CompuNotes - We now have forums on the website! See below! Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing ISSN: 1525-4534 May 27, 2002 Issue 185 -=> Important News <=- The next article of the networking your PCs series will be published next week! I was delayed in finishing them, but they are very close! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to compunotes-subscribe@topica.com To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to compunotes-unsubscribe@topica.com or send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the following SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Visit our Family of Sites ========================= GetFreeReports: Tons of Information -- FREE! (http://www.getfreereports.com) Jokes-N-Stuff: Your daily humor web page. (http://www.jokes-n-stuff.com) YALD and Internet Notes - A Great Blog (http://www.yald.com) Become a Friend of CompuNotes and Get Free Advertising for Your Site! ===================================================================== http://www.compunotes.com/friends.htm Get Free Support for your PC or Internet Connection =================================================== Stop by the CompuNotes forums and let us help you work the troubles your PC is facing. Suffer no more. :-) (http://www.compunotes.com/forums.htm) CONTENTS 1=> This Week's Notes, Join the CompuNotes Team, By Patrick Grote, mailto:pgrote@compunotes.com 2=> This Issue's Winner! Reviews: 3=> Product: Typing Pal Junior, educational Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:agitater@compunotes.com 4=> Product: FlashMX, graphics Reviewed By: David Bell, mailto:david.bell5@sympatico.ca 5=> Product: SketchUp, graphics Reviewed By: Howard Carson & Lianne Reitter, mailto:agitater@compunotes.com 6=> Product: Q-Pad for Palm Vx, hardware Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:agitator@compunotes.com 7=> Product: Java in a Nutshell, book Reviewed By: Songmuh Jong, mailto:songmuh@yahoo.com --- To turn a friend on to this mailing, go to: http://go.MailBits.com/Tell.asp?611002.2 --- 1=> This Week's Notes, By Patrick Grote, mailto:pgrote@compunotes.com You obviously like your PC and the internet as you are a CompuNotes subscriber. You have great taste as well, but we'll leave that for another column. CompuNotes is now looking for folks to join our team of writers. Yes, even you can be a big part of making the CompuNotes' magic happen week after week. What's in it for you? 1) Access to the latest software, hardware and books to review. 2) A compunotes.com e-mail address. 3) Complete bylines in each of your reviews or articles. 4) Prominent mention on our site under the STAFF section. 5) A resume builder for work. Who isn't impressed by, "Authored several technology reviews for a major online publication."? 6) Fun. Yes, it is fun to be able to go into Google, type your name and see your article. We're looking for folks who'd like to review software, hardware, books or services. We're also looking for those people who have opinions to share and aren't shy about it. If you're interested in writing for CompuNotes, send an e-mail to writers@compunotes.com and we'll respond with the guidelines. If you have any questions at all, drop Patrick Grote a line at pgrote@compunotes.com or Howard Carson at agitater@compunotes.com. 2=> Winner! This week's winner: Mike Homester! Mike has won a $10.00 Amazon gift certificate. Would you like to win something just for subscribing? We give away a prize each and every week to one of our subscribers. Who knows, it could be you! You could win next week ... all you have to do is subscribe! 3=> Product: Typing Pal Junior, educational Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:agitater@compunotes.com Requires: Pentium 200MHz or higher, Windows 95/98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP; 32MB RAM, sound card, CD-ROM drive MSRP: US$19.95 The best (or at least the most useful) course I took in high school was Grade 10 typing. Really. I mean learning to touch-type helped me get into computing, writing, research and a half-dozen other major interests. The thing is - and I am NOT open to debate here - if you can't touch-type effectively, you can't communicate effectively in personal correspondence, business documents, e-mail and so on. As a matter of fact, even a plain old 40 word per minute touch typist is capable of ordering and communicating thoughts and ideas faster and more effectively than a hunt-n-peck typist. In any event, learning how to touch-type can be taught easily to most Grade two students (kids 7 years of age and up). Typing Pal Junior is a touch typing training program designed for 7-14 year olds. In order to properly test Typing Pal Junior (I'm way past the target age range!), I dragooned my 9 year old niece into a bit of an experiment. My niece is an active young girl, busy with friends, ballet, gymnastics and school (Grade 4). She also wrapped up in her computer, MSN Messenger and ICQ. She can't type worth beans however. Since Typing Pal Junior professes to be a pleasant and amusing way for kids to learn keyboard typing, I wanted to find out if the typing games and challenges built into the software are truly appealing to a typical elementary school student. I also wanted to find out if