CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing ISSN: 1525-4534 November 21, 1999 Issue 161 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= 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! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 in 10 Minutes at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $10.39 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672315564/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> This Issue's Winner! News: 3=> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net Reviews: 4=> Product: ActionLink(tm) USB Cable Single Room Network Starter Kit, hardware Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com 5=> Product: Shelley Powers, "Developing ASP Components", O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., book Reviewed By: Songmuh Jong, mailto:songmuh@bitsmart.com 6=> Product: Server Magic v3.0, Part One, networking Reviewed By: Jim Huddle, mailto:jhuddle@digital.net 7=> Product: SpinRite version 5.0, utility Reviewed by: Elizabeth Boston, mailto:eboston@gwi.net 8=> Product: The Axe(R), home Reviewed By: Matthew Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com 1=> CompuNotes Notes, CompuNotes - None this Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> Winner! This week's winner: p00761@PSILINK.COM. 3=> News, Articles and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Christmas Virus is Not a Gift . . . http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1455135.html A Rugrats PC? http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1454944.html Shocking News ... Games are Popular at Work . . . http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1453921.html Windows 98 Patch Bug? http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1455259.html Microsoft Case Goes to Mediation . . . http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32676,00.html New Melissa Virus has Been Unleased . . . http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19991119S0013 A Totally Optical Router . . . http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19991119S0017 AOL Plans to Open Up AIM More . . . http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2397410,00.html Drew Sets Web Viewership Records . . . http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2397403,00.html 4=> Product: ActionLink(tm) USB Cable Single Room Network Starter Kit, hardware Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com Requires: 2 Pentium-class PCs, each with 16 MB RAM and CD-ROM drive, Windows 95 (with USB upgrade), Windows 98, or Windows 98SE, 1 modem and Internet Service Provider account are required for Internet access MSRP: US$69 Home networking is rapidly gaining in popularity. The demand is coming from all types of computer users with multiple PCs in one home location, who need easy to install file and printer sharing, Internet access sharing, and occasional multi-player gaming. Actiontec's ActionLink USB Cable Single Room Network Starter Kit uses a USB cable which can be plugged into any two computer systems with USB ports. The ActionTec DynaNAT(R) software is supplied for modem sharing. A pair of PCs equipped with USB ports, running a USB- compatible OS such as Windows 95b, Windows 95c, Windows 98, or Windows 98SE are required to install the kit. Patch software for some OS versions is included in the ActionLink package. Many home computer users are finding that linking two PCs together to share files, play games, and share an Internet account is useful, fun, and quite necessary because of the presence of two or more computers. But for companies trying to get home consumers to dive into networking, the biggest problem up until quite recently has been finding easy, quick methods to teach typical home users about hubs, network cards, 10-BaseT Ethernet cables, and Windows network interface card drivers. Forget about it. Most users just want connectivity, not a technical education. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) system introduced mainly by Microsoft and some key computer makers a couple of years ago, has simplified installation and configuration of a wide range of peripherals (printers, monitors, external drives, speakers, scanners, and so on). ActionTec's USB networking system brings the same level of good functionality and simplicity of installation to home networking. The ActionLink kit contains a 20 foot (6 meter) USB cable, a CD-ROM containing the DynaNAT software and two manuals (1 for the cable; 1 for DynaNAT). We networked two home computers in a small home office: a brand new Dell Dimension PIII/400 running Windows 98SE, and a PII/266 clone running Windows 98. Both computers had 128MB RAM, 8MB 3DFX cards, 3Com 56K fax/voice modems, and 10/100 Ethernet cards. We had to remove the Ethernet cards from both computers. Installation is simplicity itself. Install the networking and DynaNAT software on each computer, then plug in the USB cable. That's it. Run the configuration at any time to change the default settings. The software sits in your System Tray and provides troubleshooting help if things go wrong. DynaNAT is software that allows for Internet access sharing. NAT stands for "Network Address Translation" which is commonly found in hardware based routers. DynaNAT acts as a DHCP server; when a client machine is booted, an IP number is automatically assigned to it. A normal 56K modem connection worked properly. There is no faster access available using ActionLink because network cards must be removed on both systems in order for ActionLink to work. Playing Quake 3 over the Internet might have been interesting for us, but with only a 56K connection it was nearly impossible. Playing Quake 3 between the two systems locally was excellent however. The host system had a ping of 0 and the other system had a ping ranging from 50 to 100. The maximum network throughput you'll achieve on a USB network of this type is about 4 megabits per second (Mbps). 