Cream of the Crop 25/Cream of the Crop 25.iso/faq/compu75.zip/COMPU75.TXT

Text File | 1997-04-20 | 30KB | 575 lines

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|-=>CompuNotes<=-|
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Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing
April 20, 1997
Issue 75
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Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:[e-mail]
Assistant Editor: Writer Liaison: Doug Reed--
mailto:[e-mail]
Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/
Website: <http://www.geocities.com/~compunotes>
email: mailto:[e-mail]
fax: [phone]
voice: [phone]
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CONTENTS
My Notes:
1=> Commentary: My Access was Cut! Patrick Grote,
mailto:[e-mail]
2=> This Week's Winner!

Web Site Reviews:
3=> Web Site Review: <http://www.mirabilis.com/products.html>
REVIEW OF ICQ, By Jack Decker and Thom Byxbe

Reviews:
4=> Product: Special Edition Using Word for Windows 95 by Ron Person
and Karen Rose
Reviewed By: Robert Hering, mailto:[e-mail]
5=> Product: Norton AntiVirus Version 2.0 for Windows95
Reviewed By: Danny Williams, mailto:[e-mail]
6=> Product: Descent II: The Infinite Abyss
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:[e-mail]

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CompuNotes is: Available weekly via email and on-line. We cover the PC
computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great
columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week
to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull,
sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way
it is! Please tell every online friend you know about us!
CompuNotes
B440
1315 Woodgate Drive
St. Louis, MO 63122
[e-mail]
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Patrick's Notes
1=> Commentary By Patrick Grote, mailto:[e-mail]

Internet access means more than anything to me. I mean if I can't
check my email constantly during the day I feel disconnected from the
world. You know, that feeling of surprise when an unexpected email
lands in your in basket or the latest, hot issue of CompuNotes
arrives.

Last week I suffered an outage so to speak. It occurred with my
primary internet provider, Inlink. Inlink is like thousands of other
city based internet providers offering $19.00 a month access while
sitting on the bubble of technology. I stay with Inlink not because I
like them, but because I am chained to them with my email addresses. I
have, seven, yes, seven email addresses through them. I know I could
set up a forwarding file or something, but why risk loosing the
precious email. I digress . . .

I received an email from Inlink about two weeks ago saying I owed
$35.00. This was odd as I just received a free month from them after I
referred someone. The email said I would receive an invoice and I
should pay it. Not wanting to loose my access I vigilantly waited by
the postal mailbox and nothing arrived. I quickly surmised that it
must have been a mistake and forgot about it. Forgot about it that is
until last Tuesday.

On Tuesday I found my main mail account was giving me password access
errors. Knowing this is the sign of a suspended account I tried to
call their offer. Unfortunately, Inlink was in the middle of a major
outage. One of a few they have had recently. When I called I didn't
get any options on the voice of talking to support or billing, just a
recorded message saying they were experiencing "technical
difficulties." The phone then disconnected. Hmmmmm.... After work I
stopped by the ATM, got out $35.00 on a hunch and made my way to their
offices.

I entered their spartan accommodations and found no one available.
Hmmm, there is a nice Cisco router someone could use. Oh, look, a 17
inch monitor . . . After three minutes or so of waiting, someone
finally appeared. The young man had a beard and a pack of Lucky
Strikes in his pocket. I quickly thought two things, "Someone actually
under the age of 50 smokes Lucky Strikes and have the Internet service
providers of the 90s become the local auto garage from the 50s?" The
young man took my money and gave me a hand written receipt. He asked
if my service had been suspended, I told him I didn't know since the
ISP was down. He told me they were up and he would check on my
account. I then asked that question anyone who works with networks
asks someone in the biz. "What happened?," I asked. Shooting me the
typical "You wouldn't understand" look, he mumbled something about
partitions being messed up. He then told me someone would send me a
detailed listing of my bill.

It's been a week and I haven't gotten anything . . .

