European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday january 12, 1993 computers the stars and stripes Pago 17 anybody with Access -. To an ism court Paible personal computer can now calculate Quot their Impact on the environment using a Henvir account a a software package developed by Don letter a graduate student in ecology at the University of California at Davis. A macintosh version is stated to be a a released soon. First you fill in a detailed questionnaire with information about household Energy and Yater consumption the amount of trash you throw away How Many Miles you drive a car or ride a Bike and what your possessions Are made of plastic Metal Wood. Worksheets help with Esti hates asking for example How Many plastic bags you use each week. The computer then will calculate a Impact Points for How much you Hurt the environment and a action Points for positive contributions. The questionnaire even addresses what Lotter Calls the a a controversial Issue of population. Quot Environ account is available on 5.25-Inch or 3.5-Inch disks for $29.95, including tax and shipping. Annual accounting updates will be available for $7.50. A for information Call 1-800-688 9006. A athe last place that Walter Perkins will look for a Home is in a multiple listings service guide. Instead Perkins a free Lance. Television sportscaster who lives in South Boston mass., has been shopping at a Home View office where he will sit Down in front of an interactive computer system connected to a digital picture database that includes vastly More listings and More detail than any other source of information. A the Only thing it does no to Tell you is if your neighbors Are Friendly a Perkins said. I like most industries these Days residential real estate is entering the age of Post print technologies that utilize not Only advanced computers but also compact discs radio and even virtual reality. The Home View system is currently operating Only in the Boston suburbs but the company plans to expand it nationally next year. Microsoft corp. Is offering a cheaper and easier Way for personal computers to use snippets of video. Video for windows allows computer users to incorporate video from a camera Var or other source and play it Back on any of the. Millions of ism compatible pcs containing Microsoft s windows software and that Are using Intel a 386 or 486 microprocessor. For example text describing a new product could include a video clip of the product that would play in a a a windows on the screen. Unlike Many other video systems video for windows requires no special software or circuit Board a unless the clip contains sound. The $199 software package uses technology developed by Chip maker Intel corp. Falcon 3 raises Puls program simulates Aerial engagements accuracy by Jack Warner Cox news service late at night when there san hour left before bedtime t take great pleasure in climbing into my f-16 and howling into the skies Over Kuwait. Ordering my win men into close formation we set off to strike one of Saddam a chemical weapons plants or sweep the sky clean of his fighters. All this is accomplished without risk of anything More severe than a few blood pressure spikes at my computer. Flight simulators t expect Are the most popular computer entertainment for adults. My favorite is the most accurate a civilian can buy a Falcon 3.0 from spectrum hol byte. Its most realistic flight Mode is taken from a simulator the authors wrote for the air Force. Every part of the simulation is adjustable for difficulty a i use the most realistic flight radar and weapons modes but keep enemy pilots on Cadet level the aces eat me alive. In Falcon you learn your stuff in lessons at the red Flag fighter school at Nellis fab in Nevada. Once you have everything in hand you commit your Squadron to a theater of War. If you have the fighting Tiger add on disk a a very important addition a your choices Are enormous a from operation desert storm to conflicts in Pakistan and the Kuril islands. In Falcon As in the real air Force you have a Wingman to keep your six a your Tail a Clear and often a flight of three. With a sound blaster pro soundboard the air is full of messages shouts of grub some glee a a Wyo your Fries Are done a and cries of terror a a a in a hit in a hit a there is a definite feeling of flight and perhaps some Glimmer of what a real f-16 Driver experiences. There is the tension of trying to maintain a High a turn which if properly calculated will put you on that Mig-29�?Ts six and keep him off ours. You get the disorientation of a ind dogfight on an overcast night and pc by the wild confusion of a total Furnall when multiple bogeys appear on your radar and the Sams Rise to Greet you. The 350-Page Falcon 3.0 manual is excellent Ana two books have been written about the program. The better of them is Falcon 3, of Howard Bornstein Prima $19.95 paperback its full of Good advice. With practice Falcon will put you right in the Middle of one of those Battles you occasionally Sec on the evening news. You can turn on the Tail of one of Saddam a. Mirages level out squeeze the trigger and yell a Fox two Fox two a perhaps you la hear your Wingman shout a Good kill Good kill a see that a one of the things you have to learn. We