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The Best of Windows 95.com 1996 September
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README.TXT
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1996-08-14
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Network Beverage Selector
Written by Tony Imbierski (tony.imbierski@uvo.mts.dec.com)
V2.2 14th August 1996
The Network Beverage Selector solves the never ending problem of whose turn it is to get the coffees in.
NBS selects a victim and keeps track of how many drinks each participant has bought and how may they
have drunk. It uses this information to bias the next selection towards those who haven't bought their fair
share.
System Requirements
Networked PC's running Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT (Intel x86 or DEC Alpha)
NBS is designed to be run from a shared directory on a server.
Setting Up
The program is distributed in ZIP format using the dos version of PKZIP. Some of the program files have
file names longer than 8.3 that are munged by PKZIP. After unzipping, run LFN.BAT to restore the long
filenames.
Enter the names of the participants in the file NBS.INI. You may also set other parameters in this file
(described later). All participants must use the same shared copy of NBS.INI and it must reside in the
same directory as the NBS.EXE executable. Copy all the files to your network server and you are ready
to go!
(To reduce network overhead, .WAV files may be stored locally to each PC, see the description of
WavPath below)
Command Line Switches
The following switches can be used in any combination (leave spaces between them!)
NBS /NAME:"TONY IMBIERSKI"
Starts NBS using the given round member's name. This bypasses the startup dialog. Note the name must
be enclosed in double quotes, but capitalisation is not important. If the name given is not present in
NBS.INI then the program will not start.
NBS /WAVPATH:C:\NBS
If your wav files are kept in a different directory to the one specified in NBS.INI then use this switch to
override.
NBS /RESET
NBS will detect if it is already running and will refuse to start a second instance on the same machine.
However if for any reason NBS terminates abnormally it may refuse to restart, saying that it thinks it is
already running. If this happens, start NBS with the above switch to override.
NBS.INI settings
You should only modify entries in the sections [NAMES] and [GENERAL].
[NAMES]
NAME0=Drinker1
NAME1=Drinker2
NAME2=Drinker3
NAME3=Drinker4
.
.
.
NAME9=Drinker9
Enter the names of your participants. Spaces are allowed, so you can use FIRSTNAME LASTNAME or
whatever combination you like.
[GENERAL]
Beverage=Tea
This is the name of the drink you have.
Round=Tea Selector
This is the name of your round. If multiple groups use the program on the same network, the program
uses the setting of Round to distinguish one from another.
PauseTime=350
This controls the time the program takes to select a victim. If you want the program to finish faster,
make this value smaller.
PointsToWin=30
This controls how long the selection process lasts. If you want the program to finish faster, make this
value smaller.
SelectionWaitTime=10
When someone proposes a round, the program waits this number of seconds to allow people to join or
leave the round before it starts.
MessagePopup=1
When a text message is sent the program restores itself if it was minimised and comes to the front of
the screen (in front of any other applications). If you don't want this, set this value to 0. However, you
may then miss messages from other drinkers if the application is covered by windows.
CountdownPopup=1
Similar to the above, the program will force itself to the front during countdown to a round unless this
value is set to 0. This is to ensure that everyone in your round knows it is taking place.
StatusTime=30000
Computers running NBS verify their status with each other every so many milliseconds according to
this parameter. 30000 = 30 seconds.
DisconnectTimeout=3
If a computer hasn't verified it's status within this number of StatusTime periods, it is assumed to have
gone away and is disconnected from the round. Eg if StatusTime is 30000 (30 sec) and
DisconnectTimeout is 3, computers are timed out after 90 seconds. Disconnected users are marked as
"Timeout" on the main screen.
DisconnectReset=6
After being timed out, if this number of StatusTime periods passes with still no update the computer is
marked "offline".
RandomFactor=8
This sets a base level for the bias of each round. The higher it is the more truly random a selection will
be. The lower it is the more the selection will be biased against people who haven't bought their fair
share.
Sound=1
1=play sounds, 0=don't. The program looks for wav files with the same name (including any spaces) as
your participants. Eg if Name1=Tony Imbierski then the program looks to play "Tony Imbierski.wav"
whenever Tony Imbierski is selected as victim. You will need to record wav files with the names of your
participants.
Commentary=0
1=running commentary, 0=no commentary
WavPath=.\
Normally the program looks for wav files in the same directory as the NBS.EXE executable, which is
normally on a network server. However, since some of the wav files may be large, you can copy them to
a local directory on each computer and set the WavPath to this directory. This saves the network
bandwidth of all your participants loading the wav file from the server every time the program wants to
play a wav. Beware, though, that since everyone must read the same copy of NBS.INI, the wav path
must be the same for all users (eg C:\NBS). If this is not possible, individual computers can override
this setting using the command line switch /WAVPATH.
SoundMode=RANDOM
During selection, the program will play any wav file matching the name PROGRES*.WAV. This is done
in one of two ways according to the setting of this parameter:
RANDOM: Play any one of the proges*.wav files randomly.
BIAS: Play a specific wav file according to the round member with the highest bias. Eg if round
member 3 has the highest bias, the 3rd wav file (in alphabetical order) will be played.
The other sections of NBS.INI are used to store running totals for each round, so you must keep the same
copy of NBS.INI to preseve this information between rounds. Also, all users must have write access to this
file in order to update the round statistics after each round.
If the program detects that two computers are using different copies of NBS.INI, it will not allow
them to communicate. Thus if you find you cannot see your fellow round members as ONLINE, check
that you are all running the same shared NBS.INI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does the program run on Windows 3.1 or 3.11?
A: No