OS/2 Shareware BBS: 32 Periodic/32-Periodic.zip/mnl95815.zip/mnl95815.txt

Text File | 1995-08-14 | 75KB | 1,525 lines

                     OS/2 WARP MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
                        VOLUME 3:  August, 1995


WELCOME TO THE OS/2 WARP MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the August edition of the OS/2 Warp Monthly Newsletter.  In
keeping with the heat of the dog days of summer in the Northern
Hemisphere, we bring you information on two upcoming, hot products:
OS/2 Warp Connect:  PowerPC Edition and the IBM Family FunPak.  These
two products served as the impetus to this month's focus.  Steve
McNally writes about a Warped Household, Maxine Senn-Yuen reviews In
Charge!, a personal finance application, and Collin Summers leads you to
the many Internet sites that can help you around the house.  From the
PowerPC perspective, we describe the PowerPC hardware, provide product
tips on creating a portable application, and give you information
straight from the lab on the OS/2 Warp Connect PowerPC product.  Of
course, there's more but I'll let you be surprised.

August is going to prove to be an exciting time.  As IBM Chairman and
CEO Lou Gerstner says in his letter to the OS/2 World attendees, it's
a time of transition in the software industry and " It's also  an
exciting time for OS/2, as Warp's momentum continues, and IBM adds to
its family of products."  The desktop market is now finally awakening
to the potential of using a 32-bit operating system.  Meanwhile OS/2
users have seen that potential for years.  Most OS/2 users take for
granted the sophisticated features provided in a top-of-the-line
32-bit operating system.  The features such as:

- the slick, easy-to-use power of the Workplace Shell
- the ability to do lots of tasks at one time
- how easy it is to get connected with the OS/2 Warp Connect product
- the reliability and security provided by OS/2 Crash Protection
- the simplicity of surfing on the Internet with the WebExplorer
- and much more

What many current users and potential customers often overlook is that
OS/2 has more than just features.  It has the commitment by the
largest software company in the world to meet the needs of its
customers backing it up.  This commitment is even stronger now.  With
the recent merger of Lotus with IBM, our company now has a heritage
both in enterprise computing and in desktop computing.  The
combination of those backgrounds, make IBM a company with unrivaled
software experience.  OS/2 Warp is a part of all that.  Furthermore,
Lou Gerstner said," I want you to know we will never waver in our
commitment to provide you open, standards-based software that is
technologically superior and battle-tested."

The merger with Lotus brings even more to IBM and OS/2 Warp.  It
brings the opportunity "to dramatically change the playing field."
Operating systems will be only part of a solution, not the entire
solution.  What is important and what IBM will focus on is the open
interconnected enterprise.  No other software company in the world has
the breadth of knowledge in software that spans from small handheld
devices to huge mainframes.  And as far as OS/2 goes, there's no other
32-bit desktop operating system that can boast being a part of all
that.

Jeri Dube

SHAREWARE AND COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE

Spellguard for OS/2
by Nilay Patel

What happens when you are typing the name of a file folder and
suddenly, you can't remember how to spell "idiosyncrasy?"  Your spell
checker is available in your word processor and in your spreadsheet,
but not for the desktop and the command line.  If pulling out the
dictionary is too low tech for you, try SpellGuard for OS/2.

SpellGuard is an application that runs in the background and checks
words as you type them.  When you misspell a word, SpellGuard beeps
and shows the misspelled word in a window on the bottom of the screen.
You can then choose to add the word to the user dictionary or find the
correct word out of the alternatives SpellGuard suggests.

Since OS/2 Warp is a preemptive multitasking operating system,
SpellGuard runs in the background and does not slow down your
programs.  In fact, you don't even know that it is working until you
misspell a word.  Also, when you misspell a word, SpellGuard shows you
all the alternatives faster than any spell checker that I have ever
used.  The alternative words just pop up on the screen as you push the
button.

SpellGuard not only checks for misspellings in OS/2 applications, but
also in DOS and Windows programs that are running under OS/2.  It also
adds a feature which I have never seen in any spell checker before--a
vulgarity alert.  When you type an obscene word, SpellGuard makes
sure you know the word is a vulgarity!

SpellGuard is a must have for all OS/2 users! It is written by Robert
Mahoney and can be found at
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/wpsutil/spellgrd.zip.  The shareware fee is
$25.


In Charge! by Spitfire Software
by Maxine Senn-Yuen

Have you ever wanted to use OS/2 Warp's power to help you manage your
money?  If you have, then In Charge! is one product which may interest
you.  In Charge! is a complete financial management system from
Atlanta-based Spitfire Software.

The first thing I noticed about In Charge! was its simplicity.  In
Charge! is well-integrated with OS/2 Warp's Workplace Shell, and has a
natural, intuitive interface.  Its menus are clear and logical, so you
don't need an MBA to get started.

For home users, In Charge! offers the same standard set of functions
as other top-notch personal finance software.  Families can print
checks, pay bills, transfer funds electronically, prepare budgets and
reconcile bank accounts with supreme ease.  In addition, In Charge!
includes some features not available on comparable products like
Quicken for Windows.  For example, the software can maintain a
complete home inventory for your insurance records.  In Charge also
imports data from Quicken and other popular applications.

For small businesses, In Charge! incorporates many of the features of
more expensive, specialized accounting software.  Invoicing, billing,
order entry and inventory control are simple menu options.  The latest
release of In Charge! (version 1.01.28) can generate invoices
automatically when an order is entered and perform sophisticated sales
analysis to help you maximize your profits.  Reports and financial
statements are simple and quick produce, although they are not
currently available in graphical form.  A handy audit trail facility
also tracks your account activity so you can find out where your money
is disappearing.

Of course, a major benefit of this software is its combination of home
and small business functionality in one box.  This is exceptionally
convenient for users who run a business from their home, or who
perform their business bookkeeping at home.  They no longer need to
buy and learn two different applications in order to manage their
financial affairs.

In Charge! also supports many features for OS/2 Warp's international
users.  Multiple currencies can be used within a single set of books,
with user-defined exchange rates or exchange rates imported from an
online service like CompuServe.  Transactions can be shown in their
native currency or converted to whichever currency you choose.
Finally you can monitor your Swiss bank account from the comfort of
your home.  Dates can be displayed in three different formats with
your choice of separator.  For example, August 1 could be displayed
8/1/95 or 1-8-95, and changed as often as you like.

In Charge! makes extensive use of OS/2 Warp's flat address space,
which permits files of virtually any size.  Users can enter
practically unlimited numbers of transactions and keep as many
different sets of books as they wish without fear of having too many.
In Charge! is fully capable of handling your finances as your business
(or family) grows.

In Charge! also fully exploits OS/2 Warp's multithreading
capabilities, resulting in excellent performance.  Queries are
completed and reports appear on screen instantaneously.  Spitfire
Software has decided not to make In Charge! available for Windows 95
precisely because of that operating system's limited multithreading
capabilities.

All in all, In Charge! is a versatile, powerful, easy-to-use finance
program.  It is a great example of the many terrific applications now
available for Warped small businesses and home users.


Ultimail Lite for OS/2 Warp
by Nilay Patel

One of the most powerful aspects of the Information Superhighway is
the ability to communicate with others via electronic mail.  Although
often overlooked or taken for granted, electronic mail is perhaps the
most useful part of the Internet.

