______ _ __ __ / ____/___ ____ ___ ____ __ __/ | / /___ / /____ _____ / / / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ / / / |/ / __ \/ __/ _ \/ ___/ / /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /| / /_/ / /_/ __(__ ) \____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\__,_/_/ |_/\____/\__/\___/____/ /_/ This Week's Contents: My Notes: 1) Mailing list issues . . . 2) Sysops - Receive UUENCODED Version . . . News: 1) Interactive Magic's Plans for 1996 2) Novell Lowers the Price . . . Reviews: 1) MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy, Mark R. Borst (mrb@imagesys.com) 2) Creating your Own Netscape Web Pages, Karl Roberts (roberts@TheRamp.net) 3) Go Figure Free Form Problem Solver, Richard Malinski (malinski@acs.ryerson.ca) Web Sites: 1) ComputerWorld (http://www.computerworld.com) 2) RIP-2 from Telegrafix (http://www.telegrafix.com) FTP File: 1) Diapers to Diplomas - Child Tracking Software Interview: 1) Ken Nesbitt, Author of WebEdit ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date : January 19, 1996 |CompuNotes is a weekly publication available Issue : 33 |through email and many fine on-line networks. --------------------------|We cover the IBM computing world with CompuNotes is published |software/hardware reviews, news, hot web 4Point, Inc., |sites, cool FTP files and interviews. We also 135 W. Adams, Suite G9 |give away one software package a week to a St. Louis, MO 63122 |lucky winner for just reading our fine (314) 984-9691 voice |publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we (314) 984-9981 fax |are here to bring you the way it is! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Backroom Workers: |We are always looking for Patrick Grote, Managing Editor |people to write honest, (pg@supportu.com) |concise reviews for us. Send Doug Reed, Games Editor |a message to the autobot at (dreed@panda.uchc.edu) |REVIEW_LIST@supportu.com. You Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master |will receive the latest (jlitt@aol.com) |writer's guidelines and a Raymond Hines, Web Rambler |list of available software (solari@gate.net) |to review. Follow the Paul Ferrill, Languages Editor |instructions for requesting (ferrill@teas.eglin.af.mil) |software to review. Dennis MacPherson, Utilities Editor |----------------------------- (pctc@infi.net) | Go Pittsburgh Steelers! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Every issue of CompuNotes ever published can be found at the following ftp site: ftp.uu.net:/published/compunotes. Thanks to UUNET! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our Web Site is at http://users.aol.com/CompNote/ Please Add Our Link to Your Homepage! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@rust.net with the command subscribe compunotes your email address. Example: subscribe compunotes you@you.com To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@rust.net with the command unsubscribe compunotes your email address Example: unsubscribe compunotes you@you.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You Can Write for Us! See Masthead! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick's News Being The Publisher and Managing Editor Has Its Perks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mailing List . . . | -------------------- We are still having trouble with the Majordomo mailing list. I am trying hard to work out the issues with the admin. He has been patient so far, so we'll see. If things don't work out in the next few weeks I'll see if we can get adopted by AOL or something. I apologize to everyone who are trying to unsubscribe without any luck. --------------------------- Sysop Special Offer . . . | --------------------------- Wanting to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible, we can't afford to call everyone's BBS every week. What we would like to do is send those interested sysops a UUENCODED version for posting on their BBS. If you can volunteer to receive the UUENCODED version, turn it into a ZIP and upload it to your BBS, we'll list you in our sysops directory. If you are interested, fill out the following lines and send them back to pg@supportu.com. We'll list your BBS in our SYSOPS LIST which will be included in each version of CompuNotes we ship out. If you have a WWW link we'll throw that up on our page. BBS NAME: BBS SYSOP: BBS POSTAL ADDRESS: BBS NUMBER: WILL COMPUNOTES BE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOADERS ON THE 1ST CALL?: URL: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------- Interactive Magic's Plans . . . | --------------------------------- RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Interactive Magic, an entertainment software developer and publisher for CD-ROM and On-Line Networks, has announced plans to publish "Air Warrior(R) II." Flight simulation fans know "Air Warrior" as the exciting online air combat game developed by the Kesmai Corporation. "Air Warrior II" will reflect Kesmai's latest 2.0 technology and will contain more than 75 missions to allow players to hone their flying skills before competing with others online. "Air Warrior II" allows players to fly missions in 30 airplanes from the WWI, WWII, and Korean eras. Armed with an intuitive Windows(R) point and click interface, "Air Warrior II" delivers a newly designed game environment that allows even the novice flight simulation fan to quickly ease into gameplay. "We're very excited to be working with Kesmai," said Interactive Magic Chairman "Wild Bill" Stealey. "With more than eight years of intense testing and development, Kesmai has produced some of the finest flight models on the market today. For gamers who love air-to-air combat, very few experiences match the adrenaline rush of dogfighting your best buddy while flying an F6F-3 Hellcat. You would have to time warp back to the early 1940s and climb into the actual airplane for a bigger thrill." In addition to more than 75 exciting missions, the PC CD-ROM title will contain special software, an easy to use tutorial, and a coupon for free online time so that players can quickly go online and fly against other "Air Warriors." "Air Warrior II" will also enable head-to-head modem play. Interactive Magic (www.imagicgames.com) is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and is dedicated to developing and publishing high-quality, realtime simulation and strategy games for both PC CD-ROM markets and Internet/Commercial and On-Line markets. Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kesmai Corporation is both a pioneer and a global industry leader in providing online, multiplayer games. For more information about I-Magic contact Dave Murray at 919-461-0722, ext. 3013. Interactive Magic will also be publishing the following titles in 1996: "Destiny," "F-16 Fighting Falcon," "Hind," "The American Civil War," and "Decathlon." ------------------------------------------------ Novell Lowers the Price of the Tech CDROM . . .| ------------------------------------------------ OREM, Utah -- Jan. 3, 1996 -- Novell today announced new pricing and more flexible licensing options for the Network Support Encyclopedia Professional Volume# (NSEPro#), the company's technical knowledge base on CD-ROM. The NSEPro provides Novell customers and support professionals with a rich set of up-to-date support information in a convenient CD-ROM format. Beginning today, Novell is offering annual subscriptions to the NSEPro in single-user licenses. In addition, a new site license is available to accommodate organizations needing wide access to the NSEPro. "The NSEPro is a valuable support tool for more than 70,000 Certified Novell Engineers, large account customers and service partners," said Michael Bishop, director of Electronic Support for Novell Technical Services. "With the reduced price and licensing changes we hope to achieve a broader distribution of the NSEPro, enabling our customers and partners with the information they need to effectively support Novell products." NSEPro The NSEPro contains the following information as it applies to NetWare, Groupware, Personal Productivity and UnixWare products: * Downloadable files, patches and drivers * Thousands of Technical Information Documents (TIDs) * Product documentation * Novell Application Notes * Groupware Professional's Guide * Novell Labs certification bulletins The NSEPro has hyper-link functionality and full text searching capabilities. Customers can search using custom menus and Boolean logic or browse through manuals and technical information. Beginning with the 95-9 version the NSEPro began shipping on two CDs: one CD contains downloadable files, patches and drivers; the other CD contains TIDs and additional technical documents. The NSEPro is accessible from Windows, DOS and Macintosh. Technical information from Novell is also available through NetWire#, Novell's technical information service. NetWire includes easily searchable online databases and libraries of downloadable files, and provides remote access 24 hours-a-day. Customers can log on to NetWire from the Internet, CompuServe#, the Microsoft Network or SpaceWorks#. Pricing and Availability The suggested retail price for a single-user license of the NSEPro is $495 for an annual subscription with 12 monthly updates; site licenses are available for $995. Certified Novell Engineers (CNEs) can purchase a single-user subscription directly from Novell for $295 per year--which represents a 40 percent savings from the suggested retail price. Customers purchasing the NSEPro from locations outside the United States and Canada will be charged an additional $100 per year to cover duties and higher shipping costs. Customers purchasing a site license can receive additional CD-ROMs for $295 per CD per year. To subscribe to the NSEPro, customers can contact an authorized Novell reseller--call (800) 828-3362 to obtain a listing of resellers in your area; or call (800) 377-4136 or (303) 297-2725 to order directly from Novell and to receive a CNE discount. Customers who purchased the NSEPro at the old price between Sept. 30, 1995, and Jan. 1, 1996, will automatically receive an additional three months at no extra charge. Novell's electronic technical support offering provides Novell's service partners, large accounts, customers and technical support engineers with access to comprehensive technical information on Novell products, anytime, anyplace. Novell is establishing the electronic support programs and delivery vehicles required to provide technical assistance to a billion users worldwide by the year 2000. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Product: MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy | Reviewed By: Mark R. Borst (mrb@imagesys.com) | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The story so far: In MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy (GBL), you are once again an upstart young noble in the warrior caste struggling to accumulate honor for you and your clan in battle. Your current objective is to seek out an unknown clan that has stolen the genet ic material needed by your clan to create a new generation of Ghost Bear Mech Warriors. Your mission: find the underhanded clan that is responsible for this outrage, recover the stolen genetic material and deliver swift and unmerciful vengeance to the perpetrators. What's new in the expansion pack: The expansion pack contains a complete update to the MechWarrior engine. Activision has included more cut scenes (incredible!), new environments (space, underwater, icy plains, forests and more) with 12 new Mechs and 5 new weapons to equip them with (including torpedoes for the underwater mission). If that isn't enough, they also threw in the combat simulator to add hundreds of non-story related missions. Overall there are 20 new missions ranging in difficulty from moderate to close to impossible. Included with the new missions is a "combat simulator" you can use to sharpen your skills in various mechs, giving you even more missions that you ca n accept. There are some more features which add to the realism of the game, such as when you select a Mech to pilot, you take it with you on a few missions before you can select another. A word to the wise, don't always go for the largest Mech with the most fire power, you might need speed on other missions. Bigger is not always better. I particularly liked the diversity of the missions in this pack. Most other add-ons of this type give you missions that just involve rudely blowing up everything in sight. In GBL, you are asked to carry out many different types of missions like scouting raids, search and destroy, and surgical strikes. You are also forced to think very carefully about what Mech to take, how to outfit it, and if it will be heavy enough or light enough let you complete your next mission. In the missions themselves, you might have to make judgment decisions that may make your commander call for a battle of defiance. While I loved the add-on pack, I noticed that there were quite a few clipping bugs in the game. More so than the original MechWarrior 2 engine. Requirements: Double spin CD-ROM or higher, 486 or higher processor, and 50 - 165 MB of hard drive space for installation (depending on what options you choose to install). DOS 6 or Windows 95. To buy or not to buy: I highly recommend to anyone that has MechWarrior 2 pick up the expansion pack. MechWarrior 2 Expansion Pack: Ghost Bear's Legacy Activision /FASA corporation CompuServe: GO ACTIVISION URL: http://www.activision.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Creating your Own Netscape Web Pages by Andy Shafran | Reviewed By: Karl Roberts (roberts@TheRamp.net) | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You have been all over the "web". There have been some pretty good looking Home Pages, so you decide that now is the time to get one out for yourself. After all, how hard can it be? You've seen the source code in your browser after the various pages have loaded , and it really doesn't look all that hard. So you sit down, having a pretty good idea of what you want to put into your page. "Now, wait a minute. How did those guys get that great looking table into their page?" you ask yourself. "Creating Your Own Netscape Web Pages" is where to go to find that and most of the other answers that you will be looking for when you decide to write that great home p age. This book starts with the planning, creating, publishing and advertising that you should do to have your very own home page. Included on the CD-ROM are hundreds of graphics, icons, and pictures that are royalty free; wav files, HTML Editors, Image Map Editors and even a couple of programs to teach you how to build clickable maps. Plus more. All of these are either shareware or freeware. Andy takes you through the process of laying out and building of your own home page. With a step-by-step approach showing you how to add backgrounds, graphics, links to other pages, lists, tables and even sound and video clips. This book is loaded with very useful graphics showing how the page looks typed out using the Hot Dog Web Editor and then as viewed using the Netscape browser. A sort of before and after that gives you a pretty good idea of what all those weird looking symbols are supposed to do. After you have your home page all neat and presentable, Andy even shows you how to have a counter added to your page. One of the hardest, but definitely most appealing aspect of a home page is the clickable image map. We've all seen those; click on any portion and off you go to a different "world". Included in the book and accompanying CD-ROM is a how-to create your own, and by following the detailed instructions, it really isn't all that hard to make your page look like a professional had done it. After working with this book, you will feel pretty professional anyway, so might as well make your page look like a million while you are at it. Liberally spaced with URL's to various sites to see some really great pages or just for information, you can't go wrong by trying a few if not all of them. I found a couple that were out of date, but on something like the Internet, that is going to happen all the time. This book is excellent for the beginner to average user who wants to make his/her own very presentable home page. Que Corporation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Go Figure Free Form Problem Solver | | Reviewed By: Richard Malinski (malinski@acs.ryerson.ca) | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Requirements - Windows 3.1 or greater, mouse or other pointing device, 4 megabytes of ram, 3.5" diskette drive and cd-rom (only if you buy the cd-rom version). The user's guide for Go Figure states that it is a free-style alternate to the traditional computerized spreadsheet. It is all that and more! If you like to use scratch paper and doodle until you've set up your math problem, this software package is for you. Go Figure for Windows is a large scratch pad composed of 8x4 printing pages in portrait orientation or 6x6 