master for SA Shareware magazine (blank) [jse]

Dear Member,

After almost half a year of silence, we're back. As you might surmise from our last leaflet, this period was not a time of inactivity though! Yours truly indeed succeeded to be the first one (on record) to run across the European continent from North Cape (Norway) to Gibraltar (at the southern tip of Spain). Averaging 48+ kilometres a day, the 5500 km run took slightly more than four months to complete. Apart from achieving the main objective (i.e. just to be the first one to have done it!), we also had a very intense family time. In fact the bigger achievement is Eva's: having to second a runner, cope with the kids, manage all the logistics etc... I still wonder how she survived it all; I just know that I would not have able to do her job! Although the fundraising for SANTA (Cape Town) did not go as well as planned, we did manage to raise some money (just over R 5000) and a lot of awareness about the problem of Tuberculosis in the Western Cape. All in all, it was an incredible experience; we are now working on our travelogue and video. We hereby also wish to thank every J.S.E. member who supported us.

On popular request, the library additions we have concentrated on in this issue are computer tutorials, education and (mainly VGA) games although quite a few home and business applications have been included, too. We will provide some more Windows programmes in the next issue, which is already in the pipeline!

Enjoy your reading!

Jean-Paul Van Belle.

What is hypertext anyway? 2

On ASCII and ASCII art 3

Obscure PC facts 7

The boat race 9

Imaging and graphics terminology 10

What the doctor says...

What the doctor really means 18

Some common CD-ROM questions answered 20

New shareware reviews 24

(From the instruction manual for HyperRead and HyperRead Generator)

Every few years, a new concept comes along that offers a whole new use for personal computers. Typical examples have been word processing, telecommunications and BBS's, spreadsheets, and desktop publishing. The latest new idea is hypertext.

What is hypertext? It is an indexing system that allows people to use their computers to read computer text files quickly and easily. It does this by allowing them to jump from one part of the file to another, following whatever train of thought they want.

In an ordinary printed document, the reader must read the document linearly. That is, the person must read from the beginning to the end, one page at a time. Sometimes the person can jump around a little by using the index or the table of contents, but this is very limited. The index can only list a few key words, and the pages listed for those words are usually simply where the word is defined or first mentioned. The table of contents points only to broad areas of the document where a general subject is discussed. In any case, flipping through the pages is time-consuming and tedious.

With hypertext, the author of a document can create "tunnels" or links within a document that allow the reader to jump from one area of the document to another. The reader uses a computer to read the text on the screen. When he or she finds an important word or phrase in the text that needs clarifying, the computer can jump to the part of the text that explains the term or gives more information. For example, suppose you are reading a story about the history of the electric light bulb. The story mentions that it was invented by Thomas Edison. If you get curious about Edison, you can jump directly from that part of the text to the part that tells you more about Edison. That part of the text might mention some of Edison's other inventions. If you see one that looks interesting, you can jump directly to the part of the text that describes this invention. This can vastly increase the speed at which you can find information.

Ed.: Some of our hypertext authoring packages: Orpheus (4092/4094); Black Magic (2269/2270); Hyperrez (2129); mHY-Plus (2128); Hypershell (1441).

ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange

from the Internet "Hacker's Dictionary"

ASCII is the predominant character set encoding of present-day

computers. It uses 7 bits for each character, whereas most earlier

codes (including an early version of ASCII) used fewer. This

change allowed the inclusion of lowercase letters --- a major

{win} --- but it did not provide for accented letters or any

other letterforms not used in English (such as the German

and the -ligature which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian).

It could be worse, though. It could be much worse. See EBCDIC to

understand how.

Computers are much pickier and less flexible about spelling than

humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about

characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal

shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names --- some

formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII

characters are collected here. E.g. {bang}, {excl}, {open}, {ques},

{semi}, {shriek}, {splat}, {twiddle}, and {Yu-Shiang Whole Fish}.

This following list derives from revision 2.3 of the USENET ASCII

pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order;

character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character,

common names are given in rough order of popularity, followed by

names that are reported but rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names

are surrounded by brokets: <>. Square brackets mark the

particularly silly names introduced by {INTERCAL}. Ordinary

parentheticals provide some usage information.

! Common: {bang}; pling; excl; shriek; <exclamation mark>.

Rare: factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey;

wham; [spark-spot]; soldier.

" Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark;

double-glitch; <quotation marks>; <dieresis>; dirk;

[rabbit-ears]; double prime.

# Common: <number sign>; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp;

{crunch}; hex; [mesh]; octothorpe. Rare: flash; crosshatch;

grid; pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; {splat}.

$ Common: dollar; <dollar sign>. Rare: currency symbol; buck;

cash; string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of

ASCII ESC); ding; cache; [big money].

% Common: percent; <percent sign>; mod; grapes. Rare:

[double-oh-seven].

& Common: <ampersand>; amper; and. Rare: address (from C);

reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from

`sh(1)'); pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand';

what could be sillier?]

' Common: single quote; quote; <apostrophe>. Rare: prime;

glitch; tick; irk; pop; [spark]; <closing single quotation

mark>; <acute accent>.

() Common: left/right paren; left/right parenthesis; left/right; paren

/thesis; open/close paren; open/close; open/close parenthesis;

left/right banana. Rare: so/al-ready; lparen/rparen; <opening/

closing parenthesis>; open/close round bracket, parenthisey

/unparenthisey; [wax/wane]; left/right ear.

* Common: star; [{splat}]; <asterisk>. Rare: wildcard; gear;

dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob (see

{glob}); {Nathan Hale}.

+ Common: <plus>; add. Rare: cross; [intersection].,

, Common: <comma>. Rare: <cedilla>; [tail].

- Common: dash; <hyphen>; <minus>. Rare: [worm]; option; dak;

bithorpe.

. Common: dot; point; <period>; <decimal point>. Rare: radix

point; full stop; [spot].

/ Common: slash; stroke; <slant>; forward slash. Rare:

diagonal; solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat].

: Common: <colon>. Rare: dots; [two-spot].

; Common: <semicolon>; semi. Rare: weenie; [hybrid],

pit-thwong.

<> Common: <less/greater than>; left/right angle bracket;

bra/ket; left/right broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read

from/write to; suck/blow; comes-from/gozinta; in/out;

crunch/zap (all from UNIX); [angle/right angle].

= Common: <equals>; gets; takes. Rare: quadrathorpe;

[half-mesh].

? Common: query; <question mark>; {ques}. Rare: whatmark;

[what]; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback.

@ Common: at sign; at; strudel. Rare: each; vortex; whorl;

[whirlpool]; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage;

<commercial at>.

V Rare: [book].

[] Common: left/right square bracket; <opening/closing bracket>;

bracket/unbracket; left/right bracket. Rare: square/unsquare;

[U turn/U turn back].

\ Common: backslash; escape (from C/UNIX); reverse slash; slosh;

backslant; backwhack. Rare: bash; <reverse slant>; reversed

virgule; [backslat].

^ Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; <circumflex>. Rare:

chevron; [shark (or shark-fin)]; to the (`to the power of');

fang; pointer (in Pascal).

_ Common: <underline>; underscore; underbar; under. Rare:

score; backarrow; [flatworm].

` Common: backquote; left quote; left single quote; open quote;

<grave accent>; grave. Rare: backprime; [backspark];

unapostrophe; birk; blugle; back tick; back glitch; push;

<opening single quotation mark>; quasiquote.

{} Common: open/close brace; left/right brace; left/right

squiggly; left/right squiggly bracket/brace; left/right curly

bracket/brace; <opening/closing brace>. Rare: brace/unbrace;

curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; left/right squirrelly;

[embrace/bracelet].

| Common: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar. Rare:

<vertical line>; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from

UNIX); [spike].

