-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 
|-=>CompuNotes<=-|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing
January 5, 1997
Volume 62

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
.................Managing Editor: Patrick Grote <pgrote@inlink.com>
Assistant Editor, Writer Liaison: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
......Graphics Editor, Webmaster: Judy Litt <jlitt@aol.com>

Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/
.Website: http://users.aol.com/CompNote/
...email: notes@inlink.com
.....fax: (314) 909-1662
...voice: (314) 909-1662
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
CONTENTS

My Notes:
1=> New Masthead? Design contest winner!
2=> This Week's Winner!

Reviews:
3=> Product: Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon
Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
4=> Product: Product: Home Medical Advisor Pro V 5.0
Reviewed By: Richard Lis <rlis@shell.third-wave.com>

Web Site:
5=> Armor All is on the Web <http:\\www.armorall.com>

Interview:
=> The Father of the PC Hatches Another Winner!

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
CompuNotes is: Available weekly via email and on-line. We cover the PC
computing world with comprehensive reviews, hot web sites, great
columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week
to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull,
sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way
it is!

CompuNotes
B440    
1315 Woodgate Drive
St. Louis, MO 63122
notes@inlink.com   
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
SYSOPS READ HERE!

We want to make CompuNotes available on as many BBS as possible.
Sysops who volunteer upload this newsletter to their BBS as a ZIP file
will be listed in our sysops directory shipped with each newsletter.
We'll also link to your website.

If you are interested, fill out the following lines and return them to
notes@inlink.com with SYSOPS as the subject. After processing this,
we'll send you a weekly UUEncoded version of CompuNotes.

BBS NAME:
BBS SYSOP:
BBS NUMBER:
URL:
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
To subscribe, send this email to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
   SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName
To unsubscribe, send this email to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
   SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

My Notes:
1=> New Masthead? Design contest winner!
Well, I've finally selected a new masthead. It isn't exactly what I 
would call visually stimulating, but from the email I received people 
wanted a smaller masthead with less fluff. What do you think?

The winner was rtatum@mail.orion.org. Send him a congratulations 
message if you want. 

You'll notice that each section is denoted by the => characters 
preceded by a number. This makes it easier to move to the proper 
section. 

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK . . .

Also, this issue marks the debut of our smaller issues. Those on AOL 
should have no problem reading this!

2=> This Week's Winner!

This week's winner of the ASP Shareware Catalog is kw125@aol.com. 
Congrats!
-=> END SECTION

Reviews:
3=> Product: Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon
....Reviewed By: Doug Reed <dr2web@sprynet.com>
....MSRP: $49.95

Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon is the first of a series of track 
and field games coming from various vendors, all hoping to ride on a 
wave of interest from the Summer Olympics. The game banks partially on 
Bruce Jenner's fame as the winner of the Gold Medal in the Decathlon 
at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In addition, the game uses the different 
events of the decathlon to provide a variety of events for the gamer 
to test their hand-eye coordination. All of this is carried off in 
Windows 95 using Microsoft's DirectX system to create the stadium and 
opponents for the aspiring Decathlete. The game does take some effort 
to get into, but if you enjoy sports games and/or strategy games 
you'll find that a little investment of time in Bruce Jenner's 
Decathlon will pay off. 

Decathlon was easily installed, thanks to Windows 95's autoplay 
feature, but surprisingly once installed I found that inserting the CD 
(required to play the game) brought up the installation menu again, 
however, the menu did not contain an option to play the game. You have 
to quit the install menu, go back to the Windows 95 desktop, and start 
the game from the Start menu. This is not a feature of all autoplay-
enabled games, but seems to be a unique trait for games by Interactive 
Magic (I had the same thing happen with The American Civil War). A bit 
of a pain, and quite unnecessary. Once started, the opening scene is 
quite breathtaking, with a scene of a athlete from ancient times 
running through the forest, leaping fiery cracks in the ground, 
throwing a spear at wild game, and running towards an ancient stadium. 
This dissolves into an introduction to the game by none other than 
Bruce Jenner. The primary game screen is a locker room, where you can 
choose to create an athlete or pick an existing one, and either 
practice, compete, or hit the showers (exit). You can also watch any 
of a number of multimedia recordings of Bruce Jenner describing what 
it is really like to be a Decathlete. Creating an athlete shows one of 
the many nice touches to the game; you can choose the nationality and 
skin tone of your athlete, and allocate skill points to any of several 
different skills (sprinting, distance running, throwing, coordination, 
jumping). The more points you allocate, the less endurance you have, 
an important and very key element to the game. Once you've created the 
athlete you can spend some time practicing the various events, but I'm 
sure you'll be itching to compete. The running events don't require 
much practice, but be sure and practice the throwing events and the 
jumping events, as these are the events that require the best hand-eye 
coordination. 

