The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 61

8c COMPUTERS THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1996 eb riting it big on the BaaaRMciagi (quiidiesS' JZ Netscape Net Chick Clubhouse Eile Edit iew go Bookmarks Qjptions PJrectory SVindow Help APPLE 3 Location: hUp: www. cyborganic.comPeoptecafla $3295 PowerMac 6200 8500CD '4 with Apple 14" display DRIFTNET i E-MAIL MAP $1250 UmaxT630 Scanner Photshop3(Full Edition) Modems from $299 Global Village Teleport Gold 14.4k I SyQuest 130Mb EZ Drives $599 Apple CD 600 $449 Explore the NET CHICK Clubhouse! Huge range of Software Kai's Power Tools $259 Prince of Persia CD $39 SoftWindows $499 KPTBryce $259 PageMaker ED $465 QuarkXPress $1949 KPT Vector Effects $259 TypeQuick $79 MS Office $725 WHAT'S Psstl Over here! We're in the Net Chick Clubhouse, spreading gossip, telling secrets, relishing pop culture, luxuriating, and playing hard. Whatever you need for your Mac, call us. "I love it. I am always telling people to go there.

"Not only is it good because it has great pieces of writing and a fun attitude, but it also has links to other spots. Once you're there, you can start surfing to other places. "Of course, I have to say go to The Net Chick Clubhouse cyborganic.comPeoplecarla), because that's my site. "And have you seen Webgrrls? (http:www.cybergrrl.com). It's a list of women's sites.

They're compiled by Aliza Sherman, who calls herself Cybergrrl. "It's in alphabetical order and you can click on someone's name and it takes you to their home page. I like that. "You get to know other women that way. It's a good way to start networking with other people who are on the Net." Sinclair points out that the key to the Web is understanding that you're not just clicking on to a site, but on to part of a network.

The best sites all link to like-minded places. One of the joys for the drifter is that for every door you open, more present themselves in front of you. "That's the beauty of the Net. I also like the way people get personal on their sites. I'm such a voyeur and I love seeing when they put their family photos up.

"In my site, I have a secret diary. You can only get there if you play with the paper doll, and dress it up in the right clothing. Then you can get a key to my secret diary. "I like interactivity. So I put a Magic Eight Bra on it.

You ask it a question and the cups close and think. Then they open up and give you an answer. "There's fun things you can do. It's not just sitting and reading. In everything I do, I try to have a spot where people can post their own thoughts on the subject, so pretty soon it's me and everyone else talking." Net Chick will be released in Australia next month.

casimirsmh.com.au 9953 4077 Plat? Come join us. Just click on the room of your choice: f. 'i' I I HPiS Document: Done S3'? 148 Military Rd, Neutral Bay Prices include sales tax Credit cards welcome. Girl talk a full-tilt, high speed trawl through the oestrogen-flavoured corners of the Web. JON CASIMIR WHEN asked how much time she spends drifting about on the Web, Carla Sinclair, author of Net Chick A Smart-Girl Guide To The Wired World, sighs and shakes her head.

"Too much," she says, with more than a hint of exasperation. "Last summer, when I was writing the book, it was seven days a week, every waking hour. But when I'm not doing something like that, maybe three hours a day. "I'd like to cut it down to one, but the e-mail takes an hour on its own. Then I want to check out all the different conferences I'm on, like The WELL, and that takes another hour.

Then I want to have a surf through the Web and see what is going on there. It just takes a lot of time. But it's like watching too much TV." This is a rare and refreshing perspective for a Net advocate to have. Sinclair sips at her orange juice in a West Hollywood cafe and talks freely about her other interests literature, bushwalking, travel, pop culture before getting around to her book. The Net is one of her passions, but clearly, there's more to this grrl than point and click.

A propellor head, she is not. Net Chick is a full-tilt, high speed trawl through the oestrogen-flavoured corners of the Web. It machetes its way through forests of sexuality, fashion and beauty, media, entertainment and health issues. It is smart, tart, comfortably hip and, most importantly, never loses its sense of fun. Sinclair has been on-line since 1987.

