CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing ISSN: 1525-4534 June 21, 1999 Issue 152 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L For Contact and Other Information See Bottom of Publication! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> CompuNotes Notes, Pirates of Silicon Valley, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> This Issue's Winner! News: 3=> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net Articles: 4=> Gamer's Corner - Violence and Computer Games Gaming News & Views by Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Reviews: 5=> Product: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, game Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 6=> Product: "Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours," 2nd ed., Dave Taylor and James C. Armstrong, Jr., Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN (1998), book Reviewed By: Alex Lane, mailto:alane@galexi.com 7=> Products: MGI VideoWave II & Ulead VideoStudio v3, graphics Reviewed by: Lianne Carson, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com 8=> Product: Word97 Annoyances, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r Save Real Money with Computer Coupons! Print real coupons from your own computer. Free Membership Today! CLICK below to enroll for BIG savings from your favorite stores, restaurants, and travel companies. It's FREE and your privacy is guaranteed! Join over a million other smart shoppers and print real coupons from your own computer. New companies and new offers show up all the time. Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/cool.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 1=> CompuNotes Notes, Pirates of Silicon Valley, mailto:pgrote@i1.net You knew that one day the computer gods would have their own film. TNT debuted Pirates of the Silicon Valley tonight (http://tnt.turner.com/movies/tntoriginals/pirates/). The film features Noah Wyle (ER fame) playing Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall (16 Candles, Weird Science fame) as Bill Gates (http://www.hallofmirrors.com). The film covers the beginning and formative years of Apple and Microsoft. To get this out of the way -- I have always used IBM compatible computers. I have always used Microsoft operating systems. I have never owned a computer created by Apple. The reviews of the film I have read to date have not been good. Then again, the reviews were authored by computer journalists and not film critics. I am not a film critic, though I like to think I know a good movie when I see one (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0075148) I do know the history of the personal computer industry. As I am a stickler for accurate details, I was expecting to see a fluff piece with the timelines skewed for creative liberties. In particular, I thought for sure TNT would decide to exclude an extremely important piece of information related to MSDOS. I was wrong. In total, the movie was very well done and highly entertaining for those in the computer industry. For those who are not familiar with the players, products or industries the movie will be a bit confusing. The film begins with Steve Jobs on the set of the infamous 1984 Apple Commercial (http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/ads.html#1984) explaining what his company is trying to do. The next scene shows how ironic life can be. In the same big brother motif used for the 1984 commercial, we see a smiling Bill Gates towering over Steve Jobs at the 1997 MacWorld (http://dispatches.azstarnet.com/joe/apple.htm). The movie then begins in earnest to show us how they got to this point. The story is told not from the perspective of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but from Steve Wozniak and Steve Ballmer. Steve Wozniak was the brains behind the first three generations of Apple computers (http://www.thetech.org/revolutionaries/wozniak/). He no longer works for Apple on a day to day basis. Steve Ballmer was the marketing arm of Microsoft after they initially started (http://www.mercurynews.com/business/microsoft/docs/ballmerbio.htm). He continues working with Microsoft to this day. The method of using these folks to narrate the story is dynamic and fun. At one point, Ballmer leaps from the screen to explain the scene that is happening. A super use of special effects! I won't bore you with a blow by blow of the movie. Surprisingly, the film does a very good job of capturing the public persona both of these individuals have become known for. Steve Jobs is portrayed as a domineering visionary who always has an eye on the melding of art and science. Bill Gates is shown as a shrewd businessman who always sees the hows of the business deal. From an acting point of view I think both actor's delivered very good performances. I know many people are singing the praises of Noah Wyle while nailing Michael Anthony Hall. I found Hall's performance to be more riveting and insightful than Wyle's. Many times I thought Wyle was Wyle acting like Jobs, while I never thought for one second an actor was