![[UCS Trademark]](../../images/blulogo.jpg)
This month's presenter is Cirque and
the Cirque "Cat" family.
The Cirque "Cat" family of touchpads is destined (they believe) to replace the computer mouse by offering superior technology and added value features. The product line's high-end product, Cirque Power Cat, includes basic "Cat" touchpad features like GlideExtend (the ability to continue dragging an item after reaching the end of the pad by repositioning the finger and continuing the dragging motion), double clicks and right clicks on the pad face. Users will also find the pads are more responsive thanks to an increased reporting rate 100 samples per second, as opposed to 40 samples per second of standard mice and other pointing devices.
On top of the basic features, Cirque Power Cat users can also scroll through documents in a variety of Windows 95 applications, including Office 97, Office 95, and Netscape Navigator. Zooming capabilities are available when working in Office 97 applications. They can also surf the web by utilizing the back and forward space on the touchpad. This area of the pad correlates with the back and forward button on the Internet browser. By using the included stylus, users can sign their names or draw simple pictures with their Power Cat. These signatures or images can be pasted into documents or saved to be used in future documents.
Other members of the "Cat" family in include Cirque Easy Cat (Plug-n-Play base model) and Cirque Smart Cat (includes basic features plus scrolling and zooming capabilities). All three products can be found at leading retailers nationwide. Cirque Corporation and their "Cat" series of touchpads are the result of one man's frustration with his mouse. In 1988, Dr. George Gerpheide gathered together a team of researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah with a vision to develop a better interactive link between computer and user. In 1991, as a result of that meeting, Gerpheide together with Jim O'Callahan founded Cirque Corporation and introduced the computer world to the touchpad.
(Each month a member of the Board of Trustees informs us of their interests
and concerns.)
by Dave Otterstrom
The hardest thing for the Board of Trustees to do, is to try to figure
out what that large group of people that meet once a month at the University,
expect of us. What they want to see, learn, and perhaps win as a door prize
at the end of the meeting.
The reason for this column is for one of the board members to let the members of the group know what's cooking. What new vendor we've found to come and show their wares. What we can do to make us a better group. So here's some of the things that are in the works for the Utah Blue Chips.
I haven't yet figured what #4 will be yet. Remember in late February to early March `99 we're trying to have the regional meeting for the APCUG (Association of PC. User Groups) plus who knows what else is going to happen?
I know that just this last week none other than Bill Gates was in Europe on the way to meet some Belgian Government officials and somebody hit him in the face with a pie. I guess there is still some poetic justice left when you can hit the richest man in the world in the face with a pie!
![[Color Bar]](../../images/rainbar.gif){kind=small}
![[Photo of Cliff]](../../images/cliff151.jpg)
![[Baton Bleu Image]](../../images/baton.gif)
By Cliff Millward, Editor
What Is Truth?
I am not trying to get political here, but my observations of
the U.S. lately is that many are trying to cover events up by obfuscation
and subterfuge. This seems to be advanced by lawyers interested only in
protecting their clients instead of obtaining the truth. Justice is compromised
by the so-called "protection of individual rights."
I believe this started with the O. J. Simpson trial when political correctness prevailed over common sense. It has been further exacerbated by the immoral fiasco emanating from our nation's capital.
What has all this to do with computing? Well, look at the lawsuits against Microsoft, et. al.
I guess I am annoyed by this because of some stories from my family history. My grandfather once told me that his grandfather (my great-great grandfather) was a very wealthy man. He owned a chain of nation-wide stores in England. Some unscrupulous "friends" of his proceeded to get him inebriated one evening and had him sign papers turning over the business to them. To make a long story short, it was fought in the courts for 20 years until the lawyers had all the money.
Sometimes I believe lawyers are making a mockery of our judicial system. People can't even express their opinions anymore without the threat of a lawsuit. Look at the Oprah trial. Whatever happened to common sense, decency, fair play, justice, morality? Lawyers would have us believe that black is gray and white is impossible.
I know that blanket indictments are usually incorrect, so when I say lawyers, I really mean unscrupulous lawyers. However, some would say that "honest lawyers" is an oxymoron! One of the few lawyers I might trust is my daughter who is pursuing a law degree at the University of Utah. (Another might be John Ogilvie who writes our Law++ column.)
Again, what does this have to do with computing? Lawyers are trying to restrict the Internet. First, let me state that I abhor the filth that can be obtained on the Internet, but where do you draw the line, and who draws it?
Common sense tells us that parents are responsible for raising their children and children must be protected, mentally and physically, from circumstances that would harm them or us. You would not give a book entitled "How to Make and Use an Atom Bomb in 10 Easy Lessons" to your grade school child (or anyone else for that matter!) However, some sites on the Internet are not far from the above illustration.
The Problem is, how do we keep an open society, yet keep dangerous materials that would destroy our society, out of the hands of individuals who are not mature enough to understand, or don't care about the implications of their actions? Also, what do we do with individuals who are determined to destroy us and/or our society?
I believe there is no easy answer, but the closest one is diligence; diligence practiced by a majority of the populace with diligence being the catalyst to action.
If you are unhappy about some sites on the Internet, software is available to block out certain sites. Perhaps in the future some providers will specialize in filtering out certain objectionable materials which you authorize. Until that time, you must be diligent. Don't depend on someone else to do everything for you!
Also, the old cliché "action speaks louder than words" is still valid today. If you don't like a particular companies practices, don't buy or use their products. If you don't like a particular law, call, fax or write your congressman. (ed. note - read James Alexander's Presidents Porch column on page 5) There is another old cliché which states that "the only way for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."
I do not apologize for this tirade; I get annoyed when I see subterfuge and obfuscation: when money and power dictate and control actions. I believe when rights are in conflict, the will of the majority should be given preference. In other words, common sense, not Social Darwinism!
am1010 News
On February 7, Preston Anderson and I interviewed Walt Wilson, the
person who represented Imation at our meetings on February 11. The interview
was well received. Donna Nendell called and asked Walt a few questions.
The program on February 14 consisted mostly of a review of the Microsoft legal problems.
On February 21, we tackled some SOHO problems. One person wasn't sure how to set up her computer to handle phone business options. We helped her and, as a result, she was lucky enough to go to the Egghead clearance sale and find the software she needed! Preston also informed her of several places where she could list her business on the WEB. She was very grateful.
Several other calls were also received. It's nice to know that we are helping people through this Blue Chips program. Listen in and tell your friends about it!
![[President's Porch Image]](../../images/porch.gif)
. . . from the President's Porch
by James Alexander
PC Consumers, are you out there?
This month, I want to pass on some interesting activities (some of
you have received e-mail on these) in print. An important function of user
groups is to share information and to help each other stay up to date.
Scary as the thought is, everyone can master their computer. There are
many things to learn technically, and unfortunately there are political
issues to learn about the use of our personal computers. Some of these
political issues are hidden, until we as PC users are impacted. Hopefully,
we will be able to help each other with these political details, as much
as we do with technical problems.
This following issue made the local news, but you may have missed it. What amazes me is that such people exist and continue to find new ways of victimizing others. "Saturday, 24 January 1998, Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base, New Orleans' Quarter Master received a telephone call from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service Technician that was running a test on our telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test the QMOW (Quarter Master on Watch) should touch nine (9), zero (0), pound sign (#) and hang up.
Luckily, the QMOW was suspicious and refused. Contacting the telephone company they were informed that by pushing "9,0,#" you end up giving the individual that called you access to your telephone line. The caller can then place a long distance telephone call, with the charge appearing on your telephone call. We were further informed that this scam has been originating from many of the local jails/prisons.
Then there is the ever constant problem of having your e-mail used against you. Those of us who connect on AOL have often been hit with extremely objectionable or obnoxious messages offering either sexual or money opportunities. Recently, some e-mail has also started delivering viruses, as is noted by this warning from an IBM source. "VIRUS WARNING !!! If you receive an e-mail titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO NOT open it. It will erase everything on your hard drive. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; please share it with everyone that might access the Internet.. Also, do not open or even look at any mail that says "RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVERY" This virus will attach itself to your computer components and render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items that say this. AOL has said that this is a very dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this time. Please practice cautionary measures. There are a few exceptions, if you are on Juno, you can be more relaxed. Juno is a text only service, so viruses get smashed. That does not prevent unwanted messages, there is as little that you can do for e-mail as there is with the telephone (have an unlisted number, only read mail from selected senders, etc.).
Then there is the issue of e-mail that appears to be valid. We, as consumers, need to be informed and there are times we need to be alerted to actions to take to make our PC experience safe for us. In Reference to a very similar e-mail which many of us received and even passed on: I received this message 30 January 1998, Have you heard about this, (like a rumor, maybe) or is it for real?
"I am writing you this to inform you of a very important matter currently under review by the FCC. Your local telephone company has filed a proposal with the FCC to impose per minute charges for your Internet service. They contend that your usage has or will hinder the operation of the telephone network. It is my belief that Internet usage will diminish if users were required to pay additional per minute charges. The FCC has created an e-mail box for your comments, responses must be received by February 13, 1998. Send your comments to isp@fcc.gov and tell them what you think. Every phone company is in on this one, and they are trying to sneak it in just under the wire for litigation. Let everyone you know here this one. Get the email address to everyone you can think of."
I responded to this message and recommended it to my e-mail list, without checking fully. The content and listed address were of course valid. However one of my list had already been bitten.
Wendell Miller (as did many of us) responded to a similar email and received the following on 1998 Jan 25. " This is an automated response to the message you sent to isp@fcc.gov. We established this mailbox for informal comments about usage of the public switched telephone network by Internet access and information service providers for a proceeding on this matter in 1997. If you are responding to a message stating that local phone companies have asked the FCC for permission to impose per-minute charges for Internet access, please be aware that this information is out of date. The FCC decided in May 1997 NOT to allow imposition of interstate access charges on Internet service providers. There is no comment period currently open in this proceeding. More information on Access Charges and the ISP proceeding is available at < Look for more features and announcements on our Web site, < in the future! updated 1/6/98"
Oops! So who offered the relaunching of this message. I offer the following only as speculation.
Member, Lauryn Wingate did e-mail her elected officials (her comments below), one of whom here makes some claim to being responsible: Chris Cannon's staff reply to her remarks
Received: from iodine.house.gov [137.18.128.25]
From: "Taggart, Steve"
<RE: Stop the Internet Tax
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:38:26 0500
"We are just gathering information on the issue. Thanks for the
input.
Steve Taggart, Administrative Assistant to Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah)".
So what new bill or project is pending? Let us watch this carefully.
I had responded to several (100+) UCS members as follows: I have heard of similar legislation as far back as two years ago. I am aware that such legislation has an ugly habit of reappearing year after year. Which to me is very discouraging, I am like most of those I know: not wealthy, nor do I have oodles of time to fight these bills. Whereas the backers of these anti-consumer bills either personally or corporately have lots of resources. Our best defense, is those people who volunteer to watch such things and let us (the eventual victims) know what we can do to make a difference. If we respond timely, sometimes we win. Of course, I do like to double check to make sure the info is not bogus, which also takes time, unless you know your source is reliable. On the surface, this appears to be real. If we have to pay a per minute charge for email or go back to faxing all messages, your personal cost is going to skyrocket. Please make your opinions known. I still believe we need to follow through on these issues. If you do find such information, please pass it on to other members. Remember, we are Users helping Users.
This was my message sent to the FCC. I hope these comments are of value to you.
To whom it may Concern; only being briefed as per above, I wish to comment regarding the problems with what I perceive to be a targeted surcharge on electronic communications.
1. If the intent of such a surcharge is to reduce traffic so that the telephone net is not overburdened, then such surcharge needs to be applied to calls over 15 minutes (this would apply to seniors and teenagers who tend to extended use of phone lines and thus tie up operations for the telephone net). Surcharges applied to these uses, however from my observations, have not decreased line usage. Either the phone service or the taxing authority have made more money, but no increase of service capability has resulted.
Surcharges only create revenue for the bill's sponsors, they do not reduce system workload.
2. Surcharges impact the economically disadvantaged and the lower middle-class. If electronic communications are to be a part of the "technology literacy" in the 21st century, then these surcharges would be a barrier to such literacy for those who can barely afford the technology without surcharge.
Quoting Reed Hundt (FCC chairman 1997), "In the 21st century, technology literacy will be a necessity, not a frill. To give every child in America a true opportunity at succeeding and fulfilling his or her potential, affordable access to information technology and communication services is the new ground zero. Today, we begin working to make that opportunity a reality so that the economic divide between rich and poor is not exacerbated by a digital divide between technology haves and have-nots."
This proposed surcharge only increases the potential for creating technology divides between the `haves' and the economically disadvantaged.
3. Such a surcharge, allows a throttling of public opinion by way of invasion of consumers' desire for private if not privileged communications. In order to assess surcharges on electronic communications, the telephone system must determine whether my personal usage is electronic or regular voice usage. Thus, the telephone system would need to determine how I communicate with others to correctly assess such a surcharge by the minute.
My privacy about my means of communicating would then be subject to invasion or constant monitoring. Potentially, even my communication's content would be subject to monitoring.
Lauryn Wingate forwarded her response to the FCC, Governor's Office, and all State Officials.
"Dear Senator - I just heard about this tax (bill) this morning. I am shocked that it got this far in the first place. Please help... I use the Internet for business 10 hours a day 6 days a week. I pay my fees for usage with my ISP and I pay for software to get on the Internet. I cannot afford to pay a per minute charge, a long distance charge, etc. just because the Telco companies are afraid that they will lose their control over the average individual ...
