-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= |-=>CompuNotes<=-| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing January 5, 1997 Volume 62 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= .................Managing Editor: Patrick Grote Assistant Editor, Writer Liaison: Doug Reed ......Graphics Editor, Webmaster: Judy Litt Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/ .Website: http://users.aol.com/CompNote/ ...email: notes@inlink.com .....fax: (314) 909-1662 ...voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> New Masthead? Design contest winner! 2=> This Week's Winner! Reviews: 3=> Product: Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon Reviewed By: Doug Reed 4=> Product: Product: Home Medical Advisor Pro V 5.0 Reviewed By: Richard Lis Web Site: 5=> Armor All is on the Web Interview: => The Father of the PC Hatches Another Winner! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via email and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, hot web sites, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way it is! CompuNotes B440 1315 Woodgate Drive St. Louis, MO 63122 notes@inlink.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= SYSOPS READ HERE! We want to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible. Sysops who volunteer upload this newsletter to their BBS as a ZIP file will be listed in our sysops directory shipped with each newsletter. We'll also link to your website. If you are interested, fill out the following lines and return them to notes@inlink.com with SYSOPS as the subject. After processing this, we'll send you a weekly UUEncoded version of CompuNotes. BBS NAME: BBS SYSOP: BBS NUMBER: URL: +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send this email to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send this email to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= My Notes: 1=> New Masthead? Design contest winner! Well, I've finally selected a new masthead. It isn't exactly what I would call visually stimulating, but from the email I received people wanted a smaller masthead with less fluff. What do you think? The winner was rtatum@mail.orion.org. Send him a congratulations message if you want. You'll notice that each section is denoted by the => characters preceded by a number. This makes it easier to move to the proper section. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK . . . Also, this issue marks the debut of our smaller issues. Those on AOL should have no problem reading this! 2=> This Week's Winner! This week's winner of the ASP Shareware Catalog is kw125@aol.com. Congrats! -=> END SECTION Reviews: 3=> Product: Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon ....Reviewed By: Doug Reed ....MSRP: $49.95 Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon is the first of a series of track and field games coming from various vendors, all hoping to ride on a wave of interest from the Summer Olympics. The game banks partially on Bruce Jenner's fame as the winner of the Gold Medal in the Decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In addition, the game uses the different events of the decathlon to provide a variety of events for the gamer to test their hand-eye coordination. All of this is carried off in Windows 95 using Microsoft's DirectX system to create the stadium and opponents for the aspiring Decathlete. The game does take some effort to get into, but if you enjoy sports games and/or strategy games you'll find that a little investment of time in Bruce Jenner's Decathlon will pay off. Decathlon was easily installed, thanks to Windows 95's autoplay feature, but surprisingly once installed I found that inserting the CD (required to play the game) brought up the installation menu again, however, the menu did not contain an option to play the game. You have to quit the install menu, go back to the Windows 95 desktop, and start the game from the Start menu. This is not a feature of all autoplay- enabled games, but seems to be a unique trait for games by Interactive Magic (I had the same thing happen with The American Civil War). A bit of a pain, and quite unnecessary. Once started, the opening scene is quite breathtaking, with a scene of a athlete from ancient times running through the forest, leaping fiery cracks in the ground, throwing a spear at wild game, and running towards an ancient stadium. This dissolves into an introduction to the game by none other than Bruce Jenner. The primary game screen is a locker room, where you can choose to create an athlete or pick an existing one, and either practice, compete, or hit the showers (exit). You can also watch any of a number of multimedia recordings of Bruce Jenner describing what it is really like to be a Decathlete. Creating an athlete shows one of the many nice touches to the game; you can choose the nationality and skin tone of your athlete, and allocate skill points to any of several different skills (sprinting, distance running, throwing, coordination, jumping). The more points you allocate, the less endurance you have, an important and very key element to the game. Once you've created the athlete you can spend some time practicing the various events, but I'm sure you'll be itching to compete. The running events don't require much practice, but be sure and practice the throwing events and the jumping events, as these are the events that require the best hand-eye coordination. There are a total of ten events, always run in the same order: 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter race, 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and the 1500 meter race. The graphics are very nice, with each athlete distinguished by his skin tone, hair color, and gear (colored to match nationality). For racing events, a status window shows the place of the gamer's athlete on the track in relation to the others and a bar graph showing the athlete's remaining endurance. Each events has it's own