ST Report: 17-Oct-97 #1341
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 10/21/97-11:49:25 AM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 17-Oct-97 #1341
Date: Tue Oct 21 11:49:25 1997
Silicon Times Report
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October 17, 1997 No.1341
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- CPU Industry Report - Win98 TOP GUN! - Samsung sues Fujitsu
- Holocaust DENIED?! - TI has SUPER Chips - Travelstar 8.1g HD
- MSN NOT For Sale! - WEB Telescope NOW - Apple rebates & cuts $$
- More Zero5 - People Talking - Classics & Gaming
Net Tax Freeze Bill Advances
HP, Intel Unveil Merced Chips
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The Publisher, Staff & Editors
1987-1997
Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35
Results: 10/11/97: three of six numbers with 2 three number matches
>From the Editor's Desk...
Hey! Better late than Never! Actually they're putting in new
underground feed for Cable Television (Fiber Optics) and somewhere in the
area they nailed an underground electricity feed. Yup, you guessed it. No
power for over four hours. I'm glad we have an outdoor BBQ. Or, it
would've meant dinner out last night.
In the last few weeks we saw new versions of many of our favorite
software productivity packages come through the pipeline. One in
particular, Corel's Perfect Office Pro 8.0 was quite impressive with its
integration. Especially Corel Central. That is one lovely, centralized
communications package.
This past week... we saw Netscape Communicator 4.03 appear. Cool! I
thought a fancy update for Corel's 4.01 version of Communicator. Oh, was I
mistaken. After I read all the hype about installing 4.03 over a previous
version of Communicator it would update and still use all the prior config
files. Great I thought.... in like Flynn.. And out just as fast.
It seems that Corel, in their infinite wisdom had decided to "rename"
Netscape Communicator to "Cscape" I wonder what that stands for? All I
know is not only did Communicator 4.03 not update the 4.01 version of
Communicator that came with Corel Pro 8.0 and installs with Corel
Central... It killed the whole enchilada.
You'd think that the licensing of using someone's browser to take a
cheap shot at MS would entail the use of common sense too. But no,
renaming such a popular Browser EXE and having "proprietary" names on
config files etc., only led to duplicity in ALL of Netscape's folders and
sub-folders... User files and folders.
In other words.. Netscape's Communicator 4.03 installation was totally
unaware of the previous Stealth-like installation of Communicator 4.01. By
Corel's installation routines. Happily, I found that while Corel Central
was now a ruptured duck, nothing else in Corel Perfect Office Pro 8.0 was
affected.
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Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner
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STReport Headline News
LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Jobs Ponders 'Interim' Role
Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.'s interim CEO, is thinking about becoming
the struggling computer maker's permanent chief, reports trade journal
MacWeek. Speaking at the Macromedia Users Conference in San Francisco,
Jobs said he would ponder the question during an upcoming Hawaiian
vacation. Jobs also said he was listening closely to users' concerns.
"We're reading every single e-mail," he stated. "Tell us what's wrong."
MacWeek notes that attendees leaving the event said they found Jobs'
message reassuring. "Jobs is the best thing that's happened to Apple in the
past 10 years," said David Jaworski, president and CEO of Provident
Ventures Interactive Inc. of Bellevue, Washington. "I hope he takes the CEO
spot permanently."
Two Top VPs Leave Apple
Two senior vice presidents have resigned at Apple Computer Corp., another
high-level executive change at the Cupertino, California, computer maker.
To pursue other interests, both Dave Manovich, senior vice president of
international sales, and James McCluney, senior vice president of worldwide
operations, have resigned. Of the resignations, Steve Jobs, Apple's
interim CEO, is quoted by the Reuters News Service as saying, "We don't
expect to hit any speedbumps as a result of these changes."
Reuters says Apple, which is already looking for a permanent CEO, said it
would begin searches to fill both positions. Manovich had been with Apple
most recently since February. Mitch Mandich, senior vice president for
North American sales, will serve as interim head of international sales.
McCluney had been with Apple since July 1996. Heidi Hedlund, Apple senior
director of operations product management, will serve as interim head of
operations.
Microsoft Network Not for Sale
A report by a new Internet publication has prompted official denials from
Redmond, Washington, of rumors that the Microsoft Network online service is
for sale. Microsoft spokesman Marty Taucher told the Reuter News Service
the report, published by TheStreet.com and attributed to unidentified
company "insiders," was false, adding, "Microsoft remains committed to MSN.
It is of strategic importance to the company."
As reported, MSN has undergone several transformations since it was
launched in August 1995 as a proprietary online service just as the
Internet began to take off commercially. Executives told Reuters they are
satisfied with the rapid growth of MSN, which now has some 2.3 million
subscribers, adding they plan to trim spending at MSN and other
money-losing interactive media ventures but have maintained they are
committed to the business. The online report suggested MSN would be valued
at $1 billion, with Microsoft said to be interested in selling a majority
stake but retaining controlling influence. It listed potential buyers as
America Online, Internet software maker Netscape Communications Corp. and
Internet service provider At Home Corp.
NetCom Sold for $283.5 Million
National Internet service provider Netcom On-Line Communications Services
Inc. will be sold to a Colorado phone company called ICG Communications
Inc. for about $283.5 million in stock. Reporting from Englewood,
Colorado, the Reuters News Service says the deal calls for Netcom
shareholders to receive 0.8628 share, or $22.65 a share based on ICG's
closing stock price Friday, for each share of Netcom. Based in San Jose,
California, Netcom has local access numbers across the United States, as
well as in Canada. Reuters says the company has about 560,000 subscribers,
which puts it ahead of many smaller Internet access providers.
ICG officials told the wire service the combined company will employ more
than 2,600 people and will have more than $420 million in quarterly
annualized revenues on a pro forma basis. About half of Netcom's customers
are in ICG's existing network territory and about 140,000 Netcom customers
are in California, where ICG has its largest statewide fiber optic network,
ICG said.
HP, Intel Unveil Merced Chips
The first major new computer chip designs in nearly 20 years are being
unveiled this week by Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. It is seen by
reporter Therese Poletti of the Reuters News Service as "paving the way for
how computers will run well into the next century." She says top engineers
from the two companies will disclose details of the widely awaited project
tomorrow, but notes production of the chips is two years away.
Says Poletti, "Intel's current family of chips is built on the so-called
x86 architecture used since it developed the microprocessors used in the
first IBM personal computer in the early 1980s. The new design is Intel's
first departure from that core processor technology in almost 20 years. It
also represents one of the biggest technological shifts for the computer
industry." Reuters says the firms will show the new technology --
code-named Merced -- to engineers at a technical conference called the
Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, California. Intel is based in Santa
Clara, California.
"The presentations are expected to be extremely technical, with blocks and
diagrams of semiconductor design layout," Poletti writes, "but the goal of
the chip is simple -- to further boost computing performance and help Intel
get a bigger share in the market for workstations used by engineers,
servers that link computers into networks and other high-end machines."
Editor Linley Gwennap of the Microprocessor Report, which sponsors the
conference where the details will be discussed, estimated in a recent
newsletter that the chip could run at 900 megahertz, a huge increase from
Intel's fastest Pentium II chip, which runs at 300 megahertz.
Analysts say the new design will be able to run current software that runs
on Pentium-based PCs. "Intel has already won widespread support of the
architecture, also known as IA-64," the wire service says, "but the designs
have not even been used in sample chips that must be heavily tested before
production can begin."
Poletti says the new architecture will include some elements of
Hewlett-Packard's older PA-RISC architecture, which uses Reduced
Instruction Set Computing (RISC) technology, adding applications developed
for H-P workstations running PA-RISC chips will also run on the Merced
architecture. Intel says Merced will be in production in 1999.
Intel, HP Unveil Their EPIC
Built around the Merced chip, a new architecture called EPIC (Explicitly
Parallel Instruction Computing) has been unveiled as the foundation for
Intel Corp.'s next generation of microprocessors. Expect it to be in
production by 1999. As reported earlier, the new chip, developed with
Hewlett-Packard Co., is aimed at high-performance workstations and server
computers, running corporate networks and applications such as online
transaction processing, querying and storage of massive databases and
three-dimensional graphics.
Reporting from San Jose, California, for the Reuter News Service, writer
Therese Poletti observes, "Analysts said the architecture is significant,
not only because of the performance boost it promises users, but also as a
technology which will help transform Intel into a supplier of chips beyond
personal computers." Says President Janet Ramkissoon of Quadra Capital
Inc., a money manager based in New York, "To pigeon hole Intel as a PC
company is wrong. This is Intel ... moving into an environment that was
owned by minicomputers and mainframes. We are talking about mainframe and
supercomputing type capability here."
Intel told analyst yesterday the new architecture will increase computing
performance and initially, the chip is expected to deliver processing
speeds of about 900 megahertz, compared with the fastest Pentium speeds
currently of 300 megahertz. John Crawford, an Intel fellow told the
Microprocessor Forum, "The objectives were ... breakthrough performance
and headroom for the future. We wanted to make sure it had a long life,
that we could crank it into the future."
Poletti says the architecture is being designed so that all current
applications running on Intel's current processors and on Hewlett-Packard's
UNIX-based systems will run on Merced and Merced follow-on chips. So far,
22 companies have announced support for the EPIC architecture, which is
still in the design phase, including Microsoft Corp., Compaq Computer
Corp., Dell Computer Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Sequent
Computer Systems Inc. and many other major companies.
Adds Poletti, "The new architecture, which defines the flow of operations
within a microprocessor, is a significant departure from previous computer
architectures, because it will enable an EPIC based chip to process many
instructions in parallel." Intel says older architectures such as CISC
(Complex Instruction Set Computing) and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set
Computing), process instructions sequentially, or one after the other.
Intel has mostly based its current processors on the CISC architecture, and
combined some elements of RISC. "The instruction set within the chip," says
Reuters, "will include elements of speculation and predication, which the
engineers likened to a bank teller being prepared with two completed
possible transaction slips for each customer waiting in line."
TI Said Readying Super Chips
Reports from London are that U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments is set to
unveil an ultrafast silicon chip that can be developed cheaply enough for
inclusion in everyday devices. The Reuters News Service quotes the British
Financial Times as saying the new chips are derived from processors used in
mobile telephones and would allow computers to generate three-dimensional
pictures of cinematic quality. The newspaper says the chips also will
allow telescopes to see into deep space, enhance virtual-reality systems
and provide high-resolution medical images.
New Drive Sets Storage Record
A new high-capacity hard disk drive for notebook computers has been
developed by IBM which says the device shatters the existing storage record
for such units. Dubbed the Travelstar 8GS, the hard drive is about the
size of a music cassette tape and holds 8.1 gigabytes of information, the
Reuters News Service reports, noting that currently, the largest notebook
hard drives hold about five gigabytes.
An IBM spokeswoman told the wire service the drive is the first to surpass
a storage density of three billion bits per square inch on each of its disk
platters, an amount of data roughly equivalent to 187,500 double-spaced
typewritten pages. Look for the new hard drive will be available in
December. IBM also is announcing several other new hard drive models, at
capacities of 6.4 gigabytes, 3.2 gigabytes and 2.1 gigabytes. The latter
two are about half the thickness of the larger drives.
Apple Cuts Prices, Sets Rebates
Apple Computer Inc. has lowered prices by up to $1,000 on selected desktop
and notebook computer models and has introduced cash-back rebates on some
computers and peripherals. Apple has cut prices of its desktop Power
Macintosh 8600 line by $600 to $800, and is offering cash rebates of $250
to $300. It has also reduced prices on its Apple PowerBook 3400 notebooks
by $800 to $1,000.