The President just said he wanted Internet access in every school. If a bill like this is allowed to pass, children will not be able to move into the 21st century prepared. Once again, they will be at the mercy of their parent's/school's pocketbook. The Internet will not take the place of phones. Telco companies see that their control on everyday individuals is diminishing and that frightens them. ... It is very important that Telco companies are not able to interfere just as the masses are beginning to get interested in the medium."
We do need to be involved, or we get what is handed out. This brings me to another less happy bit of news which may be involved with the Department of Justice vs Microsoft. I received this tidbit from tipworld.com
Intuit has decided its customers don't want to use Netscape anymore. Intuit has confirmed that you MUST have Internet Explorer 3 (which comes bundled with Quicken 98) or a later version installed on your system in order to access its Financial Institution List Web page with the 32bit version of Quicken 98. "This is essential for downloading the Financial Institution Profile to the user's hard drive," says an Intuit representative. In addition, Quicken 98 features such as local Web pages (InsuMarket, Mortgage, and so on) and Market Watch will not work unless you're using Internet Explorer. You can still use Netscape with the 16bit version of Quicken 98.
I was so upset, that I sent a message (extracted below) to Richard Katz,
Intuit User Group Program Director. Dear Richard, I was deeply saddened
to read of this policy shift by Intuit. I feel that the Intuit service
is no longer of worth to me as a result of this alignment with Microsoft's
IE. I use Windows 95 & NT, but I find the products that rely upon IE
(any version, and especially version 4.0) to be dangerous to Presidents
Porch (continued from page 6)
my peace of mind and the stability of my PCs.
There are technically no reasons for such exclusive policy. But there are marketing reasons, which in this period of restraint of trade charges against Microsoft and related vendors, are very unwise.
... If the rest of Intuit's services are following this direction, there will be less enduser/product support, and endorsements from user groups. ... the value of future upgrades will be minimized due to features that will not be used or available to those who have negative or adverse feelings about using Internet Explorer (any version).
I have been a long time supporter and user of Intuit products in our user group. ... Based on the article I may not wish to do future Intuit upgrades, as there would not be any new features that I would use due to the IE exclusive operations. I have the Quicken 98 32 bit version installed, and finally understand why I was not locating some advertised features. The lack of a disclaimer of limitations (due to not using IE) on the packaging is a definite disappointment, and appears to be the kind of marketing which I have come to dislike. Please pass this on to Intuit management if the report is true.
I wish this could have been more positive, in light of the wonderfully rich history we have enjoyed with you personally and with Intuit's User Group support, and referrals.
I shared the above with other Blue Chips members, and got a reply that made me aware that some were offended by what had been said. "I use IE 4.0 and have used IE for many years, I like it much more than other browsers. To make such a bold statement on behalf of the group is not right."
To you with like feelings, I apologize if the digest version of the message failed to convey the issues that worry me. I had attempted to specify the concerns I have, but appears that I did not do so for reading. These are the more elaborated points which I meant to communicate.
If there is a majority agreement, (about my communication to Richard Katz) I will be glad to send an apology, retraction, and (if there is a volunteer) the name of the replacement person as the Intuit resource/contact person in our user group.
Bob Beaudoin pointed out that Corel is also guilty of this kind of consumer abuse. "James, I totally agree with the points raised. I, also do not like Corel's using their own tweak version of Netscape Communicator as part of its InfoCentral program. I must have Communicator 4.04 and IE 3.0 on my machine in order to access all the features of Quicken, Corel Suite 8, and all the features of communicator 4.04. End users need to convey our displeasure with what is happening. It can only become worse if Microsoft gets its way of incorporating IE 4 within the Windows operating system."
Bob is right on target, and back to the core of this article: We as consumers need to make a noise to have: vendors stop pushing unwanted software; legislators stop passing unwanted and unneeded revenue laws that restrict the universal use of the Internet and personal computers; and finally, promote self regulation in the PC/Internet industry to put an end to spam and viruses being flushed to our e-mail. Is it possible? Yes, only if we as PC users help each other stay on top of what is happening. Please sound off, send letters to the editor to share with everyone.
![[Review Image]](../../images/review.gif)
by William C. May
Manufactured by: Cirque Corporation 433 W. Lawndale Drive Salt Lake City. UT 84115 Tel: 1-800-GLIDE-75 Fax: 801-467-0208 Retail: Approx. $60
System Requirements: IBM PC or Compatible Serial or PS/2 port DOS 3.3 or higher; Windows 3.1 or higher; Windows 95, Windows NT
The Power Cat, by Cirque Corp. of Salt Lake City, is by far the most useful touchpad I have used yet. It needs no hand or finger pressure to operate and it has so many advanced features that you hardly ever need to take your hand off the pad except to type text from the keyboard. The Power Cat will work with any standard mouse driver you may have in DOS, Windows, etc., but to take advantage of the advanced features you need to be running Windows 95.
The Power Cat can be used on a serial or PS/2 port and it is possible to run a regular mouse and the Power cat at the same time (for those of us who still like to have the mouse around for some operations). The software for the Power Cat is great! You can scroll (horizontally and vertically) and zoom in and out on almost every window on every program you can run. There are also touch scroll bars that allow forward and backward functions in Internet browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape. The Power Cat also has two regular type mouse buttons built in for people who want a combination of touchpad and regular mouse functionality.
The Power Cat software also has many extra features such as "jump to" (which lets the cursor jump to the default button automatically), "cursor find" (which lets you find your mouse cursor with a target, great for notebook computers), "cursor hide" (hides your cursor while you are typing), and many other settings.
One of the most useful utilities that the Power Cat has is the signature capture program. You use the enclosed stylus and sign your name on the Power Cat and the capture program makes a file of your signature to use for signing faxes, letters, etc., without having to print them first.
Also included with the Cat is a foam wrist rest for comfort and proper hand positioning. The draw backs to the Cat are few but notable. First, the Cat is designed for the right hand and those who want to use it left handed will find it is a lot more effort than right handed users. The difficulty is in the design of the "right mouse button" that is part of the touchpad. To activate right mouse button keys with the Cat you have to tap the upper right corner of the pad. This is fine for the right handed where the middle finger is longer, but hitting the right corner with the left hand the is unnatural and a pain in the wrist after a while. If the Cat had a left handed version it would be perfect for lefties such as me.
The only other problem is in the exact placement of the mouse cursor on the desktop. Sometimes, after placing your cursor where you want it, it moves when you lift your finger because of the nature of the touchpad. The touchpad is basically a large capacitor that changes capacitance based on your finger proximity and it can be sensitive to a fault at times. Other than these two nuisances the product is great and I recommend it highly, especially since you can use your regular mouse at the same time.
by Lee Ammons
Manufacturer: PlanetWare 10 Kensington Drive Richmond Hill, ON L43 3M9 Canada 1-800-281-9823 WWW.planetware.ca Mail order price: US $39.95
System Requirements: Windows 95 or 3.1 486DX2 or higher Video: 640X480X65 colors RAM: 8 MB Hard Disk: 16 MEG free
Are you planning to take a trip to Northern Europe? If so then this program is a must for you. It will take a lot of the guess work out of planning your trip. I was very impressed with this program. Having already been to Europe once and planning to go again in the near future I thought this program would be worth looking into. I was right.
My last trip to Europe was on a tour so I didn't really have to make any special plans; but this time, I am planning to go it alone and not take the tours. When I got into this program it was like a life saver for me. I basically know where I want to go and the countries that I want to go to this time, but I was not aware of the sights of interest that I wanted to see. I started researching them on this travel planner and was amazed at how extensive the program is. You can plan your trip in complete detail from the day you arrive until the day that you leave. You give it a country that you want to go to and it brings up the places of interest to go to. It even lists the walking tours, You can plan your trip hour by hour if you choose to do so.
But that's not all, there are videos that show you the places of interest and tell you about the different things to see, with a brief history of each. You can pull up photographs and maps also. It gives you tips about traditional and unusual festivals, performing arts, holiday dates and much more. One thing that impressed me was the amount of information that it gives you, not just the major cities of the countries, but also the small towns. This surprised me as I was expecting to find only the major cities and their points of interest as my plans were to see the out of the way places.
Included on the PlanetWare Northern Europe Travel Planner CD are:
Also included on the CD are hundreds of typical driving or walking tour sequences. Large list of addresses so that you can get further information if you need it by either writing, phoning, faxing or by going online on the Internet. Tips on Hotel selection, rental cars, restaurants, discounts and information on how to get by in countries where you don't speak the language, plus more. A currency conversion table and utility which you update on the hard disk.
"PlanetWare used the authoritative and renowned Baedeker travel book series, as a starting point for its content. The Northern Europe CD contains the same information as 18 Baedeker travel books, which together cost 10 times the price of the software. Baedeker's guides were first published in 1844. The well established series with its red and blue cover was selected because of its detailed and reliable information and suitability for electronic adaption."
As you prepare and define your trip you can check off the attractions that you want to visit and even add events - like visit a friend in No Man's Land. By taking control over planning your trip you can select places to visit that might be off the mainstream and yet of interest to you. You can print out your planned schedule on a day to day agenda. By having the times of the events, etc., that you want to see, such as when they open and when they close, written down on your agenda, you won't miss out on anything that you want to see by arriving too late. What a time saver this will be for you, having it all done so that when you get to your destination all you have to do is check your day's schedule and you are ready to go. No more guess work on what to do for the day, you will already have it down in print.
This program is for first time travelers who want to find the top rated attractions and experienced travelers looking for things they missed the first time around. Travel Agents, libraries and researchers use this software for learning, researching and just plain enjoyment.
You say you can find all this information on the Web, you might be right but you can't find it as fast as you can using the PlanetWare software. Give it a try. I am sure that you will be amazed at all the detailed information it contains and how easy it is to use. The software does not list hotels and restaurants and you can't book transportation using it but you can print out your agenda and take it to your travel agent who will do those things for you.
One thing I almost forgot to mention, this is one of two CDs available through PlanetWare, the other being the Mediterranean Travel Planner which includes the following: 9 major countries, plus others, for a total of 15, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Vatican, San Marino, Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and Andorra. The two CDs are sold separately or can be purchased as a set for $79.95.
I have enjoyed reviewing this software program and have found it to be a very useful tool in planning my vacation to Northern Europe. I would highly recommend it.
![[Internet Insights Graphic]](../../images/interntc.gif)
by Welden Andersen
MTU is not a University
Any time we use the Internet, we are downloading something. Each WEB
page contains data that has to be interpreted by our browser so we can
see what is on it. When a file is downloaded, it too is sending data to
our hard disk. To get the maximum speeds for downloads, we would buy a
fresh new 56k modem so that our link is at it's best. This is assuming
of course that you don't have a T1 (1.45M bits/sec) connection at home
or have an obscene amount of money to put into some other technology you
haven't shared with the rest of us. Having said all this, what can be done
to improve the speed at which data is transmitted?
We have discussed the unavoidable problems that slow you down including: A bad copper line connection to the phone company, an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that has not kept up with memory or CPU requirements to handle big hits on their servers, but most often a bottle neck in the bandwidth from too much traffic at one time. Windows 98 will address a smart way for you to make sure that you have tuned Windows itself to run at it's best. To do this, the operating system will check to see if you are connecting to the Internet through a LAN (Local Area Network) or dial-up. If you are going through a LAN, Windows will set your Registry MTU (Max Transmission Unit) to 1500. If you have an Internet connection slower than 10 Mbps (Megabits per second), Win98 will default back to 576. This is a good Internet standard setting for dial-up modems. An increase of up to twice the transfer speeds could be attained.
So what can be done for those of us that haven't even seen Win98 yet? There is hope! A couple of software solutions can help you skip the RegEdit headache and possible disabling of your system. Point your browser to Mike Sutherland's MTU-Speed Pro 4.03 http://ws4.u-net.net/~mjs He could use a $10 donation to the cause. He has a Ping function that will let you know the best settings for your ISP so you can act with complete arrogance in getting the maximum downloads for yourself. You can also jump over to http://www.gulftel.com/~pattersc/twkdun and get TweakDUN 1.2 by Patterson Design Systems and NetPro Northwest. You will need $12.50 to register this one.
Brian Livingston of InfoWorld quotes Microsoft Windows Developer Representative Mike Zintel on the reasons why MTU might affect throughput:
As a side note, the battle of the K2 and 56 Flex technologies for the "standard" in high-speed modems has been submitted to the W3 consortium and has been "fixed". That means the lawyers have backed off for moment. The rights to keep proprietary technologies from being passed around to other competitors has been protected and the W3 has allowed 3Com (US Robotics) to emerge with the major share of the new standards to follow their lead. You and I will soon be able to upgrade to the new "standard" that will be used by both companies and ISP's giving 56kbps compatibility and capabilities to all of us. Just remember that the FCC will only allow a data transmission of 53Kbps so as to not cause problems with ISDN technology. So even with a fast modem and your MTU set correctly, you will still have to wait for your downloads with a dial-up connection. The difference now is that it will be the best you can do.
Send comments or suggestions to welden@xmission.com
James Alexander
James Alexander has been involved with Blue Chips since 1991, and working
as a volunteer since 1993. James leads the Business Applications SIG, and
for several years has been involved with the WordPerfect SIG. James enjoys
using and helping use PCs.
Annually, James enjoys a week's vacation in Las Vegas, which also happens to be the same week as Fall COMDEX. He is actively involved in church and school computer events. He has been a Board member for the last five years, serving as President the last two years. There are a number of Blue Chip achievements he is working for this next year, hopefully as a Board member again.
