+OK 24179 octets Received: from vms.dc.lsoft.com (vms.dc.lsoft.com [206.241.12.2]) by mixer.visi.com (8.8.3/8.7.5) with ESMTP id JAA28470 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:19:46 -0600 (CST) Received: from vms.dc.lsoft.com by vms.dc.lsoft.com (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <14.598103EE@vms.dc.lsoft.com>; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 10:15:22 -0500 Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM by PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 26836923 for COMPUNOTES-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 10:15:13 -0500 Received: from pgrote.corp.compucom.com (wall1.compucom.com [204.214.144.4]) by thor.inlink.com (8.8.0/V8) with SMTP id JAA14294 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:15:06 -0600 (CST) Posted-Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:19:46 -0600 (CST) Received-Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:19:46 -0600 (CST) Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.42) Approved-By: "pgrote@inlink.com" Message-ID: <199612091515.JAA14294@thor.inlink.com> Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:18:49 +0000 Reply-To: pgrote@inlink.com Sender: "IBM Compatible Weekly Reviews, Interviews, and News - FREE!" Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "pgrote@inlink.com" Subject: CompuNotes Issue #60 - Part 1 To: COMPUNOTES-L@eva.dc.LSOFT.COM Content-Type: text COMPUNOTES - Issue #60 - December 8, 1996 -=> See MY NOTES about smaller issues . . . This Week's Contents: My Notes: 1) Header Contest - Send Your Entries - Last Week! 2) Smaller Issues? 3) Contest Winner! Columnists' Corner: 1) Big City Byte with Howard Carson News: 1) Internet Golf 2) F-PROT Moves Forward Reviews: 1) Product: The American Civil War: From Sumter to Appomattox Reviewed By: Doug Reed 2) Product: Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM by Steve Cunningham & Judson Rosebush Reviewed By: Don Hughes 3) Product: QuickVerse 4.0 (Windows 3.11 or Windows95) Reviewed By: Danny Williams 4) Product: Practical UNIX & Internet Security (2nd Edition) by Simson Grafinkel and Gene Spafford Publisher O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Price US $39.95, Can $56.95 Reviewed By: Don Hughes Web Sites: 1) Holidays 1996 2) Home Arts Home for the Holidays Interview: 1) None this week! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date : December 8, 1996 |CompuNotes is a weekly publication available Issue: 60 |through email and many fine on-line networks. ------------------------|We cover the IBM computing world with CompuNotes is published |software/hardware reviews, news, hot web B440, |sites, great columns and interviews. We also 1315 Woodgate Drive |give away one software package a week to a St. Louis, MO 63122 |lucky winner for just reading our fine (314) 909-1662 voice |publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we (314) 909-1662 fax |are here to bring you the way it is! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Backroom Workers: |We are always looking for Patrick Grote, Managing Editor |people to write us with |honest, constructive Doug Reed, Asst. Editor / Writer Liaison |feedback! We need to hear |from you! Please take the Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master |time to send us your |opinions, comments and ------------------------------------------|criticisms. Some of our I am looking for a collection of shareware|better features have reviews I put out in the 87-88 timeframe |actually come from our under my handle of NEVER BEFORE. I think |readership! Thanks! they started as NB*.ZIP. Can you look |--------------------------- on your local BBS? THANKS! | Go St. Louis Rams! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Every issue of CompuNotes ever published can be found at the following ftp site: ftp://ftp.uu.net:/published/compunotes. Thanks to UUNET! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Web Site is at http://users.aol.com/CompNote/ Please Add Our Link to Your Homepage! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a message to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command in the body SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L Full Name. Example: SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L Patrick Grote To unsubscribe, send a message to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the command in the body SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L. Example: SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES- L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSOPS READ HERE! Wanting to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible, we can't afford to call everyone's BBS every week. What we would like to do is send those interested sysops a UUENCODED version for posting on their BBS. If you can volunteer to receive the UUENCODED version, turn it into a ZIP and upload it to your BBS, we'll list you in our sysops directory. If you are interested, fill out the following lines and send them back to notes@inlink.com with SYSOPS. We'll list your BBS in our SYSOPS LIST which will be included in each version of CompuNotes we ship out. If you have a WWW link we'll throw that up on our page. BBS NAME: BBS SYSOP: BBS NUMBER: URL: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick's News Being The Publisher and Managing Editor Has Its Perks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADER CONTEST!| ---------------- We are still looking for header redesigns! We have four entries right now! Remember the following items: 1) $50.00 to the winner! 