~ Common: <tilde>; squiggle; {twiddle}; not. Rare: approx;

wiggle; swung dash; enyay; [sqiggle (sic)].

The pronunciation of `#' as `pound' is common in the U.S. but

a bad idea; Commonwealth Hackish has its own, rather more apposite

use of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British keyboards the pound

graphic happens to replace `#'; thus Britishers sometimes call `#'

on a U.S.-ASCII keyboard `pound', compounding the American error).

The U.S. usage derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of

using a `#' suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading.

The character is usually pronounced `hash' outside the U.S.

The `uparrow' name for circumflex and `leftarrow' name for

underline are historical relics from archaic ASCII (the 1963

version), which had these graphics in those character positions

rather than the modern punctuation characters.

The `swung dash' or `approximation' sign is not quite the same

as tilde in typeset material but the ASCII tilde serves for both

(compare {angle brackets}).

Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The `#',

`$', `>', and `&' characters, for example, are all

pronounced "hex" in different communities because various

assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in

particular, `#' in many assembler-programming cultures, `$' in the

6502 world, `>' at Texas Instruments, and `&' on the BBC Micro,

Sinclair, and some Z80 machines).

The inability of ASCII text to correctly represent any of the

world's other major languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits

look more and more like a serious misfeature as the use of

international networks continues to increase.

Hardware and software from the U.S. still tends to embody

the assumption that ASCII is the universal character set; this is a

a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited

to their own languages. Perversely, though, efforts to solve this

problem by proliferating `national' character sets produce an

evolutionary pressure to use a *smaller* subset common to all

those in use.

ASCII art is the fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII

character set (mainly `|', `-', `/', `\', and

`+'). Also known as `character graphics' or `ASCII

graphics'. Here is a serious example:

o----)||(--+--|<----+ +---------o + D O

L )||( | | | C U

A I )||( +-->|-+ | +-\/\/-+--o - T

C N )||( | | | | P

E )||( +-->|-+--)---+--)|--+-o U

)||( | | | GND T

o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+

Figure 1: A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier circuit feeding a capacitor input filter circuit.

And here are some very silly examples:

|\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___

| | \ o.O| ACK! / \_ |` '| _/ \

| | =(_)= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \

| (o)(o) U / \

C _) (__) \/\/\/\ _____ /\/\/\/

| ,___| (oo) \/ \/

| / \/-------\ U (__)

/____\ || | \ /---V `v'- oo )

/ \ ||---W|| * * |--| || |`. |_/\

Figure 2.

There is an important subgenre of humorous ASCII art that takes

advantage of the names of the various characters to tell a

pun-based joke.

+--------------------------------------------------------+

| ^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^ |

| ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |

+--------------------------------------------------------+

Figure 3: " A Bee in the Carrot Patch "

Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire

flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are

reproduced in Figure 2; here are three more:

(__) (__) (__)

(\/) ($$) (**)

/-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/

/ | 666 || / |=====|| / | ||

* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----||

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love

Figure 4.

by Sam Etler.

Computer stuff you probably never knew, and probably don't care to either!

1. GW-BASIC stands for Gee Whiz BASIC. So named because version 1.0 actually worked on the 8080 processor.

2. The MZ header of .EXE files is the initials of one Mark Zbikowski, one of the principle architects of MS-DOS 2.0.

3. Intel didn't start with the 8086 and 8088 chips. There was also a 4004, 8008, 8080, and 8085 before those two. And after the 8086 and 8088, Intel made a 80186 and a 80188.

4. QDOS, an early operating system, stands for "Quick and Dirty Operating System". This is because it was really small.

5. Apple didn't stop making the Apple computer after the Apple //C's and //E's and //GS's. They also made an Apple 3 and had plans for an Apple 4, which was possibly made. However, the introduction of the Macintosh put these to rest. Incidentally, the C stands for Color, the E stands for Enhanced, and the GS stands for Graphics System(?). The //E was released before the //C(?).

6. The language C evolved from a language call B, which evolved from a language called BCPL (Basic CPL), which evolved from CPL (Computer Programming Language). Will C evolve into P, or maybe D? Who knows.

7. Floppy disks come in many sizes. When the PC was first being developed, 12 inch disks were considered for a while, but were soon forgotten with the development of the 5 1/4 inch disks.

8. 5 1/4 inch floppies didn't always store 360kb or 1.2Mb of data. The first 5 1/4's held 160kb. This was then raised to 180kb, then 320kb, then 360kb, then 1.2Mb. 3 1/2's only hold 720kb, 1.44Mb, or 2.88Mb.

9. There are many different modem speed rates. The valid ones are: 50, 62.5, 75, 110, 134.5, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200, 1275, 1800, 2000, 2400, 3600, 4800, 7200, 9600, 12000, 14400, 19200, 28800, 38400, 56000, 57600, 78600, 115200, and 330400 baud.

10. Lot's of computer illiterates roam the earth. (Take the author of this list for example!) A keyboard company has started to make keyboards with a key labelled "ANY". This key is for the idiots who call tech support asking: "It says 'Press any key to continue...' but I can't find the 'ANY' key!" The key does nothing except issue a keypress.

11. Many of the odd and interesting low ASCII characters (0 - 31) date back to the old Wang computers which had those exact same arrows and smile faces. ASCII 7 being the beep dates back all the way to the beginning of TTY's when Control G was the key combination to ring the bell. Notice G is the 7th letter of the alphabet. Control Z (EOF, End Of File), Control H (ASCII 8, Backspace), and Control M (ASCII 13, Carriage Return) also go back that far. Who knows why those were picked for those specific functions....

12. CP/M-86 (Control Program for Microcomputers), a operating system first made for the 8080 and then the 8086/8088, has since evolved into DR-DOS (Digital Research-DOS) 6.x.

Once upon a time, JAPCO and SAFCO decided to have a boat race on San Francisco Bay. Both teams practised hard and long to reach peak performance. On the big day, they were as ready as they could be.

JAPCO won by a mile.

The SAFCO team was discouraged by the loss and company morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. An Improvement Team of executives was set up to investigate the problem and to recommend an appropriate plan of corrective action.

Their conclusion: The problem was that JAPCO had eight people rowing and one person steering their boat, whereas the SAFCO team had eight people steering and one person rowing. A new Corporate Steering Committee immediately hired a consulting firm to do a study of the SAFCO team structure. After the expenditure of many weeks and several million dollars, the consulting firm concluded that too many people were steering and too few were rowing the boat.

To prevent losing to JAPCO again, the Corporate Planning Committee decided to reorganize the boat team into the following: four (4) Steering Managers, three (3) Associate Steering Managers, one (1) Staff Steering Manager, and one rower. A new Performance Enhancement Evaluation System (PEES) was instituted for the person rowing the boat to give him more incentive to work longer and harder for less money so that he would become qualified to be a designated a Propulsion Intensive System Specialist (PISS).

To ensure compliance with all applicable provincial, state, and local occupational safety and health regulations, the rower was required to buy and wear Personal Protection Equipment, such as Bungee harness, jump boots with metatarsal supports, hard hat, puncture proof gloves, eye protection, and hearing protection. (Due to the determination by the SAFCO insurance department that it would be cheaper to hire and train a new rower than to provide life and hospitalization coverage for non-management personnel, and to its interference with the Bungee harness, a life vest was determined to be undesirable.)

The next year, JAPCO won by two miles.

Corporate Management fired the rower for poor job performance, sold the oars, cancelled all capital investments for new equipment, and halted development of a new boat. The Corporate Steering Committee issued High Performance Awards to the consulting firm, and distributed the money saved as bonuses to the Senior Vice-Presidents.

What is Multimedia?

