CompuNotes
Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing
September 25, 1997
Issue 100

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CONTENTS
My Notes:
1=> Our 100th Issue!, mailto:pgrote@i1.net
2=> This Issue's Winner!

News:
3-> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net

Columns:
4=> The Big City Byte with Howard Carson - Online Banking and the Pain!, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com

Articles:
5=> Networking Your Home Computers by P. Bertram, mailto:pbertram@crl.com

Interviews:
6=> Interview with Steve Jenkins, creator of Windows95.Com <http://www.windows95.com>

Reviews:
7=> Product: Hexen II - game/action
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
8=> Product: Extranets: The Complete Source Book - book/networking
Reviewed By: Richard Malinski, mailto:richard@acs.ryerson.ca
9=> Product: Better Homes & Gardens Kitchen & Bath - CDROM/home
Reviewed By: Danny Williams, mailto:danny@packet.net

--- BEGIN ISSUE

1=> Our 100th Issue, mailto:pgrote@i1.net

Well, we have arrived. This is our 100th issue! I can't tell you what a feeling of success sweeps over me when I realize this is 100!

Why is CompuNotes a success? The readers. The writers. The editors.

Of course, there are a few people that need to be thanked on this occasion. In no particular order I want to thank the readers, without you all there wouldn't be a CompuNotes. I want to thank our writers, for they toil as volunteers and always come through. I want to thank Roger Klein for helping me get the precursor to CompuNotes off the ground, CyberNews. Not only is he a best friend, but the only other guy who gets technology concepts as quickly as I do! Remember when we thought the future of electronic publishing was HLP files? Not enough thanks can be showered on Judy Litt. Our first webmaster and graphic's master, she has always helped us out with graphical needs and ideas!

Last but not least I want to thank a very special person, Doug Reed. Doug and I have met once. He lives in Connecticut. I in Missouri. Yet, somehow, we have developed a world class weekly working entirely through the net. Doug's effort is why CompuNotes is still here. When I got too busy to work on CompuNotes Doug took over the task of managing the writers. When I got too busy to try to create a website, Doug rolled up his sleeves and became our webmaster. Doug and I share a love of technology which most people don't have and that is what keeps CompuNotes fresh and alive. Without Doug there would be no CompuNotes. Thank you very much Doug for all you have done! We made 100!

1A=> Our 100th Issue, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
I just wanted to add my own thanks to Patrick for being a friend and for letting me do the website as well as managing the writers.  100 issues, nearly 3 years, who would have thunk it when it all started?

Thanks as well to all of the writers, both the "old" steady ones who've been with us all the way and the younger blood that has appeared more recently.  You have made my managing chores very easy!

Now on to 200! I can guarantee that it will be as much fun as the first 100 issues.

2=> Winner!
This week's winner: ken@CARIBSURF.COM.

3=> News and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com

PG - Smarter? Barksdale or Gates? Oh, come on . . .
http://www1.zdnet.com/anchordesk/cgi-bin/quikpoll/quikpoll.cgi

PG - Windows in the car . . . "Really officer, the car just rebooted."
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,14554,00.html

PG - Compaq Announces LAN and WAN Equipment ... Does *ANYONE* Remember the Compaq Printers? Duh!
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0922/23ecpq.html

New multiplayer shareware version of POD allows for Internet play *DR - about time!
http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_09/15_pod/index.html

Alpha testers needed for new tactical combat game
Fireteam *DR -  Remember when they used to pay you for this?
http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_09/17_fireteam/index.html

Screenshots of upcoming real-time strategy game Dominion
*DR - Just what the world needs, one more real-time strategy game
http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_09/17_dominion/index.html

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4=> The Big City Byte, Howard Carson, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com

Try to remember a time when nothing existed at your bank except tellers, truculent managers, a complete absence of parking spaces, and the foolish game we all used to play, attempting to determine which lineup would be the fastest.

Evolution takes its toll, naturally, and our current banking circumstances are a long rifle shot from the days of yore (although qualifying for short term loans is still a crapshoot; do any bank managers still make their own decisions?) One gets the distinct impression that contemporary bank managers don't actually manage anything except staffing levels; every real financial decision is made elsewhere. Individual bank branches seem to have become little more than the brainless tentacles of some central computer core.

The most trenchantly depressing aspect of banking hegemony is the pervasive urge our financial institutions seem to be feeling these days, to install home banking software on everyone's computer. Every big outfit, from Chase Manhattan and Chemical-Hanover, to Bank of Montreal (or MBANX as it's now known), Citibank, and the Bank of Hong Kong, is howling after your PC. The big institutions have all developed their own software, their own firewalls, and their own way of doing things. Of course you still can't actually withdraw cash from any port on your desktop PC, but that (apparently) is a small consideration. The big banks just want to keep you busy counting, configuring, reassessing, and re-budgeting. They really don't want you to actually withdraw any cash. Debit cards are better. Human beings (tellers and managers) don't have to actually address any customers' needs and concerns when everyone is using debit cards. That also means you need far fewer tellers and managers.

