   ______                            _   __      __
  / ____/___  ____ ___  ____  __  __/ | / /___  / /____  _____
 / /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ / / /  |/ / __ \/ __/ _ \/ ___/
/ /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /|  / /_/ / /_/  __(__  ) 
\____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\__,_/_/ |_/\____/\__/\___/____/  
                    /_/                                       
                         This Week's Contents:

My Notes:
1) Masthead Changes . . .
2) Reviewers who are Getting a Free Ride . . .

Columnists' Corner:
1) Welcome to the New Monthly Column!
   Our first columnist is Jefferson Bushman who brings us ROYAL FLUSH!

News:
1) Checkfree is Here to Stay!
2) Uh, oh ... CompuServe Sued for Violating the Decency Act! Are we
   still living in America?

Reviews:
1) Perl 5 Desktop Reference Reviewed by Dr. Mark (mrln19@woodtech.com)
2) Government Online - Book Reviewed by Stephen Jackson
   (jacksosm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu)
3) AskSam Professional 3.0 Reviewed by Dennis MacPherson (pctc@infi.net)
4) Shannara Reviewed By: Nathan Kay (nathan13@aol.com)

Web Sites:
1) Protect yourself from Fraud
   (http://www.fraud.org)
2) Search All the Sites at Once!
   (http://www.postnet.se/internet/SuperSearch.htm)

FTP File:
1) The Gradebook for DOS!

Interview:
1) Marc Perkel of Computer Tyme

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date  : April 21, 1996    |CompuNotes is a weekly publication available
Issue : 43                |through email and many fine on-line networks.
--------------------------|We cover the IBM computing world with
CompuNotes is published   |software/hardware reviews, news, hot web
4Point, Inc.,             |sites, cool FTP files and interviews. We also
135 W. Adams, Suite G9    |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 honest,
(pgrote@inlink.com)                       |concise reviews for us. Send
Doug Reed, Asst. Editor / Writer Liason   |a message to Doug Reed at
(dreed@panda.uchc.edu)                    |dreed@panda.uchc.edu with
Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master     |your list of qualifications.
(jlitt@aol.com)                           |If Doug thinks we can count
------------------------------------------|on you to make things happen
I am looking for a collection of shareware|you'll receive free software
reviews I put out in the 87-88 timeframe  |of your choice for review.
under my handle of NEVER BEFORE. I think  |We like new writers!
they started as NB*.ZIP. Can you look     |-----------------------------
on your local BBS? THANKS!                |    Go St. Louis Blues!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Every issue of CompuNotes ever published can be found at the following
      ftp site: 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 notes@inlink.com with the command
subscribe compunotes in the subject.
To unsubscribe, send a message to notes@inlink.com with the command
unsubscribe compunotes in the subject.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  You Can Write for Us! See Masthead!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           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!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MASTHEAD CHANGED!|
------------------
    We're a publication that is constantly evolving. To this end we have
pretty much finished with the editor concept. I am disappointed that it
didn't go further than it did, but oh well . . .
    I am happy to announce that Doug Reed is the new Assistant Editor
and Writer Liason. Doug is going to handle the assignment of reviews to
writers, the follow-up and the other items that go along with writers.
Bottom line: Reviewers, he is the guy to kiss up to! Doug has been with
us from almost day one. He is tireless in his promotion of CompuNotes
and is an asset as well as a friend. One day I'll tell the story of how
we met . . .
    Talk about the virtual office -- Doug is in Connecticut and I am in
Missouri. We'll see ho well we do :-)
    Another constant is Judy Litt's performance! She has tirelessly
worked to make our web page top notch! If you haven't partaken of her
work drop by at http://users.aol.com/CompNote and admire! She does this
stuff for a living folks and it shows! She also reviews a nice amount of
software for CompuNotes as the Graphics Editor. (Yes, Judy, Corel has
been contacted <grin>) Oh and she is in Texas!
    This is one of the more enjoyable aspects of publishing an
electronic publication as "successful" as CompuNotes. I can work with a
variety of folks weekly from around the country. Don't know what they
look like, what education degree or job title they hold nor do I know
what type of house they live in. I do know they are reliable friends who
enjoy making something happen!
    Oh, be sure to catch our new feature -- COLUMN -- exciting, eh?
We'll have a different columnist monthly bring their views right to you!