Typing Pal is a true typing teacher, as opposed to a typing game. Beyond any other considerations, everything in Typing Pal Junior seems designed to be constructive and typing oriented. The main part of the software is structured around lessons for each keyboard character. There are a large number of key practice combinations, a full set of practice sessions for the numeric keypad (very important!) and even a Spy which can be set to track typing accuracy and progress in other word processors and text editors. The two games - Space Cleaners, an Asteroids clone which requires that you correctly type specific words in order to blow up target asteroids; Cosmik Ball, a Breakout clone which requires correct keying in order to bounce a ball to keep it in play - are strictly oriented toward teaching and improving typing skills. Cosmik Ball can be surprisingly difficult. The serious typing practice, transcription and dictation sessions are well organized and progressively sequenced. Using Typing Pal Junior alongside my niece revealed a few, um, flaws in my own touch typing technique. Needless to say, I'm working on correcting the bad habits. My niece was delighted to see me make mistakes and laughed uproariously every time the error gong sounded from the speakers. Cons: The statistics module provides a running progress report which is useful to young kids only after a careful explanation. The Space Cleaners game conked out - it stopped responding to typed words during the game session. There are a couple of typos in the otherwise thorough online help system. Pros: The statistics module is a good progress meter for parents who are not able to directly supervise the Typing Pal sessions. Good sound effects which are also configurable (you can use your own WAV files). My niece and a couple of her friends spent much more time trying to beat each other's letter practice speed than they did diverting attention to the typing games. After two weeks of 30-45 minutes of daily practice, my niece was up to 25 words per minute, speeding up every day and maintaining a low error rate. Her mother is delighted and so am I. Typing Pal Junior is highly recommended. DeMarque Typing Pal Junior Product web site: http://software.typingpal.com/ 4=> Product: FlashMX, graphics Reviewed By: David Bell, mailto:david.bell5@sympatico.ca Requires: Windows 98SE or later, Mac OS9.1 or OSX (10.1) or later, 64MB RAM, 85MB available disk space, 16-bit color monitor at 1024 x 768 resolution and a CD-ROM drive MSRP: US$499 (upgrade pricing available) With the introduction of FlashMX and the new Flash Player 6, Macromedia has embarked on a program to produce a complete new family of powerful resources for high impact content and rich Internet applications which go beyond the boundaries of the browser. Their new Communications Application Server with REAL Messaging Protocol (RTMP) makes it possible for developers to create real-time messaging, audio and video applications using FlashMX. Among other things, developers using FlashMX can now create next-generation applications such as calendars that automatically synchronize data, shared whiteboard applications that allows a group of users to contribute ideas from across the world, employee directories, and eLearning applications which allow instructors to train multiple participants simultaneously. These side server applications are available for .NET and J2EE solutions and closely integrate with FlashMX as well as Macromedia's Fireworks, FreeHand, Sitespring and the recently released ColdfusionMX and DreamweaverMX. FlashMX's new enhanced XML support provides a 20-fold gain in performance when integrating data from any application server for data-rich Web applications. The robust set of UI components enable developers to create advanced Internet applications quickly. FlashMX now has multilingual support (11 languages) to allow Flash content to be viewed globally. The multilingual functionality supports Vertical Text and Unicode standards. New languages supported include Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Other new features in FlashMX are collapsible, dockable panels that can be grouped together, then collapsed or expanded as needed, providing a more easily navigated window and configured workflow. The new Property Inspector now shows only relevant, content-sensitive settings that dramatically reduce the number of panels required to be open at one time. The Integrated Library window can now be grouped or docked with any other panels for easy integration into the workspace. Consistent Toolbox layout, new Menu structure and similar Color Selection models and interfaces are some of the impressive new features designed to simplify and coordinate user productivity. Other new and exciting features included with FlashMX are new starter templates, precise pixel-level editing, enhanced sound control and a new drawing API. FlashMX features new support for the import and streaming playback of video within Flash sites. These include MPEG, DV, MOV and AVI. These objects can be manipulated much like bitmaps, i.e.: rotated, skewed masked and animated with motion 'tweens'. This allows for creative and innovative ways to integrate video playback within sites and applications. The FlashMX package contains