As far as banking management has always been concerned, it's much cheaper to advertise customer service than to actually provide customer service. If you persistently advertise a penchant for service, eventually even the most callous will come to believe the service exists to some degree. Lets not confuse doing a day-to-day job with providing service either. All banks have staff, but the service is often lousy. True service has always been defined by those employees who take a proprietary interest in their work and the people with whom they have to interact. In other words, an ATM or PC-based banking software can never provide true service. ATMs and PCs can only replace the last vestiges of human contact when conducting mundane affairs.

The big banks are gradually removing all human contact from day-to-day transactions. "Why would you want to carry around all that grimy cash," they ask, "when you can just use your debit card or your PC?" Heck, they might even have a point. The problem is that we've just given up ultimate control of our money (and our overdrafts!), to the wiles and whims of the corporate geniuses who dreamed up all this stuff. Service sometimes means letting a well-regarded customer slide when the occasional overdraft occurs. An ATM or a PC will never let that happen.

It's too bad the financial leaders can't get any of it right.

A large bank in Canada recently went through what was touted as some serious reevaluation. There was no fear of failure you understand; the bank profited to the tune of one billion dollars in 1996. What the bank attempted to do was rework its corporate image into something more in keeping with the times. The corporation even chose Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are a Changin' as its marketing theme song.

What a joke.

Imagine going into your neighborhood branch, visiting the same teller you've talked to for nearly a year, finding out that the bank has screwed up the 'service' charges on your statement yet again, all to the strains of Bob Dylan wailin' in the background. It's enough to drive someone to drink.

Naturally, the logical point of entry into any new push towards a brave new banking world could not possibly appear without something happening on-line. The procedures for entering the on-line banking world are supposed to be simple, straightforward, and above all else, easy to install. It will come as no surprise to anyone that words such as 'simple', 'straightforward', and 'easy to install', are not part of the modern banking lexicon.

Installing MBANX's new on-line banking software is an exercise in futility if you want to use anything other than Netscape Navigator and Windows 95. The on-line banking software was designed around Netscape and '95, and any attempt to use Internet Explorer, Windows NT (or anything else), will result in dismal failure.

It is reasonable to suggest that learning Netscape for twice or thrice-weekly on-line banking sessions is no great hardship. That would certainly be true, but for the fact that two weeks after an application was received and approved(!), two weeks after the on-line registration was completed, and two weeks after the abysmally old-fashioned software arrived in the mail (an older version than the demo download for pete's sake!), the on-line access for which my wife applied has still not been activated. Repeated calls to MBANX have extracted the following explanation: "The people who do the on-line registrations and the people who do the bank branch-level registrations don't have any way of communicating directly with each other. Umm, we're sorry for the delay. We're just having a bit of trouble getting coordinated. We don't know why your software isn't cooperating either, but we'll get, um, someone to call you." They didn't say when the call would actually come and the software is still flaky.

Great. A federally chartered banking institution is foisting beta software on unsuspecting account holders. What a bunch of usurious so-and-sos. Should we expect any better treatment at the hands of a corporate private club which has rarely demonstrated anything beyond poorly restrained contempt for the great unwashed? I don't think so.

Let's take a step back for a moment, to examine the real value of on-line banking.

The vast majority of transactions any of us conduct throughout the course of any year are really nothing more than deposits and withdrawals. We certainly don't need anything more than an ATM for those activities. Variances in our deposits to account for things such as retirement income funds and the purchase of financial instruments (T-bills, bonds, etc.), can also be handled with a few pushes on the appropriate buttons once we've set up such accounts in the first place. The problems which arise when we err in our calculations (have you ever deposited an $800 check via the ATM, but punched in $600 by mistake?), can be somewhat aggravating to correct. The difficulties we used to encounter were rare; any number of us have written incorrect data on a deposit slip, only to have it caught (thankfully) by an alert teller. The error may have been the same as the ATM example above, but it was caught before your account was adjusted. The lesson in all things related to these situations is simply that two heads (yours and the teller's), are better than one (yours alone, butted squarely against the moronic ATM.) And if you walk out of a branch and find you're $20 short on your withdrawal, a simple conversation with the teller will get your $20 in a hurry. Try arguing with an ATM that has shorted you.

So what is on-line banking good for? Quite a few things actually. How about tracking daily, weekly and monthly interest, transferring funds between accounts, paying utility bills, credit card accounts, property taxes, creating automatic monthly debits/credits to blind savings or investment accounts, and making variable contributions to funds, bonds and education payments? It can all be done on-line, as long as the bank gets around to actually activating your on-line account.

Curiously however, you cannot transfer funds between accounts holding different currencies. Many American and Canadian business people maintain both U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar checking accounts. It makes sense considering the fact that the U.S. and Canada exchange more goods, services, commodities, and tourists than any other two nations on Earth. But while you can set up separate currency accounts for the purposes of stock and bond purchases, money order purchases, and so on, you have to go into a branch to transfer funds between currency-specific accounts. When queried about the reasons for this odd inconsistency, several bank managers have responded by saying that the ATM computers can't handle the currency conversion calculations.