fighter pilots always say cd cry thing  to choose from in Aerial simulations if you own an ism compatible computer you can use it to Fly virtually any plane Ever used in combat. None of the. Simulations of modern Aerial warfare is As detailed and Complex As Falcon $45 at discount the highly recommended add on disk fighting Tiger is about $25. But some offer different per spec tics. Jet fighter 11, from velocity forces the armchair Pilot to make Carrier landings at night which without a lot of practice is More deadly than enemy missiles. The third update of Micro prose a f-15 strike Eagle which was the first flight simulator with any pretension to reality should be on shelves soon. Those interested in close air support will want to consider a-10 tank killer from dynamic $35. Another View of the recent War in in the Mideast can be had from the cockpit of f-i17a Nighthawk $42micro prose a simulation of the stealth fighter. For helicopters nothing matches Micro prose a gunship 2000 $39which models the Apache and several other choppers. Be warned however these things Are the Devil to Fly. For Vietnam there is the Brilliant but buggy flight of the intruder from spectrum hol byte $20. You take the role of a Carrier air group commander on Yankee station assigning a-6 and f-4 pilots to strikes on the Mainland a and then flying them. For Vietnam and Korea there a Chuck Yeager a air combat $38 from electronic arts. This program parallels Gen. Yeager a career from Europe to Korea and Vietnam. The general is looking Over your shoulder All tie Way Yelling out when a Bandit gets behind Yod. For world War ii there san embarrassment of Richey. Lucas arts is the Leader with their finest hour a simulation of the Battle of Britain and secret weapons of the. Luftwaffe $45 each. The latter is an All encompassing View of the eighth army air forces Duel with the Luftwaffe. You can Fly thunderbolts Mustangs and flying fortresses or planes on the German Side. A Jack Warner As simple As drag drop and draw by Peter ii. Lewis the new York times the phrase a drag and drop Quot is increasingly popular these Days. Although the term May aptly describe the Way your children manipulate objects it also applies to a software technique for moving objects on the computer screen using a mouse or trackball. Software applications that use drag and drop objects Are generally easier to use than programs that use More conventional commands. A Good example is Visio a new drawing program for computers that use the Mic Microsoft windows Peter h. Lewis operating system Visio allows people who Are not necessarily skilled in the graphic arts to create professional looking diagrams charts technical sketches space plans and other drawings that might be needed in the course of a business Day. There Are Many drawing packages on the Market that can produce such drawings but people often balk at learning Complex programs just to produce a simple organizational Chart or floor plan. A larger businesses May have someone on the staff who handles such artwork but Small businesses and Home offices rarely have that luxury. _ what sets Visio apart from the rest is its exploitation of the rather simple no Tion that most drawings Are composed of Standard shapes such As rectangles circles and arrows. For an office layout the Standard shapes might include desks chairs windows and even plants a computer network manager might want shapes representing workstations servers routers Bridges modems and other components of the network. Each set of Obj car is called a Stencil. Visio comes with 15 different stencils making up hundreds of Quot smart shapes altogether. The shapes Are smart in the sense that they can maintain relationships with other objects. They can be modified or connected to other shapes pieced together until the drawing is Complete. Its like an erector set for drawings but with More options for customization. Users can also create their own custom shapes and stencils and the company that makes Visio plans to create and sell additional stencils to meet specific Cus Tomer  has a windows technology called object linking and embed Ding Ole which Means that drawings can be incorporated into other windows programs that also use Ole. It works the other Way too so i May wish to link my Nolan Ryan baseball object to an Excel spreadsheet showing his recent pitching performance. This is not a program for someone who does highly technical drawings the kind now produced using Auto cad or some other advanced drafting program. Nor is it a paint program unless the users artistic style derives heavily from cubism or Painter Piet Mondrian. Instead it is for the teacher who wants to diagram the process of writing a paper or the i Hanagr who has to make a graphical presentation to the Board of directors in a hurry or the office manager who wants to make a map of the office including Telephone extensions for the Benefit of the temporary receptionist. Visio has a suggested list Price of $299. It requires a computer with at least four megabytes of system memory a fast 386sx or higher processor windows 3.1 and a via or belter Monitor. More information can be % obtained from the shareware corp., 1601 fifth ave., suite 800, Seattle Wash. 98101 Telephone 800 446-3335