The computer maker is offering rebates on several of its printers, scanners
and digital cameras. The rebates can be increased when the equipment is
bought in combination with a computer system. For complete terms and
details, visit Apple's Web site .
Microsoft Offers Reference Bundle
Microsoft Corp. has combined three of its leading multimedia reference
tools into a single product. The new "Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite
98" includes the "Encarta 98 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition," "Encarta Virtual
Globe 1998 Edition" and the "Bookshelf 98" CD-ROM reference library. The
combined works contain more than 20 million words of text in over 50,000
articles. There are 32,000 articles in the "Encarta 98 Encyclopedia Deluxe
Edition," 1.2 million place names in the "Encarta Virtual Globe 1998
Edition" and more than 600,000 entries for definitions, synonyms and quotes
in "Bookshelf 98."
"Microsoft's reference titles combine multimedia brilliance with up-to-date
editorial content to bring information to life and inspire the user's
imagination," says Craig Bartholomew, general manager of Microsoft's
reference business unit. "This suite offers people top value with
best-of-breed products at a compelling price." Windows 95 and Windows NT
versions of the "Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite 98" are available now
for $109. Schools and other educational institutions can acquire the
product at a discount.
Enhanced Handhelds Unveiled
LG Electronics U.S.A. Inc. has introduced the second generation models of
its Phenom Computer (H/PC). The new Phenom and Phenom+, based on Microsoft
Windows CE 2.0, include a built-in modem, two NiMH rechargeable batteries
and pocket versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Enhancements
include 8MB of memory, a wide 640- by 240-dot resolution backlit screen and
VGA output for delivering Pocket PowerPoint presentations on the road. The
LG Phenom+ also includes a built-in CDPD modem.
Color screens are slated to become available on Phenom models in early
1998. Both Phenoms are powered by a 32-bit SuperH RISC CPU. The updated
Phenom is set to become available in December at $599. The Phenom+ is
scheduled to ship in March 1998 for $899. LG Electronics is headquartered
in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Visit the Phenom Web site for more
details.
Apple Ships Rhapsody Beta
Apple Computer, Inc. has shipped an early version of its next-generation
operating system -- code named Rhapsody -- to more than 10,000 software
developers worldwide. The computer maker says its Rhapsody Developer
Release is intended to allow software developers to begin creating the
applications that will run on the new operating system. Apple expects
Rhapsody to complement Mac OS in its overall operating system strategy.
"While Mac OS will move forward as Apple's volume operating system,
delivering market leading ease-of-use, multimedia and Internet integration,
Rhapsody will be initially targeted at server and high-end desktop
applications," notes a statement issued by Apple. Rhapsody aims to
integrate the Mac OS's ease-of-use and functionality with leading-edge
technologies pioneered by NeXT Software Inc.'s OPENSTEP operating system.
Apple is delivering Rhapsody first on selected PowerPC models including,
the Power Macintosh 8500, 8600, 9500 and 9600. As Rhapsody matures, Apple
expects all Macintosh systems shipped from early 1997 to be able to run the
new operating system. Apple also plans to introduce developer releases of
Rhapsody for PC compatibles. A full customer release of Rhapsody is
scheduled for 1998. For full details on Apple's operating system strategy,
visit Apple's operating system Web page .
Plastic Sheet Battery Debuts
A battery that resembles a plastic sheet has been developed by Bellcore.
Bellcore researchers demonstrated the battery's ability to power a standard
laptop computer, children's toys and cellular telephones today at the Power
97 trade show in Santa Clara, California. The company is offering to help
battery makers bring the technology to market. "Our battery technology
offers four times the power for the same weight as conventional battery
technology," says Christina Lampe-Onnerud, a senior scientist at Bellcore's
energy storage research laboratory. "We can configure it to fit the
application, so that you can charge it up in a hurry, or slowly."
Bellcore, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, is a provider of
communications software, engineering and consulting services. More
information about Bellcore is available at its Web site .
Intel Readies 1st 64-Bit Processor
Intel Corp. reports that the first entry in its new family of 64-bit
microprocessors -- code named Merced -- is scheduled for production in
1999. The Santa Clara, California, chipmaker says the processor will be
produced on its 0.18 micron process technology, which is currently under
development. The Merced processors will run all the software that currently
operates on 32-bit Intel processor-based computers.
Intel reports that it has been working with more than 20 computer industry
leaders over the past two years to create operating systems, application
software and other products that will capitalize on Merced's 64-bit
architecture. Next week, Intel will join with Hewlett-Packard Co. to
announce a new jointly developed 64-bit instruction set architecture (ISA)
for Merced. The ISA has been in development since 1994. Visit Intel on the
Web at .
CompuServe Sets Web-Based Service
CompuServe Corp. says its new Web-based service will make "the best of
CompuServe" -- including the company's acclaimed Forums and communities -
directly available for the first time to Internet users. The service is
slated to debut in the U.S. and Canada later this year.
In an online news conference, CompuServe officials said the new product
will be "one of the largest, most content-rich sites on the World Wide Web,
day one." They also revealed that the initiative, formerly code-named "CSi
97," now has a product name and tagline: "C from CompuServe -- The Net's
Best Thing."
"C from CompuServe will feature the best of the company's award-winning CSi
proprietary online service -- including more than 500 of Csi's acclaimed
Forums and hundreds of research databases from high-end providers -- plus
links to thousands of the best topically related external Web sites," says
Sam Uretsky, vice president of business management for Csi.
The new product is aimed at business, professional, technical and other
sophisticated consumers, who comprise 36 percent of all Web users today,
according to Odyssey Research. The largest unmet need of this attractive
segment is for community, says Uretsky. "That's why CompuServe's renowned
interactive communities, called Forums, are at the heart of 'C from
CompuServe.'" "This is a new market opportunity, not a migration play,"
notes Uretsky. "Members of our existing CSi service will also have access
to the new product for no additional fee."
C from CompuServe will offer three distinct privilege levels:
z The Guest level, where any Web user can access more than 500 Forums,
with a vast range of topics and unique content, on a 'read-only' basis at
no cost. For added convenience, there will be reciprocal links to thousands
of Web sites chosen for their value and relatedness to the Forum topics.
The reciprocal links have the added function of pointing large numbers of
users toward the C from CompuServe Guest level, which is supported by ad
revenue.
z The Member level will feature hundreds of research databases from
high-end providers. Use will be on a pay-per- view, transaction basis.
Users entering the site from the Guest level or other avenues register and
supply credit card information only once, and can then use services at any
time. The Member level is supported by transaction and ad revenue.
z The Subscriber level offers three initial subscription options: a full
subscription to C from CompuServe, allowing users to post and receive
messages in Forums, and access selected value-added content; subscription
to an enhanced Communications package that includes fully integrated
e-mail, voice mail, fax and pager services; and subscription to Computing
Pro, a special value-added service for computing professionals. The
Subscriber levels will be supported by subscription fee, transaction and ad
revenue.
Web-Linked Observatory Planned
Imagine controlling an 8-ton telescope from your home computer so you can
zoom in for a look at your favorite galaxy. Reporting from Montville,
Ohio, The Associated Press says it is just a
matter of time. The Nassau Astronomical Station at Case Western University
plans to link to the Web. "Basically," astronomy department chairman Earle
Luck told the wire service, "we want to set it up as a World Wide Web site
and dedicate a percentage of its time for anyone who wants to use it." AP
says remote-control motors will be installed next month and software is
being developed to let computer users aim the telescope and download its
images.
"The telescope's narrow field of view makes it unwieldy for viewing the
moon or any planets," AP says, "but it should capture crisp images of
distant galaxies and nebulae, which are interstellar clouds of gas or
dust." Luck notes only a few telescopes can be accessed online, and this
will be the only one with a spectrograph, which measures a star's speed and
chemical composition. The project will cost $175,000 to $200,000, with
most coming from private donors and the department. Officials expect it to
be running by the summer of 1999.
Compaq in Sports Arena Deal
Compaq Computer Corp. wants to place its name on Houston's largest indoor
sports arena. The computer maker has offered to provide $5.4 million over
the next six years to upgrade The Summit, the city- owned sports and
entertainment facility that's home to the NBA's Houston Rockets. In
addition to changing the facility's name to Compaq Center, enhancements to
the arena would include updating telescreens, installing a new ice floor,
replacing light fixtures, recovering the seats and upgrading elevators and
escalators. The renaming is subject to approval from the Houston City
Council, but has gained the support of Mayor Bob Lanier.
"This agreement enables Houston to undertake a capital improvement program
without using taxpayer dollars," says Lanier. "I'm also very pleased to see
that Compaq is associating themselves with Houston in this manner. Compaq
is a first-class global computer giant that has been a part of Houston
since it was founded fifteen years ago. Compaq is one of America's greatest
business success stories and it's great to see this high tech leader lend
its name more prominently to the community."
"As one of the largest employers in Houston, we are excited to have the
opportunity to contribute to this effort that benefits the Houston
community," says Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq's president and CEO. "Compaq is
proud to call Houston home, not only because it's a great place to work and
do business, but also because it's a great place to live. This agreement
will provide an even better atmosphere for the 2.2 million fans who enjoy
arena sports and entertainment each year."
Samsung Sues Fujitsu
Samsung Electronics Co. Inc. is accusing Fujitsu Ltd.'s U.S. affiliate
Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. of patent infringement, saying Fujitsu's
synchronous dynamic random access memory chips contain features covered by
three patents owned by Samsung. According to the Reuter News Service, the
patents are for data output buffers of semiconductor and synchronous memory
devices and for a "system for selecting one of a plurality of memory banks"
for active cycles and inactive precharge cycles. Samsung wants a jury
trial and a court order barring Fujitsu from making or selling the alleged
infringing products, plus unspecified triple damages for alleged deliberate
infringement.
Sun Micro Sees Microsoft
In an amended complaint, Sun Microsystems Inc. is claiming $35 million in
damages as a result of Microsoft Corp.'s alleged unlawful distribution of
the Sun source code as a part of the beta version of Microsoft's software
development kit for Java. United Press International notes Sun previously
sued Microsoft for alleging breach of contract because Microsoft's Internet
Explorer 4.0 and other software failed compatibility tests for Java.
Reporting from San Jose, California, UPI quotes Sun officials as saying the
contracts, which were signed in March 1996, now have been made available to
the public following considerable media interest in the case.
Sun says that when the documents were signed, both parties had agreed to
keep them confidential and they were originally filed with the court under
seal. "We believe the contracts will speak for themselves," Sun added in
a statement. "Our position on Microsoft's breaches of the contracts and
other misconduct have been clearly articulated in the complaint. Because
this matter is in litigation, we will refrain from publicly debating
specific terms of the contracts." Sun noted, though, "Revisiting the
business model Sun has developed in openly licensing the Java technology to
117 entities worldwide. We have contracted with each of our licensees to
act as distributors of the Java technology so that each licensee can
realize the benefits of cross-platform compatibility with all other
licensees."
NCR Realigns Operations
NCR Corp. on the heels of a $9 million third-quarter loss, today announced
sweeping operational changes, including the realignment of 130 sales and
professional services organizations within its business units and the
implementation of new efficiency processes. The moves will result in the
loss of 1,000 infrastructure and staff support jobs, says the Dayton, Ohio,
computer maker, which was spun off from AT&T Corp. earlier this year. NCR
employs about 38,000 people worldwide.
NCR says its business units will now have total profit and loss
responsibility, as well as dedicated sales and professional services
resources. In addition to simplifying the company's organization, the
sales teams will be more tightly linked with business unit research and
development, product management, marketing and manufacturing. The company
also says it plans to make process improvements in sales support work and
staff support in order to cut expenses and free up workers for sales team
assignments.
