4/23/95                         CyberNews                        Issue #6
                        Patrick Grote, Publisher
      CyberNews is a weekly publication available through an email
            distribution list and many fine online networks!
We feature reviews, interviews and commentary concerning the PC industry.

                         This Week's Contents:
                                  NEWS
                                  ----
       -=> MCI Says Surfing the Net is New Favorite Pastime! <=-
          -=> Descent Carries Interplay into New Markets! <=-
                          WEB SITE OF THE WEEK
                          --------------------
    -=> Association of Shareware Professionals in Now on the Web <=-
                          FTP FILE OF THE WEEK
                          --------------------
-=>Gator Edit / A powerful and easy-to-use text editor for MS Windows<=-
                                REVIEWS
                                -------
             -=> Timetables of History by Gail Marsella <=-
               -=> QuickTime the CD by Don Pellegrino <=-
                               INTERVIEW
                               ---------
                             None this Week

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------------------------------------------------------------------------
   NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . .
       All News (C)opyright  Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint
------------------------------------------------------------------------
           -=> MCI Says Internet is New Favorite Pastime! <=-

    ATLANTA, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Before the ceremonial first ball
is thrown to open the 1995 baseball season, MCI will toss out the first
pitch for Major League Baseball in Cyber-space.  Major League Baseball
@BAT -- a baseball info-site/venue on the World Wide Web sponsored by
Major League Baseball -- is now open and ready for a record turnout of
fans from around the world.
    Major League Baseball @BAT will offer baseball fans the latest news
from scoreboards to the clubhouse, with daily scores and player stats.
Major League Baseball @BAT is part of MCI's Internet supersite and may
be reached through MCI's web site (www.internetMCI.com), and soon at
(www.majorleaguebaseball.com).
    "Exploring the Internet is America's fastest growing pastime," said
Scott Kurnit, president of MCI Information Services Company.  "Baseball
and technology will be great teammates.  MCI is thrilled to help Major
League Baseball take the sport to a new level of play."
    Coinciding with Major League Baseball's season debut, Major League
Baseball @BAT "opening day" festivities include complete National and
American League game schedules, color team logos, rules of the game and
a feature on Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripkin, who's chasing Lou Gehrig's
record of consecutive games played.  The sport cyber-site will soon
offer previous-night game results and expanded box scores, MLB news and
notes, statistics, player news, game text and the photo of the day.
Later in the season lo ok for individual team schedules, rosters, team
and league history, and ticket information.
    "Major League Baseball @BAT will welcome baseball fans by treating
them to daily baseball news through the latest, hottest technology,"
said Michael Bernstein, vice president of business development and new
ventures, Major League Baseball.  "As our long distance provider, MCI
already has a strong batting average with MLB.  We're excited to have
this Internet powerhouse on our team."
    MCI (Nasdaq-NNM: MCIC), headquartered in Washington, has expanded
from its core long distance business to become the world's third-largest
carrier of international calling and a premier provider of data
communications over the vast Internet computer network.  With annual
revenue of more than $13.3 billion, the company today provides a wide
array of consumer and business long distance and local services, data
and video communications, on-line information, electronic mail, network
management services, and communications software.
    NOTE:  @ is the "at" character symbol on a keyboard commonly used in
e-mail addresses.
    CONTACT:  Paul Sims, MCI Business Markets, 800-644-NEWS (6397), or
MCI_News_Bureau@MCI.com, or Carole Coleman, Ketchum Public Relations,
212-339-7860/

           -=> Descent Carries Interplay into New Worlds <=-

    IRVINE, Calif., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the release
of the #1 computer game in America, "Descent"(TM), Interplay Productions
announced today the formation of VR Sports, an entire division within
the company dedicated to sports software for both game console systems
and personal computers.  Interplay, one of the largest manufacturers and
distributors of entertainment and educational software in America, will
enter the sporting world with its first products from VR Sports this
fall for SEG A Saturn(TM) and Sony PlayStation(TM).
    "We are committing a tremendous amount of resources and talent
towards capturing the growing sports game market," said Brian Fargo,
president and CEO of Interplay.  "Our team is on the cutting edge of new
technology, and Interplay has assembled the best talent in order to fit
right in with our corporate theme `for gamers, by gamers.'"
    The new division will initially be staffed by over 25 programmers,
artists and marketing personnel.  The head of software development for
the VR Sports line is veteran Interplay producer Matt Findley.  His past
work for Interplay includes producing "The Lord Of The Rings"(TM) and
"Blackthorne"(TM).
    Curtis Broome will head the marketing effort for VR Sports as
director of marketing.  He joins Interplay with a previous tenure at Sun
Microsystems and most recently as a marketing consultant at SEGA Sports.
    Founded in 1983, Interplay Productions is a company dedicated to
manufacturing and distributing a wide range of award-winning
entertainment and educational software designed by gamers, for gamers.
Interplay, MacPlay, the company's Macintosh division, VR Sports, the
company's Sports division, and its affiliates release products for IBM
and compatibles, CD-ROM and Macintosh as well as leading console game
platforms.  Interplay's OEM division represents over 200 titles from
publishers including Davidson & Associates Inc., Viacom New Media and
Accolade to hardware manufacturers.  Interplay titles include
"Descent"(TM), "Cyberia"(TM), "Boogerman"(TM), "Voyeur"(TM), "Battle
Chess"(R) and "C2: Judgment Clay"(TM).  More comprehensive information
on Interplay and its products is available through the company's
worldwide web site at http://www.interplay.com.
    CONTACT:  Kirk Green of Interplay, 714-553-6655; or Michael Saltzman
of Sutton Saltzman Schwartz, 310-858-1005/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to a cool WebSite . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) is now available via
    the World Wide Web (WWW).  You can find the ASP's home page at:
 
