CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing June 14, 1998 Issue 119 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L For Contact and Other Information See Bottom of Publication! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> This Issue's Winner! News: 3=> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net Reviews: 4=> Product: Learning VBScript, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 5=> Product: Netstorm: Islands at War, game Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 6=> Product: Oracle Troubleshooting by Rama Velpuri and Anand Adkoli, book Reviewed By: Song-Muh Jong, mailto:songmuh@mci2000.com 7=> Product: Special Edition Using Microsoft Visual Interdev, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 8=> Product: TuneUp, utility Reviewed By: Bev Walton-Porter, mailto:Scrybr8@prodigy.net 9=> Product: YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, Volume 3, game Reviewed By: Michael Soto, mailto:Hawk166@Juno.Com --- BEGIN ISSUE 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net No notes :-) 2=> Winner! This week's winner: mid@MAINSOFT.COM. 3=> News and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com OS/2 ... and I thought China was a SuperPower http://www.andovernews.com/cgi-bin/news_story.pl?48843/topstories I Know I have Felt Like This . . . ftp://ftp.zdnet.com/pcpro/download/swlib/gmf/gmfvid/baddaysm.zip Shouldn't We Prove First That Children On The Net is a Good Thing? http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23127,00.html?st.ne.fd.gif.d GeoCities Not Respecting Your Privacy? Nah . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23130,00.html?st.ne.fd.mdh Watch a Live Birth on The Internet ... Redefining Stupid . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23133,00.html?st.ne.1.head Hi, We're Big Bad Business and We're Here to Shut You Down . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23125,00.html?st.ne.1.head IE 5 Available in Beta ... Shouldn't They Fix IE 4 First? http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23074,00.html?st.ne.1.head 4=> Product: Learning VBScript, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Author: Paul Lomax ISBN: 1-56592-247-6 598 pages Requirements: CDROM MSRP: $39.95 U.S./$56.95 Canada All of O'Reilly & Associates "Nutshell" books are destined to be classics almost from the minute they leave the printing presses. Some of are strictly reference material, like Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan, or part tutorial and part reference, ala JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (also by David Flanagan). Learning VBScript, the latest "Nutshell" book, however, is mostly a tutorial to teach the uninitiated into the use of VBScript, Microsoft's scripting language based on its popular Visual Basic programming language. For the most part, the book is quite good, and well worth the trouble of anyone looking to learn how to program with VBScript. Therein lies the only problem with the book - VBScript is currently only implemented in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (versions 3.0 and up). Yes, a plug-in does exist for Netscape's Navigator - but the plug-in isn't free, and most people are unwilling to pay for something like this. The result is that committing to client-side scripting with VBScript limits one choice of browsers quite severely. Of course, there is also server-side scripting with VBScript, but this book doesn't really cover that topic; Learning VBScript covers almost exclusively the use of client-side VBScript. There is one appendix at the end of the book that describes active server pages and how to create them, but it is a very short chapter and not nearly enough information is presented. The CDROM that comes with the book includes example scripts. The book mentions that to run the examples on the CDROM requires VBScript 2.0, which is available from Microsoft's web site. It is nice having the examples that handy, but I prefer to type them in by hand (learn by doing!). The book itself is composed of 17 chapters and 6 appendixes (one is the aforementioned ASP appendix) totaling some 598 pages. The first two chapters are primarily introductory material, covering such topics as "The Need for VBScript" and "VBScript and Netscape Navigator". In chapter 3, "Getting Started", Lomax covers the basics for writing client-side scripts and variables and constants that can be used in VBScript. Chapter 4 covers control structures, using statements like if..then and for. Chapter 5 is one of the most important chapters, covering the objects present in VBScript and their properties, methods, and events. Chapter 6 explains the use of the element object and HTML intrinsic controls (buttons and such that appear within forms). Chapters 7 & 8 detail the use of the ActiveX Control Pad and the HTML Layout control. Chapter 9 then puts this knowledge to use, using the HTML layout control and ActiveX Control pad to assemble a custom "web application". Chapters 10 & 11 are a little unusual in terms of the subject matter covered. Chapter 10 covers only one topic- the manipulation and expression of the date from the client's computer. Chapter 11 explains how to "Describe Your Hyperlinks", a fancy way of saying helping you "spice" up your mundane hyperlinks with changes to text in a form field