SOFTWARE CREATIONS: SHAREWARE REVIEWS SOFTWARE CREATIONS BBS (508) 365-2359 (8,1, N) February 1993 Welcome to SHAREWARE REVIEWS, a new, innovative, electronic newsletter that will review the best of the latest uploaded shareware in all areas. Our objective is to help you select the software that will best fulfill your needs from among the many hundreds which are published each month. We are truly in the midst of a creative explosion by many fine shareware authors but the quantity is overwhelming. How can you select the very best from among a bewildering variety of publications? Let SHAREWARE REVIEWS help you by selecting only the very best and providing you with brief, yet information packed, reviews to help you decide what is worth your downloading dollars and valuable time. We have vast experience to bring to bear upon this endeavor having had years of professional experience in academia, advanced scientific and humanities research, technical and journal publication, public school education, and entrepreneurial private business. Furthermore, we are consultants in applied statistics and shareware authors ourselves. What is shareware? Shareware is computer software created by small companies, often a single person operation, that is marketed on a 'try before you buy' basis. An informed decison by any consumer should be based upon maximum knowledge. As a sales approach, which is remarkable for its generosity to potential customers, shareware authors create and distribute their work in a format which has at least partial, and often complete functionality. Distribution is via mail order companies which specialize in selling shareware on disk and Bulletin Board Systems, such as SOFTWARE CREATIONS, whose sysops are committed to the promotion of shareware. By not investing in expensive brochures or the usual sort of advertising, shareware authors are determined to hold down costs, and thereby the retail prices, of their products. Successful shareware benefits everyone because the retail price is as low as possible which places the least stress on a user's wallet. Hopefully, a large selling volume will increase the income of the author/publisher. Shareware authors are unusually generous and trusting. If their product is fully functional in the shareware version, which is often the case, users must feel honor bound to purchase it after the fact. Purchase is termed registration and is by mail order via forms provided within the shareware package. We urge you to register any and all shareware you try out, like and decide to use. If the shareware does not fulfill your needs, pass it on to someone who might be interested, thereby giving the shareware more exposure. Unlike browsing in a book store where there is no possibility of keeping the book without payment (short of theft), all of us could 'steal' our favorite shareware if so inclined. If we are not honorable, this generous marketing approach is in danger of disappearing. Furthermore, many shareware authors are highly creative and innovative while exploring areas still untouched by major corporations. Often their products are as full featured and 'deep' as any offered in the mainstream, highly advertised, marketplace and may, in fact, incorporate an approach that cannot be found anywhere else. SHAREWARE REVIEWS will be available only through SOFTWARE CREATIONS which is an extraordinary Bulletin Board System. The founder and sysop is Dan Linton who is perhaps the most aggressive promoter of shareware in the country. He is also a very successful software author and publisher in his own right. SOFTWARE CREATIONS is huge, yet user friendly, as I'm certain you've already discovered if you downloaded SHAREWARE REVIEWS. Personally, I have never seen a board whose menus and screens are this attractive! As of this date, Dan has over 8GB of files in well organized directories, 65 phone lines and provides many other interesting and valuable services. Everything reviewed in SHAREWARE REVIEWS may be found at SOFTWARE CREATIONS which you can consider your one stop shareware warehouse. I urge you to subscribe; Dan's system is well worth the $45/year and is perhaps the lowest subscription fee for any board of this size in the U.S. SOFTWARE CREATIONS, 26 Harris St., Clinton MA 01510. Phone lines are BBS (2400) 508 365-2359, BBS (9600) 508 368-7036 and voice 508 368-8654. SHAREWARE REVIEWS is published monthly by SOFTWARE CREATIONS and will be provided in several versions. In each, the reviews will be in 'plain vanilla' ASCII format so that any DOS based, generic file viewer can be used to view and print them. An electronic newsletter of brief one paragraph reviews, of which you now have a copy, will be distributed around the first of each month and uploaded only to SOFTWARE CREATIONS. It is available to all callers, ever new users, as freeware. A second version which contains in-depth longer reviews of each program with many more specifics and installation hints will be distributed by first class USPS on disk and will be available only by subscription at $30/year (12 issues). For $75/year, you can receive the long format reviews along with each shareware program in an archived (usually ZIP) format. That comes to 12 monthly issues with a yearly total of approximately 180 programs at cost of only $0.42 or less per program. Unless you live within SOFTWARE CREATIONS area code, your phone bill to download this many programs would exceed the subscription price. Single back issues of each month's shareware files are available at $12/monthly set of disks. These prices includes all costs: disks, shipping and handling. We hope to set an industry standard for shareware reviews. Glitzy no; valuable reviews, yes. If you find only one program each year that dramatically increases either your business productivity, education, or enjoyment of life, the subscription cost will be well worth it. Each newsletter will contain a minimum of 15 reviews in both the short and long versions. You can SUBSCRIBE ON LINE AT SOFTWARE CREATIONS with your credit card. At the Main Menu, type 'DOOR' and the Door Menu will give you access to an on-line subscription script with the various options described above. If you wish, you may subscribe by mail using the form provided below. We welcome feedback, comments and suggestions for new shareware to review. You may write to me, Ben Blumenberg, the writer of SHAREWARE REVIEWS at REALITY SOFTWARE, PO Box 105, Waldoboro, ME 04572 or leave e-mail at SOFTWARE CREATIONS. For those of you who may have acquired SHAREWARE REVIEWS from a colleague, and not from SOFTWARE CREATIONS, my other e-mail addresses are: America On Line benb12; Compuserve 71044,1645; and via Internet at benb12@aol.com or 71044.1645@compuserve.com (notice comma must be replaced by a period). An interesting article which you might enjoy that looks at the problems in designing a user friendly interface for Windows applications is Moss, D. 1993. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". WINDOWS USER Vol. 2, No. 1, pp 136-140. Reality Software is also a creator and publisher of shareware and our products can be found at SOFTWARE CREATIONS. We specialize in historical timelines and history of religion and mythology. Our studies are scholarly and for serious, thinking adults. They are not high school level programs nor filled with New Age nonsense. We will mail a catalog on disk of our software for a $1.50 fee to cover costs and shipping. Please note that requests for this catalog must go directly to Reality Software, PO Box 105, Waldoboro, ME 04572, NOT Software Creations. We hope you enjoy SHAREWARE REVIEWS and find it a valuable tool for selecting the very best of the newest shareware available. Ben and Leslie Blumenberg SOFTWARE CREATIONS is a division of Linton Enterprises, Inc. .___________________________________________________________________________ MAIL IN SUBSCRIPTION FORM for SHAREWARE REVIEWS DATE ______________ DATE ___________________ NAME _____________________________ COMPANY _______________________________ ADDRESS ___________________________________________________________________ TOWN OR CITY ______________________________ STATE __________ ZIP _________ Subscriptions to SR Long Reviews only ($30/yr) _____ Total ________________ Subscriptions to SR Long Reviews plus shareware ($75/yr)_____ Total________ BACK ISSUES of monthly collections of shareware at $12/each: (All disks will be high density 5 1/4".) Indicate month/yr ________________________________ No. ______ Total _______ Method of Payment (circle): Check Money Order Credit Card (Visa, Master Card) Credit Card # __________________________________ Exp. Date ________________ Signature on Card ___________________________________________________ If we distribute our mailing list to other vendors, would you prefer your name be deleted? Y ___ N ___ MAIL TO: SHAREWARE REVIEWS SOFTWARE CREATIONS 26 Harris St. Clinton, MA 01510 Be certain to notify SOFTWARE CREATIONS if you move and your mailing address changes.