Ultimail Lite, part of the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 Warp, is
an electronic mail program which allows you to send and receive e-mail
and files across the Internet.  Ultimail Lite takes advantage of OS/2
Warp's capabilities in many ways.  For example , you can move e-mail
from your in-basket to another folder using drag-and-drop.  Also, you
can send files by simply dragging the file from your desktop to the
attachments section of your mail message.  In fact, you can drag-and-
drop several files into the attachments section and mail them all at
the same time to the same person with a click of your mouse.

Also, Ultimail Lite has a graphic editor which allows you to create
graphics quickly.  If you are having a party, the graphic editor
allows you to send an invitation and a map with directions in one
e-mail message.  The graphics are stored in standard .gif format, so
recipients using any operating system can view and print the graphic
images.

Ultimail Lite uses the multithreading capabilities of OS/2 Warp to
allow the user to do a number of tasks at the same time.  For
instance, you can read and reply to your e-mail while other messages
are being received.  Ultimail Lite doesn't make you wait when you
send messages out.  They are sent to their destinations in the
background.

Ultimail Lite also features an address book to keep information about
the people to whom you write.  You can define groups in the address
book and mail a single message to multiple people very quickly and
easily.

Ultimail Lite is easy for novice users and powerful enough for power
users.  Ultimail Lite is a great electronic mail application and
because it is included in the IBM BonusPak for OS/2 Warp it a great
deal too.

Show N Tel
by Maxine Senn-Yuen

OS/2 Warp is widely regarded as the ideal operating system for
computer telephony applications.  Show N Tel, a product from
Technically Speaking of Southborough, Massachusetts, shows why that's
the case.

Computer telephony is a way of giving your data network the power to
speak and listen.  It can:
- provide new ways to interact with customers and employees
- streamline support
- improve productivity
- generate revenue and reveal new revenue opportunities
- save on overhead and personnel costs
- make data entry more accurate

Show N Tel is a visual application development tool for enterprise
computer telephony integration.  With OS/2 Warp and Show N Tel you
can:
1.  voice-enable and fax-enable existing applications
2.  introduce voice response and speech recognition
3.  answer and route calls automatically
4.  enable multimedia messaging
5.  deliver information by fax on-demand or broadcast

Telephony systems that once took teams of programmers weeks or months
to complete are now on-line in days or even hours.  In a business
climate where information and rapid response are your most valuable
assets, OS/2 Warp and Show N Tel deliver.

The uses for this technology are endless.  From customer sites,
service reps might call in with symptoms of a problem and ask the
maintenance database for a diagnosis and a return fax with the
solution.  Or calls to sales could be automatically routed to the
right account representative while the caller's record appears on the
rep's monitor, all without a switchboard operator.

Show N Tel has produced astounding results when put to the test.  Take
Interactive Communications Inc. (ICI).  ICI has honed market research
into an art form.  The company conducts surveys for organizations
ranging from banks to medical centers to restaurants.  By using
interactive voice systems, ICI blows away the response rates of
traditional market research data collection.

ICI executes its surveys with several OS/2 based systems and Dialogic
voice cards.  Mark Mulch, the system's creator, said Show N Tel makes
the complex simple.  "I'm not a trained programmer, but I build each
survey application myself.  Show N Tel provides all the pieces.
Custom survey applications that would take a high-priced programmer
several days, I can demonstrate to clients within several hours of
receiving their requirements."

Forget sourcing dozens of vendors or testing compatibility of multiple
voice and fax hardware components.  All you need to know about your
phone system is that it works.  Show N Tel does the rest.

Show N Tel uses PowerBlock (TM) technology to build powerful computer-
telephony applications.  PowerBlocks are high-level program objects
which represent complete voice, fax, database and host connectivity,
and PBX/switch functions.  To create your application, drag-and-drop
PowerBlocks onto the Show N Tel workspace and visually link them in
the logical program flow with a click of your mouse.  Compile, test,
and your telephony application is ready to run.  PowerBlocks can be
customized and grouped to suit your needs.  They also allow you to
define the "sound and feel" of your application.  For example, your
user interface options could include valid touch tones, message
interrupt, playback and more.

Show N Tel's ease of use can be deceiving.  Its time saving features
make it a great tool for small business or remote office applications.
But behind the friendly face is a powerful engine designed for the
most demanding enterprise-wide systems.

Show N Tel takes advantage of all the power OS/2 Warp has to offer.
Its robust 32-bit runtime manager, advanced event-handling, multiple
high line density capacity (96 lines per system, unlimited with
networked systems) help make even the largest phone systems more
productive.


PRODUCT TIPS

Choosing the Right 32-bit Operating System
by Jeri Dube

If for some reason during the next few months, you find yourself faced
with the opportunity to upgrade your current DOS or Windows 3.x
operating system to a 32-bit system, it would probably be useful to
have a few questions that allow you to ferret out some information
that may not be obvious from the product literature.

Choosing an operating system should be taken very seriously.  While
the commitment you make to any particular operating system is not as
important as a marriage commitment, it is something you will be living
with for a while.  It can affect what programs you can run, how well
you can run a program, how well your system plays sound and video, and
how easy it is to accomplish work with your computer.

Doing a complete operating system evaluation is more than just
comparing features.  You really need to consider four critical areas :
reliability, usability, productivity enhancement and any detrimental
effects of the underlying architecture.  We have gathered some key
questions that cover these four areas.

Reliability

Question:  When you install a new 32-bit operating system,
unless you throw away all your current 16-bit applications, you will
probably running 16-bit apps simultaneously with 32-bit apps.  So you
need to know -- What happens to my 32-bit applications when one of my
less stable 16-bit applications crashes?

In the OS/2 Warp line of products, the 32-bit applications will
continue to run.  Since all applications are protected in their own
address space, the fate of one application does not affect the fate of
any other application.  This makes for an extremely robust and
reliable operating system capable of handling mission critical, line-
of-business applications.

With Windows 95, the 32-bit applications can stop executing when a
16-bit application crashes.  Once a 16-bit application fails your only
recourse is to reboot your machine.

Question:  In addition to keeping applications running, you need to
ensure that your data is safe and will be there when you need it.  Are
there any situations where the integrity of data may be compromised?

In OS/2 Warp, your data is secure.  This is because OS/2 Warp keeps
the data areas separate from the application areas.  Furthermore, each
of the running applications are separated from each other.

With Windows 95, there are situations where data may be corrupted.
There are times when an application stores data in an area called the
system cache, prior to writing the data to its permanent storage
location.  Since Windows 95 does not protect the conte nts of its
system cache, during those times one application can write over the
data stored in the cache by another application.  If this happens the
wrong data can be written to permanent storage.

Question:  New users are often worried if they do something wrong,
they will break the computer.  Is there a way for a bad application to
mess up the entire operating system?

With OS/2 Warp, applications do not mess up or corrupt the operating
system.  OS/2 Warp protects itself with well thought-out control
mechanisms that allow programs to do incredible things without
actually interfering with or damaging the operating system itself.

Applications that run on Windows 95 can employ a mechanism called a
VxD that has free reign in the system.  A VxD program can address
system memory directly, manipulate hardware, and even replace portions
of the Windows 95 system itself.  Microsoft has su ggested the use of
the VxD mechanism for improving application performance of time
critical applications.  This means that application writers will use
it and therefore this increases the possibility that a third party
vendor could create a VxD program tha t affects the system in
unpredictable ways.  In fact, the failure of a single VxD program can
undermine the stability of the entire Windows 95 environment.

Question:  When you get a new operating system, you will want to try
applications specifically written for the new system.  Since the
applications may be new and have some bugs, its important to have an
operating system that will not be affected when an application fails.
When running 32-bit applications, how does the operating system
protect itself from application failures?