or the status bar. Chapter 12, on the other hand, details how to create an image map. Building dynamic HTML pages with the Document Object Model is the material covered in chapter 13. Included are such valuable techniques as how to build a web page on the fly. Chapter 14 covers use of VBScript to validate form data, probably the most common usage of client-side scripting languages today on the web. In a rather disjointed order, chapter 15 covers Error Handling while Chapter 16 bounces back with yet another example to build, a "shopping cart" that uses cookies to store what the customer wants to order. Finally, chapter 17 tackles the thorny issue of what to do with other browsers. There are a lot of VBScript books on the market today, a testament to the language's popularity despite its limited implementation. Choosing the right book, then, is a tough decision. I can't really speak any more for whether or not this is a good book for a novice; my own knowledge of JavaScript helped tremendously with learning VBScript even though the two languages use very different looking constructs to do the same things. The book does do a good job of covering the basics, and the examples in the book and on the CDROM range from small to very large (like the shopping cart application), thereby giving the user a chance to really play around with things and learn how to use them. Learning VBScript is well written, and the book is small enough that you can take it to work and read it during lunch, an important consideration for me . If you want to learn VBScript, this is a good place to start. O'Reilly and Associates http://www.oreilly.com 5=> Product: Netstorm: Islands at War, game Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Requirements: Windows 95, Pentium-90, 16 MB RAM, 15 MB HD space, 1 MB SVGA card, 2x CDROM, 14.4Kbps modem, Internet connection Reviewed on: Win95, Pentium-166, 24 MB RAM, 16x CDROM, 28.8Kbps modem MSRP: $49.95 ESRB Rating: Unknown, but reviewer suggests teens to adults only When it comes to computer games, there are four general categories that games fall into: great games, good games, bad games, and game that could have been great games. Netstorm falls firmly into the last category, which is too bad because it is, without a doubt, the most original real-time strategy game to come out this year. Netstorm was designed from the bottom up as a game to be played over the Internet; while the goal was noble, it is in this very area that Netstorm has its greatest failings. Real-time strategy games have been all the rage of late, what with the success of Command and Conquer and Warcraft II. Dozens of games have been released in the last few months, hoping to steal even just a little of the thunder. Most of these games have been bad, but a few have established their own legend - games like Total Annihilation and Dark Reign. But all of these games fit into the same mold; the player builds various military units that are then moved around the map as needed in whatever strategy the player uses to defeat his or her enemies. Netstorm takes a different tact. In Netstorm the majority of units do not move, but must be carefully placed to fulfill their role like chess pieces. Wrapped around this is a fantasy/technological setting that is one of the most original ever designed solely for a computer game. Welcome to the planet Nimbus. Humans on Nimbus live on giant islands in the sky, tossed into the air long ago by the warring furies of Wind, Rain, and Thunder. High Priests for the furies lead the people of Nimbus into battle for the precious scant resources found on these islands. High Priests are the heart of the people; they possess the knowledge of magic and machinery necessary for these battles. In addition, the sacrifice of a High Priest of a rival fury leads to the acquisition of knowledge of new machines and spells with which to defeat the enemy. Such is the premise of Netstorm. The player is thrust into the role of High Priest for the furies of Wind, Rain, or Thunder. Your goal is to capture and sacrifice other High Priests. Simple enough, eh? The basics of Netstorm are much like any other real-time game. You collect "Storm Crystals" which are deposited into your temple and give you points towards the construction of workshops, altars and military units. There are some unique twists. Units can only be placed once; once built they are stationary. To get to other islands, you have to build bridge between them. If the island is unclaimed, you can claim it for yourself. If there is a an enemy temple on that island, however, you can't build units on the island until the temple is destroyed. This leads to some rather interesting dilemmas, as you have to build bridges with pieces that are, well, not exactly what a master architect would desire. You can choose from any four pieces at a time, which are replaced with new (and usually) different pieces. This is the first flaw in Netstorm - how fast you can build a bridge to a particular destination is determined primarily by how lucky you are in what pieces of bridge pop up. Often you end up designing bridges that wander all over the sky solely because you have no other choice. I first tried Netstorm several months ago when the demo was released. While multiplayer games are the heart of the game (more on that in a minute), I was hooked on the