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                       PCM Online  March 1995

COLUMNS Contents:

   []  Business as Usual: Planning a Project With Microsoft Project
   []  Pipeline: Customer service -- one PC buyer's nightmare
   []  Riding the Internet: Caught in the Web
   []  Windows 95 Scoop: What You'll Need for Windows 95

Entire contents copyright 1995 by Falsoft, Inc.

PCM -- The Premier Personal Computer Magazine -- is intended for the 
private use and pleasure of its subscribers, and reproduction by any 
means is prohibited.

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BUSINESS AS USUAL    \|/    by Emmett Dulaney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~           Contributing Editor

"Software that keeps you on schedule"

               PLANNING A PROJECT WITH MICROSOFT PROJECT

   Last month's column examined two of the leaders in project management 
software, Microsoft's Project and Symantec's Timeline. We compared the 
features and functionality of each, and both proved to be very 
worthwhile investments. This month the focus shifts to how to actually 
use Project to organize and manage a task from inception to completion.

   To illustrate this, an example is necessary. Therefore, let's assume 
that the fictitious Alden Crafts and Taxidermy shop has an annual sale 
every March 14th -- an Einstein's Birthday Bash. During a 12-hour sales 
period, Alden salespeople do more business than on any other day of the 
year. Here's how they plan for the event.


 >>[ The Beginning ]<<

   In planning for a sale of this magnitude, the first thing to do is 
break out the key components and formulate a plan as to when each factor 
needs to be started. This can either be done ahead of time or directly 
within the program. Off the top of your head come several key tasks: 
ordering stock, preparing a flyer to send to all past customers, and 
preparing the store. With these in mind, you start the Project software.

   When you first start the program, you see the Task Entry form, from 
which everything else develops. The view can be broken into three basic 
parts. The left-top quarter of the screen shows vacant slots for holding 
tasks and duration times. The right-top quarter graphically depicts a 
Gannt chart view of those same tasks, and the bottom half of the screen 
allows you to enter additional information on each task.

   The cursor, or mouse highlight, rests in the field for the first 
task: to start, you simply begin typing an entry. Since the first task 
is ordering stock, you enter that. Pressing the TAB key moves the 
highlight over to the duration field. Duration defaults to one day, but 
time can be specified in terms of minutes, hours, days or weeks. Just as 
a hypothetical guess (as opposed to general speculation), you figure it 
will probably take about a week to do the ordering, so you type 1w into 
this field. This number will change and adjust itself more accurately as 
you progress.

   As mentioned, the bottom half of the screen shows more detail about 
each of the tasks. One key field there is labeled Start Date. It 
defaults to today's date. Since the sale is March 14th, however, it will 
be necessary to plan for and place the order in January. Clicking the 
mouse on the Start Date field allows the entry there to be changed to 
01/03/95.

   The down arrow or a mouse click moves the highlight to the second 
task. Rather than staying so general, here you can break the ordering of 
stock into smaller components. Three things constitute the task of 
ordering: taking inventory of what is presently in stock (and hasn't 
sold since you bought the store from Mrs. Badders); checking prices to 
see which vendor has the best deal (free trinkets with every order); and 
ordering more stock. These items are entered as tasks 2, 3 and 4 -- the 
amount of time it will take to do each amounts to one day, two days and 
one day, respectively.

   An interesting element now presents itself: the last three entries 
cannot exist independently of each other. The last task, ordering, 
cannot be done until the other two are completed. Likewise, the second 
task, comparing prices, cannot be done until inventory is finished and 
you know which items need to be ordered. Since they aren't independent 
of each other, these tasks are said to be linked together -- one must be 
completed before the next can begin. To signify this, you use the mouse 
to highlight all three and click on the icon signifying a chain link. 
This schedules the start date of each task as the day after the end date 
of the task preceding it.

   In addition to being linked together, the tree tasks are all subtasks 
of the Order Stock process. Order Stock contains no components that are 
not listed beneath, so it is a summary of the tasks that follow. 
Highlighting the three subtasks beneath and clicking the mouse on the 
right arrow icon reduces these tasks to a lower level and corrects the 
amount of time estimation for Order Stock to reflect all components 
beneath it.

   The next event that must occur is not really a task but a milestone 
that must be calculated and accounted for: the arrival of the order. If 
the order is placed on January 6th, a good approximation (given the 
general slowness of package delivery) is that the stock will arrive on 
February 1st. Thus Task 5 becomes Shipment Arrives. The duration is set 
to zero days since it requires no work, and the start date is changed 
from today's date to 02/01/95. Notice the difference between the 
graphical characters used for the summary task (a marked line), 
individual tasks (rectangles), and an historical note (a diamond).