------------------
BLECH, BAD TASTE!|
------------------
    OK, I have agonized over what to do about people who take software
from us and don't review it. It hurts our credibility with the software
publishers and it is a financial burden on myself, for I pay to ship the
software out to the reviewers.
    I have tried countless times to contact the following people and
request they send their reviews in. If they can't review the product
they should send it back. I haven't heard from these folks.
    Hopefully by posting their email addresses publicly we can
generate some "support" of them to get the reviews completed or send the
product back!
    The effect this has on us is our inability t trust new writers,
which ultimately affects how we bring you the reviews!
   Next week I will publish a list of names of folks who have outstanding
reviews and haven't bothered getting back to us. If you are reading this
and have a review pending, send us a note letting us know what is going
on . . .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Columnists' Corner - We bring you a different person each week!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=>THE ROYAL FLUSH
by Jefferson Bushman
"I Don't Do Windows"

At Patrick's invitation, this column will be the first in what is hoped
to be a long series.  The column is devoted to users -- like its writer
-- who are still operating "antiques," that is, non-graphical interfaces
(anyone remember DOS?) either because their computers can't use
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) such as Windows, or because they choose
to stick with older operating systems for some other reason.

The reality is that almost everything being published about and for
computers, whether in print or as software, deals only with Windows
programs.

But there are thousands, nay, millions of users who use and would be
willing to buy software that is DOS-based.

And we're not all "icon"oclasts.

Let's first explain to to those who are using 486s and Pentium-based
systems (and who are just waiting for the latest and greatest from
Intel), why we don't use Windows.

OK, some of us are a trifle parsimonious (don't bother to look it up --
it means CHEAP), but that's not the nub of it.

It's also not because we don't admire Bill Gates.  Personally, I think
highly of that goofy-looking guy with his owlish spectacles and his
predatory marketing practices.

I actually envy his ability to bamboozle the Justice Department's
anti-trust experts and his knack for getting hand-slapping settlements
out of them. I do.  Really.

Those are side issues, anyway.

The real reason (I hope you're sitting down, but I guess it's
unnecessary to say that; how many readers of this publication are
standing?) is that we don't need it.

OK, I hear the clucking tongues (wasn't that a rock group?) and see the
shaking heads, dismissing the GUI-shunners as windmill-tilting Luddites,
but those who would disparage us miss the point.

Back in the Neolithic Age, when I was selling computers for a living
(the '386s were just coming out), we used to have a joke about the guy
who'd come into the store, saying he needed a computer.

He'd say he wanted a '386 with the top clock speed available, with the
most RAM we could fit into the box.  He also wanted a laser printer that
would print 12 pages per minute and could adopt to color when it became
available.

He wanted every feature that we could load onto the system, the most
memory and the best monitor.

We'd ask what he intended to use it for (which shows that even
professional writers sometimes end a sentence with a preposition).

"Some word processing and an occasional spreadsheet," he'd respond.

As salespeople, of course, we would've been happy to sell him what he
requested, but the truth is, he didn't need all of that.

And neither do we, for the most part.

Those who don't use Windows (or need I say it, OS/2, Unix, etc.) have no
real need for it.

I'm a good example (though my ex-wife always said I was a bad example of
nearly everything, save one rather offensive body part).  Even today, I
use my computer for only a few things, although I use it a great deal.

I sometimes use it to earn a few shekels as a writer.  I do some
low-level (but excellent, of course) desktop publishing.  Once a
millennium, I decide to straighten out my finances, or create a way of
doing metric conversions by using a spreadsheet program.

Some of my income is derived by doing marketing letters which involve
utilization of mailing lists compiled in a database manager.

I'm also an internaut (internut?).

But for all of that, I use a (get ready to gasp) '286 with a monochrome
monitor and a 14.4 modem.

Tell me.  Why do I need Windows?

Virtually everyone I know who does use Bill's latest formulation,
Windows 95 (obviously it's already outdated) or one of his earlier
versions, has problems with it.

Although it's supposed to be intuitive, and while I'm sure everyone
reading this who uses Windows has it all figured out, lots of people sit
in front of their monitors, with keyboards on laps, mice close at hand,
scratching their heads.

My DOS 6.0 may have a bug, but I haven't found it yet.

Granted, I don't program -- other than the creation of some nifty batch
files -- so I may not be at the level of those who would encounter flaws
in the operating system.

