 Introduction    1/1 

February 1996
Volume 4 Number 2
Note:  The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views held
by the MMOUG or it's members. Don't agree with something you've read here? Write
and tell us about it!  If you have any contributions, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM. 
If you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send
them to POOLMWV at DSSHOST.

 MMOUG January Minutes    2/1 

Mid Missouri OS/2 User's Group
OS/2 User Group Meeting
Wednesday, January 17, 1996
Dept. Social Services
Attendees: Gary Pool, Phillip Wilson, Dave Keisker, Randy Wright, Stephen
Gramblin, Vickie Mantle, Steve Petzel
Phillip Wilson called the meeting to order.
Phillip announced that Computerland is now an Internet Service Provider in both
Columbia and Jefferson City locations.  Unlimited Access is ordinarily $30 per
month.  For members of the Mid-Missouri OS/2 User Group, a special rate of $20
per month is offered.  Additionally, because they are familiar with OS/2,
scripts for Web Explorer can be provided.  This is a good selling point for the
user group.  Tell your friends and neighbors that by joining the user group for
a $30 membership, a net savings of $90 per year can be gained.
The presentation was by Ken Willard of the Pinnacle Corporation.  He
demonstrated Desktop Observatory, a program that works with OS/2 to present a
customized and secure desktop to any PC running the program, either in
stand-alone mode or in a LAN situation.  In a LAN situation, a desktop can be
downloaded to a machine using the logon screen of the network software.  If
someone tries to disable the software, the machine will not run.
Currently, if someone breaks into the machine, by booting directly to a prompt,
the person breaking in can have access to any of the files on the machine.
Pinnacle is working with IBM so that the next version of OS/2 will include
Security Enabling Service (SES) that will able to do security locking down to
the file level, so if someone breaks in, they would still be unable to work with
the files.
Randy Wright and Steve Petzel won copies of KidProof/2, by Pinnacle.
The next meeting will be held in Jefferson City on Thursday, February 22.

 IO I/O    3/1 

Information Officer Input/Output
EXTRA!  EXTRA!  EXTRA!  IMPORTANT NEWS!  This month we are NOT going to have our
regularly scheduled meeting!  Paying members of the Mid-Missouri OS/2 User Group
will receive a special invitation in the paper copy of the Newsletter to attend
a presentation that will be given to the state the day after our regularly
scheduled meeting, Thursday, February 22.  The presentation will be given by
none other than  WALLY CASEY!  This is the highest ranking IBM OS/2 official who
has ever been in Mid-Missouri!  We will have an informal meeting after Wally's
presentation.  Pretty exciting stuff!  Sorry Columbia, the meeting will be in
Jefferson City.
There has been some other exciting things going on.  Warp sales reached a record
high in December, and IBM has been released from their consent decree.  Read all
about it in this issue.  One industry gossip columnist said that the consent
decree meant IBM could start collecting royalties on patents that they own --
such as OLE!
There's also news about Eagle, a look at Merlin, a peek at Avarice, one person's
opinion about EDO RAM, and thoughts about leap year.

 Humor    4/1 

Humor If Microsoft Built Cars
The Top Nine ways things would be different if Microsoft built cars.
1. A particular model year of car wouldn't be available until AFTER that year,
instead of before.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would just die for no reason, you'd have to restart it.
 For some strange reason, you would just accept this.
4. You could only have one person at a time in your car, unless you bought a car
'95 or a car NT, but then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Sun Motorsystems would make a car that was solar powered, twice as reliable,
5 times as fast but only ran on 5% of the roads.
6. The oil, alternator, gas, engine warning lights would be replaced with a
single "General Car Fault" warning light.
7. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars
forgetting completely that they had been available in other brands for years.
8. We'd all have to switch to MSGas(tm) for fuel to run it.
9. New seats will force everyone to have the same size butt.
John Arbuckle, arbuckl@ibm.net, Certified OS/2 Engineer
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca
Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president,
Royal Society, 1895.
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Science,
forcasting the relentless march of science, 1949.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication.  The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western
Union internal memo, 1876.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson,
president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irvin
Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"OS/2 packs it in." --"Bill Howard, PC Magazine, 'PC Predictions for 1996',
1996.

