Cream of the Crop 21/Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso/faq/compu51.zip/COMPU51.TXT

Text File | 1996-08-27 | 75KB | 1,335 lines

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                         This Week's Contents:

My Notes:
1) You Need This Mailing List!
2) The Winner of our CDROM this Issue is . . .

Columnists' Corner:
1) Howard Carson's Big City Byte <[e-mail]>

News:
1) Microsoft Sponsors Small Business Contest
2) O'Reilly Sponsors Desktop Contest

Reviews:
1) The Comedy Collection CD-ROM By Activision
   Reviewed By: Richard T. Rushing <71154,[e-mail]>
2) Silent Hunter
   Reviewed By: Doug Reed, Associate Editor <[e-mail]>
3) Jixxa Jigsaw Puzzle
   Reviewed By: Richard Malinski <[e-mail]>
4) Quarterdeck InternetSuite
   Reviewed By: Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master
   <[e-mail]>

Web Sites:
1) Anchor Desk from ZiffDavis! <http://www.anchordesk.com>
2) NetGuide Live! <http://www.netguide.com>

Interview:
1) Novell Fights Piracy -- Tough . . .
   Interview with Ron Barker of Novell

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date : August 26, 1996  |CompuNotes is a weekly publication available
Issue: 51               |through email and many fine on-line networks.
------------------------|We cover the IBM computing world with
CompuNotes is published |software/hardware reviews, news, hot web
B440,                   |sites, great columns and interviews. We also
1315 Woodgate Drive     |give away one software package a week to a
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[phone] voice    |publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we
[phone] fax      |are here to bring you the way it is!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Backroom Workers:                     |We are always looking for
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<[e-mail]>                       |honest, constructive
Doug Reed, Asst. Editor / Writer Liaison  |feedback! We need to hear
<[e-mail]>                    |from you! Please take the
Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master     |time to send us your
<[e-mail]>                           |opinions, comments and
------------------------------------------|criticisms. Some of our
I am looking for a collection of shareware|better features have
reviews I put out in the 87-88 timeframe  |actually come from our
under my handle of NEVER BEFORE. I think  |readership! Thanks!
they started as NB*.ZIP. Can you look     |---------------------------
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SYSOPS READ HERE!

Wanting to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible, we
can't afford to call everyone's BBS every week. What we would like to
do is send those interested sysops a UUENCODED version for posting on
their BBS. If you can volunteer to receive the UUENCODED version, turn
it into a ZIP and upload it to your BBS, we'll list you in our sysops
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If you are interested, fill out the following lines and send them
back to [e-mail] with SYSOPS.

We'll list your BBS in our SYSOPS LIST which will be included in
each version of CompuNotes we ship out. If you have a WWW link we'll
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick's News
Being The Publisher and Managing Editor Has Its Perks!
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Mailing List You Need . . . |
-----------------------------
I come across some dandy resources on the internet! Here is one I use
and you should use as well:
____________________________________________________________________
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Get national (U.S.), international, business, entertainment, and sports
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The list owners are very responsive and willing to explain anything you
need. Join today!

-----------------------------
Free Software Raffle . . .  |
-----------------------------
We have raffled off our April 1995 ASP CDROM! This CDROM is full of ASP
Approved shareware -- the complete collection! Our winner this week is:

[e-mail]

Send them a congrats letter!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Columnists' Corner - We bring you a different person each week!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Howard Carson's Big City Byte <[e-mail]>

It was a peculiar sort of fight. No blows were exchanged. The people
involved never met face to face. Nor did the individuals who attempted
to mediate the dispute ever meet the warring factions. Everything took
place electronically. No one actually had to dirty their hands. No one
had to look anyone in the eye. No one had the benefit of being able to
hear the nuance and inflection in anyone else's speech.

The fight began when one individual accused another on-line, of
associating with a crook.

Picture this:

Part 1: A customer purchases some software. The software subsequently
requires updating. The customer brings his software to the distributor
(who is appearing at a local computer show). The distributor takes the
update money and says (to our customer and all those who have paid):
``we'll send the updates via floppy disk, in the mail. Soon.'' What the
distributor hasn't told anybody is that he is actually closing his doors
and has absolutely no intention of honoring the update fees being
collected!

That's illegal. Everywhere.

Our customer never receives his update and is left dangling, without
obvious recourse or means of recompense.

Part 2: A Programmer, whose software was handled by the distributor now
out of business (software our customer tried to update!), launches a new
line of Shareware approximately two years after the demise of the
distributor. The programmer solicits the help of another person to help
him distribute and register the new shareware in Canada, the U.S. and
Europe.

Part 3: Our poor customer hears of this new partnership and proceeds to
publicly accuse the programmer of stealing his master disks & update
money ($200US). Our customer also publicly accuses the programmer's new
shareware partner of associating with a crook!

Oops.

It is apparent that some people do not really understand the impact or
nascent illegality inherent in some of the messages they send. They
assume that `flaming' another person on-line, is no different from doing
the same sort of thing during a private telephone call.

Let there be no doubt: there is most definitely a difference.

``Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me!''

Absolutely. But refer to ``me'' in public as a thief, and you step over
a line that is clearly and succinctly demarcated.

Watch what you say for pete's sake, or the next time you look, a Bailiff
might be standing in your doorway handing you a subpoena. Enduring the
humiliation of court appearances and the expense of exorbitant legal
fees, solely because of some casually stupid remark in a public message
area, may seem like unreasonable or unjustifiable punishment. However,
when the remark results in unwarranted loss of business for the person
who was so casually insulted, your humiliation and expenses may be far
more than justified. And in case you haven't yet clued in to the real
mistake made here, it's this: Just because a software author's name
appears on a piece of software, does not mean he has any control over
companies which distribute his software. If a distributor goes out of
business, you're stuck. Period. You can file for reimbursement (for
deposits or upgrade/update fees, retail orders, etc.), but if a business
closes with no liquidable assets, no cash in the bank and a pile of
debts, attempting to pursue some means of compensation for your loss is
generally futile and pointless.

If you have a beef, take it up with the individual(s) you believe to be
responsible, especially if they maintain well known e-mail or postal
addresses. If you have nothing to say, or are too inherently lazy to
deal with these problems at the time they occur, do not vent your
frustrations two years later, at someone who had nothing to do with your
original difficulties! If the distributor was incorporated, you have no
choice but to file a claim as an unsecured Creditor with the Adjustor,
Receiver, Trustee or Liquidator. Don't hold your breath waiting for a
settlement however; the trustee(s) and the banks get first crack at
everything. There's rarely anything left but a picked-over carcass.

Controlling public expressions of outrage (in this situation), is not a
matter of censorship or unreasonable control over free speech, ethics or
decent conduct. It is only a matter of what you can and cannot say in
western society, about another citizen's legal conduct. If you call
someone an idiot, a jerk, a moron or a know-nothing, layabout deadbeat,
it's likely you'll wind up in a serious argument. Call someone a thief,
a liar or a cheat though, and it is increasingly likely you'll wind up
in a legal battle that (in its most extreme and punitive form), will
cause horrible difficulties for you.

