From: brian_hall@markspace.com (Brian Hall)
Date: 18 Dec 97
Subject: Mark/Space News Issue #9

Mark/Space News #9 - Mac, Windows, Web, Pilot & Newton

Included in this announcement:

  1. SPECIAL:  Holiday/Macworld Expo Special Prices
  2. NOTE:     Tech Support During the Holidays
  3. NEW:      Change Subscriptions via the Web
  4. VOTE:     Mobilis Readers Choice Awards
  5. NEW:      Mark/Space Telnet Tool Enters Public Beta
  6. UPDATE:   PageNOW! for Pilot Status Report
  7. UPDATE:   PhoneWatcher Status Report
  8. STORY:    PageNOW! Uses in Public Schools


To change your subscription to this newsletter, please send e-mail to
"listmaster@markspace.com".


Holiday/Macworld Expo Special Prices

Mark/Space Celebrates the Holiday Season and Macworld Expo with these
special prices!

  PageNOW! (your choice) Mac OS or Windows (SRP $119.95)
  PageNOW! (your choice) Pilot or Newton (SRP $79.95)
  PageME! Construction Kit (Mac OS) (SRP $119.95)

Order any two in a bundle for only $99!

Also:
  Save $100 over our regular online price on client/server software:
    PageNOW! Workgroup Edition (Mac OS) Special Price: $395
    PageNOW! Enterprise Edition (Mac OS) Special Price: $895
    PageNOW!/Web Gateway (Requires WG or Ent Server) Special Price: $395

But Hurry, Offer Expires Friday January 16, 1997.

All orders must be placed via the online order form, or reference the Macworld
Special when placing order by phone. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and
Discover accepted.

You can also pre-order any of our products currently in beta-test. Use the
public beta now, and receive the final version via e-mail when it ships.

PageNOW! for Pilot 1.0, $39.95 (SRP $79.95)
PhoneWatcher 2.0 (Mac OS), $29.95 (SRP $79.95)
Mark/Space Telnet Tool 1.0 (Mac OS), $19.95 (SRP $29.95)



Tech Support During the Holidays

http://www.markspace.com/faqs.html

Mark/Space will be on reduced staff for the holidays.

During the periods:
  Monday Dec 22-Friday 26
  Weds Dec Dec 31-Thursday Jan 1

Telephone/fax technical support will not be available. However support via
e-mail will be available as usual.

For technical support, please email support@markspace.com.
For orders, please order via the web page, email sales@markspace.com, or
call the order desk at 1-800-799-1718.



Change Subscriptions via the Web
http://www.markspace.com/lists.html

Now you can sign up, sign off, or switch to/from digest mode on any of the
various mailing lists run at Mark/Space. Lists include our monthly newsletter,
as well as discussion lists for our various products (PageNOW!, PhoneWatcher, etc)
and several public-service lists (toy trains, movie schedule for Cupertino, CA, etc).
 


Mobilis Readers Choice Awards
http://www.volksware.com/mobilis/november.97/rca.htm

Mobilis, the "mobile computing lifestyle magazine" - is holding its annual
Readers Choice Awards. Among other categories, you can vote for "Handheld Computer
or PDA" and best "Handheld or PDA Software". We hope those reading this newsletter
that use the Newton or Pilot versions of PageNOW! will stop on by and make
your opinions heard!

(And if you use Windows CE or some other handheld OS, please let *us* know
if you would like to see us develop software for that platform).

The results of the survey will appear in the February issue of Mobilis.



Mark/Space Telnet Tool Enters Public Beta

The Mark/Space Telnet Tool is nearing completion, and is currently in public beta.
The Telnet tool can be used with terminal programs (such as Communicate Lite,
ClarisWorks, SITcomm, etc) to enable telnet sessions via TCP, as well as with
other applications such as EMailer.

Here is a summary of the features for the 1.0 release:

- Support for Telnet, Telnet/Binary and Raw TCP
- Supports CMListen (accepts incoming connections)
- Selectable port
- Popup menu of frequent hosts

*Special Pricing*

While version 1.0 is in public beta, you can order a copy online at the special
introductory price of $19.95 (plus a $7 handling charge). When 1.0 is released,
the introductory offer will expire and the online-order price will raise
to $24.95. The Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of the Mark/Space Telnet Tool
is $29.95.



PageNOW! for Pilot Status Report
http://www.markspace.com/pagenow/palmos.html

Since our last newsletter, we have been quite busy with PageNOW! for Pilot - it
entered Public Beta in November. For complete details including feature list,
screen shots, links to join the pagenow-pilot-talk mailing list and to download
the latest public beta, head on over to:

      http://www.markspace.com/pagenow/palmos.html

Here is a summary of the features for the 1.0 release:

- Supports all paging services (Using the industry-standard TAP protocol) 
- Supports Pilot modem as well as external Hayes-compatible modems 
- Unlimited number of paging services (common ones pre-defined) 
- Unlimited number of pager users 
- Memorized Messages: Place commonly sent messages in an easy-access popup menu 
- Message Splitting: Splits long messages into a series of smaller ones 
- Character/Page Counter: Tracks the length and number of pages that
  will be sent 
- Smart Dialing: Configure numbers for reaching an outside line,
  credit card calling, etc. 
- Greeting/Signature: Optionally add text to the beginning or
  end of each page sent 

*Special Pricing*

While PageNOW! for Pilot 1.0 is under development, you can order a copy online at
the special introductory price of $39.95 (plus a $7 handling charge). When
PageNOW! for Pilot 1.0 is released, the introductory offer will expire and the
online-order price will raise to $59.95. The Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of
PageNOW! for Pilot 1.0 is $79.95.



