4/29/95 CyberNews Issue #7 Patrick Grote, Publisher and Editor CyberNews is a weekly publication available through an email distribution list and many fine on-line networks! We feature reviews, interviews and commentary concerning the PC industry. This Week's Contents: NEWS ==== -=> CompuServe Hits 3 Millionth Customer <=- -=> Postal Service Ready for Electronic Mail <=- REVIEWS ======= -=> Calendar Creator Plus by Gail Marsella <=- -=> Dark Forces by Doug Reed <=- WEB SITE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> International Tutors <=- FTP FILE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> Format 1.7meg Floppies (DMF disks) <=- INTERVIEW ========= -=> Bonnie Anthony, Creator of RIME Message Network <=- To subscribe, send a message to subscribe@supportu.com with subscribe in body. To unsubscribe, send a message to patrick.grote@supportu.com with unsubscribe in body. Comments should be sent to patrick.grote@supportu.com. Voice: (314) 984-9691 BBS : (314) 984-8387 FAX : (314) 984-9981 All old copies available from anonymous FTP at ftp.uu.net:/published/cybernews ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -=> CompuServe Hits 3 Millionth Customer <=- COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- CompuServe Incorporated today announced that it has surpassed 3 million active accounts after a year of unprecedented growth, giving it the largest active membership of any online service. CompuServe continues to be the most successful online service and the only service with a truly global presence. CompuServe is currently signing up as many as 60,000 new members each week. Barry F. Berkov, CompuServe executive vice president, Information Service Division, offered a number of reasons for the growth. "In the past year, there has been tremendous interest in online services and the Internet. And as the undisputed leader in online content, global networking and information services, CompuServe has become 'the' place to be for millions of people," Berkov said. With a huge array of offerings ranging from downloadable music to machine-based language translation services, CompuServe has served as a catalyst to get people and companies online. New products such as the award-winning CompuServe NetLauncher World Wide Web browser and the CompuServe Viewer, which combines still video images with closed- captioned text and live chat, make the CompuServe Information Service an even more exciting place for the online consumer. Berkov continued, "Although many people think of CompuServe as the place for business and computer support services, the majority of CompuServe's members are individuals who see us as the place for multimedia involvement through CompuServeCD, dynamic online news and entertainment services through CNN, Sports Illustrated, People Magazine and much more. With the industry's only direct dial-PPP connection to the Internet and World Wide Web, and a global presence that offers our members citizenship in a t rue world community, we expect to grow even faster in the coming year." The CompuServe Information Service continues to be the world's most successful and most popular online service with millions of members who access the service from more than 3 million active, paying accounts through proprietary operations, affiliates and licensees. CompuServe is also the only global service with members in more than 150 countries. The undisputed industry leader in innovation, the service offers global e-mail, the industry's first CD-ROM supplement, libraries of free software, selected 28.8 kbps access and worldwide direct Internet access services. CompuServe is recognized globally for its international membership and diverse content. For a free introductory CompuServe membership, call 800-524-3388 and ask for representative number 664, or access CompuServe's home page on the World Wide Web (http://www.compuserve.com). CompuServe's online international newsstand features more than 200 general interest and niche publications, dozens of syndicated columnists and more than 900 entertainment, hobby, games and special interest forums. For a $9.95 monthly fee, members have unlimited access to more than 120 services including daily worldwide news, weather and sports reports and three free hours of Internet access. In addition to the CompuServe Information Service, CompuServe offers networking, electronic mail and business information services to major corporations worldwide. -=> Postal Service Ready for Electronic Mail <=- By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 28--The Postal Service says it can meet its appointed rounds in rain, snow and sleet. Now the mail agency aims to do the same in cyberspace. Get ready for digital postmarks, coming to your computer. U.S. postal officials said Thursday they are developing technologies to enable on-line computer users to affix a digital postmark to e-mail sent through the Internet or other electronic networks. This e-mail postmark would have much the same function as postmarks on ordinary mail -- or "hard-copy mail," as postal officials put it in this information age. "When you put an envelope in the mailbox, you're assured of it getting