What?

Of course, these are the same managers who will swear to new account holders that the reason their newly deposited funds are being held, is that it takes many days for the checks to be physically carried to the originating bank. The computers, they say, cannot access the databases of other banks in order to post debits against depositors' accounts.

Outright nonsense? You bet. The nonsense is designed to make account holders subservient from the 'git go'.

There are a few financial outlets which have gotten their act together mind you. Those outlets are prospering by their attention to detail, by their avoidance of beta-level software, and by their attention to human relations at the branch level.

The problem for the 'good ones' is that although branch-level regulations and politics can often be manipulated in favor of account holders, the software used to address the needs of financial sector consumers may stymie even those individuals armored with the patience of a saint. Any reasonable consumer is challenged by the perceived slowness of the Internet, occasionally aggravating difficulties with ATMs, the absence of automated currency conversion facilities, and the failure of the huge institutions to introduce even the barest minimum of customer service accountability.

Is there a solution to the problem? Probably not; at least not a general solution. But there are a few pieces of advice that should be considered before sallying forth and installing banking software on your PC.

First and foremost, find out the name of the individual who really knows what's going with the on-line banking setup at your financial institution. Contact the person(s) and ask them about several important details: the type of software, whether it is browser-specific, are you required to accept the banks offer of Internet access, is the bank using the Internet or their own dedicated server(s), and whether or not the service charges are lower than regular banking and ATM fees?

Second, ask for a test. Ask the bank's on-line commerce specialist if any of the branches have access terminals from which you can get at dummy accounts, in order to determine if the software is flaky, if it's nothing more than beta garbage, or if it is so difficult to use that you'll be driven 'round the bend?

Third, do not accept downloadable demos as proof the software is usable. The demos often do not log you on anywhere. They merely run on your desktop and demonstrate nothing about how hard it is to logon to the service, or how slowly (or quickly) the system operates.

Last, ask the financial institution who else is actively using the on-line system. Ask to speak to a couple of different private or business users. On-line banking is a consumer product. Check it out the same way you'd check out any other product.

Be tough too. Caveat Emptor. The banks deserve a little 'heat'.

5=> Networking Your Home Computers by P. Bertram, mailto:pbertram@crl.com

If you have more than one computer at home, you may want to consider wiring them together into a local area network (LAN). Windows 95 is shipped with all the software you need to enable your computer to work in a LAN. Hardware prices are dropping fast and are now cheap enough that just about anyone can afford to put together a small LAN in their home or office.

Advantages of wiring your home computers together are that you can share your printer(s) and files between the machines. At my house, both my wife and I have computers in separate rooms. Before we wired our machines together, each had its own printer attached. If one of us wanted to print on a different printer than the one attached to our computer, we had to put the document on disk, walk it down the hall and load the document into the application to be printed. This "sneaker net" also required that both machines have the same application installed. Now we can just point and click to choose to which printer we want to print. We're making better use of the disk space we have on our separate machines and we are able to run groupware applications that allow us to share our schedules and address books.

Let me say that this will not allow you to run an application installed on another machine. In other words, you will not have control of the other computer's CPU. If you want to remotely control another computer you will need to get an application like PC Anywhere or one of the other programs written specifically to do that. This article describes how to wire your computers together for simple file and print sharing. (Using software you already have!)

The hardware for this project is not only cheaper now; it's easier to find. Most of the computer stores are now stocking networking hardware on their shelves.

You can buy an ethernet (network) card now for $20 or less...but be careful. You will be much happier and save a lot of time if you spend a little more and get a name brand ethernet card. The cheapest cards are not always reliable. A 16-bit card will do fine.

You will need to decide on the kind of wire you want to use. There are two basic choices: coax (thinnet) or unshielded twisted pair cable (UTP). For my installation, I used UTP. Foot for foot, coax will cost more and is harder to work with. The disadvantage to UTP is that if you connect more than two computers together, you will need a hub. A hub can cost $75-$100, more or less, depending on the brand and options.

To connect two computers together using twisted pair cable WITHOUT A HUB you MUST "crossover" some of the wires between the two machines. The reason for this is so that the transmit wires will connect to the receive wires on the other end and vice versa.

Besides the ethernet cards and the wire, you will need 2 patch cables and two RJ-45 jacks.

Most likely, the UTP cable you buy will have eight wires in it arranged as four pair of two wires. Be sure you buy category 3 or better. Cat 5 is best. Do not use cheap telephone wire, it won't work. Each wire will be color-coded. The "crossover" can be made at either end of the cable when you attach the RJ-45 jack to the cable end. One end of the patch cable will plug into the RJ-45 jack at the end of your cable. The other end of the patch cable will plug into the network card installed in your computer. Your total cable length cannot exceed 328 feet (100 meters).

