Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) June 13, 1997 No.1324 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 Updated) ftp.streport.com Anonymous Login ok - Use your Email Address as a Password Check out STReport's NEWS SERVER NEWS.STREPORT.COM Have you tried Microsoft's Powerful and Easy to Use Internet Explorer? Internet Explorer is STReport's Official Internet Web Browser. STReport is prepared and published Using MS Office 97, Corel Office Perfect 8 & Adobe Acrobat Pro Featuring a Full Service Web Site http://www.streport.com Voted TOP TEN Ultimate WebSite Join STReport's Subscriber List receive STReport Via Email on The Internet Toad Hall BBS 1-617-567-8642 06/13/97 STR 1324 Celebrating Our Tenth Anniversary 1987-97! - CPU Industry Report - Uedit32 v 4.31a - Shareware Listings - Gates Supports Libraries - Women in Technology - Netscape Adopts Java - Intuit Layoff 9% of Workers - EA Buys Maxis - IBM DROPS Shops - UnAbashed AtariPhile - Telegames News - Classic & Gaming NETSCAPE HAS SECURITY FLAW! Privacy Bills Win Praise! IBM Drive Sets Storage Record! 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That'll "learn `em" not to jump the gun to be first out of the gate! This week's issue is kinda light. Seems one feature is awol and the other arrived in an "alien" format. We were unable to undo. Oh well, such is life. Until next week.. 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 Firms to Restrict Private Data As Washington gears up to begin Federal Trade Commission hearings on cyberspace privacy, eight major database companies are set to announced they will limit the information they assemble on private individuals and make available to clients. The Washington Post reports today the agreement, to be announced at the start of today's FTC hearings, addresses concern by privacy advocates that companies offering computerized information are compromising the privacy rights of individuals. The Post says the firms have agreed not to augment their records with information from private marketing databases, including buying preferences, household income and other data that critics say allows creation of dossier on ordinary private citizens. The eight will continue to provide through computer connections such information as people's telephone numbers, current and previous addresses and ages, the Post says. Some companies also provide Social Security numbers and information from public documents such as vehicle registration and property deeds. The Associated Press identified the companies signing the agreement as Lexis Nexis, Experian, Choice-Point, Database Technologies Inc., Metromail Corp., Information America, First Data InfoSource, and IRSC Inc. FTC Begins Privacy Hearings Federal Trade Commission officials were told today hundreds of sites exist on the Internet that compile information on public record for widespread use, allowing users to search for individuals for a more complete portrait of a person. Adds reporter Margaret Coker of United Press International, "The information could include names, addresses, phone numbers, age, Social Security numbers, bankruptcies, marriages and property records. Some of the databases are used by professional groups for 'permissible business uses,' like banks trying to verify identification for a mortgage approval, or attorneys or prosecutors tracking down 'dead-beat dads.'" Still, says privacy advocates, a whole industry of mailing list wholesalers has started selling information gleaned from such sources as warranty cards or magazine subscription lists. As noted, the FTC throughout this week is looking into the practice of selling such information to commercial groups or posting it on the Internet without consumer knowledge or approval. "Currently," says UPI, "almost no regulation exists to curb such database dispersal. One FTC commissioner says one problem is where to draw the line with information that is in the public domain, but is being used for unintended purposes." Critics Question Online Privacy Consumer advocates and regulators asked Congress yesterday to examine whether electronic-data companies are doing enough to protect the ordinary Americans whose detailed personal information they gather. Appearing in the opening round of Federal Trade Commission hearings on Internet privacy, the advocates wondered whether database companies like Lexis-Nexis and others push the limits of privacy by selling telephone numbers and addresses without people's knowledge or consent. "Some also provide Social Security numbers and information from public documents such as vehicle registration and property deeds," notes business writer David E. Kalish, who is covering the hearings for The Associated Press. "Much of the worries," adds Kalish, "focus on 'cookies' -- nuggets of information that a Web site can plant in a computer user's hard drive. They are used to track which Web sites are visited, what pages are looked at, even people's hobbies -- and then linked to names and addresses. Site owners can sell the information to advertisers and other interested parties, without the consent or knowledge of users." Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the FTC, "We are selling information today that 10 years ago would not be bought or sold. The law has not kept up with these developments." As predicted here earlier, attempting to alleviate concerns -- and head off strict government rules -- Lexis-Nexis and seven other search services unveiled voluntary guidelines to limit the personal information they assemble. The new agreement calls for a halt to use of information gathered from private marketing databases, such as buying preferences, household income and other data. Kalish says the companies say they would restrict their sale of nonpublic information, such as an individual's credit records, to professionals such as banks and private investigators. However, several FTC officials questioned why the companies wouldn't commit to providing a copy of their reports to any consumer who asks to check out potential inaccuracies. FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky expressed concern that consumers couldn't correct inaccurate information about them in the reports generated by the electronic data services, adding, "Even something as innocuous as your last known address could be misprinted as a prison. What does a person do about that?" In other developments, McGraw Hill Cos., a major publisher of online information, announced a new privacy policy for its 60 Web sites and other businesses aimed at giving people more control over the personal information collected about them. Microsoft Backs Netscape Plan Netscape Communications Corp. says Microsoft Corp. now is cooperating in building the Open Profiling Standard for the privacy on Internet that it and others proposed two weeks ago. Coming during this week's Federal Trade Commission held hearings on Internet privacy, the announcement "will bring added momentum to the proposal, which aims to provide a framework for built-in privacy safeguards and greater individual control over exchange of personal information over the Internet," says the Reuter News Service. The wire service says Netscape and Microsoft will join privately-held Firefly Network Inc. and VeriSign to work together on the new protocol during the remainder of a standards review process of the World Wide Web Consortium, which is the Web's main standards body. Jim Miller, leader of the technology and society domain of the World Wide Web consortium, said in a statement, "We're delighted that Microsoft, Netscape and Firefly have chosen to work together with our staff and other member organizations." Reuters comments, "In the two weeks since its unveiling, support for the standards effort has grown to include more than 100 companies, according to a statement released by a Firefly representative." What they propose is a standard that would give each individual control over his or her own personal profile and the ability to manage which personal information gets disclosed or withheld from a particular Web site. The profile data can then be used to provide targeted information, products and services directly to individual users, while allowing them also to be notified every time their profile information is being requested. (Personal profiles contain information ranging from names, addresses, ZIP codes and phone numbers to marital status, interests, hobbies and passwords.) Privacy Bills Win Praise Bills introduced in the House and Senate to limit the spread of personal information such as Social Security numbers on the Internet are being praised by consumer groups. United Press International quotes Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America as calling for federal regulation concerning the gathering and selling of personal data by organizations on the Internet. She says the congressional measures are a step in the right direction. UPI says the Personal Information Privacy Act -- introduced last week by Reps. Jerry Kleczka, D-Wisconsin, and Bob Franks, R-New Jersey, and mirroring a Senate measure -- would prohibit: ú Credit bureaus from giving out Social Security numbers, unlisted phone numbers, dates of birth, past addresses and mothers' maiden names. ú State departments of motor vehicles from disseminating Social Security numbers for bulk distribution use in surveys, marketing or solicitation. ú The commercial use of a person's Social Security number without consent. "With the crime of identity fraud on the rise and the personal database industry growing," UPI reports, "the lawmakers say it is easier than ever to lose control of who has information about you." And Rep. Franks says, "A Social Security number is the key to unlocking a whole host of personal information. This legislation would keep the Internet from being used as a tool for fraud and abuse by ensuring that the most confidential and sensitive personal information is safeguarded." As reported, the Federal Trade Commission is holding week-long hearings on the issue of Internet privacy. As reported also, Microsoft Corp. now is cooperating in building the Open Profiling Standard for the privacy on Internet that Netscape Communications Corp. and others proposed two weeks ago. The new plan would enable Web users to specify what personal information they give and to which Web sites. However, business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press reports several privacy advocates complained at yesterday's session of the hearings that the new format could actually entice people to give more private details than they ordinarily would by creating a routine for supplying the information. And some Federal Trade Commission officials noted the plan doesn't address the potential abuses by Web sites that collect the personal details. For instance, "what is (Web users') control of your use of the information?" asked FTC commissioner Christine Varney. The FTC plans to use findings gathered from the hearings to determine whether it needs to recommend online privacy laws to Congress. White House Eyes Net Tax Ban The Clinton Administration has as yet not made a decision on whether to endorse legislation pending in the U.S. Congress that would ban taxes on Internet commerce, a Council of State Governments official reports. The Reuter News Service quotes Daniel Sprague, the group's executive director, as making the statement after a White House meeting Friday between Vice President Al Gore and seven state and local government groups on Internet policy and other key issues. As reported, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-California, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, introduced identical bills in March that would impose an indefinite moratorium on state and local taxation of commerce over the Internet. The legislation would not affect existing taxes on goods and services ordered through the Internet, as long as the taxes were the same as those on mail order goods. Reuters reporter Vicky Stamas notes that at a congressional hearing last month, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the administration strongly supports the "goals and underlying objectives" of the legislation. "At Friday's hour-long meeting," Reuters says, "Gore was told by the seven groups that they have 'a real problem' with the administration's position on the bill, Sprague said. States and localities oppose Internet legislation on the grounds that it could affect revenues." Sprague says Gore responded that Sommers was talking only in a "very general sense" and that the administration has not "weighed in on that issue yet." He quoted Gore as saying, "Our position has not been communicated in a final fashion." Paris Refuses French Translation A Paris court today refused to require Georgia Tech's French campus to translate its Internet site into French, a ruling seen as a setback to French language purists. As reported earlier, a previously little-enforced law was used to sue the university's campus in eastern France, demanding that it make its page on the World Wide Web bilingual. However, Georgia Tech Lorraine, in the eastern city of Metz, has successfully argued the website must be in English because the school's curriculum is taught solely in that language by Atlanta-based professors. Only the site's directions to the campus are in French. Associated Press writer Nicolas Marmie says the Police Court of Paris rejected the suit because the watchdog groups -- which are funded partly by the government -- failed to file a complaint with police before pursuing their civil suit last fall. "Under a 1994 law that bans advertising in any single language except French, police must be formally notified and investigate the infraction before a civil suit is filed," Marmie reports. "The law also says that manufacturers cannot sell goods without instructions in French and broadcasters cannot use English words on TV and radio when French equivalents exist. It does not mention the Internet." AP notes that worldwide, an estimated 85 percent of Internet sites are in English, while only 2 percent are in French. French use of the Internet has lagged behind other countries, a development of sharp concern to some francophiles. "Since a Justice Ministry directive last February, French courts have begun to punish more aggressively companies that break the language law," AP reports. "Georgia Tech had faced possible fines of up to $4,300 each time the untranslated Internet site was visited." Georgia School Adds to French Site Multilingual translations now have been added to the web site for the French campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, even though a court has rejected a lawsuit that claimed the site's exclusive use of English had violated French law. As reported, a Paris court refused to require Georgia Tech's French campus to translate its Internet site into French, a ruling seen as a setback to French language purists. Howver, notes the Reuter News Service, the tribunal rejected on technical grounds and did not rule on the precedent-setting question of whether France has the right to control the Internet using laws for the protection of French culture. Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough later said in a statement, "The suit had a number of procedural and legal flaws. We are pleased that the Police Tribunal of Paris agreed with Georgia Tech Lorraine's legal position." Teddy Puttgen, director of Georgia Tech Lorraine, says the site has been revamped to include German and French translations, saying the decision had nothing to do with the pending court ruling. As reported, the suit was filed in October by the Association for the Defense of the French Language and Future of the French Language claiming the Web site for the university's Metz campus violated the 1994 Toubon law barring the sale in France of "goods and services" in a language other than French. Initially, the university defended the site by saying it was not feasible to translate pages into French if they were exclusively intended for an English-speaking audience. Said Puttgen, "We have argued that the Internet is very different from overall advertisement in that when you actually visit a site you enter that virtual domicile. And once you have entered that virtual domicile we are then free to actually communicate in any particular language and fashion we so desire." Web Piracy Said Vulnerable Released on the eve of this week's government hearings on Web privacy, a new survey suggests computerists are extremely vulnerable to online spying and other personal intrusions by Internet businesses. Business writer David E. Kalish of The Associated Press says, "The results could help frame one of the most fundamental debates in the evolution of the Internet as a commercial marketplace: whether the industry can police itself or the government must step in to protect millions of personal-computer users." As reported earlier, the Federal Trade Commission is to begin tomorrow with hearings in response to complaints by privacy advocates that personal information is gathered and used by online operators without user consent or knowledge. In advance of the hearings, the non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center, a consumer group participating in the talks, released its survey, which found that of the Internet's 100 most popular Web sites: ú About half collect personal information from users who click on their sites or through mailing lists and other means. ú Only 17 sites even mention the privacy issue, and most of those fell far short of what the group considered adequate disclosure -- explaining why information is collected, how it will be used, and what steps will be taken to limit improper use. ú Only eight gave users some control over whether the Web site could ú share the personal information with others. ú But some sites, such as CNN's online service, don't collect any ú information about Web users. This type of anonymity was touted by the group as a main way for the Internet to retain the privacy of surfers. ú 23 of the sites enabled the creation of "cookies," which are nuggets ú of information that can be planted into a user's PC and used without their knowledge. None of the sites told the user about this intrusion. "The industry is urging self-policing," says David Sobel, the center's legal counsel, "but there is no indication that Web sites today are doing anything toward that." Marc Rotenberg, director of the privacy information center, added, "There is a lot of anonymity ... which is the defacto way privacy is protected. Some people who think they are surfing the Net are actually swimming in a fish bowl. It's a little uncomfortable once you realize that." The group's survey was conducted by members last Thursday by examining sites ranked as the most popular by a Web service, AP notes the industry is proposing initiatives to convince consumers and regulators that they can protect personal information on the World Wide Web and that legal fixes aren't needed. Patricia Faley, a spokeswoman with the Direct Marketing Association, an industry group involved in the hearings, told the wire service, "We have mounted an aggressive self-regulatory campaign, we are educating our industry as to what we think those privacy policy notice practices should be." The group plans to show examples of "dozens of Web sites that do have appropriate Web sites policies stated," she added. Suits Hit Internet Record Release Seeking to stop what it says is the illegal distribution of copyrighted music by some independent Internet sites, the Recording Industry Association of America has filed complaint in three federal district courts around the country. The problem is finding out whom to sue. The Wall Street Journal notes this morning, "The defendants are hard to pinpoint since they haven't been tracked down yet; one in New York is listed as 'a.k.a. FWIBBLY.'" Bringing the actions are some of the country's biggest record labels, including Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Records; PolyGram NV's Island Records; and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment. Officials told the paper they seek restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles against what it calls "Internet music archive" sites. Users of the sites allegedly download and in some cases upload songs without the permission of the copyright holders. "The suits are directed at the sites and their operators, who RIAA said are unknown at the time of the filing," says the Journal. "The suits were filed in those districts where the computer server is located." While acknowledging none of the sites are known to be charging users for music, RIAA Vice President Frank Creighton, associate director of anti-piracy at the trade group, said, "This is akin to stealing." Gates Gives Systems to Library Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates has given $1 million worth of computers and software to the Washington, D.C., library system that has been so financially strapped that patrons have been asked to donate magazines and books. Associated Press writer Janelle Carter reports the gift will allow the library system to set up computer centers at all 26 District of Columbia branches. In announcing the gift, Gates said, "When I grew up there wasn't a resource like that," adding that even today only 6 percent of homes with incomes of less than $25,000 have computers. "Libraries became the solution," he said. AP says the donation is one of the largest of a $17 million Libraries Online initiative launched by Microsoft. The program is now in 45 library systems in the United States and Canada. "With the help of the American Library Association, Microsoft identified potential recipients of Gates' donations among disadvantaged urban and rural library systems," AP reports. TotalNews Settlement Watched In a closely watched court action, several major media companies have settled a federal copyright lawsuit against TotalNews Inc., forbidding the little Internet company from displaying their Web sites with its own ads. Under the agreement with The Washington Post Co. and the other plaintiffs, TotalNews (http://totalnews.com) may provide links to the plaintiffs' Web sites, but only in such a way that Internet users will be taken directly to the plaintiffs' sites. Previously, notes reporter Jonathan Oatis of the Reuter News Service, TotalNews was set up so that users who clicked on a link to a plaintiff's Web site would see the site wrapped in a "frame" containing advertising sold by TotalNews and other TotalNews material. Media heavyweights joining in the suit with The Post and its online subsidiary, Digital Inc., included Time Warner Inc. units Time Inc., Cable News Network Inc. and Entertainment Weekly Inc.; Reuters Holdings Plc unit Reuters New Media Inc.; Dow Jones & Co. Inc., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, and newspaper publisher Times Mirror Co. Defendants were TotalNews Inc., based in Gilbert, Arizona, and the two companies that own it, Grouper Technologies Inc. and Datapix Inc., TotalNews President Roman Godzich and TotalNews employees Norman Bashkingy and Larry Pagni. Business director Tom Baker of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition said in a statement the settlement "will help the Web grow by encouraging linking while enforcing the principle that intellectual property rights will be respected in cyberspace. To keep investing millions in making Web content available for free or at low cost, the companies who brought this suit need to know that Web users will see our content the way we meant for it to be seen. We're pleased to now have that assurance from TotalNews." On other side of the aisle, Godzich told the wire service, "The TotalNews people can once again focus their resources productively online rather than in a courtroom. We've decided to concentrate our efforts on enhancing TotalNews to better serve the thousands of users that support us every day." Intuit Cuts 9 Percent of Workforce Intuit Inc. -- whose Quicken and TurboTax dominate the markets for personal-finance and tax-preparation software -- is cutting 270 jobs, or some 9 percent of its workforce, and will use the savings to increase its investments in Internet-based services. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, reporter David Bank comments this morning, "Intuit has been struggling lately as consumer-software sales have slowed and it has been forced to match price-cutting by competitors." In response, the Mountain View, California, publisher "has been moving into online services such as Internet sites offering information and access to brokers selling mutual funds and insurance," Bank adds. The paper quotes Intuit President/CEO Bill Campbell as saying, "If we can lower our break-even point and continue to improve our profitability, then when these new businesses kick in, we'll be in very good shape." Saying the new ventures wouldn't show a profit for at least a year, Campbell added, "We've had enough courage to restructure our business when necessary." Intuit will close its 300-person technical support facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The Journal says some of those employees will be offered positions at another support center in Tucson, Arizona, where jobs will increase by 150 to about 750. Also, the publisher will eliminate 70 positions in Europe as it centralizes operations in Munich, Germany, its European headquarters. Another 50 positions will be eliminated in northern California. Intuit employs about 3,000 people world-wide. Intuit Buys 19 Percent of Excite Software publisher Intuit Inc. has agreed to pay $40 million for a 19 percent share of Excite Inc., the Internet search site operator. Also, says the Reuter News Service, the two are entering a seven-year agreement to develop sites on the Internet's World Wide Web where customers can manage their finances. "Both companies see financial services on the Web as a potentially big source of additional revenue," says the wire service. "Under the agreement, Intuit will buy 2.9 million shares of Excite at $13.50 a share." Excite CEO George Bell told the wire service, "We see the financial services and transaction parts of the Web as key areas of growth." As reported, Intuit, best known for Quicken, the best-selling electronic personal finance program, is cutting 270 jobs, or some 9 percent of its workforce, to use the savings to increase its investments in Internet-based services. America Online Inc. also owns a 19 percent stake in Excite. Electronic Arts Buys Maxis For $125 million, entertainment software giant Electronic Arts is to acquire Maxis Inc., developer of the popular game title Sim City. Look for the deal to close by late August. Writing for the Newsbytes computer news service, reporter Patrick McKenna says the companies agreed Maxis shareholders will receive .3644 shares of Electronic Arts for each share of Maxis stock. "Approximately 4.1 million shares of Electronic Arts stock, representing approximately 7 percent of the combined company, will be exchanged for all outstanding Maxis stock." McKenna then added. "Regulatory and stockholder approval is required for completion." The agreement calls for the Sim development team to remain as Maxis employees as the company becomes a subsidiary to Electronic Arts and, says Pat Becker of EA, "The Maxis name, location, and staff will continue as a subsidiary and Electronic Arts will be the publisher," added Becker. At this time, no reductions in the Maxis staff or executive order are planned. Microsoft Seeks 'Push' Standard Microsoft Corp. says it will make its "push" technology compatible with software from rival Netscape Communications Corp. in a bid to simplify Internet standards. Officials with the Redmond, Washington, firm said the change in its channel definition format will allow publishers to write content in a single format that will work both with its forthcoming Internet Explorer version 4.0 and with Netscape's Netcaster client software, due out in about a month. A Microsoft spokeswoman