ST Report: 13_jun-97 #1324
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 06/19/97-10:36:33 PM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 13_jun-97 #1324
Date: Thu Jun 19 22:36:33 1997
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June 13, 1997 No.1324
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Look at today's date! Friday the thirteenth! Netscape getting stung
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LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Firms to Restrict Private Data
As Washington gears up to begin Federal Trade Commission hearings on
cyberspace privacy, eight major database companies are set to announced
they will limit the information they assemble on private individuals and
make available to clients. The Washington Post reports today the
agreement, to be announced at the start of today's FTC hearings, addresses
concern by privacy advocates that companies offering computerized
information are compromising the privacy rights of individuals. The Post
says the firms have agreed not to augment their records with information
from private marketing databases, including buying preferences, household
income and other data that critics say allows creation of dossier on
ordinary private citizens.
The eight will continue to provide through computer connections such
information as people's telephone numbers, current and previous addresses
and ages, the Post says. Some companies also provide Social Security
numbers and information from public documents such as vehicle registration
and property deeds. The Associated Press identified the companies signing
the agreement as Lexis Nexis, Experian, Choice-Point, Database Technologies
Inc., Metromail Corp., Information America, First Data InfoSource, and IRSC
Inc.
FTC Begins Privacy Hearings
Federal Trade Commission officials were told today hundreds of sites exist
on the Internet that compile information on public record for widespread
use, allowing users to search for individuals for a more complete portrait
of a person. Adds reporter Margaret Coker of United Press International,
"The information could include names, addresses, phone numbers, age, Social
Security numbers, bankruptcies, marriages and property records. Some of the
databases are used by professional groups for 'permissible business uses,'
like banks trying to verify identification for a mortgage approval, or
attorneys or prosecutors tracking down 'dead-beat dads.'"
Still, says privacy advocates, a whole industry of mailing list wholesalers
has started selling information gleaned from such sources as warranty cards
or magazine subscription lists. As noted, the FTC throughout this week is
looking into the practice of selling such information to commercial groups
or posting it on the Internet without consumer knowledge or approval.
"Currently," says UPI, "almost no regulation exists to curb such database
dispersal. One FTC commissioner says one problem is where to draw the line
with information that is in the public domain, but is being used for
unintended purposes."
Critics Question Online Privacy
Consumer advocates and regulators asked Congress yesterday to examine
whether electronic-data companies are doing enough to protect the ordinary
Americans whose detailed personal information they gather. Appearing in
the opening round of Federal Trade Commission hearings on Internet privacy,
the advocates wondered whether database companies like Lexis-Nexis and
others push the limits of privacy by selling telephone numbers and
addresses without people's knowledge or consent.
"Some also provide Social Security numbers and information from public
documents such as vehicle registration and property deeds," notes business
writer David E. Kalish, who is covering the hearings for The Associated
Press. "Much of the worries," adds Kalish, "focus on 'cookies' -- nuggets
of information that a Web site can plant in a computer user's hard drive.
They are used to track which Web sites are visited, what pages are looked
at, even people's hobbies -- and then linked to names and addresses. Site
owners can sell the information to advertisers and other interested
parties, without the consent or knowledge of users."
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told
the FTC, "We are selling information today that 10 years ago would not be
bought or sold. The law has not kept up with these developments." As
predicted here earlier, attempting to alleviate concerns -- and head
off strict government rules -- Lexis-Nexis and seven other search services
unveiled voluntary guidelines to limit the personal information they
assemble.
The new agreement calls for a halt to use of information gathered from
private marketing databases, such as buying preferences, household income
and other data. Kalish says the companies say they would restrict their
sale of nonpublic information, such as an individual's credit records, to
professionals such as banks and private investigators. However, several
FTC officials questioned why the companies wouldn't commit to providing a
copy of their reports to any consumer who asks to check out potential
inaccuracies.
FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky expressed concern that consumers couldn't
correct inaccurate information about them in the reports generated by the
electronic data services, adding, "Even something as innocuous as your last
known address could be misprinted as a prison. What does a person do about
that?" In other developments, McGraw Hill Cos., a major publisher of
online information, announced a new privacy policy for its 60 Web sites and
other businesses aimed at giving people more control over the personal
information collected about them.
Microsoft Backs Netscape Plan
Netscape Communications Corp. says Microsoft Corp. now is cooperating in
building the Open Profiling Standard for the privacy on Internet that it
and others proposed two weeks ago. Coming during this week's Federal Trade
Commission held hearings on Internet privacy, the announcement "will bring
added momentum to the proposal, which aims to provide a framework for
built-in privacy safeguards and greater individual control over exchange of
personal information over the Internet," says the Reuter News Service.
The wire service says Netscape and Microsoft will join privately-held
Firefly Network Inc. and VeriSign to work together on the new protocol
during the remainder of a standards review process of the World Wide Web
Consortium, which is the Web's main standards body. Jim Miller, leader of
the technology and society domain of the World Wide Web consortium, said in
a statement, "We're delighted that Microsoft, Netscape and Firefly have
chosen to work together with our staff and other member organizations."
Reuters comments, "In the two weeks since its unveiling, support for the
standards effort has grown to include more than 100 companies, according to
a statement released by a Firefly representative." What they propose is a
standard that would give each individual control over his or her own
personal profile and the ability to manage which personal information gets
disclosed or withheld from a particular Web site. The profile data can then
be used to provide targeted information, products and services directly to
individual users, while allowing them also to be notified every time their
profile information is being requested. (Personal profiles contain
information ranging from names, addresses, ZIP codes and phone numbers to
marital status, interests, hobbies and passwords.)
Privacy Bills Win Praise
Bills introduced in the House and Senate to limit the spread of personal
information such as Social Security numbers on the Internet are being
praised by consumer groups. United Press International quotes Jean Ann Fox
of the Consumer Federation of America as calling for federal regulation
concerning the gathering and selling of personal data by organizations on
the Internet. She says the congressional measures are a step in the right
direction.
UPI says the Personal Information Privacy Act -- introduced last week by
Reps. Jerry Kleczka, D-Wisconsin, and Bob Franks, R-New Jersey, and
mirroring a Senate measure -- would prohibit:
z Credit bureaus from giving out Social Security numbers, unlisted phone
numbers, dates of birth, past addresses and mothers' maiden names.
z State departments of motor vehicles from disseminating Social Security
numbers for bulk distribution use in surveys, marketing or solicitation.
z The commercial use of a person's Social Security number without
consent.
"With the crime of identity fraud on the rise and the personal database
industry growing," UPI reports, "the lawmakers say it is easier than ever
to lose control of who has information about you." And Rep. Franks says,
"A Social Security number is the key to unlocking a whole host of personal
information. This legislation would keep the Internet from being used as a
tool for fraud and abuse by ensuring that the most confidential and
sensitive personal information is safeguarded."
As reported, the Federal Trade Commission is holding week-long hearings on
the issue of Internet privacy. As reported also, Microsoft Corp. now is
cooperating in building the Open Profiling Standard for the privacy on
Internet that Netscape Communications Corp. and others proposed two weeks
ago. The new plan would enable Web users to specify what personal
information they give and to which Web sites.
However, business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press reports
several privacy advocates complained at yesterday's session of the hearings
that the new format could actually entice people to give more private
details than they ordinarily would by creating a routine for supplying the
information. And some Federal Trade Commission officials noted the plan
doesn't address the potential abuses by Web sites that collect the personal
details. For instance, "what is (Web users') control of your use of the
information?" asked FTC commissioner Christine Varney. The FTC plans to
use findings gathered from the hearings to determine whether it needs to
recommend online privacy laws to Congress.
White House Eyes Net Tax Ban
The Clinton Administration has as yet not made a decision on whether to
endorse legislation pending in the U.S. Congress that would ban taxes on
Internet commerce, a Council of State Governments official reports. The
Reuter News Service quotes Daniel Sprague, the group's executive director,
as making the statement after a White House meeting Friday between Vice
President Al Gore and seven state and local government groups on Internet
policy and other key issues.
As reported, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-California, and Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Oregon, introduced identical bills in March that would impose an
indefinite moratorium on state and local taxation of commerce over the
Internet. The legislation would not affect existing taxes on goods and
services ordered through the Internet, as long as the taxes were the same
as those on mail order goods. Reuters reporter Vicky Stamas notes that at
a congressional hearing last month, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence
Summers said the administration strongly supports the "goals and underlying
objectives" of the legislation.
"At Friday's hour-long meeting," Reuters says, "Gore was told by the seven
groups that they have 'a real problem' with the administration's position
on the bill, Sprague said. States and localities oppose Internet
legislation on the grounds that it could affect revenues." Sprague says
Gore responded that Sommers was talking only in a "very general sense" and
that the administration has not "weighed in on that issue yet." He quoted
Gore as saying, "Our position has not been communicated in a final
fashion."
Paris Refuses French Translation
A Paris court today refused to require Georgia Tech's French campus to
translate its Internet site into French, a ruling seen as a setback to
French language purists. As reported earlier, a previously little-enforced
law was used to sue the university's campus in eastern France, demanding
that it make its page on the World Wide Web bilingual.
However, Georgia Tech Lorraine, in the eastern city of Metz, has
successfully argued the website must be in English because the school's
curriculum is taught solely in that language by Atlanta-based professors.
Only the site's directions to the campus are in French. Associated Press
writer Nicolas Marmie says the Police Court of Paris rejected the suit
because the watchdog groups -- which are funded partly by the government --
failed to file a complaint with police before pursuing their civil suit
last fall.
"Under a 1994 law that bans advertising in any single language except
French, police must be formally notified and investigate the infraction
before a civil suit is filed," Marmie reports. "The law also says that
manufacturers cannot sell goods without instructions in French and
broadcasters cannot use English words on TV and radio when French
equivalents exist. It does not mention the Internet."
AP notes that worldwide, an estimated 85 percent of Internet sites are in
English, while only 2 percent are in French. French use of the Internet has
lagged behind other countries, a development of sharp concern to some
francophiles. "Since a Justice Ministry directive last February, French
courts have begun to punish more aggressively companies that break the
language law," AP reports. "Georgia Tech had faced possible fines of up to
$4,300 each time the untranslated Internet site was visited."
Georgia School Adds to French Site
Multilingual translations now have been added to the web site for the
French campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, even though a court has
rejected a lawsuit that claimed the site's exclusive use of English had
violated French law. As reported, a Paris court refused to require Georgia
Tech's French campus to translate its Internet site into French, a ruling
seen as a setback to French language purists.
Howver, notes the Reuter News Service, the tribunal rejected on technical
grounds and did not rule on the precedent-setting question of whether
France has the right to control the Internet using laws for the protection
of French culture. Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough later said in a
statement, "The suit had a number of procedural and legal flaws. We are
pleased that the Police Tribunal of Paris agreed with Georgia Tech
Lorraine's legal position."
Teddy Puttgen, director of Georgia Tech Lorraine, says the site has been
revamped to include German and French translations, saying the decision had
nothing to do with the pending court ruling. As reported, the suit was
filed in October by the Association for the Defense of the French Language
and Future of the French Language claiming the Web site for the
university's Metz campus violated the 1994 Toubon law barring the sale in
France of "goods and services" in a language other than French.
Initially, the university defended the site by saying it was not feasible
to translate pages into French if they were exclusively intended for an
English-speaking audience. Said Puttgen, "We have argued that the Internet
is very different from overall advertisement in that when you actually
visit a site you enter that virtual domicile. And once you have entered
that virtual domicile we are then free to actually communicate in any
particular language and fashion we so desire."
Web Piracy Said Vulnerable
Released on the eve of this week's government hearings on Web privacy, a
new survey suggests computerists are extremely vulnerable to online spying
and other personal intrusions by Internet businesses. Business writer
David E. Kalish of The Associated Press says, "The results could help frame
one of the most fundamental debates in the evolution of the Internet as a
commercial marketplace: whether the industry can police itself or the
government must step in to protect millions of personal-computer users."
As reported earlier, the Federal Trade Commission is to begin tomorrow with
hearings in response to complaints by privacy advocates that personal
information is gathered and used by online operators without user consent
or knowledge. In advance of the hearings, the non-profit Electronic
Privacy Information Center, a consumer group participating in the talks,
released its survey, which found that of the Internet's 100 most popular
Web sites:
z About half collect personal information from users who click on their
sites or through mailing lists and other means.
z Only 17 sites even mention the privacy issue, and most of those fell
far short of what the group considered adequate disclosure -- explaining
why information is collected, how it will be used, and what steps will be
taken to limit improper use.
z Only eight gave users some control over whether the Web site could
z share the personal information with others.
z But some sites, such as CNN's online service, don't collect any
z information about Web users. This type of anonymity was touted by the
group as a main way for the Internet to retain the privacy of surfers.
z 23 of the sites enabled the creation of "cookies," which are nuggets
z of information that can be planted into a user's PC and used without
their knowledge. None of the sites told the user about this intrusion.
"The industry is urging self-policing," says David Sobel, the center's
legal counsel, "but there is no indication that Web sites today are doing
anything toward that." Marc Rotenberg, director of the privacy information
center, added, "There is a lot of anonymity ... which is the defacto way
privacy is protected. Some people who think they are surfing the Net are
actually swimming in a fish bowl. It's a little uncomfortable once you
realize that."
The group's survey was conducted by members last Thursday by examining
sites ranked as the most popular by a Web service, AP notes the industry
is proposing initiatives to convince consumers and regulators that they can
protect personal information on the World Wide Web and that legal fixes
aren't needed. Patricia Faley, a spokeswoman with the Direct Marketing
Association, an industry group involved in the hearings, told the wire
service, "We have mounted an aggressive self-regulatory campaign, we are
educating our industry as to what we think those privacy policy notice
practices should be." The group plans to show examples of "dozens of Web
sites that do have appropriate Web sites policies stated," she added.
Suits Hit Internet Record Release
Seeking to stop what it says is the illegal distribution of copyrighted
music by some independent Internet sites, the Recording Industry
Association of America has filed complaint in three federal district courts
around the country. The problem is finding out whom to sue. The Wall
Street Journal notes this morning, "The defendants are hard to pinpoint
since they haven't been tracked down yet; one in New York is listed as
'a.k.a. FWIBBLY.'"
Bringing the actions are some of the country's biggest record labels,
including Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Records; PolyGram NV's Island
Records; and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment. Officials told the
paper they seek restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in Dallas,
New York and Los Angeles against what it calls "Internet music archive"
sites. Users of the sites allegedly download and in some cases upload songs
without the permission of the copyright holders.
"The suits are directed at the sites and their operators, who RIAA said are
unknown at the time of the filing," says the Journal. "The suits were filed
in those districts where the computer server is located." While
acknowledging none of the sites are known to be charging users for music,
RIAA Vice President Frank Creighton, associate director of anti-piracy at
the trade group, said, "This is akin to stealing."
Gates Gives Systems to Library
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates has given $1 million worth of computers
and software to the Washington, D.C., library system that has been so
financially strapped that patrons have been asked to donate magazines and
books. Associated Press writer Janelle Carter reports the gift will allow
the library system to set up computer centers at all 26 District of
Columbia branches. In announcing the gift, Gates said, "When I grew up
there wasn't a resource like that," adding that even today only 6 percent
of homes with incomes of less than $25,000 have computers.
"Libraries became the solution," he said. AP says the donation is one of
the largest of a $17 million Libraries Online initiative launched by
Microsoft. The program is now in 45 library systems in the United States
and Canada. "With the help of the American Library Association, Microsoft
identified potential recipients of Gates' donations among disadvantaged
urban and rural library systems," AP reports.
TotalNews Settlement Watched
In a closely watched court action, several major media companies have
settled a federal copyright lawsuit against TotalNews Inc., forbidding the
little Internet company from displaying their Web sites with its own ads.
Under the agreement with The Washington Post Co. and the other plaintiffs,
TotalNews (http://totalnews.com) may provide links to the plaintiffs' Web
sites, but only in such a way that Internet users will be taken directly to
the plaintiffs' sites.
Previously, notes reporter Jonathan Oatis of the Reuter News Service,
TotalNews was set up so that users who clicked on a link to a plaintiff's
Web site would see the site wrapped in a "frame" containing advertising
sold by TotalNews and other TotalNews material. Media heavyweights joining
in the suit with The Post and its online subsidiary, Digital Inc., included
Time Warner Inc. units Time Inc., Cable News Network Inc. and Entertainment
Weekly Inc.; Reuters Holdings Plc unit Reuters New Media Inc.; Dow Jones &
Co. Inc., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, and newspaper
publisher Times Mirror Co.
Defendants were TotalNews Inc., based in Gilbert, Arizona, and the two
companies that own it, Grouper Technologies Inc. and Datapix Inc.,
TotalNews President Roman Godzich and TotalNews employees Norman Bashkingy
and Larry Pagni. Business director Tom Baker of The Wall Street Journal
Interactive Edition said in a statement the settlement "will help the Web
grow by encouraging linking while enforcing the principle that intellectual
property rights will be respected in cyberspace.
To keep investing millions in making Web content available for free or at
low cost, the companies who brought this suit need to know that Web users
will see our content the way we meant for it to be seen. We're pleased to
now have that assurance from TotalNews." On other side of the aisle,
Godzich told the wire service, "The TotalNews people can once again focus
their resources productively online rather than in a courtroom. We've
decided to concentrate our efforts on enhancing TotalNews to better serve
the thousands of users that support us every day."
Intuit Cuts 9 Percent of Workforce
Intuit Inc. -- whose Quicken and TurboTax dominate the markets for
personal-finance and tax-preparation software -- is cutting 270 jobs, or
some 9 percent of its workforce, and will use the savings to increase its
investments in Internet-based services. Writing for The Wall Street
Journal, reporter David Bank comments this morning, "Intuit has been
struggling lately as consumer-software sales have slowed and it has been
forced to match price-cutting by competitors."
