-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PCM Online August 1995 - BBSCON Edition COLUMNS Contents: [] Been There, Done That: Getting Excited Again -- what thrills a "jaded" PC junkie? [] FAQS in Focus: Making Windows 95 Work [] The Offline Reader: New book titles from the computer press [] Riding the Internet: It's in the E-mail -- If you have an Internet mail box, the world will come to you [] Scoping Out Windows 95: Long Filenames Entire contents copyright 1995 by Falsoft, Inc. PCM -- The Premier Personal Computer Magazine -- is intended for the private use and pleasure of its subscribers, and reproduction by any means is prohibited. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Been There, Done That \|/ by James G. Yearwood ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contributing Editor "What thrills a 'jaded' PC junkie?" GETTING EXCITED AGAIN My family got together on the 4th of July for golf, food and fun. We all have home PCs, so naturally some of the talk is about computers. Even my mother gets in on the act. Mom has used her computer to make gift certificates for the grandkids from time to time. One of my brothers writes a column for a local newspaper; another uses his for client tracking; and a third uses his for a non-profit organization he started. They all get excited about what they can do with their computers. I try to remember the excitement I felt when I first did some of the same things. But that was 15 years ago, or more, and at that time most people didn't have the foggiest idea of what I was talking about. (Been there! Done that!) It got me thinking -- what gets me excited about computers these days? Hardware always gets me excited. My boss and I joke about my always wanting more hardware: color printers, scanners, bigger hard drives, faster modems or more memory. At home I am "making do" with a 486DX-50 with 16 megabytes of memory and 1.4 gigabytes of disk space. This computer, as fast as it is, is showing its age. The 32-bit operating systems I run are taking their toll in the processor speed department. So I look forward to the P6 computers when they come out this fall. My first computer had 4K -- yes, 4096 bytes of memory -- and I thought I would never fill it up. Now 16MB seems minimal, what with Windows NT requiring 12MB just to run. OS/2 Warp does run in 8MB (that's what I have on my notebook), but for serious multitasking 16MB or more is needed. So my next computer will have 32MB of memory in it. Sometimes a new software package can get me excited. That is, until I open the box and find 19 floppy disks in it. My wife uses Microsoft Office where she works, so I bought it for her to use at home. I'll tell you right now -- buy the CD-ROM version! Microsoft Office Professional comes on 19 disks. 19 disks! That's three less than OS/2, and it's an operating system! Oh well, that's progress. (?) One package I'm excited about had only one disk in it. It's System Commander from V Communications. What it does with its one disk is allow you to boot up to 100 different operation systems on your PC. MS/PC/DR DOS, OS/2, Windows NT, Novell, UNIX, Linux, just about any operating system written to run on an Intel CPU. With this program I can easily select DOS, OS/2 Warp or Windows 95, all of which I have installed on my system. I was using OS/2's Boot Manager to select what I wanted, but it has its limits. Plus, my wife had trouble using it. System Commander is unique in that it tracks all the operating system files for you. You can install OS/2, Windows 95 and Windows NT into your current DOS partition without having one operating system trashing the files of another. The manual gives step-by-step procedures for installing new operating systems to run under System Commander, and installing System Commander for your existing systems. If you are even thinking about running two or more different operating systems, get System Commander. For $99.95 (I've seen it as low as $70), it will save you a lot of headaches. Here's the info on it: "System Commander," V Communications, 4320 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 120, San Jose, CA 95129, voice (408)296- 4224, fax (408)296-4441; $99.95. I know this sounds like a plug for System Commander, and you're right! It's the little things like this that make my computing life easier. Am I excited about the impending release of Windows 95? Yes and no. Running the beta copies at home and at work have produced mixed results. Windows 95 runs Lotus SmartSuite for Windows 3.1 and my other work- related applications better than Windows 3.1 does. At home it runs everything I can throw at it, Microsoft Office for Windows 3.1, plus Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D, QModem Pro (for DOS) and EZ Cosmos, an astronomy program, without any major (for a beta release) problems. But (there's the 'B' word) Windows 95 beta does not get along with Novell on a network. And my wife told me that when she uses Microsoft Excel for Windows 3.1 at work for long periods of time under Windows 95, she gets an out-of-memory message and has to reboot her system to clean up memory problems. I guess that's why Microsoft is releasing Windows 95 versions of all its software. If you want it to run right under Windows 95, you have to buy the new software. What in the world of PCs gets *you* excited? Let the editors at PCM know, or e-mail me at: jyearwoo@indy.net or 70243,2776 on CompuServe. -=*=- Jim Yearwood is a prolific reviewer who has written numerous reviews for PCM. He lives in Indianapolis and works as a WAN administrator. -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- FAQs in Focus \|/ by Ed Ellers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Technical Editor "Frequently Asked Questions on upgrading to Windows 95" MAKING WINDOWS 95 WORK Now that Microsoft has (finally!) started making Windows 95 packages to sell, here are a number of hints and tips we've collected while testing Win95 over the past few months. There are many other ones from Microsoft in a file called TIPS.TXT that you'll find in your Windows directory after you install Windows 95. -=*=- I only have 4 megabytes (4MB) of RAM. Will Windows 95 really work properly? Yes -- under the right circumstances. If you have a fast 386 (33 or 40MHz) PC, or a 486 system, and a reasonably fast IDE or SCSI hard disk, you'll get the same performance you would with Windows for Workgroups (meaning faster disk access than Windows 3.1). This doesn't mean that every program will run well -- many of the latest Windows applications really need 6 to 8MB to work adequately -- just that Windows 95 won't make matters worse. There will be a fair amount of disk swapping, so a slower MFM, RLL or ESDI hard disk will really bog things down; a slower processor would as well, so if you have an old system you might now have an excuse to trade up. The one exception to the 4MB rule is the Exchange e-mail "client" that comes with Windows 95 (and is used heavily as a base for the Microsoft Network access software). Exchange (and therefore MSN) needs 6MB to run properly. Some older 16 or 20MHz 386 systems won't run Windows 95 because their old chips have a bug that keeps the chip from going into the right protected mode. These systems won't run Windows 3.x in 386 Enhanced mode either. You could fix this by installing a new 386DX chip, but the system would still be rather slow; upgrading to a 486-class processor, like a Kingston Lightning 486 or a Cyrix Cx486DRx2, would give you some more performance but you'd still be limited by the old, slow motherboard. -=*=- I see that Windows 95 requires a 386DX processor. I have a 386SX. Isn't a 386SX supposed to run all 386 software? Yes, and Windows 95 will work. Microsoft recommends a 386DX because it moves data faster, and Windows 95 can use the speed, but we did get Win95 running on a 20MHz 386SX. If you have a 20 or 25MHz desktop system and you can't upgrade to a new system (or even a new motherboard), one option would be a Cyrix Cx486SRx2 chip -- this is a 486-class processor that clips on top of your 386SX chip. (It won't work on some earlier 16MHz systems because their processors can't be shut down, and it's not available in 33 or 40MHz versions.) -=*=- What about my old video board? As long as it's fully VGA compatible -- and you have a VGA or Super VGA monitor -- it'll work. A few VGA boards six or seven years ago didn't have full IBM VGA compatibility and won't work with Windows 95. Good basic SVGA boards are shockingly cheap these days, and graphic accelerator boards are reasonably priced as well; a new video board will be cheaper than more RAM, a new hard disk or a processor upgrade. -=*=- My SVGA board isn't that old, but Windows 95 doesn't support it. How can I use it? First of all, there may be a driver for your board in the Windows Driver Library -- that's where Microsoft puts the less-used drivers that it distributes. If you have a CD-ROM drive, you can find such drivers in the \DRIVERS\DISPLAY directory on the Windows 95 CD; the EXTRA.TXT file in your Windows directory tells how to obtain these drivers online. Once you find the driver you need you'd open the Control Panel, select "Add New Hardware" and click the "Have Disk" box to tell Windows to use the driver disk. (You'll need to install Windows 95 for a standard VGA board, then install your driver after it's running.) If there's no driver listed, you can still use a Windows 3.1 driver as long as your driver disk lets you run Windows Setup to select a driver -- the Add New Hardware wizard can use those driver disks. If your driver disk has its own way of installing the Windows driver you'll need to get a Windows 95 driver from the video board manufacturer; these install programs won't set the driver up properly for Windows 95. -=*=- What's this "monitor type" selection? I didn't know I needed a driver for a monitor! You don't need a driver, but you do need to tell Windows 95 what type of monitor you have so it can enable only the resolution modes that you can actually use. There are drivers for various generic types of VGA and SVGA monitors, and for many specific models from most manufacturers. (A few of the manufacturer names may be a bit different than the brands on the front of the monitor -- for example, Magnavox monitors are made by Philips so you'll find those models listed under "Philips.") If you have a Tandy VGM-200 or VGM-300 monitor, select "Standard monitor types" and then select "Standard VGA 640x480"; if you have a Tandy VGM-390, 440 or 441 (which were made by Samsung) select "Samsung" and then select "SyncMaster 3" for the model. -=*=- What about my sound board and my old printer? Sound board drivers work the same way as SVGA drivers; if you don't see your sound board supported directly, you might find a driver in the WDL (on the CD under \DRIVERS\AUDIO), and if that doesn't help you can use the Windows 3.1 driver -- again, as long as it's set up to be installed from Windows (using the Control Panel in this case). Many sound cards support Ad Lib, Sound Blaster and/or Microsoft Windows Sound System emulation, so you may find that Windows 95 detects those modes when you upgrade; that could be enough to get you going, though some advanced features (such as 16-bit or 44.1 kHz high-fidelity audio) may not work that way because the driver doesn't support them. You'll find less-used printer drivers in the WDL (under \DRIVERS\PRINTER) as well, or you can also use Windows 3.x printer drivers with Windows 95. Since so many printers are compatible with various Epson, IBM or Hewlett-Packard models, you can often use one of those drivers, and in fact that may be a good idea even if you have a 3.x driver for your printer -- Windows 95 printer drivers are faster and have other advantages (like "error diffusion" grayscale printing on ink- jet, laser or dot-matrix printers). -=*=- What about my CD-ROM drive? Can I still use it? Yes, one way or another. If you have either a SCSI CD-ROM drive or an ATAPI (also called IDE) drive, Windows 95 will usually support it directly. (The exceptions are a few drives like recordable CD or read- write PD drives that don't appear to the system as a normal CD-ROM drive.) If you have a "proprietary" CD-ROM drive -- the kind that connects to a special CD-ROM interface board, not a SCSI or IDE host adapter -- made by Mitsumi, Panasonic or Sony, Windows 95 may be able to support it directly if you're using the manufacturer's own CD-ROM interface. (In general, tray-loading Mitsumi and Sony drives will work; caddy-loading Sony drives probably won't, and if you have an old Mitsumi drive that pops out for loading it may not work either.) If you're using a sound card with a CD-ROM interface, or a CD-ROM interface card that is claimed to support more than one of these brands, it usually won't be supported directly by Windows 95 because those boards don't match the way the drive makers' own boards appear in the system. There may be drivers released later by CD-ROM drive or sound board manufacturers