ST Report: 9-Oct-98 #1433
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 10/11/98-08:49:08 AM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 9-Oct-98 #1433
Date: Sun Oct 11 08:49:08 1998
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October 09, 1998 No.1433
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From the Editor's Desk...
I'm certain most will agree. "The Republican Party, The GOP, has
indeed committed political suicide. The fools ignored all the warning
signs and stampeded ahead with their rabid pursuit of Clinton. Its the
same hotheaded vengeance the "Newt Gang" with their "revolution"
exhibited in Clinton's very first year. Any fool can easily realize
that at that point in time Gingrich hadn't a clue about Clinton's
private life. Yet Newt was very busy from day one trying to undermine
Clinton's Democratic Presidency. It is sad to see the Republicans so
busy chasing Clinton's head that they are seemingly ignoring the
Nuclear Weapons Proliferation going on in the Mid-East. Pakistan,
India and now Iraq and Afghanistan have or are suspected of having
weapons of mass destruction. What is our government doing about it??
Chasing Clinton's sexual life. What .... is WRONG with this
picture?? I'll never support or vote for a Republican again. They
have sold out the American electorate for useless GOP party lines and
the good OLE boy system. They can keep it and all they stand for. The
GOP is dead as far as I am concerned. That also goes for the GUTLESS
Democrats that backstabbed both Clinton and the voters of this nation.
The popular opinion polls clearly mandate that this rabid pursuit of
Clinton cease.... yet the clown politicians ignore the voters... Well
our time is coming.
Sorta reminds one of the Burning Rome and Nero story, the GOP and
Gutless Democrats horse around on the hill while the world is headed to
nuclear hell. Voters... make yourselves heard this November. I know I
shall.
Now, the time comes to say it like it really is.. History WILL bear
these comments out to be true. The real powerhouse behind the best part
of Clinton's troubles is the man he beat at the election polls way back
when. A man who was coming off a major military victory, a man with
decades of experience in how to break another man's career through
sexual exploitation and setups and finally a man with the power, reach
and political savvy to get all these things done smoothly and
efficiently. There is only one man is this type of a driver's seat
these days, that man is George H. Bush.
One can only imagine the sheer amazement Bush was experiencing knowing
full well Clinton was going to beat him silly in the elections. Not to
mention the anguish and pain of tasting defeat as he came off Desert
Storm and the end to the Cold War. I'm certain Bush was confident that
with these major events seemingly to his Presidency's credit his
winning a second term would be a given. But no, he lost. But did he
really lose it all?? In the future, history will point out just how
manipulative George was. How much he put his deep experience and
connections from running the CIA to use in bringing about the
persecution of Clinton.
The more we see unfold relative to the Clinton Presidency, the more we
see a President set up to take a terrible fall. Much like Jimmy Carter
was setup when he was running for re-election. The Iranian Hostage
affair was already brought to a close but the hostages were left there
to make Carter look so bad when in fact, the actual dealings and
negotiations were accomplished during Carter's administration. Guess
who was running the CIA? Who was his best buddy? Check the history of
the affair Who was running the CIA during the Ford Administration?
Better yet why is it that even though the Ollie North Hearings
produced evidence that Ronnie was in fact, involved up to his ears in
the Iran - Contra Affair nothing was done? Could it be because his VP
had full control of what was going on? Poindexter, however, took the
fall. So Bush would remain clean to run in the next presidential
election. All the fancy Republican shenanigans .. will it ever end? I
think not. I might add; yes, this all sounds scary. But if you take
the time to do the research, you won't be frightened you'll be
terrified! There are some really bad people in powerful places in this
country's government and outside of it too but very well connected.
Folks in Florida had better think twice about voting for "Jeb" Bush
Who would they really be voting for? Is it true Jeb moved to Florida
just to get a shot at running for Governor? Why is Jeb bush so tight
with the power brokers in NE Florida?? Are they not the same power
brokers that got Jeb all hooked up so nice with the IDEON Corp.?? A
deal where untold numbers of people lost their fortunes in investments
in this dead corp.. There were all sorts of calls for an in-depth
investigation but nothing ever came of it. What's become of the CEO of
IDEON?? Paul Cahn was the CEO at the time it failed. Jeb Bush was an
active board member. The company failed not long after Bush joined the
board. This matter cries out for a thorough, in depth investigation.
What became of the investigations into Keating and the bank failures he
was accused of being responsible for? Better yet why is it the others
at the top in the Keating Affair were never prosecuted? Wasn't one of
them a Bush too?
Think twice Floridians The other problems seen with Bush is he is
playing up to the Southern Baptist Power Brokers by yapping about being
against pro-choice. People had better wake up or else they'll be
condemning the young people to criminal records, interstate flight and
death. Gun Control, while a sticky wicket, is bound to become an
absolute nightmare with Bush he is against "cooling off" periods,
registration and background checks. This guy is dead wrong for Florida.
DEAD WRONG!
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LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Town Denies Access to Web Records
A federal judge has denied an Internet publisher the right to feast his
eyes on so-called "cookies," computer files showing which Web sites users
have been browsing. U.S. District Judge Thomas Higgins' dismissed the
publisher's lawsuit last week but left a legal question up to the state:
Are the cookies public records? Geoffrey Davidian, publisher of an
on-line newsletter called The Putnam Pit, wanted to see the files to
determine whether city employees in Cookeville were visiting pornographic
and other non-work related sites on taxpayers' time. He said the city
violated First Amendment rights by denying him access.
Higgins last week ruled that Davidian's claim was a stretch and left it
up to the state to decide whether the cookies are public information when
they are stored on government computers. Davidian has appealed. First
Amendment experts are watching the case, hoping the courts will set
clearer boundaries for what computer information is open to the public.
Cookies are nuggets of information that a Web site can be programmed to
plant in the hard drives of computers. Depending on the computer, the
files can be stored for long periods of time, leaving a trail showing
where the user has visited.
Evan Hendricks, editor and publisher of the Washington, D.C., newsletter
Privacy Times, said the Freedom of Information Act guaranteeing public
access to certain government records should cover cookies. But he said it
may take a number of court cases to establish that. Jane Kirtley,
executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in
Washington, said judges should consider requests for digital information
just as they do access to ordinary government paperwork.
"It's possible that sometimes people do get so wrapped up in the
cyberspace component they can't see the forest for the trees," she said.
Davidian's case stemmed from a feud with Cookeville officials that led
him to start publishing the Pit, which focuses on government and politics
in Cookeville, about 80 miles east of Nashville. City attorney John Duffy
argued that because the files are created by outside software, they are
not city property even though they are stored in city computers. Sam
Harris, Davidian's lawyer, likened the cookies to long distance phone
records, which are considered public under Tennessee's Public Records
Act.
Court Papers Suggest Microsoft Fears Of Sun's Java
Microsoft Corp. executives were worried about the threat to the company's
dominant Windows operating software by Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java
programming language designed to run on a variety of computer systems,
according to newly unsealed court documents. In a court hearing held
almost three weeks ago and closed to the press, Sun's lawyers presented
evidence that they allege showed Microsoft was seeking to wrest control
of Java away from Sun. The Java language was touted in its early days as
the software that could end Microsoft's dominance.
Palo Alto, California-based Sun is suing Microsoft for breach of ontract
in its licensing agreement for Sun's Java, which is designed to enable
programmers to write a program that will run on a variety of computer
systems. Sun, which has sought to make sure that all copies of Java are
compatible, has argued that Microsoft is trying to "pollute" Java by
developing Windows-only versions of Java and Java programming tools. The
transcript of the court hearing was released late on Wednesday night by
the U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte for the Northern District of
California in San Jose.
In the unsealed court documents, Sun attorney Lloyd "Rusty" Day quoted
from internal Microsoft memos about its strategy for Java. "We must seize
control of the Java platform," Day said, quoting a Microsoft memo from
the company's head of Java development to its top management. Day told
the court Java scared "the hell out of" Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
The Sun lawyer said that in October 1996 Gates made it clear in an annual
"Think Week" for Microsoft top managers that the company needed to offer
Java client applications code that would be unique enough to preserve
Microsoft's market position.
Microsoft's attorney, Karl Quackenbush, in a rebuttal, said "e-mail is a
wonderful communications tool" and that people use it like they are
having a conversation in the hall. "But while the e-mail and these
internal documents are interesting, it's sort of background noise,"
Quackenbush told the court. "But what the case is really about is the
contract, what's in the products, what was done, how do they work and
that's what we'd like to talk about." Quackenbush said Microsoft received
a license to the technology and broad rights in its contract to modify,
adapt, create derivative works of the technology. He said that Sun was
trying to turn its fundamental agreement upside down.
Quackenbush also pointed to a document created by Sun co- founder Bill
Joy with the words "Wintel" (for Windows and Intel, the leading chip
maker), with a big circle around it and a line drawn through it, where
the year 2000 was written. "The gang of four that Sun organized -- Sun,
Netscape, Oracle and IBM, all [Java] licensees -- this gang of four
apparently spent some time thinking about how to kill Microsoft, "
Quackenbush said, arguing that the notion that Sun was not attacking
Microsoft's franchise did not stand up. Sun is seeking to enjoin
Microsoft from shipping versions of its products that have Java,
including Windows 98.
Microsoft Loses Fight for Access
Two professors do not have to turn over to Microsoft tapes of interviews
with executives from a rival software company, a federal judge ruled this
[Thursday] morning. Microsoft had hoped to use the interviews _ research
for an upcoming book by the two professors _ with rival Netscape as
powerful evidence to stymie the government's antitrust lawsuit against
Microsoft. Professors David Yoffie of Harvard University and Michael
Cusumano of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who recorded the
interviews, had refused to hand over the tapes and documents in which
Netscape executives admit mistakes in their efforts to compete against
Microsoft.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled against Microsoft, saying the
professors had shown the tapes were made in confidence. Stearns did say,
however, that Microsoft lawyers had not been on a "fishing expedition"
when they sought the tapes to use as evidence in their own antitrust
defense. And he reserved the right to release sections of the tape if
necessary once the antitrust case against Microsoft goes to trial in
Washington later this month.
Microsoft lawyers had argued the tapes cut to the heart of the U.S.
government's antitrust case: Did the software giant use unfair tactics to
dominate its competitors? o win the mammoth antitrust case, the
government must show that Microsoft crossed the line from innovation to
calculated schemes that choked rivals and hurt consumers. It must prove
that Microsoft used its dominance in operating systems - the software
that runs computers - to force PC makers into installing its Internet
browser software and exclude competitors.
Microsoft is eager to find evidence that may show Netscape's own business
blunders - not its allegedly illegal conduct - caused Netscape's Internet
browser software to founder while Microsoft's grew in popularity. The
several hours of tapes, which include interviews with Netscape chairman
Jim Barksdale, company cofounder Marc Andreessen and more than 40 other
employees, contain off-the-record comments, private conversations and
admissions of strategic missteps, Cusumano said.
The professors had said that the tapes were made with the understanding
that they would be used for their book - not a lawsuit by a rival
company. Jeff Swope, Cusumano's lawyer, said this morning in court
arguments that the case hinged on academic freedom. "It's not just
chilling. It's freezing," he said. "That's the end of research with
confidentiality." Moreover, he accused Microsoft of laziness by going
after the professors' interviews when the company could depose the
Netscape employees themselves.
The book, "Competing on Internet Time: Lessons from Netscape and Its
Battle with Microsoft" is scheduled to appear in stores just days after
the start of Microsoft's Oct. 15 trial.
Senate Defeats Internet Sales Tax
The Senate rejected legislation that would allow states to force mail
order and Internet businesses to collect sales taxes for them. In a 65-30
vote Friday, senators killed a measure that would have authorized any
state to require companies with significant catalog, mail order or
Internet sales to collect their sales tax and send it back to the state.
Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., the sponsor, noted that every business
operating in a state with a sales tax must already collect and remit the
revenue. The measure would effectively reverse a 1992 Supreme Court
decision preventing states from enforcing sales taxes on companies
located outside their borders, he noted.
"If they choose to have a sales tax, the federal government should allow
them to enforce it," Bumpers argued. But opponents, who prevailed for the
sixth straight year, called the measure a hidden tax increase. "Since
this tax has never been collected, there's only one way to view it," said
Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. The issue is sure to
resurface as the Senate debates a broader Internet tax bill that would
impose a moratorium on any new state or local taxes while a federal
commission sorts out tax options for electronic commerce.
More than a dozen states already have imposed a variety of taxes on
online subscriptions and on transfers of data. In some cases, this has
led to contradictions such as a tax on electronic newspaper subscriptions
that is not imposed on the printed copies. Legislation passed by the
House would impose a three-year moratorium on new state and local
Internet taxes but allow existing ones to remain. The current Senate bill
has a two-year moratorium, but that may change as a final vote nears next
week. States are already losing $4 billion a year because of mail order
sales and project at least $12 billion in lost annual revenue to the
Internet, according to the National Governors' Association.
Marketers Push To Fight "Spam," Protect Kids On Net
Marketers want industrial nations meeting in Ottawa next week to adopt a
global system to protect consumers from junk e-mail, which a top marketer
calls the "cancer of electronic commerce." Direct marketing experts
meeting separately in San Francisco next week hoped to agree a global
code of practice to protect children using the Internet from straying
onto unsuitable sites, said Colin Lloyd, chief executive of Britain's
Direct Marketing Association.
"We are trying to lay the foundations to develop an e-mail preference
service globally, for consumers to opt out of receiving unwanted e-mail
solicitations," he told Reuters. "We don't want to ban it because we
think that would be closing the door to what could be a very exciting
marketing opportunity in future." An e-mail preference service would
operate in a similar way to services provided by direct marketing trade
bodies for direct customer contacts through the post, telephone and fax,
by which consumers can ask to be excluded from direct mail.
Lloyd said that junk e-mail, or "spam," was reaching epidemic proportions
in the U.S. Recent research found that while there was much less of it
here, 95 percent of such messages coming into Britain originated in the
United States. Three sites on the global computer network offered lists
of electronic mail addresses for 10 pounds for a million names, and it
could take just one hour to reach all one million addresses, Lloyd said.
But unlike direct mail via the post for which the marketer pays, spam
pushed costs onto consumers, who paid for telephone access to the
Internet to receive such messages. Senders of unwanted electronic
mailshots for porn or timeshares used "all sorts of tricks" to evade
barriers thrown up by Internet service providers, Lloyd said. Cautioning
that the technical means of creating an e-mail preference service against
spam were extremely complex, Lloyd said, "It's the cancer of electronic
commerce. You either kill it or cure it."
The direct marketing community was looking to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) summit opening in Ottawa on
October 7 to adopt the proposal as part of global guidelines to unlock
electronic commerce. Development was also hampered by a lack of global
agreement on issues like taxation and domain name registration, Lloyd
said. British, American and Canadian direct marketers hoped to persuade
colleagues at a separate meeting in San Francisco next week to agree a
global code of practice for children on the Internet, covering privacy
issues and content.
"We need some guidelines to regulate the transmission of commercial
information to children in online environments. That'll be a very big
step." Direct marketers wanted to act in the interests of commerce,
parents and educators, before an anticipated boom in use of the Internet
by children in homes and schools, Lloyd said. He expected a global code
to be announced formally in San Francisco after resolution of key issues
such as the age of a child, commonly interpreted as less than 16 in
Britain and Europe, but 13 in the U.S.
Earlier this week Britain's Direct Marketing Association together with
the Federation of Electrical Industries won $1.19 million of European
Commission funding to develop a global system to protect intellectual
property with encryption and digital watermarks, the DMA head said. "It's
more important to owners of intellectual property rights but I'd be able
to digitally direct market products all over the globe knowing that
somebody can't steal them," Lloyd said.
Internet Relay Hit By "Trojan Horse" Software Bug
An estimated 15,000 users of Internet Relay Chat, a global chat network,
have been infected with a Trojan horse programmed to retrieve a file from
the GeoCities Web site. It's an especially ominous exploit, since it
allows malicious users to take control of an infected machine once the
program has landed. In an email message sent Friday to the Bugtraq
security mailing list, GeoCities system administrator Debbie Barba said
the company's Web servers were receiving thousands of requests daily from
unique computers for the file, which no longer exists on its servers.