The combination of sound, graphics and print (or text) to produce a multi-level interface or presentation. A good example would be an electronic encyclopedia that when selected on a subject, say like an animal, would give the typical noise associated with the subject and an animation of it in motion and a text describing it.

Admittedly almost anything can be called multimedia (and was), including crude games. Luckily multimedia is no longer a hype or buzz word, and so most products that call themselves multimedia these days are more truer representatives of such.

What is Anti-Aliasing?

Aliasing is the jagged or stair-stepped appearance in curved or diagonal edges caused by the pixel-oriented nature of computer displays. Anti-aliasing is a method of reducing the effect of aliasing by blending or averaging the colours with the background or adjourning colours to create the appearance of smooth edges. With paint programs that support anti-aliasing can give applied shapes,line and text a smoother, cleaner appearance.

What is a Z-buffer?

This is an allotment of computer memory in which a depth image of a group of 3D objects is created eventually into a bit-mapped image. A depth image is not an image in the conventional sense, in a depth image each pixel is a number representing the distance of the nearest surface to the viewpoint. Before a point on the surface of an object is displayed, it's distance from the viewpoint is compared to the depth in the Z-buffer, when the point in question is farther away then the z-buffer value it means that another surface obscure it and therefore ignored by the rendering program, thus the program renders the visible faces of the object.

After the above is the shading of the objects. There are a variety of ways of imitating light and each method has advantages, disadvantages, and a characteristic appearance. The following are the three major shading approaches for Z-buffering:

Lambert Shading - One of the simplest methods is to draw a line, called the "surface normal" perpendicular to the plane of every polygon on the surfaces of the objects. Prior to shading, surfaces are defined as inter-connecting polygons using a principle from optics discovered by Johann Heinrich Lambert in the eighteenth century. The shadier estimates brightness by calculating the angle between the surface normal and the angle of illumination. If the polygon is directly facing the light source the program will brighten that polygon because it is directly facing the light. A polygon that is not facing the light, accordingly to this test, is darkened. Since polygons are adjusted separately and adjacent polygons may have significantly different values, Lambert shading is quick and simple, but gives the appearance of diamond like facets (without the reflection and transparent properties of a diamonds that is).

Gouraud Shading - A modification of the Lambert method to produce a subtler effect. In Gouraud Shading, instead of comparing a surface normal to the angle of illumination, the program calculates an average normal for each vertex (intersection of edges) of the polygon. This normal is calculated by averaging the normals for the polygons sharing the vertex. This produces a brightness value for each vertex instead of for each surface. The shadier then interpolates (inserts new matter) values from one vertex of the polygon to the other so that a brightness value for each point along the edges. The result of the technique is that the polygon has gradations of brightness with its borders, producing a smoother appearance then Lambert shading. Gouraud shading was called the age of plastic, since rendered objects had the look of solid plastic.

Phong Shading - Neither Lambert nor Gouraud shading can create highlights. Highlights are produced on very smooth surfaces because an image of the light source, typically distorted, is reflected to the observer. To produce highlights it is necessary to take into account not only the position of the light source, as is done in Lambert and Gouraud shading, but also the location of the observer (better know as the point of view camera). With this information, the program can determine which areas of the surface should have the intensity reflection of the light source. In Phong shading the brightness of every point on the object's surface is increased in proportion to how closely the ray reflected from that point comes to the viewpoint. Phong shading was know as the age of metal due to the metallic appearance of the rendered objects.

Compared to raytracing or radiosity, Z-buffering is quick, however at the price of lesser quality then them.

What is a Raytracer?

One of the most popular methods of achieving high quality 3D scene renderings. Raytracing begins by placing a virtual camera into this synthetic world and giving it a location, aim, and a lens. The location is typically specified as an X-Y-Z position relative to the data coordinate system. The aim describes the angle of the camera or the position on which the camera is focused, and the lens is specified as a length.

With these elements set, the user can specify the desired resolution and generate a matrix of pixel locations that corresponds to the screen image, the higher the screen resolution, the more pixels in the matrix. For each pixel, a ray is fired into the synthetic world. Each time a ray intersects the an object, a reflection ray and a refraction ray are generated. In turn, as each of these two rays subsequently intersects an object, two additional rays are generated. This process continues for each ray until the ray is cast off into space or the number of new generations exceeds a user-specified maximum.

Colouring of an image is determined one pixel at a time and is computed as a mix of the variables controlling the optical properties of the surface. This means that when an intersection occurs, an additional ray is fired from the point of intersection to each light source to determine shadows. The entire ray path is followed and the colours summed to derive the color of the pixel from which the ray originated. As you might guess, almost all the computer time in ray tracing is consumed by the process for testing each ray to determine if it will intersect with a object and can be time consuming. As a result of the raytracing method the ability to reflect images like a mirror, to make transparent objects and cast realistic shadows is built in, unlike Z-buffering.

What is radiosity?

Neither Z-buffering or raytracing account for accurate object-to-object reflection between diffuse surfaces (not to be confused with mirror-like reflection) and the interaction of light between diffusely reflecting surfaces, so radiosity was created to address this. To put it simply, neither raytracing or Z-buffering have subtly in the rendering of shadows, most of the time the shadow casting is stark with such techniques. Radiosity however produces soft shadows and very subtle lighting details, resulting in very realistic images.

The radiosity method concentrates on the difficult problem of modelling the movement and loss of light energy through a 3D environment, the intensity of each polygon is independently processed. The radiosity processing of a 3D scene is very similar to Gouraud shading with the exception that vertex colours are determined by averaging the colours of adjacent polygons and yet also similar to raytracing in that mirror-like reflection and transparency are a by-product of the technique and like raytracing, radiosity is time consuming.

What does FPS mean?

Frames Per Second, a common video term that represents the number of picture frames that are moved per second. Standard television and cinema films move at 30 frames per second.

What is meant by Real Time?

An expression most often used in describing 3D or 3D-like programs, basically according to the software author or publisher, the graphics in the program moves at such a high rate as to give the impression of movement without any time lag. Real Time does not necessarily mean the program works at 30 frames per second, most of the programs that claim Real Time move at 15 to 20 FPS. Also some text programs claim to be Real Time which is rather a misdemeanour since most text modes do not suffer from any speed problems.

What does RGB, HSV and CMY have to do with color?

RGB stands for Red Green & Blue and is the typical hardware approach to color displaying, quite simply Red Green & Blue (also known as the color primaries) can be mixed to acquire other colours like values of 200 for Red 198 for Green and 0 for Blue will give a yellow color or values of 255 for each RGB will yield a bright white color.

HSV stands for Hue Saturation & Value (the last one is sometimes called Luminance hence HSL) and can be found as a software alternative to mixing colours to RGB. Hue is the property of a color based on its visible wave-length or frequency, not including white or black. Saturation is a measure of the absence of grey in a color pixel, the higher the saturation, the lower the amount of grey. Value, or luminance, is the amount of light or level of brightness radiated from a pixel. Hue generally determines the color and while saturation and value are similar to each other, saturation can produce a more muddier color, while Value makes starker colours.

CMY is a printing method commonly referred to as four color printing. The four colours, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and black are simply overlaid (usually on transparencies in print) each other to produce a full color image that stands up as favourably as the other processes.

What are the graphic file formats TGA, GIF, TIFF, EPS, etc?

TGA: Targa, this bitmap format developed by TrueVision supports 8-bit (256 color), 16-bit (65,000 color), 24-bit (16 million color) and 32-bit graphics. Most 24-bit graphics programs for MS-Dos (and Windows) support this format, which can be compressed, albeit lightly, and still be read by most programs since the format is one of the oldest in computer graphics and quite uniform in it's variations.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format, a public domain standard by a CompuServe group which uses high compression to store bitmaps which contain anything from 2 to 256 colours, but does not support graphics of 16-bit or higher.