Ugh! Why does it have to be so hard?

2=> Winner!
This week's winner is mailto:[e-mail]! Send them a
congrats message mailto:[e-mail]!

3=> Web Site Review: <http://www.mirabilis.com/products.html>

REVIEW OF ICQ, By Jack Decker and Thom Byxbe

We have come across a new Internet application that is simple in
concept, but which addresses a problem that has plagued some of us for
a long time.

Here's the scoop: Many of us spend a lot of time (or at least some
time) each day on the Internet. While we are online, in theory we
should be able to connect to any of our friends or associates who are
also online at the same time (no matter where in the world they may be
at the moment) and chat. By "chat" we don't necessarily mean voice
over the Internet (although that is certainly possible), but in this
case we're using the word "chat" in the more traditional sense
(traditional for online computer networks, that is), which is to type
short messages back and forth between two (or possibly more) people in
real time.

Real-time chats are a lot faster than e-mail (which most of us find
indispensable) because you can ask a question and get an immediate
answer. It's similar to using a phone in speed of response, but you
don't have to place a call and you can save a transcript of the chat
for later review (this is great if you are communicating difficult
concepts, important details, or even just things that are difficult to
spell!).

Again, if you are online and someone else is online, in theory you
should be able to quickly set up a chat session between the two of you
at any time. However, in the past it has been difficult to set up such
chats. The reason (without getting too technical) is that most of us
don't have fixed IP addresses, so most conventional chat software
(such as WinTalk or other "talk" programs) has no idea how to find us.
Knowing that someone is on the 'net but not knowing their IP address
(which for most of us is different each time we connect to our
Internet Service Provider) is like knowing that they are somewhere on
a long passenger train but not knowing which car... without that
specific information, they are very difficult to locate. Up until now,
most "chat" type programs weren't up to the task.

But now there is a new program called ICQ. This is not just a "chat"
program - in fact, it has enough features that it could potentially
replace as many as four or five other software programs that you may
now be using.

The unique thing about ICQ is that its creators (Mirabilis LTD. of
Sunnyvale, California) have set up a server that keeps track of where
all ICQ users are on the net, all the time. Every time you connect to
the Internet, your ICQ client (which you can download for free) sends
a message to the ICQ server telling it where you are. Anyone else
using the ICQ program can then find you easily. In fact, you can
create a list of friends or associates that you communicate with
frequently, and ICQ will keep track of whether they are currently
online or not, so you will know immediately whether they can be
contacted.

The ICQ program itself lets you chat with other users, and send
messages, files or URL's (Web page addresses - if you send one of
those, the user has the option of view the page with a Web browser, or
saving the URL to a bookmark file). There is even a "pager" mode that
lets anyone with World Wide Web access send a short text message to
you for instant delivery (instant if you are online, or it will pop up
immediately when you next connect to the 'net if you are currently
offline). ICQ also interfaces with other Internet telephone or
conferencing type programs, so you can use it to facilitate voice (or
even video) conversations, or to use the advanced capabilities of
other conferencing programs.

Now, we have seen other programs that do some of what this program
does, and have been fairly unimpressed. In part this because at least
one of the authors of this review tends to value his privacy... he's
not real comfortable leaving his name, e-mail address, postal address,
etc. (and he wouldn't even THINK of leaving his phone number) on a
server when he doesn't know how exactly how that information will be
used. He already gets enough "spam" e-mail, thank you, and
telemarketers are on his list of major annoyances of late-20th century
living! So if a program demands that he enter a lot of personal
information, it generally has a very short lifespan on his hard drive.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to find that ICQ lets you choose how
much information you want to make available to others. You can leave
any information you wish, and people can search for you using that
information. It is recommended that you enter at least your first
name, last name, e-mail address, and a nickname - but you are not
required to enter ANY of this information. When you register
(registration is free, at least for now), you are given a unique six-
digit user ID number, and anyone you give that number to will be able
to contact you. If you don't leave any personal information on the
server, having that number would be the ONLY way they could contact
you, or add you to their ICQ "contact list" - and even then, you have
the option of refusing to let others add you to their "contact list"
without your express prior approval (you can set ICQ up so that anyone
who wants to add you to their contact list can do so, or you can set
it so that you have to approve any such addition first).