But neither are lots of other people.

I know we're deprived individuals.  We're deprived of some really neat
graphics on the 'net that take forever to download, for example.

We're deprived of having to make payments on our computers which were
purchased for an amount equivalent to the GDP of Rwanda.

We lose out on the opportunity to read and listen to every pronouncement
of Guru Gates on the future of computing, so we'll know what operating
system update we'll have to buy next.

And, we're deprived of the experience of having to buy 8, 12, 14, or 20
megabytes of RAM for a gazillion dollars.  My machine uses 1.  Yes, 1MB
of RAM.  Very nicely, thank you.

I can imagine that someday, for some reason now unexpected, I may have
to bite the bullet and "upgrade" (a term of art, at best) to Windows 99
or 01 to do something on my computer that I need to do.

But not today.  Today, I don't clean bathrooms, and I don't worship
icons.  I most assuredly don't do Windows. -30-
   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All
News (C)opyright  Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHECKFREE MAKES A DENT!|
------------------------
ATLANTA, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR)
today announced a 97 percent increase in revenues for the quarter to
$21.7 million compared to $11.0 million for the same period a year
earlier.  Contributing to the increase in revenues were:

-- $7.6 million in revenues primarily from Servantis Systems, Inc.
CheckFree acquired Servantis in a purchase transaction on February 21,
1996 resulting in the inclusion in CheckFree's quarterly results of
Servantis' revenues and expenses after the acquisition date.

-- A 30 percent increase in processing revenue over the same period last
year.

-- A 38 percent increase in the number of active consumer users of bill
payment or home banking products and services to 512,000 from 370,000
for the same period last year.

-- Growth in the number of live or in-process electronic banking and
processing agreements to 131 from 30 for the same period a year earlier.

CheckFree, which went public in September of 1995, also reported an
expected first quarter net loss of $97.5 million or $2.81 per share,
compared with a loss for the first quarter 1995 of $153,000 or one cent
per share.  The expected loss is largely attributable to $94 million in
in-process research and development write-offs primarily associated with
the acquisition of Servantis Systems, Inc.

"The increase in revenues indicates that customers want total electronic
commerce solutions," said Peter J. Kight, CEO of CheckFree. "Acquiring
Servantis -- and our agreement to purchase Security APL -- enables us to
provide those total solutions and we expect to see increased revenues as
a result."

CheckFree delivers privately branded electronic commerce solutions for
financial institutions, businesses and their customers.  The company's
solution suites offer device independent access to information and
transaction processing, choice from among several industry-leading
applications and control of brand and customer base.

"It is clear to us that electronic commerce will grow significantly as
financial institutions commit to it as a value added delivery channel,"
Kight said.  "And we intend to grow as these financial institutions do
-- by providing them with the solutions that enable them to offer
branded electronic commerce products and services to their customers."

--------------------------------------
THANKS FOR TELLING US WHAT IS DECENT!|
--------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Family Association has
written CompuServe today to ask that it remove all pornography from its
system.  In a letter to CompuServe's CEO Robert Massey, AFA Director of
Governmental Affairs Patrick Trueman said "(s)o far as we know
CompuServe is the only major on-line service provider to provide
pornography on its system, making CompuServe the least family-friendly
of the available service providers." 

American Family Association, on April 1, filed a formal complaint with
Attorney General Janet Reno alleging that the provision of pornography
by CompuServe on its service violates the federal communications Decency
Act signed into law earlier this year.  Trueman reminded Massey that the
CDA is in effect today. 

"Pornography harms families and in particular it harms children,"
Trueman wrote.  "Pornography primarily is a sexual exploitation of
women, and it is sad to see an otherwise respectable American
corporation engaged in this practice and profiting from it." 

Trueman is the former section chief of the U.S. Justice Department's
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section which is responsible for
prosecution of federal pornography crimes. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book Review: Perl 5 Desktop Reference
Reviewed by: Dr. Mark (mrln19@woodtech.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Perl 5 Desktop Reference written by Johan Vromans and published by
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., is the perfect companion to the books
Learning Perl and Programming Perl.

This handbook contains all the programming conventions broken down into
subject matter headers with alphabetic order of information.

This handbook is 39 pages long and is the perfect desktop reference for
those programmers who like to have their "peripheral brain" resources
nearby freeing up ones mind to concentrate on coding.