pages in landscape. This electronic paper (E/paper) allows you to start your problem wherever you think best and adjust and move your text, equations and formulas without fuss as you think through the problem. Clicking on the text icon provides you with a 'math-aware' word processor to outline your problem. You can then click on the equation icon and develop your own formula to fit or you can chose the encyclopedia icon to pick one of the thousands of preprogrammed formulas. Build, move, erase, rebuild effortlessly. As you construct your model you can use the connection icon to link numbers within the text description to numbers within the formulas. Change the numbers in your text portion and you change the linked numbers accordingly. You can also work with series of numbers and connect these through formulas to develop a series of answers. You can insert a bar chart if you prefer to have a graph instead of just a list of values. Your can also have a tape of your calculations (displayed or hidden) within your E/paper for later verification. As you create a larger and larger model you can group elements and mark them with coloured tags so that you can jump from one spot to another quickly. Go Figure, on the whole, is a well developed package. The installation from two 3.5" diskettes is straight forward. The User's Guide is clear and thorough. It could use more screen images in the manual with explanations attached to the parts of the images. The online help is comprehensive. The encyclopedia of formulas is really excellent! If Villa Crespo would just put the diagrams that are in the handbook into the online help that would be a real boon! Go Figure would fit right into high school mathematics and physics courses not to mention business courses!! The addition of a booklet of 26 examples is extremely useful in indicating what is possible. One thing to note however, is that many of the examples are, for the novice, cryptic to the point of frustration. The 'hints' in the examples are excellent but some of the 'methods' are not complete. For instance, the method in example 15, converting a series of kilometers per hour to miles per hour by using a conversion formula, just does not work as described. This shouldn't distract you from the real worth of the package. You can figure out the fix either by playing with the series and the formula or in a pinch by reading the User's Guide! I'm sure that this will be tightened up in the next edition. After working with Go Figure, I'm impressed with the ease of sketching problems on the E/paper, linking numbers together either one to one or series to series, choosing a formula from the extensive encyclopedia of formulas and using the very powerful goal seeking methods outlined. As a task oriented graphical spreadsheet it is top notch and one that many will find a real pleasure to work with. Villa Crespo Software 1725McGovern Street Highland Park, IL 60035-3213 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ComputerWorld on the Web . . .| ------------------------------- Computerworld, Inc. introduces @Computerworld on the World Wide Web. Two sections address two audiences: @Computerworld is a virtual IT meeting place providing daily, interactive news, analysis, and dialogue forums and opportunities focusing on the adoption of World Wide Web technology for business enterprises. A concept-based search engine, provide by Architext, enables users to find stories from Computerworld newspaper, Computerworld Client/Server Journal, and @Computerworld. TechCity , the "hub of technological achievement," is a new Internet-era model of content-based advertising surrounded by a cyber-world of service and culture -- all designed to serve the needs and job functions of both the computer professional and IT-empowered executive and end user. ---------------------------------- Novell's Web Site Explodes . . . | ---------------------------------- Since you are an important colleague of ours in the online media community, TeleGrafix is sending this short news release to brief you about an important new Internet technology. Following two years of development, TeleGrafix Communications is giving away free communications software that allows you to use the new RIPscrip-2 (Remote Imaging Protocol-2 scripting language) Internet online multimedia technology. We invite you to sample "RIP-2" multimedia on TeleGrafix's Vector Sector BBS at (714) 379-2133. To fully experience it, please download the "shareware" RIPterm v2.2 communications software from the BBS. RIP-2 technical data and RIPterm v2.2 also are available for download at http://www.telegrafix.com on the World Wide Web. Browser "plug-ins" to permit viewing of RIP-2 multimedia on the Web are slated for release in early 1996. RIP-2 enables you to create TV-style multimedia presentations or electronic newspapers that fly through the Internet and ordinary phone lines at dazzling speeds using regular modems. RIP-2 encodes graphics as hyper-compressed ASCII text files that are as little as one-tenth the size of other formats. It works on any computing platform or communications network that uses 7-bit or 8-bit ASCII text. We expect RIP-2 to quickly become an important Internet technical standard like HTML, Java or VRML. TeleGrafix is now accepting requests from software developers and online system operators who want copies of the RIP-2 Internet multimedia language specification when it is published in early 1996. The first generation of RIP technology, introduced in 1993, is the world's BBS graphics standard. It is used on thousands of BBS systems, and is supported by dozens of online software vendors including Delrina, Galacticomm, Hayes and Mustang. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From Diapers To Diplomas Version 2.2 An electronic 'Baby Book'. Keeps track of Birth Information, Vital Statistics, Growth, Special Friends, Teachers, Awards, Special Events, Accomplishments, Medical and Dental Records, and more. Many print-outs. Very easy to learn and use. It is compatible with nearly any IBM PC, printer, and monitor on the market. Shareware -- $19.00 You can find this as DIADIP22.ZIP on the following FTP site: ftp.crl.com/users/su/supportu/diadip22.zip If you requested a program from a previous issue, it is now up on the FTP site! Grab it now! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK | Interesting people you should know about . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The WebEdit Creator . . .| -------------------------- Kenn Nesbitt is the author of WebEdit a wonderful HTML editor for windows. Even after winning many awards the product and its author remain down to earth! Dennis MacPhereson, our Utilities Editor, recently interviewed Kenn! Kenn Nesbitt is an independent software developer, formerly with Microsoft Consulting Services, specializing in applications for Microsoft Windows and the Internet. He wrote the popular Web editing program called WebEdit [http://www.nesbitt.com]. He is a Contributing Editor to Internet Advisor magazine and Data Based Advisor magazine. Kenn has written more than 150 articles for computer magazines all over the world, presented at many database and application development conferences in the U.S. and abroad, and he is co-author of the book "Power Shortcuts...Paradox for Windows" published by MIS Press. You can reach Kenn by email at kenn@nesbitt.com or on CompuServe at 76100,57. DM: How many people have downloaded WebEdit? How many are registered users? KN: Given the nature of the Internet, it's actually impossible to say how many people have downloaded WebEdit. It is available not only from our web and ftp servers, but also from other servers around the world. Judging from the number of downloads is probably between 70,000 and 100,000. Only a very small percentage of the people who download WebEdit actually register. Given the enormous popularity of the program and the rave reviews it gets, I can only attribute this to human nature and to the fact that the program does not disable itself after 30 days as many other programs do. I suppose that most users would rather tolerate the "nag screen" than purchase the program. Fortunately, we do get enough registrations to allow us to continue to upgrade the program. DM: How do you support users of the program? KN: Technical support and customer service is all handled via email. I personally answer every email message that we receive. As the WebEdit customer base continues to grow, this may not always be possible since, as you can imagine, I spend several hours each day just answering email. However, I will always take personal responsibility for ensuring that WebEdit users get the support they need. DM: What is the latest version and is it Windows95-compliant? KN: The latest version is WebEdit 1.4, with a date-stamp of 1/9/96. I expect to release WebEdit 1.4a within the next week. WebEdit 1.4 runs well under Windows 95, but it is still a 16-bit program. DM: Do you plan to release an updated version? If yes, when will it be available? KN: The 32-bit Windows 95/NT version of WebEdit will enter beta testing on March 1, with a final release date of April 1. This new version will support long filenames and unlimited file size, and it will have a number of other important enhancements over version 1.4. Currently registered users will have the opportunity to begin using WebEdit 2.0 as soon as it enters beta testing. DM: What projects/programs are you currently working on? KN: 1. Localizing WebEdit for German, Japanese and Italian. As soon as these are done, I will begin work on French and Spanish. 2. WebEdit 2.0 and WebEdit 2.0 plug-ins 3. WebEdit Professional (the details of which are still confidential) DM: What's your opinion of Java? How do you envision it being used by HTML developers? KN: I believe that Java is one of the most important developments in the history of computing. Java may single-handedly solve the problem of cross-platform and network application development. The only drawback to Java is the complexity of the language, which prevents many would-be developers from using it. We can expect to see this problem resolved by the creation of easier languages such as "Net Basic". I don't believe there is any succinct way to describe how Java will be used by web application developers. The possibilities are absolutely endless. However, I think I can say with relative certainty that the first wave of applications will involve e-commerce. DM: Describe the Internet in the year 2000. KN: I would have a very difficult time describing the Internet six months from now. As my friend Harley Hahn (author of The Internet Yellow Pages) once said to me, "six months from now the world will have changed seven times over." Remember, it was only two years ago that everyone thought that Gopher was the paradigm for the future of the Internet. Nevertheless, I can point out the logical conclusions of several current trends: * Computing power will roughly quadruple between now and then * Hardware prices will continue to fall * The Net should be home to several hundred million users * Digital telephony should be ubiquitous and inexpensive, providing much greater bandwith even for home users * Net-commerce will be utterly commonplace * VRML, Java, Cosmo and as-yet undeveloped technologies will bring Playstation-like real-time 3D imagery to the web. --END OF ISSUE--