Such difficulties are not funny.

There are many people nonetheless, who have forgotten that the forums to
which they are posting messages, are actually read by people other than
those to whom some bit of invective is being directed; people with
legitimate reputations to uphold, businesses which depend on public
goodwill, and so on. Deliberately or casually insulting those
reputations is unacceptable, pointlessly vicious behavior. Such behavior
will be challenged, and individuals subsequently accused libel or
slander will find themselves entering a phase of life that resembles
nothing so much as a living nightmare.

There are no exceptions. Ignorance of the `real' facts at the time some
horrible accusation is made (two years after the fact!), is not a
legitimate defense. Making random, grossly inaccurate suggestions of
criminal association, cannot be excused afterwards merely by saying,
``Oh gee, sorry.'' Our mores, folkways and laws often require that we
think before we speak . . .

 . . . or before we type public messages.

ISPs, Online Services and BBSs can also be held legally responsible for
allowing certain individuals to continue their verbal depradations,
particularly after complaints have been received. ISPs, Online Services
and BBSs that resist dealing with such complaints, are not likely to
last very long in a marketplace which will soon be demanding stricter
standards.

The standards are overdue of course. In the days when our primary means
of electronic communication was the telephone, it was easy to shut out
fools, charlatans, boors and the misinformed who attempted to shower us
with invective: you simply hung up the receiver. With that action, the
intruder no longer had a soap box from which to orate. Electronic forums
present another problem altogether, because anyone can post any sort of
message at any time. If a Sysop or Moderator does not have an eagle eye,
some of the worst sorts of venal (and public) things can escape notice.
The intrinsic problem is simply that sometimes the inaccurate
information is accepted as supportable fact.

Let me repeat that: ``Sometimes the inaccurate information is accepted
as supportable fact.''

This affects you. This affects all of us. And as long as we continue to
communicate via electronic means, sooner or later many of us are going
to have to deal with some cat who is making horrible, baseless
accusations. For some of us, the accusations will be an excuse for an
electronic free for all. For others, business will be lost, emotional
damage will ensue and other hardships will follow. Thankfully, we have
laws that can bring the progenitors of such irresponsible activity to
justice. Our secular and non-secular mores, folkways and traditions
entrench the notion that in any free society, the right to speak freely
goes hand in hand with the responsibility to speak accurately.
Eructating poorly considered or otherwise laughably inaccurate opinion
may be acceptable practice at small social gatherings, where
inaccuracies can be quickly and easily corrected for the benefit of all
concerned. The same behavior in publicly accessible electronic forums
however, is inherently subversive. Such activity contravenes every tenet
of free speech and civilized conduct. It can be likened to accusing a
total stranger of child abuse, just to see what happens! For every
person who participates on-line, there may be ten or twenty others who
lurk in silence. Never forget the lurkers; they have every right to be
there and their silence does not mean they can't read what you type.

Until now, we've had some degree of control over who was listening to
us. Social conventions dictated that we attend gatherings which (for the
most part) included individuals with interests at least peripherally
common to our own. Electronic social gatherings however, present us with
a situation wherein we simply do not know who may be `listening' to our
words. Often, those individuals can be people with whom we might never
normally associate, or who might take extreme umbrage at such things as
our mode of expression, the use of a particular phrases or an
association with someone or something they have come to hate. If those
individuals have little or no grasp of their basic responsibilities
where free speech is concerned, chaos can result.

In the `old' days, gate crashers could be thrown out of the building. In
such a situation, the will of the (small) group held ultimate sway.
People whose presence was undesirable to the group could be easily
identified. People who were given to making wild accusations of illegal
conduct, could be quickly (and properly) ostracized. Far too many sysops
and moderators have no idea where their responsibilities in such matters
begin. It is also patently obvious that many sysops and moderators are
preternaturally alert to problems such as swearing, cross-posting and
other somewhat fatuous concerns, but remain utterly vague when it comes
to issues of libelous or slanderous language.

They had better educate themselves.

It is wisest then to inquire about an on-line company's policy regarding
idiotic contraventions of the law *before* you shell out hard earned
cash. Certainly, there is no need to pay money for the privilege(?) of
being egregiously insulted. Do not accept answers which are vague, or
which demonstrate a complete lack of understanding about the issues at
hand. BBSs, Online Services and ISPs which give houseroom to characters
prone to wild, unfounded, or casual criminal suggestions about others
are definitely places you should avoid. Be aware that such characters
are sometimes practiced, deliberate and deceitful. Be aware that such
characters often live for the challenge of anyone who dares to question
their conduct. Even the brightest and most quick witted among us can
lose such a battle.

It's not worth it.

On the other hand, tolerating such an invasive twisted interpretation
of our rights and freedoms is tantamount to destructive self-abuse. Far
too often `free speech' is used as a protective battlement from which
abuse and outright lies are hurled. It is quite possible that such
tolerance, will result in a situation wherein our day to day lives
become pathetic and embattled. Our own enthusiastic and careful
participation in electronic discussion forums may serve as a guide or
tutorial for novices (and regrettably, some `experienced' people as
well), who are possessed of more opinion than good sense. The person
publicly accused of associating with a crook by the way, was actually
able to help our hapless customer. The programmer was contacted and
managed to supply an updated version within about 10 days. It cost our
customer nothing extra. Some might expect that, but it is correct to
note that none of the people who scrambled around trying to appease the
disgruntled customer, had ever received so much as a nickel from him or
the distributor who absconded with update fees in the first place!

Caveat Emptor. Have a nice day. Check every purchase in the store. Don't
send update or shareware fees off into space; call, write or e-mail to
ascertain current addresses. And never, ever, pay money to somebody at a
computer show and walk away empty handed, unless you know the dude real
well.

Copyright 1996, Howard E. Carson. All rights reserved. This article may
not be reproduced in whole or in part without the expressed permission
of Howard E. Carson and CompuNotes. Contact: [e-mail]


----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . .
All News (C)opyright  Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Small Business Contest . . . |
----------------------------------------
REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)
today announced the launch of a contest for small businesses, the Small
Business Triathlon, on its Web site. The contest, which begins today and
runs through Sept. 20, 1996, will be on the Microsoft(R) Small Business
Resource Web site, at http://microsoft.com/smallbiz/. Businesses with
fewer than 10 employees are eligible to participate.

Small businesses typically have fewer resources than larger companies
and so face a tremendous battle to succeed in a tough market. The
contest underscores Microsoft's commitment to helping small businesses
succeed despite the challenges. To illustrate how technology can help
small businesses level the playing field, the company chose a triathlon
theme, which is reflected in the three entry categories. The categories
are Running Ahead of the Pack, in which participants enter the business
plan they used to launch their small business or help keep it a success;
Swimming Against the Current, in which participants write an essay on a
challenge or obstacle they overcame in starting their business; and The
Big Finish, in which participants can show off the best marketing and
promotional materials that were created in-house. The Microsoft Small
Business Triathlon is easier than a real triathlon: Small businesses
need enter only one category to win. The entries will be judged by
members of the Microsoft Small Business Council based on original ideas,
creative strategies and innovative solutions.