to the destination on the envelope," said Mark Saunders, a Postal Service spokesman. "We want to provide the same assurances for e-mail and to guarantee the recipient of an electronic message that the sender is authentic. We also can validate if an electronic document was altered" in transit. Today, there are no guarantees e-mail was actually sent by the person whose name is listed as the sender, just as there are no guarantees that a person at the other end of the telephone line is who he or she claims to be. There are also no assurances electronic mail will reach the desired destination. "We see an opportunity to help with electronic commerce," Saunders said. "People don't totally trust the Internet, the security in there." Under the Postal Service plan, a person could activate an on-screen computer icon and affix the postmark to e-mail just before it is sent. Postal officials haven't decided on pricing yet. If successful, the Postal Service plan -- still months away from deployment -- could dramatically increase the number of people who use the Internet and other on-line services to exchange computerized mail. The postal agency could become a central authority to administer the security of e-mail. "Most people will find it beneficial for a trusted third party such as the Postal Service to provide assurances that people are who they say they are when communicating on-line," said Rick Spence, an on-line strategies analyst with Dataquest a San Jose market researcher. About 25 million people use the Internet. Nearly all employ that global web of computer networks for e-mail. "E-mail is really going to evolve," Spence said. "It's one of the most compelling reasons for people to get on-line." About 20 percent of Americans will correspond by e-mail by the year 2000, predicted Robert Reisner, vice president for technology development with the Postal Service. The Postal Service is also mulling other e-mail technologies: time-stamps that verify when a piece of mail is sent, and return receipts that are guaranteed, Saunders said. The Postal Service is talking to telephone companies, on-line service providers and software makers to assist in fashioning the technology. Postal officials may use encryption technology for computer security like that developed by RSA Data Security and Concord-based Premenos. Despite its on-line interest, the Postal Service says it won't abandon its regular mail services. In 1994, the Postal Service delivered about 177 billion pieces of mail, up about 3.5 percent from 1993. Although the Postal Service has a reputation for being a clunky, low-tech service, Saunders maintains it has been on the cutting edge of a number of new technologies and has just invested $5 billion in a system to optically read envelopes. Plus, the agency operates a World Wide Web site on the Internet where users can see pictures of new stamps, get news from the Postal Service and find other services. In the past, the agency has helped spur development of other forms of communication, such as the railroad by paying to carry mail on trains. Soon after the Wright brothers' airplane flight, the Post Office began using planes to transport mail "The Post Office was the original information highway," Saunders said. "It's a natural evolution for us." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEBSITE OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to a cool WebSite . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You are cordially invited to participate in the creation of what preliminary research suggests may be a new educational concept, *Global Tutoring*. The project name is International Tutors -- *IT*. Your comments about IT and the IT Web Site currently under construction are welcome. IT will offer global non-profit tutoring for pre-school, primary, secondary, post-secondary, and continuing education students worldwide. IT was created as an alternative approach to learning using information technology. More information on IT can be obtained from our temporary Web Site by using your Web Browser and the following URL: . IT will be incorporated as a charitable organization for the development and operation of a global tutoring service. ITs mandate will be to use a multimedia interactive Web Site, e-mail, and licensed or qualified international teachers and instructors serving as *global tutors* to: 1) Supplement the teaching received by the student in his/her mainstream or alternative school. 2) Provide students, their parents and guardians with low-cost access to professional tutors from around the world who are certified teachers or qualified instructors, either teaching or retired. 3) Provide students, whose families pass a needs test, with partial or full bursaries for payment of evaluation and tutoring fees, and with information about area libraries, institutions and schools offering free access to the Internet for IT students. 4) Disseminate information concerning IT and other approaches to teaching which can enhance student learning, motivate the student and engender student interest in learning and, for the primary- or secondary-level IT student, encourage the student to complete his or her high school education. 