Living in Colorado at the time, she discovered BBSs through a friend, and after a little experimentation, made her way to The WELL, San Francisco's influential computer conference. Inspired by the people "sharing their brain juices" on The WELL, she and (now) husband Mark Frauen-felder started a magazine called bOING bOING, which monitored and encouraged the collision of technology and culture. "We were way before she says proudly Frauenfelder now works for Wired and Sinclair is a frequent contributor. "The WELL was a good place to get a lot of information. These were the people who were on the cutting edge of the scene.

"Just by going on there and being involved in these discussions, you'd get a lot of good information that you couldn't get anywhere else." Sinclair says the idea for Net Chick presented itself by default. Curious about the Web, she went into a bookstore to look for a guide to sites for women and, to her great surprise, given how many books had been published about the Net, found none. "So I thought 'I gotta write my own book'. It turned out to be a lot more than just a guide to Web sites. There are interviews and profiles it's just jam-packed with lots of other interesting things." Sinclair concedes that now her book is out (it was released in the US last November), she will be lumbered with "spokesperson of a techno generationgender" tags, and asked for her opinions on any topic which includes the words "women" or For the record, she says she has never been harassed on-line, and feels that the idea that women often have a difficult time in cyberspace is mainly media-driven.

"Maybe some women don't know how to differentiate between a flame and harassment. I think that's one of the problems. They've got to get a little thicker skin." She says anyone thinking of getting wired should just do it, and nominates a couple of important places for women to start. "geekgirl is one," she says brightly, referring to the cyberfeminist Web-zine produced in Sydney by Rosie Cross and Lisa Pears next.com.auspyfoodgeekgirl). You ere invited to Status Graph for a special FREE demonstration of Illustrator 6.0, SiteMill PageMill on Wednesday 28th Feb 1996 from 6 9pm.

Special prices on the evening and $3000 in software will be given away to lucky attendees. Call 552-1388 to order stock! How to write pages for the WWW oshs Adobe PogeMiD. Lull ifyj-J fV dote Illustrator 6.0 1 iw Adobe SiteMill 1.0 THE INTERNET: How to set up your own Interne! site using Adobe SiteMil! Lean the new secrets of Ark be Illustrator 6.0 the breakthrough in professional drawing software. A climate of learning a Big players invest in growth of the Internet GstreiDiL Authorised Reseller Cnr Parramotta Glebe Pt Rds. Glebe N.S.W 2037 Ph: (02) 552-1388 Fax: (02) 552-1 109 I a 1 CD ROM jr i mi 1 1Gt-m3Hi'iaiJ V1 i )))))' 5ltrir nii i iirrr-" Back-up your data to CD The original fast reliable service for Mac PC Win.

Hard drive and writer hire sales. Blank disc sales 9954 9885 116 MMIer St North Sydney 310 5200 450 Elizabeth St Surry Hills TRANSFER YOUR VIDEO TO CD-ROM Microsoft executives said last week that the Internet continued to be pervasive in the company's efforts but that a separate division was required, in part because of the speed with which Internet products needed to be developed. Although the two companies had previously positioned themselves to take advantage of network computing, the Internet has now become a central focus of their business strategy. IBM, for instance, bought Lotus Development last summer in a multi-billion-dollar deal to help help its migration into networked computing the next battleground after the personal computer. Now it is reworking its entire line of computers so that they can tie in with the world's biggest computer network, the Internet Reuter global computer network as a kind of universal language to more closely link its four major computer platforms PCs, workstations, mini-computers and mainframes.

"Customers of all sizes are getting connected to the Internet and looking for novel ways to use it," said Nicholas Donof-rio, senior vice-president and group executive of IBM's server group. "Now it's time to move beyond the exploratory stage to full, practical realisation of its benefits. The hottest content for the Internet is the content our customers already have on their computing systems," he said. The Microsoft reorganisation includes the creation of two divisions focused on the Internet and on-line activities: the interactive media division and the Internet platform and tools division. by Samuel Fromartz IF THERE was any remaining doubt about the promise of the Internet, it all but vanished last week when the world's biggest computer company and software maker both re-aligned their businesses to respond to the rapid growth of the global computer network.

