COMPUNOTES - Issue #61 - December 29, 1996

                         This Week's Contents:

My Notes:
1) What a Holiday Season!
2) Next Week . . .
3) No News . . .
4) The Winner this Week!

Columnists' Corner:
1) Bushman is Back!

Reviews:
1) Product: Concurrent Programming in Java by Doug Lea
   Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
2) Product: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (Beta Edition) by David
   Flanagan
   Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
3) Product: JASC Mediacenter
   Reviewed By: Judy Litt <jlitt@qualitty.com>
4) Product: Normality 
   Reviewed by: Michael Gallo <gallomike@aol.com>
5) Product: Mighty Math Number Heroes
   Reviewed by: Danny Williams <danny@packet.net>

Web Sites:
1) Free Faxing on the Net with Magic Fax <http://www.magicfax.com>
2) What for Dinner? <http://www.meals.com>

Interview:
1) None this week!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date : December 29, 1996|CompuNotes is a weekly publication available
Issue: 61               |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
<pgrote@inlink.com>                       |honest, constructive
Doug Reed, Asst. Editor / Writer Liaison  |feedback! We need to hear
<dr2web@sprynet.com>                      |from you! Please take the
Judy Litt, Graphics Editor/Web Master     |time to send us your
<jlitt@aol.com>                           |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 Indianapolis Colts!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ho Ho Ho!|
----------
Whew, did the holidays seem to fly by this year? I've been pretty sick 
lately. So sick I missed a rare opportunity to meet with our Associate 
Editor, Doug Reed. Doug is from CT and I live in MO. He came in to 
visit his sister-in-law. I was so sick I couldn't get to meet with 
him. Ugh!

Anyway, the holidays saw me get the best Christmas gift ever -- a dual 
TV/VCR combo. 20 inches! Barely fits in the office! This gift came 
from my wonderful wife Melissa the bargain hunter!

As we are closing the year out I would like to thank two people who 
have made CompuNotes available all year long: Judy Litt and Doug Reed!

Judy's a brilliant graphic artist who keeps our web site up and 
running! Her efforts go without notice by me from issue to issue but 
her impact is felt weekly! If you need anything in the way of 
graphics, please see Judy! mailto: jlitt@qualitty.com.

Where do I begin to thank Doug Reed for everything he has done? Doug's 
been with us from the beginning. I originally met Doug through one of 
my better friends. Doug is his brother-in-law. As CyberNews became 
CompuNotes Doug began to expand his role. One day he asked if he could 
help in any way. As I was really devoting too much time to work, I 
asked if he would mind handling writer relations. Understanding 
handling the writers is tough! You have to make sure there are enough 
products to review, follow-up and make sure the reviews are completed 
and stroke the occasional ego! Past this Doug's grabbed the reigns of 
compiling a database of all the reviews we have ever done!

How can I put into perspective the effort Doug has given to CompuNotes 
. . . if it weren't for Doug CompuNotes wouldn't be here.

Thanks Judy and Doug for all your hard work!

----------------
Next Week . . .|
----------------
We've picked a winner in the header contest! We'll start using it and 
sending out the issues 24K and less next week! Count on 2-3 CompuNotes 
a week, but smaller. 

--------------
No News . . .|
--------------
We've decided to drop the news section of CompuNotes. We want to make 
more room for our upcoming web site review section.

------------------
WINNER IS . . .  |
------------------
The software package being given away this week is The ASP Shareware 
Collection! Our winner is:

keith.sterling@DIAL.PIPEX.COM

Send them a congratulatory email!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Columnists' Corner - We bring you a different person each week!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Royal Flush
by Jefferson Bushman
The Future of Cyberbia


I have been wondering about the future of computers -- both as stand-
alone devices and as communication tools -- and share some of my 
musings (and solicit yours, of course). 

Before looking at the future, however, something of my personal past 
with regard to computing, since it may also reflect yours. 

I'm not old, but I'm old enough that I didn't grow up with them. My 
first computer wasn't a Commodore 64 or Vic-20. I never owned a Radio 
Shack TRS-80. My first computer was an office system, a Sanyo MBC-
1000. 

My Sanyo preceded, I think the Commodore 64. It certainly came before 
IBM desktop systems. As should be obvious, it didn't use MS-DOS as an 
operating system, but ran on something called CP/M. 

Those letters, as it happened, didn't stand for anything (as a 
sidelight, long after IBM had come out with their office machines 
another company called NBI began producing clones; NBI stood for 
Nothing But Initials), but the powerful 64K system allowed the user to 
do word processing and spread sheets. 

Later, programs were produced that allowed some limited database work. 

If I recall correctly, the word processor was called Word Master and 
it did everything most word processors do today, other than the font 
tricks that Windows and Mac-based systems can perform. 

The program allowed for creation of a mailing list and form letters 
using mail merge. 

Although at the time I wouldn't know a database from a picture tube, 
some of the things a user of that program was able to do were database 
functions. 