In response, the Mountain View, California, publisher "has been moving into
online services such as Internet sites offering information and access to
brokers selling mutual funds and insurance," Bank adds. The paper quotes
Intuit President/CEO Bill Campbell as saying, "If we can lower our
break-even point and continue to improve our profitability, then when these
new businesses kick in, we'll be in very good shape." Saying the new
ventures wouldn't show a profit for at least a year, Campbell added, "We've
had enough courage to restructure our business when necessary."
Intuit will close its 300-person technical support facility in Rio Rancho,
New Mexico. The Journal says some of those employees will be offered
positions at another support center in Tucson, Arizona, where jobs will
increase by 150 to about 750. Also, the publisher will eliminate 70
positions in Europe as it centralizes operations in Munich, Germany, its
European headquarters. Another 50 positions will be eliminated in northern
California. Intuit employs about 3,000 people world-wide.
Intuit Buys 19 Percent of Excite
Software publisher Intuit Inc. has agreed to pay $40 million for a 19
percent share of Excite Inc., the Internet search site operator. Also,
says the Reuter News Service, the two are entering a seven-year agreement
to develop sites on the Internet's World Wide Web where customers can
manage their finances. "Both companies see financial services on the Web
as a potentially big source of additional revenue," says the wire service.
"Under the agreement, Intuit will buy 2.9 million shares of Excite at
$13.50 a share."
Excite CEO George Bell told the wire service, "We see the financial
services and transaction parts of the Web as key areas of growth." As
reported, Intuit, best known for Quicken, the best-selling electronic
personal finance program, is cutting 270 jobs, or some 9 percent of its
workforce, to use the savings to increase its investments in Internet-based
services. America Online Inc. also owns a 19 percent stake in Excite.
Electronic Arts Buys Maxis
For $125 million, entertainment software giant Electronic Arts is to
acquire Maxis Inc., developer of the popular game title Sim City. Look for
the deal to close by late August. Writing for the Newsbytes computer news
service, reporter Patrick McKenna says the companies agreed Maxis
shareholders will receive .3644 shares of Electronic Arts for each share of
Maxis stock. "Approximately 4.1 million shares of Electronic Arts stock,
representing approximately 7 percent of the combined company, will be
exchanged for all outstanding Maxis stock."
McKenna then added. "Regulatory and stockholder approval is required for
completion." The agreement calls for the Sim development team to remain as
Maxis employees as the company becomes a subsidiary to Electronic Arts
and, says Pat Becker of EA, "The Maxis name, location, and staff will
continue as a subsidiary and Electronic Arts will be the publisher," added
Becker. At this time, no reductions in the Maxis staff or executive order
are planned.
Microsoft Seeks 'Push' Standard
Microsoft Corp. says it will make its "push" technology compatible with
software from rival Netscape Communications Corp. in a bid to simplify
Internet standards. Officials with the Redmond, Washington, firm said the
change in its channel definition format will allow publishers to write
content in a single format that will work both with its forthcoming
Internet Explorer version 4.0 and with Netscape's Netcaster client
software, due out in about a month. A Microsoft spokeswoman told the
Reuter News Service, "Now Microsoft and Netscape don't have to compete on
the channel format standard but more importantly can focus on
implementation."
The wire service notes the Microsoft format is intended to make it easier
for developers to prepare content that can be sent directly to predefined
"channels" on its Internet browser. "Netscape has eschewed the new format,
saying developers can achieve the same effect using existing Internet
formats and scripting languages," Reuters observes. "While Microsoft has
been gaining shares in the browser market, most Internet users still use
Netscape's Navigator browser, so it was in Microsoft's interest to provide
developers a single standard that works on both browsers."
Cyrix Ships 150MHz MediaGx CPU
Cyrix Corp. says it has begun volume shipments of its 150MHz MediaGX
processor. The chip, which joins previously released 120MHz and 133MHz
versions, incorporates multimedia and system functions directly on the CPU.
The Richardson, Texas, chipmaker intends to target the processor at makers
of sub-$1,000 PCs. Initial customers include Compaq Computer Corp., which
is including the chip in its Presario 2120 computer, and BCM Advanced
Research, which utilizes the device in its FM519 motherboard and ES3300
entertainment station. The 150MHz MediaGX is priced at $99 in quantities
of 1,000. Cyrix's Web site is located at
IBM Drive Sets Storage Record
IBM Corp. has developed a record-breaking 8.4GB hard drive for
high-performance desktop PCs. The computer maker says its new Deskstar 8
unit stores four times as much information as the average desktop hard
drive. Based on IBM's magnetoresistive extended (MRX) head technology, the
3-inch device sets a new desktop drive density world record at 1.74 billion
bits per square inch.
"We're marketing this drive to the high-performance desktop PC drive
market, where business and home users demand the highest capacity disk
drives," says Kevin Reinis, director of desktop and entry server storage
products at IBM's storage systems division. Deskstar 8 is scheduled to
ship in July at a yet-to-be- announced price. More information is
available on the Web at
Symantec Offers Free Trial CD
Symantec Corp. is offering the Small Business/Home Office Trial CD, a free
sampling of the software publisher's products. The Windows product give
users a free 30-day trial of the ACT! contact manager, WinFax PRO faxing
applications, the Internet FastFind search tool and Norton AntiVirus. The
CD is available by calling the Cupertino, California, company at
800-835-6222. Trial versions of ACT!, WinFax PRO, Internet FastFind,
Norton AntiVirus and other Symantec products can also be downloaded from
the Web by visiting
Zoom Expands Operations
Modem maker Zoom Telephonics has opened European sales offices in London
and Munich. The Boston-based firm has also established a distribution
center in the Netherlands. Zoom's international reach now totals 37
nations, including new distribution channels in Argentina and Chile. Zoom
also recently established distribution in Slovenia, Thailand and
Switzerland.
In addition, the company recently signed an agreement with Ingram Micro to
increase its distribution in Asia. "Zoom has made a major commitment to
Western Europe, with localized products, local sales, warehousing,
distribution and technical support," says Ron Murphy, the Zoom's
International sales manager. "Europe is a challenging market that must be
approached country by country with country- specific products in native
languages supported with European warehousing and technical support."
Zoom's Web site is located at
Chip Makers Launch Job Campaign
U.S. chip manufacturers, facing a projected shortage of 40,000 skilled
workers in five years, have endorsed a national campaign to recruit and
train job applicants. The National Workforce Development Campaign is
spearheaded by SEMATECH and SEMI/SEMATECH, both based in Austin, Texas.
SEMATECH, a nonprofit consortium of 10 chip manufacturers, was created by
the Semiconductor Industry Association in 1986. SEMI/SEMATECH represents
chip equipment, materials, software and service suppliers.
Under the program, SEMATECH and more than 30 community colleges are forming
partnerships to develop and promote courses that lead to an associate's
degree in semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to formulating the
curriculum, SEMATECH has launched an advertising campaign, a Web site
http://www.4chipjobs.com and a telephone hotline (888-4CHIPJOBS) to
publicize job opportunities and training options. The hotline also points
potential job applicants to community colleges and technical schools that
offer semiconductor manufacturing technology courses.
"The chip industry has averaged 15 percent annual growth for decades, and
it continues to provide cutting-edge technology for new computer
applications, communications and information systems," says George Scalise,
president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. "For the people who
give us this competitive edge -- our workers -- we offer good salaries,
great benefits and opportunities to advance their careers and improve their
quality of life."
Grade 12 Students Study for Finals Using MC2
MC2 (Squared)'s Zebu - an interactive software tool developed by educators
for education VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 11 /PRNewswire/ --
Reaching the generation of kids who have grown up on Nintendo and
Interactive video games is a challenge being faced by many teachers. MC2
(Squared) is addressing the needs of these teachers with their new
educational groupware called Zebu. Zebu allows students and teachers to
publish and participate in interactive, online, educational activities.
Unlike other network based-learning tools Zebu does not require the teacher
or students to have an understanding of programming languages such as HTML,
databases or file transfers.
"My grade 12 geography class is using the previous version of Zebu as a
tool to prepare for finals. We take advantage of its groupware
characteristics to share ideas, pose questions to each other and comment on
each other's work," said Bill Wilson, Port Moody Senior Secondary Teacher.
"For instance, individual students have built an online project about
ecological crises facing the earth. Once these individual projects are
complete small groups of students will take the information found by the
entire class and use it to write an essay that incorporates all aspects of
the projects. These students are truly learning through collaboration and
are benefiting from the wealth of up-to-the-minute information available
through the World Wide Web," Bill added.
Zebu is the result of extensive research by professors and teachers at
Simon Fraser University, one of North America's leaders in online
educational technology. With it, teachers can easily integrate the World
Wide Web, sound, video, text, and discussion into a single page using the
same curriculum creation methods that they always have. Students then use
Zebu to research and respond to topics raised in the lesson plan,
articulate their understanding, and share this with other learners on the
network. Zebu is server based and will run on either the MAC or IBM
platforms and requires the client to be running Netscape. Zebu for
elementary schools retails for $695 and $995 US for secondary schools.
Netscape Adopts Java Standards
Web browser publisher Netscape Communications Corp. has adopted Sun
Microsystems Inc.'s JavaBeans component model, also agreeing to work on
enhancing an industry component effort known as CORBA. Reporting from San
Jose, Calif., the Reuter News Service quotes Netscape as saying JavaBeans
-- which can be used to snap together pre-built blocks of software code --
will be the platform-independent component model for its Netscape ONE
platform.
Reuters reports Netscape will work with Sun, IBM and database company
Oracle Corp. to find ways to bring JavaBeans closer to the CORBA component
standard. "The companies began their collaboration in March," the wire
service notes, "and last week submitted a joint position paper to the
Object Management Group, a standards body. ... More than 65 companies
announced support for JavaBeans, with more than 50 of these planning to
deliver more than 90 components for inclusion in a directory of the
pre-built software blocks to be hosted on Netscape's Internet site for
developers."
Study: Home PC Growth Slows
A new study finds that more U.S. households than ever have at least one
computer, but the rate at which additional households are buying PCs
appears to be slowing. According to research from Computer Intelligence,
approximately 41 million U.S. households -- 40 percent of all households --
are now computer-equipped. On the other hand, overall penetration rose only
2.2 percentage points in 1996, or about half the rate seen in the previous
two years. The La Jolla, California, firm's poll of 17,500 households also
found that higher-income and better-educated households are more likely to
own a PC. About 60 percent of households with more than $40,000 in income
have at least one PC, compared with 24 percent in households that have
income less than $35,000. Additionally, 52 percent of households with
children have a PC.
A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N
LEXMARK OPTRA C
COLOR
LASER PRINTER
For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to
you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color
Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business
sized envelope please) to:
STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range.
It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said
that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark
Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a
sample that's suitable for framing, see below) Guaranteed. you will be
amazed at the superb quality. (Please.. allow at least a two week turn-
around).
If you would like a sample printout that's suitable for framing. Yes
that's right! Suitable for Framing. Order this package. It'll be on
special stock and be of superb quality. We obtained a mint copy of a 1927
COLOR ENGRAVER'S YEAR BOOK. Our Scanner is doing "double duty"! The
results will absolutely blow you away. If you want this high quality
sample package please include a check or money order in the amount of $6.95
(Costs only) Please, make checks or money orders payable to; Ralph Mariano.
Be sure to include your full return address and telephone number . The
sample will be sent to you protected, not folded in a 9x12 envelope. Don't
hesitate.. you will not be disappointed. This "stuff" is gorgeous!
A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N
Shareware Treasure Chest STR Feature "The Latest & Greatest"
Shareware Treasure Chest
By Lloyd E. Pulley
lepulley@streport.com
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WinZip 32-bit 6.3 beta 3 6/10/97 .62mb Shareware $29
A great utility for zipping and unzipping files. This is an absolute must
if you want to uncompress zipped files you download from the internet or
elsewhere. It has "wizards" which will help novice users with some of the
more complicated tasks. This version lets you open and extract UUencoded,
XXencoded, BinHex, and MIME files. These files can be opened via the
File/Open dialog or via drag and drop. The new Actions->UUencode menu entry
makes it easy to encode files. The new File->Favorite Zip Folders lists all
Zip files in your favorite folders by date for easy access.
Home Page Site - http://www.winzip.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Crescendo 32-bit 3.0 beta 3 Plug-In 6/06/97 1.00mb Free
Quite simply, it is a Plug-in for Netscape Navigator browsers that lets
you listen to background music as you browse a web site. Of course, that
depends on the site actually designing background music into its pages.
Home Page Site - http://www.liveupdate.com/crescendo.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Calendar 1.2 6/05/97 169kb Freeware
A small freeware utility that let's you plan your life the way you want.
Very simple to use. Even children understand it at once!
Home Page Site - http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/aries/down.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Crumbler97 32-bit 2.0 6/06/97 1.30mb Shareware $5
Crumbler97 is a quick, easy, SAFE way to accept cookies..those annoying
little bits of info that nearly all web pages send to your hard
drive...Now, instead of leaving the Security level to WARN everytime, and
having to reject individually the sometimes DOZENS of cookies sent, you can
merely auto accept them.. and they are DELETED from your Hard Drive every
45 seconds via a Tray icon. Or, if you just entered a site that you know
lays the cookies on thick, say, Microsoft, then, no prob..just double click
the tray icon, and they are gone... Easy to use. No Mess, No Bother, No
CRUMBS!"
Home Page Site - http://www.scscorp.com/personal/scottmac/crumbler.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
EasyCD 3.0 6/05/97 572kb Shareware $10.00
An award winning audio CD player that is fully integrated with the CDDB
Internet servers and local database of well over 13,000 CD's. EasyCD2 is
small, efficient, and full featured. It even includes an integrated volume
control.
Home Page Site - http://www.ghlsoftware.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain for Win95 6/07/97 11.00mb Commercial
Demo
You're the vampire Kain, doomed to feast upon the blood of mortals.
Prepare to embrace your dark side! Slaughter 170 different enemies with
multiple weapon and armor power-ups in real time combat. Unleash an arsenal
of deadly magic: 21 eldrich objects and spells. Morph into different forms:
bat, wolf, or mist.
Home Page Site - http://www.crystald.com/kain/main.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
ZipAdvisor 1.11 6/05/97 164kb Shareware $12.00
Will scan directories and report on the total size of zipped and unzipped
files. Great for finding bloated directories! Will scan all subdirectories,
sort by any column, and report on how long ago files were accessed as well.
Quick & easy.
Home Page Site - http://www.scvs.com/utils/zipadvis.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
EditPad 32-bit 3.1.1 6/11/97 .24mb Freeware
EditPad is a replacement for the standard Windows NotePad. EditPad
requires Windows 95 or later to run. No additional DLLs or whatever are
required. It has a few very interesting features:
z EditPad can open as much files at a time as you want.
z You change between the open files by clicking on their tabs. No hassle
with heaps of overlapping windows.
z If you run EditPad again when their is already an instance running,
the file(s) you wish to edit will be opened by the existing EditPad window.
This means there will be at most one EditPad window open, which will save
you from a lot of task switching. Of course, if you do need more instances,
simply pick View|New editor from the menu.
z Block functions: save parts of your text to disk and insert a file in
the current text
z Reopen menu that lists the last 16 files opened and more.
Home Page Site - http://www.tornado.be/~johnfg/jgsoft.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Bookmark Importer for 32-bit Command Line 1.0 6/06/97 71kb Demo $30.00
A utility allowing a user to exchange bookmarks between their favorite
browsers. This new version of Bookmark Importer is ideally suited to users
who do not need the extra graphical user interface and are looking for a
compact utility. Automatic conversion of bookmarks can be done using a
windows or DOS based scheduler. Supported Browsers include Internet
Explorer 2.0-4.0, Internet Explorer (16-Bit), Netscape Navigator 1.0-3.0,
Mosaic 2.x or greater. In addition links from HTML files can be added to
your bookmarks.
Home Page Site - http://www.webobj.com/bookmark/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
NetStock 16-bit 1.24 6/06/97 .07mb Freeware
NetStock is a simple little stock and mutual fund internet quote
retrieval program with export functionality for Quicken users.
Home Page Site - http://www.jaxnet.com/~henrik/pages/splitcycle.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Pardon Demo 1.0 6/07/97 334kb Shareware
Simple, yet challenging boardgame in the classic mold of backgammon,
checkers and GO. You can pit yourself against another human or against the
game's excellent A.I.
Home Page Site - http://www.weir.net/~dgreen/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Complete Cleanup 1.01 6/06/97 285kb Shareware $29.95
Internet privacy software. As you browse the web, websites store
internet cookies and web history files on YOUR computer, which can allow
these websites to track where you have been browsing on the web. This can
lead to many privacy issues including mailing lists. This program will work
for both Netscape and Internet Explorer users (AOL browser included), and
will display the total bytes wasted for each different file type, including
history files, cache files, and cookie information. It then allows you to
cleanup any of the files you choose. (cleanup portion is only allowed with
purchased version).
Home Page Site - http://members.aol.com/softdd/complete/index.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Internet Email Forward 1.00.02 6/08/97 820kb Shareware $24.95
The newest premiere tool in bringing your Email to a whole new age. Real
Time! Want to receive your Email on your pager or digital phone? Want to
have your Email forwarded to a different Email account? Then Internet Email
Forward is the solution for you! Internet Email Forward has the ability to
run unattended checking your email account either via dial-up or direct
connect to the internet on a timed interval, and forward your email to the
location of your choice. Internet Email Forward is a 32 bit multi threaded
application for Windows 95TM and Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 TM or greater.
Internet Email Forward also has an option to let you filter only those
important emails you want you want to be forwarded.
Home Page Site - http://www.ij.net/developnet/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Xpress for ShockWave 32-bit 1.0 plug-in 6/06/97 1.40mb Freeware
Requires
ShockWave already installed
Xpress for Shockwave is a free cross-platform plug-in that allows you to
hear the spoken text of "Xpressed" sites. It adds text-to-speech
capabilities to all browsers that have Macromedia Shockwave installed.