"Having total responsibility for profit and loss in our business units
simplifies and clarifies who is accountable for meeting customer needs,"
says Lars Nyberg, NCR's chairman and CEO. "The changes we are making also
enable faster decision-making and allow us to operate more efficiently,
consistently and competitively." Visit NCR's Web site at .
IBM to Reorganize PC Division
Sources say IBM is set to restructure its PC business in a bid to stem
losses at its struggling home personal computer unit. Reporter Richard
Melville of the Reuter News Service quotes unidentified people familiar
with the situation as saying the streamlining will likely focus on
eliminating redundancies between the corporate and consumer PC units and
involve at least some job cuts. "The revamping would extend IBM's recent
efforts to deal with the converging areas of consumer PCs, corporate PCs
and low-cost machines called network computers," Melville says, noting the
company organized the three lines in a new business unit in July, promoting
executive Sam Palmisano to senior vice president and naming him head of the
unit, which was dubbed the Personal Systems Group.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports layoffs in the Personal Systems
group could run into the hundreds. The group, which includes the two PC
divisions and IBM's network computing division, employs about 11,000 in
all. Melville says IBM already has taken several steps to try to improve
its consumer PC sales, including:
Cutting production costs on the latest low-priced models in its Aptiva home
computer line by using processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rather
than Intel Corp. Turning over some assembly work on the least expensive
Aptivas to Acer Inc., its first move to use an outside supplier for one of
its own computers. "But," notes Reuters, "even with those cost-cutting
moves, prices for IBM PCs start at $1,199, above competitors' that are
already below $1,000."
McAfee to Buy Network General
In a $1.3 billion stock deal, software publisher McAfee Associates Inc.
agreed to buy Network General Corp., a move seen as part of the anti-virus
developers drive into the computer networking software business. Reporter
Kourosh Karimkhany of the Reuter News Service says the combined company
will be called Network Associates Inc. and will be the 10th-largest
software vendor. The new firm is expect to "offer almost every software
product computer technicians need to keep viruses and hackers off corporate
computer networks," Reuters adds.
Analyst John Powers of investment bank BancAmerica Robertson Stephens in
San Francisco told Karimkhany that McAfee has had "an unbelievable knack
for timely, synergistic, high-yield acquisitions. I'm pretty enthusiastic
about this deal." McAfee is offering 0.4167 of its shares, or about
$27.66, for each share of Network General.
Reuters says the firms have few products that overlap, noting McAfee
specializes in anti-virus, network security and help-desk programs, while
Network General specializes in diagnostic and performance-monitoring
products. McAfee chief Bill Larson will be CEO/chairman of the new
company, while Leslie Denend, CEO of Network General, will become
president.
Americans Shun Internet Shopping
More than one out of three Americans have become users of the Internet
during the last year, but not for shopping finds a new survey from a
leading consumer researcher. "There is clearly something addictive about
the availability of galaxies of information for the asking," says Britt
Beemer, chairman of Charleston, South Carolina- based America's Research
Group. "However, it's a very different story for shopping, where very few
people -- 2.8 percent -- feel comfortable in using the Internet to make a
purchase in cyberspace."
When asked about the degree of trust they have for shopping at a store in a
mall compared with a purchase via the Internet, the respondents opting for
stores -- 72.1 percent -- outnumbered Internet shoppers -- 6.7 percent --
by more than ten to one. Notes Beemer: "Most people -- 77.9 percent -- are
reluctant for security reasons to give their personal credit card data via
the Internet to a virtual salesperson, but many others -- 26.9 percent --
don't want to buy something they can't see and touch; 14.9 percent say they
always buy in stores; 11.6 percent report they like to pay cash; and 11.1
percent simply enjoy shopping too much to let their computer have all the
fun."
The few products that sell briskly via the Internet include computer
software, books, apparel and home furnishings, but the percentages of
people actually buying the products are nominal, Beemer says.
Amazon.com Marks 1M Milestone
Online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. says it will be the first Internet
retailer to reach the one-millionth new customer milestone. To celebrate
the event, Amazon.com will thank its customers by awarding a lucky site
visitor a $10,000 prize. Also, each day during the next two weeks, 100
Amazon.com T- shirts will be awarded to visitors.
Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com out of his garage in a
Seattle suburb, wrapping orders and then delivering them to the post office
in the family car. Bezos will hand deliver the order celebrating the one
millionth new customer, regardless of the order's destination. "We have
customers in more than 160 countries," says Bezos, "I don't know if I'm on
my way to Tanganyika or Beijing in the next several days, or if I'm
traveling by jet or jet-ski, Daimler or dug-out canoe." Market researcher
Media Metrix estimates that 4.5 percent of all Web households visited
Amazon.com during August.
Net Tax Freeze Bill Advances
Legislation that would freeze state and local taxes on the Internet passed
two House subcommittees yesterday, despite strong opposition from U.S.
governors and local officials. The bill, dubbed the Internet Tax Freedom
Act, would bar any new taxes on Internet access or online services for an
unspecified time while Congress studies the issue. The House Commerce
telecommunication subcommittee and a Judiciary subcommittee on commercial
law approved the measure, sponsored by Rep. Chris Cox, R-California, by
voice vote. A similar bill is moving through the Senate's Commerce
Committee. The bill's supporters, including software publishers and
Internet service providers, say they need protection from a maze of local
taxes that would hinder Internet growth. The Dow Jones News Service notes
that the bill could reach the House floor before Congress breaks for its
Christmas recess.
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
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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
EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed
Edupage
Contents
Electronic Shopping Still At The
Starting Gate
Jobs Considering Staying At Apple
Van Houweling Named As Internet2
Chief
Andreessen Replaced As Netscape's
Technology Officer
Funding The Next-Generation
Internet
Free Video-On-Demand, To The Right
Address
U.S. In Danger Of Catastrophic
Cyber Attack
Oakland Ends Welfare As We Know It
... By Adding The Net
Netscape, AOL Launch Joint
Messaging Service
Internet2 Applications Showcased
New Bill Targets Net Pirates
CompuServe Woos Businesses With
Latest Service
Publishing Giants Merge
Telescope For The Web
Internet Commerce
GTE Joins BT And WorldCom As Rival
Suitors For MCI
Intranet Use Exploding
Cyberchic Hits The Fashion Runway
British Cybersquatters Head For
Court
Tapscott Calls N-Gen "Unprecedented
Force For Change"
Australia Sees New Revenue Source
In Online Gambling
Blair Wants All U.K. Students Wired
To "National Grid"
Zundel's Site Exposes Jews To
Hatred
IBM's Power Drive
BMI Creates Robot To Protect
Copyrights On Web
ELECTRONIC SHOPPING STILL AT THE STARTING GATE
Companies sank nearly $35 billion into the Internet last year, investing in
infrastructure, Web sites and data protection, according to Zona Research,
but so far the returns on their investments have been low. In fact, it may
be 10 to 15 years before the Internet becomes even a minor player in
retail, says the chairman of America's Research Group. About 60% of U.S.
households still don't own a computer, and about 85% don't have a modem.
And an even greater percentage own machines that are not powerful enough to
surf the Web. Only 5% of the population has any interest in using the Net
as a retail outlet, says America's Research Group, and more than half of
the consumers who've purchased something online say they're not sure
they'll do so again. Still, some sites, such as Amazon.com and Buyers USA,
are making money, and analysts say that retailers who exploit the unique
aspects of the Internet with products that people want can be successful.
"I'm very bullish on the Internet long-term," says one business consultant.
"But right now, we have to be realistic, despite the ridiculous
projections and claims of sales." (Investor's Business Daily 10 Oct 97)
JOBS CONSIDERING STAYING AT APPLE
Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs says he would consider staying on in the
position he assumed after Gil Amelio was ousted in July. Analysts say
Jobs' comments may reflect the difficulty Apple is having in attracting
qualified candidates who want the CEO job. (Wall Street Journal 10 Oct 97)
VAN HOUWELING NAMED AS INTERNET2 CHIEF
Douglas Van Houweling has been named president of the University
Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, the nonprofit company
spearheading the Internet2 initiative. Van Houweling formerly served as
dean of academic outreach and vice provost for information at the
University of Michigan. The Internet2 effort will focus on developing
applications for a network that eventually will run at speeds as fast as
2.4 gigabits per second. "Connectivity is just the first step," says Van
Houweling. "The last part of our strategy is to link everything we do with
the Internet industry, so that these capabilities will go to the
Internet... The greatest benefits will come at the end of the second year
when the experimental and pilot implementations and protocols will show
up in the products our partners are selling outside the universities."
