-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= |-=>CompuNotes<=-| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing February 2, 1997 Issue 66 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@inlink.com Assistant Editor: Writer Liaison: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Graphics Editor, Webmaster: Judy Litt mailto:jlitt@aol.com Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/ Website: http://users.aol.com/CompNote/ email: mailto:notes@inlink.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> Our NEW Weekly Chat Session! 2=> This Week's Winner! Columnists' Corner: 3=> Big Bertha and Me by Marc Johnson, mailto:Programs@cris.com Reviews: 4=> Product: Gif Animation Studio by Richard Koman Reviewer: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com, MSRP: $39.95 5=> Product: NewsMonger by TechSmith Reviewed by: Harold Goldstein, mailto:dcbiker@goldray.com, MSRP: $39.95 6=> Product: Book, "Inside Windows NT Workstation 4" by Kathy Ivens and Bruce Hallberg Reviewed By: Paul Baker, mailto:pbaker@facstaff.wisc.edu MSRP $49.99 7=> Product: 3D Ultra Pinball, Creep Night Reviewed By: Bill Frazier, mailto:wfrazier@techline.com, MSRP: $44.95 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via email and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, 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! Please tell every online friend you know about us! CompuNotes B440 1315 Woodgate Drive St. Louis, MO 63122 notes@inlink.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= 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 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Patrick's Notes 1=> Please join us on Monday night 8:00pm CST for a chat session with Patrick Grote and Doug Reed of CompuNotes. We'll be there to answer any and all computing questions you may have! To access our chat set your browser to . When you are about to enter the chat area go into the COMPUTER room and then change to the user created room COMPUNOTES! We'll give away a free software package during the hour to a lucky reader! 2=> Winner! This week's winner is pat@exo.com! Send them a congrats message mailto:pat@exo.com! 3=> Big Bertha and Me by Marc Johnson, mailto:Programs@cris.com Welcome to my (sorta, maybe) weekly column here at CompuNotes. Patrick, the editor, has asked me to do an article for the paper on the topic of my choice. Oh boy, what a mistake! I have chosen "Big Bertha". Now, before you folks go screaming to Patrick about this nut writing porn in his paper, let me explain. Bertha is my computer. Each week I will be writing a short piece on last weeks exploits concerning Bertha. It may be a cool site we have seen, some new software she was able to munch on (and sometimes spit out), or her constant upgrades (she is very vain and likes to be the head-turner in a crowd - go figure). This week we'll be discussing "Excite" - a great search engine on the web, "Microsoft GIF Animator" - a simple way to make animated GIFs for the 'net, and "Bertha's Skin" - or how it's never quite on her. First off, Excite is one of the many search engines that can be found on the net. Yahoo, Lycos, Webcrawler and Infoseek are some of the other, well known, search engines. Excite, formerly known as Architext, was founded in September 1993 by six Stanford University graduates. These "nerd's" have built one of the fastest growing search engines on the net. With a statistical, rather than a natural language, approach to indexing the web, these guys have a site with constantly updated page content and fresh, accurate query results. To run a search on Excite, simply go to their home page at , enter the information you are looking for into the text box labeled "What:" and press the Search button. This will display a list of sites pertaining to the topic or words you searched for (hopefully), sorted by relevance (higher percentages of matches first). You also have the option of listing the results according to site. This will list each of the pages that met your match along with the host site on which they reside. The real power at Excite resides in its "Advanced Search" capabilities. Simply click on the advanced search link to get to the instructions and query enter page. Excite IS case sensitive. If you want to search for Ronald McDonald, you must capitalize both names to get the correct search results. You can also perform Boolean searches at Excite. These allow the use of AND, AND NOT, OR and Parentheses. You will read all about the uses of these "special words" at the advanced search area. O.K., my personal rating of Excite - 5 stars (out of five), Bertha's - 4 stars (she says all that red on the page hurts her transistors - don't ask). Moving on to one of the nicest pieces of software to come out of the great northwest in some time - Microsoft's GIF Animator. It's simple, it's powerful, and best of all - it's FREE. SuperBill's team have done it again. They have come out with a very simple program that is very useful in creating animated GIFs for the Internet. If you have ever been to a web page and saw a picture moving around, it was probably an animated GIF (it could have also been a server-side animation or a client-side animation or the massive amount of drugs you took earlier). Let's assume you have 4 GIFs you would like to animate. You could flip through them really fast. You could use your imagination. Or, if you have Windows 95, you could download Microsoft's GIF Animator. To continue this assumption we're using, let's say you have it installed and are ready to make a nifty GIFty (sorry, couldn't resist). We'll go through the creation of a simple animation. To really benefit from this product, read the help file. It's really there to help. ;-)~ 1. Open the last GIF by clicking on the "open" button (looks like a folder) and selecting the last GIF. 2. Select the next to last GIF by clicking the "insert" button (paper with +) and selecting that GIF. 3. Repeat until you have inserted all the GIFs you want in your animation. 