to provide full Windows 95 support for their products, but in the meantime you can still use the drive with its usual DOS driver in the CONFIG.SYS file and MSCDEX.EXE in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (Windows 95 Setup will leave them in place if you already have the device driver installed.) It should be as fast as it was under MS-DOS, but it won't be as fast as it could be with a Windows 95 driver and it won't support Windows 95's AutoPlay feature. Speaking of CD-ROM drives, there's an optimization option you may need to change. Point to the "My Computer" icon and press the right (or secondary) mouse button, then select Properties to bring up the System properties sheet. Click on "File System," then click the CD-ROM folder tab. Now pull down the "Optimize access pattern" list and select the type of drive (single-speed, double-speed, etc.) you have. There's also a pointer you can drag to select the amount of RAM to be used for caching; if you mainly use the CD-ROM drive to read files sequentially (as with copying files or playing audio or video clips), you may want to drag this all the way to the right to make as much RAM as possible available for caching. I've found that some video clips -- which were only playable on a double-speed drive with Windows 3.x -- can play well on a good single-speed drive under Windows 95! -=*=- What if I don't have a CD-ROM drive? Can I still install Windows 95? Yes, if you buy the diskette package. Be advised that this comes on 15 high-density disks(!), so that installation would get somewhat tedious; also some optional features and less-common drivers aren't available on diskette (to reduce the number of disks), so you'll have to obtain them separately from Microsoft. (The EXTRA.TXT file explains how to get these extra files.) The industry is rapidly moving toward distributing applications (as well as operating systems like Windows 95 or OS/2 Warp) on CD-ROM rather than on diskette, since it's a lot cheaper to manufacture the media, a lot easier to install and there's no risk of the program being erased in shipment. Even if you weren't planning a full-blown multimedia upgrade, you may want to consider getting a low-cost CD-ROM drive of one of the types I mentioned above just to load programs -- the savings in wrist movement alone may well be worth the expense. -=*=- If I buy the upgrade version, can I install it "fresh" when I put in a new hard disk? Yes. The only difference between the discounted upgrade version and the full-price version is that the upgrade can only be installed if you have Windows 3.x (including Windows for Workgroups), Windows NT or OS/2. If the old program isn't installed, you'll simply need to insert its first diskette to allow the Windows 95 installation to continue. At press time we learned that the full-price version will only be available on diskette -- not on CD -- apparently because of the complexity of making boot disks that work with the variety of CD-ROM drives supported by Windows 95. -=*=- How about my DoubleSpace-compressed disk? Is Windows 95 compatible with that? Yes, both with DoubleSpace (from MS-DOS 6.0 or 6.2) and the later DriveSpace (from MS-DOS 6.22). In fact Windows 95 adds true 32-bit support for both to speed up disk operations. Windows 95 uses the same utilities to handle both types of compressed drives; also, unlike Windows 3.x, you don't have to reserve uncompressed space for your Windows swap file. (If you didn't already have a compression utility you can use DriveSpace after upgrading.) Interestingly enough, when I compressed a drive under Windows 95 I found that it uses the old (but slightly more efficient) DoubleSpace rather than DriveSpace; if you decide to compress your drive under MS- DOS 6.x to make room for Windows 95, you may want to use DoubleSpace instead of DriveSpace if you have both (as you would if you upgraded from 6.0 or 6.2 to 6.22). If you only have DriveSpace, there won't be enough of a difference to lose sleep over. If, on the other hand, you're using a third-party compressor (like Stacker or SuperStor) you'd just continue to use it; it would load as usual, from the CONFIG.SYS file, before the main body of Windows loads. With this setup you won't be able to get 32-bit access to that drive until the maker of your compression software brings out a Windows 95 version (as Stac reportedly plans to). -=*=- Should I install Windows 95 on top of Windows 3.x, or put it in a separate directory? Microsoft has been saying all along that Windows 95 should be installed right on top of Windows 3.x, and I have to agree -- it makes things easier all around. Not only does this allow Windows 95 to pick up the items in your Program Manager groups, but it keeps the add-on files and WIN.INI entries in place that some of your applications may need to run as well as goodies like Adobe Type Manager or Apple QuickTime (if you have them). Running the setup program from Windows allows it to pick up many device settings, which speeds up the process of identifying your hardware. (If you still have Windows 3.0 or Windows with Multimedia Extensions 1.0, you'll need to run the setup program from DOS but the upgrade will still work.) Incidentally, upgrading on top of Windows 3.x doesn't get rid of your old DOS -- it'll still be there if needed. If you find that one or two particular Windows applications won't work under Windows 95, don't panic because you can still boot to DOS and install a minimal copy of Windows 3.1 to make them work. (In our next issue I'll explain how to make a "Windows 3.1 Escape Hatch" to run Windows 3.1 from inside Windows 95.) -=*=- I just opened the box, and the manual is awfully thin. Where's the rest of it? Most of the Windows 95 documentation is available as online help. There are two levels -- the help system for intermediate users is built in, and for beginning users there's an Online User Guide that can be installed as an option (it's under "Accessories" in the Add/Remove Programs area). The Online User Guide even has several animated videos to show you how to perform common operations. If you're an advanced user who needs the highest level of details on Windows 95, there's a help file for that too -- the Windows 95 Resource Kit, on the CD in the \ADMIN\RESKIT\HELPFILE directory. The file is called WIN95RK.HLP; there's also a tour of Windows 95 for system administrators (TOUR4ADM.HLP) and special help for Macintosh users moving to Windows 95 (MACUSERS.HLP). -=*=- OK, Windows 95 is installed, but some of my