2) Stress being compact, while trying to leave all info in. 3) Issue redesign are OK as well. ---------------------- SMALLER ISSUES . . . | ---------------------- Someone suggested publishing more frequently with smaller issues, under 25k. What do you think? If I don't hear too much negative feedback I think I'll start that after the first of the year. ------------------ WINNER IS . . . | ------------------ The software package being given away this week is The ASP Shareware Collection! Our winner is: zippy@primenet.com Send them a congratulatory email! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Columnists' Corner - We bring you a different person each week! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Big City Byte by Howard Carson Is there anything more irritating than a warranty which doesn't cover whatever it is that's broken? No. Is there anything more irritating than a new product, purchased with its warranty apparently intact, that turns out to be some off-shore, illegally manufactured garbage, which can't be serviced under ANY warranty? Nope. Is there anything more irritating than purchasing a Quantum hard drive, taking it home, and only then realizing the brand name actually reads 'Ouantum'? Uh-uh. You do have rights in most of these areas; rights which will protect you to some extent. But those rights tend to rely on the premise that most people will examine purchases very carefully indeed, before laying out hard-earned cash. Such care is difficult to observe for most consumers however, especially during the rush of activity which surrounds warehouse sales, sell-offs, store-wide inventory clearances (sic), and other, similar hard-sell pitches. The main consumer guideline to follow is simple: if you feel pressured into buying, don't buy. Go home. Consider the purchase. If you decide the purchase is warranted, go back and ask some questions. If you feel guilty about looking a 'gift-horse' in the mouth, you've got the wrong attitude. Any merchant who makes you feel self-conscious about asking pointed questions regarding sale merchandise is not providing decent service. Because an item is on sale, does not mean the product no longer merits. Merchants, dealers, value added resellers, ISVs, distributors and other purveyors of retail level computer products, utilize a variety of incursive methods to get both your attention and your money. Succumbing to their blandishments at first bite is rarely a wise course of action. Great, one-off deals do occur out there, but they're much fewer and farther between than the general run of advertising would have us believe. There are several easy-to-do examinations of any product which can be performed by intelligent consumers at the point-of-sale. While certain situations may create a bit of embarrassment for some consumers, the potential benefits are worth any momentary discomfort. First, make a habit of examining logos and brand names. Manufacturers take great care when designing such things and maintain careful consistency from product to product. Any merchant who suggests that an indistinct, altered or otherwise inconsistent logo or brand name is kosher, should be prepared to provide some backup documentation of any changes. When companies change or otherwise redesign their logos, etc., they always send out reams of support literature to announce the change; in any case. Second, if a price seems too low, it usually means trouble later on. Heavily discounted items can be accounted for in very few ways: business closure (and a subsequent lack of over the counter service), illegal brand names, lack of warranty because of second or third party resale, lack of warranty because of wrong jurisdiction (for example, there are innumerable U.S. warranties which will not be honored in Canada and vice versa), and resale of ill-gotten gains (stolen merchandise in other words). Third, there is an important and fundamental difference between making purchases at some hole-in-the-wall here today/gone tomorrow store front, and Computer City or Egghead et al. While we may not see absurdly low prices at reputable retail operations, the access they provide to warranty service, value-added service, and exchange/return policies, far outweigh the transient advantage of an absurdly low price. Some have claimed that merely living in most large cities bestows a certain advantage. Problems will always occur in off-brand or otherwise suspect merchandise. Attempting to enforce a phony warranty will get you little more than cold stares. Pleading ignorance is not an excuse that any profit-based corporation can accept. Authorized Seagate service centers will not service Seegate hard drives. Ever. Wishing otherwise is silly. Fourth, virtually every State, Province and regional jurisdiction in the U.S., Canada and Europe require that any item tendered for sale to the public, must be accurately described in antecedent advertising or support literature. Simply put, if a hard drive has a label affixed to it which states the capacity as 1.6GB, it had better be 1.6GB. Tests which reveal the capacity to be 1.4GB will catalyze serious problems for the manufacturer. There is no doubt that advertising can be a powerful tool. There is no doubt that powerfully delivered sales pitches can generate tremendous pressure. There is also no doubt that unscrupulous individuals (and companies) will take advantage of advertising to tell tall tales. If a service station owner alters his gasoline pumps to show 20 gallons when only 15 gallons have been pumped, sooner or later someone is going to get caught in the middle of nowhere. That can be dangerous or benign. If it turns out to be a situation which places an unsuspecting citizen in danger, charges of criminal negligence can be rightly brought against the crook who owns the gasoline pump. We can easily find ourselves living in an atmosphere of rampant suspicion and internecine fighting, unless we remain vigilant. Such vigilance will weed out the casual offenders and make the habitual thieves more wary. Avoiding the obvious traps will force the most salacious liars into comparative obscurity. We can avoid dealing with events forced into obscurity because their very nature belies the habits of normal conduct. In any event, if a computer carries a badge which says 'Compak', don't buy it. Letters To the Editor: There was a *lot* of e-mail in response to my last column (I call it 'File Selector Wars'). Thanks for all your input. We appreciate hearing different viewpoints. I can be reached at hcarson@io.org, anytime. The very best letters will be submitted to the CompuNotes editor (Patrick Grote). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet Golf . . . | --------------------- WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ - Maxis (Nasdaq: MXIS), the interactive entertainment publisher which gave computer users the ability to create their own cities with SimCity, is now giving computer golfers the power to design and play their own custom courses with SimGolf. And after they build the course of their dreams (or nightmares), SimGolfers can use the Internet or a LAN to trade courses or even round-up a foursome for a virtual match. "SimGolf, the first sports title in Maxis' popular 'Sim' line, allows players to make their courses as realistic or wacky as they want," said Sam Poole, Maxis' president and CEO. "SimGolf even lets you tee off on the Internet and chat with other SimGolfers - recreating the social element of real-world golf." With the powerful "Course Architect" players can create their own courses from scratch - placing every hole, hill and hazard. Master course architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who helped Maxis create SimGolf, explains how golf courses are designed to be challenging and fun in over 100 on-screen video segments. Or players can enjoy golfing on two RTJ, Jr. masterpieces, The Prince Course in Kauai or Rancho La Quinta(TM) in Southern California, which are packaged with SimGolf. Realism is another key feature of SimGolf. Maxis has created the new "MouseSwing" interface which uses the computer's mouse to control the speed and path of the virtual golfer's club. The feeling of realistic golf play is also enhanced by SimGolf's detailed, 3D view that allows full freedom of movement through the course. Other features allow players to: open multiple view windows; choose the type of play - skins, match, stroke or practice; alter course conditions; and select their own golfer's clubs. SimGolf, a Windows 95 title, is sold at software stores and mass merchants at an estimated street price of $40-50. More information is available from Maxis customer support at 800-33-MAXIS (800- 336- 2947) or Maxis' web site at . ---------------------------- F-PROT Moves Forward . . . | ---------------------------- JUPITER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 26, 1996--Command Software Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce that F-PROT Professional anti- virus software has received the esteemed SECURE Computing Checkmark(TM) Certification. To receive the Checkmark(TM) Certification designation, products must undergo strict testing procedures in the SECURE Computing test labs. Products are tested for detection against the In the Wild virus list - the viruses that represent the most significant, real life threat. End users can be assured that the anti-virus products receiving the Checkmark(TM) logo have been objectively tested and can be relied upon. "Command Software Systems' commitment to excellence is underscored by qualifying for SECURE Computing's prestigious Checkmark(TM) Certification program," states Dyan Dyer, Command's CEO and president. "It is of the utmost importance that anti- virus products be tested independently by valid testing organizations. SECURE Computing is respected worldwide for their testing methodologies," Dyer added. "Their Checkmark(TM) designation signifies credible performance which the public can count on when making purchasing decisions." SECURE Computing repeats this testing procedure every three months. In order for a product to maintain its Checkmark(TM) status, the manufacturer must be committed to improving the product, incorporating all newly emergent virus signatures and types. Users can rely on Checkmarked products, since the SECURE Computing labs are independently verifying the quality of the products. The SECURE Computing testing process has been beneficial for F- PROT Professional, according to Therese Padilla, Command's director of product management. "F-PROT Professional has long been known for its excellent detection and disinfection capabilities," she said. "It is always gratifying when an organization that has the respect and trust of the anti-virus industry substantiates the quality of our products. The Checkmark logo will now be added to recognition from the NCSA, NSTL Software Digest and Virus Bulletin." