CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing January 9, 1998 Issue 109 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L For Contact and Other Information See Bottom of Publication! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> I Need Your Technical Help, 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, By Howard Carson, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com Reviews: 5=> Product: askSam for Windows Professional 3.0. - business/information management Reviewed By: Richard Malinski, mailto:richard@acs.ryerson.ca 6=> Product: Day-Timer Organizer 2.1 - home/organization Reviewed By: Bev Walton-Porter 7=> Product: How to Get Your Dream Job Using the Web authored by Shannon Karl and Arthur Karl - book/career Reviewed By: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com 8=> Product: iF-22 Raptor - Air Superiority Fighter - game/simulation Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com --- BEGIN ISSUE 1=> I Need Your Technical Help, mailto:pgrote@i1.net One of the many benefits of publishing CompuNotes is I get the best technical support in the world. No, not from the companies whose software we review, but from our readers. Once again I look to you with hat in hand to help me out on problems I have tried to fix, things I have looked for or other items which have eluded me. Please be kind and e-mail me if you can help me with the next ten things at mailto:pgrote@i1.net 1) I need a Happy Face bitmap in 800x600 for my background. Can't find one anyplace. It should be the standard yellow happy face on a black background. 2) In Outlook 98 how do I have it open a new instance of Explorer when I click on a link instead of using the open one? Right now I have to SHIFT-CLICK and pick Explorer. 3) Same as above but for shortcuts on my desktop. 4) I need a Man in Black theme as a WAV file. Not the theme song by Danny Elfman, but the pumping sound you hear when you go to their web site (http://www.meninblack.com) . I tried "borrowing" it from the web site but the sound is integrated with a Shockwave download or something. 5) How in the world do I get NetMeeting to work with a proxy server, specifically WinProxy? Yes, I have looked at the knowledge base article, but it is very cryptic. Has anyone gotten this to work? 6) Same as above but the application is a Connectix VC instead of NetMeeting. 7) A web site which lists all the known patches for Windows 95. 8) An easy to use Windows 95 utility which will take the IRQ information from CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM/DEVICE MANAGER and show me which IRQs are free. 9) A free, automated FTP program where I can A) Schedule FTPs to complete and B) FTP whole directory structures. 10) A free utility where at anytime and anyplace in Windows 95 I can hit, for instance, CONTROL-SHIFT-C and it dumps the CompuNotes contact information into the document or web site I am on. Thanks for any and all help! 2=> Winner! This week's winner: v-hung@NWU.EDU. 3=> News and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Microsoft's "clever" marketing machine . . . http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,17964,00.html The Internet is getting slower. Gee, really? http://www.nbnn.com/pubNews/98/106137.html Microsoft's real Achilles heal! http://www.abcnews.com/sections/scitech/moody35/index.html Start a School Get a T1 at Cost . . . http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/9589.html Gee, another security hole in NT and 95 . . . http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/9581.html Larry is giving up on NCs ... well, almost . . . http://www.techweb.com/investor/story/INV19980109S0001 4=> The Big City Byte, By Howard Carson, mailto:lrhc@interlog.com Saturday afternoon. 4:00 P.M. "NO!" I screamed. "GO AWAY . . . LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I smashed the telephone receiver into its cradle and slumped into my chair. I had just answered another call (number 11 that day?) demanding that I listen to some droning sales pitch for either discount cases of stale guava juice, vacuum cleaners, aluminum siding, storm doors, computer upgrades, cheap RAM, or some other bit of nonsense. Where had they found my name? Where had they found my phone number? My fax number? The answer was . . . me! They had obtained all the information they needed to make contact . . . from me. The methods used to obtain the information were neither nefarious nor mysterious: no phone taps, no hidden microphones, and no electronic raids on my bank's central computer. I'd given them all the information they needed simply by registering the various different computer products I'd purchased over the past year or two. Think about it. Everything we buy for our computers is supplied with a registration card. Some of those registration cards ask an awful lot of questions: income bracket, age, sex, name, address, telephone number, fax number, date of birth, what purchases have been made over the past 12 months, what purchases are planned for the next 12 months, do you own your own company or work for someone else, what company you work for, what magazines you