Welden Andersen
Grew up in San Diego, Calif. Moved to Los Angeles to attend the Art Center
College of Design. After art school, opened a commercial photography studio
specializing in movie posters and record album covers. Accepted a lead
photographers position with the LDS Church in Salt Lake in 1987. Started
becoming involved with computers in L.A. about 1983. Had some C programming
and data base design classes at UCLA. Have attended Fall Comdex in Las
Vegas every year for 14 years. Joined Blue Chips in 1990 and have written
reviews and the Internet Insights column for the magazine. Designed, programmed
and maintain the Internet Web site and Home Page for Blue Chips. Very active
Leader of the Internet Sig for the Saturday meetings. I get the job done.
Sean Dorsey
Sean Dorsey is a motivated, young individual whose hobbies include Ham
Radio, computers and Jeeping. He is friendly, outgoing, and very personable.
He is always willing to help anyone out that asks him - much to the dismay
of his wife. He has experience in the area of many technical pursuits.
In fact, it amuses his wife to see him read technical manuals, yet never
pick up a novel. Sean is a Service Technician for Scott Polar Refrigeration,
and has been working there for five years. He is a quick learner. This
allows him to pick up on many new concepts in various areas very efficiently.
Most of all, Sean is a computer junkie. He spends an hour or two just about
every night of the week working on something on the computer. What it is
he does on it is not exactly known. Sean will offer a fresh point of view
to the club as a board member if elected and will work hard for the group.
(Submitted by Angela Dorsey, Sean's very patient wife.)
Larry Lamph
I have been a member of Blue Chips for about 14 years now and I have
seen the ups and downs of the club over time. The one thing I have noticed
in that time is the quality of the volunteers, when they are good the club
prospers. When they are not the club suffers.
I have really enjoyed being on the board for the last couple of years . We have some good board members and I would like to serve another term with them. We have made excellent progress in many areas and there are many exciting things in the works that I would like to see to fruition .I thank you for your support in the past and would ask for your continued help in the future.
George Lewis
I want to thank the members of Blue Chips for making me an alternate member
of the Board. Much was accomplished by the Board this past year, and I
would like to say that everything has been done; however, that isn't true.
For this reason, I would like to run again for the Board. I need your vote
of confidence to do this. When we vote next month, remember these ten most
important two-letter words: "If it is to be, it is up to me".
It is up to YOU to vote, and it is up to ME to DO!
Dave Otterstrom
I've been your Vice President for the last year. I was an alternate board
member for the year before that. I joined around 1990. I had never been
any more than just a member until I volunteered to help with the annual
auction in 1992. I run the Hardware special interest group and have every
since it began.
I was very disappointed when the annual auction was dropped and I've worked to restore it every since I was installed in the board. The board decided to reinstall the auction at the beginning of the year I have been given the responsibility to see it through. Expect a great auction for the month of May.!
The last year working on the board has been an experience I've treasured. I have learned lots about how the club works and, think I can help in some of the projects that are in the works for the coming year. I think the board needs workers that will cooperate with each other to get things done, and I want to be part of it. In the coming year you're going to see some pretty great things happening like, the Win Chip Project, the Gateway Project, and the APCUG Regional Meeting Feb-March of 1999. I appreciate the chance I've been given in the past year and hope the group thinks enough of me to vote me in for the coming year.
Lauryn Wingate
Being a relatively new member, Lauryn's personal goal was to get involved
and fully experience what it meant to be a Blue Chips member. That goal
turned into the job of Volunteer Chairman, where the Blue Chip Bucks program
was introduced to reward volunteers for their efforts.
Lauryn's goal for this year is to continue to serve the club and get as many new people involved as possible. Not only will Blue Chips Bucks be an even larger program this year, she has plans to institute a special awards programs as well.
As a non-board member, Lauryn has attended every board meeting, regular meeting, and served as a back-up SIG leader. Her specialty is the Internet, with emphasis on Internet Marketing.
by Justin Hatch
Manufacturer: Mind Magic 1753 Northgate Blvd, Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. 34234 941.355.2201
System Requirements: 486/33 or higher Super VGA (640x480,256 color) Mouse Sound Blaster or 100% compatible soundcard CD-ROM drive double speed preferred 8MB RAM 5MB free (hard disk)
A fun and helpful product that keeps my nephew and niece laughing for hours. The paint program is great and easy to use. You can color pictures or make your own drawings. It teaches a kid how to spell and how to pronounce words. You can click almost anywhere on the interactive screen and you will see an ant or hear music or an object will move. Click on an object in the attic and it will take you to a backyard or make noise or move and do stuff that makes you laugh. Through all this fun is Flash the Firefly as your guide and helper if you get stuck.
When you click on the taxi car it takes you to the big city were you will find lots of things to do. Touch the Empire State Building and you will see King Kong being fed, or you can see two young girls talking on a tin can phone. Next you can see an alligator come out of the sewer. You can learn about how skateboarding came into existence. See animals leaving the theater or see a yacht sailing down the middle of the city. Go back to the main screen and look for another backyard.
Click on the picture scene and it will take you to Hawaii. In Hawaii you can see people surf and a statue make faces at you. See an ant make a castle or you can see a volcano blow it's top. See a group of ants cross the lagoon in a boat or you can see a whale in a funny hat. Go back to the attic and find a new backyard to explore.
The scuba tank takes you to the suburbs. Here you get to go into the backyard of a home outside of the city. You see a scuba diver in a small swimming pool, or watch the bird bath. See the house smile and wink or watch a gopher take a bath.
Next go back to the attic and find the H. Finn book where you travel to the Bayou. Here you are met by an old ant rocking in a rocking chair. He talks to his grandson about what he did when he was young. A turtle takes a sunbathe on a rock or see a gazebo.
Watch the showboat move slowly down the river or an ant tame some wild vines.
Go to the cactus garden and enter the southwest through a prairie dog's hole. There you can see a flying saucer land or desert animals playing Mexican music. See an ant weave a blanket. See how birds live in the desert. Watch an ant try to hit the pinnate, or a prairie dog barking at a wagon of settlers.
Go back to the attic. Have Flash pick up the fishing pole and your off to New England. There you can see a lighthouse, See an English home in the fall. See the pumpkin turn into a jack-o-lantern, a black cat, and even a witch in the sky. See a lobster or something strange crawl out from under a boat.
There are many more surprises in the attic and in every screen you come to with this program. Your family will travel through all kinds of backyards in the United States. >From Alaska to New York. Each window a little more fun than the last one.
The program is easy to install and goes straight to the install wizard in your Windows 95 program. From here you meet Flash the Firefly. He then introduces you to the buttons that will help you in the program. The attic button is in all screens and is there to show you where you can go next.
The stop button is in all screens also and will take you out of the program anytime. The paint brush shows you to the electronic paint program and is only in the attic. The printer button is only in the paint program and sets up the printer to print any pictures you or you child wants printed. The Question mark button is only in the attic program and the electronic paint program. This button is for repeating instructions that you might have missed.
This program also carries the same children ratings as do all Let's Pretend programs. It is suitable for all audiences and is rated by ESRB.
If you need TECHNICAL SUPPORT YOU CAN CALL 941-355-3057.
Hope you had as much fun as I did with this product and your kids do also.
REDMOND, Wash. Officials at Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced
that the company has stepped up its battle against an increasing form of
software piracy involving the distribution of software components obtained
through the Microsoft(R) Easy Fulfillment (MEF) program and sold illegally
into the retail channel.
Under the MEF program, customers who have purchased volume-licensing agreements for specific software are eligible to acquire supplemental components for that software. When orders for those components are placed through the MEF program, they are shipped as CD-ROMs packaged only in jewel cases. They do not include an enduser license agreement, a users' manual, a registration card, a warranty or other features that accompany genuine Microsoft retail products.
But some distributors are misusing the MEF system, ordering software components for which they have no licensing agreements, and are illegally selling those components into the channel as if they were complete retail products. A Federal District Court recently prohibited L&M Manufacturing Corp. of Miami from distributing MEF supplemental CD-ROMS as if they were complete Microsoft products, on the basis that such distribution violates federal trademark law. The court adopted Microsoft's argument that MEF disks, when distributed by defendants as if they were retail Microsoft or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products, are not "genuine" Microsoft products under U.S. trademark law.
Microsoft plans to continue bringing legal actions to halt the unauthorized distribution of MEF components, according to Teresa Ducharme, Microsoft director of OEM sales in North America. "We are working hard to ensure a level playing field for legitimate OEMs, or system builders, as they are known within the industry," she said. "Obviously there is significant legal risk to system builders that do not acquire legitimate products through authorized distributors."
Microsoft receives more than 2,000 calls and emails each month that are reviewed by investigators to identify computer resellers and others that are using or distributing Microsoft software illegally. In addition to increasing enforcement efforts, Microsoft is working to help consumers recognize warning signs that could indicate they are acquiring illegal or counterfeit software:
Customers or resellers with questions about the legitimacy of Microsoft products should contact the Microsoft anti-piracy hot line at: 800-RULEGIT (785-3448) or send email to piracy@microsoft.com.
For more information about software piracy, call the Business Software Alliance (BSA) anti-piracy hot line at 888-NOPIRACY (667-4722) or send email to software@bsa.org.
by Reynold Wells
Manufacturer: G&A Imaging 975 St-Joseph Blvd. QC Canada Website: www.ga-imaging.com
System Requirements: 486 or Pentium Processor Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT CD-ROM Drive 8MB (16 MB Recommended) 256 color (or higher) graphics adaptor Mouse Color Monitor with 800x600 Screen Resolution (or higher)
PhotoRecall is an image management package that is designed for organizing digital images, such as those from digital cameras and scanners.
This software package consists of several parts: Library, Darkroom, Utility Room, and an unInstall program. There is also an option to generate self-contained "slide shows" of your digital masterpieces!
The PhotoRecall Library is where I can organize and maintain "photo albums" of digital photos. I can create several different albums, including, for example, one named "UCS January 14, 1998 Meeting".
I can create an album for digital photos of each month's meeting, vacation photos, etc.
The PhotoRecall Darkroom can be used to adjust several elements of each digital photo. Brightness, contrast, color balance, focus, and exposure can be "tweaked" until you get the results you desire.
Also, available are several more effects too numerous to completely cover here. Just be assured that if you want to make a change, most likely you will find what you need without resorting to loading another program.
Another nice feature is when you delete a picture, and then realize that you deleted the wrong one, don't get all upset and reformat your hard drive! Just take a peek in the "Deleted Pictures" album and you will find it there.
For viewing your pictures in an album, you have several options for the display. You can choose to have one large image per album page, or four per page, or smaller "thumb nail" images.
The PhotoRecall Utility Room is where you compress, repair, backup, and restore your image library.
Lastly, the part that I liked the best, the user can make a slide show that can be run on other computers that do not have the PhotoRecall software installed on them, or even EMail the slide show! These slide shows can be created to run automatically, manually, or both ways.
I think I will find uses for this new addition to my software collection, and would recommend that anyone who is "into" digital photography take a look at it, too.
by Shon Laney
Manufacturer: Sonic Foundry 100 South Suite 204 Madison, WI 53703-8062 http://www.sfoundry.com
System Requirements: 486 Processor or higher Windows 95, Windows 3.1 Sound Card 8 MB Ram 3 MB available hard-drive space
It's no wonder that Macromedia's Director 6 has become the standard in multimedia creation and production. Whether you are creating multimedia to distribute on a CD or to use on the Internet, Macromedia will keep you current on all the latest advances and technologies. Some of the award winning titles included in the Macromedia's Multimedia Studio are: Director 6, xRes, Extreme 3D, and Sound Forge XP. With all these programs you will soon be on your way to designing successful multimedia projects, stunning presentations, or interactive web pages.
Sound Forge is a vital component of Macromedia's multimedia studio. With the ability to edit sound clips for use with multimedia presentations Sound Forge plays a key part in multimedia development. Sound Forge is not just a standard recording tool, but rather a sound enhancement instrument. With several filters for creating special sound effects and blends, Sound Forge can help you produce professional quality sound.
Sound Forge has a simple interface that will give you maximum control over sound editing without confusing you with ten thousand buttons and screens.
Sound Forge has many features that provide for easy navigation through your sound file. The editing window displays the sound file as a graphical representation of the audio waves. You can zoom in or out on the audio display, viewing a single tone or the whole sound clip at once. The use of keyboard shortcuts give you the opportunity to manipulate your sound clip easily and quickly. Whether editing mono or stereo files, your display will show you all the available channels and give you control over each of them. You have the ability to edit each channel individually or the entire audio file at once.
When recording, Sound Forge gives you three modes to work in: Automatic Retake, Multiple Takes and Punch In. Automatic Retake starts recording when you press record and quits when you press stop. The cursor will automatically return to the beginning of the recording for playback. Multiple Takes is similar to the Automatic Retake mode, but the cursor will remain in its current position when you press stop. This allows you to begin recording another segment immediately. Punch In will record only the length of time you specify making it great for recording over a selection. Because you can specify a preset length of time to record, you don't have to worry about inadvertently recording over the rest of your audio file. These different modes give you the flexibility needed to make accurate recordings.
After recording audio you may choose to alter parts of it. For the editing process Sound Forge has some great tools and filters that will add enhancements to your sound files.