Another nice thing about ICQ is that there is an option to set
yourself as being "away" (or if you have provided details about
yourself, to make yourself "invisible"). This is great for those times
when you want to get some work done and don't really want to be
disturbed! People can still send you e-mail during those times, of
course.

On more than one occasion, we were pleasantly surprised to find that
this program actually worked the way we would want it to if we had
designed it. When we told it to send e-mail, it fired up our e-mail
program and brought up the "new mail" window, with the recipient's e-
mail address already copied into the "To:" field. When we called up
the "Help" menu and clicked on "ICQ Web page", it didn't just bring up
a text window containing their URL, it actually fired up our Web
browser and took us there. Yet for all this program does, the
installation was very easy - in fact it was one of the simplest
installations we have seen considering the complexity of the program.
It did not ask for a lot of information, or how to find various pieces
of software on the system.

The current version is still a beta version, however, and we did
discover a couple of minor nits (such as the fact that you can't seem
to set yourself as being "away" if no one on your "contact list" is
currently online).

Also, the one inherent problem with programs that depend upon the use
of a server being up and running somewhere on the net is that if that
server goes offline, crashes, or becomes unreachable for some reason,
the client program will be dead in the water. And at the time of this
writing, that is a problem that plagues ICQ during certain times of
the day. However, we have discovered that they are moving their server
to New York in the next few days and will have a much better Internet
connection, which should help resolve those problems.

To find out more about the ICQ program or to download it, go to the
Web page at <http://www.mirabilis.com/products.html>. The current
version is for Windows '95 only, with a version for Windows 3.X and
for the NT platform soon to be released. There is also a Macintosh
client under development.

We give ICQ our TOP product recommendation. If you install it on your
system, search for user ID (UID) number 244058 (that's your fearless
TechKnow Times editor!) and add it to your contact list and send us an
ICQ message letting us know how you like the program. If we're not too
busy we might even be available for a short chat!

4=> Product: Special Edition Using Word for Windows 95 by Ron Person
and Karen Rose
Reviewed By: Robert Hering, mailto:[e-mail]
MSRP:  $34.99 U.S.  $46.99 Canada
Pages:  1,226

Book Audience: Beginners through professionals could all benefit from
this significant reference work.

Author Credentials: Mr. Ron Person was one of Microsoft's original
twelve Consulting Partners, and is a MS Solutions Planner. Ms. Karen
Rose provides desktop publishing techniques, and is the owner and
publisher of Little Red Book Press. Technical editing was conducted by
Mr. Bruce Wynn, a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Content: This reference work describes how to use Word for Windows,
Version 7.0, under Windows 95, in detail. The "Special Edition"
description refers to specific sections added since the first edition
was published in 1995. The book is unparalleled in its depth, covering
everything from the basics of word processing and initial use, through
Desktop Publishing and Professional Tips.

The book is organized into the following parts:
Part 1. Everyday Word Processing
Part 2. Formatting Documents
Part 3. Creating Envelopes and Mailings
Part 4. Mastering Special Features
Part 5. Publishing with Graphics
Part 6. Handling Large Documents
Part 7. Using Word with Office and Networks
Part 8. Customizing with Word
Part 9. Techniques from the Pros

Format: A key reason for this book's length, and content value, is the
extensive use of graphics and exhibits, from what to expect on-screen
to examples of actual results, and handy reference charts showing
related commands and short-cuts.

Review Comments: Anyone who has used Microsoft's built-in Word for
Windows95 Help to understand the nuances of the Word program will
appreciate the amount of effort required to produce this work. The
book simply replaces the need for the typical help screens. In effect,
it contains enough information about the application to enable
complete mastery over its many powerful features.