The spreadsheet program of choice was SuperCalc, which was widely seen 
as an improvement over the previously-popular program, VisiCalc. 
Again, it did most of what the earlier MS-DOS versions of Lotus were 
capable of. 

All of this, of course, was with one floppy drive which used double-
sided single density 5 1/4" disks. They held up to the staggering 
amount of 180K of data. 

Later, for fun, I obtained a Commodore 64. It was enjoyable and it 
helped me learn Basic to some extent, but it was obvious that this 
wasn't the direction that computers were going to take. 

Realizing, when IBM-compatibles had become the tool of choice and that 
CP/M was a dinosaur operating system, I decided that I had to "get 
into" modern computers. I found a job selling computers and learned on 
the job. 

Despite almost a total ignorance about what I was doing, I made a sort 
of living. The education, however, was far more successful. 

On the other hand, that should scare you away from depending on the 
person who's selling computers, for accurate answers. 

I bought a used Epson XT from the store where I worked and have been 
using that machine's successors ever since. 

Like many people, I came to the Internet a couple of years ago. 

This walk down cyber-memory-lane would be of no significance were it 
not for its demonstration of how far all of us have come. 

The first computer I obtained (by the bye, I still possess all of my 
antiques) was around 1985. As mentioned, it was considered a fully-
functional office system. It had 64K of RAM. Today, although there's 
obviously no limit, it's very common for many users to have 4 
megabytes of RAM. Many have 8 or 16 meg. 

I don't know what the clock speed of my first machine was, since no 
one talked in those terms then, but my XT ran at a blazing 4.77 
megahertz. Speeds of 30 times that are no longer unusual. 

My first monitor was possessed of ugly green letters on the screen. 
Monitors have gone through several evolutionary stages -- first the 
availability of amber, then CGA, EGA, VGA and SVGA. 

The combination of hardware and software have moved us from static 
letters and numbers to the point where we can have actual television 
on our monitors. We can have motion pictures, stereo sound and can 
make music. 

Of course, this doesn't even cover the full story of the evolution of 
the internet, with which most readers of this publication are 
familiar. 

What's next? 

No one really knows the answer to this of course, but if the present 
is a guide to the future, some things seem obvious. 

Paper catalogues will become a thing of the past. It is already true 
that many people will buy some or all of their holiday gifts on the 
'net, this year. In the future, it will be difficult to justify 
getting into the car to go to a mall, wasting gasoline. 

Phone calls which will bypass long distance carriers will become a 
reality, rather than the clunky devices we have now, which -- among 
other things -- require both parties to initiate access at the same 
time. 

My own wish list includes a mechanism to make every writer a publisher 
who makes her/his writing available for a small fee over the 'net 
eliminating or limiting the need for large publishing houses and the 
needless destruction of trees. 

We will see a time when I can choose a Web-based physician or 
nutritionist whom I pay a fee on an annual basis, for the opportunity 
to communicate through our computers. 

The healer will diagnose and recommend or prescribe sending a message 
regarding my needs to a health food store or pharmacist, who will send 
the product to my home or office (which will likely be the same) by 
UPS or similar delivery service. 

My payment to the vendor will be likewise accomplished over the 'net. 

It's likewise easy to imagine similar situations with other 
professionals, i.e., attorneys, CPAs, etc. 

Similarly, we'll be able to get complete publications or those parts 
of it we want delivered to our e-mail boxes and we'll either read the 
paper on-screen or print the stories we want to save or take with us. 

Personally, I can hardly wait for the time that I can thus download 
the L.A. Times, Washington Post the Wall Street Journal and New York 
Times, minus sports sections (this will be easy with the Journal, of 
course) and most of the stock tables. 

To some extent, some of these things are available now, but some are 
not. 

As I said, I'd like to know what you think lies in our future in these 
areas. Let me know at MisterB@ThePentagon.com. I'll report on the more 
interesting insights I receive. 

As Criswell used to tell us, the future is very important since it's 
where all of us will spend the rest of our lives. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Concurrent Programming in Java by Doug Lea
Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
MSRP: $39.76
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Concurrent programming is the art of constructing multi-tasking 
program code designed to speed the execution of your software. Doug 
Lea has written a superb manual explaining the concepts of threaded 
programs and how best to implement these concepts when programming in 
Java. When Java was designed, one of the features built into it was 
the inherent ability to be multi-threaded, but unless you understand 
the commands to use and, even more importantly, when and where to use 
them, you can easily get in over your head very quickly. Just to 
clarify for you novices out there like myself - concurrent programming 
is multi-tasking within the program itself - similar to, but different 
from the multi-tasking capabilities of your computer's CPU when 
running multiple software programs at the same time. 

I'm not going to pretend that I understand everything that Lea has 
written in this book about concurrent programming - far from it - but 
I do understand considerably more than I did before I started. My lack 
of understanding does not come from an inability to grasp what Lea is 
trying to say, on the contrary his style of writing is very clear and 
understandable. I still consider myself a novice in the area of Java 
programming, and prior to reading this book the thought of even 
designing a threaded program had not even crossed my mind. The concept 
I understand - allowing different parts of the program to execute 
during lag times, one portion of the code passing a value to another 
but not waiting for the result, these are relatively simple to grasp. 
When to use them though - that's the tough part. Lea takes a guiding 
hand and helps you through it. 

