v W
V
You still have time to earn credit
Oyer the summer? Register now!
Read and Succeed
through the
1995 Summer Reading Course Program
k
Registration ends Wednesday, May 31, at 5 p.m.
Space still available in courses in anthropology,
classics, educational psychology, English,
geology, history, psychology, and sociology.
Register in person: Come to the DCS
Registration Office, Room 271, at the Nebraska
Center for Continuing Education, 33rd and
Holdrege Streets, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
Register by mail: Division of Continuing Studies
Room 271
Nebraska Center
Lincoln, NE 68583-9100
For details, call 472-1392.
n University of
Nebraska
Lincoln
Evening Programs and Lifelong Learning Services
V UNL is a nondiscriminatory institution.
How Will You Start
Your Summer?
Summer is short and you won’t have
many chances to bicycle through
buffalo herds, Race canoes on the
Niobrara River, Foot Race in Nebraska’s
newest State Park and share in $1800
cash prizes all at the same time. So this
year enter the second annual Niobrara
River Roll Triathon and
May 20 and 21.
□Hi
:
Start Your Summer In Valentine, Nebraska
Call 1-800-658-4024 and ask for your
information and registration packet.
iMHlI
FEDERATION i I M IjU
Ml
m
This event is sanctioned by U.S. Triathlon Federation and
sponsored by The Valentine Chamber of Commerce.
“Star Trek: The Next
Generation Interactive
Technical Manual”
Simon & Schuster Interactive
Grade: B—
For you trekkies out there who
long for computer interaction with
everyone’s favorite starship, Simon
& Schuster presents the Star Trek
Interactive Technical Manual on
CD-ROM.
Now this is just what it says, a
technical manual. You will not
find any of the characters from the
popular television show here, al
though the voice of Jonathan Frakes
(Cmdr. William Riker) leads you
through the guided tour.
But the program earned its first
minus because it’s hard to load.
Unless you have a machine with
eight megabytes of RAM, be pre
pared to beat up your computer or
re-write the boot-up program.
When you finally get it run
ning, the computer talks to you,
with the voice of Majel Barrett
Roddenberry, the late “Star Trek”
creator Gene Roddenberry’s wife.
She lets you choose between a
guided tour and a self tour.
The typical room is something
like this: You start at the room you
were previously in, and you wait
for the computer to load up the
new one. The second minus is for
the amount of time you wait be
tween screens. Even with a fairly
fast machine, it takes a while. If
you want multiple views, you wait
again.
You can only visit four of the
crew’s quarters, those of Capt.
Jean-Luc Picard, Riker, Counselor
Deanna Troi and Lt. Cmdr. Worf.
And the only simulation on the
holodeck is of a shuttlecraft!
That may be appropriate be
cause the only main rooms in the
manual that you can not access,
but are frequently shown on the
television show, are the cargo bays.
You might not mind the lack of
people if you are a very technical
person, but some might lack the
patience to read screen after screen.
“Microsoft Encarta *95"
Microsoft Home
Grade: A
For a top of the line computer
reference tool, look no further than
“Encarta ’95.”
From the software giants at
Microsoft comes this complete,
well-produced and easy to use en
cyclopedia reference on CD-ROM.
If you need information on some
thing, it is probably in here.
The 1995 version will appeal
even to those familiar with the
older versions of Encarta. Not only
does ’95 have updated informa
tion, but it also has a new look.
For ’95, Microsoft has com
pletely redesigned the layout of
Encarta.
The simple windows format
previously used is replaced by a
stylish system, which goes beyond
user-friendly to user-fun.
Instead of a simple click of the
mouse leading to the next area,
each part of the toolbar has a list
under it, so when you touch it with
your arrow, the list slides out. There
is even a “shhh” sliding sound.
The information is organized in
the same nine areas and 93 catego
ries as before, but each area is now
color-coded.
The special tools are also up
graded. The globe screen for the
atlas spins better now, and the maps
are more complete.
