Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) January 17, 1997 No.1303 Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor STR Publishing, Inc. Voice: 1-904-292-9222 10am-5pm EST FAX: 904-268-2237 24hrs STReport WebSite http://www.streport.com STR Publishing's FTP Support Server 10gb - Back Issues - Patches - Support Files (Continually Under Construction) ftp.streport.com Anonymous Login ok - Use your Email Address as a Password STReport published with MS Office 97 & Adobe Acrobat Pro v3 Featuring a Full Service Web Site http://www.streport.com Voted TOP TEN Ultimate WebSite Join STReport's Subscriber List receive STR through Internet Toad Hall BBS 1-617-567-8642 01/17/97 STR 1303 The Original Independent OnLine Magazine! - CPU Industry Report - PageMaker 6.5 Overview - MS Office 97 - Toshiba DigiCam - 120m 1Q Apple Loss - Hal's B'day - Exabyte 10gb Tape BU - NYS KILLS Net Tax - USR x2 NEWS - HTML 3.2 OK'd - People Talking - Classics & Gaming INTERNET DEADBEATS NETSCAPE STOCK TAKES A DIVE AOL SUED OVER POOR SERVICE! STReport International 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 International BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the provision and distribution of STReport for their members. You may call The STReport Home BBS, The Bounty @ 1- 904-268-4116. Or obtain the latest issue from our WebSite. Enjoy the wonder and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to all computer types, worldwide, through the use of the Internet. All computer enthusiasts, hobbyist or commercial, on all platforms and BBS systems are invited to participate. IMPORTANT NOTICE STReport, with its policy of not accepting any input relative to content from paid advertisers, has over the years developed the reputation of "saying it like it really is". When it comes to our editorials, product evaluations, reviews and over-views, we shall always keep our readers interests first and foremost. With the user in mind, STReport further pledges to maintain the reader confidence that has been developed over the years and to continue "living up to such". All we ask is that our readers make certain the manufacturers, publishers etc., know exactly where the information about their products appeared. In closing, we shall arduously endeavor to meet and further develop the high standards of straight forwardness our readers have come to expect in each and every issue. The Publisher, Staff & Editors Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 1/11/96: 2 of 6 numbers, no matches From the Editor's Desk... The fools are at it again! A women's medical center in Atlanta that happens to also do abortions is diabolically bombed. This is the first time the bombing plan included a second bomb timed to go off after the first in an obvious attempt to cause considerable injury to emergency workers and curios onlookers. This is an outrage. This the "informed age" of mankind. Yet we see these acts of religious anti-abortion zealots carrying on as if it were the age of Inquisition. In light of this latest fanatical anti-abortion viciousness, I strongly urge each and every one of you to write to your political local, state and federal representatives urging that a law be written removing all tax-free benefits and status to any non-profit organization found to be associated in any way to any organization or group found to be part of these irresponsible, fanatical religious acts against mankind. There is no doubt in my mind that the best way to stop these zealots is to hobble their cash flow. What happened in Atlanta must be regarded as "The Last Straw". Law Enforcement of all levels must be brought to bear upon these murderous zealots. They must be brought out, into the light of day, for all to see right along with those who are financing these heinous acts of wanton violence. Lloyd E. Pulley, lepulley@streport.co . Our Shareware Editor (among many other things) underwent Open Heart Surgery this past week. Please join me in asking the Good Lord to watch over him and bring him through this safely. I'll keep everyone posted about Lloyd. He's a tough old bird anyway. Can you tell I've known him for a whole lotta years? He'll be back, raising sand, as soon as possible. Office 97 is shipping and what do you know? Certain of my "colleagues" are busy dubbing the package all sorts of less than humorous names. This effort on their part can only be seen as a clumsy effort on their parts to gain some level of yet unattained notoriety through controversy. Its sad to see a power application software package being panned for selfish reasons such as this. We have a number of informative articles in this week's issue highlighting some of the fine benefits Office 97 offers take a look at them and also the Microsoft Office 97 Web Site. Don't let spin doctors of the lesser variety make up your minds for you. This package is, simply put, awesome. Adobe's PageMaker 6.5 ships this week too.. This is the very best in DTP productivity software one can possibly ask for. Check out our info on PM 6.5. This puppy won ALL the honors. When coupled with Adobe's PhotoShop 4.0, `tis indeed the Utopian DTP Situation. Of Special Note: http://www.streport.com ftp.streport.com STReport is now ready to offer much more in the way of serving the Networks, Online Services and Internet's vast, fast growing site list and userbase. We now have our very own WEB/NewsGroup/FTP Site and although it is in its early stages of construction, do stop by and have a look see. Since We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addressees, we were compelled to put together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wished to receive STReport on a regular basis, the file is ZIPPED, then UUENCODED. Unfortunately, we've also received a number of opinions that the UUENCODING was a real pain to deal with. So, as of October 01, 1995, you'll be able to download STReport directly from our very own SERVER & WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR AutoMailer list. STReport's managing editors DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Editor Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors PC Section Mac Section Special Events Section R.F. Mariano J. Deegan Lloyd E. Pulley Gaming & Entertainment Kid's Computing Corner Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin Michael R. Burkley Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms John Duckworth Jeff Coe Victor Mariano Melanie Bell Jay Levy Carl Prehn Paul Charchian Vincent P. O'Hara Contributing Correspondents Jason Sereno Norman Boucher Daniel Stidham David H. Mann Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Brian Boucher Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt Ron Satchwill Leonard Worzala Tom Sherwin Please submit ALL letters, rebuttals, articles, reviews, etc., via E-Mail w/attachment to: Internet rmariano@streport.com STR FTP ftp.streport.com WebSite http://www.streport.com STReport Headline News LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Apple Eyes Cheaper PCs in '97 The sale of lots of better-performing, cheaper personal computers and the unveiling of a new global advertising campaign are among Apple Computer Inc.'s goals for this year, according to Apple chief operating officer Marco Landi. Speaking at a press conference at this week's Macworld trade show in San Francisco, Landi adds that as part of Apple's three-year plan to turn its fortunes around, the company also will continue to simplify its product lines this year and will introduce powerful laptops and multimedia computers to compete against a new generation of Pcs. The Reuter News Service quotes Landi as saying, "The mission that we have set up for ourselves is to make sure that we are the leader in providing simple to use, powerful, very high-performance products." Reuters reporter Kourosh Karimkhany says products to be introduced include: ú A $999 Macintosh to rival PCs based on Intel Corp. Pentium microprocessors with the same price. ú A high-end Macintosh based on a 533-megahertz PowerPC microprocessor, a computer chip that the company claims to be one of the fastest available. ú Better-performing PowerBook laptops, traditionally one of Apple's most profitable products. Also, Landi acknowledged Apple has made mistakes in selling to consumers, which account for about 40 percent of its revenue in the Christmas quarter, but said the company still is in good shape to carry out its product plans in 1997, adding the $1.7 billion in cash that Apple has on hand is a "strong, solid base for us to make the investments to execute our strategy." He said Apple will use some of that cash to launch in January a global advertising campaign to bolster its image, a campaign based on the slogan "Give your dreams a chance." Microsoft Ships Office 97 Microsoft Corp. has launched the latest version of its hugely profitable Office suite of applications. "While early reviews of Office 97 have been positive," notes reporter Martin Wolk of the Reuter News Service, "industry analysts said corporate users in particular will take a hard look before deciding whether the dozens of new features are worth an upgrade investment of $200 per seat or more." Wolk says Microsoft Bill Gates predicts Office 97 will be the biggest upgrade ever in percentage terms for the market-dominating product, which has an installed base approaching 50 million users including component applications such as Word and Excel. "By most estimates," Wolk adds, "Microsoft dominates the market for desktop productivity suites, capturing more than 90 percent of revenues." Analyst Scott McAdams of Ragen MacKenzie projects Office will account for nearly $3 billion of a total $10.2 billion in revenues for Microsoft this year. McAdams says the new Office is filled with Internet hooks designed to drive broader acceptance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, "so it's an important product strategically." Still, adds Wolk, Microsoft faces increasingly aggressive competition from Canada's Corel Corp. and IBM's Lotus unit. Toshiba Unveils Digital Camera Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. is entering the digital photography market with the PDR-2A, a color still camera. Priced at $499, the PDR-2A is targeted toward the rapidly growing market of computer users who use a notebook computer as their main information processing tool. The device comes with a built-in PC Card for transferring images to a notebook computer, a 2MB removable flash memory card and PC and Macintosh imaging software. The camera is set to ship in April. Adobe, Fujitsu Bundles Products Adobe Systems Inc. and Fujitsu Computer Products of America say they have signed an agreement that will provide an off-the-shelf solution to easily convert paper-based and electronic information into high-quality, searchable electronic documents ready for distribution via corporate Intranets, the World Wide Web or CD-ROM. Under the agreement, Fujitsu will bundle Adobe Acrobat 3.0 software with the Fujitsu ScanPartner 600C, a high- resolution color desktop scanner intrduced today by Fujitsu. The bundling agreement is designed to provide customers with a Web-ready document-imaging solution that can support a broad range of user needs including support for high-quality color content and multi-page documents. The companies note that with Acrobat 3.0 and the Fujitsu ScanPartner 600C, customers can make practically any document ready for distribution on the Internet through a process as simple and familiar as printing or scanning. Both paper documents and those created with standard desktop authoring tools, such as word processors, presentation packages and page layout tools, can be turned into Portable Document Format (PDF) files with Acrobat 3.0 and posted immediately onto the Web. As a result, customers can quickly distribute information through external Web sites or corporate Intranets without learning new tools or spending additional time and resources reauthoring documents into other formats. The ScanPartner 600C provides true 600 dpi resolution, single-pass 24-bit color and grayscale and bitonal scanning supported through scanner's bed and built-in 50-page automatic document feeder. The Fujitsu ScanPartner 600C is expected to become available later this month for $1,995, including a SCSI adapter, cables, Adobe Acrobat 3.0 and the ScanRight Image Kit, an enhancement package that includes support software and an image-capture utility. Corel, Netscape Team on Software A new suite of integrated productivity applications will be marketed because of a new agreement between Canada's Corel Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. Reporting from Ottawa, the Dow Jones news service quotes Corel as saying it has licensed Netscape Communicator, Netscape's new integrated suite of client software for open email, groupware and Web browsing, and will integrate it with Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 and Corel Office Professional 8. Corel and Netscape will jointly develop the new products, which Corel plans to ship later this year, and both companies will work together to market and promote them, Corel says, adding development efforts will center on combining the open-standards-based features of Netscape Communicator, such as email and groupware, with the desktop functionality of Corel's products. Also, Netscape has licensed Corel's WordPerfect Suite for internal use, the company says. Microsoft to Make PC/TV Software Software to create entertainment and information services for a new generation of appliances that merge TV and PCs is in the planning at Microsoft Corp. Writing in The Wall Street Journal this morning, reporter David Bank says Microsoft "is seeking to extend the rach of its Windows operating system and define the standards for the new services, which would combine TV-style video with interactive features now found on the Internet." As part of the plan, the software giant this week unveiled a set of echnologies at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Microsoft Vice President Jim Allchin told the paper, "Both the PC and consumer-electronics industries are predicting the evolution of home computers into home entertainment appliances," adding his employer hopes to provide a "common open platform" for the new services. The Journal notes CES is seeing a host of companies -- including Microsoft rival Oracle Corp., and start-ups such as WebTV Networks Inc. -- exhibiting TVs and set-top boxes do the Internet's World Wide Web. "In Microsoft's long-range vision," says Bank, "all television programming and Internet services will be digitized and delivered via PC/TV devices. Microsoft's initiative is designed to help entertainment, consumer-electronics and computer companies create programming, services and features for the hybrid devices." Endorsing the initiative are IBM, Compaq Computer Corp., Hitachi Ltd., General Electric Co.'s NBC unit, Sony Electronics Corp. and Spelling Entertainment. CE Chip Market Set to Rebound While the consumer electronics semiconductor makers struggled in 1996, the market will rebound in 1997 with the emergence of both next-generation and digitally enhanced consumer electronics, according to Dataquest. The consumer electronics semiconductor market declined $1.9 billion in 1996, but the market will grow to $27 billion in 1997, reports the San Jose, California, market researcher. "Because of the establishment of industry standards for most of these products, analog, digital and mixed-signal ASSP products are expected to find extremely high growth opportunities," says Dale Ford, senior industry analyst for Dataquest's semiconductor applications markets program. "More than half of the value created for semiconductors in the next-generaion consumer electronics market comes from chips directly involved in processing audio, video and graphics." Next-generation consumer electronics and digitally enhanced consumer electronics will drive