COMPUNOTES - Issue #59 - November 30, 1996 This Week's Contents: My Notes: 1) New Masthead? Design contest! 2) This Week's Winner! Columnists' Corner: 1) My Comdex Notes! News: 1) Magic Cap Holiday Tips! 2) Motorola's Holiday Tips! Reviews: 1) Book Review: Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communications Terms Reviewed By: Dennis MacPherson 2) Product: IndyCar II Racing Reviewed By: Doug Reed 3) Product: The Java Class Libraries by Patrick Chan and Rosanna Lee Reviewed By: Doug Reed 4) Product: Quarterdeck WinProbe 95 Reviewed By: Mike Gallo 5) Product: The Java Tutorial by Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath Reviewed By: Doug Reed Web Sites: 1) DigiDay Gifts 2) The Law Comes to the Net . Interview: 1) Insignia Publishing - Who Hacked the Gulf War Guys? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date : November 30, 1996|CompuNotes is a weekly publication available Issue: 59 |through email and many fine on-line networks. ------------------------|We cover the IBM computing world with CompuNotes is published |software/hardware reviews, news, hot web B440, |sites, great columns and interviews. We also 1315 Woodgate Drive |give away one software package a week to a St. Louis, MO 63122 |lucky winner for just reading our fine (314) 909-1662 voice |publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we (314) 909-1662 fax |are here to bring you the way it is! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Backroom Workers: |We are always looking for Patrick Grote, Managing Editor |people to write us with |honest, constructive Doug Reed, Asst. Editor / Writer Liaison |feedback! We need to hear |from you! Please take the Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master |time to send us your |opinions, comments and ------------------------------------------|criticisms. Some of our I am looking for a collection of shareware|better features have reviews I put out in the 87-88 timeframe |actually come from our under my handle of NEVER BEFORE. I think |readership! Thanks! they started as NB*.ZIP. Can you look |--------------------------- on your local BBS? THANKS! | Go St. Louis Rams! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Every issue of CompuNotes ever published can be found at the following ftp site: ftp://ftp.uu.net:/published/compunotes. Thanks to UUNET! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Web Site is at http://users.aol.com/CompNote/ Please Add Our Link to Your Homepage! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a message to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command in the body SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L Full Name. Example: SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L Patrick Grote To unsubscribe, send a message to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command in the body SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L. Example: SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSOPS READ HERE! Wanting to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible, we can't afford to call everyone's BBS every week. What we would like to do is send those interested sysops a UUENCODED version for posting on their BBS. If you can volunteer to receive the UUENCODED version, turn it into a ZIP and upload it to your BBS, we'll list you in our sysops directory. If you are interested, fill out the following lines and send them back to notes@inlink.com with SYSOPS. We'll list your BBS in our SYSOPS LIST which will be included in each version of CompuNotes we ship out. If you have a WWW link we'll throw that up on our page. BBS NAME: BBS SYSOP: BBS NUMBER: URL: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick's News Being The Publisher and Managing Editor Has Its Perks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- New Masthead . . . Design Contest . . . | ----------------------------------------- Since we have had the listserv, we've undergone a little increase in size. I think we are now going out to 11,000 people directly. I would like to see this get up to 20,000 by March '97. If you have any ideas how, let me know. More and more folks complain about the masthead and information in the front. I'd like to propose a contest. Between now and the end of the year I would like people to submit new designs for the masthead. It must include all info from the beginning of the publication to the end of the SYSOPS REQUEST FORM. I am looking for something crisp, professional and easy to read. I will judge a winner. Whoever wins will receive $50.00. Send your entries to me at pgrote@inlink.com. ------------------ WINNER IS . . . | ------------------ The software package being given away this week is The ASP Shareware Collection! Our winner is: khoyt@md.usa.com Send them a congratulatory email! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Columnists' Corner - We bring you a different person each week! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comdex News| ------------ OK, so whoever said spending five days in LasVegas is like spending 6 months anywhere else was right! We spent the week of Novermber 18, 1996 in LasVegas, that oasis of gambling int he middle of the desert. We flew out of St. Louis 8:30am Monday morning. Our flight was ok. We were served a snack instead of breakfast which really sucked. Not that airline food is that good mind you, but I do have a soft spot for powdered eggs. Exiting the gate as we arrived in LasVegas was quiet. Unlike the other times we've attended Comdex, this time the terminal was dead. I mean like Sprint you could hear a pin drop dead. We had our bags and were on the shuttle to our hotel in ten minutes! It was super! We later found out we flew into terminal 2 and not the main terminal. Terminal 2 is almost a separate airport! Our shuttle to the hotel was long. We stayed downtown this year, so we were the last ones dropped off. What it did allow us to do is see some of the hotels close up. We saw the MGM, New York New York, Monte Carlo, etc. Pretty cool, especially since the Monte Carlo was under construction last Comdex. Lady Luck was our downtown destination and to save time, the driver took an alternative road other than LasVegas Blvd. (The strip). Hmm, I guess we got to see the real LasVegas. I'm still