No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs / nf_archive_12.iso / MAGS / TEXTMAGS / ZNET / ZNET527.ZIP / ZNET527.ASC < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1990-07-06 | 43.5 KB | 910 lines

/////// // // /////// ////// // // /// // // / / // / / // // //// // // / // // ////// // //// //// // // / // // /// // / // // // // // // / // /////// // // /////// //// Z*Net Atari Online Magazine July 6, 1990 Volume 5 No. 27 Issue: 527 ####################################################################### (c©) 1990 by Rovac Industries, PO Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey 08846 ####################################################################### BBS 201-968-8148 * CIS 71777,2140 * Cleveland Free-Net * GEnie Z-NET ####################################################################### Staff: Ron Kovacs, John Nagy, Alice Amore, Jon Clarke, Bruce Hansford, Robert Ford, Mark Quinn, John King Tarpinian, Bruce Kennedy, Eric Gove ####################################################################### CONTENTS <*> Z*NET NEWSWIRE..................................................... <*> LETTERS TO Z*NET................................................... <*> Z*NET DOWN-UNDER.........................................Jon Clarke <*> ATARI NZ UPDATE..........................................Jon Clarke <*> Z*NET ECHOS.........................................Terry Schrieber <*> ST STACK................................................Alice Amore <*> LOOKIT AND POPIT......................................Press Release <*> THIS WEEK:......................................................... =============================== Z * N E T N E W S W I R E =============================== BRODIE LETTER HOAX STIRS WOA WOES New fires were started this week when Gordon Monnier of MICHTRON posted information from a FAX he received on Monday. The FAX purported to be a May 21st, 1990 letter written by BOB BRODIE, Atari's Manager of User Group Services, urging developers to boycott World of Atari shows. In part, it said: ------------------------------------- "At Sam Tramiel's instruction, I am notifying you that officially Atari will be supporting only the Glendale show. "Atari will be boycotting the World of Atari show in San Jose and will not be providing any support of this show. "In an attempt to resolve any conflicts, Atari is supporting only two shows this year, the Glendale show and the WACE show in Virginia. "In concurrence with a directive for Sam Tramiel the following announced exhibitors for the World of Atari show have cancelled and will BOYCOTT the show: Gadgets by Small - STV - Prospero Software - Migraph - Wuztek - Seymor Radix - SoftLogic Corporation - ST Journal - Antic/STart Magazine - Carter Graphics and Computers - Best Electronics - Join the boycott!!! Do not attend World of Atari! Hats off to David Small - He will no longer be writing for ST World!!!" -------------------------------------- The letter was on Atari letterhead and bore a signature purporting to be Bob's. Reached Tuesday evening by Z*Net at his Reno hotel room as he prepared for the PIP copier show, Bob stated that he had no knowledge of the origins of the FAX, that the policy it presented is NOT Atari's position, and that Bob was in fact not at Atari at the time the FAX seems to have been transmitted, bearing an ATARI USA CORP fax identification. Such ID codes are programmable, and so any machine in the world could have sent the FAX. While it is true that Atari USA is not planning to appear at the San Jose World of Atari show, it is because of overcommitment of existing show stock and personnel. There is simply no room for the hastily announced San Jose show. However, word from those close to Atari and to World of Atari say that promoter Richard Tsukiji has taken the decision by Atari as a personal slap, engineered by Bob Brodie. The FAX is an obvious hoax. Numerous words, organizations, and developers names are mis-spelled, and the grammar is terrible. Those who know Bob know that this could not be his work. Those who know Atari know that it could not be Atari's position. Those who know Dave Small know that he has not announced any plans to stop writing for ST WORLD magazine, published by World of Atari promoter, Rich Tsukiji. And the developers named in the FAX know that they have not subscribed to any boycott of any kind. Charles Cherry, manager of Developer support at Atari Corp, told Z*Net on Thursday that, ironically, even as the supposed anti-WOA FAX was first being discussed, World of Atari vendor information fliers were being mailed to 1,000 developers worldwide along with the latest Atari Developer newsletter. Charles added that a flier for WAACE was also included, and that Glendale's show had a flier in last month's Atari developer newsletter. He re-iterated the fact that Atari is no part of any effort to boycott WOA shows. Conjecture and investigation continues at Atari and at Michtron and Gadgets By Small, the only two developers known to have received the FAX. It is assumed that the FAX was sent by some