Editor: Brian Christopher
(1) It is agreed that to get outside speakers for the Internet SIG does not make a lot of sense, since it would be in competition with the General Meetings. Therefore, in the future the General Meetings of both SMUG and SPAUG will feature an Internet subject every 3rd or 4th General Meeting, and when appropriate (i.e., if the topic is not platform dependent) each Club will invite the other to its Internet meetings via the Listservers.
Internet questions can be brought to the Q&A period before any General Meeting. Burning questions, or hot news about the Internet can be sent to ALL on the e-mail lists via the Listservers.
(2) If anyone wants to continue our **informal** meetings on Internet topics, they should step forward to volunteer to lead such groups for SMUG and/or for SPAUG. Since these meetings may be small, and there might even be several different SIGs on different topics (e.g., multimedia, VMRL, Java, HTML, etc.), perhaps such groups should meet at someone's home, so that a computer will be available. Volunteers should send their suggestions and comments to BOTH Clint Kraft and to Kendric Smith.
We look forward to your response. Best wishes for the Holiday Season!
Clint Kraft: ckraft@crl.com
Kendric Smith
Present:
Brian Christopher, President and PrintScreen Editor
Nancy Helmy, Vice President
Larry Weinberg, Treasurer
Beverly Altman, Director At Large
Mildred Kohn, Secretary
Kendric Smith, Internet Webmaster
Jim Dinkey, Member
Jim Bailey, Member
Walter Varner, Member
Bill Weber, Member
Unknown man
The meeting was called to order at 10:15 a.m. in the clubhouse of Larry's condo. Larry Weinberg gave the treasurer's report. We are financially sound thanks to the Sidewalk Faire. The PrintScreen had been costing $35 per year per member last year, but now that Brian is putting out a briefer newsletter, the cost is down. The maximum saving could occur if every member had access to Internet. The treasurer's report was accepted.
Kendric Smith gave the Home Page update. Kendric is doing all of the work and requests more participation by members who could find interesting links for the Home Page, particularly links to other PC groups just as the MAC groups are linked. About 35 of our 89 members get e-mail. Ways of encouraging members to get modems and get Internet training and access were discussed. A number of our members have attended beginning Internet demonstrations given at SMUG (Stanford Macintosh Users Group) meetings, but it was suggested that the best learning occurs when one teacher teaches two or three others and these people then teach others in turn, which we dubbed "pyramid hand holding."
The club needs a computer for DOM (Disk of the Month) demonstrations and for the use of guests who present at our meetings. There was a suggestion that we build one to save money and as a learning exercise for members. This was countered by the fact that we have the money to buy a laptop, this size being a necessity for ease of carrying. Further, at present our priorities should be on building our membership, finding a regular place to meet, getting an overhead projector and a screen. Club members are urged to look for a place where we can comfortably meet on a regular basis at little or no cost.
The members of any board need volunteers to carry out various tasks. Come to the open Board Meetings to find out how your talents can help build the club. Members will be queried about their likes and dislikes among the club activities and asked for suggestions. There is no reason to have a club if it isn't serving the members. On the other hand, members have to give something back to the club to keep it going. , At future meetings members will be checked off at the door and given a raffle ticket. Guests will sign in and if they join, they, too can have a raffle ticket. Group cohesiveness can be aided by publishing the Board Meeting notes in the PrintScreen. A report of the general meeting should also be in the PrintScreen for the benefit of members who missed the meeting.
The Board criticized itself for not following up on ideas and suggestions, for discussing items without coming to a vote and a plan of action. Henceforth an agenda will be sent out and each item will be voted on or tabled. The presence of club members not on the Board would add to the ability to solve our problems and facilitate the implementation of the solution.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m.
Mildred Kohn, Secretary
[excerpt taken from Inside CompuServe, written by Richard Wagner, copyright 1994 by New Riders Publishing. Understanding FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a tool for transferring files on the Internet. FTP uses a standard protocol for file transfer so that you can exchange files between two computers, no matter their make and type. You can use FTP to receive files from a remote system or to send files to remote computers from your desktop.
You can FTP almost any type of data you can think of--from entire text of book (such as the Bible, CIA WorldFactbook, or Alice in Wonderland), satellite images from NASA, official White House press releases, and research papers from universities. As with CompuServe, you can also find freeware and shareware readily available. Any files you retrieve will either be ASCII, binary, or compressed.
The principle function of FTP is to simplify file access between your computer and the remote Internet system. You can use FTP to view the contents of directories on a remote machine, move between directories, retrieve files from the remote site, or, if you have proper access, upload files from your PC to the remote computer. If you have an Internet account elsewhere, you could use FTP to access files from a remote location using your CompuServe account. However, the most common use of FTP is to obtain files from Internet systems that grant public access to their files. These computers are known as anonymous FTP sites. Anonymous FTP enables you to access a remote computer without an account already established at that host site. The standard anonymous FTP protocol is to accept anonymous as the username and your Internet address as the password. Once you are logged in, you are free to access the public files on the remote computer.
There is a risk for an Internet site to allow anyone to access the contents of their computer. Therefore, an anonymous FTP connection will have strict restrictions on access compared to a normal user of that computer.
An important thing to remember when you download a file is to check it with virus protection software. This contrasts greatly with CompuServe. Using CompuServe, you can have confidence that any file available in a forum library is free of any virus, because it is checked before hand by a forum administrator. The same is not necessarily the case for a file on the Internet. While viruses are rare on the Internet, they are not unheard of. The best advice is to always FTP with care.
by Brian Christopher
I have received the following software for review. Do you want to write a review?
Yes, then e-mail (see next section) me or call for availability [(H) 344-7174].
A. Life Form - personal health management by Fitnesoft (3 1/2" disk)
B. Trispectives - 3D modeling, illustration and animation Win95 (2 copies -CD-ROM)
C. HP Info Disk - covers new printer and scanner releases, etc. ( 3 1/2" disk)
Microsoft has sent me a box containing:
1. Field Guide to the Internet with Win95 - Book
2. Microsoft TechNet - CD-ROM and Book
3. MSTV - Microsoft Win95 - videos - part 1 & 2
4. MSTV - Office 95 Tour - video
5. MindShare Productivity Pack - CD-ROM for Win95 contains
a. Works & Bookshelf 95
b. Money 95
c. Publisher 95
d. Bob
6. Microsoft Home catalog
7. PR toolkit - generating positive press coverage about your user group
8. Microsoft Magazine (http://www.microsoft.com/magazine)
Do you want to write a review?
Yes, then e-mail (see next section) me or call for availability [(H) 344-7174].
Call Jim Bailey at 415-494-0631 for Time and Place
Nominations are open for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Director at Large. Submit nominations at General Meeting or to a Board Member.
When I saw that Disk Depot in Mt. View had a 7-CD 2X changer, I decided that this was the device for me. Meant that I could stop fooling around with constant changing of CDs and I could just leave the whole mess alone after initial loading. And then there was the price -- $129 for a unit that was selling for $850 not long before.
It was only 2X speed, but that was not much concern to me as the unit would not be used for multimedia.
And further, I would gladly take slower equipment that worked rather than the new stuff that didn't work right out of the box.
So I bought one.
And a controller card that introduced a required SCSI-II bus into my IDE-oriented machine. My ulterior motive was to begin the ability to have additional disks on the machine as I was tight on disk space because of the demands of DOS, WIN 3.1, OS/2 Ver 3 (Warp) and Linux all on my machine.
For simplicity I wanted to be able to put each operating system on its own disk but IDE only allowed for 2.
So I bought their $99 interface card.
When I started the install, the instructions for the interface card seemed a little bit cryptic. After I took the instructions to out guys at work who deal with this every day, even they weren't able to decipher it. The software floppies could not even be run.
So I took it back. The store owner said that he had sold lots of this combination without difficulty. It seems that possibly my copy had some missing instructions. I didn't much like the pigeon English either. So I kept the CD and then went down to NCA and bought (for less money) an ADAPTEC SCSI-II interface.
What a difference!
Clear instructions. 100 pages rather than 4 if instruction manual. Software install that included even the CD I was installing and on-line support if I needed it (I didn't).
So the interface card install was trivial under Adaptec, the CD came on board with problems (read the instructions) and all was well.
When I brought up File Manager, there were an additional 7 icons for disks. I wondered how I could select each one and that is how. Software included a means of telling what the various disks were.
I recommend the buy.
New Member: Vincente Grande
Renewing Members:
Wes Anderson
Robert Cronin
Roger Finke
Karen Fung
Arlen Kertz
Clark Moore
Russell Smith
Larry Turpin
A lesson in sensitivity--case sensitivity that is. With so many different forms of Internet communication the following rules on case sensitivity may come in handy.
Domain names and the first part of URL's are not case sensitive. So, "MediaCity.com" is the same as "mediacity.com", is the same as "MEDIACITY.COM"
"http://www.mediacity.com" is the same as " hTTp://WwW.mediacity.com"
However, the path and filenames of URL's are case sensitive. Therefore,
"http://www.mediacity.com/mcu.html" is NOT the same as "http://www.mediacity.com/Mcu.html" nor is
"http://www.mediacity.com/images/mypicture.gif" the same as "http://www.mediacity.com/Images/mypicture.GIF"
E-mail addresses are generally NOT case sensitive. So, "paul@mediacity.com" is the same as "Paul@MediaCity.com"
Newsgroups ARE case sensitive and are almost always lowercase. Therefore,"alt.2600" not "Alt.2600"
The best tip of all is when in doubt, keep it lowercase.
Before I signed up with an Internet Provider and started to use the Internet, I used to say the Internet was an international junk-mail generator. Well there might be some truth in that but since I've started to use the World Wide Web, my attitude has really changed.
I signed up with MediaCity in Palo Alto as my Internet Provider for 3 reasons: (1.) they have the lowest entry rate ($7.95 for 5 hours) around, (2.) they take American Express, and (3.) they are within walking distance of where I live and work - sort of Global Village style.
I usually get very frustrated with modems and communication protocols, etc. but I have been pleasantly surprised with the ease of use of the Internet. I decided to install my software because I wanted to send an e-mail to Newt Gingrich and tell him what a great job I thought he was doing (your politics may vary). I installed the MediaCity software, logged onto the Net, brought up their shareware browser and in 3 or 4 clicks had found Newt's e-mail address. I then used Eudora shareware to send him an e-mail and logged off. All together it took me about 10 minutes. I was hooked.
For over a year I've been wanting to develop a Web Page to help me sell Chief Architect. Chief Architect is a really great house design CAD package for which I'm a dealer. I have now just completed my Web Page and I thought you would like to know what I learned from the experience. I have included designs for a house which I plan to build in the Bahamas someday. I've also included some really cool graphics from the Bahamas.
There is an avalanche of books coming out to teach you how to use the Internet and how to learn HyperText Markup Language. I prefer the practical approach versus the theoretical approach. The first book I bought was Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 14 Days by Laura Lemay and published by Sams.net Publishing. It tends to be a bit wordy and is a great reference book but it still wasn't practical enough for me. This is because it mainly teaches you how to code raw HTML code which reminds me too much of DOS batch files written in edlin.
