ST Report:6-Oct-95 #1140
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 10/25/95-07:37:36 AM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report:6-Oct-95 #1140
Date: Wed Oct 25 07:37:36 1995
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From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
It seems its more appropriate to talk about a few of the most recent
happenings than computers for the a moment since most everyone is
preparing for Comdex and then the Holiday Rush . First, about the O. J.
Simpson verdict. I have a few comments about this (only a few?) Having
had the opportunity to observe the legal system for some time from the
right side of the law, I can understand the verdict a bit easier than
some. First, let me say I feel the verdict was a just verdict based on
the evidence found and used by the prosecution. While many have
indignantly claimed that race entered into this case favorably on the side
of the defense, I see it quite the opposite. It was the prosecution, in
its zeal to place Det. Fuhrman, (now confirmed a racist) on the pedestal
of infallibility by the early on exploration of the racist comments
alleged to have been said by Fuhrman in the recruiter s office. In so
doing, they (the prosecution) opened the flood gates of witness
credibility and thus, gave the defense an open door relative to racism.
Messrs. Bailey and Cochran took full professional advantage of the
opportunity. Of course they would have had nowhere to go had Det. Fuhrman
not given them plenty of cud to chew. Then comes Det. Van Adder who is,
almost immediately, proven by an FBI agent s testimony to be a liar. How
could anyone in their right mind believe anything these two had to say or
represent? They made it utterly impossible to believe anything they had
to say...
Then comes Marsha Clark & company guided by Gil Garcetti the LA DA
who insisted upon having the evidence gathered at Rockingham remain
admissible. Had they conceded that that particular group of evidential
items were tainted and allowed Judge Ito to rule them inadmissible, the
defense would have lost a powerful wedge they eventually drove deep into
the prosecution s case. Ultimately, the jury would have been able to
concentrate on the true merits of the solid evidence gathered at the
actual Crime Scene as opposed to the peripheral, associative evidence; an
alleged planted glove, a pair of spiked and still wet socks, a
convenient and extremely tiny smudge of blood found in the Bronco and the
commentary about a missing overnight bag. All of which, played a powerful
and decisive role in the derailment of the prosecution s case.
The final damaging blows came from the extremely overconfident
attitude the prosecution s Clark and Darden repeatedly exhibited. If they
each told the jury and the "world" they had a sure conviction because of
the mountain of evidence once, they said it at least a thousand times..
who were they trying to convince? Themselves, the public or the Jury?
They, by their actions and constant objections to just about everything
but the rise and setting of the sun blew this case for them. Of course,
Hodge s medical emergency happening at such an opportune time during
Cochran s initial statement that was tearing the prosecution apart was
regarded as more strategic than medical by many including myself. After
all, it quickly went from a heart attack to gastronomical pains to
excessive flatulence in less than forty eight hours. Convenient at the
time ..but not probable nor in the least, convincing.
Finally, to see the LA DA gripe about emotion playing a part in the
verdict is truly ridiculous. Just about everything decided upon in this
case was placed into an emotional atmosphere prior to and including the
presentation of evidence, the testimony of witnesses and the summation of
both the prosecution s and defense s closing arguments. Emotion was truly
the strongest single factor in this entire trial and I might add, never
ever objected to by the prosecution. So why does the DA now try to cry
foul because of the use of emotion?? It was Marsha Clark and Chris Darden
who did first inject heavy doses of emotion into the trial especially
during and subsequent to their joint opening statement.
In this corner we have Opal and in the ever so blue corner ..we have
Florida s Panhandle. This has certainly been a record year for Hurricanes
with Florida enjoying their, not so welcome, attention all too frequently.
Although none have compared to Andrew Florida s panhandle residents can
certainly attest to Opal s fury. If somebody comes knocking on your door
asking that you donate a few cans of goodies for the folks in the
Pensacola area, don t hesitate. Lord knows they need the help. Also this
Sunday, please remember to thank God for the eternal mercy shown to all
Floridians during this unusually active and vicious hurricane season.
AEO s editor, Travis Guy lives in that area, I pray all is well for him
and his family.
Ralph ...
Ps; by the time you read this... Our Domain, STREPORT.COM should be working
perfectly again. Would you believe Opal knocked out one of the T1's to cap
this confusion?
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STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
------------------------ ----------
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
-/- Clinton to Ease Computer Exports -/-
Word is President Bill Clinton now is set to relax restrictions on
exports of high-performance computers, handing what observers say is a
long-sought victory to technology companies whose executives supported
his 1992 election.
However, the New York Times notes this morning that opponents of
the move -- including some in Congress and within Clinton's own
administration -- fear powerful U.S. computers will be diverted to
military uses such as designing missiles or nuclear weapons.
Notes the Reuter News Service, "Administration officials who
supported the proposal before Clinton told the Times it recognized
computer makers were making vastly more powerful machines each year.
What the administration defined two years ago as a supercomputer
requiring government approval for sale abroad was now a widely
available desktop computer, they said."
The Times this morning quoted administration officials as saying
the proposal would help American manufacturers sell billions of dollars
worth of powerful computers to civilian customers in China, Russia,
Israel, Pakistan, and India. Exports to military customers in those
countries would remain under tighter controls, they added.
While Clinton has not yet formally approved the proposal, the
Times says an administration official said Clinton had told Israeli
officials last week he intended to liberalize the rules that have made
if difficult for Israel and many other countries to buy Advanced U.S.
computers.
-/- Study Says U.S. Leads in Telecom -/-
A United Nations agency reports the U.S. is ahead of the rest of
the world in preparing for the next big leap in telecommunications.
Studying the number of phone lines, TV sets, and PCs per
inhabitant, the report ranks the United States first among 39 countries
in ability to use multimedia services combining telecommunications,
broadcasting, and computing.
Meanwhile, industrial giants such as Germany and Japan barely
made the Top 10.
Reporting from Geneva, Associated Press writer Alexander G.
Higgins says the 232-page study by the International Telecommunications
Union also ranked Denmark second to the United States, followed by
Canada and Sweden. Tied for fifth place were Australia, France, and
Switzerland, with the Netherlands eighth, Germany ninth and Japan 10th.
India was in last place among the 39 nations.
The report was released in advance of the opening today of
Telecom '95, the world's once-in-four-years chance to try out the
latest technology and dream about the future.
Notes Higgins, "The agency said no one really knows exactly how
people will be using telecommunications to get information, entertain
themselves and talk to each other in coming years. But it says one
thing is sure: The countries with extensive phone and cable TV systems
and with telephones, computers and television sets all in the same home
or office are in the best position."
Grouping all three types of technology under what it calls the
"info-communications industry," a sector the report says has become
practically recession-proof, with revenues last year of $1.43 trillion,
or 6 percent of the world economy.
Some other specifics:
-:- The number of phone lines around the world surpassed
645 million last year, more than one for every 10 people. Growth has
been especially fast in China and other parts of Asia.
-:- The world now has 1.2 billion television sets and 180 million
personal computers.
-:- The biggest growth in telecommunications has been
international telephone calls, which totaled 53 billion minutes in
1994, three times as much as a decade.
-:- Almost 20 million people acquired mobile cell phones last
year, bringing to more than 50 million the number of cellular
subscribers.
-:- Cable TV systems over the past decade increased 12 percent,
satellite-to-home TV 42 percent and the number of Internet users
113 percent.
The agency also commented that the Internet may be only a
precursor of what will link computers. Says Higgins, "It could be a new
network for computers or a system of intelligent television sets,
offering video-on-demand and wide range of business, games and
entertainment possibilities."
AP released this list of ranking by the UN agency of the readiness
of 39 major countries, based on the number of phone lines, television
sets and personal computers per 100 people.
1. United States 29.7
2. Denmark 19.3
3. Canada 17.5
4. Sweden 17.2
5. Australia 21.7
5. France 14.0
5. Switzerland 28.8
8. Netherlands 15.6
9. Germany 14.4
10. Japan 12.0
11. Britain 15.1
12. Austria 10.7
12. Belgium 12.9
12. Singapore 15.3
15. Hong Kong 11.3
16. Italy 7.2
17. Spain 7.0
18. South Korea 11.2
19. Taiwan 8.1
20. Hungary 3.4
21. Czech Republic 3.6
22. Israel 9.0
23. Greece 2.9
24. Portugal 5.0
25. Argentina 1.7
26. Poland 2.2
27. Russia 1.0
28. Malaysia 3.3
29. Chile 3.1
30. Turkey 1.1
31. Mexico 2.2
32. Brazil 0.9
33. Venezuela 1.3
34. South Africa 2.2
35. Thailand 1.2
36. China 0.2
37. Philippines 0.6
38. Indonesia 0.3
39. India 0.1
-/- IBM to Sell PC's Birthplace -/-
IBM Corp. will likely sell its historic Boca Raton, Florida,
research facility, the birthplace of the IBM PC in 1981, reports the
Wall Street Journal.
According to the newspaper, the 550-acre property, which is
divided into two sites encompassing two million square feet of office
space, will probably go on the market later this year. But an IBM
spokesman adds that the decision isn't yet final.
IBM announced yesterday that it is moving 800 OS/2 software
developers and marketing professionals from Boca Raton to Austin,
Texas. The move is designed to consolidate IBM's software development
operations and to improve efficiency, says the company.
At its peak in the mid-1980s, when IBM was at the top of its PC
game and developing OS/2 with Microsoft Corp., the Boca site employed
some 9,600 people.
Last year, the IBM PC division began consolidating in Raleigh,
North Carolina, while software operations have headed to Austin. Over
the past several months, one-third of the Boca work force has been
either moved or laid off.
The facility was purchased by IBM in 1968.
-/- JVC Plans California CD-ROM Plant -/-
Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. -- widely known in the United States as
JVC -- plans to invest some $35 million to build a plant to make CD-ROM
discs in Sacramento, California.
Reporting from Tokyo, the Reuter News Service says the plant,
scheduled to start operations a year from now, will have the capacity
to produce three million CD-ROMs a month.
JVC currently has a CD and CD-ROM plant in Alabama, but a company
spokesman told the wire service the firm thinks it will need another
plant to meet increasing demand for CD-ROMs.
The spokesman added that JVC is considering an additional
investment in the future to increase the monthly capacity of its new
Sacramento plant to ten million CD-ROMs in five to six years, but
declined to elaborate.
-/- NEC to Nearly Double PC Output -/-
In Tokyo, NEC Corp. says it has set a domestic personal computer
shipment target for the year to March 1998 at 5 million units, up
sharply from 2.8 million units forecast for the year to March 1996.
The French Agence France-Press International News Service quotes
NEC officials as saying the firm also will boost parts procurement
division staff in Asia to about 150 from the current 50 in order to
secure sources for low-priced parts such as cathode ray tubes.
AFP notes that the company recently set up procurement divisions
in Shanghai and Malaysia.
-/- Net Provides Rare Medical Link -/-
The Internet is being credited with providing important
information for a young British boy with a very rare disease that
causes excruciating head pain. The youth will undergo surgery today in
the United States, thanks to the Net.
From London, the Reuter News Service reports parents of 9-year-old
Matthew Fell of Worlaby, northern England, appealed for help on the
Internet after doctors in Britain were unable to help.
Says Reuters, "With only 14 cases of the disease reported in
Europe, little is know about the condition that struck Matthew in
January and affects a nerve in the face and head, causing constant
pain."
Tim Fell, Matthew's father, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper,
"We thought that by sending Matthew's medical history out on the
Internet, we might get some help."
It was through the network that the Fells were put in touch with
the family of a young girl with the same disease and referred to
specialist Dr. Peter Jannetta of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who agreed
to treat him.
Fell added, "We haven't been able to continue treatment over here
because, although the surgeons have successfully treated old people,
they have never had to treat a child. The surgeon in Pittsburgh was in
the unique position of having treated a child before."
-/- Matthew Fell in Stable Condition -/-
Nine-year-old Matthew Fell was in critical but stable condition
this morning at Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital after undergoing an
operation for a nerve disorder that causes severe pain.
As reported earlier the Worlaby, England, youth was brought to
Pittsburgh for the operation after his problem became known on the
Internet, which is being widely credited with providing the key
connections in his case.
According to United Press International, doctors operated Thursday
to relieve pressure on Matthew's trigeminal nerve, one of the cranial
nerves that serve the face and head. Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ian
Pollack said the 2 1/2-hour operation went well, but added it might
take a day or so to determine whether it was successful.
Pollack said trigeminal neuralgia occurs when a blood vessel
presses against the trigeminal nerve. It is more common in aging adults
than in children.
The wire service notes Matthew's parents, Lindsay and Tim Fell,
initially took their son to various doctors and hospitals in England.
When those efforts failed to find relief, they turned to the Internet.
"Working with a friend in Belgium during the summer," UPI reports,
"the Fells posted Matthew's medical information and an appeal for help
on the international computer network. They found the home page on
Internet's World Wide Web for the Barnegat Light, the New Jersey-based
Trigeminal Neuralgia Association."
Subsequently, they talked to Dr. Peter Jannetta, Pennsylvania's
health secretary, a University of Pittsburgh neurosurgeon and one of
the world's leading authorities on treating trigeminal neuralgia.
-/- CD-ROM Magazine Links to CIS -/-
Multimedia World and CompuServe Inc. are teaming up to produce the
first monthly CD-ROM magazine with hyperlinks to the Internet and an
online service.
Beginning with its November issue, Multimedia World will
distribute a special edition of its CD-ROM companion, Multimedia World
LIVE!, with every newsstand copy for the cover price of $4.95. The
customized version of LIVE! incorporates numerous hyperlinks to both
the CompuServe Information Service and the World Wide Web, using
CompuServe's interface software. By selecting one of these hyperlinks,
LIVE! users will be able to launch directly to related sites either on
the CompuServe Information Service or on the Web, such as Multimedia
World's home page at http://www.mmworld.com.
"LIVE's seamless integration of online hyperlinks represents a new
and dynamic way for our readers to access the information they want,"
says Russell Glitman, Multimedia World's editorial director. "If
readers are interested in more background on a certain topic, a link
can connect them immediately to additional editorial content that
resides online."
The November issue of "LIVE!" will contain "linked" articles on
Multimedia World's cover story for that month and an interactive test
report of video cards, CD-ROM drives and multimedia systems. It will
also include a selection of games, utilities, clip media, and drivers,
as well as links to popular online software libraries.
"CompuServe is uniquely positioned to bring greatest value to the
Multimedia World LIVE!'s customers," says William Hueter, CompuServe's
senior marketing manager of advanced technologies. "Up to the minute
online hardware and software product information, conferencing,
messaging and electronic customer registration are all available
through CompuServe on this outstanding CD-ROM."
Multimedia World has reserved 200MB on LIVE! for interactive
advertising, software demos, and hyperlinks to Web sites, allowing
advertisers to display product demos and/or provide links to their
online forums or web sites.
Multimedia World is published by PC World Communications, a
subsidiary of International Data Group.
-/- CompuServe Debuts Net Service -/-
CompuServe's Internet division has announced the first worldwide
consumer Internet service.
Priced at $4.95 per month, the service -- code-named SPRYTE -- is
designed to make the Internet available to every household.
"For the cost of a burger and fries, every family can now join the
Internet community," says Tim Oren, vice president and general manager
of CompuServe's Internet division. "We're making it easy for every
person to communicate with his or her friends, relatives and colleagues
online, around the world. Having an Internet address and Web page are
becoming expectations, just like the fax and phone number before them.
We're growing the worldwide Internet by filling these needs at an
affordable consumer price point."
SPRYTE is the first worldwide Internet service to include free
Internet software, low-cost, local Internet access in nearly every city
and value-added services, such as the ability to create personal home
pages. Available by the end of the year, SPRYTE will include three free
hours of Internet access for $4.95 a month. Additional hours will be
charged at $1.95 per hour.
Through CompuServe's global network, SPRYTE customers will be able
to make local Internet access calls in more than 96 percent of the
United States and overseas in numerous cities such as Brussels, Tokyo,
Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Bogota and Moscow.
-/- Survey Profiles Net Citizens -/-
Some 3.7 percent of American adults now are on the Internet. Most
are men, earning between $25,000 and $75,000 a year. Some 5.8 million
Americans have direct access to the Net. Another 3.9 million reach the
Internet through commercial online services.
Those are the key findings of a new survey commissioned by
publishers O'Reilly & Associates and Trish Information Services.
Associated Press writer Elizabeth Weise says that based on those
figures, O'Reilly estimated the online world in the United States will
grow by another 6 million adults over the next 12 months.
Notes Nick Collins of Trish Information Systems in Hayward,
California, which conducted the survey, "That's a 60 percent growth
rate. We'd like our business to be growing 60 percent, for sure."
Other findings of the "Defining the Internet Opportunity" survey:
-:- 67 percent of individuals with direct Internet access were
male and more than half were between the ages of 18 and 34. A further
25 percent were in the 35 to 44 age bracket.
-:- The median annual household income of Internet users in 1994
was between $50,000 and $75,000.