There is a timeline that traces
the history of man from 15,000
B.C. to present. The color and
graphics have drastically im
proved.
A new addition is the media
gallery, a place where you can
look through every sound or video
clip, photo or map, with an easy
organization and pinpointed a
quick searching list.
A word processor is even in
cluded, and so are instructions on
copying and printing articles for
easy use in reports. The word pro
cessor, unfortunately, is much more
basic than what you might expect
from Microsoft.
Monty Python’s Complete Waste
of Time
7th Level, Inc.
Grade: B+
Computer users are always
searching for the latest technology
in games. Perhaps it has arrived in
a new disk inspired by the humor
of “Monty Python.”
It doesn’t have the scrolling
screens of “DOOM!” or the inno
vative graphics of “Myst,” but what
“Complete Waste of Time” does
have is versatility and hot spots.
Hot spots are areas on the screen
where there may not seem to be
anything, but if you go there and
click the mouse button, something
strange pops out.
Of course with the collective
humor of “Monty Python’s Flying
Circus” as material, the writers
have plenty of material for hot
spots — probably more than any
other computer game yet.
This is the first basic part called
the “Interactive Monty Python
Show.” It includes six screens with
daffy names like “the loonitarium”
and “the exploding TV room” that
have dozens of hot spots, sparking
everything from the entire video
of “Nudge, Nudge” to a piece of
“The Lumberjack Song” or
“Spam.”
If that is not enough, there-are
games to entertain including a pin
ball-like game in a cathedral, shoot
ing flying pigs, maneuvering a
chicken through a obstacle screen
and bopping gopher hole people
on the head with a hammer.
The big game is actually a con
test built into the software, if you
can find the hidden door and solve
a series of tough puzzles.
If that is not enough for you,
there is the “Desktop Pythonizer ”
Whether you want silly icons,
goofy screensavers, wacky wall
paper or just a few audio bytes so
that when you turn on your com
puter it says, “You know I... still
wet my bed,” it’s all here.
If you still want more, too bad.
This should be about enough for
any Python enthusiast.
Paintings and shadowboxes
capture magic of realism
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
A collection of paintings and shad
owboxes by former Lincoln resident
Charles Rain has been improved and
is now on display at Sheldon Memo
rial Art Gallery.
“Charles Rain: A Personal Real
ism” is the first exhibition of Rain’s
works to reveal his important early
ties to Lincoln and the many influ
ences on the artist’s life.
Rain’s works have been displayed
annually at Sheldon since 1985.
Rain was bom in Lincoln in 1911
and attended Lincoln High School.
At one time, he lived in “ITte Castle,”
now an apartment building, at 1845
D St.
After leaving Lincoln and study
ing at the Art Institute of Chicago,
Rain studied throughout Europe. It
was there he developed his distinct
style, called “magic realism” by crit
ics.
In magic realism, individual ele
ments are depicted with extraordi
nary attention to detail. They are then
placed in incongruous settings —
often juxtaposed with strange, dis
proportionate figures, such as archi
tecture.
An example of this is found in
Rain’s “Architectural Still Life.”
Various vegetables, painted in ex
treme detail, are placed on the stone
steps of a ruins, reminiscent of Greek
architecture.
Nine shadowboxes by Rain also
are on display.
A shadowbox is a miniature model
that depicts a scene in three dimen
sions.
Rain’s shadowboxes depict Ital
ian commedia dell’Arte, a type of
raucous stage play popular in 17th
century Italy.
The miniaturized sets include ar
chitectural details, clouds and land
scapes, as well as diminutive actors
in full authentic costumes.
Rain was somewhat eccentric in
his use of materials to make the shad
owboxes. In “Venetia,” the two cen
tral columns at the front of the scene
are made of cigarettes. Other materi
als he used were the cardboard from
shirt boxes, string and florist’s moss.
The exhibit ends June 25. Sheldon
is open to the public, and admission
is free.