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: The American Civil War: From Sumter to Appomattox Reviewed By: Doug Reed MSRP: $49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For Americans, no period of time in our history is more interesting and fascinating than the Civil War in the latter half of the 19th century. For wargamers, then, it would only seem natural that a considerable number of games would focus on that pivotal time in our history. But until recently, the availability of software focusing on the Civil War was like a desert. In the last couple of years, however, we have seen a flood of software, from Talonsoft's brilliant Battleground series that covers tactical battles to real-time disasters like The Blue and the Grey (by Impressions) and The Civil War (by Empire) and strategic nightmares like No Greater Glory (SSI). Most of these games have been flops, to put it kindly. About the same time that the rest of these titles were coming out, a small company released From Sumter to Appomattox. The game won universal praise for its focus on leadership and morale in battles and strategic elements; the graphics were abysmal, however, and the length of the game was a monster. From Sumter to Appomattox (I'll call it FSTA for the rest of the review) is now in its third version and has been picked up by Interactive Magic, makers of fine software products like Apache and Capitalism. This version features numerous improvements over the previous versions (especially in the area of graphics). FSTA's third incarnation in designed for Windows 3.1/95, which means that it is relatively easy to install and no system configuration is required. Although the CD does support Autoplay for installing the game, it does not support Autoplay for actually playing the game even though the CD is required in order to play the game. A little annoying, but no big hassle. The introductory sequences are all multimedia, of course, featuring old pictures from the war and tunes played by either the North or the South. The game includes a CD player utility so that you can continue to play Northern and Southern tunes while you play the game. The actual game itself is very pretty to look at; the main map is done in 256-color SVGA graphics, fully depicting railroads, fields, mountains, and rivers in Atlas-like detail. The graphics and sounds shine throughout FSTA. This is a strategic game, however, so the real question of the game's merit lies in its gameplay and quality of its computer AI opponent. If you've played a wargame before, especially one in Windows, then you should feel right at home, poking around and finding the various commands, etc... FSTA provides a considerable number of things to do, like dictating what supplies go where, and for what, and to whom. Rifles and warships must be built, and troops must be raised to see the player successfully to their goal. As was true historically, the Union has a considerable advantage in both supplies and manpower; playing the Union is a good way to learn the game and you can move on the play the Rebels once you're ready for a challenge. At times, however, I almost felt as though I was neck-deep in the details of supply allocation and such; the game provides no easy way to tell if you have chosen to manufacture enough rifles to cover the new recruits that will appear at the start of each month. I'll tell you right now that the biggest problem with this game is the quantity of help provided in how to play it. There is precious little, most of it in the manual, and most of it almost impossible to make any sense of. The manual is one of the poorest I have seen in some time. It took a considerable amount of searching to find out how to get a Army corp to move towards an objective (Armies can be assigned an objective, but independent corps must be directed toward their targets manually). Further, when your troops enter battle you are given a choice of "Intensity" based on your leader's skill and your orders - but no where in the manual does it say what affect the different Intensity settings might have on the outcome of the battle. Fleets leave harbor immediately upon being given orders; better make sure you get them right! I also found a number of small but irritating bugs, some of which have now been repaired by a patch you can get from Interactive Magic. The first was a bug that made it impossible to capture the enemies capital, even if he had no troops in the city! Secondly, a number of times my Union fleets got "lost" when assigned targets in the Gulf of Mexico - invariably they would get stuck trying to go through the Carolinas to get to Alabama. Predictably, the computer opponent is weak, even after installing the new AI in the patch. Other people have reported the game as running slow, even on a Pentium, but this was not a problem that I observed. Now that I've got all my problems with FSTA out of the way, let me tell you that I still like this game. This is, without a doubt, the best strategic game about the Civil War to be released. Although the computer opponent is weak, the game does fully support email play which means you can easily reach across the Internet to crush someone. Since each turn lasts one week, a full game could easily stretch on for days or even weeks, so be prepared! The game allows you to play historically, or you can alter a variety of settings to provide a new challenge. For example, you can choose to randomize the abilities of your generals, making it tougher to choose the best ones, much as it was for Lincoln and Davis. Through promotions and removals, you will eventually find your Grant and Sherman (or Lee). Promotions and removals, however, do come with a political cost! In general I like the methods by which the issue of supplies is handled (dedicating so many to feeding the troops, building weapons, etc...), although at times it would be nice to be able to pass this off to a computer assistant. FSTA does come with an additional CD which contains the multimedia presentation "Fateful Lightning" that provides a rich and detailed history of the Civil War, complete with old photographs, sounds, etc.... If you are a Civil War buff, as I am, the second CD alone is worth the price of purchase. FSTA is a gem, albeit still a rough one, that with some more polish will truly shine. Interactive Magic P.O. Box 13491 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919-461-0948 http://www.imagicgames.com Installation/Ease of Use: Gold Medal User-Friendliness: Bronze Medal Quality: Silver Medal Audience: Civil War Buffs & wargamers. . +OK 23810 octets Received: from vms.dc.lsoft.com (vms.dc.lsoft.com [206.241.12.2]) by mixer.visi.com (8.8.3/8.7.5) with ESMTP id WAA01420 for ; Sun, 8 Dec 1996 22:34:24 -0600 (CST) Received: from vms.dc.lsoft.com by vms.dc.lsoft.com (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <11.5429B8C8@vms.dc.lsoft.com>; Sun, 8 Dec 1996 23:30:58 -0500 Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM by PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 26795307 for COMPUNOTES-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM; Sun, 8 Dec 1996 23:30:50 -0500 Received: from administrator (pgrote.inlink.com [206.196.115.109]) by thor.inlink.com (8.8.0/V8) with SMTP id WAA24233 for ; Sun, 8 Dec 1996 22:30:37 -0600 (CST) Posted-Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 22:34:24 -0600 (CST) Received-Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 22:34:24 -0600 (CST) Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.42) Approved-By: "pgrote@inlink.com" Message-ID: <199612090430.WAA24233@thor.inlink.com> Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 22:30:13 +0000 Reply-To: pgrote@inlink.com Sender: "IBM Compatible Weekly Reviews, Interviews, and News - FREE!" Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "pgrote@inlink.com" Subject: CompuNotes Issue #60 - Part 2 To: COMPUNOTES-L@eva.dc.LSOFT.COM Content-Type: text ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM by Steve Cunningham & Judson Rosebush Reviewed By: Don Hughes MSRP: US $36.95, Can $52.95 (BOOK and CD-ROM Included) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM is a solidity filled three hundred and eighty page "how-to" guide. A statement by the authors in the preface of this book defines their goal: "This book describes the stages of publishing an electronic title on CD-ROM-from the authors initial idea, through detailed design and authoring, to manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. The book has grown directly out of the authors own experience in electronic publications." Having made their point the authors prepare the reader for an interesting and informative journey into the realm of Electronic Publishing. The CD-ROM market place is expanding so rapidly one would have to be living in the deepest jungle or another planet to be unaware of the thousands upon thousands of titles available today. The is no doubt the expansion of CD-ROM technology and Electronic Publishing will continue to expand at a phenomenal growth rate. A recent article in the Computer & Entertainment Retailing (Sept. 96) stated: "The 1.44 floppy drive is history...Software vendors are flocking away from 1.44 floppies as a medium for software distribution. The CD- ROM is cheaper to produce, vendors can stuff extra value in the CD. Customers prefer to install software from a single CD-ROM then a couple of dozen floppies." The lower cost and the convenience of CD-ROM technology plus the public's hunger for information at their finger tips is the driving force in the CD-ROM explosion. Sales of CD- ROM players have grown from One million per year in 1992 to over six million per year by 1996, to an estimated installed base of over eighty million by the turn of the century. Compared to the old 1.44 floppy disk a single CD- ROM can hold 654.7 megabytes of data or one thousand, (300 pages each) books in ASCII format. The storage requirements rise if the book has black and white graphics, and six hundred (300 page) books per CD. If the same book is in postscript is storage space is about 20 MB per book, or 30 per CD- ROM. However, if the books are in Acrobat PDF format, the space required is 2.4 MB per book or 250 books on a single CD-ROM disk. Storing colour images on a CD-ROM presents another problem, as a 1K X 1K 24-bit colour image may require 3 MB of space, however, many images can be compressed in one tenth their original size. The authors assert that: ".a small run (about 1,000 copies) the total production cost (including mastering, replication, and packaging) for a disc in a jewel box might be less than $2.00 per disk. More elaborate kinds of packaging (i.e., printed boxes) can add another $1.50 to this cost, printing and binding a book on the other hand is likely to run more like $10 or $12 in these quantities..the greatest cost for the CD-ROM is creating, integrating, and testing the content in the first place." The CD-ROM electronic publications present unlimited opportunities for anyone wanting a low cost way of producing data in none traditional formats. Along with text information you can include video clips, still photographs (in colour and black and white) plus add sound to enhance your product or information. The authors give an example of the skills necessary to create your own CD-ROM. The skills required are the ability to: "write, edit and proofread, take pictures, scan and colour correct them, and crop, record or compose music, lay it down on tape and digitize it, shoot video tape, edit, and direct actors, create animations, program a computer and design User interfaces, buttons, and navigation, act as a psychologist in order to under stand how people use and relate to media, market and package the title, and figure out all the money and time involved." If you do not have all the skills required, then you will need to seek the expertise of an Author, Developer, Publisher, Distributor and Retailers. In their book Electronic Publishing on CD- ROM, the authors determine the boundaries of just such an undertaking for the reader and the pro's and cons' of producing your own CD-ROMs. They break down this complex task into many steps, and demonstrate that while producing your CD-ROM is a rewarding task, it is also one not to be taken lightly. Moreover, as a business venture there