-:- The most common job listed for those who had access to the
online world was sales, 19 percent, followed by engineering,
15 percent.
The next three job functions, 29 percent total, were information
managers, administration and research and development.
AP says the survey was based on phone and mail questionnaires. The
first was a mail survey of 2,052 subscribers to the Global Network
Navigator, an online magazine published by O'Reilly & Associates. In
the second portion of the survey, 30,000 random screening interviews
were done by phone to find 1,000 Internet users and 500 online service
subscribers. The sampling error is plus or minus 1 percent.
-/- Hilton to Test Computer Desk -/-
Hilton Hotels Corp. will test an in-room personal business center,
called the Hilton SmartDesk, at four of its U.S. hotels.
Ten rooms in each hotel will be equipped with a full-size desk
(measuring 54 inches by 30 inches), a Hewlett-Packard 50MHz '486 PC, a
color monitor, a fax modem and an HP OfficeJet -- a combination fax
machine, printer, and copier. Installed software will include DOS 6.22,
Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows, Lotus Ami
Pro 3.1, Lotus Freelance Graphics 2.1 and Microsoft Powerpoint 4.0.
The desk will be tested at the Atlanta Airport Hilton and Towers;
The Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C.; the Chicago Hilton and Towers;
and the Millenium Hilton in New York City between Oct. 3 and Nov. 30.
Rates for SmartDesk-equipped rooms will range from $25 to $35 above
regular business rates and include unlimited use of the SmartDesk
components and support services.
"Striving for a desk setup that mirrors the average office, Hilton
SmartDesks provide equipment, software and services that business
people normally utilize on a day-to- day basis," says Robert E. Dirks,
senior vice president of marketing for Hilton Hotels, which is based in
Beverly Hills, California.
-/- CompuServe to Accept Advertising -/-
CompuServe has decided to begin accepting online advertising on
its main system as well as on its site on the Internet's World Wide
Web, beginning by the middle of this month.
Reporting from the company's Columbus, Ohio, headquarters, United
Press International notes, "CompuServe, one of the oldest and most
respected providers of online information (decided) the ads will be
designed as selectable icons on online menus in both areas, with users
required to select the link to advertising if they want to see what
sponsors have to say."
The move is seen as an effort to generate new revenues so its
pricing can remain competitive.
Other information services have carried online advertising for
years, UPI observes, notably Prodigy, where ads appear at the bottom of
each screen. "The acceptance of the Internet as a medium of information
exchange has also greatly expanded opportunities for advertisers to
reach online users," the wire service adds.
-/- Internet-Cable Link in the Works -/-
Development of Internet services to the home using cable-TV
systems is the goal of a new partnership between Netscape
Communications Corp. and a start-up company backed by
Tele-Communications Inc. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
The startup, called simply Home, told the Wall Street Journal it
will use Netscape's Internet software as part of a proposed nationwide
service.
"The venture hopes to develop a network that will link cable
operators and allow high-speed, two-way communications for personal
computers," the Journal added recently in a report from Palo Alto,
California.
Backed by TCI and the San Francisco venture firm Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers, the firm will use a modified version of Netscape's
browser. Netscape President/CEO James Barksdale will join Home's board
as part of the alliance.
-/- Apple Consolidates Internet Effort -/-
Apple Computer Inc. has consolidated its Internet and online
content and services development into a single division.
Acknowledging the strategic importance of the Internet to the
company, Apple has changed the name of its online services division to
Apple Internet Services and enlarged its responsibilities. In 1996, the
unit will launch a series of new World Wide Web sites and services. It
will also make eWorld, the company's online service, a more
Internet-based service. Additionally, the division will assume control
of Apple's existing World Wide Web sites, currently managed by the
Worldwide Marketing and Services division.
"By consolidating our Internet content and services work, and
focusing our online service on the Internet, we aim to quickly create a
powerful and influential Apple community on the Web," says Michael
Spindler, Apple's CEO and president. "We believe the Apple brand can be
as renown in Cyberspace as it is in publishing, education, and the
home."
-/- IBM Unveils New ThinkPads -/-
IBM Corp. has introduced the latest versions of its ThinkPad
notebook computer.
The new ThinkPad 760 series features two models: the 760C and
760CD. Both systems feature a Pentium microprocessor, a 12.1-inch color
display and a a tilt-up keyboard that automatically assumes a
comfortable typing angle when opened.
The PCs also include an LCD display tucked into the keyboard that
gives users a constant read-out of battery life and other system
functions. Additionally, an on-screen point-and-click control panel
displays features and functions as photos and icons.
The 760CD also provides a four-speed CD-ROM drive and an MPEG-2
video chip.
"The new ThinkPad 760 notebooks are powerful alternatives to
traditional desktop computers," says Joe Formichelli, the IBM PC Co.'s
general manager of mobile computing. "Our customers will no longer have
to buy and maintain two PCs for a single employee."
Prices for the ThinkPad 760C and 760CD start at $5,349 and range
up to $7,449.
-/- Soaring Chip Market Seen -/-
Driven by strong growth in the PC market, worldwide semiconductor
revenues will climb to $149 billion this year and hit $331 billion by
the 2000, according to Dataquest Inc.
The market researcher, based in San Jose, California, notes that
semiconductor demand will continue to outstrip supply in 1995 and 1996.
Dataquest does not expect capacity to meet demand until the early part
of 1997.
Capacity constraints will limit semiconductor revenue growth for
the second half of 1995, but 1995 revenue will still grow nearly
36 percent over last year, says Dataquest.
"Our optimistic outlook for the chip industry is only clouded by
the excessively long lead times for fab equipment and scarcity of
skilled employees," says Gene Norrett, a Dataquest vice president.
-/- Dispute Unravels Security Effort -/-
Bickering is unravelling that alliance established earlier this
year to develop a technical standard for protecting credit-card
purchases on the Internet.
As reported earlier, Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications
Corp. have been working with such top players as credit-card rivals
Visa International and MasterCard International Inc.
"But this week," says reporter Jared Sandberg in this morning's
Wall Street Journal, "the alliance split because of tensions between
Visa and MasterCard and their respective technology partners, Microsoft
and Netscape."
Adds Sandberg, "Microsoft and Visa this week published a detailed
description of a credit-card standard -- but with MasterCard
conspicuously absent. MasterCard and Netscape now argue, in essence,
that the Microsoft-Visa team is withholding the technical design to
keep its approach 'proprietary' and charge software developers and
financial institutions to use it."
A MasterCard spokeswoman told the paper, "We're disappointed that
Microsoft and Visa have opted unilaterally to take this approach,"
adding the Microsoft-Visa details were incomplete, thwarting banks and
software firms developing new applications. MasterCard says it refused
to take part in the Visa announcement because it is "contrary" to the
plans for a "single open standard."
The Journal says the disagreement threatens to break down into "an
all-out standards battle" over how to prevent computer vandals and
intruders on the Internet from filching credit-card numbers and other
sensitive financial data.
"The losers," says Sandberg, "could be legions of users and
companies eager to do business on the Internet. Banks would be forced
to accommodate multiple payment mechanisms, merchants would have to
choose one or another standard or incur greater costs obtaining both
systems -- passing the costs on to Internet consumers."
Meanwhile, "ego also seems to be at work in the Microsoft and
Netscape face-off," the paper comments, quoting Netscape Chairman James
Clark as asserting that Microsoft had demanded a 20 percent stake and a
seat on the board of Netscape earlier this year in return for giving
Netscape important technical data on Microsoft's new operating system.
Clark made that comment yesterday in what Sandberg characterized
as "an otherwise low-key panel discussion" at the Seybold Conference
yesterday in San Francisco.
Says the paper, "An audience member asked why Netscape and
Microsoft are backing different standards for commerce on the Internet,
and Mr. Clark replied that Microsoft is hard to work with and detailed
the equity demand as an example."
-/- Apple Financial Chief Quits -/-
Joseph A. Graziano is leaving as Apple Computer Inc.'s chief
financial officer by the end of the year. He is stepping down, he says,
"due to differences in opinion with the CEO."
Reporting from Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters, United
Press International says Apple's board of directors reaffirmed its full
support for President/CEO Michael H. Spindler during a regularly
scheduled meeting of the board yesterday.
Apple Chairman A.C. (Mike) Markkula told the wire service, "The
board will continue working with Spindler to address the challenges and
exciting opportunities we face in the dynamic personal computer
industry. The unprecedented demand for our new products demonstrates
the growing appeal of the Macintosh platform. We are committed to
actively working with the management team of Apple under Spindler's
leadership to create value for our shareholders."
Apple said in a statement that Graziano, executive vice president
and chief financial officer, announced his intention to resign as a
director effective immediately and leave the company by year end.
"Graziano stressed that the parting is amicable," says UPI, "and
that he will work with Spindler to effect a smooth transition."
On the situation, the Associated Press comments, "Due to a number
of missteps, Apple has been unable to keep up with surging demand for
its new Power Macintosh line, which was supposed to boost its lagging
market share for personal computers. A shortage of parts and chronic
underestimation of demand raised speculation that the company's board
would look at significant management changes at its regular meeting."
The wire service also notes, "While Spindler has enjoyed
Markkula's support and has been credited with engineering the transfer
to the Power Macintosh line, some observers have noted that Apple's
board ousted John Sculley two years ago at a time of weak profits and
doubts about the company's future."
AP quotes Dataquest Inc. figures as indicating Apple's share of
the worldwide market -- which fell from 9.4 percent in 1993 to 8.5
percent last year -- has dropped to 7.4 percent in the current quarter.
"Apple acknowledges it has misjudged demand," AP says. "The
company forecast 15 percent sales growth this year, but it actually
exceeded 20 percent."
-/- Piracy Costing Jobs in Europe? -/-
A new report suggests Western Europe could create 87,000 new jobs
and generate $2.3 billion in new tax revenues by the year 2000 if it
can reduce software piracy to U.S. levels.
Commissioned by the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance, the
report says that more than 50 percent of business software used in
Europe is illegally copied, compared with 35 percent in the United
States.
In Brussels, BSA President Robert Holleyman told the Reuter News
Service, "Software theft is the single biggest threat to the ongoing
health of the computer software industry."
The BSA's report, prepared by Price Waterhouse consultants, looks
at the economic impact of the losses in software sales due to piracy in
Western Europe -- estimated at $4.8 billion in 1994.
"Such losses," it says, "are a serious constraint on the further
growth of the industry, holding back further job creation, adversely
affecting investment decisions, and limiting the development of
software products."
Holleyman told the wire service that companies and organizations
that made illegal in-house copies accounted for most of the theft.
Says Reuters, "By comparing hardware sales to software sales, BSA
estimates that the piracy of packaged business software in Western
Europe stands at 52 percent and in all of Europe at 58.6 percent. The
former Soviet republics were the biggest offenders in 1994, with a rate
of 97 percent, while Switzerland had the lowest rate of 35 percent."
In BSA's view, European governments need to:
-:- Strengthen enforcement of copyright laws, imposing harsher
criminal penalties and higher damage awards.
-:- Make greater use of court-ordered "surprise" seizures of
illegal software.
The report praises Italy for reducing its rate of illegal copying
from 83 percent to 50 percent between 1992 and 1993 by cracking down on
pirates.
Meanwhile, Robin Burton, BSA's director of European public
affairs, says the BSA is targeting Spain this year, trying to reduce
its piracy rate of 73 percent, adding that the group has set up a
hotline for informers and offered a reward for tips.
Arcada Backup STR Infofile
Arcada Backup for Windows 95
Backup Architected for Windows 95
Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system brings a wide variety of new
and exciting capabilities for Windows users, including long file name
support, a 32-bit architecture and extensive multi-media support. In
addition, the WIN.INI file has been replaced with a more comprehensive and
powerful repository called the Registry, which contains vital
configuration and system security information. These new aspects of
Windows 95 make Windows 3.1 backup software one of the few classes of
applications that does not smoothly transition between the two operating
systems. For that reason, Arcada has developed a brand new backup
application for Windows 95.
Arcada Backup for Windows 95 is tape backup software designed to
protect the critical data stored on Windows 95 desktop computers. One of
the most important aspects of the product is its comprehensive device
support for all popular floppy, parallel and SCSI tape devices. This
allows existing tape drive owners to maintain their investment in tape
hardware, while upgrading to a new software package that is faster and
easier to use.
Arcada Backup for Windows 95 was developed from the ground up for
Windows 95, rather than simply ported from our existing Windows 3.1 backup
application. It takes advantage of new enhancements unique to Windows 95
applications, including 32-bit multi-threading. Arcada Backup for Windows
95 has been tested and approved by Microsoft to not only be compatible
with Windows 95, but specifically designed for it.
As users continue to increase their requirements for storage,
reliable, consistent data protection becomes increasingly important.
Arcada has a long history of protecting data on Microsoft operating
systems, such as supplying the native backup applet in DOS 6.x, Windows
3.1 and Windows NT.
NOTE:
-----
Arcada Backup for Windows 95 is a "desktop" tape backup application,
rather than a system designed to back up large network servers. Arcada
has a variety of other products -- Backup Exec for Windows NT and Backup
Exec for Netware, for example -- specifically designed for a system
administrator's requirements to protect vast amounts of heterogeneous data
on the enterprise.
What's New And Improved
-----------------------
Long File Names -- Users can create long file names to suit their needs
using Arcada Backup for Windows 95. The products supports long file names
and all new file attributes, such as Access Date, available under Windows
95. (Windows 3.1 backup software doesn't intuitively recognize the long
file names, rather it truncates them back to the 8.3 length.)
Windows 9S Registry.- Arcada Backup recognizes the importance of the
registry, ensuring complete non-intrusive recovery of system configuration
information, such as installed hardware and system resources, security
information, and user preferences. Failure to handle the registry
properly during backup (and particularly restore) may require reinstalling
applications, reestablishing preferences, or in severe cases, prevent the
computer from booting up.
Plug-and-Play -- When used with compatible devices, Arcada Backup for
Windows 95 automatically resolves any conflicts between tape devices and
other hardware to automate its installation and configuration. New device
installation can present conflicts with DMA or Interrupts, SCSI IDs, or
matching a driver to a new device. With the support of Plug-and-Play,
Windows 95 goes a long way to eliminate these problems.
Wizards -- Arcada Backup's Wizards walks novice users through a backup or
restore process one screen at a time. This mode ensures users hav6 a
choice of selecting each available option, while the system provides
recommended defaults. Even experienced users find the Wizards helpful,
discovering features they never knew existed.
Comprehensive Device Support -- Arcada has always provided support for a
large number of tape devices. Backup for Windows 95 expands upon Arcada's
already widespread tape drive support, which includes not only traditional
floppy and parallel tape devices, but also all popular SCSI tape devices.
Job-Based Backup Sets -- Arcada Backup conveniently lets users create
backup job files that can be saved, scheduled or edited at any time.
Users only need to select and back up files once. After that, users can
schedule the job to run in the background at any time or day of the week.
WinFax Pro & Win 95 STR Infofile
WinFax PRO 4.0 and WIN95
Generally WinFax PRO 4.0 can run in WIN95. WinFax was made for Windows 3.x
and has no forward compatibility, so there are some restrictions on using
some modules of WinFax. If you had installed WinFax PRO 4.0 before
upgrading to WIN95, then it is recommended to make a re-install. If you
installed also MS Office 7.0, then do the re-install after installing MS
Office.
First Installation in WIN95
Insert the setup-disk in the floppy-drive and click on the START button.
You can install from the RUN menu or from SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL/ADD-
REMOVE PROGRAMS. Bypass the first setup-window asking for progman.exe by
clicking on CONTINUE. In the installation window select CUSTOM INSTALL.
Do NOT install the macros.
Deselect the Application-Macros when you are using WIN95-applications (ie.
MS Office 7.0), because the macro language has changed in the new
applications and all existing macros can NOT be used. Do NOT install in
directories with long names!
It is strongly recommended, that you install in the given locations.
- Let the install do the test of the COM-port: WinFax can only install on
COM-ports 1-4.
- If your 28.8-modem is not listed in the modem list: Select the same
model with 14.400 bps (faxing is done on max. 14.400 bps) or select the
generic modem.
- Bypass the window requesting for changes in system.ini by clicking on
NO. Do NOT install wfxcomm.drv, WIN95 must have his own driver named
comm.drv.
- In User-Setup fill in at least your CSID: Use only numbers. It is
unlawful to use a modem without CSID in some countries and some fax-
machines interrupt connections without a CSID.
- After the install edit your autoexec.bat and add the exact path to the
existing path-statement. The path could show then as follows:
PATH=C:\;C:\WINFAX; (assuming you have installed in C:\WINFAX)
Edit only with an ASCII-editor, ie. Notepad, or use the system-editor.
After setting the path, restart your computer, so the settings can take
effect.
- If you have a DCSETUP failure: See below in "Error-Handling".
Re-Install of WinFax 4.0 in WIN95
Proceed as above (Install). Install to the same location as the existing
WinFax-installation. Your existing phonebook, log-listing, attachments and
cover-pages are NOT overwritten on re-install! If you have a DCSETUP
failure: See below in "Error-Handling".