 REBOUND - Off the Boards    5/1 

REBOUND - Off the Boards
< The OS/2 Woodmeister >
Overview of downloadable files
(314) 446-0016
FIDO Node 1:289/27    1200/2400/9600/14400 D/S
<>
(Tue Jan 30 05:30) Last 2 months newest of a total of 3144 files (555 MB)
                   Maximum privilege shown: Sysop
                   Newest: KALIOS2.ZIP  1-29-96 (avail:  1-29-96)
                   Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month
Filename       Area    Size   Date    Description
    
APCODEC5.ZIP 1         133K  1-13-96+ MMPM/2 Extensions for Warp that supports
                                      addtional AVI formats.  Video for Windows
                                      v1.0, v1.1 and Cinipak for Win95
BMTMICRO.ZIP 2          63K  1-05-96+ January issue of the BMTMICRO OS/2
                                      Software catalog.
CLANDNET.GIF 90         12K 12-22-95  Computerland.Net Logo
DEM20.ZIP    10        579K 12-03-95  BackMaster v2.0 fully functional Demo.
                                      QIC , Parallel, and SCSI tape device
                                      drivers included.
FFANTASY.ZIP 51         36K 12-15-95  Final Fanasy Midis, for those with really
                                      nice sound cards. :)
FTPIT211.ZIP 16        754K 12-08-95  Multithreaded FTP Utility v2.11,
                                      shareware. Allows multiple uploads and
                                      downloads from different FTP hosts.  Very
                                      good.
GBU109.ZIP   1          83K  1-13-96+ Good the Bad and the Ugly.  A review of
                                      hardware that works or doesn't work with
                                      OS/2  Warp
HERMID.ZIP   51        105K 12-15-95  Midis from Heretic.
INFHTM9B.ZIP 1         286K 12-03-95  Convert OS/2 INF files into World Wide
                                      Web HTML files in batch or interactive
                                      mode.
IRCDEMO.ZIP  16        141K 12-23-95  Internet Relay Chat Utility.  Demo
                                      version of  Gammatech's IRC.
KALIOS2.ZIP  0          73K  1-29-96* OS/2 Game.  I haven't checked out.
                                      Pilfered from the Team OS/2 Web page
                                      link.
LOTUS.GIF    90          2K 12-22-95  Lotus Development Corp GIF
MAX301C.ZIP  2         674K  1-03-96+ Maximus 3.01 common files for OS/2 and
                                      DOS
MAX301P.ZIP  2         820K  1-03-96+ Maximus 3.01 protect mode files for OS/2
MMOUG196.ZIP 1         406K  1-13-96+ January 1996 Mid Missouri OS/2 Users
                                      Group Newsletter
MOONME.ZIP   1          33K  1-13-96+ OS/2 program that during random intervals
                                      has  a guy run across the screen and moon
                                      you.
MR2_225.ZIP  15        282K  1-05-96+ MR2 v2.25  Offline Mail Reader for OS/2.
                                      Supports QWK file formats
OS2C1.EXE    1         508K  1-05-96+ Fixes for Novell Netware v2.11 Client for
                                      OS/2.  One of Two
OS2LINKS.HTM 90          2K 12-23-95  OS/2 Web Page for Woodmeister linking to
                                      other good OS/2 Internet sites.
OS2U1.EXE    1         876K  1-05-96+ Fixes for Novell Netware v2.11 Client for
                                      OS/2.  Two of Two
OWM.HTM      90          3K 12-23-95  OS/2 Woodmeister Home Page
OWM_ALL.TXT  LISTS     351K  1-29-96* All files on the OS/2 Woodmeister
OWM_ALL.ZIP  LISTS     125K  1-29-96* All files on the OS/2 Woodmeister
OWM_NEW.TXT  LISTS       9K  1-29-96* New files (last 30 days) on the OWM
OWM_NEW.ZIP  LISTS       4K  1-29-96* New files (last 30 days) on the OWM
PCMINF.ZIP   0         182K  1-29-96* January Edition of the OS/2 PC
                                      Manufacturer's  Compatibility Guide in