"The specific count for one minute on Friday, September 25 at 10:17 a.m.
was 3,522 hits," Barba said in the message. Barba said that the request
does not use a Web browser and occurs every 30 seconds while the user is
connected to the Internet. The requests have been building up since 18
August-the oldest date in the GeoCities Web server's access logs-and were
for "nfo.zip," a file that was stored in the directory of a GeoCities
member. The Trojan horse currently infects Microsoft's Windows 95 and 98
operating systems, and so far the mIRC client software is the most
frequently used.
Microsoft Plans Bug Fix For Windows 98
Microsoft Corp. will release an update to Windows 98 early next year to
fix bugs in the computer operating system and add support for additional
hardware, company executives said. The planned Service Pack 1 update will
be tested beginning this month and posted onto the Internet for free
download sometime early next year, said Kim Akers, a Microsoft product
manager. The software release will fix several problems including the
"date rollover bug," in which the system fails to change years if the
computer is powered off at a critical moment just before year's end.
The release also will incorporate Internet mail security updates that
have been available separately. And it adds support for new hardware
including USB modems, Akers said. Windows 98 went on sale June 25 and
immediately jumped to the top of the software best-seller list, according
to PC Data Inc., which estimated 1.2 million copies had been sold in the
United States through the end of August. At least 1.5 million additional
copies have been sold overseas, and millions more have been shipped and
loaded onto new computers.
While Windows 98 got a lukewarm response from critics, there have been no
reports of glaring problems in the system, a relatively modest update to
the phenomenally successful three-year-old Windows 95. "Fortunately the
issues that have been reported have been relatively minor and rare,"
Akers said. Nevertheless, she recommended that all users download the
service pack when it becomes available. An updated version of the
operating system also will be made available to computer manufacturers.
The update will not include separate multimedia enhancements that were
made available earlier.
U.S., Network Solutions Agree On Internet Names Plan
The U.S. government and Network Solutions Inc. reached a deal to phase
out the company's exclusive authority to register names in the most
popular segment of the Internet. The agreement, part of the Clinton
administration's plan to privatize the Internet's name and address
system, requires the Herndon, Va., company to allow competing firms to
enter in its registration database names ending in the suffixes, or
top-level domains, .com, .net and .org.
While every country has its own top-level domain, like .us for the United
States, most companies and Internet users prefer to register in the
generic domains controlled by Network Solutions. A growing shortage of
names in the .com domain spurred calls to reform the system over two
years ago. Under Tuesday's agreement, Network Solutions would have until
June 1, 1999 to create and put in place software allowing other firms to
register new names in its databases.
The rest of the Clinton administration's plan would establish a new
nonprofit corporation, based in California and run by an international
board of directors, to oversee the system. The corporation would have
authority to bring more competition to domain name registration and to
create new domains. Network Solutions also agreed to be subject to the
authority of the new corporation and to provide it with databases,
software, documentation and technical support to facilitate competition.
The agreement was the result of months of discussions between the company
and officials from the Commerce Department after the Clinton
administration in July issued a final plan, called the White Paper, for
privatizing the system. With an extension to the current agreement
scheduled to expire, talks went until 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning and
continued during the day Tuesday to hammer out the pact. Becky Burr,
associate administrator in the department's telecommunications unit, said
the agreement "delivers on the promises that the department outlined in
the White Paper and demonstrates (Network Solution's) commitment to
robust competition."
Still to be worked out is a fixed price that Network Solutions will be
allowed to charge new firms for entering registrations in its databases.
The company said the fee will reflect its "costs and a reasonable return
on its investment." The company currently charges Internet users $35 per
year for each registration. Under a 1993 contract that expired last
month, Network Solutions had exclusive authority to register domain names
in the Internet's lucrative generic top-level domains, the two- or
three-letter suffixes at the end of every net address. Computers on the
global network use the domains to route traffic, like a request to view a
Web site or an e-mail message, to intended recipients.
With the phenomenal growth of the Internet, the Network Solutions
database has grown as well, swelling to over 2.3 million names in the
.com, .edu, .net, and .org domains.
Disney Seeks Porn-Law Exemption
The Walt Disney Co., already under boycott by some religious groups, is
seeking to be exempted from a proposed law aimed at keeping Internet
pornography away from children, according to Republican congressional
staffers. The GOP-sponsored Child Online Protection Act, the second major
effort by Congress to protect children on the Internet, would require
commercial Web sites to verify an adult's age before showing photographs
or other material "harmful to minors." The House planned to vote on the
bill today. Disney, the Motion Picture Association of America and other
groups are lobbying Republican leaders, said the GOP staffers, speaking
on condition of anonymity. They were pressing for language limiting the
bill only to a company that displays online harmful material "as its
primary or principal course of trade or business," according to lobbying
documents.
As written now, the bill would apply to all companies that display such
material on the Internet "as a regular course of such person's trade or
business." "That particular loophole could easily be used by the
adult-oriented sites to circumvent the whole intent of the law," said
David Walsh, director of the National Institute on Media and Family.
"You'd have to get into the definition of primary or principal." Disney
said in a statement it "is extremely concerned that children be protected
from exposure to inappropriate content on the Internet" and "has been
working with members of Congress to improve the language" of the bill.
Others lobbying for the change said they're concerned that a bill aimed
mostly at pornographic Web sites might inadvertently snare mainstream
sites, especially as the Internet matures into an entertainment medium
that could include the delivery of movies. "We have concerns that the
current language is too broad," said MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor. "We
support changes to the language that would target and impact commercial
adult Web sites." Disney, whose business has long been entertainment
mostly for children, has been the target of a largely ineffective boycott
by some religious groups, notably the Southern Baptist Convention and the
conservative Focus on the Family.
They object to some of Disney's policies, including providing health
benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees, and to films such as
"Pulp Fiction" by its Miramax Film Corp. subsidiary. Disney, with $22.4
billion in sales last year, operates "Disney.Com, The Web Site for
Families" through its Disney Online business, part of the company's
massive "Creative Content" division that overall is responsible for
nearly half its revenues. That division also covers Miramax, The Disney
Store, home video releases and some television shows.
But since Disney's "primary or principal business" isn't showing harmful
material online, the company wouldn't fall under the new law if the
wording were changed. Most other entertainment companies also would be
exempted from the law. The Clinton administration opposes the legislation
- at least pending a study of online pornography - saying it prefers the
use of high-tech tools by parents over a "static, imperfect solution"
such as a new law.
The House bill sponsored by Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, largely parallels
legislation offered in the Senate by Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., which is
part of a Justice Department spending bill awaiting a vote. Congress is
scheduled to adjourn Friday.
Lycos buys Wired for $83 million
Lycos Inc. has agreed to acquire Wired Digital Inc. -- a deal which
includes Wired's search engine HotBot -- in an $83 million stock swap.
Beyond the search site, Lycos, will get its hands on Wired's online
editorial properties, which include Wired News, Suck, HotWired and
Webmonkey. "The acquisition of the industry-defining Wired Digital
further fortifies our position as a premier media company," said Lycos
CEO Bob Davis said in a release. "In addition to gaining quality products
and an incredibly talented group of people, the pioneering spirit of
Wired Digital, its high-profile brands and added reach elevate the Lycos
multi-brand network strategy to a new level."
Lycos said that users of its search engine and the HotBot engine do not
generally overlap. It estimated that by combining the search and
editorial properties, Lycos' would now reach about 40 percent of the Web
audience. Lycos will give Wired shareholders $83 million in Lycos stock
at the close of the deal, expected later this year, as well as an
undisclosed amount of stock equal to Wired's cash on hand. Lycos will
also assume Wired Digital's stock plan. Wired will keep its San Francisco
headquarters and operate as a unit of Lycos, based in Waltham, Mass. Beth
Vanderslice, president of Wired, will report directly to Lycos' Davis.
The deal marks the end of Wired's repeated attempts to go it alone on the
Internet. Wired started as an offshoot of Wired Magazine, which was sold
in May to Advance Magazine Publishers/Conde Nast for $75 million. That
deal ended more than a year of financial ups and downs for the pioneering
publication, one of the first media companies to bring the Internet and
the Web to a mass-market audience. Wired Ventures Inc. had tried twice to
go public. At the time of the Conde Nast deal, the online properties
which later became Wired Digital were generating $3.4 million in revenue
and were expected to be profitable by the end of the year. The deal also
marks yet another combination of content with directory technologies.
Lycos' competitors in the portal world have been signing deals right and
left with media companies. Infoseek Corp. received an investment earlier
this year from the Walt Disney Co., and the two will launch an online
service later this year. And, General Electric's NBC division recently
acquired part of Snap! the online directory started by CNet Inc. But
analyst Andrea Williams, at Volpe Brown Whelan in San Francisco, says
that while Wired's editorial sites have a following, the real hits come
from HotBot. She applauded the deal, saying that Lycos has been
successful at buying up Web properties like community sites Angelfire and
Tripod, to expand its reach.
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
[Image]
Edupage
Contents
States Launch EMall Initiative WVU Adopts Digital Dissertation
Requirement
Marketers Take Aim At Spam Stemming The Flow In Leaky
Electronics
Internet Sales Tax Bill Defeated Feminist Group Supports Library
In Senate Software Filtering
Blank Spaces In Microsoft
Antitrust Case Congress Likely To Pass Tech Bills
Banking Network Will Trim
Check-Handling Costs IBM Wins Minitel Deal
Micro-Lattice Sparks Optical Getting The Word To The World Wide
Communications Web
Justice Department Wants More FTC Wants Info On Cisco Meetings With
Data From Microsoft Two Competitors
Bandwidth Boom Congress Makes Another Try To Contain
Net Pornography
Ad Blitz Promotes Privacy On The Bertelsmann Invests In
Net Barnesandnoble.com
CDnow-N2K To Merge Long Distance Internet Connections
May Cost More
Computers Instead Of Cash On
Cal. State Campus Cable-Ready Computers From Dell
Andy Grove On The Future-The
Net-The iMac
STATES LAUNCH EMALL INITIATIVE
Seven state governments are teaming up to test an Internet-based
procurement system called EMall. During the six-month pilot, the
Massachusetts-led initiative will handle 50 to 100 orders a day for
office supplies, computer hardware and software, and lab and scientific
equipment. Participating suppliers include Dell, Gateway, Micron
Technology, Software Spectrum, VWR Scientific, W.W. Grainger and Xerox.
The other participating states are Idaho, New York, South Dakota, Texas,
Utah and Washington. "The Internet opens the gates between states for
ways to do business better," says Massachusetts' deputy state purchasing
agent. "Before the Internet, there was no common place to go." With a
combined purchasing power of $6 billion annually for maintenance, repair,
operations and supplies, the project is touted as potentially the largest
public-sector Web-purchasing effort to date. (Information Week 2 Oct 98)
WVU ADOPTS DIGITAL DISSERTATION REQUIREMENT
Starting this semester, graduate students at West Virginia University are
required to submit their dissertations and theses electronically. The
university follows the example of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, which instituted a similar rule last year. Unlike
Virginia Tech's experience, the move by West Virginia U. has been met
with approval by faculty and students. Some Virginia Tech students had
worried that after submitting their papers online to a database open to
the public, their works would be considered "published" by scholarly
journals, which would then refuse to print them. Since then, the school
has given students the option of submitting them to a database accessible
only by students, professors and staff members. West Virginia U. says it
is considering setting up a similar system. (Chronicle of Higher
Education 2 Oct 98)
MARKETERS TAKE AIM AT SPAM
Marketing experts meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland say they want industrial
nations to adopt a global system to fight junk e-mail. "We are trying to
lay the foundations to develop an e-mail preference service globally, for
consumers to opt out of receiving unwanted e-mail solicitations," says
Colin Lloyd, CEO of Britain's Direct Marketing Association. "We don't
want to ban it because we think that would be closing the door to what
could be a very exciting marketing opportunity in the future." The system
would work in a similar fashion to the lists that consumers can pay to
have their names added to, requesting that no direct mail be sent to
their address. Lloyd says spam has reached epidemic proportions in the
U.S.: "It's the cancer of electronic commerce. You either kill it or cure
it." (Reuters 2 Oct 98)
STEMMING THE FLOW IN LEAKY ELECTRONICS
Chipmaker Power Integrations Inc. has developed a new chip it says can
cut up to 90% of the electrical power that is drained by appliances such
as TVs and battery chargers that use electricity even when turned off.
The TinySwitch can sense when the AC adapters used to recharge cordless
appliances are inactive, and shuts them down. Calculating that the
average home contains five to 10 such appliances, the company predicts
annual savings that could exceed $1 billion. Nokia Corp. plans to use the
chips in future AC adapters for phones and other products. The switch
could also be used to cut the power drain from PCs and cable set-top
boxes by 30%. (Business Week 5 Oct. 98)
INTERNET SALES TAX BILL DEFEATED IN SENATE
Although the issue will certainly rise again, the U.S. Senate has for the
time being rejected, 65-30, an attempt to allow any state set a
requirement for companies with significant Internet, catalog, or mail
order sales to collect their sales tax and send it back to the state.
Opponents such as Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said
the measure was a hidden tax increase: "Since this tax has never been
collected, there's only one way to view it." (USA Today 2 Oct 98)
FEMINIST GROUP SUPPORTS LIBRARY SOFTWARE FILTERING
In a case testing the use of software filters to block pornography in
public libraries, the Dulles, Va., chapter of the National Organization
for Women (NOW) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief to support the idea
of filtering. The NOW brief says that "explicitly or constructively
forcing librarians to deal with displays of pornography could result in
the development of a hostile or abusive workplace." Opponents of
filtering include the American Civil Liberties Union, which says that
libraries have always had adequate policies for addressing misbehavior by
patrons, and that the use of filtering to censor cyberspace is not the
way to protect librarians. (New York Times Cybertimes 2 Oct 98)
BLANK SPACES IN MICROSOFT ANTITRUST CASE
Under a judge's protective order, hundreds of pages in public legal
filings in the government's antitrust case against Microsoft are riddled
with blank spaces to block out material considered confidential by
Microsoft or its competitors. Washington lawyer Bruce D. Brown says this
level of secrecy makes it difficult for reporters and the public to see
what's going on: "It brings home ... how easy it is to shield documents
from public view." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3 Oct 98)
CONGRESS LIKELY TO PASS TECH BILLS
Pending legislation on Internet copyright law, taxes and employment is
likely to be passed before Congress adjourns for the November elections,
says the director of technology policy at the National Association of
Manufacturers. "More legislation is passed in even years with elections.
There is also now some increased understanding by Congress of the
importance of a networked kind of economy. Likewise there's an increased
awareness by high-tech companies they must get involved with Washington."
The Senate and House both passed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness
Disclosure Act last week, and the Senate also voted to move the Internet
Tax Freedom Act forward with limited debate. Attached to that bill may be
other legislation that allows digital signatures to replace ink-on-paper
in some cases.Meanwhile, a compromise bill allowing more foreign
high-tech workers on H1-B visas passed the House last week. (TechWeb 4
Oct 98)
BANKING NETWORK WILL TRIM CHECK-HANDLING COSTS
A newly formed banking consortium is setting up an electronic network
that will enable banks to exchange check data, saving its 12 members as
much as $900 million in check processing costs over the first five years.
The new system will mean that checks will still be processed manually,
but only once -- then that data will be available electronically to other
banks participating in the system. Members of the consortium are
BankAmerica, Bankers Trust, Bank of New York, Chase Manhattan Bank,
Citibank, European American Bank, First Chicago, First Union National
Bank, Fleet Bank, Marine Midland Bank, Norwest Bank and Republic National
Bank of New York. (Los Angeles Times 5 Oct 98)
IBM WINS MINITEL DEAL
In a deal with France Telecom, IBM will develop software and services to
bring Web access to France's 35 million Minitel subscribers. The move is
a major part of France's efforts to jump-start its population to become
more active on the Internet. Currently, only about 3% of the French
population uses the Internet, compared with 20% in the U.S., and 9% in
the U.K. and Germany. In addition to upgrading the aging Minitel, both
France Telecom and IBM will jointly market the new Java-based system to
national telecommunications providers in other countries. (Wall Street
Journal 6 Oct 98)
MICRO-LATTICE SPARKS OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS
Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a micro-lattice
of woven silicon slivers that can bend light in the infrared range,
permitting improved transmission of light-based data, such as images. The
device is considered a key component needed in the development of an
optical -- or photon-based -- computer that would be capable of running
faster and cooler than today's electron-based ones. (Investor's Business
Daily 5 Oct 98)
GETTING THE WORD TO THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Motorola, SAP, Visa, Broadvision, and the Nuance Communications unit of
SRI International have formed an alliance to extend the Voice Markup
Language (VoxML) speech recognition standard to various commercial
applications. Called V-Commerce, the new standard will allow people to
use voice commands to interact with the World Wide Web or corporate
Intranets via phone, pager, or personal computer. Nuance chief executive
Ron Croen says, "So far, electronic commerce has been constrained by the
PC. We're intent on making the audience larger by an order of magnitude."