Two dynamic commands used in blending two sound files together are: crossfade and mix. If you need to make a smooth transition between one sound clip and another the crossfade command will do the trick. This command will let you specify how fast the first sound will be fading out while the second is merging in. You can specify an amount from 0 - 100% with both sounds. If you want to create a complex sound by joining two or more sounds together you can use the mix command to splice them together. These two commands can create a variety of interesting effects. I created some great sounds for my computer to use in place of the current Windows sounds.
For those who are more than just amateurs, Sound Forge has many advanced features and special effects filters to refine your audio. With numerous effects to choose from; Echo, Distortion, Flange, Noise Gate, Pitch blend and Reverb, you can really jazz up your audio files. Sound Forge even has a Time Compression utility that can shorten the size of your audio file without altering the pitch.
Although we have only scratched the surface of Sound Forge's capabilities, suffice it to say that Sound Forge does for audio what xRES does for a digital image.
by Don Nendell
Please pay close attention, herewith included in these notes is/are your
excuse(s) for missing the regular monthly meeting (again?). We met at the
Heritage Senior Center in Murray (with special thanks to Lori and Susan).
Here it comes - You see, you couldn't find it because the only access road
to the Center is on the "West side" (Excuse #1) of State Street
(and, it's located at #10 "East" on 6150 South). Feel better
now? And, we missed you too!
There were actually two (2) full blown meetings. (Excuse #2: "I didn't know they were going to have `two' meetings?" and, Excuse #3: Remember? - It's also the "second" Wednesday of each month?) The first meeting of the day was in the afternoon. (Excuse #4: "Afternoon? Afternoon? You've never done `that' before?") Yes, and it was our very first meeting to welcome the "new" senior members of Blue Chips into our group. 32 people attended and by 3:30 "every UBC member" that remained took home a door prize. I'm not sure, but there still might be a couple of "Goodies" left over for next month's "Afternoon" Blue Chips meeting, which is open to "all" members. (That just shot Excuse #5 right in the foot, "But, but, I can't make those Wednesday Night meetings!")
UBC Review Program Director/Senior Program Co-Ordinator Donna Nendell conducted the successful inaugural "Senior Blue Chips" meeting in absence of President James, who had to work. The Seniors are conducting a contest to give this special wing of UBC its own distinctive name. We'll most assuredly keep you up to date on the outcome of the contest.
Donna presented to Heritage Center Director Lori Smith an arm load of programs very graciously donated by Individual Software, MySoftware Company and UBC Board Member Dave Otterstrom. Russ Dauterman of Computer City was present at the meeting to announce an ongoing special relationship with UBC, and in the process, very generously gave away some training class vouchers. And, all this just especially for the Senior Blue Chippers who regularly meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays at the Heritage Center. (Excuse #6: "I'm confused now? What day/time(?) should I prepare my next excuse for? OK. Here it is. The monthly meetings, said "S," will now be held in the afternoon (so keep in touch), as well as in their regular 7 P.M. time slot in the evening. Next months meetings will also be held at the Heritage Seniors Center in Murray - want that address again, I wouldn't want to spoil Excuse #7 for you, now would I?
Donna switched the afternoon meeting agenda around and had our gracious presenter of the day lead off the proceedings , vice covering the regular "Notices," "Open Access," et cetera, first. She did keep the traditional "Giveaways" last, however. An interesting side note; it sure was nice having people "leave," to coin a phrase, all that "Stuff" to be given away at the end. But, I digress as per usual...
Walt L. Wilson, a 32 year veteran of the 3M Corporation, Headquartered in Oakdale, Minnesota, but who resides in Weatherford, Oklahoma, introduced us to a new product called, SuperDisk. This is a 120MB, not-so floppy, "floppy" disk which is backward compatible with the regular 1.44MB/720KB 3 1/2" floppies we all use daily in the "A" Drive. (Excuse #8: But, I still use those old 8" floppies, and those new ones too, you know, the 5 1/4" floppies?") Gottcha again, Walt says that the new 3M spin off company he now works for called, Imation (Borne of 3M Innovation), still makes those diskettes too. Actually 200M of the 8" diskettes alone were sold last year and, along with IBM System 6's and 34's, are still being sold today. Whatcha got to say bout that? That spin off company only sold $2.25B in 1996. That's as big as Kodak, and to think that only 11,000 persons and 11 factories were spun off in the process too! What do you imagine could've happened if they "spun" even more people out of their jobs? (Note: For my excuse maker, you wouldn't happened to have been one of those. . .? Nah!) Imation does Photo color systems (Focal label, competitor to Fuji Film) and Printing and Publishing (proofing system coated films) amongst their other little chores.
Walt says that the SuperDisk is going to be the "next generation" of floppies and, that they are not in competition with the Iomega Zip 100MB Disks. That is because "they" will not run the 1.44MB floppy diskettes like the, "completely backward compatible SuperDisk will." Walt confided in me personally that he had forgotten to tell the Senior Blue Chip members that, "Any user could actually double the holding capacity of a SuperDisk to 240MB's just by using the right compression program." Not to bad when you consider that 10 faxes with letterhead is 3MB, 3 color Photo CD images amounts to 15MB, an Excel Directory w/50 files is 50MB, and not to be outdone, Windows 95 is 55MB. Can't get those on a 1.44MB floppy, so he may have something there about ". . .the next generation. . . ." With 4 Billion Imation diskettes shipped world-wide and 800M sold in the US alone, one might think that the slide Walt showed us, "The floppy is Dead - Well Almost," was kind of "Pulling our leg?" I got that idea when Walt said, "The new diskette drive standard must accommodate the 20B [Ed. Note: That's 20 + 9 zeros, folks] 1.44MB diskettes still in use the world over today." The LS-120 SuperDisk can handle 83 of those 1.44MB diskettes alone, and with its backward compatibility with the 1.44MB diskettes, it's sure on its way to being, "The new standard of diskettes."
And now, the best excuse of all (#9) why you missed these great presentations; I give you the complex, but vital vita, the "disa `n data" on the LS-120 SuperDisk. Actually, I have four (4) exquisitely detailed pages of hand written notes, plus a fist full of Walt's handouts on the "Technology" specs on the actual drives and the diskettes alone to share with you. What a change for yours truly. I'll have you know that this time I didn't miss one single detail, not one iota. That's because Walt gave the same presentation to both meetings.
I liked his early afternoon presentation better, because he had to follow the slides very closely due to the different levels of comprehension between the two groups. In the evening he gave his "Teckie," "Knock the socks off those mothers," "Down and dirty millimeter/decimeter etc., statistics galore," "Mother of all presentations," et cetera, et cetera, spiel, and in the process literally jumped all over the place in response to excellent, intelligent, thought-provoking, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera questions. Lucky for us all, I was able to fill in all the blanks in my earlier notes as they came up during Walt's second presentation. Mind you, just so's you could get "the whole ball of wax." I felt I owed you all that much. It was not boring in either case, to be sure, but I think I will "Try" to condense all this into a couple of paragraphs, if you please? As per usual, see me for all the "details" if you are so inclined? Better still, call Walt at his personal phone number in Oklahoma at 1-405-774-3339, or fax him at 1-405-774-3469, or dial up the Imation web page at http://www.imation.com, or call Toll Free 1-888-466-3456 for the latest on the LS-120.
Ready, set, here we go. . . The disk drives are manufactured by Hi-Val (www.hival.com), USA Identity (www.usaent.com/ls120kit.htm), Digital Research technologies (www.di-tech.com), Exabyte - Eagles Nest (www.exabyte.com), et al. They are very quickly becoming OEM internal diskette "Options" ($99) (re. Compaq, Acer, et al. @½ the height for Laptops, and Gateway, Tiger Direct, Panasonic, et al. for Desktops) and running $149 (plus $50 rebate) for external versions (call Walt for more on this one - his "baby"). Also, Win Station, a Washington distributor of SuperDisk, is now putting out SCSI internal and external versions, so things are looking up. Walt even gave us a listing of two (2) full pages of "SuperDisk-friendly" Motherboards (36, if I counted correctly?) currently available that might be of interest to someone? And, why not? If you have an Award, AMI or Phoenix BIOS that is dated after July `97, you most likely will be able to "Boot" from the IDE channel - check it out. That means you could boot from the SuperDisk. Walt handed out a page of techno-geeky stats (see summation below) on the SuperDisk itself that can also be obtained by writing to: Imation, 1 Imation Place, Oakdale, MN 55128-3414. Note: Two (2) of our local providers were present to hand out prices on all these items, and they were actually lower than those quoted above. Call Russ Dauterman @ Computer City's Business Accounts (801.284.4832) and Tim Hart @ Software and More (801.272.9425 X-103) for their up to date quotes.
Bottom line, my personal preference is for the external parallel port drive, because Walt said he will include a "SuperDisk accelerator" driver in the transaction. That turns out to be an option ($$) on the internals; besides it's portable, `nuff said.
With 1.5M internal SuperDisks sold to date, formerly known as the LS (Laser Stitch) 120, the specs are as follows. It has: 4 heads called the, "Dual head" design (2 on top for standard 1.44MB diskettes and 2 on the bottom for the SuperDisk diskettes); A Laser light system (like CD ROM's) for reading the diskettes more accurately (different coating on the diskettes with 200M little laser stitches on the bottom of each diskette providing 1736 tracks on each diskette, compared to 80 tracks on the 1.44MB diskettes); An increased speed capability (up to 5X the speed of a normal 1.44MB diskette, even faster with the Parallel Port Accelerator) due to being connected to the IDE (like a CD-ROM is) channel for a possible 4 objects on 2 channels capability (on Windows 950B only); Faster spin speeds; Powerful error correction (Reed-Solomon Code will correct up to 80 bits of info @ 10 bytes/sector); Anti-fungal coating on the media itself for a "Go anywhere media" (very important says Walt, unless you're actually into cultivating penicillin bacilli); Pre-formatted (Low level formatted) at the factory (Note: It is far better to do a quick format on the SuperDisk due to its large capacity); A durability of 10M passes guaranteed; Backward compatibility to the 1.44MB/720KB diskettes; An optional "Secured diskette" which creates a "virtual drive" on your system that automatically encrypts (with the 56 bit Blowfish algorithm) any files saved to it. To retrieve them, just "Enter your password" [This one has my personal attention because of the commercial security program that David Hunter and I have recently developed that deals with this very situation]; and, last but not least, Shirt pocket transportability.
Well, so much for the afternoon meeting, now on to the evenings' meeting memoranda. James, the President, opened the meeting with the following announcements: Nominations for the Board of Trustees are being taken for the actual election at the regular March evening meeting. Currently nominated (and having accepted their nomination) are: Lauryn Wingate, James Alexander, Welden Andersen, Shawn Dorsey, Rick Gregory, Larry Lamph, George Lewis, and Dave Otterstrom. Nominations will still be taken up to election time; Cirque will be presenting in March [bring your dead "meeces" (plural for mouse) to the meeting please]. Cirque needs testers for input devices (801.467.1100 X-3128); In April we return the regular evening meeting location at the U of U, as per usual (afternoon meeting will still be at the Heritage Senior Center); The Hot Technology Exposition at the Salt Palace is in April (Lauryn needs volunteers for this and a whole host of other positions: Newsletter, 2-3 Pickup trucks/drivers for the auction, Web Page, you name it - UBC needs "YOU"); The May 13th regular meeting (@ the U of U) is the UBC General Auction (Dave Otterstrom needs donations, call him for pickup of your donation); Donna needs Windows 3.1/95 programs donated for the Seniors programs, call her for pickup of your donations; A $5 rebate has been sent to UBC by Individual Software for products like, "Professor Teaches Windows 95 and Windows 3.1" (Good only if purchased locally, like thru Russ or Tim); and, The Saturday SIG's will be held on the last Saturday (naturally) of the month at the Utah Career College (1440 W. 3300 S.).
Open Access: A M/S Outlook E-Mail settings question actually stumped the "experts" tonight; James will check on the question of, whether or not persons have been receiving their subscriptions to the three (3) Computer magazines offered for the membership renewal (price was $5?); And, With JPEG format can digital photos be printed on a large scale? Yes, Creative Color, Borg Anderson, and Kinko's were offered up as possible solution sites.
The evenings' meeting "Giveaways" segment was blessed with the hottest product to come off the press in a long time. Dave Pehrson, Access Software, brought in two (2) spanking new boxes of the new Tex Murphy Thriller, "Overseer" to be given to the night's lucky ticket holders. The ink hadn't even dried, nor were the boxes sealed, they were that fresh. Dave said, "No one in the country, not even the PR Person, has one of these yet." Our group, Blue Chips, was blessed with copies nos. 1 and 2 off the press. Overseer has been originally engineered for one (1) DVD CD and has also been ported to five (5) regular CD's (A "Bleeding Edge" industry technology "coupe de grace"). Walt brought with him an Imation SuperDisk (LS-120) drive to be given away, and two (2) CD's were thrown into the hopper for good measure (Dracula's Secrets and the Life and Times of Marilyn Monroe [that one elicited a smile]).
Now, about those gifts. If we could only get at least a smile out of the recipients of these generous gifts to Blue Chips, we'd have accomplished something like Ed Sullivan's famous comment, "A real-ly `Big' shoe." I was personally asked by an esteemed, well respected, long-time UBC card holder (who wishes to remain anonymous) to point out the ". . .disgustingly total lack of enthusiasm displayed by virtually `everyone' when picking up their `Booty' up front." This is really quite embarrassing to those of us who personally cultivate the friendship, assistance, involvement (through giving) and generosity of these great and kind UBC benefactors, especially when they are present, right up there in front, when these "Dead Heads," in all their splendor and grandeur, present their winning tickets. Smile folks, someone might actually think you appreciate all the hard work it takes to get these gifts into your ...... hands.