Like Microsoft, NEC is committed to the small-business market and will
contribute three NEC Ready PCs, monitors and printers that feature a
Pentium(R) 166-based PC, a 17-inch NEC MultiSync monitor and a NEC
SuperScript 860 laser printer. These complete systems and peripherals
are ideally suited to meet the particular needs of small businesses. In
addition, Microsoft will provide the winners with small-business
software valued at over $850. The software will include Microsoft Office
Professional for the Windows(R) 95 operating system, the best-selling
office suite that combines Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, the
PowerPoint(R) presentation graphics program, Microsoft Access and the
Bookshelf(R) 96-97 CD- ROM reference library; Microsoft Publisher CD
Deluxe, a desktop publishing product for creating brochures, fliers and
newsletters; Small Business Pack, a collection of ready-to-use business
templates, forms and reports for Microsoft Office Professional; and
Small Business Financial Manager, financial-analysis tools that use
accounting software data to help users make better business decisions.
Mail Boxes Etc. will contribute the use of the postal box to which
entries can be sent.

Entries can be mailed to the Mail Boxes Etc. box number shown on the Web
site, or e-mailed to msbcedelman.com by Sept. 20, 1996. Small-business
owners and staffs of small businesses employing fewer than 10 people can
enter. Official contest rules are posted on the Web site. Winners will
be announced on the Web site on Oct. 1, 1996. All entries will be kept
confidential with the exception of the winning entries.

-----------------------------------------
O'Reilly Sponsors Desktop Contest . . . |
-----------------------------------------
August 15, 1996, Sebastopol, CA--O'Reilly & Associates, leading
developer of Internet software and publisher of technical books, has
announced its First Application Development Contest. Designed for non-
commercial developers using O'Reilly's award-winning WebSite (TM) or
WebSite Professional(TM), the contest offers a chance for developers to
win a grand prize of $2000, as well as publicity for their application.
Contest judges are Robert Denny, WebSite developer, Andrew Schulman,
O'Reilly Senior Editor and noted Windows programmer, and Larry Wall,
developer of perl and author of "Programming Perl".
In addition to the $2000 cash prize, first prize includes publicity on
O'Reilly Software Online (http://software.ora.com). Second prize for
the contest is $1000; third prize is $500.

Developers are not restricted to any specific categories in the creation
of their applications; they can use perl, WebSite Application
Programming Interface (WSAPI), Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Visual
Basic, Java, Delphi, or other development tools.

"We're keeping this wide open," explains Kimberly Simoni, Software
Product Manager. "We are simply looking for creativity, usability, and
clever exploitation of WebSite features; in short, what it does for
desktop productivity, and how well it does it!"

Examples of winning applications might include applications which
improve web site productivity, shopping cart applications, advanced text
search mechanisms, HTML page-builders, facsimile interfaces, or
integrated database applications.

Deadline for submissions is October 18, 1996, with a brief written
description of the application required by August 30, 1996. Winners will
be announced O'Reilly Software Online. Interested individuals should
write [e-mail] for more information. Contest details are
available online (http://software.ora.com/contests/dev_contest.html).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: The Comedy Collection CD-ROM By Activision
Reviewed By: Richard T. Rushing <71154,[e-mail]>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Comedy Collection is an Anthology from the InfoCom library of
adventure games. The games in the collection include some of the
funniest adventure games around. The games included Ballyhoo,
Bureaucracy, Hollywood Hijinx, Nord and Bert and as a bonus you get
Planetfall and the all time classic Zork.

The installation is very easy for Windows 3.1X and Windows 95. DOS is a
little more difficult since it requires copying the proper directories
to install the adventures. These Adventures are all nearly 10 years old
and are mostly text-base adventures. The files are installed to your
hard drive, and take less than 4 megabytes. These applications run in a
DOS window or DOS. Included in the package are maps of the adventures
and hint items. This simplifies the adventures by allowing the player to
know the entire map without ever mapping the virtual world. All
adventures allow you to save your game in progress so you do not lose
any headway that you have made.

These are text based mostly adventures. The text allows your mind to
paint the picture of the area, items are displayed as "Red Rod is
against the wall" and you acquire an object by "Getting" it. Moving
around the virtual world requires typing in a direction such as "North"
or "South" or the abbreviated "N" or "S." No mouse or joystick required.

The first adventure on the CD-ROM is Ballyhoo the adventure at the "Big
Top." "Run away and join the circus," a line that all of us have heard
many times. But what would it really be like? Is the glamour, excitement
and mystery all that it is cracked up to be?

In this game you decide to stay a little after the curtain falls at the
big top. Perhaps you can find out what your favorite clown looks like
without makeup or what the exotic animals eat for dinner. Overhearing
that the circus owner's daughter has been kidnapped draws you into the
middle of what you had viewed as a spectator before, and you must now
rescue the damsel in distress. Where will you begin your search? Who
could have done something so evil? All circuses have their trash under
the grandstands and dark undersides, but few are this exciting and
risky.

Bureaucracy is something everyone has had to experience before and it is
increasing at an astronomical rate. During the game you find out that
changing something requires an act of a person that is not there or
another form to be filled out. You begin the adventure in your new
house, with you new job at Happitec Corporation, and a Paris vacation
just wanting. You just need to get some money from the bank. So what if
they sent you new charge card and checks to the old address. It should
not be a problem, right? WRONG! You are sent through the run of forms
and people. The game is controlled by your blood pressure- as you become
annoyed with the bureaucracy your blood pressure rise becomes dangerous.
When this occurs you should only do "safe" non-annoying activities until
your blood pressure returns to normal. Bureaucracy's author is Douglas
Adams who is famous author for bring us "The Hitchhikers Guide to the
Galaxy" series. His humor is relevant through- out the adventure.

Richie Rich, or Really poor? This game could lead you in either
direction, depending on how well you can find hidden clues in the
mansion where you and your cousins spent much of your summers with your
Aunt Hildegrade and Uncle Buddy. Your Aunt Hildegrade and Your Uncle
Buddy work very hard in Hollywood to build their business so that they
could create an inheritance for their beloved nieces and nephews. To
prove your worthiness for this inheritance, you must be clever enough to
find ten treasures. Clues are hidden in your Uncle Buddy's films. You
have just one night to find the treasures, if not the inheritance might
fall into one of your cousin's pocket.

Nord and Bert- what a strange name for an adventure game! Well, not as
strange as the game itself. A strange virus has affected the town of
Punster and as a member of a Citizen Action Committee you job is to
restore the town back too normal. You have eight locations to visit and
solve the language problems. This requires you to use you Doctor of
Punology degree. This adventure is great for those that like word games
and or plays on common phrases. If you are not into the puns and word
games this adventure can be quite difficult and boring.