4. Click on the "Animation" tab to set the properties on the animation. 5. Select "Looping" and "Repeat Forever" check boxes. 6. Click on the "Image" tab to set the duration of the displayed image. 7. Set the "Duration" to 200 (2 seconds) on each of the images (by clicking on the image, it's selected). 8. Click the "Play" button to see your animation (The > by the ? at the top of the program). 9. Sit back and enjoy your masterpiece. 10. Look into taking a few art classes. That's it! Simple Huh? Personal rating? 5 stars (out of five), Bertha's - 5 as well. (Of course I would pick something I like for my first article) This weeks final topic is Bertha's "skin". Most people who work around computers already know what I am talking about, don't you? Those "afflicted" with the upgrade bug also know. Bertha's "skin" is the computer case cover. This cover is usually held on by four to six little screws which can almost never be removed when you need to get inside. You will inevitably never have the right tools handy to remove these screws and will have to resort to keys, butter knives, tie clips or any other imaginable small piece of metal to try to remove them. Once they have been removed ten, twenty, nine hundred times, it becomes hard to locate all of them. At least one gets lost every few times it's removed and you resort to scavenging screws from the power supply (why not, you figure, it doesn't need four of them). Pretty soon your power supply is "free" of the constricting confines of the computer back and can roam freely inside the case. Bertha, you see, has become accustomed to this "free" life and actually growls when her case is firmly attached. I have come to think of her as a bit of an exhibitionist but feel I can do nothing about her "naked" appearance. Oh well, until next week sports fans, this has been another week in the life of Big Bertha and Me. Marc Johnson -- Owner@shaggymane.com Shaggymane -- FreeWare, ShareWare, WebWare, CustomWare, HumorWare, RaisingHares, Don'tLikeBears, WhatToWear, DoYouCare, TruthOrDare, LosingHair, LegsByNair, DoneWithFlair, SenseIsRare, We'llSeeYouThere -- 4=> Product: Gif Animation Studio by Richard Koman Reviewer: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com, MSRP: $39.95 Gif Animation Studio is the first in a series of books to be published by O'Reilly and Associates covering various aspects of web design. This first book covers the subject of how to create and use animation on your website using the GIF89a graphics format. Animated GIFs have been all the rage on the web in the last few months, mainly because they are relatively easy to generate and require no special software (other than the web browser) to run. Richard Koman, former editor/writer for Web Review, has compiled what he thinks is the book for web designers to create their own animation. If you are interested in creating animation for your page and don't know where to start, this book is a good place to begin. The book comes with a companion CD-ROM that includes all of the animation mentioned in the book as well as software for both the MacIntosh and the PC. Sadly, all the included programs are either shareware or demos. Included are two Mac programs for creating animated GIFS, as well as the GIF Construction Set, which is the only GIF animation program available for the PC. Also included is a demo version of Adobe Photoshop, which is nice to look at but is essentially worthless since you can't save your work. This is doubly bad because Koman continually refers to creating textures or other features for animation with Photoshop - a feat that the reader will find impossible unless they own Photoshop, run out and purchase it, or have a comparable program. Given the reliance of the author on this program, it seems to me to be almost a sin to not give the reader the ability to use it; it also seems to be saying "Now that you've bought the carrot, you've got to pay more to cook it." Maximizing the usefulness of this book will require the services of a full-fledged graphics program. I myself use the ABC Graphics Suite by Micrografx, and it worked quite well for creating the effects I wanted. After the introductory first chapter, the second, third, and fourth chapters cover installing and using the three different GIF animation programs (2 Macs and 1 PC). The chapters covering the Mac programs shouldn't be skipped as they do mention a few tips of creating GIFs. Chapter 5 covers how to create GIF graphics files (with Photoshop or any other graphics program) as well as issues such as the color palette, transparent backgrounds, and interlaced images. Chapter 6 provides the first real tidbits on ways to create interesting animation and effects for your web pages, and chapter 7 follows this up with a discussion of how to combine static images with animation. Chapter 8 describes how to use textures to provide animation, while chapter 9 goes into detail on how the Museum of International Folk Art created a "moving" montage of art pictures. In chapter 10 Koman describes how to create a morphing A as can be seen on the Voyager Company's site (http://www.voyagerco.com). The final example provided in chapter 11 is the Hare Krishna