Xpressed sites provide interactive speech within the same quick download as
your HTML text, so you have real-time feedback even when bandwidth is very
limited.
Home Page Site - http://www.xpressed.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Yeah Write 1.1 6/06/97 997kb Shareware $15.00
Yeah Write for Windows is a new word processor from 5 ex-WordPerfect
employees. The program is small (download size is less than 1 MB including
a speller) and very fast. By using tabs to represent different types of
documents and a fill-in-the-blanks approach, Yeah Write is very easy to
use.
Home Page Site - http://www.wordplace.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
AOL Instant Messenger 32-bit 1.0 beta 4 6/07/97 2.20mb Free
AOL Instant Messenger is for anyone who wants to communicate "instantly"
with friends, family and business colleagues, on the Internet and AOL,
anywhere in the world. AOL Instant Messenger combines AOL's popular Buddy
List and Instant Message features. The Instant Message feature lets users
send and respond to messages immediately while the Buddy List feature lets
users know instantly when friends are online. Previously only available to
its 8 million members, AOL is now delivering these features to Internet
users worldwide.
Home Page Site - http://www.aol.com/buddylist/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Movie Organizer 2.0 6/05/97 2,280kb Shareware $33.00
A powerful and flexible program that will help you organize your movie
collection (video tapes, CDs, cassettes). Using a notebook-like interface
(complete with alphabetical tabs), the program stores all the information
you might need to track: movie title, star, director, producer, category,
value, status, condition,...., a detailed description, plus any additional
comments, optionally you can include a graphical image. Features: Unlimited
Number of Records; Graphical Data Field for scanned-in images; Flexible
Sorting; Powerful Reports; Printing Labels; Print Preview; Flexible
Filters; Custom Fields; Customizable Display, and more.
Home Page Site - http://www.primasoft.com/mvo.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
RAS+ 95 beta 4 (Build 139) 6/07/97 1.00mb Shareware $29.95
RAS+ 95 will dial multiple lines for you.. Track time for you.. show real
time billing, will adjust for your monthly free connect time too! It Gives
you information about your connection such as IP address.
Home Page Site - http://www.lambsoftware.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
PowWow 32-bit 3.2 alpha 2 6/07/97 3.00mb Free
PowWow is an unique Internet program for Windows that allows up to nine
(9) people to chat, transfer files, and cruise the World-Wide Web together
as a group. PowWow also has Conferencing (Chat Rooms), Text-to-Speech
features and Email Answering Machine capabilities. NEW! PowWow now has
Online Games, Bulletin Board Messaging for conferences and lots more!
Home Page Site - http://www.tribal.com/powwow/download/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Contact-Lens! 2.14.1 6/05/97 3,570kb Shareware $49.95
Built in financial, chronological, & scientific calculators, year at a
glance display (any year), unlimited user-defined scheduled pop-up alarms,
pop-up calendars, phone dialer, query by example, quick searching by typing
a few keys, numerous configuration settings, resizable grids with
rearrangeable columns, Import/Export capabilities, full-blown report writer
(with wizards for new users), on-line help.
Home Page Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kruse_control/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
CRT 32-bit 2.0 6/07/97 .97mb Shareware $30
CRT is a 32-bit terminal emulator designed for Internet and intranet use
with support for both the telnet and rlogin protocols. CRT is ideal for
connecting to remote systems running UNIX and VMS as well as the many BBS's
and databases that are now available via the Internet. CRT delivers quality
VT100, VT102, VT220 and ANSI terminal emulations. All of CRT's emulations
support ANSI color. CRT is packed with features. Some of the more popular
features include named sessions, auto login, printing, zmodem file
transfer, emacs mode, and SOCKS firewall support.
Home Page Site - http://www.vandyke.com/products/index.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
BS/1 Small Business 1.0 6/06/97 3.0mb Freeware
A fully integrated, network-ready, accounting system. Accounts Payable,
Accounts Receivable and General Ledger. Simple enough for a home business,
yet powerful enough for a medium-sized corporation. Prints invoices,
cheques and user-defined financial statements. And yes... it's Year 2000
compliant.
Home Page Site - http://www.dbsonline.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Pagoo 32-bit preview release 2 6/08/97 .33mb Free
Pagoo is a new revolutionary way to communicate between you and your
friends. Pagoo is a FREE unique service that delivers phone calls to user's
desktop while they are on-line. Is it always impossible for your friends to
contact you because your phone line is always busy? You are browsing the
web too much! Now, they can call the pagoo center (1-805-685-9056) using
any phone and leave a message that you will receive directly on your
desktop a few seconds later. They can leave you a voice mail or a numeric
message just like a pager.
Home Page Site - http://www.pagoo.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
StripWav 2.0 6/06/97 1,179kb Shareware $25.00
Strips extra information out of WAVE files. Useful for converting WAVE
files created by newer programs to a "canonical" WAVE format readable by
older or simpler programs. Works easily with lots of files and quickly with
large ones. A must for producing audio CDs with many popular CD writers.
Home Page Site - http://www.lightlink.com/tjweber/StripWav/StripWav.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
ZapTV 32-bit 1.1 plug-in 6/08/97 1.20mb Free
Based on proprietary 3D plug-in technology, ZapTV combines the
compelling content of traditional media with the immersive experience of
the net. Here's what puts the Zap in ZapTV:
* Fully interactive
* Switch between multiple camera angles
* Dollying Cameras
* Clicking inside the scenes provides additional fun and connects to URL
links Once the ZapTV
plug-in is downloaded to your PC, you can enjoy endless programming
with no additional
download and no delay.
Home Page Site - http://www.zapadigital.com/html/products.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Netscape Netcaster 32-bit 1.0 beta 2 6/09/97 .47mb Free
Netscape Netcaster, the newest component of Netscape Communicator,
enables push delivery of information and offline browsing. Netcaster
seamlessly integrates with Channel Finder, the source for the best channels
on the Internet. Users can subscribe to the information they want and have
it delivered automatically. Offline browsing allows users to take the
valuable resources of the Web offline with them - wherever they go.
Developed entirely using the open Internet standards of HTML, Java, and
JavaScript, Netscape Netcaster is an example of the powerful applications
that can be built on the Netscape ONE platform.
Netscape Communicator 32-bit 4.0 6/09/97 13.00mb Free
The newest version of Netscape navigator. It features: Enhanced visual
appearance and user interface, Taskbar that enables easy access to
Communicator components, HTML Editing, Collabra Conferencing and a lot
more.
Home Page Site - http://www.netscape.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Community Place 32-bit 2.0 Preview Release 1b plug-in
6/09/97 4.30mb Freeware
Community Place is a browser/plug-in for VRML 2.0, the modeling interface
that allows you to move around in a Digital World where sounds and images
deliver a sense of live presence. Forget about the hypertext and Search
Engines used for net surfing. Try walking wherever you please. You can even
fly around if you like. If you see something interesting, just point and
click. Chances are there's an exciting encounter awaiting you in the
Virtual Society. If you hear some interesting sounds, just move in that
direction. You're sure to find something worth exploring.
Home Page Site - http://vs.spiw.com/vs/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WinAmp 1.0 6/07/97 190kb Freeware
A realtime MPEG audio playback decoder that Tomislav Uzelac originally
started putting together as a side project of the MPEG hardware design
project at FER/Zagreb. It works with both MPEG1 and MPEG2 and MPEG3 audio
streams.
Home Page Site - http://winamp.lh.net/main.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
IPSentry 32-bit 2.3 6/10/97 4.70mb Shareware $129
PSentry is a Windows NT / 95 utility that will continuously monitor all
your internet and intranet TCP/IP services 24 hours a day, ensuring your
email servers, web sites, ftp servers, news servers, and any other TCP/IP
based services are active and responding. In the event of failure, IPSentry
will notify you (according to the defined schedule) via any or all of
several different methods; PAGER, EMAIL via SMTP, AUDIBLE via .WAV or PC
speaker, Launch external command. Utilize alert frequency scheduling,
machine downtime scheduling and many more feature.
Home Page Site - http://www.crackthecode.com/IPSentry/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
WarBirds 1.11r2 6/10/97 12.8mb Freeware
WarBirds is the most sophisticated MEGA-player(150+ people in the same
virtul world) WWII combat flight simulator available in the world. Using
actual declassified WWII flight test data, WarBirds uses true six degree of
freedom force-based flight modeling resulting in an ultra-realistic "feel"
of the aircraft. The ability to fly aerial combat against other players
from all over the world provides for truly interesting and unique
possibilities.
Home Page Site - http://www.icigames.com/warbirds/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
IPage 32-bit preview release 3 6/10/97 2.40mb Free
With ipage a quick glance of your list of "friends and associates" will
let you know who is online at that moment. Contact any number of friends
and associates and bring them all to a private chat room for group
discussions or just to catch-up. Send links to any Real Media file to
friends and associates and ipage will instantly launch the Real Player.
Home Page Site - http://www.ichat.com/pager/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
First Stop 1.0 6/10/97 2.0mb Shareware
Will allow you to by-pass your Browsers Start Page before logging on to
The Internet. This saves the time of going to the start page and taking you
directly to your "First Stop" You can add to the favorites list This is a
handy Internet Utility written in Visual Basic For Windows.
Home Page Site - http://www.bright.net/~stevensp/first.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Lily Pad 1.0 Beta 2 6/08/97 133kb Shareware $1.00
A fully functional replacement for the standard Windows 95 notepad. Its
features include: an Office 97-style toolbar; a recently used file menu;
the ability to change font size, type, and color; the ability to change the
background color; automatic word wrap, unlimited file size, filtering in
the open dialog to allow users easily to look for files that are text
files, HTML files, MS-DOS batch files, LOG files, and more.
Home Page Site - http://user.icx.net/~reuscher/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
MyStars! 2.4.1 6/10/97 732kb Shareware $15.00
A scientifically rigourous yet simple and fun educational program that
helps you visualize the positions of the stars, planets, comets and deep-
sky objects from any place on earth, any date/time. And the animations are
amazing. A great planetarium program for the very beginner star-gazer as
well as for educators. Registration includes two years of free upgrades!
Home Page Site - http://www.relativedata.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Peron 1.0 6/09/97 1,160kb Shareware $15.00
A real mind twister. This game will rock your mouse. Simple and addictive
like Tetris Peron features superb graphics, atmospheric music, and state of
the art sound effects.
Home Page Site - http://www.sri.de/freelance/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Sinhala WORD 97 Word Processor 2.2 6/29/97 272kb Demo
Word Processor With Lots of New Features.. Phonetic, Wijeysekara and
Apple Keyboard Support, Import from Apple Machintosh text, Shreelip Tamil,
Save as RTF, Save to HTML, The No 1 Word Processor for all your needs with
free Sinhala & Tamil Fonts - Very Well Made in Sri Lanka for the Sinhala
users of the world.
[Editor's note: I don't know if any of my readers needs a Sinhala word
processor or not, but I found this site to be one of the most colorful and
interesting - without being too busy - of any that I visited this week.]
Home Page Site - http://www.lankaweb.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Schedule Wizard97 32-bit 1.4 6/11/97 .76mb Shareware $25
Schedule Wizard allows you to schedule programs to run, schedule messages
to pop-up, keep a list of dated reminders or appointments, and keep a to do
list. Scheduling can be done with many variations including advanced
warnings and alarms, and most importantly, it can be done with ease!
Home Page Site - http://www.net1fx.com/ScheduleWizard/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Internet Logon 2.0 6/10/97 1,398kb Shareware $10.00
Application enabling multiple mailboxes for use with Microsoft Internet
Mail & News. Also allows a single icon on the desktop to access Internet
Explorer, Mail & News. Uninstall facility included as is Readme.doc with
all relevant information required.
Home Page Site - http://www.btinternet.com/~a.browne/Home.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
VXtreme Web Theater 32-bit 2.1 plug-in 6/11/97 1.70mb Freeware
Web Theater Client is a plug-in to the Netscape Navigator 2.0+ or
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Web browser. It enables end users to view
web pages that contain real time streaming video synchronized with text,
graphics, or Java applets. The Client includes VCR-like controls that allow
viewers to fast forward, stop, pause, skip, or jump backwards in the video.
Home Page Site - http://www.vxtreme.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Kids Web 1.0 6/10/97 833kb Freeware
A small web browser which is configured entirely with children in mind.
Kids Web provides basic features such as a start page which is separate
from your main browser, and a nice interface which should keep your kids
playing for hours. Kids Web loads to full screen, so your children can't
accidentally load something they shouldn't from the start menu. A must for
parents and children alike! NOTE: Kids Web is created using the TWebBrowser
component, and therefore you MUST have Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x
installed on your system.
Home Page Site - http://www.cripton.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Star Trek Information Database 0.9 Beta 6/10/97 87kb Freeware
Lists information about Star Trek episodes of all its incarnations.
Home Page Site -
http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/~panda/kinu/sbase39/sbase39.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
TickerPage 1.8.3 6/09/97 3,145K Shareware $20.00
Get scheduled stock quotes sent to your alphanumeric pager. Requires
either CompuServe or E*Trade account. Indicates high/low alarm limits,
current news, and price of stocks and options. Schedule paging at any time
interval. E*Trade brokerage users can also get EMail/Trade confirmations
sent to the pager.
Home Page Site - http://www.qni.com/~breeze/tickerpage.html
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
DiscPlay 32-bit 4.0.2 6/12/97 1.00mb Shareware $15
An audio CD player with some nice features such as: DiscPlay can search
your entire CD collection for tracks or albums; by title, artist, category,
owner, or user-defined information, DiscPlay offers five different window
sizes, and allows you to specify exactly what information will be displayed
in the window and on the title bar, and Editing playlists and disc
properties is as easy as dragging a track (or a file) onto a list.
Home Page Site - http://www.obvion.com/discplay/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
UltraEdit 32-bit 4.31a 6/12/97 .89mb Shareware $30
A really good text editor with almost every feature you could want. Some
of it's many features include: Disk based text editing - No limit on file
size, minimum RAM used even for multi-megabyte files, Column mode
editing!!!, Insert columns/ delete/ cut/ add sequential numbers, 100,000
word spell checker, Syntax highlighting - configurable, pre-configured for
C/C++ and VB and some HTML, Hexadecimal Editor - Allows editing of any
binary file, HEX Cut, Copy and Paste support , HEX Insert and Delete of
characters, HEX Find, Replace and Replace All, Multiple files open and
displayed at the same time, and more.
Home Page Site - http://www.idmcomp.com/
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Buzz 3d 32-bit 1.0 beta 6/12/97 1.00mb Freeware
Requires a fast computer with
a 3d accelerator card
Buzz will turn your computer into a 3d world where you can travel in.
Your hard drive becomes a virtual building and your files and folders
become "rooms". To access your files you just walk over to the room your
interested in. Very easy to use so even novice computer users will feel
right at home. The whole thing is very similar in appearance to the current
crop of 3D shooters like Quake except your accessing your files and not
shooting demons ;)
Home Page Site - http://www.vrmarketing.com/vrm_buzz_3d-pc0.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Mini Notetab 32-bit 2.6 6/12/97 .41mb Freeware
Mini Notepad is not just another Windows Notepad replacement! It is a
feature-rich program with a selection of original productivity tools that
you will find in no other editor. Mini Notepad has been designed to use a
minimum amount of Windows system resources so you can safely keep the
editor open all the time. The program is capable of opening a very large
number of files (the actual limit is determined by the amount of free
system resources). Each document is displayed on a tabbed page making it
easy to switch between them. A separate window, called the Document
Selector, makes it easy to find a specific document when a large number of
them are open.
Home Page Site -
http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/mininote.htm
Name/Version Release Date Size Price
Solway's Freeware Internet Search 1.5 6/10/97 73kb Freeware
A small and fast FREEWARE program enabling you to search up to FOUR
search engines simultaneously and display the results on one screen
(provided that your web browser can handle frames). Remembers your last
thirty search strings. Short-cut feature to get to a start html page.
Home Page Site - http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/sware.html
EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed
Edupage
Contents
Western Senators Oppose Next-Generation Internet Funding
High-Tech Group Resists Java Standard
Supercomputing On A Shoestring
Online Degrees Sometimes Cost More
German Court To Try Woman For Guerrilla Hyperlinks
Women In Technology
Excel Buys Telco And Becomes 6th-Largest Telecom Company
Court Order Sent By Internet In Australia
Carpooling And Cross-Pollination In Silicon Valley
Virtual Too-Much-Reality
Microsoft Joins Rivals To Endorse
Privacy StandardMurdoch Buys Robertson's Cable Network ...