Visa has created some prototype applications for financial services,
including credit card activation, lost and stolen card replacement,
travel planning, voice banking, and bill payment. (New York Times 6 Oct
98)
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANTS MORE DATA FROM MICROSOFT
Saying Microsoft has turned over data from only two of a much larger
group of databases, the U.S. Justice Department is asking the federal
judge presiding over its antitrust case against that company to open up
databases containing information on its operating systems, royalties,
sales forecasts and actual revenues. Microsoft says it has already
complied with the government's requests: "We provided the government with
all the data they requested and we even offered to run any data query the
government wanted, recognizing how complex these databases are. The
government refused our offers to assist them. We provided all of the data
they requested and now they're coming back and saying they can't read it
and saying that's Microsoft's fault." (San Jose Mercury News/Reuters 5
Oct 98)
FTC WANTS INFO ON CISCO MEETINGS WITH TWO COMPETITORS
Antitrust regulators in the Federal Trade Commission are looking into
meetings Cisco Systems executives had with executives of rival companies
Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks, to determine whether Cisco
illegally tried to divide up the market for communications hardware
systems. Cisco promises to "cooperate fully," and says it views the
inquiry as a "preliminary and routine matter." (USA Today 5 Oct 98)
BANDWIDTH BOOM
Industry analysts see a communications bandwidth boom on the horizon,
with AT&T, WorldCom and Mindspring making major enhancements to their
networks and with four other companies (Qwest, Level 3, ITXC, and
Williams Communications) building "the equivalent of 80 AT&Ts" (according
to North River Ventures). Whereas in 1985 it took six fibers in a
fiber-optic line to broadcast a football game, one fiber today could
handle such 700 such broadcasts. Experts say that these developments
could drive the cost of a long-distance phone call to 1 cent a minute
within a year, and should soon thereafter make possible full-fledged TV
over the Internet. (USA Today 8 Oct 98)
CONGRESS MAKES ANOTHER TRY TO CONTAIN NET PORNOGRAPHY
To limit online pornography and protect children navigating the Internet,
the House of Representatives has voted to require companies with Web
sites offering "obscene or indecent material" to demand that their
customers give a credit card number, adult access code, or "any other
reasonable measure" to prove they are at least 16 years of age. Some
comments made during the Congressional debate: Michael Oxeye (R-Ohio):
"Unfortunately, the Web is awash in degrading smut." Barney Frank
(D-Mass.): "This will further erode the notion of freedom of speech."
John Micatin (R-Ariz.): "There may be some questions about the bill's
constitutionality. Fine, we'll let the courts decide that." (AP 8 Oct 98)
AD BLITZ PROMOTES PRIVACY ON THE NET
In an upcoming advertising blitz organized by the nonprofit organization
Trustee, along with AOL, Yahoo, and other firms, the Internet industry
will be attempting to demonstrate that it can effectively protect
individual privacy rights online without new federal regulation or laws.
However, there are some privacy advocates who are unenthusiastic about
the blitz, because they believe that the government has a role to play in
protecting individual privacy online. (Washington Post 7 Oct 98)
BERTELSMANN INVESTS IN BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
German media giant Bertelsmann AG is buying a 50% stake in bookseller
Barnes & Noble's online business, barnesandnoble.com. Following the
announcement, Barnes & Noble said it would temporarily postpone its
planned initial public offering of its online unit. "It does provide a
deep-pocket investor at a time when the notion of going public is a
little bit more uncertain in these markets," says an analyst with J.P.
Morgan Securities, who adds that Bertelsmann has "everything except a
brand name and Barnes & Noble is probably the biggest brand name in
books. The combination is going to be terrific." Bertelsmann owns BMG
Entertainment, which includes Arista Records and RCA Records, as well as
Bantam Doubleday Dell and Random House. The deal is expected to help
barnesandnoble.com obtain exclusive book deals, as well as expand into
music and video sales. (Los Angeles Times 7 Oct 98)
CDNOW, N2K TO MERGE
Online music retailers CDnow and N2K are engineering a merger that will
consolidate operations under the CDnow moniker, considered to be the more
recognizable of the two names. The two companies were pioneers in the
online music business, a field that is projected to grow to $1.8 billion
in annual sales by 2001, up from $71 million today. N2K specializes in
music genres such as classical, jazz and country, whereas CDnow has built
its reputation on its MTV relationship and expertise in pop and rock. "It
makes sense to basically come up with one million customers overnight,"
says one new media analyst. If they continue to just compete against one
another, he adds, "the big threat out there is, does Amazon.com eat their
lunch?" (Wall Street Journal 7 Oct 98)
LONG DISTANCE INTERNET CONNECTIONS MAY COST MORE
MCI WorldCom Vice Chairman John Sidgmore told attendees at a conference
in England Wednesday that customers expecting to pay low prices for
high-speed, long-distance Internet connections may be disappointed. "The
idea of a 2-Mbps access for 25 pounds [$42.50] per month -- we can
probably do that for access to local content. But the problem is long
distance. We're not going to provide a full 2-Mbps pipe between Frankfurt
and Denver for 25 pounds per month." The problem is significant for
Internet users outside the U.S., because most of the Internet's content
currently is housed on U.S. servers. To lower prices for that access,
Sidgmore suggested that more companies use caching and mirror technology
to offer U.S. content on local sites. In addition, he predicted that
content "growth in Europe will outpace U.S. over the next few years."
(TechWeb 8 Oct 98)
COMPUTERS INSTEAD OF CASH ON CAL. STATE CAMPUS
California State University at San Marcos is offering needy students
computers rather than tuition money as part of a new scholarship program.
The students receive a laptop, a set of software and technical training.
If they graduate, they get to keep the computer. "We're a very high-tech
university with a lot of low-income students," says the school's
financial-aid director. "We have been wrestling with a problem of the
'have/have-not.'" The university requires all students to demonstrate
computer literacy during their first year. (Chronicle of Higher Education
9 Oct 98)
CABLE-READY COMPUTERS FROM DELL
Dell Computer is outfitting some of its Dimension PCs with cable modems,
in an alliance with @Home Corp., which offers its customers speedy
Internet access via cable. @Home currently has 147,000 subscribers in
select areas of the country, and plans to become more widely available
next year. (Bloomberg News 8 Oct 98)
ANDY GROVE ON THE FUTURE, THE INTERNET, AND THE iMAC
Intel chairman Andy Grove thinks that the extremely rapid growth of the
Internet is leading the industry into "the Valley of Death" -- a
destructive period in which "the technology will change and the devices
will change." He says computers are essentially designed as standalone
general-purpose devices to which networking has been added as an
afterthought, whereas future computers will have to be designed as
networking machines that also do computing. What would they be like? "The
iMac embodies a lot of the things I'm talking about. Sometimes what Apple
does has an electrifying effect on the rest of us." (Time 5 Oct 98)
[image83.gif (18866 bytes)]
by Frank Sereno
fsereno@streport.com
The Kids Computing Corner
Computer news and software reviews
from a parents point of view
In deference to the late Gene Autry, "Im back in the saddle again." Ive
been on a long hiatus, but Im ready to get back on track. The birth of
our youngest child really made some big lifestyle changes. Despite having
two older boys, we werent fully prepared for Nathans arrival last
December. The entire family has settled into a new routine and I should
be a regular contributor to STReport once again. Please feel free to send
any questions, comments or suggestions to fsereno@streport.com. It is an
honor and a priviledge to be writing this column again.
Im hoping to have a software review of Knowledge Adventures Print
Artist Craft Factory ready for next week. As a preview, Craft Factory is
a fun and easy program that will have your children creating crafts,
cards, stickers and more in less time than it will take to read this
column. With cooler weather and the holidays ahead of us, children will
have more time and plenty of inspiration to create party decorations,
invitations and gifts.
In the News
Dr. Brain on the WEB
If you are looking for a fun and educational web site for your child, be
sure to check out the newest offering from Knowledge Adventure. Its the
Dr. Brain Thinking Games web site at http://www.drbrain.com. With cool
games and neat extras, it also features a boffo contest. Children who are
victorious in an online game can then enter the "Win the Ultimate Game
Room" contest. The grand prize features a state of the art computer,
hardware accessories and a terrific software bundle. The value of this
package is $6500. Additionally, twelve first prize and 120 second prize
winners will receive Knowledge Adventure software titles. The contest
will end on December 6, 1998.
If you remember Dr. Brain from his days with Sierra, he was an eccentric,
older gentleman with white hair. The new Dr. Brain is a hip, young dude
with a shock of red hair. The new Doctor is the star of two new CD-ROMs
from Knowledge Adventure. The first is Dr. Brain Thinking Games: IQ
Adventure and the second is Dr. Brain Thinking Games: Puzzle Madness.
Both games are aimed at children ages nine and up, although Im sure many
parents will enjoy the challenging puzzles, 3D graphics and compelling
storylines. The titles will retail for about $30 and be available at many
computer retailers and discounters.
Travel the World with Timmy
Edmark recently released its newest early learning product. Travel the
World with Timmy takes children ages four to seven on journeys to three
distinct countries. Children have the opportunity to learn about the
customs, languages and cultures in order to understand the worlds
diversity.
Timmy, a friendly alligator, travels by hot-air balloon to Argentina,
Japan and Kenya. Children can engage in many activities including
singalongs of native songs and playing problem-solving games. Other
activities are writing stories and making crafts. The program features
colorful graphics and an easy-to-use interface.
Edmark promises that Travel the World with Timmy will build valuable
learning and social skills. The program is available for both Windows and
Macintosh with a price of $29.95.
High School Success
Knowledge Adventure and Kaplan Educational Centers have combined talents
to create a comprehensive program to increase students skills and
knowledge, High School Success. Designed for youngsters ages twelve and
older, it features four CD-ROMs filled with diagnostic tests and
interactive lessons on grammar, vocabulary, math and reading
comprehension. It also includes desktop publishing, paint and video
capabilities for creating presentations or reports.
Students will first take assessment tests to determine their skill
levels. High School Success will then generate individual lesson plans to
improve the students weaknesses. The program tracks each students
progress. Once a student has completed his personalized lesson plan, he
can take the assessment test again to determine his progress.
High School Success is available for the Macintosh and Windows computers
with a suggested retail price of $40.
Kids! Spanish Ships from Syracuse Language
Kids! Spanish promises to be fun and easy to teach youngsters a second
language. Designed for children ages six to ten, it requires no
keyboarding or reading skills. Children can learn over four hundred
Spanish words and phrases in thirty-seven colorful activities. Skills
learned include speaking, listening comprehension, pronunciation,
vocabulary and grammar. The program features a record/playback feature to
compare their pronunciation to that of native speakers.
Experts agree that an early introduction to additional languages makes
for better pronunciation skills, increased fluency and better retention.
If you want to learn more about Kids! Spanish, more information is
available on the Web at http://www.languageconnect.com or you can call
1-800-797-5264. The program is available for Windows on CD-ROM at around
$30.
Apple Giving Away iMacs and Software
Each day during October, Apple Computer will be giving away a new iMac
computer to celebrate Computer Learning Month. Teachers, school board
members and PTO/PTA members can register on Apples website at
http://www.apple.com/education/. So, if your school could use new
computer equipment or software, be sure to register as soon as possible.
Britannica Online Features Dinosaurs
Starting this week, Britannica Online is highlighting an incredible
dinosaur exhibit at http://www.dinosaurs.eb.com. With stunning
animations, detailed drawings, expert photography and interactive
content, the site gives new details on the lives of dinosaurs and how the
experts perceptions have changed over the years. If your child has an
interest in dinosaurs, this will be a favorite website.
Take Your Children on the Internet Week
Women in Technology International (WITI) will participate in Take Your
Children on the Internet Week (October 26 through November 1) by hosting
a series of educational activities from the organizations website at
http://www.witi.org Children and parents will be able to participate in a
World Wide Web scavanger hunt, building home pages, participate in an
interactive story and to write a scary story.
Prizes will be given to some participants. Among the sponsors last year
were Apple Computer, AT&T, Broderbund, Disney, The Family Channel, Intel,
Microsoft and many more. This years sponsors include IBM, Microsoft and
New Horizons Computer Learning Center. To participate in this years
activities, simply go to the WITI website anytime between October 26 and
November 1, 1998.
Edmark Announces Lets Go Read! 2: An Ocean Adventure
With cuddly and colorful characters, Edmark teaches five to seven
year-olds how to read in Lets Go Read! 2: An Ocean Adventure, a CD-ROM
for Windows and Macintosh computers. Robby the Raccoon and Emily the
Squirrel will host children through a series of activities will teach
your child with phonics, pictures and spoken words. In addition, the
program features IBM. Speech Recognition. With this technology, the
computer can actually monitor your childs words and then respond.
The adventure begins when Paige the Bookworm and the Bookmobile are
somehow lost at sea. Your child must rescue Paige and the Bookmobile by
participating in a series of underwater adventures. Along the way, they
will meet new friends such as Manray the Manta Ray, Marvin the Whale and
Ernie the Eel. Lets Go Read! 2 features eleven learning locations and
nine interactive electronic stories.
Lets Go Read! 2: An Ocean Adventure will be available later this month
with a suggested retail price of $39.95. It will be widely available at
computer stores or it can be ordered online at Edmarks website at
http://www.edmark.com. A teachers version with supplemental materials
will also be available. More information can be obtained at the website
or by calling Customer Service at (800) 691-2985.
NEW!
[BITSBYTES.GIF (64527 bytes)]
by R. F. Mariano
The boat..... is in the water.
[bnb38.GIF (65062 bytes)]
Here she is getting readied for some trial runs....
[bnb39.GIF (55398 bytes)]
All set now, fuel tanks topped off, and away we are about to go.
[bnb40.GIF (75648 bytes)]
Here's the Bits & Bytes under way.. at approx 35mph
We are so close to getting the aciton on its got all of us antsy. The
boat is doing so well. I really have to thank the able hands at Pablo
Creek Marina. In particular, Matt Smith and Mike Adams for their expert
advice and workmanship. They're among the very best in my book.
MORE.... about DGPS
The global positioning system is a satellite-based navigation system
consisting of a network of 24 orbiting satellites, eleven thousand
nautical miles in space, in six different orbital paths. The satellites
are constantly moving, making two complete orbits around the Earth in
just under 24 hours. If you do the math, that's about 1.8 miles per
second. Now that's really moving!
The GPS satellites are referred to as NAVSTAR satellites. Of course, no
GPS introduction would be complete without learning the really neat stuff
about the satellites too!
The first GPS satellite was launched way back in February, 1978. Each
satellite weighs approximately 2,000 pounds and is about 17 feet across
with the solar panels extended. Transmitter power is only 50 watts, or
less! Each satellite transmits on three frequencies. Civilian GPS uses
the 'L1' frequency of 1575.42 MHz. Each satellite is expected to last
approximately 10 years. Replacements are constantly being built and
launched into orbit. The GPS program is currently funded with
replacements through 2006. The orbital paths of these satellites take
them between roughly 60 degrees North and 60 degrees South latitudes.
What this means is you can receive satellite signals anywhere in the
world, at any time. As you move closer to the poles (on your next North
Pole expedition!), you will still pick up the GPS satellites. They just
won't be directly overhead anymore. This may affect the satellite
geometry and accuracy--but only slightly.
One of the biggest benefits over previous land-based navigation systems
is GPS works in all weather conditions. No matter what your application
is--when you need it the most, when you're most likely to get lost--your
GPS receiver will keep right on working, showing right where you are!
So what information does a GPS satellite transmit? The GPS signal
contains a 'pseudo-random code', ephemeris (pronounced: ee-fem-er-is) and
almanac data. The pseudo-random code identifies which satellite is
transmitting--in other words, an I.D. code. We refer to satellites by
their PRN (pseudo-random number), from 1 through 32, and this is the
number displayed on a GPS receiver to indicate which satellite(s) we are
receiving. So why there are more than 24 PRN numbers? This simplifies
maintenance of the GPS network. A replacement satellite can be launched,
turned on, and used before the satellite it was intended to replace
actually fails! They simply use a different number (again from 1 through
32) to identify the new satellite.
