363 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
363 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
RAndY s RumOR RaG
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October 1993
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NEWS IN YER FACE
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Intel caught Microsoft off-guard recently when it demonstrated
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Indeo 3.0. Intel recently demonstrated software drivers which let
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Indeo compression/decompression communicate directly with graphic
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hardware, rather than using the Windows graphics interface. Of
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course Microsoft said they had been working on similar technology.
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The speed of Indeo 3.0 is as much as two times faster.
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Insiders say that Microsoft was miffed because it bypasses
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their objective of setting a standard.
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---------------
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Information seems to change weekly, but Microsoft is now
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hinting that MS-DOS 6.2 will be shipped by Christmas. Resellers
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are concerned about having to "eat" their inventory of DOS 6.
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Alpha copies of Microsoft's Chicago (Windows 4) have been
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released to a few select software vendors. Developers expect to
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see a more complete beta version in October. The idea is for
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Chicago to combine multithreading and multitasking into a 4MB
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footprint.
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In other Microsoft happenings, the number of Word users could
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increase by 300,000 with their recently awarded contract from the
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Department of Defense.
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Shana has filed for a preliminary injunction against
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WordPerfect to protect its trademarked name, Informed.
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Lotus and Novell are talking about a strategic alliance
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revolving around Lotus Notes. (Remember their near merger three
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years ago?) No one is talking, but it is rumored that Lotus will
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put out a version of Notes for Unix-Ware and distributing Notes
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through Novell resellers. This scenario would be to thwart
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Microsoft's dominance, of course.
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---------------
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Are you having problems with CorelDraw 4? Corel is now
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distributing Patch B which corrects problems with remembering
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kerning, and some other things. Contact Corel for the update disks
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or a new CD. There is also a new print engine for PostScript
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users.
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Central Point is now beta testing an OS/2 version of their
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anti-virus product. This is a true 32-bit application that
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supports the OS/2 High Performance File System and Presentation
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Manager interface. No word yet on price or release date.
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I have a friend who has installed Windows NT. I haven't seen
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it, so I'm going on his word. He says that the intelligent
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installation correctly sniffed out his Pro Audio Spectrum card, CD-
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ROM drive, and Colorado tape backup. Impressive!
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He tells me that it takes twice as long to boot up and that
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16-bit applications are very slow. However, he says that the
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included 32-bit applets are very fast and is looking forward to
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seeing more 32-bit applications. Be prepared to give up about 40
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megs of hard drive space, too.
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Independent software vendors who attended Egghead's recent
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sales convention were shocked enough at having to pay $12K for
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booth space. To compound their ire, there was no liquor at the
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Saturday picnic and the Sunday cruise on Lake Michigan had a cash
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bar. Hey, Egghead sucks!
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TOLL-FREE TECH SUPPORT
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This fall, Microsoft will launch a tiered support program.
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The tiered support will be by product clusters, such as desktop,
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development tools, and advanced systems. Some baseline "free"
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support will be offered for desktop applications, but they will
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offer other services using annual fees, 900 numbers, and per-
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incident charges.
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One source who has knowledge of the plans says users would pay
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$195 per year to support a desktop level including operating
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systems. Charges for tools and Windows NT will be higher. Other
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sources say Microsoft will continue to provide free support on new
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products for 60 days.
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WordPerfect recently replaced their traditional toll-free
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number on Office 4.0.
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Borland is considering fee-based support for their products.
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Industry experts (not me) estimate a cost to vendors of $25-
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$75 accounts for personnel, database, and expert systems. Others
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estimate a cost of support calls between $8 and $200 each.
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WORDPERFECT NEWS
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Look for more cooperation between Borland and WordPerfect in
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terms of marketing suite products. No one is talking, but it will
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not be a surprise if WordPerfect Office will be combined with
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Quattro Pro 5, Paradox, and WordPerfect for Windows 6.
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Speaking of WordPerfect 6, beta testers report that this
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rewritten application is a powerful, polished, industrial-strength
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application.