                                      INF format.  Will convert and add to the
                                      Woodmeisters Web Page
PMCOM233.ZIP 12        471K  1-05-96+ PMCOMM v2.33  Fully functional Demo
                                      version of OS/2 Comm program. Demo lasts
                                      for 60 days
PMJPG174.ZIP 51        208K 12-03-95  PMJPeg program for displaying and
                                      converting various image formats.  (JPG,
                                      BMP, GIF, etc.)
PMMPEG30.ZIP 51        126K 12-03-95  PMMPeg - MPEG Movie Player for OS/2.
                                      Shareware.  Can be used with OS/2 Web
                                      Explorer.
POP3D093.ZIP 16         99K 12-30-95  POP3 Server for OS/2 v.93
POST103A.ZIP 16        782K 12-03-95  PostRoad Mailer (Green Edition -
                                      Internet) v1.03A - Native OS/2 MIME, POP,
                                      SMTP mailer for offline mail send and
                                      receive.  Great!
RAR155P.EXE  0         184K  1-29-96* OS/2 version of the RAR compression
                                      program.   Check it out.
READ16_1.TXT 1          51K 12-23-95  Warp Fixpak 16 Readme file 1 of 2,
                                      Instructions
READ16_2.TXT 1          67K 12-23-95  Warp Fixpak 16 Readme file 2 of 2,
                                      Instructions
REXXEVAL.ZIP 13       1153K 12-08-95  VisPro REXX Evaluation application
                                      development program.  Received very good
                                      reviews in OS/2 Magazine and Infoworld.
RPO205.ZIP   1         191K  1-13-96+ Latest Partition Magic update for v2.0
                                      For registered users.
SCOTT004.ZIP 1         558K  1-13-96+ List of thousands of Web sites.
SMTP11D.ZIP  16         84K  1-03-96+ SMTP v1.1 mail server for OS/2 Warp
THANKYOU.HTM 90          2K 12-22-95  Thank you page updated by Phillip Wilson
                                      on 12/22/95
TIMMID.ZIP   51        161K 12-15-95  Midi files from The Incredible Machine.
TOBILL.JPG   51         75K 12-08-95  Funny JPEG image of letter to Bill.
UNZ512X2.EXE 10        172K 12-03-95  InfoZips UNZIP v5.12 - Fully 32bit
                                      version.  Compatible with PKZIP v2.04g.
WKICKR.TXT   1           5K  1-05-96+ Instructions for how to use Warp
                                      Corrective Service Kicker Diskettes
WKICKR.ZIP   1        1978K  1-05-96+ This file contains the Two Warp Kicker
                                      Diskettes for installing Corrective
                                      Service or Fixpaks to OS/2 Warp
WPSECURE.ZIP 9         817K 12-08-95  WorkPlace Security v2.0.4 application.
                                      Provides desktop object security. Protect
                                      objects w/ password to control
                                      manipulation.
XIT20.ZIP    1          94K  1-10-96+ Xit version 2.0 (this one is shareware).
                                      Out- standing Workplace Shell
                                      enhancement.  Must have for Warp users.
YABP301.ZIP  0         189K  1-29-96* quit OS/2 version of Yabom Mail Processor
ZOC212.ZIP   12        587K 12-02-95  Award Winning Zap-O-Comm version 2.12
                                      Very good Communication program for OS/2
ZOC213.ZIP   12        587K  1-03-96+ Zap-O-Com (ZOC) communications program.
                                      Latest update
ZTB145.ZIP   1         159K  1-18-96+ Ztree Bold - Xtree Gold clone for OS/2
                                      32bit Shareware.  Provides familiar
                                      working environment for Xtree users.
  
   This list was created with DOWNSORT 6.0l (32-bits)  -  by Rob Hamerling
                  on Tue Jan 30 05:30 under OS/2 2.30
  

 Threads    6/1+

Threads....

