CompuNotes
Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing
June 28, 1997
Issue 83

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CONTENTS
My Notes:
1=> READ THIS NOW! Our new website and links contest . . .,
mailto:pgrote@i1.net
2=> This Issue's Winner!

Columns:
3=> Joe Lavin's Unique Perspective, mailto:joe@joelavin.com

Reviews:
4=> Product: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide 2nd Edition by David
Flanagan - book/reference
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
5=> Product: EA Sports Edition GRiP Multiport Gaming System -
game/hardware
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
6=> Product: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft Office 97
Professional by Joe Kraynak and Sherry Kinkoph - book/instructional
Reviewed by: Dr. Konrad H. Kossmann,
mailto:khkross@freenet.columbus.oh.us
7=> Product: Animal Planet: The Ultimate Wildlife Adventure -
educational
Reviewed By: Gail Marsella, mailto:gbcmars@enter.net

8=> Clickables!

--- BEGIN ISSUE

1=> Notes . . .

Be sure you catch Joe Lavin's New Column!

CONTEST ENDS ON 6/30/97!!!!! SUBMIT YOUR SITE TODAY!

We are close to unveiling our new web site. Yes, we secured a domain
name and everything . . .

As part of our new site we want your links! If you have a link to us on
your page with the new web address we'll link to yours. To spur people
to help us do this I am giving away a software suite that includes:

PC Handyman by Symantec
Partition It by Quarterdeck
Kiloblaster
Thunderscape by SSI
Internet Utilities by Starfish Software

Even if you have a current link with us you need to resubmit your link.
When you send your email message to me at mailto:pgrote@i1.net make sure
you include your fully qualified page name and the page name that has
our link on it.

Page Name:
URL:
Contact Name:
URL Where CompuNotes Link will Be:

Doug or I will respond with the exact URL for CompuNotes.

The drawing will be random and will be made by my 7 year old daughter.
She loves picking names from a hat . . .

2=> Winner!
This issue's winner: dougdal@INDY.NET

3=> Joe Lavin's Unique Perspective, mailto:joe@joelavin.com

Sponsored in Part by Schick
by Joe Lavin

Being useless is now all the rage. All over the web, lists of useless
pages are dominant. Hoards of people are proudly proclaiming their pages
to be useless. More and more people are cataloging their t-shirt
collections and putting them on-line. There's only one problem. There's
another group of useless pages that are not getting the recognition they
deserve. I am talking about the really useless sites. I am talking about
corporate web sites.

I'm sure you understand. More and more, you'll be sitting at the
television, watching your favorite commercial, and in small print on the
screen you'll see a web address. I was recently watching an ad for a
Schick razor and saw in the bottom of the screen a tiny
"http://www.schick.com." I was amazed. Intel and IBM are one thing, but
why would a razor need a web page? I decided to check it out, and I must
say that Schick's pages bring a whole new definition to the word
"useless."

Sure, they look pretty. And they do have content, just not content
anyone would want to see. The main feature is an interview with the
"Schick Shaving Woman," the star of their current commercial. You would
think she was Princess Di or Madonna from all the attention they are
giving her. Her name is Magali, and she is originally from Nice. I quote
from an extensive interview that can be found there.

"So how do you like America?"

"I love it. It's so different, and there's so much variety."

Thank you, Magali. Meanwhile, NBA player Jerry Stackhouse, who
apparently couldn't land a sneaker contract and had to settle for this
gig instead, is also featured. In his interview, he tells us, "I eat
Gummi Bears. I eat Gummi Bears all day. I do that even if I'm not
playing, and always before every game. It kind of gives me a little
energy." And who's to say it doesn't work? After all, his team, the
Philadelphia 76ers, did manage to win 22 of their 82 games this past
season.

And while you're visiting schick.com, you can also download a three
megabyte video of their latest commercial, because after all what the
world really craves is more commercials. This could start a whole new
trend. No longer will you have to sit in front of your television
watching bad programs, hoping against hope that they'll show your
favorite commercial. Now you can download it right off the web. Soon,
you may never need to watch television again. And it's convenient too.
As Schick claims, if you have a 14.4 modem, it will only take twenty-
eight minutes to download. God bless the World Wide Web.

Apparently, putting commercials on the web is a new trend. At Duracell's
web sight (which made Point's Top 5% of the Web for some unknown
reason), you can download over fifteen different Duracell commercials
from the past. Sure, each takes up about 1.3 megabytes of bandwidth, but
just think of the possibilities. You too can view the history of
Duracell commercials. Imagine how envious your friends will be when you
tell them about that 1988 Duracell spot you downloaded last night.