Windows accessories are gone -- like Write. Where did they go? Windows 95 does delete a few Windows 3.x accessories -- most notably Write -- when you upgrade. In the case of Write, Microsoft has replaced that accessory with WordPad, a more advanced editor that handles more text formats and operates in 32-bit mode. Because many Windows applications depend on Write to display formatted "read me" files after you install them, Microsoft has stuck a "dummy" WRITE.EXE in the Windows directory to launch WordPad to display those files. (One thing WordPad doesn't have is an option to justify text at both sides -- you can left- justify, center or even right-justify text, but the fourth option is gone.) If you want to bring back Write you'll need to expand the compressed files from your Windows 3.1 disks with these two commands: EXPAND A:WRITE.EX_ C:\WINDOWS\WRITE.EXE EXPAND A:WRITE.HL_ C:\WINDOWS\WRITE.HLP If you have Windows for Workgroups (which comes on eight floppy disks) WRITE.EX_ is on Disk 3 and WRITE.HL_ is on Disk 5. If you have Windows 3.1 on six disks both files are on Disk 3. Once you've done that, use the Start Menu Settings property sheet to add a start menu item for Write. -=*=- OK, how about all the files that got killed in my DOS directory? Why can't I run Defrag any more? If you upgrade on top of DOS, Windows 95 does delete a number of DOS utility programs that aren't safe to use on disks with long filenames. Some of them (like ScanDisk) have been replaced by versions that are "LFN-safe," which you'll find either in the \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\COMMAND directory; others (Defrag is the best example) have been replaced with Windows utilities or features. Some of the utilities that came with your version of DOS may have been moved to the \WINDOWS\COMMAND directory when you upgraded -- one of these is MemMaker, which comes with MS-DOS 6.x. -=*=- I still like to run programs in BASIC. Will those still work? Yes. Qbasic (which came with MS-DOS 5.0 through 6.22) is included on the Windows 95 Upgrade CD; if you had a version of MS-DOS below 5.0, you can still use GW-BASIC. In both cases these run in a DOS box. You'll find Qbasic (and a number of other MS-DOS 6.22 utilities) in the \OTHER\OLDMSDOS directory on the CD; just click the Start button, select Run and type D:\OTHER\OLDMSDOS\INSTSUPP [ENTER] to install them. (If your CD-ROM drive isn't drive D:, substitute the correct letter here.) We haven't been able to test Windows 95 on an IBM PC system using their version of BASIC; since part of this was built into the system BIOS ROM on many IBM models, it's not certain whether Windows 95 can use it from within a DOS box. Qbasic doesn't use the ROM, so it will work fine. -=*=- Another thing -- I booted to the DOS prompt and tried some of my favorite DOS file-management programs, and they show a bunch of goofy file entries with weird dates and unbelievable sizes. And there are some filenames that have a ~ in them -- whatever that is! The names with ~ (a tilde) in them are short versions of long filenames, and they're there to let you access those files from DOS or 16-bit Windows applications. Whenever you save a file with a long filename, such as "Angry letter to Senator Claghorn" -- or create a directory with one, like "Image Files" -- Windows 95 actually sets up a normal name that matches the first six letters (not counting spaces) followed by a tilde and a digit, so your document would be called ANGRYL~1.DOC and your directory would be called IMAGEF~1. (If there is more than one file with the same first six letters, the later ones would be called ~2, ~3 and so on; so if you then wrote another letter to your other Senator named "Angry letter to Senator Soaper," it would be called ANGRYL~2.DOC.) When an entry like this is created, another one is also created elsewhere in the directory to hold the long version of the filename linked to the short MS-DOS filename. This entry is marked so it won't appear when you pull up a directory in DOS (and won't be overwritten by DOS), but some utilities that look directly at the disk may see them and incorrectly try to decode them as DOS filenames. (If the same utility will run in a Windows 95 DOS box these entries won't appear that way -- Windows will mask them.) If you open an MS-DOS box in Windows 95 and type DIR you'll see a listing with the short filenames on the left and the long names on the right; you can even use long filenames in DOS commands by enclosing them in quotes, so typing RENAME CLAGHORN.DOC "Angry letter to Senator Claghorn.DOC" would attach a new long name (and a corresponding short name) to that file. -=*=- I've got some really cantankerous DOS applications that just refuse to run in a DOS box. How can I run them now that I have Windows 95 installed? We'll have a feature next month on how to set up custom DOS features to make just about anything run from Windows 95, but for now there's an easy way to stay in DOS. When the "Starting Windows 95..." message appears, press the [F8] key right away to get the boot menu, then select "Command prompt only." You'll get a perfectly normal C:\> prompt, and you can work that way just as you would have before -- in fact you now have "MS-DOS 7.0" in everything but name, and when your applications check the DOS version they'll actually see "7.0." You can also select "Restart your computer in MS-DOS mode" when you shut down Windows to do the same thing. -=*=- That reminds me -- what version number is Windows 95? Is it really 4.0, or 1.0, or what? It's 4.00, since it's the fourth major version since Windows was introduced. However, some Windows 3.x applications may indicate that you're running version 3.95; this is a special compatibility trick that Microsoft came up with, since some programs will refuse to run if they see a version number other than 3.x. -=*=- Now for the big question -- should I upgrade to new versions of my applications? That's a tough one indeed. The good news is that, as far as I've been able to tell, there aren't any Windows 3.x applications that don't work well in Windows 95, aside from a few that (for various reasons best known to their authors) are truly incompatible with it. This means that you can get most of the benefits of Windows 95 without any other software upgrades. On the other hand, the new 32-bit applications do have some real advantages. For one thing they allow more reliable multitasking than do 16-bit apps; the rare occasions where an application brings everything else down