... And Sells His Direct Broadcast Satellite Business
Recording Industry Fights Theft-By-Net
AOL Game Enthusiasts Will Need To Pay To Play
Intuit Buys Stake In Excite
Multimedia Development In Canada
Tech Budgets Up In '97
Cable-Computer Alliance
IBM Shops Till It Drops
IBM Wants To Play Games With You
WESTERN SENATORS OPPOSE
NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET FUNDING
Senators from Montana, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have voiced their
opposition to government plans to distribute $100 million over the next
three years to fund research leading to the construction of computer
networks capable of transmitting data 100-1,000 times faster than today's
Internet. The senators' objections stem from their perception that not
enough of the funds would flow to their states. Sen. Ron Wyden (R-Ore.)
says the Next-Generation Internet program represents "yet another widening
of the gap between the technological haves and have-nots," and warns
there's a very real chance the NGI program will not be funded. (BNA Daily
Report for Executives 4 Jun 97)
HIGH-TECH GROUP RESISTS JAVA STANDARD
A group of U.S. high-tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Apple
Computer and IBM, has voted against making Sun Microsystems' Java
programming language an official technical standard. The companies raised
questions about how Sun plans to control the Java trademark and manage the
future evolution of the technology. Sun has applied for official
recognition by the International Standards Organization and the
International Electrotechnical Commission, a process that requires a vote
in 30 member countries. (Wall Street Journal 6 Jun 97)
SUPERCOMPUTING ON A SHOESTRING
One of the fastest computers in the world today wasn't made by Cray or
Intel or any of the other mainstream supercomputer manufacturers -- the
Gravity Pipeline, or GRAPE for short, was constructed by an astrophysicist
and his students at the University of Tokyo who wanted to study the
phenomenon of globular clusters of stars and didn't have the computing
power on hand to do it. GRAPE IV was the first computer to perform a
trillion operations per second and the effort succeeded in proving the
astrophysicist's theory that the cores of the clusters oscillate. GRAPE's
creators predict the next-generation GRAPE machine will hit petaflop speed
within the next five years and hope to build it as an international
project. Because GRAPE was built on a very limited budget with a limited
purpose in mind, its creators say similar machines could be constructed to
handle specific problems, circumventing the need to spend millions of
dollars on an all-purpose supercomputer. (Discover Jun 97)
ONLINE DEGREES SOMETIMES COST MORE
While distance learning is often touted as a more cost-efficient way of
delivering educational opportunities to students unable or unwilling to
attend conventional, on-campus lectures, some schools are charging more for
their online degrees than for those acquired in the bricks-and-mortar
environment of the campus setting. Duke University's Fuqua School of
Business charges $82,500 for its Global Executive online MBA program, which
attracts many students from outside the U.S., while students earning an MBA
in the more conventional way pay only $50,000. At the University of
Maine, cyberlearners are charged an extra $5 per credit hour. (Forbes 16
Jun 97)
GERMAN COURT TO TRY WOMAN FOR GUERRILLA HYPERLINKS
A court in Berlin will hear the case of a woman accused of providing a
hyperlink on her Web site to provide visitors access to the banned left-
wing publication Radikal, a publication which offers instructions on how to
sabotage railway lines. (New York Times 6 Jun 97 & 7 Jun 97)
WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY
At a conference on Women in Technology, consultant Bonita Lynn Banducci
characterized the situation of women in high-tech positions by saying:
"Men feel danger from us. They're walking on eggshells around us. They
don't want to draw us aside and read us the riot act for something we've
done wrong and they don't want to appear too close to us for fear of
misinterpretation." And conference participant Dorothy Nuess said: "We
still have to define our value in masculine terms. A lot of men have felt
that by letting women into the club, by letting them into positions of
power, it'll be a loss for them. It's not perceived as a win/win situation
by very many men." (San Jose Mercury News 6 Jun 97)
EXCEL BUYS TELCO AND BECOMES
6TH-LARGEST TELECOM COMPANY
Excel Communications, based in Dallas, is paying $1 billion to buy Telco
Communications, making the combined company the sixth-largest
telecommunications company in the U.S. The new top ten, ranked in terms
of millions of dollars of long-distance revenue, are: (1) AT&T, $39,264;
(2) MCI, $16,372; (3) Sprint, $7,944; (4) Worldcom, $4,485, including
some non-long-distance revenue; (5) Frontier, $1,563; (6) Excel,
$1.520; (7) LCI International, $1,103; (8) Cable & Wireless, $919; (9)
Vartec Telecom, $470; (10) Cherry Communications, $354. (New York Times
7 Jun 97)
COURT ORDER SENT BY INTERNET IN AUSTRALIA
An Australian court granted lawyers for a Queensland company to issue a
court order by e-mail to a U.S.-based company it claims defamed it on the
Internet by anonymous posting and distribution of defamatory material to
various people and to the media. An attorney for the plaintiff said: "We
have had difficulty in physically serving the defendant with the court
order and so the court has permitted us to serve him through the Internet
as a substituted service. It's interesting that the court has recognized
the Internet as a valid form of communications." (Government Technology
Jun 97)
CARPOOLING AND CROSS-POLLINATION IN SILICON VALLEY
Commenting on the ceaseless job-hopping by programmers and software
designers in Silicon Valley, UC- Berkeley professor AnnaLee Saxenian says:
"People joke that you can change jobs without changing car pools. It's
better to think about Silicon Valley as a region, rather than as
independent firms. Some people say they wake up thinking they work for
Silicon Valley. Their loyalty is more to advancing technology or to the
region than it is to any individual firm." And Netscape employee Atri
Chatterjee says: "I think about Silicon Valley as a large company with
lots of different divisions. In the old days, if you worked for IBM, you
could move from one division to another. Here we've got lots of corporate
entities, but from a technology perspective, you can think of it as
different divisions. A lot of cross-pollination goes on." (Washington
Post 8 Jun 97)
VIRTUAL TOO-MUCH-REALITY
A videogame aficionado interviewed for J.C. Herz's book "Joystick Nation"
complains: "Nowadays, there's no imagination required, the realism is so
advanced." (New Yorker 9 Jun 97)
MICROSOFT JOINS RIVALS TO ENDORSE PRIVACY STANDARD
With a Microsoft executive saying "This is unprecedented, but we realized
that we need to work together for the common good," Microsoft has decided
not to propose its own Internet software privacy standards, but instead to
endorse the standard proposed by its rival Netscape and Firefly Network
Inc., and supported by a hundred hardware and software companies both
large and small. The standard will be part of a broader effort led by the
nonprofit organization World Wide Web Consortium, called the platform for
privacy preferences. Using that platform, Web surfers could control what
personal information was obtained about them during their travels on the
Internet. (New York Times 12 Jun 97)
MURDOCH BUYS ROBERTSON'S CABLE NETWORK ...
Rupert Murdoch's communications empire is buying Christian broadcaster Pat
Robertson's Family Channel for $1.9 billion, making Murdoch a direct
competitor with the Disney Channel and Viacom's Nickelodeon network, both
of which emphasize programming for children and families. Robertson
explained that the sale was inevitable in this era of mergers in the
communications industry: "We felt it was time for the Family Channel to
join the consolidation that was going on in the industry." (New York Times
12 Jun 97)
.... AND SELLS HIS DIRECT BROADCAST SATELLITE BUSINESS
A fulfilling day at the office for Rupert Murdoch includes both buying and
selling -- so to balance his purchase of a cable operation, Murdoch has
sold his interest in AskyB to PrimeStar, a limited partnership of cable
operators that includes Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), U S West, and Cox
Communications, for a nonvoting 30% stake in PrimeStar valued at $1.1
billion. (Financial Times 12 Jun 97)
RECORDING INDUSTRY FIGHTS THEFT-BY-NET
The Recording Industry Association of America says that a group of record
companies has filed lawsuits against "Internet music archive" sites that
allow computer users to illegally download or upload copyrighted music. The
defendants have not yet been identified. An executive of the Association
says that, regardless of whether the archive sites charge or don't charge,
the unauthorized appropriation of copyrighted material "is akin to
stealing." (Wall Street Journal 11 Jun 97)
AOL GAME ENTHUSIASTS WILL NEED TO PAY TO PLAY
Six months after America Online Inc. switched to a $19.95 per month flat-
rate pricing plan, the nation's largest Internet service and online
content provider plans to start billing subscribers extra, hourly charges
for access to the company's online multiplayer games. Industry analysts
say that the company will be looking at this special pricing for "premium"
services to determine whether subscribers are willing to pay extra for
access to other content, such as financial services, news, etc. (San Jose
Mercury News 11 Jun 97)
INTUIT BUYS STAKE IN EXCITE
Intuit, the developer of finance-oriented software for personal computers
(Quicken) and for computer network transactions (Quicken Financial
Network) is paying $40 million for a 19% stake in Excite Inc., an Internet
search company. The two companies will develop an online channel which
will allow computer users to conduct a full range of financial activities
on the Internet, including life insurance and mutual funds. An Excite
executive says: "It will focus on every piece of someone's financial
life." (Wall Street Journal 12 Jun 97)
MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA
Bell Canada announced it will set up a $12-million fund to stimulate growth
in multimedia production. The money will be distributed through an
independent board and will be available to producers and entertainment
production companies in Ontario and Quebec. (Montreal Gazette 11 June 97)
TECH BUDGETS UP IN '97
A recent poll of 500 information systems executives indicates that in the
majority of cases, there's more money for technology expenditures this
year than last. Computer Economics found that only 27% reported budget
cuts, while 16% saw no change. The biggest budget item was hardware, with
spending on networks especially strong. (Investor's Business Daily 11 Jun
97)
CABLE-COMPUTER ALLIANCE
Rogers Communications and Microsoft will jointly develop a low-cost
standardized device that will deliver television programming and Internet
services to the home, with Microsoft contributing the technology and
Rogers contributing its cable subscribers. A standard technology will
allow program developers to concentrate on content rather than delivery.
(Toronto Globe & Mail 12 June 97)
IBM SHOPS TILL IT DROPS
IBM will close its "World Avenue" shopping mall web site next month due to
lack of interest from consumers. Mary Cronin, an author who specializes
in Internet business activity, says: "World Avenue did not deserve to
live. The site offered little that was novel or particularly attractive to
consumers. The concept of the online shopping malls is dead in the
water." The new general trend in Internet retailing is toward standalone
sites targeted at specific market segments. (Financial Times 11 Jun 97)
IBM WANTS TO PLAY GAMES WITH YOU
Out of shopping, into games. IBM is teaming up with techno-thriller author
Tom Clancy to form a company called Red Storm Entertainment Inc. in order
to create and market computer games that can be played on the Internet.
The first game, "Tom Clancy's Politika," will be available this fall. (Wall
Street Journal 12 Jun 97)
Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
(douglas@educom.edu).
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A serious new security flaw affecting Netscape Communications Corp.'s
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>From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Well, I've been wishing for the warm weather to finally get here -
but, did we have to skip right past Spring?!?! Yikes, a genuine heat wave
(3 days of 90+ temperatures) have hit New England this week. Fortunately,
the humidity wasn't nearly as high!
But, the heat's a good thing as that means summer vacations are right
around the corner. As you'll see below, Michael Burkley is getting ready
to "head out" for his annual summer pilgrimage to New England shortly. I'm
also nearing my first vacation of the year in another week or so. Time for
some golf, a few cold beers, and more house-hunting. Maybe I'll catch up
with Michael sometime, as well. Last time that I saw him was at the last
Connecticut AtariFest in 1993! Wow, was it _that_ long ago??
Well, let's get to the "good stuff" for this week! Atari computing
news this week is limited to Michael's info-packed column this week
(perfect timing again, Michael!).
Until next time...
The Unabashed Atariophile
by Michael R. Burkley
June 10, 1997
I'm going away on vacation soon! The first week really won't be much of a
vacation as I am going to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church,
USA in Syracuse, New York. The General Assembly is the once-a-year
gathering of representatives of the churches of our denomination. I'm not
a delegate this year, but Syracuse is only three hours away (closer than
I've ever been to a General Assembly) and so I'm going to visit and sit in
on the meetings. There will be 2000+ people there talking and planning
about all sorts of things. And since I'm not a delegate I can take a nap
whenever things get a bit too boring!
The next two weeks I'll be going to New Hampshire and Maine. My son and I
are going on a three day ocean kayaking/hiking/mountaineering Outward bound
trip for pastors and their children. We'll spend the time having fun with
each other and talking about the joys and problems growing up being a "PK"
(Preacher's Kid). I'm really looking forward to that, and he is, too. The
rest of the time our family is just going to be lounging around (and in)
Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Ah...the life!
Lucky for you I have about 120 meg of compressed files already described
for you. There is far too much for this issue so I'm going to break the
descriptions up to cover several issues. That means that for awhile you
will be getting an Unabashed Atariophile article every issue of STR!
Astounding! I hope you'll find the descriptions helpful.
Today I would like to tell you about one of the most comprehensive
collections of Atari knowledge on the planet (off planet, too, but...).
I'm talking about Genie, the online service. Genie is full of
conversations about Atari hardware and software. If you have a problem
with something there is probably a forum there that can help. It's easy to
get lost in all the plethora of information, but it really is organized
(once you get to know the system). You might have noticed that I have
rarely mentioned Genie over the past three years or so in my Unabashed
Atariophile columns. That's because of a misunderstanding (I hope) between
me and some people at Genie (then GEnie). I was told that the staff at
GEnie was investigating the legality of my downloading files from GEnie
(because of my connection with Suzy B's Software). Frankly, that scared me
enough that I dropped any mention of software downloaded from GEnie in my
columns. I tried several times to see what the outcome of that
"investigation" was, but never received any replies. So...a choice is
before me. Do I just keep ignoring an excellent service or do I let people
know about all of the files and services available there? Well, now you
know my answer to that. I hope and expect that that issue has died and
been buried. Let's not find out!
Here are some excellent files from Genie that I've accumulated over the
years...
Animation related...
ANIMATE1 is a tutorial by Bob deWitt for the InShape animation program.
It takes you through the basic first steps of using InShape to animate
your objects. This is part one of a multi-part series that focusses on
getting your InShape objects animation ready and also gives you some
information on the Object Selector of InShape. This tutorial comes in
both ASCII and Calamus format.
BEANIM is an .FLC animation of a model of a woman jumping up and down
with a sideways motion. The woman is nude, but the model is not all
that detailed, and there is nothing erotic about it.
BODYGIRL is an .FLC animation of a scantily clad young woman walking
(apparently) in place. While I would have prefered a bit more
clothing the animation is very nice, so I'm including it here.
CAROUSEL is an .FLI animation (16 frames) what shows a carousel
(Merry-Go-Round) moving merrily along. The animation is skillfully
done so that you don't see any jumps and it loops.
DEMO0102 is an archive that contains 2 pictures, 2 text files & 2
object files taken from the author's (Rob Wood) Dream 01a and Dream
02a animations (both sound and pictures created through VideoMaster).
Those animation files are so large (3.5 and 3.3 meg each,
respectively), that he wanted to show something of the animations for
those of you who can't take the time to download the whole animation.
He's included a Spectrum .SPC picture file of the picture sources for
the animation and lots of other stuff (not included in the full
animations and especially for you tech minded people) as well. Docs
included.
DOOMMORF is an .FLI animation that "morphs" or gradually changes from
the appearance of one "DOOM" character into another. It begins with
the former marine and continues through the other characters (about
160 frames worth). Included in this animation are the Cyber Demon and
the Spider Mastermind, but those aren't in the Jaguar version. Also
included in this archive is an MS-DOS programn to display .FLI
animations, but that won't be of any use to you!
DREAM01A is a huge animation created by Rob Wood using VideoMaster.
It is a surealistic animation composed of over 300 frames of video
running from 7 fps down to 3 fps (mostly color, but some tinted
grayscale) and a 1.1 Meg soundtrack. The animation lasts about 67
seconds. This is a very interesting and weird animation with ocean
and human scenes. Any color ST-Falcon with at least 3.6 meg of RAM
free should be able to run this animation (the player and docs are
included). Check out DREAM02A for a companion animation. DEMO0102
is a much smaller archive which will give you a taste as to what to
expect here.
DREAM02A is a huge animation created by Rob Wood using VideoMaster.
It is a surealistic animation composed of over 300 frames of 3D/
Fractal scenes (which took "Forever!" to render) and which were
transfered to VideoMaster and edited to the score written for it (an
800K+ soundtrack). The animation lasts about 45 seconds. This is a
very interesting and weird animation with mountain and human scenes.
Any color ST-Falcon with at least 3.4 meg of RAM free should be able
to run this animation (the player and docs are included). Check out
DREAM01A for a companion animation. DEMO0102 is a much smaller
archive which will give you a taste as to what to expect here.
Font Related files...
AGATECFN is a Calamus font similar to DMC's Americana font. This font
is a normal and Italic reworking by John L. Battey of the AGATE and
AGATE_IT fonts in the FONTWORK category. The individual characters
have been simplified to reduce the number of control points, to more
properly set the M square, and to improve kerning. The character set
is extended to the full chart shown in the Calamus Types Catalog
(Tastatur on page 27) with a few changes & extras.
BASKVILL is the 14 pt. Baskerville screen font for Calligrapher 3
(dated Feb. 20, 1994). This will work just fine in ST high and TT
medium res (probably more). If you have not purchased the
Baskerville font disk, this font is probably useless to you.
If you want to have good screen text display with Calligrapher you
must have a bit-mapped font in the point size you are using. Since
the baskerville font disk doesn't have a 14 point screen font, and
Ken Springer (the designer) want one, he just made one up! Now you
can benefit from his industry!
FRAC_POT is a set of two Calamus (1.09 or SL) fonts by S. Samuels
(Dated March 17, 1994). Have you ever wanted to insert a fraction
into your Calamus document but found that it was not available in the
font you were using. Well, you could either fake it using the "/"
character or just write it out. But that was before Fractions Fonts!
These fonts contain all fractions up to sixteenths, even the real odd
stuff like 11/14, etc. Also, they contain the parts of fractions like
a set of 0-9 numerators and denominators and a fraction line so that
you can create virtually any odd fraction you like. Docs included, but
really, you won't need them. Freeware (thanks!).
GEMFO122 is a German GDOS font editor by Sascha Blank. While this program
(and docs) are all in German it is also GEM-based and easy to use.
It will let you import Signum!2 fonts and TeX-/Metafont-PK-Files as
well as standard GDOS fonts (no mention of SpeedoGDOS fonts).
Shareware (dated June 7, 1993). ST-Falcon compatible with at least
one meg of RAM.
GOBLINS is an Excellent PostScript Type One font for each letter of
the alphabet. I really like this font. It is made up of one or more
Goblins in silhouette creating each uppercase letter by standing or
interacting in certain ways. They are very well done with much
detail. This font was converted from a Calamus font. The original
author has certainly put _many_ hours of work in creating this font.
The Calamus font archive is also called GOBLINS, so you'll just have
to find the right one (whichever that might be).
HEROGLYF is a Type One Postscript font for Pagestream 2.x. It shows a
phonetically correct (as well as scholars can tell) of ancient
Egyptian Hieroglyphics. There are multiple ways to write some sounds,
so there are 'upper' and 'lower' cases characters included in this
font, though these don't exist in heiroglyphs. C & S are the same, as
are L and R. Q & X are double height letters, while several are
doubled, usually for long sounds. T and TH are pretty much the same,
but there are 3 forms; / is used for the 3rd one. Kerning is a pain,
and often words were written vertically. A 36 point screen font is
included for faster display. Freeware, from Atari and Fontdesigner.
