May 1999

This section features the newest and hottest software programs released on the Internet.

By David Lin

There have been quite a few programs that have offered the planetarium concept. Older readers will recall trooping into the planetarium and the ceiling opening up to the sound of oohs and aahs (well, we did). Stella 2000 takes the planetarium and puts it into your PC like no other.

You can take the program on two levels. On the one hand you can say ‘so what?’ to the infinitesimal detail. To the painstaking mapping of 16,000 stars, to the spectral colour accuracy of each star.

On the other hand, you can marvel at the total dedication of the developers in accommodating these and some of the more arcane features. Such as the real-time response you get if the user selects "observing a heliacal rising of Sirius", where Stella2000 will depict that "scintillation (twinkling) for that extra touch of realism".

Okay, it doesn’t grab me too much either. But you can appreciate the maniacal effort that went into producing this program for people to whom this does make a difference (not to mention anyone who can understand what it means). For those people, there are loads of hours to be spent tracking heavenly bodies from any location on Earth. Me, I’ll go to the beach.

Good stuff, though, if you’re keen on your astronomy and have a healthy base of assumed knowledge.

Those of us familiar with that old standard, WS-FTP, will find the interface of AceFTP refreshing and similar to using any of the usual file managers around like Windows Explorer. The generous main viewing window displays panes of the client (the files and folders on your hard drive) and host FTP server. Drag-and-drop support means that once connected, downloading files is as simple as cleaning up files between a hard and a floppy drive.

One of the beauties of using AceFTP is the internal browser function. Anyone who has ever wasted time and resources rechecking a file before sending it off into the ether can appreciate the ability to preview the file contents, whether it is HTML, a sound file or Java applet, without leaving the application.

The other advantage of using AceFTP is the feature that allows simultaneous connected sessions. Got several sites to post to or download from? AceFTP will do it for you. Support is also provided for servers that allow download resuming.

Users might be interested in the suite of applications that AceFTP belongs to including an editor that allows you to edit files in situ at their host site using AceFTP.

Audio Compositor is a software audio sampler that accepts MIDI input and outputs as a wave file, the main advantage being it can handle in its offline mode literally gigabytes of samples and as many voices as the composer desires in a graphical environment on any PC.

The bonus is in Audio Compositor’s familiarity with the SoundFont instrument banks in the older SBK and current SF2 file formats. But whereas SoundFont files are relatively small to fit into onboard RAM dedicated to the soundcard, those limitations are not apparent when working in Audio Compositor.

Normally Audio Compositor will work with its native proprietary AC input file format but it will happily also work with SoundFont as mentioned, and will also accept DLS and Kurzweil instrument banks, although you will need to check what manipulation might be required as some detail is lost when importing.

The finer points are difficult to illustrate without investing in considerable time in getting to know the environment you work in. Plugging in a MIDI sequencer is not so practical unless you have an exceptionally fast PC but it is possible to operate it in real time.

Audio Compositor won’t turn you into Mozart or lead you to ‘Abbey Road’ but it does some things which are awkward on equipment that would otherwise cost you tens of thousands of dollars to fit into your home.

Don’t expect a cut-down program with no frills and narrow functionality. This is a full-fledged working Web page design package. The first thing that strikes you about it is the prodigious amounts of simple background it gives you in the form of tips and wizards to take you through whatever task you have at hand. And not just in the page design area, but also with file management uploading and downloading, basic HTML and CGI scripting.

To this you add the provision of an image cataloguing program, FTP client, 30 page backgrounds, 175 animated GIFs, 140 Web icons, 50 JavaScripts, and 10 graphical remote control interfaces, although not all of these are available in the evaluation version provided here. Support is also featured for WebTV, email linking, server HTML tags, spell checking and, importantly, unlimited undo.

Some of the little touches are especially attractive and elegant. Designing frames and forms is a snack, as are tables, colour schemes and font displays. You are constantly reminded of good practice in your work, like being conscious of the need to test a Web page for viewability under Netscape or Microsoft browsers.