5) Establish ancillary IT volunteer adult, cross-age and peer tutoring programs, advisory services, and community and school liaison groups. 6) Introduce an applied research program at IT into alternative educational uses of information technology. My apologies for any cross-posting. Please distribute or post this message to anyone who may be interested in IT. Please direct all inquiries and comments to M. Berns by snail mail or e-mail: Thank you for your participation in the *global tutoring* project. IT is scheduled to begin operations on September 1, 1995. Michael Berns, Ed.D. Candidate History & Philosophy of Education Department Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto 252 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6 Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Format 1.7meg Floppies (DMF disks) Microsoft's new copy protection scheme. You can find this as FORMAT17.ZIP on the following FTP site: WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/misc/format17.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Calendar Creator Plus Reviewed by Gail Marsella Calendar Creator Plus for Windows could generate replacement pages for a seriously overpriced personal organizer that I recently purchased. Also, since I have given up trying to keep a schedule on a computer - too many steps when scribbling a note will do just fine - I wanted to print out wall calendars large enough to write on. Calendar Creator could not do exactly what I asked it to, but it came up with some acceptable substitutes and also gave me ideas for layouts that I liked even better; overall it's a very good program. An installation disk for the program was bad, but Spinnaker/SoftKey's customer service department answered promptly, behaved courteously, and mailed a replacement set of disks within a week. Nice. The program then installed conventionally (select Run from the Program Manager's File menu and run Setup from the installation disk), without further problems. The main screen has a large area for viewing the calendar in progress, as well as a menu bar and toolbar. The program has two main sections. First, it designs layouts for various types and sizes of calendars. Second, it accumulates events (appointments, meetings, and so on) in lists, usually grouped by subject. The event lists and the calendar layout merge upon printing so that each event is in the correct date cell, or spread across several days in a narrow rectangular box called a banner. Many of the buttons and menu functions, as well as a good portion of the manual, deal with the event lists; somewhat less attention is paid to the layout options, although they are no less powerful. For those of you who know ahead of time what you will be doing on any given day of the month or week, and who have the organizational skill to actually sit down and enter all of this in Calendar Creator, the flexibility and features of the event list functions will be very attractive. (The rest of us can just ignore this part.) As you open or create event lists, a button is added for each list for quick access. (Otherwise you cannot add to or change the buttons on the toolbars.) You can make several different event lists and then pick the ones to merge with the layout. You can attach notes to events - to be either shown or hidden - assign priority ratings, place pictures, and apply styles to the text. You can also set up repeating events - a board meeting on the third Tuesday of every month, for example - and embed fields to count all sorts of repeat events, from wedding anniversaries to the days of the year. You can even embed a command that places the appropriate astrological sign next to an event automatically. The dialog boxes are extremely well designed, although the sheer number of options available on each one may be daunting for a while. Particularly good is the Layout Options dialog box accessible from the Layout menu. From that one dialog box you can change fonts, font sizes, picture placement, text color, border color and point size, page layout, number of calendars printed per page, starting day of the week, starting hour of the day, headers, footers - in short, just about everything on the calendar. The Quickstyle option on the Layout menu can apply a set of design characteristics to a standard layout to give it a specific look - Art Deco, for example. Generating replacement organizer pages turns out to be easy. (The hard part may be finding the right size paper stock with correctly punched holes.) Several standard layout sizes are available for selection, and the number of days on any calendar can range from one to several months worth. The single day calendar lists the hours divided into quarters, so you can plan an interview schedule, for example, and some of the layouts can be arranged in two columns. You can print up to four calendars of the same type on a page in either landscape or portrait alignment, provided your printer has sufficient memory. Additionally, you can print two halves of a calendar on separate pages, so they can either lie open flat in a ring binder, or attach together to form a large wall calendar. My biggest