with it are even rarer. Some 32-bit apps are "multithreaded," which allows them to perform multiple tasks (say, printing one document and editing another) more effectively. But for many people the biggest advantage of 32-bit application upgrades will be the ability to use long filenames. In addition to Microsoft -- which, not surprisingly, will have Windows 95 versions of Works and all the Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Schedule Plus, PowerPoint and Access) out soon after Windows 95 becomes available -- support has been announced by Adobe, Autodesk, Borland, Caere, Claris, Corel, Delrina, Software Publishing Corp., Symantec and others. -=*=- One last thing. Just how the heck do I copy a floppy disk? Double-click to open up My Computer, and you'll see icons for your floppy drives. Right-click on the drive you intend to use, then select "Copy Disk..." to copy a diskette or "Format..." to format one. -=*=- Ed Ellers is a self-confessed electronics fanatic whose other interests include photography and science-fiction writing. He can be contacted on Delphi, username EDELLERS, or via the Internet at edellers@delphi.com. -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- The Offline Reader \|/ by Lauren Willoughby ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor "The latest book titles from the computer press" Books reviewed: Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing, 2nd Ed. Internet Mailing Lists Navigator for Windows Users Best of the Net ON THE SHELF Did you know that Pascal was developed in 1971 by Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Wirth? Did you know MPEG1 was drafted in 1991? Or that the fastest information transfer speed for fiber optics was set by the Japanese at 445.8 megabits? (At that rate, the entire Encyclopedia Britannica could be pushed down the "wire" in about one second.) All these factoids and more are unearthed in Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing, 2nd Ed., written by Jonar C. Nader and published in 1995. It's an immensely readable and pleasurably browsable dictionary that covers everything from ampere to X Windows. Fully revised and updated with 1000 new entries, the dictionary defines about 5000 terms -- some sporting photos and tables. Coverage extends from hardware to specific software titles, including dBASE and AutoCAD, to the occasional DOS command. Also, throw in elements of typography and a style manual for computer journalists. It's great for digging behind acronyms and getting up to speed on current technology. Even fad technology like morphing gets a write-up. The dictionary rehashes the milestones in PC history, even delivering the sordid history of OS/2. (Well, actually, the fun, sordid Microsoft-IBM breakup dish was diplomatically left out. Hey, for sordid dish, check out Cringely's book, Accidental Empires!) It does a good job of explaining for the layperson such things as object-oriented programming. You can almost understand it! (I'm not being mean here: how many people, even programmers, *really* understand it?) According to the dictionary, object-oriented programming came about because programmers wanted a way of calling on "off the shelf parts" just as hardware engineers do. Even I get that analogy. The occasional "Newsflash" and "Fun Facts" boxes, which yield up interesting info, keep things interesting. Here's a fun fact: The United States produces an average of 74 percent of the total worldwide packaged software, but consumes only 44 percent; Europe consumes 37 percent. The dictionary misses on "niche" acronyms -- like RIP. In the BBS world, RIP means a graphical BBS look. The book gives nothing on the telecommunication aspect of RIP, describing it as "Raster Image Processor: the device that interprets the instructions of a page description language (such as PostScript) and composes the image to the photo-sensitive drum of a laser printer. See laser printer and PostScript." As for other telecommunications aspects, it gives mostly general talk about modems and online services. (Dow Jones, Prodigy and CompuServe rate mentions, but not Delphi or America OnLine.) Here's one last "did you know" courtesy of Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing: Did you know that human brain cells work in parallel? Yep, the old soggy CPU gets its own page. I like this book. For computer junkies it's not only informative but entertaining. You might even want to keep it as reading material in a certain room of the house. That way, you'll pass the time, be up on the lingo -- and more importantly, gather ammo to win lots of bar bets. Yeah, right! (Who besides me needs to get a life? ) {Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing, 2nd Ed.: Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, (800) 947-7770 or (515) 284-6751. E-mail: orders@prenhall.} >>[ All About Mailing Lists ]<< You never realize how much neat stuff is going on with the Internet until you pick up a book like Internet Mailing Lists Navigator for Windows Users, written by Vivian Neou and published in 1995 by Prentice Hall. This book offers a pretty comprehensive look at the Internet mailing-list scene, covering more than 1400 popular mailing lists. You'll find lists that let people keep in touch on a myriad of subjects: Star Trek, pet ferrets, exotic cars, Novell NetWare -- you name it. Mailing lists are exactly what they sound like: mailings that go out to interested people -- just like club newsletters that wend their way through the U.S. Postal Service (only faster). Some lists are distributed like regular newsletters in that someone compiles and edits them. Other lists provide an open forum for anyone who cares to yak. Imagine that you could have hundreds or thousands of "pen pals" who only want to talk about what interests you! Mailing lists are easy to join, and all it takes to get involved is an Internet mailbox. (For more info on mailing lists, check out the article "It's in the E-mail" over in this month's COLUMNS section.) The book Internet Mailing Lists Navigator describes the different kinds of list servers and shows you exactly what you have to type to join a list. Bundled with the book is a CD-ROM disc containing List Navigator software -- it's a database of the lists mentioned in the book. This program not only lets you search for lists by subject or keyword, it also SUBSCRIBES you to lists of your choice! Just point and click. It's able to do this because a whole suite of Internet tools is also packed thoughtfully on the disc. You get a trial version of Internet Chameleon ($125 retail), which lets you connect to an Internet service provider and start burnin' rubber on the Infobahn. The Chameleon kit includes WebSurfer (a World Wide Web browser), Gopher, NEWTNews Internet News Reader, Archie and the expected utilities: FTP, Telnet, Ping, Finger, Whois and the industry-standard WinSock TCP/IP. At $39.95, this book is a steal. {Internet Mailing Lists Navigator for Windows Users: Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, (800) 947-7770 or (515) 284-6751, E-mail: orders@prenhall; $39.95. List Navigator software requires a 386+ CPU running Windows 3.1 with 4MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and a 14.4Kbps+ modem.