Chapter 1 introduces you to the topic of concurrent programming and 
briefly discusses the variety of topics covered by the later chapters. 
Lea lists and explains the various advantages and limitations of 
concurrent programming, as well as the numerous pitfalls that can 
betray you. Chapter 2 covers the area of Safety - insuring that 
concurrently working objects interact with each other appropriately 
and do not lead to random or dangerous behavior. Safe programming 
insures that nothing will happen instead of something bad happening. 
Chapter 3 balances Safety concerns with Liveness- the idea that 
anything will happen at all. Balancing these two concerns and tuning 
your program to address both issues is the single biggest headache in 
concurrent programming. Chapter 4 covers the topic of State-dependent 
Actions, i.e., the concept that for an action to be performed depends 
on the state of the object. Lea mentions that in an ideal design, all 
methods would not have state-based preconditions and would always 
fulfill their postconditions, however, this is usually possible. 
Chapter 5 covers Concurrency Control - the synchronization of the 
various concurrent aspects of the program and the controls over 
concurrency. Options for creating and invoking threads to perform 
services is the topic of chapter 6, while chapter 7 describes flow 
architecture for multi-threading activities. Finally, chapter 8 
describes means to coordinate interactions between objects with 
concurrent programming. 

While by and large the text is clear and well written, it is by no 
means perfect. Examples of program code are provided, but they are no 
more than snippets of code. The book lacks actual full-fledged 
programs demonstrating what is explained in the text, a fairly major 
consideration for novices with little or no understanding behind when 
and where to use concurrent programming. Luckily, full versions of the 
examples in the text can be found on Sun's Java website (at 
http://java.sun.com/Series), including example applications and links 
to other sites containing related information. For Java programmers, 
this is another must-have from Addison-Wesley. 

Addison-Wesley
One Jacob Way
Reading, MA 01867
800-822-6339
http://www.aw.com/cp/javaseries

Installation/Ease of Use: Silver
User-Friendliness: Silver
Quality: Gold
User: Programmer (advanced)
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (Beta Edition) by David 
Flanagan
Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As should be evident by the name, David Flanagan's JavaScript: The 
Definitive Guide attempts to the complete resource for JavaScript 
programmers. JavaScript, for those who don't know, is the object- 
oriented scripting language built into version 2.0 and later of 
Netscape's very popular Navigator web browsers. JavaScript is not 
Java, although they do share some syntax in common. There are 
important differences, but the two languages were created for 
essentially the same purpose: to create an interactive experience on 
the World Wide Web. Flanagan has already gained fame for his book Java 
in a Nutshell, also published by O'Reilly. Java in a Nutshell was 
praised worldwide for its comprehensive coverage of Java methods and 
objects; JavaScript: The Definitive Guide attempts to do much the same 
thing for JavaScript. Not surprisingly, it succeeds. 

As you may recall, I gave a sneak peek of this book a few months ago. 
That was from viewing the on-line version (which is still available 
for purchase, and includes the hardcopy version). Now I've also read 
the print version, and believe me this book has plenty of dog-ears 
already. For JavaScript/website programmers, this book is a must- 
have. You may already have a book that taught you how to use 
JavaScript (I have Danny Goodman's excellent JavaScript Handbook), but 
this book goes far beyond simply teaching you the basics. As with Java 
in a Nutshell, a large portion of the book is a comprehensive listing 
of JavaScript's methods and objects, laid out and defined in such a 
way that you can easily find what you need. The reference portion of 
the book is simply invaluable to those who can already speak 
JavaScript. Even if you are already an expert, however, don't think 
that first half of this book doesn't have anything to teach you, 
because it does. 

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide starts very simply with an 
introduction to JavaScript, a brief history of the language and the 
purpose of the book, followed by a few quick and fun examples of 
JavaScript in action. In essence, it briefly touches on all of the 
topics covered by the book, including the fact that this covers the 
"beta" version of JavaScript. Yes, that's correct, the version of 
JavaScript included with Navigator 2.0 and included with all of the 
beta releases of Navigator 3.0 are beta version of the final 
JavaScript 1.0 due to be released with Navigator 3.0. This book covers 
the version of JavaScript that was used in Navigator 2.0 and up 
through 3.0b6. A later release of this book early next year will cover 
the full release of JavaScript. The book does talk about the 
differences anticipated in the final version, as well as including a 
chapter that lists the better known bugs currently found in 
JavaScript. A personal note - having played with the final version of 
Navigator 3.0 at work - a fair number of these bugs still exist. 