Johan Vromans has been involved with software engineering since 1975 and
is an expert in using GNU Emacs and the Perl programming language.

O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. has demonstrated through this cooperative
effort there resolve to providing the programming world with their
definitive books on the Internet, Unix, and GNN (Global Network
Navigator).

O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
103 Morris Street
Sebastopol, Ca. 95472
Voice: (707) 829 - 0515
http://www.ora.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Government Online - Book
Reviewed By: Stephen Jackson (jacksosm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK REVIEW: GOVERNMENT ONLINE

One of the most unfortunate manifestations of "newspeak" today is the
expression "information superhighway."  It is unfortunate because it is
both vague and misleading.  The words "information superhighway," as Max
Lent, author of GOVERNMENT ONLINE, makes clear, are meant to refer to a
national communications infrastructure which will enable everyone on the
planet, or at least everyone on the planet who is appropriately "wired,"
to search the world's libraries f or answers to our most burning
questions.  The end result of this process is that we will soon evolve,
if we haven't already, as Marshal McLuhan once predicted, into a kind of
global village where everyone's business becomes electronically
connected with everyone else.

Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter for sociologists to
ponder. But if anyone believes we are just around the corner from having
immediate and easy access to the wisdom of the ages, then GOVERNMENT
ONLINE should set you straight. Experienced internet surfers have known
for some time that what is needed today is not more information, but
more and better tools to enable you to locate the information you are
seeking. Without an experienced guide to help you in your search, you
may soon find yourself getting lost in a labyrinth of bureaus,
departments, agencies and archives, both federal and state, whose doors
are often locked behind acronyms and signs known only to insiders.  Max
Lent's GOVERNMENT ONLINE can get you inside those doors.

GOVERNMENT ONLINE is a directory of electronic federal, state, and local
government resources available online to anyone with a computer and a
modem.  Thousands of databases, containing everything from the latest
studies on air borne carcinogens, to Congressional hearings on the
licensing of nuclear power plants, information that heretofore was
beyond the reach of the average citizen, are now available online-- IF
you know where to look.

One of the nice features of Max Lent's book is the clarity of its
information.  It was not designed merely for information retrieval
experts, but for anyone interested in going online.  He succinctly
explains how to get online and what you can expect to find when you get
there.  A detailed table of contents provides you with a clear and
sensible view of the book's overall structure. Early chapters include
getting started with the basics, a description of the internet, and an
overview of commercial online service providers.

The best part of this book, as you might expect from its title, is
devoted to listing numerous online resources of government agencies.  As
the author freely admits, any gathering together of online resources, no
matter how well intended and comprehensive, is bound to be incomplete.
The internet today is simply too vast for any individual to index.  It
is, in fact, a rapidly expanding universe whose constellations have
scarcely been identified, much less catalogued.

At the time this book was written, just one short year ago, the  world
wide web had not yet assumed the dominant presence on the internet it
has since achieved through the wide distribution of web browsers like
Mosaic and Netscape.  Some of the author's remarks about the instability
and unreliability of the web may seem dated and suggest a lingering bias
against the use (or abuse) of web pages. But with today's broad
acceptance of the new 28.8K standard for modems and improved performance
from upgraded versions of Netscape, there is no longer any reason to
abstain from the web. However, Lent's caution that a significant volume
of government resources is still accessible only through electronic
BBS's and gopher sites remains true.  And given the idiosyncratic nature
of electronic bulletin boards, it is certainly helpful to follow in the
footsteps of someone who has already tread these difficult paths,
mastering the logon procedures and search strategies for BBS's which are
usually privately funded and maintained ned as a public s service.

At $15 a shot, GOVERNMENT ONLINE is worth every penny in the time and
aggravation you will save when going online. If you are in the market
for a good reference tool that unlocks the mystery of government online
resources, look no further.

HarperPerennial
Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 207-7000

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: AskSam Professional 3.0
Reviewed By: Dennis MacPherson (pctc@infi.net)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AskSam Professional 3.0 is an information manager and freeform database.
It comes on two 3-1/2 inch floppy disks with two manuals: a User's Guide
and a Getting Started guide. I had to use these manuals several times in
order to learn how to use askSam. The manuals also helped me understand
the overall concept of the program and how best to use its unique
features.