} >>[ Where Are Those Light Bulb Jokes Again? ]<< We go from neat stuff on the Internet to the *neatest* in the book Best of the Net, edited by Seth Goodin and published in 1995 by IDG Books. Goodin polled a huge group of Internet travelers for their favorite spots on the Net -- be they Web sites, gopher holes, e-mail addresses, newsgroups, mailing lists or FTP warehouses. *Anything* on the Net deemed "the best" was fair game. A flood of responses poured in, and Goodin's team of editors arranged them in 208 categories. The result is a must-read romp through some wild and woolly sites. It's not just-the-facts Internet addresses but also a sampling of what you may find on a site. For example, on the Beer pages, you'll learn what "dry hopping" is as well find the address for a beer newsgroup: rec.crafts.brewing. (Dry hopping? It's the practice of adding dry hops to beer some time after the boil, to increase the hop aroma.) You'll want to read this book at your keyboard with your modem locked and loaded. Read on for some of the things the book mentions that got my attention. I had no clue the "Answers" newsgroups existed. Their purpose is to answer your questions about what the heck all those other newsgroups are about, and they do it by maintaining exhaustive lists of FAQ files from other newsgroups. Tell the truth, haven't you wondered about alt.cows.moo.moo.moo? Check out these "answers" newsgroups: alt.answers, comp.answers and misc.answers, along with the FTP site rtfm.mit.edu in the directories /pub/usenet/*answers. Do you know what all the varieties of kryptonite can do to an unfortunate Superman? Green can kill him; gold can remove his powers completely. This from the Comics pages of the book. Relevant newsgroup addresses: rec.arts.comics.info and rec.arts.comics.misc. Want to write your favorite comics publishers? Take down these e-mail addresses: dc.comics@genie.geis.com and marvelcomics@genie.geis.com. Whom do you contact if you want your head or body frozen after you die? The Cryonics page points the way with this newsgroup address: sci.cryonics. (But can you afford annual liquid nitrogen costs of $140,000?) Cat owners will want to check out the Web site http://www.ai.mit.edu/fanciers/fanciers.html, or perhaps even join a mailing list by sending a request to LISTSERV@NETCOM.COM. The book's cat chapter reprints popular queries from cat owners ("Should I declaw my cat?") as well as observations on the funny things cats do ("My parents' cats sit on the back of the neck of whomever is driving the car. Do *all* cats do this?") Practical jokers will find a home on the pranks pages. For suggestions on how to "get somebody really good," try the newsgroups rec.humor.funny and alt.humor.best-of-usenet. You might learn how to construct a fizzing salt shaker and other diabolical props! Like most books on the Internet, this one offers an introduction to various aspects of the Net, shows diagrams of the most common smileys, and explains popular acronymns. Well, I *guess* they're popular or they wouldn't be here. Some I haven't seen before but plan to use! I especially like BIOYIOP -- Blow It Out Your Input Output Port. I hope I've whet your appetite for Best of the Net, because there's enough material here to keep your hotlist or bookmark, or whatever you use, busy for a long time. Oh, and if you discover "the best" of something on the Net, be sure to let the editors know by sending e-mail to BEST@SPG.COM. Your picks just might make it into the next edition. {Best of the Net: IDG Books, 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster City, CA 94404-9691, (800) 762-2974 or (415) 655-3000; $22.99.} -=*=- Lauren Willoughby, a self-proclaimed computer nerd, lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and admits to these weaknesses: science-fiction novels (Heinlein, Brin, Bujold, Sterling, Varley), pizza (anything but anchovies) and tennis. She can be reached on the Internet at laurenw@delphi.com or pcm@shivasys.com. -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- Riding the Internet \|/ by Lauren Willoughby ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All-Purpose Editor "If you have an Internet mailbox, the world will come to you" IT'S IN THE E-MAIL The scene: a city park at night, next to a fountain. It's raining. The characters: Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The action: Clark, hesitating endearingly, prepares to tell Lois something very important. The fans: On the edges of their sofas, clutching throw pillows in anticipation of The Revelation. Clark: Opens his mouth and, instead of saying, "I'm Superman," says "Lois, will you marry me?" The fans: Thousands of pillows hit the TV screen in unison. Clark's proposal came way out of left field. It was just a gimmick thrown into the season finale of the Lois & Clark TV show by the producers. And we, the fans, do NOT like to be jerked around, and we're NOT taking this lying down. That's the gist of conversation over the last couple of months on the Lois & Clark mailing list. Isn't it neat that people are able to use computers to gather around topics dear to their hearts? There are newsgroups on topics ranging from SysOp-ing to Star Trek. And for the true believers, there are mailing lists! I'll give the addresses for some interesting mailing lists (including the Lois & Clark list) at the end of this article, but first let's talk more about the characteristics of mailing lists. >>[ Newsgroups vs. Mailing Lists ]<< A newsgroup is something that lets people of similar interests post messages to each other in a central location. Ask a question and it will be answered, usually by several people, within hours (if it's a really active newsgroup, within a couple of minutes). A mailing list is almost the same thing. The difference