One of OS/2's features is OS/2 Crash Protection.  This feature means
that if an application fails, only the application fails and the
system is not affected.  To regain control from the broken down
application, you merely need to turn off that application.

New Win32 applications can use the same areas of memory that the
Windows 95 operating system uses.  Therefore if an application does a
memory operation incorrectly, the application can crash the entire
operating system.

Question:  There still may be some legacy applications that you use so
it's important that the operating system run well with DOS
applications.  When running DOS applications, how does the operating
system protect itself from application failures?

OS/2's Crash Protection works for all applications including the
legacy DOS applications.  So if a DOS application runs into a problem,
OS/2 will keep on running.

With Windows 95, the "MS-DOS mode" is required if your DOS
applications access the hardware directly.  This shuts down Windows 95
which must be later be restarted.

Usability

Question:  How does the operating system track the relationship
between the icons that I see on my desktop and the actual files that
are in my system?

With OS/2, the system tracks the icons dynamically.  What this means
to you, the user, is that every time you make a change to the file,
the icon knows it.  Therefore, OS/2 can find what you need when you
need it.

With Windows 95, the system tracks the icons statically.  Each icon is
associated with a path.  The path tells the system where to find the
file.  When you create a shortcut, so that you don't have to go
through a series of menus to get what you want, the p ath to the file
is changed.  However, the icon the path data associated with that icon
is not changed.  Windows 95 will have to search for the file.  This is
a very time consuming and error prone process.

Question:  Learning and using a system is much easier if you do all
the tasks in the same way.  Does the operating system use a consistent
interface for all functions?

The OS/2 Warp user interface is completely consistent.  For example,
the drag and drop capability applies to all functions.

Windows 95 does not maintain a consistent interface.  The Win 95 drag
and drop features are only applicable to some objects.  There are
exceptions that you need to remember such as you cannot drag and drop
a dial-up networking connection to the Windows 95 recycler or drag
objects to the "My Computer" folder.  Furthermore, in most places you
can use the right mouse button but there are exceptions such as the
"Start" menu where you can't.

Productivity

Question:  If you don't buy applications specifically
written for the 32-bit operating system and instead keep running
16-bit applications, will the operating system still improve your
productivity?

Improvements in productivity come from the operating system's ability
to perform preemptive multi-tasking.

OS/2 Warp's multi-tasking feature is able to be effective independent
of what type of applications are running.  So with OS/2 you can
simultaneously fax a note to someone, download a file from the
Internet and more while you run your favorite Windows 3.1 1 6-bit
application.

Windows 95 is not able to do preemptive multi-tasking when 16-bit
applications are running.  Therefore if you plan to use mostly older
16-bit applications, you should not expect to see productivity
improvements.

Question:  Is there any time that the operating system won't multi-
task new 32-bit applications?

There are no caveats to OS/2 Warp's multi-tasking capability.

Yes, there are times when Windows 95 cannot multi-task 32-bit
applications.  This is because Windows 95 uses older 16-bit code for
two very important modules (Window management and Graphics Device
Interface).  When an application needs to use these modules , they
have to wait in line until the previous application is finished with
them.  If a 32-bit application needs to use one of these two modules,
it may have to wait for it.  That application is not able to multi-
task while it waits.

Question:  What happens when you run a mix of 32-bit applications and
16-bit applications?

OS/2 Warp can perform preemptive multi-tasking independent of the
applications running on the system.

When you run a mix of 16-bit and 32-bit applications, Windows 95
resorts to a less sophisticated form of multi-tasking called
cooperative multi-tasking.  The 16-bit applications inhibit the multi-
tasking related performance of the 32-bit applications.

Question:  How well does the system run multi-media applications when
its doing other functions at the same time?

Since OS/2 Warp is able to do preemptive multi-tasking the multi-media
applications run smoothly even when the system is doing other
functions.

The problems that we mentioned above with multi-tasking compromise
Windows 95's performance as a serious multimedia production platform.
If a Windows 95 system is doing a lot of operations while running an
audio or video clip, you may notice the break up of the clip.  The
pictures or sound may seem jumpy.

Detrimental Effects of the Underlying Architecture

Question:  Upgrading to a new operating system is a significant
investment in time and money, so you want to be sure that you're
getting something new for the investment.  Is the operating system a
reimplementation of old technology?  If so, what are some of the
consequences of using the older technology?

OS/2 was designed to overcome the shortcomings of the older (DOS)
technology.  Furthermore, each new release of OS/2 improves the
implementation of that design.

Windows 95 is based on DOS technology that dates back to the early
1980's.  The older technology affects Windows 95's ability to multi-
task and to effectively manage the memory in your PC.  For example,
Windows 95 may report "out of memory" messages, when another operating
system (OS/2 Warp, maybe) would be able to be do more work (have even
more Windows open) with the same amount of memory.  You can view
Windows 95 as DOS/Windows with a new interface, some new special
programs (VxDs) and greater system requirements.

There are many good reasons to upgrade to a true multi-tasking, 32-bit
operating system.  These include taking advantage of the latest
personal computer hardware technology, better performance and greater
productivity.  However to achieve the full benefi t of upgrading your
operating system, you need to choose the right one:  OS/2 Warp



Thoughts on Creating a Portable Application
as explained to Jeri Dube by Arnd Beissner

A few months ago, I met Arnd Beissner at an OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC
Edition) DemoFest.  The point of the event was to port 32-bit OS/2
applications to the PowerPC in about a week's time.  The application
Arnd was working on was Xact, a scientific prese ntation graphics tool
used by both businesses and scientists.  Arnd was the first one to
finish the porting work to get his 1.3 megabytes of OS/2 code to run
on the PowerPC.

It wasn't just that Arnd finished the port quickly that made me want
to get his thoughts on creating portable applications.  Rather, it was
his methodical approach that lead to a successful port so seemingly
easily.


>Tell me a little about SciLab.  SciLab was founded about 6 years ago.
Originally, the Hamburg-based company focused on developing scientific
and technical software.  Today, we also offer plain business software
and develop custom solutions for small and large customers.

>What business reasons motivated SciLab to create portable products?
That's easy.  Creating a portable product is expensive if you develop
for just one platform.  However, beginning with the second platform,
development and maintenance costs are lower by an order of magnitude.
Also, supporting several platforms bears the additional benefit of
customers buying your product because it is cross-platform.  This is
especially true for corporate customers.

>Are there any products that didn't start out as portable applications
but then were redesigned for portability?  Yes, Xact was originally
non-portable and was - over time - transformed to an easily portable
application.  We believe in continuously redesigning (and rewriting)
parts of an application.  This way the internal structure improves
over time while there's alw ays a stable product to sell.

>What did you do to restructure for portability?

The traditional way to do that is to separate platform-specific parts
of the code from the independent parts.  We chose to divide the
application into library services on the one hand and application
source code on the other.  There is no platform-specific code in the
application source, of course.  Large parts of the library services
are also platform-independent.  You could say we designed an
application framework class library.  However, We barely use C++ at
the moment.  To some this may sound anachronistic, but then we think
application design is much more important than choice of programming
language.  Using plain C also saves us from compatibility problems
with different compilers.

>By designing for portability, are you sacrificing performance?