Ephemeris data is constantly transmitted by each satellite and contains
important information such as status of the satellite (healthy or
unhealthy), current date, and time. Without this part of the message,
your GPS receiver would have no idea what the current time and date are.
This part of the signal is essential to determining a position, as we'll
see in a moment.
The almanac data tells the GPS receiver where each GPS satellite should
be at any time throughout the day. Each satellite transmits almanac data
showing the orbital information for that satellite AND for every other
satellite in the system.
By now the overall picture of how GPS works should be getting much
clearer. (Clear as mud, right?) Each satellite transmits a message which
essentially says, "I'm satellite #X, my position is currently Y, and this
message was sent at time Z." Of course, this is a gross
oversimplification, but you get the idea. Your GPS receiver reads the
message and saves the ephemeris and almanac data for continual use. This
information can also be used to set (or correct) the clock within the GPS
receiver.
Now, to determine your position the GPS receiver compares the time a
signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received by
the GPS receiver. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away
that particular satellite is. If we add distance measurements from a few
more satellites, we can triangulate our position. This is exactly what a
GPS receiver does. With a minimum of three or more satellites, your GPS
receiver can determine a latitude/longitude position--what's called a 2D
position fix. With four or more satellites, a GPS receiver can determine
a 3D position which includes latitude, longitude, and altitude. By
continuously updating your position, a GPS receiver can also accurately
provide speed and direction of travel (referred to as 'ground speed' and
'ground track').
First the good news; now the bad news! What makes a GPS receiver perform
below its best capability or accuracy? There are several items which add
error to your GPS position, preventing you from achieving the best
possible accuracy. The first of these items, and the largest source of
position error, is Selective Availability (or SA). SA is an
intentionally-imposed degradation in the accuracy of civilian GPS by the
U.S. Department of Defense. Under SA, GPS accuracy can be degraded to a
maximum of 100 meters (328 feet). Of course, they don't typically degrade
GPS accuracy to that level, but errors of 30 meters or more are not
unusual.
Why does SA exist? GPS was originally designed and built for military
applications. As the system evolved, many folks realized that it has
numerous civilian applications as well. By presidential proclamation,
Ronald Reagan declared in the early 1980s that GPS would be made
available to everyone--with the exception that the best accuracy would
still be reserved for the military. Since that time, satellites capable
of being degraded with SA have been launched regularly. Today, all GPS
satellites are capable of and subject to SA degradation. The rationale
behind SA is to deny hostile military or terrorist organizations the
maximum accuracy benefits of GPS.
Another factor affecting GPS accuracy is satellite geometry. In simple
terms, satellite geometry refers to where the satellites are located
relative to each other (from the perspective of the GPS receiver). If a
GPS receiver is locked onto four satellites and all four of these
satellites are in the sky to the north and west of the receiver,
satellite geometry is rather poor. In fact, the GPS receiver may be
unable to provide a position reading! Why? Because all the distance
measurements are from the same general direction. This means
triangulation is poor and the common area where these distance
measurements intersect is fairly large (i.e., the area where the GPS
receiver thinks our position is covers a large space, so pinpoint
positioning is not possible). In this scenario, even if the GPS receiver
does report a position, accuracy will not be very good (maybe off as much
as 300-500 feet).
With those same four satellites, if we spread them out in all directions,
our position accuracy improves dramatically. Suppose these four
satellites are separated equally at approximately 90 degree intervals
(north, east, south, west). Now satellite geometry is very good since
distance measurements are from all directions. The common area where all
four distance measurements intersect is much smaller, meaning we're much
more certain where our exact position is. In this scenario, even with SA,
our accuracy may be within 100 feet, or better.
Satellite geometry also becomes an issue when using a GPS receiver in a
vehicle, near tall buildings, or in mountainous or canyon areas. When the
GPS signals are blocked from several satellites, the relative position of
the remaining satellites will determine how accurate the GPS position
will be (and the number of remaining satellites will determine if a
position can even be determined). As more and more of the sky is
obstructed by buildings or terrain, it becomes increasingly difficult to
determine a position. A quality GPS receiver indicates not only which
satellites are available for use, but where they are in the sky (azimuth
and elevation) so you may determine if the signal of a given satellite is
being obstructed.
Another source of error is multipath. Simply put, multipath is the result
of a radio signal being reflected off an object. Multipath is what causes
'ghost' images on a television set. We don't see this on a television
much nowadays since it's most likely to occur with those old style
'rabbit ears' antennas, not on cable. With GPS, multipath occurs when the
signal bounces off a building or terrain before reaching the GPS
receiver's antenna. The signal takes longer to reach the receiver than if
it travelled a direct path. This added time makes the GPS receiver think
the satellite is farther away than it really is, which adds error to the
overall position determination. When they occur, multipath errors
typically add well under 15 feet of error to your overall position.
Are there any other sources of error? Sure. Propagation delay due to
atmospheric effects can affect accuracy. So can internal clock errors. In
both cases, the GPS receiver is designed to compensate for these effects
and will do so quite efficiently. But, very small errors due to these
items can still occur. If you're wondering, propagation delay is the
'slowing down' of the GPS signal as it passes through Earth's ionosphere
and troposphere. In space, radio signals travel at the speed of light,
but they are significantly slower once they enter our atmosphere.
How accurate is GPS, really? A typical civilian GPS receiver provides 60
to 225 feet accuracy, depending on current status of selective
availability, number of satellites available, and the geometry of those
satellites. More sophisticated and expensive GPS receivers, costing
several thousand dollars or more, can provide accuracies within a
centimeter by using more than one GPS frequency. However, a typical
civilian GPS receiver's accuracy can be improved to fifteen feet or
better (in some cases under three feet!) through a process known as
Differential GPS (DGPS). DGPS employs a second receiver to compute
corrections to the GPS satellite measurements. How are these corrections
provided to your GPS receiver? There are a number of free and
subscription services available to provide DGPS corrections. The U.S.
Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (and many foreign government
departments as well) transmit DGPS corrections through marine beacon
stations. These beacons operate in the 283.5 - 325.0 kHz frequency range
and are free of charge. Your only cost to use this service is the
purchase of a DGPS Beacon Receiver. This receiver is then coupled to your
GPS receiver via a three-wire connection, which relays the corrections in
a standard serial data format called 'RTCM SC-104.'
Subscription DGPS services are available on FM radio station frequencies
or via satellite. Of course, in either case you need a separate receiver
to pick up these transmissions and then send them to your GPS receiver.
In some cases, the prices vary according to the level of accuracy
desired.
So what's the best GPS receiver for me? Now, that's the ultimate
question, isn't it? And certainly the hardest one to answer. A number of
issues come into play here:
What is the intended application? The most important issue is finding a
GPS suitable for your application. If your particular need is for an
panel-mounted GPS in your airplane, a handheld designed for the
recreational boater is obviously of little value! You can quickly narrow
your choices down by identifying which models are available for your
application. In some cases, you may still have alot of choices from which
to choose. For example, if your intended use is hiking or hunting, a GPS
for outdoor recreation is suitable--but so is a handheld GPS designed for
boating or flying. In this case you may have to examine specific features
more closely. Unless you plan on flying too, all the extra information of
airports contained in the aviation handheld GPS probably isn't worth the
extra price. A marine GPS which uses cartridges to show navigation
markers and depth contours won't help out much on the trail either
(unless you also want to use the GPS on your yacht!). What is the price
range? Once you've narrowed the field, you'll most likely still have
several models over a range of prices from which to choose. Examine each
model closely. What do the higher-priced models have that the
lower-priced models do not? Do you need the extra features or accessories
that come with the higher-priced model or is the lower-priced model
sufficient to do the job? Which model do you like the best? Choosing the
right GPS receiver for you is two parts rational planning and one part
simple preference. If rational planning still leaves you with two or
three models to choose from, find a dealer for these models and try
operating each one. Sometimes the differences in operation are dramatic.
You may find one real easy to use and understand, while another seems
much more complicated and difficult to use. Choose the GPS receiver that
you LIKE best! You're more likely to still be happy with the decision you
made after one month or one year.
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The Linux Advocate
October 9th, 1998
by Scott Dowdle
dowdle@icstech.com
ICQ UIN: 15509440
LOGIN:
Hello folks. I really would like to stick with writing original content. You know, software spotlights and
things like that but it seems that I've been so busy lately, I'm just barely able to keep up with all of
the Linux news. Since Linux appears to have become the darling of the computer industry press these days,
there are literally dozens of mainstream articles a week. I figured that if I don't make some attempt to
do a weekly column, I'm going to fall behind way fast. Until I can find someone to help me with this
column (and I have a person in mind), the quality is just going to have to suffer... not that it could get
any worse, right? :)
NEWS: (in no certain order)
Item #1: Mac, Windows and Now Linux - Katie Hafner writes a piece for the New Your Times. If you don't
know who Katie is, just go to the library and do a title search on that name. She co-wrote two of my
favorite books (Where Wizards Stay Up Late and Cyberpunks). This was published on Oct. 8th and I haven't
even read it yet but I know it has to be good because when Katie writes, she usually does a lot of
background work and knows all about it... unlike some industry speculators. Check it out at the following
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/circuits/articles/08linu.html
Item #2: The man behind Linux - Linus speaks again, this time to the Dallas Morning News newspaper. You
can find it at the following URL: http://www.dallasnews.com/technology-nf/techbiz205.htm
Item #3: Gates pushes hometown to Linux - Here's a piece from the Computer News Wire from New Zealand that
tells the story of the small city that is dealing with all of the building permits on Mr. Gates' house.
The simply couldn't store all of those documents any more and needed a digital document storage system.
Guess what operating system it uses? Well, the title tells it all. My favorite quote from the article
follows along with the URL.
"When I asked the guys at town hall if they minded that the idle screen would display a big Caldera logo,
they told me I could point it toward the window so everybody walking by could see it," Jones says.
http://www.idg.co.nz/nzweb/b252.html
Item #4: Compaq Embraces Linux Groundswell - "Linux is a hot commodity among ISPs. I think we'll be doing
something in this space in the near future," says Compaq ISP marketing manager Jeff Edwards, who was quick
to point out that Linux developer Red Hat Software Inc. was showcased in its booth at last week's ISPCon
show. http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/news/0,4538,2144990,00.html
Item #5: The Linux Alternative Gets Serious - The article presented at the following URL has my favorite
quote of the week,"I predict that Linux will kick major butt." Check it out:
http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?IWK19981005S0041
Item #6: An abundance of Linux online magazines - 32 Bits Online has decided to become a Linux centric
publication. Read their announcement at the following URL:
http://www.32bitsonline.com/cgi-bin/miva?htmlscript/miva/articles/article.mv+Issues/oct98/editorial1005+1
Item #7: The Linux story promises entertainment - Eric Lundquist of PC Week Online wrote an article that
isn't too bad. Check it out at the following URL:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/columns/0,4351,357354,00.html
Item #8: Linux outselling Windows 98 with some vendors - C|Net's Shopper.com maintains a list of the top
1000 software titles they sale. According to their list, the Simon and Schuster package of Red Hat Linux
5.1 is at #14 on the charts while the Microsoft Windows 98 Upgrade is #25. I'm sure there are other
examples with contradictory results. http://www.shopper.com/top1000/0.html
Item #9: Server Makers Cast An Eye Toward Linux - Red Hat's Young expects six of the top 10 PC server
makers to offer Linux on their machines by next March.
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,357428,00.html
LOGOUT:
Enjoy the news. I hope to write an editorial piece for next week if I can find the time... and in the not
too distant future, a spotlight on SuSE Linux 5.3. As always, feedback is welcome and enjoy!
Scott Dowdle
On the Hill
[06puppets[1].gif (15147 bytes)]
T H E F i x e r
ILLUSTRATION BY ZACH TRENHOLM
ctsy Salon
How Kenneth Starr's law partner covertly worked for six years to trap
President Clinton in a sex scandal.
BY MURRAY WAAS
WASHINGTON -- Richard Porter, a law partner in Whitewater independent
counsel Kenneth Starr's private practice, provided advice and shared
information with a covert investigation of President Clinton's sex life
conducted between 1992 and 1994.
In addition, Porter has been involved in a wide variety of efforts to
damage the Clinton presidency, including "opposition research" for the
Bush campaign in 1992, the "Troopergate" scandal, the Paula Jones case
and the Linda Tripp tapes getting into the hands of Starr's staff last
winter. These revelations raise new questions about whether Starr's
inquiry has actually been independent from parallel efforts by
conservative partisans to discredit the president.
Porter, a partner of Starr's at the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis
and a former senior aide to President George Bush, worked in the spring
of 1994 to find competent legal counsel to represent Jones in her sexual
harassment lawsuit against Clinton, according to two attorneys who worked
on the case.
In addition, as the New York Times has reported, Porter is one of three
conservative attorneys who secretly assisted Tripp in obtaining legal
counsel, and in bringing her tapes and other information about Monica
Lewinsky to the attention of the independent counsel's office. The
information about Porter's role in the earlier investigation of the
president's sexual conduct and in assisting Jones in finding legal
counsel has not been previously reported.
The private investigation of Clinton's sexual conduct was initiated
during the 1992 presidential campaign and privately financed by Peter W.
Smith, a Chicago businessman and conservative activist and a major
fund-raiser for House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Porter's role in these various endeavors has been a particularly
sensitive and contentious issue both for Starr and for Porter's employer,
Kirkland & Ellis. During his tenure as Whitewater independent counsel,
Starr has been under constant attack from partisans of the president, who
have criticized Starr because he has been a part-time prosecutor and some
of his law firm's clients have been adversaries of the president. Earlier
this year, the law firm began an internal investigation into whether
Porter had worked on the Jones sexual harassment case without the
approval of the firm's other partners. To date, the firm has declined to
comment about that inquiry.
At the time that Porter first began assisting Smith, he was directing an
"opposition research" effort against Clinton for the Bush reelection
campaign. Sources say that Porter continued to advise Smith regarding the
private investigation of Clinton after Porter became a partner at
Kirkland & Ellis, practicing from its Chicago office. Through his
attorney, E. Mark Braden, Smith declined to comment. Porter did not
return phone calls seeking his comment.
Smith spent at least $80,000 from September 1992 to March 1994 to fund a
private investigation of the president's sexual conduct. Much of that
money was ultimately spent to publicize the allegations of four Arkansas
state troopers, who had served on the personal security detail of Clinton
when he was governor, that Clinton carried on numerous extramarital
affairs with their assistance.
Indeed, it was Smith who first introduced the troopers to reporter David
Brock, who published the first story about their allegations in the
American Spectator in January 1994. Smith also paid some of Brock's
expenses for researching the article, according to Brock.
Smith was assisted in his efforts to promote the so-called Troopergate
story by a Republican consultant, Eddie Mahe, a longtime friend and
advisor to Gingrich. In an interview with Salon in April, Mahe said that
Smith had paid him $25,000 in consulting fees over a two-year period for
providing advice about how best to publicize the troopers' allegations:
"I evaluated what they came up with to see if there was any way that the
establishment press might be attracted to the story," Mahe said.
In March 1994, Smith also made $21,000 in payments to two of the troopers
and one of their attorneys. Roger Perry, one of the troopers, said that
he had requested the money from Smith after he lost a part-time job as a
result of having spoken to the press about Clinton's indiscretions.
Two people involved in Smith's investigative effort of the president said
that Porter provided advice about how Smith might financially assist the
troopers if they were fired from their state jobs for speaking out about
what they knew about Clinton.
The American Spectator article by Brock indirectly led to the Jones
lawsuit. The Spectator first described an encounter between Clinton and a
woman identified only as "Paula" at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock,
Ark., in May 1991. Angered over the article, Jones sued the president and
one of the troopers.
Two lawyers who have played a role in the Jones lawsuit have told Salon
that in the spring of 1994, Porter was one of numerous attorneys who
worked behind the scenes to help Jones obtain legal counsel to sue the
president. Porter's assistance came at a crucial juncture for Jones'
legal battle against the president. The statute of limitations was
quickly approaching, and Jones did not have adequate legal counsel to
pursue her claim.
During the Jones case, attorneys for Clinton subpoenaed Kirkland & Ellis
in an attempt to find out more about Porter's possible role in the case.