After the introduction, the book delves into the heart of programming 
with JavaScript. Chapter 2 deals with the lexical structure of the 
language, including case sensitivity and, comments, proper programming 
structure and "grammar", and selecting appropriate names for 
variables. Chapter 3 covers the various data types available in 
JavaScript and how to create and use variables in JavaScript. 
JavaScript is an untyped language, which means that variables do not 
have to be declared before using them and they can switch from one 
data type to another without using a conversion construct. Chapter 4 
deals with Expressions and Operators, the heart of any language, while 
Chapter 5 completes the course by covering the use of Statements. 
Chapter 6 discusses for the first time the subjects of objects and 
arrays, describing how to create them and use them in JavaScript. This 
is followed by Chapter 7 which describes how to create and utilize 
methods and functions in JavaScript. To wrap up the section, Chapter 8 
discusses the objects and methods already built into JavaScript. 

Client-side programming is the subject of Chapter 9, including methods 
to use to hide JavaScript from old browsers. Prior to the release of 
Navigator 3.0, all JavaScript was client-side (in other words, all 
code is loaded into the client's machine and then executed). Also 
included is a description of how to use JavaScript files or load 
JavaScript functions using URLs, followed by a discussion of the order 
of execution of the JavaScript code. I learned a fairly useful bit of 
information here. If you look at the source code of a JavaScript- 
containing webpage you will often see the JavaScript included in 
between the <head> tags at the top of the document. This is for a very 
specific reason - code contained in the <head> portion of the document 
is not executed until the entire document is loaded. This can be 
critical if the code must act upon information provided later in the 
document. 

Chapter 10 discusses the Window Object and all of the related sub- 
classes, properties, and methods, which is followed up in Chapter 11 
by describing the JavaScript object hierarchy. Chapter 12 discusses 
LiveConnect, the ability of Java and JavaScript to interact with one 
another. This chapter in particular provided a wealth of information 
to me; I knew that Java and JavaScript could pass information back and 
forth to each other, but I didn't know that you could use JavaScript 
code to create a Java program on the fly (and vice versa). Finally, 
Chapters 13 and 14 wrap things up with a description of security in 
JavaScript and commonly encountered bugs, respectively. 

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is a superb reference for all web 
programmers. I would also heartily recommend it to all wannabe web 
programmers- the "tutorial" portion of the book does a great job of 
outlining and explaining JavaScript programming, providing examples 
along the way to demonstrate how to use a particular concept or idea. 
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is not quite as beginner-friendly as 
Goodman's JavaScript Handbook, but it have a longer shelf life than 
Goodman's book simply because it provides the very handy reference 
that will prove invaluable time and time again. However, there is the 
question of the "2nd edition" of the book early next year that will 
cover the full release of JavaScript. Besides having it now - if you 
really need it - the best reason for having the beta edition of this 
book is the differences between the beta and final version of 
JavaScript itself. Working with both versions, I have found that 
scripts that worked just fine in Navigator 2.0 won't work in 3.0, and 
vice versa. Navigator 3.0's version of JavaScript is less willing to 
let sloppy code slip by, and mistakes missed by 2.0 are often caught 
by 3.0. While many people are replacing their 2.0 versions with 3.0, 
Microsoft's Internet Explorer (version 3.0) uses the same version of 
JavaScript as Navigator 2.0. Microsoft has already announced that they 
won't update to JavaScript 1.0 until the release of Internet Explorer 
4.0. So, there will continue to be a lot of people on the web using 
the "beta" version of JavaScript for at least the next year or so. To 
wrap it up - I think this book is definitely worth having. 

O'Reilly and Associates
103 Morris Street, Suite A
Sebastopol, CA 95472
1-800-998-9938
http://www.ora.com

Installation/Ease of Use: Gold
User-Friendliness: Gold
Quality: Gold
Audience: Novice/Expert Programmers

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: JASC Mediacenter
Reviewed By: Judy Litt, jlitt@qualitty.com
Reviewed on: 486DX2/50, 24 MB RAM
Requires: 386 or higher, 16+ MHz, 8 MB RAM (16 recommended), 256 Color 
Display, Windows 3.1 or higher, DOS 5 or higher
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mediacenter is from the same people who bring you Paintshop Pro. I 
have heard many raves about the shareware package Paintshop Pro; one 
of these days I'll have to check it out. According to JASC, 
Mediacenter "organizes your media files so that they are easier to 
find & use." In other words, it's image cataloging software. JASC 
Mediacenter is inexpensive and easy to use. 

The problem with image cataloging software, of course, is that it 
can't do all the work for you - it can' automatically put in keywords 
or comments, for instance. The idea behind it is great: you throw in a 
cd-rom. Mediacenter goes through the cd-rom, and creates thumbnail 
(small) images of all the graphics on that cd-rom. Once keywords are 
entered, you can just search on the word "cat" and the software 
presents you with thumbnails of all the files that contain the keyword 
"cat." So far, so good. Here's the gotcha: you have to go through 
those thumbnails and manually enter the keywords. Until our computers 
are smarter than we are - a scary thought for most people - a little 
user intervention is inevitable. 

And that's why I've reviewed numerous packages of image cataloging 
software. I get it, think "wow! nifty" - until I actually have to put 
in those keywords. And then, eventually, as I run out of hard drive 
space, the program gets deleted. 