elegant look and unique gameplay in single player mode. Netstorm is not the most beautiful game in the world, but is very nice to look at. Clouds move underneath the islands giving an illusion of height. The various units, spells, and such are unique, well-designed, and fun to experiment with. There is a lot to like here, and in single player mode the game is a lot of fun. The game does come with both a tutorial and 3 campaigns, although the campaigns seem to be more of a continuation of the tutorial and designed to teach the player what they need to know in order to play against other human beings. The AI is good but not great, enough to be challenging to novices but fairly easy to experts. As I said before, Netstorm was designed to be played on the Internet. Getting an Internet game of Netstorm going is certainly easy enough to do. Up to 8 people can play a game at any one time. Once connected to the Internet, you boot up Netstorm and connect to the "Serenisphere" on Activision's game server. Here you can select opponents, determine rules and have at it. The first player to join the game is the "Battle Master" - in other words, they determine who can join the game and set various battle options. Once the battle begins, the Battle Master's computer becomes the server for the other players. While Netstorm's advertisements promise that Netstorm has no lag during games over the Net, don't believe it. The only time you won't suffer from lag is if you are the Battle Master. How serious is the problem? In a real-time strategy game, seconds count. Every second you lose to an opponent is a strike against you. Serious lag problems can mean that you end up building a single bridge while your next door neighbor builds an entire army. That makes all the difference in the world, and means that a game of Netstorm can be very frustrating indeed. Lag is a big problem with any game played over the Internet, however, and can be avoided by playing at times other than peak access hours. But there are even more severe problems with Netstorm, problems resulting from the design of the game that end up favoring expert players so much so that novices will end up with no chance of winning whatsoever. First, ever since the first game was played over the Internet there have been problems with cheaters using hacks and other tricks to get an advantage over their opponents. The worst case was Diablo, which was so bad that many people gave up playing over the Internet. Having listened to players on Usenet, the ability of players to cheat in Netstorm is at least as big a problem as it was in Diablo. You would think that Activision might have anticipated this! Alas, that is not even the most severe problem. Cheats and such can be removed by patches and fixes. The most severe flaws are going to be much, much tougher. The basic premise of the game is that your High Priest gains additional knowledge every time you sacrifice an enemy priest. In multiplayer mode, Netstorm breaks this down into levels and ranks. Every time you kill a priest, you gain a level. Once you gain a knowledge of all of the units in Netstorm, you gain a rank. The consequence of gaining a rank is that you lose all of your acquired knowledge, but the units you can now build have a 25% increase in hit points and power. This totally favors advanced players. Consider this - you as a novice can only build the least powerful units. A more experienced player has access to better, stronger units. So they not only have more experience playing the game, but they get better pieces to use. Guess who is going to win? What compounds this is that you can only gain more experience by killing priests - tough to do when the other guy has all the advantages. The bottom line is this. Netstorm is very original game with lots of promise. But that very promise is destroyed by a game that totally favors expert players to the point that novices will be nothing but frustrated. I hate to say it, but given these problems I have real trouble recommending Netstorm. If you are an expert real-time player looking for a fresh, original challenge - this is the game for you. Anyone else would be better off looking elsewhere. Activision http://www.activision.com 6=> Product: Oracle Troubleshooting by Rama Velpuri and Anand Adkoli, book Reviewed By: Song-Muh Jong, mailto:songmuh@mci2000.com Requirements: Oracle and Oracle Developer/2000 MSRP: $44.99/$64.95 (USA/CAN) Databases are vital to every business and corporation. Due to the cost of downtime and the demand for scalability, corporations are relying on the information system to provide a trouble-free and productive database system for everyday operation. Oracle and Sybase are two of the major products employed at large corporations. The aim of this book is to serve as a reference for common problems in installation and implementation of the Oracle database and tools. As a reference book, Oracle Troubleshooting is designed for easy access to the topic you want most. Readers do not have to read from cover to cover. Instead, one can turn to the section or chapter that is most relevant to the problem at hand. The companion CD is organized into sections of HTML files and can be viewed by a browser as a glorified help system. However, the CD content does not cover all the details in the book. Readers still need to read the book for an in-depth