>>[ Adding More Tasks ]<<

  The next order of business is to prepare the mail flyer to lure in 
past customers who foolishly gave their names and addresses, thinking 
they would win free memberships to a health spa. Preparing the flyer is 
really a summary task much like ordering stock: it can be broken into 
several smaller individual components. This time the individual 
components include laying out the ad, updating the old mailing list with 
new customers, taking the package to the printer, and having the printer 
throw it all together. The steps are identical to those already taken.

   First, you enter Prepare Mail Flyer as a task. Since it is a summary 
task, estimating the amount of time it will take isn't even worth the 
bother. Next, you add the other tasks and the amount of time they will 
require. Once more these tasks are linked to each other -- the package 
cannot be taken to the printer until the ad is laid out and the mailing 
list updated. For this reason the only date that is of great 
significance is the date the first task of the set will begin. January 
10th is an appropriate enough date for beginning to lay out the ad; 
doing so will probably take a week, so that is entered in the task form 
on the bottom half of the page.

   Next, you highlight with the mouse all tasks related to the flyer and 
click on the chain-link icon. Now the start date for each successive 
task becomes one day after the stop date of the preceding one. Since 
these are all beneath the summary of Prepare Mail Flyer, you use the 
mouse to highlight the tasks once more and click on the right-arrow 
icon. Other tasks that follow this are mailing the flyer (March 7th, one 
week before the sale), preparing the store (one week), and the sale 
itself (12 hours).


>>[ Editing the Outline ]<<

   The program now shows the outline with Prepare Store, followed by the 
sale itself. Unfortunately this does not provide enough information 
about everything involved in preparing the store. This task needs to be 
broken into subtasks. To do so, you move the cursor highlight to the 
Sale task entry. From the menu choices across the top of the screen, you 
choose Edit, followed by Insert. A blank task is magically created 
between the two existing entries. You repeat this procedure three more 
times, adding a total of four subtasks: stock the shelves, install a 
second cash register (I told you this was a big sale!), train the 
temporary help, and hang the signs saved from last year's sale.

   Since they're dependent upon each other, the subtasks are linked and 
then demoted to beneath Prepare Store, making it in essence a summary 
task.

   From the Options menu you can now choose Spelling to have your 
outline scanned for spelling errors. Optionally the palette can be 
changed so historical events appear as symbols other than diamonds, 
summary tasks a different color from black, etc.

   A variety of editing functions can be performed once the outline is 
in this state. Just as tasks can be inserted, so can they be deleted if 
they turn out to be unneeded. (Sleep comfortably -- if you accidentally 
delete the wrong task, the Undo choice from the Edit menu brings it 
back.) If the outline is not in the order you want the items to appear, 
you can rearrange the tasks using the Cut and Paste options.

   One of the more curious features is the ability to hide subtasks on a 
printout in case the printout is for someone who need not know intimate 
details. To do so, merely highlight the tasks with the mouse and click 
on the minus (-) icon. The plus (+) icon brings them back into view.


>>[ Managing the Project ]<<

   As time progresses, each task plays a role in the overall outcome of 
the project. If the inventory takes three days to complete rather than 
one, the ordering of puzzles is knocked back to January 10th (taking 
weekends into account).

   Conversely, if the layout for the flyer takes only two days, 
signaling it as completed (clicking on the finished icon) recalculates 
all tasks linked to it and moves them forward. If you do not want them 
moved forward, even though the task on which they are dependent has been 
finished early, you can mark their time frames as fixed.

   If this project is related to another, multiple projects can be 
started at the same time. Likewise, information can be imported and 
exported between a variety of spreadsheets and ASCII text editors. If 
you are concerned about prying eyes seeing things they should not, 
passwords can be assigned to individual projects by clicking on the 
password icon when saving the document.


>>[ Miscellaneous Notes ]<<

   One of Project's highlights is that everything is configurable. If 
you do not like the Task Entry form that comes up each time you begin 
the program, you can redefine it by taking away the Gannt chart, 
changing it for a PERT chart or changing the bottom half of the screen 
to reflect something other than the default view. All these 
possibilities are accessible via the Options menu choice; selecting the 
Default View option forever changes the startup.

   When generating printouts of the information, Project tends to 
consume multiple pages. A Fit to Page option is available from the menu 
that forces the printouts to confine themselves to only one page, but 
that option is available only if your default printer is a PostScript 
printer. Otherwise there is no way to prevent the program's using 
multiple pages (the example I've given required 19 pages to print on a 
dot-matrix printer).

   Just as the left-arrow icon demotes highlighted items, making them 
subordinate to a summary task, the right-arrow icon promotes them to a 
higher level. Altogether you can have up to 10 layers of subordinate 
tasks beneath each other. (In Project's next release this number will 
increase.)