The book I found to be the most helpful was Creating Your Own Netscape Web Pages by Andy Shafran and published by Que. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I really like the book and the author took just the right approach. I think the publisher should have been put in the stockade and flogged because they obviously didn't provide the resources to proofread the book. Overall the book is the best to get a quick start to develop your own Web Page/Home Page.
This book is based on Netscape which can be downloaded either from Netscape's Web Page (Netscape.com) or from MediaCity's Home Page. I upgraded my desk top PC to Windows 95 in order to take advantage of the Netscape 2.0, the 32 bit beta version of Netscape's browser. The 32 bit version will let you run JAVA applets and is faster than the 16 bit version. Netscape 2.0 is considerably faster that 1.x versions currently on the market.
Shafran gives you a brief overview of the Internet and Netscape and then quickly recommends Hot Dog as an HTML editor. The book comes with a CD-ROM full of software and useful graphics. One problem I had was that I discovered the version of Hot Dog on the CD-ROM is not the version he is talking about in the book. The author gives you the address (sausage.com) for Hot Dog so you can download the Pro version which mostly matches up with the illustrations in the book. Hot Dog gives you 30 days of use before you have to buy it at $99 or download it again. Hot Dog is not WYSIWYG. You type in your text and highlight it and then hit a Hot Dog button to insert the HTML code. This is actually very good because you can always go back and key in your own code directly.
On page 43 Shafran tells you about his sample Home Page on the CD-ROM but doesn't tell you how to see it or copy it from the CD-ROM until you are half way through the book. (Que gets a day in the stockade for greed). When you bring up Hot Dog it gives you a button on the top left tool bar to automatically open Netscape so you can view the results of your HTML code without going on-line. While you have Netscape open you can open the sample Home Page Shafran gives you on the CD-ROM.
On page 45 after the
and paragraph there is some more code missing to make life interesting. (Add another day for Que in the stockade for greed). It wasn't till I got to page 54 that I realized that the author and I were talking about different versions of Hot Dog.A really cool piece of shareware on the CD-ROM is version 3.0 of Print Shop Pro which allows for 256 colors in a graphic - version 2.0 only allowed for 8 colors and so the program had a very limited color range by which to guess what was the closest color to the ones on your captured or copy and pasted graphic. Version 2.0 kept changing the white roofs on my house to black, same with the kitchen cabinet panels.
Included with Print Shop Pro is a browser that acts like a slide sorter you may have used for color slides of your last vacation. When it comes up it just asks you for a directory and then it displays a thumbnail of all the graphics in that directory. If you double click on a thumbnail it brings up Print Shop Pro.
One really nice feature of Netscape is that if you see a graphic you think you would like to use in your Home Page, you can just right-click on it and download it to your hard disk. I have the Web Page of the Ministry of Tourism of the Bahamas to thank for most of mine. I have actually been to most of these locations and SCUBA dived off some of these beautiful beaches.
One graphics problem I had with Print Shop Pro was that I was having problems with the pictures I had captured from Chief Architect. I turned them into GIF files and a couple of them looked OK in Netscape on my PC but others looked really bad. The black lines for the edges of walls and furniture had been stripped out and the background color came through. I took these over to MediaCity and Bob Marzewski, VP Web Sites, AKA the Wizard, converted them using Adobe's Photo Print Shop and they came out just fine. I also noticed that the palm trees I stole, eh, downloaded had transparent backgrounds. Well I just had to have that! Bob and Tom at MediaCity showed me how to download and use LView Pro which allows you to make the background transparent. I also got rid of the background of the picture of the house on my first page but the background looks slightly knurled.
You have to contact your Internet Provider for instructions on how to create a Web Page directory on the IP's machine. This you can usually find on their Web Page under Technical Support. One of the things nobody bothers to tell you is how you get your graphics and HTML files from your computer to the IP's computer - minor detail. You have to use FTP to upload the files. You then have to use FTP to change the names of your HTML files from .htm to .html. Also your first or main page should be called index.html so the system knows to bring that one up first.
Come visit Compucon's Home Page at http://www.MediaCity.com/~rharding and e-mail me what you think. There's always room for improvement. Download the Chief Architect demo along with the sample plans and try it out.
Dick Harding is a Member of the Board of Directors of SVCS, Inc. and dBASE and Chief Architect SIG leader. He may be contacted at Compucon, Inc. (415) 322-9645.
Excerpts taken from Microsoft TechNet CD
Several months ago, a person who had 32 megabytes (MB) of RAM, was selling 16 MB because he said Win3.1 couldn't access over 16 MB of main memory. I researched this through the Microsoft TechNet CD with the following results.
Memory Address
It is not possible for an 8086 or 8088 machine to have extended memory. This is a hardware limitation of the 8086/8088 processors, which can handle only 1024K of total address space. The 80286 processor can address 16 MB of total memory, and the 80386 processor can address up to 4 gigabytes (GB).
MS-DOS Applications
The 386 enhanced mode Windows 3.1 allows MS-DOS applications to break the 640K barrier if they are written to use the Microsoft DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) specification. DPMI allows MS-DOS applications to run in protected mode under Windows 3.1, using up to 16 MB of extended memory directly.
386 Enhanced Mode
Windows 386 enhanced mode deals with conventional memory in much the same way that standard mode does. When 386 enhanced mode Windows 3.1 is started, it adds the amount of free conventional and extended memory; in addition, Windows 3.1 can use hard disk space as virtual memory (the "swap" file) and look at the total amount as one contiguous block of memory. Conventional memory has no special meaning under 386 enhanced mode, except when running MS-DOS applications. In 386 enhanced mode, MS-DOS applications run by creating virtual MS-DOS machines with up to 640K of free memory.
Virtual Memory Paging File
Windows 386 enhanced mode can use one of two types of virtual memory paging files, or swap files: temporary or permanent. Only one type of swap file can be used at a time when running Windows 3.1. Do not attempt to create a swap file on a RAM disk; this is a self-defeating pursuit--you would be sacrificing physical memory to provide a place to create virtual memory to replace the physical memory you have used to create the RAM disk. Windows 3.0 in 386 enhanced mode requires a minimum of approximately 1.5 MB of hard disk space free on the paging drive to provide virtual memory support with a temporary swap file. With Windows 3.1, that number is down to 512K.
Virtual Memory in Windows 95
Windows 95 uses a dynamic virtual memory manager to handle swap file duties. You should use the default virtual memory settings whenever possible. However, if you have limited hard disk space you may want to set some of the virtual memory settings manually.
In order to provide more memory to applications than is physically present in the computer in the form of RAM, Windows 95 uses hard disk space to simulate RAM. The amount of RAM in the computer plus the size of the paging file (also known as the swap file) equals the total physical memory, or virtual memory, size. Windows 95 uses a dynamic paging file that remains at a size of 0K until it is needed. The paging file can grow to use all the available space on the hard disk if it is necessary. This is the default setting for the paging file. You should use this setting if possible. If you have limited hard disk space, other applications may reduce the amount of virtual memory below that needed by Windows 95 and its applications. If this occurs, choose the "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" option button on the Performance tab of the My Computer property sheet. You can use this option to set a minimum and maximum size for the paging file. You can also choose to use no virtual memory. You should use this option only if there is enough RAM to meet all the needs of Windows 95 and the applications you run.
Commonly Asked Questions About Virtual Memory in Windows 95
Q. In Microsoft Windows version 3.x, a temporary swap file is slower than a permanent swap file. Will letting Windows 95 set my virtual memory slow down my computer?
A. No. The temporary swap file in Windows 3.x has to switch between real mode and protected mode, slowing down the computer. As Windows 95 runs only in protected mode, the swap file is as fast or faster than the permanent swap file in Windows 3.x.
Q. I compressed my hard disk with DriveSpace. Can I still select my own virtual memory settings? In Windows 3.x I cannot use a permanent swap file on a compressed drive.
A. If your compressed drive is supported by a protected-mode driver, it is better to use the compressed drive for the paging file. If the compressed drive is not supported by a protected-mode driver then you must place the paging file on the host drive.
Q. How can I determine whether my compressed drive is supported by a
protected-mode driver?
A. At this time there are protected-mode drivers only for DoubleSpace and DriveSpace compressed drives. You can also check the IOS.INI file (if it exists) in the Windows directory to see which drives require real-mode support.
I sent out the following e-mail:
Reviewers of Internet Sites Wanted for Print Screen.
I need people to visit and write a review on an Internet site. A total of three reviews are needed each month. I can supply the URL. You supply the article. Length should not exceed one-half page. (10 point Times Roman font). The article for each site needs to cover:
1. name of the site
2. the URL
3. the purpose of the site
4. who owns the site
5. information found there
6. any cool stuff on the site (is it a VRML site?)
7. links to other sites.
8. a general rating of the site in relation to like sites (ex: (@@@@) top site!)
9. number of pages loaded to get to main page
10. speed pages load (ie: heavy graphics - go fix dinner!)
11. links to other pages
12. anything else you want to include relevant to the site
I can give you examples of site reviews. Reviews should be sent to my e-mail address.....See ya at the Writer's SIG Fancy Dress Ball!...Brian
Jim Dinkey responded with:
I need to review with you whether or not the subjects of the review are limited.
For instance, I have been working with the COCOMO site at USC wherein the site, while having much for our company, sure has some really painful hang-ups that seem to be generic in Internet worldwide.
Specifically, I am referring to the propensity of web sits to, in their attempt to show off and in their assumptions as the creator assumes, forgets that a busy site can become virtually worthless. What I am alluding to is that many busy sites are NOT really available for many, many GIFs because of the inability to repeatedly reestablish connections for the multiple GIFs.
If one notices how the network operates, if the first of several attempts to get to a given site is rejected because the ports are all busy, we can assume that other subsequent attempts will be facing an equally poor probability.
So we try, wait a few seconds, cancel the non-return, and then resubmit until the connection is made.
Once we begin the download, the download often turns around and attempts an additional ten or more connects to get the GIFs. This is not apparent to the person who is writing the program, as he is inherently on the same computer; but to those who are NOT on the same computer, the download is virtually worthless because the probability of obtaining up to 20 connections sequentially is quite poor.
We need a solution to this problem, including the ability to essential resubmit the base file so that the missing GIFs and be obtained.
That is my grouse for this months article.
Jim, the review sites are only limited by good taste.....Thanks.....Brian
John Helmer responded with:
My favorite sites are
www.princeton.edu
vsl.cnet.com
www.ix.netcom.com
I could write evaluations on these.
I have not been able to find a good site for free stock prices and evaluations.
I am somewhat of a maverick, in that I use the LYNX, text based browser on CRL, for high speed access. So I can't give you graphics evaluations.
It would be useful to discuss the time it takes to download the homepages of various URL's. Is this provider dependent? If it gets any worse the whole Internet system could fail. What good is a 28.8 Kbps modem if the bandwidth of the system is saturated? Why should I upgrade from 14.4 Kbps on a dialup connection at $17.50/month, with unlimited access?