told the Reuter News Service, "Now Microsoft and Netscape don't have to compete on the channel format standard but more importantly can focus on implementation." The wire service notes the Microsoft format is intended to make it easier for developers to prepare content that can be sent directly to predefined "channels" on its Internet browser. "Netscape has eschewed the new format, saying developers can achieve the same effect using existing Internet formats and scripting languages," Reuters observes. "While Microsoft has been gaining shares in the browser market, most Internet users still use Netscape's Navigator browser, so it was in Microsoft's interest to provide developers a single standard that works on both browsers." Cyrix Ships 150MHz MediaGx CPU Cyrix Corp. says it has begun volume shipments of its 150MHz MediaGX processor. The chip, which joins previously released 120MHz and 133MHz versions, incorporates multimedia and system functions directly on the CPU. The Richardson, Texas, chipmaker intends to target the processor at makers of sub-$1,000 PCs. Initial customers include Compaq Computer Corp., which is including the chip in its Presario 2120 computer, and BCM Advanced Research, which utilizes the device in its FM519 motherboard and ES3300 entertainment station. The 150MHz MediaGX is priced at $99 in quantities of 1,000. Cyrix's Web site is located at IBM Drive Sets Storage Record IBM Corp. has developed a record-breaking 8.4GB hard drive for high-performance desktop PCs. The computer maker says its new Deskstar 8 unit stores four times as much information as the average desktop hard drive. Based on IBM's magnetoresistive extended (MRX) head technology, the 3-inch device sets a new desktop drive density world record at 1.74 billion bits per square inch. "We're marketing this drive to the high-performance desktop PC drive market, where business and home users demand the highest capacity disk drives," says Kevin Reinis, director of desktop and entry server storage products at IBM's storage systems division. Deskstar 8 is scheduled to ship in July at a yet-to-be- announced price. More information is available on the Web at Symantec Offers Free Trial CD Symantec Corp. is offering the Small Business/Home Office Trial CD, a free sampling of the software publisher's products. The Windows product give users a free 30-day trial of the ACT! contact manager, WinFax PRO faxing applications, the Internet FastFind search tool and Norton AntiVirus. The CD is available by calling the Cupertino, California, company at 800-835-6222. Trial versions of ACT!, WinFax PRO, Internet FastFind, Norton AntiVirus and other Symantec products can also be downloaded from the Web by visiting Zoom Expands Operations Modem maker Zoom Telephonics has opened European sales offices in London and Munich. The Boston-based firm has also established a distribution center in the Netherlands. Zoom's international reach now totals 37 nations, including new distribution channels in Argentina and Chile. Zoom also recently established distribution in Slovenia, Thailand and Switzerland. In addition, the company recently signed an agreement with Ingram Micro to increase its distribution in Asia. "Zoom has made a major commitment to Western Europe, with localized products, local sales, warehousing, distribution and technical support," says Ron Murphy, the Zoom's International sales manager. "Europe is a challenging market that must be approached country by country with country- specific products in native languages supported with European warehousing and technical support." Zoom's Web site is located at Chip Makers Launch Job Campaign U.S. chip manufacturers, facing a projected shortage of 40,000 skilled workers in five years, have endorsed a national campaign to recruit and train job applicants. The National Workforce Development Campaign is spearheaded by SEMATECH and SEMI/SEMATECH, both based in Austin, Texas. SEMATECH, a nonprofit consortium of 10 chip manufacturers, was created by the Semiconductor Industry Association in 1986. SEMI/SEMATECH represents chip equipment, materials, software and service suppliers. Under the program, SEMATECH and more than 30 community colleges are forming partnerships to develop and promote courses that lead to an associate's degree in semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to formulating the curriculum, SEMATECH has launched an advertising campaign, a Web site http://www.4chipjobs.com and a telephone hotline (888-4CHIPJOBS) to publicize job opportunities and training options. The hotline also points potential job applicants to community colleges and technical schools that offer semiconductor manufacturing technology courses. "The chip industry has averaged 15 percent annual growth for decades, and it continues to provide cutting-edge technology for new computer applications, communications and information systems," says George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. "For the people who give us this competitive edge -- our workers -- we offer good salaries, great benefits and opportunities to advance their careers and improve their quality of life." Grade 12 Students Study for Finals Using MC2 MC2 (Squared)'s Zebu - an interactive software tool developed by educators for education VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Reaching the generation of kids who have grown up on Nintendo and Interactive video games is a challenge being faced by many teachers. MC2 (Squared) is addressing the needs of these teachers with their new educational groupware called Zebu. Zebu allows students and teachers to publish and participate in interactive, online, educational activities. Unlike other network based-learning tools Zebu does not require the teacher or students to have an understanding of programming languages such as HTML, databases or file transfers. "My grade 12 geography class is using the previous version of Zebu as a tool to prepare for finals. We take advantage of its groupware characteristics to share ideas, pose questions to each other and comment on each other's work," said Bill Wilson, Port Moody Senior Secondary Teacher. "For instance, individual students have built an online project about ecological crises facing the earth. Once these individual projects are complete small groups of students will take the information found by the entire class and use it to write an essay that incorporates all aspects of the projects. These students are truly learning through collaboration and are benefiting from the wealth of up-to-the-minute information available through the World Wide Web," Bill added. Zebu is the result of extensive research by professors and teachers at Simon Fraser University, one of North America's leaders in online educational technology. With it, teachers can easily integrate the World Wide Web, sound, video, text, and discussion into a single page using the same curriculum creation methods that they always have. Students then use Zebu to research and respond to topics raised in the lesson plan, articulate their understanding, and share this with other learners on the network. Zebu is server based and will run on either the MAC or IBM platforms and requires the client to be running Netscape. Zebu for elementary schools retails for $695 and $995 US for secondary schools. Netscape Adopts Java Standards Web browser publisher Netscape Communications Corp. has adopted Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JavaBeans component model, also agreeing to work on enhancing an industry component effort known as CORBA. Reporting from San Jose, Calif., the Reuter News Service quotes Netscape as saying JavaBeans -- which can be used to snap together pre-built blocks of software code -- will be the platform-independent component model for its Netscape ONE platform. Reuters reports Netscape will work with Sun, IBM and database company Oracle Corp. to find ways to bring JavaBeans closer to the CORBA component standard. "The companies began their collaboration in March," the wire service notes, "and last week submitted a joint position paper to the Object Management Group, a standards body. ... More than 65 companies announced support for JavaBeans, with more than 50 of these planning to deliver more than 90 components for inclusion in a directory of the pre-built software blocks to be hosted on Netscape's Internet site for developers." Study: Home PC Growth Slows A new study finds that more U.S. households than ever have at least one computer, but the rate at which additional households are buying PCs appears to be slowing. According to research from Computer Intelligence, approximately 41 million U.S. households -- 40 percent of all households -- are now computer-equipped. On the other hand, overall penetration rose only 2.2 percentage points in 1996, or about half the rate seen in the previous two years. The La Jolla, California, firm's poll of 17,500 households also found that higher-income and better-educated households are more likely to own a PC. About 60 percent of households with more than $40,000 in income have at least one PC, compared with 24 percent in households that have income less than $35,000. Additionally, 52 percent of households with children have a PC. 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 WinZip 32-bit 6.3 beta 3 6/10/97 .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 Crescendo 32-bit 3.0 beta 3 Plug-In 6/06/97 1.00mb Free Quite simply, it is a Plug-in for Netscape Navigator browsers that lets you listen to background music as you browse a web site. Of course, that depends on the site actually designing background music into its pages. Home Page Site - http://www.liveupdate.com/crescendo.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Calendar 1.2 6/05/97 169kb Freeware A small freeware utility that let's you plan your life the way you want. Very simple to use. Even children understand it at once! Home Page Site - http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/aries/down.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Crumbler97 32-bit 2.0 6/06/97 1.30mb Shareware $5 Crumbler97 is a quick, easy, SAFE way to accept cookies..those annoying little bits of info that nearly all web pages send to your hard drive...Now, instead of leaving the Security level to WARN everytime, and having to reject individually the sometimes DOZENS of cookies sent, you can merely auto accept them.. and they are DELETED from your Hard Drive every 45 seconds via a Tray icon. Or, if you just entered a site that you know lays the cookies on thick, say, Microsoft, then, no prob..just double click the tray icon, and they are gone... Easy to use. No Mess, No Bother, No CRUMBS!" Home Page Site - http://www.scscorp.com/personal/scottmac/crumbler.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price EasyCD 3.0 6/05/97 572kb Shareware $10.00 An award winning audio CD player that is fully integrated with the CDDB Internet servers and local database of well over 13,000 CD's. EasyCD2 is small, efficient, and full featured. It even includes an integrated volume control. Home Page Site - http://www.ghlsoftware.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain for Win95 6/07/97 11.00mb Commercial Demo You're the vampire Kain, doomed to feast upon the blood of mortals. Prepare to embrace your dark side! Slaughter 170 different enemies with multiple weapon and armor power-ups in real time combat. Unleash an arsenal of deadly magic: 21 eldrich objects and spells. Morph into different forms: bat, wolf, or mist. Home Page Site - http://www.crystald.com/kain/main.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price ZipAdvisor 1.11 6/05/97 164kb Shareware $12.00 Will scan directories and report on the total size of zipped and unzipped files. Great for finding bloated directories! Will scan all subdirectories, sort by any column, and report on how long ago files were accessed as well. Quick & easy. Home Page Site - http://www.scvs.com/utils/zipadvis.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price EditPad 32-bit 3.1.1 6/11/97 .24mb Freeware EditPad is a replacement for the standard Windows NotePad. EditPad requires Windows 95 or later to run. No additional DLLs or whatever are required. It has a few very interesting features: ú EditPad can open as much files at a time as you want. ú You change between the open files by clicking on their tabs. No hassle with heaps of overlapping windows. ú If you run EditPad again when their is already an instance running, the file(s) you wish to edit will be opened by the existing EditPad window. This means there will be at most one EditPad window open, which will save you from a lot of task switching. Of course, if you do need more instances, simply pick View|New editor from the menu. ú Block functions: save parts of your text to disk and insert a file in the current text ú Reopen menu that lists the last 16 files opened and more. Home Page Site - http://www.tornado.be/~johnfg/jgsoft.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Bookmark Importer for 32-bit Command Line 1.0 6/06/97 71kb Demo $30.00 A utility allowing a user to exchange bookmarks between their favorite browsers. This new version of Bookmark Importer is ideally suited to users who do not need the extra graphical user interface and are looking for a compact utility. Automatic conversion of bookmarks can be done using a windows or DOS based scheduler. Supported Browsers include Internet Explorer 2.0-4.0, Internet Explorer (16-Bit), Netscape Navigator 1.0-3.0, Mosaic 2.x or greater. In addition links from HTML files can be added to your bookmarks. Home Page Site - http://www.webobj.com/bookmark/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price NetStock 16-bit 1.24 6/06/97 .07mb Freeware NetStock is a simple little stock and mutual fund internet quote retrieval program with export functionality for Quicken users. Home Page Site - http://www.jaxnet.com/~henrik/pages/splitcycle.