party wishing to further inflame the ATARIFEST conflict between Bob Brodie and Rich Tsukiji. Several messages on GEnie claim that Richard has said that he intends to "get Bob fired" at Atari; others point out the tight relationship between Gordon and Richard; still others point to conflicts between Gadgets and others. As a result, this move could have come from almost any corner with almost any agenda: casting doubt and accusations, attacking character, smearing the WOA, smearing Bob or Gordon, or just for "fun". Nobody is laughing, and most all of those involved vow to find the culprit. We'll keep you posted. CEBIT 90 NOTES - IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW Sam and Leonard Tramiel were on hand at the show with Richard Miller, VP of R&D of Atari in Sunnyvale. At the Atari press conference, Sam Tramiel was not specific, but hinted at the possiblity of a hand-held ST. Atari is also exporting Lynx game machines to Japan. MAXTOR OWNES MINISCRIBE Maxtor announced that its acquisition of the assets of MiniScribe was finalized Saturday, June 30, and the resulting new Maxtor wholly owned subsidiary is now called Maxtor Colorado Corp. Maxtor successfully submitted a bid totalling approximately $46 million for virtually all the assets of MiniScribe Corp. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver on April 4. Maxtor's product line, includes a 3.5-inch, 40-megabyte disk drive and a new family of inch-high 3.5-inch drives starting at 80 meg. Maxtor's products range from 40 megabytes to 1.7 gigabytes, and are designed for high-performance computer systems, workstations, local area networks, personal computers and laptops. MEDIAGENIC FIRST DEVELOPER Mediagenic announced today that it is the first US company to be granted a license by Nintendo to develop video games for Nintendo's new 16-bit Super Famicom video game system. The Super Famicom will be introduced in Japan later this year. MICROSOFT PAYS INVESTORS Microsoft has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle out-of-court a year old suit by investors who claim the software publisher misled them. With the settlement, MicroSoft admits no wrong doing in the matter and do so to save the hassle and expense of a complicated class action suit. NEW LASERS EXPECTED FROM APPLE Apple will unveil two new low-cost laser printers next week. The new printers will cost $2,000 to $3,300, and one of the new models will include Adobe Systems PostScript software for desktop publishing. Later this year, Apple will introduce another low-cost version for Mac later in the year. NEC UNVEILS MAINFRAME NEC has unveiled a new line of mainframe computers that are twice as fast as a mainframe made by Hitachi and about 3.8 times faster than its own previously fastest model. Hitachi introduced a mainframe last month and dubbed it the fastest in the world. CHANGE IN COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT A change in the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that could lead to prosecution and conviction of whistle-blowers and journalists as well as spies is being sought by the Bush administration. The change would eliminate a provision in the current law requiring proof of espionage would make it a crime to use or cause the use of a computer to obtain classified information without authorization. It is being heralded by the Department of Justice as making the law "more useful." The penalties would remain the same as they are now, which calls for violators to spend up to 10 years in prison for a first offense and 20 years for second offenders. As the law now stands, it is illegal for an unauthorized person to obtain classified information by computer "with the intent or reason to believe that such information so obtained is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation." According to the news report from The Washington Post, the Department of Justice wants to drop the clause "intent or reason to believe" because it "has narrowed the application of the computer espionage provision as to render it virtually useless." If the clause is removed, an individual could be found guilty if there is proof he or she obtained certain information electronically without it having to be delivered or transmitted to any other person or government. =============================== L E T T E R S T O Z * N E T =============================== Dear Fellow Atarians, I would like to give you additional information regarding the Pip conference in Reno and other previous shows. Although your information was not inaccurate, there is some clarification that needs to be made. I work for a company named Transcoast Systems, Inc. This company was started by two fine gentlemen, Don Kimble and Fred Segal. This company is a VAR for Atari and ISD and sells desktop publishing solutions to all areas of the printing industry. It has been Transcoast who has been responsible for Atari being represented in such a professional manner. I would like to quote ZNet526 "This show is one of a series of industry and "private" showings that Nathan and Atari