(TechWire 10 Oct 97)
ANDREESSEN REPLACED AS NETSCAPE'S TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Netscape has named Eric Hahn as its new chief technology officer, replacing
company co-founder Marc Andreessen, who will continue to have his other
title: executive vice president of products. Hahn said: "Marc is a
brilliant strategist and visionary and I would not think he's given up his
vision and leadership responsibilities. Marc for the first time is taking
on significant and exciting operating responsibilities managing products,
and I'm returning to my first love as a technologist." (San Jose Mercury
News 11 Oct 97)
FUNDING THE NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET
Congress has passed a budget bill that would allocate $80 million to the
financing of the Next-Generation Internet, or NGI. The Clinton
Administration originally had requested $100 million for the effort. Of
that amount, $23 million would be obtained from the escrow account that was
set up when the National Science Foundation contracted with Network
Solutions Inc. to handle top-level Internet domain registrations. NSF
wants to remove itself from involvement in Internet funding, and
concentrate on new projects like the NGI. National Science Foundation
director Joseph Bordogna says, "The Internet has become a global
communications infrastructure. It is no longer a medium that primarily
supports the conduct of federally supported research within the science and
engineering, research and education community -- the original reason for
NSF involvement." (New York Times 11 Oct 97)
FREE VIDEO-ON-DEMAND, TO THE RIGHT ADDRESS
Residents of New York's trendy Trump Tower will be getting video-on-demand
free, offered by fledgling start-up Freelinq. The catch? Two 30-second
commercials at the beginning of every film. The deal will work, says
Freelinq, because advertisers will be eager to share their messages with a
momentarily captive, very upscale audience. "It pushes individual ads to
the right people in the right way," says the company's president, who
predicts 4,000 apartments in Manhattan high-rises will be hooked up by
year's end. (Broadcasting & Cable 6 Oct 97)
U.S. IN DANGER OF CATASTROPHIC CYBER ATTACK
Robert Marsh, the chairman of the Commission on Critical Infrastructure
Protection says that neither government nor industry now has the means to
protect the United States against computer attacks that could shut down
communications and power grid. The commission will deliver its report to
President Clinton this week. (Montreal Gazette 8 Oct 97)
OAKLAND ENDS WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT ... BY ADDING THE NET
Oakland, California, has adopted a policy statement requiring that future
public housing projects be given computer equipment and Internet access so
that welfare and low-income residents can learn job-critical skills in
their homes. A pilot project developed in partnership with IBM has
provided 100 public housing units with IBM network stations attached to a
PC server through a local area network. (Government Technology Sep 97)
NETSCAPE, AOL LAUNCH JOINT MESSAGING SERVICE
Netscape Communications and America Online are collaborating on a messaging
service that would alert users of Netscape's browser software when they
receive e-mail from AOL subscribers, enabling them to engage in a
real-time dialogue over the Net. In addition, AOL will supply information
to be included in Netscape's Netcaster product. Netcaster uses "push"
technology to deliver content to users' PC screens. Analysts see the move
as part of AOL's strategy to hedge its bets in the browser battles between
Netscape and Microsoft. (Wall Street Journal 14 Oct 97)
INTERNET2 APPLICATIONS SHOWCASED
A demonstration held last week offered U.S. senators a glimpse of some of
the applications that will be made possible by Internet2, the high-speed
network project involving more than 100 universities. The demo used the
National Science Foundation's Very High Performance Backbone Network
Service, or vBNS, which will form the skeleton of Internet2. Senators
donned 3-D goggles to experience ImmersaDesk, a kind of large-screen TV
that can project computer displays in three dimensions, and examined a
virtual ear housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Other
applications included a scanning electron microscope that can be controlled
remotely over the network, a data-mining project, and a multimedia
database. (Chronicle of Higher Education 17 Oct 97)
NEW BILL TARGETS NET PIRATES
A bill introduced in Congress by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) would penalize
first-time offenders who steal and distribute software, music or other
copyrighted works on the Internet with fines up to $250,000 and three
years in jail. Repeat offenders would receive even stiffer sentences. The
No Electronic Theft Act amends federal copyright law to define "financial
gain" as receipt of anything of value, including copyrighted works. The
bill also extends the statute of limitations for criminal copyright
infringement from three years to five years. (TechWire 13 Oct 97)
COMPUSERVE WOOS BUSINESSES WITH LATEST SERVICE
CompuServe is debuting a new Web-based online service aimed at corporate
users, in an effort to generate new income to boost the company's revenue
stream. The new service will be based on a hybrid business model that
will derive income from advertisements as well as from subscriptions and
pay-per-use access to CompuServe databases. "This is not a migration play
at all," says CompuServe's VP of business management in response to
concerns over the service's new focus on the Web. "It's a brand new
revenue stream. We believe we'll be one of the Web's biggest sites the day
we launch." (Wall Street Journal 14 Oct 97)
PUBLISHING GIANTS MERGE
Reed Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of academic and trade journals
(as well as the owner of the Lexis-Nexis database service), is merging
with Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer. The combined company will also buy
Chilton, which publishes 39 U.S. trade magazines. One industry analyst
says: "The main thing is that they can now together make the large
investments needed for the change from print publishing to electronic
publishing." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 14 Oct 97)
TELESCOPE FOR THE WEB
Case Western Reserve University is modernizing an 8-ton telescope at the
Nassau Astronomical Station in northeastern Ohio by installing a
computerized drive and imaging system and research spectrosocope to make
it the world's largest robotic telescope. It will be one of just a few
large telescopes that can be accessed over the Internet. Others are at the
University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Iowa, and the
University of Bradford (U.K.). (AP 12 Oct 97)
INTERNET COMMERCE
Joining companies like IBM and Amazon.com in efforts to demystify
electronic commerce for the consumer masses, the company CD Now, which
offers information about and sells compact disks, cassettes, books and
other music-related merchandise online, has begun a $10 million advertising
campaign in traditional and interactive media. To give consumers a reason
to buy CDs online rather than going to a record store, CD Now will be
"very targeted: On a fan site of a certain band, we can advertise some
rare import CDs of that band." (New York Times 14 Oct 97)
GTE JOINS BT AND WORLDCOM AS RIVAL SUITORS FOR MCI
GTE is offering $28 billion in cash to acquire MCI Communications, hoping
that cash bid will top previous bids from British Telecommunications and
Mississippi-based WorldCom. The WorldCom bid is highest ($30 billion), but
offers an exchange of stock rather than cash. (Wall Street Journal 16 Oct
97)
INTRANET USE EXPLODING
According to researcher International Data Corp., almost 60% of U.S. and
38% of European companies use intranets, and those numbers are expected to
increase to 77% and 75%, respectively, by next year. Top among intranet
uses are e-mail and workforce collaboration, with document management,
scheduling and corporate directories also common. (Investor's Business
Daily 16 Oct 97)
CYBERCHIC HITS THE FASHION RUNWAY
A recent MIT Media Lab fashion show featured wearable computers, including
a music synthesizer woven into a dress and a tunic that translates the
wearer's speech into a foreign language. "People have always had a
fascination with making themselves personally more powerful," says a Media
Lab professor. "We used to associate that with magic. Now, we're getting
close to working that magic into fully realized designs." Ideas for the
future include using special conductive thread to reproduce a flexible
printed circuit board woven right into a garment. (Business Week 20 Oct
97)
BRITISH CYBERSQUATTERS HEAD FOR COURT
Two British Internet consultants who registered a number of domain names,
including virgin.org, bt.org and the-spice-girls.com, have been sued by a
group of six major British companies, which are demanding the two
relinquish the names and pay 10,000 British pounds in damages. The
defendants, who operate a consulting firm called One In A Million Ltd., say
they didn't register the names with the intent of reselling them to
trademark holders, although they did offer British Telecommunications the
bt.org name in exchange for a 4,700-pound donation to the Diana, Princess
of Wales Fund. BT declined. In a possibly precedent-setting 1996 court
case, a British Internet service provider that had registered the
harrods.com name was forced to turn it over to the well-known Harrods
department store. The chairman of the Interim Policy Oversight Committee
says a partial fix for this type of dispute will be implemented in
February, when new applicants for domain names will have the option of
settling disputes by binding arbitration under the guidelines of the World
Intellectual Property Organization. (Net Insider 15 Oct 97)
TAPSCOTT CALLS N-GEN "UNPRECEDENTED FORCE FOR CHANGE"
In his new book "Growing Up Digital: the Rise of the Net Generation,"
best-selling technology guru Don Tapscott says: "The Net-Generation is
here. The baby boom has an echo and it's even louder than the original.
Eighty million strong in the U.S. alone, they are combining their
demographic muscle with digital mastery to transform every institution in
society. They are the first generation to come of age in the digital
age. They are an unprecedented force for change and they will dominate
most of the 21st century." Tapscott argues that "There is no issue more
important to parents, teachers, policy makers, marketers, business leaders,
and social activists than understanding this new generation, their culture,
psychology, values and what they intend to do with their digital
expertise." Tapscott worked with 300 "N-Gen-ers" on the Net over a one-year
period and combines survey research to show how the Ne(x)t Generation is
changing learning, marketing, the family, the nature of the corporation and
society. ("Growing Up Digital," McGraw-Hill 1997)
AUSTRALIA SEES NEW REVENUE SOURCE IN ONLINE GAMBLING
The government of Victoria, the largest state in Australia, plans to
regulate and tax online gambling. A government administrator says: "I
think it is fair to say that in Australia, where gaming is quite accepted,
we have taken a very logical approach. Over the years, every time we have
had trouble with illegal forms of gambling -- phone book gambling,
unlicensed casinos - what we've done is provide a well-regulated
alternative for people to access. That means the unlicensed activity
drops to a relatively low level of significance. That same theory applies
to the globalization of the Internet." (New York Times 16 Oct 97)
BLAIR WANTS ALL U.K. STUDENTS WIRED TO "NATIONAL GRID"
A report by the Olivetti company asserts that one-third of British homes
already have a personal computer, compared with 28% in the U.S. and 20% in
Germany. The report also says that Britain has an average of one computer
for every secondary 8.5 secondary school students (double the number in
Germany and better than Japan, France and Italy). However, only 6,000
schools in Britain are connected to the Internet, so Prime Minister Tony
Blair wants all students connected via the Internet in a "national grid
for learning" by 2002 -- a plan greeted with skepticism by teachers'
unions. (Christian Science Monitor 16 Oct 97)
WEB SITE EXPOSES JEWS TO HATRED
Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel is exposing identifiable groups to hatred or
contempt through material on his Web site, a Canadian Human Rights
Commission tribunal has been told. The complaints arise from a
California-based Internet site that targets Jews in Canada, commission
lawyer Ian Binnie said yesterday. The case is one of the first attempts to
apply human rights laws to the Internet. Under Canada's Human Rights Act,
it is illegal to send telephone messages that could cause hatred or
contempt of a special, identifiable group in Canada. Joining Binnie in the
case before the tribunal is the City of Toronto's race relations committee,
Toronto resident Sabina Citron, a founding member of the Canadian
Holocaust Remembrance Association, and representatives of the Simon
Wiesenthal Centre and the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada.
(Toronto Star 15 Oct 97)
Editor Note: After seeing this outrage... we dedicated an area on our FTP
server that offers irrefutable photographic evidence of horrors
perpetrated by the German Nation in the nineteen thirties and forties. All
of Germany will forever bear the responsibility of their forefather's
atrocities committed against mankind. Regardless of the reparations and/or
denials offered, they are solely responsible ..
IBM'S POWER DRIVE
IBM's Travelstar 8GS hard drive, due out in December, holds 8.1 gigabytes
of data -- so much that if all the information on the disk were printed
out ondouble-spaced sheets of paper, those papers, when stacked, would be
taller than the Empire State Building. At just two-thirds of an inch
thick, it's designed for high-end corporate notebook computers. The
company has also developed a 3 gigabyte drive -- the Travelstar 3GN --
aimed at the ultraportable laptop market. (Information Week 15 Oct 97)
BMI CREATES ROBOT TO PROTECT COPYRIGHTS ON WEB
BMI, the music licensing agency that represents 180,000 songwriters and
music publishers, has developed a Web robot to make sure copyright holders
are justly compensated for music played on the Web. The so-called
"Musicbot" will surf the Web to identify sites that use music and to count
the number of people who visit them. Up till now, BMI has not initiated
legal proceedings against potential copyright violators on the Web, but a
company vice president says that "it stands to reason in the future that
it will happen." (AP 15 Oct 97)
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Apple/Mac Section
Randy Noak, Editor
Mac Mania
by Randy Noak
Those of you that have been reading STReport for any length of time
may remember me. I was the Mac Editor back in 1993. As is the custom for
this type of thing, I'm supposed to tell you about my background and other
information of a highly personal nature. I think I'll skip the personal
info and concentrate on giving you the info that might give you, the
reader, an idea about where I've been and where the column might be headed.
Wait! I've already done that. Back in 1993. It might be interesting to re-
issue that column with comments, where appropriate, to bring my bio up to
date. Here goes.
WHAT! A Macintosh column in STReport? Yep. After all the ST in
STReport does stand for Silicon Times and Macs are full of silicon. Hmmm.
Anyhow, beyond that tenuous connection, many Atari users are moving (have
moved-Ed.) to the Macintosh platform. Since System 7 (now System 8-Ed.) and
GEM share a common ancestry, anyone using an Atari will find moving to the
Macintosh a relatively painless procedure. Notice that I said, "relatively
painless"? There are just enough differences to make life, umm,
interesting, and to, hopefully make this column interesting, and
informative reading. In the weeks ahead, I'll be doing my best to entertain
and inform any STReport readers thinking of moving to, or already using,
Macintosh computers. I've been told that I can write about whatever I wish,
so this _could_ be very interesting. Besides pontificating on whatever
subject I feel like, I may do a question and answer thing, summarize some
on-line stuff, tell you about Mac things I receive from the US Postal
Service (and maybe some non-Mac things too-Ed.), review a software package
or two, grab some freebies at trade shows, and whatever else I think might
be beneficial to STReport readers. (Still sounds like a plan to me-Ed.) So
here goes!
So that we might get to know each other a little, I thought I might
give you a little background info on myself. I started computing way back
in the days of the Atari 400. 16K and a 410 Program Recorder. Those were
the days. NOT! From there, I went to a 1040 ST with an extra external
floppy drive. Eventually, I ended up with 2.5 megs crammed in that small
1040 case and a 20 meg hard drive. A real "power" system. I learned
PageStream and Touch Up and all the Atari programs I needed to get my
publishing business off the ground. Even though those programs were good, I
found my self wishing that I could do more. I moved up to an Atari TT030,
but even though it was fast, it still lacked features that I wanted (such
as 8-bit graphics), and the software still wouldn't let me do some basic
things (leader tabs) that I needed.