Mediacenter was very easy to install. It automatically detected the 
fact that I am running Windows 95 and don't have a sound card. It's 
one of those few programs nowadays that comes on floppies, not a cd- 
rom. 

Mediacenter has all the normal bells and whistles of image cataloging 
software: it creates albums; allows you to convert, view, or print 
images; allows you to search and sort images; and allows you to open 
the file in the image editing program of your choice. 

Cataloging seemed quick, even on my 486DX2/50. 107 files (ok, they 
were small files - gif files for a web page) took one minute. The 
final size of this catalog was 572 KB; the files themselves occupy 12 
MB. In fact, creating this catalog really saved my bacon. This 
customer called the next day, and wanted a new banner created for 
advertising. I could have found the elements I needed without the 
catalog I created - but it would have taken me much longer. 

The thumbnails, even at their smallest size, are recognizable. You can 
display albums on screens at 4 different sizes; you can only print 
them out at one size. A feature that allows you to print thumbnails at 
different sizes would be nice. You can display the following 
information about a file, by selecting its thumbnail and clicking the 
"info" button: 

Disk ID
Directory
File Size
File Date
File Type
Version
Compression
Width and Height
Bits/Plane
Number of Planes
Maximum Number of Colors
Unpacked Size

Unfortunately, there's no way to print any of this information. The 
only thing that prints is the file or thumbnail, and the file name. On 
the other hand, I had no trouble printing all of the thumbnails in an 
album. I've used other image cataloging programs where I couldn't 
print out all the thumbnails on one page to my color printer, due to 
memory constraints. You can print either the selected thumbnails, or 
the selected original files. If you select original file, that's what 
you get: the actual file, at the correct size. 

Although Mediacenter runs fine under Windows 95, it doesn't seem to be 
Win95 compliant: I found it annoying that right-clicking a thumbnail 
does nothing (how do those Mac people live without a right mouse 
button, anyway?). In fact, I'd try to right-click twice, which the 
program interpreted as double-clicking: this opens up the associated 
image editing program, a time consuming operation. 

Mediacenter can catalog and convert the following bitmap formats:
bmp	img	pcx	rle
clp	jpg	pgm	tga
cut	ibm	pic	tif
dib	mac	png
gif	msp	psd
iff	pbm	ras

psd is the native Photoshop format. Unfortunately, Mediacenter can't 
catalog multi-layered psd. The reason I usually save a file in psd 
format is so that I can have access to layers. 

Vector formats supported:
cdr	gem	wpg
cgm	ngi
drw	pic
dxf	wmf

This program is obviously not aimed at the graphic design/desktop 
publishing market, with the noticeable lack of support for ai or eps 
files. 

Sound formats supported: mid & wav

Mediacenter supports the following animation formats: avi, flc, fli. 

I was able to create albums, add files, convert formats, print albums, 
and open files in an image editing program - all without cracking the 
manual. This gives you some idea of the ease-of-use of this program. 
The manual is a slim 112 pages, but it covers the program and covers 
it well. Instructions are clear and step-by-step. Being involved in 
the design of a software manual recently, I know that's not as easy as 
it looks! 

Conclusion
Image cataloging software tends to be rather like backing up your hard 
drive: you know you should do it, but . . . It definitely saves time 
when you need to locate an image in a hurry, especially if it's a 
website with more than 100 photographs or a manual with lots of screen 
captures. 

To make this software really useful, though, you need to spend time 
adding keywords. I'd like to see some support for right clicking, & 
the ability to modify how catalogs print out, but to my mind these are 
minor quibbles. 

JASC Mediacenter does just about everything I need done in image 
cataloging software, and it does it quickly and easily. 

JASC, Inc.
5610 Rowland Road
Suite 125
Minnetonka, MN 55343
612-930-9171
CompuServe: Go JASC

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Normality 
Reviewed by: Michael Gallo <gallomike@aol.com>
Requires: 486-66, 8MB RAM, 7MB HD, CD-ROM, Mouse, Sound Card
Reviewed on: Pentium-100, 16MB RAM, 4X-CD ROM, Windows 95
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you get when Generation X collides with adventure gaming? You 
get Normality. This game from Interplay places our hero Kent Knutson, 
a free-thinking, grunge looking, wise cracking punk in the middle of 
Neutropolis, a city overrun by an overzealous Orwellian furniture 
maker. Neutropolis is a dark and dull city. The sun never shines, not 
since the "great shake-up". The object of the game is to discover the 
truth about the function of little "gizmos" hidden in the furniture of 
all citizens of Neutropolis. Ken begins his adventure in his apartment 
which looks like a college dorm room from hell. Along the way Kent 
will battle wits with Norm police, who are there to ensure that 
citizens conform and act "normal". 

The game has two modes of installation. If you're running under 
Windows 95, an autorun routine should bring up the installation 
program. DOS and WIN 3.1 users must run the install program 
themselves. Although the game requires a minimum, of 7 megs of hard 
disk space, the maximum install, which requires 50+ megs of space will 
allow for smoother transitions between scenes. 