   Resources -- anything from employees to semi trailers or pieces of 
machinery -- can be entered and assigned to tasks and subtasks. For 
example, employees can be added, each working eight-hour days, and 
assigned to tasks. If a task takes 16 hours and has one employee 
assigned to it, it will naturally take two days to complete. Adding 
another employee recalculates the project and reduces the specific 
task's completion date to one day. To each resource can be assigned a 
dollar value in terms of time (so much per hour, day, week, etc.), 
allowing reports to be generated showing the cost of a project. If the 
cost of a resource changes, the unfinished portion of the project 
recalculates and keeps the estimate exact.

   Calendars can be created as a base default for everything or 
individually for resources. The default is for all resources to be 
allotted five days a week for eight hours a day. For a retail 
establishment this is not realistic, obviously, and the calendar must be 
changed to allow for 12-hour days, six days a week. Additional days must 
be marked off for holidays. It is well-worth the time required to do 
this: when a task requires five days and one of those days falls on a 
nonwork day, the task-completion date will still reflect the working 
days.

   Project's online tutorial is outstanding. At any time it can be 
selected from the Help option, and a menu of possible topics 
materializes. Any portion of the tutorial is independently accessible; 
when you have found an answer for whatever burning question you have, 
you return to your project exactly where you left off.

   All in all, Project does an excellent job of allowing you to 
establish and manage tasks and resources. Its reporting abilities are as 
good as those of any other product on the market, and its ease of use is 
unequaled by any similar product. I highly recommend it for anyone 
working on more than one project that requires planning of tasks, time 
and resources.

                                  -=*=-

              Emmett Dulaney is the author of Voodoo NetWare
           and a few other books. He can be reached at P.O. 
           Box 353, Muncie, IN  47308; on America Online as 
           username EDULANEY; or via the Internet at 
           edulaney@aol.com.