between a newsgroup and a mailing list is that the newsgroup is available on the Internet for anyone to find and read anonymously. You have to *go looking* for it. With a mailing list, messages *come to you* in the form of e-mail. By subscribing to a mailing list, you're guaranteed not to miss messages -- which can happen on a newsgroup if you don't keep up. Old newsgroup messages are deleted regularly to make room for new ones. Often mailing lists bud off from newsgroups. Both contain information of vital interest, but the newsgroup is a more public forum, while the mailing list is a more private way for the really motivated correspondents to stay in touch. It also empowers people who have the most basic of Internet capability -- a mailbox and nothing else. >>[ Types of Mailing Lists ]<< Mailing lists can be moderated, in which the list maintainer *moderates* -- serves as a gatekeeper -- allowing only messages he or she deems worthy to pass through to the members of the list. More focused, *official* mailing lists, such as company bulletins or Internet 'zines, are moderated. OR, mailing lists can be unmoderated free-for- alls, in which every message submitted is in turn sent to everyone on the list. Fan clubs and user's groups, where free conversation reigns, are usually unmoderated. The unmoderated lists are often chaotic, with a fair amount of off-topic posts, but they're more spontaneous and fun! (I'm on several industry news lists, but Lois & Clark remains my favorite. I'm usually content to just lurk.) Mailing lists by default send messages to your mailbox at all hours of the day. When I first joined the Lois & Clark list (an unmoderated list), I was dismayed to find as many as 75 messages a day popping up in my mailbox. I liked reading the messages, but there were so many! Fortunately, when I read the FAQ file in more depth, I discovered the *digest* option: which collects messages until it has a bunch of them -- then sends out one *big* message. The digest contains a table of contents at the top (the subject line of each message is given its own numbered line). The only disadvantage with digests is that the messages may be a little dated when you receive them -- but by no more than a day (or only a few hours). You have to ask to join a mailing list, though the "answering" and distribution is often automatic. Sometimes there's a human who'll pick up your request to join the list, but most likely it will be a program -- an automated list server. If the address to subscribe begins with "LISTSERV" or "Majordomo," then it's an automated list. You're directed to type specific text in the body of your request message, and the list server will process it. Mailing lists usually have two addresses: a "list server" for administration (for subscribing, unsubscribing, setting options, and asking for digest mode) and the list address for posting messages. To subscribe to a list, you're usually asked to send a message to the administrative address with the words SUB ListName YourFirstName YourLastName as the body of the text. For example, to subscribe to the Lois & Clark list, you send mail to LISTSERV@VM.EGE.EDU.TR with SUB LOISCLA YourFirstName YourLastName as the body of your message. Once you have subscribed, you can post to the list by sending e-mail to LOISCLA@VM.EGE.EDU.TR. When you subscribe to a list, you usually receive a message giving you instructions on how to set options and unsubscribe (save this message!). If you try to subscribe to a list and fail, you'll often get a message giving you the exact steps for subscribing. >>[ How They Work ]<< Mailing lists work like fax broadcast programs, except you're dealing with e-mail instead of faxes. Here's how it goes with a fax modem. You write a document. You have a list of names of people you'd like to receive your document, along with their fax numbers. You tell the software to send your document to everyone on the list, and off you go for a brewski. Unmoderated mailing lists work the same way, sort of. The list of names is maintained elsewhere, behind an Internet address. You send your message to that address, and it explodes out to the Internet addresses of everyone on that list. The list could go out to 50 people or 5000! >>[ Starting Your Own Mailing List ]<< If your needs are not being met by the thousands of mailing lists in existence, consider starting your own, if you can afford to invest a lot of time to the project. The LISTSERV software, written by Eric Thomas, is free. It might be a good idea to subscribe to a mailing list of list owners so you can appeal for technical help: consider subscribing to the list LSTOWN-L@INDYCMS. >>[ The Big Finish ]<< While the World Wide Web gets the most attention lately in Internet coverage -- yeah, it took me months of gorging on the Web before it finally dropped into perspective -- mailing lists are vital, funky, exciting, topical and current. You never know who you'll meet and what you'll find out. For instance, I've found that I'm but one of hundreds (thousands? millions?) of SWOCKs: Shallow Women Ogling Clark Kent. It's a little boggling to learn that grown people send mail to each other arguing passionately over episodes of Lois & Clark, Star Trek and Babylon 5. But, hey, everyone needs a hobby, and mailing lists have a way of sucking you in. (Besides, we deep thinkers need to exercise our literary criticism skills on something, and Shakespeare's been done to death. ) For every interest, there's probably at least one mailing list. -=*=- SOURCES Internet Mailing Lists Navigator for Windows Users, by Vivian Neou. Published in 1995 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. $39.95. For more information, call (800) 382-3419, or check out the Web site: http://www.prenhall.com The book offers descriptions on 1400+ mailing lists and how to join them! It also includes a mailing list database on CD-ROM, so you can search for lists by keyword. Delphi Internet FAQ files -=*=- MAILING LISTS TO TRY Courtesy of the book Mailing Lists Navigator for Windows Users: List Name: MODEMS-L@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU Subscription Address: LISTSERV@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU A discussion group for modem users, gatewayed to and from the Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.modems. List Name: BBS-L Subscription Address: LISTSERV@SAUPM00.BITNET Discussions on how to start and maintain a BBS. List Name: PCBUILD@TSCVM.TRENTON.EDU Subscription Address: LISTSERV@TSCVM.TRENTON.EDU