subscribe to, how many children live in the home, and on and on. The questions are sometimes downright intrusive. The questions also serve no useful purpose for most companies other than to provide them with detailed customer lists which can be sold to list brokers. Come to think of it, for the companies involved that *is* a useful and profitable purpose. It's a burden on the rest of us however. Have look at Labtec's product registration forms as an example of a really searching collection of questions. Labtec manufactures some excellent computer audio systems, among other things. There's a really simple key to avoiding all the unwanted calls and solicitations. All you have to do is sit down, pull out your next registration card and write down your name, postal address and the product code being requested. That's it - nothing more. Keep in mind that all a company can demand of you, for registration purposes, is your name, address and proof of purchase (UPC code, serial number, bill of sale with the payment method blacked out or erased, model number.) The company certainly can't demand anything else as a condition of product warrantability. Your credit card number, date of birth, age, income range, etc., are all completely confidential and companies have their bloody nerve asking for such data. Your uncommunicative reaction may feel a bit like "name, rank and serial number," but tough times call for tough measures. Naturally, the companies asking for such data claim first and foremost that the data is needed for marketing studies: "To Bring You Better Products In The Future." That's true to some extent. The problem is, this marketing information is not always kept confidential. Moreover, few companies have the database infrastructure to make the most strategic use of such complex data and rarely use it to help in the effective planning of their own future products. The majority of large manufacturers collate and sell the information gathered from these so-called surveys. It's quite a big business. In North America alone, according to industry surveys, the list selling business is worth about US$100 million. That's a lot of money. The most reasonable estimate suggests that over US$3 billion in revenues is generated every year in North America, from sales directly related to mailing lists. Hot selling lists now include far more than just names and mailing addresses. They include details such as the ones listed above, all neatly collated and organized in a series of databases compiled by hundreds of list brokers. The very biggest brokers, multinational corporations such as Equifax (which, like others, actually began life as a credit collection agency), have almost completely abandoned focus on collections. These companies now concentrate almost entirely on list brokerage. You will be shocked at the amount of data that can be collected from innocent looking registration cards, the sophistication of some of the lists, and some of the wild inaccuracies and outright fabrications in some of the lists. You will also be shocked to find out that many lists contain absolutely confidential information including such items as personal income statements, mortgage data, loan data, profit and loss statements from sole proprietorships, details of divorce settlements, and worse. It's a jungle out there and the most prudent among us would be wise to keep our counsel. Keep your mouth shut in other words. Above all else, don't avoid that little 'tick box' on the registration card which states "Check here if you don't want to receive information about other products." Do yourself a favor. Put a check mark in the box, and supply only your name, address and product data. Everything else is irrelevant and may only be sold to strangers. In fact, the biggest strangers (Equifax again), actually do a reasonably brilliant job (considering the mountains of data they acquire) of cross-matching data from disparate sources. You may think you're fooling the system by supplying only business data on one registration card, and only personal data on another registration card. Think again. The big mainframe database crunchers can put the data from those two widely separated cards together in less time than it take to explain the process. The end result is a seriously detailed profile of YOU. The actual relationship between one card and another may take months to appear. But appear it will, sooner or later. Use your name and address only. Nothing else matters insofar as your product registration and warranty are concerned. If you want to try and trace where some of your registration card data is being sold, use the tried and true method of sending in a card that says "Mr. B. Jones" instead of your usual "Bob Jones." Make a note of the product on a piece of paper with the notation "Mr. B. Jones." When you next receive a piece of unsolicited mail addressed to "Mr. B. Jones," call the manufacturer of the product you registered in that name and tell them to either send you a royalty check for the use of your name or forever remove your name from their lists and the lists they sold which contained your name. They've got to do