The Latest |  | By Beverly Rosenbaum |
A Symbol @ Heart
A recent issue of Information Week shared some trivia from an Internet discussion group. As you may know, the @ sign is commonly used in UNIX programming and Internet E-mail addresses. In English we refer to it simply as the "at" sign but in other cultures, @ has other names. The Italians call it chiocciolina, and the French say petit escargot both meaning little snail. In Germany @ is klammeraffe, or spider monkey, while the Dutch call it api (short for apestaart), meaning monkey's tail. In Finland it's a cat's tail or miau. In Norway it's called the kanel-bolle, a spiral shaped cinnamon cake, as in Israel, where it is called a shtrudel. In Denmark, @ is a snabel an A with a trunk, while the Spanish refer to the @ sign as arroba a unit of about 25 lbs., for which it is the symbol.
Warp Woes
CompUSA reported that IBM's OS/2 Warp sales failed to meet their monthly sales quota of two copies per store in December, and hinted that the product may be pulled from their shelves if no improvement is seen in the next quarter, according to Joseph C. Panettieri, a senior editor at Information Week. While IBM sold a record one million units during the same month, most were direct to corporations or consumers via mail order catalogs. IBM is preparing its next release, code-named Merlin, which will be aimed at home, small business and large business users who need access to the Internet or corporate networks. OS/2 developers hope this upgrade can provide a necessary sales boost, but the scheduled summer release may not come soon enough to keep the product on the shelves at CompUSA.
How Suite It Is
A recent study released by DataQuest Inc. shows that world-wide revenues for office suites grew by 57 percent in 1995, and Microsoft maintained its dominance of the market with 89 percent of all sales. The remaining 11 percent was split between Lotus SmartSuite (7 percent) and then-Novell (now Corel) PerfectOffice (4 percent). Now Lotus plans to release a repackaged SmartSuite 97 in July, centered on the twice-delayed 32-bit version of their 1-2-3 spreadsheet. It will also include a new Organizer scheduling tool, but the other applications (Approach database, WordPro word processor, and Freelance Graphics tool) remain unchanged from SmartSuite 96. Lotus hopes to capture a bigger share of the suite market through reduced upgrade prices and bundling deals with such manufacturers as IBM PC, AST Research, and Epson America, Inc. The bundling deals are expected to distribute over 5.5 million copies of SmartSuite 97, hopefully netting more than 25 percent of the suite market. The upgrade price is expected to be $149.
High Capacity Storage
Compaq announced in March that it will include a 120-MB drive in select DeskPro models. Co-developed with 3M Corporation and Matsushita, the built-in LS-120 drive is backward compatible with 1.44 MB media. The drive is bootable under either Microsoft Windows 95 or NT and can access 1.44 MB disks three times faster than current disk drives, running slightly faster than a quad-speed CD-ROM. While the drive is standard on only two Pentium DeskPro models, it is a $210 optional upgrade for all Compaq PC's. Disks will sell for $15 each.
Web Wars Heat Up
After Microsoft released a test version of its latest Internet Explorer in mid-March, Netscape Communications quietly made available the next version of its own popular World Wide Web browser, code-named Atlas. There are versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX available at ftp.netscape.com in the pub/navigator/atlas/pr1 directory. The full version is more than 5 megabytes, and a standard version is 3.5 megabytes. (Plan to spend quite a bit of time downloading this one!) New features include 3-D, audio, video, enhanced frame navigation, and Internet phone and chat.
Known bugs are listed and wizard, available at http://www.microsoft.com, enables users to save data in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format. Unlike the "save to HTML" options available in Word, Powerpoint and Excel applications, this wizard steps users through selections of tables, queries, forms and reports for Web page creation.
According to Bloomberg Business News Service, Quarterdeck Corporation announced last month that it will pay over $80 million in stock to acquire Datastorm Technologies (makers of Procomm Plus communication software) and Future Labs (producers of document-sharing products such as Talk Show). In conjunction with Quarterdeck's own software and services geared to the Internet, this acquisition should "push Quarterdeck to the forefront of collaborative computing," allowing groups of workers to interact easily on projects without traveling from far-flung locales.
Upgrade Updates
PROCOMM PLUS 3.0
Datastorm has released Procomm Plus 3.0 for Windows, available for $79.95. In addition to the telnet and FTP clients from the previous release, Procomm also includes an average Web browser and mail and news readers, as well as improved faxing and optical character recognition. For qualifying purchases of PROCOMM PLUS for Windows 3.x after October 23, 1995, the upgrade is free. Contact Datastorm at (800)474-1592 for upgrades only, or (800)474-1549 for other inquiries.
PKZIP for WINDOWS
PKWARE, Inc. announced in February the release of a Windows based version of its PKZIP data compression utility. A self-extracting shareware archive, PKZWS201.EXE, is available on their web site at http://www.pkware.com or as PKZWS201.ZIP on the HAL-PC BBS. (The BBS file will require another version of PKZIP to open the self-extracting archive file inside.) PKZIP for Windows version 2.0 is a 16bit program compatible with Windows 95, where files can be easily dragged and dropped from the file manager or the Windows 95 explorer into PKZIP for Windows. Other features include the ability to create, open, and extract from .ZIP archived files; add and update files within the .ZIP file, compressing files from 5070% and in some cases over 90%; store all attribute and subdirectory information within the .ZIP file; open multiple .ZIP archive files; extract files from .ZIP files that have been spanned over multiple disks; store Windows 95 long file names; exclude files and directories when creating a .ZIP file; and protect a .ZIP file by encrypting with a password.