 Eagle takes Flight    7/2 

Eagle takes Flight
IBM attacks the LAN
November 21, 1995
Network World via First! : Las Vegas IBM officials last week confirmed that the
company hopes to swoop in on the server suite market with an OS/2-based
challenger code-named Eagle.
The OS/2 Warp Server suite will contain versions of IBM's DB2 database, Internet
Server gateway, Notes 4.0 groupware, SystemView systems manage- ment product and
Communications Manager SNA gateway.
While Eagle matches all of Microsoft Corp.'s BackOffice components, it also will
include a CICS transaction processing (TP) monitor and the Directory & Security
Services (DSS) Manager, an X.500 directory and security product based on Open
Software Foundation, Inc.'s Distributed Computing Environment. And if Eagle
comes bundled with hardware, as IBM officials have hinted, the suite could be
much simpler to buy and use than BackOffice (NW, June 26, page 1).
The Eagle suite initially will be based on the OS/2 Warp Server network
operating system (NOS) that IBM plans to release in the first quarter of 1996.
But the company will make AIX and Windows NT Server versions available next
year, as well, according to Art Olbert, vice president of LAN systems for IBM's
Personal Software Products division.
IBM officials have suggested in the past that the company would offer a suite to
compete with BackOffice, but confirmed details of the suite for the first time
at Comdex/Fall '95 here last week.
Prices were not available, but Olbert said all the products would adhere to a
common pricing model.
The full suite will not be available until late next year, after IBM has
completed development of some products, including Warp Server and DSS, and has
had a chance to port existing products to Warp Server, Olbert said. Putting it
all together Applications in the suite will not be closely integrated with one
another initially, but IBM will standardize the licensing and packaging of the
products to make them consistent, and tune them to run compatibly on the same
server.
DSS, due in the first quarter of 1996, will form the basis of the integration.
It will give users a single logon to all the applications and locate files and
data shared among them.
Only Warp Server will support DSS at first. Users will be able to take OS/2 Warp
Server as is - with a domain name service - or add on DSS for greater security
and a single logon across an enterprise net, Olbert said. Initial versions of
the other applications will not support DSS, but the whole suite will
eventually, he said.
Despite trailing Microsoft in server suites, IBM still has the credibility among
users to build a nest for Eagle in the market, said Mark Ryvola, president of
Cyberware, Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based wireless LAN products company.
The suite approach is the right one for IBM, which needs to simplify the
packaging and installation of its products, he said.
First, however, the company has to convince users it will continue to back OS/2,
both as its desktop operating system and core NOS. ``IBM needs to make a strong
statement that it's backing OS/2 because there has been a lot of uncertainty in
the market,'' Ryvola said.
IBM is backing OS/2 now and will in the future, with marketing efforts and new
product development, according to John W. Thompson, general manager of IBM's
Personal Systems Products division.
Not only is the company developing new versions of the OS/2 server, it is also
working on a desktop version code-named Merlin.
In addition, the desktop version will include a better user interface, and add
better security and I/O queue performance, Thompson said.

 Thoughts on EDO RAM    8/2 

Thoughts on EDO RAM
=========================================================================
   Date: 01-18-96  10:41                Message #: 4959          NSCBBS
   From: JONATHAN WINTERS               Status: PUBLIC
     To: ANTHONY LAU                    Ref #:  4674
Subject: PC                             Conf: General Q&A (1)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AL> I'm not sure exactly what EDO is but it said that on many of the
AL> computers for sale, but i don't think its worht the price..
EDO stands for Extended Data Out ram. Don't remember the details but it's some
sort of trick to make 60ns ram read like 40ns ram but write like 60ns ram. (Not
positive about the speeds but it's somewhere around 33 to 50% faster at
reading). Basically it's all BS. They want you to throw away your 8meg of ram
and buy 16meg of EDO. Then they want you to throw away your 16meg of EDO and buy
64 meg of Burst EDO. Because 25 to 45ns ram would be too  expensive and
consumers wouldn't buy it so we'll sell them 30% cheaper ram 3 times and keep 
our outdated chip plant investment going. So you're right. It's not worth the
price. Hang on to your normal ram until they decide to play fair.