have been quietly offering to receptive audiences across the continent for some time now." While not to detract from any and all help both ISD and Atari have given, it has been T.S.I.'s financial responsibility and organizational responsibility to get these industry shows in gear. Let me say that both Atari and ISD have been a great help. Atari has provided show equipment and thier backdrop, not to mention all the help from Bob Brodie and company. Bob has given his time and effort to support us, as well as the needed equipment. Bob, has also been in the booth during the past show and will be in Reno this week. Art and Bill have also been great. And Elizabeth Shook, when at Atari, was also. ISD, has been very cooperative in providing support and in providing Nathan himself. Nathan is a tremendous dynamo! Nathan and company will be in Reno this week to help out. And Nathan takes our calls, gives us technical support and is forever answering our questions and concerns. It was through Nathan, Elizabeth and Joe Mendolia that Pip got their first demo. It was Transcoast that sold the system to Pip and trained them. It was through Nathan and Transcoast that STart magazine got their demo. It was Transcoast that trained them and designed their template (see the credit in July's issue in From the Editor). It was Transcoast that set up the first Calamus service bureau in the U.S. at Omni Comp in San Francisco. It was Transcoast who purchased the booth at Prep-Tech in San Francisco (a pre-press trade show). Transcoast has also purchased the booth in Reno and will be there to sell systems. I would like to see credit given where credit is due, and Transcoast has put quite a bit of effort and money into selling a professional desktop publishing solution to a professional market. Transcoast, especially Don Kimble, has really been the catalyst in this marketing effort. Ike Eisenschmidt Technical Manager Transcoast Systems, Inc. 388 Market Street San Francisco, Ca (415) 296-2572 -------------------//////-------//----//--//////--//////--------------- ----------------------//---/---///---//--//--------//------------------ -------------------//----///--//-//-//--//////----//------------------- ----------------//-------/---//---///--//--------//-------------------- ---------------//////-------//----//--///////---//--------------------- -----------------------------------------------------DOWN-UNDER-------- by JON CLARKE ==================== --------------- The ST saves the day [again and again] ==================== --------------- Here I was with end of year budgets looming and only a weekend to complete my spread sheets in 'Lotus 123'. Now the thought of spending a lovely weekend in the office was definately not what I had on my mind. Now to add fuel to the fire, so to speak, I did not have an IBM at home to run 'Lotus 123' on. However, I did have my trusty ST sitting there and I could remember hearing that there is a program avalible on the ST that is 'Lotus 123' compatible. After a quick trip to my local dealer, my fears of a long dreary weekend spent huddled over my IBM at work had vanished. What a load off my mind this was. You see, while I was at the dealers, a chap came in and demoed a program called "LDW POWER". Well, when I saw that it was indeed 'Lotus 123' compatible I was over the moon. By Monday morning we had all the budgets done. My sanity was restored and the ST had won the day again. The problem: End of year budgets, to be submitted by Monday at 9am complete with the 'Lotus 123' spreadsheets. No IBM or IBM Clone at home. The fear: Spend a beautiful weekend in the office, instead of at home. The Solution: An Atari ST, "LDW Power", and a forgiving wife. <*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Dateline: Friday night. Last day of the month. Problem : Monthly reports are due on Monday morning. Your typist/secretary has been away sick all week and you have been advising some Tibetians on "Yeti farming". You did not have the chance to do any reports at all today. To compound this, your wife is taking you to a craft show tomorrow, and has issued the ultimatum, "If you go to that 'flaming' office on Sunday, DO NOT COME HOME'. "Geese, how is a guy to get his washing done?" The office is the local 'Kamakuza' site. A show-piece for the MS_DOS enviroment. At home you have your trusty and true Atari ST, often frowned upon by your workmates as a toy and games machine. Sounds like fiction? Well this has indeed happened to me, but the "Yeti farmers", went home early. Having spent all week working to the max, I often get to Friday and realize that all the reports are due on Monday. Some time ago I bought "First Word" and "Tempus" for this very reason. Now, even under the threat of marital discord I can spend an hour or two on Sunday morning as my beloved is asleep, doing my monthly reports. When I have finished, I pop them onto a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk and take it into work on Monday and "import" them into "Word" on my IBM PC. The monthly blues have been overcome. Moral : The Atari ST is