----------------------------------------------------------------------------- File: bombseas.txt Rev.: 0 Date: 09 January 1995 Note: For update, check OmniMedia's archive ("How to Contact the Publisher") ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- 1. Electronic Book Title ------------------------- BOMB SEASON by Michel Basilieres (C) Copyright 1995 by Michel Basilieres ***** An Electronic Book Produced and Published By OmniMedia ***** This Electronic Book is protected by SoftLock. It can be freely distributed over all electronic networks provided it is not altered in any manner and all the files are included. See the section "Copyright Notice and Other Terms" for more specific information. This book is a work of fiction. All the characters and events are imaginary, and any resemblance to real people or situations is entirely coincidental. CAUTION TO THE READER: Adult situations and language. --------------------- 2. Table of Contents --------------------- This information file is divided into the following sections: 1. Electronic Book Title (presented above) 2. Table of Contents (this section) 3. Introduction 4. Book Abstract 5. About the Author 6. If You Are a Book Reviewer 7. System Requirements 8. Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package 9. How to Obtain This Electronic Book (if some of the files are missing) 10. Viewing/Installation Instructions 11. How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features 12. Copyright Notice and Other Terms (which you should read carefully) 13. How to Contact the Publisher 14. Refund/Warranty Policy ---------------- 3. Introduction ---------------- This OmniMedia electronic book is a hypertext conversion, using the outstanding Microsoft Windows 3.1 Help engine ("WinHelp"), of the book "Bomb Season", by Michel Basilieres. All Windows 3.1 systems can read this electronic book without any need for special software other than what is already included with this electronic book. Although this electronic book is readable at VGA resolution, using a higher resolution (e.g., 800x600 or 1024x768) is *highly* encouraged. In addition, this electronic book incorporates SoftLock technology. Using SoftLock, a portion of this book has been read-locked, requiring the entry of a password (unique to your computer) to be able to read the locked portion. However, we have kept a significant portion of this electronic book unlocked so you can determine whether you want to purchase a password for it. Sort of a "try before you buy." Since this electronic book is NOT Shareware, you may freely read and enjoy, without any obligation, the unlocked portions of this book. SoftLock makes the purchase of the password very convenient and easy. They provide an automated 24-hour toll-free number (in the U.S. and Canada) to take your credit card order. For more complete information about SoftLock technology as used in this electronic book, read the registration window that will popup if you select it from the "nag" window that appears when you attempt to read a locked topic. The password for "Bomb Season" sells for $7.95. Whether or not you decide to purchase a password, do upload this book to your favorite BBS or public Internet site (read the section "Copyright Notice and Other Terms" for more specific information on uploading requirements.) Do give this book a try! ----------------- 4. Book Abstract ----------------- OmniMedia is pleased to announce the first publication anywhere of Michel Basilieres' novel Bomb Season. Bomb Season is an ambitious novel set in Europe during the final years of the Cold War, between the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a series of parallel, call-and- response monologues it tells the story of two brothers. One falls desperately in love with a woman who takes up with him simply as the result of a bet. The other is taken hostage by terrorists and must learn to preserve his life and sanity with a precarious balancing act of submission and collaboration. Drawing on emerging post-industrial theory and harkening back to the marginalized roots of modernism, Bomb Season is a pataphysical, surreal journey through physical desire and subjective meaning. At times explicit, at times oblique, it is literally an inside look at how our daily reality interacts with our rapidly fracturing epistemology. CAUTION: Adult situations and language. -------------------- 5. About the Author -------------------- Born in 1960 in Montreal of mixed French and English Canadian roots, Michel Basilieres has traveled more extensively in Europe than in North America. He wandered through several faculties before leaving university without a degree. His first stage play, "Cassandra," was written in four weeks in a burst of inspiration and accepted for production immediately. The following year he received an Explorations grant from the Canada Council on the Arts to write this book. He currently lives in Toronto where he is at work on another novel, set in Montreal, and a stage play set in Enlightenment Paris. You can contact Michel Basilieres via Internet e-mail: michel_basilieres@tvo.org ------------------------------ 6. If You Are a Book Reviewer ------------------------------ The author can acquire voucher numbers