cyclotron created by Henrik Drescher. The last chapter in the book, Chapter 12, covers how to use filters in Photoshop (or any comparable graphics program) to create simple animations of static pictures. Overall I'd have to give the GIF Animation Studio a Silver Medal. Not because the book doesn't provide some great tips about how to create animation - it certainly does - but because some many of these examples and tips require the use of a program that the reader will have to buy in addition to the book. That is necessary a bad thing, but it should be at least made clear to the reader before purchasing the book that they will require additional software in order to use the book properly. I also have a problem with the press release of this book; it specifically states: "GIF Animation isn't just a love-in for this graphics format. While it presents the format's strengths, it also looks at how to deal with its weaknesses." No where in the book could I find any real discussion of the weaknesses of GIF animations, other than that concerning file size and the fact that some people don't have browsers that can see animated GIFS (like all of those people on America Online). Having extensively toured the web I know that the biggest weaknesses with animated GIFS are that: a) they tend to wildly overused, and b) looped animations in Netscape never stop looping, giving the impression that the page is continuously reloading (it also makes it harder to leave the page). Koman mentions neither of these topics. If you want the software or need tips on animating graphics for your website, check out GIF Animation Studio, just beware that you will need a good graphics program. O'Reilly and Associates 103 Morris Street, Suite A Sebastopol, CA 95472 1-800-998-9938 Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Silver Quality: Silver 5=> Product: NewsMonger Reviewed by: Harold Goldstein MSRP:$39.95 single user NewsMonger is a standalone software tool that offers an automatic and convenient way to monitor and perform boolean keyword searches of the USENET newsgroup world. Basically, you provide the keywords to include and exclude, newsgroups to include and exclude, and a desired schedule and NewsMonger goes out and uses the AltaVista search engine to perform the search. NewsMonger supports either dial-up or permanent Internet connections and is claimed to work with firewalls using proxy agents or with intranets using internal AltaVista engines but I was unable to test these latter features. Installation: NewsMonger is distributed on a single 3.5" disk; it installs via an easy to run setup program. It should find your default browser location and your news server but you can specify other options if you choose. Installation was quick and smooth. It uses about 1 MB of real estate. Interface: The first time you run NewsMonger a Search Wizard guides you through the process of setting up your initial search. You specify your keywords, the search focus (which effects the boolean nature of the search), filters to use (include and exclude newsgroup filter, exclude keyword filter, exclude subject filter and exclude from filter), the maximum age of postings and a maximum number of hits, and if you'd like to set up an automatic schedule for future searches and, if so, if you'd like email notification of the search output. The wizard does the job quite nicely. The search focus describes the breadth of the search; a wide focus is an OR search and a narrow focus is an all AND search and in between allows some ANDS and some ORS. It would be nice if you could just simply specify which words to AND and which words to OR directly in the wizard. Later you may modify these parameters through the Search/Properties menu. If the advanced search is chosen in the general window then you may enter directly the AltaVista boolean search indicators (simply the words AND, OR, NOT and others) but you must refer to the AltaVista search page (altavista.digital.com/) to learn the proper syntax. The included help facility is fairly complete for the individual familiar with Usenet but the novice might need some handholding along the way. There is no context sensitive help and the product would benefit from that or from a brief tutorial. Search Results: The search process is considerably slower than if you did the search on AltaVista directly. My test search almost instantaneously returned 'about 2000' hits on AltaVista but NewsMonger took about 8 minutes to come up with the 500 maximum specified hits. True, NewsMonger eliminates duplicate postings and allows sorting in a variety of ways but I am not sure this is worth the time penalty for a one time search. You may click on an individual posting to retrieve it. A built in SMTP mail client allows you to respond as a USENET reader would or you can choose to link to an external MAPI mail client. It linked smoothly to Eudora Pro 2, for example. A built in NNTP News client allow you to post your responses to the appropriate Newsgroups. You should also be able to use your browsers News client. If you choose to have the automated search results emailed to you then you may view the resulting html on your web browser. NewsMonger would also benefit from a better status indicator. At present, all you see is the number of new hits found. There is no way to determine the number of newsgroups searched and therefore the percentage of the search completed. Indeed, one of my searches seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time; when I 'stopped' the search, the program froze and the task had to be ended using the old 3 finger salute of