Installing the system-editor from WIN95
If you want to look at the contents of your system-files or you want edit
these files, then you can use the system-editor. Start EXPLORER (size down
to half window) and search the file SYSEDIT.EXE in the system directory.
Now click with the right mouse button on the Start button and click on
OPEN. Click twice on the Program folder. Now drag the sysedit folder and
let it drop on the Accessories folder. From now on you have a menu option
(in Accessories) for the system editor.
System-files: autoexec.bat, config.sys, win.ini, system.ini, protocol.ini
and msmail.ini.
Using WinFax PRO 4.0 in WIN95
- You must set WinFax to the path in autoexec.bat.
- Disable the background spooling of your WinFax-printer: In Control Panel
click twice on the printer applet, click with the right mouse-button on
the WinFax printer and select PROPERTIES. In properties click on the
DETAILS tab, then on the SPOOL SETTINGS button: Select then "Print
directly to the printer" and click on OK.
- If you want to print to WinFax out of any Windows-application, then
start first WinFax (minimized) and use then the application.
- Before printing to WinFax you have to set WinFax as the default printer.
You can do this on clicking FILE (main bar) and PRINTER SETTING... If you
are using an application without the menu-item PRINTER SETTING, then you
have to set the printer in Control Panel. Do not forget to set the printer
back to your local printer, if you want print anything on paper.
- Never use long filenames to save attachments or cover-pages.
Error-Handling
DCSETUP failure on installing You have a Logitech mouse installed. Disable
the Logitech-driver:
- In Control Panel click twice on the mouse applet.
- Select the GENERAL tab and click on the CHANGE.... button.
- Mark SHOW ALL DEVICES and wait for the list.
- Mark [Standard mouse types] and mark Standard PS/2 Port Mouse.
- Click on OK and wait until you see the new driver, then click on close.
- The computer must be restarted to take effect.
- Now install WinFax as above.
- After installing change WinFax back to the old Logitech settings. If
you don t change back and you have a three-button mouse, then the middle
button is not available for future use.
Installation failure on testing the COM-port
WIN95 can install PnP modems on any port above the last standard COM-port
4 and it does this, when other hardware (ie. Souncards, CD-ROMs) is using
interrupts and/or addresses from COM 1-4. WinFax can only use COM 1-4. In
this case disable (or pull out of the computer) all other hardware and re-
install your PnP modem. Reinstall the other hardware in WIN95. If the
Delrina Test fails on your modem on COM 1-4, then it is possible that your
modem is not compatible with WinFax. Contact the modem-maker.
Your modem is not listed in the modem list
First check your modem manual to find an init-string for WinFax. If you
find the same make and a model with 14.400 bps in the modem list, then use
this init-string. If all fails ask in the forum for help. If you are
requested to send the test-report (filename deltest.log in Windows
directory), then send this report by e-mail or by fax (the file doesn t
fit in a forum message).
Failure when clicking on the ATTACH applet
- Attachments can always made in the send-window on clicking the MAKE
ATTACHMENT...
- Clicking on the ATTACH applet in the normal log-view can not be handled
from WinFax PRO 4.0 in WIN95. You can temporarily bypass on proceeding as
follows:
- Close WinFax and rename the file attach.db (in the data directory) to
attach.old.
- Restart WinFax and you can use for the current session the ATTACH
applet. Existing attachments are not listed, so you have to add these
attachments.
- When you shut down WinFax and you want use the ATTACH applet in your
next WinFax session, then you have to rename again attach.db.
Failure while recognizing in the OCR-engine
If you have problems on recognizing a long text, then split up the
recognizing on selecting pages 1-10 (first run), page 11-20 (second run)
etc. If you have a failure while recognizing, you can t shut down WinFax,
so you have to restart WIN95.
ATM fonts
As per readme-file from Microsoft in WIN95, ATM fonts can not be used in
most fax applications.
Corrupted logs and/or re-installation on other locations
If you re-installed your WinFax to another location (drive/directory)
and/or you can t see your existing events, then the file log.db (data
directory) is still pointing to the old location or the file is corrupt.
Rename this file (out of WinFax) to log.old and restart WinFax. The file
is rebuild and you should see the old events. The log-list itself is
stored in the file
status.ftm. If this file is corrupted (you can rename it too) then there
is NO possibility to rebuild your existing log!
The same is valid for your phonebook: phone.db is pointing to your
phonebook. The phonebook itself is stored in default.dbf. The same is
valid for your attachments: attach.db is pointing to the attachment-list,
named attach.ftm.
General
When you had a failure and the program shuts down, then on restarting
WinFax you often get messages like "can not open phonebook" or "the COM-
port is in use by another application". In this case restart WIN95 and
WinFax will work
again. If you need help from Delrina, write in the forum to a person. You
can see all names of the Delrina Tech Staff in the Sysop roster.
The coming new WinFax for WIN95: WinFax PRO7.0
Delrina today (August 9th, 1995) made a press release on the
Communications Suite 7.0 for Windows95 the following is an excerpt
specific to WinFax, this a very slick package. If you have a voice modem
the voice features, are
really great :
Integrated Messaging
In previous versions of WinFax, the software was able to send, receive and
manage e-mail messages, along with faxes. WinFax PRO 7.0 raises messaging
to a new level, enabling users to manage not just e-mail but other
messaging
types. WinFax PRO 7.0 provides integrated messaging enabling users to
manage all their fax, e-mail, voice and paging messages in an integrated
messaging log (i.e. in box) and address book. The software is a also able
to mix messaging types, and for example, initiate a paging message to
notify the user that an urgent fax or voice message has arrived. WinFax
PRO also completely merges with Microsoft Exchange, the e-mail client
component in Windows 95, transparently sharing information.
WinFax PRO 7.0 includes over 100 new features and functional improvements
including the capability to transmit up to 1/3 faster. Also, people can
now fax high quality gray scale images, such as photographs, when using
devices such as the WinFax Scanner. Other enhancements include Post-
it<tm> type cover pages, the ability to define recurring fax
transmissions, automatic hard copy confirmations of transmissions, rule-
based auto-forwarding/routing, and the award-winning Xerox TextBridge<tm>
3.0 OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine.
Compiled by Peter Koerber, 100517,1256 (not from Delrina)
September 30, 1995
Reviewed by Michael Marriott
Delrina NEWS NOTES STR Spotlight
Delrina To Include Powerful Windows 95 Data Communications Software
with Cyberjack Internet Product
WinComm PRO 7.0 Includes All The Features Users Need to Access BBSs, On-
Line Services and Host Computers
TORONTO, ONT -- September 19, 1995 -- Delrina Corporation (NASDAQ:DENAF,
TSE:DC),
the leading supplier of PC communications software for Windows, today
announced that it will include WinComm<tm> PRO 7.0 for Microsoft<R>
Windows<tm> 95 in the box with its Internet product Cyberjack<tm> 7.0.
WinComm PRO is a general purpose communications package for connecting to
BBSs (bulletin board services), on-line services like CompuServe, MCI
Mail, and Genie, and host computers through terminal emulation. Unlike
on-line packages that have evolved from text-based origins, WinComm PRO is
graphically oriented, making on-line connections simpler and easier. It
also includes all the essential utilities associated with general purpose
communications, like anti-virus technology and a ZIP manager for managing
compressed files, in a single integrated package so users do not have to
piece together such components from other sources. The new version 7.0
builds upon its tradition as one of the leading data communications
products and:
* Improves performance and usability with 32-bit, multitasking,
multithreaded code, enabling complete background communications, plus
other enhancements under Windows 95.
* Includes Image Manager, a built-in image file viewer that lets users
view image files as they are downloaded, and also lets the user edit and
manipulate them.
* Includes an integrated ZIP manager that lets users visually manage files
that are in a compressed ZIP format.
* Includes built-in virus detection through Norton AntiVirus<tm> for
compressed or uncompressed files, to protect users from inadvertent
computer virus infection acquired from a file that was downloaded.
* Includes Delrina Basic, a new Visual Basic-like scripting language
making WinComm PRO more easily customizable and programmable.
* Supports RIPscrip graphics terminal emulation (Remote Image Processing),
so users can navigate RIP capable BBSs with their mouse and experience the
new graphically-enhanced bulletin boards.
According to Delrina president Mark Skapinker, "Despite the mass appeal of
the Internet, there is still a huge population of users that subscribe to
bulletin boards, that work remotely and need terminal connections to their
company's host systems, or who need a solid general purpose data
communications package that can connect them to an on-line service.
WinComm PRO is designed to provide Windows 95 users with an integrated and
comprehensive general purpose
package that includes all of the little utilities that surround on-line
activities. Rather than trying to piece-meal all these utilities and
shoe-horn them on top of the basic communications you get in the operating
system, we're including WinComm PRO in the box with Cyberjack. The
combination of Cyberjack for the Internet and WinComm PRO for general data
communications, gives users a full-featured package to handle all of their
on-line needs."
On-Line 95
WinComm PRO 7.0 is written to take advantage of all the new communications
enhancements under Windows 95. The software is full 32-bit, multitasking,
multithreaded code, which delivers faster, more reliable data
communications, even while running other computer-intensive applications.
WinComm PRO 7.0 also takes advantage of Plug 'n Play for easier
installation and configuration of fax modems. The software has also been
written for full OLE 2.0 (Object Linking & Embedding) compliance, which
allows users to do things like drag an on-line session icon from the
WinComm phonebook directly to one's desktop. For example, to connect to a
particular session, a user would normally have to open the WinComm PRO
program folder, launch the program, search for the session icon in the
phonebook, and then click on the icon to launch the session. If a user
frequently connects to a particular on-line service, such as a stock price
quoting service, they can drag the session icon directly on their desktop.
By clicking on the icon, WinComm PRO is
automatically launched with the complete session settings, taking the user
directly to the service.
The user interface of WinComm PRO 7.0 has been further refined based on
Microsoft Office conventions (product is MS Office logo'd), which provides
consistency, ease-of-use, and reduces the learning curve between it and
other Office compatible applications. WinComm PRO still maintains its
advanced usability features like split-screen session windows, 5000 line
backscroll buffer and context sensitive menus accessible from a right
mouse click.
Integrated On-Line Utilities
In the past, users have had to source on-line utilities, such as an image
viewer or compression software, from third parties, either as freeware,
shareware or from more expensive commercial packages. Furthermore, none
of the utilities could work together. WinComm PRO 7.0 includes a
comprehensive set of integrated on-line utilities, including an image
manager, a ZIP file manager and Norton AntiVirus.
The image manager (Image Manager) displays most common image files (17
types) so users can immediately view images that they have downloaded. It
also has the ability to display the image as it downloads, so a user can
cancel their download if the file is not what they expect, saving them on-
line connection charges. In addition, Image Manager also provides some
basic image manipulation features normally found in more sophisticated
packages like Adobe PhotoShop<tm>, such as rotating the image, changing
the color palette or adding additional contrast.
The built-in ZIP Manager and Norton AntiVirus technology in WinComm PRO
7.0 work in conjunction. For example, compressed files cannot be checked
for computer viruses, unless they are first uncompressed. WinComm PRO,
however, is able to automatically uncompress a downloaded file to check
for viruses. The integration of the ZIP manager and AntiVirus technology
provides an important safeguard against inadvertent infections due to lack
of care or the accidental launching of an infected file or program that
has been downloaded.
Scripting
WinComm PRO 7.0 now has a new scripting language, Delrina Basic, which is
completely compatible with Microsoft Visual Basic<tm>. Scripts, which can
either be written or recorded, provide users with the ability to automate
tasks for on-line sessions. In past versions of WinComm PRO, the
scripting capability was 'C' language based, which is robust, but more
difficult to learn and use than Basic. The new scripting language uses
the same conventions as MS Visual Basic, which is also the basis of the
macro language used in all the Microsoft Office applications, such as Word
and Excel. The implementation of a Visual Basic compatible scripting
capability enables a whole new set of users to automate their
communications sessions.
Accessing Graphical BBSs
BBSs originated in a text-based communications world, but today BBSs are
becoming graphical following an industry standard protocol -- RIPscrip.
RIP is the BBSs equivalent of the rich graphical interface that has
popularized the World Wide Web for Internet users. For example, users can
now navigate RIP-based BBSs with their mouse, something not possible in
the text-based world. WinComm PRO 7.0 supports RIP, enabling users to
access and experience the new
graphically-based BBSs.
WinComm PRO 7.0 will be included in the box with Cyberjack 7.0 (a suite of
Internet applications) when the two ship in Q4, 1995. The list price of
the combination is $129 ($159 Cdn). Both WinComm and Cyberjack are also
included as part of Delrina CommSuite<tm> 95, which includes WinFax<tm>
PRO 7.0 for fax and messaging, also available in Q4, 1995.
Delrina Corporation designs, develops, markets and supports innovative PC
software products and services in the fax, data and voice communications,
electronic forms and consumer software markets. Founded in 1988, the
company is recognized as the world leader in PC fax and electronic forms
software. Delrina recently announced a definitive agreement to merge with
Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) of Cupertino, CA. Delrina can be
contacted for more information at 1-800-268-6082 or through Delrina's
Internet Web site at http://www.delrina.com.
INTERPLAY SUES! STR FOCUS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 1995
INTERPLAY FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST LASERSOFT FOR
TRADEMARK AND TRADE DRESS INFRINGEMENT OF
INTERPLAY'S DESCENT GAME
Irvine, California: Interplay Productions announced today that it
has commenced suit against Lasersoft, Inc. in the United States District
Court for the Central District of California. In its complaint, Interplay
has alleged violations of federal and state trademark laws by Lasersoft in
its distribution of software containing the label "DIMENSIONS FOR DESCENT"
which has been sold for use with Interplay's highly popular Descent game.
After reviewing submissions from both parties, the District Court
issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Lasersoft from selling,
advertising, distributing or otherwise marketing any computer game bearing
the distinctive trade dress of Interplay's Descent computer game, and
further ordered Lasersoft to immediately take whatever steps are necessary
to recall all copies of its "DIMENSIONS FOR DESCENT" game that are in the
possession or custody of distributors or retailers which are packaged in
trade dress bearing the metallic bronze and black of Interplay's Descent
game. Further proceedings have been scheduled for October 2.
Founded in 1983, Interplay Productions is a company dedicated to
manufacturing and distributing a wide range of award-winning Entertainment
and Educational software designed by gamers, for gamers. Interplay,
MacPlay (the company's Macintosh division), VR Sports (the company's
sports division), and its affiliates release products for IBM and
compatibles, CD-ROM and Macintosh as well as leading console game
platforms. Interplay's OEM division represents over 200 titles from
publishers including Davidson & Associates, Inc., Viacom New Media and
Accolade to hardware manufacturers. Interplay -.titles include Descent ,
Dungeon Master II, The Legend Of Skulkeep, Frankenstein: Through The Eyes
Of The Monster, Boogerman, Virtual Pool, BattleChess and Clayfighter.
More comprehensive information on Interplay and its products is available
through the company's worldwide web site at http://www.interplay.com.
Contact:
Kirk Green
Internet: kgreen@interplay.com
Interplay Productions
17922 Fitch Avenue
Irvine CA 92714 USA
Phone: 714/553.6655
Fax: 714/262.2820
The Kids' Computing Corner STR Feature
Sammy's Science House
Hybrid CD-ROM for Win3.1, Win95 and Mac
for ages 3 to 6
approximate retail $35
from Edmark Corporation
P.O. Box 97021
Redmond, WA 98073-9721
206-556-8480
Program Requirements
IBM Macintosh
CPU: 386DX/33 CPU: Color Mac
RAM: 4 megs RAM: 4 megs
OS: Win 3.1 or later OS: System 7.0.1
HDISK: 2 megs free HDISK: n/a
VIDEO: SVGA 640x480 with 256 colors VIDEO: 256 colors, 13" monitor
CD-ROM: Double-speed recommended CD-ROM: Doublespeed recommended
Misc.: mouse, sound card
by Frank Sereno
Sammy's Science House is a wonderful collection of activities which
inspire children to learn about science. Sammy and his friends make
science fun and entertaining. Children will not be bored with long
lectures or forced to learn obscure facts. Instead, children have fun as
they experiment in Sammy's house.
Five activities are available. Each has its own learning objectives
but each is fun to play. All activities have a "Question and Answer Mode"
in which an on-screen character will query the child. Four activities have
an "Explore and Discover Mode" which allows your child to play creatively
within each activity. To go to an activity, simply click on its icon on
the main screen. Within each activity, clicking on the picture frame will
switch play between "Q & A" and "Explore" modes.
The Workshop encourages creativity and builds logic and analytical
thinking skills. This activity has three levels of difficulty. In
"Explore" mode, children choose pieces from a pegboard. They can choose to
match a blueprint or they can mix and match parts to make their own
creations. They can then use the simple painting tools to color the
finished work. In the "Q & A" mode, children are asked to assemble a
particular object from the parts available. They must logically decide
which parts are needed and where to place them. Higher difficulty levels
have a larger assortment of parts and more parts are required to assemble
the requested object.