which allow SoftLock to give out a password at no charge to the voucher user. The author will make these vouchers available to book reviewers. For more information, contact the author (see the section "About the Author.") Please do include your credentials. ----------------------- 7. System Requirements ----------------------- To view this electronic book, you must have an IBM-compatible PC (386 or higher is recommended), with color VGA (or better) video resolution. It must have Microsoft Windows 3.1 installed. This electronic book has been tested using the common color video resolutions of VGA, 640x480x256, 800x600x256, and 1024x768x256. For maximum clarity and readability, it is recommended that you use as high of a video resolution as your system allows, up to 1024x768x256, or even higher (however, resolutions higher than 1024x768x256 have not been tested.) For the very high video resolutions, you should consider using large size fonts if that option is available to you. Consult your Windows documentation for how to increase your resolution if that is possible for your particular video card and monitor combination. (If you feel the font size is too large, read the discussion about window/font size in the section "How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features.") No guarantee is given that this electronic book, especially the SoftLock program, will work properly on succeeding versions of Windows (e.g., Windows 4.0, aka 'Chicago' and 'Windows 95'), or with Windows 3.1 emulators (such as Windows NT or OS/2). Contact OmniMedia for more information about upgrades for new versions of Windows and possibly other platforms. All further technical details mentioned in this file are specific to Windows 3.1 installations. Three final and important notes: First, this electronic book is written using the Arial TrueType font, which is part of the normal installation for all Windows 3.1 systems. If you have removed this font from your system, for whatever reason, the file will not appear as it was authored (though it may look similar or at least readable.) It is recommended that you reinstall the Arial TrueType font if you have removed it from your system (refer to your Windows documentation.) Second, a very small number of Windows users have experienced some difficulties in properly reading all of the special text characters for reasons that are not completely understood, though evidence points to bugs in a very early release of Windows 3.1 (most Windows users don't have this early release, if you do, consider upgrading to version 3.11.) The most common difficulties encountered have been left and right single and double quotes not being reproduced properly, as well as other characters not being reproduced properly such as the copyright and trademark symbols, bullets and em/en-dashes. Do contact OmniMedia if you observe any anomalies regarding characters and/or fonts that you believe are not due to running an early release of Windows 3.1. Third, the background, foreground (text), and hypertext colors have been hard-coded in this WinHelp format file. If you have color vision disabilities which make it difficult to read all or part of this electronic book, contact OmniMedia and special instructions to bypass this color hard-coding will be sent to you. ----------------------------------------------------------- 8. Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package ----------------------------------------------------------- To properly use this electronic book, the following files must be included in the distribution package. Omitting one or more of these files may make it impossible for the user to register a password or to read the locked portions of the book even with a valid password installed on the user's system. bombseas.hlp -- The WinHelp file of "Bomb Season" bombseas.txt -- This file. book.ico -- A book icon that can be used for permanent installation slpw-win.exe -- The SoftLock executable softlock.exe -- An important SoftLock DOS executable "in case of trouble" slpwinfo.seq -- The text file for the SoftLock executable softlock.dll -- A required SoftLock Dynamic Link Library vbrun300.dll -- (same) (Note on file 'vbrun300.dll': You may already have this file on your system. Check in your windows and windows/system directories for it. If you do have it, check to see if it is the latest version, dated 05-12-93. If it is an earlier version, you can replace it with the one provided with this electronic book, though it is wise to backup the previous version "just in case.") -------------------------------------- 9. How to Obtain This Electronic Book -------------------------------------- This section will outline three ways by which you can obtain this electronic book if some or all of the required files are missing or corrupted. The electronic book will be packaged as a single archive file, most likely a ZIP file ('bombseas.zip' or something similar), which requires a dearchiver to extract the required files, such as PKUNZIP. It is probable that other ways to obtain this and other electronic books from OmniMedia will be implemented in the future. Contact OmniMedia for more updated information. (Note: If you will obtain this electronic book in ZIP format (the most