complaint (still fairly minor) was the lack of any line-drawing feature. If you want to put a lined note-taking area on the back of the calendar or in the date cells on the front of the calendar, you are out of luck; Calendar Creator won't draw them for you, although it will underline text and add lines one at a time to events. This is particularly odd since you can shade the background of a date cell or other area with any of several patterns; plain lines, unfortunately, are not among the pattern selections. The manual is well illustrated and reasonably complete. It lists and explains many of the possible error messages, and has a short, clear tutorial chapter. Its index, however, was very weak in areas, as is the on-line Help. The jobs I wanted to do were mentioned in the manual, sometimes in various places, but almost none of them appeared in the index; you need to read the whole manual to find some of the neat little things that the program can do. Overall this program is a very good tool, well-designed and reliable. It does what it is supposed to do quickly, was fairly easy to learn to use, doesn't cost very much (about fifty dollars mail order), and - remarkably - does not duplicate any program I already have. I think it will get a lot of use around here. It 's worth a look. Spinnaker Software Corp. / SoftKey International Inc. 201 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 Customer Service and Technical Support: (404) 428-0008 Dark Forces Review by Doug Reed I grew up watching the Star Wars movies, beginning with the original in 1977. Few movies before or since have captured my imagination the way these movies did. I fantasized about being Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, fighting to save the day against the forces of evil. Even though I'm "all grown up now", I was elated when LucasArts announced that they were to begin releasing games set in the Star Wars universe. First X-Wing and then Tie Fighter exceeded even my wildest expectations and really made me feel as if I was there, fulfilling my school boy fantasies. Recently I acquired a CD-ROM drive for my PC, and I am very glad I did because it enabled me to play and review Dark Forces, the latest game from LucasArts set in the Star Wars universe. Simply put, Dark Forces is graphically superb and a blast to play. Dark Forces is a first person shoot-em-up in the tradition of Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom. While the basic concept is the same, Dark Forces uses an entirely new 3-D engine which allows for better graphics and a more truly three-dimensional environment which can morph and change in front of your very eyes. Missions are carried out through a variety of environments including ice planets and starships. Switches that open doors or other surprises come in a variety of types, including ones that can be shot and triggered from afar. Rivers and sewage flow, allowing you to drift with the current or swim your way upstream. In several missions, you can ride conveyor belts that turn corners or even drop precipitously. Tie fighters fly through hangars on their way to engage the Rebellion. A floating platform transports you across a chasm to an Imperial prison. In some areas, laser blasts ricochet off walls. You can crawl through airducts to find secret entrances to Imperial complexes. Turning on the power in a destroyed rebel base turns on the lights in rooms inside the base. Hitting a series of switches moves a platform up to where you can cross and pick up an important clue. In between many of the missions are beautifully orchestrated cut-scenes which outline the story. Graphically, this game is a joy to behold. If you thought Doom was an immersive game, Dark Forces will blow you away. In the game, the player assumes the role of Kyle Katarn, a mercenary for hire in the employ the Rebellion. At the beginning, you are asked to steal the plans for the Death Star from an Imperial base. This first mission is short, and serves as a "training" mission for what is to come. After this first mission, you watch a short scene in which a rebel base is attacked and destroyed by a mysterious force of "dark troopers". The Rebel Alliance asks you to investigate the destroyed base and uncover clues about this new Imperial weapon. From there you engage in a number of missions, first to uncover clues about the dark troopers and halt production of the necessary raw materials and then to find and destroy the factory where they are assembled on board the Imperial starship Arc Hammer. In between, you will be captured by Jabba the Hut, rescue a rebel spy from execution in an Imperial prison, and even "visit" the Imperial capital! In all, there are 14 missions (including the "training" mission). Although this is not as many as other games of this genre, missions in Dark Forces are generally much longer and more complex. In most first person "shooters" you are expected to practically run through the various levels, shooting everything that moves. In Dark Forces, however, the focus is on completing the mission objectives; no score or record of any kind is kept. For each mission, you can select a difficulty level, from