a comprehensive tutorial that takes new users step-by-step through the program to create an impressive presentation. Several other resources such as a printed manual, an electronic version of "Using Flash" and interactive lessons are also included with the package to provide new users and veterans with extensive reference capability. Macromedia also provides separately authorized online courses as well as certification for additional in- depth training on several levels. Third-party resources are available through various community sites and several annual conferences worldwide. With the registration of the purchased package an Application Developer Toolkit software disk is sent to the purchaser outlining various applications and royalty-free utilities, templates and backgrounds. I have previously tried several other software products for creating object enabling and animations that invariably left me with a feeling of 'flatness' or lack of impact and emotion. However FlashMX with it's layering capability, customized skinning techniques and pixel level editing gave a whole new meaning to depth-of-color and graphic enhancement. The Timeline feature provided a smooth transition between frames, with fade-in and fade-out capability for animations to please the most discriminating eye. Visit the following sites to see an impressive view of the power of using FlashMX: http://www.sony.com http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/ I have always relied on three important factors to create an effective Web site: Emotion, Impact and Versatility. Macromedia's Flash previously set the industry standard for these factors over the years and now FlashMX has taken it one step further with enhanced approachability, creativity and a high level of control and integration for creating media-rich Web applications with enormous impact, emotion and versatility. Hats off to Macromedia for FlashMX. Macromedia FlashMX Product web site: http://www.macromedia.com 5=> Product: SketchUp, graphics Reviewed By: Howard Carson & Lianne Reitter, mailto:agitater@compunotes.com Requires: 400 MHz processor, Windows 98, NT4.0 w/SP3, 2000, XP or later (you must be logged on as Administrator to install on NT, 2000, and XP), 64MB RAM, 20MB free disk space; mouse, pen, etc., Internet Explorer 4.0 or later; 3D accelerated graphics card that supports OpenGL and 800 x 600 resolution MSRP: US$495.00 Concept drawings, sketches, idea scribbles and storyboards are all important during the creation and modification of things - almost all things. Typical business meetings these days always seem to require a white board, erasable markers, lots of charting and sketching and so on. Fast forward out of the boardroom into an engineering, construction, landscaping, home design or architectural environment and the ability to communicate concepts and constructs becomes somewhat problematic - especially where meetings with customers, PR flacks and marketing types are involved. Enter SketchUp. SketchUp is a 3D drawing tool first and foremost. What @Last Software has managed to do however is create a 3D drawing program which allows thought and concept to follow the path of least resistance in order to hit the computer screen or the printed page quickly. Nice idea. We tested SketchUp on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 8575c Pentium III/550MHz running Windows XP Professional, 320MB RAM, with an ATI All-In-Wonder Rage 128 16MB graphics card. There were no installation problems. Screen rendering, rotation and scaling within SketchUp were smooth enough and trouble-free, with the ATI card and driver providing stable OpenGL support. The feature and function set in SketchUp is not up to the massive standard set by AutoCAD and its competitors, but we found even the notion of such a comparison irrelevant. SketchUp is not meant to take the place of AutoCAD. Rather, SketchUp is designed to be fast, straightforward and vastly easier to use for quick idea visualization. In fact, SketchUp works as advertised. I don't know of another 3D drawing tool which is as easy to use and as similarly robust as SketchUp. After running through a couple of the excellent video tutorials supplied with SketchUp, I was laying out 3D drawings on screen and in print at a pace which surprised me. After sitting through a couple of 10 minute tutorials, it took only about another 10 minutes to create a multi-room house complete with furniture, doors, windows, entrances and a yard full of picnic tables, trees, shrubs and so on. It was a matter of two or three mouse clicks after that to create a complete full motion presentation of the creation, starting with an aerial shot and gradually zooming in and around the house exterior, then through the front door and into each of the rooms. Absolutely delightful. The end result of your first efforts is bound to be somewhat draftsman-like in appearance. Use the Preferences dialog to turn your piece into a real sketch. There are settings to extend edges, remove colors and so on. Shadows and lighting are retained except in wireframe mode. People - professionals, amateurs, hobbyists - who need or want to sketch by hand and who feel that full-blown CAD programs are too unwieldy for quick execution, should definitely enjoy SketchUp's