As I read about DTP and graphics programs for Macintosh computers, I
realized that Macintosh software had the features I desired, so I picked up
a Spectre GCR cartridge to enable me to fill some of the holes in my Atari
programs with the plethora of features available in Macintosh programs. It
didn't take me long to realize that, for the most part, Macintosh software
far surpassed Atari software in both features and ease of use and I began
to lust after a "real" Macintosh. I waited, knowing that eventually, prices
would come down to my personal point of affordability. As it turned out, I
waited, and waited, and waited, and waited as Apple introduced new machines
that either didn't have the features I wanted or cost too much. Finally,
Apple introduced the LC III. At last, a system that I could afford (sort
of), that had the "horsepower" to do what I wanted it to do . I priced LC
III's at my local dealer, checked the mail order prices and bought a
Performa 450 from Sears. The 450 is the same as an LC III (68030, 25mHz, 4
megs, built-in 8-bit video), but includes a monitor, keyboard, mouse, fax
modem, and lotsa pre-loaded software, including Claris Works that is extra
when buying an LC III. The price was good and, of course, my Performa is
backed by Sears. No worries about service there. I've since added an 8 meg
SIMM (to bring me up to 12 meg memory), a Syquest drive and a CD-ROM drive,
and I plan to add a video SIMM to give me 16-bit color. All-in-all, I'm
pretty happy with my system. (Now I have a Power Mac 7100 and a PowerBook
5300cs. There is also a Compaq Pentium system sitting on the other desk in
my office. The kids use the Performa 450.-Ed.)
I've been learning software since I bought my Mac, and it's been a lot
of fun. Learning some of the ins-and-outs of Aldus PageMaker 5.0, Adobe
Illustrator 5.0 Deluxe, Color It (Photoshop now-Ed.), Datebook and
Touchbase Pro, and Claris Works among others (many , many others now-Ed.)
has given me a good understanding about the Mac GUI, I think. I reactivated
my Compuserve account, and have been using Compuserve Navigator to, well,
navigate Compuserve (I no longer have the CIS account. It was too expensive
at the time.-Ed.). I've gotten an America OnLine account and have been
checking out that service as well. I'm still on GEnie, of course, and
anxiously await for the long-promised Mac version of Aladdin to arrive (Is
Genie still around? -Ed.) In short, I've been busy.
I'm constantly amazed by the friendly and knowledgeable (and ex-Atari)
people that I've met in the Mac areas of all the services, but I guess
that's just part of the Mac "thing". Support, friendliness, new software,
service. What a platform!
That was then and this, of course, is now. Since I wrote that column,
I've gotten one B.S. Degree and am working on B.S. Degree number two in
computer info systems while I wait to start grad school in the Spring. I
worked for Apple's late online service eWorld from it's inception until
it's untimely demise and have managed to work fulltime and raise a family
while doing all of that. In short, I'm a busy guy, so this column will
probably not be published every week. I hope to be able to find the time to
write every other week at first and will try and make it weekly as I get
used to the routine again.
Well, enough about me. Now it's your turn to let me know about you.
Let me know what you'd like to see in this column. Tell me what type of Mac
you're using and what your interests are. Please feel free to send your
comments or questions to:
Internet: randyn@thor.pla-net.net
America OnLine: RandyNoak
Kids Computing Corner
Frank Sereno, Editor
fsereno@streport.com
RSN..
Jason's Jive
Jason Sereno, STR Staff
jsereno@streport.com
Star Trek
STARFLEET ACADEMY
Windows 95 CD-ROM
Street Price: $49.95
For ages 13 and up
Interplay Productions
16815 Von Karman Ave.
Irvine, CA 92606
714-553-6678
www.interplay.com
Program Requirements
IBM PC compatible Pentium 90 MHZ, Windows 95,
16 MB RAM, 150 MB Hard Drive Space, 4X or faster
CD-ROM drive, Windows 95 compliant sound card, 1 MB
VESA compliant SVGA card, Microsoft compatible mouse,
DirectX 3.0a or better, Supports serial, modem, or IPX Network
Before now there has ever been any type of Star Trek action simulation.
What better way could there be to explore the many missions and alien
vessels than the Starfleet Academy? Starfleet is where the fictional
captains and staff of the future train and work to become the best in the
universe. The work ethic and professionalism are why the federation is
known as the best of the best.
Starfleet Academy, is the first and only Star Trek 3D action simulation.
In releasing this game, Interplay hopes to bring the experience of
Starfleet Academy as well as simulated federation missions to your PC.
Starfleet Academy does this by using three of the original cast members and
the award winning composer of dozens of Star Trek episodes. Bringing the
3D portion of the game to life are over 30 textured mapped star ships and
the terrific 3D environment. Mission range from destroying abandoned
mines to intercepting Klingon attack cruisers. There is a mission
generator that lets you play as a federation or alien ship and multiplayer
capabilities are available too. If you have been waiting for a Star Trek
battle simulation, there is no better time than now with Starfleet Academy
from Interplay.
When you begin the game you enter Starfleet as a new recruit all too ready
to "Boldly go where no one has gone before." You are assigned a crew and
you soon begin your two year stay at Starfleet. Your missions are a wide
variety letting you explore all the functions of your ship while in your
realistic simulator.
The game looks and feels more like the original Star Trek television show
and movies. Starfleet Academy uses three original cast members in new
footage shot especially for this game. William Shatner, Walter Koenig, and
George Takie come to the screen to portray their world renowned characters:
Captain Kirk, Commander Checkov, and Captain Sulu for the first time in any
Star Trek computer game. Captain Sulu, for the majority of the game, is
your main advisor while in the academy. Also included in the game is music
from the award-winning composer of dozens of Stark Trek episodes. It is
very reminiscent of the Star Trek episodes of the past. This really makes
this game a must-buy for any Trekker. It is almost like an interactive
movie!
All of the commands of a captain are at your fingertips. Your crew manage
to keep their part of the ship running but it is your job to make sure
everything works together. You can alter variables, relocate power
supplies, soar into warp, and control your weapons from each of the four
stations. Most of your controls are accessed at your captain's chair while
in battle. Your scanners, photon torpedoes, phasers, and almost all of
your other controls needed are on your keyboard and joystick/mouse. The
controls are simple to use and in the earlier missions you are given
instructions by your superiors at the simulated space stations.
While in battle or in space, you can see all of the terrific ships in the
game that are available to you. Four federation ships and thirty alien
vessels are available to you. They are shaded by real time color light
sourcing and translucent textured mapping. The result is phenomenal. The
ships look distinctive and fly through space just as they do in the Star
Trek movies. The graphics are very advanced and the explosions are
everything a Star Trek fan could hope for.
If you feel the need to, you can always create your own missions that could
lead to a number of different outcomes and explosions. Battles can be
waged against a slew of Klingon ships or a small group of Romulan heavy
cruisers. You can also play as an alien ship trying to destroy a
federation ship. If you are still looking for more of a challenge, you can
play multiplayer with a modem, serial link, or network. This is definitely
more challenging because other players have techniques and strategies that
the computer will not.
Since this is the first and only Star Trek battle simulation, I have to
suggest this game to Star Trek fans. The original cast and music will
bring a sense of nostalgia to childhood watchers. Other fans of movies or
the new string of television shows should also appreciate this game.
Starfleet Academy is not just a game for Star Trek fans though. Anyone
that likes battle simulations or wants a new way to beat their friends in
multiplayer battles will find this game to be a fun way of doing it. If
you or someone you know is a Trekker, maybe now isn't a bad time to beat
the rush on Christmas presents with Starfleet Academy from Interplay.
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Ignorance Abounds STR Spotlight Windows 98; target of
Jaded and Misguided baloney!
Windows 98: "The Real Deal"
By Ralph F. Mariano
One can understand, at times, why certain of the "controversial" or,
"Limbaugh wannabe" writers in the Computing Community are ever so busy
taking all sorts of goofy pot shots at Windows 98. What this reporter
finds mind boggling is the number of "mindless sheep" or, I guess overly
intimidated DOS babies, that are doing so. The sad part is that BOTH the
so-called professional writers and the mislead "sheep" are hammering away
at faults that are NOT evident in Windows 98 at all. What does this all
mean to you and I?
To me the hysterical, blathering "outbursts" of the pro's means they
are grabbing at uninformed straws or, they have little or nothing of real
substance. Its a shame because if. they spent half the energy they blow
tilting at wind mills on creating informative articles the users/readers
would, no doubt, benefit. After doing some checking, I found that many of
these pros already have BETA copies of Windows98. Yet, they continue to
bad-mouth the product. Why? I think it all boils down to a foaming,
raving jealousy of the success of MS, Bill Gates and all the talented folks
at MS. To these pro writers I say; They should not only feel guilty in
accepting paychecks for acting like the south end of a north bound mule
they should openly apologize to the users/readers for spewing forth such
trash.
Then comes the "highly informed" users who seemingly "chime" right in
with all the phony double talk. What's up with that? It could be a number
of things. One of which I feel is the primary reason. A few short years
ago, these folks were the computer club's guru, the neighborhood computer
whiz, the boss's favorite. Simply put, because he kept the Boss from
looking like a turkey when using a computer. Today however, with the ease
and simplicity of using Windows 95 and its successors, these "dinosaurs"
are almost extinct. You can hear their faint roar in the distance though..
"I'll take DOS anytime over Windows.." I hear it every day as someone else
in the office calls our consulting firm for help because they were given a
"bum steer" by the "long time" office guru. But now, since that noise is
heard so often and most already know it's a bleat denoting insecurity and
fear of failure, these "dinos" are now trying to bad-mouth Windows in all
its flavors. including NT!
In reality, Windows 98 is a veritable LEAP and then some.. ahead of 95
and light years ahead of all the contenders. Of course, part of this is
due to the fact that its becoming more and more "NT" with every new build.
Its faster, more efficient, absolutely more fun to use and so much more
stable. As an example. have you ever had a totally "green", (neophyte if
you will), do an install of Windows over say. Win 3.1, WFWG 3.11 or,
Windows 95? I mean a person totally unfamiliar with a computer. As a test
of ease use and user interface, I did. This person walked away from the
computer with a look of confidence that Windows 98 would be easy and fun to
use. Three hours later, she was convinced. I tried the same thing with a
DOS baby. I STILL hear the grumbling echoing in the halls, the restroom
and the parking garage. They'll learn one day, the hard way. By that I
mean; when the mailroom clerk who is proficient at using Windows 98, from
at home recreational use, blazes past Old, DOS baby up the corporate
ladder. Leaving the moaning "dino" in the dust. These "Dinos" have yet to
learn the applause for DOS is long dead.
Windows 98 is everything positive. From fat32 to all the perfectly
working self correction and optimization routines. Everything about Windows
98 is screaming one important message.. You need it. I've left it running
on one of our servers for well over two weeks without a re-boot and its
still up running rock solid. As for the professional columnists and DOS
babies. once Windows 98 is in release they'll all be busy learning new
recipes on preparing Crow. Take it from me. you WANT Windows 98. It is a
"must have." From the Windows 3.1 crowd all the way up those using the
latest Windows SR2 950b with FAT 32. you want Windows 98. Yes, I do speak
from experience. Yes, I am running Windows 98. the latest beta build
(legitimately I might add) and the ultimate best I can say about this
incarnation is.. YES!
Classics & Gaming Section
Editor Dana P. Jacobson
dpj@streport.com
>From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
I'm going to try to keep it very brief this week. For longtime
Atarians, it's a time for "mourning" this week. The other shoe finally
dropped a few days ago - the Atari Forums on CompuServe have officially
closed down! It's a real shame, and a momentous loss for the Atari
community.