Here's a diagram of the cable and connections between the computers:

(NIC*)-(patch cable)-(RJ45 jack)-(UTP cable)-(RJ45 jack)-(patch cable)-(NIC*)

*NIC=network interface card (ethernet card)

To make the "crossover" you must know how the pins are numbered on a jack and a plug and the difference between a jack and a plug. The jack is the female counterpart of the plug. Patch cables will have a plug at each end. A jack is a receptacle and a plug goes into the jack.

The 8 pins in a RJ-45 jack are numbered 12345678 as you look at the cavity in the wall or on the baseboard.

The 8 pins of a RJ-45 plug are numbered 87654321 as you look directly at the plug with the cable running away from you.

With that said, you will use only pins numbered 1,2,3, and 6. To make the crossover you must connect pin 1 to pin 3 and pin 2 to pin 6. You will do this on ONLY ONE END OF THE UTP CABLE. If you did it on both ends it wouldn't be a crossover.

If you are totally confused, go to:
<http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/LANs/cabling-faq>
and study the diagrams.

I won't quote a color-code scheme because the cable/jacks you buy may have a different color scheme. In fact, there are three different standards in that department. You can study them at the above URL.

After you are crossed over and plugged in, it's time to configure your Windows 95 computers to talk to each other. Get your installation CD or disks ready because you will need some files from them.

After installation of your NIC, you will fire up your computer and Windows 95 will recognize the card and install drivers for it automatically. (We hope...you did buy a plug and play card, didn't you?)

Then go to control panel/network. Click add, then protocol, then netBEUI. Next, click add, then client, then Microsoft on the left then Client for Microsoft Networks on the right. Also, you should add file and print sharing for Microsoft Networks here.

For identification of your computer on your network, you must be sure that both computers belong to the same workgroup. If you don't, you will not be able to see the other in Network Neighborhood. You can put anything you like in the other 2 fields as long as both computers do not have the same name.

If you have a modem in your computer, you will see 'dial up adapter' along with your network interface card. If you use your modem on the Internet, TCP/IP will show up as a protocol bound to that adapter. That's OK for the dial up adapter, but you do not want TCP/IP bound to your network interface card. Check the bindings to make sure that only netBEUI is bound to the card and not TCP/IP. It doesn't matter if netBEUI is bound to your dial up adapter along with TCP/IP.

Finally, make sure your primary network logon is set to Client for Microsoft Networks and you have configured file and print sharing.

After you configure both computers and re-boot you should see the other computer in the window when you double click Network Neighborhood. Your 10baseT ethernet network is up and running. Use your W95 help files to learn how to share files and printers.

I'm obligated to say something about security and the Internet here. Once you enable file and print sharing and dial into the Internet, others may have access to your computer. To disable others from accessing your machine via the Internet you must disable file and print sharing before logging on to the Internet.

When you are ready to add more computers to your network and have purchased a hub, be sure and undo your "crossover".

6=> Interview with Steve Jenkins, creator of Windows95.Com <http://www.windows95.com>

If you use Windows 95 and the internet you have probably visited, more likely than not often, the site Windows95.Com. <http://www.windows95.com>.

Windows95.Com is the place to find all the latest in Windows 95 shareware and help in one location!

The creator of the site is a dynamic person named Steve Jenkins. Steve embodies all of what is successful about the internet today. He is young, a trend setter and a master of giving people what they want.

We had a chance to interview Steve for our special 100th issue! Make sure you visit Windows95.Com and look around!  <http://www.windows95.com> CompuNotes is indicated by CN and Steve Jenkins is indicated by SJ.

CN: Where did the inspiration for WINDOWS95.COM bubble from? Can you give us a brief history?

SJ: It was a college hobby. I didn't intend to run it as a business, I simply started putting Windows 95 information online when I was part of the public beta. People started visiting, and magazines (in their frenzy to cover the new Windows 95) linked to it as one of the few "professional looking" Windows information and software sources online. But when we first started, we had no software. It contained only tutorials for setting up Windows 95 to connect to the Internet. Microsoft has since done a much better job of facilitating this connection, but back in late 1995, it was almost impossible to figure out how to do it. I sat down and pounded through different connection procedures, then wrote simple instructions, and posted them. They're all still on the site, in fact!

CN: Is WINDOWS95.COM your full time job now? If so, what did you do previously? If not, what do you do?

SJ: When I graduated from grad school, I went to work for Microsoft as a Product Manager for Internet Explorer. I left MS last year to run the site full time. Best decision I ever made.

CN: Since you worked for Microsoft what's it like? Did you enjoy it?

SJ: I loved it. It's the best company to work for in the world, except your own. They really take care of their people, and they make it easy for you to do your job and succeed.

CN: What happens when WINDOWS98 comes out? The domain name is registered to you. I also noticed that WINDOWS97 and WINDOWS99 are registered to you as well. Did Microsoft contact you concerning this?

SJ: Our future plans are a secret - but we'll be making them known by the end of the year :)

CN: Share with us your experiences in working with the authors of the software you catalog. Has it been positive?