John, I'm looking forward to your reviews..........Thanks...Brian
Aldora Lee wrote:
Please let me see a sample, so I can decide whether I want to volunteer.
Aldora
The following review is from "Internet San Francisco" from Hayden Books.
http://www.commerce.digital.com/palo-alto/FutureFantasy/home.html
Type of Service: World-Wide Web
Categroy 1: Buy & Sell
Category 2: Hobbies
Description: A bookstore of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mysteries
Alternate Access: futfan@netcom.com
Review:
This is a fascinating online bookstore for the science fiction and fantasy lover. This site is one of the granddaddys of the Web. An interesting array of online services is provided. For example you can: read current or past newsletters, browse the online catalog, order books online, see covers from soon-to-be-released books, and more. This is a very cool site to visit either on the net of in person. When I go there, I try to bring a lunch because I know I will be there for a long time!
Suggested sites you could review are:
1. http://iguana.images.com- a QuickCam site
2. http://kksf.tbo.com-KKSF radio station
3. http://netmedia.com/ims/ssc/ssc.html Guide to Stanford Shopping Center
4. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ The Exploratorium
5. your choice
Aldora replied:
I hang out, when I can, at Stanford Shopping Center (the real one, not the viritual one), so let me take that site for review.
Sounds good to me......Thanks...Brian
Aldora wrote:
Pardon, but what's "VRML site"?
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a language for describing multiparticipant interactive simulations - virtual worlds networked via the global Internet and hyperlinked with the WWW............(ex: a virtual Mall)......Brian
What is Archie?
Archie is a tool people use for finding files at FTP sites. In essence, what you do is tell Archie that you're interested in files with a specific name or files that have a specified string in their names (a string is just a chunk of text). Archie goes out and looks through a list of files at an Archie server. Then it builds a list of files (and their Locations) that match your description and sends you the list. If you see something you want to retrieve, you use FTP to retrieve the file.
What is Gopher?
Gopher is, in essence, a menu of Internet resources. These menus are maintained by Gopher servers. The great thing about the Internet is all the information it provides, but there's a problem with this. You need a way to sift through everything. You need a way to find the specific piece of data you want. You need, well, you need Gopher.
**Brokers:
Charles Schwab.....http://www.schwab.com
Lombard Institutional Brokerage.....http://lombard.com
**Best of the Business News Sites:
CNN's Financial Network.....http://www.cnnfn.com
Dow Jones Business Information Services.....http://dowvision.wais.net
Reuters New Media
.....http://beta.yahoo.com/headlines/current/business/summary.html
**Center for the Abused Investor:.....http://www.investoraid.com
**Current Price Quotes:
PAWWS Financial Network.....http://pawws.secapl.com
Quote-Com.....http://www.quote.com
MIT Stockmaster.....http://www.ai.mit.edu/stocks.html
**Debt Councelors:
Debt Councelors of America.....http://www.debt-experts.com/
TRW Information Services.....http://www.trw.com/iss/isdiv.html
**Economic Indicators:
Concise Market Analysis......http://www.briefing.com
Economic Indicators.....gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/00/ebb/indicators/ei.txt
**Finance 'Zines:
Bloomberg Online.....http://www.bloomberg.com
Fidelity Funds.....http://www.fid-inv.com
Hoover's Online.....http://www.hoovers.com
Interactive Nest Egg.....http://nestegg.iddis.com/funddir/fundindex/letindex.html
Mutual Funds Magazine.....http://www.mfmag.com
Wall Street News.....http://www.netmedia.com/forecasts/
**Government Sources:
Securities and Exchange Commission.....http://www.sec.gov
Internal Revenue Service.....http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/
**Insurance News:
Insurance News Network.....http://www.insure.com
Quotesmith Corporation.....http://www.insure.com/Quotesmith
**Mutual Fund Guides:
NETworth Navigator.....http://networth.galt.com/www/home/navigator.html
**Personal Finance Information:
GNN Personal Finance Center.....http://gnn.com/gnn/GNNhome.html
PR Newswire.....http://www.prnewswire.com/cnoc/prnewswire.html
**Stock Exchanges:
American Stock Exchange.....http://www.amex.com
Chicago Mercantile Exchange.....http://www.cme.com
Marketplex of the Chicago Board of Trade.....http://www.cbot.com/mplex.htm
**Virtual Libraries:
WWW Virtual Library: Finance and Investments.....http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/dept/fin/overview.htm
Financial Data Finder.....http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/dept/fin/osudata.htm
Wall Street Directory.....http://www.wsdinc.com
Here's a rundown on what actions were taken at last week's planning meeting. Attendees: Nancy Helmy, VP; Mildred Kohn, Sec.; Bev Altman, Dir.; Kendric Smith, Webmaster; Clark Moore, Member.
1. Program Chair: No volunteer.
DOM: Mildred Kohn will ask Robert Mitchell if he will prepare DOMs.
Publicity: No volunteer.
2. Election of Officers: No nominations for President, VP, and Treasurer. Mildred Kohn will run for Secretary, and Beverly Altman will run for Director. Beverly will contact two members suggested as candidates for President.
3. Meeting Place: List of suggested possible meeting places and person to check out the site and update information and availability.
Jim Bailey, Fry's
Nancy Helmy, Elk's Lodge
Beverly Altman, Varian
No volunteer, SLAC
Kendric Smith, Stanford
Larry Weinberg(?), Cubberley
No volunteer, HP
Mildred Kohn, SRI
No volunteer, Wall St. Journal
4. Treasury: In January, inflows were $40, outflows were $270. Balance at the end of the month was $4219. Report approved. An agenda item on a treasury reserve for SPAUG equipment was not addressed. (I forgot. The item can come up on next month's planning meeting agenda.)
5. Constitution: Clark Moore volunteered to draft a new set of bylaws. He collected comments and copies of the older, pertinent SPAUG documents. As Secretary, Mildred Kohn took possession of a set of documents consisting of the SPAUG Constitution from 1987, 1992 Articles of Incorporation, and 1992 Bylaws.
----------------------------------------------------
Post Meeting Research by Kendric Smith
Subject: Meeting Rooms at Stanford
It took 7 phone calls to different people to finally get to the "TOP".
The answer is NO. We cannot meet at Stanford under any circumstance,
unless sponsored by a Department at Stanford. Then it is $44/hour,
billable to and payable by the Department. So you can write off Stanford for ever more!
Cupertino, Ca., February 1, 1996- MediaMagic Solutions, Inc. Announced today the release of Instant Memos, a utility software program for the PC that works like the traditional sticky notes found on virtually ever desk. Developed by Daniel Oran, the designer of Microsoft's Windows 95 user interface, Instant Memos installs in seconds and is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and very effective organizational tool.
"I used the same process to design Instant Memos that I used to design the Start Button and Task Bar for Windows 95," says Oran. "I wanted this to be something that was quick and easy-to-use but was also extremely useful." Oran has taken this simple concept and created Instant Memos, a practical and efficient way to organize those small "to-do" lists that are hard to manage or anything else you might use the actual scraps of paper for.
The heart of the product is a note dispenser that's always on the screen. You can choose the color of the note, the note size and the style of the font. With one click on the word "New," a blank note pops up from the dispenser. Everything typed on the note is stored automatically. Each time you start your computer, the notes appear exactly on the screen where they were left. An unique alarm function lets you set the time and the date and instantly displays the note at the appropriate moment. Instant Memos is a simple and affordable solution designed to make time management and life a little easier.
System Requirements:
Win95 or Win3.1, VGA or SVGA, mouse or equivalent device and a 3.5" floppy disk drive. Also required are 350 KB of RAM and 1 MB of hard disk space. Anticipated SRP for Instant Memos is $19.95. User Group pricing is $15.95 plus shipping and handling.
MediaMagic Solutions, Inc. Is a young publishing company committed to bringing the world quality, affordable consumer products. The company aims to provide consumers with original products that focus on personal productivity and personal enrichment. MediaMagic Solutions, Inc. Stays focused by keeping a visionary eye on the future and delivering superior products that are unique, fun and easy-to-use.
MediaMagic solutions, Inc. Is located at 20245 Stevens Creek blvd., Ste 201, Cupertino. Ca. 95014. Tina can be reached at (408) 777-7980 or tina@magicstuff.com
The World Wide Web is aptly named for two reasons: one, it is a randomly interconnected matrix of information, and two, it is also a sticky trap for those who do not step onto it with caution and preparedness.
I would like to share with you six major areas of disaster that I have seen
both first-hand, and learned from other's experience in building and
maintaining World Wide Web sites. These six areas cover major stumbling
blocks that can totally destroy your efforts at a good web site if not put
you out of business entirely depending on your size and reliance on
computers and the web. Of course these are only the tip of the iceberg, but
if you can avoid these difficulties, you can get started faster, with a
better web product, and at a lot less expense.
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1. Ignoring your customer's impact on your web site
If you set up an E-mail response system and your customers are kind enough to actually use it to respond to your Internet efforts, DON'T simply file that information away.
There are two ways to totally waste the valuable research your customers are giving you for very little money. The first is ignoring negative responses and not doing anything about them because you or your web team think they know best. LISTEN, READ, REACT! If they like something about your site, don't just pat yourself on the back feel good about it, DO something about it. Whatever they liked, do it again! Or update it! Or double the amount! Once you've received that invaluable response, act on it.
Another way to waste the contact that your customers have with your web
site, is to get a successful site going, and then let it sit there and rot
into oblivion.
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2. Trying to do it all yourself
We at Kitty Hawk Studios run into this sticky situation all the time, and must remind ourselves that there are many talented, hard-working people out their in the world who are worth every penny we pay them to take our problems and turn them into solutions.
It's very tempting to see all of the nifty computer tools available to all of us today and think: Hmmm, I can do a little of this, and a little of that, and if I learn how to do THAT, I can do all of this myself (Or within your company). BIG MISTAKE.
Consider that most 3D computer animation sequences will take at least 8 hours (and maybe a lot more.) JUST TO BUILD THE MODEL. Then you have to deal with lighting, textures, rendering set-ups, movie compression and color table issues. You are talking a lot of details and a lot of expertise.
At this moment in time, even your text documents have to be converted from whatever word processor or page layout program you are using to create them. Yes, there are HTML filters that begin the process for you, but a truly effective and attractive page takes a lot of work after it comes out of the word processor.
Even knowing what your choices are is a daunting task. At Kitty Hawk Studios
we spend many hours each week just researching the latest ways to use
electronic forms, perform financial transactions, and of course add new
exciting interactivity to your web site. You have a business to run, you
can't possibly spend the kind of time we do to find these things out and
also evaluate them. Get in touch with a good Internet design firm and ask
them a LOT of questions.
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3. Thinking that Interactive media is some cute "Add-On" to your
present advertising/marketing media purchases.
