Digital Communications by Hank Volpe The 1992 "Hankies" Once again, friends, it's time to cross the barriers of space, time, good taste and transcend all the politically correct review processes. It's time for a breath of fresh air, time for a change, time for a new world order (sorry, living so close to Washington, D.C. makes one ramble a bit). As I was saying, it's time for something we've all been waiting for: the annual Hank Volpe awards of merit, better known as the Hankies. Unlike an author's receipt of meaningless industry awards from computer magazines and trade shows, the receipt of a Hankie represents an achievement beyond compare! Most authors who have received Hankies have been astonished, with comments ranging from "thank you, but my nose is not running" to "God, I've finally made the big-time." The Hankies have been known to produce even more emotional responses than these, for they spotlight the software authors who keep the BBS's alive and running: the shareware authors of America. Shareware and shareware authors go unheralded by most of the mainstream press. The reasons aren't clear to me; it could be due to lack of advertising, lack of publicity, or lack of really good, exotic, and expensive-to-throw parties for reviewers. In any case, it's a shame, for usually the best software products you can find are shareware. Some of the past winners of this award speak to that fact: Qmodem, Procomm, Telix, PKZIP, Hard Disk Manager, Auto Menu, Mahjongg, Vacation Planner, Funnels--these and others are great examples of shareware. Although some packages have worked their way into the commercial market, they started on BBS's, being downloaded, used, and registered by people like you and me. Their excellence kind of explains how the Hankies got started. Now before we go any further, you must understand that the selection and voting process for such a prestigious award must always be above reproach and founded on high moral grounds. Each year, as the operator of a BBS, I receive thousands of files to look at and evaluate. Out of this group, I search for the best file, disk, video, and communication programs. Games and educational software are also important on my list (for I have two nintendo addicted rug rats who need constant guidance and distraction from the evils of MTV). After the review process comes a lengthy trial period during which the software is run through its paces. I check to make sure the program is well-written, well documented, and well supported. I've also been known to like poorly written stuff because it looks pretty neat! With all that in mind, I select the finalists, make myself a really strong cup of coffee, and ask my wife what she thinks. As we all know, that is the safest way to make sure you have not made an error. My motto is "If it works for the President, it works for me"! So now, without further ado, the 1992 winners! Best Disk Utility The best disk utilities you can find have always been shareware. Be it a disk compactor, disk organizer, or disk duplicator, shareware ventures have always out-classed anything commercially available. This year's winning entry fills a need all of us have: the need to make quick, accurate disk copies. "Disk Copy Fast" (distributed as DCF40B.ZIP) is a one-pass diskette duplication utility which makes copies of 1.44 MB, 720 KB, 1.2 MB, and 360 KB diskettes. Bench tests (assuming you aren't switching disks in and out of your machine) have shown that Disk Copy Fast will format and duplicate a disk up to 57% faster than any other DOS utility. According to the author, Chang Ping Lee, all this increase in speed is accomplished by precise timing without sacrificing compatibility. Mr. Lee states that "Every single read, write or format is done following the industry standard, strictly, no compromise!" In one pass, Disk Copy Fast performs the DOS commands FORMAT, DISKCOPY and DISKCOMP. Designed for both the occasional user and a mass production environment, Disk Copy Fast makes extensive use of Hot Keys and includes many command line switches that make it easy to run from a batch file. The program loads as much of the original disk into XMS memory as possible, thus speeding up disk duplicating. If XMS memory does not exist or is insufficient, Disk Copy Fast automatically buffers this storage to your hard drive. If you shy away from switches and command lines, Disk Copy Fast has a nicely constructed pull-down window environment for you to interact with. Disk Copy Fast comes complete with documentation and registration information. Those who register receive a copy of Disk Fast Plus, a utility that contains several extra features and some customizing ability for hot keys. If you need to make backup disks, especially for archive purposes, give Disk Copy Fast a try. Best File Utility Do you need more disk space? The ZIP'R utility, when used in combination with PKZIP, ARJ, or LHA, automatically compresses entire programs into a single compressed file, saving valuable hard drive space. Zip'r (distributed as ZIPR22.ZIP) is a safe, totally DOS compatible method of compressing more space out of your hard drive. As you know, there are commercial programs available that compress space. However, some of these programs have bizarre side effects or refuse to work in certain environments. For example, none of the commercially available space compression products will run on a Novell Network file server. File servers always need more space. In addition, none of the commercial on-the-fly compression/expansion utilities possess compression algorithms that approach what PKZIP, LHA, and ARJ offer. Zip'r has the ability to offer the disk compression and expansion you desire by working with your favorite archiver. Zip'r