Normality's gameplay is a simple point and click interface (like 
Myst). One of the interesting interfaces in the game is Ken's Voodoo 
doll. Right clicking the mouse on a game character or an item will 
bring up the voodoo doll. From here, the player can order Ken to do 
something by clicking a different part of the doll. Click the eyes to 
look at something, click the mouth to speak, click the right hand to 
do something, and click left hand to pick up something. I thought that 
was an original idea. 

No typing of any kind is required in the game for dialogue with other 
characters. All dialogue takes place automatically. I did find this 
feature a bit irritating at times, because Kent had to return to some 
spots several times. That meant listening to the dialogue again and 
again. Although the dialogue is automated, the game allows players to 
choose Kent's responses from a list of choices. However, the order of 
the list is insignificant. There is no right or wrong choice. In fact, 
the player's choice really has no consequences at all. You won't tee 
off a computer character and cause them to hack you to death or 
something if a wrong answer is chosen. The main purpose of the 
dialogue is to get information to help Kent along in the game. 

In fact, the game is set up so that you cannot make a mistake that 
would lead Kent to a dead-end. All objects (as far as I could discern) 
have only one purpose. You cannot use them for another, thus wasting 
the item if you used it incorrectly. At one point in the game, I had 
built up Kent's inventory of items only to have it confiscated by the 
Norm troopers. After escaping from the blue pens prison, I was able to 
go back to sites I visited and (magically) the items were there for 
Kent to pick up again. 

The game does have some clever uses for the items though. Many of the 
items must be combined with a second item in order to proceed in the 
game. Some of these combinations are not apparent at first, so that 
does make it a challenge. As Kent progresses in the game, a map can be 
used to instantly get to other part of the city. This came in handy 
when I had to go back to Kent's apartment to pick up an item to 
prevent the frozen food from thawing. 

As far a graphics go, there is nothing earth-shattering to report. 
Each time a major task is completed, like escaping from Ken's Hell-
hole apartment, the game presented a little animated scene. The 
animated sequences have a much higher graphics quality than the normal 
gameplay. Ken himself, looks like a rendered CAD figure. It looks very 
cool. The graphics in the normal (no pun intended) part of the game 
are OK. At least things look like they should. I would say the 
graphics have a "cartoon" quality. The graphics engine handled 
movement very smoothly. 

Like many CD-ROM games being sold today, Interplay has also included 
some demos of their other products. My CD-ROM included demo versions 
of Descent II, Whiplash, and Shattered Steel. This is a good use for 
CD-ROM since many games do not use up all 660 megs of space on them. 
It makes for very inexpensive marketing. 

Overall, I'd say that Normality would appeal to a younger audience, 
say 10 - 12 years of age. It's not that an adult couldn't have fun 
playing this game, but there is just not enough challenge. Like many 
other type of adventure games, once you've played it, there is no 
reason to play again. I believe that games like Normality will be the 
first to benefit from being distributed over the Internet. I give 
Normality a Bronze medal. 

Interplay Productions  
16815 Von Karman Ave.          
Irvine, CA  92606                  

Internet E-mail:  Mailto: Info@Interplay.com
Web Site:  <http://www.interplay.com>
American On-Line: Keyword INTERPLAY
    or E-mail IPTECH
CompuServe: GO GAMEPUB
    or E-mail 76702,1342
Genie:  Type M805;1 or go to the Bulletin Board in Scorpia's area
Prodigy: Use the Web  browser to our Web Site
    or E-mail PLAY99B
FTP Site:  ftp.interplay.com	

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Mighty Math Number Heroes
Reviewed by: Danny Williams <danny@packet.net>
Reviewed on: Pentium 75, 16 MB RAM, Win95, 4x CD-ROM, Sound Blaster
Requires: child(ren) ages 8-10 and...
          For Windows:486-33, Windows 3.1 or 95, 5Mb Disk, 8Mb RAM,
                      2x CD-ROM, Sound card
          For Macintosh: System 7.0.1, 68040, 68030 or PowerPC, 8Mb
                         RAM, 4100K Unused, 13" monitor, 256 or    
                         more colors, 2x CD-ROM
MSRP: $39.99
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mighty Math Number Heroes (MMNH) is four math teaching programs 
presented in a cartoon/game format: three games teach fractions, 
geometry, probability respectively, and the fourth touches on several 
subjects including the four basic operations (+ - * /), pattern 
recognition, and identifying shapes. 

I remember first learning fractions when I was in elementary school. I 
also remember watching cartoons from then until, well, OK - last 
Saturday. I certainly dont remember doing them together, though. Mom 
said I couldn't concentrate and learn anything that way. Turns out she
was wrong. While I was taught these things by grinding through page 
after mimeographed page of dry, repetitive math problems, children now 
can be introduced to and practice math concepts in ways like this 
program that pique interest and hold attention much better than the 
paper-and-pencil method. Perhaps our children can grow up not even 
knowing that familiar mimeo- aroma. 