Or that the traditional mass media will produce exactly what you need in the Interactive areas. WRONG. It's time to realize something. Regardless of what businesses think of the usefullness of interactive media, there are some huge, powerful groups who are going to force you into it whether you want to or not.
Namely, the telephone and cable companies. Realize that the telephone companies have enjoyed their closely protected market for many decades for ONE reason, and one reason alone. They controlled the only means of delivery. The PHONE LINES. It's as if they owned all the roads, and only their trucks were allowed to deliver goods to your home or business.
That exclusivity is about to go away however, and it's got the "TELCOS" (telephone companies) running very scared. Enter the CABLE companies. If you think of a telephone wire's capacity like a gentle babbling brook, the cable coax wire coming into your home is like the Colorado River that carved out the Grand Canyon. If the telephone wire can bring you simple voice communications, the cable coax can bring you real-time, live video conferencing with satellite connections around the world and a simulcast from the planet Venus.
This has got the phone companies just a LITTLE bit worried. So to keep their customers from all bailing out to sign up for communication services from their cable company, the TELCOS are pushing current technology at light speed to allow them to push anything they think you'll want (from Movies, to Video Conferencing, to Interactive Home Shopping.) down their skinny little copper wire. Which, by the way, they are replacing with Fiber Optics wherever they can, but short-term thinking makes Fiber Optics look expensive, so it's being put in rather slowly.
What this means to your business is that both traditional broadcast T.V., as well as many printed marketing methods you may be used to, like catalogs and coupons, are headed for obsolescence. Not total extinction, but they are going to give up a large part of their market share because the telephone and cable companies have HUGE amounts of money and credit that they are going to spend to try to beat each other up as well as take our other competitors for the advertiser's dollar.
If you're not learning how these new media work, you will be susceptible to
two weaknesses: Not knowing what is most effective for your needs, and not
knowing the true value/cost of what you're buying is. If you don't talk to
us at Kitty Hawk, find SOMEONE who has experience in MARKETING, not computer
programming when you begin to build your web site. Then talk to someone who
has experience in INTERACTIVE media, not television or magazines
exclusively. You MUST find that vital mix to prosper and grow on the World
Wide Web, please don't jump in with a blindfold on and hope you'll feel your
way around.
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4. Not presenting your site concept properly to your management,
stockholders, partners, or whoever has to sign the checks.
Skip the technical mumbo-jumbo, get it down to dollars and cents or strong business reasons.
Until the solid financial transaction software packages are in place, it's going to be hard to sell a direct sales impact unless you have a product/service that matches up well with the Internet user base (See "Six Vital Questions to Ask Your Web Site Designer"). In the interim, imagine the Internet as the World's most inexpensive, 24-hr., 7-day a week, Planet-Wide focus group for your company.
One of the strongest motivators for management is to see two or three competitors doing something that they aren't. The feeling of missing out on something is one of the strongest sensations that drives business. Try to match competitive information up with the motivations that get your higher management in gear.
Particularily emphasize the huge user base that the World Wide Web has over
more traditional on-line services, and the much lower cost. Not to mention
total control over how your content looks, is used, and accessed. The
on-line giants have one major factor going for them, huge marketing and
advertising of their services. But even if you've heard of America Online or
CompuServe, do you have ANY idea of the companies that have a prescience
there? We don't.
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5. Waiting to build the World's Most Perfect Site
Not unlike other business opportunities that come and go, a world wide web site will be a different animal at different points in its life cycle. If you try to guess right now what the "perfect" site for you will be, and delay its creation until that goal of perfection is achieved, then you will watch your competitors function with much less perfect, but quite functional sites as they pass you by.
It's not a matter of degree, you either have a use for a web site or you don't. Black and White. If you use a good web consultant to determine what your needs are, they will simply turn you down if you don't have a good reason to be on the World Wide Web. We do it weekly at Kitty Hawk Studios. We could just take your money and dump you on a site, but we have much longer vision than that and we hope you do too.
But if your dreams and visions for your company's future match up with the
reality of the Internet as it is now and will be in the very near future,
(And we just got information last week that is going to blow the Internet
into WARP speed, come back for THAT report in a few weeks.) then you are
only hurting your self and your customers by not attempting at least a
LITTLE research and development into what the World Wide Web could do for
you.
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6. Lack of proper security knowledge
If you have a computer hooked to the internet, and that includes those you use for temporary "surfing", it is hooked to at least 4,000,000 other computers at that moment. That should be a sobering if not scary thought.
There are a few things and/or thoughts that can make life easier for a company that is beginning to use the Internet as an important business tool.
First, realize that E-mail you receive from other on the Internet or through other commercial on-line services cannot harm your system in any way. This applies only to the "message" part of your E-mail, however. If someone sends you a file of some kind, a program, a game, a spreadsheet, or a word processing document that is an "enclosure" or "attachment", that file does have the ability to carry a virus.
This means you should NOT be afraid to set up a web site that receives E-mail messages from your customers or other inquirers. Their mail to you is absolutely harmless, and should be looked upon as one of the huge benefits that the Internet can bring to you. Instantaneous feedback and research on your product and/or your web site.
If anyone DOES send you an attachment with their text message, DO NOT open it or run it. Run a virus checker program on your hard drives, and then decide if what they sent you is worthwhile trying out, or if it is from a known trustworthy associate. If so, make sure you have a recent backup of all your important and new files (you do back-up every day don't you?), and run the program on a computer that isn't hooked up to your main computer network. Run the virus checker again, and proceed if everything checks out.
Some companies are even going as far as keeping a dedicated computer(s) hooked to the Internet all by itself, with no connection to the other computers in the company. This assures your production goes on with no surprises from the Internet. But with employees transferring files by floppy disk, or maintenance on hard drives, you may get some inadvertant "socializing" between "Internet" and "Non-Internet" computers anyway, so continue to be vigilant.
There is only one way to be 100% safe from viruses, and that is to never let
your computer communicate or receive any files from outside itself. Of
course that negates the usefulness of your computer in the first place, so
just use some common sense and some good virus checking software.
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For a FREE report on SIX businesses that are slated to be IDEAL for Internet
Marketing, send an E-Mail to 71414.1103@compuserve.com
If you have any additional questions regarding Internet Marketing, visit Kitty Hawk Studios on the World Wide Web at: http://www.webcom.com/kittyhwk or write us at the above E-mail address.
We have additional reports, samples, and other web-related information for you absolutely free, no obligation, just information.
It rode into town in a plain brown box full of literature and videos. Share the Win95 experience with the Redmond development team on Microsoft Television (MSTV) the videos beckoned. "Quick, easy answers" were promised by the Internet Guide book. A couple of jewel cases and a kind hello from the Mindshare User Group, Annie Sparrow, Kerri Grubb and Laura Hoffman-Spady. All this greeted me as I looked through the latest promotional package from Microsoft. It looked good but all my spare time was taken getting Print Screen to the Post Office. As that project was completed, I went back to researching Windows memory usage and ram drives. The material I found seemed to be researched from other sources. Not contradictory just second hand. I wanted the white paper from the people who designed the operating system. Funny how I was staring at the Technical Information Network (TechNet) CD when that thought hit me. My fingers popped the two disk jewel case open and slipped Disc 1 in the drive. Setup raced through the program install. Quickly I was looking at "What's New" and "Using TechNet". What really grabbed my attention was the left side column which read:
TechNet News
MS Backoffice
Personal Systems
MS Office & Desktop Applications
Databases & Development Tools
Hardware
Planning, Analysis & Implementation
Technologies
Service & Support
Knowledge Base
More than 1.5 gigabytes of technical information or over 100,000 pages of detailed answers all in one place. A search engine sat quietly waiting for my command. The "ram drive" query produced 113 topics found. The associated words "ram & requirement" query found 723 topics. The motherlode started at topic # 9 with "Memory Management with Win3.0 & 3.1". The next big score was the "memory win95" query with 165 hits. Number 12 got hot with "How Windows 95 Manages Virtual Memory". Finally, I could resolve this memory issue. The concise writing of TechNet lends itself to a quick shot of knowledge adrenaline. Pumping the mouse button, I pulled together an article that totally eluded me for months.
On Disc 2 are the Supplemental Drivers & Patches. This includes:
The latest version of the complete Microsoft Software Library
Drivers for the entire line of Microsoft Products
Code samples
Utilities and templates
Printer, video, and keyboard drivers
Entire software library, European Windows drivers library
The drivers and patches were easily loaded on my system by clicking on the button imbedded in the relevant article. Inserting Disc 2 into my drive copied the file to my hard drive.
TechNet is updated every month with two compact disks and a full text search engine. A highly recommend tool for system administrators, network managers, support professionals, and MIS managers. Microsoft TechNet 1-800 344-2121 (dept. 3129)
Last updated: 9 February 1996 Location: http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/faq.html
What is a WWW robot?
A robot is a program that automatically traverses the Web's hypertext structure by retrieving a document, and recursively retrieving all documents that are referenced. Note that "recursive" here doesn't limit the definition to any specific traversal algorithm; even if a robot applies some heuristic to the selection and order of documents to visit and spaces out requests over a long space of time, it is still a robot. Normal Web browsers are not robots, because the are operated by a human, and don't automatically retrieve referenced documents (other than inline images). Web robots are sometimes referred to as Web Wanderers, Web Crawlers, or Spiders. These names are a bit misleading as they give the impression the software itself moves between sites like a virus; this not the case, a robot simply visits sites by requesting documents from them.
What is an agent?
The word "agent" is used for lots of meanings in computing these days. Specifically:
Autonomous agents
are programs that do travel between sites, deciding themselves when to move and what to do (e.g. General Magic's Telescript). These can only travel between special servers and are currently not widespread in the Internet.
Intelligent agents
are programs that help users with things, such as choosing a product, or guiding a user through form filling, or even helping users find things. These have generally little to do with networking.
User-agent
is a technical name for programs that perform networking tasks for a user, such as Web User-agents like Netscape Explorer, Email User-agent like Qualcomm Eudora etc.
What is a search engine?
A search engine is a program that searches through some dataset. In the context of the Web, the word "search engine" is most often used for search forms that search through databases of HTML documents gathered by a robot.
What other kinds of robots are there?
Robots can be used for a number of purposes:
Indexing
HTML validation
Link validation
"What's New" monitoring
Mirroring
So what are Robots, Spiders, Web Crawlers, Worms, Ants?
They're all names for the same sort of thing, with slightly different connotations:
Robots
the generic name, see above.
Spiders
same as robots, but sounds cooler in the press.
Worms
same as robots, although technically a worm is a replicating program, unlike a robot.
Web crawlers
same as robots, but note WebCrawler is a specific robot
WebAnts
distributed cooperating robots.
Aren't robots bad for the web?
There are a few reasons people believe robots are bad for the Web:
Certain robot implementations can (and have in the past) overloaded networks and servers. This happens especially with people who are just starting to write a robot; these days there is sufficient information on robots to prevent some of these mistakes. Robots are operated by humans, who make mistakes in configuration, or simply don't consider the implications of their actions. This means people need to be careful, and robot authors need to make it difficult for people to make mistakes with bad effects Web-wide indexing robots build a central database of documents, which doesn't scale too well to millions of documents on millions of sites. But at the same time the majority of robots are well designed, professionally operated, cause no problems, and provide a valuable service in the absence of widely deployed better solutions.