compresses directories, subdirectories, and the files contained in them into one smaller compressed file on your hard drive; so now you work with an entire subdirectory, filled with files, stored in compressed form when not in use. When a program is executed, Zip'r expands the desired directory and executes the requested program. While your program is running, Zip'r swaps itself to disk or EMS memory (only keeping a 2.5k TSR hook behind). When you exit the program, Zip'r automatically re-compresses the directory, saving any changes you've made to the archive. Zip'r does not offer you on-the-fly compression found with commercial programs, which means there will be a slight delay when starting or ending programs (while your programs are being expanded or compressed). However, as you know, there are many files on your hard drive that you do not use every day. Zip'r reclaims that valuable real estate. While testing, I compressed my entire hard drive with quite startling results. Treating every subdirectory as a file, Zip'r reduced my overall storage requirements by nearly 53% with PKZ204G and 52% with ARJ. Effectively, I've doubled my disk storage capacity. Zip'r has been tested under Desqview, Windows 3.1, and other multi-taskers; however, you can see some real potential problems if multiple windows are compressing and extracting data. For these special situations (and for use on a network), use the network version called Zip'rn. This version has features that places limits on simultaneous access while compression/expansion is taking place. If you need space and on-the-fly compressors make you nervous or don't work because of a hardware/software compatibility problem, give the job to Zip'r and your favorite file compressor. Best hardware utility My favorite category! As most of you know, I'm an engineer by profession. Computer programming has always been only a hobby. For me, then, hardware is the most exciting part about computers next to talking to the hardware. (Of course, the worst part is when the hardware talks back!) During the last few years, we have seen dramatic breakthroughs with video display adapters, modems, and hard drive units. With each of these improvements has come the unenviable task of installation. I have witnessed first hand the frustration of men who can send rockets to Mars but can't install a serial port. Even for the seasoned professional, installing or adding to a hard drive system from scratch can bring tears to the eyes. The documentation makes it all soooo simple. After all, you just need to answer a few simple questions: what's the drive type? how many cylinders? how many heads? what are the sector counts? ... Heck, what's a sector? All these values are stored in your computer's CMOS memory. What happens when the battery goes dead or the memory gets corrupted? It's enough to make a hardware guy go back to pen and paper, or better yet, carve notches on posts! The winner of the best hardware utility can solve these hard disk configuration problems for you if you are using an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard disk drive. IDE Identify v1.40 (distributed as IDEI140.ZIP) returns information on all IDE hard drives attached to your system. IDE Identify shows head, cylinder, and sector counts for CMOS setup parameters. Unlike other utilities, your IDE hard drive only needs to be properly cabled. Even if the drive has not been prepared (including CMOS parameters), IDE Identify will give you a listing of all the proper values you need to enter into your system's CMOS memory. IDE Identify is Freeware (no registration fee required), and is distributed by Micro House International. If you have an IDE controller and drive, this file is a must for your utility collection! Best Video Utility On the whole, I really love my 486-DX 50mhz, supercharged, super slick, all function, 4-on-the-floor, all-wheel-drive computational wundermachine--that is until I do a chkdsk *.* /f/v. At that moment, I feel as if I'm watching the end of a cheap cable movie, where the credits are rolling by at such breakneck speed that you cannot possibly read even one entry. Of course, I know I can filter the output via "more", or redirect it to a file (to view later in some other way), or take a speed-reading course at the local community college. But who has time for these things? If you feel like I do, or you have occasionally felt like screaming when something important scrolls off the top of your screen, then you will appreciate the winner of the best video award, Scrollit. SCROLLit 1.5 (distributed as SCRLIT15.ZIP) is a screen scrollback buffer utility. It lets you scroll back, in full color, through lines of text that have scrolled off the screen. SCROLLit includes such features as searching, block-writing, 43/50 line mode, and XMS/EMS support. Compression is used to squeeze more than twice the number of lines into the available buffer space. SCROLLit is Desqview-aware and only takes 9K of memory (which can be loaded into the UMB area) as a TSR after installation. To activate SCROLLit, just press the Scroll-lock key on your computer (see Virginia, someone finally did use the Scroll-lock key for something). While in SCROLLit, you can mark blocks of the buffer and send those blocks to a printer or file. SCROLLit would be "the perfect" video utility if it wasn't for the fact that it is distributed as something I affectionately call "annoyware". Annoyware is shareware that starts with an annoying commercial, making it hard to use out of an autoexec.bat file. Believe me, as a shareware author myself, I have nothing against an author enticing people to register. However, I urge the author of SCROLLit to consider using a carrot instead of a