it. When you agreed to purchase their product, you did not agree to provide them with some unrestrained license for the use of your name, address, etc. The fact that companies even think of doing such things is a tribute to free enterprise. The fact that the idea has been horribly abused is outrageous and a detriment to free enterprise. By all means send in your warranty card; some companies offer rebates, discounts on future upgrades, advance notice of upgrade releases, and a variety of other useful things. All anyone needs is your name, address and proof of purchase however. There is one more sad and pathetic note in all of this. Two years ago, a fellow in Madison, Wisconsin purchased a rather expensive Pentium. The store from which he purchased the thing offered one of those "Buy Now, Don't Pay Until Next Year" type of purchase plans. The fellow skipped on the payments and changed addresses. The local collection agency gave up trying to find the fellow after about 6 months of half-hearted attempts. Of course, the fellow was still making purchases (probably using the money he'd saved by stealing the computer?) Over the course of about 18 months, the fellow purchased a scanner, a new laser printer, a couple of external removable media drives, fancy new speakers, an uninterruptible power supply and a few other items. Every time he made a purchase, he filled out the warranty card and sent it in. The local collection agency had long since sold his outstanding account and details to a national data collection agency. After about two years of data collection from various sources, the national data collection agency's computers put together all the details they needed to track down Mr. Wisconsin. The data fell into place without any special attention on the part of any individual. The databases are designed to relate name-specific, address-specific, and other constant-specific data. It's all automatic, using reasonably intelligent software engines. Did Mr. Wisconsin get a big surprise when the summons from small claims court showed up in his mailbox? You bet. Big brother is watching. Few among us want to be anonymous. Who among us really wants to go through life leaving no record of our existence anyway? The point is that there are very simple, legitimate methods of asserting some semblance of control over our right to privacy. Use those methods at all times. At the very least, your Saturday afternoons will pass undisturbed by the insistent nattering of telephone sales 'droids. 5=> Product: askSam for Windows Professional 3.0. - business/information management Reviewed By: Richard Malinski, mailto:richard@acs.ryerson.ca System requirements: IBM or 100% compatible PC (either 386 or higher) and at 4MB of ram; 4mb of hard disk space; Windows 3.x, 95, NT or OS/2 Reviewed on: 166mhz mmx pentium PC with 32mb ram, Windows3.11. Price: MSRP $395.00 US/$549.00Can. for single user. Network version available. askSam Professional coming with askSam Office and askSam Internet might seem like a daunting set of software. You might ask yourself, 'Can I use it if I'm a novice computer user?' or 'What expertise level do I need to run a 'professional' piece of software? Rest assured that you don't have to be a highly technical professional to get the benefit out of these packages. The addition of 'professional' refers to the improvement of indexing and flexibility in the askSam products. The Office and Internet functions help organize your desktop and internet surfing. Have a look below, check out the askSam web page and see if this is for you. STAR FEATURE - Full-text indexing: askSam Professional is similar to the standard version. However, in addition to the standard features, the professional version provides a significant feature called full-text indexing which facilitates fast searching of contents through the use of boolean search terms, fuzzy searching, a word list which permits you to display and search through a word list of an indexed document and a hit list to display the number of documents retrieved by a search. Searching procedures are the same as in the standard version but the speed of searching once files are indexed is amazingly fast. The word list helps greatly by giving a view of variant spellings and allows you to jump quickly to specific documents. The indexing feature can be turned on or off as you wish. The indexing does take some time (one time for each document) and extra storage space. This means that you might not use it for documents that are very large and that may be infrequently used or for very small documents. Of course, having you information indexed may mean that they get more use! It is up to you. I use it and the extra time for indexing makes up in the speed of searching through the information. Documentation: The askSam software (on 2, 3.5" diskettes) comes with two guides and an internet site full of on-line documents. The start-up print documentation is "Getting Started: Installation & Tutorial." This provides clear instructions to installing the software. With this documentation and the setup software, installation is a breeze. Setup is fast and effortless. In