INKQUILL is an .IMG drawing of a penstand, inkwell, and quill pen.
Just right for putting at the top of your documents with the caption:
"From the Desk of...."
VICSEC is the "Victoria's Secret" TrueType font for use with NVDI
(tested under v.3.02).
Start up your computer related files...
MOVIE12B is the Movies at Night v.1.2B screensaver by Anthony Watson
of Mountain Software (dated July 22, 1994). Movies at Night (MAT) is
a unique and fun screensaver system that plays animated 'movies' when
you are not using your computer. The system is composed of two parts;
A screensaver utility, and a movie construction set. MAT runs all by
itself, but it also will run as a Warp 9 Extendosave module (with Warp
9 v.3.70 or later). The Construction Set allows users to create their
own screensaver animations from a series of Degas picture files, or to
convert Cyberpaint animations (.SEQ) for use as screensaver
animations. In addition, the Construction Set allows users to view and
modify .MOV (the native format) animation files. Shareware. ST low
or med res. only. Detailed docs and two MOV animations (the CALICO
and FOREMAN animations) included.
MOUSEMOV is a movie for the Movies at Night screensaver by Anthony
Watson. This animation shows a cartoon mouse who is frightened by
something it sees and then runs off SO FAST.... See MOVIE12B for the
Movies at Night Screensaver itself.
16IMG39 is a set of 39 sixteen color IMG pictures by Terry May. These
are designed to be used as desktop or background use by programs such
as NeoDesk4, Thing, or DeskPic (Falcon only) that support tiling.
Tiling is a process of taking an image that's smaller than the size of
your screen, and multiplying that image as many times as necessary to
fill out the entire size of your screen. If find it amazing how our
vision takes a small dinky picture that doesn't look like anything,
and yet sees beautiful images when those same images are multiplied
onscreen! All of the images have been remapped to be "Falcon-
friendly," though, of course, they may be used on any ST-Falcon (with
the appropriate display!).
1741_ICN is a VERY large 16 color .NIC icon file for use with NeoDesk 4.
These look like they came from a "Windows" source, since a lot of them
don't apply to the ST (like "AMI Pro"), but most look excellent! I only
wish that I could work with 16 or more colors all the time! When
running this file in the NeoDesk Icon editor you will likely get a
message that says: "There is not enough free memory for this operation"
AND "Error in .NIC file Format! As much of the NIC file as possible has
been read". I suggest that you change your JarXXX to JAR20 or 30 and
increase the size of your FOLDRXXX (or ICD Boot folder fix) dramatically
(say to whatever it now is plus 1731). You should be able to then go
into icon editor and select the .NIC file for the 1741 icons. You will
then find not 1741 but 1731 icons. That's as it should be (the file
name is incorrect).
256IMG31 is a set of thirty-one 256 color IMG pictures by Terry May.
These are designed to be used as desktop or background use by programs
such as NeoDesk4, Thing, or DeskPic (Falcon only) that support
tiling. Tiling is a process of taking an image that's smaller than
the size of your screen, and multiplying that image as many times as
necessary to fill out the entire size of your screen. If find it
amazing how our vision takes a small dinky picture that doesn't look
like anything, and yet sees beautiful images when those same images
are multiplied onscreen! All of the images have been remapped to be
"Falcon-friendly," though, of course, they may be used on any
ST-Falcon (with the appropriate display!).
ACCSWP03 is ACCessory Swopper, v. 0.3 by Walter S. Wilson (dated Jan.
8, 1995). ACCessory Swopper will allow you to to double-click on a
desk accessory to disable or enable it. If you double-click on, say,
MAXIFILE.ACC, it will automatically be renamed as MAXIFILE.ACX. If
you double-click on MAXIFILE.ACX, it will automatically be renamed as
MAXIFILE.ACC. You can also drag your AUTO folder programs to
ACCessory Swopper to have them renamed for the next re-boot. Just put
it in the root directory of your hard drive and set it up as an
installed application for ".AC?". You're set! This will work on any
TOS 2.05 and above machines (TT/Falcon) and I suspect that it will
work with any lower TOS versions as well if you get one of the
utilities that fix the limitations of the installed applications
feature in those TOS'. Freeware. Docs and GFA Basic 3.5e .LST file
included.
ALS_BUTN is Al Fasoldt's personal collection of 16 color 3D button
icons for NeoDesk 4. When you click on one of these icons, the icon
button depresses. In some of them, the icon is animated as well.
(Check out the CD player icon and the file-cabinet icon!) All these
icons are the same size and have a uniform button appearance. The
effect is stunning. Most have a monochrome version, but no 4-color
icons are included.
BATY9QSF is a set of 14 fills for use with Warp 9 and a monochrome
monitor. John Battey, the uploader, says that one of these are
actually useful, while the others just have wierd names! I won't keep
you hanging about the useful pattern. It produces about a 25% raster
saturation while breaking up the horizontal & vertical line that add
to the "banding" effect that some printers create when printing out a
screenshot. Docs included.
BDAWNMOV is a series of thirty five "Before Dawn" screensaver movies.
Before Dawn (BD) is an excellent screensaver utility from Europe
(Gemany). It will work with all Atari ST-Falcon computers, and is
fully compatible with MultiTOS, Geneva, and Magic, allowing you to run
programs in the background while Before Dawn is active. Use these 35
"movies" to spruce up your collection for BD. Some are in standard
mono or color, which others have 256 colors!
BLITONST is Bliton ST v.1.0 by Ben Aein. This is a tiny prg that goes
into the Auto folder to turn the blitter on. Some programs (for
example, past versions of NVDI and Geneva, though I know that Geneva
doesn't do this anymore) turn the Blitter off and there is no reason
to not have the Blitter on (thus speeding up your system). Just run
this from your AUTO folder. Docs included. Use this version of
Bliton if you do not have an 030 with a math coprocessor.
C1RUNNER is the CyReL Runner utility package v.1.03b (dated Jan. 1994)
from Cybercube Research. This utility allows you to use your Falcon,
TT, or ST/e equipped with TOS 2.06 or higher to execute programs and
applications with multiple command lines you define at the touch of a
Function Key. Set up your favorite set-ups once and use them again and
again (up to 100 installed at once!). Docs included. Multi-tasking
compatible. Freeware.
CBHD455 is CBHD v.4.55 by Claus Brod and Steff Engel. This is a
freeware hard drive driver for all Ataris (with hard drives!). This
seems to be a very nice driver, allowing partitions from A-Z even
under TOS, access to the features of BIGDOS (see description under
BIGDOS08), and more. Unfortunately for me, all of the docs are in
German, and I'm terrified of using a utility that I don't really
understand and which I might use to accidently wipe all of my hard
drives! Anyone up to translating this? There are docs that have
been translated via machine, but they are not so good. Included with
this archive is a shareware configuration utility. Sounds good!
C_ICONS is a NeoDesk .NIC file of 35 icons for use with NeoDesk. It
contains icons for STarRaiders, ST Writer, 1st Word, D Copy, ICD
Utilities, and many more.
DB2_CONV is a NeoDesk 4 .NIC file containing a set of 62 icons for use
with NeoDesk 4. These icons were originally uploaded as a series of
DB3 and DB1 files in an archive named DBICONS2. While NeoDesk 4 can
read these files you have to open each file individually to do so.
Lou Trapani (bless his soul!) converted those files into the native
.NIC format so that you can get at them easier. Thanks Lou!
DB7_CONV is a NeoDesk 4 .NIC file containing a set of 62 icons for use
with NeoDesk 4. These icons were originally uploaded as a series of
DB3 and DB1 files in an archive named DBICONS7. While NeoDesk 4 can
read these files you have to open each file individually to do so.
Lou Trapani (bless his soul!) converted those files into the native
.NIC format so that you can get at them easier. Thanks Lou!
DMAVOLXX is an AUTO folder program by Jan-Hinrich Fessel (dated June,
1993) that will allow you to set the volume of your DMA sound output.
It takes up no memory and is easy to install (just name the program
according to the official Atari sound level, using the number that you
can see in the Xcontrol Sound CPX). Using this will save you a CPX
slot. Docs in German and English. For all STE-TT (Falcon?)
computers.
EOS_TEST is the Extend-O-Save Overhead Tester by John Eidsvoog &
Charles F. Johnson (dated March 19, 1994). The purpose of the
Extend-O-Save Overhead Tester is to show how much processor time is
consumed by your Extend-O-Save modules of Warp 9. This may or may
not be important to you. If you've ever tried to do a download or
printing operation and had a busy Extend-O-Save module kick in, you
know that it can grind the operation to a halt, resulting in an
aborted download or a printout that never finishes. By carefully
choosing which modules you use, you can eliminate or minimize this
problem. Check out your favorite EOS modules with this utility and
you will know which ones to use (or not to use) when doing another
processor intensive operation. Docs included. Freeware.
EVERDATE is Everdate v.1.0 by Olivier Booklage. This is a neat
program that will tell you the last time you used your computer.
Place the program in the AUTO folder and the .ACC in the root
directory of your boot drive and you're set. The date and time will
be written to a file on your hard drive each minute. The next time
you boot up you will know the time of your last use to within one
minute. Docs included (English and French).
EXTEND_C is a developer's kit for C programmers who wish to write
write Extend-O-Save screensaver modules for Warp 9, the screen
acceleration and more utility from CodeHead Technologies. This
archive includes sample C source code, an assembly module to link with
your C code, and a simple Extend-O-Save module called Sprinkles that
places random, short horizontal lines on a black screen. All code is
commented to make it easy to write your own modules. Freeware from
CodeHead.
EOS_2 is the complete transcript of the GEnie and the Atari
Roundtables discussion of the Extendo-O-Save screensaver modules for
use with Warp 9. This topic provides a lot of technical discussions,
people sharing their favorite modules, and lots of other interesting
stuff. From Feb 6, 1993 to June 24, 1993. This is one of those
great forums I was mentioning above.
W9STSAVE is the Warp 9 version of Michael Crisafulli's Soft-Sci
Screen Saver. The Soft-Sci Screen Saver loads an image into a
"balloon" and floats it across your screen. It does this in a
similar way as HotSaver and Boink works. This Shareware program
works in color or mono in ST/STE resolutions only. Docs included.
FUJDESTT is Fuji Desk for the TT by Chet Walters of Wiz Works. This
tiny program puts a rotating Fuji (Atari Logo) design on the top left
of your screen. It's a fun little animation (that can be run from
the AUTO folder or Desktop, and disabled at any time). Docs
included. Works with your TT in all res except TT Low. Docs
included. Check out FUJIM141 in the UTILITYS category for a similar
but more detailed program.
TEXTURE is a huge collection of background textures (89 of 'em!) for
use with NeoDesk, Ease, or any other program that allows these to be
displayed. They are in .IMG, .GIF (majority), and .JPG formats.
Here are some excellent files that I have from the old Current Notes
Magazine (when CN was still based here in the USA). They are
tutorials, history, and helps. You can find them on Genie as well.
HARD_DRV is a very useful set of articles from Current Notes
magazine. Released by the editor, these articles on hard drives are
excellent, full of useful data, and interesting. Here is the table
of contents...
Feb '89: Hard disk Drives: Off-the-Shelf or Roll Your Own, A
Provocative Inspection of Choices, with Prices and
Clues on How to Avoid Disaster, by William Price.
Oct '89: Hard Disk Myths and Mysteries, Part 1, by David Troy
Nov '89: Hard Disk Myths and Mysteries, Part 2, by David Troy
Dec '89: Hard Disk Myths and Mysteries, Part 3, by David Troy
Feb '90: Hard Disk Myths and Mysteries, Part 4, by David Troy
Dec '89: Hard Drive Backup Technologies: A Survey of Your HD Backup
Options: Comparing the Toad 44, Fast Tape Backup, DVT/VCR,
and Software Backup Utilities Turtle and Diamond Back.
by John Barnes
Oct '89: The Syquest 44 MB Removable Cartridge Hard Drive
Review by John Barnes
Nov '90: A Neophyte's Guide to the 44 MB Removable Hard Disk: Or,
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Power Computing
by Mike Heininger (CN November 1990).
CNTUTOR is a "must have" set of articles from Current Notes magazine.
If you want to get the most out of your ST then get this! Sure, some
of the articles are dated, but quality has a timeless essence to it!
These articles were released by the editor of CN, Joe Waters. Here
it the table of contents...
May '88: To Use or Not to Use, That is the ? by Ron Peters
Nov '88: The Low Down on Modems by Ron Peters
Mar '88: Computer Languages for the ST: Which One is Right
for You?, by John Marable
Mar '88: Let's Build a Mailing List by Joe Waters
Mar '88: The Desktop Publishing Market: What Are Your Choices?
by Wm. Price
Sep '88: An Introduction to Spreadsheets: As Easy as 1-2-3
by Joe Waters
Apr '89: ST Word Processors: How to Pick the Right One for You...
by Jim Wallace
Apr '90: How to Improve Your ST Productivity: Confessions of a Neodesk/
Revolver/UIS Junkie, by Greg Csullog
Oct '90: The New Look in CLI's: Plain Vanilla with Chocolate Sauce
by John Barnes
Mar '90: Pha$ar 4.0: The Best Gets Better
Review and Tutorial by John Barnes
May '90: Typesetting with the ST: A Tour de Force of the Printer
Driver and Fonts Menagerie, by Bill Price
Sep '90: Such Things Don't Happen to Nice People: What to Do If You Got
a Virus ???, by J. Andrzej Wrotniak
Dec '89: DeskJet Revisited: An indepth look at the newer, faster
HP InkJet printer--the DeskJet Plus and some tips on
getting the most out of your DeskJet, by Jim Wallace
Dec '89: Is My Atari IBM (Mac) Compatible?
by Greg Csullog
CN_APR94 contains the full text (ASCII) of the April, 1994 electronic
issue of Current Notes magazine. For those who have never seen CN,
here is a sampling of what subscribers receive every month (alas, the
address included is no longer accurate as CN is now published out of
Canada). No advertisements, graphs, illustrations, or tables are not
included, but the text of all the articles is right here. Here's the
table of contents...
Letters to the Editor.................................... 4
News and Announcements................................... 7
STatus Atari, Paul Lefebvre.............................. 12
"Powerful Alternatives?"
Atari Myths & Mysteries, David Troy...................... 14
"The Information Highway:
Is This the Correct Paradigm?"
ST Toolbox, J. Andrzej Wrotniak.......................... 18
"Spies, Morons and the Rest of Us:
How to Run Circles Around KGB and NSA"
Running Out of Ram, David Barkin......................... 22
"Graphic Cards: Crazy Dots II and Cyrel Sunrise"
GEnie Notes, Lou Rocha................................... 27
Around GEnie: The FAX RT, by Lou Rocha
RTC Highlights, by Brian Harvey
Cat's Eye View, by Brian Harvey
ST Library, by Gordon Meyer
Hot Topics, by Terry Quinn
8-Bit Tidbits, Rick Reaser............................... 34
"Latest News for the Classic Atari"
TextPRO: Part 7 - Printing Tips.......................... 38
by Frank Walters
Rebuilding the TAF 8-Bit Library......................... 41
by Robert Boardman
Atari Works, Michael 'Papa' Hebert....................... 43
"Page Setup, Labels and Graphics"
Woods Music, Gary Woods.................................. 46
"Cubase Score"
Atari in the STicks, Henry van Eyken..................... 50
"The Little Engine That Could've"
Geneva - Part 2.......................................... 56
Review by Jim Fouch
Stalk the Market vs Stock Smart.......................... 58
Review by Terry Quinn
Using Two Computers and One Monitor...................... 60
By Alvin Riesbeck
Squish II................................................ 62
Review by Paul Lefebvre
I really enjoyed the Current Notes magazine, and I recommend this
version to you!
SBLOCK90 contains the "Starting Block" columns in Current Notes
magazine as written by Richard Gunter in 1990. Released by the editor
of CN these articles are excellent! Here is the table of contents....
Feb '90: For the ARC Of It...
Mar '90: Using ARC 6.02
Apr '90: ARC Alternatives
May '90: Of Mice and Desktops
Jun '90: Random Thoughts
Jul '90: Cataloging Floppy Disks
Sep '90: Your First Hard Drive
Oct '90: Where Has the memory Gone?
Nov '90: Viruses, Memory and Desk Accessories
Dec '90: Seasonal Reflections
STUPDT92 is the complete set for 1992 of the ST Update columns by
Frank Sommers from Current Notes magazine. An excellent read, and
good bit of history.
TIPS8990 is the complete collection of Douglas Hodson's Magic
Sac/Spectre Tips Column published in Current Notes (March 1989 through
June 1990). This is a very useful file if you have Dave Small's Mac
Emulator for the Atari.
Now for some Falcon related programs and files...
ALT_HELP is a GEM based screen capture utility for the Falcon (and,
I've been told, for the TT as well) by Wax (dated Nov. 19, 1995). By
simply pressing the Alt and Help keys (together) you will capture the
visible screen in a raw data file and palette format. According to
the author this is great for Movem.l coders. Source code in Visual
Assembler 4.0 format included. Note: some of the source code lists
the date as Nov. 1996, but that isn't correct, trust me, as I
downloaded it in Dec. of '95!
APEXD210 is the April 5, 1995 demo (v.2.10) of the Apex Animator
graphics system for the Falcon030 from Black Scorpion Software. This
drawing/morphing/ animation tool is both fast and capable. This demo
fixes a number of bugs, increases animation compatibility, and all
around made it an even more useful program. I've only heard excellent
things about it. Using both the Falcon CPU and DSP, this program is
FAST (better than an equivalent 50MHz 486DX PC). It allows you to
playback your 320*200 256 color/truecolor animations at 70Hz with a
VGA/SVGA monitors and external players/viewers can achieve overscan
(768*576) truecolour on broadcast monitors & TV sets. Some (but not
all) of the other features of this program are:
Ultra-fast fieldwarp morphing & distortion (seconds per frame!)