TIFF: Tagged Image File Format, created by Aldus Corporation and supported by most MS-Dos and Macintosh graphics programs. TIFF can contain bitmaps from 2 color to 24-bit graphics, uncompressed TIFFs usually can be loaded by various programs with no problems, however the format has many compression variations which may not be compatible with some programs even on the same machine. The two most common compression formats are Packbits, a light and fast method of compression, and LZW (Lempel-Ziv & Welch), a higher and slower method, of the two LZW can cause the most problems since only a few programs support it. The new TIFF Spec 6.0 includes JPEG compression but there has yet to be a program that supports it. Since TIFF tries to be all encompassing it's file tends to be larger then the other most common high-color graphic format TGA, uncompressed and sometimes even compressed even though TIFF's LZW compression is more intense then TGA's compression method.

EPS: Encapsulated PostScript, is a format that can contain both 2D vector and bitmap graphics, however like most file formats that store both kinds of graphics it's strong point is the vector side while EPS is rather weak in the compression and handling of bitmaps.

PCX: PC Paintbrush, one of the oldest bitmap file format on MS-Dos. Developed by Zsoft Corporation, this lightly compressed format supports 2, 4, 16 & 256 color and a 24-bit which only a few Windows programs support.

BMP: Windows Bitmap, created by Microsoft Corporation as a standard for Windows. BMP files can be 2, 4, 16 & 256 color and 24-bit, and can be compressed although the RLE compression is light.

DXF: Data Exchange Format, a 2D and 3D vector file designed by AutoCad for the purpose of exchanging CAD information between different CAD programs and computer platforms. DXF tries to be everything to everybody and is not very efficient as a result, it's files are quite larger then almost any other CAD format.

IFF: Interchange File Format, created for the Amiga by Commodore, also known as ILBM (InterLeaved BitMap) or LBM. Besides bitmaps IFF can store text and music as well, and supports graphics with 2 colours to 256 colours, 24-bit and Amiga HAM mode graphics (4096 colours). IFF uses light compression by default.

What is RLE?

Run-Length-Encoded, a light method of compression used by several graphic file formats such as PCX, BMP, TIFF, etc.

What do the terms 8-bit and 24-bit have to do with graphics?

These determine the number and depth of the colours the graphic card or graphic system can display. Numbers such as 32, 24, 16 and 15 refer to the number of bits per pixel, for instance 24-bit has 8 bits for each of the RGBs (Red, Green and Blue) thus giving each of the RGBs 256 values or shades and the ability to display 16,777,216 colours because that's what 256x256x256 comes to, and every one of these colours can be displayed simultaneously (if you can fit that many pixels on the screen that is). How did I get a value of 256 from 8 bits you ask? A bit is a strange thing, 1 bit is equal to the value (decimal value, that is) 2 and each subsequent number bits are twice the size of the previous bit - here is a table showing bit values up to 8:

1 bit = 2 decimal values

2 bit = 4 decimal values

3 bit = 8 decimal values

4 bit = 16 decimal values

5 bit = 32 decimal values

6 bit = 64 decimal values

7 bit = 128 decimal values

8 bit = 256 decimal values

So it goes to follow that if 15 bit graphic mode has 5 bits per RGB then 32 is the number of color values it can work with and 32x32x32 = 32,768 are the number colours it can display. 16 bit modes are of a different stripe then 24 or 15 bit because it's RGB bit are not of the same value each instead it can be 6-5-5 or 5-6-5 or 6-6-4 etc., for each RGB which when multiplied - 64x32x32 or 32x64x32 or 64x64x16 - will give you 65,536 colours displayable. Most graphic modes that use 8 bits (256 colours) per pixel are compromises between memory constraints and color values, using hardware look-up tables (known as color palettes) in order to use the least amount of RAM possible and yet still give a descent number of RGB values (6 bits per). In such modes each pixel contains a 8 bit value that represents one out of 256 RGB values stored in the palette index thus if a pixel has a value of 7 then it will be the color of whatever RGB values that are stored in index 7 of the color palette. This way the 8 bit graphics mode only needs 1 byte of RAM video memory per pixel where as 15 bit to 24 bit requires 3 bytes per pixel, one for red, green and blue, but the number of colours is limited by the size of the palette (usually 256). 32 bit is a graphics mode that along with having the usual RGBs has an Alpha feature, with 8 bits per RGB and an 8 bit for the Alpha (per pixel) 8+8+8+8 gives you 32 bits. 32 bit is like 24 bit graphics except the Alpha register (or channel) can be used for special functions such as masking (protecting areas or colours you don't want altered), caching of video card commands to improve speed or mixing with the RGBs to create unique colours like transparencies.

What is a fractal? What are some examples of fractals?

A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. (A definition from B. Mandelbrot) A fractal is a set of points whose fractal (Hausdorff) dimension exceeds its topological dimension.

What is Fractal compression?

A lossy compression method which can compress images even smaller then JPEG. Fractal compression (or FIF - Fractal Image Format)looks for repetitive patterns in an image in order to reduce the image to a series of mathematical formulas, resulting in a very small file. However rather than deciding in advance which types of data are important and throwing away the rest, the fractal algorithm discards data along the way as it fails to find matches. In FIF instead of specifying the desired quality of the compressed image, one specifies the size of the compressed file. Then FIF converts the image to YUV (luminance and chrominance coordinates), averages colours across blocks of 4 pixels, and breaks the image into large chunks called domain blocks. A domain block is in turn broken down into smaller and smaller blocks, each of which is patterned searched. Exact patterned matches are pretty hard to find, so the fractal engine searches for patterns that can be matched via a mathematical transformation known as an affine map. Simply put, this means that two patterns are considered the same as long as one can be stretched, squeezed, or rotated into looking like the other. The process continues until the image is approximately the size initially specified by the user. As you might guess, this a computationally intensive process. It is also an asymmetrical one - meaning compression takes longer then decompression. One unique benefit of the fractal method is scalability, because FIF views patterns rather then pixels, it can double the size of an image by mathematically scaling the pattern instead of just inserting extra pixels - however FIF doesn't average the image when enlarging, resulting in the appearance of the jaggies. The current version of the fractal algorithm can shrink images down to as little as 5K but is prone to blocking and smearing, looking like anti-aliasing gone awry.

What is meant by lossy?

This is a method of image compression in which a certain amount image data will be lost in order to compress it more then a non-loss compression method could. The amount of image data that will be lost depends on the image and the software quality settings, most lossy compression was designed for scanned images and as such, works far better on them then computer artwork.

What is the difference between Bitmap and Vector graphics?

Bitmaps, also known as rasters, is a representing of a image in tile-like elements known as pixels in a series of rows and columns. The number of rows and columns, say like 640 by 480, in a mode display is fixed unless the mode itself is changed. Vectors, also referred to as object-based graphics, are shapes represented as a series of lines and curves and can be resized and moved about easily regardless of the graphic mode, which is why it is commonly referred as graphic device independent.

What is Image Processing?

The alerting of a preexisting image by color manipulation, mathematical algorithms (sometimes called filters) or freehand tools, sometimes referred to as image or photo corrections. A good examples of color manipulation are the brighten of an image or the removing of a reddish hue from a image. A filter is more of a complete reworking of a image then color manipulation, for instance a image can be made to look like a blurred object in motion or make only visible the edges of an image. Freehand alerting is usually a small paint-like tool that can remove unsightly areas or enhance them.

What is Morphing?

Morphing is series of images blended from a image or object to another different image or object so as to give the impression of things transforming into something else, like TV commercials in which a person's features blends into a different person's features.

What is Virtual Reality?

A 3 dimensional simulated fictional or non-fictional environment in which a person or persons can interact in and with.