 Is it Leap Year?    9/2 

Is it Leap Year?
The Gregorian Calendar replaced Julius Caesar's original simple 4-year plan with
a new rule saying that a year is a leap year
if it is divisible by 4 (leap year),
   unless it is also divisible by 100 (no leap year),
      unless it is also divisible by 400 (leap year),
         unless it is also divisible by 4000 (no leap year--this is new).
The new change, by the way, is flawed, because, unlike the others, which are all
overcorrections compensated for in the next rule, it is an undercorrection that
will eventually require (around the year 20,000) skipping two leap years in a
row, or having a 364-day year. It would have been better to make it "2000"
instead of "4000", but various banks, etc., had already done their calculations
based on 2000 being a leap year, and insisted that it not be changed. Of course,
variations in the Earth's rotation may make it a moot point by 20,000 AD,
anyway.
I don't have a citation to hand here, but any decent reference book will have it
under "Calendar", "Gregorian Calendar", or "Chronology", except, perhaps, for
the 4000-year rule.
John W. Kennedy, Hoechst Celanese (The OS/2 Hobbit)

 Consent Decree Reversed!    10/2 

Consent Decree Reversed!
IBM FREED FROM 1956 TRUST CURBS
Washington - IBM Corp has been freed from most 40-year-old
restrictions on its ability to compete for computer services and
related businesses after a federal judge agreed to change a 1956
antitrust settlement with the Justice Department, the company
announced Tuesday.  The changes approved by a federal judge in New
York City were supported by the Justice Department, which said last
summer that competitive changes in the computer marketplace since 1956
no longer justified the vast majority of old restrictions,
particularly as they related to personal computers and workstations.
International Herald Tribune 24.1.96 p 11.

 Record Warp Sales    11/2 

Record Warp Sales
IBM SOLD RECORD NUMBERS OF OS/2 WARP AT END OF 1995
OS/2 Sales Now Top 12 Million Worldwide
AUSTIN, Texas, January 23, 1996. . .IBM today announced record sales figures for
OS/2* Warp, with one million licenses sold in December, escalating the total
number of OS/2 Warp licenses to six million and overall OS/2 purchases to more
than 12 million.
"We expected OS/2 Warp sales to rise after customers had a chance to try out
Windows** 95," said Wally Casey, director of marketing and brand management for
IBM Personal Software Products.  "December brought us proof of this when our
sales reached an all-time high, capping what we believe was a very successful
year for the OS/2 Warp family of products."
"After evaluating Windows 95, I'm not surprised that OS/2 sales are up,"  said
Greg Bell, information systems supervisor at the Kentucky Department of Property
Taxation.  "OS/2 Warp delivers superior multitasking, is relatively easy to use
and rarely crashes.  I certainly wouldn't bet my business on Windows 95.  It is
only marginally better than Windows 3.11.  In a business environment I'm staying
away from Windows 95 and sticking with OS/2."
Success Breeds Success
Success of OS/2-compatible applications rose with sales of the operating system.
  OS/2 developers like SPG Inc., WitchDesk Inc., PowerQuest and Computer Data
Strategies all experienced strong sales in the fourth quarter of 1995.  And
Stardock System's OS/2-based Galactic Civilizations was voted Best Game of 1995
on the Internet PC Games Charts, a site on the Internet where computer game
players vote weekly on their favorite PC games.
"We just completed our largest quarter ever," said Brent Bowlby, president of
Woodbury, Minn.-based Computer Data Strategies, Inc., which manufactures
BackAgain/2 backup and recovery software.  "OS/2 provides an open market for
small companies, such as CDS, to begin their path to success. Combining this
technically sophisticated operating system with a growing user base and a
growing demand for native OS/2 solutions spells success for those developers
developing in this market. "
"We began shipping PartitionMagic in March '95, and within six months we were
running a profitable business," said Eric J. Ruff, president of PowerQuest, an
Orem, Utah-based company which develops a utility that allows OS/2 users to
dynamically create, shrink, expand and move partitions on the fly without
destroying data.  "At the start of the fourth quarter, sales were up 20 percent.
 In November we introduced Version 2.0 and sales tripled.  And in December sales
for OS/2 products were again higher than anticipated."
More in Store in 1996
IBM will capitalize on a successful 1995 by connecting computer users to each
other and the future with a comprehensive offering of OS/2-based products in
1996.  The industry-acclaimed OS/2 Warp Server will simplify distributed
computing for businesses and workgroups of all sizes when it ships this quarter.
  And the next generation of OS/2 Warp, code-named Merlin, will launch users
further into the network-centric world of computing with market-leading plans
for networking and Internet capabilities, an enhanced user interface and
improved OpenDoc support.
          #  #  #
 IBM U.S. #32
 *  Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the IBM Corp.  ** Indicates
trademark of Microsoft Corp.     All other brand and product names are
trademarks or registered     trademarks of their respective companies.
IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at
http://www.ibm.com.
The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive facsimiles of prior IBM
product press releases.  Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and enter "99" at the voice menu.