the total chip market over $45 billion by the year 2000, finds Dataquest. Legacy consumer electronics (products such as standard color TVs, portable stereos and VCRs) will find markets at the mid to low-end segments, but the chip shipments in these products will remain relatively flat. Next-generation consumer electronics products include digital set-top boxes, digital satellite set-top boxes, 32/64-bit video game consoles, DVD players, DVD audio players, digital cameras, video CD players, HDTV-SDTV-ATV receivers, digital camcorders (DVC) and other products employing advanced semiconductor technologies. "The poor showing for consumer electronics sales during 1996 has created a sense of urgency among consumer electronics companies working to employ new technologies to revitalize a slumping industry," says Ford. "At the recent Winter Consumer Electronics Show, leading industry executives revealed that their future plans rely on recapturing consumer interest in their core products by adding digital enhancements to legacy products and by pushing the development of a new category of advanced consumer electronics." More information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can be found on the World Wide Web at www.dataquest.com. New HTML Standard Approved The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has endorsed the use of HTML 3.2, an updated version of the Hypertext Markup Language, on Web sites. A statement issued by the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Web standards group says HTML 3.2 is "stable" and "contributes toward the W3C mission of 'Realizing the Full Potential of the Web'" HTML 3.2 was developed throughout 1996 by W3C and industry leaders including IBM, Microsoft, Netscape Communications, Novell, SoftQuad, Spyglass and Sun Microsystems. W3C notes that HTML 3.2 offers a number of new features, including tables, applets, text flow around images, superscripts and subscripts, while providing backward compatibility with the existing HTML 2.0 standard. "For data or applications intended to work across platforms, or having a lifetime of more than a few months, conformance to HTML 3.2 gives the best guarantee of interoperability," says Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and director of the W3C. "If you're looking for a railroad through the marshes of ranging HTML implementations, HTML 3.2 is it." W3C is continuing to work on extensions to HTML for multimedia objects, scripting, style sheets, layout, forms, higher quality printing and math. W3C plans on incorporating this work into further versions of HTML. "We are working closely with Member oganizations and recognized experts in the development, testing and refinement of HTML," adds Dave Raggett, visiting scientist at W3C and the lead architect of W3C's HTML activity. "By providing a neutral forum, W3C is playing a key role in bringing players together to work for the lasting interoperability of the Web." FCC Considers Wireless Net Links A plan that could offer schools, hospitals and businesses a potentially cheaper, wireless way to connect to the Internet is set for approval by the Federal Communications Commission. The idea, says Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa, is "to set aside a large chunk of radio frequencies for free and unlicensed high-speed communication over short distances." Aversa adds, "It would then be up to companies to develop devices to use these frequencies to enable wireless links over a range of about one to three miles. Since the frequencies would be unlicensed, users would not have to pay a company for service, as users of cellular phones do. Instead, these frequencies would be treated like those used to open garage doors remotely." FCC officials say schools could use the wireless links to connect classroom computers to each other. "In this way," notes Aversa, "only one of the computers would need to be hooked into the Internet via high-speed telephone line, rather than having a phone line hooked to each computer." Also, businesses could use the wireless links to tap into a private, "intranet" version of the World Wide Web. Other possible uses for the wireless links would be to exchange e-mail, faxes and computer files among nearby buildings on a small college campus. "And they could be used by hospitals to link computers in different rooms or nearby buildings to exchange patient data, X-rays and medical charts," says AP. Urging FCC approval of the plan are Apple Computer Inc. and a group called WinForum, which is composed of Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc. and Northern Telecom Inc. Says Aversa, "Apple wants to sell radio-equipped computers that would operate on the wireless frequencies. WinForum's partners also are interested in selling equipment for the new frequencies." Attorney James Burger, who has been working on the FCC's plan for Apple, is disappointed longer-range communications links -- up to nearly 13 miles -- can't be used under the FCC's plan. That would have permitted computers in a community to be linked. So, he says, the FCC's plan won't do much to help rural schools because the radio signals would probably need to travel at least that far to reach a central school office hooked to the Internet. Also, says the wire service, the technology won't work well in cities because the signals can't penetrate brick walls or glass very well without additional equipment to boost the signals. FCC OKs Wireless Net Plans As predicted, the FCC has cleared the way for creation of new wireless devices that could allow people to tap into the Internet and exchange e-mail, faxes and computer files. As reported, the plan could offer schools, hospitals and businesses a potentially cheaper, wireless way to connect to the Net by setting aside a large chunk of radio frequencies for free and unlicensed high-speed communication over short distances. Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa notes it is up to private companies to actually develop wireless equipment to work on the frequencies. They would have at most a three-mile range. The FCC made the new frequencies available at the request of equipment makers Apple Computer Inc. and WinForum, a group comprising Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc. and Northern Telecom Inc. Motorola spokesman Tim Kellogg told AP his employer also is developing products but declined to discuss availability or price. "Since the frequencies are unlicensed," says Aversa, "users would not have to pay for service, as users of cellular phones do. Instead, the frequencies would be treated like those used for cordless telephones." FCC Commissioner Susan Ness told the wire service, "Wireless local area network and other equipment can now be developed to connect our computers, laptops and personal digital assistants to each other, to the Internet of today and to the global information infrastructure of tomorrow. In many buildings, including schools, a wireless connection will be a cost-effective alternative to pulling wire through walls and ceilings." Gateway Adopts Zip Technology Iomega Corp. reports that it has begun supplying Gateway 2000 Inc. with internal Zip drives. The devices will be sold as optional storage equipment for Gateway's desktop Pcs. Iomega's drives allow users to save, use, organize and manage information on removable 100MB Zip disks. Zip drives and disks have quickly gained popularity as an alternative to traditional floppy disk because they provide 70 times more capacity and fastr performance. "Today's multimedia applications, operating systems, and Internet services are creating a greater demand for storage," says Timothy L. Hill, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Roy, Utah-based Iomega. "As one of the largest personal computer makers in the world, Gateway is addressing these needs with affordable products that expand their customers' storage capabilities rather than limiting them." Gateway is the latest of several PC makers to adopt Iomega's Zip technology in its systems. Net Telephone Unveiled A Silicon Valley start-up called InfoGear Technology Corp. has teamed with telephone maker Cidco Inc. to introduce a telephone that can surf the Internet as well as make calls. iPhone can be used to send and receive electronic mail, visit the World Wide Web and conduct some Web transactions, writes reporter Barbara Grady of the Reuter News Service. It features a screen that measures 7.4 inches diagonally and a pop-out keyboard for tasks like writing e-mail or typing in Web page addresses. InfoGear President Robert Marshall told the wire service, "This product is not designed to replace the PC but to get on and off the Web quickly and allow consumers cheap, easy access. You can use it to order flowers, make travel arrangements, check stock quotes -- you know, on the way out the door you want to do something but don't want to spend three minutes booting up the PC." Marshall said he expected the phone to sell for about $500. However, Morgan Hill, California-based Cidco and InfoGear of Redwood City, California, plan to sell it initially to telephone carriers to market to their subscribers. Grady notes, though, the phone will face a lot of competition by the time it hits the retail market, which is expected by June. Marshall said the iPhone technology was developed by InfoGear and was based on work started at National Semiconductor Corp. It uses National Semiconductor chips. Cidco, which makes advanced telephones and caller ID systems, developed the telephone hardware. Netscape Delivers 1 Million Servers Netscape Communications Corp. delivered a million Internet and intranet servers in 1996, although not all the deliveries generated revenue, the Mountain View, California, company says. According to the Reuter News Service, Netscape noted the delivery total included downgrades of free trial versions of the software as well as final versions for which it received revenue. It declined to break out the percentage of servers that generated revenue. Netscape officials say the company sees accelerating momentum for the products, and identified Fortune 500 customers of its software for corporate intranets, internal networks based on Internet technology. "The clients included Lockheed Martin, United Technologies' Pratt and Whitney unit, Rockwell International, in addition to Chrysler Corp., Prudential Securities and US West," Reuters reports. Netscape Vice President Srivats Sampath of server marketing told the wire service, "It took Lotus Notes seven years to get a million seats and in our case it took us a year to get a million servers." Netscape Stock Takes a Dive Netscape Communications Corp. stock tumbled more than 10 percent yesterday Tuesday), after cautionary comments by a Wall Street analyst regarding the firm. The stock dropped $4.50 to $42.25 on the Nasdaq market on volume of more than 6.5 million shares. Apparently prompting the dive was Merrill Lynch analyst Bruce Smith's research note that Netscape had scrambled to make its fourth-quarter goals in a way that could hurt its current first quarter and the outlook for all of 1997. Writing for the Reuter News Service, reporter Samuel Perry notes this is the second time in less than a week that Netscape stock has taken a beating. In fact, "the stock of the Mountain View, California-based company has lost more than a quarter of its value since the end of 1996, including a drop of around 19 percent after another analysts' warning last Wednesday." Analyst Smith said he remained neutral on the stock but cited industry sources as saying Netscape had scrambled to meet its fourth-quarter numbers at the end of 1996, which he said did not bode well for its current quarter and all of 1997. Added Smith, "They closed a significant amount of business on Dec. 31 just to make the quarter, which they've never had to do before." In his research note, he wrote, "We have heard of two major deals that were closed on Dec. 31, one of which apparently closed late in the evening." However, a Netscape spokeswoman rebutted this, saying the company did complete some of its deals toward the end of the quarter, but denying it was pushing down to the wir to lock up deals that would make a major impact on its financial results. "We did no deals that were of materially significance on Dec. 31," she said. "Sure, we did deals towards the end of the quarter, like everyone does." Last Wednesday's tumble came after Deutsche Morgan Grenfell analyst William Gurley cut his rating on the Netscape stock to "accumulate" from "buy" and cited risks from its transition to a new business plan and new pricing. Perry says several other analysts, including Goldman Sachs's Michael Parekh and Morgan Stanley & Co.'s Mary Meeker, have put "buy" or "strong buy" ratings on the stock, recognizing near-term risks but remaining upbeat on the stock in the longer term. Apple Posts $120M 1Q Loss Apple Computer Inc., which late yesterday reported a $120 million loss in its first fiscal quarter, is warning investors it doesn't expect to return to profitability until September. The struggling computer maker says much of the loss can be attributed to slow holiday season sales of its Performa computers. Apple's loss, which equaled 96 cents a share, compared with a loss of $69 million, or 56 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Sales for the company's first fiscal quarter, which ended on Dec. 27, fell to $2.13 billion from $3.15 billion. Apple says it plans to develop additional restructuring programs during the second quarter with the goal of returning profitability by the fourth fiscal quarter, which ends Sept. 26. "While we were very disappointed by the Performa sales results and the associated loss, our financial position remains sound," says Fred Anderson, Apple's chief financial officer. "We exited the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash and continued to show improvements in our inventory management during the quarter." In trading this morning (Jan 16), Apple was down nearly 3 percent, dropping 50 cents to $16.75 a share. Apple's shares fell 62 1/2 cents Wednesday, before the Cupertino, California, company posted its results. OS Shipments Up 9.6% in 1996 Researchers at International Data Corp. say worldwide shipments of personal computer operating systems rose 9.6 percent last year to 74.8 million units. Reporting from Seattle, the Reuter News Service quotes IDC research director Dan Kusnetzky as saying the increase from 68.3 million operating systems shipped in 1996 was below the firm's original estimate of a 15.6 percent growth rate, largely reflecting a sluggishness in PC sales. Adds Reuters, "Operating system shipments closely track PC sales, although some personal computers have more than one operating system and some operating system software is sold separately." Some particulars from Kusnetzky included: ú Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95 easily was the market leader in 1996, accounting for 62.9 percent of all operating systems shipped, up from 28.6 percent the year before. ú Windows 3.x and DOS operating system accounted for 17.4 percent of systems shipped, down from 49.1 percent in 1995. ú Microsoft Windows NT Workstation rose to 3 percent of the market from 0.8 percent the year before. ú IBM's OS/2 system fell to just 3.3 percent of the market from 6.2 percent in 1995, while various versions of DOS alone fell to 3.3 percent from 5.1 percent. ú Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh operating system fell to 6.6 percent of the overall market from 6.8 percent. Reuters adds, "The IDC report, which does not count operating system upgrades, is based largely on figures reported by the software makers supplemented by interviews with computer manufacturers and others." Hard Drive Shipments Up in '96 Dataquest Inc. reports that the worldwide hard drive market showed slower growth in 1996 as unit shipments increased 18 percent over 1995, well below 1995's growth rate of 30 percent. The San Jose, California, market researcher says shipments reached 106 million units in 1996, up from 90 million units shipped in 1995. Seagate topped Quantum as the top-selling disk drive vendor as a result of Seagate's merger with Conner Peripherals early in 1996. Quantum had held the top position since 1993. "Nineteen ninety-six was a pretty good year, in spite of a slow start, and we believe that 1997 will be even better," said Phil Devin, vice president and chief analyst of Dataquest's computer storage program. "All companies are producing good volumes of desirable products and prices are not being driven down to unacceptable levels. Book-to-bill ratios are the highest in years." The biggest maret-share gain came from Western Digital Corporation, which increased its market share 4.7 percentage points from 13.7 percent in 1995 to 18.4 percent in 1996. Devin attributes this strong growth to Western Digital attracting customers previously loyal to Conner, Quantum, and Seagate. Dataquest's Web site is located at www.dataquest.com. AOL Sued by California Users Five frustrated California subscribers have sued America Online saying that when they try to log on, all they get is a busy signal. Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the class-action suit seeks $20 million, claiming negligence and consumer fraud. The Associated Press says the plaintiffs contend AOL's new price plan boosted the number of users even though the system was unable to handle the increased load. The suit says the subscribers have encountered "busy and unavailable phone lines and/or inaccessible computer equipment" since the company began offering unlimited access for a $19.95 fee at the beginning of the year. The action was brought by Richard Basch, Robert Friedland, Jeffrey Rayden and James Kranz of Los Angeles County and Jason Cartwright of San Diego County. Their attorney, Louis Marlin, told AP, "They try over and over and over again to try and get in and they get a constant busy signal. One client tried 26 times the other night." Marlin said the $20 million sought is only a minimum estimate "to give warning to the other side that we are seeking significant monetary damages." The suit also asks for a court order stopping AOL from selling any more flat-fee, unlimited-access service until there is "sufficient equipment" to handle the increased amount of users. Meanwhile, AOL said in a statement, "We expect to prevail in the class action suits addressing member access to AOL," adding, "Although we understand the frustration some members are experiencing at not being able to obtain immediate local access during peak periods, the average AOL member gets more value under unlimited pricing than ever before." AOL said in the statment it plans to expand the system's capacity through a $250 million addition in equipment and services over the next two months. AP says a similar lawsuit against AOL was filed in Chicago on Dec. 18. AOL Hit With More Lawsuits More lawsuits have been filed against America Online by frustrated subscribers. And, probably not helping the situation, the Dulles, Virginia, online service also suffered a computer glitch yesterday that led to a shutdown of half the system for nearly four hours. Writing for the Reuter News Service, reporter Therese Poletti says system problems led AOL to shut down half of its system from 3:45 p.m. EST until about 7:30 p.m. to find the problem. An AOL spokeswoman told the wire service, "The system was able to accommodate 124,000 subscribers." Reuters quotes AOL as saying it usually accommodates about 258,000 users simultaneously. "The problem," adds Poletti, "was with an interface board in a router device, which manages the flow of data in a network, the company said. AOL said its network was back to full capacity by 8 p.m. EST. The spokeswoman said the outage was not related to the onslaught of member usage since AOL switched to unlimited use for a flat rate of $19.95 a month." Meanwhile, on the legal front, two more lawsuits against AOL have been disclosed, both filed in New York state court this week, claiming breach of contract, deceptive trade practices and false advertising, says Reuters. As reported yesterday, AOL already has been hit with a suit in Los Angeles on behalf of five subscribers, seeking damages for what they call fraudulent and malicious representation. A similar lawsuit against AOL was filed in Chicago on Dec. 18. And at least one other New York suit has been filed. The Associated Press reports Ezra Graber of Staten Island brought suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court, contending AOL subscribers "are greeted with busy signals, and, once online, encounter serious technical difficulties because of, among other things, insufficient support," making their subscription "virtually useless." "In addition," says Poletti, "at least two state attorneys general have confirmed they are in discussions with America Online, seeking some resolution to complaints they have received from consumers about the continuing problem of network access." Specifically, New York state Attoney General Dennis Vacco and Wisconsin state Attorney General Jim Doyle are in discussions with AOL, Reuters says. The suits contend that since AOL began offering its members unlimited access for $19.95 a month, its network has been deluged by subscribers, many of whom cannot log onto the system during peak evening hours or on weekends. Intel Faces MMX Rights Fight A copyright fight appears to be in the offing between chip giant Intel Corp. and its traditional rivals, Cyrix Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., over rights to the name of Intel's new MMX chip technology. As reported, Intel Corp. has unveiled its much-anticipated Pentium processors with MMX (multimedia extension) technology designed to offer users PCs with improved graphics, video and audio features. In The Wall Street Journal this morning, reporter Dean Takahashi writes that Intel has notified the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that it intends to trademark the name MMX, which stands for multimedia extension. However, Cyrix and AMD contend Intel isn't entitled to a trademark on the MMX name, and both said they intend to use it in their own forthcoming chips. Said AMD spokesman John Greenagel, "We don't believe MMX is a valid trademark. We think it is a generic term, and we plan to use the term in our marketing. We're trying to solve this amicably with Intel." And Cyrix Vice President Steven Tobak told the paper his employer plans to introduce an MMX-equivalent chip in the first half of this year and it will include the MMX name, over Intel's objections. Takahashi says Cyrix cloned its version of MMX technology, while AMD licensed its version from Intel. Intel Vice President Michael Aymar said the chipmaker didn't give away any rights to use the MMX name. In fact, adds the Journal, "Intel will be including MMX in a redesigned logo as part of a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that began yesterday and picks up speed in a couple of weeks with extensive advertising world-wide." New York State Sued Over New Net Law A new state law in New York State imposing restrictions on "indecent" online material is being challenged as unconstitutional in a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of library, publishing and Internet groups. Filed this morning in federal court in New York City, the suit argues the law's prohibition on online distribution of indecent material to minors would effectively ban distribution of the same material to adults, including works of art and literature, safe-sex information and "a wide range of robust human discourse" that could include sexually oriented language. According to the Dow Jones news service, the suit alleges that because minors have general access to the Internet, and because Internet postings and home pages are accessible to New York residents no matter where they originated, the state's law "effectively would require almost all discourse on the Internet, whether among New Yorkers or among users anywhere in the world, to be at a level suitable for young children." The wire service notes the law, which took effect Nov. 1, makes it a felony to use any "computer communication system" to distribute material containing nudity or sexual content and which is "harmful to minors" - anyone under age 18. The potential penalties for anyone convicted under the law range to up to four years in prison. The law is similar in intent to the federal Communications Decency Act, which criminalizes the online dissemination of "patently offensive" sexually explicit material to minors. Two federal appeals courts have declared the federal law unconstitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the issue. The New York suit seeks a declaration that the state law is unconstitutional, as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions barring the state from enforcing it. Besides the ACLU, the suit's plaintiffs include the American Library Association, the Magazine Publishers of America, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Interactive Digital Software Association, and three New York-area Internet service providers. Olivetti Sells PC Division An agreement to sell its personal computer division reportedly has been reached by Olivetti, the Italian information systems company. In Rome, the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore says the buyers are Centenary Group, a European takeover company, and Italian businessman Gianmario Rossignolo. According to The Associated Press, an agreement in principle was reached late Friday night, and the deal could be announced within a few days. The Rome newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, says the division could be sold for about $130 million. AP notes Olivetti, which employs about 28,000 people, has been in talks for several months to sell off the troubled PC unit. It wants to focus on information services. New York State Waives Net Taxes New York's State Tax Department has been directed to exempt Internet access service from sales taxes as part of Gov. George Pataki's effort to boost employment in the new industry. The Reuter News Service notes the action comes after the state tax department conducted a year-long study, required by 1995 legislation, on issues posed by the Internet, which was submitted to the governor this week by Taxation and Finance Commissioner Michael Urbach. "The report also concluded that because Internet access services were not telecommunications, their receipts were outside the scope of the Section 186-3 gross receipts excise tax," Reuters notes. The wire service says New York state will not collect sales taxes from out-of-state or non-U.S. firms that advertise on the Internet through a New York-based access provider, a decision designed to make such firms more attractive to such entities. Said the governor, "New York is the first state in the nation to take this bold step. We have improved our competitive edge as we compete with places like Seattle and Silicon Valley in California for Internet-related jobs." New York State Sued Over New Net Law A new state law in New York imposing restrictions on "indecent" online material is being challenged as unconstitutional in a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of library, publishing and Internet groups. Filed this morning in federal court in New York City, the suit argues the law's prohibition on online distribution of indecent material to minors would effectively ban distribution of the same material to adults, including works of art and literature, safe-sex information and "a wide range of robust human discourse" that could include sexually oriented language. According to the Dow Jones news service, the suit alleges that because minors have general access to the Internet, and because Internet postings and home pages are accessible to New York residents no matter where they originated, the state's law "effectively would require almost all discourse on the Internet, hether among New Yorkers or among users anywhere in the world, to be at a level suitable for young children." The wire service notes the law, which took effect Nov. 1, makes it a felony to use any "computer communication system" to distribute material containing nudity or sexual content and which is "harmful to minors" - anyone under age 18. The potential penalties for anyone convicted under the law range to up to four years in prison. The law is similar in intent to the federal Communications Decency Act, which criminalizes the online dissemination of "patently offensive" sexually explicit material to minors. Two federal appeals courts have declared the federal law unconstitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the issue. The New York suit seeks a declaration that the state law is unconstitutional, as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions barring the state from enforcing it. Besides the ACLU, the suit's plaintiffs include the American Library Association, the Magazine Publishers of America, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Interactive Digital Software Association, and three New York-area Internet service providers. Inaugural Web Site Launched Last year's campaign was the first World Wide Web's first presidential campaign. Now the Net will have its first inauguration in conjunction with Bill Clinton's second term, which begins Jan. 20. "The Virtual Inaugural" site (reached at http://www.inaugural97.com) has been unveiled by the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Committee to provide updates and photographs of all the inaugural festivities. Presidential Inaugural Committee co-chair Ann Dibble Jordan told United Press International, "A future generation of Americans will remember President Clinton's inauguration the same way we remember Herbert Hoover's inauguration, the first to be broadcast live on radio, and Harry Truman's, the first to be shown on television." The committee has announced a joint Internet venture with the Public Broadcasting Service to provide online lesson plans for middle school and high school teachers, adding students also can use the web site to study citizenship, democracy and the history of American inaugurations. Visitors to the site can get information on the parade, gala or Mall and can their home states on a map and learn about local participants and other items of interest. The web site will have an inaugural schedule, accommodation information and details on events. HAL Has First Birthday (Again) Happy Birthday, HAL! The thinking, talking computer -- which reads lips, plays chess and eliminates astronauts in the sf classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- celebrates a birthday today, well, srta. In Arthur C. Clarke's original book version of "2001," HAL is activated on Jan. 12, 1997, at the "HAL Plant" in Urbana, New York. However, the successful film version of the story shifted the birth year five years forward, to 1992. In both, notes Associated Press writer Matt Kelley, "HAL became a symbol of technology's dangers as well as its promise. The goal of a computer that really thinks is still unrealized. That doesn't mean computer scientists here aren't trying, however." Incidentally, when Clarke was writing his tale in the 1960s, scientists at the University of Illinois still were building Illiac IV, then the largest and fastest computer in the world. "That computer," says Kelley, "ran at 13 megahertz, less than a tenth the speed of a common PC today, and had just 1 megabyte of memory, a fraction of what's standard on modern home computers." Bill Gates Eyes Gumbel for MSNBC Word is Microsoft Corp. chief Bill Gates wants Bryant Gumbel, who recently left "Today" after 15 years on the morning TV show, to play a major role in MSNBC, Microsoft's joint venture with NBC, home of "Today." No one's