5/7/95 CyberNews Issue #8 Patrick Grote, Publisher and Editor CyberNews is a weekly publication available through an email distribution list and many fine online networks! We feature reviews, interviews and commentary concerning the PC industry. NOTE FROM PATRICK: Help! CyberNews is a name already in use by a publication on the net! Imagine my surprise when I went to start a home page! I need ideas on new names! Send them to me at patrick.grote@supportu.com. The winner will receive a software package. All ideas become property of Patrick Grote. We will select the new name next Saturday. Use your imagination! This Week's Contents: ===================== NEWS ==== -=> Nintendo Not Ready for Next Generation <=- -=> Free Software for Money Planning <=- REVIEWS ======= -=> Microsoft Office Professional with BookShelf <=- -=> Atari 2600 Action Pack for Windows <=- WEB SITE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> The NHL Player's Association <=- FTP FILE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> WinPrint the Total Windows Printing Solution <=- INTERVIEW ========= -=> Lorne Shantz - Law Enforcement Gone Stupid <=- To subscribe, send a message to subscribe@supportu.com with subscribe in body. To unsubscribe, send a message to unsubscribe@supportu.com with unsubscribe in body. Comments should be sent to patrick.grote@supportu.com. Voice: (314) 984-9691 BBS : (314) 984-8387 FAX : (314) 984-9981 All old copies available from anonymous FTP at ftp.uu.net:/published/cybernews ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -=> Nintendo Gives Up <=- SEATTLE, May 5 (Reuter) - Nintendo of America Inc. said Friday that the launch of its powerful new Ultra 64 video game system, originally set for this year's Christmas season, will be delayed until next April. ``We have made a conscious decision not to rush Nintendo Ultra 64 to market,'' Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln said in a statement. The delay could put Nintendo at a disadvantage in the crucial holiday season, when archrival Sega Enterprises Ltd and new market entrant Sony Corp. are expected to have advanced new game players on the market. But industry analysts said Nintendo, with its huge installed base of players and a $3 billion cash hoard, is well positioned to withstand the delay despite the growing competition. ``If anyone is geared to weathering a delay, it's Nintendo,'' said Bishop Cheen of Paul Kagan Associates. He pointed out that Nintendo is still spinning out hits for its current generation 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System, including last year's Donkey Kong Country, which ultimately could bring in $400 million in revenues. Nintendo said it plans to concentrate for the upcoming holiday season on new games for Super NES and for its hand-held Gameboy device. Nintendo also mentioned its new Virtual Boy three-dimensional game system, to be launched this summer. But Nintendo's bets for the future rest on Ultra 64, which with 64-bits of computing power promises to give players faster action, more colorful graphics and better sound effects. Tom Kalinske, chief executive of Sega, said he was not surprised by the Nintendo delay. ``We never really thought they'd manage to get Ultra64 out in time (for Christmas) anyway,'' he said. Kalinske said, however, he was surprised Nintendo would risk allowing Sega to beat it to market for a second time. Sega came out of nowhere to snap up nearly half the video game market by launching its 16-bit Genesis system in 1989, a year ahead of Nintendo's comparable Super NES. He also said Nintendo's Ultra 64 would not be competitive unless the company adds a CD-ROM player to it. While Sega, Sony and upstart video game makers like 3DO Corp. are moving to CD-ROM games, Nintendo is sticking doggedly to the cartridge format that it popularized with the original 8-bit NES system. Nintendo says cartridges provide the best game performance, especially when combined with the microprocessor being developed for the Ultra 64 system by Silicon Graphics Inc., best known for developing powerful computers used by scientists and engineers. Analysts said Nintendo has a potential trump card: the promised retail price of $250 or less for its Ultra 64 player, which would be well below the price of Sega's upcoming Saturn machine or Sony's PlayStation. ``There's nothing written in stone in this very overcrowded market that says you've got to be first -- it's more important to get it right,'' said Cheen. Steve Eskenazi of Alex. Brown & Sons agreed, and said it was too early to tell how Nintendo's delay would affect Christmas sales. ``I think what it means is the transition to the next-generation platforms is going to take much longer and be more prolonged than people think,'' he said. -=> Free Software <=- BOSTON, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Financial Services is offering a free interactive computer diskette designed to help families plan funding for their children's college education. The diskette