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Issue Number 05 - April 1999Home - Subscribe - Archive - Articles - EmailWelcome to the MANTEX newsletter! Here's a quick list of topics covered in our latest issue.
Essay-writing software Free academic articles Virus alert - Happy99 'Computers & Texts' WIRED and Palm Pilots Free HTML Editor Spelling checkers Virus alert - Melissa Y2K Preparedness Best Internet provider Writing Style Guides Starting this month, we're going to review some of the manuals on good writing currently available. We'll be looking at old and newer favourites, and we begin with a classic. 
William Strunk and E.B White's "The Elements of Style"
has been a best-seller for the best part of eighty
years. It began as a short, privately-printed guide
for students at Cornell University.
Strunk pared down his advice to cover only those
issues which most commonly cause problems - leaving
out the rest. [It's significant that he begins with
the apostrophe - still a very common bugbear.]
Full details and a review article at --
...and by the way, it's an amazing bargain at Amazon, where I bought my copy for £3.83 (or $5.56). Essay-Writing Software For those interested in academic writing, and essay-writing skills in particular, we have another free demo! HelpDisk! 2.4 is a computer-based learning program which covers every aspect of writing an academic essay or term paper - from analysing the original question or topic, through to the production of the finished work. The program also features sample essays, and the latest version even has essays complete with tutor comment and assessment from script moderators. This software is in use at colleges and universities throughout the UK and Europe. Free demo at --
Free Academic Articles To celebrate two years of on-line access, Emerald Intelligence + Fulltext (the database of academic and professional journals from MCB University Press) is allowing free and unlimited access to its resources for a limited period this spring.
You have access to 24,000 on-line articles and abstracts, which are searchable by keyword, author, article type, keyword in the full text, and various quality indicators. This is part of MCB's 'Year of the Database' initiative to promote the advantages of advanced database publishing. Virus Alert - "Happy99" A student recently sent me an email message which had a file attached to it called 'Happy99'. Just as I was about to click on VIEW, I spotted that it was an .exe file!! Sure enough, 'Happy99.exe' is a virus which attaches itself to email messages. It's not exactly lethal, but it messes around with some of your files. There has been debate about the exact status of the program. Here are the details:
VirusName: Happy99.Worm Aliases: Trojan.Happy99, I-Worm.Happy Likelihood: Common Region Reported: World Wide Characteristics: Trojan Horse, Worm Description: When executed, the program opens a window entitled "Happy New Year 1999 !!" showing a firework display to disguise its other actions. Simple and straightforward instructions for effective deletion of the Happy99 virus are available at:
Computers & Texts "Computers & Texts" is the newsletter of the CTI centre at Oxford, which specialises in the application of computer technology to the teaching of literature and media studies, plus the analysis and archiving of textual materials. The latest double issue contains articles on an archive of Post-Colonial texts and criticism at Queen's University Belfast; "Teaching with the Chadwick-Healey Literature Databases"; analysing on-line sources using 'Digital Variants'; a question-based assessment project at Sheffield Hallam; "Hypertext and Homer's 'Odyssey'"; news from the Oxford Text Archive; and reviews of software such as The Dead Sea Scrolls and 'Julius Ceasar'. Like many other academic newsletters, they are hovering between print and electronic publication - so before it's too late, put your name forward for inclusion on their mailing list for a free copy of the elegantly produced quarterly.
WIRED and PalmPilots The latest edition of WIRED magazine features an article on the latest models of the Palm Pilot. These literally palm-sized marvels now seem to have gained the market lead for shirt-pocket computers. For an article on Palm Pilots and what they can do, go to --
Subscriptions to WIRED are available in the UK. Phone D.M.W. Distribution -- 0161 281 6444 Free HTML Editor For those who missed our feature on the free HTML editor - Arachnophilia - in the February newsletter, there's good news. The latest issue of the program is included on the cover disk of April's 'Internet Magazine' And if they've sold out at your newsagent, try --
Spelling Checkers
Eye halve a spelling chequer
Eye strike a key and type a word
As soon as a mist ache is maid
Eye have run this poem threw it [Sauce unknown]*
Virus Alert - "Melissa"
A computer affected by the virus generates 50 copies
of the message and attachment and distributes them
to persons found on the user's address book.
To avoid the virus, simply DO NOT open
the attachment that accompanies the e-mail.
A fix for dealing with the virus can be obtained at
Y2K - Are you ready?
[* Thanks to James Hartley for this item.] (c) Copyright 1999, MANTEX All Rights Reserved If you like this newsletter, PLEASE FORWARD IT to friends and colleagues. Please retain the copyright and subscription information. It may be posted, in its entirety or partially, to newsgroups or mailing lists, so long as the copyright and subscription information remains. If you have any requests, observations, or items you would like to be included in our next issues, just mail us at -- <news@mantex.co.uk>
You receive the MANTEX newsletter because you subscribed. If you wish to unsubscribe, go to -- <http://www.mantex.co.uk/newslet.htm> News-05-April-99 Home - Subscribe - Archive - Articles - Top - Email
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