SILICON TIMES REPORT ==================== INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ============================= from STR Electronic Publishing Inc. January 28, 1994 No. 1005 ====================================================================== Silicon Times Report International Online Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano Publisher-Editor ----------------------------------------- Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM-4 PM EST STR Publishing Support BBS Network System * THE BOUNTY BBS * FIDO 1:112/35 ~ ITCNet 85:881/253 ~ FNET 350 ~ Nest 90:21/350 904-786-4176 USR/HST 24hrs-7 days 2400 -38.4 bps V.32-42 bis 16.8 Dual Standard FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM-6 AM EST ----------------------------------------- Fido 1:112/35 The Bounty STR Support Central 1-904-786-4176 FNET. 620 : Leif's World ................1-904-573-0734 FNET. 690 : PASTE BBS....................1-206-284-8493 FNET. 489 : Steal Your Face BBS..........1-908-920-7981 MNET - Toad Hall BBS.....................1-617-567-8642 ______________________________________________________________________ > 01/28/94 STR 1005 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!" """"""""""""""""" - CPU INDUSTRY REPORT - LEXICOR NEWS! - WINCIM VISITED! - Snoopy, A Review - MAC Mail Order - SPIN DOCTOR - ALDUS NEWS! - SHOCKER 2 - The Old Fishin' Hole -* WORD PERFECT LAYS OFF 1000! *- -* EB SNUBBING MAC PRODUCTS? *- -* CHICAGO DUE MID-YEAR *- -* MCAFEE GOES PUBLIC!! *- ====================================================================== STReport International Online Magazine The Original * Independent * Online Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ====================================================================== STReport's BBS - The Bounty BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the Fido/PROWL/ITC/USENET/NEST/F-Net Mail Networks. You may also call The Bounty BBS direct @ 904-786-4176. Enjoy the wonder and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to computers, worldwide, through the use of excellent International Networking Systems. SysOps, worldwide, are welcome to join the STReport International Conferences. The Fido Node is 1:112/35, ITC Node is 85:881/253 Crossnet Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is #620. All computer platforms BBS systems are welcome and invited to participate. ====================================================================== CIS ~ AOL ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ PROWL ~ ITC ~ NEST ~ EURONET USENET ~ CIX ~ CLEVELAND FREE-NET ~ INTERNET ~ FNET ~ GENIE ====================================================================== COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; STREPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! "Enjoy CompuServe's forums; where information is at its very best! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" Incredibly, one has only to read a little bit in any direction on the lesser platforms to hear the most absurd of arguments. "I manage a 200 computer network of PCs and MACs...(this makes this person an "authority" ...NOT!) and I'll tell you...." this guy goes on trying to sound like an authority by badmouthing everything but the computer he and his wife have networked together at home. Blah, blah blah. The real computing world is PCs and MACs. Currently all the rest, unfortunately, are losing also-rans. In one breath of sanity one person make real sense, he said in so many words, "if your preference is such a great computer, why isn't the world using it instead of PCs and MACs? There you have the whole thing in one simple but very eloquent statement. The shame of it is... these "pro this and pro that" outspoken types are really leading the lesser informed astray, sooner or later those being lead astray are going to wake up. Then... the fun'll really begin. Speak of "Pied Pipers" from the dark side! They'll never wake up. Word Perfect has recently undergone an enlightening exercise in the "conservation of resources". Some of you may recall this expression being used in the not too distant past. Hmmm, seem they've cut most of the "fat" away from their operation. The information is in this week's issue. The "800" numbers are soon becoming another dinosaur in the computing community... Apparently, the "cute" abusers are becoming far too plentiful. Most all the online services are either busy trying to put front end navigators in place or already have them in place and are very busy upgrading and enhancing them. These navigators are capable of saving the user a considerable amount of money if used properly. Compuserve has theirs in place for both DOS and Windows its called CIM and WinCIM. Its quite powerful and fairly easy to use. Be sure to check out the article about this fine front end in this week's issue. Ralph... """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""" Publisher -Editor """""""""""""""""" Ralph F. Mariano Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors """"""""""""""" PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION ---------- ------------- ----------- ------------- R.D. Stevens R. Glover R. Noak D. P. Jacobson STReport Staff Editors: """"""""""""""""""""""" Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur John Deegan Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms Frank Sereno John Duckworth Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Guillaume Brasseur Melanie Bell John Donohue Contributing Correspondents: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Tim Holt Norman Boucher Harry Steele Clemens Chin Neil Bradley Eric Jerue Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing James Nolan Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia Glenwood Drake IMPORTANT NOTICE """""""""""""""" Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve................... 70007,4454 America Online..................STReport Delphi......................... RMARIANO BIX............................ RMARIANO FIDONET........................ 1:112/35 FNET........................... NODE 350 ITC NET...................... 85:881/253 NEST........................ 90:21/350.0 GEnie......................... ST-REPORT Internet.............RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IBM/POWER-PC/PC SECTION (I) =========================== > WP CORP. LAY-OFF! STR Spotlight 1,025 to "Hit the Bricks"! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WORDPERFECT CORPORATION RESTRUCTURES OPERATIONS =============================================== OREM, Utah, Jan. 24, 1994 WordPerfect Corporation announced today that it is restructuring its operations to adapt to changing market conditions in the software industry. The reorganization will result in a reduction in force of 1,025 employees or 17% of the company's worldwide workforce. "Because of the intensely competitive nature of our industry and rapidly declining software prices, we must continually monitor the effectiveness of our internal organization," said Ad Rietveld, president and chief executive officer of WordPerfect Corporation. "This reduction in workforce is a painful process for us, but a step we can't avoid if we are to maintain long-term competitiveness." Employees at WordPerfect's Utah County headquarters who receive lay-off notification will continue to receive full salary and benefits for 60 days, and will also have access to career counseling, placement services and a full-service career resource center. The company is offering support for employees who will remain with WordPerfect Corporation as well. "Employees will always be our greatest asset and we are deeply committed to providing them with a stimulating and rewarding work environment," said John Lewis, executive vice president of WordPerfect Corporation. As part of its restructuring, WordPerfect Corporation is consolidating related workgroups; reducing the core in-house manufacturing services; shifting the localization of some international language versions to outside contractors; and outsourcing many other functions that were previously performed in-house. "Maintaining efficiency is an ongoing process," said Lewis. "We will continue to review the effectiveness of our organization in light of the dynamic industry where we work." _________________________________________________ > SNOOPY! STR Review """""""""""""""""" Kids' Computing Corner ====================== SNOOPY! by Frank Sereno In my review of the Club Kidsoft magazine and CD-rom package, I reported that the subscription price was $19.95 but the actual price is $12.95. You can reach Kidsoft at 1-800-354-6150 to order a subscription to the magazine or to order software. This week I made a purchase from Kidsoft by downloading a product from the CD-rom. Your first step should be to run the Club Kidsoft program, then click on "Catalog" on the main screen. In the catalog section, you may browse the titles or you may go directly to purchase software area. If you have not made a purchase from the current CD-rom, you will be shown a screen with the 800 telephone number to call so you can register your disc. You cannot download any software without registering the disc first. The sales person will ask for your name, address and credit card info and then give you the registration code. Once the code is entered properly, the Kidsoft program will go to the buying screen. At the top of the screen is a daily password which you must give to the Kidsoft representative. In a box you will see a list of the downloadable software on the CD-rom. Click on the title you wish to purchase and then say the title to the Kidsoft representative. At this point, the representative told me that she would call me back with the activation code. This procedure required about 10 minutes but the time will vary according to demand at Kidsoft. Upon entering the code, the software was transferred to my hard drive in very rapid fashion. In a week or so, Kidsoft will ship the printed manuals for the product. All in all, the procedure was quite simple. The Kidsoft representative was very friendly and helpful. If you enjoy the convenience of shopping at home, Club Kidsoft is the best way to go to purchasechildren's software. This week I wish to review the first of two educational programs based on the Peanuts comic strip of Charles Schulz. Both programs are intended for pre-schooler through early elementary grade students. The first to be available on the market is Snoopy's Game Club from Accolade Software. The second program is Image Smith's Yearn2Learn Peanuts. Program requirements for Snoopy's Game Club are an IBM compatible computer with a least a 286 cpu, 640k of ram, 4 free megs of hard drive space, an EGA or better display and a mouse. Sound blaster and compatible sound cards are supported but not necessary to run the program. Snoopy's Game Club consists of three learning games with many options and difficulty levels. The first game is Charlie Brown's Picture Pairs, a matching game in which the child clicks on picture tiles to reveal different pictures beneath. Finding a match will cause those tiles to dissolve to various sound effects and partially reveal a scene. Once all the tiles are matched, the scene will be animated. Options allow matching 8, 18 or 36 tiles. The child may choose to match letters of the alphabet and the letters are pronounced when revealed. One or two players can play, competing for the most matches. This game is good for increasing concentration and memory skills. The second game is Snoopy's Animated Puzzles. Nine different animations can be turned into puzzles with as few as 4 and as many as 64 rectangular pieces. The child simply clicks the mouse on one piece, then clicks on a second piece and the pieces will trade locations. The child swaps pieces around the puzzle until all the pieces are in the correct place. A counter keeps track of the number of moves the child makes to complete the puzzle. Two players can compete by trying to do the same puzzle in the least amount of moves. This game is intended for improving concentration and problem-solving skills. The final game is Woodstock's Look-Alikes. Intended to enhance observation skills, the child must find the pair of exact matches from a number of objects in the shortest possible time. Each round becomes more difficult as more items are added and the differences between the items becomes more minute. Play can start with 6, 12 or 18 items. If 18 is chosen, all levels with have 18 items. One or two players can play and can compete for the shortest time to find the matches. The graphics in this program are very true to the Peanuts comics. The sounds and music used are interesting, lively and clear. All three games are well-done but my children do not seem to enjoy the Animated Puzzles. Maybe they will like it more at a later age (my oldest is only 5). For puzzles, they prefer the jigsaw type made from wood or paper that are interlocking in design. Also included with the software are 4 crayons and a free membership in the Accolade Kids Club. The Kids Club sends occasional mailings to your child and also puts your address on numerous mailing lists for children's products around the nation. The flaws I find in this package are the lack of audible encouragement for correct answers and audible explanations of the icons or directions for the games. While the program does display text encouragement for correct answers, this program is intended for pre-readers. If an older person is not helping them, they will never get the intended encouragement. Contrast this with Sierra's Alphabet Blocks in which players are constantly vocally encouraged by exclamations of "Way to go!" and other phrases upon correct answers. Many new edutainment titles also include audibile help to describe game play and options. In defense of Accolade, Snoopy's Game Club was published before audible encouragement and help became the norm in children's software and it also takes up much less space on the hard drive. This is a good software package and I recommend it as long as an adult is willing to give vocal encouragement to the child while he works with the software. If you have a comment or suggestion, please feel free to send e-mail to me at the following addresses: Fidonet: Frank Sereno 1:2235/10 Internet: frank.sereno@utibbs.chigate.org Or if you wish to use letter and pen, snail mail can be addressed to: Frank Sereno 528 West Ave. Morris, IL 60450 Submissions for review will be accepted. Shareware authors are welcome to submit programs too. Readers are invited to suggest software titles to review or to make inquiries about different programs. Your feedback is important because I am here to serve YOU. Thanks for reading! __________________________________________ > WINCIM 1.1 STR FOCUS! A REAL FRONT END that WORKS! """"""""""""""""""""" TAKING A LOOK AT WINCIM! ======================== Part I Compuserve has a winner here! * GENERAL: WinCIM now supports resumable downloads. Sounds can now be associated with various WinCIM events (starting WinCIM, mail messages waiting, new forum messages, etc...). The sounds can be associated via sound module of the Windows Control Panel. A stock "Portfolio" option is now available under the Services pull-down menu. The Portfolio option enables you to create and maintain a record of your stock purchases and produce a report analyzing their market performance. "Basic" and "Extended" service notifications are now displayed above the connect time clock on the main WinCIM ribbon. WinCIM now honors the "Run Minimized" setting of the Windows Program Manager. This setting is useful when running WinCIM in the Windows "Startup" group. The CompuServe Directory has been moved from the WinCIM to directory to the CSERVE (top level) directory. Various printing problems were addressed in this version of WinCIM. * SESSION SETTINGS: The INT14 connector has been added to the WinCIM Session settings dialog box (for use with LANs and modem pools). The password field can now be updated in all sets of the session settings. If a change is made to the password field all sets of session settings that match the same ID number will be updated with the new password. Named session settings can now be deleted from the session settings dialog. * FORUMS: The subjects and section of forum messages can now be changed in the Reply message window. This should be used when message threads wander off of their original topic. The message/threads counts in the forum message "browse" window have been switched. The new order is "topics" and then "number of messages". WinCIM will now display the size, date, and time of the messages listed in the Map window. * MAIL: WinCIM will now detail any problems reported with the address of mail messages (ie. bad addresses) when using "Send All" from the out-basket dialog. The Create Mail dialog has been changed to support a new type of mail object. Mail messages can now be sent as "Reformattable" or as "Send as shown." The "Reformattable" option will send the message so that it will be reformatted to the receivers' screen size. The "Send as Shown" option will cause the message to be sent exactly as it appears (maintaining any column data that may be present). WinCIM now gives the sender of mail messages the ability to specify how the charges for the message will be billed. The charges for the message can be paid for by the sender, by the receiver, or they can be split between the sender and receiver. A preference has been added to the Mail preferences dialog that specifies how "Postage Due" messages will be handled when using WinCIM's "Send/Receive All Mail" functionality. WinCIM can be instructed to always retrieve, not to retrieve, or to delete without retrieving any mail message that is marked as "postage due". * FILING CABINET: A "File It" button is now located on article windows. This button allows articles to be saved directly to the WinCIM filing cabinet. WinCIM will now "remember" (and position itself to) the last filing cabinet folder that was used when filing items. The cursor is now be changed to an hour-glass when deleting items from the filing cabinet. The mail and forum message Auto-File option can now be turned on and off on a per-message basis. The Auto-File option on in the mail preferences dialog determine the default state of this option when new messages are created. There can now be different Auto-File folders for mail and forum messages. The names of these folders can be specified via the mail and forum preferences. The mail and forum message Auto-File option can now be turned on and off on a per-message basis. The Auto-File option on the mail and forum preferences dialog determines the default state of this option when new messages are created. * PREFERENCES: The WinCIM ribbon can now be customized. This functionality is located under the "Ribbon" choice on the "Preferences" pull-down menu. Labels can now be added to the ten WinCIM function keys (that appear when in terminal emulation). This can be done via the "General Preferences" dialog. The order of the Favorites Places list can now be sorted alphabetically, by accesses, or by the order in which they were entered. The method of sorting can be selected via the General Preferences dialog. A "Defaults" button has been added to the fonts dialog. This button allows the fonts to be reset to WinCIM's default font settings. System requirements: "What do I need to run Windows CIM?" An IBM or compatible personal Computer . An 80286 processor (or higher) and 640K of conventional memory plus 256K of extended memory (an 80386SX or higher processor and at least 2MB memory is recommended) . IBM EGA or higher resolution monitor compatiblewith Microsoft Windows graphic environment . A Serial Port/Hayes-compatible modem . Microsoft Windows Version 3.0 or higher (Version 3.1 or higher is recommended) . One hard disk (with 4MB available) and one high density floppy drive . A Mouse (or other pointing device) that is compatible with Windows NB It is strongly recommended that you run Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced Mode. "I just upgraded to version 1.1 and now I can't use the CompuiServe Directory? Some members have reported that they are unable to access the CompuServe Directory by using it's option on the WinCIM Help Menu after upgrading to 1.1. If this is happening to you use File Manager to move the file ALMANAC.HLP from your \CSERVE\WINCIM directory into your \CSERVE directory. "I was online using v1.1 and suddenly the ribbon bar disappeared. What do I do now?" The initial release of WinCIM 1.1 has a problem with some video drivers that causes it to lose the top half of the toolbar in certain situations. The buttons will redraw if you minimize WinCIM and then open it back up, and they still work normally if you click in the area that is missing. The only solution currently is to try using a generic Microsoft video driver, although this will not help in all cases. Since all the toolbar functions are duplicates of menu functions, you can actually perform any of the toolbar functions by choosing options on the pulldown menus. We are working on a fix for this problem and one will be made available as soon as possible. "I tried to GO FEEDBACK and WinCIM 1.1 locked up on me!" WinCIM 1.1 currently cannot access the Feedback area using the normal graphical (HMI) interface. We are working on the problem and a fix will be made available as soon as possible. In the meantime it is still possible to reach Feedback through the text-based ascii interface. Just GO ASCII, then GO FEEDBACK. When you are finished with Feedback just type GO HMI to get back to the graphical interface. "I've heard that WinCIM supports sound events now. How do I make it work?" WinCIM version 1.1 supports sounds that can be associated with various events. The installation program automatically installs the necessary sound references into the WIN.INI file, but they are listed again below for your convenience. If you did not initially install sound support when you installed WinCIM 1.1 you can do so by adding the sound references below to the [Sounds] section of your WIN.INI file. You then open the Windows Control Panel Sound module and associate the sound events (that show in the left window) with the wave files (that show in the right window). [Sounds] WinCIM Forum Conf=,WinCIM Forum Conference WinCIM ENS Notice=,WinCIM ENS Notice WinCIM Enter ENS=,WinCIM Enter News WinCIM Enter Forum=,WinCIM Enter Forum WinCIM Forum Messages=,WinCIM Forum Messages WinCIM Forum Notice=,WinCIM Forum Notice WinCIM Get New Mail=,WinCIM Get New Mail WinCIM Host Disconnect=,WinCIM Disconnect WinCIM Leave CB=,WinCIM Leave CB WinCIM Leave ENS=,WinCIM Leave News WinCIM Leave Forum=,WinCIM Leave Forum WinCIM Exit=,WinCIM Exit WinCIM Start=,WinCIM Start WinCIM Bulk Retrieve=,WinCIM Bulk Retrieve WinCIM Inactive Talk=,WinCIM Inactive Talk WinCIM Invitation=,WinCIM Invitation WinCIM Async Message=,WinCIM Async Message WinCIM Enter CB=,WinCIM Enter CB WinCIM Wait Message=,WinCIM Wait WinCIM What's New=,WinCIM What's New WinCIM Terminate HMI=, WinCIM Terminate Are you using a PC Speaker driver for your sound? If so, go to the Drivers section of the Windows Control Panel. Select the PC Speaker driver, click the Setup button, and make sure that "Enable System Interrupts" is checked. If it's not checked, your PC devotes all necessary resources to playing the sound as cleanly as possible - to the point that it ignores comm port activity. If you have the box checked, your sound quality suffers somewhat, but WinCIM should have priority and be able to stay connected without timeouts or GPFs. Or you might want to download the speaker driver replacement SPEAKR.ZIP from the Member Uploads library section, since it doesn't disable interrupts. Below are the supported sound events and the WAV files that correspond to them: Sound Event FILENAME Message Text Async Message WCASYN.WAV (tone, quiet) Bulk Retrieve Complete WCRETDON.WAV All Done CompuServe Disconnect WCHSTDIS.WAV Remote has disconnected Conference in Progress WCFORCON.WAV There is a conf. in progress Enter CB WCENTCB.WAV Welcome to CB Enter ENS WCENTENS.WAV You are entering the News Service Enter Forum WCENTFOR.WAV You are now entering a Forum Forum Message Waitng WCFORMES.WAV You have new messages waiting Forum Notice WCNOTICE.WAV There is new information Get New Mail WCGETMAI.WAV You have new mail waiting Group Invitation WCINVITE.WAV You're invited Inactive Talk WCINACT.WAV (ringing) Leave CB WCLVCB.WAV You are leaving the CB simulator Leave ENS WCLVENS.WAV You are leaving the News Service Leave Forum WCLVFOR.WAV You are leaving the Forum Wait Message WCWAIT.WAV (tone, medium) What's New WCWHTNEW.WAV Here's What's New WinCIM Exit WCEXIT.WAV Leaving WinCIM WinCIM Start WCSTART.WAV Welcome to WinCIM WinCIM Terminate WCHSWDIS.WAV You've been idle too long The release version of WinCIM only includes nine of the above sounds because of space limitations. You can get all of the above sounds by downloading the file WCMWAV.EXE from the Support Files library of WinCIM Support Forum. Just place it into your CSERVE\SUPPORT directory and execute it. *** Please note that there are only 20 wave files available, but there are 21 sound events. The event WinCIM ENS Notice does not have it's own wave file. You might use the wave file WCFORMES.WAV which says 'you have new messages waiting' or just associate the sound event to a wave file of your own. "How do a move files from the old CIM directories into WinCIM"? MOVECIM will allow you to use the contents of your old Filing Cabinet, In Basket, and other data under the new CIM directory structure (beginning with CIM 2.1). The new structure will allow CompuServe communications software programs for DOS machines to share common data such as scripts, the modem database, other support files, and the Filing Cabinet. The new directory tree structure looks like this: +-CSERVE-------+-WINCIM +-SUPPORT +-SCRIPTS +-FCABINET-----+-BASKET.OUT | +-BASKET.IN | +-CABINET------+-FOLDER00.001 | +-FOLDER00.002 | +-GENERAL | +-FOLDER00.003 +-DOWNLOAD +-DOSCIM NOTE: It is only necessary to run MOVECIM if you have not already run MOVECIM to update the current directory organization. If you originally installed CIM 2.1 from a floppy disk, MOVECIM should have run automatically. If you are not sure, check the default CIM directory for the presence of a directory called FCABINET. If FCABINET exists, you probably do not need to run MOVECIM. Text Handling "How do I save text when I'm in terminal mode?" When operating under Terminal Emulation (as you always do when accessing a "gateway" service, such as Computer Library, that doesn't run on CIS' computers), you can save the contents of the Capture Buffer by clicking on VIEW MODE at the bottom of the Terminal Emulator screen then choosing SAVE AS from the CIM File Menu. You'll be prompted for the filename to use to save the buffer contents. (You don't need to "open" the buffer becauseit's always open, and retains the number of lines of text you have specified under the "Set Capture Size" selection in Terminal Emulation.) You can also do it the "long way," by displaying the buffer window as described above, marking the text within the window that you want to save, selecting COPY from the Edit pull-down (or by pressing Ctrl+C), opening a New file under the File pull-down, and PASTEing the marked text into this new file (by selecting from the Edit pull-down or pressing-Control+V). This is certainly more work, but allows you to be more selective about what ultimately goes into the disk file (the first method saves the entire contents of the buffer). To save information in a text window while operating under HMI (CIM's "native" windowed mode), pull down the CIM FILE menu while the text window is the active window and select SAVE AS. You'll then be prompted for the name to save the text in. You can also the File menu's PRINT option to print the contents of the window. "How do I clear the Capture Buffer to get rid of menus and things I don't want to save?" Pull down the SPECIAL menu while in TERMINAL EMULATION and select the option to CLEAR BUFFER. "How do I save text when I'm not in windowed mode?" Choosing SAVE AS from CIM's FILE menu while in windowed mode will allow you to save the contents of the currently active window to disk as ASCII text. CompuServe Mail "Why does CIM keep telling me "Invalid address" when I try to send a FAX message? I know that the FAX number is correct." The problem may be that you're using a the Send File option to try to send a message to a FAX machine. The Send File option sends a file, such as a program or word processor document, to another CompuServe member in binary format. Our FAX servers cannot accept files in binary format; FAX messages must be in ASCII (text) format. Hence you must make sure that you have specified that the file is a n ASCII file when using SEND FILE. When creating your file you'll want to make sure that you have saved it as an ASCII text file and that there are "hard" returns at the end of each line. The documentation for your word processing program will tell you how to accomplish this. You may also be using an incorrect format for the address. To send fax messages they should be addressed in the following format: FAX:CountryCode Area/City Code phone number NB Use a country code of "1" for the North American and Caribbean destinations. The ">" symbol that used to be part of external mail addresses is no longer required! "I've created a file using (insert favorite word processor). How do I bring it into a message I'm creating with CIM?" To import an ASCII text file, use the pen File option from the File pull-down menu to display the file. Mark the text you wish to import, by dragging with the mouse. Select COPY from the Edit pull-down. Click on the CLOSE box to close the Windows Notepad. Then use PASTE (also on the Edit pull-down) to paste the text into your message. NB If your word processor does not normally save its files in ASCII text, you'll need to find out how to do so. For example, you cannot import a WordPerfect file saved with the normal Save function in WP. You must first output a copy of the document in text format, using WP's Text functions [Ctrl-F5], and use this copy as the import file. The recipient of a message prepared as described above and sent through Mail will be able to read the message on their screens, or receive it through their FAX machines, Telex machines, etc. depending on how you choose to send it. WinCIM does give you an option to specify whether a file is ASCII or BINARY. This option can be used to send to files to FAX, MCIMAIL, etc... rather than importing them into a message. "How do I send a CongressGram with CIM?" The current version of WinCIM does not support CongressGrams or other "gram" type messages under the windowed Mail interface. You can still use CIM to prepare and/or upload and send these messages, but you'll need to do so by Terminal Emulator while off-line. Simply GO GRAMS and you'll be able to make the appropriate choices from the conventional ASCII interface to CompuServe Mail. "I can't read the Internet Help with CIM" The text of the HELP INTERNET follows: Internet is an electronic mail system connecting governmental institutions, military branches, educational institutions, and commercial companies. There is no surcharge to send or receive messages through Internet. Only ASCII messages up to 50,000 characters can be sent through this system. The service agreement for utilizing Internet is as follows: The Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee requires us to make users aware of the following terms and conditions prior to sending electronic mail via Internet. 