Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) May 16, 1997 No.1320 Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 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 Have you tried Microsoft's Powerful and Easy to Use Internet Explorer? Internet Explorer is STReport's Official Internet Web Browser. 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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 Celebrating Our Tenth Anniversary 1987-1997 Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 05/10/97: four of six numbers with three 3 number matches From the Editor's Desk... It appears the "hush before the rush" of Spring Comdex.. Is upon us. Not too much doing this week. Last week's editorial did it for me for at least the month. In any case, down this way the sun is out. The temps are in the mid eighties and the pool is beckoning. So, without further ado. I wish you all a great weekend. 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/FTP Site, 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. You'll be pleased to know you are able to download STReport directly from our very own FTP SERVER or WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR AutoMailer list which allows a choice of either ASCII or Acrobat PDF. STReport's managing editors DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Publisher, Editor Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors PC Section Mac Section Shareware Listings R.F. Mariano Help Wanted Lloyd E. Pulley Classics & Gaming Kid's Computing Corner Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael R. Burkley Joseph Mirando Victor Mariano Vincent P. O'Hara Glenwood Drake Contributing Correspondents Jason Sereno Jeremy Sereno Daniel Stidham David H. Mann Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Brian Boucher Leonard Worzala 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 Microsoft Readies Office 97 Fix Stung by published reports that its Office 97 business suite fails to adequately support files created by previous versions, Microsoft Corp. says it will ship a software fix in July. The upcoming Office 97 Service Release will address migration challenges, such as backward file compatibility and coexistence with previous versions, says Microsoft. "The majority of our corporate customers are currently in the midst of deployment, and we are now hearing feedback from them about migration challenges," says Richard Fade, Microsoft's vice president of desktop applications. "Supporting customers is and always will be our primary focus." In the meantime, Microsoft is advising Office 97 users to visit its Office 97 migration web site: www.microsoft.com/office/migration/. Intel Confirms Bug, Fears Not Chipmaker Intel Corp. has confirmed its Pentium Pro and just-released Pentium II chips have a minor math bug, but says the problems could be fixed easily with rewritten software and plans no recall. "Unlike its controversial handling of a similar flaw in an earlier chip in 1994," says The Associated Press, "Intel this past week publicly acknowledged the bug soon after learning of it. In addition, Intel on Friday released statements of support from major software makers, including the three biggest -- Microsoft, IBM and Computer Associates -- saying that so far they haven't seen any problems with the bug." AP says many of the software companies said that if they find any problems, they would create ways around them in their programs. Confirming reports of the flaw (GO OLT-190) Intel said the problem related to operations that convert floating point numbers -- which express a number in two components, the significant digits and an exponent, without using a fixed decimal point -- into integers, or whole numbers. "The chip is supposed to issue an 'overflow' warning when large floating point numbers will not fit into the integer format, but in certain circumstances it apparently failed to do so," AP adds. Intel spokesman Tom Waldrop told the wire service the company would start shipping revised chips without the flaw in about six months. Sub-$1,000 Mac Clone Debuts Beginning today, Macintosh enthusiasts can join PC buffs in shopping for a sub-$1,000 computer. UMAX Computer Corp., a Macintosh clone maker based in Fremont, California, has unveiled a Mac OS-compatible system with an estimated street price of $999. The company's SuperMac C500LT/140 is based on an upgradeable 140MHz PowerPC 603e processor. Other features include 16MB of memory, 1MB of video DRAM, an 8x CD-ROM drive, a 16-bit surround sound system, a 1.2 GB hard drive, and two PCI slots. For $1,195, UMAX is also offering the SuperMac C500i/180, which adds a 33.6K bps external Global Village fax/modem with speakerphone/microphone capability. "We are aggressively seeking to expand the consumer segment of the Mac OS-compatible market," says Phil Pompa, UMAX's vice president of marketing. "These new systems are perfect for the cost-conscious consumer or student user who doesn't want to sacrifice performance." Epson Ships Photo Printer Epson America Inc. has begun shipping a new ink-jet printer targeted at digital photography enthusiasts. Street priced at $499, the six-color Epson Stylus Photo can print a 3 by 5-inch photo at 720 dots per inch in less than 90 seconds. "The Epson Stylus Photo has been built from the ground up for serious photographic printing applications," says Michael Isgrig, Epson's product marketing manager. "Epson's 'photo reproduction quality' output is an incredibly important development, as people have come to expect continuous-tone printing because of their experience with silver-halide photography." The Epson Stylus Photo's print driver supports Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and Macintosh, as well as Windows 95 ICM and Apple ColorSync profiles. The printer comes bundled with Digital Darkroom software and a hybrid CD-ROM featuring LivePix 1.1 for Windows 95 and Live Picture 2.6 SE for Macintosh. Adobe PostScript Level 2 software with Pantone-approved colors is set to become available in June for $99. For more details, visit Epson America's web site at www.epson.com. Panasonic Unveils Digital Camera Panasonic is entering the digital camera market with two models starting at under $400. The Panasonic CoolShot, available with or without an LCD viewfinder, measures 5.2 by 2.4 by 0.8 inches and weighs 7.1 ounces with batteries. Either model can store up to 96 still pictures in normal mode, or up to 24 pictures in a high-resolution mode. In high-resolution, the camera provides images with a 640- by 480-dot output in 24-bit color. In the normal mode, the camera achieves a resolution of 320 by 240 dots in 24-bit color. The base model KXL-600A is due out in June at an estimated street price of $399. The KXL-601A, with an LCD viewfinder, is set to become available in July for $599. Both models with be bundled with image editing software, a PC Card adapter, a TV video cable and a serial interface cable. "The CoolShot should have broad appeal among consumers, business people and virtually anyone who has a computer," observes John Gawa, manager of Panasonic Computer Peripheral Co.'s multimedia systems division in Secaucus, New Jersey. "With two versions, we have something for everyone." IBM Unveils New ThinkPad A new ThinkPad notebook computer with an "all-in-one design" -- integrating a hard drive, a floppy drive and a CD-ROM in one unit -- is being unveiled by IBM this week. Previously ThinkPad included a floppy drive as an external device, attached by cable. According to the Reuter News Service, reporting from Somers, New York, the ThinkPad 380 Series also has a 12.1 inch screen, a Pentium microprocessor at varying speeds and the computing power of a desktop computer. Estimated reseller prices for the ThinkPad 380 start at $2,199, depending on the model, Reuters says, adding the models come standard with 16 megabits of memory, a full duplex speaker providing excellent sound quality, an external microphone jack and stereo speaker or headphone jack. Meanwhile, IBM's Web site (http://www.pc.ibm.com/thinkpad/ tp380) invites customers to participate in a contest in which a ThinkPad 380 and ThinkPad related prizes will be awarded every week for six weeks, beginning today. ThinkPad purchasers also can get refunds on accessories, such as carrying cases or modems. Mac Internet Explorer Released Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 3.01 now is available for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers. In Redmond, Washington, Microsoft officials told the Reuter News Service the newly designed 3.01 browser requires 4 megabytes of memory and includes two features originally slated for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. "One upgraded feature," says the wire service, "automatically monitors user-specified sites and notifies users when those sites have been updated. The other feature automatically completes typed addresses based on the Favorites and History lists." Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 for Macintosh is available free for immediate download and also is scheduled to be available with the upcoming Apple operating system, Mac OS 8. IBM Unveils 5GB Notebook PC Drive IBM Corp. has unveiled a notebook PC hard drive that's not much larger than the palm of a child's hand yet holds a record-breaking 5GB of data. The computer maker notes that its 2.5-inch Travelstar 5GS can hold 50 years worth of a typical daily newspaper, or about one million printed pages -- equivalent to a stack of paper as tall as a 62-story building. IBM says its new Magnetoresistive Extended (MRX) head technology is largely responsible for the drive's high capacity. No bigger than the head of a pin, the MRX head sends out stronger signals than competing technologies, meaning it can write and read larger volumes of information. "MRX is a major step beyond the older generation magnetoresistive head technology," observes Bob Scranton, vice president of technology at IBM's storage systems division in San Jose, California. Another new IBM 2.5-inch hard drive -- the 4GB Travelstar 4GT -- also features MRX head technology. The drive is thinner than the Travelstar 5GS -- about the thickness of two cassette tapes. IBM notes that the Travelstar 4GT sets a new density record, holding the most data per square inch of any disk drive -- 2.64 billion bits, or about 120,000 double-spaced, typewritten pages. IBM notes that several major notebook computer manufacturers including Dell Computer Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc. and itself plan to offer one or both of the drives in their notebook computers starting this year. Filter Promises to Boost Modems Australian Protective Electronics is promising that its new ModemGuard power filter can boost modem speeds by up to 25 percent by reducing telephone line noise. The company says its bit stream filtration technology allows the ModemGuard to deal with both line interference and noise. The $54.95 device also includes a surge protector. Australian Protective Electronics' U.S. operation is based in Denton, Texas. More details are available on the company's web site at www.modemguard.com. Apple's New OS Works with Intel Apple Computer Inc.'s next generation operating system -- code named Rhapsody -- also will run on personal computers equipped with Intel Corp chips. That is the word from Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio, who told an industry conference in San Jose that developers will be able to write for Apple's Macintosh computer at the same time as Intel PC's. The Reuter News Service says Rhapsody, intended mainly for the PowerPC, will be the primary development and deployment platform for Apple's Yellow Box applications. It includes four components: ú Core OS, based on Mach technology. ú Blue Box/Mac OS compatibility environment. ú The Yellow Box development environment. ú Advanced Macintosh User Interface. Reuters adds, "Apple intends to host the Yellow Box on a future version of the Mac OS, code named Allegro. Allegro will be the follow up release from Mac OS 8, scheduled for introduction in July 1997. Expected to be available in mid-1998, Allegro will be based on current Mac OS underlying technology and will include both the traditional MacOS APIs as well as the capability of hosting the Yellow Box." Apple said Rhapsody for Intel is the code name for Apple's next generation operating system for Intel processor-based personal computers. It includes three components: Core OS based on Mach technology; Yellow Box development environment; and Advanced Macintosh User Interface. Shipment of Handhelds Up 29% Surprising some observers, shipments of handheld computers jumped 29 percent in 1996, led by strong sales of U.S. Robotics Corp.'s Pilot, and Dataquest Inc. analysts expect shipments to rise another 23 percent this year. Reporting from San Jose, California, the Reuter News Service says worldwide shipments of handheld computers -- including devices such as Apple Computer Inc.'s Newton and U.S. Robotic's Pilot -- rose to 1.6 million units in 1996. Dataquest says the Pilot, a hot-selling gadget that stores appointments and address books, had 51 percent of the handheld market. "Handheld computers based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE software also expanded the market," Reuters says, "but did not do as well as the Pilot." Dataquest analyst Mike McGuire told the wire service, "We feel the first Windows CE handhelds, while reasonable first products, will not generate significant unit volumes, but will help the market in terms of providing another plateau." German Giant Teams With Lycos In Frankfurt, Germany (AP), Bertelsmann AG's Internet unit is set to invest $10 million in a 50-50 joint venture with Lycos Inc., provider of a highly-regarded Net search engine, to provide search services to European Internet users. The Associated Press says that in addition to existing service in Germany, the United Kingdom and France, the joint venture will make its services available in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain by autumn using local languages. Christoph Mohn, president of Lycos-Bertelsmann, told the wire service the venture is expected to break even within four years. Compaq Overhauls Sales Unit Compaq Computer Corp. is launching a major sales overhaul aimed at cutting PC prices, and at the same time is trying to reassure