You also receive 2 Bonus programs with the Comedy Collection. Zork: The
Great Underground Empire and PlanetFall. Zork (one of the all time
classics) was one of the first adventure games. This is the first Zork.
You start at the White house by a mail box. You are seeking fame,
fortune and wealth. You are a dauntless treasure-hunter, having heard of
a great underground empire with vast riches. Stories have been told of
treasures, exotic creatures, and diabolical puzzles in the Underground
Empire. Your job is to locate the treasures and deposit them in your
trophy case. Be careful of creatures and ruthless people that will steal
your treasures. This adventure is a great place to start for a sample of
text-based adventures.

Planetfall is a science-fiction adventure that takes place aboard the
S.P.S. Feinstien and a small mysterious planet. Your family has a long
lineage with the Stellar Patrol. Your great-great-grandfather was a High
admiral and one of the founding officers of the patrol. Now after a year
in the patrol you are still a lowly Ensign and your commanding officer
is making your life a living hell. You question whether or not you made
the right decision in enlisting. Suddenly with the destruction of the
ship and landing on a planet you need all of the skill and training that
the patrol has taught you to survive in the strange land. You think you
are safe but after further inspection you find you must now fix the
problems to survive.

These adventures are good for someone that needs a challenged or always
wanted to play a particular adventure. These adventures do not take
weeks to play or solve. I remember a few sleepless nights working out
scenarios and then trying them out, but the games are very playable and
solvable. With the maps and added clues that are provided the adventures
are fun to play and a challenge but are not impossible to complete. This
is also a great CD-ROM for people that have also played InfoCom
adventures before. Most of these games have hints or walk-through post
on BBS's or on the Internet. Just remember to take the time and read,
each description. They may contain a clue. These games may seem
primitive to some and classics to others. I suggest everyone enter these
virtual worlds and take a stroll, enjoying a simpler time.

Activision
P.O. Box 67713
Los Angeles, Ca 90067
[phone]

CompuServe:  GO GAMEPUB in the Game Publishers Forum B
Prodigy:  ACTI10B
Genie: ACTIVISION
American OnLine:  ACTIVISION
Internet:  www.activision.com
               [e-mail]
Activision BBS: [phone]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Silent Hunter
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, Associate Editor <[e-mail]>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Silent Hunter
Reviewed by: Doug Reed, Associate Editor <[e-mail]>
Reviewed on: 486, 12 MB RAM, Windows 95, 2X CDROM
Requires: 486/66, 8 MB RAM, MS-DOS, 2X CDROM

Silent Hunter is the latest simulation of submarine warfare during World
War II. People who have been playing computer games for a while probably
know that while there has been a number of attempts at recreating sub
warfare, only two to date have been truly great games - Silent Service
II (Microprose), and Aces of the Deep (Dynamix). I'm a big fan of sub
games - Silent Service II is one of my all time favorite games. With the
exception of Microprose's simulator of modern sub warfare, Red Storm
Rising, nothing to date has come close to simulating the tension and
sweat of commanding a submarine in battle (I never played Aces of the
Deep, but I have heard that it was also a good game). Several companies
are in the process of developing new submarine games, but SSI has beaten
the rest and released Silent Hunter. To put it succinctly, the SSI's
competitors have their work cut out for them to compete with Silent
Hunter.

Installation of the game was, as expected, straight-forward and quickly
accomplished. The data card included with the game warns that users of
Windows 95 can run Silent Hunter in Windows 95 but the game runs slowly,
can crash unexpectedly, and requires an additional 4 MB of RAM over
running in DOS. Since creating a virtual DOS config is a snap in Windows
95, I chose to run the game in DOS mode. You are given several
installation choices, based on how much of the game you want to install
on the hard drive. The minimal install requires 30MB, however, I
wouldn't recommend it unless you are really strapped for space. At the
very least, choose to install the digital sounds to the hard drive. When
running with the minimal installation, I noticed a slight hesitation in
the sounds and music that wasn't there with a larger installation
choice. Also, be prepared for the fact that your video card probably is
not supported by Silent Hunter - add the /v command to the command line
and use Silent Hunter's generic SVGA utility.

The game itself is a joy to behold. The main menu gives you a number of
choices, from playing a solo battle or a campaign to touring a Gato-
class submarine and listening to an interview with Bill Gruner, the
captain of the USS Skate during World War II. I chose to start with a
solo battle, where you are given the option of fighting a historical
battle or setting up a random one. Being experienced at computer sub
warfare, I chose a random encounter with a convoy protected by a escort
of destroyers. The random encounter really lets you set the options; I
set the reality to maximum and chose to start the encounter at dawn.

Once the encounter began, I quickly popped up to the bridge to see what
the scenery around me looked like. I was stunned. To my port side, I
could see the unmistakable outline of an island. Clouds hung in the
same, framed in colors of purple and scarlet. I could see the moon, and
opposing it, the sun was beginning to peek out over the edge of the
horizon. Behind the sub trailed a wake of bubbles, showing where we had
been. Wow. I had expected a graphically nice game, but this was beyond
expectation - I mean, I really didn't expect it to look like dawn, or to
be able to see my wake! It shows an incredible attention to detail. I
decided to close in to my prey and see what additional details I could
discern. I was in for a shock. I ordered the crew to submerge and
proceed to periscope depth. From there we closed to within 4000 yards of
the enemy convoy and I raised the periscope to see what we were up
against. I quickly saw that the convoy was composed of two tankers, a
merchant ship, a passenger ship, and 2 destroyers. It took me a second
to realize that I didn't need to examine the manual or the ship
identification book to discern what each ship was - it was automatically
obvious. The destroyers had the prominent bridge structure of a warship,
along with a single gun on the foredeck and the distinctive Japanese
flag waving from the stern. Yes, the flag was flapping in the breeze.
Wow.

Okay, she looks pretty, but how does she play? Luckily, I can report
that she plays great too. I quickly closed towards my prey, getting to
within 1000 yards of the nearest tanker. Once in position, I quickly
used the targeting computer and fired torpedoes at both tankers. Then I
ordered a crash dive to 250 feet. Anyone who has played a sub game knows
that this is where the sweating begins. As we descended, the sonar
officer reported torpedo hits sinking both tankers. Then began the
merciless pinging of the destroyers seeking revenge. I was lucky and
managed to elude them, but it was a near thing. Overall, I give Silent
Hunter very high marks in the area of graphics, sounds, and gameplay. If
you really want it to play a realistic game, Silent Hunter also allows
you to calculate the torpedo firing solution yourself (not for the
mathematically challenged).

I also tried the campaign game. You have the option of starting at
anytime during the war, so I chose to start in December 1941 to see if I
could last the whole war. Right away I noticed the first huge difference
between Silent Hunter and Silent Service II. In Silent Service II you
could only play in a Gato-class sub in a campaign game. But in December
1941 Gato-class subs were not available. Silent Hunter acknowledges this
fact and gives you what was available - an S class sub. A very nice,
realistic touch to the game. The campaign started in the Philippines,
with Japanese forces on the move to conquer all of the South Pacific. It
is here that I have my one gripe with Silent Hunter. The manual makes no
mention of how campaigns are worked; you are simply given a patrol area
and told to have at it. I sailed out from Manila and up and down the
coast, hoping to just run in to an enemy ship. After some time had
passed (several game days), I was exasperated- I had sighted nothing. I
was about ready to quit when I popped down and consulted the charts one
last time. Lo and behold, there was a suspicious red dot moving slowly
off the coast to the far north. Right clicking on the dot revealed it to
be a carrier group! Having finally spotted the enemy - I was off to do
battle. My gripe here is simply that no where is any mention made that
you should consult the chart to see estimated enemy positions that are
beyond your sight. The rest of the campaign game is straight forward -
you go and attack the enemy, retreating when necessary, and returning to
base to reload, repair, and refuel.