discussion of specific topics. This book is organized into two parts. In the first part, the authors provide installation tips and troubleshooting techniques on different platforms, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, Solaris, UNIX, and OpenVMS. In the second part, the authors discuss database diagnosis and solutions, and the Oracle tool Developer/2000. The last chapter tells you how to prepare yourself before calling Oracle Technical Support. Although the authors call it the third part of the book, I think it should be considered as an appendix. Windows platforms have their common characteristics. That is the reason the authors discuss it in great details in the chapter for Windows 3.1 and refer to it from the chapters for Windows 95 and NT. Readers who are working on Windows 95 or Windows NT should also read the chapter on Windows 3.1. The chapter on OpenVMS is different from other chapters in that it spells out details of the procedures and actions. Installation of Oracle has been a non-trivial task. There are different problems of installation, such as installation on a stand alone machine, on a network, and connection from other products such as Visual Basic or PowerBuilder. The authors address most of the problems for each platform and then discuss the connectivity issues in a separate chapter (chapter 8). The section on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is excellent. Chapter 7 is particularly helpful for database administrators who need to take care of database creation, user management, schema and objects management, space management, performance tuning, backup and recovery, and error diagnosis and resolution. The authors have been answering questions at the Oracle Technical Support for more than six years. The accumulation of their knowledge is now put directly into readers' hands. Other topics covered include Developer/2000 and Percompilers. This book covers everything you need to know about Oracle 7 database. I had a pleasant time reading this book and wished that this book had been available before. Anyone who is involved in Oracle database will find it well worth the money to have a copy of this book on the shelf. For those Oracle 8 users, newer titles are available from the same publisher. Osborne McGraw-Hill http://www.osborne.com 7=> Product: Special Edition Using Microsoft Visual Interdev, book Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Authors: Mike Morrison, et al. ISBN: 0-7897-0762-4 888 pages Requirements: Visual Interdev (demo available from Microsoft), CD-ROM MSRP: $49.99 U.S./$70.95 Canada Que's Special Edition Using Microsoft Visual Interdev is a mixed bag, filled with some useful information that is surrounded by much that is of little or no use to the audience most likely to read this book. Let's face it - most of the people who are using Microsoft's Visual Interdev are likely to very web- and net-savvy. For example, a large portion of the book is spent describing Windows NT and the Internet Information Server which is nice but hardly worth inclusion in this book, which is about Visual Interdev! If I want to know more about Windows NT, I'll buy a different book that covers NT in some detail! Conversely, areas that would have been of tremendous help are instead poorly done - for example, while there is a chapter on Active Server Pages, it only tells you how to use the wizards to create one and has nothing at all about how to create one yourself. This is fairly typical of this type of book, especially where there are multiple authors writing different sections of the book. Some areas are great, others less so, and some downright awful leaving you on the whole dissatisfied with the whole product. Well, now that I've gotten that off of my chest, lets explore what is good about the book, okay? The book does do a good job of comprehensively covering every aspect of Visual Interdev - from how to customize your workspace to how to create music using the Music Producer. The book is broken down into 9 sections, each composed of two or more chapters for a total of 41 chapters spanning more than 800 pages. This is not a book that you'll be reading cover to cover! Section 1, Getting Started, is composed of an overview of Visual Interdev and a "Quick Start" showing you how to design a basic web site with Interdev. Section 2, Using Microsoft Visual Interdev, covers how to install Interdev and begin to use it to design and organize your web site. Section 3, Visual Interdev Content Editors, describes how to use the various components of Interdev including the FrontPage 97 Editor, Media Manager, Image Composer, Music Producer, and HTML Layout control. An additional chapter that covers the use of the Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition software is also included (VB 5.0 CCE is included on the CD-ROM for the book). Section 4 is describes how to use ActiveX controls with Visual Interdev. Section 5, the Visual Interdev Administration Guide, covers Windows NT, IIS, FrontPage 97, Visual Sourcesafe 5.0 and SQL Server usage. This particular section is the one that drew so much of my ire up above - while the discussion of security and using SQL server is great, do we really need chapters describing how to use Windows NT? Section 6 covers the use of Web Site scripting. While the chapters do cover the material, they do