approach. Controls for light, shadow, transparency and perspective are among the easiest we've ever seen. @Last has also assembled a detailed, well laid out user interface combined with excellent online help and guidance which really serves to speed up the 3D drawing process. All the fundamentals are front and center - 3D primitives and objects, lighting control, color, form control, line and freehand drawing. For the real heavy-duty users, SketchUp exports to all major 2D and 3D AutoCAD formats in addition to saving files in its native format. Cons: A few quibbles. SketchUp has no text handling to speak of, an omission we hope @Last will remedy in an otherwise superb program. The sketch tools and the settings in Preferences don't include cross- hatching or feathering. The Orbit tool icon is different in the program than it is in the tutorial - ditto for Push/Pull. Pros: There is nothing like a really good set of tutorials and SketchUp has them. There is an extensive series of step-by-step full motion screen capture video tutorials complete with the soothing voice of a superbly talented SketchUp expert describing everything. Very well done, streamed from the SketchUp web site! They were created using a series of clearly effective scripts written by someone who knows how to do this sort of writing. Camtasia from TechSmith was used for the motion capture. There are also tutorial videos in QuickTime format which run off the installation CD. We can't say enough about the tutorials - use them. Experiment with the tools and techniques. I guarantee you'll be hooked and doing great quality idea and concept sketches and presentations for business, personal or hobby use inside of an hour or two - less if you're already familiar with 3D drawing. SketchUp is useful, fascinating and recommended. @Last Software SketchUp Product web site: http://www.sketchup.com 6=> Product: Q-Pad for Palm Vx, hardware Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:agitator@compunotes.com Requires: Palm Vx (Q-Pad models are available for other PDAs MSRP: US$69.99 I like Graffiti - the handwriting recognition language built into Palm OS. On the other hand, Graffiti has two important limitations - speed of use (how fast you can print letters) and cramped fingers which occur during extended use of the very thin stylus supplied with most PalmOS-based personal digital assistants (PDAs). On yet another hand, there are faster cursive recognition systems available as software add-ons for PalmOS. Unfortunately, none of the add-ons translate cursive into editable text (PDAs simply don't contain the massive processing horsepower needed for such a task), so the cursive remains in image format; almost useless in other words. PDA owners gaze longingly at users of Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry wireless device. The thumb keyboard on the BlackBerry is well-designed, requires only a few minutes to learn and makes ergonomic sense. Typing speed is limited only by your reflexes and eye-hand coordination. I WANT A THUMB KEYBOARD FOR MY SONY CLIE PEG-360! Enter the Q-Pad. It's a keyboard built into a slim leather case about the size of a typical flip-open PDA case. The case has a custom fitted Palm Vx attachment port and clamp. The upper section of the Q-Pad features a spring-loaded stand which props up a mounted PDA at a 40 degree angle. Q-Pad is also available for the Handspring Visor Edge. New Q-Pad models for other popular PDAs are scheduled for release during 2002. The Q-Pad comes with a floppy disk which contains the software driver (PRC file) for the keyboard. Double clicking the PRC file will place it in the add-on dialog in the Palm Desktop. The PRC will install at the next HotSync. The PRC provides settings for the key repeat rate, repeat delay, on/off for the audible beep and a checkbox to enable and disable the Q-Pad. A 4-fold, half-page printed brochure is supplied as the User's Guide. The best way to use Q-Pad is to place the PDA side on a desk or table and hold the keyboard side in both hands off the edge of the desk or table, using the keyboard with your thumbs. This technique doesn't work well at meetings however - you always need one hand free. The other solution is to place the whole Q-Pad flat on a desk or table and use one or both hands to type. When standing, hold the PDA side in one hand and type with the other. After spending a week with the Q-Pad - a total of over 10 hours of use - I'm hooked on the product. Develop a Q-Pad with a good belt clip and a HotSync/re-charge port and I'll never go back to a plain PDA. The keyboard seems durable enough and has already withstood several drops. A bit of experimentation is required before you can consistently hit the Space key properly. When running the calculator, I generally use my fingers rather than the stylus to tap numbers and symbols directly on the main screen. This eventually mucks up the screen of course. Q- Pad's numeric keypad works well and prevents your screen from getting covered in fingerprints. Cons: A few ergonomic flaws: no backslash or tilde keys (both are important for technical notes); the open and close parenthesis are shifted with the 9 and 0 which in the Q-Pad layout are on opposite corners of the numeric keypad (which also means that