In theory, yes.  In practice, however, the application as a whole
gains performance, since a cleaner application structure allows
programmers to concentrate on the really critical parts.  Also,
breaking the application into well-abstracted modules (or objects, if
you want a nice buzzword) eliminates a lot of side-effects and
interdependencies, so optimizing the code won't introduce as many bugs
as it usually does.  All of this requires a well designed program
structure.  Object orientation alone isn't much use.

>What kind of tuning do you do to exploit a particular platform?  --
Let's say OS/2.

The OS/2 version of our product consists of 32-bit code only.  Xact
can work with very large datasets and therefore all of its code must
be able to handle large memory blocks.  With 16-bit code, this is
inefficient.  We also use multithreading, which is not only more
convenient to users, but improves performance on multiprocessor
machines or machines with bus-mastering I/O.  In client/server mode,
Xact uses OS/2 Names Pipes for interprocess communication.

As the RISC architecture enters the arena of affordable desktop
computing, many applications will need to run on more than one
platform.  Developers may want to consider Arnd's suggested approach
to creating portable applications.  Since the OS/2 32-bit source code
can be compiled for either the PowerPC or CISC-based systems, OS/2
Warp makes it relatively easy to support both platforms.

Arnd has been working for SciLab for about five years as the manager
of software development.  Prior to that he had his own business where
he wrote graphics engines and device drivers for companies.  Arnd and
his team do all their development on OS/2 even w hen they are
developing for other platforms.  You can contact Arnd at
[e-mail].

Adding a Little Cruise Control to the WebExplorer
by Jerome Yuzyk

These are a few things I've done with my IBM WebExplorer for OS/2 Warp
(WE) tool since I first started using it with Warp.  I'm a relative
rookie with Web-surfing, but once I got started I was able to re-apply
many of the things I had learned from my earlier days as a
BBS-surfer.  The essential rules are:

1.  Get your tools tuned, and
2.  Organize what you find, otherwise it isn't worth much.

I do all my SLIP-based Internet work using a ThinkPad 750Cs laptop in
my office and on the road.  Many of the things I've done with the
WebExplorer have been inspired according to my machine configuration
(See "OS/2 Warp on the Prairies").  For example, I use a 14.4k modem
and have only 640x480 screen resolution, so I try to minimize modem
traffic and maximize display speed.

Setup
If you plan to do a lot of surfing, put a reference to the
WebExplorer on your LaunchPad.  In fact, I make a drawer of Internet
buttons, with the main LaunchPad button opening a folder of all the
tools.

Caching can make a big difference in the WebExplorer's speed.  Rather
than retrieving documents or images every time you change pages, a
certain number of pages can be saved on disk or in memory.  This is
very handy for surfing because it truly lets you "browse" pretty
painlessly.  To cache documents in WebExplorer, go to Configure on the
menu bar and select the Caching option.  I cache 32 documents and 32
images, usually in memory, because I surf in bursts.  Caching in
memory is a bad idea if you want to keep a connection running all the
time or have less than 12 or 16MB RAM because your swapper will take a
beating.

Unbeknown to many, WE accepts a few command-line switches that alter
its performance in a few handy ways.  Find your WebExplorer icon, go
to its Settings, and add these switches to Parameters.

 -q
      Quiet exit.  WE won't prompt you for confirmation when you exit.

-t 8
      Use 8 image-loading threads (the default is four).  WE loads
      each image in a separate thread so that many can be loaded at
      the same time.

-i
      fname Use an alternate INI file.  You may have different
      "styles" for different Web-page uses, or want to maintain
      different quicklist sets for different tasks.

Version 1.02 adds Netscape-like image loading, where images are loaded
first at a low resolution (fuzzy) and get sharper as the rest of their
data is loaded.  This can be a real time-(and dollar-) saver because
the WebExplorer loads the page's text first and then its images, so
you can easily decide whether you want to wait for the pictures to be
fully loaded or abort them.

The INI file
Since I get a lot of references from e-mail, newsgroups
and the traditional press it's handy to enter new references directly
into the quicklist area without starting the WebExplorer.  The
WebExplorer stores all its settings in a plain-text file called \T
CPIP\ETC\EXPLORE.INI that can be altered.  But do it with some
caution.  The EXPLORE.INI file is broken into several "stanzas" that
group related settings.  The "quicklist" stanza at the bottom contains
all the references stored when you "Add to Quicklist.  "

To make the editing easy for me, I made an object that uses my
favorite editor to edit the file.  Then I put a reference to this
object on my launchpad.  With a couple mouse-clicks I can open the
file and type or paste new references or edit references that I've
added from the WE (many homepage titles are not very informative,
especially when you grab links from lower in a homepage "tree").

Having collected over 150 quicklist entries I started looking for a
way to organize them into categories so I could find them easier
later.  The WebExplorer has no built-in "links manager" but playing
around with a few experimental quicklist entries showed me that I
could easily create a few dummy page references that would serve as
category titles.  Each quicklist entry has a very simple format:

quicklist= Title of this Link<br> http://_the_link_reference

so I just made a few links that looked like

quicklist= ___ Fun ______________________________________________
-------------- Fun ----------------------------------------------

and put references that fit below each of these titles.  The first
line shows as a title for "List as Titles" and the second line for
"List as URLs" in the quicklist browser.  Picking these references
accidentally just causes a simple error message that can be ignored.

I put a "New Grabs" (or similar) title at the bottom of the quicklist
stanza because that's where the WebExplorer puts links grabbed on-
line.

Links as Objects
Another method for organizing links relies on the
WebExplorer's object-friendly design.  With version 1.02 you can drag-
and-drop links between WE's viewing window and any WorkPlace Shell
folder.  While viewing a page, grab it (anywhere except on an image) w
ith the right mouse button and drag it to a folder.  The link will be
turned into an object that you can later drop onto an open WebExplorer
window to load the link.

I created a folder just for these links and any pictures I grab (in a
similar fashion), and I shadow it to my desktop so that I can easily
clip-and-save any neat places I've been for later use.  I also
shadowed the "WebExplorer URL" object template to this folder so I can
add new links manually, and the image viewer I use so I can look at
any images I've grabbed.

The WebExplorer as an Authoring Tool
Writing Web documents is relatively easy, requiring only a text
editor, a bit of HTML language reference and a previewer.  WebExplorer
makes a perfect previewer.

Simply drag the icon for your creation onto an open WE window and it
will appear as a regular page.  If you view updated versions
repeatedly, make sure you disable all WE caching.  If not, you'll just
see repeated displays of the first version of the document you view.

For an editor you can choose one of the three different text editors
(E, EPM and TEDIT) or you can use your favorite word-processor (like
IBM Works) and save your work as a text file.  For a sample Web page,
find a Web site with a decently-sophisticated ho mepage and Save the
page to disk.  HTML files are just text files with a mark-up language
that indicates how various pieces should look.  Mark-up "tags" are
enclosed in angle brackets and use one tag for "feature on" and
another for "feature off."  To see what this page (or any other) looks
like under the hood, do a View-File (Ctrl-V).

Like any other tool, half of the WebExplorer's benefits come from what
it does, and the other half from how it's used.  A little careful
crafting helps me keep "cool" on reasonably-average hardware without
breaking the bank (especially on a metered service like the 'Net).
Anyone can do the same.

Most of these tips apply to all versions of the WebExplorer to-date.
If you don't have the latest Beta version (1.02 as of this writing),
you may retrieve if from ftp://ftp.ibm.net/pub/WebExplorer.


ENTREPRENEURS

DevTech
by Steve McNally

Development Technologies, Inc. (DevTech) knows OS/2 and the people who
use it.  They've developed and brought to market many of the
applications that have made OS/2 so indispensable -- especially to
power users and people who need their systems to perform every day.
And they're planning to do even more.

