Q. How does the expansion board work?
A. The board contains micro circuitry that controls the release of minute amounts of patented superpotent olfactory-stimulating chemicals into a special vent. The board also contains a micro atomizer (powered by your computer's power supply) which propels the chemicals forcefully into the air.
Q. Won't the board run out of olfactory chemicals?
A. With average use (one or two poofs a day--and, trust us, you probably don't want any more than that!) the supply should last approximately eighteen months. You can purchase a replacement StinkPakTM module when your PC stops stinking like it should.
Q. Is there a Macintosh version available?
A. Stop whining! You people are only 10% of the market share. No there isn't. So write your congressman, stomp your feet. We have no plans to make one. So there.
Q. Why does the stinkwave board only do stinky smells? Why no lilacs, for example?
A. The marketing department made this decision. They want the product to live up to its name. Seriously, though, nice smells are subtle, and hard to do. Stinky smells really pack a punch and liven up a presentation. Imagine the impact of having arome du doggie-do fill the air while you're talking about your competitor's product!
Q. How does the plugin work?
A. The plugin accesses very small embedded data files in the web page. They average in size about 2K each, and contain data controlling the proportions of the component olfactory stimulators necessary to produce a particular aroma. They interface this information with the board, causing the release of the chemicals.
Q. Why do you have a Macintosh version of the Plugin, even though you don't have a Macintosh board?
A. So we don't get spammed by Guy Kawasaki and his evangelist avengers. Besides, although it doesn't actually stink, the Macintosh version does cool things. (See below.)
Q. What if I have the plugin but not the board?
A. The Windows95 version will shut down your computer as a form of protection. But don't worry, everything will be just like you left it when you reboot. The Windows 3.11 version will usually do nothing, but if there's anything wrong with your IRQ jumpers or your config.sys file, it could send the signal to the wrong expansion card, causing that distinctive burning electronic circuitry smell, (regardless of what smell data were actually on the web page.) But this is cheating. You're getting smells for free without buying the card. The Macintosh version will display little random flashing graphics of whatever the cause of the smell is, and will also invoke the speech synthesizer (if installed) to say, "Virtual Stink, P.U." or any other phrase the user chooses.
Q. I am allergic to everything. Will StinkwaveTM bother me?
A. You betcha. You get the card, you smell it.
Q. What MIME type is a stinkwave file?
A. In order to get StinkwaveTM files to work over the web, you will need to configure your server to recognize the "smell/x-stnk" MIME type, and the associated file extension ".stnk". It will work locally without doing this step. This is often done by adding an entry to a text file on the server (for example, editing a file called "mime.types" on a Netscape Commerce Server; or editing a file called ".bhtaccess" on best.com's servers). The exact details depend on your server and service provider. The important information your service provider will need is that this new StinkwaveTM plugin's MIME type/subtype is "smell/x-stnk" and the file extension for files of this type is ".stnk".
Q. Why is StinkwaveTM better than RealAroma?
A. You mean you have to ask? Well, OK....
(1) our hardware is a spillproof expansion card, not a big klunky drive with colored vials sticking out the top of it. Waaaaay smaller footprint.
(2) We work with a plugin. Markup language is fine as far as it goes, but controlling the data with the plugin means better fidelity to the original smell. Realaroma encodes their smells with six lousy bytes. Let's face it... what can you do with six bytes?
(3) Our olfactory component chemicals in their solid form are more potent, and contain no artificial colors.
Q. How can I become a StinkwaveTM content provider?
A. If you want to just use our preconfigured stink files, you can just download any of over 100 common stenches from our gallery, and embed them in your page. For custom stenches, you need to purchase the StinkwaveTM Pro expansion card. The StinkwaveTM Pro card replaces the regular The StinkwaveTMcard in your PC. In addition to releasing aromas, the StinkwaveTM Pro board has an input chip which reads the chemical composition of a particular aroma and encodes it into our special proprietary StinkwaveTM format.
Q. What software do I need?
A. Our StinkwaveTM Pro stink encoding software is distributed with the StinkwaveTM Pro board.
Q. Do I have to stink up my office to make the datafiles?
A. If you want to do a custom stench, you do need to provide a sample for the stink sampler chip on the board. We suggest you do it on a nice day with the windows open.