               http://www.msen.com/~rgharper/homeasp.html
 
      Among other resources that can currently be found there are:
 
        - Application Kits for membership
        - News and information about the ASP
        - Contact information for various ASP officials
        - Links to other ASP Member home pages - a "one-stop" resource
          to tell your potential customers where to find you quickly!
 
    ASP Members ONLY may contact the ASP President (RIME ->ROADHOUZ,
FidoNet 1:231/290, Internet rgharper@mail.msen.com) for details on
getting your home page listed with your fellow ASP Members.  All classes
of membership are invited to use this resource!

    Planned enhancements will probably include meeting notices, agendas
and results (not sure if ballots will be posted there yet!), periodic
articles from various ASP officials, other official announcements, and
information for the general public about shareware and the ASP.
 
                 Feel free to drop in on the ASP today!
 
                      Richard G. Harper, President
              Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------

      You can find this as GATOR120.ZIP on the following FTP site:

        WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/misc/gator120.zip

    Gator Edit version 1.20. A powerful and easy-to-use text editor for
MS Windows. Edits large files, DOS, UNIX, and MAC format. Complete set
of text formatting tools and includes special hooks to CMPQwk.
Shareware, $25. Upgrade price for CMPQwk users. 30-day pester-free
evaluation and no "limited" features.

    This is a super text editor that anyone will fall in love with if
you use Windows!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          Timetable of History
                       Reviewed by Gail Marsella

        UY-of Microsoft Encarta and its imitators, the Time Table of
History from Xiphias is going to seem rather primitive. (The Xiphias
company puts out several Time Table of History CD-ROMs; the one reviewed
here tracks historical events in science and technology.) The resolution
of the pictures and newsreel clips is pretty low, and because this is a
DOS CD-ROM, the interface is no where near as fancy as a Windows product
would be. It was not designed to compete as a full-scale encyclopedia,
however, but instead focuses primarily on the chronology of scientific
and technological discoveries. It is also refreshingly simple and direct
to use.
        The program needn't be installed at all; it runs directly from
the CD-ROM. (Although it can be installed and run on a hard disk, it
also requires about 20 megs of hard disk space to do so, the extra speed
didn't seem necessary to me at that cost.) In addition to the CD-ROM
drive, it requires at least 520K of available RAM, MSCDEX 2.2 or later,
a 386SX or better system, MSDOS 5.0 or later, and a Soundblaster or
Media Vision compatible sound card.
        The opening screen has five choices on it: Timeline, Keywords,
Timetable, Help, A-Z, and Exit. The Help function, interestingly, works
entirely with speech, there's no text to read. Keywords and A-Z allow
searches of the entries in the story database (a 'story' is a text piece
on a particular scientist, inventor, invention, or discovery.) In the
Keywords area you pick a word from a list, and in the A-Z area you type
in your own search term. Search terms can be combined with the AND
operator, but not with the other Boolean expressions (NOT, OR, and so
on.)
        The Timeline choice takes the user first to a selection screen
for a particular range of years in history, and then to a timeline
covering those years. A button is available for a graph of economic
cycles during the selected time period, and various buttons allow access
to additional information on particular events . In the 20th century
area, newsreels with voiceover are available for particularly noteworthy
happenings.
        Oddly, the Timeline really has little to do with the history of
technology, but rather with general history, strongly biased (in
recorded history) toward wars and violent unrest. For example, the
atomic bomb dropped on Japan is shown as a still photo with a voiceover,
but the development of that bomb is not covered. JFK's assassination is
shown in a newsreel, and virtually all military operations that used
technology (Vietnam, WWII, and so on) are at least mentioned, but the
individual innovations that built the weapons are not connected in here.
Worse, little of any other type of scientific innovation is covered in
this area , and we do occasionally do something innovative besides kill
each other.
        The Timetable, a straight chronological list of short entries on
scientific and technological discoveries, is more balanced in terms of
historical record. The search engine is available from the Timetable, as
is a sidebar of buttons for related information. An entry on a chemical
innovation, for example, will have a button to access a Periodic Table.
Other associated information (available only when relevant to the entry)
might include the electromagnetic spectrum, quotes from the inventor,
pictures, a location on a world map, or the references from which the
information was taken.
        A small number of users are going to have trouble with the sound
(naturally, I was one of them.) On some systems, the sound skips in
places, rather like a bad scratch on an old long-playing record album.
Xiphias technical support was sympathetic and tried to be helpful, but
they acknowledged that they are absolutely baffled by the problem. It's
fairly rare, they can't reproduce it in-house, and it doesn't seem
specific to any particular system manufacturer or sound card. The next
version of the Time Table will be a Windows product, completely
rewritten, so the sound problems may be eliminated, or at least
different, by then.