The company also released the following statement on February 18, 1996 about a PKZIP Trojan Horse: "It has come to the attention of PKWARE that a fake version of PKZIP is being distributed as PKZ300B.ZIP or PKZ300.ZIP. It is not an official version from PKWARE and it will attempt to destroy your hard drive if run. It attempts to perform a deltree of your current drive. If you have any information as to the creators of this Trojan horse, PKWARE would be extremely interested to hear from you. If you have any other questions about this fake version, please E-mail support@pkware.com."
Patch, Patch, Patch
Delrina has made available a patch of 3 disks, WF702D1.EXE, WF702D2.EXE, and WF702D3.EXE at ftp.delrina.com /pub/patches/windows95/winfaxpro70/. This patch is for WinFax PRO 7.0 with a release date of Nov. 28, 1995 or earlier, as indicated in the About dialog in WinFax. This update addresses speed, performance and phonebook integration issues and includes updated macros. The same files, with a .ZIP extension, are available on the HAL-PC BBS.
Virus Alert...Virus Alert...Virus Alert
The HD Trojan (Alias, Happy Days Trojan) was first reported as being distributed through American Online electronic mail (approximately February 1, 1996). The accompanying mail text suggested that it was a utility to streamline and improve performance of PCS. The file included in the distribution was a compressed file named HAPPYDAY.ZIP. This compressed archive contained several individual programs and text files. The following is a list of those files and the sizes:
HAPPYDAY.ZIP 4,701 bytes (original compressed archive)
INSTALL.EXE 3,232 bytes
NECUSER3.TYE 113 bytes
README.TXT 401 bytes
RUNMENOW.COM 1,926 bytes
The README.TXT file contains the text, "Hello, you are running Happy Days (R). version 2.0. This program is a miracle b/c of its size and its effectiveness. Run any day, any time, and it increases your productivity on the computer. Now we all know how unproductive our sessions at the computer can be, and this nifty program will cure them all. Have a Happy Day! with Happy Days (R) v2.0. RUN the file RUNMENOW.COM in DOS only!!" If the RUNMENOW.COM file is executed, the following message is displayed: "This program is this ultimate in home entertainment. The magic of it is that it takes up minimal room on your hard drive, and it doesn't use any precious RAM. This file, RUNMENOW.COM, and its corresponding file INSTALL.EXE work together. Remember, this file is universal and is great to use. See README.TXT for documentation. MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN DOS BEFORE RUNNING!!
Strike any key when ready...
Running Happy Day (R) v2.0..."
The RUNMENOW.COM then runs the INSTALL.EXE file. INSTALL.EXE enables the speaker and causes it to emit a high pitched squeal. Then it copies NECUSER3.TYE and itself to the root directory of the C: drive. Furthermore, it unsuccessfully attempts to rename the NECUSER3.TYE to AUTOEXEC.BAT.
The final stage is the execution of its destructive payload, where it selectively deletes files. In the \DOS directory, it deletes all .EXE and .COM files. In the \WINDOWS directory, it deletes WIN.COM, all .INI, .DLL, .GRP, .DRV and .EXE files. In the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, it deletes all .DLL files.
Following the deletions, it attempts to use the DOS ATTRIB.EXE utility to hide all of the files on the system, but as it has already deleted the utility (by its own hand), it fails. It then attempts to run the DOS DELTREE utility, but is again unsuccessful as the utility has been deleted. When either of these commands are attempted, the "Bad command or file name" error displays.
The Envelope, Please
The Software Publishers Association presented its Eleventh annual Excellence in Software ("Codie") Awards on Monday evening, March 4 at a blacktie event. Nearly 900 nominations were submitted for 25 Codie Awards. Over 350 companies throughout the business, consumer, and education markets submitted product nominations for the software industry "Oscars". A slate of seven finalists in each category was selected by a panel of more than 100 veteran software journalists who regularly review software as well as cover industry development issues. The final ballot was voted on by the SPA membership.
The big winner was Netscape Communications Corp., maker of the most popular "surfing" tool for the World Wide Web, with four awards and a SPA Lifetime Achievement Award for its President and Founder Jim Clark. A few of the other winners included Intuit's Quicken Deluxe (v. 5 for Windows), Best Consumer Software Upgrade; Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia, Best Education Software Upgrade; Storm Software's EasyPhoto Version 1.0, Best Debut of the Year; Adobe Pagemaker 6.0, Best Text or Graphics Software Program; and ESPNET SportsZone, Best World Wide Web Site.
Beverly Rosenbaum is a HAL-PC member. Questions can be left for her via the User Journal section of HALNet's home page. Copyright 1996 by Beverly Rosenbaum.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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