continually amazed at how Vegas is really in the desert. We would pass by vacant lots that were just sand. Odd. As we pulled up to our hotel we were happy to see Fremont Street. We enjoy downtown gambling because as roulette players we can play with a minimum $2.00 bet instead of $5.00 as on the strip. As well, they have 25 cent tables instead of $1.00. If you've never been to Vegas you'll be shocked to find that check-in time at the hotel is 3:00pm. Period. Since it was only 11:00am, we checked our bags and headed out to Comdex . The sun was beautiful and warm as we strolled into the large convention center. Once in it became ugly and humid as the flesh of tens of thousands of people came close together. We made a straight run for the press room, a rudimentary refuge from the masses, to collect press kits. Press kits you ask? Yes, press kits. Unlike other people who collect literature as they walk among the exhibits and get tired, we can collect it in one shot and be done. Almost every vendor who shows at Comdex makes sure they have press kits in the press room. I collected hundreds of them as my associate would take the folders off the kits and pack the materials in a large box. We ended up with two large boxes of press kits weighing more than 75 pounds for our three hour work. Carting our load through thousands of people, we stood in line for 30 minutes and send the boxes off second day air. The end of Monday was spent wandering through the internet tents out in front of the convention center. Tuesday was Microsoft day. Saw Bill Gates' keynote address. Was very disappointed. Bill didn't talk about new technology or what Microsoft has brewing. He spoke about making the PC more user friendly, etc. There was one video clip that was hilarious. It was a man on the street clip. Ordinary people were asked technical questions such as "Do you believe 28.8K is adequate enough bandwidth for today's HTML and graphics intensive online sessions?" The people would then answer something silly. Like the person who was asked the above pulled out a measuring tape to 28.8 inches and said it looked good enough. After the Bill keynote, I spent the rest of the day in the Microsoft Pavilion. This was 40,000 sq feet of Microsoft. Microsoft itself had the largest area with two huge screens demoing products from Front Page 97 to Office 97. There were separate kiosks for each of the products from Microsoft. After you made your way through this maze you came upon all of Microsoft's partner's kiosks. This included companies from Visio to Logitech. All I can say is if you are technical you need your MCSE to guarantee your job. If you thought Microsoft dominated before you haven't seen anything yet. Wednesday I caught Jim Barksdale's keynote. Snoozeville. He basically conceded the browser market to 95. His company is going to focus on Windows 95 interface addons. Sort of like Dashboard and Norton Desktop for Windows. Oh, boy. He also talked a little about the merchant offerings, etc. I was under whelmed. I made my way back to the convention center and saw the rest of non- Microsoft areas. IBM was showing of its Network Computer. It did look slick. Sharp had a flat screen monitor that was short of a miracle. Lotus was trying to interest people in Domino, but it was a worthless cause. The presentation was flat and stale -- maybe that is because the products is as well? Novell had to be hunted down. Are they trying to go out of business? I spent the late afternoon looking at DVDs. Panasonic's presentation was awful, but Toshiba's was great. They'll be here soon, folks! Thursday was rain delay day. Vegas is the only place in America where .9 inches of rain shuts down a city. It was nuts. TV anchor people were warning folks stay indoors, police were begging folks not to drive, but there I was walking from site to site! I started at the main convention center to finish up what I missed yesterday. Not much. I then made my way over to the Sands convention center. The Sands is neat because you find all the off the wall folks there. I spent six hours wandering row through row, handshaking and being blown away by technology like: * PeeWee, an actual desktop PC smaller than a large book. * First Aid, an interactive CDROM to teach kids first aid. * Cruiser, a PC case that is actually an office on wheels. * Applica, a multi-user Windows 95. AKA Unix. * CompuToys, too many PC toys to note. They did have a floating tub toy . . . As 3:30pm neared I had to sit out in the rain waiting for the shuttle bus. It was really quite refreshing as the temperature was in the mid- 60s. Friday was a small day due to the fact we flew out at 5:30pm, but check out time was Noon. I made my way to the Computer Museum and was awed. It made me feel tingly seeing all the computers we've gone through. We arrived at the airport early, played $10.00 worth or quarter slots, won $25.00 and had a restful flight home. I can't wait till next year! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Magic Cap Holiday Tips . . . | ------------------------------ SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ - The holidays are a time of gift giving, parties, family gatherings - and stress! Finding the perfect gift for Uncle Bill, attending 10 parties in four weeks and cleaning house for relatives - altogether it can leave you in less than cheery spirits. These tips from Harriet Schechter, author of "More Time for Sex: The Organizing Guide for Busy Couples," can help reduce the stress and increase your joy during the holidays! 1. STREAMLINE SEASON'S GREETINGS: Tired of spending endless hours writing, addressing, stamping and sealing cards? Using email for holiday greeting saves money, time and trees! Tip: But make sure your email program is easy to use and install, like Magic Cap for Windows 95 from General Magic. It's hard to bless friends and family when you've been cursing your computer all day. 2. CONTROL HOLIDAY CATALOG CLUTTER: Holiday season means catalog season, and catalog clutter is a time-eater. Limit the number of catalogs you feel comfortable stockpiling (10? 20? 