brick. Nevertheless, as I said earlier, the Hankies are firmly rooted in high moral principles, and SCROLLit deserves your attention and more, regardless of the "political views" of the Awards Committee. Once you start using it, you'll register it for sure. Best Communication Utility A communication utility is something that improves the ability to communicate with your computer, or saves you invaluable amounts of time and effort while doing so. Often in the past, this award has been won by a communications program (such as Procomm, Qmodem, or Telix), or a file transfer engine (such as DSZ). This year, I feel an interesting "new" need has emerged, primarily due to the "commercializing" of Qmodem and Procomm. Since these programs are no longer distributed as shareware, many of us are trying out new communication programs for the first time. Now quickly, what is the absolute worst thing about a new communication program? ... Quickly, I said! OK, a hint: it involves typing all your phone book numbers over and over again to use with different communication programs. YECH! Sometimes I think the deficit will be balanced before I finish entering all that information into another program. Wouldn't it be great if someone could do all that for you in a neat, easy-to-use package? (Cue the offstage announcer.) Well, look no further, for help is on the way! This year's Hankie award winner in the communications utility category goes to FONDIR (distributed as FONDIR59.ZIP). Granted, FONDIR is not the type of program you'll run every day, but it does save endless hours of entry into communication program phonebooks every time you try out a new comm program. FONDIR reads from a list of phone numbers, such as a BBS list, and creates a communications program dialing directory. It's very fast, and it does a bundle of translations. It supports over 20 different comm programs, including Boyan, Procomm, Procomm Plus, Qmodem, Gt-Powercomm, Telemate, Telix, Pibterm, PC-Talk4, Rcomm, K9-Express, Mirror 3, PC Anywhere, Carbon Copy Plus, A Dialer, Commo, Unicom, Ultiterm and Pilot. FONDIR performs long distance, local, and metro EMS dial conversions, handles modem speed adjustments, transfer protocol selections, and allows you directly to import or export phone numbers from those national BBS phone number lists you've seen around on BBS's. If the only thing keeping you from trying out a new comm program is the fear of typing in all those phone numbers, then download FONDIR and let your fingers do the walking ... somewhere other than on your keyboard. Best Games and Educational Software This year, I'd like to combine these two awards into one, general achievement award for Apogee's software. Apogee makes some of the most entertaining and graphically sophisticated game software you can find. Most Apogee games are distributed in this form: #1NAME.ZIP. #1 identifies the program as the first of a multi-part game. Usually, #1 is shareware, while other numbers are mailed to you after you register the program. The kids have enjoyed playing "Captain Keen" probably the most of all the non-educational games that Apogee distributes. If you're tired of Mario, or you've had too many turtles, try one of Apogee's different and challenging games for your kids. Now, as any parent knows, finding educational software that can teach and also can be configured for your child's developmental level is a tough chore indeed. Years ago, one of the local computer stores would let you open up the software (in the store) and try it out before you bought it, just to see if your child could understand how to use it. Well, those days are gone, and the only try-before-you-buy-it software that exists is shareware. There are many educational games out there, but most revolve around the old "drill and practice" approach. If you're looking for something a bit different, try Math Rescue by Apogee (distributed as #1MATH.ZIP). Episode #1 (shareware) allows your child to follow the Gruzzles into space. Depending on the game level (and the age of your child), you can configure Math Rescue to present up to 100 new word problems, including multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. There are fifteen new worlds to explore, with each requiring a bit of hand-eye co-ordination and math skills in order to advance. There are three levels to play, including one perfect for the pre-schooler because it doesn't require any math at all in order to play. Math Rescue is programmed by Karen Crowther, the author of two other games, "Word Rescue" and "Talking ABC's." The artists, Jimmie and Dale Homburg, and the writer, Maya Watson, are students working on college degrees. What I like most about Math Rescue is its excellent use of graphics, the ease with which it plays, and the lack of a time-clock. Without time, a pre-schooler feels quite comfortable both playing and learning from Math Rescue. It would be hard to imagine a better game for your child that you could buy in a store. Hankie Award Considerations As a winner of a Hankie, each software author receives my gratitude for writing programs that have saved me time, helped me solve a difficult problem, or made me laugh a bit. Please, if you like any of these programs, or use shareware regularly, take the time to register your program with the author. This keeps the shareware concept viable for all of us. If you're interested in any of these programs, check your BBS for the filenames I listed above. If you have any questions about modems, computer hardware, or digital communications, drop me a line. Write to Hank Volpe, PO Box 43214, Baltimore, MD 21236. You can also reach me on the Modem Doctor BBS at 410-256-3631, where you will also find the files I mentioned in the review above.