Development Technologies, Inc. has been providing Fortune 500
companies, small businesses and individual users with OS/2 solutions
since 1985.  Noel Bergman, President of DevTech, knows these
businesses need OS/2 to implement their mission-critical appli
cations.  He refers to it as "Technology Transfer."

"We don't want to come into your business, set up a system and then
leave you to it.  We train people to understand the complete solutions
we're giving them so they can run it themselves."

DevTech has been chosen by IBM as one of 150 software developers to
participate in the beta program for OS/2 Warp Connect PowerPC Edition.
DevTech was intimately involved with OS/2 since the mid-1980s.

OS/2 Warp Connect already squeezes the most out of your x86
processors:  The PowerPC Edition of OS/2 Warp Connect fully exploits
the potential of these new RISC processors and demonstrates their
strengths over the older technology.  With DevTech's aid (and that of
the other beta testers), IBM intends to show how easy it is to build
applications that take advantage of the combined power of the RISC
hardware and the OS/2 software.

DevTech is porting code from its existing lineup of essential OS/2
Warp applications (e.g. DeskMan/2 - DevTech's award-winning suite of
OS/2 utilities), as well as creating new code to run on both PowerPC
and x86 editions of Warp.

DeskMan/2 allows users to more efficiently manage the Workplace Shell.
It enables you to organize numerous concurrent activities with a
simple drag and drop, point and click interface.  It also lets you
create virtual desktops to help you visually manage all of these
concurrent activities.

DevTech has recently announced the availability of the DeskMan/2
Productivity Pack.  This powerful package includes features, like
password-protected objects and Workplace Shell Audit Trail.  These
features were previously available only in the Corporate Edition.  The
DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack also includes leading-edge software from
Proportional Software Corp., Sundial Systems Corp., WarpSpeed
Computers and BonAmi Software.  The DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack has
been dubbed the "OS/2 Survival Kit" by many in the OS/2 community.

"As the market expands for OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)," Noel
says.  "Our customers will have the choice of staying with x86," or
migrating to the newer technology knowing "that we will support both."

Making good ideas better A lot of the best software innovation today
is still from the guy who writes it because he needs it himself.  Noel
is, among many other things, a recruiter; he finds great ideas and the
people behind them.  After investigating a prospect, he'll see if th e
person is interested in working with his team.

"Not everyone likes to," says Noel.  "Some people need to work by
themselves.  They could release it on their own, and it might be
pretty good as a shareware-caliber product.  In my experience, though,
the final product of a good team will always top that of an
individual."

Noel doesn't want to be a publisher; he doesn't want to put someone
else's work on the market for them.  He wants to put a team in place
that will work on the idea and stretch it to its full potential.  As
incentive and reward, he gives the individual who came up with the
idea a stake in the outcome of the resulting commercial product.

It's this personal stake, as well as DevTech's intense familiarity
with OS/2, that makes the difference in the utilities and applications
they produce.

"I don't pretend DevTech has every great developer out there, but this
team is the best I've ever experienced.  They prove this to me on
every project we do."

Development Technologies, Inc. creates products that help all users,
even the ones without mission-criticals, enjoy the robustness,
preemptive multitasking and ease of use of OS/2.


ELECTRONIC 'SCAPES

Home and Garden Sites

In keeping with this month's newsletter theme, we checked out some web
sites for hearth and home.  So click on your WebExplorer and have some
fun.

Home Improvement The Home Improvement Net Tips at
http://www.webscope.com/nettips/homepage.html seems like a great place
to start.  It promises ideas and products that will help maintain and
upgrade the value of your home.  I can't verify that because it was
too busy when I tried to get to it.  But if you can judge a website
like you judge a restaurant, (If the restaurant is crowded, it's
probably good), then the fact that it was busy makes it worth a try.

If you figure out a home improvement project that will cost money that
you don't have on hand, you can look for loan sources at
http://www.yahoo.com/Business/Corporations/Financial_Services/Financin
g/Real_Estate.

Decorating
Most of these sights were commercial sites advertising
their products, but they sure had some interesting products.  The most
interesting product I saw came from Jammin' Johns, where they sell
guitar-shaped toilet seats.  So if you're in the market for a toilet
seat, you just gotta check out the Jammin' Johns homepage where they
promise "It's more than just bathroom humor, it's music for your
rear."  I found this site (and other sites with furniture and
decorative items for tamer tastes) by going to http:/
/www.i3.se/furniture.html and clicking on Miscellaneous and
Commercial.

At http://www.cyberenet.net/~spimpis/stencil/stencil.html, I found
some stencil designs.  Stencils are great for people who want to jazz
up their walls without wallpaper.  The Suquet Interiors page at
http://mkn.co.uk/help/extra/people/suquet satisfies a different taste
by offering information on old stonework and iron pieces.  For people
who like western style living, the Surroundings:  a Source for Western
Living homepage at http://rainbow.rmii.com/~wmartens shows pictures of
rooms and specific items.

Gardening
It's summer in the northern hemisphere and so this may be
the perfect time for enhancing or starting your garden.

If you're looking for the exotic, try the Pine Garden Bonsai Company
homepage at http://www.poppyware.com/pgb.  This page offers photos of
many types of bonsai from boxwood to crabapple, and provides a link to
Ian Slade's excellent bonsai home page.  It al so explains their
origin, history and techniques for growing 'em.

If you love a traditional English garden, check out
http://www.kc3ltd.co.uk:8002/business/hortus2 where they have the
online version of the prestigious Hortus Gardening Journal.

Cooking
After working up an appetite in your garden or if you're
hungry after surfing the 'net, check this stuff out...

The Institut of Nuclear Chemistry's Recipe Page at
http://dkcmzc.chemie.uni-mainz.de/~FRANZ/recipes.html offers recipes
for Jambalaya, Swabian Liver Dumplings and Burgundy Pears with
Zambione.  This page has a great variety of recipes in English and
Germ an, all written by the Institut's employees.  It isn't a feast
for your eyes, though.  There are no graphics.

For more exotic cuisine, check out Pedro's Kitchen at
http://superior.carleton.ca/~pwigfull/pedro.html.  You'll find
intriguing Brazilian desserts like Boce de Abobora (squash candy) and
Pao De Mel (honey bread) here.

If you looking for vegetarian, try http://www.fatfree.com.  Here
you'll find a powerful and comprehensive search engine with a
2000-recipe searchable archive.  There is an extensive selection of
Indian cuisine and lots of colorful graphics.

If you like vegetarian but don't like to cook see The World Guide to
Vegetarianism at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Vegetarian/Guide, which
lists vegetarian-friendly restaurants throughout North America,
Australasia and Europe.  They also provide quick access to Internet
vegetarian support groups.

If you want to hone your cooking skills, see the home page created by
the world famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/restaurant/restaurant.html.  This site
offers more than just recipes.  It actually reveals cooking techniques
of professional chefs that you can use whether you're cooking
hamburgers for the gang or a 6-course meal for your future in-laws.

Cleaning
We didn't find any sites, but who wants to clean anyway?



USER POWER

A Very Warped Household
by Steven McNally

The story you are about to read is true.  The names have been changed
to protect the subjects from notoriety and the IRS.  The household you
are about to peek in on is real.  None of the members are substance
abusers; they are, however, a very WARPED HOU SEHOLD.