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Performance is significantly faster and it has a much more
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polished appearance. The button Bar can float while adding a Power
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Bar with smaller icons. Descriptions of each icon button will
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appear as the mouse cursor is dragged over them.
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The tables feature will allow complex formulas, data fills,
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and named ranges with dozens of border and formatting styles.
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Coaches are modeled after Microsoft Wizards for help with certain
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functions.
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WordPerfect Draw supports Bezier curves and fitting text to a
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curve, and is also OLE compliant. The Open File dialog has file-
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management features that will replace the current stand-alone file
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manager. Intelligent support for the right mouse button is
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abundant.
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An API for writing tools allows third-party products to hook
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into the program. Reveal codes remains, but is not necessary.
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Improved automatic code placement and deletion of superseded codes
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address this current weakness.
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We'll finally have a collapsible outliner, enhanced merge with
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hundreds of new commands, creation of formatting styles by example,
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and Text Art (a Bitstream utility) is included for special effects
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with type.
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QuickFormat lets you extract formatting or styles from text
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and apply them to text in another document. A new Insert menu lets
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users select predefined bullets and numbering styles or create
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their own. The Abbreviations feature will replace an abbreviation
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in a document with a longer piece of information which can include
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text, graphics, formatting - anything that can be placed in a
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document. The customizable Button Bar will let you run any Windows
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application from within WordPerfect.
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Availability is scheduled for October 19 (hey, that's just
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around the corner).
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In other word processor news, Microsoft will likely delay the
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release of Word 6 for Windows, giving WordPerfect the edge. See
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the details of Word 6 for Windows below.
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MORE NEWS IN YER FACE
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Microsoft's upgrade of Word for Windows will trail in release
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behind WordPerfect's upgrade. Included in Word will be AutoCorrect
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which will fix commonly misspelled words and typos without
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prompting. AutoSelect chooses words instead of characters for
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editing and AutoFormat modifies text based on predefined styles.
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Microsoft may stop retailing Video for Windows and bundle it
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with boards. Video for Windows will also be offered in Chicago
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(DOS 7/Windows 4).
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My report last month that Novell was not using NetWare 4
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internally has been disputed. A Novell executive says that they're
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using it extensively with over 1,000 clients and 70 servers.
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Intuit, makers of the popular Quicken, has proposed acquiring
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ChipSoft, makers of TurboTax and MacInTax. The Justice Department
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is concerned about anti-trust issues and recently squelched a
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ChipSoft deal to acquire Meca Software, a competitor.
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The combined Intuit-ChipSoft deal would mean an estimated $200
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million in annual sales with about 1,000 employees.
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WordPerfect is shipping version 6.0a of their new DOS word
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processor to fix several bugs and add new features. New to the
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interim release is the ability to edit footers and headers in Page
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mode, customizable graphics, printable help and macro
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documentation, and new Coaches.
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Get out your Mastercard - by the time your read this a new
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newsletter will be available called OS/2 Week. This is a multi-
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page newsletter which will offer news on product plans,personnel
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shifts, strategic alliances, and other industry news on OS/2. It
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is delivered each Monday morning to your fax machine and a 50-week
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subscription only costs $400. But if you ordered before
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publication, they offered a one-time rate of $200.
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Useless information: WordPerfect spent over $3 million on
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print advertising in July.
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Lotus will be soon offering a free bug-fix for their just-
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released 1-2-3 Release 4 for Windows. The fix includes the
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Application Field Exchange for tighter integration with Notes along
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with support for more databases.
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One of the more serious bugs which has been corrected is a
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problem some users had when using absolute references in specific
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sequences.
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It's all but a done deal. ComputerLand will be purchased by
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software distributor Merisel. Nobody is talking price.
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There are reports of problems with certain implementations of
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the Pentium. Errata in the core controller chip set that is used
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to pair the Pentium with the PCI local bus results in performance
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hits and compatibility.
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The level I write-back cache was not working in the Intel
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82430 PCI chip, but Intel claims to have fixed the problem.