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PIPELINE    \|/    by Ed Juge
~~~~~~~~           Contributing Editor

"In a competitive market, retailers should differentiate themselves by 
superior service"

                          CUSTOMER SERVICE:
                      ONE PC BUYER'S NIGHTMARE

   For many years, computer vendors fought to introduce features that 
would give you and me a reason to buy their product or shop at their 
store. Frankly most PCs today are pretty solid, reliable and 
competitively priced. Differentiation is becoming more difficult. How 
well are vendors meeting the challenge? It's not all roses!

   I don't know about you, but there are a few things computer 
manufacturers and retailers can do to get my business. They can provide 
exceptional service. They can make things easy to use -- you know, 
minimal required instructions. When instructions are required, they 
should be clear and concise. I'm just not interested anymore in knowing 
what really goes on inside the box . . . I want a product that fills my 
need with the shortest possible installation procedure and learning 
curve.


>>[ How Bad Can it Get? ]<<

   Pretty bad! There are enough really super products and companies out 
there that my preference is to write only about positive experiences. 
This month, however, I want to relate an experience so bad it epitomizes 
the areas in our industry that need the most attention. Since it is not 
my practice to bad-mouth anyone, the companies shall remain anonymous. 
No doubt they will recognize themselves.

   Let's set the stage: My trusty portable CD-ROM drive failed suddenly, 
at the worst possible time. Those things happen. That's not what this 
story is about.

   It was Saturday. I was due in New York on Monday for a major trade 
show. Several meetings were scheduled each day, all centered around a 
CD-ROM demo. There was no choice but to buy a backup unit. It had to 
attach to my notebook computer's parallel port.

   After calling every area store, I learned the nearest qualifying CD-
ROM player was at a store 20 miles away. The price was high, but not 
unreasonable for a top-of-the-line unit.


>>[ What Parts Are Needed? ]<<

   "Does that include everything I need to connect it to my IBM 
ThinkPad's parallel port? Are you sure?"

   "Yes, sir! Yes, I have it in my hands, and the cable you need is 
included in the box."

   For a second opinion, I called the company's Dallas branch, 80 miles 
distant.

   "Oh, no, you must have a ($160) SCSI-to-parallel adapter. We have the 
adapter, but we're out of the drives."

   I picked up the adapter first and found a battery pack for the drive. 
"Does it require a charger?" I asked. The salesman conferred with three 
others, and 20 minutes later announced that the battery trickle charged 
while connected to the drive. (There were two accessory chargers 
available, but not required.)

   At the second store I read through the manuals and still couldn't 
locate any mention of battery operation, so I asked again. Again there 
was a conference of four salespeople, and the consensus was the same -- 
trickle charge during operation.

   Interestingly, there seems to be no mention of battery or chargers in 
either the user's manual or an included "Cables and Accessories" guide.


>>[ Who Knows! ]<<

   (In the nearby store . . . ) "By the way, you fellows told me I don't 
need any kind of adapter, yet your Dallas store says I do." Three 
salesmen said no, but a fourth disagreed with such conviction the other 
three let him win. Yes, I did need one.

   In defense of the retailer, I must say this product -- reviewed as 
one of the market leaders in its field -- has the most confusing, 
incomplete and even inaccurate documentation I have seen in my nearly 20 
years in the PC business. It is no wonder the poor salesmen didn't have 
a clue.

   Three hours later, after nearly 200 miles in the 102-degree summer 
heat, I was home, connecting the system.

   There was an adapter and extra cable included in the interface box. I 
found no mention of either in the documentation. I still haven't a clue 
what the separate cable is for. Fortunately the necessary components 
plug together only one way.

   There were three manuals: one on the drive, one on the adapter and a 
third on the interface kit. Instead of getting a new user up and 
running, the drive manual starts with a description of the software 
technology, then a list of all files on the driver disk, then how to use 
the manual, software features, and files again . . . a tedious 2-1/2-
page list of all the disk files. Who cares! This kind of information 
belongs in an appendix. Finally, on Page 12, is a description of loading 
the drivers from Windows.

   The "simple" setup (I swear, that's what it said) first says, "Select 
which interface drivers you wish to install." The manual says, "Select 
the adapter using the (arrow) keys and then select OK." Wonderful. There 
are four or five options, but nowhere in either box, in any manual or on 
the products themselves, could I locate any designation that remotely 
resembled any of the listed options. So, I assumed the dummy position 
and went with the default selection. I let the installation program 
modify the required files.

   Power on. Boot. "No SCSI device found -- aborting driver loading." 
After a frustrating hour of checking and double-checking, I called the 
dealer's technical support department.

   "Are the switches set right?"

   "Yes."

   "MSCDEX must be loaded first."

   "I used the manufacturer's auto-install procedure. It loads the 
drivers in CONFIG.SYS and MSCDEX in AUTOEXEC.BAT."

   "Well, that's wrong." (It wasn't.)

   "If I bring it in tomorrow morning, can you look at it for me?"

   "Yes."

   In the interim, I decided to go through the trouble-shooting 
instructions in the SCSI adapter manual. "If ‘No SCSI Host Adapter 
Detected' message appears, check to be sure there is proper termination 
power available from your SCSI device. You can do this with a voltmeter 
by measuring the voltage available between Pin 38 and ground on the SCSI 
device's connector (See Section 5.0 for pinout details) . . . should be 
approximately +5 volts." OK, voltmeter says 4.75. Close enough.