100?) and choose a convenient place to keep them for browsing (bathrooms are popular). Tip: Catalogues stored in upright magazine holders (available at office supply stores) look neat and are easier to find. Extra time- saver: If your email program has an organizer, keep notes electronically; they won't scatter all over the place. Every time you send someone email, go to their listing and think of a gift for them. 3. ESCAPE THE WRAP TRAP: Bogged down by odds'n'ends of reused wrapping paper and rumpled ribbons? Don't waste time trying to iron out wrinkled paper and repair squished bows! Throw out tired- looking giftwrap - fresh supplies save time and effort and make gifts look more festive. Tip: Keep rolls of giftwrap in good shape by storing them upright in a cylindrical plastic wastebasket or in a special giftwrap organizer (sold in stores that carry organizing products). 4. FILE AND SMILE: Wracking your brain for gifts takes more time than wrapping them! Don't waste time wondering what to get - keep a "Gifts & Wishes" file with notes, catalog pages and "wish lists" for yourself and others year-round. Gift shopping will be a snap! Tip: When you get a gift, type up a quick electronic thank- you note to let your friend know it was received - you can write the handwritten thank-you later! Programs like Magic Cap will let you send your thanks to fax machines if the friend doesn't have email. 5. DECORATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Holiday decorations can be lovely but time-consuming, so limit your decorations to whatever brings YOU the most joy. If decorating has lost its appeal and become "work," consider adopting a simpler tradition. Tip: It's easier to dress up your correspondence than your kids for the Holidays - even email, but plain text alone looks stale and impersonal. Try a program like Magic Cap that will allow you to "attach" holiday images and sounds to your quick notes to friends. ----------------------------- Motorola Holiday Tips . . . | ----------------------------- NEW YORK, Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ - Want to give a truly different Christmas gift this year? Here are holiday gift ideas that will add fashion flair, comfort and safety to life at home, at work or at play: - Count the minutes to Christmas with the new Lorus Tri- Lum(TM) collection of watches, which are powered by light - natural or artificial - and never need battery replacement. Once fully charged (10 minutes a day of natural light or two hours of artificial light), Tri- Lum watches keep running for up to 50 days, even if left in a drawer or jewelry box. They also feature Lorus Lumibrite glow- in-the-dark watch dials which shine brightly for hours without battery power or buttons to push. Available at retail outlets nationwide. - Wave "hello" to Grandma this Christmas morning with a Vivitar Motion Picture phone. Vivitar's MMP(TM) line of motion picture phones provide PC users state-of-the-art, face-to-face communication via the Internet or regular phone lines. Send full-motion "v- mail" instead of e-mail, or even chat "live" on the Internet. All hardware and software is included, and no computer board installation is required - just plug-n-play. - Sleep in heavenly peace with the latex foam "Pillow-To-Go" from Talatech International. Easy to carry in a briefcase or cosmetics bag, the pillow rolls into a convenient travel size. An ideal gift for frequent flyers and for car and train commuters, the pillow stabilizes vertebral alignment, conforming perfectly to any travel position and offering firm support to neck and head. The "Pillow-To-Go" is hypoallergenic, has a 100 percent natural cotton cover/case and requires no fluffing. (Call 1-800-TALATECH). - Give the gift of safety with a new product designed as a lifesaving aid for use in home emergencies. The CPR Prompt Rescue and Practice Aid provides guidance during an emergency and functions as a CPR skills refresher course. It's a portable, battery- operated device that uses advanced microchip voice technology to talk trained rescuers through every step of 12 different lifesaving procedures in a calm, confident voice. (Call 1-888-SAV-LIFE). - Ideal for athletes on your gift list, the SportCount(R) Lap Counter & Timer from Second Wind fits on the index finger and records workout data. Used to calculate times and intervals in multiple sports - including swimming, walking, running, cycling, sailing and in-line skating - SportCount is lightweight and water- resistant to 50 meters. It provides summary statistics instantly during or at the end of a workout. - Chat with Santa on Cobra Electronics' INTENNA model CP- 2505 cordless phone, which is designed to fit anywhere in the home. The exclusive INTENNA(R) built-in handset and base antennas provide convenience and mobility - there's nothing attached to bend, break or get in the way. Private Call(TM), an automatic voice scrambling system, prevents eavesdropping. It's equipped to deliver interference-free phone conversations and greater sound clarity. Perfect for Christmas gifting in hunter green or burgundy, the phone is also available in ivory and black. - Ensure a wrinkle-free winter wardrobe with Seymour Housewares' solution to unstable ironing boards: the StableTable(TM). Crossbar stabilizers and LockTight(TM) rivet construction make StableTable the most secure ironing board. A SafetyFirst(TM) iron rest reduces the danger of falling irons, making holiday time safer for children, pets and Santa's elves. Available wherever laundry care products are sold. - Call Dancer and Prancer on Motorola's Pronto(TM) FLX pager, a one- button model ideal for entry-level users like Rudolph. With its top- mount twelve-character display, featuring a backlit LCD matrix, the new pager is easy to read in virtually any lighting conditions. The pager accommodates up to 16 numeric messages. Select from alert options: the standard pager chirp, a pleasing musical alert or silent vibration. Available in a wide variety of fun colors - Bimini Blue, Cranberry Ice, Ice, Totally Teal and Basic Black - Pronto FLX offers significantly longer battery life (up to five months on a single AA battery). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Book Review: Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communications Terms Reviewed By: Dennis MacPherson Hardbound: $19.95 Paperback: $17.96 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I used to love a good dictionary and reference books of all kinds: Gray's Anatomy is a masterpiece. They were always so big and comprehensive you just knew that no matter what you were looking up, it would be in there. Ever browse the Oxford English Dictionary? The book is so big and full of so many words you need a magnifying glass just to read a definition. Now, I'm not so thrilled with physical reference material anymore. Today, there's no need to fill our shelves with once-wonderful reference books, because today we have THE INTERNET. Books like Mitchell Shnier's "Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communications Terms" are outdated as soon as they hit the shelves. Why? Because new or better technology is revealed every day adding scores of new terms and hordes of weird acronyms. It is simply not economically feasible to keep printed texts up to date. Mr. Shnier's attempt with the dictionary is admirable, but realistically impossible. In his opening remarks, explaining why he wrote the book for O'Reilly and Associates, Mr. Shnier explains that "It is a fast and condensed way to get up-to-speed on topics that you have heard mentioned by colleagues or seen in magazines and in advertisements but have not had the time to track." What a great idea. Unfortunately, there are many acronyms prevalent in today's trade publications that can not be found in this dictionary. Terms like Java, ActiveX, flashROM, and travan technology are absent because they weren't in vogue when Mr. Shnier was assembling the dictionary. Plus, there are many other "dictionaries of computer terms" out there that contain many more words than Mr. Shnier's 900 or so acronyms. A quick search for "computer dictionaries" at listed no fewer than twenty-nine titles. The following is a subset of that list: 21st Century Dictionary of Computer Terms The Cyberspace Lexicon : An Illustrated Dictionary of Terms from Multimedia to Virtual Reality Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms Dictionary of Computer Terms (Barron's Business Guides) Jargon : An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms Webster's New World Dictionary of Computer Terms Computing Terms and Acronyms : A Dictionary A Concise Dictionary of Data Processing and Computer Terms Electronic Commerce Dictionary : The Definitive Terms for Doing Business on the Information Superhighway Harpercollins Dictionary of Computer Terms World Dictionary of Computer Terms Is there still a need for these tomes? In this day and age? I don't believe so. The Internet is quickly filling the space once occupied by the reference shelves in our libraries. O'Reilly & Associates must know this, too, because in conjunction with the publication of Mr. Shnier's dictionary, they have constructed a "mirror text" on the Net. All the terms found in their dictionary can be found more easily at . The URL is better than the book because references to similar terms are a quick hyperlink away. Also, new terms can be added as they arise, at very little cost to O'Reilly. I'm not sure the site is updated, however. It may simply reflect the contents of the book period. In spite of all that, the "Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communications Terms" is well done. It's easy to use, well-written, thorough, and accurate. Its 900 entries encompass seven categories: Data communication API's, Wireless Communication, the Internet and TCP/IP, PC hardware, LANs, WANs, and Multimedia. It undeniably satisfies the author's primary objective: "to explain acronyms." O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103 Morris Street, Suite A. Sebastopol, Ca 95472 800-998-9938 USA/Canada 707-829-0515 Overseas or Local 707-829-0104 Fax. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: IndyCar II Racing Reviewed By: Doug Reed Requirements: 8MB RAM, VLB or PCI-graphics card, joystick, soundcard For Windows 95 requires Pentium 60 MSRP: $54.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sierra On-line's success as a maker of adventure games for the computer has enabled it to gobble up a number of smaller game companies like Impressions and Papyrus. Papyrus single-handedly revived the genre of realistic sports racing with Indy 500: The Racing Simulation, published a number of years ago by Electronic Arts. Back then 640K of RAM of was the limit and you were hot if your computer had EGA graphics. Papyrus updated Indy 500 two years ago with Indycar Racing, adding VGA graphics and a number of tracks other than Indy to race on. Then they upped the race car simulation standards with the release of Nascar Racing, which featured gorgeous SVGA graphics and killer sound effects. Papyrus then decided to revamp Indycar to include the new graphics and look from Nascar Racing, and released Indycar II. Indycar II was actually released last year - fall 1995 to be exact, but has now been redone and enhanced for Windows 95 users. Thanks to Microsoft's DirectX drivers, the glory of Indycar racing has been brought to Windows. And its quite a ride, if you have the horsepower. Running Indycar II under Windows 95 requires a lot of horses under your computers hood - Sierra/Papyrus recommends at least a Pentium-60, with 8MB RAM and a Vesa Local Bus Graphics card (or better). Consider this recommendation a bare minimum - i.e., you can play the game, but only with all the eye candy turned off if you want a semi-decent frame rate. Consider at least a Pentium-120 if you want most of the candy on. And, if you love racing simulations, you will. Crowds fill the grandstands, and the glass of the pressbox shines in the sunlight. Smoke fills the air after a crash, and you can see the damage where you and a fellow racer bumped fenders. You can customize the graphics to fit your horsepower, turning off graphics you don't care about (like the horizon) and keep ones you find appealing or necessary (like smoke and skid marks). Luckily, if you don't have the horses Sierra has included the DOS version which can be played from MS-DOS mode and doesn't require nearly as much muscle. It does have a few glitches - you may have to unload your mouse driver in order to be able to customize your controls (I had to, and the Readme.txt file lists this as a known problem). The Windows 95 version doesn't offer anything that the DOS version does, with the exception that running the Paint Shop is easier from Windows than DOS. Yes, that's correct, you