Ex student success Former Crafts student Anna Slawinski is becoming a success story in designer fashions. Slawinski, who is a tapestry weaver, learned the process of loom weaving at Cap, and later teamed upwith designer Maya Curlanis. Slawinski produces the cloth and Curlanis sews it into garments which they are selling under the label Amma. Their two or three piece outfits, which are all one-of-a-kind, are sold through the Vancouver retail shop Barbara and Martha's Of Course. Symposium at Douglas Douglas College is holding a Symposium on South Asian Culture on October 18 and 19 to mark the tenth anniversary of the OASIS Immigrant Services Centre. They are planning two days of educational seminars, cultural programs, and business and handicraft displays. Early registration is available through 520-5472. Entertainment ’86 available Have you been looking for the highly popular coupon book, Entertainment '86? This book is a great deal at $38, and if you want to buy one, call Jessie McCreadie at local 275. She has connections. Order by October 18. Program teaches typing skills F YOUR SPEED on the key- board is slower than you would like, and you’ re still hunting for the Q and pecking at the Z, then .. Letterfall, a software learn-to-type |, Program, is made for you. Deve- 3 loped by Frank Harris, a methe- f matics and computing science in- ". structor at Capilano College, Letterfall is a recent addition to the _ software market. Harris says Letterfall was deve- loped out of his obervations of chil- dren playing computer games. In the games, such as Commodore’s “*Kids on Keys,’’ they learned hand-eye coordination, but not much more. So Harris figured if .. typing could be made as interest- -~ ing, they could learn to type while playing a game. -41. Regardless of whether children |. like the program or not, Letterfall “| is perfectly suited for adults: both those who are complete novices when it comes to keyboard skills, and those with skills that fall short of the touch-typing ability. Letterfall is remarkably simple and easy to use. There are 16 les- sons, each increasing in difficulty by the addition of letters, numbers or typing symbols. The first lesson teaches finger position, and differs little from any high school typing book in use for the last 50 years. What is different, however, is the immediate feedback provided by beeps and messages as to what mistake you’ve made. The pro- gram provides you with a score, compares it with your previous at- tempts, and thus monitors your progress. And unlike typing man- uals, Letterfall is geared towards typing on a computer, and not a ty- : pewriter. at A look at the first lesson is indica- tive of the remaining 15. The first portion is untimed prac- tise with the letters a-s-d-f and j-k- 1; — otherwise known as the “‘home’’ keys. The lesson moves on to timed practise, with individual letters falling rather quickly (or so it seemed to me), from the top of the screen. The object here is to type the same letter before the dropping letter hits the bottom and sounds an alarm. In fact, the let- ters drop so quickly, your eyes have to remain on the screen, eli- minating the reliance on hunting for letters. And the tension mounts. ; After wiping the sweat from your brow, you move on to words, which also have the uncanny ability to fall from the top of the screen. Upon completion of this section, you’re provided with a score, again com- pared to previous attempts, as well as a count of words typed per mi- nute. For those of us who hunt and peck but consider ourselves speed demons on the keyboard, this can be an embarrassing moment. You may want to practise in private until you’re at a respectable 40 words per minute. If after all this you still want more, pressing the F2 key will re- _ start the program at the same level, but this time with a different combination of letters and words. The F1 key allows you to skip pages, and you have the option of escaping back to the main menu at any time. . Aside from the 16 lessons, the SuN Sept-25 Jas program also offers beginner, in- termediate and advanced levels, each of which controls the diffi- culty of words and speed at which words and letters appear. Anyone who doesn’t type for a living could probably make use of the program. And Harris has made sure that cost won’t be a prohibi- tive factor. Letterfall falls into the “shareware” category. Harris in- vites you to copy the program and distribute it to friends and assoc- iates. If you like the program, he then asks that you send him $25, which registers you as an owner, and entitles you to any future up- dates. It runs on IBMs and compatibles, requires 128K and one disk drive, as well as DOS 2.0 or higher to run the program. Letterfall is available from Box 69457, Station K, Vancouver, V5K 4W6. ; ® Che Sun we. octoser2, 1985" * AST WEEK I reviewed a learn to type program — Letterfall. I wrote that the program fell into the “‘shareware’”’ category, which is true. However, Frank Harris, Let- terfall’s creator, asks that you send a cheque for $25 when ordering a copy. After that, you’re free to share the program with friends and make as many copies as you want. If your friends like the program, Harris asks them to send $25, regis- tering them as owners and entitling them to regular updates.