SJ: It's been great. It's a completely mutually beneficial relationship. They help us post up-to-date content which attracts visitors (which would be way too hard to keep up with on our own), and we help them place their shareware in front of millions of Web surfers (which would be very expensive for them to do on their own). We do our best to make it as easy as possible to deal with us, and the authors have responded very favorably. Some Web sites treat the authors like scum, like something they're FORCED to deal with, but would rather not. We think of it completely the other way around. We're the scum! :) They'd rather be able to promote their software directly, but they're forced to come through us. We therefore try to make working with us as fun and easy as possible. We're also starting to offer new services to the authors, like the online registration system, hoping that they'll become more successful. I get many emails from authors who tell me that we're responsible for 50-80% of their downloads. Many are able to make money because we're online. I love that! I love it when we can help people be successful.

Another great benefit is that I've become good friends with some of the biggest shareware authors around, like Nico Mak of WinZip. He's a terrific guy to work with, but I'm glad I'm friends with him regardless of whether we work together or not. The same is true with a lot of over authors, as well.

CN: What are some future features of Windows95.com that we will be seeing?

SJ: Ahhhh.... that's a secret. I can say that we will be expanding to include more support for more "flavors" of Windows.

CN: It appeared you put alot of effort into redesigning the web site, but when it was unveiled users didn't respond all too well. Was this a case of overdesign or do you think users just become comfortable? Describe what happened.

SJ: I think it was a couple of things. First, the new design made the cached information in millions of Web browsers obsolete, so traffic on the servers was death! Second, I think users have become so comfortable with our design, that they freaked out when we tinkered with it. So we compromised and combined the two designs, keeping the best part of the old design and mixing it with the best part of the new. I think everyone's happy now. We'll, maybe not EVERYONE, but as many as can be expected :)

CN: The look and feel of your site has been cloned. How does this make you feel?

SJ: It upsets me greatly. In fact, I've been dealing all weekend with an individual who has been copying the look, feel, and content of my site for almost a year. In some cases, I want to fire up a laywer, and have done so in the past when the infringement was simply too much to handle, and if they refused to stop copying. But I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I have to rely on the speed, accuracy, and completeness of our list to make users want to visit us, and only us.

CN: From your web site I learned the business is a family affair. How is it working with your relatives on a day in day out occasion?

SJ: It's great. By employing my father, at least I won't have to take care of him when he gets old! :) Seriously, though - it's great to be surrounded in any business by people you know and trust. I've been working with my father since I was a kid, so it seemed only fair that he should work for me for a while. My brother does a great job running the shareware database, and my wife helps out with the accounting. We all do our jobs from our separate homes, however. That way, we don't get sick of each other.

CN: Do you think ad based revenue generation can support web sites? Will there be a place for this in the future or will it shift to another paradigm?

SJ: Advertising has been a part of broadcasting since the days of early radio. It's tried and true, and it works. I don't see it going away. It's as simple as this: the clients who advertise on our site get orders. Why change that? Nearly all of our clients continue advertising with us after they sign up the first time, because we provide such a great value. With very few exceptions, every single advertiser on our site has generated enough revenue as a direct result of the ad on our site to pay for the ad, and increase revenue above that. Mathematically, the ad was free, and they got increased business to boot! That makes it a good business decision, and they end up looking like heroes in their office for making that good decision. Which makes them want to make MORE good decisions with us. It's the same situation as the shareware authors. We want to create a win-win. We're not looking to rip anybody off or get rich quick. We're quite happy getting rich the old fashioned way. We earn it honestly. Maybe you should think about advertising your newsletter? ;)

7=> Product: Hexen II - game/action
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
Requirements: Windows 95/NT 4.0, Pentium-90, 16 MB RAM, 2x CDROM, 120 MB hard disk space, soundcard
Recommended: Pentium-120 or better, 24 MB RAM or more, joystick or mouse, 28.8 modem for Internet play.
Tested on: Pentium-166, 24 MB, Assassin 3D controller, 56k US Robotics modem
MSRP: $49.95

It is a dark time. The planet Thyrion is in the hands of Eidolon, last of the Serpent Riders. On other worlds, people rose up and defeated D'sparil and Korax; will a champion arise from our world and defeat Eidolon, last and greatest of the Serpent Riders?

That is the premise of Hexen II, the latest and greatest in Raven Software's first-person action games. Each entry into the series has dramatically improved over the others; Hexen II is the best yet, coming the closest of anything I've seen to a true, first-person role-playing game. Hexen II is the first to market of a flood of new games using the game engine from Quake, and that jump should insure that it will do well in the marketplace. I'm here to tell you that it deserves to do well, and that the competition will be sorely pressed to match it. I said in my review of the demo that it appeared to be a must-have, and that seems to be accurate. The actual game itself is improved over the demo; a number of bugs have been fixed (but not all!) and the levels are organized slightly differently. Otherwise, it is the same game as the demo and I recommend you try it out before you buy it - although you won't be sorry if you buy it first. This is one of the best games of 1997, by far.

