PsL Monthly 1993 December/PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (December 1993).iso/pastnews/news9308.vws

Text File | 1993-09-29 | 19KB | 439 lines

=====News & Views:

- PsL Monthly CD ... introduction to PsL's premier monthly CD issue.
- A CD-ROM Drive for Everyone ... cheap, expensive, internal, external
- Programmers Respond to PsL's CD ... no outdated software.
- PsL News Cover Date Moved Up ... where did July go?
- Shareware Copyrights ... what can you do with this software?
- Haunted Computer ... doesn't like user walking away!
- Does Not Compute ... bug reports, fixes, feedback.
- New Retail Product Reviews ... Personal Label Printer ($129.95),
    Pool for Windows ($17.50), Where in Space is Carmen... ($39.95)



-----PsL Monthly CD

How would you like to get every one of the more than 250 new and updated
pd/shareware programs written up in this issue (and more!) for just
$19.95?

Now you can - with one catch: you need a CD-ROM drive. (See following
article.)

In the past, other shareware vendors, BBS sysops, and computer magazine
columnists have paid PsL as much as $1000 per month (or more!) to get
all the new and updated programs we add each month.

They know that PsL offers many times more new programs every month than
any other vendor and that we generally get new programs out fastest.
(Typical programmer response this month from John Shramko: "I would like
to thank you for your rapid publication of my previous submissions. I
have found such professionalism to be all too rare in the shareware
business.")

They also know that our experienced staff of testers and reviewers are
unequalled at picking the best new programs and giving them concise,
honest reviews. And of course, they also know that PsL virus-checks
every program before doing anything with them.

Now you can get all the great new PsL monthly software additions for
just a tiny fraction of the cost these other groups have happily paid.
You can get over 300 programs for less than the cost of just 4 disks at
our regular disk fees.

--We Heard You

Several months ago, we asked readers how PsL should move into the 20th
century in terms of shareware distribution. One option was having a PsL
BBS. Another was to have a CD-ROM. We heard a lot of pro's and con's for
both ideas.

After weighing the input from readers and considering all the factors
involved, we decided to offer a monthly CD-ROM containing all the new
programs written up in PsL News each month (and more!).

--The Costs

The CD is being offered on a subscription basis for $19.95 per month
plus shipping, billed monthly. We will send you an invoice with each
month's CD or you can have it automatically billed to your credit card
each month. Either way, you can cancel the subscription at any time.

Single issues (including back issues) are $29.95 plus shipping.

--Wading Through A CD-ROM?

One objection we frequently heard from people who were opposed to a
CD-ROM was having to wade through all the software to find what they
need. (Or in the case of most CDs, wade through the junk to find the
good stuff.)

With PsL's Monthly CD, the difference is that as you are reading through
the current PsL News and see something you would like to try, you can
just pop in the CD-ROM, bring up PsL's installation program, and try it.

Each month as we update the PsL Review's files (which contain write-ups
of the more than 7000 programs in PsL), we will add a note indicating
which month's CD the program was last on. As you accumulate CDs, you
will be able to easily go back to get programs you read about in the
Reviews.

Since each CD will have a lot of programs that do not make it into our
Reviews/catalog, we will also have an ongoing catalog file on the CD of
the contents of previous month's CDs.

--And More...

The 250+ programs we add every month, while a lot of software, still
leave lots of free space on a 650MB CD.

This extra space will allow us to distribute a lot of things whose
distribution by PsL is not feasible now.

For example, a 4MB animation file that you will only run a couple of
times is not worth the disk fees we would have to charge to provide it
on floppies, but it costs nothing to add it to a CD. Sound files (WAVs)
and graphics files are other disk space eaters that we will include.

We also reject a LOT of programs every month, although they may be of
very high quality. The main reason is that we do not have room to keep
adding programs to PsL which are minor variations of programs already in
our collection. With the CD, we will be able to distribute even those
programs.

These programs are written up as Quick Looks in each issue. If you do
not wish to get the CD, but want a Quick Look program, you can order it
by name and we will copy it to one or more floppies for you at our
regular disk fees. (Please note that some programs are multiple disks
and our per-disk fee applies.)

With the large number of Quick Look files evident in this issue, readers
will, for the first time, get a feel for the amount of screening and
testing PsL has been doing every month for years.

We will have the latest monthly updated version of PsL's Reviews files
on the CD, unarchived and ready for reading and searching, as well as
the text of the current month's PsL News.

A category which we have begun to distribute on the Monthly CD is electronic
publishing (magazines and books on disk). Much of this material is
time-sensitive and a monthly CD is an ideal way to distribute it.

--File Format

Files will be stored on the disk in ZIP format (with FILE_ID.DIZ files
for BBS use). Many people have asked why we don't store the programs in
separate directories, ready to run, since there is plenty of space.

One reason is that BBS sysops are an important segment of our target
audience, and they need the files to be in ZIP format ready for
downloading.

Another reason is that many programs configure themselves to your
preferences and/or to your system configuration during installation.
Obviously, it would not work to install these on a CD.

Non-sysop users will be able to run a program that lets you read about
the files and install the ones you want to try quickly and easily.
Alternatively, if you read about a program in PsL News and want to
install it even more quickly, a one-line command will find the file for
you on the CD and install it.

One exception to the above is that extremely large programs, in addition
to being on the CD as ZIP files, may also be preinstalled on the CD (if
they will run from CD). For example, the Movies database on this month's
CD takes up 10MB of disk space, so it has been preinstalled on the CD to
save your hard disk space. Japanese I, which takes over 4MB, is also
preinstalled.

(Incidentally, buying the Japanese I set of disks from most vendors on
12+ 360k floppies would cost you as much as the entire PsL CD.)

In contrast, Painless Accounting, which takes 5MB of disk space, was not
preinstalled because it configures to your system during installation.

--Reserve Your CD Now!

If this is your first time to see PsL News, take a look at all the new
pd/shareware programs written up in this issue. (Note: The listing in
the back of PsL News is of most of the 7000+ programs ALREADY in PsL and
are not on the monthly CD.)

Don't miss the updates; they are enhanced versions of programs already in
PsL. Updates are included on the monthly CD.

Once you have seen all the terrific new programs you can get for just
$19.95, we know you will want to call or write to sign up for PsL's Monthly
CD. But please hurry. Supplies of CDs for each month are limited.

--Converting Other Subscriptions

A lot of people have already called with this question, so here's the
answer: Yes, you can convert your existing Monthly Additions Disks
subscription(s) to Monthly CD subscriptions.


-----A CD-ROM Drive For Everyone

If you do not already have a CD-ROM drive, PsL's Monthly CD can
cost-justify one in a hurry.

On the high end, PsL has the Toshiba 3401B, the fastest CDROM drive
available. It has an access time of 200ms and 300kb throughput. It has a
SCSI-2 interface included for just $599 for the internal,