The keywords here are simulated and interaction. A dance floor light show is not a simulation of anything and a television set or any other kind of moving picture that is not interactive cannot be considered virtual reality. The most commonly known example of virtual reality is the one in which a person puts on a electronic sensitive glove and looks at small monitors in goggled head-gear, although virtual reality is not just limited to these input and visual devices.

"This should be taken care of right away."

"I'd planned a trip to Hawaii next month but this is so easy and

profitable that I want to fix it before it curse itself."

"Welllllll, what have we here..."

Since he hasn't the foggiest notion of what it is, the Doctor is

hoping you will give him a clue.

"We'll see."

"First I have to check my malpractice insurance."

"Let me check your medical history."

"I want to see if you've paid your last bill before spending any

more time with you."

"Why don't we make another appointment later in the week."

"I need the money, so I'm charging you for another office visit."

"I really can't recommend seeing a chiropractor."

"I hate those guys mooching in on our fees."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

Since he hasn't the faintest idea of what to do, he is trying to

appear thoughtful while hoping the nurse will interrupt.

(Proctologists also say this a lot.)

"We have some good news and some bad news."

The good news is he's going to buy that new BMW, and the bad news

is you're going to pay for it.

"Let's see how it develops."

"Maybe in a few days it will grow into something that can be cured."

"Let me schedule you for some tests."

"I have a 40% interest in the lab."

"I'd like to have my associate look at you."

"He's going through a messy divorce and owes me a small fortune."

"How are we today?"

"I feel great. You, on the other hand, look like hell."

"I'd like to prescribe a new drug."

"I'm writing a paper and would like to use you for a guinea."

"If it doesn't clear up in a week, give me a call."

"I don't know what the hell it is. Maybe it will go away by itself."

"That's quite a nasty looking wound."

"I think I'm going to throw up."

"This may smart a little."

"Last week two patients bit through their tongues."

"Well, we're not feeling so well today, are we?"

"I can't remember your name, nor why you are here."

"This should fix you up."

"The drug salesman guaranteed that it kills all symptoms."

"Everything seems to be normal."

"I guess I can't buy that new beach condo after all."

"I'd like to run some more tests."

"I can't figure out what's wrong. Maybe the kid in the lab can

solve this one."

"Do you suppose all of this stress could be affecting your nerves?"

He thinks you are crazy and is hoping to find a psychiatrist

who will split fees.

"Why don't you slip out of your things."

"I don't enjoy this any more than you do, but I've got to warm

my fingers up somehow."

-or-

"I haven't had a good laugh all day."

"If those symptoms persist, call for an appointment."

"I've never heard of anything so disgusting. Thank God I'm off

next week."

"There is a lot of that going around."

"My God, that's the third one this week. I'd better learn something

about this."

by Ron Kushnier

Why are CD-ROM drives so slow?

Compact discs were originally designed for music. When you are listening to "Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits", you are accessing the data sequentially and at a very regular speed. The only time you need to seek is when you decide to skip over a song, or back up and listen to "Always on my Mind" one more time.

In order to fit as much music as possible onto the disc, the data is recorded at the same linear density near the outer edge of the disc as it is near the centre, so there is more information in the outside tracks than in the inside tracks. In order to deliver a steady rate of data, the linear velocity of the disc moving under the head is constant, so the angular velocity of the disc changes when the head moves from the centre toward the outside tracks. This is no big deal when you are playing music, but when you are trying to do random access to a CD-ROM, the need to accelerate and decelerate the disc is the biggest obstacle to making it faster. Most magnetic discs spin at a constant angular velocity, so the data density decreases toward the outside of the disk, but seeks are faster.

A few other reasons that CD-ROMs are slow: Optical disc heads tend to be heavier than magnetic disk heads, so they have more inertia, and take longer to stabilize onto a new track. Many CD-ROMs contain too much data to make effective use of RAM caches.

As time goes by, CD-ROM drives will get a little faster, but don't expect any miracles.

Is it important to have a fast CD-ROM? Does 300ms vs 700ms really matter?

It depends on what applications you will be using. Many CD-ROMs are just big archives of stuff, and you can copy individual programs to your hard disk before using them so speed is not really very important. But if you are going to be using large random-access databases, or any kind of interactive multi-media applications, then the speed difference is very noticeable.

How much does it cost to make a CD-ROM?

You can get a master made for about $1300, and then about $1.50 per disc for duplication. So to make 1000 discs, it will cost you about ($1300 + (1000 * 1.50)) = $2800. Publishers often have `first-timer' specials with steep discounts off the list price. For instance, DMI recently had a special of mastering, 50 discs, and two hours of tech support for $750.

If you only want a few discs, you can have single ISO-9660 `one-offs' made for about $200 for the first disc, and $100 for additional copies.

I have a great idea for a CD-ROM but no money. What can I do?

You can author a CD-ROM, and have someone else publish it and pay you royalties. One company that does this is Walnut Creek CDROM in the USA.

Can you give a short explanation of ISO-9660?

ISO-9660 is an international standard that defines a filesystem for CD-ROMs. Almost all systems support ISO-9660.

Level one ISO-9660 is similar to an MS-DOS filesystem. Filenames are limited to eight single-case characters, a dot, and a three character extension. Filenames cannot contain special characters, (no hyphens, tildes, equals, or pluses). Only single case letters, numbers, and underscores. Directory names cannot have the three digit extension, just eight single-case characters.

All alphabetics are in UPPER case; some software maps this to lower case. Either the file name or the extension may be empty, but not both ("F." and ".E" are both legal file names).

There is a "File Version Number" which can range from 1-32767, and is separated from the extension by a semi-colon. The file version number is ignored on many systems.

Here are some examples of legal and illegal filenames:

Legal	Illegal	Why
TEST_1C.TXT	TEST-1C.TXT	Hyphen
TEST1C.TXT	TEST 1C.TXT	Space
TEST.1C	TEST.1C.TXT	More than 1 period.
README	Readme	Not single case.

Sub-directories are allowed to nest up to eight levels deep.

Level two ISO-9660 allows longer filenames, up to 32 characters. But many of the other restrictions still apply. Level two discs are not usable on some systems, particularly MS-DOS.

Why do CD-ROMs cost so much?

Here are several answers, take your pick:

A. Because too many people are willing to pay the high prices.

B. They are not really very expensive when you consider how much data they contain. Even the most expensive CD-ROMs are often cheaper than the least expensive floppies when you figure the cost per byte.

C. Because there isn't enough competition. The prices will come down when more people buy drives, and more CD-ROM titles are available.

What is the shelf-life of a CD-ROM?

If a CD-ROM is not manufactured properly, the lifetime can be very short, perhaps only a few years. This can happen if the edge of the disc is not properly sealed, and oxygen reaches the metal surface.

If the disc is manufactured properly, it will last a very long time. Most CD-ROMs should last for more than a human lifetime. Philips has proposed new standards for testing CD-ROMs that are expected to result in discs that will enjoy a life span of more than a thousand years. For more information see Fox, Barry "CD Makers Perform in Unison to Stop the Rot" New Scientist 134(1815) (April 4, 1992):19.

The laser used in a CD-ROM drive is very low power, and does not harm the disc in any way. Reading the disc will not shorten the lifetime.

How should I handle my CD-ROMs? How do I clean them?

The following guidelines represent the current thinking for the care and handling of CD-ROM discs, by a number of CD-ROM disc and drive manufacturers. The validity and usefulness of most of these guidelines have not been substantiated by government testing and therefore are presented for information only.

Wash your hands before contact with the disc. If available, wear lint-free cloth gloves, finger cots, or talc-free latex gloves.

If you must wipe the disc, do so with a soft, dry, lint-free cloth in a radial motion- that is from the inner to the outer hub- not in a circular motion around the disc like you might do for a phonograph record. The most devastating scratches are those which occur along a circular arc of the disc which can obscure a long stream of pits.