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Look for an upgrade to Windows for Workgroups soon. This
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version 3.11 has improved NetWare support including support for the
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32-bit protected mode of the IPX protocol, support for ODI drivers
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and routers, and support for ArcNet. Users will be able to
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configure services and security from a central location and audit
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individual machines.
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Performance has reportedly been improved by supporting 32-bit
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network drivers and 32-bit file access. They claim more than 50%
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faster I/O throughput. Version 3.11 also includes a remote access
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client for Windows NT.
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Texas Instruments will be introducing their own line of 486
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microprocessors soon, joining Cyrix and AMD in the Intel challenge
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for this lucrative trade. TI has been making 486 chips for Cyrix
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based on Cyrix's design. This new line is TI's own.
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PC STRIKES AGAIN
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I'd like to welcome another major computer company to the list
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of those promoting political correctness.
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Each year Corel Corporation sponsors a design contest. You
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design something with CorelDraw! and the winner gets some expensive
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computer stuff. All entries are published on a CD called ArtShow
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which is accompanied by a book showing all the entries.
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This year when you enter the contest, Corel will donate $5 to
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one of 6 charities: Friends of the Earth (a contradiction in terms
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to be sure), Amnesty International (on a par with the American
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Criminal Lovers Union), UNICEF, Red Cross, B'nai B'rith, or the
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American Foundation for AIDS Research.
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Isn't it bad enough that we have "green" computers because
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we're using too much electricity and chopping down trees? When
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will this madness end?
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Death to liberalism!
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A number of game developers are getting together to give
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ratings for sex and violence to their games. As with the
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entertainment industry, we seem more concerned with fake violence
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than the real thing.
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The Discovery Channel has a CD out called In The Company of
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Whales. It's a multimedia exploration into the lives of whales.
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Knowing the politics of the TV channel, it's OK to murder babies
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but we really ought to save the whales.
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ROLL OF QUARTERS
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Jump in the time machine back to the late 1970s. The biggest
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fad is video games - and Microsoft has resurrected five of the most
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popular games from Atari.
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Microsoft Arcade includes five of the hottest video games from
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Atari. Each game is customizable and runs in a window or full
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screen. The sound effects for each were sampled from the original
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machines.
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Included are Missile Command (save your battalions from bombs,
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missiles, smart bombs, etc.), Tempest (defend yourself against
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enemy aliens in a changing array of geometric playing screens),
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Centipede (the classic bug-shooting game), Asteroids (blast the
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asteroids and other enemies), and Battlezone (pseudo 3D tank
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shooting game).
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The graphics are crude as were the original. Each game seems
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quite faithful to the original, if memory serves. The ability to
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customize each game helps you to rack up points and "cheat". This
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is nothing but fun, especially if you remember the original
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machines.
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MEDIA VISION CD-ROMS
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During the month of October, Media Vision will be releasing
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five CD titles.
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The Forever Growing Garden (ages 4-8) grows a virtual garden
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in the computer. It uses the computer clock and grows whether the
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CD is loaded or not or whether the computer is on or off.
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Peak Performance (ages 8-14) is a geography game with the goal
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of making it to the highest point in each of the continental 48
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states within 30 days. The game features cartoon animation and
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actual video footage.
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The Eden Chronicles: No One Dreams Here (ages 16 and up) is a
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science fiction title based in the year 2057. It has 16-bit sound
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and an all-video interface that Media Vision calls "virtual
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cinema". Critical path (ages 12 and up) is an action-adventure set
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in a post-apocalyptic factory. It uses video extensively and has
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a "very cinematic feel" to it. The user interacts with a female
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protagonist who has real emotions and doesn't always do what the
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user tells her to do.
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Daily PlanIt is a personal desktop organizer with voice
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annotation, desk accessories, entertainment modules, and a calendar
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with professional photographs. Three calendar versions are
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available featuring nature, action-adventure sports, and swimsuits.
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All titles are Windows-based. There is no word on what any of
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the titles will sell for.
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10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
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This October marks ten years that I've been involved with
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computers. Where did they go?