 Avarice!    12/2 

Avarice
Avarice Preview
Published:        Stardock Systems, Inc.
Developed by:     Continuous Software Systems
List price:    $34.95 ($29.95 introductory price)
Platforms:     OS/2 Warp
Minimum Hardware: 486DX, 8 megs of ram, SVGA graphics, 2speed CD ROM
Typical System:      Pentium, 16 megs of ram, Quad CD ROM, 1024x768 with 65k
colors
Contact:       Brad Wardell, 313/453-0328
Release:       December 1995
Brief Description: Avarice Preview is the first product to come out of the
development venture between Stardock Systems, and Continuous Software Systems
(CSS).  Avarice Preview places you in a virtual world where you have seemingly
arrived at your Uncle's mansion. When you arrive, there is no one there. You
alone must solve the secrets of your Uncle's mansion by finding clues, piecing
together puzzles and exploring his vast mansion.
In Depth:
The plot is as follows; your uncle has invited you to come take advantage of the
opportunity of a lifetime. All you have to do is meet him at his island.  When
you arrive, his island is rather dark and depressing and no one is there to
greet you.  As you walk, you find a hat with blood on it and no one is there at
all.  What's happened? Where is everyone? As you explore this beautifully 24bit
color world you will experience an original musical sound track, interact with
hundreds of objects.  Eventually, you will begin to piece together the mysteries
of your uncle's mansion which will take you to getting a good idea of what is in
store in the sequel to Avarice Preview -- Avarice: The Complete Saga.
Editorial by Brad Wardell, President of Stardock Systems, Inc.
About ten years ago, adventure games such as Infocom's Planetfall and Zork
allowed us to enter a virtual world.  Admittedly, in those days, you could only
interact with the game through a text interface.  You would type "Pick up the
orange" and it would get an orange that was in a room.  You could, to a limited
degree, interact with that world.  I remember playing Planetfall for weeks and
imagining what the world looked like and feeling like I was really there.
As time went on, game companies abandoned the text adventure as graphical games
became the vogue.  But something got lost -- the feeling that you were there. 
That you could taste, touch, and really manipulate objects in that world.  To
me, virtual reality meant I was in a "virtual" world where I could do things as
if I was there.  While this concept may seem like common sense, the label
"virtual reality" seems to be spread pretty easily.  In an age where games have
increasingly become a bunch of nice artwork and videos being thrown onto the
screen with little interaction with the world, it might seem that game companies
have forgotten about true adventure.
However, with the introduction of Avarice, a return to true virtual reality
exists.   Early beta testers of Avarice have labled it "A Myst Killer".  But
Avarice's scope goes well beyond Myst.  In Avarice, you are in a real 3D world. 
You can pick up objects, manipulate objects in ways the authors may not have
considered, and truly interact with the world.  Avarice and Myst have very
little in common as they go different routes to make you feel like you are
there.  Myst uses excellent sound and graphics to bring you to its world along
with a fantastic story, Avarice brings you there by allowing you to truly
interact with the world. Slice up the apple, torch the fork. Crumple the paper
and then torch the paper, etc.
For example, in Avarice you could pick up an orange, peel the orange, break the
orange into pieces, step on the pieces and squeeze other pieces into orange
juice or whatever.  The beauty of this is that Avarice is a 100% visual game. 
You actually see the orange (in true 24bit photographic color detail).  You
actually see the crushed orange or the pieces of it.  You can put those pieces
on a table and see the pieces in their actual size on the table and its size
will depend on how far away you are from the table.
Of course, Avarice takes place in a fully rendered 24bit color world so that its
graphics are stunning.  It offers a full digitized musical score with mood
changes depending on the situation you are in.
The trick to this is partly the improvement in computer gaming technology and
partly because of the availability of advanced operating systems such as OS/2
Warp which allows us to create a dynamic virtual world and still have good
performance.
-Brad Wardell
The Future
Avarice Preview can be looked at in two different ways.  The preview is a full
blown game in itself that has been fully tested on a wide variety of hardware
platforms and can be played from beginning to end. It can also be looked at as
beta (though beta isn't quite the right term since the Avarice Preview is in
itself not a "beta level" product) #4 of Avarice: The Complete Saga which
arrives in the first half of 1996.  The complete saga brings a much much larger
world to explore, NPCs (non-player characters) to interact with, dozens of new
puzzles, thousands of new objects to interact with and more.  The Complete Saga,
of course, will be priced significantly higher than the Preview ($69.95) since
it's by far more advanced but it will indeed be a very different game (different
puzzles, different endings, etc.).  The plot of the complete saga is different
than the Preview so that experienced Preview players can enjoy a whole new game.
Stardock Systems, Inc. 313/453-0328 313/453-1480 fax 7977b Ronda Drive Canton MI
48187