series of moves controlled by left- or right-clicking the mouse. Careful use of the mouse is required to insure that you do well enough to score high but don't waste precious endurance. Points are scored based on individual performance, not on placement in relation to the your opponents. In other words, if you high jump 1.70 meters, your score is based on jumping 1.70 meters and not how well the other athletes did in the high jump. The goal here is not to win any single event, but to do well enough in all to win the overall Decathlon and earn the title "World's Greatest Athlete". Competition comes in two flavors: single Decathlon and whole season. In both flavors the goal is to win each Decathlon, of course, but in the seasonal competition you accumulate skill points determined by your performance and how you allocate those points can have a very critical bearing on later Decathlons. In addition, you can choose to compete against solely computer opponents or several friends can join in as well. Unfortunately there is no network play or head-to-head mode; even in races individual human opponents do not compete directly. This takes the tension out of the multi-player games, and provides a major strategic boost to whomever goes last amongst the human player, since they already know how well the others did. One major point of exasperation here when playing against computer opponents in events like the high jump: there is no way to know whether all of the opponents have already stopped and you are only competing against yourself. Why is this important? Because each additional jump requires just a little more endurance; I came out of the high jump having cleared 1.70 meters only to find that my nearest opponent had only cleared 1.50 meters; I could have saved at least one jump's worth of endurance and still finished first. This ended up costing me big time in the 400 meters. Luckily the events are split into two days, so after the 400 I had a night's rest for the next day. It would have been nice to know I didn't need that last jump! Unfortunately Decathlon falls short in one other major arena: replayability. While you can play against human opponents, the majority of people who play this game will probably play only against the computer. The problem is, once you've mastered the essentials of monitoring your endurance and knowing when and where to click your mouse, it becomes almost exceedingly easy to win the game. This is a huge problem for most sports games of this kind; they are easily mastered and quickly begin to grow dust on the shelf. Bottom line is, this is a fun game if you are absolute sports game nut or if you like strategy mixed in with a little wrist action, but for the value it's probably worth waiting until it hits the value bin. Interactive Magic P.O. Box 13491 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919-461-0948 Installation/Ease of Use: Gold Medal User-Friendliness: Silver Medal Quality: Bronze Medal Audience: Sports Nuts. -=> Product: Product: Home Medical Advisor Pro V 5.0 Reviewed By: Richard Lis Reviewed On: 486SLC2/66 8 MB RAM Windows 3.1 1x CDROM .............486SLC2/66 16MB RAM Windows 96 8x CDROM ....Required: Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 4 MB RAM MSRP: $99.95 (Street priced about $60) Have you ever wanted to find out just what was wrong with you, but hesitated to make the trip to the doctor's office just because you figured it was "nothing" anyway? Interested in seeing what the wonders of modern medicine have to offer you? Confused about the diagnosis your primary care physician just gave you? Lost in the maze of prescription drugs you take and worried what might happen if you take some simple over-the-counter medication? Well has Dr. Schueler got a CD set for you! Home Medical Advisor Pro version 5.0 comes on 3 CDROMs. No instruction or reference manual is provided, but really none is needed. A simple sheet explains an even simpler installation. As with most Windows- based products, running setup.exe is just about all it takes. All the necessary items are contained on CD #1. The sheet, and the installation process itself, does warn you about the differences in installation for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Mostly, it is important not to install Video For Windows with Win95. Even with the single speed CD, it took just a few minutes to have the program up and running. Although the requirements mention a double speed CD, I did not have one when first installing the program. Everything went fairly well, even with a single speed, except the video playback was choppy and the sound sporadic. This convinced me to upgrade that machine! After putting in another 8MB of RAM and a 8x CDROM, HMAP really flew. It ran equally well under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The program starts with the usual disclaimer that all medical advice here is purely for education purposes and should not be used in lieu of competent medical care. We've all seen these before, and probably even read a few, but it's good advice to take. Being a Pharmacist myself, I was interested to compare how much of the knowledge being presented was consistent with my current understanding of good medical practice. I was in for a pleasant surprise. HMAP is a *MASSIVE* program! The amount of information is staggering, including a large collection of medical graphics and full motion videos. Remember, this thing comes on three CDROMs. That's a lot of space for lots of info. You can browse through the different libraries just looking for things of interest, or take a more systematic approach by using the built-in "artificial intelligence" engines to diagnose based on your symptoms. There are two basic engines to use. One uses a "check-box" method of selecting your symptoms before going on the the diagnosis and related information. The other uses a "question and answer" more like what would be expected in a real physician's office. Both work