Let's cover the graphics first. The graphics are spectacular, even in 320x240 mode. I did have some trouble switching to other full-screen modes, but all the window modes worked fine. Raven is aware of this - apparently it is a problem with the Vision95 tools used by my STB Nitro3D graphics card. Even in 320x240, though, the game looks very, very nice. Stained glass, transparent water and windows are some of the highlights of the special effects. The hydra, a new monster you'll face, shoots "black bile" at you in the water, causing a convincing and temporary darkening of the area. Imps cackle and swoop down at you. Spiders scurry around and leap at you. Clouds hurry by in the overhead sky. A windmill's blades cut a swath through the sky. The Heretic/Hexen series has always been great at creating atmosphere, and Hexen II takes this to maximum effect. The sound isn't half bad either <grin>.

A few other technical notes. The game comes in two "versions", the standard version and a GL version that uses the OpenGL drivers for the 3dfx graphics cards. Sorry, but Raven elected (much like id) not to support Direct3D. Oh well. Supposedly the graphics are even better in GLHexen2, but I can't confirm it since I don't have the capability! On my "lowly" P-166 with 24 MB of RAM, the game still bogged down at times. Remember the spinning turtle in Quake? Well, now it is a skull, and you'll be seeing it a lot - the price of the improved graphics, I would imagine. In addition, the load time between levels is slow compared to Quake, which is the game's one flaw since there are multiple small levels instead of few huge ones. Also, full support is included for most joysticks, including my beloved Assassin 3D. A patch is promised shortly that should fix most of the problems that have been reported, so be sure and keep an eye out for it.

Enough with the eye-candy and technical notes, what about the game itself? Hexen introduced the ability to choose different character types; Hexen II extends this by adding a fourth character class (Paladin, Crusader, Necromancer, and now Assassin), each with their own unique look, characteristics, and weapons. This results in different strategies being needed to complete the game, as in the early going the strong Paladin has the advantage while the Necromancer is relatively weak and tougher to play. In addition, Raven has introduced a new role-playing element: your character improves during the game! This is more than just getting new gizmos and weapons - as you gain experience, you improve your chances to hit and your health, much like a conventional role-playing game. Cool! Combined with the fantasy setting, it feels like what I always imagined while Dungeons and Dragons as a kid.

Hexen II continues a lot of what was first introduced in Hexen, including the idea that events that occur on one level could affect things in another. In fact, the very notion of "levels" in Hexen II could be thrown out the window; the levels per se are very small but numerous; probably a trade-off of the graphics necessary for an individual level but I can't be sure. Instead of episodes or missions, Hexen II has 4 "hubs" - the four continents of Thyrion. Blackmarsh is all dark and gloomy castles, definitely medieval; Mazaera is lush rain forests & Mayan architecture; Thysis desert and Egyptian pyramids; and finally Septimus is based on Rome.

The puzzles are more intricate and difficult than in Hexen, for example at one point I reached some broken stairs and, try as I might, I couldn't leap from the bottom of the stairs to the top. I was very despondent, since I had to resort to looking at a walk-through to get by (It's cheating, as is using cheat codes!). I had to laugh when I saw the solution - push some barrels into the gap where the broken stairs were and use those as a step to the top stairs. The level of interactivity with the environment is impressive - you can destroy trees, kill sheep, and wreak all kinds of destruction on the world of Thyrion. The monsters are also very good; beyond the spiders, imps, & hydras, there are scorpions, skull wizards, archers, golems, medusas, mummies, werejaguars, & fallen angels. And all of these are lead by the generals of Eidolon - you know as Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War! Should you defeat all of these, you must face Eidolon himself. As you can see, the single-player elements of Hexen II are very strong, much stronger than in any first-person game to date. Much like Quake, however, you can also play against fifteen opponents via a LAN or the Internet, using IPX or TCP/IP respectively. This is the standard multi-player mode from Quake, enhanced in several ways (for example, it is possible to save a multi-player game!). Several enhancements are planned, including more players and a capture the flag game. Also planned is a hexen2world which will allow for 32 players, much like quakeworld.

As you can see, Hexen II has a lot to offer. I love the graphical look of the game and the strong role-playing elements that add just the right extra touches to a great fantasy action game. Although I'm sure that there will be competition before the end of the year, Hexen II is a strong contender for game of the year.

Activision
P.O. Box 67713
Los Angeles, Ca 90067
(310) 479-5644
<http://www.activision.com>
mailto:support@activision.com

Installation: Gold
User-Friendliness: Gold
Quality: Platinum
User: Action fans, especially those who like extra touches like role-playing elements

8=> Product: Extranets: The Complete Source Book - book/networks
Reviewed By: Richard Malinski, mailto:richard@acs.ryerson.ca
Author: By  Richard H. Baker.
MSRP: $39.95 US

The cover of this book notes that it is a complete guide to business-to-business electronic commerce . As you might gather from the number of pages, extranets are covered from every conceivable viewpoint. It covers the evolution of extranets from intranets, the role of extranets in business communication strategy, the pros and cons of extranets and comments about various elements of extranets that you should be aware of in building your own. With such a vast amount of information there is much breadth but not a lot of depth. It is like a stone skipping across the water; hitting a lot of spots but not going into any too deeply. As an overview it is very good!