MMNH installs easily with the SETUP program on the CD-ROM. Although 
there is no install option for running the program from a hard drive 
for better performance, I found acceptable performance with a 4x CD-
ROM drive. On my system it put less than 2Mb on the hard disk, the 
rest runs from the CD-ROM. Although there is no uninstall program 
provided, the Windows95 Add/Delete Programs was able to do so 
successfully. 

Lest you get the wrong idea, the only reason I uninstalled the program 
was for this review. After I saw that the uninstall worked, I 
immediately reinstalled the program. My in-house juvenile programming 
tester (my 4 year old daughter, Heather) would have cried all over the 
keyboard if she could no longer play her math games. This CD-ROM is 
definitely a keeper. 

MMNH starts with title page offering a couple of other choices besides 
starting the game. There is a "Talking Head" movie of Donna Stanger, 
Executive Producer, explaining the design criteria and teaching 
methodologies used in the games. This sounds dry and boring, but is 
actually quite interesting and shows how much thought and planning 
went into the design of these games and how they were written to be 
effective teaching tools. There is also a splash screen advertising 
their web page at http://www.edmark.com and a flashy multimedia 
slideshow/demo/advertising section for other Edmark educational 
programs. 

..and, of course, a big green PLAY button that gets to the meat of 
things! 

PLAY starts an opening sequence showing the murky skyline of a Gotham-
type city at dusk, some driving theme music, and a deep, rich, 
announcers voice: 

     Nighttime in the city that never sleeps.
     Whats that in the sky? The math symbols! 
     <flash Batman type spotlights on the clouds>
     that means someones calling the Might Math Number Heroes!


Then each of the four cartoon characters, representing the four games, 
swoops to the foreground. Clicking on a character launches the game. 
They are: 

FRACTION MANS FRACTION FIREWORKS 
In the easier levels, Fraction Man asks the student to adjust the 
numerator of a fraction to build fireworks ("Can you make a fraction 
firework that's 1/2 red?"), then push a red button to watch the
fireworks go. The questions move up to selecting the larger or smaller 
of two fractions, then to harder topics like doing math with the 
fractions and converting decimals, always building the answer into 
fireworks then watching them go. 

GEOMETRY EMERGENCY DETECTIVES WITH THE GEO-COMPUTER
A detective computer is wandering the city and seems to need a great 
deal of help with geometry. He radios in the questions, which are then 
displayed on the Geo-computer, a 10x10 grid of dots which can be 
connected to draw geometric shapes. Easy questions are like "Pick the 
shapes with 3 sides and 3 angles." Hard ones are "Draw a shape with a 
perimeter of 16 units" or "pick the shapes with a line of symmetry." 

HANDSOME CHANCES PROBABILITY MACHINE
Handsome Chance is a rather vain super hero who has a toy making 
machine which only makes action figures of himself. We use a spinner 
to select the color and accessories on each toy, and answer questions 
about how the toys are to be built. The machine can be used to help 
see the answer - for example, he question might show a spinner with 2 
red thirds and a blue third and ask which color is more likely to be 
spun. Running the machine makes the toys according to the spinner and 
shows a graph of the results. For an easy question, we are shown a 
spinner with a purple half and a brown half and asked if it is 
possible for this spinner to select brown. Harder questions show two 
spinners and ask about a combined probability using both spinners. 

QUIZZO WITH STAR BRILLIANT
Star Brilliant is the host of a "Jeopardy" style game show named 
Quizzo. Two students can play against each other or one student can 
play against a cartoon opponent. This game has the widest range of 
questions - from simple single digit addition and subtraction to 
longish division (745/17) . There are also analogies using simple 
geometric shapes, and sequencing (they call it "pattern matching"). 
Another category is called "Numbers." From a collection of 903, 913, 
901, 893; select the one that is greater than 900, between 900 and 
905, and is the answer when subtracting 50 from 953. There are 26 
different categories, most using variations on these. 

All of the games have a "difficulty slider." This slider starts at 
level A (easy) and as questions are answered correctly, slowly slides 
its way up to level Z (hard). The slider can also be moved manually. 
There is also a calculator available, although I wished it could be 
disabled for some of the operator questions - it is just too easy to 
pull up the calculator to get an answer rather than working it out. 
Then again, I suppose a determined lazybones could always pull up the 
Windows calculator anyway. All the games except Quizzo also have an 
"explore" button with which the fun parts of the game - shooting 
fireworks, drawing geometric figures, and running the toymaking 
machine - can be done without answering the questions. 

Heather and I have only one big problem with these games - the 
controls buttons, such as those for exiting the game, changing the 
difficulty level, or using the calculator were inactive much of the 
time. It seems that we had to wait until the program was waiting for 
input from us ("Player one - what is your answer?") before those 
controls became active. Clicking on them before that was a useless and 
frustrating, particularly for Heather who didn't quite understand why
it wouldn't pay attention to her. I guess she's yet to learn that
little rule of life that computers sometimes just dont do what we 
want them to do. Despite this idiosyncrasy she continues to ask for 
the CD-ROM and enjoy all the games. 

