Subject: Thayers Birds of North America 2.5
Date: Aug 20 22:44:13 1999
From: Mike P. Gagel - hlthpro at home.com


Hi Tweets:

Update:

Three weeks ago I reported to the list about a problem I was having with
Thayer's BNA 2.5. Specifically, the still photos don't display properly.
I've added screenshots to my personal page below (CD section), if you are
interested in seeing what I see.

Five people on the list replied to my original query. Two were fine. Two had
the same problem. And one person used an older version of BNA (no problem).
The poor graphics are related to the fact that Thayers BNA 2.5 is a 16 bit
program running on a 32 operation system (Win9x). Sometimes there appears to
be an incompatibility with two 3rd party DLL files located in the System
folder (deco_16.dll and deco_16b.dll, circa 1995) and the software drivers
for AGP graphics cards. As there will be no update for these DLL files,
Thayers has to convert BNA to 32 bit code. Thayers offered me a refund or
free upgrade to the next version. They have also invited me to be a Beta
tester for the next version of BNA.

For those who are experiencing poor BNA graphics, there is a browser plugin
you can use to view the files properly. The plugin is available at
http://www.altamira-group.com/html/products/download.html (download and
install the Free Fractal Viewer). You can then drag/drop the photos (fif
files) from the Photos folder on the CD to your browser. Unfortunately, the
file names don't mean anything (e.g., img0004.fif), so it is an adventure in
exploration. The rest of the CD, however, is without problems and is
excellent (bird calls, videos, text).

I'd be interested to hear of anyone else's experience with the BNA CD.

Mike

-----
Mike P. Gagel
Vancouver, BC
E-mail: mailto:hlthpro at home.com
Bird Links: http://members.home.net/hlthpro1/birding/