easy to medium or even hard. Most people will find that they will die plenty of times even at the medium level. The player starts with 3 lives; each time Kyle dies he 'revives' in a nearby location until his final 'life' is used and he must restart the entire mission. One minor point here; Kyle starts every mission with at least 3 lives (more if you are lucky enough to find them) but never bothers to reload his weapons. This made sense in Doom, where the player was trapped in Hell and had no handy spaceship or armory handy. But in Dark Forces, Kyle is supposedly flying from planet to planet; it just seems odd that he forgets to reload. Kyle starts with a blaster pistol but will acquire new weapons, ammo, and other handy items throughout the game. Nine different weapons can be found in the game, including the standard fists, blaster pistol, blaster rifle, thermal detonator (grenade), repeater gun, fusion cutter, mines, mortar gun, concussion rifle, and the assault cannon. Most of the weapons have primary and secondary firing modes. For example, the thermal detonator can be set to explode on impact or after a three second delay. The assault cannon, easily the most powerful weapon in the game, fires plasma bolts in primary mode and a missile in secondary mode. This is also the preferred weapon of the dark troopers, so be forewarned that you will be on the receiving end of this weapon. In addition to weapons, you are equipped with a personal data assistant which can show you the map of the current mission, inventory, and mission objectives and briefing. You also have a heads up display which displays the remaining ammo for the current weapon, shield status, and health. It can also display an overhead map, a handy feature when you are trying to decide exactly which direction you need to go. You also have a headlamp, very handy in any dark places you might find. The lamp requires batteries in order to operate, which can also be found and picked up. In addition to batteries, you can also find infrared goggles (also requires batteries, but very handy in dark places where you don't want to warn anybody you are coming), gas masks (also needs batteries, but comes in handy since Imperial troops are notoriously eco-unfriendly), and ice cleats (handy on ice planets). Finally, you will also find code keys for locked areas in some missions; read the code key from the inventory, insert it at the proper location, and open sesame! There are a number of different enemies you will encounter during your missions. The basic Imperial stormtroopers are easy to kill but extremely numerous. They are also reasonably intelligent; they are able to duck or evade your fire and can and will call for reinforcements. Wait around long enough and they will show up! Above the stormtrooper is the Imperial Officer. Although easily dispatched, they realistically are the ones who can be found carrying keys to open locked doors. Imperial Commandos are the green berets of the Imperial troops; they are a little tougher to kill and shoot better than other Imperials (except the dark troopers). There are also probe droids which pack a mean laser punch and interrogation droids which hit you with stun blasts. Remotes, tiny little fast moving droids, are mostly a nuisance and one of the most difficult targets to hit. Imperial locations also contain powerful, accurate gun turrets that are very tough to knock out. Short of the dark troopers, gun turrets win my vote as the toughest enemies to take out. In addition to Imperial troops, there are a number of other villains working for smugglers or bounty hunters in Imperial employ. Gran are three eyed mercenaries carrying thermal detonators, Trandoshans are bounty hunting lizards packing concussion rifles, and Gamorrean guards are big squealing pigs with big axes just waiting to carve you up. Dianoga attack you in sewers and garbage areas; they lurk beneath the surface and can be spotted when they stick their eye above the surface looking for food. (remember the creature in the garbage area in the original Star Wars?). Last but certainly not least are the dark troopers. There are two basic types, the Phase I ( a sword wielding, laser-reflecting nightmare), and the Phase II. Phase II dark troopers can fly and carry the assault cannon for weaponry. These are tough foes; not only can they duck and evade your fire but they have an uncanny ability to use rapid fire on their assault cannons when they get a bead on you. Believe me, nothing ruins your day faster than stumbling into one of these guys. At one point (I won't say where) you will also run into Boba Fett, who is the equivalent of a Phase II dark trooper. And should you reach the end of the game, you will face off against Rom Mohc, the creator of the dark troopers. Needless to say, Rom makes even a Phase II look like a wimp. As you may have guessed from the above, winning at Dark Forces requires strategy as well brute force. Each of the missions is long and well thought out; most of the puzzles involved in getting to the objective make sense. For example, in the Imperial prison mission you must rescue Crix Madine, a rebel spy scheduled for execution. To gain