I also visited Colgate's web site. After all, when you think toothpaste,
you think Internet. Colgate's web site is different from most. They're
not just trying to sell toothpaste. No, as they say, "We've created
everything here with one purpose in mind: to improve oral care around
the world." It's rather nice of them too, and apparently the fact that
Colgate toothpaste is pitched on every page is just a coincidence.

At least the people who designed the web site for Tide laundry detergent
don't make any claims like that. They are trying to sell Tide. That's
all they care about, but they still provide some nice services. For
example, there is the Tide Stain Detective. If you have a tough stain to
clean, just select the type of stain and material in their convenient
form, and they'll tell you how to get rid of it. (Hint: Use Tide.)

I was impressed with the many different types of stains listed,
including "Blood Dried/Aged." Wow! Imagine if O.J. had known about this
service back on that fateful night almost three years ago. With the help
of the Tide Stain Detective, O.J. could have cleaned the bloody glove
and might even have gotten away with murder. . . . Um, wait, never mind.

Nabisco.com is another site that is working to make all our lives
better. Go there and you can take a ride on the snack bus. There's even
a page where you can introduce yourself to other people on the net who
like the same snacks as you do. They provide a handy form in which you
can "describe your favorite snack." Imagine. Soon. You can be chatting
on-line with that special person who likes to scarf down an entire
package of Fig Newtons just as much as you do. All thanks to the
generous folks at Nabisco.

The sad thing is that all these sites are attracting more readers than
many useful and entertaining web sites. I used to think that most people
would have the good sense to avoid commercials if given the chance, but
maybe that's not so. Maybe we are all doomed. Maybe we actually like
commercials, which is a scary thought. Personally, I don't want to think
about it, so instead I'm going to go eat a Fig Newton, have a shave with
a Schick razor, brush my teeth with Colgate, and do some laundry with
Tide.

Perhaps, if I'm feeling really wild, I might even buy some Gummi Bears.

(This originally appeared in Compuweb and ComputerUser. Since it was
written, some of these companies have probably changed their web sites.
Who knows? Maybe their sites are even more useless now.)
__________
Copyright 1997 by Joe Lavin

Joe Lavin's Humor Column
<http://www.sure.net/~joelavin>

Why have Netsurfer Digest, American Newspeak, and others compared Joe
Lavin to Dave Barry? Find out by reading his humor column every Tuesday
and Friday. For a free subscription, send e-mail to joelavin@sure.net.
Joe Lavin's writing has appeared in The Boston Phoenix, Might, Funny
Times, The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, and ComputerUser. But you can
receive his comedy for free. Order now! Operators are standing by!
(Well, actually, they're not, but Joe's sitting by his computer waiting
for your subscription to come in.)

4=> Product: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide 2nd Edition by David
Flanagan - book/reference
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
MSRP: $32.95

JavaScript is Netscape's scripting language designed for its popular web
browser Netscape Navigator to provide a means for web designers to build
interactive web pages without having to communicate with the server.
Since its inception in Navigator 2.0, JavaScript has proven to be very
popular, spawning a huge number of books offering to educate web
designers on how to use this powerful tool. In August of last year,
O'Reilly and Associates released the first version of JavaScript: The
Definitive Guide, labeling it as a Beta Edition since (at the time)
Navigator 3.0 had yet to be released and JavaScript itself was still
considered to be a beta release. With the release of Navigator 3.0,
O'Reilly sent Flanagan back to the keyboard to rewrite the book to
become truly worthy of its name. The Beta edition was a very good book,
providing an excellent description of JavaScript and a superb reference
for JavaScript objects, properties, and functions.

This new edition is nearly a complete rewrite, however, adding new
chapters and over one hundred new pages of text. The new edition also
includes new editions to the bug list and a discussion of compatibility
between the JavaScript implemented in Navigator 2.0, Navigator 3.0, and
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3.0 (which calls it Jscript). The second
edition of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is truly worthy of its name
- it is THE definitive guide to programming with JavaScript. Anyone
seriously contemplating programming with JavaScript will need this book.
Trust me on this - simply for the reference section alone, you will want
this book.