So no, robots aren't inherently bad, nor inherently brilliant, and need careful attention.
Where do I find out more about robots? Indexing robots How does an indexing robot decide what to index? If an indexing robot knows about a document, it may decide to parse it, and insert it into its database. How this is done depends on the robot: Some robots index the HTML Titles, or the first few paragraphs, or parse the entire HTML and index all words, with weightings depending on HTML constructs, etc. Some parse the META tag, or other special hidden tags. We hope that as the Web evolves more facilities becomes available to efficiently associate meta data such as indexing information with a document. This is being worked on...
How do I register my page with a robot? For Server Administrators I've been visited by a robot! Now what? A robot is traversing my whole site too fast! Most importantly, start logging information: when did you notice, what happened, what do your logs say, what are you doing in response etc; this helps investigating the problem later. Secondly, try and find out where the robot came from, what IP addresses or DNS domains, and see if they are mentioned in the list of active robots. If you can identify a site this way, you can email the person responsible, and ask them what's up. If this doesn't help, try their own site for telephone numbers, or mail postmaster at their domain. If the robot is not on the list, mail me with all the information you have collected, including actions on your part. If I can't help, at least I can make a note of it for others.
How do I keep a robot off my server? Robots exclusion standard. Don't put any HTML or English language "Who the hell are you?" text in it -- it will probably never get read by anyone :-)
How do I prevent robots scanning my site? Where do I find out how /robots.txt files work? # /robots.txt file for http://webcrawler.com/ User-agent: webcrawler User-agent: lycra User-agent: Two common errors: Will the /robots.txt standard be extended? Availability Where can I get a robot? Where can I get the source code for a robot? I'm writing a robot, what do I need to be careful of? Lots. First read through all the stuff on the robot page then read the proceedings of past WWW Conferences, and the complete HTTP and HTML spec. Yes; it's a lot of work :-)
I've written a robot, how do I list it?
Scott Segal, Online Marketing Company/Web Rent 1. Always keep your target audience in mind. Every piece of information on
your site should cater to your target audience. The Internet is used by
millions of people every day; many of these people are part of your target
market segment. Before you begin to create your site, identify your target
audience and write your site based on what you would want to see if you were in
their shoes. Whether you are advertising on the World Wide Web or in Time
Magazine, never forget the basics. Be sure to make your web pages simple,
concise, focused, benefit driven and easy-to-understand. Always include a call
to action on your web pages.
2. The World Wide Web is only part of your on-line marketing campaign. With
all of the hype the World Wide Web is receiving, other key areas on the Internet
must not be overlooked as places to generate on-line sales and compliment your
World Wide Web efforts. Newsgroups and mailing lists are great places to get
word out about your offerings. While overt solicitations are generally not
accepted in Newsgroups or on Mailing Lists, you may carefully get your ad
message across by using "sig files". These are footers that you attach to every
message posted to a Newsgroup or Mailing List. Your footer should include a
very brief description of what you do, your World Wide Web address and the
address to your autoresponse mailbox that people can send messages to and
automatically receive information about your products or services. Your "sig
file" should never exceed 6 lines.
3. Be sensitive to different web browsers. Avoid having your web pages be
"browser specific." Generally, no two web browsers display pages in the exact
same way. With the wide variation of browsers on the market today, you cannot
assume that your viewers will be using any one browser. Try not to make your
web pages browser dependent. The tendency for many developers is to create
pages that look good in Netscape without regard for how other browsers will view
them. Test your pages through many browsers to assess their design points.
4. Take advantage of every opportunity to promote your on-line information.
Once your business is on-line you must let the world know that they can find
your company's information on the Internet. Remember to add your World Wide Web
and e-mail addresses to your: business cards, letterhead, fax cover sheets,
advertisements and marketing collateral.
5. Links = traffic = sales. The World Wide Web is essentially a mass of
documents connected together through hypertext and hypermedia. It would take
someone a long, long time to find your site if it was not linked to any other
document on the Internet. You must actively pursue links to your pages by
contacting other companies in your industry who sell complimentary goods they
promote via web pages and asking them to provide a link to your page and you
will link to theirs (trade). Getting your site listed in the major directories
and search engines on the web can mean the difference between a successful site
and a failed one. Links are the most important part of your world wide web
marketing campaign - bar none.
6. Information is king. Besides links, this is the other most important
element of a successful world wide web site. The most highly traveled sites on
the web provide useful information, often referred to as "content" in web speak.
For example, Hot Wired, which was one of the first on-line "magazines" receives
more than 300,000 hits per day. This traffic is due in large part to the
quality of the content in this electronic publication; not the quality of it's
advertisements. Information brings people back to your site; your sales pitch
will not bring most people back. Offer something of benefit to your target
audience on your web site and you will keep them coming back for more.
7. Don't put your viewers to sleep. Avoid making your web site too
"Harvard"-like, people using the web want to be entertained while they seek out
information. Snappy graphics will add life to your site. Make your web site as
fun and entertaining as possible, even if you cater to a business clientele.
Have fun with your site, people love to see it.
8. Change is good. Information on your pages should change daily. When people
know that your on-line material is regularly updated they are likely to return
often. A site that always says the same thing offers the active web "surfer" no
reason to come back. Always make time to keep your site current and changing.
The best feature of the 95 MS windows video program seems to be its being able to
detect and help the user resolve IRQ and DMA, and wrong driver conflicts for
multi-media cards and fax-modem configurations.
The only negative things on the surface seems to be the desire of the
program to have the TSR's and resident virus programs removed or disabled
before loading the new software!
[F8] seems to be another neat feature of 95 in that it provides a "safe
mode" of operation for trouble-shooting which allows you to eliminate
potential problems step by step.
There are also very good basic networking tips and problem solving issues
discussed in the tape.
Another issue was selecting the the "LBA" mode for your new 1-gig hard drive
to allow it to work properly.
Technically the best feature is the device manager icon:
The yellow mark indicates trouble. The red-x indicates 32 bit addressing
has been disabled and drivers may be in a default condition.
Additionally, you can look at all the system settings--far better than the
MSD stuff in 3.1 or 3.11/ All the IRQ, DMA,and even SCSI settings are available.
The last item is if you want to look at 95 for FREE, yes I said
FREE..1-800-583-0042 Dept A020 --- you can get windows 95 and Office for
windows for a free 90 day evaluation on a CD. Just pretent to be a
developer for software.
So there I was sitting there paying close attention to center stage at the last meeting thinking how nice it was to have somebody like Brian Christopher and all of the volunteers working with him taking on the responsibility of making the group work, and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy it. That all changed with a tap on the shoulder from Bev Altman. So much for my leisure time in retirement. Welcome to a new responsibility!
First off, a very large thanks to Brian and each of the individuals on the staff this last year who did their part in putting it all together. It is a major effort to obtain good guests for our meetings each month. Brilliant and talented individuals willing to demonstrate the applications that you want to see are not necessarily standing in line waiting for invitations from user groups. The contributions of personal time put into the planning and execution of the meetings, publishing and mailing PrintScreen, updating the Web Page, keeping track of membership dues, finances, publicity, picking up & distributing the mail, preparing the disk-of-the-month, and all of the other behind the scene activities, are sincerely appreciated
So who is Bob Mitchell? (not Robert Mitchell...he is the other club member who has the advantage of fewer miles, and certainly more energy). The older fella just retired last September from 43 years in "big time show biz". I have spent the last 41 years with KGO-TV (Channel 7) in San Francisco. That is one of the ABC stations along with the ABC network, and all other ABC properties that Capital Cities Broadcasting acquired a few years back. As you know it recently became part of the Disney Corporation. I left the station before having had the distinct experience of receiving a paycheck with a picture of a mouse on it, however Mickey does appear on the Disney stock certificates that were received to replace CCB certificates. During that period of 41 years I served as Film Director, Assistant Director of Programming and finally as the Program Operations Director of KGO-TV. A parent of three boys (now adults), there was past involvement in all the kid activities such as scouts, (as Scout master and Committee Chairman), and Little League (as League president). Other volunteer activities include the Chairman of a recreational group, membership on a church financial council and president of that church's Pastoral Council. This is not to say I am that good, but rather that I am too dumb to say "No" when asked to take on a leadership role. The real truth is, the habit of a lifetime of challenges and taking on responsibility is hard to break.
There will be more to come in the future, but the first priority is to obtain from you, your interests and your likes and dislikes in the matter of SPAUG. In that connection, you will find enclosed in the SPAUG PrintScreen a list of questions. Your answers and the answers of every member of SPAUG will serve to determine what we will strive to provide for you in future meetings. We want to offer you a compelling reason to attend every meeting. It is my firm belief that the reason for the existence of SPAUG still remains. The continuing success of other user groups attests to this. Based on this it is our intention (for openers) to restore the interest in the group and the attendance figures we once had. With your cooperation we stand a pretty fair chance of making it work.
Are you willing?
You may wonder why the viewable areas of 20- and 21-inch monitors don't match the advertised sizes. Well, monitor manufacturers borrowed the idea from television manufacturers, who label products based on the size of the tube. They measure the tube diagonally, including the size of the glass from edge to edge--before it's placed inside the case--and use this number to label the monitor. But a bezel is placed around the edges of the tube, which typically cuts down the viewable area of the screen. Some monitors lose additional viewing area because of the shadow-mask technology used to sharpen the image.
For this review, we measured the maximum area Windows occupies, ignoring all of the dead space. Large monitors are consistent (see below) with smaller monitors, generally providing a viewing area 1-2 inches smaller than the listed tube size.
Despite this confusion, there is a standard way to judge the picture size of a monitor. VESA (the Video Electronics Standards Association) has established a method of defining the usable image area for displays. Called VIAD (Video Image Area Definition), this standard defines the video-image area as the largest rectangular image, listed in horizontal length and vertical height in millimeters. Most manufacturers include this information on their product sheets, so look for it when you comparison shop.
Monitor Size (inches) / Actual Image Size (inches)
The ParaDisk PD350 is a Hard Disk drive kit which allows you to use up to an 8.4 gigabyte hard drive through the parallel port of any IBM compatible notebook, laptop, or desktop computer. It is SPP/EPP/ECP compatible and comes with all the necessary device drivers to get it up and running quickly.
The ParaDisk PD350 supports the most popular hard disk drives on the market. You can order your ParaDrive 525CD with a drive installed or you can order the kit and install the drive yourself.
The ParaDisk PD350 is convenient. It provides a printer pass-through port for simultaneous use of a printer.
The ParaDisk PD350 travels easily. Not only is it lightweight, but it comes with a deluxe carry bag.