addition, the guide outlines where files are copied and explains the uninstall program. There are no surprises here. The tutorial is a clearly written, step-by-step process using a case study to highlight the functions. If you face any difficulties with aspects of the tutorial such as importing or developing reports, the "User's Guide" will resolve them. The documentation is well written so that you can be up and running with a basic understanding within an hour. For those of you upgrading, the improvement requires only time to index your files but no break in your use of askSam. The documentation for the askSam Office and Internet features is on-line. The Office feature includes pre-defined applications such as an address file, notes file, to do list, and memo, fax and letter files. The Internet feature focuses on internet information and help in archiving e-mail and newsgroup messages and storing downloaded HTML documents. The HELP functions for these are within each feature are straightforward, simple to use. These features are useful add-ons if you don't have such features already. It is not essential that you use these to get the real benefit of askSam Professional. Tutorial: If you are unfamiliar with askSam do work through the tutorial outlined in the "Getting Started" guide. The tutorial covers managing structured data, managing freeform information and setting up hypertext links. There are four lessons on the first topic that cover creating a structured database; defining an entry form; adding, searching and editing data; creating reports and importing data from a sample database (dBASE is used in the example). The lessons on managing freeform data cover importing data into askSam; searching and creating reports and using the askSam word processor to setup, import and produce reports. Spending an hour to go through this guide really sets the foundation for more advanced work of searching, report writing and importing/exporting files. Use: The lessons in the tutorial use a case study but practicing importing data from other databases that you use the most is a good way to understand the strengths of askSam. The interfaces are clear and well explained in the documentation. You need not worry about dealing with files that are too large. askSam deals with files up to 16,000 lines (approximately 270 pages) or a maximum of 4 gigabytes in size. I tested the import feature with a search from Nexis/Lexis. The 15 articles, about 80kb in total size, took two or three seconds to import into askSam and a second or two to index. The use of the automatic field recognition feature speeds up importing structured data and/or reducing the key fields in your askSam files. What you decide is up to you, there is great flexibility. While it is not essential for you to keep the original structure of the data in mind, it is useful to keep it in mind until you are familiar with the full-text searching feature. This feature is superb for its flexibility, power and speed. In addition, for those of you doing analysis of reams of qualitative data, importing text files into askSam and using the indexing/searching feature should prove a godsend. Conclusion: This is an extremely useful indexing and searching tool. With the amount of information available in electronic form it is necessary to have a variety of tools at hand to cope. There are many personal information management tools, databases, spreadsheets, text and/or graphic files. askSam is going to be in my arsenal of frequently used software helping me organize and maintain my files. Have a look and see whether it can help you. askSam Systems P.O. Box 1428 Perry, FL 32347 Sales - 1-800-800-1997 Fax: 904-584-7481 E-mail: info@asksam.com Web page: http://www.askSam.com Installation: Silver (standard, easy, directory options, uninstall provided, quick) Documentation: Silver (standard, thorough, well indexed, in print or on-line and on the web) User friendliness: Gold (stable, works as written with indexing a significant increase in speed) Quality: Gold (simple straightforward interface, product depth becomes clear with use, extended with add-on filters and OCR software) User: Amateur to professional 6=> Product: Day-Timer Organizer 2.1 - home/organization Reviewed By: Bev Walton-Porter Reviewed On: Pentium, 24 MB RAM, Windows 95 Requires: 386, 4 MB RAM, Windows 3.x or 95. MSRP: $59.95 Let's get organized! If you're like me, organization is not just a desired state, it's a must. After all, I'm getting older and an aged brain will only hold so much! On a more serious note, up to now my selected method of organization has been a scattering of those little yellow Post-It (TM) notes tacked hither and yon near my computer. But with the arrival of the Day-Timer Organizer 2.1, those pesky yellow notes are history! When I first saw the number of disks for installation of this program (five), I thought, "Oh boy, another program that'll take YEARS to learn." I was wrong. The program is simply laid out and will have you mastering your contacts and schedules in no time at all. With Day- Timer, the concept is the same as the regular Day-Timer book you may have