Certain cleaning agents and solvents can damage the discs. Some of these include: gasoline, paint thinners, benzine, acetone, carbon tetrachloride, chlorinated cleaning solvents, ammonia, and household detergents which contain ammonia. Do not clean with a water soaked cloth. The use of Isopropyl alcohol, the ingredient in many commercial CD cleaning products, as well as certain waxes and acrylic liquids, is still questionable.

Do not clean the label side of the disc.

Use of a CD-ROM caddy is highly recommended during transport and operation. Limit the amount of physical contact with the disc.

Always handle the disc by the outer edge and/or the inner (hole) edge. Never touch the data surface.

Discs like to "live" in the same conditions that people do; that is:

- They don't like to be manhandled

- They don't like exposure to temperature extremes

- They don't like exposure to excess humidity.

- They don't like exposure to high intensity UV light

AQUANOID V 1.35. A decent VGA 'break-out' style game with a twist. [3970]

BALLOON CHALLENGE. Balloon Challenge pits you against the computer as you try to launch your 25 balloons into a sky maze filled with planes! Beautiful animated graphics, & much more! EGA/VGA [3971]

BARON BALDRIC. Exciting & hilarious VGA arcade game with a difference. Not the usual run-jump-shoot game, it offers a whole new look, feel and a cast of the most outrageous characters. [3972]

CONSTRUCTION BOB IN THE BOUNCING FACTORY. Excellent VGA graphics, 50 exciting levels of non-stop bouncing action, great sounds! [3973]

EARTH INVASION. A space fight game with air combat missions. It features great EGA graphics. [3974]

GALACTA V1.1 & GOTCHA V2.32. Galacta 1.1 is a shoot-em-up space game. Features include 256 colour graphics, sound effects and joy stick support. Gotcha v2.32: Arcade-style VGA game where the object is to move around the screen completing three sides of a box and not being hit by the meanies. [3975]

HELIOUS I. 9 Bizarre & fun levels of a game whose origin you simply won't believe. Strategy/action, featuring gameplay so original you'll play it just to see what'll happen next. [3976]

ELEVATORS FROM HELL; ENDLESS HORROR & EYE OF HORUS.. Elevators from hell arcade game: escape psychotic guards in deserted building using elevators: the guard also knows how to use the elevators! Endless horror is a parody of the street fighter arcade game. All the ozone has burned up and you must fight off froggers. Eye of horus arcade game (mouse) zap aliens while dodging counter-fire: lots of action and very colourful! Ega req. [3977]

RICOCHET; QUOTRIS; MAZEMAN & JELLYFISH. Ricochet is an action packed arcade game that calls for you to blow up all guns of the opposite colour from yours. Quote-tris combines tetris action with famous quotations. Mazeman: help mazeman escape the labyrinth of doom. Not-just-another-maze-game, very playable, challenging, and enjoyably addicting. Jellyfish v1 2: fast-paced arcade game. You, an endangered jelly fish must collect bubbles and dodge seaweed, watching out for sea monsters. [3978]

SPACE INTRUDERS. Space shoot 'em up type game where you destroy alien invaders. Req 386 /VGA. [3979]

SPACE PILOT. A 256-colour vga action/arcade game with 7 different levels. [3980]

SPITWAD & SPIFFY PONG. Spitwad Willi is a great graphical arcade type game by the author of superball. Shoot the bouncing balls with spitwads, can gain power up items when destroying the balls. Spiffy pong is an incredibly souped up version of the arcade classic pong. It's in 256 VGA with smooth 3-D animation and includes 2-player-addictive-fun! [3981]

CORN-COB. 3D air combat, flying a piston engine aircraft against alien invaders. [3982]

DESSERT STORM. Shoot down Scuds and aircraft, guide your Tomahawks to take out chemical plants, etc. [3983]

DRAGON HUNT. Battle various types of dragons to save your town. [3984]

DRAGONS. Snakes-type game where you try to encircle each other's dragon with your own. [3985]

MICROBUCKS II. A well-done one-armed bandit gambling machine [3986]

NOTRUS. An intense arcade game involving strategic placement of falling blocks. [3987]

PERESTROIKA. Excellent shrinking lilly-pad hopping game. translated from Russian. [3988]

SUPERFLY. Swat flies and other bugs around the house through 20 rooms, great graphics. Req. mouse, VGA. [3989]

ALDO'S ADVENTURE. Another Mario-like arcade game of ladder climbing and obstacle hopping. [3990]

AQUAMAN. Mind-bending game of logic planning and problem solving. Contains 20 Different (& difficult) puzzles. [3991]

BOLO ADVENTURES III. Mind boggling strategy game - get mr. Bolo out of 15 rooms of challenging puzzles. Each room is filled w/obstacles like lasers, crates, water, boxes & more! (I & II are on disks 3610/11) EGA [3992]

DIAMOND DASH & FUZION. Diamond Dash is a game of ladders, ropes, enemies, and diamonds, played on multiple levels sequentially. Fuzion v2.1 If you are a tetris fan and find rubik's cube fascinating then get ready for fuzion. The object of fuzion is to fit together twelve geometrically unique pieces in a colourful puzzle. [3993]

COLOUR CROSS. Unique, abstract, & kinetic 2-player colour strategy game in which the objective is to freeze (immobilize) all of your opponent's pieces. Req VGA, mouse. [3994]

CAPTURE-THE-FLAG. It took 2,600 hours to create this commercial-quality VGA hi-res Capture the Flag board game. Synchronized sound and great animation. [3995]

STRATEGY. Kill the enemy leader while protecting your own, four scenarios are supplied: Civil War, Future Cyborgs, Medieval, and Naval Conflict. [3996]

TRIBOLO. Great game of Othello with THREE players. [3997]

COFFEEBREAK CARD GAMES V2.1S. Includes The Popular Crazy'8s & The Original 52-Pickup. Comes With Many Environment Options Such As A Dozen Card Backs And Classical Music Scores. [3998]

IDIOT. Idiot's Delight Solitaire. Card Game. [3999]

GENERAL RETAIL OPERATIONS TRAINING 3.1. A simulation game in which players act as managers of competing department stores. [4000]

HUMBUG v4.7 & JACARANDA JIM v5.0. Humbug: You go to grandad's for the holidays, but something strange is afoot. Why is there a time machine in the cellar? What would you do with a trombone, a terrapin and half a pound of lard? Jacaranda Jim V5.0: Escape From Ibberspleen IV! Why has Alan The Gribbley been hypnotised? Who taught Mavis the Cow to tapdance? [4001]

PSIONICS. Is a futuristic full 3-D VGA game set aboard the space lab nexus. VGA, mouse support. [4002]

SUITE 3-D. A Virtual Reality Simulation/Game. [4003]

SLICK JOE. Lost in Reno animated adventure game. Type in your commands and control your character "slick joe." EGA [4004]

THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL THIEF v2.04. An AAAA (Absolutely Awesome Adventure From Australia) game. Full of clever and irreverent humo(u)r, it will remind you of the best from Infocom and from Douglas Adams [4005]

METROPOLIS. An humourous interactive game in which you must investigate and solve crimes in the teeming city of metropolis. [4006]

THE LOST CLOWN. An adventure game where you must escape the maze alive. Req VGA. [4007]

CRUSHER CASTLE II. EGA/VGA Adventure, strategy, & arcade game all in one. Objective is to escape from a haunted castle of 25 rooms filled with ghosts, bombs, candles, maps, & much more. [4008]

AMERICHAOS 1994. Bands of genetically-altered motorcycle bandits prowl ruined cities. Armoured city fortresses house the rich & powerful, while the rest face daily fights for survival. Also includes CHEXO (EGA & mouse) where the objective is similar to checkers yet with added twists. [4009]