The ParaDisk PD350 is affordable. FEATURES: While there is more than one way to get video on your PC, the PC industry appears to have settled on a single standard for full-screen, full-motion video. MPEG, named after the Motion Picture Experts Group, is an algorithm for compressing and decompressing digital video and audio. Since uncompressed video files are so large--a six-minute video clip with audio could occupy 35MB of hard disk space--you need to compress the files for efficient storage. You then need decompression software to recover the original digital data in order to view the video.
With a video card, MPEG software and a fast CPU, your PC can display full-screen video files at 30 frames per second--the standard used by broadcast professionals. As more video card manufacturers choose MPEG for full-screen, full-motion video, you won't have to view video clips the size of a matchbook anymore.
The MPEG 1 algorithm has a compression ratio of 150: 1. This standard CODEC (coder/decoder) is prevalent in PCs and is optimized for playback from CD-ROMs. If you are viewing full-screen, full-motion video on a PC, it's most likely using MPEG 1. PCs can play .AVI video files with Microsoft Video for Windows, but the video quality rapidly degrades as you expand the window to near full-screen size.
Right now, there are two ways to play back MPEG: You can use a hardware-assisted or software-based method. Hardware, for example, can be an MPEG daughter card that works in tandem with an existing video accelerator card, or an all-in-one card such as the Jazz Jakarta, which includes both MPEG and graphics acceleration chips. Some video card makers, on the other hand, offer an after-the-fact MPEG software solution. The Number Nine and Diamond Multimedia cards we received both included a coupon in the box for free MPEG software.
MPEG software is hardly the best solution, though. Experts doubt that an MPEG software solution is viable on a PC powered by anything less than a 90MHz Pentium CPU. There are also some rough edges. For example, getting the audio and video to synchronize--such as having an actor's lips and mouth move at same time--is often difficult.
Some argue that a hardware MPEG solution is required to free up an already overburdened microprocessor. By using an MPEG-dedicated chip on the video card or on the motherboard, as some companies are considering, the MPEG hardware solution frees up the CPU.
MPEG 2 is a follow-up to MPEG 1 and is aimed at the broadcast industry. According to John Reno, product manager for C-Cube Microsystems, MPEG 2 resolves four times as many pixels (720x480 pixels) as MPEG 1. "You really don't see that on the PC environment now," said Reno. "In two to three years, you'll see higher speed drives, cable or network connection for MPEG 2 for the PC. "Whether the final video solution is MPEG hardware or software, the pundits agree that the video output on a PC must match the performance of television and the price must ultimately drop to the $200 range to gain favor with consumers.
Why Cache?
When a microprocessor asks for information faster than system RAM can deliver it, the processor goes into a wait state. Essentially the processor is sitting around doing nothing until the system RAM is ready to deliver the information it asked for. This greatly slows down system operation. When a system is running without encountering wait states, it is said to be in zero wait-state operation, and runs much faster.
Memory speed is measured in nanoseconds (ns). The fastest affordable DRAM (Dynamic RAM) memory chips are 60-70ns. For a processor to operate in zero wait-states at a system-board speed of 33MHz (as with a 486DX/33, 486DX2/66, 486DX4/100) the system RAM would have to have a speed of 30ns - prohibitively expensive. For zero wait-states at a system board speed of 66MHz (as with a Pentium 66, 100 or 133) the memory would have to operate at 15ns! What's more, it would have to be more expensive SRAM (Static RAM), which is faster than DRAM because it doesn't require the system to refresh its contents periodically. At the time of this writing, 15ns SRAM is over ten times the cost of standard 70ns DRAM.
This is where memory caching comes in, making today's systems possible at a reasonable cost. You may be familiar with using a disk cache, such as Microsoft SmartDrive, which uses a small RAM buffer to speed up access to a large hard disk. Memory caching uses a small buffer of very fast RAM to speed up a large bank of slower RAM.
Level 1 and Level 2
All Intel processors since the advent of the 486 are equipped with an integral cache of 8kb-16kb in size. When a RAM cache is built into a CPU, it's known as a Level 1 (L1) cache.
Most systems today use a second RAM cache built onto the system board, called a Level 2 (L2) cache.
Hits and Misses
The cache is managed by an 'intelligent' circuit called the cache controller. A system with both an L1 and an L2 cache has two cache controllers; one on the CPU chip itself, and one on the motherboard. The cache controller uses various prediction algorithms to enhance cache performance. For example, it attempts to predict what memory segments the processor will ask for next, and read those segments into the cache before the processor asks for them. This is known as read-ahead caching.
When the processor asks for some data from memory, and that data can be delivered directly from the cache RAM, that's a cache hit. When the system has to take the performance hit of going to the main bank of memory to retrieve the data, that's a cache miss. The percentage of cache hits versus cache misses determines the system's performance versus other systems with the identical CPU.
Why an L2 Cache?
The cache hit/miss ratio, and therefore overall system performance, is determined by several factors (see below). One of the crucial factors is the ratio between the size of the cache and the size of system RAM. As previously noted, L1 caches are generally 8kb-16kb in size. This tiny cache is not sufficient to produce a large cache hit/miss ratio with any significant amount of system RAM. Therefore, performance suffers significantly without an L2 cache. It is not uncommon, for example, for a 486 system with an efficient L2 cache to far outperform a Pentium system without a cache. In a recent industry magazine test of notebook computers, a 486 machine (with L2 cache) outperformed a Pentium 90 machine (without L2 cache) by 30%. L2 cache sizes range from 64K-1024K, with 256K being by far the most common size. More on L2 cache sizing later.
Cache Performance Considerations
[The following factors influence the performance of a cached system:]
Cache Controller Design Efficiency
All caches are not created equal, even if they are of equal size. Given the trade press focus on cache size, most purchasers simply ask for a cache of a particular size, and don't focus specifically on performance measurements. Unfortunately, this has led some system vendors to develop very low-cost caching systems that allow them to advertise a 256K cache without regard to the performance of that cache. It's entirely possible, in fact common, for a smaller, well designed cache to outperform a larger, badly designed cache.
Cache Size to System RAM Ratio
See above. All things being equal as far as cache architecture and controller design is concerned, a larger cache-to-system RAM ratio will provide better system performance, up to a point. You quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. The important thing to remember in general, is that if you wanted to maintain the same cache hit ratio when you double the amount of system RAM, you would have to double the amount of cache RAM as well (although there are other factors that do not make this a linear relationship).
Cache RAM Speed and System RAM Speed
Most system boards are designed for a particular speed of system RAM and cache RAM. There are some exceptions that allow you to tune the system's cache parameters to different speeds of memory. For example, it is getting more and more common for system boards to offer a 70ns/60ns switchable memory speed option. Without such an option, adding faster system RAM than the board is designed for won't provide any performance benefits. In Pentium systems, 20ns cache SRAM is generally used for 50-60MHz system boards (using the Pentium 75/90/100/120), and 15ns cache SRAM is normally utilized for 66MHz system boards (using the Pentium 100/133). Cache SRAM at speeds up to 8ns has recently become available, although rare and expensive.
Software
Cache controllers are usually programmed with algorithms based on statistical analysis of memory access by popular operating systems. Many cache controllers are optimized for either 16-bit or 32-bit software systems. If your particular software accesses memory in a different pattern than the cache controller was optimized for, you can get significantly higher or lower than theoretical (benchmarked) efficiency. Upgrading an operating system from 16-bit to 32-bit can change system hardware performance dramatically in some cases. When evaluating systems for purchase, make sure to benchmark the systems under your operating system of choice, and if possible, the operating system you plan to implement next.
Software tools are available for measuring cache efficiency, such as those from Sofwin Laboratories (800-339-2579). Sofwin tools in particular have a feature to show whether a system cache is optimized for 16-bit or 32-bit operations. While such measurements can lend insight into system design, they are arguably less useful for purchasing decisions, because your real-world performance will depend on the software and operating system being used.
New RAM and Cache Technologies EDO DRAM
Enhanced Data Output (EDO) DRAM provides faster data throughput that partially obviates the need for an L2 cache. Systems using EDO DRAM and no L2 cache will be faster than similar systems using regular DRAM, but not as fast as systems with an L2 cache. EDO DRAM also provides a performance benefit when used with an L2 cache, but industry magazine test centers have reported that the performance difference in that case is less than 5%. Theoretically, EDO DRAM doesn't cost any more to manufacture than regular DRAM, so eventually EDO DRAM may replace regular DRAM. But at the time of this writing, EDO DRAM was significantly more than 5% more expensive than regular DRAM, and probably not worth the price/performance ratio on systems with an L2 cache.
EDRAM
You can think of Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM) as RAM that carries its own cache on each module. In an EDRAM-based system, essentially the entire system memory bank is the cache. This can provide dramatic performance improvements. However, at this time, EDRAM is scarce, very expensive and has not been adopted by many system vendors.
Burst Cache (Pipeline Burst or Synchronous Burst)
Burst cache technology brings a very large performance advantage to the Pentium playing field, made possible by Intel's recent introduction of the Triton chipset for Pentium systems, and also supported by other chipset vendors. Industry magazine tests show that burst cache equipped systems outperform their standard cache counterparts by 20% or more. In fact, the performance benefit is frequently more than the performance difference between Pentium chip classes, i.e. a Pentium 90 with burst cache has been shown to outperform a Pentium 100 with normal cache. Since the difference in price between normal cache and burst cache is usually less than the difference in price between Pentium chip classes, it only makes sense to standardize on burst cache systems. There are other considerations of course, because the Intel Triton chipset does not support some features that are required by corporate standards, such as multiprocessor operation, memory parity, and over 128MB of system RAM.
General Recommendations
The following general guidelines will help you specify systems that will give you the best possible performance under Windows 95 and Windows NT. However, it's important to remember that the key measurement is how your software performs on a given system versus that system's cost, service and warranty, reliability and compatibility. And needless to say, the other components of a system; hard disk, video card, etc; can affect performance as much as anything else. The key factor is balance; that all the components of the system are equal in performance, and no significant bottlenecks exist. That's why a real-world benchmark of your particular operating system and applications is so important.
L2 Caching
Industry publications clearly show the large performance advantage of an L2 cache. Since L2 caching is essentially an industry standard today, the only difficult choices you may have to make will be in the area of notebook computers, which have not yet embraced the L2 cache in significant numbers.
L2 Cache Sizing
You will find a lot of varying opinions on the benefits of various L2 cache sizes. The concensus among industry insiders seems to be that you can get by with 128K of L2 cache up to 8MB DRAM, with 256K of L2 the standard from 16MB-32MB, and 512K optimal for 32MB and up. Again, these figures are rough estimates, and performance can vary widely due to the cache performance considerations discussed earlier.
Burst Caching
Published benchmarks definitely point towards the burst cache superiority. And since its performance boost costs less than the equivalent investment in CPU power, it's said to be a smart choice for desktop machines. You may want to forego burst caching for servers, since the system board chipset that supports burst caching doesn't provide some mission-critical features at this time (see above).