a PC of many talents. Try one of then today! [ ========================///=========================== ] <*><*><*><*><*><*> I was driving down the Pacific highway tonight, where to my suprise I saw Lloyd. That in its self was not unusual, but his car was covered in WATER. So I said to him "Why is your car parked in the sea?" "Simple" he replied "I needed to dip my lights!" "Goodbye Lloyd" I said, but when I turned the next corner, there he was with a car door under his arm. So being a curious Kiwi I said "Whats the door for, Lloyd?" "Oh, when it gets hot I can wind the window down" , he retorted. [ ========================\\\///=========================== ] ** A T A R I N E W Z E A L A N D D E A L E R M E E T I N G ** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ STE prices Drop!!! 2 meg ste now $1899 4 meg ste now $2449 The main reason for this is because the Ste's may now be upgraded by local dealers WITHOUT voiding warranties. Atari is calling them rampacks and the prices are as follows: 1 meg pack (520 to 1040) $200 2 meg pack (512 or 1040 to 2meg & 2 meg to 4 meg) $600 These prices may not include labour. 2 new atari packs available! The extra pack (with 1 meg ste) and the discovery pack (with 520stfm) An Atari colour monitor may be purchased with the extra(ste) pack for only $700 ($200 off). All Discovery pack 520stfm's have tos 1.4 on rom! Ste version of PC Speed now available $999 installed Gauntlett III (looks good) now available on the Lynx. Atari TT should be available in about 3-4 weeks. Points of interest are: (*) Estimated $6000 without monitor (*) Comes with 68881 co-processor (*) 68030 is running at 32mhz not 16mhz as stated in all the articles I've seen. (*) The monitor plug is a D-9 and most VGA monitors should work. (*) Co-processor may be upgraded to 68882 (socketed) (*) Intelligent keyboard has support for 3-button mice =============================== Z * N E T E C H O S =============================== Atari West BBS, Node #505 Terry Schreiber (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 1990) Cherry Fonts Unit #4 - 2250 Tyner Street, Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada V3C 2Z1 Phone: (604)944-2923 (after July 11th) Date: July 2, 1990 Contact: Todd Johnson Cherry Fonts announced a July release of five new Cherry FontPaks. Each FontPak contains four to six high quality fonts for use with Calamus Desktop Publishing software. They have been packaged so that all currently available fonts within an individual family have been kept together. All families consist of at least two styles and some have three or four. Each of the fully scalable outlines can be used within Calamus to produce type at any size from extremely fine print up to colossal characters larger than a page in height. Every font has been hand drawn using extremely high resolution typeface rendering software and has been subjected to rigorous testing for weight balance and character spacing. They have been optimised for the resolution offered by professional imagesetting equipment and therefore print respectably at all resolutions. Todd Johnson, owner of Cherry Fonts explains, "Numerous professional graphics industry personalities have been enlisted in the choosing and testing of these typefaces and I'm very proud of the initial response they've received." Five FontPaks will comprise the initial release and more will be released as they are developed. They are being made available through the normal dealer network at a price of $42.95 US ea. ($49.95 Canadian.) The FontPaks and the individual fonts will also be available directly from Cherry Fonts. GEnie T.Johnson4 Page 475, Catagory 5,Topic 4 Cherry Fonts Wine and Dine Atari Canada is all set up to the yearly wine and dine for it's Canadian dealers. This year, unlike most years, it will be held in Toronto on August 8th with Atari footing the bill to fly in it's westcoast dealers. More details were not available at publishing time. "Z-Net Echos" - What is it? Myself, being a bulletin board sysop and an avid Z-Net reader happened to notice that ST Reports was available to all BBS sysops on the FoRem network and Z-Net was not available. There is even an St Reports conference available for people to leave messages and transfer information world-wide. Although both online magazines are available on most major services (Compuserve, GEnie, Delphi), I felt that they should also have a conference and an equal opportunity on the FoRem/Turbo networks. If you have a local system that runs either FoRem or Turbo BBS leave a message to the Sysop (system operator) that you would like him to join this conference. (Note to SYSOPS - Lead node is #448) "SIMANIA or How to lose ALL track of time" Sim City, long awaited for the Atari ST has now been released. I was so full of anticipation for this program I had our software supplier ship it "Air overnight". The gameplay is strickly strategy and somewhat reminded me of the M.U.L.E that as a former eight bitter I played till the sectors wore off the disk. The object of this game is to build a city with all the roads, residential, commercial, and industrial areas. These all have to be powered so you have a choice of nuclear or coal power plants. You have to run hydro lines to all lots for building to commence. You can even add airports and seaports as well as a train after laying down the tracks. You control the taxes and the allotment of funds for the police, fire and maintenance services. There are many more interesting aspects to this game but the space I have is too small to fit them in. The first night - a little after 7:00pm, boot-up (by the way this game is not disk copy protected and runs off a harddrive) and start layouts of the residential areas and roads. 