Children will learn about weather and proper dress in the Weather
Machine. In this activity, weather has three variables in temperature,
moisture and wind. Each is represented by icons and has three settings.
In "Explore" mode, children change the variables and then watch an
animation to see the effects of the selected conditions. The character in
the animation will be wearing the proper clothing for that weather
condition. The "Q & A" mode requires the child to select the requested
conditions.
Sorting Station teaches children about scientific classification, to
discriminate attributes between items and practice sorting. This activity
asks your child to sort items into classifications by placing them into the
properly labeled bin. The level of difficulty can be increased by choosing
to sort between two, three or four bins. Children can learn the scientific
and common names of the objects by clicking on their pictures. When all
the objects are correctly sorted, the bins will dance in celebration.
"Lights! Camera! Action!" Your child becomes the director in Make-A-
Movie. Children learn logic, order and progression as he assembles scenes
into the proper order. Movies are made by clicking and dragging the scenes
onto the proper frame of the film. Once the film is assembled, he can
watch it be played forward or reverse in Sammy's Theater.
The final activity is Acorn Pond. Children can learn about the
environment, ecology and climate as they watch the effects of seasonal
changes on the plants and animals at a small pond. The screen shows a
cutaway view of Acorn Pond. Four icons on the bottom of the screen will
change the seasons. Children can learn about the different plants and
animals by clicking on them. The narrator will then describe the
activities or characteristics of that object. Another icon opens the Field
Notebook which contains more detailed information about the inhabitants of
Acorn Pond. Clicking on the owl icon shifts the program into "Q & A" mode.
The owl will ask questions about the animals of Acorn Pond based on the
information provided in the Field Notebook and from the "Explore" mode of
the activity. Once the question is posed, several possible answers will be
placed on the screen and the child must click on the correct one.
The graphics in Sammy's Science House are good. Bright and attractive
colors are used throughout the program to maintain your child's interest.
The animations are filled with humor to entertain him. The sound portion
of the program is better. The voice characterizations are excellent. The
program is filled with attention-grabbing sound effects. The music will
never win a Grammy, but it is a catchy tune.
The interface is excellent. It is very easy to navigate this program
and the icons are very intuitive. Audible help is always available by
clicking on the host of each activity. Negative feedback is always
encouraging and gentle while positive feedback is very flattering and
enthusiastic. Adult options allow for the customization of the program for
your child and is also the way to access on-line help. The on-line help is
very good and complements the user manual. The manual is very good and is
filled with hints to enhance your child's learning experiences. It also
contains a good troubleshooting guide. Sammy is KidDesk-aware so it works
seamlessly with Edmark's desktop launching program. It also supports the
autoplay feature of Windows 95.
Play value is very good. Children will enjoy these fun activities.
Most will probably find one activity they prefer to the others, but all
these activities are very beneficial.
Educational value is excellent. A myriad of fun learning experiences
is provided in a very friendly and encouraging environment. This positive
first experience with science will be very beneficial to children as they
study science in school. One of the most important characteristics of a
scientist is curiosity and Sammy's Science House helps children to develop
their curiosity.
Sammy sells for around $35. This excellent price is enhanced by
Edmark's ninety-day guarantee. This award-winning program is highly
recommended.
Ratings
Graphics 8.5
Sound 9.0
Interface 10.0
Play Value 9.5
Educational Value 9.5
Bang for the Buck 10.0
Average 9.42
For Immediate Release
The Learning Company Launches Let's Start Learning!
for Building Essential Preschool Skills
New All-in-One Software is the Entry Point to the Reader Rabbit Series
The Learning Company (NASDAQ:LRNG) today announced Let's Start Learning!,
the one early learning program parents will want if they want it all in
one. With this new CD-ROM software, which is available now for Macintosh
and Windows personal computers, children build preschool skills with
letters, numbers, shapes and patterns through interactive play. In
addition, Let's Start Learning! encourages multisensory learning on and off
the computer through five original songs and joyful audio, and with
delightful graphics and animation.
Designed for children ages two through five, Let's Start Learning! is now
the entry point to the best-selling Reader Rabbit series of software
programs. In this "all-in-one" program, Reader Rabbit and friends lead
children through a wondrous, interactive playworld, Five engaging
activities build essential preschool skills, providing a solid foundation
for reading, math and thinking skills.
Because of the importance of large-motor skills at this young age, Let's
Start Learning! encourages multisensory learning with a "movement spot"
that guides children to jump, stretch, dance and sing in addition to play
at the computer. A song button brings to life and original song for each
of the five activities. To continue the learning and fun, the songs can be
played on any CD audio system.
"The strong, multisubject educational content Let's Start Learning!
combined with multisensory play fosters confidence and an early love of
learning," said John Stacey, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for The
Learning Company. "For parents wondering what software to buy for their
preschoolers, Let's Start Learning! is both a great start to learning as
well as a great start to The Learning Company's comprehensive system of
learning products."
In each of the Let's Start Learning! activities, children progress through
four challenge levels - discover, build, apply and play - with each level
focused on developing key learning concepts. Once children master the
learning essentials in Let's Start Learning!, they are ready to move on to
other programs in The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit series.
As children begin the program, they are greeted by Mat the Mouse, who
introduces them to Reader Rabbit and the carousel pony. Mat invites the
children to take a pony ride to the Learning Kingdom, but first they must
complete all four levels of each activity to earn special keys to unlock
the pony. As children set out to collect the keys, engaging skill-building
activities with progressively challenging levels provide hours of learning
and fun:
Counting Club: In this musical introduction to the world of numbers, Ali
the Counting Cat guides children as they learn counting, number recognition
and simple math. Friendly frogs, turtles, snakes and Wheel Bear wiggle,
dance, jump and whirl together or one by one with the click of the mouse.
ABC Diner: Reader Rabbit serves up essential skills as children progress
from matching letters to recognizing letters and their sounds to
identifying first-letter sounds. Ed the Dog rewards correct answers with
his silly antics, while a creature hiding behind the counter enjoys eating
the wrong answers.
Shape Shack: By helping Mit the Monkey classify his toys, children
solidify skills fundamental to reading, science and thinking, In this
playful sorting activity, children learn to classify by color, shape,
category and sound, progressing from single- to multiple-attribute sorting
games and they advance through the activity levels.
Pattern Parade: Ben the Ant and his ragtag band of colorful pigs, foxes
and bears lead a parade of patterns. This rousing, rhythmic activity
encourages children to identify and create patterns based on color, size
and sound. The correct answer is rewarded with a musical blast, while a
wrong answer causes the band member to float away on a colorful balloon,
encouraging children to try again.
Back at the carousel, children can click on the movement spot to join
Mat the Mouse in the dancing, stretching, wiggling and giggling. The
friendly Program Options Pad (POP) is accessible to parents at any time,
providing them with further demonstrations of the key movements and
information on the educational content, and allowing them to customize
certain program features such as program levels.
Pricing and Availability
Let's Start Learning! is available now in CD-ROM format for Macintosh- and
Windows-based personal computers at an estimated retail price of $45.
Let's Start Learning! runs on Windows 3.1 and is Windows 95 compatible,
including support of the autoplay feature.
System Requirements
The program requires an IBM or compatible or Macintosh computer with a
double-speed CD-ROM drive. The Windows version requires a 386DX/33 Mhz
processor or better; 4 MB of RAM; a hard disk; a 256-color SVGA monitor; a
Windows-compatible sound card; DOS version 5.0 or higher and Windows
version 3.1 or higher (including Windows 95). The Macintosh version
requires a 68030 processor or better; 4 MB of RAM; a hard drive; a 256-
color monitor and System 7.0.1 or higher.
The Learning Company is a leading developer of quality educational personal
computer software products for use at home and at school. The company's
product strategy is to use the benefits of new technologies to offer both
home and school markets a comprehensive line of engaging software products
that help build life-long learning and communications skills. The Learning
Company is located at 6493 Kaiser Drive, Fremont, CA 94555; telephone (800)
852-5255 (Customer Support), (510) 796-3030 (Technical Support), or (510)
792-2101 (Main).
The Learning Company and Reader Rabbit are registered trademarks and
Let's Start Learning! is a trademark of The Learning Company. All other
trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective
holders.
I had planned to do more this week, but the flu season has already
struck in the Midwest. It wasn't too serious but I hope that you avoid
catching it. And as always, I thank you for reading!
SOUND BLASTER PnP AWE 32 STR Spotlight
SOUND BLASTER - AWE 32 PnP
SB3960
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
by R.F. Mariano
Creative Technologies' new PnP Sound Blaster AWE 32 is a fully
compatible sound card (Win95/NT)offering superb sound and powerful
features. It comes with the SB 16 ASP thus, it supports all games and
software designed for previous SB models. The Digital Audio is excellent.
16 bit goes to 44.1Khz.
Also included is an outstanding Wavetable Synthesizer that employs the
new E-mu 8000 chip. AWE 32 was among the first products to be released
with this chip and its been reported E-mu themselves have a few
synthesizers on the way. 1Mb of sample ROM provides a full set of general
MIDI sounds. The overall Sound quality is quite a bit better than
waveblaster and I might add just as good as many of the "pricey" cards.
The AWE 32 is an excellent value. Additionally, if one installs the
WaveBlaster II daughter card on the AWE32, the performance is at least ten
times better than that of the original AWE32 and the SCD-15 from Roland.
This was the desireable combo but no longer. The AWE32 & WaveBlaster II is
a sizzling HOT combo that simply can't be beat! Not at any price.
The ASP chip is used for Text Assist, Creative's superb Text to Speech
application. Text Assist sounds very life-like. The ASP chip is also used
for the Q-Sound function. Q-Sound is a software controlled sound effects
generator used for implementing three dimensional sounds. Q-Sound makes
the sounds appear to come from a range of areas relative to the L/R
speakers. From the far left to the far right and all points in between.
The FM Synthesizer uses the SB interface (like previous models). The
Wavetable Synthesizer uses an MPU UART interface. As a result, it will
work with any MPU-401 software and General MIDI or GS in game software.
There are two DSP chips. One of which is used to perform real-time tasks
creating Reverb and Chorus effects. There are 8 categories and variations
of each. The end results are excellent.
The card ships with 512k of onboard ram. This enables one to add
their own Samples, Patches and Voices. Two sample banks are supplied with
the AWE 32. These banks emulate an MT-32 and a GS synth. The AWE 32
supports Full GS, with extra instrument banks, Reverberation and Chorus
level controllers. Two standard RAM SIMM slots are on the card, permitting
the addition of up to 28 Mb (2 x 16MB simms).
AFAIK, the AWE 32 is the first card that achieves the type of quality
many professionals seek. I am confident they will find the AWE 32 totally
acceptable. The AWE 32 PnP offers full IDE support. It handles any IDE
CDRom.
The software supplied is plentiful and quite nice. Except for a few
DOS programs (utils) the good stuff is for Windows 95. (so what else is
new?) The Sound Blaster Mixer, (with functional LED's) Q-Sound and the
superb configuration software, a multimedia suite with MIDI file player, Cd
Audio player and WAV player. Of course, as an added "bonus" Voice assist
(Voice Recognition), and Text Assist (Text to Speech) are also included
along with all sorts of supportive goodies. Creative's Pro Wave Studio V.2
is an excellent wave editor. HSC Interactive, also included, is an
authoring program for Multimedia and I might add, seems to offer the best
features of most available. Finally... there's Voyetra s Orchestra Plus,
an excellent edition of a great sequencing program that's guaranteed to
entice you to learn the program fully.
Creative Labs PnP AWE-32 sound card
Specifications
Compatibility
Sound Blaster
Sound Blaster 16
128 instrument General MIDI
MPU-401 UART
Roland Sound Canvas
Roland MT32
Q-Sound
E-MU-SoundFont
MPC-level-2
Specification (As standard)
8 & 16 bit playback & record
5KHz-44.1KHz (mono or stereo)
Mixer -dig audio/MIDI/CD/line-in/mic/PC speaker
output control -volume/bass/treble
E-MU8000 sample wave synth
32 voice Advanced WaveEffects (AWE) synthesis
1MB GM samples
512KB user loadable samples
Reverb, chorus, Q-sound, flange, delay, etc.
32 channel, 24 bit audio DSP
Real-Time hardware compression & decompression of snd files
Advanced signal processor (voice recognition, etc)
Specification (max spec) as above but with
28MB for user loadable samples
additional 32 note polyphonic wave sample GM synth
I/O Configurations
CDROM interface Sony/Mitsumi/Panasonic/Creative
Joystick port
MIDI in and out
line in
mic in
audio out
synth connector (direct to board)
SPDIF for output from e-mu 8000
Pin connectors for external digital volume control
Word 7.0 Overview STR Infofile
MICROSOFT WORD FOR WINDOWS 95
Product Enhancements Guide
Overview
This guide organizes major feature enhancements of Word 95 into four main
sections. The first section highlights those tools that focus on the tasks
most users do every single day things like typing, spell checking, and
formatting. The next section covers new features that help users
communicate in a connected world, such as WordMail, Internet Assistant for
Word, and tools for document sharing. The third section focuses on those
features in Word 95 which make it the best word processor for Windows 95,
and the final section summarizes enhancements in Microsoft Office
application integration and consistency.
Introduction
Apart from the features seen in a brief demonstration of Microsoft Word for
Windows 95, there are literally hundreds of major and minor enhancements to
the product that would take hours to demonstrate. Word 95 has incorporated
a tremendous amount of feedback from a number of different sources via our
User Driven Design process, including:
14,000 hours of usability testing on virtually every aspect of the this
round of desktop applications.
Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) from its base of experience in
answering over 8,641 Word 6.0 related calls influenced hundreds of changes
in an effort to simplify tasks for users.
Nearly 5,000 suggestions from our Word Wish telephone hotline were logged.
Over 750,000 keystrokes and mouse clicks from 500 users were recorded by
our Instrumented Version of Word to understand exactly how users take
advantage of the product.
Over 148 corporate accounts were visited for in depth interviews as part of
our ABP (Activities Based Planning) process.
All of this research, planning, and feedback ensured that Word 95 would be
totally focused on making improvements in areas that impact users every
time they use Word.
Focus on Core User Tasks
Spell It
Microsoft Word for Windows 95 redefines spell checking by automatically
completing this task as users type. Spell It eliminates the need for the
time consuming process of spell-checking a document once it is complete.
Word 95 takes advantage of the idle time available while users work to
automatically check the document s spelling, mark misspelled words, and
provide instant access to suggested correct spellings. Even if a user
chooses to refrain from adjusting corrections/misspellings as they work,
Spell It will have already spell-checked the document. This means that by
the time the user does run the spell-checker, Word already knows which
words are misspelled and can just jump from misspelled word to misspelled
word.
Word displays possible errors with wavy red underlines.
Clicking the right mouse button on flagged words provides a context
sensitive shortcut menu (shown above) with suggestions directly from the
125,000-word spelling dictionary that ships with Word 95.
You can also correct errors by just editing the misspellings in your
document the red underline disappears when the word is spelled correctly.
Those who prefer to only view their spelling errors after they ve finished
writing can easily adjust this feature to hide red underlined words while
they work.
Animated status bar icons show the current spelling status. To navigate to
your next misspelling and raise a menu of suggestions you can double click
on the status bar icon or type Alt+F7.
The spelling status is stored with each document, yielding improved
performance when the standard spelling dialog is used. Also, ignored words
stay ignored, saving time for the user.
AutoCorrect
AutoCorrect, one of the most innovative features in Word 6.0, is even
smarter in Word 95. It fixes a variety of new errors, and it more
intelligently handles some things that Word 6.0 mistakenly corrected.
Accidental usage of the cAPS LOCK key is automatically corrected. For
example, when typing tHIS with the Caps Lock key depressed, Word will
automatically change the typing to This and turn off the Caps Lock key.
The TWo INitial CAps rule is much smarter in Word 95. It no longer
mistakenly corrects CDs, PCs, MHz, or any other TWo initial capitals
pattern which does not contain vowels. This dramatically reduces the number
of false corrections.
AutoCorrect supports an exception list for the Correct TWo INitial
CApitals rule. Words in the list are not changed by AutoCorrect when they
are typed, and Word even watches as you type and automatically adds words
to the list if you change an AutoCorrect action.
AutoCorrect supports an exception list for the Capitalize First Letter of
Sentence rule. Word doesn t capitalize words that follow abbreviations
from the exception list, and Word even watches as you type and
automatically adds words to the list if you change an AutoCorrect action.
The default AutoCorrect list has grown from 12 entries to approximately 350
based on research of the most common typographic errors and misspellings.
Word 95 automatically expands many symbols into real symbol characters.