Kirkland & Ellis fought to quash the subpoena, according to attorneys
involved in the Jones case. But the question became moot last March when
a federal judge dismissed the case.
And on Sunday, the New York Times alleged that Porter was one of three
conservative attorneys who assisted Linda Tripp in finding legal counsel,
and also in bringing her tapes of her conversations with Monica Lewinsky
to the attention of Starr.
The Times alleged that one of the attorneys, Jerome Marcus, provided the
first tip to Starr's office about the president's relationship with
Lewinsky. According to the Times account, Marcus contacted Starr's office
about the Lewinsky allegations at least a week before Tripp contacted
prosecutors. Yet, in his impeachment referral to Congress, Starr asserted
that it was Tripp who first contacted his office about Lewinsky.
Tripp ally Lucianne Goldberg told the Times that Marcus was used as a
"cutout" to obscure Porter's role in helping Tripp, because of Porter's
close ties to Starr.
Charles G. Bakaly III, a spokesman for the Office of the Independent
Counsel, said in a statement that although his office received a
"heads-up call that some information may be coming or may be out there,"
the information provided at that time was at best "vague" and "sketchy."
Therefore, he asserted, it was too insignificant to have mentioned in the
impeachment report to Congress.
In private comments, Starr had much harsher things to say about the Times
account: "Did Sidney Blumenthal get a job at the Times?" Starr commented,
according to two people who heard the comments. Blumenthal is an advisor
to the president who has spearheaded a public relations effort to
discredit Starr and his investigation.
[05starr[1].jpg (9365 bytes)]
Mistakes Were Made
A close reading of the Starr Report shows that
the independent counsel cut several legal corners too
many when laying his impeachment trap.
BY GENE LYONS
Rep. Henry Hyde assures the American people that the impeachment inquiry
of President Clinton will demonstrate that "no person is above the law,
nor beneath the law." In the next breath, however, Hyde insists that
there will be "no investigation of the investigation" -- no inquiry, that
is, into the motives and methods of independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
These goals are in hopeless conflict. If Clinton can't question how
Starr's evidence against him was gathered, he'll have been denied what
the Constitution defines as "due process of law," his basic right as an
American citizen.
In an editorial, the New York Times also endorses the idea that the
president has fewer rights than the rest of us. The Starr Report buried
Monica Lewinsky's testimony that Clinton never asked her to lie, nor did
he promise her anything to keep their affair a secret. Starr's decision
to ignore these valuable bits of exculpatory evidence are dismissed as
"legal klutziness," by the Times, which concludes that this "does not add
up to prosecutorial misconduct. The impeachment process is not governed
by the rules of criminal law."
Klutziness implies clumsiness. Are we to believe Starr left out Monica's
direct denial of the central premise of his investigation by some sort of
clumsy accident? In probing Clinton's sex life, the Times says, Starr was
merely following orders, "as an officer of the court, operating under
Justice Department aegis and the supervision of three federal judges."
But what if Starr obtained his authority to investigate the Lewinsky
matter by illegitimate means? What if corners were cut, falsehoods
disseminated and laws broken in a manner decidedly more sinister than
klutzy? Would that matter? Because the evidence of all of this is there,
much of it in the Starr Report itself, although it does require very
careful reading to dig it out.
According to what has been presented to the public, Starr offered four
main pieces of evidence to Attorney General Janet Reno and the
three-judge panel in order to get the original OK to expand his
Whitewater inquiry into the sex scandal. We now know that there is
something critically wrong with each one of the four pieces:
1. Starr argued that Vernon Jordan's effort to find Monica a
job resembled his Whitewater "hush money" investigation of Webb
Hubbell, and therefore represented a possible criminal pattern.
Trouble is, Starr indicted Hubbell for tax fraud (an indictment
since dismissed) precisely because he never found real evidence
of "hush money." Suspicion isn't evidence. If it were, Starr's
investigation would have no legal boundaries whatsoever.
According to Brill's Content, the OIC may also have withheld
exculpatory information from Janet Reno: Specifically, that
Jordan's efforts began long before Monica was subpoenaed in the
Jones case, and that Jordan was an old friend of Monica's
mother's fianc, Peter Straus, and therefore may easily have
had innocent reasons for helping Monica find a job.
2. Linda Tripp's tapes were recorded illegally, hence could
probably not be used as evidence in an American court. Even
more worrying, the Starr Report clearly states that two crucial
phone conversations recorded by Tripp on Thursday, Jan. 15 --
two days after the FBI wired her lunch meeting with Monica, and
one day before Starr received permission to proceed from the
three-judge panel -- "were made under the supervision of the
Office of the Independent Counsel." The report says the tapes,
designated "Tape 22," show Monica telling Tripp that she and
Clinton [would] tell the same story under oath -- a crucial bit
of evidence, if true.
Tripp had previously been told by her lawyer Kirby Behre that
surreptitiously recording phone calls was a felony in Maryland.
Granted immunity by Starr on Jan. 12, she was then advised by
the OIC to do some more taping on Jan. 15. In brief, she was
acting as the OIC's agent. Did Starr have authority from the
judges? He did not. Does any federal prosecutor have authority
to deputize a civilian to violate a state law? Again, no. This
is KGB territory.
So how can Starr's team have been so reckless as to print the
evidence in their report? Maybe they were gambling that the
report would force President Clinton to resign. Also, to put
this thing together, it's necessary to read footnote 1020, then
follow its cryptic reference to "T-22" into Volume II, page
262, for the date and disclaimer. (I'm indebted to Jack Gillis
of the University of Southwestern Louisiana for this research.)
The issue takes on added significance in view of another
footnote accusing Tripp of doctoring certain tapes and dubbing
others.
3. Then there are the "talking points." Long presented as the
"smoking gun" that would prove White House malfeasance, this
document was actually written by Lewinsky herself at Tripp's
urging. According to Monica's testimony, also discreetly edited
in the Starr Report, Tripp phoned her on the morning of Jan.
14. Tripp told Monica that she was meeting her attorney Kirby
Behre later that day, and asked for help in composing an
affidavit.
The call was a setup. Unknown to Monica, Tripp had actually
fired Behre on Jan. 9, and hired conservative lawyer James
Moody. After sweating over a hot word processor all day,
Lewinsky met Tripp after work in a Pentagon parking lot and
handed her the so-called talking points. Their contents
reflected Tripp's stated incredulity about Kathleen Willey's
charges against Clinton. Also unknown to Monica, Tripp then
took the document directly to Starr. The OIC immediately called
Assistant Attorney General Eric Holder on his cell phone at a
the Washington Wizards pro basketball game, setting in motion
the process that gave Starr his investigative authority.
In short, the talking points never were evidence of anything
except Tripp's deviousness. Yet for months they were treated
like the Rosetta Stone. Did Starr ask Tripp to produce better
evidence? Did he ask her how she got them? He had to. If she
lied, that's a crime. If she told the truth, yet Starr's team
encouraged the Justice Department and Janet Reno to believe
that the talking points were something they weren't, wouldn't
that be prosecutorial misconduct? Given that Monica would
almost certainly have asked Tripp on Jan. 15 how the meeting
with Kirby Behre went, it's going to be really interesting to
see which tapes Tripp edited.
4. In her Jan. 16 letter to the three-judge court, Janet Reno
wrote that Monica "may have filed" a false affidavit, a
statement that can mean three things to a lawyer. Either an
affidavit may have been filed, may be false or both. Why such
vagueness? Because Starr appears to have been making, and
losing, another calculated gamble.
Lewinsky's lawyer Frank Carter had sent the Jones lawyers a copy of her
Jan. 7 affidavit on Monday, Jan. 12. Carter informed them that unless he
heard from them by Jan. 15, he would file a motion to quash her subpoena
with Judge Susan Webber Wright's court in Little Rock. On Jan. 16, he
sent the Jones lawyers a copy of his motion. That same morning, in the
apparent belief that Carter had filed with the Little Rock court, Starr's
newly empowered agents grabbed up Lewinsky, held her for 11 hours,
refused to let her phone attorney Carter, threatened her with 27 years in
jail for breaking federal law and tried to get her to wear a wire (she
says) into the Oval Office.
But the motion hadn't been filed. An affidavit has no legal force until
it's stamped by the court. Here's what the Starr Report says: "On January
16, 1998, Mr. Carter arranged for the overnight delivery of the motion to
quash and the accompanying affidavit to Judge Susan Webber Wright's law
clerk and Paula Jones' attorneys (1027)." Read the footnote, and there's
another surprise. Starr's team may not have known it, but Little Rock
courts don't accept faxed motions. The courthouse is closed weekends.
Monday, Jan. 19, was a federal holiday. Thus the footnote: "Although the
motion (and affidavit) reached the Judge's chambers on January 17, the
file stamp date was January 20, 1998."
In picking up Monica, Starr's zealous prosecutors jumped the gun by five
days; a [probable] mistrial in any federal court in America. Follow the
document reference in footnote 1027 to document number 921-DC-0000775,
and what do you find? Well, no document. It's simply not there. But the
documentary Table of Contents lists the source as the Campbell Law Firm,
Paula Jones' lawyers. So how does a document provided to Starr by the
Jones lawyers prove that Monica's affidavit reached Judge Wright's
chambers on Jan. 17? It doesn't.
We know that Judge Wright saw the Lewinsky affidavit on Jan. 17, because
Clinton attorney Bob Bennett produced a copy during the president's
deposition. But how on earth did Starr's prosecutors know on Friday, Jan.
16, that Carter had sent it? Much less what was in it? On Linda Tripp's
and the FBI's tapes, Monica was still saying she'd sign nothing until she
had a job. (A lie, she's since testified.) That leaves only one possible
source: the Jones lawyers, a clear violation of Judge Wright's stringent
gag order, and possible evidence of collusion.
And what was the big hurry on Jan. 16? Why not wait until the affidavit
was legally filed with the court? Simple: Starr's prosecutors had to
spring their "impeachment trap" before Clinton testified and before
Newsweek published, or lose the whole thing. Combine all this with Linda
Tripp's briefing of the Jones lawyers on Friday, Jan. 16, and what
emerges is the disturbing impression of a legalized coup attempt. Are the
American people prepared to countenance that?
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STReport International Online Magazine
[image87.gif (45316 bytes)]
Classics & Gaming Section
Editor Dana P. Jacobson
dpj@streport.com
From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
Time is running short this week to really sit here and reflect on what I
might like to say. The days just seem to fly by; Halloween is rapidly
approaching! Seems like yesterday that I was throwing some steaks on the
grill for a July 4th barbecue!
The Republican party is about to make an ass of itself, joining Bill
Clinton in an act of stupidity. And just to prove how incredibly foolish
the American public is by throwing money away - the most popular costumes
for Halloween this year are Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky! Truly
scary, but for kids?? Weird...
Have to disagree with Joe Mirando this week: golf is a terrific game and
a lot of fun. I wish that I could play more than I do. It's not just
"chasing a little white ball around" as Joe portrays. Perhaps for a
beginning player it appears that way, but after a few rounds.... Don't
feel bad, Joe, my wife and countless others agree with you. Makes the
courses less crowded for the rest of us! Wanna join me and some friends
for a quick 18 this weekend? <vbg>
Until next time...
Welcome to your channel Atari Member Update for the month of Oct.
In this Member Update, you'll find:
* MyMail update
* The new Infitra Dialer
* NEWSie v0.92
* Nview a multiformat picture viewer
* The Milan Homepage
* Video software
* The CAB Internet Overlay module
* StringServer
1. M Y M A I L U P D A T E
MyMail by Erik Hall is now up to v0.69 and here's some update info sent
from him:
* - Fixed problems with locked buttons in "Timer dial" window.
* - Delete key was not working in object edit fields.
* - It is now possible to select next or prev. message from a mail
read window.
* - There is 5 new icons in read mail window.
Up arrow icon - selects prev. mail
Down arrow icon - selects next mail.
Info icon - shows info about the mail. (Mailer, from, to, ....)
Printer icon - print the mail
Disk icon - save mail text to file
* - Save mail to text file was not working if ram disk was installed
Now it works with ram disk.
* - Fatal error found in address field
if no alias file existed the field was cleared at enter. This is now
fixed.
* - A small assembler bug fixed in string copy functions.
* - Added save mail as html. This function is very simple and no
special chars are converted in this version.
There is 2 versions.
1. * Save mail as HTML - Saves/converts one selected mail into one file
specified by the user.
2. * Save all mail as HTML - Saves/concerts all mail into a directory
specified by the user
mail 1 is converted to file 1.htm
mail 2 to 2.htm and so on.....
Then there is a file index.htm created with links to all the html-mail
files.
- Bugfixes in editor.
1. * Randomly was wrong number of chars copy to clipboard This is now
fixed.
2. * Too slow adding of new line. this is now done faster.
3. * Randomly was bad chars inserted in text when moving cursor with
arrow keys. This is now fixed.
4. * Home key is now working correctly.
5. * Ctrl-C, Ctrl-v and Ctrl-x was inserting the ctrl chars in text
buffer causing strange functionality of the editor.
6. * If there was only one cr/lf in text buffer and user pressed Delete
key then only the cr char was removed. This is now fixed.
7. * It was possible to delete chars from empty text buffer this was
causing strange results. This is not possible now.
8. * Internal fault: If block bigger than text buffer was deleted then
the program crashed.
9. * Trying to delete the last char and in text buffer and the char is
a cr/lf combination only the cr was deleted.
* - Bug fixes in filter functions.
* - Dialer communication bugfixed.
* KRfree was called randomly with a faulty pointer.
* - Added abort function to the dialer function in mymail it will only
abort mymails communication and will not send any abort messages to
the sting/stik dialer.
* - Internal buffer for clipboard was too small this is now 20K
* - Bugfixes in "Receive mail details".
My MyMail support page is to be found at:
http://home.bip.net/atari/mymail/
and the official webpage, made by the author:
http://www2.tripnet.se/~erikhall/programs/mymail.html
2. T H E I N F I T R A R E M O T E D I A L E R :
A remote dialer is under construction to use with Infitra as a module
plug-in. It can also be used without Infitra for other purposes. The
dialer is Freeware and you will find it at my Infitra support webpage. To
use the dialer with the STinG socket there's an environment variable to
include in the DEFAULT.CFG file, the dialer must be set.
http://home.bip.net/atari/infitra/
http://www.worldaccess.nl/~koenrad9/index.htm
3. N E W S i e
Johns Rojewski's NEWSie for email, News and FTP is also updated into
version 0.92, some weeks ago.
Among lots of fixes and so on, here's some of the news:
* Bug Fix - Remove extra space following IP address in "helo
[nn.nn.nn.nn]" message
* Support for Mail Directories
* Expanded MAILBOX.PRG (UTILITY folder) to support mail directories
* Support for Case Sensitive/Case Preserving File Systems (Requested
Improvement)
* Rework Full/New Groups sort to eliminate 28000 newsgroup limit
(Requested Improvement)
* Bug Fix - Window width (w) used instead of window index (wx). Caused
memory corruption
* Bug Fix - Changed 'windows[12].id' to 'wid' in put_html_line() and
put_html_subline()
* Bug Fix - Corrected problems with auto-sizing windows on open, added
clipping
* Bug Fix - Support saving of windows in 'full-screen' size
* Bug Fix - Startup with HTM file broken in 0.90, works again
* Bug Fix - Could not delete news article from Overview if file did
not exist
* Implement selective Retrieve/Delete of Mail messages (Requested
Improvement)
* Expand support of Status display in window information line
(Requested Improvement)
* Support selection/use of Multiple Address Books (*.abk) (Requested
Improvement)
* Use AES popup menus for file lists for Address Book, Mailbox, and
Preference selection
http://home.bip.net/atari/newsie
http://www.primenet.com/~rojewski/newsie.html
4. N V I E W
Nview is a multiformat picture viewer for Atari and other systems such as
MS Windows, Linux. Nview can display 58 formats, including well known
Atari formats:
JPEG TrueVision RGB Silicon TIFF Revision Sun Raster
Targa 5 Images
Macintosh Portable CompuServe
Pict Amiga IFF Network GIF
Graphics
Sun TAAC Adobe MTV /
file format Photoshop Rayshade
Document
Windows Icon Windows Photo CD Degas / Degas Neochrome
Cursor Elite
X Windows
GFA Raytrace Spectrum 512 System window Mac Paint
dump
Art Director, Digital Research (GEM Paint) and a couple of other formats.