confirming that, but The Associated Press reports Gumbel recent toured Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, facilities and met with Gates. In California, Merrill Brown, MSNBC editor in chief, told the wire service the purpose of Gumbel's visit "was to get more Internet savvy and to understand what we're doing, both at Microsoft and at MSNBC." Added Brown, "We did a little demo for him, we let him sit through the news meeting and he had stimulating things to say about the news and what we may or may not do about it." Traditional Modem's Days Numbered The days of the traditional telephone modem are numbered, predicts market researcher Frost & Sullivan. "The slow decline over the next several years in the traditional analog dial-up modem market is a direct result of the acceptance of the new high speed cable and digital ADSL modem technologies," says Brian Phillips, an analyst for the Mountain Vew, California, company. In order to catch users' attention and draw them to their Web sites, site designers are incorporating more extensive graphics and animation in their Web pages. This can make the process of accessing a home page to find specific information tedious, particularly when several hundred kilobits of graphics must be downloaded along with the desired information. This trend will cause a shift in the kinds of modem hardware used for Internet access, driving the need for higher speed digital and cable modems. But Frost & Sullivan doesn't expect the change to occur overnight. "High speed technologies will impact the market in a significant way, but will not take over," says Phillips. "There will be room for dial-up, ISDN and high speed access to coexist in the 21st century modem market. Those companies that stay on top of the market and technology developments and are able to determine which market niche is best suited for them will be the most successful." Netscape sees server momentum grow with new products Netscape Communications Corporation Monday said it is seeing momentum accelerate for the Netscape SuiteSpot family of Intranet servers. The company delivered more than one million servers in 1996. Netscape continues to build its server momentum this week by announcing the availability of two more products in the new SuiteSpot 3.0 line: the final version of Netscape Proxy Server 2.5 and the beta version of Netscape Collabra Server 3.0. Multi-service access switches adopt ID authentication Dynatech Communications, Inc. announced Monday that DynaStar multi-service access switches are available with Security Dynamics' ACE/Server and SecurID user authentication technologies. DynaStar Access Switches utilize a packet/frame/cell architecture offering a multi-service capability for solutions to universal access in enterprise networks and protocol mediation in carrier networks. DynaStar's scaleable architecture will migrate traffic from X.25- to-IP-to-ATM as well as carry Frame Relay, ISDN and SDLC data on one platform. Adobe and Fujitsu to provide scan-to-the-web solution Adobe Systems Incorporated and Fujitsu Computer Products of America Monday announced they signed an agreement to provide a solution to convert paper- based and electronic information into searchable electronic documents ready for distribution via corporate Intranets, the World Wide Web and CD-ROM. The agreement will provide customers with a web-ready document-imaging solution that can support a broad range of user needs. Distribution will occur without spending time re-authoring documents into other formats. AOL spends more on network upgrade as membership soars America Online Inc., plagued with overload problems and angry members, said Thursday it will spend even more than planned to shore up its network, amid another soaring subscriber growth report. The Dulles, Va.-based company has experienced service outages since it switched its members to unlimited usage for $19.95 a month in December. The largest online services company in the world said it will now spend $350 million to upgrade its network, instead of $250 million as previously planned, to add new modems and build an 180,000 square foot data center. Telecoms sign Internet connectivity agreement Virtual Telecom, Inc., announced Thursday the signing of an Internet connectivity agreement with British Telecom Ltd., Geneva to acquire dual high quality Internet connections to the British Telecom/MCI Communications Corp. worldwide Internet backbone (Concert Internet Plus). This agreement will allow Virtual Telecom to deliver high-availability "industrial strength" Internetworking connectivity over its domestic Swiss network. Virtual Telecom operates as a Swiss-based Internet service and information provider. New full-service network offered for rural Colo. Subscribers RELTEC Corporation and Aware, Inc., have joined to deploy digital multicarrier technology for telephony to provide POTS, Calling Name and Number, FAX and data services to Pacific Telecom, Inc. (PTI) subscribers in an ongoing field trial at Rocky Ford, Colo., the companies said Thursday. Larry Burton, vice president of RELTEC Loop Electronics, said the PTI trial represents the first application anywhere of digital multicarrier technology for telephony. The trial began in mid-September. Bonn vows to fight neo-Nazis in cyberspace Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel vowed Thursday that Germany would remain vigilant in its fight against neo-Nazis and was determined to stamp out their racist propaganda--even in cyberspace. "We will not allow the Internet to be used as an electronic meeting place for the extreme right wing," Kinkel said. Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet approved the bill last November to protect Internet users' privacy and keep out Nazi propaganda and pornography--a project the United States and other governments have largely given up as impossible without compromising civil liberties. North Korean news agency debuts on Internet North Korea formally made its debut on the Internet Thursday in what one of its officials said was a bid to remove "misunderstandings" about one of the world's most reclusive nations. Reports in English from the official Korean Central News Agency were made available to Internet users worldwide. The address is http://www.kcna.co.jp. An official from the Korea News Service said North Korea also planned eventually to disseminate information on the web in the Korean and Japanese languages. Wireless modem jack connects to Internet from AC outlet FutureNet has developed a wireless modem jack that converts any electrical outlet into an enhanced jack with a range of 75 feet. A user can plug the unit into any electrical outlet and connect to the Internet. The wireless jack is an FM carrier extension system designed to work with computer modems. All of the control tones and pulses except the ring signal are transmitted in both directions along with the duplex audio signals. The power lines are isolated from the phone lines at each end by the use of high-voltage, U.L. approved capacitors and inductors. Network Internet access offered through single connection Microtest, Inc. Monday announced the forthcoming release of WebEtc, a software solution that allows multiple network users to simultaneously access the Internet through one modem and one Internet connection. WebEtc is compatible with Windows 3.x, Windows 95 or Windows NT. It requires no special client software and operates on either Microsoft or Novell networks, without the need for a dedicated PC or server. WebEtc automatically configures itself during installation. It is scheduled to ship Jan. 31. Artisoft now shipping Visual Voice Text-to-Speech v2.0 Artisoft, Inc. announced Monday it is shipping Visual Voice Text-to-Speech (TTS) v2.0. The latest version of Visual Voice Text-to-Speech adds the ability for software applications to convert ASCII strings or files into highly intelligible speech. Version 2.0 of Visual Voice Text-to-Speech now supports Microsoft's Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI), allowing developers to take advantage of a variety of SAPI TTS engines offering multilingual support, unlimited vocabulary and nine voice types. Ziff-Davis launches 10 new international editions Building on ZDNet's growth in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States, Ziff-Davis Wednesday announced the launch of 10 new, international editions of ZDNet on the World Wide Web. ZDNet China debuted Wednesday. Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Malaysia/Singapore, Russia, Spain and Taiwan will be online with their local editions of ZDNet in March. ZDNet Japan will debut in April. Each edition will feature the 10,000-title ZDNet Software Library as well as local translations of ZDNet's news and buying information. In November 1996, the company said, 34.5 percent of ZDNet's monthly visits came from outside the U.S. Brooktrout to accelerate Internet telephony standards development In a move to accelerate development of standards in Internet telephony, Brooktrout Technology, Inc., has proposed to extend existing International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards for real-time transmission of fax on packet data networks. The proposal extends the existing standards to IP networks including the Internet. Broadening its participation in Internet telephony standards development, Brooktrout also announced that it has joined the Voice Over IP (VoIP) Forum. The VoIP Forum is a group of 40 computer and telephony vendors to ensure and promote industry-wide interoperability of Internet voice communications products. Exabyte announces 8mm technology available Exabyte Corp. Wednesday reported that the Exabyte EXB-8700LT is now available to end users within the United States. The field proven 8mm tape drive is designed for high-end desktop and network applications, has a capacity of 10GB (compressed) and a transfer rate of 60 MB per minute. Exabyte Corp. says the EXATAPE 8mm data cartridges are readily available and more cost effective than the 4mm DAT counterpart. Exabyte storage products provide cost-effective compact data storage in one of the fastest- growing segments of the computer industry. Peru hostage takers call for support on Internet Marxist rebels holding 74 hostages in the Japanese ambassador's residence posted a message on their Internet web page Wednesday urging supporters to help pressure President Alberto Fujimori to release their imprisoned comrades. Fujimori has refused to give in to rebel demands to swap the 74 hostages for 400 jailed MRTA members. The MRTA web page gave the address and fax number of Fujimori's Government Palace and electronic mail addresses of local human rights groups, the International Red Cross and news organizations. E-9-1-1 compliance solutions proffered AccuCom, a San Diego-based provider of wireless location solutions, said Wednesday it can solve infrastructure cost concerns involved in compliance with Enhanced 9-1-1 mobile services rules the Federal Communications Commission issued in June. In complying to the two-phase FCC ruling, wireless carriers were faced with "who pays?" and "how much?" questions in deploying the technology. AccuCom President Paul Bouchard said in exchange for providing hardware, AccuCom would contract with carriers to provide and/or re-sell various location-based services and applications as well as share a 9-1-1 surcharge. Beta testing could begin later this year. China eases Internet blocks but keeps careful watch Beijing has loosened controls barring Chinese Internet users from accessing foreign news sources but is keeping watch for politically suspect content on the worldwide computer network, an official said Wednesday. Blocks imposed last year on Internet Web sites operated by CNN, the Wall Street Journal and other news providers had all been removed, industry experts in the Chinese capital said. China is eager to be part of the technological revolution, but officials have long been concerned that the information superhighway could bypass strict communist control of the media and fuel internal dissent. Office 97 STR Overview Office 97 Top NEW Features A quick overview of the top new features in Microsoft Office 97.Get organized with a unified workspace and tighter integration between all Office applications ú Microsoft Outlook - Provides an integrated desktop where you can organize and manage your e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and files in one place. ú Auto Journal - Logs Outlook communications and Microsoft Office application activities. ú Address book integration - Stores your address book contacts in one location for easy access from any Office application. ú Multiple views - Allows you to view information in any Outlook folder by icon, table, card, timeline, or calendar, or to customize your own view. ú Complete portable solution - Takes your Outlook information with you by way of paper planner, laptop computer, personal data assistant, or Timexr DataLink watch. ú Office Binder - Stores all your files for a project in one place-you can even add common headers and footers so they look and print like one document. ú Get connected with Internet-ready software that enhances interactive collaboration. ú Adding Hyperlinks - Creates live links to a file or site automatically when you type the URL or UNC address. ú ActiveWeb - Allows you to author and view documents in their native format on your corporate intranet or the Internet Full-text searching Enables you to find information on your network quickly and easily. ú Web toolbar - Brings the navigational and searching tools of the Web to your Office applications. ú Save as HTML in Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and PowerPointr - Saves your Office documents into HTML format with the click of a button for posting to the Internet or corporate intranets ú Web templates in Word - Provides custom templates to design great looking. ú Web pages Document Versioning in Word - Tracks and stores all previous version of your document in one file. ú Web Queries in Microsoft Excel - Pull real-rime information from Web sites directly into your worksheet. ú Publish To The Web in Microsoft Access - Converts your data or reports to HTML so you can create dynamic, interactive database pages and share them across a company intranet or the World Wide Web. ú Save to URL in Microsoft Excel - Allows you to save to a Web server by simply specifying the URL address. ú PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveXT - Lets you publish presentations to the Internet as a Web page with animation and narration. Get results with a personalized desktop and intelligent software. ú Office Assistant Provides interactive advice, help, and tips to help you learn as you work and it's completely customizable so you can choose the Assistant and the options that best suit the way you work. ú Grammar Check and Spell It in Word - Proofread your documents for spelling and grammatical errors as you type, and correct errors with one click of the right mouse button. ú Enhanced Auto Correct in Word - Corrects common multiple-word typographical and grammatical errors, fixes capitalization mistakes, and creates handy shortcuts for frequently used text and graphics. ú Natural language formulas in Microsoft Excel - Allow you to use your own terminology when building formulas. ú Multiple Undo in Microsoft Excel - Allows you to undo multiple commands. ú AutoPreview in Outlook - Lets you view the first three lines of each e- mail message. ú IntelliMouse support in Office 97 applications - Takes advantage of the IntelliMouse Wheel for enhanced navigation, close-up viewing, and panning left and right (hardware sold separately). ú Office Art - Gives you drawing tools to easily design sophisticated 3- D effects, shadows, multicolored fills, textures, and Bezier curves. ú Images and fonts on CD-ROM - Includes approximately 3,000 clip-art images and 150 fonts. One Window