Nile is 5 and a half years old, a pre-school graduate anxiously
awaiting the start of kindergarten.  As preparation for kindergarten,
Nile has been practicing his coloring skills.  Sometimes he likes the
Crayola-and-paper medium, but of late he's been at the computer.
Nile's OS is OS/2 Warp and he loves it, even though he doesn't know
what an OS is.

Nile colors, and when he needs to take a break from the picture he's
working on , he can switch out and play one of his favorite games.  At
5 and a half, Nile can make his way around OS/2's Workplace Shell.  "I
got tired of waiting for my Mom when I wanted to change to a new
game, so now I do it myself."

He can switch between his coloring/graphics program, as well as his
favorite OS/2, DOS and Windows games.  And, though he knows that he
should always do a "System Shutdown" when he's done, his mom says that
sometimes Nile forgets and just hits the power s witch.  "Even then,"
she says.  "OS/2 comes right up next time."

Nile's mom tells me that before they had OS/2 at home, sometimes
Nile's games would crash their system.  "Now we play all the same
games, and never have a problem.  Even if the game stops working, the
rest of the computer is fine."

Husband/Daddy Milo uses the Internet Connection and the WebExplorer to
research the restaurant business.  "The IBM Global Network is great.
I use it for all its extra features and support.  But I learned that I
can use the TCP/IP that comes with OS/2 War p and hook up to the
Internet directly with a shell account from a local provider.  This
gets me a lower monthly fee and lower connect-time charges."

"Before we got OS/2, we used to use one of the commercial on-line
services.  Even when I could find something interesting, it was like,
'find a file, start downloading it, grab a cold one, go outside, mow
the lawn, and then come back and work on my business plans and all the
other things I need to do."  With total Internet access, Milo now has
libraries, from around the world, on his desktop.  And with the
Internet Access Kit which came free with OS/2 Warp, he can download
several things at once.  Even with only one modem.  And he can get all
his work done as he downloads.

Elaine keeps track of the finances and the household budget.  She pays
the bills while printing her reports and gets suggestions on how to
save money while tracking the family mutual funds.

Elaine also writes for her alma mater's newspaper.  She creates, edits
and faxes her column right from her OS/2 desktop.  She can even
receive faxes from her editor, plug the changes right into her piece,
and send it back...without leaving her computer.

"We were never real big on computers," says Elaine.  But since they
got OS/2 Warp, "Our computer has become another necessary household
appliance, like the washer/dryer.  Though it's not as fun to put the
cat in."  The cat ran across the keyboard, hid behind the couch and
could not be reached for comment.

13-year-old Lidia uses the WebExplorer to find the latest pictures and
sound-bites from Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.  OS/2 Warp has turned their
formerly silent and dull computer into a full-featured, multimedia
"grunge-machine."  Milo and Elaine use WebExplo rer's Parental Lockout
Controls (which Nile showed them) to make sure Lidia doesn't see
anything she shouldn't.

"Shhh," said Samantha, the 17-year-old.  She'd been working as I was
talking with the rest of her family.  Studying for the SATs.  Computer
asks her questions, she answers, the computer asks harder questions.
Times her, too.  She didn't notice that I'd s een the pop-up window
let her know that "The File 'PARTYCOL.LGS' Has Been Downloaded
Successfully."

The 20-year-old, who wants to be referred to only as "Sunrise,"
organizes all her poetry, homework and research papers.  "A task," her
mother says, "close to impossible before Warp came home."

OS/2 Warp allows everyone in this family to create their own password-
protected desktop.  "It's like we each have our own computer," says
Sunrise.  "We have all our folders and icons the way we like.  We each
have our own space."  Right.  You also have t he best 32-bit,
multitasking, multimedia operating system around today.

"The cat just put a dead lizard on your coat," Nile tells me.  Nice.



FEATURES


Beyond CISC:  the RISC Vision of Computing
by Maxine Senn-Yuen

In recent years, much has been written about RISC computing, in
general and the PowerPC, in particular.  This article explains what
RISC computing means and how OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)
allows you to take advantage of the hottest new platform in the
industry.

They had a dream...
RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing,
as opposed to CISC or Complex Instruction Set Computing.  The basic
premise behind RISC computers is that processors given simple
instructions will be able to execute them faster and consequently have
better performance.  Most personal computers today are based on CISC
architectures, as implemented in Intel's x86 microprocessors.

The first commercial RISC computers, the 801 minicomputers, were
developed at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in the mid 1970s and
met with limited success.  The second generation of RISC computers,
IBM's popular RS/6000 family of workstations and systems, used an
improved RISC architecture called Performance Optimized With Enhanced
RISC (POWER) which forms the basis of the PowerPC architecture.  The
PowerPC architecture was jointly developed by an IBM, Apple and
Motorola alliance and unveiled in 1990. The PowerPC caps two
decades of research on RISC computing at IBM and represents a
compelling alternative to the limitations of Intel's CISC architectures.

Keeping things simple
So, how does the PowerPC and other RISC microprocessors achieve
superior performance?

As the name implies, RISC processing uses shorter and simpler
"reduced" instructions.  Although the total number of instructions
needed to execute a given task are typically greater with RISC-based
microprocessors, those instructions can be executed much faster than
on CISC computers, usually within less than one system clock cycle.

The instructions are broken into equal lengths and executed using
pipelines.  Pipelining allows more than one instruction to be
performed, in parallel, within the microprocessor at any given time.
This increases the number of instructions that can be per formed
within a given time period.  The fixed-length instructions also allow
a complete instruction to be retrieved from memory in one memory
access.  This eliminates the "memory bottleneck" characteristic of
CISC machines in which the processor waits idly as instructions are
accessed from memory.

The PowerPC also uses superscalar designs which enable the
microprocessor to execute more than one instruction independently, at
the same time.  Like pipelining, superscalar execution allows the CPU
to work more efficiently.

A dedicated floating-point execution unit (EU) on the chip itself
helps PowerPC machines perform floating-point calculations with
astounding speed.  Floating point calculations are critical to many of
today's most sophisticated applications including CAD / CAM, complex
spreadsheets, graphics and imaging software.  As a result of the
excellent floating point performance, the PowerPC also enhances
performance in multimedia video, telecommunications and speech
applications .

The PowerPC uses a memory caching system to store program loops which
can then be accessed from super-fast cache instead of much slower main
memory.  This greatly improves system performance.  Fewer transistors
in the microprocessor make the PowerPC smaller and less expensive to
produce than comparable Pentium chips.  Finally, more registers within
the microprocessor allow the computer to perform more work without
accessing main memory.

Not all of these PowerPC features are new; some were actually borrowed
from the mainframe world.  But by combining the old with the new, they
provide a platform capable of enormous power today and poised for
future growth.

Harness the power of the PowerPC
The PowerPC is both exciting and powerful, but needs a sophisticated,
state-of-the-art operating system to harness its power.  The operating
system is the crucial link between the PowerPC microprocessor and
software applications, and so must take advantage of the hardware's
capabilities while handling the powerful new PowerPC applications.
OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) does all this and more.

OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) has the same user-friendly, award-
winning Workplace Shell interface as the other members of the OS/2
Warp family.  It also incorporates human-centered technologies and
other features that enable it to exploit the PowerP C. All current
32-bit OS/2 applications are a simple recompile away from running
natively on the PowerPC.  Plus OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)
will include a BonusPak of productivity applications and will run most
of your existing DOS and Windows 3.x applications.