Nview and Nconvert is available as TTP-programs without a shell, but you
can install them in a modern desktop and put them on the desktop to use
with Drag&Drop. The shell is available for MS Windows/Linux and is called
XNview (Extended Nview), this also means that you can read all your
favorite Neochrome and Spectrum 512 pictures from the MS Win.
A GEM-shell would be something, maybe someone can compile a such? The
Nview TTP works fine on the desktop, but the Nconvert takes some
parameters that would be easier with a shell.
The author is a frenchman called Pierre-E Gougelet.
I have written a swedish support page at:
http://home.bip.net/atari/viewer/
You will find a download link there and some snapshots
5. M I L A N - T H E H O M E P A G E
The Milan homepage is now available in the english language too. My
swedish contribution will have a face lift next week.
http://www.milan-computer.de/html_swe/index2.html
http://www.milan-computer.de/
and my own swedish webpage:
http://home.bip.net/atari/milan/
The Atari Show at Neuss (Dusseldorf) is held this very weekend under the
theme "The ATARI is back!". This sounds very interesting for the future,
indeed. The Milan "TV-karte" will be showed, the Milan Motherboard will
be sold separately and other related news is to be shown.
6. V I D E O A N D A N I M A T I O N S S O F T W A R E
M_Player (Falcon030, TT030), MP_STE (Atari ST(F/FM/E) by TELLO Guillaume
and AniPlayer (Falcon030, TT030, Milan) by Didier Mequignon is updated
into v2.95, 2.91 resp 2.03 (Oct 3). AniPlayer also contain a MagiC Setup
program by Joachim Fornallaz for a comfort install of add-ons etc. My
support page have turned to be a Scandinavian support webpage now, but
you can always download the original multilingual apps from there. Here's
all the addresses you need:
http://home.bip.net/atari/movie/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gtello/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/didierm/
http://www.stud.ee.ethz.ch/~jfornall/aniplayer.html
7. T H E C A B I N T E R N E T O V E R L A Y M O D U L E
The OVL module is up to 1.3011beta and is to use with STiK or STinG.
http://www.netset.com/~baldrick
8. S T R I N G S E R V E R
You can use StringServer for different purposes, one of them is that you
can "pass" a URL-address from TextView (In the distribution) to start or
pass it to CAB.
Heres some excerpts from the StringServer manual by Odd Skancke that
explains its functions and possibilities:
~~~ StringServer ~~~
The StringServer is the program that receives strings from other
applications, checks this string and starts the relevant application
according to the configuration. The StringServer is either loaded as a
application at bootup or installed as an Accessory.
~~~ ConfigSS ~~~
ConfigSS is the application you use to configure the StringServer. It
let's you edit the configuration, send/receive configuration to/from the
StringServer.
~~~ A bit of history ~~~
Some two years ago, I (Odd Skancke) was reading newsgroups/my mail using
NEWsie. The Internet was a new experience for me, and I was very curious.
I wanted to look at all the interesting Atari sites, get in touch with
people and so on. After a while, I got really sick with having to load
cab and/or typing in the URL too look at. Same with ftp-sites and email
addresses. This is GEM, I thought, it should not be necessary to do that
much typing. Then the idea for the StringSevrer started to crawl into my
mind. And now, I don't have to type anything anymore. It's even
simplified my everyday GEM use, as I don't have to drag files all over
the place. I program in ASM under MiNT/Thing/n.aes, and now I can click
any *.s files and view them in my TextView!! textviewer. If I hold shift
down, the StringServer sends the *.s file to QED. When I click the *.s
file with ctrl held down, the StingServer fires up GenST.ttp, and it's
immediately assembled. I think this is great!. Well, I hope you will like
it too... :) The StringServer can use environment variables to look for
destination applications. So, while you are in the systems configuration
file, you might as well set up some environment variables to your
favorite programs. This package was initially developed for use with GEM
Internet clients, although it can be used for anything.
I use it with NEWsie to read mail/news, Airc when IRC'ing and certain
other things. I have the following environment variables set, examples
from my n_aes.cnf. Remember that you can define those variables as you
wish (I hope someone will propose "standard" names soon).
export BROWSER= e:\kommunik\www\cab2d\cab.app
export FTP_CLIENT= e:\kommunik\aftp13b1\aftp.prg
export MAIL_CLIENT= e:\kommunik\stik\newsie\newsie.prg
export NEWS_CLIENT= e:\mommunik\stik\newsie\newsie.prg
export IRC_CLIENT= e:\kommunik\stik\atariirc\atarirc.app
<snip>
StringServer is to be found at:
http://www.bright.net/~atari/html/download.htm
M Y H O M E P A G E :
My homepage is located at the address below, all other URLs that you
might have is mirror sites
http://home.bip.net/atari/
Bottnia Internet Provider (BIP) is a swedish provider that gives free
services to the Net.
M Y E - M A I L A D D R E S S:
My new e-mail address provided by BIP for Atari related mails is:
atari@mail.bip.net
If you have my old address in your address book. don't bother, the old
ones atari@ebox.tninet.se or atari@hem1.passagen.se works just fine,
so send me some mails about your summer vacation or your Atari interests.
Its always nice to get in touch with you.
Best Regards
Mille Babic
E-mail: atari@mail.bip.net
WWW: http://home.bip.net/atari/
Gaming Section
* "Axis & Allies"!!
* "WonderSwan"!
* Board Games Come to Life!
* DreamCast News!
* And MUCH more!
From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
I've always been a games-player. Whether it was sports, shooting pool,
playing cards, tilting a pinball machine, board games, or arcade/console
games - I loved them all. Most games require more than one player, so
even if you're in the mood, you can't always play what you want, when you
want to play it. I always loved board games (Parcheesi, Monopoly, Risk,
Easy Money, and many others). Well, more and more board games are being
made available on PCs and game consoles. For people like me, this is
terrific! Included in this week's issue you'll find news of just some of
the latest games to be arriving. Retro-gaming is here to stay!
Until next time...
Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
Sega Moves Forward to Produce Dreamcast Machine
Japanese game maker Sega Enterprises Ltd said Tuesday that Namco Ltd
would develop game software for its new home-use game machine Dreamcast,
which is scheduled to hit the Japanese market on Nov. 27. "I am counting
on Namco (to attract a wider a audience for our new game machine)", Sega
president Shoichiro Irimajiri told a news conference.
Irimajiri said the reason Sega's previous game machine did not attract as
many customers as its rivals was because it did not attract as varied a
user group. Sega also announced it would tie up with Web TV Networks, a
Microsoft Corp subsidiary, to offer Internet functions on the Dreamcast
game machine. Customers of the U.S.-based Web TV will be able to access
the Internet using read-only-memory compact discs, Sega said.
They will also be able to play with other Dreamcast users via the
Internet, the company said. Sega announced its tie-up with parent
Microsoft Corp in May. Sega on Tuesday also introduced a line of game
software compatible with the new game machine. Dreamcast offers high
graphics capacity and a 64-channel sound system and is based on
Microsoft's Windows CE operating system. It will retail for $250, Sega
announced.
Seven Additional Video Game Publishers Pledge Support for Sega's
Dreamcast
The list of third party video game publishers supporting Sega's(R)
Dreamcast(TM), the ultimate gaming machine, continues to grow. Sega of
America today announced that seven additional video game publishers are
officially supporting the Dreamcast platform. The companies include some
of the industry's most prolific publishers Accolade, Capcom, Hasbro
Interactive, Konami(R), Mindscape, Take 2 and THQ.
The Dreamcast publishers announced today join an elite group of companies
that pledged their support for the system at the Electronic Entertainment
Expo in May. Those companies include Acclaim, GT Interactive Software,
Interplay, Microprose (a division of Hasbro Interactive) and Midway.
These companies hold a special place in the world of interactive
entertainment, representing 11 of the top 25 PC and video game publishers
in the world today based on overall sales.
All 12 of the announced publishers are currently developing games for
Dreamcast in the genres they know best. Dreamcast launches November 27 in
Japan and next fall in North America and Europe. Dreamcast gives
developers the freedom to design video games without limits. The
gaming-specific architecture of the system provides 128-bit 3D graphic
performance, 64 channels of sound and a blazing-fast CPU. Dreamcast will
also open doors for publishers to create games that expand far beyond the
past definition of console gameplay.
It is the first console to feature multiplayer network gaming
capabilities. In addition, the system features a Visual Memory unit, a
portable memory card with a built in LCD screen, allowing game designers
to create titles that can literally travel outside the Dreamcast console.
"The announcement of these important video game publishers is yet another
milestone we have reached in building toward the North American launch of
Dreamcast," said Bernard Stolar, president and COO, Sega of America. "We
are confident that all major third party publishers will support
Dreamcast."
Bandai, SCE To Sell New Hand-held Game Machines
TOKYO, Oct. 8 (Kyodo) -- Bandai Co. and Sony Computer Entertainment
(Japan) Inc. separately announced Thursday that they will introduce new
hand-held computer game machines within the next six months. Bandai's
WonderSwan, due to be released next March, is 7 by 7 by 12 centimeters,
smaller than Nintendo Co.'s best-selling Game Boy, and weighs 110 grams,
50 grams lighter than the Game Boy. Its images are in black and white.
Bandai will offer the machine for 4,800 yen, with first-year sales
targeted at 4 million to 4.5 million units. SCE will put its
PocketStation on sale Dec. 23, using games from the company's popular
PlayStation home-use machine. The new machine is 6 by 6 by 4 centimeters
and will be priced at 3,000 yen. To meet the two rivals, Nintendo will
begin marketing a color-screen version of the Game Boy for 8,900 yen on
Oct. 21.
Sony Computer To Launch PDA Game Tool On Dec 23
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, a unit of electronics giant Sony Corp,
said today it plans to launch a small personal digital assistant (PDA)
game tool, "PocketStation" in Japan on December 23. Sony Computer said in
a statement the game tool, which can be used as memory card to save
Sony's PlayStation video games, will be priced at 3,000 yen, with an
initial output of one million units per month.
Sony said 31 titles compatible with the PocketStation were expected to be
released by early next year by several software manufacturers, including
itself. PocketStation carries a programmable 32-bit RISC processor
together with liquid crystal display, speaker and bi- directional
infrared communication capability. With its clock and calendar function,
users can use applications utilizing flow of time or change of season
with appropriate software, not only with the new PDA tool, but also with
the PlayStation console when the tool is attached to the memory card
slot, the statement said. Application software can be downloaded into the
PocketStation through the memory card slot for the PlayStation console.
The Sony's announcement came ahead of the three-day Tokyo Game Show,
scheduled to start on Friday.
Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces Destruction of
Counterfeit PlayStation Software
Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today, in conjunction with
the IDSA and U.S. Customs Service officials, the destruction of nearly
40,000 counterfeit PlayStation(R) software discs seized in Miami,
Florida. A U.S. Customs Service inspection discovered two shipments of
the counterfeit PlayStation software en route from Taiwan and Singapore.
The shipments, with a retail value of more than $1.5 million, were
destined for Paraguay, a major outlet for counterfeit videogames in Latin
America.
Sony Computer Entertainment America officials flew to Miami to observe
U.S. Customs inspectors destroying the counterfeit discs, which will then
be recycled by GreenDisk. The counterfeit software seized was comprised
of forty-four different first and third party PlayStation software
titles, including such hits as Parappa The Rapper(tm), Rally Cross(tm)
and NBA Shoot Out 98(tm).
"We applaud the diligent work of the U.S. Customs Service who has
demonstrated tremendous success in both identifying counterfeit
PlayStation software and thwarting the efforts of counterfeiters," said
Kaz Hirai, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Sony
Computer Entertainment America. "With the assistance of the U.S. Customs
Service and the IDSA, we aim to protect the entire gaming industry,
particularly the first and third-party software developers.
Counterfeiters cast a shadow over the entire industry by making it
difficult for software developers and manufacturers to benefit from the
hard work that goes into creating quality, cutting-edge games."
According to the IDSA, U.S. videogame and PC game companies lost more
than $3 billion worldwide in 1997 to pirates who copied and distributed
games without permission, not including losses caused by Internet piracy.
"U.S. Customs is a key line of defense in the fight to prevent pirate
software entering the United States from Asia, Latin America and Eastern
Europe," said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the Interactive Digital
Software Association, the U.S. trade body representing the $5.6 billion
U.S. video and PC games industry. "As our industry battles international
piracy, we rely heavily upon customs officials around the world to seize
pirated goods. The Miami Customs office has struck a blow against the
international game pirate network and helps our industry send a message
that the United States is committed to protecting intellectual property
rights of game software companies."
As the videogame demographic continues to expand making interactive
entertainment a mass-market entertainment option similar to television,
music or movies, the fight against production and sale of counterfeit
video game products will remain a significant focus for industry leaders.
Hasbro Interactive Brings Everyone's Favorite The Game of LIFE to
Computer and Video Screens
Leading family entertainment software publisher Hasbro Interactive brings
another all-time favorite board game to life on the PC and PlayStation
game console. The Game of LIFE puts players behind the wheel on a richly
animated 3D road of life's little ups and downs. Set to the tune of a
catchy soundtrack that travels in time with the player, this new age
version of the classic board game will keep friends and family members
laughing and playing for hours.
"The Game of LIFE has been a centerpiece for families everywhere for
decades," says Hasbro Interactive president, Tom Dusenberry. "We've taken
everything people love about the classic board game and added new twists
and features to bring that endearing nostalgia to life." At the beginning
of the game, players must choose either college or career. They then hit
the road to see what life will bring. Win the lottery, buy stock or
insurance, take a vacation, bid on artwork, swap salaries with another
player -- every game of life is different! But the goal is always the
same -- retire wealthy, because whoever has the most cash at the end of
the game wins!
Starting in the 1950s, players cruise through five decades, where the
music, car models and themes change to match the style of the decade.With
each spin, the screen changes to a uniquely animated "car camera" view of
the board, allowing players to feel as if they really are driving down
the road of life. The Game of LIFE CD-ROM can be played in two ways,
Classic Board Game or Enhanced Game. Both have as the ultimate goal to
retire with the most money. Classic Board Game plays true to all the
rules of the original board game. The Enhanced Game replaces the
accumulation of LIFE tiles (which in classic mode are redeemed at the end
of the game for money) with a variety of different "LIFE's Little Games."
Each time a player lands on a LIFE space, such as "Get Married," "Buy a
House," or "Baby Girl," they have a chance to play one of eight little
games, where they can spin to win more money or exact revenge on other
players.
A host voice narrates the road trip, while rich animation sequences
accompany every move on the board and hilarious cartoon panels explain
the result of each move. Players can choose to play the game from a
"bird's eye view" of the 3D board, or zoom in on their location for a
better look at what life has in store for them. Up to six players at a
time can hit the road of life in both modes of play. The Game of LIFE is
Network and Internet playable over Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone(TM)
at
( http://www.zone.com ). The Game of Life PC CD-ROM can be played on
Windows 95 and Windows 98 systems and is available in stores at the
suggested retail price of $29.95. The game will also be available for the
PlayStation game console in late October at a suggested retail price of
$29.95.
Hasbro Interactive Brings Kid's Favorite Toys and Games to Life
Leading family and children's interactive games publisher Hasbro
Interactive delivers fun to the youngest computer users with the release
of the My Little Pony(R), Operation(R) and Candy Land(R) CD-ROM games for
the PC.
Hasbro Interactive is shipping its first game for girls based on the
popular My Little Pony toy brand. In the My Little Pony(R) CD-ROM game,
pre-school girls make friends, play games and take care of their very own
My Little Pony characters. When a new pony has been born in the magical
world of Ponyland, players name her, keep track of her birthday, brush
her mane, grow food for her, feed her, and put her to bed when she is
sleepy. The goal is to give the pony enough confidence to cross the
Rainbow Bridge to venture away from her home and go on her very own
adventures.
The My Little Pony CD-ROM is full of activities and games for players to
enjoy with the help of ponies like Sweet Berry(TM), Light Heart(TM),
Morning Glory(TM), Sundance(TM) and Ivy(TM). Girls can play dress up or
give their pony a new hair-do at Ivy's Beauty Salon; play a dancing
memory game at Sundance's Dance Studio; and create their very own fun,
printable projects in the Schoolhouse. In Light Heart's Game Cottage,
girls can play Tic-Tac-Hoof, a pony-style version of Tic-Tac-Toe; test
their wits at the Switch Puzzle; color in the Pony Books; bake a cake and
decorate it in Sweet Berry's Kitchen; print cut-outs to use away from the
computer or watch fun home videos of the ponies. The My Little Pony
CD-ROM game is for players ages 3 to 7 and is playable on Windows 95 and
is Windows 98 compatible. It is available for a suggested retail price of
$29.95.