Each chapter's content is succinctly summarized at the beginning of
the chapter, alerting the reader what to expect. The tone of the text
is conversational, unlike the typical software user manual. Parts One
through Three cover the basics of Word for Windows95, such as creating
and editing a document, formatting techniques such as columns,
mailmerge and printing controls. These parts tend to be similar to
many other help manuals, but the level of detail is significant. Even
so, the chapter on using styles for repetitive formats is distinctive
in its treatment of how to use the style gallery and methods of
application.

The fun begins, and similarities with other manuals end, with Part 4,
the "Special Features" section. Here, the reader finds how to handle
tables ranging from the table setup, formatting, column and row
editing, calculating math results, and fine-tuning the table styles.
This section also addresses how to develop and work in Outline mode,
and how to automate field codes for such features as table of
contents, indices, and tables of authorities. The chapter on building
forms and fill-in dialog boxes is very informative, and helpful, for
developing business applications. Step-by-step methods for creating
customized form fields, including illustrations and figures, are
provided to guide the reader.

The "Publishing with Graphics" section, which is over 100 pages,
contains innumerable techniques and methods for importing, modifying
and controlling graphic images, framing and moving text and graphics.
It explores Word's drawing tools, creating special effects with
WordArt, and how to graph data. For those that have MS Office 95,
there are many clip art images available, royalty free, that can be
used in Word documents such as newsletters and brochures. The methods
for placement and control of these images to enhance the document's
appearance are thoroughly covered. Special text effects are also
explored in-depth, with focus on such areas as rotating text, kerning
(spacing between letters), and how to modify the vertical spacing
between lines in a paragraph.

In the "Handling Large Documents" section, techniques and methods to
control Footnotes and Endnotes are provided, along with creating
Indexes and Tables of Contents. The reader is guided through the
process of creating a master document, and then a series of sub-
documents. This chapter would be particularly useful to a
administrator responsible for multiple document creation and revisions
for a department or agency.

And, last but not least, the book contains an Index of Common
Problems, offering assistance by referencing the proper book section
for solutions. This book should be considered the standard reference
for Word for Windows.

QUE Corporation
201 W. 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN  46290
Sales:  1-800-428-5331
<http://www.mcp.com>
Ratings:
Install/ease of use:  Not Applicable
User Friendliness:  GOLD
Support:  Not Applicable
Quality:  GOLD

5=> Product: Norton AntiVirus Version 2.0 for Windows95
Reviewed By: Danny Williams, mailto:[e-mail]
Reviewed on: Pentium 60, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95
Requires: Windows95, otherwise unspecified
Street price: $65

Most people with computers have heard about viruses - nasty little
programs that cause you trouble after attaching themselves to other
programs and places in your system like boot records. Trouble that
might be only a silly message that pops up on your screen or trouble
that might toast your whole hard drive.

...with your 100 page research paper on it.

...the night before it is due.

...and your backups are infected too and disappear as soon as you
restore them.

Since that would probably ruin your whole day (at least), a great
stress-saver is a virus scanning program like Norton AntiVirus (NAV).
NAV protects you computers by checking your files for typical virus
"signatures" by comparing them to an easily updatable signature file,
repairing or deleting infected programs when they are found, and
keeping information about scanned, clean files to warn you when they
have changed, possibly by the intrusion of a virus.

One of the things that always frustrated me about antivirus programs
was the intrusiveness of the TSRs and the amount of memory they took.
NAV does a good job of staying in the background and giving me control
over what it will do and when it will run. The installation provides
choices for setting up NAVs level of protection and corresponding
intrusiveness and cost in system resources. In a high risk situation
where several people use the same computer, don't format floppies
before reusing them, run unshrinkwrapped software, and files are
regularly downloaded from the Internet or other outside source, it
makes sense to let NAV "Load auto protect at startup" which is an
always active program which constantly monitors for virus presence. In
a computer which is less at risk of viruses - one that is used by one
person, is not connected to a network or modem, runs only
shrinkwrapped software and formats all floppies before they are
reused, "Scan critical files at startup," which does a quick scan of
the boot sector and system files before Windows starts, is probably
enough. Rather than forget to do a systemwide scan every once in a
while, you can let NAV "Schedule weekly scans of hard disks"
automatically.