1) Not to advertise by means of the Internet. An example of this type of prohibited traffic is a message offering goods or services for sale. 2) Not to solicit by means of the Internet. An example of this type of prohibited traffic is a message offering a job to a user of Internet. CompuServe recommends customers follow these guidelines while utilizing Internet. SENDING MESSAGES FROM COMPUSERVE TO INTERNET USERS To send a message to an Internet address you must use a special addressing format. The format is: INTERNET: recipient address@host.domain For example: INTERNET:Jdoe@abc.michigan-state.edu where "INTERNET:" is required to send your message to the Internet system. "Jdoe" is the valid address used by this recipient on the Internet system. The "@" tells the system that the domain address is following. The "abc.michigan-state.edu" is the domain address. Note: - Only ASCII text messages may be sent to Internet addresses; binary files (such as programs) may not be sent from CompuServe to Internet. - Domain address elements must be separated by periods and the domain must be separated from the recipient's address by the "@" character with no spaces. - The "INTERNET:" is essential. It alerts the CompuServe system that your message is going to a remote mail location. - You can have a space after the "INTERNET:" or have no space. - The correct valid address used by the member on the Internet system is essential. Without the exact address used by the recipient, the message will not be delivered. - The amount of time it takes to deliver an Internet message varies from a half hour to two days. This is a function of Internet and CompuServe is not responsible for this time frame. - Messages sent to some Networks via Internet require a special domain at the end of the address. For example, addresses to mail- boxes on BITNET must include .BITNET as a domain. Example: INTERNET: Harryw@EDUNAB.BITNET Special Note to UK members: If you are familiar with JANET mail addresses, you will notice that the country identifier is at the other end of the string. This is in fact correct - it just looks different from JANET and other UK/European Internet addresses.. Undeliverable messages If your message is undeliverable, it usually will be returned to you along with the text of your message. Whether the message is actually returned to you depends on the remote mail system, but you always will receive notification if your message cannot be delivered. Confirmation/Receipts Requests for receipts will be generated only when the message leaves CompuServe and is transmitted into Internet. Receipts to indicate when the user actually receives the message are not available through Internet. "How do I send an international TELEX message with CIM?" Each country determines its own rate for incoming Telex messages. To determine the exact price for a specific message, you may compose your message and enter the address information. When you choose to send the message, CompuServe Mail will display the exact cost of your message and you will be asked to verify that it should be sent. If you are sending a message to one of the countries listed below, then the country code must preceed the Telex number, like this: TLX: 7891234567 where "789" is the Country Code and "1234567" is the Telex machine number. For country codes and rates for international Telex messages to specific countries, please Go MAILHELP. "What do the different Mail options mean?" Members sending messages from the new Windows CompuServe Information Manager (WinCIM) have the ability to send messages with an expiration date, a notation of priority, and a notation of sensitivity. These capabilities will affect how messages are displayed to ASCII users of CompuServe Mail. Messages from CIM may be denoted as * Important * or * Private *. These designations reflect the sender's assessment of the importance or sensitivity of the message and DO NOT affect how CompuServe Mail handles delivery of the message. ASCII messages are stored in your mailbox for up to 90 days after they have been read. Binary messages are stored for up to 30 days "Why won't CIM hang up the line when I log off?" Try changing the Hangup string in your Modem Control Strings from its default of "H" to "H0"; while "H" is sufficient for most Hayes-compatible modems (and all true Hayes modems), some modems seem to prefer the "H0" syntax. Downloading "When I start to download a file CIM tells me that it's going to take way too long to download it for the baud rate I'm using. Why isn't this timer right?" The original estimated download time displayed is just that -- an estimate. CIM updates this estimate based not just on the time elapsed since the download began, but also on the actual throughput being achieved. If it finds its original estimate was overly pessimistic, it will quickly reduce the estimated time to reflect this. After a significant portion of the file has been trans- ferred, CIM has a pretty good idea of the throughput likely to be achieved for the remainder of the download, so the time indicated starts to decrement at something more like real elapsed time. The throughput, of course, is a function of many things; phone line quality, system and/or network loading, and other things it would be impossible for CIM to predict before the download actually gets under way. The first indicated time is always going to be pessimistic. We'd much rather start out with a worst case assumption and quickly update it based on the real throughput achieved than give you an overly optimistic estimate and have it take longer than estimated as a result of true throughput. For this reason, you should always allow CIM to transfer several blocks before making any assumptions based on the estimated download time display. "How do I tell CIM what sub directory I want to put a file in when I download it?" You can change the path for a file to be downloaded using the path list box on the Download File dialog. Click on the "\.." selection to set the path to the parent of the current directory, or select one of the other paths shown (including any valid drives other than the hard disk). You'll see the path name change as you cursor through the various selections in that window. Press the Enter key when you find the path you want to use. You can set up a permanent directory for all file downloads by specifying the desired directory in CIM's FORUM PREFERENCES. Session settings "WinCIM freezes when I access Session Settings. What do I do now?" The cause of this problem has been identified. A fix should be available shortly. Keep an eye on the forum News Flash announcement for word of it's availability. "My modem is set to COM4 but WinCIM won't let me choose it". There are three possible causes for this. First make sure that you don't have any kind of fax management software running. These programs will often take over the com port so that WinCIM can't access it. Secondly, Windows may not be aware of how your modem is configured. 1) Run Control Panel and select Ports. 2) Double-click on COM4 and select "Advanced Settings". 3) Change the base I/O address to "02E8" (it probably says "default" currently). 4) Do likewise with the IRQ setting. Normally COM4 will be set to IRQ3 If the above doesn't work, try this: Put the following in your SYSTEM.INI under [386enh]: COM3IRQ=-1 ; disables the false COM3 appearing BIOS data area COM4Base=02E8 ; sets correct COM4 address COM4IRQ=3 ; sets correct COM4 IRQ "I typed in a new password in WinCIM and now it tells me 'Invalid User Id or Password' when I try to log on." To replace the current password in CIM, you'll need to remove the current password. To do this, highlight the Password field in your Session Settings; then do a click/drag through the bullets in your PASSWORD box and press your DELETE key. Once the password field is blank, you'll be able to type in a new one. NB This will -not- change your on-line password. If you're wanting to change your password GO PASSWORD and change it on-line first. "I have two Id numbers and want to use CIM to logon with either, how do I tell it which one to use?" Good news! WinCIM will let you create multiple logon settings that you can access via a pick list in SESSION SETTINGS. To do this you should: Go into Session Settings. Make the desired changes. Delete the text showing in the box labeled CONNECTION. Type in a new name for the changed settings. WinCIM will save these changes under the new name without. You'll then be able to pick the desired settings from the CONNECTION pick list. "Why do I keep getting knocked off-line by call waiting?" The disconnection that occurs when you receive an incoming call on a phone line that is equipped with call waiting is a function of your modem, not of the CIM software. When the carrier signal is interrupted by the call waiting "beep," your modem will automatically hang up (as it does under other circumstances when carrier is lost or disrupted). While it is possible, by modifying the modem registers, to extend the period of time your modem will wait for a lost carrier to resume, this is not very reliable and can cause other problems. The best solution is to contact your phone company's business office to see if they offer a feature called Call Waiting Disable. If so, you can dial a sequence of digits immediately before the phone number you're calling that will disable call waiting for the duration of that call; call waiting will automatically be restored when you hang up. The specific code varies by the phone company and the switching equipment they use (as does the availability of such a disable code at all), but, if we assume for the purposes of this discussion that the code in your area is *70 ("star-seven-zero"), you could enter this in the Phone number field in CIM along with the number itself. For example: *70,555-1212 The comma causes your modem to wait 2 seconds for a second dial tone before dialing the number itself. Once you've entered the disable code, anyone who calls you during your call to CompuServe will receive a normal busy signal, rather than interrupting your connection to the Service. NB In some areas of the country, the disable code includes the pound symbol ("#") rather than an asterisk or "star" ("*"). In the current version of CIM, the pound symbol by itself is used to instruct the software to send a "break" sequence to the modem. Thus you cannot just include the pound symbol in the dialing string as you would the star symbol. When you want your modem to actually dial the tone associated with the "#" symbol on your telephone keypad, you must prefix the pound symbol with a caret symbol ("^#"). "I'm logging on through a data network that CIM doesn't support. How can I use it" One way to log on with CIM is to proceed as follows: 1. Set network to direct 2. Set dial to manual 3. Enter terminal emulator; select manual mode 4. Manually type in the dial string for your modem and go through the necessary steps until you get User Id: from CompuServe 5. Pull down the FILE menu and select DISCONNECT 6. Pick a menu item from CIM's basic desktop that will initiate a connection (Get New Mail, Quotes, one of General Services Menus, GO _____ etc.) NB This procedure also works well for modem pools and modems that are not Hayes compatible! You can also create or modify a script to support the network. Check the WinCIM Forum's Support Files Library for the file SCRIPT.DOC. User Contributed scripts can be found in the User Contributed Files Library of WinCIM. "CIM keeps saying "No Protocol" when I try to logon". Follow these steps to correct the problem: Pull down SPECIAL menu. Select Session Settings. Select More. Increase HMI TIMEOUT setting to a higher value. Miscellania "What download protocol does the Information Manager use??? I have noticed that the block size on my system is 512. However, the new QB protocol uses 1024 which I would think is faster?" WinCIM uses CompuServe B+ protocol (a newer variant of B protocol than QB) for all data exchanged with the host under HMI, including messages, menus and files. The packet size is 512 characters, but B+ incorporates data compression and hence is typically as fast or faster than Quick B. The smaller packet size has been found to provide better performance overall with CIM, in part because much of the information exchanged with the host consists of small "pieces" of information, such as commands or advisories; hence the overhead of a larger packet size would tend to slow things down. "I've tried to view GIF graphics but they don't show all the colors that the description says were used to create the image" The GIF decoder included in WinCIM depends on the graphics drivers you've installed in Windows. If you want to view 256 color GIF images within WinCIM you'll need to install the appropriate driver. This is typically supplied by the manufacturer of your video card. "How do I send a private forum message with CIM?" You can send a private message to a SYSOP by send it to *SYSOP. This means that only the lead SYSOPs in the Forum can read your message. While this does, in effect, make your message private, it also means that the rest of the SYSOP team can't read your message. In general, you're better off leaving messages you want the SYSOPs to see to "SYSOP" (no asterisk), as all SYSOPs can then see them (along with other members). To send privately to a specific SYSOP or Forum member, you'll need to choose the PRIVATE option at the bottom of your CREATE FORUM MESSAGE screen. If you receive a message which was posted by a non-CIM user using the POST PRIVATE command and reply to it, your reply will also be posted privately. Messages posted privately do not include any special notation when read with CIM similar to the (P) indicator that appears when using the conventional interface. "I'm browsing messages and the date on the messages is correct but I can't tell if the times are AM or PM". This is controlled by the Windows Control Panel. You'll want to go into the INTERNATIONAL settings and abbreviate some of the settings. "How do I tell WinCIM to use Int14" The following INI switches add Int14 support for networks using Int14 drivers and should be added to the WINCIM.INI file. [General Preferences] Want-Int14= ON -> enable Int14 support = OFF -> disable Int14 support (default setting) Show-INT14 = ON -> an "Init 14" checkbox will appear in the session settings dialog. You can use different .INI files to customize your various sessions with CompuServe. To do so, you need to tell WinCIM what .INI file to use by passing the filename into WinCIM as a command line argument. You can do this by selecting the WinCIM icon and then choosing "Properties" from the Program Manager "File" pull-down menu. In the "Command Line" field, you can enter something like: C:\CSERVE\WINCIM\WINCIM.EXE NEWSET.INI This would cause WinCIM to use the settings in NEWSET.INI for that session. "How can I set WinCIM up so that several users can use the same copy of the program? If you would like to use multiple session settings files (CIS.INI), you can add the following line under the "[General Preferences]" section of WINCIM.INI: CIS=pathname (where pathname contains the full pathname and filename of the session settings file you want to use). An example of this would be: CIS=C:\TESTING\CIS-NEW.INI When WinCIM is run, it will look at this line and use whatever CompuServe session settings file is defined. You could use this to allow multiple people to use the same copy of WinCIM (on the same machine) - but use different session settings files. "How do I change the size of the terminal emulation window?" You can set the size of the terminal emulation window (if you are using a larger size monitor) by adding the following lines to your WINCIM.INI file under the section called "[Terminal Preferences]": Lines=X (where X is the number of lines you want) Columns=Y (where Y is the number of columns you want) What does the reformat option in Mail do? WinCIM wraps CompuServe Mail messages using the default right margin of 76 characters (if the "Reformat on Send" option is marked for the message). To change this value, you need to add the following line to the "[Mail Preferences]" section of the WinCIM .INI file: Reformat-Right-Margin=X (where X is the character position to wrap the messages at) "How do I play Entertainment Centre Games with WinCIM"? 1. Go into the Control Panel (located in the "Main" program group under Windows 3.1) and select the "386 Enhanced" icon. 2. Under "386 Enhanced" is the heading "Device Contention". Check the box "Never Warn" or "Always Warn" for each COM port. 3. Create program items for each EC game that you plan to use (this can be done from the "File" and "New" options on the main Windows menu). These icons can be placed in any program group, but it is probably the most convenient to just place them in the WinCim group. 4. Start WinCim, go to the ECenter, and either /START, /VIEW, or /PLAY a game. 5. Minimize WinCim and double click on the icon to start the appropriate game. Do >NOT< exit from WinCim. If you selected the "Always Warn" option in step 2, you will see a box warning you of a device contention. Just click on the button to acknowledge the contention, then click on the minimized game icon. If you selected "Never Warn" option, this warning will not appear. 6. When you finish with the game, you will return to the Windows desktop. You should then double click on the minimized WinCIM icon. You will then find yourself back in the lobby. Note that steps 1-3 only need to be done once. Steps 4-6 are the ones that have to be done every time you play a game. The ECenter games can only be played from WinCim if you are running Windows 3.1 in 386 enhanced mode. If you are running Windows 3.0 or if you are running in standard mode (which is required if you have a 286), then the EC games cannot be played from WinCIM. "How do I print GIF Images (wx maps, Trends graphs, etc...)" After displaying the GIF file (either offline, or online), you may want to expand the image to full screen before attempting this procedure, as it gives a larger image to be printed. (Just select EXPAND from the GIF image Window) At this point, hit your PRINTSCREEN key. This will copy the image to the Windows Clipboard for use. You can then open up Windows Paintbrush, and select the EDIT menu, then PASTE. This will then copy the image into the Paintbrush work area. You can then select the FILE menu, then PRINT. This is the easiest method of accomplishing this unless you have a Windows GIF viewer. GO PICS (Graphics Support Forum) for more information on GIF Viewers. ** next week.... add-on goodies from third party developers! ___________________________________________________ > McAfee Goes Public! STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" MCAFEE ASSOCIATES, INC. PLANS INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF 2,100,000 SHARES OF COMMON STOCK SANTA CLARA, CA (AUG. 24) - McAfee Associates Inc. (proposed NASDAQ:MCAF) announced today that on Aug. 20, 1992, it filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering at an estimated price of $13 to $15 per share. Of the 2,100,000 shares to be offered, 1,050,000 are being offered by McAfee Associates and 1,050,000 by selling stockholders. The offer is being made by an underwriting group managed by Robertson, Stephens & Co. and Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. McAfee Associates develops, markets and distributes personal computer software designed for electronic distribution. McAfee Associates' primary product line currently consists of anti-virus software; additionally, the company has recently released its first two general purpose utilities. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. A prospectus relating to these securities may be obtained from Robertson, Stephens & Co., One Embarcadero Center, Suite 3100, San Francisco, CA 94111 415/781-9700, or Alex. Brown & Sons Inc., 135 E. Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21202, 410/727-1700. CONTACT: McAfee Associates Inc., Santa Clara William S. McKiernan, 408/988-3832. _____________________________________________ > ALDUS NEWS! STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""" ALDUS NAMES DIRECTOR OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ================================================ SEATTLE, January 18, 1994 - Aldus Corporation today announced that Katherine James Schuitemaker has been named director of marketing communications. She will oversee all of Aldus' corporate marketing activity including public relations, advertising, strategic planning, creative services, and Aldus Magazine. Schuitemaker, 36, assumes the new position after serving for over a decade with Seattle-based Floathe Johnson Associates, Inc., a leading public relations and advertising agency. At Floathe Johnson, Schuitemaker held several positions including general manager and senior vice president responsible for strategic counsel, profitability, growth, and organizational vitality. Schuitemaker was also managing director for the agency's worldwide Hewlett-Packard account and played a key agency role in the growth of HP's LaserJet brand from a multi-million dollar business to a multi-billion dollar business. Before Floathe Johnson, Schuitemaker was the marketing communications manager for Vivitar Computer Products, Inc., a multi-divisional subsidiary of a worldwide photographic equipment company. At Vivitar, she was responsible for all advertising, public relations, tradeshows, and collateral material. "Katherine brings to Aldus a wealth of experience in strategic planning, public relations, and advertising," said Steve Cullen, vice president of marketing for Aldus Corporation. "Her expertise and creativity will be strong assets to our marketing team and we are excited to have her on board." Schuitemaker will be based at Aldus' worldwide headquarters in Seattle, where she will report to Cullen. Aldus Corporation (NASDAQ:ALDC) creates computer software solutions that help people throughout the world effectively communicate information and ideas. Aldus Corporation 411 First Avenue South Seattle, WA 98104-2871 Tel. (206) 622-5500 Media contact: Kim Bouic (206) 628-2352 Aldus and the Aldus logo are registered trademarks of Aldus Corporation. Other corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of other companies, and are used only for explanation and to the owners' benefit, without intent to infringe. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ___ ___ _____ _______ /___| /___| /_____| /_______/ The Macintosh RoundTable /____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ ________________________ /_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/ /__/|____/|__|________|__/ /__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/____ Managed by SyndiComm /__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/ An Official Forum of the International Computer Users Group *** STReport available in MAC RT *** ASCII TEXT for ALL GEnie users! MAC/APPLE SECTION (II) ====================== Randy Noak, Editor by Randy Noak - Editor They say that, within every dark cloud lies a silver lining. While this may not always be true, I've found it to be true in most cases. Take, for example, a silver lining that I recently found. It's my habit to check into Walden Software every week or so to examine the latest software offerings. This week, I found very little new Mac software and, in fact, very little Mac software at all. I asked the manager what was going on and was informed that Electronic Boutique had taken over the management of all Walden Software stores and they were, incredibly, not as enthusiastic in their support of the Mac as Walden had been. They were cutting back on Mac software! I was shocked. It had been nice having a nearby source of Mac software and books, and I was sorry to see them go. The manager did say that they would monitor the situation and report their customers displeasure to Electronic Boutique. Yeah, I bet that works. As I mentioned there _was_ a silver lining in this dark cloud. Steep discounts on some of the remaining Mac software. I picked up the CD-ROM version of Putt-Putt Joins the Parade for only $9.95 and the latest version of StuffIt Deluxe for only $19.95. Great deals! Now I can only hope that Electronic Boutique will see the error of their ways. I spent 5 hours in various meetings today. Needless to say, I'm pretty burned out. Out of the 5 hours, I figure that only about 30 minutes or so were actually spent in productive work. Since, in my experience, most meetings are like this, I figure that by totally eliminating meetings in every business in the country, America could easily gain enough productivity to completely pay off the National Debt in about a week or two. Three max. Maybe four. At any rate, I'd be interested to hear your experiences with meetings. Are they productive? Any disgusting brown-nosing going on? Do your meetings actually accomplish anything? Write me at the EMail addresses at the end of the column and I'll print the most interesting meeting stories in a future column. This week, Associate Editor Guillaume Brasseur reviews SPIN DOCTOR from Callisto, Apple announces EARNINGS and Apple CEO Michael Spindler recounts his GOALS for 1994. Be sure to read STReport next week. A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT is planned! __________________________________________ > SPIN DOCTOR! STR Review """"""""""""""""""""""" Spin Doctor =========== by Guillaume Brasseur Associate Editor - Games. Spin Doctor is an arcade game that brings back the nostalgia and the thrill of the pinball machine. The object of the game is to guide your white wand around a series of dots to the flashing "goal" as quickly as possible while facing difficulties such as enemy wands (that revolve along the dots that have the same color), bombs, trap doors, acid puddles and more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At the beginning, the player gets to choose among four different levels of skill. These are named "pre-med", "intern", "resident" and "specialist", doctor terms that suit the purpose of the game impeccably. Moving through the levels of skill does not change the level's designs but it does make your wand and everything around it go much faster. The game in itself is composed of 106 nerve wrecking levels that include names such as "syncopation", "deluge", "minefield" and "snake pit". The first levels are designed to get acquainted with the game and then, the difficulty gets much harder with combinations of an ever increasing number of enemies, bombs, slime balls and doors. For example, here is an idea of what awaits you in the level "Minefield". Notice that you have to swing your white wand around the dots until you reach the dot with the star to complete the level, without touching any enemy wands, mines or the bombs that you set off. In the last level, the game expects you to apply all of the skills you have learned throughout the 106 levels to win the game. If you expect to win the game by clicking on level 106 directly, you are in for a real shock. Even though the game looks easy at some moments, you never know what to expect and going into a high level with no basic training is suicide. You also have to remember that perspicacity plays a major role in this game because spending a little time examining your enemy's actions might prove to be a wise decision. In this game the unexpected always shows up. Observation and practice are the only two ways of actually getting to the end of it. This is a fine game. When Callisto Games says that this is one of the most exciting arcade games ever made, they are not kidding! The game's design is definitely a step beyond. The graphics are superb and really help you understand what is going on. For that matter I recommend having a color screen to play this game because some of the game's subtleties might be missed with a gray scale screen. The sound is not a thrilling but it's of no importance to the game. The game has 4 different levels of skill and 106 levels of play to assure its buyers that many hours will be played before actually winning the game and having to buy a new one. This game should be played by people over the age of 10 because it requires a bit more skill and patience than most of the "Nintendo" games on the market now. Furthermore, Callisto Corporation has really made an effort in customer relations. The game disk includes samples of two other Callisto games that are Super Maze Wars and Super Mines which are, like Spin Doctor, achievements in the field of computer games. Callisto also offers support for its players on many on-line companies. You can reach then on "America Online" under CALLISTO1, "Compuserve" under 71302,3374, "AppleLink" under CALLISTO and "Internet" under CALISTO1@AOL. The service is excellent and a representative will usually answer your questions within 24 to 36 hours. If you are not hooked up to an on-line service Callisto also offers telephone support at (508) 655-0707. Spin Doctor is manufactured by Callisto Corporation and can be found in all computer stores that carry games. It requires 256 colors or grays (even though I recommend color), System 6.0.7 or later and 2 to 4 MB of RAM to run properly. It costs around 35 Dollars and is well worth the money. ____________________________________________ > MAC REPORT STR InfoFiles Latest Press Releases! """""""""""""""""""""""" Here are this week's press releases. Apple's EARNING REPORT is interesting and so is Michael Spindler's GOALS for 1994. THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER THE PR NEWSWIRE AT 1:54 PM, PST, JANUARY 20, 1994 Apple USA Announces Two Direct Response Programs CAMPBELL, California--January 20, 1994--Apple USA, a division of Apple Computer, Inc., today announced two new direct response programs designed to offer Apple products to targeted small business customers and users of competing platforms. Driving these two new programs are evolving shopping preferences among certain customer segments and the goal of prospecting new business from current DOS and Windows users. Apple Business Direct Program The Apple Business Direct Program, targeted at small business customers, lets U.S. customers order specific Apple products direct from Apple by using a toll-free 800 number. The Business Direct Program will be promoted through a series of advertisements in selected trade publications, direct mail, and by developing affinity programs with various business associations that reach customer segments previously untapped by Apple. When calling the 800 number, customers are given the option of ordering direct from Apple or benefiting from the value added service offered through a dealer. Customers are also referred to authorized Apple Resellers in a variety of situations, including requests for certain value added sales, and products not available through the program. By investing in the advertising campaigns, Apple makes new customers aware of its products, then gives them an option of where to make the purchase. And because the program concentrates on prospecting for new customers, it does not target the Apple installed base. Products available through Apple Business Direct are solution- oriented bundles targeted toward discrete customer segments. Apple Catalog Reseller Program Apple also announced today that beginning in February, qualifying resellers will be allowed to use catalogs to sell Apple products. All resellers are eligible to apply. Those that participate must meet specific requirements. This will not eliminate the current mail order restriction in the Apple Authorized Dealer Agreement. Apple will amend the agreement for those dealers who meet specific requirements. THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1994 AT 1:38 PM, PST. Apple Computer, Inc. Reports First Fiscal Quarter Results. Unit Shipments and Revenues Hit All-time Highs. CUPERTINO, California--January 20, 1994--Apple Computer, Inc. today announced that revenues for its first fiscal quarter increased by 23 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago--reaching a level of $2.469 billion. Quarterly unit shipments of the Company's flagship Macintosh personal computers were up 40 percent, surpassing the one million unit mark for the first time in the company's history. "Customer demand for Macintosh systems in the last quarter reached an all-time high, and we again gained market share," said Michael Spindler, Apple's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our growth in revenues and shipments came in markets that are important to the future growth of the personal computer industry. In the United States, shipments through our consumer channels more than doubled compared to the same quarter a year ago. Internationally, our shipments in Japan also grew by more than 100 percent, and a recent survey by IDC estimates that our market share in Japan has increased from 8 percent in 1992 to 14 percent in 1993. In the portable computer market, shipments of our PowerBook computers were up strongly, with nearly 200,000 units sold worldwide during the quarter." Net income for the quarter totaled $40.0 million, or $0.34 per share, down from $161.3 million or $1.33 a share in the first fiscal quarter of 1993. The decline in net income was due to a reduction in gross margins as a percentage of net sales. Gross margins for the company were 24.0 percent of net sales in the first quarter of fiscal 1994, down from 40.5 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 1993. The decline in gross margins as a percent of sales was due to competitive pricing pressures in the industry, and Apple's own decision to offer its superior technology to customers at prices at or near competitive offerings. To compensate for lower gross margins, Apple began a major restructuring of the company in July, 1993. As a result of progress the company has made to date, operating expenses for the quarter were reduced to 21.4 percent of net sales, down from 28.5 percent in the first quarter a year ago, and the lowest level as a percentage of net sales in over 10 years. "Moving forward," Spindler said, "our challenge is to continue to grow our unit shipments and revenues while we make further progress in reducing our operating expenses." The company also noted that introduction of the first Macintosh systems based on the PowerPC microprocessor remains on schedule for the first half of calendar 1994. These systems will provide Apple's customers with more powerful Macintosh systems based on the PowerPC 601, the first RISC microprocessor developed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola. More than sixty Macintosh software application companies have publicly committed to shipping new Macintosh with PowerPC versions of their products. Apple is also working closely with more than 200 developers worldwide to move their existing Macintosh 68k applications to PowerPC. During its first fiscal quarter, Apple announced the availability of paging and e-mail services for its Newton family of products. More than 40 applications are expected to be soon available for Newton, and Apple has shipped over 2,000 Newton Developer Toolkits to third party software developers. Licensees for Newton's ground breaking technology include Sharp, Matsushita, Motorola, Siemens and Alcatel. APPLE COMPUTER, INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share amounts) Three Months Ended December 31,1993 December 25, 1992 Net sales $ 2,468,854 $ 2,000,292 Costs and expenses: Cost of sales 1,876,830 1,189,367 Research and development 152,612 160,282 Selling, general and administrative 374,705 409,858 2,404,147 1,759,507 Operating income 64,707 240,785 Interest and other income (expense), net (163) 19,442 Income before income taxes 64,544 260,227 Provision for income taxes 24,526 98,886 Net income $ 40,018 $ 161,341 Earnings per common and common equivalent share $ .34 $ 1.33 Cash dividends paid per common share $ .12 $ .12 Common and common equivalent shares used in the calculations of earnings per share 116,956 121,156 APPLE COMPUTER, INC. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (In thousands) December 31, 1993 December 25, 1992 Assets Current assets: Cash and short-term investments $ 1,122,775 $ 1,445,866 Accounts receivable 1,247,954 1,198,738 Inventories 1,338,637 596,613 Prepaid income taxes 279,198 212,946 Other current assets 219,443 249,160 Total current assets 4,208,007 3,703,323 Net property, plant, and equipment 642,336 639,333 Other assets 192,097 151,953 $ 5,042,440 $ 4,494,609 (In thousands) December 31, 1993 December 25, 1992 Liabilities and Shareholders Equity Current liabilities: Notes payable $ 752,257 $ 191,394 Accounts payable 739,599 467,182 Accrued compensation and benefits 121,344 129,032 Accrued marketing and distribution 154,868 198,572 Accrued restructuring costs 251,539 91,541 Other current liabilities 308,554 460,098 Total current liabilities $ 2,328,161 $ 1,537,819 Deferred income taxes 661,020 673,992 Shareholders equity: Common stock 211,108 262,962 Retained earnings 1,868,660 2,026,513 Other (26,509) (6,677) Total shareholders equity 2,053,259 2,282,798 $ 5,042,440 $ 4,494,609 THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE AT 8:38 AM, EDT, MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1994 Apple To Provide Powerful Solutions for Finding Information on the Internet PALM SPRINGS, California--January 24, 1994--Apple Computer, Inc. announced today at the Demo '94 computer conference its intention to expand its AppleSearch text search and retrieval software beyond local-area networks to help users access and find the information they need on the Internet. AppleSearch is client/server software designed to give Macintosh computer users personalized, easy access to large text and document databases. Combining Apple's traditional ease-of-use with sophisticated search agent technology, Apple expects the enhanced version of AppleSearch to help users find and prioritize relevant information residing on the Internet by providing seamless access to publishing servers, such as Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS). Apple expects its new Internet access capability to be available in AppleSearch by the end of 1994. "Just as the desktop computer came into its own in the 1980s, the Information Highway concept is evidence that a network evolution is poised to dominate the 1990s, giving computer users access to vast amounts of information," said Jim Groff, senior director of LAN Systems for the Apple Business Systems Division. "The challenge will be weeding through the chaos of information on the network to find the files or documents users need most. We intend to continue enhancing AppleSearch as an intelligent assistance solution that finds and organizes that information--no matter where it resides." In addition to expanding AppleSearch capabilities, Apple intends to continue working closely with commercial and university developers to ensure a variety of Internet access solutions are available. As more and more computer users look to the Internet to connect to business and university databases as well as various small networks that are often warehouses of useful information, Apple is looking to provide tools to help users easily navigate through the stockpiles of information available on the Internet. It's Apple's intention to create solutions that will enhance the user's experience and increase productivity while providing seamless access to the Internet from the local-area network. The Internet was originally established as a comprehensive network to allow researchers and scientists to share data and electronic-mail messages. Today, the scope of the Internet has been expanded beyond the research community to include millions of business users, noted Kahle. AppleSearch features Reporters, which are sophisticated search agents that quickly search through documents on the fileserver, regardless of their format, to deliver information users need. Reporters can be assigned to keep users updated as new and relevant information appears on the server. Combining features found on high-end bibliographic full-text retrieval software with Apple's traditional ease-of-use and administration, AppleSearch can also tap into information sources such as server-mounted CD-ROMs, news wire services or other on-line services that feed into the AppleSearch server. The AppleSearch server software incorporates the Callable Personal Librarian (CPL), developed by Personal Library Software, Inc., as its search engine. The Demo 94 computer conference, sponsored by PC Letter, is an annual personal computer industry product and technology showcase. Availability and Pricing: AppleSearch is currently available from authorized resellers and dealers. A Server/Client 5-Pack is available in the U.S. for $1,799 (MSRP) and a Client 10-Pack is US$499 (MSRP). An AppleSearch Client Developer's Kit is priced at US$299 and is available through APDA , Apple's source for developer tools. Pricing outside the U.S. may vary. For more information on AppleSearch, contact the Apple Network Information Line at (408) 862-3385. THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE AT 8:36 AM, EDT ON MONDAY, JANUARY 24,1994 Newton Intelligent Messaging Lease Program Offered By Apple and MobileComm $49.95/month for local service, $69.95/month for nationwide service. PALM SPRINGS, California--January 24, 1994--MobileComm and Apple Computer, Inc. are offering the Newton MessagePad , a Newton Messaging Card and the Apple Wireless Messaging Service delivered by MobileComm at a lease price of $49.95 per month for local coverage, and $69.95 per month for nationwide coverage. This leasing program is designed to make the powerful combination of Newton Intelligence and paging capabilities available to a wide range of people who will benefit from wireless communications. The service can be ordered starting February 1, 1994 by calling 1-800-474-MESG. Upon signing a 24-month lease, customers receive a Newton MessagePad, a Newton Messaging Card, local paging service, and up to 100 text messages, for as little as $49.95 per month in local markets. Using the Nationwide service, paging coverage can be expanded to include 550 major cities across 50 states, as well as the Caribbean, for $69.95 per month. Nationwide service enables customers to receive up to 125 text messages and also provides up-to-the-minute news briefs four times daily. Other leasing and service options are also available. At the end of the 24 month lease period, customers may purchase the Newton MessagePad and the Newton Messaging Card for $89 or continue the lease program with a $10 monthly discount. The Newton MessagePad is a handheld communications assistant that allows people to capture, manage and share information with tremendous ease and spontaneity. In addition to paging, the MessagePad offers a rich variety of communications options, including faxing, beaming and electronic mail, which enable people to send, receive and share information through virtually every communication method available in the workplace today. The Newton Connection Kit for Windows and Macintosh enables people to be connected to their desktop computer at all times. Across the world, over 2000 Newton developers are actively developing applications and accessories for the Newton MessagePad. More than 40 applications have already been announced by third party and in-house corporate developers, covering a wide range of solutions including communications, healthcare, sales force automation, finance, office productivity, education, real estate, and travel. MobileComm, a BellSouth Company headquartered in Jackson, MS, is a national paging company providing paging and voice messaging service in markets coast-to-coast for almost 30 years. The company and its affiliates have 1.4 million pagers in service across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE AT 1:19 PM, PST, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1994. Michael Spindler Outlines Apple Goals For 1994 CUPERTINO, California--January 26, 1994--Speaking at Apple Computer Inc's. annual shareholders' meeting, president and CEO Michael Spindler emphasized the strategic importance of PowerPC. Commenting on the addition of the RISC-based PowerPC to the high end of the Macintosh product line, scheduled for the first half of 1994, he said, "We believe the PPC platform allows us to build better, more useful, software and services for people at very aggressive price points. You can expect to see that power and performance benefiting customers in areas such as gesture and speech recognition and active intelligent assistance programs. Technologies like this reflect the leadership in innovation that people continue to expect --and continue to receive--from Apple products." "We believe Macintosh on PowerPC will attract many new customers to the Apple platform," said Spindler. "At the same time, we recognize that for many of our customers, our current Macintosh product line will continue to meet their needs. We intend to preserve their investment by providing them with an easy and fully compatible upgrade to PowerPC should their needs change in the future. At the most fundamental level, this renewed effort to take the customer's point of view is part of Apple's larger strategy to revitalize established markets and penetrate new ones," Mr. Spindler added. Outlining Apple Computer's strategy over the coming months, Spindler set out five goals: - Successfully add PowerPC to the Macintosh product line. - Grow the new business in software, servers, Newton and online services. - Put the customer at the center by aligning technical work in products and services to deliver real, tangible solutions for customers. - Improve the predictability of product delivery. - Closely manage the business, aligning costs and expenses while maintaining an environmentfor creating and taking advantage of opportunities. That's it for this week. Next week we will have a special announcement, so be sure to download STReport. As always, please feel free to send your comments or questions to me at: America OnLine: STReportRN Compuserve: 70323,1031 GEnie: R.NOAK ********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= STReport International Online Magazine is available every week for your reading pleasure on DELPHI. STReport's readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of a friendly community of enthusiastic computer users there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN --DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and... At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online. For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA. Try DELPHI for $1 an hour! For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only $5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! DELPHI-It's getting better all the time! ********************************************************************** ATARI/JAG SECTION (III) ======================= Dana Jacobson, Editor > From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Well, I have to tell you that it feels great to finally be on the road to recovery! Saw my physician last Friday and he informed me that I had moved into the upward recovery phase and improving more with each day. Just hearing that did wonders for me and I'm feeling much better these days. I'm even planning to return to work by the end of the week, if for anything, a psychological victory. I still tire easily, but this is something my physician informed me would be "natural" for some time to come. All in all, I'd rather experience being easily tired than all of the other symptoms I've experienced over the past 4 weeks! My sincerest thanks to all of you who dropped me a "get well" message the past few weeks. The bulk of current Atari news is still focused on the Jaguar, expectedly. Nothing new or earth-shattering has been said, but the online activity is still heavy. Compuserve's ATARIGAMING Forum has been a hotbed of Jaguar activity. There, one can find out about new Jaguar sightings, game tips, new game suggestions, mini-reviews, and much more. It's also a big plus, for Atari and the userbase, to see Atari's Don Thomas online almost daily answering questions and providing information whenever possible. It's clearly a positive attitude toward Atari and its visible support for the Jaguar to see someone of Don's stature taking an active online role. The reaction to Don's presence has been utterly positive, and appreciated by the users of that Forum. STReport applauds Don's efforts to help provide timely and accurate information. In a recent effort to help provide better customer support via the Atari Customer Support line, Don has recently posted a message with regard to an idea that he came up with to minimize long waits on hold and to answer FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about the Jaguar. We'll post that message a little later on. Please take the time to read it and reply accordingly. Regrettably, there's little to no news regarding Atari computers these days, still. I don't wish to harp on this subject, but I would like to suggest to those at Atari who can make a difference to seriously consider what a lack of computer-related news can and is doing to those who still faithfully use Atari computers. Please consider what this might be doing to those who have faithfully supported Atari over the years - the developers, dealers, and users. Many are wondering what will happen to them over the next 6-12 months. Hold that thought, many are wondering what will happen to them tomorrow! I believe that it's extremely important that these people have a straight-forward idea as to where Atari is headed, and when. Lexicor Software has recently announced that the Pandora/Medusa T40 is now available. This TT-like 040 clone was announced a few months ago here in STReport. Please take a look at the latest announcement from Lexicor to learn more about this new machine from Europe. Still working on our ongoing coverage of the online service's support staff, to be continued with the staff of Compuserve. Look for it in the next few weeks. We're still looking to add to the STReport Atari staff. We're looking for people to do software and hardware reviews, general interest articles, and online services coverage. If you're interested, please contact me and we can discuss it. Your input would be greatly appreciated by our readers. We've included a variety of interesting items for you this week. Check out the changes in Compuserve's ATARIGAMING area to accommodate the influx of messages in the Jaguar area. Ever want to give some advice to Atari and actually have someone listen? Atari's Don Thomas has suggested a means to alleviate some of the traffic with Atari's Jaguar info line. Here's your chance to provide some responsible feedback; check out Don's message elsewhere in this section. Want to know more about the TT 040 clone being distributed by Lexicor Software, the Pandora/Medusa 040? It's here. Wondering where your newest issue of Atari Classics is hiding? The explanation is here. What are the popular downloads these days? Check out Delphi's Top 10 listing, a regular feature here in STReport's Atari section. What's been caught this week at the Ole Fishin' Hole? John Duckworth has landed a couple more "keepers" this week. Rounding out this week's issue is Joe Mirando's "People Are Talking" column dealing with helpful hints and useful info gathered from Compuserve's Atari Forums. So sit back, put your feet up, and join me in enjoying this week's edition. Until next time... Dana P. Jacobson Delphi's Atari Advantage TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (01/26/94) (1) ST ZIP 2.4 (6) ATARI MAIL ORDER DEALERS (2) CD ROM INFO (7) COMPUTER PATIENCE (3) LHARC VERSION 2.99 (8) TELECOMMUNICATIONS GLOSSARY (4) TOAD'S SYSINFO (9) PFXPAK V3.0 (5) BRODIE CES CONFERENCE (10) TOWERS HONORARY TOP 10 The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently out-performing every other file in the databases. STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT #10.04) ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 1) Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database. ~~~~~~~~~~ Ever do some work involving files maintenance on your hard drive and somehow end up creating a file, usually with an invalid filename, and not being able to delete it from the hard drive? Earl Tate, an active Delphi user, had that happen to him and posted a message on Delphi asking advice on how to get rid of that file. Apparently, either no one saw the message or couldn't help at the time. With a little persistence, Earl came up with a solution on his own. Let's take a look: Remember when I asked how to remove a file from your HD when it showed it was in the 'read only' mode and stated that a file by that name already existed. Nobody ever replied with the solution to that problem. So there are a lot of us apparently in the same