Word 95 is much more flexible with regard to AutoCorrect expansion. In
addition to the spacebar (which is all that Word 6.0 recognized),
punctuation, apostrophes, and other delimiter characters now automatically
trigger AutoCorrect expansion. This allows the symbol expansion described
above as well as possessive expansions. For example (with MS_Microsoft in
your list), it is possible to type MS and MS s to achieve Microsoft and
Microsoft s. Likewise, typing MS(r) will yield Microsoft
AutoFormat
Word automatically formats your documents as you type, making it fast and
easy to create beautifully formatted documents without ever taking your
hands from the keyboard.
Numbered lists with hanging indent are automatically created when the user
manually types a number followed by white space and text. The list can be
turned off by simply hitting return twice at the end of the list or
backspacing over the last automatic number.
Bulleted lists with hanging indents are automatically created when the user
starts a paragraph with *, o, >, -, or any symbol character. As with
numbered lists these can be easily turned off.
Horizontal borders are automatically created when more than three of the
following characters are used alone on a single line: =====, -----, or
_____.
Symbols, fractions and ordinals are automatically created:
For example symbols like the Em Dash are created when typing -- .
Fractions like +, , and are created when typing 1/2, 1/4, and 3/4.
Ordinals like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are automatically formatted with
superscript.
Smart or typographic quotes are automatically created, and Word 95 is
smart enough to properly handle these quotes as used in the 95. (HINT: 95
is incorrect).
Headings are created when typing a short line without punctuation followed
by two carriage returns.
Address Book
The new Address Book tool makes it easy to access name and address
information by just clicking a button and selecting the desired name from a
list. The picture below shows the most recently used (MRU) address list.
Picking a name from the list automatically inserts the person s name and
address into the document at the insertion point.
The address book integrates tightly with the Microsoft Exchange personal
address book (PAB) and the Schedule+ 2.0 contact list. Also, many of the
leading industry PIM vendors are creating MAPI Address Book Providers which
will allow them to work directly with this tool.
Addresses can be inserted into a document by using the button above.
Likewise, the same button is provided in the Envelopes and Labels feature
for easy address insertion when creating envelopes and labels.
In addition to the MRU shown earlier, Word maintains a separate MRU just
for envelope return addresses. This make it easy for an administrative
assistant to send correspondence for several different people without
having to retype their return addresses.
This address book tool is also integrated with the Letter, Memo, and Fax
Wizards to make it easy to insert the appropriate information into each of
those documents.
The second step of a Mail Merge in Word now includes the option (shown
below on the left) to Use Address Book. Choosing this option then prompts
the user to choose between Schedule+ and PAB as shown on the right.
WordBasic includes high level commands to access the MAPI PAB, making it
easy for developers to include PAB functionality in their custom
applications.
File Open with Find Fast
Word 95 makes finding, opening, and managing files much easier and more
powerful than in Word 6.0. Pictured below is the dialog showing long
filenames and a thumbnail preview.
Word 95 merges what were formerly separate File Open and File Find
utilities into one dialog box. This dialog box was modeled after the
Windows 95 common dialog for File Open, but it has been extended to
encompass the most common uses of the former File Find utility. For
example, 98.81% of the searches created in FileFind in Word 6.0 are
possible to create in the Word 95 open dialog box.
In addition to file name and file type fields, File Open lets the user
easily search for files based on when they were last modified. Likewise, a
user can search within the actual text or property stream of any file by
typing text in the Text or property field. If available, Word uses a Find
Fast (discussed below) index to greatly speed the search. Otherwise, Word
conducts a physical scan of the files.
Since Windows 95 allows users to create much longer and more detailed file
names, File Open now supports substring matching for the file name field.
So, typing coffee finds files that use the string coffee anywhere within
the file name and not just at the start of the name.
Word 95 includes the Find Fast utility which enables File Open to search
large quantities of documents extremely quickly. Find Fast enables this by
creating a very small (~3.5% of the original document size) index of the
target documents. Local hard drives are automatically indexed when the user
installs Microsoft Word, and more advanced users can also build and
maintain indexes to other drives and subtrees by using the Find Fast
utility in their control panel. Find Fast can index documents created by
all current Microsoft Office applications, older versions of Microsoft
Word, and WordPerfect 5.x and 6.x.
File Open makes it easy to quickly jump to your favorite folders or
documents by just clicking on the Look in Favorites toolbar icon.
Likewise, it s easy to add new files or folders to the Favorites list by
clicking on the Add to Favorites icon. The user is then given a choice of
adding the current Look In folder or adding the currently selected file.
Choosing either automatically adds a shortcut to the Favorites folder
(C:\Windows\Favorites). Of course, all of the Favorites are just as
accessible from the Windows 95 shell, and new shortcuts can be added by
using the Shell as well.
File Open shares a consistent look and feel with the Windows 95 Open common
dialog, but it also offers rich views of your documents. In addition to
standard List and Details views, it can also show Properties and Preview
views to let the user easily learn more about the file before opening it.
File Open still offers an Advanced Find (akin to File Find of the past)
dialog box which allows users to build and save much more complex searches.
Of course, the results of these searches are displayed in the File Open
dialog so that users don t have to negotiate two separate interfaces.
ile Open and Find Fast are actually implemented once and shared by all of
the Office 95 applications. This saves hard disk space for users and
ensures perfect consistency across applications.
File Open makes it easy to rename and delete files. To rename you just
click on the name and edit it in-place as shown below.
Right mouse button click to rename files
Users can also perform common file management tasks like copy and delete
right from within File Open. Simply right click on a file name and choose
from a variety of functions listed on the context sensitive shortcut menu
pictured below.
File Starter
Word 95 presents a simple, tabbed interface to organize its templates.
Also, thumbnail previews and long file names make it easy to choose a
template.
The File Starter dialog box is shared by all Microsoft Office applications.
When called from within each application, only the relevant files and tabs
are shown for that application.
The structure and names of the files and tabs shown above can be easily
customized using the Windows 95 shell. To create a new tab, the user simply
creates a new folder in their Microsoft Office templates folder. The
contents of the folder are then displayed on a tab with the name of the
folder. The folder below corresponds to the dialog shown above. Any
templates at the root are displayed in the General tab. Users can even
drag shortcuts (to folders or templates) into their template folder. This
makes it easy for businesses and individuals alike to organize collections
of templates they use most.
File Save
Word 95 has a new File Save dialog box.
It is now easy to create new folders as you save documents by just clicking
on File Save Create New Folder button shown below.
The File Save dialog box is very consistent with File Open, and is also
shared across all Microsoft Office applications.
Just like File Open, it s easy to jump to the Favorites folder with the
click of a button.
Word 95 now optionally saves first page thumbnails with files, enabling
other applications to display a preview for a Word file easily.
Templates & Wizards
To get users up and running quickly Word 95 includes document wizards and
templates.
Word makes it easy to create great looking documents using any of its
twenty-six professionally designed templates. Word includes templates for
letters, memos, fax cover sheets, reports, newsletters, press releases,
resumes, and many other common documents.
Word includes ten automated Wizards for creating letters, memos, fax cover
sheets, newsletters, resumes, calendars, tables, meeting agendas, award
certificates and legal pleading documents.
TipWizard
The TipWizard provides real-time suggestions to help users learn how to get
their tasks done faster and easier in Word 95.
The primary goal of the TipWizard is to help users complete their tasks,
not to educate users with many tips about keyboard shortcuts. For example,
the tip below helps users get the most out of Word s new Spell-It feature.
The TipWizard works interactively with the AutoFormat (as you type) feature
to provide feedback and present choices to users. For example, clicking the
Change button (the left hand button below) toggles the current AutoFormat
action. Clicking the Show Me button (the right hand button below) will
demonstrate to the user how to turn this AutoFormat behavior on or off . It
does this by visually leading the mouse pointer to the appropriate setting
in Tools/Options/AutoFormat.
Answer Wizard
Word 95 includes totally redesigned user assistance tools. Our research
indicates that about 90% of users only access 25% of Word on a daily basis.
To help users to explore and learn and more about Word 95 we included the
Answer Wizard. The Answer Wizard uses an emerging technology called
Natural Language Processing, or NLP, to enable users to ask questions about
Word 95 in their own words.
It allows users to get help by typing a question using their own words
rather than having to search based on the application s terminology.
Based on the question, the Answer Wizard returns a list of appropriate
topics. These topics are implemented as Visual Examples, Step by Step
procedures or Interactive Answers whatever is appropriate for the
information at hand.
ScreenTips
Word provides ScreenTips for a many different elements of the interface.
ToolTips, first introduced in Word 6.0, ToolTips provide a brief
description of Toolbar buttons. Word 95 now has the option to show shortcut
keys if they exist for a particular button.
QuickTips now users can get a more detailed tip on every aspect of the
product, whether a menu item, a toolbar button or a dialog box control.
ScrollTips the scrollbar thumb now provides a tip to show the current page
when navigating your document.
New Print Dialog
Word 95 features a redesigned print dialog.
The new dialog is consistent with other Microsoft Office 95 applications,
and it is modeled after the Windows 95 common dialog. This includes more
printer status information, a more logical dialog layout, and animated
graphics to depict what the collate checkbox does.
Switching printers can now be done by just choosing a printer from the
Name drop-down list. This used to require the user to tunnel into a
separate dialog.
Best of all, Word 95 users can now change printers without changing the
default printer for all Windows applications. Many Word 6 users requested
this feature improvement.
Word users can take advantage of powerful new options available in Windows
printer drivers by simply clicking the Properties button. For example,
shown below are the 2 up and 4 up printing options provided by the Windows
95 PostScript printer driver.
Usability Improvements
Word 95 includes a number of subtle but important improvements as a direct
result of extensive usability testing and product support feedback.
The AutoSelect feature now dynamically adapts to the user s mouse actions.
By default it selects text a word at a time once the user s selection has
crossed the first word boundary. However, if the user wiggles their mouse
pointer to try and select just the first letter of a word, then AutoSelect
lets the user select characters within that word. However, if the user
continues selecting into the next word, then the automatic word selection
turns back on. This allows users to enjoy the convenience of word selection
without the inflexibility.
The checkbox in the Insert Date and Time dialog box formerly labeled Insert
as Field has been changed to Update Automatically (Insert as Field).
Likewise, the formats list in the Insert Index and Tables dialog box now
includes From Template. This option was formerly labeled as Custom which
confused many people.
Many users are not familiar with the indenting features of modern word
processors. Rather, they are more comfortable with the typewriter metaphor
of using the tab key to signify indent. Word 95 adapts to this by
automatically treating tab as indent when appropriate. For example, if a
user has a series of paragraphs selected and types tab, it is much more
likely that they wanted to indent those paragraphs than to delete them and
insert a tab character. Likewise, if a user types a tab at the beginning of
the second line in a multi-line paragraph, they usually don t want a tab
character in the stream. Advanced users can use this to easily indent and
unindent without ever taking their hands from the keyboard. Word supports
the use of shift + tab or backspace as unindent. To insert a tab character
where it doesn t necessarily make sense, a user can always type ctrl + tab.
Using the backspace key is much more intuitive for most users in Word 95.
In Word 6.0, if users backspaced over a paragraph mark, it would cause that
paragraph to inherit the properties of the following paragraph. Now Word 95
let s you backspace over paragraph marks without disrupting the formatting
of the first paragraph.
Find & Replace All Word Forms
Word features linguistic technology to understand the meaning of words and
their different forms. For example, if a user wants to replace the word
purchase with the word buy throughout a document, Word intelligently
changes not only purchase to buy but also purchasing to buying, and
purchased to bought.
WordPerfect Compatibility
Word continues to make conversion to and from WordPerfect easy.
Word includes a brand new WordPerfect 6.x file converter. The already
unsurpassed WordPerfect 5.x file converter has also been improved to
support better conversion of paragraph numbering.
Word now includes TrueType fonts to emulate the WordPerfect Compose
characters sets. Both the WordPerfect 5.x and 6.x converters use these
fonts automatically on conversion. (NOTE: these fonts are only available
via Word s supplemental offer coupon and in the Microsoft Office CD.)
Word also offers new Compatibility Options to further mirror WordPerfect
layout behavior. This allows documents to paginate more similarly to their
original pagination in WordPerfect.
Helping Users Communicate in a Connected World
In recent years the combination of rapidly-expanding technologies, like the
Internet, and proliferation of information have precipitated a fundamental
change in the way we communicate and view document-based information. As
we move into the future, the movement from paper-based to electronic
documents will continue at an increasingly rapid pace. However, just
because the world grows increasingly connected should not mean that users
need to learn and understand new tools to navigate through the electronic
landscape. We know users want online editing tools, the ability to
communicate via electronic mail, tools to create documents for the
Internet, and be able to post information to advanced workgroup information
databases. We believe this should all be as easy and familiar as creating
a document today.
WordMail
Windows 95 includes a powerful messaging client, the Microsoft Exchange
universal inbox. Through the use of installable MAPI service providers,
this email client can speak to a variety of servers. For more information
on Microsoft Exchange see the Windows 95 Resource Kit.
As shown below, Microsoft Word can optionally replace the standard
Microsoft Exchange electronic mail editor. This gives users all the power
and ease of use provided by Word while still being tightly integrated with
the Microsoft Exchange inbox.
WordMail is just Microsoft Word working in the context of mail, so
virtually everything available in Word is available when using WordMail.
This includes automation features such as Spell-It, AutoCorrect,
AutoFormat, and AutoText, as well as rich formatting features like tables,
bulleted & numbered lists, and even drawing layer callouts.
WordMail messages share the exact same file format as messages sent by
Microsoft Exchange, including message attachment storage. This allows
WordMail users to co-exist peacefully with Exchange users while still
enjoying the added richness of Word. This is because Exchange and WordMail
use RTF (Rich Text Format) to store the text and formatting of a message,
and RTF is a gracefully degradable format which provides a mechanism for
a reader to ignore formatting that it doesn t understand. For example, a
message composed in WordMail might contain a table. This same table would
appear as tab-delimited text in Exchange, because Exchange doesn t support
tables.
Although WordMail is Microsoft Word, its interface has been customized to
provide functions necessary for composing email messages. Shown below is
the toolbar from the WordMail Compose note. It includes buttons to send a
message, select and check names, and change message properties. WordMail
even includes an button to toggle the mail header on and off, a useful way
of reclaiming screen real estate when composing a longer message. In
addition, the other features which appear on the toolbar are those deemed
to be most useful when composing an email message.
WordMail also includes a customized toolbar for use with its Read note.
This includes buttons to reply, reply to all, forward, move and delete
messages, and jump to the next or previous message. The toolbar also
includes buttons for several Word features which are particularly useful
when reading messages. This includes AutoFormat, Highlighter, and Insert
Callout.
To allow for peaceful coexistence with text-only email clients, messages
sent from WordMail or Exchange contain a flat textual representation of the
message in addition to the RTF (which is stored in a compressed form as an
attachment). Thus, any email user can receive messages from WordMail or
Exchange. WordMail ensures that the textual representation accurately
represents formatting such as bulleted and numbered lists, and WordMail
even reverse-textizes the default symbols which AutoCorrect normally cleans
up. For example, AutoCorrect converts :) to and ==> to _ as you type,
and WordMail ensures these symbols are readable by a text-only client.
o automate a repetitive task, WordMail includes an AutoSignature feature to
automatically insert a standard closing to an email message. It does this
by looking in the default email template (EMAIL.DOT) for an AutoText entry
named Signature and inserting this AutoText in the appropriate place when
a user composes a new message, replies to a message or forwards a message.
When replying to messages Word automatically styles the previous message
header in a very distinctive way. This makes it easy to discern the message
flow in longer reply streams.
When replying to a message, WordMail has an AutoRevision feature to
automatically track when a user has typed into the prior message body.
Inserted text is tracked and displayed on a per author basis by
automatically using Word s standard revision marking tools.
Document Posting
As more and more people working in organizations begin to share their
documents on-line, these groups need a central place to post documents and
organize large amounts of information. Microsoft Exchange is an
application that allows you to post, organize, and quickly retrieve the
information you need. Microsoft Word includes features for posting
documents in Microsoft Exchange public folders, making it easy to share
information with friends and co-workers. This means that it s easy for
members of your organization to quickly find what they need saving you
time, effort and ultimatelymoney.
Highlighter Tool
Word lets you highlight parts of your document to call them out for other
users.
Clicking on the highlight button changes the cursor and clicking or
selecting text adds color highlighting to the document.
Clicking the dropdown button lets the user select different highlight
colors. (HINT: to see a broader selection of highlight colors, drag the
dropdown down and to the right.)
Highlighted text prints in color on a color printer, otherwise they appear
in shades of gray.
Display and printing of highlights can be suppressed by deselecting the
highlight checkbox in Tools\Options\View.
You can search for highlighted text using the Find and Replace feature in
Word 95. Just select highlight on the Format dropdown.
Extensible Document Properties
In addition to its standard summary and statistics properties, Word 95
allows you to create custom document properties. This allows users to
organize and quickly sort their documents by custom properties like case
number, region, or quarter.
Custom properties support several data types including Text, Date, Number
and Boolean (Yes or No).