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Pardon Demo 1.0 6/07/97 334kb Shareware Simple, yet challenging boardgame in the classic mold of backgammon, checkers and GO. You can pit yourself against another human or against the game's excellent A.I. Home Page Site - http://www.weir.net/~dgreen/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Complete Cleanup 1.01 6/06/97 285kb Shareware $29.95 Internet privacy software. As you browse the web, websites store internet cookies and web history files on YOUR computer, which can allow these websites to track where you have been browsing on the web. This can lead to many privacy issues including mailing lists. This program will work for both Netscape and Internet Explorer users (AOL browser included), and will display the total bytes wasted for each different file type, including history files, cache files, and cookie information. It then allows you to cleanup any of the files you choose. (cleanup portion is only allowed with purchased version). Home Page Site - http://members.aol.com/softdd/complete/index.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Internet Email Forward 1.00.02 6/08/97 820kb Shareware $24.95 The newest premiere tool in bringing your Email to a whole new age. Real Time! Want to receive your Email on your pager or digital phone? Want to have your Email forwarded to a different Email account? Then Internet Email Forward is the solution for you! Internet Email Forward has the ability to run unattended checking your email account either via dial-up or direct connect to the internet on a timed interval, and forward your email to the location of your choice. Internet Email Forward is a 32 bit multi threaded application for Windows 95TM and Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 TM or greater. Internet Email Forward also has an option to let you filter only those important emails you want you want to be forwarded. Home Page Site - http://www.ij.net/developnet/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Xpress for ShockWave 32-bit 1.0 plug-in 6/06/97 1.40mb Freeware Requires ShockWave already installed Xpress for Shockwave is a free cross-platform plug-in that allows you to hear the spoken text of "Xpressed" sites. It adds text-to-speech capabilities to all browsers that have Macromedia Shockwave installed. Xpressed sites provide interactive speech within the same quick download as your HTML text, so you have real-time feedback even when bandwidth is very limited. Home Page Site - http://www.xpressed.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Yeah Write 1.1 6/06/97 997kb Shareware $15.00 Yeah Write for Windows is a new word processor from 5 ex-WordPerfect employees. The program is small (download size is less than 1 MB including a speller) and very fast. By using tabs to represent different types of documents and a fill-in-the-blanks approach, Yeah Write is very easy to use. Home Page Site - http://www.wordplace.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price AOL Instant Messenger 32-bit 1.0 beta 4 6/07/97 2.20mb Free AOL Instant Messenger is for anyone who wants to communicate "instantly" with friends, family and business colleagues, on the Internet and AOL, anywhere in the world. AOL Instant Messenger combines AOL's popular Buddy List and Instant Message features. The Instant Message feature lets users send and respond to messages immediately while the Buddy List feature lets users know instantly when friends are online. Previously only available to its 8 million members, AOL is now delivering these features to Internet users worldwide. Home Page Site - http://www.aol.com/buddylist/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Movie Organizer 2.0 6/05/97 2,280kb Shareware $33.00 A powerful and flexible program that will help you organize your movie collection (video tapes, CDs, cassettes). Using a notebook-like interface (complete with alphabetical tabs), the program stores all the information you might need to track: movie title, star, director, producer, category, value, status, condition,...., a detailed description, plus any additional comments, optionally you can include a graphical image. Features: Unlimited Number of Records; Graphical Data Field for scanned-in images; Flexible Sorting; Powerful Reports; Printing Labels; Print Preview; Flexible Filters; Custom Fields; Customizable Display, and more. Home Page Site - http://www.primasoft.com/mvo.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price RAS+ 95 beta 4 (Build 139) 6/07/97 1.00mb Shareware $29.95 RAS+ 95 will dial multiple lines for you.. Track time for you.. show real time billing, will adjust for your monthly free connect time too! It Gives you information about your connection such as IP address. Home Page Site - http://www.lambsoftware.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price PowWow 32-bit 3.2 alpha 2 6/07/97 3.00mb Free PowWow is an unique Internet program for Windows that allows up to nine (9) people to chat, transfer files, and cruise the World-Wide Web together as a group. PowWow also has Conferencing (Chat Rooms), Text-to-Speech features and Email Answering Machine capabilities. NEW! PowWow now has Online Games, Bulletin Board Messaging for conferences and lots more! Home Page Site - http://www.tribal.com/powwow/download/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Contact-Lens! 2.14.1 6/05/97 3,570kb Shareware $49.95 Built in financial, chronological, & scientific calculators, year at a glance display (any year), unlimited user-defined scheduled pop-up alarms, pop-up calendars, phone dialer, query by example, quick searching by typing a few keys, numerous configuration settings, resizable grids with rearrangeable columns, Import/Export capabilities, full-blown report writer (with wizards for new users), on-line help. Home Page Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kruse_control/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price CRT 32-bit 2.0 6/07/97 .97mb Shareware $30 CRT is a 32-bit terminal emulator designed for Internet and intranet use with support for both the telnet and rlogin protocols. CRT is ideal for connecting to remote systems running UNIX and VMS as well as the many BBS's and databases that are now available via the Internet. CRT delivers quality VT100, VT102, VT220 and ANSI terminal emulations. All of CRT's emulations support ANSI color. CRT is packed with features. Some of the more popular features include named sessions, auto login, printing, zmodem file transfer, emacs mode, and SOCKS firewall support. Home Page Site - http://www.vandyke.com/products/index.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price BS/1 Small Business 1.0 6/06/97 3.0mb Freeware A fully integrated, network-ready, accounting system. Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and General Ledger. Simple enough for a home business, yet powerful enough for a medium-sized corporation. Prints invoices, cheques and user-defined financial statements. And yes... it's Year 2000 compliant. Home Page Site - http://www.dbsonline.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Pagoo 32-bit preview release 2 6/08/97 .33mb Free Pagoo is a new revolutionary way to communicate between you and your friends. Pagoo is a FREE unique service that delivers phone calls to user's desktop while they are on-line. Is it always impossible for your friends to contact you because your phone line is always busy? You are browsing the web too much! Now, they can call the pagoo center (1-805-685-9056) using any phone and leave a message that you will receive directly on your desktop a few seconds later. They can leave you a voice mail or a numeric message just like a pager. Home Page Site - http://www.pagoo.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price StripWav 2.0 6/06/97 1,179kb Shareware $25.00 Strips extra information out of WAVE files. Useful for converting WAVE files created by newer programs to a "canonical" WAVE format readable by older or simpler programs. Works easily with lots of files and quickly with large ones. A must for producing audio CDs with many popular CD writers. Home Page Site - http://www.lightlink.com/tjweber/StripWav/StripWav.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price ZapTV 32-bit 1.1 plug-in 6/08/97 1.20mb Free Based on proprietary 3D plug-in technology, ZapTV combines the compelling content of traditional media with the immersive experience of the net. Here's what puts the Zap in ZapTV: * Fully interactive * Switch between multiple camera angles * Dollying Cameras * Clicking inside the scenes provides additional fun and connects to URL links Once the ZapTV plug-in is downloaded to your PC, you can enjoy endless programming with no additional download and no delay. Home Page Site - http://www.zapadigital.com/html/products.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Netscape Netcaster 32-bit 1.0 beta 2 6/09/97 .47mb Free Netscape Netcaster, the newest component of Netscape Communicator, enables push delivery of information and offline browsing. Netcaster seamlessly integrates with Channel Finder, the source for the best channels on the Internet. Users can subscribe to the information they want and have it delivered automatically. Offline browsing allows users to take the valuable resources of the Web offline with them - wherever they go. Developed entirely using the open Internet standards of HTML, Java, and JavaScript, Netscape Netcaster is an example of the powerful applications that can be built on the Netscape ONE platform. Netscape Communicator 32-bit 4.0 6/09/97 13.00mb Free The newest version of Netscape navigator. It features: Enhanced visual appearance and user interface, Taskbar that enables easy access to Communicator components, HTML Editing, Collabra Conferencing and a lot more. Home Page Site - http://www.netscape.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Community Place 32-bit 2.0 Preview Release 1b plug-in 6/09/97 4.30mb Freeware Community Place is a browser/plug-in for VRML 2.0, the modeling interface that allows you to move around in a Digital World where sounds and images deliver a sense of live presence. Forget about the hypertext and Search Engines used for net surfing. Try walking wherever you please. You can even fly around if you like. If you see something interesting, just point and click. Chances are there's an exciting encounter awaiting you in the Virtual Society. If you hear some interesting sounds, just move in that direction. You're sure to find something worth exploring. Home Page Site - http://vs.spiw.com/vs/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinAmp 1.0 6/07/97 190kb Freeware A realtime MPEG audio playback decoder that Tomislav Uzelac originally started putting together as a side project of the MPEG hardware design project at FER/Zagreb. It works with both MPEG1 and MPEG2 and MPEG3 audio streams. Home Page Site - http://winamp.lh.net/main.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price IPSentry 32-bit 2.3 6/10/97 4.70mb Shareware $129 PSentry is a Windows NT / 95 utility that will continuously monitor all your internet and intranet TCP/IP services 24 hours a day, ensuring your email servers, web sites, ftp servers, news servers, and any other TCP/IP based services are active and responding. In the event of failure, IPSentry will notify you (according to the defined schedule) via any or all of several different methods; PAGER, EMAIL via SMTP, AUDIBLE via .WAV or PC speaker, Launch external command. Utilize alert frequency scheduling, machine downtime scheduling and many more feature. Home Page Site - http://www.crackthecode.com/IPSentry/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price WarBirds 1.11r2 6/10/97 12.8mb Freeware WarBirds is the most sophisticated MEGA-player(150+ people in the same virtul world) WWII combat flight simulator available in the world. Using actual declassified WWII flight test data, WarBirds uses true six degree of freedom force-based flight modeling resulting in an ultra-realistic "feel" of the aircraft. The ability to fly aerial combat against other players from all over the world provides for truly interesting and unique possibilities. Home Page Site - http://www.icigames.com/warbirds/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price IPage 32-bit preview release 3 6/10/97 2.40mb Free With ipage a quick glance of your list of "friends and associates" will let you know who is online at that moment. Contact any number of friends and associates and bring them all to a private chat room for group discussions or just to catch-up. Send links to any Real Media file to friends and associates and ipage will instantly launch the Real Player. Home Page Site - http://www.ichat.com/pager/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price First Stop 1.0 6/10/97 2.0mb Shareware Will allow you to by-pass your Browsers Start Page before logging on to The Internet. This saves the time of going to the start page and taking you directly to your "First Stop" You can add to the favorites list This is a handy Internet Utility written in Visual Basic For Windows. Home Page Site - http://www.bright.net/~stevensp/first.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Lily Pad 1.0 Beta 2 6/08/97 133kb Shareware $1.00 A fully functional replacement for the standard Windows 95 notepad. Its features include: an Office 97-style toolbar; a recently used file menu; the ability to change font size, type, and color; the ability to change the background color; automatic word wrap, unlimited file size, filtering in the open dialog to allow users easily to look for files that are text files, HTML files, MS-DOS batch files, LOG files, and more. Home Page Site - http://user.icx.net/~reuscher/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price MyStars! 2.4.1 6/10/97 732kb Shareware $15.00 A scientifically rigourous yet simple and fun educational program that helps you visualize the positions of the stars, planets, comets and deep- sky objects from any place on earth, any date/time. And the animations are amazing. A great planetarium program for the very beginner star-gazer as well as for educators. Registration includes two years of free upgrades! Home Page Site - http://www.relativedata.