   "Very low or no voltage at Pin 25 indicates a problem with 
termination power; this condition will disable the adapter." Whoa! 
Bingo. Voltmeter reads zero volts. Well, maybe and maybe not.

   Going back to "Section 5.0," we find Pin 25 listed as "Gnd." So, how 
-- exactly -- is a grounded pin supposed to have voltage on it? Enough 
of this silliness. Let the experts check it tomorrow. At least I enjoyed 
Neil Diamond's Hot August Night 2 while going through the testing! The 
drive did work, at least for audio.

   I let the battery "charge" all Saturday night attached to the drive. 
Sunday morning, Neil crashed and burned 20 seconds into his first 
number. Obviously the battery does not charge from the drive itself. 
There was certainly nothing in any of the docs to tell us, so eight 
salesmen and I made a reasonable -- but wrong -- choice.

Customer Service Time!

   Sunday morning, I was standing at the retailer's service desk 10 
minutes after opening. "I called yesterday. Can't get this CD-ROM to 
work. I was told you will look at it for me?"

   "I'm sorry, sir, we would have to charge you $65 an hour since you 
chose to install it yourself."

   "But, there is no installation except the driver. It just plugs in."

   "Sorry sir, I wish I could, but that's company policy."

   "I'll make you a deal," I offered. "Check it out. If it's something I 
did wrong, I'll pay your fee. If the product is defective, you don't 
charge me."

   "Sorry, sir, I can't do that."

   "You mean you'd rather refund my money and have $600 worth of used 
equipment than to take just a couple of minutes to see if you can spot 
anything obvious?"

   "I'm sorry, that's policy."

   "This is really going to put me in a bind. I need a working drive in 
New York City tomorrow!"

   "I'm really sorry."

   So much for customer service at the retail level.

   I took the refund and left. This is, to me, the epitome of how not to 
service your customers. The young fellow was exceptionally courteous and 
was truly sorry he couldn't help.

   You have to ask what they will do with that potentially defective 
drive. Will they take a loss on it as an as-is return? Will they look at 
it after all, now that it's theirs again, but when it's too late to save 
a sale and help a customer? Will they just ship it back to the 
manufacturer for a refund? And what will the manufacturer do with it? 
All this could have been avoided -- and a real service could have been 
done to the customer -- if company policy had allowed a few minutes to 
check the product. What ever happened to the adage, "Take care of your 
customers and they'll take care of you"?

   Is this the kind of customer service that differentiates this company 
from its competition? Pity!

   Vendor problems aside, I figured, surely a manufacturer of this 
stature would be interested in all the problems a customer -- a rather 
computer-literate customer at that -- had with its product and 
documentation. I fired off a three-page, detailed fax to the 
manufacturer's technical support fax number. As I am writing this, one 
week later, I have heard not a word from them. It must be assumed that 
1) they already know; 2) they don't really care; or 3) their customer 
service response time is in excess of six days. Maybe all of the above.


>>[ One Last Chance ]<<

   Sunday evening before the trip, I telephoned this same retailer's New 
York City store. "Do you have a drive and cable, and can you deliver it 
to my hotel in the morning?"

   "Yes, sir, you bet!"

   "Fine, here's my credit card number and the hotel's address."

   Saved! Well, not quite.

   There was no package waiting at my hotel. I called the store.

   "That order was canceled, sir."

   "No way!"

   It seems the salesman found he was not allowed to deliver to a hotel, 
so he simply canceled the order. "I'll be right over to get it," I told 
the lady.

   As I approached the corporate pickup counter, a bright, cheerful face 
lit up. "You're Mr. Juge?"

   "Yes, and that's my CD-ROM?"

   "You bet. Uh (sheepishly), your computer already has a SCSI port, 
right?"

   "No, I need the adapter."

   "Uh, we don't have one."

   "What? You had one yesterday!"

   The store manager apologized sincerely and profusely. This was not 
the first such problem with that salesman, and he had been terminated 
earlier that day.

   Fortunately, another salesperson located the needed interface, and I 
was off to the hotel, already late for my first appointment.

Manufacturer Support?

   Once again, the boot-up message, "No SCSI device found -- aborting." 
I scrambled through the book to find the manufacturer's technical 
support number.

   "Technical support is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. 
to 8 p.m. Eastern Time." It was 5:35 p.m. Eastern. I dialed. The 800 
number was not a working number, so I re-dialed, long distance, and was 
put into the queue by an automated system. A couple of minutes later 
came the usual, "All our representatives are busy; please continue to 
hold," message.


>>[ Not This Time ]<<

   After holding 15 to 20 minutes I realized there had been no further, 
"Please continue to hold," messages, only the pleasant music-on-hold. I 
had a sinking feeling. It was worth losing my place in the queue. I hung 
up and dialed again. Sure enough, the message this time was, "Sorry, 
we're closed!" Did they intend to leave me holding 'til morning? What 
happened to the 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time hours? Do they have any 
idea how expensive long-distance calls are from a New York City hotel 
that adds its own charge to each minute?


>>[ Desperation is the Mother of Invention ]<<

   With the clock ticking, I decided the only unknown factors I could 
control were those unidentified interface options on the opening screen 
during driver loading. I looked in the appropriate directory, wrote down 
all filenames that appeared to be driver options, and began trying them 
one at a time.

   Would you believe the last one worked! Persistence is sometimes 
rewarded.


>>[ Moral ]<<

   Maybe I missed something, but it seems to me that with the keen 
competition between vendors and between retailers, they should be 