portraying Gates. Hall does an excellent job of not only capturing Bill Gates' personality as we all know it, but he also goes deeper. Hall seems to do everything Gates does including fidgeting with his glasses and even humming Sinatra tunes. The acting trophy for best portrayal should go to John DiMaggio (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Di+Maggio,+John) who until now could be best known as the voice of Bender from the new TV show Futurama. Having seen Steve Ballmer talk in person a number of times and viewing his stage presence, you could swear he took a part in the movie. So how is history presented? On the traditional grading scale, I would give it a B. The computers used in the movie seem to be originals. It was neat to see a 1st generation Apple and a Lisa. As for the hows and whys of what happens, the movie does a good job of showing the beginning of Microsoft, though the Paul Allen influence is downplayed. The movie does a superb job of illustrating the beginning of Apple. Unlike many stories of Microsoft, the movie does a good job of showing us how Microsoft sold IBM on MSDOS. It does show how Microsoft didn't develop the original MSDOS, but purchased it. This is almost always glossed over by other folks. I was surprised to see they didn't mention the fact that Gates' mother was a United Way board member with IBM's chairman at the time John Akers. I think the biggest myth in computer history is that Microsoft is a company the invents products. This movie does a great job of showing Microsoft isn't really into creating, but in improving. If you think of any major Microsoft achievement, just dig a little below the surface and you will see that its roots are someplace else. The movie typifies this by having both Jobs and Gates quote Picasso - "Good artists copy, great artists steal." (http://sisko.awpi.com/Combs/Quotes/index.html) Is this movie a complete, impartial history lesson? Nope. Is it entertaining and well performed. Yes! If you didn't get a chance to see the movie, I suggest you set your VCR or watch the next showing on TNT. -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r Free Internet World Magazine Subscription! Internet World Magazine is The only source you'll need for your Internet business and enterprise activities...sign up for FREE right here! Internet World puts all the news into perspective -- and that saves you valuable time and gives you an edge on breaking trends and technologies. Regular features include: E-Commerce, Infrastructure, Web Development, and Industry, Plus columns from leading reporters and journalists. Don't miss it...sign up today! It's FREE for EVERYONE!!! Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/iw.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 2=> Winner! This week's winner: san@UA.COM. 3=> News and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Internet, Linux, $199 -- What Else Could you ask for? http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,38074,00.html?st.ne.fd.gif.j He's Still the Richest Nerd In Town (World) . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-38090,00.html?st.ne.100.head AOL Free in Europe? http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-38012,00.html?st.ne.140.head Divx Dies an Ugly Death . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-37952,00.html?st.ne.160.head Browser that Analyzes Dirty Pics . . . http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/20298.html The Digital Menace ... Great Jar Jar in Digital Format . . . http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/20300.html Beat a Chess Champ Using the Internet . . . http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/filters/bursts/0,3422,2279437,00.html You Gamble, You Lost, You Sue . . . http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/1,4586,2278224,00.html "Scott McNealy is a gutless wonder" and More Ravings . . . http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/BillHennessy/BillHennessy3.html -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r NEED MONEY FOR COLLEGE? Fastweb is the largest FREE scholarship search on the Internet, with more than 400,000 scholarships worth over $1 billion. Get accurate, updated information on scholarships, grants, and fellowships, all at absolutely no cost. And Fastweb is the only scholarship search service that allows students to apply on-line through the E-Scholarship program. Sign up now! CLICK BELOW!!! Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/fastweb.