ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Computer Bits
THE SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA INTERNET SOCIETY will look at the War Between the States via computer. And if you like to jot your history down on sticky notes, now you can do it electronically.
If you like tales of the Civil War and enjoy going online with your computer, you can get a taste of both at the April 9 meeting of the Southwest Virginia Internet Society.
The group, which meets at the Hollins branch of the Roanoke County Public Library, will feature the civil conflict, aka the War Between the States, online. The program begins at 7 p.m; a "newbies" session starts at 6:30, where you can find out more about the society in general.
For more information, call 890-3406.
If you can't make it to the meeting, but want to get started on the war, speaker John Blair shares these tips:
The home page, which is provided by Dakota State University at http://www.dsu.edu/~jankej/civilwar.html has an excellent listing of URLs pertaining to the war.
If you find discussion groups appealing, browse the page provided for the Gettysburg Discussion Group. This is a very busy news group, but you will find it at http://www.arthes.com:1030/gettys.html and can expect 20 to 30 messages per day if you subscribe. Topics range from the minutiae of the battle to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and its meaning, to the condition of the park today.
- Staff report
Jot-it!
Wow! Now I have sticky notes for my computer screen. We can't live without them, can we?
For displaying a point at an employee team meeting, or for reminding yourself that you need something from the supermarket, little notes that glue anywhere have no peer.
And now they can be stuck on your computer screen.
Jot-it!, by Evergreen International Technology, is just one version of "notes" on the market, but it appears to be promising. It's a simple process to pull a note off the picture pad, type in a message and "post" it on your screen. You can even record a voice message, music or sound effects on it.
The challenge is being able to find the note later.
Jot-it! notes can be linked to applications, windows, or whatever, and then are supposed to pop up whenever you are in that area. I just haven't been able to make that happen yet.
The instructions aren't bad, but they assume the user knows more than most of us do. Jot-it!, which sells for $29.95 and operates with any Windows or Windows 95 application, has a Help area, though. For more info, call 1-800-667-4340.
Post-It Notes
3M, which owns the trademark to Post-It Notes, has created a software version that allows the boss to send his latest missive without ever getting up from his seat.
Particularly troubling about this technological version is that once you receive the fan mail, you cannot have the satisfaction of ripping the note into tiny shreds.
``Post-It Software Notes leverages our understanding of the many applications for personal note-taking and how people organize and communicate in the paper world, and married that with their habits in the electronic world,'' said Rich Sanders, marketing manager for the product.
Whose habits?
What we are having trouble coming to grips with here is how this is different from electronic mail or the ``personal reminder'' alarms installed in most personal information managers (or PIMs, for the technologically hip). Have you ever heard the alarms on those information managers? Very, very irritating.
If you are one of the bosses out there intrigued by this latest way to annoy the underlings, 3M offers trial versions of the software that can be downloaded from its World Wide Web site at http://www.mmm.com/psnotes.
- San Jose Mercury News
To contribute to this regular Thursday feature or for more information, call 981-3237 or 981-3393, or send email to skelly2180AOL.COM
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: The little electronic notepad of Jot-it! (right) letsby CNByou link a reminder to wherever you stick the note. It sells for
$29.95. color. Graphic. Logo. color.