The game also comes with a 'tour' of a Gato-class fleet submarine. You
see a three-dimensional view of the sub; clicking on various areas of
the sub will give you a short narration of the function of that
component. You can also see into the submarine and get an indication of
how the crew lived and fought. Finally, the game also includes an
extensive interview with Bill Gruner about sub warfare in the South
Pacific during World War II. The interviews are interesting and laden
with anecdotes and details that are all to often left out in the
glamorous Hollywood versions of the Silent Service. What these men were
able to accomplish is nothing short of amazing. If you don't know much
about the role of subs in the Pacific theater- it might be worth finding
out. In short, the US submarine fleet managed to accomplish what
Hitler's wolfpacks failed too - they managed to sink so many ships and
supplies that they severely hampered the war effort of the Japanese.

To sum it up, Silent Hunter is a tour de force of submarine warfare.
Everything about this game appears to be well designed and thought out.
Substantial attention was paid to the details of the look, feel, and
realism of the game, but not so much so that it hampers the playability
of the game. SSI has set the new standard in sub warfare.

Strategic Simulations, Inc.
675 Almanor Avenue Suite 201
Sunnyvale CA 94086-2901
(408)  737-6800
(409)
WWW: http://www.ssionline.com
AOL: keyword SSI
CompuServe: GOTOT GAMAPUB

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Jixxa Jigsaw Puzzle
Reviewed By: Richard Malinski <[e-mail]>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tired of solitaire or all that shooting and kick-boxing? Want something
different to start up or close down your computer day? Relax with a
jigsaw puzzle! Really! Don't worry about losing pieces or having a place
to put the puzzle once assembled. Choose a level of difficulty to suit
your mood or time. Stop and start as much as you want without losing
your place.

If this sounds good, the Jixxa jigsaw puzzle has something for you! It
can entice the novice and challenge the expert. The CD-ROM contains 12
different puzzles that can be tried at three different levels of
difficulty. The puzzles range from flowers to buildings, from animals to
boats and from mountain view to city scape. To the variety of pictures
you can add sound. You can play midi files that are supplied on the CD-
ROM or you can play your own favorite midi files.

Installation of Jixxa is a breeze. In fact, it is one of the simplest
setups I've had. The automated installation lets your pick the directory
and the copy the necessary files quickly and easily. There is no need to
make specific adjustments if you're already set for 256 colours or use a
compatible sound card. The windows group and icons are set up so that
you can access the 'readme' notes, full documentation and help file by
clicking on their icons. These files describe all the functions and
features of Jixxa in a clear and easily understood style. It is really a
pleasure to work with a piece of software that has superb documentation.
The people at Ocean Publishing have done an excellent job of writing the
documentation. The clean installation and the thorough documentation
make Jixxa easy to install, understand and play!

If you've solved jigsaw puzzles you'll quickly understand how to use
Jixxa. You select a puzzle from the list just as you'd select a file for
you word processor. Up pops the working surface with the pieces
scattered randomly over the screen. You can pick up and fit pieces
together and when they lock correctly into place these two pieces become
as one. You continue until you're finished just as you would if the
pieces were cardboard and lying on your table. You can work as you
usually do or you can develop new methods using the pickup features,
holding boxes for pieces of similar characteristics, stabilizing pieces
by nailing them to the surface so that they don't move or using the
hints and auto-solve features.

Three interesting features make this virtual jigsaw puzzle software
challenging and novel. The use of the holding boxes permit you to
assemble pieces of similar characteristics. You can have up to 9 holding
boxes so that you can collect all left sided pieces in one, all blue sky
pieces or all straight lines or whatever you feel is useful. These boxes
are like your having a group of saucers arranged around your table as if
you were working with your old cardboard jigsaw puzzles only here you
don't have to be afraid of the cat jumping up and inadvertently
scattering saucers and pieces!

Another feature is the control that you have over the rotation of the
pieces. Initially the pieces are scattered over the screen in random
order but all falling so that the top of the pieces point to the top of
the puzzle. To replicate the your old cardboard puzzle, you may change
the default so that the pieces fall in random rotation. This means that
you have to use the mouse and the space bar in combination to rotate the
pieces to fit correctly. This certainly makes piecing the puzzle more
like what you're used to!

The third feature is the ability to change the default so that pieces
which don't match images may match shapes. You've all had that situation
where a piece will match another because the shapes fit but when you
really take a close look the images don't match. This can really throw
you off if you are working with 'tiny' puzzle pieces! So with these
features you can modify the puzzles to give you more or fewer
challenges.

There are many other features which contribute to making this an
excellent piece of software that both young and old will like to play.
If you've a sound card you can have an audible 'snap' when one piece
fits into another. If you must quit before you finish the puzzle, you
can save it and return to the exact spot where you left off. The help
has a graphical interface so that if you see a symbol on the screen that
you want to read about, you bring up the help and click on the symbol
displayed in the help box. If you want to listen to music other than
that supplied, you just click on your own midi files and have them play
will you work on the puzzle. These and others make Jixxa fun.

Having worked with Jixxa at all three levels I find that the large and
medium pieces don't present a problem, that is, until I start changing
the defaults and allowing rotation and locking of non- matching pieces.
What I did have problem with was working with the small pieces at the
'tiny' level. I found no way of zooming in to see the patterns on the
pieces that I thought matched but couldn't really see clearly. I expect
that my screen resolution may not be fine enough or more likely my eye
glasses may need to be stronger. A zoom feature would be really
beneficial.

All in all, Jixxa is fun to play and well worth the price. In fact,
there is a warning notice on the back of the CD-ROM that I'm beginning
to understand. That warning says, 'Not responsible for loss of sleep or
productivity due to addiction to Jixxa'. Hmmm? What puzzle should I
complete now ...

Ocean State Publishing Corp.
P.O. Box 747,
Woonsocket, RI
02895-0784
Http://www.risoftsystems.com
Compuserve - GO RISS, Library/Section 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Quarterdeck InternetSuite
Reviewed by:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Quarterdeck InternetSuite
Reviewed by: Judy Litt, [e-mail]
Reviewed on: 486DX2/50, 24 MB RAM
Requires: 386 or higher, 16+ MHz, 8 MB RAM (16 recommended), 256 Color
Display, Windows 3.1 or higher, DOS 5 or higher

Quarterdeck InternetSuite , version two, contains almost everything you
need to explore the Information Superhighway:

Quarterdeck Mosaic, a browser Quarterdeck Message Center, an e-mail &
newsgroup reader QFTP, a file transfer program Global Chat, for online
chat Location Manager, a utility you can use to automatically establish
an Internet account Qwinsock, a winsock: software you need to make the
connection to the Net

What's New in Version 2
Finally, a spell checker! And it can be configured to run automatically
when you click "send" in a message you're writing.