Document properties are stored as part of the file and travel with it in
the file system, enabling more robust document management solutions. For
example, currently third party document management systems maintain a
separate database of profile information for each document, but if the
document leaves the repository this profile does not travel with it. Using
custom document properties these vendors can now store this profile
information with the actual document, thereby maintaining the profile
information wherever the document travels.
All properties are stored in a standard, defined way using OLE structured
storage. This allows third party applications to easily access and change
the property streams without opening the file in Microsoft Word.
Properties can be linked to text which has been tagged with the Bookmark
feature in Word. These properties can be updated bi-directionally. For
example, as bookmarked text changes within a document, the property changes
dynamically. Likewise, if another application changes a linked property
then Word updates the bookmarked content when opening the file. The next
to a property in the dialog above symbolizes that it is linked to a
Bookmark.
Word includes a docproperty field to allow users to incorporate properties
into the actual document content. This field includes arguments to access
any property, including custom properties.
The property dialog shown above is shared by all Microsoft Office
applications.
OLE Property Exchange
As mentioned above, Word 95 and other Office 95 based applications can
exchange document properties with any application through the use of OLE to
store the property streams. Shown below is an example of this integration
as used by the Microsoft Exchange client.
When a document is dragged and dropped to a Microsoft Exchange folder, it
automatically extracts all of the document properties, including custom
properties. Any of these properties can then be exposed and used to build
folder views as shown above. Exchange supports three level of grouping (the
view above is grouped by Author) as well as the creation of column headings
for any property.
Notes/FX Support
Just like Word 6.0c for Windows, Word 95 can exchange document properties
with Lotus Notes via Notes/FX. Word 95 now supports version 1.1 of
Notes/FX. Coupled with support for extensible document properties, Office
95 based applications actually make it easier to integrate with Lotus Notes
than the current generation of Lotus SmartSuite applications.
Microsoft Online Services Support
If you have a modem, Word 95 makes it easy to register electronically using
The Microsoft Network (MSN). Likewise, the Word forums on MSN are just a
mouse click away just select The Microsoft Network on Word s help menu to
see a list of shortcuts to MSN.
Word Viewer
To help distribute Word documents online, Microsoft has developed the Word
Viewer for Windows, a no-charge, stand-alone, application that enables
anyone to view Word documents on a machine running Windows. The Word Viewer
enables users:
Full viewing and printing options users can choose from a wide selection of
options for viewing Word documents ranging from page layout and outline
view to annotations as well as headers and footers.
View all of Word formatting capabilities anyone using the Word Viewer can
view any formatting feature possible in Word ranging from multiple columns
and Drop Caps to richly formatted tables.
Distribute documents with rich data the Word Viewer enables users to view
and manipulate data contained in OLE Objects such as Microsoft Excel Charts
and multimedia sounds.
Enables anyone to View Word documents online The Word Viewer can serve as a
helper application to Web Viewing tools like Mosaic or Netscape, thereby
allowing Word users to post richly formatted Word documents on the Internet
and share them with users who don t own Word.
No charge, freely distributable Anyone can download the Word Viewer for
free and distribute it to friends and co-workers free of charge. With this
product, sharing Word documents on-line and off is easier than ever before.
Internet Assistant for Word
Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word for Windows is a free add-on that
makes Word an easy and powerful tool for creating, sharing, and exploring
information on the Internet. Here are the features that make Internet
Assistant the most powerful and unique Internet authoring solution
available:
Integrated solution Internet Assistant is the only application that enables
users to author, view, and browse through documents on the Internet from
within a single interface, eliminating the need to switch between multiple
applications while users create documents for the Web.
The Web tool for anyonesince Internet Assistant removes the complexities of
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the standard document format for the
World Wide Web, anyone who knows Word can create documents for the
Internet. Internet Assistant eliminates the need to learn HTML because it
automatically converts Word documents to HTML for you.
Extensive formatting capabilitiesusers that want to distribute richly
formatted online documents with multiple fonts, variable width columns and
tables can save their documents to the Web in Word file format. In
addition, users can distribute Word documents that contain OLE 2.0 embedded
objects such as Microsoft Excel charts and PivotTable dynamic views.
Great Application for Windows 95
Optimized for Windows 95
Word 95 has been optimized to take advantage of the improved architecture
of Windows95.
Word is fully 32-bit and optimized for improved performance. This allows it
to multitask more effectively under Windows 95. It s important to note that
Word 95 is the second 32-bit version of Word, building on top of the work
done for the earlier release of Word 6.0 for the Windows NT operating
system.
The multithreading capabilities in Windows 95 allow Word to provide
improved system responsiveness when background printing. Likewise, multi-
threading is used in the FileOpen dialog box to ensure responsiveness when
performing searches.
Word takes advantage of the improved file system in Windows 95 to raised
the capacity of its Master Document feature. Whereas Word 6.0 running under
Windows 3.x could only manage 30 sub-documents, Word 95 can handle
approximately 512 sub-documents.
Long filename support
At long last, Windows 95 allows users to use more descriptive names for
their documents instead of the cryptic 8.3 names that have formerly been
required. Word 95 takes full advantage of this capability. Word also honors
the system setting to hide extensions for registered files when it displays
file names on the title bar, in the Window menu, on the MRU files list, and
anywhere else it displays file names.
Updated Visuals
Word 6.0 and other Office 4.x applications pioneered ToolTips, tabbed
dialogs, and a 3-D look as standard interface elements. Now that Windows 95
takes advantage of these user interface conventions and introduces others,
Word has been updated to support the look and feel of Windows 95. Office 95
based applications also include several other enhancements which are
designed to provide a more polished and professional feeling.
The Word toolbars, dialog boxes, and other interface elements are all
consistent with the look and feel of Windows 95. Word takes advantage of
the proportional scrollbar thumbs provided by Windows 95 to make document
navigation easier.
Several of the Word 95 dialog boxes have been redesigned to emulate the
look and feel of the Windows 95 common dialogs. The includes the Open,
Save, New, and Print dialogs.
To provide a more polished feel, Word 95 now has smooth scrolling. When a
line wraps while typing, Word smoothly slides the rest of the document text
down the screen. For performance reasons this scrolling only occurs when
typing within a paragraph or using soft returns.
Word and the other Office 95 based applications have a distinctive title
bar which features a gradient wash.
Multi-Language Support
Windows 95 provides very rich international support, and Word takes
advantage of this to smoothly support the creation and spell checking of
multilingual documents as shown below.
Multiple Keyboards Windows 95 lets users install keyboard layouts and font
sets for multiple languages as shown below.
Language Switching When multiple languages are installed, an indicator
(below on the left) is optionally included on the taskbar. Clicking on this
indicator yields a context sensitive menu (below on the right) to choose a
language and keyboard setting. Language switching can also be done from the
keyboard as shown in the dialog above.
Multilingual Proofing Word has supported multilingual proofing for several
versions, but Word 95 takes advantage of Windows 95 to make this much
easier than ever before. When a user switches the keyboard in Windows 95,
Word automatically changes the language setting (shown below) at the
insertion point. Likewise, Word automatically switches to use the
appropriate font and keyboard layout for the selected language.
Font Smoothing
If it is installed on the system, Word takes advantage of Windows 95 font
smoothing to provide improved on-screen readability of text. Font smoothing
is a system provided service that can improve the perceived readability of
text at low resolutions and improve the look of text at higher point sizes.
It involves the addition of gray pixels in between a font s black pixels,
in effect trying to "fill in" and make a letter less jagged.
Plug and Play
Word 95 offers basic plug & play support. For example, it gracefully
handles screen resolution changes. Likewise, it dynamically scales
interface elements when they are changed from the Appearance tab of the
Display control panel.
Registry Support
Word stores its settings in the Windows registry. This makes it possible
for multiple users to share a single machine and still maintain their own
Word settings. Likewise, this makes it possible for user to log into a
machine anywhere on the network and run Word with their default settings.
Finally, this enables systems administrators to set up and edit user
profiles remotely across the network.
Shell Support
Drag & Drop Word 95 has rich support for drag & drop, including dragging
document information to the desktop. Doing so automatically creates a Scrap
(below left) which can be dragged into any application which supports drag
and drop. Dragging to the desktop by using the right mouse button yields a
context sensitive shortcut menu (below right) to give the user several drop
choices. These choices include copying or moving the selection to a Scrap
file or creating a Document Shortcut, a link to the selected text in the
original document.
Shell Icons-To better support the Windows 95 desktop, Word registers
separate file types for documents, templates, wizards, backup files, and
WLL s (Word linked libraries). Word even includes distinct shell icons
(shown below) and context menus for each file type. For example, double-
clicking a template or a wizard in the shell creates a new, unnamed
document based on that template or wizard. In contrast, double clicking a
Word 6.0 template in the Windows 3.1 file manager would open the actual
template for editing.
Document MRU File List Opening and editing files in Word automatically adds
them to the Documents MRU list (shown below), a system wide MRU files list.
Properties Word document properties can be browsed in the Windows shell
without having to launch Word and open the file. This is because Word
stores its properties using OLE storage.
Ininstall Word automatically registers itself so that it can be removed
with the click of a button.
Microsoft Exchange integration
Word 95 provides exceptional integration with Microsoft Exchange, the mail
client in Windows 95.
WordMail As described on page , Word can replace the standard Exchange
message editor.
TAB integration As described on page , Word features very tight integration
with the Exchange Personal Address Book. Shown below are the business
properties for a PAB entry.
Posting As described one page , Word makes it easy to post a document in an
Exchange public folder.
SendMail and Routing It s easy to send a document while working within
Word. Users can even route a document to a group, either all at once or one
after another.Great Member of the Microsoft Office family
Great Member of the Microsoft Office Family
Consistency & Technology Sharing
Word 6.0 and Office 4.x broke ground by introducing a suite of extremely
consistent applications. In most cases though, dialog boxes were
implemented separately in each application. Office 95 goes one step further
by implementing several key tools once and sharing these across all of the
applications. For example, the following tools and technologies are shared
across Office applications:
AutoCorrect list storage
File Open
Find Fast
File Save
File New
File Properties
Answer Wizard
MSN Integration
Notes/FX thunking layer
Print dialog (Consistent, not shared)
Spell checking
OLE Servers (Graph, WordArt, Equation Editor, Data Map, Clipart Gallery,
Imager)
Text Converters
Graphic Filters
MSInfo
Data Sharing
Word 6.0 and Office 4.x broke ground by introducing a suite of very tightly
integrated applications including strong support for OLE 2.0. Office 95
continues to make progress and further hone the level of integration
between the applications.
OLE IntegrationOLE technology enables a great deal of data sharing between
Office applications. For example, Word has a Microsoft Excel toolbar button
to easily insert a spreadsheet into a document. Likewise, PowerPoint has
toolbar buttons to insert Microsoft Excel or Word tables at the click of a
button. Drag and drop across Office applications allows users to share
data. Finally, WordMail is an example of next generation OLE integration.
Mail Merge Wherever your data lives, Word allows you to easily access it.
Mail Merge integrates with the following data stores: Exchange PAB,
Schedule+ Contact List, Microsoft Access tables and queries, FoxPro
tables, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, any ODBC compliant data store (using
Microsoft Query for multi-tier databases), Word document, CSV text, and
WordPerfect Secondary Merge format.
Schedule+ Integration Schedule+ 2.0 is the newest member of the Microsoft
Office. As mentioned on page , Word integrates very tightly with the
contact manager in Schedule+, making it easy to leverage contact
information directly within Word.
Office Binders
Microsoft Office 95 includes a new tool for assembling and distributing
documents, the Microsoft Office Binder. The binder is an electronic paper
clip which allows users to store documents from Microsoft Excel, Word,
PowerPoint and other Office Compatible applications in one file. This file
can be printed in one step with consecutive page numbering, and the
enclosed documents can be reordered and renamed for easy identification.
This is all enabled through the use of OLE technology.
Microsoft, Windows, TipWizard, PivotTable, Windows NT, PowerPoint, and FoxPro are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
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ISDN Terms STR Focus
ISTEC 1008 Shortform description of the technical features
General
The ISTEC 1008 is a 'low priced' and 'easy to use' ISDN PABX developed for
use by small companies, teleworkers, cooperative work groups, etc.
The great advantage of this PABX are the possibilities of direct dialling,
and the ability to use standard analogue terminal
equipment, including cordless telephones, answering machines, faxes and
modems.
In addition the ISTEC 1008 allows the use of a door entry station with
intercom facilities.
For convenient programming and access to call charging information the
ISTEC 1008 has an integrated serial port. You can connect a personal
computer to the RS232 (V24) connector (cable supplied) and use the ISTEC
configuration software supplied to access all the ISTEC 1008's features.
Connection to other equipment
The ISTEC 1008 offers one basic rate connection using point to point or
point to multi point protocol (PABX or bus connection). This connection
meets CCITT (I.430). A 3m cable is provided for connection to the S bus.
The cable is supplied terminated with ISDN standard RJ45 plugs ready for
connection.
The ISTEC 1008 offers eight a/b ports for connecting standard analogue
equipment such as telephones G3 fax and modems. The maximum cable run from
the ISTEC 1008 to the equipment is approx. 1,200m (2x75 Ohms).The ISTEC
1008 provides automatic detection of DTMF tone / pulse dialling from the
analogue terminals.
With the RS232 (V24) connection you can program the PABX using a personal
computer. Additionally you can view and manage the charging information for
each extension. The ISTEC configuration software provided gives easy access
to all the exchange features.
You may connect the ISTEC 1008 to the standard Emmerich door entry system.
This door entry system is connected via two wires and contains a two way
hands free intercom and door bell. Pressing the door bell rings the
designated extension. After answering the call, the door is released by
dialling a number on the telephone keypad. A separate power supply is
required for the door opener. The PABX provides a N.O. contact for
operating the door opener.
The ISTEC has an approved power supply for connection to the mains supply.
Connections to external equipment are made as follows:-
Power supply: power adapter module
S bus: cable fitted with Western Electric RJ45 plugs
Telephone lines a/b: screw terminal blocks
Door opener/intercom: screw terminal blocks
Serial interface to PC: serial cable fitted with 9 way 'D' type
and Western Electric plug
General technical features
The ISTEC 1008 uses the EURO-ISDN protocol according to the ETSI standard,
or the German 1TR6 protocol, on the S bus connection. It works in the
point to multi-point (bus connection) or point to point (PABX connection)
configuration.
It is possible to direct dial in to each extension with MSN (multiple
subscriber number) or DDI (direct dialling in). Using
these EURO ISDN features you can use a two digit dialling in number (i.e.
5711XY), where XY is a direct dialling in number between 21 and 28. In
'MSN' configuration it is possible to use additional equipment connected to
the S bus (i.e. a PC with an ISDN card).
Unrestricted internal conversations between all extensions are possible.
You only have to dial the two digit internal number to get the desired
extension.
The ISTEC 1008 has a testing and diagnostic program available. This
program is useful for checking the functionality of the PABX in the
laboratory and service centre.
The very great advantage of the ISTEC 1008 is the ability to use standard
analogue telephone equipment. This gives immediate savings on new telephony
equipment and protects your current investment in analogue equipment.
Internal call connection features
The ISTEC 1008 offers the possibility of connecting eight standard analogue
extensions. These extensions can be G3 fax,
telephones, modems, etc. To connect to an internal extension simply dial
the two digit extension number (21 to 28). The ISTEC 1008 automatically
detects pulse / tone dialling. Internal conference between all the analogue
extensions is possible. If you are using a pulse dial telephone and wish to
connect to a third extension, simply dial the desired extension number. If
you are using a tone dialling telephone, you must press the recall/flash
key followed by the extension number.
The ISTEC 1008 generates different ringing signals for internal and
external calls, to distinguish the calls' source. It is
possible to program call forwarding for each analogue extension. The call
forwarding may be to an internal or an external number. This feature may
be programmed directly from the extension or by using the ISTEC
configuration software.
It is possible to answer an internal call that is not directed to your
extension by the use of the call pick up facility. This
allows the answering of a colleague's extension when it is unattended.
Call hold and call transfer operate in a similar way and provide the
possibility of transferring a call to another extension.
Simply dial the extension number (recall/flash is required if tone
dialling) and replace the handset on hook. Calls are
transferred unconditionally, by replacing the handset immediately after
dialling the extension, or announcing the caller. The call will be
transferred when you replace your handset on hook.
When the music on hold feature is enabled, it is activated automatically
during a call transfer.
The ISTEC 1008 offers a door entry facility. The door entry connection uses
an Emmerich door station. When the door bell push button is pressed the
ISTEC 1008 rings a designated telephone extension. When you lift the
handset, you are connected with the door station. You may then speak with
the person at the door through the hands-free speaker and microphone
contained in the door station. You may then speak with the person at the
door through the hands-free speaker and microphone contained in the door
station. If you wish to let in the caller, you may release the electric
door opener by dialling the number 7 on your telephone. The door opener
operates for three seconds. If you do not wish to let the caller in, simply
replace the telephone handset and the door speaker is disconnected.