been carrying. It gives you a means to organize your life by mastering your time, coordinating projects, and maintaining information on your contacts. In fact, this software version of Day-Timer works as an adjunct to your paper organizer. Now you simply have no excuse for keeping up-to-date on the tasks at hand. It even tracks expenses for you! Installation is quick and easy, and you may use this software with Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. As a bonus, individual users have the option of linking with other users on a network to form a workgroup. In Day-Timer Organizer for Workgroups, there are additional features which will allow you to exchange contact info or notes, send messages between users, and allocate tasks or schedule meetings between users. The book you receive as a guide to the software serves a dual purpose: one side contains a Getting Started Guide, while the opposite side is a Workgroup Guide. It's like having two books in one -- and all you have to do to access the companion guide is turn the book over and flip it upside down. Starting the program is easy. Just double click on the program icon and the start-up screen will appear. On the main screen, it's easy one-touch access to whatever task you want to accomplish. To the right you'll find a series of twelve buttons allowing you to choose entry to your daily, weekly, or monthly planners, your timeline of events to track, your address book, notebook, scheduler, phone calls, expenses, task list, global list, or message board. Below these is the button for exiting to Windows. If you need help navigating through the program, all you have to do is position your mouse pointer over any button and a balloon will appear which will tell you what the function is for that button. Just like the paper organizer, you can add tasks on your To Do list in your Daily Planner. If you do not complete a task, the organizer automatically adds it to your next day's list of tasks. To add a task, you simply choose the "plus" button on the Actions bar and select "Task" from a pull-down menu. A box will appear in which you'll be able to add your task. You can set the priority to the each task accordingly: high, medium, or low. Give your task a due date, and click OK. The Address Book is just as simple. All the pertinent information for your contacts may be entered there: name, title, company, work address as well as nickname, e-mail address, home address, and various others. You can even customize your contact entries if you so desire. One thing that should be mentioned here, and is a great feature, is the Day-Timer Organizer's automatic saving feature. Once you've entered information and you click the OK button, your data is saved automatically. Should your computer crash (and I hope it doesn't!) while you're putting in information, only the last entry you made will be affected. You might also find the Notebook feature quite handy. Here, you can review and update any notes you've added. You can use this feature to manage your entries regarding business proposals, meetings, projects, and personal reminders. Day-Timer also allows tracking of your expenses. Record the date, type of expense, and amount. You can also categorize your expenses accordingly, customize entry fields, link entries, and add attachments, if desired. Once you have entered all the present items on your schedule, you can then print a paper copy of your entries. Two daily planner pages, each sized 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", will be printed on a standard-size page of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. If you need to print other page sizes using custom forms, Day-Timer provides on-line help through a pull-down help menu. Included in the software package is information on ordering pre-printed Day-Timer computer paper designed for ink jet and laser printers. There are several different styles, including Folio (8 1/2" x 11"), Desk (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"), Portable (3 3/4" x 6 3/4"), Jotter (2 3/4" x 5"), Pocket Booklet (3 1/2" x 6 1/2"), or Compact Booklet (3" x 5"). Although some of these styles may be available in your local office supply store, you can order directly by calling 1-800-225-5005. In order to maintain your Day-Timer, you'll need to use it frequently. If you don't go back in and mark your tasks as completed, you'll find them falling over one-by-one into successive dates on your Daily Planner pages. This program, once you begin using it, forces you to become faithful and diligent in your upkeep. To finish tasks and mark them as completed, all you do is click on the task on the To Do list and drag the entry under the Diary and Work Record section. Expenses must be submitted, as well, so they won't show up under your current expenses but will be accessible through Day-Timer's database. Just as you can schedule events and tasks in your Daily Planner, you may also schedule recurring weekly or monthly events, such as sales meetings, club meetings, birthdays, or staff meetings. There is a special recurring events button which allows you to enter the date and time of the