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Peron 1.0 6/09/97 1,160kb Shareware $15.00 A real mind twister. This game will rock your mouse. Simple and addictive like Tetris Peron features superb graphics, atmospheric music, and state of the art sound effects. Home Page Site - http://www.sri.de/freelance/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Sinhala WORD 97 Word Processor 2.2 6/29/97 272kb Demo Word Processor With Lots of New Features.. Phonetic, Wijeysekara and Apple Keyboard Support, Import from Apple Machintosh text, Shreelip Tamil, Save as RTF, Save to HTML, The No 1 Word Processor for all your needs with free Sinhala & Tamil Fonts - Very Well Made in Sri Lanka for the Sinhala users of the world. [Editor's note: I don't know if any of my readers needs a Sinhala word processor or not, but I found this site to be one of the most colorful and interesting - without being too busy - of any that I visited this week.] Home Page Site - http://www.lankaweb.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Schedule Wizard97 32-bit 1.4 6/11/97 .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 Internet Logon 2.0 6/10/97 1,398kb Shareware $10.00 Application enabling multiple mailboxes for use with Microsoft Internet Mail & News. Also allows a single icon on the desktop to access Internet Explorer, Mail & News. Uninstall facility included as is Readme.doc with all relevant information required. Home Page Site - http://www.btinternet.com/~a.browne/Home.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price VXtreme Web Theater 32-bit 2.1 plug-in 6/11/97 1.70mb Freeware Web Theater Client is a plug-in to the Netscape Navigator 2.0+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Web browser. It enables end users to view web pages that contain real time streaming video synchronized with text, graphics, or Java applets. The Client includes VCR-like controls that allow viewers to fast forward, stop, pause, skip, or jump backwards in the video. Home Page Site - http://www.vxtreme.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Kids Web 1.0 6/10/97 833kb Freeware A small web browser which is configured entirely with children in mind. Kids Web provides basic features such as a start page which is separate from your main browser, and a nice interface which should keep your kids playing for hours. Kids Web loads to full screen, so your children can't accidentally load something they shouldn't from the start menu. A must for parents and children alike! NOTE: Kids Web is created using the TWebBrowser component, and therefore you MUST have Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x installed on your system. Home Page Site - http://www.cripton.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Star Trek Information Database 0.9 Beta 6/10/97 87kb Freeware Lists information about Star Trek episodes of all its incarnations. Home Page Site - http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/~panda/kinu/sbase39/sbase39.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price TickerPage 1.8.3 6/09/97 3,145K Shareware $20.00 Get scheduled stock quotes sent to your alphanumeric pager. Requires either CompuServe or E*Trade account. Indicates high/low alarm limits, current news, and price of stocks and options. Schedule paging at any time interval. E*Trade brokerage users can also get EMail/Trade confirmations sent to the pager. Home Page Site - http://www.qni.com/~breeze/tickerpage.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price DiscPlay 32-bit 4.0.2 6/12/97 1.00mb Shareware $15 An audio CD player with some nice features such as: DiscPlay can search your entire CD collection for tracks or albums; by title, artist, category, owner, or user-defined information, DiscPlay offers five different window sizes, and allows you to specify exactly what information will be displayed in the window and on the title bar, and Editing playlists and disc properties is as easy as dragging a track (or a file) onto a list. Home Page Site - http://www.obvion.com/discplay/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price UltraEdit 32-bit 4.31a 6/12/97 .89mb Shareware $30 A really good text editor with almost every feature you could want. Some of it's many features include: Disk based text editing - No limit on file size, minimum RAM used even for multi-megabyte files, Column mode editing!!!, Insert columns/ delete/ cut/ add sequential numbers, 100,000 word spell checker, Syntax highlighting - configurable, pre-configured for C/C++ and VB and some HTML, Hexadecimal Editor - Allows editing of any binary file, HEX Cut, Copy and Paste support , HEX Insert and Delete of characters, HEX Find, Replace and Replace All, Multiple files open and displayed at the same time, and more. Home Page Site - http://www.idmcomp.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Buzz 3d 32-bit 1.0 beta 6/12/97 1.00mb Freeware Requires a fast computer with a 3d accelerator card Buzz will turn your computer into a 3d world where you can travel in. Your hard drive becomes a virtual building and your files and folders become "rooms". To access your files you just walk over to the room your interested in. Very easy to use so even novice computer users will feel right at home. The whole thing is very similar in appearance to the current crop of 3D shooters like Quake except your accessing your files and not shooting demons ;) Home Page Site - http://www.vrmarketing.com/vrm_buzz_3d-pc0.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Mini Notetab 32-bit 2.6 6/12/97 .41mb Freeware Mini Notepad is not just another Windows Notepad replacement! It is a feature-rich program with a selection of original productivity tools that you will find in no other editor. Mini Notepad has been designed to use a minimum amount of Windows system resources so you can safely keep the editor open all the time. The program is capable of opening a very large number of files (the actual limit is determined by the amount of free system resources). Each document is displayed on a tabbed page making it easy to switch between them. A separate window, called the Document Selector, makes it easy to find a specific document when a large number of them are open. Home Page Site - http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/mininote.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Solway's Freeware Internet Search 1.5 6/10/97 73kb Freeware A small and fast FREEWARE program enabling you to search up to FOUR search engines simultaneously and display the results on one screen (provided that your web browser can handle frames). Remembers your last thirty search strings. Short-cut feature to get to a start html page. Home Page Site - http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/sware.html EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents Western Senators Oppose Next-Generation Internet Funding High-Tech Group Resists Java Standard Supercomputing On A Shoestring Online Degrees Sometimes Cost More German Court To Try Woman For Guerrilla Hyperlinks Women In Technology Excel Buys Telco And Becomes 6th-Largest Telecom Company Court Order Sent By Internet In Australia Carpooling And Cross-Pollination In Silicon Valley Virtual Too-Much-Reality Microsoft Joins Rivals To Endorse Privacy StandardMurdoch Buys Robertson's Cable Network ... ... And Sells His Direct Broadcast Satellite Business Recording Industry Fights Theft-By-Net AOL Game Enthusiasts Will Need To Pay To Play Intuit Buys Stake In Excite Multimedia Development In Canada Tech Budgets Up In '97 Cable-Computer Alliance IBM Shops Till It Drops IBM Wants To Play Games With You WESTERN SENATORS OPPOSE NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET FUNDING Senators from Montana, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have voiced their opposition to government plans to distribute $100 million over the next three years to fund research leading to the construction of computer networks capable of transmitting data 100-1,000 times faster than today's Internet. The senators' objections stem from their perception that not enough of the funds would flow to their states. Sen. Ron Wyden (R-Ore.) says the Next-Generation Internet program represents "yet another widening of the gap between the technological haves and have-nots," and warns there's a very real chance the NGI program will not be funded. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 4 Jun 97) HIGH-TECH GROUP RESISTS JAVA STANDARD A group of U.S. high-tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and IBM, has voted against making Sun Microsystems' Java programming language an official technical standard. The companies raised questions about how Sun plans to control the Java trademark and manage the future evolution of the technology. Sun has applied for official recognition by the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, a process that requires a vote in 30 member countries. (Wall Street Journal 6 Jun 97) SUPERCOMPUTING ON A SHOESTRING One of the fastest computers in the world today wasn't made by Cray or Intel or any of the other mainstream supercomputer manufacturers -- the Gravity Pipeline, or GRAPE for short, was constructed by an astrophysicist and his students at the University of Tokyo who wanted to study the phenomenon of globular clusters of stars and didn't have the computing power on hand to do it. GRAPE IV was the first computer to perform a trillion operations per second and the effort succeeded in proving the astrophysicist's theory that the cores of the clusters oscillate. GRAPE's creators predict the next-generation GRAPE machine will hit petaflop speed within the next five years and hope to build it as an international project. Because GRAPE was built on a very limited budget with a limited purpose in mind, its creators say similar machines could be constructed to handle specific problems, circumventing the need to spend millions of dollars on an all-purpose supercomputer. (Discover Jun 97) ONLINE DEGREES SOMETIMES COST MORE While distance learning is often touted as a more cost-efficient way of delivering educational opportunities to students unable or unwilling to attend conventional, on-campus lectures, some schools are charging more for their online degrees than for those acquired in the bricks-and-mortar environment of the campus setting. Duke University's Fuqua School of Business charges $82,500 for its Global Executive online MBA program, which attracts many students from outside the U.S., while students earning an MBA in the more conventional way pay only $50,000. At the University of Maine, cyberlearners are charged an extra $5 per credit hour. (Forbes 16 Jun 97) GERMAN COURT TO TRY WOMAN FOR GUERRILLA HYPERLINKS A court in Berlin will hear the case of a woman accused of providing a hyperlink on her Web site to provide visitors access to the banned left- wing publication Radikal, a publication which offers instructions on how to sabotage railway lines. (New York Times 6 Jun 97 & 7 Jun 97) WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY At a conference on Women in Technology, consultant Bonita Lynn Banducci characterized the situation of women in high-tech positions by saying: "Men feel danger from us. They're walking on eggshells around us. They don't want to draw us aside and read us the riot act for something we've done wrong and they don't want to appear too close to us for fear of misinterpretation." And conference participant Dorothy Nuess said: "We still have to define our value in masculine terms. A lot of men have felt that by letting women into the club, by letting them into positions of power, it'll be a loss for them. It's not perceived as a win/win situation by very many men." (San Jose Mercury News 6 Jun 97) EXCEL BUYS TELCO AND BECOMES 6TH-LARGEST TELECOM COMPANY Excel Communications, based in Dallas, is paying $1 billion to buy Telco Communications, making the combined company the sixth-largest telecommunications company in the U.S. The new top ten, ranked in terms of millions of dollars of long-distance revenue, are: (1) AT&T, $39,264; (2) MCI, $16,372; (3) Sprint, $7,944; (4) Worldcom, $4,485, including some non-long-distance revenue; (5) Frontier, $1,563; (6) Excel, $1.520; (7) LCI International, $1,103; (8) Cable & Wireless, $919; (9) Vartec Telecom, $470; (10) Cherry Communications, $354. (New York Times 7 Jun 97) COURT ORDER SENT BY INTERNET IN AUSTRALIA An Australian court granted lawyers for a Queensland company to issue a court order by e-mail to a U.S.