In the Operation(R) CD-ROM game, it's surgery like never before! Kids
choose one of five crazy emergency rooms like Main Hospital, Haunted
Hospital, Rain Forest Hospital, Space Hospital and Dino Hospital to try
to prove how steady their hands are! Each ward is equipped with an
unusual clientele in need and has its very own resident doctor to help
guide kids through the game. In the Haunted Hospital, players operate on
monster patients in the company of Dr. Klaus Von Kookenheimer; at the
Space Hospital players join Chill Jones in operating on martians and
other spacey patients; and jungle veterinarian Maxine Harmony will help
players operate on animal patients in the Rain Forest Hospital.
In Classic Operation, players operate in the "traditional" way, using
virtual tweezers to remove out-of-place objects from the patients'
bodies. For a whole new way to perform surgery, players can select other
fun games where the object is to help a stranded frog get out of a
patient's throat, to swallow nasty germs by jumping on them, or to blast
away gas bubbles with special stomach medicine. Operation is equipped
with a print feature so kids can save pictures of their patients to share
with friends and family. For kids ages 4 to 8, Operation is playable on
Windows 95 and Windows 98 systems and is available at a suggested retail
price of $29.95.
Kids' sweet favorite the Candy Land board game is coming to life in 3D on
the computer. In the Candy Land(R) CD-ROM game, kids click on the
gum-ball machine and they're off on a fun-filled journey through the
Gumdrop Mountains, Peppermint Forrest, Lollipop Woods, Ice Cream Sea and
Molasses Swamp. The game captures the classic fun of the Candy Land game,
but on the PC kids get a unique first-person view as they move along the
Candy Land board -- trying to be the first to make it to the Candy Castle
and become the Hero of Candy Land.
Along the way, players are invited to participate in fun activities with
friendly characters like Princess Lolly, Plumpy, Mr. Mint, Lord Licorice,
Gramma Nutt, Jolly, Queen Frostine and Glumpy. Kids can make music on Mr.
Mint's unusual pipe organ; plant candy seeds and help them grow in Gramma
Nutt's garden or make a luscious ice cream sundae with Queen Frostine.
Candy Land is for ages 3 to 6 and is playable on Windows 95 and Windows
98 systems. It is now available for a suggested retail price of $29.95.
Hasbro Interactive Ships Highly Anticipated WWII Strategy: Axis & Allies
BEVERLY, Mass., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- It's the spring of 1942 and the
world is at war. The two Axis powers, Germany and Japan, and the Allies,
England, the Soviet Union and the United States, are in a struggle for
world supremacy. In the highly anticipated CD-ROM version of the most
revered world war II strategy board game of all time, Axis & Allies, the
military and economic destiny of the powers is now in the hands of the
computer player. "We've worked closely with the board game's creator
Larry Harris to ensure that the PC version is as challenging and
rewarding as the original," said Hasbro Interactive's president Tom
Dusenberry. "The original game has maintained a very dedicated and loyal
following and we believe these fans will be thrilled with playing their
favorite game on CD-ROM."
The Axis & Allies CD-ROM is the ultimate WWII strategy game. You and your
opponents control the two Axis powers and the three Allies challenging
their expansion through strategic and tactical maneuvering. Players must
choose their battles carefully, move troops and equipment thoughtfully
throughout the world and plan strategically in order to insure victory.
Faithful to the rules of the best-selling board game, the CD-ROM version
is a superbly designed and executed counterpart for the Windows 95
environment. Authentic WWII stock footage, stills and sound effects make
strategic bombing raids, submarine attacks, battleship salvos and anti
aircraft barrages seem like the real thing.
Axis & Allies players can customize every aspect of the game from the
intelligence of their computer opponents, to the cost, attack and defense
ability of each available unit. State-of-the-art graphics make for smooth
and fast navigation, and even the most experienced Axis & Allies players
will be tested by the CD-ROM's challenging computer opponents. As in the
board game, each turn is made up of six action sequences - developing
weapons/purchasing units, combat movement, combat, non-combat movement,
placing new units on the map and collecting income. Each step is
important in waging a winning conquest and players must choose their
steps carefully if they hope to win the war.
The Axis & Allies PC CD-ROM features multi-player options for up to five
players, including LAN, modem-to-modem, serial or Internet play at
Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone Axis & Allies is playable on Windows 95
and available for a suggested retail price of $39.95. Visit the official
Axis & Allies Web site at www.axisandallies.com for more information
about the game, to interact with other Axis & Allies players and to take
part in a fully interactive, online battle against players from around
the world.
Accolade Ships Test Drive 5 for the PlayStation Game Console
Accolade, a leading software publisher and developer of video games,
announced that its Test Drive(R) 5 racing game began shipping yesterday
for the PlayStation(R) game console. Pitting supercars of the present
against muscle cars of the past, the game features more than 28 licensed
cars, 18 courses in real world locations and branching technology. A
version for personal computers will be available in November of this
year.
"We are excited to have Test Drive 5 out on store shelves and available
to gamers," said Slade Anderson, producer of Test Drive 5. "The hot
licensed cars racing through real world locations gives users an
incredible racing experience." The game features such licensed supercars
as the 1998 Dodge(R) Viper, 1998 Chevrolet(R) Corvette(R), 1998 Aston
Martin Vantage, 1998 TVR Cerbera, 1998 Jaguar XKR, 1998 Saleen Mustang
S351-R, 1997 Chevrolet(R) Camaro(R) SS(TM) LT4(TM), and the 1998
Nissan(R) Skyline.
The muscle cars in Test Drive 5 include: the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427SC,
1967 Pontiac GTO, 1968 = Ford Mustang 428CJ, 1969 Chevrolet(R) Camaro
ZL-1(TM), 1969 Chevrolet(R) Corvette ZL-1(TM), 1970 Chevrolet(R)
Chevelle(R) SS LS-6, 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda and the 1969 Dodge(R)
Charger. Additionally, 12 "super-charged enhanced" cars and "secret" cars
are included in Test Drive 5, producing a total of 40 cars accessible to
the player.
Test Drive 5 lets users race in traffic with high-intensity police chases
across exotic locations throughout the world, such as Moscow, Russia;
Honolulu; Blue Ridge Parkway, N.C.; Tokyo, Japan; Edinburgh, Scotland;
Sydney, Australia; Munich,Germany; Keswick, England; Kyoto, Japan; San
Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Bern, Switzerland.
Circuit track courses include: Cheddar Gorge, England; Newcastle,
England; Maui, Hawaii; Jarash, Jordan; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and
Courmayeur, Italy. Most of the game's 18 courses are reversible and can
be driven at night, producing a total of 31 unique driving experiences. A
drag racing option is available to users as well. Players also have the
ability to play as the police and race after speeding cars.
Test Drive 5 features a new 3D engine developed by driving game experts,
Pitbull Syndicate, that gives users a more lifelike feel of racing.
MultiDynamic Environment Mapping recreates the look and feel of traveling
under trees and bridges by adding multiple reflections and shadows to the
vehicles. Branching technology is also included and allows multiple
paths, off-course driving and short-cuts through streets and mountains.
Test Drive 5 also offers high resolution graphics, making it one of the
few console racing games to possess 512 x 240 graphics running at more
than 30 frames per second. The Test Drive 5 soundtrack features songs
from Wax Trax! Records' industrial rock band KMFDM; gold-selling
alternative band Gravity Kills of TVT Records; Geffen recording artist
Pitchshifter; futuristic rock artist Fear Factory and Holland's
mix-master Junkie XL, both of Road Runner Records.
The game offers both horizontal and vertical split screen modes on
circuit tracks allowing exciting two-player action. Test Drive 5 supports
the Sony Dual Shock(R) Analog Controller. Test Drive 5 is currently
available at an estimated street price of $49.95.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. to Ship Space Station: Silicon Valley
Exclusively for the Nintendo 64
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. announced today that Space Station:
Silicon Valley, for the Nintendo 64 has begun manufacturing, and is
expected to ship to retailers worldwide in the month of October (the
product will be available at retail in the United States on Oct. 23,
1998). Space Station: Silicon Valley, was developed by DMA Design, Ltd. a
subsidiary of the Gremlin Group, who most recently developed Take-Two's
worldwide best seller Grand Theft Auto.
Touted as a "stellar title" by Gamefan Online, Space Station: Silicon
Valley, has been enthusiastically received by the videogame community.
The game has been described as "genre-busting," "totally fresh and
original," and "addictive and extremely fun." Electronic Gaming Monthly
stated it "could very well be the sleeper hit of the year." IGN64.com
noted, "This is what videogames should be." In Space Station: Silicon
Valley, gamers must save humanity from its doom when a mysterious space
station suddenly reappears on a collision course with Earth. During the
adventure, players take control of over 40 outrageous, humorously mutated
animals as they solve puzzles and unlock the secrets of the 30 levels
spread over four richly detailed environments.
Space Station: Silicon Valley, marks the first title Take-Two has
published under its own label for the Nintendo 64 system. Previously, the
Company acted as an exclusive distributor for Gametek, Inc.'s Wheel of
Fortune and Jeopardy! for the Nintendo 64. Space Station: Silicon Valley,
is available exclusively for the Nintendo 64. "Space Station: Silicon
Valley is quite unlike anything ever seen on the Nintendo 64," stated Sam
Houser, Vice-President of Worldwide Product Development. "The unique
storyline and game structure gives gamers the ability to take control of
dozens of characters while offering gameplay that is diverse,
action-packed and downright hilarious, making for a gaming experience
unmatched on any system."
Nintendo of America Chairman, Howard Lincoln, noted "We are pleased to
have Space Station: Silicon Valley exclusively available for the Nintendo
64. Take-Two is introducing a truly original game, which is a strong
addition to an outstanding Nintendo fall lineup."
Classic '80s Blockbuster Compilation, Activision Classics, Hits Sony
PlayStation at a Value Price
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision will deliver
dozens of the most popular games from the '80s onto the next-generation
PlayStation game console with the release of Activision Classics the week
of October 5, 1998. At a groundbreaking price of about a dollar per game,
this collection of 30 legendary Atari 2600 games includes Pitfall!, River
Raid and Kaboom! -- some of the absolute best titles from computer gaming
history. Activision Classics will be available at retail outlets
throughout the United States and Canada and will carry a suggested retail
price of $29.95.
"In the early 1980s, Activision created some of the most fun and best
remembered games for the Atari 2600," said Eric Johnson, senior vice
president, North American marketing, Activision, Inc. "Old favorites such
as Pitfall! and Kaboom!, which captured the hearts of gamers of years
past, now will have the chance to appeal to the new generation of console
players."
Due to platform-perfect technology, all the games featured in Activision
Classics will look and play exactly as they did on the original Atari
2600 console. The compilation is comprised of such legendary titles as
Pitfall!, a revolutionary video game that established a new genre of
adventure gameplay by incorporating never-before-seen elements like vine
swinging, pit hopping, log jumping and crocodile avoiding; River Raid, in
which players jet down the "River of No Return" using a B1 StratoWing
Assault Jet to break the enemy blockade and halt advancing troops;
Kaboom!, in which players must use their stamina, reflexes and
concentration to douse rapidly dropping bombs before they explode; and
H.E.R.O., featuring the exploits of R. Hero, who players must maneuver
through a tricky maze of mine shafts filled with lava rivers, vile vermin
and creepy critters to rescue trapped miners. Activision Classics also
includes such nostalgic favorites as Chopper Command, Grand Prix, Boxing,
Crackpots, Fishing Derby, Freeway, Frost Bite, Sea Quest, Sky Jinx and
Spider Fighter.
Fasten Your Seat Belt! GT Interactive Revs Up Car Combat Games With
Launch of 'Rogue Trip' for PlayStation-R Game Console
Unleashing another critically acclaimed game from its internal studios,
GT Interactive Software Corp. announces the release of its new car combat
game, Rogue Trip for PlayStation. Designed by its SingleTrac development
studio -- the creators of the million-selling hit car combat game series
-- Rogue Trip is being supported by a multi-million dollar marketing
campaign that includes a humorous new TV spot, extensive print
advertising, cross-promotions and aggressive online outreach.
"Rogue Trip is the game fans of car combat have been waiting for," said
Holly Newman, vice president of Marketing for GT Interactive. "Our
SingleTrac studio has once again created the dynamic, original
entertainment experience they are experts at and we believe Rogue Trip
has the potential to become a cornerstone property and dominate its
category this holiday season." GT Interactive is supporting Rogue Trip
with a multi-tiered, multi-million dollar marketing program that includes
a national television campaign airing now through the holiday season;
cross-promotions with Dragon Optical and other apparel companies;
extensive print advertising including four-page `mini-magazine' inserts;
integrated Internet support; customized pre-sell programs as well as
point-of-purchase initiatives.
Developed by GT Interactive's Salt Lake City-based SingleTrac development
studio, Rogue Trip is set in a dark, post-apocalyptic future, where
players are sent on an all-out rampage of wanton destruction and pure
mayhem to famous vacation spots around the world in search of a coveted
"photo opportunity." Rogue Trip also unveils SingleTrac's new
technologies, including Dynamic Interactive Fodder, Pyro-Physics, and
Genetic AI, all designed to provide Rogue Trip with unprecedented levels
of interactivity and realism.
Rogue Trip has already garnered critical acclaim from leading industry
publications:
* "If you thought it couldn't get any better, you were wrong. Rogue
Trip is one of the best reasons we can think of to own a
PlayStation...go buy it now!" September 1998, Tips & Tricks;
* "Its tongue-in-cheek delivery and over-the-top action make this one
helluva enjoyable ride." GameFan, July 1998;
* "Rogue Trip plays like a dream...very playable as well as completely
addictive." Electronic Gaming Monthly, November 1998.
Cyrix MediaGX Processor Selected to Power New Game: Site4
RICHARDSON, TEXAS (Oct. 5) BUSINESS WIRE - Oct. 5, 1998 - Cyrix
Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Semiconductor
Corporation, announced today that Atari Games Corporation has designed
the MMX-enhanced MediaGX processor into a new video arcade game, Site4,
released this month. The MediaGX processor, which played a key role in
enabling the sub-$1,000 consumer PC market, delivers the power of an
x86-based platform to the arcade gaming industry, providing exceptional
performance and versatility.
Atari Games, a subsidiary of Midway Games Inc., has been a revolutionary
leader in the arcade industry for more than two decades. Atari Games
selected the MediaGX processor because it provides a highly-integrated
system-level solution enabling optimum game performance at low-cost. "The
MediaGX processor allows us to cut costs at the system level while
delivering graphics that are rich and detailed," said Mary Fujihara, vice
president of marketing for Atari Games. "The powerful yet inexpensive
MediaGX processor provides compelling innovation and stunning visuals for
our new game, Site 4, while allowing us to deliver a product to the
arcade marketplace that is an exceptional value and return on
investment."
The Cyrix MediaGX processor provides an innovative system-level solution
that lowers system cost by integrating graphics, audio, memory controller
and the PCI interface onto the processor, reducing the number of separate
components. This system-level integration allows manufacturers to bring
high-quality products to market quickly and inexpensively. "The Atari
Site 4 coin-operated video game provides this competitive market with a
next-generation game at a compelling price," said Mike Bereziuk, senior
vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Cyrix's parent
National Semiconductor. "Site4 is an excellent example of how the MediaGX
processor platform can cost effectively bring x86 processing into
innovative consumer entertainment products. Integrated processor
technology is the wave of the future for high-impact gaming platforms as
well as Information Appliances, such as set-top boxes, web browsers and
Windows Based Terminals."
3DO to License Engine for Requiem: Avenging Angel
The 3DO Company today announced plans to license the engine for its
highly anticipated game, Requiem: Avenging Angel(TM), which is slated for
release in January 1999. The Requiem Engine is a state-of-the-art
foundation for the development of next-generation, first-person action
games for the PC. Trip Hawkins, chairman and CEO, said, "Many brilliant
engineers have spent three years developing this engine and have taken
full advantage of the newest PC hardware capabilities. The outstanding
quality of Requiem: Avenging Angel, and the critical acclaim that is
building for it, is validation that our engine is first-rate. The Requiem
Engine will allow the best new games to be developed and we look forward
to working with other developers to make our engine a force in the
market.