open parenthesis is on the right while close is on the left - just the opposite of what they should be); keys labeled "AE" which have nothing to do with data entry (they're used for field shifts); the numeric keypad is too far to the left as a result of the location of the "AE" and tab keys. You have to remove the PDA from Q-Pad in order to HotSync or re-charge. Better docs please - there's no online help and the alleged 'User Guide' is completely basic: no mention anywhere that pressing "C" on the keyboard clears the calculator or that hitting the delete arrow clears entries; after much button pressing we discovered that "E" on the keypad accessed exponents and that "S" as well as "-" is used for negatives. Pros: Q-Pad is much faster than Graffiti - after a week of regular use, I managed to clock 35 words per minute vs. 18 using Graffiti. If thinkDevice Co. comes up with a Q-Pad that also has a belt clip and a rear port for HotSyn/re-charge, it will have developed the perfect case/keyboard combo. Go for it - I'll take two please! We think the Q- Pad is a great idea. Look for improved Q-Pads for other Palm models soon. For now, Q-Pad is available for Palm Vx and Handspring Visor Edge. Recommended. thinkDevice Co. Q-Pad for Palm Vx Product web site: http://www.tdevice.com/td-qpad-palm.htm 7=> Product: Java in a Nutshell, book Reviewed By: Songmuh Jong, mailto:songmuh@yahoo.com Author: David Flanagan Requires: JDK 1.4 MSRP: USD$39.95/CAD$61.95 Java has evolved into a sophisticated platform. The standard JDK is no longer the only focus for Java developers. Rather, it is considered the minimal requirement. Although JDK 1.4 incorporates several J2EE classes into the package, several optional packages are still not integrated. A book entitled "Java in a Nutshell" is expected to include all packages for Java, not just the standard JDK. It's a challenging task, but an obvious requirement. This book is entering its 4th edition. This book is divided into two parts. The first eight chapters summarize essential Java background, the rest of the chapters list the standard Java classes and methods. The summary chapters are pretty informative and succinct. The examples are very selective and to the point. Many of the new examples cover the JDK 1.4. Even the first example reflects its unique style. Instead of HelloWorld, it provides a factorial calculation example. I also like the separation of examples from the reference section. Alas, the book does not discuss visual programming in Java at all. Moreover, it does not provide all the example codes in electronic form. Although it is understandable that the author only wants to include codes which can be compiled, the requirement for readers to type in those code fragments is a big inconvenience. The API reference chapters, which constitute the bulk of the book, are a disappointment. The printing style makes it difficult to read. I have become accustomed to the Javadoc style documentation that comes with JDK and I like it very much - cleaner and clearer than this book. I have a few suggestions: (1) Take away the shadow from the member list of classes; (2) align the method modifier, return type and method names. Another possibility is to remove all the API list because JDK is already supplied with nice Javadoc documentation. There is no need to reproduce it in an inferior format unless the book can make the API more searchable. It turns out that the missing topics are in separate books. Thus, the swing classes are discussed in a separate book called "Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell," the J2EE is discussed in a separate book called "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell," and the Java MicroEdition for small devices is discussed in a separate book called "J2ME in a Nutshell." The title "Java in a Nutshell" no longer provides an accurate description of this book. I think the two books "Java in a Nutshell" and "Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell" need to be combined into one. The name for the combined book could be "J2SE in a Nutshell." Even though I have some strong opinions about this book, it is still an excellent introduction to JDK and is recommended for introductory Java classes. This is because the first eight chapters are really well written. It is also a concise desktop reference for Java developers. Another book which I'm reviewing, "JDK 1.4 Tutorial" from another publisher, focuses more on the new features instead of the basics. Therefore, this book is still the best choice for Java students. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan (Paperback, 969 pages) Product Web site: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/javanut4/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Publisher / Senior Editor: Patrick Grote, mailto:pgrote@compunotes.com Senior Editor: Howard Carson, mailto:agitater@compunotes.com Archives: ftp://ftp.compunotes.com/archives Website: e-mail: mailto:feedback@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:agitater@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 feedback@compunotes.com (C)2002 Patrick Grote ISSN: 1525-4534 *********************************************** The COMPUNOTES-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html