I reviewed the Beta edition back in August and when I received the
second edition I have to admit I wasn't entirely sure I was looking
forward to it. I had a dreadful feeling that they would simply add a few
new chapters about the new features in Navigator 3.0 and call that
sufficient. Imagine my surprise when I pulled the second edition out of
the box and realized how much heavier it was! Then I began leafing
through the table of contents and I quickly realized that a substantial
number of chapters had been added. Coverage of cookies, for example, has
been substantially improved, including an example script for creating,
reading, and removing a generic cookie. Cookies, for those of you who
don't know, are tiny bits of data that can be stored on your computer
and is associated with a particular web page or site. Only pages on the
site that created the cookie can read information in a cookie. For
example, sites can be tailored to the user's preference and the site
will remember that information each time the user visits by reading
the cookie stored by the user.

An entire new chapter has also been added to cover the new Image object.
Navigator 3.0 allows JavaScript to perform some primitive image
manipulation including simple animations. In addition the book includes
a chapter on LiveConnect, Netscape's term for JavaScript's ability to
interact with Java applets (and vice versa). Also covered is the ability
to communicate with Netscape's multitude of plug-ins.

I think what is most impressive about this newest edition, however, is
the writing of David Flanagan. The writing in the Beta edition was good,
but the writing in the new version has been improved in almost every
way. You can really tell that Flanagan has probably paid good attention
to those who purchased the Beta edition; in almost every way possible
the new version is much easier to understand and interpret. Code
examples in the book have been given the once-over and most of the bugs
have been squashed. Every aspect of this new edition seems redesigned
and improved, and I thought the Beta edition was good! Flanagan has
every right to be proud with the second edition; this is an impressive
effort. I would not hesitate to say that is the best effort I have seen
to comprehensively provide both a reference and tutorial material about
a single programming language in one book.

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: Web Page Designers from novice to expert

5=> Product: EA Sports Edition GRiP Multiport Gaming System -
game/hardware
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
Requirements: Windows 95, gameport
MSRP: $99.95

The ability to play against more than one human opponent is still a
relatively new phenomenon in computer games, but it is definitely the
hottest trend right now. Most of the focus has been on games that can be
played over the Internet, like Quake, where multiple opponents can play
against one another via their individual computers. Just like with
console games, however, it can be a lot more fun when your opponent is
in the same room. Until recently, however, playing one or more of your
friends on one computer meant that one person got the gamepad or
joystick and the others were left with keyboard - hardly an equal
playing field. In 1996, however, Gravis released the GRiP multiport
gaming system and changed the face of hot-seat gaming. This newest
version of the multiport is bundled with Triple Play 97 from Electronic
Arts, hence the name EA Sports Edition.

Installation was anything but quick and painless. I did as the
instructions said - I turned off the computer, plugged in the GRiP, and
turned the computer back on. Once Windows 95 booted up, I put in the
installation disk and proceeded according to the directions. Once the
software was installed, the system rebooted. I quickly loaded Triple
Play 97 in the hopes of trying out the GRiP. Once Triple Play was
running, however, I couldn't get it to recognize the GRiP. Then I
noticed that the status light on the GRiP was still red (according to
the instructions, the status light should be green in Windows 95).
Weird. I decided to check the joystick control panel to see if it had
been installed. The GRiP installs it's own Joystick Applet, overriding
the one included with Windows 95, however, when I tried to open it
nothing happened - it wouldn't open. It was at this point that I
happened to glance at the installation disk and realized that it read
Version 1.0. Sure enough, on Gravis's website (http://www.gravis.com)
there were the latest version of the GRiP drivers (ver. 2.1). I was in
for a further shock when I read the docs on the new drivers - they were
dated 12/96! What makes this shocking is that I didn't receive the GRiP
until mid-February, after the PR rep for Gravis informed me that the
first units had just arrived from the factory. Yes, that's correct,
despite the availability of properly working drivers, Gravis was still
shipping the faulty old ones! There was still more insult to the injury,
however, for it appeared that the problem with the old drivers and my
system was that the drivers were incompatible with the gameport on Plug
and Play sound cards. What makes this the icing on the cake is that my
sound card is an Ultrasound Plug and Play - made by Gravis - the very
same Gravis that makes the GRiP. It is simply stunning to think that
apparently Gravis never bothered to check whether their own sound card
could run the GRiP!