There are a total of ten events, always run in the same order: 100 
meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter race, 110 meter 
hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and the 1500 meter race. The 
graphics are very nice, with each athlete distinguished by his skin 
tone, hair color, and gear (colored to match nationality). For racing 
events, a status window shows the place of the gamer's athlete on the 
track in relation to the others and a bar graph showing the athlete's 
remaining endurance. Each events has it's own series of moves 
controlled by left- or right-clicking the mouse. Careful use of the 
mouse is required to insure that you do well enough to score high but 
don't waste precious endurance. Points are scored based on individual 
performance, not on placement in relation to the your opponents. In 
other words, if you high jump 1.70 meters, your score is based on 
jumping 1.70 meters and not how well the other athletes did in the 
high jump. The goal here is not to win any single event, but to do 
well enough in all to win the overall Decathlon and earn the title 
"World's Greatest Athlete". 

Competition comes in two flavors: single Decathlon and whole season. 
In both flavors the goal is to win each Decathlon, of course, but in 
the seasonal competition you accumulate skill points determined by 
your performance and how you allocate those points can have a very 
critical bearing on later Decathlons. In addition, you can choose to 
compete against solely computer opponents or several friends can join 
in as well. Unfortunately there is no network play or head-to-head 
mode; even in races individual human opponents do not compete 
directly. This takes the tension out of the multi-player games, and 
provides a major strategic boost to whomever goes last amongst the 
human player, since they already know how well the others did. One 
major point of exasperation here when playing against computer 
opponents in events like the high jump: there is no way to know 
whether all of the opponents have already stopped and you are only 
competing against yourself. Why is this important? Because each 
additional jump requires just a little more endurance; I came out of 
the high jump having cleared 1.70 meters only to find that my nearest 
opponent had only cleared 1.50 meters; I could have saved at least one 
jump's worth of endurance and still finished first. This ended up 
costing me big time in the 400 meters. Luckily the events are split 
into two days, so after the 400 I had a night's rest for the next day. 
It would have been nice to know I didn't need that last jump! 

Unfortunately Decathlon falls short in one other major arena: 
replayability. While you can play against human opponents, the 
majority of people who play this game will probably play only against 
the computer. The problem is, once you've mastered the essentials of 
monitoring your endurance and knowing when and where to click your 
mouse, it becomes almost exceedingly easy to win the game. This is a 
huge problem for most sports games of this kind; they are easily 
mastered and quickly begin to grow dust on the shelf. Bottom line is, 
this is a fun game if you are absolute sports game nut or if you like 
strategy mixed in with a little wrist action, but for the value it's 
probably worth waiting until it hits the value bin. 

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: Silver Medal
Quality: Bronze Medal
Audience:  Sports Nuts.

-=> Product: Product: Home Medical Advisor Pro V 5.0
Reviewed By: Richard Lis <rlis@shell.third-wave.com>
Reviewed On: 486SLC2/66 8 MB RAM Windows 3.1 1x CDROM
.............486SLC2/66 16MB RAM Windows 96  8x CDROM
....Required: Windows 3.1 or Windows 95  4 MB RAM
MSRP: $99.95 (Street priced about $60)

Have you ever wanted to find out just what was wrong with you, but 
hesitated to make the trip to the doctor's office just because you 
figured it was "nothing" anyway? Interested in seeing what the wonders 
of modern medicine have to offer you? Confused about the diagnosis 
your primary care physician just gave you? Lost in the maze of 
prescription drugs you take and worried what might happen if you take 
some simple over-the-counter medication? Well has Dr. Schueler got a 
CD set for you! 