The overall concept of askSam is this: feed it data and it will organize
that data for easy retrieval later. The data can be structured, like
names, addresses, and telephone numbers; or unstructured, like text in
faxes and memos. Regardless of what form the data is in, askSam will
find any field, word, or phrase in seconds. You can also use askSam to
create hypertext documents, similar to Windows' help screens, as well as
HTML documents used on the World Wide Web. Other features include
traditional mail merge ge, report writing, extensive importing and
exporting of various file formats, plus graphics and OLE.

As an instructor, designer, and experienced user of conventional
database programs like dBASE, Paradox, and Access, my objective during
this review was to see if askSam had anything new or better to offer
than the more traditional relational database programs. What unique
features did it possess, and could it be used more effectively in lieu
of the full-blown database management systems I was used to working
with?

The opening screen does not resemble the typical database program; it
looks more like a basic word processor like Word or WordPerfect. From top
to bottom: there's a menu bar, tool bar, formatting tool bar (bold,
italic, underline, justification, etc.), command line (for entering
search strings), ruler, workspace, and status bar. Unfortunately, askSam
does not have the handy little tool tips for its buttons, like Word or
Excel. When you point at a button, however, a brief explanation of the
button appears in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, which is
just as helpful. Data entry screens, reports, and individual records are
created and displayed as though you were using a word processor.

In a few minutes time, and with the help of the User's Guide, I was able
to create a very simple database for storing information about my wife's
collection of Precious Moments figurines. I found the interface awkward,
however.

For example, in askSam, a record is called a document. After creating a
data entry form (which was as simple as typing field names on the
screen), you add records by clicking on a button whose function is to
"Add a document with an Entry Form." You can add as many documents
(records) as you want and a set of arrow keys on the tool bar make it
easy to move from document to document. What you can't do very easily,
however, is view the database as a conventional table. For that you need
to create a report with the Report Writer.

The Report Writer is not unlike most database report writers: you place
field names on the screen (with graphics, if desired) to form a layout
for the data. Since it works like a word processor, it's easy to add
color and lines and special formatting to dress up the report. A button
on the tool bar lets you run the report anytime you want.

The search capability of askSam is excellent. It supports wildcard
searches, fuzzy searches, and proximity searches. Here is where the
concept of askSam begins to depart from that of the traditional
database. In askSam you can easily create a database of text documents,
like memos, faxes, or email. Each memo or fax is stored as a searchable
document which makes it incredibly easy to find any word or phrase as
well as the surrounding context (proximity). I demonstrated this for
myself by importing several Eu dora mailboxes into an askSam file. With
that done, I was then able to quickly find all messages sent to
CompuNotes, for example, with the keyword `review.'

Eudora's .MBX format is included in askSam as one of fifteen file types
for importing. Other unique and useful file types include .HTM (HTML),
.WPD (WordPerfect 6.x), .DOC (Word 6.x), and CompuServe formats such as
.ART, .MSG, .NWS, and .THD. The importing ability of askSam makes it
very convenient for organizing the hundreds of text files we tend to
accumulate on a daily basis.

I next played with askSam's hypertext capabilities. Linking documents or
files is a two-step process: first you set bookmarks in the documents
you want to link to, then you define hypertext links to each bookmark. I
believe this is askSam's forte. I was able to create a small menu rather
easily that allowed me to jump to a quick report of my data or to the
names and address database or to the Eudora file as easily as moving
around the Web.

The professional version, reviewed here, also comes with two pre-built
sample databases ready for immediate use: askSam Internet and askSam
Office.

Like a mini PIM, the askSam Office is a set of six predefined
applications. The Office includes an Address file, Notes file, Todo
file, as well as Memo, Fax, and Letter files. It is an excellent example
of what you can do with askSam and it works very well.

For the cyberjunkies, askSam Internet contains six applications for
managing the Internet. There's an email database for storing Eudora .mbx
files and other email messages; an HTML archive, a directory of Internet
sites, a Newsgroup database, a file for creating pre-defined Web pages,
and an Internet FAQ file. Both of these samples highlight the
capabilities and features of askSam quite well. Learning how to create
your own applications, however, is quite the challenge.

