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Add-ons for Visual Basic®, security enhancements, and other tools that should speed your development efforts are featured in this month's New Stuff. Get out and enjoy the summer! Database-Driven Streaming Media Apps       Drumbeat 2.0, now available from Elemental Software, is a visual drag-and-drop Web assembly tool that enables users to build interactive, database-driven, cross-browser compatible Web sites without the need to write code. Drumbeat SmartPages allow data-driven applications to take advantage of the latest browser features while also supporting older browsers. Drumbeat includes RealNetworks' RealPlayer and navigation controls such as SmartElements that enable designers to build interactive, streaming media apps rapidly. Database-driven apps built in Drumbeat permit individuals within a company to contribute to, maintain, and update the intranet directly from within the browser. Departments can add videos, text, documents, and charts directly to the intranet without having to go back to the site developer. Elemental Software 5927 Priestly Drive, Suite 101 Carlsbad, CA 92008 760-931-7171 http://www.drumbeat.com Manage Text-based Data       Cornerstone Management Systems is shipping CMS TextMap 1.0, a text processor, CMS TextMap 1.0 enables organizations to extract data from existing text sources and move it into standard formats. CMS TextMap capabilities address areas such as content manufacturing, information publishing/reselling, data warehouse population, software development, and records management. Cornerstone Management Systems also provides offsite text processing services. Cornerstone Management Systems P.O. Box 686 Pauls Valley, OK 73075 405-238-4144 http://www.cmshome.com Publish Browsable Books       OverDrive Systems Inc. has released BookWorks, an electronic publishing platform that is built upon the Microsoft® Internet Explorer WebBrowser control. BookWorks Author and BookWorks Browser are electronic publishing programs for the assembly and distribution of HTML-based content. BookWorks titles can be accessed on a PC, the Web, CD-ROM, intranet, or any device that supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or Windows® 98. All of the Web browsing features, multimedia, and interactive technology support of Internet Explorer are built into the BookWorks Browser. OverDrive also offers BookWorks Commercial, Professional, and Developer Editions that permit publishers to integrate the Browser with a variety of document and publishing applications including copyright protection modules. OverDrive Systems Inc. 30325 Bainbridge Road Suite 3 Cleveland, OH 44139 440-519-0877 http://www.overdrive.com Visual Basic Resolution Independence       VideoSoft is now shipping VS-OCX 6.0, a major upgrade to its add-on for Visual Basic, which provides resolution independence to Visual Basic-based applications and introduces an all new vsElasticLight control for adding proportional sizing to existing forms. VS-OCX 6.0 includes a vsElastic control, which lets you place controls wherever you like using a smart grid. Fonts can also be resized automatically, so vsElastic cuts down the number of controls you need, making programs load and run faster. Validation events have been added to the IndexTab control, making it easier to control user input. IndexTab lets you show several screens at once with its notebook tab metaphor. Version 6.0 also features easier deployment, since there are no other DLLs to distribute. VideoSoft 5900 Hollis Street, Suite T Emeryville, CA 94608 888-ACTIVEX, 510-595-2400 http://www.videosoft.com Face Up To Security Miros Inc. is shipping TrueFace Network, which uses Miros's face recognition technology to secure networked computer systems. TrueFace Network records the faces of authorized personnel and creates unique and personal keys that unlock access to a company's applications and data. TrueFace replaces passwords that can be forgotten or stolen, and token cards that can be lost or broken. Using an inexpensive video camera attached to a PC or workstation, a user's face is compared to previously enrolled images. TrueFace Network allows users to log on to the network within seconds of sitting down to their computers, and built-in fraud detection allows the product to distinguish photographs from faces. TrueFace also provides an audit image of each logon attempt, notifying administrators of unauthorized attempts to access the network. TrueFace Network's Administration Server gives the security administrator control over the enrollment process and the acceptance of