Home Medical Advisor Pro version 5.0 comes on 3 CDROMs. No instruction 
or reference manual is provided, but really none is needed. A simple 
sheet explains an even simpler installation. As with most Windows-
based products, running setup.exe is just about all it takes. All the 
necessary items are contained on CD #1. The sheet, and the 
installation process itself, does warn you about the differences in 
installation for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Mostly, it is important 
not to install Video For Windows with Win95. Even with the single 
speed CD, it took just a few minutes to have the program up and 
running. 

Although the requirements mention a double speed CD, I did not have 
one when first installing the program. Everything went fairly well, 
even with a single speed, except the video playback was choppy and the 
sound sporadic. This convinced me to upgrade that machine! After 
putting in another 8MB of RAM and a 8x CDROM, HMAP really flew. It ran 
equally well under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. 

The program starts with the usual disclaimer that all medical advice 
here is purely for education purposes and should not be used in lieu 
of competent medical care. We've all seen these before, and probably 
even read a few, but it's good advice to take. Being a Pharmacist 
myself, I was interested to compare how much of the knowledge being 
presented was consistent with my current understanding of good medical 
practice. I was in for a pleasant surprise. 

HMAP is a *MASSIVE* program! The amount of information is staggering, 
including a large collection of medical graphics and full motion 
videos. Remember, this thing comes on three CDROMs. That's a lot of 
space for lots of info. You can browse through the different libraries 
just looking for things of interest, or take a more systematic 
approach by using the built-in "artificial intelligence" engines to 
diagnose based on your symptoms. There are two basic engines to use. 
One uses a "check-box" method of selecting your symptoms before going 
on the the diagnosis and related information. The other uses a 
"question and answer" more like what would be expected in a real 
physician's office. Both work well. You also have the option of just 
selecting a specific disease that you would like more information 
about. 

Once you have narrowed down your search, you are presented with the 
option to read more on the differential diagnoses presented. These may 
include still graphics or videos on the subjects. Hypertext links 
nicely spaced throughout the text allow you to quickly check with the 
glossary or other cross references for additional information. 

The amount of information available on medications, both prescription 
and over-the-counter is quite impressive. Thousands of drugs are 
referenced by their common brand names. One can quickly choose the 
ones you are taking and find out about the individual medications as 
well as the possible interactions between them. You also have the 
option of simply selecting one medication that you would like further 
information about. Again, a caution about using this information 
instead of consulting with your pharmacist should be noted. 

Another nice feature of this program is the ability to start a medical 
record file for all members of your family. This allows you to store 
such valuable information as immunization and surgical records. Even 
relevant family history of disease is included. This will be an 
invaluable record when your kids go off to college or you need to seek 
a new primary care physician. Also included is the ability to print 
"Consent for Emergency Treatment" forms which can be used in your 
absence to allow hospital emergency personnel to treat your children. 
A "Living Will" can be designed and printed along with a few other 
user documents. 

It will take you a little bit of time to decide how you want to use 
all the features included in this array, but it sure is nice to see 
that the options are there so each of use can access the databases in 
the way that is most comfortable for us. The databases included with 
this version include "Symptom Complex Analysis", "Disease File", 
"Injury File", "Poison File", "Test File", "Drug File", and "Health & 
Diet File". Using a cross-topic search available from the Find Menu 
has been my favorite way of narrowing down the data quickly. 

You might think that a program such as this would become quickly 
outdated with the quick advances in medical sciences today. Not so! 
The Dr. provides updates to the program and it's associated databases 
via the Internet on their web page. I'm not sure how long that adding 
information to your hard drive will be a viable option for a program 
that contains such a wealth of information on CD, but at least in the 
short run, it is a quick easy solution to new data. From what I have 
seen on the web page, upgrades can be purchased at a very favorable 
price. As a matter of fact, HMAP comes with a great offer for other 
software titles from this company at over half of the suggested 
retail. 