NAV offers to make a set of "rescue" disks. These are a boot disk, an
NAV program disk, and a virus definition disk and are what save the
day when that boot sector virus shows up. If the scan done at boot
time detects a virus, you can reboot with the rescue diskette and
repair or delete the infected files before infecting more files on
your disk. Everyone should have such a set of disks, because some
viruses can render your computer unbootable and thus leave you no way
to repair the damage without some bootable diskettes with the correct
tools.

After getting answers to all its configuration questions, the
installation takes a pause before writing the NAV programs to disk and
shows a list of what will happen in the installation. This is a great
touch that more installation program should do. I reviewed the list of
what the installation planned to do:
1. Update startup files
2. Update registry
3. Create rescue disks
4. Add virus protection to Netscape
I saw everything was like I thought it was, and gave the OK. A couple
of disk flips later, and I was ready to run...almost.

NAV had detected that I had Netscape Navigator installed on my
computer and offered to install itself as a helper application. Now
every download I do from Netscape first runs through NAV, thus
scanning and proclaiming safe any file before it is usable. It's a
nice feature, and keeps me from forgetting to scan files downloaded
from the Internet, but unfortunately I had some trouble with this
feature. I spent about 1/2 hour downloading a program, NAV did its
thing and said the file was virus free. Then it asked where I wanted
to save the file. I selected a directory on a disk with lots of space,
and it told me simply that it could not save the file. No option to
save it elsewhere, no retry, just "OK." The file was lost and I had to
start over. That happened the with the first two files I tried to
download after installing NAV, so I turned the helper app off and did
a couple of downloads - they worked fine. I turned the helper back on
and now it saves fine too. I can't definitely pin this oddity on
either NAV or Netscape or my computer setup, so your mileage will most
certainly vary on this one.

For a virus scanning package to be very useful, its virus list must be
updated regularly. I've heard the number of new viruses written every
year is around 2,000. At that pace, any virus definition file is
outdated very quickly. In fact, this brand new copy of NAV gave me a
warning at the end of the installation that my definition file was
outdated and should be replaced. If updating these definitions is
difficult, then it probably won't get done very often, thus leaving
the computer at higher risk. Rather than leaving me to track down a
BBS number and make that long distance call (although one is
available) or call an 800 number to have a diskette sent out (although
one is available) NAV makes the whole update completely painless by
connecting through my Internet connection and downloading the new file
from an FTP server. It only took a minute or two and I was protected
with the most current definitions.

Once installed and updated, NAV can protect your computer in several
ways. Each of these is selectable and configurable, so you can tailor
NAVs activity to match your own level of risk and resources. The most
straightforward is "Manual Scan." You run the program, tell it to look
for viruses, and it tells you if it finds any and offers to fix them.
This one uses no resources unless you are actually running the
program, of course. "Scheduled Scan" runs automatically at
predetermined intervals and doesn't take many resources from your
other programs while it is waiting to run. "Startup Scan" checks boot
records and the files your computer uses to boot up, and does so very
quickly at boot time. "Auto Protect" checks every program, document,
and template files as they are used. It also looks for "virus-like"
activity, like formatting your hard disk, and warns you in case you
are not the one who initiated such a drastic event. This uses the most
resources, but can save a lot of grief in a high risk situation.
"Inoculation" is a preventative measure that records information about
an inoculated file (a program or document of yours) without changing
the original. This information can be used later to see if the file
has been changed, and warn you of that fact.