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 4=> Gamer's Corner - Violence and Computer Games Gaming News & Views by Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series for CompuNotes, featuring gaming news, links for new downloads, and the occasional commentary on what is happening in the gaming community. The big news right now is still the debate over violence in computer games. Incidents like the shootings at Columbine have fed a media frenzy about games like Doom & Quake, to name just a couple. Add to that a recent lawsuit that alleges these games contributed to the violent behavior of a child. Our so-called leaders have formed a special commission to see if the entertainment industry (read TV and games) targets youth with violent shows and games. But do these games really make kids violent? Senator Joe Leibermann (from my current home state of Connecticut) blames violent television shows and computer games for the shootings that have received so much attention these last few years. The fact remains, however, that millions of people have watched these shows and played these games and never committed an act of violence. So the argument that violent shows or games make us violent seems a weak one at best. Mr. Leibermann and others have never once asked, though, how did these games and shows come about in the first place? Believe it or not, companies that make and market computer games are out to make a profit (okay, pick yourself off the floor now). So are television companies. They make products that people want to play or watch, and their driving force is to make products that make a lot of money. If you watched the interview on 60 Minutes with George Lucas, one of the reasons he dislikes Hollywood is it's current "focus group" mentality. What he meant was that if the focus group used by the company said the movie should have a cute dog for a sidekick, well then, the executives made sure the movie had a cute dog as the sidekick. It stifles creative freedom, which is something that rankles Mr. Lucas (it rankles me too, but that's beyond the scope of this column). But the executives see it as giving the audience what they want, in the hopes that the movie will make a lot of money. Sometimes they are right (pick a Lethal Weapon movie) and sometimes they are dead wrong (Last Action Hero). Doom was a success because it was a game that people wanted to play, not because it was created in a vacuum. It wasn't - in fact Doom came out during one of the boom times for computer games - a time that saw the release of games like Tie Fighter & Master of Orion, just to name a couple. So why are these games and movies popular? Joe Liebermann would have us believe that Doom has made us violent, but I think it should be turned around - the fact that we like Doom implies that a part of our nature is violent. I've played these games, and reviewed quite a few of them (Dark Forces, Quake & Carmageddon, for example). I enjoyed playing Quake, it is quite the thrill to run around the various levels shooting at the wide variety of monsters that populate the world of Quake. I'll admit it - these games appeal to my animal instincts, and I respond enthusiastically. But I have never committed an act of violence against another person or animal, and find the idea of doing so repulsive. I can separate the unreality of the computer game from the reality of the world we live in. Whether Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold could is a matter of debate that will never be answered, but the fact remains that the vast majority of people who play these games do not commit violent acts. Should we banish violent computer games to protect the minds of those that cannot separate fiction and reality? Shall we set these limits on all things we do? What then do we do about road rage? Get rid of cars? So what can we do? As much as I hate to admit it, on this one the congressional Democrats have the right idea. We should make it harder - a whole lot harder - for kids to get access to guns. I have sat in wonder at all the posturing over the years about background checks at gun stores when I knew you could walk into a gun show and buy whatever you wanted, no questions asked. Let me be clear here - I am NOT advocating owner registration or any form of gun control that would take guns out the hands of responsible adults. We take great pains to try and keep alcohol out the hands of kids, though, because they are not mature enough to drink responsibly (not that adults do so). We set an age limit for driver's licenses. Why then do we not take such pains with guns? News for this week. What's up with Ion Storm? One rumor says the top brass are gone, but Eido's claims nothings been decided. But I'd like to know if we're ever going to see Diakatana or if it is going to be the all-time king of vaporware. I'm still playing Alpha Centauri, three months after I started reviewing it. Strangely though, this game does not seem to be selling well. I can't figure that out - this is my vote for the best game this year, and even the best game since - well - since Civilization! And Sid Meier & Co. just announced last week that they will be teaming up with Microprose/Hasbro to make Civilization III. Next time I'll talk some more about Alpha Centauri and my efforts at making a custom modification of the game. TTFN - Doug, dr2web@sprynet.com -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r THE MOST REWARDING PAGE ON THE WEB. LITERALLY. Prolaunch launches you to a different web site which matches your interests PLUS you can earn "Launch Points" which are redeemable for frequent flyer miles, gift certificates and many other rewards. It's free. It's easy. It's private. And it pays...you! Sign up today at.... Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/plaunch.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 5=> Product: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, game Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Requirements: Pentium-200, 4x CDROM, 32 MB RAM, 4 MB 3D graphics card Reviewed on: Pentium-166, 16x CDROM, 48 MB RAM, Intense Voodoo Rush card Recommended: Joystick or gamepad, 3D audio MSRP: $44.99 "I have a bad feeling about this...." - a quote from all four Star Wars movies. This is a tough review to write. I'm a huge Star Wars fan and I own (or have reviewed) practically every Star Wars game that LucasArts has produced. The one consistent thing about LucasArts games are the quality - they always have good or great-looking graphics and are very stable; few if any patches are ever released (or needed) for LucasArts games. They also tend to be a lot of fun to play. Jedi Knight was probably the best of the Star Wars games to date, although I personally feel that Rebellion got a bum rap by the press and the general public. So it was without hesitation that I asked to review the newest Star Wars games. Concurrent with this review will be my review of Racer, the game based on the pod-racing segment of the movie. I should state here at the outset that in my mind most games and books based on movies have always had a hard time living up to the quality of original books and games. The Phantom Menace (the game, and hereafter referred to as TPM) was originally billed as an adventure game, but the truth is that this is more of a action game than an adventure game. The only puzzle solving in the game is of the "find the button" or "jump from ledge to ledge" variety. This is kind of shocking, since LucasArts is renowned for their adventure games (Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones, Grim Fandango - to name a few). In a generic sense, TPM is a Tomb Raider-clone albeit without a Lara Croft-lookalike. The player is given a third person perspective of the action, slightly behind and very much above the character. TPM is comprised of eleven "chapters" which essentially guide the player through the movie, during which the player will assume the roles of either Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Queen Amidala, or Captain Panaka (the Queen's bodyguard). Installation proceeded without a hitch and I was up and playing pretty quickly. If you looked at the system requirements listed above and the system I review TPM on, you will notice that the CPU is slightly under what is "required". Despite being under the CPU requirement, I noticed no diminution in the framerate or tendency to crash - in other words, the game played just fine on my "substandard" system. This is probably due to the fact that I exceeded the requirements for RAM on both the CPU (48, when 32 is required) and on the video card (6, when 4 is required). Whatever the reason, TPM performed just fine. It was very stable, and only crashed once. The graphics deserve some special mention, as they are fantastic. LucasArts made the unusual (so far) move of stating several months ago that all of their future releases would require a 3D graphics card. While there are some people who do not have such a card yet, most of those who are avid gamers probably bought one some time ago. TPM looks very, very good whether in the Trade Federation battleship, the Swamps of Naboo, Otoh Gunga, or elsewhere. Through all the action sequences the game uses an above and behind perspective, which works well on some levels and horrifyingly bad on others. One section of Otoh Gunga was particularly frustrating to me - you are supposed to jump from platform to platform to cross a room, which is made more difficult by the fact that the platforms start to sink as soon as you land on them. This is difficult as a jumping puzzle, but the difficulty is compounded by the fact that the ceiling blocks your view of Obi-Wan as you attempt to make your first jump. So you try again, and again, and again to hit that first platform. Then you finally do get it, and you breath a sigh of relief - only to find out that the time to make that sigh cost you the chance of jumping to the next platform. Argh! I finally got it, but not without considerable exasperation. What bothers me most about the jumping puzzles is that LucasArts is the company that brought us Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, two action oriented games that had intelligent, realistic level design. The sinking platforms make no sense whatsoever except as a puzzle to frustrate the player - no sensible city would block the ability of its citizens to walk around with such a contraption! I hate to criticize TPM too much, because I'm sure that might deter a fair number of people from buying it, and I think that would be too bad. With perseverance, the jumping puzzles can be mastered. The combat portions of the game are fun, especially when wielding the light sabre against the battledroids. Darth Maul makes several