Dr. Schueler's Health Informatics, Inc.
P.O. Drawer 410129
Melbourne, FL  32941-0129
Sales: (407) 779-0310 9-5PM EST, M-F
Fax  : (407) 777-0323
E-Mail: esellers@iu.net
WWW: <http://www.w2.com/drschueler.html>

Ratings:

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

5=> Web Site: <http://www.armorall.com>

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., /PRNewswire/ - In today's hi-tech world, 
"surfing" is not a water sport and the "web" has nothing to do with 
spiders. 

Already, tens of millions of people use the World Wide Web for 
everything from playing games to obtaining investment strategies. 
Beginning December 20, "web-heads" of all sorts visited a new website 
from Armor All Products Corp. (Nasdaq: ARMR) - the nation's leading 
manufacturer of automotive appearance products - at WWW.ARMORALL.COM. 

Once you step into the driver's seat of total car care, the site 
presents a computer-enhanced graphic of a dashboard, complete with 
animated gauges and "neon" lights, to steer you in the right 
direction. Clicking on various dashboard instruments takes visitors to 
each of the site's pages including: 

- The Legend of Armor All - From its roots in the early '60s to 
today's cutting-edge technology, this page positions the growth of 
America's most renowned car care company alongside some of the most 
famous events in American history. 

- Car Care Tips/Ask Arnie - For every surface of the car, inside and 
out, Armor All answers the most commonly asked questions about car 
care and provides tips for making the job easier. Visitors also can 
"Ask Arnie," the Armor All Viking mascot, any specific car care 
questions. Those whose questions are posted on the site will receive 
free Armor All products. 

- Grand Prix of Trivia - One of the most entertaining trivia games on 
the 'Net, this page features an animated race car and trivia questions 
covering the last 100 years of the automobile - from innovations and 
racing to songs and movies. A correct answer sends the car on a lap of 
track, but an incorrect one sends it screeching into the pits. A 
counter registers the number of laps completed, and top racers qualify 
for free Armor All products. A database of more than 100 questions 
ensures a different game every time. 

- Product Catalog - Featuring product bottles that spin in cyberspace, 
this page explains the uses and benefits of the entire Armor All line 
of products. 

- Links - Set a bookmark on WWW.ARMORALL.COM, then visit other 
automotive-related websites. 

"The Internet allows us to interact with the consumer, and to clear up 
some of the confusion surrounding the right way to care for your car, 
and the right products to use," said Lawrence Kahn, vice president of 
marketing for Armor All. "We'll be updating the site continually to 
provide more fun and detailed information on car care, Armor All 
products and the 25th Anniversary of Armor All(R) Protectant." 


6=> Interview with Andre Thi Truong 
Who invented the personal computer? Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? The 
people at Commodore? Guess again. It was Andre Thi Truong, . Yep. That 
is what I said, too.

He had so much success as the father of PCs he is now the father of 
the first NPC unit. The Network Personal Computer is Intel/Microsoft's 
answer to Sun's Network Computer. Where the Network Computer runs on 
Java, the Network Personal Computer runs a subset of a Microsoft 
operating system. 

We asked Andrew a few questions. Enjoy!

PG: You are based in France, not exactly a high technology mecca. Why 
France ?
AT: The first reason is that I am French even if I am Vietnamese born, 
and as I am 60 my family, my friends are most in France. And why not 
France? 

PG: How did you come to invent the first PC?
AT: The Micral is born per chance in 1972, my company (R2E) had to 
develop a portable system for INRA ( National Institute of Agronomic 
Research) and in the beginning of that year (1972), I have had the 
opportunity to meet the Intel's team in Santa Clara that had just 
launch 8008 microprocessor. This 8008 allowed me to make this special 
realization. 
My only merit if there is merit was to decide in the beginning 1973 to 
manufacture 1000 Micral in order to sell it at less of 2000$. I have 
been helped in this decision by Yvon PLISSON who was the main investor 
of the R2E's company. 

PG: Why was it the first personal computer?  
AT: At this time, we have not called it Personal computer but 
Microcomputer by opposition to minicomputer. It is to notice that the 
designation PC is appeared only in 1981 with the IBM PC. I have to 
notice that in 1982 R2E of America, my American subsidiary was the 
first to develop an IBM compatible PC that has been sold in France by 
the group Bull under the designation MB30. Unfortunately, Bull as all 
manufacturers of mini/mainframes (IBM, Digital...) did not trust in 
the PC and left the place to Compaq , Packard Bell,Dell... But this is 
an other story. 