boat. Once I had a couple of these dudes on a partition and I moved all the other files off there just to zero out that partition. Well, someone finally (on a BBS System) gave me the information. You simply click on that stubborn file that says it is in a read only mode...then click on 'show information' on your desktop and change it to a read/write mode. Then you can remove it from your HD. Simple when you know the answer isn't it. I hope this tidbit of information that I am passing on will help someone else someday who had the same problem. ~~~~~~~~~~ From Compuserve's ATARIGAMING Forum, SysOp Ron Luks tells us: Well, the Atari Gaming Forum is expanding its Jaguar support. In cooperation with the developer support team at Atari Corp., we will be opening a private message section and library for Atari Jaguar licensees in a few days. You must be a registered Jaguar developer to have access to these areas. To obtain access DO NOT contact the forum sysops directly. Please send an EMAIL to J Patton, Atari Developer Support, 70007,1072. Include whatever information (registration numbers, etc) necessary to identify yourself as a Jaguar licensee. Mr Patton will contact the sysops directly and we will enable your user ID for access to these areas. Be sure to tell J what your user ID is so he may pass this along to the forum staff. Secondly, with the increase in Jaguar message traffic, I think its the right time to split the Jaguar section into two parts. The obvious split is Jaguar HW and Jaguar SW, but I'm not sure this would give us two balanced sections. (our goal is to even balance activity levels) I was leaning toward the more specific section names of: Jaguar Systems (general) Jaguar Games (Reviews, hints and tips) However, I'm open to any suggestions from the membership. After all, this is YOUR forum and I'd like to configure it closest to your desires. ____________________________________________ > MissionWare NEWS! STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Important Announcement from Missionware Software January 24, 1994 - Palatine, Illinois As most of you know, most Atari developers can't afford to live off of their Atari sales. In order to feed themselves and their families, they need a Real Job! You can include me in that category. For those of you that don't know, my Real Job is with CBS TV. I've been an engineer in broadcasting for 20 years, the last 10 of which have been with CBS in Chicago (WBBM-TV, an Owned and Operated station). Although I'd like to make Missionware Software my "full time gig", right now I can't. Therefore, the Real Job must come first. In this case, CBS offered me a once-in-a-lifetime deal - to work the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. I've been given the job of "TX Supervisor" (TX = Transmission) which I'll be doing in Lillehammer the entire month of February. I'm departing for Norway this coming Saturday, January 29th. I'll be returning February 28th. Because of the job I'll be doing and the hours I'll be working, I won't be able to get online at all during the month. From what I understand, access to the major online systems is limited *and expensive* in Norway anyway. Therefore, I'll be traveling sans computer (although I'll be operating lots of them in TX). Missionware Software will not be shutting down during my absence, however. Things will slow down a bit though, and support may also take a bit longer than you've come to expect. My wife Kathy will be handling the phones at Missionware in my absence and will do the best job she can in answering your telephone calls. Be patient though - she's not a computer (or telecom) expert. She will be taking in orders and handling other day-to-day tasks. Online support will also continue. Here's the breakdown as it now stands: BIX: We've never had any official Missionware Support on BIX. I do publish an Internet email address that ends up in my BIX mailbox. That mail will (hopefully) be forwarded to my partner-in-crime, John "Hutch" Hutchinson. CompuServe: Bob Carpenter, a neighbor and long-time beta tester, will be handling my official support account, 71333,1003, on CIS. Bob knows some of the intricacies of our VT emulations better than I do. He'll do a great job handling your questions there. Delphi: Dana Jacobson will handle as many online questions as he can. He'll also be getting email forwarded to his mailbox. Dana's been a big supporter of Flash II and I know he'll do an excellent job for me there. GEnie: GEnie has our biggest support area. I'm trying real hard to make sure that support on GEnie continues to be what you've all come to expect from us. Therefore, we've got an entire lineup of folks to help out. Al Fasoldt, Flash II user extraordinaire and DO script expert, will handle many of your Flash II questions here. Bob Carpenter, who also frequents GEnie, will be helping out here as well as CIS. Our main Fair Dinkum guy, Hutch, will continue to handle support for his old product line of educational programs like Crossword Creator II. As my business partner, Hutch will also be handling new product shipments while I'm gone. The orders should continue to come directly to Missionware Software, either by telephone or mail. Kathy will pass these orders on to Hutch for shipment. We'll continue to process your orders as quickly as we can, but please excuse us if things take a bit longer than you've become accustomed to. If any problems arise while I'm gone, I'll make sure to take care of them first thing when I return in March. Between Kathy and Hutch handling the business end of things, and Al, Bob and Dana handling the online support, Missionware Software will be in good hands during February. I'll continue to be online and available all this week through Saturday morning. I then pull the modem plug for a month. If you've got any questions that you've been putting off, ask them now! :-) I thank you for your support these past couple of years and continue to look forward to doing business with you for many more years to come. Enjoy your February! I know I'll be enjoying mine. And make sure to watch the Winter Olympics on your local CBS TV station. Many of the pictures you'll be watching and the sounds you'll be hearing will be because of my duties in TX at the IBC (International Broadcast Center). Naturally, any mistakes that happen will be someone else's fault! John Trautschold Missionware Software 354 N. Winston Drive Palatine, IL 60067 _____________________________________________________ > LEXICOR NEWS! STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""""" PANDORA/MEDUSA T40 ================== The first 68040 Based Atari Clone, now available at LEXICOR SOFTWARE CORP. PANDORA/MEDUSA T40 MC 68040 at 64 Mhz Internal FPU and PMMU Performance is around 26 MIPS, 4.5 MFLOPS Main bus is: 32 Bit Data, 32 Bit Address Bus Clocked at 32 Mhz Full Bus snooping read and write Atari bus is: 16 bit Data, 24 bit Address Bus snooping, write Own ACSI Address for full 32 Bit Address Fast RAM Can hold 8-128 Megabytes on board Write 73 Mbyte/sec Read 85 Mbyte/sec EPROM is 2 MByte on board 32 Bit Wide TOS 3.06 modified slightly - ST I/O Board -DMA -MIDI -SERIAL -PRINTER -KEYBOARD -FLOPPY DD, HD, ED -2 SERIAL PORTS (like TT Modem) (up to 115KBaud) -IDE Bus (12 Mb/sec) -ISA Bus (for own custom Graphics Board) (This ISA Bus will work with any ET-4000 Based Graphics Board on PC Platform with the NVDI ET-4000, however NVDI ET-4000 only supports up to max. 32,000 colors as of this date) Additionally you can get: -VME Bus VME Bus 16bit Laser Printer Port (?) ROM-Port Mega Bus -SCSI Board TT SCSI SCSI II TT Lan -DSP Board DSP96002 and an MC68060 Board is scheduled for the year 1994 LEXICOR SOFTWARE CORPORATION (510) 848-7621 - (510) 848-7613 Here's a Price Breakdown in United States Dollars, users in North America will have the main parts assembled in the U.S.A. as parts are a lot cheaper here. The MEDUSA T40 is ideal for the high-end Atari User. Based around TOS 3.06 It is very compatible. Following this message will be a short list of working programs. - Basic Motherboard 68040/64 - Tower Housing - ST Input/Output Board Cost is: 2,490 U$D (Cost can vary depending on the exchange rate) Availability: NOW, Transport time should take no longer than 2 Weeks! Additionally you may purchase an ET-4000 Graphics Board 15/16bit Color onboard for about another 100 U$D + NVDI ET-4000. A VME Bus Multiple Bus Board (see description above) for another 400 U$D 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 Megabytes on board, price depending on SIMMS, current price is around 40 U$D per megabyte. IDE Internal Drive will cost depending on drive size. Internal IDE, no external casing required. NOVA VME 16M Graphics Board when purchased with VME Bus (for 24bit Color) costs 489 U$D. All prices given are Recommended Retail, shipping not included! Short Compatibility List: Chronos-3D Key frame Animator Phoenix 2 Signum 3.0 Phoenix U.S.A. (Xenomorph-3D) Interface Matrix Drivers2.2 Prism Paint 1, 1.5, 2.0 Pure Pascal Snapshot ANM-Link (Relativity) 1st Word Tele Office Cybersculpt ( in St high) PKS-Edit ACS Pro Cyber Color Seka Assembler Argon ARTIS 4.0 Devpac Assembler Crypton XCONTROL Turboasss Assembler Xenon V2.4TT Calamus SL Easyride Assembler Crazy Sounds Calamus 1.09N GAL-Prommer PCB Platon V.2.21 Logic A. ST-Digital Platine ST GFA Basic 3.0 3.6TT Profiler Skyplus Delicious Pure C DGRAPH Raystart Cubase GMAN Topaz Emagic Kobold VTX SED Rufus Uniterm Turbo C Multigem Connect Adimens Multitos Iconedi Arabesque Superbase Guck Chagall Papillion Invaders Technobox CAD Papyrus Piccolo and Drafter DAs Vector Script 2.0, 3.0 LDW Powercalc Didot Pro Compo Script ASpice Didot Lineart ICD and AHDI Protar Manager Retousche Pro CD v.1.04 Hushi Tempus Word STAD and Editor and a lot more programs that follow the VDI and Atari guidelines should work with no problems whatsoever! I cannot make a list of ALL the working programs, but if you have an enquiry about a single product, then please email me, and we could look into it for you. Yat Siu Lexicor Software Europe ______________________________________________ > Let's hear from you! STR FOCUS! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" COMMENTS NEEDED! Atari has been besieged with calls for the Jaguar. We have staffed up the Customer Service Department and we still cannot seem to keep up with the demands for information. Most of the calls request the same information over and over. Everyone wants to know the things we discuss in this forum. Unfortunately, I can't easily refer nine year olds who call in to our 800 number to an FAQ file to download, so we end up saying the same things over and over. To better meet an objective of serving as many people as possible, I am considering the production of a professional audio tape. The purpose of the tape would be to offer it at a nominal charge to consumers who are interested in the Jaguar, learn the most possible about it and obtain a collection of other resource information which would not be possible by other mediums. On one side of the tape would be 10 to 20 minutes dedicated to Jaguar. On the other side, similar information for the Lynx. Each side would contain: * Professional narration of features, specifications and competitive knockoffs * 1-3 sample radio spots used in key markets * Newest software releases * Audio samples of gaming sequences and music soundtracks * Interview(s) with Atari "personalities" (marketing and development) * Answers to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) * Third Party Interviews * Praise from existing users (testimonials) * Ads from key retail partners I would want to use something like this as a way to distribute accurate information that everyone can listen to anytime and anywhere. It would be economical to create and distribute. We would ask people to spend probably between $4 to $6 including shipping and possibly offer the value spent as a discount toward future direct purchases made from Atari. At this time, this is only an idea I am kicking around. I would like to hear from EVERYONE a concise reflection on how you feel about such a thing. Would you buy a copy? Would you like to see it issued like a magazine? Do you think other people you know would buy such a thing before investing $250 in a game system? Do you think it would be a good in store point of purchase tool? Do you think rental stores could rent it? Can you think of promotional tie-ins? What other ideas do you have? Please present well thought out replies to my attention in this forum or in E-Mail if you prefer. I plan to capture them and use them as reinforcement for or against proceeding with such a concept. Thank you in advance for your participation and help! -- Don Thomas Atari Corporation ________________________________________________ > Atari Classic STR Feature """"""""""""""""""""""""" Atari Classic Versus The Winter of '94 (sheesh!) ATTENTION: Please download this message & re-post freely to all networks & BBS systems. Thanks! Hello Peoples, Today is the first time since last Tuesday I am able to once again send outgoing email coms without them bouncing back to me. Just a small measure of what's been going on here the past couple weeks. I reserved the period of Jan. 3-10 to put together the February issue of AC & to edit material for the February AC Software Disk. On January 7 we had a nasty ice storm here in southeastern Pennsylvania that wiped out power to over a million homes. Although power to most people was restored within 2 days, I didn't get back my power until late in the evening of January 11. As of Jan. 7 when the outage began, production on the Feb. AC was half-completed & on schedule. I'm sorry to say I've made essentially no progress on the magazine since then. Living for the better part of a week with no heat/lights/electricity in the middle of the most severe Pennsylvania winter this century was not fun. I didn't shave, wash, or change my clothes for 5 days. I moved into the den & camped out in front of the fireplace, & slept with my shoes on. Precious editing time (part of which was also vacation time from my job) got spent hauling firewood & on long searches for lamp oil, wood & kerosene which were in short supply since I had to compete with a million other people in the same situation as me. I thought I was prepared as I had half a cord of seasoned hardwood on hand, but on the 3rd day the wood ran out (it goes up like tinder in an open fireplace), & panic set in. I got thru the final 36 hours with the help of a friend who gave me some old ratty wood & loaned me a kerosene heater. Were it not for that, my plumbing would have froze & I would have been forced to abandon my home & go to one of the emergency shelters that were hastily set up by the local municipal authorities. I've been living here 13 years & never saw anything like this. After the power was finally restored (it took until the 12th for the house to warm up again, my bathroom fell to 35 degrees & the toothpaste froze in the tube), it took me another 3 days to clean up all the mess & begin to resume work on the February AC. On the evening of January 15, as I was reviewing material for the AC February Disk, an earthquake trashed my office (24 hours before the Big One hit L.A.). I don't know if the Pennsylvania quake made the national news, but I can tell you it scared the dickens outta me. It was only a 4.6 quake, small potatoes by California standards, but with the floor rolling under my feet, windows rattling, & papers fluttering down all over the place it was plenty scary. I had a whole bunch of manuscripts, subscription forms, advertising copy, checks, disks, notes, computer manuals,& a ton of other paraphernalia related to the magazine spread out all over as I usually do; it all ended up in jumbled heaps on the floor. A freakin' mess! I again gave up work on the magazine to pick up stuff & restore some order, it took several days. A few items seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle of papers. * sigh * While I was preoccupied with the 2nd cleanup we got hit with the Deep Freeze & another ice storm. Temperature on my back porch: -9 degrees F. Wind chill: -40. On the 16th there was a sound like a cannon shot from my neighbor's yard. Incredible, the trunk of a huge tree in his yard had "exploded"; the sap froze & expanded and blew up the wood. Since then I've been nervously keeping watch on the 40-odd trees growing on my property. I already have quite a bit of minor storm damage accumulating on my property: tree branches down every-where, damage to the doors & roof of my toolshed, & a 24-foot section of 6-foot high fence that went down in the 'quake. The Deep Freeze has persisted for the past week, resulting in a big drain of electrical power on the entire Eastern Power Grid. Southeast Pennsylvania, being densely populated, was among the hardest hit. On the 17th the power companies here commenced a series of "rolling blackouts", a phenomenon new to my