distributors the changes won't cut them out of the selling process. Business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press notes an unusual meeting was held this week with about 30 middlemen executives in which Compaq detailed plans to: ú Double its sales force. ú Build made-to-order PCs to pare inventories. ú Cut the cost of selling through the resellers. "Compaq's relations with its distributors is extremely important," Kalish notes, "because, while they handle 90 percent of Compaq's computer sales, they could always shift their alliances to rival suppliers." Several who attended Wednesday's closed-door meeting at Compaq's Houston headquarters told the wire service they were assuaged. "For one thing, they said, Compaq appeared to back off from a plan to sell computers directly to small- and medium-sized businesses," Kalish reports. President Bob O'Malley of MicroAge Inc., a $3.5 billion computer distributer based in Tempe, Arizona, told AP, "They realize now that will not work. They are looking at a model that will be much more of a partnership with ours. There was a tone change here -- very much a willingness to develop what was collectively the best solution." Kalish commented Compaq hopes building computers as customers order them, instead of the current system of making products in advance and forecasting demand, "will dramatically reduce inventories in warehouses and cut storage costs," adding, "Smaller inventories also mean that Compaq can bring new products to market faster because it doesn't have to spend months selling out the old products first. The aim is to compete more effectively against fast-growing makers such as Dell Computer, Gateway 2000 and Micron Technology Inc., which sell directly to customers and avoid the middleman, thus undercutting Compaq's prices." Compaq Ships Low-End PC Compaq Computer Corp. has added a new model to its Presario 2000 series. The $999 Presario 2120 features a 150MHz Cyrix processor with MediaGX technology, 24MB of RAM, a 33.6K bps modem, a 2GB hard drive, an 8x CD-ROM drive and a stereo sound system. The computer also sports a slim, black desktop design that's designed to blend in with consumer electronics products. "There is a trend of dual-PC ownership emerging in the consumer computing arena and Compaq is continuing its efforts to offer the broadest assortment of products designed to meet every home computing need," says Mike Larson, vice president of U.S. retail operations for the Compaq's consumer group. "Compaq has significantly increased the performance of this new lower-cost PC, offering consumers more value for their family's multimedia computing needs." U.S. Robotics, TI Team on Modems Hybrid modems that can be used on conventional phone lines or with high-speed digital technology will be offered by a new teaming of U.S. Robotics Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. Reporting from Chicago, Susan Nadeau of the Reuter News Service quotes U.S. Robotics Vice President Ron Westernik as saying consumers "can buy a single modem that with a software upgrade will carry them really into the next decade." Reuters says U.S. Robotics said it will launch its line of "x2/DSL" modems in the first half of 1998, with full packages including software upgrades priced under $250 each. "The modems," says Nadeau, "will include U.S. Robotics' new x2 technology, which allows users to connect to the Internet at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second over conventional analog phone lines. The modem will also be upgradeable to include two options based on Digital Subscriber Line technology. " The wire service says "ADSL Lite" will be targeted at consumers and will allow for connections up to 384 kilobits per second. The full DSL technology also will be available, which delivers information at rates up to seven megabits per second. UUNet Boosts Some Net Charges Internet service provider UUNet Technologies is set to start charging as much as $6,000 a month to mid-size providers that once hooked up the vast UUNet system for free. Associated Press writer Anne Gearan, reporting from Fairfax, Virginia, says the company "has effectively quit subsidizing firms that it feels took advantage of a loose, swap-meet style arrangement that allowed Internet service providers to use each others' computer space." Noting that other large Internet providers now will likely follow suit, Gearan says the change "alters the ground rules" for the companies moving information around the Net and "signifies an end to the collegial days when new Internet firms pulled together to make the system work." UUNet's new policy means most firms that want to link up with UUNet "must pay for the privilege," says Gearan. Don Heath, president of the nonprofit Internet Society in Reston, Virginia, says the change probably won't mean higher prices right away for the home computer buff or others who use local or regional Internet hookups, that "the real impact is going to be fallout among the Internet service providers," if firms harmed by the new bills merge or fail. AP characterizes the situation this way: "If you think of the Internet as an old-fashioned telephone switchboard, UUNet is an operator patching and plugging the calls. It is also a long-distance carrier. Until recently, UUNet and other large- and mid-size Internet service providers have provided that patching and plugging to one another for free. The companies struck deals that meant one company would carry the other's data and vice versa. That saved the cost of billing every time one network patched into another to send electronic mail or allow a computer user to view a World Wide Web site." UUNet, which is owned by WorldCom Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi, recently spent more than $100 million building its own nationwide fiber-optic network and announced a $300 million planned expansion. Said UUNet President/CEO John Sidgmore, "We don't feel we should be forced to pay the freight for our competitors to use our network for free. I don't see how anyone who really understands how this works could think it was fair." Encryption Compromise Nearing? A compromise on legislation that would relax export restrictions on powerful data-scrambling computer devices may be reached by the Clinton administration and House Republicans. "I am very encouraged and very satisfied that we are very close to resolving our difficulties," Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Associated Press writer Cassandra Burrell, adding he met with administration officials Tuesday and expects to reach an agreement soon. As reported, Clinton's people object to a provision that would allow developers of the technology to export their products without giving law enforcement agencies away to crack their codes during criminal investigations. Yesterday, the committee approved a bill regulating encryption but did no work on the disputed section, which falls under the jurisdiction of the House International Affairs Committee. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, sponsor of the bill, said current law forbids U.S. companies from exporting their most sophisticated data-scrambling devices. Foreign companies, however, are free to sell their products without restriction. Says Goodlatte, "If the Internet is to advance from the curiosity stage to a truly global marketplace, citizens and companies alike must have the confidence that their communications and transactions are safe and secure." AP says the bill (H.R. 695) would: ú Give Americans the right to use any type of encryption anywhere in the world. ú Allow any type of data-scrambling device to be sold in the United States. ú Create "a level playing field by permitting the export of generally available software and other types of software and hardware under a license if a product with comparable security is commercially available elsewhere," Goodlatte's office said. ú Set criminal penalties for unlawful use of encryption in the furtherance of a crime. Violators could be sentenced to up to five years in prison for a first-time offense and up to 10 years for each subsequent offense. Seagate Pays in Amstrad Suit An English court has awarded $93 million to computer maker Amstrad Plc in a lawsuit over allegedly faulty disk drives, directing Seagate Technology Inc. to pay. Reporting from Seagate's Scotts Valley, California, headquarters, the Reuter News Service says interest and other costs could push the award $60 million higher. Seagate says it will take a charge of "a like amount" in the current quarter ending in June, which is the company's fourth quarter of fiscal 1997. A spokeswoman told the wire service by "like amount" the company meant the award of $93 million plus the estimated $60 million in interest and other costs. Meanwhile, Seagate also plans to appeal the decision, which was handed down Friday by the High Court of Justice in England. Adds Reuters, "Financial analysts said the lawsuit was more of nuisance than a product performance issue for the Silicon Valley-based company because it centers on products made in the late 1980s whose technology is no longer used." Gateway Rejected Compaq Bid A published report says mail- order computer giant Gateway 2000 Inc. last month backed out of a nearly $7 billion takeover deal with Compaq Computer Corp. Time magazine is reporting this week billionaire Gateway founder Ted Waitt rejected the deal only days -- possibly hours -- before its announcement, citing a source close to Waitt as saying the deal apparently fell apart after Waitt bristled at the notion of Gateway executives being subordinates to Compaq bosses. The magazine says Compaq's offer -- 46 percent above Gateway's current market value -- would have boosted Waitt's personal coffers by another $3 billion. The Associated Press notes rumors of a Compaq-Gateway combination have been circulating, worrying wholesalers and resellers that handle most of Compaq's sales, though Compaq, the world's largest maker of personal computers, has repeatedly declined comment. Digital Sues Over Intel Pentium Digital Equipment Corp. today alleged in a federal suit that Intel Corp. willfully infringed ten Digital patents in making, using and selling microprocessor products, including Intel's famed Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II microprocessors. Reporting from Worcester, Mass., United Press International says Digital alleges Intel's patent infringement has caused Digital economic injury and, if not stopped, will cause irreparable harm. Digital seeks both an injunction and monetary damages, including triple damages for Intel's willful violation of the patents. UPI says the injunction would prohibit Intel from using Digital's patented technology in its present and future microprocessor products. Says Digital chairman Robert B. Palmer, "Over the years, Digital has made substantial investments in developing computing architectures and microprocessor technology. It is our duty to our shareholders, customers, partners and employees to protect our intellectual property rights and the benefits of our industry-leading research and development efforts." Digital says the patents cited in the lawsuit protect its innovations in high-performance computing architecture and micro-processor technology, adding the patents were issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office between 1988 and 1996. Meanwhile, Howard High, a spokesman in Intel's Santa Clara, Calif., offices told The Associated Press the company would not comment until its lawyers had a chance to examine the lawsuit. Digital's position as an Intel client made the lawsuit unusual, analyst Rajiv Chaudhri of Goldman Sachs in New York told business writer Richard Lorant of The Associated Press. Said Chaudhri, "It's very uncommon for Intel to be sued by its customer. It's one thing to sue your competitor. But suing your vendor -- especially when you're in a critical situation like Digital is -- is taking a lot of risk, at least on its face." Intel Surprised by Digital Suit Officials with chipmaker Intel Corp. say they were taken by surprised by yesterday's federal lawsuit in which computer maker Digital Equipment Corp. alleges Intel's popular line of Pentium microprocessors were copied from Digital technology. As reported yesterday, the suit contends Intel willfully infringed 10 Digital patents in making, using and selling microprocessor products, including the Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II chips. Business writer Richard Lorant of The Associated Press says Intel, which made nearly all its $5.2 billion in revenue last year from Pentium chips, vows to vigorously defend itself, adding it was surprised by the suit from its long-time business customer. Digital, which uses Intel chips for about half its computers, took the action four years after Intel launched its first Pentium chip. Lorant comments the legal action is seen "as highlighting the frustration faced by Digital in trying to boost sagging sales of its Alpha microprocessors." Researcher Dean McCarron with Mercury Research of Scottsdale, Arizona, told the wire service, "One would presume that (the lawsuit) was calculated to cause maximum upheaval." "At stake," notes AP, "is ownership of technology critical to the improved speed and power that has placed Intel in increased competition with Digital for high-end office computer systems." At issue are Digital patents covering cache management -- a section of memory used to improve computer performance -- high-speed instruction processing and other technologies Digital said are vital to "state-of-the-art" microprocessor design. Intel spokesman Howard High said the company was caught off guard by the lawsuit after finding out about it Tuesday morning, adding, "We have a long history and relationship with Digital as a customer and as companies that have been involved for a number of years." He noted Intel has a track record of substantial spending for its own research and development. Meanwhile, Digital Chairman Robert B. Palmer said his company did not learn until recently about Intel's alleged use of its technology. He said that in 1990 and 1991, Digital and Intel engineers shared microprocessor technology during talks about a collaboration between the two companies that never came about. The next year, Digital released its Alpha chip. Intel followed with the Pentium in 1993 and the