access to his cell block requires you to find a secret tunnel through the air ducts and garbage system. When captured by Jabba the Hut, you must first fight a Kell Dragon hand to hand before you can recover your weapons and escape. Enemies are well placed throughout the mission; only Imperial troops will guard Imperial complexes while other enemies guard other locations. Dark Troopers are used only where appropriate; in other words, they won't be found guarding the information on what smugglers are helping the Empire but you will run into them when attempting to disable Imperial factories. To play Dark Forces, however, requires a fairly powerful system. A CD-ROM drive and 8 megabytes of RAM are required, and although LucasArts claims the game will play on a 386/33, the word on the net is that a 486 is really required for optimal play. I used a 486DX2/50 and found that the game worked perfectly, and never crashed. Kudos to LucasArts for releasing a bug-free game, an all-too-uncommon of an experience these days. I only have one minor gripe, and it is this: the inability to save a game in the middle of a mission. Missions in Dark Forces are long, requiring hours to complete the first time. Although there is a pause button for emergencies, I frequently like to load up a game and play for 10-15 minutes as a break from writing and working on the computer. Other people on the net have complained about the lack of a multi-player mode, however, I don't really think it matters here. First, the storyline is that of a lone mercenary investigating and eventually destroying a menace to Rebel Alliance; a multi-player free-for-all wouldn't make sense. Secondly, there are plenty of other games out there with multi-player capability. To sum it all up, I love this game. It beautifully recreates the Star Wars universe with an engaging story and knock-'em-dead game play. Go to it, young Jedi, and may the Force be with you! LucasArts Entertainment Company P.O. Box 6457 Salinas, CA 93912 1-800-782-7927 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK | Interesting people you should know about . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bonnie Anthony is a hurricane of a person. She handles everything from a full-time job, family and hobbies! As if having a demanding job and normal family isn't enough, her hobby is RIME. RIME is the RelayNet International Message Network. It is a message network with hundreds and hundreds of member systems. PG: No one can just "do computers" all the time. Do you hit the golf course? Play a little ping pong? What? BA: I work full time as a shrink, do legal work for local courts as a court appointed shrink, have 5 children, 2 dogs, a collection of koi in my pond which I dearly love, love baseball, knit, crochet, needlepoint, love making gourmet meals and donate my time to various causes - other than that, not much! PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to? BA: rock 'n roll and I sure do know who the Pearl Jam are! PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC? BA: I drive a BMW but my main PC doesn't measure up to that! It is a portable 486 with a 600 meg hard disk, passive color and 16 megs of ram! My husband bought it via the network for me for my birthday last December! PG: Define the Information Superhighway in your own words. BA: a conglamation of roads some far reaching to all corners of the universe and some of it so filled with potholes that you can't travel but a yard or two! PG: If Bill Gates and Jim Manzi were locked in a room for 15 minutes together what would happen? BA: Bill would refuse to talk to him! PG: What made you start RIME? How did it start out? BA: RIME started as a way my brother and I could share files and information on a book we were writing. We never sold the book but we sure did start something else that had an impact! PG: What does the future of RIME hold? BA: while the Internet is cutting into us at this moment, I think we will survive and continue to prosper as a warm, friendly place for folks who want interesting conversation with people who they consider their friends within a non attacking, controlled, quiet environment. PG: Pick a neat story from RIME's history and relate it. BA: Susie and Mike talking in UPLINK, becoming friends, meeting, becoming lovers and then getting married. Warms my heart! PG: What is the most frustrating aspect of your position? The most rewarding? BA: the most frustrating is doing everything that needs to be done, something always seems to fall down the cracks. I love the folks I met here, I consider many of them my friends, and I love seeing the folks come together as a community, such as they did when Max's little girl got leukemia. PG: What's your favorite dinner? BA: probably good Maryland crabs! -=> END INTERVIEW <=- This issue was brought to you by Readables, the publishing house that understands you! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tired of pumping money into your BBS? | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |THE BBS CASH MACHINE is a book written by a sysop who has experience | |running a profitable BBS. 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