Okay - so now finally, the light on the GRiP was green and the system
was up and running. Now that I'd gone through all this trouble, was it
worth it? For multiplayer gaming, the answer is a resounding yes! The
GriP comes with two 8- button pads and has slots for an additional two
pads - allowing four people to play at the same time. The gamepads
themselves are smaller than the original Gravis gamepad but are easy to
grip and the buttons are easy to find and remember. Once installed
properly, getting the GriP up and running in Triple Play 97 was no
problem. In no time at all a friend and I were playing head to head in a
fierce rematch of last year's NL pennant championship series - the
Cardinals and the Braves (I was playing the Cardinal of course!). It was
fun and it was furious - a great way to spend an afternoon. Triple Play
97 could be another review unto itself - despite the great action the
interface used to get the game going is horribly bad. The documentation
included with the game is abysmal - it explains virtually nothing about
the interface to the game (for example, it took the longest time for us
two computer jocks to figure out how to set up the system so that we
each were playing with a gamepad). For console gamers it may be exactly
what you are used to - but for us PC nuts it is not intuitive to say the
least. But at least the game is fun to play once you get through all the
hassle!

The GRiP also comes with a CD that includes various utilities and
shareware versions of a number of games including Heretic. On the face
of it the choice of games might seem odd - none of them support the
GRiP, however, you should remember that the GRiP is a new component and
support is lacking in most games. You can still play as a single player,
though.

If you have a premium quality joystick that you prefer for flight
simulators, the GRiP comes with a pass-through for two joysticks that
enable you to continue to use your joystick while not having to remove
the GRiP from the system. For the most part this works fine but there is
apparently a problem with the Sidewinder 3D Pro (my joystick,
naturally!). The joystick doesn't function well through the pass through
- Gravis says that this is due to the fact that the Sidewinder Pro is a
digital joystick. There are some workarounds out there however so all is
not lost!

The new Gravis joystick applet is nicely done. It provides a nice, easy
to use and intuit panel for quickly switching joysticks or gamepads and
calibrating them. To some extent it seems a little strange for Gravis to
have included the calibration routines for the GRiP - it automatically
calibrates itself under Windows 95, so there is no need to run the
calibration test on it! One nice feature you can reach from the applet
is the Gravis Keys utility which allows you to setup a gamepad to the
button configuration you want. It even comes with some preset button
combinations for a variety of games (like Quake) which you can alter to
suit your needs.

Well that about does it. Despite all the gripes in the first part of the
review, I do like the GRiP. Being able to play another person in the
same room is a lot of fun - much better than playing remotely over the
Net where you can't see their reaction when you nail a homer out over
center field. Sports games in particular are well suited for playing
with the GRiP. I can't imagine that it will be too long before we see
other manufacturer's follow suit - the lure of being able to play
another person face to face is simply too strong. Until then the GRiP is
the only game in town. Now, back to the game and to see if I can beat
the Braves in game 7

Advanced Gravis
101-3750 North Fraser Way
Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J5E9
604-431-5020
<http://www.gravis.com>

Installation/Ease of Use: DNF
User-Friendliness: Silver Medal
Quality: Silver Medal
Audience: All

6=> Product Reviewed: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft Office 97
Professional by Joe Kraynak and Sherry Kinkoph - book/instructional
Reviewed by: Dr. Konrad H. Kossmann,
mailto:khkross@freenet.columbus.oh.us
MSRP: $19.99

The QUE series of Idiot's Guides to various operating systems and
applications has acquired a well-deserved reputation in the computer-
literate community. The one presented here is no exception. It deals
with the long expected issue of Office 97 after a lengthy run of Office
95. The name "Office" implies that by purchasing the Microsoft software
you are indeed acquiring a complete package containing a word processor
(Microsoft Word), a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel), and a database
program (Microsoft Access). In addition there is PowerPoint (a program
to assist you in putting together and presenting a slide show), Outlook
(a daily planner) and a chapter on office routines as pertaining to the
Internet and networks and intranets. The organization of the contents of
the guide is very logical and the index is excellent. There is a good
introduction to the book and a very wise recommendation in a paragraph
entitled "How Do You Use This Book?" It says: There is no need to read
this book from cover to cover--unless you are just trying to rack up
some overtime at work. What is meant is that the user will have to read
only the chapters (or parts) which relate directly to the job actually
being done

It is a book one will want to keep close by and consult more or less
frequently as circumstances require. How Is This Book Going to Help? It
explains the basics you need to know about the Microsoft Office programs
as clearly and simply as possible. (Don't think for a minute that you
have to know everything to use a program). It tells you the ins and outs
of using Microsoft Office to create documents of all kinds, design
graphic presentations with pizazz, make complex numbers simple with
spreadsheets, build databases of information and utilize the power of
electronic messaging. It gives you step-by-step instructions for
integrating databases, documents, presentations and spreadsheets to give
you even more computing power. It opens up a world of possibilities as
you learn how to link and embed data from one program into another. It
provides down-to-earth advice when the going gets tough. The pages are
liberally sprinkled with illustrations (actual photos of screens) with
detailed explanations. There are numerous tables, pointers and tips. On
practically every other page the reader is invited to "Check this out",
meaning to read what's in the box. In other words, Microsoft Office
doesn't have to make you feel like an idiot.