11:30pm reached town status (I should note that this was on easy mode with disasters disabled) "gees I wonder how long I have to go before it becomes a city" 3:30am (six pack of coke and pack of cigarettes later) city status. "How much more can I go" 6:45 AM Traffic jams everywhere and two hours till work, sign-off time. 9:45 AM Great to work at an Atari dealership, reload my scenario and at it again. A little balancing and let it run and collect taxes to build up my banking. 5:40 save scenario, mega bucks in the bank now and I won't bore you with the outcome of it all as I am still at it five days now. There are many scenarios already programmed into the game as well such as the San Francisco earthquake or Godzilla and Tokyo event. Well worth the bucks to the strategy player. =============================== S T S T A C K =============================== by ALICE AMORE VE_10 Version 1.0 Programmed by Timothy M. Garay * SHAREWARE * ================= ============================== ============= Vulcan Embassy BBS was written in GFA BASIC 3.0 (source code is available from the programmer). This looks to be a small but friendly and easy-to-maintain BBS program with message bases, and uploading/ downloading via shell programs. Set-up seems straight-forward enough for almost anyone. TREK5.LZH Programmed by Paul V. McCullough ========= ================================ This is a large file (550+K) but well worth the download time, even more so if you're a dyed-in-the-wood Trekkie. You will see an excellent animation of the Starship Enterprise leaving a deep space drydock, then going off into warp. Programs used for creation of this file include Cyber Sculpt, Cyber Studio, Cyber Control, and Cyber Paint. However, you do not need anything more than this file to run the animation... except for at least 2 megs of memory. If you're using an original Mega 2, clear out all those memory-hogging desk accessories before you load this animation. For those who have less than 2 megs and Cyber Paint, you can still view this animation by using the "More" function. INVITE.ARC Programmed by Albert Baggetta * SHAREWARE * ========== ============================= ============= Q: When does a party invitation not look like a party invitation? A: When you use Albert Baggetta's INVITE program to make it resemble something legal and ominous. This program produces documents ("documnetus officialis") that won't be tossed in the trash heap with the other junk mail. Your document can resemble either a subpoena or a summons. It all looks very legal until you get to the bottom line and find out that you're expected to "appear" at a party (or some other innocuous event). Use this program to invite guests just about anywhere... but don't send these "invitations" to anyone who has a history of heart problems. !UPGRADES! !UPGRADES! !UPGRADES! ---------- ---------- ---------- !UPGRADES! !UPGRADES! !UPGRADES! SPRITE15.ARC Programmed by Cory Chapman * SHAREWARE * ============ ========================== ============= SPRITE STUDIO is a low-resolution painting program written in GFA BASIC. It's used for creating sprites for animations and games. Any file can be loaded into the program and treated as a "graphics file". Many of the familiar paint program functions are here: draw, fill, airbrush, palette definition, frame, box, circle, disc, magnify, line, text, block, grid, and so forth. Sprite files can contain 320 sprites, and can be cut and pasted. You can "test your animation", if desired. This is version 1.5. Along with some minor changes, you can now set default values for fill patterns, line width, text size, and block type, either transparent or opaque. Included are routines for loading a sprite file in GFA BASIC. AGP.LZH From: Data Horizons, Inc. *DEMO* ======= ========================== ====== Demo version of AGP 2.0, a genealogy data management system. Color or mono. This demo limits data to a maximum of 14 individuals and 14 marriages. CASSETTE.ARC Programmer: Scott Sanders * SHAREWARE * ============ ========================== ============= Cassette Label Maker, version 1.2. Prints audio cassette labels which fit nicely into the standard cassette case. Space is provided for artists, songs, etc. There are several different ways to format the labels for printing. This version of CASSETTE is compiled and no longer requires GFABASRO.PRG to run. Also, it now will run in monochrome. There will be some confusion about CASSETTE.ARC and CASSETTE.LZH. CASSETTE.ARC is a similar application, but about two years old. Remember that the file reviewed here is CASSETTE.LZH. CHEKBOOK.ARC Programmer: Steve MacMillan ============ ============================ Version 1.14 of CHECKBOOK. Written in GFA BASIC, v. 3.07. Some bug fixes. New in this version: the report function uses the 'search dialog box' and sends all matches to screen or printer, along with the totals. 