so in a very generic way. Beyond using the Scripting Wizard, you will want to get a more detailed text on either VBScript or JavaScript (Microsoft calls it JScript), if you do not already have one. One chapter deals with the choice of client- or server-side scripting, an important issue for good web site design. The last chapter in this section details how to use VBScript as a server-side scripting language. By far, this is one of the most valuable chapters in the book, as it does give some information about creating your own active server pages. Section 7 covers databases, not only the basics like what databases are and how they work but also more relevant topics like how to use/develop databases with Interdev and how to use Active Data Objects to link active server pages with a database. Section 8, probably the smallest section of the book, explains how to optimize performance for your web site, including things like compressing multimedia demonstrations and reducing the size of graphics files. The final section, chapter 9, describes 5 sites (one per chapter) and how they used Interdev to create and maintain their website. Special Edition Using Microsoft Visual Interdev is a good book for a novice to web design learning how to use Visual Interdev but most of the book will be of little or no use for advanced users. Think of it more as a tutorial than a reference, and you will see exactly what niche the book fits into. For a novice, I have no hesitation in recommending the book. I did learn a lot when it came to creating active server pages and linking with databases, I just wish there was more of it so I could have learned all that I really needed from one book rather than having to purchase another. Que http://www.quecorp.com 8=> Product: TuneUp, utility Reviewed By: Bev Walton-Porter, mailto:Scrybr8@prodigy.net Reviewed on: Pentium 166 MHz, 24 MB RAM, Windows 95 Requires: Intel-based 486-DX2/66 MHz or higher, Windows 95, VGA or better display, CD-ROM Drive, 12 MB of RAM, 9 MB of free hard disk space, Internet connection MSRP: $39.95 If only my car could be tuned up as quickly as my PC, then I think I'd have it made! But "built for speed" are the buzzwords for TuneUp by Quarterdeck Corporation. In short order, you can have your PC updated with the newest software upgrades, have your hardware protected from the threat of virus proliferation, and access a number of disk repair utilities. TuneUp is an Internet-based subscription service which provides PC users with quick, comprehensive on-line upgrades for their system's software. Once the CD is installed, TuneUp connects to the Net through your provider software, then accesses the best application and hardware driver updates currently available. On-line tech reference information is available to users around the clock. Apart from the basic TuneUp, an AV component is offered as well. The AV component assists users in effective virus elimination while pairing the feature with a package of disk repair utilities to keep your PC hardware running as smoothly as possible. The software package is small -- just one CD ROM disk, but the disk works in tandem with the TuneUp Web site, instruction manual, and an on-line help area to provide detailed, user-friendly information to guide even the most novice of operators through the process. You can access the on-line help system by simply clicking the "help" button on the TuneUp console that appears on your screen once you've done the initial product installation. When the software is first installed, TuneUp establishes a configuration profile for your PC, then lets you know what are the latest available updates for your particular drivers and applications. Most of these tasks are completed by connecting to the Web site itself. To profile your PC, click on the "Update" button and the program will begin scanning your system. From the results of this scan, a profile is created. But if you're worried about the possibility of privacy and the problems of security factors from the scanning process, you needn't be. Quarterdeck assures its users that their personal information and configuration profile is never stored on a remote server. Once the first profile of your system is complete, TuneUp suggests re-profiling your system any time hardware drivers or software application are added or updated. After your computer profile is noted by TuneUp, you can download the updated files at any time. Once downloaded, it's up to you when you decide to install them. You can complete the process immediately or wait until a more convenient time. When you purchase the TuneUp software, you're automatically entitled to a free one-year subscription to TuneUp's on-line services. But to enable those services, you'll be required to register on-line. Once you've registered, you'll automatically have access to tech support services, receive advance notice of future upgrades, and be informed of any special offers available on Quarterdeck's other products. In order to complete the registration, users will need to know the serial number assigned to their particular product. Serial numbers can be located on the back of the CD or envelope. To enter your serial number and register, point your browser to: http://www.tuneup.com/register/ In addition, Quarterdeck will send you a renewal offer through e-mail before your TuneUp subscription