Memory Technology
Since alternative memory technologies (EDRAM, and EDO RAM in systems with L2 cache) have not yet been shown in the media to provide a demonstrable price/performance ratio increase over standard DRAM, that remains the standard today. If you want the fastest possible system, and you're buying from a hardware vendor that doesn't give you a price hit for EDO DRAM, then by all means use it.
Conclusion
Implementing a cache system will heighten system speed and performance at a reasonable cost. By understanding how cache works, the types of cache systems available, and the factors that affect its performance one can make an informed decision configuring system cache in Windows NT and Windows 95.
In both the CISC (complex instruction set computers) and RISC (reduced instruction set computers) arenas, promising technologies have emerged rapidly. Microsoft saw that in order to exploit these and other hardware advances, it needed to produce an operating system for the 1990s - one that was portable and able to move easily from one hardware platform to another. Although Microsoft and IBM created the OS/2 operating system in the 1980s, Microsoft recognized that the system had many shortcomings, the most obvious being that OS/2 is not portable. It was written in assembly language to run on single-processor, Intel 80286 computers. Rather than try to overhaul the OS/2 system software, Microsoft decided to build a new, portable operating system from the ground up.
SUMMARY The Microsoft Windows operating system provides this interface today, by supporting digital and analog video under Windows. Both software developers and hardware manufacturers need only communicate with a single element -- the Media Control Interface (MCI) within Windows -- to avoid potential software/hardware incompatibilities. Because of the flexibility built into MCI, users can preserve their current investments but still gain access to future technologies.
This backgrounder discusses: The Digital Video Revolution Nowhere is the impact of this digital revolution greater than in video. The popularity of television (particularly the growth of cable), VCRs and home video rentals would suggest there's little wrong with the analog, or non-digital, form of video. Yet traditional analog video offers slower access through linear searching, lacks interactivity and loses image quality with each generation of reproduction.
The significant installed base of analog video systems (particularly in education and training) means that an ideal multimedia computing platform should continue to support analog video. But analog video, in itself, is not ideal. It will likely become less of a market factor over time as people turn to digital video, which overcomes the problems associated with analog forms.
For example, with digital video: Expect to find digital video behind applications as diverse as teleconferencing, entertainment broadcast/cablecast and videotelephony -- all using a multimedia-based desktop computer as the user's access to digital media. As digital video becomes increasingly popular, the distinctions among television broadcasts, video rentals and computer processing should blur.
A user, for example, may order and download video entertainment and application software from a "digital television network" direct to his integrated computer/VCR, add digitized representations of himself, customize the story via on-screen editing and then output a finished disk or tape. Or, consider the advantages of a palmtop unit that can download mapping data from remote sources via wireless networks, calculate the optimum route to one's destination and the time required to get there, display the route graphically and then provide video and audio narration of tourist attractions along the way.
Digital Video Compression: One Problem, Many Solutions Vendors and industry groups have devised methods that compress data at ratios up to 200:1. That extends single-disc play-time up to 72 minutes, and makes video conferencing feasible and economical over low-bandwidth phone lines. All of these methods use mathematical formula to delete redundant information from images, store them in short-hand form, and then expand them for display and use. But these methods vary in how, and how much, data they compress, and in their suitability for various applications. Some applications require little or no data storage, but call for equal use of real-time video compression and decompression; in video e-mail, videotelephony and teleconferencing, for example, video data is constantly being created, compressed, transmitted and decompressed for display. Other applications require only a single, non-real-time compression when the software is produced, then use frequent, real-time decompression when the data is called for viewing. These applications include electronic books, training, kiosks and point-of-purchase, and entertainment.
The various digital video solutions that provide options for this range in uses. Software-only methods, for example, make it easy to distribute video content. Full frame methods are appropriate for video editing.
The following are descriptions of the major video compression formats.
Audio Video Interleaved technology. A typical sequence of Audio Video Interleaved technology permits 15 frames-per-second of motion video to run within windows at resolutions of 160 x 120 pixels and includes support for 8-bit audio. That makes it a successful solution for mixed text/video applications -- such as interactive newsletters and books that would run video in a window much as printed books and magazines today have text pages that include photos. Audio Video Interleaved technology allows ISVs to include a video solution within the economic and technological reach of most multimedia users. It is not intended as a solution where full-screen, full-motion video is required -- for example, in interactive training manuals depicting complex images.
Motion-Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) specification. Because motion video is composed of a series of still images, one compression plan is based on JPEG, the standard for still image compression promulgated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Consultative Committee for Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT). Among M-JPEG's advantages: It produces a relatively high-level image that makes it suitable for all but the most image-sensitive applications. Unlike some compression plans still in development, the industry has endorsed M-JPEG and it's available today. Also, because it provides full access to randomly selected frames, it's useful for the cut-and-paste type of operations of non-linear video editing.
Among its disadvantages: M-JPEG's compression ratio -- about 25:1 -- makes it suitable for magnetic hard disk drives, but not for the CD-ROMs and T1 phone lines that will have to carry the bulk of video data. This format also lacks an associated audio compression specification, forcing vendors to adopt or devise their own. To achieve real-time compression rates of 30 frames per second, M-JPEG needs an assist from digital signal processing hardware. And because it's based on a single-image compression standard, M-JPEG doesn't consider the similarities between adjacent images in a motion video. While that facilitates non-linear editing, it also keeps M-JPEG from compressing data as effectively as other specifications.
Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) specification. MPEG is being designed from the ground-up as a motion video standard. The ISO committee working on this has included delta framing, also called temporal compression. Delta framing allows MPEG to compare adjacent frames in a video, wringing out more of the redundant data. As a result, it achieves compression rates of 1.2 Mbps (up to 8 Mbps) and ratios up to three-times as great as for M-JPEG, making it suitable for CD-ROMs and for T1 telephone lines. The standard also includes an 8:1 compression ratio for associated audio data. These advantages make MPEG a good format for electronic books, entertainment, and other applications that require the user to decompress pre-packaged and pre-compressed video. However, MPEG also requires additional video hardware and the standard is not yet set. Expect to see movement toward approving the standard later this year.
Digital Video Interactive. Now, Intel also licenses the software, and is working with other PC makers to include its chipset on their motherboards. Originally costing more than $20,000, DVI has come down in cost by a factor of 10, and Intel reportedly expects a single-chip solution will ultimately come down in cost by another 10-fold factor. DVI has traditionally supported two modes: a high-quality production level video (PLV) and a lower-quality real-time video (RTV). Title developers send their video on magnetic media to Intel, where a 64-processor computer converts it to digital-based PLV at 30 frames-per-second and 256 x 240 resolution. Or, developers can speed the conversion process and trade down in resolution by creating their own RTV compressed video (30 fps, 128 x 120 resolution) using the Action Media board. In addition to these two modes, DVI supports JPEG and Intel is expanding it to support MPEG and others.
Windows: Supporting Video Today Microsoft Windows operating system helps solve that problem for digital video because the MCI allows developers to select the video compression format that best suits the users needs. MCI is a flexible, extensible, platform-independent software extension that lets applications control: MCI also supports CD audio, MIDI sequencers and digitized waveform audio.
With MCI, end users don't have to worry about which video device or specification their application might have to control. Both developers and manufacturers need only communicate with a single element, the MCI layer that mediates between them. They benefit because their software and peripheral devices will work with the universe of Windows-based video and multimedia systems that include MCI. Microsoft believes this will speed broad user acceptance.
As long as they support MCI, all of the video variations can be called from a single set of commands for digital video (analog devices also have a command set within MCI). Users can be flind to the specific video implementation they're controlling through their applications. So MCI gives users options now -- and assurance later.
Device independence is extensible with MCI. In theory, there's little limit to the video device types that MCI can be expanded to support. So as additional video players -- such as television tuners -- gain MCI drivers, existing applications will be able to control them. And as entirely new video devices are invented, they can be brought under the MCI umbrella as well. Nor are those new devices limited to hardware; they can include any software-only video implementation.
Video Under Windows: A Closer Look at Making it Work The MCI interprets and routes the commands to the appropriate device driver. Some device drivers, such as those for videodisc players, control the device directly, while others call an existing low-level device driver to indirectly control devices such as software-only video players.
Through Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology, OLE client applications can access video devices acting as OLE servers. Drivers can access dynamic link libraries (DLLs) within Windows, for example, to add a video clip to an e-mail message. While programmers can write low-level command messages that MCI passes directly to the video device drivers, the interface also gives them the option of using simple, English language-based command strings that MCI can translate. With intuitive command strings, users will likely find that some applications let them use these commands to control video devices directly. And they shouldn't have to learn new commands each time they go to a new device. The command system is so simple, it is even opening multimedia software creation to an entirely new class of developers -- users who have little or no programming knowledge. Many of the people who may be writing multimedia titles with video, after all, are content experts (historians, linguists, political scientists, and so on) who have, until now, been limited to the role of multimedia users. Using a high level authoring tool that supports Windows, they can create sophisticated multimedia content titles that leverage digital video technology.
CONCLUSION Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
There is a Web robots home page on: http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html While this is hosted at one of the major robots' site, it is an unbiased and reasoneably comprehensive collection of information which is maintained by Martijn Koster
How does a robot decide where to visit?
This depends on the robot, each one uses different strategies. In general they start from a historical list of URLs, especially of documents with many links elsewhere, such as server lists, "What's New" pages, and the most popular sites on the Web. Most indexing services also allow you to submit URLs manually, which will then be queued and visited by the robot. Sometimes other sources for URLs are used, such as scanners through USENET postings, published mailing list achives etc. Given those starting points a robot can select URLs to visit and index, and to parse and use as a source for new URLs.
You guessed it, it depends on the service :-) Most services have a link to a URL submission form on their search page. Fortunately you don't have to submit your URL to every service by hand: Submit-it
How do I know if I've been visited by a robot?
You can check your server logs for sites that retrieve many documents, especially in a short time. If your server supports User-agent logging you can check for retrievals with unusual User-agent heder values. Finally, if you notice a site repeatedly checking for the file '/robots.txt' chances are that is a robot too.
Well, nothing :-) The whole idea is they are automatic; you don't need to do anything.
If you think you have discovered a new robot (ie one that is not listed on the list of active robots, and it does more than sporadic visits, drop me a line so I can make a note of it for future reference. But please don't tell me about every robot that happens to drop by!
This is called "rapid-fire", and people usually notice it if they're monitoring or analysing an access log file. First of all check if it is a problem by checking the load of your server, and monitoring your servers' error log, and concurrent connections if you can. If you have a medium or high performance server, it is quite likely to be able to cope a high load of even several requests per second, especially if the visits are quick. However, you may have problems if you have a low performance site, such as your own desktop PC or Mac you're working on, or you run low performance server software, or if you have many long retrievals (such as CGI scripts or large documents). These problems manifest themselves in refused connections, a high
load, performance slowdowns, or in extreme cases a system crash. If this happens, there are a few things you should do.
Read the next section...
Why do I find entries for /robots.txt in my log files? They are probably from robots trying to see if you have specified any rules for them using the Standard for Robot Exclusion, see also below. If you don't care about robots and want to prevent the messages in your error logs, simply create an empty file called robots.txt in the root level of your server.