'Calc Date' lets you specify any date for a temporary balance at the bottom of the screen. 'Purge Checkbook' deletes all checks in the current check list up through your last bank agreement. CLOCKRAM.ARC Programmer: Carl J. Hafner ============ =========================== This is Uncle Carl's clock accessory, version 4. You guessed it... it's a clock in a desk accessory. Public domain from Incoherent Ramblings. Written in GFA BASIC. Included also is Uncle Carl's RAM Accessory, version 1. It calculates and displays the amount of free RAM in your ST. DESKSW11.ARC Programmer: Charles F. Johnson * SHAREWARE * ============ =============================== ============= Billed as "The Ultimate Read-Only Control Panel", this is version 1.1 of Desk Switch. Instantly switch from one desktop to another. Desk Switch works with .INF files to correctly set icons (including trash can), windows, screen colors, printer settings, RS232 settings, blitter, key repeat/delay, bell and keyclicks, mouse response rate, installed applications, more. This version fixes some previous bugs. LGSEL17.ARC Programmer: Charles F. Johnson * SHAREWARE * =========== =============================== ============= From Little Green Footballs Software, here is the "Little Green File Selector", version 1.7. This is THE file selector of choice. Does everything. Lots of new STuff in this version: o Fixes incompatibility with some MIDI sequencer programs. o Scroll arrows now have a Macintosh-like appearance and behavior. o Right-clicking on a folder now shows you an information display for the folder which contains mucho information about said folder. o Files now have "guide numbers", or characters displayed next to them. Using these characters in conjunction with either shift key will allow you to auto-select a file or open a folder. The characters can be turned on or off. o Fill patterns are now available for the background in the main dialog box. o A bug has been fixed concerning the typing of '*.*' on the "directory" line. MGWRITER.ARC Programmer: Dr. Bruce Noonan ============ ============================= This is a special upgrade of ST Writer Elite. Designed for children and for people with low vision, this version is Moniterm-compatible, works in all three resolutions, gives quad-sized print in low res. MGWRITER has no GEM, and it can't load more than one printer driver. Documentation is not included here, but can be had by downloading ST Writer Elite. MMM171.LZH Programmer: Dave Henry * SHAREWARE * ========== ======================== ============= Midi Music Maker is a monster program which allows you to hear music files from a variety of sources. Among these file types are: Type of File From ------------ ---- o Music Studio, Music Studio '88 Atari ST o Music Construction Set Atari ST o EZ-Track (single track) Atari ST o Standard Midi Files (format 0, format 1) All computers o Sid Player Music (including stereo) Commodore 64/128 o Master Composer Commodore 64/128 o Advanced Music System (I and II) 8-bit Atari o Antic Music Processor 8-bit Atari o Midi Music System 8-bit Atari o Orchestra-85/90 Color Computer o Lyra 1 and 2 Color Computer Version 1.7 incorporates the following changes: o Antic Music Processor files will now play. Includes display of lyrics if provided. o SID stereo files will play if Alternate Format is selected. This increases the voices to 6 if .STR files are available. o Values in the note control window can be changed while the music is playing. o Four different problems related to playing of MMS files were corrected. PERU11.ARC Programmer: Dan Panke * SHAREWARE * ========== ======================= ============= Version 1.10 of Peruser, a text-reading program. New: quick commands for jumping to the start of and end of text, search for headings, plus music and picture display. RAMPLS12.LZH Programmed by John Harris * SHAREWARE * ============ ========================= ============= Versions 1.2 of the RAMPLUS utilities and DESKFMT. Bugs fixed. RAMPLUS is a fast and memory-efficient RAMdisk with a built-in print spooler which does not require a separate buffer. Also includes a mouse doubler, screen saver, a unique 11-sector formatter, and a GEMDOS fix that allows an extra 2K to be stored on every disk. Written in assembly. =============================== L O O K I T A N D P O P I T =============================== PRESS RELEASE JULY 4, 1990 CODEHEAD SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES: LOOKIT! & POPIT! When Doug Harrison showed us these two incredible programs, we were amazed...not only at the programs themselves, but at how well they fit into the CodeHead line of products! Both LookIt! (the amazingly fast file viewer/binary editor) and PopIt! (desk accessory hot keys) complement and enhance the other programs in the CodeHead catalog, particularly HotWire and MultiDesk. These programs are a must for anyone's utility folder! Some of you may know Doug as the author of the highly-acclaimed shareware spreadsheet and graphing program called OPUS. We're honored to welcome a programmer of his caliber into the CodeHead Corral. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LOOKIT! -- The ultimate ST file viewer/binary editor LookIt! Overview LookIt! is an incredibly fast, easy to use ASCII file viewer and binary file editor. It features a custom user interface which overcomes many of the shortcomings in GEM. Some of LookIt!'s features include: - super-fast text display, Blitter/Turbo ST/Quick ST NOT required - use the mouse OR the keyboard to page and scroll up/down through text or binary files; three configurable scrolling speeds - as many as 32 files can be held simultaneously in memory - fast, powerful searching options -- LookIt! supports a powerful (yet simple to learn) regular expression "language" as well as exact match searching - search strings may be assigned to keyboard commands, making it easy to skip from topic to topic in online magazines or captured messages - up to 18 saveable search strings - binary file editing on both the hexadecimal and ASCII representations of binary files - mark blocks of text or binary data and save them to disk, print them or delete them from the file - set up to four "bookmarks" in each file, and instantly return to any mark with a single keypress - flexible display options, including color and font size control in high resolution modes - printer options allow 40 byte strings to be sent before/after each file and provide for draft/final and condensed print modes; margins may be set and headers printed - all program options are saved in a configuration file, making it easy to customize LookIt! to your preferences - may be installed as an application for the GEM Desktop or CodeHead's HotWire, to let you show files by double-clicking them - powerful command line options allow loading of CFG files from paths other than the default, automatic printing of files, wildcard expansion - an enhanced GEM menu bar that can be operated either with the mouse OR the keyboard; use the arrow keys to move through drop-down menus - innovative Mac-like user interface, with keyboard equivalents for all dialog box functions, vastly enhanced editing functions, a unique improved file selector (that can be disabled if desired), and much more ---------------------------------------------------------------------- POPIT! -- HotWire your desk accessories! PopIt! Overview PopIt! is a desk accessory that lets you assign "hot keys" to your desk accessories, and call up any accessory simply by typing its hot key! In other words, PopIt! "HotWires" your desk accessories. And PopIt! communicates with CodeHead's MultiDesk (version 2.0 or greater required) to let you assign keys to accessories loaded into MultiDesk. This means that you can instantly get at an unlimited number of desk accessories! - no more reaching for the mouse just to open a desk accessory - shows all installed desk accessories in a scrollable window - accessory names can be shown in sorted or unsorted order - hot keys can be assigned to all keys on the keyboard, with or without the Shift, Alternate, and Control keys - typing the hot key for an accessory opens it instantly, in any GEM program that normally supports DAs - hot key assignments can be saved and loaded as needed - print out the list of hot keys for handy reference - hot key processing can be disabled at ANY time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ordering Information The projected release date for LookIt! & PopIt! is July 20, 1990. The retail price for the package (which includes both programs and a detailed manual) is $39.95. LookIt! & PopIt! can be ordered directly from CodeHead Software at: CodeHead Software P.O. Box 74090 Los Angeles, CA 90004 Voice: (213) 386-5735 Fax: (213) 386-5789 We accept most major credit cards. If ordering by mail, include a check or money order for the amount indicated plus $2.00 shipping ($3 Canada, $5 Europe). LookIt! & PopIt! will also be available at any ST dealer that carries CodeHead products; if your dealer doesn't have it, ask him/ her to order it! =============================== THIS WEEK: DOWNLOAD PUMPING T H E L A S T W O R D =============================== We really didn't expect to mention this issue again, but unexpected events and announcements have made it appropriate. We hope you will bear with us for a moment. In mid-May, when Z*Net went public with the matter of "download pumping" on GEnie telecommunication service (deliberate manipulation of the posted access numbers to make a file appear more popular), we took quite a barrage of criticism. The most vocal was Lloyd Pulley, an outspoken participant on GEnie and a writer for several Atari magazines including ST