is no guarantee that your CD- ROMs will be a success in the market place. Electronic Publishing book includes a CD-ROM containing more information and their resources for their book in PDF format. The authors wisely enclosed two other tools for viewing and printing (if you desire) as part of the package. Included are Adobe's Acrobat reader and Apple's QuickTime move player, and they have put their Outline in two formats, PDF and HTML. The CD-ROM is made to be readable in Windows, Macintosh, and Unix format. The only flaw in this fine literary work is in fact their CD- ROM interface. I would like to have seen a more point and click button style user interface and perhaps a little music. The Outline.pdf does allow the user to browse and then click on each chapter and view the contents using the Acrobat reader, cumbersome, but workable. Despite my minor peeve, Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM is an excellently written, and an information packed book. The authors, Steve Cunningham and Judson Rosebush, and their Publisher O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. must be very satisfied and proud of their product. If you work in the electronic publishing media or simply want to learn more about producing CD- ROMs, you need to acquire this book. The book combined with the other resources listed on the CD, are worth every penny. On a scale of one to five, Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM, I give it a FIVE and in the Olympic tradition a definite GOLD. Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103a Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA Inquiries:707-829-0515, 800-998-9938 Fax: 707-829-0104 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: QuickVerse 4.0 (Windows 3.11 or Windows95) Reviewed By: Danny Williams Reviewed on: Pentium-75, 16Mb RAM, 4X CD-ROM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Researching Bible topics in a library for a college class, Sunday school class, or sermon can easily take hours of searching not only for the right books, but the pertinent sections in those books. The QuickVerse 4.0 Bible Reference Collection (QVBRC) provides a good starting collection of Bible references as well as a foundation on which one can further build an even more complete collection of interconnected references. Installation is typical for CD-ROM products - insert the CD and run the SETUP program. Varying amounts of data are written to your hard disk, from 0Mb to over 100Mb, depending on how fast you would like to search the large databases. With a 4X CD-ROM, I had no performance complaints for occasional use, but if I were using this every day, I'd allocate 10Mb or so for the index files on the hard disk and leave the large data on the CD-ROM. This dramatically improves speed for a small cost in hard disk space. One sign of a small lack of integration between the products is that after all the programs are copied, I had to tell one of them through a configuration menu where the others were on the disk, even though it has just finished setting up each of them itself. QVBRC is really three products and nine reference sources on one CD- ROM: -QuickVerse (Bible texts & Notes) -King James Version -New International Version -New Revised Standard Version -Strong's Concordance -Notes & commentary -The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (any translation) -Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (any translation) -The Rainbow Study Bible (KJV) -QuickVerse Library (Reference books) -Holman Bible Dictionary -PC Bible Atlas Each of the mail products are foundations on which you can add more references later as the need arises. In addition to the Bible translations listed above, there are "Notes" files available that are tied to one or more of the translations and add commentary and insight to the verses. QuickVerse includes the three listed above, but others available include The New Scofield Study Bible Notes, the Ryrie Study bible Expanded Edition Notes, and The Believers Study Bible notes. Each of these notes files are displayed in a small, adjustable window below the Bible text. When you view verses which have commentary on file, the commentary is displayed in the lower windows. One gripe I had with this system is that if the verse pointer was pointing at verse 2 and the commentary is on verses 1-10, the commentary would not display. The pointer had to be on verse 1. QuickVerse Library display any STEP (Standard Template for Electronic Publishing) documents. Both Parsons and other publishers produce STEP compatible materials, so even though there is only one dictionary included in this release, you can easily add references from several publishers as you expand your library later. I've found QVBRC useful for preparing for Sunday School lessons. Usually find myself staring with QuickVerse and looking up the verses on which this week's lesson is based. In QuickVerse, I can pull up one or more translations, show them side by side on the screen, and synchronize the two sides so I am always looking at the same verses two different ways. One translation, Strong's Concordance, even shows the original Hebrew written phonetically for English and including a dictionary style description of the source roots of the word. This can often go a long way toward understanding the subtle differences in the language that can change the original meaning of a verse. While reading one verse about, I wondered which verses in the Bible mentioned his name. Marking his name with my mouse in the verse I was reading and then clicking on the QuickSearch button was all it took. I quickly saw a list of all 57 verses in the Bible mentioning his name. A Search menu item from QuickVerse allows a quick connection to QuickVerse