The quick way to prevent robots visiting your site is put these two lines into your server:
User-agent:
Disallow: /
but its easy to be more selective than that.
You can read the whole standard specification but the basic concept is simple: by writing a structured text file you can indicate to robots that certain parts of your server are off-limits to some or all robots. It is best explained with an example:
# mail webmaster@webcrawler.com for constructive criticism
Disallow:
Disallow: /
Disallow: /tmp
Disallow: /logs
The first two lines, starting with '#', specify a comment. The first paragraph specifies that the robot called 'webcrawler' has nothing disallowed: it may go anywhere. The second paragraph indicates that the robot called 'lycra' has all relative URLs starting with '/' disallowed. Because all relative URL's on a server start with '/', this means the entire site is closed off. The third paragraph indicates that all other robots should not visit URLs starting with /tmp or /log. Note the ' ' is a special token; its not a regular expression.
Regular expressions are _not_ supported: instead of 'Disallow: /tmp/' just say 'Disallow: /tmp'. You shouldn't put more than one path on a Disallow line (this may change in a future version of the spec)
Probably... there are some ideas floating around. They haven't made it into a coherent proposal because of time constraints, and because there is little pressure. Mail suggestions to the robots mailing list, and check the robots home page for work in progress.
Where can I use a robot?
If you mean a search service, check out the various directory pages on the Web, such as Netscape's Exploring the Net or try one of the Meta search services such as MetaSearch
Well, you can have a look at the list of robots; I'm starting to indicate their public availability slowly. In the meantime, two indexing robots that you should be able to get hold of are Harvest (free), and Verity's.
See above -- some may be willing to give out source code.
Simply fill in this form and follow the instructions.
8 Tips To Live By For Marketing on the Internet
http://www.metroguide.com/detroit
1-800-586-5582
Also check out - http://www.algonet.se/~dip/
Review: MS Windows 95 Video Tapes
A MESSAGE FROM THE NEW PREZ
Measuring Up: What You See Is What You Get
ParaDisk
Contact Bill Weber at (415) 968-7351 or billw@mediacity.com
Built-in ATAPI (Enhanced IDE) Interface
Supports up to 8.4 gigabyte hard Drives
Hard Disk Auto-detection
Fast access time
No slot required
Compatible with SPP/EPP/ECP parallel ports
Printer port pass-through for simultaneous printer use
Ideal for Notebooks or Desktops
Easy to install and use
Supplied Device Drivers
Includes a deluxe carry bag
Video Via MPEG (Breaking the CODEC)
EDO RAM & Burst Caching
[Recently, several new RAM and cache technologies were introduced. These include:]
WHY WINDOWS NT?
THE DIGITAL VIDEO REVOLUTION
The digital revolution makes video a practical technology for personal computers. To store, manage and transmit the vast amounts of data needed for video, vendors and industry groups have produced various specifications for compressing and decompressing video. These different technologies need a consistent interface to allow both hardware and software developers to deliver this functionality to end users.
* The digital video market.
* Competing standards for video compression.
* How the MCI makes video within Windows a reality today, regardless of the digital video specification one uses.
The increasing synergy among the computer, consumer electronics, entertainment and telecommunications industries -- all of which are moving to digital media -- is fueling multimedia computing that incorporates video, sound, graphics, text and animation. The result will likely be one macro digital infrastructure where any equipment with a microprocessor -- computers, video players, stereo sound systems, electronic games -- can access, manipulate and deliver any type of digital data. The distinctions among such hardware will become less significant, and users will be able to receive and easily use information in more natural and intuitive ways.
* searching is facilitated by fast, random access
* interactivity is optimized
* copies can be easily reproduced with no loss of image clarity
* transmission is possible across local and wide area networks
* digital images can be easily and fully manipulated
Vast amounts of data are needed to represent moving video images. A single video frame could take up to a megabyte of storage. A full second of video could take about 28MB of storage. At that rate, a 650 MB CD-ROM, despite its large storage capacity, would hold only about 20 seconds of video -- not counting any associated audio data. Meanwhile, digital video applications used over networks and phone lines also run into problems because of the heavy data transmission that must take place over limited-bandwidth lines. High speed LANs support only 10 Mbps and T1 phone lines support an even slighter 1.5 Mbps.
Microsoft's own format is implemented completely in software. It works with standard Multimedia PCs and runs without extra -- and potentially costly -- video compression hardware. In contrast to hardware-assisted methods that can require video compression boards with digital signal processors costing from $1,500 to $4,000, Microsoft's format can bring digital video within financial reach of the broadest possible market.
Intel acquired this technology from RCA's Sarnoff Research Institute in 1988 and has since developed it. DVI displays a high-quality image at quarter-screen size, and can display low-resolution, full-motion video in a full-screen window. DVI is implemented via two programmable Action Media chips: a pixel processor handles decompression and a display processor handles video output. Intel began by manufacturing video hardware.
In using desktop video, the user has a range of peripherals, players, hardware and software from which to choose. Which ones should users, software developers, OEMs and systems integrators support? Software and hardware development around new technologies -- graphics, for example -- has typically been a chicken-and-egg problem. Software and hardware developers wait for an installed base to form around a standard before they invest, but users wait for a standard to emerge before they become part of an installed base. No one wants to be left holding an unsupported product. Meanwhile, the industry fails to achieve the volume production needed to lower costs, particularly of hardware, and broaden the market.
*hardware devices required under the Multimedia PC specification (e.g. CD-ROMs)
*optional hardware devices (e.g. laserdisc players)
*virtual devices such as software-only video players
The multimedia functionality in the Windows operating system is fully integrated into the standard Windows system software components; it sits between the user's multimedia application software and the video devices that software must access.
The application sends regular Windows commands to the Windows system software and drivers, and sends high-level video commands (and other multimedia commands) to the MCI. These device-control commands include "open", "play", "record", "seek", "pause", "save", and "close".
The first shots in the digital video revolution are now reverberating around the world. Digital video technology will change drastically in the years ahead, but the technology and products based on it are now a reality, and are coming to market. Microsoft is taking a leadership role to help ensure that digital video becomes an accepted and successful reality in the multimedia computing marketplace. It's doing this by providing an extensible architecture on Windows that will support a range of video formats today and tomorrow. That encourages the maximum amount of third-party hardware and software development. Maximum vendor participation will in turn benefit users by giving them the broadest range of digital video tools, while preserving their investment in Windows-compatible hardware and software. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") has become the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
WHAT DOES @ MEAN TO YOU?
The @ sign is commonly used in UNIX programming, and Internet e-mail addresses. In English we refer to it simply as the "at" sign, but in other cultures, @ has a number of different names.
In Italian it is known as "chiocciolina", and in French, "petit escargot", both meaning little snail.
In Germany, @ is referred to as "klammeraffe", or spider monkey. The Dutch refer to it as "api", a shortened form of "apestaart", meaning monkey's tail.
In Finland it is a cat's tail or "miau".
In Norway it is called the "kanel-bolle", a spiral-shaped cinnamon cake, and in Israel, it is called a "shtrudel".
In Denmark, @ is a "snabel", an "a" with a trunk. The Spanish refer to it as "arroba", a unit of about 25 pounds, for which it is the sign.
(Modified from InformationWeek, page 12, February 26, 1996)
With the advent of sophisticated desktop operating systems like Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, and IBM OS/2 Warp, you've probably been hearing a lot about a feature called "multitasking." What exactly is this capability?
Simply put, multitasking is the process that enables you to run multiple operations at the same time. If you have a multitasking system, you can actually run two or more applications simultaneously . . . you're not limited to running one application while others are open but idle in the background.
Think of it as the ability to watch your favorite program on TV while you're recording another show on a different channel-your tasks are accomplished at the same time, exactly when you need them to be, with no waiting or loss of productivity.
The Advantages of Multitasking
When performing PC processes that take a relatively long time (such as downloading a file from the Internet, or loading a large file from your CD-ROM), multitasking allows you to start the process, then move on to more productive functions-without waiting.
If you're running a multitasking operating system, you'll quickly realize greatly enhanced system performance. Such an operating system allows you to run two or more programs simultaneously, so you can receive a fax, scan an image, crunch numbers in your spreadsheet, and watch a video from your CD-ROM . . . all at the same time. No waiting!
True Multitasking Requires SCSI I/O
Just as an intelligent operating system is required to allow your applications to multitask, an intelligent input/output (I/O) system is required to allow your peripherals to multitask. The feature that enables an I/O interface to support multitasking is called multithreading. Multithreading also refers to the related ability of a single software application to generate multiple, independent processes. When a PC can perform tasks with multiple peripherals simultaneously, the system is said to be multithreading. SCSI is the only I/O interface for PCs that supports multithreading, making true multitasking a reality and boosting overall system performance. With SCSI, your PC can talk to several peripherals at once . . . and, perform a whole range of tasks at the same time!
Here's how SCSI works:
Only SCSI allows multiple peripherals to access data simultaneously, delivering true multitasking and optimizing system performance. SCSI manages and negotiates multiple requests to move data, eliminating data bottlenecks that slow system performance.
Bus mastering (available on high-performance Adaptec host adapters) takes performance one step further. Because a bus mastering SCSI adapter has its own microprocessor, it frees the system's CPU to complete other tasks. The result is more tasks, running faster.
SCSI makes it quick and easy to add high-performance hard drives and many other peripherals, giving you virtually unlimited storage capacity. A single SCSI host adapter can support seven peripherals simultaneously!
Here's the difference in a nutshell:
IDE hard drives must have correct drive-table settings, to specify the adapter-drive geometry. SCSI drives don't need that.
IDE hard drives may get corrupted, when moved between controllers. I can move a SCSI drive between any two machines without worry.
IDE hard drives over 504Mb must be specially supported through EBIOS translation, or a software equivalent. SCSI drives and adapters took care of this problem transparently, many years ago.
IDE claims higher speed because of fast transfers (in certain operating modes) between controller and drive, but has its performance compromised in other areas. Lack of intelligent seeking makes it particularly bad for multitasking and multiuser operating systems. SCSI gives reliably good performance, especially when using bus-mastering host adapters, on any operating system, under any load.
An IDE host adapter can support two devices (hard drives, tape drives, and CD-ROMS} only), or four of them using two ATA-2 channels (and two scarce interrupts). A SCSI host adapter can support seven devices of almost any type, including scanners, optical drives, etc., using one interrupt.
An IDE chain may not support devices running at different speeds (lack of independent spindle sync support). SCSI always does.
Advanced IDE devices (ATA-2 adapters and ATAPI tapes/CDs) are highly dependent on driver support for each operating system to be run. Many of those drivers are flaky. SCSI is well-supported in all OSes, and driver bugs and performance issues were brought under control many years ago.
IDE drives can be difficult to set up without jumper diagrams and other documentation. If you're lucky, both drive and BIOS will support the Identity Drive protocol, and be able to fill in the drive table on request. Other