to Your World of Information Microsoft Outlook 97 Introducing Microsoft Outlook 97, a breakthrough in workgroup and individual desktop information management. With Outlook, you and your team can organize, integrate, and manage electronic mail, calendars, tasks, contacts, documents, and scheduling-all from one window. Microsoft Outlook 97 desktop information manager for the Windowsr 95 and Windows NTr Workstation operating systems helps you communicate, organize, and manage all of your information with one centralized application. Get organized. Organization begins with the Outlook Bar-the user-friendly navigation tool that creates shortcuts to your e-mail inbox, calendar, contacts, tasks, mail folders, favorite World Wide Web sites, and documents. With the Outlook drag-and-drop feature, you can quickly move data, schedule appointments, and prioritize your tasks. You can even use drag-and-drop to create new Outlook items automatically from existing ones. Communicate with ease. Outlook provides the e-mail functionality you've been waiting for! You're a step ahead with e-mail features such as Auto Preview, which displays the first three lines of each e-mail message so you can scan through and prioritize them quickly. You can also use Message Flag to mark your e-mail messages with due dates or follow-up actions, and Voting and Tracking to tally your team's opinions on issues. Outlook 97 also gives you powerful personal contact management tools. You can store extensive information about each contact, including multiple phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses-even an Internet URL. Use the revolutionary Outlook Journal to maintain an itemized log of your activities and to track your phone calls. Now you can track and find Microsoft Word documents and e-mail messages based on when you last worked on them, instead of searching for the file names or locations. Use Outlook with all of your Microsoft Office applications. Outlook is fully integrated with Microsoft Office 97 so you can organize and communicate seamlessly across your applications. To take full advantage of this integration, use the new Office Assistant for easy, interactive guidance. Information and communication have never been so intuitive. Outlook works the way you do-you'll wonder how you ever managed without it. A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N LEXMARK OPTRA C COLOR LASER PRINTER For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range. It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a sample that's suitable for framing, see below) Guaranteed. you will be amazed at the superb quality. (Please.. allow at least a two week turn- around). If you would like a sample printout that's suitable for framing. Yes that's right! Suitable for Framing. Order this package. It'll be on special stock and be of superb quality. We obtained a mint copy of a 1927 COLOR ENGRAVER'S YEAR BOOK. Our Scanner is doing "double duty"! The results will absolutely blow you away. If you want this high quality sample package please include a check or money order in the amount of $6.95 (Costs only) Please, make checks or money orders payable to; Ralph Mariano. Be sure to include your full return address and telephone number . The sample will be sent to you protected, not folded in a 9x12 envelope. Don't hesitate.. you will not be disappointed. This "stuff" is gorgeous! A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N Shareware Treasure Chest STR Feature "The Latest & Greatest" Shareware Treasure Chest By Lloyd E. Pulley lepulley@streport.com Lloyd will be back in a few weeks. He underwent Open Heart Surgery this past week. Your prayers and good wishes are appreciated. EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents Beeper Madness Time Warner Offers Internet Coaching In The Classroom FCC Designates Wireless Spectrum For Schools, Others DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative Try This Bus For Speed European Union Wants Sales Tax On Telecom Services IBM Internet Service Experiences Some Problems BellSouth Targets Cellular Market In Latin America Programmer Pleads Guilty Of Defrauding AOL Internet Deadbeats Lotus Tunes Up Notes; Netscape, Corel Double-Team Microsoft Encryption Export Policy Won't Work, Says McAfee Boss ABA Appoints Electronic Banking Committee Engineering Ed, Via African Virtual U. Nextel Cuts "Roaming" Rates Indictments For Child Porn On Net NCR And Computer Associates Form Alliance Internet Job Register Gateway 2000 Victimized By X-Rated Sabotage Blank Slate FBI Offers New Proposal For Digital Wiretaps China Loosens Restraints On Internet Access Suit Seeks $20 Million From AOL For Busy Signals Nortel, Baby Bell Have Internet Traffic Control Deal Just Say No To Cybertaxes Computers & Jobs Autodesk Blueprint Targets Home Improvement HP Cozies Up To Informix, Cisco Our Love Affair With E-Mail Phone Fraud In England Microsoft, Intuit Set The Pace For Internet Banking BEEPER MADNESS A technical glitch on Thursday caused the SkyTel paging network to send erroneous call-me-back messages to more than 100,000 customers. The problem was exacerbated when some diligent subscribers returned the call and left their phone numbers so that whoever had beeped them could call back. The result was a 26- minute major phone traffic jam as thousands of other SkyTel customers then called those numbers. Apparently, the whole mess started when a customer desiring a new PIN (personal identification number) was mistakenly assigned one linked to a secret code that the company uses to beam Dow Jones News Service information out to 100,000 customers. The PIN, a seven-digit number that looked like a phone number, was zapped to the Dow Jones subscribers, many of whom then tried to dial it as a local call. Others recognized it as a PIN, and called SkyTel to retrieve the "caller's" number, jamming the lines there. "One frequency of our one-way nationwide network experienced an anomaly in the database that caused customers to be paged erroneously," says a spokesman for SkyTel's parent company, MTel, which has apologized for the snafu. (Wall Street Journal 10 Jan 97 A1) TIME WARNER OFFERS INTERNET COACHING IN THE CLASSROOM As part of its 1995 settlement negotiated with the Federal Communications Commission over cable rate complaints, Time Warner Cable has launched "Cable Connections," a combination of teacher training materials and workshops designed to assist teachers in incorporating Internet access and cable programming in their lesson plans. The company already provides free cable hook-ups to about 90% of the schools in its service areas, which receive 500 hours a month of commercial-free educational programming through the industry's Cable in the Classroom program. Now Time Warner will provide free connections to its ROAD RUNNER high-speed Internet access, including a free cable modem and service throughout the school year. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 8 Jan 97 A19) FCC DESIGNATES WIRELESS SPECTRUM FOR SCHOOLS, OTHERS The Federal Communications Commission has set aside 300 megahertz of spectrum for free, unlicensed, short-range wireless communications by individuals, schools, hospitals and libraries. Metricom's Ricochet network already provides its subscribers with wireless data communications and Internet access using an unlicensed portion of the radio spectrum. The FCC anticipates similar services proliferating, as well as educational and medical applications, such as teachers using the designated airwaves to call up student background records and grades from the schools central database using handheld machines or doctors calling up X-rays from a hospital database and ordering drugs from the pharmacy. (Investor's Business Daily 10 Jan 97 A21) DOE'S ACCELERATED STRATEGIC COMPUTING INITIATIVE The reduction of the arms race is causing a computer race, as the U.S. Department of Energy steps up the pace of developing high-performance computers. "In this program, we have to work with the computer industry to compress the length of time between... generations of computers," says the DOE deputy assistant secretary for strategic computing and simulation. The high-powered machines are needed to perform the complex calculations that are used to assess factors such as the impact of aging on weapons and their ability to perform. The DOE says it will need supercomputers capable of performing at least 100 trillion operations per second by the year 2004. To accelerate the process, the agency has established the Academic Strategic Alliances Program to create and fund university "centers of excellence." (Science News 4 Jan 97 p7) TRY THIS BUS FOR SPEED Intel plans to add a 100-MHz bus to its Pentium Pro microprocessors, allowing the company to bump up chip speeds to 400 MHz by next year. The GTL+ bus will appear later this year on Pentium Pro chips with clock speeds of 300 MHz. Meanwhile, the company will continue to enhance existing Pentium Pro processors that use the 66-MHz internal bus -- in the next few months, Intel will introduce 233-MHz and 266-MHz chips. (Information Week 6 Jan 97 p24) EUROPEAN UNION WANTS SALES TAX ON TELECOM SERVICES The European Union is planning to adopt a rule that allows EU governments to impose value-added taxes on all telecommunications services - including telephone "callback" systems that have been devised to circumvent high European phone rates for international calls by allowing Europeans to call a callback service in the U.S., which immediately hangs up the call, returns it at the much-lower U.S. phone rates, and then connects the caller to the number originally dialed. Theoretically, the rule could also require U.S. companies selling goods over the Internet to pay value-added taxes on merchandise sold to European customers. Such taxes are in excess of 20 percent in some EU countries. (New York Times 11 Jan 97 p27) IBM INTERNET SERVICE EXPERIENCES SOME PROBLEMS IBM acknowledged that it has experienced some problems with e-mail delivery on its Internet Connection service, which has been ranked by PC World magazine as one of the best Internet access services. A number of messages were delayed, but IBM said it had "no reports of significant mail loss." IBM is working on a major upgrade of its servers in order to quadruple capacity. The number of current users on IBM's Internet Connect is reportedly in the low thousands. (Reuters 10 Jan 97) BELLSOUTH TARGETS CELLULAR MARKET IN LATIN AMERICA BellSouth, which already claims 450,000 of the 2 million cellular customers in Latin America, is rapidly expanding its activities there, and has just bought a majority stake in the Peruvian cellular phone company called Tele 2000. The overall customer base in Latin America is expected to increase to 19 million within the next five years. BellSouth's president for Latin American operations calls the use of cellular phones a "cultural phenomenon" and says: "In the United States, people often leave cellular phones in their cars, but in Latin America, people carry them everywhere they go." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12 Jan 97 G5) PROGRAMMER PLEADS GUILTY OF DEFRAUDING AOL A former Yale computer science student has pleaded guilty to defrauding America Online and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution to AOL for using that company's services without paying for them. AOL estimates it lost between $40,000 and $70,000 in service charges because the student distributed his computer program, which he called AOL4FREE, to hundreds of other computer users. (UPI 9 Jan 97) INTERNET DEADBEATS Network Solutions Inc., the authorized collector of fees paid for Internet addresses, reports that it's about $10 million short of the $20.7 million that should be in the account, based on the number of addresses registered since payment was first mandated in 1995. The unpaid fees are partly attributable to "speculators and resellers who have no intention of paying," says a spokesman for the National Science Foundation, the federal agency that appointed Network Solutions Inc. and oversees its work. Thirty percent of the money collected is earmarked for the "preservation and enhancement" of the "intellectual infrastructure" of the Internet, but so far, none of the funds have been spent. "The sooner that the money is spent on the good of the Internet, the better, in my opinion," says the president of the Internet Society. Meanwhile, a chemical engineering professor at Virginia Tech has called for a public accounting of the $10.7- million shortfall: "I think NSF has a tiger by the tail, and the prudent action is to let go of the tail." (Washington Post 11 Jan 97 D1) LOTUS TUNES UP NOTES; NETSCAPE, COREL DOUBLE-TEAM MICROSOFT Lotus is revamping its Notes mail client, building in new calendar and scheduling features, in anticipation of competition from Microsoft Outlook. "Microsoft is getting ready to carpet bomb America with Outlook, which ships free with Office 97, and Lotus has to ready itself for that," says a Gartner Group VP. Lotus is also considering unbundling its Domino Server, giving users a choice of Internet standards-based servers for smaller clients. The announcements will be made later this month at Lotusphere 97. (InfoWorld Electric 10 Jan 97) Meanwhile, Netscape and Corel are producing their own rival to Microsoft's Office 97, based on Corel's WordPerfect suite of applications programs. The new version, due out in April, will incorporate Netscape's Communicator groupware software, which includes e-mail, conferencing and other collaboration products. (Wall Street Journal 14 Jan 97 B10) ENCRYPTION EXPORT POLICY WON'T WORK, SAYS MCAFEE BOSS McAfee Associates CEO Bill Larson says the U.S. government's latest approach to encryption product export just isn't going to work: "The question the administration has to ask itself is: Does it want to have an American encryption industry or not? If it does, it has to allow competition and free commerce to take place. If there were any terrorists who wanted to get 180-bit encryption, all they would have to do is walk into any U.S. store and buy our PCCrypto product. They could put one floppy into a briefcase and get on an airplane... All the governments -- the Russians, the Chinese -- already have their own internally developed 180-bit encryption." And the difference between 56-bit and 180-bit products is significant: "Basically, 48- to 56-bit encryption can be broken by a supercomputer in a matter of weeks. As you move up over 120- bit encryption, you're talking about months with a supercomputer. And 180- bit is a huge effort -- over six months." (Investor's Business Daily 13 Jan 97 A6) ABA APPOINTS ELECTRONIC BANKING COMMITTEE The American Bankers Association has created a Payments System Steering Committee to advise members on electronic banking and commerce issues. An ABA task force last fall recommended that only insured financial institutions should be permitted to issue stored-value card products, such as smart cards, and other forms of electronic money. "Technology and electronic payments are absolutely critical issues to the future of the banking industry," says the committee's chairman. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 13 Jan 97 A8) ENGINEERING ED, VIA AFRICAN VIRTUAL U. The African Virtual University, sponsored by the World Bank, is providing engineering students the opportunity to take courses in electrical engineering from a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The professor's stateside course is videotaped and transmitted via satellite to participating institutions in Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The professor is available by telephone three times a week to answer questions that the on-site instructor can't answer, or for which clarification is needed. Eventually, the African Virtual U. will be available in more than 40 countries on the African continent. (Chronicle of Higher Education 17 Jan 97 A24) NEXTEL CUTS "ROAMING" RATES Nextel Communications is trying to pull ahead of the wireless pack, announcing it will eliminate for about 300,000 of its one million customers the exorbitant "roaming" rates charged by many cellular companies. The new plan begins February 1, and affects calls made from 50 different cities. "We've been somewhat of a stealth wireless company, but now we're about to emerge," says Nextel's CEO. "By the end of this year our second-generation digital network will address 70% of the U.S. population and 85% by next year." The company has already spent $1.85 billion to construct its digital network and plans to channel $2 billion more into efforts to secure nationwide coverage. (Wall Street Journal 14 Jan 97 B1) INDICTMENTS FOR CHILD PORN ON NET Ontario police have charged several people with downloading child pornography off the Internet. The police refuse to reveal the techniques they use to build cases against people caught with huge stockpiles of child porn, and defense lawyers and legal experts say constitutional issues surrounding the state's right to monitor a person's private computer will surface as the cases come to court. Defense lawyer Marie Henein finds it "a little frightening" that you could be sitting at your computer at home while the police are assessing what you're doing. She and another lawyer represent an Ontario man charged with distributing child pornography on the Internet after police seized 20,000 computer files containing photos and video clips. (Montreal Gazette 13 Jan 97 A5) NCR AND COMPUTER ASSOCIATES FORM ALLIANCE NCR Corporation, which was recently spun off from AT&T, has struck a deal with Computer Associates International (the world's second-largest independent software company after Microsoft) that would encourage NCR's large retail and financial-industry customers to use CA software to manage their systems. Last April Computer Associates worked out a similar arrangement with Digital Equipment Corporation. (New York Times 14 Jan 97 C4) INTERNET JOB REGISTER The Canadian government has introduced an Internet employment network for students and recent college and university graduates, called the National Graduate Register < http://ngr.school-net.ca/ >. The service is free to students and employers, but in 1998 employers will be asked to pay a small fee to make the service self-supporting. The service cost $750,000 to develop. (Ottawa Citizen 14 Jan 97 B6) GATEWAY 2000 VICTIMIZED BY X-RATED SABOTAGE A video distributed by Gateway 2000 Inc. to promote its new big-screen PC that performs TV, cable and stereo functions was found to contain 30 seconds of explicit sexual material, forcing the company to recall 20,000 copies of the tape. A company executive says it's a case of sabotage by some disgruntled employee, but is not sure whether the target of the sabotage was Gateway 2000 itself or the video house that produced the tape. (Wall Street Journal 14 Jan 97 B1) BLANK SLATE Michael Kinsley, the editor of "Slate," a Microsoft-supported Web-based political/cultural magazine, has abandoned plans to charge readers who visit its Web page. "Even in our headiest moments, we couldn't convince ourselves that people lust for political and cultural commentary the way they lust for sex and money," says Kinsley, who still plans to use e-mail to deliver a printable version of the magazine for $70 a year. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 14 Jan 96 B5) FBI OFFERS NEW PROPOSAL FOR DIGITAL WIRETAPS The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released for public comment a new proposal for facilitating tapping of digital phone calls by law enforcement officials armed with court orders. Under the new proposal, which is significantly more modest than what the Bureau had asked for in a earlier plan, law enforcement officials would operate under a formula in which (for example) 523 phone lines could be monitored simultaneously in a place such as Manhattan. Privacy advocates oppose the FBI's plan as an unacceptable expansion of electronic surveillance. (New York Times 15 Jan 97 A8) CHINA LOOSENS RESTRAINTS ON INTERNET ACCESS China has restored access to many Western media Internet sites, but barriers remain intact for sites that Beijing considers politically sensitive, particularly those containing news and commentaries from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chinese language sites and those sponsored by Chinese dissident groups are also off-limits. The move to relax restrictions comes several months after access to some 100 sites was blocked last fall. The government has said it plans a more selective approach to Internet censorship in the future. (Wall Street Journal 16 Jan 97 B4) SUIT SEEKS $20 MILLION FROM AOL FOR BUSY SIGNALS Five California men have brought a class-action suit for negligence and consumer fraud against America Online, charging in a Los Angeles Superior Court that AOL introduced flat-fee pricing that increased activity well beyond what it was prepared to handle, so that subscribers encountered "busy and unavailable phone lines and/or inaccessible computer equipment." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 15 Jan 97 B6) NORTEL, BABY BELL HAVE INTERNET TRAFFIC CONTROL DEAL Northern Telecom has signed a deal with American phone company SBC Communications introducing the first service to eliminate phone line "bottlenecks" due to exploding Internet use. SBC, which owns Southwestern Bell, will use Nortel's Internet phone service to route Internet calls to less-congested parts of its phone network. Nortel is the first equipment maker to address what carriers say is a growing problem -- too many Internet users tying up phone lines for too long. Nortel's new offering removes Internet calls from the voice network and places them on the carrier's data system, which is better able to handle such traffic. Nortel is talking to all U.S. and Canadian regional phone companies, and some British carriers, to sell its new Internet product. The potential market for Nortel's service is somewhere between $1- and $2-billion, he added. (Toronto Financial Post 16 Jan 97 p8) JUST SAY NO TO CYBERTAXES Representative Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plan to propose a moratorium on any new federal, state or local taxes on electronic commerce. The Cox-Wyden bill calls on the Clinton Administration to develop a comprehensive Internet policy. (Business Week 20 Jan 97 p41) COMPUTERS & JOBS A new study prepared by Canadian Policy Research Networks concludes the spread of computers in the work place is wiping out job opportunities for unskilled workers. It points out that although computers have created more jobs than they have destroyed, employers have used computer-based technology to eliminate unskilled jobs, and have not given the displaced workers the training they would need to move into the new high-skill jobs. Currently, there is a sharp dichotomy in the employee make-up of computer- oriented vs. non-computer-oriented firms. In low-tech companies, managers and professionals comprise about 15% of all workers, while 36% are unskilled. In high-tech firms, 31% of workers are managers and professionals, and only 10% are unskilled. The biggest winners in the shift in job types are people who know their way around computers: about 15% of the new jobs created went to managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems, while another 21% went to mathematicians, systems analysts and computer programmers. Overall, managers and professionals accounted for 53% of the new jobs created but only 9% of the jobs eliminated. The biggest losers were in "intermediate" jobs, mainly clerical jobs in corporate purchasing and accounting departments, and in banks and insurance companies. They accounted for 22.9% of the new jobs created by computers, but fully 60% of the job types eliminated. (Toronto Globe & Mail 15 Jan 97 B3) AUTODESK BLUEPRINT TARGETS HOME IMPROVEMENT Autodesk is launching a new product that offers a do-it-yourself approach to designing kitchens, and plans to follow up with software for designing homes and bathrooms. "This really is a huge category," says the CEO of Books That Work, another do-it-yourself software maker. "It really is a productive use of computers." The software allows users to experiment with various photo-quality combinations of cupboards, countertops and appliances, and view the result from various angles. (Wall Street Journal 15 Jan 97 B5) HP COZIES UP TO INFORMIX, CISCO Hewlett-Packard has cut deals with database maker Informix Corp. and networking giant Cisco Systems to promote their products as part of an HP marketing effort. Informix's Universal Server database, which is designed to handle multimedia data picked up off the Web, will be bundled into HP's Domain XE Enterprise Server this summer. And Cisco will recommend that its customers purchase HP computers in exchange for HP touting the benefits of Cisco networking products. "Companies must rapidly start moving toward the model of a global networked business if they are to prosper in the years ahead," says Cisco's CEO. (Investor's Business Daily 16 Jan 97 A6, A17) OUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH E-MAIL Forrester Researcher says 15% of the U.S. population now uses e-mail, up from 2% in 1992. And they predict that within five years, that number will rise to about 50%. "It's the most popular online activity," says a Forrester analyst. "Growth will be fueled by the increase in home PC penetration and the growth of Internet access in corporations. Furthermore, the emergence of personalized services and tools that let ordinary people combine graphics and attachments will help make e-mail a preferred means of communication." (Investor's Business Daily 15 Jan 97 A6) PHONE FRAUD IN ENGLAND A man in England has filed suit against British Telecom because someone was able to hack into his phone line and run up several thousand of dollars in charges for calls to international sex lines. "This is not just about money," the man said. "Like many others in my position I was initially told by BT that phantom calls were not possible on a domestic line, the implication being that one of my three sons must have made the calls. That caused considerable and unjustified friction which affected the whole family." BT insists it treats all customers fairly and says: "We do not deny that domestic telephone fraud happens but it is rare. You have more chance of becoming a millionaire on the lottery than becoming a victim of telephone fraud." a spokesman said. But the Telecom Managers Association, of which BT is a member, says: "There are only two types of phone user -- those who have been defrauded and those who will be." (The Sunday Times of London, 12 Jan 97) MICROSOFT, INTUIT SET THE PACE FOR INTERNET BANKING Microsoft and Intuit Inc. have teamed up with Atlanta-based CheckFree Corp. to devise and promote a single standard for banking over the Internet. The Open Financial Exchange standard seeks to establish rules for exchanging financial data among financial institutions, businesses and consumers over the Internet. Both Microsoft and Intuit will modify their competing personal-finance programs to adhere to the new standard. Conflicting standards have been cited as one reason that online banking hasn't really caught on with consumers and financial institutions. "The banks are saying we don't want to have all of these choices," says an industry consultant. (Wall Street Journal 16 Jan 97 B4) Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas (douglas@educom.edu). Voice: 404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057. Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology, University of North Carolina. EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Marvin Minsky (assuming that your name is Marvin Minsky; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage... Subscription problems: educom@educom.unc.edu. EDUCOM REVIEW is our bimonthly print magazine on learning, communications, and information technology. Subscriptions are $18 a year in the U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell; or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel. Your choice. But ring it! EDUCOM UPDATE is our twice-a-month electronic summary of organizational news and events. To subscribe to the Update: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe update John McCarthy (assuming that your name is John McCarthy; if it's not, substitute your own name). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE The CAUSE organization's annual conference on information technology in higher education is scheduled for the end of this month in New Orleans. The conference will bring together administrators, academicians and other managers of information resources. For full conference information check out or send e-mail to conf@cause.colorado.edu. ARCHIVES & TRANSLATIONS. For archive copies of Edupage or Update, ftp or gopher to educom.edu or see URL: < http://www.educom.edu/>. For the French edition of Edupage, send mail to edupage-fr@ijs.com with the subject "subscribe"; or see < http://www.ijs.com >. For the Hebrew edition, send mail to listserv@kinetica.co.il containing : SUBSCRIBE Leketnet-Word6 or see < http://www.kinetica.co.il/ newsletters/leketnet/ >. For the Hungarian edition, send mail to: send mail to subs.edupage@hungary.com. An Italian edition is available on Agora' Telematica; connection and/or free subscription via BT-Tymnet and Sprint (login: I've also been playing around with a relatively new Web page/HTML creator, Home Page Penguin. It's pretty basic and nothing fancy, but I was successful in creating a web page (basically for my wife's Star Trek "Imzadi" fanclub and newszines as well as her home Star Trek collectibles venture). The page is really basic at the moment, but I hope to clean it up and add some things related to my BBS and Atari user group. If you feel like dropping by, the URL is "http://www.people.delphi.com/dpj". I also found another creator earlier this week, Web Spinner, but I haven't looked at it - I'll keep you updated on both of these Atari HTML programs as I delve into them deeper in the days to come. I also have another (new) e-mail address via STReport's site, at "dpj@streport.com" - another address to remember! Before I forget, I just want to send out my best wishes for a speedy recovery to Lloyd Pulley, our illustrious PC Public Domain software "guru". Lloyd recently underwent heart surgery and all of us here wish him well! Until next time... Newsbytes NewsReel - 12 Years Ago This Week MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1997 JAN 10 (Newsbytes) -- By Nick Gorski. Twelve years ago, January 8, 1985, these Newsbytes stories were filed. A Look Back At CES, Apple Update, and Komputers To The Kremlin. These stories were taken from the extensive archives at the Newsbytes Website at http://www.newsbytes.com A Look Back To CES Scheduled for introduction are three new computers from Atari. Early reports say the Atari "Jackintosh," a 32-bit Macintosh-like machine, will NOT be introduced. In fact, we'll have to wait until at least April, either the Chicago CES or the West German Hanover Fair for that. InfoWorld suggests a 16-bit system with either 128 or 192K will be unveiled. And, rumors still persist that Mindset and Atari are STILL TALKING regarding a collaboration on a new machine or the old Mindset. For sure, Fractalus" and "Ballblazer" games will soon become commercially available for Atari owners. It's no secret that a flurry of MSX products will be on display from Japanese manufacturers, many of them hosted by Microsoft, which invented the MSX technology. InfoCorp, a Cupertino, Ca. market research firm, says MSX machines accounted for 40 percent of all home computer sales in Japan last year, mainly because they are compatible with a variety of other Japanese electronics products. Whether they will take the U.S. by storm is another matter. Their biggest selling point may simply be their price. MSX computers generally run between $300 and $900 dollars. Apple Update John Scully has just been named "Adman of the Year" by Advertising Age. He won the distinction by rewriting "the marketing ground rules for the entire industry." He not only raised the cost of advertising, spending $100 million last year, but staged quite a few promotional "events," not the least of which was the "1984" commercial last year. Speaking of spending, Apple assistant to the chairman Robin Reed was quoted by the Wall Street Journal, in reference to Apple's $110,000 Christmas party, "Just say we have a little music and some hors d'oeuvres. We have an image to worry about. The stockholders won't like this at all." (Thanks to "Softletter" for that item.) And finally, California Technology Stock Letter reports Apple sold 250,000 Macintoshes last year, "making it the most successful first-year personal computer ever." Komputers To The Kremlin Apple II, Kaypro and Radio Shack Model 100 computers will now be exported to the Soviet Union, based on new rules established by the Department of Commerce. The feds say that PC/XT and Apple Macintoshes and a variety of other, more powerful micros, will remain banned from exportation. The Commerce Department has decided that the less powerful machines pose no military threat if they "fall into the hands of Soviet leadership." The question is, does the Soviet Union want them? A report from the New York Times' Moscow bureau last week indicated that the Soviets are extremely paranoid of hackers and are doing everything they can to keep micros out of the hands of the populace. Gaming Section Super Bowl - Game Console Style! PlayStation, N64, and Saturn News! NHL '97! NFL '97! WCW! And more... From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! There's plenty of game and industry news this week that gives me the inclination to be very brief this week. No "new" Jaguar news, but everything is still "on target" for the next releases. The winter sports season is in full throttle, and the games are out there as well. NHL '97 and NFL '97, and others. The Super Bowl console "wars" are also upon us (Go Patriots!!). Otherwise, let me shut up and let you get on with this week's issue! I'll be more vocal next week, news-withstanding. Until next time... Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! GTE: GTE Interactive Media to Cease Operations in March JAN 10, 1997, M2 Communications - GTE Interactive Media will cease operations as of March 14,1997. Founded in 1990, GTE Interactive Media has been an innovative interactive software publisher that has developed or distributed products for a variety of technology platforms, including CD-ROM, Sega and Nintendo. "GTE has made a strategic decision that it does not need to be a primary participant in the creation and management of content," said Richard Scott, vice president and general manager-New Ventures for GTE. "At its inception, GTE Interactive Media was viewed as a complementary adjunct to GTE's plans to develop broadband video services networks. "Today, with the exponential growth of the Internet and the acceleration of players in the entertainment marketplace, GTE believes the need to be a primary source of content to feed its own networks has diminished. There are numerous sources available," Scott said. "This move allows us to increase our focus on our core tele-communications business," Scott said. "We attempted to find a solution that did not involve a shutdown," Scott said, "but we talked with several potential buyers without reaching a satisfactory agreement." GTE Interactive Media's 85 employees will continue on the payroll until March 14, 1997, but will be given the opportunity to look for other employment in the interim. Where possible, some of them will be placed in other parts of the GTE organization. A small group of employees will be retained to assist in the shutdown activities through June 30, at which time the company will close its office in Carslbad, Calif. With revenues of $20 billion in 1995, GTE is one of the largest publicly held telecommunications companies in the world. GTE is also the largest US-based local telephone company and a leading cellular-service provider -- with wireline and wireless operations that form a market area encompassing about a third of the nation's population. Additional information about GTE can be found on the INTERNET at http://www.gte.com Sega Sells 7 Million Saturn Consoles Worldwide OSAKA, JAPAN, 1997 JAN 14 (Newsbytes) -- By Martyn Williams. Sega of America, the North American unit of Osaka-based Sega Enterprises Ltd. [TOKYO:7964], says worldwide sales of its Saturn games system have topped seven million. In North America, sales passed projections to total 1.2 million in 1996. Combined with the installed base of 400,000 Saturn systems, there are now 1.6 million consoles in North American homes. Analysis of the sales data outlined in the press release from the company shows just how important promotions and the Christmas sales period is to the company in North America. It said a special "three pack" promotion helped push December sales to 500,000 units, almost half the annual sales. That month saw a 300 percent increase on the previous month, which puts November sales at 125,000 units. With Sega's reported 1.2 million systems sold in the year, more than half were sold in the last two months of the year. This leaves average monthly sales for the rest of the year at just 57,500 consoles. For the remaining three months of fiscal 1996, which ends on March 31, the company said it expects to sell 100,000 units. This works out to an even lower average monthly sale of 33,333 units. In the "three pack" promotion mentioned, consumers received three free arcade translation games -- "Virtual Fighter 2," "Daytona USA," and "Virtual Cop" -- with the purchase of a Sega Saturn. The promotion also included coupons for discounts off two future games. The company said software sales of Saturn games totaled 5.5 million in 1996. Of those, 2.7 million were made by the company with the remainder from othe suppliers. Popular games during the holidays were "Sonic 3D Blast" and "Nights," said the company. Within the home video games industry, the company is facing strong competition from Sony's PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, a fight which has pushed it into third place currently. In addition, the home video games market in general is fighting a battle for users as leisure time activities increasingly grow with the popularity of personal computers, the Internet, and more entertainment, such as multichannel digital satellite broadcasting. T-HQ Brings World Championship Wrestling to PlayStation CALABASAS, CALIF. (Jan. 13) BUSINESS WIRE -Jan. 13, 1997--T-HQ Inc. (NASDAQ:TOYH) Monday announced that it will publish the company's first title under its World Championship Wrestling license, "WCW vs. the World," pursuant to an agreement with game developer Asmik of Japan. "WCW vs. the World" is a true 3-D wrestling game for the Sony PlayStation and T-HQ expects to ship the title in the Unites States in March of 1997. The game, which was originally released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation under the name "Virtual Pro Wrestling," brings one of Turner Broadcasting System's premier sports entertainment franchises, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), to the 32-bit Sony game platform. "WCW vs. the World," based on Nielsen's top syndicated weekly programming and featuring World Championship Wrestling and its superstars, will incorporate the signature moves of world-renowned WCW wrestlers including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Lex Luger. World Championship Wrestling (WCW), "Where the Big Boys Play," is a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which produces and markets television programs and live events featuring wrestling superstars. WCW produces eight hours of original programming seen each week throughout the United States and in over 25 countries throughout the world. Check out WCW's Web site at www.WCWwrestling.com. Asmik Corp. is a leading Japanese developer, publisher and distributor of high-quality entertainment software for next-generation 32-bit videogame systems. The company, founded in 1985 and based in Tokyo, also distributes award-winning motion pictures, as well as home videos throughout Japan. T-HQ develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms including Nintendo, Sony and Sega. Most of the company's products are based on licenses from popular sports, movies and arcade games. T-HQ has headquarters in Calabasas. Contact: Rob Fleischer Marketing@asciient.com ASCII Entertainment Software, Inc. 900 Veterans Blvd., Suite 600 Redwood City, CA 94063 (415) 780-0800, (415) 780-0855 http://www.asciient.com STRAP IN FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE! 0 to 1,234,800 mph in load time with the Mach 1 controller Speed is of the essence. Moving from point A to point B has never been so simple. ASCII has given the gameworld yet another amazing controller to make flight, driving, and racing games mirror real life. As you travel through the sound barrier you will be transported to another dimension where light and gameplay unite to provide a complete and total bliss for those in control. And in control you will be. With the most comfortable ergonomic design of any steering wheel/flight controller out there, you won't be left in space. As you weave between cars and alien aircraft you will hardly find the time to thank us; but we understand. This solid, durable steering unit will sit perfectly on any table top, or for that special, one-of-a-kind, flight controller/steering wheel feel, that only ASCII can provide, you can rest the controller snugly between your legs. Angle the steering column up or down to suit your need for speed and then position the separate foot pedals within feet's reach and you are on your way to the finish line (in 1st, we hope). Options, options, options_faster, faster, faster_concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. Oh, those voices in your head, wanting so much and always expecting to get it. The quickest way to satisfy these voices is getting your driving gloves on a Mach 1. With four adjustable button configurations, four different controller settings (analog, digital, pulse, and "analog joystick"), and an independent turbo fire feature (to borrow from "Back to the Future") where your going, there are no roads. Nothing to hold you back. And not only do all of these aid in agility and swiftness, but the unique forward and backward motion of the steering column certainly won't hurt. Now you can fly_. Yeager style! But the fun doesn't stop there! Strap yourself in cause here comes the whiplash! No gravity is gonna pull you back. Fly high as you cruise coolly using the most advanced steering controller available. The 360 top-hat gives pin-point accuracy for last second lock-ons and directional control while the 2-axis analog control propels you forward at break-neck speed. A controller for all seasons (we'd recommend you get radials for winter driving) and all speeds, whether it's a Sunday drive you're after, or a Sunday driver that's after you, the getaway will be made easier with the Mach 1. So buckle up cause you are in for the ride of your life. Just to get you up to speed, ASCII Entertainment Software is the American wholly owned subsidiary of ASCII Corporation of Japan. Concentrating on the software division of ASCII Corporation's diversified high technology and mass media industries, ASCII Entertainment has carved out a niche in the U.S. and the rest of the video gaming world both in video game controllers and software titles. Coming February... PlayStation Dominates The Ice In San Jose FOSTER CITY, CALIF. (Jan. 15) BUSINESS WIRE -Jan. 15, 1997--Wayne Gretzky. Mario Lemieux. Brett Hull. Patrick Roy. Some of the greatest names in hockey. What do they have in common? Not only are they all selectable players in NHL Face Off '97 for the PlayStation game console, but they also will all be playing in the Pinnacle/NHL FANtasy 47th Annual All-Star Game at the San Jose Arena on Saturday, January 18. As part of the celebration surrounding the All-Star Game, Sony Computer Entertainment America, the people behind the PlayStation game console, will be taking part in the NHL FANtasy, which starts on Thursday, January 16 and runs through Sunday, January 19 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Sony Computer Entertainment America will have a booth with 8 interactive PlayStation kiosks running NHL Face Off '97. Each day there will be the opportunity for people to play NHL Face Off '97 against another person to win a number of prizes - from hats and t-shirts to hockey pucks. Some of hockey's brightest stars will also be making daily appearances at the PlayStation booth to sign autographs, pose for pictures, and even to play Face Off against the fans. Players include Sharks cener Darren Turcotte, Phoenix Coyotes' left wing Kris King, and others. As a reward to the hockey fans making the trip out to San Jose for the All-Star Game (as well as the local die-hard Sharks supporters), the NHL is hosting the NHL FANtasy during the days prior to the All-Star Game. FANtasy is a chance for hockey fans to learn more about the sport through hands-on trials, as well as check out the various NHL licensees. People will have the opportunity to practice their slapshot, meet some of the NHL's best players, and play NHL Face Off '97, the leading next generation hockey video game, in the arcade area of the event. Realism is key to any sports video game and NHL Face Off '97 has every imaginable element: real stats and player attributes on all 650 NHL players; the home and away uniforms for all 26 teams, including the relocated Phoenix Coyotes; and each team's respective arenas recreated in amazing 3D detail. Beyond inclusion of all of these hockey mainstays, the game developers at Sony Interactive Studios America have added hockey elements such as drop passes, fake shots, the give-and-go, backwards skating, flips, fighting, celebrations and injuries. Athletes can also be traded freely between teams and have their stats edited. New players can even be created from scratch, allowing the player to add new team members as rosters change, or to put himself in the game. Midway Games Ships Third Nintendo 64 Home Video Game CHICAGO (Jan. 15) BUSINESS WIRE -January 15, 1997 Midway Now Offering Two N64 Sports Games Nintendo Projects Continued Strong Nintendo 64 Sales Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY) announced today at Oppenheimer & Co.'s Visual Media Technology Conference that it shipped to retailers today its third Nintendo 64 (N64) video game software title, NBA Hang Time, for sale to consumers on January 17. NBA Hang Time and Midway's The NHLPAT & NHLr Present Wayne Gretzky's 3D HockeyT are the first sports games available for N64 and Midway is currently the only third-party licensee offering software titles for Nintendo 64. Through the end of December, Nintendo has sold at least 1.7 million units of N64 hardware at retail in the U.S. Nintendo anticipates selling an additional 2.2 million Nintendo 64 systems by fiscal year end and projects retail sales of 6 million more N64 units worldwide by its 1997 fiscal year end. Midway's first two Nintendo 64 video game software titles, Mortal Kombat Trilogy and The NHLPA & NHL Present Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, enjoyed tremendous sales this holiday season selling over 500,000 units in aggregate. Midway believes the combination of a strong start for hardware sales and a limited library of software titles provides Midway with an opportunity to secure major market share. NBA Hang Time is based on the popular arcade game, and features 2-on-2 