can be ordered by calling 800-633-1809, extension 108. The software shows what it will cost for tuition, room and board, computed according to the year the user's child will begin attending college. The program is a user-friendly guided tour through the alien territory of college expenses, providing specific information on costs at more than 1,700 U.S. public and private colleges and universities. "It is a useful tool to help parents or grandparents start an uncomplicated, step-by-step approach to planning for their kids' future education," says Dan Ouellette, John Hancock vice president. The diskette is available in IBM-compatible and Mac formats. The package, which includes additional background on Hancock's College Savings Plus program, can be ordered, without charge or obligation, by calling the 800-number. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEBSITE OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to a cool WebSite . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The National Hockey League Players' Association announced its official Internet World Wide Web site today on the eve of the 1995 NHL playoffs. The Official Web Site from the Members of the National Hockey League Players' Association is an interactive, informative program designed to appeal to sports fans around the world while serving as a resource tool for hockey followers and the corporate community as well as the print and electronic media. Medius Communications Inc. pooled its creative talents with the NHLPA to produce the Web pages. Interactive areas include a weekly trivia challenge which offers prizes to the winners in a random selection process. A question-and- answer section which allows fans to speak - via the 'Net' - with the players of the National Hockey League. Current and former players are featured in interviews and there is also a selection of features from the NHLPA's Be A Player Magazine. There is also a section with press releases from the Players' Association and a history of the 28-year-old organization. Hockey fans on the Internet can subscribe to the new Be A Player Club, which is sponsored by Roots Canada. There are also Web pages featuring the Be A Player clothing line with photographs of hockey stars such as Doug Gilmour, Paul Coffey, Brendan Shanahan and Keith Tkachuk modeling NHLPA off-ice apparel. Monies raised from the association's Be A Player marketing program go to the Former Players' Fund. "Joining the Internet will allow our members to interact with hockey fans everywhere," said NHLPA President Mike Gartner. "We believe we've put together a package that's both entertaining and educational, and most importantly, fun. The Internet will also allow us to profile both our current and Alumni members, which will appeal to fans of all ages." The official NHLPA World Wide Web address is http://www.nhlpa.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WinPtr is an icon based set of printer control functions. Major functions are available via hotkeys from anywhere in any Windows application (provided that application doesn't kill a hotkey). WinPtr allows capture of the screen, current window or its client area, or a user delimited rectangle to the printer, a fax, the clipboard or a file. Additionally, the user can print a picture or text file; load the clipboard from such a file; print the clipboard contents whether picture or text; and store those contents in a file. Miscellaneous functions trigger a page eject; clear or view the clipboard; allow changing the default printer; identifying the fax driver; and accessing the Windows printer setup dialog or the Control Panel printer applet. The tasteful WinPtr pelican icon (pel-icon) shows the default printer orientation (P=portrait, L=landscape) on its body and the current default printer's name in its title. You can find this as WPRT103.ZIP on the following FTP site: WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/misc/wprt103.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf Reviewed by Patrick Grote Microsoft has only recently come to dominate the software market. Not too many moons ago you had over eight choices in word processors, at least six in databases and five of the spreadsheet flavor. Today you can choose primarily between three companies offering applications, Microsoft, Lotus and Novell. Each has their own suite of applications typically consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet and database program. Microsoft's best offer in this field is the Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf (MOPB) on CDROM. This package of two CDROMs combines all the elements of a solid application suite, with the full power of a university library reference desk without the snooty librarian. THE KITCHEN SINK MOPB includes the following applications: Word for Windows, (word processor), Excel for Windows (spreadsheet), Access (database), PowerPoint (presentation graphics) and Microsoft Mail (client code). In addition, the Bookshelf portion includes