You are no idiot, of course. You can use a garage door opener, get money
from an ATM and leave voice mail messages at work. But when it comes to
using Microsoft Office, you feel like leaving the office forever. Don't
pack up your desk yet! Pick up The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft
Office

This book helps you to make sense of this all-in-one suite of
applications, so you can get things done and get on with your life.
You'll learn all the basics fast, then move on to simple steps for
making the programs work together--like turning your Word report into a
PowerPoint slide show, or linking your Access database with an Excel
spreadsheet. (Hey what's the point of having all these great programs if
you can't make them share a few features?) Best of all, everything is
presented in an easy-to-understand format, complete with tips,
definitions and explanations to help you save time and effort

QUE Corporation
201 W. 103rd Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46290
(800)-835-3202
<http://www.mcp.com/que>

7=> Product: Animal Planet: The Ultimate Wildlife Adventure -
educational
Reviewed By: Gail Marsella, mailto:gbcmars@enter.net
Requirements: 486-50MHz, 8 Megs 2xCD-ROM drive, Windows, soundcard

You start up high in Animal Planet, from an eagle's viewpoint, wide-
angle across an enormous vista, with migrating herds, a distant circling
flock of birds, lakes, mountainsides, and grasslands. There's a surreal,
hypnotic quality to the spectacular graphics, accompanied only by wind
sounds. If you just watch, the whole scene turns slowly. Click on any
part of the scene to zoom in on that type of ecosystem. If you choose an
ocean or lake, the view shifts to underwater.

Once you've selected an ecosystem, a spyglass falls from the sky to
allow you to explore. If you move the spyglass toward the edges of the
screen, you can move around among the pages; one choice allows you to
see the scene with only plants, no animals.

Click the spyglass on any animal in the scene, and a page of information
on the animal appears, with habitat and life cycle facts. (Surprisingly,
this descriptive material is often pretty dry and textbookish, although
it appears to be thorough. Considering the quality of the graphics, you
would think that a writer of perhaps Stephen Jay Gould's stature should
have been hired to do the wordsmithing.) An interesting feature on the
individual animal pages is a "connections" button that links to similar
animals.

Move the spyglass to the lower edge of the screen and a menu of other
choices appears: Animal Tracker, Field Notes, Bio-Web, Help, and Quit.
(Quit is subtly macabre: its icon is the skull of a dead animal.) The
Animal Tracker is a search engine that accesses the entire collection on
the CD-ROM; scroll down an alphabetical list of animals and choose one
to study, or type a keyword into the edit box.

The Field Notes choice is a notepad for collecting facts and information
on the various animals whose pages you visit. The information can be cut
and pasted into a word processor to write reports. Oddly, you can only
get the entire text of an animal's description imported in this way; you
can't take your own summarized notes, which would have made the Field
Notes feature much more useful.

The Bio-Web feature is the real treasure in Animal Planet. It loads your
Internet browser and links to animal resources on the Web, from a
collection of URLs stored on the CD-ROM. You need a recent version of
Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer to use it, and I found it
necessary to dial the Internet manually before starting a search with
Bio-Web, but the resource links are very good - zoos, museums, aquaria,
animal clubs, wildlife protection organizations, and various other
children's sites.

8=> Clickables!

Sites Doug and I have come across this week you may be interested in:

Some sites from Doug this week:

<http://www.mccannas.com/pshop/photosh0.htm>
 Laurie McCanna's Photoshop tips

<http://startrek.msn.com>
 Official Star Trek Website

<http://www.babylon5.com>
 Official Babylon 5 Website

<http://www.universalstudios.com>
 Universal Studios - including "Chat with the Stars"

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Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net
Assistant Editor: Writer Liaison: Doug Reed--
mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/
Website: <http://www.compunotes.com/main.html>
e-mail: mailto:notes@inlink.com
fax: (314) 909-1662
voice: (314) 909-1662
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CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the
PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites,
great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a
week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never
dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world
the way it is! Please tell every on-line friend you know about us!
CompuNotes
B440
1315 Woodgate Drive
St. Louis, MO 63122
notes@inlink.com
(C)1997 Patrick Grote
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END OF ISSUE