Library. The Library comes with one Bible dictionary, the Holman Bible Dictionary, which offers a one paragraph description of the life and times of Nebuchadnezzar and told me that he was the King of Babylon from 602-562 B.C. and offered a link to a modern day picture of the "Procession Street" of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar in about 580 B.C. Another Search menu item available from QuickVerse connects to PC Bible Atlas. Highlighting the word "Babylon" in the text about Nebuchadnezzar and selecting the Atlas product returns a list of 15 maps which include Babylon. Select the one most relevant to the lesson being studied and see a color map of Babylon, the surrounding area, and several landmarks in the area. Many of the landmarks are hot- linked to short descriptions of the landmark. Be careful here! Just like flipping through an encyclopedia or surfing the Web, it's easy to go off chasing rabbits and forget what you were looking for in the first place! Each of the references is reachable and searchable from the other, and this makes it easy to put together a comprehensive package of information on just about any Bible subject. Copyright limitations are even written to allow reproduction for members of a class, so everyone can have a copy and not have to squint at the one you are holding at the front of the class. I own a paper Bible which has a list of topics and verses which address that topic. I found nothing in QVBRC which duplicated that index. I did find, however, find in the documentation that an add-on module called Nave's Topical Bible provides just that sort of index and can easily be added to the QVBRC system. That, perhaps, is one of the strongest points of this system - it is as easy to add information to it as a paper library, and vastly easier to search. Additional modules are sold both by Parsons and many local Christian bookstores. Parsons Technology One Parsons Drive Hiawatha IA 52233 1-319-395-9626 WWW: AOL: keyword PARSONS CompuServe: GO PARSONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Practical UNIX & Internet Security (2nd Edition) by Simson Grafinkel and Gene Spafford Publisher O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Price US $39.95, Can $56.95 Reviewed By: Don Hughes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Practical UNIX & Internet Security (containing over 971+ pages)is an in-depth look at the issues and measures taken to provide business and the end user with a safe and secure place to do business. However, as the Internet and the use of networks expand in to days global village, so does the rise in computer crime. Studies in 1995 concluded that: .....Combined losses from computer and telecommunications fraud in the U.S. alone may be over $10 billion a year, ..Theft of proprietary business information, as reported monthly, rose 260% during the five year period from 1988 to, 1993. ..Unauthorized access to computer files for "snooping" (as opposed to outright theft) has increased by over 91% in the past five years. ..Intentional introduction of virus into corporate networks is up 66% over the past five years. ..Unauthorized access to business information and theft of proprietary information are up over 75% in the past five years. .....The majority of computer security incidents are never reported." The widespread uses of the UNIX operating system for the Internet and company networks make the system a prime target for information gathering or worse. This book is intended as a guide to System administrators and others to increase their knowledge of UNIX security issues. The authors in their opening introduction included the following: ....A Note to Computer Crackers We've tried to write this book in such a way that it can't be used easily as a "how to" manual for potential system crackers. Don't buy this book if you are looking for hints to break into systems. If you are a system cracker, consider applying your energy and creativity to more pressing problem facing us all, rather than creating new problems for overworked computer users and administrators. ....We realize that most of our readers would never even think of behaving this way, so our apologies to you for having made this point. The Practical UNIX & Internet Security book takes the reader on a complex and informative excursion of UNIX from its history and introduction in chapter one, to chapter 27 entitled "Who do you Trust?" The book does an excellent job in stating the pro's and con's of providing a secure and safe computer environment. The Authors Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford,in this book have divided security planning into six discrete steps: 1. Security needs planning 2. Risk assessment 3. Cost-benefit analysis 4. Creating policies to reflect your needs 5 Implementation 6. Audit and incident response. This book stresses the value of total security planning from the simple password protection to physical security. The standard UNIX operating system has the capability of more than 43,000,000,000,000 passwords. The authors recommend a password containing both upper and lower case, digits, and characters, and easy to remember. The following are examples from their book of just such passwords: "robot4my or eye-con or auPEGG-translated ALL UNIX programmers eat green cheese." The main idea is that whatever the password is that you chose it should be easy for you to remember, yet not easy enough for a person to crack. Not recommend by the authors is the use of "Smoking Joe's" or password and user names that are the same as they are easy to crack and if the computer displays a user list also easy to find. The book deals extensively with the indisputable realm of security threats that exists in present technological societies. These