TIFNY 1.1 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.
Copyright  © 1996 Phonetics International

Automated USENET Newsgroup Photo Browser

Contents

PLATFORMS SUPPORTED
A SHAREWARE PRODUCT
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT
TIFNY FEATURES
NEW FEATURES
INSTALLATION NOTES

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PLATFORMS SUPPORTED

TIFNY is a 32 bit multi-threaded compatible application which 
runs on both Windows 95 and Windows NT4.0 platforms. TIFNY will 
not operate correctly on Windows 3.x, 3.11, or Windows NT
versions less than 4.0.

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A SHAREWARE PRODUCT

TIFNY is a "complete" program, i.e.: it performs all of the 
major functions normally expected. It is *not* 'crippleware'.

It is copyrighted (as opposed to uncopyrighted software which is 
"public domain").

TIFNY may be copied for others to try, but a registration fee  
is required as a condition of continued use beyond the trial 
usage period arbitrarily determined by the author. TIFNY is 
not "Time Stamped" and does not stop functioning after a 
specific date. 

Please refer to the licensing agreement, license.rtf in the 
directory TIFNY was installed.

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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
 
$29.95 US Dollars, you can pay by credit card, check or money order.
 
FILLING OUT THE REGISTRATION FORM 

From the Product menu in TIFNY, choose the menu item 
"Registration" to bring up the Registration form. Enter your 
name, address, email-id, and telephone number. If you are paying 
by credit card, fill out the credit card information. American
Express, VISA, and MasterCard are welcomed. 

BY MODEM IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

You can send your registration securely by modem. First, 
shutdown your internet dialer, or any other application, such as 
a fax manager that maybe using the modem. If you are located in 
the United States or Canada, you can use our toll free telephone 
number to send us your registration. You do not need to edit the 
text field, "Call TIFNY At". Our toll free number will already 
be filled in. Press the button, "Send By Modem" to complete the 
transaction.
 
BY MODEM OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

You can also send us your registration securely by modem. Edit 
the text field, "Call TIFNY At", to dial our direct number in 
the U.S. 1-212-5391475. Add the international calling prefix for 
your country to the beginning of the number. Then press the 
button, "Send By Modem".
 
BY MAIL OR FAX 

If paying by money order or check, send your registration form 
by registered mail. Press the button "Print It", for a print 
out. Send by mail to the following address:

TIFNY
163 Third Ave.
Box #131, N.Y. N.Y. 10003

YOU CAN ALSO FAX YOUR REGISTRATION

To send by FAX, change your Printer settings in Control Panel to 
point to your FAX manager. Then press "Print It" in TIFNY's 
registration form.

Our fax number is 1-212-533-1456. 

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DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT

TIFNY connects to any NNTP compatible news server, and will 
automatically download and catalog UUENCODED pictures to your 
hard disk. Images are placed in user defined subdirectories 
by default. Images may be directed to an alternate location by 
setting the full path as the search name, for example, 
e:\fineart. Image information is stored in a Microsoft Access 
Database called tifny.mbd, located in the TIFNY installation 
directory, usually c:\Program Files\TIFNY, unless another 
location was specified during installation.

TIFNY can showcase images logged in the database, while 
immediately displaying new downloads as they occur. The user 
defines search criteria with optional deny filters to select 
news articles images for download. TIFNY is able to deny images 
by series, authors, organizations or keywords in the subject 
header, and avoid redundant searching and duplicate downloading, 
saving you time and bandwidth. As users build their deny list, 
TIFNY "learns" to download only the best images. 

Use TIFNY to navigate the newsgroups, hands-free, and discover 
it's photographic treasures while automatically filtering 
unwanted spammers, offensive postings and cross-postings. 
Retrieve USENET newsgroup images that are filtered and offer 
graphics you deem relevant and exciting.

TIFNY software was developed in Visual Basic running under 
Windows 95 and has been tested under Windows95 & NT4.0.

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TIFNY FEATURES:

* slideshow of downloaded images while displaying new downloads
as they occur.  
    
* database "remembers" what newsgroups have been searched and 
will resume from where it last read an image. Getting 
disconnected from your ISP will never interfere with where you 
last read an image.  TIFNY will resume as if it had never been
disconnected. 
    
* user-defined search lists with filters to deny series, 
authors, organizations or keywords in the subject header. 
   
* delete undesired images from the database and hard disk by 
simply clicking on the "deny" buttons to delete by series, 
author, organization or keyword in the subject header 
      
* Optimal scanning for images in thousands of newsgroups!

* Image files are stored in user named directories for 
off-line viewing with TIFNY or third party image viewers.

* TIFNY also supports NNTP login authentication, if your News 
Server requires a user id and password.

* TIFNY can run "off-line" and be used as an image utility.