While Atari support has shifted to the Computer Club Forum (thanks
folks!), it cannot possibly be the same. Ron Luks and company put a lot of
years into the Atari Forums; and the memories will linger for a long time
to come. To those folks, and the members over the years, I can only say
THANK YOU!
On another disheartening note, I keep getting e-mail in reference to
my recent mentions on piracy on the Internet. More specifically, blatant
piracy of Atari software. It's bad enough that people such as the alleged
Pompey Pirates conducted their activities while Atari computing was quite
active. But now that there are no excuses such as high prices, try before
you buy, no dealers near me, and who knows what else they came up with to
rationalize their acts - it's become a new variety of excuses such as
"preserving" the software because original disks go bad and many titles are
hard to come by these days. Bull.
One of the reasons for this "new" resurgence of piracy is that Atari
emulation has improved and become affordable. Former Atari users, and
likely continuing users, who now have PCs are renewing their interest in
Atari software. What better way to enable users to find their old favorite
Atari titles but on the Internet! No fuss trying to find a dealer. No
problems making online trades/sales/purchases on the Usenet. No digging
through those boxes stashed away in the basement or garage. Hey, just do
some web browsing.
One of the more recent messages forwarded to me related how these
people were anticipating my article. I'll be more than happy to oblige
them, but not in the manner that they're hoping. No publicizing of their
site with specific web addresses - why would they even think I'd give them
free advertising? If people like those suggested as the Pompey Pirates and
their "ilk" want publicity, let them advertise their sites openly and draw
even more attention to themselves. Meanwhile, I'll continue to work on
this article in the hopes that it might do something in a proactive light.
Until next time...
Atari Forums Close Down On CompuServe!
News Flash:
The Atari Gaming Forum is now closed. An Atari Gaming Section and library
have been established in the Video Gaming Central Forum.
GO VGCENTRAL to access that forum.
It's been a great ride!
Ron Luks
Founding Sysop, Atari Forums on CompuServe
76703,254
News Flash:
THE ATARI COMPUTING FORUM IS NOW CLOSED.
The last message was posted today, and since I posted the very first
message when this forum opened, I felt that I should post the very last
one. (Note--Kevin, you were the runner up).
The folks in the Computer Club Forum (GO CLUB) have opened up message
sections for Atari 8-bit and 16-bit computing discussions. Please support
this effort.
To all my friends and colleagues and all the members who participated in
the Atari Forums over the years on CompuServe, my best regards and warm
wishes and a very sincere thank you for all your efforts.
It was a wild ride!
Ron Luks
Founder and former manager
Atari Forums on CompuServe
76703,254
October 15, 1997
JTS Expands Champion Family of Hard Disk Drives
4.3GB and Increasing Cache to 512KB
New Drives Optimize MIG Head Technology Resulting in 1.7GB Per Platter
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- JTS Corp. (Amex: JTS), a world
leader in the development of hard disk technology, today expanded its
Champion family of 3.5" hard disk drives for the performance desktop PC
market. The Champion family now offers drives with capacities of 4.3
gigabytes (GBs) and 3.2 gigabytes (GBs). The new drives feature increased
cache of 512KB, MTBF of 500,000 hours, access times as fast as 11
milliseconds, and rotation speeds of 5400 RPM, providing original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) with a wide selection of high-performance,
high-capacity drives.
Advanced JTS engineering enables Champion drives to reach 1.7GB/platter
using MIG heads. To reach similar densities, competitive products have
been forced to move to more expensive MR technology. By optimizing MIG
technology, JTS is able to offer its Champion hard disk drives at a
significant savings per platter.
"JTS is ramping production to meet anticipated demand for these
high-quality, low-cost, performance products at the industry's most popular
capacity points," said Tom Mitchell, president and chief executive officer
of JTS Corp. "With recent OEM agreements and qualification of our Madras
factory by several top-tier PC manufacturers, JTS is positioning itself for
aggressive market expansion."
"In the hard disk drive marketplace, the name of the game is quality, low
cost, and time to market. These drives allow JTS to offer mainstream
capacity points with very low cost component technology," said Crawford Del
Prete, vice president, IDC Storage Research.
The Champion family offers an advanced PRML read channel and Fast-ATA-3
performance, allowing for transfer rates of 16.6MB/sec. Ultra DMA will be
phased in by late November 1997 which will double transfer rates from
16.6MB/sec to 33MB/sec. The drives incorporate advanced triple burst
on-the-fly Error Correction Code (ECC) to increase data integrity at high
throughput rates. They also feature embedded servo to eliminate the need
for thermal recalibration and allow continuous throughput of data, making
them ideal for MMX and multimedia applications, while the low acoustics
provide whisper-quiet operation.
JTS' unique encapsulation technology locks in quality and protects against
handling and electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage. Industry-wide statistics
reveal one-third of all units arriving DOA failed due to shock and
mishandling. With JTS technology, drive reliability is significantly
improved and the risk of damage during installation is minimized. In
addition, the encapsulation reduces ESD resulting in an industry-leading
MTBF of 500,000 hours.
The Champion family incorporates an advanced Adaptec chipset for more
powerful ECC capability and overall improved throughput.
The Champion family of hard disk drives will be available through JTS' OEMs
and worldwide network of distributors. OEM evaluation units of the 4.3GB
are currently available for $199.
Gaming Section
More "Zero 5"!! "NBA '98"!! "F1 '97"!
Professional Gamers?! The 'Yak'!
And much more!
>From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
Professional online game-players??? What will they think of next? After
reading this article, I'm left speechless!
Until next time...
Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
Pro Game Players League Debuts
Advanced Micro Devices says it will sponsor the AMD Professional Gamers
League, the first professional league for competitive online computer game
players. The inaugural AMD PGL season will begin on Nov. 3 with a
qualifying match in San Francisco at 3COM Park at Candlestick Point.
The chipmaker notes that the AMD PGL will be a fully-structured
professional league with star players, individual and team competition,
referees, spectators, sponsors and endorsements. A governing board and a
commissioner will be introduced at the launch event. Co-sponsors include
Total Entertainment Network and Ziff-Davis.
"The AMD PGL is an ideal venue for AMD to showcase its AMD-K6 MMX enhanced
processor," says Dana Krelle, director of marketing for AMD's computation
products group. "The computer gaming enthusiast is a power user who demands
high performance, reliability and compatibility from his or her PC. Just as
we are committed to providing the consumer the best performance for the
price, AMD is also committed to provide the best platform for computer
gaming, both now and in the future."
Offering more than $250,000 in cash and prizes in its first year, the AMD
PGL will feature two game categories: Action, represented by id Software's
"Quake," and Strategy, represented by Westwood Studio's "Command & Conquer:
Red Alert." Additional games and game genres will be added in the second
and subsequent seasons, says AMD. More details are available on the AMD
PGL Web site, located at http://www.pgl.net.
Midway Home Entertainment Announces Official New Title
CORSICANA, TEXAS (Oct. 16) BUSINESS WIRE - Oct. 16, 1997 - Previously
announced under the working title of NBA Hardwood Heroes, NBA FastBreak '98
to hit retail in December 1997 exclusively for the Sony PlayStation The
fastest way into the NBA!
Midway Home Entertainment announced today that the official title of the
company's first full simulation, NBA licensed basketball home video game
for the Sony PlayStation will be NBA FastBreak '98. Previously announced
under the working title of NBA Hardwood Heroes, NBA FastBreak '98 is
scheduled to hit retail shelves in early December, 1997. The announcement
was made by Paula Cook, Director of Marketing for Midway Home
Entertainment.
NBA FastBreak '98 is the most realistic, full-motion 5-on-5 sim you'll ever
play. The pure number of dunks, shots and over-the-top exciting moves
incorporated into NBA FastBreak '98 exceeds that found in any other
existing video game! Midway has included the NBA's hottest players and the
most exciting on-court moves, allowing game players to call the shots: use
Oakley's rebound or O'Neal's power dunk; make Stockton shut down Kerr; have
Hill take it to the hole and Hardaway shoot the three! There's only one
way to play a more realistic game of basketball -- get drafted into the
NBA.
Officially licensed by the NBA, NBA FastBreak '98 boasts all the rules,
features and characteristics of a real NBA basketball game and season!
Offering game play engineered with motion driven physics, motion capture
video and animation blending, plus outstanding CD quality digitized sound
effects, commentary and music, NBA FastBreak '98 utilizes the spectacular
capabilities of the Sony PlayStation to the max.
The NBA FastBreak '98 development team, Visual Concepts, has equipped the
game with a wide variety of special player animations never-before-seen in
any other basketball video game! Boasting signature moves for key players,
ambient stands so realistic that players on the video game court --
awaiting a foul shot or preparing to enter the game -- appear totally
natural and life-like, as well as special celebration and contact
animations, NBA FastBreak '98 provides the ultimate fast, furious and
future-forward sports game experience. And for the first time ever in a
basketball video game, NBA FastBreak '98 features side and back movement on
both defense and offense, rebounding and blocking based on player height
and ability, non-ball handler modes, boxing out moves, call for pick
options, and actual plays utilized by NBA teams.
With all 29 NBA teams included, as well as their logos, uniforms and home
courts, NBA FastBreak '98 presents gamers with the opportunity to play ball
as real NBA players. The game also allows for many professional
transactions including trades and the option to release a player. To top
it all off, this exciting new title features a create-a-player mode that
invites gamers to custom-design players with the exact characteristics and
capabilities they desire.
NBA FastBreak '98 lets players take to the court in fully customizable
singular preseason games or play a complete season that corresponds with
the actual NBA schedule. Gamers can also hone their dribbling, passing,
shooting, and dunking skills -- just like the pros -- in a unique practice
mode that allows players to work on perfecting any aspect of their game.
To further enhance the realism of a true NBA game play experience, NBA
FastBreak '98 includes a variety of other awesome options and features such
as auto action replay capabilities, full player and team statistic tracking
modes, and an exciting new "On-the-Fly" play calling system which lets
players use actual plays from actual NBA teams.
According to Cook, "NBA FastBreak '98 delivers an unparalleled basketball
simulation video game play experience. This title truly captures the
essence, energy, and excitement of a live NBA game!"
Activision Names BradyGAMES as Official Strategy Guide Publisher
INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- BradyGAMES today announced its
agreement to partner with entertainment software developer and publisher
Activision, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, BradyGAMES has the
option to exclusively publish up to 11 strategy guides based on Activision
games that will be released in the next year. BradyGAMES is an imprint of
Macmillan Digital Publishing USA (MDP).
"BradyGAMES and Activision have collaborated on titles since 1994," stated
Bobby Kotick, Chairman and CEO, Activision, Inc. "Building on last year's
tremendous success of the 'Official Zork Nemesis Strategy Guide' and the
'Official Guide to Spycraft: The Great Game,' we are pleased that Brady's
expert authors will share their winning strategies for several of our
upcoming games."
"As we continue to forge strategic alliances with leaders in the game
industry, we look forward to committing Brady resources to meet
Activision's aggressive publishing plan," stated Lynn Zingraf, Publisher,
BradyGAMES. "Activision has a very strong line up of products coming out
over the next year, and we are delighted that Activision has chosen us to
deliver hints and strategies to their growing customer base."
BradyGAMES will publish strategy guides for Activision's PC games including
"Dark Reign: The Future of War," "Zork Grand Inquisitor" and "Heavy Gear."
In addition, Brady will also publish strategy guides for Activision's Sony
PlayStation console games. For the latest software from Macmillan Digital
Publishing USA, visit http://www.macsoftware.com. For the last demos,
hints and cheats, visit BradyGAMES at http://www.bradygames.com.