appearances, more than he does in the movie, and is quite menacing (and challenging!) The linearity of the game is not a strong point, but the game is supposed to recapitulate the movie (it also does flesh it out quite a bit - like the need to rescue Jar Jar in Otoh Gunga). I disagree with those reviewers who say that people who haven't seen the movie and play the game will have the movie spoiled for them - the movie is quite a spectacular feat and TPM will not diminish it. Someone I work with commented that the movie doesn't really have any surprises - which is true - but with Episode I it isn't where you're going, it's how you get there that is all the fun. As I said at the start of this review, this was a tough one to write. There are elements of TPM that are a lot of fun (wielding a light saber, killing battle droids, using the force push) and elements that are exasperating (the aforementioned jump puzzles). Despite those exasperating elements, however, I TPM was a lot of fun to play. TPM is a fun, good-looking game that most people will find moderately to very challenging, depending on your joystick/gamepad reflexes. I unreservedly recommend it to any Star Wars and/or Tomb Raider fan. Others might or might not like it, depending on the kinds of computer games you like to play. May the Force be with you, young Jedi! LucasArts http://www.lucasarts.com Star Wars http://www.starwars.com -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r Free WorldPrints Wallpaper for your Desktop! Register Now and get one year of FREE Wallpaper for your Computer. We'll e-mail you Weekly with New Images. Choose From... o National Geographic o Life Magazine o Museum Collections and Much More!! Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/wprints.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 6=> Product: "Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours," 2nd ed., Dave Taylor and James C. Armstrong, Jr., Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN (1998), book Reviewed By: Alex Lane, mailto:alane@galexi.com Target audience: Intelligent reader with little or no familiarity with UNIX ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $15.99 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672314800/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The trademarked tag line for the Sams' series of "Teach Yourself in 24 Hours" books reads: "When you only have time for the answers." This ambitious declaration presupposes that the authors know what the right questions are, and that they have chunked the relevant material into 24 "lessons" that, on the average, should take about one hour to read. In this book, the authors do a reasonably good job of presenting UNIX to the reader, although I feel that some of the "questions" the authors decided to answer (in the form of, for example, superficial chapters on C and Perl programming) should not have been asked. Then again, perhaps this was unavoidable, given the stated scope of the book. UNIX literature is characterized by two nasty tendencies, both avoided in this tome. First, UNIX books tend to make unwarranted assumptions about where what is on your system. I run Redhat Linux 5.2 on an old Packard Bell box equipped with a 486SX CPU and 20 MB of RAM, and books I have that are written for Redhat users suffer notoriously from this tendency. Taylor and Armstrong at least warn you about the phenomenon and minimize the discomfort of fidgeting with commands, shells and files that may not conform to the UNIX one has at hand. Second, many UNIX books periodically digress into bizarre subject matter that assumes additional arcane knowledge on the part of the reader. The authors, thankfully, refrain from such digressions. Indeed, the book is peppered with tips and explanatory notes, as well as cautions to help avoid common problems. Of the 24 lessons in the book, the first two seem pretty lightweight, providing a brief overview of UNIX and then showing newcomers how to use one's login name and password to get onto a UNIX system. Towards the end, starting around hour 21, the lessons start to bite off more than can be chewed at one time with cursory looks at C programming, Perl programming, working with the Apache Web server, and overviews of MachTen for the Macintosh and the MKS Toolkit for Windows boxes. I suppose if you're writing something that's supposed to cover all of UNIX, such chapters are obligatory, but the result is an unsatisfying shallowness that detracts from the overall impact, and thus, the perceived usefulness of the book. In between these two extremes, the authors do a pretty systematic job of covering the basics, including navigation of the file system, creating, moving, renaming, examining, and deleting files, understanding and using file permissions, and using filters, pipes, and regular expressions (Chapters 3-9). Chapters 10 and 11 introduce the vi editor, and go into pretty good detail regarding that venerable tool, while Chapter 12 is devoted to an overview of the Emacs editor. One might as well summarize Tolstoy's "War and Peace" as being "about Russia," as attempt to do any kind of justice to introducing Emacs in one 29-page chapter. Here again, I suppose the effort was obligatory. The next three chapters introduce the various command shells available on most UNIX systems and provide some handy tips regarding the use of history mechanisms, aliases, and custom prompts. The authors also cover basic shell programming and job control. Chapters 19 and 20 cover the use of mail, telnet, and ftp programs that let UNIX users communicate and exchange information with others. The lessons are organized uniformly, starting with a set of lesson goals, a main section that discusses the lesson's subject, and a concluding section consisting of key terms introduced during the hour and a set of exercises that are designed to reinforce the lesson. The main sections of chapters are populated with specific "tasks," which consist of step-by-step explanations of some of the more important basic UNIX skills (e.g., Task 4.11, Checking Available Disk Space with df). Readers who are serious about UNIX mastery will soon suck this tome dry of its useful knowledge and tips. However, in the final analysis, despite the shallow parts, this volume offers newcomers a reasonable introduction to UNIX. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $15.99 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672314800/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sams Publishing "Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours," 2nd edition, by Dave Taylor and James C. Armstrong, Jr. -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r NEWSLETTERSFORFREE.COM Get Free Newsletters delivered to your inbox. Check out this FREE service NOW! Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/nl.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 7=> Products: MGI VideoWave II & Ulead VideoStudio v3, graphics Reviewed by: Lianne Carson, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com Requires: MGI VideoWave II - P166 or higher (PII/266 MHz needed for Digital Video), 32MB RAM, video capture board or TV tuner card, Windows 95, 98, or NT4. Ulead VideoStudio 3.0 - P166MMX or higher (Digital Video not supported), 32MB RAM, video capture board or TV tuner card, Windows 95, 98, or NT4 (SP3). MSRP: US$99.95 (street) for either package Is PC video technology ready for use on home desktops? The hot consumer PC video software makers (Avid Technology, MGI Software, and Ulead Systems), say that easy, consumer PC video is here now. They're engaging in heavy competition to dominate a growing number of home desktops being used by camcorder and Digital Video (DV) camera owners. ATI, Matrox, Adaptec, MGI, Ulead, Avid, Microsoft and Intel have agreed to make better and more cooperative use of DV at the operating system, capture card, and motherboard level. All of them are predicting a heavy consumer move toward digital home video. MGI in particular, a company which has led the PC photography market, has now fully broadened its focus to include home PC video. If these video products evolve with the 'cool factor' that MGI created for PhotoSuite II, PC video will move into the mainstream of software choices for home consumers. It's happening. Because video capture card compatibility is still a serious configuration factor, we limited the testing to just two machines: our reliable Dell Dimension XPS P166 machine, with 64MB RAM running Windows NT4 (SP4), and a Matrox G200 video card, and a PII/350MHz machine with 128MB RAM running Windows 98 and an ATI All-in-Wonder Pro video card. We borrowed an IEEE1394 card and a Sony Digital Video camera (model DCR-PC10) to test VideoWave II's DV support. For the uninitiated, IEEE1394 is the technical reference name for Apple Computer's FireWire technology, which is a cabling, connection and hardware peripheral communication standard designed by Apple. The Contest - Ultimate Challenge Are your camcorder tapes and digital videos of family events gathering dust on a shelf? Have you ever wondered what it would take to get all those bits and pieces into some sort of order? Have you ever wanted to create a really funny and entertaining video of your children's birthday parties, or a travelogue using the footage from your last vacation? What about making a video of your home contents (for the insurance company)? A business presentation? We pitted the two top contenders in the PC video market against each other to try and find a clear winner. We wanted to find out which software is easiest to use, which has the best feature set, and which one produces the best quality video. The Competitors MGI VideoWave II is the second generation release of MGI's award-winning consumer PC video software. Ulead VideoStudio v3.0 is a consumer PC video product which is based partly on Ulead's well-known MediaStudio Pro software (a professional video editing package which competes with Adobe Premiere). VideoWave II and VideoStudio 3 are designed with features and functions which help you turn rough home video footage into finished productions complete with titles, transitions, special