expires. One thing I wanted to mention here: along with the TuneUp application and other neat offers, users will also receive notification via a flyer that a trial version of CleanSweep 3.0 has been added to the disk. A strong word of caution here -- if you use Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, I recommend that you resist installing CleanSweep's trial version. The program is not compatible with these browsers and can give you quite a surprise you hadn't bargained for. Although CleanSweep is supposed to clean useless digital mess from your PC (duplicate files, redundant DLLs, orphan files, etc.), thereby freeing hard disk space, I found that this free trial with its trumpeted "Safety Sweep" leaves much to be desired. "Safety Sweep" claims to offer protection from erasing files your computer may still need to function properly, but much to my chagrin, this was not the case after I used the program. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 did not work properly, and, in fact, neither did some of my Windows options. The scariest part was my inability to access the "My Computer" icon in Windows 95 -- a double click delivered nothing but a blank screen with MSIE icons framing the top. Seconds later, an error message popped on my screen and I was kicked out completely! After much gnashing of teeth and a desperate call to Packard Bell (whose monotone-voiced tech person droned, "The simplest way is to delete everything off your system completely and re-install," (!!) I decided to take my chances and re-install the disk for Prodigy Internet that contained the MSIE 4.0 program. It was a weekend, the Quarterdeck offices were closed, I had the head cold from Hades, and I was determined NOT to allow this trial version program, insidiously placed on the TuneUp disk, to wreck my weekend PCing. To my delight, the re-installation worked. I received a few error messages, but I ignored them and allowed the program to complete its component replacement. When I rebooted the computer, Internet Explorer worked normally, and I was able to take some medicine, grab a pillow and drift off to sleep, silently wondering how many other unsuspecting TuneUp users had the same nightmarish experience I'd had. The next day I discovered on the Quarterdeck Web site that I wasn't the only one! So buyer beware of the trial version of Clean Sweep included on your TuneUp CD!! Despite the troubles I had with CleanSweep, my experience with TuneUp was otherwise pleasant. My computer was connected to the Web site efficiently, where I was presented with a myriad of updates for my current applications and drivers. Like a patron at a cyber buffet, I didn't know which "goodie" to choose! I ended up downloading a handful of upgrades and subsequently installed them with relative ease. One feature I particularly enjoyed was the ability to install updates once you're disconnected from the Net. The upgrades are stored in a folder appropriately titled, "updates", and they will continue to stay in TuneUp's install window until you choose to either continue with installation or to delete them. The added feature, TuneUp AV, was equally as simple to use. No Internet connection is needed. Select Programs/Quarterdeck TuneUp/TuneUp AV from the Windows START menu, and the AV console appears on the screen. The program rapidly scans your system, identifying and isolating any viruses, then removing them from infected files. If files cannot be repaired, TuneUp AV deletes those files. In addition, AV does a hard disk check and repair. The virus scan and disk check may take a few minutes, but the small wait is worth it. Once complete, a status window appears and a row of lights indicates the results of each test: green means no problems, blue represents a skipped task, yellow means a cancellation, and red shows a problem was detected. Users may then select information about the Scan Disk report and Virus report from the DETAILS button located on the status window. The information provided is so handy, you'll want to run these tests often to maintain the hardware health of your PC. Overall, I found TuneUp to be a convenient, easy-to-use program. The only problem I encountered stemmed from the trial version of CleanSweep, and I was a bit miffed over the whole ordeal. If I'd been a novice user, I might have taken the advice of the tech person at Packard Bell, which, for me, would have been a complete exercise in frustration! And although I give high marks for TuneUp, the experience was soured by Quarterdeck's decision to add CleanSweep as a bonus tryout. From what I read at their Web site, they are aware of the problem, but did not have a fix as of the date I visited the site. One more thing to note: No one from Quarterdeck returned my voice message asking for assistance. Fortunately, I enjoyed their TuneUp program enough that I'll try more of their software, but I hope by then their customer service will be more responsive to unexpected and unwanted trial version terrors! Take my advice: buy TuneUp, but FORGET taking CleanSweep for a test run until you know for sure the browser problem is solved. Quarterdeck Corporation WWW: http://www.quarterdeck.com/ 9=> Product: YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, Volume 3, game Reviewed By: Michael Soto, mailto:Hawk166@Juno.Com Reviewed on: Pentium 166, 24 MB