Another touch is the beautiful working interface that Coffee Cup affords the user, such as the drag and drop of files into your working file or the ability to save some precious time when you’re moving about constructing a design and you can right-click open a file for viewing or editing.

This version succeeds a previous application called NetMeter, which was originally provided as freeware but has been significantly tarted up to become the shareware DU Meter. The greatest enhancement has been its option selection, including the unique ability to monitor more than one network connection.

Our impression is that most people will use DU Meter as a convenient diagnostic in particular instances. Once in the system tray it can lie without trace logging the things you need monitoring. It can be set to play alarm banners or sounds on events as a reminder that it is at work. Right-click the icon and your options pop up for selection.

Whatever the motive, I can only see the risk of the software landing in the hands of those applying it to the more risquΘ parts of the Net.

AutoPix polls the headers in a newsgroup aboard a server designated by the user, scanning for GIF and JPG image files. You can set it to scan for other formats. Once the groups are updated, images are downloaded to your hard drive and a small viewing window where a thumbnail display of the downloaded image appears. Right-click on the image and AutoPix resizes the picture to full size. If you need to manipulate the image, though, you will need to run your preferred graphics application.

Duplicate image downloads can be prevented by flagging this occurrence. Secure Password Authentication is also supported.

You can almost say PCast has a more elegant interface, although there is little between them in terms of performance. PCast might also come out on top in the way of user support. In practical terms there is one difference with AutoPix: there’s an extra step to take when you tag the newsgroup you want scanned and then command it to commence download.

PCast implements ‘smart download’, which is synonymous with the feature in AutoPix that prevents duplicate file download. Multiple server connections are also enabled. Be aware that the evaluation version is for only 15 days and only 30 images can be downloaded per day.

ICQ Plus extends the user environment within ICQ. Access is through ICQ’s main window, which opens up into ICQ Plus’s simple dual-tabbed window. It resembles Windows Control Panel’s display settings dialog and, in practice, works very much like it too.

You select ‘skins’, which are schemes. A skin can command colours, event sounds, fonts — basically putting everything in the look and feel class like a Windows Plus! Theme into the ICQ environment. You can import and export skins and skin components like standard GIF and JPG files.

Most recently released news readers appear to be presuming the user wishes to read their preferred Usenet postings offline. With a growing number of online users having access through permanent connections, online readers make sense. Xnews is one guy’s unabashed attempt at creating his own slice of (news) heaven.

Xnews works with multiple server connections, although you should be aware of the system resources available to you. Don’t be surprised if you find a point of diminishing returns if you try accessing three or more servers in the one session.

Offline capabilities are limited — users familiar with NewsXpress reader will see some similarities, but using Xnews becomes a quirky exercise when you get down to using it.

Your usual menu choices, like an inbox, outbox and server options, are included. Xnews makes extensive use of ‘scoring’ for newsgroups, where a score of -9999 kills the posting and 9999 places the most importance there, so you can effectively filter out groups and individual senders from download. Keyboard shortcuts are liberally used, so if you take the time to learn the key combinations Xnews can be a very fast way of scanning the news you need to keep up with.

All modules allow multiple currencies and accounts follow whatever terms and specifics you set up, whether they are vendors or customers. Unfortunately, with the multicurrency (and multi-tax) issue being one of the main features of the package, unless you feel up to rewriting the Delphi source code, BS/1 restricts you to dealing in US dollars, Canadian dollars and pounds sterling. Even the sterling must come into question now that European monetary integration is a fact of life.

If you’re not dissuaded by this information, BS/1 comes with some sample data which will give you a good base for exploring how BS/1 ties your accounts together and how it can link into email and telephone dialling.

You probably have an advantage if you are not a qualified accountant, as BS/1 does not cater for the professional practice. The task is made even less daunting by a wizard which takes you through the entry of real live data and explains some of the basics to double-entry and conventional practice. As mentioned above, the only difficulty appears to be the currency and to a lesser extent the tax issues.