effects, voiceover narration and background music. Interface & Application Ulead's video wizard is the easiest way to get started, but once you've done the basics using the wizard, Ulead's confusing main interface will leave you guessing. The interface in MGI VideoWave II is much easier to understand, and MGI's Storyline approach to video production is suited to novice and intermediate users. But novices using VideoWave II must read the manual and run the tutorial. Ulead's context sensitive help system, activated whenever you click one of the menu items, is both a blessing and a curse. It is informative and helpful when you're first learning the software, but becomes annoying once you've learned the software. MGI's on-line help system is full of tutorials and the same sort of context sensitive help as Ulead's. The difference is that MGI's help system doesn't get in the way. Ulead VideoStudio has two advantages nobody else has. First, its SmartRender feature is terrific. Only those parts of your video production which have changed get re-rendered, drastically reducing the time it takes to produce a final video from all the assembled clips. The feature originated in Ulead's MediaStudio Pro, VideoStudio's professional big brother. The second advantage is background rendering, another huge time saver. MGI VideoWave II has broader capture card compatibility and the most complete set of editing tools (all of which are one just click away, no matter what you're doing). In addition, VideoWave II supports Digital Video (DV) and the latest DV cameras. Editing & Features Both products need more accurate controls to achieve editing prowess. Both interfaces could be improved. VideoWave II does not have a timeline, which creates some problems when you want to stretch a background audio track behind several video clips. On the other hand, VideoWave II's Storyline approach allows better visualization of your whole video, as well as intelligent drag & drop reorganizing of clips, transitions, and effects, all of which can be individually edited in-place. VideoStudio has a good set of editing tools, but they require more practice to use effectively and are situated in a non-intuitive interface. Usually, you can produce a finished video faster in VideoStudio. Both programs allow you to easily capture video from a variety of sources including, camcorders, VCRs, and cable TV signals. VideoWave II also captures and edits DV. VideoWave II is extremely feature rich. Do you want to do a Chroma Key (removing a background or color, and replacing it with a totally different background, color, or video clip)? Have you got a use for 6 stereo audio tracks? Do you want to extract the audio from a video clip for use in another video? Do you want to pause on the first frame of your output so you can queue up your VCR? You can do it all with VideoWave II. Special Effects & Titles Both packages have a wealth of effects (wipes, swirls, fades, ripples, etc.), and lots of transitions (although VideoWave II has the edge in quantity). VideoWave II has better text handling, but VideoStudio has some superior looking transitions including some 3-D selections - very nice indeed. VideoWave II has great text handling with respect to style and animation, but VideoStudio lets you create titles directly over the video clip itself, making the process a bit more accurate but quite as versatile as VideoWave II. Some of VideoStudio's effects are quite cool, especially the page curl. VideoWave II does nice bitmap overlays - those little station or company logos, for example, which you see in the lower right corner of some videos and TV broadcasts. They're annoying when you're watching an episode of Frasier, but rather handy when you're running a business presentation. The Conclusions With its DV support and wealth of features, VideoWave II achieves the state of the art for home consumers. But VideoStudio 3.0 does its own state-of-the-art bit with SmartRender. The edge in final rendering quality went to MGI VideoWave II. The edge in speed went to Ulead VideoStudio. Flip a coin. Whichever one you choose, call or e-mail the tech support people at MGI or Ulead and ask them which capture card and driver combination will work best in your PC. If you're into home video, you owe it to yourself to try this latest crop of PC video software. At US$99 apiece, you can't go wrong. Cons: The greatest drawback for potential PC video enthusiasts is the initial setup headache which occurs when trying to get reliable, good quality video captures from either a cable TV feed or a video camera. If you want to get into this, MGI VideoWave II and Ulead VideoStudio are the best choices for broad compatibility, but you'll still need patience to overcome the occasional frustration. VideoWave II uses some needlessly technical language in the Produce dialog (rendering interface). VideoStudio's Smart Render is terrific but requires card-specific drivers which aren't available for most legacy capture cards. Pros: It's encouraging to note that the major video card makers have gotten together with the video software makers, Microsoft, Intel and others to help create more broadly compatible PC video capture setups. MGI VideoWave II and Ulead VideoStudio 3.0 are both capable of producing great videos of everything from your birthday to a business presentation. The experience with either product can be vastly entertaining and extremely creative. MGI Software Corp. - VideoWave II Web: http://www.videowave.com Ulead Systems - VideoStudio v3 Web: http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r FAMILY POINT Your Family's Meeting Place in Cyberspace Great free services that the whole family can use.