VAMPYR. Graphic adventure set in the world of Quilinor. [4010]

DC GAMES 3.03. Graphics adventure game builder create up to 1000 worlds, 64k each in size, 500 objects/characters per world. Supports PCX Graphics And Soundblaster. [4011 & 4012]

PC STORYBOOKS 2.0. Let's Build A Snowman, P.C. Bear: My Favourite Xmas Things, Happy Birthday P.C. Bear!, P.C. Bear Visits The Zoo & Let's Bake Cookies. Intended for pre-schoolers. VGA [4013]

BERT'S AFRICAN ANIMALS.. A children's colouring program with pc voice (thru your pc speaker) for introducing young children to the computer. (Also: available: WHALES & DOLPHINS: 4014; DINOSAURS: 3896). VGA And Mouse Needed. [4015]

CLOCK TEACHING PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN. Teaches the clock as well as conversion between digital (numbers) and analogue ("hands") clocks. VGA [4016]

TREASURE HUNT MATH V1.2. Elementary math (grades 1-6) in arcade-style game for home&school. Basic math operations, fractions and decimals. Prints certificates of achievement & math tests. Also: Sunday School Colours V3.7 (EGA/mouse) Colouring Game For Kids. [4017]

WORDS ALIVE. Entertaining set of educational games for children. The program uses colourful animated pictures, popular children's tunes, and excellent quality pc-speaker speech to teach spelling & more. [4018]

MATHMASTER V4.00. A math tutorial, that lets the user practice addition, subtraction, multiplication & division. Req. 286+. [4019]

MATH COUNTS. Teaches +, X, -, , % for grades 1 & 2 (disk 4020) or 3 & 4 (disk 4021) also includes record keeping estimation, fractions, decimals and money, word problems. Context sensitive remedial review, more. [4020 & 4021]

MATHMAN PLUS. mathematics tutor for students (grades 1-8). [4022]

SIR ADDALOT. Landmark's new math game! Arcade style educational game improves addition & subtraction skills as kids face dragons in enchanted castles. Has levels for a wide range of skills. [4023]

CHILDREN'S TUTORS. 2 tutorials designed for children ages preschool through 3rd grade. Math tutor - basic arithmetic. Time tutor - how to tell time. [4024]

BIG MATH ATTACK!. Tests your math skills spelling, typing & metric conversions skills in a fun arcade environment. Ega. Several skill levels - suitable for both children and adults. [4025]

ANIMATED MULTIPLICATION & DIVISION PROGRAM. for the kids. [4026]

WHY DO I. Explains necessity of education to children. Covers math, english, science, history, geography, and confidence building. Perfect for all elementary ages. [4027]

ANIMAL QUEST. A good education shareware game for kids 3-6 age. Learn about animal habitat and food chains in an arcade environment. [4028]

ALGEBRA 3 An Algebra Tutorial. [4029]

IDOMAGIC V2.2. An educational program for people who want to learn idiomatic expression reference features, 4 game features. [4030]

BEAT THE SYSTEM - EQUALIZER V1.2. A coach to improve your academic performance at varsity, high school or tech. Unique approach which also looks at teacher's expectations etc. [4031]

INSIGHT. Assessment by level of thinking using your own questions. Students report what they understand or value, free-choice rather than forced-choice. [4032]

PROFESSOR WEISSMAN'S STATISTICS TUTORIALS V2.12. Random problems just like those in an intro statistics textbook, w/step-by-step solutions. Keeps record of student's progress, 3 levels of difficulty. [4033]

ELECTRONICS COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION. Set of 31 exercises intended to help you learn or teach electricity and electronics: random problem generation, extensive graphics, more! [4034 & 4035]

TOUR DE VOCABULAIRE 1.21. Entertaining way to build French vocabulary & knowledge of French history. Move a graphic image of French flag around a pre-defined route across France, ending up in Paris. [4036]

BON REWARDING FRENCH (BON). A French tutorial. It features phonetic translation and covers greetings, numbers 1-60, adjectives, family and more. [4037]

EURO-LANGUAGES-4: FR/GER/IT/SPA. Provides a basic vocabulary in learning various languages. Covers French, German, Italian & Spanish. Gives you the english/language or language/english option. [4038] EURO-LANGUAGES-9: CZ/DA/DU/FI/HU/NW/POL/POR/SW Simple phrases from English to Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish (or back). [4039]

Professor P.C. Laptop! Tutorial - Ver 5.8 (Upd). Hundreds of tips & tricks for laptop users. Travel with laptops, battery charging & more! How to buy a laptop or portable pc, etc. [4040]

PC-LEARN BEGINNERS COMPUTER TUTORIAL. Complete beginners tutorial study dos, history of computers, batch files, virus prevention, how to buy a pc, telephone support numbers, more! [4041 & 4042]

ATTACK & KEYPAD. a great arcade-style typing enhancer. Improve your typing while having a blast! Keypad drills you on touch typing on the numeric keypad. [4043]

DOS 6 QUIZ & DOSQUIZ v2.22.. DOS 6 Quiz tests the user's knowledge and ability to use the features of DOS 6 through a series of 20 questions/tasks. Dosquiz designed to be a quiz of knowledge of basic and advanced DOS commands. [4044]

"THEY'RE HERE... COMPUTER VIRUSES". Well-made, entertaining, graphical computer virus tutorial (HD & VGA) [4045 & 4046]

WORD PERFECT'S 5.1 NEW USERFRIENDLY MANUAL. A replacement for WP's manual: a much more userfriendly but comprehensive manual for WP 5.1 covering all the frequently used commands in understandable language (Book to be printed with WP). [4047]

WORDPERFECT MACROS TUTORIAL. Comprehensive macro tutor for word perfect 5.X. Including variables, programming etc. [4048]

DBBASE 4 TUTOR. The Best(?) inter-active Dbase IV Tutor Available. [4049]

CLIPPER 5.0 TUTOR. Comprehensive inter-active tutorial system for Clipper 5.0 with "hands-on" practice (req.HD) [4050]

"7-DAY" COMPUTER TUTOR. Interactive & up-to-date computer learning course for DOS [4051-4057]

NEW DOS 5.0 TUTORIAL. For new and oldtimers. Also includes "practice" sessions. [4058]

DOS TUTOR. Inter-active & solid DOS tutorial by Knoblauch [4059]

A JOY TOUR OF YOUR PC. A "Tutor-by-Association" tour of your computer. Interactive tutorial on your PC & DOS using familiar, real-world concepts. Ideal for novices. [4060]

IMS TIPS & TRICKS DISKETTE. An interactive & graphically appealing animated computer tutorial. (req.HD) [4061]

TIPS DISK. Colourful, menu-driven tutorial package containing hundreds of new and little known tips for powerful computer use. Entertaining practical & fun. [4062]

PC-INFO. A variety of technical reference tables & diagrams for the PC/XT/AT tinkerer/hobbyist or any interested person. [4063]

BBS TUTOR v21. Interactive tutorial on Bulletin Board Services procedures, terminology, with 2 quizzes. [4064]

BBS TUTORIALS. More tutors on using Bulletin Board Services (in text file format) including one real-life "practice" program. [4065]

INTERNET & NETWORK INFO. Hitchhikers guide to Internet, FTP manual, UNIX intro, guide to networking and file transmission, internet protocols. [4066]

TOUR OF OOP IN TURBO-PASCAL 5.5. Hypertext-Based Tutorial On Using Object-Oriented Programming in TurboPascal 5.5 [4067]

C++ TOUR. Hypertext-Based Tutorial On Using C++ [4068]

C LANGUAGE TUTOR. A nice, easy-paced tutor for the "C" programming language. For complete novices, with test. (Oldie, but very good.) [4069]

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE TUTOR. A comprehensive assembly language tutor, complete with compiler, templates, and source code examples. [4070-4073]

LET'S BUILD A COMPILER.