working harder than ever to get and keep customers. Customer service and 
making the purchasing experience pleasant for the customer should be top 
priority. Without a doubt, this is the case with many companies.

   It was incredible to me that so many negative things happened in what 
should have been a simple purchase. The dealer's staff didn't know what 
parts to sell me. They couldn't tell me how to make them work. The 
technical staffers (on the phone) knew little about the product and 
obviously had no vendor material to help them support the product. The 
retailer would rather give a refund than spend 15 minutes trying to save 
a sale and help a customer. (As it turns out, they probably could have 
gotten the first drive running in five minutes if they had known 
anything at all about them.) The documentation was confusing, incomplete 
and incorrect. The manufacturer's technical support hours were listed 
incorrectly, and they left me on hold when they closed and went home. 
Come on, guys, at least sever the connection -- don't just let me sit 
there, especially with the meter running.

   Retailers, get your acts together. Even large, local superstores 
aren't going to win a price-only war. The mail-order folks sell for 
less, usually saving the sales tax, and they deliver overnight, right to 
the customer's door. Superior service and local support are compelling 
reasons to buy from you, if you deliver -- maybe the most compelling 
reasons. In this case, there was zero advantage to me in buying locally.

   Manufacturers, your competition has good technology, too. Being a 
"big name" isn't much of a draw anymore. Buyers are less and less name-
conscious. If the buy decision comes down to ease of use, documentation 
and support, will you fare? Let's hope better than the company in this 
story.

   This kind of war story just shouldn't happen.

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RIDING THE INTERNET    \|/    by Lauren Willoughby
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~           All-Purpose Editor

"If you venture into the World Wide Web, clear your calendar. . . "

                           CAUGHT IN THE WEB

   I'm not an expert on the Internet. So bear with me as I gush like a 
newbie about my encounters with the World Wide Web. I don't have a SLIP 
account (yet), but I've been able to use Prodigy's new graphical Web 
browser, which gives you a window onto the Web similar to Mosaic's and 
Netscape's. (At this time Prodigy is the only major online service 
offering a graphical, Windows-based Web browser. It's pretty cool!)

   What's the World Wide Web? It's a collection of "pages" and sites 
that, taken together, create the largest hyperlinked publication medium 
the world has ever known. Just about anybody with an Internet SLIP or 
PPP account can slap together a home page (if the Internet provider 
allows). And what's a home page? It's simply a text file -- like a plain 
ASCII file on whatever the author wants to write about. Sounds pretty 
boring, huh? But while the author developing the page sees it as plain 
text, Web browsers see the finished result as a mouse-friendly, 
extremely intuitive, interactive publication that looks like it came out 
of a "desktop publisher for the screen." Web pages can even have 
graphics, act as menus, include online forms (which you can fill out to 
find information), and let you download programs with a single mouse 
click.

   To create the "desktop-published" effect, a Web author simply formats 
the text with tags (sort of like the formatting tags used on ancient 
typesetting machines). The tagging convention is called HTML, or 
hypertext markup language. HTML tags let you designate lines of text as 
headlines (really LARGE, bold type), subheads (large type) and plain 
text. Plain text, by the way, appears in a proportional font, so it's 
very readable. To insert an inline graphic image, you simply type a tag 
that points to a graphic file.

   Web browser software sort of works like QBASIC -- it's an 
interpreter. It reads in an HTML file, deciphers the tagged formatting 
information, and displays the result much as if it were a word 
processing file (click on the vertical scroll bar to page down). The Web 
browser program you use can format text just about as quickly as it is 
received. Graphics take longer to appear. So sometimes there will seem 
to be "holes" in a Web document where graphics should be; but in the 
background, the bitmap graphic is being transmitted and, if you wait 
long enough, will eventually fill up the hole. Larger graphic images 
take longer to arrive, of course.

   The most awe-inspiring thing a Web document author can do when 
formatting Web text is insert a tag that refers a browser to another Web 
site! ANY page can include a pointer to ANY other Web page on the 
Internet -- just click and you're there! "Hyperlinks" show up as 
underlined, blue words. (Think Windows Help, where underlined, green 
words can move you to other topics.) That's why it's called the "Web" -- 
thousands (millions?) of pages are connected together by hyperlink 
strands.

   In my very first browsing session, I was deposited on the Prodigy 
home page, which was mainly a menu to other interesting places on the 
Web. Because I'm into publishing and wanted to see how a newspaper would 
make use of the Internet, I clicked on the San Jose Mercury link. In 
addition to presenting its own content, the site offered up a menu of 
yet more Web sites. Something about the sound of "Joseph Wu's Origami 
Page" intrigued me, so off I went there. Besides offering discussions on 
the history and technique of paper folding, and pictures of his work, 
Mr. Wu kindly includes links to the pages of other origami enthusiasts. 
And off I went.

   And thus was I snared . . . caught in the Web. It's an adventure game 
come to life. No, you don't have to choose between killing the ogre or 
climbing the rope, but you have innumerable choices of places to go, 
things to see. The branches seem infinite. Part of the fun is that there 
is no roadmap. (Yes, I have heard of something called the "Yahoo List." 
Someday I might luck into it.) You find everything by exploring, jumping 