-based company it claims defamed it on the Internet by anonymous posting and distribution of defamatory material to various people and to the media. An attorney for the plaintiff said: "We have had difficulty in physically serving the defendant with the court order and so the court has permitted us to serve him through the Internet as a substituted service. It's interesting that the court has recognized the Internet as a valid form of communications." (Government Technology Jun 97) CARPOOLING AND CROSS-POLLINATION IN SILICON VALLEY Commenting on the ceaseless job-hopping by programmers and software designers in Silicon Valley, UC- Berkeley professor AnnaLee Saxenian says: "People joke that you can change jobs without changing car pools. It's better to think about Silicon Valley as a region, rather than as independent firms. Some people say they wake up thinking they work for Silicon Valley. Their loyalty is more to advancing technology or to the region than it is to any individual firm." And Netscape employee Atri Chatterjee says: "I think about Silicon Valley as a large company with lots of different divisions. In the old days, if you worked for IBM, you could move from one division to another. Here we've got lots of corporate entities, but from a technology perspective, you can think of it as different divisions. A lot of cross-pollination goes on." (Washington Post 8 Jun 97) VIRTUAL TOO-MUCH-REALITY A videogame aficionado interviewed for J.C. Herz's book "Joystick Nation" complains: "Nowadays, there's no imagination required, the realism is so advanced." (New Yorker 9 Jun 97) MICROSOFT JOINS RIVALS TO ENDORSE PRIVACY STANDARD With a Microsoft executive saying "This is unprecedented, but we realized that we need to work together for the common good," Microsoft has decided not to propose its own Internet software privacy standards, but instead to endorse the standard proposed by its rival Netscape and Firefly Network Inc., and supported by a hundred hardware and software companies both large and small. The standard will be part of a broader effort led by the nonprofit organization World Wide Web Consortium, called the platform for privacy preferences. Using that platform, Web surfers could control what personal information was obtained about them during their travels on the Internet. (New York Times 12 Jun 97) MURDOCH BUYS ROBERTSON'S CABLE NETWORK ... Rupert Murdoch's communications empire is buying Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson's Family Channel for $1.9 billion, making Murdoch a direct competitor with the Disney Channel and Viacom's Nickelodeon network, both of which emphasize programming for children and families. Robertson explained that the sale was inevitable in this era of mergers in the communications industry: "We felt it was time for the Family Channel to join the consolidation that was going on in the industry." (New York Times 12 Jun 97) .... AND SELLS HIS DIRECT BROADCAST SATELLITE BUSINESS A fulfilling day at the office for Rupert Murdoch includes both buying and selling -- so to balance his purchase of a cable operation, Murdoch has sold his interest in AskyB to PrimeStar, a limited partnership of cable operators that includes Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), U S West, and Cox Communications, for a nonvoting 30% stake in PrimeStar valued at $1.1 billion. (Financial Times 12 Jun 97) RECORDING INDUSTRY FIGHTS THEFT-BY-NET The Recording Industry Association of America says that a group of record companies has filed lawsuits against "Internet music archive" sites that allow computer users to illegally download or upload copyrighted music. The defendants have not yet been identified. An executive of the Association says that, regardless of whether the archive sites charge or don't charge, the unauthorized appropriation of copyrighted material "is akin to stealing." (Wall Street Journal 11 Jun 97) AOL GAME ENTHUSIASTS WILL NEED TO PAY TO PLAY Six months after America Online Inc. switched to a $19.95 per month flat- rate pricing plan, the nation's largest Internet service and online content provider plans to start billing subscribers extra, hourly charges for access to the company's online multiplayer games. Industry analysts say that the company will be looking at this special pricing for "premium" services to determine whether subscribers are willing to pay extra for access to other content, such as financial services, news, etc. (San Jose Mercury News 11 Jun 97) INTUIT BUYS STAKE IN EXCITE Intuit, the developer of finance-oriented software for personal computers (Quicken) and for computer network transactions (Quicken Financial Network) is paying $40 million for a 19% stake in Excite Inc., an Internet search company. The two companies will develop an online channel which will allow computer users to conduct a full range of financial activities on the Internet, including life insurance and mutual funds. An Excite executive says: "It will focus on every piece of someone's financial life." (Wall Street Journal 12 Jun 97) MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA Bell Canada announced it will set up a $12-million fund to stimulate growth in multimedia production. The money will be distributed through an independent board and will be available to producers and entertainment production companies in Ontario and Quebec. (Montreal Gazette 11 June 97) TECH BUDGETS UP IN '97 A recent poll of 500 information systems executives indicates that in the majority of cases, there's more money for technology expenditures this year than last. Computer Economics found that only 27% reported budget cuts, while 16% saw no change. The biggest budget item was hardware, with spending on networks especially strong. (Investor's Business Daily 11 Jun 97) CABLE-COMPUTER ALLIANCE Rogers Communications and Microsoft will jointly develop a low-cost standardized device that will deliver television programming and Internet services to the home, with Microsoft contributing the technology and Rogers contributing its cable subscribers. A standard technology will allow program developers to concentrate on content rather than delivery. (Toronto Globe & Mail 12 June 97) IBM SHOPS TILL IT DROPS IBM will close its "World Avenue" shopping mall web site next month due to lack of interest from consumers. Mary Cronin, an author who specializes in Internet business activity, says: "World Avenue did not deserve to live. The site offered little that was novel or particularly attractive to consumers. The concept of the online shopping malls is dead in the water." The new general trend in Internet retailing is toward standalone sites targeted at specific market segments. (Financial Times 11 Jun 97) IBM WANTS TO PLAY GAMES WITH YOU Out of shopping, into games. IBM is teaming up with techno-thriller author Tom Clancy to form a company called Red Storm Entertainment Inc. in order to create and market computer games that can be played on the Internet. The first game, "Tom Clancy's Politika," will be available this fall. (Wall Street Journal 12 Jun 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: Smart v.4.0 demo by Mark Cawthon (the author of GOGO->ST). STock->Smart is a stock charting program with a portfolio spread sheet. Up to four chart windows may be displayed at any time, along with one portfolio window. A terminal program, which allows easy access to GEnie's FREE daily quotes, and a daily to historic quote converter program are part of STock-> Smart. Chart high/low/close, closing only, volume, weekly-daily, moving averages, etc. All daily quotes are converted to the historic format used by GEnie's QUOTE$ historic database and appended to the previous records for each stock you choose to track. Download past price history on any security in the GEnie QUOTE$ download format and instantly see the chart. Use the line drawing feature to highlight trends and help make price forecasts. Lines are retained when the chart is resized and may be saved with a chart for later update! This demo version of STock->Smart has been rigged to track just five set stocks and only 12 transactions per portfolio, but all other features are 100% operational. ST/STe/TT compatible (with at least 512 K of RAM). Color or mono. It seems to be a high quality program. I only wish I had enough money to buy enough stock to make it useful to me! And now for some files on a number of topics... JEO_0001 is the first issue (Vol. 1, Iss. 1) of the Jaguar Explorer Online (dated March 27, 1997. The editor of this fine magazine, Clay Halliwell, recently decided that enough was enough and that something had to be done to publish all of the accumulating news about the Jaguar. Atari Explorer Online has metamorphized into Jaguar Explorer Online and taken up that baton. This first issue is filled with news about the state of the Jaguar: interviews with game programmers, reviews of games, lists of cheats, sources of hardware, whatever happened to Travis Guy (congratulations Travis!), and much more. I found this a very interesting read, and I recommend it to you. BIRD4HIL is a series of 69 .IMG files of birds of all different kinds (almost, through there aren't any penguins!). Some of the images are rather poor, but most are quite good. Somehow or another an .IMG picture of a frog ended up in this archive. I imagine he must be feeling a bit uncomfortable being next to so many frog eating birds! HARDCAT2 is the Hardcat v.2.0 disk cataloging program by Mike White (dated November 24, 1996). If you're like me, you're tired of disk cataloging programs that crash, run out of memory before they're done, and that can't catalog the Suzy B's Software CD because it's too big. Well, try Hardcat! It doesn't have any of those problems. It will ask you the location of the files you wish to catalog (a whole drive, a folder, whatever) and then the location of where you wish the ASCII output file to be located. It's pretty quick, and multi- tasking friendly. Docs included. This is an excellent program, and I recommend it to you. ST-TT compatible (at least). PPPKIT14 is the PPP Internet Connection Kit for MiNT v.1.4 by Abel Philippe (dated Oct. 8, 1996). Here is a (nearly) ready-to-use kit to connect yourself to Internet with the PPP (Point to Point Protocol), and so access the WWW. It works under MiNT. "Oh No!" you say. But wait! This kit's use of MiNT is totally transparent, no Unix commands to learn nor is it necessary to have a Minix partition. What you do need (besides this archive) is FreeMint 1.12.5, Mint OS 1.4.1, MintNet 1.0 pl1 (included), the Cab_for_MintNet 1.77 overlay (included), HS Modem 07, pppd 2.2.0, and of course Cab (either CAB_15 or CAB2DEMO). I haven't personally haven't tried to get this setup running, so I can't help you here. I do know one person who's tried and not yet fully succeeded. From his experience I recommend that you use this on a hard drive partition that is completely backed up, as it has trashed his partition numbers of times! So...as always, use at your own risk. Oh for an easily set up PPP based Web Browser on the Atari! This archive contains both French and English comprehensive docs. Note: I haven't downloaded any of the CAB, STiK, STing, Newsie, FTP, whatever internet utilities on Genie, and so I won't mention them here, but they are there! Check them out and get browsing! PAULA25 is Paula v.2.5 (dated June 12, 1996) by Pascal Fellerich (one of the authors of TURBOASS, a fast Assembler). This .ACC/.APP is an Amiga-MOD-file-player (in their MANY varieties) for the Atari ST (see below) through Falcon. Paula doesn't claim to be the only or the fastest MOD player available for the Atari, but it certainly is one of the best. It has an excellent GEM interface along with a LARGE number of features. Updated to make the program even more Falcon compatible. This file also includes a utility that allows you to "fix" some damaged .MOD files. Normally Paula is only usable on STe-Falcon machines, but this archive includes PETRA by Christian Limpach. Petra v.1.0 (dated Aug. 20, 1992) is a software sound driver which allows all ST's which don't have DMA sound to still run Paula (hmmm, but in one place Paula says "All ST's" and another it says, "starting with TOS 1.4") . Just trust me on this one. If you want to listen to .MOD files just get this program. Color or mono. Docs included. The author has released this formerly shareware program as freeware, though he will still take contributions! Docs in English and German are included. CARDDLUX is an Card's Deluxe, an awesome shareware greeting card creator by Gregor Tielsch and Bernhard Artz of Delta Labs Software in Germany (dated Feb. 23, 1991). This mono-only program will allow you to create double-sided cards and print them out on a variety of printers. Just double-click on the program, choose your card format, type in your message, select the font you wish (up to six loaded at once and with over a dozen included and utilities for converting Signum! and Degas fonts to the GEM-format used by Card's D. are included), create a graphic using the very nice drawing features of this program or import a graphic (Printing Press, Doodle, Degas and STad formats are supported), pick out a boarder for your card, choose your printer (9- and 24- pin, HP Laser, HP Deskjet or saving as a Degas picture to disk are supported, though only the 9- pin printer in this shareware version), and get a card! The program and docs are in German, though included in this archive are rough machine generated translations of the German docs. No extra utilities (such as GDOS) are needed. Check out CARDPICS for a slew of pictures specifically designed for use with Card's Deluxe. Remember to support shareware authors! ST-TT compatible, but I was having some problems on my TT that I haven't bothered getting to the bottom of. It might be the program itself or it might just be my crazy setup! Actually, I think I got this from Delphi, but it's on Genie, too. CARDPICS is a set of 89 pictures for Card's Deluxe, an awesome shareware greeting card creator by Gregor Tielsch and Bernhard Artz of Delta Labs Software in Germany (dated Feb. 23, 1991). Card's Deluxe is an awesome mono-only card creation program and these pictures make it even more useful! Remember to support shareware authors! GVW_PING is the GEM-View Loading and Saving PNG module for 68030 and math co-processor by Eric Prevoteau (dated June 13, 1996). This module has been made to give you access to the new picture format named PiNG. PNG files are smaller than GIF without any quality losses (at least 15% with 16 colors pics). They also don't fall under the GIF patent by UniSys. With this module, you can load PNG pics without any problems. This module supports monochrome, grayscale (with or without alpha), color and true color 24 or 32 bits (not really tested) pics. The only limit in loading pics is your amount of RAM. Be careful, monochrome, grayscale and color pics take the same amount of memory as a 256 colors pics while loading. Docs included. Of course, you must also have the shareware program GEM View! AESFUNC is an ST-Guide Hypertext Help file describing the TOS AES Functions. This is really only of use to programmers, and you must have ST-Guide to access this file. AMTOST is the Amiga-to-ST transfer program v.2.0 by Robert W. Stiles (dated June 20, 1994). The purpose of the program is to convert the EOL characters used on the Amiga/Unix/Mac to the type used on the ATARI/MSDOS computers. The program will first scan the file to see if conversion is required. If it