Pentium Pro in 1995. Though he noticed a stark improvement in the Pentium Pro's abilities, Palmer said he assumed that Intel had developed its own innovations. Palmer said that assumption changed after an August 1996 Wall Street Journal article included comments from top Intel executives alluding to the appropriation of technology developed by other companies. Says AP, "Palmer ordered Digital's attorneys to investigate and filed suit when the investigations revealed the company's patents allegedly were being infringed." Palmer told the wire service the decision to file suit "was not made lightly, adding, "Intel is a Digital customer and supplier, as well as a competitor, but we had no choice except to take action." Lorant says observers believe there is little chance of Digital's injunction being granted or of Intel, which has a reputation of defending itself in court, pushing for a quick settlement. ACLU Challenges Virginia Law A Virginia law banning state employees from viewing "sexually explicit" communications online is being challenged in court by a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which contends the measure unconstitutionally curbs the free speech rights. Reporter Bill Pietrucha of the Newsbytes computer news service says the suite was filed on behalf of six professors from Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, Blue Ridge Community College, Old Dominion University, and the College of William and Mary. ACLU's complaint contends that under the law, a professor of English could be sanctioned for accessing a Web site with poetry by Algernon Charles Swinburne, who was denounced during the Victorian Age for his sexually explicit writings about sado- masochism, necrophilia, flagellation, and male and female homosexuality. Marjorie Heins, and ACLU national staff attorney and counsel for the plaintiffs, told the wire service, "Sexuality is an important subject in human history, and sexually explicit ideas and images are common in online conversations about literature, art, psychology, history, feminism, law and popular culture. This pernicious law censors online speech that can be found on libraries and college texts, that is constitutionally protected and not obscene." The law: ú Makes it illegal to use the state's "information infrastructure" to access or download materials with "sexually explicit content" as defined by existing Virginia law. ú Prohibits "storage" of sexually oriented communications on state owned computers and bars employees from using e-mail, chat rooms, and list servers, if the exchange involves sexually explicit words or images. ú Requires professors and other state employees wishing to download, post, transmit, or store sexually explicit material on their computers to first ask for approval in writing from agency heads, such as a university official, after which the requests are made available to the public. The six professors named in the law suit are: Melvin I. Urofsky, professor of history, Virginia Commonwealth University; Paul Smith, professor of English and cultural studies, George Mason University; Brian J. Delaney, associate professor of English, Blue Ridge Community College; Dana Heller, associate professor of contemporary American literature, Old Dominion University; Bernard H. Levin, professor of psychology, Blue Ridge Community College; and Terry J. Meyers, professor and chair of the Department of English, College of William & Mary. Anti-Net Tax Bill Moves On Hearings are expected in the next few weeks on federal legislation aimed at preventing state and local governments from imposing new taxes on Internet transactions. As reported earlier, Rep. Chris Cox (R-California) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced identical bills back in March to impose an indefinite moratorium on state and local taxation of electronic commerce. Aaron Pressman of the Reuter News Service quotes Peter Uhlmann, a Cox staffer, as saying the Senate Commerce Committee's Communications subcommittee will hold a hearing on the measure in the next few weeks. Speaking at a meeting yesterday sponsored by the Internet Caucus, Uhlmann added Commerce Committee chairman John McCain of Arizona and subcommittee chairman Conrad Burns of Montana are co-sponsors of the Wyden bill, adding that in the House, both the Commerce and Judiciary Committees will consider the bill. In March, Rep. Cox said he wanted to prevent the World Wide Web from becoming the "World Wide Wallet" for governments looking for additional tax revenues. At yesterday's meeting, industry officials urged Congress to prevent excessive or inconsistent taxation of Internet commerce. For instance, AT&T's Jim Eads commented electronic commerce "is not an issue that state taxation can be left out of. It should be addressed and, I think, will be addressed ultimately by Congress." Reuters notes sales of goods and commerce online are projected to grow to over $7 billion in the year 2000 from under $1 billion last year, according to market researchers at Jupiter Communications. Still, says IBM's Roger Cochetti, that pales compared to traditional sales and mail order transactions. "Since the value of tax revenues that are at risk today is relatively small," he said, "these are areas where governments ought to restrain themselves from leaping to some tax conclusion." Pressman reports a complete online audio recording of the Internet caucus event will be posted in the next few weeks on the Web at http://www.democracy.net. WHO Warns of Drugs on Internet A global fight is being urged by the World Health Organization's general assembly against uncontrolled and dangerous sales of drugs on the Internet. Passing a resolution today in Geneva, the U.N. health agency said it fears cyberspace could become a medium for the promotion and sales of unauthorized drugs that could lead to consumer misuse, abuse and public health risks. The Reuter News Service reports the resolution adopted by consensus calls on member states to boost cooperation among law enforcers, drug companies and the business community to control online sales of medicine. Martign ten Ham, WHO's chief of drug safety, told the wire service his agency has found at least three or four firms selling prescription drugs on the Internet without detailed information. "Drugs offered online included an acne drug which could cause severe birth defects if taken by pregnant women, toxic drugs used in cancer therapy and even morning-after pills," Reuters adds, quoting ten Ham, a doctor from the Netherlands, as saying: "Apart from the fact that these drugs should not be available just for anyone who wants them, they're also not accompanied by proper information on their use. These people selling drugs on the Internet, we never know where they are. We have no assurance on the quality of these products. I've been told there are possibilities to obtain even narcotic drugs on Internet." ten Ham added: Internet drug sales and promotion also open the way to trade in convincing but counterfeit copies of life-or-death medicines such as insulin and antibiotics. Regulations on sales, prescriptions and promotion of drugs by mail and by pharmacists differ from one country to another and are impossible to enforce online. It is difficult to assess the scale of the problem because it is relatively new, but "it's like a fire growing fast. There's no real control. Anyone can sell drugs on the Internet. We want regulators to take up the matter." 35 Named in Copyright Crackdown The Justice Department and the FBI say 35 indictments have been returned as the first results of a nationwide crackdown -- dubbed "Operation Counter Copy" -- against trademark and copyright fraud involving counterfeit products. According to the Reuter News Service, the indictments were returned in various cities for copyright or trademark infringement as part of the crackdown that began in October 1996. Attorney General Janet Reno said in a statement Operation Counter Copy "sends a strong message to major counterfeiters and copyright pirates all across the U.S. -- you will be investigated, prosecuted and, if convicted, sent to jail." Besides computer software and pirated video and audio cassettes, the cases included counterfeit products appearing to be made by such companies as NIKE, Calvin Klein, Guess and other makers of brand-named goods. "Department officials said various domestic industries sustain about $2.8 billion in estimated losses a year as a result of copyright infringement and counterfeit products in the United States," Reuters reports. "They said industry groups estimated that piracy outside the United States totaled $20 billion in 1996." Deep Blue Defeats Human Champ It's chess and computing history. IBM supercomputer Deep Blue has defeated reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, concluding yesterday with a shunner in which Kasparov's legendary resolve broke down after only 19 moves. Reporter Grant McCool of the Reuter News Service comments Kasparov was "under psychological stress since game two of the six-game series a week ago, when he needlessly resigned in a drawn position." Going into yesterday's sixth and final game tied with the computer, Kasparov gave up after just more than an hour of play. Later, Kasparov told a news conference, "One man, maybe the best in the world, cracked under the pressure and that has nothing to do with the computer being unbeatable. I could hardly explain what I did today." McCool characterized the champion as "humbled," saying he "apologized for his performance and said he was 'ashamed.'" Nonetheless, Kasparov "persisted with his view that the match was essentially unfair because he had no access to the computer's pre-match games or any of the IBM printouts during the contest, worth $700,000 to the winner and $400,000 to the loser." Said Kasparov, "All games must be published. Everyone who knows chess has an interest in seeing it. I believe it is your obligation to publish the printouts of everything Deep Blue was doing in this match." Deep Blue team manager Chung-Jen "CJ" Tan responded at the news conference that the printouts would be made accessible "at an appropriate time" but did not say exactly when. Reuters notes that during the contest the two sides agreed to secure the printouts with a neutral party, Match Arbiter Carol Jarecki. In six games played over nine days, the computer won two, drew three and lost one -- the opening encounter on May 3 -- for a final match score of 3 1/2 points to 2 1/2 points. This is the first match won by a chess-playing computer in a traditional format in which games can last as long as seven hours. Observers says the 34-year-old Kasparov lost a match because he didn't play his usual, swashbuckling attacking style, says McCool, instead opting for a careful, slow maneuvering to try and outwit the machine. U.S. grandmaster Ron Henley concurred. "The reason Garry lost," he told the wire service, "was that he was not true to himself, not true to his character or his reputation. He psyched himself out with his anti-computer strategy and he was unable to play with his full potential and full genius." McCoon notes Kasparov himself said as much yesterday evening after walking quickly out of the playing room looking stunned, waving his arms in distress. Said Kasparov, "I was playing against myself and something I couldn't recognize" (another reference to the impressive way the system played). "My biggest mistake was following the advice of computer advisers who recommended I play this way." Analysts say Kasparov blundered in yesterday's final game by allowing Deep Blue to sacrifice a knight and obtain an overwhelming positional advantage. Deep Blue, playing with the white pieces, went on to take Kasparov's queen in exchange for a rook and a bishop but the position proved hopeless for the human player. Here are the moves of the final game: CARO-KANN DEFENSE Deep Blue Kasparov (White) (Black) 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Ng5 Ngf6 6. Bd3 e6 7. N1f3 h6 8. Nxe6 Qe7 9. O-O fxe6 10. Bg6+ Kd8 11. Bf4 b5 12. a4 Bb7 13. Re1 Nd5 14. Bg3 Kc8 15. axb5 cxb5 16. Qd3 Bc6 17. Bf5 exf5 18. Rxe7 Bxe7 19. c4 Resigns Final Positions White: King on g1; Queen on d3; Rook on a1; Bishop on g3; Knight on f3; Pawns on b2, c4, d4, f2, g2 and h2. Black: King on c8; Rooks on a8 and h8; Bishops on c6 and e7; Knights on d5 and d7; Pawns on a7, b5, f5, g7 and h6. Man Vs. Machine Debate Rages On The relentless IBM computer Deep Blue toppled international chess champion Garry Kasperov this week in a grueling sixth and final game of the heralded match between human and machine. After just 19 moves, Kasparov, touted as the greatest chess player in history, stated, "I lost my fighting spirit." Members of the CNN Forum and Chess Forum are logging on to register their shock at Kasparov's sudden resignation from the match. CNN Forum's "FourthRider" says, "Many characterize this as a dark day for humanity in that a machine has bested the efforts of a human being ... this is a very good thing and bodes well for future technological advancements ... people should not feel threatened by these recent events, but should appreciate what they mean for the brightness of the future." Chess Forum participant John Stribling notes, "I believe Garry got psyched out. He knew that a lot of effort went into analyzing his style and so he tried to confound that effort by playing to the contrary. It took him into the ozone. I think he should *immediately* demand a rematch." Henry L. Terrie of Chess Forum says, "He was under tremendous pressure going into the last game and he cracked ... for all his genius he is as mortal as any of us. It's too bad that it had to end this way but this is not the final word. In no way can IBM now claim that it has left all human chess players behind." Ex-Lotus Chief Manzi Bankrupt Jim Manzi, former Lotus Development Corp. chairman, says new Nets Inc. business has filed for Chapter XI bankruptcy. He cites problems with investor skepticism of Internet companies, adding he has lost millions of his own dollars. Reporting from Cambridge, Massachusetts, United Press International notes Manzi new company was designed as a business-to-business marketplace, called Industry.net on the Internet's World Wide Web and was headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Following the filing of bankruptcy papers on Friday, Manzi said most of the