from one site to the next on the blue hyperlinks. I've also found out 
about neat sites from fellow Internet travelers. Occasionally they'll 
pass along a good URL (universal resource locator -- an address). Just 
today Ed, a coworker, gave me the URL for CBS's Web site, where you can 
read all David Letterman's Top 10 lists, and even search for specific 
ones -- like all those that concern O.J. Simpson or Madonna <G>.

   I think there must be stages of Web experience. And I think I'm still 
in the preliminary "don't-stop-and-read-now-just-see-how-many-places-
you-can-find-at-one-sitting" stage. This must be the "surfing" everybody 
keeps talking about. Fortunately web browsing software lets you capture 
the addresses of sites so you can come back later when the initial orgy 
of exploration is over. While Web-browsing I grossly overshot the 
allotted amount of free "Plus Time" Prodigy gives its users each month. 
My bill is going to be outrageous.

   Whatever I end up paying, it'll have been worth it. You never know 
what you'll find out there in Cyberspace. Corporate entities share the 
Web with entrepreneurs, scientists, Star Trek fans and hobbyists of all 
stripes -- each of which can turn your home computer into a kiosk for 
special interests. For every topic under the sun, there is (or likely 
will soon be) a Web site. Finding the address, now that's the tricky 
part.

   Speaking of addresses, below I've included the URLs for the sites 
mentioned above, and others. Next month I'll dish up more news from the 
World Wide Web -- and more cool sites!

                                 -=*=-

                           WWW SITES TO SEE

San Jose Mercury: a regional showpiece.
   http://www.sjmercury.com

Joseph Wu's Origami Page: all about the fine art of decorative paper 
folding.
   http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/jwu/origami.html

CBS home page: all David Letterman's Top 10 Lists -- with a search 
engine! More!
   http://www.cbs.com

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Leno's jokes, digitized photos, 
scheduled guests.
   http://www.nbctonightshow.com/

Virtual Shareware Library: -- if you can't find it here, does it exist?
   http://www.fagg.uni-lj.si/SHASE/

FedWorld Beta Home Page: the front end to many government Web sites.
   http://www.fedworld.gov

U.S.S. Voyager Sickbay: for fans of the newest Star Trek series. 
Download crew photos, read episode summaries.
   http://voyager.paramount.com

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: just the thing for rabid fans! 
(Actually a stunning example of Web formatting)
   http://www.hyperion.com/lurk/lurker.html

Games Domain: games information site
   http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain

Entertainment: more recipes than you can shake a spatula at.
   http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/Entertainment/Cooking/

Xerox PARC Map Viewer: find out how far apart New York City and Paducah, 
Kentucky, are!
   http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map

Security APL Quote Server: look up stock quotes
   http://www.secapl.com/cgi-bin/qs

NASA Information Services: space news!
   http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html

                                 -=*=-

              Lauren Willoughby, a self-proclaimed computer
           nerd, lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and admits to 
           these weaknesses: science-fiction novels (Heinlein,
           Brin, Bujold, Sterling, Varley), pizza (anything but
           anchovies) and tennis.

-=-------------        -=*=-     -=*=-     -=*=-        -------------=-

WINDOWS 95 SCOOP    \|/    by Ed Ellers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~           Technical Editor

"Does your computer have the right stuff for Windows' next generation?"

                    WHAT YOU'LL NEED FOR WINDOWS 95


SO WHAT KIND OF COMPUTER WILL I NEED FOR WINDOWS 95?

Any PC-compatible system with a 386 or better processor will work -- 
even a 386SX will do. Of course faster chips like the 486, Pentium and 
even newer designs are good to have, but you don't NEED a fast system 
for Windows 95 any more (or less) than you would for Windows 3.x. We 
tested Windows 95 briefly on a 20 MHz 386SX and confirmed that it ran 
reasonably well on that "slow" machine.


HOW MUCH MEMORY? WILL IT REALLY RUN IN 4 MB, OR DO I REALLY NEED 8?

Windows 95 really does run in 4MB, despite what some of its detractors 
say. Microsoft has been saying for months that 95 will work as well in 
4MB as Windows for Workgroups 3.11 does now; I tried it on my own 40MHz 
386DX system with 4MB RAM and found this to be true -- applications that 
ran well in 4MB still did, and those that were sluggish in 4MB at least 
didn't get any worse. In fact one application I tried -- Paint Shop Pro 
2.0 from JASC, Inc. -- benefited greatly from Windows 95's improved 
memory management; on a 4MB system under Windows 3.x it often has 
trouble dealing with 1MB image files, but with Windows 95 I was able to 
process 6MB images without difficulty (though with a lot of swapping to 
the hard drive).

That said, you'll be a lot better off with 8MB (or even 6, on a 386SX 
system) whether you're using Windows 3.x or Windows 95.


SPEAKING OF HARD DRIVES, WILL I NEED TO UPGRADE THAT?

Maybe, if it's a small one. A typical Windows 95 installation at PCM's 
editorial offices took a little over 52MB; a typical Windows for 
Workgroups 3.11 installation took something over 12MB. If you have an 
old drive of less than 105MB capacity you'll almost certainly want to 
upgrade, not just for the disk space but for extra speed as well. 
Fortunately hard disk prices have tumbled so dramatically that you can 
now get a 540MB IDE hard disk for less than you might have paid for a 
40MB drive three years ago -- between $200 and $250 -- and even if you 
have to buy a new IDE controller to replace an older MFM, RLL or ESDI 
controller that won't set you back more than $40 or so.


HOW ABOUT VIDEO?

You'll need at least 16-color VGA capability, so the only folks who will 
need to upgrade that are those who are still running EGA or other older, 