CTRL-ALT-DEL. A newsgroups searched indicator would tell me if there was a problem. All in all NewsMonger is a competent program and a useful tool for doing repetitive USENET searches. For one time searches the only advantage it has over web based engines like DejaNews (www.dejanews.com/), AltaVista, Excite (www.excite.com), HotBot (www.hotbot.com), and Infoseek (www2.infoseek.com) is that it eliminates duplicate listings. But if you need to make minor changes in the structure of your search and repeat it many times, or if you need to do your search on a regular basis, then you can't beat the automated capability of this little tool. TechSmith Corporation 3001 Coolidge Road Suite 400 East Lansing, Michigan 48823-6320 1-800-517-3001 ext. 166 mailto:info@techsmith.com Installation/Ease of Use: Silver User-Friendliness: Silver Quality: Silver 6=> Product: Book, "Inside Windows NT Workstation 4" by Kathy Ivens and Bruce Hallberg Reviewed By: Paul Baker, mailto:pbaker@facstaff.wisc.edu MSRP $49.99. Includes CD-ROM. Windows NT Workstation 4 is a more powerful system than version 3.51. Not only does it provide a wider variety of uses, but the NT 4 interface is very similar to that of Windows 95, making Windows NT Workstation 4 easier to use. The new interface should reduce support and training costs for organizations that wish to deploy both Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation. The authors, Kathy Ivens and Bruce Hallberg, aim this book at network administrators and users who are responsible for installing and administering network systems that include Windows NT workstations. Kathy Ivens has been a computer consultant since 1984 and has written a number of books on computer subjects. Bruce Hallberg is Director of Information Systems for Genelabs Technologies, Inc., a biotechnology company in California. He has consulted with a large number of companies. Their weighty book (1,181 pages) covers basic, intermediate, and advanced concepts for NT 4. "Users who are comfortable with earlier versions of Windows NT will find the changes in the operating system so broad and significant," the authors say, "that even reading about basic functions and features will reveal new information. Windows 95 users will find the interface familiar, but the scope and power of Windows NT to be far beyond what they are used to." As you probably know, there are two versions of Windows NT: Workstation and Server. Both use the same kernel and other low-level operating system code, but each contains different add-on features. Server runs on a file server, letting many users share the file server's resources. Workstation runs on people's desktops as their primary desktop operating system. This book explores the desktop version. Here's a sketch of the book's contents. Part I: Introducing Windows NT Workstation 4 covers starting up and shutting down, using the Help features, and configuring user profiles. Part II: Exploring the Windows NT 4 Desktop covers the taskbar and start menu, the desktop icons, explorer, and shortcuts. Part III: Configuring Devices explains installing and configuring basic hardware and communication devices; working with multimedia; configuring memory usage; system services and devices; and installing, configuring, and using printers. Part IV: Installing and Configuring Applications covers Windows applications, non-Windows applications, and the NT 4 Accessories package. Part V: Networking with NT 4 deals with installing network options, accessing other network computers, and using dial-up networking. Part VI: Communicating with NT 4 discusses the communications accessories, accessing the Internet, Explorer, Microsoft Messaging, and using FrontPage to establish a Web site. Part VII: Administering NT Workstation 4 discusses security features; protecting hardware and backing up data; optimizing performance; and using the Event Viewer. Part VIII: Understanding Server Features discusses using the Server Functions that come with the Workstation operating system and understanding your machine's relationship with network servers and their functions. Part IX: The appendices cover installation, command line commands, accessibility options, and installing and changing fonts. The enclosed CD-ROM contains the following products and samples: 1. Windows NT Server Professional Reference, by Karanjit Siyan. Three sample chapters from this book provide information you need to build and manage a Windows NT server effectively. 2. Intranet Working, by George Eckel. Three sample chapters help you master the principles of building an internal Web network. 3. Unlocking Microsoft Internet Information Server, by Joel Millecan and others. After teaching the basics of Windows NT Server 4 configuration, this book offers a step-by-step tour through implementing Microsoft's Internet Information Server. 4. Adobe Acrobat Reader, Version 2.1. Required to read sample chapters from the New Rider's books on this CD-ROM. 5. Macmillan Computer Publishing's book catalog in PDF format. 6. Web Links. This hypertext document provides links to sites of interest on the Web. 7. OpalisRobot for Windows NT, Plus Edition, v 2.05. An advanced automation service for Windows NT that includes smart remote administration features. 8. Opalis Grep_Reg. Allows you to search and replace strings in the Windows NT/95 registry. 9. Registry Search & Replace, v 2.00. This Win32 utility simplifies maintenance of the Windows NT and Windows 95 registry. 10. Somar DumpReg, v1.1. Somarsoft DumpReg dumps the registry, making it easy to find keys and values matching a string. 