"The Requiem Engine has a notable pedigree, having been developed at
3DO's Cyclone Studios' division, which last year won numerous awards
including 'action game of the year,' for its debut PC game, Uprising.
Cyclone has a strong culture of 3D action gamers, and 3DO has a long
history of expertise in 3D graphics." Added Hawkins, "Cyclone co-founder
Ron Little led the development of the Requiem Engine, and industry legend
Bill Budge is at Cyclone, where he is the driving force behind 3D
technology for 3DO as a whole. Requiem: Avenging Angel serves notice that
we're taking it to the next step in the marketplace, and the Requiem
Engine is what makes it possible."
From the development team, Cyclone Studios' General Manager, Helmut
Kobler added, "In Requiem: Avenging Angel, we focused on giving players a
more realistic experience in an incredibly fast-paced first-person game.
Three key technologies combine to give the player a rich visual
experience not seen before. The custom engine features refined portal
technology that uses visible surface determination to enable a
substantially higher frame rate. Additionally, we used 16-bit color and
created a stunning lighting system featuring the first-ever use of
real-time character shadows accurately mapped to architecture.
"It all adds up to a break-neck frame rate of 60 frames-per-second that
moves fluidly and smoothly allowing players a fantastic gaming
experience. Players will love the rich colors and the astounding detail
of shadows that are so life-like and subtle, they even ripple up a
staircase. We designed our game to look great today on current PCs
without 3D support, and adapt and expand with the player's next system.
The custom engine in Requiem: Avenging Angel is one of the first to be
fully optimized for the Voodoo2 3D card."
ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
by Joe Mirando
jmirando@streport.com
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. I'll tell you right off the bat that this
week's column is going to be a short one. I've been putting in extra
hours at my "real" job, and it's catching up with me.
While it's true that I enjoy writing this column, it's also true that I
need time for other things... sleep being primary among them, along with
time to eat, some time with my wife and best of all, time alone. I'm one
of those people who NEED to be alone for a while every so often. With me
it seems to be more and more often that I feel the need to leave everyone
and everything behind and enter a peaceful state of vegetation for as
long as I can. If you ask me, that's one of the primary reasons that
people have such a hard time dealing with their lives today... they have
forgotten the art of "vegging out". It's an art form that needs to be
practiced every so often in order to be good at it, and by the time you
actually NEED to do it, you're so out of practice that it's actually a
chore (which defeats the whole purpose of the art form in the first
place!).
Some tell me that golf is the best way to relax. I tried golf once.
Chasing that little ball around the course drove me nuts. I did alright
for a beginner (or so I was told), but the game itself held no allure for
me. I guess it just wasn't my cup of meat (don't be afraid to show your
age by emailing me to say you know what song that phrase came from, by
the way). My apologies to those of you who abstain from ingesting animal
flesh for the turn of phrase, but I don't believe that we fought our way
to the top of the food chain to become vegetarians, so just deal with it.
<grin>
Anyway, with the quickly approaching arrival of a new production machine
at work, and the just-as-quickly-approaching job of interfacing it with a
computer (a PC, unfortunately), it seems that I'm only going to get
busier over the next few months. I just over-saw the installation of the
new electrical lines and the necessary fail-safes such, so all I need now
is the machinery itself. It's not due to arrive for another two weeks,
but I'll have to use that time to get ahead of the production
requirements we'll have while the machine is being installed and modified
to our specifications. If this sounds like fun... I must have worded it
incorrectly. <grin>
Well, let's get on with the reason for this column: All the news, hints,
tips, and info available about our favorite machines...
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
Odd Skancke tells us:
"The StringServer is now available in a "Public Beta" version at Lonny
Pursell's download area, Check it out!!"
Terry May tells Odd:
"I did [check it out], but unless I'm missing something, it offers
nothing more than what John Eidsvoog's oldie but goodie Applier does. And
Applier doesn't have to be in memory, and multitasking makes no
difference. I'm not knocking you or your program. I'm just wondering if
maybe I'm missing something.
For those that want to check out Applier, it can be found at my web site:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/9449/"
Pascal Ricard tells Odd:
"Very good ! By the way, what software support your server at the moment,
except for your text viewer and FireNews (If I recall, it does)?"
And then, Pascal tells Terry:
"StringServer allow you to click on a string and pass this string to the
server to launch an application. The application have to support this
protocol. Could be interesting to have this feature in Okami."
Terry tells Pascal:
"I guess the difference between it and Applier is that Applier only works
by acting as an installed application, whereas StringServer can take
strings from within programs. But as you said, it doesn't do you any good
if the application doesn't support it."
Mario Becroft asks:
"So just what does the stringserver do?"
Odd replies:
"I think that FireNews supports it. I've not tested FireNews yet, so I
can't tell. AtarIrc supports it and a program called Farmer. Farmer is a
TosWin "clone", which is used to run TOS programs in windows under MiNT.
I hope more programs will support this, since it's very easy to do. Read
the SUPPORT.TXT in the archive to find out how.
Well, there are some nice uses for it other than the "String-serving"
feature. I've installed it as a viewer for all programs in Thing, so that
when a file is opened in thing, it gets sent to the stringserver. This
allows me to sent the file to different applicationds depending on the
keyboard status (shift, control, alt). Like, when I click on a .s file,
it goes to a viewer (textview, for example). With shift held down, it
goes to QED, and with control held down, GenST.ttp does its work. Same
with picture files. If I want to view the picture, I just click on it. If
I want to process the picture, I hold shift down, and then some big heavy
image processor is loaded. I hope that more programs will be supporting
this, since supporting it is very easy for programmers to do.
Our old friend Rob Mahlert posts:
"I remember seeing a message on a web page to e-mail ICQ. So they would
release the rights so an Atari user could write an ICQ program for the
TOS. What was the "official" response from ICQ? There are other programs
like ICQ out, has anyone tried to get the rights for one of them?"
Chris Good tells Rob:
"There wasn't any reply as far as I know. I think ICQ is being developed
for MINT/LINUX users."
Pascal Nowak tells Rob:
"The official answer by mirabilis was no! I've just started to make a GEM
ICQ clone for STING & MiNTnet."
Jeff Jewell asks for help with his ST's AUTO folder:
"I don't remember my STs as well as I thought... After getting back from
WOA '98, I tried to install some new stuff in my auto folder on my C:\
drive. The computer boots, gets to two bombs, and I end up looking at a
desktop with a mouse that moves but can't click on anything. I think I
just need to get the ST to bypass the AUTO folder, but I can't remember
how to do that, and I couldn't put my hands on the right manual... Any
quick help for a guy who should have known better?"
Tom Carman tells Jeff:
"If you are using TOS 2.06 or higher, after the Atari logo appears (which
is almost immediately) press and hold the Control key. This should allow
the computer to boot from the hard drive but bypass the AUTO folder. I
can't remember if this works on earlier versions of TOS, but I believe
so."
Paul Nurminen posts this about NEWSie:
"I just noticed that despite having all LOGging functions of NEWSie
de-activated in version .92, NEWSie will still (occasionally) create a
LOG file in my WORK directory. After seeing this, I ran Diamond Edge to
check for lost clusters etc, but none appeared. I do however, remember
NEWSie version .88 also creating this LOG file from time to time (even
with LOGging de- activated), and when I ran Diamond Back III for a
routine backup of that partition, the program couldn't copy that LOG file
- as if there was something wrong with the file itself. It was deletable
though. But so far, with version .92 of NEWSie, I haven't experienced any
lost clusters or other HD errors. And my STinG (.STX) files haven't
become corrupted yet. And the correct article number appears to be saved
when downloading newsgroups for offline reading. I also haven't
experienced any lockup of NEWSie after reading e-mail or newsgroup
articles. But then I always "disconnect from server" and quit the program
(and re-run it) before trying to read any newsgroup articles that were
downloaded for OFFLINE reading. For the record, I'm running NEWSie .92 on
a Falcon030 (standard with 14megs RAM under MagiC 5.11)."
John Rojewski tells Paul:
"Yes, turning off the LOG options does not stop the creation of a LOG
file, or writing to it. You should not have LOST Clusters on a normal
basis. When NEWSie quits, it closes the LOG file and everything should be
fine. When NEWSie bombs, or when your system locks up while NEWSie is
running, the LOG file is not correctly closed, and some LOG records are
not written to disk. LOST CLUSTERS means: allocated, by not found in any
FAT entry. This can happen with buffered files, typically used in C
programs, when there is some problem closing the file. If you attempt to
copy the LOG file while NEWSie is running, there could be some problems
with software not being able to copy a currently open file. (i.e. there
is no 'end-of-file', the file is still being created.)"
Paul also posts this about WDialog:
"Well, I remember right after I got the commercial version of CAB from
Systems For Tomorrow (version 2.5) I installed WDIALOG so that I would be
able to use GEMjing, since at the time, I hadn't yet started using MagiC
- I was still running TOS 4.04 on my Falcon. Anyway, WDIALOG made all the
CAB 2.5 icons look like the icons from the early version of CAB (1.5). As
a result, I thought my 2.5 had somehow reverted back to some sort of demo
version or something. That is, until I found a little blurb in the CAB
manual about older versions of WDIALOG causing this problem with CAB.
But, regardless of which version of WDIALOG I use now, it still does this
to the CAB 2.5 icons. But, since I started using MagiC 5, I haven't even
loaded WDIALOG, and I don't feel I'm missing anything. As far as what
WDIALOG actually does, I've never been 100% clear on that either. I know
it's supposed to allow more customization of printer drivers, and adds
some other system extensions to TOS, but other than that, your guess is
as good as mine."
Michael Clemmetsen tells Paul:
"I'd like to add my name to the list of those who are confused about
Wdialog. I've seen posts here which indicate that you still need WDialog
even if you have Magic installed. Is this true? I thought Wdialog simply
provided MagiC-compatible AES-extensions to those OSes that did not have
them."
Now Paul asks about MagiC:
"I just had something rather bizarre happen with MagiC 5 and my boot
(C:\) partition... I don't recall doing anything unusual, but after a
re-boot, everything seemed to be loading in the normal way, but right
_before_ MagiC finished loading MAGXDESK, the file selector popped up, in
the C:\GEMSYS\GEMDESK directory, asking which program I wanted to run
(?!). And if I hit CANCEL, the file selector would just continue to
prompt me for a file to run. If I hit OK, the same thing would happen. If
I selected a program, then hit OK, depending on the program, I would
either get an error message (ie. program exception error - which is
equivalent to 2 bombs in TOS), or the file selector would just come up
again.
Despite turning everything off for several minutes and cold-booting, the
same thing kept happening. So, I re-copied my C:\ partition from a (very)
recent backup, and re-booted - however, the same thing happened again!!!
At this point, I was starting to worry a bit, to say the least!!! So, I
wiped my C:\ partition (an activity that doesn't exactly make one feel
comfortable!), and re-copied it from an older backup. And when I
re-booted, everything worked ok... <wheeeeeeeeeew!>
What the $%@^# is going on here?!?!?! No programs crashed prior to this
strange behavior, and there were no problems with the hard drive
partition. There were no new AUTO programs or ACC installed either. I
changed NOTHING before this happened. I'm running MagiC 5.11 on a 14meg
"standard" Falcon030."
Pascal Ricard tells Paul:
"It looks like there was something wrong with your desktop. For example,
if I rename magxdesk.app to apx the file selector will be prompted."
Roger Cain tells Paul:
"I've had this. Forget how it all came about but the problem will be that
Magic does not know what to run after initialising. Check your MAGX.INF
is readable and make sure that the path to the desktop is not corrupted.
If you want to re-install anything then try all the MAGXDESK components.
You could try selecting MAGXDESK.APP if it gives you the file selector
again as this (or Thing or Jinnee) is the sort of program it's looking
for."
Paul tells Pascal and Roger:
"Before I recopied the whole C:\ partition from a backup, I of course,
first tried selecting and running MAGXDESK.APP, but that didn't work (it
gave me an error message). Then, I tried copying all the MagiC-related
stuff, including the entire GEMSYS, GEMDESK, and MAGIC directories and
all included files, as well as MAGX.INF from a recent backup. This didn't
solve the problem either as the file selector still came up at the end of
the bootup cycle. I then copied (from a backup) my AUTO folder and ACCs.
Problem still there. So, I recopied (from a backup) the entire C:\
partition. Problem still there. That's when I went to a slightly earlier
backup of C:\, and it finally worked. So whatever corrupted the original
MagiC file(s) was also in the most recent backup. Anyway, all is well
now, and I'm certainly glad I had a second backup! :~) And if this should
happen again, at least now I'm a little more "informed" about what's
going on..."
The old SwampDog himself, Guy Harrison, tells Paul:
"MagiC can't load application id zero (ie the desktop application). It is
prompting you to select one (although other apps might run). I use Ease.
If something happens to corrupt one of its critical files Ease will die
leaving MagiC no choice but to bring up this file selector. When this
happens to me I simply point it at the original MagxDesk program and use
that temporarily while I locate the corruption and fix it."
Joshua Kaijankoski tells us:
"I desperately need some sort of graphics card for my TT that is
compatible with Magic and most applications. Could somebody please sell
me one or give me some info on where to get one. I'd appreciate it a
lot."
Brian Becroft tells Joshua:
"This is NOT an official announcement, but I want you to know that Mario
is now in the circuit design stage of making a graphics card/accelerator
which will work on the TT030. It will be made initially to work on the
ST/STE with the idea of bringing the machine into the 'modern world' so
to speak. You will then be able to plug a SVGA monitor into it and use
the internet and have decent graphics. With the new CPU it will be faster
than the TT030 also. TT030 owners will get more than the usual 16 colors
for a change - and the full screen being used for a change!! Not to
mention photographic quality graphics... CPU upgrade to boot... So if you
can wait or spread the word to other TT030 etc owners we would like to
know how many would buy this upgrade and how much you would pay. I mean,
if you want to pay, I'm sure Mario will upgrade the CPU to a 68060 if you
want. I can't wait for him to finish it!
Other serious suggestions are welcome. I'm using his PC mouse adapter and
I'm most impressed. Especially using the Genius Net Mouse with the double
click and left-click-and-hold on the middle rocker-button. I didn't
realize how it makes the computer easy to use, you don't realize it 'til
you try it!"
Well folks, that's about it for this week. Tune in again next time around
and always be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
EDITORIAL QUICKIES
Wyatt Earp
It's 1880, the decade of gunslingers and gentlemen. This is a story of one
such young man that wanted more than anything to be the fastest and most
respected gunslinger in the west.
The place was Dodge City, Kansas in the Sawdust Saloon. The young man
walked
into the Sawdust Saloon and, to his surprise, saw Bat Masterson sitting at
a
table playing poker. The young man walked up to Bat and said, "Mr.
Masterson,
I would like to be a gunslinger just like you. Could you give me some
tips?"
Bat Masterson put his cards down, looked up at the boy and said, "Son, I
don't
usually give out tips like this cause it could someday be detrimental to
my
health, but step back and let me take a look at you."
The boy stepped back and Mr. Masterson said, "You look good. You're
wearing
black, you've got two ivory handled guns with waxed holsters, and you look
like
a gunslinger. But what's more important, son, is: Can you shoot?"
The young man, happy to show how good he was, quickly drew his pistol from
his
right holster and without aiming shot the cuff link off of the piano
player's
right sleeve.
Bat Masterson said, "That's good shooting son, but can you shoot with your
left
hand?"
Before Masterson could even finish, the boy had already drawn the pistol
from
his left holster and shot the cuff link off of the piano player's left
shirt
sleeve. Very proud of himself the young man blew the smoke away from his
six
shooter and holstered his gun. "How was that?" the boy asked Masterson.
Bat Masterson smiled and looked up and the boy and said, "That was pretty
good
shooting son. I couldn't do better than that myself, but I do have one
good
tip for you."
"What's that?" the boy asked.
"I suggest that you go to the kitchen and ask the cook for a large can of
lard.
Then take both guns of yours and stick them down deep in the lard."
Puzzled the young gunslinger asked Masterson why he should do that.
Masterson put his cards down again, leaned back in his chair, and said,
"Well
son, when Mr. Earp gets done playing the piano over there, he's going to
take
those two guns of yours and. . . "
The boy didn't wait for the rest of the answer.
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