The Emmerich door station requires a two wire connection. Additionally, it
is necessary to provide two wires for connecting to the door opener. The
electric door opener requires a separate power supply, which is connected
through the ISTEC 1008's normally open contacts.
External call connection features
(External connections are connections from outside caller to the PABX
extensions).
The ISTEC 1008 offers the ISDN feature 'charging advice'. This feature is
available by connecting a PC/printer to the RS232 port of the ISTEC 1008.
Information is available on an extension by extension basis.
The PABX offers the 'direct dialling in' ISDN feature (DDI). DDI works with
a two digit dial in number. DDI is an ISDN feature for connecting directly
from the PSTN to the PABX extensions.
Alternatively the PABX offers direct dialling in with MSN (multiple
subscriber number). In this configuration it is
possible to use other ISDN equipment on the same S bus. Every extension can
be programmed to the desired MSN. Combinations and mixing of numbers and
extensions is possible.
Call pick up for external calls ensures that you can pick up incoming calls
from another extension. For example: Extension 21 is ringing, you hear this
and wish to answer the call. Simply dial 4 on your extension to pick up
the call.
The ISTEC 1008 has an answering machine facility. When a telephone is not
answered, the telephone answering machine is activated regardless of the
incoming dialled number. It is of course possible to place an answering
machine on a specific extension to only answer calls for that extension.
The ISTEC 1008 offers 'call forwarding' (call routing) for each extension.
An incoming call will be transferred automatically to the programmed
outside number by using the second B channel.
The features 'call hold' and 'call transfer' to another extension are
standard PABX features. From the analogue extension you can transfer the
call to another extension with or without announcing the caller.
The ISTEC 1008 has extensive call barring features. It is possible on an
extension basis to limit calls to internal only,
local, national or international. The PABX also offers the possibility of
restricting a user programmed number (0898 for
example).
The ISTEC 1008 offers 'music on hold' for outside waiting calls. It is
possible to switch off the music on hold facility in the programming mode.
ISTEC 1008 is available to order from:
TMPL Consultants, 3 Banbury Street, Kineton, Warwick UK CV35 0JS
Tel: 44 (0) 1926 642140 Fax: 44 (0) 1926 642142
Email: 100012.2436@compuserve.com
TMPL Online! 44(0) 1926 642145 (Hayes V34)
URL http://www.tmpl-online.co.uk
ATARI/JAG SECTION Dana Jacobson, Editor
> From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
O.J., Opal (the hurricane), and the Pope all in one week! Plenty
of excitement for you? Wouldn't it be nice if we could generate that
much interest for the Atari computing community?
One can't help but talk about the OJ trial these days, no matter
what the venue - we're a computing magazine yet this trial makes the
editorial pages. It's something that will debated for many years to
come. This case will probably become a sample case for law school
students. This case will force police departments to take a long look
at themselves. It will be a banner case for changes in a lot of facets
in today's world. I'd like to believe that justice was served; I agree
with the verdict. If this case is to have any real meaning, I hope
that it results in positive changes within our society.
It's ironic that a major hurricane hits the southeast at about the
same time that the Pope arrives in the U.S. Nature at its height of
destruction - Religion's highest living leader tries to bring hope.
Simply amazing.
Until next time...
>Dallas Show! STReport Show Update! - Atari Dallas Show Getting Close!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, we are only six days away from the Atari show in Dallas (DEUCE)!
Who out there is planning to attend? We are very excited about this
show, the first ever put together by the Atari Users of North Texas
(AUNT). For those with families who are less than enthusiastic about
computer shows, I recommend taking them to either Six Flags amusement
park or the Texas State Fair. If you opt for the fair (much cheaper,
and free concerts!) stop by at an area McDonalds restaurant for a
coupon to save a few bucks on admission. On the 6th, the night before
the show, the free concert is Kansas. On the 7th, it will be the
Beach Boys.
The show itself starts pretty early, at 8 AM. And, unfortunately, it
ends pretty early too. The show is being held in conjunction with a
monthly PC flea market, and they usually wrap up business before 2 PM.
We won't be kicked out of the Infomart at that time, we can stay until
4 PM. But things will certainly be winding down by the afternoon, so
the action will slowly shift upstairs where we will have a few informal
seminars and demonstrations. Also upstairs will be the club's PD disk
library open for business, as well as Jaguar games to goof around with
and Atarians to sit and talk with. Be sure to pick up a copy of our
show handout for the schedule.
Dan
>In This Week's Jaguar Section - JAGWIRE! Atari On CompuServe!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Ted Hoff Speaks! Games?
And More!
"Plug in the JAGWIRE(tm) online network!"
Atari Corporation and CompuServe Information Service proudly present
the JAGWIRE(tm) network with online support on Atari's official online
forum on CompuServe (GO JAGUAR), Atari's official Jaguar 64 news
reported by STReport worldwide and Atari Explorer Online and Atari's
official new Web Site (http://www.atari.com).
>From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, the guessing is now over. Atari's World Wide Web page is
officially open, the JAGWIRE online network is now intertwined between
this Web page and the announcement (see below) that CompuServe is now
the official online support site for Atari. And, for us personally,
STReport and Atari Explorer Online magazines are the official online
representatives for these new ventures.
For STReport, this recognition has been a long-time coming. We've
worked long and hard to prove to Atari, and the Atari community, that
regardless of differences in opinion in the past, present, and likely
the future - that our publication is a viable asset to the computing
and gaming community. We're going to continue to grow and improve.
We had planned to make this a spectacular issue with plenty of
articles, reviews, and even the debut of the online CATfights.
However, reviewers are still fine-tuning and/or reviewing 6-8 games at
the moment; Hurricane Opal wiped out electricity in parts of Florida,
so AEO's Travis Guy was unable to get online to continue our ongoing
debate which was to be completed and ready for this issue; and other
inopportune happenings have caused delays in other articles that we had
planned. So, in what we had hoped for a busy section this week turns
out to be a fairly quiet, but very informative one.
I got the developer CD up and running, finally. I've played
around with the VLM, but since I'm not CD-phile, I don't have much to
select from other than the Tempest 2000 audio-CD to test it out. But,
I may borrow or pick up a few sample CDs to see what VLM can really do.
I have been, however, been playing the Highlander CD. It's
interesting, but still too early to write a review. I'm also waiting
on a few other CD games to test out and review, but more on those at a
later time.
As I mentioned earlier, there are at least 6-8 reviews waiting in
the wings. And, Rayman and Ultra Vortek just reached reviewers hands,
so expect those real soon also.
We are surprised, still, that there are no CD games, other than
the pack-in games, available yet. There are some in production, but
it's too bad that, actually quite disappointing, that the users are
still in a waiting frenzy. Actually, I probably shouldn't say that I'm
truly surprised at this. The holiday season is almost upon us and
there is still no forward momentum building to carry Atari into a
successful season. I've seen no television advertising yet although I
know there's at least one ad currently running. It's got to start
soon, folks, or a poor outlook will continue brew and boil over.
Well, let's get to the good news, especially for the online
community. We'll have a lot more for you next week!
Until next time...
> Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out.
Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $29.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $29.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/
Crescent Galaxy $29.99 Atari Corp.
J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp.
J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp.
JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames
J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp.
J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp.
J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $39.99 Atari Corp.
J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9007 Checkered Flag $39.99 Atari Corp.
J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp.
J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp
J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp
J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp
J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp.
Cannon Fodder $49.99 Virgin/C-West
Syndicate $69.99 Ocean
Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams
Theme Park $69.99 Ocean
Sensible Soccer Telegames
Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams
J9009E Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Corp.
J0144E Pinball Fantasies $59.99 C-West
J9052E Super Burnout $59.99 Atari
J9070 White Men Can't Jump $69.99 Atari
Flashback $59.99 U.S. Gold
VidGrid (CD) Atari Corp
Blue Lightning (CD) $59.99 Atari Corp
J9040 Flip-Out $49.99 Atari Corp
J9082 Ultra Vortek $69.99 Atari Corp
C3669T Rayman $69.99 Ubi Soft
Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9101 Pitfall $59.99 Atari
Power Drive Rally TBD TWI
Dragon's Lair TBD Readysoft
Hover Strike CD $59.99 Atari
Demolition Man $59.99 Atari
J9061 Ruiner Pinball $59.99 Atari
J9031 Highlander I (CD) $59.99 Atari
J9069 Myst (CD) $59.99 Atari
Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER
J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $149.99 Atari Corp.
J8904 Composite Cable $19.95
J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp.
J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95
CatBox $69.95 ICD
J8800 Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari Corp.
J8908 JagLink Interface 29.95 Atari Corp.
J8910 Team Tap
(4-Player Adapter) 29.95 Atari Corp.
J8907 Jaguar ProController29.95 Atari Corp.
J8911 Memory Track 29.95 Atari Corp.
J8909 Tempest 2000:
The Soundtrack 12.99 Atari Corp.
>Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
CONTACT: Patricia Kerr or Jennifer Hansen
Shandwick USA
310/479-4997 or 800/444-6663
For Immediate Release
Atari(R) Corporation Unveils New World Wide Web Site,
Names CompuServe(R) as Official Commercial Support Site
Type http://www.atari.com on the World Wide Web
or GO JAGUAR on CompuServe
SUNNYVALE (October 6) -- Atari Corporation unveiled this morning their
new JAGWIRE(tm) World Wide Web Domain. JAGWIRE features the creative
integration of eye-popping graphics, animation, audio and descriptive
text for web browsers to enjoy in the leisure of their homes or office.
The site was created by ATOMIX, Inc.; an Emmy Award-winning new media
house in Hollywood, California. The JAGWIRE Web Site URL is
http://www.atari.com.
The installation of the JAGWIRE Web Domain is an anchor for a network
of official support offered to gamers throughout the world. In concert
with the explosive trends of the Internet and the World Wide Web, Atari
has named CompuServe as their official Jaguar 64 commercial on-line
support site. CompuServe access is as little as $9.95 a month and
offers full access to the Internet and the World Wide Web as well as
exclusive features not available on any other system; such as the Atari
Jaguar forum. Type GO JAGUAR to access 24-hour on-line support on
CompuServe or call toll free (800) 848-8990.
Two independent online publications have also pledged a bond to the
JAGWIRE network by offering exclusive news, reviews and previews of
Jaguar 64 products in each of their issues. Atari Explorer Online
offers in-depth coverage of Atari products from cover to cover.
Silicon Times Report is distributed worldwide each week and features
computer and video game coverage of interest to everyone. Both
publications are downloadable from CompuServe or can be found through
direct links with Atari's JAGWIRE Web Site.
Atari has made the commitment to make shopping and obtaining support
for the Jaguar 64 as simple for modem users as possible, states
Donald A. Thomas, Jr., Director of Atari Customer Service Marketing.
"To do that, we have installed the best domain created by the best
creative people, accessible through the best access lines (T3) and
supplemented by the best commercial on-line services of CompuServe,
and the best on-line publishing support. Users can sample game images,
hear game sounds, find out where to buy them and make buying decisions
based on reliable and accurate resources."
Jim Pascua, Marketing Manager of CompuServe, adds that his company has
also made serious commitments to the evolution of global access at
economic rates and with maximum access. "New updates to our on-line
software will revolutionize how users can access the Internet and the
finest commercial on-line service in the world simultaneously. We are
proud of Atari's designation and we feel it is in step with the
direction this industry is taking."
Atari's new JAGWIRE Web Site is installed NOW. Web Browsers may be set
to the URL of http://www.atari.com. The site features easy access icons
to a great deal of product information including game descriptions,
screen shots, release schedules, ordering information and real time
registration in Atari's mailing list. CompuServe's Jaguar forum
features downloadable magazines, screen shots, reviews, software,
conferences, contests and a very active message base to host non-stop
interaction between Jaguar enthusiasts and Atari personnel.
For more than twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers
with high quality, value-priced entertainment. Atari Corporation
markets Jaguar, the only American-made advanced 64-bit entertainment
system and is located in Sunnyvale, California.
CompuServe is an H&R Block company. Founded in 1955, H&R Block, a
diversified services company, is the worlds leading tax preparation
and on-line information services company. CompuServe operates the most
comprehensive network in the world, providing on-line services to more
than 3.5 million members in more than 140 countries and network
services to more than 800 corporate customers worldwide. H&R Block Tax
Services provided tax-related services for almost one in every seven
returns filed with the IRS in 1995, and served 17.1 million taxpayers
in more than 9,500 offices worldwide.
# # # #
Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. Jaguar is a
trademark of Atari Corporation. CompuServe is a trademark of CompuServe
Information Service. ATOMIX is a trademark of ATOMIX, Inc. All other
tradenames are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
owning companies.
-/- Games Can Bring Us Together? -/-
Confounding conventional wisdom that computer gamesters tend to
evolve into anti-social loners, a new study from Australia finds
computer games actually may bring families closer together.
Reporting from Canberra, Australia, the Reuter News Service says
the national government study found some evidence that computer games
encouraged joint family activities.
In a statement today, Attorney General Michael Lavarch said,
"Computer games have become an important part of family life in the
1990s and it is reassuring to know that there does not appear to be any
scientific basis for the fears held by many parents about the impact of
games on young people."
He added, "No link has been found between aggressive behavior and
game play in the home and there is no indication whether a limited
correlation between game play in arcades and aggression is due to the
games or to the arcade environment. Playing computer games also appears
to encourage young people to confront challenges and improve skills,
with some studies indicating improvements in cognitive, perceptual and
social development."
Reuters reports the study, prepared for the government's Film and
Literature Classification Board to help classify computer games, also
said images of games-addicted teenagers glued to their computer screens
were off target, with most children spending more time reading or
watching TV.
Lavarch commented that "genuinely addictive game-play is rare,"
but also warned against regarding the study as conclusive, saying it
was difficult to draw firm conclusions from the limited research
available. "The main finding," he added, "is that a lot more work needs
to be done before there is an adequate understanding of their effects."
>Jaguar Developers STR InfoFile - Current Developer Lists & Titles
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Game Title Date Game Type MSRP Publisher
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air Cars TBA Racing/Combat $59.99 MidNite Ent.
Alien vs Predator NOW Role Play/Adventure $69.99 Atari
Alien vs Predator CD 2/96 Role Play/Adventure TBD Atari
Arena Football 11/95 Sports $69.99 V Reel
Assault 2Q/95 Action/Combat $59.99 MidNite Ent.
Atari Kart 11/95 Driving TBD Atari
Att. of Mut. Penguins 12/95 Arcade $59.99 Atari
Baldies (CD) 11/95 Action/Simulation $59.99 Atari
Batman Forever (CD) 4/96 Action/Adventure TBD Atari
Battlemorph (CD) 11/95 Flying/Action $59.99 Atari
Battlesphere 12/95 Space/Combat TBD 4-Play
Battlestar 11/95 Space/Combat TBD ?
Battle Wheels 2Q/95 Racing/Combat TBD Beyond Games
Black ICE/White Noise 12/95 Action/Adventure $69.99 Atari
Blue Lightning (CD) NOW Flying/Action $59.99 Atari
Braindead 13 (CD) 10/95 Action/Adventure TBD ReadySoft
Breakout 2000 12/95 Puzzle $49.99 Atari
Brett Hull Hockey 11/95 Sports TBD Atari
Brett Hull Hockey (CD) 1Q/96 Sports $69.99 Atari
Brutal Sports Football NOW Sports/Combat $69.99 Telegames
Bubsy NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari
Cannon Fodder NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Virgin
Chas Barkley Basketball10/95 Sports $59.99 Atari
Checkered Flag NOW Racing $69.99 Atari
Club Drive NOW Racing $59.99 Atari
Commando (CD) 11/95 Action (3D) TBD Atari
Commander Blood (CD) 11/95 RPG $69.99 Atari
Creature Shock (CD) 10/95 Adventure/Sci-Fi $59.99 Atari/Virgin
Cybermorph NOW Flying/Action $59.99 Atari
Dactyl Joust 11/95 Action TBD Atari
Dante (CD) 6/96 Action TBD Atari
Deathwatch 11/95 Arcade TBD Atari
Defender 2000 11/95 Arcade $59.99 Atari
Demolition Man (CD) 10/95 Action/Combat $59.99 Atari
Doom NOW Action/Combat $69.99 Atari
Double Dragon V NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 Williams
Dragon:Bruce Lee Story NOW Combat $59.99 Atari
Dragon's Lair (CD) 10/95 Adventure TBD Ready Soft
Dragon's Lair 2 (CD) TBA Adventure TBD ReadySoft
Dreadnought (CD) 2Q/95 Adventure TBD Atari
Dune Racer (CD) 1/96 Racing TBD Atari
Dungeon Depths 2Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 MidNite Ent.