A series of tutorial articles on the theory and practice of developing computer language parsers and compilers. At the end, you'll be able to develop a new computer language and build a compiler for it. [4074]

PROGRAMMER'S INFO BANK. Various text files including Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) for MS-DOS programmers, guide to copyrighting software (in the USA), file compression and programming SoundBlaster/ADlib. [4075]

ACCOUNT PRO. A Double-Entry Accounting Program. Features: User-Definable Accounting Periods, Budgets, Forecasts, Passwords. [4076]

THE STOCK ANALYST. Powerful, Yet Easy To Use. [4077]

BOND-TECH'S BOND CALCULATOR. Computes Wide Range Of Securities. Securities Incl Notes, Bonds, Money Markets, Odd Coupons, Etc. Computes Price, Yield, Yield Equivalents, More! [4078]

ST-BUDGET V1.8. Budget tracking system fully functional budgeting & tracking system designed for corporate, education institute & professional use. Key feature: user-defined entity groups. [4079]

REBEL V3.0. Easy/Powerful spreadsheet with indirect cell addressing, programmable range operations, variable labels, array assignments and more [4080 & 4081]

SCHEDULER v393. Lotus 123/Quattro Pro spreadsheets to design a work schedule for your employee, calculate time worked, track details etc. [4082]

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM V3.1. accounting system for property management services. Req 512K, HD. Handles AP/AR, Disbursements, Cash Receipts, Debits/Credits, Memo Writer. [4083]

LAYOUT V4. An area planning and inventory system. Ver 4.0. Useful for floor plans, circuit board components, home inventory, etc. Multiple "sheets" can be consolidated for inventory purposes [4084]

GRAPHMATICA EQUATION PLOTTER. A Graphical Equation Plotting and Solving Program. [4085]

LINDO STATS. This is a statistic program software to solve statistic problems. [4086]

LINEAR CIRCUIT ANALYSIS PROGRAM. For 40 Node, 200 Branch Electronic Circuits, Versatile, Fast, Speaks Electronic Jargon, Wavespec Waveform Description Program (Time-To-Frequency Transform)... [4087 & 4088]

MATRIX. Designed to teach row operations on matrices. The program can be used to find complete solutions to systems of linear equations, to find determinants and inverts [4089]

DOS PHANTOM V2.8C TASK AUTOMATOR. Record any task you perform at the keyboard and play it back at a scheduled time or by hot key. Unlimited recording length! Edit recordings etc. For backup, unattended task scheduling etc. [4090 & 4091]

ORPHEUS 1.60, HYPERTEXT AUTHORING!. Make electronic books in a writer-friendly environment. Hypertext word-processor with online help, mouse support, draw mode, more. Link to graphics, import etc. Comes with online help and user's guide. Orpheus reader, slick hypertext interface for online books made with orpheus author. Includes notepad, bookmarks, graphics, dos shell, mouse support etc. [4092-4094]

DEMO WORKSHOP. Demo & Tutorial Maker. [4095]

THE ILLUSTRATED READER. Allows non-programmer to easily electronic documents with pictures using a test editor and paint program that it supports. Req EGA/VGA, supports mouse. [4096]

GRAMMAR ONLINE!. A collection of grammar tips, advice etc. always at your fingertips. Includes details on punctuation. [4097]

FAIR WARNING!. A "smart" tickler file for people with many events to keep track of in their lives (like birthdays, anniversaries, one-time appointments, monthly events, weekly and daily events (hd) [4098 & 4099]

OBJECTORG. Object-Oriented information management. An attempt to make bill gates' information at your fingertips vision a reality. Store data in intelligent container called Smartfolders. [4100]

PRIVATE SECRETARY V1.09. Monitors your phone/ answering machine via std modem then dials your pager or another phone to notify you of calls received, remind you of appointments, report power [4101]

TEAMWORK INFORMATION EXCHANGE 2.0. A multi-user system that provides work groups with a tool to enhance intra-group communications and improve time managemeNT [4102]

DEBT MANAGER v1.3. Wipe out your credit card debt. A complete do-it-yourself debt management software. Take advantage of trade secrets used by many expert financial counsellors in the privacy of your own home. [4103]

MONEY GROWER. Money is the seed of money invest for growth, watch it grow and grow using the advice and tools provided in this program. [4104]

HOME CASHFLOW WIZARD. Get control of your bills regardless of your finances. Fast, accurate, easy-to-use. Gives you the power to organize, track prioritize, age and schedule all of your bills. [4105]

JEFF'S ALMANAC. Perhaps the most valuable and versatile program you'll ever own, Jeff's Almanac provides education, amusement and reference for the whole family. [4106]

SELL YOUR KNOW HOW AS SHAREWARE V2. Examines ways that non-programmers can get in on the shareware boom and make some money with their computer by selling their skills and expertise. [4107]

SOFTPOEM. A work of interactive video poetry. It uses the computer as its medium rather than the printed page. Text is brought to life with graphics and animation. [4108]

SMARTS. A Great IQ Test! Evaluates Your Thinking Skills! Try This! [4109]

PATTERNS. Intelligent weight loss tool that works w/any diet pgm to reveal patterns of change w/in your weight history, using AI. [4110]

PERSONAL BIORHYTHM 4.3. Produces professional-looking biorhythm charts. Plots your physical, emotional and intellectual highs and lows. Prints cover sheets, daily forecasts & comparisons. [4111]

CYCLOGLOG & DIVELOG. A cyclelog that is simple and straight forward to use. Also: diver's log book [4112]

FITNESSMATE V2.6. Tracks your fitness level and the various aerobic activities that you do. [4113]

THE TROPICAL FISH REFERENCE GUIDE. A must for all tropical fish enthusiasts. If you have an aquarium, or have an interest in the hobby, then get this one. Includes details on how to look after your aquarium, various equipment needed, and provides a database of various fish with care details. [4114]

RECIPE BOX V2.13. A culinary toolkit developed to bring the power of the pc into the kitchen. Whether you are a five star chef, kitchen gourmet or a food service professional, recipe [4115]

ILINK COOKING COOKBOOK.. A cookbook in electronic format by the participants of ilink cooking conference & friends. Many recipes along with taglines & bits of conversation. [4116]

ACTS V3.0 EGA BIBLE MAPS, TEXT AND QUIZ. An interactive bible atlas and quiz based on the n.T. Book of acts. Visually follow the journeys of the 1st century apostles as you read. [4117]

BIBLE COMPANION V4.31. Daily Bible study aid with maps, dictionary, reading plan. [4118]

BIBLE MIXER 2.1. Tests your bible knowledge by challenging you to unscramble mixed-up words from the bible. Incl word mixer 1.1 to increase vocabulary. Ages 8+ [4119]

CULTS v12X. Information on origin, power, structure and doctrine comparison for the major christian cults (Jehovah's, New Age etc). [4120]

KING JAMES BIBLE QUIZ. Is the King James version full of hard archaic words? Through a quiz interface learn the meaning of all those tough bible words, like "concupiscence" [4121]

COMMON BIBLE MYTHS. An attractive program listing (and refuting) common myths associated with the bible. Freeware. [4122]

THE PESACH ADVENTURE. A simple children's game for passover. This is a small and easy text adventure in which children search the house for leaven just before passover begins. [4123]

REVELATION. Verse-by-verse study of the book of revelation, hypertext, requires graphics but best with CGA. [4124]

SCRIPTURE QUEST V5.00. In-depth bible q&a game tests bible knowledge with over 1600 questions. 1-9 Players. Play against the clock. Top ten score chart. Great way to learn about the bible. Very at [4125]

SOLOMON2. Program that prints a random jewel from over 550 selections from the book of proverbs, new int'l version. [4126]