You can use MIME encoding - some services, such as AOL, require it.

Mosaic now supports tables & backgrounds.

You can actually upload files with QFTP!

Qwinsock now has an icon toolbar for most of its functions.
 You can empty the cache in Quarterdeck Mosaic from a menu option
(rather than having to manually delete files in cache).

The War of the Winsocks
If you're a normal person, your hard drive probably isn't littered with
winsocks (although if you have both MSN & CompuServe, or another online
service, you just might have more than one). And that means that most
normal people won't have any trouble with their installation of
Quarterdeck InternetSuite.

You guessed it: I'm not normal (something my husband's been trying to
tell me for years). Since I design web pages for CompuServe, AOL, & the
"regular" Internet, I actually have about three winsocks in addition to
Qwinsock.

Quarterdeck InternetSuite comes with plenty of instructions for
installing - but no advice if you're upgrading, as I was. When you
install, you have three choices:

Install qwinsock as your main winsock
Install qwinsock to work in tandem with your main winsock
Don't install qwinsock at all

I chose to install it to work in tandem with my other winsocks. However,
apparently at some point I had copied the old qwinsock into my Win95
directory. When you start a program that looks for a winsock, the Win95
directory (or Windows - whatever you named it) is the first place it
looks for the winsock.

Anyway, after installation, Quarterdeck InternetSuite didn't work. It
would say it was logged into my provider, but I couldn't actually do
anything - I couldn't surf or worse - I couldn't read my e-mail. I
finally called Tech Support, something I rarely stoop to. But I was
clueless, & if I didn't get my e-mail I'd have some angry customers.
After an hour & a half (on my dime), it turned out the old qwinsock in
the Win95 directory was the culprit. Get rid of it, & I'm communicating
with customers once again. Great, I think. I'm all set. NOT!

Next morning I try to log onto MSN. I couldn't even bring up the connect
dialog box. I figured it must have something to do with Quarterdeck
InternetSuite, but this time around I call MSN tech support - an 800
number. Within 20 minutes, they have me back in business. Turns out
Quarterdeck InternetSuite overwrote a file needed by MSN - but luckily
it didn't destroy the old file.

Quarterdeck: Are You Listening?
Although in general I like Quarterdeck InternetSuite (we'll get to what
I like about it next), there's still room for improvements. Let me
quickly say that I've been using it to connect to the Internet since I
received the first version to review: it's won a place on my ever-
diminishing hard drive.

Although Mosaic supports lots of things it didn't the first time around,
it still doesn't support the latest and greatest: colored fonts, frames,
java, server push. And it does not display layouts the same as Netscape -
so if you really want to view your pages, look at them with Netscape or
MS Internet Explorer.

There's no button in Mosaic that lets you print the current page. You
can do it by File|Print, but a button would make life so much simpler.

You can get to all the programs in the suite from Mosaic. But if you
start out in another program in the suite, you can't get to any of the
other programs. Apparently, the folks at Quarterdeck think we're all
just surfing along, & only occasionally ftp or read our e-mail. How hard
would it have been to make all the programs available from any program
within the suite?

QFTP works in both directions - uploading & downloading - which is more
than I can say for the first version. But it's not a Win95 program -
your index.html will become indexhtm_.ml when you upload or download it.
In fact, if you have several files name similarly - say company1.html,
company2.html, & company3.html - you probably won't be able to figure
out which is which. You can only rename your uploaded files one by one -
there's no way to rename *.htm to *.html.

You still can't reopen a message you've composed to edit it, which
drives me nuts. This is usually a standard feature of mail programs.

You can create folders for different sets of newsgroups, but you can't
select only a few from one folder to download messages. Sometimes I just
want to check a couple of newsgroups, not the whole group (you have a
choice: you can read either all the newsgroups within a folder, or just
one - nothing in between).

When you update your newsgroup list, you're shown all the newsgroups.
There's no markup for the new newsgroups - you have to go through the
entire list & hope you can tell what's new out of the 10,000 newsgroups
that are probably offered by your provider.

The new qwinsock occasionally - but not as often as the old one -
forgets to hang-up when you disconnect from your provider.

The Quarterdeck Difference
There are many things right with Quarterdeck InternetSuite. Quarterdeck
Mosaic is a great browser to surf with, if you want graphics turned off.
Its bookmark system is the best one I've seen. There's a little page
icon next to the page title; just drag this icon over to the hotlist you
want the page to go into, & drop it. Or just right click the page -
which also give you the options to save the page, save images, etc. Hot
lists can be turned on & off with the click of a button (which gives you
a larger desktop to view pages in).

The global history function is very handy. It allows you to track and
save as hyperlinks all the sites you've visited within an amount of time
you specify. How often have you visited a cool site & forgot to bookmark
it? This function can be turned off if you wish

Combining the newsgroup reader and mail program simplifies your life.
You can choose to download all headers or only a specified number from
your newsgroups (this comes in really handy after you've been on
vacation). And you can even choose to override the options you've set -
you can download more than the maximum you've set, or only the newest,
etc.

If you e-mail out to a large number of people, you can maintain mailing
lists. You can carbon copy or blind carbon copy the recipients of the
list.

If you're uploading files with QFTP, bring up file manger. Then just
select the files you want to upload, and drag & drop them onto the
appropriate directory.

The new qwinsock does work faster. Getting my e-mail was usually pretty
fast with the old qwinsock, but sending e-mail used to take forever. Now
it zips out as fast as it zips in.

Quarterdeck Message Center allows you to uuencode/decode automatically,
& does true file attachments (some programs seem to put their
attachments within the message itself).

Using Quarterdeck InternetSuite, it's easy to connect to an Internet
Service Provider. There's no script. You don't have to configure dial-up
networking. It took me just a few minutes to set up the connection to my
provider. And you can easily configure it to connect to more than one
provider (in fact, it comes preconfigured with dozens of ISPs - but
don't expect to find you local ISP).

Conclusion
I use Quarterdeck InternetSuite as the software I most often access the
Internet with. I like to use Quarterdeck Mosaic when I want to surf the
web with graphics turned off. I like the convenience of checking my
email and newsgroup with the same program. Most of my problems with the
software are pretty minor - with the exception that it's not a Win95
compliant program. If it used a 32 bit winsock, had a true 32 bit ftp
program, & fixed some of the other annoying features, they'd have a
program that flies. For $39.95, this suite is a good solution to your
internet needs.