isn't, the program will skip to the next file. Docs and Lattice and Pure "C" source codes included. CALLERID is the source code (in Lattice C) of Mike Hill's Caller ID program. This program will read the number off of your Supra Modem and display it on screen. You can set it to reject certain numbers if you wish, too (just hang up on ...). He's left the Atari world and he wants to encourage others to continue programming. This archive also includes the listing for a program which will read the incoming number off of your Supra modem and announce it outloud for you. Now you don't even need to get up out of your chair to check the number! CDPLAY2 by Brian Grier is a set of source code listings for his program which allows audio CDs to be played on an ICD Host Adapter equipped Chinon 431 SCSI CD-ROM drive attached to your ST/STe/TT (maybe Falcon). Also included here is a module which will allow your Pure C/Turbo C programs (if you can write them, that is!) to use ICD's DMA.O module to control SCSI devices from within your program. It's all ready for you to compile (except ICD's DMA.O is not included since he didn't write that, ICD did). Shareware. COMPNREV is a text file containing the press release for the first revision of "The Atari Compendium," by Scott Sanders. This is an excellent set of docs for Atari programmers and power users by Scott Sanders. This file contains a description and information on how you can obtain one for yourself. Now, you can even get this book on CD in HTML format. Pretty neat! DEF0100 is a file that contains the default data file for making any STOS program compatible with TOS 1.0 when using STOS FIX v.2.7a by Robert Quezada. The funny thing is I thought any STOS program would be backward compatible with older TOS's, just not compatible with newer TOS's unless fixed. I don't know. If you do, and you know you need this file, get it! GEMSHELL is a short GFA 3.x uncompiled program which opens a window filled with text and allows it to be manipulated in a standard fashion. This file, written by John Eidsvoog of CodeHead Technologies fame (dated Aug. 29, 1992) shows how easy it is to write and use GFA basic code which correctly handles GEM redraw messages and windows. GFA 3.x Basic required. GET_DEFS is an .ACC that is designed to replace part of the function of the control panel / printer setup accessory the was supplied by DRI. The problem with the control panel .ACC is that after the Control Panel sets the colors, mouse click speed, etc. it's not often used again, but just sits there in memory, eating well over 16k in RAM and using up two .ACC slots (out of six, unless you have something like Geneva, MultiDesk, or Magic that allows you more). If you remove the control panel, however, none of the options set by it or the printer setup accessory are set on bootup of the system. So, bite the bullet and keep the control panel there all the time or get this file. It will allow you read your Desktop.INF file without the control panel present. That means you can set your desk up just the way you want it and have it that way every time. Docs included. Here are some more of the forums and other helps that I mentioned with which Genie abounds... ATWORK24 is the complete transcript of the Atari Works topic on Genie and the Atari Roundtable from Feb. 14, 1996 through Jan 5, 1997. This file contains all sorts of discussion about the "Black Page Syndrome" of v.1.207 and work-a-rounds on how to fix it. The topic continues in Category 13, Topic 2 on Genie and the Atari Roundtables. GEMVIEW5 is the complete transcript of the GEM-View Topic on Genie and the Atari Roundtables from Nov. 26, 1994 though Jan 5, 1997. This topic provides you with all sorts of questions and answers about GEM-View, the picture viewing and manipulating Shareware program by Dieter Fiebelkorn. I registered this, and I recommend that you get it and register it, too! The topic continues in Category 7 Topic 33 of Genie and the Atari Roundtables. INST205 is a text file that will tell you how to install TOS 2.05 on your STE. It isn't that hard! This will only work with the STE though as the TOS 2.05 was STE specific. The TOS 2.05 chips are much cheaper than the 2.06 chips, and are not that much less capable (TOS 2.06 added backwards capability with ST's and some fancier visuals, but I don't think too much more. WWW_05 is the complete transcript of the STiK CAB World Wide Web (HTML) browser on Genie and the Atari Roundtables from Oct. 9, 1996 through Dec. 7, 1996. This is a wonderful set of programs which will allow you to get on the Internet in a graphical way. It seems though that there are lots of problems in getting this software configured correctly for your system. You have to know what you're doing to do it right. Well, this transcript will help you to know what you're doing! And finally, here are some excellent utilities that I can highly recommend to you. BIGDOS08 is Big-DOS 8 by Rainer Seitel (dated Jan. 5, 1997). Big-DOS is a wonderful program! Technically it is "an ISO 9293 filesystem that replaces the GEMDOS of TOS," but what that really means is that you may now access IBM formatted hard drives with partitions larger than 32 Meg on your Atari. Using this allows me to access the drives on my Windoz machine to quickly and easily pull files off of them for my TT (and put them back). I need to access both Atari formated and Windoz partitioned hard drives from my TT because I'll eventually need to take all of the files I'm collecting for my next CD to a company that will write a CD master, and they'll need a IBM type disk for that. You must have a hard drive formatted and partitioned to Atari's AHDI specification (using Atari's hard drive software, ICD's software, or HD Driver). You also must be using a driver that is XHDI compatible (the Atari Software or HD Driver at the moment, but, thankfully, ICD is soon coming out with an upgrade to their system which will work with Big-DOS--and lots more features, too!). Just plop this in your AUTO folder and forget it. English and German docs included. Lots of other features too. That's what boot managers are for! Freeware. Write the guy a note! This is a wonderful program! ST-Falcon, Geneva, Multi-TOS compatible. DESKCLOC is DeskClock v.1.0 by Yanick Dufresne. This archive contains an .ACC clock which will display the time in the menu bar. It works as a .PRG with Geneva (using its tear off menus) or MultiTOS. Pure C source included. ELFBK211 is ELFBACK v.2.11 by Jay Kormylo of E.L.F Software. ELFBACK provides an easy way to do hard disk backups (full, partial, or incremental) and restores to floppies or other disk drives in a very easy to use manner. The program requires TOS 1.4 or better with 2 meg or more of RAM and will work with mono or color monitors. It can use data compression to reduce the number of floppies needed (or space on your hard drives--I've used my EZ-SyQuest 135 drive for backups). It uses the "archive bit" in the file directory to indicate that the file has been archived (for use with incremental backups). It also allows you to inspect each floppy before you write on it, and to either reformat, erase (faster than reformatting), or use the remaining space on the floppy and preserve the existing files. The beauty of ElfBack is that it stores your backups on disk as one large file. When your hard drive has lots of small files on it this is a tremendous space savings in the backup. The compression technique used is very slow, but also quite efficient (since you can run this in the background or overnight, the speed isn't that much of an issue, at least to me). Another compression method you might choose is faster, but not as efficient. I've compressed 250 meg of files into slightly more than a 100 meg backup file. Uncompression and backup is effortless, too. ELFBack has built in HELP features. Almost every dialog has a HELP button in the upper right corner. This archive includes a version for the ST/STe and another for the TT that uses the 68030 and 68881 extensions and is much faster. Docs included. Shareware. ST-TT (Falcon?) and Geneva compatible. Note: This version is newer than the v.2.9 as the author has apparently redone the numbering system for new versions. GNVADEMO is the Geneva release 005 Demo from Gribnif Software (dated 1996). Geneva is a replacement of the AES part of TOS. What this means is that when using Geneva you can multi-task programs, load and unload accessories at will (as many as your memory will allow), access all sorts of bells and whistles to prettify your workspace, use MiNT or not, get a neat new item selector that allows you to run programs from within it, and much much more. I use Geneva all the time on my ST/STE/TT computers, and I hate booting up without it. I recommend it to you, highly. This is a demo, but it's not very limited at all. You can certainly get a good idea of how it works. But really, why get this demo, just go out and buy the program! DETAILED docs included. GNVA_005 is the free update to Geneva release 004 to release 005 from Gribnif Software. I am amazed at the Gribnif folks. They work and work to upgrade their products, and they don't charge for the upgrades! This upgrade makes Geneva better, faster, more compatible, and all for free...to us (it cost Dan and company a lot of hours of work, I'm sure!). If you have Geneva (I do, and I think it's absolutely wonderful! I hate booting up without it), then you should get this patch. It makes a great product even better. Requires an unmodified master disk. That's it for this week! I hope you find lots of stuff you can use. Now you know where you can get it, too! Of course, much of this software if available on the internet and on other services, but as I said, Genie has it gathered together in one place. Next column I'll talk about my real online home, Delphi, and some of the files you can find there. Take care, and drop me a line to say hello. I'm always glad to get mail! May God Bless, --Michael R. Burkley The Unabashed Atariophile p.s.: You may contact me at MRBURKLEY@DELPHI.COM, MICHAEL-R-BURKLEY@WORLDNET.ATT.NET, or at M.BURKLEY1 on Genie Michael is a former Polyurethane Research Chemist, the co-owner of Suzy B's Software, and currently the Pastor of the Niagara Presbyterian Church Gaming Section Jaguar - EB news! PSX Sales! Sony-NBA Venture! Machine Hunter! And much more! From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! Is it possible that the Jaguar is making a retail comeback? Sounds like _something_ is happening with Telegames and Electronics Boutique. It will be interesting to see if EB will follow through and carry Jaguar games (primarily the recent Telegames releases); and, if this could lead to more. Who knows, Telegames may attempt to publish games beyond those that they've already committed to doing. Check out the comments from JV Enterprises' Vince Valenti, below. The Sony PlayStation has hit another milestone recently, as reported below. The machine and software seems to be holding its own against the Nintendo 64 and eclipsing the Sega Saturn. Has the N64 faltered? Hard to say, but I've always thought that the PlayStation was going to be the system to beat in the long haul. One can only wonder where the Jaguar would be if there were a real overall commitment to it... Until next time... Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! Sony and National Basketball Association Announce Alliance NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Corporation of America (NYSE:SNE) and the National Basketball Association today announced an expansive, multi-year alliance that makes Sony an "Official Sponsor of the NBA." The relationship represents Sony's largest and most far-reaching sports sponsorship to date. "Sony is proud to be a partner with the NBA in such a bold and significant effort," said Michael Newman, Market Development Vice President, whose Sony Corporation of America group oversaw the agreement. "This sponsorship brings tremendous added value to the Sony and NBA brands and it has unlimited potential for the future." Sony companies participating include: Sony Pictures Entertainment; Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., makers of the PlayStation console; and Sony Electronics Inc., through its Consumer A/V Products Group and Recording Media & Energy Group. Mike Stevens, Vice President, NBA Properties Marketing Partnerships, said, "Sony and the NBA have wide-ranging assets that will enable both companies to leverage the power and the obvious merging of the sports and entertainment industries." Sony and the National Basketball Association will participate in a wide range of marketing activities during their association, which will continue, at a minimum, through the year 2000. The Sony NBA marketing alliance will be coordinated by Newman, under Mike Uchida, Executive Vice President, Sony Corporation of America. Under the agreement, Sony will have exclusive domestic promotion rights within the consumer electronics category, as well as a variety of additional rights which will benefit all participating Sony Companies. "Sony, through its U.S. operating companies, and the NBA will work together to create a myriad of branding and marketing opportunities," Newman said. "Sony and the NBA are synonymous with first-rate entertainment, and we are committed to building creative and important programs that significantly enhance both organizations." Sony and the NBA will also consider developing and distributing programming, as well as exploring ways to work together at appropriate league-venues, including grassroots programs and select special events. As part of the agreement, Sony will also have use of the NBA logo and related trademarks in promotional material as well as in national and regional promotions, use of the NBA Playoffs, NBA Finals and NBA All-Star logos and themes in advertising and access to NBA photo archives for promotional purposes. MGM Interactive to Showcase Deep Games Lineup at E3 LOS ANGELES (June 9) BUSINESS WIRE -June 9, 1997--At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta, June 