well. You also have the option of just selecting a specific disease that you would like more information about. Once you have narrowed down your search, you are presented with the option to read more on the differential diagnoses presented. These may include still graphics or videos on the subjects. Hypertext links nicely spaced throughout the text allow you to quickly check with the glossary or other cross references for additional information. The amount of information available on medications, both prescription and over-the-counter is quite impressive. Thousands of drugs are referenced by their common brand names. One can quickly choose the ones you are taking and find out about the individual medications as well as the possible interactions between them. You also have the option of simply selecting one medication that you would like further information about. Again, a caution about using this information instead of consulting with your pharmacist should be noted. Another nice feature of this program is the ability to start a medical record file for all members of your family. This allows you to store such valuable information as immunization and surgical records. Even relevant family history of disease is included. This will be an invaluable record when your kids go off to college or you need to seek a new primary care physician. Also included is the ability to print "Consent for Emergency Treatment" forms which can be used in your absence to allow hospital emergency personnel to treat your children. A "Living Will" can be designed and printed along with a few other user documents. It will take you a little bit of time to decide how you want to use all the features included in this array, but it sure is nice to see that the options are there so each of use can access the databases in the way that is most comfortable for us. The databases included with this version include "Symptom Complex Analysis", "Disease File", "Injury File", "Poison File", "Test File", "Drug File", and "Health & Diet File". Using a cross-topic search available from the Find Menu has been my favorite way of narrowing down the data quickly. You might think that a program such as this would become quickly outdated with the quick advances in medical sciences today. Not so! The Dr. provides updates to the program and it's associated databases via the Internet on their web page. I'm not sure how long that adding information to your hard drive will be a viable option for a program that contains such a wealth of information on CD, but at least in the short run, it is a quick easy solution to new data. From what I have seen on the web page, upgrades can be purchased at a very favorable price. As a matter of fact, HMAP comes with a great offer for other software titles from this company at over half of the suggested retail. Dr. Schueler's Health Informatics, Inc. P.O. Drawer 410129 Melbourne, FL 32941-0129 Sales: (407) 779-0310 9-5PM EST, M-F Fax : (407) 777-0323 E-Mail: esellers@iu.net WWW: Ratings: Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Silver Quality: Gold User: All 5=> Web Site: ALISO VIEJO, Calif., /PRNewswire/ - In today's hi-tech world, "surfing" is not a water sport and the "web" has nothing to do with spiders. Already, tens of millions of people use the World Wide Web for everything from playing games to obtaining investment strategies. Beginning December 20, "web-heads" of all sorts visited a new website from Armor All Products Corp. (Nasdaq: ARMR) - the nation's leading manufacturer of automotive appearance products - at WWW.ARMORALL.COM. Once you step into the driver's seat of total car care, the site presents a computer-enhanced graphic of a dashboard, complete with animated gauges and "neon" lights, to steer you in the right direction. Clicking on various dashboard instruments takes visitors to each of the site's pages including: - The Legend of Armor All - From its roots in the early '60s to today's cutting-edge technology, this page positions the growth of America's most renowned car care company alongside some of the most famous events in American history. - Car Care Tips/Ask Arnie - For every surface of the car, inside and out, Armor All answers the most commonly asked questions about car care and provides tips for making the job easier. Visitors also can "Ask Arnie," the Armor All Viking mascot, any specific car care questions. Those whose questions are posted on the site will receive free Armor All products. - Grand Prix of Trivia - One of the most entertaining trivia games on the 'Net, this page features an animated race car and trivia questions covering the last 100 years of the automobile - from innovations and racing to songs and movies. A correct answer sends the car on a lap of track, but an incorrect one sends it screeching into the pits. A counter registers the number of laps completed, and top racers qualify for free Armor All products. A database of more than 100 questions ensures a different game every time. - Product Catalog - Featuring product bottles that spin in cyberspace, this page explains the uses and benefits of the entire Armor All line of products. - Links - Set a bookmark on WWW.ARMORALL.COM, then visit other automotive-related websites. "The Internet allows us to interact with the consumer, and to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the right way to care for your car, and the right products to use," said Lawrence Kahn, vice president of marketing for Armor All. "We'll be updating the site continually to provide more fun and detailed information on car care, Armor All products and the 25th Anniversary of Armor All(R) Protectant." 6=> Interview with Andre Thi Truong Who invented the personal computer? Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? The people at Commodore? Guess again. It was Andre Thi Truong, . Yep. That is what I said, too. He had so much success as the father of PCs he is now the father of the first NPC unit. The Network Personal Computer is Intel/Microsoft's answer to Sun's Network Computer. Where the Network Computer runs on Java, the Network Personal Computer runs a subset of a Microsoft operating system. We asked Andrew a few questions. Enjoy! PG: You are based in France, not exactly a high technology mecca. Why France ? AT: The first reason is that I am French even if I am Vietnamese born, and as I am 60 my family, my friends are most in France. And why not France? PG: How did you come to invent the first PC? AT: The Micral is born per chance in 1972, my company (R2E) had to develop a portable system for INRA ( National Institute of Agronomic Research) and in the beginning of that year (1972), I have had the opportunity to meet the Intel's team in Santa Clara that had just launch 8008 microprocessor. This 8008 allowed me to make this special realization. My only merit if there is merit was to decide in the beginning 1973 to manufacture 1000 Micral in order to sell it at less of 2000$. I have been helped in this decision by Yvon PLISSON who was the main investor of the R2E's company. PG: Why was it the first personal computer? AT: At this time, we have not called it Personal computer but Microcomputer by opposition to minicomputer. It is to notice that the designation PC is appeared only in 1981 with the IBM PC. I have to notice that in 1982 R2E of America, my American subsidiary was the first to develop an IBM compatible PC that has been sold in France by the group Bull under the designation MB30. Unfortunately, Bull as all manufacturers of mini/mainframes (IBM, Digital...) did not trust in the PC and left the place to Compaq , Packard Bell,Dell... But this is an other story. PG: What's the story behind NPC? AT: The core concept of the NPC is to use only mass storage (ROM + CD ROM) to boot Windows NT and launch applications from. Basically you have several CDs ROM, (in INTRANET use 2 or 3 , in INTERNET use as many more) on which are stored all the applications you want to use on your NPC . At home you are likely to have more CD ROM since you are potentially interested in a much wider scope of CD ROM (home applications, games, encyclopedia, video, audio,...) Therefore, in its very design, this does not support bandwidth at all. This said, Network still has a major role to play in the framework : - in INTRANET to support access to the Information System (users profiles, users data, company data, departmental & central applications...) - in INTERNET only context : Network is used for Web access, remote access to services (for instance data storage), data exchange with servers or other users, and last but not least, potentially use authorization of CDROM embedded PG: As the man who invented the PC you must drive a cool car. What is it? AT: In fact, I have always driven BMWs or Jaguars cars that are the first cars of the world, one for its technological advance, the other for its comfort. Currently, I use a BMW 316 compact that allows me to continue to work in Paris traffic jam. PG: What is the future of NPC? AT: One can estimate that 45% of future PC market is concerned by the Net/PC/SIPC trend. The NetPC part (and subsequently NPC's part) can be roughly estimated to half of it. We expect a first breakthrough in professional applications ( in INTRANET and for professional INTERNET based applications). Home applications will boom with a NPC fully powered with multimedia and 3D acceleration software driven by Microsoft's DirectX and hardware driven by MMX Pentium. Then, we will have the so long attended multimedia networked terminal for every home... that will run stunning DirectX games, DVD MPEG 2 films with AC3, put you in contact (by mail, voice, and ... video) with the whole planet at a local phone call price ! NC has some chance to gain through niches (and most believably some kind of server based Microsoft compatibility) up to 5% of this market because there are several NC : the oracle NC, the Sun NC, the apple NC which are all different. I do not think that the editors will concentrate their effort this kind of new platform. PG: What is the key to NPC success? AT: I am sure that the Windows Network PC, in the occurrence the NPC 97 and all its following with these new technologies as the CD ROM and then the CDV, combined with SMARTCARD will spread by the low-end the market of traditional PC and as we are at the beginning of a new area of the PC, with games that are going surely to displace the market dominated by Sega, Nintendo, and Sony toward the PC and the NPC market. One can think that the market of the NPC will have a duration of life of at least 10 years. Without speaking the probable convergence of the PC/NPC with the TV in the beginning of the XXI century. We work also on technologies of display to allow to suppress the bottleneck of strangling that is VGA currently. PG: You were at Comdex. What did you think? AT: The Comdex has been fabulous, but not for the Comdex in itself, but for the success we got for the NPC97 during the private presentations in our suite at the Mirage. This year, I have not time to gamble but my wife, as these 10 last years, continue to lose. PG: Which will triumph the NC or the NPC? The PC, surely, there is installed base of about 200 millions PCs in the world, of 50% are Pentium based. On the base of 70 millions PC delivered in 1996 and with a growing rate of 25%, we will have 150 millions PC delivered in the 2000. It is impossible to even stop this trend for the next five to ten years. Thousand of applications and millions of Gigabytes of data are produced each year for this market. Most company Information Systems rely on the Wintel standard. There is a poor chance that the "pure JAVA NC" can ever win the battle. So I definitely think that the Windows base Network PC like APCT NetPC will triumph. Oracle has most believably brought a lot, but perhaps ... to the PC industry by causing the NPC to exist !!! If you want to learn more about Andre Thi Truong's work, see the site . =>END ISSUE