dangers vary from: security tool kits (software) on a system, that is intended to keep out unauthorized persons, being used to access the system, back or trap doors left by programmers who use this method to update software, logic bombs set to go off on certain dates, viruses, or Bacteria or Rabbit programs that multiply and congest a system. There is also the physical side of computer security, in that you can secure the software with firewall, and password protection to the utmost. However, you must also acknowledge and plan for mysterious disappearances or acts of God. Information, comparable to gold and silver, needs a protected environment if it is to endure: fire, theft, vandalism, smoke, dust, power surges, electrical noise, lighting, humidity, water, food and drink, explosions, and in some areas of the world, earthquakes, and last but not least, real biological bugs. If you are a system administrator or UNIX programmer or involved in providing a more secure computer environment, then "Practical UNIX & Internet Security" is one book you should not be without. The book covers numerous and various subjects such as: file Encryption and decryption, TCP/IP, UUCP, NFS, wrapper and proxy programs, World Wide Web security in detail. If this book was in the Olympics, it would be sure to win a gold metal. Simson Grafinkel and Gene Spafford and their publisher O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. have done a outstanding job, thusly making the computer community more aware of all the aspects required in designing and maintaining a safe and secure system. Practical UNIX & Internet Security (2nd Edition) by Simson Grafinkel and Gene Spafford O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103a Morris Street Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA Inquiries:707-829-0515, 800-998-9938 Fax: 707-829-0104 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Holidays '96!| -------------- NEW YORK, Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ - Love, hope, charity, joy, peace on earth...they happen everyday in vivid color on one of the Internet's most popular websites - Christmas96.com (also URL address ). With its debut on the World Wide Web on November 1, 1996, the "Home to Christmas on the Internet," is the number one online resource for the holidays on the World Wide Web. Epicenter Communications has partnered with S&A Associates, primary sponsors, AT&T WorldNet(SM) Services and Chase, and content sponsors, "Women's Day" Magazine, StarChefs and Culturefinder to create Christmas96.com, an informative and entertaining virtual place designed to fulfill all your holiday needs. - Learn how 35 different cultures celebrate Christmas on a virtual trip around the world through beautiful photos shot by the world's most famous photojournalists. -- Create personal digital greeting cards using Christmas96 images and send via email. -- Pull up information on other celebrations including Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and read about holiday happenings in a special "Christmas in New York" section sponsored by Chase Bank. -- Shop online for special gifts through amazon.com, Flowerlink, Spiegel and econnection.com. -- Download special holiday recipes from the experts at Women's Day and StarChefs, a website devoted to cuisine from famous chefs and cookbook authors. - Donate to several charities or answer a needy child's Christmas wishes. - Find out information on holiday entertainment including a guide to local events (i.e. Christmas light shows, Santa appe eht, phiy, travel, gift and events. The Internet makes this multimedia, multi-source, multi-use site possible - - all at the speed of electricity. --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- NEW YORK, Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ - Holiday time at HomeArts! - . The Internet's .1 lifestyle site for women, offering information on Life, Love and a Great Home, helps people get ready for the entire holiday season from cooking, to decorating, to relationships and shopping tips. - The Cook's Corner program on the Eats Channel of the HomeArts Network, , will provide users with turkey tips for Thanksgiving, party food ideas for Christmas and Chanukah, and champagne suggestions for New Year's. Look for turkey tips the week of November 22nd - Just before its time to shop. Can the Christmas cookies be far behind? - How long are the in-laws staying? Whose house do you visit first? Holidays can be highly stressful times for couples and families where love and patience can be put to the test. Starting in December, the LoveBytes program on the Kiss.net Channel of , will offer helpful ways to sail smoothly through the holiday season and into the New Year by sharing stories from HomeArts editors, affiliates and Hearst magazines. - HELP ... My plants are dying!!! Many people find that along with their dwindling moods, their plants seem to develop the "blues" during the cold, dark months of the holidays, too. Now the HomeArts Network can help. The Phyllo Facts program on the Bloom! Channel of , provides information on plants best suited to the current season. November's focus is Winterberry, while December's will be the Poinsettia. Many other plant facts and tid- bits, as well as garden tours, are always available on the HomeArt's Bloom! Channel. - Of course everyone's talking about using the Internet to skip the crowds and bad weather this shopping season. So, where do you start? Find great holiday items, catalogs and gift ideas at the HomeArts Holiday Shop on . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW WITH ????? | Weekly Interviews with the Movers and Shakers! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- No interview this week! We'll see you next week! --END OF ISSUE-- .