The American Heritage Dictionary, The Original Roget's Thesaurus, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1994, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The People's Chronology and Hammond Intermediate World Atlas. Whew! WORD YOURSELF Each of these applications is pretty powerful in its own respect. Take Word for Windows for instance. Word is a very powerful word processor, but features such as AutoCorrect, AutoFormat and AutoText make controlling this power a breeze for any user. AutoCorrect corrects common typos as you type. No proofreading necessary. The easiest mistake we make when typing is getting letters in the wrong order. Take the word 'the' for instance. If I were to type teh, Word would automatically correct the problem for me. The correction is made when my computer has enough time to make the correction, so my typing flow is not interrupted. If you don't like having the computer watch what you type, go ahead and turn AutoCorrect off. AutoFormat is almost like having Desktop Publishing Professional built-in. Word will take the document you created then apply the styles of a style sheet to it. You have complete control over what changes are made. AutoText allows you to store often used text by keyword. When you insert that keyword Word automatically inserts that text. This is super for boiler plate text and its functions! As you use Word daily you'll notice it functions as the perfect tool for Office. Everything you need to access is just a click away. One of the downsides of using Word is the resource usage. It is truly a monster, but one that can be tamed. 'EXCEL'LENT Excel is the ultimate spreadsheet. If you have ever worked for someone who constantly asks you to try to show data in various forms, Excel should be a logical choice. In addition to all the normal spreadsheet functionality you would expect, Excel allows you to view your data through many different glasses. The most popular is the form function where you data is taken and placed into a form for easy data entry and editing. The most powerful viewing capability can be found in the pivot table. This allows you to view your data without the common 2 dimensional cell constraints in other packages. Super! The different aspects don't stop there, Excel also offers support for using Visual Basic as a macro language. Imagine that! No longer are you limited to the macro language of Excel, but you can now incorporate routines and features that are compatible with Visual Basic. The main issue I had with Excel was the lack of comfortability I could control. There was no easy way of programming a simple key macro nor was there a method for quickly storing a template. TOO MUCH ACCESS Access is a graphical database program. The thought of allowing someone to work in a graphical environment with a database is exciting, because you loose the typical constraints of having to program a routine or report to see data as you would like. In a graphical environment it should be as simple as point and click. Unfortunately, Access isn't quite there yet. The power of Access is immense. You can do anything you can in a DOS based database package, but with a graphical interface. This power is where Access looses some of the friendliness it should have. When you first start to use Access you can be guided by the familiar Microsoft Wizard. This guy is so busy he should be getting close to retirement age! The problem with Access is that after the wizard cuts you loose it isn't very apparent how to make changes to the form, database, etc. you have created. Unlike other applications like Approach where modifications are easy to understand and complete, Access seems to make them difficult. Once you get the swing of things in Access you'll enjoy using it more, but remember, you'll get very used to hitting F1 for help! POWERPOINT POWER AND EASE Where Access is difficult to use after the Wizard quits for the day, Powerpoint is brilliantly easy to use and modify. Microsoft has finally understood where 90% of their user base is coming from: people who want to impress the boss 15 minutes before the meeting! OK, so maybe not 90% of the user base does that, but Microsoft has made a product that is that easy to use! Anyone with minimal Windows experience can sit down and use Powerpoint to create a professional looking presentation in minutes. To facilitate the presentation process, Powerpoint allows you to import data for the show from many sources. You can literally take an existing Microsoft Word document and create a presentation from it. Microsoft has also added cue cards in addition to the Wizards. These cue cards coach you through each of the steps you need to complete on your own after the Wizard quits. In case you don't need them, you can turn the cue cards off. The POWER in Powerpoint is shown when you start to add advanced effects to the presentation. Again, these advanced effects are easy to add and manipulate. Powerpoint is probably one of the easiest software packages you will ever