PG: What's the story behind NPC?
AT: The core concept of the NPC is to use only mass storage (ROM + CD 
ROM) to boot Windows NT and launch applications from. Basically you 
have several CDs ROM, (in INTRANET use 2 or 3 , in INTERNET use as 
many more) on which are stored all the applications you want to use on 
your NPC . At home you are likely to have more CD ROM since you are 
potentially interested in a much wider scope of CD ROM (home 
applications, games, encyclopedia, video, audio,...) Therefore, in its 
very design, this does not support bandwidth at all. 

This said, Network still has a major role to play in the framework : - 
in INTRANET to support access to the Information System (users 
profiles, users data, company data, departmental & central 
applications...) - in INTERNET only context : Network is used for Web 
access, remote access to services (for instance data storage), data 
exchange with servers or other users, and last but not least, 
potentially use authorization of CDROM embedded 

PG: As the man who invented the PC you must drive a cool car. What is 
it?
AT: In fact, I have always driven BMWs or Jaguars cars that are the 
first cars of the world, one for its technological advance, the other 
for its comfort. Currently, I use a BMW 316 compact that allows me to 
continue to work in Paris traffic jam. 

PG: What is the future of NPC?
AT: One can estimate that 45% of future PC market is concerned by the 
Net/PC/SIPC trend. The NetPC part (and subsequently NPC's part) can be 
roughly estimated to half of it. We expect a first breakthrough in 
professional applications ( in INTRANET and for professional INTERNET 
based applications). Home applications will boom with a NPC fully 
powered with multimedia and 3D acceleration software driven by 
Microsoft's DirectX and hardware driven by MMX Pentium. Then, we will 
have the so long attended multimedia networked terminal for every 
home... that will run stunning DirectX games, DVD MPEG 2 films with 
AC3, put you in contact (by mail, voice, and ... video) with the whole 
planet at a local phone call price ! 

NC has some chance to gain through niches (and most believably some 
kind of server based Microsoft compatibility) up to 5% of this market 
because there are several NC : the oracle NC, the Sun NC, the apple NC 
which are all different. I do not think that the editors will 
concentrate their effort this kind of new platform. 

PG: What is the key to NPC success?
AT: I am sure that the Windows Network PC, in the occurrence the NPC 
97 and all its following with these new technologies as the CD ROM and 
then the CDV, combined with SMARTCARD will spread by the low-end the 
market of traditional PC and as we are at the beginning of a new area 
of the PC, with games that are going surely to displace the market 
dominated by Sega, Nintendo, and Sony toward the PC and the NPC 
market. One can think that the market of the NPC will have a duration 
of life of at least 10 years. Without speaking the probable 
convergence of the PC/NPC with the TV in the beginning of the XXI 
century. We work also on technologies of display to allow to suppress 
the bottleneck of strangling that is VGA currently. 

PG: You were at Comdex. What did you think?
AT: The Comdex has been fabulous, but not for the Comdex in itself, 
but for the success we got for the NPC97 during the private 
presentations in our suite at the Mirage. This year, I have not time 
to gamble but my wife, as these 10 last years, continue to lose. 
 
PG: Which will triumph the NC or the NPC?
The PC, surely, there is installed base of about 200 millions PCs in 
the world, of 50% are Pentium based. On the base of 70 millions PC 
delivered in 1996 and with a growing rate of 25%, we will have 150 
millions PC delivered in the 2000. It is impossible to even stop this 
trend for the next five to ten years. Thousand of applications and 
millions of Gigabytes of data are produced each year for this market. 
Most company Information Systems rely on the Wintel standard. There is 
a poor chance that the "pure JAVA NC" can ever win the battle. So I 
definitely think that the Windows base Network PC like APCT NetPC will 
triumph. 

Oracle has most believably brought a lot, but perhaps ... to the PC 
industry by causing the NPC to exist !!! 

If you want to learn more about Andre Thi Truong's work, see the site 
<http://wwwapct.fr>.

=>END ISSUE