INFORMER and ST REPORT. Next in line was Ralph Mariano, who seethed his way through an accusatory editorial in ST-Report the following week. Both Lloyd and Ralph took the position that our reportage of the matter was sensational, unfounded, and probably a cover for our own pumping or an encouragement for our readers to pump the Z*NET download numbers. The next week, GEnie officials posted a message that they were monitoring for false downloads and had caught someone in the act. At the time, they would not release details. Then on Monday, July 2, Neil Harris posted these two messages in the ST- REPORT message area: ==================================== Category 26, Topic 4 Message 126 Mon Jul 02, 1990 NHARRIS [Neil] at 12:51 EDT For the record: This week's issue of ST-Report was downloaded 27 extra times, apparently to make the count look better. The main culprit was Lloyd Pulley, with 22 downloads. Lloyd was also the person who downloaded ST-R 69 times a month or so back, and who was caught and who promised me personally to never do it again. Taking him at his word, I didn't reveal his identity at the time, but after the latest incident, well, he made his own bed and he can lie in it. Ralph downloaded it an extra 5 times himself. I really hate to have to spend any of my time going through lists of downloaders, and making the programmers here keep track of this stuff. Znet's download count is clean. ===================================== In a slightly later message, Neil posted: "Apparently Ralph's 5 downloads were the result of testing a noisy local node, which he did in conjunction with one of GEnie's client services folks. It might be more prudent in the future to choose a different file to use for testing, but in this case there does not appear to be any ulterior motives. "There are still 22 downloads yet to be explained, though..." Lloyd has since replied, admitting that he did the pumping because he "didn't believe the Z*NET numbers", and went on to say that he owed no one of the commenting public an apology. He also challenged the "jackals" and "vultures" to criticize his actions. Z*Net believes that Lloyd Pulley should be publicly held accountable, much more for his hypocrisy and defiant, remorseless attitude than for the act of "pumping". He has placed himself above the rules of fairness and honesty over which he regularly takes others to task. Ralph Mariano has not yet responded to the matter in his message area on GEnie. Although "testing a noisy node" is not "pumping", Mr. Mariano cannot be so naive (or expect anyone else to be so naive) as to think that it was appropriate or honest to select his ST-REPORT magazine to test repeated downloads during a time when the issue of accurate access numbers was under dispute. Calling this action "poor judgement" is being very kind. Since GEnie has announced that they are monitoring access, ST-REPORT has shown a 24% downturn in true access counts, while Z*Net has exhibited only a 4% decline. This has resulted in Z*Net LEADING ST-Report for the last six weeks in true accesses by as much as 36%, and an average of 14%. This is a change from ALWAYS TRAILING by as much as 20%, and an average of 8%. Moreover, ST-Report continues to exhibit the lowest access counts that it has shown since early 1989, and lower than ANY numbers achieved by Z*NET during 1990. We are left to wonder: Is ST-REPORT's true readership and popularity FALLING that fast, or have the access counts been manipulated each week on GEnie for over a year now? This is particularly curious, as ST-Report is of late enjoying higher access count numbers on CompuServe than ever before... or are THOSE numbers real? Faking downloads on CmpuServe is more difficult because the download must be completed for every count. While this makes the job tedious it is certainly not impossilbe for the dedicated deceiver. These are probably questions we won't see answered. And here's hoping that we won't have cause to ask them, or even to bring up this topic again. A final word: GEnie cannot be expected to continue to monitor for dishonest activity. Don't trust the numbers to help you decide "who's on first". Use your MIND. READ and THINK. ======================================================================= ======================================================================= Z*Net Atari Online Magazine is a weekly released publication covering the Atari community. Opinion and commentary presented are those of the individual authors and do not reflect those of Rovac Industries. Z*NET and Z*NET ATARI ONLINE are copyright 1990 by Rovac Industries. Reprint permission is granted as long as Z*NET ONLINE, Issue Number and author is included at the top of the article. Reprinted articles are not to be edited without permission. ======================================================================= ======================================================================= ZNET ATARI ONLINE MAGAZINE Atari News FIRST! Copyright (c)1990 Rovac Industries, Inc.. =======================================================================