can paint your car with the color/graphics scheme of your choice, even adding your own fancy graphics to create your own hip race car. You can even paint your pit crew's uniforms to match - a really slick touch. If you've played Nascar Racing, then you know what to expect. Driving is as realistic as it can be on the computer screen. All of the rules of Indycar Racing are adhered to. Cars drive differently on different tracks, and must be modified appropriately. Take off with a full gas tank and the car will handle one way; as the tank empties the performance will shift, sometimes dramatically. Put the car in the garage and monkey around with the shocks, wing angle, engine, and gears to find the right combination or simply load the Ace setup provided by Papyrus. Tires squeal through corners, the engine complains when over- revved, all of the right looks and sounds are here. My only complaint with Indycar II is the same with all racing simulations - I can't feel the car, and therefore I can't tell what the car is really trying to tell me. Sights and sounds only carry me so far - when I'm driving, I react not only to what I see and hear but what I feel. I can tell when my car is skidding long before there is any accompanying sound. That isn't to say that Indycar II isn't fun - it is - but it takes a lot of effort and practice to learn how the car handles and how to anticipate what's going to happen to car before it happens. You will have to practice, practice, and practice if you really want to excel at this game and compete with the big boys. There is definitely a lot here - this is no overnighter (i.e., a game mastered within the first 24 hours of purchase). No less than 15 tracks from around the world are provided, although the most notable Indycar track - the Indy 500 - is not among the tracks presented. Although no mention is made of why it was not included, I would imagine that it was for the same reason that the Daytona track was left off of Nascar Racing - somebody already owns the rights to create racing simulations using that track. Bum deal, but the tracks provided do comprise a multitude of different challenges. Once you've mastered the tracks individually, you are ready to attempt to complete an entire season, going for the Driver's Championship. To complete this will require a major effort on your part - you must race at all 15 tracks. This includes practicing, qualifying (to set your starting position), and then completing the race itself. You can cut this somewhat - you can skip the qualifying round, and the game allows you to customize what percentage of the race you actually want to complete (all the way from 10% to 100%, the maximum for realism). Along the way you can expect all kinds of yellow flags for accidents, as well as car problems of your own. What I'm trying to say is that this game is not for arcade jockeys - to win at Indycar takes a major investment of time. Be prepared. In a way, this is actually very nice. Think about it - would you rather buy a game (at $50 a pop) and master it overnight, discarding it after a month, or would you rather have a game that you'll be playing a year from now? Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention that Indycar II supports multiple players! You can play by either direct connection or over a modem (the soon to be released Nascar II will feature multi-player ability over a LAN or the Internet). So Indycar II is a game that you can be expected to enjoy for a long, long time. Racers, start your engines! Sierra On-Line P.O. Box 85006 Bellevue, WA 98015-8506 206-644-4343 Ratings: Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Gold Quality: Gold User: arm chair race car drivers! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: The Java Class Libraries by Patrick Chan and Rosanna Lee Reviewed By: Doug Reed MSRP: $48.37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Java Class Libraries is the latest in the Java Series published by Addison-Wesley in collaboration with Sun Microsystems, the creators of the Java programming Language. Unlike most of the other books published in the Java Series, this book is solely useful as a reference material, providing in depth information about the entire set of class libraries including both the core packages and the windowing toolkit and applet packages. Essentially it covers exactly the same ground as the two volume Java Application Programming Interface, only in this case there is only one book, and it both hardbound and alphabetized. Both authors come with impressive credentials and have spent a lot of time at Sun working on Java. Part I of the book covers the Java packages and all of the classes included with them. Hierarchical diagrams are also included to illustrate inheritance amongst the various classes. Part II includes an alphabetical reference to each of the classes, indicating which package it belongs to as well as the properties and methods of the class. In addition, exceptions and errors thrown by a class are also listed. Related classes or members are mentioned, and examples are provided to demonstrate how each class is used. In essence, Part II is the "dictionary" of Java, showing syntax, usage, and additional useful information when you are programming your life's work. Even if you already have the Java API volumes 1 & 2, I'm sure this book will be useful to you - all of the information in those books is covered here, however, the goal is different. While the Java API books attempt to explain the different packages and how to use them, this book is designed solely as a reference material. Give the book the once over and I'm sure you'll agree- this book is a must-have for anyone serious about Java programming. Addison-Wesley One Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867 800-822-6339 Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Gold Quality: Gold User: Programmer (all) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Quarterdeck WinProbe 95 Reviewed By: Mike Gallo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I never really realized how much of a memory pig Windows 95 has become until I installed Quarterdeck's WinProbe 95. Those of you familiar Quarterdeck's Manifest will feel right at home with WinProbe. WinProbe is a diagnostic utility that provides a