Most analysts believe there will be room in the personal computer
market for both RISC and CISC microprocessors to coexist for the
foreseeable future.  If you find the PowerPC vision of computing more
compelling, and choose to go in that direction, then OS/2 Warp Connect
(PowerPC Edition) will help you unleash the power of the PowerPC.

For more information on the PowerPC microprocessor, visit the IBM
PowerPC Page at http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/ppc.  For
information on the IBM Power Series family of products, check out the
IBM Power Series Home Page at http://www.austin.ibm.com/pow
rinfo.html.  For information on OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) visit
http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/ppcpress.html.

OS/2 Warp (Connect PowerPC Edition):  Imagine the Possibilities
by Maxine Senn-Yuen

Imagine an operating system:
- powerful enough to play wavetable midi music without a sound card
- versatile enough to handle all the exciting new applications being
  developed for the PowerPC platform, yet run most existing DOS and
  Windows applications with ease
- sophisticated enough to incorporate the latest software technology
  while letting the user work the way he's always worked with his
  system.

Such an operating system isn't the stuff of science fiction.  OS/2
Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) can do all this, and much more.  To get
the scoop on this remarkable product, I spoke to Arnold Bramnick,
Senior Programmer, and Alan Tannenbaum, Senior Technical Staff
Member, at IBM's Boca Raton, Florida, facility.

If I had to describe OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) in just one
phrase, it would be "a completely 32-bit redesign of OS/2 Warp
Connect."  Much of the code for this release has been carried forward
from other OS/2 Warp releases.  This means that OS/2 Warp Connect
(PowerPC Edition) reuses proven, user-tested code for Presentation
Manager, Workplace Shell, multimedia and other functions.

OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) is both similar to and different than
other versions of OS/2 Warp.  In many ways, it's like replacing a
car's four-cylinder engine with a six-cylinder engine.  Although the
engine is different, the brakes and steering wheel remain the same so
the driver interacts with the car in the same familiar way.
Similarly, although the hardware behind OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC
Edition) is different, the user interface has the same look and feel
as other versions of OS/2 Warp.

OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) delivers everything you expect from OS/2
Warp, including the same award-winning, user-friendly Workplace Shell
interface.  In fact, users will not encounter a learning curve when
moving from one version of OS/2 Warp to the other. Developers will
also experience a smooth transition because applications for the
PowerPC Edition are written to the same OS/2 32-bit APIs.

This operating system is particularly exciting because it is the first
release implementation of technology which achieves levels of
portability and scalability never reached before.  Its code base is
scaleable from laptops to superservers.  This technology is
transparent to users and developers, and will eventually be made
available on Intel x86 platforms as well.

The technology also gives you an astonishing 3.5 gigabytes of
application address space.  This increase guarantees that the OS/2
Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) can handle the largest and most complex
applications.  Today this is especially important for datamining and
database management, but if the past growth rate is an indication,
this large address space will be needed for all kinds of applications
in the future.

Another benefit of the advanced technology is that OS/2 Warp Connect
(PowerPC Edition) is fully multiprocessing-enabled.  Multiprocessing
computing uses more than one microprocessor to execute instructions,
in parallel, simultaneously.  This greatly improves system
performance.  So as the power of the PowerPC hardware grows, OS/2 Warp
Connect (PowerPC Edition) will be ready to exploit it.

OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) taps the PowerPC hardware to produce
exceptional graphics performance.  Applications written for today's
popular GUI systems are graphics-intensive and therefore require a
great deal of floating-point computing power.  The PowerPC excels at
floating point calculations and the OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC
Edition)'s graphics engine is designed to take advantage of this
hardware power.  This results in a snappier and more responsive
interface with all GUI applications.

The next logical step after a graphical user interface is a human-
centered interface.  Human Centered computing is a revolutionary way
of interacting with your computer.  It allows you to use speech and
other "natural" tools (instead of a keyboard or mouse) to interact
with your computer.  Human-Centered technologies are fully
incorporated in OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition).  With this operating
system, you will be able to navigate your desktop using your voice.

OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) has extensive multimedia support.
It uses the advanced architecture and floating point capability of the
PowerPC to provide wavetable music synthesis without the special, add-
on sound card required on other systems.  Image, animation, video, CD
audio and Kodak PhotoCD support will also be included.

The combination of OS/2 Warp and the Power PC platform enables
ordinary PC users to have the performance of "high-end" workstations
at a fraction of the cost.  OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) is a
flexible, powerful, innovative operating system.  It covers new,
evolving hardware architectures today, while leaving room to adapt to
other platforms in the future.  And because OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC
Edition) will run DOS, Windows and recompiled 32-bit OS/2
applications, it provides an endless array of migration
possibilities.

For more information on OS/2 Warp Connect Power PC Edition, visit
http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/ppcpress.html.


Lab Update:  OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)
by Maxine Senn-Yuen

Recently, OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) passed some significant
milestones.  Its overall performance continues to improve ahead of
projections.  The April 1995 version was six times as fast as December
1994 version.  Subsequent lab versions continue to show perfomance
improvements at a similar rate.

Improvements in the memory footprint are also on target.  The current
version can run all the programs you want optimally with only 32MB of
RAM (down from 64MB) and will be able to do so with 16MB of RAM when
we release the commercial version.

There have also been notable successes porting applications for OS/2
Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition).  Today, a complex 32-bit application
can be 90% ported within two days, a remarkable turnaround time!

OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) is scheduled to be released in
late 1995 and expected to be the high volume operating system on the
IBM Power Series line in 1996.


The IBM Family FunPak: Helping Your Family Get the Most Out of Your
PC
by Kim Stephens

Personal computers in the home promise to open new worlds of
information and entertainment for the whole family.  In reality, that
promise usually goes unrealized.  Far too often, the home PC sits idle
23 hours a day, becoming nothing more than a very costly piece of
furniture.

In a typical home, only one or two people are truly comfortable using
the computer.  The other family members tend to be mystified by
computer technology, with no incentive to learn how to use it.  In
this situation, it is hard to justify the expense of a new computer
knowing that it will be underutilized.  IBM has solved this problem
with Family FunPak for OS/2 Warp, a software package that will
motivate every member of the family to use the home PC.

What is the Family FunPak?  The IBM Family FunPak for OS/2 Warp is a
collection of ten, first-rate native OS/2 titles with one DOS and one
Windows program thrown in as added bonuses.  Some of the titles are
old favorites while others are brand new programs being released for
the first time.  The Family FunPak has something that will appeal to
every age group and both genders.  It includes software for games and
entertainment, personal financial management, education and reference.

The IBM Family FunPak includes a native OS/2 version of SimCity
Classic Limited, the widely-acclaimed city simulation program.  With
SimCity, you can plan, build and manage your own town or take over an
existing one.  Then the fun begins, as you try to protect your city
from the natural and man-made forces that threaten it.

Rapid Assault is an arcade-like DOS action game that exploits OS/2
Warp's DOS games settings.  In Rapid Assault, you control a hovercraft
and shoot it out with enemies in a 360 degree virtual landscape.  The
graphics in this game are smooth and quick; the action is non-stop.

If you want more fast-paced action with terrific sound effects, then
Star Emperor and Havoc for OS/2 Warp! are right up your alley.  Star
Emperor is a follow-on to the very popular game Galactic Civilization
for OS/2.  In this fantastic new game you face a universe full of
alien civilizations, political intrigue and outright warfare.  Both
Star Emperor and Havoc really put your reflexes to the test while
highlighting OS/2 Warp's superb sound support.  The thunder from your
spaceship's cannon as you blast an asteroid to bits in Havoc for OS/2
Warp! is simply awesome (and strangely cathartic).