A place where people can ask questions and share experiences about building their own PC clone systems. List Name: ROADMAP Subscription Address: LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU Free online Internet classes open to anyone. Covers every facet of the Net, plus shows people who have only e-mail access how to use e-mail to access tools like Archie and FTP. List Name: TV2NITE-L Subscription Address: LISTSERV@NETCOM.COM Complete daily programming guides for all major broadcast and cable TV networks -- everything from obscure cable channels to who's on Dave tonight. Other mailing lists picked up here and there: List Name: LOISCLA@VM.EGE.EDU.TR Subscription Address: LISTSERV@VM.EGE.EDU.TR For fans of the Lois & Clark TV show. Throw in your 2 cents on these issues: Should Clark tell Lois he's Superman? Should Lois figure it out for herself? Should they get married? List Name: STHL-L Subscription Address: LISTSERV@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL The Star Trek Humor League List Name: IPHONE Subscription Address: MAJORDOMO@PULVER.COM To discuss the Internet Phone and related technologies. To subscribe, type subscribe iphone or subscribe iphone-digest in the body of the message List Name: EXOTIC-CARS Subscription Address: EXOTIC-CARS-REQUEST@SOL.ASL.HITACHI.COM For owners and admirers of exotic cars. To subscribe, send a human-friendly request message to the above address. List Name: SF-LOVERS Subscription Address: SF-LOVERS-REQUEST@RUTGERS.EDU A wide range of topics on science-fiction and fantasy novels. To subscribe, send a human-friendly request message to the above address. List Name: ZEPPELIN-L Subscription Address: LISTSERV@CORNELL.EDU For fans of the rock group Led Zeppelin. List Name: GHOST-STORIES Subscription Address: GHOST-STORIES-REQUEST@NETCOM.COM Each day, one story from the alt.folklore.ghost-stories newsgroup is sent to this list. List Name: RAIDERS Subscription Address: RAIDERS-REQUEST@SUPER.ORG An unmoderated list open to all Raiders fans. List Name: SPACE-1999 Subscription Address: SPACE-1999-REQUEST@QUACK.KFU.COM For fans of the old SF TV show. (I'm posting this for an odd friend of mine who collects laserdisc versions of the episodes.) List Name: X-FILES Subscription Address: LISTPROC@CHAOS.TAYLORED.COM For fans of the popular FOX TV show. -=*=- OTHER RESOURCES Web Site -- Search list of discussion groups. More than 5900 entries, updated weekly: http://www.nova.edu/Inter-Links/cgi-bin/lists Web Site -- Indiana University searchable database of 12,850 mailing lists: http://www.ucssc.indiana.edu/mlarchive Web Site -- Publicly accessible Web sites: http://www.neosoft.com:80/internet/paml/byname.html (alphabetical by name) http://www.neosoft.com:80/internet/paml/bysubj.html (alphabetical by subject) -=*=- Lauren Willoughby, a self-proclaimed computer nerd, lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and admits to these weaknesses: science-fiction novels (Heinlein, Brin, Bujold, Sterling, Varley), pizza (anything but anchovies) and tennis. She can be reached on the Internet at laurenw@delphi.com or pcm@shivasys.com. -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- Scoping Out Windows 95 \|/ by Lonnie Falk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Publisher LONG FILENAMES! HOORAY! Windows 95 allows you to have a filename of up to 255 characters. That is surely better than the old eight-character name with the three- character extension. It means you can find files a whole lot easier –- and give files meaningful names to be able to do that. But what do you do when you need to save a file for use on a system that does not (or may not, maybe you don't know for sure) that does not run Windows 95? The simple answer is that the people at Microsoft have made the long file-naming conventions backward-compatible to earlier versions of DOS. If you give a file a long name, a short name is also created that will work with DOS versions that do not support long names. It is probably useful for you to know how this all works. The way Windows 95 creates the short filename is to take the first six letters of the long name, add a tilde (a character that looks like this: ~) and a number, starting with number 1. So, if you name a file "This is a test file for Word.doc," the short version of that file would be called "THISIS~1.DOC." The numbers are sequential, so if you later create a file to the same disk named, for example, "This is a nifty letter from Jim.doc," DOS will make that file "THISIS~2,doc." As far as this scheme is concerned, the two files have the same beginning letters (which, of course, they do). If you are a Windows 95 user, you simply do not have to worry about this too much at all. The only time you will see the short filenames is if you use an MS-DOS window. If you do that and do a "DIR" command, you will see much the same display you are used to seeing now with the exception that another column has been added to the far right. This column will show the long filename. You don't really have to worry about it unless you are sending a file to someone who does not have Windows 95. If that is the case, merely note the short filename to make it easier for your associate to find the file. What you DO still have to worry about is some of the characters in the new long filenames. Yes, you CAN use spaces. But, generally, you cannot use ending punctuation-type marks such as periods, colons and the like. The period is still used to separate the filename from the extension, and the extension (probably because of the Windows 95 Registry) still uses three-character extensions. We solve this problem here by simply excluding the comma in the date when we have a filename like "Letter to Jim Miller on August 17 1995.doc." Incidentally, the capitalization works just the way you type it in. While all the multithreading, multitasking capabilities of Windows 95 are getting a lot of attention, you'll probably think the long filenames are one of the best features of this new system. We do. -=*=- Lonnie Falk, Falsoft's CEO, is a computer maven who keeps his PC system right on the cusp of the bleeding edge. He has been computing since 1980, when he bought his first Tandy Color Computer; he later launched the magazine THE RAINBOW, which became THE magazine for fans of the Color Computer. Lonnie is also the mayor of Prospect, Kentucky, and in his spare time enjoys reading novels by Stephen King, Anne Rice and Greg Bear. -=------------=- T-H-E E-N-D F-O-R N-O-W -=------------=-