NAV can scan single files, directories, whole hard drives, or multiple
drives all in one pass. For all the work it is doing, NAV seems very
fast - scanning my 540Mb drive with 423Mb of data on it in 2,584
files, Memory, boot records took less than three minutes on my Pentium
60. Single files and most directories take only a couple of seconds.

The combination of good speed, configurability, and easy updates means
this program is very likely to be used regularly, kept up to date, and
thus keep you protected from nasty little viruses out to ruin your
whole day.

Symantec, Inc.
10201 Torre Ave.
Cupertino, CA 95014
[phone]
<http://www.symantec.com>

6=> Product: Descent II: The Infinite Abyss
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:[e-mail]
Requires: 486/66, 8 MB RAM, 2xCDROM, DOS
MSRP: $49.95

Descent II: The Infinite Abyss is not a new game but is instead an
enhanced and expanded version of the hit sequel released last spring
by Interplay.  In addition to the original "Counterstrike" missions
that were part of the original Descent II release, Interplay and
Parallax (the creators of Descent) have added on 22 new missions (the
"Vertigo" series) containing 12 new robots and all sorts of nasty
surprises, and a mission builder that can create missions for either
Descent or Descent II.  To top it all off, they've included not only
the DOS version of Descent II but also the native Windows 95 version
and the S3Virge version (enhanced for 3D graphics cards) as well.
Wow!  Even if you already own Descent II, there is plenty here to
justify getting this newer version.

I previously reviewed Descent II last spring and found it to be one of
the really great sequels; it surpasses it's predecessor in almost
every way.  I also cautioned everyone then that if you didn't like
Descent you wouldn't like Descent II.  That is still true.  This
enhanced version is definitely for Descentophiles like myself.  With
my Assassin 3D/Sidewinder setup, the game is definitely a killer.  The
starting cutscene along with those for the "Counterstrike" missions
are incredible, better than even those in Mechwarrior II.  Could I
possibly puff up this game any more?  I doubt it.

The game comes on two CDs, the first includes the original game (DOS,
Windows 95, and S3 Virge versions) while the second contains the
Vertigo missions as well as the mission builder.  From Windows 95 the
whole installation runs smoothly, thanks to autoplay, and installs
both the Windows 95 and DOS versions (in case your computer doesn't
have the horses for the Windows 95 version).  The Windows 95 version
does require significantly more horsepower than the DOS version; a
Pentium CPU is recommended along with 16 MB RAM.  I don't find it that
much on an inconvenience to play the DOS version, however, and the
game runs significantly faster in DOS mode (I mean really, who the
heck can do multi-tasking while playing this game?).

The Vertigo missions are definitely hard; if you've never played
Descent or Descent II before I definitely recommend that you start
with the Counterstrike missions.  Oddly, the cutscenes for the Vertigo
missions that a leap backwards to the same type used in the original
Descent (although somewhat better looking).  No great animation or
effects; simple stills with text flowing across them.  Nice, but not
nearly as great as the Intro!  Still, if you've completed all of the
missions in Descent and Descent II, the Vertigo series will give you
more of the same intense, claustrophobic action you love.

The prize with this package however is the Mission Builder.  I've
dabbled with Mission Builders before; most are third-party utilities
made by small companies or individuals.  It has been my experience
that most of the third-party utilities are tough to work with and more
often than not your hard work crashes when you load it into the game.
This is not the case with this Mission Builder, probably simply
because it was made by the same guys who made the game!

Bottom line is simple; if you love Descent or Descent II then this is
probably a good buy simply for the additional missions alone.  If you
ever had the itch to create your own levels, however, than this is
simply a must-have.  Interplay and Parallax have upped the ante again.

Interplay Productions
16815 Von Karman Ave.
Irvine, CA  92606
mailto:[e-mail]
<http://www.interplay.com>
Ratings:
Installation/Ease of Use: Gold
User-Friendliness: Gold
Quality: Gold
User: First-person action gamers and fans of Descent
--END OF ISSUE