full-court action and life-like players from all 29 NBA teams equipped with ultra-realistic movement capabilities. NBA Hang Time boasts over 900 secret "power-up codes", new hidden characters, the option to play on various courts and a sophisticated "Create-a-Player" option featuring up-to-date 1997 player rosters, including the latest NBA rookies. This option lets gamers custom-build their very own NBA Hang Time players with the physical appearance including height, weight, face and skills - such as speed, shooting, dunking, passing, and defensive ability - of their choice. NBA Hang Time also features play-by-play announcing and audio effects that simulate the sounds of an NBA arena during game time. PlayStation Game Console Catches Super Bowl Sunday FOSTER CITY, CALIF. (Jan. 15) ENTERTAINMENT WIRE -Jan. 15, 1997--Over the course of the next two weeks, tens of thousands of football fans will converge upon the "Big Easy" for "Super Bowl Sunday," in search of entertainment and excitement...and Son Computer Entertainment America, Inc., the people behind the PlayStation(TM) game console, will be there to make sure that there's plenty of both for everyone. Over the course of Super Bowl week, activities will include gameplay competitions on dozens of interactive PlayStation kiosks at the NFL Experience and Fox Field, as well as the long awaited Second Annual "Game Before the Game(TM)". The "Game Before the Game" is a unique event which pits a player from the Green Bay Packers against a player from the New England Patriots in a head-to-head interactive preview of Super Bowl XXXI on the huge Sony Mobiltron, the biggest screen on wheels. Second Annual "Game Before the Game" On Tuesday, January 21, Sony Computer Entertainment America will be hosting the Second Annual "Game Before the Game." A player from the Patriots will take on an opponent from the Packers in an early interactive glimpse of Super Bowl XXXI. The players will square off for a fierce game of NFL GameDay(TM) '97, the new hit football game for the PlayStation game console. This year, the competition has grown to become an outdoor extravaganza, which will take place at the PlayStation Arena. The Arena is a re-creation of an actual football stadium, complete with bleachers and field, as well as the Sony Mobiltron, a 9'x12' video screen. Public events begin at 1 p.m., when the PlayStation Arena opens, allowing eager fans the opportunity to play NFL GameDay '97 on the Mobiltron or one of the several kiosks surrounding the arena. During the afternoon there will be a steady stream of giveaways and raffles, as well as an abundance of food and drinks at discount prices. Then, at 6 p.m., players from the Patriots and the Packers will take center stage to challenge each other on the Mobiltron. The audience will have a clear view of their favorite player from the bleachers, while announcers provide commentary as the action unfolds. NFL Experience Sony Computer Entertainment America can also be found at the NFL Experience, which beginsThursday, January 23, and runs through Super Bowl Sunday. Sony Computer Entertainment America will be located in the arcade area, where there will be 10 PlayStation kiosks running NFL GameDay '97. The booth will have a competition stage for the public with prizes for all participants. The Mobiltron will be set up inside the Experience, and there will be daily player appearances by some of the professional athletes visiting New Orleans for the week. Players will compete with fans, as well as pose for pictures and sign autographs. NFL Experience is located inside the New Orleans Convention Center. Miller Lite/PlayStation NFL GameDay Challenge Sony Computer Entertainment America can also be found in the Miller Lite/PlayStation NFL GameDay '97 Challenge tent at Fox Field, a huge outdoor area being set up in the French Quarter by Fox Networks. The GameDay Challenge will be inside a 30'x30' PlayStation tent at one end of the field, located on Decatur Street near Jax Brewery. Inside the tent will be eight PlayStation kiosks running NFL GameDay '97, with contests and giveaways happening throughout the day. The NFL GameDay Challenge runs from Thursday, January 23 through Saturday, January 25. ADVISORY/Sega Sports Predicts the Green Bay Packers... The team that won Super Bowl I & II is back for the first time in 29 years, leaving the "Big Easy" with the "Big" Super Bowl victory. WHAT: Sega Sports has predicted the outcome of the National Football League's Super Bowl with "NFL '97" -- the all-new Sega Sports football video game for Sega Saturn. Building off the success of past predictions including the Nebraska Cornhuskers College Football National Championship, the San Francisco 49ers '95 Super Bowl win, the Dallas Cowboys '96 Super Bowl win, the Houston Rockets '95 NBA Championship clinch, the Chicago Bulls '96 NBA Championship win, the Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche, and the Atlanta Braves '95 World Series win, Sega Sports has once again let its sports video game do the talking. HOW: Sega Sports video games are built with all the real teams and real players. Players aren't just represented with a jersey number and team name, but are rated and designed to play to their actual ability -- allowing Sega Sports to pit any two teams against each other for an accurate prediction. Once the two teams are chosen to play one another, Sega Saturn takes care of the rest -- providing a realistic, simulated prediction on its best-selling video game "NFL '97." Sega Sports' Super Bowl Highlights (Available on Satellite Feed) First Half (14-6 Packers) 1st Qtr: Brett Favre hands off to Edgar Bennett for the 5 yard TD run (Packers) 2nd Qtr: Reggie White sacks Bledsoe to end the half (Packers) 2nd Qtr: Drew Bledsoe connects with Terry Glenn for a 63 yard pass setting up a 24 yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri (Patriots) Second Half (Final 28-13 Packers) 3rd Qtr: Eugene Robinson picks off a Bledsoe pass (Packers) 4th Qtr: 12 yard screen pass by Favre to Dorsey Levens for the TD (Packers) 4th Qtr: Bledsoe hands off to Curtis Martin for a 3 yard TD run (Patriots) ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! PEOPLE... ARE TALKING On CompuServe Compiled by Joe Mirando jmirando@streport.com Hidi ho friends and neighbors. This week's column is going to be a short one. This is mostly because I've een burning the midnight oil all week, cruising around on the world wide web, seeing what there is to see.... and then there is the fact that there really isn't that much going on in the forums this week. Speaking of the web, there is word that Oregon Research Associates is working on a web browser for the ST series and will be announced next month. It is a port of a program that they wrote for the Amiga... but it might be okay anyway. No sign of an attitude here, huh? Before we start, I want to tell you that we'll have a few goodies coming your way in the coming weeks. We're planning a review of NVDI, the screen accelerator/GDOS replacement, and a continuation of the "Emulator Wars" series. Both of these projects are the work of our friend and neighbor Alejandro Aguilar. We may also have a head-to-head review of MagiC and Geneva off in the wings, but that won't be for a while yet. Head-to-head reviews are terribly hard to write. Not because you have to compare two programs, but because there always seems to areas where both win, areas where neither win, and areas where winning doesn't matter. We want to be fair to everyone involved, but most of all we want to be fair to you, the reader. Well, let's get on with the news, info, hints, and tips available here on CompuServe. From the Atari Computing Forums In a continuing conversation about using QuickCIS, the automated CompuServe access program for the ST, Kevin Sheridan tells Jerry Coppess about his "clock-setting problem": "The battery on my computer is still working however when I log in using quickcis it "corrects" the time based on somthing it finds on Compuserve and isn't doing it right. Oh well... Any hope for a new HMI graphic package for the Atari?" Jerry tells Kevin: "QCIS was designed to reset your clock from CIS's. This was a great feature until CIS changed it's log in. Now QCIS is reading the wrong info and resetting your clock with it. QCIS also needs work arounds for mail and the changing of file names from 6 to 8 characters plus the extension. It is a pain but still better than using a terminal program. HMI?? Do you mean HTML(HyperText Markup Language)? Like is used on the WWW ? If so yes. It is called CAB. There is also a demo for a potential commercial program called Webspace. It comes in 68000 and 68030 versions." Kevin explains: "HMI has something to do with the graphic interface the IBM and MAC use to comunicate with Compuserve. I saw some talk of some of the Atari users getting together to write such a package but had to get some specs from compuserve in order to do it. It would give us a much better interface than QCIS or a terminal package and would really be an improvment on using internet mail. By the way I also use Flash. Does anyone out there have a good "do" file set up for uploading/downloading mail?" Carl Barron tells Kevin: "Sorry to report the atari hmi project is a dead horse. I was one of the group of users, active this project. it is dead." Mark Gardiner asks for help: "I upgraded my 1Mb 1040 STf to 4Mb and all works OK except the one game I'd keep my ST for al time for !! :.-( My copy of ANCOs Player Manager (Kick OFF2) no longer runs. It boots but when it comes to make a disk access it 2 bombs out. I got another copy from ANCO (unbelievably after all this time!) and the same happens. I get no probs with any other major apps...? I have tried the Make1Meg.TOS file and that does't ork? Any ideas anyone?" Simon Churchill tells Mark: "You might like to try the 3meg ram drive trick. You make a reset proof ram disk (for games that need a warm boot to start from a boot sector loader) and run the game as normal. One of the best util's to do this with is RDE 5 which can make a ram disk and save it as a small file which can be placed in the auto folder of your boot disk. (For games that DON'T use the boot sector to load) It will load and reset the computer and allow the games AUTO folder to start as before, BUT 3meg's of memory have now been used. If your game uses a boot sector to load then you would need to set the ram drive then reset the computer after changing to the game disk. Naturaly this is the harder setup to get to work properly." Dennis Bishop Posts: "I have a Seagate ST 3600N SCSI2F 540meg Drive, I have tryed to add it to either my Falcon030 or my TT/030, but it will not work. On my Falcon I have a TOAD cable hooking up my syquest 44meg drive, The cable has two 50pin connectors, So I set the 44 to device 0 and the 3600 to device 1 but HDX on the Falcon will not even see the 3600. so I opened up my TT,(4megs ST/4 megs TT RAM) and removed the ST157N drive, I set the 3600 to device 0, on the TT, HDX sees it as Device 2!, I was able to format the drive and partition it too, but the driver can not be installed and on reboot the machine will not see the drive and partitions at all. Has anyone used this drive? I've tryed both with and without the resistor packs on it too. Got any idea as to how I can make this work?" Albert Dayes asks Dennis: "Does the drive hard partity enabled? If so try disabling it and see if that works." Dennis replies: "I've got the book with info on the drive and it just says if it's the end device to keep the restor packs in it, if it's going to be in the middle to remove them. I tryed it both ways, even tryed it set to device 0 and then device 1, on the TT it showed up as device 2, on the falcon with the syquest inline, it would not even see the drive at all. There are other jumpers, but I have no idea what they are for." Albert asks Dennis: "If you place the new 3600N drive on the bus by itself does that work? Assuming you leave the resistor paks in and set the device to #0. You can ask in the (GO SEAGATE) forum for specifics on your drive also." Mike Mortilla posts about his... "[MIDI-LIFE CRISIS] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, January 13, 1997 CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ON THE INTERNET -An Historic Internet 'First'- Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your computer... On January 22, 1997 the Internet and the broadcast industry will come a little closer together. In an historic irst, the American Film Institute (AFI) will broadcast Charlie Chaplin's THE RINK complete with Michael Mortilla's orchestral score, over the Internet! THE RINK is presented in cooperation with Film Preservation Associates, Kino On Video and Michael Mortilla. Made possible with a new technology by VDOnet Corp., "VDOLive" allows the real time transmission of Video and sound over the net without the need for the viewer having to download any files. Previously, music and video of just a few minutes could take hours to dowload and view. AFI will launch AFI OnLine Cinema on January 22 at 7:00 p.m. PST with the Internet premiere of the Charlie Chaplin classic THE RINK (1916). The Chaplin film will be presented through the month of January, after which AFI OnLine Cinema will begin featuring a continuing program of different classic Hollywood movies. The second feature, scheduled to run in February, is Buster Keaton's THE BOAT (1921). AFI OnLine Cinema will be located at www.afionline.org/cinema. To download the free software, contact: www.vdo.net. During the 1996 Olympics, Mortilla's score for Chaplin's film "Easy Street" was performed as part of the Olympic Arts Festival. Under the direction of Richard Kaufman (UA/MGM) the Brevard Music Center Orchestra performed the work at Symphony Hall in Atlanta with Mortilla at the piano. Contact MIDI-LIFE CRISIS: Beth Burleson at 805-569-3378 (voice/fax) PO Box 1266, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1266 http://www.west.net/~mortilla email: mortilla@west.net" The Big Kahuna himself, Chief Sysop Ron Luks, tells Mike: "Congrats on being part of this Internet "first"!!" Carmen Flak asks about a classic video game... the grand-daddy of 'em all, Pong... or was in "Ping"?: "What ever happened to that tennis ball game from way back in the dark ages? Does it exist anywhere? Can we get it?" Albert Dayes fills in the blanks for Carmen: "Pong, by Atari (1972)" Albert asks Larry: "Where are the sound effects? " Larry replies: "Oops... Blip....... Blip........ Blip........." Well folks, I told you that this was going to be a short installment. Be sure to tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING EDITORIAL QUICKIES The Times.. They are a-changin'!! In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realized it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn't have to ride around with jerks. Technology has replaced hot cars as the new symbol of robust manhood. Men know that unless they get a digital line to the Internet no woman is going to look at them twice. STReport International OnLine Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM AVAILABLE through the Internet and OVER 250,000 BBS SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions of The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions and Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff of STReport International OnLine Magazine. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. STR, CPU, STReport and/or portions therein may not be edited, used, duplicated or transmitted in any way without prior written permission. STR, CPU, STReport, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STR, CPU, STReport, are trademarks of STReport and STR Publishing Inc. STR, CPU, STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible in any way for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" January 17, 1997 Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1303