experience, in an effort to prevent total collapse of the Eastern Pennsylvania Grid. I pushed ahead with work on the February AC, figuring they wouldn't dare black out my area since we'd suffered so badly during the outage of the previous week. It was sorta like playing Russian Roulette with the power company. Well, I lost the game. Big-time. On Jan. 18 I was smack in the middle of an editing session & got hit by a rolling blackout. It only lasted 90 minutes, but I lost all the work I'd managed to do since Jan. 7. I'll leave to your imagination what expletives I emitted when the lights went out for the 2nd time in as many weeks. In the meantime, the 2nd ice storm coupled with the record-low temperatures & a shortage of road salt turned all the roads around here into automobile skating rinks. It's a paradise for car thieves, there are wrecked & abandoned cars everywhere. It also turned my usual 25-minute commute into 2 hours each way. Result: instead of getting home from work at a decent hour & resuming work on the magazine, for the past week I get home late/exhausted/half-frozen due to sitting in monster traffic jams for several hours watching people slide sideways & backwards down overpasses & stuff. The whole past week has been like this, I've made no progress on the magazine at all, I'm still stuck where I was on Jan. 7. On January 19 the Governor of Pennsylvania declared a state of emergency due to the power crisis & also major problems with broken water mains (due to the combination of severe cold plus the earthquake), in consequence of which all commercial operations curtailed their business activities to reduce power consumption. For me, this caused disruptions in computer systems & telecommunications. As most of you know, the AC Staff relies heavily on these systems for its existence, as we are scattered all over the North American continent. I've been unable to send messages to GEnie or Internet since the 19th, today is the first day I've been able to get messages through. This past weekend I've once again resumed work on the February AC, but I've given up all hope of adhering to any sort of schedule. I'm just going to plow along until it's done, however long that takes. The February issue will almost certainly be late. How late, I don't know. I can't afford to take any more vacation time from work for awhile, so I'm pretty well confined to whatever I can accomplish on weeknights when the roads aren't clogged (yeah, right) & weekends. I still have at least four full days of work to do on the mag, which means probably 2 more weeks before I'll have it ready to send to our Publisher for typesetting & proofs. Assuming the weather doesn't get any worse. And also assuming our Publisher isn't having the same sort of problems I am. Please bear with me, everyone, the temperature got up to 36F today & I feel confident enough to guarantee the Feb. AC will get mailed out before July :). - Ben Poehland Managing Editor ATARI CLASSICS Magazine PS: Postal mail deliveries have been very erratic the past 2 weeks. Yesterday I noticed several mail items frozen in the ice around the base of my mailbox (the mailman couldn't get the door closed & the wind blew the mail out). If I take a pickaxe to the ice these mail items will get wrecked. I've decided to let them remain there until we get enough of a thaw so I can retrieve them without damage. One item is a Letter To The Editor, I could read the address through the ice. The ice is over 3 inches thick. _______________________________________________ > The Old Fishin' Hole STR Feature """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The Old Fishin' Hole ==================== -A Guide to the Online PD/Shareware Waters. by John R. Duckworth After a sort of new PD/Shareware drought, the online waters are once again teeming with new life. Most notable are new graphic/sound demos for the Falcon, but new and updates games and utilities for all the TOS systems are being released. A new version of Master Browse will be released soon (and I will review it in a future column), and the latest incarnation of the very useful printing utility, "2 Columns", has just found its way onto my hard drive and I will take a closer look at it in next week's column (if I can get my printer configured). Before I make any more promises, perhaps it would be a good time to take a look at what is waiting to be reviewed _this_ week. First up, is a game reminiscent of the popular action/puzzle game "Oxyd". "Shocker 2" by the shareware team of Two Men At Work is able to be played on any Atari TOS computer with at least 1 megabyte of memory. ON the TT and Falcon computers, the game must be played in monochrome (for some odd reason...and my biggest complaint). The object of the game is simply to collect all of the hearts found onscreen by rolling your marble over them by using the mouse. Several different types of rooms will be encountered throughout the game. Some rooms have gravity, where you will have to jump (by using the mouse button) to finish collecting all of the hearts, others are pneumatic pipe levels where your marble is affixed to a pipe system which you must traverse to collect the hearts and exit safely, and lastly, some levels are called trail-setting rooms where rolling over arrows on the ground will effect the way your marble will travel. "Shocker 2" is a thoroughly engaging diversion, but perhaps a bit too nerve-wracking. A few of the rooms kept me captivated for hours, trying to figure out the correct sequence of actions to complete the puzzles. New elements of the game are introduced slowly (as in "Oyxd") so it gives the player a chance to catch on without being too overwhelmed. As interesting is the game is for one player, the fun potential when two are playing together is staggering. The game offers a two player mode via midi or modem. As I wasn't able to test out the two player hookup, perhaps a fellow Delphite would like to connect sometime in the online game lobby. If you were a fan of "Oxyd", then I highly recommend "Shocker 2". The graphics and sound are very nice (even in monochrome) and the play value is tremendous. The game is Shareware, and in order to play past the demo levels you must order the code book from the authors. Next out of my virtual pail is a Falcon-only game entitled "Black Hole". The game is Freeware by David Snow. First I'd like to thank Mr. Snow for attempting to make a quality game for the Falcons...we all know not many have come out commercially. The object of the game is two collect two coins hidden somewhere on the game screen while trying to avoid setting off bombs or running out of time. The game is played using a joystick, but perhaps the mouse would have been a much better choice for a controller to manipulate the game cursor. The graphics are _very_ colorful (245 color mode) and the sound effects are simply wonderful (they are in AVR format by the way, so they can also be used with the System Audio Manager). As much as I liked the visual and audio effects, I was a bit disappointed with the gameplay. After two games I was bored or simply moving randomly around the screen. Eventually bombs go off so fast that it is impossible to deactivate them. I hope Mr. Snow will continue to use his talents to create games for the Falcon. He received high marks for originality (the game wasn't a copy of anything I can remember), any maybe next time I won't find myself wanting something more. The last program I'll take a look at this week is the "Mouse Construction Set" by Scott Sanders of Software Development Systems. This utility is really only useful to programmers wanting to change the mouse shape thorough their programs. While this isn't the hardest code to program, Mr. Sanders program eliminates the need to figure the data for the function call manually. The program is centered around a window which displays the mask and data for the mouse pointer. Data can be changed at will, including the colors used for the data/mask. A great feature is the instant test button which will change the mouse immediately into the shape you have been working on. Mouse shaped can be loaded and saved in .CUR format, and also exports C source code which can be combined with your own programs. If you are a programmer, hurry and grab this file...it simplifies custom pointer shapes greatly. Ahhh, for once so many programs and so little space...I guess I'll just save a few for next week. Thanks for reading the column, and if you have and comments, questions, or "Shocker 2" challenges then e-mail: JDUCKWORTH@delphi.com. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Old Fishin Hole Tackle Box * | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Shocker 2 | | Delphi: Atari Advantage - read JENS SENDS | | Black Hole | | GEnie: Atari ST RT - #31656, #31708(fix TOS 4.03-) | | | | Mouse Construction Set | | Delphi: Atari Advantage - read MOUSE | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ * The Tackle Box is meant to provide assistance in finding files mentioned in the column. It should not be considered a COMPLETE listing and is provided for convenience only. Delphi Atari Advantage files should be found in the Recent Arrivals section of the database until moved to their appropriate sections. ______________________________________________ > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE... ARE TALKING ===================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Life slowly returns to normal for me and mine and I have more and more time to think about the much-touted information super highway. Let's see, what are some of the outlandish promises that have been made? Well, there was the one about around the clock news. Unbelievable. Then some one mentioned shopping via computer so that you wouldn't have to leave the house. Impossible. Someone also mentioned the availability of photo-quality pictures over the phone lines. Insane. Right? Wrong! A lot of what the Information Highway will be is here right now on services like CompuServe. Add to the above the ability to trade stocks, send and receive messages and programs almost instantaniously, and the ability to"talk" with others as you would on a telephone "chat-line". I often think of the ancient chinese curse: May you live in interesting times" and wonder if the first sage to utter that phrase could ever have imagined how interesting the times could get. We do indeed live in interesting times and they will only more interesting. Well, let's get on with the purpose of this column: The hints and tips available every week on CompuServe... From the Atari Productivity Forum ================================= Darrell Eifert tells us: "I just spent the better part of 6 hours trying to make the following components talk to each other: 1 Mega 4 STe with a Seagate (?) 48 Meg hard drive 1 Maxtor 248 Meg SCSI drive with ICD Link 1 SLM 605 Laser printer. I could get the two hard drives to work properly (DMA 0 - internal, DMA 7 external), or one hard drive and the laser printer (DMA 6) to work, but NOT all three -- finally left the system booting from the Maxtor and ignoring the internal in order to get the most hard drive real estate. Any suggestions???" Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine asks Darrell: "Do you have the most current version of ICD's software? You might ask in their section in the (GO ATARIVEN). Have you tried changing the id to the external hard drive to 1 rather than 7? So the hard drives are in the chain logically before the laser printer?" Sysop Bob Retelle, a very knowledgable guy, tells Darrell: "I'm sure others here will have more specific help for you, but I seem to recall that Atari systems need to have the SCSI Device numbers sequential in order for them to be found reliably (ie, 0=Internal, 1=External), and that the SLM Laser Printer has to be LAST in the SCSI chain. Since you could get the two drive working at IDs 0 and 7, perhaps only the Laser's position on the SCSI bus is important. Try moving the external drive to a device number between 0 and 6, and see if that works." John Damiano of Transierra adds: "I think it might work if you have the boot HD as 0, the next HD as 1 and the printer last as 2. SCSI # that is....also make sure they are all on. Or call Howard at ICD on Monday. I think he is there after 10 their time." Darrell tells Albert, Bob, and John: "Thanks for the info folks -- I tried to physically change the DMA ID on the drive itself -- there is a switch on the bottom of the drive that changes from 0 through 7. I tried different settings, but the Link software didn't seem to accept the changes -- it kept looking for the drive on DMA 7. I'll try checking over in ATARIVEN. Thanks!" John Amsler asks Charles Smeton about STraight FAX, NewSTar Technology's Send/Receive FAX program for ST-series computers: "Does STraight FAX! 2 work OK with US Robotics modems, e.g., the Sportster model?" Charles tells John: "Depending on which model Sportster and which revision of the Sportster FAX Modem, you will have varying results with STraight FAX! 2.10. We are working on an update that will be released shortly that has mant changes that have been made for the Sportster. What we have found is that every manufacturer has their own interpretation of what the FAX Modem standards, i.e. the official EIA Class 2 or the defacto Class 2 should be. There are so many vendors that have FAX Modems to day that we cant buy one of every one, so we choose the most popular models, or a modem that uses the same chipset/firmware as many other models. We have a USR Sportster 14400 FAX Modem. It took a while to get one as our distributor was out of stock for a long while. Any registered user that has v2.00 or higher of STraight FAX! and would like the latest beta can request it from our support BBS (Toad Computers BBS @ 410-544-6999). The changes we have made in the beta seem to correct the problems with the Sportster, however there may be some FAX Machines that still have problems. This is in fact the case when we tested the Sportster with the WinFAX Lite software that was included with it for Windows. It could not connect to some FAX Machines/Modems. If you check in the USR message area of the Modem Vendors Forum (GO MODEMVEN), you will find many users that have similar findings. We are working with USR to solve these problems and to confirm that the changes we have made in the beta are correct. We were on a waiting list to be called back by a USR engineer, now we seem to be in "phone tag" mode ;-). One thing we do know is that USR Sportster 14400 FAX Modems with serial numbers that start lower than 00026801 and 9600 FAX Modems with serial numbers that start lower than 00026501 can not connect to some FAX Machines at all, no matter what computer or software is used. To the best of my knowledge there is no way to correct this in firmware. You will have to contact USR to see what their policy is for these older Sportsters. Newer Sportsters have to have a special init string to communicate with these problem FAX Machines (i.e. Pitney Bowes). STraight FAX! 2.10 has a new Init String parameter added to allow for this. The special init string is "S36=0", this changes an undocumented S register to compensate for these FAX Machines, the problem is that this must be done manually for the problem FAX machines only, i.e. you must change the Init String if you know the FAX machine is one of the problem models." Beth Jane Freeman asks: "Now that I've got the laser printer, I'm wondering how to use it to print out from DEGAS, Elite. If not with Speedo GDOS, then what?" Lee Zion tells Beth: "You need a DEGAS print driver for your laser printer. I haven't managed to find one myself for my OKI (HP emulation). Tom Hudson uploaded one for the HP Paintjet but not for any other HP. By any chance, does your laser emulate one of the many dot matrix printers? Drivers for them are available in ATARIARTS, just BRO ALL KEY:DEGAS,DRIVER. Failing that, you might want to try an offline print program. I have used one from here in ATARIPRO (Lib 9) called DEG2HP.ARC. It prints uncompressed DEGAS PI? files to an HP. It converts colors to acceptable bitmapped patterns. While not as handy as a DEGAS screen dump, it does do the job. Your mention of NYC and your recent weather reports, lead me to wonder where you are located in the NYC area. I am currently living in the Eatontown/Long Branch, NJ area. We have had much the same weather here near the New Jersey shore." My buddy Brian Gockley of ST Informer tells Beth: "If all else fails, there is a program called PRINTALL that will works as a stand alone Degas (or any other graphic format) printer. As you either know or have heard, using computers is actually an endless struggle between upgrading and compatibility. Every time I change a part of my system (Moniterm monitor, new computer, new hard drives, and mostly, ne software) it requires that I diagnose the whole system and either modify, or totally replace something. I