The first two chapters give an overview of extranets. The definition is given as an intranet that is open to selective access by outside parties and as such it has features of an internet web site as well as of an intranet; not open to all as in the first and not restricted to internal use as in the second. The first two chapters provide background on the development of extranets by using examples from such companies as FedEx, HBO and Mobil. The staccato presentation throughout the book means that there are short, snappy introductions to topics that are often but not always followed by lists of features, applications or suggestions of what you can do. For someone who does not know what an extranet is, these chapters would be useful not only for the history and uses but also for comments on savings as well as hidden dollar costs of extranets. There is a lot of overly optimistic marketing in our magazines and on television these days so it is important to be aware of the down sides or as Baker refers to it, the flip side of web technology.

Chapters three, four and five move the reader into strategic areas such as company communication, improving profits and electronic commerce. Looking at an extranet as an amalgam of physical devices is a sure way to miss the boat. Baker makes it very clear that the service aspect and the access to information are key components. The refocusing on service and information is essential if real benefits are to be achieved. The use of extranets must be integral with your communication strategy not something tacked on for good luck. Developing an extranet will cost but if you agree with the likes of Internet Data Corporation (IDC) the benefits will far outweigh the benefits; IDC suggests returns on investment will be well over 1000 percent with payback ranging from 6 weeks to 3 months (page 84). The fifth chapter gives more examples of companies using extranets and how they use them in serving their customers.

The many examples given of organizations (they could be your competitors!) using the internet, intranets and extranets to carry out their business are excellent support to the comments. With the examples you can see for yourself what these organizations are doing. It is a pity that there was no diskette included in the book with all the web sites in an HTML document. That would save a great deal of time in surfing through the many sites.

Chapters six through eight cover various components of setting up an extranet. As you might surmise much of this material is not exclusive to extranets but similar to setting up internet sites and intranets. Chapter six covers browsers and servers by dealing with selection criteria, providing a selection checklist and briefly looking at three products. Chapter seven deals in a little more detail with setting up servers. The material here is a grab-bag of bits and pieces on installing Netscape on Windows95 and more detailed on Windows NT, a UNIX server and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows NT. The initial information on installation is superficial while the material on installing from a cd-rom seems overly detailed. If you can set up from the initial information you don t need so much information about installing from a cd-rom! If you don t understand the initial materials, trying to install from a cd-rom is superfluous! Chapter eight continues with more on managing the installed server and covers such topics as using the server manager, configuring URLs, managing user databases and managing contents. The focus here is on Netscape server and the Microsoft IIS. These chapters are good examples of the need for a ruthless editor.

Chapters nine through eleven bring you back up to the strategic level by looking at what you put into an extranet, design considerations and deciding on appropriate links. Again and again Baker emphasizes the importance of content. Content for your staff but also content for your customers. If you are setting up an extranet, Baker also says that you should concentrate on a pilot that not only will have benefits in reducing paper flow and workload but also increase services to customers who will have access to the site. Once again there are many topics with good hints but they tend only to wet your appetite for more. This continues in chapters ten and eleven which cover building your web site and linking to other applications. The coverage of HTML and CGI continue the fast paced and clipped style. There is enough to give you an idea of some of the important elements but not enough to answer your questions.

I suggested earlier that the coverage in this book is similar to that of a stone skipping over water. Chapters thirteen, fourteen and fifteen combined with Appendix C - Leading Firewall Products and Appendix D - Site Security Handbook prove me wrong. The stone has gone below the surface! The chapters are full of insights that might make you get out of using networked computers altogether. The topics include security challenges of an extranet; security policy establishment and communication; firewalls in some depth; and encryption in general and public key certificates specifically. These combined with Appendix A and D are well worth the cost of the book. Appendix A outlines the characteristics of about ten different products on features such as user authentication, access or connection control, reporting, remote administration, firewall to firewall connectivity, and services support. While Appendix D does not include coverage of risk management, contingency planning or physical security, it does indicate what a security policy should contain, procedures needed to enforce security and recommendations on how to deal with the problems encountered. If you are interested in this security handbook you can contact the authors J.P Holbrook at holbrook@cic.net and J.K.Reynolds at jkrey@isi.edu.

Other features of Baker's source book are the product appendices, the glossary and the references for further reading. Appendices A and B provide general descriptions of web server and web browser products. The glossary is five and a half pages of brief definitions and the list of references, seven pages, includes magazine articles, some items available through web sites and a few books.

This book is not as the cover says, a complete guide . It tries to cover a great deal of material but even in 576 pages it could never hope to be complete. Too many of these two-pound books try to do too much. Baker states on page xii that an extranet is a state of mind, not a technology. He goes on to say that the primary substance of an extranet is applications and that it is these applications not the system design that amplify the usefulness of the technology. If Baker had contained himself within this clear vision, the book would have been more useful, probably cheaper too and certainly lighter in weight!