Realtime image processing and analog mask filtering.
Hardware interface to 786*576 frame/film grabbing in truecolour.
Animation frame processing for cleaning up digitised films.
Direct-from-disk editing of FLIC & ANIM animations into memory.
Realtime block manipulation for scaling/rotating/distorting.
Fast vectorfont interface for scalable typefaces.
Numerous examples are included. If you have a Falcon check this out!
Barry Summer (BSUMMER@Delphi.com), who has created lots of animations
in many different formats, says to tell you that APEX is fantastic.
APEXFV3 is a set of picture and animation viewers which are a part of
the APEX animation program. Doug Little (of Black Scorpion
Developments, the creator of APEX) has released them into the PD (as
of Jan. 26, 1995). One will allow Falcon owners to view 256/16 bit
truecolor FLIC (Autodesk FLI/FLC/FLH/FLT/FLX) animations direct from
disk, a DSP based 24-bit color JPEG viewer, two GIF viewers, a Targa
(compressed or uncompressed) viewer for the ST-Falcon (4096 colors on
the ST, 32768 colors on the STE, and 16.7 million colors --24-bit
color!- on the Falcon). It also contains a CPX which can be used to
translate images between the Targa, GIF & PPM formats (in batch or
single-mode). This CPX also allows you a number of options available
for tuning quality and filtering during conversion. Note: there is
a newer version of this around, but I haven't yet reviewed it. Get
that one instead of this one! The names should be similar.
ASM56 is an assembler and examples for the Falcon's DSP processor.
This archive is a general purpose DSP assembler ported to the Falcon.
It is not an Atari specific implementation.
BOOMPREV is the is a preview version of a game for the Falcon
originally to be called Boom (but now changed to Incubator) by the nEw
PoWeR gEnErAtIoN. You can play this, but only to a certain level. The
main part of the game is a hi-color defender type game (with a
constant 30 frames per second), and the rest of the game (bonus
screens, etc) includes a wolfenstein type 3D texture mapped maze with
variable walls (heavy use of the DSP/68030 here), and more. It works
on both VGA and TV/SC1224 monitors. True Color graphics and more.
Requires at least 3 megs of Free RAM. Uncompresses to over 3 meg!
Check out BOOMPRE2 for another version of this game.
BOOMPRE2 is the is the second preview version of a game for the Falcon
originally to be called Boom (but now changed to Incubator) by the nEw
PoWeR gEnErAtIoN. You can play this, but only to a certain level. The
main part of the game is a hi-color defender type game (with a
constant 30 frames per second), and the rest of the game (bonus
screens, etc) includes a wolfenstein type 3D texture mapped maze with
variable walls (heavy use of the DSP/68030 here). Raytraced pictures,
ProTracker MOD sound, and more. It works on both VGA and TV/SC1224
monitors and with accelerated Falcons. True Color graphics and more.
Requires at least 3 megs of Free RAM. Written by Apollo of N.P.G.
(Roland Spatzenegger), Jaron of N.P.G. (Holger Stahl), Carnera of
N.P.G. (Andras Kavalecz), Dom of Animal Mine (Dominik Bohn), and
Paxsilva (Reiner Friedewald). Unfortunately, this full game will
likely never see the light of day as the team has split up and are not
in contact with each other anymore (jobs and such). Oh well. I've
also found a file BOOMPREV that appears that it is another version of
this game. I think it is an earlier version as the docs list a few
things that seem less capable in that version, but as there is no date
listed in the docs I am not sure (the uncompressed archive of BOOMPREV
is much larger than BOOMPRE2 which is what confuses me--things tend to
get bigger and not smaller!). One of the authors wasn't sure either
(He hasn't worked on it for awhile). Try them both and tell me what
you think!
BWING105 is Bird's Wings v.1.05 by Xavier ROCHE. This is a virtual
screen driver for the Falcon (under SingleTOS or MultiTOS). This
program runs from the AUTO folder (with other, configuration?,
programs included). The docs mention the number of colors available
as from duochrome to True color with 40 or 80 column display (48/96
with TV, if I decode it correctly?), interlaced, and VGA monitors. I
_think_ this makes you monitor screen a window onto a larger virtual
screen, but then again, I can't really read French, and the program
and docs are in French! It also contains a "screen ripper."
COC_SHOT is a series of .TGA screen shots of the Falcon game Crown of
Creation, by REBELSOFT. This game will feature 320*240 Truecolor
display with fast screen-updates, Raytraced and drawn pictures in
intro/game/endpart, detailed game graphics (shoot a spaceship/ station
and watch it blow apart, and then shoot the pieces!), MOD sounds,
digitized voice, 3 Channel 24 Bit Stereo Distance & Direction Sound,
DSP use for graphics calculations (which leaves the 68030 free to work
on the rest of the game), and more. Sounds interesting, and the
screen shots show lots of different scenes and details. The full
version of the game should be out soon. Contact the author and find
out more.
COEDMO1 is part one of two of the Falcon only Conquest of Elysium
Demo by Johan Karlsson (dated March 4, 1996). You need a color
monitor or TV, and about 3 megs of free RAM on your Falcon. It will
run from a hard drive (best) or floppy (slow). Each player controls a
powerful warlord or wizard whose objective is to take control over the
continent. The game can be played by one to eight players (from
seventeen different categories such as Warlord, Barbarian, Magician,
Troll King, Etc.) and if there are less than eight players the
computer can control some or all of the remaining players. You may
choose the world in which you play, or have the computer choose for
you. Now you have to send your men out exploring, choicing to use
your resources wisely (or stupidly, in which case you won't survive
long!). To win this game you have to survive the longest. Keyboard
and mouse controlled. Graphics, music, and docs included. Shareware
(register and receive a version with load and save enabled, more
characters, and unlimited play).
COEDMO2 is part two of two of the Falcon only Conquest of Elysium
Demo by Johan Karlsson (dated March 4, 1996). You need a color
monitor or TV, and about 3 megs of free RAM on your Falcon. Each
player controls a powerful warlord or wizard whose objective is to
take control over the continent. See COEDMO1 for more information.
CPUMODF3 is CPU_MOD by Patrick RUIZ. This Falcon only program isn't
something which modifies your CPU; rather it is a program which uses
your CPU to play MOD files with a nice CD-like interface (mouse and/or
keyboard controlled). The author wrote this because he didn't like
any of the other players. He says this sounds best (who knows, maybe
he's right!). This player has all the standard sound effects (CIA
timing , E-commands, etc.) and the program core is less than 7000
bytes long and needs 70,000 bytes free only. (The author has included
the source code and gives you permission to use it in your own
programs). Finally, he includes a text file detailing Soundtracker
.MOD file format. Docs included.
DAME is the Digital Audio Multilayering & Editing program (D.A.M.E.)
v.3.2 by OMT for the Falcon. It was originally created for the ST
with extra hardware, but has now been ported to the Falcon without the
need of any external hardware. You have to be careful in using this
program because it will always use the last partition of your hard
drive to record music. Why do you need to be careful? The first
thing it asks you when you run the program is if you wish to format
your drive (or repartition it, I'm not sure). Anyway, be careful!
The docs tell you how to connect a microphone, CD-Player, or
DAT-recorder to your Falcon input without blowing it out of the water.
Lots of features for recording your music (at 50 or 34 KHz).
DSPPAULA is DSP-Paula v.2.2/Proplayer 3.0B, a Falcon only, DSP based,
.MOD player. Coded by Chris of AURA (dated Nov. 1, 1993) this program
even though it bears the same name, is not by the same author (Pascal
Fellerich) as previous versions of Paula (the most recent of which I
have is Paula v.2.2a, dated Feb. 20, 1992). I don't know the
relationship of the two programs or authors other than that both
programs are MOD players, but if DSP-Paula continues the fine
tradition of Paula it is bound to be an excellent MOD player. Now you
can get real 50 KHz/16 Bit/SSI-Output for your Soundtracker .MOD
files.
DSP_PLAY is Backgroundmusic 3 v. 28.1.95 (dated Jan. 28, 1995). This
is a Falcon only .MOD player coded by Apache of tnb using bITmASTER of
TCE's Replay- and DSP-Code. This .ACC (with AUTO folder .PRG) will
play .MODs packed with Pack-ICE or JAM-Pack, saving you lots of disk
space through the compression of your favorite MOD files. Because it
uses the DSP for much of the playback work DSP_Play needs no more than
8% of CPU-time for 4-channel modules and 14% CPU-time for 8-channel
modules (for monochrome video mode). Have you heard of Surround
Sound? Using two speakers and a bit of "magic" (it seems!) you seem
to be right in the center of the band. It's pretty amazing. DSP_PLAY
can produce Surround Sound! It also supports many module formats:
4-channel Protracker ( M.K. )
4-channel Startrekker ( FLT4 )
8-channel Octalyzer STE/F030 ( CD8, CD81 )
8-channel Digital F030 ( FA08 )
patching the module:
8-channel "Triton" Fasttracker ( 8CHN )
Do you want to know what the Shareware price of this software is?
Sounds like it should be a lot, right? Well, send the author a nice
postcard of your local and you've paid the shareware fee! Pretty
good! Docs included.
FALCLIB5 is the Devpac Falcon Library v.5.1 created and compiled by
Johan Karlsson (dated Jan 12, 1995). This is an assembler library for
the Atari Falcon. By using this you will likely make programming your
Falcon a bit faster and easier. It includes a lot of subroutines which
most assembler programmers use quite frequently as well as some less
frequently used graphic routines. Included in the package is a Falcon
Video Creator and Editor, which saves the current screen as a Falcon
Video File (docs about its use, too). This saved resolution and
frequency data can then easily be set from within your own programs.
This version now includes the manual in both TEX and PostScript form
(with a utility to take the TEX document and restore it to plain ASCII
for all ASCII die-hards). Some of the routines have also been
optimized and the main manual has some need corrections. For
everything to work properly use Devpac 3 with ignore multiple includes
active. Most things will probably work nice with Devpac 2 too.
FF_DEMO is the Falcon Flight Fractal creation utility. You know how
long Fractals take to make...even on a Falcon? A LONG time! Well,
with this program you can create your fractals and listen to the
music it plays at the same time.
FRCFLIGH is a Falcon-only demo which takes you on a "real-time mostly 25
frames per second" flight through a fractal. Created by Photon of
Lazer/Independant, this file contains three "flights" of about 1000
frames each.
HAM8 is the TT/Falcon (but see below) IFF/HAM8 loader by Glankonian
Software Inc. (dated March 22, 1993). This program is built to use
the 256 colour mode of the TT or Falcon (but see below). It should
work in a limited fashion in the TRUE COLOUR mode of the Falcon, but
only with H.A.M or H.A.M.8 file types (4096 or 464,000) -- but this
hasn't been tested (to my knowledge). This program also works with
ST's and normal IFF's (the author programmed better than he thought!).
Tested on TOS 1.4 with a mono monitor.
HANGER is an animation created by Barry Summer using APEX Animator.
This FLC format animation (for the Falcon) is an 850-frame 256 color
animation of a hanger in space, with various objects which were
clipped as blocks and overlayed/underlayed and moved around, including
droids, a giant eyeball, a space serpent and the moon cruiser coming
into the hanger for a landing. 588K uncompressed.
MILK_WAG is a photo of an old milk wagon in Falcon .XGA format. You
may convert it for printing on an ST by using DGXGA by Dr. Bob. 116
bit Falcon color format.
MINIF1_E is the demo of Mini F1 v.1.03, Falcon version by Gilles
Audoly (dated 1993). This is a limited demo of this excellent car
racing game. Joystick controlled. There aren't any docs with the
program (or at least docs that tell you about the game), so I can't
tell you much more.
MOONGATE is the complete version of the Falcon-only game MoonGate.
Unfortunately, almost all I know about it is the tag on the file
"FREEWARE, better than MoonSpeeder." This is also the version that
fixes a bug with some Falcons. Reminder to all programmers: Don't
assume that people will want to run your program to find out what it
is all about! Include a text file in the archive to describe your
software! (MoonGate doesn't!). This program requires all three
archives MOONGA~1.ZIP, MOONGA~2.ZIP, and MOONGA~3.ZIP.
NEONDEMO is the demo of the NeoN 3D animation package from TEAM-
Computer for the Falcon with Math Co-processor. This program will
allow you to create, load, and edit 16 or 24-bit Targa files (maybe
more, but since there are no docs I can't tell), do 3D modeling, edit
scenery and animations, do raytracing, and more. It will only work
with a TV/color monitor, VGA (with overscan, too), no monochrome.
Many sample files included. Sorry I can't tell more about this.
I've heard good things about it, but...(put DOCS in Demos, OK!).
PING2K_D is an update of the working demo of PING 2000, a Holland Game
Design for the Falcon030 (date Feb. 1995). Written by the same people
who brought you UFO_WAR, this game will run on any Atari Falcon030
with 4MB or more Ram with RGB monitors, TV or VGA (multi-sync)
monitors. Ping 2000 should now work on all VGA monitors up to 72 Hz
Non-Interlaced. The games requires about 3MB diskspace and is about
6MB big. PING 2000 can be played by one or two players with joysticks
or Atari joypads. This is a vastly improved PONG clone (improved in
both graphics and sound). The game runs either at 50 or 60 frames per
second. PING 2000 will take you on a journey through time and show
you Ping has been a basic element of existence from the distant past
to the far future! There is even a "Classic" ping game included (but
that's disabled in this demo). The docs and descriptions of this game
sound so good it makes me wish I had a Falcon (but then again, almost
anything I read or see about the Falcon makes me want to get one!).
Ordering information included. This demo will run off of a 1.4 meg
floppy, but the full version requires a hard drive. Detailed docs
included.
PLAYMPEG is Play MPEG v.0.70 by Martin GRIFFiths (dated Jan 8., 1995).
This color MPEG player uses the Falcon's DSP and 68030 chips in
consert to get fast frame animation of MPEG videos. It requires a
color monitor (VGA or RPG, I think) but this unregistered version will
only show in Grayscales (registration is inexpensive and then you can
see color!). Also included is InfoMPEG v.1.0 by Dennis Lee
(originally) and M.G. (Atari version). This is a small utility to
parse MPEG-1 and provide you with a quick and convenient way of
constructing charts containing various details on MPEG streams,
allowing comparisons to easily be made. It can also be used simply to
find out the pixel resolution and types of frames in a stream.
RAINB1_2 is the Rainbow v.1.2 demo (dated Sept. 28, 1994). This
Falcon specific true color color art package by Rasmus Sderberg and
Mandus Sderberg is fast, 100% assembly language, and full featured.
It will allow you to load and manipulate (but not save in the demo)
*.TIF, *.TGA, *.TPI, *.NEO, *.PI? and *.PC? images. This art package
is aimed at all graphic artists who need a quick and effective art
package to produce true color (full 16 bit 65536 color) pictures for
games, demos, utilities or private use. One very nice thing about
this program is that you don't have to change color mode or resolution
from the desktop, since RAINBOW automatically changes that (and
returns to the old desktop settings when you quit). The package even
contains a built-in photo studio! Brief docs (but useful) and
ordering information included. VGA or RGB monitors. Note: this is
not a major upgrade over the demo of v.1.0 or 1.1, but it does add
several user requested features. It also includes a file detailing
Rainbow II Multimedia, a new and much improved product.
SPEEDER is a very nice Falcon demo. According to the uploader (on
GEnie) this demo features "better-than-Super NES" scaling. Run this and
fly over some great looking texture mapped terrain.
SSAM108 is SuperSam, the Superb Sample Editor, v.1.08 by Daniel
Hastings (dated 2nd half of 1994). This save disabled Shareware
sample editor for the Falcon030 allows you to digitally store sounds
on disk (in a slew of different formats), and edit them in a variety
of ways including reversing them to play them backwards, cutting and
pasting, combining multiple sounds and many more functions. I counted
at least 30 features before I quit! Geneva and MultiTOS compatible,
this looks to be an excellent program! Registration brings a key for
the complete program (this demo version also limits D2D to files of
800K or less). Superb docs included (I guess it goes along with the
name!).
SYSTEM is the excellent D.K.O. System Falcon demo, dated April, 1995.
EKO released this demo for the "Fried Bits III" in Bremen, Germany and
won second place there (so I suspect it is excellent). You must have
at least 3.5 meg of free RAM on your Falcon to run this. According
to the upload it is very well done with great music and nice virtual
reality type scenarios including an extended CHECKERED FLAG type demo.
VIEWAPX2 by Ivan Dimbleby of Recursive Software (dated 1996) is a tiny
Falcon-only utility which allows you to view true colour .APX pictures
saved by the popular APEX art package (v.2.14 and probably all
versions). It works with RGB *and* VGA monitors. On VGA, only sizes up
to 320x240 can be viewed. On RGB you can view sizes up to 640x400.
Docs included.
WP970331 is the Falcon only Willie's Adventures Preview, #2 (dated
March 31, 1997) from New Beat Development. Willie is a painter of
particularly realistic characters that almost seem to be alive. One
day they reach out of the canvas and drag Willie straight into his
painting. Now Willie is trying to get out! Willie is a eight way
scrolling adventure game that expands many levels of bizarre,
wonderfully twisted worlds. Many beautiful worlds await your
exploration and conquering. Armed with your wits and skills, only you,
in the end, can save Willie and the world the sad fate that awaits.
In this second and improved preview of Willie, you are allowed to
explore only one rather small level, but it's even better than the
previous demo with better graphics and sound, animated enemies, larger
levels, parallax scrolling, improved animations, and very much more!
Willie's Adventures will run on any Atari Falcon030 compatible
computer equipped with at least 4Mb of memory and a VGA or RGB
monitor. This preview of Willie's Adventures does not require a hard
disk drive to work, although the final version will. It works fine
with all known hardware and software accelerators and screen
enhancements such as Screen Blaster and Blow Up. Jaguar Joypad or
Keyboard controlled. This sounds like a particularly colorful game!