10-BaseT Ethernet tops out at approximately 10Mbps, averaging 5-6Mbps. ActionLink's performance when copying files, printer sharing, and LAN gaming was only slightly slower than standard Ethernet; very nice indeed. Cons: You must remove any Ethernet cards installed in the PCs you want to network. This is a bit of a disaster because of the growing popularity of ADSL, DSL, and cable modem hook-ups. For us, stepping way, way back to 56K modems speeds from our usual @Home (cable modem connection was a genuine disappointment. Pros: Typical home computer users will find this kit absolutely easy to install and use. Synchronize your files, provide Internet access for both computers, use 2-player games, share files, drives, and peripherals. The ActionLink package includes a reasonably good, basic Firewall (part of DynaNAT). If Ethernet is beyond you, this Kit is an excellent option and definitely faster that a serial cable. Everything installed and worked as advertised and the documentation was great. We'd give this kit our highest rating except for the incompatibility with network cards and the consequent lack of access to ADSL, DSL, and cable modems, but if you're happy with your 33.6K or 56K Internet access (or if ADSL, DSL, and cable modem access is simply not available in your locale), the ActionTec ActionLink USB network kit is a great choice that's priced right. Actiontec ActionLink USB Cable Single Room Network Starter Kit Product Web site: http://www.actiontec.com 5=> Product: Shelley Powers, "Developing ASP Components", O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., book Reviewed By: Songmuh Jong, mailto:songmuh@bitsmart.com Requires: One of the Visual Studio products (Visual C++, Visual Basic, or Visual J++), version 5 or 6; experience with Active Server Pages (ASP), and preferably access to IIS on Windows NT Server 4.0 or above with the Option Pack (including ASP service) installed. Reviewed On: Windows NT workstation connected to Windows NT Server running IIS with ASP service. Components created with Visual Basic 5, Visual C++ 5, and Visual J++ 1.1. MSRP: US$29.95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Developing ASP Components at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $23.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565924460/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Since my last review of the IDG book "Active Server Pages for Dummies", I had the opportunity to work on an Internet project using ASP heavily. Because of that, I was excited to look at this book which describes how to create ASP components that can be used together with the ASP pages. For those of you who are new to the ASP field, ASP pages are server scripts that reside on the server and called by HTML pages. ASP scripts can also be embedded in the HTML pages, but will be interpreted and compiled into standard HTML code before it is sent back to the user's browser. ASP components, on the other hand, are usually DLL files that reside on the server and are called by the ASP script to performed pre-compiled codes. This book is mainly for programmers who are interested in developing ASP components, which are kinds of COM objects promoted by Microsoft. There are three types of Microsoft products that are able to create ASP components, including Visual C++, Visual Basic and Visual J++. This book discusses all the three products. In essence, this book is divided into four sections, the last three being devoted to one of the above products. Therefore, the book is not so thick as it appears when one needs to read only the section for one compiler. For this review, however, I have tried all the compilers that are accessible to me. My Visual J++ 1.1 does not create components automatically. However, it came with the utility javareg.exe that would register the resulting Java classes. My Visual C++ 5 and Visual Basic 5 are all capable of creating COM projects even though the screens are different from that shown in the book. The author obviously used Dev Studio 6, which provides more automation and options to the creation of ASP components. The first part of this book is an introduction to the ASP, components, threads, transaction, Microsoft Transaction Server, and the ASP objects. Anyone who has tried to set up the ASP environment can tell you that it is not straightforward unless you are using the most recent Option Pack for NT Server. This book has also a chapter in part I to describe how you can establish the ASP environment. It also points out the most compelling reason to write ASP components instead of ASP scripts: to create a profitable solution for your projects. There is little you cannot achieve with ASP scripts that you can do in ASP components. However, you cannot expect a high profit if the buyers can read your scripts and customize them by themselves. Other reasons are well described in the book. Writing ASP scripts or components is easy once you master the art of interaction with the ASP objects and database access objects. The ASP objects are essential for you to create dynamic HTML pages while the database is obviously the ultimate object you want to interact with. The ASP (or in fact any E-commerce projects) exists because we need a solution to process user data. Because of that, client/server programmers have a definitive advantage in understanding the whole process. This book describes in detail all the aspects of accessing various objects with lots of sample codes. It covers also the N-tier ASP components--a subject most appreciated by Client/Server programmers. In summary, this book is an ideal introduction and reference for programmers who are experienced in ASP scripts but want to learn ASP components. The free-style discussion covers all of the programming scenes you'll ever encounter in creating a web site using ASP no matter you are using Visual C++, Visual Basic or Visual J++. The only thing it lacks is an extensive discussion of the difference between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, although some examples are displayed with Navigator. As a web developer, I suffer from the incompatibility between browsers everyday. Codes working for Internet Explorer may not work with Navigator and sometimes vice versa. Most of the time, I develop for Navigator first because it has a stricter requirement on syntax. Hopefully, the browser war can end with standards applicable to all browsers. Before that, make sure that your ASP code generates browser-compliant HTML page. Otherwise, they may not be displayed at all! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Developing ASP Components at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $23.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565924460/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Shelley Powers, "Developing ASP Components" Web Site: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/devaspcom (Click on Examples for the source code printed in the book. It is about 2.7MB in size.) 6=> Product: Server Magic v3.0, Part One, networking Reviewed By: Jim Huddle, mailto:jhuddle@digital.net Requires: Novell NetWare 3.12 or higher, 16meg RAM, a CDROM and 8meg of drive space. MSRP: $495.00 This review will be in two parts. The product comes supporting both NetWare and NT Server. This is about the NetWare side of the product. I don't get too excited anymore about PC and network stuff. I've been fighting hardware and NOSes so long that new stuff inevitably makes me wonder "So what doesn't work with this?" I'm not totally jaded. Linux is interesting and NetWare 5.0 is pretty slick. The last utility that really got me jumping though was Snapback, that is until I received Server Magic. When the package arrived I thought someone in the Abracadabra Magic Co's shipping department had goofed. There were all these magic tricks in the box. The real magic however, was at the bottom, a CD and two manuals. One manual for NetWare and one for NT. Since I'm more of a Novell geek I started with the red book. I've been grinning ever since. Power Quest makes a bold statement right on the cover. "Cradle- to- grave control over your server's data storage." After my test runs, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Server Magic allows, no, enables you to perform partition and volume changes quickly that previously required some intensive downtime. Have you ever been short of space on your SYS volume and already used up your eight segments? Ever wanted to add a volume for some task but had no free space left on the partition? Ever wish you could readjust your existing volumes size to accommodate another volume or resize a too small one? Ever wanted to replace your primary drive with a new one but had no time to reinstall the NOS and restore the data? Heh, heh, read on. Installing Server Magic on a NetWare box is dead simple. If you have 4.x or 3.12, use INSTALL.NLM. Under 5.x use NWCONFIG. I installed it on both a 4.2 and 5.0 box and it took longer to get to the install screen than it did to actually install the product. RAM requirements are fairly modest, and Power Quest includes a formula for estimating required RAM based on volume and block size. There are two caveats about volumes here. One is that Server Magic does not support NSS type volumes. PQ says it's working with Novell to add this functionality. The other has to do with using IDE disks on a NetWare server. PQ makes the suggestion to use ISADISK or NWPA and HAM drivers instead of IDE.DSK. You start Server Magic by entering SMAGIC at the console prompt. PQ recommends unloading all NLMs and logging off all users before loading the utility. Server Magic must dismount volumes to do it's work and since most operations require a reboot, it just makes sense. The utility only performs two operations, partition and volume operations. The magic is that each operation has a fine series of tools for manipulating either a partition or volume. With the partition operation you can create, copy, mirror, resize, move, hide and delete NetWare partitions. The create partition operation allows you to put the new partition at the beginning or end of available free space available on the drive. No volumes are created, use NetWare for that. You can also copy partitions to available free space. As Power Quest points out, NetWare doesn't tolerate duplicate volume names so after a copy you are prompted to hide one or the other dupe partition. This is great for retaining the original until you're sure the copy is OK. It also allows you to have multiple versions of NetWare on the same disk. The Move partition action can move a partition to free space either on the same disk or on another disk. Talk about a quick HD upgrade. You will probably spend more time resetting SCSI IDs and maybe termination than you will making the move. The partition operation also includes an information option with nice data on the partition and the physical disk. The last two partition operations are format and delete. The standard caveats apply here, so use common sense. One note on deleting partitions. If the partition contains volume segments that are part of a multi- segment volume located on another drive or partition, the entire volume is deleted. This makes sense, but keep it in mind. The Volume operations include moving, merging multi-segment volumes, resizing, information and deletion. There are several options to moving a volume, the only requirement is sufficient free space on the target partition. With enough space, you can move a volume to the left or right