A virus must be run at some time, so opening a directory would not do it as its just data being processed by another program, unless TOS has been mangled, and then I would think the problem would show up much more often. Knowing computers-any and all programs will cause conflicts, even auto folder ones." Paul jumps in and posts: "Just to confirm - the main (or only) symptoms of Ghost are the reversing of the up and down directions of the mouse. It usually doesn't do anything else, but there appear to be different strains of it around. Whatever the case, you don't want it ! I only had the problem with floppies, but even then it was intermittent, like you described. I still think it's a virus (albeit a minor one) but if your virus checker is already checking the hard disk I can't think of any other remedy.... Hopefully someone else out there will have some suggestions." Paul then tells Rich: "Your problem is almost certainly the Ghost Virus - I stopped having problems ages ago because I went through all my disks with a virus checker (Ultimate Virus Killer). Fortunately for me, at that time I didn't have a hard disk. I really recommend that you get a good virus killer to go over your Atari as soon as possible." Rich then asks: "What are the symptoms of the Ghost Virus? The virus checkers I have only check for boot viruses-they can't see if a program has one attached. And they can't scan a hard disk any better than a floppy." Gary P replies: "the symptoms are only the reverse of direction for 'up and down' but I thought it was a connection fault at first until I used a virus protection prog. for another reason and it flashed mousevirus at me. I didn't realise a mouse could be infected this way!" Sysop Bob tells Gary: "It's not really the mouse that's infected with the virus, it's the ST itself. The reason the mouse was affected is that this is the effect of this particular virus on your system. Other viruses may exhibit other effects, like turning your screen upside down, or displaying messages on the screen, but it's still the ST that's infected. Luckily most of the viruses in the Atari world haven't been too destructive, but even the most benign of them is still an invasion of your privacy as well as your computer. Be sure to check ALL your disks with the virus killer program, as most of these viruses will infect any disk you put in the disk drive while the virus is active in the computer. You may find the virus has spread to an alarming number of disks..!" Joe Villarreal adds: "Make sure you check the rest of your diskettes that you bootup with. Viruses usually infect other diskettes you place in your drives while your computer is infected with a virus. George Woodside, the author of VKILLER, also created a program that would simulate different viruses on your computer. The simulator wouldn't infect your computer but would show you what the affects of the virus were." Well folks, that's about it for this week. Be sure to tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING EDITORIAL QUICKIES Two boys were walking in the woods when one boy spied a nut on the ground. When the other boy picked it up, they started to argue. One boy said, "The nut is mine, I saw it first." The other boy said, "The nut is mine, I have it in my possession." They were just about to fight when, luckily, along came a lawyer. The boys appealed to the lawyer to adjudicate their dispute. The lawyer thanked the boys for the opportunity and said, "I will settle your dispute this way. Because you saw the nut first, I will give you this half. Because you had the nut in your possession, I will give you this half.And, for my fee, I'LL KEEP THE MEAT." STReport International Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM Every Week; OVER 250,000 Readers WORLDWIDE 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. STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" July 25, 1997 Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1330