AskSam Professional 3.0
Seaside Software, Inc.
D.B.A. askSam Systems
Perry, Florida
http://www.asksam.com
CompuServe Forum, type GO ASKSAM
info@asksam.com
904-584-6590 (9:00 - 6:00 EST)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Shannara by Legend Entertainment
Reviewed By: Nathan Kay (nathan13@aol.com)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shannara, by Legend Entertainment is a role playing game based on the
Terry Brooks book, 'The Sword of Shannara'. In Shannara, you are the son
of Shea Ohmsford, the hero of the book. The ancient evil your father
thought he'd destroyed forever has returned, and the legendary Druid
mystic Allanon has come to warn you, and command you to take up the
fabulous sword of Shannara to defeat the evil yet again.

As is normal for me when reviewing a new product, the first thing I
noticed about Shannara, by Legend Entertainment was the install program.
In the case of Shannara, this was one of the most simple installations
I've ever done for a CDROM game. Under Microsoft's Windows '95, Shannara
will automatically start it's graphical installation program when I put
the CDROM in my drive. On my other DOS based operating system, the
install instructions provided were very clear and easy to follow. The
game can be installed two ways, depending on how much space is
available. If there was 107 megabytes free (at least), I could choose to
copy all the files needed to my hard drive, resulting in much faster
access times, or choose to install only the critical game files, leaving
the sound and graphics files on the CDROM drive.

The graphics and sound are wonderfully done in Shannara, adding to the
smooth feel of the game. Characters talk in their own voices, the
background music sets the mood, and the graphics have been almost
perfectly synchronized to match the sounds. In all, it's very
impressive, but it also means that a faster CDROM drive is important.
Also, with characters talking in their own voices, I found that I could
always read the text on the screen much faster than I could listen to
them talk. Thankfully for those of us impatient people, speech can be
turned off easily.

Another good point of Shannara is the beautifully drawn 256 color user
interface. Any game can have a pretty interface, but a game which has
both a good looking screen and a very simple to use interface is rare.
In Shannara, I found I could click on just about anything on the screen
and be given a list of things I could try to do to the object. For
example, if I clicked on a small rock, then clicked on my sledgehammer,
I would be given a list of things I could use the sledgehammer to do to
the rock (such as, smash the rock into powder).

The dialogue adds a lot to the game, with it's sparkling humor and witty
charm. The random humor and understated comedy helped me to stick with
the game, even when I was having problems figuring out what to do next.

I found the combat system to be powerful, allowing me to give orders to
the characters in my party with ease. Fighting isn't the major point of
the game, but it does happen, and is dealt with rather nicely. I was
presented with a screen showing my enemies and my party, and their
health. From there, I could choose which monsters to attack.

A nice little touch that I enjoyed a lot was that Terry Brooks' book,
'The Sword of Shannara' is included in the package I received, so that
if you want to go back, and read about the adventures of Shea Ohmsford,
which the whole game was a squeal to, the book is already right in your
hands.

The system requirements are a 486/33 or better, at least four megabytes
of RAM, a CDROM drive, a Microsoft compatible mouse, and a VGA graphics
card. A sound card is needed for the speech and music functions.
Shannara will run under the DOS operating system, as well as OS/2 and
Windows  95. Practically, I found that while a 486/33 was good enough,
but with my double-speed CDROM drive, I spent most of the time waiting
while animations and sounds were loaded from the CDROM. If at all
possible, a quad-speed CDROM drive will make game play much more
enjoyable. Of course, having enough hard drive space free to install the
full 107 megabytes will solve any CDROM speed issues.

Legend Entertainment
PO Box 10810
14200 Park Meadow Drive
Chantilly, VA 22021
Voice: (800) 658-8891

------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM FRAUD!|
--------------------------------
The National Fraud Information Center takes reports from consumers about
fraud and fraudulent businesses. These complaint reports are referred to
the appropriate regulatory and law enforcement agencies around the
country, and now around the globe. The NFIC also provides free
information on how consumers can protect themselves from fraud and we
offer free advice on suspicious offers and consumer fraud.

The NFIC has recently begun the NFIC Internet Program to deal with fraud
on the Internet. As a part of NFIC Internet, we have established a
National Fraud Information Center WebSite at http://www.fraud.org. Our
WebSite has extensive links to State, Federal and International Law
Enforcement sites, and these links are growing daily.