19-21, MGM Interactive will showcase a number of new PC and PlayStation titles for game fans, including Return Fire II, Rollerball, WarGames, and Machine Hunter. The company will also announce two additions to its Family Entertainment product line -- The All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center and Babes in Toyland. MGM Interactive's commitment to great product will be evident at this year's E3 show, predicts Ronald Frankel, executive vice president and general manager, MGM Interactive. "Our product line up leverages the best of MGM, including great brands, great talent, and innovative marketing. With this line up, we hope to satisfy the needs and expectations of gamers and parents everywhere." Hot New Titles for Gamers MGM Interactive's Return Fire II is the sequel to the award-winning 3D action strategy game from Silent Software. The player is plunged into pitched battles, armed with a greater arsenal of land, air, and naval units, including helicopters, jump jets, PT boats, armored support vehicles and four wheel drive military vehicles. The greatly enhanced sequel to the award-winning Return Fire game features white-knuckle war scenarios in photorealistic 3D settings, including cityscapes and deserts. Players deploy weapons from bunkers and battle the elements as well as their enemies, facing off under a variety of weather conditions, including rain and blizzards. A number of multi-player opportunities will be available on Return Fire II -- from split-screen battle scenarios to aerial dogfights, and teamplay against the computer. Return Fire II will be available for PlayStation game consoles and Windows 95 PC versions in Q4 '97. MGM Interactive's Rollerball brings an all-new bone-crunching, futuristic bloodsport to the PC and PlayStation game consoles. Based on the United Artists' sci-fi classic, Rollerball delivers a unique sports game mechanic by combining the team strategies of hockey and football with the brutal action of demolition derby and kick-boxing. Based on the 2098 Rollerball season, players manage teams from around the world, made up of strikers (those shooting for the goal), enforcers (the ruthless bruisers who take out opponents by any means necessary) and others who compete using jet bikes and magnetic in-line skates. Featuring multi-player LAN play as well as two player matchups on a split screen, Rollerball will deliver the ultimate fast-action, 3D fantasy sports experience. Rollerball is scheduled to ship in Q1 1998 for Windows 95 PCs and Sony PlayStation game systems. In MGM Interactive's WarGames, a next generation, real-time strategy title, the player portrays a young hacker who infiltrates a computer that controls the nation's military nuclear defense system. WarGames offers 30 missions and the ability to zoom and tilt the camera to view the entire battlefield. Realistic 3D rendered texture maps will place players in a virtual war room where they will decide the fates of entire cities. All terrain and objects are also rendered in full 3D. WarGames will appear in single and multi-player modes for LAN, modem, and Internet play. The Windows '95 version is scheduled for release in Q4 '97 with PlayStation to follow in Q1 '98. Machine Hunter is an intense, multi-player shooter in which the player portrays the sole human battling droid invaders armed with an arsenal of weaponry, including grenade launchers, machine guns and plasma cannons. With each successful salvo, the player assumes a destroyed droid's characteristics and weaponry. The game offers players an addictive shooting experience in a vivid 3D environment. Machine Hunter is being developed by Eurocom and both Windows 95 PC and Sony PlayStation console versions will ship in late August. Family Entertainment Product Line Expands MGM Interactive will also demonstrate two new children's titles at E3: All Dogs Go Heaven Activity Center and Babes in Toyland. Both are scheduled to ship this fall. The two titles will be on display along with a new Macintosh/PC version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town. All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center features inviting traditional cell animation based on artwork from the animated film and television series. Kids ages three to eight will learn about different types of dogs by exploring various interactive challenges, including connect the dots, coloring puzzles, and the ability to design and dress their own pet. Video footage of various breeds of dogs also will be included. All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center will be available as a Windows 95/Macintosh hybrid CD-ROM and is scheduled for release in Q3 '97. Babes in Toyland empowers kids three to eight to help Jack and Jill find missing toys as they interact with the legendary Mother Goose character of Toyland. The title features 12 arcade, music-inspired, and puzzle games that help young players develop problem-solving skills. Working with shapes, colors, and numbers, kids perform entertaining tasks such as helping the Old Woman in the Shoe find her lost children and rescuing toys from a well. Upon completion of the game, players can print out a personalized color "thank you" certificate from Santa. Three adjustable levels of difficulty allow for age-appropriate play. The Windows 95/Mac hybrid CD-ROM is scheduled for release in Q3 '97. Curious youngsters will pilot Hollywood's favorite flying car to the greatest land of exploration and invention ever created with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town. Kids are whisked to an enchanting world where they use a variety of animated tools to piece together and explore colorful, larger-than-life versions of common household appliances. While they're having fun, kids will develop science, safety and memory skills with 15 interactive screens, 11 lock-n-key puzzles and dozens of clever and creative characters. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town is currently on store shelves for Windows 95 PCs with a combination Macintosh/PC version expected before the 1997 holiday gift giving season. The Hunt is on: MGM Interactive and Gamespot - Machine Hunter MGM Interactive plans multi-tiered marketing program to commandeer gamers for upcoming Windows 95 and Sony PlayStation Shooter Building excitement for the August release of its "Machine Hunter" game, an addictive multiplayer shooter for Windows 95 computers and PlayStation consoles, MGM Interactive Thursday announced a new PC shareware contest with Gamespot, a premier on-line site offering reviews and news from the world of interactive entertainment. From now through Aug. 1, gamers who download the "Machine Hunter" PC demo from www.gamespot.com and uncover the hidden Easter eggs can enter in a grand prize drawing for $2,500. Two hundred "Machine Hunter" T-shirts also will be given away through a random drawing throughout the promotion. The easily downloadable 3MB demo features one level of Machine Hunter's riveting gameplay. More than a 3-D shooter, the full version of the game allows two players to do battle in death matches and acquire the bodies and special weaponry of the opponents they kill. "Gamespot is the perfect outlet to drive demand for Machine Hunter," said Ron Frankel, executive vice president and general manager, MGM Interactive. "Machine Hunter's combination of great action arcade gameplay and graphics will introduce players to a new class of top-down shooters. The one-level demo is sure to whet the appetite of thrill-seeking players." Demo Discs and Advertising Campaign To complete the company's multi-tiered sampling program, MGM also has arranged to bundle demos of the game in leading enthusiast magazines, including Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, Next Generation and other console magazines. An extensive print and on-line advertising campaign and national public relations program for both the PlayStation and PC versions of "Machine Hunter" also are being implemented. Point of purchase promotional materials also will be made available to retailers. "Machine Hunter" Players who download "Machine Hunter" will find themselves immersed in a blazing space-age shooter where awesome 3-D rendered environments hide deadly droids and aliens, each equipped with unique weapons of destruction. As a commando embroiled in a battle to save a Mars mining colony taken over by enemy forces, players take charge of an exotic arsenal of weaponry, including grenade launchers, machine guns and plasma cannons. After successfully defeating each droid, player commandos can "morph" into its body and assume its characteristics and weaponry, growing increasingly powerful with each conquest. Two players can compete in death match or cooperative competition. The PlayStation version features two-player split screen play. PC version players can compete on a LAN, modem or in Internet death matches. Gameplay on both versions is rich and diverse with 16 unique, themed arena/levels, including hospital, swamp and alien planet settings. These diverse battle locations lead to hours of varied and non-stop excitement. "Machine Hunter" is currently in development by Eurocom under the direction of MGM Interactive's Robb Alvey. Slated for release in late August 1997 for Windows 95 PCs and Sony PlayStation game consoles, "Machine Hunter" will have an estimated retail price of $49.95. MGM Interactive, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., manages creative development and production of interactive products for a variety of multimedia platforms, as well as talent and developer relationships. In 1996, MGM Interactive released the critically acclaimed "The Ultimate James Bond: An Interactive Dossier" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in Tinker Town." Sony Says PlayStation Sales Pass 16m Worldwide TOKYO, JAPAN, 1997 JUN 12 (Newsbytes) -- By Martyn Williams. A week ahead of the important E3 consumer electronics show in the United States, Sony Computer Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp. [TOKYO:6758] [NYSE:SNE], has announced worldwide shipments of its PlayStation games console have passed 16-million. The company said that, as of the end of May, shipments in Japan stood at 7.5-million units, North American shipments were at 4.8-million units and European shipments at 3.7-million units. Sales of PlayStation software are also doing very well, according to SCE, and have reached 114-million worldwide. Mirroring the hardware sales, Japan leads, with shipments of 59-million units, followed by the North American market, with 30-million units shipped, and the European market, with 25-million units shipped. Commenting in a company press release, Kaz Hirai, chief operating officer, Sony Computer Entertainment America, said, "Going into the most visible trade event of the year - next week at E3 in Atlanta - it is satisfying to know that our documented sales figures will substantiate who is factually the leading next generation video game system." Seemingly unable to restrain the company's delight at taking the lead in a market that it wasn't even a part of five years ago, Sony's Hirai continued, "I think that any person - be it a retailer, consumer, analyst or reporter - would be hard pressed to argue with the fact that we've quickly become the leader in the video game industry. Needless to say, we are very pleased and proud of our accomplishments, especially given the fact that we've yet to celebrate our second anniversary in the marketplace." The PlayStation is battling, and winning, in all markets with the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn game machines. Nintendo said sales of its Nintendo 64 machine had reached 6.12-million units by the end of March, 1997, but the system was only launched in June, 1996, in Japan and September, 1996, in the United States. Sega, which is currently running in third place in the games console shoot-out, said sales by the end of March, 1997, reached 7.56-million units. All three companies have recently issued forecasts for the current fiscal year, which began in April. Sony said shipments of PlayStation machines will total 18-million in the year, with Nintendo forecasting shipments of 12-million systems. Sega, faced with strong competition from Sony and Nintendo, said shipments will likely drop to around 1.9-million. Nintendo's sales forecast is seen as difficult to attain by some. The company is likely to see shipments of around 10-million units, say analysts, but it seems to be pinning its hopes on surge in sales caused by a recent price cut. The Kyoto based company reduced the price of the Nintendo 64 system to 16,800 yen ($146) from 25,000 yen ($217) in Japan and to $149 from $199 in the United States. Exchange rate: $1 = 115.00 yen Jaguar Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr! Good news for Jaguar From: "Vince" I know you all have been waiting for me to spill the beans. Well, now I can! As of 2 days ago, Telegames received a P.O. (purchase order) from EB (Electronic Boutique) for copies of all 4 Telegames titles (Towers II :), IS2, WTR, and Breakout 2k.) These games are going into RETAIL stores in the top 50 (jaguar) selling EBs. This is being setup as a test, if the test goes well, these titles could very well appear in all EB stores (approx. 500.) Unfortunately, I don't know which ones are the top 50. It's really important that these products sell. Maybe we could start a EB sighting report, and add to some list where a Jaguar title was sighted. Having Retail exposure is essential for keeping the Jaguar alive and kickin'. Products won't be in the EB stores for a week or two, as Telegames must first ship to a warehouse, then it ships to each store. The hope is this. There are new Jag owners from KB, now all we have to do is walk them from KB to EB, to buy at least one of these titles each. :) Hope this makes your week, Vince JV Games EDITORIAL QUICKIES HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! 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. 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