RAM, Windows 95 Requires: 486/66, 16MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM, and Win 3.1 Or PowerPC or 68040-based Mac, System 7.1 or newer, 10MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM MSRP: $29.95 YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Volume 3 is a new volume added to Sierra's YOU DON'T KNOW JACK series. The game is a delightfully witty game show in which you and possibly one or two other friends compete by answering entertaining, bizarre questions. Installation was simple and went flawlessly. Thanks to Windows 95's Auto-Play, all I had to do pop in the CD. Like most games today, it has to be run off of the CD-ROM, due to its massive amount of multimedia content. The game loaded, and the fun began. Upon loading the game, the sounds of a television studio preparing for a game show filled the room. Sierra was not stingy with the multimedia in this game. Raul, who is in charge of preparing for the game show, talked and babbled about things while I entered my name. Two game types are available - 7 or 21 question games. I chose a 21-question game, to get a good feel of the game. Raul was very courteous. He explained how to play, and which key was my buzzer. A nice option Sierra added was the choice to press the spacebar during instructions to skip them. I did so, and Raul was happy to oblige and started the game show. In this game, you pick categories for the questions. The choices for the first category were: 1) My Dad's More Potent than Your Dad 2) Snap Lightly and Carry a Big Stick 3) Heavenly Bodies Need Love, Too. These categories seemingly relate to nothing, which makes this game bizarre and interesting. I selected question 2) Snap Lightly and Carry a Big Stick. A short multimedia sequence with a dancing "One" and music was played. The multimedia clips displaying the question number add a nice touch to the game. The clips aren't long enough to make you want to smack the computer, thankfully. Here was the question: If you were to beat a "beat" poet about the head and shoulders, which of these writers would need a beret to cover their bruised and battered skull? 1) Tom Wolfe 2) Allen Ginsberg 3) William Faulkner 4) Abbie Hoffman The category and the question are original. This isn't like those old education trivia games. Well, I took my best guess of 3) William Faulkner. I was very wrong. Comically, my score was flushed down a toilet, and the game host made wisecracks and explained the right answer - 2) Allen Ginsberg. There are many different types of questions in the game than the basic question I just demonstrated, such as Impossible Questions, Dis or Dats, Three Ways, Jibberish Question, and more. For example, an Impossible question truly is impossible. These questions ask obscure facts and reward much more money than other types of questions. An extremely fun feature when playing with friends is the Screw. At the beginning of each round, each player receives a screw. During the game, if player 1 believes player 2 doesn't know the answer, player 1 can "Screw" player 2. What this does is force player 2 to answer the question. If player 2 is wrong, he loses money. If player 2 guesses right, player 1 is screwed - player 2 gains money, and player 1 loses money. It's kind of like a double-edged sword. This is a game I would recommend to almost anybody. I will just quote the manual: "WARNING: This product contains mature content, including suggestive sexual references and language that may not be suitable for children. Besides, they won't get it anyway." One of the few things I disliked about this game is that there aren't nearly enough questions. There are enough questions, about 800 to be exact, but in the few games I've played, I've seen some repeated questions. In Sierra's defense, all the multimedia content must take a lot of space on the CD-ROM. Then again, Sierra may be trying to spread their questions among several CD-ROMs to make a YOU DON'T KNOW JACK lover buy all of them. A missing feature is the ability to play a friend who isn't sitting next to you. There are no options for modem, Internet, or network play. It makes sense to have multiplayer functions. There is a way to play YOU DON'T KNOW JACK over the Internet, but not with this game package. It is possible to play YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: The Netshow for free at http://www.bezerk.com. In order to play, a one-time download of a 2.42MB file is required. I could not try this Netshow version, because it will not run over the Prodigy Network according to the technical support people. To sum it all up, YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, Volume 3 offers a unique way for mature audiences to "star" in a dazzling game show. As every YDKJ game ends, let me just end with this statement, "YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!" Sierra On-Line, Inc. WWW: http://www.sierra.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net Assistant Editor: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Assistant Editor: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/ Website: e-mail: mailto:notes@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:writers@compunotes.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way it is! Please tell every on-line friend about us! 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