Chris Hilbert

Yesterday, Corel announced the opening of a beta test program for its upcoming CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for Linux.

Corel is currently looking for testers with the following qualificiations:

Microsoft has recently put up a page over at the DirectX homepage for applying for the much anticipated DirectX 8.0 beta test. If you're interested in beta testing this "multimedia system foundation" for the Windows operating systems, visit http://www.microsoft.com/directx/beta.asp and apply.

A number of registered users of Partition Magic have recently discovered that the software will not install on Windows 2000. PowerQuest is busy at work and should have a patch available soon.

Under Windows 2000, Partition Magic 5.0 currently displays an error message stating that the software is incompatible. If you desperately need to work around this problem, you can create startup disks with a DOS version of Partition Magic. The program to make the two floppies is found in the /ENGLISH/RESCUEME folder on the CD. After the disks are made, simply insert them on bootup.

Surprisingly, Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit is still alive and kicking. To prove it, today marks the launch of a new public beta test of AVTK. Four new versions are offered from Dr. Solomon's: DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT.

Though the program is marked "Dr. Solomon's", it curiously comes packaged with McAfee's anti-virus scan engine.

We obtained the Eclectic CH100 from Vertical Horizon for testing purposes. The unit comes packaged and looks identical to a CD player which you would use with your home stereo.

Physical Observations

When doing a IE 5.5 Platform Preview installation over Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE, users will notice that an about box has been modified. Microsoft intends to eventually include user interface enhancements with IE 5.5, originally slated to be included with Millennium. Although these won't appear until futher into the beta, Microsoft has let a couple references to Millennium slip through.

Here is one instance of the Help/About being changed to say "Millennium." Those of you with the upcoming Microsoft Windows Millennium installed already have Internet Explorer 5.5. Take a look:

Since July 23 the development of BeAIM, the BeOS version of AOL Instant Messenger, has been in "deep-freeze." Greg Nichols, author of BeAIM, has began work once again and comments on version Beta 2.5 coming soon.

56K and Wireless Fast Ethernet PC Card for International Customers

3Com is looking for people all over the world to test an exciting international product that provides a high speed 3Com modem and wireless fast ethernet capabilities. This product is designed to function globally and to provide the best speed and performance in a Type II Cardbus slot. Qualified applicants should have the following:

Opera Software has updated its web site with information regarding the upcoming OS/2 port of its web browser. Nearly 50% done, developers are getting closer to a beta release.

We have read many angry mails from you, our visitors, about not liking the new designs. The eFront Network, which we created ourselves and did not join, are open to suggestions by our visitors.

At this moment, we are attempting to get all our links and MySQL to work correctly. As many of you have noticed, MySQL doesn't always cooperate with us. Once this is completed, we will take all your comments into consideration and take action accordingly.