firm's 200 employees have been dismissed, except in Cambridge and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where skeleton crews are maintaining the site. "It was established to act as a shopping mall for industrial companies, with some 380,000 engineers and purchasing agents signed up for free membership that allows them to buy from about 4,500 companies," UPI reports. "The companies paid up to $200,000 to be listed on the website." Manzi added that recently he was spending nearly $500,000 a week of his own money to support the venture because it was difficult to raise outside investment. Investor skepticism stems partly, he said, from recent stock value declines of Netscape Communications and Open Market Inc., two major Internet software companies. In 1995 IBM paid $3.5 billion to buy Lotus, where Manzi, a former newspaper reporter, rose to become chairman of Lotus. During his tenure, the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet became one of the most popular worldwide, but the program lost its dominance to competition from Microsoft Corp. Manzi resigned from Lotus three months after IBM's takeover, "upset that IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner refused Manzi control over IBM's entire software business," UPI says. Gateway Leads Home PC Loyalty Poll Gateway 2000 Inc. has a firm hold on the hearts of most home PC buyers, according to a new survey conducted jointly by International Data Corp. and ACNielsen Corp. The study, which polled 52,000 households in 19 markets, found that 51.1 percent of the Gateway 2000 owners planning to buy another PC intend to select the Gateway brand again. Apple Computer Inc., Dell Computer Inc., IBM Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. rounded out the survey's top five PC makers, with loyalty percentages ranging from 47.6 percent to 30.9 percent. Hewlett-Packard Co., Acer America Inc. and Packard Bell came in at the list's bottom, with percentages ranging from 30.9 percent to 25.6 percent. The survey also discovered that 43 percent of consumers planning to buy a PC are undecided about which brand to buy. "Vendors must win the 'undecided' vote to be successful," says Bill Ablondi, an IDC vice president, The undecided vote is a significant portion of the installed base that appears ready to upgrade and/or add systems, and many of these buyers are looking beyond the brands they currently own." A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N LEXMARK OPTRA C COLOR LASER PRINTER For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates LEXMARK Optra C SUPERIOR QUALITY 600 dpi Laser Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's LEXMARK Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the LEXMARK Optra C has to be the very best yet in its price range. It is far superior to anything we've seen or used as of yet. It is said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. The out put from the Lexmark Optra C is worth ten thousand words! Send for the free sample now. (For a sample that's suitable for framing, see below) Guaranteed. you will be amazed at the superb quality. (Please.. allow at least a two week turn- around). If you would like a sample printout that's suitable for framing. Yes that's right! Suitable for Framing. Order this package. It'll be on special stock and be of superb quality. We obtained a mint copy of a 1927 COLOR ENGRAVER'S YEAR BOOK. Our Scanner is doing "double duty"! The results will absolutely blow you away. If you want this high quality sample package please include a check or money order in the amount of $6.95 (Costs only) Please, make checks or money orders payable to; Ralph Mariano. Be sure to include your full return address and telephone number . The sample will be sent to you protected, not folded in a 9x12 envelope. Don't hesitate.. you will not be disappointed. This "stuff" is gorgeous! A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N-A T T E N T I O N Shareware Treasure Chest STR Feature "The Latest & Greatest" Shareware Treasure Chest By Lloyd E. Pulley lepulley@streport.com Name/Version Release Date Size Price PointPlus 32-bit 2.0 plug-in 5/15/97 .23mb Free The PointPlus plug-in viewer enables users of Netscape 2.0 or later to view any Microsoft PowerPoint presentation within the browser window. Either slide-by-slide manually, or displayed hands-free on auto-play. Home Page Site - http://www.net-scene.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price GremlinSoft Organizer 97 1.12 5/07/97 187kb Shareware $7.00 A Personal Information Manager and Notes Organizer. It allows you to organize notes into groups and automatically saves all text that is copied to clipboard into a special 'Clipboard' group. This means that you can add new note to it by simply selecting text and copying it to clipboard. It can edit notes as well (in fact, each note can be up to 4MB each). It also has a Tray Icon which allows you to copy favorite notes to clipboard with just a mouse-click. Home Page Site - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/4146/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PowerPoint/Internet Explorer Security Fix 32-bit 1.0 5/09/97 .15mb Free The problem involves the potential misuse of a PowerPoint 95/97 feature that allows an application to be run from within PowerPoint without warning the user. The problem can occur in browsers such as Internet Explorer that support the viewing of PowerPoint files from within the browser. The fix we have provided will prompt you before any PowerPoint file is opened from within Internet Explorer. Home Page Site - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security/powerpoint.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Critec Accounting Beta 1.03 5/08/97 3,584kb Freeware Includes Debtors, Creditors, General Ledger, Cashbook, Reports, Fixed Assets, Inventory, etc. Features Office '97 Style toolbars and menus. Join the Beta program to get regular updates, and many more advantages. Home Page Site - http://www.critec.co.nz/accounting/index.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Schedule Wizard97 32-bit 1.3g 5/09/97 .76mb Shareware $25 Schedule Wizard allows you to schedule programs to run, schedule messages to pop-up, keep a list of dated reminders or appointments, and keep a to do list. Scheduling can be done with many variations including advanced warnings and alarms, and most importantly, it can be done with ease! Home Page Site - http://www.net1fx.com/ScheduleWizard/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price HyperCam 32-bit 1.19 509/97 .25mb Shareware An application that captures the action from your Windows 95 or NT screen and saves it to AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) movie file. Your machine must run in 8 bits per pixel color mode (maximum 256 colors) for it to run. Do not try it on Windows 3.1 or 3.11. Sound from your sytem microphone is also recorded. Home Page Site - http://www.hyperionics.com/www/hypercam.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Super Dot 2.3 5/08/97 3,526kb Shareware $10.00 This is an enjoyable 3d puzzle/adventure game for Windows 95.This game features full midi music and sound, along with 256 color graphics.The shareware version includes 30 levels with monsters traps, bombs and other cool stuff.The registered version has 100 levels with even more monsters and traps, it also comes witha level editing tool so you can design your own levels and give them to your friends. Home Page Site - http://www.superdesign.com/vulture/sdot2.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price DNEWS USENET NNTP Server 32-bit 4.2i 5/09/97 1.90mb Shareware $495 Free to non-profit organizations DNEWS News Server is an easy-to-use, fully functional, highspeed server software which in conjuntion with any NNTP news reader software allows users to create and participate in multiple discussion groups on any topics of interest to them over the Internet or local TCP/IP-based networks Home Page Site - http://netwinsite.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price ZipPrint 1.0 5/09/97 383kb Freeware This freeware program prints non-stick labels for your Zip disk jewel cases. Home Page Site - http://www.microworld.com/specsoft/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price FaxMail 16-bit 5.19 5/10/97 .73mb Shareware $55 FaxMail attaching itself to and becomes a part of the actual Microsoft Windows environment, whereby it appends itself to all system menus thereby adding its features to all Windows Applications. FaxMail has hundreds of useful features such as Dynamic View/Edit Cover Page, FaxBook Import, Windows Dynamic All Class Fax/Modem Driver, and Technical Support. You can import up to 1000 name and phone numbers into each FaxBook (Phone Book) at a time from any xBase data base program, and you can have as many FaxBooks as you want. Home Page Site - http://www.blkbox.com/~jonk/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Fund Manager 2.4 5/03/97 591kb Shareware $29.00 Fund Manager is a portfolio management application for the individual investor. Fund Manager is designed to help investors monitor and analyze their stocks, mutual funds, and other investments with a wide variety of easy to use graphs and reports. Home Page Site - http://members.aol.com/Beiley/fundman.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price TreeSize Pro 32-bit 1.0 beta 5 5/10/97 .98mb Shareware $30 TreeSize professional is a powerful and flexible space manager for Windows 95 and Windows NT4. It shows you the size, allocated & wasted space, the number of files, 3D bar and pie charts and much more information for several folders or drives you choose. The application has an intutive Explorer-like GUI and it is fast and multithreaded. You can print detailed reports or export the collected Data to Excel or an ASCII file. TreeSize Pro is in the context menu of every folder or drive. Home Page Site - http://www.informatik.uni- trier.de/CIP/marder/software.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price PC Appraiser 1.2 5/09/97 1,012kb Shareware $25.00 Calculates the value of any new or used PC notebook or desktop with any given configuration. Can also generate official appraisal forms such as Tax- Proof-of-Value, Insurance-Proof-of-Value, Theft Evaluation, For-Sale- Notice, ect... Home Page Site - http://www.uce.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price ICQ 32-bit 1.10 beta 5/10/97 1.30mb Shareware Would you like to know if your friends & associates are surfing the net? Right now? No longer will you search in vain for friends & associates on the net. on the net. I Seek You does the searching for you, alerting you in real time when friends & colleagues sign on. You can chat, send messages and files, play games or use it as the perfect business tool to find and contact associates in realtime through the internet. Home Page Site - http://www.mirabilis.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price CastleLand Cards 1.10 5/10/97 1.8mb Shareware $19.95 A multiplayer freeform card game.It allows you to play almost any card game of your choice with up to five players over existing IRC networks. Home Page Site - http://www.castleland.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price CD Wizard 32-bit 4.21 5/11/97 .32mb Shareware $19.95 CD Wizzard CD Audio Player for Windows has all the functions of a home CD player plus many, many more! It saves the disc and tracks names in its database. CD Wizzard has a full 3D look that is totally customizable. In icon mode, the icon is updated with the disc and track time. There is a full help file that describes all features of CD Wizzard. Home Page Site - http://www.bfmsoft.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Printscreen95 32-bit 4.0 5/12/97 .89mb Shareware $19.95 Printscreen 95 is a print screen program for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT, which allows you to print the full screen by simply pressing the PRINT SCREEN key on the keyboard, and print the active window using ALT + PRINT SCREEN. A SELECT AREA option allows you to draw a rectangle using the mousepointer, and print/save the contents of the rectangle. Full screen DOS sessions are also printed using the PRINT SCREEN key. 16 and 24 bit True Color color images are supported with Version 2.9. Also new with V2.9: Enhanced print options allow you to position the output on the page, and scale the size ofthe image. Printscreen 95 can be used with any Windows compatible graphics printer, including HP Laserjets, Deskjets, Epson, Canon Inkjet printers, etc. Home Page Site - http://com.primenet.com/sssware/prtscr95.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Net2Phone 16-bit 8.21 5/13/97 1.30mb Free program service costs $$$ Net2Phone is a new technology which makes it possible to place domestic and international calls from a personal computer to any telephone in the world. Net2Phone enables Internet users with sound-equipped PCs to initiate calls from their computers and transmit them over the Internet to IDT's phone switches. The switches then convert the signal from the "packet switch network" Internet environment to the "circuit switch network" telephone environment. And then to its' final destination - any ordinary telephone. The result is real-time uninterrupted voice communication between the two calling parties." Look out AT&T :) Home Page Site - http://www.net2phone.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Voyager: Deep Space Rescue 1.2 5/11/97 1,317kb Freeware Strap yourself into the Voyager Ship and help save clubland in "Voyager: Deep Space Rescue", an exclusive chunk of arcade action from Universe, the promotors of Tribal Gathering, the worlds greatest dance music festival. Home Page Site - http://www.universe.co.uk/voyager/gindex.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Turbo Grapher 1.3.6 5/11/97 2,880kb Shareware $15.00 A 32-bit curve fitting and technical graphing program. Turbo Grapher also has a full set of drawing tools for preparing presentation quality graphics. Home Page Site - http://www.midplains.net/~jradue/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price BackWeb 32-bit 2.0 Official Release 5/13/97 2.20mb Free Download BackWeb today and you'll be on your way to getting personalized information, entertainment, and software delivered automatically to your desktop. BackWeb makes this possible by sending data to you in the background, taking advantage of your Internet connection's idle time while you're connected to the net. This means you no longer have to wait for long downloads or go out and search for information. You subscribe to the Channels you're interested in once and from then on information is automatically delivered to your desktop. Home Page Site - http://www.backweb.