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*    R o b o B e a r    V e r s i o n   2 . 0  for Windows 95   *
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Copyright 1997 Flashpoint Software Support Pty. Ltd.

This is an unlicenced version of RoboBear for evaluation purposes only.
It is limited to searching two newsgroups and decoding forty files per run.

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RoboBear is a Usenet Viewer. It provides a simple and efficient search
engine for newsgroup articles, presenting the results via an
informative real-time graphical console.  As RoboBear runs, it
automatically decodes pictures, sounds and movies, and updates a
scrollable slideshow of thumbnail miniatures (for pictures) and
icons (for sounds and movies).  Just click on an item to enlarge the
picture,  hear the sound, or watch the movie - all while RoboBear is
busy getting the next article!

Like a specialised 'cross' between a News Reader and a Web Explorer,
RoboBear brings the user the best of both approaches while avoiding
the disadvantages of each.  Like News Readers it allows full retrieval
of newsgroup article text, selective searching of article subjects
based on a specified search string, precise control via article
pointers of the  search range, and searching of newsgroup names.
Like Web explorers, it's easy to use and brings you 'instant' pictures,
sounds and movies.

But unlike WWW data, which may have to come over multiple network
'hops' from a host on the other side of the world, newsgroup data is
held entirely on a news server at your Internet provider. RoboBear
never has to go further than the single hop from you to your ISP, so
is extremely fast compared with Web browsing.  Unlike text-oriented
news readers, exploring newsgroups with RoboBear is simple to do and
fun to watch!

Robobear provides new retrieval and usage options that open up the
world of newsgroups.  Many people, caught up in the initial media
euphoria about 'The Internet', are now fast becoming disillusioned
with the slowness of Web browsing, the limitations of Web downloading,
and the sheer difficulty of picking the genuinely interesting Web sites
out of the endless dross returned by the average search engine.

Newsgroups have not yet seemed the obvious answer or complement to
disgruntled Web users, for several good reasons so far.  There are too
many of them to pick through - many of the articles are just junk,
available news readers are pretty dull, and if they should happen upon
a photo, for instance, they have to spend time waiting for it to
download, reassemble and decode it, open up  a seperate graphics
package to look at it, then go back to the newsreader to see what's
next.

RoboBear addresses all these areas. Since it is only ever accessing the
user's local news server, multimedia file retrieval is much faster than
on the Web.  Searches are performed whenever possible at the news
server, thus minimising both processing time and volume charges and
making RoboBear ideal for high-volume picture retrieval.
Since it is a multitasking application, a user can be looking at one
article while others are being processed.  It can even be left
to run invisibly in the background, and the results replayed
at leisure.

Although some inaccurate posting does inevitably occur, newsgroups are
relatively well organised along subject lines. Searches can be done
on all accessible newsgroups to return only those newsgroup names
containing a specified search pattern.  After the desired newsgroup
names are selected, the robot can retrieve only those articles whose
subjects match another search pattern.  You might even want to look
only for pictures, movies or sound clips.

RoboBear decodes and saves all attachments that it finds and in
addition allows you to view or play JPG, GIF, WAV and AVI files using
the RoboBear console.  Files decoded by RoboBear may be input to
any other applications that support these standard file formats.

If you've just installed RoboBear, now's the time to try it out!
Just click the Start button on your Windows toolbar,
then select Programs/RoboBear 2.0/RoboBear

To put RoboBear to work right away, we suggest you start with the
Help topic: Quick Start Instructions.  Happy exploring!





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