have tried to stick with those programs that follow the rules as closely as possible, but sometimes, even the best program falls by the wayside. I wish there were something that sould be done for "dead end" programs that would give them a new life, or fix them somehow, but...c'est la vie!" Beth tells Brian: "Yeah, that's true. I'm considering replacing my 720 K drives with 1.44 drives. At least floppy drives are downwardly compatible, like modem speeds. However, there is the question of costs. That generally keeps me from going too crazy. I haven't gotten things like STEALTH or a Moniterm monitor, just a bit too rich for my blood, at the moment. The biggest things I've done is to add TEC (Great product), a hard drive (essential with WordPerfect and Pagestream), and add memory." Mike Myers posts: "I have a few questions that are scaring me. First, what seems to be happening. First, I was able to load 2 accessories - A screen saver that I took of My Master of Gribnif's Stalker, and Stalker itself as an accessory to a Wordwriter program. I did the same with Gribnif's Cardfile, the screensaver, and Wordwriter. After a while, I couldn't get Stalker or Cardfile to respond. I had to change them to programs. It worked, but... Now, my printer is doing strange things. Sometimes it will print black blocks where the words should be, sometimes it feeds the paper till 2 or 3 sheets come thru, without printing. Now, for the scary question - Do computers wear out? Is that what may be happening?" Sysop Bob Retelle tells Mike: "First of all, relax... computers don't "wear out" from being used... Usually symptoms like you described are caused by combinations of things that just don't work well together. They're most always caused by making changes to a setup that was working well before, but that suddenly stops working, or works strangely... The best way to make changes is to do only one thing at a time, and check it all out thoroughly before adding anything else... if for example you were wanting to add a new screen saver ACCessory and a new text editor ACCessory to a disk that you knew was already working, it would be best to add only one of the new files, and check everything out to make sure it still works OK before adding the other. That way you can identify the source of the problem if anything goes wrong. It may be that STalker isn't compatible with that particular combination of programs on your WordWriter disk, or that another of the ACCessories is causing a problem. The best thing to do is to try to get back to the original, working setup by recreating your original WordWriter disk, making sure it works properly, then slowly adding the other programs, one by one, and testing to be sure everything still works each time." Mike tells Bob: "That is one big relief. I work with this computer, and I don't have the money to buy another." Meanwhile, Dana Rupp asks about transferring MIDI files: "Is there a way for me to exchange midi files with a friend who uses an ATARI 1040 ST. I'm using an IBM compatible with DOS 6.2. We need to be able to send files in both directions." Sysop Bill Aycock tells Dana: "If you format a 720K diskette on your machine, you and your friend should both be able to read and write to it. Use the command FORMAT A: /F:720 to do the formatting, or use Windows File Manager and set the size to 720k. Of course, you could also send the files through Compuserve Mail. :-)" Yat Siu of Lexicor Software adds: "Another option would be to use a Comms package and do a direct link (datalink, nullmodem cable, whatever you wanna call it ). It works, I've tried it with Connect and Telix, then again, it should work with any Comms package." Sysop Bill tells Yat: "True, a direct link would work also. However, the effectiveness diminishes when distances more than a few feet are involved..." Kroy Ellis tells us: "A friend of mine was given an Atari computer, but no software or printer. I know PCs, but nothing about Atari. Any ideas where I can get s/w, hardware and support for him? He is a college grad. student and particularly needs word processing software." Sysop Bob Retelle asks Kroy: "Do you know what model of Atari computer your friend has..? Assuming it's one of the newer ST series of computers, he can use just about any Epson compatible parallel printer with a standard "IBM parallel printer cable" with the Atari computer. Software and other accessories is more difficult, as there are very few Atari dealers left in the country. For Public Domain and Shareware software, his best resource is probably these Atari Forums here on CompuServe. He can use any standard EXTERNAL modem with his Atari computer, and we can figure out a way to get him a modem program to run with it. We have an excellent Public Domain word processor here in our libraries, called STWriter. You could even download it for him and save it on a 720K DS/DD disk for him and he could use it directly in his Atari disk drive. (You could even do the same with a telecommunications modem program, come to think of it..!)" John Amsler asks: "Has anyone gotten the RENAME function in ST-Zip 2.4 to work? I never was able to get it to work in 2.3 and I haven't in 2.4, either. Also, has anyone else experienced that 2.4 is _significantly_ slower than 2.3?" Brian Robson tells John: "Yes, found that here too. Thought at first perhaps the program was in 'packed' format, but as I understand from other users who have also noticed this that it doesn't seem to be. I e-mailed Vincent (the programmer) to report this and find out if this is normal behavior, - I'll update re. any reply." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine adds: "Only during start-up does it seem slower to me. If its more reliable that is more important than the speed loss, in my opinion." Dazzz Smith tells John: "Yes version 2.4 does take a while to get going for some reason, not sure why though, someone did say they had mailed the author to ask about it." From the Atari ST Arts Forum ============================ Well folks, at least once a month someone with a DOS machine drops in and asks about viewing pictures in one Atari-specific format or another. Malcom Simmons asks: "Can you tell me how to view/convert SPC/SPU files on a PC :) ? I cannot locate a viewer in the Graphics Support Forum that will do that for me and all the *.prg converters here require the Atari which I dont have. Please advise if you know something." Sysop Bill Aycock tells Malcom: "Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any PC utility that can do anything with SPU/SPC pictures- at least, none that our members are aware of. We get inquiries on it all the time, too. " Hal Dougherty tells Malcom: "I've got an Atari STe, a 486 clone, and a color Mac. I'll be glad to convert the files from .SPC/.SPU format to anything you can use. Post them in the file area or send them e-mail. I've not found anything for the clone that will convert them and only one for the Mac that even has .SP? in the load file menu. (It doesn't work!)" Lee Seiler of Lexicor Software asks: "Does this mean that Atari really isn't going to be making many more Atari computers? What ever happned to the 5000 Falcons Atari promised? and all thoses TT's which were on their way! Is any one at Atari even communicationg with the Atari computer users any more?" Ringo Monfort tells Lee: "ATARI personal are saying that they are "thinking" about using Jaguar chipset for an future computer but after all they are saying "thinking" and not "doing". Is ATARI providing supporting software developers for the Falcon and TT Line? Is there a number to call if you want to be a new developer for the ATARI?" On the subject of CompuServe's rate decrease, Sysop Jim Ness posts: "CIS has always considered itself the "premium" product in online services. As a result, it prices itself above all the others, and is the only service making a profit for its owners at this time. I was recently chastised by a CIS executive for saying we were in the midst of a price war. His line was that CIS was lowering prices simply because of lower costs, and a desire to please members by passing those savings on. Heh heh... Fact is, it IS a price war, and it's good for members. But, it does negatively affect profits. I'm not sure how long all those other services will be able to exist at a loss. They need to make it up quickly, in increased membership, and not all are succeeding in this." From the Atari Vendor's Forum ============================= Bruce Matthews asks: "Does ICD have any support in the Amiga forums? I tried calling ICD yesterday to ask some technical questions about some ICD hardware that I have for my Amiga and ask about new product upgrades. Instead of speaking with someone, I was forced to go through endless (and expensive - daytime phone charges) queries by machine. I found this extremely annoying, for one, I am difficult to reach during business hours so I called on a day of leave. The odds of them returning a call when I can answer is nil. The other thing I wanted to tell them is to update my address since I'll be moving overseas to Moscow, Russia. And I know that I won't be very happy to reach a machine if I call from there. However, CServe E-mail is alive and well from Moscow." Boris Molodyi tells Bruce: "Sorry, can't help you with ICD, but may I ask you what brings you to Moscow? I'm from there, originally..." Howard Peters at ICD tells Bruce: "Sorry about the phone system. We still experimenting in how to make it more convenient for our customers. It is supposed to improve the contact to us, not to cut people off. Anyway, we are available here on CompuServe and happy to serve you that way too. Please feel free to ask your questions here. It might take a few days to get an answers but you will get one!" Bruce replies: "Thanks for your prompt reply. Pardon me, Atari fans, while I disuss some Amiga here . BTW, did you know that there are several vendors with Amiga products on a Amiga Vendor Forum (Go AMIGAVENDOR). Since your competition is there, it might be nice for ICD to get into a slot. Anyway, now for my questions. I recently purchased an A4000 computer. I still own my A2000 which is equipped with an ICD AdSCI 2080 and a Syquest 44 Mb removable hard drive. I would like to transfer the Syquest over to the A4000, but the A4000 comes only with an IDE controller, Will the AdSCSI 2080 will work in the A4000? My A2000 is currently on its way to Moscow, otherwise I would just plug it in and try it." What the heck, folks, we're all one big, happy computer family, aren't we? It won't kill any of us to listen to an Amiga user once in a while. Meanwhile, Toshi Homma asks: "Can I use Quantum170EPS by the Link? I cannot find out the parity enable jumper on the 170EPS. Could you tell me how I can use it?" Howard at ICD tells Toshi: "Yes, you can - but ... As you noticed correctly there is no parity jumper on the drive. But it can be reconfigured by software. If you run our BOOTFIX it will disable the parity. The problem is that you can't use The Link to do that. Either try a friend or a dealer who has a AdSCSI ST or AdSCSI Plus ST to do it for you. Those adapters do support parity. Use them to run BOOTFIX, then your EPS drive should work fine with The Link!" Mike Mortilla posts: "I must admit that I do have some "Mac-envy" when I see how easy the DTP progs work in that platform. But considering I haven't had to make a single repair to my overworked Ataris in many years, I'll keep the St line!" Jane Freeman tells Mike: "How true. Ataris work very well. I only had to fix a pin on the chip that controls the floppy drives, and that was my fault. I put the Z-Ram upgrade board in incorrectly. I couldn't get a new chip, so my friend, his brother and I chipped away at the plastic on the chip to expose enough area to solder on a new leg. That was done by still another friend." From the Palmtop Forum ====================== Peter Amschel posts: "I downloaded all the files on this forum regarding key words "compare", etc. and I agree that the Portfolio is king. Those little date keepers seem to be losers for text processing, which is my main use; and those HP devices strike me as unconventional with the way they double file sizes, or whatever. I can't believe that after all these years there is not a product to beat the Port, even though Atari has not even tried to do an upgrade. I just got the Frenchman's program PORTMAN off here and now I am even more efficient on file transfers and unwraps. Also, guess what, my Port has now stopped farkling on file transfers and is making transfers just fine as if it formerly just had a cramp or something which is now gone!" On the subject of finding a carrying case for the Portfolio, Stephan Sayer posts: "As for a really inexpensive case, I've been using an Atari Lynx case for mine which is the perfect size when there is an expansion device attached. My BSE Universal Interface stays attached all the time this way and the little pockets in front work well for spare batteries. It's got a belt loop and a hand strap and at about $12 to $15 it's an excellent value." Mark Gordon asks Stephan: "What is the Atari Lynx case. Was that made for the Port. I have a vague memory of another atari computer named the lynx. how big is the case?" Atari's own Don Thomas tells Mark: "The Lynx is Atari's color handheld video game..." Stephan Sayer gets a bit more in-depth: "The Lynx case is made for the Atari Lynx handheld game machine and is more of a pouch than a case per se. It's only slightly loose with a Portfolio in it and is the perfect length to accomodate an attached expansion interface (serial or parallel expansion for example). It's padded and opens at one end with a flap that's held closed with a good sized piece of velcro. You should be able to find these most anywhere that sells Lynx gear. I got mine at a Toys 'r' Us store in Michigan." Howard Blumenthal asks Don Thomas about the future of the Portfolio: "At CES, I was told that Atari is no longer selling Portfolio, and that you were no longer with the company. Say it ain't so! (If you aren't with Atari anymore, how can I find you?) In any case, I remain a devoted Portfolio user, even after having bought a Mac Duo. And I have talked many friends into buying Ports, too. One needs a 64K memory card. Where can I buy one for a reasonable price?" Don Thomas, who is still very much "with" Atari, tells Howard: "I'd be interested to know who said we do not sell Portfolios and that I did not exist! ... BTW, Optrol has a GREAT deal on very large capacity Flash RAM cards. Yell to Dave Stewart for availability and price. (He's got the 64 K's too)." Lew Thomas posts this tidbit: "There is a little known interface available for the Atari Portfolio which allows one to communicate through the Hewlett Packard Interface Loop, (HPIL), with equipment such as the HP Thinkjet Printer, the 9114 3.5" floppy disk drive, etc. I developed this interface about five years ago and marketed it briefly through Interloop, San Jose, CA. Some of these units are available, and surplus HP Thinkjet Printers in excellent condition form EduCalc in Laguna Niguel, CA. The Thinkjet Printer was going for about $100 last time I checked... The Portfolio/HPIL Module works fine with the HP9114 Disk Drive and the HP Thinkjet Printer. The Module is called Model 170 from INTERLOOP, San Jose, CA. The Interface Module is provided in an Atari Module Case. The Parallel or Serial Case.(they are both the same size). The device driver is included on an EPROM in the unit and is installed by booting the Portfolio twice when the unit is attached. Once to download the driver to the Atari, and the second to boot from Drive C: (It was easiest that way!) One may read/write to an IBM 3.5"DD disk or an HP formatted 3.5"DD disk. If you format a disk on the HP9114, it is in HP DOS format and can not be read by another DOS machine. If you format a disk on the DOS machine, then insert it in the HP9114, it will read/write in IBM DOS format." Well folks, that's about it for this week. Somewhere along the line, I do intend to begin adding information about other types of computers to this column.. especially palmtops and pentops such as the Z-7000/Z-PDA from Casio/Tandy. It is a very nice machine with many well though out features and represents the next step in the evolution of the personal computer. Be sure to tune in again next week and listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" """"""""""""""""" "He who would do some great things in this short life must apply himself to work with such a concentration of force such that, to idle spectators who live only to amuse themselves, it looks like insanity." - Francis Parkman """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > DEALER CLASSIFIED LIST STR InfoFile * Dealer Listings * """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" --------------- ABCO Incorporated ================= P.O. 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