Docs included. Note: I really downloaded this off the internet
(Hensa, I think), but I know it's on Genie, too.
XPERIENC is The Xperience Demo by ABSTRACT. This Falcon-only demo
presents you with some nice RayTrace pictures in 505000 Colors,
Gouraud Shading (23000 pixL/VBL), 4096 Dots morphing, Multi-Object
Concave Inter Objects Morphing 'Abstract World' (80 Faces), 3D Concave
Morphing, Light True Lines Morphing (67 Diago/VBL), SpaceCut True
Color, Mapping (20000 PixL/VBL) with rotations, zoom and streching,
Mapping Fractal-Zoom, and VOLUME: Vector World (maximun of 360
faces). Tour through a polygon city; watch a texture mapped cube with
independently animated faces, and much more. All the demo effects and
sound use the DSP chip. Keyboard controlled. The uploader says that
it will not work with a VGA monitor but that a SC1224 Atari color
monitor is required. The docs say that it will work with a VGA
monitor. Who's right? I have no idea! The uploader also says to
boot this while pressing the "Control" key. French and English docs
included. Again, I downloaded this from the internet somewhere, but
it's on Genie, too.
XWING is the APEX XWing Fighter Falcon Animation by Barry Summer.
This is a Falcon TC animation in .FLH format with the Falcon player
program included. This 3D XWing fighter was rendered with Chronos and
Phoenix2, and the Targa frames were then imported into Apex Media.
Now for some programs to help get your finances in order...
CHEKBOOK is Chekbook v.1.19 by Steve MacMillan (date March 15, 1991).
This program can aid you in getting today's complicated checking account
under control. Problems arise in balancing your account when items are
entered out of sequence due to automated teller withdrawals, interest
payments, and service charges. CHEKBOOK can help you to balance your
checkbook--to the penny. Color only. Docs included. STE compatible
(at least). Hmmm...my note says this was from Delphi, but it was in
the Genie folder...whatever!
FINACALC is the Financial Calculator - or "Variations on the Theme of
The Present Value Formula" v.1.0 by Emet C. Quill (dated Oct. 21,
1996). This is an excellent program that allows you to simply and
quickly calculate loan payments, saving through paying off a loan
early, costs of various rates, annuities, cash price on loans, notes,
discounts notes, notes receivable, auto lease analysis, accept/reject
analysis using Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return,
Profitability Index, and more. This guy has thought of so much!
Detailed Online help which explains the purpose and use of each
function (and which you can customize to your hearts content) is
included. ST-TT and Geneva compatible. Color or mono. Freeware.
MC205 is a working demo (or free update if you already own the
commercial program!) of MEGA-Check 2 v.2.05 by Chris Muller of Muller
Automation (dated Nov., 1993). This newest upgrade to this constantly
improving product adds a large number of features, both in increased
speed of execution of a number of functions and in increased
functionality in many other areas. This is a fully working demo (with
only a 30 transaction limit) will allow you to easily (well, fairly
easily!) track your finances, personal, investment, and business. GEM
based, it has features that I really appreciate. It doesn't require
you to learn any arcane language to use it. It interacts with you in
plain English, and tells you what to do in the same way. Here are
just some of it's features: A built-in alarm that won't let you
forget to pay your bills or create a needed report; fully automated
checkbook balancing; prints out your checks on any printer; add or
edit any number of accounts (limited only by your computer's memory);
configurable warnings when specific account balances get too high or
too low (avoid account charges and limit risks in various investments;
run "what if" projections; track appreciation/ depreciation; add
extended notes to any transaction; built-in address/ phone database;
very powerful report generation--and all in the "background" as well,
which increases your productivity, and extensive on-line help. Color
or mono. ST--TT compatible (in ST resolutions). Requires at least
one meg of RAM and a hard disk is recommended. This file uncompresses
to 814K, so you will either need a hard drive or an extended format
disk to uncompress it.
SPRO_630 is the new Hi-Tech Advisers Sales-Pro v.6.30a demo (dated
September, 1993). This demo is a complete Point-of-Sale, Inventory
Control, and Accounting system that is designed to handle most aspects
of any normal store operation. This is a do-it-all program that
allows you to manage your store, edit text files, manage normal file
operations, run external programs, and much more. It is a
menu-oriented program (easy to learn and use), but also allows you to
use GEM so that you can easily access many secondary program
functions. Color or mono. Docs included. Hard Drive required. It
works on my TOS 1.62 machine and, I expect, the TT and Falcon as well
(though I can't find out where that is said). SPADD630 is a companion
file to this program, that greatly expands its capabilities.
STSTOK40 is the STock->Smart v.4.0 demo by Mark Cawthon (the author of
GOGO->ST). STock->Smart is a stock charting program with a portfolio
spread sheet. Up to four chart windows may be displayed at any time,
along with one portfolio window. A terminal program, which allows easy
access to GEnie's FREE daily quotes, and a daily to historic quote
converter program are part of STock-> Smart. Chart high/low/close,
closing only, volume, weekly-daily, moving averages, etc. All daily
quotes are converted to the historic format used by GEnie's QUOTE$
historic database and appended to the previous records for each stock
you choose to track. Download past price history on any security in
the GEnie QUOTE$ download format and instantly see the chart. Use the
line drawing feature to highlight trends and help make price
forecasts. Lines are retained when the chart is resized and may be
saved with a chart for later update! This demo version of
STock->Smart has been rigged to track just five set stocks and only 12
transactions per portfolio, but all other features are 100%
operational. ST/STe/TT compatible (with at least 512 K of RAM).
Color or mono. It seems to be a high quality program. I only wish I
had enough money to buy enough stock to make it useful to me!
And now for some files on a number of topics...
JEO_0001 is the first issue (Vol. 1, Iss. 1) of the Jaguar Explorer
Online (dated March 27, 1997. The editor of this fine magazine, Clay
Halliwell, recently decided that enough was enough and that something
had to be done to publish all of the accumulating news about the
Jaguar. Atari Explorer Online has metamorphized into Jaguar Explorer
Online and taken up that baton. This first issue is filled with news
about the state of the Jaguar: interviews with game programmers,
reviews of games, lists of cheats, sources of hardware, whatever
happened to Travis Guy (congratulations Travis!), and much more. I
found this a very interesting read, and I recommend it to you.
BIRD4HIL is a series of 69 .IMG files of birds of all different
kinds (almost, through there aren't any penguins!). Some of the
images are rather poor, but most are quite good. Somehow or another
an .IMG picture of a frog ended up in this archive. I imagine he
must be feeling a bit uncomfortable being next to so many frog eating
birds!
HARDCAT2 is the Hardcat v.2.0 disk cataloging program by Mike White
(dated November 24, 1996). If you're like me, you're tired of disk
cataloging programs that crash, run out of memory before they're
done, and that can't catalog the Suzy B's Software CD because it's too
big. Well, try Hardcat! It doesn't have any of those problems. It
will ask you the location of the files you wish to catalog (a whole
drive, a folder, whatever) and then the location of where you wish
the ASCII output file to be located. It's pretty quick, and multi-
tasking friendly. Docs included. This is an excellent program, and
I recommend it to you. ST-TT compatible (at least).
PPPKIT14 is the PPP Internet Connection Kit for MiNT v.1.4 by Abel
Philippe (dated Oct. 8, 1996). Here is a (nearly) ready-to-use kit to
connect yourself to Internet with the PPP (Point to Point Protocol),
and so access the WWW. It works under MiNT. "Oh No!" you say. But
wait! This kit's use of MiNT is totally transparent, no Unix commands
to learn nor is it necessary to have a Minix partition. What you do
need (besides this archive) is FreeMint 1.12.5, Mint OS 1.4.1,
MintNet 1.0 pl1 (included), the Cab_for_MintNet 1.77 overlay
(included), HS Modem 07, pppd 2.2.0, and of course Cab (either CAB_15
or CAB2DEMO). I haven't personally haven't tried to get this setup
running, so I can't help you here. I do know one person who's tried
and not yet fully succeeded. From his experience I recommend that you
use this on a hard drive partition that is completely backed up, as it
has trashed his partition numbers of times! So...as always, use at
your own risk. Oh for an easily set up PPP based Web Browser on the
Atari! This archive contains both French and English comprehensive
docs.
Note: I haven't downloaded any of the CAB, STiK, STing, Newsie,
FTP, whatever internet utilities on Genie, and so I won't mention
them here, but they are there! Check them out and get browsing!
PAULA25 is Paula v.2.5 (dated June 12, 1996) by Pascal Fellerich (one
of the authors of TURBOASS, a fast Assembler). This .ACC/.APP is an
Amiga-MOD-file-player (in their MANY varieties) for the Atari ST (see
below) through Falcon. Paula doesn't claim to be the only or the
fastest MOD player available for the Atari, but it certainly is one of
the best. It has an excellent GEM interface along with a LARGE number
of features. Updated to make the program even more Falcon compatible.
This file also includes a utility that allows you to "fix" some
damaged .MOD files. Normally Paula is only usable on STe-Falcon
machines, but this archive includes PETRA by Christian Limpach. Petra
v.1.0 (dated Aug. 20, 1992) is a software sound driver which allows
all ST's which don't have DMA sound to still run Paula (hmmm, but in
one place Paula says "All ST's" and another it says, "starting with
TOS 1.4") . Just trust me on this one. If you want to listen to .MOD
files just get this program. Color or mono. Docs included. The
author has released this formerly shareware program as freeware,
though he will still take contributions! Docs in English and German
are included.
CARDDLUX is an Card's Deluxe, an awesome shareware greeting card
creator by Gregor Tielsch and Bernhard Artz of Delta Labs Software in
Germany (dated Feb. 23, 1991). This mono-only program will allow you
to create double-sided cards and print them out on a variety of
printers. Just double-click on the program, choose your card format,
type in your message, select the font you wish (up to six loaded at
once and with over a dozen included and utilities for converting
Signum! and Degas fonts to the GEM-format used by Card's D. are
included), create a graphic using the very nice drawing features of
this program or import a graphic (Printing Press, Doodle, Degas and
STad formats are supported), pick out a boarder for your card, choose
your printer (9- and 24- pin, HP Laser, HP Deskjet or saving as a
Degas picture to disk are supported, though only the 9- pin printer in
this shareware version), and get a card! The program and docs are in
German, though included in this archive are rough machine generated
translations of the German docs. No extra utilities (such as GDOS)
are needed. Check out CARDPICS for a slew of pictures specifically
designed for use with Card's Deluxe. Remember to support shareware
authors! ST-TT compatible, but I was having some problems on my TT
that I haven't bothered getting to the bottom of. It might be the
program itself or it might just be my crazy setup! Actually, I think
I got this from Delphi, but it's on Genie, too.
CARDPICS is a set of 89 pictures for Card's Deluxe, an awesome
shareware greeting card creator by Gregor Tielsch and Bernhard Artz of
Delta Labs Software in Germany (dated Feb. 23, 1991). Card's Deluxe
is an awesome mono-only card creation program and these pictures make
it even more useful! Remember to support shareware authors!
GVW_PING is the GEM-View Loading and Saving PNG module for 68030 and
math co-processor by Eric Prevoteau (dated June 13, 1996). This
module has been made to give you access to the new picture format
named PiNG. PNG files are smaller than GIF without any quality losses
(at least 15% with 16 colors pics). They also don't fall under the
GIF patent by UniSys. With this module, you can load PNG pics
without any problems. This module supports monochrome, grayscale
(with or without alpha), color and true color 24 or 32 bits (not
really tested) pics. The only limit in loading pics is your amount of
RAM. Be careful, monochrome, grayscale and color pics take the same
amount of memory as a 256 colors pics while loading. Docs included.
Of course, you must also have the shareware program GEM View!
AESFUNC is an ST-Guide Hypertext Help file describing the TOS AES
Functions. This is really only of use to programmers, and you must
have ST-Guide to access this file.
AMTOST is the Amiga-to-ST transfer program v.2.0 by Robert W. Stiles
(dated June 20, 1994). The purpose of the program is to convert the
EOL characters used on the Amiga/Unix/Mac to the type used on the
ATARI/MSDOS computers. The program will first scan the file to see if
conversion is required. If it isn't, the program will skip to the next
file. Docs and Lattice and Pure "C" source codes included.
CALLERID is the source code (in Lattice C) of Mike Hill's Caller ID
program. This program will read the number off of your Supra Modem
and display it on screen. You can set it to reject certain numbers if
you wish, too (just hang up on ...). He's left the Atari world and he
wants to encourage others to continue programming. This archive also
includes the listing for a program which will read the incoming number
off of your Supra modem and announce it outloud for you. Now you
don't even need to get up out of your chair to check the number!
CDPLAY2 by Brian Grier is a set of source code listings for his program
which allows audio CDs to be played on an ICD Host Adapter equipped
Chinon 431 SCSI CD-ROM drive attached to your ST/STe/TT (maybe Falcon).
Also included here is a module which will allow your Pure C/Turbo C
programs (if you can write them, that is!) to use ICD's DMA.O module to
control SCSI devices from within your program. It's all ready for you
to compile (except ICD's DMA.O is not included since he didn't write
that, ICD did). Shareware.
COMPNREV is a text file containing the press release for the first
revision of "The Atari Compendium," by Scott Sanders. This is an
excellent set of docs for Atari programmers and power users by Scott
Sanders. This file contains a description and information on how you
can obtain one for yourself. Now, you can even get this book on CD
in HTML format. Pretty neat!
DEF0100 is a file that contains the default data file for making any
STOS program compatible with TOS 1.0 when using STOS FIX v.2.7a by
Robert Quezada. The funny thing is I thought any STOS program would be
backward compatible with older TOS's, just not compatible with newer
TOS's unless fixed. I don't know. If you do, and you know you need
this file, get it!
GEMSHELL is a short GFA 3.x uncompiled program which opens a window filled
with text and allows it to be manipulated in a standard fashion. This
file, written by John Eidsvoog of CodeHead Technologies fame (dated Aug.
29, 1992) shows how easy it is to write and use GFA basic code which
correctly handles GEM redraw messages and windows. GFA 3.x Basic
required.
GET_DEFS is an .ACC that is designed to replace part of the function
of the control panel / printer setup accessory the was supplied by
DRI. The problem with the control panel .ACC is that after the
Control Panel sets the colors, mouse click speed, etc. it's not often
used again, but just sits there in memory, eating well over 16k in RAM
and using up two .ACC slots (out of six, unless you have something
like Geneva, MultiDesk, or Magic that allows you more). If you remove
the control panel, however, none of the options set by it or the
printer setup accessory are set on bootup of the system. So, bite
the bullet and keep the control panel there all the time or get this
file. It will allow you read your Desktop.INF file without the
control panel present. That means you can set your desk up just the
way you want it and have it that way every time. Docs included.
Here are some more of the forums and other helps that I mentioned
with which Genie abounds...
ATWORK24 is the complete transcript of the Atari Works topic on Genie
and the Atari Roundtable from Feb. 14, 1996 through Jan 5, 1997.
This file contains all sorts of discussion about the "Black Page
Syndrome" of v.1.207 and work-a-rounds on how to fix it. The topic
continues in Category 13, Topic 2 on Genie and the Atari Roundtables.
GEMVIEW5 is the complete transcript of the GEM-View Topic on Genie and
the Atari Roundtables from Nov. 26, 1994 though Jan 5, 1997. This
topic provides you with all sorts of questions and answers about
GEM-View, the picture viewing and manipulating Shareware program by
Dieter Fiebelkorn. I registered this, and I recommend that you get
it and register it, too! The topic continues in Category 7 Topic 33
of Genie and the Atari Roundtables.
INST205 is a text file that will tell you how to install TOS 2.05 on
your STE. It isn't that hard! This will only work with the STE
though as the TOS 2.05 was STE specific. The TOS 2.05 chips are much
cheaper than the 2.06 chips, and are not that much less capable (TOS
2.06 added backwards capability with ST's and some fancier visuals,
but I don't think too much more.
WWW_05 is the complete transcript of the STiK CAB World Wide Web
(HTML) browser on Genie and the Atari Roundtables from Oct. 9, 1996
through Dec. 7, 1996. This is a wonderful set of programs which will
allow you to get on the Internet in a graphical way. It seems though
that there are lots of problems in getting this software configured
correctly for your system. You have to know what you're doing to do
it right. Well, this transcript will help you to know what you're
doing!
And finally, here are some excellent utilities that I can highly
recommend to you.
BIGDOS08 is Big-DOS 8 by Rainer Seitel (dated Jan. 5, 1997). Big-DOS
is a wonderful program! Technically it is "an ISO 9293 filesystem
that replaces the GEMDOS of TOS," but what that really means is that
you may now access IBM formatted hard drives with partitions larger
than 32 Meg on your Atari. Using this allows me to access the drives
on my Windoz machine to quickly and easily pull files off of them for
my TT (and put them back). I need to access both Atari formated and
Windoz partitioned hard drives from my TT because I'll eventually need
to take all of the files I'm collecting for my next CD to a company
that will write a CD master, and they'll need a IBM type disk for
that. You must have a hard drive formatted and partitioned to Atari's
AHDI specification (using Atari's hard drive software, ICD's software,
or HD Driver). You also must be using a driver that is XHDI
compatible (the Atari Software or HD Driver at the moment, but,
thankfully, ICD is soon coming out with an upgrade to their system
which will work with Big-DOS--and lots more features, too!). Just
plop this in your AUTO folder and forget it. English and German docs
included. Lots of other features too. That's what boot managers are
for! Freeware. Write the guy a note! This is a wonderful program!
ST-Falcon, Geneva, Multi-TOS compatible.
DESKCLOC is DeskClock v.1.0 by Yanick Dufresne. This archive contains
an .ACC clock which will display the time in the menu bar. It works as
a .PRG with Geneva (using its tear off menus) or MultiTOS. Pure C
source included.