non-VGA displays. Microsoft expects to support most accelerated VGA and 
SVGA displays, but for the few that won't be included Windows 95 can 
actually use Windows 3.1 video drivers.


ANY OTHER HARDWARE?

Windows 95 works directly with many other devices -- it can handle SCSI 
CD-ROMs and many read/write or WORM optical drives, IDE CD-ROM drives, 
and many "bus-type" CD-ROM drives made by Mitsumi, Panasonic 
(Matsushita) and Sony, with its own drivers. Drivers are also included 
for many sound cards and network interface cards as well as several 
other types of devices. If you can't find a Windows 95 driver for your 
device, you can probably still use it with a Windows 3.1 driver, a 
Windows NT 3.5 driver or MS-DOS drivers that load in the CONFIG.SYS and 
AUTOEXEC.BAT files.


WHAT ABOUT MY EXISTING WINDOWS PROGRAMS? WILL THEY STILL RUN?

Yes, as well as they did before -- and sometimes better, as I mentioned 
before. About the only thing you won't be able to do is load or save 
files with long filenames (something Windows 95 will add to the PC 
environment), but every long filename will have a short equivalent so 
you will be able to load the files and save them that way.


SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT NEW APPLICATIONS FOR WINDOWS 95?

One thing Microsoft had in mind was to move to a full 32-bit 386 
environment for as many things as possible -- to allow better 
multitasking (such as printing in the background while you keep working) 
and other reasons. Another goal was to make the same applications work 
well with both Windows 95 and Windows NT, Microsoft's high-end 
workstation operating system; NT has been around for two years but 
hasn't been all that popular, partly because 16-bit Windows 3.x 
applications run more slowly on NT than on 3.x. Microsoft is also 
pushing hard to get the industry to support its Object Linking and 
Embedding system -- a way to make different applications share data more 
effectively.

Microsoft's way of achieving this was to set a new standard for 
applications to qualify for the new "Designed for Windows 95" logo. To 
use the new logo, an application will have to be compatible with Windows 
NT 3.5 as well as Windows 95, and will have to support a number of 
special Windows 95 features (such as fax and E-mail) as well as OLE. 
This specification has been very controversial in the industry, 
especially since Microsoft had planned to withdraw the existing Windows 
logo from Windows 3.x applications, but recently Microsoft relented and 
will allow some continuing use of the old logo.


DOES THIS MEAN I'LL HAVE TO UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 95 TO USE NEW SOFTWARE?

No -- but it does mean you'll need a 386 system or better. Microsoft has 
a special library called Win32s that enables properly written 32-bit 
applications to run in Windows 3.1; it's a good bet that most publishers 
will write their new software to play all three ways and add Win32s to 
the package to be installed if needed.


HOW ABOUT DOS? WILL I HAVE TO UPGRADE THAT?

Maybe -- it depends on what version you have. Windows 95 comes with its 
own boot code and doesn't use MS-DOS to run, but it does need DOS for 
the install program. You can install Windows 95 with MS-DOS 4.0 or 
later, IBM PC DOS 4.0 or later, or later versions of DR DOS (now called 
Novell DOS); you can also do it with MS-DOS 3.x (but not IBM PC DOS 3.x) 
if you have a special version that was patched to allow large (over 
32MB) hard disk partitions (the most common example is Compaq's MS-DOS 
3.31).

If you're running OS/2 you'll need to disable the Boot Manager and boot 
the system using DOS to install Windows 95; once that's done the Boot 
Manager can be re-enabled. (Windows 95 can't see OS/2's special HPFS 
partitions, but it will work on FAT-type partitions.) If you use Windows 
NT, you can install Windows 95 as long as you have a FAT partition to 
put it in; Windows 95 won't use NTFS partitions either.


SO CAN I STILL USE DOS AFTER I INSTALL WINDOWS 95?

Yes, indeed -- though in some cases it's a bit tricky to get it to work. 
If you install Windows 95 on top of Windows 3.x, you'll need to change a 
line in the MSDOS.SYS file -- which believe it or not is now a text 
file! If you install it in a different directory (or on a system that 
had OS/2 or Windows NT installed) dual-booting will be set up 
automatically, so when you see "Starting Windows 95..." appear pressing 
[F4] will give you the "old" operating system.


WHAT ABOUT WINDOWS 3.X? CAN I KEEP IT INSTALLED?

Yes, but it's a little involved to do and Microsoft doesn't recommend 
it. The preferred method of upgrading to Windows 95 is to put it in the 
existing Windows directory -- this will keep all your Program Manager 
groups (and add them to the new Start Menu), preserves application 
settings that may be in the WIN.INI file, uses files and drivers that 
you have already installed (such as TrueType fonts, .DLL files for your 
applications, or things like Adobe Type Manager) and keeps a few Windows 
3.x accessories (like Calendar and Cardfile) that aren't included with 
Windows 95.

If you instead specify a different directory for Windows 95 -- such as 
C:\WIN95 -- Windows 95 won't touch anything that was installed in 
Windows 3.x. This means you'll have to bring it all over manually; this 
can be easy or hard, depending on what each program needs to run. You 
can import each Program Manager group you want without much trouble, but 
in some cases you'll have to copy .DLL files from your Windows 3.x 
SYSTEM directory to the new one for Windows 95 to make certain programs 
work. In extreme cases you'll need to re-install programs under Windows 
95.

We'll have more details on how to make the switch later this year in PCM 
-- including a way to make even the most cantankerous DOS programs (or 
even Windows 3.1!) run from the Windows 95 Start Menu.

                                 -=*=-

           Ed Ellers is a self-confessed electronics fanatic
           whose other interests include photography and 
           science-fiction writing. He can be contacted on 
           Delphi, username EDELLERS, or via the Internet at 
           edellers@delphi.com.

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