likely archive format), you will need to use an "unzipper." If you don't have one already, we recommend that you use the authentic DOS shareware utility called PKZIP (version 2.04g), by PKWARE, Inc. There also exist several other "clone" unzip utilities (shareware and freeware) for both DOS and Windows, obtainable from many BBS and Internet sites. For those of you who have ftp/WWW access, we have conveniently placed the shareware file 'pkzip204.exe' into our archive. The ftp address is ftp.netcom.com /pub/Om/OmniMedia/books/misc the WWW (Web) URL is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/Om/OmniMedia/books/misc .) Here are the three ways you can presently obtain this electronic book: 1) Via Mail Server from OmniMedia's Archive. It is possible to access OmniMedia's archive via e-mail. This is a good method for those who have e-mail access to the Internet but don't have ftp or WWW (Web) access (see number 2 below for information about OmniMedia's anonymous ftp archive.) In order to use the mail server, you must have, in addition to an unzipper (see section "Viewing/Installation Instructions"), a uudecoder, since the binary ZIP file will be uuencoded into an ASCII format suitable for e-mail. Most Unix sites have a built-in uudecode utility, but nearly all other operating systems do not. Obviously, you cannot obtain a uudecoder for your platform via this e-mail server (since it is a binary executable), so you have to find one elsewhere, probably by downloading it from a local BBS (uudecoders for DOS/Windows do exist, but are not found at all BBS sites.) For more information on this option, send e-mail to omnimdia@netcom.com and request the file describing how to access Netcom's ftp mail server. 2) From the Internet Via Anonymous FTP and WWW (World-Wide Web.) OmniMedia maintains an anonymous ftp archive at ftp.netcom.com /pub/Om/OmniMedia/books In order to directly download the files from this archive, you need to have access to an Internet site with ftp or WWW access. For anonymous ftp, if you don't know how to use it, consult with someone who does or study the helpfile or manual at your site. Be sure to type "binary" before issuing the "get" or "mget" command. For WWW (or Web) access you can easily download the file 'bombseas.zip' (and other OmniMedia electronic book titles and files) using your browser (Mosaic is the most commonly used WWW browser.) The URL to the archive is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/Om/OmniMedia/books In addition, OmniMedia will attempt to upload this electronic book to other anonymous ftp archives on the Internet, for example, the CICA archive (ftp.cica.indiana.edu). You can use archie to try to locate these other potential sites. As of the date of this information file, Netcom has been experiencing some difficulties with its ftp access. OmniMedia is "mirroring" its books at ftp.awa.com /pub/softlock.pc/products/OmniMedia , so check there if you can't access Netcom. 3) From Your Local BBS. There is no doubt that, over time, this electronic book will be distributed to many BBS and online services around the world. OmniMedia will attempt to upload this file to Windows On Line, one of the largest Windows BBS in the world (phone 510-736-8343; it does require a membership fee for downloading privileges.) And once you obtain this electronic book, feel free to upload it to your favorite BBS (be sure to include all the files listed in the section "Files That Must be Included in the Distribution Package.") -------------------------------------- 10. Viewing/Installation Instructions -------------------------------------- There are several ways to view, and if desired, install this WinHelp formatted electronic book on your Windows 3.1 system. Two will be given below. If you are not very familiar with Windows, it is recommended that you print out this section for step-by-step instructions. Of course, it is also recommended that you consult your Windows manual should any questions arise or these instructions don't work for you. No matter what approach you use to view this electronic book, you must NOT change the name of the WinHelp file ('bombseas.hlp'.) If you do inadvertently change the filename, you won't be able to unlock the SoftLocked topics, even with a valid password. Within a few months of this issue of 'bombseas.txt' (dated 09 January 1995), OmniMedia is tentatively planning to implement an easy-to-use installer oriented towards the novice Windows user. Check with OmniMedia for more information. Now, to view this electronic book, following are two ways to do it (it is assumed that you've already extracted the necessary files from the distributed archive file, if that's how you obtained this electronic book -- see the section "How to Obtain This Electronic Book"): ***************************************************************************** 1) The Quick and Easy Way -- If you just want to view this electronic book without permanent installation (e.g., for evaluation purposes), place ALL the files (the list of necessary files is in the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package"), into one directory anywhere on your hard disk (you should also be able to read it directly from a diskette but it will be