I was going to cover the great evening meeting presentation by Walt. But, since I took sick, sharing with you about the apparent "happiness" sickness that has befallen UBC, and mentioned above, I'll just have to refer you to all the above data and beg off by saying, "Excuse # 10 has very gently been retired for you." Your reporter is now handing the "memo quill" over to Erma Williams for all future "Meeting Memoranda" columns. It's been a pleasure to serve you, ciao.
New Projects always need sharing hands and giving hearts. The "Senior
Program" is one such program. We are reaching out to help the Senior's
"BEGIN" with the equipment and computers the Senior Centers around
the Salt Lake City area have available. Blue Chip members and User Group
supporters are the world's best in supporting people in need. So dig deep
and reach in the dark resources of your closet and support this program.
We need any software, hardware, memory chips, mice, mouse pads, books,
manuals and all other computer related items. Call a member or Donna (565-9594)
and give your unneeded computer items to make this program a "Blue
Chip Winner". We all will be Senior's, soon enough and what goes around,
comes around!
by Howard Emery
Quarterdeck Corporation 13160 Mindanao Way Marina del Rey, Ca. 902929705 (800) 6836696 http://www.quarterdeck.com
System Requirements Intel based PC or compatible VGA or better display CD-ROM drive 8 MB free hard disk space
For Windows 95 486DX2/66MHz or higher (Pentium or better recommended) 16 MB RAM (32MB recommended for better performance)
For Windows 3.1x (or later) running in 386 enhanced mode 386 or higher 8 MB RAM
For DOS 386 or higher 2 MB RAM MSDOS 5 or compatible
Installation: easy just follow instructions no problems encountered recommended install is from within Windows if present. Distributed on CD-ROM disks available (option to make disks from CD ROM or $7.95 to order a set)
THE HYPE (from Quarterdeck)
"Wasn't Windows 95's "memory management" supposed to fix
all this? The truth is, if you want to get the most from your memory, Windows
95's built-in memory manager just isn't enough. You need QEMM 97.
QEMM 97 brings the same benefits millions of DOS and Windows 3.1 users have enjoyed for over 10 years to Windows 95 users. It reclaims underused memory, streamlines your system for more memory, and boosts your performance, automatically!
Windows 95 without the Wait
QEMM 97 picks up where Windows 95's memory manager leaves off, unleashing
the full power of your memory. As you use your PC, Windows 95 swaps and
scatters your memory all over, slowing you down to a crawl. QEMM 97 finds
and organizes your mixed-up memory, to dramatically increase Windows 95
application performance. Plus, QEMM 97's exclusive TurboLoad II feature
speeds loading of 32bit applications by up to 60%, while Quickboot makes
restarts faster than you've ever experienced.
Unlike some other memory maximizers, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to put QEMM 97's advanced memory management to work for you. QEMM 97 is fully automatic. There's no complicated installation or configuration to hassle with. QEMM 97's Optimize reviews your system's setup then configures itself, making more memory available to your applications. It's that easy.
Attention DOS and Windows 3.1 Users: The best just got better! QEMM 97 not only includes all the great features that have won previous versions dozens of industry awards and acclaim, it's now fully updated for the hottest new hardware. QEMM 97 features a powerful new Out-of-Memory Monitor that alerts Windows users of low memory and helps eliminate dreaded, productivity killing out-of-memory errors. Plus, now DOS users (especially game players) no longer have to switch to a DOS prompt to configure and run their DOS programs from the Windows 95 desktop with the full memory enhancing benefits of QEMM 97.
Over 10 years ago, Quarterdeck invented its breakthrough first-generation memory management technology. Since then, we've led the industry with more than 4 million copies of QEMM sold. So order new QEMM 97 and turbocharge your Windows 95 PC with a decade of proven, award-winning memory management power. Guaranteed!
Benefits!
My Findings:
For increasing DOS memory, the program worked as advertised, no surprises
were encountered. It did significantly increase my DOS memory from about
565K to 620 K. I do run a few games that require this much DOS memory and
QEMM 97 delivered!
The second best feature is Quickboot. If you leave Windows 95 to run a DOS program, the Quickboot feature noticeably increases the speed in which you return to Windows 95. I did not notice any impressive speed gains with any of the other features, such as Turboload.
QEMM 97 typically reported savings of 2 to 3 seconds per session by eliminating swapping out memory. Most of these sessions were longer than 1 hour, not too impressive of a time savings, on my system at least.
The intuitive user interface is quite good. I found it informative and easy to understand. The program ships with an excellent 156 page manual. The manual covers everything from basic setup to optimizing your system. The technical information is well presented and easy to understand. There is a chapter on system and memory optimization tips.
I can recommend the program for anyone needing more DOS memory. The program excels at maximizing available DOS memory. It would justify the purchase price for DOS or Windows 3.x users. The program isn't as necessary for users of Windows 95 in most cases, as more and more programs and games run in Windows 95 natively. It seemed to me that some of the "hype" is somewhat overstated, particularly where it concerns Windows 95.
It seems that newer operating systems do not benefit greatly with QEMM 97. It is an excellent program, but as newer technology emerges, the usefulness diminishes. Quarterdeck has provided many great products, very good support and good user manuals through the recent years. I certainly hope this class company continues to market the quality products I have come to expect from them.
by Shon Laney
Manufacturer: Adobe Systems Incorporated 1585 Charleston Road, PO Box 7900 Mountain View, CA 94039-7900 Tel: 206-623-6984 http://www.adobe.com System Requirements: 386 or higher Windows 95 9 MB Available hard-drive space For those of us who use Adobe products, we are familiar with the Adobe Type Manager and how quickly it will let you install Type 1 fonts for use in desktop publishing applications. While many programs have incorporated the use of Type 1 as well as True Type fonts in their application, more often than not you still need at least two programs to install your fonts. In the past, if you used both True Type and Type 1 fonts, it was necessary to install these fonts using either the Windows 95 font install utility or Adobe's ATM. Well, now you can use Adobe's Type Manager Deluxe 4.0 for both tasks. But wait! You also get thirty of Adobe's high quality fonts, type on call, and trial copies of Adobe's powerhouse programs like Photoshop, Streamline and Pagemaker.
Adobe has added some great new features that will help you manage the fonts you use most while saving valuable system resources. With the addition of font sets you can easily activate or deactivate fonts, so they no longer appear on the font menus of your programs. No more installing and uninstalling your fonts in order to have a somewhat manageable list of fonts in your drop-down menus. The groups are very simple to setup and each group can contain fonts that are in other groups. If you decide to include the same font in several font sets, Adobe's Type Manager will create a shortcut for the font, similar to the manner in which Windows 95 creates shortcuts, ensuring that you don't install more than one instance of the font on your system.
Adobe's Type Manager allows you view any font on screen by clicking on the type face in the Type Manager's dialog window. The font will be displayed on a font sheet that shows the font in various different ways. First the font's name and format type are displayed along with the version and copyright information pertaining to the font. Next, the complete alphabet (upper/lower case), numbers and symbols are displayed using the font you have chosen. Below this information is a small paragraph of generic text, showing the relationship of characters when they are displayed in the type face. On the bottom half of the sheet is a sample sentence showing the font in different point sizes ranging from 8 to 72. The sentence can be customized by the user to read anything you want. This feature is especially nice if you are looking for a particular font and you want to test the font with some actual text that will be used in your project. If you have a photo editing or drawing program you are probably familiar with the term: Anti-aliasing. This is a technique used to smooth out the edges of a font when it is displayed on the screen. Since your computer screen doesn't show fonts with the crispness of a laser printed document many programs use anti-aliasing to enhance the way a font is displayed so you can get a better idea of how the font will look when it is printed. This new feature can be turned on or off in Adobe's Type Manager.
Adobe's Type Manager offers a great amount of flexibility for the user, enabling the user to customize certain font handling procedures. Among these features are: font substitution, displaying fonts as graphics and using auto-activation for programs that have this capability. By creating font sets you can choose to have these sets activated each time you open a specific program. Adobe's Type Manager has introduced some nice time and resource saving features that will help you manage your fonts in a convenient manner. Whether you are a desktop publisher or a print house publisher, Adobe's ATM 4.0 will help you manage your fonts by helping you set up font sets that are sure to increase your productivity. With the ability to handle both Type 1 and True Type fonts, you can't go wrong with Adobe's Type Manager.
by William C. May
Manufactured by: Quarterdeck Corporation 13160 Mindanao Way Marina del Ray, CA 90292-9705 Tel: 800.683.6696 Fax: 813.523.2391 www.quarterdeck.com Retail: Approx. $40
System Requirements: Intel based IBM PC or Compatible DOS 3.3 or higher; 13 MB hard-disk space For Internet cleanup modem, Internet service provider, Netscape Navigator 3.x or higher, Internet Explorer 3.x or higher or America Online 3.0
CleanSweep started out as a hard-disk uninstall application and a hard-disk cleanup program a few years ago. Now CleanSweep Deluxe carries on the tradition with all the old features and adds a few new features such as an application mover utility and an Internet sweep utility. The uninstall program in CleanSweep Deluxe is great. It does a very thorough job of deleting programs it has monitored. It also does a good job of deleting programs it did not monitor during the original install but not as complete as the monitored programs. If you want to uninstall a program that installed before CleanSweep was put on your computer, here is a little tip. Reinstall the program you want to get rid of while CleanSweep monitors the install and then uninstall the program right away using CleanSweep Deluxe. This guarantees the best uninstall of old programs. CleanSweep also makes backups of the programs it uninstalls so if there any problems you can put things back the way they were. After a period of time (you can set this option) CleanSweep will ask if you want to delete the backup files. I used the uninstall feature a dozen times and had no problems other than huge backup files (which I deleted right away). I also reinstalled a backup to see how that would work and it performed like a champ.
The hard-disk cleanup utility works well in finding space lost to duplicate and unused files but it is not for the faint of heart. It has a feature to stop you from deleting critical files but some of the files it will let you delete can still hang certain programs or your system. I would only use the hard-disk cleanup utility if you know what file names mean and the function of the files or you will probably get into trouble. The application mover utility has the ability to relocate an entire program to a different directory or to a different hard-disk without you having to reinstall the program (which can save a lot of time in Windows 95 and Windows NT applications). The mover relocates the entire program and changes all the registry entries for you. I have tried it twice and it worked both times. The utility called Internet Sweep keeps a log of all the files your computer downloads during Internet sessions and can then delete those files after you have finished your session. The types of files Internet Sweep utility logs are ActiveX controls, Internet browser cache files, cookies and Plugins. After the session is over you can delete any or all of the logged files from your hard drive. I have used this and it does work but it seems like overkill unless you are short on hard-drive space. Most browsers work faster if they have files cached on your hard-disk.
CleanSweep Deluxe also has its own upgrade utility if you have Internet access. Just click the upgrade button and you'll be automatically upgraded to the latest version. The only problem I had with CleanSweep is that the monitoring program (which runs in the background) conflicted with a couple of programs during their install procedure and I had to turn off the install monitor so I could install my application. Other than that, the program worked well. For power-users and speed freaks, CleanSweep installs too many TSRs but they can be stopped from loading by deleting their shortcuts in the Startup folder (you can manually start the install monitor at your discretion). CleanSweep Deluxe is a good program for cleaning up those pesky programs you no longer want around.
by Johnnie G. Duran and Don Nendell
Manufacturer: Techstream, Inc. 1516½ Mesa Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Phone: (888) 471-3811 Fax: (719) 471-3837 E-mail: yamundson@techstream.com (CompuServe 72056,56)
Techstream, Inc., has a 2-day Computer Training Course (#201) called, "PC Configuration and Troubleshooting Fundamentals Course," that was given a "Two Thumbs Up" review by attendee David Murray. (Ed Note: This is a "Must See" perfect lead in, companion article to this review, and can be found in the November 1997 Blue Chips Magazine. By now, it's also on the UCS web page (www.ucs.org) entitled, "Techstream's Course #201 - How PC's really work!") The #201 Course with its "Live in-class hardware and software demonstrations at every step," is an outstanding preparatory course for the A+ Core Technology Certification Program (1.4 CEU's).
The $495 Course #201 is actually a logical stepping stone to its Techstream big brother, the 3-day Computer Training Course (#301) called, "Hands-on PC Configuration and Troubleshooting Workshop." This A+ Core Technology Certification Program (2.0 CEU's) preparation course, which costs $995, was held at the Downtown Holiday Inn in Salt Lake City on November 12-14, 1997. The course included a daily catered lunch, and the A.M. and P.M. refreshments were ever-present, and never in short supply. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before proceeding any further, let me first share a thought.
After reading the beautiful six (6) page color brochure, and even as I was actually signing up to take the class, I was expecting a course where I was going to see 16 students sharing one (1) computer, like some I've seen - or more likely, 16 students surrounding the teacher lecturing about the course (like #201 does). My preconception was simply that not all the students would be able to do the "80% hands-on" PC configuration and troubleshooting as advertised. Boy! Was I ever wrong? I had read the course description for Course #201, not Course#301, which hadn't really prepared me for the shock I received upon entering the classroom. What an eye opener!