event, as well as a description. Through the use of a pull-down menu, you may choose the frequency of the event and on what particular day of the week. One neat feature is setting up the program to have your computer "beep" you prior to your event. This is the alarm feature, and something I'll be sure to use quite frequently! Among the remaining features of this handy software, are the options for tracking phone calls, grouping entries by category (projects, events, personal), and phoning a contact directly from your address book. No matter how you choose to utilize the Day-Timer Organizer, you'll find it is one of the simplest programs to learn, use, and apply to your lifestyle regardless of whether you're using its capabilities for personal or professional means. Simply put, organization doesn't get any better than this! Day-Timer Technologies 2855 Campus Drive San Mateo, CA 94403 (415)-572-6260 WWW: http://www.daytimer.com CompuServe: GO DAYTIMER Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Gold Quality: Gold User: All 8=> Product: How to Get Your Dream Job Using the Web authored by Shannon Karl and Arthur Karl - book/career Reviewed By: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Reviewed On: Pentium 200 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Win 95, CD-ROM Requires: (for the accompanying CD-ROM) Win 3.1 or 95; hard disk space, depending on programs installed; CD-ROM MSRP: $29.99 "Technology is good. Technology is better. Technology is faster." If you're in the market for a job, this book will prove invaluable to you. It shows you how to use technology to go about finding a job, as well as the benefits of doing so. One fabulous feature is that it doesn't even assume you understand the Internet! It starts at step #1 and walks you through the process in a very organized, simple manner. Throughout the book, you'll find little light bulbs indicating helpful information, such as, "Beware of overstepping the bounds with e-mail. Busy, important people may not appreciate unsolicited e-mail." The easiest way to outline the benefits of the book is in a chapter by chapter format. Chapter #1 explains the benefits of job hunting on the Web, such as cost savings, meeting influential people, being able to introduce yourself to the "world," etc. In Chapter #2, you'll find an Internet crash course. Someone who isn't e ven hooked to the Net can purchase this book, learn about the Net, and get on-line and utilize the features. Learn about e-mail, job-related newsgroups and mailing lists, and how to navigate the Web. Again, important light bulbs of information are sprinkled throughout, such as a reminder to check your e-mail regularly during your job hunt. For someone who's totally green as far as computers are concerned, Chapter #3 will very helpful. It offers suggestions on how to buy the right computer, how to use a modem to access the Net, and even how to choose an Internet Service Provider. The appendix in the back of the book offers a listing of national providers. Again, they've covered all angles here, making it easy for the reader to approach the topic from whatever perspective they're coming from. Are you interested in Fortune 500 companies or international jobs? Chapter #4 lists over 100 Fortune 500 companies, or companies that offer jobs out of the country. Chapter #5 offers "what you won't find in the classifieds: up-to-the minute job listings." Fortune 500 companies aren't the only ones hiring, so Chapter #5 concentrates on other companies in categories such as investment, banking, publishing, and telecommunications. Okay, you've got a few companies in mind--what next? You need a resume. Chapter #6 tells you how to create a "killer electronic resume." You'll also learn how to prepare your resume for a keyword search, how to post your resume on-line, how to use on-line resume forms, and more. In many businesses, the best way to get your foot in the door is to know the right people. Chapter #7 touches on this fact, and guides you in developing networking skills that will help you in your search. How about marketing yourself on-line? Chapter #8 deals with creating your own home page, and it even gives a basic HTML lesson that's comprehensive yet easy to understand. Many people tend to forget about the vast potential of bulletin board systems, so Chapter #9 discusses what they are, how to find one, and how to connect. You'll even find a listing of job-related BBSes. Would it help to get advice from the experts? In Chapter #10, you'll read interviews from corporate recruiters who answer questions like, "Will I be able to find 'regular' jobs on-line?" and "What are recruiters' pet peeves?" This chapter also offers advice on cover letters. Chapter #11 features a comprehensive listing of the best job-hunting resources on the Web. Icons next to the listing indicate whether the resource charges for its services, and if the resource is highly recommended by the book's authors. Are you thinking about starting a job out of your home? Chapter #12 discusses this avenue, as well as outlining benefits and disadvantages for working from home and six "working for