Quarterdeck InternetSuite
13160 Mindanao Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-9705
310-309-3700 VOICE
310-309-4217 FAX
E-mail: [e-mail]
http://www.quarterdeck.com/
____________________________________________________________________
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Get national (U.S.), international, business, entertainment, and sports
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anchor Desk Debuts!|
--------------------
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ - Ziff-Davis Publishing's ZD Net,
the most trusted source of online computing information, today launches
ZD Net AnchorDesk, a new Web site and companion e- mail alert hosted by
Jesse Berst, one of the technology industry's foremost writers and
analysts. ZD Net AnchorDesk was created to provide timely insider
analysis of the most important technology news to today's busy computer
enthusiasts. As ZD Net's news anchor, Jesse identifies and analyzes the
day's top stories, and hosts guest commentary by editors at Ziff-Davis'
PC Week, Interctive Week, MacWEEK, and PC Magazine.

AnchorDesk can be found either on the ZD Net news page
(http://www.zdnet.com/home/filters/news.html), or at
http://www.anchordesk.com. The free companion e-mail alert is a
concentrated, "60-second" briefing of the contents on the AnchorDesk
site that enables users to quickly absorb the top news, and then turn to
the AnchorDesk site for further detail. Users can subscribe to the free
e-mail alert - which will be distributed several times each week -
directly on the AnchorDesk Web site.

"We are pleased to have an industry authority of Jesse's caliber as ZD
Net's new anchor," said Dan Farber, vice president and editor- in-chief
at ZD Net. "For 15 years, Jesse has earned the trust of industry
insiders as founder of the award-winning Windows Watcher newsletter and
as columnist for leading technology trade publications. Jesse is known
for asking tough questions, backing his articles with thorough research,
and presenting his views with humor and style. His knowledge spans all
corners of the market, and his no-nonsense approach will give users an
instant grasp of key industry developments."

"AnchorDesk is the computer enthusiast's answer to the fire- hose of
technology news that floods the Internet each day," said Jesse Berst.
"My commentary highlights only the news you really need to know to keep
pace with the high-tech industry. My mission is to keep AnchorDesk users
ahead of the trends by giving the story behind the story, and by warding
off the industry hype."

AnchorDesk Overview
Like other parts of the ZD Net Web site, AnchorDesk is one of the Web's
most useful free resources. In addition to Jesse's commentary, which
appears in the "Berst Alert" section of the site, ZD Net AnchorDesk
includes: "This Just In," with important breaking news; "Need to Know,"
with the day's top technology news; "Eavesdropping," with the latest
industry rumors; "Pick of the Day," with a stellar download or Web site;
plus features highlighting other intriguing stories.

A key benefit of ZD Net AnchorDesk is its carefully selected and
organized network of links to ZD Net's 55,000 pages of online content,
providing users with instant access to a wealth of additional resources
on the stories that interest them most. ZD Net AnchorDesk was built
using a sophisticated authoring database that enables users to "drill
down" for more information as desired. It's easy to find related
stories, research the companies or people involved, look up a product
review, or join an online event or discussion on the topic.

About Jesse Berst
Jesse is known for his years as a columnist and writer in leading
computer trade publications such as PC Week, Windows Sources,
Information Week, Computerworld, and Computer Reseller News. He is
author and co-author of a dozen books on computing. In 1991, Jesse
founded the influential "Windows Watcher" newsletter, winner of multiple
awards including this year's "Best Computer Newsletter" award from the
Computer Press Association.

Jesse is widely quoted for his industry expertise in publications such
as The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, New York Times
and dozens more. He has appeared on Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, CBS
Radio News and numerous other television and radio programs. He is also
a popular keynote speaker and moderator at computer conferences and
expositions.

---------------------
NetGuide Live . . . |
---------------------
MANHASSET, N.Y., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- CMP's NetGuide Live, the first
daily online guide to the Net, has been chosen by Microsoft Corp.
(Nasdaq: MSFT) as a Premier Site for Internet Explorer 3.0 - one of a
handful of Internet Explorer-optimized sites to receive the honor. On
August 12, the same day NetGuide Live (http://www.netguide.com) launched
in public beta, the site was featured at a Microsoft event unveiling
Internet Explorer 3.0. "We've optimized NetGuide Live for Microsoft(R)
Internet Explorer 3.0 because of its flexibility and advanced features,"
said Newton Barrett, Publisher of NetGuide Live. "Since NetGuide Live
will be a first stop for Web users, we wanted to make sure that we used
the most cutting edge technology in its creation and design."

NetGuide Live will be adding Internet Explorer 3.0 enhancements
regularly between the site's beta debut on August 12 and its full-
featured launch planned for September. Among the features NetGuide Live
plans to employ are floating frames, extended font controls, HTML style
sheets and advanced layout options.

Through the use of ActiveX(TM) Controls, NetGuide Live will also be able
to make the site easier to use and more intuitive. ActiveX will allow
NetGuide Live to employ enhanced navigational controls, among other
features. And in its unrivaled daily listing of online events, The Grid,
ActiveX will allow users to dynamically sort event information by
category of interest, online venue and type of event.

"It's exciting to see Microsoft's latest technology exploited by leading
sites such as NetGuide Live," said Bill Gates, Chairman and CEO of
Microsoft. "When we saw what ActiveX could bring to The Grid, we knew
that NetGuide Live had to be one of our premier sites."

As part of NetGuide Live's alliance with Microsoft, the Web site will
feature an "Optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0" message on
its home page and in its advertising and collateral materials. Microsoft
will provide a link to NetGuide Live from its Internet Explorer home
page and feature the Web site in online advertising. NetGuide Live is
designed to be a first point of access to get people exactly where they
want to be on the Net - quickly and easily. It features an hour-by-hour
guide to what's on the Web and commercial online services, comprehensive
site profiles, leading-edge search and browse functions, daily updates
about new sites, and breaking news, through an alliance with CNN
Interactive.

Syndicated studies and NetGuide Live's research both point to the
powerful need for a quick and easy guide to the Net for a product that
goes beyond the capability of a search engine. According to a recent
IntelliQuest study, there are approximately 35 million adults in the
U.S. now online, with nine million of those having just come online in
the first quarter of 1996. Given that explosive rate of growth and the
continued speed at which new Web sites are being posted, the need for a
daily guide to help bring users, both new and experienced, to the online
information they want is clear.

NetGuide Live's comprehensive content and how-to areas bring to one site
the disparate information Net users have had to look for in many places
and in some instances couldn't find at all. The site, which will be
fully operational in early September, is organized into four essential
categories - Search + Browse, What's on the Net, News/Reference and Net
Know-How.

Search + Browse: Driven by cutting-edge search engine technology, Find
it on the Net gives users easy access to results from specific queries
of sites spanning the Web. For those looking for a more targeted
approach, NetGuide Live has also leveraged CMP's editorial expertise to
provide a browsable directory of the Best of the Web - profiles of the
most active sites. Rated on content, personality, design and overall
usefulness and organized into more than 2,000 categories of interest,
the profiles will be updated on an ongoing basis, providing instant
access to the Best of the Web at any given moment. The sites are also
rated on the presence of sex and violence to help parents make informed
decisions about where their children go online.