I arrived at the class and saw eight brand-new Pentium - straight out of the box - computers all setup, ready to go, and two students assigned for each computer. There were a couple of no-shows, so we were lucky that only eight students showed up. This meant that each student had his/her own computer to practice on the whole three (3) days. I also found out that Techstream teaches this course to individuals looking to improve their job prospects by becoming A+ Certified Technicians; small home based business persons who depend heavily on their PC's; Large Corporations (like Intel, et al.); governments; and the military in Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Salt Lake City. So, we are very lucky to have Techstream come to our area.
Here are a few highlights about the Techstream #301 Course:
1) Anders Amundson, our teacher, was great. His knowledge about computers was outstanding. (Ed Note: But, that was reported in the Course #201 review, so, "What's new?") In the classroom presentations, the lectures had plenty of easily understandable overhead graphics, and were well explained. He was also willing to help each student, on a one-on-one basis, and stayed with the student until a full and complete understanding was achieved. Anders showed us tips, and tricks and answered each student's question in a light, thorough and humorous manner. He was also willing to stay after class to help individual students with their computer problems, as well as, provide additional highly individualized instruction to those who were preparing for the A+ Core Technology Certification Test. To do this, Anders had set up on another computer, a very beneficial, nearly identical, hands on, practical application version of the final A+ Exam - well, you get the idea.
2) The computer equipment was well organized. Each student was provided with a well organized plastic cover box that contained all the tools, pencils, notepads, software utility disks, hardware components and necessary equipment that was going to be used in the three-day course. Each and every computer was a state of the art, brand new, fully working 166Mhz Pentium. And, let me tell you, we tore those babies completely apart (you could've driven a tank through the hole in that case); installed things like, sound cards, network cards, et al.; put them all back together again; infected them with a virus (and cleaned it too!); and, everyone of them worked perfectly again.
As a footnote: Don Nendell, you know him from our monthly meetings? He's the one who complains that he has never had anything ever work right on his computers the first time he installs something? Don't tell anybody, but he can't make that statement any more, because his computer worked perfectly, the first time he fired it up, when he got it all back together again.
3) The workbook that was handed out was titled "HANDS-ON PC CONFIGURATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP," and that title should have been my second clue in clearing up my mistaken preconception about this course. The one half inches thick workbook was given to us to take home and use as a future "Troubleshooting" reference. I really enjoyed the workbook because it was well organized. The procedures and the practice labs were well written. Each procedure in the manual is beautifully illustrated, thoroughly documented, and instructed the student step by step through to successful completion. In addition, Anders thoroughly explained every subject in detail, and took the time to insure that each student had a full and complete understanding of the topic under discussion before moving on to the next session. No stone was left unturned.
4) When it came to keeping the student's stomach happy, Techstream did a great job. Students were supplied with goodies throughout the course with coffee (regular and decaf), tea (many varieties), soft drinks, cookies, pastries, and sweet rolls. When it came for lunch, we were well fed, and personally attended to by our own waitress. This accruement, like this great Course #301, was first class all the way!
5) I am not going to explain in detail each day's activity. That is for you to find out, but I will say this much. Give Techstream a call and ask them to send you their brochure on the two different Courses (#201) and (#301). Their brochure explains all this far better than I ever could. Besides, they are coming back to Salt Lake City, April, 7-10(*), and you can get all the latest up to date information from them in person that way. The brochure is Free, the classes are limited, and the call's "Free," so don't delay, call today. Tell Yolande that, "Don says like Nike says Just Do it."
(*) Ed. Note: We have just received a Press Release from Techstream announcing that Courses #201 and #301 have been combined into a 4-day Course (#401): "Techstream Inc., . . . has been contracted by Intel's Engineering Education Group to run PC hardware training workshops for Intel employees. Techstream will present their 4-day "Hands-on PC Configuration, Networking, and Troubleshooting Workshop" over twenty times in the coming months to groups of Intel employees at Intel's training sites in Chandler, AZ; Folsom, CA; Santa Clara, CZ; and, Hillsboro, OR. . . . The training being presented at Intel sites is similar to the (Course #401) Workshops offered . . . by Techstream."
A topic by topic breakdown of all the subjects we covered in Course #301 (and then some) is as follows:
Day one morning - HOW PC'S WORK - System overview and architecture; CPU recap; Different buses and expansion slots; Memory; Storage devices; and, System software reviews.
Day one afternoon - ASSEMBLING and CONFIGURING TYPICAL PC HARDWARE - System Configuration (Demo); Assembling a Pentium PC from components; Configuring CMOS for optimal performance & stability; DOS Startup Files; and, Bench marking PC performance.
Day two morning - INSTALLING and CONFIGURING Windows 3.x or Windows 95 - Memory management; Memory management utilities; Installing Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11; and, Optimizing and personalizing Windows.
Day two afternoon - NETWORKING WINDOWS PCs - Installing and configuring an Ethernet card; Connecting to a network; Activating network features of Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11; Managing shared resources on the network; and, Safeguarding software installation from accidental or malicious alteration.
Day three morning - UPGRADING and TUNING the SYSTEM for PERFORMANCE - Configuring expansion cards; Identifying and resolving interrupt conflicts; and, How DOS Windows 3.x and Windows 95 manage disks.
Day three afternoon - RECOVERING DATA FROM CORRUPTED DISKS - Preparing the hard disk; Two ways to find pieces of a damaged file; Recovering lost files; Testing a recovered file; and, Viruses (infection, detection and removal Demo).
Summary: Yes, I would recommend this course to anyone that would like
to improve their skills in computing in general, and specifically to learn
about and/or hone their skills in troubleshooting a PC. This course taught
me new computer skills that I will cherish and put to good use for many
years to come. It was a great class and very well presented. Since Nike
has moved on to newer slogans, maybe they won't mind us borrowing the old
one for a moment to describe this, and all Techstream's Courses, this
one time, "Just do It!"
by Dan Mabbutt
Visual J++ Bible Richard C. Leinecker and Tom Archer IDG Books 1997 (CD-ROM)
Learn Java Now Stephen R. Davis Microsoft Press, 1996 (packaged with J++)
Active Visual J++ Scott Robert Ladd Microsoft Press, 1997 (CD-ROM)
Java is the "today" thing, right? As an emerging technologies kind of guy, I decided that I was going to jump in and learn Java. The three books reviewed together here represent my initial effort at finding help for myself. If you're in the same market, my experience might help you get off the ground a little faster.
A note of explanation about how I selected these three books. My starting requirement was a book that covered J++, the Microsoft version of Java. (Hey! I'm a Microsoft droid. So sue me!) I also needed a very recent book to cover J++ version 1.1. (Events move fast in web time.) With these requirements, I picked the Visual J++ Bible after reading reviews at the excellent Amazon.com web site. Learn Java Now is actually the text packaged along with the Microsoft J++ compiler but it's no "user's guide," it's a standalone text that is also sold separately. Finally, Active Visual J++ was simply a stroke of luck because it was up for review through Utah Blue Chips!
All three of these books are excellent texts, but totally different. Never has it been more true that "you can't tell a book by its cover." I had almost 180 degree opposite expectations of all of them. Here's the "executive summary" for busy Utah Blue Chippers.
The Visual J++ Bible
If you're like me and you just want to learn the language the "Visual
J++ Bible" is the best book of these three, but still leaves something
to be desired. The title might suggest a reference manual, and it is. But
not a reference for the language as much as it's a reference for some cool
Java applets. In fact, two of the three books seem to be a demonstration
of the author's skill as a programmer rather than as a writer or teacher.
For example, the programs on the included CD-ROM work great, but they don't
match the code printed in the book and any explanation of the difference
is completely lacking. (E-mails to all four coauthors only yielded an explanation
from one of them that he wasn't responsible and didn't even have a copy
of the book.)
If you want a book full of code that you can copy, however, this is it. It does a great job of providing code that you might take weeks or months to duplicate, if ever. The included Java applets are well organized, reasonably well explained (although, if you're like me and you want to know why everything is done, you're not going to be satisfied).
The "Visual J++ Bible" also explains how Java became J++ in the Microsoft world and gives you the straight story about the differences. You get useful knowledge to help you choose between NOISy Java (Novell/Netscape, Oracle, IBM, and Sun) and Microsoft Java.
Learn Java Now
If you want a good theoretical and philosophical introduction to Java,
the "object oriented programming language", then the book packaged
with the J++ system is a great choice. Again, this was not what I expected
since you might think that the book that comes packaged with the software
would be focused on explaining that specific software. On the contrary,
"Learn Java Now" is focused on helping you understand the "larger
vision" of Java and object oriented programming in general. It has
very little to say about J++.
I recommend "Learn Java Now" very highly. Even if you don't plan to use J++, consider buying this book retail. The concepts behind object oriented programming are difficult to grasp, but "Learn Java Now" makes them as clear as possible. The examples and illustrations, built around a metaphor of the family TV, are familiar and relevant. I found myself constantly having the "Ah ha!" reaction. "Ah ha! That's what encapsulation means!"
Active Visual J++
The Microsoft Press book, "Active Visual J++" is a really
good book too; it's just not the book I was looking for. As a product of
Microsoft Press, you might think that it would be an intense and partisan
guide to the Microsoft view of the Java world. You might be dead wrong!
In fact, this is really a book of innovative Java code to implement numerical
analysis and cellular automata. Everybody who is into that science will
think it's great: all three of them. Too bad that thousands of people looking
for instruction on J++ will buy it instead. I found a clue about the title
of this book in the bibliography (pp. 320321). The author's previous books
were heavy duty numerical analysis texts. I found myself wondering if the
only reason this book was entitled "Visual J++" is that a book
entitled "Simulations and Cellular Automata" just wouldn't sell
as many copies.
There is nothing on the book jacket to suggest who this book is for, but if you don't have a pretty good knowledge of C or Java syntax already, it's not for you! "Active Visual J++" starts off with a bang! Without even a preface or introduction, the author throws a sophisticated 6 page Java *** ??? ***^ applet at you right there on page 10. It's definitely a "throw the baby in the ocean to see if he can swim" approach.
"Active Visual J++" might be a good reference for C++ programmers, too. In addition to frequent explanations about how various code examples are the same or different from C++ in the early chapters, Chapter 3 is totally devoted to this single topic.
Chapter 3 is a great example of another thing about "Active Visual J++". The author filled a lot of the book's pages with very sparsely documented code rather than explanations of what that code is supposed to help you understand. A rough calculation revealed that only 35 percent of Chapter 3 is actual writing. The rest of the entire chapter is uncommented source code. The whole book is like that. It's sometimes said that many programmers are really frustrated writers trapped in a programming job. The author of "Active Visual J++" seems to be a frustrated programmer trying to write.
by David S. Cleveland
Manufacturer: Symantec Corp. 10201 Torre Ave. Cupertino, CA 95014 800.441.7234; 800.947.6197 www.symantec.com
Price, version 4.03: $89.95, $49.95 upgrade from DiskLock
System requirements: 486/33 or higher 8MB RAM 8MB hard drive space 500 KB uncompressed space on boot drive Windows 95
How do you protect the data on your computer? Our systems are under constant assault. There are intentional and unintentional attempts to read, change and otherwise corrupt the data in our computers. Several programs have been designed to deal with the problems of undesired intrusion. Secret Agent from AT&T, PGP for Windows from PGP Inc., SecurPC for Windows 95 from RSA Security and Norton Your Eyes Only from Symantec are four of the best known, fully featured programs available.
Only one stands out. Norton's Your Eyes Only is by far the best choice for PC users of all types. This program will protect your computer in many different ways, and best of all, it's the least expensive. Your Eyes Only offers multiple options where the other programs offer few. Its performance ranks at the top. For file encryption and decryption only SecurPC is faster, and then only at file decryption.
First, a very brief overview of data protection. If you want to make your data safe from prying eyes, it needs to be encrypted. There are several different methods used to encrypt (and decrypt) data. They all have a couple things in common. They will have a key and an encryption process, or algorithm. The key is used by the algorithm to change the data into encrypted data. This type of process is referred to as symmetric-key encryption. Symmetric-key encryption routines are very fast, but not very safe. Since most of the algorithms are public knowledge, or at least the programs that run the algorithms are in the public domain, the most important part of keeping the whole process secret is the key. If both the sender and the receiver need to know the key, how do you safely pass the key?
Norton Your Eyes Only has solved that problem by using a combination of symmetric-key encryption and another process called public-key encryption. Each person who has a copy of Your Eyes Only will have their own public key and private key. The public key is given to others, in this case through small (2K) user files. They are then able to encrypt files that you can decrypt. If you also decide to give them your private key, you will then be able to log onto their computer. If someone wants to send you an email message they will use your public key to encrypt the symmetric-key. Your Eyes Only uses the symmetric-key to encrypt the message. After you receive the message, you use your private key to decrypt the symmetric key, which then decrypts the message. Simple, right?
It works very well. It works so well that Your Eyes Only has won several awards. They include: Best of Byte PC Expo 1996, PC Magazines Editors Choice Award, the August 1996 Windows Stellar Award and the Best of LAN Times from LAN Times magazine. Additional recognition comes in the form of several Four Star software ratings and Best Buy awards.