remote and local users who are registering. Miros Inc. 572 Washington Street, Suite 18 Wellesley, MA 02181 781-235-0330 http://www.miros.com Add DOD C2-Class Security       Modern Software Publishing Inc. is shipping Modern GuardX, an application security solution for Windows 95 and Windows NT®-based applications. GuardX acts like a firewall for applications, preventing unauthorized access to programs, program features, dialogs, and user interface elements based on user logon credentials. GuardX lets software developers add U.S. Department of Defense C2-class security (the same level supported by Windows NT) to everyday business applications. GuardX supports many development environments including Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office, Visual Basic for Applications, and Visual C++®, to name a few. Preview editions are available from Modern Software's Web site. Modern Software Publishing Inc. 5 Youngs Road Pomfret Center, CT 06259 860-963-1071 http://www.modernsoftware.com Self-extracting Zip File Toolkit       Inner Media's Active Delivery 1.2 is a toolkit for creating self-extracting Zip files. One use for this tool is enabling Web sites to package custom data on demand for delivery over Internet/intranet connections. New features include the ability to create and modify Start menu items, safely replace system and other files currently in use, and create multivolume disk sets. Using any of the provided Active Delivery interfaces (DLL, VCL, OCS, and ActiveX®), developers can call into Active Delivery and tell it whether to create a 16 or 32-bit executable, which files to add, how the package is to appear to the user, which external programs to run, and so on. Developers can then ship the Active Delivery libraries royalty-free. Inner Media can provide the necessary Authenticode™-based signature programs so that the Active Delivery packages may be signed and marked for easy acceptance by Microsoft Internet Explorer. Inner Media 60 Plain Road Hollis, NH 03049 800-962-2949, 603-465-3216 http://www.innermedia.com IRC Chat Software for Dynamic Communities       WebBoard 3.0 is the enterprise version of O'Reilly & Associates' IRC-chat and forums software. WebBoard 3.0 includes ConferenceRoom Professional from WebMaster Inc. and the book Conferencing with WebBoard by Susan Peck and Jay York. The product runs on Windows NT and Windows 95, and includes its own internal Web server. Major new features include an IRC chat server that allows 1,000 simultaneous users, traffic logs that can be read by statistics programs, SQL database support, and an integrated mailing list server for offline conference participation. O'Reilly and Associates 101 Morris Street Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-829-0515 http://www.webboard.oreilly.com Develop Standalone Microsoft Agent Apps       MRC Computing is shipping the HelpAgent development kit, a C/C++ library that allows users to develop stand alone Microsoft Agent-based applications with as few as three function calls. It supports 30 different Microsoft Agent characters, as well as over 130 different animations. HelpAgent lets you use animations of which it has no internal knowledge. HelpAgent is available with full source code. MRC Computing LLC 12 Jason Street Dayton, NJ 08810 732-269-5334 http://www.mrccomputing.com Email Server for Windows NT 4.0 and 5.0       SLmail version 3.0, released recently by Seattle Lab, is built on COM and is designed for the upcoming release of Windows NT 5.0. (It will also run on Windows NT 4.0.) SLmail can be programmed by the user. Through open APIs, SLmail 3.0 allows system administrators to take command of incoming mail to build interfaces to proprietary email systems, pagers, or universal messaging systems. Seattle Lab ships the source code for the filters, and documents how users can write original filters. The mail server implements ActiveX-based interfaces, allowing filters to be written in any compliant language. Script engines also allow control of the mail server in VBScript, JScript™, and Perl. SLmail 3.0 allows system administrators complete command of their email server using only a Web browser, which means they can access the server from virtually anywhere they can use the Internet. A two-week trial version is available on the company's Web site. Seattle Lab, Inc. 9606 NE 180th Street Bothell, WA 98011 425-402-6003 http://www.seattlelab.com

Does your company provide development tools for interactive applications? We'd love to hear the news! Email us at newstuff@microsoft.com.

From the July 1998 issue of Microsoft Interactive Developer.