International Business Machines unveiled an array of software and services that will allow its customers to tie their IBM computers into the Internet, opening up a potential goldmine of computer data to other users. Microsoft, which did much to bring personal computers into homes and businesses, also said it was reorganising its business so that it could now sell a whole new range of Internet-related services. IBM said it would use software designed to run on the 'FULL SCREEN 'FULL MOTION 'FULL COLOUR Our MPEG encoding and compression service gives you TV quality pictures and CD quality stereo sound. Playback Boards available. Ideal lor Business Applications back-up your data to cd-rom Rockdale 02 599 2933 All HIRE COMPUTER RENTAL Mop SECONDHAND SALES AND SERVICE jLVXLV details on everything from precipitation to the atmosphere.

Weather report i AKULiYrvrN isn't sure ff 1 which career path she'll i take hen she grows up. Her plans change from a SYDNEY MELBOURNE CANBERRA BRISBANE 186 WILLOUGHBY ROAD CROWS NEST NSW 2065 9308 6888 INTERNET CYBERCHILD STRUGGLING WITH THE INTERNET? Shocked at your access bills? Are you frustrated? We offer an independent advice and help line. Phcne 1902 263 193 (Call cost $2.00 per min Telads) 1. Personal demos tor $20 per minutes Phone 310 5200 450 Elizabeth SI Surry Hills COJVLPfJTEEHAWlfE FINALLY faster connection, cheaper rates, wider regional access Solution 6 Sterling now offers multi-user networking from an incredible $899. Sterling is Australia's easiest to use accounting software integrating directly with the system most accountants use.

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"That is the most embarrassing job in the world." When I ask why, she informs me: "It's because they're always, always wrong. How embarrassing can you get?" After this summer that wasn't summer, the weather seems to be becoming even more wacky. It's enough to make you pack your bags and head for Melbourne. However, I do think I know the cause of all this crazy weather. It's down to Dr Rainwater from Operation Weather Disaster.

"Everyone talks about the weather; no one ever does anything about it," says the evil doctor. Well now he's really done it. Hurricanes are blitzing the land, Stonehenge is as soggy as a Christmas camping holiday and the Sphinx is locked in a land of ice. So it's all up to you. The scene is set with video of the great Team Xtreme.

They're the good guys. They are so clever, the Doctor has put them all out of action. They really are a bunch of jerks with poor acting skills if you ask me. Better to do it all yourself. Your mission is to stop this evil weatherman and rescue the team along the way, if you must.

However to match the weatherman you need to be a weather expert. Fortunately, a little Infobot is ready and at your service. Or he would be, if he wasn't so badly damaged. Fix him up by rewiring his circuits, patching up his wind machine and unjamming his slots. We walk around this weather-devastated land and collect any odds and ends we can.

An old footy sock will do for a wind sock and you never know when a paper cup or a stick will come in handy. Soon we have that Infobot For your FREE Internet Access Software, phone (02) 361 0600 nODELlIklS Getting mt Bejt Out of Yqcr Business ANNE GLOVER Operation Weather Disaster Ages 10-15 Distributed by Dataflow Macintosh or Windows CD-ROM Retail Price $69.95 humming and he is packed with details on everything from precipitation to the structure of the atmosphere. Now we are getting the hang of it, so we repair the super-dooper flying machine too and zoom off to Team Xtreme Headquarters. Along the way we collect all the junk we spy and answer a few tricky weather questions. Just as well Infobot is in tip-top shape now.

We rebuild the layers of the atmosphere and convert temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. We watch a hurricane, learn about thunder and see just how rainbows are made. But our trouble doesn't end in the headquarters. Later we find ourselves heading for the Lost City of Atlantis and finally in a weather showdown with the bad guy. Operation Weather Disaster has a great mix of game-play and learning.

The material is presented in a variety of ways and each time we do some "work" it has a real purpose in the game. The game-play is challenging without being frustrating and players can't help but learn heaps about the weather. Weather Disaster does refer to" miles and use American spelling but I'm sure most children can handle that. This is a neat adventure to add to the few available for older children, allowing them to play as they learn and think, too. Australia's biggest ever PC show Discover the INTERNET Corporate Small Business Solutions MORE Exciting New Technology Software Hardware Communications Apple Solutions Expo Mobile Computing Multimedia NetworX CADWorld Plus much more! kPM Diokcttc Duplication i 9ns and Software Packaging Diskette duplication Direct disk printing Label printing Manual printing Software packaging CD-ROM replication arWk Continuing excellence since 1984 INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE DUPLICATION PHONE: 02-899 4044 Fax: 02-899 4035 mm Admission $16 Professional, business, government.

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