THQ Furthers Publishing Relationship with Disney
CALABASAS, CALIF. (Oct. 13) BUSINESS WIRE - Oct. 13, 1997 - THQ Inc.
(Nasdaq/NMS:THQI) Monday announced that it is continuing its long-standing
relationship with Disney Interactive to include developing and publishing
two new Nintendo Game Boy games in 1998 based on Disney's upcoming animated
features "Mulan" and "A Bug's Life."
In addition, THQ will publish and develop a third Game Boy title to be
announced at a later date.
"Mulan," based on Disney's summer animated feature film of the same name,
is slated for release in the second quarter of 1998. THQ intends to
deliver "A Bug's Life" in conjunction with Disney's upcoming Pixar motion
picture in the fourth quarter of 1998.
"THQ is pleased to watch our relationship with Disney grow," said Brian
Farrell, president and chief executive officer of THQ. "Based on the
continued strength of the Nintendo Game Boy market, THQ is happy to provide
these premium titles to the millions of devoted fans eager for
the hottest titles on their video-game systems."
Racing Car Game Release Stalled
OCT 15, 1997, M2 Communications - Psygnosis' F1'97 racing car game for the
Sony PlayStation is facing a release delay. According to CTW, Psygnosis has
found itself involved in a licencing dispute with Formula One
Administration Ltd, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile
and merchandising firm, Giss. Psygnosis is alleged to have used the FIA
logo, drivers' names and known teams and circuits in the game without
permission.
More "Zero 5" Comments
Zero-5, the 5th Jaguar-saving game in the last year is out, and it's got a
lot of things going for it. Opinions on the game seem to be a bit varied
but I'll go ahead and throw mine out there :)
The graphics of this title are composed of 256 color, shaded and texture
mapped polygons. Don't let the 256 colors fool you, it does a great job of
looking more than it actually is. When you first pop this cart in, the
graphics are going to jump out at you. Considering all other Jaguar polygon
games, Zero-5 sports a very high poly count and framerate. This makes the
game look far more "Next-Gen" than other attempts. As I started to move my
ship around I was taken back by the smooth movement and nifty 3D effect
that the intelligent camera created. The graphics are incredibly 3D looking
even though the gameplay isn't entirely 3 dimensional (I'll get to that
later).
A lot of extra time went into the mission intros/endings and explosions,
and these kinds of things really push the visuals over the top. The
explosions are very powerful. Big polygonal chunks blast off from the
terminated craft in many directions. The insides of the chunks flash red,
yellow and orange colors. As these break off, multiple red
pixel-shatter-like rings expand and animate from the center of the
explosion. As the rings of fire fade, it creates a smokey-looking effect.
In the HitPak Gunner mode (turret like mode), if you don't hit the center
of the enemies, you'll blow away various parts of their craft. If you shoot
the front end of a Stinger craft, the nose of the ship will explode leaving
inner parts of it exposed. You can see wires and sparks on the front of the
ship now! This is a very awesome effect.
Now to those intros that I was talking about :) before each mission you see
different scenes to set up what's about to happen. The Hit-Pak will be
flying though space and it'll open up and out comes the Bam-Bam fighter
complete with a voice saying, "Launch sequence initiated." Or else the
Hit-Pak will be cruising though space and some bad guys will arrive at the
scene just before the voice says, "Take control." It's extra touches like
these that make a game stand out above others.
The sound is covered very well. There are 4 techno tunes that play
throughout the game. The all have very nice drum loops and techno rhythms,
but lack a little bit of the melody of a T2K or D2K tune. Still, while some
of the top music in a Jag game, just not topping Imagitec's masterpieces.
On the upside, the tunes are nice and long. You won't be getting any short
repetitious tunage :) The sound effects are quite cool! The explosion
sounds in the Hit-Pak gunner sequences have a nice little bit of bass in
them. the sound of your ship getting hit is very fitting as well. There are
sound effects where they need to be, and they are all nicely tweaked. The
voicing is a big plus as well! There is also a bass/treble slider and some
pre-set equalizer settings. I think the gameplay is some of the best on
any Jag game. There are 3 different modes of play that cycle throughout
the game, and near the end you get combination missions. The missions are:
Bam-Bam (in the small fighter alone in space), Hit-Pak gunner
(turret/Missile Command 3D), and Trench sequence (ala Star Wars)....
The Bam-Bam mode is the one that comes up first. This one has some control
that will be tough to grasp at first. This mode is 3D, but not fully 3D.
You're in the center of the screen and enemies will fly all around you. You
can turn side to side, up to down, shoot towards or away from the screen,
or even roll right or left. You can't fly away from the enemies, and you
can't dodge enemy fire. You have to do the best to protect yourself by
learning the patterns of the enemies and shooting their bullets down before
they hit your ship. The effect is truly amazing. There is a part on level
one where you're in the center and guys keep popping up one-by-one
counter-clockwise all around you. This is where you really get an idea of
what's going on. Shoot an entire pack of guys and you'll receive a
power-up. Now, what you do with this power-up is up to you. You can select
gun upgrade, shield repair or points. You also start each level off with 3
super lasers. Push this button and you're invincible while your laser
automatically attaches to ships around you.
The Hit-Pak gunner mode puts you in control of a turret. You have a 360
degree playfield where you rotate the gun right or left to locate enemies.
You have a choice of a fast or slow target cursor. I usually keep it on the
fast one unless I need some heavy fine tuning against a boss. Your shields
aren't just one bar, they're based upon the damage you've received from
around your ship. So if your south/east side shields are critical, you'll
want to protect that side over the other areas. In this mode, you'll also
face asteroid belts and big bosses. This mode has a bit of slowdown in it
when there are multiple explosions going on. The gameplay doesn't seem to
suffer from this very much though.
The trench sequences require a lot of memorization to complete. You're
flying though the core of an enemy starship. There are walls that you can
blast though, and wall that are indestructible. You'll have to roll your
ship around in a circular motion to avoid the unbreakable walls. Imagine
the T2K green path bonuses with barricades you have to dodge. This mode
looks really cool and is hyper fast! Don't expect to beat it the first
time because it takes a lot of practice. This mode has some noticeable
slowdown at times....mostly in the texture filled places.
There are 15 missions in the game, and the levels go in 3's....so with
every new level, you'll face new enemies with harder attack patterns and
stronger weapons. Whenever you finish a level, the next is unlocked for
you to play. The main problem is that you only face 4-5 enemy types in each
level (with exception of the last level)....They could have mixed it up a
little more to keep things a bit more interesting. The turret levels are
the best examples of this. Some missions you'll face Stinger after Stinger
or Scorpio after Scorpio. This is the biggest thing that I consider to be
wrong with Zero-5.
A lot of people have complained about the lack of autofire. To tell you the
truth, I like pounding away on the controller as fast as I can. It gives
me a feeling of arcade action and a blood pumping adrenaline rush :) Just
holding the button down would just take the fun out of it. The difficulty
of the game is going to be a bit steep for little kids or people who just
aren't very good at staying with a tough game. It has quite a steep
learning curve, but this is the type of game that psychos such as I crave!
A challenge that just won't stop until you've gotten it near perfect. Some
of the later levels require you to do close to *flawless* for the entire
duration of the level (15-20 minutes long).....this is beatable, but it's
not going to come easy....and that's how I like it. Very little margin for
error :) I played the game up to level 15 on the Cadet difficulty setting,
but I *had* to put it on Novice mode to finish it off (shame on
me!).....I'm working on finishing it on Cadet, but it's near impossible I
tell ya! You have to shoot the boss for 10 minutes straight....
Z5 didn't get a lot of hype...and that's one of the reasons I think I'm so
impressed with it. It was kind of a sleeper hit if you know what I mean.
Many people may disagree, but I say that Zero-5 is one of the best Jag
games there is. I'd definitely rank it in the top 5. Don't get me wrong,
Battle Sphere will be the best space shooter on the Jag (I've played it, of
course).....but is it so wrong for the Jag to have another space game with
some ultra fun-factor and a sweet next-gen look to it? Not at all.
Graphics-9 1/2
Jag games don't come with this high of a poly count and a high framerate
often. The texture mapping that is scattered around in the game is done in
very good taste.
Sound/Music-9
Great tunes and sound effect....a tune or two more would've really been
awesome though.
Control-8 1/2
A bit steep at first, but with some practice you'll be able to flip around
and pinpoint enemies very quickly.
Power-9 1/2
This game really takes advantage of the what polygonal power the Jaguar
has, and it does it while maintaining a smooth and ultra playable
framerate.
Fun Factor-10
One of the funnest Jag games I've ever played. A straight up, in your face,
action space shooter with some great tunes and tough missions.
Overall-93%
by Wes Powell
____________________________________________________________________
If you'd like to see screenshots of the game or hear some sound clips,
visit Jagu-Dome in the signature below!
Take it easy,
Wes
--
Maintainer of the Atari Jaguar page, \Jagu-Dome/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4106/jagu-dome.html
Jaguar Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr!
Here is a post that Jeff Minter left on his web page a little while back.
Seems that he is working on Project X. :)
It's good to see that he's busy.
-LT
---
Beyond
Finally, the time has come. You establish communications with the Artifact
and download instructions.Finally you prepare to utter the execute command
that will, hopefully, give you your first glimpse of an exotic new world...
You cross every crossable portion of your anatomy, say a prayer to Turing
and Babbage, and type the final command:
> GOAT
And, with that pleasantly caprine invocation:
[blink]
Wisps of cloud forming in a blue sky, tinged with impossibly psychedelic
colours
[blink]
Distant sunrise in alien skies
[blink]
Boiling turbulence in the atmosphere of a gas giant
[blink]
Fur
[blink]
Flight over a receding plain of liquid metal pyramids
[blink]
Underwater sunlight
[blink]
Cerebral cortex surface... writhing...
[blink]
Rain falling on watercolours
[blink]
Sinister green organic-looking entity that oozes and moves around in a
mildly disturbing manner
[blink]
Little Fluffy Clouds
[blink]
Chicken Vindaloo
(err... no, not actually that last one. I missed my curry this Thursday,
and I am starting to suffer spicy Indian culinary hallucinations). And, in
every case, the images move gently, flowing like liquid light.. and as you
had anticipated, there are no pixels... but you never quite anticipated
just how beautiful they would be, or quite how they would manage to move
like that...
hehe...
So that's basically where I have been spending my days, of late - beginning
to explore incredible new spaces, and the possibilities just stagger me...
I remember when I was developing T2K on the Jaguar, how I came up with that
one feedback effect that proved to be so cool, and I thought how one could
spend years just exploring the possibilities of that one effect...
Just recently, I have been coming across effects of that magnitude almost
every day. And I have only just barely begun to lightly tickle the surface
of what this thing can do. My chin is bruised from the number of times that
my jaw has hit the floor. The potential for algorithmic graphics on this
thing is just mind-melting. I kinda knew what I was expecting, but this
goes way, way beyond. Talk about machines of loving grace... X is
beautiful. Just beautiful.
Oh boy, are you guys gonna love this. You want psychedelic? Hey, I got yer
psychedelic right here... :-)
About Linux
Compiled by Scott Dowdle
Linux is the cooperatively developed POSIX-oriented, multi-user,
multi-tasking operating system used worldwide in commercial, academic, and
development sectors. Linux is used as a low-cost, fully functional Unix
workstation for Internet server and other applications. Linux users are
estimated at five million strong and growing. Red Hat Linux is maintained
as "freely distributable" software, available from many sites on the
internet.
About Red Hat Software, Inc.