- Worldwide! Set up your own space on Family Point and share photos easily, keep everyone up to date with the Calendar, never lose an address again - keep them all in the master address book. Plus Chat, e-mail and more and it's all FREE, Easy and waiting for you at Family Point. Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/familypt.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! 8=> Product: Word97 Annoyances, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Authors: Woody Leonhard, Lee Hudspeth, and T.J. Lee Requirements: Word97 MSRP: $24.95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Word97 Annoyances at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $19.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565923081/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Are you among the teeming millions of people who use Word97 or who are forced to deal with files created in Word? Does Word97 drive you crazy with some of its 'helpful' features? Then this book is for you. O'Reilly has created an entire series of "Annoyances" books that deal with how to better utilize Microsoft's software and operating systems - almost all based on the original Windows 95 Annoyances website. Word97 Annoyances takes a strong look at the annoying features of Word97 and what you can do about them. But that is not all that this book is about; also included are a number of methods and tricks to get Word97 to be more of the kind of word processor you need, no matter what it is that you need it for. Basic changes are included, like how to clean up your start menu and desktop after the installation of Office. The book goes a lot deeper, however, giving a basic introduction into Visual Basic for Applications, the programming language that threads throughout Office. Topics covered in the book include basic annoyances, changes that you make quickly and easily to optimize Word97, customizing the toolbar, Visual Basic for Applications, a peek into the inner workings of Word, and an entire chapter devoted to the threat posed by those infamous Word macro viruses. The book is written in a fairly light and conversational style, laced with lots of humor and tidbits along the way. The book is well laid out, gradually drawing the reader in and teaching basic concepts before moving on to harder stuff. The book is also written towards a general audience; while computer geeks might find the introduction a little basic, less experience users will definitely appreciate the time and care the authors take to explain and illustrate various annoyances and fixes. The computer geeks can still get a lot out of this book, however, because it covers a lot of undocumented features and bugs that are contained in Word97. If you use Word97, you can definitely use this book. As a scientist and amateur journalist I spend a lot of time in front of the computer using Word97, and I found this book to be immensely valuable for the tips that it gave regarding how to customize Word97 and stop some of its more annoying habits (especially the AutoCorrect). And on a personal note, I got a big kick out of the website for the Annoyances series, wopr.com. Rent the movie Wargames and I think you'll know why. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Word97 Annoyances at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $19.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565923081/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Word97 Annoyances http://www.wopr.com O'Reilly & Associates http://www.oreilly.com -C-o-m-p-u-N-o-t-e-s--S-p-o-n-s-o-r Free Trial of Money Magazine Worried about the markets? Concerned about your retirement? Why not listen to the experts? Why not secure professional advice for free? FREE TRIAL ISSUE of Money Magazine! Your personal guide to a great future of Financial Success! Click on Me: http://www.get-it-for-free.com/compunotes/money.htm -T-h-a-n-k-s--f-o-r--C-l-i-c-k-i-n-g-! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net Assistant Editor: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Assistant Editor: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Archives: ftp://ftp.compunotes.com/pub/archive Website: e-mail: mailto:notes@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:writers@compunotes.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way it is! Please tell every on-line friend about us! CompuNotes B440 1114 West Essex Ave. St. Louis, MO 63122 notes@compunotes.com (C)1999 Patrick Grote ISSN: 1525-4534