in a partition and tell Server Magic, in the number of megabytes, how far to move it. If you have other disks and partitions you can also move a volume to one of those. The Merge option is very handy. Server Magic makes is easy to merge any set of adjacent volume segments. There can be free space between the segments but not another volume's segment. Using the move and merge options, you can probably eliminate most volume segments. Resizing gives you the option of expanding or reducing the size of an existing volume. To reduce, the volume must have unused space and enlarging a volume requires available free space on the partition. You can also change the size to the left or right again dependent on where the free space is. The delete volume has the same cautions as stated before. Server Magic will also create, copy, move and resize non NetWare partitions. Under NetWare it supports FAT, NTFS and HPFS partitions. The manual includes in Chapter Five nicely detailed instructions on replacing a server hard disk and using Server Magic to assist in upgrading from 4.x to 5. It also has a pretty good trouble shooting section and good documentation on contacting technical support. This is a great utility for anyone managing NetWare servers. Go get it. Next time I'll look at the NT side of Server Magic. PowerQuest Corporation Server Magic v3.0 Product Website:http://www.powerquest.com/ 7=> Product: SpinRite version 5.0, utility Reviewed by: Elizabeth Boston, mailto:eboston@gwi.net Requires: IBM Compatible personal computer systems equipped with at least one diskette drive, 350K of free RAM, Monochrome, EGA or VGA display adapter and DOS version 2.1 or later. MSRP: $89.00 Are you looking to keep your hard drive in the best shape possible? If your data is important to you, the condition of your hard drive should be as well. The best product I have seen for hard drive maintenance and recovering data from failing drives is SpinRite by Gibson Research Corporation. SpinRite can be used in three ways: as part of your ongoing hard drive maintenance program, to test drives that are having problems, and as a data recovery program that will recover data that has become unreadable by the operating system or other utilities, and make that data readable again. Since how SpinRite works is far too technical for many of us to understand (I read the manual, and was somewhat lost), what I want to cover here is a basic overview of how to use the program. I believe that the best way to use SpinRite is as part of an ongoing maintenance program for your hard drive(s), and that is mostly what I am going to cover today. SpinRite can be purchased and downloaded directly from the Gibson Research web site at http://spinrite.com, in fact, it can only be purchased directly from Gibson Research. Just go to the web site, and if you already are convinced that you want to purchase this great program, click on the "Purchasing Info" link. From there you simply call the 1-800 number to purchase the program over the phone. When you purchase SpinRite, you will be given a nine-digit order number that is used when you download the software. Once you have SpinRite on your computer, you need to do a little prep work before you can actually run the program. Since SpinRite works all by itself, you will need to create a "Clean Boot" disk. This is easily done, by inserting a blank diskette into your A: drive, clicking on "Start", "Run" and then typing the following command: FORMAT A: /S Windows will format the disk and ask you to give it a name. I named mine SpinRite, but that is optional. Now copy the downloaded file "SpinRite.exe" to the same floppy disk, and you are ready to roll!! Turn your computer off, insert your clean boot floppy into your A: drive, and turn the computer back on. When you have booted to the A:\> prompt, type spinrite and press (enter). From here, the program will walk you through its operation. All I had to do was read each screen and follow the directions. There are many options that are useful to the advanced user, but running the basic program was pretty straightforward. One word of warning, on today's huge hard drives, it will take hours for SpinRite to analyze your drive(s), so be sure to do this at a time when you won't be needing your computer for a few hours. I often ran it overnight. The screen displays both the elapsed time and time remaining for the drive you are testing. Convenient if you are wondering if you can fit in a nap during testing. *grin* While it is running, SpinRite will read and re-write the entire surface of the drive, reporting everything it finds. By doing this, it is able to provide early warning of increasing numbers of regions that are becoming troublesome for the drive. With this warning, you can back up your data and remove the drive from service before a complete catastrophe results in loss of any data. If SpinRite is not used until after a crash, it skillfully picks up all the pieces, recovers your data, and puts everything back together again. Since I repair computers, and see a fair number of failing hard drives, I held on to the program long enough to test a few drives that came in. On several of those drives, SpinRite assured me that the problem was not with the drive itself. One drive could not be seen by the computer at all, due to hardware failure. And on one drive (that another program had diagnosed as hopeless), SpinRite not only recovered the data, but when I ran it a second time using operating level 5, it fixed the bad sectors and returned them to use. I was impressed with SpinRite. In spite of the fact that is technical in nature, it would be well worth your time to learn how to use it. Running this program on a regular schedule (once every month or two) will keep your hard drive running smoothly, and warn you in advance when it is time to purchase