Red Hat Software, Inc., located in Durham, NC, is a Linux distribution
dedicated to pushing the Linux operating system forward, while giving back
to the Linux community. They build and maintain the Red Hat Linux
distribution for Intel, Alpha, and SPARC platforms. Red Hat also publishes
and maintains industry standard commercial applications for Linux including
OSF Motif, CDE, and the Applixware Office Suite.
About Crack dot Com
Crack dot Com is a small game development company located in Austin, Texas.
The company was incorporated in 1996 by Dave Taylor, who is part of the
team that made Doom and Quake, and Jonathan Clark, author of Abuse. Crack
dot Com's web site is located at .
For more information on Golgotha, check out the Golgotha section of Crack
dot com's website at
For the most current information, see "It's Golgotha Dammit", at .
* Doom, Quake, and id Software are trademarks of id Software, Inc.
Abuse, Golgotha, and Crack dot Com are trademarks of Crack dot Com, Inc.
RED HAT is a trademark of Red Hat Software, Inc.
ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
Compiled by Joe Mirando
jmirando@streport.com
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone and it's
time to look at what other Atarians are talking about online. I know that
many of you will be surprised to find out that I haven't got a soapbox to
stand on this week. Usually I spend the first several paragraphs of this
column beating you over the head with my latest crusade or faulty thought
process. Well, that's not the case this week. I'm afraid that I haven't
got anything rattling around in my brain that needs getting out and airing
in the light of day (or the light of a computer monitor, as the case may
be).
We've got CompuServe getting ready to provide access to their forums
via the internet (something that Delphi has been doing for a while now),
PC computer prices falling, chip manufacturers saying they've found a way
to make processor chips run faster and cooler, and Internet Service
Providers merging and expanding all over the place. All in all, not a lot
for me to complain about.... Maybe next week. <grin>
We took a look at the messages on Delphi last time, so this time we'll look
at what's floating around on the UseNet...
>From the COMP.SYS.ATARI.ST NewsGroup
Jo Even Skarstein posts:
"I've just bought a HP Deskjet 670C, which works very well
with NVDI's Deskjet 550C driver. I want to use the 600dpi
mode as well, and wondered if anybody has made such a driver,
or know where I can get one.
Given the proper documentation I can easily make one myself,
but it looks like HP doesn't like to give away this info..."
Malcolm (Cookie) Cooke tells Jo:
"With the print driver editor for nvdi look at the laserjet
printer the commands as very close build a new one and try it
out or look at the print drivers in Papyrus v4 or 5 these
have the deskjet printer 670c i think and you can see the
commands there! Hope this helps."
Boris Cahan adds his thoughts:
"I just got a 672C myself, and the 550C driver works just
fine with it. If you want, you can get the PCL codes from
their web-site http://www.hp.com/go/peripherals, but unless
you KNOW PCL, forget it. And I mean REALLY KNOW! Just set up
your paper size properly, and the rest is easy. On the
control codes page, Iin the start page command line is a ESC
(*t300R) line make that ...t600... and change any other lines
that have 300 to 600. Using makeprn.prg, you can copy the
300 dpi to a new entry, then rename the new entry to 600 DPI.
CAUTION! If the 670 is the same as the 672, color is only 300
x 300, so make sure in the color page that you set it to B/W.
The F HP manual says use the 550C driver!
The problem is not that they don't want to, it's just that
the Techs on the phone lines, and the ones who wrote the
manual, think that the only computer is The PeeWee! Tell them
its an Atari, they sound dumb and say "we don't support
that"!
IF you persist and spend 10 hrs or so trying to find an
intelligent tech, you can actually get some real help. But at
long distance toll rates."
Martin-Eric Racine asks for help with GhostScript, the
PostScript/Adobe Acrobat reader:
"How does it work??? I unpacked the basic package (gs315.zoo
I think), and every time CAB passes it a .PDF file, GS gives
me an error message, saying it cannot locate some of its
config files?!! What is the black magical spell one must
recite when installing it? There was no ReadMe with this
archive."
Jo Even Skarstein tells Martin:
"I never got GhostScript 3.33 to work either, it always
complained about missing configuration-files. Somebody
mentioned that a newer version would be better, but I haven't
needed GS since then (trying to print out some pages of the
Atari Compendium) so I haven't bothered downloading the
latest version. Atari GhostScript has a dedicated web-site,
I don't remember the URL but a quick search should locate
it."
"Mike" asks for help for a friend:
"Hello Atari Users, I am an IBM user that would like to setup
a friend on the net who has an Atari ST. I see alot of
software like STING that looks like what I need. I see its
compressed by mathods like LHARC or ZOO. I am familiar with
the IBM versions of these. what do I need to get to be able
to install an archiver like LHARC on my friends Atari? If I
have no archiver yet, what do I need to get to install it,
and where can I download it ?"
William Pike tells Mike:
"There are Atari versions of LHArc, Zoo,Zip,ARC, and sever
other programs that are directly compatable with the versions
for other systems. They should be available from any Atari
Archive."
Boris Cahan adds:
"There are several atari sites that are still good. The
ftp.umich.atari (? I am not sure if this is the right
adress??) site has a file called starter.tos at the end of
its directory, that has a bunch of simple archivers, of
several styles. Get it with FTP, copy it to a dos 720K disk,
and load it into his ST. It'll read OK. Then run it, and it
is a self-extracting archive itself. That'll get him
started, till he gets more full featured archivers."
Neil Bradley posts:
" I have a couple of Degas (pi1) files that I want to print
out on a HP Deskjet 500. As I can't find a printer driver
for the printer, I was hoping I could find a program that
will convert the file to .gif so I can print it out using my
PC.
Suggestions as to programs (with URL to go to) will be
appreciated."
David De Ridder tells Neil:
"You can print it with DMC Calamus, which is a very
wide-spread commercial DTP package for the Atari. If you
want to convert your PI1 to GIF, you could use Speed-of-Light
(shareware) or if you also want to convert to other PC
formats (like BMP), you should try GEMview (shareware). I
don't have any exact web locations for these but you should
try: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/atari or
http://www.hensa.ac.uk (which has a restricted access)"
Peter Rottengatter, the author of STinG, the ST Next Generation
TCP/IP software, posts:
"The PPP code in STinG contained a couple of bad bugs, which
I just fixed. So you might want to try again in a few days
when the new code is available."
Daniel Cohen tells Peter:
"Interesting. STinG seemed to work for me OK using PP. Mind
you, as I'm setting up a system for a friend (I use MagicMac,
so Web browsing is done on the Mac side), I haven;t used it
much yet. Still, I had no troubles with Ping, Traceroute
(which I tried just to see how the connection worked), and
the demo of Cab 2.0."
On the subject of "The Year 2000 Bug", Mario Becroft tells us:
"I don't think it will be as serious as you might think. I
set my date to a year past 2000, and all the software I tried
seemed to work fine. I didn't look into it in detail,
however, I just tried it out for half an hour or so. There
definitely will be problems, but I hope they won't be very
serious."
Gaven Miller goes into a bit more detail:
"My TT with TOS 3.05 seems OK to 2033 (2033 has some
significance to me, and I haven't tried any later date)
Marios TT (with TOS 3.06) should behave similarly to mine in
this regard I cannot comment about earlier/later TOS versions
however (the only other ST I own [TOS 1.02 Mega ST] has been
sitting in its box unused for the last few years and
unpacking it will prove difficult). TOS has a function call
that programmers use to get or set the date. This is done via
a sixteen bit number into which is encoded the date. This
sixteen bit number conains a seven bit number that TOS uses
to denote the year. (The remaining nine bits are used to
encode the month [four bits] and day [five bits])
This seven bit number can store either 1) 0 to 127 or 2) -64
to 63. These values are seen by TOS as offsets from 1980.
Therefore the date range is either 1) 1980 to 2107 or 2) 1916
to 2043."
Christopher Kmiec asks for help in finding an assembler:
"I'm looking for an assembler for the ST. If I remember
correctly, the beast one was DevPac3. Can anyone tell me
where can I buy/get a copy of it? Also, are there any PD
assemblers out there?"
Dave Forrai tells him:
"Yes, DevPak was/is considered the best. It was also the
most expensive. There was a shareware one named TurboAss
that was supposed to be pretty good.
I used AssemPro and GFA Assembler. AssemPro had some really
nice features (eg. reassembly) but unfortunately a little
buggy. It would have been great if an AssemPro v2 had been
released to clean it up a bit. Still, it was/is a decent
assembler for building programs.
GFA Assembler had less bugs but not as many features as
AssemPro. Like all GFA products, it tended to be a bit
quirky in its interface. Another plus for GFA is that it
produces C object code. Unfortunately, it only generated the
Alcyon format. I got a copy of GFA Assembler off a UK
magazine. I don't remember what issue but perhaps someone
has a copy to sell."
David Leaver tells Chris and the other Dave:
"I use both DevPac and Assempro. The latter is 68000 only,
no fpu stuff. DevPac covers 68030 and 68881/2. Unfortunately
they recognise different source codes (such as local labels,
macros) The debuggers in both won't work under NVDI."
Ross Purves asks:
"Does anybody know if there are any cannon bj10e fonts to
download on the net - I am sick of sans serif and co!!!"
Mark Burmeister tells Ross:
"Unless you have software that can print soft fonts in
graphics mode, you won't be able to add any more to the
BJ10e. The BJ10ex did add a Roman font and a few others I
think. I own one of each. The BJ200 has all of the Epson
fonts, so it can do a script font as well as Roman,
sans-seriff and some others. Some Atari software may be able
to print out different fonts on the BJ10 by using it in
graphics mode, but I'm not aware of it."
Hallvard Tangerass tells Ross and Mark:
"Talking about the BJ-10(e/ex)... I have the BJ-10ex and
I've spent a lot of time trying to configure it. I've finally
got it to print in Papyrus using it's own driver, but NVDI is
a bit more problematic.
I have now managed to edit the driver for both 180 and 360
dpi. The only problem seems to be that in 360dpi mode an
additonal formfeed is made, so that another paper is drawn
into the printer (from the sheetfeeder). I don't want this! I
want it to stop after 1 printing the current page (works fine
in 180dpi mode as it stops shortly after the paper is drawn
all the way through.
My printer is set in BJ-130 emulation/mode 1/2 (DIP switch
10=ON, 11=OFF) as this was what I experienced to work best.
As an answer to your question about Speedo fonts... You need
NVDI for this (or some other GDOS replacement) -forget about
the old and bulky original GDOS -it's plain rubbish!!
And I don't think it ever supported vector fonts. I also
want to recommend an excellent printout program -"Idealist"
(currently at version 3.80 I think). I've managed to make a
pretty decent printer driver for the BJ-10ex with proper
character translations. I'm hoping to be able to get access
to just about all the characters in the printer (regardless
of character set mode it's set to with the DIP switches) -do
any of you think this is possible and can give me some tips
and pointers? It *seems* like it's possible, looking in the
printer's manual and seeing the printer commands, but I
wouldn't know how to use those commands properly..
But first of all, the problem with NVDI's driver in 360dpi
mode -how do I stop it doing that extra form feed which feeds
a new sheet from the sheet feeder?"
Well folks, that's about it for this time around. Be sure to tune in again
next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are
saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
EDITORIAL QUICKIES
Silence can be DEADLY.
z They came first for the Communists...but I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Communist.
z Then they came for the Jews...but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a
Jew.
z Then they came for the Unionists...but I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Unionist.
z Then they came for the Catholics...but I didn't speak up because I was
a Protestant.
z Then they came for me...and by that time...there was no-one left to
speak up for me.
Rev. Martin Niemoller, commenting on events in
Germany 1933-1939
STReport International Magazine
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STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" October 17, 1997
Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1341
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