wealth of information on not only your system settings, but also current indicators like memory, resources, tasks, and loaded drivers. The CD-ROM I received actually has two versions of the software. One is for Windows 95, the other runs on Windows 3.1. This review focuses on the Windows 95 version. The CD ROM, like all Windows 95 compliant software, automatically fires up the installation program when the CD is inserted. Installation proceeded without a hitch. The user has the option upon installation (and also later on) to activate a "CRASH SHIELD". This option is supposed to trap GPF errors and allows users to save their work and exit gracefully from the offending program. Usually when your program hiccups and commits a GPF, you must immediately close down the offending application which usually results in loss of work. When WinProbe is started, you are presented with a main screen that provides menu options and current machine statistics in a digital/ analog format. There are three dials showing CPU utilization, system resources, and memory available. It was the last dial I could not believe. It said that I had about 400K of memory available! I have a 16 meg machine!! Alas, the program could not tell a lie. I independently verified WinProbe's information, by running Microsoft's info program that comes with Microsoft Office. What a bummer. In addition, Winprobe periodically polls the computer to find out how much memory is available. The default setting updates the statistics about every ten minutes. You can increase the frequency of polling to a maximum of once every second. The second dial monitors system resources, which is probably more important than RAM available. The resource dial actually tracks three memory heaps, USER, GDI, and SYSTEM. Both the resource and memory dials have a special defragment button. When clicked, WinProbe will defragment memory much in the same way that a hard disk can be defragmented. Not much will change, and it doesn't appear to add any more memory. I have no way of independently verifying that the program did indeed defragment memory. That's not all WinProbe has to offer, however. The program also contains a very detailed system information module. >From this module, users can access information on just about anything in the computer. From the type of processor, to the interrupt vector list, to the Windows Global Descriptor table. Many of these displays are also available from the Windows control panel. However, WinProbe brings all the hardware, software, device drivers, and memory maps together into one easy to traverse tree list. Other features WinProbe provides include a diagnostic utility that will perform automated tests on your system to ensure operability. These tests can be set to automatically loop on their own. This is especially useful when trying to stress a component that is sometimes, but not always failing. One utility I approached with caution is the Registry optimizer. The registry is a database that Windows 95 uses to keep track of system settings as well as file associations. This registry is supposed to replace the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files that Windows 3.1 used. While the registry is supposed to be an improvement over 3.1 in system management, it still falls to the vagaries of unruly software that does not properly uninstall itself. What ends up occurring after a while, is a preponderance of "dead links" in the registry. These links point to files and directories that no longer exist. QuarterDeck claims that by cleaning up these dead links, system performance can be improved. The registry optimizer, automatically scans your the registry and will delete any registry entries that point to non-existent files and directories. I say I approached this part of the program with caution because the registry is a very important file. If a program should accidently mess it up, Windows will most certainly become (even more) crash prone. I ran the optimizer successfully and it appeared to do clean up my registry. WinProbe also comes with a Registry editor that allows you to SAFELY look at your registry and make changes. Finally, two other features included are the recovery option and the knowledge base. Recovery allows you to back up and restore your system, while the knowledge base contains a hypertext help system that allows users to learn more about Windows 95. Overall, I give WinProbe 95 a Silver. I'm not sure that an average user needs all of the features offered by this product. However, for those that would like to know more about their system, WinProbe 95 will not disappoint. Quarterdeck Corporation 13160 Mindanao Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Phone: 310-309-4250 Fax: 310-309-3217 e-mail: support@quarterdeck.com World Wide Web: FTP Site: ftp.quarterdeck.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: The Java Tutorial by Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath Reviewed By: Doug Reed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Java Tutorial is the latest in the Java Series of books written by the Sun team that developed Java. This particular book in the series is written for the novice, those that have either never programmed before or never used an object-oriented programming language before. The Java Tutorial was born on the web, at java.sun.com, as an introduction to the basics of programming in Java. Since then it has grown considerable, including some 7 "trails" covering 27 different topics. Along the way, Campione and Walrath have worked to refine the information and utilize people's suggestions to create the best possible tutorial for Java. I'll start off by saying that the layout for this book is rather interesting. Those of you who have been on the Web will instantly realize that the layout of this book is exactly that of a HTML document, with lots of "links" to other parts of the book. Campione and Walrath have used the analogy of a ski trail to simulate the ability of the reader to read at his or her own pace and in the path they are interested. For example, from the start one can choose to learn how to create a Java application or a Java applet; after reading the introduction the book tells you where to go depending on where your interest lies. One word to the wise: if you are