Installation requires some prior thought. During program installation you will be asked to supply a user ID and a password. You are not required to enter the user ID in the future, but you will have to enter the password. If you forget your password, you will lose all of your encrypted files, and you may lose access to your entire hard disk. That would be bad. Other options will ask you if you want to enter your password during initial computer boot up. This protects against unauthorized use of your computer. The alternative is to require log on during Windows 95 loading. If you choose the former, you will need to make an Emergency Unlock disk in case you have the need to boot from a floppy disk in the future. During installation you will also have to decide what level of protection you need. Encryption protection levels depend on how many bits you allocate to the encryption key. This is referred to as the "key size". Larger key sizes offer more protection, but take longer when encrypting and decrypting files. The default key size of 768 bits means that your encrypted files will take about twice as long to load as they would if they were unencrypted. The largest key size, 2048 bits, slows down the loading process by three or four times. It is important to understand that Your Eyes Only will encrypt data files, not program files. Thus there is no delay when loading your applications. For most data files the decryption delay is barely noticeable.
Symantec has designed several ways to protect your computer. They encompass boot up protection, screen locking and file encryption. Boot up protection stops anyone from booting up your computer without a password. This is called BootLock. If you install BootLock, it is impossible to boot your computer without the password. Booting from floppy disk will result in access only to that floppy. Any attempt to access any other drives will result in an "Invalid media type" error message. You can make an emergency boot disk with Your Eyes Only, but you still need your password to access any disk other than the floppy you used for boot. If you choose not to install the BootLock program, anyone can boot up, cancel the log on screen and then use your computer. They cannot, however, do anything with the files or folders you have chosen to protect. This give family members and co-workers the use of your computer, but sensitive files remain safe.
Screen Locking is your second level of protection. Your Eyes Only will lock out your system and display any Windows 95 screen saver by a hotkey or a time interval. The only way to re- activate your system is by entering your password. You can use any Windows 95 screen saver. Time delay for automatic screen locking activation can configure for 1 to 120 minutes. The hotkey option that starts the screen saver with a few keystrokes can be configured to your liking.
The final level of protection is file encryption. This is your major defense. File encryption will protect any files you choose. This method is used when transferring files over a modem, a network, direct cable connection or over the SneakerNet. It also protects your files from being used or viewed without your knowledge when you are on-line. During the first week of February 1997, the Hamburg chapter of the Chaos Computer Society demonstrated that while you are on- line, Active-X controls can open Quicken files, and actually transfer your money to other accounts. All done without your knowledge. If your files are encrypted, rogue programs will not be able to use your files. Also, if your laptop is one of the two hundred that are stolen every day, you can take some solace knowing that any sensitive information you have protected will stay private.
With this program you can encrypt single files or entire folders. Encrypted files cannot be opened, copied, moved or deleted without proper authorization. One of the beauties of Norton Your Eyes Only, as opposed to some of the smaller shareware programs, is that it will encrypt and decrypt folders on the fly. Once you log on as an authorized user, you don't have to enter your password as you open and close protected folders. Yet someone who sneaks into your computer while you surf the net cannot get into the protected files.
Once you have installed Norton Your Eyes Only there will be a small padlock on the Windows 95 Taskbar tray. Double clicking the icon brings up the Norton Your Eyes Only control Center. The control Center is where you change the default setting for the program. You have a choice of seven algorithms, five domestic and two international. Key sizes range from 356 to 2048 bits. You have the choice of automatic or manual encryption and you decide who has access to each file or folder,. From this dialogue box you change the password. You also set up the rules for password construction and how often you are required to change password. A nice feature for laptop users lets you change the message displayed during log on. Enter your name and telephone number in case the person who finds your lost laptop has wings growing out of their back.
One problem that I have with this program is email transmission. The only way to send an encrypted message is as an email attachment. This creates a complicated operation if you are simply sending a short message to someone. Also Your Eyes Only will automatically decrypt all of the files in a protected folder if you send a file as an attachment from that folder. This leaves all of the rest of the files unprotected while you are sending. Fortunately the program does enable you to disable the automatic decryption. This stops certain programs from decrypting files when they access them. The instruction booklet explains how to do this with the Windows 95 Registry Editor. It can also be done through the File Management tab in the Norton Control Center, a method the instruction book fails to mention. Your data will stay safe, but you are still required to go through the email attachment ritual.
The program interfaces easily with Windows 95. All of the file and folder manipulations are placed in the right click pop up menu. If you want to protect a folder, right click on the folder and choose "Enable SmartLock Folder". A dialogue box appears. The box shows which users will be able to access the folder. It also lets you pick one of the seven different encryption algorithms. Your default choice is already selected. Once you press the enter key, or select "Ok", all of the contents of the folder are encrypted. From that point on, the contents of the folder are decrypted only when authorized users access them. The decryption process is transparent. The only change in your normal computing operations is a slight delay while the contents of the folder are opened. The delay caused by decryption depends on the size of the file and the algorithm you have chosen. If you choose to Disable SmartLock, right click on the folder, select Disable SmartLock and press enter.
File manipulations are just as simple. Right click on a file and the options include Encrypt File, Decrypt File and Secure delete. File encryption/decryption is as easy as SmartLock folder operations. The only difference is that files encrypted manually must be decrypted manually prior to use. The file extension is changed. A ".YNC" is added to all manually encrypted file names. Program applications and Windows 95 file associations will not open encrypted files. Even the icon for manually encrypted files is changed to a small padlock. This makes these types of files easy to identify. If you select Properties on an encrypted file or folder, you can identify the encryption method used to encrypt the file and who has access to the file.
If you want to delete a file and leave no trace, use the Secure Delete File option. The Secure Delete uses the Department of Defense method of deleting a file, then writing over the deleted file. The file can never be recovered.
The program can monitor computer usage. It will keep a log of all computer activity. The Audit Log will keep track of every action. These activities include file and program use, failed log on attempts, password changes, attempts to access unauthorized files, even screen lock and unlock activities. The only problem is that the log requires occasional clearing when you have it enabled. The audit file can grow quite large. If you use this program with a limited amount of disk space, you may want to disable the Audit Log. This prevents the necessity of clearing the log occasionally in order to save hard disk space.
A separate program called Norton Your Eyes Only Administrator is available for use on a network. This version of the program contains all of the features found in the stand alone version, plus additional features useful for centralized installation, updating and configuration. It allows for preconfigured setup whether via network or floppy disk. The network version also gives different user rankings to individuals depending on their access needs. Your user level will determine how much access you have to program options and encrypted file operations. The administrator controls the level of access for each user. Your Eyes Only Administrator will automatically install Your Eyes Only on to systems when they access the network. This allows for network security without unreasonable complications for each user.
Norton Your Eyes Only is a very good way to protect your computer. It contains options that will make it useful to everyone. This includes PC users in the home and corporate executives in the workplace. It installs easily, it is very small (8 MB) and runs entirely in the background. The instruction manual is concise. The online help provides information with only a mouse click. Symantec has several different levels of support. There is 90 day free support that comes with the package and several levels of paid technical support thereafter. Symantec also has locations on CompuServe and America Online. At $90.00 ($50.00 if you upgrade from Norton DiskLock) it is the best data security package on the retail shelves.
by William C. May
Manufactured by: HyperCube Inc. 10542 Bradbury Road Los Angeles, CA 90064 Tel: 1.800.268.1812 Fax: 310.559.2357 Retail: Approx. $1400.00 to $3500.00
System Requirements: IBM PC or Compatible or Mac DOS 3.3 or higher; Windows 3.1 or higher; Windows 95, Windows NT, Mac OS 5
HyperView++ is an extension of the Visual C++ Resource Editor paradigm, not a replacement for Visual C++. It is used to:
As a viewer (descended from CHyperView) HyperView++ has two operating modes:
There is no easy or entertaining way to present a review of a programming application, so here are the nuts and bolts:
If you need extra flexibility in your Visual C++ programs, this may be a product you can use. It is also very nice that it can handle Mac Visual programming also.
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By Donna Nendell, Review Program Manager and Don Nendell, Editor
To sign up to review an article, call Donna Nendell at 565-9594
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HOT ITEM: Computer City Training Voucher - One Full Day - Complementary Software Training class OF YOUR CHOICE at any Computer City Training Center. Just present voucher to the Instructor on the day of the class. Call 1-800-THE CITY for registration and space availability. Thanks to Russ Dauterman from all of at Blue Chips for his support and hard work to bring us all a Great Deal!
ClarisWorks Office from Claris Corporation {www.claris.com}
All the office you need! ClarisWorks Office software is the office productivity
program that speeds you through every business task. The cornerstone is
ClarisWorks 5.0, the all-in-one program which integrate word processing,
graphics, spreadsheet, and database into one powerful yet simple-to-use
program. ClarisWorks Office is also your on-ramp to the Internet and comes
with Internet connection software and web page design tools, So you can
surf the web, exchange e-mail and create web pages for your business in
no time. ClarisWorks Office lets you take charge of your entire office
-- guiding you step-by-step through creating newsletters, mailing labels
and more; linking URL's from within your documents and launching other
applications -- all from its powerful Button Bar. It all adds up to a powerful
set of productivity tools for your business.
Credit Builder Professional by Intelliquis - Complete credit management, whether you are planning to buy a car, a house or starting a business, nothing is more important than your credit history. If you want to correct existing credit problems or simply want to strengthen your current credit situation, the Credit Builder is the tool for you. With this simple-to-use program, you can apply for loans and credit cards, learn about your credit rights and mend your credit standing. Features, complete credit management, Fix your credit in a snap, Find the right credit card for you, Prepare and Apply for any loan, plus find out what credit agencies report about you and what you can do about it.
Guard Dog from CyberMedia {www.cybermedia.com} The Complete Internet Privacy and Security Solution. Introducing "Guard Dog," the most powerful way to protect your privacy and security in today's Internet age. Guard Dog acts as your personal, security guard that protects you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now there's an entirely new, reliable way to safeguard your personal files and keep your Web browsing habits from the prying eyes of others. If your Internet Connection is not protected your are Not Safe! Small programs (called Java applets or ActiveX controls) can silently enter your hard drive from Web pages you visit. Once there, these applets can scan your personal records or even delete critical files! Web sites may stealthily plant electronic tags called "cookies" which can track your browsing habits. It's like having a video camera following you around the mall! Programs you download and email you receive may contain deadly viruses that can destroy your PC.
Info Select from Micro Logic - Info Select is the award winning PIM that lets you store all your assorted information in one organized place...and find what you need instantly...notes, lists, prices, ideas, and much more. Info Select is like having a photographic memory that gives you perfect, superfast recall of unlimited information. When Harry calls on the phone, you'll have all your notes on Harry before he finishes his first sentence! No more embarrassing pauses or fumbling for information. You'll improve your relationships and be more successful. Manage all your personal and business information, correspondence, sales leads, orders, and client notes. Track facts, plan projects or combine all your ideas. Catalog parts, documents, and inventory items. Match buyers and sellers or doctors and patients. Manage E-mail. Store notes on magazine articles or just names and addresses. You'll find countless uses for Info Select. It's like getting a dozen software packages for the price of one!
Internet Family Fun from InfoMedia Inc. World Village (Book) {www. worldvillage.com} The parent's guide to safe surfing. Whether your family just got its first computer or you're a bunch Internet veterans, Internet Family Fun will take you to the best and safest Web sites for your family fast - without a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo. Internet Family Fun delivers nearly 250 reviews of fun and informative sites, pre-screened for age appropriateness and family-friendly content, for everyone from preschoolers to parents. And it also shows you how to keep your kids safe online. You'll learn how to install and use filtering software, use the Internet for research, find hundreds of games, puzzles, coloring pages, and brain teasers, learn about our world, observe classrooms using he Internet, join an email club or Web ring and create your very own home page.
Lotus ScreenCam 97 from Lotus - {www.lotus.com} - Lotus ScreenCam 97 turns your PC into a VCR that records every click, scroll and action on your screen. You can add captions and the sound of your voice. Then edit your instant PC Movies and share them with others -- even those who don't have ScreenCam. Combine up to 20 segments in each PC movie to demonstrate new products, explain financials, troubleshoot software, train new employees and more. ScreenCam is the next best thing to being there. Film it, Edit it, Tweak it and then Share it.
Net Fax by Intelliquis - Start saving money today, route faxes via the Internet. Easy to use, as simple as printing. Send charts, graphics, scans and drawings. Many companies spend as much as 40% of their long-distance bill on sending faxes. Though e-mail has revolutionized the way we communicate, it has not replaced the security and graphic superiority of faxes. If you do send charts, scanned images, diagrams, graphs, or spreadsheets with your message; it takes another trip to the fax machine...and another hefty bill. Net Fax eliminates telephone long-distance charges associated with faxing by routing fax transmissions over the Internet, while maintaining the advantages of a regular fax. Send Faxes from your computer anywhere around the world, to any e-mail box for viewing, printing or sending to a normal fax machine.
Origami created by Cloud Runner Inc. from Casady & Green - {www.casadyg.com} - The secret life of paper. Enter the magical, interactive Japanese house where haunting flute music greets your ears. Tour the gallery where creations of many of the world's greatest Origami Masters are displayed. Create 12 Origami figures! Crane, gyroscope, frog, iris, pagoda, star and more. Features free Origami paper to get you started, learn to make Origami paper from junk mail, stories and interviews, 100 full motion videos, 300 color photos, gallery of over 150 Origami figures. Use the paint pallet to decorate your projects and see the colors rendered in 3-D, then print out Origami templates with patterns on your printer.
PC Speed 98 System Accelerator for Windows 95 by Intelliquis - Rocket fuel for your computer. PC Speed 98 is a dynamic 32-bit Windows 95-native system accelerator that will launch your computer into speeds you never thought possible. No matter how much RAM is installed in your PC, Speed 98 puts it to more efficient use and will accelerate your programs. The program automatically prevents systems with more than 32 MB of RAM from wasting memory. And computers with less than 16 MB RAM will see marked improvement as Speed 98 returns unused memory back to the system. Speed 98 isn't the only program that claims to accelerate your system, but it is certainly the best. Read why Speed 98 leaves other methods of system optimizing in the dust.