In fact, the Family FunPak takes full advantage of OS/2 Warp's immense
multimedia capabilities.  Throughout the 10-pak, sound, graphics and
video support are excellent.  For example, the Child Development Guide
includes an exercise video for expectant mothers.

The Family FunPak includes the American Heritage Dictionary, a
complete on-line reference for the office, school or home.  Has a
crossword puzzle clue got you stumped?  The dictionary's unique
wildcard feature helps you find words when you don't know all the
letters.

Are you up to the challenge of playing against one of the best
backgammon players in the world?  Based on breakthrough research in
Artificial Neural Network technology, TD-gammon actually taught itself
to play backgammon, starting from scratch.  If backgammon isn't your
cup of tea, then exercise your own neurons with the brainteasers in
the MicroLearn Game Pack.  But be warned -- those brainteasers are
addictive!

Take charge of your finances with In Charge at Home!, a complete
personal financial management program.  In Charge at Home! allows you
to balance your checkbooks, create budgets, do tax planning and pay
bills automatically.  What better way to calculate the return on your
investment in a personal computer.

Speaking of money, do you want to challenge the odds of classic casino
games without putting the family fortune on the line?  The Family
FunPak offers OS/2 Poker and OS/2 Black Jack, both written by a former
Las Vegas Casino Pit Boss.

For younger children (ages 3 to 10), the Family FunPak offers Magic
Canvas, a paint program which uses familiar icons (crayons) and
familiar objects (animals, people) to help your aspiring Picasso
create exciting and colorful pictures.  Magic Canvas teaches your
children that using computers can be creative, simple and fun.

Where to find the IBM Family FunPak for OS/2 Warp

The IBM Family FunPak will first come included with the IBM Aptiva
models M30-2144, M35-2144, M40-2168, M50-2144, M60-2168 and
M70-2168 beginning this August.  As more and more Aptiva systems
come preloaded with OS/2 Warp, the IBM Family FunPak provides an
inexpensive, all-in-one software package for the entire family that
really takes advantage of OS/2 Warp's capabilities.

The Aptiva is a great computer on which to experience the Family
FunPak.  The IBM Aptiva line includes an energy-saving feature that
allows you to switch very rapidly between OS/2 Warp and native DOS
games or any other DOS application.  All your OS/2 applications are
saved exactly where you left off; you don't need to close any
applications or shut down your desktop.

If you can't purchase an Aptiva, you may want to get the IBM Family
FunPak retail package.  The retail package (with a street price of
US$49) will be available in ample time for the 1995 holiday season,
making it a great idea for holiday gift-giving.


WARPED ETC.

Inside OS/2 LAN Server 4.0

Have you always wondered how to assign a resource alias to a group or
which NET command allows you to quickly show the version number of the
DLS redirector?  If so, IBM has the redbook for you.  The redbook
entitled "Inside OS/2 LAN Server 4.0" is now available worldwide.

This redbook is the result of two projects conducted at IBM's
International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center.  The
redbook describes the major functions of the IBM OS/2 LAN Server 4.0
product, based on the actual experiences of the system engineers who
participated in the projects.

The purpose of this redbook is to provide guidance on installing and
configuring the IBM OS/2 LAN Server 4.0 features.  The redbook is
intended to help customers plan, install and configure their LAN
Server Network.

Some of the topics discussed in the redbook include:  LAN Server 4.0
Graphical User Interface Managing Additional Server, Shadowed Servers
and Local Workstations Peer Services Multiple LAN Adapter Support
Command Line and API Enhancements 386 High Performance File System
OS/2 LAN Server CID Enablement

To order a copy today, call 1-800-879-2755 or fax [phone] in
the United States.  Customers outside the U.S.A. should contact their
local IBM branch office (Order # GG24-4428-00).

OS/2 Sightings

On a recent broadcast, nationally-syndicated radio talk show host
Howard Stern spent a good portion of his show extolling the virtues of
ColorWorks.  ColorWorks runs exclusively on OS/2.

In the heart of New York City's Financial District is J&R Computer
World, a very large computer store.  The store's entire back wall is
covered by a huge, state-of-the-art monitor display.  On July 24, J&R
Computer World ran an OS/2 Warp demo which was displayed on every one
of those monitors.  The demo left many of the store's customers amazed
and transfixed.


                                          SURVEY

We want to produce a quality newsletter that meets your needs.  Please
take a few minutes to answer the following questions and send your
responses to:  - FAX:  [phone] - INTERNET ID:  JDUBE @ VNET.IBM.COM
- MAIL:  Jeri Dube IBM Personal Software Products 1000 51st Street Boca
Raton, Fl 334 - IBM VNET:  BCRVM1(WARPWIRE)

1.   What other information would you like to see published in this
     newsletter?
     _____________________________________________________________
     _____________________________________________________________

 2.   Is the length of the newsletter:_____ Too short _____ Too long
      _____ Just right

 3.   Does this newsletter improve your product knowledge of OS/2 Warp
      and LAN Systems products?  _____ Yes _____ No

4.  Do you currently have an OS/2 Warp or LAN systems product installed?
    _____ Yes _____ No

5.  Do you plan to have an OS/2 Warp or LAN systems product installed?
    _____ Yes _____ No

 6.  Optional Name:______________________________________________
     Address:____________________________________________________
     City, State, ZIP:___________________________________________
     E-Mail Address:

COMMENTS:  Please offer any ideas/suggestions to improve the newsletter.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

Thank you for answering this survey.  We make improvements based on what
you tell us!


  OS/2 WARP AND LAN SERVER CUSTOMER REFERENCE FORM

If you would like to share your experiences with OS/2 Warp or LAN Server,
please fill out the following form and get it back to us.  We are
especially interested in entrepreneurs who use OS/2 Warp or LAN Server
and people who use these products in unusual circumstances.

  -  FAX:  [phone]
  -  INTERNET ID:  JDUBE @ VNET.IBM.COM
  -  MAIL:  Jeri Dube IBM Personal Software Products 1000 51st Street
     Boca Raton, Fl 33434

GENERAL INFORMATION:
Name:_________________________________________________
City:_________________________________________________
State/Province:_______________________________________
Country:______________________________________________
Fax:__________________________________________________
Email Address:________________________________________
Mailing Address:
Street/P.O. Box:__________________________________________________
City:_________________________________________________
State/Province:_______________________________________
ZIP/Postal Code:______________________________________

INDUSTRY:  ____Communications ____Cross Industry ____Distribution
____Education ____Finance ____Government ____Health ____Insurance
____Manufacturing ____Petroleum ____Process ____Transportation ____Travel
____Utilities

SIZE:  Annual Revenue US$:  ____< $5M ____$5 - 50M ____$51 - 100M
____$101 - 500M ____$501 - 999M ____$1 - 10B ____> $10B

 No. of Employees:  ____Small <100 ____Medium 100-500 ____Large > 500 No.
 of Students if College/University:  ____<5000 ____5000 - 10000
 ____>10000

 BACKGROUND:  (Briefly describe the business or situation where you used
 the products.)
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________
 ____________________________________________________________

NEED:  (What problem/situation existed which caused you to seek a
solution using OS/2 Warp and/or LAN Server?)
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION OF SOLUTION:  (Please provide a detailed description.
Describe any mission critical applications.  For a networking solution,
include a description of the network.)
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

BENEFITS:  (Please describe business or personal benefits.)
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________