Evolution: Dino Dudes NOW Puzzle/Adventure $49.99 Atari
Fever Pitch 11/95 Sports TBD Atari
Fight For Life TBA Combat TBD Atari
Flashback NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 US Gold
Flip-Out NOW Puzzle $49.99 Atari
Formula 1 Racing (CD) 11/95 Racing TBD Atari
Frank Thomas Baseball 4/96 Sports TBD Atari
Gotcha! 1/95 ? TBD ---
Hardball Baseball 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari
Highlander I (CD) 10/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari
Highlander II (CD) 2/96 Action/Adventure TBD Atari
Highlander III (CD) 4/96 Action/Adventure TBD Atari
Horrorscope 2Q/95 Combat TBD V Reel
Hover Strike NOW Action/Combat $59.99 Atari
Hover Strike CD 10/95 Action/Combat $59.99 Atari
Hyper Force TBA ? TBD Comp. West
Ironman/XO-Manowar 4/96 Action TBD Atari
Iron Soldier NOW Action/Strategy $59.99 Atari
Iron Soldier II (CD) 11/95 Action/Strategy $59.99 Atari
Jack Nicklaus Golf(CD) 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari
Kasumi Ninja NOW Combat $69.99 Atari
Magic Carpet (CD) 12/95 Action/RPG TBD Atari
Max Force (CD) 12/95 Action $59.99 Atari
Mindripper (CD) 2/96 Adventure TBD Atari
Missile Command 12/95 Action/Arcade TBD Atari
Mortal Kombat 3 4/96 Fighting TBD Atari
Myst (CD) 10/95 Interactive Novel $59.99 Atari
NBA Jam T.E. 12/95 Sports $69.99 Atari
Netwar (aka Redemption)11/95 Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari
Phase Zero 10/95 Action/Arcade $59.99 Atari
Pinball Fantasies NOW Arcade $59.95 Comp. West
Pitfall - Mayan Adv. 10/95 Arcade $59.99 Activision
Power Drive Rally 10/95 Driving TBD TWI
Primal Rage (CD) 11/95 Fighting TBD TWI
Rage Rally 2Q/95 Racing TBD Atari
Raiden NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari
Rayman NOW Action/Adventure TBD UBI Soft
Return Fire (CD) 1Q/96 Combat TBD Atari
Rise of the Robots (CD)11/95 Action/Arcade TBD TWI
Robinson's Requiem (CD)11/95 Adventure $59.99 Atari
Rocky Horror Inter.(CD) 4/96 Adventure TBD Atari
Ruiner Pinball 10/95 Arcade $59.99 Atari
Sensible Soccer NOW Sports Telegames
Sky Hammer (CD) 12/95 Flying/Action TBD Atari
Soccer Kid 2Q/95 Sports TBD Ocean
Soul Star (CD) TBA Action/Sci-Fi TBD Atari
Space Ace (CD) TBA Space/Combat TBD ReadySoft
Space War TBA Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari
Starlight BowlaRama CD 10/95 Simulation/Sports TBD Atari
Star Raiders 2Q/95 Space Simulation TBD Atari
Sudden Impact 12/95 Action TBD Atari
Super Burnout NOW Racing $59.99 Atari
Supercross 3D 11/95 Sports $59.99 Atari
Syndicate NOW Simulation $69.99 Ocean
Tempest 2000 NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari
Thea Realm Fighters(CD)1Q/96 Action/Fighting TBD Atari
Theme Park NOW Simulation $69.99 Ocean
Trevor McFur NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari
Troy Aikman NFL Ftball NOW Sports $69.99 Williams
Ultimate Brain Games 2Q/95 Puzzle TBD Telegames
Ultra Vortek NOW Action/Adventure $69.99 Beyond Games
Val D'Isere Skiing... NOW Sports $59.99 Atari
Varuna's Forces (CD) 12/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari
VidGrid (CD) NOW Puzzle/Music Video --- Atari
Wayne Gretzky NHL (CD) 12/95 Sports TBD TWI
White Men Can't Jump NOW Sports (w/Team Tap) $69.99 TriMark
Wolfenstein 3D NOW Combat/Action $59.99 Atari
Zero 5 1/96 Space/Combat TBD Atari
Zone Hunter 12/95 Action/Adventure TBD Atari
Zool2 NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari
Zoop 12/95 Puzzle TBD Viacom
[Editor's note: Titles, scheduled release dates, and prices are
verified from Atari - all subject to change]
[Editor's note: In last week's issue, in our review of FlipOut!, there
was an error. From Steve Watkins, here's the correction.]
"Old habits die hard, folks. While writing the Flipout review, I
inadvertently typed the word BATTERY after the Save Feature line at the
start of the review. I had corrected it at the last minute, but sent
the wrong, uncorrected file to Dana. It should read "Yes - Five
positions." Sorry for any confusion this might have caused. I guess
I've spent far too much time reviewing Genesis and SNES games. <G>"
>Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-- JAGWIRE Exclusive Interview --
Atari's Ted Hoff introduces JAGWIRE and shares what's on the horizon
for Jaguar.
(This interview is distributed officially by the JAGWIRE network)
Visit http://www.atari.com on the World Wide Web.
Within days of Atari's new Web Domain launch, Ted Hoff took a few
minutes out for an exclusive interview. Mr. Hoff is Atari's new
President of North American Operations. Within just a few brief months,
Ted has become known as a top producer; someone who expects results and
someone who provides results. He has been instrumental in getting
Atari's software development focus within aggressive and realistic
guidelines. He has promised a CD-ROM that gamers will embrace and has
done just that. He has faced the competition with bold statements of
value and quality and has fulfilled those commitments without dispute.
The $149 US Jaguar is becoming more visible and is positioned well for
the Holidays...including it's premiere in almost 400 nationwide
Wal*Mart locations PLUS in Radio Shack, Spiegel and Sears catalogs.
JW- Here it is in October, Mr. Hoff. "Ultra Vortek", "Rayman",
"FlipOut!", "White Men Can't Jump", the Team Tap, the CD-ROM, "Blue
Lightning", the Memory Track, "Vid Grid" and "Power Drive Rally" have
all recently hit store shelves. You must be feeling good.
TH- You bet. Not only have we released all these things, but the
feedback from gamers has been excellent. I have been bombarded with
messages from the Internet, over the phone and through the mail from
people virtually around the world just to say thanks!
JW- And there's still more to come...
TH- "Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands", "Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure"
and "Primal Rage" are just a few of the outstanding titles we have on
the way. Yes, there's a lot more to come.
JW- There has been a lot of teasing that somethingbig is going to
happen with something calledJAGWIRE. Can you tell us a little about
that?
TH- I can give you a little sneak preview. JAGWIRE will refer to two
things actually. One is a phenomenal new World Wide Web site that will
be on-line on October 6. World Wide Web Browsers should set the URL to
http://www.atari.com. We have a communications master, Don Thomas, who
is coordinating the efforts of an Emmy Award winning new media house in
Hollywood, California to put the entire domain together. The JAGWIRE
also refers to the announcement of CompuServe being named as an
official commercial on-line site for Jaguar gamers.
JW- CompuServe? What was the criteria for selecting them?
TH- There are a number of reasons that CompuServe makes a lot of sense
for us and Jaguar gamers. Foremost is the simple fact that CompuServe's
subscriber base is among the highest with more than 3.5 million
members. That makes CompuServe readily accessible for great numbers of
people. Secondly, CompuServe offers a structure of message exchanges
and access to downloadable files that is fast and easy which is one
reason they serve more than 800 corporate customers. With their new low
monthly rate of only $9.95 and the fact that getting Jaguar support is
as easy as typingGO JAGUAR, CompuServe is the right choice for our
customers to obtain support. Their number is (800) 848-8990.
JW- Can Jaguar forum members on CompuServe interact directly with Atari
employees?
TH- Absolutely. I know that Don Thomas, Laury Scott, Dan McNamee and
others are on there regularly. In addition, there are other popular
people from Atari Explorer Online, Silicon Times Report and Jaguar
Journal. There are representatives from Developers, Distributors and
Retailers too.
JW- Moving on to the Holidays. How is the Jaguar positioned for the
months ahead?
TH- I think we are in an excellent position. Jaguar is still the best
value video gaming system value and we now also offer a library of
games which has been important to develop. "Tempest 2000", "Doom",
"Alien Vs. Predator", "Val d'Isere Skiing" and "Snowboarding and Iron
Soldier" are some of my favorites that continue to sell through for us.
Now that the CD-ROM is out, people are raving about "VLM" and how they
are impressed with their samples of Myst. They also agree that "Blue
Lightning" and "Vid Grid" were excellent pack-in choices and many
people are seemingly wearing out their "Tempest 2000" Soundtracks. <g>
JW- Well, you certainly make it sound like Jaguar offers an excellent
value and premium support channels to their customers. It is clear that
the 64-bit Jaguar is the system to own this Christmas.
TH- We know there are choices out there. That's good because gamers
benefit from having choices. The most impressive benefit this Holiday
Season is the affordably-priced 64-bit Jaguar system, and the Jaguar
CD. Happy Holidays!
> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
=====================
On CompuServe
-------------
compiled by
Joe Mirando
73637,2262
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Before we get into the usual stuff this
week, I'd like to mention my latest endeavor to you...
Two weeks from now, we'll be introducing yet another new column here in
STReport. It will focus on topics that most of us have heard about, but
aren't really sure of. The column will be bi-monthly to start off and
we'll see how it goes from there.
"What's the first installment going to be about" you ask? Well, have
you ever talked with your friends about the Internet and, in the middle
of a sentence, thought to yourself "but what exactly _is_ the Internet
anyway"? [No, no, no, no, no.......yes (in my best Monty Python voice)]
Well, if you are one of those folks, don't worry! There are many more of
us than you might think. So watch for the new column because the
Internet will be the first topic I tackle. I haven't decided on a title
for it yet, but it'll be something witty like "People Are Talking".
<grin>
In the meantime, we'll just have content ourselves with this column,
which will remain my favorite for one reason: It deals with (and will
continue to) the questions asked and answered by regular folks just like
you and me. So let's take a look at some folks just like us.
From the Atari Computing Forums
===============================
On the subject of Chimera, the Unix-like Internet system, Denis Postle
posts:
"How irritating! both conenct and the browser working but not both
together. I have been using Chimera reliably since July on both Demon
in the Uk and CIS. I can post the MINT.CNF file I use.
Do you have any idea how to get chimera to view html files? I assumed
that _file://localhost/DIRECTORY/FILENAME_ should work but it doesn't."
Chris Roth tells Denis:
"Thanks a lot for your help and information. At the moment however I
hesitate to work on the TAF setup. I guess the combination Stik / HTML
browser could be a nice, easier to configure solution.
Plus, I suffer from the same 'disease' as Michel: I'd like to use my
German keyboard layout but am unable to do so with X11. X11 at all is a
great myth for me, still."
Denis switches subjects to NOS:
"...the several versions of NOS that I have are all unreliable/unusable
at the moment and I last used them months ago so I've also forgotten
what the issues were.
Did you ever get to use chimera? I haven't been able to get the ftp
side of that to work either. I guess I don't have any idea what its
local command set is. I connect ok but the the usual 'ftp <address>'
doesn't seem to work.
If you have been using chimera or if anyone reading this has, do you
know what the link address needs to be from a home page to other
local/subsidiary pages? I have copied across the pages I'm
constructing on the Mac in Netscape and there they all link from a root
directory but chimera needs something else and I can't see what.
Help would be appreciated here."
Michel Vanhamme tells Denis:
"I actually downloaded the file from demon, but I didn't want to
upload it to the libraries here if it doesn't work with CIS (or does
someone knows if SLIP works with CIS? I don't think so). I could send
it to you in your mail box, if you want."
Denis tells Michel:
"Re Stik, if that is the right name. Yes I'd appreciate you sending
me STik to my CIS mailbox. I have a Demon account that does SLIP and
I'll be using it on a TT with 4megTTram.
It's a real drag, but i still cannot get any of the FTP packages to
download anything at the moment. I'm fed up with NOS, and DuFTP loads
ok and looks good but doesn't even want to communicate with the modem
yet. I suppose it needs hsmodem drivers like chimera? I currently have
hsmod4 installed. I can't figure out the details for the HSMOD6
package. It reads like metaphysics. no, metaphysics is easier.
Pity you didn't get on further with chimera. Would the files I use for
log on with CIS be of use? (I have no problems with access to CIS at
19200bd in London and 2400bd in Brussels) That would leave very little
typing. I guess you could _adapt_ for http's, there are few of them to
type once you've got on Yahoo. And, from French, it could all be too
much of a hassle, I guess.
I find chimera, very steady. After I have moved between a lot of sites
and thus filled up the buffer with stored pages, I delete the programm
and re-load, it then rarely crashes. I've rewritten the home page."
After downloading Stik, Denis tells Michel:
"I dowloaded it and installed it according to the docs. I get an error
message 'Stik KRmalloc free()corrupted' and a dialogue box saying
'STick not initialised, can't initialise DNS' and no other program will
run when Stick is active.
I tried a second download but with the same result. It looks like a
corrupt file somewhere. The docs give a support address in the uk so
unless you have any other ideas I'll mail for a disc copy. It certainly
seems promising.
In one of the other threads 'www for atari ST' there is mention of
www101.zip Is this StiK do you suppose? and (more atarian metaphysics)
that it needs a 'cookie jar'. Do you know anything about this? There
is no mention of it in the docs. I'll add the question to that
thread."
Michel tells Denis:
"I'll install it on my system to see if it's a corrupted file... I
will also keep an eye on the Atari newsgroups to see if there are
reports of the problem. As you may imagine, there's a lot of talk
about that package already on the net..."
Michel replies:
"The '101' stands for the docs, apparently, the version of Stik in that
package is still 1.00.
Re: cookie jar
The cookie jar is a structure in memory that contains...'cookies'.
These are put there by the OS or TSR programs, so that other programs
can test their presence in the system and behave accordingly. If you
use a TT, this should not be a problem, the cookie jar is fully
supported since TOS 1.06. The OS, f.i., places cookies describing the
CPU type, video system, sound system etc."
Denis gives us this latest update:
"I had a support message from Denesh Bhabuta (dbhabuta@
cix.compulink.co.uk) who is going to be looking after StiK support. He
says that contrary to the docs, which seem to be only adjacent to the
facts about Stik in other directions too, 1.01 doesn't run on a TT.
There is now a 1.04 which does run on a TT. He's sending me a copy.
I'll let you know how it goes but very useful is my current sense. the
browser can handle speedo fonts + GIFs on screen, and colour too. All
that is good news for me."
Neil Newman tells us:
"I've installed TAF on my Falcon computer and have changed the
options-ppp144-resolve.conf-chatfile files as the TAF thread here has
suggested and when I tried to make a connection it dialed up and
appeared to log on to CIS PPP connection. I then tried to activate
Chimera but came on screen and nothing happened it just eventually
droped out.
I found this in the syslog file: --------------------------- Sep 29
15:16:06 homer pppd[47]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/modem2 Sep 29 15:16:36
homer pppd[47]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests <149>Sep 29
15:16:36 pppd[47]: Connection terminated. ----------------------------
When I log on with NOS a ppp pp0 command has to be entered before NOS
locks in. Do I have to enter a similar command from X windows?"
Denis tells Neil:
"You can reliably tell whether you have a ppp connection up on chimera
by the appearance of a pair of ip addresses. wihtout them you are not
connected to ppp."
Carl Barron tells Denis:
"There is a file in UNIXFORM containing ppp and chat files for CIS and
PC-LINUX. Should be useful ppp.tgz is the file its about 15k I think.
it will decompress on your minux partition into a directory ppp. Read
the enclosed files for details. It provides chat files for CIS-PPP
connection. Not tried yet. Too many intermitent problems with CIS and
its nodes to try something on, on my end."
Neil checks out his setup and tells Denis:
"I see what you mean, it seems that my computer is timing out before it
picks up the IP address, its definitely connecting. I think there is a
away of ajusting the timeout with the 'options' file in the 'etc/ppp/'
folder, at least I hope so.
BTW did you get Duftp to log on via Compuserve? I can't get it to dial
my modem, have set it to modem2 (falcon). I tried placing my Slip.dip
file on the dip.tos with the mouse, it starts but then says ' DIP.
problem locking in modem2'."
Well folks, I know that the column is short this week, and I know that
it all deals with the Internet and that some of you could care less
about surfing it but, let's face it: the Internet is the wave of the
future (pun intended). As of now, you can either pay an Internet
provider or dial up your favorite online service (like CompuServe) and
use it to access the net. I'm still a newbie myself so I'm not sure if
all services offer all facets of the 'net such as SLIP, PPP, WWW, FTP,
and all of the other initials you can think of, but we'll find out
together.
So tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to
listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
A "Quotable Quote" A true, "Sign of the Times"
About the O.J. Simpson Trial Verdict of....
NOT GUILTY
It s not these two words that are the key....
Its these two words...
REASONABLE DOUBT
It demonstrates and proves the U.S. Justice System
under the U.S. Constitution works and is still the Cherished System the
Founding Fathers of this Great Nation intended it to be.
Thank God the System, with all its warts, still works as designed.
Ralph F. Mariano, Editor
STReport International Online Magazine
STReport International OnLine Magazine
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STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" October 29, 1995
Since 1987 Copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No. 1139
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Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the
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