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Many of you may be unaware of my computer background or where
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the RaG came from, so every couple of years I do a short piece on
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the origin of this thing.
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Back in the early 80s, I could see the usefulness of a
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computer in business. Our photographic associations had speakers
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telling of all the wonderful things a computer could do for a
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portrait studio (accounting and word processing). So I looked
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around at what was available in hardware.
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The popular PC at that time was the Corona. Our area's only
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computer store at the time handled them, so I took a look. Here
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was an XT with 20 MB hard drive and 512K for only $2500. I thought
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I'd pass.
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Lots of my friends in the business were using Apples. I
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looked long and hard at the Apple IIe. And I almost bought one
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until I really did my homework and saw them for what they really
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were - an overpriced, underfeatured piece of junk.
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A couple of my friends locally used a TI 99/4A. It was
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certainly affordable. As fate would have it, I was in Seattle the
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day after TI announced they were dumping the 99/4A. On my way home
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I stopped at a discount store and plunked down $49 for the console
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and $49 for the P-Box. I new that was just the beginning. That
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was October of 1983 and I had just placed the needle in my arm.
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Over the next couple of months, I tracked down the necessary
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components to make a complete system. Whew - 2 360K floppies, a
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little black-and-white TV for a monitor, 300 baud J-Cat modem, and
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a whopping 48K!! WOW, we're doing some computing now!
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Actually, I eventually bought another system and ran a BBS for
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about a year and a half.
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In April of 1984, I bought the above mentioned J-Cat and
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signed up for The Source (remember them?). I became quite involved
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with the TI section there. Somewhere in 1985, the guy running the
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TI section had a contest for a newsletter that would stimulate
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usage in the TI area. I won the contest and RAndY's RumOR RaG was
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born. The guy running the contest came up with the name and I
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added the odd combination of capitals and lowercase to make it look
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funny. I joined GEnie in early 1986.
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The turning point came in the fall of 86 when it became clear
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that the PC was the way to go. The TI had served me well in
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business, but its days were numbered. Late in 1986 I sold all my
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TI stuff along with friends' equipment and four of us bought XTs.
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These were mono powerhouses with 640K and a 20MB hard drive.
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From there, I gradually moved up to a 286, bigger hard drive,
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then a 386SX, then a 386DX, a bigger hard drive, more memory, VGA,
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better printers, etc.
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During all this time, the RaG was published on GEnie as well
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as The Source. When The Source dwindled away, GEnie became the
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main outlet. I had uploaded it to the local BBS's and discovered
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that it eventually made it all over the country.
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Late in 1991, America Online decided to add it to their list
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of services and ModemNews had picked it up before that. I'm proud
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to announce that GEnie has made it official and RAndY's RumOR RaG
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is now part of the Digital Publishing RoundTable.
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The RaG has been a labor of love. I receive no money for it
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and am free to say whatever I please. Have you ever bought a piece
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of hardware or software, only to discover it's not all you thought
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it should be? In my capacity as a computer store, I have the
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opportunity to sample a wide variety of products. Based on my
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experience with computers, I am able to give an honest opinion.
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Thank you for your support and I hope I can help you get the
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best bang for your computer dollar.
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=================================
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DISCLAIMER
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RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by AINSWORTH
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COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local BBS's, GEnie,
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and America Online as well as in Modem News.
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In case anyone cares, RAndY's RumOR RaG is produced on a 486-
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50 with 8 megs of memory, Diamond Stealth Pro VESA VLB (1 MB), 105
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MB Toshiba IDE hard drive, Teac 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB floppies, Pro
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Audio Spectrum 16 running a Hitachi 3750 CD ROM drive, Sceptre SVGA
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display, Microsoft mouse, WordPerfect for Windows and transmitted
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through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard modem.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. Comments should
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be addressed to Ainsworth Computer Services on GEnie, America
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Online, phone, analog mail, or whatever method makes you feel good.
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AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES
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605 W. Wishkah
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Aberdeen, WA 98520-6031
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(206) 533-6647
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GEnie Address: RAG
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America Online: RumOR RaG |