Although the publishers recommend this CD-ROM for ages 8-10, Ive 
found my preschool age daughter loves it at the lower difficulty 
levels, and is learning things that Id not have though to introduce 
to her for a couple of years yet. The difficulty levels adjust to such 
a wide range that this CD-ROM should have a long useful life in just 
about any family with kids. 

Edmark
P O Box 97021
Redmond, WA  98073-9721
(800) 320-8379
WWW:  <http://www.edmark.com>
Mailto: edmarkteam@edmark.com
AOL Keyword: "Edmark"

Installation/Ease of Use: Gold
User-Friendliness: Silver
Quality: Gold
User: Novice

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to cool WebSites . . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Internet Faxing . . .|
---------------------------
    
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., PRNewswire/ - Clarity Software, Inc. is 
revolutionizing faxing by making it possible for users of MagicFax, 
its groundbreaking software for the World Wide Web, to send faxes 
anywhere in the world for free. The software is the first of its kind 
that allows individuals in companies of all sizes to send faxes to 
other MagicFax users around the world without receiving any phone 
bills or monthly service bills. 
        
Faxes sent to non-MagicFax users will save substantially on 
transmission costs, as MagicFax routes the fax to the sender's 
MagicFax Web Server nearest to the recipient to avoid long distance 
charges. 
        
An average international five-page fax sent from the U.S.A. to Japan 
costs approximately $18 over traditional phone lines. However, that 
same fax sent by MagicFax over the Web can be free of all phone 
charges. 
        
To try MagicFax, you need not purchase expensive hardware or software, 
but simply download MagicFax and install it on your Netscape or 
Microsoft Web server. MagicFax is available for free by downloading 
from Clarity's Web site at <http://www.magicfax.com> for a public beta 
period starting December 2. This free downloading will be initially 
for UNIX or Windows NT servers as well as Windows and UNIX clients. 
Additional servers and clients, including Macintosh and additional 
UNIX platforms, will be available in first quarter 1997. 
        
For greater administrative controls and advanced fax management 
capabilities, Clarity Software is developing a variety of optional add-
on modules called Fax Packs that will begin shipping in early 1997. 
Included in these are the Connector Pack, which provides support for 
sending faxes from fax machines at no cost; Manager Pack, which offers 
extensive fax management controls and reporting; the Protector Pack, 
which encrypts and decrypts sensitive faxes for sending through the 
Internet; the Director Pack for routing incoming faxes directly to 
recipients; the Responder Pack for fax on demand systems; and others. 
MagicFax supports both Dialogic and Multitech modems, which may be 
purchased from Clarity Software. 

-------------------
What's for Dinner?|
-------------------
SAN DIEGO, PRNewswire/ - Meals Online(TM) offers over 10,000 recipes, 
as only part of a helpful new Internet site that provides appetizing 
answers to the age old dilemma, "What's for dinner?". Consumer use of 
the site is FREE. Meals Online(TM) also provides complete assistance 
in meal planning, shopping, and meal preparation. It is located on the 
World Wide Web at <http://www.meals.com>. The easy-to-use Meals 
Online(TM) search function conveniently assembles favorite foods and 
recipes by theme, cuisine, main ingredient or special dietary factors, 
such as low calorie, low fat and others. An especially unique feature 
takes the amount of every ingredient, within each recipe, and 
calculates quantities automatically, for any number of servings 
specified by the person choosing the recipe. Also, Meals Online(TM) 
builds a menu of multi-course meals and arranges them all, as many as 
24 entire meals, on a printable meal planning calendar. 
        
According to Dave Boerlin, Director of Interactive Marketing for 
NuWorld(TM) Marketing Limited, the company that developed the site, 
"Meals Online(TM) is more than just a recipe database, it's a 
convenient, time saving way to handle meal planning and shopping. It's 
fun too! Everyone who signs- in to the site in the month of December 
will be offered free product samples and special offers." 
        
One user wrote, "...not only is it attractive and easy, it is very 
useful. I ESPECIALLY like the feature that creates a shopping list for 
everything I need. I can add to, or change, any item, print and go! I 
will be using this frequently ...thank you!" 
        
The Meals Online(TM) Custom Shopping List is a useful and time- saving 
shopping aid. It adds, sorts and groups all required ingredients into 
one handy list to maximize shopping convenience. 

        Other conveniences include:
        
        ..  a personal online recipe box to store up to 50 recipes.
        ..  E-mail access to Meals Online(TM) dietitians.
        ..  featured menu suggestions.
        ..  a glossary of cooking terms.
        ..  conversion tables for cooking measurement.
        ..  substitution recommendations for special diets.
        ..  Meals Online(TM) chat rooms.
        
The award winning Meals Online(TM) Web site is recognized as the 
"premiere meal planning resource." 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH ????? | Weekly Interviews with the Movers and Shakers!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

No interview this week! We'll see you next week!

  --END OF ISSUE--