11. Remotely Possible / 32 - For Windows 95 and NT, v 2.1a. Lets you control one or more PCs from a remote site anywhere, to transfer files, run applications, do passive monitoring, communicate online, etc. 12. WinBatch , v 96e. This batch language lets you write Windows batch files to control every aspect of your machine's operation. There are more than 350 different functions. 13. WinEdit, v 96c. A Windows editor that you can use to edit virtually any text file. WinEdit is specifically designed to be a programmer's editor. 14. Microsoft Windows NT from a Unix Point of View. This paper provides a technical overview of Windows NT for the information technology professional with a strong background in Unix. 15. The Best Way to a 32-bit Desktop: Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 95. This white paper illustrates the features and benefits of Windows NT and Windows 95. New Riders Publishing 201 W. 103 Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 Fax (317) 581-4670 mailto:edulaney@newriders.mcp.com 7=> Product: 3D Ultra Pinball, Creep Night Reviewed By: Bill Frazier, mailto:wfrazier@techline.com MSRP: $44.95 When Microsoft released Windows 95 I was delighted to find a pinball game packaged with the operating system. I was sick of Hearts and Solitaire and ready to take on new challenges. I played pinball for hours and wore out my first keyboard, but after awhile knew there had to be something better than the same old Space Cadet table I'd been playing for the past year. When I got the opportunity to review Sierra On-Line's 3D Ultra Pinball, Creep Night, I jumped at the chance. Creep Night is a pinball players dream. Some of the new features introduced in this version are shadows under the ball, animations, adjustable gravity, a time limit for multi-player games, digital audio soundtrack, variable skill settings, and most important for me, gamepad support. I used Microsoft's new Sidewinder Gamepad for my controller. Game play was natural with triggers for left and right flipper control and plenty of buttons available for table nudge and ball launch. Installation is a no-brainer. Just insert the CD-ROM and let auto- play take over. Creep Night will check your system to determine if it meets the minimum requirements. The only decision I had to make was which drive I wanted the program installed on. A full installation requires 31 MB of hard drive space. Creep Night has three different tables to choose from; the Castle Table, the Dungeon, Table, and the Tower Table. In addition to the three tables found on the menu, there is also at least one hidden level (maybe more but I haven't found them yet). Each table contains five challenges. You must complete all five challenges on each of the three tables to advance to the fourth bonus table. Sounds easy, but each table is a game in itself. Mastering all three tables takes luck, skill, and patience. The challenges in the Castle Table are the Vortex, the Wraith, the Zombie, the Run-away Goblin, and the Magic Goblins. To initiate any of the challenges you must light up the proper table light and shoot the ball through the castle gate. The Vortex challenge is a multi- ball challenge. Each successful shot into the vortex scores 5 million points for each ball in play. The Zombie Challenge requires that you knock down all three zombies. Not too hard, but once you knock down the first zombie you only have a few seconds to hit the other two before the first one gets back up. The Run-away Goblin is a little green guy riding around in what looks like an ATV. This little sucker zips around the table while you try to smash him with the ball. The longer you take the fewer points you get. The Magic Goblins are a bunch of the green guys appearing at various points on the table. When you hit one, another pops up somewhere else. If you're fortunate enough to hit seven of them you score a huge bonus. The most difficult challenge for me on this table is the Wraith challenge. The Wraith is like a black hole. If the ball passes near her she pulls it to her and the ball is gone. If you're fortunate to finish the five challenges, gold and silver keys will begin to appear at various locations on the table. If you can hit five keys a window will appear in the center of the table. Shoot a ball through the window and you get to a bonus game. The bonus game on the Castle table is a shooting gallery, where you can pop off a bunch of the little nasties that gave you such a hard time. You can earn a huge bonus score if you're a good shot. Each of the other two tables give you five more challenges similar to those encountered on the Castle table. The Tower table introduces the Beast challenge, the Run-away Rat challenge (sounds kind of like the Run-away Goblin), the Energy Gate challenge, the Dynamo challenge, and the Pop-up Goblin challenge. The Dungeon table contains the Gobbler challenge, the Spider challenge, the Trap Door challenge, the Skeleton challenge, and the Catapult challenge. Although the challenges on each table are patterned after those found on the Castle table, there are enough differences to make them entertaining. The thing I like about pinball the most is you never really finish the game. You can finish all the challenges, shoot down all the targets, play the hidden table if your really good, and score the highest score. But the next time you play that new high score is there staring you in the face, and you just know you can beat it, maybe. Sierra On-Line P.O. Box 85006 Bellevue WA 98015-8506 206-644-4343 Installation/Ease of Use: Silver Medal User-Friendliness: Gold Medal Quality: Gold Medal --END OF ISSUE