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NEW FEATURES:

TIFNY1.1 - 4Dec96

* BASE64 SUPPORTED
JPEG images posted to the newsgroups encoded in Base64, can now 
be read by TIFNY.

* CROSS POSTING THRESHOLD LEVEL ADDED TO PREFERENCES
Authors who cross post to "too" many newsgroups is an indication 
the image was cross posted outside of its theme. This is 
otherwise known as an image spammer. Setting the threshold value 
to 0, allows TIFNY to download an image that has been arbitrarily 
cross posted. Setting the threshold value to 4, for example, 
will download an image only if it has been cross posted to four 
or less newsgroups. This feature will virtually eliminate any 
spammed image from being downloaded. 

* SPECIAL EFFECTS TOGGLE ADDED TO PREFERENCES
Special Effects added for image segues. This slows TIFNY down, 
but adds dramatic effects to image transitions.

* TEXT WARNING TOGGLE ADDED TO PREFERENCES
If the toggle button "Text" is off and the "text warning" box in 
preferences is checked, then the "Text" button will blink to 
indicate the image has associated text.

* DELETE QUEUE DEPTH ADDED TO PREFERENCES
TIFNY does delete pictures from the hard drive, but not 
immediately. Images "marked" for deletion are placed in a "to be 
deleted queue" and its length is set in preferences. The 
queue operates on a first in first out basis, meaning when the 
queue is full, the "oldest" image marked for delete will now be 
deleted from the hard drive. This way you will have the 
opportunity to retrieve the most recent images marked for 
deletion. When TIFNY exits, any images marked for deletion will 
now be removed from the hard drive.

* LOOP BUTTON ADDED TO MAIN WINDOW
Setting this toggle "on" begins a never ending search.  
When a search has completed and the "Loop" button is made 
active, TIFNY waits 1 minute, and begins the same search again. 
TIFNY continues to "Loop" until the "Stop" button is pressed or 
the "Loop" button is made inactive.

* GO BACK BUTTON ADDED TO MAIN WINDOW
Start the next search at the first message available in the 
newsgroup.  If this toggle is "on", the next search will visit 
every message available in each newsgroup in the search, even if 
we read it before. The current position in the newsgroups will 
NOT be affected.  You will be able to start subsequent searches 
from where you left off, when then toggle is "off".  Images seen 
previously will be accepted and all other filters will be 
applied. This feature is similar to other news readers that can 
mark articles as "unread", but TIFNY does this only for the 
duration of when the toggle is "on".

* TEXT BUTTON ADDED TO MAIN WINDOW
Setting this toggle "on", dims the image, if there is associated text. 
Then layers the text on to the dimmed image. If the toggle button "Text" 
is off and the "text warning" box in preferences is checked, then the 
"Text" button will blink to indicate the image has associated text.

* POST NOW INCLUDES TEXT
Posting news articles to a newsgroup can now include associated 
text with the image. The "Comments" text box in the "TIFNY 
Posting" form will be associated with the posted image.
 
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

email info@tifny.com

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INSTALLATION NOTES

1). Make sure you have installed the TIFNY system support 
file called tifnysys.exe FIRST!!!! If you don't run this file 
before setup.exe, TIFNY may not run correctly.  Since TIFNY is 
using the latest software technology, OCX program modules, 
Windows 95 must register these software elements in a prescribed 
order. If you ran setup.exe first and then ran tifnysys.exe, 
TIFNY may not run correctly. To correct this, just start over 
again, and run tifnysys.exe first, followed by setup.exe.  

TO RUN TIFNY

* Run the program (from the Program Manager or Start menu).
* Set the Server address to point to your NNTP server.  TIFNY
will guess an appropriate server based on existing settings in
your registry.
* Read the Quick Start Help.
* Read the Help file for answers to any questions.

FILE DESCRIPTIONS

tifny.mdb is a Microsoft Access database of image information. 
The images are not stored in the database, but on your hard disk. 
Location: TIFNY installation directory.

<filename>.jpg files are images file downloaded from the 
newsgroups and placed in subdirectories by default. Alternate 
directories can be specified in the "Search->Define Search" menu 
in the "Directory" input box, for example, e:\animals. 

<filename>.tifny" files contain the text which came with the 
associated image and are stored in the same directory as the 
jpg files.

tifny.log Log file for program trace of exceptions. Location: 
TIFNY installation directory.

remove.exe will remove TIFNY from your system. Unwise. Location: 
TIFNY installation directory.

tifny.hlp is the help file. Location: TIFNY installation 
directory.

license.rtf is a rich text format file detailing the licensing 
agreement to use TIFNY. Please read.

tifny.cnt is an auxiliary help index file used by the help menu.

readme.1st is this file.