PhoneWatcher Status Report
http://www.markspace.com/phonewatcher.html

PhoneWatcher is currently in public beta. Since our last newsletter, many new
features have been added, including AppleScript support (and a folder of sample
scripts). Be sure to download and check out the latest public beta version!

*Special Pricing*

While PhoneWatcher 2.0 is under development, you can order a copy online at the
special introductory price of $29.95 (plus a $7 handling charge). When
PhoneWatcher 2.0 is released, the introductory offer will expire and the
online-order price will raise to $59.95. The Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of
PhoneWatcher 2.0 is $79.95.

Don't forget, you can participate in the mailing list discussion, download public
betas, and find all the latest information at the PhoneWatcher home page:

	http://www.markspace.com/phonewatcher.html



PageNOW! Uses in Public Schools, by Sheldon K. Smith
mailto:sheldon@telis.org

Early last year I found myself in a dilemma.  As a junior high dean who was
responsible for the supervision of upwards of 950 students, I had to find
methods for making my three hours of supervision more productive. Because of
our size, my school runs on two different schedules; one for 7th grade and
another for 8th grade, complete with two different break and lunch times.
While I was out on supervision, I would miss phone calls, and many times, I
would be out of range of the requisite portable radio I would
carry. One of my worst fears as an administrator was that a parent would
be waiting for me in the office and no one could reach me. I did carry a
portable radio, but it did not have good reception and sometimes no reception
depending on where I was in relation to the office.  I also wanted to shed
the requisite portable radio because I did not like the message it connotes
in a school setting.  I could not slip into a classroom quietly without it
screeching and squawking. Rather than being Mr. Smith, the school dean,
walking into a classroom, it was Mr. Smith the security agent because of
the aura emitted by the portable radio.  I noticed our school resource officer
wearing a pager.  Even though he carries a portable radio on his belt, he still
carries a numeric pager so her can turn off his radio during classroom DARE
presentations and also so his own kids can reach him.

I thought about other technologies where the office can reach me quickly and
where I can make my three hours of supervision more productive.  A cell phone was
too expensive, so I looked into paging. After trying a few numeric and alpha
pagers, I ended up purchasing an Advisor Pro, then later upgraded to an Advisor
Gold.  I used a dispatch service and a typical numeric pager number.

The dispatch service has its benefits because it is fast, but I found that my
secretaries did not like talking to another person to reach me.  In an effort for
the service to be accurate, the operator would ask clarification questions, which
my secretaries sometimes did not have the time or the patience to communicate.  A
simple message such as "Mr. Smith is needed in the office immediately!" was
sometimes a cumbersome and time consuming affair.

I then moved down to using voice mail with a paging option. Voice Mail, like
regular institutional voice mail, is automated with my personal greeting.  A user
calls my voice mail number, hears my directions for leaving a message. After the
user hangs-up, my voice mail flags the dispatch operator who then listens to the
message, transposes it, and pages it out to the subscriber. The advantage with
this type of system was that it was five-bucks less a month ($15 instead of $20),
and my messages were saved in their original form in case I miss a page.  The
only drawback is that there could be up to a 15 minute delay in sending the
message because the operator had to listen to the message, transpose it, then
send it   On the other side of the coin, however, the messages are much more
accurate because there are no translation issues.

Another advantage with this technology has been finding a use for my old Mac SE. 
I now use it as a paging server. I purchased PageNOW! paging software after using
a demo version for a month (about $80.00).  The demo version is available at
info-mac sites, AOL, and at http://www.markspace.com.  I looked at Motorola's
MessageSoft software, but the Mac Interface was chunky, and it could not schedule
pages.

Using my five year old Global Village 2400 baud modem, PageNOW! is configured to
call my paging service's modem. I have also discovered that the paging industry
uses 300-1200 baud modems!  The night before a workday, I type reminders to
myself, and more importantly, meeting times. I schedule when I want these pages
sent. During my workday, I get reminder pages from my Mac SE. I have not missed a
meeting with this system.

PageNOW! has the capability to send pages to multiple users. Like email, if a
message needs to get send to multiple people, PageNOW! has the capability to send
the same message to multiple pagers.  Conceivably, if every administrator in our
school had a pager, a message could get sent to them simultaneously.  Aside from
the multiple paging option, PageNOW! can keep track of all the paging users and
the secretary can send individual messages to them even if they were using
different services.

The police officers and city managers in my town all use alphanumeric pagers. 
Instead of having to go through the dispatcher or secretary to reach a particular
officer or city official, I use PageNOW! to shoot a message to them.  They see
using PageNOW! as quite a novelty because most people still have to go through
the dispatcher/secretary to reach these people whereas I have direct
communication with them. A couple of the officers have my pager ID which they
send messages back to me.  As a school dean, I have frequent conversations with
police officers as part of my job. Being able to communicate with them via
PageNOW! makes my job easier.

On a lighter note, I have a city group made in PageNOW! for all the Atascadero
employees.  Occasionally I shoot them a joke to their pagers. Of course they know
the author because they know I am the only one who has the ability to do this
because of the use of PageNOW!.

[Sheldon Smith is the Dean of Students at Atascadero Junior High School in
Atascadero, California. This article has appeared in several education magazines,
and appears here with his permission.]