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price SSS ConvertAble 2.0 5/11/97 185kb Shareware $5.00 An excellent unit conversion utility to convert everything ranging from engineeringunits to common household measures. ú Over 1000 different conversions included. Convert anything ranging from household measures to ú engineering units. ú Invert any conversion in seconds. ú Choose measure category, suchas 'Flow' or 'Length',or view all categories at once. ú User-selectable precision up to 6 places, including scientific notation. ú On-line quick access help included. ú Copy any conversionto clipboard as entire equation, or just the answer. ú Window minimization capability to place icon on launch bar - SSS ConvertAble is available whenever you need it! Over 850 different conversions are included. There are other unit conversion programs out there, but none as complete and user-friendly as this one! You'll wonder how you ever lived without it! SSS NetLoan 2.0 5/11/97 175kb Shareware $5.00 A super-fast, super-easy loan calculator for us non-financial wizards! ú Full amortization table. ú Total payments andtotal interest display options. ú Interest shown intrue 1/8% fractions ú Calculate bi-weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly payments for any amount, term, or interest rate. ú On-line help. ú Choose payment date at start of month or end of month. ú Window minimization capability to place icon on launch bar - SSS NetLoan is available whenever you need it! Home Page Site - http://members.aol.com/sss5000/software.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Intermind Communicator 32-bit 1.52 5/12/97 1.40mb Freeware Intermind Communicator makes it easy for everyone to get just the information they want from the Web, without repetitive searching, without bookmarking, and without sacrificing personal privacy. It also makes it possible for anyone to publish information on the Web that is delivered automatically to everyone else who wants to receive it, customized to each person's individual interests Home Page Site - http://www.intermind.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Internet Neighborhood 32-bit 1.1 5/12/97 1.00mb Shareware Internet Neighborhood is a Windows 95 Shell Extension which is used for browsing remote FTP sites as if they were directories/folders on your local computer! With KnoWare's Internet Neighborhood, there's no longer any need for those 'Explorer Like' applications and utilities; It's all integrated into your existing namespace. Why launch a separate application to browse a remote FTPsite, download the file, close the application, then run Explorer? Simply launch Explorer directly, browse your way through the Internet neighborhood, then drag-drop the files/application directly into your file system Home Page Site - http://www.knowareinc.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WetSock 32-bit 3.0 beta build 7 5/12/97 1.10mb Shareware $12 WetSock shows your current weather conditions and forecasts as an icon on the tray notification area of the system taskbar.Designed specially for Windows 95, WetSock will keep you updated about the weather over Internet without even needing to dial into your Internet Service Provider. If you periodically dial in for surfing, checking your mail etc., WetSock will connect to the weather server and get the weather information in the background , but can also dial in and hang-up by itself. WetSock is a Winsock compliant weather client for PCs running Windows 95. Home Page Site - http://www.locutuscodeware.com/wetsock.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Coffee Break 1.1 5/10/97 139kb Shareware $10.00 This desktop tray accessory allows the user to set a periodical reminder, which when triggered will display a message inviting the user to take a well-earned Coffee-Break. Home Page Site - http://www.powerup.com.au/~marver/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Stay Connected 32-bit 1.3 5/12/97 .89mb Shareware $19.95 Just as the name says, Stay connected will make sure that you never loose your connection due to time outs, disconnections,etc. Home Page Site - http://www.inklineglobal.com/stayconn.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price AVI Screen Saver 1.20.5997 5/09/97 75KB Freeware Create a playlist of AVI, QuickTime, or MPEG (requires ActiveMovie) files and use them as your screen saver. Home Page Site - http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~bfcarter/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Shadow Warrior 5/13/97 13.00mb Shareware The latest 3D shooter to use the Build engine (also used in games like Duke Nukem, Redneck Rampage and several others). Basically your a suped up Ninja and you roll around and kill stuff. The game actually looks pretty good and if it's even half as nifty as Duke Nukem then it's worth the download. Home Page Site - http://www.shadowwarrior.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WebSeeker 32-bit 3.2 5/13/97 2.50mb Shareware $49.95 WebSeeker, a search engine unifier, combines the results of more than 23 of the most popular Internet search engines -- including Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite, Alta Vista and WebCrawler -- to deliver one comprehensive report. Within seconds, WebSeeker brings back search results; removes duplicates and unrelated results; and sorts final results for users to visit, manipulate, categorize, monitor, store and report. Home Page Site - http://www.ffg.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price CDStore97 2.5 5/12/97 814KB Shareware $30.00 Music Collection Database that is Packed with Features. Full Drag-n-Drop support, High-speed database engine, Unique 3D Interface that is easy and fun to use! You can even play selected Tracks from assorted CD's in your database and continue working while they Play! Auto-scans CD's for total runtimes and track lengths and enters it for you! Store every aspect of your Music Collection and includes 4 User-Defined fields for your own unique information. Online Audio CD Player that lets you play while you work! Mark CD's or individual Tracks, Alternate Grid View of the entire database, Many User-Defined options, Unlimited Categories, NEW Drag-n-Drop Report Builder, Uses a Track Wizard to simplify track entries, View ALL Titles or Tracks in the database with a single click and many more features not listed here. Full support and latest versions always available via our Web site. The Ultimate in Music Database Programs! Home Page Site - http://members.aol.com/JohnL486/pages/index.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Real Player 32-bit 4.0 beta 2 5/13/97 1.20mb Free From the makers of Real Audio comes Real Video, the only player you need to get all the great RealAudio and the new RealVideo content on the web -- all without download delays. - Stereo audio at 28.8, near-CD quality at higher bitrates, AM-quality audio at 14.4 - - Newscast-quality video at 28.8 and full-motion at higher bitrates. Home Page Site - http://www.real.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Shortcuts 3.0 5/09/97 1,779kb Shareware $5.00 Shortcuts is a nice little utility to allow you to manage those shortcuts you place on your desktop in windows 95. If you are like me, you like to add shortcuts for the things you are working on. You will have also come to find that you end up with so many of them that life gets too confusing. This program allows you to store groups of schortcuts categorized according to activity or task. The program allows you to manage these groups and paint them onto the desktop on demand. Home Page Site - http://www.golden.net/~tgerman/sware.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price LiveList 32-bit 1.0 beta 1 5/14/97 .21mb LiveList is a new way to instantly connect with your own list of friends and colleagues whenever you're online. You can always tell when they are online, and you can send a live message or even grab a whole group for a conversation. Now there's no need to wait for e-mail or to wander the web looking for your friends - with LiveList you'll always be in touch. Home Page Site - http://livelist.onlive.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Perfect Weapon 1.0 5/13/97 7.0mb Shareware Takes gamers on a 3-D journey through an unforgiving world as Captain Blake Hunter, Earth Command Defense Force's top agent and world champion martial artist. A man transported into an unfamiliar dimension without cause or reason. Is the enemy unaware of Blake's exceptional skills or was he hand-picked because of them? Blake is now facing the fight of his life - and facing it alone. While he doesn't know what lurks in the world that surrounds him, he does know one thing - the ultimate battle is the one you fight alone. Home Page Site - http://www.ascgames.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PlayIt 0.60 5/13/97 68kb Freeware A FAST (probably the fastest) REALTIME 32Bit Mpeg Layer 1,2,3 Decoder. Features: Audio Oversampling, Bass/Treble adjustment in software, Http play, and funky flat toolbars. Requires DirectX 2.0 or higher. Home Page Site - http://www.dcs.king.ac.uk/users/playit/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Cosmo Player 32-bit 1.0 beta 4a plug-in 5/14/97 2.60mb Free beta Cosmo Player was the first browser to support VRML 2.0, the industry standard for 3D worlds on the Web with sensors, scripts and sound. To boost your way through the infoverse, Cosmo Player has plenty of Silicon Graphics visual simulation technology packed into it's engine room. Now you can experience vast 3D universes on your PC without getting bogged down. It has Spatial audio for presence in the virtual world, Embedded audio and video to enliven the virtual world, and Constant frame rates for smooth interaction with large worlds. Home Page Site - http://webspace.sgi.com/cosmoplayer/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Double Wild Slots 95 1.1 5/12/97 345kb Shareware $15.00 A very fun and addictive slot machine game. The four-leaf clover symbols are both doubling and wild. The highest payoff is for three clovers on the payline, paying 10,000 credits for a two credit bet. The clover symbols are useful even if not on the payline. Other symbols are not useful if not directly on the payline. Clovers must be on the payline to double your winnings, but are still wild and useful if above or below the payline. Home Page Site - http://ultisoft.com/slots.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price StockAgent Pro 32-bit 1.0 5/14/97 .50mb Shareware $24.95 StockAgent Pro lets you track an unlimited number of portfolios and stocks with everything from the latest price and volume to dividend information. It features an unlimited number of open portfolio windows, portfolio valuation, and our innovative "ticker tape" display that takes no additional screen real estate. Data can be automatically updated at any interval you'd like, or just hit F5 to update at any time! But that's not all! To help you keep track of and research the companies behind the stocks, StockAgent Pro also offers instant access to stock charts, company news and profiles, EDGAR SEC Filings, and thousands of messages posted every day about the companies in your portfolio. Home Page Site - http://www.igsnet.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Automatic File Deletion System for Win95/NT 2.0 5/14/97 1.1mb Demo $19.95 Program uses user defined definitions to delete unwanted files from the hard disk based on the number of days to retain. Options to migrate, move to recycle-bin, scheduler and much more. This is a demo/fully functional copy of the real product. There are no time bombs etc. It is only limited to 10 records. This release is 2.0. The current version is 2.03 which addressed one known bug. Options include a secure delete and prompt before deletion. This utility is great for keeping temp and cache directories clean. Many more options and easy to use. Home Page Site - http://www.wescosoft.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Notify CD Player 32-bit 1.21 5/15/97 .04mb Freeware CDPlayer that resides in the Notify area of the taskbar in Windows 95 or Windows NT4.0. It has some cool features such as: Features right-click menu with all common CDactions and a Tracks menu including the names of all tracks on the current CD, Fast left-click operation. One click to get the next track/play, two clicks to pause/resume, three clicks to get previous track, and compatible with CDPLAYER.EXE included in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. Can replace CDPLAYER.EXEto feature autoplay etc. Home Page Site - http://www.artech.se/~mlt/software/index.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Moto Racer GP for Win95 5/15/97 17.00mb Shareware Requires DirectX 3 Moto Racer GP is an arcade motorcycle racing game with little pretense toward simulation. There are eighttracks in all, from street courses to dirt tracks, and when you're sick of them,you can drive them in reverse. Multiplayer options include modem and null-modem for two players, and an eight-player LAN option (alas, IPX is the only protocol supported - Kali fans ready your emulators)." Game also supports 3D cards which provides for incredible graphics ;) Home Page Site - http://www.mracer.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price ACDsee32 32-bit 2.1 5/15/97 .47mb Shareware An image viewer which is very fast at decoding pictures. It also support the following formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, Photo-CD, PNG, TGA and TIFF image formats. Home Page Site - http://www.acdsystems.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinZip 32-bit 6.3 beta 2 5/15/97 .62mb Shareware $29 A great utility for zipping and unzipping files. This is an absolute must if you want to uncompress zipped files you download from the internet or elsewhere. It has "wizards" which will help novice users with some of the more complicated tasks. This version lets you open and extract UUencoded, XXencoded, BinHex, and MIME files. These files can be opened via the File/Open dialog or via drag and drop. The new Actions->UUencode menu entry makes it easy to encode files. The new File->Favorite Zip Folders lists all Zip files in your favorite folders by date for easy access. Home Page Site - http://www.winzip.