If you have any questions, would like further information or would like
to file a report, please check out our WebSite at http://www.fraud.org,
write us at nfic@internetmci.com or call us at 1- 800-876-7060. We are
always more than happy to provide consumers with information and to take
down complaints. We are also always happy to receive suggestions as to
how our new Internet services can be of more assistance to the Net
community. Give us a call.

----------------------------
SEARCH ALL ENGINES AT ONCE!|
----------------------------
InterNet Stockholm proudly presents the newest ultimate search machine,
in *one search* you will get the results from the major search machines
on the net (WWW and Usenet) in ONE click only:

This Java-application takes them all: Lycos, InfoSeek, WebCrawler,
Yahoo, AltaVista, DejaNews, Excite, OpenText, Inktomi.

Check it out and mail me your opinion to: janzon@abc.se Please spread
the word to your friends as well!

The URL is: http://www.postnet.se/internet/SuperSearch.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------------
COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TGB PC GradeBook v1.20 <ASP> Designed by a teacher for teachers...Truly
easy to use. On line help, mouse, pull down menus. Designed to have you
up and running in a little as 15 minutes. Easy to use report generator.
Weighted grades, total points, and letter grades. Each class can use a
different grading scale.

       You can find this as TGB120.ZIP in the following FTP site:
           ftp.asp-shareware.org/pub/asp/education/tgb120.zip

------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH ????? | Weekly Interviews with the Movers and Shakers!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This week we interview Marc Perkel <marc@ctyme.com> from Computer
Tyme in Springfield, MO. If you are a NetWare administrator you are
probably using a utility developed by Marc. Check your little .EXEs and
.COMs . . .
    Mark spends his time coding and working on the Nerd Movement . . .

PG: Computer Tyme is known to any NetWare network administrator. For
    those asleep at the wheel, what does your company do and what are
    some of the more popular programs?
MP: Computer Tyme develops software utilities for managers of large
    networks. Our customer is the person in the back room that keeps the
    networks running. We developed MarxMenu and the Network Survival
    Kit. I've also licensed my INI file manager to McAfee which they
    bundle with Net Tools under the name IniTool.

PG: What do you think of Novell's current direction in the NOS market?
MP: I think that Novell is probably 4 years ahead of Microsoft in
    network operating systems. NT doesn't have near the power to handle
    the loads of large networks in the real world. However, I see Novell
    as a company who is standing still. They seem to have lost the
    "Vision Thing".

PG: What do you think technically of Windows NT?
MP: I don't have a lot of technical knowledge of NT except the the user
    interface of 3.51 is a big step backwards from Windows 95. I'm
    waiting for NT 4.0 before I get excited about NT.

PG: Will you be moving your products to a GUI any time soon?
MP: My products won't move to a GUI interface. There are some things
    that are done only as script languages in batch processes and that's
    my market. However, I have Delphi and I have some ideas I'm
    exploring.

PG: What do you do for fun when your away from Computer Tyme?
MP: I write an electronic publication called "Thinking Magazine" that's
    available on my web server. I'm very politically active. I'm a
    member of both the Democratic and Republican parties. I'm the
    Supreme Commander of the Nerd Liberation Movement. We're "Coming out
    of the Back Room". And I do a little farming on the side.

PG: What is the next hot item in the networking field?
MP: The Web is the hottest thing on the planet right now. Integrating
    your network into the web is very hot.

PG: What do you like best about Springfield, MO?
MP: Springfield is a small quiet midwest town who's main exports are
    cattle, pot, and religion. A generally mello place to live. When
    Nixon talked about the "Silent Majority" he was thinking about
    Springfield. It's the biggest "small town" in America.

PG: What do you like least about Springfield, MO?
MP: It's to mellow. It's a midwest monoculture. We have both kinds of
    music, Country and Western. We're down a dirt road on the
    "Information Highway". I can fly directly only to Denver, Kansas
    City, St. Louis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Nashville and
    Dallas.

PG: What is the configuration of your personal workstation?
MP: I'm running a Pentium 120 with a 1 gig drive and 24 megs ram using
    Windows 95. I'm connected to a Novell 4.1 server with 4 gigs hard
    disk space. I have 3 BBS/Fax Servers, email transport, and a Linux
    web server on the backbone. I'm connected to the internet with an
    ISDN 128k link.

PG: What is the coolest piece of software you have encountered in the
    last month?
MP: Netscape Gold 2.01.

 
                                --END OF ISSUE--