What's on the Net: When is the Rolling Stones' next live Web concert?
Who's on at 8:00 p.m. tonight on AOL? Before NetGuide Live, Net surfers
had no single source to turn to for online event information. The Grid,
a key component of NetGuide Live, details what's available at any given
hour on all the major online venues, including the World Wide Web,
America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy. The only truly comprehensive
event list on the Web, The Grid is live 24 hours a day so that when a
user logs on, he or she can see immediately where to turn for celebrity
chat, expert advice and other live events. All Web listings on The Grid
are hotlinked so that users can easily access their programs of choice.
What's on the Net also includes The Daily Spotlight, a section with
breaking news about the newest Web sites and site updates.

News/Reference: News junkies looking for an up-to-the-minute fix will
love NetGuide Live's News/Reference section. CNN's headline reports will
be updated every 15 minutes, and technology news seekers can enjoy
unrivaled high-tech coverage from CMP's TechWeb(R), the technology
supersite. The Big Book, an online listing of U.S. business addresses
and phone numbers, is available in the News/Reference section as well.

Net Know-How: How-to information is key to getting the most out of the
Net but, until NetGuide Live, it was neither centrally located nor
easily accessible. Now this essential information is fingertip-close.
Net Know-How includes comprehensive tutorials on topics ranging from the
ins and outs of buying a car on the Web to a guided tour of the best
shopping sites and a step-by-step explanation about making investments
online. As with all content areas on NetGuide Live, updates and new "how-
to" information will be available all the time.

"One thing that really sets NetGuide Live apart from any other search-
related product is that it's like a living, breathing organism," said
Barrett. "We have a solid crew of professionals to ensure that NetGuide
Live will be changing and evolving daily and bringing users and
advertisers added value along the way." NetGuide Live is committed to
continued enhancements and the move toward personalization, expected to
be in place later this year, is at the heart of the team's current
efforts. By filling out a form about their interests, NetGuide Live
visitors will receive a personalized version of the product featuring
content that matches their interests every time they log on. They will
also be able to personalize The Grid so that, for example, if a
particular user is a sports fanatic, he or she will be able to get an
instant close- up of sports-related events taking place on the Net.

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INTERVIEW WITH ????? | Weekly Interviews with the Movers and Shakers!
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Novell has been one of the stronger forces in the anti-piracy movement.
Their primary seller, NetWare 4.1, is coming up on an upgrade. We take a
few moments to talk with Ron Barker of Novell to find out the who, what,
when, where, etc. concerning Novell and pirating.

PG: Novell has been a leader in fighting piracy for a while. When and
how did this effort begin?

RB: Back in the late 1980's Novell received so many complaints about
piracy that it was determined that something more needed to be done.
Novell formed its own anti-piracy group in late 1989/early 1990 to
assist resellers and customers in their fight against becoming victims
of piracy. The first efforts were made to assist customers that were
innocent victims of piracy and to assist Novell authorized resellers so
that they could compete against the dishonest pirates. That is still the
major goal of the program today.

PG: What was the biggest piracy ring or bust Novell has been involved
with?

RB: The problem with answering this question is that many of our
settlements are sealed by the courts meaning we can't talk about them.
We have had several large cases in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin
America. The biggest problems we have seen are illegal upgrades,
counterfeit, and resellers that make their own application software for
a specific industry and bundle it with NetWare, but install the same
copy of NetWare over and over. We have seen this in all types of
industries from law enforcement to video stores and everything in
between.

PG: Is there a typical pirate of NetWare?

RB: What I outlined above is the typical pirate, but we have seen all
sorts of piracy. The two most typical pirates are those that sell
illegal upgrades to unsuspecting end-users and those resellers that have
developed their own application software for a specific industry and
don't let the individual customers know that they are receiving pirated
NetWare. We have had many large settlements in these types of cases and
we always make the pirate replace the pirated NetWare for the customers.

PG: What's the estimated loss in sales Novell attributes to piracy of
its products.

RB: This question is difficult because we have never undertaken a study
to come up with figures. We use the figures supplied by the Business
Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software Publisher's Association (SPA)
which is that the industry as a whole lost over $15 billion in 1994. The
two organizations are getting set to release 1995 statistics as a joint
effort for the first time which has caused a delay, but which will be
more accurate we believe.

PG: What are the more effective methods Novell has found to combat
piracy?

RB: Believe it or not, the best method is the old fashioned hotline,
which for us is 1-800-PIRATES or 747-2837. We receive all types of calls
from disgruntled former or current employees of a pirate to innocent
victim customers that find out after the fact that they have pirated
NetWare. We try to contact the customers to gather facts and to let them
know we are trying to help them. We also maintain a sophisticated
product tracking system that helps us pinpoint where the product came
from and who sold it. That alone is very effective in locating pirates.

PG: What is the procedure for reporting a pirate to Novell? Are there
any rewards?

RB: The usual procedure is to phone 1-800-PIRATES or to contact us at
[e-mail]. All calls and messages are kept confidential. We
have never and never will reveal a source even if it means dropping a
case to protect the source, which we have done. We know how hard it is
to make the decision to report acts of piracy. We try to let the caller
know that we are here to help customers more than punish anyone. We do
not give rewards for many reasons, the best of which is that the courts
often frown on cases that are developed from paid sources. We do however
try to assist the person or business that reports the piracy in any way
we can.

PG: When someone is reported what is the process of investigating them?

RB: You must realize that many of the reports we receive are not true.
We have to be very careful when investigating reports of piracy because
that word "pirate" can harm a good business. We never call someone a
pirate until we have hard evidence in front of us. When we receive calls
we try to get as much information as possible and then verify that it is
true.

PG: Are resellers or end-users the larger pirates?

RB: When it comes to NetWare, the resellers are the biggest pirates.
That might not be true industry wide, but it is for NetWare. Not many
companies have multiple networks in-house so they do not pirate the
NetWare. NetWare, by its very nature, is a product that dishonest
resellers would pirate and sell over and over. As I mentioned earlier,
we have many cases where the reseller installed a legal copy of NetWare,
but kept the disks and manuals for the customer. That reseller then goes
out and installs the same package at another customer location and so on
until, in some cases, over 200 customers are running the exact same
package of NetWare without even knowing.

PG: Do you work in conjunction with other software companies on piracy?

RB: Yes very much so. We might be competitors in everything else, but we
work very closely to fight piracy. We have worked with many companies
such as Autodesk, Microsoft, Lotus, etc. Many of us belong to the same
organizations that fight piracy (BSA, SPA) and are on committees that
meet to discuss solutions. We have passed and received tips from the
other companies and will continue to do so. We have also worked with
several law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Royal Canadian
Mounted Police to combat piracy. We are currently working with customs
officials worldwide.

PG: What is your opinion the value of the SPA?

RB: The SPA and BSA do a very valuable service of alerting the public
about the dangers of pirated software. They have brought the issue to
the mind of the public and helped our efforts tremendously. We
investigate things a little differently, but we would not hesitate to
pass information along to them. Our main goal is to help our customers
and resellers. We would encourage callers to contact us at 1-800-PIRATES
if they have information about Novell software.

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