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PowerMarks 32-bit 2.02 5/15/97 .31mb Shareware $9.95 Powermarks is a Windows 95 program designed to allow you to create, manage and browse your bookmarks with unprecedented ease. Powermarks can either replace or work in conjunction with the bookmark and favorite features of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Powermarks can import both Microsoft Favorites and Netscape Bookmark files so getting started is fast. It features: Automatic identification of pages which have changed or no longer reachable, and a Powerful, fast and easy to use search engine that is an intrinsic part of the program. Home Page Site - http://www.kaylon.com/power.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price einSTein 5.0 5/14/97 1,188kb Shareware $35.00 The most easy and complet calculator in Internet. It will accept arithmetic expressions or functions: for example to compute the expression (1+a^2)*((a-1)/(a+1) you have to insert (or paste from clipboard) the expression as it's written, insert a value for a and press 'enter'. Graph plotting of a function - Computing of integrals and derivates - Computing of a function (linear, logarithmic or exponential), that better describes a series of values - Solution of f(x) in an interval. Vectors (three dimensions) calculator (RPN)- Matrix computing (only for 32 bit version)- Solution of systems of three equations - Possibility of operating as a normal calculator (RPN):Mathematic - Trigonometric - Calendar - Financial functions - Special, unique financial function: allows the calculation of the interest rate of complete irregular cash flows Loans and amortizartion planes - Leasing - USA and European date format - Solution of triangles - Solution of equations up to the 16th grad - Complex and vectors calculations - Measure converter: 112 different measures - Saving capability (You can build your personal archiv)- Print capability Reverse Polnishe Notation (8 stac-registers that may be seen in a separate window) A must for every family! Absolutly necessary for students, workers, savers and debtors. Home Page Site - http://www.volftp.vol.it/IT/IT/ITALIANI/CAZORZI/index.htm EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents Virginia Profs Challenge Law Restricting Use Of Net RSA, PGP In Legal Flap Over Encryption Technology Privacy Standards For "Smart Cards" Internet Shopping Company Files For Bankruptcy Protection Intel Bug Update Reflective LCDs Score On Color, Readability Tech Jobs Reach 10-Year High Friendly Interface Is Still An Oxymoron Gates Tells Execs To "Fulfill Your Wildest Dreams" Edupage In EstonianKasparov To Deep Blue: Wait Till Next TimeDigital Fair Use Guidelines DoubtfulMurdoch's Echostar Deal Collapses UUNet Tells "Peers" They'll Need To Pay Their Share Microsoft Seeks Terminal Solution Netscape Pledges To Stick With Be Toshiba To Market PC That Plays Movies On TV Apple Says Rhapsody Programs Will Run On Mac IBM Objects Link Incompatible Systems Domain Name Expansion -- Good Or Bad For Cyber-Squatters? Universal Discontent On The Net Digital Says Intel Stole Design For Pentium Microsoft "Sidewalk" Users Hit Dead End Payback Time For Intranets Postmortem On Time Warner's Full Service Network Stanford's HighWire Press Is High Flier In Online Pubs New Set-Top Device Challenges WebTV Gigabit Ethernet Vs. ATM Compaq Doubles Its North American Sales Force Computer Access And Minority Students Rockers Sock It To Web Thieves Machines That Think And Machines That Fly VIRGINIA PROFS CHALLENGE LAW RESTRICTING USE OF NET Six Virginia college professors and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia state law that makes it a crime for state employees using state-owned computers to "access, download, print or store any information . . . having sexually explicit content." Plaintiff Paul Smith of George Mason University says "I don't think the state should be regulating anybody's free speech." The Virginia law exempts state employees who can show they need computer access to sexually explicit material for a "bona fide, agency-approved research project or other agency-approved undertaking," but the professors argue that the law would prevent them from teaching literature written by such sexually explicit writers as Henry Miller and Allen Ginsberg. Co-plaintiff Melvin I. Urofsky, a Virginia Commonwealth University history professor who has been teaching for 35 years, considers the law an "insult" because "no one has ever told me what I can or cannot do in the classroom." (Washington Post 9 May 97) RSA, PGP IN LEGAL FLAP OVER ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGY RSA Data Security has filed a lawsuit against Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), alleging that PGP failed to comply with the terms of a licensing agreement that RSA had signed with Lemcom, the company with which PGP merged last year. RSA says Lemcom had "no ability to transfer rights to the source code for the Licensed Product to an OEM Customer or anyone else." When informed that its license agreement to RSA technology was canceled, "PGP demanded we sue them in order to exercise audit rights clearly laid out in the agreement," says RSA President Jim Bidzos. "Their behavior makes us wonder what they have to hide." Meanwhile, PGP says the products it's developing don't rely on the RSA encryption scheme. "Those new products will be encryption-algorithm independent," says PGP VP Robert Kohn, which will "break RSA monopoly on this technology." (InfoWorld Electric 9 May 97) PRIVACY STANDARDS FOR "SMART CARDS" The Smart Card Forum, representing 200 companies in the smart card industry, is urging standards to restrict the use of data stored on such cards, which can include financial, medical and other personal information. Columbia University professor Alan F. Westin thinks the Forum's guidelines don't go far enough; he says they should stipulate that all smart card information must be encrypted and should make use of electronic fingerprinting or digital signature verification. (AP 9 May 97) INTERNET SHOPPING COMPANY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION Net Inc., a company that offers online shopping services for manufacturers selling basic industrial goods, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Jim Manzi, the company's chief executive (best known as former head of Lotus Development Corporation) says: "This is still a great business idea, and over the next several days we will evaluate how much of the dream we can continue to pursue." Industry analyst Stan Dolberg characterized Net Inc. as "a mile wide and an inch deep. To work, an online marketplace has to be targeted and run by people who really understand the industries they are in. Manzi didn't." (New York Times 10 May 97) INTEL BUG UPDATE Intel has confirmed that its Pentium Pro and Pentium II chips contain a very minor bug but says that the major companies using the chips (including Microsoft, IBM and Computer Associates) have not encountered any problems caused by the bug. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 10 May 97) REFLECTIVE LCDS SCORE ON COLOR, READABILITY Reflective liquid crystal displays, which use ambient light to reduce power consumption and extend battery life, have up until now produced somewhat washed-out-looking images, with poor contrast between color and brightness. But now Toshiba, Sharp, Matsushita and others both are making advances in producing thin, light- weight panels that use less power than conventional displays, and industry experts say reflective-LCD quality will soon reach "newspaper level" -- defined as a 5:1 contrast ration and about 60% reflectance. A professor at Yohoku University predicts that reflective LCDs eventually will become the screen of choice because of their superior readability. (TechWire 11 May 97) TECH JOBS REACH 10-YEAR HIGH The high-tech industry was responsible for adding some 240,000 jobs to the economy last year, according to the American Electronics Association, with nearly 60% of those in software and computer-related services. About 30% were in manufacturing. The total number of high-tech jobs is now 4.3 million. (Investor's Business Daily 9 May 97) FRIENDLY INTERFACE IS STILL AN OXYMORON Michael Dertouzos, director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, says software companies still have a long way to go in developing a truly "user- friendly" computer interface: "Calling these interfaces friendly is tantamount to dressing a chimpanzee in a surgical gown and parading him around earnestly as a surgeon." (Information Week 28 Apr 97) GATES TELLS EXECS TO "FULFILL YOUR WILDEST DREAMS" Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates told the more than 100 attendees of a "CEO Summit" convened in Seattle that they should plan to fulfill their "wildest dreams" because computing power will continue to increase rapidly in the years ahead." Urging them to focus their thoughts less on how technology will change in two years and concentrate more on how it will change in 10, Gates encouraged them to build company information systems that would be as fast and responsive as "digital nervous systems." (New York Times 10 May 97) EDUPAGE IN ESTONIAN We are pleased to announced that Edupage is now available in an Estonian translation that is accessible on the Web at http://www.mail.ee/edupage/ or available by e-mail as described below. Edupage in Estonian is supported by the UNDP organization and is produced by Arvi Tavast, Tarvi Martens, and Vello Hanson. Welcome to our Estonian-speaking readers of Edupage! Edupage on kokkuv=F5te infotehnoloogia-alastest uudistest, mida koostab kolm korda n=E4dalas Educom, Washingtonis baseeruv juhtivate k=F5rgkoolide konsortsium eesm=E4rgiga edendada haridust infotehnoloogia kasutamise abil. Edupage'i on v=F5imalik tellida endale ka elektronposti teel. Saatke kiri aadressil majordomo@mail.ee suvalise Subject:-reaga ja sisuga: Subscribe edupage. ning Edupage hakkab saabuma teie elektronpostkasti regulaarselt. KASPAROV TO DEEP BLUE: WAIT TILL NEXT TIME Withdrawing in the sixth and final game of a six-game chess match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the series (3-1/2 to 2-1/2) and promised revenge: "I think it is time for Deep Blue to prove this was not a single event. I personally assure you that, if it starts to play competitive chess [in a regular chess match with a number of top chess players], put it in a fair contest and I personally guarantee you I will tear it to pieces." In a less defiant statement, Kasparov explained his defeat by saying: "I lost my fighting spirit. I was not in the mood of playing at all... I'm a human being. When I see something that is well beyond my understanding, I'm afraid." (New York Times 12 May 97) DIGITAL FAIR USE GUIDELINES DOUBTFUL Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce Lehman says attempts to draft voluntary guidelines for the fair use of digital works appear to have been unsuccessful, most likely leaving the task of sorting out the issue to Congress and the courts. Although several task force groups have been working on the issue, Lehman says that December's "Interim Report to the Commissioner" by CONFU failed to include guidelines agreed to by all the groups. While fair use is common in the U.S., the idea is foreign to most European countries. U.S. federal law will continue to recognize the fair use of digital works, says Lehman, who predicted that the Clinton administration will be speaking out on the issue "shortly." (BNA Daily Report for Executives 12 May 97) MURDOCH'S ECHOSTAR DEAL COLLAPSES The deal between Echostar Communications and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has fallen apart, and Echostar is seeking a new partner. The Murdoch Echostar plan had been to sell more than 500 channels of digital TV service in all 50 states beginning in 1998 under the brand name Sky, offering serious competition both to cable TV operators and to such direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operators as DirecTV. Lawsuits between the two parties are anticipated. (USA Today 12 May 97) UUNET TELLS "PEERS" THEY'LL NEED TO PAY THEIR SHARE UUNet, the Internet service provider (ISP) based in Fairfax, Virginia, will begin for the first time charging for "peering" services -- carrying the message traffic of other Internet Service Providers, and thus sharing with peer organizations the total costs of the traffic. Most smaller ISPs lease capacity on the lines owned by large companies such as UUNet. UUNet chief executive John Sidgmore explains the rationale for the decision to charge by questioning the definition of "peers": "About four years ago, there was a group of, say, 30 ISPs, all very, very small and about the same size. Instead of creating billing systems, we said, 'Let's just interconnect the network and not charge one another for routing messages from one point to another" -- but now when ISPs "say they want to 'peer,' they're saying they want to use your network for free." (Washington Post 13 May 97) MICROSOFT SEEKS TERMINAL SOLUTION Microsoft has licensed multi-user technology from Citrix Systems Inc. and Prologue SA of France that will allow users of terminals connected to central servers running Windows NT to run most PC programs. The move is viewed as Microsoft's response to Oracle's and Sun Microsystems' focus on network computers -- devices similar to terminals in that they rely on central servers for most functions, but with more processing power than a simple terminal. The multi-user capability will be added to the current Windows NT 4.0 version, and will be an integral part of 5.0. (Wall Street Journal 12 May 97) NETSCAPE PLEDGES TO STICK WITH BE Netscape Communications plans to release a version of its FastTrack server, designed for Be Inc.'s BeOS operating system. "There's a lot of developer excitement around Be," says a Netscape spokeswoman. "Be is uniquely designed to be a very fast platform. For a Web server, that means you'll see a lot of performance." The move is endorsed by Mac