a new drive. Gibson Research Corporation SpinRite http://spinrite.com 8=> Product: The Axe(R), home Reviewed By: Matthew Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com Requires: Pentium(R) 200MMX CPU or higher, 32MB RAM, Joystick, 16- Bit sound card, 60MB free hard drive space MSRP: US$19.95 - US$29.95 (depending on which music collection is purchased) Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., maker of The Axe, is a relatively new company and boasts diverse investors such as Acer Group and Softbank. In January 1999, Harmonix founded the Mentoring Musician Program to support the efforts of The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting instrumental music in schools throughout the U.S. The goal of the Mentoring Musician Program is to use the personal experiences of well-known musicians to inspire children to study music. There are 15 well-known artists in the mentoring program at this time, with more coming on board all the time including everyone from Motley Crue and Meredith Brooks, to the delightful Squirrel Nut Zippers and DJ Spooky. Harmonix's The Axe software is an intricately designed music program that provides hours of musical creation. The Axe allows you to choose different songs from an Axe CD, and improvise (jam) along with your choice of lead instruments. This program concept is extremely creative, and truly an innovation in today's digital music industry. The Axe is a new approach to creating (or perhaps just rearranging?) existing recorded music. As well as a great selection of popular music, The Axe includes interactive music videos (IMVs) which feature animated clay characters. There are currently seven characters available and like today's recording artists, each of them has a unique musical style. To jam with the animated clay musicians, users can chose from 8 lead instruments: electric guitar, jazz guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes(R) piano, saxophone, synthesizer, trumpet, and scat voice. While playing, the expressive clay characters take on a life of their own and add an engaging dimension to the IMVs. As The Axe was installing, I reviewed the system requirements and found them to be a bit strange. They were actually quite high; not what I had expected for what I assumed was a very basic music play-along program. I was in for a surprise as it turned out. Delving into the excellent user interface was easy and fast, and it took only a few moments to choose an instrument (I chose the piano), and a favorite song. As the first song played, I pressed different buttons on the joystick and keyboard and heard notes, chords, cadenzas, arpeggios, and even special effects typical of the piano. The first thing I noticed about music produced by The Axe was its incredible intricacy. What button I pushed at what time made no difference. The music was constantly flowing and any instrument I was playing never seemed to hit a wrong note. Harmonix seems to have put thousands of hours of work into finding or creating every single riff combination, chord, and trick, putting it all together to create incredibly catchy tunes every time you play. Because of the great variety of different things you can do with the different instruments, the combinations are almost limitless. The sound of each instrument is very accurate, and each note flows together with the next as it would in the hands of professional musicians. The greatest thing about using The Axe however, is that you don't need to be a trained professional at all. You don't even need rudimentary music training. All you have to be able to do is keep the rhythm (and most of the time, the computer does it for you). The interface is smooth with no visible glitches, and all of the options are clearly labeled and easy to access. There are tutorials available for every single instrument. The tutorials show you the ins and outs of using each instrument. The multi-player mode is even more detailed, as it allows two people to play together using the mouse and joystick simultaneously. Two players can pick any combination of instruments they wish and then play together. There is an option to save what you have created, and play it back later. There is also an option to change the template on which you play. My personal favorite is the clay musicians template, in which there are different clay people on stage that play the instrument you've picked. The different characters are very well done, not overly cliched, and add flair and fun to the program. All in all, The Axe is a fabulous music program for anyone with a passion for music, whether you are a hard core listener, or a passing music fan. The Axe is easy to use, fun to play, exciting for kids and adults, and produces a lot of terrific music. Harmonix sells several CDs which include everything from classic rock to classical music. The Axe is a different sort of interactive entertainment and it's highly recommended. Cons: Harmonix would do well to add more music collections to its current line-up. Control over the instrument you've chosen is limited by poor quality joysticks, so you'll have to pick up something better than a ten dollar cheapie. Pros: There are lots different templates supplied, including amoeba blobs, and exploding silver balls. You only need to install The Axe once. All of the music on the other Axe CDs can be accessed by simply putting the new CD in your drive. All in all, The Axe is a wonderful music program. Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. The Axe Web Site: http://www.theaxe.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 in 10 Minutes at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $10.39 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672315564/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= 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