System Commander Deluxe from V Communications, Inc. - {www.vcom.com} - System Commander Deluxe makes it safe and easy to get your new operating system up and running, without sacrificing the ability to get your work done. Run multiple operating systems with ease! You don't have to think twice about adding your office operating system to your home computer. Or keeping a version of real DOS to run a favorite game. Or taking advantage of the new features of Windows 95/98 without giving up your favorite applications that run on DOS or Window 3.1. You can even run the same operating system in different languages on one PC!
WebEdit Pro from Luckman's -{www.luckman.com} - Luckman's WebEdit Pro is a full-featured, professional HTML authoring and editing tool, yet it is extremely easy to use. Built-in tools and wizards make advanced HTML features such as frames, tables and forms quick to create. With its many powerful features, Luckman's WebEdit Pro is the premier Web page authoring tool for Microsoft® Windows® 95 and Windows NT. WYSIWYG Frame Wizard, WYSIWYG Form Builder, WYSIWYG Table Builder, Quick Pre-viewer, Multimedia Wizard, Open from Location, Client-Side Image Mapping, HTML 3.2, Navigator 3.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0 Tags, FTP Upload, Link Validation Wizard, Multi-lingual Spell Checker, Project Support and much more.
WinBatch from WilsonWare, Inc. - {www.winbatch.com} - The Batch Language for Windows. Now you don't have to leave the power of batch language programming behind when you move to windows. With WinBatch, you can do everything the DOS batch language did, and more. If you write batch programs or use BASIC, you'll be up to speed with WinBatch in no time! Traditional batch-language file management, structured programming, including GOSUB, SELECT CASE, FOR...NEXT, WHILE...ENDWHILE, IF...ELSE...ENDIF. Complete support for user interaction, time and date function, Network support extenders and much more.
Just a Reminder that your reviews are due.
DocToHelp Shane Nielsen EZ PhotoReader Joe Brame Hypertext Development Kit Shane Nielsen Hitchhiker's Guide to VB & SQL Rex Anderson PaperBridge 3.0 Developer's Ed Max Holloway Presto! PhotoAlbum Gena Roe Presto! Multimedia Suite Robert Craven Presto! Page Manager Suite Robert Craven Luckman's WWW YellowPages David Murray Complete Legal Collection for Win95 Charles Stepheson
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Donna Nendell 565-9594 E-Mail: Dnendell@AOL.Com
by John Quick
The newest version of Adobe Streamline version 4.0 can be one of the most valuable tools in the graphic designer's toolbox, especially if the designer must do logo treatments and corporate identity work. In short, Streamline is designed to take bitmap images and convert them to editable vector files suitable for printed output.
This review will probably be better if I start with a concise computer graphics primer. Please bear with me or just skip ahead if you already know the following information. Digital graphics files will always be one of two kinds: a) bitmap graphics, sometimes called raster graphics, and b) vector graphics. Both bitmap and vector graphics have their utility, each type being preferred for different forms of final output. The basic idea of bitmap graphics is this: each pixel in a file will have a certain color and shade assigned to it. This is not just for display on the monitor but is actually a mapping of that file's digital information. If a digital image is created at a given resolution and then scaled up to a greater resolution (or larger dimensions), the image will appear grainy and blocky. The computer must interpolate the assigned pixels and reassign whatever color was there to more pixels. In most circumstances, the computer can do no more than simply increase the size of the one pixel, then divide it into more pixels.
For multimedia, Web use or on-screen presentation, this is usually not much of an issue because the typical resolution of a monitor is 72 pixels per inch (ppi). For printed output, however, one wants to get the highest quality image possible. A graphic at 72 ppi that looks great on-screen, and fills the entire monitor, will look horrible if printed at 72 dpi, even if the printer is capable of 600 dpi. Of course, in a program such as Photoshop, you can increase the resolution at the expense of the image's printable size, in effect turning a 4" x 6" low resolution photograph into a 1" x 1.5" high-resolution photograph. But what if your graphic has to remain 4" x 6" but print at high-resolution? Or what if you are printing a billboard size advertisement and your original graphic must be blown up to 4 ft. x 6 ft.?
This is where vector graphics come in. Instead of mapping color or shade information to individual pixels, vector programs store the graphic information as a formulaic expression. Since computer monitors are not usually set up to display information in this fashion, the on-screen display of the image will seem pixilated (blocky). But when printed, the printer engine translates the formula into a smooth continuous tone graphic. Curves are printed as real curves, text is crisp and colors are solid. And of course, since the information is stored as a formula, you can prepare the image to be output at 4" x 6", then change the output dimensions to 40 feet x60 feet without the graphic losing any sharpness.
"Painting" programs such as Photoshop, Corel Photopaint, and Fractal Designed Painter produce bitmap images whereas "drawing" programs such as Illustrator, FreeHand, and Corel Draw produce vector graphics. It should be stated that rarely will output from vector programs look like a photographic image, just as bitmap image editors can rarely produce the super smooth, stylized artwork commonly associated with company logos or advertising designs. Adobe Streamline helps the designer bridge that gap by taking a bitmap graphic, either scanned from printed output or directly from the digital file, and converting it into editable vector file. Most professional drawing programs (including Adobe Illustrator) already include an integral bitmap-to-vector conversion component but they are rarely advanced enough to handle complex graphics and the results of the conversion are usually below acceptable standards. Often times, a graphic designer will need to recreate a company logo from a really bad photocopy made from company stationery. Instead of spending an hour or two trying to rebuild the exact design in Illustrator or FreeHand, the designer can simply scan the image, import it into Streamline, optimize the conversion settings, then perform the conversion, all in a matter of minutes. After exporting the resulting file to Illustrator, it is ready to be modified, cleaned up, or used as is.
Although previous versions of Streamline performed this task admirably, very complex graphics still caused problems and occasionally gave unexpected results. In addition, the old Streamline's ability to output more than 1 color at a time was weak (although still better than the aforementioned integral conversion components). But version 4 produces incredibly complex and accurate vector conversions without a hitch. In addition, if one has the RAM to spare, even photographic quality bitmap images can be converted into vector files that pretty much resemble the original photograph. Some of the new features specific to version 4 include the ability to convert separate areas of an image using different conversion settings for each area, the capability to specify predefined custom colors for your resulting vector image, and much more control over the resulting vectors themselves.
To put Streamline to the test, I performed a quick and painless installation on my PC then scanned a series of images on my Mac, bringing them into Streamline over the network. My first test was based on converting a. TIF file created by scanning an image of a man on a cell phone. I was very impressed with the resulting vector file. In the past, even using Streamline, it was difficult to get your vector graphic to come out looking this much like the bitmap original. I've provided both files, the scanned original and the converted vector file, to illustrate the accuracy of the translation.
The next file I converted was more complicated in that, instead of straight black-and-white output, I wanted a posterization effect with 4 or 5 different colors (or in this case, shades of gray). My original image was a pencil sketch of a wreath of grape vines destined to go on a wine label. Since this design may end up used on ad posters, flyers, receipts and other printed materials, I wanted to make sure that the graphic would look exactly the same no matter what size I had to scale it. I scanned the original at 300 dpi, saved it as a .PCT file format, and imported it into Streamline. I adjusted the conversion settings so that the process would generate vectors with a very tight tolerance in order to recreate the gnarled look of the grape vine. I also set the colors to 5, but did not stipulate custom colors. Once again, both files are provided for your examination.
Finally, in order to test its ability to convert very large, very convoluted graphics and to give near photographic output but in vector format, I scanned a black and white photograph of a child and imported it. I then tweaked the settings to give Streamline as many colors as it felt necessary to recreate the photograph in high detail. On my PC, equipped with an AMD K6 200 processor and 64 MB of RAM, the conversion took about 10 minutes. The vector file it produced was unbelievably complex as well as unbelievably accurate. Due to space limitations, those images will probably not be printed here in the review, but you can link to my Web Site at http://www.illustratus.com/streamline to see the resulting images, as well as to look at other examples of what the program can produce.
At an estimated street price of $129.00, Adobe Streamline is a time saving and productive tool for the professional graphic designer. Although the program performs its conversion magic independently of other applications, it obviously serves more as a complement to professional illustration programs then as an self-sufficient design tool. If you've ever been plagued by the need to perform accurate conversions from printed images into a format that is resizable and/or stylized you won't find a more useful tool than AdobeStreamline Version 4.0
by Sean Dorsey
Manufacturer: Insight Development 2420 Camino Ramon, Suite 205 San Ramon, California 94583 www.insightdev.com 510-244-2020
System Requirements: 486 processor (Pentium recommended) 16MB RAM Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 10MB hard drive space Windows 95/NT compatible VGA graphics adapter Mouse or other pointing device Windows compatible printer
You may ask yourself, what in the world is this program about? In a nutshell, it's an easy interface to printing CAD drawings on any Windows printer. Why is printing CAD drawings a problem? I'll discuss this in a minute.
I am a newcomer to the world of CAD (computer aided drafting). I recently installed AutoCad 13 on my computer and have slowly been learning how it works. I occasionally design electrical schematics for work and have started to draw them with AutoCad. One problem arose when I installed it, my printer was not on the list of drivers included with the program. Why was this a problem? CAD programs use HPGL in their files for hard copy output. (HPGL stands for HewlettPackard Graphics Language) Normally CAD drawings are printed on a plotter which needs special commands to tell the plotter which pen to use and where to draw. I tried to find a driver for my printer, but couldn't find one. This program was the answer I needed.
Installation of the program is really easy. Once the program is installed, a simple modification in AutoCad is all that is necessary to be printing on any printer Windows can use. How it works is really simple. PrintAPlot Batch is setup as a printer within AutoCad. When you are through drawing, just tell AutoCad to print and select PrintAPlot as the printer ("plotter") and the interface program comes up. Within PrintAPlot's interface program, you can make limited changes to your drawing such as setting the scale, rotating the drawing and modifying colors. This program is a really simple way to print CAD drawings on an inkjet, laser, dot matrix, or other type of printer. Of course, for optimum quality drawings, a plotter is always your best bet, but how many of us have one of those at home?
Overall, this is a great tool for getting any type of CAD drawing onto paper. I used AutoCad by Autodesk software as an example here only because it's the only CAD program I have. The software manual included with PrintAPlot says it will work with any HPGL or HPGL/2 compatible program. (The manual is fairly easy to understand and is well written.) It is a great tool for the amateur designer as well as the professional who likes to work at home.
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by John Ogilvie
Not every good idea can be legally protected. Sometimes your best business advantage comes from being friendlier, being first to market, or doing other things that do not rely on legal protection. But in many cases you can do these things and have legal protection as well. The kind of legal protection available for an idea depends on what kind of idea it is and how quickly and carefully you take steps to obtain protection.
One question to ask yourself is when the idea should be kept secret. A great idea for a marketing slogan does you no good if you can never tell anyone. On the other hand, you'll want to keep the slogan secret until you're ready to use it. Some ideas are most valuable when they are used in commercial products but still not disclosed; many software innovations are in this category because selling the executable code does not always reveal or explain the underlying technical ideas.
Another important question is what general category the idea is in. Some ideas are very technical, like chemical formulas or manufacturing processes or computer algorithms. Some ideas are more artistic, like a concept for a television show or a movie. Some ideas are business-centered, like your plans for a new product line or a strategic alliance, your pricing strategies, and your "bottom line" position in a negotiation. Some ideas span categories, like an artistic and business-centered idea for product packaging.
In general, if your idea is artistic then you should investigate copyright, design patent, trademark, and contract law as forms of protection. If the idea is technical, you might look into possible trade secret, patent, contract, or (for software) copyright protection. If the idea is business related and best kept secret, then consider using trade secret or contract law; if it is business related and needs to be publicized, then contract, trademark, trade dress, or design patent protection might be available.
The Copyright Act does not protect "ideas." However, the line between an unprotectable idea and a protectable expression of the idea is not always clear, so you may be able to get copyright protection for something you thought was merely a detailed idea.
Contracts can provide protection only if whoever you are trying to protect yourself against enters the contract. Contracts to protect ideas can also be hard to obtain and enforce. Unless you have a reputation as a source of good ideas that could be taken elsewhere, a company may either refuse outright to listen to your idea or it may insist on hearing the idea before deciding whether to sign an agreement. Sometimes these barriers can be overcome using a general non-disclosure form or a trusted third party such as an agent.
Business, technical, and artistic ideas can be kept as trade secrets, but you must take reasonable steps to keep them secret, and you have no protection against others who independently develop the same ideas. Patents may protect new technical ideas and stop someone else from using a patented invention even if they developed it independently. However, many ideas are not patentable. Patents are also expensive to obtain and even more expensive to enforce.
In summary, ideas can sometimes be protected legally. But the type of protection available and the cost of obtaining it varies widely depending on the type of idea, on the steps you have taken, and on what others have already done. Investigate your options carefully before deciding how legal protection fits into your business plan.
John W. L. Ogilvie is a Registered Patent Attorney and founder of the Computer Law++ law firm. He can be reached at (801) 355-0828 or email jwlo@LAWPP.com More information is available at http://www.lawplusplus.com. Computer Law++, LAWPP, and lawplusplus are trademarks, and Law++ is a federally registered trademark of John Ogilvie. Copyright 1998 John Ogilvie. All Rights Reserved.
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