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                            Opening Format 
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                             by Tony Curro


    A few days ago we all opened our Christmas presents. I hope that
    everyone got what he or she wished for. With one holiday down, we
    have one more to go. Yes, a new year is starting soon. My wish for
    the New Year is to make CTM better than it has been in the past. As
    I get feedback from users, I try to implement them in the magazine
    when applicable. One user, and also personal friend and SYSOP,
    suggested that while I do tell you how much space a program requires
    I should go further and state complete requirements for each program
    (Memory, Display, etc.). Well, with this issue I have implemented it
    in many reviews. As I gone I will be doing it in ALL reviews. Thank
    you very much for that suggestion Father Nick.

    With this issue of CTM, which is now an international magazine, we
    are starting a subscription service. Some SYSOPs and readers have
    complained that they do not get the issue every month. We do not
    call every board on our list, but use several electronic
    distribution sites. We will mail the issue to those who subscribe to
    the service each month. The disk based version of CTM is much larger
    than the electronic version. Due to restrictions on some services we
    must curtail the size of this version. But, in the mail we go do
    whole disk if the mood takes us. There we be the same reviews, and
    other features. The addition to the mail version is additional
    graphic files, and the assurance of getting a copy each month.
    Please read the ORDER.CTM file enclosed with this issue. For
    example, the mail version is over 400K as of this writing. This is
    in compressed form. Uncompressed it is close to 1MB. Hope to hear
    from you.

    This month, as I did last January, I have a list of software and
    hardware that I have looked at over the past year, and deemed them
    worthy of the CTM Editor's Choice Award. With the hundreds of
    products that I look at, some tend to stand out. I do only rate
    products that I have actually worked with. So you may see a product
    you use that is superior to the product I picked. Chances are I have
    not used it.

    We came across an excellent product that is not really computer
    related. However, it is relative to those in desktop publishing, so
    I  was interested in it. It is called 1st Impression Desktop Bindery
    by Avery Dennison. We also look at ZyXEL modems in hardware.

    Software this month contains: CorelDRAW! v4., CursorPower, Golden
    RETRIEVER, ZyINDEX, and Take-A-Break Pinball.

    In CD-ROMs we look at: Aris MediaClips and MS Cinemania '94. Our
    ShareWare SpotLight this month is on WinZIP, a terrific product for
    us who deal with compressed files.

    Well, I have talked enough. I will step aside and let you enjoy the
    magazine. Oh, before I go. There is also a file in this issue
    called, INDEX.CTM. This is an index, in ASCII format, of the
    articles contained thus far in CTM from July '93 - Jan.'94. I forgot
    to include it last month. Again, as with the opening, this was a
    suggestion last year from another user and friend. By George, he had
    a good idea!

    Please have a safe and happy holiday, as I want to see you all back
    here next month.

    Tony Curro...
         -------------------- DISCLAIMER  --------------------

    The information provided in this magazine are the opinions of the
    author whose name appears at the top of the article.

    We do not wish to discredit a product, company, or  author of said
    product. The software reviews are based solely upon the opinion of
    the author of the review, and his or her experiences from using the
    product in question.

    We further assume no liability from any problems or dissatisfaction
    that a user may have from a product that we have reviewed in our
    magazine.

    The News, Updates, and Upgrade column is not an endorsement of any
    product. It is presented solely for information purposes.

                Tony Curro, Editor - ComputerTalk Magazine.