noticeably slower.) Then, from File Manager within Windows, locate the WinHelp file ('bombseas.hlp') and click on it. The Windows Help file viewer, 'winhelp.exe', will automatically be executed and the electronic book will be displayed. Enjoy! ***************************************************************************** 2) For a more permanent installation with a convenient icon, it is advisable to first create a special directory on your hard disk and copy all the files into that directory. If you acquire more books from OmniMedia in the future and copy their files into the same special directory, you will save on disk space since several files are shared in common by all of OmniMedia's electronic books (for example, the DLL files.) As an example, which will be used for the explanation below, this directory path could be named C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS . (Special note: As mentioned in the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package," you may already have 'vbrun300.dll' on your system. If so, then you need not duplicate it in your special electronic book directory as it does use an appreciable amount of disk space. The current version of 'vbrun300.dll' provided with this electronic book is dated 05-12-93. If you happen to have an older version of 'vbrun300.dll', you can safely replace it with the one provided with this electronic book.) The next step is to either select or create the program group into which you will place the title BOMB SEASON (or whatever you want to call it -- it need not be in caps.) If you don't already have a special program group for electronic books, you need to create one. To create a new program group which could be called, for example, OMNIMEDIA BOOKS (it need not be all in caps), simply go to the FILE menu of your Program Manager, select NEW , PROGRAM GROUP , OK , and then in the box labeled DESCRIPTION, enter the string OMNIMEDIA BOOKS (or whatever else you want to call the program group), then press OK (leave the GROUP FILE box empty.) Once the program group, whether old or new, is selected, then from Program Manager select FILE , NEW , PROGRAM ITEM , OK . At this point, you have three text boxes to fill. For the DESCRIPTION box enter BOMB SEASON (or whatever else you want the application icon to be called -- it need not be in caps); for the COMMAND LINE box enter C:\WINDOWS\WINHELP.EXE BOMBSEAS.HLP ; for the WORKING DIRECTORY box enter C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS . Then to select the icon, click on CHANGE ICON and attach the file BOOK.ICO from the directory C:\WINDOWS\BOOKS to this application using BROWSE to locate it. Then, click OK twice to finish. Now, your selected program group should contain an icon of a book with the name BOMB SEASON underneath it. Just click on the book icon whenever you want to read it! Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------- 11. How to Use This Electronic Book and Some Useful Features ------------------------------------------------------------- Using the WinHelp viewer is intuitive and very easy. Once you are viewing this electronic book on your computer, you can learn much of what you need to know by simply experimenting with the toolbar buttons, menu commands, etc. If you do need more help in reading and using this electronic book, refer to "How to Use Help" which can be selected from the "Help" menu item found near the top of the window when viewing this electronic book. Some useful features of this electronic book include 1) Bookmark -- You can place one or more bookmarks at any location so you can later return to that location, even after exiting this book. The Bookmark feature is found in the menu. 2) Annotate -- You can add notes and comments to any topic displayed in a window (excepting temporary pop-up windows.) The Annotate feature is found in the menu under 'Edit.' 3) Hypertext -- Hypertext is nothing mystical. It is simply text which has been linked to text elsewhere in the electronic book. Clicking on hypertext will move you to the text the hypertext is linked with. In this electronic book, much effort has been made to make it clear which text is hypertext. To verify if a word or phrase is hypertext, the mouse pointer will switch from an arrow to a small hand with a pointing finger when placed on top of hypertext. One note about scrolling should be mentioned for those newcomers who are totally unfamiliar with the purpose and use of scroll bars. You may notice in this electronic book that for most windows (i.e., topics), there is a scrollbar at the right-hand-side (and sometimes at the bottom) of the viewing window. The scroll bar is there because the text of the topic is too long or too big to fit completely within the visible window. By clicking your mouse on various parts of the scroll bar, you can move ("scroll") either up or down in the text. Specifically, clicking on either the up or down arrows (which are found at the top and bottom respectively of the scroll bar), will move you either one line up or one line down in the text. You can also scroll a full window or page if you click anywhere in the scroll bar between the up or down arrows and the slider (the slider is the plain rectangular "button" that slides