 The Magic of Merlin    13/2 

The Magic of Merlin

 OS/2 Warp Bonds to 007    14/2 

OS/2 Warp Bonds to 007
OS/2 WARP BONDS TO 007
The newest James Bond flick, "Goldeneye," highlights several IBM products,
including OS/2 Warp.  The IBM logo appears several times in the movie and the
OS/2 Warp bitmap is shown on one of the computer displays.  None of the IBM
equipment (except for displays) gets blown up, and all IBM equipment (except
displays) is in the hands of the "heroes".
At the end of the film, IBM is listed as a contributor of equipment.
InfoWeek wrote about the IBM's prominence in the film in its December 4 issue:
"We can probably expect IBM to launch a barrage of TV ads making hay of its
connection with the world's greatest spy.  Already, some IBM competitors are
said to be shaken, not stirred, about the marketing coup."

 Next MMOUG Meeting    15/1 

Next MMOUG Meeting
Next month's MMOUG meeting will be held in on Thursday, February 22, 1996, 1:00
pm at:
Capital Plaza Hotel
Jefferson City, MO
Special guest!  Wally Casey will present IBM's OS/2 startegy.

 MMOUG Registration Form    16/1 

Name:_____________________________________  Nickname:_____________________
         Last Name,                First                         Initial
Company Name:_____________________________
Address:___________________________________  Work Phone:___________________
         ___________________________________  Home Phone:__________________
City:_________________________  State:_______  Zip Code:_____________________

Questionnaire
Your Operating System:
   ___ DOS  ___ OS/2 ___ WINDOWS ___ UNIX ___ OTHER __________________
Your Interest in Computers Include (Check all that apply):
   ___ Education  ___ Business   ___ Entertainment ___ OTHER  ________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Annual membership fee for the Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group is $30.00 US.
Purchase Orders are accepted.  Please make your check payable to MMOUG and mail
to:
MMOUG, P.O. Box 30654, Columbia, MO.  65205-0645
Thank you for your support.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The Mid-Missouri OS/2 Users Group is a non-profit corporation who's dedicated
purpose is to aid and
facilitate the education and communication between individual computer users,
different computer
groups, and the general public.
The Woodmeister BBS is the official Bulletin Board of the MMOUG.  A copy of the
Bylaws is
available for downloading from the Woodmeister BBS (314-446-0016).
For assistance with OS/2, call our Voice Mail at 314-636-0805.