                                Xiphias
                         8758 Venice Boulevard
                         Los Angeles, CA 90034
         Phone (ordering and technical support): (310) 841-2790
                          Fax: (310) 841-2559

                         QuickTime: The CD 1994
                       Reviewed by Don Pellegrino

        "QuickTime: The CD" is a collection of the winners of the 1994
International QuickTime Film Festival. This is a double CD set and
includes over 260 MB of video. The videos fall into several different
categories; animation, commercial, documentary, education, experimental,
humor, micromovies, music video and narrative. The total running time of
all of the videos is almost two hours. Most of the films are in standard
QuickTime format and can be seen on either a Macintosh or IBM
compatible. Most of the presentations are not interactive and the ones
that are only let you select different parts of film to view. These
videos are similar to the demos put together by Future Crew for various
competitions. If you are not familiar with the demo scene you should
check your local BBS or FTP site for a taste. If you find them
interesting then this CD set is for you.
Animation:
        This section of the set includes videos that make use of "hand
drawn" art as opposed to photography. Although many of them do not
follow a theme they are all very well done and interesting to watch.
There are thirteen titles under this heading.
Commercial:
        This section only includes two titles, "Denver Nuggets Concept
Logo" and "Right Here In The Village." They are not too impressive and
do not inspire me to buy anything.
Documentary:
        There are only two titles under this topic as well. "Peru:
Voyage to a State of Mind" is a musical side show of photographs from
Peru. The other title, "Onigirl" is a film of a person trying to find a
Macintosh program called Onigirl. "Onigirl" is very strange.
Education:
        "The Mystery of the Sphinx Reconstruction Sequence" and "Air"
are the two titles in this category. "The Mystery of the Sphinx
Reconstruction Sequence" is very informative and of Discovery Channel
quality. "Air" shows a few images of industrialization and writes the
word "pollution" in front of them.
Experimental:
        This section does not include any scientific experimentation.
This is where they stuck all of the videos that did not fit into any of
the other categories. The videos here are definitely different and some
of them are totally strange. It is my favorite section. There are
fifteen videos under this heading.
Humor:
        Seven videos make up this category. Some of them are funny, but
I would have put a couple of them up in experimental.
Micromovies:
        Micromovies is an odd classification for these two videos.
"Spontaneous Combustion" is only twelve seconds and "Facial Massage"
only ten.
Music Video:
        These three movies are very high quality. They would probably be
classified as "alternative."
Narrative:
        There are four movies here. They involve a narrator reading a
strange plot or story with an even stranger set of images begin
displayed.
International QuickTime Film Festival:
        The next festival has not yet been scheduled but Sumeria is
planning to make another CD of its winners. There is obviously a lot of
talent at this event and I cannot wait to see what the next one
produces.
Productivity:
        Some of these videos are copyrighted and licensing is involved
so using them or their individual screen images in applications or
presentations might be complicated. This package, however, would be a
great way to impress your friends with the multimedia abilities of your
computer. It is also an excellent product to use to display the features
of showroom model systems. The videos are very high quality and can hold
your attention for hours.
System Requirements:
        Macintosh: 4MB of RAM, System 7.0, 13-inch monitor (256 colors),
CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended). IBM Compatible: 33MHz 486
processor, 6MB of RAM, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, VGA + display (256 colors)
at 640 by 480 resolution, sound card, CD-ROM drive (double-speed
recommended). I am running a 486 DX2-66 with 5MB of RAM and a single
speed CD-ROM. Most of the videos are incredibly slow and jerky. Unless
it is run on at least a double speed CD-ROM with SmartDrv or some such
buffering software this product is not very impressive.
Price:
        Sumeria's suggested list price is $49.95. It probably sells for
less at a software store but neither my local EggHead Software nor
Electronics Boutique were carrying it. It can be ordered directly from
Sumeria by calling the number below.


                                Sumeria
                      329 Bryant Street, Suite 3D
                        San Francisco, CA. 94107
                          Phone (415) 904-0800
                           Fax (415) 904-0888

------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK | Interesting people you should know about . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             None this Week
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