in the scroll bar, and indicates where the viewing window is positioned with respect to the topic text.) Another note concerns the aspect of font size. If you are using VGA (640x480) resolution, you may find the font size to be quite large, especially on bigger monitors. One solution is to maximize the window size, done by clicking on the upper right-hand button, and read the window from further away -- maximizing the window size (to fill the whole screen) will also make the electronic book look better at the 640x480 resolution with respect to the number of characters per line being similar to a typical book. (One of the reasons why this larger font was selected was to insure that this electronic book would be easily readable on laptop/notebook-sized screens -- WinHelp unfortunately does not yet allow variable font sizes depending on the video parameters, though OmniMedia is working hard with programmers to be able to do this.) If you still feel the characters are too large for your taste, consider going to a higher screen resolution if you can (since that will tend to decrease the font size.) You might even want to consider testing the large/small font options for the higher resolutions if available to you for your particular video card. ------------------------------------- 12. Copyright Notice and Other Terms ------------------------------------- (The following notice also appears within this electronic book.) This electronic book, "Bomb Season" (the "TITLE") is (C) Copyright 1995 by Michel Basilieres (the "Author"), and is fully protected by United States Copyright laws and international treaty provisions. This TITLE was produced/ published by OmniMedia (the "Publisher".) Because this electronic book is protected by SoftLock (TM) software, the Author hereby gives all others permission to electronically duplicate and redistribute this TITLE provided that none of the files associated with the TITLE are omitted and/or altered in any manner (for a complete list of files, see the section "Files That Must Be Included in the Distribution Package.") Some examples of forbidden alterations to this TITLE include the disabling of the SoftLock feature via any means, the distribution of an electronic file produced by capturing or extracting any portion of the text, and distributing to others a printed copy of any portion of the text. The Author and the Publisher encourage you to distribute this electronic book far and wide (as outlined in the previous paragraph) so that many others can enjoy it. This TITLE, including all files, installation programs, and documentation, is provided "AS IS", that is, you use this title at your own risk, without warranty of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to, defects/errors with the format of this TITLE as well as defects/errors in the media used to distribute this TITLE to the supplier and/or purchaser. The Author and the Publisher further disclaims all implied warranties including, but not limited to, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall the Author, the Publisher, SoftLock Services, Inc., or any suppliers of this TITLE be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for lost profits, business interruptions, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising from the use of or inability to use the TITLE, even if the Author, the Publisher, SoftLock, and/or the suppliers of this TITLE have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow exclusions or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, this limitation may not apply to you. This book is a work of fiction. All the characters and events are imaginary, and any resemblance to real people or situations is entirely coincidental. --------------------------------- 13. How to Contact the Publisher --------------------------------- OmniMedia is devoted to producing only the highest quality works on most forms of modern media. Our current and planned offerings include Electronic books published in Windows 3.1 Help and Microsoft Multimedia Viewer formats Audio CD reissues (using state-of-the-art digital restoration) of early jazz, blues, dance and personality recordings Very high resolution fractal image prints. For more information or advice about this electronic book or other offerings, contact OmniMedia c/o Jon E. Noring 1312 Carlton Place Livermore, CA 94550 (510) 294-8153 (510) 447-1771 (fax -- not always online) Internet: omnimdia@netcom.com OmniMedia's anonymous ftp archive is located at ftp.netcom.com /pub/Om/OmniMedia/books For WWW (Web) users, the URL address to the archive is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/Om/OmniMedia/books --------------------------- 14. Refund/Warranty Policy --------------------------- Sorry, all sales are final. The "try before you buy" feature of SoftLock should help you decide whether or not to purchase the password necessary to read all portions of this electronic book. Contact OmniMedia if you have any difficulties either before or after purchasing a password. And lastly...ENJOY! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation OS/2 is a registered trademark of IBM SoftLock is a trademark of SoftLock Services, Inc. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------