yourself" rules. You'll even find a listing of ideas for home businesses, such as antique locator, catering, and computer instruction. If you need home business resources on-line, you'll find a listing of those as well. The book comes with a CD-ROM that includes some great job-hunting resources. The Virtual Resume allows you to add pictures and graphics to your resume, and then send the disk to a prospective employer. Job Hunt includes a huge database of employers and allows you to create custom resumes and follow-up letters for mass mailings. By accessing Lifegoal on the CD-ROM, you can decide what you want to achieve in your life and establish goals to help you get there. If you need help in the interview itself, the You're Hired section is a job interview simulator that provides training and experience to prepare you for the interview process. Also on the CD-ROM is the Right Resume, which is a job-hunting package that helps you choose your resume type and customize it for different audiences. You'll also find shareware or freeware versions of different Internet programs, such as Free Agent for accessing newsgroups and CuteFTP for file transfers. Three chapters of the book are in HTML format on the CD-ROM, so you can access the employment links easily. Small Business Wisdom contains 1950 tips from experts and 101 businesses you can run from your home. Use the Letter Wizard found in the templates for writing business and personal letters. No doubt about it--if you're in the market for a job, this book is for you. Not only does it teach you about the Internet itself and the vast resources available, but it also walks you step by step through the whole process of finding a job on the Web. The Coriolis Group, Inc. An International Thompson Publishing Company 14455 North Hayden Road, Suite 220 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Phone: (602) 483-0192 http://www.coriolis.com Ease of Use: Gold Quality: Gold Overall: Gold 8=> Product: iF-22 Raptor - Air Superiority Fighter - game/simulation Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com Reviewed on: Pentium 200MMX, 32 MB RAM, Windows 95b, 24X CDROM MSRP: $49.95 When I received this game for review, I must admit that I was skeptical about how "realistic" the flight model and overall game would be. I am pleased to say that iF-22 "way" exceeded my expectations. This is one of the most realistic flight simulators that I have ever reviewed. The photo-realistic terrain is derived from actual satellite imagery. When flying at 20,000+ feet, the ground looks downright "real". One feature of the game is that is offers Direct3D support, which makes for smooth generation of the scenery and realistic views outside the cockpit. You can select from 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution. The aircraft communication systems are detailed and in-depth. Communications with the tower, wingman, etc. are digital voice recordings of actual conversations and are a perfect fit into this game. There are various "modes" of communication including UHF, In-Flight Data Link (IFDL), Chat, and Guard. The most interesting communication method to me is the IFDL system. With this system, you can select a target on you HUD, and then assign one of your wingmen to engage that target. This allows you great control and flexibility with maintaining control of the tactical scenario. Guard mode allows you to send a message to EVERYONE listening. Yes, this includes the enemy. The attention of detail to maintaining "realism" in Raptor is amazing and the programmers are to be congratulated. This games never gets "old". The mission generator will assign you a group of missions to accomplish. If you grow tired of the assigned missions, you can always regenerate a completely new and different set of missions in a matter of seconds. There is also a "fly-now" mode for random assigned "single flight" missions. The AI built into iF-22 is incredible. You have to remember that during missions, you are not just flying a jet fighter, but you are fighting a war. The "ground" war taking place under you is "alive". Every tank and chopper in the game has a "mission" that it is trying to complete, but be warned ... if you fly low over an enemy tank, do not be surprised if they change objectives and try to take you out. If you like "realistic" flight simulators, then iF-22 is the game for you. I enjoyed reviewing this game, and still play it every day. Interactive Magic P.O. Box 13491 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Web: http://www.imagicgames.com Ratings: Installation/Ease of Use: Gold User-Friendliness: Gold Quality: Gold +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net Assistant Editor: Writer Liaison: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Assistant Editor: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/ Website: e-mail: mailto:notes@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:writers@compunotes.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way it is! Please tell every on-line friend about us! CompuNotes B440 1315 Woodgate Drive St. Louis, MO 63122 notes@compunotes.com (C)1998 Patrick Grote