McGraw-Hill
11 West 19th Street
New York,   NY 10011
<http://www.computing.mcgraw-hill.com>

9=> Product: Better Homes & Gardens Kitchen & Bath - CDROM/home
Reviewed By: Danny Williams, mailto:danny@packet.net
Publisher: Books that Work
Reviewed on: Pentium 60, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95, 4x CD-ROM, SoundBlaster 16
Requires: 486-66, 16Mb RAM, 8Mb disk, Windows 95, 256 color VGA, 4x or faster CD-ROM; sound card recommended

If you have ever built your own home, or even dreamt about it, you know how difficult it can be to take that great design in your head, put it on paper, and finally see it built in plaster and stone and tile and wood and have it even loosely resemble your original dream. Much of the distortion from idea to reality can be removed with a software design package like Better Homes & Gardens Kitchens & Baths (BHGKB).

BHGKB provides a lot of product in a slim package. Slim in part because the 58 page manual is in a DOC file (readable with Windows95 WordPad or MS Word) on the CD. There is also an online guide built into the program that is full of links and examples and is available anytime through the big book icon on the toolbar. The program is also full of help and step-by-step instructions called Wizards that, complete with voice narration, led me from one step to the next until you get the basic idea of how to create rooms.

Although there is an option for a "minimal" install that run more slowly, installation only takes about 9Mb of disk for the "full" install. This copies the program files to the disk but still leaves many of the support files on the CD and the CD is required while running the program. After copying the appropriate files to the hard disk, the installation program offers an on-line modem registration. Although I usually welcome these automated registration programs as a way of saving me the trouble and stamp of filling out a postcard, this one is very marketing oriented and I expect it will generate its share of junk mail in the future. (Un)fortunately, the modem registration did not work when I tried so I'm left with the postcard after all.

I fired up the program after installation, and found that the minimum system requirements are exactly that. My Pentium-60 left me waiting several times while it rerendered changes to the floor plan and 4xCD-ROM spent a lot of time spinning. Every bit of my 16Mb of RAM was used, too, and I dared not run any other program at the same time for fear of starting performance-killing swapping of memory to disk.

Upon starting the program for the first time, I was taken on a "Guided Tour" of the program by audio and video segments that describe the basic operation of the program. The Tour is very helpful in introducing the program, but unfortunately seems quite unstoppable once started.

Building a design begins with piecing together the basic room blocks for your plan with a room design Wizard. Select, for instance, a basic bathroom shape, adjoining rooms, and then put them in their relative places. Stretch walls to the right size, adjust any room shapes, then the program will render a 3-D image of your plan in one half of a two-paned design screen. The other half contains an editable 2-D floor plan. Any changes made to the floor plan are (almost) instantly made in the 3-D view so I was able to enjoy nearly instant feedback on changes. Rooms can be built without the Wizard, but it is more tedious that was since you must place your own individual walls and floors, details that are handled automatically by the Wizard.

Windows, doors, furnishings and fixtures are dragged and dropped from an adequate but not overpowering selection of stock items. Many are more customizable than in other similar programs by allowing, for example, a selection of a faucet separate from the sink or specific hardware on cabinets. One glitch I found, however, was that changing the sink type after selecting a faucet reverts the faucet back to the default. Another peculiarity that seemed to cause no harm was that after generating a room and placing some basic fixtures like putting a toilet and sink in a bathroom, the first 3-D rendering showed an additional toilet and sink outside the house in the yard! A quick delete eliminated the possibility of ending up with an old fashioned "one-holer" in the front yard!

In addition to the nice customizing touches in the cabinets and fixtures, BHGKB has a great selection of textures and colors for really pulling the design together and making it look like a home. Tile, stucco, concrete, leather, vinyl, porcelain, stainless: they're all there, and more. The program even suggests color combinations for additions depending on what's already in the room.

I had a little trouble doing precise editing, but should likely attribute that more to my being used to other design programs than to any particular shortfall in BHGKB. I had an awful time getting a corner cabinet to rotate to the correct position, and rather expected dropped objects to align themselves better by snapping to a nearby wall or corner.

Once your design is complete, BHGKB will produce a "shopping list" of costs required to produce your dream. It comes with some reasonable estimates, but can be customized for more accurate numbers reflecting your part of the country.

Although BHGKB does not provide its own uninstall routine, it is well behaved with Windows 95 and follows the Windows95 rules for using the uninstaller built in to the control panel.

If you've got a fairly new computer with some horsepower, spend an evening mousing around with BHGKB and get a better idea what you really want in new construction or a remodel before the dollars start flying out the door to the architect or builder. You'll get a great idea what things will look like, all the way down to fruit bowls on the counters and towels on the walls. Print them out and show your architect and you've gone a long way in making your dream flow through his blueprint to the builder's hammer.

Multicom Publishing
110 Olive Way,Suite 1250
Seattle, WA 98101
(800)-850-7272
<http://www.multicom.com>

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CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the
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