na‹ve in the ways of OOP and Java language syntax, it might be a really good idea to follow the path of creating a Java application, as it is upon this path that such subjects are covered. Once you've learned to write applets or applications you can either go back to cover the other path or continue bravely forward. The remainder of the book covers such topics as the core Java classes, building a user interface, and networking and security using Java. Finally, the book concludes with two chapters on the use of "native" methods in Java (i.e., platform specific methods from languages such as C++). All of this in a mere 800 pages of text! Campione and Walrath have done a good job of assembling the proper components for teaching Java; this book should serve as an excellent learning guide for those who already know the essentials of programming. While the book does do a good job of explaining things in general it does so primarily for programmers; there are times when a novice will probably feel completely lost. Heck, I'm not a novice to either programming or Java, and a few times they darn near lost me. If you are a novice and you follow the path to writing Java applets you are going to sink quickly. Start with writing Java applications, however, and you should do just fine. If you flip quickly through the book you will realize that the book contains a considerable amount of code examples. Nicely, the book is geared initially towards starting with a basic program and gradually improving it and learning new techniques. The quantity and explanation of the code examples is where this book really shines. The first portion of the book, as mentioned above, concerns learning to write either applications or applets. Under the subject of writing applications come a number of important topics like what object-oriented programming is and how it works, as well as the nuts and bolts of Java and the use of Classes, Packages, and Interfaces. This three topics are rather deep for the beginner but necessary if the novice is to move forward and succeed in learning to use object-oriented programming to its fullest capabilities. The book also comes with a rather nice CD that includes version of the Java Development Kit and pre-release versions of both Java Workshop and Hot Java. For those new to Java, the Java Workshop is Sun's IDE for developing Java programs, similar to Symantec's Cafe and Microsoft's Visual J++. Hot Java, of course, is Sun's Java enabled Web Browser written entirely in Java code. In addition, the CD includes the code for the winning applets from the first ever Java Cup. Finally, the CD also includes all of the code for the examples provided in the text. Macintosh versions of all the software and code are on the CD in addition to the Windows versions. The CD is a very rich complement to the text. As much as I do like this book, I feel that there are other texts out there that are better for novices, while this book is better suited for those with at least some experience in programming. On the whole, however, this book makes a very good introduction to the subject of programming in Java. Addison-Wesley One Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867 800-822-6339 Installation/Ease of Use: Silver User-Friendliness: Silver Quality: Silver User: Programmer (beginner) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DigiDay Gifts!| --------------- If you don't know yet what DIGIDAY is, read on. And once you finish this article, it probably won't be long before your friends find out about it. Why is that, you ask? Because DIGIDAY's creators, Vision X Software, Inc., have launched a holiday promotion that allows you to "give" DigiDay to a friend via the Internet -- for free. DigiDay is the Net's FREE THEME CALENDAR SUPERSITE. Designed to appeal to everyone, these daily calendars are installed to automatically appear when the PC is turned on. Think of a DIGIDAY calendar as a popular paper page-a-day calendar launched into CyberSpace. DIGIDAY takes the concept to a whole new level by including computer- only features such as: screen savers, colorful graphics, fun sounds, archiving capabilities, and the ability to start today! To promote their product line, Vision X is offering a way for anyone to give a DIGIDAY calendar subscription to a friend as a gift. It costs nothing, either for the giver or the receiver, and there is no catch -- you don't end up on a junk mailing list, and you are under no obligation to buy anything at a later date. A bona-fide free lunch! You simply fill out a very small form, and you're done. Vision X then sends an email message to your friend, and tells them where to get their present. All they need is access to the Web. Shopping for the holidays can't get any easier than that. To try it yourself, go to ; to find out more about DigiDay go to . -------------------------- The Law Comes to the Net!| -------------------------- SAN DIEGO, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ - Law.Net, an Internet presence that connects lawyers with potential clients, went on-line here this month, providing a comprehensive directory that classes attorneys geographically and by area of legal specialty. The service also offers hyperlinks to a variety of related legal information. Law.Net's URL is . Law.Net is a joint production of San Diego's TurnPike Corp., a Web hosting service, and Jaffe and Soeder, a Los Angeles new media marketing firm. The professional marriage was made in September and the honeymoon has been productive. Law.Net was born this month in a flurry of critical approval. TurnPike provides the hardware basis for Law.Net with its direct, high- speed connections to a 155 Mbps ATM Internet backbone. This gives Law.Net one of the fastest download times available, according to Dave Haldy, Turnpike CEO. He said if attorneys want to appeal to the vast Internet public, "they can be part of Law.Net and get very high-speed, high-quality and high- availability service so that the rest of the world can see their pages." Haldy said Law.Net will eventually serve as a premier legal clearinghouse. "The idea is to build up the content so that it becomes a sought-after place for legal information," he said, with law schools, law libraries and federal and state agencies eventually integrated into the directory. Jaffe and Soeder inject the creative element into the Law.Net mix, according to Larry AM, president of the five-year-old company that specializes in interactive marketing and research. Jaffe said Law.Net offers "participation marketing," a feature no other law- centered Web site has. Participation marketing forges a strong bond between buyers and sellers, he said. "The object isn't just to create a Web site but to create a virtual presence for the attorneys on the Internet," Jaffe said. "A prospective client can initiate a relationship and feel comfortable with the attorney. They can select them based on qualifications, even to the point of personality, by going through the doors of their on-line office." In addition to offering package plans with complete Web site design and hosting, Law.Net offers a link service for attorneys that already have a Web site. For more information see , and . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW WITH ????? | Weekly Interviews with the Movers and Shakers! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- As the WWW becomes more and more interconnected, the flow of information becomes less restricted. Take the government for instance. Some folks think there is an illness attributable to the Gulf War. The government doesn't think so. Then why did it delete a whole bunch of documents on the Gulf War on their web site? Hmmm, why then did someone hack into Insignia Publishing's web site and delete the same files? I can't answer the government's reason, but the Insignia reason is clearer -- Insignia had a copy of the deleted government files available for download. We interviewed Bruce Kletz <102350.3213@CompuServe.COM> of Insignia Publishing about this. Read on . . . 1. What does Insignia Publishing do? Insignia Publishing is dedicated to broadening debate and knowledge of contemporary politico-military affairs and military history. 2. What are some of your previous titles? Our first title "Gassed in the Gulf: An Insider's View of the DoD-CIA Cover-up of Gulf War Syndrome" by former CIA analyst Patrick G. Eddington is expected to be available by mid-January, although pre publication orders are being taken now on our toll-free number. 3. What led you to publish a book on the Gulf War issues? First, I am a former Marine Mustang (enlisted and commissioned service), which means I am strongly interested in the well-being of our active duty forces and veterans. Second, Pat Eddington, the author of "Gassed in the Gulf," has been a friend of mine for several years. It was he that brought the issues to my attention. Also, I am generally outraged at the abuses of our government system for political purposes at the expense of men and women who have forthrightly and honorably served our country. 4. Who is the author and what is their background? Patrick G. Eddington is an award-winning eight year CIA analyst who investigated this issue for almost three years and tried to get the Agency to "do the right thing." He resigned in frustration. He has served in the US Army Reserve and the National Guard. His bio is available on our website. 5. Do you use PCs to lay out the books? If so, what system: If not, why not? All systems are 486 PCs, either DX2 50 or DX2 66. All are running Microsoft Windows95. The graphics work is done with CorelDRAW6 and Corel PHOTOpaint6. Word processing is done with Microsoft Word, and page design and layout on Corel Ventura5. 6. You recently had a problem with hackers on your web page. Please describe what happened? According to my ISP, a hacker entered the site, probably via the FTP Server and erased all Insignia Publishing Company directories and files. None of the other clients were attacked. The greatest problem was due to the incredible amount of traffic on our website. The bandwidth was so jammed that we could not access the router to dump some of the information to another directory. This meant that all information was destroyed by the hacker. We can only generally estimate the traffic by the jammed bandwidth (and unfortunately, by complaints about slow access and unsuccessful downloads). All demographic information, as well as orders placed, were lost. 7. Any ideas who did it? I know conspiracy folks would love to think the government had something to do with it. Do you think so? We have no evidence to help us identify the hacker. While the US government does, in fact, have people who are trained and assigned to make computer attacks, we have no more reason to suspect them than we do any other hacker. 8. How did this affect the publication date? It didn't really. The primary problem with the publication date (it's moved back several times) was the CIA publication review process. They had the manuscript for more than double the time they usually take. We had to file a lawsuit in federal court against CIA and DIA. However, their claim that the GulfLINK files were still classified was unreasonable and they finally dropped all objections to references to them. 9. How do you use your website in your business? Marketing, sales, etc. Our website has only been up a few weeks. We try to provide information of value and links to people interested in national security and military affairs, particularly, the Gulf War, so they look forward to coming to our site. This is information in addition to our titles, which, of course are highlighted on the site. We hope to expand these offerings in the near future. We are also using the website to look for new authors and others with interesting, on- point information (including photographs). Of course, we look forward (usually) to getting feedback from our website visitors on many subjects. We were taking orders via our website, but in view of the hack attack, we've asked people to order via our toll-free number for the time being. We will increase our security procedures and then reinstate the order form. 10. Any comments on being a publisher in an electronic world? The electronic world allows a small company to enter the marketplace and compete with the big guys and gals. But, the fast pace means that small folks are still limited by knowledge, experience, and the number of hands and brains they can bring to bear. Access is great, but you still need the know-how and the time (resources) to do a creditable job. --END OF ISSUE--