ELFBK211 is ELFBACK v.2.11 by Jay Kormylo of E.L.F Software. ELFBACK
provides an easy way to do hard disk backups (full, partial, or
incremental) and restores to floppies or other disk drives in a very
easy to use manner. The program requires TOS 1.4 or better with 2 meg
or more of RAM and will work with mono or color monitors. It can use
data compression to reduce the number of floppies needed (or space on
your hard drives--I've used my EZ-SyQuest 135 drive for backups). It
uses the "archive bit" in the file directory to indicate that the file
has been archived (for use with incremental backups). It also allows
you to inspect each floppy before you write on it, and to either
reformat, erase (faster than reformatting), or use the remaining space
on the floppy and preserve the existing files. The beauty of ElfBack
is that it stores your backups on disk as one large file. When your
hard drive has lots of small files on it this is a tremendous space
savings in the backup. The compression technique used is very slow,
but also quite efficient (since you can run this in the background or
overnight, the speed isn't that much of an issue, at least to me).
Another compression method you might choose is faster, but not as
efficient. I've compressed 250 meg of files into slightly more than a
100 meg backup file. Uncompression and backup is effortless, too.
ELFBack has built in HELP features. Almost every dialog has a HELP
button in the upper right corner. This archive includes a version for
the ST/STe and another for the TT that uses the 68030 and 68881
extensions and is much faster. Docs included. Shareware. ST-TT
(Falcon?) and Geneva compatible. Note: This version is newer than
the v.2.9 as the author has apparently redone the numbering system for
new versions.
GNVADEMO is the Geneva release 005 Demo from Gribnif Software (dated
1996). Geneva is a replacement of the AES part of TOS. What this
means is that when using Geneva you can multi-task programs, load and
unload accessories at will (as many as your memory will allow),
access all sorts of bells and whistles to prettify your workspace,
use MiNT or not, get a neat new item selector that allows you to run
programs from within it, and much much more. I use Geneva all the
time on my ST/STE/TT computers, and I hate booting up without it. I
recommend it to you, highly. This is a demo, but it's not very
limited at all. You can certainly get a good idea of how it works.
But really, why get this demo, just go out and buy the program!
DETAILED docs included.
GNVA_005 is the free update to Geneva release 004 to release 005 from
Gribnif Software. I am amazed at the Gribnif folks. They work and
work to upgrade their products, and they don't charge for the
upgrades! This upgrade makes Geneva better, faster, more compatible,
and all for free...to us (it cost Dan and company a lot of hours of
work, I'm sure!). If you have Geneva (I do, and I think it's
absolutely wonderful! I hate booting up without it), then you should
get this patch. It makes a great product even better. Requires an
unmodified master disk.
That's it for this week! I hope you find lots of stuff you can use.
Now you know where you can get it, too! Of course, much of this
software if available on the internet and on other services, but as I
said, Genie has it gathered together in one place. Next column I'll
talk about my real online home, Delphi, and some of the files you can
find there.
Take care, and drop me a line to say hello. I'm always glad to get
mail!
May God Bless,
--Michael R. Burkley
The Unabashed Atariophile
p.s.: You may contact me at MRBURKLEY@DELPHI.COM,
MICHAEL-R-BURKLEY@WORLDNET.ATT.NET, or at
M.BURKLEY1 on Genie
Michael is a former Polyurethane
Research Chemist, the co-owner of
Suzy B's Software, and currently
the Pastor of the Niagara
Presbyterian Church
Gaming Section
Jaguar - EB news! PSX Sales!
Sony-NBA Venture! Machine Hunter!
And much more!
>From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
Is it possible that the Jaguar is making a retail comeback? Sounds
like _something_ is happening with Telegames and Electronics Boutique. It
will be interesting to see if EB will follow through and carry Jaguar games
(primarily the recent Telegames releases); and, if this could lead to more.
Who knows, Telegames may attempt to publish games beyond those that they've
already committed to doing. Check out the comments from JV Enterprises'
Vince Valenti, below.
The Sony PlayStation has hit another milestone recently, as reported
below. The machine and software seems to be holding its own against the
Nintendo 64 and eclipsing the Sega Saturn. Has the N64 faltered? Hard to
say, but I've always thought that the PlayStation was going to be the
system to beat in the long haul. One can only wonder where the Jaguar
would be if there were a real overall commitment to it...
Until next time...
Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
Sony and National Basketball Association Announce Alliance
NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Corporation of America (NYSE:SNE) and
the National Basketball Association today announced an expansive,
multi-year alliance that makes Sony an "Official Sponsor of the NBA." The
relationship represents Sony's largest and most far-reaching sports
sponsorship to date.
"Sony is proud to be a partner with the NBA in such a bold and significant
effort," said Michael Newman, Market Development Vice President, whose Sony
Corporation of America group oversaw the agreement. "This sponsorship
brings tremendous added value to the Sony and NBA brands and it has
unlimited potential for the future." Sony companies participating
include: Sony Pictures Entertainment; Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; Sony
Computer Entertainment America Inc., makers of the PlayStation console; and
Sony Electronics Inc., through its Consumer A/V Products Group and
Recording Media & Energy Group.
Mike Stevens, Vice President, NBA Properties Marketing Partnerships, said,
"Sony and the NBA have wide-ranging assets that will enable both companies
to leverage the power and the obvious merging of the sports and
entertainment industries." Sony and the National Basketball Association
will participate in a wide range of marketing activities during their
association, which will continue, at a minimum, through the year 2000.
The Sony NBA marketing alliance will be coordinated by Newman, under Mike
Uchida, Executive Vice President, Sony Corporation of America. Under the
agreement, Sony will have exclusive domestic promotion rights within the
consumer electronics category, as well as a variety of additional rights
which will benefit all participating Sony Companies.
"Sony, through its U.S. operating companies, and the NBA will work together
to create a myriad of branding and marketing opportunities," Newman said.
"Sony and the NBA are synonymous with first-rate entertainment, and we are
committed to building creative and important programs that significantly
enhance both organizations." Sony and the NBA will also consider
developing and distributing programming, as well as exploring ways to work
together at appropriate league-venues, including grassroots programs and
select special events.
As part of the agreement, Sony will also have use of the NBA logo and
related trademarks in promotional material as well as in national and
regional promotions, use of the NBA Playoffs, NBA Finals and NBA All-Star
logos and themes in advertising and access to NBA photo archives for
promotional purposes.
MGM Interactive to Showcase Deep Games Lineup at E3
LOS ANGELES (June 9) BUSINESS WIRE -June 9, 1997--At the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta, June 19-21, MGM Interactive will
showcase a number of new PC and PlayStation titles for game fans, including
Return Fire II, Rollerball, WarGames, and Machine Hunter. The company will
also announce two additions to its Family Entertainment product line -- The
All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center and Babes in Toyland.
MGM Interactive's commitment to great product will be evident at this
year's E3 show, predicts Ronald Frankel, executive vice president and
general manager, MGM Interactive. "Our product line up leverages the best
of MGM, including great brands, great talent, and innovative marketing.
With this line up, we hope to satisfy the needs and expectations of gamers
and parents everywhere."
Hot New Titles for Gamers
MGM Interactive's Return Fire II is the sequel to the award-winning 3D
action strategy game from Silent Software. The player is plunged into
pitched battles, armed with a greater arsenal of land, air, and naval
units, including helicopters, jump jets, PT boats, armored support vehicles
and four wheel drive military vehicles.
The greatly enhanced sequel to the award-winning Return Fire game features
white-knuckle war scenarios in photorealistic 3D settings, including
cityscapes and deserts. Players deploy weapons from bunkers and battle the
elements as well as their enemies, facing off under a variety of weather
conditions, including rain and blizzards. A number of multi-player
opportunities will be available on Return Fire II -- from split-screen
battle scenarios to aerial dogfights, and teamplay against the computer.
Return Fire II will be available for PlayStation game consoles and Windows
95 PC versions in Q4 '97.
MGM Interactive's Rollerball brings an all-new bone-crunching, futuristic
bloodsport to the PC and PlayStation game consoles. Based on the United
Artists' sci-fi classic, Rollerball delivers a unique sports game mechanic
by combining the team strategies of hockey and football with the brutal
action of demolition derby and kick-boxing. Based on the 2098 Rollerball
season, players manage teams from around the world, made up of strikers
(those shooting for the goal), enforcers (the ruthless bruisers who take
out opponents by any means necessary) and others who compete using jet
bikes and magnetic in-line skates.
Featuring multi-player LAN play as well as two player matchups on a split
screen, Rollerball will deliver the ultimate fast-action, 3D fantasy sports
experience. Rollerball is scheduled to ship in Q1 1998 for Windows 95 PCs
and Sony PlayStation game systems. In MGM Interactive's WarGames, a next
generation, real-time strategy title, the player portrays a young hacker
who infiltrates a computer that controls the nation's military nuclear
defense system. WarGames offers 30 missions and the ability to zoom and
tilt the camera to view the entire battlefield. Realistic 3D rendered
texture maps will place players in a virtual war room where they will
decide the fates of entire cities. All terrain and objects are also
rendered in full 3D.
WarGames will appear in single and multi-player modes for LAN, modem, and
Internet play. The Windows '95 version is scheduled for release in Q4 '97
with PlayStation to follow in Q1 '98. Machine Hunter is an intense,
multi-player shooter in which the player portrays the sole human battling
droid invaders armed with an arsenal of weaponry, including grenade
launchers, machine guns and plasma cannons. With each successful salvo,
the player assumes a destroyed droid's characteristics and weaponry.
The game offers players an addictive shooting experience in a vivid 3D
environment. Machine Hunter is being developed by Eurocom and both Windows
95 PC and Sony PlayStation console versions will ship in late August.
Family Entertainment Product Line Expands MGM Interactive will also
demonstrate two new children's titles at E3: All Dogs Go Heaven Activity
Center and Babes in Toyland. Both are scheduled to ship this fall. The two
titles will be on display along with a new Macintosh/PC version of Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town.
All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center features inviting traditional cell
animation based on artwork from the animated film and television series.
Kids ages three to eight will learn about different types of dogs by
exploring various interactive challenges, including connect the dots,
coloring puzzles, and the ability to design and dress their own pet. Video
footage of various breeds of dogs also will be included. All Dogs Go to
Heaven Activity Center will be available as a Windows 95/Macintosh hybrid
CD-ROM and is scheduled for release in Q3 '97.
Babes in Toyland empowers kids three to eight to help Jack and Jill find
missing toys as they interact with the legendary Mother Goose character of
Toyland. The title features 12 arcade, music-inspired, and puzzle games
that help young players develop problem-solving skills. Working with
shapes, colors, and numbers, kids perform entertaining tasks such as
helping the Old Woman in the Shoe find her lost children and rescuing toys
from a well.
Upon completion of the game, players can print out a personalized color
"thank you" certificate from Santa. Three adjustable levels of difficulty
allow for age-appropriate play. The Windows 95/Mac hybrid CD-ROM is
scheduled for release in Q3 '97. Curious youngsters will pilot Hollywood's
favorite flying car to the greatest land of exploration and invention ever
created with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town. Kids are
whisked to an enchanting world where they use a variety of animated tools
to piece together and explore colorful, larger-than-life versions of common
household appliances.
While they're having fun, kids will develop science, safety and memory
skills with 15 interactive screens, 11 lock-n-key puzzles and dozens of
clever and creative characters. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in
Tinker Town is currently on store shelves for Windows 95 PCs with a
combination Macintosh/PC version expected before the 1997 holiday gift
giving season.
The Hunt is on: MGM Interactive and Gamespot - Machine Hunter
MGM Interactive plans multi-tiered marketing program to commandeer gamers
for upcoming Windows 95 and Sony PlayStation Shooter Building excitement
for the August release of its "Machine Hunter" game, an addictive
multiplayer shooter for Windows 95 computers and PlayStation consoles, MGM
Interactive Thursday announced a new PC shareware contest with Gamespot, a
premier on-line site offering reviews and news from the world of
interactive entertainment.
>From now through Aug. 1, gamers who download the "Machine Hunter" PC demo
from www.gamespot.com and uncover the hidden Easter eggs can enter in a
grand prize drawing for $2,500. Two hundred "Machine Hunter" T-shirts also
will be given away through a random drawing throughout the promotion. The
easily downloadable 3MB demo features one level of Machine Hunter's
riveting gameplay. More than a 3-D shooter, the full version of the game
allows two players to do battle in death matches and acquire the bodies and
special weaponry of the opponents they kill.
"Gamespot is the perfect outlet to drive demand for Machine Hunter," said
Ron Frankel, executive vice president and general manager, MGM Interactive.
"Machine Hunter's combination of great action arcade gameplay and graphics
will introduce players to a new class of top-down shooters. The one-level
demo is sure to whet the appetite of thrill-seeking players."
Demo Discs and Advertising Campaign To complete the company's multi-tiered
sampling program, MGM also has arranged to bundle demos of the game in
leading enthusiast magazines, including Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer,
Next Generation and other console magazines. An extensive print and
on-line advertising campaign and national public relations program for both
the PlayStation and PC versions of "Machine Hunter" also are being
implemented. Point of purchase promotional materials also will be made
available to retailers.
"Machine Hunter"
Players who download "Machine Hunter" will find themselves immersed in a
blazing space-age shooter where awesome 3-D rendered environments hide
deadly droids and aliens, each equipped with unique weapons of destruction.
As a commando embroiled in a battle to save a Mars mining colony taken over
by enemy forces, players take charge of an exotic arsenal of weaponry,
including grenade launchers, machine guns and plasma cannons. After
successfully defeating each droid, player commandos can "morph" into its
body and assume its characteristics and weaponry, growing increasingly
powerful with each conquest.
Two players can compete in death match or cooperative competition. The
PlayStation version features two-player split screen play. PC version
players can compete on a LAN, modem or in Internet death matches. Gameplay
on both versions is rich and diverse with 16 unique, themed arena/levels,
including hospital, swamp and alien planet settings. These diverse battle
locations lead to hours of varied and non-stop excitement. "Machine
Hunter" is currently in development by Eurocom under the direction of MGM
Interactive's Robb Alvey. Slated for release in late August 1997 for
Windows 95 PCs and Sony PlayStation game consoles, "Machine Hunter" will
have an estimated retail price of $49.95.
MGM Interactive, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., manages creative
development and production of interactive products for a variety of
multimedia platforms, as well as talent and developer relationships. In
1996, MGM Interactive released the critically acclaimed "The Ultimate James
Bond: An Interactive Dossier" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in
Tinker Town."
Sony Says PlayStation Sales Pass 16m Worldwide
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1997 JUN 12 (Newsbytes) -- By Martyn Williams. A week ahead
of the important E3 consumer electronics show in the United States, Sony
Computer Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp. [TOKYO:6758] [NYSE:SNE], has
announced worldwide shipments of its PlayStation games console have passed
16-million. The company said that, as of the end of May, shipments in
Japan stood at 7.5-million units, North American shipments were at
4.8-million units and European shipments at 3.7-million units.
Sales of PlayStation software are also doing very well, according to SCE,
and have reached 114-million worldwide. Mirroring the hardware sales, Japan
leads, with shipments of 59-million units, followed by the North American
market, with 30-million units shipped, and the European market, with
25-million units shipped. Commenting in a company press release, Kaz
Hirai, chief operating officer, Sony Computer Entertainment America, said,
"Going into the most visible trade event of the year - next week at E3 in
Atlanta - it is satisfying to know that our documented sales figures will
substantiate who is factually the leading next generation video game
system."
Seemingly unable to restrain the company's delight at taking the lead in a
market that it wasn't even a part of five years ago, Sony's Hirai
continued, "I think that any person - be it a retailer, consumer, analyst
or reporter - would be hard pressed to argue with the fact that we've
quickly become the leader in the video game industry. Needless to say, we
are very pleased and proud of our accomplishments, especially given the
fact that we've yet to celebrate our second anniversary in the
marketplace."
The PlayStation is battling, and winning, in all markets with the Nintendo
64 and Sega Saturn game machines. Nintendo said sales of its Nintendo 64
machine had reached 6.12-million units by the end of March, 1997, but the
system was only launched in June, 1996, in Japan and September, 1996, in
the United States. Sega, which is currently running in third place in the
games console shoot-out, said sales by the end of March, 1997, reached
7.56-million units.
All three companies have recently issued forecasts for the current fiscal
year, which began in April. Sony said shipments of PlayStation machines
will total 18-million in the year, with Nintendo forecasting shipments of
12-million systems. Sega, faced with strong competition from Sony and
Nintendo, said shipments will likely drop to around 1.9-million.
Nintendo's sales forecast is seen as difficult to attain by some. The
company is likely to see shipments of around 10-million units, say
analysts, but it seems to be pinning its hopes on surge in sales caused by
a recent price cut. The Kyoto based company reduced the price of the
Nintendo 64 system to 16,800 yen ($146) from 25,000 yen ($217) in Japan and
to $149 from $199 in the United States. Exchange rate: $1 = 115.00 yen
Jaguar Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr!
Good news for Jaguar
From: "Vince" <jvent@vegas.infi.net>
I know you all have been waiting for me to spill the beans. Well, now I
can!
As of 2 days ago, Telegames received a P.O. (purchase order) from EB
(Electronic Boutique) for copies of all 4 Telegames titles (Towers II :),
IS2, WTR, and Breakout 2k.) These games are going into RETAIL stores in the
top 50 (jaguar) selling EBs. This is being setup as a test, if the test
goes well, these titles could very well appear in all EB stores (approx.
500.)
Unfortunately, I don't know which ones are the top 50. It's really
important that these products sell. Maybe we could start a EB sighting
report, and add to some list where a Jaguar title was sighted. Having
Retail exposure is essential for keeping the Jaguar alive and kickin'.
Products won't be in the EB stores for a week or two, as Telegames must
first ship to a warehouse, then it ships to each store.
The hope is this. There are new Jag owners from KB, now all we have to do
is walk them from KB to EB, to buy at least one of these titles each. :)
Hope this makes your week,
Vince
JV Games
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