use without loosing power! MICROSOFT MAIL CLIENT There's not much to say about the mail client. Unless you have a current Microsoft Mail network installed it won't do you any good. This is a curious addition to a suite. Wouldn't a personal information manager been a better choice? BONUSES The CD containing the reference material must be available in your PC if you would like to use it. There are no provisions for copying the data onto your hard drive or network server. Blech! With that out of the way, I have no more negative comments about the suite. After using it for two months I cannot imagine my work life without it. Whether I am in Office you using another program, they are superb. As you may recall from the top of the review, the reference CD contains the following items: the Bookshelf portion includes The American Heritage Dictionary, The Original Roget's Thesaurus, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1994, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The People's Chronology and Hammond Intermediate World Atlas. Whew! Each of these really shine in finding information and then moving the information to your document. Each book uses the same interface. This interface lets you search a collapsible outline by typing the characters of your search target in sequential order. So, to find GROTE you would type G then R then O then T and you should be there! Another neat aspect of the interface is that you can search all the books at the same time! You can actually see what each book has on the disease MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY if you wanted. Probably the best feature of all is the ability to click on a word in the text and instantly receive a definition! CONCLUSION Microsoft Office Professional and Bookshelf is the ideal software suite for almost anyone. The price of the suite gets you reference material that some people could argue is worth the price of the suite alone! Microsoft has gone to great lengths to ensure you can move data between applications and the bookshelf easily, which makes this a safe choice for newer computers users! Atari 2600 Action Pack for Windows Reviewed by Patrick Grote If you are like me and a member of the so called Generation X, you were raised on computers and video games. For many of us, the first electronic game we played was the Atari 2600. Remember the block graphics, quirky sound and expensive cartridges? Their back . . . . Activision has converted and boxed 15 of their original 2600 games for Windows. In doing so, they've brought back memories of going to friend's houses in sixth grade and trying to prove myself by winning a round of Kaboom on the hardest setting or wiping out the most bad guys in Chopper Command. Of course, the reflexes weren't always there, but the fun of the game kept us coming back and back. Now, the old Atari games come no where near the real life feeling of a Doom or Rise of the Triad. These guys who created these games only had 4k to work with! Realizing this, it is amazing they were able to accomplish so much. (BTW, the old 4k games now weigh in at 60k or more . . .) Activision brings you Boxing, Chopper Command, Cosmic Commuter, Crackpots, Fishing Derby, Freeway, Frostbite, Grand Prix, H.E.R.O., Kaboom!, Pitfall!, River Raid, Seaquest, Sky Jinks and Spider Fighter. Each of the games are exactly like the originals even down to the music they blast! What enables this slice of history to come to life is the 2600 emulator. The emulator was created by Michael Livesay and it is really hot! Not only do you get the Atari 2600 sound and graphic experience, but you get the ability to control the sound and input devices for all the games. You don't have to go into Pitfall and tell it to use a mouse, then load River Raid and tell it the same thing. The emulator can make it consistent throughout the games. The emulator also handles the high score logging and other game aspects. The play os terrific for an Atari 2600 game. I found these games to be very playable and enjoyable as a break from the normal drudgery. They especially came in handy in two circumstances -- 1) When I was stumped for ideas on a project and 2) When I was in danger of falling asleep at the keyboard. The games swooped in and rescued me! There was only one bug I came across while playing the games and that was related to sound. When I was bouncing from game to game I noticed that sometimes the games wouldn't recognize that I had a sound card installed. I later figured out this was because the previous game hadn't finished using the sound card before the new game attempted to. The games also include some unusually cool features like a boss screen that pops up a spreadsheet and the sounds of your mother every so often yelling at you to go outside and play, sit back from the TV or dinner is ready. Ah, the memories . . . Atari 2600 Action Pack for Windows is a CDROM you shouldn't be without! Even if you aren't the normal game player type, there are so many challenging games to choose from you can't go wrong. Activision 11601 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90025 (310) 473-9200 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK | Interesting people you should know about . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here is a letter from our interviewee today: An Open Letter to Computer Users: I hate sending this. All my life I have worked hard to have the freedom to make my own choices and to live my own life. When I married Jennifer last year, I assumed that we could maintain our independence as a couple and, eventually, as a family. But all that has changed drastically in the past few months. You see, I enjoy the Internet. I enjoy communicating with people all over the world. Over the past five years, I expanded my interests and opened the Wish Book BBS in Phoenix, Arizona. But recently my life was changed unexpectedly. Some of you know by now that the Maricopa County Attorney has charged me with a series of crimes because I was the Sysop for the Wish Book BBS. He's wrong. I'm not guilty of anything. In fact, not only am I not guilty, but I have spent my adult life trying to protect other people, not hurt them. I have been an Arizona Police Officer for 17 years with a clean record. But because the County Attorney is running for reelection and because he thinks he can destroy my life with little problem and make a bigger name for himself, my life has been turned inside out. I've been charged with distributing images of minors engaged in sexual activity and with distributing obscenity. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm a Christian, a family man, and a police officer. My computers were a hobby and public service, one where I was extremely careful to make sure children couldn't get into the wrong files and to keep the bulletin board clean by removing offensive and obscene and offensive material. But there were over 400,000 files on that bulletin board, some that other people put there and that everyone used. You all know how it works with BBS's. What you don't know is how vulnerable we all seem to be right now to the whims of big corporations. In July, 1993, Microsoft security personnel out of California informed officials in Maricopa County that I was making obscene materials available and they sent tapes and files to Phoenix. In order for Microsoft to again access to such files on the BBS, they would have had to send in false identification and made false statements to be granted access. If that wasn't the case then someone gave them codes to gain access under someone elses name. In fact, they were doing key word searches for obscene sounding files. Why they were doing this is beyond anyone's understanding. Supposedly they were looking for pirate commercial software - but why were they looking in the adult BBS sections? Why were they invading my privacy and yours? They'll use Hundreds of thousands of dollars to make an example of me, scare people away from their computers, and destroy my family and reputation. Jennifer and I have emptied our savings, sold many of our belongings, and borrowed what money we can. But the system works against you and tries to break you instead of just trying to prove you guilty. So, before I even have a trial, the Department of Public Safety fired me after 15 years of hard and unblemished work. Unless we have help, we'll go broke trying to defend these charges. The County Attorney is counting on us going broke and having to accept some plea bargain. It is going to cost 5,000 dollars for a retainer just to attempt to regain my job. Criminal defense attorneys do not work cheaply and they want their money up front. Peter Balkan has been wonderful so far in handling the criminal side of my case. But I need help to pay him $30,000 and it will probably cost another $20,000 in expert fees, filings, duplication, and other expenses during the preparation and trial. Some people ask me why I don't just plead guilty to some lesser crime and get it over with. Well, the County Attorney has made that offer. But I spent my life building my name and reputation. When Jennifer and I have children, I don't want their name and their future sullied because I took the easy way out. Without honor, there isn't much left. No one else has been charged in this case. Not the Co-Sysops, not the commercial firms that sold the CDROMs, not the post office that delivered the CDROMs, not Microsoft - no one else. The Wish Book BBS was a general interest bulletin board maintained as a hobby and community service for everyone. Fellow police officers, even Lieutenants and Majors in the Arizona Department of Public Saftey utilized the Wish Book services. There were many officers from other agencies as well. (under their own names) The users of the Wish Book BBS are innocent. I'm innocent. I didn't knowingly do anything wrong. I will not allow the County Attorney to destroy me and my family without a major fight. But I need your help. We need your love and your support, but we also need your money. That's why I hate sending this letter. I've never asked anyone else to take on my burdens, but I can't do this alone. Our family has set up a defense fund called the "Lorne Shantz Defense Fund." The address is c/o Jeff Adcock, P.O. Box 273, Litchfield Park, Az. 85340, or call my brother-in-law Jeff Adcock at 602-877-9638. We accept money, checks, credit cards, anything. Please, I need your help and I need your support. (if you choose to use a credit card, you will need to go through the credit card door at the BBS numbers listed below) I can't tell you how much this rips my guts out to ask for help. But I've got to think of my family, about what's right, and about surviving this attack on my integrity. I can't do this alone. Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help. Sincerely, Lorne Shantz Internet: lorne@twb.com Rime: ->1032 Intelec BBS # 1-602-758-7113 (node4) BBS # 1-602-252-4472 (Node1) INTERVIEW WITH LORNE: PG: Assuming you have some free time with this situation, what do you do to relax? LS: Right now we are so incredibly stressed out by all this there is no relaxing. Many sleepless nights and I've lost 20 pounds. I've put on quite a few gray hairs as well. PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to? LS: Huh? I think it is a music group. I listen to the older rock stations here in the valley like KSLX or KOOl. PG: What is your favorite software package? Why? LS: Hmm, that is a tough one. I would have to say Pcboard by Clark development simply because that is what I use the most. I don't have time to play games anymore or much experimentation with shareware. PG: Define the Information Superhighway in your own words. LS: A collection of computers linked together with the primary operating system being Unix that is growing at such an incredible rate as to be breath taking. It allows users like ourselves to send and receive E-mail from anywhere in the world within minutes to name just one feature. PG: What's the neatest thing about the city you live in? LS: That is a tough question Patrick. Diversity? There is a lot to do in the valley and it looks like it is going to be the new silicon valley. California is chasing away industry and they are flocking here in droves. PG: What exactly did the law enforcement officials find on your PC? Graphic image? PG: Yes, GIF's depicting alleged obscene materials. The files were on CDROM disks. The percentage of allegedly obscene files was one in 10's of thousands. We had approximately 109,000 files not including the files inside the zip files. There are apparently 70 or so files they have determined were on these CDROM's that they are alleging are obscene. PG: What sort of notice did you have that law enforcement officials were investigating you? Did you have any warning before they took your equipment? LS: I had no notice what so ever. I had no idea there was an alleged problem. I was in total shock. I had about 30 minutes notice that my house was about to be raided and I was at police headquarters at the time. PG: How long was it before you got your equipment back? Was it in good condition? LS: They seized the equipment on 11-29-94 and returned it somewhere around 1-11-95 or so, we received the majority of the equipment back. There was some minor damage. All in all they really did an outstanding job on taking care to not do much damage and leave things as they were. PG: You are sort of a newlywed. How has this impacted your marriage? Strengthened it? Weakened it? Give an example . . . LS: This has been a very difficult struggle. I'm not sure to be honest how it has affected us. We had only been married a little over 6 months when this all happened. I think any time something of this magnitude happens it strains a relationship. You see major situations happening all the time where it destroys a relationship. I don't think this will happen to us because we lean on each other, but it is very very difficult. Jennifer is the best thing that has happened to me, but to be honest I would never have put her through this if I had any idea what was about to happen to me. It isn't fair to her. PG: When you are found innocent of this crime, do you have any recourse to go after Microsoft for damages? LS: At this point, I have no idea. Right now, my only concern is to prove that I'm an innocent man and hopefully get on with my life. END INTERVIEW This issue was brought to you by Readables, the publishing house that understands you! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tired of pumping money into your BBS? | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |THE BBS CASH MACHINE is a book written by a sysop who has experience | |running a profitable BBS. With over 10 years sysoping experience, | |you'll gain the knowledge and know-how to attract .- ~ ~ -. | |and keep paying customers to your BBS! .~ ~. | | / \ | |Even if all you want is for your BBS to break | .o~o~o~o. | | |even, the author shows you how! 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