clone maker Power Computing, which says it plans to ship the BeOS with its new line of PCs. (TechWire 12 May 97) TOSHIBA TO MARKET PC THAT PLAYS MOVIES ON TV Toshiba's Vision Connect home PC, which will go on sale in Japan next month, doesn't come with a monitor. instead, it's designed to hook up to the TV to play DVD movies, surf the Web or run PC software. The machine comes equipped with a 133 MHz Pentium processor, 32 megabytes of memory, and a 1.4 gigabyte hard drive. (Investor's Business Daily 13 May 97) APPLE SAYS RHAPSODY PROGRAMS WILL RUN ON MAC Apple Computer says that future programs written to run on its Rhapsody operating system will also run on the current MacOS, thanks to a new layer of software it's developing that will "sit on top of" MacOS. Apple also will develop similar software for Microsoft's Windows operating systems. The move to achieve compatibility between current Mac users' machines and future programs written for Rhapsody is a switch for Apple, which initially had said it had no plans to accommodate Rhapsody programs in the current Macintosh operating system. Rhapsody, an amalgam of software technologies from Apple and Next, Inc., is due for release in the summer of 1998. (Wall Street Journal 13 May 97) IBM OBJECTS LINK INCOMPATIBLE SYSTEMS IBM has developed software "components" that can encapsulate data from existing corporate databases, payroll systems, etc. in a format that can then be used to build new programs. The company says its object system is the first to allow actual transactions to take place in a secure manner between two incompatible systems. "There have been efforts to deliver different parts of this solution but never anything this complete or programmable," says the general manager of IBM's Software Solutions unit. IBM says the software will be released in September. (Wall Street Journal 12 May 97) DOMAIN NAME EXPANSION -- GOOD OR BAD FOR CYBER-SQUATTERS? Industry observers are debating what impact the proposed addition of seven new Internet domain name suffixes will have on cyber-squatters -- people who register Web addresses that include the names of companies or famous people or products with the intent of profiting from their resale. "With the new extensions on the names, the value is going to disappear," says one speculator, who says he's sold more than 25,000 domain names in the past few years. Others say that the addition of the new suffixes will enhance the value of names with the ".com" suffix, which remain the most popular. (Tampa Tribune 12 May 97) UNIVERSAL DISCONTENT ON THE NET In the four months since the FCC solicited public comment on proposals to charge Internet users in some way in order to subsidize universal access, the 300,000 respondents are almost universally united on one point - any attempts by the government to impose a per-minute access charge on Internet service providers would almost certainly result in those costs being passed directly on to consumers. "Since when is singling out one type of user of a public service for additional usage fees acceptable? If additional fees are necessary, make it a universal fee charged to all regardless of how they use the service above a preset length of time, or have every phone company charge a premium for unlimited use," says one. "Perhaps instead of trying to gouge the public again, phone companies should answer a few simple questions: Are we still making a reasonable profit? Can we reduce expenses instead of asking for another rate increase? Have we cut out the waste and inefficiencies in our operation? Are our top executives' salaries and benefits in excess of $1 million per year per person? If yes, go back to questions #2 and #3," suggests another. (tele.com May 97) DIGITAL SAYS INTEL STOLE DESIGN FOR PENTIUM Digital Equipment Corporation has filed a lawsuit charging that Intel Corporation stole Digital's patented chip designs and used them to create Intel's Pentium chips. Although declining to specify the amount of damages this company is seeking, Digital's chief executive says: "What is obvious is that the numbers are huge. The time has come for these unlawful practices to stop and Digital intends to see that they do... If we prevail as we hope, it does change the industry quite a bit in terms of Intel's hegemony and monopoly inside the enterprise." Intel denies the charges and says it will defend itself vigorously. Wall Street was stunned by the development, and one analyst said that the lawsuit is "fraught with peril" for Digital, as Digital is a major user of Intel chips. (New York Times 14 May 97) MICROSOFT "SIDEWALK" USERS HIT DEAD END The dispute between Microsoft and Ticketmaster over an unauthorized link between Microsoft's Seattle Sidewalk site and the Ticketmaster Web site has escalated. Ticketmaster, which had unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a deal with Microsoft where Microsoft would pay for providing access to Ticketmaster's online sales service, now reroutes all Sidewalk users who try to link to the Ticketmaster site to a separate page that reads: "This is an unauthorized link and a dead end for Sidewalk. Ticketmaster does not have a business relationship with Sidewalk and you do not need them to visit us. They want to traffic on our good name and your desire for information on live entertainment events to sell advertising for their sole benefit while offering nothing in return." Seattle Sidewalk's general manager responds that Ticketmaster "now seems to be slamming the door in the face of customers. I can't really figure out why that makes sense for anyone." (Wall Street Journal 15 May 97) PAYBACK TIME FOR INTRANETS Intranets are "seriously making people rethink corporate computing," says the Yankee Group's director of Internet computing strategies. "And unlike client-server -- where there was so much confusion about how to do it right and what it meant -- with the intranet, there's really only one terrific model that everyone can see and use." In fact, the returns on investment are so enormous, that few managers even bother to scrutinize the bottom line -- a study of seven companies by International Data Corp. shows that returns average about 1,000%, and the best news is that it starts within weeks, rather than years. "For most companies, if you started today, 10 weeks from now you'll have covered your cost. That's pretty powerful in this volatile environment," says IDC's director of collaborative and intranet computing. "Six months from now, when the CIO says 'Okay, we have to go in a completely different direction,' you can throw away your software. The company can now be reactive and flexible to changes in the industry." (Investor's Business Daily 14 May 97) POSTMORTEM ON TIME WARNER'S FULL SERVICE NETWORK Time Warner's decision to pull the plug on its Full Service Network came as no surprise to anyone, given the enormous costs associated with the project and the changing landscape of cable-telco competition. "The marketplace changed," says a Yankee Group analyst. "When the Full Service Network began, the cable companies were up against the phone companies, which were going to enter the cable market and offer a full uite of interactive services. But the phone companies backed out long ago. The competitive impetus disappeared, and the development of interactive technology shifted to the Internet." Still, the ambitious effort, which delivered movies, shopping, games and other interactive services on demand to households in the Orlando, Fla. Area, produced some lessons for other would-be interactive service providers: "It's true that there is some value in a company the size of Time Warner making some large strategic investment that does not pay off," says a Dataquest analyst. "The technology was not there yet. And without the technology the content was not there. And it's clear that people don't want a lot of what's being offered." (Broadcasting & Cable 5 May 97) STANFORD'S HIGHWIRE PRESS IS HIGH FLIER IN ONLINE PUBS Stanford University's HighWire Press, based at the University's Cecil H. Green Library, is breaking new ground in electronic publishing, focusing on scientific journals by scholarly societies. HighWire's staff works with journal editors to design their online versions, and inserts hyperlinks to related material on the Web. Associations pay HighWire between $35,000 and $125,000 for online journal development, plus several thousand dollars per month in maintenance costs. Since signing on as HighWire's first customer, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has experienced a 15% increase in article submissions: "One hypothesis is that because JBC has got this global distribution, because the hyperlinking has been so terrific, because the hypernavigation is so good, because you can blow up these images and get really good pictures of gels that are really workable in a lab, more authors are sending stuff the JBC," says HighWire's publisher. A secondary benefit from the project is the fact that the online journals now are available to new markets, such as Russia and India, where paper versions are difficult to access. Other universities, including Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley, are involved in online journal projects, but Ann Okerson, an associate university librarian at Yale University, says the HighWire project is unique because of its close association with a university library and its efforts to work with a number of publishers. (Chronicle of Higher Education 16 May 97) NEW SET-TOP DEVICE CHALLENGES WEBTV A new $400 set-top box that links a user's TV set to the Internet is being marketed by Curtis Mathes Holding Corp. The UniView is the first direct rival to WebTV's $300 device, and unlike the WebTV product, UniView also acts as a speaker phone and fax machine, connects to a computer printer, and runs an on-screen TV guide. We're hitting the TV viewer, not a computer person," says Curtis Mathes' CEO. Later this year the company plans to incorporate the device into a 36-inch screen TV set, which will sell for $2,000. (Wall Street Journal 17 May 97) GIGABIT ETHERNET VS. ATM Gigabit Ethernet is touted as the next big thing in networking upgrades, challenging asynchronous transfer mode as the technology of choice for faster network backbones and servers. Advocates say the gigabit Ethernet option is more attractive for companies with existing Ethernet networks, because most network management systems and wiring can stay in place, and technicians don't have to learn a whole new system. "Gigabit Ethernet holds a great deal of promise because it offers such a high degree of compatibility with our existing network infrastructure," says a communications design analyst at Lockheed Martin Co. The Dell'Oro Group predicts gigabit Ethernet sales totaling $60 million this year, rocketing to $977 million by 2000. (Investor's Business Daily 14 May 97) COMPAQ DOUBLES ITS NORTH AMERICAN SALES FORCE Compaq, which sells more personal computers than any other manufacturer in the world, is doubling its North American sales force (to 4,000) in order to build closer ties with customers. The company has felt increasing competitive pressure in the past year from direct-sales PC companies Dell and Gateway 2000. (New York Times 15 May 97) COMPUTER ACCESS AND MINORITY STUDENTS A report by the Educational Testing Service suggests that "there are persistent patterns of inequity in student access to technology. The kids with the most needs are getting the least access." Nationally, schools average one computer for approximately every 10 students, but where minority enrollment exceeds 90% the rate is approximately 1 to 17. (Washington Post 15 May 97) ROCKERS SOCK IT TO WEB THIEVES The British rock band Oasis says it will file lawsuits against hundreds of Internet sites for unlawful use of copyrighted photographs, video clips, song lyrics and sound samples without permission. The sites have been given 30 days to erase the illegal material. A statement from the band expressed appreciation for being honored by "fun and interesting" fan sites but emphasized that unauthorized use of copyrighted material "can be seen as theft." (Financial Times 15 May 97) MACHINES THAT THINK AND MACHINES THAT FLY On the issue of whether the chess-playing computer that beat world champion Garry Kasparov can "really think," Yale computer science professor Drew McDermott says: "Saying that Deep Blue doesn't really think is like saying an airplane doesn't really fly because it doesn't flap its wings." (New York Times 14 May 97) 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: Date: 9 May 1997 In answer to all who have wondered what happened at ST Informer. First) Toad Computers withdrew their advertising support saying the Atari market was lost. Second) I found money tough to come by and got $42,000 in debt trying to keep STI going. At the time of David Smiths inquiry, there was a request for a selling proposal from a group in the Kansas City area. Their attitude was to possibly continue publication. I told them I would not transfer the rights to the name and subscribers, unless refunds could be made to anyone who wanted it. They said that sounded reasonable. It is that information that I relayed to folks about refunds. Other than that, I have been offering software in exchange. I can offer Universal Item Selector, Universal Network and many PD Program disks in our library, as compensation for unfulfilled subscription. I have done several of those already. HOWEVER, as we converse here, I am "dudeing" up our Web Site to provide Web Issues at that location on a paid password basis. I will be working on that for the next month, and expect to have something available to readers shortly. I understand my obligation to the reader and have NOT chosen to hide, but am telling folks that I intend to "Keep On Keepin On" (now that sale potential has fallen through), and continue with our news tradition. I have invited advertisers to participate with banner ads on each news department and review file to be posted. I will await their enthusiasm, but expect it to grow nicely. FRANKLY, I do not have the funds to refund to everyone, that is why I chose to NOT cash checks sent to me and to return them to subscribers. The cut off point for that action was September 23, 1996, and I have not accepted additional funds since that time. That was the earliest time I KNEW that TOAD was not renewing their advertising and I could not possibly continue. A&D Software featuring productivity software for Atari Computers is still a viable entity, and Tax Wizard II for the 1996 tax year was upgraded and shipped on schedule again this year. IN REPLY TO David Smith (dbsmith@microserve.net) wrote: I lost the price I paid for a one year subscription with disk. I had : been a subscriber for several years before and saw a patterned of : delayed issues developing. I chose to pay up anyway. I felt the : publisher had provided good service for several years and deserved : the support. At the time Rod sent me a long email explaining his : difficulties. I felt his business failure as : a loss to the Atari community and I hope he put my money to good use. BEST REGARDS, Rod Rod MacDonald LTP, (HOTLINE 800-800-2563) MacDonald Associates Tel (541)476-0071 909 NW Starlite Place, Grants Pass, OR 97526 Fax (541)479-1825 * ST Informer Web Magazine & A&D Atari Software Dealer * Check out our web site: www.chatlink.com/~stinformer Gaming Section Must Be Prom Week!!! From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! It's been quiet in the gaming world lately - too quiet! It must be the typical slow period as spring takes hold and the summer months rapidly approaching. About the only news that we've come across online has been the "resurgence" of Electronic Arts. There's still some online activity regarding the Jaguar's Iron Soldier 2, as people start to get into this new game. Most of the opinions that I've heard has been very positive; the most common complaint has been that the game is hard! Sounds to me like we've got a good game that's not easily beat in a few hours! Let's get on to the news, as little as it is this week - we hope that the news picks up for next week! Until next time... Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! Electronic Arts Playing For Keeps ZDNet News (May 8, 1997) - A year ago, game publisher and developer Electronic Arts Inc. looked to be losing its steam. Despite releasing 64 products that year, the company's profits had taken a turn for the worse. This week, the electronic games company announced it was back on track, reporting fourth quarter revenues of $143.8 million or 19 cents per share, a 23 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. Though it only released one product more than in fiscal 1996, the San Mateo, Calif., company's total revenue grew 17 percent to $625 million for fiscal 1997. EA's success is attributable to a strong response to changing tastes in the game industry. 1995 in particular will be known as the year of confusion in that field. Consumers had to choose between 16-bit game players with a large installed base or state-of-the-art 32-bit machines like the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn. To make things worse: Windows 95 running on the Pentium processor had finally begun to live up to its promise as a game platform. "On both sides of this business -- the PC and the console side -- the technology was in the midst of transition," said Pat Becker, director of corporate communications for Electronic Arts. Technology in transition meant more platforms to develop for and confusion about which platform was best meant less revenue growth. "During calendar 1995, there was a lull in demand, and the entire industry suffered," said Lewis Alton, general managing partner of investment banking firm L. H. Alton & Co, which closely follows the interactive entertainment industry. EA's revenue for calendar 1995 grew less than 8 percent and net income fell by over 27 percent to $40.5 million. This past year saw earnings surge back to $53 million, almost reaching 1994 levels of $55.7 million. Driving the recovery is strong growth of dedicated game consoles and the quick adoption of the multimedia PC. At the end of 1996, U.S. game players had scooped up almost 6 million next-generation 32- and 64-bit machines, according to an Interactive Digital Software Association report. This is expected to triple by the end of the year. But the future, like any game worth playing, holds plenty of potential for surprises. Consolidation in the industry means bringing programmers and producers together in some way that is meaningful. In that, Becker sees many potential traps. "The challenge here is how you manage development of the new resources," she said. "We have done three significant acquisitions in the past couple of years and it is a challenge." Online gaming is another enigma for the industry. "No one has found a successful business model," said Becker. But EA has paired up with Mpath Interactive Inc. and its online gaming network, Mplayer. The company will also announce the beta version of its Ultima Online world at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June. But, at the end of the game, only one thing matters. "It's all about content," said Becker. 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. Well, it's been a typical week here in Mr. Mirando's Neighborhood. Remember a while ago when I mentioned that I was going to be needing a new hard drive, ordered one from my favorite mail order hard drive place, and had to send it back because my host adaptor wouldn't recognize it? Well, I never actually got a working hard drive to replace it. This week, my old hard drive finally gave up and quit. On the 'up' side, I'm still computing away. Thank goodness for my Syquest44 and Floptical drive. I'm now looking for a 'regular' drive to replace the one that died and, again, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I already know that Quantum Fireball TM hard drives are a no- no, but other than that, I'll take any help I can get. Well, let's get on with the reason for this column in the first place, all the great news, hints, tips, and info available every week on CompuServe. From the Atari Computing Forum Peter Moffitt asks for help: "I've been scanning for information pertaining to getting my ST or Falcon connected online, and need to know if I can download Atari stuff, such as a program to enable the ST or Falcon to run the modem, dial, etc. The catch is that so far I'm @ Compuserve via Mac, and I just hope for some way to take what I need from a Mac disk + put it into my Atari. Also, in scanning messages I've been looking for info pertaining to direct-to-disk recording using Soundpool Audiotracker. I've successfully introduced my Faocon 30 to a 1.2 gig Seagate drive via ICD pro utilities only to find out that my audio program doesn't trust the new drive. The message I get is this: "couldn't install tape-code B." Can you think of someone knowledgeable to refer me to, or tell me the best way to get a response out there?" Carl Barron asks Peter: "Do you have dos file compatability extensions installed on your mac. If so format the diskettes for DOS not mac. then the transfer is simple. As long as you use a format readable on a PC with dos specs the atari can read them easily. The trick is to format the disks for DOS not Machintosh on the mac. It should work, but I ussually have dos preformatted HD's and don't bother to reinitialize them. You can download some term. programs for Atari here, but be warned there is no atari support for the cim stuff. File downloads from here are ok but various other forums can cause problems." Sysop Bob Retelle tells Peter: "Unfortunately I don't have any experience with direct-to-disk recording, but I know several of our members probably do... hopefully someone here can help. As Carl indicated, the Atari ST shares almost exactly the same floppy disk format as the IBM PC, so if you can format DOS compatible floppies with your Mac, you can use them to download an ST terminal program. There are still a very few commercially supported terminal programs for Atari computers, so you could buy one of those and load it directly from the disk. You might want to get in touch with Toad Computers in Maryland who still supports the Atari line. Their phone number is: 800-448-8623, and they do have a WWW page, although the URL escapes me at the moment... (umm... www.toad.net, possibly..?)" Carl Barron comes back and tells Bob: "This will get you to toad: http://www.ataricentral.com" Pete Thompson asks for... "Help !!!! I'm an innocent pc owner who needs to find the Input socket connection pin details for the above printer, with a view to using the printer with my pc. Can anybody help ? Or am I a masochist !?" Albert Dayes tells Pete: "Since the SLM804 works directly with the Atari DMA port I think you would have to do a large amount of work to get it to work on the PC end of things. Plus you would have to write software for it to get it to work. I suppose if you really want to turn it into an engineering exercise it could be done assuming you want to spend the time to write the correct software and build the necessary hardware." Gerd Brodowski posts that he has a... "Problem: Data-Interchange between ATARI and IOMEGA ZIP Drive We are a non-profit-organization (an so called One-World-House), working with ATARI-Computers. Now we have bought a PowerMacintosh, too because of its interchangeability with ATARI-computers (it emulates an ATARI). So far so good, but now we have the problem of moving about 60MB of ATARI-datas onto the MAC and viceversa. We have also an IOMEGA ZIP Drive and therefore the possibility of copying about 94 MB of data on the ZIP disk. Well, this works without any problem from the MAC to the IOMEGA ZIP Drive (Hip-hip !) - but does anybody of you know, how do we get this data into our ATARI? If you should have some experiences with the solution of this kind of problem, please have mercy and give us some hints." Albert Dayes tells Gerd the bad news: "I do not know of a method to exchange data between MAC and Atari formats of ZIP disks. I have not heard of any for the PC to/from MAC either. It does not mean that it is not possible." Alberto Sanchez tells Gerd: "Well, I think you have at least two solutions: 1) Use DOS partitions on your Zip drive and read/write on them with BigDos or Magic on the Atari and with PC exchange on the Mac. 2) With MagicMac you can read/write directly on the Mac any Atari drive." Sysop Bob Retelle adds: "I don't know the answer to your problem either, I'm afraid, but maybe I can suggest some things to try that might help a little. The Mac uses a far different disk format than the Atari or PC (this is for floppy drives, although hard drives would probably be similar). The Atari however does share almost the same floppy disk format as the PC, which allows owners of both kinds of computers to transfer data between the two using floppy disks. Mac owners have been able to transfer data to their Atari computers by formatting the floppy disks using a "PC File Exchange" setup on the Mac which will allow them to use IBM PC formatted floppy disks. Unfortunately this will only let you transfer 1.44 megabytes at a time, using floppy disks. Now, the unknown part here is how the ZIP drive is formatted for the Mac. As Albert said, it's not likely that the normal format will work on an Atari. But it's possible (just barely possible) that there might be a way to format a ZIP drive to make it compatible with an IBM, and if that works, then maybe it would work on an Atari too. There have been some discussions here in thepast about sharing a hard drive between an Atari and an IBM, and unfortunately most of the answers have been that it won't work, but the ZIP drive is sort of a hybrid kind of device. Probably the best thing to do would be to ask in the Macintosh user groups and see first whether anyone has been able to share a ZIP disk with IBM style computers. (Don't tell them your goal is to transfer to Atari systems as that will only confuse them!). Then once you have IBM formatted ZIP disks, try reading them on your Atari. If all else fails, there is always the "tried and true" method of transferring the data through the computers' serial ports with a null-modem cable. 60 megabytes would take a while to send that way, but it would work." Frank Heller tells Bob: "This is sorta dated info. PC File Exchange has long been discontinued..although it still works for Mac's running older O/S's. The newer O/S's are PC disk aware and there is an Extension simply called: "PC Exchange" that is included with any newer (7.5x and up) O/S installation. Not that this helps much, but it is sorta relevant. However...as a side note: As a long time Cubase Audio Falcon user, I have been rather frustrated getting AIFF files from the Atari HD to a Mac...up until now. Charlie Steinberg developed a program that will see Atari generated AIFF files stored on DAT and let a Mac stream them into its HD. I have been using it for a few weeks...and it works. At least it solves that problem." Albert Dayes tells Frank: "That sounds cool. Is the a special PRO DAT or will any consumer model DAT work?" Frank tells Albert: "Any audio DAT recorder *with* a SPDIF set of I/O's will work. The PowerMac will need at least an AudioMediaIII PCI card installed. I should point out that this is not a "stand-alone" application. It is code imbedded within Steinberg's Cubase Audio VST for the PowerMac. It will be ported to the PC version of VST as well. What it means is that digital audio files, generated and saved to DAT with the original Cubase Audio Falcon program, can be reloaded into the Mac and PC versions of VST Audio. And visa versa. Because all of Cubase's other file formats are easily tranferrable (via PC formatted floppies) between the Mac, PC and Atari platforms, this makes Cubase VST a powerful multi-platform program." Gerd posts: "The reaction of this ATARI-Forum is overwhelming! The spirit of the ATARI-Community seems to be a very friendly one! We will try out your advice and we will try to get in contact with Carsten, too. If we should find a solution in one of the following days, you and all the others guys will get an answer with details about it." Well folks, that's it for this time around. 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 object of the game of baseball SHOULD be for the pitchers to hit the batters, thus ending the game quickly so everyone can go home and watch FOOTBALL!" STReport International OnLine Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM OVER 200,000 Readers 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" May 16, 1997 Since 1987 Copyrightc1997 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1320